Mechanical Engineering Commons^™

Short Strand Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polylactic Acid Filament For Additive Manufacturing, Dale Chenoweth, Lukas Seggi, Luke Phillips

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

In this design project, the additive manufacturing filament of short strand carbon fiber (SSCF) reinforced polylactic acid (PLA) composite was developed. The micro-size, precision cut SSCFs were mixed with the PLA pellets through a melting homogenization process. Through this process the composite material block is cut and divided into pieces for ease of pelletizing. The material block pieces are then pelletized to be fed through the single screw extruder to develop the SSCF-PLA composite filament. The SSCF-PLA filaments were manufactured with a varying amount of SSCF ranging from 0.5% to 10% of the material block's weight. Development of a 1% …

Schaeffler Icvd Coating Machine, Louis Mcgrath

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD) is mutual technology used to deposit thin film through a gaseous phase by vaporizing the solid materials. This conventional process usually requires high thermal stability of the materials, which is not applicable for most of the polymeric materials. Therefore, a novel process, initiated Chemical Vapor Deposition (iCVD) is developed by introducing the gaseous monument and initiator to form the thin film in-situ. By adjusting the free-radical polymerization in the vapor phase, a variety of thin and uniform polymer films can be achieved. Depending on the chemistry, iCVD has many categories. This report explains the design …

Nfpa Fluid Power Vehicle Challenge, Rachel Wasik, Kimberly Griggy

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The objective of this project is to design a system which prioritizes safety and efficiency that uses human power converted to hydraulic power to drive a bicycle. This project is being done to compete with other university teams in making the best vehicle that runs on fluid power. It will help the members of the team to gain design and testing experience, learn about fluid power systems, and gain experience with working as a team and sharing/distributing responsibilities.

Zips Baja Zb25 Frame, Elijah Shelhart

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This report outlines the design and validation of a new frame for the University of Akron Zips Baja team’s 2025 competition vehicle. This project represents the first comprehensive redesign of the frame in over a decade, addressing critical issues such as weight and manufacturability identified in previous designs. Utilizing SolidWorks for 3D modeling and Ansys for static simulations, the frame was iteratively improved to ensure structural integrity and compliance with SAE competition rules. The final design achieved a weight reduction of approximately 10 pounds compared to the previous frame while maintaining required safety factors in frontal, rear, rollover, and torsional …

Porous Bearing Research Rig, Josh Beranek, Hannah Liggett, Jonathan Lemmon, Brandon Allen

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Our team has decided to continue the research of fluid bearings, specifically, that of the journal and porous bearing. This will continue off of research currently being done at the University of Akron by graduate student Elizabeth Clifford who has developed a mathematical model for a porous bearing. Our job will be to create a testing rig that will be able to either prove or disprove this model. To do this, the rig will need to be able to take measurements of temperature and pressure at key areas within the bearing. It will also need to be readily capable of …

Propulsion Heat Analysis Nuclear Trajectory Optimization (Phantom), Ana Clecia Alves Almeida, Jonathan Davis, Ryan Dippolito

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Interplanetary Travel requirements necessitate the use of increasingly complex propulsion systems. Nuclear Thermal Propulsion (NTP) is a cutting-edge concept that holds immense potential for the future of space exploration. By utilizing nuclear fission to heat a propellant and generate thrust, NTP offers the potential for unprecedented efficiency, enabling faster interplanetary travel and extended mission capabilities. A nuclear thermal rocket engine is a type of propulsion system that utilizes the heat generated by a nuclear reactor to heat and expel a propellant, typically hydrogen, at high velocities to produce thrust. The engine consists of three main subsystems: the nuclear reactor, the …

Tympanostomy Tube Efficiency Study, Reem Ghumrawi, Kristi Weir

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The ventilation of the middle ear, crucial for maintaining optimal ear health, is often impeded by factors such as swelling, inflammation, and mucus in the eustachian tubes, particularly during upper respiratory infections or allergies. This issue, prevalent in children due to their narrow and horizontal eustachian tubes, prompts the insertion of tympanostomy tubes by ENT surgeons to establish an alternative airway for pressure equalization and fluid drainage. Despite the common belief in the effectiveness of these tubes, there is a notable dearth of research validating their optimal functionality. This study aims to address this gap by systematically comparing the efficiency …

