Mechanical Engineering Commons^™

Run-Out Based Crossed Roller Bearing Life Prediction By Utilization Of Accelerated Testing Approach And Fe Numerical Models, Luca Quagliato, Dongwook Kim, Nara Lee, Soyoung Hwang, Joseph P. Domblesky, Naksoo Kim

Mechanical Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Surface wear and spalling phenomena are the most important factors affecting roller bearing performance and operational lifetime, in terms of number of cycles the bearing can operate. Although bearing life has been traditionally defined by the onset of spalling, as specified by international standard ISO 281, this definition does not always reflect the real operational conditions, since bearing wear can also represent a failure criterion when excessive run-out occurs. In such cases, bearing life needs to be predicted according to the amount of bearing run-out resulting from wear due to load and number of cycles. In the current study, the …

Applied Force And Semg Muscle Activity Required To Operate Pistol Grip Control In An Electric Utility Aerial Bucket, Richard W. Marklin Jr., Jonathaon E. Slightam, Mark L. Nagurka, Trent M. Wolff, Casey D. Garces, Lovely Krishen

Mechanical Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Electric utility line workers report high levels of fatigue in forearm muscles when operating a conventional pistol grip control in aerial buckets. This study measured the applied force and surface electromyographic (sEMG) signals from four upper extremity muscles required to operate the pistol grip control in two tasks. The first task was movement of the pistol grip in six directions (up/down, forward/rearward, clockwise/counter-clockwise), and the second task was movement of the bucket from its resting position on the truck bed to an overhead conductor on top of a 40 ft tall pole. The force applied to the pistol grip was …

Distribution Of Essential Tremor In The Degrees Of Freedom Of The Upper Limb, Adam Charles Pigg

Theses and Dissertations

This study seeks to understand upper limb tremor in subjects with essential tremor (ET). A thorough understanding of tremor distribution will allow for the more effective development of tremor suppression devices, which offer an alternative to current treatments. Previous studies primarily focused on tremor in the hand only. This study seeks to characterize the distribution of tremor throughout the upper limb.We measured tremor in 25 subjects diagnosed with ET using motion capture, which provided displacement information of the limb during multiple postural and kinetic tasks. Inverse kinematics allowed us to analyze the motion capture data in the 7 major degrees …

Deep Visual Gravity Vector Detection For Unmanned Aircraft Attitude Estimation, Gary J. Ellingson, David Wingate, Tim Mclain

Faculty Publications

This paper demonstrates a feasible method for using a deep neural network as a sensor to estimate the attitude of a flying vehicle using only flight video. A dataset of still images and associated gravity vectors was collected and used to perform supervised learning. The network builds on a previously trained network and was trained to be able to approximate the attitude of the camera with an average error of about 8 degrees. Flight test video was recorded and processed with a relatively simple visual odometry method. The aircraft attitude is then estimated with the visual odometry as the state …

Effects Of Support Structure Geometry On Slm Induced Residual Stresses In Overhanging Features, Ryan Baskett

Master's Theses

Selective laser melting (SLM) is a new and rapidly developing manufacturing method for producing full-density, geometrically complex metal parts. The SLM process is time and cost effective for small-scale production; however, wide-spread adoption of this technique is severely limited by residual stresses that can cause large deformations and in-process build failures. The issues associated with residual stress accumulation are most apparent in parts with overhanging features. Due to the complexity of the SLM process, the accumulation of residual stresses is difficult to assess a priori. The deformations and in-process failures caused by residual stress accumulation often lead to an expensive …

Influence Of Slippery Pacemaker Leads On Lead-Induced Venous Occlusion, Sagar Bhatia

Mechanical Engineering Master's Theses

The use of medical devices such as pacemakers and implantable cardiac defibrillators have become commonplace to treat arrhythmias. Pacing leads with electrodes are used to send electrical pulses to the heart to treat either abnormally slow heart rates, or abnormal rhythms. Lead induced vessel occlusion, which is commonly seen after placement of pacemaker or implantable cardiac defibrillators leads, may result in lead malfunction and/or superior vena cava syndrome, and makes lead extraction difficult. The association between the anatomic locations at risk for thrombosis and regions of venous stasis have been reported previously. The computational studies reveal obvious flow stasis in …

Optimization Of The Hot Embossing Parameters And Sintering Characterization For Alumina/Berea Sandstone Sintering, Justin F. Robbins

LSU Master's Theses

The purpose of this study is to investigate the process of hot embossing on alumina based ceramics as a cost-efficient procedure for manufacturing microfluidic testing components. Alumina ceramics were used as an exploratory phase for the final objective of the project, manufacturing of Berea sandstone based ceramic samples. Previous research has shown potential in using hot embossing on Alumina based ceramics; however, complications with extrusion and micro-structure quality were observed. For this reason, the research performed aimed to produce Berea Sandstone based components by first improving upon the embossing quality of alumina ceramics.

