Heat Transfer, Combustion Commons^™

Experimental Investigation Of The Effects Of Acoustic Waves On Natural Convection Heat Transfer From A Horizontal Cylinder In Air, Katherina V. Prodanov

Master's Theses

Heat transfer is a critical part of engineering design, from the cooling of rocket engines to the thermal management of the increasingly dense packaging of electronic circuits. Even for the most fundamental modes of heat transfer, a topic of research is devoted to finding novel ways to improve it. In recent decades, investigators experimented with the idea of exposing systems to acoustic waves with the hope of enhancing thermal transfer at the surface of a body. Ultrasound has been applied with some success to systems undergoing nucleate boiling and in single-phase forced and free convection heat transfer in water. However, …

Tensile Environment Chamber, Cameron Ngai, Trent Hamilton, Mitchell Carroll, Jack Molitor

Mechanical Engineering

This project created the heating system, cooling system, and control system for an environmental chamber for a tensile test machine in the Cal Poly Composites Lab. This chamber allows for students to test material properties under a variety of thermal conditions. This project was done in collaboration with a team working on the structural aspect of the chamber. While consumer environmental chambers are on the market, they often cost more than $50,000. Additionally, our chamber conforms to further size and weight constraints. Because of this constraint, many conventional techniques and components used for these chambers are not feasible for our …

Cooking Systems Using Aluminum Foam, Ryan Tetsuo Mizukami

Physics

In developing countries, the use of wood burning fires for cooking is cause for illness and death. With this in mind, research was conducted to develop a solar cooking device capable of cooking of soup within 15 mins in order to reduce the negative impacts of cooking with wood. Current methods of solar-based cooking, such as solar concentrators and solar tube ovens, are impractical. A small solar panel is a cost-effective way to produce energy but will not produce enough power to cook within a reasonable amount of time. Even if it is assumed that all of the energy produced …

Design For Additive Manufacturing, Michael Charonnat, Leonardo Franco-Muñoz, Sam Noble, J.P. Purdom

Mechanical Engineering

This document outlines the critical design details and timeline for the Design for Additive Manufacturing Senior Project sponsored by Solar Turbines, Inc. The scope of this project encompasses the redesign of two of Solar Turbine’s cast parts for metal additive manufacturing in order to minimize lead time, cost, and weight. With the overall objective of performing in-depth analysis exploring affordability & feasibility, this redesign process will aid Solar Turbines in expanding their knowledge of Design for Additive Manufacturing principles and enable them to further incorporate the use of additive manufacturing into their production processes. The first part that the team …

Analysis Of Burning Wood In The Transient State And The Application To Structural Design, Roberta Veliz, Kimberly Guzman

Architectural Engineering

Determining the extent of the contribution of exposed timber on compartment fire dynamics in open floor plans is a complex process. Designers traditionally used compartmentalization design methods which create spaces where flashover is likely, given the fuel load and ventilation conditions. However, due to the large geometric dimensions and spread of fuel, fires in open floor plans are more likely to remain as localized or traveling fires. As such, an understanding of not only ignition potential but also flame spread is critical to characterizing the contribution of exposed timber. An integral step in characterizing the potential contribution is through an …

Raysun's Infrared Raisin Dryer, Lucas Kensinger, Saraith Aispuro, Joe Vanacore

General Engineering

The RaySuns senior project team was tasked with lowering the drying costs of raisins for River Ranch Raisins. In doing so, we explored several options for cutting costs: utilizing automation and exploring new drying technologies were our primary focus. We eventually planned a modular infrared heating mechanism which would be easy to automate in future projects. After manufacturing and testing an infrared heating mechanism, it was found that infrared drying could significantly cut costs versus the previous natural gas fired dryer tunnels while leaving room for automation. The infrared dryer was also shown to have the potential to create high-quality …

The Effect Of Orientation On The Ignition Of Solids, David Morrisset

Master's Theses

The ignition of a solid is an inherently complex phenomenon influenced by heat and mass transport mechanisms that are, even to this day, not understood in entirety. In order to use ignition data in meaningful engineering application, significant simplifications have been made to the theory of ignition. The most common way to classify ignition is the use of material specific parameters such as such as ignition temperature (T_ig) and the critical heat flux for ignition (CHF). These parameters are determined through standardized testing of solid materials – however, the results of these tests are generally used in applications …

Portable Calorimeter For Fire Experiments, Kayla Collins, Kara Hewson, Christopher Chen, Joel Keddie

