Mechanical Engineering Commons^™

Driver Cooling System, Joseph Fatin Bolous, Jake Donald Deboer, Alvin Theodore Lau

Mechanical Engineering

This document provides our Final Design Review (FDR) for the Driver Cooling System Project. It contains our background research, which includes current product research, technical research, and information on our sponsor’s needs as a customer as well our manufacturing process, test results, and final design. We created a problem statement to define the scope of the project, discuss sponsor and consumer needs and wants, and technical specifications. After brainstorming, we ultimately selected a thermoelectric cooling system (TEC) after presenting our Preliminary Design Report and Critical Design Report. We built the final prototype, as can be seen in the manufacturing plan, …

Dynamic Model For Simulating Motion Of The Right Ventricle, Brian Michael Larsen, Sam Koopman Porter, John Francis D'Ambrosio

Mechanical Engineering

This report documents all the research, ideation, and mockups used to determine right ventricle motion and develop a system capable of reproducing that motion on a tissue sample. The model is intended for evaluating anchoring systems being developed by Edwards Lifesciences for use with tricuspid valve therapies. Several design solutions were considered for the primary functions of recreating motion of the right ventricle and attaching tissue to the device. From these ideas a primary means of producing motion and attaching tissue was selected. These ideas were then developed over the course of a school year to become the final system …

Additive Manufacturing Powder Removal, Madison A. Lignell, Tyler W. Laird, Kurt K. Reed

Mechanical Engineering

Metal powder-bed fusion is an additive manufacturing process which enables the creation of unique shapes in metal parts that would otherwise be difficult, expensive, or impossible to machine. Metallic powder is melted and fused together by either a laser or electron beam to produce parts quickly. The excess powder covers newly printed parts and can be difficult to remove from small internal features. The scope of this project is to design a device that effectively removes the powder from newly printed parts safely, while reclaiming as much powder as possible for reuse. The solution for this project must be able …

Mechanical Team Final Design Report: Same Polytechnic College, Meghan L. Smith, Katie D. Nute, Long T. Hoang

Mechanical Engineering

The purpose of this document is to communicate the research, findings, and recommendations of the mechanical engineering team regarding the Same Polytechnic College project. This report includes a discussion of the design process utilized by the interdisciplinary team to construct preliminary building designs for both classroom and dormitory building modules. The mechanical team conducted testing using the wind tunnel to verify major building envelope design decisions. The following report also includes an explanation of the thermal testing that the team conducted to measure the thermal conductivity, diffusivity, and specific heat of bricks made to mimic those made locally in Same, …

3-Dimensional Automated Heat Flux Calibration Device, Victor Raul Chacon, David Madison Morrisset, Alex Michael Schnorr, Kevin Scott

Mechanical Engineering

This document aims to describe the problems in current radiant heat source heat flux calibration techniques and the approach our team took to solve them through automation. The following sections outline the basic premise of the problem we addressed and who our end product benefited. The proceeding sections addresses the research that we have performed regarding heat flux measurements and automation. This research includes current solutions – mostly partial solutions for problems that are similar but not exactly like ours. Following the background research, we define objectives, with specific details that outline how we evaluated different possible solutions, and how …

Metal Foam Drying Process, Bryce Zander, Ethan Serpa, Daniel Moore, Michael Mullen

Mechanical Engineering

Design and construction of machine to increase the throughput of metal foam that ERG Aerospace produces.

Me-Em Enewsbrief, June 2018, Department Of Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics, Michigan Technological University

Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering eNewsBrief

No abstract provided.

Upgrading The Sr-30 Miniature Turbojet For Adaptable Exhaust, Shannon Ferreira, Erin Mcmurchie, Peter Pratt

Mechanical Engineering

The California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo (Cal Poly, SLO) Aerospace Department is requesting a variable nozzle adaptation for their SR-30 turbojet engine. The nozzle is intended for laboratory use in sophomore and junior level courses to supplement instruction on the effects that exhaust behavior has on the performance of propulsion technologies. Topics covered during a performance study of the SR-30 turbojet engine will include, but are not limited to: Brayton Cycle analysis, turbojet operation in ideal and non-ideal test conditions, instrumentation limitations, and basic nozzle operation. The SR-30 turbojet engine is similar in design and operation to engines …

Prove Endurance Car Front Suspension, Lauren A. Williams, Logan Simon, Justine G. Kwan

Mechanical Engineering

This document details the collaborative Mechanical Engineering Senior Project with Cal Poly PROVE Lab on PROVE Lab’s Project 2; an electric vehicle designed to travel 1000 miles on a single charge. Logan Simon, Justine Kwan, and Lauren Williams are given the challenge of designing an innovative proof of concept front suspension suspension for this vehicle.

