Engineering Commons^™

Food Processing And Campus Market (Building 24), Ian De Vries

Fire Protection Engineering: Culminating Experience Project Reports

This report provides a prescriptive and performance-based analysis of the Food Processing Building located on Cal Poly’s campus in San Luis Obispo, California. Food science and nutrition classes take place at the facility where faculty and students manufacture food products such as chocolates, jams, and barbecue sauces. The finished products are offered for sale in the building’s mercantile area, known as the Campus Market, in addition to other retail locations around the city. The Food Processing Building is considered mixed use with portions of the building classified as moderate-hazard factory (F-1), moderate-hazard storage (S-1), business (B), mercantile (M), and assembly …

Office Building In Moffett Park District, Cody Williams

Fire Protection Engineering: Culminating Experience Project Reports

The objective of this review is to analyze and evaluate the fire safety of a 5-story office building located in the Moffett Park District in Sunnyvale, California. The building is constructed largely of mass timber and classified as a Type IIIA building used primarily as office space. The first section of the report focuses on the building’s defining characteristics and use cases. The second portion of the report presents a comprehensive review of egress design, fire alarm systems, fire suppression systems, structural design, implementation of mass timber elements, and flammability requirements. The results of the analysis show that the building …

Fire Protection Engineering For Building A, Ai Choong Loh

Fire Protection Engineering: Culminating Experience Project Reports

Building A is a 9-storey mixed used development in Singapore to be completed in 2028. Fire safety provisions of Building A shall be in accordance with Singapore Fire Code 2018.

The report has analyzed the fire safety provisions in the area of structural fire protection provision, means of escape provision, automatic water suppression system provision, automatic fire detection and alarm system provision, engineering smoke control system provision, flammability assessment as well as performance based assessment.

Generally, building A complied to the prescriptive requirements of automatic water suppression system provision, automatic fire detection and alarm system, structural fire provision and means …

Biomechanical Knee Joint For Exoskeleton, Gabriel Ireton Ahern, Calloway Miller, Christianna Altamura, Eric Mailes

Mechanical Engineering

Our senior design project consisted of designing and manufacturing a biomechanically accurate, actuated knee joint to be integrated into an exoskeleton being developed by the Lower Limb Exoskeleton Assist Project (LLEAP), a part of the EMPOWER student association at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. As the human knee flexes and extends throughout gait motion, the center of rotation changes. Currently marketed exoskeletons have one point of rotation, which over constrains the knee and causes misalignment between the user and the suit [1]. Our goal was to mimic natural knee joint motion by changing the center or rotation, thus reducing misalignment …

Turbine Integrated Pitching System, Elizabeth Costley, Josephine Maiorano, Jeff Larson, Cameron Jackson

Mechanical Engineering

The Cal Poly Wind Power Club (CPWP) tasked this senior project to design, manufacture, test, and deliver a mechanism to pitch the blades for their small-scale horizontal axis wind turbine. CPWP competes in the Collegiate Wind Competition (CWC) against schools across the country, and as such it was critical to comply with the provided competition rules in addition to the design requirement from CPWP. The purpose of the pitching mechanism is to improve the performance and efficiency of the wind turbine by allowing the blades to adjust angles with different wind speeds. Specifically, this project aimed to minimize hub size, …

Prove Primary Battery Structure, John D. Burkhart, Andy Mccormick, Ryan Yu, Soren Barclay

Mechanical Engineering

In conjunction with Prototype Vehicle (PROVE) Laboratory, our group designed, manufactured, and tested a prototype structure to house the battery boxes for PROVE’s endurance vehicle. Our structure was designed to support the batteries during normal use, and in the event of a front crash. Our design is comprised of a secondary composite box to house the battery boxes, a bottom plate to affix the secondary box to the chassis floor, a horizontal plate fastened to the chassis, and a brace structure welded to the chassis. From the outset, we chose to use a secondary box, the primary battery boxes must …

Rapid Composter, Shannon Shinozaki, Avin Atencio, Jonathan Fraser, Lukas Kolbl, Russell Occhipinti

Mechanical Engineering

This project was created with the intent of automatically composting equine bio waste to be reused as plant fertilizer. The system consists of four subsystems: power generation and storage, automatic controls, aeration, and structure. Each subsystem may be manufactured independently, then put together. This system will not have access to power outlets, so it was designed to be solar-powered.

Parametric Bicycle Yoke, Colin Reay, Walter Minehart, Robby Harrigan, Jordan Olson

Mechanical Engineering

This report outlines the entire design, fabrication, and validation process of a parametric yoke design that addresses the packaging problem of the bottom-bracket chainstay junction in modern bicycle frames. The goal was to create an elegant, space-efficient solution that is accessible to the Cal Poly Bike Builders Club. The report includes documentation of the three-part fixture system, manufacturing process, and testing results for the yoke.

