Engineering Commons^™

The Design And Validation Of A Computational Rigid Body Model For Study Of The Radial Head, Cassandra Woodcock

Theses and Dissertations

Rigid body modeling has historically been used to study various features of the elbow joint including both physical and computational models. Computational modeling provides an inexpensive, easily customizable, and effective method by which to predict and investigate the response of a physiological system to in vivo stresses and applied perturbations. Utilizing computer topography scans of a cadaveric elbow, a virtual representation of the joint was created using the commercially available MIMICS(TM) and SolidWorks(TM) software packages. Accurate 3D articular surfaces, ligamentous constraints, and joint contact parameters dictated motion. The model was validated against two cadaveric studies performed by Chanlalit et al. …

The Collapsible Trailer: Design And Manufacture, Robert Hobson

Biomedical Engineering

No abstract provided.

Design And Implementation Of Eight-Legged Robotic Transporter, Jeremy David Depangher

Master's Theses

This thesis contains the design, manufacturing, and testing of a functional eight-legged robotic transporter based on the concept design laid out in U.S. Patent 7,246,671. The device is intended to achieve three different sequences of motion: regular driving, obstacle climbing, and stair climbing. The prototype was carried through concept design, analysis, selection of materials and components, manufacturing, software development, and final assembly and testing. The device can be assembled under multiple configurations, which harbor certain advantages and disadvantages. The results of the testing encourage the continuation of a second iteration of this concept.

Design Of Water Holding Bulkheads For Coal Mines, Verne Mutton, Alexander Remennikov

Alex Remennikov

Water control has been and remains a fundamentally important aspect of underground coal mine design and operation worldwide. Mining in the vicinity of large bodies of water, below a worked out coal seam or under confined aquifer or abandoned water logged workings is always fraught with the possibility of the danger of inundation. Inrush control is now part the Fatal Hazard Protocols which is a risk based process in all operations. In modern Australian underground coal mines, in which panel layouts have been extended and production rates are approaching 10 Mtpa, there is much focus on the control of water …

Reliability-Based Conversion Of A Structural Design Code For Railway Prestressed Concrete Sleepers, A M. Remennikov, Martin Murray, Sakdirat Kaewunruen

Alex Remennikov

"Ballasted railway track is very suitable for heavy-rail networks because of its many superior advantages in design, construction, short- and long-term maintenance, sustainability, and life cycle cost. An important part of the railway track system, which distributes the wheel load to the formation, is the railway sleeper. Improved knowledge has raised concerns about design techniques for prestressed concrete (PC) sleepers. Most current design codes for these rely on allowable stresses and material strength reductions. However, premature cracking of PC sleepers has been found in railway tracks. The major cause of cracking is the infrequent but high-magnitude wheel loads produced by …

Building Vulnerability Design Against Terrorist Attacks, Alexander Remennikov, D. Carolan

Alex Remennikov

Some of the concepts that can help structural engineers and building owners mitigate the threat of hazards associated with terrorist attacks on new and existing buildings are discussed. The state-of-the-art methods to enhance protection of the building by incorporating low-cost measures at the early stages of building design are highlighted.

Tools For Applying Constructability Concepts To Project Development (Design), Nikiforos Stamatiadis, Paul Goodrum, Emily Shocklee, Roy Sturgill, Chen Wang

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

The purpose of this report is to document the activities of Phases I and II of the research effort and present the findings of the work accomplished. Phase I developed the Constructability Review Database for the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet and Phase II conducted a benefit analysis of the constructability review process. The database provides the basis for entry and collection of constructability reviews and allows for the identification of trends leading to potential improvements of the process. The database can be used to summarize activities, generate reports for a project, and be capable of quantifying the benefits from the process. …

How Engineering Innovators Characterize Engineering Innovativeness: A Qualitative Study, Daniel Michael Ferguson

Open Access Dissertations

The use of science and engineering skills to address the problems of modern society is regarded as an economic strategy in developed countries across the world. However, business and political leaders in the United States feel that we, as a society, do not understand that new global competition can match and even outpace us on innovation. Many of the studies on innovators are not specific to engineers. This study filled a gap in the understanding of what characteristics constitute innovative behavior in engineers.

