Mechanical Engineering Commons^™

Residential Fire Sprinkler Design For The Phi Kappa Psi Fraternity House, Nolan Frost

BioResource and Agricultural Engineering

This senior project discusses the design of a residential fire sprinkler system for a local fraternity house. The design follows NFPA 13D code, and contains design calculations, design drawings, material specifications, and cost analysis. The design was completed with the intention of being used for the installation of a fire sprinkler system in the house.

Low Speed Alternator Design, Scott Merrick

Electrical Engineering

No abstract provided.

Micro Hydropower System, Christpher Neally, Ian Verstuyft

Electrical Engineering

The micro hydropower project strives to meet the needs of a specific village in northern Thailand in partnership with Engineers Without Borders. Specifically, the electrical side of the system must be designed to convert the mechanical power of a flowing river that is turning a turbine into sustainable and dependable power. Currently available hydropower systems will be considered, analyzed, and tailored to suit the specific needs of the community in need. The system to be designed will be flexible enough to demonstrate proof-of-concept with the limited maximum generable power in lab while having the ability to be easily scaled for …

Human Powered Hydrofoil Bike Pontoon Floatation, Shelley Dangoor, Tyler Brennent

Mechanical Engineering

This report documents the brainstorming and design development of the hydrofoil bike floatation device. This project is in conjunction with senior project team MobyBike. MobyBike’s focus is in the development of the bike actuation system, as our team’s focus is on designing and developing the floatation device to be incorporated in the final hydrofoil bike design.

Hvac Lab, Adrian Leon, Wes Allen

Mechanical Engineering

The Cal Poly Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) Department was donated a fume hood so that it could be used for educational purposes in the lab. The fume hood was not fully set up and only ran in a constant volume mode; the fan ran at full speed with no feedback to reduce air flow. A fume hood can be opened or closed using the sash; air flowing through the sash opening must always be above a certain speed. As the sash is closed the opening grows smaller and the speed of the air increases. Two additional modes of …

Adaptive Eating Device, Patrick Yale, Jillian Hiu, Jeremy Black, Kevin Farmer

Mechanical Engineering

No abstract provided.

Cal Poly Brocade Challenge 2013, Chandler Morehardt, Alexa Coburn, Juan Silva, Kerry Sun, Greg Wang, Raul Chagoya, Jd Torres

Architectural Engineering

No abstract provided.

Guidance System, Kayaking For The Visually Impaired, D. Ryan Kirtland, Ryan Phife, William Gardner, Amy Johnson

Biomedical Engineering

Quality Life Plus is working with Team River Runner to develop an assistive guidance system for veterans who want to remain active by kayaking, after sustaining an injury that impairs vision. This system allows these veterans to complete a slalom speed race independent of a personal guide in the water. The system incorporates 3 stations that each contain a speaker connected to a microcontroller system covered by a Pelican Case on a custom made buoy. During the slalom race, a kayaker will travel from shore towards buoy #1 as it omits sound from the speaker. As the kayaker moves around …

Wind And Hydroelectric Power Simulation For The Dc House Project, Randy Lormand, Christopher Goloskie

Electrical Engineering

This project details the design and integration of a wind and hydroelectric power simulation system in correlation with the DC House Project. The simulator uses variable speed drives to rotate a DC motor which then drives a generator to produce output. This output is then regulated using a DC to DC converter which holds the voltage level constant making it easier to interface with other power sources for the house. The test results indicate that the simulator will be able to produce two separate power outputs that will provide at least 70 Watts of power in the acceptable speed range …

Swing Human Powered Generator: For The Dc House Project, Juan Vicente Avelar, Juan Jose Galindo, Juan Pramyr Ramos

Electrical Engineering

The Play Park Human Powered Generator project addresses various ways of generating power. More specifically, this project entails the design and construction of the Swing Power Generator to provide electrical power from mechanical energy. The swing generator will eventually be used as part of the human-powered generators utilized in the DC House project.

A swing generator prototype was built for this project, which demonstrates the feasibility of its use for electrical power source. Detailed design and construction of the swing generator is presented in this report along with results from hardware testing.

Intuity Sleeve Redesign, Maxwell Arnold, Brittany Kinkade, Dominic Nicoletti

Mechanical Engineering

No abstract provided.

Exploration Station Kidshake Table, Jeremy Duhe, Philip Hopkins, Matt Ostiguy, Samantha Weiner

Mechanical Engineering

The KIDShake Table is an all mechanical earthquake shake table sponsored by the Exploration Station Children's Museum of Grover Beach. This interactive exhibit has two working mechanisms, a hand crank and pull rope, that provide two axis movement for knocking down block structures. This table was built and designed for a target age of 10 years.

