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Articles 1 - 30 of 81
Full-Text Articles in Engineering
Trading Off Sound Pressure Level And Average Power Production For Wind Farm Layout Optimization, Eric Tingey, Andrew Ning
Trading Off Sound Pressure Level And Average Power Production For Wind Farm Layout Optimization, Eric Tingey, Andrew Ning
Faculty Publications
This research explores the trade-offs between a wind farm’s average power production and noise impact on nearby observers. Two specific wind farm designs were studied and optimized using the FLORIS wake model and an acoustic model based on semi-empirical turbine noise calculations. It was found in the two wind farms that the average power production could be increased, up to 8.01% in one and 3.63% in the other, ignoring sound level considerations. Including a noise restriction in the optimization had a minimal impact on the optimal average power production within about a five-decibel range. Past this range, sound limitations decreased …
An Obstacle Avoidance System For The Visually Impaired Using 3-D Point Cloud Processing, Evan Justin Taylor
An Obstacle Avoidance System For The Visually Impaired Using 3-D Point Cloud Processing, Evan Justin Taylor
Theses and Dissertations
The long white cane offers many benefits for the blind and visually impaired. Still, many report being injured both indoors and outdoors while using the long white cane. One frequent cause of injury is due to the fact that the long white cane cannot detect obstacles above the waist of the user. This thesis presents a system that attempts to augment the capabilities of the long white cane by sensing the environment around the user, creating a map of obstacles within the environment, and providing simple haptic feedback to the user. The proposed augmented cane system uses the Asus Xtion …
Microstructural Evaluation Of Hydrogen Embrittlement And Successive Recovery In Advanced High Strength Steel, Quentin Scott Allen
Microstructural Evaluation Of Hydrogen Embrittlement And Successive Recovery In Advanced High Strength Steel, Quentin Scott Allen
Theses and Dissertations
Advanced high strength steels (AHSS) have high susceptibility to hydrogen embrittlement, and are often exposed to hydrogen environments in processing. In order to study the embrittlement and recovery of steel, tensile tests were conducted on two different types of AHSS over time after hydrogen charging. Concentration measurements and hydrogen microprinting were carried out at the same time steps to visualize the hydrogen behavior during recovery. The diffusible hydrogen concentration was found to decay exponentially, and equations were found for the two types of steel. Hydrogen concentration decay rates were calculated to be -0.355 /hr in TBF steel, and -0.225 /hr …
Eigenblades: Application Of Computer Vision And Machine Learning For Mode Shape Identification, Alex W. La
Eigenblades: Application Of Computer Vision And Machine Learning For Mode Shape Identification, Alex W. La
Theses and Dissertations
On August 27, 2016, Southwest Airlines flight 3472 from New Orleans to Orlando had to perform an emergency landing when a fan blade separated from the engine hub and destroyed the cowling and punctured the fuselage. Initial findings from the metallurgical examination conducted in the National Transpiration Safety Board Materials Laboratory found that the fracture surface of the missing blade showed curving crack arrest lines consistent with fatigue crack growth. Fatigue is often cause by resonate vibrations. Modal analysis is a method that can model the natural frequencies and bending modes of turbomachinery blades. When performing modal analysis with finite …
Eigenblades: Application Of Computer Vision And Machine Learning For Mode Shape Identification, Alex W. La
Eigenblades: Application Of Computer Vision And Machine Learning For Mode Shape Identification, Alex W. La
Theses and Dissertations
On August 27, 2016, Southwest Airlines flight 3472 from New Orleans to Orlando had to perform an emergency landing when a fan blade separated from the engine hub and destroyed the cowling and punctured the fuselage. Initial findings from the metallurgical examination conducted in the National Transpiration Safety Board Materials Laboratory found that the fracture surface of the missing blade showed curving crack arrest lines consistent with fatigue crack growth. Fatigue is often cause by resonate vibrations. Modal analysis is a method that can model the natural frequencies and bending modes of turbomachinery blades. When performing modal analysis with finite …
Design And Analysis Of Compressed Air Power Harvesting Systems, Zachary James Sadler
Design And Analysis Of Compressed Air Power Harvesting Systems, Zachary James Sadler
Theses and Dissertations
