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2016

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Robostock: Autonomous Inventory Tracking, Drew Christian Balthazor Dec 2016

Robostock: Autonomous Inventory Tracking, Drew Christian Balthazor

Computer Engineering

No abstract provided.

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Harmful Algal Blooms And Biological Toxins Productions; From Integrated Monitoring Approach To On-Site Solar Photocatalytic Decomposition, Hesam Zaman Khan Malayeri Dec 2016

Harmful Algal Blooms And Biological Toxins Productions; From Integrated Monitoring Approach To On-Site Solar Photocatalytic Decomposition, Hesam Zaman Khan Malayeri

Civil Engineering Dissertations

Occurrence of Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs) worldwide has caused concern to environmental and health authorities because of their potential to generate and release biological toxins. In particular, microcystins (MCs) produced from cyanobacteria are of great concern. MCs are among the most powerful natural poisons. The presence of MCs in drinking water sources has raised major concern. The overall goal of this research is to predict formation of biological toxins in water bodies and to develop a new sustainable approach to decompose them, if feasible, on-site and in real-time with minimal efforts, less chemicals, and low energy inputs. In order to …

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Laboratory Evaluation Of Tx- Prochem As An Ionic Liquid Stabilizer, Esmat Tavakoli Dec 2016

Laboratory Evaluation Of Tx- Prochem As An Ionic Liquid Stabilizer, Esmat Tavakoli

Civil Engineering Theses

Chemical treatment of pavement and foundation soil was conducted to improve workability during compaction, to increase the strength and stiffness of a foundation layer, and to reduce potential shrink and swell due to moisture changes and/or frost action. In this study, a commercial liquid ionic stabilizer (Tx ProChem) was evaluated based on its effectiveness to reduce swell potential and improve the strength of Texas expansive clay. This study also evaluated selected, representative liquid chemical stabilizers’ effect on expansive clay soil. The research presented herein assesses how much the chemical treatments changed the relevant engineering properties of the test soil as …

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Effect Of Tio2/Uv-Led Operational Parameters On The Degradation Of Pharmaceuticals In Water, Burhanuddin Khuzema Zaveri Dec 2016

Effect Of Tio2/Uv-Led Operational Parameters On The Degradation Of Pharmaceuticals In Water, Burhanuddin Khuzema Zaveri

Civil Engineering Theses

The presence of pharmaceutical residues in water resources has alarmed water and health authorities. Among many treatment technologies for pharmaceuticals, ultraviolet (UV)-based oxidation has gained significant attention because it is capable of decomposing a variety of recalcitrant and toxic chemicals. As an alternative UV source to problematic conventional mercury lamps, light-emitting diode (LED) has shown many advantages for water treatment applications, so-called UV-LED. The overall goal of this study is to evaluate the high potential of the UV-LED technology to treat water contaminated with pharmaceuticals including sulfamethoxazole, ibuprofen, and triclosan. In particular, important operational parameters were investigated, including UV wavelength, …

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Multi-Modality Magnetic Resonance Imaging In Typical And Atypical Developmental Human Brain, Minhui Ouyang Dec 2016

Multi-Modality Magnetic Resonance Imaging In Typical And Atypical Developmental Human Brain, Minhui Ouyang

Bioengineering Dissertations

Human brain development is structurally and functionally a nonlinear process and even with the tremendous advancements in the field of neuroimaging based on Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) several significant questions remain un-answered. Although brain change and adaption are part of a lifelong process, the earliest phases of maturation, especially from birth to early childhood, are perhaps the most dramatic and important. During this early developmental period, the structural and functional organization of the brain are continuously shaped by a combination of synaptogenesis, dendritic arborization, myelination and synaptic pruning. The current research aims to use more recently developed MRI techniques of …

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Shear Investigation Of Polypropylene Fiber-Reinforced Concrete Beams, Ehsan Navadeh Dec 2016

Shear Investigation Of Polypropylene Fiber-Reinforced Concrete Beams, Ehsan Navadeh