After detailed research of new suspension systems, it was determined that the innovative nature could be in the form of unique manufacturing methods, materials use, or mechanical design. At this point in time, this vehicle is a purely conceptual design with no concrete requirements. Therefore …

Augmented Design Capabilities For Origami Tessellations, Janette Darlene Herron

Theses and Dissertations

Applying engineering principles to tessellation origami-based designs enables the control of certain design properties, such as flexibility, bending stiffness, mechanical advantage, shape conformance, and deployment motion. The ability to control these and other properties will enable augmented design capabilities in environments which currently limit the design to specific materials, including space, medicine, harsh environments, and scaled environments (such as MEMS applications). Other applications will be able to achieve more complex motions or better satisfy design and performance requirements.This research demonstrates augmented design capabilities of origami tessellations in engineering design in rigid-foldable and non-rigid-foldable applications. First, a method to determine Poisson's …

Creating The Fleet Maker - Lessons Learned From The First Series Of Workshops On Maker Concepts For Active Duty Personnel, Karina Arcaute, Michel Albert Audette, Vukica Jovanovic, Anthony Dean, Dipankar Ghosh

STEMPS Faculty Publications

The US Navy has supported research related to the 3D printing or Additive Manufacturing area for more than 20 years. More recently, efforts like the Print the Fleet initiative and Marine Makers are exploring ways to design and create solutions to future problems with the possibility of reducing maintenance costs, increasing equipment readiness, and improving combat effectiveness. The Creating the Fleet Maker project is an effort supported by the Navy and Marine Corps Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Education, Outreach and Workforce Program of the Office of Naval Research. It examines the concept of making in order to develop skills …

Introduction Of Mechatronics Specialization Through Concentration Areas In The Mechanical And Electrical Engineering Technology Programs, Otilia Popescu, Vukica M. Jovanovic, Sanjeevi Chitikeshi, Isaac L. Flory Iv

Engineering Technology Faculty Publications

The last few decades have experienced an explosion of technology, both in industry and in customer products. A large variety of embedded systems from various areas of applications, digital electronics, internet of things, automatically controlled products, and ultimately mechatronics systems are part of the everyday life. The changes in the industries, consumer markets and implicitly in the job markets, impose changes in the academic programs and curricula. Recently, mechatronics undergraduate programs started being developed in 2 or 4 years colleges across the nation, mainly driven by international companies operating in countries that already offer mechatronics degrees ranging from high school …

Cost Model Evaluation For Large Scale Additive Manufacturing, Andrea Piazza

Theses and Dissertations

Additive manufacturing (AM) is becoming a valuable option in medium to large scale manufacturing operations, due to the increasing technological advances and popularization of different techniques. Product development assembly costs can be greatly reduced with additive manufacturing, producing directly consumer-usable parts without the need of always rising labor costs. Entry level companies can bridge the gap between Tier 1 suppliers and Research & Development (R&D) businesses by utilizing the lower capital and reoccurring costs of modern additive manufacturing techniques, thereby avoiding the necessity for retooling and specialized machinery. The following study both explores the advantages and quantifies the cost factors, …

Analysis Of The Low-Cycle Fatigue Behavior Of Silicone Rubber For Biomedical Balloons, Chase Cooper

Materials Engineering

The development of a medical drug delivery device that allows for the deployment drugs into the adventitial tissue of blood vessels requires the inflation of a silicone elastomer. The inflated silicone must be able to consistently endure multiple loading cycles without failing so that the device can operate reliably. There are multiple methods of processing the silicone for the device and the goal of this study is to examine the effect of the various processing methods on the characteristics of the silicone. The Dynamic Mechanical Analysis Machine (DMA) is used to model the conditions of the device’s application by performing …

