Engineering Commons^™

Automated Fault Detection In An Upflow Anaerobic Sludge Blanket Reactor: Comparisons Of Biogas Production And Physicochemical Quantities, Alexandra Maria Almeida Carvalho Pinto

Doctoral Dissertations

A system capable of rapidly detecting toxic loads entering high-rate anaerobic reactors would greatly enhance their reliability, and could thereby increase their commercial acceptance. A high-rate anaerobic wastewater treatment process, called the failure-causing load detector (FCLD), consisting of a small (4-liter) upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) reactor having a short (10-min) hydraulic retention time (HRT), was used as a biosensor to rapidly detect potential problems with the influent wastewater. Sensors were used to monitor biogas production in the reactor, as well as pH, conductivity, and turbidity in the effluent from the reactor. The FCLD system was tested using the following …

Development Of A Model For Predicting The Vertical Profile Of Ozone Based On Ground-Level Ozone Observations And Cloud Cover, Gi-Dong Kim

Doctoral Dissertations

Ozone formed in a chemical reaction is vertically dispersed and mixed with the ozone mass aloft by turbulent convection due to solar radiation. The mixing height, which depends on the stability of the atmosphere, varies by day/night time and by season of year and is characteristic of season and day and night time from year to year. Ground level ozone is generally the combined result of dynamics of the atmosphere resulted from the turbulent convection in the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL), production and destruction processes such as transport from upper air mass, subsequent transport to the ground, photochemical production and …

Evaluation Of Poroton Masonry And Suggestion For Quick Design Procedure, Michael R. Radcliffe

Masters Theses

Poroton masonry units are highly cored extruded clay units with numerous thin webs. They have ground surfaces and are laid on a thin fluid mortar bed, with no mortar in the head joints. They offer the advantages of quick construction, which can be performed by a general labor force.

This thesis describes the results of component and prism testing of Poroton masonry. Compressive strength tests occurred on individual units and on prisms constructed with two units in accordance with the manufacturer’s directions. The average unit compressive strength was approximately 2900 psi. The average prism compressive strength was about 900 psi. …

The Effects Of Dissolved Oxygen Concentration And Biological Solids Retention Time On Activated Sludge Treatment Performance, Jack Joseph Parker

Masters Theses

A bench scale treatment system with dissolved oxygen (DO) control was used to determine the effects of DO concentration and biological solids retention time (BSRT) on treatment performance using the activated sludge process. The four reactors, operating at BSRTs of 20, 10, 5, and 2 days, were fed settled municipal wastewater collected from the Kuwahee wastewater treatment plant in Knoxville, TN. The DO was maintained at different set points in each reactor ranging from 4.0 to 0.2 mg/L.

Experimental results indicate that carbon treatment performance improved, on average, with increasing BSRT but DO had little effect on carbon oxidation. Sludge …

A Computer Vision System For The Automatic Inspection Of Geometric Distortions In Television Displays, Geoffrey C. Yerem

Masters Theses

The ability to automatically measure the image quality of a television display is a valuable resource. In display manufacturing, automatic inspection enables automatic television alignment, which reduces manufacturing costs and improves product quality. Automatic inspection also comes in handy during competitive analysis and engineering review. Primarily though, commercial inspection systems are built and used for manufacturing.

In the past two decades, the advent of microcomputers has made automatic inspection feasible through the use of computer vision. Most of the approaches developed can be divided into two groups: fixtured systems, with fixed or movable cameras, and position independent systems, which …

Hierarchical Image Segmentation Using The Watershed Algorithim With A Streaming Implementation, Annapoorani Gothandaraman

Masters Theses

We have implemented a graphical user interface (GUI) based semi-automatic hierarchical segmentation scheme, which works in three stages. In the first stage, we process the original image by filtering and threshold the gradient to reduce the level of noise. In the second stage, we compute the watershed segmentation of the image using the rainfalling simulation approach. In the third stage, we apply two region merging schemes, namely implicit region merging and seeded region merging, to the result of the watershed algorithm. Both the region merging schemes are based on the watershed depth of regions and serve to reduce the over …

Metallurgical Evaluation Of Cast Duplex Stainless Steels And Their Weldments, Songqing Wen

Masters Theses

Duplex stainless steels (DSS) are being specified for chloride containing environments due to their enhanced pitting and stress corrosion cracking resistance. They exhibit improved corrosion performance over the austenitic stainless steels. Duplex stainless steels also offer improved strength properties and are available in various wrought and cast forms.

