Mechanical Engineering Commons^™

Thermodynamic Properties Of Hydroxylammonium Nitrate-Based Electric Solid Propellant Plasma, Matthew S. Glascock, Patrick D. Drew, Joshua L. Rovey, Kurt A. Polzin

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Electric solid propellants are advanced solid chemical rocket propellants controlled by electric current. An electric solid propellant may also be used in an electric propulsion system: specifically, an ablative pulsed plasma thruster. Previous experiments with the electric solid propellant known as high-performance electric propellant, or HIPEP, suggest its ablation processes are similar to the traditional propellant polytetrafluoroethylene (C2 F4). Better understanding of the ablation and the resulting propulsion performance of HIPEP requires a model of its vapor composition, bulk plasma quantities, and thermodynamic properties. Such a model was developed and favorably compared with previous analogous model predictions found in the …

Medical Device For Loading Of Knee At Differing Angles, Alex Dragota

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Abstract

This was a design report for a device that would be used in patellar instability research. The device would be used inside an MRI machine and allow the patient to adjust the angle of their knee to the desired position.

Methods: Solidworks was used in the design process to model and to simulate the strength of the components used. The Solidworks simulation software allowed for a better understanding of the strength of individual components and the strength of the full device. Complexity of operating the device while inside an MRI machine were taken into account by using animations of …

Snug Fit Crescent Wrench, Jacob M. Miterko, Michael E. Buchbinder, Gavin J. Griffith, Andrew J. Jarrett

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The most commonly used brand of adjustable wrench, a Crescent Wrench, dates back to the early nineteen hundreds. The tolerances associated with the adjustable wheel used by the most common adjustable wrench designs allow the position of the lower jaw to vary while using the tool. These undesired fluctuations in the position of the lower jaw make it difficult to adjust the wrench to the desired position and keep it in position once the desired position is set.

The proposed adjustable wrench design addresses the tolerance issues by constraining the lower jaw with a new mechanism. The mechanism makes minor …

Mini Baja Frame Analysis, Jacob Swanson

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The purpose of our senior design project is to optimize the Baja frame to reduce its weight and material cost while keeping the required rigidity. Through force analysis we will be able to determine if any rigidity is lost by removing a set of tubes (figure 1), along with the other forces seen by the frame. If it is found that the frame rigidity is still within the determined factor of safety, 2, then we will be able to reduce the frame weight and the number of tubes that make up the frame. Along with force analysis, we will use …

Senior Design Proposal For Brakes Subsystem 2019-2020, Jasmine Zogheib, Zachary Demetriades, Devin Seay

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This report concentrates on efforts to design a new braking system for the Zips Formula Electric Race Team. The improvements to the braking system will be based upon previous years’ official designs along with optimizing for predetermined criteria. The design will be influenced based on design factors of the car such as weight, center of gravity, wheelbase, and integration with other systems of the car.

Redesign And Analysis For Landing Gear Components, Daniel Clarke

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

A project for Collins Aerospace, the company I co-op at, where I will redesign several components of a landing gear for a military program. Any structural/stress analysis will also be performed. The goal is to reduce weight while maintaining strength and structural integrity.

Jominy Hardenability Tester With In-Situ Heating, Luke Allen

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This project centers on building a Jominy Hardenability tester with In-Situ heating for the manufacturing lab at the University of Akron. A new process and setup will be designed using engineering concepts in order to make the testing more efficient and safer for the teaching and testing of metal hardness. The current Jominy testing setup has efficiency issues within the transfer of specimen from induction heater to testing rig. Our design will simplify the design by creating a test rig that removes the traveling aspect of the specimen which will limit the amount of premature cooling done and will be …

Akron Honey- Honey Infuser, Niklas Hilmoe, Timothy Snider, Richard Bitzel, Preston Fillman

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The initiative for this project was created by the local business, Akron Honey, who has recently developed a new product line called ‘honeytune’. The basis of the product line is the addition of active ingredients to the natural honey. Currently, they are using a 20 gallon traditional honey extractor to mix the ingredients with the honey. This extractor uses a variable speed motor which causes a long mixing time. Also, the extractor is made of heavy stainless steel which lacks mobility of the machine. This process is tedious and inefficient and therefore, needs improvement. They would like a large scale …

