Engineering Commons^™

Real-Time Intelligent And Multi-Spectral Inspection Of Structural Components, Mst Mousumi Rizia

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Conventional, manual inspection methods are the most commonly used inspection approaches to this day; that cause downtime and can be erroneous due to their repetitive nature, heavy workload, and human error. The overarching goal of this work is to advance structural inspection with intelligent and autonomous techniques across infrastructures. In particular, this project will develop path-planning schemes for close navigation around the structures and intelligent algorithms for crack and corrosion detection.

The introduced novel navigation method uses advanced manufacturing techniques to generate aerial inspection trajectories in GPS-denied areas. The proposed method is validated using the `Gazebo' robotics simulator; the results …

Emocolor : Fine-Grained Emotion Recognition From Skin Color Information, Maria Guadalupe Jimenez Velasco

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

In everyday human-to-human communication, emotions play a fundamental role. Emotions represent the affective behavior of humans that is multi-modal, subtle, and complex. Previous approaches based on conventional computer vision explicitly used shape information. Modern approaches based on deep learning implicitly exploit all information available in the image, but by their nature make it difficult to assess the contributions of each source of information. In addition, skin color as a unimodal technique to recognize emotions has been explored to recognize only three coarse-grained emotions in valence space.To the best of our knowledge, this work presents the first approach to fine-grained emotion …

Application Of Compressive Sensing To Microwave Tomography, Rafael Gerardo Lopez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Microwave tomography(MT) allows the safe, non-intrusive examination of the internal structureof an object by irradiating it with microwave signals and measuring how they get attenuated and diffracted as they propagate through the object. Measurement of these signals is difficult and slow, it depends on the objectâ??s physical properties and the test setup used for this. MT is based on a scanning process that yields measurement data with unique characteristics that make it difficult to process using standard computational methods. As the number of measurements needed for an image with acceptable resolution increases, the complexity of processing all the data becomes …

We Need Fuzzy Techniques To Design Successful Human-Like Robots, Vladik Kreinovich, Olga Kosheleva, Laxman Bokati

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

In this chapter, we argue that to make sure that human-like robots exhibit human-like behavior, we need to use fuzzy techniques -- and we also provide details of this usage. The chapter is intended both for researchers and practitioners who are very familiar with fuzzy techniques and also for researchers and practitioners who do not know these techniques -- but who are interested in designing human-like robots.

When Can We Be Sure That Measurement Results Are Consistent: 1-D Interval Case And Beyond, Hani Dbouk, Steffen Schön, Ingo Neumann, Vladik Kreinovich

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

In many practical situations, measurements are characterized by interval uncertainty -- namely, based on each measurement result, the only information that we have about the actual value of the measured quantity is that this value belongs to some interval. If several such intervals -- corresponding to measuring the same quantity -- have an empty intersection, this means that at least one of the corresponding measurement results is an outlier, caused by a malfunction of the measuring instrument. From the purely mathematical viewpoint, if the intersection is non-empty, there is no reason to be suspicious, but from the practical viewpoint, if …

Why Lasso, Ridge Regression, And En: Explanation Based On Soft Computing, Woraphon Yamaka, Hamza Alkhatib, Ingo Neumann, Vladik Kreinovich

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

In many practical situations, observations and measurement results are consistent with many different models -- i.e., the corresponding problem is ill-posed. In such situations, a reasonable idea is to take into account that the values of the corresponding parameters should not be too large; this idea is known as {\it regularization}. Several different regularization techniques have been proposed; empirically the most successful are LASSO method, when we bound the sum of absolute values of the parameters, ridge regression method, when we bound the sum of the squares, and a EN method in which these two approaches are combined. In this …

How To Train A-To-B And B-To-A Neural Networks So That The Resulting Transformations Are (Almost) Exact Inverses, Paravee Maneejuk, Torben Peters, Claus Brenner, Vladik Kreinovich

