Improving Novelty and Quality During Introductory Mechanical Design Competitions

This study explores whether changing design objectives during introductory mechanical engineering courses would improve design novelty and quality when these courses offer a competition element. Design fixation can occur when students are presented with the same design objective because the institutionalized “best” solutions are transferred from semester to semester and student to student. Design competitions are a popular way to teach the design and construction components, often with a focus on robotics. Some competitions are newly designed and rebuilt every single semester, requiring advanced planning and often high budgets. Others reuse a similar competition from year to year without any changes to the design objectives. This paper tries to answer whether or not students are building more novel designs when the competition changes from semester to semester. In this study, robots from four different configurations for a design-and-build activity were analyzed. The unchanged design prompt and 3 semesters of different design prompts were included in the study. The evaluations of the robots were based on the performance of the robots, the type and quality of the designs, and the relationship between the design competition and the robots. Results from this study suggest that changing design objectives (i.e. challenges found in a robotic competition) allows for a wider variation in the designs. While the average novelty did not change, students were no longer limited to and fixated on a very small range of designs.

Traumatic Brain Injury Caused by +Gz Acceleration

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) has long been known as one of the most anonymous reasons for death around the world. This phenomenon has been under study for many years and yet it remains a question due to physiological, geometrical and computational complexity. Although the modeling facilities for soft tissue have improved, the precise CT-imaging of human head has revealed novel details of the brain, skull and meninges. In this study a 3D human head including the brain, skull, and meninges is modeled using CT-scan and MRI data of a 30-year old human. This model is named “Sharif University of Technology Head Trauma Model (SUTHTM)”. By validating SUTHTM, the model is then used to study the effect of +Gz acceleration on the human brain. Damage threshold based on loss of consciousness in terms of acceleration and time duration is developed using Maximum Brain Pressure criteria. Results revealed that the Max. Brain Pressure ≥3.1 are representation of loss of consciousness. 3D domains for the loss of consciousness are based on Max. Brain Pressure is developed.

Energy Harvesting From Arterial Blood Pressure for Embedded Brain Sensing

This paper investigates energy harvesting from arterial blood pressure via the piezoelectric effect for the purpose of powering embedded micro-sensors in the brain. Blood flow is highly dynamic and arterial blood pressure varies, in the average human blood vessel, from 120 mm of Hg to 80 mm of Hg and we look at transduction of this pressure variation to electric energy via the piezoelectric effect. We propose two different geometries for this purpose. Initially, we look at the energy harvested by a cylinder, coated with PVDF (Polyvinylidene fluoride) patches, placed inside an artery acted upon by blood pressure. The arrangement is similar to that of a stent which is a cylinder placed in veins and arteries to prevent obstruction in blood flow. The governing equations of the harvester are obtained using Hamilton’s principle. Pressure acting in arteries is radially directed and this is used to simplify the governing equations. Specifically, radial pressure directed on the inner wall of the cylinder is assumed to excite only the radial breathing mode of vibration. Using this, the transfer function relating pressure to the induced voltage across the surface of the harvester is derived and the power harvested by the cylindrical harvester is obtained for different shunt resistances. However, the natural frequency of the radial breathing mode (RBM) is found to be very high and the harvested power at the frequencies of interest (3 Hz – 20 Hz) is very low. To decrease the natural frequency, we propose a novel streaked cylinder design that involves cutting the cylinder along the length, transforming it to a curved beam with an opening angle of 360 deg.. The governing equations corresponding to a circular curved beam, with PVDF patches on top and bottom surfaces, are derived using Hamilton’s principle and modal analysis is used to obtain the transfer function relating radial pressure to induced voltage. We validate the derived transfer function by evaluating the harvested power for a beam with very large radius of curvature; in which case, the curved beam becomes a straight beam and the harvested power is compared with the same for a straight beam (which exists in the literature). Further, we conduct design analyses and obtain the power as the geometric parameters of the harvester are varied for the purpose of optimizing the dimensions of harvester for maximal power generation. The power harvested by the harvester, at lower frequencies is deemed to be satisfactory.

