Matching Items (478)
Description
This project investigates the design and construction of a dynamic surface capable of replicating complex wave patterns to study boundary layer effects. A 3-layer modular system was developed in SolidWorks and fabricated through laser cutting and 3D printing techniques. The 1st iteration was refined to allow for efficient construction and easy replacement of damaged servos. Attached to the surface are 182 independently actuated micro linear servos arranged in a grid like array. To minimize surface discontinuities, the rubber sheet was iteratively redesigned to reduce visible riblets caused by height differences between adjacent servos. A microcontroller programmed with a Python script actuates each servo with a specific duty cycle depending on the amplitude of the wave. Waveforms are mapped based on the wavelength calculations in both x and y directions. On the surface, servo oscillation range spans 1 cm in vertical displacement, with a duty cycle range from 100 (lowest point) to 0 (highest point). The Preliminary waveforms were first simulated in MATLAB with an amplitude between 0 to 1 which was then scaled to the duty cycle of the servo. A sine wave and square wave were successfully replicated on the physical surface. The generated waveforms clearly show the peaks and troughs aligning with MATLAB simulations, validating the accuracy and functionality of the actuation method. Arbitrary waveforms can be mapped onto the dynamic surface through Fourier series implementation in the Python script. These complex surface shapes can be accurately mapped onto the mechanism, making the dynamic surface a promising platform for future studies in surface actuation and programmable surface geometries. Researchers can utilize this setup to investigate how different geometries influence boundary layer behavior, turbulence, and flow separation.
ContributorsBasikala, Sai Grishma (Author) / Pathikonda, Gokul (Thesis director) / Garrett, Frederick (Committee member) / Wall, Isaiah (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Program (Contributor)
Created2025-05
Description
This thesis explores how simulation-driven design can enhance the performance and efficiency of solar panel mounting clamps. With solar energy infrastructure expanding, there's an urgent need for hardware that is lightweight, cost-effective, and durable under environmental loads.
This study aims to bridge the gap between traditional mechanical design and modern
computational tools by comparing clamp designs based on engineering theory with those
refined through finite element and topology optimization using ANSYS. Three clamp geometries were modeled and analyzed under realistic loading conditions derived
from ASCE 7-16 standards. Each design was evaluated both in its theory-based form and after undergoing structural optimization. Material selection was a parallel focus, weighing the
mechanical properties, corrosion resistance, manufacturability, and economic viability of
aluminum, regular steel, and galvanized steel. G90 Commercial Steel B emerged as the best
candidate, offering a practical balance of strength, durability, and cost.
Simulation results demonstrated that optimized clamps could significantly reduce material usage without compromising structural integrity. Clamp 1 and Clamp 2 achieved over 24% weight reduction each, while Clamp 3, limited by its design constraints, prioritized stress reduction instead. These outcomes emphasize that design geometry and boundary conditions play a critical role in optimization potential.
Ultimately, this research confirms that integrating simulation tools with engineering design
practices leads to more efficient structural components, particularly in applications where cost,
weight, and reliability are crucial. The methods developed here provide a foundation for future
work in adaptive clamp systems, environmental load simulations, and manufacturable design
refinement.
ContributorsFuad, Nafis (Author) / Murthy, Dr. Raghavendra (Thesis director) / Solanki, Dr. Kiran (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Program (Contributor)
Created2025-05
Description
The goal of this project was to develop an affordable, functional, and reliable automated pill sorting system using Raspberry Pi and computer vision. The prototype was designed to assist individuals with physical or cognitive impairments in managing their daily medications more efficiently. For demonstration and testing purposes, candies with different shapes and colors were used to simulate pills. The system uses a Raspberry Pi 5, a camera module, and servo motors controlled through a PCA9685 driver to identify and sort candies based on their color and shape. A conveyor belt moves each candy under the camera where images are captured, processed in real time using OpenCV, and classified using HSV color filtering and contour analysis. Classified items are then routed to the correct compartments using servos. Testing was conducted under both bright and dim lighting conditions to evaluate system robustness, yielding classification accuracies of 95.9% and 100% respectively. The total build cost was $264.03, significantly less than commercial alternatives. The system proved effective in demonstrating low-cost, high-accuracy automated sorting. Future improvements include adding a feeder mechanism, enhancing the user interface, integrating a pill database, and potentially training a custom machine learning model for improved classification and real-world deployment.
