Digital Commons Network^™

Computational Analysis Of A Wing Oscillator, Ryne Derrick Radermacher

Masters Theses

An analysis of a newly proposed wind power extraction device called a wing oscillator was performed using computational fluid dynamics (CFD). A wing oscillator is a device that consists of two airfoils attached to a central pivot by means of a frame or shaft. Oscillatory motion is produced by controlling the angle of attack of the airfoils as a fluid flow is passed over the device. A robust mathematical scheme was developed to investigate the performance of the wing oscillator and was hooked to the CFD software package FLUENT through User Defined Functions (UDFs). Using the dynamic meshing analysis methods …

The Reduction Of Glycerol Flow In A Porous Medium Through A Barrier Coating Application, Thomas Tran

Masters Theses

Coatings for paper are categorized into two groups: pigmented or functional. Functional coatings provide functionality in addition to the normal coating properties. Functional coatings can be used for friction control, release properties, abrasion resistance, and barrier properties. A coating that is designed to control barrier properties can be categorized into a sub-group of functional coatings called barrier coatings.

Barrier coatings can retard or eliminate the flow of fluids thru a coated substrate. The barrier can be effective in repelling or resisting the transmission rate of numerous fluids including moisture, oil, oxygen, grease, and glycerol. Barrier coatings have many useful applications …

Simulating The Effects Of Outer-Mold-Line Modification On The University Of Tennessee Space Institute's Aviation Systems' Piper Navajo Research Aircraft, Jonathan Vincent Kolwyck

Masters Theses

Aircraft used as research platforms often have their Outer-Mold-Lines (OML) modified to accommodate instrumentation packages associated with the research being performed. The external modification will change the aerodynamics of the aircraft, thus altering how the aircraft flies. The resulting performance, stability, and control of the aircraft can be effectively determined, but pilot opinion of aircraft handling qualities are largely unknown. The objective of this project is to be able to simulate aircraft flight control systems in the UTSI simulator, thus enabling the evaluation of pilot opinion of handling qualities. The design and implementation of a control loading system is described, …

Defining And Modeling Parameters Associated With Double-Planted Areas In Row Crop Production Fields, Brandon Michael Jernigan

Masters Theses

Automatic Section Control (ASC) utilizes current Global Positioning System (GPS) location of a planter and previously planted coverage maps to control individual planter row units, or sections of planter row units, depending on accuracy desired by equipment operators. ASC eliminates double-planting in areas of agricultural fields where planter overlap is unavoidable, such as end rows, point rows, and around internal field obstacles. Due to costs associated with purchasing ASC, farm managers are interested in rate of return on investment, which depends on several factors such as field boundary irregularity, operator response time, and crop yield response to double-planting.

Georeferenced planting …

Development And Use Of A Simple Test Method To Evaluate Reheat Cracking Sensitivity In The Weld Deposit Region Of A Submerged Arc Weld, Maxwell Calder Trent

Masters Theses

Several fabricators have recently noted the occurrence of reheat cracking in the weld deposits of 2¼[ two and one fourth]Cr‑1Mo‑¼[one fourth]V (22V) during the fabrication of pressure vessels used in the petrochemical industry. Due to increased oversight now required during fabrication of already expensive pressure vessels, studies have commenced worldwide in an effort to identify root causes and formulate mitigating actions to weld reheat cracking issues. The Materials Joining Group (MJG) at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville (UTK) have adapted an existing reheat cracking test originally developed for use with alloys similar to 22V. This original C‑Ring test was …

Track Prediction For Border Security Using A Discrete Kalman Filter, Jonathan William Hickerson

Masters Theses

Border security systems are a critical component in the prevention of the transnational trafficking of unlawful goods. For economic, environmental, and public safety related reasons, it is obviously desirable to prevent the transfer of materials such as illicit drugs, nuclear material, and unlawfully present individuals across borders; however, the deployment of trafficking countermeasures is a daunting task, wrought with unique challenges, such as unfamiliar terrain, long distances, and a potentially harsh environment.

