Operations Research, Systems Engineering and Industrial Engineering Commons^™

Manufacturing: The Qualitative Study Of A Transition To A Green Facility, Brandon David Staves

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

This qualitative study focused on answering three core questions: How have facilities reduce pollutions in regards to the quality of air, water, land, light and noise? Which Types of pollution reduction projects are more or less successful to implement? What types of pollution are facilities focusing on and why? The results of the 15 companies surveyed show a variety of projects that facilities have used to reduce pollution, it also shows that cost is a major factor in the unsuccessful projects, and that facilities are actively focused on reducing Air, Land, and Water pollution. While the data shows a variety …

Thermophotovoltaic Systems For Achieving High-Solar-Fraction Hybrid Solar-Biomass Power Generation, Cm Iftekhar Hussain, Aidan Duffy, Brian Norton

Articles

Medium operating temperature hybrid solar-biomass TPV power plant design requires complex integration of multiple high temperature processes with low band-gap TPV cells. A 0.72 eV band-gap GaSb TPV cell has been used in thermophotovoltaic (TPV) systems operating at temperatures above 1400 °C. Low band-gap TPV cells, such as InGaAs (Eg = 0.55 eV) and InAs (Eg = 0.36 eV) could enable a TPV system to operate optimally at temperatures ≈1000 °C. To examine this, two hybrid solar-biomass TPV system configurations are studied using TRNSYS simulation that incorporates a new algorithm for TPV. It is found that in a high solar …

Ce 5500: Stochastic Hydrology, University Of Virginia, Julianne Quinn

All ECSTATIC Materials

This document is the syllabus for CE 5500: Stochastic Hydrology by instructor Julianne D. Quinn at the University of Virginia. The course is an elective class, open to upper-level undergraduate and graduate students.

Integration Of Hydrogeophysical Datasets And Empirical Orthogonal Functions For Improved Irrigation Water Management, Catherine E. Finkenbiner, Trenton E. Franz, Justin P. Gibson, Derek M. Heeren, J. D. Luck

Department of Biological Systems Engineering: Papers and Publications

Precision agriculture offers the technologies to manage for infield variability and incorporate variability into irrigation management decisions. The major limitation of this technology often lies in the reconciliation of disparate data sources and the generation of irrigation prescription maps. Here the authors explore the utility of the cosmic-ray neutron probe (CRNP) which measures volumetric soil water content (SWC) in the top ~ 30 cm of the soil profile. The key advantages of CRNP is that the sensor is passive, non-invasive, mobile and soil temperature-invariant, making data collection more compatible with existing farm operations and extending the mapping period. The objectives …

A Decision Support Tool For Building Integrated Renewable Energy Microgrids Connected To A Smart Grid, Damilola A. Asaleye, Michael D. Murphy, Michael Breen

Publications

The objective of this study was to create a tool that will enable renewable energy microgrid (REμG) facility users to make informed decisions on the utilization of electrical power output from a building integrated REμG connected to a smart grid. A decision support tool for renewable energy microgrids (DSTREM) capable of predicting photovoltaic array and wind turbine power outputs was developed. The tool simulated users’ daily electricity consumption costs, avoided CO₂ emissions and incurred monetary income relative to the usage of the building integrated REμG connected to the national electricity smart grid. DSTREM forecasted climate variables, which were used …

Environmental Efficiency Assessment Of U.S. Transport Sector: A Slack-Based Data Envelopment Analysis Approach, Yong Shin Park, Siew Hoon Lim, Gokhan Egilmez, Joseph Szmerekovsky

Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Faculty Publications

Sustainable transportation in the U.S. is essential for long-term economic growth and mobility, and environmental preservation. Using a non-radial slack-based measurement data envelopment analysis (SBM-DEA) model and state-level data, this study assesses the environmental efficiency of the transportation sector in the U.S. from years 2004 to 2012. In addition to environmental efficiency, carbon efficiency and potential carbon reduction were estimated for the 50 U.S. states. The findings of this study reveal that U.S. transportation sector was environmentally inefficient; U.S. states had an average transportation environmental efficiency score below 0.64. Therefore the states could substantially reduce carbon emissions to improve the …