Kinetic Simulations Of Dust Grain Charging Near Surfaces Under Various Plasma Conditions, David Lund, Daoru Han

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This paper presents fully kinetic numerical investigations of the charging of spherical and irregular shaped dust grains in multiple configurations utilizing the Parallel Immersed-Finite-Element Particle-in-Cell Dusty (PIFE-PIC-D) framework. The simulations account for both surface charging and in-depth charging of the dust grains immersed in various ambient plasma conditions near a floating or biased surface. PIFE-PIC-D explicitly resolves the geometrical and material properties (permittivity and photoelectron emissions) of each individual dust grain. PIFE-PIC-D will model self-consistently the unsteady and stochastic charging of grains directly from the deposition of electrons and ions onto them. PIFE-PIC-D will also simulate the charging of irregular-shaped …

L∞ Bounds For Transient Growth In Repetitive And Iterative Learning Control Systems, Douglas A. Bristow, John R. Singler

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This paper revisits the problem of large transient growth in Iterative Learning Control (ILC) and Repetitive Process Control (RPC) systems. In ILC and RPC problems a process is repeated iteratively, with new control calculations occurring in between each iteration. Large transient growth refers to the propensity of some control algorithms to grow error exponentially before eventually converging. While robust monotonic convergence algorithms (in which monotonic convergence is guaranteed usually in exchange for a small loss in performance) have largely eliminated the concern for large transient growth in ILC, similar results cannot always be obtained in RPC. The emergence of additive …

Development Of Digital Twin For Fdm Printer With Preventive Cyber-Attack And Control Algorithms, Md Hazrat Ali, Asad Malik, Nursultan Jyeniskhan, Muhammad Arif Mahmood, Essam Shehab, Frank Liou

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This paper presents a developed model of a Digital Twin (DT) for a fused deposition modeling (FDM) printer, real-time defect detection, and proposed frameworks for preventing cyber-attacks in real-time. It also highlights a model predictive control (MPC) algorithm for controlling the material feed based on a real-time feedback system. The system is designed and developed based on DT, and MPC with integrated machine learning (ML) algorithms to establish real-time process control and enhance the safety and reliability of the physical plant. ML algorithm is used for anomaly detection based on the convolutional neural network (CNN) model. The developed system can …

Electrostatic Sorting Of Lunar Regolith Simulants For Sustainable Resource Utilization: Modeling And Characterization Of Particle Size Distribution, Abdullah Al Moinee, Peter Bachle, Kyle Newport, William Schonberg, David Bayless, Jeffrey Smith, Daoru Han, Fateme Rezaei

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

In pursuit of sustainable resource utilization on the Moon, this paper delves into modeling and characterization of particle size distribution (PSD) of lunar regolith simulants in an electrostatic system. A prototype electrostatic sieve was built and tested with four sample simulants mirroring properties of lunar mare and highland regolith. An alternating four-phase (90 degrees, 180 degrees, 270 degrees, 360 degrees) traveling square-wave was utilized for particle-directed transport to model the diverse trajectories of the particles. Numerically, we scrutinized how the distribution functions of the particles are manifested as the electrostatic field propagates, with a focus on three distinct particle ranges …

Analysis Of Variations In Flow-Independent Liquid Jet-In-Crossflow Injections, Michael Scott

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Liquid fuel injection is a critical mechanism for the deliverance of liquid fuel in contemporary aircraft propulsion combustion systems due to its outsized influence in providing optimal combustion conditions and improving overall aircraft efficiency and performance. Despite this, these liquid jet in crossflow (LJIC) systems are highly variable due to conditions in the jet and the surrounding airflow, leading to variability in performance behavior and inconsistency in fuel mixing and combustion efficiency. This has prompted the introduction of solid pintile obstructions of novel designs to provide a more flow-independent fuel injection scheme and decrease variability of the jet properties against …

Communication Modality And Activity Recognition In Smart Manufacturing, Haodong Chen

