Mechanical Engineering

The study focused on the design of an acoustic enclosure for 12.5 kVA diesel generator with an objective to minimize the noise level to a moderately loud sound level. Factors which affect noise reduction and heat management were considered. The study revealed that the loss in transmitted sound amounted to 20dB from the initial 95dB without an enclosure, with the insertion loss being 48.6%. The analysis of the transfer of the sound wave revealed that the frequency of the incident wave was lower than the critical frequency of the enclosure, this signifies that the enclosure will not resonate during operation. The heat generated within enclosure is 19280.806kW and this will cause the maximum temperature of the cylinder head to be exceeded. To avert this, acoustic holes where designed to allow a mass flow rate of 0.57kg/sec of air to pass through the enclosure, conducting the excess heat away.

The study aimed at designing an efficient low cost poultry feather plucker with the main objective of ensuring that the machine improves the hygiene, food safety and defeathering processes in poultry meat production. The machine is made up of four main parts viz: the frame, prime mover, plucker drum, and plucker fingers. The study reveals that for the aim to be realized, an electric motor of 0.5hp with 2300rpm is needed to transmit a torque of 1226.25Nmm through a mild steel shaft of 10mm diameter to a plucker drum of mass 2.5kg which has 24 polypropylene plucker fingers mounted on it. The study estimated the cost of producing the machine to be $98 and considers the design safe since the FoS of the drum has a minimum value of 8 and a maximum value of 56; shear strength of the drum falls below the shear stress of Aluminum

This work designs the rotor wind turbine, which uses more effectively for the wind energy and depends on the acting area of the vanes. The frame design consists of three movable vanes to reduce the negative torque of the frame that rotates contrary to the wind. The wind tunnel is used to measure the power coefficient, torque coefficient and angular velocity as a function of wind velocity. The power coefficient is measured experimentally to be equals to 18% and 21% for three and four frames, respectively. The rotor wind turbine is applicable internationally due to its high efficiency, simple construction, and simple technology.

A typical manufacturing plant has number of diverse activities interacting with each other. Facilities layout consists of the production areas and personnel areas within the building. Plant layout design is one of the strategic fields that determine the long run efficiency of operation. Facility Layout Problem involves the positioning of cells within a given area so as to minimize the material flow costs between cells. The Layout Design Problem is both tactically and strategically important since the layout plays a large role in determining the efficiency and flexibility of the manufacturing plant. Flexible Plant Layout algorithm is used to minimize the material handling cost and deal with the changes in future. In this project CRAFT (Computerized Relative Allocation of Facilities Technique) algorithm is used for designing of plant layout. CRAFT algorithm is one of the most developed and used algorithm for design or optimizing a facility layout which mainly emphasis on the material handling cost and the layout cost.

Press tool manufacturing is one of the widely emerging trends in production area. Basically sheet metal components are produced using press tools. In this work, Design and analysis procedure to develop bending press tool is discussed. The components manufactured using this process exhibits high dimensional accuracy therefore automobile and aircraft firm depend largely on press tools. The purpose of carrying out analysis is to prevent the costly tryouts and thus optimize the quality and rate of production.

In recent years, the food industries experts have drawn their attention toward using high frequency ultrasound waves in producing processes. The main part of these equipments is the ultrasonic probe which called sonotrode. The performance of ultrasonic equipments depends on properly design of sonotrode shape. In this study, four methods were used to design the ultrasonic probes for use in food and chemical industries. Two types of probes, namely, step type and cylindrical type were considered and the related calculations for the both types of probes were performed based on the four design methods. For both of the cylindrical and step type probes, the length of the designed probe was equal to half of the ultrasonic wavelength. Modal analysis of the models were determined by the numerical simulation using finite element method (FEM) design procedures. The results showed that although the probe material does not affect vibration amplitude, it can affect stress distribution along the probe. In the cylindrical type probe, the maximum stress raised in the middle part of probe, whilst in the step type probe, regardless of design probe, the maximum stress was occurred in the surface variation location. Based on the results, to design a probe, it should be noted that the maximum created stress in the probe must not exceed the yield stress of the selected material.

Traditional Rapid Prototyping (RP) is referred to as layered manufacturing free form fabrication. It is used for the physical modelling of a new product design directly from CAD data without the use of any special tooling or significant process engineering. This reduces the lead time required to produce a prototype of product. This paper is related to designing and manufacturing of modified bench vise on rapid prototyping machining process. We have designed the conventional and modified bench vise in Pro-e CAD software and manufactured it on Dimension 1200esRPT machine and analysis is carried out in ANSYS CAE software.

In order to manufacture any product at desired quality of machining, optimum parameters are to be selected for machining. The aim of the present work is to optimization of the process parameters (Cutting Speed, Feed, Depth of cut) for machining the Bearing cap having interrupted cuts. Computer Aided Mass Balancing (CAMB) methodology is used for determining the counterweight for rotary fixture. The performance characteristics are studied by using the orthogonal array, signal-to-noise ratio, and the ANOVA from Taguchi method for interrupted cuts of boring operation and effect of Cutting force for balanced and unbalanced rotary fixture.

The main purpose of this paper explore a method for determining the radial cutting forces during drilling and power spent on cutting, analytical way. Inspect and acquire the skills to work with reference books.which improved the tools efficiency .where not balanced radial components of the cutting forces ?fy, was found to specified the analytical dependences components of cutting forces. Calculations show that the vibrations of unbalanced force ?fy commensurate with magnitude fy radial component of the cutting force, and sometimes exceed this force.

The optimal tilt angle of solar photovoltaic panel in Ilorin, Nigeria was determined. The solar panel was first mounted at 0o to the horizontal and after ten minutes, the voltage and current generated with the corresponding atmospheric temperature were recorded. The same procedure was repeated for 2o to 30o at a succession of 2o at ten minutes time interval over the entire measurement period. The result obtained shows that the average optimal tilt angle at which a solar panel will be mounted for maximum power performance at fixed position in Ilorin is 22o. This optimum angle of tilt of the solar panel and the orientation are dependent on the month of the year and the location of the site of study.