Mechanical Engineering Commons^™

Yz250 Lhrb, Ethan Di Loreto

All Undergraduate Projects

YZ250 LHRB

A Left Hand Rear Brake (LHRB) means that a motorcycle can not only have the rear brake operated by the foot pedal that comes standard on all bikes, but it can be actuated by a lever located on the handlebar as well. The purpose of this engineering project is to design a bracket that can hold two brake calipers while not hindering stock handling. It should also add braking usability and power.

The device is to be made of mild steel for the first models, this will allow for ease of prototyping, fitment testing, and finalized design testing. …

Plastic Injection Mold, Ryan Heaton

All Undergraduate Projects

The engineering department at Central Washington University is equip with three different plastic injection presses. Two of which are not being used because of various reasons, one being a lack of quality molds. This project’s purpose was to design and fabricate a quality mold that could be used in one of the injection presses as a teaching aid. The design for this project is based off of existing molds that are currently being used in the plastic injection industry along with many analyses such as; calculating speeds and feeds for machining, calculating tolerances, material strength, and a material’s heat conduction …

Advanced Manufacturing Of Titanium Alloys For Biomedical Applications, Nicholas C. Mavros

ETD Archive

In metallurgy, Titanium has been a staple for biomedical purposes. Its low toxicity and alloying versatility make it an attractive choice for medical applications. However, studies have shown the difference in elastic modulus between Titanium alloys (116 GPa) and human bone (40-60 GPa) contribute to long term issues with loose hardware fixation. Additionally, long term studies have shown elements such as Vanadium and Aluminum, which are commonly used in Ti-6Al-4V biomedical alloys, have been linked to neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimers and Parkinsons. Alternative metals known to be less toxic are being explored as replacements for alloying elements in Titanium alloys. …

Improved Embedded Atom Method Potentials For Metal Hydride Systems, Robert Fuller

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

Metal hydride systems are an important research topic in materials science because of their many practical, industrial, and scientific applications. Therefore, the development of reliable and efficient interatomic potentials for metal hydrides systems, to be utilized in molecular simulations, can be of great value in accelerating the research in this field. In this research, fully analytical interatomic Embedded Atom Method (EAM) potentials are developed for the PdAgH system. Ab initio simulations were performed to obtain the properties of selected PdAgH structures for fitting. The potentials are fit utilizing the central atom method without employing time-consuming molecular dynamics simulations in the …

Resistance Temperature Detectors In A Cryostat Refrigeration System, Kirsten Marie Manahan, Alice Callen

STAR Program Research Presentations

The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) is a ground-based telescope that will survey the Southern sky every few nights. Located in the telescope will be a 3.2 gigapixel digital camera. To ensure proper instrumentation of the camera, there must be a monitored stable temperature. As part of my research, I assembled resistance temperature detectors and tested them to verify their reliability in measuring temperature in the camera’s cryostat refrigeration cooling system. Resistance temperature detectors function by the principle of thermal resistivity, in which their electrical resistances vary as temperature varies. Through testing, I was able to determine whether these particular …

Analytical Cpg Model Driven By Limb Velocity Input Generates Accurate Temporal Locomotor Dynamics, Sergiy Yakovenko, Anton Sobinov, Valeriya Gritsenko

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

The ability of vertebrates to generate rhythm within their spinal neural networks is essential for walking, running, and other rhythmic behaviors. The central pattern generator (CPG) network responsible for these behaviors is well-characterized with experimental and theoretical studies, and it can be formulated as a nonlinear dynam- ical system. The underlying mechanism responsible for locomotor behavior can be expressed as the process of leaky integration with resetting states generating appropriate phases for changing body velocity. The low-dimensional input to the CPG model generates the bilateral pattern of swing and stance modulation for each limb and is consistent with the desired …

Fabrication And Thermoelectric Characterization Of Transition Metal Silicide-Based Composite Thermocouples, Gunes A. Yakaboylu, Rajalekshmi C. Pillai, Katarzyna Sabolsky, Edward M. Sabolsky

