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Description
The focus of this investigation includes three aspects. First, the development of nonlinear reduced order modeling techniques for the prediction of the response of complex structures exhibiting "large" deformations, i.e. a geometrically nonlinear behavior, and modeled within a commercial finite element code. The present investigation builds on a general methodology,

The focus of this investigation includes three aspects. First, the development of nonlinear reduced order modeling techniques for the prediction of the response of complex structures exhibiting "large" deformations, i.e. a geometrically nonlinear behavior, and modeled within a commercial finite element code. The present investigation builds on a general methodology, successfully validated in recent years on simpler panel structures, by developing a novel identification strategy of the reduced order model parameters, that enables the consideration of the large number of modes needed for complex structures, and by extending an automatic strategy for the selection of the basis functions used to represent accurately the displacement field. These novel developments are successfully validated on the nonlinear static and dynamic responses of a 9-bay panel structure modeled within Nastran. In addition, a multi-scale approach based on Component Mode Synthesis methods is explored. Second, an assessment of the predictive capabilities of nonlinear reduced order models for the prediction of the large displacement and stress fields of panels that have a geometric discontinuity; a flat panel with a notch was used for this assessment. It is demonstrated that the reduced order models of both virgin and notched panels provide a close match of the displacement field obtained from full finite element analyses of the notched panel for moderately large static and dynamic responses. In regards to stresses, it is found that the notched panel reduced order model leads to a close prediction of the stress distribution obtained on the notched panel as computed by the finite element model. Two enrichment techniques, based on superposition of the notch effects on the virgin panel stress field, are proposed to permit a close prediction of the stress distribution of the notched panel from the reduced order model of the virgin one. A very good prediction of the full finite element results is achieved with both enrichments for static and dynamic responses. Finally, computational challenges associated with the solution of the reduced order model equations are discussed. Two alternatives to reduce the computational time for the solution of these problems are explored.
ContributorsPerez, Ricardo Angel (Author) / Mignolet, Marc (Thesis advisor) / Oswald, Jay (Committee member) / Spottswood, Stephen (Committee member) / Peralta, Pedro (Committee member) / Jiang, Hanqing (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
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Description
This dissertation presents methods for addressing research problems that currently can only adequately be solved using Quality Reliability Engineering (QRE) approaches especially accelerated life testing (ALT) of electronic printed wiring boards with applications to avionics circuit boards. The methods presented in this research are generally applicable to circuit boards, but

This dissertation presents methods for addressing research problems that currently can only adequately be solved using Quality Reliability Engineering (QRE) approaches especially accelerated life testing (ALT) of electronic printed wiring boards with applications to avionics circuit boards. The methods presented in this research are generally applicable to circuit boards, but the data generated and their analysis is for high performance avionics. Avionics equipment typically requires 20 years expected life by aircraft equipment manufacturers and therefore ALT is the only practical way of performing life test estimates. Both thermal and vibration ALT induced failure are performed and analyzed to resolve industry questions relating to the introduction of lead-free solder product and processes into high reliability avionics. In chapter 2, thermal ALT using an industry standard failure machine implementing Interconnect Stress Test (IST) that simulates circuit board life data is compared to real production failure data by likelihood ratio tests to arrive at a mechanical theory. This mechanical theory results in a statistically equivalent energy bound such that failure distributions below a specific energy level are considered to be from the same distribution thus allowing testers to quantify parameter setting in IST prior to life testing. In chapter 3, vibration ALT comparing tin-lead and lead-free circuit board solder designs involves the use of the likelihood ratio (LR) test to assess both complete failure data and S-N curves to present methods for analyzing data. Failure data is analyzed using Regression and two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and reconciled with the LR test results that indicating that a costly aging pre-process may be eliminated in certain cases. In chapter 4, vibration ALT for side-by-side tin-lead and lead-free solder black box designs are life tested. Commercial models from strain data do not exist at the low levels associated with life testing and need to be developed because testing performed and presented here indicate that both tin-lead and lead-free solders are similar. In addition, earlier failures due to vibration like connector failure modes will occur before solder interconnect failures.
ContributorsJuarez, Joseph Moses (Author) / Montgomery, Douglas C. (Thesis advisor) / Borror, Connie M. (Thesis advisor) / Gel, Esma (Committee member) / Mignolet, Marc (Committee member) / Pan, Rong (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
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Description
High Pressure Superheater 1 (HPSH1) is the first heat exchange tube bank inside the Heat Recovery Steam Generator (HRSG) to encounter exhaust flue gas from the gas turbine of a Combined Cycle Power Plant. Steam flowing through the HPSH1 gains heat from the flue gas prior to entering the steam

