Oil Jet Cooling Simulation: Week Four

This was indeed a very packed and exciting week filled with analysis, meetings, presentations, and vehicle test-driving. Monday and Tuesday were spent doing data analysis on the 7.35 and 3.64 m/s cases. Additionally, we were preparing for our presentation on Wednesday. After said presentation on Wednesday, Morgan and I met with Dr. Guessous and Sangeorzan to discuss the results of our project as well as its future direction. We want to be able to characterize the thickness of the impingement area and relate it to the radial velocity gradient with respect to increasing height (as the stream gets closer to the plate). For the 3.64 m/s inlet velocity case, we calculated the mass and volume flow rates of the streams coming down and compared it to that of Gary Liu's experimental data with great accuracy. In the process of this calculation we found the average velocities and area of the streams as a total amount. Next week, one of the things we will be doing is looking at the individual area and velocities of each stream at givens points.

As I briefly mentioned earlier, there was a lot of out-of-lab activities going on. We had a presentation given by Dr. David Wagner on light weight vehicle materials. He gave us the lowdown of material properties in vehicle structures and what goes into making decisions about what materials will comprise a new model vehicle. On Friday we went to Chrysler's wind tunnel. This was an awesome experience in which we got to see how engineers in industry do aerodynamic testing on their vehicles. Furthermore, we were able to explore Chrysler's state-of-the-art wind tunnel circuit and learn about the subtleties involved in making a good wind tunnel. To cap off the week, we went to the Young Automotive Professionals Conference at GM's Proving Grounds. In the morning we had the privilege of hearing from the industry's leading developers automotive world. It was quite interesting to see how technology is and will drastically shape the world we live in. From automated driving to vehicle cyber security to vehicle ride-sharing, it was all intriguing material. For example, one of the things they talked about was a newly developed program called Maven, an urban ride-sharing smart phone app that would allow people to seamlessly rent a vehicle from a lot for a couple of hours, or even a weekend. This would drastically reduce city parking lot congestion as well as parking permits, which in many cities can be up to $400-500 a month.

Below are some images of our analysis that we displayed in our presentation.