Engineering Commons^™

A Parametric Computational Fluid Dynamics (Cfd) Study Of In-Line Horizontal Axis Wind Turbines (Hawts) With Yaw, North Alyster Yates

Masters Theses

Because of the constant use of non-renewable fossil fuels, and the enormous impact they have on global warming and pollution, there has been a push to use more eco-friendly and renewable sources for power. One such form is wind power via turbines. The most common form, Horizontal Axis Wind Turbines (HAWTs), can generate massive amounts of power. However, they also have a serious flaw in their design. As the wind passes through the swept area of the blades and past the tower, it creates massive disturbances in the airflow. These disturbances are called a ‘wake’. When trying to create a …

Decomposition Approach To Parametric Nonconvex Regression; Nuclear Resonance Analysis, Jordan L. Armstrong

Masters Theses

Parameterized nonconvex regression is a difficult problem for any optimization solver packages, often resulting in approximations and linearizations of the problem in order to be able to arrive a solution, if the problem is even solvable at all. These changes to the initial problem are largely dependent upon having appropriate domain knowledge and still often times result in a sizable gap between the achieved solution and the best true solution. We propose a novel method of decomposing the global problem into small, overlapping windows. Thus, the independent windows are now solvable. Subsequently, we offer a novel, sequential method of parameter …

Investigation Of The Rupture Initiation And Mechanical Performance Of Alumina Port Covers For Integrated Rocket Ramjet Systems, Haley R. Goldston

Masters Theses

Hypersonic flight is widely considered essential to ensure a competitive defensive capability in the United States. In hypersonic air breathing propulsion, cruise vehicles are a priority research and development area given the ease to which they can be implemented with existing DoD infrastructure. Advancements in ramjet engine systems, including integrated rocket ramjets, play a considerable role in military and space access hypersonic vehicle designs. By design, ramjets cannot produce static thrust. They first need to be brought to operational speeds with the help of a rocket booster. An integrated rocket ramjet (IRR) combines the booster phase and the ramjet phase …

Radiation Effects On Lithium Indium Diselenide Semiconductors As Neutron Imaging Detectors, Robert M. Golduber

Masters Theses

The studies presented in this work aim to improve upon the knowledge base of lithium indium diselenide (LISe) semiconductors to understand how the material behaves in high radiation environments and refine the process of turning it into a neutron detector. LISe has great potential as neutron imaging detector because of the high neutron absorption efficiency of its enriched ⁶Li component and its ability to discriminate between gamma-rays and neutrons. Its ability to remain functional after being irradiated with large amounts of neutron fluence has been tested and the change in its electro-optical properties with relation to fluence has been …

Deep Learning Based Prediction Of Clogging Occurrences During Lignocellulosic Biomass Feeding In Screw Conveyors, Yang Li

Masters Theses

Over the last decades, there have been substantial government and private sector investments to establish a commercial biorefining industry that uses lignocellulosic biomass as feedstock to produce fuels, chemicals, and other products. However, several biorefining plants experienced material conveyance problems due to the variability and complexity of the biomass feedstock. While the problems were reported in most conveyance unit operations in the biorefining plants, screw conveyors merit special attention because they are the most common conveyors used in biomass conveyance and typically function as the last conveyance unit connected to the conversion reactors. Thus, their operating status affects the plant …

Assessing Mechanical Performance Of Dissimilar Steel Systems Made Via Wire-Arc Additive Manufacturing, Obed Daniel Acevedo

Masters Theses

Hot stamping is part of a specific type of metalworking procedure widely used in the automotive industry. This research seeks to help make hot stamp tooling component production more cost-effective by using large-scale additive manufacturing. Additive manufacturing can produce dissimilar steel components that can be more cost-effective and time-efficient and allow for complex geometries to be made. A dissimilar steel system consisting of 410 martensitic stainless steel and AWS ER70S-6 mild steel is proposed to make hot stamps, making them more cost-efficient. However, the material interface's mechanical behavior in 410SS-mild steel additively manufactured material systems is not well understood. This …

