Mechanical Engineering Commons^™

Single Tower Crane Allocation Models Using Ant Colony Optimization, Carlos Abelardo Treviño

Theses and Dissertations

The construction industry greatly benefits from the utilization of heavy machines and equipment to accomplish successful projects. Tower cranes, in specific, have a crucial role in the transportation of material loads across the site. Because these machines are fixed to the ground, it is essential for planners and managers to position them in a location that provides the most efficient transfer of materials possible. This is commonly known as the tower crane allocation problem, and many researchers have attempted to optimize the tower crane location using mathematical, artificial intelligence, and simulation approaches. However, many works from the literature contain critical …

Dyno-Mite Redesign, Brandon Joseph Miller, Daniel Robert Hoffman, Richard Demedici Young

Mechanical Engineering

The Cal Poly Mechanical Control Systems Laboratory currently employs an outdated device, known as the Motomatic, to teach students about various motor characteristics and control methods. These include open-loop vs. closed-loop control, speed vs. position control, and DC motor response curves. The current device does not function properly and produces unreliable data due to overwhelming non-linear effects such as stiction and shaft misalignment. Our team was tasked with designing a replacement device that retains many of the same educational goals as the original lab procedure, while also adding new educational goals pertaining to the device system dynamics. The new apparatus, …

Friction Stir Welding Manufacturing Advancement By On-Line High Temperature Phased Array Ultrasonic Testing And Correlation Of Process Parameters To Joint Quality, Daniel James Huggett

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Welding, a manufacturing process for joining, is widely employed in aerospace, aeronautical, maritime, nuclear, and automotive industries. Optimizing these techniques are paramount to continue the development of technologically advanced structures and vehicles. In this work, the manufacturing technique of friction stir welding (FSW) with aluminum alloy (AA) 2219-T87 is investigated to improve understanding of the process and advance manufacturing efficiency. AAs are widely employed in aerospace applications due to their notable strength and ductility. The extension of good strength and ductility to cryogenic temperatures make AAs suitable for rocket oxidizer and fuel tankage. AA-2219, a descendent of the original duralumin …

Distributed Manufacturing Of Flexible Products: Technical Feasibility And Economic Viability, Aubrey Woern, Joshua M. Pearce

Department of Materials Science and Engineering Publications

Distributed manufacturing even at the household level is now well established with the combined use of open source designs and self-replicating rapid prototyper (RepRap) 3-D printers. Previous work has shown substantial economic consumer benefits for producing their own polymer products. Now flexible filaments are available at roughly 3-times the cost of more conventional 3-D printing materials. To provide some insight into the potential for flexible filament to be both technically feasible and economically viable for distributed digital manufacturing at the consumer level this study investigates 20 common flexible household products. The 3-D printed products were quantified by print time, electrical …

Application Of Surface Treatments To Improve Fuel Efficiency Of Internal Combustion Engines, Amirabbas Akbarzadeh

LSU Master's Theses

To improve the tribological performance of contacting surfaces, different surface modification methods can be employed. Surface texturing and surface coating are examples of viable techniques developed for this purpose. Surface texturing involves creating micropatterns on the contacting surfaces while surface coating requires depositing a thin layer of a suitable material on the surface(s) to improve the component’s friction and wear characteristics. The performance of textured surfaces is affected by the geometric characteristic of textures.When dealing with surface coating parameters, the parameters of interests are the type of coating materials and their thicknesses.

The current study aims to experimentally study the …

Note On The Rate And Energy Efficiency Limits For Additive Manufacturing, Timothy Gutowski, Sheng Jiang, Daniel Cooper, Gero Corman, Michael Hausmann, Jan-Anders Manson, Timo Schudeleit, Konrad Wegener, Matias Sabelle, Jorge Ramos-Grez, Dusan P. Sekulic

Mechanical Engineering Faculty Publications

We review the process rates and energy intensities of various additive processing technologies and focus on recent progress in improving these metrics for laser powder bed fusion processing of metals, and filament and pellet extrusion processing of polymers and composites. Over the last decade, observed progress in raw build rates has been quite substantial, with laser metal processes improving by about 1 order of magnitude, and polymer extrusion processes by more than 2 orders of magnitude. We develop simple heat transfer models that explain these improvements, point to other possible strategies for improvement, and highlight rate limits. We observe a …

