Basic Considerations and Conceptual Design of a VSTOL Vehicle for Urban Transportation

On-demand air transport is an air-taxi service concept that should ideally use small, autonomous, Vertical Short Takeoff and Landing (VSTOL), “green”, battery-powered electric aircraft (eVSTOL). In addition, these aircraft should be competitive with modern helicopters, which are exceptionally reliable machines capable of the same task. For certification and economic purposes, mobile tilting parts should be avoided. The concept introduced in this paper simplifies the aircraft and makes it economical to build, certify and maintain. Four contrarotating propellers with eight electric motors are installed. During cruise, only two of the eight rotors available are not feathered and active. In the first step, a commercial, certified, jet-fueled APU and an available back-up battery are used. A second solution uses a CNG APU and the same back-up battery. Finally, the third solution has a high-density dual battery that is currently not available. A conceptual design is shown in this paper

Design Issues of Heavy Fuel APUs Derived from Automotive Turbochargers Part III: Combustor Design Improvement

Heavy fuel combustion problems with startup and operation may significantly reduce the microturbine efficiency in small APUs (Auxiliary Power Units). The use of commercial automotive-derived turbochargers solves the design problems of compressors and turbines but introduces large issues with combustors. The radial combustor proved to be the best design. Unfortunately, high-pressure injection is not practical for small units. For this reason, primary air and low-pressure fuel spray are heated and mixed. In any case, a high air swirl must achieve a satisfactory combustion efficiency. This swirl should be almost eliminated at the turbine intake. CFD analysis of the combustor design was, therefore, performed with several different geometries and design solutions. In the end, a large offset of the fresh pipe from the compressor proved to be the best solution for a high swirl in the combustion region. The combustion tends to eliminate the swirl, but an undesired tumble motion at the turbine intake takes place. To eliminate the tumble, two small fins were added to straighten the flow to the turbine

Electric Bike Product Conception and Styling According to Design Trends

The following case study portrays the several steps required to conceive a product from scratch. The first step involves an in-depth analysis of today’s electric bicycle market in order to obtain data and information relating to the levels of innovation and comfort required by customers. Then, we evaluate the implementation of a useful method to understand the level of innovation that the product must have to be competitive on the market. The second part studies the architecture of the product, considering the different components already sold on the market which will become part of the project. The third part concerns a comparison between different stylistic trends that the vehicle may have (in order to outline the best one). The fourth part concerns the CAD realization of the virtual model complete with all its parts, including a structural verification study of the frame. The last part studies the presentation of the product to the customer, exploring different effective ways to communicate what the strengths of the new product will be (also allowing them to customize it before its realization). The plan for the realization of the new product, starting from the concept to arrive at the final presentation to the customer, follows the methods proposed by applying a series of steps to develop a generic new product in an efficient, sensible, and methodical manner. Therefore, we will refer to quality function deployment (QFD), benchmarking (BM), design for X, until reaching the final prototyping and testing phases

Augmented reality applied to design for disassembly assessment for a volumetric pump with rotating cylinder

Design for Disassembly (DfD) and Augmented Reality (AR) have become promising approaches to improve sustainability, by providing efficient delivery and learning assets. This study combines DfD and AR to deliver a method that helps to streamline maintenance processes and operator training. It focuses on a common part in the process industry that requires frequent maintenance and repair. DfD was applied to the pump’s design to ease disassembly and reduce material waste, energy consumption, and maintenance time. AR was used to provide an interactive guide to improve the operator understanding of its internal parts and assembly/disassembly procedures. The resulting DfD-AR led to a reduction in maintenance time and shows potential to deliver better training. This highlights the potential of DfD and AR to enhance sustainability, learning, and productivity. The resulting disassembly sequence was taken to an AR simulation, helping process designers to better understand the procedure and further optimize the solution with other constraints

Representative volume element (Rve) analysis for mechanical characterization of fused deposition modeled components

Additive manufacturing processes have evolved considerably in the past years, growing into a wide range of products through the use of different materials depending on its application sectors. Nevertheless, the fused deposition modelling (FDM) technique has proven to be an eco-nomically feasible process turning additive manufacture technologies from consumer production into a mainstream manufacturing technique. Current advances in the finite element method (FEM) and the computer-aided engineering (CAE) technology are unable to study three-dimensional (3D) printed models, since the final result is highly dependent on processing and environment parame-ters. Because of that, an in-depth understanding of the printed geometrical mesostructure is needed to extend FEM applications. This study aims to generate a homogeneous structural element that accurately represents the behavior of FDM-processed materials, by means of a representative volume element (RVE). The homogenization summarizes the main mechanical characteristics of the actual 3D printed structure, opening new analysis and optimization procedures. Moreover, the linear RVE results can be used to further analyze the in-deep behavior of the FDM unit cell. Therefore, industries could perform a feasible engineering analysis of the final printed elements, allowing the FDM technology to become a mainstream, low-cost manufacturing process in the near future

Molds with advanced materials for carbon fiber manufacturing with 3d printing technology

Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) 3D printing is the most widespread technology in additive manufacturing worldwide that thanks to its low costs, finished component applications, and the production process of other parts. The need for lighter and higher-performance components has led to an increased usage of polymeric matrix composites in many fields ranging from automotive to aerospace. The molds used to manufacture these components are made with different technologies, depending on the number of pieces to be made. Usually, they are fiberglass molds with a thin layer of gelcoat to lower the surface roughness and obtain a smooth final surface of the component. Alternatively, they are made from metal, thus making a single carbon fiber prototype very expensive due to the mold build. Making the mold using FDM technology can be a smart solution to reduce costs, but due to the layer deposition process, the roughness is quite high. The surface can be improved by reducing the layer height, but it is still not possible to reach the same degree of surface finish of metallic or gelcoat molds without the use of fillers. Thermoplastic polymers, also used in the FDM process, are generally soluble in specific solvents. This aspect can be exploited to perform chemical smoothing of the external surface of a component. The combination of FDM and chemical smoothing can be a solution to produce low-cost molds with a very good surface finish

