Mechanical Engineering Commons^™

Generating Electrospray From A Ferrofluid, Lyon Bradley King

Michigan Tech Patents

An electrospray device for generating electrospray from a ferrofluid. The electrospray device includes an emitter, an extraction electrode, and a magnet. The emitter is configured to receive a ferrofluidic liquid. The extraction electrode includes an aperture and is positioned a first distance from the emitter. The magnet generates a magnetic field in a first direction toward the emitter. The magnetic field causes Rosensweig instability in the ferrofluidic liquid, and generates a ferrofluidic peak in the ferrofluidic liquid. The magnet is positioned a second distance from the emitter, and the emitter is positioned between the extraction electrode and the magnet. The …

Mapping Modeled Exposure Of Wildland Fire Smoke For Human Health Studies In California, Patricia Koman, Michael Billmire, Kirk Baker, Ricardo De Majo, Frank Anderson, Sumi Hoshiko, Brian Thelen, Nancy H. F. French

Michigan Tech Publications, Part 1

Wildland fire smoke exposure affects a broad proportion of the U.S. population and is increasing due to climate change, settlement patterns and fire seclusion. Significant public health questions surrounding its effects remain, including the impact on cardiovascular disease and maternal health. Using atmospheric chemical transport modeling, we examined general air quality with and without wildland fire smoke PM_2.5. The 24-h average concentration of PM_2.5 from all sources in 12-km gridded output from all sources in California (2007–2013) was 4.91 μg/m³. The average concentration of fire-PM_2.5 in California by year was 1.22 μg/m³ (~25% …

Me-Em Enewsbrief, June 2019, Department Of Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics, Michigan Technological University

Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering eNewsBrief

No abstract provided.

Mechanical Properties And Applications Of Recycled Polycarbonate Particle Material Extrusion-Based Additive Manufacturing, Matthew J. Reich, Aubrey Woern, Nagendra Gautam Tanikella, Joshua M. Pearce

Michigan Tech Publications, Part 1

Past work has shown that particle material extrusion (fused particle fabrication (FPF)/fused granular fabrication (FGF)) has the potential for increasing the use of recycled polymers in 3D printing. This study extends this potential to high-performance (high-mechanical-strength and heat-resistant) polymers using polycarbonate (PC). Recycled PC regrind of approximately 25 mm² was 3D printed with an open-source Gigabot X and analyzed. A temperature and nozzle velocity matrix was used to find useful printing parameters, and a print test was used to maximize the output for a two-temperature stage extruder for PC. ASTM type 4 tensile test geometries as well as ASTM-approved …

Agent-Based Microgrid Architecture For Generation Following Protocols, Steven Goldsmith

Michigan Tech Patents

A system for predicting power and loads over a single, relatively short time horizon. More specifically, a system comprising a Storage Agent (S-agent) Cohort within a grid control society, wherein the system expands G and L intra-cohort protocols to allow the S-cohort to participate in power management of the grid by scheduling storage components in source or load roles as determined by the time-varying state of the power imbalance and by the risk-adjusting capacity margin relationship between the G and L cohorts.

Open Source Completely 3-D Printable Centrifuge, Salil S. Sule, Aliaksei Petsiuk, Joshua M. Pearce

Michigan Tech Publications, Part 1

Centrifuges are commonly required devices in medical diagnostics facilities as well as scientific laboratories. Although there are commercial and open source centrifuges, the costs of the former and the required electricity to operate the latter limit accessibility in resource-constrained settings. There is a need for low-cost, human-powered, verified, and reliable lab-scale centrifuges. This study provides the designs for a low-cost 100% 3-D printed centrifuge, which can be fabricated on any low-cost RepRap-class (self-replicating rapid prototyper) fused filament fabrication (FFF)- or fused particle fabrication (FPF)-based 3-D printer. In addition, validation procedures are provided using a web camera and free and open …