Procedure for site discovery, system design, and optimization of power harvesting systems is developed with an emphasis on application to air compressors. Limitations for the usage of infrared pyrometers is evaluated. A system of governing equations for thermoelectric generators is developed. A solution method for solving the system of equations is created in order to predict power output from the device. Payback analysis is proposed for determining economic viability. A genetic algorithm is used to optimize the power harvesting system payback with changing quantities and varieties of thermoelectric generators, as well as the back work put into cooling the thermoelectric …
Design And Analysis Of Compressed Air Power Harvesting Systems, Zachary James Sadler
Design And Analysis Of Compressed Air Power Harvesting Systems, Zachary James Sadler
Theses and Dissertations
Procedure for site discovery, system design, and optimization of power harvesting systems is developed with an emphasis on application to air compressors. Limitations for the usage of infrared pyrometers is evaluated. A system of governing equations for thermoelectric generators is developed. A solution method for solving the system of equations is created in order to predict power output from the device. Payback analysis is proposed for determining economic viability. A genetic algorithm is used to optimize the power harvesting system payback with changing quantities and varieties of thermoelectric generators, as well as the back work put into cooling the thermoelectric …
A Comparison Between Self-Cleaning Properties Via Rolling Droplets And Condensation On Superhyrophobic Surfaces, David Leland Miller
A Comparison Between Self-Cleaning Properties Via Rolling Droplets And Condensation On Superhyrophobic Surfaces, David Leland Miller
Theses and Dissertations
Superhydrophobic (SH) surfaces are super water repellent surfaces on which a droplet of water will bead up like a marble and roll off the surface with minimal tilting of the surface. This is caused by the combination of a hydrophobic coating and a rough surface structure. To achieve thermodynamic stability, surface tension of the water pulls the droplet into this shape to minimize the contact area between the droplet and the surface. This creates a high contact angle (CA) between the droplet and the surface and a low sliding angle (SA) of which the droplet begins to roll off the …
Characterizing The Electromechanical Response Of Flexible Foam For Multifunctional Impact-Sensing Applications, Evan Troy Bird
Characterizing The Electromechanical Response Of Flexible Foam For Multifunctional Impact-Sensing Applications, Evan Troy Bird
Theses and Dissertations
Flexible foams have unique properties that make them well-suited to several engineering systems. They are often used in impact-related applications because of their superior energy absorption performance. Many multifunctional materials are also derived from flexible foams due to their high customizability, which allows them to satisfy a wide range of performance requirements. Though flexible foams have high potential in these and other classes of material applications, their success relies on the proper characterization of their complex behavior. This thesis promotes the application of flexible foams by characterizing their electromechanical response through both experimental and theoretical approaches. One study in this …
Reaching In Clutter With Whole-Arm Tactile Sensing, Advait Jain, Marc D. Killpack, Aaron Edsinger, Charles Kemp
Reaching In Clutter With Whole-Arm Tactile Sensing, Advait Jain, Marc D. Killpack, Aaron Edsinger, Charles Kemp
Faculty Publications
Clutter creates challenges for robot manipulation, including a lack of non-contact trajectories and reduced visibility for line-of-sight sensors. We demonstrate that robots can use whole-arm tactile sensing to perceive clutter and maneuver within it, while keeping contact forces low. We first present our approach to manipulation, which emphasizes the benefits of making contact across the entire manipulator and assumes the manipulator has low-stiffness actuation and tactile sensing across its entire surface. We then present a novel controller that exploits these assumptions. The controller only requires haptic sensing, handles multiple contacts, and does not need an explicit model of the environment …
Developing New Classes Of Thick-Origami-Based Mechanisms: Conceal-And-Reveal Motion And Folding Printed Circuit Boards, Bryce Parker De Figueiredo
Developing New Classes Of Thick-Origami-Based Mechanisms: Conceal-And-Reveal Motion And Folding Printed Circuit Boards, Bryce Parker De Figueiredo
Theses and Dissertations