High Pressure Superheater 1 (HPSH1) is the first heat exchange tube bank inside the Heat Recovery Steam Generator (HRSG) to encounter exhaust flue gas from the gas turbine of a Combined Cycle Power Plant. Steam flowing through the HPSH1 gains heat from the flue gas prior to entering the steam turbine. During cold start-ups, rapid temperature changes in operating condition give rise to significant temperature gradients in the thick-walled components of HPSH1 (manifolds, links, and headers). These temperature gradients produce thermal-structural stresses in the components. The resulting high cycle fatigue is a major concern as this can lead to premature failure of the components. The main objective of this project was to address the thermal-structural stress field induced in HPSH1 during a typical cold start-up transient. To this end, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) was used to carry out the thermal-fluid analysis of HPSH1. The calculated temperature distributions in the component walls were the primary inputs for the finite element (FEA) model that performed structural analysis. Thermal-structural analysis was initially carried out at full-load steady state condition in order to gain confidence in the CFD and FEA methodologies. Results of the full-load steady state thermal-fluid analysis were found in agreement with the temperature values measured at specific locations on the outer surfaces of the inlet links and outlet manifold. It was found from the subsequent structural analysis that peak effective stresses were located at the connecting regions of the components and were well below the allowed stress values. Higher temperature differences were observed between the thick-walled HPSH1 components during the cold start-up transient as compared to the full-load steady state operating condition. This was because of the rapid temperature changes that occurred, especially in the steam temperature at the HPSH1 entry, and the different rates of heating or cooling for components with different wall thicknesses. Results of the transient thermal-fluid analysis will be used in future to perform structural analysis of the HPSH1. The developed CFD and FEA models are capable of analyzing various other transients (e.g., hot start-up and shut-down) and determine their influence on the durability of plant components.
ContributorsHardeep Singh (Author) / Roy, Ramendra P. (Thesis advisor) / Lee, Taewoo (Thesis advisor) / Mignolet, Marc (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
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DescriptionThe project analyzes the history of indie music and culture, and how the aesthetic has been undermined by the modern music industry. The project discusses rhetorical theory on the nature of publics, including group identification through rhetorical discourse as expressed through indie culture.
ContributorsBisbee, Evan Owens (Author) / Lamp, Kathleen (Thesis director) / Mook, Richard (Committee member) / Berry, Shavawn (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of English (Contributor)
Created2013-05
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Description
A major concern in the operation of present-day gas turbine engines is the ingestion of hot mainstream gas into rotor-stator disk cavities of the high-pressure turbine stages. Although the engines require high gas temperature at turbine entry for good performance efficiency, the ingested gas shortens the lives of the cavity

A major concern in the operation of present-day gas turbine engines is the ingestion of hot mainstream gas into rotor-stator disk cavities of the high-pressure turbine stages. Although the engines require high gas temperature at turbine entry for good performance efficiency, the ingested gas shortens the lives of the cavity internals, particularly that of the rotor disks. Steps such as installing seals at the disk rims and injecting purge (secondary) air bled from the compressor discharge into the cavities are implemented to reduce the gas ingestion. Although there are advantages to the above-mentioned steps, the performance of a gas turbine engine is diminished by the purge air bleed-off. This then requires that the cavity sealing function be achieved with as low a purge air supply rate as possible. This, in turn, renders imperative an in-depth understanding of the pressure and velocity fields in the main gas path and within the disk cavities. In this work, experiments were carried out in a model 1.5-stage (stator-rotor-stator) axial air turbine to study the ingestion of main air into the aft, rotor-stator, disk cavity. The cavity featured rotor and stator rim seals with radial clearance and axial overlap and an inner labyrinth seal. First, time-average static pressure distribution was measured in the main gas path upstream and downstream of the rotor as well as in the cavity to ensure that a nominally steady run condition had been achieved. Main gas ingestion was determined by measuring the concentration distribution of tracer gas (CO2) in the cavity. To map the cavity fluid velocity field, particle image velocimetry was employed. Results are reported for two main air flow rates, two rotor speeds, and four purge air flow rates.
ContributorsJunnarkar, Nihal (Author) / Roy, Ramendra P (Thesis advisor) / Mignolet, Marc (Committee member) / Lee, Taewoo (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2010
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Description
This thesis presents a process by which a controller used for collective transport tasks is qualitatively studied and probed for presence of undesirable equilibrium states that could entrap the system and prevent it from converging to a target state. Fields of study relevant to this project include dynamic system modeling,

