Mechanical Engineering Commons^™

Concepts Learning Using Technology For Rapid Feedback And Student Engagement, John Chen, Jennifer A. Kadlowec, Dexter C. Whittinghill

Mechanical Engineering

In this project our goal is to improve student learning in the foundation mechanics course Statics. In this case improved learning is defined as knowledge retention (durability) and knowledge application in a different environment (transferability). We aim to do this by providing rapid feedback to students of their understanding of key concepts and skills being presented. The feedback system acts as the focal point and catalyst to encourage students to assist each other in correcting misconceptions or deepening each other’s understanding of the topic or skill at hand. Furthermore, the system allows the professor to assess the students’ level of …

Using Technology For Concepts Learning And Rapid Feedback In Statics, John Chen, Jennifer A. Kadlowec, Dexter C. Whittinghill

Mechanical Engineering

In this project our goal is to improve student learning in the foundation mechanics course Statics as well as improve knowledge retention (durability) and knowledge application in a different environment (transferability). We aim to do this by providing rapid feedback to students of their understanding of key concepts and skills being presented. The feedback system acts as the focal point and catalyst to encourage students to assist each other in correcting misconceptions or deepening each other’s understanding of the topic or skill at hand. Furthermore, the system allows the professor to assess the students’ level of comprehension (or misconception) in …

Emerging From Engineering Education – Building A Remotely Operated Submarine, Hong Zhang, Bernard Pietrucha, John Chen

Mechanical Engineering

In spring 2004, the Department of Mechanical Engineering of Rowan University offered a new course called “Emerging Topic – Designing and Building a Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV)”. It is a project-based course where students are required to design, build and operate a submersible with provided materials. This course integrated many engineering aspects into one project and also exposed mechanical engineering students to Mechatronics. The course was welcomed by students and the response from them was quite positive.

Work In Progress: Combining Concept Inventories With Rapid Feedback To Enhance Learning, John Chen, Jennifer Kadlowec, Dexter Whittinghill

Mechanical Engineering

In this project our goal is to adapt the Concept Inventory for frequent classroom use, and to implement it in a system to provide rapid feedback to students of their understanding of key concepts being presented. The feedback system acts as the focal point and catalyst to encourage students, working in pairs, to assist each other in correcting misconceptions or deepening each other’s understanding of the topic at hand. Furthermore, the system allows the professor to assess the students’ level of comprehension (or misconception) in a just-in-time fashion, and thus guides his or her pacing and coverage of the material. …

Laser Scanning Thermal Probe: A Novel Approach To Non-Destructive Evaluation, Jacob Kephart, John Chen, Hong Zhang

Mechanical Engineering

Structuraldefects such as cracks have recently been identifiable through anew nondestructive evaluation (NDE) technique know as sonic IR orthermosonics. However, these defects are depicted through thermal imagining systemas localized "hot spots" indicating a general location of adefect without an accurate portrayal of the dimensions or shapeof the defect. This paper demonstrates a new technique calledLaser Scanning Thermal Probe, LSTP, which utilizes thermography with theuse of heat application in strategic locations to observe spatialheat flow patterns. The LSTP records heat propagation across adefect area previously identified through the thermosonic technique. Thermal gradientswill occur as heat traverses the crack and provide informationto …

Laser Ignition Of Pulverized Coals, John C. Chen, Masayuki Taniguchi, Kiyoshi Narato, Kazuyuki Ito

Mechanical Engineering

We present a novel experiment to study the ignition of pulverized coal. A dilute stream of particles is dropped into a laminar, upward-flow wind tunnel with a quartz test section. The gas stream is not preheated. A single pulse from a Nd:YAG laser is focused through the tunnel and ignites the fuel. The transparent test section and cool walls allow for optical detection of the ignition process. In this article we describe the experiment and demonstrate its capabilities by observing the ignition behavior of spherical, amorphous-carbon particles and two coals: an anthracite are a high-volatile bituminous coal. The ignition behaviors …

A Virtual Reality Environment For Multi-Sensor Data Integration, Scott Papson, Joseph Oagaro, Robi Polikar, John Chen, John L. Schmalzel, Shreekanth Mandayam

Mechanical Engineering

Virtual reality (VR) has typically found applications in industrial design, rapid prototyping and advanced scientific visualization. In this paper, we investigate the use of VR for multi-sensor data integration. We attempt to demonstrate that multiple data types-graphical, functional and measurement can be effectively combined inside of a VR environment. This platform allows the user to rapidly sift through large and complex data sets and isolate features of interest. Furthermore, VR environments can be made to evolve based on system data and user input-this provides the ability to develop scenarios that can be used to make informed decisions. Results demonstrating the …

Digital Imaging Experiences For Undergraduate Engineering Students, Kauser Jahan, John Chen, Shreekanth Mandayam, Robert Krchnavek, Beena Sukumaran, Yusuf Mehta, Jennifer Kadlowec, Paris Von Lockette, Robi Polikar

