Engineering Commons^™

The Effect Of Volatile Fission Products On Fuel Motion In Nuclear Fuel Elements, Paul Sasa

Nuclear Engineering ETDs

Stringent licensing procedures for commercial nuclear reactor operation require an in-depth analysis of the phenomena associated with postulated reactor core overheating accidents. One aspect of nuclear reactor safety assessment is a prediction of fuel behavior associated with such postulated overheating events, which includes an assessment of the role of fission product inventory contained within irradiated fuel elements on fuel relocation potential. In general the gaseous fission product, such as Xenon and Krypton, have been considered the most likely candidates for fuel relocation due to gas dissolution from the fuel matrix and bubble expansion during fuel overheating; thus, such gaseous fission …

The Evaluation Of Corrosion Inhibitors For Controlling Corrosion In Closed Paper Mill White Water Systems, Ifeanyi E. C. Okeke

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

A Study Of A Wind Tunnel Measurement System For Unsteady Pressures Using Pneumatic Transmission Lines, Mohammed Javed Khan

Theses and Dissertations

The application of pneumatic transmission lines theory to a tube-scanning valve system for unsteady pressure measurements in the AFIT 5-foot wind tunnel is investigated. Transfer gains of various tube-scanning valve configurations were experimentally measured and the validity of a theoretical model verified for a frequency range of 20 Hz to 140 Hz. The selected system having a 0.0625-in. ID flexible tube of 84 in. length connected to a scanning valve was installed in the wind tunnel. Unsteady pressures introduced over an 18 percent airfoil at zero angle of attack were measured with this system. Data were collected for 0, 40, …

Effect Of Concentration And Ph On Parametric Pumping Separations, Tsu-Kun S. Hsieh

Theses

The technique of parametric pumping represents a new and valuable development in the separation science of proteins. Many conventional protein separation are often processed batchwise. However, parametric pumping offers the possibility of continuous processing; the continuous process provides both the advantages of decreasing the processing time and of minimizing degradation.

Preliminary step testing experiments were conducted to study the equilibrium of protein between the stationary and mobile phase of the sephadex ion exchanger.

It was the purpose of this research to study the feasibility of operating a semi-continuous parametric pump with a sephadex ion exchanger for the separation of a …

Concentrated Organic Separations By The Cyclic Indirect Freezing Process, Jeffrey Carl Miles

Chemical and Biological Engineering ETDs

This study demonstrates the technical feasibility of purifying concentrated organic solutions by the cyclic indirect freezing process with in-situ washing and in-situ melting operations. The key to a successful purification in the freezing process is a near plug flow displacement of unfrozen liquor from the bed in an in-situ washing operation. To be successful, a freezing step has to be initiated uniformly and a high permeability bed has to be formed uniformly throughout the freezing conduits. In the study, a nucleation technique based on pressure induced supersaturation has been used to accomplish a uniform initiation and a pressure induced freezing …

Speech Synthesis Utilizing Microcomputer Control, Joseph N. Uzel

Retrospective Theses and Dissertations

This report explores the subject of speech synthesis. Information given includes a brief explanation of speech production in man, an historical view of speech synthesis, and four types of electronic synthesizers in use today. Also included is a brief presentation on phonetics, the study of speech sounds. An understanding of this subject is necessary to see how a synthesizer must produce certain sounds, and how these sounds are put together to create words. Finally a description of a limited text speech synthesizer is presented. This system allows the user to enter English text via a keyboard and have it output …

An Analysis Of The Effect Of Vibration Sensitivity On Hydrophone Design, George Dickson Hugus

Retrospective Theses and Dissertations

Hydrophones used in the ocean produce spurious outputs due to vibration sensitivity which can severely degrade measurement accuracy. Sources of these vibration inputs are ocean surface waves, flow turbulence, and induced mechanical vibration. The hydrophone response to these vibrations is a noise voltage output. This can leave to a signal-to-noise problem particularly when measurements of small sound pressure levels are to be made. The objective of this thesis is to analyze the vibration response of three typical piezoelectric hydrophone sensor elements configurations and give design methods and constraints for reducing the problem of vibration sensitivity to an acceptable level. The …

Phosphorus Content And Release From Lake Sediments By Agitation, Hsien Ping Tang

Retrospective Theses and Dissertations

Man-made mixing in shallow lakes will resuspend bottom sediments and increase phosphorus concentration in the water body. The increase in phosphorus content may affect the lake productivity. During the course of this study, a better understanding of the water-sediment-phosphorus relationships of some shallow lakes in Central Florida was attempted. Column studies and batch experiments were used to investigate the effect of mechanical mixing on the release of phosphorus from bottom sediments collected from Lake Claire and Jessup. The particle size distribution and density distribution of the bottom sediments were studied and the release of phosphorus from each fraction was measured. …