This thesis presents a process by which a controller used for collective transport tasks is qualitatively studied and probed for presence of undesirable equilibrium states that could entrap the system and prevent it from converging to a target state. Fields of study relevant to this project include dynamic system modeling, modern control theory, script-based system simulation, and autonomous systems design. Simulation and computational software MATLAB and Simulink® were used in this thesis.
To achieve this goal, a model of a swarm performing a collective transport task in a bounded domain featuring convex obstacles was simulated in MATLAB/ Simulink®. The closed-loop dynamic equations of this model were linearized about an equilibrium state with angular acceleration and linear acceleration set to zero. The simulation was run over 30 times to confirm system ability to successfully transport the payload to a goal point without colliding with obstacles and determine ideal operating conditions by testing various orientations of objects in the bounded domain. An additional purely MATLAB simulation was run to identify local minima of the Hessian of the navigation-like potential function. By calculating this Hessian periodically throughout the system’s progress and determining the signs of its eigenvalues, a system could check whether it is trapped in a local minimum, and potentially dislodge itself through implementation of a stochastic term in the robot controllers. The eigenvalues of the Hessian calculated in this research suggested the model local minima were degenerate, indicating an error in the mathematical model for this system, which likely incurred during linearization of this highly nonlinear system.
Created2020-12
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Description
In the next decade or so, there will be a shift in the industry of transportation across the world. Already today we have autonomous vehicles (AVs) tested in the Greater Phoenix area showing that the technology has improved to a level available to the public eye. Although this technology is

In the next decade or so, there will be a shift in the industry of transportation across the world. Already today we have autonomous vehicles (AVs) tested in the Greater Phoenix area showing that the technology has improved to a level available to the public eye. Although this technology is not yet released commercially (for the most part), it is being used and will continue to be used to develop a safer future. With a high incidence of human error causing accidents, many expect that autonomous vehicles will be safer than human drivers. They do still require driver attention and sometimes intervention to ensure safety, but for the most part are much safer. In just the United States alone, there were 40,000 deaths due to car accidents last year [1]. If traffic fatalities were considered a disease, this would be an epidemic. The technology behind autonomous vehicles will allow for a much safer environment and increased mobility and independence for people who cannot drive and struggle with public transport. There are many opportunities for autonomous vehicles in the transportation industry. Companies can save a lot more money on shipping by cutting the costs of human drivers and trucks on the road, even allowing for simpler drop shipments should the necessary AI be developed.Research is even being done by several labs at Arizona State University. For example, Dr. Spring Berman’s Autonomous Collective Systems Lab has been collaborating with Dr. Nancy Cooke of Human Systems Engineering to develop a traffic testbed, CHARTopolis, to study the risks of driver-AV interactions and the psychological effects of AVs on human drivers on a small scale. This testbed will be used by researchers from their labs and others to develop testing on reaction, trust, and user experience with AVs in a safe environment that simulates conditions similar to those experienced by full-size AVs. Using a new type of small robot that emulates an AV, developed in Dr. Berman’s lab, participants will be able to remotely drive around a model city environment and interact with other AV-like robots using the cameras and LiDAR sensors on the remotely driven robot to guide them.
Although these commercial and research systems are still in testing, it is important to understand how AVs are being marketed to the general public and how they are perceived, so that one day they may be effectively adopted into everyday life. People do not want to see a car they do not trust on the same roads as them, so the questions are: why don’t people trust them, and how can companies and researchers improve the trustworthiness of the vehicles?
ContributorsShuster, Daniel Nadav (Author) / Berman, Spring (Thesis director) / Cooke, Nancy (Committee member) / Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Program (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05
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Description
This thesis details the design and construction of a torque-controlled robotic gripper for use with the Pheeno swarm robotics platform. This project required expertise from several fields of study including: robotic design, programming, rapid prototyping, and control theory. An electronic Inertial Measurement Unit and a DC Motor were both used