The purpose of this thesis is to suggest a method to combine three different types of sensor systems to accurately track an individual as he crosses a field …

Wireless Power Transfer System With Power Factor Correction For Electric Vehicles, Michael Christopher Pickelsimer

Masters Theses

Wireless power transfer is currently a popular topic of research. Because there are no mechanical connections between the transmitter and receiver, power can be transferred whenever a system is within range of a transmitter. Coil-to-coil efficiencies of over 95% at multiple kW have been recorded by researchers, proving that this type of charger has the potential to be a viable charging solution. Electric vehicles are a primary target for this technology because wireless power transfer systems may be able to provide power both while the vehicle is stationary or while in motion.

Despite the promises of high efficiency and high …

Modeling And Control Of Single Phase Grid-Tie Converters, Bradford Christopher Trento

Masters Theses

The penetration of renewable energy into the electric utility grid is growing worldwide. At the heart of these renewable sources is the power electronic systems used to convert the renewable source to an output that can be connected to the grid. In recent years, there has been a great deal of work in designing converters for grid-tie applications and is continuing to grow. With recent smart grid activities, it is not likely that this work will cease in the short term. Most of the recent research is in ancillary services that the converter can offer in addition to the normal …

A Memory Controller For Fpga Applications, Bryan Jacob Hunter

Masters Theses

As designers and researchers strive to achieve higher performance, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) become an increasingly attractive solution. As coprocessors, FPGAs can provide application specific acceleration that cannot be matched by modern processors. Most of these applications will make use of large data sets, so achieving acceleration will require a capable interface to this data. The research in this thesis describes the design of a memory controller that is both efficient and flexible for FPGA applications requiring floating point operations. In particular, the benefits of certain design choices are explored, including: scalability, memory caching, and configurable precision. Results are given …

Analog Testing, Characterization, And Low-Order Model Extraction Using Labview Automation, Jeremy Brantley

Masters Theses

Testing circuits is a hands-on, time intensive process; it is also one of the most important steps in a design cycle. The most well designed circuit is only an academic exercise if it does not work in real life. The time and cost associated with bench level testing pales in comparison to testing for extreme environments. Testing in extreme heat, cold or radiation introduces a large set of challenges that are rarely encountered in standard bench level testing. The two most pronounced problems are the inaccessibility of the devices under test and time constraints, both short and protracted. Due to …

Real-Time Mobile Stereo Vision, Bryan Hale Bodkin

Masters Theses

Computer stereo vision is used extract depth information from two aligned cameras and there are a number of hardware and software solutions to solve the stereo correspondence problem. However few solutions are available for inexpensive mobile platforms where power and hardware are major limitations. This Thesis will proposes a method that competes with an existing OpenCV stereo correspondence method in speed and quality, and is able to run on generic multi core CPU’s.

A Validation Study Of The Amp Nuclear Fuel Performance Code, Aaron Martin Phillippe

Masters Theses

The Advanced Multi-Physics (AMP) Fuel Performance Code is a fully coupled, 3-dimensional (3D) code currently in development at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) for the purposes of advanced fuel performance evaluation and simulation. The purpose of this study was to investigate and examine the capabilities of AMP, as developed so far, in thermo-mechanical evaluations of experimental benchmark data. The IFA-432 and IFA-597 datasets from the Nuclear Energy Agency’s (NEA) International Fuel Performance Experiments (IFPE) database were examined, and a code-to-code comparison made against FRAPCON-3.4, a one dimensional (1D) code used by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) for fuel licensing. …

Two Studies On Controlling The Outflow From Sediment Basins: 1) Developing Discharge Coefficients For Circular Orifices In Round Riser Pipes, And 2) Optimizing The Solid State Skimmer, Alex James Mclemore

