Digital Commons Network^™

An Experimental Study On The Buoyancy-Driven Motion Of Air Bubbles In Square Channels, Vinod Bulusu

Master's Theses and Capstones

The motion of drops and bubbles in confined domains is encountered in several applications such as oil recovery, solvent extraction, paper-making, and microfluidics, among others. In this thesis, the motion of air bubbles in square capillaries moving under the influence of gravity is studied at finite Reynolds numbers. The steady shapes, deformations, film thickness, and velocities of the bubbles as a function of the bubble size are determined experimentally. The bulk fluid phase is either Newtonian, viscoelastic, or a surfactant solution. Bubbles rising in a Newtonian fluid are nearly spherical at lower bubble volumes and become prolate losing their fore …

Optimization Of Pcb Dechlorination With Palladized Magnesium In Marine And Freshwater Sediments, Irina Calante

Master's Theses and Capstones

Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are one of the most persistent and toxic pollutants in our environment today. Many rivers and lakes were heavily polluted with PCBs during the 1970s when their use and production was at their highest demand. Today, more than 30 years after they have been banned from production they continue to be one of the top priority contaminants. Their characteristic stability has made them very recalcitrant to physical, chemical and biological degradation. Remediation in soils and sediments are particularly more difficult due to the variability in the soil and sediment characteristics that affect how strongly PCBs are sorbed. …

Design And Implementation Of A 10 Gigabit Ethernet Xaui Test Systems, Meghana Reddy Kundoor

Master's Theses and Capstones

10 Gigabit Ethernet has been standardized (IEEE 802.3ae), and products based on this standard are being deployed to interconnect MANs, WANs, Storage Area Networks, and very high speed LANs. The XAUI portion of the standard is primarily concerned with short range (up to 50 cm) chip-to-chip communication across printed circuit board traces. The UNH-IOL 10 Gigabit Ethernet Consortium, an industry-supported organization, performs PHY layer testing on products using a test system that has been partially implemented on a Xilinx ML321 evaluation board using the Virtex II-Pro FPGA.

A new implementation of the 10 Gigabit Ethernet XAUI test system on the …

Degradation Of Methyl Tert Butyl Ether, Priya Saripalli

Master's Theses and Capstones

Methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE) is the most common oxygenated fuel additive used in gasoline to improve combustion and reduce air emissions. MTBE is commonly found in natural water as contaminate from gasoline spills. Remediation of the contaminated water is difficult by traditional treatments. In this thesis, degradation of MTBE using Fenton's reaction was studied. The effect of pH, concentration of ferric ammonium sulfate and hydrogen peroxide on the removal efficiency of MTBE was studied and optimum conditions were determined experimentally. A maximum conversion of 90% was achieved when 0.14 M MTBE was reacted with 1.1 g/L ferric ammonium sulfate …

Analyte Rebinding Of Optimized Molecularly Imprinted Polymers In Water, Sayantan Roy

Master's Theses and Capstones

A series of non-covalent Molecularly Imprinted Polymers (MIPs) were prepared using caffeine and guanosine separately as template molecules. A wide variety of MIPs were prepared by varying a number of formulation parameters, including the template, recognition monomer, crosslinking agent and porogen types and concentrations. The specificity and selectivity of the MIPs were determined by rebinding studies in an aqueous medium using HPLC detection and the results were supported by gas adsorption experiments. Rebinding conditions, such as the pH and MIP concentration were also varied to determine the best conditions for analyte recognition. By using variety of polymerization conditions the particle …

Trigraph Latency As A Method To Infer Fatigue During Typing, Bhagirathi Nagaraju

Master's Theses and Capstones

Due to the use of computers for long durations and prolonged typing on keyboards many computer users are suffering from Repetitive Strain Injuries. In this thesis keystroke dynamics, specifically the changes in the trigraph latencies of some words are analyzed to infer fatigue during typing. These dynamics are collected using a software application and are represented as bar-graphs for data analysis. The technology developed is completely seamless and does not require any hardware modifications. The investigation here is one aspect of the integrated effort to infer fatigue from typing dynamics.

