Engineering Commons^™

Decarbonizing Rural Residential Buildings In Cold Climates: A Techno-Economic Analysis Of Heating Electrification, Filippo Padovani, Nelson Sommerfeldt, Francesca Longobardi, Joshua M. Pearce

Michigan Tech Publications

Given the need for decarbonization of the heating sector and the acute need of a propane replacement in the U.S. Upper Midwest, this study quantifies the techno-economic characteristics of sustainable heating electrification in isolated rural, residential buildings in cold climates without natural gas supply. Archetypal buildings are modeled under four levels of electrification. At each electrification level, a parametric solar photovoltaic (PV) sizing analysis is performed and the total life cycle cost, renewable fraction and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are calculated based on the primary energy supply for each building type. Cost optimal solutions are stress-tested with multi-dimensional sensitivity analyses. …

Sliding Mode Control Of A Nonlinear Wave Energy Converter Model, Tania Demonte Gonzalez, Gordon Parker, Enrico Anderlini, Wayne Weaver

Michigan Tech Publications

The most accurate wave energy converter models for heaving point absorbers include nonlinearities, which increase as resonance is achieved to maximize the energy capture. Over the power production spectrum and within the physical limits of the devices, the efficiency of wave energy converters can be enhanced by employing a control scheme that accounts for these nonlinearities. This paper proposes a sliding mode control for a heaving point absorber that includes the nonlinear effects of the dynamic and static Froude‐Krylov forces. The sliding mode controller tracks a reference velocity that matches the phase of the excitation force to ensure higher energy …

Progressive Poling Of Large Area, High R33 Electro-Optic Polymer Seo100c, Michael Maurer, Evan Gawron, Christopher Middlebrook

Michigan Tech Publications

SEO100c, an EO-polymer, has been reported of having an r33 in excess of 100 pm/V. Experimental poling research was performed on rib waveguide modulator for device design and development. Reported is the determination of the impact that temperature and voltage have on the poling of a SEO100c waveguide device in order to maximize the r33 while avoiding damage to the device structure ensuring high yield in manufacture. The poling process is shown to have a nonlinear relationship between r33 and poling field aiding in the selection of achievable poling voltages for required r33 values. Device thermal stability is quantified and …

Open Source Vacuum Oven Design For Low-Temperature Drying: Performance Evaluation For Recycled Pet And Biomass, Benjamin R. Hubbard, Lindsay I. Putman, Stephen Techtmann, Joshua M. Pearce

Michigan Tech Publications

Vacuum drying can dehydrate materials further than dry heat methods, while protecting sensitive materials from thermal degradation. Many industries have shifted to vacuum drying as cost-or time-saving measures. Small-scale vacuum drying, however, has been limited by the high costs of specialty scientific tools. To make vacuum drying more accessible, this study provides design and performance information for a small-scale open source vacuum oven, which can be fabricated from off-the-shelf and 3-D printed components. The oven is tested for drying speed and effectiveness on both waste plastic polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and a consortium of bacteria developed for bioprocessing of terephthalate wastes …

U.S. Potential Of Sustainable Backyard Distributed Animal And Plant Protein Production During And After Pandemics, Theresa K. Meyer, Alexis Pascaris, David Denkenberger, Joshua M. Pearce

Michigan Tech Publications

To safeguard against meat supply shortages during pandemics or other catastrophes, this study analyzed the potential to provide the average household’s entire protein consumption using either soybean production or distributed meat production at the household level in the U.S. with: (1) pasture-fed rabbits, (2) pellet and hay-fed rabbits, or (3) pellet-fed chickens. Only using the average backyard resources, soybean cultivation can provide 80-160% of household protein and 0- 50% of a household’s protein needs can be provided by pasture-fed rabbits using only the yard grass as feed. If external supplementation of feed is available, raising 52 chickens while also harvesting …

Open Source 3d-Printable Planetary Roller Screw For Food Processing Applications, Marcello C. Guadagno, Jacob M. Loss, Joshua M. Pearce

Michigan Tech Publications

Historically, open source agriculture (OSA) was based on grassroots technology generally manufactured by hand tools or with manual machining. The rise of distributed digital manufacturing provides an opportunity for much more rapid lateral scaling of open source appropriate technologies for agriculture. However, the most mature distributed manufacturing area is plastic, which has limited use for many OSA applications. To overcome this limitation with design, this study reports on of a completely 3D-printable planetary roller screw linear actuator. The device is designed as a parametric script-based computer aided design (CAD) package to allow for the easy adaption for a number of …

Authors From All Over The World Share Their Tech In Hardwarex To Battle Covid-19, Joshua M. Pearce

Michigan Tech Publications

No abstract provided.