Doctoral Dissertations

"Advancements in sensors, computational intelligence, and big data have been rapidly transforming and revolutionizing the manufacturing sector, leading to robot-rich and digitally connected factories. To facilitate such a transformative process, workforce training and coordination between the human workforce and robots have remained a major challenge. This study aims to create intelligent workforce training systems for human-computer interaction and human-robot collaboration. It proposes the use of dynamic gestures and speech commands for seamless communication between a worker and a robot, leveraging Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) and multiple threading for recognition and integration. Additionally, a fine-grained activity recognition model has been crafted …

Kinetic Modeling And Simulations Of Plasma-Surface-Dust Interactions For Lunar Exploration, David Clifford Lund

Doctoral Dissertations

"Due to the recent relevance of NASA’s focus on lunar missions, a better understanding of the lunar plasma-surface-dust environment is vital for their success. The lunar surface, devoid of an atmosphere and a global magnetic field, is directly exposed to solar radiation and solar wind plasma. This exposure leads to the electrical charging of the lunar surface due to the bombardment of solar wind plasma and the emission/collection of photoelectrons. Therefore, this research developed accurate and efficient computational models of plasma-surface-dust interactions and extend a legacy simulation code, namely the Immersed-Finite-Element Particle-in-Cell (IFE-PIC), to a parallel version: Parallel Immersed-Finite-Element Particle-in-Cell …

Computational Fluid Dynamics Simulation Of Battery Thermal Management System At The Pack Level In Electric Vehicles, Yifan Chen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Electric vehicles (EVs) rely heavily on lithium batteries due to their high energy density, despite their tendency to generate excess heat during operation. Managing this heat is crucial for safety and performance. Battery Thermal Management Systems (BTMS) are essential for maintaining optimal battery temperature and mitigating risks like short circuits. This article examines various cooling methods for BTMS, including air and liquid cooling, and discusses the selection of cooling media and layout configurations within battery packs (BPs). It also highlights the importance of combining multiple cooling methods for efficient heat dissipation. Emerging technologies like Phase Change Materials (PCMs) show promise …

Processing Of Niti Sma For High Reflectivity Applications, Nicholas Dean Asbury

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Nickel Titanium (NiTi) is a shape memory alloy (SMA) that is capable of being deformed and subsequently returned to the original shape through heating. This unique property makes NiTi a prime material for potential applications in the aerospace industry. As manufacturing capabilities advance, the ability to produce and implement advanced materials, such as shape memory alloys like NiTi, becomes more feasible. One such application being studied is deployable mirrors for imaging satellites. Reflector and mirror surfaces for imaging in the visible and infra-red range of the light spectrum require low surface roughness across the largest allowable area for the collection …

Influence Of Heat Treatment And Shielding Gas Environment On The Very High Cycle Fatigue Behavior Of 17-4 Precipitation Hardened Stainless Steel, Jade Welsh

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Additive manufacturing (AM) for stainless steel components has proved useful in a variety of industries ranging from aerospace to biomedical engineering. Many of these components are subject to very high cycle fatigue (VHCF) loading and must have tailored mechanical properties to ensure failures do not occur before a service life is reached. Testing the fatigue strength AM materials exposed to VHCF loading is paramount to compare with the expected life cycles of their wrought counterparts. In this thesis, AM 17-4 precipitation hardened (PH) stainless steel (SS) were fabricated using laser powder bed fusion (L-PBF) technique, while the wrought 17-4 PH …

Investigation Of Operational Parameter Differences Between The Standard Ron Test Method And Knock-Limited Modern Spark-Ignition Engine Operation, Alexander Hoth

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Octane numbers (ONs) are used worldwide to rate the knock propensity of gasoline-like fuels for spark-ignition engines, making ONs the leading indicator of fuel quality for commercial distribution. The ONs were established 90 years ago and have only received minor changes compared to significant advancements in modern engine operation and fuel composition. This has resulted in discrepancies between knock-limited modern engine operation and standard ON ratings. This dissertation used a standard CFR octane rating engine at Argonne National Laboratory that was instrumented with modern combustion research tools to investigate key differences between the Research Octane Number (RON) rating conditions and …

Data Driven And Machine Learning Based Modeling And Predictive Control Of Combustion At Reactivity Controlled Compression Ignition Engines, Behrouz Khoshbakht Irdmousa