Our yoke design outperforms traditional round-tube weldments in torsional and vertical stiffness. Additionally, all manufacturing fixtures and machining operations function as intended, resulting in a finished yoke that meets all required tolerances in under an …

Treadmill Platform For Quadrupedal Robots, Baxter J. Bartlett, Jack F. Butler, Phillip A. Shafik, Tarun S. Ganamur

Mechanical Engineering

Cal Poly Legged Robots, led by Professor Refvem and Professor Xing, has been leading Cal Poly’s attempts to simulate, produce, and test their legged robots. The initial testing of the locomotion of these robots can be dangerous to the robot since any bugs in the code could cause the robot to fall over and harm itself. Our responsibility as a team was to deliver a portable platform for testing the locomotion capabilities containing a fall prevention mechanism. In short, we have designed a platform for this purpose that consists of a treadmill surrounded by a wheeled chassis with a system …

Perforated Groove Cam Lock, Matthew J. Redmond, Samuel A. Potter, Dylan Weiglein, Andrew Reese

Mechanical Engineering

NASA Artemis III astronauts need a way to attach and detach various tools to an extension handle to be used during lunar EVA sample collection. Because lunar dust is so harsh and abundant, mechanisms must be designed to function regardless of the number of contact particulates. Past designs used on the Apollo missions proved to be problematic for their operators, opening the door for innovative improvement. A new mechanism has been proposed that directly addresses the performance issues of the original handle extension mentioned in NASA’s Apollo mission reports. The new mechanism boasts an open design that promotes dust tolerance …

3d Printed Aircraft, Matthew Nagy, Charles D'Amico, Alexis Salgado Medina

Mechanical Engineering

This project is to design, build, and test a 3D-printable aircraft. The goal is to create a final design that will be able to fly for the longest duration possible, around 20 seconds. To determine the correct preliminary design and manufacturing process for a 3D printed RC aircraft, an analysis of multiple design options and manufacturing materials was performed. This allowed for a variety of choices for aircraft type, airfoil design, structure, among other topics to be narrowed down to the most promising option. It has been found that the aircraft will follow a design similar to industry motor-gliders, with …

Backflow Relief Valve Test Stand, Olivia Mcnulty, Wiill Halvorsen, Ryan Dubois, David Leaman

Mechanical Engineering

This Final Design Review (FDR) document details the final design, manufacturing, testing, and results of the Zurn Wilkins Backflow Relief Valve Test Stand Project under the sponsorship of Brian Yale and Rueben Westmoreland. This project involves simulating real-world conditions of static pressure and water hammer cycling. The stand will give Zurn Wilkins’ engineers a method by which to test their relief valves prior to a rigorous, yearlong University of Southern California (USC) testing procedure. Our design involves using city water, a pump, a Zurn backflow preventer, and a control system to apply specific pressures to each end of the relief …

Saver: Surface Autonomous Vehicle For Emergency Rescue, Lucas Je Sandsor, Michelangelo Coltelli, Brian Wong, Sebastion Rivero, Kobe Hayashi

Mechanical Engineering

The design, fabrication, and testing of an unmanned surface vehicle for the NASA Micro-G NExT SAVER challenge. This device features a radio direction finding phase array to autonomously navigate to an emergency distress beacon to deliver emergency supplies.

Practical Podcasting: A Technical Guide To Producing Studio-Quality Podcasts, Jacob Sarmiento

Liberal Arts and Engineering Studies

Podcasting exists at the intersection of the technical aspects of audio engineering and disciplines such as journalism and story-telling. Podcasts at KCPR, the student radio station, cover a wide range of topics including the soundscape of the DIY music scene in San Luis Obispo (SLO) on SLO-Fi, the intricacies of navigating SLO on Cal Poly 101, the best of Cal Poly Athletics on The Gallop, and the voices of underrepresented populations on campus on Different Matters. KCPR utilizes podcasts to entertain and inform its audience of the various experiences possible as a Cal Poly student. As a student-run entity, KCPR …

Refactoring Dependency Loading And Standardizing Factory Patterns In The Horizon Simulation Framework, Jack W. Kelly

Master's Theses

The Horizon Simulation Framework (HSF) is an open-source community driven mod- eling and simulation tool developed over 15 years by a lineage of Cal Poly graduate students. The tool excels in its flexibility to model an assortment of complex systems, with prebuilt modeling elements available for the simulation of space missions. A high-level simulation tool like HSF lends itself to an agile development cycle as system constraints can be quickly identified through day in the life simulation of the modeled system. The objective of the work presented in this thesis is to refactor the way in which several modeling elements …

Programmable Vibration Table Retrofit With Eagle Medical, Jonathan Ilagan, Madhav Asok, Max Lewter

