A patent for A group of Mechanical Engineering Department Faculty Members 

Titled “Design and Control of an Intelligent Artificial Knee Joint Using an Electromechanical Linear Actuator with a Servo Cylinder”

Inventor's name and address:

• Shaima Helal Kamel

 University of Technology / Department of Mechanical Engineering

• Prof. Dr. Mohsen Nouri Hamza

University of Technology / Department of Mechanical Engineering

• Prof. Dr. Qassem Abbas Attia

   University of Technology / Department of Mechanical Engineering

• Saad Abdel Aziz Abdel Latif,

    Iraqi University / College of Medicine

About the Patent Prototype:

 The knee prosthesis is the main component of the above-knee amputee prosthesis as it replaces the functional joint. The loss of a limb has a destructive influence on any person, especially if it is the lower limb because it is very important for human movement. A lower limb prosthesis has been developed to help amputees restore motor functions such as walking, standing, and going up and downstairs.

The present smart prosthesis is equipped with sensors, actuators, controls, and a mechanical structure that simulates the function of a natural limb and reduces the metabolic energy of above-knee amputees, allowing them to achieve various effective daily movements.

The newly designed smart artificial knee joint is distinguished by its special and very high efficiency for both mechanical and electronic aspects, the new design of the smart artificial knee joint has been proven to be 100% successful as a passive mechanical movement and electronic movement. Further, It operates when power is cut from the source, and it has the ability to move very smoothly and raise the leg highly, where achieves great success in the swing phase and achieves deceleration and acceleration with very high accuracy.

It is characterized by moving at different speeds slow, medium, and high. Several important aspects have also been achieved, including reducing the total cost of smart prosthetics by $2,895, while the price of smart prosthetics around the world is $30,000 to $100,000. The above-knee amputee weighs 110 kg and provides an intelligent knee joint flexion angle of 120 degrees. The design is according to the natural standard dimensions of the knee and leg joints of the human body, and it bears a force of 5000 Newton, which is a standard force to bear the performance of effective daily movements with high accuracy. It meets the requirements of Iraqi society and the wide world for smart prosthetic limbs.

Department of Mechanical Engineering

University of Technology

Final Defense of PH. D Degree Dissertation

Titled “Characterization of Porous Functionally Graded Materials in Vibration and Buckling of Sandwich Plates”

By:  Imad Kazem Najm

Members of the examining committee:

Chair:

          Prof. Dr. Ibtihal Abdel Razzaq Mahmoud

 Members:

          Prof. Dr. Bashar Awaid Badawi

Prof. Dr. Mohsen Abdullah Abdul-Hussein

Asst. Prof. Dr. Abdulsattar J. M. Hassan

Asst. Prof. Mohsen Nouri Hamza

By Supervision:

Asst. Prof. Dr. Sadiq Hussein Bakhi

Asst. Prof. Dr. Muhannad Lafta Shalaka

Mr. Imad Kazem Najm discussed his dissertation, which aimed to study the properties of composite panels manufactured from functionally graded materials that include pores changing in a specific direction of the structure. Where a mathematical model has been proposed to describe the free vibration, buckling, and bending based on the traditional plate theory (CPT) for composite panels. The outcomes of this work can be applied to the simulation of aircraft wings, rotary machines, and life medicine under various boundary restrictions.

The major conclusions of this study are:

• Based on the results of the analysis using the experiment design program (DOE), that the optimal conditions for the highest frequency (769.78 Hz) were: the ratio of pores equal to (0.29857) and the height of the hollow equal to (0.019988 m), the thickness of the upper and lower plates equal to ((0.025 m), while the exponent of the functional gradient equals (k = 0.000945).
• In the buckling analysis, it was found that the optimum load was (785.788 kN) occurring at a pore ratio equal to (0.299), a hollow height equal to (0.01978m), the thickness of the upper and lower plates equals to (0.025 m), while the functional gradient exponent equals k=3).
• Based on the analytical results, the natural frequency increased by 2.6% when changing the porosity ratio from 10 to 20% at k = 0.5, hollow height 10 mm, and lamina 0.65 mm.

The major recommendations of this study are:

• Using the other plate theories, such as first-order deformation theories and high order theory to make theoretical analysis more efficient
• Using the mechanical convection for free vibration and buckling experiments of a composite structure made of functionally graded materials containing the pores of PFGMs.
• Employing the 3D printing method to manufacture samples can be used to describe the behavior of samples manufactured from functionally graded materials subjected to moving and static loads.

