Mechanical Engineering - Research Publications

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    Experimental investigation of boundary layer transition in flow past a bluff body
    Deshpande, R ; Desai, A ; Kanti, V ; Mittal, S ; Tso, CP (Institute of Physics (IoP), 2017-01-01)
    We explore the phenomenon of drag crisis observed for the flow over bluff bodies at high Reynolds numbers. The drag coefficient reduces significantly beyond a certain Re due to the transition of the boundary layer from laminar to turbulent state. Flow past a smooth sphere and a circular cylinder is experimentally investigated for 1.0 × 105 ≤ Re ≤ 5.0 × 105 via unsteady force, surface-pressure and 2-D Particle Image Velocimetry(PIV) measurements. In case of a smooth sphere, the drag crisis is observed for Re > 3.3 × 105. The unsteady force measurements reveal that the fluctuations in the force coefficients initially increase with Re in the high subcritical regime and then experience a steep fall in the critical regime. It is found from the PIV measurements that the normal Reynolds stresses in the separated shear layer from the sphere are one order lower in magnitude for the supercritical regime in comparison to the subcritical regime. In the case of flow past a smooth circular cylinder, a two-stage drag crisis is captured using surface-pressure measurements where the boundary layer over one side of the cylinder undergoes transition around Re = 3.9 × 105 and that over the second side transitions around Re = 4.8 × 105. The transition is accompanied with increased fluctuations in the surface-pressure coefficients near the shoulders of the cylinder.
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    Effects of Prophylactic Knee Bracing on Lower Limb Kinematics, Kinetics, and Energetics During Double-Leg Drop Landing at 2 Heights
    Ewing, KA ; Begg, RK ; Galea, MP ; Lee, PVS (SAGE PUBLICATIONS INC, 2016-07)
    BACKGROUND: Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries commonly occur during landing maneuvers. Prophylactic knee braces were introduced to reduce the risk of ACL injuries, but their effectiveness is debated. HYPOTHESES: We hypothesized that bracing would improve biomechanical factors previously related to the risk of ACL injuries, such as increased hip and knee flexion angles at initial contact and at peak vertical ground-reaction force (GRF), increased ankle plantar flexion angles at initial contact, decreased peak GRFs, and decreased peak knee extension moment. We also hypothesized that bracing would increase the negative power and work of the hip joint and would decrease the negative power and work of the knee and ankle joints. STUDY DESIGN: Controlled laboratory study. METHODS: Three-dimensional motion and force plate data were collected from 8 female and 7 male recreational athletes performing double-leg drop landings from 0.30 m and 0.60 m with and without a prophylactic knee brace. GRFs, joint angles, moments, power, and work were calculated for each athlete with and without a knee brace. RESULTS: Prophylactic knee bracing increased the hip flexion angle at peak GRF by 5.56° (P < .001), knee flexion angle at peak GRF by 4.75° (P = .001), and peak hip extension moment by 0.44 N·m/kg (P < .001). Bracing also increased the peak hip negative power by 4.89 W/kg (P = .002) and hip negative work by 0.14 J/kg (P = .001) but did not result in significant differences in the energetics of the knee and ankle. No differences in peak GRFs and peak knee extension moment were observed with bracing. CONCLUSION: The application of a prophylactic knee brace resulted in improvements in important biomechanical factors associated with the risk of ACL injuries. CLINICAL RELEVANCE: Prophylactic knee braces may help reduce the risk of noncontact knee injuries in recreational and professional athletes while playing sports. Further studies should investigate different types of prophylactic knee braces in conjunction with existing training interventions so that the sports medicine community can better assess the effectiveness of prophylactic knee bracing.
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    Prophylactic knee bracing alters lower-limb muscle forces during a double-leg drop landing
    Ewing, KA ; Fernandez, JW ; Begg, RK ; Galea, MP ; Lee, PVS (ELSEVIER SCI LTD, 2016-10-03)
    Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury can be a painful, debilitating and costly consequence of participating in sporting activities. Prophylactic knee bracing aims to reduce the number and severity of ACL injury, which commonly occurs during landing maneuvers and is more prevalent in female athletes, but a consensus on the effectiveness of prophylactic knee braces has not been established. The lower-limb muscles are believed to play an important role in stabilizing the knee joint. The purpose of this study was to investigate the changes in lower-limb muscle function with prophylactic knee bracing in male and female athletes during landing. Fifteen recreational athletes performed double-leg drop landing tasks from 0.30m and 0.60m with and without a prophylactic knee brace. Motion analysis data were used to create subject-specific musculoskeletal models in OpenSim. Static optimization was performed to calculate the lower-limb muscle forces. A linear mixed model determined that the hamstrings and vasti muscles produced significantly greater flexion and extension torques, respectively, and greater peak muscle forces with bracing. No differences in the timings of peak muscle forces were observed. These findings suggest that prophylactic knee bracing may help to provide stability to the knee joint by increasing the active stiffness of the hamstrings and vasti muscles later in the landing phase rather than by altering the timing of muscle forces. Further studies are necessary to quantify whether prophylactic knee bracing can reduce the load placed on the ACL during intense dynamic movements.