Mechanical Engineering

Executive Summary

An oxygen consumption calorimeter works by measuring the heat release rate of a burning substance. This value is calculated by measuring the oxygen and byproducts in smoke from afire.In order to get these values two types of sensors were used. A non-dispersive infrared sensor (NDIR) that measured CO and CO2 and a zirconium O2 sensor were used to find their respective gas concentrations.The design to calculate the heat release rate is focused on maximizing sensor accuracy and portability while simplifying the manufacturing by using off-the-shelf components. The goal included making the system simple to recreate and package in …

Waste Gasification, Glyn D. Lewis, Nash Taylor, Nicholas L. Ordonez, David S. Mccallum

Mechanical Engineering

This document summarizes the work the IGT Team has conducted on the topic of waste to energy gasification over the Cal Poly Winter, Spring, and Fall quarters of 2019. The project is being carried out by four Cal Poly Mechanical Engineering students: Nash Taylor, Glyn Lewis, David McCallum, and Nicholas Ordonez and the sponsor of this project is Tod duBois. The team’s original goal was to successfully create a system that compiles residential solid waste on a small scale, gasifies it, and measures the typical syngas outputs, so that the team may assess the viability of gasification of household waste …

Critical Radius Of Insulation, Maria N. Ambrose, Samuel J. Sayre, Travis W. Martin, Matt T. Sterling

Mechanical Engineering

The critical radius of insulation is a counterintuitive concept within the study of heat transfer. The theory states that adding insulation to a cylindrical or spherical object will increase the rate of heat loss rather than decrease it, if the radius (thickness) of the insulation is at its “critical” value. The Critical Radius of Insulation Senior Project is designed to demonstrate this phenomenon to Heat Transfer students via a portable apparatus. The concept will be demonstrated with a cylindrical object which is heated by way of a separate voltage source. Thermocouples will display the temperature of the cylinder while insulation …

Atmospheric Water Harvesting: An Experimental Study Of Viability And The Influence Of Surface Geometry, Orientation, And Drainage, Carson T. Hand

Master's Theses

Fresh water collection techniques have gained significant attention due to global dwindling of fresh water resources and recent scares such as the 2011-2017 California drought. This project explores the economic viability of actively harvesting water from fog, and techniques to maximize water collection. Vapor compression and thermoelectric cooling based dehumidifier prototypes are tested in a series of experiments to assess water collection capability in foggy environments, and what parameters can increase that capability. This testing shows an approximate maximum collection rate of 1.25 L/kWh for the vapor compression prototype, and 0.32 L/kWh for the thermoelectric cooling prototype; compared to 315 …

Insulated Solar Electric Cooker With Phase Change Thermal Storage Medium, Justin Brett Unger, Nathan Robert Christler, Matthew Weeman, Marcus Edward Strutz

Mechanical Engineering

This final design review document outlines the senior design project carried out by a team of four mechanical engineering students at the California Polytechnic State University – San Luis Obispo under the sponsorship of Dr. Peter Schwartz of the Cal Poly Physics department. The aim of this project was to improve upon the design of previously developed Insulated Solar Electric Cookers (ISECs) by adding a thermal storage system to allow for quicker cook times and the ability to cook food at non-peak solar hours. The team’s goal was to develop a working prototype utilizing a phase change medium as the …

Vaccine Cooler For The Global Poor, Benjamin J. Larson, Cooper E. Gibson, Eilbron Younan, Cody R. Volk

Mechanical Engineering

Cal Poly physics professors Peter Schwartz and Nathan Heston approached the Solar Freeze team with the problem that remote communities in Africa have limited access to modern-day medicine or vaccines. They suggested that we try and design a cooling device that can keep vaccines cold for multiple days at a time while the medicine is transported to remote villages. Currently, there are vaccine cooler products on the market, but most of them are very expensive or lack portability. Peter and Nate have tasked the Solar Freeze team to come up with a less expensive solution that is also portable and …

Portable Thermoelectric Refrigerator, Cassandra Danielle Beck, Ryan Theodore Gelinas, Joshua Michael Dimaggio, Zachary David Wilson

Mechanical Engineering

This project created a versatile thermoelectric refrigerator that can be used via a wall outlet. The product is durable and effective. The refrigerator is functional in any ambient temperature, and uses thermoelectric cooling, and work from a standard 120V power outlet. By understanding existing products’ limitations and strengths, this project produced a product that outperforms what’s currently on the market. Many of the existing products’ operating temperature is dependent on the ambient temperature of the surroundings, which is a large drawback. Additionally, most of them take a long time to reach their lowest temperature, around 3 hours. One team member, …

Effect Of Aerogel On The Thermal Performance Of Corrugated Composite Sandwich Structures, Jacob Dillon Chess