Custom 3d Printed Orthotic, Dakota Kirtley, Andrew Wiles

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The goal of this senior design projet is to develop a cutsom 3D printed orthotic shoe insert. Pressure mapping, laser scanning, and 3D modeling will be used to create a truly custom orthotic for each foot. Pressure mapping will give the weight distribution on an individual's food and the laser scanner will give the x-y coordinates of the foot. these two together will be used to generate a a 3D model which will then be 3D printed to create a custom orthotic. Research and material testing will also be done to determine the best material type to be used in …

Piezoelectric Energy Harvester Improvement, Nathan Embaugh, Jason Mack, Jeremiah Fitzgerald, Zachary J. Lindsey

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The energy harvester is used to convert a portion of the tire deflection waste energy to power up tire embedded sensors. A piezoelectric energy harvester is designed and some preliminary tests are done on it. So far, it has been shown that this design is sufficient for tire application. The team will need to modify the design of the energy harvester, the measurement setup and add a temperature and a strain senor to the existing setup so that the tire deflection and temperature can be measured and at the same time the energy harvester should be tested to see how …

Pediatric Blood Calculator, Richard Desatnik

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This paper outlines an expert system based solution for calculating the optimal amount of blood draw from infants to carry out critical tests requested by the attending clinicians. The solution is a hand-held device with a user-friendly interface that allows a meaningful two-way conversation between the clinician and the pathology office. Based on the tests being requested, the calculator determines the minimum amount of blood required in the different vials based on a smart expert system. This removes the uncertainty that is prevalent today in the amount of blood required to do all the tests, since in some cases there …

A Commercial Apartment Complex, Kathleen A. George

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Within this project the similarities and differences of new and used heating, cooling, and plumbing systems and equipment will be compared and contrasted in depth. Doing so would help further knowledge and understanding of the design field and help to foster quicker decision making in an educated way. The questions to be answered are: in which stage of this project did the client have the best equipment (the high-end outcome) and why, in which stage did they have the cheapest equipment (the low-end outcome) and why, in which stage did they have the best equipment while also being cost efficient …

Zips Electric - Cooling System, Guan-Bok Kwok

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

I am working with Zips Electric Racing to design a new cooling system for the ZER-20 car. The new cooling system will be more efficient and effective than the current design. We will investigate lighter materials with better thermal conductivity. Flow rate will also be optimized to meet the system’s needs. Also calculations and testing will be completed to determine if a fan is necessary. To adapt to the new proposed chassis, it is likely that the radiator must be mounted outside of the frame. If this is necessary, we will also design composite side pods to conceal and direct …

Rocket Motor Nozzle, Corey Hillegass

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

For this honors research and senior design project, the authors will research, analyze, and manufacture a rocket motor nozzle for the Akronauts rocket design team. This research and design project will improve how the rocket design team will decide and manufacture nozzles going forward. The impact of this improvement allows the rocket design team to take steps toward being self-sustaining by manufacturing student designed parts as opposed to commercially bought parts. This will not only be successful in increasing student impact on future designs, but also provides a technical challenge for the authors and will present as an impressive feat …

Shock Wave And Boundary Layer Interaction, Blake Keuchel, Lauren Andrews, Corryn Rahe

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Air entering the engine of a supersonic aircraft must be slowed to subsonic speeds for the engine to perform properly and not become significantly damaged over time. Diffusers are designed to create a shockwave to slow down air to subsonic speeds before the air enters the engine. This project will focus on the numerical analysis and design of diffuser geometries for supersonic aircraft engines. The main objective is to evaluate supersonic flow over different geometries, specifically the interaction between shock waves and boundary layer, and to minimize the amount of drag created by different diffuser geometries to optimize the efficiency …

Formula Electric Sae Frame, David Streen, David Kinion, Dylan Ramey

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The project is for the FSAE Zips Racing Electric Team. The last race car made by the Zips Racing Electric Team has a large potential for optimization. We plan to redesign the frame from the ground up in an effort to reduce weight and increase the performance potential while meeting all FSAE rules and packaging constraints.

