Mechanical Engineering Commons^™

Is My Site A Candidate For A Groundwater Natural Attenuation Remedy? A Geochemist’S Perspective, Bob Glazier

World of Coal Ash Proceedings

No abstract provided.

Impoundment Closure Enhancement Measures To Support Groundwater Compliance, John Hesemann, Wayne Weber, Eric Dulle

World of Coal Ash Proceedings

No abstract provided.

Enhancing Coal Ash Impoundment Closure Using Value Engineering, Holt Wheeler, Trey Mangers, Paul Lear

World of Coal Ash Proceedings

No abstract provided.

Panel On Liquefaction Of Ponded Fly Ash: From Laboratory To Practice, Tarunjit S. Butalia

World of Coal Ash Proceedings

No abstract provided.

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.

Fracture Toughness Improvement Of ����� Ceramics By Grain Size Control And Ductile Phase Reinforcement, Kesong Wang

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

This study used grain size control and ductile phase reinforcement to improve fracture toughness of ����� ceramics. Alpha alumina particles of 100 nm, 0.5-1 micrometers, and 10 micrometers were coated with 1-5 nm nickel by electroless nickel plating (ENP). The coated powders were consolidated at 1200℃-1500℃ by spark plasma sintering (SPS). The sintered samples were annealed at 1100 oC for 1.5 hours and 10 hours to determine the effect of post sintering annealing on hardness and fracture toughness. Density of the samples were measured by the standard Archimedes method using a 5 mL pycnometer. Hardness values were determined by Vickers …

Using Complex Orthogonal Decomposition To Extract Dispersion Relationships For Mass Chain, Nicholas A. Valente, Rickey A. Caldwell

Across the Bridge: The Merrimack Undergraduate Research Journal

Complex orthogonal decomposition (COD) was used to determine the extracted dispersion relationship of a traveling wave in a mass chain. When COD extracts a wavenumber it will produce M values for each wavenumber, γi, and N values for each frequency, ωi; where M is the number of masses and N is the number of time samples. In this work, least squares and a simple mean of the M-γi’s and N-ωi’s extracted values were used to determine each γi and ωi, respectively. An analytical dispersion relationship for the mass-chain is derived in addition to an approximate dispersion relationship. The approximate derivation …

Mechanical Engineering News, Georgia Southern University

Mechanical Engineering: News & Publications (2013-2023)

• Dr. Mingzhi Xu Awarded at American Foundry Society's CastExpo 2019

Measurement And Prediction Of Discharge Coefficients In Highly Compressible Pulsating Flows To Improve Egr Flow Estimation And Modeling Of Engine Flows, Indranil Brahma

Faculty Journal Articles

An assumption of constant discharge coefficient (Cd) is often made when modeling highly compressible pulsating engine flows through valves or other restrictions. Similarly, orifices and flow-nozzles used for real-time EGR flow estimation are often calibrated at a few steady-state points with one single constant Cd that minimizes the error over the selected points. This quasi-steady assumption is based on asymptotically constant Cd observed at high Reynolds number for steady (non-pulsating) flow. It has been shown in this work that this assumption is not accurate for pulsating flow, particularly at large amplitudes and low flow rates. …

Repurposing Plastic Waste In El Cercado, Joseph Dooling, Kirby Townsend, Brendan Smith

Honors Thesis

This project aims to assist the community of El Cercado in the Dominican Republic in turning their plastic waste into useful products. The design team developed a first iteration shredder, injector, and aluminum mold which future design teams could further iterate in order to make products out of waste plastic. Different products were researched to ensure that they can be sold or used in the community. The goal of producing these items is to stimulate economic activity in the community by creating economic opportunity. The design shall also be sustainable in three ways. It shall reuse plastic waste while also …

Problem Based Learning: A Case Study From Mechanical Engineering, Kevin Delaney, Ger Nagle

Conference papers

Engineering graduates today must be capable of much more than solving technical problems taught in engineering school. Despite learning to quantify the performance of certain engineering objects, undergraduate students find it challenging to integrate these elements into basic design concepts through a coherent and systematic design process. To help students develop real-world engineering skills as part of their engineering education, the Mechanical Engineering Discipline in Technological University Dublin (TU Dublin) introduced Problem Based Learning (PBL) for Third Year Mechanical Engineering students in 2005.