Process Management And Design Layout Of High Throughput Screening, Anthony Vasquez, Kyle Dupuy

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

Calibr is a pharmaceutical company in San Diego and growing very quickly rate and need help redesigning their lab layout and in doing so reducing their cycle times and down times in machines. In addition to this, they do not currently have an accurate measurement of how long their processes take in an overall cycle. The objective of this project is to provide Calibr with a redesigned layout to accommodate new equipment as well as a software tool that can output Gantt charts for their planning of their testing. Our approach to this project first included mapping out the facilities …

Polar Exploration (University Focus) Research Into Smart Materials Continues At The University Of Dublin With The Development Of Methods To Record And Present Data To Demonstrate The Magnetorheological Effect When A Magnetic Field Is Applied To A Mr Elastomer Sample, Dave Gorman, Niall Murphy, Ray Ekins

Conference Papers

Research into methods to record and present data to demonstrate the Magnetorheological effect when a magnetic field is applied to a Magnetorheological Elastomer sample. By Dave Gorman, Niall Murphy and Ray Ekins, Technological University Dublin, Republic of Ireland A Magnetorheological Elastomer (MRE) is an example of a smart material as it undergoes a change in its physical properties when in the presece of an external magnetic field. This change in properties is known as the Magnetorheological (MR) effect and the manner in which it is achieved and reported, is of critical importance to the future development of MRE-based components. To …

Open Source 3-D Printed Nutating Mixer, Dhwani K. Trivedi, Joshua M. Pearce

Department of Materials Science and Engineering Publications

As the open source development of additive manufacturing has led to low-cost desktop three-dimensional (3-D) printing, a number of scientists throughout the world have begun to share digital designs of free and open source scientific hardware. Open source scientific hardware enables custom experimentation, laboratory control, rapid upgrading, transparent maintenance, and lower costs in general. To aid in this trend, this study describes the development, design, assembly, and operation of a 3-D printable open source desktop nutating mixer, which provides a fixed 20° platform tilt angle for a gentle three-dimensional (gyrating) agitation of chemical or biological samples (e.g., DNA or blood …

The Subject Librarian Newsletter, Engineering And Computer Science, Fall 2017, Buenaventura "Ven" Basco

Libraries' Newsletters

No abstract provided.

Pulsed Laser Beam Welding Of Pd43Cu27Ni10P20 Bulk Metallic Glass, Ling Shao, Amit Datye, Jiankang Huang, Jittisa Ketkaew, Sung Woo Sohn, Shaofan Zhao, Sujun Wu, Yuming Zhang, Udo D. Schwarz, Jan Schroers

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

We used pulsed laser beam welding method to join Pd₄₃Cu₂₇Ni₁₀P₂₀ (at.%) bulk metallic glass and characterized the properties of the joint. Fusion zone and heat-affected zone in the weld joint can be maintained completely amorphous as confirmed by X-ray diffraction and differential scanning calorimetry. No visible defects were observed in the weld joint. Nanoindentation and bend tests were carried out to determine the mechanical properties of the weld joint. Fusion zone and heat-affected zone exhibit very similar elastic moduli and hardness when compared to the base material, and the weld joint shows high …

Fabricating Zirconia Components With Organic Support Material By The Ceramic On-Demand Extrusion Process, Wenbin Li, Amir Ghazanfari, Devin Mcmillen, Andrew Scherff, Ming-Chuan Leu, Greg Hilmas

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Ceramic On-Demand Extrusion (CODE) is an extrusion-based additive manufacturing process recently developed for fabricating dense, functional ceramic components. This paper presents a further development of this process and focuses on fabricating 3 mol% yttria-stabilized zirconia (3YSZ) components that cannot be fabricated without using support structures. The 3YSZ paste is deposited through the main nozzle, and a polycaprolactone (PCL) pellet feedstock is melted and deposited through an auxiliary nozzle to build support structures. After a green part is printed and dried, the support structures are removed by heating the part to ~70°C to melt the PCL. The part is then sintered …

