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Full-Text Articles in Engineering
Defining A Stakeholder-Relative Model To Measure Academic Department Efficiency At Achieving Quality In Higher Education, Federica Robinson-Bryant
Defining A Stakeholder-Relative Model To Measure Academic Department Efficiency At Achieving Quality In Higher Education, Federica Robinson-Bryant
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
In a time of strained resources and dynamic environments, the importance of effective and efficient systems is critical. This dissertation was developed to address the need to use feedback from multiple stakeholder groups to define quality and assess an entity’s efficiency at achieving such quality. A decision support model with applicability to diverse domains was introduced to outline the approach. Three phases, (1) quality model development, (2) input-output selection and (3) relative efficiency assessment, captured the essence of the process which also delineates the approach per tool applied. This decision support model was adapted in higher education to assess academic …
Optimization Of Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion Power Plants, Steven Emanoel Rizea
Optimization Of Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion Power Plants, Steven Emanoel Rizea
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
A proprietary Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) modeling tool, the Makai OTEC Thermodynamic and Economic Model (MOTEM), is leveraged to evaluate the accuracy of finite-time thermodynamic OTEC optimization methods. MOTEM is a full OTEC system simulator capable of evaluating the effects of variation in heat exchanger operating temperatures and seawater flow rates. The evaluation is based on a comparison of the net power output of an OTEC plant with a fixed configuration. Select optimization methods from the literature are shown to produce between 93% and 99% of the maximum possible amount of power, depending on the selection of heat exchanger …
An Index To Measure Efficiency Of Hospital Networks For Mass Casualty Disasters, Maria Bull Torres
An Index To Measure Efficiency Of Hospital Networks For Mass Casualty Disasters, Maria Bull Torres
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Disaster events have emphasized the importance of healthcare response activities due to the large number of victims. For instance, Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, in 2005, and the terrorist attacks in New York City and Washington, D.C., on September 11, 2001, left thousands of wounded people. In those disasters, although hospitals had disaster plans established for more than a decade, their plans were not efficient enough to handle the chaos produced by the hurricane and terrorist attacks. Thus, the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) suggested collaborative planning among hospitals that provide services to a contiguous geographic area …
Efficiency Improvement Techniques For High Voltage Capacitor Charging Methods, Michael Islas
Efficiency Improvement Techniques For High Voltage Capacitor Charging Methods, Michael Islas
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
The goal of this thesis is to design and fabricate a DC-to-DC converter for use in high-voltage capacitor charging applications. The primary objectives include increasing the efficiency and reducing the cost of traditional methods used for this application. Traditional methods were not designed specifically for high-voltage capacitor charging and were thus very primitive and exhibited lower efficiency. Prior methods made use of a high voltage power supply and a current limiting resistor or control scheme. The power supply would often only operate efficiently at a single voltage value and would thus function poorly over a range used in charging a …
Modeling And Analysis Of Power Mosfets For High Frequency Dc-Dc Converters, Yali Xiong
Modeling And Analysis Of Power Mosfets For High Frequency Dc-Dc Converters, Yali Xiong
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Evolutions in integrated circuit technology require the use of a high-frequency synchronous buck converter in order to achieve low cost, low profile, fast transient response and high power density. However, high frequency operation leads to increased power MOSFET switching losses. Optimization of the MOSFETs plays an important role in improving converter performance. This dissertation focuses on revealing the power loss mechanism of power MOSFETs and the relationship between power MOSFET structure and its power loss. The analytical device model, combined with circuit modeling, cannot reveal the relationship between device structure and its power loss due to the highly non-linear characteristics …
Entire Load Efficiency And Dynamic Performance Improvements For Dc-Dc Converters, Osama Abdel-Rahman
Entire Load Efficiency And Dynamic Performance Improvements For Dc-Dc Converters, Osama Abdel-Rahman
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
The scope of this work can be summarized by three main aspects of DC-DC power converters. The first aspect is soft switching topologies to improve conversion efficiency for On-Board Converters or Point of load (POL) converters, the second aspect is load adaptive control techniques to improve all load efficiency for battery powered DC-DC converters that are applied to mobile devices, and the third aspect is dynamic performance improvement techniques to improve load transient in voltage regulators. Topologies and control techniques for DC-DC converters are presented after reviewing loads powering requirements and steady-state and transients design challenges.
Control And Topology Improvements In Half-Bridge Dc-Dc Converters, Songquan Deng
Control And Topology Improvements In Half-Bridge Dc-Dc Converters, Songquan Deng
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Efficiency and transient response are two key requirements for DC-DC converters. Topology and control are two key topics in this dissertation. A variety of techniques for DC-DC converter performance improvement are presented in this work. Focusing on the efficiency issue, a variety of clamping techniques including both active and passive methods are presented after the ringing issues in DC-DC converters are investigated. By presenting the clamping techniques, a big variety of energy management concepts are introduced. The active bridge-capacitor tank clamping and FET-diode-capacitor tank clamping are close ideas, which transfer the leakage inductor energy to clamping capacitor to prevent oscillation …