The thesis is divided into three phases. In the first …

Multi-Axial Anisotropic Material Behavior Using A Collection Of Yield Surfaces To Model The Stress-Space Coupling Phenomena, Mirjana Marusic

Master's Theses and Capstones

In the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake in the San Francisco-Bay area and also the 1994 Northridge earthquake in Southern California, several buildings experienced significant damage because of inadequate member design. The existing codes of practice used for the structural design approximate the effects of nonlinear material behavior. This work formulates a nonlinear anisotropic material model for systems subjected to biaxial loading conditions such that the true nature of material degradation can be identified. This would aide structural designers in being able to predict accurate cyclic deformations under large earthquake events. The proposed model investigates anisotropic material behavior under bi-axial loading …

Quantitative Assessment Of In-Vehicle-Generated Emi In A Real-World Environment, Maxim Khankin

Master's Theses and Capstones

Interference generated by electronic equipment inside a vehicle can interfere with radio reception even though that equipment is in compliance with FCC standards. The result of that interference is an undesired reduction in radio coverage at frequencies where the interference exists.

The contribution of this work is a method for measuring electromagnetic interference (EMI) generated by in-vehicle electronic equipment when external radiation is present. The approach is to identify regions in the spectrum where externally generated signals exist and then to bypass those regions when measuring interference from in-vehicle-equipment. Using the FCC database of licensed radiation sources to identify those …

Treatment Of Dioxin/Furan And Pcn Contaminated Sediments With Palladized Magnesium, Linda M. Rauch

Master's Theses and Capstones

Sediments contaminated with dioxins/furans and polychlorinated naphthalenes (PCNs) have been the subject of little study although they are equal, if not more significant, contributors than PCBs to toxicity at selected sites. The reaction of a bimetal catalyst, palladized magnesium (Mg/Pd, 0.01% by weight Pd) with these contaminants was studied in solvents and sediments.

The reaction for single congeners in solvent resulted in 69-95% removal in 30 minutes. The detection of dibenzo-p-dioxin for the dioxin reaction and naphthalene/tetralin for the PCN reaction demonstrated dechlorination. A 24 hour sediment reaction with Mg/Pd resulted in 48% and 71% reduction for spiked sediments (500 …

Modeling Of A Soft Sensitive Marine Silty Clay Deposit For A Landfill Expansion Study, John Roche

Master's Theses and Capstones

An in situ testing program and finite element modeling of Presumpscot Formation glaciomarine clays in South Portland, Maine was undertaken as part of a landfill expansion feasibility study. The very soft sensitive silty clay foundation soils have been monitored during the 20 year lifespan of the landfill facility by an array of settlement platforms, inclinometers, piezometer clusters and periodic field shear vane tests. During this time large horizontal displacements have been observed at a discrete elevation corresponding to a zone of reduced undrained shear strength. Proposals call for a vertical expansion at the site above existing landfill cells. While this …

Post-Yield Nonlinear Behavior Of Structural Steel Beam-Column Elements, Josif Bicja

Master's Theses and Capstones

The presented method of analysis has the unique feature in its exact inclusion of the coupling between axial force, primary and secondary moments and their conjugate axial and bending strains, and, most importantly, the incorporation of the effect of curvature along the length of the member. Degradation of the material, once yielding has occurred at certain locations is accurately modeled, and the structural behavior for in-plane lateral dynamic loading of 2D shear frame beam-columns is predicted with particular reference to material nonlinearity and taking into consideration any geometrically nonlinear effects. Using detailed incremental procedures, the stress-strain relationship is derived for …

Prototype Remote Vehicle Diagnostics For Police Cruisers, Sung Yun Kim

Master's Theses and Capstones

The goal of this thesis was to suggest ways of evaluating the health of police cruisers without bringing these cruisers into a repair facility. The prototype in-car application was developed. The hardware connection was made between the in-car network and the Project54 network. The software was built to collect, process, and send the vehicle information to the server via a telecommunication tool. The prototype in-car application was tested in simulation and on the road. After the development of the prototype in-car application, the radio traffic research gives a few recommended methods for sending the car health information in the New …

A User-Friendly System To Measure Electromyographic Activity Of Dancers, Jianhua Zhou

Master's Theses and Capstones

A data acquisition system aided by virtual instrumentation was developed to measure electromyographic activity of the dancers. The system is composed of three main components: (1) Analog front-end with signal conditioning, (2) USB serial interface based A/D conversion, and (3) virtual instrumentation designed in LabView tools. The proposed system is able to accurately collect the magnitude of jump force and displayed the data using virtual instruments with alarm functions. The signal path is well-conditioned and processed, which makes the device suitable for feasibility studies for future research.