Design And Fabrication Of Functionally Graded Material From Ti To Γ-Tial By Laser Metal Deposition, Xueyang Chen, Lei Yan, Joseph William Newkirk, Frank W. Liou

Materials Science and Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Functionally graded material (FGM) is one kind of advanced material characterized by a gradual change in properties as the position varies. The spatial variation of compositional and microstructure over volume is aimed to control corresponding functional properties. In this research, when 100% γ-TiAl was directly deposited on pure Ti substrate, cracks were formed within the γ-TiAl layer. Then a six-layer crack-free functionally graded material of Ti/TiAl was designed and fabricated by laser metal deposition (LMD) method, with composition changing from pure Ti on one side to 100% γ-TiAl on the other side. The fabricated FGM was characterized for material properties …

Influence Of Gage Length On Miniature Tensile Characterization Of Powder Bed Fabricated 304l Stainless Steel, Sreekar Karnati, Jack L. Hoerchler, Frank W. Liou, Joseph William Newkirk

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Miniature tensile specimens with varying aspect ratios were fabricated from 304L stainless steel (SS) made using powder bed additive manufacturing (AM) process. The tensile characteristics measured from these specimens were analyzed to assess the impact of gage length. The study found no impact upon varying gage length on yield and ultimate strength measurements. However, a significant impact was observed on strain measurements. This data was also used to perform Weibull statistics to estimate the stochastic performance of the material. Fractography was performed to visually identify the types of flaws. A comparative study with specimens fabricated from cold rolled annealed 304 …

Characterization Of Heat-Affected Powder Generated During Selective Laser Melting Of 304l Stainless Steel Powder, Austin T. Sutton, Caitlin S. Kriewall, Ming-Chuan Leu, Joseph William Newkirk

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The selective laser melting (SLM) process is an Additive Manufacturing (AM) technique that uses a laser to fuse successive layers of powder into near fully dense components. Due to the large energy input from the laser during processing, vaporization and instabilities in the melt pool occur causing the formation of condensate and laser spatter, collectively known as heat-affected powder. Since heat-affected powder settles into the powder bed, the properties of the unconsolidated powder may be altered compromising its reusability. In this study, characterization of 304L heat-affected powder was performed through particle size distribution measurements, x-ray diffraction, metallography, energy-dispersive spectroscopy mapping, …

A Two-Dimensional Simulation Of Grain Structure Growth Within Substrate And Fusion Zone During Direct Metal Deposition, Jingwei Zhang, Wei Li, Frank W. Liou, Joseph William Newkirk

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

In this paper, a predictive model based on a cellular automaton (CA)-finite element (FE) method has been developed to simulate thermal history and microstructure evolution during metal solidification for a laser-based additive manufacturing process. The macroscopic FE calculation that is validated by thermocouple experiment is designed to update the temperature field and a high cooling rate. A cellular automata-finite element (CAFE) method is developed to describe grain growth in the fusion zone. In the mesoscopic CA model, heterogeneous nucleation sites, grain growth orientation and rate, epitaxial growth, remelting of preexisting grains, metal addition, grain competitive growth, and columnar to equiaxed …

Review Of Am Simulation Validation Techniques, Aaron Flood, Frank W. Liou

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Due to the complexity of Additive Manufacturing (AM), it can require many trial runs to obtain processing parameters which produce a quality build. Because of this trial and error process, the drive for simulations of AM has grown significantly. Simulations only become useful to researchers if it can be shown that they are true representations of the physical process being simulated. All simulations have different methods of validation to show that they are an accurate representations of the process. This paper explores the various methodologies for validation of laser based metal AM simulations, focusing mainly on the modeling of the …

Additive Manufacturing Of High Entropy Alloys -- A Review, Wenyuan Cui, Xinchang Zhang, Frank W. Liou

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

High-entropy alloys have attracted increasingly interest due to their unique compositions, microstructures and mechanical properties. Additive manufacturing has been recognized as a promising technology to fabricate the high-entropy alloys in the recent years. The purpose of this paper is to review the current research progress in high-entropy alloys by additive manufacturing process. It will first highlight the important theory of the high-entropy alloys. The next aspect is to summarize current additive manufacturing methods applied for the high entropy alloys. At last, the correlation between the microstructures and the mechanical properties of the high-entropy alloys will be examined and discussed.