Master's Theses

Current insulation solutions across multiple industries, especially the commercial sector, can be bulky and ineffective when considering their volume. Aerogels are excellent insulators, exhibiting low thermal conductivities and low densities with a porosity of around 95%. Such characteristics make aerogels effective in decreasing conductive heat transfer within a solid. These requirements are crucial for aerospace and spaceflight applications, where sensitive components exist among extreme temperature environments. When implemented into insulation applications, aerogel can perform better than existing technology while using less material, which limits the amount of volume allocated for insulation. The application of these materials into composites can result …

Transient Heat Storage Systems, Ian M. Sweeney, Brock M. Johnson, Todd K. Lundberg

Mechanical Engineering

Phase change materials (PCM) have many applications in transient cooling systems, including those with high transient heat loads and low duty cycles. These materials allow a system to remain within a narrow temperature range with a relatively low weight compared to conventional heat sinks or high-power cooling systems. This senior capstone project includes the design of a PCM based thermal energy storage system to integrate into an existing cooling loop, as well as a determination of viable PCM’s for the application. This report contains the necessary information to build the test apparatus.

Driver Cooling System, Joseph Fatin Bolous, Jake Donald Deboer, Alvin Theodore Lau

Mechanical Engineering

This document provides our Final Design Review (FDR) for the Driver Cooling System Project. It contains our background research, which includes current product research, technical research, and information on our sponsor’s needs as a customer as well our manufacturing process, test results, and final design. We created a problem statement to define the scope of the project, discuss sponsor and consumer needs and wants, and technical specifications. After brainstorming, we ultimately selected a thermoelectric cooling system (TEC) after presenting our Preliminary Design Report and Critical Design Report. We built the final prototype, as can be seen in the manufacturing plan, …

3-Dimensional Automated Heat Flux Calibration Device, Victor Raul Chacon, David Madison Morrisset, Alex Michael Schnorr, Kevin Scott

Mechanical Engineering

This document aims to describe the problems in current radiant heat source heat flux calibration techniques and the approach our team took to solve them through automation. The following sections outline the basic premise of the problem we addressed and who our end product benefited. The proceeding sections addresses the research that we have performed regarding heat flux measurements and automation. This research includes current solutions – mostly partial solutions for problems that are similar but not exactly like ours. Following the background research, we define objectives, with specific details that outline how we evaluated different possible solutions, and how …

Upgrading The Sr-30 Miniature Turbojet For Adaptable Exhaust, Shannon Ferreira, Erin Mcmurchie, Peter Pratt

Mechanical Engineering

The California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo (Cal Poly, SLO) Aerospace Department is requesting a variable nozzle adaptation for their SR-30 turbojet engine. The nozzle is intended for laboratory use in sophomore and junior level courses to supplement instruction on the effects that exhaust behavior has on the performance of propulsion technologies. Topics covered during a performance study of the SR-30 turbojet engine will include, but are not limited to: Brayton Cycle analysis, turbojet operation in ideal and non-ideal test conditions, instrumentation limitations, and basic nozzle operation. The SR-30 turbojet engine is similar in design and operation to engines …

Heat Flow Characterization Of Speakers, Sabrina M. Gough, Lydia K. Hedge, Nicolas M. Jones

Mechanical Engineering

Statement of Confidentiality: The complete senior project report was submitted to the project advisor and sponsor. The results of this project are of a confidential nature and will not be published at this time.

Finite-Difference Modeling Of The Batch Process Smoldering Combustion Of Wastewater, Laura H. Kawashiri

Master's Theses

A MATLAB model was developed for the smoldering combustion of wastewater in the context of a decentralized residential wastewater treatment appliance. Data from a batch process sewage smoldering experiment was simulated using implicit finite-difference approximations, assuming one-dimensional transient conductive heat transfer. The time-dependent temperature profiles within the column represented the main parameters of interest and were used to verify recoverable heat energy estimations. Given that the modeling method used for this thesis represents a unique approach, the assumptions and limitations of this model are thoroughly described in the context of reproducing results for other smoldering setups. A lack of convergence …

Thermal Modelling And Validation Of Heat Profiles In An Rf Plasma Micro-Thruster, Alec Sean Henken

Master's Theses

The need and demand for propulsion devices on nanosatellites has grown over the last decade due to interest in expanding nanosatellite mission abilities, such as attitude control, station-keeping, and collision avoidance. One potential micro-propulsion device suitable for nanosatellites is an electrothermal plasma thruster called Pocket Rocket. Pocket Rocket is a low-power, low-cost propulsion platform specifically designed for use in nanosatellites such as CubeSats. Due to difficulties associated with integrating propulsion devices onto spacecraft such as volume constraints and heat dissipation limitations, a characterization of the heat generation and heat transfer properties of Pocket Rocket is necessary. Several heat-transfer models of …