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Reactivity Controlled Compression Ignition (RCCI) engines operates has capacity to provide higher thermal efficiency, lower particular matter (PM), and lower oxides of nitrogen (NOx) emissions compared to conventional diesel combustion (CDC) operation. Achieving these benefits is difficult since real-time optimal control of RCCI engines is challenging during transient operation. To overcome these challenges, data-driven machine learning based control-oriented models are developed in this study. These models are developed based on Linear Parameter-Varying (LPV) modeling approach and input-output based Kernelized Canonical Correlation Analysis (KCCA) approach. The developed dynamic models are used to predict combustion timing (CA50), indicated mean effective pressure (IMEP), …

A Physical Test Artifact For Evaluating Edge Cases Of Individual And Fused Automated Driving Perception Sensors, Colin Schaefer

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

With the advent of technologies to support autonomous vehicles (AVs), the number of different AV models from a variety of companies and organizations has proliferated. With this increase in options comes the need to physically evaluate their perception systems. However, there is a lack of standard methods to physically evaluate these perception systems. A set of test artifacts can be used to compare the performances of perception systems, but the artifacts must be usable with different types of perception sensors and various sensor fusion systems. This thesis presents the development of an artifact that injects edge case scenarios into the …

High Temperature Strength Reduces Soldering In Aluminum High Pressure Die Casting, Jacob A. Belke

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Die soldering, an adhesion defect in high pressure die casting (HPDC), is a symptom of localized sticking where a localized portion of the cast material is adhered to the tooling surface causing build up over time. This requires the tooling to be serviced which incurs additional costs to the process that gets passed on to the parts. Historically, soldering has been mitigated using lubricants, coatings, and alloy chemistry modifications but solder persists.

The Tresca friction thermomechanical model suggests soldering occurs when the local interfacial shear stress between the casting and die surface exceeds the local shear strength of the casting. …

Design, Testing And Neural Network Modeling Of A Low-Friction Wave Energy Converter Testbed, Vasu Bhardwaj

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Point absorber wave energy converters (WECs) transform water wave kinetic energy into other useful forms, typically electrical. While it’s possible to extract energy from passive WECs, more energy can be captured using active control where its power take-off (PTO) acts as both a generator and an actuator. Control strategies usually require accurate models often obtained during model-scale testing. Unfortunately, friction can dominate the dynamic response in small WEC models. A frictionless point absorber WEC testbed is described in this report which allows the researcher to focus on fundamental hydrodynamic behavior instead of friction. It uses air bearings for vertical motion …

Study Of Nanoparticle Dispersed Phase Change Materials And The Impact Of Temperature Gradient On The Potential For Particle Migration, Udit Sharma

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Supercooling in phase change materials (PCMs) and the associated challenges in enhancing thermal conductivity through nanoparticle dispersion prompted this investigation. Existing literature exhibits inconsistencies in thermal conductivity improvements, suggesting a potential correlation with nanoparticle migration induced by thermophoresis. To address this, a novel temperature-dependent scaling parameter, \(\xi\), was introduced to predict particle migration propensity. A strong association was observed between higher \(\xi\) values and diminished thermal conductivity enhancements, indicating a significant influence of nanoparticle movement on heat transfer.

To further elucidate this relationship, a Nanoparticle Interaction Parameter \(N_\text{{pl}}\) was developed, incorporating critical fluid properties and interfacial effects. The derived critical …

Nonlinear Hydrodynamic Modeling And Control Of Wave Energy Converters, Tania Demonte Gonzalez

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

The growing urgency to transition towards carbon-neutral energy sources has sparked significant interest in diversifying energy portfolios by incorporating renewable energies, including the untapped potential of wave energy. This dissertation sets its objectives in advancing wave energy converter (WEC) technologies by focusing on developing and validating a nonlinear modeling technique and designing control strategies to maximize energy extraction and enhance WEC efficiency. At the heart of this research is the derivation and validation of an algebraic nonlinear Froude-Krylov forces model. Building on this foundational model, a robust nonlinear sliding mode controller and a nonlinear model predictive controller are designed to …

An Elasto-Plastic Constitutive Model With Phase-Field Fracture For Additively Manufactured Metallic Materials, Nolan Ruble