Mechanical Engineering

Our project is an effort by a multidisciplinary team of engineering faculty members at Rowan University to integrate digital imaging technology (DIT) into the undergraduate engineering curriculum. It builds upon the experience and interest of faculty to promote new topics and innovative methods of teaching. The work is an effort to provide students with the skills directly relevant to the evolving needs of the industry and the marketplace. Projects involve the development of digital imaging curriculum and focus on the creation of a leading edge digital imaging laboratory/studio to facilitate the use of nontraditional learning approaches that encourage interactive learning, …

Volumetric Growth Of Thermoelastic Materials And Mixtures, Stephen M. Klisch, Anne Hoger

Mechanical Engineering

The proteoglycan and collagen constituents of cartilage serve distinct mechanical roles. Changes to the mechanical loading conditions during cartilage growth lead to changes in the concentrations of these molecules and, consequently, the mechanical properties. The main aim of this paper is to present a theory that can describe the mechanical aspects of cartilage growth. The model for cartilage growth is based on a general thermomechanical theory for a mixture of an arbitrary number of growing elastic constituents and an inviscid fluid. Our development of a growth mixture theory is accomplished in two steps. First, the thermodynamics of growing elastic materials …

A Growth Mixture Theory For Cartilage With Application To Growth-Related Experiments On Cartilage Explants, Stephen M. Klisch, Silvia S. Chen, Robert L. Sah, Anne Hoger

Mechanical Engineering

In this paper, we present a growth mixture model for cartilage. The main features of this model are illustrated in a simple equilibrium boundary-value problem that is chosen to illustrate how a mechanical theory of cartilage growth may be applied to growth-related experiments on cartilage explants. The cartilage growth mixture model describes the independent growth of the proteoglycan and collagen constituents due to volumetric mass deposition, which leads to the remodeling of the composition and the mechanical properties of the solid matrix. The model developed here also describes how the material constants of the collagen constituent depend on a scalar …

Body Concept Design For Pedestrian Head Impact, S. Iskander Farooq, Peter J. Schuster

Mechanical Engineering

In 1996, the European Enhanced Vehicle Safety Committee, Working Group 17 (EEVC WG17) proposed -a set of impact procedures to evaluate the pedestrian injury risk of vehicle fronts. These procedures address three aspects of pedestrian protection -head impacts, lower limb impacts, and thigh impacts -through vehicle subsystem tests. The criteria assessed during these impact tests are affected by the design of most parts of the vehicle body front-end.

One of the challenges to vehicle design introduced by these tests is the impact of an adult pedestrian headform to the top of the fender. The proposed acceptance level for Head Injury …

Vibration-Based Crack Diagnosis In Rotating Shafts During Acceleration Through Resonance, Jerzy T. Sawicki, Xi Wu, George Y. Baaklini, Andrew L. Gyekenyesi

Mechanical Engineering

The dynamic response of a cracked Jeffcott rotor passing through the critical speed with constant acceleration is investigated analytically and numerically. The nonlinear equations of motion are derived and include a simple hinge model for small cracks and Mayes' modified funciton for deep cracks. The equations of motion are integrated in the rotating coordinate system. The angle between the crack centerline and the shaft vibaiton (whirl) vector is used to determine the clsoing and opening of the crack, allowing one to study the dynamic response with and without the rotor weight dominance. Vibration phase response is used as one of …

The Biomechanical Aspects Of Pedestrian Protection, Krishnakanth Aekbote, Peter Schuster, Sunny Kankanala, Srini Sundararajan, Stephen W. Rouhana

Mechanical Engineering

In this paper a biomechanical basis for pedestrian protection is presented based on reviews of epidemiological and biomechanical studies conducted over the last three decades. Epidemiological studies reveal the nature and cause of pedestrian crashes and injuries sustained in the field. The various factors that influence pedestrian crashes and fatalities such as pedestrian demographics, time and location of crash, type of vehicles involved and their design characteristics, impact speeds, and nature and severity of injuries sustained are covered in the epidemiology section. The biomechanical studies identify the injury mechanisms and the biomechanical tolerances. Several biomechanical studies that attempt to identify …

Focus On The Job In Hand: When Usb 2.0 Technology Is Employed In Test And Measurement Signal Analyzer Hardware, Life Can Become So Much More Simple, Charles Birdsong, Dave Galyardt, James Zhuge

Mechanical Engineering

No abstract provided.

