Engineering Commons^™

Moor Movement: Automated Docking On Drought-Stricken Reservoirs, Daniel Beck

Landscape Architecture

Moor Movement establishes a mechanized docking system for unpredictable shoreline fluctuations on inland lakes and reservoirs. Due to climate change and warmer global temperatures, the threat of ocean level rise has initiated massive proposals to address the interface between ocean and man-made infrastructure. While this is a monumental problem, ocean level rise is not the only immediate threat. The recently declared emergency drought conditions in California are finally bringing attention to inland lakes and reservoirs. While ocean levels might rise 2-7 feet in 100 years, a lake could drop 100 feet in 5 years. What happens to access roads, marinas, …

Laboratory Building- Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, Nm, Joshua Herrera

Fire Protection Engineering: Culminating Experience Project Reports

The purpose of the culminating report was to perform a prescriptive-based and performance-based analysis on the fire and life safety systems in the laboratory building at Sandia National Laboratories (SNL). The prescriptive-based analysis determined if the laboratory building met applicable code requirements for life safety systems. The performance-based analysis conducted a series of fire scenarios to ensure the fire and life safety systems provided adequate egress time for occupants in the event of a fire. The prescriptive-based analysis was based on the Life Safety Code (LSC) and International Building Code (IBC). The laboratory building is a mixed occupancy building. The …

Fire And Life Safety Evaluation & Analysis- Bonderson Engineering Projects Center, Garrett Brown

Fire Protection Engineering: Culminating Experience Project Reports

A Fire and Life Safety Analysis of the Bonderson Engineering Projects Center, (BEPC) Building 197 on the California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo (Cal Poly) Campus is performed. Both prescriptive and performance based methods and metrics are utilized to evaluate the facility with respect to current fire and building standards and codes. Prescriptive fire protection features and systems analyzed include: building construction type and design, structural fire protection features and requirements, occupancy classification and egress analysis, fire detection, alarm, and communication systems, and fire suppression systems The prescriptive based design requirements largely met the code and installation requirements with …

Solar Energy Research Center- Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory!, Shellie Prescott

Fire Protection Engineering: Culminating Experience Project Reports

This report covers both a prescriptive and performance-based review of fire and life safety systems for the Solar Energy Research Center at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. The primary subjects covered are egress, fire alarm systems, and sprinkler systems. A unique feature and focal point for this report is the SERC east exit stair. This stair was originally designed as a glass atrium, but for various reasons cannot be utilized as an atrium. The east exit stair has a special VESDA detection system, is the most remote location for the sprinkler system, and is a primary exit for all three …

Culminating Project Report- Warren J. Baker Center For Science And Mathematics, Blake Johnson

Fire Protection Engineering: Culminating Experience Project Reports

This report analyzes the fire protection features of the Warren J. Baker Center for Science and Mathematics on the Cal Poly San Luis Obispo campus in San Luis Obispo, CA. The prescriptive analysis of the structural fire protection, egress, fire suppression, and fire alarm, detection, and communication systems shows that the building meets the requirements of current codes and standards. The performance based analysis includes simulating design fire scenarios in the atrium using computer modeling (CFAST, FDS) and the results of these models show that the atrium meets the tenability criterion for the calculated evacuation time of occupants.

Grit Mobile: Data Collection App For The Grit Research Project, Ryan Chang

Computer Science and Software Engineering

This project consists of one part of a larger University research project aimed at determining if active learning builds the character trait of grit in students while they learn in the domain of mechanical engineering. The research project has three goals: the development of a mobile app to measure the quantity and quality of active learning, a model of student success using the quantity and quality of active learning, and a characterization of the relationship between active learning and grit growth. This senior project focuses on the mobile app as part of the larger research project. The mobile app will …

Smart Solar Oven, Aaron Gragg

Computer Engineering

Though solar oven technology provides a green and cost effective means of cooking, it is often not adopted because it fails to meet the demands of speed and reliability that are commonplace in our society. This project explores the modification of a traditional box solar to meet these demands by allowing the oven to report temperature to a user’s phone as well as orient itself towards the sun throughout the day.

Music Dynamic Animations, Thuy-Vy Do

Computer Engineering

Audio visualization gives a graphical representation to beats, intensity, and the fluctuating sounds heard in music. Music dynamic animation, deriving from this concept of audio visualizers, implements a hard coded range styled beat detection. This algorithm prioritizes graphical representations of classical and instrumental music. These graphical representations are intended to provide a sense of imagery.

Installation, Evaluation, And Modification Of Adcon Telemetry Systems, Caitlin Held

BioResource and Agricultural Engineering

No abstract provided.