Disassembly sequence planning validated thru augmented reality for a speed reducer

The lifecycle of a product is getting shorter in today’s market realities. Latest developments in the industry are heading towards achieving products that are easy to recycle, by developing further technological advances in raw materials ought to include input from End of Life (EOL) products so a reduction of natural harm could be achieved, hence reducing the overall production environmental footprint. Therefore, the approach taken as a design for environment, a key request nowadays in order to develop products that would ease the reverse manufacturing process leading to a more efficient element recycling for later use as spare parts or remanufacturing. The methodology proposed compares three probable disassembly sequences following a comparison of literature-found procedures between genetic algorithms and as a “state space search” problem, followed by a hybrid approach developed by the authors. Time and evaluation of these procedures reached to the best performing sequence. A subsequent augmented reality disassembly simulation was performed with the top-scored operation sequence with which the user is better able to familiarize himself with the assembly than a traditional paper manual, therefore enlightening the feasibility of the top performing sequence in the real world

GD (Generative design) applied to a plastics recovery drone (PRD) using IDeS (industrial design structure)

The evolution of innovative and systematic design methodologies over time has widened the design concept involvement from the product development phase, which also includes the production and start-up phases. Literature findings have presented to accomplish a Generative Design (GD) approach through the application of an innovative method called Industrial Structure Design (IDeS), a systematic design method able to discover the customer’s needs and the fundamental technical solutions to obtain a good innovative product, involving the whole organization for this achievement. Nevertheless, there is a social demand for solutions to the dramatic and growing problem of marine pollution from plastic materials, encouraging the designers to conceive a new innovative drone for waste collection at sea. Therefore, this study aims to merge all the most advanced design technologies with IDeS in an integrated way, by generating a structure that can also be adopted to plan the organization of a production company. The approach is validated with the design of the Recovery Plastic Drone (RPD) obtained with the IDeS methodology, combining Design and Product development phases, leading to a better and innovative solution for the market

Lessons learned about co-creation: developing a complex intervention in rural Peru.

Background: Co-creation is the process of involving stakeholders in the development of interventions. Although co-creation is becoming more widespread, reports of the process and lessons learned are scarce.Objective: To describe the process and lessons learned from using the COHESION manual, a co-creation methodology to develop interventions aimed at the improvement of diagnosis and/or management of chronic diseases at the primary healthcare level in a low-resource setting in Peru.Methods: Observational study to describe the use of the COHESION manual 'Moving from Research to Interventions: The COHESION Model' developed for a multi-country project in low- and middle-income countries for co-creation and the adaptations needed to customize it to the local context of rural communities in northern Peru.Results: The actual process of co-creation in Peru included co-creation-related questions in the formative research; an initial consultation with stakeholders at the micro, meso, and macro levels (e.g. community members, health workers, and policy-makers); the analysis of the collected data; a second consultation with each stakeholder group; the prioritization of intervention options; and finally the design of a theory of change for all activities included in the complex intervention. The complex intervention included: 1) offer training in specific diseases and soft skills to health workers, 2) create radio programs that promote chronic disease prevention and management plus empower patients to ask questions during their visits to primary health care (PHC) facilities, and 3) provide a small grant to the PHC for infrastructure improvement. Small adaptations to the COHESION manual were necessary for this co-creation process.Conclusion: This study provides a practical example of the process of co-creating complex interventions to increase access and quality of health care in a low-resource setting. The process, components, challenges and opportunities identified could be useful for other researchers who want to co-create interventions with beneficiaries in similar settings

Glycation does not modify bovine serum albumin (BSA)-induced reduction of rat aortic relaxation: The response to glycated and nonglycated BSA is lost in metabolic syndrome

The effects of nonglycated bovine serum albumin (BSA) and advanced glycosylation end products of BSA (AGE-BSA) on vascular responses of control and metabolic syndrome (MS) rats characterized by hypertriglyceridemia, hypertension, hyperinsulinemia, and insulin resistance were studied. Albumin and in vitro prepared AGE-BSA have vascular effects; however, recent studies indicate that some effects of in vitro prepared AGEs are due to the conditions in which they were generated. We produced AGEs by incubating glucose with BSA for 60 days under sterile conditions in darkness and at 37°C. To develop MS rats, male Wistar animals were given 30% sucrose in drinking water since weanling. Six month old animals were used. Blood pressure, insulin, triglycerides, and serum albumin were increased in MS rats. Contraction of aortic rings elicited with norepinephrine was stronger. There were no effects of nonglycated BSA or AGE-BSA on contractions in control or MS rats; however, both groups responded to L-NAME, an inhibitor of nitric oxide synthesis. Arterial relaxation induced using acetylcholine was smaller in MS rats. Nonglycated BSA and AGE-BSA significantly diminished relaxation in a 35% in the control group but the decrease was similar when using nonglycated BSA and AGE-BSA. This decrease was not present in the MS rats and was not due to increased RAGEs or altered biochemical characteristics of BSA. In conclusion, both BSA and AGE-BSA inhibit vascular relaxation in control artic rings. In MS rats the effect is lost possibly due to alterations in endothelial cells that are a consequence of the illness