Mechanical Engineering Commons^™

Defect Prognostics Models For Spall Growth In Railroad Bearing Rolling Elements, Nancy De Los Santos, Constantine Tarawneh, Robert E. Jones, Arturo A. Fuentes

Mechanical Engineering Faculty Publications

Prevention of railroad bearing failures, which may lead to catastrophic derailments, is a central safety concern. Early detection of railway component defects, specifically bearing spalls, will improve overall system reliability by allowing proactive maintenance cycles rather than costly reactive replacement of failing components. A bearing health monitoring system will provide timely detection of flaws. However, absent a well verified model for defect propagation, detection can only be used to trigger an immediate component replacement. The development of such a model requires that the spall growth process be mapped out by accumulating associated signals generated by various size spalls. The addition …

Additive Manufacturing Of A Motorcycle Helmet Utilizing 7-Axis 3d Printing, Kyle Mcmorrow, Caleb Alleva, Luke Correnti, Danny Eckstein, Adam Fontana, Pranav Prabhakar

Mechanical Engineering Senior Theses

This project analyzes the structural properties of 7-axis 3D printing versus traditional FDM printing. The team worked with AREVO Inc to manufacture a motorcycle helmet and test samples made from carbon fiber in a PEEK matrix. A drop-test rig was designed and constructed in-house to test a traditionally printed carbon fiber helmet alongside commercial helmets of identical geometry. The lighter weight printed helmet experienced significantly lower peak deceleration in the test headform (223 G’s versus 371 G’s for average commercial), but fractured along a print layer on impact. Had time allowed for printing of a helmet utilizing AREVOS’s true 3D …

Design Of Metamaterials With Graduating Poisson's Ratio Through Periodic Void Patterns, Xiaoming Liang

Mechanical Engineering Master's Theses

It has been known that when introducing alternating elliptical extrusions in a solid material with a positive Poisson's Ratio, the material's effective Poisson's Ratio can become negative. Furthermore, the change in the effective Poisson's ratio depends on two factors: the elliptical extrusions' aspect ratio and the porosity. Using this phenomenon, a study is conducted by combining elliptical extrusions with different aspect ratios and porosity to construct a composite material with gradually varying Poisson's Ratio. Numerical and physical compression studies are conducted to characterize the material's effective properties. The results show that the material can effectively stabilize its own structure under …

Simulation Of Turbulent Air Jet Impingement For Commercial Cooking Applications, Shantanu S. Shevade

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The research work in this dissertation focuses on turbulent air jet heat transfer for commercial cooking applications.

As a part of this study, convective heat transfer coefficient and its interdependency with various key parameters is analyzed for single nozzle turbulent jet impingement. Air is used as the working fluid impinging on the flat surface. A thorough investigation of velocity and temperature distributions is performed by varying nozzle velocity and height over diameter ratio (H/D). Nusselt number and Turbulent Energy are presented for the impingement surface. It was found that for H/D ratios ranging between 6 and 8, nozzle velocities over …

Uat Ads-B Data Anomalies And The Effect Of Flight Parameters On Dropout Occurrences, Asma Tabassum, William Semke

Mechanical Engineering Faculty Publications

An analysis of the performance of automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast (ADS-B) data received from the Grand Forks, North Dakota International Airport was carried out in this study. The purpose was to understand the vulnerabilities of the universal access transceiver (UAT) ADS-B system and recognize the effects on present and future air traffic control (ATC) operation. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) mandated all the general aviation aircraft to be equipped with ADS-B. The aircraft flying within United States and below the transition altitude (18,000 feet) are more likely to install a UAT ADS-B. At present, unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) and autonomous air …

Formation Control Of Nonholonomic Multi-Agent Systems, Milad Khaledyan

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation is concerned with the formation control problem of multiple agents modeled as nonholonomic wheeled mobile robots. Both kinematic and dynamic robot models are considered. Solutions are presented for a class of formation problems that include formation, maneuvering, and flocking. Graph theory and nonlinear systems theory are the key tools used in the design and stability analysis of the proposed control schemes. Simulation and/or experimental results are presented to illustrate the performance of the controllers.

In the first part, we present a leader-follower type solution to the formation maneuvering problem. The solution is based on the graph that models …

Investigation Of Energy Impacts Of Whole-House Ducted Dehumidifier Location, Florida Solar Energy Center, Charles Withers, Jr.

