Mechanical Engineering Commons^™

Anchoring And Stiffening Techniques For Portable Concrete Barriers, Surajkumar Bhakta

Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Portable concrete barrier (PCB) systems are utilized on federal and state highways in circumstances such as placing adjacent to vertical drop-offs and in construction zones. PCB systems are most commonly used in a free-standing configuration, which are known to have relatively large deflections when impacted. Large deflections are undesirable when dealing with limited space. In order to allow PCBs to be used in space restricted locations, seven PCB anchoring and stiffening techniques were tested and evaluated as per Manual for Assessing Safety Hardware (MASH) testing standards. Results will allow the New Jersey Department of Transportation to update guidance for their …

Answering Food Insecurity: Serving The Community With Food And Knowledge Using Technology, Courtney Simpson

Purdue Journal of Service-Learning and International Engagement

The courses of Tech120, CGT110, and ENGT 180/181 and Red Gold at Purdue collaborated to design a robot that would plant and water a garden for a local community charter school. The students centered the project on the users’ needs for fresh food, nutrition education, and early exposure to STEM for children. The school, Anderson Preparatory Academy (APA), is comprised of many children who come from low-income families and are in the free or reduced lunch program. Inspired from “Farm Bot,” a similar system that allows for almost hands-free gardening, the “Boiler Bot” is designed to be scalable so children …

Cam-Based Pose-Independent Counterweighting For Partial Body-Weight Support In Rehabilitation, Ashish Shinde

Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This thesis presents the design and testing of a body weight support system for gait training in a two-dimensional workspace. Extension of the system to a three-dimensional workspace is not within the scope of this thesis.

Gait dysfunctions are changes in normal walking patterns, often related to a disease or abnormality in different areas of the body. There are numerous body weight support (BWS) systems present in the market which are applied to rehabilitation scenarios in mobility recovery like in gait training. But most of these BWE systems are costly and generally are stationary devices. A major drawback of such …

Development Of A Data Acquisition System For Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (Uav) System Identification, Donald Joseph Lear

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Aircraft system identification techniques are developed for fixed wing Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV). The use of a designed flight experiment with measured system inputs/outputs can be used to derive aircraft stability derivatives. This project set out to develop a methodology to support an experiment to model pitch damping in the longitudinal short-period mode of a UAV. A Central Composite Response Surface Design was formed using angle of attack and power levels as factors to test for the pitching moment coefficient response induced by a multistep pitching maneuver.

Selecting a high-quality data acquisition platform was critical to the success of the …

Design, Analysis, And Verification Of An Open-Wheeled Formula-Style Race Car Suspension System, Joshua Beckerman

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

This honors thesis presents the design, measurement, and analysis of an open-wheeled formula racecar suspension system. This racecar is the second iteration of Syracuse University’s Citrus Racing team student competition vehicle. The race car’s suspension system features several designs that enable geometric adjustability to impact the vehicles dynamic performance. The purpose of this research is to find an analytic approach to verifying the correlation between suspension design tunings and their effect on vehicle handling and road holding capacity. This was done by analyzing measured data obtained from a system of damper-mounted travel sensors as the vehicle drives through numerous realistic …

On The Ramberg-Osgood Stress-Strain Model And Large Deformations Of Cantilever Beams, Ronald J. Giardina Jr

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis the Ramberg-Osgood nonlinear model for describing the behavior of many different materials is investigated. A brief overview of the model as it is currently used in the literature is undertaken and several misunderstandings and possible pitfalls in its application is pointed out, especially as it pertains to more recent approaches to finding solutions involving the model. There is an investigation of the displacement of a cantilever beam under a combined loading consisting of a distributed load across the entire length of the beam and a point load at its end and new solutions to this problem are …

Development Of Portable Hyperspectral Imaging Device, Chenxi Li, Youngkee Jung, Iyll-Joon Doh, Euiwon Bae

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Most of the conventional hyperspectral imaging devices require sophisticated optical components, occupy a large footprint, and requires an initial capital investment for laboratories which mostly suits for laboratories benchtop system. The requirement of shipping the sample and waiting an extended period of time to get the results are the main downsides of this traditional approach. Capitalize in many specific field applications and diagnosis, portable devices provide both convenience and on-site results which are desirable for government agencies and food safety inspectors. This project was aimed to develop a low-cost, portable hyperspectral device for food safety applications. A smartphone was used …

Stability Analysis Of A Flexible Vehicle Model Controlled By Human Pilot Models, Abhishek Ajmani, Anil Bajaj