A Mixture Of Elastic Materials With Different Constituent Temperatures And Internal Constraints, Stephen M. Klisch

Mechanical Engineering

A novel treatment of the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics and the development of general thermomechanical constraints are introduced for a mixture of two elastic materials in which the constituents may have different temperatures. First, a homothermal quasi-static process at a common mixture temperature is introduced. Part I of the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics is invoked to assert that the Clausius integrals are path-independent, which leads to a prescription, or an identification, of the partial entropy functions. Then, two assumptions are introduced that establish the values of the partial entropy functions for general processes, including those for which the constituent temperatures …

Development And Application Of Streakline Visualization In Hypervelocity Flows, P. Lemieux, H. G. Hornung

Mechanical Engineering

A method for visualizing streaklines in hypervelocity flows has been developed. The method uses the high temperatures produced in hypervelocity flows to ablate small amounts of sodium deposited onto a wire stretched across the flow and to broaden the lines in the sodium spectrum. By using a dye laser, tuned to a wavelength close to one of the sodium D-lines, as the light source in shadowgraph or Schlieren visualization, streaklines seeded with sodium become visible through absorption and/or enhanced refractivity. The technique has been used to investigate the stability of the shear layer produced by the curved bow shock on …

A Venture Capital Fund For Undergraduate Engineering Students At Rowan University, Anthony J. Marchese, John C. Chen, John L. Schmalzel

Mechanical Engineering

All engineering students at Rowan University are required to take the 8-semester Engineering Clinic sequence wherein multidisciplinary student teams engage in semester-long design projects. In addition to projects that are funded by local industry, faculty research grants or departmental budgets, a Venture Capital Fund has been created, which is specifically ear-marked for the development of original student inventions. Funding of up to $2500 per student team per semester is competitively awarded based on student-generated proposals to the Venture Capital Fund, which has been created through a series of grants from the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance (NCIIA). To qualify …

A Theory Of Volumetric Growth For Compressible Elastic Biological Materials, Stephen M. Klisch, Timothy J. Van Dyke, Anne Hoger

Mechanical Engineering

A general theory of volumetric growth for compressible elastic materials is presented. The authors derive a complete set of governing equations in the present configuration for an elastic material undergoing a continuous growth process. In particular, they obtain two constitutive restrictions from a work-energy principle. First, the authors show that a growing elastic material behaves as a Green-elastic material. Second, they obtain an expression that relates the stress power due to growth to the rate of energy change due to growth. Then, the governing equations for a small increment of growth are derived from the more general theory. The equations …

Automatic Compact Disc Transfer For Quality Assurance Testing, Ravi P. Ramachandran, John Chen, Linda M. Head, John L. Schmalzel, Hampton C. Gabler

Mechanical Engineering

The purpose of this project was to design, build and test a low cost prototype that transfers compact discs (CDs) from a spindle to a computer based testing station. This will speed up the CD production/testing interface and eliminate the need for manual operation. Along with a heavy product design technical component, the project included a real life educational experience for the four students who got credit for a one year advanced senior project. Various designs were considered and the optimal design (based on cost and performance) was prototyped.

Shock Layer Instability Near The Newtonian Limit Of Hypervelocity Flows, H. G. Hornung, P. Lemieux

Mechanical Engineering

The curved bow shock in hypersonic flow over a blunt body generates a shear layer with smoothly distributed vorticity. The vorticity magnitude is approximately proportional to the density ratio across the shock, which may be very large in hypervelocity flow, making the shear layer unstable. A computational study of the instability reveals that two distinct nonlinear growth mechanisms occur in such flows: First, the vortical structures formed in the layer move supersonically with respect to the flow beneath them and form shock waves that reflect from the body and reinforce the structures. Second, the structures deform the bow shock, forming …

An Electronically Tunable Resonator For Noise Control, Charles Birdsong, Clark J. Radcliffe

Mechanical Engineering

Many engineering systems create unwanted noise that can be reduced by the careful application of engineering noise controls. When this noise travels down tubes and pipes, a tuned resonator can be used to muffle noise escaping from the tube. The classical examples are automobile exhaust and ventilation system noise. In these cases where a narrow frequency band of noise exists, a traditional engineering control consists of adding a tuned Helmholtz resonator to reduce unwanted tonal noise by reflecting it back to the source (Temkin, 1981). As long as the frequency of the unwanted noise falls within the tuned resonator frequency …

A New Portable, Pc Based, Usb Powered Dynamic Signal Analyzer, Charles Birdsong, George Ma, James Nieters, Justin Tang, Caine Yu

Mechanical Engineering

A new USB powered portable 4-channel real time Dynamic Signal Analyzer and its automotive applications are described. The design and architecture lend themselves to real time NVH measurements and analysis in the field, in-vehicle or on production lines. Built-in signal conditioning provides for direct sensor power while the embedded DSP provides for signal processing on-board. Performance and implementation of FFT, digital filters and order analyses are presented.