Civil Engineering Theses

This study investigates the effect of macro-synthetic polypropylene fibers on the shear strength and failure behavior of longitudinally reinforced concrete beams with and/ or without transverse reinforcement. Eight large-scale were constructed, cured and tested at Civil Engineering Laboratory Building (CELB). This includes flexural reinforced concrete beams without transverse reinforcement (RC), reinforced concrete beam with minimum transverse reinforcement (RCS), 0.5% volume macro-synthetic polypropylene fiber-reinforced concrete beams without stirrups (SNFRC 0.5%), and 0.75% macro-synthetic polypropylene-fiber reinforced concrete beams without stirrups (SNFRC 0.75%). During production of large-scale beams, 19 Cylinders and 9 small-scale beams were produced from the same mix-design and cured for …

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Effect Of Manures On Food Waste Degradation In Biocell, Md Nur Basit Zaman Dec 2016

Effect Of Manures On Food Waste Degradation In Biocell, Md Nur Basit Zaman

Civil Engineering Theses

Proper disposal of food waste is a challenge due to adverse effect on the environment through generation of excessive leachate and greenhouse gas (CH4). After food loss through the food supply chain, the food waste ends up mostly in landfills. A study by EPA showed food waste to be the second largest component found in landfill. However, food waste imposes major cost on landfill management, and demands a potential alternative disposal solution that can negate the adverse effects. Though anaerobic digester and composting are possible solutions for food waste disposal, the former is highly expensive while in later solution, a …

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Study Of Parameters Impacting Productivity Of Tunnel Boring Machines, Hamed Hashem Pour Dec 2016

Study Of Parameters Impacting Productivity Of Tunnel Boring Machines, Hamed Hashem Pour

Civil Engineering Theses

Tunnel construction has been on the rise for transportation of humans, freight and fluids. For a successful tunneling project, it is necessary for that tunneling contractors to have sufficient data about scope of work, project features and characteristics of the ground to estimate advance rate of the a tunnel boring machine (TBM). The main objective of this thesis is to study tunneling case studies and literature to analyze TBM productivity based on ground conditions, diameter and length of each project. Project data was tabulated and results are reported in this thesis. The methodology to conduct this research was literature search …

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Investigation Of Fiber-Reinforced Concrete Crack Width Measurement By Finite Element Method, Sina Abhaee Dec 2016

Investigation Of Fiber-Reinforced Concrete Crack Width Measurement By Finite Element Method, Sina Abhaee

Civil Engineering Theses

This study presents numerical and experimental investigations of flexural cracking, post-cracking strength, and fracture energy of the dry-cast synthetic fiber reinforced concrete (FRC). Notched and un-notched beams for two fiber volume fractions were tested under flexural loading based on the recommendations of RILEM TC 162-TDF and ASTM C1609. The crack profile in terms of crack propagation and crack width, was assessed, using the two-dimensional digital image correlation (2D DIC) technique. Images of the specimen’s surface were captured during the test, and, surface deformation field was obtained by means of 2D DIC analysis. The nonlinear, 3D finite element method (FEM) modeling …

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Novel Approach For Selective Decomposition Of Target Water Contaminants Onto Porous Titanium Dioxide, Abolfazl Zakersalehi Dec 2016

Novel Approach For Selective Decomposition Of Target Water Contaminants Onto Porous Titanium Dioxide, Abolfazl Zakersalehi

Civil Engineering Dissertations

Manipulation of physical and chemical properties of matter with nanoscale precision will enhance our ability for fabrication of material with intended characteristics for environmental applications. In this study we presented two main frameworks for addressing non-selectivity issue in TiO2 photocatalysts, which is believed to be a major drawback in full-scale application of this technology. First, a purely physical approach for enhancing selectivity of nanostructured TiO2 photocatalysts toward water target contaminants have been achieved via tailor-designing meso-porous structure of TiO2. This simple, yet effective method is mainly based on size-exclusion as a mean toward preferential decomposition. It was hypothesized controlled mesoporous …

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Moisture Distribution Efficiency And Performance Evaluations Of Bioreactor Landfill Operations, Md Zahangir Alam Dec 2016