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

In many practical situations, there exist several representations, each of which is convenient for some operations, and many data processing algorithms involve transforming back and forth between these representations. Many such transformations are computationally time-consuming when performed exactly. So, taking into account that input data is usually only 1-10% accurate anyway, it makes sense to replace time-consuming exact transformations with faster approximate ones. One of the natural ways to get a fast-computing approximation to a transformation is to train the corresponding neural network. The problem is that if we train A-to-B and B-to-A networks separately, the resulting approximate transformations are …

Lexicographic-Type Extension Of Min-Max Logic Is Not Uniquely Determined, Olga Kosheleva, Vladik Kreinovich

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

Since in a computer, "true" is usually represented as 1 and ``false'' as 0, it is natural to represent intermediate degrees of confidence by numbers intermediate between 0 and 1; this is one of the main ideas behind fuzzy logic -- a technique that has led to many useful applications. In many such applications, the degree of confidence in A & B is estimated as the minimum of the degrees of confidence corresponding to A and B, and the degree of confidence in A \/ B is estimated as the maximum; for example, 0.5 \/ 0.3 = 0.5. It is …

A Fully Lexicographic Extension Of Min Or Max Operation Cannot Be Associative, Olga Kosheleva, Vladik Kreinovich

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

In many applications of fuzzy logic, to estimate the degree of confidence in a statement A&B, we take the minimum min(a,b) of the expert's degrees of confidence in the two statements A and B. When a < b, then an increase in b does not change this estimate, while from the commonsense viewpoint, our degree of confidence in A&B should increase. To take this commonsense idea into account, Ildar Batyrshin and colleagues proposed to extend the original order in the interval [0,1] to a lexicographic order on a larger set. This idea works for expressions of the type A&B, so maybe we can extend it to more general expressions? In this paper, we show that such an extension, while theoretically possible, would violate another commonsense requirement -- associativity of the "and"-operation. A similar negative result is proven for lexicographic extensions of the maximum operation -- that estimates the expert's degree of confidence in a statement A\/B.

What Is The Optimal Annealing Schedule In Quantum Annealing, Oscar Galindo, Vladik Kreinovich

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

In many real-life situations in engineering (and in other disciplines), we need to solve an optimization problem: we want an optimal design, we want an optimal control, etc. One of the main problems in optimization is avoiding local maxima (or minima). One of the techniques that helps with solving this problem is annealing: whenever we find ourselves in a possibly local maximum, we jump out with some probability and continue search for the true optimum. A natural way to organize such a probabilistic perturbation of the deterministic optimization is to use quantum effects. It turns out that often, quantum annealing …

Physical Randomness Can Help In Computations, Olga Kosheleva, Vladik Kreinovich

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

Can we use some so-far-unused physical phenomena to compute something that usual computers cannot? Researchers have been proposing many schemes that may lead to such computations. These schemes use different physical phenomena ranging from quantum-related to gravity-related to using hypothetical time machines. In this paper, we show that, in principle, there is no need to look into state-of-the-art physics to develop such a scheme: computability beyond the usual computations naturally appears if we consider such a basic notion as randomness.

Evaluating Flow Features For Network Application Classification, Carlos Alcantara

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Communication networks provide the foundational services on which our modern economy depends. These services include data storage and transfer, video and voice telephony, gaming, multimedia streaming, remote invocation, and the world wide web. Communication networks are large-scale distributed systems composed of heterogeneous equipment. As a result of scale and heterogeneity, communication networks are cumbersome to manage (e.g., configure, assess performance, detect faults) by human operators. With the emergence of easily accessible network data and machine learning algorithms, there is a great opportunity to move network management towards increasing automation. Network management automation will allow for a reduced likelihood of human …

A Survey Of The Current State Of The Practice In Bridging The Gap Between Engineering Ontologies And Modeling Profiles For Engineering Applications, John Artus

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Model-Based Systems Engineering holds the promise of enhancing systems engineering tasks and product quality through better, more efficient exchange of data across tools, personnel, and departments, a higher quality of analysis resulting from greater access to cross-discipline data, better coordination between engineering activities and those of program management, and many other benefits. Yet, there is still no standardized method for achieving commonality of architecture vocabulary across projects, across, companies, across industries such that entities operating in the same domain produce products that speak the same technical language. Some specialized domains, such as the Department of Defense (DoD), have developed Architecture …