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

The advent of additive manufacturing (AM), commonly known as 3D printing, has revolutionized the production of metallic components across various industries. This technology, which builds objects layer by layer, has shifted paradigms in manufacturing, allowing for unprecedented design freedom, material efficiency, and rapid prototyping. Metal additive manufacturing, in particular, has shown remarkable promise due to its ability to produce complex geometries that are difficult or impossible to achieve with traditional subtractive methods. In addition, additively manufactured (AM) materials are gaining popularity in thanks to their often superior and controllable properties in comparison to their wrought counterparts. In the present work, …

Analysis Of Factors Affecting Engine Knock In Modern Spark Ignition Gasoline Engines To Improve Engine Efficiency, Siddharth Gopujkar

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Spark ignition engine knock is an issue that has persisted for over a century. Knock prevents the spark in an SI engine to be deployed at the most optimum time in the engine cycle, which leads to a decrease in the efficiency of the engine. A reduction in the efficiency directly translates to increased emissions and fuel costs. This research looks at experimental works to analyze the impact of three separate factors on knock in an effort to minimize it and improve engine efficiency.

The first factor is fuel chemistry – how Research Octane Number (RON) and Motor Octane Number …

Modeling Pulsatile Flows Using Truly Incompressible Finite Volume Lattice Boltzmann Model, Akshay S. Dongre

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

The present study addresses the compressibility error inherent in the standard Lattice Boltzmann Method (LBM) and LBM’s restriction to uniform Cartesian meshes. To mitigate the compressibility error, an incompressible LBM (iLBM) model has been incorporated into the finite volume framework using a cell-centered finite volume approach, leveraging the simplicity of the LBM algorithm for irregularly shaped flow domains with unstructured meshes. Monotonic Upstream-centered Scheme for Conservation Laws (MUSCL) and linear reconstruction (LR) schemes have been used to compute convective fluxes across the cell interfaces with boundary conditions implemented using the second-order accurate Non-Equilibrium Extrapolation (NEE) method.

The finite volume iLBM …

Phase Field Modeling Of Fracture And Phase Separation Using Numerical Methods And Machine Learning, Revanth Mattey

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Phase field modeling is a crucial tool in scientific and engineering disciplines due to its ability to simulate complex phenomena like phase transitions, interface dynamics, and pattern formation. It plays a vital role in understanding material behavior during processes such as solidification, phase separation, and fracture mechanics. Particularly in fracture mechanics, phase field modeling can be utilized to predict the crack path in complex materials. Understanding the failure behavior is vital for applications of any material. The specific contributions to the field of phase field fracture mechanics, are, Firstly, we propose a novel phase field fracture model to simulate the …

Comprehensive Review And Development Of A High-Pressure Hydraulic Impedance Tube For Vibroacoustic Attenuator Characterization, Matthew D. Beals

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

This research establishes a versatile test bench for characterizing hydraulic vibroacoustic attenuators. The primary evaluation metric is the transfer matrix, determined experimentally, with an emphasis on key properties such as transmission loss. To ensure accuracy and broad applicability, the methodology is based on industry-standard techniques for determining the transfer matrix. A comprehensive literature review consolidates existing approaches for hydraulic attenuator characterization. The test bench features a hydraulic impedance tube equipped with eight dynamic pressure transducer (DPT) taps strategically positioned before and after the sample interface. This setup accommodates arbitrary samples terminated with standard hydraulic fittings. Using ASTM E2611, the transfer …

Data To Physics: Bridging Modeling Frameworks For Metastructures, Hrishikesh Suhas Gosavi

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

The effective attenuation of wave propagation in specific frequency ranges, known as bandgaps, makes metastructures valuable in various engineering applications. Traditionally, bandgap estimation has relied on physics-based models, which present challenges for complex metastructures where accurate material properties and geometric complexities make precise modeling difficult. This work introduces data-driven techniques for bandgap estimation, leveraging the dynamic behavior, particularly the Frequency Response Functions (FRFs) of unit cells, to calculate dispersion relations and couple unit cells through dynamic substructuring. This approach addresses the limitations of traditional methods by directly utilizing experimental data to characterize both longitudinal and flexural bandgaps.

To evaluate data-driven …