Other Engineering Commons^™

Grange Stone Circle (B) – New Thoughts On An Old Monument, Frank Prendergast

Book/Book Chapter

No abstract provided.

Physico-Chemical, Rheological And Baking Properties Of Proso Millet, Manjot Singh

Theses and Dissertations--Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering

Due to climate change, water scarcity, increasing population and rising food prices, agriculture and food security has been affected worldwide. Cereal grains being a major part of world food supply also act as important energy source in human diet. In order to counter food insecurity, alternative grains are being explored, and millet being drought-resistant has the potential to serve as an alternative grain due to its comparable nutritional composition with other major cereals and its gluten free proteins. The evidence that gluten sensitivity is one of the increasing food intolerances is driving an increasing demand for gluten-free foods. However, gluten …

Use Of Bridging Strategy Between The Ensemble Kalman Filter And Particle Filter For The Measurements With Various Quasi-Gaussian Noise, Sumathi Prabhakaran Jeyakumari

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Filtering and estimation are two important tools of engineering. Whenever the state of the system needs to be estimated from the noisy sensor measurements, some kind of state estimator is used. If the dynamics of the system and observation model are linear under Gaussian conditions, the root mean squared error can be computed using the Kalman Filter. But practically, noise frequently enters the system as not strictly Gaussian. Therefore, the Kalman Filter does not necessarily provide the better estimate. Hence the estimation of the nonlinear system under non-Gaussian or quasi-Gaussian noise is of an acute interest. There are many versions …

Student Absenteeism And The Comparisons Of Two Sampling Procedures For Culturable Bioaerosol Measurement In Classrooms With And Without Upper Room Ultraviolet Germicidal Irradiation Devices, Chunxiao Su, Josephine Lau, Shawn G. Gibbs

Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction: Faculty Publications

Upper room ultraviolet germicidal irradiance (UVGI) has been shown to reduce the concentration of bioaerosols in controlled chambers. However, there is a lack of experimental results on the reduction of bioaerosol concentrations by UVGI devices in actual uncontrolled buildings. This study was carried out in an American elementary school in the Midwest. Two sampling procedures were carried out in six selected classrooms with similar dimensions that were separated into two groups: (1) UVGI exposure group and (2) non-UVGI control group. Two-stage Tisch culturable impactors were utilized to collect airborne culturable bacteria and fungi. Monthly samples were collected during unoccupied period …

The Drag Language, Weixi Ma

Theses and Dissertations--Computer Science

This thesis describes the Drag language. Drag is a general purpose, gradually typed, lexically scoped, and multi-paradigm pro- gramming language. The essence of Drag is to build the abstract syntax trees of the programs directly and interactively. Our work includes the language specification and a prototype program. The language specification focuses on the syntax, the semantic model, and the type system. The prototype consists of an interactive editor and a compiler that targets several plat- forms, among which we focus on the LLVM platform in this thesis.

Routing And Security In Mobile Ad Hoc Networks, Baban A. Mahmood

Theses and Dissertations--Computer Science

A Mobile Ad hoc Network (MANET) consists of a set of nodes which can form a network among themselves. MANETs have applications in areas such as military, disaster rescue operations, monitoring animal habitats, etc. where establishing fixed communication infrastructure is not feasible. Routing protocols designed for MANETs can be broadly classified as position-based (geographic), topology-based and hybrid. Geographic routing uses location information of nodes to route messages. Topology-based routing uses network state information for route discovery and maintenance. Hybrid routing protocols use features in both position-based and topology-based approaches. Position-based routing protocols route packets towards the destination using greedy forwarding …

A Prediction Method For Overall Economic Value Of Fault Detection And Diagnostic Tools For Rooftop And Split Systems, David Yuill, James Braun

Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction: Faculty Publications

Fault detection and diagnostics (FDD) tools for air-conditioning application may perform well or poorly, but it is difficult to characterize this performance in a meaningful way. Some recently proposed evaluation techniques have provided various statistics to characterize FDD performance, but these results can be difficult for a potential adopter of FDD to understand. A new method of characterizing FDD performance by predicting the overall economic value of the FDD tool is proposed in this paper. It is applicable to FDD tools intended for air-cooled unitary airconditioners, such as rooftop units (RTU) and split systems. The method gives an estimated dollar …

Laser Micromachining Of Contactless Rf Antenna Modules For Payment And Cards And Wearable Objects, Matthias John

