Week 4: Climate Change and Sustainability (AE, ME, ChE, & ISE)
Week 4: Climate Change and Sustainability (AE, ME, ChE, & ISE)
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Summary and explanation of Aerospace, Mechanical, Chemical, and Industrial Engineering
Summary and explanation of Aerospace, Mechanical, Chemical, and Industrial Engineering
Aerospace Engineering: Aerospace engineers create machines that fly, like airplanes or spacecraft. They design, develop, and test aircraft, spacecraft, and missiles and supervise the manufacture of these products. New technologies used in aviation, defense system, and space exploration are developed with a focus on structural design, guidance, navigation and control, and instrumentation and communication. They often use CAD and other software to aid in their design and run extensive simulations beforehand to ensure the functionality of large projects that can cost billions.
Mechanical Engineering: Mechanical engineers research, develop, design, manufacture, and test tools, engines, machines, and other mechanical devices. It is one of the broadest engineering fields, focusing not only on the design of machines but also on designing tools and managing production operations in agriculture or manufacturing. Mechanics, energy and heat, mathematics, engineering sciences, design and manufacturing form the foundation of mechanical engineering. As with chemical engineering, those interested should also take business and humanities classes to become well rounded.
Chemical Engineering: CE focuses on chemical processes to improve manufacturing capabilities. It is a field with a wide range as chemical engineers work in manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, healthcare, design and construction, pulp and paper, petrochemicals, food processing, specialty chemicals, polymers, biotechnology, and environmental health and safety industries, among others. Since it is such a diverse field with many possible applications, those interested are encouraged to take many electives to become well rounded.
Industrial Engineering: Industrial engineers determine the most effective ways to use the basic factors of production -- people, machines, materials, information, and energy -- to make a product or to provide a service. They are the bridge between management goals and operational performance. They do this by developing management control systems to aid in financial planning and cost analysis and design production planning and control systems to ensure product quality. They also design or improve systems for the physical distribution of goods and services.
Design Process
Design Process
Define the problem
Generate alternative solutions
Evaluate and select a solution
Detail the design
Defend the design
Manufacture and test the design
Evaluate the performance of the design
Prepare the final design report
Rocket Activites
Straw rocket launchStraw Rocket
Straw Rocket
The Straw Rocket involved cutting a sheet of paper, trimming it to fit a straw, rolling it into a snug tube, and attaching fins and a cone for stability; it was launched by blowing through the straw to propel it.
Stomp rocket 2Stomp Rocket
Stomp Rocket
The Stomp Rocket was made by wrapping card stock paper around a PVC pipe to create a cylinder, attaching a cone at the top and fins at the bottom, then placing the rocket on a launcher attached to a bottle, which we jump on to launch the rocket by air pressure.
Foam Plane
Rubberband planeThe foam glider was modified by attaching a propeller at the front with a hook in the back to be powered by a wound up rubber band. A screw was added to the nose to change the center of gravity, which determines the balance of the plane and how it flies.
3 Stage Rocket Design
Using RockSim, we designed a three stage rocket capable of launching a three stage climate sensing device.
1 Stage Rocket Design
RockSim Design
RockSim Design
Using RockSim, we made a design that was stable before we built it so it was able to shoot straight up and self correct.
NASA Simulator.movRocket Modelor Simulation
Rocket Modelor Simulation
We used the rocket modulator interactive simulator to simulate our one stage rocket.
Final Rocket
Final Rocket
After many design iterations, this is the design we ended up at.
Rocket Launches
First LaunchFirst Launch
First Launch
This was our test launch. We discovered that our rocket was over stable, which led to a horizontal trajectory instead of a vertical one. The parachute did not deploy because there was not enough altitude.
Final Launch.MOVFinal Launch
Final Launch
On our only attempt for our final launch, our igniter was not working. Unfortunately, we never had another chance to relaunch with a different igniter.
Drone
DroneFlying.MOVDrone
Drone
Here our drone detects what color is present under it, changes its LED to that color, takes off, flys forward for one second, lands, it detects what color is under it, and finally it changes it LED to the new color that is present under it.
DroneCode.movPython Code
Python Code
This code enables our drone to detect various temperatures in the form of colors with its color sensor. Here are links to our training data and blockly code. We found that the drone has a hard time detecting colors when flying so it must land to detect colors accurately.
Research Papers
Discussion Questions
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