Engineering Commons^™

The Trolley Problem In Virtual Reality, Jungsu Pak, Ariane Guirguis, Nicholas Mirchandani, Scott Cummings, Uri Maoz

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

Would people react to the Trolley problem differently based on the medium? Immersive Virtual Reality Driving Simulator was used to examine participants respond to the trolley problem in a realistic and controlled simulated environment.

Domain Adaptation In Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Landing Using Reinforcement Learning, Pedro Lucas Franca Albuquerque

Department of Computer Science and Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Landing an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) on a moving platform is a challenging task that often requires exact models of the UAV dynamics, platform characteristics, and environmental conditions. In this thesis, we present and investigate three different machine learning approaches with varying levels of domain knowledge: dynamics randomization, universal policy with system identification, and reinforcement learning with no parameter variation. We first train the policies in simulation, then perform experiments both in simulation, making variations of the system dynamics with wind and friction coefficient, then perform experiments in a real robot system with wind variation. We initially expected that providing …

Development Of An Autonomous Aerial Toolset For Agricultural Applications, Terrance Life

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

According to the United Nations, the world population is expected to grow from its current 7 billion to 9.7 billion by the year 2050. During this time, global food demand is also expected to increase by between 59% and 98% due to the population increase, accompanied by an increasing demand for protein due to a rising standard of living throughout developing countries. [1] Meeting this increase in required food production using present agricultural practices would necessitate a similar increase in farmland; a resource which does not exist in abundance. Therefore, in order to meet growing food demands, new methods will …

Experimental Design And Testing In A Pilot-Scale Rotary Kiln For The Torrefaction Of Beech Wood Under System Restrictions, Jorge López-Ordovás, Ibai Funcia-Muguerza, Katie Chong, Javier Gil, Raúl Pérez-Vega, Tony Bridgwater

Bio-Char II: Production, Characterization and Applications

The torrefaction process increases the energy density of the torrefied feedstock through the loss of volatiles and moisture. The anhydrous weight loss (AWL) measures the loss of volatiles and it is easily correlated with the net calorific value (NCV) of the torrefied product.

This work has two different parts. The first part consists of the design of the experiments and the second includes the experiments with results. The system used in CENER, where the simulation and experiments were completed, is a rotary kiln with a maximum capacity of 500 kg/h and a range of operating temperatures between 220-310°C. The innovative …

Competence Of A Spray Passive Down-Draft Evaporative Cooling (Pdec) System For Space Cooling, Daeho Kang, Richard K. Strand

Publications and Research

A spray PDEC system has been relatively less considered than other passive cooling strategies as one of the viable low-energy solutions in the cooling of buildings while having a great potential in energy savings. This study is intended to evaluate the capability of a spray PDEC system for space cooling. It comprises four simulation scenarios to see the system response and influence of indoor thermal environment when a spray PDEC system is adopted as a primary cooling system in two different climates. The simulation results show that a spray PDEC system causes a substantial variation in the indoor thermal environment …

How Will Climate Alter Efficiency Objectives? Simulated Impact Of Using Recent Versus Historic European Weather Data For The Cost-Optimal Design Of Nearly Zero Energy Buildings (Nzebs), Florida Solar Energy Center, Delia D'Agostino

FSEC Energy Research Center®

Achieving "nearly zero energy buildings" (NZEB) has been established as a vital objective over the next decade within the European Union (EU) [1,2]. Previous work has shown that a series of very cost-effective thermal efficiency measures, equipment, appliance and renewable energy choices are available across climates to reach the NZEB objective. Resulting detailed energy and economic optimization findings have been obtained and published. One area that has just begun to be explored, however, is how selection of weather files and their application against coming climate change can influence outcomes from energy optimization procedures.

Presented at: CLIMA 2019, REHVA 13th HVAC …

Analysis Of The System Response Of A Spray Passive Downdraft Evaporative Cooling System, Daeho Kang, Richard K. Strand

Publications and Research

A spray Passive Downdraft Evaporative Cooling (PDEC) system achieves great savings for space cooling and improves indoor environmental quality by supplying a large amount of fresh outdoor air. As previous studies heavily focused on the energy saving capability of a spray PDEC system due to lack of methods for a detailed analysis, the influence of cool humid supply air from a spray PDEC system in a space in buildings has not been comprehensively studied. This study is intended to evaluate the competence of a spray PDEC system as a primary cooling system in typical spaces in a primary school building …

Bmap/G/C Queueing Model With Group Clearance Useful In Telecommunications Systems – A Simulation Approach, Srinivas Chakravarthy, Alexander Rumyantsev

Industrial & Manufacturing Engineering Publications

Queueing models in which customers or messages arrive in batches with inter-arrival times of batches possibly correlated and services rendered in batches of varying sizes play an important role in telecommunication systems. Recently queueing models of BMAP/G/1-type in which a new type of group clearance was studied using embedded Markov renewal process as well as continuous time Markov chain whose generator has a very special structure. In this paper, we generalize these models to multi-server systems through simulation approach. After validating the simulation model for the single server case, we report our simulated results for much more general situations.

Mechanism Of Tricalcium Silicate Hydration In The Presence Of Polycarboxylate Polymers, Rachel Cook, Hongyan Ma, Aditya Kumar

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Abstract: The early-age hydration of cement is inhibited in the presence of comb-shaped polycarboxylate ether (PCE) polymer -- a dispersant commonly added to control rheological properties of fresh cement paste. This study employs a series of microcalorimetry experiments and phase boundary nucleation and growth simulations to elucidate the effects of dosage and molecular architecture of PCE on hydration of tricalcium silicate (Ca₃SiO₅ or C₃S in cement notation), the dominant phase in cement. Results show that PCE -- regardless of its molecular architecture -- suppresses early-age hydration of C₃S. PCE-induced retardation becomes increasingly more …

Effect Of Limited Water Supplies On Center Pivot Performance, Derrel Martin, Derek M. Heeren, Steve Melvin, Troy Ingram

Department of Biological Systems Engineering: Conference Presentations and White Papers

When appropriately designed and operated, center pivot irrigation systems can efficiently irrigate many crops grown on diverse soil and terrain conditions. However, a significant number of pivots are not supplied with an adequate water to operate as envisioned.

