Engineering Commons^™

Crispr-Cas9 Directed Pdgf-Β Transcriptional Activation In Fibroblast Cell, Lia Gale, Brian Jensen

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Chronic wounds, particularly in the lower limb, represent a huge physical, financial, and social burden to 50 million people worldwide. In 2014, Americans paid an estimated $25 billion for simple wound care for patients. Despite these efforts, traditional methods of trying to heal wounds from the outside via surgical debridement, anti-inflammatory medications, moisture correction, etc. often fail to close wounds (Demidova-Rice et al., 2012). If wound closure does not occur, infection will cause localized tissue death and can lead to sepsis and death. Unfortunately, this leaves amputation as the only resort when wounds don’t close. If primary amputation occurs, …

Autonomous Identification And Classification Of Targets Using An Unmanned Aerial System, Taylor Mcdonnell, Tim Mclain

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Commercial applications of unmanned aerial systems (UAS) are expected to grow significantly in the coming years [1]. Applications of unmanned aerial vehicles in the commercial market include agricultural and infrastructure monitoring, aerial photography, package delivery, fire monitoring, wildlife tracking, and search and rescue operations. One of the purposes of the AUVSI-SUAS competition is to train undergraduates for the growing UAS industry. In this competition a team’s UAS must autonomously identify and locate several targets, which are geometric shapes with a given shape, shape color, letter, letter color, geolocation, and orientation. The focus of this project is to develop the image …

Large Body Influence In Internal Wave Generation, Austin Maxwell, Julie Crockett

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Internal waves are three dimensional waves that propagate within a stratified fluid. They are able to propagate in all directions within our atmosphere and the oceans which are both stratified fluids of continuously changing densities. Internal waves are much larger than surface waves, having wavelengths of hundreds of kilometers and amplitudes more than a kilometer in height. Due to their large size they can be difficult to study in nature, and there is still much to be learned about these waves and their impact on the environment. My research has focused on the generation of internal waves by the motion …

Microstructure Correlation With Formability For Biaxial Stretching Of Magnesium Alloy Az31b At Mildly Elevated Temperatures, David T. Fullwood, Isaac Chelladurai, Michael P. Miles, John E. Carsley, Raj K. Mishra, Irene J. Beyerlein, Marko Knezevic

Faculty Publications

Magnesium AZ31B sheets of 2 mm thickness were stretch formed using a 101.6 mm diameter punch at temperatures from 25°C - 150°C, in 25°C increments. Surface strains were measured using a digital image correlation (DIC) method. The punch height vs load curve was found to be the same for temperatures of 25°C and for 50°C, while at 75°C and above the load for a given punch height started to decrease, indicating a potential change in deformation mechanism. Electron Backscatter Diffraction (EBSD) was used to quantify features of the microstructure in the tested specimens. In particular, the gradual decrease in twinning …

Triggering The Solar Revolution, Justin Halversen, John Salmon

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The sun’s energy emissions are significantly higher than other alternative energy sources. All other energy sources combined would not provide even one percent of the potential collectible energy from the sun. The amount of potential solar power available is well over 5000 times the current world consumption. Indeed, there is a very large and renewable reservoir of untapped potential solar energy which could be made more directly available to more people.

Computer-Aided Design Integration In Virtual Reality Design Reviews For Improved Interaction With Engineering Models, Ian James Freeman

Theses and Dissertations

Leveraging virtual reality (VR) technology to enhance engineering design reviews has been an area of significant interest for researchers since the advent of modern VR. The ability to interact meaningfully with 3D engineering models in these VR design reviews is an important, though often neglected, capability due to the difficulty of performing data translation between native CAD data and VR compatible file formats. A bi-directional interface was developed between a VR design review environment and a commercial CAD package that streamlines the data translation process. By transmitting both geometric data and selected metadata from the CAD system an improved format …

Optimization Under Uncertainty For Wake Steering Strategies, Julian Quick, Jennifer Annoni, Ryan King, Katherine Dykes, Paul Fleming, Andrew Ning

