Engineering Commons^™

Assessing The Engineering Performance Of Affordable Net-Zero Energy Housing, Jordan P. Wallpe

Purdue Polytechnic Masters Theses

The purpose of this research was to evaluate affordable technologies that are capable of providing attractive, cost-effective energy savings to the housing industry. The research did so by investigating the 2011 Solar Decathlon competition, with additional insight from the Purdue INhome. Insight from the Purdue INhome verified the importance of using a three step design process to design a net-zero energy building. In addition, energy consumption values of the INhome were used to compare and contrast different systems used in other houses.

Evaluation of unbiased competition contests gave a better understanding of how a house can realistically reach net-zero. Upon …

Improving Manufacturing Processes Through Energy Monitoring, Andrew Grzelak

Purdue Polytechnic Masters Theses

Energy efficiency and sustainability are very popular topics in the current field of manufacturing. With the increase in use of automation technology as well as the recent growth in the area of energy management, there is much focus on the overall improvement of manufacturing processes. For this research a project was completed to create a system that could improve both process efficiency as well as decrease energy consumption. By taking a look at the machine level energy consumption of an automated piece of manufacturing equipment, by eliminating waste in process, both energy efficiency and operational efficiency can be improved.

Using …

Acoustic Emission Detection Of Metals And Alloys During Machining Operations, Jameson K. Nelson

Purdue Polytechnic Masters Theses

Nelson, Jameson K. M.S., Purdue University, May 2012. Acoustic Emission Detection of Metals and Alloys During Machining Operations. Major Professor: Rodney G. Handy.

Practical correlation between material deformation attributes and theoretical concepts of machining has proven difficult to attain. The purpose of this study was to further explore trends and relationships using acoustic emission detection of materials undergoing single-point lathe turning machine processes. The majority of machining experiments that incorporate acoustic emissions focuses on tool degradation for the purposes of optimizing consumables required to manufacture mechanical devices. Experiments were implemented varying recording location, mechanical barrier condition, and machine parameters. The …

Evaluating Net-Zero Energy Houses From The U.S. Department Of Energy Solar Decathlon 2011, Jordan P. Wallpe, William J. Hutzel, Gregory Lasker, Clark Cory

School of Engineering Technology Faculty Publications

The Solar Decathlon is a two year, international project where university students compete to design, build, and test energy-efficient, net-zero homes. By definition, net-zero energy houses annually produce as much electricity as they consume. The 2011 Solar Decathlon, held in Washington D.C., had 19 university teams from around the world.

Unfortunately, many past Solar Decathlon houses have traditionally been very costly. However, the 2011 Solar Decathlon was the first competition to have an affordability contest. The affordability contest required each home to be valued under an estimated builder’s cost of $250,000, forcing the teams to select economically feasible solutions for …

Resolving Structure And Mechanical Properties At The Nanoscale Of Viruses With Frequency Modulation Atomic Force Microscopy, David Martinez-Martin, Carolina Carrasco, Mercedes Hernando-Pérez, P. J. De Pablo, Júlio Gómez-Herrero, Rebeca Pérez, Mauricio Garcia Mateu, José López Carrascosa, Daniel Roy Kiracofe, John C. Melcher, Arvind Raman

School of Mechanical Engineering Faculty Publications

Structural Biology (SB) techniques are particularly successful in solving virus structures. Taking advantage of the symmetries, a heavy averaging on the data of a large number of specimens, results in an accurate determination of the structure of the sample. However, these techniques do not provide true single molecule information of viruses in physiological conditions. To answer many fundamental questions about the quickly expanding physical virology it is important to develop techniques with the capability to reach nanometer scale resolution on both structure and physical properties of individual molecules in physiological conditions. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) fulfills these requirements providing images …