Title of the project: Investigation of an atomized fuel in a reaction zone ME or AE: Either is fine Faculty Adviser: Dr. Kevin Lyons

Transcription

1 MAE 586 DE Projects for Fall 2017 Title of the project: Actuator Disk Theory in Combustion Title of the project: Magnetic Field Effects on Reaction Zones Title of the project: Modern Wildfire Spread Modelling and Studies Title of the project: Investigation of an atomized fuel in a reaction zone Title of the project: Flame/Flow interactions Title of the project: Recent Advances in Fuel Injection Topic: Design and Dynamic Analysis of Automobile Vehicle Dynamics In this project, fundamentals describing the major vehicle components and vehicle dynamics will be developed. In addition, areas of application will be explored for vehicle safety, stability, and autonomous driving. Topic: Precision Aspects of Manufacturing Systems and Processes In this project, fundamentals describing the product design, manufacturing processes, quality control, and machine tools will be developed. In addition, areas of applications will be explored for practical productions. Topic: Music and Science In this project, fundamentals relating art, in the form of music, and science, such as vibration theories, will be explored. In particular, music instruments could be an area of study, in addition to recording and reproduction of music.

2 Topic: Laser-based Manufacturing Processes In this project, students will focus on laser-based manufacturing processes beyond traditional processes, such as turning, milling, and grinding. Specific examples include laser microhole drilling, laser welding, laser additive manufacturing, etc. Topic: Deflection of Earth-threatening Asteroids. Project Summary: This project involves exploring different methods for diverting Earth threatening Asteroids. Topic: Orbital Dynamics of Spacecraft around Binary Asteroid Systems. Project Summary: Many asteroids are actually pair of asteroids, creating interesting orbital paths of spacecraft around these asteroids; this project will involve studying these orbits and how they depend on the relative size of the asteroids. Topic: Climate Prediction Using Simple Models. Project Summary: When modeling a complicated system such as climate, it is useful to use simple models to conduct parametric studies over a wide range of parameters to look for qualitative trends. This project will involve using matlab and simple climate models to conduct such studies. Topic: Correlating CO2 levels and global temperatures on geologic time scales. Project Summary: In the past 30 years, there has been a great deal of research published relating CO2 levels and global temperatures on geologic time scales. This project involves performing a detailed literature review on the topic, starting with summary papers, and then delving into specific stand-alone papers, with a goal of categorizing the papers by the methods used to determine CO2 levels and temperature, and quantifying (to the extent possible) the degree of certainty associated with the various methods. Of particular interest will be identifying papers which reach different conclusions with respect to the same time periods, attempting to determine how differences in methodology may have led to the differences, and determining which methodologies are currently deemed most reliable by the scientific community. This project may be of particular interest to students interested in thermodynamics and/or green energy.

3 Topic: Environmental impact of electric vehicles. Project Summary: Electric vehicles for transportation (e.g. Tesla automobiles) are growing in popularity, as alternatives to burning fossil fuels for transportation purposes are sought. There are many engineering issues which must be addressed, however, in assessing the overall environmental impact of using electric vehicles in their current state. In particular, it is important to assess how the electricity used is generated, the environmental impact of manufacturing the batteries used to store the electricity, and issues related to the safe disposal of batteries after they can no longer be used. This project will involve studying, through a literature review and parametric studies using a spreadsheet and/or matlab, the issues described above related to the environmental impact of electric vehicles, with the goal of helping to identify key areas that engineers should be focusing on to improve this technology. Topic: Wind Turbine Acoustics. Project Summary: With more and more wind farms being proposed, the issue of noise from wind turbines located near populated areas is becoming an issue. This project involves investigating the extent of the problem and possible ways to alleviate the problem. Topic: Methods for converting compressed air into electrical energy. Project Summary: This project involves investigating methods for converting compressed air into electrical energy. Topic: Dynamics and Applications of Tethered Aerostats (e.g. blimps,etc.). Project Summary: This project involves modeling and analysis of the dynamics of tethered aerostats used for surveillance, communication, and energy generation. Topic: Finite element modeling of the human spine and spinal fusion hardware. Project Summary: This project involves using Solidworks and ANSYS to create finite element models of the human spine for the purpose of evaluating different techniques for implanting spinal fusion hardware.

4 Topic: Image processing for flame base detection and recommendation for experiments in vitiated flames for clean combustors Faculty Adviser: Dr. Venkat Narayanaswamy ME or AE: ME Project summary: Flame base detection has been traditionally used for unraveling flame stabilization in turbulent combusting environment, which is a cause of concern as one moves to clean combustion technologies. The response of the flame base to local velocity and strain field provide immense information about the different stabilization/destabilization mechanisms that are active. While particle scattering data has been traditionally used for marking the flame base using "off-the-shelf" algorithms, such methods do not work well in vitiated flames where the density jumps in reaction zone does not allow for clear demarcation. The proposed thesis topic will address this issue by developing novel methods to trace the flame base locations from several particle laser scattering images that will be provided from experiments. The conditions range a wide span of temperature jumps and turbulence conditions resulting in challenging situations for flame base detection. Basic ideas of combustion and image processing will prove very useful for this thesis. Topic: Development of computational codes to predict the scramjet inlet/isolator flow with imposed heat release using control volume approaches Faculty Adviser: Dr. Venkat Narayanaswamy (venkat.narayan@ncsu.edu) ME or AE: AE Project summary: Supersonic ramjet (Scramjet) engines rely on compressing the incoming air to high pressures using an oblique shock train system in the inlet/isolator sections before entering the combustion chamber. The shock train however responds to the heat release and back pressure rise from combustion in non-trivial manner resulting in massive changes in flow structure and flow path in the inlet and isolator sections. Over the past few years, several control volume approaches have been developed to predict the isolator flow for a given heat release. In our lab, we have implemented these approaches to predict the isolator flow properties for a given back pressure until separation. The objective of the thesis is to extend the prediction capabilities to capture the separated flow within the isolator. Knowledge of basic numeric tools such as Runge Kutta methods will prove very useful for this thesis. Topic: Droplet generation in 3-D printing applications Summary: In this project, the student will survey the advances of droplet formation in 3-D printing processes. The survey will need to include the principles of droplet formation in paper printing and 3-D printing machines, as well as implementations of the droplet generation devices in 3-D printing manufacturing. Topic: Liquid metal droplet formation and impact on various surfaces Summary: 3-D printing has proved an effective tool for manufacturing parts with very complicated shapes. However, most of the 3-D printing tools are used for non-metallic materials. In order to produce metal parts with high complexity, capability to generate liquid metal droplets and deliver these droplets

5 in a proper manner is very important. In this project, the student will look at different options for generating liquid metal droplets as well as the interaction of these metal droplets with various surfaces during the impacting process. Topic: Advances in hybrid and electrical vehicles Summary: In this project, the student will survey the current status of the hybrid and electrical power systems for transportation applications. These systems can include internal combustion (IC) engine and battery hybrid system and pure electric system. Based on the literature survey, comparison among different systems will be performed in terms of energy use and environmental impact. Topic: Fuels for future combustion engines Summary: Due to limited fossil fuel supply, finding alternative fuels for combustion engines attracts much research interests. Meanwhile, application of new fuels requires further optimization of engine design. In this project, the student will look at different options for alternative fuels and their effects on engine performance. Based on the available data in the literature, cons and pros for each fuel can be compared and fuels for next generation internal combustion engines can be projected.