Moisture Distribution Efficiency And Performance Evaluations Of Bioreactor Landfill Operations, Md Zahangir Alam

Civil Engineering Dissertations

Bioreactor landfills are operated in a modern engineered way to accelerate waste decomposition, gas production, and waste stabilization. The major aspect of a bioreactor landfill operation is associated with the addition of supplemental liquid or leachate recirculation, and the effective operation primarily depends on efficient moisture distribution throughout the waste mass, which enhances performance. The performance of an effective landfill operation can be assessed by several indicators, i.e., leachate generation, gas production, and landfill settlement. Bioreactor landfill operations have several significant economic and environmental advantages, but the impact of efficient moisture distribution and the assessment of performance through combined indicators …

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Hydrocarbon Pool Fire Performance Of Fiber Reinforced Polymer (Frp) Strengthened And Thermally Insulated Bridge Girders, Eyosias Solomon Beneberu Dec 2016

Hydrocarbon Pool Fire Performance Of Fiber Reinforced Polymer (Frp) Strengthened And Thermally Insulated Bridge Girders, Eyosias Solomon Beneberu

Civil Engineering Dissertations

Highway bridges encounter various extreme load hazards, such as earthquake, flood, blast, collision, wind and fire during their design lives. The effect of accidental, natural or man-made fire on bridges is one of the least investigated which may be due to the assumption that bridge fire has a low probability of occurrence. However, a bridge failure survey showed that fire had caused more bridge collapse in the USA than earthquakes. The main objective of the current research is to study concrete bridges in general, and fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) strengthened bridge girders in particular against fire hazard. The research is …

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Life Cycle Assessment Of Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Traditional Air Pollutants, Water Depletion, And Cumulative Energy Demand From 2-Mw Wind Turbines In Texas, Ali Alsaleh Dec 2016

Life Cycle Assessment Of Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Traditional Air Pollutants, Water Depletion, And Cumulative Energy Demand From 2-Mw Wind Turbines In Texas, Ali Alsaleh

Civil Engineering Dissertations

¶One renewable energy source that has witnessed a significant growth in the recent years is wind energy, with the installation of new wind farms around the globe as well as the innovations in wind power technology, which have increased the efficiency of this source. Wind power generates electrical energy from the wind’s kinetic energy without causing emissions or pollution from power production; however, environmental effects are caused by the wind turbine manufacturing, transport, and other phases. Therefore, the overall goal of this study was to analyze the environmental effects associated with wind energy technology by taking into consideration the entire …

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Non-Invasive Measurement Of The Internal Temperature Of Heat-Generating Bodies, Dean Raymond Anthony Dec 2016

Non-Invasive Measurement Of The Internal Temperature Of Heat-Generating Bodies, Dean Raymond Anthony

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Theses

While the surface temperature of a heat-generating solid body can be measured using a variety of methods, there is a scarcity of techniques that exist for non-invasively measuring the temperature inside the solid body. Internal temperature measurement is very desirable as mere measurement of surface temperature gives no indication of the internal temperature. The highest temperature, usually located at the core of the body, dictates system performance and safety. For example, Li-ion cells provide good energy storage and conversion characteristics, but unfortunately suffer from safety problems related to overheating due to insufficient heat removal during operation. The following thesis presents …

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The Influence Of The Interaction Of Carbon Based Materials With Ionic Liquid On The Tribological Performance Of Lubricating Grease And Oil, Kimaya Vyavhare Dec 2016

The Influence Of The Interaction Of Carbon Based Materials With Ionic Liquid On The Tribological Performance Of Lubricating Grease And Oil, Kimaya Vyavhare

Material Science and Engineering Theses

Stringent government regulation on environment emissions and demand to develop energy efficient and durable modern mechanical systems has imposed a significant challenge on the lubricant additive manufacturer to develop environment friendly and high performance additives for the lubricating medias like oil and grease. The current industrial additive technology is dominated by phosphorus and sulfur containing the liquid antiwear additive, Zinc dialkyl dithiophosphate and extreme pressure solid additives like Graphite, Molybdenum disulfide. This current additive package possesses harm to the environment and has already met performance limit for applications working under severe operating condition. A proposed solution to combat with this …

