Engineering Commons^™

Pt-Net: A Multi-Model Machine Learning Approach For Smarter Next-Generation Wearable Tremor Suppression Devices For Parkinson's Disease Tremor, Anas Ibrahim

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), Parkinson's Disease (PD) is the second most common neurodegenerative condition that can cause tremors and other motor and non motor related symptoms. Medication and deep brain stimulation (DBS) are often used to treat tremor; however, medication is not always effective and has adverse effects, and DBS is invasive and carries a significant risk of complications. Wearable tremor suppression devices (WTSDs) have been proposed as a possible alternative, but their effectiveness is limited by the tremor models they use, which introduce a phase delay that decreases the performance of the devices. Additionally, the availability …

Design And Evaluation Of Fabric Cooling Channels For Twisted Coiled Actuators, Alex Lizotte

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Twisted coiled actuators (TCAs) are biomimetic and inexpensive artificial muscles. To enable their integration into soft robotics, a novel cooling apparatus was designed, consisting of a fabric channel to house the TCA and a miniature air pump for forced convection. The channel was designed to be lightweight, flexible, and easy to integrate into a soft wearable robotic device. The effect that the channel dimensions had on TCA performance (cooling time, heating time, and stroke) was investigated by testing combinations of three widths (6, 8, and 10 mm) and three heights (4, 6, and 8 mm). In general, as the channel …

Development Of A Computationally Efficient Method For Modelling Thermal Energy Storage In Packed Beds Of Spherically Encapsulated Phase Change Material, Colin Jaffray

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

A novel computationally efficient method for modelling melting and solidification processes in packed beds of PCM encapsulated spheres is introduced. The proposed method involves the full discretization of only one centrally located sphere to fully simulate the phase change process, while treating all other spheres in the packed bed as voids with boundary conditions derived from the simulated sphere. At each time step, the computed heat transfer parameters on the exterior surface of the simulated sphere undergoing the phase change process are extracted, and imposed as boundary conditions on surrounding spheres. The proposed method results in a significant reduction in …

Enhanced Performance Of 3d Electroactive Polymer Transducers Via Hierarchical Structures, Frederick B. Holness

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Conjugated polymers (CPs) are a class of polymers that exhibit a change in size or shape in response to electrical stimuli. The unique combination of electrical and mechanical properties facilitates the fabrication of novel devices in a broad range of applications including: sensors, actuators, and lab-on-a-chip systems. The alternating single and double bonds along the polymer chain of CPs enables their electroactive properties but is also responsible for processability associated with CPs that has limited fabrication methods. Recently a photosensitive CP composite enabling additive manufacturing (AM) of 3D CP structures was developed. However, the introduction of a copolymer for mechanical …

Wind-Borne Debris Resistance Of Façades: Identification Of Alternative Impact Test Requirements, Angela Mejorin

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Climate change effects are causing a steady increase of previous records both in terms of monetary losses and in fatality occurrence due to severe storms. The frequency and intensity of disaster events are increasing worldwide and areas that were excluded from these extreme weather scenarios in the past, are now looking for solutions to increase the urban resilience. Among others, extreme winds are endangering the built environment, often leading to the breakage of the primary barrier to protect people and property: the building envelope. On May 22nd, 2011, the Joplin tornado killed 161 people, and 14 of those were receiving …

Behavioral Biometrics-Based Continuous User Authentication, Sanket Vilas Salunke

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The field of cybersecurity is exploring new ways to defend against cyber-attacks, including a technique called continuous user authentication. This method uses keystroke (typing) data to continuously match the user's typing pattern with patterns previously recorded using artificial intelligence (AI) to identify the user. While this approach has the potential to improve security, it also has some challenges, including the time it takes to register a user, the performance of machine learning algorithms on real-world data, and latency within the system. In this study, the researchers proposed solutions to these issues by using transfer learning to reduce user registration time, …

A Novel Passive Islanding Detection Method Based On Phase-Locked Loop, Hoda Zamani