The Effect Of K2co3 Concentration In Kerosene Emulsions On Spray Droplet Sizes For A Magnetohydrodynamic Power Generator, Alejandra Castellano

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Potassium carbonate (K2CO3) is an effective seeding material to introduce potassium vapor in oxy-fuel combustion to create a conductive plasma. Injecting potassium carbonate before combustion promotes particle volatilization and improves the generation of potassium vapor. This can be achieved by emulsifying a potassium carbonate solution with kerosene. Several studies have investigated creating stable emulsions with kerosene with water by using differing surfactants. However, the effects of using varying concentrations of K2CO3 dissolved in deionized water have not been fully explored. Based on methods of creating successful emulsions, the development of a successful mixture comprised of kerosene and K2CO3 solution is …

Structural Analysis Of Deformed Caprock Associated With A Salt Shoulder At Gypsum Valley Salt Wall, Paradox Basin, Colorado, Hanah Draper

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This study documents the style and distribution of deformation present in Triassic-age gypsic and carbonate caprock associated with the Gypsum Valley Salt Wall Salt Shoulder in the Paradox Basin, Colorado in order to determine the mechanism and timing of deformation. Mapping of gypsic and carbonate capstone facies shows that the caprock layering that was generated during formation has been deformed by large-and-small-scale folding and faulting, brecciation, and boudinage. Deformation within the caprock resulted in widely variable orientations along the length of the salt shoulder, that also varies locally in intensity of deformation and with proximity to the passively rising diapir …

Extracting Mechanical Properties Of Compacted Geomaterials Using Intelligent Compaction Technology, Aria Fathi

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The primary tool currently used for quality management of earthwork and unbound aggregates is the nuclear density gauge (NDG) to ensure appropriate density and moisture content. Measurement of moisture content and dry density, even though quite practical and straightforward, does not directly tie the construction quality with the mechanistic-empirical design processes where stress and modulus are employed. With the recent popularity of the mechanistic pavement design procedures, research efforts have been undertaken to understand and develop procedures for implementing modulus-based quality control (QC) procedures of compacted geomaterials. These procedures involve the use of in-situ nondestructive testing (NDT) devices that estimate …

Machine Learning Analysis To Characterize Phase Variations In Laser Propagation Through Deep Turbulence, Luis Fernando Rodriguez Sanchez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The present Dissertation is focused on the analysis of the atmospheric conditions of a turbulent environmental system and its effects on the diffraction of a laser beam that moves through it. The study is based on the optical communication of two labs placed at the summit of two mountains located in Maui, Hawaii. The emitter system is located at the Mauna Loa mountain and the receiver at the Haleakala. The distance between both mountains is 150 km. The emitter system is at a height of 3.1 km and the receiver at 3.4 km. The maritime environment at the location experiences …

Development Of A Framework For The Calibration Of Rpas, A 3d Finite Element Analysis Tool For Rigid Pavements, Abbasali Taghavighalesari

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The accurate analysis of rigid pavements requires a reliable modeling procedure based on integrating mechanistic analysis methods (i.e. closed-form solutions or numerical methods) and empirical observations (i.e. field measurements and laboratory test results). The use of the finite element method to model the response of rigid pavements has increased in recent decades due to its capability to incorporate the complexity of material behavior, traffic information, and environmental condition. Researchers from the University of Texas at El Paso developed the software Rigid Pavement Analysis System (RPAS) to comprehensively analyze the response of concrete pavements under different geometric configurations, foundation models, temperature …

Photovoltage Enhancement For Stable Perovskite Solar Cells With A Temperature-Controlled Grain Growth Technique, Luis Eduardo Valerio

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

By performing strong characterizations methods, one can begin to fully understand the chemistry and composition behind a great performing perovskite solar cell. Understanding how the interaction between layers inside a solar cell is driven by the temperature and overall environment is a key element to improve the fabrication process and overall efficiency of such cells. This Thesis will present a study of the hybrid organic-inorganic, mixed-cation, mixed-halide, temperature and thickness-controlled perovskite solar cell. A constant power conversion efficiency (PCE) ranging between 15-17% and an open circuit voltage V¬oc above 1.05 V for a wide-band gap perovskite cell is presented.