A recent review of this teaching approach highlighted deficiencies not envisaged when the initial PBL module was …

College Of Engineering Senior Design Competition Spring 2019, University Of Nevada, Las Vegas

Fred and Harriet Cox Senior Design Competition Projects

Part of every UNLV engineering student’s academic experience, the senior design project stimulates engineering innovation and entrepreneurship. Each student in their senior year chooses, plans, designs, and prototypes a product in this required element of the curriculum. A capstone to the student’s educational career, the senior design project encourages the student to use everything learned in the engineering program to create a practical, real world solution to an engineering challenge. The senior design competition helps focus the senior students in increasing the quality and potential for commercial application for their design projects. Judges from local industry evaluate the projects on …

Wearable Devices For Single-Cell Sensing And Transfection, Lingqian Chang, Yu-Chieh Wang, Faheem Ershad, Ruiguo Yang, Cunjiang Yu, Yubo Fan

Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering: Faculty Publications

Wearable healthcare devices are mainly used for biosensing and transdermal delivery. Recent advances in wearable biosensors allow for long-term and real-time monitoring of physiological conditions at a cellular resolution. Transdermal drug delivery systems have been further scaled down, enabling wide selections of cargo, from natural molecules (e.g., insulin and glucose) to bioengineered molecules (e.g., nanoparticles). Some emerging nanopatches show promise for precise single-cell gene transfection in vivo and have advantages over conventional tools in terms of delivery efficiency, safety, and controllability of delivered dose. In this review, we discuss recent technical advances in wearable micro/nano devices with unique capabilities or …

Development Of A Sonically Powered Biodegradable Nanogenerator For Bone Regeneration, Avi S. Patel

University Scholar Projects

Background: Reconstruction of bone fractures and defects remains a big challenge in orthopedic surgery. While regenerative engineering has advanced the field greatly using a combination of biomaterial scaffolds and stem cells, one matter of difficulty is inducing osteogenesis in these cells. Recent works have shown electricity’s ability to promote osteogenesis in stem cell lines when seeded in bone scaffolds; however, typical electrical stimulators are either (a) externally housed and require overcomplex percutaneous wires be connected to the implanted scaffold or (b) implanted non-degradable devices which contain toxic batteries and require invasive removal surgeries.

Objective: Here, we establish a biodegradable, piezoelectric …

Development Of A Sonically Powered Biodegradable Nanogenerator For Bone Regeneration, Avi Patel

Honors Scholar Theses

Background: Reconstruction of bone fractures and defects remains a big challenge in orthopedic surgery. While regenerative engineering has advanced the field greatly using a combination of biomaterial scaffolds and stem cells, one matter of difficulty is inducing osteogenesis in these cells. Recent works have shown electricity’s ability to promote osteogenesis in stem cell lines when seeded in bone scaffolds; however, typical electrical stimulators are either (a) externally housed and require overcomplex percutaneous wires be connected to the implanted scaffold or (b) implanted non-degradable devices which contain toxic batteries and require invasive removal surgeries.

Objective: Here, we establish a biodegradable, piezoelectric …

Listener Evaluation Of Common Drum Recording And Mixing Techniques, Tucker W. Arbuthnot

Student Theses

This thesis explored whether listeners could perceive the differences between samples recorded and mixed according to methods reported by the so-called popular audio press and samples that did not utilize those methods. The three recording methods were: aligning multiple tracks to achieve a coherent phase relationship, microphone selection, and the style of recording. The three mixing methods were: inverting the bottom snare drum microphone to match the top snare drum microphone, having a pre-delay time on a reverb that matched the tempo of the sample, and routing the room microphones to the drummer’s perspective. ABX listening tests, preference surveys, and …

Physical Controllers Vs. Hand-And-Gesture Tracking: Evaluation Of Control Schemes For Vr Audio Mixing, Justin Bennington

Student Theses

Alternative control schemes for affecting the characteristics of audio signals have been designed and evaluated within the audio research community. The medium of virtual reality (VR) presents a unique method of sound source visualization using a headset which displays a virtual environment to the user, allowing users to directly control sound sources with minimal intermediary interference with a variety of different controllers. In order to provide insight into the design and evaluation of VR systems for audio mixing, the differences in subject preference between physical controllers and hand-and-gesture detection controls were investigated. A VR audio mixing interface was iteratively developed …