Relating Processing Of Selective Laser Melted Structures To Their Material And Modal Properties, Nicholas E. Capps, James S. Urban, Brian M. West, Cody S. Lough, Adriane Repogle, Troy Hartwig, Ben Brown, Douglas A. Bristow, Robert G. Landers, Edward C. Kinzel

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Selective Laser Melting (SLM) creates metal parts by fusing powder layer-by-layer. It provides significant design flexibility and the possibility of low-volume production. The engineering properties of the printed metal are a function of the local thermal history. This creates challenges for validating Additively Manufactured (AM) parts. This paper correlates the engineering properties (density, modulus, yield strength and ultimate strength) for tensile test specimens created with different process parameters with the resonant frequencies determined using modal testing. The paper shows that yield and ultimate strengths for these specimens can be determined using modal analysis.

Thermal Modeling Of 304l Stainless Steel Selective Laser Melting, Lan Li, Cody S. Lough, Adriane Repogle, Douglas A. Bristow, Robert G. Landers, Edward C. Kinzel

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This paper describes the continuum thermal modeling of the Selective Laser Melting (SLM) process for 304L stainless steel using Abaqus. Temperature dependent thermal properties are obtained from literature and incorporated into the model capturing the change from powder to fully dense stainless steel. The thermal model predicts the temperature history for multi-track scans under different process parameters (laser power, effective scanning speed, hatch spacing) which is used to extract the melt-pool size, solidification rate, and temperature gradients. These are compared to experimental results obtained from a Renishaw AM250 in terms of the melt pool size, grain structure, and cell spacing. …

Metallic Components Repair Strategies Using The Hybrid Manufacturing Process, Xinchang Zhang, Wenyuan Cui, Wei Li, Frank W. Liou

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The hybrid manufacturing process which integrates additive manufacturing with subtractive machining is competitive and promising in component repair. To automate this process, detecting the missing volume and generating the deposition tracks is the key. In this study, strategies for repairing defects on flat and non-flat surfaces were investigated. A cost-effective reverse engineering tool was utilized to reconstruct STL models of damaged objects. Point data of the fracture surface on flat surfaces was obtained to generate the tool path for material building up. For defects on non-flat surfaces, the damaged model was best-fitted with the nominal model. Then both models were …

Mechanical Properties Of 304l Parts Made By Laser-Foil-Printing Technology, Chia-Hung Hung, Yiyu Shen, Ming-Chuan Leu, Hai-Lung Tsai

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Laser-Foil-Printing (LFP) is a novel laminated object manufacturing process for metal additive manufacturing. It fabricates three-dimensional metal parts by using a dual-laser system to weld and cut metal foils layer by layer. A main advantage of LFP is the higher cooling rate compared to powder-based laser additive manufacturing processes due to the thermal conductivity difference between foil and powder. This study focuses on the mechanical properties of 304L stainless steel parts built by the LFP process. The experimental results indicate that the yield strength and ultimate tensile strength of LFP fabricated 304L SS parts are higher by 9% and 8% …

Aluminum Matrix Syntactic Foam Fabricated With Additive Manufacturing, M. Spratt, Joseph William Newkirk, K. Chandrashekhara

Materials Science and Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Syntactic foams are lightweight structural composites with hollow reinforcing particles embedded in a soft matrix. These materials have applications in transportation, packaging, and armor due to properties such as relatively high specific stiffness, acoustic dampening, and impact absorption. Aluminum matrices are the most widely studied of metal matrix syntactic foams, but there is little to no research in regards to processing the foams with additive manufacturing. It is theorized that the fast cooling rates and limited kinetic energy input of additive could reduce two issues commonly associated with processing syntactic foams: microsphere flotation in the melt and microsphere fracture during …