Biomedical Engineering

This project aimed to repair and upgrade a vibration table used for package testing for the sponsor, Eagle Medical - a medical packaging and sterilization company based in Paso Robles, California. The current vibration table is not programmable and lacks circuit diagrams, making it difficult to repair. In addition, it is not functional due to internal circuitry issues and power requirements. To address these issues, the team will implement several upgrades to improve the product and allow for better random cyclic vibration testing. A full assessment of the existing vibration table will be conducted to ensure the viability of these …

Solving Supersonic Flows Using The Method Of Integral Relations In Python, Eddie Hsieh

Master's Theses

This thesis presents a modern approach to the Method of Integral Relations implemented in the Python programming language. This work is based on South's reports on solving supersonic conical flows and Belotserkovskii's publications on solving supersonic flows over blunt bodies. The Python SciPy library is extensively used in this thesis. A root finder module is used to perform South's solution process, and the Runge-Kutta ODE solver with dense output is implemented to replicate Belotserkovskii's solution process. The implementation of Python makes the development efficient and serves as an open-source framework for future work to build on. This work focuses on …

Range-Doppler Map Processing Chain For Marine Radar On Fpga Of An Rfsoc, Nickolas W. Ogilvie

Master's Theses

To improve the accuracy and resolution of the measurements, radar systems employ increasingly complex, resource-intensive signal processing, larger bandwidths, and higher carrier frequencies. However, implementing these improvements requires more expensive, complex electronics that are larger and use more power. Using RFSoC (Radio Frequency System on Chips) in radars can address these challenges. By combining processors, an FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array), and RF data converters into a single integrated circuit, RFSoCs allow for radar electronics that are physically smaller, use less power, and are simpler to design. As using RFSoCs to perform RF data conversion for radars has been already …

Design And Implementation Of A Prototype Pendulum Platform For Aerospace Controls Education, Zachary A. Wright

Master's Theses

This thesis presents a modular, low-cost, prototype inverted pendulum platform for undergraduate Aerospace control theory research and education. The platform's default configuration integrates a propeller and reaction wheel as its actuators, with multiple sensors available to measure the pendulum's states. The platform utilizes open-source software and hardware to power the actuators, and uses MATLAB/Simulink to streamline data collection. System identification techniques are applied to the platform, and the mathematical model of the pendulum is verified. Momentum exchange between the reaction wheel and propeller during closed-loop stabilization of the pendulum is demonstrated.

Composite Solid Rocket Motor Case Optimization With Matlab Genetic Algorithm, Aleksandr Breit

Master's Theses

This study utilizes MATLAB genetic algorithm (GA) to perform optimization on a solid rocket motor (SRM) chamber structure. The (SRM) structure is modelled as a cylindrical composite laminate where unidirectional fiber orientations are the primary design variable in the optimization problem formulation. Additional design variables such as chamber length, diameter, and internal pressure are altered along with the ply angles to minimize the safety margin towards a near-zero value and encourage efficient layup design. Classical lamination theory with Tsai-Wu failure criterion are used to calculate ply-level safety margins. A thickness minimization scheme is employed to reduce the ply count from …

Enhancing Telecom Churn Prediction: Adaboost With Oversampling And Recursive Feature Elimination Approach, Long Dinh Tran

Master's Theses

Churn prediction is a critical task for businesses to retain their valuable customers. This paper presents a comprehensive study of churn prediction in the telecom sector using 15 approaches, including popular algorithms such as Logistic Regression, Support Vector Machine, Decision Tree, Random Forest, and AdaBoost.

The study is segmented into three sets of experiments, each focusing on a different approach to building the churn prediction model. The model is constructed using the original training set in the first set of experiments. The second set involves oversampling the training set to address the issue of imbalanced data. Lastly, the third set …

Feasibility Assessment Of An All-Electric, Narrow-Body Airliner, Ariel Sampson

Master's Theses

Combustion emissions from aviation operations contribute significantly to climate change and air pollution. Accordingly, there is increasing interest in advancing battery-powered propulsion for aviation applications to reduce emissions. As batteries continue to improve, it is essential to recognize breakthroughs in battery specific energy in the context of air transport vehicles. Most electric aircraft designs and programs have focused on small aircraft because of restrictive battery performance. This work presents a feasibility assessment for an all-electric airliner based on an Airbus A220-100 with turbofan engines replaced by electric motors and propellers. The analysis compares the performance characteristics of the electric airliner …

Parameter Measurement Of 0.33 Hp Synchronous Machine Using Itech Digital Power Supply, Andrew Kargol

