Recent interest in oxy-fuel combustion for carbon capture, as well as advancements in technologies such as magnetics, materials, and computational modeling has sparked renewed interest in magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) power generation. The increased temperatures of oxy-fuel combustion versus air-fuel combustion poses a challenge in the selection of materials for plasma exposed...
The goal of this paper is to evaluate how synthetic lubricants perform in an enclosed gearbox application when compared with a proven mineral oil. This is in an effort to improve gearbox efficiency with the desired effect of lower emissions from of improved energy output from power generation. Four liquid...
Prototyping is a crucial step in product design and development, but it is also known as the highest sunk cost. The top 20 Research and Development (R&D) department spends 142 billion dollars, yet 40 to 46 percent of this money goes into developing products that cannot even make to the...
The purpose of the study was to analyze the possible combination of cooling systems, which are film cooling and regenerative cooling, and obtain the initial estimates of possible temperature reduction. The analysis was conducted in Ansys Fluent. The methodology includes four main steps that are the following: flow simulation, combustion...
Several wave energy converter designs have been recently proposed that are made of flexible materials. Flexible devices are able to generate electricity by being stretched, and are intended to simplify deployment and maintenance concerns over existing wave energy devices. Due to the relative infancy of flexible wave energy converters, however,...
The design of a competition-winning aero package must consider multiple vehicle attitudes. Aerodynamic concepts simulated in heave, pitch, roll, high-speed yaw, and low-speed yaw to design a stable and predictable aero package. The methodology automates the simulation setup process of five vehicle attitudes. The overall and subsystem force coefficients are...
As designers continue to develop the ability to improve a component or system design relative to any number of metrics, priorities and objectives, the need for advanced methodologies which focus efforts and steer design decisions to best meet the needs of the organization becomes increasingly important. This work develops such...
Between Oregon State University and DHBW Ravensberg, Global Formula Racing produces two Formula style vehicles every year for competition. This thesis has served as a pre-development project in the ergonomics and driver interface of the team's vehicles. This project will determine the position of the seat back, steering wheel, and...
In the wake of climate change, the risk of heat related illnesses has continuously increased over the past several decades. While thermal management solutions have continued to improve, there is a need for efficient cooling systems that conform with the human body. This study combines the solutions from fractal-like flow...
Turbulent flows with suspended, non-spherical particles are common in many natural and industrial processes. To identify the effects of anisotropic geometry on particle dynamics, a one-way coupled Lagrangian direct numerical simulation solver was written, verified, and used to collect data on particles simulated in multiple flows. This thesis explains the...
This work compares the condensation heat transfer and pressure drop for zeotropic refrigerant R-454C and its individual components, R-32 and R-1234yf, in horizontal microfin tubes. One microfin tube has a 4 mm outer diameter, 0.18 mm wall thickness, and a surface area ratio of 1.56. The second tube has a...
Floating offshore wind energy is anticipated to become a competitive source of renewable energy by the late 2020s, but the industry must reduce costs and uncertainties associated with the technology to do so. Identifying solutions to these problems frequently relies on computational modeling, which presents technical shortcomings limiting the versatility...
The objective of this research is to support DfX considerations in the early phases of design, particularly Design for the Environment. In order to include DfX considerations, especially early in the design process, there needs to be access to knowledge and information that is usually only applicable further downstream in...
The aerospace industry uses chemical kinetic models when designing propulsion systems to acquire specific details about the rate of chemical reactions, heat release, and combustion stability. These models, however, are too large and stiff to be useful as they can take weeks to run computations on. The pyMARS python package...
This research aims to demonstrate the viability of actively controlled distributed-electric propulsion as a method to postpone flutter in high aspect-ratio elastic wings. A semi-wing on a spring mount with two propellers powered by electric motors, mounted at alternate pitch angles relative to the chord line, was used as the...
In anatomical education, clinicians, surgeons, and anatomists support the use of human cadavers over digital or artificial alternatives. Cadaver use raises the challenge of preventing tissue dehydration. The OSU cadaver labs attempt to maintain hydration by re-covering the exposed tissues with original skin, layers of plastic wrap, and/or towels and...
Integrated Distributed Electric Augmented Lift (IDEAL) applies upper surface blowing in a novel way to achieve electric short take-off and landing to meet the growing need for urban air transportation. Additional research on propulsion airframe interaction (PAI) with trailing edge flaps at low Reynolds numbers was necessary to advance the...
