Engineering Commons^™

Firmware And Software For An Integrated Electrophysiology Data Acquisition And Stimulation System, Kyle D. Batzer

Masters Theses

This thesis describes the firmware and software design for a prototype electrophysiology experimentation system. The overall system, built on the work of previous students and developed with fellow graduate student Mr. Donovan Squires, provides eight channels of acquisition and four channel of arbitrary waveform generation for stimulation of biological systems. In order to show the performance of the system, a common electrophysiology experiment was performed on the giant axon of an earthworm and the results were compared to previously validated systems. The developed system is intended to support future work at the Neurobiology Engineering Laboratory at Western Michigan University.

The …

Use Of Polymer Rapid Tools As Functional Injection Mold Tooling, Sean Derrick

Masters Theses

Conventional tool making for injection molded plastics is expensive, time consuming, and generates a great deal of waste. Presently, industry is waiting for what is commonly referred to as Rapid Tooling (RT). The greatest opportunity for RT implementation would be the use of Additively Manufacturing (AM) technology. Specifically, AM techniques which use a high strength polymer resin substrate.

The following research is an initial feasibility study to determine if Polymer Rapid Tools (PRTs) could be used as functional injection mold tooling. The objective of the research was to determine if a PRT could mold a variety of features to a …

Standardized Longitudinal Connection Detail For Decked Precast Prestressed Concrete Girders, Ramzi Muftah Ali Abduallah

Masters Theses

The use of decked precast prestressed concrete girders (DPPCG) is becoming popular in accelerated bridge construction. DPPCGs are assembled and connected on site using grout or concrete longitudinal connections. The durability performance of these connections is a concern. The objective of this research is to document the longitudinal connection behavior with respect to its design parameters, and establish a process for developing a standardized connection detail considering the demands due to live load and temperature gradient (TG) load. In order to demonstrate this process, decked bulb-tee and decked box-beam girders were considered. Finite element models, under various types and levels …

Single-Depot Vehicle Routing Problem For Home Delivery Of Pharmaceutical Products, Kimberly Starr Harms

Masters Theses

Some retail pharmacies offer home delivery services to establish a competitive advantage in the growing healthcare market. The handling of orders for home delivery includes several internal and external processing and transportation activities. In this work, models were developed for use in a pharmacy delivery system to assist personnel in their daily activities. This work includes standard operating procedures for picking, packing and loading of delivery orders and the assignment and routing of vehicles to deliver customer orders. Results from simulated delivery areas identified interesting tradeoffs when comparing densely populated areas to sparsely populated areas. In addition, recommendations for order …

Analytical Solutions For A Large-Scale Long-Lived Rotating Layer Of Fluid Heated Underneath, Pouya Jalilian

Masters Theses

In this work, the system of equations for a large- scale long lived rotating layer of fluid with the deformable upper free surface and non-deformable lower free surface heated underneath has been reviewed and derived. The quasi-geostrophic approximation, the beta effect and the method of multi-scale expansions have been employed to and as a result, an equation governing the evolution of large-scale perturbations, has been derived. The effect of each term present in the upper surface deformation equation has been analyzed and the analytical solutions have been obtained by virtue of employing auxiliary Riccati equation method. The soliton solutions obtained …

Formulation And Evaluation Of Resistive Inks For Applications In Printed Electronics, Sughosh Satish Bhore

Masters Theses

In the 21^st century, it has been shown that printing methodologies can be used to print electrically functional devices on a variety of substrates. In comparison to conventional electronic manufacturing methods, printing is a more cost effective and less complex process. The requirements for manufacturing Printed Electronics (PE) components are much more demanding than graphic printing applications due to the additional requirement of easy electron flow. This additional requirement increases the need for print uniformity and layer-to-layer registration to a much higher degree. In this work, hybrid UV-curable, water-based, electrical resistive inks were formulated. Inkjet inks were prepared by …