ContributorsGarcia, David (Author) / Menees, Jodi (Thesis director) / Li, Cindy (Xiangjia) (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Program (Contributor) / Department of Physics (Contributor)
Created2025-05
Description
The goal of our thesis was to write, film, and produce a short film. This movie, The Father, The Bro, & The Holy Spirit, follows an unnamed protagonist, The Bro, as he accidentally travels back to biblical times. There, he amasses a group of cult-like followers and turns his loyal disciples into the world’s first fraternity.
ContributorsDanko, Aubrey (Author) / Seegmiller, Emeline (Co-author) / Scott Lynch, Jacquie (Thesis director) / Takada, Emy (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Program (Contributor)
Created2025-05
Description
The focus of this experimental study was on the determination of the vibrational features, natural frequencies, damping ratios, and mode shapes of aluminum bats. Of specific interest was the effect of the Tuned Mass Damper (TMD) that is located inside some bat models and how the TMD decreases the feeling of bat sting. Two different support strategies of the bat were used, the first of which was a soft support simulating free-free conditions. A second setup was used to simulate the bat being held in hands, in which the bat handle was immersed in cured ballistic gel. This boundary condition led to large damping and difficult to interpret experimental data. On the contrary, the soft support data demonstrated that the TMD alters the second mode of the bat, splitting it into two modes, increasing the damping, and moving a node closest to the handle, features that all have a beneficial effect on the vibration transmission to the batter’s hands. Project execution offered key insights into vibrational experimentation and highlighted lessons in project scope, communication, and timeline management.
ContributorsNguyen, Dylan (Author, Co-author) / Mignolet, Marc (Thesis director) / Murthy, Raghavendra (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Program (Contributor)
Created2025-05
Description
The purpose of this experiment is to determine how a variable emittance coating behaves in a cold space environment with variable internal heating, as well as to update the experimental apparatus to improve sampling time and minimize loss. The results of this experiment will show how a variable emittance coating performs under cryostat testing conditions in order to determine its radiative cooling properties. By optimizing the performance of radiative cooling materials, energy originally used to provide thermal control can be preserved.
ContributorsStoops, Chloe (Author) / Wang, Liping (Thesis director) / Taylor, Sydney (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Program (Contributor)
Created2025-05
Description
The objective of this thesis is to prove that using a Skyhook for off-world mining is not only cheaper overall, but also less risky and uses less propellant per mission. A Skyhook is a space tether that acts as a momentum transfer device, transferring both angular and linear momentum to the rocket. Skyhook also raises the rocket to a higher orbit, and with the increased speed, allows the rocket to perform maneuvers without having to burn propellant. The asteroid chosen for this proof of concept was 511 Davida, which sits in the asteroid belt and is estimated to be the most valuable asteroid inside of the asteroid belt. A mission plan was designed where there are two flights to the asteroid, one with the objective of planting the mining equipment some time earlier, and the other with the objective of obtaining the mined materials. Both missions were analyzed with and without the presence of Skyhook and compared. It was shown that using Skyhook uses less propellant per mission than not using Skyhook and only using rockets. The costs of using and not using Skyhook were also estimated and compared. It was shown that Skyhook is far cheaper than just using rockets and that Skyhook is the only way to make off world mining profitable. This also shows that it is less risky, as a failed mission using Skyhook will be a lower price to pay rather than just using rockets. Overall, using Skyhook makes far more sense to use with asteroid mining than just using rockets.
ContributorsPickard, London (Author) / Peet, Matthew (Thesis director) / Dahm, Werner (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Program (Contributor)
Created2025-05
Description
Violins are an acoustically complex instrument, traditionally hand crafted from wood. The process of making a violin is as much an art form as playing one, requiring significant time, labor, and cost. With the increasing availability of 3D-printing, instruments can now be made at home for a fraction of the cost of traditionally made versions, improving accessibility. Once a suitable design is found, it can be consistently replicated on nearly any 3D-printer. This allows makers to design and manufacture their own instruments for playing or as quick prototypes before committing to more labor intensive materials.
