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Full-Text Articles in Engineering

Shrouded Small Wind Turbines, Kristen Flannery, Michael Holligan, Joseph Soares Jun 2014

Shrouded Small Wind Turbines, Kristen Flannery, Michael Holligan, Joseph Soares

Mechanical Engineering Senior Theses

The goal of this project is to improve the energy production of small wind turbines (rated less than 100 kW) by increasing wind velocity at the turbine blades through the design of a shroud attachment. The design process involves the analysis of various computer aided design (CAD) nozzle/diffuser shroud geometries. Computational fluid dynamic (CFD) modeling is used to analyze the effect of shroud features on velocity and pressure fields. A 3D printed scale model is tested in a wind tunnel with strain gauges and pressure transducers to validate the CFD data. The resulting design locally increases velocity by a factor …


Proteus: Mini Underwater Remotely Operated Vehicle, Jorge Guerra, Robert Heinevetter, Tristan Morris, Killian Poore, Alexandra Waschura Jun 2014

Proteus: Mini Underwater Remotely Operated Vehicle, Jorge Guerra, Robert Heinevetter, Tristan Morris, Killian Poore, Alexandra Waschura

Mechanical Engineering Senior Theses

Marine ecosystems contain life, minerals, information, etc, that can help the planet, however, only 5% of them are explored. This is mainly because existing Underwater Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs) are expensive and require a lot of workand time to use. Team Proteus designed a low cost, easy to use, portable, safe, and reliable ROV capable of being used for scientific research, while being operated and maintained by students. In this paper we explain the necessity behind this project, how it compares to similar projects and the design decisions made in developing the ROV, to include the options and trade-offs considered. …


Environmental Stimulation Chamber For Nanosatellite Functional Testing, Taylor Donato, Nicholas Page, Joshua Summers, Brandon Wood May 2014

Environmental Stimulation Chamber For Nanosatellite Functional Testing, Taylor Donato, Nicholas Page, Joshua Summers, Brandon Wood

Mechanical Engineering Senior Theses

The goal of this project is to develop a nanosatellite thermal testing chamber for the Robotic Systems Laboratory at Santa Clara University. The nanosatellite industry has thrived in recent years and continues to grow at the level of universities and small businesses. To meet this demand, the team designed and built a testing bed capable of achieving environmental conditions adequate for testing nanosatellite hardware as a low-cost and low-maintenance alternative to more expensive and robust systems. Furthermore, the design can be fully manufactured and assembled at the university or small business level with inexpensive, sustainable, and commercially available components. The …


Pvcrov : An Experimental Platform For Multi-Robot Control Systems, Nicholas Prince, Gregory Roos, Jennifer Semones, Chase Traficanti Nov 2013

Pvcrov : An Experimental Platform For Multi-Robot Control Systems, Nicholas Prince, Gregory Roos, Jennifer Semones, Chase Traficanti

Mechanical Engineering Senior Theses

As the field of multi-robot control systems grows, the demand for flexible, robust and precise multi-robot testbeds increases. Up to this point, the testbeds that do exist for testing multi-robot controllers are often expensive, hard to deploy, and typically constrained to a single plane of motion. These constraints limit the capacity to conduct research which is why team Autonomously Controlled Electromechanical Systems (ACES) has created the PVCROV system. PVCROV is a low cost, underwater platform for testing multi-robot control systems. By utilizing an underwater environment, ACES created a testbed that is not constrained to a single plane of motion. Additionally, …


Formula Electric : Powertrain, Mark Allison, Bryan Bidwell, Stuart Hopson, Jackson Smith, Carlos Streegan, Dominic Villa Jun 2013

Formula Electric : Powertrain, Mark Allison, Bryan Bidwell, Stuart Hopson, Jackson Smith, Carlos Streegan, Dominic Villa

Interdisciplinary Design Senior Theses

The Santa Clara Formula Electric team designed, and manufactured a powertrain for an electric racecar according to the rules prescribed by the SAE International Formula Electric competition. The powertrain is divided into subsystems: the battery pack, battery pack cooling system, motor controller, and the motor. The battery pack was constructed, but full electrical connection of all cells were not made. The pack was not integrated with the motor and motor controller. In addition, due to time constraints, extensive testing could not be completed.


Project Omoverhi : Low-Cost, Neonatal Incubator, Richard Fong, Guillermo Gallardo, William Jeffery, Danny Maeda, Gabriel Romero Jun 2013

Project Omoverhi : Low-Cost, Neonatal Incubator, Richard Fong, Guillermo Gallardo, William Jeffery, Danny Maeda, Gabriel Romero

Interdisciplinary Design Senior Theses

Project Omoverhi, since its beginning in 2010-2011, has been focused on creating an incubator that has the capability of operating completely off grid. This year the project has been focused on redesigning the original system to reduce the cost to approximately $1000. In addition to this we have designed and implemented a control system that enables the user to set a desired temperature which can be maintained to within 1 degree Celsius. Before the project is able to be completed further work must be done. The thermal storage system that was initially proposed by the original team still needs to …