Engineering Commons^™

Lifecycle Modeling And Assessment Of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (Drones) Co2e Emissions, Miguel A. Figliozzi

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

There are no studies that model the potential effectiveness of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) or drones to reduce CO2e lifecycle (including both utilization and vehicle phase) emissions when compared to conventional diesel vans, electric trucks, electric vans, and tricycles. This study presents a novel analysis of lifecycle UAV and ground commercial vehicles CO2e emissions. Different route and customer configurations are modeled analytically. Utilizing real-word data, tradeoffs and comparative advantages of UAVs are discussed. Breakeven points for operational emissions are obtained and the results clearly indicate that UAVs are more CO2e efficient, for small payloads, than conventional diesel vans in a …

From Probabilistic Socio-Economic Vulnerability To An Integrated Framework For Flash Flood Prediction, Sepideh Khajehei

Dissertations and Theses

Flash flood is among the most hazardous natural disasters, and it can cause severe damages to the environment and human life. Flash floods are mainly caused by intense rainfall and due to their rapid onset (within six hours of rainfall), very limited opportunity can be left for effective response. Understanding the socio-economic characteristics involving natural hazards potential, vulnerability, and resilience is necessary to address the damages to economy and casualties from extreme natural hazards. The vulnerability to flash floods is dependent on both biophysical and socio-economic factors. This study provides a comprehensive assessment of socio-economic vulnerability to flash flood alongside …

Assessment Of Cooling And Heat Transfer Properties Of Quenchants With Matlab, Lemmy Meekisho, Rosa L. Simencio Otero, Jônatas M. Viscaino, D. Scott Mackenzie, George Totten, Lauralice C.F. Canale

Mechanical and Materials Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

There is ongoing interest for evaluating the potential of renewable base stocks, such as vegetable oils, to replace petroleum oils as metal quenchants. Perhaps the most critical part of this process is characterizing and comparing the cooling and heat transfer performance of potential quenchant candidates. In this work, cooling curves of two vegetable oils, palm oil and canola oil, were obtained along with a commercially available conventional and an accelerated petroleum quenchant using the so-called Tensi multiple thermocouple probe, with emphasis on the center probe emulating a small probe concept. The lumped-parameter approach was implemented in the MATLAB environment (Mathworks …

Quenchant Cooling Curves, Rewetting, And Surface Heat Flux Properties Of Vegetable Oils, Rosa L. Simencio Otero, Jônatas M. Viscaino, Jun Xu, Jianfeng Wu, George Totten, Lauralice C.F. Canale

Mechanical and Materials Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Vegetable oils are currently used for biodegradable and renewable base stocks for quenchant formulation. However, there are relatively few references relating to their true equivalency, or lack thereof, comparative to the quenching performance of petroleum oil-based quenchant formulations. To obtain an overview of the variability vegetable oil quenching performance, the cooling curves and rewetting properties were determined, and the surface heat flux properties were calculated. The vegetable oils that were studied included canola, coconut, corn, cottonseed, palm, peanut, soybean, and sunflower oils. Cooling curves were obtained using the Tensi multiple-surface thermocouple 15 mm diameter by 45 mm cylindrical Inconel 600 …

Teen Driver System Modeling: A Tool For Policy Analysis, Celestin Missikpode, Corrine Peek-Asa, Daniel V. Mcgehee, James Torner, Wayne Wakeland, Robert Wallace

Systems Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

Background: Motor vehicle crashes remain the leading cause of teen deaths in spite of preventive efforts. Prevention strategies could be advanced through new analytic approaches that allow us to better conceptualize the complex processes underlying teen crash risk. This may help policymakers design appropriate interventions and evaluate their impacts.

