Engineering Commons^™

Tribocorrosion And Metal Release From Austenitic Stainless Steels 304 And 201 In Simulated Cassava Food Contact, Robert Addai, Temitope E. Olowoyo, Thalia E. Standish, Jeffrey Daniel Henderson, Ubong Eduok, Yolanda Hedberg

Chemistry Publications

Cassava is the third most significant calorie source in the tropics. Its processing has changed from traditional methods to stainless steel processing machines. This study investigated the influence of cassava on metal release from two common stainless steels, ASTM 304 and 201, with and without friction, and on tribocorrosion (multianalytically) of 304. Cassava was relatively corrosive and hindered repassivation of the surface oxide of stainless steel, but it also acted as a lubricant against mechanical friction. The combined action of friction and cassava caused a significant increase in iron, chromium, nickel, and manganese release from the stainless steels (30–35- fold …

Attribution Robustness Of Neural Networks, Sunanda Gamage

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

While deep neural networks have demonstrated excellent learning capabilities, explainability of model predictions remains a challenge due to their black box nature. Attributions or feature significance methods are tools for explaining model predictions, facilitating model debugging, human-machine collaborative decision making, and establishing trust and compliance in critical applications. Recent work has shown that attributions of neural networks can be distorted by imperceptible adversarial input perturbations, which makes attributions unreliable as an explainability method. This thesis addresses the research problem of attribution robustness of neural networks and introduces novel techniques that enable robust training at scale.

Firstly, a novel generic framework …

Modeling Thermosyphon And Heat Pipe Performance For Mold Cooling Applications, Dwaipayan Sarkar

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Thermosyphons are enhanced heat transfer devices that can continuously transfer very large amounts of heat rapidly over long distances with small temperature differences. The high heat transfer rate is achieved through simultaneous boiling and condensation of the working fluid and the continuous heat transfer is achieved through recirculation of the working fluid in its liquid and vapor phase. A potentially important application of the thermosyphons has been towards reducing the cycle times of the mold cooling processes which would provide economic incentives to the automotive industry.

Different operational and geometrical parameters such as the input heating power, fill ratio (FR), …

Vertical Free-Swinging Photovoltaic Racking Energy Modeling: A Novel Approach To Agrivoltaics, Koami Soulemane Hayibo, Joshua M. Pearce

Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications

To enable lower-cost building materials, a free-swinging bifacial vertical solar photovoltaic (PV) rack has been proposed, which complies with Canadian building codes and is the lowest capital-cost agrivoltaics rack. The wind force applied to the free-swinging PV, however, causes it to have varying tilt angles depending on the wind speed and direction. No energy performance model accurately describes such a system. To provide a simulation model for the free-swinging PV, where wind speed and direction govern the array tilt angle, this study builds upon the open-source System Advisor Model (SAM) using Python. After the SAM python model is validated, a …

Patterned Heating Induced Propulsion, Saajid A. Aman

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This study explores propulsion effects generated by patterned heating acting on smooth and corrugated surfaces. The model problem assumes that the upper plate moves freely, and the lower plate is stationary, equipped with grooves, and exposed to spatially distributed heating. Our findings identify two distinct propulsion effects: thermal streaming and thermal drift. Thermal streaming occurs when given sufficient heating intensity with net flow in the left or right direction characterized by a pitchfork bifurcation. The efficiency of this technique can be controlled using the wavelength of heating. Thermal drift represents a pattern interaction effect. Its strength depends on the relative …

Experimental And Simulation Study Of Reactive Silver Ink Droplet Evaporation, Weipeng Zhang

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The evaporation of particle-free silver ink droplets on heated substrates directly impacts the morphology of the resultant silver particles and films. In this thesis, COMSOL Multiphysics simulations of the solvent (water-ethylene glycol mixture) droplet evaporation process are used to explain the microflows, mass transfers, and heat distribution responsible for the experimental observations. The reactive ink incorporates fluoro-surfactant FS-31 and poly (acrylamide) (PAM) to suppress the coffee-ring effect that negatively impacts the electrical conductivity. Experiments show that the droplet evaporation process results in varied silver particle morphology, depending on the locations within the droplet, leading to uneven surfaces. Large particles (3 …

Corrosion Related To The Nuclear Waste Containers, Ali Ebrahimzadeh Pilehrood

Corrosion Research

The disposal of nuclear waste is a demanding topic, and the existing methods, whether it is temporary storage in spent fuel pools or storage in geological repositories, both face the risk of corrosion-related problems. Any failure in these storage methods can potentially lead to the release of radioactive materials into the environment. To avert such catastrophic scenarios, people in the nuclear industry consistently monitor and maintain these storage facilities endlessly and attempt to improve the plans designed to store nuclear waste. Here, I will examine the nuclear waste management organization (NWMO) plan in Canada. Choosing an appropriate location for the …

