Engineering Commons^™

Autonomous Vehicle For Asphalt Laying, Gilberto Gonzalez

2022 MME Undergraduate Research Symposium

Autonomous vehicles are constantly being developed and are gaining recognition from many industries to improve workplace safety and efficiency. This project intends to weaken the barrier that prevents the usage of autonomous vehicles in the workplace. To move toward this objective, this project focuses on developing a computer vision system for an autonomous utility vehicle that lays asphalt. The goal of this project is to directly address the issue of the high number of potholes in our driving roads, which create a dangerous and hazardous environment for persons that utilize motorized and non-motorized vehicles on roads. The vehicle’s computer vision …

3d Printing Of Lunar Regolith Based Ceramics Via The Dlp Method, Ricardo Vasquez

2022 MME Undergraduate Research Symposium

Ceramic parts generally have poor machinability due to their high hardness and high brittleness. Researchers and industries have overcome the difficulty of machining ceramics and have manufactured parts with intricate geometry by using pre-ceramic polymers in stereolithography (SLA) 3D printing and using slurries based on ceramic powder and photopolymer resin in digital light processing (DLP) 3D printing, among other methods. This presentation will discuss the processes involved in the 3D printing of ceramic and ceramic composite parts via the DLP technique. A vital step in ceramic 3D printing is to optimize the printing parameters for a specific slurry formulation in …

Synthesis Of Bone Scaffold For Pediatric Bone Defects Using 3d Printing, Amy M. Ramos-Homs

2022 MME Undergraduate Research Symposium

Pediatric bone defects, requiring surgical interventions and implants, include malignant and nonmalignant bone tumors and trauma fractures. Malignant bone tumors (MBT), such as Osteosarcoma and Ewing sarcoma, are aggressive primary cancers that affect growing adolescent bones (10- to 19-year-olds) and require complex reconstruction due to large bone excision during surgical interventions. Pediatric bone fractures requiring surgical interventions peak in 10- to 14-year-olds and are a major public health concern in the US with an impact on patients, parents, and healthcare costs of approx. 350 billion. These diseases require bone tissue replacement in changing bones.

Bone reconstruction and medical implant design …

Probing The Mechanical Properties Of Soft And Hard Biomaterials: Polydimethylsiloxane (Pdms) Micropillars And Alligator Teeth, Matty Sey

2022 MME Undergraduate Research Symposium

Mechanical properties are essential to quantitatively characterize materials' intrinsic properties ranging from soft to rigid scales. It can effectively facilitate optimal material selection corresponding to their practical applications. Unlike mesoscale, microscale mechanical properties measure localized structural and fundamental components, which is especially superior for assessing materials with hierarchical or ultrastructural properties. This study aims to characterize localized mechanical properties of soft and hard materials: engineering polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) micropillars and alligator teeth. The stiffness of PDMS pillar arrays is designed by the solvent-casting method, a raw input parameter to calculate the twitch force of cardiac microtissues. The microstructure-associated mechanical properties of …

In-Operando Optical Observation/Visualization Of Lithium-Sulfur Battery Discharge Process, Ana G. Claus

2022 MME Undergraduate Research Symposium

Lithium−Sulfur (Li-S) batteries have attracted attention due to their high-energy density, 2500 Wh/𝑘𝑔𝑐𝑒𝑙𝑙 [1], and theoretical capacity of 1672 mAh/g-S [2]. In addition to that, sulfur abundance makes it a good candidate for rechargeable batteries. However, Li-S system has a few challenges that hinder its commercialization. Such as the insulating nature of the sulfur element, volume expansion, capacity fade due to intermittent polysulfide dissolution in the electrolyte and drop in capacity during the initial discharge cycles [3]. Herein, we have designed a Li-S in-operando optical observation cell, which allowed us to visualize the formation of higher to lower-order polysulfides as …

Expanding Faculty-Student Interactions In Statics: An Exploratory Study Of A Statics Course With Learning Assistants, Valerie V. Bracho Perez

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Statics is one of the first fundamental engineering classes within the ME undergraduate curriculum, in which a student’s performance in the course can impact their overall academic success. Recent efforts to enhance students learning in fundamental engineering courses have included integrating Learning Assistants (LAs), undergraduate peers who have previously excelled in the course, into the instructional team of the course. The purpose of this Master's thesis is to explore the enactment of a Statics classroom with LAs, the interactions that characterize it, and the impact it has on the students and instructional teams. A qualitative case study of a Statics …