Fuctional Properties Of Phthalocyanine Dye Based Inks, Yumeizhi Jia

Masters Theses

Currently, inkjet printing techniques are getting more attention. They have the features of non-contact and additive patterning feasibility, compatibility with different substrates (the materials on which the ink is printed), low temperature processing, and low cost (1) (2). They can be used for patterning solution processable polymers or nanoparticle inks on various substrates including conductive materials, paper and glass (3). The need for proper functional inks is increasing every year. The goal of my work was to formulate a phthalocyanine water based ink, which can work as a dielectric ink. In my research, all the materials which were used to …

Instrumentation Electronics For An Integrated Electrophysiology Data Acquisition And Stimulation System, Donovan Squires

Masters Theses

The Neurobiology Engineering Laboratory at Western Michigan University has need of an electrophysiology instrumentation system combining generation of multiple arbitrary stimulation waveforms and recording of action potentials on multiple channels. Electronics for an instrumentation system with the capability of generating four unique stimulation waveforms and recording action potentials on eight channels were developed and implemented on a printed circuit board. Collaboration with fellow graduate student, Mr. Kyle Batzer, who developed firmware and software for the instrumentation system as described in his thesis, was essential for successful realization of the instrumentation system. Knowledge gained and reported by previous students working in …

Implementation And Analysis Of A 1.4l Turbo Liquid Cooled Cac And Ac Condenser System, Mitchell Zajac

Masters Theses

This project report serves as a continuation and finalization of an overall experience with the design process including working on the development of system components, working with automotive industry leaders, suppliers and dealing with the aspects of business and production feasibility. The development of a dual level cooling concept to apply Centro Richerche Fiat established components on a Chrysler Group vehicle application was the foundation of the design project completed in December 2012 by Matt Cutler and Mitch Zajac. The development of this system aimed to decrease overall vehicle power consumption, minimize overall system packaging space, and to increase vehicle …

Improved Deinkability Of Lep (Liquid Electrophotography) Digital Prints, Zheng Wei

Masters Theses

Digital printing plays a very important role in the life of modern society. With the development of digital printing technologies, and the increasing market share of digital printing, the amount of digital prints in waste paper is rapidly increasing. Under “green” manufacturing and environmental sustainability, deinking of digital print inks is an urgent problem that needs to be solved. Indigo is a typical series of HP (Hewlett-Packard) digital presses that use a liquid ink named ElectroInk (Liquid Electrophotography or LEP). The particle size of HP ElectroInk is very small, 1-2 microns, which is smaller than dry toners. But, during flotation, …

Use Of A Gateway In-Street Sign Treatment To Increase Yielding To Pedestrians At Crosswalks, Miles K. Bennett

Masters Theses

An important goal to reduce the number of collisions between motorists and pedestrians is to increase motorist’s yielding right-of-way to pedestrians in crosswalks. The current study addresses this goal. A Gateway installation of instreet signs (one in-street sign installed between the two travel lanes in each direction and one on both edges of the roadway in each direction) was evaluated on multilane roads. The first experiment compared the efficacy of adding multiple in-street signs used in a gateway configuration with a single sign between the two travel lanes in each direction. The second experiment compared the in-street sign gateway treatment …

Spatial Factors Impacting Non-Motorized Exposures And Crash Risks, Farhad Abasahl

Masters Theses

This research investigates spatial factors, that impact non-motorized exposures and crashes, and examines the relationship between exposure at signalized intersections and crash frequencies involving pedestrians and bicycles at a census tract level. The four Michigan cities of Ann Arbor, East Lansing, Flint and Grand Rapids are examined. After completing an extensive literature review to provide a list of required data, 92 intersections are selected from the four cities to collect pedestrian and bicyclist counts. Five-year crash records, special attractions, non-motorized facilities and transportation infrastructure data for the four cities are gathered for the four cities. This data are later mapped …

Gis-Based Flood Analysis For Adequate Flood Mitigation In An Unplanned Urban Area; The Case Of Pikine Dagoudane In Dakar County, Senegal, Sokhna Helene Diop

