Applied Mechanics Commons^™

Exploration Station Kidshake Table, Jeremy Duhe, Philip Hopkins, Matt Ostiguy, Samantha Weiner

Mechanical Engineering

The KIDShake Table is an all mechanical earthquake shake table sponsored by the Exploration Station Children's Museum of Grover Beach. This interactive exhibit has two working mechanisms, a hand crank and pull rope, that provide two axis movement for knocking down block structures. This table was built and designed for a target age of 10 years.

Dedion Axle Senior Project, Nick Schraan, Mark Shushnar, William Swenson, Ramy Tall

Mechanical Engineering

The sponsor, EV Grid Inc. is a company looking to the future with the development of a vehicle to grid infrastructure. The vehicle in development is a Ford E-250 Van which had been converted to electric drive with a front motor, rear drive layout. The sponsor wanted to move the electric motor to the rear and develop an axle to support this change. By eliminating the driveshaft, a more efficient use of battery space could be utilized. The goal of this project is to design and fabricate a prototype deDion rear axle which incorporates a system of drive components that …

Rebounder Fatigue Test Machine, Caroline Reeves, Will Robertson, Ethan Flory

Mechanical Engineering

JumpSport, a company that designs and sells trampolines and trampoline accessories, has sponsored this senior project team to design, build, and test a trampoline fatigue test machine. The machine must simulate a person jumping on the trampoline to test the life of JumpSport’s fitness trampolines and kids’ trampolines. Partway through the design process, the objectives were altered and this senior project team was tasked with merging with another Cal Poly senior project group to create an all-inclusive test machine to accommodate both full-trampoline testing and individual bungee cord testing.

The final design is centered on a slider crank linkage driven …

Adaptive Golf Device, Nick Baker, Katie Delaurentis, Grant Martens, Liz Allison

Mechanical Engineering

Our primary objective was to design a golf device that enables its user, who has limited leg movement and control, to be able to produce a balanced golf swing. Ultimately, the device maximizes the golfer's independence, and increases the accuracy of and power behind each shot. Specifically, the device was designed around the needs and requirements of Dr. Joshua Pate, Professor of Adapted Recreation at James Madison University. Dr. Pate has cerebral palsy limiting his lower body mobility and making it difficult for him to produce a balanced golf swing.

Loaded Shift Tester Sram, Nick Cox, Sam Shaffer, Michael Polka

Mechanical Engineering

This report details the design, manufacturing, and testing of a loaded shift tester for the SRAM Bicycle Corporation. The machine is used to perform developmental and qualification tests on various bicycle drivetrain components. Using SolidWorks, the design team created a solid model of the machine on the computer, then ordered and manufactured the parts required to build it. The machine was tested to ensure that all the parts worked together, and was finally delivered to SRAM when it was deemed ready.

Bicycle Wheel Test Machine, Dylan Harper, Kevin Hom, Ross Williams

Mechanical Engineering

In recent years, the cycling industry has witnessed huge advancements in bicycle components and materials. The age old goals of speed and low weight are still present today, but the pursuit of these goals may be reducing the structural stability of various components integral to wheel performance, including the wheel hub bearings. These bearings are invaluable to bicycles but little is known about how the forces and loads applied to a bicycle affect the performance of these bearings. Broken axles and hubs are indicators of significant stresses within the hub, but little is known about how the resulting deformation affects …

Hoist To Transfer Athletes From Wheelchair Into A Kayak, Jennifer Batryn, Javier Mendez, Kyle Mooney

Mechanical Engineering

No abstract provided.

Design, Fabrication, And Testing Of An Emr Based Orbital Debris Impact Testing Platform, Jeffrey J. Maniglia Jr.

Master's Theses

This paper describes the changes made from Cal Poly’s initial railgun system, the Mk. 1 railgun, to the Mk. 1.1 system, as well as the design, fabrication, and testing of a newer and larger Mk. 2 railgun system. The Mk. 1.1 system is developed as a more efficient alteration of the original Mk. 1 system, but is found to be defective due to hardware deficiencies and failure, as well as unforeseen efficiency losses. A Mk. 2 system is developed and built around donated hardware from the Naval Postgraduate School. The Mk. 2 system strove to implement an efficient, augmented, electromagnetic …

Transient Small Wind Turbine Tower Structural Analysis With Coupled Rotor Dynamic Interaction, George R. Katsanis

Master's Theses

Structural dynamics is at the center of wind turbine tower design - excessive vibrations can be caused by a wide range of environmental and mechanical sources and can lead to reduced component life due to fatigue, noise, and impaired public perception of system integrity. Furthermore, periodic turbulent wind conditions can cause system resonance resulting in significantly increased structural loads. Structural vibration issues may become exacerbated in small wind applications where the analytical and experimental resources for system verification and optimization are scarce. This study combines several structural analysis techniques and packages them into a novel and integrated form that can …

Design Of Experimental Methods To Test The Performance Of Pads And Helmets Under Blast Loading Conditions, Kurtis Palu

Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Improvised explosive devices (IEDs) have become a primary weapon in conflicts against US and allied forces. Improvements in body armor and medicine have increased the survivability of such events. These factors have caused an increase in traumatic brain injury (TBI) and mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) induced by primary blast waves. Injury mechanisms caused from primary blast waves are not clearly understood or defined. How primary blast waves interact with materials or between narrow gaps found between helmet pads is not known. Two novel test fixtures were developed to provide a basic understanding of these two issues.

