Engineering Commons^™

The Aloe: High Rise Schematic Design And Analysis, Tony Duc Nguyen, Lilliann Lan Lai

Architectural Engineering

The authors of this document are architectural engineering (ARCE) undergraduate students from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo (Cal Poly). They joined the 2020 Skyscraper Collaboratory as part of the ARCE course 415: Interdisciplinary Capstone Project. This course emphasizes the analysis and evaluation of interdisciplinary challenges associated with integrating the design and construction processes to deliver a project with respect to the design, quality, and performance expectations for a client or presented criteria. The course was taught in collaboration with industry partners and associates from the global architectural, urban planning, and engineering firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM). Instruction …

Piazza Di Ulivo: Arce Patio Redesign, Sophia Kim-Oanh Ha, David Colman

Architectural Engineering

Piazza de Ulivo was Phase 1 of a multi-quarter initiative to redesign and bring life to a patio space adjacent to Engineering West (Building 21) in Spring of 2020. Located within the central courtyard of Engineering West (Hasslein Garden), the patio space previously contained a senior project pergola that collapsed and has been removed. The remaining elements from this previous structure were an inverted moment frame consisting of five concrete columns and beams joining them. Additionally, a wooden bench with concrete pedestals remained under the shade of the existing olive tree. Desire within the Architectural Engineering (ARCE) department for the …

Nature-Inspired Electrode Materials For Next Generation Sustainable Energy Storage, Mikhail Miroshnikov

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Despite revolutionizing the world of portable electronics, the contemporary lithium-ion battery (LIB) suffers from challenges associated with the cost, safety, and environmental impact of transition metal oxide-based intercalation cathodes. To alleviate these issues, naturally occurring organic molecules may serve as sustainable alternatives to traditional inorganic cathode materials. The electrochemical properties of organic compounds are derived from redox-active functional groups containing oxygen, nitrogen and sulfur. Additionally, these functional groups are capable of coordinating metal ions beyond lithium, allowing for compatibility with sodium-ion batteries (SIBs) and other earth abundant metal-based energy storage systems. However, despite competitive performance against commercialized cathode materials, much …

Concussion Detection Device, Jenna C. Sussex, Mark B. Edin, Bianca X. Aleman

Biomedical Engineering

No abstract provided.

D.I.Y. Clean Hood, Samuel G. Porter, Ryan E. Shimogaki, Ryan S. Staples

Biomedical Engineering

The DIY Clean Hood is a low-cost, sterile, and accessible scientific workspace intended for installation in the BioElectroFluidics Lab of California Polytechnic State University’s (San Luis Obispo) Biomedical Engineering Department (BMED), under the sponsorship of Dr. Benjamin Hawkins, PhD. As normal Clean Hood, Biosafety Cabinets, and the like are generally too expensive for a university, a competitive solution to an expensive problem can assist research students and professors alike continue their own work with an inexpensive yet effective environment.

Specific design elements that the customer requirements entailed for the project include a low-particle-count air filtration system, positive pressure air flow …

Sandy Feet, Garrett E. Herbst, Jacqueline Chuang, Jerin T. Brust, Parker S. Duncan

General Engineering

Sgt. Brady is a former armed forces member with a transtibial amputation. He walks on sand frequently for work and leisure, but experiences severe pain and inconvenience because his current prosthesis is not meant for use on sand. Sand Foot V2 is a prosthesis that allows Sgt. Brady to walk on sand for long periods of time without issue.

