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- All Subjects: engineering
- Creators: Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Program
- Resource Type: Text
Description
Competitive Swimming is not only a sport, but also an invaluable life skill. As long as it has existed, people have wondered how to swim faster. There are a multitude of variables that go into any race and shockingly not much research around to scientifically approach the question. This study aims to investigate the drag forces behind a Swimmer’s race to give better insight as to what will slow a Swimmer down through simulations in ANSYS Fluent. Simple 2D simulations were made with a Swimmer in different positions and a flow of water moved over them. What was found was that different positions, or techniques, yield vastly different results. When following typical good technique, a Swimmer can expect to be approximately 136% less drag forces compared to a typical bad technique. Additionally, small errors such as not being perfectly horizontal can lead to a difference of around 100 Newtons of drag force between perfectly horizontal and a 5-degree angle of attack. Another observation made was that errors are exacerbated by being near a wall, so Swimming in an end lane next to the pool wall leads to about 57% more drag forces that any other lane. Still, there are many more observations to be made as there is so much more to research in swimming.
ContributorsBenavidez, Kevin A (Author) / Murthy, Dr. Raghavendra (Thesis director) / Huang, Dr. Huei-Ping (Committee member) / Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Program (Contributor, Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05
Description
The goal of this thesis project was to build an understanding of supersonic projectile dynamics through the creation of a trajectory model that incorporates several different aerodynamic concepts and builds a criteria for the stability of a projectile. This was done iteratively where the model was built from a foundation of kinematics with various aerodynamic principles being added incrementally. The primary aerodynamic principle that influenced the trajectory of the projectile was in the coefficient of drag. The drag coefficient was split into three primary components: the form drag, skin friction drag, and base pressure drag. These together made up the core of the model, additional complexity served to increase the accuracy of the model and generalize to different projectile profiles.
ContributorsBlair, Martin (Co-author) / Armenta, Francisco (Co-author) / Takahashi, Timothy (Thesis director) / Herrmann, Marcus (Committee member) / Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Program (Contributor, Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05
Description
This paper investigates Surface Mechanical Attrition Treatment (SMAT) and the influence of treatment temperature and initial sample surface finish on the corrosion resistance of 7075-T651 aluminum alloy. Ambient SMAT was performed on AA7075 samples polished to 80-grit initial surface roughness. Potentiodynamic polarization and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) tests were used to characterize the corrosion behavior of samples before and after SMAT. Electrochemical tests indicated an improved corrosion resistance after application of SMAT process. The observed improvements in corrosion properties are potentially due to microstructural changes in the material surface induced by SMAT which encouraged the formation of a passive oxide layer. Further testing and research are required to understand the corrosion related effects of cryogenic SMAT and initial-surface finish as the COVID-19 pandemic inhibited experimentation plans.
ContributorsDeorio, Jordan Anthony (Author) / Solanki, Kiran (Thesis director) / Rajagopalan, Jagannathan (Committee member) / Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Program (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05
Description
Nuclear power has recently experienced a resurgence in interest due to its ability to generate significant amounts of relatively clean energy. However, the overall size of nuclear power plants still poses a problem to future advancements. The bulkiness of components in the plant contribute to longer construction times, higher building and maintenance costs, and the isolation of nuclear plants from populated areas. The goal of this project was to analyze the thermal performance of nanocrystalline copper tantalum (NC Cu-Ta) inside the steam generator of a pressurized water reactor to see how much the size of these units could be reduced without affecting the amount of heat transferred through it. The analysis revealed that using this material, with its higher thermal conductivity than the traditional Inconel Alloy 600 that is typically used in steam generators, it is possible to reduce the height of a steam generator from 21 meters to about 18.6 meters, signifying a 11.6% reduction in height. This analysis also revealed a diminishing return that occurs with increasing the thermal conductivity on both reducing the required heat transfer area and increasing the overall heat transfer coefficient.
ContributorsRiese, Alexander (Author) / Phelan, Patrick (Thesis director) / Bocanegra, Luis (Committee member) / Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Program (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05
Description
This paper discusses the possibility of utilizing 2D molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) as a nanozyme to detect dopamine colorimetric assays, first by detecting color change in liquid solutions due to oxidation and then second on paper-based assays. MoS2 samples dispersed in methylcellulose (MC) solution were prepared using liquid-phase exfoliation through sonication. The dopamine (DOPA) and hydrogen peroxide (H¬¬2O2) solutions were prepared separately in specific concentrations. The solutions were mixed in a well plate and colorimetric results were analyzed by a plate reader, revealing a quantitative relationship between dopamine concentration and absorbance. Subsequent testing was conducted using paper assays, where combined solutions of DOPA and H2O2 were dropped onto paper with printed wax wells that contained dried MoS2. An analysis of the color change was conducted using a smartphone application called Color Grab to detect the red, green, and blue (RGB) values. Plotting the RGB results across the dopamine concentrations revealed a positively correlated relationship between the two factors, suggesting that a predictive model could be developed to predict dopamine concentrations based on measured colorimetric values.
