Date of Award

5-8-2023

Degree Type

Capstone Project

First Advisor

Bahram Nassersharif

Abstract

Materials must be hoisted and lowered into a 30 foot hollow test tube at Rhode Island Nuclear Science Center (RINSC) nuclear reactor. The materials will be experiencing high levels of gamma radiation. The task at hand is to design and redesign from last year's design concept a hoisting mechanism for test materials that will be experiencing high levels of gamma radiation.

To suit the needs of General Dynamics Electric Boat (GDEB), this hoisting and lowering system must be able to withstand ½ lb to 5 lbs of test materials in a bucket that will be lowered 30 feet down in a hollow test tube, have a factor of safety of 1.5, have a speed controller that can lower the test materials at a rate of greater than 1 foot per second, eliminate slippage on all pulleys that the hoisting line comes in contact with, and redesigning a clamping mechanism to the rails around the test pool at RINSC. These are the design requirements that the customer has presented the team to complete in the 2022-2023 academic year. By the process of design concepts, Pugh analysis, and QFD analysis, there are a total of one hundred twenty concept ideas that have been generated amongst the team (thirty for each team member). After careful consideration the team has narrowed down one hundred twenty concepts into three concepts that will be pursued. These concepts are as follows; upgrading the display feature into a 7” LCD screen, integrating knob screws as a method of clamping the device to the rails surrounding the pool, and implementing a two phase incremental encoder.

The process of communication between the team, the company sponsor, and the faculty advisor has aided the team in a detailed product design, location of certain parts, and dimension requirements of the design. A bill of materials was constructed to get the teams required parts, with a total expenditure of $500 so far with a budget total of $1500. In the spring semester, the sponsor would like for the team to complete the design with enough time to be able to test the product at the nuclear reactor at RINSC before the end of the spring semester. The team will continue to improve the design throughout the entirety of the spring semester while building the product and observing what process will work most efficiently for the product to be the best that can be presented to the customer.

Comments

Team Name: Team 9

Company Sponsor: General Dynamics Electric Boat

Sponsor Representative: William McCauley, Britnay Snyder, Robert Sheppard

Document Reference: URI-MCE-402-009-2022

Download

Share

COinS