Applied Mechanics Commons^™

Ai-Based Porosity Detection In Babbitt Bore Turning, Kaylee Leggett, Hannah Adams Gemmell, Kaisa Shingleton

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

For this project, an external company reached out to the University of Akron requesting assistance with defect detection during their vertical turning operations. As babbitt is removed in a vertical turning process, it occasionally reveals defects, mainly porosity, which can lead to costly downstream failures of the part. Current inspection techniques involve use of dye penetrant, which is time consuming, labor intensive, unergonomic, and a source of human error. The goal of the project is to create an alternative inspection method using an AI-based machine-learning model. After the turning operation, a camera is deployed to perform an in-place inspection, taking …

Large Telescope Mount For Long Exposure Photos, Payne M. Landis, Anna J. Gray

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

When viewing the stars through a telescope, it is common that the object you are viewing drifts out of view. Many amateur astronomers seek to capture long exposure images of the stars, planets, and galaxies with commercially available sky tracking telescope mounts. The complication is that these telescope mounts are both incredibly expensive and have low weight limits. These issues limit accessibility to these products based on the telescope. For each person, telescope parameters determine the amount of light and magnification that can be viewed, which then determines exposures time for adequate photo results. The options on the market for …

Akron Soap Box Derby Super Kids Car, Alexis Schultz, Cooper Sites, Sean Stevenson

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This project aims to redesign the All-American Soap Box Derby Super Kids vehicle to enhance safety, accessibility, and performance while maintaining full compliance with official regulations. The Super Kids program enables children with physical and cognitive disabilities to race alongside a co-pilot, but the current vehicle design presents challenges in stability, entry/exit accessibility, and control—especially following recent regulation changes that increased vehicle speed. The redesigned car will focus on improved ergonomics, lightweight construction, and structural integrity within a $1,000 budget and a 165 lb weight limit.

An iterative engineering design process will guide the project through research, CAD modeling, FEA …

Automated Soil Resetting System For Extraterrestrial Regolith Simulation, Parker W. Brennan, Anthony C. Daniels

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This project focuses on designing an automated soil resetting system for extraterrestrial regolith simulation. The system will prepare a regolith simulant testbed to a desired, repeatable density, enabling reliable wheel–terrain testing for planetary rover research. Manual soil preparation currently exposes testers to hazardous particulates and produces inconsistent results.

The proposed system will integrate mechanical and control elements to reset the soil bed safely and efficiently. A combination of raking and vibrational methods will be explored, with feedback sensors and automation to achieve target density control. The research will proceed through literature review, benchtop experimentation, prototype design, and full-scale testing over …

Akronauts Turbopump Research Project, Gerald Drabeck Iii, Michael Mccalla, Joshua Skelton

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The idea of this project is to design a turbo pump template capable of fitting into future Akronauts rocket designs. This allows the rockets to travel higher due to the reduced net weight. Many methods were used to verify the rigidity and feasibility of the design, such as Finite Element Analysis and fluid dynamics simulations.

Dual Rotating Mount For Forward Facing Sonar, Javid Miller

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This project aims to create a mount for forward facing sonar (FFS) that will allow anglers to be able to rotate their sonar transducer manually, or in unison with their trolling motor. When in use with the trolling motor, the rotation will be transferred using a belt and pulley assembly. This assembly will be able to be disengaged to allow for manual rotation. This device is designed for use with the Minn Kota Ultrex trolling motor.

Development Of A Solidworks Api, Andrew Magyar

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

With the current advancements in CAD software, and precision of modern motors, we believe that a new way to communicate from hardware to software is possible. This report details the steps we have taken to attempt just that. The essential idea behind this is that modern controls for robotics are not as user friendly as they can be. The general action taken is to create an API for SolidWorks that connects it to the other necessary controller software and makes it so that a robot, and its exact current position, can be changed simply and intuitively from SolidWorks. Furthermore, the …

Battery Dunnage, Paul Hirsch, Alex Cox, Ben Strubbe

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Schaeffler is launching a new assembly line for a battery in 2025. As part of the project, it is necessary to design and fabricate a reusable dunnage (packaging) specialized for the battery, meant for safe domestic transportation in the United States. Through an iterative process, the team developed a final dunnage design out of steel components that had a maximum footprint of 62 in X 43.5 in X 29.25 in and a weight of 821.682 lbs. The dunnage is stackable on itself up to two high, weighing a total of 4,918.724 lbs. when loaded with four batteries. The design was …

Ambient Temperature Strength Degradation Of A Ceramic Matrix Composite Due To Solid Particle Erosion, Jonathan Clawson