The purpose of this study was to explore engineers' views of innovation and innovators who create and …

Merging Creative Design And Cad Learning Activities In A Product Design Programme, Pearl O'Rourke, Colm O'Kane, Leslie Smith, Michael Ring

Conference Papers

Traditional learning and teaching methods for creativity differ from those used in a scientific context. Although the creative process can benefit from a certain level of prescription and structural constraint - with time allocated to research, problem definition, conceptualisation and idea development - flexibility and fluidity are necessary for creative innovation. In contrast, the more linear and rigid pedagogies associated with science and engineering education facilitate efficient learning of subjects such as those based on software packages, manufacturing and materials theory or mechanics. This paper describes the development of a project which aims to establish constructive links between the learning …

Using Design Hierarchy In Digital Logic To Illustrate The Scientific Method As A Human Invention, Douglas Deboer

Pro Rege

This paper was presented at the Christian Engineering Conference, Atlanta, Georgia, June 2013. It was then published in Proceedings of the 2013 Christian Engineering Conference, pp. 99–106. Permission to publish was granted by Steve VanderLeest, Conference Chair.

Mechanical Design Of Pird (Principal Investigator Rack Drawer) For Sofia, Hari Prasad Shetty Mr., Murali Krishna Kandlagunta Mrs., John Miles Mr., Zaheer Ali Mr.

STAR Program Research Presentations

SOFIA, the world’s largest airborne observatory with 2.5-meter diameter infrared telescope is equipped with 7 instruments: EXES, FIFI-LS, FLITECAM, FORCAST, GREAT, HAWC, and HIPO. Flying at altitudes between 39,000 and 45,000 feet, SOFIA avoids 99% of the atmospheric water vapor, records and analyzes the infrared radiation from the cosmos. SOFIA is able to observe the occultation of stars by solar system objects. By determining the size, compositions, and atmospheric structures of these objects, SOFIA can help answer the questions on creation and evolution of the universe, formation of the stars and planets, and nature of black hole at the center …

A Base Case Design And Capital Cost Analysis Of An All Vanadium Redox-Flow Battery, Mark Alan Moore

Masters Theses

Interest in the development of redox-flow batteries (RFBs) for large-scale grid storage is growing, and considerable investments have been made into the research and development of RFBs over the past few decades. Unfortunately, practical implementation has been hampered by various cost and performance issues typical of an immature state of development. One critical factor for the competitiveness of this technology is the installed cost. The purpose of this work is to develop an evolutionary procedure to be used for the base-case design of a Vanadium Redox-Flow Battery, and to incorporate recent developments in all-vanadium RFB research in order to present …

The Design And Implementation Of The Dynamic Ionosphere Cubesat Experiment (Dice) Science Instruments, Steven Reed Burr

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Dynamic Ionosphere Cubesat Experiment (DICE) is a cubesat satellite project funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) to study the ionosphere. Cubesats are small satellites in the shape of a cube around 10cm on a side, and allow better access to space. Three main properties of the ionosphere are measured by the DICE mission, which are electric field, magnetic field, and plasma density with an instrument for each. The limitation of power, mass, and volume contributes to the difficulty of cubesat design. Mission and instrumentation requirements must be carefully planned to ensure mission success. Each instrument’s requirements and design are …

Discrete Element Modelling: Trouble-Shooting And Optimisation Tool For Chute Design, Andrew P. Grima, Thomas Fraser, David B. Hastie, Peter W. Wypych

David Hastie

Conveyor transfer stations play a key role in many industries that handle bulk materials. Transfer stations can be rather sensitive to changes in material properties and can lead to relentless problems regarding reliability, wear, bottlenecking and blockages. Wet and sticky ores are typically difficult to handle materials due to their obnoxious ability to form a cohesive arch, adhere to surfaces and poor flow ability. Mines that are situated in areas with seasonal high rainfalls or that have started to exploit newer and more difficult to mine and handle ores, often from below the water table, experience vast difficulty in reliably …

Predication Of The Behaviour Of Bulk Materials In The Design And Operation Of Bulk Handling And Processing Plants, David Hastie, Peter Wypych, Andrew Grima, Richard La Roche, David Curry

David Hastie

It is very dangerous to assume or extrapolate anything when it comes to bulk material properties and behaviour. Traditional methods for flow prediction, such as hand calculation or even just relying on past experience, require assumptions to be made about the bulk material properties and flow. Although these materials may have generic names and possess similar properties (e.g. coal, iron ore), they can all behave quite differently under dynamic conditions. What we end up designing for one part of the plant may be quite different to what is needed in another part of the plant, which may be handling or …