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The ever-increasing penetration of distributed energy resources in power distribution systems has led to challenges in the detection of islanding. Among different islanding detection methods (IDMs), passive methods are the least intrusive and typically require the lowest investment cost. However, they generally suffer from larger non-detection zones (NDZs) and higher nuisance detection ratios as compared to active, hybrid, and remote IDMs. This study provides an overview of the criteria outlined in the existing technical literature for the performance evaluation of IDMs, a review and comparison of the existing passive IDMs, and an analysis of the phase-locked loop (PLL) behaviour under …

Diffusion-Dependent Electrodes For All-Solid-State Lithium-Ion Batteries, Peiman Mardani

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Electrode design, which is closely related to electronic and ionic transport, has a significant impact on all-solid-state batteries' performance. Typically, a combination of the active material and solid electrolyte serves as the electrode for all-solid-state batteries. An effective scaling technique to spatially organize the two components is essential for high-performance all-solid-state batteries. Here, an electrode design for all-solid-state batteries is given with a higher energy density than the typical composite-type electrode. The first section of the thesis presents a simple electrode design that primarily consists of blended active materials of graphite and phosphorus to meet the demands of all-solid-state batteries …

Effects Of Climate Change On The Probability Of Urban Tree Failures From Wind Gusts, Samuel J. Woolsey

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Trees grown in urban environments provide environmental, economic and psychological benefits to their surrounding communities. However, urban trees also pose significant risks since damaged trees can cause serious harm to people, housing, and infrastructure by falling on sidewalks, roads, houses or power lines. To better understand the risk posed to trees by wind, models have been developed that estimates the required wind speed needed to damage a tree or group of trees, and the likelihood that such a wind speed is met or exceeded annually. The importance of such models is rising each year as the associated risk grows as …

Quantification Of Flows Emerging From Small Pores In Plane Walls, Matia Peter Edwards

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Current membrane separation processes are limited in high production and high purity settings due to a trade-off between selectivity and permeance. Methods of creating nanoscale geometries in 2D materials are emerging and present an opportunity for fast, size selective mass transport that can be tailored to a wide array of applications. This thesis develops a method for quantifying flow through small pores in plane walls based on the behaviour of a solute dispersed in a downstream reservoir. This method is validated for a range of micropore diameters, for which flow rates can be calculated with confidence, and is shown to …

Near-Ir Laser Ablation Of Simulated Radiologically Contaminated Oxides On Carbon Steel Feeder Pipes, Thao Viet Do

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

As nuclear power plants age and retire from service, many countries face significant challenges concerning the safe long-term storage and disposal of large volumes of low and intermediate level radioactive wastes (L&ILW). The volumes of metallic waste are of particular concern, as when metal corrodes it produces hydrogen that could lead to pressure build-up in interim storage and disposal. In Canada, a significant fraction of the metallic wastes for Canada Deuterium Uranium (CANDU) nuclear reactors are out-of-core reactor components, such as carbon steel (CS) feeder pipes. The radioactive contamination is expected to be largely confined to the surface oxide layers …

Pressure Drop And Heat Transfer In Flow Over An Array Of Blocks Of Varying Heights: A Statistical And Ai Analysis On The Effect Of Block Height Variation, Ali Navidi

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The presence of a stiff obstruction in the path of fluid causes the creation of a boundary layer over and around the obstruction. The flow over an idealized, two-dimensional series of blocks is numerically investigated to determine how statistical blocks height variation, such as standard deviation, mean, and skewness, influence pressure drop and heat flux. These data sets serve as a foundation for developing models for estimating the heat transfer coefficient of each block using machine learning (ML) methods. The results show that the pressure drop increased by 60% when the standard deviation of heights of blocks increased from 0.1 …

A Numerical Method For Studying The Effectiveness Of Polyurethane Foam As Personal Protective Equipment Material, Lamia Tahsin Aroni

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis documents the characterization of flexible polyurethane foam (FPF) to be used as a personal protective equipment material. Polyurethane samples were tested experimentally to calculate the physical properties which were later re-created using a numerical model. A discrete element modeling software was used to generate the geometry to mimic the physical properties of FPF. The pore level numerical model was used to calculate the possible rate of particle penetration for a range (0.2 -200) µm of particle sizes. A parametric study was done using the polyurethane foam parameters to understand the breathing dynamics under steady conditions. The possible particle …