Origami-adapted mechanisms form the basis of an increasing number of engineered systems. As most of these systems require the use of non-paper materials, various methods for accommodating thickness have been developed. These methods have opened new avenues for origami-based design. This work introduces approaches for the design of two new classes of thick-origami systems and demonstrates the approaches in hardware. One type of system, called "conceal-and-reveal,'' is introduced, and a method of designing these mechanisms is developed. Techniques are also developed for designing folding printed circuit boards which are fabricated from a single sheet of material. This enables areas of …
Hydrodynamic And Thermal Effects Of Sub-Critical Heating On Superhydrophobic Surfaces And Microchannels, Adam M. Cowley
Hydrodynamic And Thermal Effects Of Sub-Critical Heating On Superhydrophobic Surfaces And Microchannels, Adam M. Cowley
Theses and Dissertations
This dissertation focuses on the effects of heating on superhydrophobic (SHPo) surfaces. The work is divided into two main categories: heat transfer without mass transfer and heat transfer in conjunction with mass transfer. Numerical methods are used to explore the prior while experimental methods are utilized for the latter. The numerical work explores convective heat transfer in SHPo parallel plate microchannels and is separated into two stand-alone chapters that have been published archivally. The first considers surfaces with a rib/cavity structure and the second considers surfaces patterned with a square lattice of square posts. Laminar, fully developed, steady flow with …
Highly Compressible Origami Bellows For Harsh Environments, Jared J. Butler
Highly Compressible Origami Bellows For Harsh Environments, Jared J. Butler
Theses and Dissertations
The use of origami-based bellows is of interest in fields where traditional metal bellows are incapable of meeting compression, mass, or flexibility constraints. Metal bellows are often used in space applications but frequently complicate spacecraft design. Origami-based bellows capable of meeting design constraints while adequately shielding sensitive spacecraft parts may be advantageous to space mechanism design. The design and testing of a highly compressible origami bellows for harsh environments is described. Several origami patterns were evaluated and the Kresling fold pattern was designed to meet constraints and selected for use in the bellows design. Origami bellows were prototyped in five …
Considering Manufacturing In The Design Of Thick-Panel Origami Mechanisms, Erica Brunson Crampton
Considering Manufacturing In The Design Of Thick-Panel Origami Mechanisms, Erica Brunson Crampton
Theses and Dissertations
Origami has been investigated and demonstrated for engineering applications in recent years. Many techniques for accommodating the thickness of most engineering materials have been developed. In this work, tables comparing performance and manufacturing characteristics are presented. These tables can serve as useful design tools for engineers when selecting an appropriate thickness-accommodation technique for their application. The use of bent sheet metal for panels in thick-origami mechanisms shows promise as a panel design approach that mitigates several trade-offs between performance and manufacturing characteristics. A process is described and demonstrated that can be employed to use sheet metal in designs of origami-adapted …
Deep Visual Gravity Vector Detection For Unmanned Aircraft Attitude Estimation, Gary J. Ellingson, David Wingate, Tim Mclain
Deep Visual Gravity Vector Detection For Unmanned Aircraft Attitude Estimation, Gary J. Ellingson, David Wingate, Tim Mclain
Faculty Publications
This paper demonstrates a feasible method for using a deep neural network as a sensor to estimate the attitude of a flying vehicle using only flight video. A dataset of still images and associated gravity vectors was collected and used to perform supervised learning. The network builds on a previously trained network and was trained to be able to approximate the attitude of the camera with an average error of about 8 degrees. Flight test video was recorded and processed with a relatively simple visual odometry method. The aircraft attitude is then estimated with the visual odometry as the state …
Distribution Of Essential Tremor In The Degrees Of Freedom Of The Upper Limb, Adam Charles Pigg
Distribution Of Essential Tremor In The Degrees Of Freedom Of The Upper Limb, Adam Charles Pigg
Theses and Dissertations
This study seeks to understand upper limb tremor in subjects with essential tremor (ET). A thorough understanding of tremor distribution will allow for the more effective development of tremor suppression devices, which offer an alternative to current treatments. Previous studies primarily focused on tremor in the hand only. This study seeks to characterize the distribution of tremor throughout the upper limb.We measured tremor in 25 subjects diagnosed with ET using motion capture, which provided displacement information of the limb during multiple postural and kinetic tasks. Inverse kinematics allowed us to analyze the motion capture data in the 7 major degrees …