This thesis details the design and construction of a torque-controlled robotic gripper for use with the Pheeno swarm robotics platform. This project required expertise from several fields of study including: robotic design, programming, rapid prototyping, and control theory. An electronic Inertial Measurement Unit and a DC Motor were both used along with 3D printed plastic components and an electronic motor control board to develop a functional open-loop controlled gripper for use in collective transportation experiments. Code was developed that effectively acquired and filtered rate of rotation data alongside other code that allows for straightforward control of the DC motor through experimentally derived relationships between the voltage applied to the DC motor and the torque output of the DC motor. Additionally, several versions of the physical components are described through their development.
ContributorsMohr, Brennan (Author) / Berman, Spring (Thesis director) / Ren, Yi (Committee member) / Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Program (Contributor) / School for Engineering of Matter,Transport & Enrgy (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05
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Description
In this paper, we propose an autonomous throwing and catching system to be developed as a preliminary step towards the refinement of a robotic arm capable of improving strength and motor function in the limb. This will be accomplished by first autonomizing simpler movements, such as throwing a ball. In

In this paper, we propose an autonomous throwing and catching system to be developed as a preliminary step towards the refinement of a robotic arm capable of improving strength and motor function in the limb. This will be accomplished by first autonomizing simpler movements, such as throwing a ball. In this system, an autonomous thrower will detect a desired target through the use of image processing. The launch angle and direction necessary to hit the target will then be calculated, followed by the launching of the ball. The smart catcher will then detect the ball as it is in the air, calculate its expected landing location based on its initial trajectory, and adjust its position so that the ball lands in the center of the target. The thrower will then proceed to compare the actual landing position with the position where it expected the ball to land, and adjust its calculations accordingly for the next throw. By utilizing this method of feedback, the throwing arm will be able to automatically correct itself. This means that the thrower will ideally be able to hit the target exactly in the center within a few throws, regardless of any additional uncertainty in the system. This project will focus of the controller and image processing components necessary for the autonomous throwing arm to be able to detect the position of the target at which it will be aiming, and for the smart catcher to be able to detect the position of the projectile and estimate its final landing position by tracking its current trajectory.
ContributorsLundberg, Kathie Joy (Co-author) / Thart, Amanda (Co-author) / Rodriguez, Armando (Thesis director) / Berman, Spring (Committee member) / Electrical Engineering Program (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
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Description
Navigation and mapping in GPS-denied environments, such as coal mines ordilapidated buildings filled with smog or particulate matter, pose a significant challenge due to the limitations of conventional LiDAR or vision systems. Therefore there exists a need for a navigation algorithm and mapping strategy which do not use vision systems but are still

Navigation and mapping in GPS-denied environments, such as coal mines ordilapidated buildings filled with smog or particulate matter, pose a significant challenge due to the limitations of conventional LiDAR or vision systems. Therefore there exists a need for a navigation algorithm and mapping strategy which do not use vision systems but are still able to explore and map the environment. The map can further be used by first responders and cave explorers to access the environments. This thesis presents the design of a collision-resilient Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), XPLORER that utilizes a novel navigation algorithm for exploration and simultaneous mapping of the environment. The real-time navigation algorithm uses the onboard Inertial Measurement Units (IMUs) and arm bending angles for contact estimation and employs an Explore and Exploit strategy. Additionally, the quadrotor design is discussed, highlighting its improved stability over the previous design. The generated map of the environment can be utilized by autonomous vehicles to navigate the environment. The navigation algorithm is validated in multiple real-time experiments in different scenarios consisting of concave and convex corners and circular objects. Furthermore, the developed mapping framework can serve as an auxiliary input for map generation along with conventional LiDAR or vision-based mapping algorithms. Both the navigation and mapping algorithms are designed to be modular, making them compatible with conventional UAVs also. This research contributes to the development of navigation and mapping techniques for GPS-denied environments, enabling safer and more efficient exploration of challenging territories.
ContributorsPandian Saravanakumaran, Aravind Adhith (Author) / Zhang, Wenlong (Thesis advisor) / Das, Jnaneshwar (Committee member) / Berman, Spring (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2023