Mechanical engineer,
engineered for performance
under real-world load.

My role: Led runner sizing and the overall turbine design within a 3-member team, covering the hydraulic and geometric calculations that defined the rest of the system.

Problem: Rural communities near small rivers often have real hydraulic potential but rely on diesel generators or biomass, since most turbine technologies are too costly or unsuited to low-head, silt-heavy conditions.

Why crossflow: Compared against Pelton (needs >50 m head — impractical for rural sites) and Kaplan (high efficiency but complex, precision-dependent, and cavitation-prone), the crossflow topology was selected for its low-to-medium head range, basic local maintainability, and low cost.

• Hydraulic sizing — power availability calculated from P = ρ·g·Q·H, with runner outer/inner diameter derived from the target rotational speed and standard diameter ratio.
• Blade geometry — jet attack angle α = 16°, giving a blade angle β₁ ≈ 30°, per standard crossflow design relations.
• Runner fabrication — 20 blades formed by longitudinally cutting schedule-40 stainless steel pipe (4-inch diameter) into quarter-pipe segments, keeping fabrication local and low-cost.
• Power transmission — belt-and-pulley drive matching the turbine's low rotational speed to a 10 kW alternator running at 1500 RPM.

Status: Design and analysis complete as a Machine Design course proposal; physical fabrication is the next planned phase.

Conversion approach: Adapted a standard gasoline engine to run on biogas by replacing the carburetor with a gas-mixing (venturi-type) valve suited to biogas's lower calorific value and slower flame speed.

• Ignition timing — advanced to compensate for methane's slower combustion rate relative to gasoline.
• Compression ratio — evaluated against the engine's baseline setting to balance knock resistance with achievable power output.
• Fuel delivery — sized the mixer and intake path for biogas's lower energy density, accounting for the power derating typical of gasoline-to-biogas conversions.
• Target output — 5 kW continuous power generation from the converted unit.

Problem: Kenya's reliance on wood charcoal for household cooking drives deforestation and emissions, while coffee husks — a large-volume processing byproduct — are largely discarded rather than reused.

Approach: Coffee husks are carbonized and formed into briquettes with a suitable binder using a fabricated briquetting machine, then evaluated against key fuel-performance properties:

• Calorific value
• Moisture and ash content
• Ignition time and burning rate
• Combustion duration, benchmarked against traditional wood charcoal

Goal: A durable, energy-saving briquette that cuts agricultural waste and reduces reliance on charcoal from wood, supporting renewable energy and sustainable use of agricultural residues.

Concept: Re-Block addresses two problems at once — Kenya's growing plastic waste crisis and the structural shortcomings of traditional concrete masonry — by converting recycled LDPE and sand into interlocking tiles via a proprietary extrusion process operating at 180–220°C.

• Structural performance — 35 MPa compressive strength, meeting industrial load-bearing standards.
• Durability — near-zero water absorption, preventing the cracking, moss growth, and salt dampness common in concrete.
• Logistics — 25% lighter than concrete equivalents, enabling higher transport payloads and faster, mortar-less installation.
• Geometry — a specialized "S-Curve" interlocking profile for structural stability under heavy vehicle traffic.

Design approach: Sized a rotor-based crushing mechanism to break down maize cobs before compacting the residue into a denser, more usable output — commonly repurposed as livestock feed or briquette feedstock.

• Crushing stage — hammer/blade rotor sized for the required cob throughput and drive torque.
• Compaction stage — chamber sized to densify crushed material into a compact, transportable form.
• Structural frame — designed to handle combined crushing and compaction loads within a practical cost budget for on-farm use.

Brief: 78.5 kW drive, reducing 1200 rpm input to 155 rpm output — a 7.7419:1 ratio — at a minimum Factor of Safety of 2.0, 20,000-hour service life, and 95% reliability.

• Kinematic synthesis — split the ratio across two gear stages in a compound reverted layout, solving tooth counts (20 / 75 / 31 / 64) to satisfy the coaxial center-distance constraint (295 mm).
• AGMA gear stress analysis — verified bending and contact stress on every mesh, factoring in dynamic, load-distribution, and overload effects.
• Shaft design & fatigue analysis — sized the input, intermediate, and output shafts (AISI 1050 CD) against combined bending/torsional fatigue, achieving FOS 2.04–2.45 across all three.
• Bearing selection — thrust roller bearings sized for a 20,000-hour L10 life.
• CAD verification — modeled the full assembly in SolidWorks, including a cast-iron housing sized for manufacturability.

Lower-limb prostheses are built around three core elements — a custom socket, a structural pylon, and articulating joint components — with alignment between them being the single biggest factor in comfort, stability, and gait efficiency.

• Socket design — modeled to closely match residual-limb geometry, since fit quality directly affects load distribution and wearer comfort.
• Alignment — socket, pylon, and foot positioned to support a natural gait through heel strike, stance, and toe-off, balancing stability against mobility.
• Structural validation — modeled under simulated gait loading to verify the assembly can withstand cyclic stance-phase forces without failure, in line with standard lower-limb prosthetic testing principles.

Internal flow behavior was evaluated using SolidWorks Flow Simulation's finite-volume CFD solver, which meshes the actual fluid volume inside the tank rather than the solid geometry.

• Turbulence modeling — resolved via SolidWorks' built-in k-ε model, standard for internal flow at typical process-tank Reynolds numbers.
• Boundary conditions — inlet flow rate/velocity and outlet pressure defined to represent real operating conditions.
• Outputs analyzed — velocity distribution, pressure drop, and flow trajectory, used to assess dead zones and mixing behavior.
• Design feedback loop — results informed inlet/outlet placement and internal geometry to improve flow uniformity.

Thermal performance was evaluated by simulating conduction through the heat sink body and convective heat loss from the fin surfaces, a standard approach for electronics-cooling design in SolidWorks.

• Material selection — trade-off between aluminum (lighter, lower cost) and copper (higher thermal conductivity, heavier) evaluated for the application.
• Fin geometry — height, thickness, and spacing sized to maximize surface area while keeping airflow resistance manageable.
• Convection mode — analyzed under natural convection, where fin spacing must be wider than in forced-air designs to avoid restricting buoyancy-driven airflow.
• Output — temperature distribution across the base and fins, used to identify hotspots and verify the design meets the target thermal load.