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Me-Em 2008 Annual Report, Department Of Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics, Michigan Technological University

Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Annual Reports

Table of Contents

• Engineering Education
• Students
• Alumni
• Resources
• Graduates
• Publications
• ME-EM Community

The Role Of Diffusive Transport On Low And Intermediate Temperature Hydrocarbon Oxidation: Closed Reactor Experiments Using Equimolar N-Butane + Oxygen Premixtures At Reduced-Gravity, Howard Pearlman, Michael R. Foster

Faculty Publications - Biomedical, Mechanical, and Civil Engineering

Experiments were conducted in a closed, spherical reactor aboard NASA's KC-135 reduced-gravity aircraft using an equimolar n-C4H10 + 0 2 premixture ( Le = 1.3) at subatmospheric · pressures to compliment model predictions and further explore the reactive-diffusive structure of cool flames and ignitions. The pressure and radial temperature histories were recorded and analyzed for different initial conditions. In addition, the visible light emission from excited formaldehyde was recorded using an intensified video camera and was observed to be radially symmetric in all cases. Unexpectedly, however, the measured temperature distributions during (and after the passage of) the cool flames and …

Deploying Mobile Pv Emergency Power System In A Disaster, Florida Solar Energy Center, William Young

FSEC Energy Research Center®

Disasters can be as destructive as Hurricane Katrina, leaving several hundred-thousand people homeless, or as minor as an afternoon thunderstorm that brings down local power lines to your home. After a disaster, utility services may be damaged or destroyed, leaving people without water, sanitation, communication and electricity. In response to a disaster, first responders are deployed with life supporting resources, such as water, food, and medical supplies. Energy resources are often lacking, making recovery efforts difficult in our high-tech world of cell phones, television, computers, refrigerators and many other electronic devices.

After a disaster, the long time tradition used to …

Using Show Homes (And Sponsorships) To Persuade Commissioning Relevancy And Factory Crafted High Performance Modular Homes, Florida Solar Energy Center, Stephanie Thomas-Rees

FSEC Energy Research Center®

The International Builders' Show (IBS) sponsored by the National Association of Home Builders is a venue attracting over 100,000 builders and building related professionals every year. The increased attendances each year improves the educational sessions, vendor participation and "live" home construction demonstrations. The "live" home demonstrations are a great opportunity to integrate high performance construction and commissioning strategies into the marketplace to validate and distinguish products and the show home builders. At this past year's IBS show in February, Palm Harbor Homes built the GenX home that included an installed and operational 4.08kWp photovoltaic system with inverter and back up …

Nebraska Summary: S673 New Holland T6030 Elite Pc, Nebraska Tractor Test Lab

Nebraska Tractor Tests

ABOUT THE TEST REPORT AND USE OF THE DATA The test data contained in this report are a tabulation of the results of a series of tests. Due to the restricted format of these pages, only a limited amount of data and not all of the tractor specifications are included. The full OECD report contains usually about 30 pages of data and specifications. The test data were obtained for each tractor under similar conditions and therefore, provide a means of comparison of performance based on a limited set of reported data. EXPLANATION OF THE TEST PROCEDURES Purpose The purpose of …

Nebraska Summary: S651 Massey Ferguson 8680, Nebraska Tractor Test Lab

Nebraska Tractor Tests

ABOUT THE TEST REPORT AND USE OF THE DATA The test data contained in this report are a tabulation of the results of a series of tests. Due to the restricted format of these pages, only a limited amount of data and not all of the tractor specifications are included. The full OECD report contains usually about 30 pages of data and specifications. The test data were obtained for each tractor under similar conditions and therefore, provide a means of comparison of performance based on a limited set of reported data. EXPLANATION OF THE TEST PROCEDURES Purpose The purpose of …

Morphologies And Kinetics Of A Dewetting Ultrathin Solid Film, Mikhail Khenner

Mathematics Faculty Publications

The surface evolution model based on geometric partial differential equation is used to numerically study the kinetics of dewetting and dynamic morphologies for the localized pinhole defect in the surface of the ultrathin solid film with the strongly anisotropic surface energy. Depending on parameters such as the initial depth and width of the pinole, the strength of the attractive substrate potential and the strength of the surface energy anisotropy, the pinhole may either extend to the substrate and thus rupture the film, or evolve to the quasiequilibrium shape while the rest of the film surface undergoes phase separation into a …

Quantum Dot / Optical Protein Bio-Nano Hybrid System Biosensing, Mark H. Griep

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

The integration of novel nanomaterials with highly-functional biological molecules has advanced multiple fields including electronics, sensing, imaging, and energy harvesting. This work focuses on the creation of a new type of bio-nano hybrid substrate for military biosensing applications. Specifically it is shown that the nano-scale interactions of the optical protein bacteriorhodopsin and colloidal semiconductor quantum dots can be utilized as a generic sensing substrate.