Mountain Arm, Conner Magnuson, Amanda Lingle, Jordan Ambrose, Marco Lopez

General Engineering

QL+ Challenger, US Navy Veteran, and transhumeral amputee Cassie Perando needed a way to backpack comfortably and independently while wearing a transhumeral prosthesis, as this is something that she enjoys doing often. The current prosthesis she wears causes pinching while wearing a backpack. To eliminate this issue, we decided to design and create a dynamic, pin-lock socket. This design decision allowed for a comfortable fit for Cassie that will not interfere with the backpack straps. As a secondary suspension system, we designed a sports bra with straps that attach to her opposing side and connect to the front and the …

Effects Of Ring Rolling On Grain Size In Inconel 718 And Waspaloy, David Webster

Materials Engineering

Carlton Forge Works, an industry leader in the manufacture of rolled rings, has observed anomalous grain structures in parts made from Inconel 718 and Waspaloy. These take the form of unusually large grains at the surface of the rings, causing them to fail industry grain size standards. Grain size testing is a critical part of evaluating parts before they are used as grain size and structure control many mechanical properties including creep resistance, low and high cycle fatigue life, and yield strength. These unusually large grains are only present within the first tenth of an inch of the surface of …

Microstructure And Tensile Properties Of Close-Die Forged Ti-6al-4v Aircraft Engine Mount, Renee Roeder, Nick Chen, Michael Viksne

Materials Engineering

The microstructural characteristics of a Ti-6Al-4V close-die forging that passes yield strength specifications are examined and found to be consistent with literature recommendations. Originally, the intent was to compare the microstructure of a forging that passed specification to the microstructure of a forging that did not pass specifications using the imaging software ImageJ. Due to time and safety constraints considering the COVID-19 pandemic, the data that is presented is incomplete data on only the forging that passes specifications. There are no comparisons between the forging that did not pass and the forging that passed.

Autonomous Butter Robot, David Chau, Michael Hegglin

Computer Engineering

Don’t you wish your butter would come to you? Well now it can with the patented Michael and David butter robot! Based on an idea from a TV show, our team set out to see if a similar robot was possible to make in real life. The objective was simple. Can we make a small table sized robot that can bring a person butter using image detection software? With that question in mind we set out buying our components. We wanted to keep it small, so we looked up devices that could do simple image processing and from there we …

Otter Debugger, Keefe Johnson

Computer Engineering

This project is a debugger and programmer for the OTTER CPU, the implementation of the RISC-V ISA used by Cal Poly to teach computer architecture and assembly language in CPE 233/333 and usually implemented on the Basys3 FPGA development board. With this tool, students can quickly program their OTTER with a new/revised RISC-V program binary without resynthesizing the entire FPGA design. They can then use the debugger from a PC to pause/continue/single-step execution and set breakpoints, while inspecting and modifying register and memory contents. This enables real-time debugging of OTTER projects involving custom hardware such as a keyboard and VGA …

Non-Toxic Soil Thickeners For Reducing Mudslide Intensity, Mitchell William Jensen

Materials Engineering

This project was intended to be a continuation of senior project work done last year by a group consisting of two Materials Engineering students and a Soil Science student. Their report was crucial in identifying a range of food thickeners that could be capable of performing in the mud thickening application. All thickeners that were chosen both this year and last year are biocompatible, to alleviate some toxicity concerns. The food thickeners all belong to a class of compounds known as colloids. Since water is the fluid being thickened, these compounds are more accurately referred to as hydrocolloids. Hydrocolloids are …

Pitting Corrosion Of Oerlikon’S Abrasion Resistant Ferritic Stainless Steels, Matthew P. Nalty, Emma Wagstaff

Materials Engineering

Existing hardfacing coatings for hydraulic cylinders and brake disc applications crack during use leaving the components susceptible to corrosion. To address this problem, Oerlikon has designed three new alloys to be abrasion and corrosion resistant. This paper reviews the literature necessary to understand and quantify pitting resistance of stainless-steel alloys. It documents one round of testing ASTM G48 method A: Ferric Chloride Pitting Test of Stainless Steels on the new alloys P72-X9, P72-X13, P129-X9, as well as samples of 431, 316, and 2205 stainless steels. This paper also discusses improvements to the G48 testing method and industry use of the …

Investigation Of Ceramic Firing Processes For Investment Casting Shell Molds, Leonardo Ken Hoaakua Nakamura, Rileigh Anne Cotter

