Engineering Mechanics Commons^™

Investigating The Role Of Prototyping In Mechanical Design Using Case Study Validation, David Stowe

All Theses

The purpose of this research is to explore the application of prototyping in the design process through a case study analysis using structured interviews, an ethnographic study, and documents analysis, to determine what factors and practices result in successful prototyping. In doing so, research questions are established, a prototyping process is developed to assist the investigation, and classification systems are created to organize data collected in the study. As part of the case study, an interview is formulated to answer the proposed research questions and a literature survey of prototyping in design is used to create a larger analytical foundation. …

On New Applications And Sensitivity Enhancement Of Cantilever-Based Sensing Systems, Calvin Bradley

All Theses

Cantilever-based Sensing Systems (CSS) have become a focal area for research with the rise of micro- and nanotechnology. History has led us to use cantilever beams as one of the foremost sensing devices for small scale applications, beginning with the atomic force microscopy, and then being expanded into numerous sensor devices. The CSS include such applications as accelerometers, thermal and chemical sensors which are expanding into the applications of mass sensing and material characterization. Soon, this technology may be used in 'lab on chip' biosensing applications.
This study covers the experimentation into new CSS applications and sensitivity enhancement. In order …

Modeling Of The Effect Of Tool Wear On Cutting Forces In Turning, Yu Long

All Dissertations

Machining is the most widely used and efficient material removal process, and tool wear in machining is usually of great interest in order to improve machining efficiency and effectiveness. Cutting tool wear patterns such as the flank and crater wear and the dead metal zone (DMZ) may induce the cutting tool geometry variation in machining. As a result, cutting forces may increase or decrease due to the change of tool effective cutting geometry during machining operations. A quantitative understanding of and the ability to predict cutting forces in relation to tool wear are important to the tool life estimation, chatter …

Physics-Based Shape Morphing And Packing For Layout Design, Hong Dong

All Dissertations

The packing problem, also named layout design, has found wide applications in the mechanical engineering field. In most cases, the shapes of the objects do not change during the packing process. However, in some applications such as vehicle layout design, shape morphing may be required for some specific components (such as water and fuel reservoirs). The challenge is to fit a component of sufficient size in the available space in a crowded environment (such as the vehicle under-hood) while optimizing the overall performance objectives of the vehicle and improving design efficiency. This work is focused on incorporating component shape design …

Vibration Analysis Of Piezoelectric Microcantilever Sensors, Amin Salehi-Khojin

All Dissertations

The main objective of this dissertation is to comprehensively analyze vibration characteristics of microcantilever-based sensors with application to ultra small mass detection and low dimensional materials characterization. The first part of this work focuses on theoretical developments and experimental verification of piezoelectric microcantilevers, commercially named Active Probes, which are extensively used in most today's advanced Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) systems. Due to special geometry and configuration of Active Probes, especially multiple jump discontinuities in their cross-section, a general and comprehensive framework is introduced for forced vibration and modal analysis of discontinuous flexible beams. More specifically, a general formulation is obtained …

Me-Em 2008 Annual Report, Department Of Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics, Michigan Technological University

Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Annual Reports

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Hypersonic Boundary Layer Receptivity To Acoustic Disturbances Over Cones, Kursat Kara

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Theses & Dissertations

The receptivity mechanisms of hypersonic boundary layers to free stream acoustic disturbances are studied using both linear stability theory (LST) and direct numerical simulations (DNS). A computational code is developed for numerical simulation of steady and unsteady hypersonic flow over cones by combining a fifth-order weighted essentially non-oscillatory (WENO) scheme with third-order total-variation-diminishing (TVD) Runge-Kutta method. Hypersonic boundary layer receptivity to free-stream acoustic disturbances in slow and fast modes over 5-degree, half-angle blunt cones and wedges are numerically investigated. The free-stream Mach number is 6.0, and the unit Reynolds number is 7.8×106/ft. Both the steady and unsteady solutions are obtained …