Mechanical Engineering Commons^™

Monitoring Of State Transitions In Extreme Environment Application Materials Using Fiber Bragg Grating Sensors, Sabuj Khadka

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

By embedding both a single fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensor and a thermocouple (TC) during the manufacturing for extreme environment applications of certain classes of materials such as metals and polymers, a novel in-situ approach was developed to precisely monitor their entire manufacturing processes. This novel monitoring technique was able to identify many characteristic points during the curing of room and high-temperature epoxies and the solidification processes of metal alloys composed of tin and bismuth which were selected in this research purely for verification purposes. Some of the characteristic points identified for the epoxies were: (i) the gel point, (ii) …

Structural And Hemodynamic Analysis Of Transcatheter Aortic Valves, Dong Qiu

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) procedure has become a well-established procedure for high, intermediate-risk, and low-risk patients. However, there is limited clinical data on the TAV's long-term durability, unlike SAV devices. Computational simulations can be an alternative way to evaluate the TAV devices. This dissertation aims to conduct structural and hemodynamic analyses on the TAV devices under different conditions using computational simulation approaches.

Initially, the impact of the bicuspid aortic valve on the TAV devices was evaluated. The result indicated that the CoreValve-like supra-annular self-expandable device was likely to have increased stress and strain on the leaflet when it …

Measuring Engineering Students’ Engagement In Sustainability Design Concepts, Karen Perez, Donald Plumlee

Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Within industries, governments, and accreditation organizations, there has been a push to incorporate sustainability concepts into engineering education. Universities like Boise State University (BSU) are starting to place greater emphasis on the inclusion of sustainability concepts in different engineering program curricula. As part of a project funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), the BSU mechanical engineering program is integrating sustainability concepts specifically by using active learning modules (ALMs) suitable for each level of student education, progressing from freshman to senior. ALMs have shown to be more effective in improving motivation in the classroom compared to traditional learning. To measure …

Team H&H Rc Baja: Chassis & Suspension, John Huff

All Undergraduate Projects

An RC car needed to be created to meet set requirements to compete in the annual American Society of Mechanical Engineers RC Baja Competition. Students of the Mechanical Engineering Department of Central Washington University developed an RC car that has working suspension/ chassis size to hold a all components of a working RC car with a floating rear end. This RC car needed to meet set requirements to compete in the annual American Society of Mechanical Engineers RC Baja Competition. The requirements relative to the suspension/chassis is that the RC car must not exceed a weight of 10lb, must not …

Me 343 Heat Transfer Laboratory, 6th Edition

Mechanical Engineering Lab Manuals

Welcome to the documentation used to describe and conduct ten heat transfer experiments located in the Thermal Sciences Laboratory in Building 13, Room 203, at Cal Poly State University. All of the experiments are designed to illustrate many of the concepts that are presented in undergraduate thermodynamics and heat transfer classes. The first objective of each lab is to provide students with hands-on experience with thermal science experiments. This includes working with standard facilities and instrumentation commonly found in thermal science laboratories. The second objective of each lab is to learn how to use experimentally collected data to either validate …

Clarity, Organization, Precision, Economy: A Technical Writing Guide For Engineers, David J. Adams, University Of New Haven

Civil Engineering Faculty Book Series

This fourth edition of COPE was sparked by my involvement with PITCH (Project to Integrate Technical Communication Habits) at the Tagliatela College of Engineering at the University of New Haven. This new edition contains additional material on data displays, as well as some additional material on writing about data—including how to avoid rhetorical shifts that undermine the precision of a technical report.

