Mechanical Engineering Commons^™

Solar Photovoltaic Performance Monitoring: A Bibliometric Review, Research Gaps And Opportunities, Javed Sayyad, Paresh Nasikkar

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

Electrical power generation has been revolutionized by growing demand and use of Renewable Energy (RE) sources such as Solar Photovoltaic (SPV) as the main electricity source in modern times. The main objective of this bibliometric analysis is to understand the scope of the literature available for SPV performance characterization. This detailed reviewed was performed on the documents related to SPV research considering all the subject categories from Scopus and Web of Science (WoS) databases. The patterns for the particular set of keywords were broke down with the recuperated outcomes from Scopus database in the language, publication type, year of publication, …

Research Tools And Their Uses For Determining The Thermal Inactivation Kinetics Of Salmonella In Low-Moisture Foods, Soon Kiat Lau

Department of Food Science and Technology: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The reputation of low-moisture foods as safe foods has been crumbling over the past decade due to repeated involvement in foodborne illness outbreaks. Although various pasteurization technologies exist, a majority are thermal processes and have not been well-characterized for pasteurizing low-moisture foods. In addition, the nature of a low-moisture food matrix introduces various experimental complications that are not encountered in high-moisture foods. In this dissertation, the development, building instructions, and characterization of various open source tools for studying the inactivation kinetics of microorganisms in low-moisture foods are described. The first tool is the TDT Sandwich, a dry heating device for …

Pool Boiling Inversion On Femtosecond Laser Surface Processed 304 Stainless Steel And Its Impact On Steady-State Time Constants, Justin Costa-Greger, Alfred Tsubaki, Josh Gerdes, Mark Anderson, Craig Zuhlke, Dennis Alexander, Jeff Shield, George Gogos

UCARE Research Products

FLSP surfaces resulting in boiling inversion require longer times to reach steady-state once inversion has occurred Boiling inversion has been shown to be the result of changing nucleation dynamics in which a large number of nucleation sites activate Increased time required to reach steady-state is linked to the rate at which these nucleation sites activate. Heat fluxes above the boiling inversion point can require up to an additional 3 hours to reach steady-state, compared to the typical 15-20 minutes reported in the literature

Fast Growth Of Thin Mapbi3 Crystal Wafers On Aqueous Solution Surface For Efficient Lateral-Structure Perovskite Solar Cells, Ye Liu, Qingfeng Dong, Yanjun Fang, Yuze Lin, Yehao Deng, Jinsong Huang

Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering: Faculty Publications

Solar-grade single or multiple crystalline wafers are needed in large quantities in the solar cell industry, and are generally formed by a top-down process from crystal ingots, which causes a significant waste of materials and energy during slicing, polishing, and other processing. Here, a bottom-up technique that allows the growth of wafer-size hybrid perovskite multiple crystals directly from aqueous solution is reported. Single-crystalline hybrid perovskite wafers with centimeter size are grown at the top surface of a perovskite precursor solution. As well as saving raw materials, this method provides unprecedented advantages such as easily tunable thickness and rapid growth of …

Agricultural Field Robotics For Plant Data Acquisition, Jeremy S. Blackford, Jared Werner, Tyler A. Troyer, Ethan Nutter

UCARE Research Products

As the demand for food increases, we are presented with the challenge of producing food more efficiently. With the help of agricultural robots it will be possible to achieve greater yields by the application of seeds, fertilizers and chemicals in the most efficient way possible. With more advanced robotic systems accurate crop data can be obtained to improve farming products and techniques.

