Mechanical Engineering Commons^™

Mems 411: Heavy Cart Ramp Assistant, Caelyn Walton-Macaulay, Eniya Jaber, Nashleen Salazar Rodriguez

Mechanical Engineering Design Project Class

Some experiments in Prof. Kathy Flores’s lab use argon gas, which is stored in a
big tank. A scale is used to determine how much gas is left in the tank.
To get the tank onto the scale, a person must roll it up a short, fairly steep ramp
onto the scale platform. There is a ramp on the other side of the scale too, so
overshooting the platform causes the ramp to crash into the wall (the lab has taped a foam bumper onto the wall to mitigate this). Once finished, the cart is rolled
back down the ramp, …

Mems 411: 3d Clay Printer, Nanami Mezaki, Isabelle Sasser, Garrett Radtke, Juliana Bush

Mechanical Engineering Design Project Class

The Washington University School of Architecture has a class called Digital Ceramics, that utilizes a 3D Printer that prints clay instead of plastic filament. Students use this device to make art projects. As interesting as this device is, it isn’t without problems. Our team decided to tackle some of the problems involved which we recognized to be: long set-up and tear-down times, and unsuccessful prints due to nozzle falling out.

Mems 411: Dialysqueeze, Ranch Kimball, Maeve Lomax, Tyler Carlson

Mechanical Engineering Design Project Class

Design a device to reduce occupational fatigue injuries suffered by nurses who must manually clamp and unclamp tubing for dialysis machines. This device was designed for MEMS 411 Senior Design.

Mems 411: Bamboo Clamping Device, Grace Chen, Anya Gupta, Yosef Weiss

Mechanical Engineering Design Project Class

The objective of this design project was to create an automatic clamping machine to
keep bamboo bundles tight during lashing. Currently, manual clamping and lashing
of bamboo require simultaneous user effort, posing challenges in terms of efficiency
and safety. Our project introduces a mechanical and automatic clamping tool,
designed to significantly alleviate the physical strain on users and enhance overall
safety. This report details two primary designs of solutions to this problem. The
first is a motor-tightened hose clamp controlled via a three-way switch. The second
design is a claw clamp with an inflatable pouch used to pin the bamboo …

Mems 411: Robot Mini Golf - Striker, Jasmine Davy, Maya Charak, Ilias Bouchibti

Mechanical Engineering Design Project Class

The goal of this project was to design a remote-controlled device that is able to putt and chip a golf ball to achieve several obstacles. This project was designed using the guidelines for the ASME design challenge. The guidelines for this challenge required that the striker fit in a half-meter box, have the capacity to both putt and chip a ball, and be able to overcome obstacles, such as getting up a half pipe onto an elevated surface, clear a 3” hoop, and traverse an inclined ramp. These guidelines had to be met while maintaining a budget of $400.

Mems 411: Mini-Golf Robot Vehicle, Catherine Huang, Shicheng Li, Colin Chen, Maximilian Li

Mechanical Engineering Design Project Class

The primary objective of the project is to develop a remote-controlled vehicle capable of completing a round of mini golf as part of the ASME Student Design Competition. The vehicle’s functionalities are categorized into driving and golf-ball striking. Our group is specifically responsible for the former aspect.

The remote-controlled vehicle is expected to traverse through the designated competition field and exhibit the ability to maneuver between and over obstacles, including a high wall and a low platform. Our design should adhere to the competition regulations set forth by ASME SDC, which include specific criteria for the vehicle such as size …

Mems 411: Motorized Striker, Joseph Crossin, Joana Hadzhilazova, Connor Petersen, Vyas Venkataraman

Mechanical Engineering Design Project Class

This report follows the design and prototyping process for Group B5’s Senior Mechanical Engineering Design Project. Group B5 was tasked with designing a motorized golf striker to perform in the ASME design challenge. This report lays out the progression of the design process beginning with Problem Understanding, then Concept Generation, Concept Selection, Concept Embodiment, Design Refinement, and concludes with an assessment of the final prototype.