Economics Of Grid-Tied Solar Photovoltaic Systems Coupled To Heat Pumps: The Case Of Northern Climates Of The U.S. And Canada, Joshua M. Pearce, Nelson Sommerfeldt

Michigan Tech Publications

Solar photovoltaic (PV) technology is now a profitable method to decarbonize the grid, but if catastrophic climate change is to be avoided, emissions from transportation and heating must also decarbonize. One approach to renewable heating is leveraging improvements in PV with heat pumps (HPs). To determine the potential for PV+HP systems in northern areas of North America, this study performs numerical simulations and economic analysis using the same loads and climate, but with local electricity and natural gas rates for Sault Ste. Marie, in both Canada and U.S. Ground-mounted, fixed-tilt, grid-tied PV systems are sized to match 100% of electric …

Sensing Methods For Two-Target And Four-Target Detection In Time-Constrained Vector Poisson And Gaussian Channels, Muhammad Fahad

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

In this dissertation we consider a sensor scheduling or resource management problem for a vector Poisson and Gaussian channels. The input is a binary random vector and the output is a set of conditionally independent Poisson or Gaussian random variables. The objective is to design a scaling matrix, which is a linear transformation whose purpose is to entangle the different inputs, under a total given energy/time constraint. The two metrics are adopted to quantify the performance of the designed scaling matrix: mutual information and Bayesian inference. In other words, it is an experimental design problem where the objective is to …

Real Time Adaptive Relay Settings For Microgrid Protection Verified Using Hardware In Loop, Aadam Harnekar

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Microgrids with penetration of renewables is imposing new challenges for system protection. Renewables are characterized with high source impedance which limit the short circuit current. The value of short-circuit current is limited due to converters used which limit the current to a maximum of 1.1 to 1.5 times maximum rated load current. This can result in faults during the islanded mode of microgrid to go unnoticed if the relay settings are not adapted to account for it. The presence of such uncleared faults in the microgrid can result in exposing it to overcurrent for a long time which can damage …

Nonlinear Model Predictive Control Of Wave Energy Converter, Isha Malekar

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

In this report model predictive control (MPC) is applied to a simulated, spherical, point absorber wave energy converter to maximize energy extraction. Constraints are applied to the buoy's displacement and the power take-off (PTO) generator force. The WEC's "truth” model uses nonlinear Froude-Krylov (FK) hydrostatic and hydrodynamic forces. This is in contrast with previous studies where linear approximations are used in the form of a hydrostatic stiffness force and a wave excitation force. The nonlinear forces become significant when the vertical displacement of the buoy exceeds about 40% of the buoy's radius. Two versions of MPC are compared where optimal …

Towards Systems On Cloth: The Design, Manufacturing, And Validation Of Open-Source Embroidered Resistors, Somerset Schrock

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

This thesis is focused on advancing embroidered wearable electronics and textile electronics by creating open-source flexible resistors. Advancements in textile electronics could usher a new generation of smart devices that are entirely flexible. Current systems on cloth primarily use rigid components, which limits the flexibility and comfort of using the fabric devices. To advance this field, I propose a novel method of creating flexible electrical resistors with embroidery. To realize this technology, I created an open-source tool to create embroidery files for machine fabrication. This thesis details the methods and tools created for resistor fabrication. The resistors were tested to …

A Transdisciplinary Analysis Of Just Transition Pathways To 100% Renewable Electricity, Adewale Aremu Adesanya

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

The transition to using clean, affordable, and reliable electrical energy is critical for enhancing human opportunities and capabilities. In the United States, many states and localities are engaging in this transition despite the lack of ambitious federal policy support. This research builds on the theoretical framework of the multilevel perspective (MLP) of sociotechnical transitions as well as the concept of energy justice to investigate potential pathways to 100 percent renewable energy (RE) for electricity provision in the U.S. This research seeks to answer the question: what are the technical, policy, and perceptual pathways, barriers, and opportunities for just transition to …

Superresolution Enhancement With Active Convolved Illumination, Anindya Ghoshroy

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

The first two decades of the 21st century witnessed the emergence of “metamaterials”. The prospect of unrestricted control over light-matter interactions was a major contributing factor leading to the realization of new technologies and advancement of existing ones. While the field certainly does not lack innovative applications, widespread commercial deployment may still be several decades away. Fabrication of sophisticated 3d micro and nano structures, specially for telecommunications and optical frequencies will require a significant advancement of current technologies. More importantly, the effects of absorption and scattering losses will require a robust solution since this renders any conceivable application of metamaterials …

Light Field Compression And Manipulation Via Residual Convolutional Neural Network, Eisa Hedayati