Partial Discharge Testing And Detection Under Pwm Voltage, John Meadors

Masters Theses

Partial Discharge detection and measurement is an important part of electric insulation design. However, in PWM (pulse width modulation) voltage source converter environments, the noise resulting from switching voltage (rise and fall times of tens of nanoseconds) makes detection and extraction of partial discharge difficult. Unique methods of partial discharge detection are needed to address and decouple the noise from partial discharge measurements. PWM voltage can feature high switching speeds and high dv/dt during voltage switching. These PWM voltage behaviors are not found in traditional utility high voltage applications, and the effects that this type of voltage has on insulation …

Evaluation Of Robust Deep Learning Pipelines Targeting Low Swap Edge Deployment, David Carter Cornett

Masters Theses

The deep learning technique of convolutional neural networks (CNNs) has greatly advanced the state-of-the-art for computer vision tasks such as image classification and object detection. These solutions rely on large systems leveraging wattage-hungry GPUs to provide the computational power to achieve such performance. However, the size, weight and power (SWaP) requirements of these conventional GPU-based deep learning systems are not suitable when a solution requires deployment to so called "Edge" environments such as autonomous vehicles, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and smart security cameras.

The objective of this work is to benchmark FPGA-based alternatives to conventional GPU systems that have the …

Thermodynamic Analysis Of An Autogenous Pressurization System, Samuel H. Smith

Masters Theses

Pressurized gas feed systems have been vital to spacecraft where a pump-fed design would prove too large, heavy, or complicated to be effective. This project investigates autogenous pressurization – a pressurized feed system where the intentional vaporization of liquid propellant to fill the ever-increasing ullage space with its own warm, low-density gas. Motivation for this research originates from the University of Tennessee Space Institute’s (UTSI) contract with Gloyer-Taylor Laboratories (GTL) to assist the development of an innovative pressurization system.

While other pressurization systems have been studied and used extensively, modeling of an autogenous system is less established. Despite the relative …

Increasing Hydrophilicity And Transparency Of Diamond-Like Carbon Thin Films With Dopants For An Anti-Fogging Laparoscope Coating, Anna Bull

Masters Theses

Laparoscopes are prone to fogging which can lead to a limited field of view during surgical procedures. Current methods of mitigating fogging issues are not efficient or can require costly modification to the laparoscope. Previous studies of diamond-like carbon (DLC) coatings found doping the films improved hydrophilic qualities, suggesting their possible use as antifogging coatings for laparoscopes. For this work, two series of DLC films, doped with either SiO and Al₂O₃ were investigated.

The biocompatibility, transparency, and stability of these films were assessed through cellular assays, spectrophotometry, and simulated body fluid soaking experiments. Contact angle and surface …

Standardized 1x6u Cubesat Structure Design, Maximilian H. Brummel

Masters Theses

A CubeSat is a small satellite composed of one or more 10cm x 10cm x ~10cm cubes. Sometimes referred to as a “U” as in unit, the cubes can be combined in configurations of 2U, 3U, 6U, and more. CubeSats provide many advantages that larger satellites cannot offer. They are relatively inexpensive and can be fabricated much faster. Small-scale projects that require a fast timeline from conception up to completion are perfect for CubeSats. Furthermore, educational programs use CubeSat projects to teach and prepare students for the satellite industry. Popular configurations for CubeSat are 1U, 3U and 6U where the …

Cfd Analysis Of Subcutaneous Deposition And Dispersion Of Insulin In Adipose Tissue, Ryan C. Lubbers

Masters Theses

Drug delivery is the most important factor of many therapies, but a lack of technology and research have led to a very generalized understanding of drug kinetics. Insulin pump therapy for the treatment of Type 1 Diabetes depends on precise delivery of the hormone into the adipose region between the dermis and underlying muscle. The kinetics of insulin within the adipose tissue environment is not well understood and varies greatly case to case. The use of computation fluid dynamics (CFD) models to study insulin kinetics in relation to influential factors will lead to a better understanding of the characteristics of …