Bicycle Power Meter, Andrew Mcguan

Computer Engineering

A power meter is a cycling training tool used to record the power a rider is outputting. This is very useful to athletes who regularly do bike workouts, because the power output is a consistent measure of the rider’s effort level, and is not affected by outside factors such as wind or road gradient. If a cyclist does a workout with the intent to carry a certain speed for a certain amount of time, a strong headwind will slow them down and make them work harder to maintain the same speed, defeating the goal of the workout. When a power …

Farmbot Trackless Redesign, Cole Thomas, Cailey Kamm, Clayton Alderson, Otto Akerstrom

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

For this project the team PLANT3D worked along with Rory Aronson and FarmBot to generate a cheaper more user-friendly design for the FarmBot Genesis 1.3. Working with Rory and FarmBot, we as a team generated a list of design requirements and engineering specifications for the project. These requirements centered around creating a more accessible FarmBot model for the average person to be able to purchase and set up with ease. Much of this required taking the existing system and eliminating the most common problem areas. These were the track system, built using 1.5 meter aluminum extrusions and the complex interchangeable …

Solar Electric Immersion Heating Element Fabrication, Logan V. Kregness

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

Believing that cooking with flame is cheaper and more efficient than cooking with electricity, Ugandan citizens have exposed themselves to several health and safety risks, including major respiratory issues through harmful emissions, pollution, and the burning down of many homes. Even though solar electric cooking is cheaper and healthier than cooking with flames in the long run, many Ugandans lack the resources to invest in cooking with electricity.

The Solar Stove student research team, led by Dr. Pete Schwartz, partnered with Aid Africa to bring solar panels and prototype solar electric cooking units to villages in Uganda. Observing how their …

Improving Efficiencies For The Loading And Packaging Departments At San Luis Sourdough, Alexis Bergstrom, Isabella Pereira, Claudia Robinson

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

San Luis Sourdough, currently has issues with efficiency and standardization in their packaging department, ergonomics problems in the packaging department, shipment accuracy in their loading department, and lacks an organized layout design. As a result, four objectives were designed within a six month period. The first was to create standard operating procedures for the packaging department. To inform this decision time studies were performed before and after creating these SOPs. It was discovered that there was a clear need for the SOPs due to variation in packaging efficiency among new and experienced associates. The second set of time studies showed …

Slm Materials Development, Justin G. Reiner, Michael T. Schembri

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

The purpose of this project was to create a procedure to efficiently determine a “recipe” of parameter values that create a desired set of mechanical properties. Research was conducted into the laser powder bed fusion process with focus on underdeveloped materials. A design of experiment was used with a set of density correlated parameters to establish a method of producing nearly dense parts. Our methods include SLM printing, metrology, and statistical analysis. An experimental procedure for materials development was designed, but unable to be validated during the scope of this project, due to unforeseen safety issues (exposure to Chromium 6, …

Mobile Opera Backdrop, Juan Villalobos, Robbie Behlman, Kevin Valencia

Mechanical Engineering

Opera San Luis Obispo requires an acoustically projecting stage backdrop for their future plan of deploying a mobile opera house. The custom stage backdrop must be low-cost, easy to assemble and must project the performance sound to outdoor audiences. Other design requirements include being transportable in a step van, the ability to be assembled quickly by a crew of two, resistance to various outdoor conditions, the ability to mount accessories from the walls, and should meet a budget of $5,000. With the scope of the project understood, the three-quarter project is outlined. During the first quarter, the main deliverables included …

Purple Urchin Removal, Cullen Goss, Wil Gilbreath, Kevin Marshall

Mechanical Engineering

Soaring purple urchin populations have contributed to a greater than 90% reduction of northern California’s bull kelp forests. Human intervention to reduce the purple urchin population may allow localized kelp patches to grow. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife requested that our team develop a mechanical device to aid in the removal of the urchins. This document provides an update from the scope of work and details the process conducted to reach a scale final design. In this document, we provide background research to show our understanding of urchins and their effect on kelp forests. Then, we analyze the …