A Five-Year Performance Review Of Field-Scale, Slow-Release Permanganate Candles With Recommendations For Second-Generation Improvements, Mark Christenson, Ann Kambhu, James Reece, Steve D. Comfort, Laurie Brunner

Nebraska Water Center: Faculty Publications

In 2009, we identified a TCE plume at an abandoned landfill that was located in a low permeable siltyclay aquifer. To treat the TCE, we manufactured slow-release potassium permanganate cylinders (oxidant candles) that had diameters of either 5.1 or 7.6 cm and were 91.4 cm long. In 2010, we compared two methods of candle installation by inserting equal masses of the oxidant candles (7.6-cm vs 5.1-cm dia). The 5.1-cm dia candles were inserted with direct-push rods while the 7.6-cm candles were housed in screens and lowered into 10 permanent wells. Since installation, the 7.6-cm oxidant candles have been refurbished approximately …

Tractor Hydraulic Power Data Acquisition System, J. B.W. Roeber, Santosh Pitla, Michael F. Kocher, Joe D. Luck, Roger M. Hoy

Department of Biological Systems Engineering: Papers and Publications

Tractor hydraulic power is used on a wide range of agricultural implements; however, the availability of operational hydraulic data at points other than full engine throttle position is limited. Operators could utilize this hydraulic data to maximize field efficiency and minimize machinery costs when determining suitable machinery for field operations. A field usable hydraulic test apparatus capable of measuring tractor hydraulic pressure and flow rate data was developed. The goal of this study was to determine if a hydraulic flow and pressure measurement device could be installed on the rear of a tractor to provide implement hydraulic power consumption at …

A Multi-Criteria Gis-Based Route Selection Tool For Hazardous Material Transport: Consideration Of Environmental Consequence, Traffic Congestions And Costs, Bahareh Inanloo

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Hazardous materials are substances that, if not regulated, can pose a threat to human populations and their environmental health, safety or property when transported in commerce. About 1.5 million tons of hazardous material shipments are transported by truck in the US annually, with a steady increase of approximately 5% per year.

The objective of this study was to develop a routing tool for hazardous material transport in order to facilitate reduced environmental impacts and less transportation difficulties, yet would also find paths that were still compelling for the shipping carriers as a matter of trucking cost. The study started with …

Eight Principles Of Uncertainty For Life Cycle Assessment Of Biofuel Systems, Adam J. Liska

Adam Liska Papers

New environmental regulations in the USA and Europe require a reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from transportation fuels as a component of climate change mitigation policy. The US Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (EISA) requires GHG emission reductions from the life cycles of biofuels compared to gasoline, by 20% for ethanol from maize grain (maize-ethanol), 60% for cellulosic ethanol, and 50% for other advanced biofuels. To determine these reductions, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) employs life cycle assessment (LCA) methods which were not used previously in national environmental regulations. These regulations, entitled the “Renewable Fuel Standard …

A Multi-Objective Facility Location Model For Closed-Loop Supply Chain Network Under Uncertain Demand And Return, Saman Hassanzadeh Amin, Guoqing Zhang

Mechanical, Automotive & Materials Engineering Publications

A closed-loop supply chain (CLSC) network consists of both forward and reverse supply chains. In this paper, a CLSC network is investigated which includes multiple plants, collection centres, demand markets, and products. To this aim, a mixed-integer linear programming model is proposed that minimizes the total cost. Besides, two test problems are examined. The model is extended to consider environmental factors by weighed sums and ε-constraint methods. In addition, we investigate the impact of demand and return uncertainties on the network configuration by stochastic programming (scenario-based). Computational results show that the model can handle demand and return uncertainties, simultaneously.

Development Of A Cost Minimizing Strategy To Mitigate Bird Mortalities In A Wind Farm, Karamvir Singh

Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014

Wind is the second largest renewable energy source after solar. It is one of the fastest growing sources of electricity in the world and currently of wind energy is installed in the United States and an additional is under construction (Office of Energy and Environment Affairs, 2011). For the growth of wind electricity, one of the most prominent environmental concerns relates to the death of birds, bats and other avian species resulting from collision with turbine blades.

