A Bridge And Engine Room Staffing And Scheduling Model For Robust Mission Accomplishment In The Littoral Combat Ships, John P. Cordle

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Projects for D. Eng. Degree

The Navy’s Littoral Combat Ships were designed to be relatively small surface vessels for operations near a littoral shore theater. These ships were envisioned to be highly automated, networked, agile, stealthy surface combatants capable of defeating anti-access and asymmetric threats in the littorals with minimum manpower. To date, however, some of these ships have experienced significant engineering and propulsion plant failures that impacted mission accomplishment and were attributable, at least in part, to under staffing and over scheduling the human component of the automation-human operational environment. The critical human components on the Littoral Combat Ship are bridge and engine room …

Network Equivalents Applied To Transient Analysis Of Large Distribution Systems, Ghassan Abdul-Hussein Bilal

Dissertations

Frequency domain (FD) methods for electromagnetic transient analysis of electric power systems offer outstanding simplicity and accuracy when dealing with distributed parameter elements and components that exhibit frequency-dependent behavior. However, the use of FD methods is usually restricted to the simulation of small and simple networks, since it is commonly believed that their application implies a very large computational burden when compared to time domain methods. This study demonstrates that FD methods can accommodate the detailed simulation of large distribution networks within acceptable computer times and in a very straightforward manner, thus offering an attractive complement or alternative to common …

Resource Estimation And Simulation At West Butte In The Mcdonald Gold Deposit Near Lincoln, Montana, Jonathan Szarkowski

Graduate Theses & Non-Theses

The McDonald gold deposit is located in Lewis and Clark County near Lincoln, Montana and is divided into two regions: East Butte and West Butte. Approximately 90% of gold mineralization at McDonald is hosted by quartz-adularia-altered lithic tuff. Low-grade, stratabound, disseminated mineralization within permeable volcanic tuff is the dominant style of mineralization at McDonald. Higher-grade mineralization at West Butte is interpreted to be controlled by subvertical, intersecting vein systems that occur along the 9800’ E-W fault. Preliminary gold estimates at West Butte indicated the possibility of a 500 koz gold orebody at an average grade of 7.2 grams per ton …

Wall Control Blasting At The Orphan Boy Mine – Butte, Montana, Jewel Sakyi

Graduate Theses & Non-Theses

Blasting is often conducted to produce desirable fragment sizes to minimize production cost and energy consumption in downstream processes, including loading, hauling, and crushing. However, the venting of explosive energy in the rock formation sometimes causes unwanted damage beyond the desired perimeter of the blast area. Control blasting has mainly been used in surface mining operations to minimalize blast damage. To explore the applicability of control blasting in underground mining operations, protect the safety of students, faculty, and staff, prevent overbreak, and to ensure the stability of openings and workings, four experimental control blasts, comprising of three smooth blasts and …

Horizontal Flow Loop Design For The Study Of Drill String Rotation Effects On Cuttings Transport, David C. Rathgeber

Graduate Theses & Non-Theses

Exploration and Production companies are continually focusing more time, energy and resources into Extended Reach Drilling in order to maximize reservoir production while minimizing both environmental impact and development costs. These long laterals (2:1 Measured Depth: True Vertical Depth) are often more difficult to drill and can be severely impacted by inadequate drilling practices. Cuttings transport efficiency is a critical parameter of Extended Reach Drilling operations, and poor wellbore cleaning can lead to excessive torque, drag, and several other serious downhole problems.

Although many studies have been performed that identify the importance of drill string rotation on cuttings movement, there …

Dynamic Mechanical Response Of Additively Manufactured 316l And Alsi10mg, Kristofer Kuelper

Graduate Theses & Non-Theses

Additive manufacturing (AM), or 3D printing, is a layer by layer method for the fabrication of end use parts. Its utilization in the production of metallic materials, while relatively new, is promising as an alternative technique to build custom or small batch parts with much greater agility than traditional manufacturing methods. The laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) AM technique offers a combination of high geometric accuracy and good mechanical properties for a variety of materials even without post-processing. It can do this by adjusting a number of processing parameters including the intensity of the laser and the thickness of the …