The Beginning Of A New Era In Design: Calibrated Discrete Element Modelling, Andrew Grima, David Hastie, David Curry, Peter Wypych, Richard La Roche

David Hastie

The reliable storage and flow of bulk materials requires a comprehensive design process and good understanding of the flow properties of a bulk material. Analytical and empirical design techniques form the backbone of many design processes as they have been validated by research, however, theories based on continuum mechanics have many shortcomings and are restricted to 2-D analysis. Discrete element modelling (DEM) is proving to be a popular analysis and simulation method to verify designs for a wide range of bulk material processing and handling operations, such as transfer chutes. With the advances in computing and DEM technology, DEM has …

The Interdisciplinary Design Studio: Identifyingcollaboration, Thomas Fowler Iv, Kevin Dong, James Doerfler

Thomas Fowler IV, DPACSA, FAIA

Inclusion Of Mobile Phone Numbers Into An Ongoing Population Health Survey In New South Wales, Australia: Design, Methods, Call Outcomes, Costs And Sample Representativeness, Margo Barr, Jason J. Van Ritten, David G. Steel, Sarah V. Thackway

Professor David Steel

Background: In Australia telephone surveys have been the method of choice for ongoing jurisdictional population health surveys. Although it was estimated in 2011 that nearly 20% of the Australian population were mobile-only phone users, the inclusion of mobile phone numbers into these existing landline population health surveys has not occurred. This paper describes the methods used for the inclusion of mobile phone numbers into an existing ongoing landline random digit dialling (RDD) health survey in an Australian state, the New South Wales Population Health Survey (NSWPHS). This paper also compares the call outcomes, costs and the representativeness of the resultant …

Design, Construction, And Evaluation Of A Portable Reusable Plastic Container Dumper, Kevin J. Lau

BioResource and Agricultural Engineering

This senior project discusses the design, construction, and evaluation of a portable RPC (Reusable Plastic Container) dumper. This RPC dumper is one piece of a citrus processing system to package citrus. Bee Sweet currently utilizes man power in order to dump its RPCs whereas this design will decrease the amount of man power needed to dump RPCs during high workloads.

The goal of this project was to design, construct, and test a custom fabricated RPC dumper that will decrease the number of people needed to dump RPCs and also the amount of damage on the oranges when being dumped from …

Design And Installation Of A Mobile Agriculture Chemical Mixing Station, Jason Mendes

BioResource and Agricultural Engineering

This senior project encompassed the design and fabrication of a Mobile Agricultural Chemical Mixing System. The design parameters were provided by Mark McKean and McKean Farms from Riverdale, Ca. The project’s objective was to provide safer working conditions for operators by improving their working environment while increasing mixing efficiency. This mobile system will provide storage for materials, as well as, a diversified mixing system at the site of applications.

The major components of the project include two chemical mixers to mix materials, a 2-inch suction pump to supply water from non-powered sources, and a flatbed trailer to encompass the unit …

Micro Sprinkler Irrigation Design On Almonds, Scott Trinta

BioResource and Agricultural Engineering

This project is to design a micro sprinkler system with a cost analysis for a 17 acre field. This type of irrigation will allow for a more uniform distribution of water, with more water being beneficially used at low flow rates. This design should minimize unwanted runoff water and save the farmer money in the long run.

Interactive Museum Exhibit To Introduce K-6 Grade Students To Circuits And The Electric Conductivity Of Various Materials, Thien Vu-Nguyen

Materials Engineering

The SciTechatorium (SciTech) is a museum filled with interactive exhibits for visitors to learn science informally. A new exhibit was developed to explore electric conductivity and circuits. The design was made based on the size of the material sample the students will use and to allow interactions with multiple users. The materials the students will use were selected using Cambridge Engineering Selector (CES) to sort the materials by resistivity, the inverse of conductivity. After sorting the materials by resistivity, five different materials (balsa wood, polystyrene, polyester, stainless steel, and copper) were chosen for the exhibit. The target size of the …

Design Of A Gas Conditioning System For The Second Generation Union College Areogel Lab Catalytic Test Bed, Thomas Swanton