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Metal silicide-based thermocouples were fabricated by screen printing thick films of the powder compositions onto alumina tapes followed by lamination and sintering processes. The legs of the embedded thermocouples were composed of composite compositions consisting of MoSi2, WSi2, ZrSi2, or TaSi2 with an additional 10 vol % Al2O3 to form a silicide–oxide composite. The structural and high-temperature thermoelectric properties of the composite thermocouples were examined using X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy and a typical hot–cold junction measurement technique. MoSi2-Al2O3 and WSi2-Al2O3 composites exhibited higher intrinsic Seebeck coefficients (22.2–30.0 μV/K) at high-temperature gradients, which were calculated from the thermoelectric data of …

Interval Fuzzy Model For Robust Aircraft Imu Sensors Fault Detection, Michele Crispoltoni, Mario Luca Fravolini, Fabio Balzano, Stephane D'Urso, Marcello Rosario Napolitano

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

This paper proposes a data-based approach for a robust fault detection (FD) of the inertial measurement unit (IMU) sensors of an aircraft. Fuzzy interval models (FIMs) have been introduced for coping with the significant modeling uncertainties caused by poorly modeled aerodynamics. The proposed FIMs are used to compute robust prediction intervals for the measurements provided by the IMU sensors. Specifically, a nonlinear neural network (NN) model is used as central prediction of the sensor response while the uncertainty around the central estimation is captured by the FIM model. The uncertainty has been also modelled using a conventional linear Interval Model …

Insights Into The Magnetic Dead Layer In La0.7sr0.3mno3 Thin Films From Temperature, Magnetic Field And Thickness Dependence Of Their Magnetization, N. Mottaghi, M.S. Seehra, R. Trappen, S. Kumari, Chih-Yeh Huang, S. Yousefi, G.B. Cabrera, A.H. Romero, M.B. Holcomb

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Experimental investigations of the magnetic dead layer in 7.6 nm thick film of La0.7Sr0.3MnO3 (LSMO) are reported. The dc magnetization (M) measurements for a sample cooled to T = 5 K in applied field H = 0 reveal the presence of negative remanent magnetization (NRM) in the M vs. H (magnetic field) measurements as well as in the M vs. T measurements in H = 50 Oe and 100 Oe. The M vs. T data in ZFC (zero-field-cooled) and FC (field-cooled) protocols are used to determine the blocking temperature TB in different H. Isothermal hysteresis loops at differ- ent T …

Parametric Investigation Of Combustion And Heat Transfer Characteristics Of Oscillating Linear Engine Alternator, Mehar Bade, Nigel N. Clark, Matthew C. Robinson, Parviz Famouri

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

An Oscillating Linear Engine Alternator (OLEA) has the potential to overcome the thermal, mechanical, and combustion inadequacies encountered by the conventional slider-crank engines. The linear engines convert the reciprocating piston motion into electricity, thereby eliminating needless crankshaft linkages and rotational motion. As the dead center positions are not explicitly identified unlike crankshaft engines, the linear engine exhibits different stroke and compression ratio every cycle and should manage the unfavorable events like misfire, rapid load changes, and overfueling without the energy storage of a flywheel. Further, the apparatus control and management strategy is difficult for OLEA when compared to conventional engines …

Study Of Material Compatibility For A Thermal Energy Storage System With Phase Change Material, Songgang Qiu, Laura Solomon, Ming Fang

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

The suitability of stainless steel 316L and Inconel 625 for use in a latent heat thermal energy storage (TES) system was investigated. A NaCl–NaF eutectic mixture with a melting temperature of 680 ◦C was used as the phase change material (PCM). Containers were filled with the PCM prior to heating to 750 ◦C, then examined after 100 and 2500 h of high-temperature exposure by analyzing the material surface and cross-section areas. A small amount of corrosion was present in both samples after 100 h. Neither sample suffered significant damage after 2500 h. The undesirable inter-granular grain boundary attack found in …

Air Data Sensor Fault Detection With An Augmented Floating Limiter, Fabio Balzano, Mario Luca Fravolini, Marcello R. Napolitano, Stephane D'Urso, Michele Crispoltoni, Giuseppe Del Core

