There have been many trials along the way for myself and my ragtag group of chemical engineers to get to where we are today. What we learned very quickly when we started out was that bureaucracy and shipping have to be taking into account when planning the group’s research schedule. There have been multiple instances when the project was delayed …

In order to run the engine test bed over long periods of time, the aged oil in the system must be exchanged for an upgrade. One of the tasks that our team accomplished this week was driving over to PepBoys and buying Shell Mysella Diesel oil. Even though our system runs primarily on natural gas, the difference between Diesel oil …

The UCI SAT II team is focused primarily on designing all the components and creating CAD models for all the components. During week 4 the teams where created, having a more structured composition than before. Team Leads are still being confirmed, a new attribute that the new members are learning is the use of trello. The team has also learned …

Since our testing finished last quarter, our focus has now shifted to analyzing our results and presenting them. For the first few weeks, we plotted the resulting G-force magnitudes for the various pressures and speeds of our water polo balls and calculated the average impact force for each pressure and speed. We also compared the average impact force experience with …

For the week of 4/12/15-4/18/15, the broken bolts from the engine’s damper were successfully removed so we proceeded with using the original fan belt system. The dimensions of the fan belt were estimated by the group with measuring tape and reassured with the owner’s manual to be a 50” Green V-belt. The belt was easily purchases at Pep boys for …

Though we have had the engine up and running for several weeks now, it is important that we keep the engine cool while operating for long periods of time. Determining a solution to our broken fan belt sheave became the top priority for the start of the quarter. There were three primary options for consideration with regard to the fan: …

Our team has learned a lot about the pros and cons of solar, wind, hydroelectric, and geothermal energy sources. We have analyzed different fuel cell types and energy storage methods as well. We are combining them to form the basis for a clean, renewable, and efficient data storage center that won’t be threatened by power grid issues or restricted on …

Onion processor is in the process of creating energy through fuel cell technology and onions. At first, one of the largest onion processors in the world disposed over one million pounds of onion waste every year. This process cost them about $400,000 every year. In addition to the high cost of disposal, the company also faced escalating electricity bills. The …

This past week, I finally finished creating the designs for the electrodes. Since my device relies on the phenomenon of dielectrophoresis (DEP), I designed electrodes that would produce a strong non-uniform electric field. Two designs were created to observe which would produce a better result. Each of the designs had different shaped electrode fingers, one was rectangular and the other …

Trello is up and running for the various teams. Trello is used to keep track of individual progress and to record how many hours were allocated onto a certain task. On the board there are five tabs: to do, in progress, finished, blocked, and not happening. The leaders of the project add new tasks which consist of the goal, priority …