Masters Theses

Since 1989, Pikine Dagoudane, in the suburbs of Dakar City has faced several flooding events, resulting in economic loss, environmental degradation and severe disturbance of the social life of the residents. The mitigation programs implemented have not appeared to provide any relief since 2000. Review of the existing literature on the crisis has revealed that the general scale of the studies, and the insufficient attention to some of the major factors could be accounted for such little efficiency. This thesis applies a different approach, based on a small area and focusing mainly on topographic characteristics, to provide a better understanding …

Cyber-Adaptive Physical Systems For Automated Construction Progress Monitoring And Asset Tracking, Syed Hammad Rasheed

Masters Theses

Despite the benefits of building information models as a means of communication, collaboration and integration in construction projects, their use is often limited to the design and tendering/bidding stage. Potential of building information models lies in its implementation during construction, operations and maintenance phases of a facility’s lifecycle. Tight Integration of building information model and physical facility by means of computational resources is required to achieve this potential such that changes in one environment are automatically reflected in the other. This is termed a cyber-adaptive physical systems approach. This research investigates the applicability of a cyber-adaptive physical systems approach in …

Broncoblade: An Open Source Wind Turbine Blade Analysis Tool, Alex R. Quinlan

Masters Theses

This thesis reports the development and validation of BroncoBlade, a horizontal axis wind turbine analysis tool. BroncoBlade prepares finite element models and integrates them with an aeroelastic simulator. Analysis results for the SNL100-00 baseline blade are evaluated against reference results published by Sandia National Laboratories. Variations on the SNL100-00 blade incorporating carbon fiber are compared to the baseline blade.

Eeg Acquisition System On Mobile Platform, Veerendra Dasari

Masters Theses

The Electro-encephalogram [EEG] recording systems play a major role in the Brain Computer Interface machines where the brainwave signals are given as controls. There is a considerable development in transmission of these signals onto different platforms based on the necessity and portability of applications. With the advent of wireless signal transmission protocols for the medical devices, there is an increased research in the domain of offsite patient monitoring applications.

This document describes the evolution prototype of the portable EEG acquisition system developed to acquire the human scalp signals via electrodes and display them on the Android mobile phone after pre-conditioning …

Development Of Cfd Models For The Purposes Of Exploring Free Surface Wave Phenomena, Leonard P. Stoehr

Masters Theses

With the push for finding alternative, green energy sources, the harnessing of energy from ocean and lake waves is becoming a more researched field. To fully understand the behavior of wave interactions and optimize designs to extract this energy, it is necessary to develop computer models that can accurately replicate this behavior. A case is presented in which previous work done using the wave tank found in the Western Michigan University fluids lab is examined. The case involves harnessing the energy generated by ocean waves through the usage of plates of different shapes resting horizontally on the water’s surface. The …

An Automated Approach To Dynamic Site Layout Planning, Duy Huu Nguyen

Masters Theses

Dynamic site layout planning involves determining the optimum location of resources on the construction site. Site layouts are considered dynamic because construction activities and the number and nature of associated resources change as the project progresses. Previous research has focused on the use of several algorithms to address dynamic site layout problems. These efforts do not enable automated tracking of the dynamic context of construction resources, site space and activities. This research presents an automated adaptive component level system capable of generating layouts which are optimized throughout the phases of construction projects. The system involves the integration of building information …

Extended Color Gamut For Flexographic Printing, Gaurav Dinesh Sheth

Masters Theses

The advancement in technology and the necessity to satisfy the increasing quality requirements has aroused the need for use of extended color gamut in flexographic printing. The information about extended gamut inks and ink systems is not easily available therefore, it is essential to define ink sets and color sequences that will produce optimal results in the flexographic printing process. The results were produced by evaluating color gamut volumes obtained by printing with four color process inks, and additional ink sequences, as well as by evaluating other print parameters that provide evidence in support of the research work. Special focus …