Engineering Commons^™

Analysis Of Environmentally Friendly Marking Ink For Military Equipment And Electronics, Liang Li

Master's Theses

Recent advancements in corrosion-resistance coating technology has reduce the use of environmentally harmful compounds such as Hexavalent Chromium by replacing Hexavalent Chromium in primers and topcoat. However, marking inks were neglected in the process. Products such as Enthone 50 series are still widely used, which contain compounds such as lead, hexavalent chromium, bisphenol A (BPA), Cadmium Sulfide, and more. Excluding catalyst compositions in Enthone, the chemicals in the ink alone contained three reproductive toxicant and numerous carcinogens. Therefore, it was essential to search and validate the performance of potential marking ink that would meet the standards in military applications.

Eleven …

The Effect Of Neurostimulation On Blood Flow And Ischemic Pain, Stacey M. Fishman

Biomedical Engineering

Chronic pain caused by lack of blood flow is known as ischemic pain. Neurostimulation, the application of electrical currents through a region of the body, is effective for pain modulation, and it is hypothesized that this can be explained by the gate control theory and alterations of the sympathetic output initiated by the metaboreflex. The decrease of sympathetic output reduces vasoconstriction and improves blood flow. Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) and interferential currents (IFC) stimulation, both non-invasive neurostimulation techniques, were evaluated for their effects on cutaneous blood flow on the palm. High or low frequency TENS and/or IFC, and the …

Alternate Computer Input Device For Individuals With Quadriplegia, Tobais Elder, Michelle Martinez, David Sylvester

Biomedical Engineering

This project details the design development of an alternative computer input system that allows a person with quadriplegia to move a computer's cursor and activate left and right click button inputs. After researching and analyzing possible solutions, an end design was chosen that most appropriately satisfied all user requirements and engineering specifications. This final design employs a head mounted Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) with 9 DoF (Degrees of Freedom) to track head movements and correlate these motions to computer cursor movements. A Sip-Puff Transducer monitors and interprets a user's application of negative and positive air pressure differentials to a vinyl …

Data Transfer Using Light, Ryan Thomas Suarez

Computer Engineering

A proof of concerpt for data transmission using light as a medium. Data is transferred by strobing and LED faster than the human eye can detect in an attempt to come up with a more secure alternate to in-building wifi.

Design And Fabrication Of Electrostatically Actuated Serpentine-Hinged Nickel-Phosphorous Micromirror Devices, Nicholas A. Wiswell

Master's Theses

A process for micromachining of micro-mirror devices from silicon-on-insulator wafers was proposed and implemented. Test methods and force applicators for these devices were developed. Following successful fabrication of these devices, a novel process for fabrication of devices out of the plane of the silicon wafer was proposed, so that the devices could be actuated electrostatically. In particular, the process makes use of thick photoresist layers as a sacrificial mold into which an amorphous nickel-phosphorous alloy may be deposited. Ideal design of the electrostatically actuated micro-mirrors was investigated, and a final design was selected and modeled using FEA software, which found …

Fundamental Studies Of Vortices Induced By A Vortex-Generator For Automotive Applications, Asiful Islam, Graham Doig

Aerospace Engineering

For automotive applications, passive flow control devices can be used to reduce, delay or prevent flow separation. This study explores the nature of vortex generation and behaviour, numerically and experimentally, for a simple geometry at a Reynolds Number (Rex) of 5×105 and 1.945×106. The setup comprised a triangular vane vortex-generator mounted on a shallow ramp referenced from literature. Flow over the isolated ramp was validated with past experimental particle-image-velocimetry (PIV) data, which also highlighted the relative performance of various turbulence models. A parametric study was undertaken with the vane orientation defined by an angle-of-attack (β) and stream-wise location (xedge/xVG). These …

Application Of Kriging To Motorsport Aerodynamic Analysis, Matthew Cruickshank, Graham Doig

Aerospace Engineering

Aerodynamic analysis in motorsport is conducted using three methods, computational, scaled experimental and full-scale operational. However, the varying fidelity, different sampling resolutions and unavoidable errors of each technique make valid comparisons between datasets from each method difficult and time consuming. Kriging is a geostatistical method to estimate values within a data field by examining and applying the trends of the dataset. This research examines how such techniques can be used to aid comparison between aerodynamic measurements of a race car. It examines how kriging can be used to transform discrete measurements, of varying fidelity and sampling resolution, into semi-continuous measurements, …

Computational Simulation Of An Altitude Adaptive Nozzle Concept, K. Schomberg, G. Doig, J. Olsen