The first fixture …

Design And Fundamental Understanding Of Minimum Quantity Lubrication (Mql) Assisted Grinding Using Advanced Nanolubricants, Parash Kalita

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Abrasive grinding is widely used across manufacturing industry for finishing parts and components requiring smooth superficial textures and precise dimensional tolerances and accuracy. Unlike any other machining operations, the complex thermo-mechanical processes during grinding produce excessive friction-induced energy consumption, heat, and intense contact seizures. Lubrication and cooling from grinding fluids is crucial in minimizing the deleterious effects of friction and heat to maximize the output part quality and process efficiency. The conventional flood grinding approach of an uneconomical application of large quantities of chemically active fluids has been found ineffective to provide sufficient lubrication and produces waste streams and pollutants …

Vulnerability Of Progressive Collapse In Reinforced Concrete Flat-Plate Buildings, Jinrong Liu

College of Engineering: Graduate Celebration Programs

• Progressive collapse is the spread of initial local failure, causing partial or
  even total collapse of a building.
• Flat plate structure is widely used for office and residential buildings.
• There is a large inventory of older flat plate building without continuous slab bottom reinforcement through columns.
• Limited knowledge exists regarding the risk of disproportionate collapse in
  older flat-plates under sudden column removal during abnormal events.
• Reliable mechanical model is needed for structural evaluation.

Enhanced Nucleate Boiling On Horizontal Hydrophobic-Hydrophilic Carbon Nanotube Coatings, Xianming Dai, Xinyu Huang, Fanghao Yang, Xiaodong Li, Joshua Sightler, Yingchao Yang, Chen Li

Faculty Publications

Ideal hydrophobic-hydrophilic composite cavities are highly desired to enhance nucleate boiling. However, it is challenging and costly to fabricate these types of cavities by conventional micro/nano fabrication techniques. In this study, a type of hydrophobic-hydrophilic composite interfaces were synthesized from functionalized multiwall carbon nanotubes by introducing hydrophilic functional groups on the pristine multiwall carbon nanotubes. This type of carbon nanotube enabled hydrophobic-hydrophilic composite interfaces were systematically characterized. Ideal cavities created by the interfaces were experimentally demonstrated to be the primary reason to substantially enhance nucleate boiling

Computational Dynamics For The Flexible Multi-Body System, Yu Liu

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Research in computational dynamics has tremendously developed in the recent years because of the demand for analysis and simulation of various multi-body systems in the growing bio-medical, mechanical and aerospace industries. These multi-body systems are made of individual bodies that are interconnected via mechanical joints. Mathematically, these joints that connect the bodies can be described as constraint equations imposed upon the motions of the involved free bodies. This process will result in an equation of motion expressed in the form of a differential-algebraic equation (DAE). This is one of the main difficulties when dealing with the multi-body system because these …

Mechanics Of Blast Loading On Post-Mortem Human And Surrogate Heads In The Study Of Traumatic Brain Injury (Tbi) Using Experimental And Computational Approaches, Shailesh Govind Ganpule

Department of Engineering Mechanics: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Blast induced neurotrauma (BINT) has been designated as the “signature injury” to warfighters in the recent military conflicts. The occurrence of traumatic brain injury (TBI) in blasts is controversial in the medical and scientific communities because the manifesting symptoms occur without visible injuries. Whether the primary blast waves alone can cause mechanical insult that is comparable to existing traumatic brain injury thresholds is still an open question, and this work is aimed to address this issue.

In the first part of this dissertation, mechanics of primary blast loading on Realistic Explosive Dummy (RED) head with and without helmets is studied …

Analysis Of Alternative Ductile Fiber-Reinforced Polymer Reinforcing Bar Concepts, Bashar Behnam, Christopher D. Eamon

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research Publications

Steel-reinforced concrete structural components are often associated with significant maintenance costs as a result of reinforcement corrosion. To mitigate this problem, fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) bars have been used in place of traditional steel reinforcement for some applications. The non-ductile response of typical FRP bars is a concern, however. To overcome this problem, hybrid ductile FRP (HDFRP) bars have been developed for use in concrete flexural members with resulting ductility indices similar to sections reinforced with steel. In this study, five different HDFRP bar concepts are analyzed and compared in terms of ductility, stiffness, and relative cost. Of primary interest is …

Resistance Factors For Ductile Frp-Reinforced Concrete Flexural Members, Bashar Behnam, Christopher D. Eamon

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research Publications

To prevent damage caused by corroding reinforcement, fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) reinforcing bars have been used in place of steel in a relatively small but increasing number of structures in the civil infrastructure. A concern with the use of traditional FRP bars, however, is the resulting lack of ductility. This problem has been overcome with the development of a new generation of composite reinforcement, ductile hybrid FRP (DHFRP) bars. However, standards that address the design of DHFRP bars are unavailable, and appropriate resistance factors for the use of DHFRP reinforcement are unknown. In this study, a reliability analysis is conducted …