Mid-Side To X/Y Equivalence: Turning Microphone Theory Into Practice, Brent T. Hauer

Student Theses

The mathematical transformation of the Mid-Side microphone array (M-S) to stereophonic left and right outputs results in an equivalent coincident microphone configuration (X/Y). The output pattern of the combined mid (M) and side (S) signals can be altered by manipulating the polar pattern of the mid (M) microphone and by adjusting the ratio between the M and side (S) microphones. This study investigated the technical and perceptual attributes of equivalent M-S and X/Y patterns in order to determine the consistency of the theoretical with the practical application. A simulated jazz sextet was recorded using a selection of M-S, and their …

Geospatial Energy Potential And Life Cycle Assessment Of Nearshore Oscillating Water Column Systems, Aleks Siemenn, Marie-Odile Fortier

CURCE Annual Undergraduate Conference

Oscillating Water Column (OWC) systems are an iteration of terminator ocean energy technology which generate electrical energy from turbine torque induced by the compression of air in a chamber from changing water level height. OWCs are a well-established technology, however, there have been no studies to date which quantify the life cycle environmental impacts of these systems in a geographic context. The goal of this study is to optimally size an OWC system for selected New England coastline sites and then assess the environmental impacts of the varying system sizes.

An OWC system is optimally sized when the volume of …

Subscale Mars Colonization Mission, Cameron J. Lamack, James Lumsden, Sean Nevin, Donner Schoeffler, Riley Evers, Alexandra Poulakos, Skyler Tan, Anthony Keba, Siraj Zaman, Ali Altamimi, Anthony Modica

Honors Thesis

The team will compete in the SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers) Aero Design West Advanced Class competition, held 5-7th April 2019 in Van Nuys, California. The team will work to develop, through research, design, optimizational trade studies, and manufacturing, a system for the deployment of parasitic aircraft, as well as payload. The system will consist of a primary fixed-wing aircraft, parasitic autonomous gliders, a real-time altitude data acquisition system, as well as both static and releasable payload. The deployable gliders must navigate autonomously to a targeting area on the ground without any on-board propulsion. The releasable payload, which will consist …

Intrinsic Coating Morphology Modulates Acute Drug Transfer In Drug-Coated Balloon Therapy, Gary H. Chang, Dara A. Azar, Chimera Lyle, Vipul C. Chitalia, Tarek Shazly, Vijaya B. Kolachalama

Faculty Publications

The hallmark of drug-coated balloon (DCB) therapy for the treatment of peripheral vascular disease is that it allows for reopening of the narrowed lumen and local drug delivery without the need for a permanent indwelling metal implant such as a stent. Current DCB designs rely on transferring drugs such as paclitaxel to the arterial vessel using a variety of biocompatible excipients coated on the balloons. Inherent procedural challenges, along with limited understanding of the interactions between the coating and the artery, interactions between the coating and the balloon as well as site-specific differences, have led to DCB designs with poor …

Ole Miss Engineer 2019

Ole Miss Engineer

No abstract provided.

Transferring Power Through A Magnetic Couple, Nickolas Cruz Villalobos Jr.

Senior Theses

Properties of several working magnetic coupled rotors have been measured and their performance compared to theoretical models. Axial magnetic couplers allow rotors to work within harsh environments, without the need for seals, proper alignment, or overload protection on a motor. The influence of geometrical parameters, such as distance from the center of the rotors, polarity arrangement, and the number of dipole pairs were experimentally tested. These results can be used to improve rotor designs, to increase strength and efficiency.