Hide Glue Applicator, Chris Campo, Benjamin Carrasco, Elias Saliba

Mechanical Engineering

This study investigates the challenges inherent in applying hide glue in the crafting of violin and other stringed instruments. Hide glue, derived from animal collagen and protein, is essential for creating durable bonds that allow for necessary adjustments during fabrication. However, its meticulous heating and maintenance requirements pose logistical obstacles for luthiers lacking viable alternatives. To tackle this issue comprehensively, our project comprises several key components.

Initially, we conducted an in-depth analysis of the hide glue application process, delineating procedural steps and techniques to establish our design criteria and constraints. This foundational understanding formed the basis for further exploration. Additionally, …

A Comparison Of Two Actuators For A Semi-Active Helmholtz Resonator, Charles Birdsong, Clark J. Radcliffe

Mechanical Engineering

Two electro-mechanical actuators are examined for a semi-active Helmholtz resonator acoustic device. The device is used to reflect narrow band noise back to the source in an acoustic duct. The controller and actuator are used to tune the system on-line allowing optimum performance over a range of operating conditions. Actuator. dynamics play an important role in the controller design and the operation of the device. Two variations of an electro-mechanical actuator are considered here. The first uses a dual voice coil speaker with local feedback compensation and the second uses the same speaker without the compensation. It is shown that …

A Growth Mixture Theory For Cartilage, Stephen M. Klisch, Robert L. Sah, Anne Hoger

Mechanical Engineering

In this paper we present a model of growth for cartilaginous tissues in which there exists a saturated solid matrix composed of multiple constituents that may grow and remodel independently of each other. Klisch and Hoger recently developed a general theory of volumetric growth for a mixture of ν-1 growing elastic materials and an inviscid fluid, which included a treatment of two special types of internal constraints that are relevant to cartilage. Here, that theory is specialized to construct a cartilage growth model. This theory allows the constituents of the solid matrix to grow independently of each other, and can …

Development And Validation Of A Pedestrian Lower Limb Non-Linear 3-D Finite Element Model, Peter Schuster, Gopal Jayaraman

Mechanical Engineering

Lower limb injury is becoming an increasingly important concern in vehicle safety for both occupants and pedestrians. To enable vehicle manufacturers to better understand the biomechanical effects of design changes, it is deemed beneficial to employ a biomechanically fidelic finite element model of the human lower limb.

The model developed in this study includes long bones (tibia, fibula, femur) and flat bone (patella) as deformable bodies. The pelvis and foot bones are modeled as rigid bodies connected to the femur and tibia/fibula via rotational spring-dashpots. The knee is defined by scanned bone surface geometry and is surrounded by the menisci, …

Preliminary Design Of An Electrodynamic Balance For Single Particle Analysis, C. Bobcowski, J. Costa, S. Shaw, R. Zucal, J. Schmalzel, R. Ordonez, John Chen

Mechanical Engineering

An electrodynamic chamber (EDC) is a device that controls the electrodynamic field surrounding a single particle. By suspending the particle at a fixed point in space, various measurements can be made to determine thermodynamic properties of the particle. This paper describes the preliminary engineering development of an EDC for combustion research at Rowan University.

A Special Theory Of Biphasic Mixtures And Experimental Results For Human Annulus Fibrosus Tested In Confined Compression, Stephen M. Klisch, Jeffrey C. Lotz

Mechanical Engineering

A finite deformation mixture theory is used to quantify the mechanical properties of the annulus fibrosus using experimental data obtained from a confined compression protocol. Certain constitutive assumptions are introduced to derive a special mixture of an elastic solid and an inviscid fluid, and the constraint of intrinsic incompressibility is introduced in a manner that is consistent with results obtained for the special theory. Thirty-two annulus fibrosus specimens oriented in axial (n = 16) and radial (n = 16) directions were obtained from the middle-lateral portion of intact intervertebral discs from human lumbar spines and tested in a stress-relaxation protocol. …

Technology In Engineering Education: What Do The Faculty Know (And Want) Anyway?, John C. Chen, Michael Ellis, Jason Lockhart, Sameer Hamoush, Catherine E. Brawner

Mechanical Engineering

We have conducted a survey of engineering faculty at the eight SUCCEED coalition universities to identify the training needs and present levels of experience with various technologies. The results of that survey are presented in this paper.

The most surprising finding from the survey is that, despite the wide differences in the Coalition’s colleges of engineering (in size, student demographics, and research-teaching emphasis, for example), the survey results are similar for all campuses. This is important in that it implies that the survey results may be widely applicable to other universities, even given the disparate state of technology integration and …

Internally Constrained Mixtures Of Elastic Continua, Stephen M. Klisch

Mechanical Engineering

A treatment of internally constrained mixtures of elastic continua at a common temperature is developed. Internal constraints involving the deformation gradient tensors and the common mixture temperature are represented by a constraint manifold, and an internally constrained mixture of elastic continua is associated with each unique equivalence class of unconstrained mixtures. The example of intrinsic incompressibility of each constituent first proposed by Mills is discussed.