The research projects listed below are available only to McGill graduate students who are registered in the Mechanical Engineering Master's Non-Thesis program. If you are interested in one of these projects, please send an expression of interest to the contact email provided. Although we do our best to keep this list up to date, some projects may no longer be available.
If you are a professor who would like to add or remove a MEng Non-Thesis project, please complete the MEng Non-Thesis project posting form.
Project #1
The term(s) to begin the project: Fall 2019
Project Title: Development of a new LVAD (Left Ventricular Assist Device)
Brief Project Description:
Heart failure is a serious cardiovascular disease associated with an important death rate. The gold standard of treatment of end stage heart failure is transplantation. Given the severe shortage of potential organ donors, mechanical pumps have been developed for long term support. A novel hubless ventricular assist device is presented in order to reduce the potential of blood damage caused by shear stress levels. The concept is assessed using numerical simulations and experimental tests reproducing the physiological flow conditions.
Supervisor: Rosaire Mongrain
Contact Email: rosaire.mongrain [at] mcgill.ca
Project #2
The term(s) to begin the project: Fall 2019
Project Title: Development of viscoelastic graft
Brief Project Description:
Current synthetic vascular implants are fabricated using standard textile manufacturing techniques such as weaving, knitting, braiding and exhibit negligible viscoelastic and bi-directional capabilities. An artery shows a very low stress response at low pressures and exhibits a steep increase as the pressure is increased. On the other hand, a woven Dacron graft exhibits a linear response with low deformation. The viscoelasticity property influences the hemodynamic behavior and assist in attenuating forward pressure pulses. The project aims at investigating new materials to bio-mimic the viscoelastic properties of native tissue.
Supervisor: Rosaire Mongrain
Contact Email: rosaire.mongrain [at] mcgill.ca
Project #3
The term(s) to begin the project: Fall 2019 or Winter 2020
Project Title: Manufaturability evaluation tool development for powder bed fusion (PBF) additive manufacturing process
Brief Project Description:
In collaboration with aerospace industry partners and material experts, this project requests the student to establish the manufacturability index for PBF process and develop feature recognition algorithms for each listed indexed geometric feature. Eventually, the student needs to implement the algorithms in the form of software or executable Matlab code.
Supervisor: Yaoyao Fiona Zhao
Contact Email: yaoyao.zhao [at] mcgill.ca
Project #4
The term(s) to begin the project: Winter 2020
Project Title: Manufacturability database development for Laser-Powder Bed Fusion (LPBF) Additive Manufacturing processes
Brief Project Description: This project will mainly focus on creating the database for the Laser-based powder bed fusion (LPBF) process. LPBF process is a type of additive manufacturing process which is able to produce complex metal geometries. Comparing to the conventional manufacturing process, LPBF offers more freedom on the shape complexity and hierarchical complexity of the parts it can fabricate. Even though the LPBF process has many advantages, there are still many constraints on LPBF. Process parameters and design characteristics are the two aspects which significantly affect the LPBF process. Even though there are many studies related to the LPBF which have been conducted in the past years, due to the lack of communication, results such as experimental data and key findings cannot be well organized. For this project, the major task is to create a database management system for the LPBF process. Valuable LPBF data on both design and process aspects need to be defined and gathered. How to eliminate data redundancy, ensure data accuracy, and unify data formats need to be considered as well. The corresponding implementation on helping to develop the data-set is expected.
Supervisor: Yaoyao Fiona Zhao
Contact Email: yaoyao.zhao [at] mcgill.ca
Project #5
The term(s) to begin the project: Fall 2021
Project Title: Computational Fluid Dynamics Analysis of a Gas Turbine Engine Test Cell
Brief Project Description: The objective of this research project is to investigate the aerodynamic and acoustic performance of a kinetic energy recovery (KER) system for engine test cells. The primary role of a jet engine test cell (JETC) is to create the necessary environment to conduct a comprehensive list of performance tests for gas turbine engines for a multitude of flight conditions. A number of performance parameters are monitored throughout the engine test campaign where the engine thrust is the dominant parameter that must be measured to a high degree of accuracy. The engine test campaign requires an extensive number of test hours and jet fuel to certify that the final design complies with the original design specifications. Current JETCs do not have the means to recuperate the lost energy during the test and hence an investigation of the proposed kinetic energy recovery system has the potential to recover a portion of the lost energy.
The primary objective will entail a study of the proper location of the KER to maximize energy extraction while examining the aerodynamic and acoustic performance of the JETC with no negative impact on the engine performance. It is also important to ensure that the presence of the KER guarantees that the test conditions are repeatable and thus measurements will remain unaffected. The KER system can be located in three general locations within a JETC. As part of the study, we will investigate a suitable design for the turbine. The deliverable will be a detailed report on the KER system, a basic outline on the type of turbine and a feasibility study on its location as well as aerodynamic and acoustic performance.
Supervisor: Siva Nadarajah
Contact Email: siva.nadarajah [at] mcgill.ca
Project #6
The term(s) to begin the project: Winter 2022
Project Title: Lunar mining and construction
Brief Project Description:
We are looking for two MEng students who would be interested in partnering with 2 students form the Blekinge University of Technology in Sweden to form a 4-member team that will design an integrated mining and construction equipment platform for the lunar environment.
The international collaborative interdisciplinary project is championed by the Canadian Space Mining Company (CSMC) and will be conducted over a year, most likely from January 2022 to December 2022. Students are advised that this is a tentative time schedule, which still needs to be confirmed; at this point we are requesting indication of interest to engage in discussions.
Supervisor: Michael Kokkolaras
Contact Email: michael.kokkolaras [at] mcgill.ca