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The Influence Of Functional Weights On The Performance Of Least Squares Finite Element Formulation On Hybrid Meshes, Anirudh Rajagopal Dec 2016

The Influence Of Functional Weights On The Performance Of Least Squares Finite Element Formulation On Hybrid Meshes, Anirudh Rajagopal

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Theses

The Least-Squares Finite Element Method (LSFEM) is a numerical method for solving partial differential equations (PDE) approximately by minimizing the L-2 norm of the PDE residuals. Unlike the more common Galerkin approach, this method does not employ integration by parts to reduce the continuity requirements of the basis functions. Instead, the PDE is cast as a first-order system of differential equations, which allows for the solution of primary and secondary variables with the same order of accuracy. In addition, this approach always leads to a direct minimization problem and therefore not subject to the restrictive inf-sup condition and does not …

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Remote Patient Monitoring Using Health Bands With Activity Level Prescription, Pranay Shirolkar Dec 2016

Remote Patient Monitoring Using Health Bands With Activity Level Prescription, Pranay Shirolkar

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Theses

With the advent of new commercially available consumer grade fitness and health devices, it is now possible and very common for users to obtain, store, share and learn about some of their important physiological metrics such as steps taken, heart rate, quality of sleep and skin temperature. For devices with this wearable technology, it is common to find these sensors embedded in a smart watch, or dedicated wearable wrist bands such that among other functionalities of a wearable device, it is capable of smartly assisting users about their activity levels by leveraging the fact that these devices can be, and …

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Smartwalker – Rolling Walker Instrumentation And Data Acquisition System Development To Monitor, Visualize And Store Rolling Walker Usage Data, Mauricio Jaguan Nieves Dec 2016

Smartwalker – Rolling Walker Instrumentation And Data Acquisition System Development To Monitor, Visualize And Store Rolling Walker Usage Data, Mauricio Jaguan Nieves

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Theses

The Smart Walker project was designed to fill a necessity of monitoring in real time the use of rolling walkers (RW) and study the causes that contribute to the high rate of fallings among its users. The main objectives of the project were to measure the major forces applied by RW users in real time and store it safely for further analysis. The first prototype of the Smart Walker includes the measurement of axial load, torque and gripping force applied on the handle as well as acceleration and rotation angles while it is being used. The axial load was measured …

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Effect Of Manufacturing-Induced Defects And Orientation On The Failure And Fracture Mechanism Of 3d Printed Structures, Amit Khatri Dec 2016

Effect Of Manufacturing-Induced Defects And Orientation On The Failure And Fracture Mechanism Of 3d Printed Structures, Amit Khatri

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Theses

Additive manufacturing is a rapidly growing cutting edge technology. Number of experimental studies have shown that strength of product manufactured by additive Fused Deposition Method (FDM) is influenced by different processing parameters involved during manufacturing. This thesis work presents experimental and theoretical investigation of mechanical behavior of ABS material fabricated with variation in some of process parameters such as Axis Orientations, Raster Orientation, Infill Percentage, Layer Height and Number of Shells. Different experiments were designed to understand the basics of 3D printing manufacturing and to characterize the mechanical behavior of 3D printed structures. This study helps to understand, how different …

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Automated System For The Characterization Of The Biomechanical Properties Of Human Soft Tissue, Michael R. Abraham Dec 2016

Automated System For The Characterization Of The Biomechanical Properties Of Human Soft Tissue, Michael R. Abraham

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Theses

Vaginal prolapse is a common condition that affects a large number (approximately 3.3 million in the US) of women, mainly above the age of 50 years. The condition is characterized by the weakening and breakdown of the pelvic support structures such as muscles and connective tissues, leading to the dislodging and prolapse of pelvic organs. Current examinations of the pelvic tissue are manually performed by the physician who assesses its rigidity. These exams are subjective and offer qualitative rather than quantitative results of the state of the pelvic tissue. In this research, a complete system was conceptualized and designed to …