A Framework For Stable Robot-Environment Interaction Based On The Generalized Scattering Transformation, Kanstantsin Pachkouski

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis deals with development and experimental evaluation of control algorithms for stabilization of robot-environment interaction based on the conic systems formalism and scattering transformation techniques. A framework for stable robot-environment interaction is presented and evaluated on a real physical system. The proposed algorithm fundamentally generalizes the conventional passivity-based approaches to the coupled stability problem. In particular, it allows for stabilization of not necessarily passive robot-environment interaction. The framework is based on the recently developed non-planar conic systems formalism and generalized scattering-based stabilization methods. A comprehensive theoretical background on the scattering transformation techniques, planar and non-planar conic systems is presented. …

Production Of Cellulose-Based Superabsorbent Polymers For Soil Water Retention, Rosa Maria Arredondo Ramirez

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Superabsorbent polymers (SAPs) have attracted tremendous attention, with researchers noting that their high water absorption capacity (AC) is valuable for various applications, especially in agricultural contexts. Two types of materials can be used to produce SAPs: fossil-based (which are harmful to the environment) and bio-based (which are significantly more environmentally friendly, given their biodegradability and minimal toxic side effects). Although bio-based SAPs (Bio-SAPs) are preferable due to their environmental merits, their preparation tends to be time consuming and labour intensive, and their AC is still far below expectations. To address these problems, a novel, eco-friendly, cellulose-based superabsorbent polymer (Cellulo-SAP) was …

Low Overhead And Application-Oriented Synchronization In Heterogeneous Internet Of Things Systems, Haide Wang

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Recent evolution in the Internet of Things (IoT) and Cyber–physical systems (CPS) is expected to change everyday life of its users by enabling low latency and reliable communication, coordinated task execution and real time data processing among pervasive intelligence through the communication network. Precise time synchronization, as a prerequisite for a chronological ordering of information or synchronous execution, has become a vital constituent for many time-sensitive applications.

On one hand, Internet of Things (IoT) systems rely heavily on the temporal coherence among its distributed constituents during data fusion and analysis, however the existing solutions for data synchronization, do not easily …

Mechanical Evaluation Of Gyroid Structures To Combat Orthopaedic Implant Infections, Sydney Hitchon

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Treatment of infected orthopaedic implants often require two separate surgeries to clear the infection and install a replacement implant. Current antimicrobial drug delivery methods are inefficient, and each additional surgery increases the physiologic burden on patients, with an increased risk of infection, decreased range of motion and longer recovery times. Porous orthopaedic implants, with adequate strength for permanent implantation and the ability to house and elude more efficient antibiotic delivery systems, could result in a single surgery to treat orthopaedic infections. Therefore, finite element models of porous gyroid structures at different porosities were developed and compared with experimental results. Discrepancies …

Development Of A Near-Full-View Angle Coverage Photoacoustic Tomography System And Its Application Towards Optical Fluence Distribution Imaging, Lawrence Cm Yip

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Photoacoustic tomography (PAT) is a widely explored hybrid imaging modality combining advantages of ultrasound and optical imaging. However, on the acoustic detection side, limited-view angle coverage and limited-detector bandwidth are common key issues in PAT systems that result in unwanted artifacts. While analytical and simulation studies of limited-view artifacts are extensive, experimental setups capable of comparing limited-view to an ideal full-view case are lacking. Due to the lack of PAT systems capable of artifact-free full-view imaging, applications for such a system have also been left unexplored.