Despite these advancements, 3D-printing has limitations when it comes to musical instruments, particularly violins. One major drawback is the difference in material properties compared to wood. Wood is often harder, denser, and, depending on the species, generally stiffer than 3D-printed plastics. These differences affect the structural stability, but also significantly impact the acoustic performance.
This thesis seeks to explore the feasibility of 3D-printed violins by analyzing their material properties and acoustic response. It focuses on the violin design and construction, material testing, and an evaluation of sound quality and tone. One of the main objectives of this project was to investigate geometry and print settings to approximate wood. For practical and comparison purposes, this project considers bending stiffness and density as the primary material factors influencing the tone of a violin. The goal was to construct two 3D-printed violins, varying the stiffness and density for comparison, and to construct an impact hammer testing rig to assess and compare the 3D-printed violins to each other and to a traditional
wooden violin.
ContributorsSeveringhaus, Noah (Author) / Lahey, Byron (Thesis director) / Thorn, Seth (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Program (Contributor)
Created2025-05
Description
This thesis presents the development and refinement of a scalable manufacturing process for redox-active rings used in the Labyrinth Reactor (LR), a system designed for continuous solar thermochemical hydrogen (STCH) production. These rings are responsible for carrying out high-temperature redox cycles, and their geometry, structural integrity, and thermal performance are critical to the reactor’s efficiency and operation.
Three manufacturing approaches were explored: pellet pressing, hand-pressed molding, and ceramic injection molding (CIM). Each method was evaluated through iterative testing to improve ring quality, reproducibility, and production throughput. While pellet pressing proved unsuitable due to fragility and geometric limitations, hand-pressed molding enabled the creation of fully formed rings with integrated spacers and central holes. However, the method was labor-intensive and difficult to scale. CIM emerged as the most promising technique, offering the ability to produce complex ring geometries in a single step with minimal post-processing.
Through multiple design iterations, a successful CIM-based process was established, culminating in a mold capable of producing rings compatible with both ceria and calcium cerium titanium manganese oxide (CCTM). The final design supports key reactor requirements and provides a foundation for scalable ring production. While further development is required, including the use of metal molds and thermal shock testing, the work presented here demonstrates a viable path toward mass manufacturing of redox rings for next-generation hydrogen production systems.
ContributorsMaddock, Koos (Author) / Ermanoski, Ivan (Thesis director) / Miller, James (Committee member) / Ali, Natalia (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Program (Contributor)
Created2025-05
Description
This project aims to develop an affordable and accurate method for measuring the convective heat transfer coefficient of the human body in turbulent outdoor conditions. Quantifying convective heat exposure of the human body in extreme heat using a cost-effective device is a critical step toward the development of a scalable, personal bio-meteorological station for routine use and wide deployment.
Two designs were fabricated and tested to evaluate convective heat transfer. The first design utilized a setup comprised of three cylinders, each with a different diameter governed by its own energy balance equation. This allowed for independent calculation of the convective heat transfer coefficient for each cylinder from which mean wind speed, turbulence intensity, and turbulence length scale can be found. The second design utilized a single larger cylinder with a diameter of 17.3 centimeters in order to simulate a human body. This cylinder was expected to produce a convective heat transfer coefficient close to that of the human body in extreme heat conditions.
These cylinders were tested in both indoor and outdoor environments. Indoor testing was conducted in a wind enclosure located in a temperature-controlled room. Outdoor experiments took place in the courtyard of the Walton Center for Planetary Health on Arizona State University’s Tempe Campus.
Overall, the results were promising. Data from the 17.3 centimeter diameter, 10 centimeter height cylinder closely aligned with that from the human body when tested in the wind enclosure. Further refinement of the outdoor experimental setup is needed for more accuracy in those conditions. The tri-cylinder setup resulted in convective heat transfer coefficients slightly higher than expected, possibly due to the non-isothermal behavior of the cylinders. To address this, the three cylinders should be re-fabricated with increased wall thickness to better meet isothermal assumptions.
ContributorsParkerson, Emily (Author) / Rykaczewski, Konrad (Thesis director) / Pathikonda, Gokul (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Program (Contributor)
Created2025-05