The Design And Analysis Of A Unique Broadband Underwater Acoustic Source, Allan Mark Young

Retrospective Theses and Dissertations

Requirements exist for a unique type of underwater acoustic source. The transducer is in the form of a linear array of discrete elements and is required to have a constants transmitting voltage response and carefully controlled directivity characteristics over a two octave bandwidth. A generalized model of a linear array of cylindrical piezoelectric ceramic acoustic radiators is developed and applied to the design of a prototype which operates over approximately one half of the required bandwidth. The prototype transducer was built and the measured results are compared with those predicted by the model. Recommendations are made for improving the performance …

Effect Of Precursor Heating On Radiating And Chemically Reacting Viscous Flow Around A Jovian Entry Body, Kuo Yen Szema

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Theses & Dissertations

The influence of changes in the precursor region flow properties (resulting from absorption of the radiation from the shock layer) on the entire shock layer flow phenomena around a Jovian entry body is investigated under physically realistic conditions. In the precursor region, the flow is considered to be inviscid and the variations in flow properties are determined by employing the small perturbation technique as well as the thin layer approximation. The flow in the shock layer is assumed to be steady, axisymmetric and viscous. The analysis is carried out by considering both the chemical equilibrium and nonequilibrium composition of the …

Interaction Between Structures And Fluids, Rahim Falsafi-Haghighi

Dissertations

A finite element model for the study of solid-fluid interaction, with applications in flow-induced vibration analysis of reactor vessel and heat exchanger internals, is presented. The model is based on the discretization of the solid equation of motion and the fluid continuity and momentum equations and employs the solid displacements together with the fluid pressure and velocity components as the nodal degrees of freedom. This permits a realistic and accurate implementation of boundary conditions, in contrast with methods using solid displacements and fluid pressure as the only field variables. The numerical solution of the resulting matrix equation, involving non-symetric matrices, …

Nonlinear Dynamic Modeling Of A Once-Through Steam Generator, Ming-Huei Lee

Doctoral Dissertations

A detailed, nonlinear, many lump, moving boundary dynamic model for a helical coiled once-through steam generator with nonuniform tube cross section is developed. Six flow regimes are employed in the model; each regime may consist of more than one section. The responses for two lumping cases (i.e., two sets, each with a different number of sections in the model) are compared with the same perturbations. Bases for selection of the number of sections and the calculational time step are suggested.

The steady state calculation for generating the state variable distributions along the tube coordinate is developed. Information obtained from the …

Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion By Using A Solidification Melting Cycle, Wen Liang Lin

Chemical and Biological Engineering ETDs

An OTEC (Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion) power plant uses warm surface seawater (24° C - 28° C) as a heat source and deep cold seawater (4° C - 7°C) as a heat sink. With this temperature difference, a heat engine which delivers either mechanical or electric power can be con­structed. There are some limitations and problems of evaporators and condensers to be used in a closed Rankine cycle OTEC plant which have seriously limited the applicability of this concept. This study proposed a process using the S/L engine---a heat engine that utilizes a working medium undergoing solidification and melting operations. …

Second And Third Generation Vector Computers And Their Fortran Processors, Kay Anderson Hansborough

Electrical and Computer Engineering ETDs

SECOND AND THIRD GENERATION VECTOR COMPUTERS AND THEIR

FORTRAN PROCESSORS

Kay Anderson Hansborough, M.S.

Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

The University of New Mexico, 1976

This work describes the architectures of five large vector computers. These computers are the CDC 7600, CDC STAR-100, TI Advanced Scientific Computer, CRAY-1, and Burroughs Scientific Processor.

Then the FORTRAN languages and their vector extensions are described for each machine. In addition to these languages, the IBM VECTRAN language is described.

A Computer Model For Comparison Of Flat Plate And Focusing Collectors For Solar Air Conditioning, H. B. Bucher

Retrospective Theses and Dissertations

Two types of solar collecting systems are frequently employed--flat plate collectors with spectrally selective windows which trap sunlight with the "greenhouse effect" and focusing systems with curved mirrors which concentrate the sun's rays on an absorbing surface. The flat plate collector is the simpler of the two designs, but cannot readily provide temperatures as high as the focusing collector. Both of the collectors are candidates for absorption cycle solar air conditioning systems. This role dictates higher temperature than are normally required of solar collectors, particularly the flat plate design. Focusing systems of interest here are those which are fixed in …

An Investigation Into A Least Squares Method For Image Registration, Ernest William Cordon

Retrospective Theses and Dissertations

One of the problems associated with the automatic image processing of satellite photographs such as weather maps is the need for image registration; that is, the fitting of a map that has some translational and rotational bias to a known data base. This paper investigates a least square method of image registration using an image that has been converted into a boundary map with a pixel representation 1 for land, -1 for water and zero for cloud pixels. A sampled correlation array is constructed by shifting the weather map to locations on a given grid, centered around a sampled correlation …