Masters Theses

Sediment pollution is a major contributor to stream and river impairment. Often, the source of sediment pollution is from a construction site’s runoff stormwater. A sediment retention basin, especially one with skimming outlet, can help minimize the sediment pollution from constructions sites. A sediment retention basin and outlet are specifically designed for each site to retain as much sediment as possible while satisfying other requirements such as peak flow rates and retention times. Because the modern designs needs have increased requirements, there is an increased need to be as accurate as possible when modeling the hydraulics and the sediment trapping …

Multi-Tag Access For A High Precision Ultra-Wideband Localization System, Nathan Carl Rowe

Masters Theses

Ultra-Wideband (UWB) wireless positioning systems have many advantages for track- ing and locating items in indoor environments. Surgical navigation and industrial process control are potential applications for high accuracy UWB localization systems with millimeter or sub-millimeter accuracy. I present improvements made to an existing high accuracy, multi-tag, UWB localization system. The goal of this thesis was to improve the multi-tag performance of this system while maintaining the high localization accuracy, and to utilize the UWB system for digital communications allowing the existing narrowband 2.4 GHz transceiver to be eliminated.

This thesis presents a proof-of-concept for a multi-tag, UWB localization system …

An Improved Custom Development Process Utilizing Lean Methods And Tools, Lisa Gay Smith

Masters Theses

Works have been written on the applications of lean principles and methods to product development, manufacturing, and the office. However, works written on the applications applied to research and development and custom product development processes have been exclude because of the inherent variability in the product design process. This work applied lean principles and tools to custom product development processes. A furniture company with $1.3 billion in annual sales, custom product development process was studied and lean principles, behaviors, and tools were applied using a traditional six step approach mixed with nontraditional practices as well. Within the six steps, the …

Benchmarking Of A Single-Cylinder Engine Toward The Development Of A Direct Fuel-Injection System, Michael J. Nienhuis

Masters Theses

In this study, the performance and efficiency of a single-cylinder gasoline, fourstroke cycle engine was benchmarked in support of the Formula SAE student project. The development of an engine test stand, instrumentation, data acquisition, and test plan is described in detail. Experimental results in the areas of engine performance and efficiency are discussed. Physical test data were used to refine a previous model of a single-cylinder, gasoline, direct-injection engine. Results from this effort are discussed and compared to those obtained in a preliminary study. The current work advances the development of more efficient power-train technologies for application in small displacement …

Regression-Based Prioritization And Data Modeling For Customized Civil Engineering Data Collection, Omar Kanaan

Masters Theses

Civil engineers frequently face the challenges of acquiring sufficient data to satisfy the informational needs of various decision making scenarios having time, budget, and resource constraints. This thesis focuses on exploring how statistical analysis of historical data sets can be used to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of future data collection activities in transportation engineering and construction project control. Pearson's correlation, multiple regression, Akaike information criterion, and Bayesian information criterion are applied to two cases of data collection and analysis to understand the relative importance of various parameters within each case. Case I analyzes National Bridge Inventory (NBI) data to …

Structural Health Monitoring Of A Bridge Structure Using Wireless Sensor Network, Cheekian Teng

Masters Theses

Bridge Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) has rapidly become one of the main interests in civil engineering field. Inexpensive and efficient SHM method utilizing Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) is helping to facilitate the selection of the bridges that require maintenance. The changes to structural properties (i.e. stiffness) caused by damage (i.e. corrosion) will change the structural responses (i.e. acceleration responses) to ambient motions. Modal analysis algorithms applied to the vibration responses acquired through WSN provide the modal properties (i.e. natural frequency, modal shape and damping ratio) that will change with the changes in stiffness indicating possible existence of damage. Three output-only …

A Gps-Based Mobility Power Model For Military Vehicle Applications, George William Bozdech

Masters Theses

In recent years, military vehicles have been equipped with hybrid, diesel-electric drives to improve fuel efficiency and stealth capabilities. These vehicles require an accurate estimate of the power duty cycles during distinct operating conditions. To meet this demand, a GPS-based mobility power and duty cycle analysis is one approach to predict the power requirements of on-road and off-road vehicles. The dynamic vehicle parameters needed to estimate the forces developed during locomotion are determined from the GPS tracking data, and these forces include the following: the motion resistance, gravitational, linear inertia, rotational inertia, and aerodynamic drag. The motion resistance force generated …