Honors Theses

The goal of this project was to design and fabricate a system which could deliver artificially created test gas to the heating section at a specified composition, flow rate, and humidity, while additionally simulating the transient conditions found in automobile exhaust. It will make up one subsystem of the Union College Aerogel Lab’s second generation catalytic test bed. The test bed will be used to test the viability of catalytic aerogels as three way catalysts for automotive exhaust. To date a system for mixing test based on partial pressure has been fabricated and is operational, a system for generating transient …

Designing A Self-Powered Device To Aid In Fencing Training And Scoring, Zak Smolen

Honors Theses

The purpose of this project is to redesign a currently available electric training tool for the sport of fencing in order to fix several existing faults such as cost and power use. The second stage of this project uses this new low-power design to explore small-scale energy harvesting by integrating a charging mechanism into the device to generate power from the movements of the fencer. This goal of this project is to research and explore modern low-power device design, at both the hardware and software levels, and then to apply those techniques to improve a real-world product. The final result …

School Van Access In Nepal, Edgar Corona, Humberto Maldonado, Josh Schiesl

Mechanical Engineering

A need has been identified by a school in Nepal intended for children with Cerebral Palsy, called Sathi Sansar, to develop a more effective solution to loading and unloading students onto the school’s Toyota HiAce van. Currently, a combination of the driver, parents and teachers manually help the students on and off the van. However, this task has proven to be both laborious and time consuming for all parties involved. A solution to this problem needs to be designed and one is currently being developed by a team of engineering students from California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo and Katmandu …

The Design Of A Maneuverable Rolling Robot, David Carabis

Honors Theses

The purpose of this project was to design, fabricate, and test a maneuverable rolling robot. Although some other rolling robots were researched for this project, a novel approach was taken to design a unique, cheap robot that could turn and was fully enclosed by a rotating outer shell. The design and research phase of this project included the evaluation of several designs, the development of a mathematical model detailing forward motion of the robot, and the derivation of several design equations. Of the possible designs, an interior counterweight was chosen to provide a torque to the outside shell and move …

Supercomputer Design: An Initial Effort To Capture The Environmental, Economic, And Societal Impacts, Marshall T. Mcdonnell

Faculty Publications and Other Works -- Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering

Abstract Currently, the Green500 is possibly the largest effort to direct the evolution of supercomputing towards sustainable design but does not address life-cycle impacts of a supercomputer. Supercomputer assessment with economical, environmental, and societal impacts considered would provide an optimal future supercomputer design that is sustainable. Some of the benefits of such an assessment would help determines the complete impact for bringing a supercomputer online, determine impact “hot spots” in design, and determine optimal locations for construction. By combining process-LCA and EIO-LCA methods, an initial model for in-depth sustainability analysis of supercomputer design has been developed and the results presented. …

Evaluation And Modernization Of The Scott Valley Irrigation District, Ashley Parry

BioResource and Agricultural Engineering

The Scott Valley Irrigation District (SVID), located in Etna, California, is a small water district that serves 25 users and runs approximately 14 miles. The district was established in the 1920’s, and few modifications have happened since then. The district approached the Natural Resource and Conservation Service (NRCS) about possible improvements to the system and how do go about making decisions and implement improvements. As an outreach project the NRCS decided to pursue the evaluation and modernization plan.

The project was done in multiple phases from research, evaluation, surveying and design portions. This report will discuss the current state of …

A Methodology For Designing Pervious Bicycle Lanes For Stormwater Management, Donald West Iii

All Theses

Bicycles have proven to be an efficient and reliable form of transportation in urban settings. Therefore, the addition of bicycle lanes into the transportation network could significantly impact and improve the sustainability of our infrastructure by reducing greenhouse emissions and improving the health of individuals who cycle on a regular basis. Pervious pavements are an approved (LID) strategy that could potentially be used to construct these new facilities thereby reducing the quantity of stormwater runoff and improving the water quality. Practicing engineers need both a design aid and research supported methods for designing these improvements before they can be fully …

Application Of Design Of Experiments In Metal Coating Process Improvement, Mayur Mohite

Culminating Projects in Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering

RIE Coatings was experiencing an average of 8% fallout in the recess area coating quality of parts. Coating in the recess area used to peel off, crack and was resulting in customer complaints. The objective of this project was to reduce the coating defect in the recess area of different parts and thereby set up an experimentation process to bring down the defect rate from 8% to 4% of the batch. Different factors responsible for quality of the recess coating quality were identified. Factors such as load and spin time were tested at different levels. Two -way analysis of variance …