Distribution Of Essential Tremor In The Degrees Of Freedom Of The Upper Limb, Charles Charles Pigg
Distribution Of Essential Tremor In The Degrees Of Freedom Of The Upper Limb, Charles Charles Pigg
Theses and Dissertations
This study seeks to understand upper limb tremor in subjects with essential tremor (ET). A thorough understanding of tremor distribution will allow for the more effective development of tremor suppression devices, which offer an alternative to current treatments. Previous studies primarily focused on tremor in the hand only. This study seeks to characterize the distribution of tremor throughout the upper limb. We measured tremor in 25 subjects diagnosed with ET using motion capture, which provided 0displacement information of the limb during multiple postural and kinetic tasks. Inverse kinematics allowed us to analyze the motion capture data in the 7 major …
Relative Multiplicative Extended Kalman Filter For Observable Gps-Denied Navigation, Daniel P. Koch, David O. Wheeler, Randal Beard, Tim Mclain, Kevin M. Brink
Relative Multiplicative Extended Kalman Filter For Observable Gps-Denied Navigation, Daniel P. Koch, David O. Wheeler, Randal Beard, Tim Mclain, Kevin M. Brink
Faculty Publications
This work presents a multiplicative extended Kalman filter for estimating the relative state of a multirotor vehicle operating in a GPS-denied environment. The filter fuses data from an inertial measurement unit and altimeter with relative-pose updates from a keyframe-based visual odometry or laser scan-matching algorithm. Because the global position and heading states of the vehicle are unobservable in the absence of global measurements such as GPS, the filter in this paper estimates the state with respect to a local frame that is colocated with the odometry keyframe. As a result, the odometry update provides nearly-direct measurements of the relative vehicle …
Improving The Floris Wind Plant Model For Compatibility With Gradient-Based Optimization, Jared Thomas, Pieter Gebraad, Andrew Ning
Improving The Floris Wind Plant Model For Compatibility With Gradient-Based Optimization, Jared Thomas, Pieter Gebraad, Andrew Ning
Faculty Publications
The FLOw Redirection and Induction in Steady-state (FLORIS) model, a parametric wind turbine wake model that predicts steady state wake characteristics based on wind turbine position and yaw angle, was developed for optimization of control settings and turbine locations. This paper provides details on the recent changes made to the FLORIS model to make the model more suitable for gradient-based optimization. Changes to the FLORIS model were made to remove discontinuities and add curvature to regions of non-physical zero gradient. Exact gradients for the FLORIS model were obtained using algorithmic differentiation. A set of three case studies demonstrate that using …
Determining H2O Vapor Temperature And Concentration In Particle-Free And Particle-Laden Combustion Flows Using Spectral Line Emission Measurements, John Robert Tobiasson
Determining H2O Vapor Temperature And Concentration In Particle-Free And Particle-Laden Combustion Flows Using Spectral Line Emission Measurements, John Robert Tobiasson
Theses and Dissertations
There is a growing need for the clean generation of electricity in the world, and increased efficiency is one way to achieve cleaner generation. Increased efficiency may be achieved through an improved understanding of the heat flux of participating media in combustion environments. Real-time in-situ optical measurements of gas temperature and concentrations in combustion environments is needed. Optical methods do not disturb the flow characteristics and are not subject to the temperature limitation of current methods. Simpler, less-costly optical measurements than current methods would increase the ability to apply them in more circumstances. This work explores the ability to simultaneously …
Economic Returns To Clean Water: Evidence From Us Historical Records., Joseph Price
Economic Returns To Clean Water: Evidence From Us Historical Records., Joseph Price
Journal of Undergraduate Research
The purpose of this project was to use linked census records to evaluate the long-run effects of access to clean water. By linking individuals across census years we can specifically determine where they lived during their childhood and also have information about their educational attainment and earnings later in life (using the 1940 census). The project was designed to use a time period when the US was a developing country and beginning to use chlorination to clean its water to assess the economic returns to clean water.
