Other Engineering Science and Materials Commons^™

Task-Based Approach To Define Occupant Behaviour In Agent-Based Modelling, Kelly Jo Kalvelage, Michael C. Dorneich, Ulrike Passe, Caroline C. Krejci

Ulrike Passe

This paper presents a development approach and design of a task-centered agent-based model (ABM) to represent the interactions of occupants with a commercial office building. The model is built with the understanding that occupant behaviour is driven by tasks the occupant performs. A contextual task analysis questionnaire explored occupant perspectives on the interactions between their tasks, their individual behaviour and comfort, and the physical characteristics of their workspace. This task-based information defines five ABM elements that represent occupants, task and workspace environment, task list, occupant actions, and the impact of the occupant-workspace interaction on tasks. An example of an occupant ...

The Development Of A Vacuum Forming System For Kydex® And Other Thermoplastic Sheet, Andrew G. Smith

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Vacuum forming is a popular, cost effective method amongst large and small scale applications. The method is used to mold a material to the surface of a mold/pattern in order to create a negative copy for reproduction or an object in positive form. The prototype vacuum forming system developed and documented herein is of a membrane-seal type that consists of three (3) principle parts: radial platen, Hinged Frame and Platen Support Assembly, and a PVC surge tank. Each part is described in detail through design, manufacturing, and testing processes. The design supports functional versatility, small scale molding, and uses ...

Developments And Properties Of Plastic Mimicking Biopolymers For Food Packaging Application, Daniel I. Hefft

Journal of Applied Packaging Research

Sustainability takes an ever increasing importance in the food industry. Here not only the selection of raw materials plays a role, but also packaging materials. Nowadays there is an increasing number of biodegradable and bio-compostable packaging materials available.

However, these materials are still not able to replace mineral oil based packaging materials completely, nevertheless they are becoming increasingly important, since there must be solutions to problems such as pollution of the oceans by plastic waste, growing piles of rubbish from growing population, etc.

The following literature review shows briefly recent developments on plastic mimicking biopolymers, as these materials guarantee great ...

Clarity Of Microstamped Identifiers As A Function Of Primer Hardness And Type Of Firearm Action, L. Scott Chumbley, J. Kreiser, T. Lizotte, O. Ohar, T. Grieve, B. King, David J. Eisenmann

David Eisenmann

The transfer of microstamped identifiers to the primers of fired cartridges was examined using a stereomicroscope and scanning electron microscope (SEM). The identifiers were placed on the firing pins of three different 9mm handguns, namely, a Sig Sauer, a Taurus, and a Hi-Point. Ten different brands of ammunition were fired from each handgun, 100 rounds being fired using each brand for a total of 1000 rounds fired per handgun. The quality of the markings was evaluated using a simple observation rubric. These results were compared to Vickers hardness values obtained from the ammunition primers and are discussed in light of ...

Software For Extracting Deformation Gradient And Stress From Md Simulations: Simulations Using The Charmm Force Field, Mehrdad Negahban, Lili Zhang, Zesheng Zhang, John Jasa, Antoine Jérusalem

Mechanical & Materials Engineering Faculty Publications

Software was developed, and is provided under a general use license, to calculate continuum level deformation gradient and stress for any group of atoms in an MD simulation that uses the Charmm force fields. This software can also calculate the interaction stress applied by one group of atoms on any other group. To obtain deformation gradient and stress, the user needs to provide the selected group(s) of atoms in an atom group identification file, and provide the associated LAMMPS format files and force field parameter file. An example is included to demonstrate the use of the software.

Adsorption Of Salicylhydroxamic Acid On Selected Rare Earth Oxides And Carbonates, Greer Galt

Graduate Theses & Non-Theses

Adsorption behavior of the anionic collector salicylhydroxamic acid (SHA) on a selected group of rare earth oxides (REOs) and carbonates (RECs) was studied via experimental methods and modelling software. Synthetic oxide and carbonate powders of the rare earth elements cerium (Ce), praseodymium (Pr), europium (Eu), and terbium (Tb) were tested for this research. Studies were conducted at different pH levels to analyze the kinetics of collector adsorption onto the oxide and carbonate surfaces in attempts to optimize recovery parameters for commercial flotation processes using SHA. In addition, thermodynamic software StabCal was implemented to compare theoretical adsorption behavior of collectors SHA ...

Task-Based Approach To Define Occupant Behaviour In Agent-Based Modelling, Kelly Jo Kalvelage, Michael C. Dorneich, Ulrike Passe, Caroline C. Krejci

Michael C. Dorneich

This paper presents a development approach and design of a task-centered agent-based model (ABM) to represent the interactions of occupants with a commercial office building. The model is built with the understanding that occupant behaviour is driven by tasks the occupant performs. A contextual task analysis questionnaire explored occupant perspectives on the interactions between their tasks, their individual behaviour and comfort, and the physical characteristics of their workspace. This task-based information defines five ABM elements that represent occupants, task and workspace environment, task list, occupant actions, and the impact of the occupant-workspace interaction on tasks. An example of an occupant ...