Investigation Of Multiple Torch Paw-Based Additive Manufacturing, Nathan Huft

Graduate Theses & Non-Theses

PAW Print 3D (PP3D), a wire and arc additive manufacturing (AM) system was developed. PP3D comprises three plasma arc welding torches arranged radially around a central wire feed. Using three torches was hypothesized to eliminate sensitivity to travel direction. Two deposition modes were developed – continuous, which deposited continuous beads, and dabber, which deposited discreet “dabs” of material. Dabber was hypothesized to provide favorable solidification conditions that would refine the as-deposited grain structure. Three sets of process parameters for each deposition mode were developed. Ineffective workpiece melting was observed and investigated during process development. Using COMSOL Multiphysics software and experimental …

Mechanism For Disodium Carboxymethyl Trithiocarbonate (Orfom® D8) Depression In Chalcopyrite-Molybdenite Flotation Systems, Simon Timbillah

Graduate Theses & Non-Theses

The chalcopyrite-molybdenite (Cu-Mo) flotation industry is increasingly turning to organic depressants as suitable replacements for inorganic reagents such as NaHS due to environmental and safety concerns as well as high consumption rates of the inorganic reagents. An opportunity arises for improving, designing and synthesizing new alternative reagents. Disodium Carboxymethyl Trithiocarbonate (Orfom^® D8) depressant is an organic depressant with a carboxylate group on one end and a trithiocarbonate group at the other end. Fundamental results are shown regarding the interaction of the Orfom^® D8 depressant in the bulk flotation of a Cu-Mo concentrate from an operating North American mine. …

System Architecting Approach For Designing Deep Learning Models, Ram Deepak Gottapu, Cihan H. Dagli

Engineering Management and Systems Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Deep Learning (DL) models have proven to be very effective in solving many challenging problems, especially, those related to computer vision, text, and speech. However, the design of such models is challenging because of the vast search space and computational complexity that needs to be explored. Our goal in this paper is to reduce the human effort required to design architectures by using a system architecture development process that allows the exploration of large design space by automating certain model construction, alternative generation, and assessment. The proposed framework is generic and targeted at all deep learning architectures that can be …

Solar Concentrators Manufacture And Automation, Ernst Kussul, Tetyana Baydyk, Alberto Escalante Estrada, Maria Tersa Rodriguez Gonzalez, Donald C. Wunsch

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Solar energy is one of the most promising types of renewable energy. Flat facet solar concentrators were proposed to decrease the cost of materials needed for production. They used small flat mirrors for approximation of parabolic dish surface. The first prototype of flat facet solar concentrators was made in Australia in 1982. Later various prototypes of flat facet solar concentrators were proposed. It was shown that the cost of materials for these prototypes is much lower than the material cost of conventional parabolic dish solar concentrators. To obtain the overall low cost of flat facet concentrators it is necessary to …

Hydration Of Binary Portland Cement Blends Containing Silica Fume: A Decoupling Method To Estimate Degrees Of Hydration And Pozzolanic Reaction, Wenyu Liao, Xiao Sun, Aditya Kumar, Hongfang Sun, Hongyan Ma

Materials Science and Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Determination of degrees of hydration/reaction of components of blended cementitious systems (i. e., cement and SCMs: supplementary cementitious materials) is essential to estimate the systems' properties. Although the best methods for determining degrees of reaction of different SCMs have been recommended by RILEM TC238, they rely on either expensive equipment (e.g., nuclear magnetic resonance) or time-consuming sample preparation and data processing (e.g., backscattered electron image analysis). Furthermore, these methods cannot simultaneously characterize degree of hydration of cement and degree of reaction of SCMs. A novel decoupling method, which can simultaneously estimate the degree of hydration of cement and the degree …

Geometric Effects Of Open Hollow Hydroxyapatite Microspheres Influence Bone Repair And Regeneration In Sprague Dawley Rats, Youqu Shen, M. N. Rahaman, Yongxian Liu, Yue-Wern Huang

Materials Science and Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Effective regeneration of bone defects caused by trauma or chronic diseases is a significant clinical challenge. Bone deficiency is overcome using treatments that rely on bone regeneration and augmentation. While various treatments have been investigated with encouraging results, complete and predictable bone reconstruction is often difficult [1]. Synthetic bone grafts have advantages such as consistent quality, safety, and good tissue tolerance. They usually function as inert or osteoconductive implants. Encouraging results from synthetic grafts have been reported. For instance, hollow hydroxyapatite (HA) microspheres showed the ability to facilitate bone repair in rats with non-healing calvarial defects [2,3]. However, new bone …