ContributorsNalla, Akshay (Co-author, Co-author) / Wang, Qing Hua (Thesis director) / Green, Alexander (Committee member) / Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Program (Contributor) / Materials Science and Engineering Program (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05
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, 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.
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.
ContributorsBaye-Wallace, Lily Catherine (Author) / Berman, Spring (Thesis director) / Marvi, Hamidreza (Committee member) / Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Program (Contributor) / School of Music, Dance and Theatre (Contributor) / School for Engineering of Matter,Transport & Enrgy (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-12
Description
STEM programs are the programs for the future. Technology is advancing at a rapid speed and the world is trying to keep up. Engineering is leading the charge within that because engineers are always at the forefront of innovation. However, just the prospect of growth is not enough for students to want to become professional engineers. Black female students have the desire to better their knowledge by going to institutions of higher education, but they do not share that same passion for engineering education. This study aims to understand that. This research is looking into retention factors for students in engineering and how those factors can be transferred to Black women. It was found that factors like bias training for students and faculty, integration to engineering organizations, getting more Black female professors and faculty, and introduction to prerequisite courses like calculus and physics to Black females in grade school.
ContributorsRoberts, Alexia (Author) / Coley, Brooke (Thesis director) / McGuire, Keon (Committee member) / Hailu, Meseret (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Program (Contributor) / School of Politics and Global Studies (Contributor) / Historical, Philosophical & Religious Studies, Sch (Contributor)
Created2022-05
Description
Two of the most fundamental barriers to the exploration of the solar system are the cost of transporting material to space and the time it takes to get to destinations beyond Earth’s sphere of influence. Space elevators can solve this problem by enabling extremely fast and propellant free transit to nearly any destination in the solar system. A space elevator is a structure that consists of an anchor on the Earth’s surface, a tether connected from the surface to a point well above geostationary orbit, and an apex counterweight anchor. Since the entire structure rotates at the same rate as the Earth regardless of altitude, gravity is the dominant force on structures below GEO while centripetal force is dominant above, allowing climber vehicles to accelerate from GEO along the tether and launch off from the apex with large velocities. The outcome of this project is the development of a MATLAB script that can design and analyze a space elevator tether and climber vehicle. The elevator itself is designed to require the minimum amount of material necessary to support a given climber mass based on provided material properties, while the climber is simulated separately. The climber and tether models are then combined to determine how the force applied by the climber vehicle changes the stress distribution inside the tether.
ContributorsNelson, Alexander (Author) / Peet, Matthew (Thesis director) / Mignolet, Marc (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Program (Contributor)
Created2022-05
Description
This creative project details 5 engineers who made contributions to the ways that we live life today, yet have received little to no recognition for their efforts. The 5 engineers presented are Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, George Stephenson, Charles Babbage, David Alter, and Nikola Tesla. Each engineer is detailed via a portrait and a biography that covers a little bit of their life and the contributions that they made.
ContributorsNieves, Timothy (Author) / Davis, Turner (Thesis director) / Green, Heather (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Program (Contributor)
Created2023-12
Description
Our Idea: As a team of engineers, two in the engineering field and one in computer
science and software development, we wanted to find a way to put these skills to use in our
company. As we did not have a revolutionary idea to build our own product, we wanted to base
our company on the assumption that people have great ideas and lack the ability to execute on
these ideas. Our mission is to enable these people and companies to make their ideas a reality,
and allow them to go to market with a clean and user friendly product. We are using our skills
and experience in hardware and device prototyping and testing, as well as software design and
development to make this happen.
Implementation: To this point, we have been working with a client building a human
diagnostic and enhancement AI device. We have been consulting on mostly the design and
creation of their first proof of concept, working on hardware and sensor interaction as well as
developing the software allowing their platform to come to life. We have been working closely
with the leaders of the company, who have the ideas and business knowledge, while we focus on
the technology side. As for the scalability and market potential of our business, we believe that
the potential market is not the limiting factor. Instead, the limiting factor to the growth of our
business is the time we have to devote. We are currently only working with one client, and not
looking to expand into new clients. We believe this would require the addition of new team
members, but instead we are happy with the progress we are making at the moment. We believe
we are not only building equity in business we believe in, but also building a product that could
help the safety and wellness of our users.
ContributorsMiller, Kyle (Author) / Engerholm, Liam (Co-author) / Schildgen, Nathan (Co-author) / Byrne, Jared (Thesis director) / Lee, Christopher (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Program (Contributor)
Created2024-05