Materials Engineering

PCC Structurals aims to improve the quality and consistency of their ceramic mold production for their investment casting processes to decrease product loss figures. Although their current production processes result in acceptable quantities of high-quality molds, a significant percentage of defective molds are produced. These defective molds cause appreciable product loss due to casting defects and mold failure. Available literature dictates that high-quality investment casting molds must exhibit fracture strengths within a desired range in order to perform adequately. However, information regarding specific firing procedures which consistently result in ceramic mold strengths within this range is not readily available. To …

Alternative To Custom 450© Stainless Steel For Use In Investment Cast Golf Club Heads, William Henry Armstrong Iv, Davis Martin Loen

Materials Engineering

This investigation seeks to improve on the mechanical property of yield strength, while maintaining 10% elongation prior to fracture observed with of Custom 450 stainless steel in an air-melted investment casting operation. Improving this performance includes an additional heat treatment step of homogenization, as well as replacing the alloy. After identifying and downselecting available high strength stainless steels, a trial of Custom 455 stainless steel is recommended due to its high strength compared to the other alternative alloys. A trial has been developed to analyze the effect air melting has on the chemical composition and mechanical properties of Custom 455 …

Failure Analysis Of Investment Cast Near-Alpha Titanium Alloys, Garrett Ryan Bader, Jonathan Anton Linquist

Materials Engineering

In this project, fracture surfaces of three titanium investment castings were studied as part of a failure analysis on a TaylorMade metalwood. The crack formation occurred between investment cast Ti 9-1-1 and rolled Ti 6-4 joined by laser beam welding. The microstructure of the Ti 9-1-1 contained alpha colonies in large prior beta grains, while the Ti 6-4 was primarily Widmanstätten in basket weave morphology, refined with subsequent rolling. Over a period of cyclic loading, cracking occurred at the face-sole transition in the metalwoods that had been cast from a certain supplier B, while metalwoods that had undergone similar treatment …

Insulated Solar Electric Cooker, Paige Camacho, Ahmed Gouda, Caroline Hodes, Wyatt Johnson

General Engineering

The purpose of this Final Project Report is to highlight the work completed by the interdisciplinary engineering capstone project for the Insulated Solar Electric Cooker (ISEC) at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo under the supervision of Professor Jim Widmann (Mechanical Engineering) and Dr. Peter Schwartz (Physics). Dr. Schwartz, better known as Pete, has been working on the project with a team of students for the past five years and is working to integrate the ISEC in Ghanaian communities. This project focuses on making the ISEC mass-manufacturable and making the transition from biomass cooking to solar cooking as familiar …

Effects Of Surface Finish On High Cycle Fatigue Of Inconel 718, Jessica A. Mcroskey, Matthew Busse

Materials Engineering

Inconel 718 is a nickel-based superalloy and commonly used rocket engine material due to its excellent properties at elevated temperatures. Its fatigue life relies heavily on the surface roughness, as fatigue introduces and propagates cracks at the surface. Part standards set by Aerojet Rocketdyne typically necessitate surface roughness values from 64 to 125 Ra. However, surface topography and residual stresses incurred from the finishing process also affect the fatigue performance. The specific goal of the project is to perform a literature review and write experimental methods to determine how the surface roughness, topography, and residual stresses from turning, grit blasting, …

The Influence Of Time And Temperature On 7781 Prepreg Outside Storage, Matthew L. Fuentez, Edwin Stuart Ross Viii

Materials Engineering

Investigation into the issue of out of specification flow data revealed that unregulated transportation conditions exposed 7781 prepreg with phenolic resin to temperature fluctuations up to 125°F. The temperature fluctuations have the potential to advance unwanted curing in the prepreg, making it unsuitable for manufacturing. However, this explanation does not account for the prepreg exceeding specifications above the upper limit. Another explanation was investigated that involved exposure to moisture. Moisture could be preventing curing from taking place and thus resulting in higher flow values. Data collection was unable to proceed past the preliminary stages due to the COVID-19 pandemic and …

