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Full-Text Articles in Engineering

Assessment Of Fidelity To Data And Robustness To Uncertainty To Assure Credible Predictions In The Modeling Of Wind Turbine Blades, Kendra Van Buren Dec 2012

Assessment Of Fidelity To Data And Robustness To Uncertainty To Assure Credible Predictions In The Modeling Of Wind Turbine Blades, Kendra Van Buren

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In the field of wind energy, modeling and simulation techniques provide an efficient and economical alternative to experimentation for studying the behavior of wind turbines. Numerical models however are approximations of reality, thusly making it crucial to evaluate various sources of uncertainties that influence the model predictions. Credibility of a numerical model rests on the model's ability to replicate existing experimental data, widely known as fidelity-to-data. This dissertation advocates that fidelity-to-data, while necessary, is insufficient to claim credibility of a numerical model. Herein, the objective is to develop numerical models that not only provide agreement to experimental data, but also …


Analysis And Evaluation Of Existing And Novel Turbulent Dynamic Pressure Based Methods For Measuring Bridge Pier And Abutment Scour, Murray Fisher Dec 2012

Analysis And Evaluation Of Existing And Novel Turbulent Dynamic Pressure Based Methods For Measuring Bridge Pier And Abutment Scour, Murray Fisher

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Scour is one of the most significant threats to bridge infrastructure and is the leading cause of failure within the United States. Given this risk to the nation’s transportation infrastructure, it is necessary to understand the development of scour holes around bridge piers and abutments. This can be achieved with scour monitoring, a Federal Highway Administration approved scour countermeasure. As the monitoring techniques available range from simple devices that rest on or in the channel bed to advanced scanning systems that provide a bed contour profile, a concise study of the state of the art in real time scour measurement …


Laboratory Characterization And Theoretical Analysis Of Contaminant Mass Transfer, Xiaoling Liu Aug 2012

Laboratory Characterization And Theoretical Analysis Of Contaminant Mass Transfer, Xiaoling Liu

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Chlorinated volatile organic compounds (CVOCs) in fractured, low permeability material can be a long-term source of groundwater contaminants and they are among the most difficult remediation challenges. Thermal methods are a possible remediation option, where heat is used to boil water and the volatile compounds are stripped out by partitioning into the resulting water vapor. Theoretical analysis indicates that only a small fraction of pore water removal may lead to a significant geometric reduction in the dissolved concentration [(Udell(, 1998]. Previous modeling studies [(Falta and Murdoch(, 2011; (Pruess(, 1983] suggest that a lower permeability limit exists for effective mass transfer …


Resource Allocation Framework: Validation Of Numerical Models Of Complex Engineering Systems Against Physical Experiments, Joshua Hegenderfer Jun 2012

Resource Allocation Framework: Validation Of Numerical Models Of Complex Engineering Systems Against Physical Experiments, Joshua Hegenderfer

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An increasing reliance on complex numerical simulations for high consequence decision making is the motivation for experiment-based validation and uncertainty quantification to assess, and when needed, to improve the predictive capabilities of numerical models. Uncertainties and biases in model predictions can be reduced by taking two distinct actions: (i) increasing the number of experiments in the model calibration process, and/or (ii) improving the physics sophistication of the numerical model. Therefore, decision makers must select between further code development and experimentation while allocating the finite amount of available resources. This dissertation presents a novel framework to assist in this selection between …


Assessing Ongoing Sources And Fate Of Dissolved Polychlorinated Biphenyls (Pcbs) In A Stream, Viet Dang May 2012

Assessing Ongoing Sources And Fate Of Dissolved Polychlorinated Biphenyls (Pcbs) In A Stream, Viet Dang

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Polychlorinated biphenyls (pcbs) contamination remains a concern due to their persistence and the risk to human health associated with them. Once released into the environment, these substances are mainly associated with sediment particles and sediment organic carbon matter. They bioaccumulate in organisms via contaminated food and only a small faction is desorbed from sediment into the water column. Given the discontinuity of active discharge, pcbs are currently entering the water via groundwater inputs, soil erosion, and/or ongoing leakage from the point source. It is the dissolved form that 1) can be either absorbed by biofilm attached to stream leaves, which …