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Light field (LF) imaging has gained significant attention due to its recent success in microscopy, 3-dimensional (3D) displaying and rendering, augmented and virtual reality usage. Postprocessing of LF enables us to extract more information from a scene compared to traditional cameras. However, the use of LF is still a research novelty because of the current limitations in capturing high-resolution LF in all of its four dimensions. While researchers are actively improving methods of capturing high-resolution LF's, using simulation, it is possible to explore a high-quality captured LF's properties. The immediate concerns following the LF capture are its storage and processing …

Development Of Autonomous Vehicle Motion Planning And Control Algorithm With D* Planner And Model Predictive Control In A Dynamic Environment, Somnath Mondal

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

The research in this report incorporates the improvement in the autonomous driving capability of self-driving cars in a dynamic environment. Global and local path planning are implemented using the D* path planning algorithm with a combined Cubic B-Spline trajectory generator, which generates an optimal obstacle free trajectory for the vehicle to follow and avoid collision. Model Predictive Control (MPC) is used for the longitudinal and the lateral control of the vehicle. The presented motion planning and control algorithm is tested using Model-In-the-Loop (MIL) method with the help of MATLAB® Driving Scenario Designer and Unreal Engine® Simulator by Epic Games®. Different …

The Application Of Leaky Wave Antennas For Medical Hyperthermia Treatment And Beamformer In Fmcw Automotive Radar Systems, Masoud Sarabi

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Thousands of years ago human discovered that if a slice of amber is rubbed against fur, it would absorb light-weight objects. Hundreds of years after that the ancient people figured out that there are actually two different characteristics of attraction and repulsion. Another 2000 years passed when human discovered that these two wonders of nature, magnetism and electricity are actually linked together like the two sides of the same coin. Since then, in the early 19th century great huge achievements were made in antennas and propagation by scientists such as Hans Christen Oersted, Heinrich Hertz, Alexander Popov and Marconi. Since …

Open-Source Tig-Based Metal 3d-Printing, Shane Oberloier

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Metal 3-D printing has been relegated to high-cost proprietary high-resolution systems and low-resolution low-cost metal inert gas (MIG) systems. In order to provide a path to high-resolution, low-cost, metal 3-D printing, this manuscript proposes a new open source metal 3-D printer design based around a low-cost tungsten inert gas (TIG) welder coupled to a commercial open source self replicating rapid prototyper. Optimal printing parameters for the machine are acquired using a novel computational intelligence software. TIG has many advantages over MIG, such as having a low heat input, clean beads, and the potential for both high-resolution prints as well as …

Quantifying The Value Of Foam-Based Flexible Floating Solar Photovoltaic Systems, Koami Soulemane Hayibo

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Distributed generation with solar photovoltaic (PV) technology is economically competitive if net metered in the U.S. Yet there is evidence that net metering is misrepresenting the true value of distributed solar generation so that the value of solar (VOS) is becoming the preferred method for evaluating economics of grid-tied PV. VOS calculations are challenging and there is widespread disagreement in the literature on the methods and data needed. To overcome these limitations, this thesis reviews past VOS studies to develop a generalized model that considers realistic future avoided costs and liabilities. The approach used here is bottom-up modeling where the …

Reverse Engineering Of Short Circuit Analyses, Anurag Nagpure

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

The electrical distribution system has evolved with embedded computer systems that can better manage the electrical fault that occurred around the feeders. Such random events can affect the reliability indices of overall systems. Computerized management system for distribution operation has been improving with the advanced sensing technologies. The general research question is here to articulate is the responsiveness for utility crew to pinpoint the exact location of a fault based on the SCADA fault indicators from pole-mounted feeder remote terminal units (FRTUs). This has been a tricky question because it relies on the information received from the sensors that can …

Integration Of Robotic And Electro-Pneumatic Systems Using Advanced Control And Communication Schemes, Chinmay Kondekar

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Modern industrial automation systems are designed by interconnecting various subsystems which work together to perform a process. The thesis project aims to integrate fragmented subsystems into a flexible and reconfigurable system through advanced communication protocols and perform a process to demonstrate the effectiveness of interconnected systems.

The system consists of three six-axis robots, one electro-pneumatic robot, and two conveyors connected using EthernetIP communication and hardwired connections. The interconnected system works together to perform machining of a workpiece using advanced control methods of CAD to robot path generation, central control through a PLC, and process control through HMI.

Standardized programming blocks …

Saturation Behaviors In Deep Turbulence, Jeffrey R. R. Beck

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Distributed-volume atmospheric turbulence near the ground significantly limits the performance of incoherent imaging and coherent beam projection systems operating over long horizontal paths. Defense, military and civilian surveillance, border security, and target identification systems are interested in terrestrial imaging and beam projection over very long horizontal paths, but atmospheric turbulence can blur the imagery and aberrate the laser beam such that they are beyond usefulness. While many post-processing and adaptive optics techniques have been developed to mitigate the effects of turbulence, many of these techniques do not work as expected in stronger volumetric turbulence, or in many cases don't work …