Faculty Publications

Wind turbines in a wind power plant experience significant power losses because of aerodynamic interactions between turbines. One control strategy to reduce these losses is known as 'wake steering,' in which upstream turbines are yawed to direct wakes away from downstream turbines. Previous wake steering research has assumed perfect information, however, there can be significant uncertainty in many aspects of the problem, including wind inflow and various turbine measurements. Uncertainty has significant implications for performance of wake steering strategies. Consequently, the authors formulate and solve an optimization under uncertainty (OUU) problem for finding optimal wake steering strategies in the presence …

Developing Hybrid Thickness-Accommodation Techniques For New Origami-Inspired Engineered Systems, Kyler Austin Tolman

Theses and Dissertations

Origami has become a source of inspiration in a number of engineered systems. In most systems, non-paper materials where material thickness is non-negligible is required. In origami-inspired engineered systems where thickness is non-negligible, thickness-accommodation techniques must be utilized to overcome the issue of self-intersection. Many thickness-accommodation techniques have been developed for use in thick-origami-inspired-engineered systems. In this work several thickness-accommodation techniques are reviewed and discussed. New thickness-accommodation techniques including hybrid thickness-accommodation techniques and the split vertex technique are presented and discussed. These techniques enable new capabilities of thickness-accommodation in origami adapted design. Thickness-accommodation techniques have been developed in the context …

Integration Of A Complete Detect And Avoid System For Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems, Jared Kevin Wikle

Theses and Dissertations

For unmanned aircraft systems to gain full access to the National Airspace System (NAS), they must have the capability to detect and avoid other aircraft. This research focuses on the development of a detect-and-avoid (DAA) system for small unmanned aircraft systems. To safely avoid another aircraft, an unmanned aircraft must detect the intruder aircraft with ample time and distance. Two analytical methods for finding the minimum detection range needed are described. The first method, time-based geometric velocity vectors (TGVV), includes the bank-angle dynamics of the ownship while the second, geometric velocity vectors (GVV), assumes an instantaneous bank-angle maneuver. The solution …

Modeling Three Dimensional Ground Reaction Force Using Nanocomposite Piezoresponsive Foam Sensors, Parker Gary Rosquist

Theses and Dissertations

Three dimensional (3D) ground reaction force (GRF) are an essential component for gait analysis. Current methods for measuring 3D GRF involve using a stationary force plate embedded in the ground, which captures the forces as subjects walk across the platform. This approach has several limitations, a few being: it can only capture a few steps at a time, it is expensive to purchase and maintain, it can't reflect forces caused by natural uneven surfaces, etc. Previous research has attempted to develop wearable force sensors to overcome these problems; however, these endeavors have resulted in devices that are expensive, bulky, and …

Surface Acoustic Wave Based Pumping In A Microchannel, Tao Wang, Qi Ni, Nathan B. Crane, Rasim Guldiken

Faculty Publications

Pumping and manipulation of liquids in microfluidic channels is important for many mechanical, chemical and biomedical applications. Surface acoustic wave based devices fabricated on high-efficiency piezoelectric substrates have been recently investigated for mixing and separation application within microfluidic channels. In this paper, we introduce a novel integrated surface acoustic wave based pump for liquid delivery and precise manipulation within a microchannel. The device employs a hydrophobic surface coating (Cytop) in the device design for decreasing the friction force and increasing the bonding. Contrary to previous surface acoustic wave based pump, this device does not need precise layers of water and …

Design And Comparison Of Variable-Stiffness Compliant Joints For Haptic Devices, David Usevitch, Mark Colton

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Haptic interfaces or devices are computercontrolled robotic systems that seek to replicate the touch experience of a human user¹. The purpose of this research is to develop a viable variable-stiffness compliant joint for haptic interfaces that eliminate rotation joints or screw mechanisms that induce friction, increase weight and cost, and make devices more complex and prone to failure. The resulting compliant haptic device was designed with both affordability and dependability in mind, and hopes to result in research knowledge leading to realistic touch experiences as users interact with virtual or remote environments. The joint may also be applicable …