Team Joseph's Bike Trailer, Keely Thompson, Curtis Wathne, Ryan Meinhardt

Mechanical Engineering

This final design report shows the results of this senior project’s design process of creating a custom bike trailer for Team Joseph. As done in the Scope of Work, Preliminary Design report, and Critical Design report, current products, relevant technologies, and American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) standards are fully researched and benchmarked to aid in the design selection process. Customer requirements are looked at and developed into engineering specifications. A detailed design was created for CDR to show to Team Joseph, and manufacturing and testing plans were laid out. This final design report adds the final design revisions …

Universal Studios Hollywood Vip Trolley - Roller Frame, Jeffrey Ploss, Chase Montague, Lincoln Treanor

Mechanical Engineering

Statement of Confidentiality: The complete senior project report was submitted to the project advisor and sponsor. The results of this project are of a confidential nature and will not be published at this time.

Multi-Purpose Heart Valve Therapy Assembly Fixture, Alec John Foster, John Patrick Hofstetter, Emily Lim

Mechanical Engineering

STATEMENT OF CONFIDENTIALITY: The complete senior project report was submitted to the project advisor and sponsors. The results of this project are of a confidential nature and will not be published at this time.

Lightweight Tennis Ball Pick Up & Hopper, Alejandro Morales, George Degrandis, Tyler Noxon

Mechanical Engineering

Within this document, the “Pursuit of Hoppiness” team will clarify some of the details associated with completing this design project. The project is focused on designing a mechanism for tennis players and coaches of all ages that is able to collect tennis balls around a tennis court, specifically around the net and fence. The goal is to make the final product lightweight, inexpensive, and easy to use. With multiple ideation sessions, the team was able to brainstorm several ideas that serve the above functions and constraints.

The initial process began with choosing two different ideas that followed through until the …

Cal Poly Rotor Recovered Rocket, Melissa Woodard

Mechanical Engineering

Statement of Confidentiality: The complete senior project report was submitted to the project advisor and sponsor. The results of this project are of a confidential nature and will not be published at this time.

Heat Flow Characterization Of Speakers, Sabrina M. Gough, Lydia K. Hedge, Nicolas M. Jones

Mechanical Engineering

Statement of Confidentiality: The complete senior project report was submitted to the project advisor and sponsor. The results of this project are of a confidential nature and will not be published at this time.

Cal Poly Supermileage Drivetrain, Michael Bolton, Justin Miller, Heather Fields

Mechanical Engineering

The following report details the full design process used by the Cal Poly Supermileage Drivetrain (CPSMD) Senior Project team in designing a new drivetrain system for the Cal Poly Supermileage Vehicle (SMV) Team. Included is the development stages of each component, the manufacturing of our parts, the final solution’s assembly, the testing of the project, and the results from the 2018 Shell Eco-Marathon Competition. After collecting data from several tests, only the final drivetrain efficiency and final sprocket alignment remain unknown. Otherwise, the project came in under budget, within our weight tolerance, and met all the other design objectives. The …

Enhancing Mobility And Independence Of Wheelchair Users, Briar Blake, Paul Nauleau

Interdisciplinary Design Senior Theses

Conditions as simple as a leg fracture or more severe impairments such as paralysis and stroke may confine a person to a wheelchair. Wheelchairs help people with limited mobility transport themselves to different locations, but do not help the person leave the wheelchair. Users would need to do this to enter a car, use the restroom, take a shower, and sit at a table comfortably with family. The following design is a wheelchair attachment that serves to provide the user with increased mobility and independence. Wheelchair users struggle to get into and out of their chairs due to the unassisted …

Art To Engineering: Curved Folding And Developable Surfaces In Mechanism And Deployable Structure Design, Todd G. Nelson

Theses and Dissertations

This work investigates how curved-crease origami and the developable surfaces which compose it can be transitioned to engineering design. Methods for creating flexible, tailorable-property surfaces that function as thick panels in place of paper are presented. Concepts from curved-crease origami and developable surfaces that can describe and extend engineering applications are discussed and demonstrated. These concepts are particularly beneficial to applications where curved surfaces are integral to the function, deployability is desired, and planar manufacturing could be beneficial.The first part of this work uses arrays of compliant elements to create flexible-tailorable property surfaces. The key feature to these arrays is …