Dedion Axle Senior Project, Nick Schraan, Mark Shushnar, William Swenson, Ramy Tall

Mechanical Engineering

The sponsor, EV Grid Inc. is a company looking to the future with the development of a vehicle to grid infrastructure. The vehicle in development is a Ford E-250 Van which had been converted to electric drive with a front motor, rear drive layout. The sponsor wanted to move the electric motor to the rear and develop an axle to support this change. By eliminating the driveshaft, a more efficient use of battery space could be utilized. The goal of this project is to design and fabricate a prototype deDion rear axle which incorporates a system of drive components that …

Architectural Engineering Earthquake Shake Table, Garrett Gudgel, John Whitmer, Brandan Williams

Mechanical Engineering

The Architectural Engineering Department at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, owns and operates a single-axis earthquake shake table that previously was only capable of basic wave motion. After implementing a computer based interface to the existing system, Mechanical Engineering student seniors were able to create control algorithms that can take existing or user created acceleration data from earthquakes as well as any user defined position data to be accurately run on the earthquake shake table.

Adaptive Floor Hockey Device, Chris Gaul, Ricardo Gaytan, Matt Spaulding, Shannon Brant

Mechanical Engineering

Sean is a young boy living with ataxic cerebral palsy. Ataxic cerebral

palsy affects Sean’s balance and coordination, so he uses a walker to

increase his mobility. Sean would like to play Special Olympics Floor

Hockey but his walker prevents him from participating. The goal of this

Senior project was to develop a device to be attached to his previous

walker to allow Sean to play floor hockey in the least restrictive

environment possible. The Adaptive Floor Hockey Device is the product

we designed to satisfy this need.

School Van Access In Nepal, Edgar Corona, Humberto Maldonado, Josh Schiesl

Mechanical Engineering

A need has been identified by a school in Nepal intended for children with Cerebral Palsy, called Sathi Sansar, to develop a more effective solution to loading and unloading students onto the school’s Toyota HiAce van. Currently, a combination of the driver, parents and teachers manually help the students on and off the van. However, this task has proven to be both laborious and time consuming for all parties involved. A solution to this problem needs to be designed and one is currently being developed by a team of engineering students from California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo and Katmandu …

Mercedes-Benz Oil Level Monitor, Emmanuel Camacho, Jonathan Manriquez, James Young

Mechanical Engineering

The purpose of this project is to develop an engine oil level monitoring system that will replace the current dipstick method during vehicle testing for Mercedes-Benz Research and Development North America, Inc. (MBRDNA). Currently, MBRDNA test drivers check the engine oil level twice a day after two eight hour shifts each day. To measure the oil level, the driver parks on a level surface, waits five minutes for the oil to cool, and then manually checks the oil level with the dipstick. The goal of this project is to have a reliable, physical, working prototype that MBRDNA can use for …

Bocce Ball Launcher: An Adaptive Bocce Ball Device, Jake Deschamps, Megan Hughes, Thomas Lynch

Mechanical Engineering

This report details the adaptive bocce launching device created by Team B.A.L.L. and theprocess of designing, building and testing it. The final design was a wirelessly controlled pneumatic catapult capable of propelling a bocce ball such that it would land fifteen feet away and roll the length of the wheelchair accessible bocce courts located at the Colony Park Community Center in Atascadero. A wide variety of users are supported because the system is controlled by a single button which can be actuated by the user’s hand, forearm, head or anything else they are able to move. The catapult allows the …

Beach Wheelchair Project, Rory Aronson, Joshua Marcum, Samuel Coyne, Alex Hayes, Alexa Colburn, Max Hessel, Benedikt Strauss, Marvin Rimmele, Marco Pietsch

Mechanical Engineering

The Beach Wheelchair, Sandcrawler, is a machine intended to help give people with disabilities the full beach experience. The non-profit organization Bridge II Sports sponsored this project, and tasked us with developing the design and fabricating a prototype. This chair has several features including a linkage mechanism that raises and lowers a chair relative to an external frame, hand crank drive with Gates Carbondrive belt and sprockets, buoyant Wheeleez balloon tires, and much more.

Rebounder Fatigue Test Machine, Caroline Reeves, Will Robertson, Ethan Flory

Mechanical Engineering

JumpSport, a company that designs and sells trampolines and trampoline accessories, has sponsored this senior project team to design, build, and test a trampoline fatigue test machine. The machine must simulate a person jumping on the trampoline to test the life of JumpSport’s fitness trampolines and kids’ trampolines. Partway through the design process, the objectives were altered and this senior project team was tasked with merging with another Cal Poly senior project group to create an all-inclusive test machine to accommodate both full-trampoline testing and individual bungee cord testing.

The final design is centered on a slider crank linkage driven …

Human Powered Helicopter: Spars, Jason Addy, Sterling Fuentes, Graham Garvin, Kenneth Girardin, Lipski Timonthy, Daniel Logue

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

Abstract

Neal Saiki, a Cal Poly alumnus, donated a human powered helicopter to the Cal Poly Aircraft Design and Construction Club in Fall Quarter 2012. To achieve the requirements of the Igor Sikorsky Human Powered Helicopter Competition, this senior project was tasked with reducing the weight of the load-bearing spars without changing geometry.