Origami: Numerical Solutions Of Apparent Absorptivity In Origami Folds, Michael Farnsworth, Brian Iverson

Journal of Undergraduate Research

There are three major types of heat transfer: conduction, convection, and radiation. In many cases, radiation is ignored due to the fact that the amount of heat transferred by this method tend to be small compared to conduction and convection. However, in space and in some settings on earth, radiation is dominant and important. Absorptivity is a measure of an object’s ability to absorb radiation, and apparent absorptivity is a measure of how the shape of an object affects the amount of radiation that it absorbs. For example, if you were to shine a flashlight on a mirror, the light …

Effect Of Thickness On Fatigue Life On Creased Thin Pla, Peter Schleede, Larry Howell

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Origami-based engineering creates products that solve problems inherent in other designs. For example, they can compress into smaller volumes, achieve new and unique motions, and lessen or mitigate numbers of welds, fasteners, or other joining methods. However, a weakness of these designs is the necessity of folding them and seams that result from that folding. If viable, 3D printing these designs would eliminate the need for complicated folding machinery or adhesives to close the seams. Since origami is, by its nature, dynamic, this research aims to help designers predict fatigue lives (number of cycles until failure) of thin, printed PLA …

Safety Of Tubular Nylon Webbing: The Effect Of Wet And Cold Environments, Caleb Duncan, Landon Wright, John Salmon

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Tubular nylon webbing is an effective and relatively inexpensive anchoring solution for search and rescue groups, fire departments, canyoners, and rock climbers. As an anchoring solution nylon webbing is vital to the safety of anyone who uses it. Serious injury or death will often occur if an anchor fails.

All commercially available webbing is labeled with a breaking strength so that the end user is aware of its limits. This breaking strength value is obtained by the manufacture after running many tensile pull tests of dry webbing. While the dry breaking strength is reported by the manufacture no information, other …

Droplets Rolling On Superhydrophobic Inclines Simulating Real World Application Environments, Braquel Burnett, Julie Crockett

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Superhydrophobic surfaces offer unique characteristics such as extreme water repellency, drag reduction and enhanced condensation rates. These effects are possible due to a combination of micro/nano-texturing and a hydrophobic chemical coating. With the advent of micro/nano-fabrication, research and development on superhydrophobic surfaces has sky-rocketed due to the potential advantages across multiple industries including lab-on-a-chip technology, micro-electronic cooling and anti-icing applications.

The Influence Of Crystallographic Constraints On Percolation, Jarrod Lund, Oliver Johnson

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Within polycrystalline materials (e.g. metals and ceramics), grain boundary networks (GBN) influence the effective properties such as diffusion, conductivity, and crack and creep propagation¹. In precision applications such as jet engine turbine blades and solid oxide fuel cells, understanding and characterizing GBN are essential for better design. Modeling GBN allow for better exploration of the complex space of possible networks (figure 1d)². By modeling grains in a honeycomb lattice (figure 1a), grain boundaries can be identified by their misorientation angle (figure 1b). This can be a key indicator of the grain boundary’s properties. By combining information …

Thermal Characterization Of Natural And Synthetic Spider Silks By Both The 3Ω And Transient Electrothermal Methods, Troy Munro, Changhu Xing, Heng Ban, Cameron G. Copeland, Randolph V. Lewis, Colby Jensen

Faculty Publications

Thermal conductivity, thermal diffusivity and volumetric heat capacity of three spider silks are measured in this paper as a benchmark for further studies. These silks include the major and minor ampullate silks of the Nephila clavipes spider, and a synthetic spider silk fiber made from recombinant dragline silk proteins purified from transgenic goats’ milk. Two complementary measurement techniques are employed in the thermal characterization of these microscale single fibers for self-verification. One is the transient electrothermal technique (TET) and the other is the 3ω method. Experimental measurements indicate that thermal properties of the dragline silk are very close to those …