Selected grades of duplex stainless steel castings and their welds, in comparison with their wrought counterparts, were evaluated, regarding corrosion performance and mechanical properties and weldability. Multiple heats of cast duplex stainless steel were evaluated in the as-cast, solution annealed (SA) static cast and SA centrifugal cast conditions, while their wrought counterparts …

Effect Of Bonding Variables In Thermal Bonding Of Polypropylene Nonwovens, Praveen Kumar Jangala

Doctoral Dissertations

The aim of this research was to investigate the effect of some of the process variables on the structure and properties of the webs in a thermal point bonding process. The main objectives were to understand the changes taking place in the fiber structure due to applied heat and pressure, the effect of bond area and bond size on fiber morphology, and the physical properties of the web. Thermally bonded carded webs were produced and characterized in order to determine the role of bond area and bond size on strength and stiffness of the point bonded fabrics and fiber morphology. …

Surface Texture And Micromechanics Of Ultra High Molecular Weight Polyethylene (Uhmwpe) Orthopaedic Implant Bearings, Monica A. Schmidt

Doctoral Dissertations

Tibial bearings of ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) were characterized to identify differences in morphology, surface texture (roughness and skewness), and micro-scale mechanical behavior. These orthopaedic implant components were fabricated by direct molding or by machining after isostatic compression molding. Sterilization was by gamma irradiation (3.3 Mrad) in air, followed by shelf aging for 2 years. Comparisons were made between unsterile and sterile bearings to identify differences in structure and properties related to wear debris.

Characterization methods included confocal optical microscopy, nanoindentation , small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS), wide-angle X-ray diffraction (WAXD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), differential scanning calorimetry …

Implementation Of Wavelet Transform And Area, Power And Delay Design Space Exploration, Sowmyan Rajagopalan

Masters Theses

The need for designing chips that are smaller, faster and less power consuming has been increasing, as these chips are increasingly being used in communication and portable electronic devices. These design space vectors also play a big role in the profitability and productivity of the vendor and hence prove to be one of the most important steps in the Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) flow (design process). The research reported here consists of implementing the Wavelet Transform using a hardware description language (VHDL) and testing the Register Transfer Level (RTL) for its functionality. The RTL was synthesized and optimized using …

Determination Of Threshold Velocity And Entrainment Rates From A Copper Tailings Pond, Fook-Chi Soo

Masters Theses

Wind erosion is a phenomenon that has plagued many people for centuries. There are many sources for wind erosion, such as agricultural farmlands, deserts, coal piles and mining areas.

Significant research has been conducted on wind erosion, especially on paved and unpaved roads, construction sites and quarry areas. Open storage coal piles have also been a target for wind erosion studies, as a lot of power plants bum coal to produce power. However, this study does not include any of the sources mentioned above. This study involves wind erosion from a copper tailings pond of a closed down copper mining …

Arsenic Removal For Small Drinking Water Treatment Systems: A Multimedia Cd-Rom For Drinking Water Professionals, Greg A. Harrison

Masters Theses

This thesis, in conjunction with the accompanying CD-ROM, are intended to be used by small public water system operators, owners, regulators, and engineers as an educational tool for future compliance with a lowered Arsenic Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL). The CD-ROM is the third in a series of water treatment technology CDs that were created by a collaboration of Dr. R. Bruce Robinson, the University of Tennessee, and Dr. M. Robin Collins, the Water Treatment Technology Center, the University of New Hampshire. The CD-ROM includes multimedia tools such as video and photos, which will aid in the understanding of the included …

An Externally-Synchronized Coherent Communication System Design, Gary R. Ragsdale

Doctoral Dissertations

The research described within this dissertation was initiated on October 1, 1997 to investigate communication link performance improvements made possible by using a frequency reference supplied by a residual carrier broadcast. The primary link types considered were radio frequency links, although prior research in externally-synchronized bistatic radar was also considered.