Anticipated Changes In Precipitation Events Over The 21st Century Using Community Climate System Model, Version 4, Scott Tavish Deneale

Masters Theses

Future global daily precipitation data from Community Climate System Model, version 4 (CCSM4) were analyzed to evaluate changes in a variety of precipitation parameters over the 21st century. Multiple ensemble members of 21st century Representative Community Pathways (RCP) radiative scenarios were included in the model to provide an array of potential future climate change results. Multiple ensembles of historic daily precipitation data from CCSM4 were compared with Global Precipitation Climatology Project (GPCP) V1DD daily precipitation data and Climate Prediction Center (CPC) Merged Analysis of Precipitation (CMAP) monthly precipitation data. Annual average and 95th percentile precipitation values were averaged from 1997-2005 …

Test Size And Volume Effects On Fatigue Behavior Of Bulk Metallic Glasses (Bmgs), Qingming Feng

Masters Theses

As a potential structural material, performance of bulk metallic glasses (BMGs) under cyclic loading is critical in applications. Among the mechanical properties of metallic glasses, the fatigue behavior received less attention and is not well understood. BMGs exhibit significant size effects on the mechanical behavior under monotonic loading, such as compression, tension, and bending. At the same time, different test-volume could lead to a distinct difference in the mechanical behavior of BMGs.

The fatigue behavior of the Zr_52.5Cu_17.9Ni_14.6Al_10.0Ti_5.0 [atomic percent (at. %)] BMG alloy (Vitreloy 105) with different sizes has been …

An Investigation Of The Use Of Ceramic Microencapsulated Fuel For Transuranic Waste Recycling In Pressurized Water Reactors, Cole Andrew Gentry

Masters Theses

Presented is an investigation of the utilization of Tristructural-Isotropic (TRISO) particle-based fuel designs for the recycling of Plutonium/Neptunium (Pu/Np) Transuranic (TRU) isotopes in typical Westinghouse four-loop pressurized water reactors. Though numerous studies have evaluated the recycling of TRU isotopes in light water reactors (LWRs), this work differentiates itself by employing Pu/Np loaded TRISO particles embedded within a SiC matrix and formed into pellets that can be loaded into standard 17x17 fuel element cladding. This approach provides the capability of Pu/Np recycling, and by virtue of the TRISO particle design, will allow for greater burnup of Pu/Np material and improved fuel …

Design, Implementation, And Analysis Of A Time Of Arrival Measurement System For Rotating Machinery, Bryan Will Hayes

Masters Theses

The Non-contact Stress Measurement System (NSMS) acquires critical time of arrival data from multiple optical probes viewing a rotating piece of machinery, such as blades on a turbine engine rotor. The signal from each probe must be converted from light energy to an electrical signal, conditioned, and timed by a high speed counter to measure the time of arrival of the rotating machinery. This thesis describes, in detail, the design and analysis of the photo-detector electronics, analog signal conditioning electronics, and the timing electronics utilized in measuring the time of arrival. To measure the time of arrival with precision, the …

Compatibility Evaluation Of Glass/Epoxy Insulation For Use In Iter’S Central Solenoid Superconducting Electromagnets, Carolyn Grace Kidwell

Masters Theses

A variety of glass fiber types are being considered for use as insulation material in the central solenoid superconducting electromagnets for the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER). Before these materials can be used, a compatibility of these glass products with an epoxy matrix has to be characterized. In this study, three candidate glass types (1581, 7781, and 38050) were considered and their compatibility with a DGEBF epoxy matrix was determined via three-point flexure tests at room temperature (295K) and liquid nitrogen temperature (77K) and constant load flexure creep tests at room temperature. The material variables among these glass products were …