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    Effect Of Arm Deweighting Using End-Effector Based Robotic Devices On Muscle Activity.
    Fong, J ; Crocher, V ; Haddara, R ; Ackland, D ; Galea, M ; Tan, Y ; Oetomo, D (IEEE, 2018)
    Deweighting of the limb is commonly performed for patients with a neurological injury, such as stroke, as it allows these patients with limited muscle activity to perform movements. Deweighting has been implemented in exoskeletons and other multi-contact devices, but not on an end-effector based device with single contact point between the assisting robot and the human limb being assisted. This study inves-tigates the effects of deweighting using an end-effector based device on healthy subjects. The muscle activity of five subjects was measured in both static postures and dynamic movements. The results indicate a decrease in the activity of muscles which typically act against gravity - such as the anterior deltoid and the biceps brachii - but also suggest an increase in activity in muscles which act with gravity - such as the posterior deltoid and the lateral triceps. This can be explained by both the change in required muscle-generated torques and a conscious change in approach by the participants. These observations have implications for neurorehabilitation, particularly with respect to the muscle activation patterns which are trained through rehabilitation exercises.
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    Averaging for nonlinear systems on Riemannian manifolds
    Taringoo, F ; Nesic, D ; Tan, Y ; Dower, PM (IEEE, 2013)
    This paper provides a derivation of the averaging methods for nonlinear time-varying dynamical systems defined on Riemannian manifolds. We extend the results on ℝ n to Riemannian manifolds by employing the language of differential geometry.
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    Control oriented modeling of turbocharged (TC) spark ignition (SI) engine
    Sharma, R ; Nesic, D ; Manzie, C (SAE International, 2009-01-01)
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    Idle speed control using linear time varying model predictive control and discrete time approximations
    Sharma, R ; Nesic, D ; Manzie, C (IEEE, 2010-01-01)
    This paper addresses the problem of idle speed control of hydrogen fueled internal combustion engine (H2ICE) using model predictive control (MPC) and sampled data control (SDC) theories. In the first step, results from SDC theory and a version of MPC are collectively employed to obtain a rigorously developed new generic control strategy. Here, a controller, based on a family of approximate discrete time models, is designed within a previously proposed framework to have guaranteed practical asymptotic stability of the exact (unknown) discrete time model. Controller design, accomplished using MPC theory, is facilitated by successive online linearizations of the nonlinear discrete time model at each sampling instant. In the second step, the technique is implemented in the idle speed control of hydrogen internal combustion engine (H2ICE). Various conditions under which this theory can be implemented are presented and their validity for idle speed control problem are discussed. Simulations are presented to illustrate the effectiveness of the control scheme.
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    Real time model predictive idle speed control of ultra-lean burn engines: Experimental results
    Sharma, R ; Dennis, P ; Manzie, C ; Nešić, D ; Brear, MJ (IEEE, 2011-01-01)
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    Model Reduction of Automotive Engines using Perturbation Theory
    Sharma, R ; Nesic, D ; Manzie, C (IEEE, 2009-01-01)
    In this paper, a new constructive and versatile procedure to systematically reduce the order of control oriented engine models is presented. The technique is governed by the identification of time scale separation within the dynamics of various engine state variables and hence makes extensive use of the perturbation theory. On the basis of the dynamic characteristics and the geometry of engines, two methods for model reduction are proposed. Method 1 involves collective use of the regular and singular perturbation theories to eliminate temperature dynamics and approximate them with their quasi-steady state values, while Method 2 deals with the elimination of fast pressures. The result is a library of engine models which are associated with each other on a sound theoretical basis and simultaneously allow sufficient flexibility in terms of the reduced order modeling of a variety of engines. Different assumptions under which this model reduction is justified are presented and their implications are discussed.
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