Methods: System Dynamics methodology was used as a new way of representing factors involved in the underlying process of teen crash risk. Systems dynamics modeling is relatively new to public health analytics and is a promising tool to examine relative influence of multiple interacting factors in predicting a health …

Comparative Analysis Of Mosquito Trap Counts In The Peruvian Amazon: Effect Of Trap Type And Other Covariates On Counts And Diversity, George W. Peck, Fanny Castro-Llanos, Victor Lopez-Sifuentes, Erica Lindroth

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Efficient detection of multiple species of adult mosquitoes in various habitats using effective traps is a crucial 1st step in any disease prevention program. Novel trap types that target tropical vectors of human diseases require field testing in the habitat of the vector–disease system in question. This paper analyzes a series of mosquito trapping studies conducted at Mapacocha, San Juan Bautista District, Loreto, Peru, during August–September 2013 and April–May 2014. Six trap configurations were evaluated in forest and rural locations. Adult mosquito counts were analyzed using full Bayesian inference of multilevel generalized linear models and posterior probability point estimates of …

Modeling Harmonic Impacts Of Electric Vehicle Chargers On Distribution Networks, Nicole Woodman, Robert B. Bass, Mike Donnelly

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

As the proliferation of electric vehicles continues to grow, it is becoming important to understand the impacts that electric vehicle charging will have on distribution assets. EV chargers are non-linear, multi-state loads. This manuscript presents a design method for the modeling of EV charging units using a VHDL-AMS simulation environment, per IEEE Standard 1076.1. Voltage and current data collected from in-service EV charging stations were used to create harmonic profiles of the EV charging units. From these profiles, generalized models for both Level 2 and Level 3 EV chargers were created. These models were validated within a larger system context …

Compensation Of Vertical Position Error Using A Force–Deflection Model In Friction Stir Spot Welding, Jinyoung Yoon, Cheolhee Kim, Sehoon Rhee

Mechanical and Materials Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Despite increasing need for friction stir spot welding (FSSW) for high-temperature softening materials, system deflection due to relatively high plunging force remains an obstacle. System deflection results in the vertical position error of a welding tool and insufficient plunge depth. In this study, we used adaptive control to maintain plunge depth, the plunging force was coaxially measured, and the position error was estimated using a force–deflection model. A linear relationship was confirmed between the force and deflection; this relationship is dependent on the stiffness of the welding system while independent of process parameters and base materials. The proposed model was …

Aliased Tidal Variability In Mesoscale Sea Level Anomaly Maps, Edward Zaron, Richard D. Ray

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Sea level anomaly (SLA) maps are routinely produced by objective analysis of data from the constellation of satellite altimeter missions in operation since 1992. Beginning in 2014, changes in the Data Unification and Altimeter Combination System (DUACS) used to create the SLA maps resulted in improved spatial resolution of mesoscale variability, but it also increased the levels of aliased tidal variability compared to the methodology employed prior to 2014. The present work investigates the magnitude and spatial distribution of these tidal signals, which are typically smaller than 1 cmin the open ocean but can reach tens of centimeters in the …

Modeling The Sustainability Of Small Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Technologies: Final Report, Miguel A. Figliozzi

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

In the past decade, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) have become increasingly more popular in the commercial sector. Drones are being used for all kinds of purposes, such as surveillance, inspecting architecture, filming, wildlife research, and more. Freight delivery is a potential application that is getting lots of attention from large companies.

This research presented novel data, relationship, and models for deliveries utilizing small UAVs. Small UAVs were defined as aircrafts with a tare of up to 15 kilograms (kg) and a potential payload of up to 15 kg. Since the weight of the UAVs is capped, only drones with engines …

The Influence Of Shared Mobility And Transportation Policies On Vehicle Ownership, Edgar Bertini Ruas

PSU Transportation Seminars

With the emergence of several new providers of shared mobility services, such as Uber, Biketown and Car2go, there has been the promise of changes to the traditional way of owning and using a vehicle. One potential consequence of the new mobility services is the reduction in vehicle ownership. At the same time, cities are trying to anticipate these changes by reducing the amount of space dedicated to parking. This thesis aims to asses the extent to which new shared mobility and transportation policy strategies (especially parking requirements and transit pass availability) relate to vehicle ownership among residents of multifamily dwellings. …

Thermally (Un-) Stratified Wind Plants: Stochastic And Data-Driven Reduced Order Descriptions/Modeling, Naseem Kamil Ali

Dissertations and Theses

Wind energy is one of the significant sources of renewable energy, yet a number of challenges preclude optimal operation of wind plants. Research is warranted in order to minimize the power losses and improve the productivity of wind plants. Here, a framework combining turbulence theory and data mining techniques is built to elucidate physics and mechanisms driving the energy extraction of the wind plants under a number of atmospheric/operating conditions. The performance of wind turbines is subjected to adverse effects caused by wake interactions. Therefore, it is crucial to understand wake-to-wake interactions as well as wake-to-atmospheric boundary layer interactions. Experimental …

