Engineering Commons^™

Impact Of Flow Direction On Local Flow Behavior In Biologically-Inspired Flow Passages, Derrick Dewayne Herrin

Honors College Theses

ABSTRACT

A computational fluid dynamics model was utilized to study the effect of flow direction on local flow behavior in biologically-inspired microscale flow networks. Biologically-inspired flow networks have been found to offer numerous advantages when compared with parallel flow networks, particularly in thermal management applications. Flow behavior was examined for a range of bifurcation angles and laminar inlet Reynolds numbers. The computational model was validated with existing theoretical solutions and verified for grid independence. As the bifurcation angle increased, the pressure drop, and thus pumping power, across the biologically-inspired flow networks increased. In addition, as the inlet Reynolds number increased, …

Investigation Of The Thermal Performance Of Sierpinski Carpet Fractal Fins In A Natural Convection Environment, Jennifer P. Shaffer

Honors College Theses

This experimental investigation studies the thermal performance of the first four iterations of the Sierpinski carpet pattern in a natural convection environment. This particular fractal geometry is promising in that it increases the available surface area for heat transfer while simultaneously decreasing the mass of the system. This makes it a potentially advantageous design for fins or heat sinks, especially in aerospace applications where minimizing mass of the system is essential. The thermal performance was evaluated by comparing the efficiency, effectiveness, and effectiveness per unit mass for each fractal iteration. The results indicate that efficiency decreases with each fractal iteration …

Wind Turbine Noise And Wind Speed Prediction, Tyler H. Blanchard

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In order to meet the US Department of Energy projected target of 35% of US energy coming from wind by 2050, there is a strong need to study the management and development of wind turbine technology and its impact on human health, wildlife and environment. The prediction of wind turbine noise and its propagation is very critical to study the impacts of wind turbine noise for long term adoption and acceptance by neighboring communities. The prediction of wind speed is critical in the assessment of feasibility of a potential wind turbine site. This work presents a study on prediction of …

Audio-Based Productivity Forecasting Of Construction Cyclic Activities, Chris A. Sabillon

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Due to its high cost, project managers must be able to monitor the performance of construction heavy equipment promptly. This cannot be achieved through traditional management techniques, which are based on direct observation or on estimations from historical data. Some manufacturers have started to integrate their proprietary technologies, but construction contractors are unlikely to have a fleet of entirely new and single manufacturer equipment for this to represent a solution. Third party automated approaches include the use of active sensors such as accelerometers and gyroscopes, passive technologies such as computer vision and image processing, and audio signal processing. Hitherto, most …

Thermal Performance Of A Double-Pipe Heat Exchanger With A Koch Snowflake Fractal Design, Anton Gomez

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Double-pipe heat exchangers are the simplest type of heat exchanger and are widely utilized in industrial applications. The effectiveness of double-pipe heat exchangers can be increased by using various heat transfer enhancement techniques. Passive heat transfer enhancement methods are desirable as they do not require moving components and are easy to manufacture and maintain. The focus of this study is to implement a passive heat transfer enhancement method and to investigate how thermal performance is impacted. Specifically, the inner pipe in a heat exchanger will be modified to have a cross-section in accordance with the Koch snowflake fractal pattern. The …

Design And Modeling For Dc Nanogrids, Ormond D. Castle

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Smart grids were constructed as a means of communication to the electric grid through computer and other information technologies. This line of communication acts as gauge for a more accurate reading of power consumed. A nano grid is a model version of a smart grid with the ability to function as separate power generator. Such feature allows for this grid to power single loads and apply for special applications. A DC-DC converter was designed to apply to a nano grid which is a form of a smart grid. The converter was a single-input-multi-output converter which is taking one dc voltage …

Intrusion Detection For Smart Grid Communication Systems, Brycent Chatfield

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Transformation of the traditional power grid into a smart grid hosts an array of vulnerabilities associated with communication networks. Furthermore, wireless mediums used throughout the smart grid promote an environment where Denial of Service (DoS) attacks are very effective. In wireless mediums, jamming and spoofing attack techniques diminish system operations thus affecting smart grid stability and posing an immediate threat to Confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability (CIA) of the smart grid. Intrusion detection systems (IDS) serve as a primary defense in mitigating network vulnerabilities. In IDS, signatures created from historical data are compared to incoming network traffic to identify abnormalities. In …

