Mia Carrola
Institute: Texas A&M University
TAMU Mentor: Dr. Amir Asadi
Graduate Student Mentor: Shadi Shariatnia & James Smith
Research Project: Cellulose Nanocrystal-Bonded Carbon Nanotubes/Polymer Filaments: Creating Ultra-Strong 3D Printed Parts with Multifunctionality
Description:
Despite recent advances in 3D printing of polymer materials, the resulting printed parts have poor mechanical properties and are subject to many defects, including voids and insufficient adhesion between adjacent printed layers. These parts require an improvement in their strength and quality before additive manufacturing can be utilized as a widespread, low-cost manufacturing process across multiple industries. In order to enhance the strength, stiffness, electrical and thermal conductivities of printed parts, nanomaterials, specifically multiwall carbon nanotubes (CNT) and cellulose nanocrystals (CNC), will be added to acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) polymers to create multifunctional filaments for printed parts. The goal of this research project is to improve the overall strength, specifically in the out-of-plane direction, of products that are created using the Fused Filament Fusion (FFF) method of additive manufacturing. In addition, properties such as stiffness, electrical conductivity, and thermal conductivity are expected to be improved as well. If these project goals are achieved, the research that has been done over the summer will contribute a scalable manufacturing method to create parts with multifunctionality that can be processed at a relatively low cost by a wide variety of manufacturing sectors. Fields that could utilize this method of creating polymer composite filaments includes the military and Department of Defense, the aerospace industry, and the automotive industry to create strong and complex parts for low cost.
Naomi Wang
Institute: Kent State University
Research Project: Security Issues and Challenges in Cybermanufacturing: A Systematic Review
TAMU Mentor: Dr. Bimal Nepal
Graduate Student Mentor: Krutarth Mehta
Description:
This research will investigate cybersecurity issues and challenges at each stage of manufacturing. First, we will conduct a comprehensive review of recently published articles in cybersecurity with a special focus on manufacturing. Specifically, it will study the different methods of cybersecurity in the organization, information technology system, manufacturing facility, people, finance, artifacts, and intellectual property associated with cybermanufacturing to obtain a comprehensive understanding of cybersecurity implementation and best practices throughout the cybermanufacturing process. Based on the review, a comprehensive list of security threats will be developed. Next, we compare and contrast those risks with the cybersecurity risks in other industrial sectors such as banking, healthcare, and transportation. It will investigate the current, most commonly used and upcoming recommended best practices, as well as the effectiveness of each of these practices. Lastly, based on the literature review, risk mitigation for cybermanufacturing framework will be presented.
Spencer Gautreaux
Institute: Texas A&M University
TAMU Mentor: Dr. Shiren Wang
Graduate Student Mentor: Ruochen Liu
Research Project: 3D Printing Continuous Fiber-Reinforced Thermoset using 5-Axis Robot Arm
Description:
Daniel Yoon
Institute: Missouri S&T University
TAMU Mentor: Dr. Satish Bukkapatnam
Graduate Student Mentor: Aditya Yalamanchili & Ashif Iquebal
Research Project: Synthesis and Characterization of Magnetic Fluids for Localized Polishing of Free-Form Surfaces
Description:
In recent years, manufacturing systems including additive manufacturing and extrusion processes, have fabricated unique and complex parts. Many built parts are used in the aerospace and biomedical industries, including impeller blades and hip implants respectively. A major concern for these parts is their surface polishing abilities due to small inaccessible areas and overall surface polish quality. Recent research groups found magnetic fluids, a suspension of magnetic particles in a liquid solution, a potential solution for its ability to take any shape and fit through small areas inaccessible through conventional hands-on or machining equipment. In a previous colleague’s unpublished work, the synthesized magnetic liquid mixtures and testing methods have already been developed and will be used for this study. The focus will be on resynthesizing and characterization of the same magnetic fluids. The synthesis process will be repeated several times at various concentrations to determine and verify ideal mixtures and repeatability from person to person. The characterization process will go through the same tests: Viscosity test, downforce test, and an observation test as an overall quantitative and qualitative analysis. Once characterized, the magnetic fluid will be tested via a magnetic field to determine surface polishing feasibility on an arbitrary part. The end goal is to have an ideal magnetic fluid as an all-purpose abrasive tool on localized freeform surface polishing for any part.
Matthew Stahr
Institute: Texas A&M University
TAMU Mentor: Dr. Prabhakar Pagilla
Graduate Student Mentor: O. Cobos Torres
Research Project: Characterization of Nanoimprinting Process with Various Micro-Gravure Rollers
Description:
The goal of this project is to characterize the behavior of the nano-gravure coating thickness for various machine conditions, such as web transport velocity, web tension, curing temperature, and micro-gravure roller design. For this, a nanoimprinting process module that allows to change the mentioned parameters and a thickness measurement device are required. This research will provide a better understanding of how the variation of a certain parameter impacts on the coating quality and may be used to develop more accurate controller of the film thickness, which will help move the industry closer to being able to mass produce technologies such as flexible printed circuit boards (FPCB), dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSC), supercapacitors (SC), and transparent conducting films (TCF).
