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Full-Text Articles in Engineering

Improving Compressed Air Energy Efficiency In Automotive Plants: Practical Examples And Implementation, Nasr Alkadi, J. Kelly Kissock Mar 2017

Improving Compressed Air Energy Efficiency In Automotive Plants: Practical Examples And Implementation, Nasr Alkadi, J. Kelly Kissock

J. Kelly Kissock

The automotive industry is the largest industry in the United States in terms of the dollar value of production [1]. U.S. automakers face tremendous pressure from foreign competitors, which have an increasing manufacturing presence in this country. The Big Three North American Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs)-General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler-are reacting to declining sales figures and economic strain by working more efficiently and seeking out opportunities to reduce production costs without negatively affecting the production volume or the quality of the product. Successful, cost-effective investment and implementation of the energy efficiency technologies and practices meet the challenge of maintaining the …


Energy Efficient Process Heating: Managing Air Flow, Kevin Carpenter, J. Kelly Kissock Mar 2017

Energy Efficient Process Heating: Managing Air Flow, Kevin Carpenter, J. Kelly Kissock

J. Kelly Kissock

Much energy is lost through excess air flow in and out of process heating equipment. Energy saving opportunities from managing air flow include minimizing combustion air, preheating combustion air, minimizing ventilation air, and reconfiguring openings to reduce leakage.

This paper identifies these opportunities and presents methods to quantify potential energy savings from implementing these energy-savings measures. Case study examples are used to demonstrate the methods and the potential energy savings.The method for calculating savings from minimizing combustion air accounts for improvement in efficiency from increased combustion temperature and decreased combustion gas mass flow rate.

The method for calculating savings from …


Measuring Plant-Wide Energy Savings, J. Kelly Kissock, Carl Eger Mar 2017

Measuring Plant-Wide Energy Savings, J. Kelly Kissock, Carl Eger

J. Kelly Kissock

This paper presents a general method for measuring plant-wide industrial energy savings and demonstrates the method using a case study from an actual industrial energy assessment. The method uses regression models to characterize baseline energy use. It takes into account changes in weather and production, and can use sub-metered data or whole plant utility billing data. In addition to calculating overall savings, the method is also able to disaggregate savings into components, which provides additional insight into the effectiveness of the individual savings measures. Although the method incorporates search techniques and multi-variable least-squares regression, it is easily implemented using data …


Oscillations Of Biomimetic Scales Elastica, Hessein Ali Mar 2017

Oscillations Of Biomimetic Scales Elastica, Hessein Ali

Hessein Ali

Biomimetic scales are known to substantially alter the curvature dependent properties of mechanical materials engendering complex nonlinearities that can manifest even in small deformations due to scales interaction. Such scales are ubiquitous in nature and known to endow the organism with several mechanical and multifunctional advantages. Since then, tremendous interest has been gathering in mimicking these structures in materials to obtain high performance including stiffness gains and tunable elasticity. Although experimentally straightforward to demonstrate, the fundamental source of these behavior are difficult to model beyond simple geometries due the complications arising from scales interactions. The dynamic behavior of such biomimetic …


Progress Towards Terahertz Acoustic Phonon Generation In Doping Superlattices, Thomas E. Wilson Mar 2017

Progress Towards Terahertz Acoustic Phonon Generation In Doping Superlattices, Thomas E. Wilson

Thomas E. Wilson

Progress is described in experiments to generate coherent terahertz acoustic phonons in silicon doping superlattices by the resonant absorption of nanosecond-pulsed far-infrared laser radiation. Future experiments are proposed that would use the superlattice as a transducer in a terahertz cryogenic acoustic reflection microscope with sub-nanometer resolution.


Synthesis And Hydration Of Alite-Calcium Sulfoaluminate Cement, Natechanok Chitvoranund, Frank Winnefeld, Craig Hargis, Barbara Lothenbach Feb 2017

Synthesis And Hydration Of Alite-Calcium Sulfoaluminate Cement, Natechanok Chitvoranund, Frank Winnefeld, Craig Hargis, Barbara Lothenbach

Craig Hargis

An alite-calcium sulfoaluminate (ACSA) clinker containing approximately 50% alite and 10% ye'elimite was synthesised at 1300°C using a laboratory furnace and 1% calcium fluoride (CaF2) as a mineraliser, ground and blended with 5% anhydrite. The hydration mechanism of the resulting ACSA cement was investigated experimentally using quantitative X-ray diffraction and thermogravimetry, as well as by thermodynamic modelling. During the first hours, mainly alite reacts. Ye'elimite starts to dissolve significantly after 2 d, as it is predominately present as inclusions within the alite matrix and thus reacts only after sufficient alite has dissolved to expose the ye'elimite domains within …


Chiral Light Intrinsically Couples To Extrinsic/Pseudo-Chiral Metasurfaces Made Of Tilted Gold Nanowires, Alessandro Belardini, Marco Centini, Grigore Leahu, David C. Hooper, Roberto Li Voti, Eugenio Fazio, Joseph W. Haus, Andrew Sarangan, Ventsislav K. Valev, Concita Sibilia Feb 2017

Chiral Light Intrinsically Couples To Extrinsic/Pseudo-Chiral Metasurfaces Made Of Tilted Gold Nanowires, Alessandro Belardini, Marco Centini, Grigore Leahu, David C. Hooper, Roberto Li Voti, Eugenio Fazio, Joseph W. Haus, Andrew Sarangan, Ventsislav K. Valev, Concita Sibilia