Webinar: Segmenting The Market For Transportation Demand Management Campaigns, Philip L. Winters, Amy Lester

TREC Webinar Series

Social marketing seeks to develop and integrate marketing concepts with other approaches to influence behaviors that benefit individuals and communities for the greater social good. It is a useful transportation demand management (TDM) planning approach to promote travel behavior change. The purpose of this study was to explore a consumer market segmentation technique successfully used in Europe for its applicability to marketing efforts in the United States. Attitudinal and demographic data were collected from 1900 individuals in Florida, Oregon, and Virginia modeled after the European approach. Clustering analysis was applied to divide the sample into segments so that members of …

Scenarios For Adoption Of Autonomous Vehicle Technologies In Freight, Sabya Mishra

PSU Transportation Seminars

Innovation adoption research has largely ignored organizational adoption, and little work has been done to understand or predict the adoption of innovations by freight organizations. Among the existing innovation adoption theoretical and methodological approaches this seminar will explore which are most appropriate methods for freight organizational adoption. The seminar will present a disaggregate market penetration model for freight transportation organizations adopting connected autonomous vehicle (CAV) technology and demonstrate an application using a case study area in Memphis, TN. The seminar will highlight ongoing and future organizational adoption research for CAVs, and other innovations.

Early Detection Of Corrosion Via Hydrogel-Based Spectroelectrochemical Sensors, Capri Ann Price

Dissertations and Theses

The backbone of the industrialized world is comprised of refined, zerovalent metal, a material which thermodynamically favors an oxidative return to more chemically stable states. There are many methods used to slow or delay this process, such as protective coatings, sacrificial anodes, and alloys, but no method can entirely prevent corrosion. This body of work instead proposes detecting the earliest chemical markers of corrosion: that is, metal ions as they solubilize from a metal surface. Such information would allow maintenance personnel to make informed decisions about the necessity or lack thereof of preventive maintenance, and intervene before advanced damage has …

Carbon-Supported Transition Metal Nanoparticles For Catalytic And Electromagnetic Applications, Kavita Meduri

Dissertations and Theses

Recently, there has been growing interest in using transition metals (TM) for catalytic and electromagnetic applications, due to the ability of TMs to form stable compounds in multiple oxidation states. In this research, the focus has been on the synthesis and characterization of carbon-supported TM nanoparticles (NPs), specifically palladium (Pd) and gold (Au) NPs, for catalytic applications, and transition metal oxides (TMO) NPs, specifically Fe₃O₄ NPs for electromagnetic applications. Carbon supports have several advantages, such as enabling even distribution of particles, offering large specific surface area with excellent electron conductivity, and relative chemical inertness.

In this dissertation, …

Ensemble Data Assimilation For Flood Forecasting In Operational Settings: From Noah-Mp To Wrf-Hydro And The National Water Model, Mahkameh Zarekarizi

Dissertations and Theses

The National Water Center (NWC) started using the National Water Model (NWM) in 2016. The NWM delivers state-of-the-science hydrologic forecasts in the nation. The NWM aims at operationally forecasting streamflow in more than 2,000,000 river reaches while currently river forecasts are issued for 4,000. The NWM is a specific configuration of the community WRF-Hydro Land Surface Model (LSM) which has recently been introduced to the hydrologic community. The WRF-Hydro model, itself, uses another newly-developed LSM called Noah-MP as the core hydrologic model. In WRF-Hydro, Noah-MP results (such as soil moisture and runoff) are passed to routing modules. Riverine water level …

First-Principles Study Of The Products Of Co2 Dissociation On Nickel-Based Alloys: Trends In Energetics With Alloying Element, Lynza H. Sprowl, Benjamin Adam, Julie D. Tucker, Líney Árnadóttir

Mechanical and Materials Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Oxidation and corrosion of nickel and Ni-based alloys are a problem for many industrial applications, such as power plants that use supercritical CO2 as the working fluid. In supercritical CO2 environments, CO2 dissociates on the surface forming adsorbed CO and O, which can oxidize the surface. The adsorbed CO can further breakdown via direct CO dissociation or via the Boudouard reaction to form adsorbed C, which can in turn carburize the surface. Understanding how the adsorbed species interact with different Ni-based alloys can help guide the design of future alloys. The interactions of adsorbed O, C, and CO on the …

