Engineering Commons^™

Characterization Of The Kansas River Alluvial Aquifer Using Towed Transient Electromagnetic Geophysical Method, Jonathon Daniel Voss

Masters Theses

"Forecasted urban development areas west of Kansas City, Kansas in the coming decades has caused an increase of research into water resources (Butler et al. 2022). A location of investigation has been the Kansas River Alluvial Aquifer (KRAA) for shallow ground water resources. To investigate the KRAA structure and grain texture, the towed transient electromagnetic system (tTEM) in conjunction with direct push electrical conductivity logs and lithology wells were used to investigate four locations between Lawrence and Manhattan, Kansas. In total, 110 line-kilometers of tTEM data was collected. The tTEM data collected were high quality and through inversions of the …

Dig Limits Optimization Using Binary Integer Linear Programming Method In Open Pit Mines, Hussam Naif Altalhi

Masters Theses

"Dig limits optimization is the process for classifying different materials (e.g., ore, stockpile material, and waste) into appropriately sized contiguous zones for open pit mining. The efficient determination of dig-limits is crucial for profitable and sustainable resource extraction in mining. Previous research has focused on defining dig-limits manually or using optimization approaches, but these methods are limited to only handling two material destinations (ore and waste). Thus, there is a need for operations research methods that consider the selectivity of mining equipment and can optimize dig-limits for metal mining operations with more than two material destinations. Consequently, the objective of …

High Strain Rate Analysis Of 3d Printed Concrete As Compared To Conventionally Cast Concrete, Weston Mcleod Thomsen

Masters Theses

"3D Printed Concrete (3DPC) is a developing method of construction that has advantages over conventional methods, including formwork reduction, complex geometry, and expedited construction. This technology has potential benefits for the military when considering the austere environments that forward operating bases are built in. This study aims to assess 3DPC applications in protective structures that protect critical assets from explosive blasts. These protective structures experience a high-strain rate response during blast loading of the structure, and the effects of this have yet to be analyzed in the literature concerning 3DPC. With the lack of prior research, the focus here will …

Open-Ended Hollow Coaxial Cable Resonance Sensing Via Permittivity Fluctuations For Applications To Exhaled Breath Health Monitoring, Peter Henry Holtmann

Masters Theses

"We report a pre-diagnostics breath analyzer based on the open-ended hollow coaxial cable resonator (OE-HCCR) to achieve real-time differentiation of healthy and compromised lung function through electromagnetic analysis of exhaled breath matter. A two-phase amplification scheme of electromagnetic signatures metered via the S11 phase curve offers high sensitivity to permittivity fluctuations in exposed airflow. The mathematical model of the breath analyzer is explained, followed by experimental validation of numerical findings from previous work. The collection of breath transient signals is performed through monitoring the reflected power magnitude and phase of the scattering parameter (S11) at the resonance frequency. Material fluctuations …

A Binary Integer Linear Programming Model For Optimizing Underground Stope Layout, Theophilus Mensah

Masters Theses

"Underground mine planning engineers face significant challenges when determining what geometry provides the most profitable and safe stope for extraction. Several techniques and optimization algorithms have been developed in recent years, but most fail to find optimal solutions because they are heuristic or LP-based without efficient geometric constraints. This thesis work proposes a two-dimensional binary linear programming (BILP) model for determining the optimal combination of blocks in a stope that maximizes the economic value of the layout of stopes for a sublevel deposit. The work draws from Queyranne and Wolsey’s (2017 & 2018) formulations of tight constraints for bounded up/down …

Validation Of Athlet With Purdue University Multi-Dimensional Integral Test Assembly (Puma) Test, Emin Fatih Ozdem

Masters Theses

"Following the Three Mile Island Unit 2 (TMI-2) disaster, the development of a diagnostic system for emergency situations in a nuclear power plant was identified as an essential research area to strengthen the safety of nuclear power plants. A real-time estimation system of vital safety parameters on the main side of a PWR (Pressurized Water Reactor) facility was investigated since precise post-event scenario estimations are thought to be a crucial component of the diagnostic system. The alarm system of the plant can detect an SB-LOCA (Small Break Loss-Of-Coolant-Accident), but there were a couple of potential long-term transient occurrences. The accident …

