Engineering Commons^™

Oxider To Fuel Ratio Shift Compensation Via Vortex Strength Control In Hybrid Rocket Motors, Max W. Francom

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Hybrid motors have existed as a hypothetical propulsion system for decades in a wide range of upper stage rocket motors due to their simple, robust, non-toxic, and versatile nature. However, inherent to hybrids is Oxidizer to Fuel ratio (O/F) shift over time, which results in performance losses for the majority of the rocket’s lifetime. The purpose of this study is to develop a hybrid rocket motor capable of manipulating O/F at will, resulting in an engine which eliminates the undesirable effects of O/F shift. By developing and refining a numerical simulation, a novel injector system, and an open-loop control scheme, …

Safety Analysis In Ap-1000 Nuclear Power Plant Against Primary Loop Coolant Pump And Fuel Failures, Fabiano Gibson Daud Thulu, Hailemichael Guadie Mengsitu, Chifundo Tenthani, Paul Stone Macheso

International Journal of Nuclear Security

This study focused on the best-estimated thermal-hydraulic calculations performed regarding the AP-1000 nuclear power plant (NPP) under primary coolant loop pump and fuel failures. Primary coolant pump and fuel failure transients are important design-basis accidents in NPP safety assessments. This work examined the primary reactor’s safety margins of fuel and cladding peak temperature, primary and secondary loop pressure, hydrogen formation, and primary and secondary flow rates. The Adaptive System Thermal-Hydraulics program was used in the simulation and event progression analysis. The results showed that the peak fuel surface temperature was kept below the licensing design limit. No observation of corium …

Uncertainty Quantification And Constraint Of Chemical Kinetic Mechanisms Based On Flow Reactor Experiments, Ana Victoria Kock

Theses and Dissertations

The chemical kinetic model is one of key sub-models for computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation for optimizing and designing various combustors/engines. Detailed chemical kinetic models can consist of hundreds of species and thousands of elementary reaction steps. Considering the complexity in these detailed chemical kinetic models, it is important to quantify and minimize the uncertainties in the kinetic parameters. The uncertainties in the kinetic models can then be compared to uncertainties tied to experimental measurements. This approach has been frequently applied for relatively simple combustion parameters (e.g., laminar flame speed, ignition delay time), however it has not been well utilized …

Comparative Analysis Of Injection Of Pyrolysis Oil From Plastics And Gasoline Into The Engine Cylinder And Atomization By A Direct High-Pressure Injector, Magdalena Szwaja, Jeffrey Naber, David Shonnard, Daniel G. Kulas, Ali Zolghadr, Stanislaw Szwaja

Michigan Tech Publications

The article discusses the results of experimental studies on the course of pyrolysis oil injection through the high-pressure injector of a direct-injection engine. The pyrolysis oil used for the tests was derived from waste plastics (mainly high-density polyethylene—HDPE). This oil was then distilled. The article also describes the production technology of this pyrolysis oil on a laboratory scale. It presents the results of the chemical composition of the raw pyrolysis oil and the oil after the distillation process using GC-MS analysis. Fuel injection tests were carried out for the distilled pyrolysis oil and a 91 RON gasoline in order to …

Study Of Methods For Developing Waste Lubricant Recovery, Sh T. Poyonov, S M. Turabdjanov

Technical science and innovation

The article provides analytical information on the study of methods of treatment of used engine oils. The issues of ecological safety of storage, processing and use of automobile waste are considered. The problems of ecological safety of application of lubricants are inseparable from utilization of OWS, which are currently one of the most common man-caused waste that negatively affects all objects of environment - atmosphere, soil and water. It has been shown that water pollution by waste oil accounts for 20% of total techno-genic pollution, or 60% of petroleum product pollution. The study determined that obtaining oils with characteristics superior …

Design Of A Constant Volume Combustion Chamber, John Bono, Collin Gould, Scott Eaton