Conference papers

The use of contactless payment methods for consumer transactions is becoming increasingly popular - 1.1 billion contactless transactions were made by Visa cardholders across Europe in the 12 months to July 2015 (€12.6 billion total value). Typically the contactless payment process uses a Radio Frequency (RF) enabled smartcard or a Near Field Communication (NFC) enabled smartphone. In order to ensure continued market acceptance and repeat usage the contactless operation must be robust, quick and efficient. This paper describes the development of an inductively coupled contactless smartcard utilising UV DPSS laser micromachining to fabricate the novel antenna structures from copper laminated …

The University Of Akron Human Powered Vehicle Team, Maria E. Rizzo, Andrew J. Derhammer, Christopher M. Trowbridge, Timothy M. Nutt, Joseph R. Boyd, Jeremy W. Marcum, Jonathan E. Adams, Donald G. Haiss, Julia Wood, Brian D. Goshia, Scott T. Fagan, Joshua D. Everhard, Rebecca L. Slivka

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The University of Akron Human Powered Vehicle Team’s 2016 vehicle, Klokan, was designed, manufactured and tested with safety, reliability, performance and ease of use in mind. The vehicle is a fully faired tadpole trike with a lightweight aluminum frame constructed from 6061-T6 tubing having a total weight of 8.9 lbs. To complement the lightweight frame, the fairing is constructed from polycarbonate, PETG and carbon fiber strips which combine into a lightweight, easy to manufacture weather barrier and aerodynamic structure. Klokan was designed to be a safe and efficient mode of everyday transportation which ensures that riders are sufficiently protected by …

Diffusive Behavior Of Physically Cross-Linked Hydrogels, Morgan A. Stilke

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

A hydrogel is a water swollen polymeric network that has the potential to transform a variety of biomedical applications because of its biocompatibility and water content. Unfortunately, hydrogels typically have poor mechanical robustness. The majority of the content is water, while the remaining structure consists of a physical network, a covalent network, or a combination of both, yielding strength and toughness. There are several strategies attempted to improve mechanical properties including double network hydrogels comprised of two interpenetrating networks: one being a highly crosslinked sacrificial network and the other being a weakly crosslinked network that maintains reversibility after deformation. However, …

Fault Detection And Diagnosis Process For Oversizing Design On Multiple Packaged Air-Conditioning Units, Denchai Woradechjumroen, Haorong Li, Thanapat Promwattanapakee

Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction: Faculty Publications

Heating, ventilation, air-conditioning and Refrigeration (HVAC&R) systems are seldom designed or commissioned properly. The situation leads to abrupt or degradation faults resulting in inefficient energy uses, excessive energy consumption and high service costs. To solve these aforementioned problems, fault detection and diagnosis (FDD) is utilized to firstly detect any abnormal conditions of a system and then diagnoses and determines their causes. In order to apply this concept in HVAC oversizing designs, this paper proposes the state-of-art procedure of a FDD procedure for analyzing the inherently faulty design (oversizing) of multiple packaged air-conditioning units used to supply cooling for an open …

Compressor Having A Control And Dagnostic Module, Hung M. Pham, Fadi M. Alsaleem

Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction: Faculty Publications

An apparatus includes a Voltage sensor, a current sensor, and a controller. The Voltage sensor measures Voltage values of alternating current power Supplied to a capacitor. The capaci tor is electrically coupled to a compressor. The current sensor measures current values of the alternating current power. The controller is configured to receive the Voltage values and the current values. The controller is configured to determine a first power factor value based on at least one of the voltage values and at least one of the current values. The controller is configured to selectively detect a first capacitor fault in response …

Corrosion Protection Systems In Offshore Structures, Hristo Ivanov

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Corrosion plays a pivotal role in the engineering world. Engineers of all disciplines must consider the dangers that this phenomenon can incur. Interestingly, corrosion mitigation is not a topic that is addressed in most academic curricula. The goal of this paper is to give engineering students a brief introduction into corrosion and some of the prevention techniques commonly used today.