Suppressing Aluminum/Silica Exchange Reaction Between High Aluminum Steel And Mold Flux During Continuous Casting Process, Kuanysh Nurbekuly Yermukhanbetov

Masters Theses

"Mold flux plays one of the critical roles in continuous casting of steel. It performs five primary functions: thermal and chemical insulation, lubrication between the steel strand and mold, absorption of inclusions, and promotion of even heat flux. The aluminum/silica exchange reaction occurring between steel and mold flux during the continuous casting process poses significant challenges in the steel industry. This reaction can lead to various defects in the cast product and adversely affect its surface quality, as well as downstream processing.

In this work, effectiveness of two approaches, namely slag dopant additions and electrochemical techniques, in suppressing the exchange …

Implementing Effective University - Level Small Satellite Assembly, Integration, And Testing Procedures, Tyler Patrick Hoover

Masters Theses

"As applications for satellite assets grow within government and commercial spheres, demand for aerospace engineers and related technicians has pushed universities to develop graduates with relevant knowledge in the field. As such, universities began to grow university satellite programs to give members hands-on experience and a background of working on satellite systems before entering the workforce.

The M-SAT team at Missouri University of Science and Technology, along with contributions and assistance from the Air Force Research Laboratory and NASA, are progressing their first satellite mission through assembly, integration, and testing (AIT) development. This document serves to give a background into …

Tailoring A System Engineering And Management Plan For A University Satellite Team, Jacob D. Anderson

Masters Theses

"A Systems Engineering and Management Plan (SEMP) helps enable a successful engineering project or team. All university teams working on satellite development encounter similar obstacles that are not commonly seen in industry. As a result, university teams must determine new approaches to solve these unique and difficult problems. A SEMP can mitigate risks, solve problems, and provide streamlined solutions. A modified SEMP is proposed along with guidance for implementing it into a new team and an existing team.

The adopted SEMP provides a road map for the technical execution and program management of a university team. The SEMP should be …

Selecting Consolidation Procedures For Making Concrete Specimens, Paige Marie Toebben

Masters Theses

"The goal of this research was to reevaluate ASTM C31 Standard Practice for Making and Curing Concrete Test Specimens in the Field, as well as deepen our understanding of the relationship between the consolidation process, concrete composition, and workability. An improved understanding of this area will help to reduce variability in concrete quality. The project involved evaluating the effect of different consolidation methods on concrete specimens with changing levels of workability. To do this, concrete cylinders were created with varying viscosities by adjusting the water-to-cement ratio (w/c) and water-reducing agent. More cylinders were created with varying paste volumes while keeping …

Microscopic Traffic Simulation Modeling And Communication Tool For Post-Disaster Evacuation Routing, Nicholas Kutheis

Masters Theses

"This research evaluated the effectiveness of conducting traffic simulation models and developing a mobile application to serve as a communication channel for emergency evacuation preparation and routing. An iOS and Android app was developed to display emergency events to users with suggested routes for evacuation and a microscopic traffic simulation model was conducted for the St. Louis (MO) metropolitan region that analyzed various road networks with projected evacuation demand.

A mobile application coded in Swift (Apple) and Kotlin (Android) featured an emergency notification screen that displayed the type of emergency warning (e.g., earthquake, flood, or no warnings) with provided routes …

Improved Decap Model And Placement Optimization Algorithm For Power Distribution Network Design, Jack Juang

Masters Theses

"Decoupling capacitors (decaps) are used in power distribution network (PDN) design to act as a low impedance return path for noise and act as a local source of charge when required by integrated circuits (IC). For placement of decaps, which can number even to the hundreds, many algorithms have been proposed including genetic algorithms (GA), iterative algorithm, and machine learning methods.