This thesis develops a model that provides the optimal strategy of turning the turbines off in a wind farm for certain periods to …

A Proposed Mathematical Model For Closed-Loop Network Configuration Based On Product Life Cycle, Saman Hassanzadeh Amin, Guoqing Zhang

Mechanical, Automotive & Materials Engineering Publications

Products may be returned over their life cycle. Industrial experiences show that there are three main return–recovery pairs. Commercial returns are repaired. End-of-use returns often are remanufactured. In addition, end-of-life returns are recycled. However, up to now, no optimization model is proposed for closed-loop configuration based on three return–recovery pairs. The repaired and remanufactured products can be sold in the same or secondary market. In this paper, we design and configure a general closed-loop supply chain network based on product life cycle. The network includes a manufacturer, collection, repair, disassembly, recycling, and disposal sites. The returned products are collected in …

Identification And Implementation Of Patterns Towards A Model Of Environmental Sustainability, S. Jimmy Gandhi, Santiago Perez, Danial Rushton, Robert Cloutier, Ipek Bozkurt, C. Ariel Pinto

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Faculty Publications

Much like the Quality Revolution did in the 1980's, corporate sustainability has the potential to drive significant changes in the processes and structure of various organizations in the coming decade. With a rapidly growing global population and an ever increasing global demand for resources (Population-Resource-Center, 2012). Sustainability has emerged as one of the primary challenges that organizations will have to deal with in the 21st century. An increasing realization among business executives that profitability by itself is not enough as a measure of success is also driving the increased adoption of sustainable practices in the corporate world (Lowitt and Grimsley, …

On Critical Infrastructure Interdependency, Polinpapilinho F. Katina, C. Ariel Pinto

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Faculty Publications

Developing effective protection, mitigation, and recovery measures for critical infrastructure (CI) systems is paramount in the wake of increasing natural and manmade hazards, risks, and threats. Influencing protection, rescue, and recovery measures are interplays (i.e., interdependencies) among infrastructure systems. Understanding interdependencies plays an essential role in minimizing and reducing cascading failures among complex interdependent infrastructure systems. This paper asserts that deployment of protection, mitigation, and recovery solutions can have little effect on infrastructure management if infrastructure operators and policymakers have partial understanding of infrastructure interdependencies. Using narrative research, authors illustrate that effective coordination and response for protection, mitigation, and recovery …

Optimal Production Planning For A Multi-Product Closed Loop System With Uncertain Demand And Return, Jianmai Shi, Guoqing Zhang, Jichang Sha

Mechanical, Automotive & Materials Engineering Publications

We study the production planning problem for a multi-product closed loop system, in which the manufacturer has two channels for supplying products: producing brand-new products and remanufacturing returns into as-new ones. In the remanufacturing process, used products are bought back and remanufactured into as-new products which are sold together with the brand-new ones. The demands for all the products are uncertain, and their returns are uncertain and price-sensitive. The problem is to maximize the manufacturer's expected profit by jointly determining the production quantities of brand-new products, the quantities of remanufactured products and the acquisition prices of the used products, subject …

Coordinating Production And Recycling Decisions With Stochastic Demand And Return, Jianmai Shi, Guoqing Zhang, Jichang Sha, Saman Hassanzadeh Amin

Mechanical, Automotive & Materials Engineering Publications

In this paper, the joint production and recycling problem is investigated for a hybrid manufacturing and remanufacturing system where brand-new products are produced in the manufacturing plant and recycled products are remanufactured into as-new products in the remanufacturing facility. Both the brand-new products and remanufactured products are used to satisfy customer demands. Returns of used products that are recycled from customers are assumed to be stochastic and nonlinearly price-dependent. A mathematical model is proposed to maximize the overall profit of the system through simultaneously optimizing the production and recycling decisions, subject to two capacity constraints — the manufacturing capacity and …