Development Of A Miniature Pipe Crawler For Application In Fossil Energy Power Plants, Caique C. Lara

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The power generation of fossil fuel power plants relies on burning coal to generate steam. The heat exchange between the water and burned coal occurs in the combustion chamber, which operates at a high pressure and temperature. Monitoring the integrity of the tubes inside the combustion chamber is a key factor to avoid failures. However, this is not an easy task as some areas are hard to reach and the pipeline commonly has a complex geometry. Moreover, the inspection is typically manual, external and the environment is hazardous for humans. This thesis presents the development and testing of an electrically …

Using High-Speed Imaging And Machine Learning To Capture Ultrasonic Treatment Cavitation Area At Different Amplitudes, Brandon Aguiar, Paul G. Bianco, Arvind Agarwal

2022 MME Undergraduate Research Symposium

The ultrasonic treatment process strengthens metals by increasing nucleation and decreasing grain size in an energy efficient way, without having to add anything to the material. The goal of this research endeavor was to use machine learning to automatically measure cavitation area in the Ultrasonic Treatment process to understand how amplitude influences cavitation area. For this experiment, a probe was placed into a container filled with turpentine because it has a similar viscosity to liquid aluminum. The probe gyrates up and down tens of micrometers at a frequency of 20 kHz, which causes cavitations to form in the turpentine. Each …

Facilitated Release Of Doxorubicin From Biodegradable Mesoporous Silica Nanoparticles, Melissa Venedicto, Cheng-Yu Lai

2022 MME Undergraduate Research Symposium

Cervical cancer is one of the most common causes of cancer death for women in the United States. The current treatment with chemotherapy drugs has significant side effects and may cause harm to healthy cells rather than cancer cells. In order to combat the potential side effects, nanoparticles composed of mesoporous silica were created to house the chemotherapy drug doxorubicin (DOX). The silica network contains the drug, and a pH study was conducted to determine the conditions for the nanoparticle to disperse the drug. The introduction of disulfide bonds within the nanoparticle created a framework to efficiently release 97% of …

Nanomechanical Properties Of Engineered Cardiomyocytes Under Electrical Stimulation, Lia Paolino, Lihua Lou, Alberto Sesena Rubfiaro, Jin He, Arvind Agarwal

2022 MME Undergraduate Research Symposium

Engineered cardiomyocytes made of human-induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) present phenotypical characteristics similar to human fetal cardiomyocytes. There are different factors that are essential for engineered cardiomyocytes to be functional, one of them being that their mechanical properties must mimic those of adult cardiomyocytes. Techniques, such as electrical stimulation, have been used to improve the extracellular matrix's alignment and organization and improve the intracellular environment. Therefore, electrical stimulation could potentially be used to enhance the mechanical properties of engineered cardiac tissue. The goal of this study is to establish the effects of electrical stimulation on the elastic modulus of engineered …

Optimization Of Dlp 3d Printed Ceramic Parts, Samuel Ovalle, E. Viamontes, Tony Thomas

2022 MME Undergraduate Research Symposium

Digital Light Processing (DLP) 3D printing allows for the creation of parts with advanced engineering materials and geometries difficult to produce through conventional manufacturing techniques. Photosensitive resin monomers are activated with a UV-producing LCD screen to polymerize, layer by layer, forming the desired part. With the right mixture of photosensitive resin and advanced engineering powder material, useful engineering-grade parts can be produced. The Bison 1000 is a research-grade DLP printer that permits the user to change many parameters, in order to discover an optimal method for producing 3D parts of any material of interest. In this presentation, the process parameter …

Flash Sintering Of Commercial Zirconium Nitride Powders, Diego Dubois, Amirali Eskandariyun, Suprabha Das, Andriy Durygin, Zhe Cheng

2022 MME Undergraduate Research Symposium

Flash sintering is an electrical field-assisted densification technique that requires passing a current through a ceramic powder compact. Pressure-assisted flash sintering of commercially available Zirconium Nitride (ZrN) powders has been demonstrated. Near fully dense samples can be obtained within a short period of time. The influences of parameters such as electrical field strength, voltage ramping rate, current limit, external pressure, pre-heating, and holding time on the onset of the flash event were investigated. Some post-flash sintered samples were subjected to the same condition to observe if the material would experience repeated flash. In addition, material properties such as density and …