Corrosion Of Implant Materials In The Human Body, Maedeh Barzmehri

Corrosion Research

This paper extensively examines the complex problem of implant corrosion occurring within the human body. The corrosion of implants gives rise to substantial challenges, encompassing compromised implant durability, patient safety concerns, and potential adverse impacts on the long-term functionality of the medical device. The study's primary objectives include offering a concise overview of the various corrosion mechanisms that impact a range of implant materials and outlining health complications linked to the byproducts of implant corrosion. Furthermore, it delves into a cost analysis specific to hip or knee revision arthroplasty, which has become a prevalent scenario in implant failure cases on …

Corrosion Case Study On Pipeline, Kangze Ren

Corrosion Research

The Kashagan pipeline leaks were likely caused by sulfur stress corrosion cracking, a combined corrosion mechanism developed by the presence of high pressure, the high level of hydrogen sulfide(the main "ingredient" of sour gas), and poor metallurgical choice. Improper welding and poor metallurgical examination were blamed for causing the leaking issue. The purpose of the current review is to raise the alarm about the inappropriate corrosion management of Kashagan oil production and its societal and environmental consequences.

Synergistic Effect Of Nanoclay And Barium Sulfate Fillers On The Corrosion Resistance Of Polyester Powder Coatings, Jinbao Huang, Marshall Shuai Yang, Chengqian Xian, James Joseph Noel, Yolanda S. Hedberg, Jian Chen, Ubong Eduok, Ivan Barker, Jeffrey Daniel Henderson, Haiping Zhang, Liqin Wang, Hui Zhang, Jesse Zhu

Chemistry Publications

No abstract provided.

Towards Clinical Microscopic Fractional Anisotropy Imaging, Nico Jj Arezza

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Microscopic fractional anisotropy (µFA) is a diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (dMRI) metric that is sensitive to neuron microstructural features without being confounded by the orientation dispersion of axons and dendrites. µFA may potentially act as a surrogate biomarker for neurodegeneration, demyelination, and other pathological changes to neuron microstructure with greater specificity than other dMRI techniques that are sensitive to orientation dispersion, such as diffusion tensor imaging. As with many advanced imaging techniques, µFA is primarily used in research studies and has not seen use in clinical settings.

The primary goal of this Thesis was to assess the clinical viability of …

Application Of Crystal Engineering In Multicomponent Pharmaceutical Crystals: A Study Of Theory And Practice, Soroush Ahmadi Nasrabadi

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Multicomponent crystallization, a prominent strategy in crystal engineering, offers the ability to modify the physicochemical properties of crystals by introducing a secondary component to their lattice structure. Such multicomponent crystals have found widespread application in the pharmaceutical industry. This thesis explores the experimental screening, characterization, application, and theoretical prediction of multicomponent crystals of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs).

The first case study investigates a new solvate of Dasatinib which exhibits high instability at room temperature and transforms into a different polymorph upon desolvation. The crystal structure of this compound is obtained, revealing insights into its transient nature and the potential application …

Effect Of Morphology And An Upstream Tall Building On A Street Canyon Flow, Haoran Du

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The effects of the morphological model and the existence of an upstream tall building on the turbulent street canyon flow and the overlying boundary layer are investigated in a wind tunnel, using Stereoscopic Particle Image Velocimetry (S-PIV) measurements. The velocity variances, Reynolds shear stress, and turbulent kinetic energy are found to be larger than in a similar idealized street canyon model. Increasing building height results in a decrease in vertical mass fluxes across the opening of the canyon, at least in the canyon portion directly downstream of the building. The interaction between the large-scale structures in the overlying boundary layer …

Framework For Assessing Information System Security Posture Risks, Syed Waqas Hamdani

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

In today’s data-driven world, Information Systems, particularly the ones operating in regulated industries, require comprehensive security frameworks to protect against loss of confidentiality, integrity, or availability of data, whether due to malice, accident or otherwise. Once such a security framework is in place, an organization must constantly monitor and assess the overall compliance of its systems to detect and rectify any issues found. This thesis presents a technique and a supporting toolkit to first model dependencies between security policies (referred to as controls) and, second, devise models that associate risk with policy violations. Third, devise algorithms that propagate risk when …

Corrosion Case Study On Automobile, Grace Ajayi, Xinran Pan, Geethu Sasikala, Marshall S. Yang

Chemistry Publications

No abstract provided.