A Benefit Cost Model For Traffic Incident Management, Sam Dallas Moss

Masters Theses

Every day, non-recurring incidents cause delay on major roadways and cost the public valuable time and, hence, money. Some public agencies have systems that help them to identify and mitigate the problems associated with incidents such as delay. These systems are referred to as Traffic Incident Management systems. Many different agencies have searched for a way to quantify the benefits that these programs provide. This thesis details how a model was developed to help these agencies easily quantify the benefits that can be derived from saving delay through efficient incident management. This model uses real traffic data collected by roadway …

Optimization And Design For Heavy Lift Launch Vehicles, Paul Andreas Ritter

Masters Theses

The simulation and evaluation of an orbital launch vehicle requires consideration of numerous factors. These factors include, but are not limited to the propulsion system, aerodynamic effects, rotation of the earth, oblateness, and gravity. A trajectory simulation that considers these different factors is generated by a code developed for this thesis titled Trajectories for Heavy-lift Evaluation and Optimization (THEO). THEO is a validated trajectory simulation code with the ability to model numerous launch configurations. THEO also has the capability to provide the means for an optimization objective. Optimization of a launch vehicle can be specified in terms of many different …

Thermodynamic Analysis Of Polyethylene Glycol Thiol-Ene Click Chemistry And Surface Modification Of Bacterial Cellulose, Kaan Serpersu

Masters Theses

Polyethylene glycol (PEG) has been one of the extensively studied polymers for medical applications. However, the use of PEG can require complicated and low efficiency reactions which can impose limits to potentially useful medical solutions. Click chemistry has recently emerged as a way to avoid these pitfalls by utilizing reactions that are highly efficient and require simple reaction conditions. One such reaction is known as the Michael-addition thiol-ene click reaction (TECC). The combination of PEG with TECC has received some study, but has not been thermodynamically characterized as a click reaction. In this work PEG-TECC reaction kinetics were studied by …

Analysis Of Georeferenced Sonar-Based Thalweg And Cross-Sectional River Depth Profile Measurements, Kenneth Wray Swinson

Masters Theses

Depth is a physical river characteristic that is important for habitat classification, river health analysis, and hydrologic/hydraulic modeling. Recent studies have shown that sonar can be an accurate way of measuring river depth, when compared to traditional techniques, but more study is necessary. The main objective of this research was to evaluate the utility of the CruzPro ATU120S and the Lowrance LMS-350A sonar depth units as tools for collecting river depth measurements along longitudinal (thalweg) and cross-sectional profiles. This included analyzing and evaluating the georeferenced commercially available sonar units for accuracy, precision, and response time under controlled lab and river …

A Comparison Of 7q10 Low Flow Between Rural And Urban Watersheds In Eastern United States, Saeed Zabet

Masters Theses

Abstract: Increased runoff peaks and volumes from urbanizing watersheds have been well documented where watershed hydrology becomes modified after 10 to 25% of land area is developed. Lowering of baseflow has also been reported to be modified from urbanization; however hydrology thresholds related to percentage of land area developed are not well quantified. In this study, 100 watersheds in eastern USA were investigated to examine the potential effects of urbanization on low flows. The low flow metric chosen for this analysis is the 7Q10. Historical flow records were obtained from the USGS stream gauges, in which a minimum of 10 …

Biarticular Muscles Influence Postural Responses: Implications For Treatment Of Stiff-Knee Gait, Ashley Elizabeth Clark

Masters Theses

Stiff knee gait is a prevalent and troublesome movement disorder among children with cerebral palsy, where peak knee flexion is diminished during swing phase. Rectus femoris transfer surgery, a common treatment for stiff-knee gait, reattaches the distal tendon of this biarticular, or two joint, muscle to a new site, such as the sartorius insertion on the tibia. Biarticular muscles play a unique role in motor control. As a biarticular muscle, rectus femoris may offer unrecognized benefits to maintain balance. This study uses musculoskeletal modeling and simulation to investigate the role of this biarticular muscle on balance recovery following support-surface translations. …