(12 intermediate revisions by 2 users not shown)
Line 1: Line 1:
[[Image:Bharath.jpg]]
[[File:Bharath Lavu.jpg|thumb]]
== About me ==
I am a graduate student at [[Michigan Technological University]] studying Material science and engineering. I have received my undergrad degree in Automobile engineering from VNR VignanaJyiothi Institute of engineering and Technology, Hyderabad, India. I am a student at Michigan Tech. since Jan 2019.


== Past projects ==
{{User data}}
I have worked on two big projects and many other minor projects during my undergraduate studies in India. Brief Summaries and detailing of my two big projects are mentioned below
A Materials Science Engineer with a graduate masters degree along with research experience in materials processing and characterization mainly focusing on Additive Manufacturing. I am a lot into cars since I was a child and more into how things are made and what are they made up of(cuz each and everything has to be made up of something). I am a graduate researcher associated with the Michigan Tech Open Sustainability Technology Lab(MOST). [[Category:MOST|MOST]]


'''Fierce Formula India VF06'''
== Projects ==
'''Distributed manufacturing of PPE through opensource technologies'''


Description: A formula racing car has been designed and fabricated as per rules and guidelines of SAE, All the parts of the car are custom made and designed by our team as per SAE rules, regulations and competition requirements. The engine used in the car is a 400cc KTM engine which churns out a peak power of 44bhp. The body, chassis and many other components are custom made and designed to get maximum endurance and performance out of car.
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the disturbances caused in supply of PPE our research group has started researching on Distributed manufacturing of PPE through Open Source 3D printing [[MTU_3-D_printing_PPE|[1]]]. I along with my fellow researchers and professor have analyzed various designs of face shields, face masks and hands free door handles and went on producing and supplying over 2500 face shields primarily for healthcare workers and first responders through Western Upper Peninsula Health Department(WUPHD).  
               
[[File:Threed-graduate-student-rotated-ppe-thisone-opensourcelab-vertical1200.jpg|thumb]]
Role on team: Power train development and performance testing.


'''VNRVJIET Campus E-Vehicle'''
'''Waste plastic direct extrusion with Hangprinter'''[[https://www.appropedia.org/Waste_Plastic_direct_extrusion_using_Hangprinter]]


Description: A Plug-in electric vehicle has been developed in two months which is currently serving as a campus shuttle. The vehicle is capable of carrying upto eight passengers and has been designed to travel at speeds of college speed limit and good enough to serve commute of people in campus for one whole day continuously. Through this project the advantages of a fully electric vehicle over conventional I.C engine powered vehicle have been studied.
3D printers with capability to print large prints do usually consists of complex mechanisms, large parts and often takes in advanced engineering and controls and are also bulky in size. The hangprinter uses simple mechanism, with smaller parts and have the advantage of being not bulky in size. The main advantage of hangprinter design and approach is its scalability to print components of various sizes, The design of the hangprinter makes it easy to scale the size of print bed based on arranging and fixing few components and parts of it. It consists of two main segments which include a ceiling plate and a carriage, The ceiling plate holds a couple of
motors, gearing, spools and linerollers arranged in a way to hold up the carriage and provide movement to it in vertical and horizontal directions. The carriage holds the extruder and is scalable based on the size of extruder to reduce the usage of materials as needed and the control of carriage is done with the help of movement of strings in a particular manner according to the firmware settings and software. The recyclebot extruder is a device that functions to extrude filament from pellets/shredded recyclable plastics by a mechanism that makes the pellets to travel through different heat zones where they are heated and cooled and finally extruded through a nozzle to obtain the filament. Though this device is meant to extrude filament it can also be used as extruder where the extruded material through nozzle can be used directly to print parts. This project includes work on combination of hangprinter technique and recyclebot as extruder to build a hybrid machine that is capable of printing large and wide components along with maintaining the sustainability of using a waste plastic extrusion technique. The components of hangprinter are printed based on opensource materials published by Tobben using a Lulzbot Taz6 3D Printer out of which few components are modified and few parts are newly designed to adjust the assembly according to the new hybrid printer. Electronics usage include Arduino Mega+Ramps 1.4 combination along with nema17 and nema23 stepper motors along with corresponding motor drivers. Marlin firmware based on configurations published on opensource platforms is used in this hybrid printer along with modifications to accommodate extrusion with recyclebot instead of fused filament extrusion. Material selection, spooling and arranging the strings plays a crucial role in the hangprinter design, The selected material for string must be able to hold up and bear the weight of recyclebot+carriage and must be able to have the capability of withstanding the movements caused in them when the printer is in operation with strings being held in tension all the time. A total of five stepper motors will be used in the operation of this hybrid printer where one motor is used for extrusion through recyclebot and the rest four motors to control the movement of carriage + recyclebot assembly vertically and horizontally based on marlin firmware with configurations feeded and calibration done.
[[File:HangPrbot1.jpg|thumb]]
[[File:Hangp robt2.jpg|thumb]]


