Engineering Commons^™

Design Procedure For Vertical Drains Considering A Linear Variation Of Lateral Permeability Within The Smear Zone, Cholachat Rujikiatkamjorn, Buddhima Indraratna

Buddhima Indraratna

A system of vertical drains with surcharge preloading is an effective method for promoting radial drainage and accelerated soil consolidation. This study presents a procedure for the design of vertical drains that significantly extends the previous technique proposed by the authors to include: (i) a linear reduction of lateral permeability in the smear zone, (ii) the effect of overlapping smear zones in a closely spaced drain network, and (iii) the gain in undrained shear strength due to consolidation. Design examples are provided for both single stage and multi-stage embankment construction demonstrating the convenient use of the proposed solutions in practical …

Design Of A Low Noise Amplifier For Wireless Sensor Networks, Ting Liu

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

CMOS technology becomes important in Radio Frequency (RF) communication systems which include both a receiver and a transmitter. In a high performance radio receiver, the Low Noise Amplifier (LNA) is the first circuit, and its noise performance dominates the entire receiver. Depending upon the system in which they are used, LNAs can be designed according to various topologies and structures. The LNA needs to have matched input impedance, and at the same time it should amplify the small amplitude input signal without adding too much noise and still have the minimal power consumption. It also needs a good interface with …

Simulated Annealing Technique To Design Minimum Cost Exchanger, Sandip K. Lahiri

Dr. Sandip Kumar Lahiri

Owing to the wide utilization of heat exchangers in industrial processes, their cost minimization is an important target for both designers and users. Traditional design approaches are based on iterative procedures which gradually change the design and geometric parameters to satisfy a given heat duty and constraints. Although well proven, this kind of approach is time consuming and may not lead to cost effective design as no cost criteria are explicitly accounted for. The present study explores the use of non-traditional optimization technique called simulated annealing (SA), for design optimization of shell and tube heat exchangers from an economic point …

Cubic Beam Elements In Practical Analysis And Design Of Steel Frames, Lip H. Teh

Lip H. Teh

This paper discusses various issues in the use of cubic beam elements for computer structural analysis/design of steel frames. It is pointed out that the concern expressed in recent literature regarding the number of cubic elements required to model a steel member is not justified, and that the inaccuracy of one cubic element in Euler buckling analysis of a simply supported column is largely irrelevant to the second-order elastic analysis/design or advanced analysis of steel frames. The sources of inaccuracy of the cubic element are elucidated. It is also explained that the plastic-zone analysis method is not so inefficient as …

Analysis And Design Of Double-Sided High-Rise Steel Pallet Rack Frames, Lip H. Teh, Gregory J. Hancock, Murray J. Clarke

Lip H. Teh

In routine design of steel storage rack frames, it is far more common to perform two dimensional (2D) rather than three dimensional (3D) linear buckling analyses. In this paper, it is demonstrated that the global buckling behavior of high-rise steel storage rack frames may not be revealed by 2D buckling analyses as 3D interaction modes are involved. It is shown that the monosymmetric upright columns of a high-rise rack frame fail in a flexural–torsional mode due to the shear-center eccentricity of the sections, and that the 3D frame buckling analysis is more reliable in determining the critical members of a …

Design And Simulation Of Scintillator-Pixel Photodetector With The Ability To Measure Position Of Interaction, George Takacs, Anatoly Rosenfeld, Michael Lerch, Philip Simmonds, Steven Meikle, G Taylor, V Perevertailo, S Eberl

George Takacs

No abstract provided.

Application Of Natural Clay To Formulate Nontraditional Completion Fluid That Triples Oil Productivity, Abdul Aziz Abdul Raman

Abdul Aziz Abdul Raman

Adverse effect of the highly biorecalcitrant compound phenol to the environment is well established and its concentrations in industrial effluents vary greatly from 2.8 to 6,800 mg/l depending on the source. Fenton process effectively mineralises to CO(2) and H(2)O but reported works consumed more reagents and require longer reaction times. Due to the strong interaction between the several predictor variables in the Fenton oxidation, response surface methodology was used to optimise the mineralization treatment. Efficient, faster and economical operating conditions for phenol removal were explored by investigating four parameters namely the concentration ratio of hydrogen peroxide to phenol - ((H(2)O(2)):(Phenol)), …

Engineering Modeling, Analysis And Optimal Design Of Custom Foot Orthotic, Lieselle Enid Trinidad

Open Access Dissertations

This research details a procedure for the systematic design of custom foot orthotics based on simulation models and their validation through experimental and clinical studies. These models may ultimately be able to replace the use of empirical tables for designing custom foot orthotics and enable optimal design thicknesses based on the body weight and activities of end-users. Similarly, they may facilitate effortless simulation of various orthotic and loading conditions, changes in material properties, and foot deformities by simply altering model parameters. Finally, these models and the corresponding results may also form the basis for subsequent design of a new generation …

