Engineering Commons^™

Investigation Of Temperature, Solution Strength, And Applied Stress Effects On Cation Exchange Processes In Geosynthetic Clay Liners, Kurt Katzenberger

Master's Theses

A laboratory test program was conducted to investigate the effects of temperature, solution strength, and applied stress over increasing conditioning durations on cation exchange processes in sodium bentonite (Na-B) geosynthetic clay liners (GCLs). The test program was intended to determine if the variables of temperature, solution strength, and applied stress had beneficial or detrimental effects on the engineering behavior of Na-B GCLs in municipal solid waste (MSW) landfills and laboratory testing applications. Needlepunched-reinforced, double non-woven Na-B GCL specimens were conditioned in fluids of increasing ionic strength (DI water, 2 mM CaCl2, 50 mM CaCl2, and 200 mM CaCl2 representing control, …

Room Management Web Application And Movement And Temperature Sensors, Visalbotr Chan, Huy Anh Duong

Computer Engineering

There are three main parts of this system: micro-controller, database, and website. Micro-controller detects motion of people walking in and out and It also measures room temperature and humidity in a confined space then updates collected data to the database. Our system’s database contains 6 main columns: room number, room capacity, number of students, temperature in Celsius, humidity in percent and date created. Finally, this database is queried by the website to display the information on the webpage. Users could also navigate on our site to check the most and least occupy rooms, and they can also search for a …

Esophageal Temperature Mapping And Monitoring Sheath, Nicole M. Rogers, Hillary Johnson, Alexander Silva

Biomedical Engineering

The purpose of this document is to provide a product development summary for an accessory device that joins an esophageal temperature probe and a mapping catheter together to be used during cardiac ablation. Catheter ablation therapy is performed in the left atrium, utilizing extremely hot or cold temperatures to create scar tissue and treat atrial fibrillation and other arrhythmias. The close positioning of the left atria adjacent to the esophagus presents a large risk as the extreme temperatures used during ablation can lead to esophageal damage or fistulas. This device is designed to integrate correlate data from the temperature probe …

Diy Incubator, Aryan Zia, Grace Spurlock, Garrett Janney

Biomedical Engineering

This project report provides detailed information on designing and building a DIY Incubator. The device is indicated for growing and maintaining BSL-1 mammalian or bacterial cell culture with a temperature control in the range of 25-45°C ± 1°C. The device is made fully programmable via an Arduino, and is structurally designed to fit two T75 cell culture flasks at a time. The device is able to return to a specified temperature set point within 10 minutes and maintains 5% CO2 partial pressure conditions. The incubator has a small physical footprint, with an overall dimension of 22in x 16in x 15.5in …

Heat Management Strategies For Msw Landfills, Nazli Yesiller, James L. Hanson, Kevin B. Kopp, Emma H. Yee

Civil and Environmental Engineering

Heat is a primary byproduct of landfilling of municipal solid waste. Long-term elevated temperatures have been reported for MSW landfills under different operational conditions and climatic regions around the world. A conceptual framework is presented for management of the heat generated in MSW landfills. Three main strategies are outlined: extraction, regulation, and supplementation. Heat extraction allows for beneficial use of the excess landfill heat as an alternative energy source. Two approaches are provided for the extraction strategy: extracting all of the excess heat above baseline equilibrium conditions in a landfill and extracting only a part of the excess heat above …

The Effects Of Latency On 3d Interactive Data Visualizations, Allen Korenevsky

Master's Theses

Interactive data visualizations must respond fluidly to user input to be effective, or so we assume. In fact it is unknown exactly how fast a visualization must run to present every facet within a dataset. An engineering team with limited resources is left with intuition and estimates to determine if their application performs sufficiently well.

This thesis studies how latency affects users' comprehension of data visualizations, specifically 3D geospatial visualizations with large data sets. Subjects used a climate visualization showing temperatures spanning from the 19th to the 21st century to answer multiple choice questions. Metrics like their eye movements, time …

Bbq Grill Temperature Uniformity Study, Monty Dodge Jr, Samuel Melo

Mechanical Engineering

Bull Outdoor Products, Incorporated, a barbeque grill and outdoor kitchen manufacturer, sponsored this project with the intent of improving the temperature uniformity across the surface of their barbecue grills. For this project, the Cal Poly team of mechanical engineering students, Monty Dodge Jr. and Samuel Melo, used the Brahma grill head model with setups for both natural gas and propane. In order to determine exactly what the uniformity across the grill surface was, the student team designed a testing apparatus which would measure a grid of temperature locations one inch apart spanning an area 16 by 36 inches. Developing a …

Waste Heat Generation: A Comprehensive Review, Nazli Yeşiller, James L. Hanson, Emma H. Yee

Civil and Environmental Engineering

A comprehensive review of heat generation in various types of wastes and of the thermal regime of waste containment facilities is provided in this paper. Municipal solid waste (MSW), MSW incineration ash, and mining wastes were included in the analysis. Spatial and temporal variations of waste temperatures, thermal gradients, thermal properties of wastes, average temperature differentials, and heat generation values are provided. Heat generation was influenced by climatic conditions, mean annual earth temperatures, waste temperatures at the time of placement, cover conditions, and inherent heat generation potential of the specific wastes. Time to onset of heat generation varied between months …