Role on team: Power train development, vehicle dynamics, driveline designer.
'''Research study of Cast Aluminum alloy engine blocks used in Automobiles'''


== Research Interests and Current studies ==
Materials for engine blocks in I.C engine based automotives play a crucial role in their contribution towards a vehicle’s performance and engine life. Since the birth of automotives Cast Iron was used for making Engine block castings and then the automotives had a very high life and all the automotive manufacturers relied on them. In recent years due to improvement and new discoveries in the discipline of metallurgy and development of new materials has led to usage of Aluminum-Silicon based A4xxx alloy series for casting of Engine blocks. Besides the development of new materials the most important desire for weight reduction, increased engine performance and fuel efficiency has led the automotive manufacturers choose Aluminum alloy based material for production of engine blocks and in the current market usage of Cast Iron based Engine blocks has been almost dumped out by the Automotive manufacturers and Aluminum based alloys are widely used. The study on fatigue caused due to nucleation and propagation of microcracks in the alloy have been deeply studied.


'''Electric Vehicles and its Battery systems'''
'''X-Ray diffraction techniques and its application on alloys'''


The big answer to the vanishing crude oil from earth is here ''Electric vehicles''. I am pretty sure that the future of automotives and transportation Industry will definitely be electrified. Coz the only alternative to drive our cars, trucks, bikes etc. without gasoline is electrification of it and of course we can also be a part of making the earth more greener by reducing emission of green house gases by our automotives. Though electric vehicles have got a lot of engineering and mindwork into them, One main component that plays a key role is its ''battery pack''. This particular component of an electric vehicle solely responsible for its performance and endurance on par with conventional I.C powered vehicles. This particular thing need a lot of research and development into it. Currently we need our battery packs in present day electric vehicles to be high on range, fire hazard proof, temperature fluctuations resistance etc. This concern of mine towards protecting mother earth has led me to start studying materials science and engineering where I would learn deeply about the materials and their properties and also do research for developing better battery materials that would lead to making of reliable and high standard battery packs.
I have gained hands on experience on material characterization through applying X-ray diffraction techniques to various binary alloys. Have gained hands on operating X-ray sprectrometer and analyzing data using Scintag DMSNT and MDI JADE saftware.


'''Solar Photovoltaics'''
'''Phase diagram modelling of alloys and study of phase transformations'''


''Electricity'', This has got a lot of importance in our day to day lives practically without which man's life on earth is practically impossible nowadays. Generation of this and paying for it daily is definitely a very big bet and the very good alternative to it would be using the most abundant resource available to man on this earth which happens to be '''Sunlight'''. I have decided to do research on Solar photovoltaic materials, its efficiency and racking design for a more durable and cost effective setup of Solar plants.
Has Successfully modeled phase diagrams for various given alloy systems based on chemical properties of elements and Studied Driving forces for phase transformations, nucleation growth, casting solidification, spinodal decomposition, eutectic and eutectoid transformations.
 
[[Category:5490-19]]

Latest revision as of 20:50, 9 December 2021

Bharath Lavu.jpg

A Materials Science Engineer with a graduate masters degree along with research experience in materials processing and characterization mainly focusing on Additive Manufacturing. I am a lot into cars since I was a child and more into how things are made and what are they made up of(cuz each and everything has to be made up of something). I am a graduate researcher associated with the Michigan Tech Open Sustainability Technology Lab(MOST).