Fabricate An 8.35-Ghz Frequency Synthesizer, A. Attaran, Hossein Ameri Mahabadi, M. Moghavvemi

Hossein Ameri Mahabadi

The article presents information on designing a low-noise frequency synthesizer for achieving low-phase-noise outputs past 8 GHz for digital microwave radios (DMRs). These synthesizers can be used with the DMRs, depending on advanced digital modulation such as quadrature-amplitude-modulation (QAM) and quadrature-phase-shift-keying (QPSK) formats.

Bankfull Geomorphic Relationships And Reference Reach Assessment Of The Ridge And Valley Physiographic Province Of East Tennessee, James Brady Mcpherson

Masters Theses

Waterways have been geomorphically altered or disturbed by development, mining, agriculture and other human activities for many years. Section 404 of the Clean Water Act determined that these impacts to our waterways must be mitigated for channel alterations. Stream restoration has been one method to mitigate for these impacts to our water resources. Stream restoration is considered to be a measurable improvement to the channel stability, water quality, habitat or overall function of a degraded stream system. Practices of stream restoration have changed in the last 10 to 20 years with the introduction of natural channel design methods. Natural channel …

Design, Modeling And Control Strategy Of Pv/Fc Hybrid Power System, Dr. Adel A. Elbaset

Dr. Adel A. Elbaset

This paper describes development of a general methodology of an autonomous PV/FC system composed of photovoltaic (PV), electrolyzer, hydrogen storage tank and fuel cell (FC). The aim of this paper is to determine optimum design, control strategy, economic and performance of a PV/FC hybrid power generation system without battery storage taking into account all losses in the system. The paper also presents a computer program based on Matlab software to determine optimum design, control strategy, economic and performance of an autonomous PV/FC hybrid power generation system. The computer program develops to size system components in order to match the load …

Fourier Finite Element Analysis Of Laterally Loaded Piles In Elastic Media Internal Geotechnical Report 2011-1, William Higgins, Dipanjan Basu

Technical Reports

Laterally loaded piles are analyzed using the Fourier finite element method. Pile response was observed to be a function of the relative stiffness of pile and soil and of the pile slenderness ratio. The analysis is mostly performed for piles embedded in elastic soil with constant and linearly varying modulus although the pile response in two-layer soil profiles is also investigated. Equations describing pile head deflection, rotation and maximum bending moment are proposed for flexible long piles and stubby rigid piles. The design equations were developed after plotting the pile responses as functions of pile-soil stiffness ratio and pile slenderness …

A Case Study Analysis Of The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet’S Design/Build Pilot Projects, Paul M. Goodrum, Mohammad Moin Uddin, Bradley J. Faulkenberg

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

The current economic climate has forced transportation agencies to evaluate opportunities to save money. One possible opportunity lies in Design/Build (DB) delivery. In 2006, with the approval of the Kentucky General Assembly, The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet selected ten projects to be developed through the Design/Build method. DB delivery offers many attainable advantages, the most notable being expedited delivery. The research described herein presents a case study of these DB pilot projects in order to capture lessons learned on the use of the DB delivery method on future projects. In order to determine which projects are suitable for DB delivery, a …

Warehouse Design For Polygait, Colby Spear

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

Professor Tali Freed, advisor of POLY GAIT, needs a warehouse built to accommodate the testing of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology with Automatic Storage and Retrieval Systems (AS/RS). This report explores a 5-step warehouse designing technique. The five steps are as follows: Overall Structure, Sizing and Dimensioning, Operation Strategy Selection, Equipment Selection, and Department Layout. Each of these is analyzed in turn to cover everything necessary in designing a warehouse. Furthermore, a cost analysis was conducted in order to give Professor Freed a better understanding on the cost required to build this warehouse. A smaller 25’x22’ foot is optimal because …

Olympic Bocce Ballers, Steven Erickson, William Haley, Taylor Vaughan

Mechanical Engineering

No abstract provided.