Investigation Of Synthetic Spider Silk Crystallinity And Alignment Via Electrothermal, Pyroelectric, Literature Xrd, And Tensile Techniques, Troy Munro, Tristan Putzeys, Michael Wubbenhorst, Christ Glorieux, Cameron G. Copeland, Randolph V. Lewis, Changhu Xing, Heng Ban

Faculty Publications

The processes used to create synthetic spider silk greatly affect the properties of the produced fibers. This paper investigates the effect of process variations during artificial spinning on the thermal and mechanical properties of the produced silk. Property values are also compared to the ones of the natural dragline silk of the N. clavipes spider, and to unprocessed (as-spun) synthetic silk. Structural characterization by scanning pyroelectric microscopy is employed to provide insight into the axial orientation of the crystalline regions of the fiber and is supported by XRD data. The results show that stretching and passage through liquid baths induce …

Non-Dimensional Modeling Of The Effects Of Weld Parameters On Peak Temperature And Cooling Rate In Friction Stir Welding, Bryan Jay Stringham

Theses and Dissertations

Methods for predicting weld properties based on welding parameters are needed in friction stir welding (FSW). FSW is a joining process in which the resulting properties depend on the thermal cycle of the weld. Buckingham's Pi theorem and heat transfer analysis was used to identify dimensionless parameters relevant to the FSW process. Experimental data from Al 7075 and HSLA-65 on five different backing plate materials and a wide range of travel speeds and weld powers was used to create a dimensionless, empirical model relating critical weld parameters to the peak temperature rise and cooling rate of the weld. The models …

Estimating Short-Term Human Intent For Physical Human-Robot Co-Manipulation, Eric Christopher Townsend

Theses and Dissertations

Robots are increasingly becoming safer and more capable. In the past, the main applications for robots have been in manufacturing, where they perform repetitive, highly accurate tasks with physical barriers that separate them from people. They have also been used in space exploration where people are not around. Due to improvements in sensors, algorithms, and design, robots are beginning to be used in other applications like materials handling, healthcare, and agriculture and will one day be ubiquitous. For this to be possible, they will need to be able to function safely in unmodelled and dynamic environments. This is especially true …

Design Optimization And Motion Planning For Pneumatically-Actuated Manipulators, Daniel Mark Bodily

Theses and Dissertations

Soft robotic systems are becoming increasingly popular as they are generally safer, lighter, and easier to manufacture than their more rigid, traditional counterparts. These advantages allow an increased sense of freedom in both the design and operation of these platforms. In this work, we seek methods of leveraging this freedom to both design and plan motions for two different serial-chain, pneumatically actuated manipulators developed by Pneubotics, a small startup company based in San Francisco. In doing so, we focus primarily on two related endeavors: (1) the optimal kinematic design of these and other similar robots (i.e., choosing link lengths, base …

Hybrid State-Transactional Database For Product Lifecycle Management Features In Multi-Engineer Synchronous Heterogeneous Computer-Aided Design, Devin James Shumway

Theses and Dissertations

There are many different programs that can perform Computer Aided Design (CAD). In order for these programs to share data, file translations need to occur. These translations have typically been done by IGES and STEP files. With the work done at the BYU CAD Lab to create a multi-engineer synchronous heterogeneous CAD environment, these translation processes have become synchronous by using a server and a database to manage the data. However, this system stores part data in a database. The data in the database cannot be used in traditional Product Lifecycle Management systems. In order to remedy this, a new …

Selecting Surrogate Folds For Use In Origami-Based Mechanisms And Products, Jason Tyler Allen

Theses and Dissertations

Origami-based design is increasing in popularity as its benefits and advantages become better understood and explored. However, many opportunities still exist for the application of origami principles to engineered designs, especially in the use of non-paper, thick sheet materials. One specific area utilizing thick sheet materials that is especially promising is origami-based mechanisms that require electrical power transfer applications. Many of these opportunities can be met by the use of surrogate folds. This thesis provides methods and frameworks that can be used by engineers to efficiently select and design surrogate folds for use in origami-based mechanisms and products. Surrogate folds …