Mems 411: Pinch Clamp Clipper, Mackenzie Molina, Jaimie Lin, Oliver Avery

Mechanical Engineering Design Project Class

The purpose of this project was to design a device to take stress off the CMC thumb joint when applying pinch clamps to dialysis tubing. The motivation was to reduce the risk of osteoarthritis in renal care nurses. Sydney Livermore, an OT student at McMaster University, identified that nurses who had to routinely clip pinch clamps on dialysis tubes were at risk of developing osteoarthritis in their CMC joints. She asked us to design a device that could clip the pinch clamps while reducing the force required to do so. The device needed to be able to clip the clamps …

Mems 411: Medical Clamp, Edis Skampo, Rodery Gonzalez, Sokcheatra Samrith, Sean Lucas

Mechanical Engineering Design Project Class

The goal of the team was to design a plier that would be able to clamp down a medical clamp used for a dialysis machine. Ideally the plier should be able to clamp down 3 medical clamps on three separate dialysis tubes in less than 5 seconds, reduce the force required to clamp those clamps by 4 times, and weigh less than 113 grams. The product design was broken down into 3 separate concepts, with four options for each component. The most preferable option of each component was chosen and several risk factors were taken in consideration so that the …

Mems 411: In-Beach Pressure Sampler Design Report, Alex Mccormick, Mark Lipkin, Nirvan Patel Masini, Austin Bick

Mechanical Engineering Design Project Class

Claudio would like a device to put into the beach sand, around nest-depth, to
measure and record data that can determine pressure as waves crash and recede.

Mems 411: Mini-Golf Robot, Matthew J. Sullivan, Jack Nanez, William Urdahl, Eli Cohen

Mechanical Engineering Design Project Class

The following report details the design and construction of a mini-golf robot over
three months. The robot was designed under the standards provided by the
ASME Fall 2023 Design Challenge. The robot would need to traverse the mini-golf
course, completing it in under 10 minutes with the assistance of an attached striker
mechanism. It was necessary that the robot could position itself precisely with
respect to the goofball, while also staying stationary while striking the object. The
robot design timeline followed the guidelines of the engineering design process, with
concept generation, concept selection, prototype embodiment and design refinement
all playing …

Mems 411: Heavy Cart Ramp Assistant, Ethan Current, Kevin Xiong, Nick Zanchi

Mechanical Engineering Design Project Class

Dr. Katharine Flores has a heavy Argon tank that needs to be put on a scale and wants a device that a single person can operate to assist them in that task.

Calculating The Difference In Stiffness Of Living T Cells Through Micropipette Aspiration, Minju Lee

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) accounted for 17.9 million deaths in 2019, with fibrosis contributing to nearly a quarter of these fatalities [1,2]. Fibrosis, characterized by excessive connective tissue formation, has been strongly linked to T cells, essential components of the immune system. This study explores the mechanisms of T cell activation and the subsequent changes in biophysical properties like diameter, stiffness, and elasticity, aiming to develop therapeutic strategies for fibrosis-related diseases, including CVD. Utilizing the micropipette aspiration technique, we accurately assessed T cell stiffness and observed a change in bulk cell stiffness upon activation. The results demonstrated increased fluid-like behavior in …

Performance And Emissions Study Of N+3 And N+4 Engine Models With Several Fuel Types Using Npss, Abel Solomon

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

The aviation industry is known to be one of the major contributors to greenhouse gases accounting for 4.9% of the global greenhouse emissions. With the ever-increasing threat of climate change to the overall survival of the planet, the exploration of new technologies and alternative energy sources that minimize greenhouse gas emissions are of paramount importance. In this regard, the development of propulsion systems well suited for the performance and emissions requirements of future commercial aircraft plays a crucial role. This thesis investigates N+3 and N+4 technology-level propulsion systems that are proposed by NASA as possible propulsion systems for advanced single-aisle …

Jme 4110: Upgraded Refrigeration Door Cycling System, Keenan Bland, Kelvin Woods, Tyler Mclaughlin

Washington University / UMSL Mechanical Engineering Design Project JME 4110

This project focuses on improvements to a door cycling system. Both a fortified rope for the pulley system, ensuring extended operation, and the integration of a support track. This track is designed to bolster the clevis linked to an air piston that facilitates smooth piston rod travel without deflection. With these advancements, our door cycling system attains a new level of reliability, durability and functionality.