The thesis first investigates changes in the …

Augmented Approaches To Engineering, Matthew Gary Booth

Missouri S&T’s Peer to Peer

This paper presents the results of research into the integration and application of augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) systems into the fields of engineering and engineering education. The research discusses the current iterations of these systems, and the programs that are being developed to run on them. Also being discussed is the potential benefits that implementing these systems can give to engineering education by improving spatial skills for use in engineering education and engineering design. This paper also touches on the current state of the AR and VR markets, and their current focus on entertainment based consumer electronics. …

An Analysis Of The Environmental Impact Of Electric Vehicles, Ashley Schmid

Missouri S&T’s Peer to Peer

Electric cars have the reputation as a possible solution to many modern environmental and economic issues. Electric motors have been an interest of many inventors since the 1830s, but fully electric vehicles were not prevalent until 2008 when Tesla Motors released the Roadster. The looming energy crisis is one of the main motivations for the advancement in renewable and alternative fuel technologies, but since the early 60s, it has been the environmental lobby that has been pushing for this change. The environment suffers from industrialized nations as the amount of greenhouse gas emissions reach new heights every year. Filtration systems …

High Resolution Imaging Of The Mitral Valve In The Natural State With 7 Tesla Mri, Sam E. Stephens, Serguei Liachenko, Neil B. Ingels, Jonathan F. Wenk, Morten O. Jensen

Mechanical Engineering Faculty Publications

Imaging techniques of the mitral valve have improved tremendously during the last decade, but challenges persist. The delicate changes in annulus shape and papillary muscle position throughout the cardiac cycle have significant impact on the stress distribution in the leaflets and chords, thus preservation of anatomically accurate positioning is critical. The aim of this study was to develop an in vitro method and apparatus for obtaining high-resolution 3D MRI images of porcine mitral valves in both the diastolic and systolic configurations with physiologically appropriate annular shape, papillary muscle positions and orientations, specific to the heart from which the valve was …

Software For Extracting Deformation Gradient And Stress From Md Simulations: Simulations Using The Charmm Force Field, Mehrdad Negahban, Lili Zhang, Zesheng Zhang, John Jasa, Antoine Jérusalem

Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering: Faculty Publications

Software was developed, and is provided under a general use license, to calculate continuum level deformation gradient and stress for any group of atoms in an MD simulation that uses the Charmm force fields. This software can also calculate the interaction stress applied by one group of atoms on any other group. To obtain deformation gradient and stress, the user needs to provide the selected group(s) of atoms in an atom group identification file, and provide the associated LAMMPS format files and force field parameter file. An example is included to demonstrate the use of the software.

The Subject Librarian Newsletter, Engineering And Computer Science, Fall 2017, Buenaventura "Ven" Basco

Libraries' Newsletters

No abstract provided.

Conditions For Barrel And Clam-Shell Liquid Drops To Move On Bio-Inspired Conical Wires, Cheng Luo, Xiang Wang

Mechanical and Aerospace Faculty Publications - Archive

It has been reported that, in a foggy environment, water drops with either barrel or clam-shell shapes are capable of self-running on conical wire-like structures, such as cactus spines, spider silk, and water striders’ legs. On the other hand, the corresponding moving mechanisms are still not quite understood. For instance, it is unclear under what conditions clam-shell drops would move from the tip towards the root on a conical wire. In this work, based on the balance of forces, we derive conditions for a drop to self-transport towards or away from the root. We find that, although barrel and clam-shell …

Guide To The Richard C. Heyser Collection, College Archives & Special Collections

Collection Guides / Finding Aids

This guide describes the organization and scope of the Richard C. Heyser archival collection, housed within the College Archives & Special Collections at Columbia College Chicago. Richard C. Heyser (1931-1987) was a pioneer in research relating to audio and acoustic measurement techniques.

Skin Deformation Feedback For Force Sensory Substitution In Teleoperation And Virtual Reality Training, Samuel Schorr

Link Foundation Modeling, Simulation and Training Fellowship Reports

For this work, we developed a wearable skin deformation device that is worn on the tip of the finger. The devices have two separate components, the first of which is a finger grounding interface that straps to the medial phalanx. The interface holds a magnetic tracking sensor from an Ascension 3D Guidance trakSTAR system, which provides tracking information about the position and orientation of the fingers in free space at 200 Hz.