We simulated the hydraulics of a center pivot irrigation system, including the pump curve, flow rate, pipeline hydraulics, pressure regulators, nozzle flow rate, and irrigation application uniformity. This was used to analyse the performance of a center pivot for a sloping field for both adequate and inadequate water flow rate. The performance was simulated for a range of inlet pressures when pressure …

Chemical Clogging Of Granular Media Under Acidic Groundwater Conditions-Experimental Simulation, Buddhima Indraratna, Subhani Kanchanama Medawela, Senura Athuraliya, Ana Heitor, Pankaj Baral

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

Generation of acidic groundwater attributed to pyrite oxidation in low-lying acid sulfate soil causes substantial damage to the soil-water environment and civil infrastructure. The installation of Permeable Reactive Barrier (PRB) is a frontier technology in the field of acid neutralisation and for removing toxic heavy metal cations, e.g. soluble Fe and Al. This study aims to assess the potential of limestone (calcite) aggregates as the PRB's main reactive material in low-lying pyritic land. During long-term laboratory column experiments, a significant capacity of limestone for removing the contaminant chemical species was observed. Nevertheless, the formation of secondary mineral precipitates upon geochemical …

A Virtual-Reality Training Simulator For Cochlear Implant Surgery, Blake Jones, Seyed Alireza Rohani, Nelson Ong, Tarek Tayeh, Hanif M. Ladak, Ahmad Chalabi, Sumit K. Agrawal

Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications

No abstract provided.

Performance Simulation And Evaluation Of Net Zero Energy Buildings In An Australian Coastal Climate, Joel Anderson, Duane A. Robinson, Zhenjun Ma

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

Net zero energy buildings (NZEB) are becoming more common, and as new energy saving designs and technologies become available, the ability to estimate overall energy use and understand the impact on operation of building appliances will become important. This paper outlines simulation results of performance improvements achieved by modifying various components (glazing, lighting, thermal comfort settings) of two tertiary education NZEBs and a typical modern commercial building. The DesignBuilder models' thermal performance and energy consumption were validated using real data from case study buildings. The work shows validating models of smaller, less conven-tional, buildings is more difficult than for larger …

Fiber Element Simulation Of Interaction Behavior Of Local And Global Buckling In Axially Loaded Rectangular Concrete-Filled Steel Tubular Slender Columns Under Fire Exposure, Ghanim Mohammed Kamil, Qing Quan Liang, Muhammad N. S Hadi

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

Slender rectangular thin-walled concrete-filled steel tubular (CFST) columns in composite building structures exposed to fire may experience the interaction of local and global buckling. Numerical investigations on the interaction buckling responses of such columns under fire exposure have been rarely reported. This paper describes a fiber-based computational model for the prediction of the fire-resistance and interaction responses of local and global buckling of concentrically-loaded slender CFST columns made of rectangular sections exposed to fire. The thermal analysis is undertaken to calculate the distribution of temperatures in the column cross-section considering the effects of the air gap between concrete and steel, …

Nonlinear Post-Fire Simulation Of Concentrically Loaded Rectangular Thin-Walled Concrete-Filled Steel Tubular Short Columns Accounting For Progressive Local Buckling, Ghanim Mohammed Kamil, Qing Quan Liang, Muhammad N. S Hadi

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

The repair of fire-damaged thin-walled rectangular concrete-filled steel tubular (CFST) columns in engineering structures after fire exposure requires the assessment of their residual strength and stiffness. Existing numerical models have not accounted for the effects of local buckling on the post-fire behavior of CFST columns with rectangular thin-walled sections. This paper describes a nonlinear post-fire simulation technique underlying the theory of fiber analysis for determining the residual strengths and post-fire responses of concentrically loaded short thin-walled rectangular CFST columns accounting for progressive local buckling. The post-fire stress-strain laws for concrete in rectangular CFST columns are proposed based on available test …

Microstructural Evaluation Of Aluminium Alloy A365 T6 In Machining Operation, Bankole I. Oladapo, S. Abolfazl Zahedi, Francis T. Omigbodun, Edwin A. Oshin, Victor A. Adebiyi, Olaoluwa B. Malachi

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

The optimum cutting parameters such as cutting depth, feed rate, cutting speed and magnitude of the cutting force for A356 T6 was determined concerning the microstructural detail of the material. Novel test analyses were carried out, which include mechanical evaluation of the materials for density, glass transition temperature, tensile and compression stress, frequency analysis and optimisation as well as the functional analytic behaviour of the samples. The further analytical structure of the particle was performed, evaluating the surface luminance structure and the profile structure. The cross-sectional filter profile of the sample was extracted, and analyses of Firestone curve for the …

Personal Universes: A Solution To The Multi-Agent Value Alignment Problem, Roman V. Yampolskiy

Faculty Scholarship

AI Safety researchers attempting to align values of highly capable intelligent systems with those of humanity face a number of challenges including personal value extraction, multi-agent value merger and finally in-silico encoding. State-of-the-art research in value alignment shows difficulties in every stage in this process, but merger of incompatible preferences is a particularly difficult challenge to overcome. In this paper we assume that the value extraction problem will be solved and propose a possible way to implement an AI solution which optimally aligns with individual preferences of each user. We conclude by analyzing benefits and limitations of the proposed approach.