The design of a corrosion protection system for offshore structures is discussed in order to illustrate how these techniques can be utilized even in the most extreme environments. First, the driving force behind corrosion is examined, introducing the basic mechanics …

Life-Cycle Analysis Of A Cement Manufacturing Plant Co-Firing Hazardous Waste In The Usa, Stephen P. Holt

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this work was to determine the overall environmental impacts associated with the co-firing hazardous waste by burning in a cement kiln to replace the use of coal in the cement manufacturing process. This environmental assessment was conducted using LCA methodology. Understanding the environmental impacts associated with burning hazardous waste in a cement factory could help shape national environmental policy, regulations and the need for site specific human health risk assessments in the environmental regulatory permitting processes. Accordingly, the primary objective of this study was to evaluate the environmental impacts from the hazardous waste burning for energy recovery …

Improving Cooling Tower Chemistry Control And Cost Savings Through Automation, Ryan Matthew Maxwell

Theses and Dissertations

Proper chemistry control of cooling towers reduces corrosion, biological growth, and precipitation of solids. Therefore, improving control can lead to increased equipment life, operating efficiency, and safety. Chemistry of cooling towers is highly dependent on loading, weather, and time. As such, cooling tower chemistry varies day to day and even hour to hour, requiring either continuous controls or large operating bands. Through automation, 24/7 monitoring and control can be achieved, allowing for deliberate operation within tight operating bands. As a direct result of automation water consumption has been reduced by 9.1 million gallons per year, CL-49 use has been reduced …

The Application Of Lean Six Sigma To Improve A Business Process: A Study Of The Order Processing Process At An Automobile Manufacturing Facility, Sherrian Francina Ellis

Theses and Dissertations

The objective of this study is to explore the application of Lean Six Sigma to determine root causes of process inefficiency and make recommendations for improving the order processing process at an automobile manufacturing facility. State of the art process quality improvement initiatives Lean, Six Sigma, and Lean Six Sigma are used to explore literature and provide a strong theoretical background for this study. Since the study utilizes both quantitative and qualitative data, the study’s methodological approach is classified as mixed methodology. The study is empirical in nature, and single case study is strategy chosen to complete the study. The …

Diagnostics And Degradation Investigations Of Li-Ion Battery Electrodes Using Single Nanowire Electrochemical Cells, Naveen Kumar Reddy Palapati, Naveen Kumar Reddy Palapati

Theses and Dissertations

Portable energy storage devices, which drive advanced technological devices, are improving the productivity and quality of our everyday lives. In order to meet the growing needs for energy storage in transportation applications, the current lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery technology requires new electrode materials with performance improvements in multiple aspects: (1) energy and power densities, (2) safety, and (3) performance lifetime. While a number of interesting nanomaterials have been synthesized in recent years with promising performance, accurate capabilities to probe the intrinsic performance of these high-performance materials within a battery environment are lacking. Most studies on electrode nanomaterials have so far used …

3d Seismic Structural And Stratigraphic Interpretation Of The Tui-3d Field, Taranaki Basin, New Zealand, Gorkem Yagci

Masters Theses

"Identifying seismic structures and stratigraphy are important for exploration of hydrocarbons. The purpose of this study is to discover seismic structural and stratigraphic features and to utilize the results for interpreting depositional environments. A 3D seismic dataset from the Tui-3D Field, the Taranaki Basin, New Zealand with well data were used to visualize structures, to detect stratigraphic features, to identify main lithology, to understand depositional environment, and to describe seismic facies and reflection patterns of the target horizons. The major formations are in the Kapuni Group.

Seismic structural interpretation indicates thirty-two minor faults, which may play an important role in …

Enhancing Project Management With Lean World Class Manufacturing In Construction, Jacob Randles

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

In construction, the goal of commercial projects is to turn a profit. This is achieved by minimizing inputs and maximizing outputs while building a product that meets the customer’s perception of value. Value is determined through pre-negotiated specifications, plans, and material quality. Even in U.S. military construction, the unit executing the construction wants to complete the task on time and on budget, which can be difficult to do. Studies on project completion showcase a surprisingly high rate of failure in reaching the aforementioned “on time, on budget” goal. It is important to understand the nuances and details of U.S. Army …

Developing Equations For Estimating Reference Evapotranspiration In Australia, Matin Ahooghalandari, Mehdi Khiadani, Mina Esmi Jahromi

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Quantifying reference evapotranspiration (ET₀) is essential in water resources management. Although, many methods have been developed with different level of accuracy, in this study, two new equations were developed and optimized for estimating ET₀ using Honey-Bee Mating Optimization (HBMO) algorithm. The firs eq. estimates ET₀ from extraterrestrial radiation (R_a), relative humidity (RH) and mean daily temperature (T_mean), while the second uses the same parameters except that mean daily temperatures is replaced with maximum daily air temperature (T_max). Both equations were developed using climatic data from eight weather stations in Western …