ME Theses and Dissertations

Performance comparison of human and dummy models in various vehicle frontal crash scenarios based on federal regulatory standards

Sasikumar, Nitheesh (Wichita State University, 2016-07)

Significant advancements in enhancing passenger safety and vehicle structures have been made in the automotive industry to protect the occupants and to minimize the injuries during crash events. Variety of crash tests, ...

Development of response surface data on the head injury criteria associated with various aircraft and automotive head impact scenarios

Nallan Chakravarthy, Prasanna Vadanan (Wichita State University, 2016-07)

Safety of passengers in both automotive and aircraft is always looked upon for more advancement in providing better safety and minimizing the injuries/fatalities during crashes. Among the injuries which are incurred onto ...

Control of a passive dynamic compass gait walking robot using neural network central pattern generator

Park, Hyun Min (Wichita State University, 2016-08)

Important features in human walking are the passive dynamic nature of its gait and its rhythmic nature, generated from the Central Pattern Generator (CPG) in a human's spinal cord. The passive dynamic mechanism has been ...

Effects of carbon nanotubes geometrical configurations and concentrations on mechanical, thermal and dielectric properties of nanocomposites

Vijayan, Ravikumar (Wichita State University, 2016-05)

In the recent years research has been focused on improving the properties of the polymeric resins. The use of nanomaterial inclusions as reinforcement for better properties has been a key chapter in the field of polymeric ...

A methodology utilizing spatial kinematics principles with angular rate sensor and accelerometer data to evaluate ATD head and leg flail kinematics in experimental aerospace seat dynamic impact testing

Huculak, Robert D. (Wichita State University, 2016-05)

In dynamic aircraft crash testing, the head trajectory of an anthropomorphic test device (ATD) is typically recorded by photometric analysis from the high-speed video. While photometric analysis can provide useful data ...

Flow characteristics and wall shear stresses in bifurcated peripheral arteries

Gogineni, Aneesha (Wichita State University, 2015-12)

Peripheral artery disease (PAD) is further complicated by co-morbidities like diabetes, hypertension and anemia. Previous studies on coronary and carotid arteries indicate that bifurcation at the arteries has an effect in ...

Effects of graphene functionalization on mechanical properties of carbon fiber laminate composites

Shagor, Rifath Mahmud Rony (Wichita State University, 2015-12)

Graphene is a marvelous structure that has an incredible mechanical, electrical, and thermal properties. However, graphene fails to retain its outstanding properties during agglomeration due to its enormous specific surface ...

Computational modelling and analysis of crashworthiness of different anti-ram bollard designs in frontal truck collisions

Odapally, Bhuvija (Wichita State University, 2015-12)

Vehicles intruding into buildings have become a growing problem in today's world. Several types of bollards are introduced to safeguard the buildings from vehicle borne threats. Bollard (barrier/ perimeter) security systems ...

A comprehensive iterative design, simulation and finite element analysis of bare metal stent and diseased artery

KC, Duyandra Raj (Wichita State University, 2015-12)

Fatigue is a material failure due to cyclic forces acting upon said material. Fatigue can make the material fail before the stresses reach ultimate tensile strength or fracture strength. Intravascular coronary stent are ...

Investigating the regeneration behaviors of neuroglial cells on artificially made electrospun PCL scaffolds embedded with conductive nanomaterials

Srikanth, Madhulika (Wichita State University, 2015-05)

Nerve tissue damage produces a significant decrease in the quality of life and represents a considerable public health burden in the United States and in the world. Current treatment methods are mostly preventative and ...

Characterization of in-phase and out-of-phase vibration modes of secondary structures attached to a primary structure by experimentation and finite element analysis

Nedukanjirathingal, Santhosh Kumar (Wichita State University, 2015-05)

Ground vibration testing (GVT), is one of the most critical testing procedures for airplane certification. With proper GVT, analysts can determine the stiffness distribution, natural frequencies, mode shapes, and structural ...

A computational study of the dynamic responses of a composite versus a metallic aircraft fuselage structure in vertical impact along with examination of inclusion of struts and injury prediction of occupants

Salunke, Pankaj (Wichita State University, 2015-07)

In recent years, the study on crashworthiness of aircraft fuselage section has been of great interest due to the increase in air travel and demand for occupant safety. The FAA conducted a series of drop tests on aircraft ...

Vertical impact simulations of a full-size and simplified scaled models of an aircraft fuselage section

Prasad, Vishal Krishna (Wichita State University, 2015-07)

Computer simulations of aircraft crashworthiness of aircraft using validated models have provided insight into the nature of the energy-absorption of structures and allow parametric studies in evaluation of different crash ...

Proton conductivity of graphene-based Nafion® catalyst layer for polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell

Khan, Aamer (Wichita State University, 2015-07)

Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cells (PEMFCs) are the most assuring alternative power sources for a clean energy/environmental future, however, performance needs to be improved for large-scale commercialization. One of ...

Nonlinear finite element modeling and analysis of tire debris impact on aircraft structural components

Thotakura, Dheeraj Chaitanya (Wichita State University, 2015-05)

The aim of this research is to develop a methodology which can be utilized to certify an aircraft for tire debris impact onto structural components and also to predict structural response by numerical simulation. After the ...

Optimal design of capillary-wick for high heat flux thermal management system

Tarafder, Kapot Kallol (Wichita State University, 2015-05)

A thermal management system for high heat flux is in great demand as the device sizes become smaller. A failure of the optimal thermal management leads to poor performance, large degradation, and/or complete system breakdown. ...

Computational modeling and analysis of a passenger car frontal impact per new FMVSS offset oblique and small overlap tests

Shrestha, Sagun (Wichita State University, 2015-05)

Crash tests play a vital role in the design and development of new vehicles to ensure customer safety. The results obtained from the test programs such as the ones from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration ...