a proposal for

DEVELOPMENT OF CONVEYOR PULLEY APPLICATION SOFTWAREMay 1, 1999 – December 31, 1999

UNITED PARCEL SERVICE

Corporate Plant Engineering55 Glenlake Parkway, NE

Atlanta, GA 30328

Glen Prater, Jr. and Ellen G. Brehob

DEPARTMENT OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING

J.B. Speed Scientific SchoolUniversity of Louisville

Louisville, Kentucky 40292

April 1999

SUMMARY

This proposal from the University of Louisville Mechanical Engineering Department outlines a research project to develop Windows based application software for the specification of conveyor pulleys. Specific objectives include (i) development of a design/application methodology customized for conveyor system pulleys used by UPS; (ii) implementation of this methodology in a robust, safe, and useable computer program; (iii) compilation of the load, component, and material databases needed to run the program; (iv) validation and testing of the program; and (v) deployment of the program as deemed appropriate by UPS Plant Engineering.

Personnel Two University of Louisville researchers (Dr. Glen Prater, Jr., Associate Professor and Chairman of Mechanical Engineering, Dr. Ellen G. Brehob, Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering), and one graduate research assistant.

Duration May 1, 1999 - December 31, 1999

Budget $30,197 in UPS funding and $14,912 in University of Louisville co-funding.

SUMMARY ................................................................................................................. 2

1. INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................ 4

2. TECHNICAL DETAILS ...................................................................................... 4

2.1 Objectives and Scope .................................................................................... 42.2 Methodology ............................................................................................. 62.3 End Product .................................................................................................. 6

3. ADMINISTRATION .......................................................................................... 11

3.1 Schedule ..................................................................................................... 11

TABLE OF CONTENTS

3.2 Personnel .................................................................................................... 113.3 Budget ........................................................................................................ 113.4 Reports ....................................................................................................... 11

APPENDIX ................................................................................................................. 14

A. Curriculum Vitae of Principal Investigators ............................................... 15B. Pertinent Research Facilities ....................................................................... 17

1. Structure of proposed conveyor pulley application program ................................ 8

2. Screen captures from ME-StressCon, Windows software developed at the University of Louisville to calculate form stress concentration factors ................ 9

3. Contents dialog and sample topic from ME-StressCon help program ................ 10

4. Project tasks, schedule, and responsibilities ....................................................... 12

5. Project budget .................................................................................................... 13

LIST OF FIGURES

1. INTRODUCTION

The conveyor systems at United Parcel Service’s Louisville Sorting Hub are mission critical in allowing the company to fulfill customer service commitments. Failure of an inexpensive but critical component can result in a massive disruption of operations. Conveyors are heavily loaded, driven by rotating machinery and subjected to a complicated duty cycle: a classical environment for problems related to fatigue and wear. Among the components most sensitive to these failure modes are conveyor pulleys.

Specification of conveyor drive pulleys is a repetitive, albeit important task requiring knowledge of the conveyor system load cycles, pulley geometry, material properties, and practical design margins. The huge scope of United Parcel Service’s use of such pulleys, along with the ramifications of unscheduled downtime, means that a software package simplifying their specification while reducing the chance of misapplication would be an extremely useful plant engineering tool. This document outlines a proposal by the University of Louisville to develop such software.

2. TECHNICAL DETAILS

2.1 Objectives and Scope

The objectives of this project are to (i) develop a design/application methodology customized for conveyor system pulleys used by UPS; (ii) implement this methodology in a robust, safe, and useable computer program; (iii) develop the associated load, component and material databases; (iv) test and validate the program; and (v) deploy the program within UPS. Specific tasks associated with these objectives include:

1. Perform a benchmark FEM analysis for a representative pulley application, including the pulley, roller, and associated fasteners.

Determine nominal loads. Create solid model using Ideas software. Perform FEM analysis using ANSYS software; determine stresses,

strains, deflections. Identify critical points. Determine static and fatigue strengths. Calculate static/fatigue factors of safety at critical points.

2. Establish pulley application program architecture.

Develop module diagram and analysis flowchart. Prototype the program user interface. Develop algorithms and interface features to incorporate design

functions for additional conveyor components such as rollers and bearings (development of the actual code for designing/specifying these components is not included within the scope of this project).

3. Develop input modules.

Create a scheme for parametric representation of UPS pulley stock based upon dimensions (flange width, outer diameter, hub diameter, plate thickness, etc), material (base metal and weld filler), and special features (weld geometry, surface treatments, unique applications). Prepare a database for the existing UPS pulley stock.

Develop a database for specification of base metal and weld filler. Develop dialog windows for load specification based primarily on

conveyor operating conditions and geometry (speed, motor power, impact conditions, start-up/shut-down profile, belt angles, tensioning mechanism, etc.). Establish templates for standard configurations.

4. Implement a solution algorithm in an analysis module.

Analyze states of stress using standard machine design theory, resulting in the calculation of the maximum shear stress and von Mises stress at critical points.

Calculate fully corrected fatigue strengths. Calculate static factors of safety at critical points using the

maximum shear stress theory of failure and distortion energy theory of failure.

Calculate fatigue factors of safety at critical points using the Soderburg and Goodman criteria.

5. Develop an output module to display factors of safety and present recommenda-tions on design acceptability.

6. Prepare the program user interface.

Optimize layout of menus, toolbars and status bars, input/output dialogs, database interfaces, and program graphic queues.

Using the MS WinHelp compiler and .rtf topic files, develop an extensive online help system to document program operation, analysis theory, and pulley application evaluation criteria.

Release alpha version of software to UPS for interface evaluation; implement recommendations.

7. Perform program operational validation, testing, and evaluation.

Compare program results with benchmark FEM results. Analyze existing failure cases. Release beta version of software to UPS for operational

evaluation; implement recommendations.

8. Transfer technology.

Develop setup program.

Oversee initial installation and testing on UPS hardware. Train UPS engineers in program use.

2.2 Methodology

Standard pulley design procedures will be used for the load, stress, deformation, and safety analyses that form the basis of the program. Among other things, these procedures include the effects of geometric and weld stress concentrations, statistical fatigue reliability requirements, and the conveyor duty cycle. Existing UPS application standards can be included, if appropriate. Program performance will be validated using test cases and finite element analysis. Obsolescence should be minimized by extensive use of database resident load templates, geometric specifications and material properties, all of which may be updated and expanded without programming. The flowchart of Figure 1 depicts the structure of the proposed program.

The proposed software has a modular architecture that promotes easy expansion to incorporate additional components. As part of this project, we will develop an algorithm for the design/specification of (i) conveyor rollers and (ii) rolling element bearings. We will also develop a prototype user interface for managing a multi-component application. If UPS is satisfied with the pulley application program and interested in enhancements, we would be pleased to propose a follow-on projects to expand the software.

The pulley application software will be developed for the Windows 95/98/NT operating systems using Visual Basic 6.0, Professional Edition. The latest Windows interface and help standards will be employed. Microsoft Access will be used for the databases. A setup program (including an uninstall option) for the software will be developed and used to create disks for both CD-ROM and floppy installations.

Faculty in the University of Louisville Mechanical Engineering Department have been quite active in developing user-friendly, database driven design applications for the Windows environment, including programs to design diesel engine fuel pumps1, perform plane stress analysis, and design acoustic manifold systems2. As an example of a design application of the type proposed here, consider Figures 2 and 3, which show screen captures from ME-StressCon, a portion of the plane stress analysis program used to calculate form stress concentration factors. The case descriptions, graphical depiction, window layout parameters, and numerical parameters for the stress concentration factor curve fit all come from an MS Access database.