Balancing Technical And User Objectives In The Design Of Improved Biomass Cookstoves For Developing Regions Of The World, Kendall Steven Thacker

Theses and Dissertations

Over the past decade a large amount of research has been dedicated in academic literature to improving the technical capabilities of improved cookstoves; primarily the performance efficiency and reduction of emissions. Unfortunately, as published literature has highlighted, the trade-offs that result from placing such a concentrated emphasis on these technical objectives is that improved cookstoves lack the same level of usability as traditional cookstoves. Thus, users often return to using their traditional stoves and the potential impact of the improved cookstoves is never fully realized. In order for improved cookstoves to have greater impact, there must be better balance between …

Principles And Insights For Design For The Developing World, Amy Eleanor Wood

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation collects principles and insights from various sources related to design for the developing world. These principles and insights form part of the foundation that can guide other engineers working in this area. The sources are the published literature, practitioners, non-governmental organizations, and our own field studies. From the engineering literature, we identified nine principles to guide engineers as they design poverty alleviating products for developing communities. Each principle is articulated, supporting literature is described, an in-depth example from the literature is given, followed by suggestions for how the principle can be applied to day-to-day engineering activities. Next, the …

Experimental And Computational Analysis Of An Axial Turbine Driven By Pulsing Flow, Mark H. Fernelius

Theses and Dissertations

Pressure gain combustion is a form of combustion that uses pressure waves to transfer energy and generate a rise in total pressure during the combustion process. Pressure gain combustion shows potential to increase the cycle efficiency of conventional gas turbine engines if used in place of the steady combustor. However, one of the challenges of integrating pressure gain combustion into a gas turbine engine is that a turbine driven by pulsing flow experiences a decrease in efficiency. The interaction of pressure pulses with a turbine was investigated to gain physical insights and to provide guidelines for designing turbines to be …

Energy From Thin Air: Compressed Air Power Harvesting Systems, Zachary Sadler, Matthew Jones

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Energy is an important resource within the world we live. The demand for power requires new energy resources. Much of the power that is generated is eventually wasted in the form of waste heat. As much as 435 GW of energy is transferred from virtually all energy conversion devices and processes to the atmosphere as wasted heat ^[1]. Converting as much as one percent of this waste heat into electrical power would eliminate the need for 18 average size (236 MW) ^[2] coal red power plants. A significant portion of this waste heat production is due to air compression …

Two-Phase Flow Pressure Drop In Superhydrophobic Channels, Kimberly A. Stevens, Julie Crockett, Daniel R. Maynes, Brian D. Iverson

Faculty Publications

Superhydrophobic surfaces have been shown to reduce drag in single-phase channel flow; however, little work has been done to characterize their drag-reducing ability found in two-phase flows. Adiabatic, airwater mixtures were used to explore the influence of hydrophobicity on two-phase flows and the hydrodynamics which might be present in flow condensation environments. Pressure drop measurements in a rectangular channel with one superhydrophobic wall (cross-section approximately 0.37 x 10 mm) and three transparent hydrophilic walls were obtained. Data for air/water mixtures with superficial Reynolds numbers ranging from 22–215 and 55–220, respectively, were obtained for superhydrophobic surfaces with three different cavity fractions. …

Influence Of Noise Generating Factors On Cross Correlation Ebsd Measurement Of Gnds, David T. Fullwood, Landon Hansen, Brian Jackson, Stewart I. Wright, Marc De Graef, Eric Richards Homer, Robert Wagoner

Faculty Publications

Studies of dislocation density evolution are fundamental to improved understanding in various areas of deformation mechanics. Recent advances in cross-correlation techniques, applied to EBSD data have particularly shed light on geometrically necessary dislocation (GND) behavior. However, the framework is relatively computationally expensive – patterns are typically saved from the EBSD scan and analyzed offline. A better understanding of the impact of EBSD pattern degradation, such as binning, compression, and various forms of noise, is vital to enable optimization of rapid and low cost GND analysis. This paper tackles the problem by setting up a set of simulated patterns that mimic …