A Probabilistic Creep Constitutive Model For Creep Deformation, Damage, And Rupture, Md Abir Hossain

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The structural analysis of Industrial Gas Turbine (IGT), Aeroengine, Gen IV nuclear components under in-service conditions at various stress and temperature are susceptible to time-dependent creep deformation and creep induced failure. Such failure phenomena are exacerbated by the randomness in material properties, oscillating loading conditions, and other sources of uncertainty. The demand for physically based probabilistic creep modeling is highly sought by alloy designers. The objective of this study is to develop and validate a probabilistic creep-damage model incorporating multi-sources of uncertainty to replace the traditional deterministic and empirical decision-based modeling. In this study, the deterministic Sine-hyperbolic (Sinh) creep-damage model …

Evaluation And Modeling Of Electrodialysis For High-Recovery Brackish Water Desalination, Shahrouz Jafarzade Ghadimi

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This research investigates the feasibility of desalination of brackish water with electrodialysis (ED), using laboratory testing and mathematical modeling. Several experiments were performed to characterize ion-specific transport and to evaluate tradeoffs between salinity removal and specific energy consumption. A 200 cm2 Ameridia ED stack was used to perform desalination experiments with real brackish groundwater from the Kay Bailey Hutchison desalination plant in El Paso, Texas, and the results showed limiting current density of 160 A/m2 for 5 cm/s. A higher conductivity reduction was observed for flow velocity of 5 cm/s compared to 13 cm/s. Ion transport selectivity (based on relative …

High Pressure High Heat Flux Pool Boiling Test Facility Design To Investigate Nucleation Boiling Heat Transfer Enhancement Using Micro/Nano-Scale Engineered Structures, Omar Hernandez Hernandez Rodriguez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Developing efficient heat dissipation technologies is of critical importance towards the development and the commercialization of next-generation compact and high-performance electronic devices, cooling systems, power generation systems and chemical processing units, as well as retrofitting the existing thermal management schemes. As such, phase change heat transfer systems, more specifically boiling heat transfer systems, have attracted significant attention due to their ability to extract a large amount of latent energy stored within the fluid. Pool boiling is an efficient mode of phase change heat transfer processes accompanied by nucleation of vapor bubbles from liquid on to the hot surfaces, bubble growth, …

Relating Surface Resistivity To Corrosion Of Rebar Embedded In Portland Cement Concrete, Luisa Alejandra Morales

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Reinforced concrete is widely used as a construction material known for its durability and proficiency of withstanding large forces in severe environments. Despite that the majority of these structures result in long-term performance, there is still a large number of failures of reinforced concrete structures as a result in corrosion of the reinforcement and concrete degradation. It is critical to assess the state of the corroded structure to decide on whether maintaining or replacing the structure is needed. The objective of this study is to characterize a relationship between the steel reinforcement corrosion and the concrete's resistivity. It is widely …

Development Of A Multi-Axis Wire Embedding Device For A Large Area Thermoplastic Pellet-Fed Additive Manufacturing System, Christopher Jasiel Minjares

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This research focused on the development and implementations of a six degrees of freedom (6DOF) articulated arm onto a Big Area Additive Manufacturing (BAAM) system to interact with complex 3D geometries. BAAM is a large-scale machine which falls under material extrusion additive manufacturing (AM) - a process that selectively dispenses molten plastic layer-by-layer. The development of the 6DOF articulated arm required a mechanical design which went through several iterations before getting to the final design. Also, implementation of the tool was performed with the help from Cincinnati Incorporated (CI) which is the company that developed the BAAM.