Characterization Of Mgal₂O₄ Sintered Ceramics, Nina Obradovic, William Fahrenholtz, Suzana Filipovic, Cole Corlett, Pavle Dordevic, Jelena Rogan, Predrag J. Vulic, Vladimir Buljak, Vladimir Pavlovic

Materials Science and Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Single phase MgAl₂O₄ was made from a one-to-one molar ratio of MgO and Al₂O₃ powders mixed using ball-milling. Mixtures of MgO and Al₂O₃ were subsequently treated in planetary ball mill for 30, 60, 90 and 120 minutes in air. The aim of this study was to examine phase composition, microstructure, and densification behavior of sintered specimens. After sintering in dilatometer at 1500 °C, the powder was converted to single phase MgAl₂O₄. The results show that mechanical activation improved the densification behavior of MgAl₂O₄ sintered …

Manipulating Transverse Photovoltage Across Plasmonic Triangle Holes Of Symmetry Breaking, Marjan Akbari, Jie Gao, Xiaodong Yang

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The transverse photo-induced voltages generated by the photon drag effect under normally and obliquely incident circularly polarized light across the plasmonic symmetry-breaking isosceles-triangle holes and right-triangle holes have been characterized. It is observed that the sign of transverse photovoltage flips when the incident circular polarization is switched for both types of plasmonic triangle holes. However, the unbalanced photovoltage between two circular polarizations is achieved across the plasmonic right-triangle holes, compared to the balanced photovoltage in the plasmonic isosceles-triangle holes. Such manipulation of the sign and the amplitude of transverse photovoltage is enabled by the broken symmetries of the electric and …

Empleo Regional Y Transporte Público: Un Estudio De Caso Comparado De Accesibilidad Al Transporte De Parques Industriales En El Gran Buenos Aires Basado En La Medida De Sistema De Información Geográfica, Clara Wang

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

La accesibilidad al transporte es considerada como un elemento crítico del desarrollo urbano y además la clave del empleo. Este informe intenta analizar el problema de la baja tasa del empleo local enfrente de Malvinas Argentinas (MA)en relación con el bajo nivel de conectividad entre la zona industrial y residencial del municipio. Para contextualizar el problema de este desequilibrio en la región metropolitana de Buenos Aires, La Matanza (LM) será el caso de estudio por tratarse de un municipio similar en localización y estructura industrial. El Sistema de Información Geográfica (SIG) se utiliza para análisis de espacio y visualización de …

Suture-Less Trocar Site Closure Clip, Hares A. Patel

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Introduction: Following laparoscopic surgery, there is a need, in many cases, to close trocar sites to prevent hernias. Currently, devices that exist on the market are suture based, but the lack of standardization in the suturing techniques together with the time-consuming nature of the procedure leads to the need for improvement in trocar site closure products. Trocar closure sites do not need to be fully closed on the fascial layer; rather, sufficiently blocking the hole at the abdominal wall can significantly reduce post-operative herniation. A retrospective study on trocar site herniation (TSH) after laparoscopic surgery indicates a TSH incidence …

Nanosheets Of Cuco₂O₄ As A High-Performance Electrocatalyst In Urea Oxidation, Camila Zequine, Ram K. Gupta, Pawan K. Kahol

Posters

The urea oxidation reaction (UOR) is a possible solution to solve the world’s energy crisis. Fuel cells have been used in the UOR to generate hydrogen with a lower potential compared to water splitting, decreasing the costs of energy production. Urea is abundantly present in agricultural waste and in industrial and human wastewater. Besides generating hydrogen, this reaction provides a pathway to eliminate urea, which is a hazard in the environment and to people’s health. In this study, nanosheets of CuCo₂O₄ grown on nickel foam were synthesized as an electrocatalyst for urea oxidation to generate hydrogen as a green fuel. …

Civilian Acquirer For Fire Safety (Cafs), Antara Das, Marcus Allen, Clark Shaver

Posters

The department of Electronics Engineering Technology (EET) of Pittsburg State University has designed a prototype of an autonomous rover to help firefighters to find lives trapped in a building during an event of fire. The rover prototype has been named CAFS, which is the abbreviated form for Civilian Acquirer for Fire Safety. This device intends to produce the first ever autonomous system to locate, record, and transmit people’s location from within a building to a user outside of the building. According to the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), on 2017, 72% of the fire that happened in the USA was …