The Role Of Ball Backspin Alignment And Variability In Basketball Shooting Accuracy, Nathan Slegers, Dave Love

Faculty Publications - Biomedical, Mechanical, and Civil Engineering

Interaction between the shooting hand and ball at the moment a basketball is released generates a three dimensional backspin of the ball. This study is the first to investigate how characteristics of the backspin alignment and variability contribute to lateral shooting accuracy. Spin axis (SA) direction and backspin magnitude were measured on 25 shot attempts for 26 collegiate basketball players (male: n = 16, female: n = 10). The mean SA alignment, as viewed from the shooting hand side, was found to be tipped down and towards the target (p < 0.001). Standard deviations (SD) in the SA alignment were strong predictors of lateral accuracy (vertical SD: r = 0.80, p < 0.001, forward-backward SD: r = 0.51, p = 0.01), with variation in the vertical alignment being the best predictor. No significant correlation between mean SA misalignment and lateral accuracy was observed. However, intra-individual relationships between SA misalignment and lateral error revealed that individuals tended to have 0.17 degrees more misalignment for each cm of lateral error (p < 0.001, 95% CI: 0.24–0.09). These indicate that while an individual’s mean alignment may not predict lateral accuracy, improving one’s SA alignment and reducing alignment variability may increase lateral accuracy.

Rc Baja Drivetrain And Steering, Jacob Swift

All Undergraduate Projects

The goal of this project is to construct a small remote-control vehicle that is capable of fluid, controlled and precise movement. In order to allow the smooth movement of an RC Car through an obstacle course, the back wheels of the car must be able to receive power and the front wheels must be able to turn. This chassis and suspension that supported these assemblies was designed by project partner Sean Gordon. Design requirements were as follows:

• Drivetrain and Steering systems must weigh a combined

• Drivetrain must produce a maximum output speed >=20mph

• Turning angle of no less than 45 …

Rc Baja: Drivetrain And Steering, Mathew Morgan

All Undergraduate Projects

The RC Baja competition is a contest where undergraduate mechanical engineering students design, build, and compete against one another. The objective of this competition is to create the most efficient RC car possible. A gear train analysis was done and showed an 8:1 gear ratio would be the most efficient ratio due to the chosen motor having a higher torque output. Also, a stress analysis was done and showed that 2011 T3 aluminum passed the stress and weight criteria. These analyses ensured the RC Baja car was efficient. Most of the parts for the drivetrain and steering subassemblies were machined …

Jcati Crusher Drive Train, Matthew Denchel

All Undergraduate Projects

This project is sponsored by JCATI (Joint Center for Aerospace Technology Innovation) to research and manufacture a machine to recycle strips of carbon fiber from retired aircraft wings. The drive train powering the crushing wheels was not delivering enough power into the crushing wheels to completely delaminate the strips of carbon fiber. Another issue experienced was the spur gears transferring power between crushing shafts failed.

This issue was first approached by analyzing the gear reduction ratio powering the crushing wheels. Then the next analysis was performed to find the amount of torque required to delaminate the carbon fiber. The minimum …

Jcati Carbon Fiber Recycler: Oven Enclosure, Margarita Romero

All Undergraduate Projects

Central Washington University partners with Boeing and is funded by the Joint Center of Aerospace Technology Innovation (JCATI) to develop a mechanism that takes carbon fiber wing trimmings from Boeing that are resin coated and recycles carbon fiber. This is done by crushing the wing trimmings and then putting it into a 500°C oven to melt off the resin. This project focuses on the enclosure for the oven and making sure precautions are met such as having the outside surface be less than 45c through heat transfer analysis, argon fills enclosure in 13 minutes through fluid dynamics analysis, and 99% …

R/C Baja Truck Suspension, Chassis And Steering, Ryan Lafrombois

All Undergraduate Projects

The ASME RC Baja Challenge is an annual competition that the Central Washington University Mechanical Engineering and Technology (MET) department takes part in. Senior level engineers divided the work between the drivetrain and the chassis/suspension while designing and manufacturing to meet a set of requirements. Next, a device was to be developed to be able to withstand the extreme forces to be successful in the competition at the end of the year. The process would require that the students use their acquired knowledge and skills to design, manufacture, and analyze a capable device. Designing involved the completion of 12 analyses …