Aerospace Engineering

A computational analysis of an annular converging-diverging (CD) and an altitude adaptive expansion-deflection (ED) nozzle is presented. Numerical results were generated using a 2D axisymmetric, pressure-coupled solver in conjunction with the Spalart-Allmaras turbulence closure model and second order spatial discretisation schemes. Results were recorded over a theoretical altitude range and compared to experimental static pressure readings and schlieren images. The correlation between numerical and experimental static pressure values was high for all cases. Comparison of schlieren imagery outlined the large variety of flow regions within the ED nozzle flow field. The interactions between these regions were highly sensitive to turbulence …

The Aerodynamics Of A Cornering Inverted Wing In Ground Effect, James Keogh, Graham Doig, Tracie J. Barber, Sammy Diasinos

Aerospace Engineering

For racing car configurations an inverted wing produces negative lift that allows increased levels of acceleration to be maintained through corners. Routine aerodynamic analysis, however, will typically be in the straight-line condition. A numerical analysis of the inverted T026 wing geometry through the curved path of a constant radius corner was conducted. The asymmetrical properties of the oncoming flow resulted in the introduction of a rolling and yawing moment along the span, as well as side-force. Yaw angle, flow curvature and a velocity gradient resulted in changes to the pressure distribution over the wing surface. Primary vortex behaviour was observed …

Pressure Recorders: Low-Cost, Robust, Low-Battery-Use Field Measurement Techniques For Trending Water Pressure, Stuart Styles, Kerilyn Ambrosini

BioResource and Agricultural Engineering

Water users across California need robust, low-cost water level/pressure sensors with integrated data loggers for a high level of precision and accuracy. The Cal Poly Irrigation Training and Research Center (ITRC) has installed Telog Instruments devices in California and Nevada over the last 12 years to provide a performance review of the devices. The two devices focused on were the Telog Instruments WLS-31 Level Tracker and LPR-31i Line Pressure Recorder. Over the study period, ITRC has collected several sets of data in varying situations. After 11 years of use on a reservoir, the two Telog WLS-31 units had a 1% …

Implementation Of New Irrigation Protocols On Strawberry Transplants On The California Central Coast, Stuart Styles, Kerilyn Ambrosini

BioResource and Agricultural Engineering

For the past five growing seasons, the Cal Poly Irrigation Training and Research Center (ITRC) has conducted research on water use, salinity levels and various other factors related to strawberry transplant establishment. This report summarizes research that can be found online: www.itrc.org/projects.htm.

The project’s goal was to develop an analysis of irrigation practices of the strawberry growers on the central coast of California, primarily during the establishment of transplants. From the analysis, sprinkler use reduction methods were developed. These methods conserve water, save pumping costs, and reduce the runoff that can potentially contaminate local waterways. California growers contributed control and …

Wireless Network Intrusion Detection System, Calvin Jia Liang

Computer Engineering

The Wireless Network Intrusion Detection System is a network-based intrusion detection system (IDS) that listens on a wireless network. The IDS device is a self-contained single-board-computer capable of monitoring the user’s wireless network, detecting suspicious network traffic, and reporting to the user via email. The device has two network interfaces: the wireless interface is used to monitor network traffic, and the wired interface is used to configure the system and to send out detection alerts. The system requires minimal setup, configuration, and maintenance. It is a relatively inexpensive device that tries to improve user’s situational-awareness of one’s wireless network.

Bellevue-Santa Fe Charter School Solar Panel Project, Dulce Arroyo Martinez, Henrik Lee, Moises Quiroz, Timothy Iafrate

Mechanical Engineering

This project covers the design, manufacture, and installation of solar panel frames on a charter school in Avila Beach, CA. Through preliminary research regarding important factors (such as solar movement, ideal panel angle, and site-specific factors), a frame that meets the standards set forth in the California Building Codes was designed. After approval by presiding authorities, parts specified in the design were ordered, inspected upon arrival, and manufactured to the design as necessary. Much of the challenge was related to the installation aspect of the project—coordination with the proper authorities and correct submission of applications was integral to the success …

Autonomous Close Formation Flight Of Small Uavs Using Vision-Based Localization, Michael B. Darling

Master's Theses

As Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are integrated into the national airspace to comply with the 2012 Federal Aviation Administration Reauthorization Act, new civilian uses for robotic aircraft will come about in addition to the more obvious military applications. One particular area of interest for UAV development is the autonomous cooperative control of multiple UAVs. In this thesis, a decentralized leader-follower control strategy is designed, implemented, and tested from the follower’s perspective using vision-based localization.

The tasks of localization and control were carried out with separate processing hardware dedicated to each task. First, software was written to estimate the relative state …

Design & Evaluation Of An Rfid Harvest Labor Tracking System, Sam Parnagian

BioResource and Agricultural Engineering

This project was the design and evaluation of a harvest labor tracking system through the use of RFID technology. This test will be performed for Fowler Packing Company with one citrus harvest crew. This system will allow each employee to be paid on an individual basis while also developing payroll in real-time. This project will save Fowler Packing money on a yearly basis by paying each employee for the actual work they do and increase the number of bins harvested per day by incentivizing harvest practices.