Design And Simulation Of A Supervisory Control System For Hybrid Manufacturing, Michael Buckley

Masters Theses

The research teams of Dr. Bill Hamel, Dr. Bradley Jared and Dr. Tony Schmitz were tasked by the Office of Naval Research to create a hybrid manufacturing process for a reduced scale model of a naval ship propeller. The base structure of the propeller is created using Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing (WAAM), which is then scanned to compare created geometry to desired geometry. The propeller is then machined down to match the desired geometry. This process is iterated upon until the final product meets design tolerances. Due to the complex nature and numerous industrial machines used in the process, it …

Terrestrial Laser Scanning Technology For Measuring Streambank Retreat Along East Fork Poplar Creek And Calculating The Effect On Mercury Release., José L. Martínez Collado

Masters Theses

Mercury (Hg) is a globally distributed inorganic pollutants of human concern. The high toxicity is mainly related to the capacity of Hg species to accumulate and biomagnify along aquatic food webs. Along East Fork Poplar Creek (EFPC), erosion represents the principal mercury input into the local waters, eventually reaching humans through the food chain. This research project aimed to monitor streambank erosion along a mercury-contaminated creek using Light Detention and Ranging (Lidar) technology and erosion pins. A Terrestrial Laser Scanner (TLS) was used to generate high-resolution point clouds from August 2020 to January 2021 across nine streambank locations to detect …

Uht Milk: Supply Chain Based Shelf Life Assessment And Risk Mitigation, Sagar Rameshwar Padghan

Masters Theses

Transportation and storage conditions in the perishable food supply chain play a vital role in product shelf life. This study focuses on UHT milk, a variant of milk that has a shelf life of up to 12 months in ideal conditions. However, poor transportation and storage practices can diminish its shelf life and result in quality losses resulting from milk spoilage. UHT milk literature focuses on chemical and physical analysis of changes in milk. There have been limited number of studies that characterize supply chain effects on the shelf life of milk and other perishable products.

This study analyzes supply …

High Frequency Injection Sensorless Control For A Permanent Magnet Synchronous Machine Driven By An Fpga Controlled Sic Inverter, Jared Walden

Masters Theses

As motor drive inverters continue to employ Silicon Carbide (SiC) and Gallium Nitride (GaN) devices for power density improvements, sensorless motor control strategies can be developed with field-programmable gate arrays (FPGA) to take advantage of high inverter switching frequencies. Through the FPGA’s parallel processing capabilities, a high control bandwidth sensorless control algorithm can be employed. Sensorless motor control offers cost reductions through the elimination of mechanical position sensors or more reliable electric drive systems by providing additional position and speed information of the electric motor. Back electromotive force (EMF) estimation or model-based methods used for motor control provide precise sensorless …

Design And Experimental Evaluation Of A Small-Scale Buckling Restrained Brace Analog, Lindsay K. Helferich

Masters Theses

In the event of an earthquake, structures experience large lateral loads that can lead to weak story mechanisms and result in premature building collapse. Strongback braced frames (SBF) are a type of seismic force resisting system that aim to evenly distribute horizontal loads up the height of the building to mitigate this failure mechanism. Previous research shows that SBFs are a promising way to better design for seismic demands, but these systems have not been fully explored to best exploit the design space. This work is a part of a project that aims to provide both numeric and experimental verification …

Effects Of Pillar And Sealing Design On Thermal And Mechanical Performance Of Vacuum Insulated Glazing, Wenyuan Zhu

Masters Theses

Vacuum insulated glazing with a low-emittance coating has a great market potential as an effective transparent insulator. The thermal insulating performance of VIG is determined by its design, including material selection and configuration of different components. Thermal conductance of the vacuum gap, as a transport bottleneck, is one of the primary factors controlling the thermal transport across VIG. In particular, since support pillars and sealings provide the main thermal transport channels across the vacuum gap, increasing the pillar and sealing thermal resistance is a key strategy for effective thermal insulation, while maintaining the vacuum space and mechanical strength of VIG. …