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Solid particle erosion (SPE) is an issue for aircraft exposed to hard, fine particles, such as sand or dust, that can be ingested into the engine at a high velocity without reaching their melting point, resulting in material removal. SPE can be attributed to the intake of particulate debris from the runway or from airborne particulates. The cumulative mass loss from SPE damage affects the structural integrity and performance of the engine; however, its effects on ceramic matrix composites (CMCs), that are being employed in the aerospace industry, are not well understood in literature. The limited SPE research studies that …

Zips Racing Electric Brakes Design, Zachary Koneval, Andrew Thompson, Cory Baczkowski

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The Zips electric racing team is a collegiate team full of engineering students to make a formula electric car that competes against other universities and their cars. But before the cars make it to competition they go through a series of tests to make sure the car is able to perform in all of the actual competition stages. One of the tests for the cars is the brakes test. Where the car has to lock up all four wheels at once and stop in a square that is on the ground. So in this report we have detailed out our …

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 …

Nidec Automated Winder, Michael Pugh, Ben A. Swartz, Andrew Leonard, Garrett Dostal

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Nidec Drive Systems is a leading electric motor manufacturing company with several facilities in the US and around the world. However, as of recent, Nidec has started to see some signs of old and outdated production machines affecting their production numbers even though the demand for electric is ever increasing. In an attempt to repair some of these issues, Nidec reached out to the University of Akron to look for senior design groups to help design and standardize better production machines. We were tasked with redesigning a new winder, which is a machine that winds the copper coils to the …

Fluid Power Vehicle Challenge, Bryce Towne, Ethan Andrews, Carter Moore, Andrew Sobel

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The Fluid Power Vehicle Challenge is a competition held by the National Fluid Power Association (NFPA) that challenges students to create a hydraulically powered vehicle to compete in four different races over two days. The vehicle has to be fully powered by hydraulics, with human power (such as pedaling) being used to move the hydraulic fluid. Electronics and pneumatics can be used to control the flow of the hydraulic oil. Vehicles also must have an energy storage device to take advantage of regenerative braking. The final competition was at the Norgren facility in Colorado from April 12th to April 14th. …

4wd Baja Upright And Wheel Hub, Nathan Thompson, Jonathan P. Larson, Spencer D. Compan

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The University of Akron Zips Baja Team has switched to a 4-wheel-drive (4WD) vehicle as per the 2023 Baja Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) rules. The 2022 Baja Vehicle was 2WD, thus the upright and wheel hub were designed exclusively for a 2-wheel-drive (2WD) Baja vehicle. This report entails the design process and methods of verification for the design of the 4WD upright and wheel hub.

Dome Tester, Clark Bates, Nikolas M. Kulin

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

We are reconfiguring and modifying the previously built dome tester to be more user friendly and mechanically applicable. This has a long-term goal of being a usable teaching tool for manufacturing education within the college of engineering and polymer sciences. The dome tester pushes a metal dome into a clamped sheet of metal to test its forming limits and where necking occurs. We have implemented a better method of viewing the sheet sample as it is being deformed, and improved measuring methods for the distance a sample is deformed. By introducing these changes in conjunction with improved documentation of the …

Hendrickson Lift Kit, Matthew Rozmajzl

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This research project will be completed with Hendrickson Trailer as the sponsor. The goal of the project is to create a lift kit for a newer suspension system. The lift kit must provide enough lift force to lift an axle off the road and suspend it off the road while in transit. There are similar systems offered for different products at Hendrickson, but the configuration of this system is such that new brackets must be designed. The benefit of such a system is a reduction in wear on the lifted tires, and thus an increase in the life of the …

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. …

Human Powered Vehicle Team Challenge, Sydney Nedlik, Spencer Brodie, Maria Griffin, William Schell, Ryan Serraglio

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Design and build a Human Powered Vehicle in a team of five. Compete at the ASME HPVC competition in March of 2022. Re-establish the Human Powered Vehicle Team at the University of Akron.

Grinding And Super-Finishing Test Machine Project, Michael Simon

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

A research project in The University of Akron to study grinding and super-finishing of silicon nitride ceramic was initiated by Dr. Siamak Farhad and sponsored by the Timken Company, with the assistance of undergraduate students Michael Simon, Ryan Hosso and Mathew Rozmajzl. The study required analysis of forces and scratches generated during grinding processes of silicon nitride samples. A testing assembly was designed and constructed to record the forces generated during grinding and super-finishing of silicon nitride samples in a computer-numerical-control machine. Silicon nitride samples were subjected to desired grinding and super-finishing operations and all forces generated during the process …

Design For Additive Manufacturing (3d Printing), Michael O'Donnell, Michael J. Levy

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The goal of this project is to study the performance of a 3D printed mechanical part subjected to topology optimization. A part that is somewhat complex in its load bearing and geometry will be selected. That part will then be designed, finite element analysis will be performed on it to optimize its topology, and then it will be 3D printed and tested. The goal of topology optimization is to either save material cost and/or part weight due to the ability of 3D printing to manufacture parts with complex and obscure geometry.