Thinking Matters Symposium

This project designs a high-temperature, high-pressure fuel injection chamber for the visualization of diesel fuel injection spray patterns. The study and characterization of diesel fuel spray is important for the development of new engine designs and adoption of alternative fuels. In addition, the chamber can be used to support teaching research projects at the University of Southern Maine. A 3-D SolidWorks model is developed to meet visual accessibility and operating temperature and pressure requirements. Three experimental imaging techniques will be compared, with an emphasis on schlieren photography and videography. Data acquisition and controls systems will be developed including digital imaging …

Preferential Vaporization Potential Of Crude Oils And Its Impact On Flame Flashback Behaviors, Ayuob Al Wahaibi

Theses and Dissertations

As combined cycle gas turbines for power generation operating on light distillate fuels provide a sufficient energy, there is a global trend in using heavy liquids (e.g. HFO, crude oils) for direct-firing in gas turbine. However, using these heavy fuels imposes many challenges due to their wide range of physical/chemical properties, which control near-limit combustion behaviors, such lean blow-out and flashback. In addition, the ignition propensity of these heavy fuels is not reported in crude assays, and utilizing a simple, with small sample, and quick methodology to characterize the ignition propensity is important in determining the fuel quality.

In this …

Utilization Of Household Waste-Based Solid Fuel, Shokhrukh Toshpo'latovich Khojiev, Bakhriddin Tilovkabulovich Berdiyarov Phd, Nodir Abdusamikovich Kadirov Phd, Bobur Mirsaid O'G'Li Obido, Mehmet Deniz Turan Phd

Technical science and innovation

Waste, garbage is a mixture of substances, objects and their parts that have lost their consumer properties in the process use and intended for disposal. The purpose of the article is note the main current concepts of the distribution and plastic waste disposal problem and propose its promising solutions. In Uzbekistan, the number of solid utilities waste is 63 million tons per year (about 450 kg per person), up to 25 % of them can be plastic. Plastics are organic materials based on synthetic or natural polymers consisting of monomer units, combined into long macromolecules. The most common plastics are …

Transforming Corn Stover To Useful Transport Fuel Blends In Resource-Limited Settings, Nicholas Munu, Noble Banadda, Nicholas Kiggundu, Ahamada Zziwa, Isa Kabenge, Jeffrey Seay, Robert Kambugu, Joshua Wanyama, Albrecht Schmidt

Chemical and Materials Engineering Faculty Publications

Development of local technologies is crucial to the sustainable energy agenda in resource-limited countries and the world. Strengthening local green technologies and promoting local utilization will reduce carbon emissions that could be generated during transportation and delivery of green products from one country to another. In this paper we developed bio-oil/diesel blends using a low-tech pyrolysis system designed for smallholder farmers in developing countries and tested their appropriateness for diesel engines using standard ASTM methods. Corn stover retrieved from smallholder farmers in Gayaza, Uganda were pyrolyzed in a batch rocket stove reactor at 350 °C and liquid bio-oil harvested. Bio-oil …

Thermodynamic Potential Of Very High Performance Fuel Cells, Kimberly Liang

Honors Scholar Theses

Fuel Cells are devices that use the chemical energy of a fuel (e.g. hydrogen) to electrochemically produce electricity. Similar to a conventual combustion engine, a fuel cell will continue to run and generate electricity as long as fuel is supplied. However, unlike a conventional combustion engine, fuel cells have a much higher theoretical efficiency and do not directly emit harmful air pollutants. This project will focus on a fuel cell that uses hydrogen as fuel and oxygen as an oxidizing agent.