2.3 End Product

The ultimate end products for this project are (i) a technical report documenting the results of the benchmark finite element analysis, (ii) setup disks for the pulley application

1 Prater, G., 1998. This project was sponsored by Cummins Engine Company, and involved imple-menting Cummins’ proprietary fuel pump design methodology in the form of design software.

2 Prater, G., “Development of Acoustic Design Software for Refrigeration Compressor Manifolds,” Engineering Design & Automation, 1998, 4(3), pp. 215-231.

software and (iii) a report on the program theory, operation and interpretation organized in the form of a user’s manual.

Figure 1. Structure of proposed conveyor pulley application program.

Perform Analysis

- Identify Critical Points- Calculate Satatic and Fatigue Factors of Safety

Apply Loads

- Torsional, Bending, Axial- Shock and Impact- Time History

No

Yes

Specify Pulley Geometryand Material:

- Dimensions - Weld Characteristics

ManualEntry

Yes InterpretResults?

Recom-mendations

DisplayResults

Start

End

No

PrintedSummary?

Generate PrintedOutput File

ManualEntry

Load TemplateDatabase

ManualMods

ComponentDatabase

ManualMods

Figure 2. Screen captures from ME-StressCon, Windows software developed at the University of Louisville to calculate form stress concentration factors.

Figure 3. Contents dialog and sample topic from ME-StressCon help program.

3. PROJECT ADMINISTRATION

3.1 Schedule

The project is scheduled to commence March 1, 1999, and conclude October 31, 1999. The Gantt chart of Figure 4 shows the beginning date, duration, and scheduled end date for individual tasks.

3.2 Personnel

Two faculty investigators from the University of Louisville head the research team and will contribute a total of 3.2 man-months of effort to the project:

Dr. Glen Prater, Jr., Chairman and Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering, 2.4 man-months,

Dr. Ellen G. Brehob, Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering, 0.8 man-months.

The faculty investigators will be assisted by a masters-level graduate research assistant contributing 4.0 man-months of effort over the scheduled 8 month term of the project.

3.3 Budget

The budget request this project includes $30,197 in UPS funding and $14,912 in University of Louisville co-funding, for a total of $45,109. Details are shown in Figure 5.

3.4 Reports

To keep UPS project monitors and collaborators informed on the progress of the work, monthly activity reports, an interim report and a comprehensive final report will be provided will be provided in addition to the software documentation discussed earlier.

Figure 4. Project tasks, schedule, and responsibilities.

1999May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec

Scheduled Start Scheduled Completion Prior Work

DescriptionTask Resp.

Perform benchmark FEM analysis1.0 ----

Perform analysis using Ideas/ANSYS software; determine stresses, strains, deflections1.1 GP, RA

Identify critical points, determine static/fatigue strengths, static/fatigue factors of safety1.2 GP

Establish program architecture; prototype user interface2.0 GP

Develop input modules3.0 ----

Create scheme for parametric representation of standard UPS pulleys, prepare database3.1 RA, GP

Develop material database3.2 RA

Develop dialog/templates for load specification3.3 GP

Implement solution algorithm in analysis modules4.0 ----

Calculate fully corrected fatigue strengths4.1 RA, GP

Calculate factors of safety at critical points using appropriate failure theories4.2 RA, GP

Develop output module to display factors of safety and present design recommendations4.3 GP

Optimize user interface5.0 GP

Develop on-line help system6.0 EB, GP

Validation, testing, evaluation7.0 ----

Compare program results with FEM results7.1 GP, RA

Analyze existing failure cases7.2 RA, GP

UPS beta testing7.3 UP, GP

Technology transfer8.0 ----

Develop setup program8.1 GP

Train UPS engineers in program use8.2 EB, GP

Interim Report

Final Report

GP: Glen Prater MS: Ellen Brehob RA: Research Assistant UP: UPS Personnel

Figure 5. Project budget.