Blast Mitigation Seat Analysis: Evaluation of Lumbar Compression Data Trends in 5th Percentile Female Anthropomorphic Test Device Performance Compared to 50th Percentile Male Anthropomorphic Test Device in Drop Tower Testing

Although blast mitigation seats are historically designed to protect the 50th percentile male occupant based on mass, the scope of the occupant centric platform (OCP) Technology Enabled Capability Demonstration (TEC-D) within the U.S. Army Tank Automotive Research Development Engineering Center (TARDEC) Ground System Survivability has been expanded to encompass lighter and heavier occupants which represents the central 90th percentile of the military population. A series of drop tower tests were conducted on twelve models of blast energy-attenuating (EA) seats to determine the effects of vertical accelerative loading on ground vehicle occupants. Two previous technical publications evaluated specific aspects of the results of these drop tower tests on EA seats containing the three sizes of anthropomorphic test devices (ATDs) including the Hybrid III 5th percentile female, the Hybrid III 50th percentile male, and the Hybrid III 95th percentile male. The first publication addressed the overall trends of the forces, moments, and accelerations recorded by the ATDs when compared to Injury Assessment Reference Values (IARVs), as well as validating the methodology used in the drop tower evaluations1. Review of ATD data determined that the lumbar spine compression in the vertical direction could be used as the “go/no-go” indicator of seat performance. The second publication assessed the quantitative effects of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) on the small occupant, as the addition of a helmet and Improved Outer Tactical Vest (IOTV) with additional gear increased the weight of the 5th percentile female ATD more than 50%2. Comparison of the loading data with and without PPE determined that the additional weight of PPE increased the overall risk of compressive injury to the lumbar and upper neck of the small occupant during an underbody blast event. Using the same data set, this technical paper aimed to evaluate overall accelerative loading trends of the 5th percentile female ATD when compared to those of the 50th percentile male ATD in the same seat and PPE configuration. This data trend comparison was conducted to gain an understanding of how seat loading may differ with a smaller occupant. The focus of the data analysis centered around the lumbar spine compression, as this channel was the most likely to exceed the IARV limit for the 5th percentile female ATD. Based on the previous analysis of this data set, the lightest occupant trends showed difficulty in protecting against lumbar compression injuries with respect to the 5th percentile female’s IARV, whereas the larger occupants experienced fewer issues in complying with their respective IARVs for lumbar compression. A review of pelvis acceleration was also conducted for additional kinetic insight into the motion of the ATDs as the seat strokes. This analysis included a review of how the weight and size of the occupant may affect the transmission of forces through a stroking seat during the vertical accelerative loading impulse.

Wearable On-Demand Oxygen Therapy

Oxygen concentration devices currently on the market have many shortcomings. They are bulky and difficult to carry. They alter a patient’s outward image with a visual mark of disability. They do not change oxygen delivery in any way to adjust to the patient’s health. They also lack indicators to help the patient decide when to begin or end a therapy session. Some patient’s decide not to take oxygen therapy as a result of these shortcomings. Those that use these devices may receive over oxygenation or under oxygenation due to the mentioned pitfalls. Any of the shortcomings described can be life threatening to the patient. The present innovation is a proposed system for oxygen delivery that adjusts flowrate based on the patient health and requires no user input to begin or end a therapy session. This paper presents a unique wearable device design for delivering oxygen in a pressure based concentration system.

Review of Brake-by-Wire System Used in Modern Passenger Car

As an important component in brake systems, the Brake-by-Wire system has attracted great attention recently with the development of emerging energy vehicle and modern passenger cars. The main feature of the Brake-by-Wire system, in contrast to the conventional braking system, is the elimination of the dependence of the vacuum booster on engine vacuum through decoupling of the brake pedal and the brake actuator. The influences from road surface to the driver’s brake feeling can also be eliminated by employment of a brake pedal simulator. The Brake-by-Wire system can greatly improve the automotive safety performance of modern passenger cars, including response time, control capability and stability. As much as the system shows great promise, drawbacks should be addressed as well. For example, design theories on system structure, reliable control strategies, high energy consumption, the modeling of global Brake-by-Wire non-linear dynamic system, poor working conditions and high maintenance costs are major concerns. This paper aims to provide a timely and comprehensive review on the state-of-the-art Brake-by-Wire system used in modern passenger cars. Variety of major components are compared in order to get a more reliable and lower energy consumption system, which includes actuators, pedal simulators and backup brake systems. Researches on control strategies as well as future research direction of Brake-by-Wire system are also discussed.