Flex-Row is a medium sized agricultural robotic platform built for autonomously traversing through rough fields during multiple crop growing stages. This platform consisting of a flexible frame with the ability to vary both width and height will initially …

Inter-Row Robot Navigation Using 1d Ranging Sensors, Tyler A. Troyer, Santosh Pitla, Ethan Nutter

Biological Systems Engineering: Papers and Publications

In this paper a fuzzy logic navigation controller for an inter-row agricultural robot is developed and evaluated in laboratory settings. The controller receives input from one-dimensional (1D) ranging sensors on the robotic platform, and operated on ten fuzzy rules for basic row-following behavior. The control system was implemented on basic hardware for proof of concept and operated on a commonly available microcontroller development platform and open source software libraries. The robot platform used for experimentation was a small tracked vehicle with differential steering control. Fuzzy inferencing and defuzzification, step response and cross track error were obtained from the test conducted …

Comparing Various Hardware/Software Solutions And Conversion Methods For Controller Area Network (Can) Bus Data Collection, Samuel E. Marx, Joe D. Luck, Santosh Pitla, Roger M. Hoy

Biological Systems Engineering: Papers and Publications

Various hardware and software solutions exist for collecting Controller Area Network (CAN) bus data. Digital data accuracy could vary based upon different data logging methods (e.g., hardware/software timing, processor timing, etc.). CAN bus data were collected from agricultural tractors using multiple data acquisition solutions to quantify differences among collection methods and demonstrate potential data accumulation rates. Two types of data were observed for this study. The first, CAN bus frame data, represents data collected for each line of hex data sent from an ECU. One issue with frame data is the resulting large file sizes, therefore a second logging format …

Using Thermally Coupled Reactive Distillation Columns In Biodiesel Production, Nghi Nguyen, Yaşar Demirel

Yaşar Demirel Publications

Production of ethyl dodecanoate (biodiesel) using lauric acid and methanol with a solid acid catalyst of sulfated zirconia is studied by using two distillation sequences. In the first sequence, the methanol recovery column follows the reactive distillation column. In the second sequence, the reactive distillation and methanol recovery columns are thermally coupled. Thermally coupled distillation sequences may consume less energy by allowing interconnecting vapor and liquid streams between the two columns to elminate reboiler or condenser or both. Here we study the thermally coupled side-stripper reactive distillation and eliminate the condenser of the reactive distillation column. Both the sequences are …

A Shock Tube Technique For Blast Wave Simulation And Studies Of Flow Structure Interactions In Shock Tube Blast Experiments, Nicholas N. Kleinschmit

Department of Engineering Mechanics: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Improvised explosive devices (IED’s) are widely used against US and allied forces fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. Exposure to IED blast may cause blast-induced traumatic brain injury (bTBI). The injury mechanisms are however not well understood. A critical need in bTBI-related research is the ability to replicate the loading conditions of IED blast waves in a laboratory environment. In this work, experimental studies have been carried out to explore the use of the shock tube technique for generating air shock waves that mimic the temporal and spatial characteristics of free-field blast waves and to investigate the blast wave-test sample interactions …

Stochastic Optimal Control In Nonlinear Systems, Celestin Nkundineza

Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Stochastic control is an important area of research in engineering systems that undergo disturbances. Controlling individual states in such systems is critical. The present investigation is concerned with the application of the stochastic optimal control strategy developed by To (2010) and its implementation as well as providing computed results of linear and nonlinear systems under stationary and nonstationary random excitations. In the strategy the feedback matrix is designed based on the achievement of the objectives for individual states in the system through the application of the Lyapunov equation for the system. Each diagonal element in the gain or associated gain …

Towards Supervised Autonomous Task Completion Using An In Vivo Surgical Robot, Jason J. Dumpert

Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Laparoscopy is a minimally invasive alternative to traditional abdominal surgery. Unlike traditional surgery, a laparoscopic procedure can be completed using small incisions. The use of these small incision results in reduced pain to the patient, shorter recovery times, and less trauma to skin, muscle and other tissues. However, these benefits to the patient are offset by the increased difficulty to the surgeon performing the procedure. These difficulties include reduced dexterity, reduced perception, and longer procedure times. The use of small in vivo robotic devices in minimally invasive surgery is one possible solution to these problems. The movement of these devices …