Heat Transfer, Combustion Commons^™

Peltier-Based Hydration Accumulation Terminal (P.H.A.T.), Jenner Mucher, Ethan Pace, Renee Robolledo, Sabrina Luo, Taehoon Lee, Tarsem Pal

Mechanical Engineering

The objective of this project is to design an innovative potable water dispenser capable of safely delivering hot, ambient, and chilled water on demand for human lander missions. The system will support astronauts’ hydration and food rehydration needs while minimizing mass, power, maintenance, and contamination risks in microgravity and partial-gravity environments. Current spacecraft dispensers, such as the International Space Station (ISS) system, provide only heated water and have limited temperature control, cleaning accessibility, and microbial resilience. Building on NASA heritage designs and lessons learned from the ISS Potable Water Dispenser, this project advances a lighter, simpler, and more energy-efficient concept …

Thermosiphon Lab Experiment, Ella C. Perry, Zach Barry, Madison K. Felton, Lane A. Hunter

Mechanical Engineering

The Cal Poly Mechanical Engineering Department aims to develop a new lab centered on a thermosiphon solar system. This lab will introduce the operating principles of thermosiphons while integrating concepts from heat transfer, fluid dynamics, and thermodynamics. A thermosiphon functions by heating water using thermal energy. The lab will examine the efficiency of this energy transfer. The final lab will be tailored to enhance student learning while ensuring ease of use for the Mechanical Engineering Department.

Process Improvement For Thermal Barrier Coating Masking Applications, Katherine Meezan, Aiden Senn, Saksham Giri, Katelyn Perez

Mechanical Engineering

Solar Turbines, a gas turbine manufacturer, needs a more efficient method to prevent the application of a thermal barrier coating (TBC) to select areas of their combustion liners during manufacturing. Currently, the process is labor, material, and time intensive: reusable masking tools should increase the efficiency of the TBC process.

This project is sponsored in full by Solar Turbines, and is under the guidance and administration of three Solar Turbines engineers: Chris Noone, Rick Rogers, and Carson Roff. The project is mentored by Cal Poly senior design Coach, Rick Lasko. This project will be completed by a team of four …

Stakblocks, Micah Satoshi Inoshita, Ava Rose Doerschlag, Cody J. Ellis, Zach M. Lawton, Fernando M. Nalin, Nicholas Humphrey, Aiden Reed Anderson, Sara Maya Suratkal

Mechanical Engineering

Researchers developing sustainable building materials from agricultural waste need a faster way to prototype and evaluate small-scale samples under controlled temperature and pressure before scaling to production. Sponsored by Professor Pete Schwartz of Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, whose work focuses on sustainable technology for developing communities, this project aims to create a prototype testing device for researchers studying agricultural-waste bricks, with the University of Malawi as a potential future testing partner. The final product is intended to inform improved future designs rather than serve as a production-ready device, ultimately supporting the development of affordable, sustainable building materials for communities …

Portable Ice Cube Maker, Ayden Ziegler, Emiliano Hansen, Wyatt Engdahl, Dane Hansen

Mechanical Engineering

This Final Design Report outlines the senior design project undertaken by a team of mechanical engineering students at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, for the development of a portable backpacking ice cube maker. The project aims to design, build, and test a lightweight, compact device that produces ice cubes for backpackers in remote outdoor environments. The goal is to create a functional prototype that is durable, user-friendly, and suitable for backcountry use. This document details background research, project objectives, and project plan, and current design status.

Brush Seal Cycling Test Rig, Angelo J. Reis, Neil M. Bedagkar, Max A. Soury, Eoin K. Lenham

Mechanical Engineering

To prevent backflow from the high pressure compressor stages of their gas turbines to lower pressure regions, Solar Turbines utilizes brush seals along their driveshafts. Due to manufacturing limitations, no shaft is perfectly symmetric about its rotating axis, leading to orbiting that creates asymmetric friction on the shaft through rubbing. With this biased application of friction comes a hotspot on one side of the shaft, causing bowing of the shaft and cascading into an amplified vibrational response. Our goal is to gather data on this phenomenon and offer a potential solution.