APPENDIX

A. Curriculum Vitae of Principal Investigators

Glen Prater, Jr. ........................................................................................... 15Ellen G. Brehob .......................................................................................... 17

B. Pertinent Research Facilities

Dahlem Computer-Aided Engineering Laboratory ..................................... 19Mechanical Engineering Computer-Aided Design Studio ........................... 19

GLEN PRATER, JR., PH.D.

Associate Professor of Mechanical EngineeringMechanical Engineering Department Chairman

RESEARCH SPECIALTIES

Machine Design, Development of Interactive Design Software, Fluid Power Design, System Dynamics, Computer Modeling and Simulation

EDUCATION

1988 Ph.D. Mechanical Engineering Ohio State University1983 M.Sc. Mechanical Engineering Ohio State University1982 B.Sc. Mechanical Engineering Ohio State University

RELEVANT EXPERIENCE

9/87-present University of Louisville, Louisville, Kentucky. Associate Professor and Chairman (7/93-present), Assistant Professor (9/87-6/93), Department of Mechanical Engineering.

9/84-8/87 Ohio State University, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Columbus, Ohio. Graduate Instructor (9/85-8/87), Graduate Research Assistant (9/83-8/85), Graduate Fellow (9/82-8/83).

6/81-9/81 Exxon Office Systems Company, Lionville, Pennsylvania. Engineering Intern, design and development of floppy disk drives.

6/80-9/80 General Electric Aircraft Engine Group, Cincinnati, Ohio. Engineering Intern, production control and methods engineering.

HONORS AND AWARDS

1986 First place, SAE Student Paper Contest1983 B.F. Goodrich Fellowship for graduate study1982 Summa Cum Laude1981 ISE Department Busted Plate Award1981 Atlantic Richfield Academic Excellence Award1981 Tau Beta Pi1980 A.W.A.R.E. Award, General Electric Aircraft Engine Group

PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZATIONS AND COMMITTEES

American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME)Chairman, ASME Region VI M.E. Department Chairs CommitteeSociety for Experimental Mechanics (SEM)American Society for Engineering Education

RECENT RESEARCH GRANTS

Dates Amount Sponsor Description

2/99-12/99 $110,000 New York Gas Group

Prototype Testing and Evaluation of a Horizontal Boring Tool

1/98-12/98 $10,864 Cummins Engine Corporation

Modeling, Analysis and Design Optimization of a Torque Pulsation Cancellation Device, principal investigator: E. Brehob

1/98-5/98 $13,828 United Pentek Corporation

A Characterization of the Sheet Walking Problem, principal investigator: W. Hnat

10/94-1997 $273,000 Columbia Gas Co. Development of Horizontal Boring Technology for Small Diameter Natural Gas Distribution Lines, co-investigators: R. Collins, W. Hnat

10/93-3/94 $23,000 Naval Ordnance Station, Louisville

Design Optimization of Shoulder-Fired Infantry Weapons Using Composite Materials, co-invest-igators: W. Biles, D. Harper

9/92-8/94 $129,120 General Electric Appliances

Acoustic Tuning of Rolling Piston Compressors for Performance Improvement and Noise Control

RECENT PUBLICATIONS AND SCHOLARLY ACHIEVEMENTS

Prater, G., Hnat, W.P., and Wright, M.D., “Optical Measurement of Compressor Reed Valve Modal Parameters,” SEM International Journal of Analytical and Experimental Modal Analysis, submitted 6/98, accepted for publication.

Prater, G., “Development of Acoustic Design Software for Refrigeration Compressor Manifolds,” Engineering Design & Automation, 1998, 4(3), pp. 215-231.

Collins, R.L., Prater, G., and Hnat, W.P., “Modeling and Analysis of a Small Diameter Pneumatic Boring Tool,” ASME Journal of Dynamic Systems, Measurement, and Control, 1998, 120(2), pp. 292-298.

Prater, G., “Acoustic Design Software for Vapor Compressor Manifolds,” Mathematical Modeling and Scientific Computing, 8, 1997.