Improving The Policy Making Process In Municipal Solid Waster Management: Learning From Minamata-City, Japan, Rika Ikemoto

Master's Theses and Capstones

Many countries, especially industrialized countries, are facing a crisis in municipal solid waste (MSW) problems due to its ever increasing amount and related problems such as limited dumping space, transboundary waste movement, financial pressures, and dioxin problems. In Japan, one of those industrialized countries, while national MSW policies have not appeared effective, some municipalities have established remarkable policies to reduce MSW Minamata-city, which has a unique experience of environmental pollution, known as Minamta-disease, has reduced waste with the two major MSW policies: a Recycling Program; and the Food-containers Abolition Project of the Women's Committee on Waste Reduction, based on the …

The Role Of The Schmutzdecke In Escherichia Coli Removal In Slow Sand And Riverbank Filtration, Michael C. Unger

Master's Theses and Capstones

A series of studies was conducted on laboratory scale sand columns under varying operational and design conditions with spiked concentrations of E. coli to investigate the role of the schmutzdecke, a biologically active layer that develops at the interface of the water and filter in slow sand filtration (SSF) and riverbank filtration (RBF). Results confirmed that E. coli removals in slow-rate biological filters occur primarily at the interface and are related to schmutzdecke ripening state, empty bed contact time, biological activity, temperature, and protistan abundance. Using a suite of analyses characterizing the biofilm growing on the schmutzdecke, no connection was …

Retinal Tracking System Design For Smart Flashblindness Non Lethal Weapon, Gregory T. Wolff

Master's Theses and Capstones

Development of a non lethal method of providing incapacitation of human subjects is of primary importance in both law enforcement and military fields. The proposed Smart White Light Dazzler is such a device that induces flashblindness in the subject using a flash of white light. It is intended to automatically track the retina of a human subject, and then make adjustments to the power of the flash based on factors that affect the susceptibility of the eye. Temporary blindness is induced in the subject without risking permanent tissue damage.

The primary contribution of this research is the design of a …

Fabrication And Tribological Properties Of Hard Thin Films With Solid Lubricant Microreservoirs, John H. Zimmerman

Master's Theses and Capstones

Hard coatings containing micron-sized reservoirs have been fabricated and investigated to evaluate their tribological properties. These composite coatings have the potential to reduce friction and extend the life of wear surfaces through the use of a structural matrix embedded with microreservoirs containing solid lubricants. In this thesis, methods of using polymer or silica microspheres as templates for reservoirs in wear resistant coatings were examined. Magnetron rf-sputtered TiN and TiCN films and magnetron rf reactively sputtered TiN films were investigated for use as hard films containing these microreservoirs. The reservoir size as a function of microsphere size and film thickness was …

Conformance Testing Of Epon Devices, Eric Lynskey

Master's Theses and Capstones

In June of 2004, the IEEE Standards Association approved IEEE 802.3ah-2004, which defined Ethernet for subscriber access networks, or Ethernet in the First Mile (EFM). Part of this standard contained a new type of Ethernet technology, that of Ethernet Passive Optical Networks (EPON). EPON devices have introduced new and challenging requirements for both conformance and interoperability testing. This thesis lays the foundation, to be used by the University of New Hampshire InterOperability Laboratory (UNH-IOL), for comprehensive conformance testing of EPON devices. A series of recommendations are put forth that allow for the creation and implementation of EPON test suites and …

Augmented Reality Device For First Response Scenarios, Robert Andrzej Bogucki

Master's Theses and Capstones

A prototype of a wearable computer system is proposed and implemented using commercial off-shelf components. The system is designed to allow the user to access location-specific information about an environment, and to provide capability for user tracking. Areas of applicability include primarily first response scenarios, with possible applications in maintenance or construction of buildings and other structures. Necessary preparation of the target environment prior to system's deployment is limited to noninvasive labeling using optical fiducial markers. The system relies on computational vision methods for registration of labels and user position. With the system the user has access to on-demand information …