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Although very uncommon, the sequential failures of all aircraft Pitot tubes, with the consequent loss of signals for all the dynamic parameters from the Air Data System, have been found to be the cause of a number of catastrophic accidents in aviation history. This paper proposes a robust data-driven method to detect faulty measurements of aircraft airspeed, angle of attack, and angle of sideslip. This approach first consists in the appropriate selection of suitable sets of model regressors to be used as inputs of neural network-based estimators to be used online for failure detection. The setup of the proposed fault …

Design Of A Novel Tissue Culture System To Subject Aortic Tissue To Multidirectional Bicuspid Aortic Valve Wall Shear Stress, Janet Liu

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

Blood vessels experience complex hemodynamics marked by three-dimensionality and pulsatility. Arterial endothelial cells interact with the characteristics of the fluid wall shear stress (WSS) to maintain homeostasis or promote disease states. In particular, the bicuspid aortic valve (BAV), a congenital heart valve anatomy consisting of two leaflets instead of three, is associated with aortic complications presumably promoted by hemodynamic abnormalities. While devices have been used to test this hypothesis, their capabilities are limited to the generation of time-varying WSS magnitude in one direction. However, the increased flow helicity generated by BAVs in the aorta is expected to result in increased …

Waste Heat Recovery From Distributed Rack-Based Fuel Cells Using Thermoelectric Generators, Khosrow Ebrahimi, Alfonso Ortega, Calvin Li, Kazuaki Yazawa, Sean James

Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Off-grid power generation has been demonstrated in data centers through the deployment of site-specific centralized power plants utilizing gas turbine or fuel cell-based power generation. Because power is centrally generated, power distribution requires a high voltage power grid within the data center with its ancillary storage and conditioning requirements and equipment. An alternative approach is a completely decentralized distributed power generation system in which fuel cells deployed within individual server racks provide power localized to that rack only. Among other advantages, such an approach also greatly increases the ability to modulate and control power to individual rack units. Because the …

H.F. Hauff Electric Pruner Drive Train, Grady Graff

All Undergraduate Projects

The H.F. Hauff Company invests a large amount of money in developing a quality pruner used in everyday agriculture. Modern electric pruners tend to be expensive while manual tree pruning is very physically demanding. A battery assisted pruner that is light-weight, ergonomic, inexpensive to build and powerful enough to cut branches that a nominal apple tree would possess is the direct affiliation that H.F. Hauff devotes its funding too. A team of engineering students from Central Washington University developed a product with consideration to each of these circumstances. Since hand drills have proven to be user friendly and of abundance …

Me-Em 2017-18 Annual Report, Department Of Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics, Michigan Technological University

Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Annual Reports

Table of Contents

• Curriculum Revision
• The Result: MEP I-IV
• ME-EM Research
• Alumni Features
• Enrollment & Degrees
• Graduates
• Faculty & Staff
• Alumni
• Donors
• Contracts & Grants
• Patents & Publications

Spark Plasma Sintering Of Soft Magnetic Materials, Harnavdeep Kaur, Taban Larimian, Javier Esquivel

Undergraduate Research Posters 2018

Over the past 3 decades, iron-based soft magnetic alloys such as Finemet (Fe73.5Si13.5B9Nb3Cu1 (at%)) have attracted great interest due to their exceptional magnetic properties like high magnetization, low coercivity, and high curie temperature. However, the production of amorphous precursor requires very high cooling rates, and thus only wires, powders, and thin ribbons are achievable, yet these are not suitable in industrial applications where large volume of bulk magnetic components is required. Mechanical alloying (MA) has gained special attention as a powerful non-equilibrium process for fabricating amorphous and nanocrystalline materials, whereas spark plasma sintering (SPS) is a unique technique for processing …

Learning Local, Quenched Disorder In Plasticity And Other Crackling Noise Phenomena, Stefanos Papanikolaou