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

There is a constant race among automobile manufactures to design safer vehicles while minimizing weight to reduce power consumption. Additionally, organizations like NASA and SpaceX are persistently working toward creating reliable, lightweight rovers to be used on the surface of Mars. However, the lightweight requirement often increases vehicle flexibility, which further develops a tendency toward instability in the lateral (sideways) direction. This investigation develops a mathematical model that represents the dynamics of a flexible vehicle in forward motion, and a heuristic human pilot model is proposed which controls the vehicle. Following such formulation, the combined vehicle and pilot model is …

Comparative Analysis Of Impact Attenuation Properties From Soccer Headgear, Kevin G. Mciver, Goutham N. Sankaran, Justin J. Markel, Tom M. Talavage, Larry J. Leverenz, Eric A. Nauman

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Athletes suffering from long-term neurocognitive deficiency due to subconcussive impacts is a major concern for football and soccer players today. Football players wear helmets that can help reduce injury risks like skull fractures, and these helmets must meet standard criteria that determinines how well a functional helmet should reduce accelerations of the player’s head. Currently no standard exists for testing soccer headgear despite studies demonstrating soccer players experience similar magnitudes of impacts. In this study, a modal impact hammer was used in conjunction with a Hybrid III 50th percentile test dummy head to simulate impacts experienced by soccer players to …

Effect Of Moment Gradient And Load Height With Respect To Centroid On The Reliability Of Wide Flange Steel Beams Subject To Elastic Lateral Torsional Buckling, Christopher D. Eamon, Alexander W. Lamb, Kapil Patki

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research Publications

The reliability of doubly-symmetric wide flange steel beams designed to the AISC Specification for Structural Steel Buildings subjected to elastic lateral torsional buckling was evaluated when considering variation in moment gradient and load height. The analysis considers continuous loads on spans subjected to various end moments with supports that are torsionally fixed and laterally supported, without additional intermediate restraints. Dead load, occupancy live load, and beam resistance random variables were considered. Beam lateral torsional buckling resistance was evaluated from numerical solution of a fundamental differential equation that accounts for the effect of moment gradient and load height. In some cases, …

Design And Experimentation Of Cable-Driven Platform Stabilization And Control Systems, Matthew Newman

Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Agricultural researchers are constantly attempting to generate crops superior to those currently in use by the world. Whether this means creating crops with greater yield, crops that are more resilient to disease, or crops that can tolerate harsh environments with fewer failures, test plots of these experimental crops must be studied in real-world environments with minimal invasion to determine how they will perform in full-scale agricultural settings. To monitor these crops without interfering on their natural growth, a noninvasive sensor system has been implemented. This system, instituted by the College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources at the University of …

Development Of The End-Effector Of A Cable-Driven Parallel Manipulator For Automated Crop Sensing, Iman Salafian

Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

A four cable-driven parallel manipulator (4CDPM), consisting of sophisticated spectrometers and imagers, is under development for use in acquiring phenotypic and environmental data over an acre-sized maize field. This thesis presents the design, controls, and testing of two sub-systems in a 4CDPM: a Center of Mass Balance System (CMBS) and a Drop-Down System (DDS).

One of the factors that influences stability is the center of mass (COM) position of the end effector. An offset in COM can cause a pendulum effect or an undesired tilt angle. A center of mass balancing system is presented in this thesis to minimize the …

Mathematical Description And Mechanistic Reasoning: A Pathway Toward Stem Integration, Paul J. Weinberg

Journal of Pre-College Engineering Education Research (J-PEER)

Because reasoning about mechanism is critical to disciplined inquiry in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) domains, this study focuses on ways to support the development of this form of reasoning. This study attends to how mechanistic reasoning is constituted through mathematical description. This study draws upon Smith’s (2007) characterization of mathematical description of scientific phenomena as ‘‘bootstrapping,’’ where negotiating the relationship between target phenomena and represented relations is fundamental to learning. In addition, the development of mathematical representation presents a viable pathway towards STEM integration. In this study, participants responded to an assessment of mechanistic reasoning while cognitive interviews …

A Study In The Use Of Elastic Materials In Expandable Containment Units, Andrew J. Eisenman, Joby Anthony Iii, David Satagaj

Montview Journal of Research & Scholarship

The rigidity of materials in conjunction with the aspect of elasticity has been a concern of modern technologies and construction in recent centuries because of the advantages that expandable storage would bring to the fields of containment units with respect to population growth and space exploration. The world population is currently growing at an exponential rate, and as our population grows, the more important it will become to have containment units that can both contain large volumes of material as well as minuscule amounts of material without wasting space. In order accomplish this, we will need a new type of …

Cal Poly Caramel Counter Top Candy Wrapping Machine, Alexander Miller, Roman Stambaugh, Trevor Steele

Mechanical Engineering

The purpose of this project was to automate the caramel wrapping process for a small batch confectionist. Using a purely mechanical system that is hand-powered, the machine cuts and wraps caramel candies in a double twist fashion.

