Engineering Commons^™

Estimating Seasonal Crop Water Consumption In Irrigated Lands Using Soil Moisture And Reference Evapotranspiration, Oliver Henry Hargreaves

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The increase in population and the megadrought that the American west has been experiencing for the past two decades and for the foreseeable future are the cause of great stress on the region’s water resources. In an effort to mitigate the worst effects of water shortages many public and private agencies have been pursuing ways to reduce water use while maintaining the current status quo of living standards, industrial productivity, and agricultural yield. This project aims to study water use in irrigated lands dedicated to agriculture with the objective of quantifying crop water use, often referred to as evapotranspiration (ET), …

Effects Of Imu Sensor Location And Number On The Validity Of Vertical Acceleration Time-Series Data In Countermovement Jumping, Dianne Althouse

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Many devices are available for measuring the height of a CMJ. An inertial measurement unit (IMU) measures linear acceleration, orientation, and angular velocity. As an alternative to using IMU estimates of flight time, CMJ height could be estimated by integrating the IMU time-series signal for vertical acceleration to derive CMJ take-off velocity in order to track whole-body center of mass (WBCoM) movement, yet this approach would require valid IMU acceleration data. Thus, the purpose of this study was to quantify the effects of IMU sensor location and number on the validity of vertical acceleration estimation in CMJ. Thirty young adults …

Numerical Simulation Of Losses In Four-Way Pipe Junctions, Simon Barth

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

To design pipelines, engineers need to know how much energy the fluid in the pipe has at different locations in the pipe network. The energy the fluid has comes in the form of pressure, velocity, and elevation. As fluid travels through a pipe, it loses energy for many different reasons. Some of those reasons include friction between the fluid and the pipe wall, shear forces within the fluid, changes in flow direction, changes in elevation, or various pipe fittings like elbows, tee’s, valves, reducers, and expanders. Many of the causes of energy loss are well researched. One cause of energy …

Discovery Canada Films At Water Lab | College Of Engineering, Usu College Of Engineering

College of Engineering News

Production crews for Discovery Canada were at the Utah Water Research Lab on Wednesday producing an upcoming TV special about the Oroville Dam spillway model.

An Automatic Algorithm For Textured Digital Elevation Model Formation Using Aerial Texel Swaths, Taylor C. Bybee

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The process of creating a 3D terrain map of an area is a challenging, computationally intensive task. There are two main camps of established methods doing this, with varying degrees of accuracy and cost. Using the established methods, there is a trade-off between accuracy and cost. The first method involves using many aerial images to detect disparity between points in the images. This is a difficult task as it requires a lot of computer processing with varying degrees of reliability. In addition, this method does not make any direct distance measurements. Secondly, using high-precision and high-cost lasers and positioning equipment, …

Potential Effects Of Climate Change On Ecologically Relevant Streamflow Regimes, Sulochan Dhungel, David G. Tarboton, Jiming Jin, Charles P. Hawkins

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

We assessed the climate-driven changes in ecologically relevant flow regimes expected to occur by the year 2100 in streams across the conterminous United States. We used long-term daily flow measurements from 601 gauged streams whose watersheds were in relatively natural condition to characterize spatial variation in 16 flow regime variables selected for their ecological importance. Principal component analysis of these 16 variables produced five uncorrelated factors that described patterns of spatial covariation in flow regimes. These five factors were associated with low flow, magnitude, flashiness, timing, and constancy characteristics of the daily flow regime. We applied hierarchical clustering to the …

Convex Model-Based Synthetic Aperture Radar Processing, Chad P. Knight

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The use of radar often conjures up images of small blobs on a screen. But current synthetic aperture radar (SAR) systems are able to generate near-optical quality images with amazing benefits compared to optical sensors. These SAR sensors work in all weather conditions, day or night, and provide many advanced capabilities to detect and identify targets of interest.

These amazing abilities have made SAR sensors a work-horse in remote sensing, and military applications. SAR sensors are ranging instruments that operate in a 3D environment, but unfortunately the results and interpretation of SAR images have traditionally been done in 2D. Three-dimensional …

Development Of A Coupled Fluid And Colloidall Particle Transport Model, Scott Ripplinger

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

A colloidal system usually refers to when very small particles are suspended within a solution. The study of these systems encompasses a variety of cases including bacteria in ground water, blood cells and platelets in blood plasma, and river silt transport. Taking a look at these kinds of systems using computer simulation can provide a great deal of insight into how they work. Most approaches to date do not look at the details of the system, however, and are specific to given system. In this study a program called OpenFOAM is used as a basis to build a computer simulation …

Nutrient And Carbon-Dioxide Requirements For Large-Scale Microalgae Biofuel Production, Benjamin K. Shurtz

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Ever-increasing fuel prices and a limited supply of oil worldwide are threatening our economy and way of life in both the near and distant future. In order to reduce oil
dependence, the US Department of Energy (DOE) has established a goal that by the year 2030, 30% of the US transportation fuel will be renewable. The goal equates to
approximately 60 billion gallons per year of renewable fuel.

