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2017/2018 Mechanical Engineering Industry-Sponsored Student Capstone Projects

Boeing

Additive Manufacturing of Metals Lattice Structures for Energy Absorption

Sponsor:
Project Name:
Additive Manufacturing of Metals Lattice Structures for Energy Absorption
Students:
Simar Bassi, mechanical engineering
Son Q. Luong, mechanical engineering
Jagbir Singh, mechanical engineering
Sameer D. Meshram, mechanical engineering
Samuel Sexton, mechanical engineering
Marwin Tarusna, mechanical engineering
Faculty Adviser:
Dwayne Arola, Associate Professor, Materials Science and Engineering
Ramulu Mamidala, Boeing-Pennell Professor of Engineering, Mechanical Engineering
Junlan Wang, Associate Professor, Mechanical Engineering
About the Project:

The team explored and improved designs of additive manufactured metal lattices for applications requiring high energy absorption. They adopted feasible lattice designs, assessed their properties by experiments and modeling, and improved the designs to maximum performance and efficiency.

A group of students

Boeing

EE Bay Box Handling Device

Sponsor:
Project Name:
EE Bay Box Handling Device
Students:
Cameron Gostin, mechanical engineering
Tristan Oakes, mechanical engineering
Tomas Romero, mechanical engineering
John Taft, mechanical engineering/materials science & engineering
Faculty Adviser:
Vipin Kumar, Professor, Mechanical Engineering
About the Project:

The students worked to develop a device or system to assist mechanics with their work of removing and replacing electrical boxes in the 737 EE Bay during preflight operations. Airplane Maintenance Technicians (AMT’s) manually remove malfunctioning electrical boxes from a small space that is difficult to reach, and then replace the boxes. They must extend their arms and shoulders and apply force while removing the box. Risks that can lead to injuries occur when reaching, pulling, lifting and lowering the boxes. Damage can occur to the product if the box comes into contact with the airplane structure or is dropped. The team developed a prototype material handling device to help remove and replace boxes in the 737 EE Bay, reducing injury risk for this manual task, and formed solutions for handling boxes into and out of place in 737 EE Bay.

A group of students

Boeing

FSAE Composite Accumulator Box

Sponsor:
Project Name:
FSAE Composite Accumulator Box
Students:
Dhruv Kapoor, mechanical engineering
Hsu-Sheng Ko, mechanical engineering
Kara Krebs, mechanical engineering
Anna von Ravensberg, mechanical engineering
Faculty Adviser:
Ashley Emery, Professor, Mechanical Engineering
About the Project:

The team set out to design an improved accumulator box for an electric car, focusing on weight savings and improving general composites knowledge. They created a master composite testing document to specify laminate design for different sandwich panels.

A group of students

Boeing

Service Hatch Structural Design

Sponsor:
Project Name:
Service Hatch Structural Design
Students:
Surafel Abeel, mechanical engineering
Collin Berg, mechanical engineering
Adrian Camacho, mechanical engineering
Trevor Palmer, mechanical engineering
Melanie Wullaert, mechanical engineering
Faculty Adviser:
Dwayne Arola, Associate Professor, Materials Science and Engineering
Ramulu Mamidala, Boeing-Pennell Professor of Engineering, Mechanical Engineering
Junlan Wang, Associate Professor, Mechanical Engineering
About the Project:

The team explored new design options for airplane service hatches to reduce the cost of the airplane. They provided a structural analysis for existing and new design options, and created a business case that compares the total manufacturing cost of new design options versus the existing Boeing designs.

A group of students

Boeing

Tie Rod Structure Design Project

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Sponsor:
Project Name:
Tie Rod Structure Design Project
Students:
Nick Christoforou, mechanical engineering
Jake Owin Ell, industrial & systems engineering
Jessy Ha, mechanical engineering
Madelyn Lew, mechanical engineering
Rungpatch Nethnapat, industrial & systems engineering
Gregory Peterson, industrial & systems engineering
Jasdip Singh, mechanical engineering
Minh-Thu Tran, mechanical engineering
Faculty Adviser:
Ashis Banerjee, Assistant Professor, Industrial & Systems Engineering
Patty Buchanan, Full Time Lecturer, Industrial & Systems Engineering
Corie Cobb, Associate Professor, Mechanical Engineering
About the Project:

The team worked to explore new design options for tie-rods that can be used in the majority of Boeing airplane locations and reduce the cost of the airplane. They conducted a design analysis of their new concepts and used 3D printing to prototype and test their designs. They also completed a business case that compares the total production cost of their recommended design versus the existing baseline Boeing designs.