Formula Electric is an event in which teams from colleges around the world compete in various events including autocross, endurance and many others with an electrically driven car.

This project will involve the design, analysis, and fabrication of a steel tube space frame for …

Zips Electric Racing Suspension Design, Madison Hughes, Christopher Thompson, Erikah Jackson, Anna Signorino

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

I am working with three others on the suspension and steering sybsystems for the Zips Electric Racing design team at The University of Akron. We are improving upon last year's design to help create an optimized vehicle. As part of this project, we take part in weekly design reviews and team meetings, model parts in Solidworks, and perform simulations and FEA using MATLAB/SIMULINK, Solidworks, and Optimum Kinematics.

Comparision Of Fillet-Welded Base Plate Fatigue Design For Highway Support Structures With Laboratory Research Tests, William Shea

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

There are many types of vertical structures along highways that serve unique purposes. These structures include traffic signs for directing, warning, or regulating traffic, luminaires for distributing and directing light, traffic signals supporting equipment such as traffic lights, and combination structures including any combination of the aforementioned structures. Highway support structures are typically fabricated from steel or aluminum and are designed to the guidelines and specifications of the AASHTO Standard Specifications for Structural Supports for Highway Signs, Luminaires, and Traffic Signals. The structures are connected to a foundation by anchor bolts through a welded base plate. Often a cause …

Human Powered Vehicle Internal Systems Design, Zachary Broadbent, Jordan Boos, Patrick Gaertner, Caleb Miner

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The objective of this design project is to redesign the seat and steering system for the Human Powered Vehicle Team. The goal of the seat design is too improve ergonomics by making it more comfortable and adjustable. In making the seat adjustable, it will be easier for drivers to achieve an optimal efficiency when pedaling. The aim for steering will be to improve the ergonomics as well as performance by analyzing steering systems in the past and evaluating how each design was successful and for what reason. Another main goal of the steering system will be improving the stability and …

Ideal Lacrosse Stick, Josh Beck, Tyler Skoloda, Noah Reed, Stanley Dembosky

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This project is focused on the design of a new and innovative lacrosse stick. Our main points of focus will be the strength and durability of the head. As well as solving some of the problems that exist in existing equipment. These problems were identified by interviewing experienced players at the college level. Benefits would include a stronger head that is easier to use for a player on the field to do things like pass, catch, shoot, and field ground balls in an optimal manner. Normally players will have to purchase new heads every season as a result of warping …

Table Top Dome Tester, Travis Bernard, Sarah Kassinger, Amanda O'Reilly, Scott Salerno

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The Erichsen Cupping Test was used as a basis to design a dome tester. The intention of a dome tester is to test sheet metal material properties in all directions. This was done by clamping a piece of sheet metal and using a piston and hydraulic press to punch through the material. The force used to punch the material and the height of the deforming material can be gathered and the sheet metal properties can then be calculated. At the end of the project the team was able to successfully design and manufacture a hydraulic dome tester. However, due to …

Zips Precious Plastics: Plastic Extruder, Patrick Cole

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This project's goal was to design and build an affordable desktop filament extruder that can precisely and consistently extrude filament to a certain tolerance acceptable for 3D printers using wasted printing material. The group is partnering with an on campus organization focusing on engineering applications for sustainable futures. Zips Precious Plastics is a student run design group that intends to bring an innovation space on campus to help educate students about the importance of a closed looped system within plastic manufacturing.

Non-Linear Non-Iterative Transient Inverse Conjugate Heat Transfer Method Applied To Microelectronics, David Gonzalez Cuadrado, Amy Marconnet, Guillermo Paniagua

CTRC Research Publications

Solving for temperature profiles given boundary conditions, geometry, and material properties is rela- tively straightforward given the wealth of analytical and computational techniques available. However, experimentally we often measure temperatures and seek to understand unknown boundary conditions or material properties. This problem is generally ill-posed. Thus, to get the value of these input param- eters, we use inverse methods: knowing the output of the system ( i.e. , temperature), we can compute the value of the unknown parameters ( e.g. , thermal conductivity or heat fluxes). In microelectronics, the location and magnitude of the boundary conditions including local heat generation …