Capillary Penetration Method For Measuring Wetting Properties Of Carbon Ionomer Films For Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell (Pemfc) Applications, Sofyane Abbou, Kazuya Tajiri, K. T. Alofari, Ezequiel F. Medici, A. T. Haug, Jeffrey S. Allen

Michigan Tech Publications, Part 1

In this work, capillary rise experiments were performed to assess the wetting properties of carbon-ionomer (CI) films. The samples were attached to a micro-balance and then immersed into liquid water to (i) measure the mass gain from the liquid uptake and (ii) estimate the (external) contact angle to water (typical value around 140°). The results showed that drying the CI films under low vacuum significantly impacted the CI film wettability. The influence of the ionomer content on the CI films’ wettability was investigated with various ionomer to carbon (I/C) ratios: 0.8, 1.0, 1.2 and 1.4. No significant variation of the …

A Discrete Curvature Estimation Based Low-Distortion Adaptive Savitzky-Golay Filter For Ecg Denoising, Hui Huang, Shiyan Hu, Ye Sun

Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Publications

Electrocardiogram (ECG) sensing is an important application for the diagnosis of cardiovascular diseases. Recently, driven by the emerging technology of wearable electronics, massive wearable ECG sensors are developed, which however brings additional sources of noise contamination on ECG signals from these wearable ECG sensors. In this paper, we propose a new low-distortion adaptive Savitzky-Golay (LDASG) filtering method for ECG denoising based on discrete curvature estimation, which demonstrates better performance than the state of the art of ECG denoising. The standard Savitzky-Golay (SG) filter has a remarkable performance of data smoothing. However, it lacks adaptability to signal variations and thus often …

A Novel Correlation Model For Horizontal Axis Wind Turbines Operating At High-Interference Flow Regimes, Anurag Rajan, Fernando L. Ponta

Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Publications

Driven by economics-of-scale factors, wind-turbine rotor sizes have increased formidably in recent years. Larger rotors with lighter blades of increased flexibility will experiment substantially higher levels of deformation. Future turbines will also incorporate advanced control strategies to widen the range of wind velocities over which energy is captured. These factors will extend turbine operational regimes, including flow states with high interference factors. In this paper we derive a new empirical relation to both improve and extend the range of Blade Element Momentum (BEM) models, when applied to high interference-factor regimes. In most BEM models, these flow regimes are modeled using …

Me-Em Enewsbrief, March 2019, Department Of Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics, Michigan Technological University

Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering eNewsBrief

No abstract provided.

A Hamiltonian Surface-Shaping Approach For Control System Analysis And The Design Of Nonlinear Wave Energy Converters, Shadi Darani, Ossama Abdelkhalik, Rush D. Robinett Iii, David Wilson

Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Publications

The dynamic model of Wave Energy Converters (WECs) may have nonlinearities due to several reasons such as a nonuniform buoy shape and/or nonlinear power takeoff units. This paper presents the Hamiltonian Surface-Shaping (HSS) approach as a tool for the analysis and design of nonlinear control of WECs. The Hamiltonian represents the stored energy in the system and can be constructed as a function of the WEC’s system states, its position, and velocity. The Hamiltonian surface is defined by the energy storage, while the system trajectories are constrained to this surface and determined by the power flows of the applied non-conservative …

Optimal Control Of Wave Energy Converters, Ossama Abdelkhalik, Rush D. Robinett Iii, Shangyan Zou, Giorgio Bacelli, David G. Wilson, Umesh Korde

Michigan Tech Patents

A wave energy converter and method for extracting energy from water waves maximizes the energy extraction per cycle by estimating an excitation force of heave wave motion on the buoy, computing a control force from the estimated excitation force using a dynamic model, and applying the computed control force to the buoy to extract energy from the heave wave motion. Analysis and numerical simulations demonstrate that the optimal control of a heave wave energy converter is, in general, in the form of a bang-singular-bang control; in which the optimal control at a given time can be either in the singular …