Jcati Carbon Fiber Recycler: Oven Heating System, Sean Tomkins

All Undergraduate Projects

What happens to carbon fiber from airline wing tips when their service life ends, and they get replaced? Throwing them away would be wasteful, the Joint Center for Aerospace Technology Innovation (JCATI) project can extract the carbon fiber from airline wing tips to be recycled. The JCATI project is a continuation from the work done by previous senior class engineering students and has a new set of issues to be addressed each year. This year there was a need for a new oven system for the JCATI carbon fiber recycler with this project’s focus being on designing the oven’s heating …

Rc Baja Engineering Report, Matthew Hart

All Undergraduate Projects

The ASME RC Baja is a competition that tests engineering students’ ability design, build, and test an RC car. The vehicle then competes against other engineering student’s RC cars. The objective is to manufacture the most efficient and cost-effective RC Baja car.

During the first quarter of senior project, the student’ engineering skill was applied to designing an RC car that will be able to compete in a competition at the end of spring quarter. The student was tasked with using all the information from the classes the student had taken previously at Central Washington University and design and build …

Zips Racing Electric 2022 Brakes Subsystem Design, Nicholas Thomas

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This project will include the design, manufacture, and assembly of the entire brakes subsystem for the Zips Racing Electric (ZRE) 2022 car. Goals of the brakes system include a lightweight, modular, machinable, and rigid design. The project will begin in the Fall semester with the design of the pedals and rotors as well as calculations to specify master cylinders, calipers, pads, etc. Software such as SolidWorks CAD, SolidWorks FEA, and Mastercam CAM will be employed. Next, the second semester will involve manufacturing or purchasing necessary components. Prototype pedals will be manufactured for physical testing.

The project will be completed individually. …

Modeling And Simulation Of A Power Plant Boiler Including The Dynamics Of Swell And Shrink, Richard Perman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Renewables such as photovoltaics and wind turbines have seen consistent growth in markets across the globe. While renewables increase grid capacity and reduce the use of fossil fuels, their generation rates fluctuate subject to external factors. As the ratio of renewables to nonrenewables increases, so does variability of net load on intermediate and peaking power plants. Power plants with heat recovery steam generators (HRSG) constitute a significant proportion in these categories. There are several interconnected systems within HRSGs, including drum boilers which exhibit interesting transient phenomena known as swell and shrink. Improved understanding, dynamic modeling, and real-time simulation (RTS) of …

Experimental And Computational Heat Transfer Study Of Sco2 Single Jet Impingement, John Richardson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

The present study experimentally investigates the heat transfer capability of supercritical carbon dioxide (sCO2) single-jet impingement. The evaluated jet Reynolds number range is between 80,000 and 1,000,000, with a non-dimensional jet-to-target surface spacing of 2.8. CO2-impinging jet stagnation conditions were maintained at approximately 20 MPa and a temperature of 673 K for most experiments. The goal is to understand how changes in the aforementioned parameters influence heat transfer between the working fluid and the heated surface. Additionally, due to the elevated Reynolds numbers and difference in thermodynamic properties between air and CO2, air-derived impingement correlations may not be appropriate for …

Data-Driven Diagnostics And Prognostics For Complex Systems: Methods And Applications, Junchuan Shi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Recent advances in artificial intelligence or machine learning have the potential to significantly improve the effectiveness and efficiency of diagnostic and prognostic techniques. The objective of this research is to develop novel data-driven predictive models with machine learning and deep learning algorithms that allow one to model the degradation, detect the faults, as well as predict the remaining useful life (RUL) of complex systems, including bearings, gearboxes, and Lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries. First, an enhanced ensemble learning algorithm is developed to improve the accuracy of RUL prediction by selecting diverse base learners and features at different degradation stages. The proposed method …

A Study Of Autorotation: Samara Seed Pods And Tethered Autogyros, Jonathan Mcconnell