Air To Water Capture In Support Of Un Sustainable Development Goals, Jordan Macconnell, Michael Tiscareño, Ari Dennis, Baxter Mercy

Mechanical Engineering

This senior project explored the use of thermoelectric cooling for atmospheric water capture. The system was designed to cool aluminum condensing surfaces below the dew point using Peltier modules, with forced convection heat sinks on the hot side. The purpose of this system was to gather reliable amounts of water for various water-scarce areas around the world to help meet the UN's sixth Sustainable Development Goal.

The final design of this project consisted of a 1.5 x 1.5 x 2 foot frame made of acrylic panels and insulation. Within the frame, the thermoelectric system was constructed using Peltier modules with …

Cryogenic Fuel Delivery System, Carter Josef, Reilly Humphreys, Joseph O'Connor, Nick Spreen

Mechanical Engineering

This project presents the design and validation of a cryogenic fuel delivery system aimed at enabling sustainable aviation through hydrogen fuel vaporization. Developed by a team of senior mechanical engineering students at Cal Poly and sponsored by Boeing, the system utilizes atmospheric air to vaporize liquid nitrogen, used as a stand-in for hydrogen, via forced convection heat exchangers, eliminating the need for engine-supplied heat and reducing parasitic loads. A feedback loop and turbine component are integrated to regulate pressure and recover energy, respectively. A benchtop prototype was built and tested to evaluate system performance, with results closely aligning with analytical …

Combustion Liner Optimization, William Weeks, Daniel Reed, Isaac Trull

Mechanical Engineering

Solar Turbines provides gas power generation solutions, focusing on gas turbine engines and compressors. The Gas Turbine Products Engineering (GTPE) team at Solar Turbines needs a way to efficiently and cost-effectively maintain the combustion liner of the Taurus model gas turbine at or below the cold-side temperature target. The current system involves a manufacturing process with ergonomic concerns and uncertain cooling effectiveness.

To address this, our team proposed a new combustion liner system featuring impingement cooling. We provided Solar Turbines with heat transfer models of both the existing and proposed designs, demonstrating improved cooling performance. Additionally, a prototype of the …

Piston Crown Design, Kurt L. Lippmann, Liam T. Janssen, Alex Rangel, Larry J. Davis

Mechanical Engineering

This project investigates the effects of dimpling a piston crown, and its impact on engine combustion dynamics. Through computational methods, the effects of piston crown dimpling on flow characteristics were evaluated. Theoretical results were verified with experimental methods. Experimental methods included characterization of exhaust gas content, engine horsepower and torque, and exhaust opacity.

Focused Led Sintering, Dylan Defazio, Nilav Maulik, Branden Majors, Michael Fontillas

Mechanical Engineering

This report provides a detailed overview of the final design of our light-emitting diode (LED) focusing system. Our system incorporates a converging lens and a specially designed "glass funnel," which acts as a thick fiber optic that narrows the light to a fine point through internal reflection. The glass components of our system are precisely housed in a part made using advanced computer-numeric controlled (CNC) Mill and CNC Lathe manufacturing processes. This ensures high precision and durability of the overall system. Our LED focusing system is designed with a 60-watt stage light. The decision to use a glass funnel as …

Exhaust Manifold Pressure As Engine Tuning Parameter, Kieran Truth Cunningham, Adam Sullivan Mathews, Connor Richard Smullen

Mechanical Engineering

In this project, the exhaust manifold absolute pressure (EMAP) of a 1986 Toyota Corolla was analyzed across a variety of load cases and was compared with the mass air flow (MAF) of the intake, simultaneously. Correlations were found in the trends of EMAP and MAF sensor readings that may prove helpful in tuning engines that have difficulty in accommodating a MAF sensor. These correlations were found in areas of the powerband where aftermarket tuned engines typically have poor airflow sensing. An equation was developed to spoof MAF input using EMAP and other engine operating parameters.