One limitation of iterative decap placement algorithms (adding one decap at a time) is how the construction of the algorithm affects the form of the final solution. For example, if the reward function (used in GA and machine learning …

Prediction And Root-Cause Analysis For Smart Speaker Intentional Electromagnetic Interference Attacks, Tanner Fokkens

Masters Theses

"Smart home and Internet of Things (IoT) devices have become ubiquitous in homes over the past decade. The smart speaker itself is often the device that interfaces all these devices together. Because of this, the smart speaker can become a point of attack for someone trying to exploit or hack into the smart home devices. In the past few years, it was discovered that smart speakers with microwave electromechanical system (MEMS) microphones are susceptible to intentional electromagnetic interference (I-EMI) attacks by modulating an audio command to a high-frequency carrier signal. This attack allows for command recognition for long-distances and smart …

Flight Software Development For A University-Class Microsatellite Mission, Yumeka Nagano

Masters Theses

"The purpose of this research is to present the software development process used by the Command and Data Handling (C&DH) subsystem as a part of a microsatellite mission underway at the Missouri University of Science and Technology. The mission's objective is to evaluate the performance of an innovative cold gas propulsion system for use in formation flying applications and the incorporation of a stereoscopic imaging sensor used to measure the satellite pair's relative position and velocity vectors in real time. C&DH uses a Raspberry Pi 3 Model B as the flight computer running a Linux environment, and the flight code …

A Network Of Low-Cost Multi-Pollutant Air Quality Sensors For Evaluating Fine-Scale Exposure Disparity In Twin Cities, Mn, P M Varuni Abhayaratne

Masters Theses

"Poor air quality is detrimental to health and is a leading environmental risk factor for early death globally. The massive scale of urbanization and population growth has led urban air quality to become a global concern as the release of air pollutants into the atmosphere continues to increase. Air quality has traditionally been monitored using reference-grade monitoring stations that are expensive and sparsely distributed. Low-cost sensors can complement existing regulatory networks to provide more spatial detail, capturing fine-scale variations. This study investigates spatiotemporal pollutant patterns, exposure disparities and environmental justice using data collected from a two-year (2019-2021) deployment of a …

Tropospheric Correction For Insar Using Machine Learning, Ngo Hi Kenny Yue

Masters Theses

"Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) is a popular technique for studying Earth's surface deformation caused by phenomena like earthquakes and subsidence. However, its accuracy is limited by tropospheric delays caused by water vapor in the atmosphere. This limitation can be overcome by using methods that correct for tropospheric noise, such as statistical, empirical, and predictive approaches. This study explores the potential of using machine learning algorithms to predict the zenith total delay caused by tropospheric effects in InSAR measurements. The study employs two different machine learning algorithms, random forest and neural networks, to learn the relationship between numerical weather prediction …

Optimizing The Placement Of Multiple Uav--Lidar Units Under Road Priority And Resolution Requirements, Zachary Michael Osterwisch

Masters Theses

"Real-time road traffic information is crucial for intelligent transportation systems (ITS) applications, like traffic navigation or emergency response management, but acquiring such data is tremendously challenging in practice because of the high costs and inefficient placement of sensors. Some modern ITS applications contribute to this problem by equipping vehicles with multiple light detection and ranging (LiDAR) sensors, which are expensive and gather data inefficiently; one solution that avoids vehicle-mounted LiDAR acquisition has been to install elevated LiDAR instruments along roadways, but this approach remains unrefined. The eventual development of sixth-generation (6G) wireless communication will enable new, creative solutions to solve …

Rapid-Throughput Analysis Of 1,4-Dioxane In Plants By Centrifugal Sampling And Phytoforensic Analysis For Site Delineation And Assessing Enhanced Rhizodegradation, Anthony Eberechukwu Oha

Masters Theses

"Owing to its broad use and environmental persistence, 1,4-dioxane (dioxane) poses a notable threat to public health and is recalcitrant to traditional remedial systems. Dioxane moves readily in an aqueous environment and is an emerging contaminant in drinking water, surface water, groundwater, and wastewater. The extent of dioxane in the biosphere is also difficult to delineate, particularly in the subsurface. Phytoremediation has demonstrated the potential for dioxane groundwater remediation. Recent findings indicate that plant-microbial symbiosis may be more advantageous for limiting potential transport and transfer into plant tissues and the atmosphere. Bioaugmentation of the rhizosphere paired with soil amendments has …