Energy Storage Management And Simulation For Nano-Grids, Shantu Ghose

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Energy storage has been utilized in many forms and applications from a flashlight to the Space Shuttle. There is a worldwide effort to develop battery model with high energy level and power densities for a variety range of applications, including hybrid electric vehicles (HEV) and photovoltaic system (PV). To improve battery technology, understanding the battery modeling is very important. So, modeling the thermal behavior of a battery is a vital consideration before designing an effective thermal management system which will operate safely and prolong the lifespan of an energy storage system. The first part of this work focused on the …

A Comprehensive Analysis On Eeg Signal Classification Using Advanced Computational Analysis, Kaushik Bhimraj

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Electroencephalogram (EEG) has been used in a wide array of applications to study mental disorders. Due to its non-invasive and low-cost features, EEG has become a viable instrument in Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCI). These BCI systems integrate user's neural features with robotic machines to perform tasks. However, due to EEG signals being highly dynamic in nature, BCI systems are still unstable and prone to unanticipated noise interference. An important application of this technology is to help facilitate the lives of the tetraplegic through assimilating human brain impulses and converting them into mechanical motion. However, BCI systems are remarkably challenging to implement …

Mercury Cycling In Sulfur Rich Sediment From The Brunswick Estuary, Travis William Nicolette

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Mercury is potentially toxic to the environment. Mercury is absorbed into anaerobic sediments of surface waters, which may be converted to methylmercury, a toxic form of mercury that bio-accumulates in aquatic biota. Sources of mercury in the environment vary, but the production of methylmercury is common in sulfur-rich sediments containing mercury. In such environments, sulfur reducing bacteria (SRB) produce methylmercury as a by-product. The metabolic process uses energy from the reduction of sulfate to sulfide. This study focuses on determining the methylmercury production and release potential from sulfur-rich sediments extracted from different areas of the Brunswick Estuary. Previous studies note …

A Case Study Of Student Veteran Efficacy In The College Of Engineering And Information Technology At Georgia Southern University, Kevin G. Finley

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis addresses the issues student veterans face in their transition from military to academic life while pursuing an undergraduate degree in the STEM fields (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) at Georgia Southern University’s College of Engineering and Information Technology (CEIT). Historically this transition has been a difficult one. Through the implementation of a mentorship program comprised of military veterans on the staff and faculty of Georgia Southern University as well as assistance and participation from members of the case study researcher team and primary researcher this program assisted incoming military student veterans as they assimilated into the collegiate atmosphere. The …

Ego-Localization Navigation For Intelligent Vehicles Using 360° Lidar Sensor For Point Cloud Mapping, Tyler Naes

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

With its prospects of reducing vehicular accidents and traffic in highly populated urban areas by taking the human error out of driving, the future in automobiles is leaning towards autonomous navigation using intelligent vehicles. Autonomous navigation via Light Detection And Ranging (LIDAR) provides very accurate localization within a predefined, a priori, point cloud environment that is not possible with Global Positioning System (GPS) and video camera technology. Vehicles may be able to follow paths in the point cloud environment if the baseline paths it must follow are known in that environment by referencing objects detected in the point cloud …

Study And Implementation Of Wideband Bow-Tie Antennas, Md Rakibul Islam

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Demand for multifunctional electronic devices is increasing in modern wireless communication systems. As the antenna plays a vital role in wireless communication, the need to design antennas which will provide better performance and more reliable communication is growing. In this thesis, innovative designs for antennas with wideband characteristic have been proposed to meet the demands of current multi-functional wireless communication systems. First, this thesis explores the design of a wideband pattern reconfigurable antenna with steady realized gain over the operating bandwidth. Another novel design of this thesis work is a highly directive wideband Yagi antenna. Finally, a two-planar structured CPLPDA …

Advancing Intersection Management By Utilizing Cost Effective Intelligent Vehicle Concepts And Vehicle-To-Infrastructure Communication Techniques, Bernard O. Ibru