Modeling And Simulation Of Parallel D-Statcoms With Full-Wave Rectifiers, Jason Brinsfield

Master's Theses

In recent years, both a significant increase in electrical demand and a large influx of intermittent renewable energy sources have put a considerable stress on the nation’s electrical grid. Conventional power flow control techniques such as capacitor banks and tap-changing transformers are incapable of adequately handling the rapid fluctuations in power supply and demand that today’s grid experiences. Flexible AC Transmission System (FACTS) controllers are a practical way to compensate for such rapid power fluctuations. One type of shunt FACTS controller is the Static Synchronous Compensator (STATCOM), which uses fully controllable switches to source or sink reactive power to a …

Investigating Present And Future Interactions Between Radio Frequency Identification, Additive Manufacturing And Supply Chain Management, Michael Nobuhiro Ochi

Master's Theses

A screening experiment was paired with research observing the past, present and futures of additive manufacturing (a.k.a. rapid prototyping, 3D printing), radio frequency identification, and supply chain management. The experiment tested different properties of objects created with a desktop fused deposition modelling printer to observe if any single factors or interactions affected the read range of embedded passive UHF RFID inlay. The combination of material and infill percentage had a statistically significant effect on read range, however the analysis is weak since the data could not justify the normality assumption of ANOVA. Furthermore, the size of the effect was small …

Dynamic Modelling Of Impact Of Lean Policies On Production Levelling Feasibility, Hoda Elmaraghy, Ahmed Deif

Industrial Technology and Packaging

A dynamic systems approach is proposed to investigate challenges of implementing production leveling and associated costs. A model of a lean cell is developed using system dynamics. The model captures various lean tools influencing production leveling. Comparative cost analysis between various leveling implementation policies for stochastic demand with multiple products is conducted. Results showed that determining the most feasible leveling policy is highly dictated by both capacity scalability cost and limitations. The developed model and revealed insights can help lean practitioners to better decide on when and how to implement production leveling as well as determine production lots sizes.

Dynamic Lean Assessment For Takt Time Implementation, Rehab M. Ali, Ahmed M. Deif

Industrial Technology and Packaging

Increasing volatility, global competitiveness, and sales crisis all force the manufacturers to commit to the journey of world-class manufacturing performance via adopting “lean systems” to enable economic success in difficult times. Among the journey to lean, one of the hardest steps is measuring the progress of lean polices implementation especially in this highly dynamic market. This paper presents a dynamic model to evaluate the degree of leanness in manufacturing firms. The model is based on system dynamics approach and presents a “leanness score” for the manufacturing system. In addition, it examines the dynamics associated with the application of “One-piece flow” …

Impact Of Dynamic Capacity Policies On Wip Level In Mix Leveling Lean Environment, Ahmed Deif, Hoda Elmaraghy

Industrial Technology and Packaging

Balancing demand's product variety in production planning is one aspect of variety management challenge. This phenomenon is described in lean systems as mix leveling. This paper approach product mix leveling problem from a dynamic perspective. A system dynamics model is developed to explore the dynamics associated with the WIP level performance at different mix leveling policies in a lean environment. The system captures different lean tools and policies. Results showed that the best WIP performance is sensitive to both the degree of lean tools implementation as well as the capacity scalability level of the system. The presented analysis showed that …

An Integrated Approach To Assess Manufacturing Greeness Level, Ahmed H. Salen, Ahmed Deif

Industrial Technology and Packaging

This paper proposes an integrated approach for relative greenness level assessment in selected manufacturing industries at the system level. The approach builds on existing methodologies to develop a multi-layer tool box called “Greenometer” which focus on the strategic comparison for cross industries evaluation as well as tactical comparison for intra-industries. The assessment tool captures the fundamental evaluation parameters of green manufacturing namely; Environment, Energy, Resources and Economy. In addition, the Greenometer employs geometric mean method (GMM) for the strategic layer and data envelopment analysis (DEA) for the tactical layer and will be used for different selected manufacturing disciplines. The proposed …

Routing Strategies For Emergency Management Decision Support Systems During Evacuation, Joseph Yu, Anurag Pande, N. Nezamuddin, Vinayak Dixit, Frances Edwards

Civil and Environmental Engineering

Simulation studies of urban transportation networks have been increasingly applied to evacuation planning. The level of detail provided within a traffic simulation model allows for devising strategies for evacuation and emergency response. In this research, simulation model of downtown San Jose, California, transportation network is developed to evaluate the efficiency of the evacuation process under hypothetical scenarios. Although the scenarios evaluated herein are not exhaustive, they demonstrate the potential of the simulation approach for managing traffic engineering aspects of the emergency response. The scenarios described here include the use of contraflow lanes, traffic incidents on the network, and a modal …

Engine Control Unit Tuning Module Test System, Efren Alonzo Cabebe Jr.