Comprehensive Parameters Identification And Dynamic Model Validation Of Interior-Mount Line-Start Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motors, Luqman S. Maraaba, Zakariya M. Al-Hamouz, Absulaziz S. Milhem, Ssennoga Twaha

School of Technology Publications

The application of line-start permanent magnet synchronous motors (LSPMSMs) is rapidly spreading due to their advantages of high efficiency, high operational power factor, being self-starting, rendering them as highly needed in many applications in recent years. Although there have been standard methods for the identification of parameters of synchronous and induction machines, most of them do not apply to LSPMSMs. This paper presents a study and analysis of different parameter identification methods for interior mount LSPMSM. Experimental tests have been performed in the laboratory on a 1-hp interior mount LSPMSM. The measurements have been validated by investigating the performance of …

Mechanical Engineering Technology Newsletter 2019, Department Of Manufacturing And Mechanical Engineering Technology, Michigan Technological University

Department of Manufacturing and Mechanical Engineering Technology Newsletters

Table of Contents

• Where Racing Will Take Him
• Irwin Wins Center for Teaching and Learning Instructional Award
• Five MET Students Inducted into Epsilon Pi Tau Honor Society
• 2018 and 2019 Scholarship Awards
• 2018 Bob Mark Business Model Competition
• Senior Design Projects
• What's New?

Me-Em 2018-19 Annual Report, Department Of Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics, Michigan Technological University

Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Annual Reports

Table of Contents

• Faculty Research
• Enrollment & Degrees
• Department News
• Graduates
• Faculty & Staff
• Alumni
• Donors
• Contracts & Grants
• Patents & Publications

Decentralized Hamiltonian Control Of Multi-Der Isolated Microgrids With Meshed Topology, Mohamed Toub, Rush Robinett, Mohamed Maaroufi, Ghassane Aniba

Michigan Tech Publications, Part 1

The new electricity grid of the future, smart grid, can be seen as the interconnection of multiple microgrids. These microgrids are usually composed of distributed energy resources (DERs) that connect to each other in different topologies. Therefore, the modeling and control of meshed microgrids are requisite. This paper presents a mathematical approach for the modeling and decentralized control of multi-DER isolated microgrids (ImGs) with a meshed topology. Based on the advanced control scheme: Hamiltonian surface shaping and power flow control (HSSPFC), decentralized controllers are designed independently using only local information. These controllers regulate the voltage at the point of common …

Optimization And Comparison Of Over-Expanded And Other High Efficiency Four-Stroke Spark-Ignited Boosted Engines, Zhuyong Yang

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Recent fuel economy and emission regulations are the major concern of the research and development of modern internal combustion engine. Such technologies include variable valve timing (VVT), direct injection (DI), turbocharging, downsizing, and over-expanded cycle are used by many manufacturers to improve engine fuel economy or increase power density.

Current Atkinson cycle technology in the production engine is mainly realized by an advanced valvetrain system to reduce the effective compression ratio while maintaining the same expansion ratio. Another approach to realize over-expanded cycle engine is to utilize a multi-link cranktrain mechanism. Although the Atkinson cycle was originally patented in the …

Optimal Power Flow Control Of Networked Dc Microgrids, Eddy H. Trinklein

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

The US military is moving toward the electrification of many weapon systems and platforms. Advanced weapon systems such as high energy radar, electro-magnetic kinetic weapons and directed energy pose significant integration challenges due to their pulsed power electrical load profile. Additionally, the weapons platforms, including ships, aircraft, and vehicles can be studied as a mobile microgrids with multiple generation sources, loads, and energy storage. There is also a desire to extend the mission profile and capabilities of these systems. Common goals are to increase fuel efficiency, maintaining system stability, and reduce energy storage size as typically required to enable pulsed …

Development Of A 2d Scr Catalyst On A Diesel Particulate Filter Model For Design And Control Applications To A Ultra Low Nox Aftertreatment System, Venkata Chundru

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

This research focuses on modeling and control of PM and NO_x in diesel engine exhaust using an SCR catalyst on a Diesel Particulate Filter (SCR-F). A 2D SCR-F model was developed that is capable of predicting internal states: 2D temperature, PM and NH₃storage distributions and filtration efficiency, pressure drop, PM mass retained in the PM cake and substrate wall and outlet NO, NO₂and NH₃concentrations. The SCR-F model was used to simulate a DOC + SCR-F + DOC + SCR ultra-low NOx system that can achieve > 99.5% NOx conversion efficiency.