Sae Small Vehicle Lifts, Augustus G. Holz, Nathan K. Harry, Tobias W. Shirts

Mechanical Engineering

The SAE (Society for Automotive Engineers) vehicle teams at Cal Poly need an easy way to access the undersides of their vehicles to facilitate maintenance and servicing. The purpose of this project was to provide a solution that could lift the vehicles effectively and safely from above so that the underside of the vehicles can be accessed, as well as elevating the vehicles to an ergonomic working height. Design specifications were determined based off each vehicle’s requirements in addition to what the team intends to do with their suspended vehicle. After several concept iterations, the team decided to purchase an …

Collision Mitigation System: Pedestrian Test Target, Final Design Report, Timothy Ryan Lee, Melanie Lim, Tiffany Margaret Prather, Chris Michael Welch

Mechanical Engineering

Daimler Trucks North America is creating an advanced emergency braking system which uses radar sensors that detect pedestrians and automatically applies the brakes to bring the vehicle to a stop. To improve and validate their technology, they need a mechanical pedestrian target that can mimic a human walking across the street. However, the assisted braking may not work properly during every test and the pedestrian target must be able to survive impact with a vehicle at low speeds. Four senior Mechanical Engineering students from California Polytechnic State University San Luis Obispo decided to take on the challenge.

The main features …

Universal Fixture For Orbital Tube Welding, Kevin P. Mcgowan, William Divittorio, Jesse Castaneda

Mechanical Engineering

No abstract provided.

Personal Utility Cart, Eric Joseph Johnson, Jason K. Munter, Sean R. Portune

Mechanical Engineering

This final design report will detail the entire engineering design process from conceptualization through manufacturing and testing. After introducing the topic and scope of the project this document presents all of the benchmarking and research performed in order to obtain as much information about similar current products and possible solutions. Next the objectives of the project are presented where the needs are transformed into engineering specifications that will guide the design of the product. Design developed is then presented with ideation, idea evaluation and selection, analysis, manufacturing considerations, and final design selection. The final design is then presented with each …

Drawing And Twisting Of Graphene Fibers, Gregory T. Lane, Robert J. Sekerak, Isaias Diaz

Mechanical Engineering

The aim of this project was to develop a more automated process for drawing and twisting of graphene fibers than was currently in place. This was implemented by having two chemical baths with variable speed rollers at either end, and intermediate roller to spool fiber between stages, and a twisting cylinder with integral spool to twist the fiber as it is collected. The goal was to have this first iteration deliver a working prototype, however due to manufacturing delays and timing constraints, that will be missed. A second follow-on project would be able to continue the work presented here and …

Automation In Entertainment: Concept, Design, And Application, Ryan Thally

Undergraduate Honors Theses

The focus of this thesis is to explore the automation technology used in the modern entertainment industry. Upon completion of my thesis, I will deliver a working prototype of the chosen technology and present its capabilities in a choreographed show.

A Performance And Visualization Study On Inlet Geometries Of A Cross-Flow Fan., Yoel Tanquero

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A study was conducted to characterize the flow-field in the suction region of different inlet geometries of a cross-flow fan. The characterization was accomplished by correlating the static performance curves measured for each fan-inlet configuration to the streamline plot obtained using a particle tracking velocimetry (PTV) measurement system at three constant flow rates (25, 40, and 55 CFM). The PTV measurement system used was developed by the author and uses helium bubbles as tracers, an LED light sheet, a slow motion camera, and a Matlab program. Four inlet geometry design variables were defined and independently studied to evaluate the effect …

Peridynamic Models For Fatigue And Fracture In Isotropic And In Polycrystalline Materials, Guanfeng Zhang

Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

To improve design and reliability, extensive efforts has been devoted to understanding damage and failure of materials and structures using numerical simulation, as a complement of theory and experiment. In this thesis, peridynamics is adopted to study fatigue and dynamic failure problems.

