Thermodynamic modeling of solder melting and solidification for proposed squishbot design

This thesis develops a thermodynamic simulation of the melting and solidification of a substance resting on a surface. The simulation was created in an effort to develop a single actuator joint locking and unlocking mechanism for Squishbot. The Squishbot is a proposed robot that has the ability to climb walls and change shape in order to gain entry into normally inaccessible areas. By using COMSOL Multiphysics, a simple model was developed and tested. Under these conditions, the solder melting phase transition took 2.25 seconds to melt and 2.65 seconds to solidify. These results, as well as observations about the behavior of the program's numerical solver, seem to suggest that the proposed joint locking system is feasible. A framework is laid out to proceed with improved and more specific models for use as an optimization tool.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Mechanical Engineering.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2009

Author dc:creator

• Utz, Robert (Robert C.)

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Martin Culpepper.

• Mechanical Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/54485

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/54485