Effects Of Area Fraction And Part Spacing On Degradation Of 304l Stainless Steel Powder In Selective Laser Melting, Cairlin S. Kriewall, Austin T. Sutton, Sreekar Karnati, Joseph William Newkirk, Ming-Chuan Leu

Materials Science and Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

In selective laser melting (SLM) systems, a large portion of powder remains unconsolidated and therefore recycling powder could make SLM more economical. Currently, a lack of literature exists specifically targeted at studying the reusability of powder. Furthermore, the definition of powder reusability is complex since powder degradation depends on many factors. The goal of the current research is to investigate the effects of area fraction and part spacing on the degradation of 304L powder in SLM. An experimental study was conducted where various area fractions and part distances were chosen and powder characterization techniques for determination of particle size distributions, …

Bonding Of 304l Stainless Steel To Cast Iron By Selective Laser Melting, Baily Thomas, Austin T. Sutton, Ming-Chuan Leu, Nikhil Doiphode

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

While cast iron is widely used in industry, a major limitation is the weldability of a dissimilar material onto cast iron due to hot cracking as a result of lack of ductility from graphite flakes. Consequently, a significant amount of preheat is often employed to reduce the cooling rate in the fusion zone, which, however, may lead to distortion of the welded parts. A potential remedy could be the Selective Laser Melting (SLM) process, where only small melt pools are created and thus the overall energy input is reduced. The present paper describes an investigation of the SLM process to …

Building Zr-Based Metallic Glass Part On Ti-6al-4v Substrate By Laser-Foil-Printing Additive Manufacturing, Yingqi Li, Yiyu Shen, Ming-Chuan Leu, Hai-Lung Tsai

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Through using Zr intermediate layers, Zr_52.5Ti₅Al₁₀Ni_14.6Cu_17.9 metallic glass (MG) parts are successfully built on Ti-6Al-4V substrates by laser-foil-printing (LFP) additive manufacturing technology in which MG foils are laser welded layer-by-layer onto the substrate. The printed MG part is free of porosity, cracking and crystallization; additionally, its glass transition temperature, crystallization temperature, micro-hardness, and tensile strength are very similar to the original MG material. The Zr intermediate layers are aimed at preventing direct interaction between the first layer of MG foil and the Ti substrate; otherwise, the welded MG foils would peel …

Fiber-Fed Laser-Heated Process For Printing Transparent Glass, John M. Hostetler, Jonathan T. Goldstein, Douglas A. Bristow, Robert G. Landers, Edward C. Kinzel

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This paper presents the Additive Manufacturing (AM) of glass using a fiber-fed process. Glass fiber with a diameter of 100 μm is fed into a laser generated melt pool. A CO₂ laser beam is focused on the intersection between the fiber and the work piece which is positioned on a four-axis computer controlled stage. The laser energy at λ=10.6 μm is directly absorbed by the silica and locally heats the glass above the working point. By carefully controlling the laser power, scan speed, and feed rate, bubble free shapes can be deposited including trusses and basic lenses. Issues unique …

Investigation Of Build Strategies For A Hybrid Manufacturing Process Progress On Ti-6al-4v, Lei Yan, Leon Hill, Frank W. Liou, Joseph William Newkirk

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The various processing parameters of a hybrid manufacturing process, including deposition and machining, is being investigated with a Design of Experiment (DoE). The intent was to explore the effect of different build strategies on the final part’s Vickers hardness, tensile test, fatigue life, and microstructure. From this experiment, the processing parameters can be linked to various mechanical properties. This will lead to the ability to create a combination of deposition and machining parameters, which will result in improved mechanical properties.

Defects Classification Of Laser Metal Deposition Using Acoustic Emission Sensor, Haythem Gaja, Frank W. Liou

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Laser metal deposition (LMD) is an advanced additive manufacturing (AM) process used to build or repair metal parts layer by layer for a range of different applications. Any presence of deposition defects in the part produced causes change in the mechanical properties and might cause failure to the part. In this work, defects monitoring system was proposed to detect and classify defects in real time using an acoustic emission (AE) sensor and an unsupervised pattern recognition analysis. Time domain and frequency domain, and relevant descriptors were used in the classification process to improve the characterization and the discrimination of the …

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 …