Static I-V Curve And Aging Test For Pim Characterization In Metallic Contacts, Kalkidan Anjajo

Masters Theses

"Spring clips and fabric-over-foams (FOFs) are widely used in mobile devices for electrical connection purposes. However, the imperfect metallic connections tend to induce passive intermodulation (PIM), resulting in a receiver sensitivity degradation, known as RF desensitization. Due to the complexity of the PIM characterization, there is not yet a way to evaluate PIM performance using a simple setup for environments like factories. In this study, a current-voltage (I-V) behavior-based PIM evaluation method is proposed and validated with various metallic contacts and contact forces. The test results demonstrated the feasibility of the PIM performance evaluation based on the measured static I-V …

Scalable And Continuous Fabrication Of Dendrimer Based Gene And Protein Delivery Systems, Joseph Johnston

Masters Theses

"Gene and protein therapeutics play critical roles in the drug market and represent the future of biopharmaceuticals. Polymeric nanoparticle-based gene/protein delivery systems are promising owing to their ability to protect the cargo from degradation, improving intracellular delivery and transfection efficiency as well as abundant sources and flexibility to be modified. Yet the successful industrialized production and clinical application of polymeric nanoparticle-based delivery systems have long been limited by unsatisfied delivery efficiency and the lack of reproducible and scalable methods for the preparation of uniform nanoparticles with good batch to batch consistency. To address the unsatisfied efficacy and difficulty in scale-up …

Area Average Surface Transfer Coefficient In Unit Cell Geometries, Benjamin Gabriel Mackey

Masters Theses

"Honeycombs, metal foams, and lattice structures all provide a way to increase heat transfer due to better fluid mixing and larger surface area. Specifically, lattice structures can be a great way to provide heat transfer enhancement due to the ability to customize and optimize the unit cell geometry. In this research, a novel yet simple unit cell geometry is chosen for study. Four different configurations are tested in a lower Reynolds number range, 300–1800: single unit cell, two-unit cells in series, three-unit cells in series, and a 3x3 unit cell array. The Sherwood number of each configuration is found by …

Incorporating Novel Sensors For Reading Human Health State And Motion Intent Into Real-Time Computing Systems, Adam Sawyer

Masters Theses

"Integrating sensors that read states of the human body into everyday life is an increasing desire, especially with the rise of deep learning which requires vast stores of data to make predictions. This work explores integrating these sensors into the human experience through two methods and recording the results. The first of these methods integrates a MXene based field-effect transistor sensor for the 2019-nCov spike protein with a mobile app. This allows the user to read how saturated their breath is with Covid-19. The second method integrates 3D-printed pressure sensors, and a motion capture system, into a glove to read …

A Real-Time Microwave Camera Using Zero-Bias Diode Detector, Liang Liu

Masters Theses

"This thesis presents the design of a microwave camera that utilizes a two-dimensional array of elliptical slot antennas and diode detectors to quickly and accurately locate radiation sources. Unlike traditional scanning techniques like ESM and holography, which rely on mechanical scanning, require a long measurement time, and are prone to mechanical errors, the microwave camera operates quickly and efficiently by using electronic switching to access the output of each detector. This results in a more precise and efficient means of locating radiation sources'--Abstract, p. iii

Designing Exterior Lighting For Safety And Comfort While Minimizing Light Pollution, Energy Consumption, And Cost, Stephen Michael Simmons

Masters Theses

"Artificial light at night brings many benefits to society. However, these benefits do not come without costs. One environmental issue that is often overlooked in the design of public spaces and infrastructure is light pollution. At the expense of large amounts of energy, light pollution causes numerous harmful effects on human health, ecosystems, and the night sky. Today, the problem is becoming more widespread, especially with the increasing use of bright, white LED luminaires. Thus, it is imperative for designers and engineers to create smarter lighting designs that not only allow for safety and comfort at night but also promote …