Study Of Permeability Testing Methods For Composite Laminates, Thomas S. Busse, Giannina Marie M. Yu

Materials Engineering

Permeability measurements are strong indicators of the effectiveness of evacuation channels within a composite prepreg. The effectiveness of these evacuation channels directly relates to the void content within a processed composite laminate. The goal of Toray Advanced Composites was to compare two permeability tests and determine which one was more reliable, accurate, and economical. The first permeability test method was the Cirrus method, designed by Cirrus Aircraft, a customer of Toray Advanced Composites. The second test was ASTM D8132, the standard method for permeability testing. Additionally, Toray sought to investigate the effect out-time had on the permeability of three different …

Mechani-Kits Senior Design Project, Jake Utley, Sophie Carson, Vincent Seguin

Mechanical Engineering

Studies suggest that when designed and executed well, hands-on activities can enhance student understanding of key mechanics concepts. Current products are expensive and typically not designed to meet a variety of learning objectives. Through the Mechanics of Inclusion and Inclusivity in Mechanics grant, the Cal Poly Physics and Engineering Departments are seeking to incorporate new hands-on activities into their courses. Our team has designed three inexpensive ”MechaniKits” to be used in physics, statics and dynamics courses [1]. This Final Design Review outlines our findings, objectives, and final designs for this project. It also explains our manufacturing and design verification plans. …

Design And Implementation Of Spatial Augmented Reality In Large Scene, Shuiying Ge, Shuman Liu, Shibiao Xu, Xiaopeng Zhang

Journal of System Simulation

Abstract: To get long distance marker recognition in Augmented Reality, three software development toolkits were used to construct the long distance marker-less registration technology based on depth sensor, and develop a new augmented reality system based on PC platform. The tracking system was constructed by Kinect and camera. Defects in the single camera tracking system for long distance tracking were improved, and human-computer interaction in Augmented Reality was realized. By the detailed description of the main function modules, such as position calibration module, maker-less virtual-real registration module, and natural interaction module, the system design concept was introduced. Experiment results show …

Solving Flexible Job-Shop Scheduling Problem By Improved Chicken Swarm Optimization Algorithm, Shipeng Xu, Dinghui Wu, Kong Fei, Zhicheng Ji

Journal of System Simulation

Abstract: To solve the flexible job-shop scheduling problem (FJSP) more effectively, an improved chicken swarm optimization (ICSO) algorithm was proposed. A flexible job-shop scheduling model was established for the purpose of minimizing the machine makespan. The improved chicken swarm optimization algorithm was presented. Algorithm improved the update formula of chicks and combined the advantages of simulated annealing algorithm and dynamic inertia cosine weight strategy, which achieved an effective balance of global search and local exploration. According to simulating and testing four standard functions and a flexible job shop scheduling model and compared with particle swarm optimization (PSO) and chicken swarm …

Short-Term Prediction Of Wind Speed For Wind Farm Based On Ide-Lssvm Model, Zhang Yan, Dongfeng Wang, Han Pu

Journal of System Simulation

Abstract: To improve the prediction accuracy of short-term wind speed for wind farm, an improved differential evolution algorithm was applied to optimize the parameters of least squares support vector machine. Two mutation operators were integrated, and the scale factor and crossover probability factor were changed gradually to adapt to the evolutionary generations. The good global search ability and population diversity in early stage of evolution were ensured, therefore the local search accuracy and the convergence speed in the late stage were enhanced. The forecasting performance of the least squares support vector machine optimized by IDE was improved. Simulation experiments on …

Study On Balanced Energy-Consumption Routing Protocol Of Airfield Single-Lamp Monitoring System, Gao Mei, Bingyuan Wang, Dandan Zhang, Zhaorong Sun