FSEC Energy Research Center®

This report discusses energy impacts related to how ducted dehumidifier ducts are configured as well as where they are located. Lab controlled testing evaluated three different duct configurations. The three DHU lab test configurations were: 1) DHU air ducted directly from/to room, 2) DHU ducted from/to the central air return duct, and 3) DHU from/to the central air supply duct. Simulation effort evaluated conductive energy gains/losses through dehumidifier and its ducts for 1) conditioned space, 2) attic, and garage locations.

Advanced Stress Analysis, Benjamin Liaw

Open Educational Resources

No abstract provided.

Wind Energy And Wind-Energy-Inspired Turbulent Wakes: Modulation Of Structures, Mechanisms And Flow Regimes, Elizabeth H. Camp

Dissertations and Theses

The interaction of turbulent wakes with one another and with the adjacent fluid directly impacts the generation of electricity in wind turbine arrays. Computational modeling is well suited to the repeated iterations of data generation that may be required to inform understanding of the function of wind farms as well as to develop control schemes for plant function. In order to perform such computational studies, a simplified model of the turbine must be implemented. One of the most computationally efficient parametrizations of the blade utilizes a stationary disk which has a prescribed drag and produces a wake. However, since accurate …

3d Numerical Study Of Multiphase Counter-Current Flow Within A Packed Bed For Post Combustion Carbon Dioxide Capture, Li Yang, Fang Liu, Zhengchang Song, Kunlei Liu, Kozo Saito

Mechanical Engineering Faculty Publications

The hydrodynamics within counter-current flow packed beds is of vital importance to provide insight into the design and operational parameters that may impact reactor and reaction efficiencies in processes used for post combustion CO₂ capture. However, the multiphase counter-current flows in random packing used in these processes are complicated to visualize. Hence, this work aimed at developing a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model to study more precisely the complex details of flow inside a packed bed. The simulation results clearly demonstrated the development of, and changes in, liquid distributions, wetted areas, and film thickness under various gas and liquid …

Design And Characterization Of Chiral Elastic Metamaterials, Sheng Sang

Theses and Dissertations

Metamaterial are materials engineered to have more than one property that cannot be observed in nature. Commonly, they are made from assemblies of multiple elements fashioned from composite materials such as metals or plastics. Due to its diverse application such as elastic wave cloaking, focusing and absorbing, elastic metamaterial has been the subject of intense experimental research and theoretical work in the past decades. Despite this large-scale effort, designs of the unit cell of the periodic structure for achieving negative elastic moduli are still needed. In this thesis, we first studied the wave phenomenon in lattice structure and materials with …

Implementation Of An Implicit Solver In Adcirc Storm Surge Model, Abdullah Alghamdi, Muhammad K. Akbar

Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering Faculty Research

The current state of science does not offer any remedy to stop a hurricane from occurring. Therefore, accurate storm surge models capable of predicting water velocity and elevation are indispensable. In this paper, the implementation of an implicit solver in the Advanced Circulation (ADCIRC) storm surge model is presented. The implemented implicit solver uses hybrid finite element and finite volume techniques for solving shallow water equations. Objectives of this research include: Enhancing numerical stability, providing an option of using large timesteps, and the usage of a relatively easier mathematical formulation than the existing one in ADCIRC. The storm surge hindcast …

Factors Influencing Household Solar Adoption In Santiago, Chile, Jeffrey P. Walters, Jessica Kaminsky, Claudio Huepe

Faculty Publications - Biomedical, Mechanical, and Civil Engineering

In Santiago, Chile, the market conditions are seemingly excellent for the household adoption of photovoltaic (PV) technology, yet the uptake is negligible. To explore this paradox, the authors conducted a Delphi study to solicit the knowledge of a panel of Chilean PV experts. These efforts yielded 26 factors—both motivations and barriers—impacting the diffusion of PV in Santiago. Of the 26, experts were in consensus on the relative importance of 21. The literature suggests that diffusion of PV technologies is influenced by complex technical, economic, and social factors. Similarly, the experts saw influence from financial, environmental, and energy supply (e.g., electrical …

Fixing Vertebral Compression Fractures With Medtronic, Kelly Fitzgerald, Trevor Bingham, Alex Denbaugh, Jordan Tang, Jon Stearns

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

No abstract provided.