Design And Testing Of An Automated Semiâ]Trailer Control System, Conor H. Dodd

Honors Theses

Growing up in Maine, the trucking industry is an ever-present part of life. With a very sparse, lightly used rail system, almost all of the raw materials and goods that enter and leave the state do so by truck. Truckers in Maine are constantly challenged by Maine’s roads, which can often be difficult or even treacherous to navigate. The rough logging roads near Jackman or Millinocket, or the sharp ninety degree turns near the Portland oil docks, can ruin a trucker’s day, or even worse, cause an accident. For example, there is a tiny four-way intersection on Broadway in South …

Design And Fabrication Of An Autonomous Solar Powered Airship, Mitchell Van Lee

Honors Theses

The purpose of the project was to design and build a prototype small scale photovoltaic (PV) powered autonomous airship. The principle reason for the construction of the unmanned airship was to investigate the possibility of using self-guided, lighter-than-air aircraft as an alternative to earth observational satellites for the purposes of terrain mapping and imaging. The necessary electrical energy was produced by single crystal photovoltaic solar cells. The airship was designed to carry an onboard battery in order to provide power generation in the case of intermittent cloud coverage. It was also designed to interface with an Arduino prototyping board which …

Variability Analysis Of Undrained Shear Strength For Reliability-Based Design, Site Onyejekwe, Xin Kang, Louis Ge, Richard Wesley Stephenson

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Description of the Spatial Variation of Compositional and Mechanical Soil Parameters is Often Paramount in Site Characterization of Geotechnical Design and Analysis. the Values of the Parameters Themselves Largely Depend on In-Situ State Factors Which Are Related to Spatial Locations. Also, for Large-Scale Engineering Projects Such as Earth Dams or Highways, It is Generally Expected that Heterogeneous Site Characteristics Will Be Revealed by Investigations at Spatially Distant Locations. Currently, Most Reliability-Based Design Methods Are based on the Second-Moment Statistics (Mean and Variance). However, They Are Unable to Adequately Describe the Spatial Variation of Soil Properties. in This Paper, Spatial Correlation …

Design Of A Micro Irrigation System For An Almond Orchard, Adam Scheuber

BioResource and Agricultural Engineering

The owners of Scheuber Farms, a 1,000 acre row crop farming operation located in Patterson, California, wish to convert a 15-acre field into an almond orchard. For irrigating the trees, they would like to use a microsprayer irrigation system. The design I recommend and describe in this paper utilizes proper hydraulic analysis, and is based on the ability to supply enough water to match the amount of water required by the orchard during the peak month of an average year.

All of the major components and parameters of the microsprayer irrigation system were designed at minimal cost while ensuring that …

Investigation Of The Design And Static Behavior Of Cylindrical Tubular Composite Adhesive Joints Utilizing The Finite Element Method And Stress-Based Failure Theories, Michael D. Lambert

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The stress and strength behavior of cylindrical tubular adhesive joints composed of dissimilar materials was explored. This was accomplished with the finite element method (FEM) and stress-based failure theories. Also, it was shown how a design of experiments (DOE) based method can be used to objectively organize the process of optimizing joint strength by using stress-based failure criteria.

The finite element program used in this work was written in-house from scratch to implement the FEM for the purpose of solving both axisymmetric and three-dimensional linear elastic governing equations of static equilibrium. The formulation of the three-dimensional model is presented, and …

Design Of Equipment For The Study Of Non-Isothermal Flow In Polymer Fluid, Opeoluwa Oluwaseun Kolawole

Masters Theses

The polymer industry is an ever growing industry, and, as it grows, companies are continuously looking for ways to study and understand the behaviors of polymers in relation to the processing and production. This is to ensure the production of high quality products and to improve existing products.
An important parameter during polymer processing is temperature. Temperature control affects several rheological parameters such as viscosity, and in turn the quality of the final products. Frictional or viscous heating is a very important part of polymer processing and occurs in almost every polymer processing operation.
The objective of this research is …

Design Of Online Student Fee Committee Proposal Information System, Kenneth Cairns, Gregory (Greg) Jacobson

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

The purpose of this project is to overhaul the IME department’s Student Fee Committee (SFC) proposal system. A web enabled database was designed in order to improve this system. A significant amount of time was spent researching different programming languages, paradigms, and frameworks in order to determine the most logical approach to the system redesign. After a few false leads, it was determined that the most appropriate solution to the problem was to design a C# based web form application using asp.NET technology, developed in Microsoft Visual Studio. A mockup was created in Access in an attempt to determine if …

Probabilistic Structural And Thermal Analysis Of A Gasketed Flange, Atul G. Tanawade

ETD Archive

Performance of a flange joint is characterized mainly by its 'strength' and 'sealing capability'. A number of analytical and experimental studies have been conducted to study these characteristics under internal pressure loading. However, with the advent of new technological trends for high temperature and pressure applications, an increased demand for analysis is recognized. The effect of steady-state thermal loading makes the problem more complex as it leads to combined application of internal pressure and temperature. Structural and thermal analysis of a gasketed flange was computationally simulated by a finite element method and probabilistically evaluated in view of the several uncertainties …