Exploring The Electrical Properties Of Twisted Bilayer Graphene, William Shannon

Senior Theses

Two-dimensional materials exhibit properties unlike anything else seen in conventional substances. Electrons in these materials are confined to move only in the plane. In order to explore the effects of these materials, we have built apparatus and refined procedures with which to create two-dimensional structures. Two-dimensional devices have been made using exfoliated graphene and placed on gold contacts. Their topography has been observed using Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) confirming samples with monolayer, bilayer, and twisted bilayer structure. Relative work functions of each have been measured using Kelvin Probe Force Microscopy (KPFM) showing that twisted bilayer graphene has a surface potential …

Predicting The Mechanical Properties Of Nanocomposites Reinforced With 1-D, 2-D And 3-D Nanomaterials, Scott Edward Muller

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Materials with features at the nanoscale can provide unique mechanical properties and increased functionality when included as part of a nanocomposite. This dissertation utilizes computational methods at multiple scales, including molecular dynamics (MD) and density functional theory (DFT), and the coupled atomistic and discrete dislocation multiscale method (CADD), to predict the mechanical properties of nanocomposites possessing nanomaterials that are either 1-D (carbyne chains), 2-D (graphene sheets), or 3-D (Al/amorphous-Si core-shell nanorod).

The MD method is used to model Ni-graphene nanocomposites. The strength of a Ni-graphene nanocomposite is found to improve by increasing the gap between the graphene sheet and a …

Fault Adaptive Workload Allocation For Complex Manufacturing Systems, Charlie B. Destefano

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This research proposes novel fault adaptive workload allocation (FAWA) strategies for the health management of complex manufacturing systems. The primary goal of these strategies is to minimize maintenance costs and maximize production by strategically controlling when and where failures occur through condition-based workload allocation.

For complex systems that are capable of performing tasks a variety of different ways, such as an industrial robot arm that can move between locations using different joint angle configurations and path trajectories, each option, i.e. mission plan, will result in different degradation rates and life-expectancies. Consequently, this can make it difficult to predict when a …

The Role Of Inter-Particle Behavior In Iron Oxide Nanoparticle Induction Heating, Hayden Seth Carlton

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Due to their multi-functional nature, iron oxide nanoparticles present themselves in a myriad of scientific disciplines, but perhaps the most interesting property of these nanomaterials can be seen in their immense thermal response under the influence of alternating magnetic fields. Currently popularized as an alternative cancer treatment through localized hyperthermia, iron oxide nanoparticle induction heating presents an interesting physical phenomenon that distinguishes itself from macroscopic induction heating. Understanding how a single spherical particle behaves is relatively simple and remains well documented; however, magnetic interactions of a single particle often extend over many length scales, affecting numerous neighboring particles in the …

Motor Control Systems Analysis, Design, And Optimization Strategies For A Lightweight Excavation Robot, Austin Jerold Crawford

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis entails motor control system analysis, design, and optimization for the University of Arkansas NASA Robotic Mining Competition robot. The open-loop system is to be modeled and simulated in order to achieve a desired rapid, yet smooth response to a change in input. The initial goal of this work is to find a repeatable, generalized step-by-step process that can be used to tune the gains of a PID controller for multiple different operating points. Then, sensors are to be modeled onto the robot within a feedback loop to develop an error signal and to make the control system self-corrective …

Production Of Liquid Fuels From Natural Gas: Simulation Of Synthesis Gas And Fischer-Tropsch Reactors, Saiedeh Arabi Bolaghi

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Gas to Liquid (GTL) processes chemically convert natural gas to valuable liquid hydrocarbon products. The GTL process considered in this research is comprised of three phases: 1) syngas production, 2) Fischer-Tropsch synthesis (FTS), and 3) product separation. This study focuses on the simulation and optimization of a GTL process to convert natural gas to more valuable liquid fuels. In syngas production, steam methane reforming (SMR) is typically used although it requires an external heat source due to the endothermic nature of the reaction. In addition, the SMR approach produces syngas with a hydrogen to carbon monoxide ratio that is not …

Gasdynamic Phenomena And Propulsive Performance Of Pulse Detonation Engines, James T. Pearce

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Dissertations - Archive

The pulsed detonation engine (PDE) is an advanced propulsion system that makes use of intermittent detonations to provide thrust. In recent decades, the PDE has been at the center of various propulsion research efforts focused on practical implementation of a reliable detonation-based engine for aerospace propulsion applications. However, many design challenges remain to be solved due to the PDEs unsteady operating characteristics. In particular, the unsteady nature of the thrust chamber flow field inherent to the PDE operation makes the design of nozzles aimed at adequately expanding the burned detonation products especially difficult. In order to address this design challenge, …