The model was calibrated …

Modeling Chevy Volt Gen Ii Supervisory Controller In Charge Sustaining Operation, Saurabh Bhasme

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

This report is focused on the development of Chevy Volt Gen II powertrain supervisory controller modeling for charge sustaining operation of the vehicle. The modeling process incorporated vehicle parameters and maps provided. The overall powertrain model along with the supervisory controller is developed in MAT- LAB/SIMULINK programming platform. The powertrain model includes all components which are the IC engine, two electric motors & associated TPIM, Battery, transmission auxiliary pump and spin-losses. The supervisory controller includes the vehicle drive mode selection model, the torque blending logic for charge sustaining along with friction brake modeling. The model has been developed to perform …

Experimental And Numerical Simulation Of Split Hopkinson Pressure Bar Test On Borosilicate Glass, Mayank K. Bagaria

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

This study is an extension to the design of ceramic materials component exposed to bullet impact. Owing to the brittle nature of ceramics upon bullet impact, shattered pieces behave as pellets flying with different velocities and directions, damaging surrounding components. Testing to study the behavior of ceramics under ballistic impact can be cumbersome and expensive. Modeling the set-up through Finite Element Analysis (FEA) makes it economical and easy to optimize. However, appropriately incorporating the material in modeling makes laboratory testing essential. Previous efforts have concentrated on simulating crack pattern developed during 0.22 caliber pellet impact on Borosilicate glass. A major …

Automotive Driveline Backlash State And Size Estimator Design For Anti-Jerk Control, Kaushal Kumar Darokar

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Vehicle drivability is an important factor which more and more customers have started assessing before buying a vehicle. Customers carry out this assessment based on both vehicle reviews/ratings and based on the test drives. One of common maneuver which a customers perform during the test drive is sudden accelerator pedal tip-in or tip-out to accelerate or coast the vehicle. Clunk and shuffle are the phenomena that usually occur during this scenario causing driver discomfort. The clunk and shuffle are caused by the backlash and compliance physical properties of the driveline. Consequently, control strategy needs to be developed which can provide …

A Hybrid-Powered Wireless System For Multiple Biopotential Monitoring, Shawn Li

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Chronic diseases are the top cause of human death in the United States and worldwide. A huge amount of healthcare costs is spent on chronic diseases every year. The high medical cost on these chronic diseases facilitates the transformation from in-hospital to out-of-hospital healthcare. The out-of-hospital scenarios require comfortability and mobility along with quality healthcare. Wearable electronics for well-being management provide good solutions for out-of-hospital healthcare. Long-term health monitoring is a practical and effective way in healthcare to prevent and diagnose chronic diseases. Wearable devices for long-term biopotential monitoring are impressive trends for out-of-hospital health monitoring. The biopotential signals in …

Closed Loop Energy Maximizing Control Of A Wave Energy Converter Using An Estimated Linear Model That Approximates The Nonlinear Froude-Krylov Force, Yaqzan Mohd Yaqzan

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Wave energy converters (WECs) exploit ocean wave energy and convert it into useful forms such as electricity. But for WECs to be successful on a large scale, two primary conditions need to be satisfied. The energy generated must satisfy the network requirements, and second, energy flow from waves to the grid needs to be maximized. In this dissertation, we address the second problem. Most control techniques for WECs today use the Cummins' linear model to simulate WEC hydrodynamics. However, it has been shown that under the application of a control force, where WEC motions are amplified, the linear model diverges …

Influence Of Micro-Nucleate Boiling On Annular Flow Regime Heat Transfer Coefficient Values And Flow Parameters – For High Heat-Flux Flow Boiling Of Water, Soroush Sepahyar