Metal-Doped Catalysts For Hydrogen Evolution Reaction, Tucker Morey, Ram K. Gupta, Pawan K. Kahol

Posters

The highly efficient electrochemical hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) provides a promising way to solve energy and environment problems. In this work, various transition metals (Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Ag, and Pt) were selected to support on molybdenum carbides by a simple organic-inorganic precursor carburization process. X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis results indicated that the ß-MO₂C phase was formed in all metal-doped samples. X-ray photo­electron spectroscopy analysis indicated that the binding energy of MO₂+ species (MO₂C) shifted to a lower value after metal was doped on the molybdenum carbide surface. Comparing with pure ß-MO₂C, the elec­trocatalytic activity for HER was improved by …

The Most Common Misconceptions Of Employers About Asian Females, Searching For A Position In Engineering Fields In The United States, Manaswini Bhamidipati, Tatiana Goris

Posters

The purpose of this study is to identify the common misconceptions of employers about the Asian female employees who are searching for a position in the engineering field. The study is conducted under quantitative methodology and ground theory design. The participants of this study are aware of the content of the study and are not forced to participate in the study. The research is limited to the United States. Asian female immigrants with an engineering degree are encouraged for the study.

Almond Based Electrocatalyst For Fuel Cell Applications, Kinsey Morey, Tucker Morey, Brooks Neria, Khamis Siam, Pawan K. Kahol

Posters

Hydrogen is considered one of the cleanest energy sources. Water spitting is one of the efficient ways to produce hydrogen as a fuel at the industrial level. Water splitting via electrolysis requires an efficient electrocatalyst to reduce the voltage required for water splitting. Currently, precious metals such as platinum are considered as one of the most efficient electrocatalysts for hydrogen production via electrolysis of water. The current challenge is to find a cost-effective alternative for this process. Molybdenum and carbon are low cost and abundant mate­rials which could be used for the synthesis of cost-effective electrocatalysts for hydrogen production. In …

Asian Women In Stem Industry, Nikhila Bashetty, Tatiana Goris

Posters

The image of engineering as a masculine profession has reproduced the perception that engineering is unsuitable for women. Various strategies have been used to try to increase the number of women entering engineering education and employment, but their success has been limited. This study will provide explicit insights to the problems encountered by the female engineers from Asia. This study will help Asian women engineers’ aspiring careers in American engineering industries to understand the real-life scenario in terms of employment in the USA. It will also help the employers to acknowledge the problems faced by the female engineers and incorpo­rate …

Comparison Of Bioplastics With Conventional Thermoplastics For Consumer Applications, Alec Jones, Shelby Bicknell, Luke Gordon, Justin Mamerow, Jeanne H. Norton

Posters

Controversy surrounds the use of plastic products, primarily due to their impact on the environment. Fortunately, bio-based plastics offers a solution by using sustainable resources as starting materials. Our team addressed the task of processing and conducting research on various bio-based plastics that were supplied by an industrial part­ner and comparing the bio-based plastics to control materials from petrochemical sources. Overall, the goal was to determine which bio-based resin would be the most suitable for use in consumer packaging products. Thermal, mechanical, and chemical properties were analyzed. The control resins used were: Formolene 2610A PP, Ineos Olefins & Polymers PP, …

Electrocatalytic Properties Of Lanthanum-Based Perovskites For Water Splitting And Energy Storage Applications, Xavier R. Martinez, Khamis Siam, Pawan K. Kahol, Ram K. Gupta

Posters

Recent changes in global weather patterns have punctuated the need for mollification through a cleaner energy option. As part of the plan, hydrogen production for fuel cells offers substantial power without carbon emissions. Overall water splitting, with the aid of a low cost electrocatalyst could prove to be an abundant green fuel source. Utilizing readily available transition metals, three perovskite nanostructures were studied as a multifunctional material for hydrogen production as well as energy storage. LaCoO₃ (LCO), LaFeO₃ (LFO), and LaMnO₃ (LMO) were synthesized and characterized by X-ray diffraction and then dip coated onto nickel foam as electrodes in a …