Driver Comprehension Of Permissive Right-Turns With A Flashing Yellow Arrow (Fya), Christopher Monsere, David Hurwitz

PSU Transportation Seminars

This research explored driver comprehension and behaviors with respect to right-turn signal displays with a focus on the Flashing Yellow Arrow (FYA) in a driving simulator and a comprehension survey. Flashing yellow arrows are used in place of other turn signals, such as solid green or flashing yellow or red circles, to indicate that drivers may turn after yielding to oncoming traffic. These turns are considered “permissive.” Turns where no conflicting traffic is present, such as those indicated with a green arrow, are “protected” turns. The flashing yellow arrow’s inclusion in the 2009 Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices sped …

Keyword-Based Patent Citation Prediction Via Information Theory, Farshad Madani, Martin Zwick, Tugrul U. Daim

Engineering and Technology Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

Patent citation shows how a technology impacts other inventions, so the number of patent citations (backward citations) is used in many technology prediction studies. Current prediction methods use patent citations, but since it may take a long time till a patent is cited by other inventors, identifying impactful patents based on their citations is not an effective way. The prediction method offered in this article predicts patent citations based on the content of patents. In this research, Reconstructability Analysis (RA), which is based on information theory and graph theory, is applied to predict patent citations based on keywords extracted from …

Webinar: Addressing Bicycle-Vehicle Conflicts With Alternate Signal Control Strategies, Sirisha Kothuri

TREC Webinar Series

There is nationwide interest in supporting sustainable and active transportation modes such as bicycling and walking due to the many benefits associated with them, including reduced congestion, lower emissions and improved health. Although the number of bicyclists is increasing, safety remains a top concern. In urban areas, a common crash type involving bicycles at intersections is the “right hook” where a right-turning vehicle collides with a through bicyclist. While geometric treatments and pavement markings have been studied, there is a lack of research on signal timing treatments to address right-hook bicycle-vehicle conflicts.

Addressing Bicycle-Vehicle Conflicts with Alternate Signal Control Strategies …

Evolution From Cooling Modeling To Cooling Engineering Of The Steel Quenching Process: A Technology Overview, Xinmin Luo, George Totten

Mechanical and Materials Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

The type of heat treatment process used is mainly determined by its cooling mode. Hardening is a metal heat treatment during which the most critical operation is cooling. Most quenchants used for steel hardening are vaporizable liquids, such as water, petroleum oils, emulsions, aqueous polymer solutions, or brines. Testing methodologies that include ISO 9950, Industrial Quenching Oils-determination of Cooling Characteristics-Nickel-alloy Probe Test Method, and ASTM Standards: D6200, Standard Test Method for Determination of Cooling Characteristics of Quench Oils by Cooling Curve Analysis, D6482, Standard Test Method for Determination of Cooling Characteristics of Aqueous Polymer Quenchants by Cooling Curve Analysis with …

Unified Business Intelligence Ecosystem: A Project Management Approach To Address Business Intelligence Challenges, Bhavana Ramesh, Akash Ramakrishna

Engineering and Technology Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

The purpose of this paper is to explore a concept that improves the success rate of Business Intelligence projects by looking at it as an ecosystem rather than standalone project. This paper discusses the importance on Business Intelligence (BI) initiatives and today's challenges in implementing them. The concentration is on using proven practices of project management to reduce the failure rates of the Business Intelligence projects by evaluating currently existing Information Technology (IT) project process, Business Intelligence frameworks and a Project Vulnerability process in order to adopt some of the best project management practices that works for Business Intelligence projects. …

Genomics, Rare Diseases, And Disruptive Innovation In The Biopharmaceutical Industry, Mark J. Ahn, Amir Shaygan, Charles Weber

Engineering and Technology Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

The multinational biopharmaceutical industry has to deal with significant financial pressures due to being a very cost-constrained and highly regulated industry. To add to that, finite patent expirations on financially successful drugs, vying nature of the biotech industry due to new innovations. There has been an increase of smaller markets due to the proliferation of molecular segmentation patient populations in fields such as personalized medicine. Particularly, due to the significant cost reducing impacts of the development of "next-generation" sequence platforms on DNA sequencing in the last decade, molecular diagnostics are being considered as cost effective candidates to be used as …