Smart Home Pet Feeder, Andrew Markja, Simona Zdravev, Timothy Zubek, Christian Jackson

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The goal of this project was to design a Smart Home Pet Feeder that will allow the owner to feed their pet using 4 different methods. The methods are: manually, scheduled, app/url, Alexa/Google. The advantages of this design are that it will become convenient for pet owners who are busy and unable to make it back to their house to feed their pets remotely or for those who enjoy the use of technology from within their home for no-trouble feeding.

Chainless Bike Drive, Dominic Apisa, Bradley Powell, Garrett Colvin, John Monsour

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The focus of this project was to design a drive system that could replace the conventional chain drive system, improving on both the efficiency and reliability, in addition to being low cost and lightweight. This report will provide background into why this group chose this as the subject of their project, as well as challenges faced throughout the design process. The design developed was a drive shaft driven by a system of pinions and gears, with a freewheel mechanism that allowed the system to coast when not pedaling. Due to cost and time constraints, only a prototype was created, with …

Door Barricade, Alex Cerino

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

My senior capstone project will be a door barricade. The main idea for the use of the door barricade is for schools in the case of an intruder. The barricade that I will be designing is a solution to the inefficient barricades that I saw at my high school. It could also be used at businesses and homes. My design would be easy to use and have a fail-safe option. The two areas of mechanical engineering technology that my capstone project will focus on are stress analysis and electronics. Every part for my door barricade is drawn in SolidWorks. All …

Additive Manufactured Formula Sae Brake Caliper, Auston Obringer, Robert Kucera, Steven Massarelli, Jared John, Michael Finer

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

In a world where innovation has become the new norm, automobiles can often be found at the forefront of that movement. Each and every year there are new innovations and concepts that push modern day technology to the edge of what is physically possible. This can be seen from every aspect of these automobiles ranging from the conceptual stage all the way to production.

Most of these advancements have been made possible with the new technology that has become available on the manufacturing side of the designs. Instead of being constrained by what is possible on your average 3 to …

Hydraulic Vehicle Challenge, Jacob Steiner, David Kotovets, Evan Blitz, Luke Fetherston, Alex Colucy

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The target goal of this project is for a team of students to design a vehicle which is based on human power as the primary mover of the system and achieves vehicle propulsion through the required use of hydraulics and pneumatics. In summary, the rider will power a pump that will generate pressure in order to move the fluid that drives the motor. This will result in the powered rotation of the wheels. As there are many possible designs, naturally, this means that the final design for the vehicle will have specific limitations such as weight and the required use …

Golf Ball Mark Repair Tool, Peter Gildea, Jacob Cunningham, Simon Aramouni, Michael Buckley, Andrew Perez

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Golf is a unique sport because the players consist of various ages. Inexperience and old age are two factors that cause issues on the course for others, such as improperly repaired divots. Divots are “craters” in the ground caused by the golf ball landing with high velocity on the greens. Older players encounter body limitations that make it difficult for them to bend over in order to properly fix the divots on every hole. This device will be created to properly repair divots to keep the greens in good playing condition for all players and to keep the older players …

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.

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 …

Automated Runout Measurement Tool, Ethan Tisch

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

A new measurement process and tool is to be developed to improve the existing method for measuring runout on the commutators of brushed DC product.

After an armature is manufactured, the commutator is inspected by placing the completed rotor assembly in one of several non-standard measurement fixtures. An indicator is then positioned on the commutator. A trained operator proceeds to rotate the armature while taking runout and bar-to-bar measurement at various positions along the length of the commutator.

This existing process is slow, costly, and unreliable. For these reasons, there is substantial economic pressure to develop a superior method for …

Reactive Archey Target Design Team "Mimic", Brandon Croyle, Jacob Boss, David Rodgers, Austin Wivell

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This design project will aim to provide archery hunters with a platform to simulate shooting at string jumping deer. String jumping refers to a spooked deer hearing the snap of a bow string and instintivly ducking up to ten inches. This often results in wounded or missed deer. We will design and build a control system that uses the sound of a bow string as a trigger to operate a mechanical target system. A sound sensor will mimic a deer’s hearing in close range hunting and then send a signal to the mechanical system to replicate the dropping motion of …