Polytechnic Design Thinking From the Beginning

In August 2013, the Purdue University President and Board of Trustees designated the transformation of the College of Technology into the Purdue Polytechnic Institute as one of Purdue’s “Big Moves”. This transformation requires changes of enormous breadth and depth for everyone in the college. Now, almost half-way through the transformation, milestones and expectations continue to be met. However, much work is still to be done to fully execute a successful transformation. The transformation continues to allow faculty extraordinary opportunities to revise many parts of the college, including curricula, instruction methods, learning spaces, etc. A key characteristic of the transformation is creating learning environments that are student-centered with innovative instruction techniques. TECH 120 – “Design Thinking in Technology”, is a freshman level survey course designed to develop a student’s perspective and enhance their skills in living and working in a technological society while introducing them to the College of Technology — now Purdue Polytechnic. Prior to the fall 2015 semester, Purdue Polytechnic New Albany decided to redesign portions of their TECH 120 course. The aim was to improve team project-based learning opportunities while incorporating modernized teaching methods. With a fresh set of eyes and collaboration between new and tenured faculty the projects, lectures, and assessments were all analyzed looking for areas for higher level of innovation and creativity. The aim for the overall effort was to increase student success rate (i.e. successful completion of assigned project tasks) while improving the alignment with elements of the transformation. In past semesters, the course consisted of a mixture of traditional instructor-led lectures and a series of team projects. Each individual project part was intended to build upon each other while promoting the successful completion of a much larger final task. At the core of each project was LEGO® MINDSTORMS® NXT. The second generation set in the MINDSTORMS series is a programmable robotics kit that is based on robotics technology similar to that used in industry today. Each group (3–4 students) were given their own kit at the beginning of the semester. The final project statement was to design and build an autonomous robot which could identify and follow a light source attached to an instructor’s robot, which would be driven around a room. This task proved to be difficult and had a low success rate. The new project is to design and build a robot that autonomously draws the initials (first and last name) of each team member within an assigned writing zone on a poster. The constant and open collaboration between the two TECH 120 instructors and the incorporation of student input proved to be important during the redesign. The success rate at the end of the semester increased. From course surveys, data also shows that students’ enjoyment and interest in the final project increased. This short paper will describe the introduction to a team project-based activity in a polytechnic setting which uses modernized teaching methods. Preliminary findings and observations will be presented.

Novel Monitoring Method of Hypoid Gear Meshing Based on Thermal Network Model and Infrared Thermography Imagery

Hypoid gears, used in automobile differentials, have a complex shape; thus, it is difficult to estimate tooth contact conditions. Therefore, a non-contact method of analysis is proposed for determining tooth contact conditions by using high-response thermography to analyze temperature distribution during meshing between the pinion and the gear. High-speed photography was performed using thermography and an extraction line was defined in the obtained thermal images to extract temperature data from them. Furthermore, we constructed a novel model to predict tooth surface temperature distribution during tooth meshing based on a thermal network model that represents the thermal conductivity of an object by a simple RC circuit. In this report, by comparing the temperature changes obtained from the thermal images with the calculated results, we identify the thermal properties of a material from the thermal images, and discuss the effects of parameters such as heat capacity and thermal resistance. The comparison shows that infrared tooth surface imagery is effective in estimating hypoid gear tooth meshing. That is, by using infrared image and a thermal network model, heat conduction in a gear can be considered. It was confirmed that it is possible to predict temperature rise on tooth surfaces due to gear meshing.

Exploring the Link Between Task Complexity and Students’ Affective States During Engineering Laboratory Activities

Assessment and feedback play an instrumental role in an individual’s learning process. Continued assistance is required to help students learn better and faster. This need is especially prominent in engineering laboratories where students must perform a wide range of tasks using different machines. One approach to understanding how students feel towards using certain machines is to assess their affective states while they use these machines. Affective state can be defined as the state of feeling an emotion. The authors of this work hypothesize that there is a correlation between students’ perceived affective states and task complexity. By adopting the Wood’s complexity model, the authors propose to assess how the correlations of perceived affective states of students change while they perform tasks of different complexity. In this study, each student performs a “hard” and an “easy” task on the same machine. Each student is given the same tasks using the same materials. Knowledge gained from testing this hypothesis will provide a fundamental understanding of the tasks that negatively impact students’ affective states and risk them potentially dropping out of STEM tracks, and the tasks that positively impact students’ affective states and encourage them to engage in more STEM-related activities. A case study involving 22 students using a power saw machine is conducted. Perceived affective states and completion time were collected. It was found that task complexity has an effect on subjects’ affective states. In addition, we observed some weak correlation between some of the perceived affective states and laboratory task performance. The distribution of correlation between affective states may change as the tasks change. With the knowledge of the relationship between task complexity and affective states, there is the potential to predict students’ affective states before starting a given engineering task.