The aluminum spars were replaced with carbon fiber. The spars were designed to maintain the bending and torsional stiffnesses. Twelve sections of carbon fiber tubes ranging from 8 to 12 ft in length and 2" to 3" in inner diameter were made using pre-preg carbon fiber wrapped …

S&G Metal Fab Battery Tray, Matthew Nartatez

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

This report was written for the design of a battery tray and manufacturing process for S&G Metal Fab. The manufacturing steps of how to process the sheet metal to create the product are defined and documented in this report. This project began with constraints given by S&G and were all accomplished using coursework knowledge obtained as a manufacturing engineer student at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. This report mainly covers parameters regarding the cutting, bending and, deforming of sheet metal to acquire the desired shapes and sizes. It also analyzes the costs that are associated with these processes and material. …

Animatronic Robot Development Using Pulse Width Modulation Microcontroller Programming, Laura Mcdonald

Liberal Arts and Engineering Studies

No abstract provided.

Design And Development Of A Stair Ascension Assistive Device For Transfemoral Amputees, Casey Michael Barbarino

Master's Theses

Transfemoral amputees around the world experience increased difficulty in climbing stairs due to lack of muscle, balance, and other factors. The loss of a lower limb greatly diminishes the amount of natural force generation provided that is necessary to propel oneself up stairs. This study investigated possible solutions to the problem of stair ascension for transfemoral amputees by the means of designing and developing an externally attachable device to a prosthesis. The number of amputations from military service has greatly increased since 2008, which shows there is a clear need for assistive devices (Wenke, Krueger, & Ficke, 2012). With the …

Analysis And Mitigation Of The Cubesat Dynamic Environment, Steve M. Furger

Master's Theses

A vibration model was developed for CubeSats inside the Poly-Picosatellite Orbital Deployer (P-POD). CubeSats are fixed in the Z axis of deployers, and therefore resonate with deployer peaks. CubeSats generally start fixed in the X and Y axes, and then settle into an isolated position. CubeSats do not resonate with deployers after settling into an isolated position. Experimental data shows that the P-POD amplifies vibration loads when CubeSats are fixed in the deployer, and vibration loads are reduced when the CubeSats settle into an isolated position. A concept for a future deployer was proposed that isolates CubeSats from the deployer …

Transient Small Wind Turbine Tower Structural Analysis With Coupled Rotor Dynamic Interaction, George R. Katsanis

Master's Theses

Structural dynamics is at the center of wind turbine tower design - excessive vibrations can be caused by a wide range of environmental and mechanical sources and can lead to reduced component life due to fatigue, noise, and impaired public perception of system integrity. Furthermore, periodic turbulent wind conditions can cause system resonance resulting in significantly increased structural loads. Structural vibration issues may become exacerbated in small wind applications where the analytical and experimental resources for system verification and optimization are scarce. This study combines several structural analysis techniques and packages them into a novel and integrated form that can …

Reliability Analysis Of Low-Silver Bga Spheres Comparing Failure Detection Criteria, Briana Fredericks

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

One of the challenges of solder joint reliability tests is estimating the time of failure of the solder joint. Failure criteria should be able to detect solder joint failure as early as possible, while minimizing the probability of false detection. The failure mechanism under study is cracks due to thermal fatigue. The most common method to estimate failure due to cracks is to monitor the resistance during testing, because solder imaging and cross-sectioning methods are destructive. Current industry failure criteria do not adequately demonstrate the relationship between the size of the crack and the resulting change in resistance. This project …

Application Of Assignment Problem Theory To Cal Poly's Week Of Welcome Program Presentation Schedule, Kevin T. Aban

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

The Week of Welcome (WOW) is a part of Cal Poly’s Orientation Programs. One of the main objectives of WOW is to provide content to new students on a variety of different topics in the form of Awareness Presentations. The problem being addressed in this paper is that of assigning the orientation groups of incoming students to these Awareness Presentations so that they have a schedule that meets all of the necessary criteria. The most important of those requirements is schedule balance and flexibility for future use. This scheduling problem is solved through the use of operations research and binary …

Gyroscope Assembly Process Improvement Analysis, Ian Douglass, Juan Ulises Saucedo

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

The gyro is a fundamental portion of many assemblies that Company S, a directional drilling company, manufactures. The gyro assembly is a highly sensitive and complex process, and it was paramount to establish efficiency and quality guidelines to base management decisions. The first guideline succeeded by increasing throughput by means of a simulation using ProModel. Next, non-value and value added activities were identified through a value stream map. Lastly, a database was developed in order to capture high integrity quality control data, or key performance indicators, such as, throughput, first-pass inspection yields at every test performed, and defects found. This …

Implementation Of A Sustainable Project Management Methodology For Cal Poly Sae Baja, Theo Graziadei

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

A lack of project organization manifested through unclear team goals, rush deliveries of materials, lost tools and materials, half days of effort due to improper planning, wasted design time, missed submission dates, lack of clear job positions at competition, and low competition scores. A process was created to properly manage the team and it was implemented through the use of various templates, examples, and calculation programs. Each deliverable received feedback from this project’s stakeholders and changes were reflected in the final process. The results were as follows:

Table 1: Summary of Results

Implement a sustainable project management methodology

Each step …