Rebuilding Kidneys, Alonzo D. Cook, Deverly L. Roeder, Jonathan J. Wisco
Rebuilding Kidneys, Alonzo D. Cook, Deverly L. Roeder, Jonathan J. Wisco
Journal of Undergraduate Research
The motivation for this work was the tremendous need for replacement kidneys. End-stage renal disease (ESRD) affects over 500,000 patients in the U.S. and costs Medicare $30 Billion annually for dialysis and transplant procedures. Our overall objective was to engineer kidneys from decellularized porcine extracellular matrix (DPECM) scaffolds and cell cultures grown from human progenitor cells. The primary reason for using human cells was to develop non-immunogenic kidneys that can be used to treat the more than 100,000 chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients awaiting a transplant, thus obviating the need for post-transplant immunosuppressive therapy and the associated risks of acute …
Vertical Axis Wind Turbine Wake Model Development, Andrew Ning
Vertical Axis Wind Turbine Wake Model Development, Andrew Ning
Journal of Undergraduate Research
The objective of this research was to develop an aerodynamic wake model for a vertical axis wind turbine (VAWT), and to better understand vertical axis wind turbine performance. We were successful in developing a wake model. Additional work went in to understand trade-offs in power performance with acoustic constraints. The results were two conference papers, two journal papers, and open-source data and code. Additional work in ongoing to extended the wake mode’s usefulness for wake interactions and closely-spaced turbines.
Minimum Required Detection Range For Detect And Avoid Of Unmanned Aircraft Systems, Jared Kevin Wikle, Tim Mclain, Randal W. Beard, Laith Rasmi Sahawneh
Minimum Required Detection Range For Detect And Avoid Of Unmanned Aircraft Systems, Jared Kevin Wikle, Tim Mclain, Randal W. Beard, Laith Rasmi Sahawneh
Faculty Publications
For unmanned aircraft systems to gain full access to the National Airspace System, they must have the capability to detect and avoid other aircraft. To safely avoid an- other aircraft, an unmanned aircraft must detect the intruder aircraft with ample time and distance to allow the ownship to track the intruder, perform risk assessment, plan an avoidance path, and execute the maneuver. This paper describes two analytical methods for finding the minimum detection range to ensure that these detection and avoidance steps can be carried out. The first method, time-based geometric velocity vectors, includes the bank-angle dynamics of the ownship; …
Thermophysical Properties Of Thin Fibers Via Photothermal Quantum Dot Fluorescence Spectral Shape-Based Thermometry, Troy Munro, Liwang Liu, Heng Ban, Christ Glorieux
Thermophysical Properties Of Thin Fibers Via Photothermal Quantum Dot Fluorescence Spectral Shape-Based Thermometry, Troy Munro, Liwang Liu, Heng Ban, Christ Glorieux
Faculty Publications
To improve predictions of composite behavior under thermal loads, there is a need to measure the axial thermophysical properties of thin fibers. Current methods to accomplish this have prohibitively long lead times due to extensive sample preparation. This work details the use of quantum dots thermomarkers to measure the surface temperature of thin fibers in a non-contact manner and determine the fibers’ thermal diffusivity. Neural networks are trained on extracting the temperature of a sample from fluorescence spectra in calibrated, steady-state conditions, based on different spectral features such as peak intensity and peak wavelength. The trained neural networks are then …
An Analysis Of Enabling Techniques For Highly-Accessible Low-Cost Virtual Reality Hardware In The Collaborative Engineering Design Process, Joshua Q. Coburn
An Analysis Of Enabling Techniques For Highly-Accessible Low-Cost Virtual Reality Hardware In The Collaborative Engineering Design Process, Joshua Q. Coburn
Theses and Dissertations