This work spans from the basic creation of the protein to its application in a novel biosensing system. The functionality of this sensor design originates from the unique interactions between the quantum dot and bacteriorhodopsin molecule …

Adaptive Control Of Sinusoidal Brushless Dc Motor Actuators, Liangtao Zhu

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

Electrical Power Assisted Steering system (EPAS) will likely be used on future automotive power steering systems. The sinusoidal brushless DC (BLDC) motor has been identified as one of the most suitable actuators for the EPAS application. Motor characteristic variations, which can be indicated by variations of the motor parameters such as the coil resistance and the torque constant, directly impart inaccuracies in the control scheme based on the nominal values of parameters and thus the whole system performance suffers. The motor controller must address the time-varying motor characteristics problem and maintain the performance in its long service life.

In this …

Enhanced Stability Of A Dewetting Thin Liquid Film In A Single-Frequency Vibration Field, Mikhail Khenner

Mathematics Faculty Publications

Dynamics of a thin dewetting liquid film on a vertically oscillating substrate is considered. We assume moderate vibration frequency and large (compared to the mean film thickness) vibration amplitude. Using the lubrication approximation and the averaging method, we formulate the coupled sets of equations governing the pulsatile and the averaged fluid flows in the film, and then derive the nonlinear amplitude equation for the averaged film thickness. We show that there exists a window in the frequency-amplitude domain where the parametric and shear-flow instabilities of the pulsatile flow do not emerge. As a consequence, in this window the averaged description …

Enhanced Stability Of A Dewetting Thin Liquid Film In A Single-Frequency Vibration Field, Sergey Shklyaev, Mikhail Khenner, Alexei Alabuzhev

Mathematics Faculty Publications

Dynamics of a thin dewetting liquid film on a vertically oscillating substrate is considered. We assume moderate vibration frequency and large (compared to the mean film thickness) vibration amplitude. Using the lubrication approximation and the averaging method, we formulate the coupled sets of equations governing the pulsatile and the averaged fluid flows in the film, and then derive the nonlinear amplitude equation for the averaged film thickness. We show that there exists a window in the frequency-amplitude domain where the parametric and shear-flow instabilities of the pulsatile flow do not emerge. As a consequence, in this window the averaged description …

Enhanced Stability Of A Dewetting Thin Liquid Film In A Single-Frequency Vibration Field, Sergey Shklyaev, Mikhail Khenner, Alexei Alabuzhev

Mathematics Faculty Publications

Dynamics of a thin dewetting liquid film on a vertically oscillating substrate is considered. We assume moderate vibration frequency and large (compared to the mean film thickness) vibration amplitude. Using the lubrication approximation and the averaging method, we formulate the coupled sets of equations governing the pulsatile and the averaged fluid flows in the film, and then derive the nonlinear amplitude equation for the averaged film thickness. We show that there exists a window in the frequency-amplitude domain where the parametric and shear-flow instabilities of the pulsatile flow do not emerge. As a consequence, in this window the averaged description …

Morphologies And Kinetics Of A Dewetting Ultrathin Solid Film, Mikhail Khenner

Mathematics Faculty Publications

The surface evolution model based on geometric partial differential equation is used to numerically study the kinetics of dewetting and dynamic morphologies for the localized pinhole defect in the surface of the ultrathin solid film with the strongly anisotropic surface energy. Depending on parameters such as the initial depth and width of the pinole, the strength of the attractive substrate potential and the strength of the surface energy anisotropy, the pinhole may either extend to the substrate and thus rupture the film, or evolve to the quasiequilibrium shape while the rest of the film surface undergoes phase separation into a …

Time And Pitch Scale Modification: A Real-Time Framework And Tutorial, Dan Barry, David Dorran, Eugene Coyle

Conference papers

A framework is presented which is designed to address the issues related to the real-time implementation of time-scale and pitch scale modification algorithms. This framework can be used as the basis for the developments of applications which allow for a seamless real-time transition between continually varying time scale and pitch-scale parameters which arise as a result of manual or automatic intervention.