Net Zero Residential Design For Solar Calpoly, Bryce Reiko Willis

Master's Theses

The Department of Energy (DOE) confirmed Team Solar Cal Poly from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, as a competitor in the 2015 Solar Decathlon in February 2014. The Solar Decathlon is a biennial collegiate competition to construct a net-zero home and operate it for a week of “normal use”. Solar Cal Poly needed assistance with passive and active HVAC systems for the design, and thermal load models. The competition will take place in Irvine, CA [33.67⁰, 117.82⁰ W] from September 27 – October 3, 2015. After the completion, a potential final location for the house will be Santa …

Development Of An Autonomous Single-Point Calibration For A Constant Voltage Hot-Wire Anemometer, Ryan Murphy

Master's Theses

Traditionally, the measurement of turbulence has been conducted using hot-wire anemometry. This thesis presents the implementation of a constant voltage hot-wire anemometer for use with the Boundary Layer Data System (BLDS). A hot-wire calibration apparatus has been developed that is capable of operation inside a vacuum chamber and flow speeds up to 50 m/s. Hot-wires operated with a constant-voltage anemometer (CVA) were calibrated at absolute static pressures down to 26 kPa. A thermal/electrical model for a hot-wire and the CVA circuit successfully predicted the measured CVA output voltage trend at reduced pressure environments; however, better results were obtained when the …

Vibration-Based Health Monitoring Of Rotating Systems With Gyroscopic Effect, Nenad Gavrilovic

Master's Theses

This thesis focuses on the simulation of the gyroscopic effect using the software MSC Adams. A simple shaft-disk system was created and parameter of the sys-tem were changed in order to study the influence of the gyroscopic effect. It was shown that an increasing bearing stiffness reduces the precession motion. Fur-thermore, it was shown that the gyroscopic effect vanishes if the disk of system is placed symmetrically on the shaft, which reduces the system to a Jeffcott-Ro-tor. The second objective of this study was to analyze different defects in a simple fixed axis gear set. In particular, a cracked shaft, …

Sustainability In The Craft Brewing Industry: An Analysis Of Tertiary Wastewater Treatments, Jessica Uibel

Liberal Arts and Engineering Studies

In 2014, Firestone Walker began the implementation of an onsite Wastewater Treatment Plant to treat the brewery’s process wastewater. Although the secondary treatment of aerated lagoons was capable of lowering the effluent to Paso Robles discharge requirements, Firestone Walker considered investing in a tertiary treatment to reclaim water for industrial reuse in wash down, evaporative coolers, and steam generation.

The information required to determine to optimal tertiary treatment system included the effluent levels leaving the lagoons, the influent requirements for the reclamation uses, the discharge requirements from Paso Robles, and the flow rate of the process wastewater. With this information, …

Nanogrid Electrical Design And Analysis, Phillip Phung

Electrical Engineering

Power plant generators have quality protection over long-range transmission, but localized generation interacts with multiple power sources, and needs maintenance to ensure grid safety. Localized and distributed generation must solve these issues to remain viable economically and efficiently in power industries. Cal Poly’s Building 20 provides on-campus location to interconnect renewable generation with interconnection disconnect capabilities.

Cal Poly’s grid includes three localized generators flowing through the Cal Poly substation. Unlike other universities which use power from utilities across distant transmission lines, Cal Poly generates energy using onsite generators. Research including additional possible sites of power generation helps determine the effects …

Optimizing Harris Corner Detection On Gpgpus Using Cuda, Justin Loundagin

Master's Theses

ABSTRACT

Optimizing Harris Corner Detection on GPGPUs Using CUDA

The objective of this thesis is to optimize the Harris corner detection algorithm implementation on NVIDIA GPGPUs using the CUDA software platform and measure the performance benefit. The Harris corner detection algorithm—developed by C. Harris and M. Stephens—discovers well defined corner points within an image. The corner detection implementation has been proven to be computationally intensive, thus realtime performance is difficult with a sequential software implementation. This thesis decomposes the Harris corner detection algorithm into a set of parallel stages, each of which are implemented and optimized on the CUDA platform. …

Fire And Life Safety Analysis- Building 310- The Landing, Tyler Paller

Fire Protection Engineering: Culminating Experience Project Reports

The purpose of this report is to analyze Building 310 with regards to fire and life safety. Analysis was done both prescriptively and from a performance based design standpoint. The prescriptive based analysis includes review of the building’s design with regards to egress, fire alarm systems, suppression systems, and structural fire protection. The building was reviewed against current NFPA codes and the International Building Code to examine compliance. The performance-based analysis consists of two different fire scenarios that were examined. The goal was to show that the building met safety criteria and does not pose undue risk to occupants. This …