Prater, G., “Small Diameter Impact Boring Tool,” U.S. Patent Number 5,816,342, October 1996, co-inventors: R.L. Collins, W.P. Hnat, and S. Wang.

ELLEN G. BREHOB, PH.D.

Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering

RESEARCH SPECIALTIES

Combustion, Heat Exchanger Design, Computational Fluid Dynamics

EDUCATION

1994 Ph.D. Mechanical Engineering Pennsylvania State University1985 M.Sc. Mechanical Engineering Oklahoma State University1983 B.Sc. Mechanical Engineering Purdue University

9/95-present University of Louisville, Louisville, Kentucky. Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering.

5/94-8/95 U.S. Department of Energy, Morgantown, West Virginia. National Research Council post-doctoral position. Conducted basic research regarding the shape of single coal particles in an electrodynamic balance.

8/90-4/94 Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania. Research Assistant in Upward Flame Spread Laboratory.

6/90-8/90 Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania. Graduate Lecturer for summer session of undergraduate thermal sciences course for non-mechanical engineering majors.

9/89-5/90 Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania. Teaching Assistant for the undergraduate fluid mechanics and thermodynamics courses.

8/85-8/89 General Motors Corporation, Warren, Michigan. Project Engineer, Aerodynamic Laboratory of the CPE Division of General Motors.

8/83-7/85 Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, Oklahoma. Research Assistant, Teaching Assistant for undergraduate dynamics course.

5/83-8/83 Cadillac Motor Car Company, Detroit, Michigan. Summer Intern in the Engine Laboratory.

5/81-8/82 Detroit Diesel, Allison, Indianapolis, Indiana. Summer Intern, Quality Assurance and Gage Engineering Groups.

HONORS AND AWARDS

1992, 1993 General Electric Forgivable Doctoral LoanMarch 1993 Visiting Researcher, Building Research Institute, Tsukuba

RELEVANT EXPERIENCE

PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZATIONS AND COMMITTEES

American Society of Mechanical EngineersAmerican Society for Engineering EducationAmerican Society of Heating, Refrigeration, and Air Conditioning Engineers

RESEARCH GRANTS

Dates Amount Sponsor Description

1/98-12/98 $10,864 Cummins Engine Corporation

Modeling, Analysis and Design Optimization of a Torque Oulsation Cancellation Device

7/96-6/97 $3,000 U of L President’s Research Initiative

Computer-Facilitated Measurement of Flame Heights

SERVICE ACTIVITIES

Faculty advisor, ASHRAE Student ChapterMechanical Engineering Curriculum CommitteeJ.B. Speed School Cooperative Education CommitteeWomen and Minorities in Engineering Advisory Board

RECENT PUBLICATIONS AND SCHOLARLY ACHIEVEMENTS

Hurt, R.H., Lunden, M.M., Brehob, E.G., and Maloney, D.J., “Statistical Kinetics for Pulverized Coal Combustion,” Twenty-Sixth Symposium on Combustion/The Com - bustion Institute, 1996, 3169-3177.

Brehob, E.G. and Kulkarni, A.K., “Time-Dependent Mass Loss Rate Behavior of Wall Materials Under External Radiation,” Fire and Materials, 1993, 17, 249-254.

Thomas, F.O. and Brehob, E.G., “An Investigation of Large-Scale Structures in the Similiarity Region of a Two-Dimensional Turbulent Jet,” Physics of Fluids, 1986, 29, 1788-1795.

“Upward Flame Spread on a Vertical Wall with External Radiation,” First ISHMT-ASME Heat and Mass Transfer Conference, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Bombay, India, January 1994.

“Experiments on Turbulent Upward Flame Spread Under External Radiation,” Annual Conference on Fire Research (NISTIR 4924), Rockville, MD, October 1992.