Fatigue is a major failure mode in engineering structures. Predicting fracture/failure under cyclic loading is a challenging problem. Classical model cannot directly be applied to problems with discontinuities. A peridynamic model is adopted in this work because of important advantages of peridynamics in allowing autonomous crack initiation and propagation. A recently proposed peridynamic fatigue crack model is considered …

Oxidation Of Ti2Alc In High Temperature Steam Environment, Ziyad M. Smoqi

Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

High temperature oxidation of fuel cladding materials, during the loss of coolant accident (LOCA), is of utmost importance for next-generation nuclear energy systems. Ti₂AlC is a promising candidate material for nuclear applications due to its outstanding properties such as thermal stability at high temperatures, oxidation resistance in air, thermal shock resistance, low neutron absorption cross-section, and the resistance to irradiation-induced amorphization. In this research, high temperature steam oxidation experiments were conducted to evaluate the oxidation resistance of Ti₂AlC in LOCA conditions. After oxidation in 100% steam at 600 and 800˚C, the oxidation kinetics followed a parabolic …

Modeling And Computation Of The Maximum Braking Energy Speed For Transport Category Airplanes, Nihad E. Daidzic

Journal of Aviation Technology and Engineering

Transport-category or FAR/CS 25 certified airplanes may occasionally become braking energy capacity limited. Such limitation may exist when heavy airplanes are departing airports at high-density altitudes, on relatively long runways, and/or possibly with some tailwind component. A maximum braking energy VMBE speed exists which may limit the maximum allowable takeoff decision/action speed V1. The ever-existing possibility of high-speed rejected takeoff in such conditions may also limit the airplane gross weight for declared available distances. To gain deeper insights and acquire better understanding of the topic, a theoretical model of the maximum braking energy and the related VMBE speed for T-category …

Negahban Group Report: Saw-Tooth Shear Response Of Aged Poly(Methyl Methacrylate) (Pmma), Mehrdad Negahban

Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering: Faculty Publications

Results for isothermal saw-tooth shear loading experiments conducted on annealed and oven-cooled poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) at temperatures between 50^oC and 140^oC. The experiments were conducted 1996.

A Multiscale Model For Damage Progression And Detection In Piezo/Pyroelectric Composite Laminates, Yehia Bahei-El-Din, Amany Micheal

Centre for Advanced Materials

Assessment of damage initiation and progression in composite structures reinforced with electrically active filaments is modelled in a multiscale analysis. The analysis developed is a two-tier, interactive analysis, which involves two length scales; macroscopic, and microscopic. The proposed multiscale analysis provides seamless integration of the mechanics at the two length scales, including piezoelectric and pyroelectric coupling effects and damage under overall thermomechanical loads and an electric field applied to electroactive fibers. The macromechanical analysis is performed for multidirectional, fibrous laminates using the lamination theory, including bending, and the micromechanical analysis is performed using a two-phase model and a periodic array …

High Accessibility Cabinet Insert, Matthew Leal

All Undergraduate Projects

Watching grandparents and parents get older, the struggle of day-to-day activities generally increases. One of the most recurring issues the older generation experiences nearly daily is their inability to reach dishes, glassware, and other things on the topmost shelves of a kitchen. Not only is it difficult for them to use things such as stepstools, it also becomes increasingly dangerous. With age, a fall from any height could be catastrophic. With this scenario in mind, a user-friendly cabinet insert would be a very effective way to combat this issue. However, many existing models of cabinet designed to fit these requirements …

Composite Cold Expansion Tooling, Andrew Amos

All Undergraduate Projects

In the world of aircraft manufacturing, cold expansion products literally hold these aircraft together. The problem faced today is that the Little Brute Hydraulic Puller designed and built by Fatigue Technology Inc. is a handheld steel hydraulic cylinder that is heavy and expensive to produce. In a market that demands continuous improvement, there is a constant push to make the product cheaper, better and lighter. In order to accomplish this demand a composite tube will be substituted in the design as the primary pressure cylinder instead of the traditional steel pressure cylinder in order to create a lighter and cheaper …

Directional Rope Capture Device, Seaver Philipp

All Undergraduate Projects

The current market for rope capture devices shows a trend of using toothed devices as the method of creating a rope capture system. These systems are effective for a variety of applications but in any scenario in which a high load is encountered there is a large amount of damage done by the teeth to the rope. The objective of this project was to create a rope capture device that did not utilize teeth in order to create a safer loading condition on the rope. The method used for this project was application of equiangular spirals, this is the same …