Computer Engineering

A test system has been developed to provide quality assurance and functional testing for soon-to-be mass produced engine tuning modules. The system is comprised of two halves: the front-end graphical user interface and back-end microcontroller platform. The use of the interface is intuitive in starting tests and reporting the status of completed tests. The back-end microcontroller platform performs the physical tests. Two high precision analog-to-digital converters and two digital-to-analog converters provide the inputs to and receive the outputs from the module, with another pulse-width-modulated pin tied to the tachometer input. Alongside the test system infrastructure, a simple suite of tests …

Design And Evaluation Of A Drip Irrigation System On Apple Orchards In Julian Ca, Jeffrey Huntley

BioResource and Agricultural Engineering

No abstract provided.

A Strategy For Integrating Essential Three-Dimensional Microphysiological Systems Of Human Organs For Realistic Anticancer Drug Screening, Christopher Heylman, Agua Sobrino, Venktesh S. Shirure, Christopher Cw Hughes, Steven C. George

Biomedical Engineering

Cancer is one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality around the world. Despite some success, traditional anticancer drugs developed to reduce tumor growth face important limitations primarily due to undesirable bone marrow and cardiovascular toxicity. Many drugs fail in clinical development after showing promise in preclinical trials, suggesting that the available in vitro and animal models are poor predictors of drug efficacy and toxicity in humans. Thus, novel models that more accurately mimic the biology of human organs are necessary for high-throughput drug screening. Three-dimensional (3D) microphysiological systems can utilize induced pluripotent stem cell technology, tissue engineering, and …

Team Poly Cup, John Adkins, Scott W. Hart, Elise Kiland

Mechanical Engineering

This project involves the use of mechanical engineering expertise to develop, design, and create a functioning prototype of a collapsible coffee cup. The prototype is to be designed to the specifications given by Jason Blum, the project sponsor. Allowances may be given for design freedom as specified by Jason Blum. The goal of this project is to create a product which may replace the both the disposable coffee cups distributed at coffee shops as well as to create a product which may replace the traditional travel mug due to its increased portability.

Team Poly Cup has worked throughout the year …

Modeling And Experimental Methods To Predict Oxygen Distribution In Bone Defects Following Cell Transplantation, Christopher M. Heylman, Sharon Santoso, Melissa D. Krebs, Gerald M. Saidel, Eben Alsberg, George F. Muschler

Biomedical Engineering

We have developed a mathematical model that allows simulation of oxygen distribution in a bone defect as a tool to explore the likely effects of local changes in cell concentration, defect size or geometry, local oxygen delivery with oxygen-generating biomaterials (OGBs), and changes in the rate of oxygen consumption by cells within a defect. Experimental data for the oxygen release rate from an OGB and the oxygen consumption rate of a transplanted cell population are incorporated into the model. With these data, model simulations allow prediction of spatiotemporal oxygen concentration within a given defect and the sensitivity of oxygen tension …

Material Differences In Equine Cortical And Trabecular Bone, Ryan B. Allen

Master's Theses

A greater understanding of bone materials would be beneficial in creating more accurate computer models and in the making of biomedical products involving bone. This study set out to determine whether cortical and trabecular bone are two separate materials, or whether they are the same material with a variance in porosity. To answer this question, samples were taken from different sections of the equine metacarpus, underwent densitometry analysis and were statistically analyzed. The majority of results suggest that the material is the same between varying densities of bone and thus the same between cortical and trabecular bone. These particular results …

Applied Mass Properties Identification Method To The Cal Poly's Spacecraft Simulator, Long H. Dam

Master's Theses

The Cal Poly Spacecraft Simulator is currently being developed for future testing and verifying theoretical control applications. This paper details the effort to balance the platform and remove undesired external torque from the system using System Identification technique developed by Patrick Healy. Since the relationship between the input and output of the system is linear, the least square method is proposed to identify the mass properties and location of center of mass of the system. The tests use four sine wave generators that are out of phase with different amplitudes as the inputs to excite various structural modes of the …

Determination Of Specific Gravity Of Municipal Solid Waste, Nazli Yesiller, James Hanson, Jason Taylor Cox, Danielle E. Noce

Civil and Environmental Engineering

This investigation was conducted to evaluate experimental determination of specific gravity (G_s) of municipal solid waste (MSW). Water pycnometry, typically used for testing soils was adapted for testing MSW using a large flask with 2000 mL capacity and specimens with 100–350 g masses. Tests were conducted on manufactured waste samples prepared using US waste constituent components; fresh wastes obtained prior and subsequent to compaction at an MSW landfill; and wastes obtained from various depths at the same landfill. Factors that influence specific gravity were investigated including waste particle size, compaction, and combined decomposition and stress history. The …