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) is a growing field of research which focuses on the alleviation of traffic congestion and road accidents caused by miscommunication or confusion of human drivers. Intelligent Intersection Management is a subdivision of ITS which focuses on the seamless management of vehicles arriving at, traversing and exiting intersections to prevent congestion and collision within or around the intersection. This research sought to develop a cost effective method of implementing wireless Vehicle-to-Infrastructure (V2I) communication based Intelligent Intersection Management, by employing the use of 1:4.5 scale version autonomous vehicle prototypes, on a similarly scaled four-way intersection. This was accomplished …

Performance Analysis Of Massive Mimo System With Quality Of Service Requirements And Precoding Techniques, Kishan Neupane

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The massive MIMO is a promising technology for future 5G wireless communication systems to provide high spectrum efficiency. The use of a very large number of antennas for both transmission and reception is an intuitive approach to boost the system capacity and enhance the link reliability. The main requirement of future wireless systems are high throughput, serving many users simultaneously with optimal energy consumption. In the first part of the thesis, we proposed a novel algorithm for secrecy rate analysis of massive MIMO with QoS requirement by adapting the transmit signal vector and power of user using game theory. The …

Electroencephalographic Signal Processing And Classification Techniques For Noninvasive Motor Imagery Based Brain Computer Interface, Md Erfanul Alam

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In motor imagery (MI) based brain-computer interface (BCI), success depends on reliable processing of the noisy, non-linear, and non-stationary brain activity signals for extraction of features and effective classification of MI activity as well as translation to the corresponding intended actions. In this study, signal processing and classification techniques are presented for electroencephalogram (EEG) signals for motor imagery based brain-computer interface. EEG signals have been acquired placing the electrodes following the international 10-20 system. The acquired signals have been pre-processed removing artifacts using empirical mode decomposition (EMD) and two extended versions of EMD, ensemble empirical mode decomposition (EEMD), and multivariate …

Design And Performance Analysis Of Small Scale Horizontal Axis Wind Turbine For Nano Grid Application, Md Mehedi Hasan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Wind energy, being easily accessible, environmentally friendly, and being cost effective, has become one of the world’s popular growing renewable energy sources of electricity generation. To spread this technology to mankind it is necessary to develop turbines in this way that people can use it individually and comfortably. This kind of thinking accelerates the advancement of integration of wind turbine with Nano grid concept. Although significant progress has been achieved in the wind technology, there is still scope to reduce the cost and improve the performance of small-scale wind turbines. Moreover, low wind velocity should also need to be utilized …

Secure Cloud Controlled Software Defined Radio Network For Bandwidth Allocation, Isaac J. Cushman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research is to investigate the impact of mobility of wireless devices for opportunistic spectrum access and communications using National Instrument Universal Software Radio Peripherals devices. The overall system utilizes software defined radio networks for frequency allocation, cloud connectivity to maintain up-to-date information, and moving target defense as a security mechanism. Each USRP device sends its geolocation to query the spectrum database for idle channels. The cloud cluster was designed for complex data storage and allocation using a smart load balancer to offer ultra-security to users. This project also explores the advantages of data protection and security …

Solar Irradiance Forecasting And Implications For Domestic Electric Water Heating, Christopher Nutter

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

As the effects of burning fossil fuels continues to present its prevalence, the interests in alternative forms of energy is expanding. Within the home, the domestic electrical water heater accounts for approximately 17% of its energy consumption. Reducing the amount of energy required to produce hot water from this thermal system alone can have a significant effect on reducing its carbon footprint. In this presented work, a modeled domestic electrical water heater was supplied photovoltaic and on-grid electrical power to increase its energy efficiency. As photovoltaic (PV) energy is directly related to solar irradiation, it is important to receive accurate …

Natural Convection Heat Transfer Of Inclined Sierpinski Carpet Fractal Fins, Luke A. Fussell

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

When designing extended surfaces for the thermal management of electronic devices in aerospace applications it is critically important to minimize mass. However, this can be difficult to achieve as the rate of heat dissipated is directly proportional to the surface area. Fortunately, when certain fractal geometries, like the Sierpinski carpet, are utilized in the design of extended surfaces an increase in surface area and simultaneous decrease in mass can be achieved. The thermal performance of fins inspired by the first four fractal iterations of the Sierpinski carpet pattern was experimentally examined in a natural convection environment. The fractal fins were …