Cooled Liquid Rocket Thrust Chamber, Benjamin Gibson, Kealan Frederick Harris, Ryan Frank Schackel, Bjorn Thorsen

Mechanical Engineering

Cooling may affect the thrust output of a small-scale rocket. Little research is published about small-scale rocket performance. We hypothesize the thrust produced varies as the amount of cooling varies. To facilitate assessing this hypothesis, we have designed and built a liquid rocket engine rated for at approximately 25 lb_f of thrust. Our objective was to build in parallel with Cal Poly Space Systems, who built a rocket engine with similar specifications except without cooling. Our challenge is to integrate film cooling, so that the effects of cooling may be compared to Cal Poly Space System’s engine which has …

Flexible Water Cooling, Joshua Terlaje, Andrew Lin, Nicholas Morales, Tanner Parrott

Mechanical Engineering

The goal of this project is to develop and deploy a water-cooling system to reduce the danger of heat exhaustion among communities of farmworkers. Currently, it is difficult to keep chilled water available throughout the workday when using portable water coolers. The idea uses a refrigeration system to chill the water supply by using the power take-off (PTO) on farm equipment and a corresponding generator to get around this restriction.

The project places a strong premium on keeping the chilled water supply at a maximum temperature of 59°F to ensure compliance with the California Department of Industrial Relations' requirements. Each …

Portable Drinking Water Cooler And Dispenser, Gustavo Hernandez-Lerena, Erik Torres, Caleb Francis Parham, Terry Leung

Mechanical Engineering

This document serves as the comprehensive report for the testing and building for the Portable Water-Cooling System by team AquaCool. Team AquaCool is comprised of four mechanical engineers with a passion to help the agricultural industry in their efforts to keep the health of the workers at their peak. The four engineers who partook in helping the farm workers are as follows: Caleb F. Parham, Erik Torres, Gustavo Hernandez-Lerena, and Terry Leung. To reduce the risk of heatstroke and other unwanted effects from the harsh working conditions during summer, a small and portable system was built to help in the …

Mmteg Heatsink Design, Peyton Nienaber, Kadin Feldis, Alec Savoye, Jack Waeschle

Mechanical Engineering

In this document, Cal Poly Senior Design Team F16 presents a summary of its work developing a suitable heatsink for Gas Technology Institute’s Methane Mitigation Thermoelectric Generator. After several months of iterating between experimental testing and simulated heat transfer, a suitable prototype was selected for use in further refining simulation parameters. This was called the structural prototype and it allowed Team F16 to confirm several remaining unknowns relating to component thermal conductivity. All documentation of this process can be found in Preliminary, Critical, and Interim Design Review documents (PDR, CDR, IDR), included in this report. Having a realistic model …

Insulated Solar Electric Cooker With Phase Change Materials, Weijun Zhao, Jake Lung, Owen Chu, Sarah Melzer

Mechanical Engineering

This Senior Project Report documents the development and design process of the Insulated Solar Electric Cooker with a Phase Change Material (ISEC w/ PCM). In this project, we developed a PCM assembly that can be integrated into an existing ISEC system which utilizes two 100 W solar panels. This report details the use of a nitrate salt solution of 60% NaNO3 and 40% KNO3 and demonstrates its potential as a viable form of thermal storage solution for cooking. We found that only 1kg of PCM is able to retain its heat for around 5 hours after power removal and believe …

The Performance Response Of A Heat Pipe Evacuated Tube Solar Collector Using Mgo/Mwcnt Hybrid Nanofluid As A Working Fluid, Ahmed A. Abdel-Rehim, Shady Henein

Mechanical Engineering

Utilizing a hybrid nanofluid is a promising solution for enhancing the thermal performance of the solar collector in a sustainable manner. In the present work, the effect of using magnesium oxide/multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MgO/MWCNT) hybrid nanofluid on the thermal performance of the evacuated tube solar collector is experimentally investigated. Four different weight ratios of (80:20), (70:30), (60:40), and (50:50) are used for a hybrid of MgO with MWCNTs in a water base, respectively. The experiments are performed at a 0.02% particle concentration and at various volume flow rates ranging from 1 to 3 L/min. The results show an enhancement in …

Responses Of An Axially Rotated Tube Versus Twisted Tube Design As Two Solutions To Enhance The Thermal Performance Under A Non-Uniform Heat Flux Condition: A Numerical Study, Andrew S. Tanious, Ahmed A. Abdel-Rehim, Ahmed A. Attia

Mechanical Engineering

Enhancement of heat transfer in tubes exposed to non-uniform heat flux applications is a key factor in increasing such applications' efficiency.

