Engineering Commons^™

Systems Modeling And Economic Analysis Of Photovoltaic (Pv) Powered Water Pumping Brackish Water Desalination For Agriculture, Michael A. Jones

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The objective of this study was to determine the economic viability of solar powered water pumping and desalination systems for agriculture. Growing global demand for agricultural production has put increased pressure on limited freshwater resources in various locations around the word. Many areas have low quality groundwater resources that have not been utilized for agriculture due to limited availability to electricity, high operational costs of diesel generators and the economics associated with water pumping and processing. Reverse osmosis is a desalination technology that removes salts and other minerals from low-quality water, making it fit for drinking or irrigation. Reduced costs …

An Analysis Of Sensitivity In Economic Forecasting For Pavement Management Systems, Antonio Fuentes

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

In the scope of transportation asset management, the maintenance and rehabilitation (M&R) performed on asphalt roads at the local government level requires careful planning and intelligent use of limited funding. For this reason, a Pavement Management System (PMS) is incorporated and used as a tool for local government leaders to make the best decision given their annual budget. The PMS process is a repeatable process which consists of determining present day pavement condition, evaluating future deterioration, performing an economic analysis of possible M&R treatments and finally implementing a proper M&R plan to keep the asphalt pavement network in good condition. …

The Space Plug-And-Play Architecture Services Manager And Its Relevance In Diverse Plug-And-Play Software Systems, Brandon Holdaway

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

The Space Plug-and-Play Archichecture System Manager (SSM) is a system of Space Plug-and-Play Architecture (SPA) hardware, software components, and services for rapid integration of satellite systems. It was originally designed to help decrease the amount of time and money required to integrate payloads onto a satellite. The features of the SSM make it useful in non-satellite systems. In this report, I demonstrate diverse uses of the SSM in a multi-use payload manage- ment and underwater vehicle software solution which was designed and implemented using the SSM. Further I give a detailed explanation of the successes and failures of the software …

Retrofitting Two Solar Hot Water Systems For Year Round Operation, Zachary A. Cook

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Solar energy in a variety of applications is again becoming more widely used. Solar collectors have been installed during the construction of two Utah State University buildings: Wetlands Discovery located in Kaysville, Utah and Swaner Nature Preserve located in Park City, Utah. While these systems are capable of capturing a significant amount of solar energy, problems have been encountered when the demand is less than the system’s capacity. This project report documents the problems encountered while operating the two solar water heating systems and how the systems were modified to be operational year round under typical operating conditions. The peak …

Control Of Grid-Connected Photovoltaic Systems Using Fractional Order Operators, Hadi Malek

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This work presents a new peak seeking strategy for maximum power point operation using fractional order operators in the three-phase grid-connected photovoltaic systems. Moreover, fractional order controllers have been implemented in the voltage and current control loops. The simulation results and theoretical analysis indicate that the proposed fractional order control strategy improves the efficiency of the system by reducing the total harmonic distortion of the injected current to the grid and increases the robustness of the system against uncertainties. Additionally, the proposed maximum power point tracking algorithms provide more robustness and faster convergence speed under environmental variations than other maximum …

Water Resources Planning And Management - University Of Florida, Jim Heaney

All ECSTATIC Materials

This course is designed to (1) acquaint students with the role of analytical methods in water resources planning processes; (2) differentiate the roles of professionals and decision makers; and (3) present methods for evaluating multi-purpose water resource systems. Course taught at University of Florida.

Water Resources Systems Engineering - Technion, Avi Ostfeld

All ECSTATIC Materials

Course taught at Technion - Israel Institute of Technology.

Bie6300 - Irrigation & Conveyance Control Systems, Spring 2004, Gary P. Merkley

Biological and Irrigation Engineering - OCW

This is a course regarding measurement of flow rates and water levels. Calibration, design, and selection of open-channel flow measurement structures. Design of irrigation conveyance and distribution system infrastructure.

Controlled Environment Potentiostat To Study Solid-Aqueous Systems, R A. Petrie, P. R. Grossl, Ronald C. Sims

Biological Engineering Faculty Publications

We designed a redox apparatus that controls electropotenial (Eh), pH, and temperature. The apparatus is fully automated and can be assembled from equipment found in most soil analytical laboratories. The reactor can maintain environmental conditions used to evaluate the chemical fate of contaminants under natural conditions (natural attenuation) or adjust them to a new steady state to evaluate the effect of engineered remediation on a subsurface system. It can operate within a wide range of redox potential values (−400 to 400 mV) and at any pH value. The stability and accuracy of the instrument was tested by performing Eh-pH titrations …

Best Management Of Pesticide And Irrigation Application Systems: Background And Candi Software, Alaa H. Aly, Richard C. Peralta, Howard M. Deer

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

In this chapter, we discuss a commonly-used volume balance approach for simulating the movement of water through the root zone. We then show how this approach can be coupled with pesticide leaching prediction. Finally we show how information about irrigation system design can be used with the previous processes. The result is an integrated approach for estimating the environmental consequences of irrigation and pesticide management.

Optimizing Perennial Groundwater Yield Planning For Nonlinear Systems: Approach Comparison, Shu Takahashi, Richard C. Peralta

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

Four alternative simulation/optimization models useful for computing optimal sustained-yield (steady-state) groundwater pumping strategies are compared in terms of formulation, solution procedure, accuracy, and computational efficiency. The different models require different computer processing time and memory. For the aquifer tested system, if more than 10% of the cells have pumping as a decision variable, a fully linearized embedding model will require less computer memory than any other model. All the models address linear and nonlinear steady-state flow in multilayer, unconfined/confined aquifers. They also address several types of nonsmooth external flows. Newly presented are a response matrix model solving external flows described …

Design And Operating Criteria For Rural Water Systems, James E. Garton, Gary L. Goodwin, Richard C. Peralta

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

Rural homesites in the United States require the availability of high quality water. One means of meeting this need is with the rural water district, a system composed of tank storage and a pipe network serving a number of homes. The tanks are filled by pumping during periods of minimal water use and serve as the immediate water source for homes.

Optimum design requires consideration of not only immediate needs and economic factors but also the possibility of expansion at some future date. Accurate prediction of monthly usage rates is sometimes necessary to set contractural needs. Daily water use per …

Wind-Powered Hydrogen Electric Systems For Farm And Rural Use, Final Report, United States Department Of Energy

Agriculture

The objective of this study has been to determine the current technology of a wind-energy conversion system (WECS) of minimal cost for rural applications. Specifically, IGT has evaluated available methods for converting shaft horse-power from a wind turbine to electricity and hydrogen. A workable mix of these two energy forms with storage that can support the energy needs of selected farming operations and the rural home was sought.

Energy load patterns of several farming operations were examined for interfacing with the energy storage and delivery systems that are supplied by wind turbines dependent on the prevalent winds. Several preliminary designs …