Projects[edit | edit source]

Distributed manufacturing of PPE through opensource technologies

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the disturbances caused in supply of PPE our research group has started researching on Distributed manufacturing of PPE through Open Source 3D printing [1]. I along with my fellow researchers and professor have analyzed various designs of face shields, face masks and hands free door handles and went on producing and supplying over 2500 face shields primarily for healthcare workers and first responders through Western Upper Peninsula Health Department(WUPHD).

Threed-graduate-student-rotated-ppe-thisone-opensourcelab-vertical1200.jpg

Waste plastic direct extrusion with Hangprinter[[1]]

3D printers with capability to print large prints do usually consists of complex mechanisms, large parts and often takes in advanced engineering and controls and are also bulky in size. The hangprinter uses simple mechanism, with smaller parts and have the advantage of being not bulky in size. The main advantage of hangprinter design and approach is its scalability to print components of various sizes, The design of the hangprinter makes it easy to scale the size of print bed based on arranging and fixing few components and parts of it. It consists of two main segments which include a ceiling plate and a carriage, The ceiling plate holds a couple of motors, gearing, spools and linerollers arranged in a way to hold up the carriage and provide movement to it in vertical and horizontal directions. The carriage holds the extruder and is scalable based on the size of extruder to reduce the usage of materials as needed and the control of carriage is done with the help of movement of strings in a particular manner according to the firmware settings and software. The recyclebot extruder is a device that functions to extrude filament from pellets/shredded recyclable plastics by a mechanism that makes the pellets to travel through different heat zones where they are heated and cooled and finally extruded through a nozzle to obtain the filament. Though this device is meant to extrude filament it can also be used as extruder where the extruded material through nozzle can be used directly to print parts. This project includes work on combination of hangprinter technique and recyclebot as extruder to build a hybrid machine that is capable of printing large and wide components along with maintaining the sustainability of using a waste plastic extrusion technique. The components of hangprinter are printed based on opensource materials published by Tobben using a Lulzbot Taz6 3D Printer out of which few components are modified and few parts are newly designed to adjust the assembly according to the new hybrid printer. Electronics usage include Arduino Mega+Ramps 1.4 combination along with nema17 and nema23 stepper motors along with corresponding motor drivers. Marlin firmware based on configurations published on opensource platforms is used in this hybrid printer along with modifications to accommodate extrusion with recyclebot instead of fused filament extrusion. Material selection, spooling and arranging the strings plays a crucial role in the hangprinter design, The selected material for string must be able to hold up and bear the weight of recyclebot+carriage and must be able to have the capability of withstanding the movements caused in them when the printer is in operation with strings being held in tension all the time. A total of five stepper motors will be used in the operation of this hybrid printer where one motor is used for extrusion through recyclebot and the rest four motors to control the movement of carriage + recyclebot assembly vertically and horizontally based on marlin firmware with configurations feeded and calibration done.

HangPrbot1.jpg
Hangp robt2.jpg

Research study of Cast Aluminum alloy engine blocks used in Automobiles

Materials for engine blocks in I.C engine based automotives play a crucial role in their contribution towards a vehicle’s performance and engine life. Since the birth of automotives Cast Iron was used for making Engine block castings and then the automotives had a very high life and all the automotive manufacturers relied on them. In recent years due to improvement and new discoveries in the discipline of metallurgy and development of new materials has led to usage of Aluminum-Silicon based A4xxx alloy series for casting of Engine blocks. Besides the development of new materials the most important desire for weight reduction, increased engine performance and fuel efficiency has led the automotive manufacturers choose Aluminum alloy based material for production of engine blocks and in the current market usage of Cast Iron based Engine blocks has been almost dumped out by the Automotive manufacturers and Aluminum based alloys are widely used. The study on fatigue caused due to nucleation and propagation of microcracks in the alloy have been deeply studied.

X-Ray diffraction techniques and its application on alloys

I have gained hands on experience on material characterization through applying X-ray diffraction techniques to various binary alloys. Have gained hands on operating X-ray sprectrometer and analyzing data using Scintag DMSNT and MDI JADE saftware.

Phase diagram modelling of alloys and study of phase transformations

Has Successfully modeled phase diagrams for various given alloy systems based on chemical properties of elements and Studied Driving forces for phase transformations, nucleation growth, casting solidification, spinodal decomposition, eutectic and eutectoid transformations.

Cookies help us deliver our services. By using our services, you agree to our use of cookies.