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

This work presents an exploration of autorotational behavior, observing naturally occurring structures to provide insight into the stability and design of autorotative mechanisms. A rotor is said to be in autorotation when, in the presence of airflow, a natural rotation generates lift to either suspend or slow the descent of a rotor. This phenomenon is observed in nature in the form of samaras, a seed pod morphology evolved in parallel by maple trees and many other organisms around the world. Simulation and experimental observation of samara vertical descent behavior provides insight into the stability of naturally evolved autorotative structures. A …

Non-Invasive Detection Of Elevated Intracranial Pressure Using Spontaneous Tympanic Membrane Pulsation, Rajkumar Dhar

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Monitoring intracranial pressure (ICP) is a standard diagnostic tool for various neurological conditions such as head injury, ruptured aneurysms, intracerebral and intracranial hemorrhage, and hydrocephalus. Currently, ICP monitoring relies on invasive pressure measurements. These include intraventricular catheter, subdural screw, epidural sensor, and lumbar puncture. Invasive methods pose the risk of infection and hemorrhage, are expensive, and require special clinical skills. A noninvasive method that is reliable, simple to use, low-cost, and provides easily interpretable results can help avoid the complications associated with the invasive methods. This study proposes a novel method for noninvasive ICP monitoring using tympanic membrane pulsation (TMp). …

Integrating Temperature Dependence Into A Microstructure-Sensitive Fatigue Model For Titanium Alloys, Jared Michael Darius

Masters Theses

This work seeks to integrate temperature dependence into a microstructure-sensitive fatigue model for titanium alloys produced by both extrusion and electron beam melting (EBM) additive manufacturing, revising and enhancing the MultiStage Fatigue (MSF) model as the foundational model framework. Traditional fatigue modeling has required design engineers to conservatively use a lower-bound estimate of fatigue life predictions given a statistically significant spread of experimental data that can span up to two or sometimes three orders of magnitude for a given test condition. This variation in fatigue data has since been accounted for with the advent of the MSF model, linking individual …

Skeletal Modeling Parameters And Clinical Factors Related To Injury Risk In Baseball Pitchers, Aaron Trunt

Dissertations and Theses

ABSTRACT Baseball pitching is a well-studied area of biomechanics partially due to high injury rates in the upper extremity. While current known injury risk factors for pitchers include limited shoulder range of motion (ROM), increased ball velocity, and limited shoulder strength, there has been a lack of scientific evidence linking increased joint kinetics to injury risk. The aims of this research were to (1) explore relationships between known risk factors for injury and joint kinetics, (2) establish more specific biomechanical models of pitchers to calculate joint kinetics with greater precision, and (3) deploy these models prospectively to determine how model …

An Investigation Of The Relationship Between Respiration And Seismocardiographic Signals Using Signal Processing, Machine Learning And Finite Element Analysis, Tanvir Hassan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is one of the major causes of death worldwide. Disease management, as well as patient health, can be significantly improved by early detection of patient deterioration and proper intervention. Review of the patient's medical history and physical examination including stethoscope auscultation and electrocardiograms (ECG), echocardiography imaging, numerous blood testing, and computed tomography are common means of evaluating cardiac function. Seismocardiographic (SCG) signals are the vibrations of the chest wall due to the mechanical activity of the heart. These signals can provide useful information about heart function and could be used to diagnose cardiac problems. The variability in …

Exploration Of Warm-Up Protocols On Muscular Fatigue, Sahil Kapadia

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Muscular dystrophy is a genetically linked myopathy with no cure available. The lack of a cure makes early detection and treatment of muscular dystrophy imperative. When reviewing protocols examining muscular fatigue at submaximal isometric contractions, proper warm-up appeared to be absent and could have caused skewed results and conclusions. This study examines the effects of implementing a warm-up protocol before fatiguing trials. In this study, 10 adult subjects conducted fatiguing protocols with the right rectus at submaximal isometric contractions. The warm-up period included a light walk along with contractions at 20% and 33% of maximal voluntary isometric contraction (MVIC) levels. …