Molybdenum Oxides For Energy Generation And Storage Using Efficient Clean Method, Camila Zequine, Pawan K. Kahol, Ram K. Gupta

Posters

To solve the growing energy issues, significant efforts have been focused on the search of earth-abundant ele­ments that can provide multifunctional behavior for both energy generation and storage. Due to the low-cost and rich chemical nature, transition metal oxide nanostructures have been used in the fabrication of energy devices, such as fuel cells and lithium batteries. In this work, nickel, cobalt and iron molybdates were synthesized via a simple hydrothermal method in order to fabricate electrodes for oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and a superca­pacitor. FeMoO₄ required an overpotential of 294 mV to achieve a current density of 10 mA/cm2 for …

Implementation Of Solar Car Technology, Greg Mccartney, Marcus Allen, Dedrick Cooper, Lelan Delissa, Eric Mayer

Posters

Under the leadership of Dr. Erik Mayer, Pittsburg State University hosted the first Kansas Solar Race Competition. The purpose of this competition is to motivate students to learn about different aspects of solar car technology. The competition motivates students by bringing multiple teams together in a friendly competition to test out their uniquely engineered and constructed wireless cars. The cars will compete in different competitions such as an agil­ity competition and a drag race. After the competition, the students are able to learn from the ingenuity of other teams and spark a curiosity to continue to learn about solar car …

Extrusion Production Of 3d Printer Filament For Additive Manufacturing, Patrick Hardy, Cole Angermayer, Rhett Lokey, Rebeca Book, Jeanne H. Norton

Posters

Additive manufacturing, also known as 3D printing, is becoming a go-to production method for short production runs and rapid prototyping on a commercial scale. The growth of additive manufacturing is due to many fac­tors including development of concept modeling, product designing, prototyping, and customized parts. Pittsburg State University’s College of Technology strives to stay at the cutting edge of processing materials for additive manufacturing. The capability of making our own 3D-printer filament would allow students to work with new and different materials and would allow students to learn at the forefront of 3D printing technology. The Wayne Yellowjacket Extruder and …

Improved Molding Tool For Plastics Engineering Technology Injection Molder, Caleb Luthi, Tyler Burger, Andrew Huffman, Paul Herring, Jeanne H. Norton

Posters

Plastic injection molding is an extremely versatile, preferred method of producing plastic parts because it is ex­tremely efficient. In the business of injection molding, it is important to have machines and tools that work prop­erly to get the job done. One such tool is the mold, which forms high quality plastic parts. The main objective of this project is to refurbish the current Frisbee mold to create promotional products for PSU’s Department of Engineering Technology. Parts were created with the existing mold to determine what issues needed to be ad­dressed, including: excessive flash on the parts/runner, a poor runner/gate design, …

Construction Of High-Performance 3d Nanostructured Flower-Like Iron-Nickel Sulfide For Supercapacitor, Chen Zhao, Sanket Bhoyate, Chunyang Zhang, Ram K. Gupta, Pawan K. Kahol

Posters

The global energy crisis and environmental pollution have stimulated increasing attention to developing clean and renewable alternative energy sources. One of the most efficient and greenest energy storage devices is supercapacitor which could store energy via electrical double layer and redox reactions. Supercapacitors are widely employed for many portable electronics and hybrid electric vehicles due to their high-power density, fast charge-discharge rate, and good cycle stability. In this work, 3D nanostructured flower-like iron-nickel sulfide was synthesized on the nickel foam using a facile hydrothermal method. The iron-nickel sulfide electrode showed out­standing performance for supercapacitor with a high areal capacitance of …

Acoustoelastic Metamaterial With Simultaneous Noise Filtering And Energy Harvesting Capability From Ambient Vibrations, Fariha Mir

Theses and Dissertations

Harvesting unused and untapped energy from ambient vibration noise and acoustic sound waves is an emerging field of research in the recent years. Utilization of the energy with a wide band of the frequency spectrum from the vibrational sources alone stands as one of the most promising ways to power small electronic devices, smartphones, local structural health monitoring (SHM) sensors and home and workshop appliances. Various sources of ambient vibration and acoustic noise can be found around us in our everyday life. These sources are abundant in almost all the engineering industries and manufacturing facilities for example in aerospace, mechanical …