Tag: Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics

I obtained my Bachelor of Engineering degree in Mechanical Engineering from University of Pune in 2013.I started my graduate studies at Michigan Technological University in Fall 2015. During my master’s degree program, I joined Dr. Youngchul Ra’s research lab (Reacting Flows and Fuel Research Lab) at Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics department and started my Ph.D. program in January 2017. The focal point of my research is to use in-house computational fluid dynamics tool to numerically develop a novel six-stroke gasoline compression ignition (6S-GCI) engine cycle to improve fuel consumption, reduce emissions, extend the operating range of conventional four-stroke GCI, and stabilize the engine operation at low loads.

A high compression ratio engine with two intake/exhaust valves is used for this work. The first task completed focused on understanding the impact of valve opening/closing timings on the overall combustion behavior in 6S-GCI engine. It successfully demonstrated that the 6S-GCI cycle improves fuel consumption compared to corresponding four-stroke operation. An important finding is that both kinetically-controlled mode (KCM) and mixing-controlled mode (MCM) of combustion could be achieved in the second power stroke maintaining low soot levels. Next, attention was paid to understand the underlying physics of combustion regime change (KCM/MCM). To achieve this, the impact of the variation of split ratio (ratio in which total fuel was divided amongst both the power stokes), fuel injection timings, intake temperature, boost pressure, EGR ratio, and injection pressure on overall combustion and emissions performance was analyzed. Finally, the effects of injector configuration and piston bowl geometry characteristics on fuel oxidation rates and formation and oxidation rates of emissions were analyzed. The work completed thus far helps not only to gain an understanding of the mechanism of enhancement of combustion phasing controllability, stabilizing of engine operation at low engine loads, and improvement of combustion efficiency, but also in planning new experiments, and in designing new engines.

I would like to sincerely thank the Graduate Dean Awards Advisory Panel for providing me with the Finishing Fellowship award. This will allow me to focus on defending my dissertation in summer 2021.

I am a PhD candidate in the mechanical engineering – engineering mechanics program. I have been fortunate during my graduate studies to have served as a graduate teaching assistant for the SAE AutoDrive Challenge, working with an interdisciplinary team of graduate and undergraduate students on the development of an autonomous vehicle. Work with this competition has afforded me the use of an autonomous Chevrolet Bolt as a platform to perform research activities relevant to my dissertation. My research has focused on path planning and control of autonomous vehicles performing obstacle avoidance on low friction surfaces, an area that is essential for widespread adoption of autonomous vehicle technology. I have developed vehicle steering controls which react to un-detected ice on the road, allowing a vehicle to maintain control when traction is lost. I have also worked on optimal paths for obstacle avoidance when the friction surface is known. Finally, I have worked on stochastic methods for representing friction surfaces in simulation which improve correlation between a simulated vehicle model and hardware test platforms. 

I would like to thank my co-advisors, Dr. Darrell Robinette and Dr. Jeremy P. Bos for their support and guidance during my pursuit of the PhD. I would also like the thank the Dean Awards Advisory Panel and the graduate school for awarding me the finishing fellowship. This award will allow me to focus my efforts on completing my dissertation document and preparing for my defense in the Summer of 2021.

I joined Michigan Tech in Fall 2015 as a master’s student after receiving my B.S. in automobile engineering from Tongji University, Shanghai in Summer. After I got my degree in Spring 2017, Dr. Ezra Bar-Ziv offered me the opportunity to pursue a Ph.D. 

Solid waste generation is increasing around the world, and most of these wastes were landfilled since they are not feasible for recycling for various reasons. With the guidance of Dr. Bar-Ziv, my research focuses on the fundamental studies of waste valorization through thermal treatment. I have investigated the thermal degradation of paper wastes, plastic waste, and eliminating hazardous materials from the wastes. Currently, I am devoting myself to explore the synergistic effects between paper and plastic wastes. The studies would help design the process parameters for the thermal treatment of wastes and provide alternatives to landfills. It would help achieve the circular economy

I am grateful to Michigan Tech’s grad school for the financial support through the finishing fellowship. This would help me focus on completing my degree.

I am Zhihao, a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics. In Fall 2016, I decided to come to Michigan Tech as a master’s student but transferred to a Ph.D. student after my first semester. At the same time, I joined Dr. Seong-Young Lee’s group for spray and combustion studies during the past four years. I am also a Research Assistant of Combustion Science Exploration Lab (CSEL) Group especially in Alternative Energy Research Building (AERB). My research mainly focuses on Laser-Based combustion diagnostics, Spray-wall interactions, and Alternative fuel combustion characteristics. I have enjoyed my Ph.D. life at MTU and I hope I can continue my academic life after my graduation.

At last, I would like to thank the Graduate school for awarding me with the Doctoral finishing fellowship. Also, I would like to thank my advisor, Dr. Seong-Young Lee, for supporting me during the past four years.

I have joined Dr. Choi’s research group in Fall 2015 to pursue my PhD studies in Mechanical engineering. In my Ph.D. studies, I have worked on the development of an automated surface plasmon resonance imaging system to visualize dropwise condensation. Our developed microscope can measure the evolution of water film with the thickness as low as 1 Å at 10,000 frames per second. We have shown experimentally the existent of a monolayer thin film between distinct droplets during dropwise condensation for the first time. Our next step would be to understand the effect of this thin film in droplets (nuclei) growth and heat transfer from the surface. I would like to thank the Graduate School for financial support during the last stage of my research.

Mingyang Li
Mechanical Engineering- Engineering Mechanics

I am a Ph.D. candidate studying design for reliability in the Department of Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics. In Fall 2014, I came to Michigan Tech as a master student in Material Science and Engineering department, and Dr. Yu Wang was my advisor for the research regarding ferroelectric materials. I joined MEEM to pursue Ph.D. after finishing my master degree in 2016. Fortunately, I decided to work with Dr. Zequn Wang, and our research interests are mainly focused on reliability analysis, uncertainty quantification, and machine learning techniques. During the past three years, we have done lots of work for improving the efficiency and accuracy of reliability analysis, and deep learning methods have been integrated for dealing with the curse of dimensionality.

I am extremely grateful to the Graduate School for the award of Doctoral Finishing Fellowship, which ensures that I can fully devoted myself to my dissertation and complete my degree within next semester. I would like to thank the guidance from my master and Ph.D. advisors. I cannot achieve my goals without the massive support from them.

Sarah Jalal
Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics

I started my PhD in the Mechanical Engineering department in Fall 2015 with Dr. Fernando Ponta. My research focuses on the study of the aeroelastic behavior of variable speed stall controlled wind turbines to improve the overall efficiency of the next generation of such utility-scale machines.

I would like to thank the Graduate School for awarding me the Finishing Fellowship for the Spring 2020 semester. This fellowship will help me to focus on the final stage of my PhD to write my dissertation and complete publication manuscripts in a timely manner. I am grateful for all the support provided to me.