Development Of An Encrypted Wireless System For Body Sensor Network Applications, Kendra Anderson

Masters Theses

Wireless body area networks (WBAN), also called wireless body sensor networks (WBSN), consist of a collection of wireless sensor nodes used to monitor and assess various human physiological conditions, which can then be used by healthcare professionals to help them make important healthcare decisions. They can be used to prevent disease, help diagnosis a disease, or manage the symptoms of a disease. An extremely important aspect of WBAN is security to protect a patient's healthcare information, as a hacker could potentially cause fatal harm. Current security measures are implemented in software at the MAC layer and higher, not in the …

Effect Of Radiation On Bond Behavior Between Concrete And Steel Bar: Development Of Experimental Protocol, Mohammed Abdelrahman

Masters Theses

There is a need to assess the effect of radiation on the behavior of bond strength between steel reinforcement and concrete. However, there is geometrical constraints in the cylindrical capsule which limit the size of concrete samples. Thus, developing a protocol to produce pullout sample and a test setup is needed.

A protocol for fabricating high-precision concrete samples with embedded \#2 steel bar has been developed based on the results of an experimental program. A pullout system has also been developed to investigate the bond activity of concrete and steel. This research looks at two different aggregate sizes 3/8 inch …

Power System Stability Assessment With Supervised Machine Learning, Mirka Mandich

Masters Theses

Power system stability assessment has become an important area of research due to the increased penetration of photovoltaics (PV) in modern power systems. This work explores how supervised machine learning can be used to assess power system stability for the Western Electricity Coordinating Council (WECC) service region as part of the Data-driven Security Assessment for the Multi-Timescale Integrated Dynamics and Scheduling for Solar (MIDAS) project. Data-driven methods offer to improve power flow scheduling through machine learning prediction, enabling better energy resource management and reducing demand on real-time time-domain simulations. Frequency, transient, and small signal stability datasets were created using the …

Modeling And Evaluation Of Utility-Scale Microgrid Investment For Distribution System Planning, Ian Schomer

Masters Theses

The electrical distribution network faces two great challenges for the immediate future. First, increased affordability of distributed energy resources (DERs)—and advancing control technologies of inverters that interface them to the grid—have driven a shift from a passive to an active distribution network (ADN), which heightens the complexity of system management. Second, the increased frequency of severe weather events and increased potential for a cybersecurity attack necessitate the need for a resilient infrastructure that can respond adaptively to shutdowns within the system. Microgrids (MGs) present a promising framework both to provide hierarchal control of DERs and to increase resiliency with grid-forming …

Dissolved Organic Carbon And The Potential Role To Stream Acidity In The Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Jason R. Brown

Masters Theses

A substantial societal shift towards environmental awareness has focused research efforts on the impacts of pollution on natural landscapes. Improvements to pollutant regulations and technology have resulted in sizeable reductions of atmospheric deposition of anthropogenic acids, especially nitrates and sulfates, which has altered the role of these ions in the environment. As such, understandings of environmental chemistry dynamics have required regular updating.

Through the National Park Service Vital Signs monitoring program, increases in precipitation pH observed in Great Smoky Mountains National Park (GRSM) has been attributed to the reduction of inorganic acid concentrations. Unfortunately, these improvements have not been uniformly …

Development Of A Point-Of-Use Testing Platform For Detecting Bacteria Infection In Raw Milk, Xin Xia

Masters Theses

The detection and quantification of bacteria are essential to environment and food quality monitoring. Escherichia coli (E. coli) is a common pathogen, also a causative agent of mastitis. Traditional methods usually require samples to be tested in a laboratory. However, sending samples to remote lab increases the cost of time and money spent on delivery. Sometimes, samples can degrade during this long progress and cause inaccuracy. A low cost and reusable sensor is designed to perform on-site quantification. The sensor composed of two layers of asymmetrical mesh electrodes, which is used in coordination magnetic microparticles functionalized with bacterium-specific antibody. Immunological …