Transesterification Of Triolein By Solid Catalysts, Robert Coggon

Master's Theses and Capstones

In this thesis, biodiesel was produced by the transesterification of triolein. Initially a method utilizing gas chromatography was developed to monitor the Novozym 435 catalyzed transesterification. After the procedure was established, experiments were conducted to determine the effect and existence of interactions between reaction parameters including catalyst mass, agitation speed, methanol to triolein ratio, and temperature on yield. A split plot design showed that all single parameters were significant except methanol to triolein ratio. Several two way interactions were found including temperature over ratio, temperature over catalyst mass, and extent of agitation over catalyst mass. The extent of agitation over …

Investigation Of A Submerged Four-Bay Mooring System For Aquaculture, Glen Rice

Master's Theses and Capstones

The August 2003 deployment of a second generation mooring system for fish cages at the University of New Hampshire (UNH) open ocean aquaculture site, south of the Isles of Shoals, NH, is described and evaluated. The new system, a submerged four bay grid similar to those used in inshore aquaculture, uses submerged flotation to maintain its depth and tension. The system's depth and line tensions are sensitive to the deployed anchor locations. Anchors that are not positioned correctly can have reduced holding power or result in problem snap loads.

The mooring system deployment process and its resulting geometry was examined …

Evaluation Of Characterization Techniques For Beneficial Use Of Underutilized Slag Materials, Thomas Sandy Weymouth

Master's Theses and Capstones

Wisely using byproduct materials in beneficial use applications such as highway construction is becoming more important in the United States as virgin materials are depleted and landfill capacity declines. Slags are byproducts of the steel and iron industries found in the Midwestern United States. Historically, many of these materials have historically been used in construction applications, but methods for characterizing their environmental risk are limited. This research considers a series of steps used to identify whether a particular slag poses an environmental or human health risk. The first step involves identifying the appropriate use of the material. The second step …

Development And Characterization Of A Side Scan Sonar Towfish Stabilization Device, Rebecca Ann Conrad

Master's Theses and Capstones

The attitude of a side scan sonar towfish may introduce artifacts into the imagery when the towfish attitude exhibits a significant mean offset from horizontal and/or exhibits significant variations over time. The Smart Tail was designed by Boeing Australia for stabilizing the attitude of a Klein System 5000 towfish. This report describes the development and testing of a closed-loop controller for towfish attitude based on the Smart Tail's movable elevators. Transient and steady state response of the towfish pitch and roll motion were evaluated in a tow tank at speeds up to 6 knots. Mathematical modeling and simulation were used …

Properties Of Asphalt Mixtures Containing Rap, Aaron Marc Lachance

Master's Theses and Capstones

As the space available in landfills and the amount of high quality virgin aggregate has declined, the use of recycled asphalt pavement (RAP) in new asphaltic concrete mixtures has become common. This research examines how RAP affects virgin mixtures. A Superpave 19 mm mixture containing 0% RAP is used as the control for evaluating properties of mixes containing 15%, 25%, and 40% RAP. Volumetric analyses identified increases in both voids in the mineral aggregate (VMA) and voids filled with asphalt (VFA) at the 25% and 40% RAP levels, and that the amount of pre-heating of RAP prior to mixing influenced …

Performance Assessment Of Porous Asphalt For Stormwater Treatment, Joshua F. Briggs

Master's Theses and Capstones

The objective of this study is to assess the stormwater management capability of porous asphalt (PA) as a parking lot in Durham, New Hampshire. The site was constructed in 2004 and consists of a 4-inch PA pavement course overlying a porous media reservoir, including a fine-grained filter course. Cost per PA parking space ($2,200) was comparable to that for dense mix asphalt ($2,000). Pavement durability has been adequate. The lot retained or infiltrated 25% of precipitation (18 months) and 0.03 lb/sf of chloride (1 year). There was high initial surface infiltration capacity (IC) at two locations (1,000--1,300 in/hr), and moderate …