Journal of System Simulation

Abstract: To extend the sensor node lifetime and balance the energy consumption of the wireless sensor network, on the basis of the protocols AL-CAME (Airfield lighting-clustering algorithm based on max energy) and ECOMP (Efficient cluster-based communication protocol), a clustered hierarchy protocol of balanced energy-consumption was proposed for the airfield single-lamp monitoring system. According to the protocol, every two sensor nodes formed a cluster, and the node with the highest remaining energy was elected to be cluster head which was responsible for data aggregation within the cluster. The balanced routing algorithm was adopted in data-transmission from cluster head to …

Study For Solar Seasonal Storage System In Transition Season, Liu Long

Journal of System Simulation

Abstract: The COP (Coefficient of Performance) of the GSHP system has decreased gradually year after year caused by imbalance energy loads especially in heating-dominated climate zones. The solar thermal energy storage system in transition season can solve the problems effectively. The practice of solar seasonal storage was carried out and supplied by a practical project. TRNSYS 16 was used to simulate the solar energy storage experiment process. The correctness of the model was verified by the experimental data and the simulation results were corrected. Results shows that the simulated results and the measured data were well matched with …

Robotic Manipulator's Visual Servo Control Based On Echo State Networks, Guoyou Li, Xiafei Su, Xiaolei Qin, Xiangxue Shi

Journal of System Simulation

Abstract: The inaccuracy in robotic manipulator modeling, which due to the nonlinear and strong coupling of robotic manipulator itself, cannot be ignored on the study of the robotic manipulator control problem. Aiming at the inaccuracy in robotic manipulator modeling, this study led echo state network in the visual servo control system of robotic manipulator. In order to achieve the robotic manipulator positioning control, this study used the echo state network to identify inaccurate item and compensates the uncertainties of the model in the control law. The simulation model of the simulated system was built with MATLAB simulation software. The …

An Iot Framework For Modeling And Controlling Thermal Comfort In Buildings, Fadi Alsaleem, Mehari K. Tesfay, Mostafa Rafaie, Kevin Sinkar, Dhaman Besarla, Parthiban Arunasalam

Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction: Faculty Publications

Humans spend more than 90% of their day in buildings, where their health and productivity are demonstrably linked to thermal comfort. Building thermal comfort systems account for the largest share of U.S energy consumption. Despite this high-energy cost, due to building design complexity and the variety of building occupant needs, addressing thermal comfort in buildings remains a difficult problem. To overcome this challenge, this paper presents an Internet of Things (IoT) approach to efficiently model and control comfort in buildings. In the model phase, a method to access and exploit wearable device data to build a personal thermal comfort model …

Flow Of Carbon Dioxide In Micro And Nano Pores And Its Interaction With Crude Oil To Induce Asphaltene Instability, Sherif Fakher, Abdulmohsin Imqam

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This study presents an investigation of the flow mechanism of carbon dioxide (CO₂) through nano and micro pores and the impact of this flow on oil mobilization and asphaltene instability in the crude oil. The flow mechanism of CO₂ is determined using numerical modeling through the Knudsen number to determine the flow regimes under different thermodynamic conditions. Following this, the oil production and asphaltene stability are studied using a filtration vessel supplemented with nano and micron sized filter membranes. The effect of varying CO₂ injection pressure, oil viscosity, porous media pore size, and porous media thickness …

Slo Botanical Garden - Greenhouse Propagation Tables, Garrett William Henley

Construction Management

This paper describes the planning and construction involved in retrofitting the San Luis Obispo Botanical Garden propagation greenhouse. When trying to determine a senior project, the author of this paper met with multiple non-profit organizations. After interviewing with them, the author determined that the San Luis Obispo Botanical Garden was the organization he wanted to work with. After meeting with the facility director, Chenda Lor, many potential projects were identified but the organization determined this would be of the most use immediately. Upon selection, the scope of work was determined as helping refurbish the propagation greenhouse by removal and/or demolition …