The Effect Of Creasing Lines On The Compression Strength Of Adjustable Height Corrugated Boxes, Péter Csavajda, Péter Böröcz, Ákos Mojzes, Bence Molnár

Journal of Applied Packaging Research

Due to its high strength and low density, the corrugated fibreboard (CFB) box is one of the most popular types of packaging all over the world. This packaging device is able to fulfil a huge number of requirements of the logistic process, during the phases of handling, shipping and storage. In addition to this, corrugated packaging is easily machinable, so it is also suitable for special supply chains and products. These special needs include the requirement to fit to the inner measurements of the shipping device, e.g. the shipping container. This is particularly expected in case of less than ...

Quantification Of Re-Absorption And Re-Emission Processes To Determine Photon Recycling Efficiency In Perovskite Single Crystals, Yanjun Fang, Haotong Wei, Qingfeng Dong, Jinsong Huang

Mechanical & Materials Engineering Faculty Publications

Photon recycling, that is, iterative self-absorption and re-emission by the photoactive layer itself, has been speculated to contribute to the high open-circuit voltage in several types of high efficiency solar cells. For organic–inorganic halide perovskites that have yielded highly efficient photovoltaic devices, however, it remains unclear whether the photon recycling effect is significant enough to improve solar cell efficiency. Here we quantitatively evaluate the re-absorption and re-emission processes to determine photon recycling efficiency in hybrid perovskite with its single crystals by measuring the ratio of the re-emitted photons to the initially excited photons, which is realized by modulating their ...

Flowtaxis Of Osteoblast Migration Under Fluid Shear And The Effect Of Rhoa Kinase Silencing, Brandon D. Riehl, Jeong Soon Lee, Ligyeom Ha, Il Keun Kwon, Jung Yul Lim

Mechanical & Materials Engineering Faculty Publications

Despite the important role of mechanical signals in bone remodeling, relatively little is known about how fluid shear affects osteoblastic cell migration behavior. Here we demonstrated that MC3T3-E1 osteoblast migration could be activated by physiologically-relevant levels of fluid shear in a shear stress-dependent manner. Interestingly, shear-sensitive osteoblast migration behavior was prominent only during the initial period after the onset of the steady flow (for about 30 min), exhibiting shear stress-dependent migration speed, displacement, arrest coefficient, and motility coefficient. For example, cell speed at 1 min was 0.28, 0.47, 0.51, and 0.84 μm min^-1 for static ...

Atomically Informed Nonlocal Semidiscrete Variational Peierls-Nabarro Model For Planar Core Dislocations, Guisen Liu, Xi Cheng, Jian Wang, Kaiguo Chen, Yao Shen

Mechanical & Materials Engineering Faculty Publications

Prediction of Peierls stress associated with dislocation glide is of fundamental concern in understanding and designing the plasticity and mechanical properties of crystalline materials. Here, we develop a nonlocal semi-discrete variational Peierls-Nabarro (SVPN) model by incorporating the nonlocal atomic interactions into the semi-discrete variational Peierls framework. The nonlocal kernel is simplified by limiting the nonlocal atomic interaction in the nearest neighbor region, and the nonlocal coefficient is directly computed from the dislocation core structure. Our model is capable of accurately predicting the displacement profile, and the Peierls stress, of planar-extended core dislocations in face-centered cubic structures. Our model could be ...

High Temperature Near-Field Nanothermomechanical Rectification, Mahmoud Elzouka, Sidy Ndao

Mechanical & Materials Engineering Faculty Publications

Limited performance and reliability of electronic devices at extreme temperatures, intensive electromagnetic fields, and radiation found in space exploration missions (i.e., Venus & Jupiter planetary exploration, and heliophysics missions) and earth-based applications requires the development of alternative computing technologies. In the pursuit of alternative technologies, research efforts have looked into developing thermal memory and logic devices that use heat instead of electricity to perform computations. However, most of the proposed technologies operate at room or cryogenic temperatures, due to their dependence on material’s temperature-dependent properties. Here in this research, we show experimentally—for the first time—the use of ...

Low-Drag Events In Transitional Wall-Bounded Turbulence, Richard D. Whalley, Jae Sung Park, Anubhav Kushwaha, David J.C. Dennis, Michael D. Graham, Robert J. Poole

Mechanical & Materials Engineering Faculty Publications

Intermittency of low-drag pointwise wall shear stress measurements within Newtonian turbulent channel flow at transitional Reynolds numbers (friction Reynolds numbers 70 – 130) is characterized using experiments and simulations. Conditional mean velocity profiles during low-drag events closely approach that of a recently discovered nonlinear traveling wave solution; both profiles are near the so-called maximum drag reduction profile, a general feature of turbulent flow of liquids containing polymer additives (despite the fact that all results presented are for Newtonian fluids only). Similarities between temporal intermittency in small domains and spatiotemporal intermittency in large domains is thereby found.