A group of students

Hexcel

Ergonomic Risk Reduction for Hand Layup of Composites

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Sponsor:
Project Name:
Ergonomic Risk Reduction for Hand Layup of Composites
Students:
Parker Cole, industrial & systems engineering
Roman Fomin,industrial & systems engineering
Trenton Lam, industrial & systems engineering
Adrian Steeler Magallanes, industrial & systems engineering
David Setiawan Tjahjadi, mechanical engineering
Marverick Tjeng, mechanical engineering
Faculty Adviser:
Patty Buchanan, Full Time Lecturer, Industrial & Systems Engineering
Pete Johnson, Professor, Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, Adjunct Professor, Industrial & Systems Engineering
About the Project:

While automation of composite laminates is increasing across the aerospace industry, there remains a large sector of composite parts that require hand lamination of prepreg materials. This may be due to complexity of the part, low build rates, or continued build of legacy work. The force and dexterity required to sweep fabric into defined tool features takes its toll on the human body, often causing wrist, elbow, and shoulder discomfort. The student team set out to develop the next step in sweeping technology, with a goal to reduce or eliminate ergonomic exposures while not impeding the ability to manually sweep materials into place. Students developed concepts for sweep designs to alleviate high risk activities, tested and analyzed sweep design concepts, and determined how to accurately detect muscle strain based on the required work.

 
A group of students

PACCAR

Electro-Activated DEF Doser – Phase II

Sponsor:
Project Name:
Electro-Activated DEF Doser – Phase II
Students:
Zhiyan Chen, mechanical engineering
Yueming Liu, mechanical engineering
Jacob Llavore, mechanical engineering
Vedant Maheshwari, mechanical engineering
Faculty Adviser:
Alberto Aliseda, Associate Professor, Mechanical Engineering
About the Project:

The project aims to establish the efficacy of ammonia production by electrolysis of urea in diesel after-treatment. Ammonia needs to be produced in-situ and injected in the exhaust of diesel engines to reduce NOx formed in the engine before it is released to the atmosphere. The student team set out to combine low temperature thermolysis with electrolysis of urea to facilitate the production of effective concentrations of ammonia in the after-treatment system under “cold start” conditions. To achieve this goal, the student team studied the literature on the chemical processes occurring during thermolysis and electrolysis of urea, selecting a set of equations and kinetic rates to model these processes computationally. Then the team designed, built and tested a laboratory loop mimicking the conditions for electrolysis of urea under moderate temperatures (less than 90 C) and injection into the heated gas exhaust (up to 150 C), recovering liquid/solid DEF and deposits and evaluating the concentration of ammonia in the gas stream.

A group of students

PACCAR

Remote Vehicle Control Human Machine Interface

Sponsor:
Project Name:
Remote Vehicle Control Human Machine Interface
Students:
Meng Cai, mechanical engineering
Hongtao Huang, computer science & engineering
Khrisna Kamarga, mechanical engineering
Yudong Lin, mechanical engineering
Wilson Martinez, mechanical engineering
Xiange Wang, mechanical engineering
Yichao Wang- statistics
Hongliang Wu, mechanical engineering
Mohammad Zamir Mohiddin, mechanical engineering
Yang Zheng, mechanical engineering
Faculty Adviser:
Brian Fabien, Associate Dean of Academic Affairs and Professor, Mechanical Engineering
About the Project:

The student team worked to develop a concept for efficient, intuitive, accurate and safe human machine interface for remote operation of an unmanned class 8 truck within the PACCAR Technical Center test track environment. Design requirements included accurate lane control and speed management and back office deployment of human override control for driverless vehicles in unusual situations.

A group of students