The intention of this undergraduate research project was to design and build a fully functional high-vacuum chamber testing environment for use in the development of ion propulsion engines. This project was conducted in an effort to aid ongoing projects between the Deep Space Propulsion Group (DSPG) at Oregon State University...
This project examines the portrayal of the life and times of Kaiserin Elisabeth von Österreich (Empress Elisabeth of Austria) in the popular Austrian musical "Elisabeth das Musical" (Elisabeth the Musical), written by Michael Kunze and Sylvester Levay. "Elisabeth" was first performed in Vienna in 1992 and has since become the...
The intent of this thesis is to develop three creative non-fiction essays exploring the experience of being an undergraduate woman in a STEM field. The essays will all take on variations in form, humor, and perspectives. The purpose is to explore the position of women in STEM and the different...
This study aims to explore whether a robotic cookstove feeder can sufficiently reduce variability between tests of a cookstove, produces statistically similar firepower and measured emissions rates, and reduce tester interaction time during standard cookstove testing as compared to a trained human operator. A series of modified ISO/FDIS 19867-1 testing...
Modern product design drives the boundaries of innovation by encompassing complex Design-for-X objectives, and the inclusion of multidimensional stakeholders. This growing complexity in product design has left design teams unequipped, as classical design theory is bounded by designer experience, expertise, and cognition. One novel approach to tackling product complexity is...
The end goal of any educational program is to prepare a student for the challenges they will see after completion of their studies. In the realm of engineering, the pinnacle of this occurs during a student’s final Capstone course series, where students are asked to apply their various skills learned...
Given the immense energy potential of oshore wind and ocean waves, offshore renewable energy can significantly contribute to the renewable energy landscape. Fixed floating wind is already making strides internationally with increased electricity capacity, while floating offshore wind turbines and marine hydrokinetic (MHK) technology have significant potential that can...
The Accident Tolerant Fuels campaign demonstrated a need for nuclear fuel pin simulators to further research fuel and cladding combinations that can withstand off normal conditions in light water reactors. The use of a heater rod as a fuel pin simulator greatly reduces the risk involved during testing as no...
The forebody wake effect (FWE) is important to consider when designing parachute systems because it can affect parachute performance. Parachutes work by altering the aerodynamic properties of an attached forebody to control a descent. The FWE can reduce parachute drag, causing the system to descend faster than desired. This drag...
The goal of this thesis is to explore the possibility of an upgrade of materials used in the wing-structure of a high-performance light aircraft operating under severe aerodynamic and inertial loads. The case aircraft considered in the thesis is the Caproni A-21 SJ, an all-metal high-performance motorglider powered by two...
Non-destructive testing is a methodology to inspect production and operational parts for potential flaws, defects, or damages. The present work is based on pulsed wave thermography, a thermal imaging method based on heat conduction to identify surface and subsurface defects potentially present in a component. Pulsed wave thermography applies a...
The development of a continuous and reliable cooling method for computer chips is an evolving subject requiring continuous research in both computer science and thermal management. Two-dye laser induced fluorescence (LIF) provides a minimally invasive way to investigate electronics cooling fluid behavior. Dielectric fluids are of particular interest as they...
With the continued decrease in size and subsequent increase in power of computer processors, thermal management in electronics is becoming more important than ever before. The chip heat densities are reaching new peaks (> 100 W cm-2) that current cooling methods are not able to keep up with. However, some...
There is strong interest in the energy community to develop technologies that can diffuse low-cost, renewably generated electricity into difficult and slow to decarbonize sectors. One of the emerging areas of interest is renewable natural gas (RNG). RNG has low or no associated net greenhouse gas emissions and can be...
Chainsaws serve as one of the primary tools used by logging corporations, ranches, and farms for forestry management. Lubricating oil remains one of the heaviest operational expenditures for chainsaws. This largely in part due to chainsaw lubrication being a total loss system in which nearly all lubricating oil applied is...
Detonation combustion has gained interest throughout the years because of its potential to increase thermodynamic cycle efficiency when compared to deflagration based cycles. The expected benefits result from a pressure gain during the combustion process instead of a pressure drop, as observed for deflagrations. The implementation of detonations can be...
