Engineering Commons^™

Sustainable Barrier Sbs Paperboard Coatings Using Co-Polymerized Shape Engineered Pigments, Lokendra Pal

Dissertations

This study concentrates on the development, application, characterization and optimization of shape engineered pigments and co-polymerized sustainable coatings to provide solid bleached sulfate (SBS) board with a barrier against water, water vapor, and gasses. In contrast to off-line extrusion coating with unsustainable petroleum based products, conventional and co-polymerized shape engineered pigmented dispersion coatings were used to improve barrier, surface, optical and mechanical properties of an SBS board.

It is very important for package and quick-service wares made from coated SBS board to maintain barrier and mechanical properties at high humidity and temperature applications. The coated SBS board package should protect …

Investigation Of Knock In Gaseous Fuels In The Presence Of Diluents, Roshan Ashok Rodrigues

Masters Theses

Recent energy security and environmental concerns have prompted growing interest into utilization of alternative fuels such as, natural gas and landfill gas. These gaseous fuels contain significant amount of diluents in the fuel composition, such as carbon dioxide, nitrogen, water vapor and other trace gases, which vary by geographical location. Successful engine operation is limited by a phenomenon called "knock", which occurs due to auto-ignition of the end gas ahead of the flame front, and therefore, needs to be investigated with the utilization of these gaseous fuels.

The present contribution discusses the experimental set-up, procedure and results of the investigation …

Computer Model To Select Leed Certification For Building Projects, Ruba Mirghani Mohammed

Masters Theses

According to the US Green Building Council (USGBC) residential and commercial buildings in the United State consume huge amounts of natural resources; pollute the environment, and generate large amounts of waste, all of which affect the environment, economy, public health, and productivity. As a result, USGBC committees developed the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating system to help professionals improve the quality of buildings and lessen their impact on the environment.

The (LEED) Green Building Rating System is a point-based system for certifying the level of a building's sustainability. There are four LEED certification categories: (1) Certified, (2) …

Simulation Based Evaluation Of Parking Facilities, Niru Tiwari

Masters Theses

Transportation facility has emerged as one of the main indicators of a national's prosperity at the advent of 21^st century and is the backbone of American commerce and industry. There are over 600 million motor vehicles that are driven in the world today and the number of cars in use is expected to be doubled in next 30 years. As the number increases, more parking spaces should also be provided; however, it is difficult to supply sufficient parking space due to space limitations. To meet the need, new types of parking and new parking technologies have been introduced. However, …

Determining The Probability Of The Visual Detection Of Sink Marks On Differently Textured Injection Molded Products, Kurt Frederick Hayden

Dissertations

The injection molding segment of the plastics industry has historically exhibited an environment of intense competition. To remain competitive, manufacturers must ensure that molds will produce defect-free parts without multiple design revisions. Designers often use computer simulations to predict design problems before the construction of tooling. These sophisticated software applications will soon have the ability to simulate the final appearance of products. However, the effects of aesthetic defects such as sink marks and splay are often difficult to simulate accurately and effectively.

It is understood that surface textures can conceal minor aesthetic defects. A well-known example is the concealment of …

Decision Support Systems In Product Development: A Batesian Network Approach For Injection-Molded Products, Jason S. Trahan

Dissertations

Attribute defects cause a majority of the scrap for many manufacturers injection-molding aesthetic parts, yet these defects receive little attention duringproduct development. Methods for preventing attribute defects have been hampered by the inability to quantify complex cause-effect relationships. However, the qualities of a burgeoning branch of knowledge-based systems, called Bayesian networks, have benefited various fields faced with similar circumstances.Bayesian networks have the capability of presenting causal relationships between variables in a graphical structure and quantitatively explaining their effects throughout that structure. These effects can be characterized by probabilities derived from sources, such as equations, historical data, rules-of-thumb or expert knowledge. …

Selection Of Attractor Sounds For An Audio-Based Navigation System For The Visually Impaired, Brad Salisbury

Masters Theses

Research in to human hearing has been very ‘laboratory’ oriented in the sense that the test environments do not replicate most ‘real world’ situations [J.C. Middlebrooks and D.M. Green, Ann. Rev. of Psychology, 42, 135-159 (1991)]. While very useful information is gained from these types of tests, it is difficult to see how ‘real world’ situations affect sound source localization, recognition, and navigation (walking/way finding) performance. Such information is especially important to people who are visually impaired and dependent on prior knowledge of the environment or audio cues for travel. The research reported here was conducted during the development of …

The Effects Of Paper Physical Properties On Print Gloss And Ink Mileage, Renmei Xu

Dissertations

Ink film coat weight was measured using an internal tracer method. Commercial toluene based gravure inks were marked with the tracer, which can be detected analytically and used to calculate ink film coat weight. The ink film coat weight versus relative print density data was plotted and curve fitting was performed using six previous proposed models. The models that were used to fit laboratory results were also found useful for pilot plant press results. Oittinen model and Calabro-Savagnone model fitted the experimental data better than the other four models, measured by the sum of the square of residuals and their …

Landfill Gas As A Fuel For Ic Engine Operations, Guruprasath Narayanan

Masters Theses

An alternative fuel research facility was developed to study different alternative gaseous fuels like Landfill gases and Biogases and their mixtures with hydrogen as a fuel in a single cylinder spark ignition engine. Landfill gas was used as a fuel and the optimum process parameters such as compression ratio, spark timing and equivalence ratio were identified and reported.