Internet Of Things In Sustainable Energy Systems, Abdul Salam

Faculty Publications

Our planet has abundant renewable and conventional energy resources but technological capability and capacity gaps coupled with water-energy needs limit the benefits of these resources to citizens. Through IoT technology solutions and state-of-the-art IoT sensing and communications approaches, the sustainable energy-related research and innovation can bring a revolution in this area. Moreover, by the leveraging current infrastructure, including renewable energy technologies, microgrids, and power-to-gas (P2G) hydrogen systems, the Internet of Things in sustainable energy systems can address challenges in energy security to the community, with a minimal trade-off to environment and culture. In this chapter, the IoT in sustainable energy …

Experimental Analyses Of Different Control Strategies Of An R-410a Split-System Heat Pump By Employing A Turbomachinery Expansion Recovery Device, Riley Barta, Davide Ziviani, Eckhard A. Groll

School of Mechanical Engineering Faculty Publications

With increasing need for energy efficient vapor-compression cycles (VCCs), researchers have investigated different aspects of such systems to increase performance. The goal of this research is to experimentally investigate the design and control of a turbomachine expander to recover work and control the VCC. An R-410A split-system heat pump experimental setup has been utilized to compare the performance and control capabilities of a variable nozzle and a fixed nozzle with phase separation combined with evaporator bypass flow metering. A theoretical analysis on the benefit of the expander in heat pumps motivated heat pump operation in cooling mode. The variable nozzle …

The Tera Multi Terrain Mobility Aid Chassis, Colton Kemp, Daniel Nicoll, Ibrahim Suleiman, Mohammad Alyami

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The natural environment poses a significant number of obstacles and dynamic settings that makes mobility difficult for those with physical and mobility impairments. To approach this problem, a suspension was designed using inspiration from the early Mars rovers developed by NASA for traversing the varied Martian landscape. The course of the project followed the direction of a start-up through problem identification, early design generation and review, and final design production. The project outcome, through client request and proven market research, aimed to produce a multi-terrain wheelchair. The final product is a kinematic body with mobile front “legs” and a rotational …

Integrated Dentistry Face Shield, Noah Glass

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Currently, the United States and the entire world is experiencing a global pandemic that has drastically changed the way we go about our everyday lives. Dr. Pavlik, a local dentist is one such person who has had to alter his normal dentistry routine to one of extreme caution while working on patients. His day to day job puts him at a high risk of being exposed to Covid-19 by actively working in patients’ mouths at proximity. Dr. Pavlik’s current dentistry equipment is lackluster in its compatibility with his safety equipment. To help minimize exposure to Covid-19 for Dr. Pavlik and …

Study Of Grain Growth In Single-Phase Polycrystals, Pawan Vedanti

Wayne State University Dissertations

Materials with random microstructure are characterized by additional thermodynamic parameters, entropy and temperature of microstructure. It has been argued that there is one more law of thermodynamics: entropy of microstructure decays in isolated systems. This assertion has been checked experimentally for the process of grain growth which showed that entropy of grain structure decays indeed as expected. The equation of state for microstructure entropy has also been studied. In general, entropy of grain microstructure is expected to be a function of grain structure energy and the average grain size. Our experiments suggest that in fact, the equation of state degenerates …

Computational Modeling Of Shock Wave Propagation In A Layered Composites, Nicholas Ryan Scott

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Modeling and simulation of a metallic flyer plate impacting a woven glass-fiber reinforced plastic (GRP) plate at different velocities was performed using the ALE3D© finite element code. The one-dimensional strain-based shock wave propagation experimental data in terms of time history of GRP’s back surface material particle velocity, available in open literature [1], were utilized in the calibration of a continuum damage mechanics (CDM) model. The experimental data included D7 Tool Steel and 7075-T6 aluminum flyer plates and two different GRP thicknesses (6.8 mm or 13.6 mm) with varying impact velocities in the range of about 8.5 m/s to 418 m/s. …

Additive Manufacturing In Space, Japheth Hayman

Summer Community of Scholars Posters (RCEU and HCR Combined Programs)

No abstract provided.