Fluid-Structure Interaction In Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm: Effect Of Modeling Techniques, Shengmao Lin, Xinwei Han, Yonghua Bi, Siyeong Ju, Linxia Gu

Mechanical & Materials Engineering Faculty Publications

In this work, the impact of modeling techniques on predicting the mechanical behaviors of abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) is systematically investigated. The fluid-structure interaction (FSI) model for simultaneously capturing the transient interaction between blood flow dynamics and wall mechanics was compared with its simplified techniques, that is, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) or computational solid stress (CSS) model. Results demonstrated that CFD exhibited relatively smaller vortexes and tends to overestimate the fluid wall shear stress, compared to FSI. On the contrary, the minimal differences in wall stresses and deformation were observed between FSI and CSS models. Furthermore, it was found that ...

The Effect Of A Powered Ankle Foot Orthosis On Walking In A Stroke Subject: A Case Study, Ali Pourghasem, Ismail Ebrahimi Takamjani, Mohammad Taghi Karimi, Mohammad Kamali, Mohammad Jannesari, Iman Salafian

Mechanical & Materials Engineering Faculty Publications

[Purpose] Standing and walking are impaired in stroke patients. Therefore, assisted devices are required to restore their walking abilities. The ankle foot orthosis with an external powered source is a new type of orthosis. The aim of this study was to evaluate the performance of a powered ankle foot orthosis compared with unpowered orthoses in a stroke patient.

[Subjects and Methods] A single stroke subject participated in this study. The subject was fitted with three types of ankle foot orthosis (powered, posterior leg spring, and carbon ankle foot orthoses). He was asked to walk with and without the three types ...

Self-Patterning Gd Nano-Fibers In Mg-Gd Alloys, Yangxin Li, Jian Wang, Kaiguo Chen, Meiyue Shao, Yao Shen, Li Jin, Guo-Zhen Zhu

Mechanical & Materials Engineering Faculty Publications

Manipulating the shape and distribution of strengthening units, e.g. particles, fibers, and precipitates, in a bulk metal, has been a widely applied strategy of tailoring their mechanical properties. Here, we report self-assembled patterns of Gd nano-fibers in Mg-Gd alloys for the purpose of improving their strength and deformability. 1-nm Gd nano-fibers, with a 〈c〉-rod shape, are formed and hexagonally patterned in association with Gd segregations along dislocations that nucleated during hot extrusion. Such Gd-fiber patterns are able to regulate the relative activities of slips and twinning, as a result, overcome the inherent limitations in strength and ductility of ...

Structure-Property Relationships Of Polyisobutylene-Block-Polyamide Thermoplastic Elastomers, Morgan Dunn Heskett

Master's Theses

Thermoplastic elastomers (TPEs) are a class of polymer fit for a wide variety of applications due to their customizability. In the synthesis of these types of materials, an elastically-performing polymer, deemed the “soft block,” is combined with a stiffer “hard block” polymer, each of which can be selected based on their own specific properties in order to achieve desired material behavior in the final copolymer. Recently, the use of polyisobutylene as a soft block in combination with a polyamide hard block has been investigated for use in TPE synthesis. While the material showed some promising behavior, many properties were still ...

Video Capture And Post-Processing Technique For Approximating 3d Projectile Trajectory, Chase M. Pfeifer, Judith M. Burnfield, Guilherme M. Cesar, Max H. Twedt, Jeff A. Hawks

Mechanical & Materials Engineering Faculty Publications

In this paper we introduce a low-cost procedure and methodology for markerless projectile tracking in three-dimensional (3D) space. Understanding the 3D trajectory of an object in flight can often be essential in examining variables relating to launch and landing conditions. Many systems exist to track the 3D motion of projectiles but are often constrained by space or the type of object the system can recognize (Qualisys, Göteborg, Sweden; Vicon, Oxford, United Kingdom; Opti-Track, Corvallis, Oregon USA; Motion Analysis, Santa Rosa, California USA; Flight Scope, Orlando, Florida USA). These technologies can also be quite expensive, often costing hundreds of thousand dollars ...

On The Microstructure And Properties Of The Pmig Welding Joint Of A7n01 Aluminum Alloy Enhanced By Supersonic Wave And Aging, Tainquan Liang, Qiumei Qin, Xiaomei Mo, Xiaolian Zhao, Jianmin Zeng

The 8th International Conference on Physical and Numerical Simulation of Materials Processing

No abstract provided.

Simulation Investigation Of Temperature Distribution In Large Aluminium Panel During Autoclave Age Forming Process, Yongqian Xu

The 8th International Conference on Physical and Numerical Simulation of Materials Processing

No abstract provided.