Jme 4110: Door Cycling Station, Briana Kagy, Alexander Clark, William Todd, Seth Flamm

Washington University / UMSL Mechanical Engineering Design Project JME 4110

The objective of this project was to design and build a door cycling station to be used for fatigue testing commercial refrigerator doors, including the door gaskets, hinges, and handles. The system must be low maintenance and reliable for at least two million cycles, and it must fit within the provided budget. The design concept includes a rodless pneumatic cylinder and a system of wear-resistant ropes, eyebolts, and pulleys.

Jme 4110: Automated Railway Decoupler, Optimized, Robert Murphy, Grace Stonner, Adam Young, Matt Stokes

Washington University / UMSL Mechanical Engineering Design Project JME 4110

Disconnecting freight cars from one another in trains that may be many thousands of feet long involves the dangerous and inefficient operation of manual decoupling. We have produced a system that enables freight cars to disconnect remotely, streamlining rail operations and boosting efficiency.

Jme 4110: Gearbox Design, Nichols Drabb, Steven Nelson, Brian Sniezak

Washington University / UMSL Mechanical Engineering Design Project JME 4110

This team was tasked with designing or replacing an external gearbox for an electric-motor driven train car. A suitable replacement was sought for, but none was found; so, a complex set of gears, or compound gear train was designed. This gear train allowed for a smaller electric motor to drive the large rail car at appreciable speeds.

Engineered Material Systems For Mimicking Tissue And Disease, Margrethe Ruding

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

This thesis comprises two studies involving design and application of soft material systems. The goal of the first study was to design, fabricate, and characterize hydrogel lattice structures with consistent, controllable, anisotropic mechanical properties. Lattices, based on four types of unit cells (cubic, diamond, vintile, and Weaire-Phelan), were printed using stereolithography (SLA) of polyethylene glycol diacrylate (PEGDA). In order to create structural anisotropy in the lattices, unit cell design files were scaled in one direction by a factor of two in each layer and then printed. The mechanical properties of the scaled lattices were measured in shear and compression and …

Three-Component Composite Phase-Change Material For Thermal Regulation, Bidisha Ojha

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

Phase change materials can increase the efficiency of many energy-intensive applications, such as solar power plants, solar heating and cooling systems, heat recovery systems, photovoltaic electricity systems, and Earth satellite systems. In several proposed thermal management systems for high power electronic equipment, PCMs change phase and absorb latent heat at peak energy loads during operation, then dissipate this energy later to prevent overheating. More specifically, composite PCM’s, consisting of an organic material (e.g., paraffin) and an inorganic material (e.g., metallic alloys or salt hydrates), provide a superior balance of thermal conductivity and latent heat for thermal management. Organic PCMs have …

Mems 411: Rock Collection Rover, Group, Kyler Schaetzle, Grant Ryals, Griffin Ancipink, Jackson Powell

Mechanical Engineering Design Project Class

The following report has been prepared for MEMS 411 Mechanical Engineering Design Project and contains information pertaining to the selected project, the Rocker Collecting Rover Contest project. The project required the team to construct a battery-powered, remote-controlled rover that is operated with a first-person camera and can collect “rocks” and hold them off the ground without damaging them. The rover will compete in a competition against all other groups to see which group can collect the most rocks in a five-minute period.

Mems411: We Rock N’ Roverin', Amy L. Xue, Ash Caine, Emily Ma

Mechanical Engineering Design Project Class

The goal of this project is to create a remotely-controlled rover that can reliably collect dice. The customer, Chiamaka Asinugo, requires a device that meets the needs of a potential challenge that the WURocketry Team might face in future “NASA Student Launch” competitions. These needs include the rover being able to fit into a theoretical payload cylinder that is 5.36" in diameter and 8.5" long and the rover weighing less than 3.5 lbs.