Test 1940: John Deere 9230 Diesel, Nebraska Tractor Test Lab

Nebraska Tractor Tests

ABOUT THE TEST REPORT AND USE OF THE DATA The test data contained in this report are a tabulation of the results of a series of tests. Due to the restricted format of these pages, only a limited amount of data and not all of the tractor specifications are included. The full OECD report contains usually about 30 pages of data and specifications. The test data were obtained for each tractor under similar conditions and therefore, provide a means of comparison of performance based on a limited set of reported data. EXPLANATION OF THE TEST PROCEDURES Purpose The purpose of …

Photoelectric Charging By Ultraviolet Light Of A Lunar Dust Simulant In A Microgravity Environment, Microgravity Research Team 2008

Reports and Proposals

No abstract provided.

Mechanical Engineering Education In Irish Context: On Route To Becoming A Chartered Engineer, David Kennedy, Richard Good

Conference Papers

Engineering Education in Ireland and throughout Europe has changed dramatically over the last few years and the pace of change is ensuring that we, the educators are constantly keeping abreast of new developments and benchmarks. Programmes that were based on inputs from learners are now outcomes based and the onus is on the educators and facilitators to provide evidence that graduates are capable of conducting specific tasks, commonly termed as Programme Outcomes. Similarly, greater onus is now placed on the learner to take greater responsibility for their educational development. The new and current process of meeting the educational requirements of …

Motion Control Of An Open Container With Slosh Constraints, Kedar B. Karnik

ETD Archive

General motion control of conveyor belts does not present difficulties. When the conveyor belt carries open containers filled with liquid, significant analysis needs to be carried out to design controllers. The objective of this thesis was to design a control system which will allow an open container filled with liquid to be transferred between two stations as fast as possible and without excessive slosh causing the liquid to spill out of the container. This control problem has applications to industrial processing facilities, where open containers are carried by a conveyor belt. The speed at which the open container can be …

Nonlinear Control Strategy For Advanced Vehicle Thermal Management Systmes, John Wagner, M H. Salah, T H. Mitchell, D M. Dawson

Publications

Advanced thermal management systems for internal combustion engines can improve coolant temperature regulation and servomotor power consumption by better regulating the combustion process with multiple computer controlled electromechanical components. The traditional thermostat valve, coolant pump, and clutch-driven radiator fan are upgraded with servomotor actuators. When the system components function harmoniously, desired thermal conditions can be accomplished in a power efficient manner. In this paper, a comprehensive nonlinear control architecture is proposed for transient temperature tracking. An experimental system has been fabricated and assembled which features a variable position smart valve, variable speed electric water pump, variable speed electric radiator fan, …

Mapping Of Pressure Losses Through Microchannels With Sweeping-Bends Of Various Angle And Radii, Chase Hansel

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

MEMS (Micro Electro Mechanical Systems) have received a great deal of attention in both the research and industrial sectors in recent decades. The broad MEMS category, microfluidics, the study of fluid flow through channels measured on the micrometer scale, plays an important role in devices such as compact heat exchangers, chemical and biological sensors, and lab-on-a-chip devices. Most of the research has been focused on how entire systems operate, both experimentally and through simulation. This paper strives, systematically, to map them through experimentation of the previous to untested realm of pressure loss through laminar square-profile sweeping-bend microchannels. Channels were fabricated …

Simulation Of A Circulating Fluidised Bed Biomass Gasifier Using Aspen Plus: A Performance Analysis, Wayne Doherty, Anthony Reynolds, David Kennedy

Conference Papers

In the near future biomass gasification is likely to play an important role in energy production and conversion. Its application has great potential in the context of climate change mitigation, increasing efficiency and energy security. Atmospheric circulating fluidised bed (CFB) technology was selected for the current study. An original computer simulation model of a CFB biomass gasifier was developed using ASPEN Plus (Advanced System for Process ENgineering Plus). It is based on Gibbs free energy minimisation and the restricted equilibrium method was used to calibrate it against experimental data. This was achieved by specifying the temperature approach for the gasification …

Road Surface Condition Detection And Identification And Vehicle Anti-Skid Control, Maosheng Ye

ETD Archive

Road surface condition is greatly dependent on the surface's friction coefficient. The abrupt change of the coefficient results in variation of wheel slip which likely leads to vehicle instability. Vehicle steering model and the dynamic equations for four-wheel drive vehicle is developed. A new observer, called Extended State Observer (ESO) is used to estimate the longitudinal velocity, lateral velocity and yaw rate, and more importantly an additional quantity known as system dynamics. A trained neural network was employed to help determine the friction coefficient. Fuzzy logic was employed to quickly detect the change of road surface condition and further classify …

A Kinematics Based Tolerance Analysis Of Mechanisms, Shahrbanoo Biabnavi Farkhondeh