A Case Study Of A Solar Augmented Heating System Versus A Solar Assisted Heat Pump, Louis P. Braleski

Retrospective Theses and Dissertations

The usage and applications of solar energy are numerous; however, it's still in its infancy. The subject matter discusses two applications of solar energy, a "Solar Augmented Heated System" and a "Solar Assisted Heat Pump." The solar augmented system and the solar assisted system have the same components; however, the way they are used is of primary concern. A solar system in parallel with a heat pump is called "Solar Augmented Heating System" or in series with a heat pump is a "Solar Assisted Heat Pump." A 2000 ft2 house was utilized as the basis of the design. The heating …

Design, Calibration, And Application Of A Sensor For Measuring Time Dependent Angle Of Attack Of Helicopter Blades, Weiyuan Henry Liu

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Various pressure probes were designed and tested which could be attached to helicopter blades when a helicopter is in flight. The pressure probes consisted of spherical heads which were held in place by cylindrical shanks. Built inside the heads were transducers to measure the pressure differential between pressure ports which were located on the front portion of the spherical head facing the airstream. Data was obtained over a range of airstream velocity of 11,6 to 88.4- m/s (38 to 290 ft/sec), corresponding to Reynolds numbers of 0.24 to 1.84x10⁵ based on the sphere diameter. Both static and dynamic tests …

Dynamics Of Submerged Cylindrical Shells With Eccentric Stiffening, Kerry Kier-Ten Chu

Dissertations

A theoretical analysis is presented for treating the free vibrations of submerged, ring stiffened cylindrical shells with simply supported ends. The effects of the eccentric stiffeners are averaged over the thin-walled isotropic cylindrical shell. The energy method is utilized and the frequency equation is derived by Hamilton's Principle. All three degrees of freedom are considered. Numerical results are presented for frequencies and mode separation for several cases of interest. Comparisons with previous theoretical and experimental results indicate good agreement. The cylindrical wave approximation and the plane wave approximation for the field equation were investigated. Their applicability was evaluated and the …

The Continuous Non-Equilibrium Parametric Pump: A Theoretical And Experimental Study, John Lawrence Rak

Dissertations

A continuous parametric pump in which the feed and product streams flow steadily both in upflow and downflow (hot and cold temperatures, respectively) is examined theoretically and experimentally. The model system is Sodium Chloride-Water-Bio Rad AG11A8 Ion Retardation Resin, a physical system characterized by relatively slow interphase mass transfer rates. For short half-cycle times, where interphase equilibrium is not approached, separation of the salt from water is found to be enhanced by longer half-cycle times, smaller reservoir displacements, and longer adsorbant columns. In most cases, separation improves with increasing number of cycles. However, steadily degrading separation is found to exist …

Deposition Of Suspensions In Laminar Flow In The Entrance Region Of Channels With Diffusive, Electrostatic And Gravitational Effects, Thomas Anthony Korjack

Dissertations

This investigation entailed the consideration of the deposition of suspensions in laminar flow in the entrance region of a parallel-plate channel, and both converging and diverging channels, under the combined influences of diffusive, electrostatic and gravitational effects. The fluid phase was assumed to be incompressible, steady and laminar; the particle phase was assumed to be steady, laminar, dilute, and with negligible lift force.

The complete solution of the problem involved solving the boundary layer equations for the completely viscous fluid phase, and the particulate momentum, continuity and potential equations for the particle phase. Since the resulting equations are non-linear partial …

Paper Recycling : Recovery Of Secondary Fibers By Selective Wettability, Gary Keith Welshans

Dissertations

A separation process has been developed which recovers similar paper grades from a mixed stock by selective wettability. This process capitalizes on the various paper additives which are intended to resist water wetting and result in paper flotation. While water can be used to achieve many desirable paper separations, the detention times required are excessive, and therefore, limit any industrial application. Surface-active agents, in low concentrations, can be used advantageously by reducing the detention times for all paper while the structure of the surfactant can be used to selectively recover similar papers over a controlled time period. Detention times have …

The Countercurrent Multistage Desorption Of The Acetic Acid/Water Solution With An Inert Vapor, Michael John Danko

Theses

The desorption of a acetic acid and water solution with an inert gas was experimentally investigated using a perforated plate distillation column having 17 actual trays. An inert air stream flowing countercurrent was used to strip the water from the acetic acid and water solution.