Ai Applications On Planetary Rovers, Alexis David Pascual

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The rise in the number of robotic missions to space is paving the way for the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning in the autonomy and augmentation of rover operations. For one, more rovers mean more images, and more images mean more data bandwidth required for downlinking as well as more mental bandwidth for analyzing the images. On the other hand, light-weight, low-powered microrover platforms are being developed to accommodate the drive for planetary exploration. As a result of the mass and power constraints, these microrover platforms will not carry typical navigational instruments like a stereocamera or a laser …

Use Of Electrochemical Techniques And Statistical Analysis To Investigate The Pitting Probability Of Copper, Sina Matin

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The development of a safe permanent disposal plan is essential for the long-term disposal of used fuel bundles. Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) has been investigating the deep geologic disposal of nuclear waste which offers the optimum passive safety system with a negligible probability of release of radionuclides into the environment.

The proposed used fuel containers (UFC) for the permanent disposal of high-level nuclear waste in Canada is comprised of a carbon steel vessel coated with a 3 mm corrosion-resistant copper layer deposited using a combination of electrodeposition and cold spray deposition. Although copper is often considered to be thermodynamically …

Scheduling Electric Vehicle Charging For Grid Load Balancing, Zhixin Han, Katarina Grolinger, Miriam Capretz, Syed Mir

Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications

In recent years, electric vehicles (EVs) have been widely adopted because of their environmental benefits. However, the increasing volume of EVs poses capacity issues for grid operators as simultaneously charging many EVs may result in grid instabilities. Scheduling EV charging for grid load balancing has a potential to prevent load peaks caused by simultaneous EV charging and contribute to balance of supply and demand. This paper proposes a user-preference-based scheduling approach to minimize costs for the user while balancing grid loads. The EV owners benefit by charging when the electricity cost is lower, but still within the user-defined preferred charging …

Near-Ir Laser Ablation Of Simulated Radiologically Contaminated Oxides On Carbon Steel Feeder Pipes, Thao Viet Do

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

As nuclear power plants age and retire from service, many countries face significant challenges concerning the safe long-term storage and disposal of large volumes of low and intermediate level radioactive wastes (L&ILW). The volumes of metallic waste are of particular concern, as when metal corrodes it produces hydrogen that could lead to pressure build-up in interim storage and disposal. In Canada, a significant fraction of the metallic wastes for Canada Deuterium Uranium (CANDU) nuclear reactors are out-of-core reactor components, such as carbon steel (CS) feeder pipes. The radioactive contamination is expected to be largely confined to the surface oxide layers …

Virtual Sensor Middleware: Managing Iot Data For The Fog-Cloud Platform, Fadi Almahamid, Hanan Lutfiyya, Katarina Grolinger

Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications

This paper introduces the Virtual Sensor Middleware (VSM), which facilitates distributed sensor data processing on multiple fog nodes. VSM uses a Virtual Sensor as the core component of the middleware. The virtual sensor concept is redesigned to support functionality beyond sensor/device virtualization, such as deploying a set of virtual sensors to represent an IoT application and distributed sensor data processing across multiple fog nodes. Furthermore, the virtual sensor deals with the heterogeneous nature of IoT devices and the various communication protocols using different adapters to communicate with the IoT devices and the underlying protocol. VSM uses the publish-subscribe design pattern …

Agglomerative Hierarchical Clustering With Dynamic Time Warping For Household Load Curve Clustering, Fadi Almahamid, Katarina Grolinger

Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications

Energy companies often implement various demand response (DR) programs to better match electricity demand and supply by offering the consumers incentives to reduce their demand during critical periods. Classifying clients according to their consumption patterns enables targeting specific groups of consumers for DR. Traditional clustering algorithms use standard distance measurement to find the distance between two points. The results produced by clustering algorithms such as K-means, K-medoids, and Gaussian Mixture Models depend on the clustering parameters or initial clusters. In contrast, our methodology uses a shape-based approach that combines Agglomerative Hierarchical Clustering (AHC) with Dynamic Time Warping (DTW) to classify …

A Qualitative Look Into Repair Practices, Jumana Labib

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

This research poster is based on a working research paper which moves beyond the traditional scope of repair and examines the Right to Repair movement from a smaller, more personal lens by detailing the 6 categorical impediments as dubbed by Dr. Alissa Centivany (design, law, economic/business strategy, material asymmetry, informational asymmetry, and social impediments) have continuously inhibited repair and affected repair practices, which has consequently had larger implications (environmental, economic, social, etc.) on ourselves, our objects, and our world. The poster builds upon my research from last year (see "The Right to Repair: (Re)building a better future"), this time pulling …

Damage Assessment In Aging Structures Using Augmented Reality, Omar Zuhair Awadallah, Ayan Sadhu

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) is the assessment of bridges and observation of data regarding these bridges over time to monitor their evolution and detect the presence of any possible damages. However, existing methods to perform structural inspections in bridges are high in cost, time-consuming and risky. Inspectors use expensive equipment to reach a certain area of the bridge to inspect it, and at different heights, this can pose a risk to the inspector’s safety. This study aims to find cheaper, faster, and safer ways to perform structural inspections using augmented reality and artificial intelligence. The developed system uses a machine …

