Engineering Commons^™

Infiltration Performance Of Engineered Surfaces Commonly Used For Distributed Stormwater Management, Nick Alexander Valinski

Theses - ALL

Engineered porous media are commonly used in low impact development (LID) structures to mitigate excess stormwater in urban environments. Differences in infiltrability of these LID systems arise from the wide variety of materials used to create porous surfaces and subsequent maintenance, debris loading, and physical damage. In this study, infiltration capacity of six common materials was tested by multiple replicate experiments with automated mini-disk infiltrometers. The tested materials included porous asphalt, porous concrete, porous brick pavers, flexible porous pavement, engineered soils, and native soils. Porous asphalt, large porous brick pavers, and curb cutout rain gardens showed the greatest infiltration rates. …

The Effects Of Watershed Liming On Mercury Concentrations And Stocks In Soil Of Woods Lake, New York, Zhenni Xie

Theses - ALL

Abstract

In acid-impacted forests, lime has been applied to neutralize acidity and mitigate acidification of soil and surface waters. However, few studies have evaluated the effects of liming on watershed mercury processes and transport. I investigated the effects of liming on mercury, organic carbon, and sulfur concentrations and stocks in forest soil 19 years after the application of lime to the Woods Lake Watershed, Adirondack Park, New York, USA (42o52' N, 71o58' W). The mercury, organic carbon, and sulfur stocks were significantly greater in the forest floor of limed areas (24.5 vs. 11.1 Hg g/ha for Oe and 31.6 vs. …

The Effect Of Surface Roughness On The Fretting Corrosion Of 316l Stainless Steel Biomaterial Surfaces, Aarti Shenoy

Theses - ALL

The medical device industry is still seeking answers to the mechanically-assisted corrosion (MAC) problem, which becomes increasingly important due to modularity in design. MAC manifests in various forms, some of which are fretting corrosion, crevice corrosion and stress corrosion. Several studies have been conducted to understand the causes and the factors that affect fretting corrosion. Some of the factors are the applied load, surface potential, oxide film characteristics and solution chemistry near the interface. Surface properties such as surface roughness determine the topography of the surface and the nature of asperity-asperity contact, which is a factor that would determine the …

Indium Telluride Cylinder Fiber Laser, Abhinay Sandupatla

Theses - ALL

A new type of fiber laser is described here. The laser consists of a 25 mm long fiber with an approximately 15 nm thick In2Te3 semiconductor layer at the glass core glass cladding boundary. The laser mirrors consist of a thick vacuum deposited aluminum layer at one end and a thin semitransparent aluminum layer deposited at the other end of the fiber. The laser is pumped from the side with either light from a Halogen Tungsten incandescent lamp or a blue, power LED. Since both, the gain of the In2Te3 semi-conductor and aluminum mirrors have a wide bandwidth the output …

Evaluation Of Volatile And Semi-Volatile Organic Compounds Potentially Associated With The Gas Shale Fracturing Process In The Fayetteville And Marcellus Shale, Karl Albert Oetjen

Theses - ALL

With the recent growth of the natural gas industry coupled with technological advancements, gas shale fracturing has become an effective and highly profitable method for natural gas production. Unlike conventional natural gas extraction which may require vertical fracturing, gas shale fracturing relies on a method known as horizontal fracturing to remove gas trapped within the impermeable facies. Compared to vertical fracturing, horizontal fracturing requires larger amounts of fluids to be injected downhole under high pressure. These fracturing fluids can contain high concentrations of petroleum hydrocarbons with known adverse health effects. Due to the large volumes used, the potential for groundwater …

Accelerating Pattern Matching In Neuromorphic Text Recognition System Using Intel Xeon Phi Coprocessor, Khadeer Ahmed

Theses - ALL

Neuromorphic computing systems refer to the computing architecture inspired by the working mechanism of human brains. The rapidly reducing cost and increasing performance of state-of-the-art computing hardware allows large-scale implementation of machine intelligence models with neuromorphic architectures and opens the opportunity for new applications. One such computing hardware is Intel Xeon Phi coprocessor, which delivers over a TeraFLOP of computing power with 61 integrated processing cores. How to efficiently harness such computing power to achieve real time decision and cognition is one of the key design considerations. This work presents an optimized implementation of Brain-State-in-a-Box (BSB) neural network model on …

Fabrication And Characterization Of Carbon Nanofiber Reinforced Shape Memory Epoxy (Cnfr-Sme) Composites, Derek Weed

Theses - ALL

Shape memory polymers have a wide range of applications due to their ability to mechanically change shapes upon external stimulus, while their achievable composite counterparts prove even more versatile. An overview of literature on shape memory materials, fillers and composites was provided to pave a foundation for the materials used in the current study and their inherent benefits. This study details carbon nanofiber and composite fabrication and contrasts their material properties. In the first section, the morphology and surface chemistry of electrospun-poly(acrylonitrile)-based carbon nanofiber webs were tailored through various fabrication methods and impregnated with a shape memory epoxy. The morphologies, …

The Effect Of Localized Low Concrete Strength On Flexural Strength Of Rc Beams, Feng Xie

Theses - ALL

In reinforced concrete (RC) beams, localized low concrete strength may occur under certain conditions, e.g., poor construction practice that results in concrete honeycombing. The performance of beams with localized poor zones has received considerable attention in civil engineering research. This report presents the response of beams with various localized poor zones along the length of simply supported flexural members. A finite element model approach is developed and calibrated against two experimental beam test data, conducted by others. Solid 65 elements for modeling the concrete and Link180 elements for modeling the steel reinforcing bars are combined together with spring elements between …

Landscape Factors That Affect Acid-Base Chemistry Of Adirondack Long-Term Monitoring (Altm) Lakes, Zheng Dong

Theses - ALL

The Adirondack region has been affected by acid deposition for multiple decades. Atmospheric deposition of sulfur and nitrogen has decreased since the 1970s because of the 1970 and 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments (CAAA) as well as the NOX Budget Program. Previous studies have related the long-term changes in Adirondack lake water chemistry to decreases in atmospheric deposition and emission controls. However, relatively limited research has been conducted on the spatial patterns and the role of different landscape factors on the recovery of lake water chemistry in the Adirondacks. The objective of this study was to investigate the relations of …