As fuel cell technology evolved, high pressure fuel cell systems became of interest in portable applications, such as submarine …

Optimization Of Airfield Parking And Fuel Asset Dispersal To Maximize Survivability And Mission Capability Level, Ryley R. H. Paquette

Theses and Dissertations

While the US focus for the majority of the past two decades has been on combatting insurgency and promoting stability in Southwest Asia, strategic focus is beginning to shift toward concerns of conflict with a near-peer state. Such conflict brings with it the risk of ballistic missile attack on air bases. With 26 conflicts worldwide in the past 100 years including attacks on air bases, new doctrine and modeling capacity are needed to enable the Department of Defense to continue use of vulnerable bases during conflict involving ballistic missiles. Several models have been developed to date for Air Force strategic …

Catalysts For Polymer Membrane Fuel Cells, William E. Mustain, Bryan Pivovar

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

On The Fuel Spray Applications Of Multi-Phase Eulerian Cfd Techniques, Gabriel Lev Jacobsohn

Masters Theses

Eulerian-Eulerian Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) techniques continue to show promise for characterizing the internal flow and near-field spray for various fuel injection systems. These regions are difficult to observe experimentally, and simulations of such regions are limited by computational expense or reliance on empiricism using other methods. The physics governing spray atomization are first introduced. Impinging jet sprays and Gasoline Direct Injection (GDI) are selected as applications, and modern computational/experimental approaches to their study are reviewed. Two in-house CFD solvers are described and subsequently applied in several case studies. Accurate prediction of the liquid distribution in a like-doublet impinging jet …

Characterization And Drying Of Oxyhydroxides On Aluminum Clad Spent Nuclear Fuel, Matthew Shalloo

Theses and Dissertations

Research reactors such as the Advanced Test Reactor (ATR) and the High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR) employ aluminum-clad fuel elements made up of many thin plates with uranium dispersed within. In most engineering applications, aluminum is considered to have favorable corrosion characteristics. It forms a thin oxide layer [Al2O3] under atmospheric conditions that is impenetrable to oxygen thus stopping any further corrosion. However, both aluminum metal and Al2O3 react with water to form hydrous oxides which are less protective against further corrosion and form significantly thicker layers than oxidation in dry air. As a result, aluminum-clad spent nuclear fuel (ASNF) …

Our Energy Future, Fall/Winter 2007, Issue 15

Sustain Magazine

No abstract provided.

Biomethane Production From Distillery Wastewater, Zachary Christman

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Distillery wastewater treatment is a great ecological problem, for example, India produces 2.7 billion liters of alcohol that results in 40 billion liters of wastewater. However, this material can be seen as a resource since 11 million cubic meters of biogas at 60% methane could be produced in addition to cleaning the water. The distillery has two options of what to do with the biogas. The first is to use the biogas to fuel the distillery making the production plant more energy efficient and removing some of the need to buy natural gas. The other is to upgrade the biogas …

Improving The Distribution And Use Of Biogas By Conversion To Methanol, Zachary Christman

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

In this technology review, the process of turning an average biogas into methanol will be presented. The purpose is to find a better method of transporting the energy contained within biogas so that it may be used in industry as a value added product. The first step is removal of hydrogen sulfide, a corrosive chemical that can breakdown mechanical parts. The second step is carbon capture and conversion of the biogas into hydrogen. The final step is the hydrogenation of carbon dioxide into methanol using a copper catalyst and an alcohol co-catalyst.

Pyrolysis Of Plastic Waste From Medical Services Facilities Into Potential Fuel And/Or Fuel Additives, Bright Kweku Ansah Baiden

Masters Theses

Limited space and high costs for landfilling as well as increasing regulations in plastic waste disposal, has led to high operating costs for organizations involved in managing plastic waste from medical facilities which led to the need to investigate an alternative option such as pyrolysis. The overall goal of this study was to evaluate pyrolysis as a means to repurpose plastic waste obtained from medical service facilities into fuel and fuel additive compounds, with two objectives involving, (1) to examine the effect of heat input (as voltage) and reaction/residence time; and (2) to evaluate the effect of the plastic waste …

Promoter Effects On Iron-Based, Sba-15 Supported Ultra-High Temperature Fischer- Tropsch Catalysts, David P. Weber

