 |
 |
|
|||||||||||||||
| Mechanical Engineering | Senior Design Projects |
|
Senior Design Projects Team #1 - Formula SAE Engine & Drive Train Project Title: Formula Society of Automotive Engineering – Engine &
Drive Train Faculty Advisor: The Formula SAE project at Bradley University is intended to simulate real working condition within an engineering design group. The groups focus will be to design, build and test a driveline to be integrated into a Formula One SAE car. This car is built for the non professional, weekend autocross racer. It needs to handle well in all aspects of driving. We will focus on acceleration, power distribution during extreme handling and weight reduction creating a complete and solid engineering design solution to each challenge. These challenges will be met with solutions designed by a team of three undergraduate students. They will be responsible for not only the driveline components, but also their integration into the frame and body of the car. Working with two other teams, they will share the responsibility of producing a well-built, reliable weekend autocross racer. This experience will provide a glimpse into modern business practices as well as experience in designing and manufacturing components and systems; it is the culmination of the Mechanical Engineering degree at Bradley University. Project Title: Formula Society of Automotive Engineering – Frame Team Faculty Advisor: The Formula SAE® competition is for SAE members to conceive, design and manufacture, a formula-style racecar. There are restrictions and regulations on the cars that exercise the knowledge, creativity, and imaginations of the engineering students. The car is built over a 9-month period with preliminary work beginning in September. The competition is in May. At the competition the fabricated car will compete with over 100 other schools from around the world. This experience gives the team members valuable experience in the engineering design process and teamwork. The primary objective of the frame team is to create a frame for the car that will be lightweight, yet strong and rigid enough to support the forces applied to it by the suspension and the drive train components. The frame team is also responsible for designing a driver’s compartment that is both ergonomic and safe for the driver. Project Title: Formula Society of Automotive Engineering – Frame Faculty Advisor: The mission of Team #3 is ultimately to design and build a suspension of both superior functionality and reliability for the Bradley University Motorsports entry in the 2003 Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) Formula car competition. On a larger scale, Team #3 will be working with the Formula car engine and frame teams to design and build a solid and competitive car for this year’s competition. All groups will be attempting to utilize the knowledge gained in the past years of experience at this competition in order to improve the results in this year’s competition. Project Title: SAE Mini Baja Faculty Advisor: The SAE Mini Baja competition is an annual event sponsored by the Society of Automotive Engineers as well as Briggs and Stratton. The competition originated at the University of South Carolina in 1976 under the supervision of Dr. John F. Stevens. Three SAE Mini Baja competitions held each year: the Mini Baja East, West, and Midwest Bradley University will be competing in the Midwest Mini Baja. Bradley University has competed in the Midwest Mini Baja competition since 1990. The Midwest Mini Baja competition consists of six events. The first five events measure the vehicle’s acceleration, top speed, ability to pull a sled, ability to climb a steep hill, and maneuverability . The final event is a four-hour endurance event, which will exhibit the vehicles reliability and performance. The overall purpose of the SAE Mini Baja competition is to build an economically feasible recreational off-road vehicle. The vehicle should be rugged, safe, reliable, and easily transported. Project Title: John Deere Harvester Faculty Advisor: The challenge for Senior Design Team #5 is to develop an accurate, reliable, and low cost torque sensing device for use on a John Deere Harvester. The device(s) will be used to monitor the torque for two different functions. The first function is to limit the torque to a maximum output. The second function is to provide closed loop control of the output. The team will conduct an exhaustive survey of available torque sensing methods and devices. Concurrently, the team will explore the possibility of developing an original piece of equipment utilizing existing torque transducing methods. The team will produce a comprehensive report that will include both advantages and disadvantages of existing technologies. The report will also include a conclusive recommendation on which device the team feels is feasible for implementation or a plan of how the team expects to develop an original prototype device. The team will also perform testing of either the recommended device or of the prototype developed and provide test results as evidence of the device’s effectiveness. Project Title: Region II Wagon Hitch Faculty Advisor: The Merit tractors, produced by John Deere, are marketed all over the world. To be able to use in Region II areas (Europe and China), the tractor needs to have a special hitch as an option. The hitch will be rear-mounted off the Power Take Off (PTO) housing and will occupy space with the 3-point hitch, PTO shield, drawbar, and SCV coupler. The part will have to be made of cast iron or similar materials due to high stresses it is likely to incur. Senior design team #6 will do research and design a hitch adapter/spacer that will satisfy John Deere’s requirements. Project Title: Improving UCAV Ground Thrust Measurement Team Advisor: The Boeing/ DARPA/ Air Force UCAV program is intended to demonstrate technologies necessary for an unmanned combat air vehicle system (UOS). Boeing would like to have a cost effective, highly adaptable and portable method for measuring propulsion and thrust vectoring; instead of using thrust stands. Currently a new technique has been developed to resolve the thrust vectors, both thrust and side axial forces in the yaw plane, using a “Chains” method. In this method there is error in the resolution of the vectors. Hysteresis is observed in a plot of measured vector angle vs. vector angle commanded, which is presently attributed to “stiction” (static friction) at the grease pads. The purpose of this project is to improve upon the “Chains” method by replacing the grease bearings with air bearings and conducting an uncertainty analysis to quantify the resultant thrust, side force, and vectoring angle uncertainties. Project Title: Probe Drive for Trisonic Wind Tunnel Faculty Advisor: A precision probe drive for the USAF trisonic gasdynamic facility wind tunnel was requested to be designed for Gary Dale of the Wright Patterson Air Force Base, Air Behicles Directorate. Several probe drives exist for larger lower speed wind tunnels, but would not be able to be used for this application. The probe drive will need to be a precise and repeatable positioner that must minimize tunnel blockage while maintaining rigidity and maximizing probing volume. Model support components present possible mechanical interference. Removable nozzle blocks in the wind tunnel will limit area available for probe drive creating a design challenge. Some conflicting design criteria include rigidity versus compact size and maximized probe volume versus precision. Highly variable wind loading, changing flow angularity, and deflected shock waves will be the major sources of stresses on the probe drive and will require extensive analysis before the preliminary design can be completed. Project Title: Tube Transport System for a Water Park Attraction Faculty Advisors: The attraction consists of three high-speed twisting flumes. The two outer slides may be ridden in one or two person rafts, however the center slide is enclosed, limiting it to one-person rafts. The park is designed for guests to be transported to the summit of the park, and then adventure their way down to the base of the park, by means of the rides. However, the attraction is located in the back of the park and requires guests to walk up 50 feet of stairs to the start of the ride. Most of the rides at the park utilize automatic return systems for the ride equipment. The Runoff Rapids attraction contains no such system for the tubes, making it necessary for patrons to transport the tubes manually to the top of the ride. A day at the water park can be very fatiguing for families due to the hot sun and long lines that may exist. Carrying a tube manually up 50 feet of stairs is an inconvenience to patrons and may generate frustration, taking away from the desired Mouse Company experience. The solution to this problem lies in the development of a transport system that will transport single and double tubes from the end of the ride to the start station. Project Title: Material Testing and Modeling (MTAM) Faculty Advisor: The first area of concern is to design gripping systems for three tensile testing machines in the Bradley University MTAM Laboratory. All grips need to be able to withstand temperature variations and cyclic loading. Some grips will need the ability to accommodate different specimen sizes. One set of grips will also need to be engineered so as it can be placed in a vacuum chamber. The second area of concern is to develop a design for an anti-buckling system for the fourth tensile testing machine. This system should allow a specimen to be tested under compression without buckling. |
 |
 |
|