Hydrogen enhanced combustion of landfill gas was studied and it was found that the addition of small amounts of hydrogen in the land fill gas has improved the combustion characteristics of the fuel and the performance of the spark ignition engine in …

Ink Jet Inks And Substrates - Novel Approaches For Their Physical And Optical Properties Characterization, Veronika Lovell

Dissertations

Undoubtedly, within the last couple of decades, the progress in non impact printing technologies has grown to an enormous level. In order to keep the development of this non impact printing method to grow even more, technicians, researchers and educators must continue in conducting investigation and provoking new ideas and questions that will lead to new outcomes and expansion of ink jet printing.

In this work, a broader area that comprises deep look into the ink jet ink and substrate performance, their physical properties and optical properties when printed is discussed in great details. Innovative techniques, novel materials and novel …

Robust Kanban Design For A Lean Supply Chain, Hardik Shah

Dissertations

This research concentrates on the inventory management decisions within an assembly-type supply chain. The need for this type of investigation is warranted by the fact that intense competition and heightening demand from customers have forced businesses to focus their attention on strengthening their supply chains. The problem is that in any supply chain, there are many factors involved that cause variations and instability within the system. Previous literature indicates that the manipulation of a Kanban system in today's uncertain environment generates unfavorable results. Consequently, the goal is to find a Kanbanmethodology that would produce robust and consistent results even when …

Off Campus Furniture Retail Development, Dan E. White, Richard D. Mccarthy, Christopher T. Cowgill

Honors Theses

The development of a 3.3 acre parcel of land at 5110 S. Westnedge, City of Portage, Kalamazoo County, Michigan is being proposed by Cowgill and Associates Inc. This will be a commercial development project with Off Campus Furniture taking occupancy after construction is complete. The building will be two stories with 57,500 square feet of usable floor space. All design was completed in accordance to the City of Portage, and the Michigan building code with design being done in accordance to ACI Code 318-05. The development includes but is not limited to site work, including storm water runoff and design, …

Numerical Simulations On Machining Of Silicon Carbide, Jerry Jacob

Masters Theses

Experiments were conducted to determine the critical depth of cut for machining of single crystal silicon carbide through Single Point Diamond Turning (SPDT) and fly-cutting, and of CVD coated Silicon Carbide through scratching. The ductile nature of these nominally hard and brittle materials is believed to be the result of a high pressure phase transformation, which generates a plastic zone of material that behaves in a metallic manner. The SPDT experiments have shown chip formation similar to that in metal machining. This metallic behavior is the basis for using AdvantEdge, metal machining simulation software, for comparison to experimental results. The …

Repair, Inspection And Maintenance Methods Of Steel Bridges, Deepak Koirala

Masters Theses

Transportation infrastructure is the backbone of American commerce & industry at the advent of the 21^st century. Bridges are the key elements of the transportation system of a country. According to National Bridge Inventory 2005, there are approximately six hundred thousand bridges in United States, among them nearly one third of bridges are functionally obsolete. A lack in performance of such structures, with respect to minimum acceptable standards, has direct impact not only on the highway system but also on public safety as well as economic growth. Systematic and well-designed research will provide the most effective approach to the …

Analytical Modeling And Simulation Of An Auv With Five Control Surfaces, John Tomasi

Masters Theses

This research describes the dynamic modeling and numerical simulation of an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) with five hydrodynamic control surfaces, necessary for the development of an autopilot algorithm, based solely upon analytical methodologies. The purpose of this research was to demonstrate the ability to develop a low. order approximation of the dynamics and control characteristics of an underwater vehicle that is complete enough to validate a specific design before physical construction begins; therefore, allowing for a more cost effective virtual design, test, and evaluation process. The AUV model developed in this study takes into consideration inertia, hydrostatic forces, hydrodynamic forces, …

Computational Simulation Of Turbulent Forced Convection Flow Over A Horizontal Plate Heater In A Rectangular Channel, Bhagavathi Perumal Natarajan

Masters Theses

The phenomenon of turbulent forced convection in the entry region of a rectangular duct was investigated computationally using commercial CFD software, FLUENT. The Standard k-ε turbulence model from FLUENT was used to model turbulence in the 20mm high x 30mm wide cross-sectional rectangular duct. The operating fluid used for the three-dimensional CFD study was water at an inlet temperature of 90° C, with the velocities ranging from 0.5 m/s to 2 m/s, at 1 atm pressure. A constant heat flux was applied to the base of the rectangular channel with the other flow walls insulated. The heat flux ranged from …

A Study On Perceptions Of Civil Engineers Regarding Mandatory Continuing Education, Alee A. Sleymann

Dissertations

This study explored the perceptions of civil engineers regarding continuing professional competency requirements for license renewal. In this study,continuing professional competency is assumed to have a direct relationship to public welfare and safety. The policy of mandatory continuing education was adopted primarily for this reason. Currently, mandatory continuing education is adopted by 29 states as the method of assuring continued professional competency.

Many professionals, however, have not welcomed this mandatory continuing education (MCE) policy. The reason for this opposition is the claimed ineffectiveness of this policy in fostering continued competency. In addition, the regulatory boards and policy advocates have not …

Study Of Decarbonization Reaction Of Sodium Carbonate By Sodium Borates, Zaki Yusuf

Dissertations

Today, the chemical process industries are facing many challenges in the wake of skyrocketing energy price. Paper industry as a whole is also not only looking into improving the process efficiency of its chemical recovery process but also is exploring to meet these challenges with gasification based energy/chemical recovery process. Borate based autocausticizing technology appears promising, provided it could be effectively integrated into both types of chemical recovery processes based on the principles of chemistry and chemical engineering.

My research was focused on the decarbonization reactions of sodium carbonate by sodium metaborate (NaBO₂) and sodium diborate (Na_{4 …}