Engineering Commons^™

Using Remote Access For Sharing Experiences In A Machine Design Laboratory, Mark L. Nagurka, Fernando Rodriguez Anton, Richard W. Marklin Jr.

Mechanical Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

A new Machine Design Laboratory at Marquette University has been created to foster student exploration and promote “hands-on” and “minds-on” learning. Laboratory experiments have been developed to give students practical experiences and expose them to physical hardware, actual tools, and design challenges. Students face a range of real-world tasks: identify and select components, measure parameters (dimensions, speed, force), distinguish between normal and used (worn) components and between proper and abnormal behavior, reverse engineer systems, and justify design choices. The experiments serve to motivate the theory, spark interest, and promote discovery learning in the subject of machine design.

This paper presents …

Aquaponics: A Sustainable Food Production System That Provides Research Projects For Undergraduate Engineering Students, Richard W. Marklin Jr., Margaret Mathison, Brooke Mayer, Mark L. Nagurka, Vikram Cariapa, Jay Schabelski

Mechanical Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Aquaponics is a closed-loop, recirculating water system in which plants and fish grow together mutualistically. Aquaponics resembles a natural river or lake basin in which fish waste serves as nutrients for the plants, which in turn clean the water for the fish. Tilapia and salad greens or herbs are common fish and plants grown in an aquaponics system. The external inputs to an aquaponics system are fish food, minimal amount of water, and energy for lighting and heating the water for the fish and plants.

Aquaponics is a sustainable, efficient system to raise fish protein and vegetables for human consumption. …

Freehand Sketching For Engineers: A Pilot Study, Richard W. Marklin Jr., Jay R. Goldberg, Mark L. Nagurka

Mechanical Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

This paper describes a pilot study to evaluate Freehand Sketching for Engineers, a one credit, five week course taught to undergraduate engineering students. The short-term goal of this course was to improve engineering students’ freehand sketching ability and to assess their progress with metrics. The long-term objective (desired learning outcome) of this course is to improve the creativity and innovation of student design projects by enhancing students’ ability to visualize their ideas with freehand sketches. The class met two days a week for 75 min per day. Students were taught to draw simple objects such as electrical boxes, with orthographic, …

Discovery Learning Experiments In A New Machine Design Laboratory, Mark L. Nagurka, Fernando Rodriguez Anton

Mechanical Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

A new Machine Design Laboratory at Marquette University has been created to foster student exploration with hardware and real-world systems. The Laboratory incorporates areas for teaching and training, and has been designed to promote “hands-on” and “minds-on” learning. It reflects the spirit of transformational learning that is a theme in the College of Engineering.

The goal was to create discovery learning oriented experiments for a required junior-level “Design of Machine Elements” course in mechanical engineering that would give students practical experiences and expose them to physical hardware, actual tools, and real-world design challenges. In the experiments students face a range …

Improving Student Learning Through Use Of An In-Class Material Processing Design Project, Joseph P. Domblesky, James A. Rice, Jay R. Goldberg, Mark L. Nagurka

Mechanical Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

At Marquette University, hybrid project-based learning has been implemented in an undergraduate mechanical engineering course on materials processing and forming using a team-based approach. The goals of the project are to 1) introduce more active and student-centered activities to improve student engagement and mastery of core concepts, 2) increase students' confidence in their ability to apply what they learned in the course to solving real-world problems, 3) enable students to gain experience using engineering software as part of the learning process and in applications context. While use of process modeling software in materials processing and manufacturing courses is not entirely …

Modeling And Testing Of An R-23/R-134a Mixed Refrigerant System For Low Temperature Refrigeration, Nicholas Hugh, Margaret Mathison, Anthony Bowman

Mechanical Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Low temperature refrigeration storage equipment in the biotechnology industry typically uses cascade refrigeration to achieve evaporating temperatures of -80 °C (-112 °F) or below. Current systems utilize multiple compressors leading to high energy consumption. Equipment operating costs contribute significantly to the total operating costs of biotechnology companies and therefore motivate the development of more efficient alternatives for low temperature refrigeration. This paper describes a single compressor R-23/R-134a mixed refrigerant cycle that has been designed to extract a load of 0.256 kW (873.5 Btu/hr) from a conditioned space at -80 °C (-112 °F). The designed system compresses a mixture of the …

Sand Penetration: A Near Nose Investigation Of A Sand Penetration Event, Andrew Van Vooren, John Borg, Joshua Felts

Mechanical Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

This paper presents experimental and computational results of a long-rod penetrating dry granular sand at velocities near 100 m/s. The objective of this work is to develop a fundamental understanding of the formation and transmission of dynamic force chains, and the motion and fracture of the individual sand grains as the projectile passes. This is accomplished by launching a projectile along a view window, backed by sand, in order to directly view and photograph the projectile/sand interactions. Within the sand system, a two-wave structure was observed, composed of a compaction wave (bow shock) that detaches from the dart and moves …

Equation Of State And Isentropic Releasem Of Aluminum Foam And Fluoropolymer Composites, John Borg, Warren R. Maines, Mike Nixon, Lalit Chhabildas

Mechanical Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

There is considerable interest in developing a better understanding of the dynamic behavior of heterogeneous materials. This study investigates and compares the dynamic response of 20 and 47% dense aluminum foam systems with and without a polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE or Teflon) fill. Experiments on 47% foam were conduced in a 60 mm bore gun in a reverse ballistic configuration at velocities ranging from 350 m/s to 2.5 km/s. The particle velocity of the backside of the anvil was monitored with a VISAR system. Mesoscale simulations are in good agreement with the available experimental data. Both the experimental and simulated data are …

A Simple Model For The In-Plane Rotational Response Of A Disk Resonator In Liquid: Resonant Frequency, Quality Factor, And Optimal Geometry, Mohomad S. Sotoudegan, Stephen M. Heinrich, Fabien Josse, Nicholas J. Nigro, Isabelle Dufour, Oliver Brand

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.