Barbeque Grill Temperature Distribution Design Improvement, Peter Gobell, Connor Mcgill, Thomas Willson

Mechanical Engineering

Team License to Grill set out to asses Bull Outdoor Products, Inc.’s barbeques and quantify the apparent uneven temperature distribution or “hot spots” and “cold spots” across the grill. This testing was accomplished with the design and fabrication of a test fixture allowing for accurate and repeatable temperature collection across the barbeque. With results that matched the sponsor’s claims of hot and cold spots, an engineering model was made using heat transfer and thermodynamic equations. Once the model somewhat resembled the experimental data, it was used to suggest different modifications that would allow for better temperature distribution. It was discovered …

Laboratory Investigation Of The Effects Of Temperature And Moisture On Interface Shear Strength Of Textured Geomembrane And Geosynthetic Clay Liner, Taki Stavros Chrysovergis

Master's Theses

A laboratory investigation was conducted to determine the effects of temperature and moisture on the shear strength of textured geomembrane (T-GM) and geosynthetic clay liner (GCL) interface. Several landfill slope failures involving geosynthetics have occurred within the past three decades. Interface shear strength of T-GM/GCL is well documented for testing conducted at laboratory temperatures and at moisture contents associated with GCLs in submerged conditions. However, in-service conditions for landfill liner systems include a wide range of temperatures (extending from below 0 °C to above 40 °C) and a wide range of moisture conditions. Large-scale interface direct shear tests were performed …

The Effectiveness Of Damage Arrestment Devices In Delaying Fastener-Hole Interaction Failures In Carbon Fiber Polyurethane Foam Composite Sandwich Panels Subjected To Static And Dynamic Loading Under Increased Temperatures, Dominic E. Surano

Master's Theses

A study was conducted to investigate simple, cost-effective manufacturing techniques to delay skin-core delamination, micro-buckling and bearing stress failures resulting from fastener-hole interactions. Composite sandwich panels, with and without damage arrestment devices (DADs), were subjected to monotonic compression at a rate of 5mm per second, and compression-compression fatigue at 50% yield at an amplitude of 65%, under temperatures of 75, 100, 125, 150, 175, and 200 °F.

The sandwiches tested were composed of two-layer cross-weave carbon fiber facesheets, a polyurethane foam core, and an epoxy film adhesive to join the two materials. The most successful method to delay the aforementioned …

Irrigation Leak Detection: Using Flow Rate Sensors To Detect Breaks In An Irrigation System, Adam Openshaw, Kalvin Vu

Computer Engineering

This report details the exploration and invention of a mechanism that can detect breaks in an irrigation system. With the ultimate goal of conserving water, we have designed an inexpensive, self sustaining flow rate monitor that can be used to identify anomalies in an irrigation system and wirelessly communicate the status of the system to a base station. Our implementation can also determine the direction of the anomaly based on the nature of the anomaly itself. This means that multiple monitors can be used to pinpoint the location of a break within the system in addition to merely detecting its …

Measurement And Analysis Of Temperature And Pressure In High Altitude Air Shipments, Sher Paul Singh, Jay Singh, J. Stallings, Gary J. Burgess, K. Saha

Industrial Technology and Packaging

This study was performed (at the request of the FAA) to measure temperature and pressure conditions observed by standard packages in the FedEx Next Day Air network and the environmental conditions of passenger aircrafts. To measure the single parcel environment, two destinations known to be served by non-pressurized feeder and pressurized aircrafts in the USA, San Luis Obispo, California, and Twin Falls, Idaho, were used to represent higher altitude paths. Test packages (0.30 × 0.30 × 0.30 m) containing one MadgeTech PRTemp110 recorder were shipped Priority Overnight by FedEx from East Lansing, Michigan. For 6 weeks, two test packages were …

Design Of An 8-Channel Data Acquisition System For Measuring Diode Junction Temperature, Jason Maynard

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

The solid state lighting industry is striving to expand the use of light emitting diodes (LEDs) in more applications, particularly in high brightness applications. As the power of LEDs increase, heat removal becomes a critical issue. To improve device lifetime, quantum efficiency, and LED colour, the diode p-n junction temperature (Tj) must be kept to a minimum. Measuring this key parameter is difficult or impossible with direct methods, such as thermocouples and infrared cameras, due to the small size of LEDs. Fortunately, junction temperature can be measured indirectly by using a relationship between the diode forward voltage (Vf) and junction …

Performance Comparison Of Thermal Insulated Packaging Boxes, Bags And Refrigerants For Single-Parcel Shipments, S. P. Singh, Gary J. Burgess, Jay Singh

Industrial Technology and Packaging

A range of packaging solutions exists for products that must be kept within a specific temperature range throughout the supply-and-distribution chain. This report summarizes the results of studies conducted over a span of 2 years by the Consortium for Distribution Packaging at Michigan State University. Thermal insulation packaging materials such as expanded polystyrene, polyurethane, corrugated fibreboard, ThermalCor® and other composite packaging such as thermal insulating bags were studied. Phase change materials such as gel packs were also evaluated. Properties such as R-value, melting point and heat absorption were examined and are reported.