Design is a process of decision making. Organizations that are dedicated to systematic support of the design process tend to have higher profit margins. Further, studies of system development have shown that early-stage design mistakes have a large impact on incurred costs. Therefore, it is critical to identify methods to...
The amount of energy we use and the ways that we get that energy sit on the edge of dramatic change as the carbon budget which can keep the planet under 1.5C of global average temperature increase gets smaller (Allen, 2018). In response, we continue to research and develop renewable...
This thesis presents mechanics and dynamics of Low Frequency Vibration Assisted Turning (LFV-T). First, a mechanistic model for analytical cutting force and specific cutting energy prediction is presented. Kinematics of the process is used to analyze the cut surface topography and derive the uncut chip thickness variation for various modulation...
It is desirable for complex engineered systems to perform missions efficiently and economically, even when these missions' complex, variable, long-term operational profiles make it likely for hazards to arise. It is thus important to design these systems to be resilient so that they will actively prevent and recover from hazards...
Practical engineering design problems are generally multi-disciplinary with limited budget and high risk in terms of life loss, economic resources, etc. In the early phase of such problems, selection of true efficient designs is desired while minimizing overall design cost by avoiding expensive search processes. However, the task is difficult...
Modern engineered systems are increasingly integrated into society, decentralized, and interconnected. However, scale and complexity create unique challenges in system design, such as emergent behavior and unintended consequences. This work investigates the structural characteristics of robustness in complex engineered systems by identifying patterns of under-recognized vulnerabilities at various levels of...
Modeling elementary chemical reactions in ocean fluid dynamics simulations requires significant computing resources, which can be diminished with model reduction techniques. Submesoscale ocean turbulence and biogeochemical reactions in the ocean occur on approximately the same time scale, 105 seconds. This similarity in time scales indicates a strong coupling between these...
This work investigates the in-tube condensation of low global warming potential (GWP) zeotropic refrigerant mixtures R448A, R450A, R452A, R454B and R454C. These refrigerants have been proposed for a wide range of commercial heating, ventilation, air-conditioning applications, but their heat and momentum transport phenomenon were not well understood. Thus, in this...
Many animals and robots move through the world by coupling cyclical changes in shape called gaits to an interaction with the environment. Because mobility is an important aspect of such robots, a key metric when evaluating design and performance of mobile robots is the efficiency of their optimal gaits. The...
Seven decades of supercritical heat transfer research have not seen an attempt to characterize turbulent thermal transport in internal flows subject to asymmetric heating. Existing heat transfer models therefore do not account for phenomena that dictates thermal transport, in the proximity of the pseudo-critical point, for non-uniform heating. Additionally, past...
Collective robotic systems are biologically-inspired and exhibit behaviors found in spatial swarms (e.g., fish), colonies (e.g., ants), or a combination of both (e.g., bees). Collective robotic system popularity continues to increase due to their apparent global intelligence and emergent behaviors. Many applications can benefit from the incorporation of collectives, including...
Boiling dynamics and related heat transfer mechanisms have been widely studied for several decades. During that time, incredible progress has been made on quantifying bubble departure phenomena including growth rate, departure frequency, associated natural and forced convection, and radiation additions to the overall heat transfer rate. With this, the thermal...
Cephalopod-inspired soft robot arms have been studied as a new type of manipulator. These arms have been proposed for reach and grab tasks, underwater locomotion via swimming and walking, and robotic surgery. However, the capabilities of existing soft arms are limited to simple motions and light loads. Arm design has...
Today, billions of people are limited to using biomass-fueled traditional fires as a primary energy source for cooking and purification of drinking water. Reliance on open burning of biomass leads to exposure to high levels of household air pollution which has been estimated to claim over 1.5 million lives annually,...
As structural durability analysis is increasingly trusted during the design processes of the automotive industry, more complete and sophisticated modeling of material behavior under both static and dynamic loading conditions is paramount. This is especially true regarding the application of heavy-duty trucks, where modern designs contain large parts such as...
Studying honey bee behavior is a very important aspect of horticulture, especially in recent years as honey bee colonies face population decline, or colony collapse. While studying honey bees, researchers often keep honey bees in captivity, where it can be challenging to meet nutritional and hydration requirements using existing liquid...
An experimental setup has been partially developed to investigate the impact of an actively controlled trailing edge component upon the energy harvesting performance of an oscillating airfoil in a pitching and heaving regime. While previous and current efforts have and continue to
function to characterize the performance of such a...