Fire Protection And Life Safety Engineering Analysis- Center For Science And Mathematics, Orelvis Gonzalez Cruz

Fire Protection Engineering: Culminating Experience Project Reports

The Life Safety and Fire Protection systems in Cal Poly’s Center for Science and Mathematics (CSM) were analyzed and evaluated in this project, according to the requirements of the applicable codes and pertinent standards. The evaluation was conducted through a prescriptive-based approach, in conjunction with a performance-based approach. On one hand, the prescriptive-based approach considered the analysis of the Structural Fire Protection and Means of Egress in the building and the existing Fire Detection/Alarm and Fire Suppression Systems. On the other hand, the performance-based approach included an Egress Analysis, which assessed the Required Safe Egress Time (RSET) and the Available …

Wine Club Shipment Package Redesign, Emily E. Prescott

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

This report shows the design, manufacturing, and testing process for the product development of a wine club shipment package for Niner Wine Estates. Niner has two different shipment sizes, 4 bottles and 6 bottles, and wishes to improve their current package by giving it a more “high-class” feel. After the new package was designed and prototyped, it went through standardized quality testing to be cleared for commercial use. This testing is intended to simulate the distribution cycle the package will experience and subject it to potential hazards such as being dropped and vehicle vibration during transportation.

After the package passed …

Visualizing Relationships Between Related Variables: Improving Physics Education Through D3.Js Network Visualizations, Stephanie Friend

Liberal Arts and Engineering Studies

phiMap is a web application started by Cal Poly professors and students to aid professors in teaching physics. I developed Javascript visualizations for phiMap that serve to simplify the processes of both teaching and learning physics. These visualizations aim to present relationships between physics variables in an easy to understand manner, and they could eventually have a huge impact on physics education.

Three-Phase Generation Using Reactive Networks, Tattiana Karina Coleman Davenport

Master's Theses

Household appliances utilize single-phase motors to perform everyday jobs whether it is to run a fan in an air conditioner or the compressor in a refrigerator. With the movement of the world going “green” and trying to make everything more efficient, it is a logical step to start with the items that we use every day. This can be done by replacing single-phase motors with three-phase motors in household appliances. Three-phase motors are 14% more efficient than single-phase motors when running at full load and typically cost less over a large range of sizes [1]. One major downside of incorporating …

Combination Of A Probabilistic-Based And A Rule-Based Approach For Genealogical Record Linkage, Pooja P. Shah

Master's Theses

Record linkage is the task of identifying records within one or multiple databases that refer to the same entity. Currently, there exist many different approaches for record linkage. Some approaches incorporate the use of heuristic rules, mathematical models, Markov models, or machine learning. This thesis focuses on the application of record linkage to genealogical records within family trees. Today, large collections of genealogical records are stored in databases, which may contain multiple records that refer to a single individual. Resolving duplicate genealogical records can extend our knowledge on who has lived and more complete information can be constructed by combining …

Effect Of Sustainable And Composite Materials On The Mechanical Behavior Of Sandwich Panels Under Edgewise Compressive Loading, Justin A. Tafoya

Master's Theses

Over the last three decades, the aerospace industry has gradually shifted from metals to composites in many different applications due to the lightweight properties of composite materials. Some benefits of composites include higher strength-to-weight ratio and corrosion resistance. At this point in time, the composite industry researchers are focusing on renewable and sustainable materials (bio-composites). By understanding the structural capabilities of bio-composites that have been used for centuries, new developments of sustainable materials will spark more interest throughout the industry. Bio-composites include fibers such as hemp, bamboo, flax, etc. The high demand for bio-composites in composite structures can also reduce …

Development And Lab Calibration Of The Pnuematic In-Situ Soil Caving Index Sampler (Piscis), Michael A. Grolle

Master's Theses

The caving/sloughing of sandy layers into drilled shafts is a common and costly phenomenon in the drilling industry. A prototype soil-testing device known as the Pneumatic In-situ Soil Caving Index Sampler (PISCIS) has been developed to test sandy layers above the water table for their propensity to cave/slough into a drilled shaft during the drilling process. The PISCIS fits down a Cone Penetration Test (CPT) hole and uses air pressure to agitate a sample off of the hole wall that is then collected and weighed. Large-scale lab testing was conducted using sand under a variety of simulated overburden pressures and …

Design Methods For Remotely Powered Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, William Beaman Howe