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

When far from equilibrium, many-body systems display behavior that strongly depends on the initial conditions. A characteristic such example is the phenomenon of plasticity of crystalline and amorphous materials that strongly depends on the material history. In plasticity modeling, the history is captured by a quenched, local and disordered flow stress distribution. While it is this disorder that causes avalanches that are commonly observed during nanoscale plastic deformation, the functional form and scaling properties have remained elusive. In this paper, a generic formalism is developed for deriving local disorder distributions from field- response (e.g., stress/strain) timeseries in models of crackling …

Experimental Study Of A Novel Subcooling Method Based On Liquid Desiccant Dehumidification For Vapor-Compression Refrigeration Systems., Xiaohui She, Yonggao Yin, Yimo Luo, Lindeman Brett, Dan Zhong, Xiaosong Zhang

Faculty of Science & Technology (THEi)

Refrigerant subcooling could increase the refrigerating capacity and potentially improve the performance of refrigeration systems. In this paper, a novel subcooling method is experimentally studied for the first time in a hybrid vapor compression refrigeration system. In this system, condensation heat (~40 °C) is used to drive an integrated subcooling cycle to subcool the refrigerant leaving the condenser, which significantly increases the system performance. Changes in system performance are measured as functions of the following variables: the mass flow rates of the dehumidification air, ambient air, dehumidification solution, regeneration solution, and spraying water. Comparisons are made between the proposed system …

Composite Cutting Device, Mikhail Minasyan

All Undergraduate Projects

Title and Author: Composite Cutting Device by Misha Minasyan (Mechanical Engineering Technology)

As the aerospace industry innovates, so does the material that is being used. No longer are airplane manufacturers like Boeing depending on only various metals for making their wings. A transition over the past few years has been made to using composite materials because of there light weight and strength. The issue that composite material brings is that it cannot be recycled without processing. The current 777X made by Boeing has transitioned to used composite to manufacture their airplane wings.

A two student team developed two separate processes …

Comparative Study Of On-Off Control And Novel High- Low Control Of Regenerative Indirect Evaporative Cooler (Riec)., Yi Chen, Huaxia Yan, Hongxing Yang

Faculty of Science & Technology (THEi)

The main characteristic of an indirect evaporative cooler (IEC) is its dependency on ambient air conditions. To ensure stable indoor temperature and provide better thermal comfort for the occupants, proper control strategy is essential. However, very limited studies report the controller used in IEC. Therefore, two control schemes are comparatively studied for regenerative indirect evaporative cooler (RIEC) application, including conventional on-off control and newly proposed high-low (H-L) control. Under on-off control scheme, the fans are either in operation at constant rated speeds or turned off if the indoor temperature is satisfied. While under H-L control scheme, the fans would be …

Heat Transfer Vest, Nicholas Forsgaard

All Undergraduate Projects

The purpose of this report is to document the progression of the authors senior project. . The of that project was the research of Liquid Cooled Garment (LCG) technology, the generation of a novel LCG prototype and the testing of that prototype relative to a commercial benchmark. As such, this report is a complete narrative of the of these tasks, their execution and the underlying assumptions and commentary. The motivation for this report is to satisfy the capstone requirements of the MET program at CWU by documenting the Senior Project and its subordinate tasks. First, the student designed a LCG …

Slab Tipper, Thomas C. Durand

All Undergraduate Projects

Stone countertops are very heavy and fragile. When installing a finished countertop, up to six workers are required to lift the stone onto the countertop, risking their safety and possibly breaking the stone. The safety of both the workers and the stone are very important, so there needs to be a better way. NSI Solutions came up with an idea for a mechanism to aid in the insulation process while limiting the number of workers required, and keeping the workers safer while adequately supporting the stone to prevent it from breaking. Designing methods and calculations were done to ensure the …

Solar Tracker, Haoyu Liu

All Undergraduate Projects

The purpose of this project is to find how to maximize the amount of time that the solar panels receive direct sunlight or the nearest possible sunlight angles. The solar tracker is a device that can change the position of solar panels in both vertical and horizontal direction to increase solar energy absorption. The device uses a gear motor to drive the shaft that is fixed to the solar panel, so the solar panel can rotate in vertical direction. Based on the vertical sun position in Ellensburg, 85o E in the morning, 180o S in the noon, and 276o W …