First, the mechanical …

Oxidation Of Niobium Silicides Obtained By Self-Propagating High-Temperature Synthesis, Frank Anthony Perez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Niobium silicide-based composites are promising materials for high-temperature structural applications, such as gas turbines. One attractive method for their fabrication is mechanically activated self-propagating high-temperature synThesis (MASHS). However, oxidation resistance of niobium silicides produced by MASHS has not been studied yet. In this present work, the oxidation of Nb/Nb5Si3 composites obtained by MASHS was investigated by using non-isothermal thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and differential scanning analysis (DSC). Both techniques have shown that the oxidation starts at about 500 °C and the materials become fully oxidized at 750 â?? 800 °C. Model-based analysis of the TGA data has shown that the Avrami-Erofeev …

Multi-Wavelength Pyrometry For Emissivity Mapping And Accurate Surface Temperature Measurement In Powder Bed Fusion Systems, Md Moinuddin Shuvo

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Accurate surface temperature measurement within powder bed fusion (PBF) systems during fabrication remains elusive for many reasons, despite the importance of knowing temperature for improving part quality, process control, repeatability and reproducibility, simulation capabilities, and more. Multi-wavelength (MW) pyrometry has been used previously to measure off-axis temperatures of a small region (~2.6mm in diameter) within an electron beam PBF (EBPBF) system. While this small region measurement makes it difficult to get a full field temperature map of the powder bed, it also allows for inline (on-axis) with laser temperature measurements for laser PBF (LPBF) systems. The MW pyrometry technique determines …

Brian Valdez - Dynamics And Control Of A 3-Dof Manipulator With Deep Learning Feedback, Brian Orlando Valdez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

With the ever-increasing demands in the space domain and accessibility to low-cost small satellite platforms for educational and scientific projects, efforts are being made in various technology capacities including robotics and artificial intelligence in microgravity. The MIRO Center for Space Exploration and Technology Research (cSETR) prepares the development of their second nanosatellite to launch to space and it is with that opportunity that a 3-DOF robotic arm is in development to be one of the payloads in the nanosatellite. Analyses, hardware implementation, and testing demonstrate a potential positive outcome from including the payload in the nanosatellite and a deep learning …

Early Detection Of Asthma Via Enhanced Resolution Of Small Airways Using Ultra-Low Frequency Impulse Oscillometry, Christopher M. Aguilar

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Examination of lung function for diagnosis and monitoring of diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and asthma can be performed with a variety of pulmonary function testing (PFT) techniques. The most commonly prescribed of these procedures are spirometry and whole-body plethysmography. However, these active participation tests depend on forced breathing maneuvers, may be physically exhausting, might not produce enough information, and are susceptible to being subject-dependent. In contrast, passive PFT approaches such as the forced oscillation technique (FOT) and the impulse oscillometry system (IOS) are increasingly being utilized for measuring lung mechanics because they require only minimal participation, …

Assessment Of Hydraulic And Structural Behavior Of Inundated Pavements, Mojtaba Asadi

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Severe flooding events have increasingly inundated the transportation infrastructure, including road networks, across the world and the Unites States. Such extreme events induce significant ingress of water into the pavement layers, which in turn leads to structural defects due to the reduction of the shear strength and resilient moduli of the soil layers, asphalt stripping in flexible pavements, pumping effect in rigid pavements, migration of fines into drainable layers, and swelling of expansive soils. Consequently, premature pavement failure may take place that can impose unforeseen maintenance/rehabilitation costs to highway agencies. Although some experimental research studies have been conducted to assess …

Low Weight Design Of A Pressure-Fed System For A Small Payload Launch Vehicle, Lucero Buendia

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) composites have become of great interests to aerospace industries because of their low-cost, lightweight and their tailorable mechanical properties. In aerospace structures, for example, heavy metals have been used in cryogenic fuel and oxidizer tanks for over 50 years. However, weight savings can be substantial if materials such as composites are used instead. From Delta IV heavy-lift launch vehicle it is known that cryogenic composite tanks can save approximately up to 30% of weight in fuel and oxidizer tanks. Although there is a wealth of studies in the mechanical behavior of composites at room temperature, …