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Fabrication, Calibration And Characterization Of Micro-Scale Resistance Temperature Detectors, Kunjan Anilkumar Chaudhari Dec 2016

Fabrication, Calibration And Characterization Of Micro-Scale Resistance Temperature Detectors, Kunjan Anilkumar Chaudhari

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Theses

Through this research, fabrication, calibration and characterization of micro-scale Resistance Temperature Detector (RTD) were studied. The RTD is meant to sense the temperature at the micro scale level on the hot spot of integrated circuit devices. Material that we focused in this study was indium tin oxide (ITO). Indium tin oxide thin films are widely used as an electrode owing to its optically transparent and electrical conducting properties. However, ITO thin film behavior as an RTD has not been well studied yet, which we aimed in this study. The commercially available ITO thin film deposited on a glass substrate was …

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Electromigration Induced Interface Reaction In Cu-Wire / Al-Pad Diffusion Couple, Patricia Aracelly Rodriguez-Salazar Dec 2016

Electromigration Induced Interface Reaction In Cu-Wire / Al-Pad Diffusion Couple, Patricia Aracelly Rodriguez-Salazar

Material Science and Engineering Dissertations

This dissertation presents experimental observations that may assist the understanding of electromigration (EM) failure mechanism active in Cu wire and Al thin film pad (wire bond). This study is motivated by an ongoing industrial effort to adapt Cu as wire bonding material for interconnection. Traditional material used for the wire bond has been Au; however, its high cost combined with its susceptibility to reliability failure caused by excessive growth of IMCs (IMC) makes Cu to be an attractive replacement. Though, since an application of Cu to wire bond technology is relatively new, many of reliability failure mechanisms are unknown especially …

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Experimental And Numerical Study Of Heat Transfer Phenomenon In A Micro Droplet Reactor, Chintan Jitendra Gandhi Dec 2016

Experimental And Numerical Study Of Heat Transfer Phenomenon In A Micro Droplet Reactor, Chintan Jitendra Gandhi

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Theses

Temperature is an important control parameter during chemical reaction process. Micro reactors have attracted much attention due to its capability of excellent heat and mass transfer, fast reaction, and inherent safety of small scale. Among various types of micro reactors, micro droplet as a batch reactor has its own advantages such as high multiplexing capability. However, strong heat dissipation characteristics of microscale systems (due to large surface to volume ratio) hampers the measurement and monitor of enthalpy changes during the reaction. This study mainly focuses on temperature monitoring at micro droplet reactor by using thin film resistance temperature detector (RTD). …

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A Robotic Device To Assist With In-Vivo Measurement Of Human Pelvic Organ Tissue Properties, Shashank S. Kumat Dec 2016

A Robotic Device To Assist With In-Vivo Measurement Of Human Pelvic Organ Tissue Properties, Shashank S. Kumat

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Theses

Measurement of the biomechanical properties of human pelvic organ tissue without undergoing minimally invasive surgery is desired for diagnostics purposes and take precautionary actions if needed. The biomechanical properties of the bladder change with age and due to diseases. Thus, identification of the viscoelastic properties of the tissue could help in detecting early stages of the disease in the bladder. A literature survey revealed that no device exists that could be used to characterize the biomechanical properties of the human bladder in-vivo. This research contributes towards the development of a diagnostic system that could be used in a medical setting …

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Solder Ball Reliability Assessment Of Wafer Level Chip Scale Package (Wlcsp) Through Power Cycling, Bhavna Conjeevaram Dec 2016

Solder Ball Reliability Assessment Of Wafer Level Chip Scale Package (Wlcsp) Through Power Cycling, Bhavna Conjeevaram

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Theses

Failure analysis and its effects are major reliability concerns in electronic packaging. More accurate fatigue life prediction can be obtained after the consideration of all affecting loads on the electronic devices. When an electronic device is turned OFF and then turned ON multiple times, it creates a loading condition called Power Cycling. The die is the main heat source causing non-uniform temperature distribution. The solder ball reliability assessment of wafer level chip scale package (WLCSP) is done through computational methods such as Finite element analysis. WLCSPs use wafer level package technology which is an extension of the Wafer Fab process, …