Congratulations! To our student Mr. Imad Kazem Najm

Department of Mechanical Engineering

University of Technology

Final Defense of a PhD dissertation

Titled “Parametric Study for Artificial Roughness Effect on Flow Boiling of Binary Mixture in Microchannel”

By:  Qahtan Adnan Abass Al-Nakeeb

Examination committee members:

Chair:

Prof. Dr. Ihsan Y. Hussain

 Members:

          Prof. Dr. Ihsan Y. Hussain

Asst. Prof. Dr. Abdulsattar J. M. Hassan

Asst. Prof. Dr. Ali L. Ekaid

Asst. Prof. Dr. Falah Fakher Hatem

By Supervision:

Prof. Dr. Ekhlas M. Fayyadh  

Asst. Prof. Dr. Moayed R. Hasan

Mr. Qahtan Adnan Abass Al-Nakeeb discussed his dissertation on 20^th December 2021 at 9:00 am, which aimed to investigate the effect of heat flux, mass flux, and artificial nucleation sites (ANS) on the onset of nucleation, flow boiling instability, pressure drop, and heat transfer coefficient on both deionized water and binary mixture (water-ethanol) at sub-cooled conditions. Further, the effect degree of sub-cooled for deionized water and concentration for binary mixture were considered.

The major conclusions of this study are:

• The onset of boiling depends on the amount of mass flow, as increasing the mass flow of the fluid delays the boiling start of both the deionized water and the binary mixture,
• Increasing the inlet temperature of deionized water without saturation requires a higher heat flux to start boiling. In addition to reducing the amount of pressure drop through the microwave channel and reducing the heat transfer coefficient
• The stability of boiling depended on the amount of fluid inlet temperature without saturation in addition to the amount of mass flow and the amount of concentration of the mixture.

The major recommendations of this study are:

• The use of artificial vacuoles enhances the heat transfer performance highly via the microwave channel
• The use of the binary mixture can reduce the instabilities of boiling as it avoids the drying of the channel wall (keeps it moist).
• The increase in the number of vacuoles enhances pressure drop.

Congratulations! To our workmate Mr. Qahtan Adnan Abass Al-Nakeeb

The Department of Mechanical Engineering organized an awareness lecture on (Negative Aspects in the University Community)

The Educational Guidance Committee in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Technology, in coordination with the Educational Guidance Committee in the Air Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering branch, organized on Wednesday 5/1/2022 at 11:00 am at Dr. Munir Al-Mudhaffar’s hall an awareness lecture on (negative manifestations in the university environment), the lieutenant colonel Aziz Nasser from the Baghdad Governorate Police Command presented this lecture, where he dealt with several axes, the most important of which are: the phenomenon of bullying and its negative effects on society in general and the university community in particular, and how to address this phenomenon and prevent its aggravation among students, as well as the phenomenon of drugs and their impact on youth and society, acquainting students with their dangers, causes of their spread, ways of using them, and their health, physical and social harms, and clarifying their types and forms, and ways to prevent them.

Then issues of electronic extortion and bad use of social media and the process of threatening and intimidating victims in exchange for payment of sums of money or exploiting it by publishing pictures or video materials or leaking confidential information about him to carry out illegal acts for the benefit of blackmailers, and the presenter referred to this crime, which is a trans-state crime and does not recognize within limits, where the work of the security services depends on the citizen’s cooperation with the police and security, confronting crime and not being afraid of it and reporting it, explaining how to confront this extortion by spreading legal culture among young people and increasing public opinion’s awareness of the dangers of this type of crime, educating the family and contributing to launching campaigns raising awareness and guidance from time to time, and cooperating with the relevant security agencies.

.

Oral Defense - Master Thesis

Titled “Study the performance of a ground heat exchanger for air conditioning system in residential building”

By:  Saif Hameed Majeed

Examination committee members:

Chair:

Asst. Prof. Dr. Hassanein Mohammed Hussein

 Members:

Asst. Prof. Dr. Ali Sabri Abbas

Dr. Ali Falah Muhammad

By Supervision:

Asst. Prof. Dr. Dheya Ghanim Mutasher

Dr. Ammar Saadoun Abdelzahra

Mr. Saif Hameed Majeed successfully discussed his thesis in the mechanical engineering department. The thesis of the student (Saif Hameed Majeed) aimed to improve the performance of air conditioning systems through the use of underground heat, which in turn reduces energy consumption.

The researcher concluded that when the flow rates are low (5 liters/min), the difference between the entry and exit temperature of the geothermal heat exchanger is large, and gradually decreases as the flow rates increase (10, 15 liters/min).

As for the inlet water temperature, at 80 °C and the flow rate 5 l/min, the water exit temperatures were 64, 68.2, 73.5, 76, 77 °C while using the copper coil type, U type copper pipe, U type galvanized iron pipe, PVC pipe and PVC U, respectively. The amount of heat energy transmitted was (5.81, 4.81, 2.72, 1.60, 1.32 kW) for (copper coil, U type copper, U type galvanized iron, PVC coil, PVC U type, respectively, at the inlet temperature (80 °C) and the flow of .rate (5 liters/min).

The researcher recommended the use of a soil depth of more than 3 meters, due to the stability of temperatures at this depth, in addition to the use of low flow rates, which leads to an increase in the heat transfer rate of (5 l/m) and that the use of copper metal is the best because it is characterized by high conductivity.

Congratulations! To our student Mr. Saif Hameed Majeed