In the present study, heat transfer in an axially rotating pipe with concentrated heat flux at the lower section of the pipe is numerically investigated and compared to the twisting technique in such applications. The effects of pipe’s length (1, 2, and 3 m) and rotation rate (N = 0–10.5), which is the ratio between the rotational and axial Reynold’s numbers, are studied numerically using ANSYS Fluent while the effect of the twist ratio (S = 0.1–1m) is studied …

Optimized Tip Cooling Using Am Process, Alberto H. Gamez, Lourdes Sarmiento Martinez, Andrew Van Bogelen

Mechanical Engineering

This Final Design Review (FDR) reports on the senior design project undertaken by our team of mechanical engineering seniors at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. This project seeks to use the additive manufacturing process to improve the existing design of a Taurus 60 gas turbine injector tip. The current injector tip is owned by Solar Turbines, a designer and manufacturer of gas turbines for electric generation, propulsion, as well as natural resource transportation. The challenge at hand is to design a new injector tip that will be reliable for at least 60,000 hours and provide ease of replacement, …

Tensile Testing Environmental Chamber – Structural, Michael Ingel, Erik Soldenwagner, Austin Marshall, Lauren Schirle

Mechanical Engineering

Environmental chambers for tensile testing machines are used to study how a multitude of materials behave in extreme temperatures. These chambers provide the necessary information to innovate cutting edge technology for materials in fields such as aerospace. These chambers are often heavy and expensive requiring a significant amount of time and money just in the installation process alone. This report will serve to outline and define the design and fabrication of an environmental chamber, conducted by a team of four senior mechanical engineering students at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. The goals of the project include a low-weight …

Consumer-Ready Insulated Solar Electric Cooker, Simon Ford, Sachin Gokhale, Brendan Lynn, Richard Nguyen

Mechanical Engineering

An insulated solar electric cooker, or ISEC, converts solar energy into electricity to cook food, boil water, provide heat or even help charge batteries. In this project, the focus is an ISEC with a phase change material (PCM) that helps store heat when the solar energy input is minimal, such as after the sun has set. Although a successful ISEC already exists that utilizes PCM, this product can be improved in many ways. The specific revisions investigated in this report are the improvement of the thermal efficiency with the implementation of a vacuum-sealed outer pot, the reduction of the overall …

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 …

Performance And Economical Analysis Of Different Insulating Materials Used To Reduce The Heat Load Of An Existing Residential Building, Radwa A. El-Awadly, Ahmed A. Abdel-Rehim

Mechanical Engineering

The energy consumption from the residential sector is an important element which has an impact on the total energy consumption in any country. The heating and air conditioning loads can be reduced through many means. Using thermal insulation in buildings does not only contribute in reducing the required air conditioning system size, but also in reducing the annual energy cost for the whole building. In this case, the energy saving varies according to the building type, the climatic conditions at which the building is located as well as the type of the insulating material used. In the present study, an …

Numerical Investigation Of The Thermal Performance Of An Axially Rotating Internally Finned Receiver Tube Of A Parabolic Trough Concentrator, Andrew S. Tanious,, Ahmed A. Abdel-Rehim

Mechanical Engineering

Enhancement of the thermal performance of the parabolic trough receiver tube is one of the approaches to energy sustainability. In the present work, the thermal performance of an axially rotating receiver tube equipped with internal flat longitudinal fins is studied. The effects of both the fin height and the rate of axial rotation are investigated at low values of axial Reynold’s number. The numerical analysis is held at various rotation rates using ANSYS Fluent. The numerical findings showed that the effect of the axial rotation on the internally finned receiver tube is not significant yet negative where a maximum reduction …

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 …

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 …

Energetic And Exergetic Analysis Of A Heat Pipe Evacuated Tube Solar Collector Using Mwcnt/Water Nanofluid, Mahmoud Eltaweel, Ahmed A. Abdel-Rehim

Mechanical Engineering

Increasing the energy demand and the limited availability of conventional energy sources are the main challenges to secure the human future. Solar energy is an attractive source of energy to ensure the sustainability of energy in this world for now and for the future. Evacuated tube solar collector is a solar thermal collector mostly used for domestic applications. The replacement of the working fluid with nanofluid can enhance the heat transfer even for low temperature applications. The effect of multi-walled carbon nanotubes and water nanofluid as working fluid in evacuated tube solar collector is used to experimentally investigate the energy …

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 …