ETD Archive

A kinematic based tolerance analysis of mechanisms is presented in this thesis. It is shown that standard kinematic analysis can be used for obtaining closed-form explicit formulations for tolerance analysis of mechanisms. It is proposed that the manufacturing tolerances are accounted for by incorporating fictitious sliding members in the rigid links, thereby allowing them to either "grow" or "shrink" along the lines of their pin connections. The virtual expansions or contractions of these fictitious sliders are captured in the kinematic equations by taking the differentials of the magnitudes of the vectors that define the length of rigid links having dimensional …

Effect Of Axial Oscillation On Performance Of Hydrodynamic Journal Bearings, Thomas Wirsing

ETD Archive

The hydrodynamic coefficients of a journal bearing set with the bearing subjected to axial oscillation are determined in this work. The Navier-Stokes equations were used to account for the axial component of the relative motion between the journal and the bearing. Numerical solution of the Navier-Stokes equations yielded the pressure distribution within the cavity of the bearing. This pressure distribution was then integrated over the surface of the bearing to obtain the two orthogonal force components. The derivatives of these force components were then taken with respect to the displacement and velocity of the journal that are co-linear with these …

Modeling Of Transient Thrust Of A Two Phase Propellant Tank, Karthik Mellechervu

ETD Archive

This thesis develops a model to predict various time-varying quantities associated with the evacuation of a pressurized container through a nozzle. The container is part of a satellite propulsion prototype used to study attitude control. Variables of interest include the thrust and mass of fluid in the tank as functions of time. A mathematical model based on transient expressions for mass and energy conservation is derived for a two-phase system representative of the conditions of the fluid inside the tank

Multiplexed Control Of Smart Structure Using Piezoelectric Actuators, Kumar S. Nale

ETD Archive

Active control of smart structures containing a large number of actuators and sensors presents a tradeoff between increased system performance and the cost and bulk of the required hardware and computational resources. A technique called multiplexed control offers advantages when software and hardware resources are scarce and performance specifications call for a large number of actuators and sensors. In structural control applications, in particular those using smart materials, it is often desirable to increase the number of actuators to enhance controllability.The focus of this research is to demonstrate real-time multiplexing on the hardware side of the actively controlled structure. Multiplexing …

Development Of Effective Balancing Procedure For Ct Scanner, Jeremy David Pettinato

ETD Archive

Since the beginning of medical organizations, engineering departments have introduced new innovative ideas and designs to advance image quality. In the case of a CT scanner, one of the largest and most cost effective ways to achieve superior image quality is through a well balanced rotating array. The focus of this thesis is the development of a balancing procedure which will effectively balance a CT scanner rotating array. Rigid rotor (dynamic) balancing techniques are utilized in order to balance the Philips CT scanner rotor. Upon completion of the dynamic balancing of the CT scanner rotor a new an innovative way …

Health Monitoring Of Cracked Rotor Systems Using External Excitation Techniques, Adam C. Wróblewski

ETD Archive

Cracked rotors present a significant safety and loss hazard in nearly every application of modern turbomachinery. This thesis focuses on the health monitoring, modeling, and analysis of machines with transverse breathing cracks, which open and close due to the self-weight of the rotor. After considering the modeling of cracked rotors, the thesis investigates an active structural health monitoring approach, focusing on the application of an active magnetic actuator to apply a specially designed external force excitation to the rotating shaft. Extensive experimental data has been collected and analyzed utilizing advanced diagnostic techniques. The presented results demonstrate that the use of …

Experimental Test And Cost Analysis Of Residential Solar Water Heaters, Sai Mahesh Dharanikota

ETD Archive

Non renewable energy sources have been diminishing in the recent times.Renewable energy is abundant in nature, but the use of it is very low.Lowering the energy consumption and using renewable energy, thereby decreasing the use of fossil fuels and nuclear energy would have a positive impact on our environment. The use of solar energy as an alternate resource is discussed in this research. The solar water heater is tested for its recovery rates, under normal solar radiation in static testing. The effect of solar radiation in increasing the temperature of water is studied and discussed. The solar water heater is …

Effect Of Adding A Regenerator To Kornhauser's Mit "Two-Space" Test Rig, Praveen Gidugu

ETD Archive

A 3-space solution domain (gas spring + heat exchanger + regenerator) is adapted from the 2-space solution domain (gas spring + heat exchanger) in Kornhauser MIT test rig [25] by modifying the heat exchanger space to include a porous regenerator system. A thermal non-equilibrium porous-media model is employed for the regenerator. Extensive numerical simulations of the fluid flow and heat transfer phenomena under conditions of oscillating pressure and oscillating fluid flow inside the 3-space solution domain were performed using 1-D Sage and 2-D Fluent numerical codes. 3-space results of temperature, pressure and surface heat transfer variations, pressure-volume diagrams, energy conservation …