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Analysis of results from steady and steady-in-the-mean high heat-flux (15 - 70 W/cm², with water as working fluid) shear driven annular flow-boiling experiments presented here - and low heat-flux (0.1- 1 W/cm², with FC-72 as working fluid) experiments presented elsewhere – together lead to a key conclusion. The conclusion is that heat carrying nucleation rates go often undetected by the typically used visualization approaches for flow boiling – as such flows often involve µm- to sub- µm scale bubble diameters in millimeter-scale ducts. These nucleation rates play a significant role in most of the so-called convective …

Experimental Characterization Of Hydraulic System Sound, Ben Kolb

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

The purpose of this research was to establish test methods for characterizing the interaction between the hydraulic fluid and hydraulic hose at clipping points in mobile heavy equipment hydraulic systems. A simple hydraulic circuit test bench was developed and the laboratory axial piston pump was characterized using ISO 10767-1. A direct relationship between the fluidborne noise and structureborne noise present at each hose clip location was observed for a specific operating condition using operating deflection shapes and structureborne noise measurements. This result shows that optimal hose clip placement can be a viable solution to structureborne noise reduction. Additionally, a modal …

Multi-Scale, Capillary Assisted Copper Surfaces For Enhanced Pool Boiling Heat Transfer Processes, Chetan Agarwal

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Phase-change heat transfer through pool boiling process offers a promising thermal management solution in applications wherein conventional air or single-phase liquid-based cooling methods prove inefficient such as for high-power electronics. Pool boiling process, which utilizes the latent heat of evaporation, provides a robust and efficient way to efficiently dissipate the excessive heat generated in a small footprint area in particular as seen in CPUs (Central Processing Units), GPUs (Graphics Processing Units), LEDs (Light Emitting Diodes), radars, and other demanding computing, sensing and surveillance electronics. Although boiling process has been studied for over five decades, it has not been yet adapted …

Estimation And Prediction Of The Human Gait Dynamics For The Control Of An Ankle-Foot Prosthesis, Guilherme Aramizo Ribeiro

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

With the growing population of amputees, powered prostheses can be a solution to improve the quality of life for many people. Powered ankle-foot prostheses can be made to behave similar to the lost limb via controllers that emulate the mechanical impedance of the human ankle. Therefore, the understanding of human ankle dynamics is of major significance. First, this work reports the modulation of the mechanical impedance via two mechanisms: the co-contraction of the calf muscles and a change of mean ankle torque and angle. Then, the mechanical impedance of the ankle was determined, for the first time, as a multivariable …

Using Frequency Based Substructuring To Optimize Multi-Axis Resonant Plate Shock Tests, Erica M. Jacobson

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Resonant plate pyroshock tests only offer to test one component axis at a time, while the qualification pyroshock tests often have three single-axis specifications to meet. There is an interest in creating a multi-axis test environment from the single-axis resonant plate parts to save testing time, create a more realistic test environment, and monitor the possibility of an overtest. To investigate this, LaGrange-multiplier frequency based substructuring was implemented to virtually arrange the single-axis resonant plate subsystems into different assembly configurations and mathematically calculate the new assembly dynamics. A shock response spectrum was calculated from the new assembly dynamics through an …

Development Of A Fused Deposition 3d Printed Buoy And Method For Quantifying Wave Tank Reflections, Samantha G. Swartzmiller

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Testing model scale prototypes is integral to the development of wave energy converter (WEC) technology. Model scale WECs are tested in wave tanks where they are subjected to repeatable wave fields. Their presence in water creates radiated waves that eventually reflect off tank walls disrupting the intended wave field. Fabrication of model scale WECs is another developing aspect of tank testing. Often model WECs are built of foam. Additive manufacturing is a promising alternative although the most common method, fused deposition modeling (FDM) 3D printing, does not typically produce waterproof parts. The goals of this work were 1) develop a …