Data Preprocessing For Machine Learning Modules, Rawan El Moghrabi

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

Data preprocessing is an essential step when building machine learning solutions. It significantly impacts the success of machine learning modules and the output of these algorithms. Typically, data preprocessing is made-up of data sanitization, feature engineering, normalization, and transformation. This paper outlines the data preprocessing methodology implemented for a data-driven predictive maintenance solution. The above-mentioned project entails acquiring historical electrical data from industrial assets and creating a health index indicating each asset's remaining useful life. This solution is built using machine learning algorithms and requires several data processing steps to increase the solution's accuracy and efficiency. In this project, the …

Producing And Measuring Oscillatory Shear In A Novel Microfluidic Chip, Sanaz Lordfard, Daniel Lorusso, Tamie L. Poepping, Hristo N Nikolov, Kayla Soon, Stephen Sims, Jeffrey Dixon, David Holdsworth

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

Purpose: To demonstrate the effectiveness of a novel microfluidic device mimicking oscillatory blood flow, allowing cell biologists to examine how endothelial cells respond to a range of oscillatory shear stress levels.

Methods: The microfluidic chip consists of a circular-shaped reservoir, leading to a rectangular channel that is examined under a microscope. The plunger is connected to a speaker system and oscilloscope, allowing the plunger to apply a range of frequencies (5-60Hz) and voltages (5-10 V, leading to a variety in oscillation amplitudes) to the reservoir region. 1.1 um fluorescent particles diluted in distilled water were used for tracking. Processing was …

Machine Learning With Big Data For Electrical Load Forecasting, Alexandra L'Heureux

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Today, the amount of data collected is exploding at an unprecedented rate due to developments in Web technologies, social media, mobile and sensing devices and the internet of things (IoT). Data is gathered in every aspect of our lives: from financial information to smart home devices and everything in between. The driving force behind these extensive data collections is the promise of increased knowledge. Therefore, the potential of Big Data relies on our ability to extract value from these massive data sets. Machine learning is central to this quest because of its ability to learn from data and provide data-driven …

Monofacial Vs Bifacial Solar Photovoltaic Systems In Snowy Environments, Koami Soulemane Hayibo, Aliaksei Petsiuk, Pierce Mayville, Laura Brown, Joshua M. Pearce

Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications

There has been a recent surge in interest in the more accurate snow loss estimates for solar photovoltaic (PV) systems as large-scale deployments move into northern latitudes. Preliminary results show bifacial modules may clear snow faster than monofacial PV. This study analyzes snow losses on these two types of systems using empirical hourly data including energy, solar irradiation and albedo, and open-source image processing methods from images of the arrays in a northern environment in the winter. Projection transformations based on reference anchor points and snowless ground truth images provide reliable masking and optical distortion correction with fixed surveillance cameras. …

Deep Learning For Load Forecasting With Smart Meter Data: Online And Federated Learning, Mohammad Navid Fekri

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Electricity load forecasting has been attracting increasing attention because of its importance for energy management, infrastructure planning, and budgeting. In recent years, the proliferation of smart meters has created new opportunities for forecasting on the building and even individual household levels. Machine learning (ML) has achieved great successes in this domain; however, conventional ML techniques require data transfer to a centralized location for model training, therefore, increasing network traffic and exposing data to privacy and security risks. Also, traditional approaches employ offline learning, which means that they are only trained once and miss out on the possibility to learn from …

Multi-Device Data Analysis For Fault Localization In Electrical Distribution Grids, Jacob D L Hunte

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The work presented in this dissertation represents work which addresses some of the main challenges of fault localization methods in electrical distribution grids. The methods developed largely assume access to sophisticated data sources that may not be available and that any data sets recorded by devices are synchronized. These issues have created a barrier to the adoption of many solutions by industry. The goal of the research presented in this dissertation is to address these challenges through the development of three elements. These elements are a synchronization protocol, a fault localization technique, and a sensor placement algorithm.

The synchronization protocol …

Foam-Based Floatovoltaics: A Potential Solution To Disappearing Terminal Natural Lakes, Koami Soulemane Hayibo, Joshua M. Pearce

Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications

Terminal lakes are disappearing worldwide because of direct and indirect human activities. Floating photovoltaics (FPV) are a synergistic system with increased energy output because of water cooling, while the FPV reduces water evaporation. This study explores how low-cost foam-based floatovoltaic systems can mitigate the disappearance of natural lakes. A case study is performed on 10%–50% FPV coverage of terminal and disappearing Walker Lake. Water conservation is investigated with a modified Penman-Monteith evapotranspiration method and energy generation is calculated with an operating temperature model experimentally determined from foam-based FPV. Results show FPV saves 52,000,000 m3/year of water and US$6,000,000 at 50% …