While there currently exists a great deal of research in the literature demonstrating various engineering applications for virtual reality (VR) and the benefits of these applications, VR adoption has been slow in part because of the high cost and resources required to setup and maintain the hardware for these applications. However, in the last 5 years, a new generation of VR hardware has emerged with cost and resource requirements which are a small fraction of previous hardware. This work begins with a survey of this newly available hardware summarizing recent advances for providing virtual input to all of the five …
An Analysis Of Enabling Techniques For Highly-Accessible Low-Cost Virtual Reality Hardware In The Collaborative Engineering Design Process, Joshua Q. Coburn
An Analysis Of Enabling Techniques For Highly-Accessible Low-Cost Virtual Reality Hardware In The Collaborative Engineering Design Process, Joshua Q. Coburn
Theses and Dissertations
While there currently exists a great deal of research in the literature demonstrating various engineering applications for virtual reality (VR) and the benefits of these applications, VR adoption has been slow in part because of the high cost and resources required to setup and maintain the hardware for these applications. However, in the last 5 years, a new generation of VR hardware has emerged with cost and resource requirements which are a small fraction of previous hardware. This work begins with a survey of this newly available hardware summarizing recent advances for providing virtual input to all of the five …
Aerodynamic Drag On Intermodal Rail Cars, Philip Donovan Kinghorn
Aerodynamic Drag On Intermodal Rail Cars, Philip Donovan Kinghorn
Theses and Dissertations
The freight rail industry is essential to the US infrastructure and there is significant motivation to improve its efficiency. The aerodynamic drag associated with transport of commodities by rail is becoming increasingly important as the cost of diesel fuel increases. For intermodal railcars a significant amount of aerodynamic drag is a result of the large distance between containers that often occurs and the resulting pressure drag resulting from the separated flow that results due to their non-streamlined shape. This thesis reports on research that has been done to characterize the aerodynamic drag on intermodal train builds and allow their builds …
Estimating Human Intent For Physical Human-Robot Co-Manipulation, Eric Townsend, Erich Mielke, David Wingate, Marc D. Killpack
Estimating Human Intent For Physical Human-Robot Co-Manipulation, Eric Townsend, Erich Mielke, David Wingate, Marc D. Killpack
Faculty Publications
Human teams can be exceptionally efficient at adapting and collaborating during manipulation tasks using shared mental models. However, the same shared mental models that can be used by humans to perform robust low-level force and motion control during collaborative manipulation tasks are non-existent for robots. For robots to perform collaborative tasks with people naturally and efficiently, understanding and predicting human intent is necessary. However, humans are difficult to predict and model. We have completed an exploratory study recording motion and force for 20 human dyads moving an object in tandem in order to better understand how they move and how …
A Handy Underwater Solution, Benjamin Murdoch, Matt Ricks, Ales Ball, Jacob Olson, Ethan Durrant, Connor Monson, Lars Watts, Mark Killpack
A Handy Underwater Solution, Benjamin Murdoch, Matt Ricks, Ales Ball, Jacob Olson, Ethan Durrant, Connor Monson, Lars Watts, Mark Killpack
Journal of Undergraduate Research
Hod Lipson once asked an audience at TED, “Where are the robots?” We’ve been waiting for them a long time now and modern robotics still hasn’t caught up with our hopes and dreams. Through our research we hope to address one of the major topics in robotics: movement (or kinematics), and use this moment of exploration to build a new low cost robotic hand capable of use within the exciting realm of aquatics.