Development And Testing Of A Hyperbaric Aerodynamic Levitator For Containerless Materials Research, Sydney Elizabeth Boland

Masters Theses

"This research focused on the development and testing of a hyperbaric aerodynamic levitator for container less materials research of specimens at temperatures greater than 2000°C and pressures up to 10.3 MPa (1500 psi). The effect of specimen size, specimen density, pressure, and flow rate on the levitation behavior was studied. Lightweight specimens demonstrated two stable levitation regimes that were speculated to be associated with a change in the turbulent wake structure. The hyperbaric aerodynamic levitator was also used to determine the effect of pressure on the heat transfer by studying the melting behavior of a levitated 3.0 mm diameter alumina …

A Hybrid Framework For Critical Infrastructures Interdependency Modeling, Simulation, And Analysis, David Corder Hinton

Masters Theses

"Flow system models, also known as flow network models, encompass vastly complex, ever-expanding problem sets which comprise the foundation for maintenance, operation, and improvement of critical infrastructures around the world. The stable operation of these vast critical infrastructures is fundamental to the continued advancement of modern society. These infrastructures are tightly interdependent and vulnerable to interruption by both natural circumstance and malicious targeting. This necessitates representation of such critical infrastructures and their multi-domain interdependencies in defense focused constructive and virtual simulation environments as a matter of national interest and security. By breadth exploration of the problem space, this work body …

Replacing Combustion Engines With Hydrogen Fuel Cells To Power Mining Haul Trucks: Challenges And Opportunities, Ayorinde Akinrinlola

Masters Theses

"With the proven advantage of higher energy density in hydrogen fuel cells over batteries, there is potential to apply fuel cells to power mining haul trucks. This study aims to evaluate the technical and economic feasibility of hydrogen fuel cell electric mine trucks as an alternative to current mine haul trucks. Specifically, the project: (1) developed an economic framework for evaluating the integration of renewable energy powered haul trucks into mining; and (2) applied vehicle drivetrain and energy simulation in Matlab/Simulink to elucidate the challenges and opportunities of incorporating hydrogen fuel cell technology into the current form factors of mine …

Modeling The Reactor Time-Dependent Delayed Particle Tail With Monte Carlo N-Particle (Mcnp) Version 6.2, Eli James Boland

Masters Theses

"Energy is deposited into experiment packages due to post-shutdown decay heat created from delayed particles. Modeling these delayed particles in a reactor assists researchers in quantifying the expected energy deposition sources to an experiment package before irradiation. This paper focuses on modeling the delayed particles in a reactor in MCNP6.2 by capturing a reactor as a source, converting this source capture to a source definition, applying appropriate physics such as activation and photonuclear interactions, and finally using proper tallies to create the expected delayed particle tail of a reactor.

To capture the source distribution, the FMESH capability within MCNP was …

Personalizing Student Graduation Paths Using Expressed Student Interests, Nicolas Charles Dobbins

Masters Theses

"This work proposes an intelligent recommender approach to facilitate personalized education and help students in planning their path to graduation. The original research contribution of this work is to develop a recommender approach that pervasively personalizes and optimizes a student’s path to graduation by accounting for the student’s career interests and academic background. The approach is a multi-objective optimization problem, subject to institutional constraints, with the goal of optimizing the graduation path with respect to one or more criteria, such as time-to-graduation, credit hours taken, and alignment with student’s career interests. The efficacy of the approach is illustrated and verified …

Understanding Charge Effects On Marked Ball Wear Rates – A Corrosion Study, John Bailey Fletcher

Masters Theses

"To measure the wear rates of grinding balls within a ball mill, marked ball wear tests (MBWTs) have been used extensively. Using the wear rates from a MBWT, operators select the most cost-effective media for their grinding application. One factor that a MBWT does not account for is the possible interaction between different media materials which could affect their corrosion rates. Galvanic coupling between dissimilar metals can cause significant changes in their corrosion rates. While galvanic interactions between minerals and grinding media have been studied, the interaction between dissimilar media has not. Corrosion rates and potentials of modern high carbon …