Jfs Turbine Engine For Cal Poly Mechanical Engineering Department, Dorian Capps, Zoe Kai Tuggle

Mechanical Engineering

This project concerns the development of a gas turbine engine laboratory activity for use in one of Cal Poly’s technical elective courses in the Mechanical Engineering Department, ME 444: Combustion Engine Design. The class is taught by Dr. Patrick Lemieux, who is also in charge of the on-campus engines lab where the turbine engine will be installed. The engine itself is a JFS-100-13A turboshaft engine that will be coupled to an electric dynamometer inside of the dyno test cell. Students taking the ME 444 class, likely starting in Winter Quarter of 2018, will be able to perform hands-on experiments using …

Additive Manufacturing For Post-Processing, Nathan D. Goodwin, Andrew Furmidge

Mechanical Engineering

Additive Manufacturing for Post Processing (AMPP) is a team comprised of two Cal Poly Mechanical Engineering students: Nathan Goodwin and Andrew Furmidge. The project is focused in the area of metal additive manufacturing (AM) machines, which are still a developing technology. Improvements have been made to the quality of the machines in the past years, but many limitations still exist. One of these is the inability to print parts that are larger than the build volume. In an effort to solve this problem, whole parts are divided into pieces that are printed individually. This team’s senior project is to create …

Mini High Temperature Test Unit Final Design Report, Kevin Liu, Juan P. Castillo

Mechanical Engineering

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has invested considerable effort to develop new standard for nuclear grade HEPA filters that can withstand high temperatures along with methods to optimally test not only the experimental filter media, but also new frame seals and media binders. Therefore, LLNL in collaboration with Cal Poly has designed and built a Mini High Temperature Testing Unit (MHTTU) to recreate conditions observed during a fire and to test different materials in an effective, inexpensive, regulated and reliable method. The existing prototype was unable to achieve the ideal testing conditions of 1000°F air at the low flow rates of …

Refurbished And 3d Modeled Thermal Vacuum Chamber, Lauren M. Glenn

Master's Theses

Spacecraft testing includes acoustics, vibrations, and thermal vacuum. Cal Poly’s Space Environments Lab is equipped with multiple vacuum chambers, but no thermal vacuum chamber. The purpose of this thesis is to incorporate an ATS Chiller system with the HVEC vacuum chamber so students are able to experiment with a thermal vacuum chamber. The ATS Chiller had leaky pipes that needed to be refurbished and a shroud was implemented to improve thermal capabilities of the system. The full system was able to reach temperatures as low as -38ºC and as high as 58ºC at a pressure of 10-6 Torr. The ATS …

Supercritical Carbon Dioxide Extraction, Kevin Carney

Master's Theses

The objective of this thesis is to explore the properties of supercritical carbon dioxide (CO₂). In addition, the feasibility of building a small-scale low cost system will be explained. A supercritical fluid is a fluid which exhibits properties between liquid and gas with liquid like densities and viscosities similar to a gas. Since the discovery of supercritical fluids in 1822, the use of supercritical fluids, specifically supercritical CO₂, has grown in popularity. The application of supercritical CO₂ has continued to grow in industrial applications since the 1970’s. Supercritical CO₂’s has many beneficial properties …

Photovoltaic Cooking In The Developing World, Tyler Watkins, Christopher O'Day, Omar Arriaga

Mechanical Engineering

The challenge of clean cooking is faced by hundreds of millions of people worldwide. We present a cooking technology consisting of a solar panel directly connected to an electric heater in a well-insulated chamber. Assuming continued decrease in solar panel prices, we anticipate that in a few decades Solar Electric Cooking technologies will be the most common cooking technology for the poor. Appropriate use of insulation reduces the power demand making low-power Insulated Solar Electric Cooking systems already cost competitive.

Final Design Report: Allergen Mixing Assistant (Ama) Micro-Refrigeration Redesigning, Mitchell Parks, Minwoo (Michael) Suh

Mechanical Engineering

Abstract

Allergen Mixing Assistant (AMA) by Xtract Solutions is a device designed to more “effectively refrigerate, organize, and mix allergenic extracts”. Although Xtract Solutions intended the product to be fully automated, the company has decided against its automation and declared its current design as a minimum viable product whose components are too expensive, difficult to source and complex. Therefore, Cal Poly AMA design team - Mitchell Parks and Minwoo Suh - has decided to replace these expensive components with much more economical alternatives as shown below:

Stirling cooler

→

Thermoelectric (Peltier) cooler

Custom Arduino

Controller Card

→

TEC Thermostat *** …

Biofuel Gasification For Residential Heating, Bryan Duke, Courtney Mcintosh, Jeron Hogan

Mechanical Engineering

No abstract provided.