Mems 411: Graphene Flake Finder, Calvin Ball, Jonathon Hansen, Ivan Jaramillo

Mechanical Engineering Design Project Class

Graphene is an allotrope of carbon, a monolayer of carbon atoms arranged in a honeycomb-like structure. It is a zero-gap semiconductor, has a high opacity, has a large thermal conductivity, and has the largest intrinsic tensile strength known to humankind so far. It is not yet utilized in the industry as graphene is not efficient or cost-effective to mass produce. The production of graphene is done by flakes with tape at Dr. Erik Henrikson’s lab. We will make a motorized microscope stage that helps automate the location identification of graphene flakes that have been mechanically exfoliated onto silicon wafer chips. …

Mems 411: Rock-Collecting Rover, Nathan Fetchel, Derek Bivins, Emerson Hatina

Mechanical Engineering Design Project Class

This project was a MEMS 411 Senior Design project completed for a potential future WashU Rocketry Team rover contest. The rover was required to be battery operated, controlled by an RC transmitter/receiver, and utilize micro-servo motors for actuation. The rover was required to be navigated via 1st person camera. The rover needed to weigh less than 3.5 lbs, and able to fit into a 5.36" diameter and 8.5" long cylinder. The "rocks" needed to be stored inside the rover and to be collected without using adhesive.

Mems 411: Dog Mobility Aid, Grace Vinson, Amber Griffith, Thomas Liu

Mechanical Engineering Design Project Class

Henry, an 8-year-old dog, suffers from an angular limb deformity. We created a mobility aid for Henry to improve his quality of life. This device functions similarly to a crutch attached to the affected arm to eliminate compressive forces on his metacarpals.

Mems 411 - Prosthetic Arm Group W, Spencer Gladstone, Lila Dickstein, Nate Bloedorn, Matthew Riak

Mechanical Engineering Design Project Class

The customer, Ilana, sought to find a prosthetic arm to replace her current static
prosthetic. She has gotten used to using a prosthetic with no variable grips and
a somewhat heavy weight that can be a burden when dealing with her child or
day to day tasks. The design described in this report is an electronically powered
prosthetic that used a button to change between open and closed grips.

Mems 411: The Rock Collecting Rover Design Project, Henry Collins, Sam Mattecheck, Connor Burke

Mechanical Engineering Design Project Class

The rock collecting over project challenged groups to construct a small,, remote controlled rover that is able to move and collect dice.

Mems 411: Remotely Operated Rock Collecting Vehicle, Perry Brody, Toby Utterback, Annie Mascot, Bianca Lang

Mechanical Engineering Design Project Class

We were tasked with designing a remote-controlled vehicle that is capable of collecting and holding “rocks”. The device had to be battery powered and operated by an RC transmitter/receiver. The physical constraints required the vehicle to fit within the designated 5.25’’ diameter and 8.5’’ long cylinder. The goal was to maximize the number of "rocks" collected in 5 minutes.

Mems 411: Cnc Fabric Dispenser, Hayato Takai, Lizbet Suarez Mendoza, Jp Bermudez, Jeffrey Dai

Mechanical Engineering Design Project Class

This project aims to help Mary Ruppert-Stroescu with her zero-waste fashion project. The goal of this tool is to help Mary efficiently lay down fabric across a sheet of sticky paper to make a yard of reused fabric. The goal of our team was to create a machine that can work alongside Mary, rather than having her spend all her time at the machine. We wanted to make a machine that can work independently of Mary, so that she can focus her time on other things.

100s of lbs of fabric waste is part of American today. Mary's mission is …

Mems 411: Air Capture Dynamic Seal, Erik Truitt, Thomas Rexing, Cole Kelez, Hernan Perez

Mechanical Engineering Design Project Class

For the DAC (direct air capture) machine, a CO₂ collecting machine, it needs a seal that allows rotation while still being airtight. Currently, a liquid seal is used but is having issues with contamination and evaporation.