A custom ring-shaped detector array was assembled and mounted to a 6-axis robot, which …

Development Of A Two-Axis Cyclic Loading Device For Mechanical Testing Of Glenoid Component Fixation, Cintya Tavares

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The fundamental mechanism of aseptic glenoid component loosening, the rocking horse phenomenon, is a reaction to glenohumeral articular forces that are not centered on the component. While glenoid component loosening remains a problem, the underlying mechanisms that lead to fixation failure at the bone-component contact remain controversial. Several studies employing the ASTM F2028 technique have successfully recreated the rocking horse effect. However, no obvious strategy to decrease component loosening has been presented. This thesis investigates the behavior of forces that lead to component loosening on cyclically loaded components using three different protocols and testing apparatuses—a Stewart Platform, a cyclic loading …

Spatiotemporal Changes Of Lagged Compound Dry And Wet Spells In The Northwest North America Under Climate Change, Reza Rezvani

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Recently, an upsurge in the occurrence of hydroclimatic extremes and their temporal swings is observed in several regions around the world. Such transitions to the contrasting extremes such as the drought to flood in California (2016 – 17) has raised concerns about the increasing variability and rapid transitions between hydrological extremes and their associated compounding economic and environmental impacts. The intensification of the global hydrological cycle associated with climate change can further alter the drivers of such extremes and their interactions. Therefore, it is important to understand the characteristics of consecutive flood and drought events, including their spatiotemporal frequency and …

Design Of Stick-Framed Wood Roofs Under Extreme Wind Loads, Caspar Bain

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Light-frame wood construction comprises nearly 90% of the housing industry in
Canada and the United States. The roofs of these houses can be constructed either
entirely on site or using prefabricated trusses. Assembling the roof structure on site,
otherwise known as stick-framing, is a framing technique with current code guidelines
that are based on past practice and limited consideration of wind loads. This makes
these roof structures susceptible to failure in high-speed wind events, such as tornadoes. Around 90% of all tornadoes in Canada fall in or below the EF-2 category,
making it a possible target for design of wood-frame …

Numerical Investigations Of The Fluid Flow And Heat Transfer And Construction Of Control System For The Canadian Supercritical Water-Cooled Reactor Power Plant, Huirui Han

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Canada participated in the Generation IV nuclear reactors with the Supercritical Water-Cooled Reactor (SCWR) concept. This work focuses on the numerical studies of the fluid flow and heat transfer of the supercritical water in the nuclear reactor fuel bundle, and the construction of the linear dynamic model and the design of the control system for the Canadian SCWR power plant.

Firstly, the fluid flow and heat transfer of the supercritical water in the vertical tube and the rod bundle is numerically investigated to evaluate whether the existing turbulent models could successfully caption the wall temperature variations at supercritical conditions by …

An Explicit Model For Simplified Flutter Analysis Of Long-Span Bridges, Tibebu Hunegn Birhane

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The collapse of the First Tacoma Bridge in 1940 at a wind speed of about 18m/s triggered the need to recognize aerodynamic stability as a design constraint for long-span bridges. The advancement in understanding and modeling of dynamic wind effects has played a significant role in the realization of long-span bridges with a clear span of up to 2 km. However, the need to span longer, the risk of windstorms exceeding the strongest recorded in the past, and consequently, the quest for optimized design solutions continue to evolve.

A rigorous nature of aerodynamic stability analysis techniques poses a challenge to …

Development Of A Hybrid Stereotactic Guidance System For Percutaneous Liver Tumour Ablation, Joeana N. Cambranis Romero

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Stereotactic Image-Guided Surgical Navigation System (IGSNS) supports percutaneous procedures by using medical imaging and tracking information, to assist the surgeons in the preprocedural planning and intraprocedural steps. This thesis describes the development of a stereotactic IGSNS for percutaneous liver tumour ablation, the goal of which is to assist in positioning the tip of the ablation applicator accurately to ensure complete tumour coverage. The main system improvement is the employment of a mini stereotactic patient-attach aiming device that is used as a pointer to ensure needle tip position prior to needle insertion. The thesis chapters describe the development and validation of …

The Novel Application Of Electrical Resistivity Tomography For Spatiotemporal Monitoring Of Urban Stormwater Bioretention Systems, Darren Alvarenga