Connected Alerts Across Manufacturing Facilities, Jordan J. Moy

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

The lack of communication during a large project can result in costly delays when striving to achieve previously defined benchmarks. Often times, each part of a project will require verification from an employee of a specified area of expertise before being allowed to advance to the next stage. Finding these individuals can be extremely hard due to the large, spread out campus of manufacturing facilities as well as the numerous projects the company is concurrently working on. These floor support requests can sometimes take from an hour to even a whole work day, causing major delays in the production schedule. …

Process Improvement At "The Manse On Marsh", Kevin C. Manko

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

The Manse on Marsh is an independent and assisted living facility that prides itself on providing life-enriching care for the elderly. Considering that the staff is essential to supply this care and turnover rates are a constant factor, the company would like to reduce the time it takes to hire new employees by at least one week. To facilitate this goal, process flow maps are utilized to assess the current state of the hiring process and metrics are applied to support future state design decisions. After performing a value added analysis and identifying areas of waste, a total of 20 …

High Bay Capacity Utilization Tool, Dante C. Mazzanti, Skyler L. Schilke, Conner P. Lawston

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

Northrop Grumman’s Space Park facility has many inefficiencies in their high bay scheduling processes. Additionally, it is very hard for project managers to figure out the capabilities of each high bay in order to schedule their specific project. The purpose of this project is to develop a tool that can be used across the facility to easily create projects, assign projects, view room capabilities, and view a master schedule of the rooms. After researching commercially available tools, our approach to designing this system was to use tools that are already utilized at the facility (Microsoft Suite and Tableau) and engineer …

Design And Testing Of A Hands-Free Toilet Seat Opener/Closer, Jordan Benjamin Schaeffer

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

People tend to get frustrated when the toilet seat must be moved up or down before use. Men and women often leave the toilet seat in different positions when finished which can cause problems when men and women use the same bathroom. With gender neutral bathrooms gaining in popularity, this frustration will only increase. The objective of this project was to design and test a hands-free system to allow a user to quickly and easily open or close a toilet seat. For the product to be viable, it will have to be durable and easy to clean around, while also …

Reducing Overall Overtime Hours Accumulated By San Luis Sourdough, Marie Scholl, Emily Vallejos, Randall Yonce

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

The packaging department of San Luis Sourdough Company was redesigned to increase bread throughput and decrease overtime hours issued to employees. Time studies were performed to get an accurate representation of the average throughput of bread with the current packaging conveyor system. After collecting data and surveying the employees and management, we came up with three design solutions to improve their current packaging system. The first design recommendation has a low-investment and is quick to implement as it pertains to changing the worker’s schedule to alleviate the employees from working long hour shifts while increasing the bread throughput. The second …

Vial Of Life Redesign, Andrew Scott Heim, Marisonn Manalo

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

Cambria Anonymous Neighbors (CAN), a nonprofit organization assisting the residences of Cambria, hopes to standardize first responder procedures and make medical information easily accessible in case of a medical emergency. Currently the container costs $3.78. CAN would like to provide 2000 containers at a lower cost. After researching materials, acrylic was found to be the best option for the container material due to its low cost and durability. A laser cutter was used to cut the acrylic pieces, and then a set of step by step instructions were created to assemble the product. To reduce the cost of acrylic, the …

Numerical Analysis Of Fatigue Crack Growth Of Low Porosity Auxetic Materials Using The Contour J-Integral, Garivalde S. Dominguez

Mechanical Engineering Master's Theses

Recent studies suggest that auxetic materials such as porous metals with orthogonal periodic void patterns have an increased fatigue life compared to non-auxetic materials. This study provides numerical solution to support the existing experiments with the use of contour J-integral as a parameter of stress intensity factor for computing the number of fatigue life cycle of the materials with auxetic structures. Representative volume elements (RVEs) were constructed to characterize the physical test specimens with void patterns such as ellipse, slot, and stop-hole. Extended finite element method (XFEM) was performed to verify the direction of crack propagation on auxetic materials. Sixty-five …

The Pad Route Setting Process Design, Katherine M. Peterson, Dylan C. Breitenbucher

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

This study took place at The Pad Climbing, a rock climbing gym in San Luis Obispo. The problem was that the process of setting new climbing routes was time - consuming and potentially dangerous. This resulted in lower capacity, high labor costs, decreased customer satisfaction, and safety risk for employees and customers. The objective of this study was to analyze the route setting process and identify areas of waste and danger, then to redesign the process to improve these areas. Techniques such as time studies, Pareto charts, and process flow mapping were used to analyze the existing process. A new …

Atlas Copco Mafi-Trench Co. Inventory Management, Logan E. Barr, Sean P. Mcgaffigan