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Promoter effects on SBA-15 supported iron Fischer-Tropsch catalysts were investigated for their potential to improve high temperature catalyst performance. FTS catalysts promoted by manganese (0.15%-1.4%), copper (0.15%-1%), and potassium (0.5%-3%), with all percentages stated on the basis of mass percentage of final catalysts, were prepared and tested at 430°C and ambient pressure in a fixed bed reactor. Manganese showed the ability to promote the FT reaction, increasing both the CO conversion and the average chain length of hydrocarbon products. Compared to the unpromoted catalyst composed only of iron supported on SBA-15, 1.4%Mn (mass) promotion of 15% (mass) iron on SBA-15 …

Innovative Fuel Design To Improve Proliferation Management, Taylor C. Britt

Theses and Dissertations

This research uses an existing innovative fuel design (IFD) that has intrinsic safety features and enhanced economics over the current uranium dioxide (UO₂) light water fuel design and evaluates promising methods to improve the waste management and proliferation resistance of the IFD by doping the fresh fuel with select actinides.The most robust approach for proliferation resistance is to denature these materials by adding a uranium or plutonium isotope that hampers the usability of the materials in weapons. The proposed modifications to the IFD use this approach through elevated fractions of ²³⁸Pu. ²³⁸Pu generates large quantities of …

Comparison Of Intrusive And Non-Intrusive Methods For Corrosion Monitoring Of Fuel Processing Systems, Armando Jacob Espinoza, Thomas Conner Field

Materials Engineering

This presentation contains an assessment of the best overall corrosion monitoring device, intrusive or non-intrusive, for use in the petrochemical industry. Corrosion in the petrochemical industry is a large issue because it causes a deterioration of pipe integrity in fuel processing systems. A reduction of pipe wall integrity due to corrosion could result in a leak or an explosion of fuel processing lines since those systems function at high pressures. The use of corrosion monitoring systems in the petrochemical industry helps to detect early signs of corrosion prior to failure so that proper maintenance can be performed to prevent catastrophe. …

Assessing Fuel Burn Inefficiencies In Oceanic Airspace, Stephen Builta

Open Access Theses

Increasing the efficiency of aircraft operations offers a shorter term solution to decreasing aircraft fuel burn than fleet replacement. By estimating the current airspace inefficiency, we can get an idea of the upper limit of savings. Oceanic airspace presents a unique opportunity for savings due to increased separation differences vs. overland flight.

We assess fuel burn inefficiency by comparing estimated fuel burn for real world flights with the estimated optimal fuel burn. For computing fuel burn, we use the Base of Aircraft Data (BADA) with corrections based on research by Yoder (2005). Our fuel burn results show general agreement with …

Fuel Type Estimation Using Fuel System Parameters, Shambhavi Balasubramanian

Open Access Theses

A number of factors are responsible for an increased interest in alternative fuels for transportation and other uses. Among the most widely available alternative fuels are biodiesel and vegetable oil, both of which can be used to power a diesel engine. Biodiesel has higher density, viscosity, surface tension, sound velocity, and bulk modulus of elasticity than regular diesel fuel. This affects the fuelling, injection timing, and fuel spray and consequently the emission characteristics.

Estimation of fuel type is critical to the performance of the engine. Knowing the fuel type allows the engine controller to determine the proper fuel quantity and …

Intercode Advanced Fuels And Cladding Comparison Using Bison, Frapcon, And Femaxi Fuel Performance Codes, Aaren Rice

Theses and Dissertations

The high density uranium-based fuels are regaining popularity as the current fleet of LWR’s are showing interest in uprating plants to increase accident tolerance and performance. Fuels such as U3Si2, UN, and UC all contain a higher uranium loading and thermal conductivity than that of UO2 making them attractive in combination with an advanced cladding type such as the ceramic SiC cladding. In addition to adding more mass uranium to the core without surpassing current enrichment limits, these advanced fuels and claddings are designed with increased accident tolerance performance in a LOCA type scenario in mind. One of the possible …

