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Department of Mechanical Engineering

REPRESENTATIVE LIST OF PAST PROJECTS

We have listed some of the projects that students have completed over the past years. The projects have been broadly classified into seven major groups. These are listed below with representative projects and their sponsors.

A large number of our projects have been sponsored by the local oil and gas industry and companies supporting the oil industry. These include large construction, well-logging and drilling companies, offshore structures, manufacturers of pumps and compressors. Some of these projects were related to oil and gas recovery, corrosion of equipment and enhancement of existing equipment.

Fall 97	PLANT LAYOUT ANALYSIS Reed Tool Co.
Spring 98	“O” RING TESTER FOR HOLES IN FLEXING DRILL COLLARS Schlumberger-Anadrill Co.
Spring 99	DESIGN A MULTI-CONDUCTOR SHEARING MECHANISM Baker Oil Tools
Spring 00	DESIGN A SLIP-ON SAND SCREEN SLEEVE ATTACHED BY A SHRINK FIT Weatherford, Inc.

Closely related to the above are the projects that deal with hydraulics, pipe and pressure vessel design and fluid mechanics. A number of these projects have also been sponsored by the oil industry. These include projects such as the design of a nozzle, flow loop, hydraulic actuator and the photography of high speed liquid jets.

Spring 97	CONCEPTUAL DESIGN OF A BLOWOUT FLOW RATE METER Wild Well Control
Fall 97	DESIGN PIPE INSULATION AND CLAMPING FORCES Piping Technology & Prod. Co.
Spring 99	DESIGN A TRIPLE PASSAGE ROTO-COUPLING Warner Electric Co.
Spring 00	DESIGN A REUSABLE LOAD CELL ON AN 18-3/4” COLLET CONNECTOR Cameron, Inc
Fall 01	TORQUE WRENCH REDESIGN Schlumberger

One of the problems faced in oil well drilling, is to achieve proper sealing, or to provide seals under a variety of conditions. A number of local companies are involved in the design and manufacture of seals and packer elements for oil and gas well drilling equipment. Our students have completed a large number of projects in this area.

Fall 90	DESIGN OF A METAL SEAL STANDARD PISTON Camco
Fall 92	LM5000 TURBINE GENERATOR EXHAUST COLLECTOR SEALS Stewart and Stevenson
Fall 93	IMPROVE THE MECHANICAL EFFICIENCY OF AN EXPANDING-SEAL VALVE Daniel Valve Company
Fall 01	ROTARY SEAL BREAKOUT TORQUE MEASUREMENT TEST DEVICE Kalsi Engineering, Inc.

Over the years we have also carried out projects dealing with health, medicine and environmental issues. Some of these have been in the form of aids for the physically handicapped. Others have dealt with the modelling of certain processes in the human body such as that of shoulder dystocia or the computer simulation of oxygen transport in arterioles and venules.

Spring 92	DESIGN OF A PATIENT LIFTING DEVICE M. D. Anderson Cancer Center
Fall 93	ACTUATED DOWNHOLE DRILLING TOOLS Dailey Petroleum Corporation
Spring 97	IMPROVE ACCURACY OF A LASER SPACE FRAME ANALYZER Baylor College of Medicine
Fall 01	STEREO PHOTO BINOCULAR INDIRECT OPHTHALMOSCOPE UH College of Optometry
Fall 03	DRESSING STATION FOR BI-LATERAL AMPUTEE Texas Institute for Rehabilitation and Research

A large number of our projects have been sponsored by the Publishing Industry. These have ranged from the design of new equipment to solving problems in handling large quantities of paper in a press. Some of the projects in this classification along with some projects in the oil and gas industry category could form a separate group of projects dealing with the design of material (paper and petroleum products) handling equipment.

Fall 92	DYNAMIC FORCE ANALYSIS OF A SCISSORS LIFT Houston Chronicle
Spring 93	PRELIMINARY DESIGN OF A PLATE SORTER Houston Chronicle

Some of the projects have been sponsored by NASA-JSC for designing equipment related to space exploration.