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

This Senior Project Report includes three areas of focus pertaining to the inventory management practices of Atlas Copco Mafi-Trench Company (ACMTC) - cycle counting, ergonomics, and material purchasing. Various literature reviews as well as an analysis of the current state led to the project objectives. First, reduce time spent on the non-value added process of cycle counting. Second, eliminate the ergonomic hazard presented by the heavy inventory bins. Lastly, diminish the totals costs associated with inventory (ordering + carrying). The project objectives spurred numerous alternatives and a few specific deliverables. The creation of a ‘Small Parts Cycle Count’ Excel file …

Facilities Redesign Of Stockroom At Elcon Precision, David M. Brawner, Tyler O. Mastromattei, Jay Y. Matsumoto

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

Elcon Precision is a company based out of San Jose, California specializing in the photochemical processing of materials and brazing of metals and ceramics for a variety of different industries. Three students from the Industrial Engineering Department at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo were contacted by Elcon Precision to help redesign their stockroom and inventory areas in their San Jose location in order to allow for the future growth of the company. Elcon asked the Cal Poly project team to help increase efficiencies throughout the stockroom by creating an alternative layout that best suited the company's needs. This …

Database Implementation For Fines Management Of Student Organization, Parker K. Nomura

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

The Delta Upsilon fraternity at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, California, currently has no formal system for fines management. This facilitated over $9000 in uncollected dues and fines during the 2016-17 academic year. The executive board have difficult access to accurate financial information and general members have difficult access to personal fines information. This project aims to design, implement, and test a fines management system to reduce the annual amount of unpaid dues by $4500. The system is to be cost-effective, which will be measured as a decrease in uncollected dues. The system will be beneficial to …

The Design Of A Digital Scheduling Solution For Healing Alternatives, Hailey A. Malin, Krista L. Mcallester, Anne E. Shields

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

The focus of this senior project is to assist Healing Alternatives, an acupuncture clinic located in San Luis Obispo, in developing a business management software to fit their needs and boost their overall organization. The approach to finding the right fit for this business included assessing their current system while simultaneously investigating other providers. Once alternatives were found that met all of Healing Alternatives’ initial requirements, trial demos were generated in order to perform user experience testing. The presented final solution, a scheduling software called Acuity Scheduling, was implemented in a three-phase move plan that occurred over the period of …

Development Of An Additive Manufacturing Compression Molding Process For Low Cost In-House Prototyping, Grant Forrester Warden

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

Composite parts can be manufactured using various processes. Generally, a mix of resin and fiber is formed into the desired geometry using a mold and pressure. One process used by Dr. Joseph Mello in his research is known as compression molding. Compression molds are generally made from large billets of aluminum or stainless steel, are machined by a CNC mill, and are then hand-finished with polishes and mold preparation products. This process is expensive, requires large machinery and experienced operators, and introduces long lead times relative to the design cycle of the part being manufactured. The nature of Dr. Mello's …

Julian's Forecasting, Krista R. Bowdle

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

This report focuses on developing a solution to a current problem faced at Julian’s Cafe and Bistro. The problem is that inaccurate order quantities are leading to inventory shortage and surplus which is causing unnecessary profit loss. After accessing and analyzing historical sales data, several forecasts were created using various approaches. After assessing each method and applying a mean absolute percentage error to see how accurate the forecasts were, the seasonal forecast with removing outliers initially was the selected method. After, this method was used to forecast the top three selling items at Julian’s and make demand predictions for busy …

Healing Alternatives Workspace Remodel, Lissandra Ilcyn, Jenifer Astrid Colmenares, Grace E. Kuffner

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

Healing Alternatives is an acupuncture office space located in a repurposed house in San Luis Obispo. Healing Alternatives’ current facility layout does not allow for an additional treatment room or the space to provide additional services because of the wasted space within the facility. Furthermore, patients can be disrupted by noise outside the treatment room causing a negative customer experience. The project team’s objectives are to:

o Design two layout alternatives

o Provide a time estimate for each alternative

o Provide a cost analysis of each alternative

o Implement 5s methodology on the storage room

o Provide a 2D-3D model …

Designing A Manufacturing System To Reduce Production Learning Curve, Nicholas Devin Kuhnsman

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

The goal of this project was to design a new manufacturing system for Patio Pacific that would reduce the learning curve and the skilled labor required in the production process. Multiple ideas to decrease the scrap rate in the vert manufacturing process were tested. It was determined that outsourcing the manufacturing of the vertical frame piece was the most optimal because it would reduce overall cost and increase product quality. A new facility and production layout were designed in order to accommodate the new pre-manufactured parts. The approved facility design included a new production flow that transitioned manufacturing from single …