The feed composition was 0.2509 mole fraction acetic acid. The experimental results showed the best obtainable separation to be 0.16118 and 0.3965 mole fraction acetic acid in the overhead condensate and bottoms respectively, at an average column operating temperature of 56.0 degrees centigrade. The concentration of acetic acid predicted by calculation is 0.003917 and 0.9860 …

Semicontinous Ph-Parametric Pump : Experimental Study, Hsien-Chih Lee

Theses

Voidage of SP Sephadex (C-50) ion exchanger at different aqueous buffer concentration and the pH have been estimated from draining the interstitial aqueous. Experimental results of the SP Sephadex (C-50) voidage at pH cycling zone are in quantitative agreement with previous test method, so the voidage estimated from draining the interstital aqueous can be used in pH-parametric pumping. The optional displacement volume in semicontinuous pH-parametric pump of different buffer concentration can be predicted from voidage. A semicontinuous pH-parametric pump for separating proteins has been experimentally investigated using the model system haemoglobin and albumin on a. SP Sephadex (C-50) ion exchanger. …

The Slow Settling Of A Sphere In A Viscous Fluid In The Proximity Of A Corner, Joseph Kisutcza

Theses

Experimental settling velocities for three different sizes of Delrin spheres in Ucon lubricant were determined at 20.2 degrees Celsius in order to confirm the validity of a theoretically derived equation for the settling of a sphere in the proximity of a corner. The experiments were conducted in a wedge shaped column with a circular sector base, filled with the viscous fluid, where the angle of the wedge was varied for experimental purposes. The distance from the wedge apex to the particle was also changed for the different runs.

The experimental data gave a good approximation of the values evaluated by …

A Kinetic Study Of The Reactions Of Poly-L-Lysine With 1-Halo-2, 4-Dinitrobenzenes, Raymond K. Rakowitz

Theses

The kinetics of the reactions of poly-L-lysine with 1-Fluoro, 1-Chloro, 1-Bromo, and 1-Iodo-2,4-Dinitrobenzenes have been studied. The investigation was done at 25°C as a function of pH and concentration. In all cases the rate of reaction increased as pH increased. In the reactions of Chloro, Bromo, and Iododinitrobenzenes with Polylysine the reaction rate is the composite of two rates; one associated with the random coil and one associated with the helical conformation. For the reaction of Fluorodinitrobenzene with Polylysine the reaction rate is the composite of four rates; two associated with the random coil and two associated with the helical …

Possible Efficiency Improvements In Residential, Gas Fired Furnances, Philip Louis Rinaldi

Theses

This project examines the problem of how to improve energy utilization in a residential space heating environment. Techniques for lowering unit energy consumption are developed and the feasibility of their implementation is discussed.

The project development first establishes the magnitude of the energy wastage problem for the individual consumer and its impact on the national scale. It must be emphasized that these represent two, sometimes distinctly different justifications for reducing energy use in the home. What may be considered only a small personal waste of $50 to $100 per year may indeed--when viewed in aggregate--represent a significant burden on the …

A Comprehensive Study Of Excimer Laser Systems, Robert Ray Butcher

Electrical and Computer Engineering ETDs

Rare gas halogen lasers are finding increasing usage as an intense source of ultraviolet energy. Many applications require a high energy laser capable of operation at reasonably high repetition rates. Elec­trical discharge pumping satisfies these requirements quite nicely, however to date little has been reported on the discharge character­istics of this class of laser. This paper describes a parametric study done on electrical discharge excimer laser systems.

We have designed and tested a flashboard pre-ionized excimer laser utilizing a cable pulse forming network (PFN) for the main discharge. Extensive voltage and current data were taken with various gas mixtures at …

A Mathematical Model Of Stratified Bi-Directional Flow Through The Railroad Causeway Embankment Of Great Salt Lake, James T. Cameron

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

A two-dimensional, finite-element, porous-media flow model is developed to simulate stratified bi-directional flow of brine through the earth embankment carrying the Southern Pacific Railroad across Great Salt Lake. The model is part of a two-year research program whose objective is to develop a computer model of circulation in Great Salt Lake. This overall model is to be used as a predictive device for salinity distributions and circulation patterns in the lake. The porous media flow model is designed to establish flow rates through the Southern Pacific Railroad causeway embankment which traverses the north central part of the lake and divides …

A Design Study For A Wavy Hydrodynamic Mechanical Face Seal, Raymond Edward Pierce

Mechanical Engineering ETDs

A desirable objective of mechanical face seal design is to achieve the maximum hydrodynamic load support possible while main­taining an acceptable leakage. In this way, mechanical face seal life can be greatly extended as the wear of the seal faces is significantly reduced. It has been shown that circumferentially varying waviness of one of the faces of a mechanical face seal causes such hydrodynamic lubrication.

The objective of this investigation is to examine the performance characteristics of the wavy mechanical face seal by studying the effects of certain design parameters. Seal performance is measured by leakage and wear rate. The …