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Bioretention systems are an increasingly popular low-impact development (LID) stormwater management approach that are used to reduce the water quantity and quality impacts of urban stormwater. The study investigated the feasibility and benefits of using non-invasive time-lapse electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) to understand the infiltration and soil moisture dynamics within bioretention systems. This was achieved through monitoring two field-scale operational bioretention systems in London, Ontario, Canada. High-resolution two-dimensional time-lapse ERT surveys were first completed during synthetic and natural rain events to assess the viability of time-lapse ERT to monitor soil moisture changes during events. Following this, three-dimensional ERT surveys were …

Modelling And Evaluation Of Piezoelectric Actuators For Wearable Neck Rehabilitation Devices, Shaemus D. Tracey

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Neck pain is the most common neck musculoskeletal disorder, and the fourth leading cause of healthy years lost due to disability in the world. Due to the need of hands-on physical therapy and Canada’s aging population, access to treatment will become highly constrained. Wearable devices that allow at-home rehabilitation address this future limitation. However, few have emerged from the laboratory setting because they are limited by the use of conventional actuators. An overlooked type of actuation technology is that of piezoelectric actuators, more specifically, travelling wave ultrasonic motors (TWUM).

In this work, a clear procedure that outlines how the required …

Modelling And Simulation Of Nonstationary Non-Gaussian Wind Speed And Wind Pressure Coefficients, Minyu Xiao

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The time series of the wind speed from hurricane and downburst events can exhibit nonstationary non-Gaussian characteristics. Moreover, the time series of the wind pressure for a stationary wind may not be Gaussian. This thesis is focused on analyzing, characterizing, and simulating nonstationary/stationary Gaussian/non-Gaussian of wind speed and wind pressure coefficients by using time-frequency transform techniques such as the S-transform (ST) and discrete orthonormal S-transform (DOST). It is shown that by removing the mean of downburst winds, the multivariate nonstationary downburst wind speed processes can be efficiently decomposed and simulated by applying ST and DOST. It was also found that …

Improved Imaging Of Dense Non-Aqueous Phase Liquids With Three-Dimensional Surface-To-Horizontal Borehole Electrical Resistivity Tomography (S2hb Ert), Maxwell L. Servos

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Clean-up of sites polluted with dense non-aqueous phase liquids (DNAPLs) remain a highly challenging problem. Numerous technologies are available for remediating DNAPL-contaminated sites, but their performance relies on accurate characterization and monitoring of the subsurface. Electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) is a well-established and widely used geophysical method that has been used effectively for mapping subsurface features and processes of interest. ERT can gather large volumes of continuous subsurface information in a non-destructive, cost-effective, and time-efficient manner, and exhibits highly desirable characteristics for application to DNAPL sites. However, the most traditional configuration for employing ERT is from the surface, and this …

Numerical Investigation Of Flow And Thermal Behavior In Channels With Pcm-Filled Thermal Energy Storage Columns For Potential Application In Photobioreactors, Sameed Akber

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Microalgae has been identified as a potential source in the production of biofuel. Photobioreactors, which are used for microalgae production, normally experience temperature variations over the diurnal cycle due to changes in ambient conditions. The thermal regulation of photobioreactors to minimize temperature variations will result in a higher yield of microalgae, which are sensitive to such variations. The present research is aimed to investigate a novel approach to thermally regulate photobioreactors using phase change materials (PCM) where the latent heat of the material is exploited as the energy storage. The present research uses a numerical approach to study the flow …

Efficient Discovery And Utilization Of Radio Information In Ultra-Dense Heterogeneous 3d Wireless Networks, Mattaka Gamage Samantha Sriyananda

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Emergence of new applications, industrial automation and the explosive boost of smart concepts have led to an environment with rapidly increasing device densification and service diversification. This revolutionary upward trend has led the upcoming 6th-Generation (6G) and beyond communication systems to be globally available communication, computing and intelligent systems seamlessly connecting devices, services and infrastructure facilities. In this kind of environment, scarcity of radio resources would be upshot to an unimaginably high level compelling them to be very efficiently utilized. In this case, timely action is taken to deviate from approximate site-specific 2-Dimensional (2D) network concepts in radio resource utilization …