Aerodynamic Shape Multi-Objective Optimization For Sae Aero Design Competition Aircraft, Ruben Fernandez, Hernando Lugo, George S. Dulikravich

2022 MME Undergraduate Research Symposium

The SAE Regular Class Aero Design Competition requires students to design a radio-controlled aircraft with limits to the aircraft power consumption, take-off distance, and wingspan, while maximizing the amount of payload it can carry. As a result, the aircraft should be designed subject to these simultaneous and contradicting objectives: 1) minimize the aerodynamic drag force, 2) minimize the aerodynamic pitching moment, and 3) maximize the aerodynamic lift force. In this study, we optimized the geometric design variables of a biplane configuration using 3D aerodynamic analysis using the ANSYS Fluent. Coefficients of lift, drag, and pitching moment were determined from the …

Development Of A Pipe Crawler Inspection Tool For Fossil Energy Power Plants, Julie Villamil, Caique Lara, Anthony Abrahao, Aparna Aravelli, Guilherme Daldegan, Sharif Sarker, Dwayne Mcdaniel

2022 MME Undergraduate Research Symposium

Fossil fuel power plants are complex systems containing multiple components that create extreme environments for the purpose of extracting usable energy. Failures in the system can lead to increased down time for the plant, reduction of power and significant cost for repairs. In the past, inspections and maintenance of the plant's superheater tubes has been predominantly manual, laborious, and extremely time consuming. This is due to the pipe's small diameter size (between 1.3 and 7.6 cm) and the coiled structure of the tubing. In addition, the tubes are often stacked close to each other, limiting access for external inspection. Detection …

Testbed For Pressure Sensors, Ana Claus, Borzooye Jafarizadeh, Azmal Huda Chowdhury, Neziah Pala, Chunlei Wang

2022 MME Undergraduate Research Symposium

Currently, several studies and experiments are being done to create a new generation of ultra-low-power wearable sensors. For instance, our group is currently working towards the development of a high-performance flexible pressure sensor. However, with the creation of new sensors, a need for a standard test method is necessary. Therefore, we opted to create a standardized testbed to evaluate the pressure applied to sensors. A pulse wave is generated when the heart pumps blood causing a change in the volume of the blood vessel. In order to eliminate the need of human subjects when testing pressure sensors, we utilized polymeric …

Numerical Modeling And Conjugate Heat Transfer Analysis Of Single U-Tube Vertical Borehole Heat Exchangers, Talha Khan

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The primary purpose of this thesis was to develop a design for improving the efficiency of the vertical type single u-tube borehole heat exchanger. A thorough literature review of the various existing analytical and numerical models of the borehole heat exchanger (BHEs) was performed and numerical modeling of the BHE was conducted to solve the conjugate heat transfer problem in the BHE in 3D using ANSYS Fluent 2019 R1. A comparison between the results obtained using various mesh sizes, types, different turbulence models showed the independence of the parameters on the numerical simulation results.

From the numerical simulation, it was …

Structural Health Monitoring Of Pipelines In Radioactive Environments Through Acoustic Sensing And Machine Learning, Michael Thompson

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Structural health monitoring (SHM) comprises multiple methodologies for the detection and characterization of stress, damage, and aberrations in engineering structures and equipment. Although, standard commercial engineering operations may freely adopt new technology into everyday operations, the nuclear industry is slowed down by tight governmental regulations and extremely harsh environments. This work aims to investigate and evaluate different sensor systems for real-time structural health monitoring of piping systems and develop a novel machine learning model to detect anomalies from the sensor data. The novelty of the current work lies in the development of an LSTM-autoencoder neural network to automate anomaly detection …

A Comprehensive Analysis Of Balance, Symmetry, And Center Of Mass In The Gait Cycle Of Transfemoral Amputees, Kayla T. Etienne

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this thesis is to create a framework that assists in the transfemoral prosthesis fitting process by calculating balance and symmetry to quantify patient comfort with an understanding of bipedal locomotion and human anatomy. Three different software applications were used to compare (1) the body position during gait cycle, (2) the natural and amputee anatomies, (3) the natural and prosthetic legs, and (4) the equilibrium and torque movements of the hip, knee, and ankle joints. Models were created in Maya for analysis in Solidworks and MEL code evaluation with MatLab. The MatLab code tested combinations of joint degrees …