Fuel Consumption Models For Tractors With Partial Drawbar Loads, Bryan Jeffrey Smith

Department of Biological Systems Engineering: Dissertations and Theses

Three models for predicting fuel consumption for agricultural tractors with partial drawbar loads were compared. Data were collected from eight John Deere tractors, JD 7230R (e23), 7250R (e23), 7270R (e23), 7290R (e23), 7290R (IVT), 8320R (16 speed), 8345RT (IVT), 8370R (IVT). The tractors were tested with 7 load levels per speed at four different travel speeds as close as possible to 4, 7.5, 10, and 13 km·h^-1. The IVT tractors were operated in Auto mode and the geared tractors were shifted up three gears and throttled back to the same travel speeds as the IVT tractors. The 7 …

Hot Surface Ignition, Yerbatyr Tursyn, Vikrant Goyal, Alicia Benhidjeb-Carayon, Richard Simmons, Scott Meyer, Jay P. Gore

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Undesirable hot surface ignition of flammable liquids is one of the hazards in ground and air transportation vehicles, which primarily occurs in the engine compartment. In order to evaluate the safety and sustainability of candidate replacement fuels with respect to hot surface ignition, a baseline low lead fuel (Avgas 100 LL) and four experimental unleaded aviation fuels recommended for reciprocating aviation engines were considered. In addition, hot surface ignition properties of the gas turbine fuels Jet-A, JP-8, and JP-5 were measured. A test apparatus capable of providing reproducible data was designed and fabricated to experimentally investigate the hot surface ignition …

Sample Size Effect On Combustion Analysis, Osueke C. O, Uguru Okorie Daniel, Aondoyila Kuhe

Innovative Research Publications IRP India

Engine parameters vary from one cycle to the other and this makes engine analysis with data from a single working cycle insufficient in capturing or modelling an engine behaviour. The variation observed in engine has necessitated the use sample sizes of data obtained during an engine operation to obtain results that are representative of the engine being investigated. Research has shown that the use of very large data sample size increases the storage needed and processing time and does not necessary give better results over results obtained with lesser sample sizes. The number of sample size to use for analysis …

Analytical Report On Consumer Gasoline Choices, Michael Stanley

Michael A Stanley

Most gas in the United States comes from the same few refineries, where different brands of gasoline are created as they are pumped into the fuel tankers, as opposed to individual retail facilities. Dr. Edward Murphy of the American Petroleum Institute explains that “base gas is a freely traded commodity that must meet certain government specifications. It flows through common pipelines into commingled storage tanks” (Blumberg). Although brands of gasoline have major differences, those differences are not due to origin or refining process, since they are processed from crude oil into gasoline together. The difference in the brands comes late …

Fossil-Fuel-Fired Power Plant, Kunlei Liu, James K. Neathery

Center for Applied Energy Research Faculty Patents

A power plant includes a boiler, a stream turbine generator, a post combustion processing system, a feed water regeneration processing system and a heat exchanger. Heat from the heat exchanger is used to regenerate (a) a reagent that absorbs carbon dioxide from flue gas and (b) a water-lean desiccant used to increase plant operating efficiency.

High Regression Rate Hybrid Rocket Fuel Grains With Helical Port Structures, Sean D. Walker

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Hybrid Rockets are popular in the aerospace industry due to their storage safety, simplicity, and controllability during rocket motor burn. However, they produce fuel regression rates typically 25% lower than solid fuel motors of the same thrust level. These lowered regression rates produce unacceptably high oxidizer-to-fuel (O/F) ratios that produce a potential for motor instability, nozzle erosion, and reduced motor duty cycles. To achieve O/F ratios that produce acceptable combustion charactersitics, traditional cylindrical fuel ports are fabricated with very long length-to-diameter ratios to increase the total burning area. these high aspect ratios produce further reduced fuel regression rate and trust …