Assessment Of Component Level Tritium Transport For Fission And Fusion Systems, Miles Landon Oneal

Masters Theses

Tritium transport behavior in component-level models of fission and fusion systems was simulated and assessed using the hydrogen transport code in the BISON fuel performance code. Models of different conditions which were of an ITER heat exchanger, LWR cladding, and FHR heat exchanger were conducted. Comparable results between reported values and BISON predictions demonstrated the ability of the models to predict tritium transport behavior through different steel materials for three different model conditions. Next, a method for sensitivity and uncertainty analysis was implemented to calibrate the models as well as demonstrate the ability to apply this approach in multiphysics models …

Periodic Replenish And Recount Policy To Address Record Inaccuracy From Stock Loss, Colton K. Ku

Masters Theses

Inventory record inaccuracy (IRI) often arises in retail environments due to unaccounted stock loss. Theft, misplacement, spoilage, and transaction errors will reduce the true inventory values without changing the inventory record. As previous inventory replenishment policies assume perfect record accuracy, increasing IRI can cause unexpected stockout events, mistimed reorders and replenishment freezes. Solutions to rectifying IRI vary from the use of improved tracking technologies to prevent it initially occurring at all to recounting programs which estimate true inventory value. Unfortunately, in retail environments, high‑tracking technology is unsuitable and continuous counting programs are too costly. To address the limitations of current …

Development Of A Highly Sensitive Pressure Sensing System With Custom-Built Software For Continuous Physiological Measurements, Masoud Panahi

Masters Theses

In this work, a pressure sensing system was designed and fabricated by developing a highly sensitive cone-structured pressure sensor with a custom-built software for physiological monitoring applications. A novel highly sensitive cone structured porous polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) based pressure sensor capable of detecting very low-pressure ranges was developed for respiration monitoring. The pressure sensor was fabricated using a master mold, a hybrid-structured dielectric layer, and fabric-based electrodes. The master mold with inverted cone structures was created using a rapid and precise three-dimensional (3D) printing technique. The dielectric layer, with pores and cone structures, was prepared by annealing a mixture of PDMS, …

The Application Of Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy To Molten Salt Corrosion, William S. Ponder

Masters Theses

Molten salt reactors (MSRs) have a plethora of advantages over light water reactors. The operate at more favorable conditions for power generation and accident conditions. These conditions lead to problems with corrosion. Monitoring of this corrosion will be required for a MSR when built. Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) is an excellent tool for this application, as it can be done with minimal sample preparation and without having to complete the more complex sample preparation required for EDS. This work will demonstrate the utility of LIBS in showing similar features as EDS such that an understanding of the corrosion seen …

Towards Real-Time Energy Efficiency Analysis Of A Hydraulic System, Montasir Mamun Mithu

Masters Theses

The study aims at developing a real-time data analysis system for the energy efficiency study of hydraulic systems. It also aims at implementing automation for hydraulic systems so that energy efficiency can be improved using the real-time approach. This research uses a system-level experimental methodology. A linear push system hydraulic prototype is developed for the study. The prototype contains hydraulic actuator, shock absorber, electronic flow control valve, and electronic sensor. This prototype is used to experiment with different operating conditions to characterize hydraulic system behavior. A real-time data analysis system is developed using LabVIEW and an Open Platform Communication (OPC) …

Hardware Acceleration In Image Stitching: Gpu Vs Fpga, Joshua David Edgcombe

Masters Theses

Image stitching is a process where two or more images with an overlapping field of view are combined. This process is commonly used to increase the field of view or image quality of a system. While this process is not particularly difficult for modern personal computers, hardware acceleration is often required to achieve real-time performance in low-power image stitching solutions. In this thesis, two separate hardware accelerated image stitching solutions are developed and compared. One solution is accelerated using a Xilinx Zynq UltraScale+ ZU3EG FPGA and the other solution is accelerated using an Nvidia RTX 2070 Super GPU. The image …