In an effort to reach the DOE renewable fuel goal, numerous types of plants are being studied, whose oil can be harvested and refined to serve as replacement fuel.
Among the various …

Live-Load Test And Finite-Element Model Analysis Of An Integral Abutment Concrete Girder Bridge, Robert W. Fausett

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

As part of the Long Term Bridge Performance (LTBP) Program, a single-span, prestressed, integral abutment concrete girder pilot bridge near Perry, Utah was instrumented with different sensors at various locations onto the bridge for long-term monitoring and periodic testing. One of the periodic tests conducted on this bridge was a live-load test. The live-load test included driving trucks across the bridge, as well as parking trucks along different lanes of the bridge, and measuring the deflection and strain. The data collected from these tests was used to create and calibrate a computer model of the bridge. The model was afforded …

Predictive Mathematical Model For Polyhydroxybutyrate Synthesis In Escherichia Coli, Angela Dixon

Engineering Datasets

Polyhydroxybutyrate has been studied as a potential biodegradable replacement for petrochemical plastics. Polyhydroxybutyrate synthesis is not native to Escherichia coli, but the genes have successfully been inserted through plasmids. However, polyhydroxybutyrate production needs to be more cost-effective before it can be commercially produced. A mathematical model for polyhydroxybutyrate synthesis was developed to identify genes that could be altered to increase polyhydroxybutyrate production. The major metabolic pathways included in the model were glycolysis, acetyl coenzyme-A synthesis, tricarboxylic acid cycle, glyoxylate bypass, and polyhydroxybutyrate synthesis. Reactions were modeled using kinetic mechanisms identified for each enzyme. The transcriptional network was incorporated into the …

Optimization Model For National Water Master Planning: Design And Documentation, Richard C. Peralta

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

Physical distribution system and Balancing and Allocation and Transfer modules descriptors.

Modification Of Flow Model And Optimal Pumping Strategies For Capturing Tce And Dce Plumes Near Mission Drive, Wurtsmith Air Force Base, Michigan: Feasibility Study, Alaa H. Aly, Richard C. Peralta

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

Utah State University (USU) and Parsons Engineering Science (PES) were tasked by the Air Force Center for Environmental Excellence to:

( 1) Modify the three-dimensional basewide ground-water flow model for Wurtsmith Air Force Base (WAFS), Michigan (PES, 1997) based on recent investigation by ICF Kaiser (ICF).

(2) Develop contaminant transport models for OT-24 area TCE and DCE plumes. These models will use the same parameters that were used by ICF in their feasibility study ..

(3) Use the flow and transport models to develop optimal pumping strategies to achieve cleanup and capture of the plumes

A Nonparametric Wet/Dry Spell Model For Resampling Daily Precipitation, Upmanu L. Lall, Balaji Rajagopalan, David G. Tarboton

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

A nonparametric wet/dry spell model is developed for resampling daily precipitation at a site. The model considers alternating sequences of wet and dry days in a given season of the year. All marginal, joint, and conditional probability densities of interest (e.g., dry spell length, wet spell length, precipitation amount, and wet spell length given prior to dry spell length) are estimated nonparametrically using at-site data and kernel probability density estimators. Procedures for the disaggregation of wet spell precipitation into daily precipitation and for the generation of synthetic sequences are proffered. An application of the model for generating synthetic precipitation traces …

Laboratory Growth Systems In Biofilm Research, Julian W. T. Wimpenny

Cells and Materials

The huge variety of ecosystems that we collectively refer to as "biofilm" is reflected by the numerous different systems available to grow them in the laboratory. The relationship between in situ systems, microcosms and laboratory models is defined and discussed. The first two represent holistic approaches designed to assess the structure and function of particular biofilms: the last is analytical and reductionist, aiming to isolate specific functions of biofilms in order to understand properties that can apply to biofilm in general. Properties of a model can be completely understood whilst this is unlikely with natural ecosystems because of the possibility …

Introducing Uncertainty Of Aquifer Parameters Into An Optimization Model, Robert L. Ward, Richard C. Peralta

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

A stochastic analysis is made for a previously described groundwater contaminant management model {Peralta and Ward, 1988). The stochastic model is based on incorporating uncertainty of the aquifer parameters transmissivity and effective porosity into the model. This is accomplished by finding the partial derivative of drawdown with respect to each of these parameters using a Taylor series expansion approximation of the Theis equation. Input that is required for the stochastic version is the mean of the transmissivity and effective porosity, the coefficient of variation of the transmissivity and effective porosity, and a reliability level (0%-100%) . The reliability is a …

Review Of Planning Distribution Model (Pdm) Status And Application Possibilities For The Egyptian Irigation System, Robert W. Hill, Richard C. Peralta, Gary P. Merkley

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

The comprehensive water management Planning Distribution Model, or PDM, was developed by the Biological and Irrigation Engineering Department, Utah State University (USU), under contract with the United States Bureau of Reclamation (USBR). Most of the work was carried out in the Planning Sector, Ministry of Public Works and Water Resources (MPWWR) , in Cairo, under the Planning Studies and Models Component of the USAID funded Irrigation Management Systems Project.

Pluman, Decision Support System For Groundwater Contaminant Plume Simulation/Optimization Management Model, Herminio H. Suguino, Richard C. Peralta

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Vilma (Virtually Interactive Large Scale Model For Arkansas), Rosalinda R.A. Cantiller, Richard C. Peralta

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

This user’s guide supports the use of VILMA (Virtually Interactive Large-scale Model for Arkansas). This document presents the basic concepts in Chapter I. Chapter II discusses the execution steps that the user follows during a VILMA session. Chapter III provides a detailed illustration of example data files. Chapter IV presents two example VILMA sessions. Finally, Chapter V elaborates on additional concepts. The Appendices consist of relevant program listings, instructions, and example files. In this user’s guide, the word "interactive" means the user enters his responses to the prompts that appear on a computer terminal while he is logged on to …

A Thermal Energy Storage Tank Model For Solar Heating, Robert Arthur Pate

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The results of a combined theoretical and experimental study of the kinetics of a hot-liquid energy-storage tank are presented. A physical model is developed which accurately describes the thermal stratification behavior in a storage tank. The governing differential equations are developed for the physical model. A numerical solution to the system of equations is presented. Some existing models were examined and the predicted results of each are discussed. The concepts developed can be used to predict the thermal stratification behavior in a storage tank under most conceivable operating conditions. These conditions include flow configurations at the top and the bottom …