Master's Theses

A method for sizing remotely powered unmanned aerial vehicles is presented to augment the conventional design process. This method allows for unconventionally powered aircraft to become options in trade studies during the initial design phase. A design matrix is created that shows where, and if, a remotely powered vehicle fits within the design space. For given range and power requirements, the design matrix uses historical data to determine whether an internal combustion or electrical system would be most appropriate. Trends in the historical data show that the break in the design space between the two systems is around 30 miles …

Nutrient Removal From Clarified Municipal Wastewater Using Microalgae Raceway Ponds, Justin Andrew Kraetsch

Master's Theses

Shallow, mixed raceway ponds can be used to grow microalgae for the dual purposes of wastewater treatment and biofuel feedstock production. To improve the environmental sustainability of microalgae biofuels and to alleviate resource limitations, nutrients remaining after biofuel production should be recycled for additional cultivation. This thesis considers three topics: wastewater treatment by algae, nitrogen and phosphorus assimilation by algae, and algae cell disruption to facilitate nutrient recovery.

The main experimental work was done in pilot raceway ponds growing polycultures of microalgae on clarified municipal wastewater. In addition, two lab-scale pretreatment technologies were tested for their ability to disrupt cells, …

Benchmarking, Characterization And Tuning Of Shell Ecomarathon Prototype Powertrain, Eric J. Griess

Master's Theses

With the automotive industry ever striving to push the limits of fuel efficiency, the Shell EcoMarathon offers a glimpse into this energy conserving mindset by challenging engineering students around the world to design and build ultra-efficient vehicles to compete regionally. This requires synchronization of engineering fields to ensure that the vehicle and powertrain system work in parallel to achieve similar goals.

The goal for Cal Poly – San Luis Obispo’s EcoMarathon vehicle for the 2015 competition is to analyze the unique operating mode that the powertrain undergoes during competition and improve their current package to increase fuel efficiency. In this …

Comparison Of Regular Ringer's Solution And Glucose Ringer's Solution On The Longevity Of The Hirudo Medicinalis' Retzius Cell, Nicole Arielle Peretti

Master's Theses

In 1882, Sydney Ringer, a professor of medicine at University College in London, experimented with the frog ventricle to better understand how each constituent of blood influences contraction. The ultimate goal was to create an artificial circulating fluid to use for the perfusion of isolated organs, in this case, a frog heart. Today, Ringer’s solution is still used in research for physiological studies requiring the survival and maintenance of specimens outside of their host bodies. One such example is the use of medicinal leech ganglia for electrophysiological measurements. In this thesis, I am comparing two Ringer’s solutions, original versus added …

The Influence Of Cornering On The Vortical Wake Structures Of An Inverted Wing, James Keogh, Graham Doig, Sammy Diasinos, Tracie Barber

Aerospace Engineering

The aerodynamic performance of inverted wings on racing-car configurations is most critical when cornering; however, current wind tunnel techniques are generally limited to the straight-line condition. The true cornering condition introduces complexity because of the curvature of the freestream flow. This results in an increase in the tangential velocity with increasing distance from the instantaneous centre of rotation and causes the front wing to be placed at a yaw angle. Numerical simulations were used to consider an 80% scale front wing when steady-state cornering with radii ranging from 60m to 7.5 m, and yaw angles ranging from 1.25° to 10°. …

Development Of Local Transient Heat Flux Measurements In An Axisymmetric Hybrid Rocket Nozzle, Christopher D'Elia

Master's Theses

A method of performing local transient heat flux measurements in an uncooled axisymmetric hybrid rocket nozzle is presented. Surface temperatures are collected at various axial locations during short duration tests and post processed using finite difference techniques to determine local transient heat fluxes and film coefficients. Comparisons are made between the collected data and the complete Bartz model. Although strong agreement is observed in certain sections of the nozzle, ideal steady state conditions are not observed to entirely validate the Bartz model for hybrid rocket nozzles. An experimental error analysis indicates the experimental heat fluxes are accurate within ±5.2% and …

An Affordance-Based Methodology For Package Design, Javier De La Fuente Phd, Stephanie Gustafson, Colleen L. Twomey, Laura Bix

Industrial Technology and Packaging

The term affordance describes an object's utilitarian function or actionable possibilities. Product designers have taken great interest in the concept of affordances because of the bridge they provide relating to design, the interpretation of design and, ultimately, functionality in the hands of consumers. These concepts have been widely studied and applied in the field of psychology but have had limited formal application to packaging design and evaluation. We believe that the concepts related to affordances will reveal novel opportunities for packaging innovation. To catalyse this, presented work had the following objectives: (a) to propose a method by which packaging designers …