Thermodynamic modeling of solder melting and solidification for proposed squishbot design

Abstract

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.