The Granular Lubricated Journal Bearing
C. Fred Higgs, Mechanical Engineering and Computer & Electrical Engineering
The intellectual merit of this undergraduate research experience is that the student will have a unique opportunity to participate in cutting-edge granular flow experiments. A “granular lubricated journal bearing” (GLJB) was developed in Professor Higgs lab. Instead of oil, this unique invention uses granular particles as the lubricant. The only problem is that while it operates at high-speeds and high-loads, the journal has yet to “fly”! A super talented undergraduate is needed to assist the PhD student in helping it to fly on top of the granular particles (i.e., “fluid”) during motion and then to analyze the motion and record the data using a high-speed video data acquisition tool. This work will involve experimental and computational work and will be very exciting. The undergraduate student researcher will help the doctoral student in ensuring flight of the journal and developing data acquisition schemes for taking video data from the granular bearing. The method that will be employed is called “data particle tracking velocimetry” (DPTV).
Skills needed:
- Senior standing;
- Research honors status;
- Mechanical intuition and solid programming skills/experience
- Exposure to Mathematica or Matlab
Contact: Prof. C. Fred Higgs III (email: higgs@cmu.edu)
Higgs Lab: http://www.me.cmu.edu/faculty1/higgs
Ph.: 8-2486
Companies/Industries that have or are likely to approach professor for students to hire: NASA, Space industry, Proctor & Gamble, Department of Energy, JPL, Lockheed Martin
Internet References that provide extra knowledge:
http://www.me.cmu.edu/faculty1/higgs/granular.html
http://www.its.caltech.edu/~granflow/
http://www.mae.cornell.edu/index.cfm/page/res/fluids/particles.htm