Conventional radio frequency communications links transfer information from transmitter to receiver by modulating a carrier signal at the transmitter and demodulating the received signal at the receiver. Demodulation can be done coherently or noncoherently. That is, the information on the received signal can be recovered by comparison of the received …

Stormwater Management In Tennessee: Guidelines To Preventative Maintenance Practices And Improvements, Jacob S. Chandler

Masters Theses

The management of urban stormwater runoff is an important issue throughout Tennessee as urban development keeps expanding. With the rise of urban development, there is an ever-growing need for urban stormwater management systems and facilities which are built to protect downstream property owners from potential flood damage as well as to manage and control the increased stormwater runoff. However well-designed a drainage system or facility might be, adequate maintenance is vital for it to function as intended by the design engineer.

This thesis was written to serve as a document that provides information needed to support an effective maintenance program …

Data Analysis And Correlations For The Particulate Matter Continuous Emission Monitoring System Test Program At The Tsca Incinerator, James A. Calcagno Iii

Masters Theses

A field study was conducted to evaluate the performance of three commercially available particulate matter (PM) continuous emission monitoring systems (CEMS) during 1999-2000 at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Toxic Substance Control Act (TSCA) Incinerator located near Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The incinerator is permitted to treat mixed-waste, Resource Conservation Recovery Act (RCRA) hazardous and nonhazardous waste, and wastes containing polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB). The mixed-waste treated at the incinerator contains both low-level radioactive and hazardous chemical constituents. The air pollution control system of the incinerator utilizes Maximum Achievable Control Technology (MACT), which is comprised of a rapid quench, venturi scrubber, …

Increasing The Speed And Efficiency Of Search In Fbi/Codis Dna Datadase Through Multivariate Statistical Clustering Approach And Development Of A Similarity Ranking Scheme, Puneet Yadav

Masters Theses

A new method has been developed to create and maintain a search tree-structured index to multidimensional data using naturally occurring patterns and clusters within the data, and thereby allows the implementation of efficient search and retrieval strategies in a database. This method was applied to a DNA database, which was developed by the FBI for forensic uses. A set of 10,000 DNA/STR profiles based on the STR allele probability distribution density for the Caucasians has been generated for the sixteen loci. The resulting allele distribution has been analyzed using Multivariate Statistical analysis, in specific; the Principal Component Analysis (PCA) approach …

Evaluation Of Alternatives For Hydraulic Design Of Bridges With Hec-Ras, William Wesley Peck

Masters Theses

On average, flooding causes over five billion dollars of damage and 99 fatalities per year in the United States alone. These ever-increasing numbers indicate a need for rigorous design procedures for any structures which exacerbate flood risk. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Hydraulic Engineering Center (HEC) has developed a computer program called River Analysis System, and more commonly referred to as HEC-RAS or RAS.

HEC-RAS is the best and most recent method for hydraulic design of bridges, and available documentation provides guidance for its use. The author is experienced in hydraulic design of bridges and has developed this thesis …

Evaluation Of Alternatives For Hydraulic Design Of Bridges With Hec-Ras, William Wesley Peck

Masters Theses

On average, flooding causes over five billion dollars of damage and 99 fatalities per year in the United States alone. These ever-increasing numbers indicate a need for rigorous design procedures for any structures which exacerbate flood risk. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Hydraulic Engineering Center (HEC) has developed a computer program called River Analysis System, and more commonly referred to as HEC-RAS or RAS.

HEC-RAS is the best and most recent method for hydraulic design of bridges, and available documentation provides guidance for its use. The author is experienced in hydraulic design of bridges and has developed this thesis …

Data Analysis And Correlations For The Particulate Matter Continuous Emission Monitoring System Test Program At The Tsca Incinerator, James A. Calcagno, Iii

Masters Theses

A field study was conducted to evaluate the performance of three commercially available particulate matter (PM) continuous emission monitoring systems (CEMS) during 1999-2000 at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Toxic Substance Control Act (TSCA) Incinerator located near Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The incinerator is permitted to treat mixed-waste, Resource Conservation Recovery Act (RCRA) hazardous and nonhazardous waste, and wastes containing polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB). The mixedwaste treated at the incinerator contains both low-level radioactive and hazardous chemical constituents. The air pollution control system of the incinerator utilizes Maximum Achievable Control Technology (MACT), which is comprised of a rapid quench, venturi scrubber, …