Master's Theses

The classical methodologies for synchronous machine modeling provide a solid estimation for synchronous machine behavior but are limited in terms of accuracy due to the assumptions made in the modeling process. The equivalent circuit model developed by the classical approach breaks down the entire machine into a singular impedance component. This allows the model to be generated more quickly but limits its accuracy. In the pursuit of developing a more realistic model, this thesis outlines the parameter measurement of a Hampden SM-100 synchronous machine. In determining the SM-100’s experimental parameters, this thesis executes and analyzes new experimental approaches to synchronous …

Efficiency Study Of A Hybrid Ac/Dc House, Eunice Dominique Solomon Santiago

Master's Theses

With the proliferation of residential-scale renewable energy sources and DC loads, it has become attractive to use residential DC electrical system that could offer benefits over the legacy residential AC electrical system. The Hybrid AC/DC house provides a sustainable alternative to preexisting residential electrical system by having both AC and DC buses. The DC bus facilitates the connection from DC sources to DC loads, whereas the AC bus interfaces AC sources to AC loads. The study develops the equations to calculate losses based on a model consisting of four main components: Multiple-Input Single-Output (MISO) converter, AC-DC converter, inverter, and DC-DC …

Implementation Of Topology Optimization Into The Mechanical Design Process, Nolan Clapp

Master's Theses

Topology Optimization is a lightweighting method based on finite element analysis that produces a part with optimum material distribution in the design space. Results from topology optimization often have organic shapes and curves that are difficult if not impossible to machine with traditional subtractive manufacturing methods. This paper analyzes the implementation of the Solidworks® Topology Optimization add-in into the mechanical design process and discusses required postprocessing to ensure manufacturability of the optimized part though a case study on two example parts. Results of traditional optimization, topology optimization and “selective” optimization (optimization using the results from topology optimization to selectively remove …

Statistical Uncertainty Of The Ignition Time, Burning Rate, And Extinction Characteristics Of Engineered Timber Products, Jacob David

Master's Theses

The characterization of flammability parameters such as time to ignition, mass loss rate (MLR), and extinction criteria is critical for understanding ignition and burning behavior of timber products. These parameters, often determined with bench scale experiments, have previously been presented in literature. However, standard test methods generally use relatively low trial quantities (e.g., n=3) which can potentially cause large variation in reported values. This study investigates the influence of trial quantity on observed statistical variation in key flammability metrics for timber products (e.g., ignition time, peak MLR, MLR at extinction). Using a conical heater, 100 repeat trials were conducted …

Design Of Class F-Based Doherty Power Amplifier For S-Band Applications, Kyle Chang

Master's Theses

Modern RF and millimeter-wave communication links call for high-efficiency front end systems with high output power and high linearity to meet minimum transmission requirements. Advanced modulation techniques, such as orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) require a large power amplifier (PA) dynamic range due to the high peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR). This thesis provides the analysis, design, and experimental verification of a high-efficiency, high-linearity S-band Doherty power amplifier (DPA) based on the Class F PA. Traditional Class F PAs use harmonically tuned output matching networks to obtain up to 88.4% power-added efficiency (PAE) theoretically, however the amplifier experiences poor linearity performance due …

Contextually Dynamic Quest Generation Using In-Session Player Information In Mmorpg, Shangwei Lin

Master's Theses

Massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) are one of the most

popular genres in video games that combine massively multiplayer online genres with

role-playing gameplay. MMORPGs’ featured social interaction and forms of level pro-

gression through quest completion are the core for gaining players’ attention. Varied

and challenging quests play an essential part in retaining that attention. However,

well-crafted content takes much longer to develop with human efforts than it does to

consume, and the dominant procedural content generation models for quests suffer

from the drawback of being incompatible with dynamic world changes and the feeling

of repetition over time. …

Estimating The Impact Of Infill Housing On Reduction In Vehicle Miles Traveled, Peyton Marie Ratto

Master's Theses

Vehicle miles traveled (VMT) and its relationship with the built environment has been extensively studied. Most notably, five D variables of the built environment including density, diversity, design, destination accessibility, and distance to transit are the key variables included in this research to explain VMT generation from housing developments. This thesis uses prior research that developed robust statistical models and findings to create a framework to estimate VMT reduction affected by infill housing developed using incentives provided by the state compared to a regional comparator. The regional comparator is typically a suburban single-family housing development in the region. The models …

Development Of A Low-Cost Acoustic Gauge For Simultaneous Tide And Wave Measurement, Alexander Kalman Dunn

Master's Theses

High-quality tide and wave data are essential in a variety of fields including coastal engineering, climate science, disaster response, and recreational activities. Accurate data are publicly accessible from government organizations such as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), however the high costs associated with deploying and maintaining their high accuracy gauges results in a deficit of localized data. Commercial gauges available starting at $2,000 are still expensive for local agencies and individual users to deploy and maintain. These commercial options can also be limited in their scope, accuracy, or ease of use. In this thesis, a low-cost acoustic gauge …