| Affiliations: | STEM Research Leadership |
| Project Leader: | Jared Lilly jplilly25@tamu.edu Aerospace Engineering |
| Faculty Mentor: | Darren Hartl, Ph.D. |
| Meeting Times: | T 1:00 PM – 1:30 PM and W 11:30 AM – 12:00 AM |
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Team Size:
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7 |
| Open Spots: | 0 |
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Special Opportunities:
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The FOODS project offers a unique opportunity to learn and gain experience in FEA (a highly valued engineering skill), optimization methods (including topology optimization), and how to carry out experiments focused on validating a new design. Conference publication is the final deliverable for this project.
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Team Needs:
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Interest in structural analysis and design, carrying out degradation experiments, and a passion for helping the environment are highly valued. The majority of the work moving forward will be in carrying out degradation experiments and analyzing results. |
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Description:
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In this project, students will design a single-use plastic fork to minimize its time in a landfill. Students will use finite element analysis tools to optimize a fork geometry that must perform adequately as a fork (i.e. carry loads applied by stabbing food) while optimizing quantities such as the surface area to volume ratio to promote biodegradation. Students will then compare the degradation rate of their optimized design to a commercially available design by tracking the degradation of each fork in a tank of water. No prior experience required. |