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OU
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2006 Projects
On this page, you will find project descriptions
as well as links to either project websites or project presentations
prepared by some of the student teams.
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Investigation of
Flow through Intake Valves
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Students: Ashley Shoum, Bryan Journey and Joshua
Inouye
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Faculty: Dr. Brian Sangeorzan, Dr. Laila
Guessous
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Mentor: Dr. Alex Alkidas and Dr. Jan Gatowski
Intake valve design has a tremendous impact on
internal combustion engine performance. It has been observed that
increasing the diameter of a valve improves the flow through the valve up
to some limit; thereafter, the flow rate decreases presumably due to
interactions with the cylinder wall. Students working on this project will
experimentally and possibly numerically investigate the effect of valve
lift, as well as the effect of the proximity of the cylinder wall to the
valve on the discharge coefficient.
Final Powerpoint
Presentation
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Wear and
Scuffing of Engine Components
This research involves the areas of lubrication, friction and wear,
which is an area of particular concern to automobile companies. Students
working on this project will study the wear and scuffing resistance of
engine components, such as piston skirts, piston rings and cylinder bores.
Students might also investigate the effect of surface coatings, surface
finishes, and lubrication conditions on wear and scuffing. Most of the
tests will be conducted at the Material Test Lab of GM powertrain.
Students will have opportunity to use other facilities at GM such as WYKO
and SEM as well.
Final Powerpoint Presentation
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Students: Stacey Bagg, Carolyn Brennan and
Joshua Inouye
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Faculty: Dr. Brian Sangeorzan and Dr. Laila
Guessous
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Mentor: Dr. Jan Gatowski and Dr. Bahram Khalighi
Higher heat transfer rates have been observed
experimentally in pulsating or reciprocating flows. Such flows occur in a
variety of problems including internal combustion engines and exhaust
systems and cover a wide range of engine RPM’s. More accurate predictions
of heat transfer rates and temperatures in the presence of an imposed
pulsation (frequency) are needed to improve the thermal and structural
modeling of automotive engine manifolds, exhaust systems and surrounding
components. Students working on this project will experimentally and
numerically investigate the thermal response of a thermocouple to imposed
flow oscillations.
Final Powerpoint Presentation
Biodiesel is an alternative to
petroleum-based diesel fuel made from renewable resources such as
vegetable oils or animal fats. Students working on this project
will design and build a reprocessor to make biodiesel. This includes
sizing and ordering storage tanks for the vegetable oil and methanol,
tubing, fittings and connections, sizing of appropriate pump(s), designing
a high-temperature cut-off system, drainage system for the glycerin, etc.
The system should be mounted on a base as compactly ass possible and the
system must have an appealing aesthetic look to it.
Final
Powerpoint Presentation
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Investigation of the
Flow Field Design of the Bipolar Plate on the Performance of the PEM Fuel
Cell
The fuel cell is an
electrochemical device that converts the chemical energy of a fuel
directly into electricity. The Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) fuel cell is
a low temperature fuel cell, which uses hydrogen as the fuel and either
oxygen or air as the oxidant. The PEM fuel cell is favored in the
automotive industry and for stationary power applications due to its high
power density, low pollutants emission and low operating temperature.
The heart of a PEM fuel
cell is the MEA (Membrane Electrode Assembly) which includes an ion
conducting polymer membrane and the catalyst and gas diffusion layers on
both the anode and cathode sides, respectively. The MEA is sandwiched
between two bipolar plates on which flow channels are designed to deliver
the fuel and oxidant to ensure the steady operation of the fuel cell.
The purpose of this
project is to investigate how the various flow patterns on the bipolar
plates affect the performance of the PEM fuel cell. Three 5 W PEM fuel
cells will be assembled and tested in the OU lab. Each cell should have a
different bipolar plate flow pattern. The experimental results will be
verified using numerical simulations.
Final Powerpoint
Presentation
Results of Trevor's work have been presented at
11th
Annual
Michigan Space Grant Consortium Conference and at the 2006 Sigma Xi Student
Research Conference.
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