Reliability Analysis Of Rc Beams Exposed To Fire, Christopher D. Eamon, Elin A. Jensen

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research Publications

A procedure for conducting reliability analysis of reinforced concrete beams subjected to a fire load is presented. This involves identifying relevant load combinations, specifying critical load and resistance random variables, and establishing a high-temperature performance model for beam capacity. Based on the procedure, an initial reliability analysis is conducted using currently available data. Significant load random variables are taken to be dead load, sustained live load, and fire temperature. Resistance is in terms of moment capacity, with random variables taken as steel yield strength, concrete compressive strength, placement of reinforcement, beam width, and thermal diffusivity. A semi-empirical model is used …

A Closed-Form Solution For The Similarity Transformation Parameters Of Two Planar Point Sets, Shamsul A. Shamsudin, Andrew P. Murray

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Faculty Publications

Image registration covers the set of techniques used in matching images of the same scene. A subset of the image registration problem, identifying the parameters in a similarity transformation, has emerged as useful in a recently defined area of machine design: designing mechanisms for rigidbody shape-change. First, this brief paper shows a potential use for image registration techniques outside the field of machine vision. Second, it presents a closed-form solution for the similarity transformation parameters when the point sets to be matched are restricted to two-dimensional space as is needed in the aforementioned design problem.

The Effect Of Isostatic Pressing On The Dielectric Properties Of Screen Printed Ba0.5Sr0.5Tio3 Thick Films, Siwei Wang, Lingling Zhang, Jiwei Zhai, Fanglin Chen

Faculty Publications

Ba_0.5Sr_0.5TiO₃ thick films with B₂O₃–Li₂O glass sintering aid were prepared by the screen printing method on Al₂O₃ substrates. A 200 MPa isostatic pressure was applied to the films before sintering. After being sintered at 950^∘C, lower porosity and denser microstructure was obtained compared with the films without isostatic pressing. The dielectric constant and dielectric loss were 238 and 0.0028, respectively. A tunability of 61.7% was obtained for the isostatic pressed films, a 27.8% enhancement compared to unpressurized films. These results suggest that isostatic pressing …

Numerical Modeling And Characterization Of Vertically Aligned Carbon Nanotube Arrays, Johnson Joseph

Theses and Dissertations--Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Since their discoveries, carbon nanotubes have been widely studied, but mostly in the forms of 1D individual carbon nanotube (CNT). From practical application point of view, it is highly desirable to produce carbon nanotubes in large scales. This has resulted in a new class of carbon nanotube material, called the vertically aligned carbon nanotube arrays (VA-CNTs). To date, our ability to design and model this complex material is still limited. The classical molecular mechanics methods used to model individual CNTs are not applicable to the modeling of VA-CNT structures due to the significant computational efforts required. This research is to …

Carbon Dioxide Absorption And Channelling In Closed Circuit Rebreather Scrubbers, Shona Cunningham

Theses

Closed Circuit Rebreathers (CCRs) are a type of Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus (SCUBA) used predominantly by the diving community. CCR technologies have become prevalent within the commercial, military and technical diving communities over recent years. CCRs work by recycling breathing gas, by-passing the gas through a carbon dioxide (CO₂) chemical scrubber and topping the resultant scrubbed gas up with pure oxygen to maintain the oxygen content at a level which supports life. One of the main dangers currently faced by divers using this equipment is the risk of CO₂ poisoning if the scrubber fails. This failure …

Testing The Fuel Efficiency Of Tractors With Continuously Variable And Standard Geared Transmissions, Christopher N. Howard, Michael F. Kocher, Roger M. Hoy, Erin E. Blankenship

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

A John Deere 8295R IVT tractor with a continuously variable transmission (CVT) and a John Deere 8295R PowerShift (PST) tractor with a standard geared transmission (GT) were tested for fuel consumption at three different travel speeds with six different load levels applied per speed. The JD 8295R PST tractor was tested both at full throttle (FT) and shifted up two gears and throttled back (SUTB) to achieve the same travel speed as at full throttle. For each travel speed with each transmission mode, fuel consumption was determined to be linearly related to drawbar power. Linear regression analyses were performed, and …

Wave Propagation In Metamaterial Using Multiscale Resonators By Creating Local Anisotropy, Raiz U. Ahmed, Sourav Banerjee

Faculty Publications

Directional guiding, passing or stopping of elastic waves through engineered materials have many applications to the engineering fields. Recently, such engineered composite materials received great attention by the broader research community. In elastic waves, the longitudinal and transverse motion of material particles are coupled, which exhibits richer physics and demands greater attention than electromagnetic waves and acoustic waves in fluids. Waves in periodic media exhibit the property of Bragg scattering and create frequency band gaps in which the energy propagation is prohibited. However, in addition to the Bragg scattering, it has been found that local resonance of artificially designed resonators …