Study On The Influence Of Ocean Engineering On The Navigation Safety Of Surrounding Waters, Zhaonan Liu

Maritime Safety & Environment Management Dissertations (Dalian)

No abstract provided.

Effect Of Bottom Friction, Wind Drag Coefficient, And Meteorological Forcing In Hindcast Of Hurricane Rita Storm Surge Using Swan + Adcirc Model, Muhammad K. Akbar, Simbarashe Kanjanda, Abram Musinguzi

Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering Faculty Research

An evaluation of the effect of bottom friction, wind drag coefficient, and meteorological forcing is conducted using a tightly coupled wave and circulation model, SWAN + ADCIRC (i.e., Simulating WAves Nearshore + ADvanced CIRCulation), to hindcast the storm surge of Hurricane Rita (2005). Wind drag coefficient formulations of Powell, Zijlema, and Peng & Li are used to calculate wind stresses. Bottom friction and wind drag coefficients are systematically increased and decreased to quantify their impacts on the hindcast. Different meteorological forcing options are applied to study the effect of wind fields on storm surge development and propagation. Simulated water levels …

Relative Multiplicative Extended Kalman Filter For Observable Gps-Denied Navigation, Daniel P. Koch, David O. Wheeler, Randal Beard, Tim Mclain, Kevin M. Brink

Faculty Publications

This work presents a multiplicative extended Kalman filter for estimating the relative state of a multirotor vehicle operating in a GPS-denied environment. The filter fuses data from an inertial measurement unit and altimeter with relative-pose updates from a keyframe-based visual odometry or laser scan-matching algorithm. Because the global position and heading states of the vehicle are unobservable in the absence of global measurements such as GPS, the filter in this paper estimates the state with respect to a local frame that is colocated with the odometry keyframe. As a result, the odometry update provides nearly-direct measurements of the relative vehicle …

Parallel Computation Using Mems Oscillator-Based Computing System, Xinrui Wang, Ilias Bilionis, Salar Safarkhani

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

In recent years, parallel computing systems such as artificial neural networks (ANNs) have been of great interest. In these systems which emulate the behavior of human brains, the processing is carried out simultaneously. However, it is still a challenging engineering problem to design highly efficient hardware for parallel computing systems. We will study the properties of networks of Microelectromechanical System (MEMS) oscillators to explore their capabilities as parallel computing infrastructure. Furthermore, we simulate the time-variant states of MEMS oscillators network under various initial conditions and performance of certain tasks. Recent theoretical results show that networks of MEMS oscillators have some …

Multiphysics Simulation Of Low-Amplitude Acoustic Wave Detection By Piezoelectric Wafer Active Sensors Validated By In-Situ Ae-Fatigue Experiment, Yeasin Bhuiyan, Victor Giurgiutiu

Faculty Publications

Piezoelectric wafer active sensors (PWAS) are commonly used for detecting Lamb waves for structural health monitoring application. However, in most applications of active sensing, the signals are of high-amplitude and easy to detect. In this article, we have shown a new avenue of using the PWAS transducer for detecting the low-amplitude fatigue-crack related acoustic emission (AE) signals. Multiphysics finite element (FE) simulations were performed with two PWAS transducers bonded to the structure. Various configurations of the sensors were studied by using the simulations. One PWAS was placed near to the fatigue-crack and the other one was placed at a certain …

Jme 4110 Final Design Report - Plant Growth Chamber, Deontez Myers, Chad Szwargulski

Washington University / UMSL Mechanical Engineering Design Project JME 4110

To facilitate study of resource use efficiency in crop plants, it is necessary to pulse-saturate them with certain stable isotopes. This is done by exposing the shoots to gases and the roots to liquid. We were tasked with designing a system to deliver and control this process.

Jme 4110 Seed Cross-Breeze Distance Tester, Ty Krewson, John Jensen, Emily Dahlberg

Washington University / UMSL Mechanical Engineering Design Project JME 4110

Because seeds vary in shape, size, and weight, their behaviors in cross-breezes vary as well. The customer’s laboratory is researching seeds for prairie grasses. Their laboratory currently has data for seed structures; however, data for seed dispersion is needed to provide a better correlation to known environmental and genetic factors such as precipitation and DNA changes. The Seed Cross-Breeze Distance Tester is a controlled chamber designed to test the distance a seed will travel in a user-specified windspeed.