Spring 97	REDUCED GRAVITY EVALUATION OF DAMAGE DETECTION, KS-135 JSC-NASA
Fall 97	DEVELOPMENT OF A COMPUTERIZED VIBRATION TEST SYSTEM Dynamics & Controls Lab.
Spring 98	STREAMLINING VIBRATION TESTS FOR RAPID DAMAGE DETECTION STUDIES Dynamics & Controls Lab.
Spring 99	CONCEPTUAL DESIGN OF A MARTIAN POWER GENERATING SYSTEM COMBINING WIND AND SOLAR ENERGY Texas Space Grant Consortium
Fall 02	VOLTAGE REGUALTION SYSTEM FOR SAFER BATTERY JSC-NASA
Fall 02	EMERGENCY PYROTECHNIC CUTTER JSC-NASA
Spring 03	PREPARTATION OF CARBON NANOTUBES JSC-NASA
Spring 03	RE-ENGINEERING OF A COMMERCIAL BORESCOPE FOR SPACE APPLICATIONS JSC-NASA

The research efforts at the Systems Design Laboratory have always enjoyed a strong collaboration with the students and faculty working in the areas of thermodynamics and heat transfer and materials science and engineering in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. Students interested in these areas have had the opportunity to work on projects involving the design of equipment such as heat exchangers, solar radiators and cold traps.

Spring 97	DETERMINATION OF TEMPERATURE DISTRIBUTION IN THE AIR POLLUTION CONTROL SYSTEM OF A WASTE-TO-ENERGY POWER PLANT American Ref-fuel
Fall 97	DESIGN OF A LOW RATE CHEMICAL MIXING FACILITY Champion Technologies, Inc.
Spring 99	DESIGN AND CONSTRUCT A PROTOTYPE OF A HAND HELD THERMAL RADIOMETER Kaldair, Inc.

Many of the projects have been computer applications in the area of engineering analysis and design. In this category, students have developed computer tools to aid the engineer. This has also included expert systems and the solution of problems in CAD and CAM.

Fall 93	DEVELOP AN OIL AND GAS WELL CASING DESIGN PROGRAM Antelope Engineering, Inc.
Fall 93	COMPUTER-AIDED STRESS ANALYSIS OF HAMMERDRILL THREADED CONNECTIONS Sandvik Rock Tools Inc.
Spring 97	SMALL PROJECT EXECUTION METHODOLOGY FOR WINDOWS Bechtel
Spring 99	PROCESS CONTROL FUNCTIONS LIBRARY IN C LANGUAGE SOURCE CODE Dresser- Rand Corp

Due to the large number and diverse variety of projects run during the past, it is not possible to list every project in each classification. Nor is it possible to put every project in a different group. There are a number of projects that do not fall into any of the above categories, but which are sufficiently unique to merit mention. These are listed below in a final category that is a general listing of projects.

Spring 94	DESIGN AND ANALYSIS OF THE DEFORMATION OF 80% DENSE POWDER STEEL GEOMETRIC SHAPES IN A BED OF GRAPHITE NEAR 1900°F AND UNDER 68 KPSI Reed Tool Company
Spring 97	PUMP STARTING TORQUE National Oilwell
Fall 97	DESIGN OF AN INDOOR PORTABLE TANK MAINTENANCE FACILITY AKZO NOBLE Chemical Co.
Spring 98	MINIATURIZE GENERATOR/TRANSFER SWITCH UNIT Reds Manufacturing Co.
Spring 00	DESIGN FACILITIES, SYSTEMS AND CONTROLS FOR AN ION BEAM LITHOGRAPHY UNIT Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Spring 03	DEVELOPMENT OF A TRANSPORTATION SYNCHRONIZATION DECISION-MAKING TOOL Academy

Mechanical Engineering