Andrew Sarangan

Extrinsic or pseudo-chiral (meta)surfaces have an achiral structure, yet they can give rise to circular dichroism when the experiment itself becomes chiral. Although these surfaces are known to yield differences in reflected and transmitted circularly polarized light, the exact mechanism of the interaction has never been directly demonstrated. Here we present a comprehensive linear and nonlinear optical investigation of a metasurface composed of tilted gold nanowires. In the linear regime, we directly demonstrate the selective absorption of circularly polarised light depending on the orientation of the metasurface. In the nonlinear regime, we demonstrate for the first time how second harmonic …


Simulation Model Of An Automatic Commercial Ice Machine, Haithem Murgham, David Myszka, Vijay Bahel, Rajan Rajendran, Kurt Knapke, Suresh Shivashankar, Kyaw Wynn Feb 2017

Simulation Model Of An Automatic Commercial Ice Machine, Haithem Murgham, David Myszka, Vijay Bahel, Rajan Rajendran, Kurt Knapke, Suresh Shivashankar, Kyaw Wynn

David Myszka

Automatic commercial ice-making machines that produce a batch of cube ice at regular intervals are known as “cubers." Such machines are commonly used in food service, food preservation, hotel, and health service industries. The machines are typically rated for the weight of ice produced over a 24-hour period at ambient air temperatures of 90°F and water inlet temperature of 70°F.

These cubers typically utilize an air-cooled, vapor-compression cycle to freeze circulating water flowing over an evaporator grid. Once a sufficient amount ice is formed, a valve switches to enable a harvest mode, where the compressor’s discharge gas is routed into …


Work Integrated Learning In Stem In Australian Universities: Final Report: Submitted To The Office Of The Chief Scientist, Daniel Edwards, Kate Perkins, Jacob Pearce, Jennifer Hong Feb 2017

Work Integrated Learning In Stem In Australian Universities: Final Report: Submitted To The Office Of The Chief Scientist, Daniel Edwards, Kate Perkins, Jacob Pearce, Jennifer Hong

Kate Perkins

The Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) undertook this study for the Office of the Chief Scientist (OCS). It explores the practice and application of Work Integrated Learning (WIL) in STEM, with a particular focus on natural and physical sciences, information technology, and agriculture departments in Australian universities. The project involved a detailed ‘stocktake’ of WIL in practice in these disciplines, with collection of information by interview, survey instruments, consultation with stakeholders and literature reviews. Every university in Australia was visited as part of this project, with interviews and consultation sessions gathering insight from more than 120 academics and support …


Assessment Of Optional Sediment Transport Functions Via The Complex Watershed Simulation Model Swat, Ruoyu Wang Jan 2017

Assessment Of Optional Sediment Transport Functions Via The Complex Watershed Simulation Model Swat, Ruoyu Wang

Ruoyu Wang

The Soil andWater Assessment Tool 2012 (SWAT2012) offers four sediment routing methods
as optional alternatives to the default simplified Bagnold method. Previous studies compared only
one of these alternative sediment routing methods with the default method. The proposed study
evaluated the impacts of all four alternative sediment transport methods on sediment predictions:
the modified Bagnold equation, the Kodoatie equation, the Molinas and Wu equation, and the
Yang equation. The Arroyo Colorado Watershed, Texas, USA, was first calibrated for daily flow.
The sediment parameters were then calibrated to monthly sediment loads, using each of the four
sediment routing equations. An automatic …


Combined And Synergistic Effects Of Climate Change And Urbanization On Water Quality In The Wolf Bay Watershed, Southern Alabama, Ruoyu Wang Jan 2017

Combined And Synergistic Effects Of Climate Change And Urbanization On Water Quality In The Wolf Bay Watershed, Southern Alabama, Ruoyu Wang

Ruoyu Wang

This study investigated potential changes in flow, total suspended solid (TSS) and nutrient (nitrogen and phosphorous) loadings under future climate change, land use/cover (LULC) change and combined change scenarios in the Wolf Bay watershed, southern Alabama, USA. Four Global Circulation Models (GCMs) under three Special Report Emission Scenarios (SRES) of greenhouse gas were used to assess the future climate change (2016–2040). Three projected LULC maps (2030) were employed to reflect different extents of urbanization in future. The individual, combined and synergistic impacts of LULC and climate change on water quantity/quality were analyzed by the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT). …


C.V. - Wojciech Budzianowski, Wojciech M. Budzianowski Jan 2017

C.V. - Wojciech Budzianowski, Wojciech M. Budzianowski

Wojciech Budzianowski

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Renewable Energy And Sustainable Development (Resd) Group, Wojciech M. Budzianowski Jan 2017

Renewable Energy And Sustainable Development (Resd) Group, Wojciech M. Budzianowski

Wojciech Budzianowski

No abstract provided.


Irresistible Bargains: Navigating The Surveillance Society, Robert M. Pallitto Dec 2016

Irresistible Bargains: Navigating The Surveillance Society, Robert M. Pallitto

Robert M Pallitto

Agents in contemporary societies are faced continually with choices regarding engagement with technological artifacts. They can choose to engage or decline engagement after considering the costs and benefits in each case. However, certain aspects of the surveillance society may be irresistible in a number of ways, so that refusal to engage with them is not a realistic option. The proliferation of the Internet of Things (IoT), particularly as embedded in “smart city” initiatives, helps to make surveillance technologies potentially irresistible. After laying the conceptual groundwork for discussing irresistible bargains, this essay offers a two-part normative critique, focusing on the asymmetrical …


Development, Testing And Use Of An Instrumented Unmanned Aerial System To Investigate Changes To The Near-Surface Meteorology Within A Wind Farm, Kevin A. Adkins Dec 2016

Development, Testing And Use Of An Instrumented Unmanned Aerial System To Investigate Changes To The Near-Surface Meteorology Within A Wind Farm, Kevin A. Adkins

Kevin A. Adkins, PhD

No abstract provided.