Past, Present And Future Of Surgical Meshes: A Review, Karen Baylón, Perla Rodríguez-Camarillo, Alex Elías-Zúñiga, Jose Antonio Díaz-Elizondo, Robert Gilkerson, Karen Lozano

Mechanical Engineering Faculty Publications

Surgical meshes, in particular those used to repair hernias, have been in use since 1891. Since then, research in the area has expanded, given the vast number of post-surgery complications such as infection, fibrosis, adhesions, mesh rejection, and hernia recurrence. Researchers have focused on the analysis and implementation of a wide range of materials: meshes with different fiber size and porosity, a variety of manufacturing methods, and certainly a variety of surgical and implantation procedures. Currently, surface modification methods and development of nanofiber based systems are actively being explored as areas of opportunity to retain material strength and increase biocompatibility …

Jme 4110 Phenode Camera Arm Design Project, Kelsey M. Wortmann, Paul Masnica, Matthias Sommer

Washington University / UMSL Mechanical Engineering Design Project JME 4110

The goal of this design project was to create an extendable camera arm capable of attaching to the shell of the PheNode in-field apparatus created by researchers at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center. The camera arm extends 36 inches in length, can rotate 180 degrees, and successfully holds a camera for plant imaging with minimal vibrations. We have designed an affordable camera arm that is stable and meets the design parameters given. Our design process is documented in the following report.

Jme 4110 Seed Aerodynamics, Kristin Gonzalez, Vladimir Sidorov

Washington University / UMSL Mechanical Engineering Design Project JME 4110

This is a report discussing the analysis and results of a wind tunnel that was created to find the terminal velocity of a variety of seeds.

Jme 4110- Solar Panel Tracker, Bob Stretch, James Eimer, Patrick Kraus

Washington University / UMSL Mechanical Engineering Design Project JME 4110

Our design is a passive solar panel tracker using fundamentals of thermodynamics. A fixed solar tracker only operates at peak efficiency for a short period during the day. Our tracker uses the sun's energy to power pistons that push the panel to face the sun throughout the day, increasing efficiency.

Composition-Dependent Mechanisms Of Multiscale Tendon Mechanics, Fei Fang

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

Tendons serve as an integral part of the musculoskeletal system by transferring loads from muscle to bone and providing joint mobility and stability. From the physiologically-loading perspective, while progress has been made in evaluating mechanical behavior of different types of tendons in tension, further work is needed to relate tendon mechanics to compositional and microstructural properties, particularly under non-tensile loading modalities (i.e., shear, compression). This information is vital to explore mechanisms of how mechanical signals lead to changes in tendon structure and composition to enable these tissues to function properly, including in in vivo multiaxial loading conditions. From the structural …

Oblique Wave Scattering By A Submerged Porous Breakwater With A Partially Reflecting Sidewall, Yang Zhao, Hua-Jun Li, Yong Liu

Journal of Marine Science and Technology–Taiwan

This study develops an analytical solution for oblique wave scattering by a submerged porous breakwater with a leeside partially reflecting vertical wall. The matched eigenfunction expansion method is used to develop the analytical solution. The whole fluid domain is divided into three regions according to the geometries of the structures. The series solution of the velocity potential in each region is obtained by the separation of the variables, and the unknown expansion coefficients are determined using the pressure and velocity continuous conditions on interfaces of different regions. The newly developed analytical solution is confirmed by an independently developed multi-domain boundary …

Minimum Induced Power For A Helicopter In High-Speed Forward Flight, Junsoo (Sean) Hong

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

A dynamic inflow model is used to calculate minimum induced power for a helicopter in high-speed forward flight with infinite and finite number of blades. Comparisons between analytical and numerical results are shown and they show good agreement. Different flow conditions (such as with and without reverse flow or inflow feedback) are used to show how each condition affects optimum induced power. Several results confirm the findings of earlier investigations such as a singularity in rotor power in reverse flow and induced power reduction with increase in blade number. Some of the new findings are that greater inflow feedback (due …

Fundamental Studies Of Flame Structure Through Laser Plasma Diagnostics, Wendong Wu

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

Increasing concerns about air pollution and global climate change are drawing attention to the need for efficiency improvements and emission reductions for combustion processes, which account for more than 85% of energy production in United States. Combustion efficiency and emissions are affected by the mixing and reacting of fuel and oxidizer. Understanding such behavior plays a critical role in flame structure studies and combustion optimization. However, experimentally obtaining mixture fraction, which is a widely used quantity to describe the mixing behavior, has proven to be a challenge, especially for heavier hydrocarbon fuels or fuel rich flames. Moreover, measuring flame temperature …