A Left Ventricular Motion Phantom For Cardiac Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Mehmet Ersoy

ETD Archive

The mammalian left ventricle (LV) has two distinct motion patterns: wall thickening and rotation. The purpose of this study was to design and build a low-cost, non-ferromagnetic LV motion phantom, for use with cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), that is able to produce physiologically realistic LV wall thickening and rotation. Cardiac MRI is continuously expanding its range of techniques with new pulse sequences, including new tissue tagging techniques which allow intra-myocardial deformation to be visualized. An essential step in the development of new cardiac MRI techniques is validating their performance in the presence of motion. MRI-compatible dynamic motion phantoms are …

The Beginning Of A New Era In Design: Calibrated Discrete Element Modelling, Andrew Grima, David Hastie, David Curry, Peter Wypych, Richard La Roche

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

The reliable storage and flow of bulk materials requires a comprehensive design process and good understanding of the flow properties of a bulk material. Analytical and empirical design techniques form the backbone of many design processes as they have been validated by research, however, theories based on continuum mechanics have many shortcomings and are restricted to 2-D analysis. Discrete element modelling (DEM) is proving to be a popular analysis and simulation method to verify designs for a wide range of bulk material processing and handling operations, such as transfer chutes. With the advances in computing and DEM technology, DEM has …

Discrete Element Modelling: Trouble-Shooting And Optimisation Tool For Chute Design, Andrew P. Grima, Thomas Fraser, David B. Hastie, Peter W. Wypych

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

Conveyor transfer stations play a key role in many industries that handle bulk materials. Transfer stations can be rather sensitive to changes in material properties and can lead to relentless problems regarding reliability, wear, bottlenecking and blockages. Wet and sticky ores are typically difficult to handle materials due to their obnoxious ability to form a cohesive arch, adhere to surfaces and poor flow ability. Mines that are situated in areas with seasonal high rainfalls or that have started to exploit newer and more difficult to mine and handle ores, often from below the water table, experience vast difficulty in reliably …

Design Of Water Holding Bulkheads For Coal Mines, Verne Mutton, Alexander Remennikov

Faculty of Engineering - Papers (Archive)

Water control has been and remains a fundamentally important aspect of underground coal mine design and operation worldwide. Mining in the vicinity of large bodies of water, below a worked out coal seam or under confined aquifer or abandoned water logged workings is always fraught with the possibility of the danger of inundation. Inrush control is now part the Fatal Hazard Protocols which is a risk based process in all operations. In modern Australian underground coal mines, in which panel layouts have been extended and production rates are approaching 10 Mtpa, there is much focus on the control of water …

An Adaptive Design Approach For Geothermal Plant With Changing Resource Characteristics, M Imroz Sohel, Mathieu Sellier, Susan Krumdieck

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

Geothermal power plants are designed for optimal utilization of geothermal resource. However, geothermal fields typically undergo significant changes in resource characteristics such as pressure, temperature and steam quality over their life span. With appropriate reservoir modelling it is possible to predict the future resource characteristics of a geothermal field to a reasonable degree of accuracy. We propose a new adaptive design approach that would allow geothermal power plants to take into account the change of resource characteristics that occur over a 30-40 years time horizon based on the results of reservoir modelling. Currently, it is difficult and expensive to modify …

Value Co-Creation With Customers Through Design Toolkits: The Importance Of Preference Fit And Psychological Ownership, Tingru Cui, Hua Ye, Hock Hai Teo

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

The information technologies increasingly enable companies to set up websites for customers to design and purchase their own individualized products. Although customer co-design offer benefits for both suppliers and customers, how to manage the co-design process, especially the central interface features of design toolkit have emerged as a contentious issue among researchers and practitioners. This paper focuses on the effects of both utilitarian and psychological customer-design product value (i.e., perceived preference fit and psychological ownership) on customers' purchase decision. Based on the self-determination theory, we propose that the effectiveness of the value increment mechanisms is influenced by three leading toolkit …

Observing Cultural Interactions In Engineering Design,, Timothy J. Mccarthy, Anne Gardner, Thomas L. Goldfinch, Catherine A. Layton, Giles Thomas, Alan Henderson

Faculty of Engineering - Papers (Archive)

The University of Wollongong and partner institutions UTAS, UTS, and QUThave engaged in an ALTC funded project to address issues of intercultural competence inengineering. As a major component of this project, observational research techniquesare being employed to assess the current state of intercultural competence in first andsecond year engineering students. The research described in this paper is a processemployed by the authors to observe cultural interactions between students in first orsecond year design subjects. The process involves simple video recordings of the groups¿interactions over the course of a normal project team meeting, which are then coded andanalysed using NVivo 8. …