Optimal Operation Of Integrated Microgrids, Abdullah Albaker

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Microgrids' deployments are increasing and projected to increase even more in future due to the significant advantages that are provided by this technology for end-use customers. However, microgrids can be connected to each other to create integrated microgrids system, which can further promote the anticipated and desired benefits. An integrated operation of microgrids can potentially improve the local power system reliability and resilience, increase the individual microgrids' economic benefits, and promote further utilization of renewable energy resources. Integrating microgrids, to achieve a microgrid network or cluster, is expected be an essential application towards smarter power grids and a key operational …

Shearing Energy, Jason Wittig

All Undergraduate Projects

Title by Author: Shear Energy by Jason Wittig

Abstract/Artists Statement: Efficiency, function, and weight of fruit-tree pruning devices are scrutinized very closely by the purchasing end user. Efficiency, being the most valuable quality to focus on; an efficient cutting device can lead to smaller batteries and lighter materials on the tree pruner. The objective of this project was to produce a cutting head that surpassed the benchmark device by 10% in four categories: Axial cutting “green-wood,” Axial cutting “dry-wood,” Axial opening force, and Handle twisting torque. The benchmark’s use of the “scissor-type” design was changed to a double bypass anvil …

Asme Rc Baja Car Drive-Train And Differential, Maverick Reddaway

All Undergraduate Projects

Every year, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers holds a RC Baja Car Competition. Students from the region are required to design, build, and compete in the annual competition. The purpose of this project and the focus of this report was to build a drivetrain for an RC car, following the guidelines outlined by ASME, to compete in their annual competition. The drivetrain must convert power from a brushed electric motor to the wheels of the car. Gear analysis was used to calculate the power reduction required by the gears in the drive train. The drive train must reduce the …

Measurement Of Unsteady Characteristics Of Endwall Vortices Using Surface-Mounted Hot-Film Sensors, Emma Michelle Veley

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

High-lift low-pressure turbine blades produce significant losses at the junction with the endwall. The losses are caused by several complex three-dimensional vortical flow structures, which interact with the blade suction surface boundary layer. This study investigates the unsteady characteristics of these endwall flow structures on a highly loaded research profile and the adjacent endwall using surface-mounted hot-film sensors. Experiments were conducted in a low-speed linear cascade wind tunnel. The front-loaded blade profile was subjected to three different inlet conditions, consisting of two turbulence levels, and three incoming boundary layer thicknesses. Multiple surface-mounted hot-film sensors were installed throughout the passage. This …

Influence Of Fdm Build Parameters On Tensile And Compression Behaviors Of 3d Printed Polymer Lattice Structures, Sai Avinash Yadlapati

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

This research focuses on the compression and tensile behavior of three-dimensional printed polymer lattice structures with different printing parameters such as build orientation, infill density, and layer thickness. The body-centered cubic (BCC) lattice unit cell, which has been extensively investigated for energy absorption applications, is considered here to create compression and tensile specimens. Special test fixture was designed and developed to perform the tensile tests. The specimens were printed using Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS) polymer material on a Stratasys uPrint 3D printer. The printing parameters considered in this case are: (a) Three different build orientations (0, 45 and 90 degrees); …

Inherent Operational Characteristics Aided Fuzzy Logic Controller For A Variable Speed Direct Expansion Air Conditioning System For Simultaneous Indoor Air Temperature And Humidity Control., Huaxia Yan, Yudong Xia, Xiangguo Xu, Shiming Deng

Faculty of Science & Technology (THEi)

Direct expansion air conditioning systems are widely installed in small-to medium- scale buildings due to their advantages of simple configuration, high energy efficiency and low cost to own and maintain. The two main targets of air conditioning operation include improving the system operational efficiency and energy efficiency. Stable system operational efficiency is directly related with the operation of electronic expansion valves and degree of superheat at the outlet of evaporator. In this paper, an adaptive DS controller is developed to improve the system operational efficiency based the experimental performance of a DX A/C system and reported. The adaptive DS controller …