“Measurement of Transient Local Mass Loss Rate of Masonite Under External Radiation,” Eastern Section of the Combustion Institute, Ithaca, NY, October 1991.

MECHANICAL ENGINEERING COMPUTER-AIDED DESIGN STUDIO

108c Sackett HallDirector: Michael L. Day, Ph.D.

This new, state of the art facility was established in 1996-97 academic year using a $150,000 University of Louisville instructional infrastructure grant, Mechanical Engineering Department research release funds, and corporate gifts. The Design Studio supports research and instruction in computer-aided design and analysis. It consists of an 18 station instructional facility, a walk-in microcomputer laboratory, and a breakout room for use by design teams. Hardware includes:

1 Pentium Pro 200 server with 128Mb RAM and 8.5 Gb drive space 24 Pentium Pro 200 PCs with 64 Mb RAM and 2.0 Gb hard drives 7 Pentium II 350 MHz PCs Hewlett Packard Scanjet 4c scanner Lexmark Optra N laser printer Lexmark Optra SC 1275 color laser printer Iomega 100Mb Zip drive

The Design Studio software suite includes Microsoft Office Professional 97 (Word, Excel, Access, Project, etc.), Microsoft Developer Studio (Visual Basic 5.0, Visual C++, Visual J++, etc.), Microsoft FORTRAN Powerstation 4.0, AutoDesk AutoCAD LT, SolidWorks, SDRC Ideas, Cadsi DADS, Algore 2.0, MathCad 4.0, Netscape Navigator 4.0 and Paint Shop Pro.

DAHLEM COMPUTER-AIDED ENGINEERING LABORATORY

203 Vogt BuildingSystem Administrator: Martin F. Reidling

The Vogt Computer-Aided Engineering Center supports the instructional and research missions of the Speed Scientific School by providing appropriate computational resources through the Dahlem Computer-Aided Design Laboratory. Users of the Laboratory have access to the University's communications network, which includes Speed Scientific School HP-UNIX and VAX clusters, the University of Louisville VAXcluster, and the University of Louisville IBM mainframe system.

Hewlett-Packard Unix Workstation Cluster The primary computing resource for the engineering school is a Hewlett-Packard Unix workstation cluster that is served by the Computer-Aided Engineering Lab (CAEL). This cluster consists of one HP 755 file server and 10 HP 735 satellite workstations used as compute servers. In addition, there are approximately 60 HP X-terminal graphic display units attached to the cluster. Each CPU's performance is 124 MIPS and 40 MFLOPS with 96 MB of memory. The total combined compute power of this cluster is 1364 MIPS and 440 MFLOPS. There is a total disk space of 23 gigabytes for software and user space.

The CAEL houses the server, 4 of the satellite compute servers, and 30 high performance X-terminals. A dedicated instruction facility with one instructor HP compute server and 12 X-terminals is maintained for interactive training and classroom instruction. The remainder of the equipment is distributed throughout the various engineering departments in departmental computing laboratories. A choice of output devices from line printers, to laser printers, to high resolution color Postscript printers is available.

The cluster has a wide variety of installed software, serving many different research and instructional needs. A partial listing of applications follows:

Finite Element Packages: ANSYS, MSC/NASTRAN, Abaqus Mechanical Design Software: SDRC I-DEAS Master Series, AutoCad C-Plex Injection Molding Simulation: CMOLD Simulation Software: SimScript, ModSim, DADS Mathematics Software: Maple, Mathematica, TK Solver, IMSL Development Tools: SoftBench Electrical Design and Simulations: Mentor Graphics, SPICE, MAGIC Computational Fluid Dynamics: Fluent Compilers and Languages: FORTRAN, C, C++, Pascal

Novell PC Network The Novell PC network utilizes a Hewlett-Packard 715/50 and a 715/33 as file servers running portable netware. There are 10 Pentium-class IBM personal computers attached to this system, along with a large number of software packages for engineering, analysis, design, and personal productivity.