Nokia Phones: From A Total Success To A Total Fiasco, Ahmed Alibage, Charles Weber

Engineering and Technology Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

This research intensively reviews and analyzes the strategic management of technology at Nokia Corporation. Using traditional narrative literature review and secondary sources, we reviewed and analyzed the historical transformation of Nokia's core business, leadership strategies, business architecture, R&D policy, innovation strategy, product lunch, and smartphones recognition and demonstration. We identified various strategic gaps that the previous analytical studies seemingly have missed to identify and generalize. Therefore, we add to the literature a bundle of the lessons learned that chronologically explain how Nokia failed to create and sustain competitive advantages, particularly in the smartphone market. We concluded that the problem at …

Exploratory Strategic Roadmapping Framework For Big Data Privacy Issues, Maoloud Dabab, Rebecca Craven, Husam Barham, Elizabeth Gibson

Engineering and Technology Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

The applications of Big Data continue to expand, due to the many possibilities and unprecedented insights it offers to people, organizations, and communities. However, Big Data poses serious challenges as well, including challenges to the privacy and security of individuals and their data. This paper considers how to best address one concern related to Big Data: the social problems that the pervasiveness of data collection, analysis, and storage create with regard to individuals' ability to control their own data. The paper uses Quality Function Deployment (QFD) and Technology Roadmapping analysis methods to assess the social problems, technologies, resources, and industries …

Dynamics Of Competition And Strategy: A Literature Review Of Strategic Management Models And Frameworks, Mohammadsaleh Saadatmand, Maoloud Dabab, Charles Weber

Engineering and Technology Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

This research reviews a comprehensive and somehow chronological literature in the models and frameworks of competition and strategy. Strategic management research is shaped around a core question that why some firms outperform others; several significant lines of work have emerged in the strategic management field since its infancy. These include industrial organization, the resource-based view and dynamic capabilities. Also, Competition essentially has been the focal point of scholars with diverse perspectives such as industrial economics and structural analysis, strategic groups, game theory, and competitive dynamics. In this research, we represent and summarize different perspectives of scholars in framing competition and …

Effects Of Future Connected Autonomous Vehicles On Freeway Congestion Using Fuzzy Cognitive Mapping, Hakan Kutgun, Vivian Du Pont, Henry Janzen

Engineering and Technology Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

Continuing population growth and urbanization are projected to add 2.5 billion people to the world's urban population by 2050 [1]. It is evident that this will increase traffic congestion especially in the urban areas, which will bring economic, safety, environmental and quality of life challenges. There are various organizations looking for possible solutions to reduce the impact of future congestion by long term planning [2], most of these studies don't take into account emergence of disruptive technologies. The concept of vehicles with autonomous driving and online connectivity capabilities, namely, connected autonomous vehicles (CAVs) is an emerging technology [3] which may …

Technology Planning For Aligning Emerging Business Models And Regulatory Structures - The Case Of Electric Vehicle Charging And The Smart Grid, Kelly Cowan, Tugrul Daim

Engineering and Technology Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

Smart Grid has the potential to produce over $2 trillion of benefits in the US utility sector over the next 20 years, according to a study by the Electric Power Research Institute. However, the study also projects significant costs of up to $476 billion to achieve these returns. Therefore, while smart grid represents an enormous opportunity, with a benefit-to-cost ratio of nearly 6 to 1, given the enormous financial sums at stake, it is crucial that the planning process for smart grid be done with extreme care. Planning the deployment of smart grid technology in the electric utility sector can …

Product Popularity Versus Size Of Conversation In Social Media: An Analysis Of Twitter Conversations About Youtube Product Categories, Nitin Mayande, Charles Weber

Engineering and Technology Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

It has always been assumed that a large conversation about a topic on social media implies that the topic is popular. However, an empirical study of Twitter conversations about a variety of YouTube product categories, which is described in this paper, has shown that this is not necessarily the case. Popularity as measured by distribution volume is not necessarily a reliable indicator of the size of a community or conversation that is associated with a product category. This suggests that current online marketing practices are not nearly as effective as has been assumed to date. Novel, potentially more effective approaches …