Probing The Effect Of Hyperglycemia On Endothelial Force Generation And Transmission, Jovani J. Gutierrez

Honors Undergraduate Theses

This thesis intends to utilize biomechanics to study the endothelial biomechanical response in a static hyperglycemic microenvironment. Hyperglycemia is a diabetic condition with abnormally high levels of glucose in the bloodstream. The effects of hyperglycemia over time lead to vascular complications resulting in patients being more prone to cardiovascular diseases. Current studies have focused on the molecular mechanisms affected by hyperglycemia; however, the mechanical mechanisms by which hyperglycemia causes vascular structural and functional changes are understudied. Therefore, to study the effects of hyperglycemia in the endothelium, Human Umbilical Vein Endothelial Cells (HUVEC) were cultured under three glucose conditions: normal glucose …

An Investigative Design Of Gas Jet Nozzles And Their Flow Field Effect On Spatial Distribution, Adam Phengsomphone

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Within this study, the presented material has the objective of providing insight and design characteristics for gas jet nozzles that experimentalists and researchers should consider when utilizing this experimental method. Firstly, this study introduces the developing history and necessity for gas jet experiments and its well-known drawbacks, eventually leading to recent studies and founded knowledge regarding the nozzle geometry dependence on the flow field. The simulation methodology of this study will be presented where the discretization of the computational domain, selection of the flow physics model, and overall design of the nozzle geometry is explained and justified. The flow field …

An Introduction To The Comparison Of Seismocardiography And Phonocardiography, Anna C. Voyatzoglou

Honors Undergraduate Theses

The intent of this thesis is to lay groundwork for examining the relationship between seismocardiography (SCG) and phonocardiography (PCG). Both are methods of measuring and describing heart mechanical function. SCG is described as chest vibrations while the heart beats, and PCG is described as acoustic chest surface signal believed to represent the heart valves opening or closing. SCG and PCG have both been used separately in clinical and research settings, but there is currently no clear comparison between the two. Therefore, there has been no way at the present to understand how one signal might inform the other. This study …

Design And Development Of Medical Devices For Multifaceted Applications, Madisyn Messmore

Honors Undergraduate Theses

The fields of biotechnology and biomedical sciences are rapidly evolving and involve the constant growth of knowledge. As a consequence, engineering design has to also remain at the cutting edge in order to not inhibit the growth of these fields. This study focuses on engineering design and analysis as it pertains to the field of biotechnology, at every step of the engineering process. More specifically, how the engineering design and analysis approach can assist in solving medical problems relating to bone diseases and biomaterials. The first part of the study focuses on a project to design and manufacture a novel …

Thermofluidic Characterization Of Carbon Dioxide Near Critical Conditions At Microscale, Anatoly Parahovnik

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

This work revealed the thermo physical characteristics of near critical and supercritical carbon dioxide at the micro scale. The results include the extension of flow boiling heat transfer correlations, boiling inception, near critical bubble dynamics, thermalization mode shift, Joule Thomson effect and pressure drop evaluation. It was found that extremely low superheat temperatures are required for boiling inception near the critical conditions (i.e., T=31.4 °C, and P=7.37 MPa), and boiling heat transfer correlations were extended up to a reduced pressure of 0.99. The work also revealed a significant enhancement of the heat transfer coefficient as the critical conditions approached, which …

Data-Driven Modeling Of Mechanical Behaviors Of Additively Manufactured Materials, Ziyang Zhang

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Additive manufacturing (AM) is a revolutionary technology that greatly improves the flexibility of fabricating parts with complex structures and eliminates the cost of making molds. While AM techniques offer unique benefits over traditional manufacturing processes, it is challenging to predict the mechanical behaviors of additively manufactured parts based on design and process parameters. With recent advances in machine learning, data-driven methods have the potential to overcome such limitations. In this work, data-driven modeling frameworks were proposed to predict the tensile, flexural, and compressive behaviors of additively manufactured plastics and composites. Ensemble learning was used to predict the tensile strength of …