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Self-Transport Of Liquid Drops Through A Functional Mesh For Removing Sweat Away From Skin, Manasvikumar Oza Dec 2016

Self-Transport Of Liquid Drops Through A Functional Mesh For Removing Sweat Away From Skin, Manasvikumar Oza

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Theses

In this work, a functional mesh is developed to transport liquid drops from one side of the mesh to the other. A theoretical model is established, which has been used to obtain three design criteria. Based on these design criteria, functional meshes have been generated and tested with commercially available sponge attached to the mesh. Finally, such a mesh is demonstrated to be effective to remove sweat from human skin. As an application of this research, the concept of this functional mesh solves existing problems with a sport wear. The current sport wear is capable of absorbing sweat, but not …

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Effect Of Viscoelastic Modeling Of Pcb On The Board Level Reliability Of Wafer Chip Scale Package (Wcsp) In Comparison To Orthotropic Linear Elastic Modeling, Avinash Anaskure Dec 2016

Effect Of Viscoelastic Modeling Of Pcb On The Board Level Reliability Of Wafer Chip Scale Package (Wcsp) In Comparison To Orthotropic Linear Elastic Modeling, Avinash Anaskure

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Theses

The assessment of board level solder joint reliability during thermal cycling is very important for electronic packages. During thermal cycling, the mismatch in Coefficient of Thermal Expansion (CTE) between the materials used in the package induces stress on the solder interconnects and result in deformation stresses. Finite element tools are widely used for rapid design optimization and also for understanding board level reliability issues. Lumped board properties approach, explicit geometry approach, and ECAD approach are the three widely used approaches for creating models for PCBs. In the lumped board properties approach, orthotropic elastic material properties are assigned to PCBs. However, …

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Interactive Analysis Of General Beam Configurations Using Finite Element Methods And Javascript, Christopher G. Hernandez Dec 2016

Interactive Analysis Of General Beam Configurations Using Finite Element Methods And Javascript, Christopher G. Hernandez

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Theses

Advancements in computer technology have contributed to the widespread practice of modelling and solving engineering problems through the use of specialized software. The wide use of engineering software comes with the disadvantage to the user of costs from the required purchase of software licenses. The creation of accurate, trusted, and freely available applications capable of conducting meaningful analysis of engineering problems is a way to mitigate to the costs associated with every-day engineering computations. Writing applications in the JavaScript programming language allows the applications to run within any computer browser, without the need to install specialized software, since all internet …

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Computational Study And Optimization Of Wet Cooling Media In Direct Evaporative Heat Exchanger, Tejas Vijay Bhongale Dec 2016

Computational Study And Optimization Of Wet Cooling Media In Direct Evaporative Heat Exchanger, Tejas Vijay Bhongale

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Theses

Evaporative cooling media pads are the primary component of importance in direct evaporative cooling units. To increase the overall efficiency of direct evaporative cooling systems, a wet cooling media pad is considered for further optimization in design and operation. An installation technique called ‘staging’ of cooling media pads is examined and evaluated for its incremental cooling, water usage, and operational cooling efficiency. For Staging, a cooling media is divided into multiple vertical sections, and separate water distribution headers control each part. Staging of cooling media can reduce water consumption in data centers and potentially lessen the amount of cooling media …

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Design Optimization Of Pressure Vessel With Particular Design Considerations, Artik Patel Dec 2016

Design Optimization Of Pressure Vessel With Particular Design Considerations, Artik Patel

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Theses

The pressure vessels in industries are generally designed with a high safety factor because the rupture of a pressure vessel can be extremely dangerous. A vessel that is poorly designed or ineffectively designed to handle high pressure pose a very significant threat to life and property. Because of this, the design and verification of pressure vessels is governed by design codes specified by the ASME (American Society of Mechanical Engineers) Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code. The objective of this thesis work is to minimize the total weight of a real-world pressure vessel structure subjected to stress constraints specified by the …

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