Boron Nitride Nanotube Based Lightweight Metal Matrix Composites: Microstructure Engineering And Stress-Transfer Mechanics, Pranjal Nautiyal

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Lightweight metals, such as Aluminum, Magnesium and Titanium, are receiving widespread attention for manufacturing agile structures. However, the mechanical strength of these metals and their alloys fall short of structural steels, curtailing their applicability in engineering applications where superior load-bearing ability is required. There is a need to effectively augment the deformation- and failure-resistance of these metals without compromising their density advantage.

This dissertation explores the mechanical reinforcement of the aforementioned lightweight metal matrices by utilizing Boron Nitride Nanotube (BNNT), a 1D nanomaterial with extraordinary mechanical properties. The nanotubes are found to resist thermo-oxidative transformations up to ~750°C, establishing their …

Parametric Studies Of Reciprocating-Flow Heat Transfer In A Reciprocating Loop Device, Majid Abdulmajeed Almas

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

It is anticipated that clean vehicles such as Electric Vehicles (EVs) may dominate ground transportation in the future. Reliable and lower-cost batteries are essential to the growth of EV industries. A literature review reveals that if non-uniformity of battery operating temperature reaches about 9.0 ^oC, the capacity of the battery pack could drop by more than 30%, Also, If the operating temperature of the battery system exceeds 40 ^oC or is below 0 ^oC, the battery power could decrease dramatically and eventually to zero. However, excellent battery thermal-management systems that improve battery capacity and operational life have …

Composite Gel Polymer Electrolytes For Extended Cyclability Of Lithium-Oxygen Batteries, Marcus Carlton Herndon

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In lithium-oxygen (Li-O₂) batteries, addressing challenges like electrode degradation, cell stability and electrolyte decomposition are key to creating more practical applications. Despite many attempts to minimize anode oxidation and cathode byproduct formation, the electrolyte remains the leading source for rapid capacity fading and poor cyclability in Li-O₂batteries. Understanding the loss of functionality in electrolytes, carbon nanotube (CNT) fillers and redox mediators (RM), during cycling within Li-O₂battery systems, could be the solution to prolonging battery lifetime. Determining the efficiency of these battery components and additives will push the medium towards lifelong, rechargeable and safe battery …

Mechanical Properties Of Permanent Foaming Fixatives For Deactivation & Decommissioning Activities, Tristan Maximilian Simoes-Ponce

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Department of Energy is investigating fixative technologies that encapsulate and/or immobilize residual contamination in voids during deactivation and decommissioning (D&D). These technologies must have adequate mechanical and adhesion properties to withstand seismic activity that may occur. One solution is the implementation of polyurethane foams used as permanent foaming fixatives (PFF), specifically intumescent foams that contain expandable graphite, making them fire resistant when exposed to extreme heat conditions.

Tensile, compression, seismic, and tensile adhesion testing was done on six commercial-off-the-self polyurethane foams to determine if the expandable graphite and other filler intumescent technologies improve its mechanical limits. It was found …

Constructal Design And Aeroelastic Stability Analysis Of Hale Aircraft, Ehsan Izadpanahi

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In the new generation of the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), the capability of increasing the flight duration and altitude is the area of interest for designers. The High-Altitude Long-Endurance (HALE) aircraft can fly farther and for a longer period by using high aspect ratio flexible wings. The primary applications and flight missions of this type of aircraft are environmental monitoring, surveillance, and communications. While using high-aspect-ratio, flexible, light-weighted wings improve the efficiency and reduces the required power, it will bring new challenges into the design of the aircraft. One of the major concerns is aeroelastic instability, which can appear as …

The Applications Of Intumescent Technologies In Support Of D&D Activities Across The Doe Complex, Joshua Alan Nunez

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Nuclear facilities in the process of Deactivation and Decommissioning (D&D) face several enormous challenges. Decommissioning is only part of the final shutdown process of a nuclear facility. The majority of the DOE facilities, like most industries, face fire hazards or extreme heat conditions. This study aims to research, test, and validate the operational performance of commercially available polyurethane expanding intumescent foams as potential fixatives for immobilizing residual contamination while preserving fire resiliency. Due to the novelty of this unique problem set and approach, existing international standards (ASTM/NIST/etc.) were reviewed for best-fit platforms with which to build testing protocols from. Once …