Natalie Burks
Institute: Texas A&M University
TAMU Mentor: Dr. Dinakar Sagapuram
Graduate Student Mentor: Parth Dave
Research Project: Piezoelectric Sensors for High-Frequency Force Sensing
Description:
Sensors that are currently being used on CNC machines to measure the forces between the tool and the material being shaped are limited in terms of the frequency bandwidth. The goal of this research projects is to demonstrate that the Piezoelectric sensors can accurately measure forces at a higher frequency compared to the sensors used in the industry currently.
Joseph Leimer
Institute: University of Missouri
TAMU Mentor: Dr. Sreeram Vaddiraju
Graduate Student Mentor: Narij Vidwans
Research Project: Synthesis of Branched Zinc Phosphide Nanowires for Mass Production
Description:
Zinc phosphide nanowires have been shown to possess many ideal properties for use as a photovoltaic material or water purifying device. These properties would be enhanced by increasing the surface area through branching. A method was developed that reliably produced base zinc phosphide nanowires using a hot-walled chemical vapor deposition chamber to deposit phosphorous onto zinc foil. These nanowires were then seeded with tin nanoparticles using drop casting. Upon seeding the nanowires were then placed back into the CVD chamber and reacted again with zinc and phosphorous to form branches at 90 degrees.
Chukwubuikem Ewelike
Institute: Texas A&M University
TAMU Mentor: Dr. Xingyong Song
Graduate Student Mentor: Dongzuo Tian
Research Project: Dynamics Modeling and Control of a Lab-Scale Simulator for Autonomous Down-hole Robotic
Description:
Down-hole drilling is a necessary part of the oil and gas industry. It is used for reservoir exploration. Technological advancements in this field drive the “Shale Revolution”, which enabled the US to significantly increase its oil and gas productions. The basic down-hole drilling rig is setup by having a drive system at the surface. This drives a drill bit attached to a flexible pipe string, down thousands of feet into the earth. This allows for directional drilling and wellbore creation. Automating this process for state-of-the-art directional drilling allows for precision drilling. This is necessary when drilling in tight oil formations. The Controls and Mechatronics laboratory is researching to develop a robotic system with an advanced closed-loop control interface capable of autonomous downhole drilling.
Carter Mitchell
Institute: Texas A&M University
TAMU Mentor: Dr. ChaBum Lee
Graduate Student Mentor: JaeMin Han
Research Project: Self-Calibration Algorithm for Training a Displacement Sensor Based on an Artificial Neural Network Model
Description:
This research project will aim to alleviate the tedious task of calibrating displacement sensors in the laboratory. In order to do so, an Artificial Neural Network will be trained to calculate the millivolts per micrometer that a sensor reads when solely given the conditions that the sensor will be used in. Data collection is taking place in which the sensor is calibrated in many different conditions, including a variety of temperatures, humidities, sensing various surfaces, etc. Statistical regression is then done to give the displacement value of that occasion along with an R^2 value for accuracy of fit. This data will be used to train the ANN to be able to predict such values without excessive work on part of a user. The goal of this endeavor is to encourage the technological advancement of the everyday worker and allow machines to do work that humans no longer need to do.
Michael Ecker-Randolph
Institute: West Virginia University
TAMU Mentor: Dr. Matt Pharr
Graduate Student Mentor: Seunghyun Lee
Research Project: Adding Defects to Lightweight Elastomers to Increase Toughness
Description:
Elastomers are used for a wide range of applications such as flexible electronics and artificial muscles. For either instance, strength, as well as resistance to fracture, is of utmost importance. As such, this research implements defects into a lightweight, highly stretchable, silicone-based elastomer (Smooth-On Ecoflex 00-30) in order to improve its tensile toughness. Elastomers with these defects produce greater strengths during tensile testing. Additionally, upon introduction of a precut, we examined the effects of increasing the size (of geometric patterns) and density (of ethyl-induced bubbles) of the defects through uniaxial tensile testing. Testing demonstrated that by increasing the size of diamond-shaped geometric defects and increasing the concentration of the ethyl in the solution of the Ecoflex (leading to higher bubble content) both produced increases in toughness. Overall, the introduction of defects (of varying size and concentration) improved mechanical properties relative to the pure form of this silicone-based elastomer. Future research can be done to find the optimal geometry and size of the defects as well as different liquids that could be added into the solution to strengthen the Ecoflex and other silicone-based elastomers.