High-Power Biofuel Cells Based On Threedimensional Reduced Graphene Oxide/ Carbon Nanotube Micro-Arrays, Yin Song, Chunlei Wang

Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering

Miniaturized enzymatic biofuel cells (EBFCs) with high cell performance are promising candidates for powering next-generation implantable medical devices. Here, we report a closed-loop theoretical and experimental study on a micro EBFC system based on three-dimensional (3D) carbon micropillar arrays coated with reduced graphene oxide (rGO), carbon nanotubes (CNTs), and a biocatalyst composite. The fabrication process of this system combines the top–down carbon microelectromechanical systems (C-MEMS) technique to fabricate the 3D micropillar array platform and bottom–up electrophoretic deposition (EPD) to deposit the reduced rGO/CNTs/enzyme onto the electrode surface. The Michaelis–Menten constant KM of 2.1 mM for glucose oxidase (GOx) on the …

Many-Objective Hybrid Optimization Under Uncertainty With Applications, Sohail Reddy

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A novel method for solving many-objective optimization problems under uncertainty was developed. It is well known that no single optimization algorithm performs best for all problems. Therefore, the developed method, a many-objective hybrid optimizer (MOHO), uses five constitutive algorithms and actively switches between them throughout the optimization process allowing for robust optimization. MOHO monitors the progress made by each of the five algorithms and allows the best performing algorithm more attempts at finding the optimum. This removes the need for user input for selecting algorithm as the best performing algorithm is automatically selected thereby increasing the probability of converging to …

Toward A Fast And Accurate Modeling Strategy For Thermal Management In Air-Cooled Data Centers, Long Tran Bao Phan

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) has become a popular tool compared to experimental measurement for thermal management in data centers. However, it is very time-consuming and resource-intensive when used to model large-scale data centers, and may not be ready for real-time thermal monitoring. In this thesis, the two main goals are first to develop rapid flow simulation to reduce the computing time while maintaining good accuracy, and second, to develop a whole building energy simulation (BES) strategy for data center modeling. To achieve this end, hybrid modeling and model training methodologies are investigated for rapid flow simulation, and a multi-zone model …

Dynamics Of Falling Droplet Under Effects Of Electric Fields, Esmaiil Ghasemisahebi

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Physical properties and especially the size of drops are important parameters in many industrial and medical applications. High voltage electric field is one of the effective means to control the final size of drops during the fabrication process which could greatly influence the final size of the product. Therefore a detailed study of electric field effect on a liquid drop is very important. In this work deformation and fragmentation of a falling droplet under gravity and electric force have been studied numerically. The electric force is used as an effective external controlling mechanism to influence the deformation of a drop. …

A Computational Approach For Modeling Plasma Sprayed Coatings From Splat To Bulk Deposits, Sadhana Bhusal

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In this study, a multi-pronged computational approach is developed to predict the effect of spray parameters on aluminum oxide splat formation and mechanical properties of the coatings. The splat morphology is investigated using computational fluid dynamics approach. Simulated splat morphologies show a good agreement with the experimentally obtained splats. Three-dimensional coating structure is constructed using the stochastic approach using simulated splat morphologies. Finite Element Analysis is used to compute the elastic modulus of the coating. An inter-splat correction factor is introduced which considers inter-splat cracks, interface bonding and other effects like curling of splats and splat sliding. After the correction …

Design Of High Temperature Ti–Al–Cr–V Alloys For Maximum Thermodynamic Stability Using Self-Organizing Maps, Rajesh Jha, George S. Dulikravich

Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering

Data generated for the Ti–Al–Cr–V system of metallic alloys from our previous publication, where the composition of 102 alloys were computationally Pareto optimized with the objective of simultaneously maximizing the Young’s modulus and minimizing density for a range of temperatures, was the starting point of the current research, where compositions at different temperatures of these alloys were analyzed for phase stability in order to generate new data for compositions and volume fractions of stable phases at various temperatures. This resulted in a large dataset where a lot of data were still missing as all the phases are not stable at …