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Articles 2221 - 2250 of 4850

Full-Text Articles in Engineering

Terminological Mediation In Information Technology And Related Fields, Jessica Smith Richards Jul 2015

Terminological Mediation In Information Technology And Related Fields, Jessica Smith Richards

Theses and Dissertations

Terminological dissonance is created by the inherent ambiguity of natural language and compounded by ontological specialization efforts within fields. Terminological dissonance creates high-risk miscommunications in two key areas: within Information Technology as a singular domain, and also between IT and other fields in interdisciplinary projects. A comprehensive literature review revealed a lack of previous effort to acknowledge or solve problems of terminological dissonance within Information Technology. This research provides a comprehensive overview and definition of the terminology mediation space as it relates to Information Technology and adjacent fields. An analysis and verification of the contents and implementation of the terminology …

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Temperature Measurement Using Infrared Spectral Band Emissions From H2o, Daniel Jared Ellis Jul 2015

Temperature Measurement Using Infrared Spectral Band Emissions From H2o, Daniel Jared Ellis

Theses and Dissertations

Currently there is no known method for accurately measuring the temperature of the gas phase of combustion products within a solid fuel flame. The industry standard is a suction pyrometer and thermocouple which is intrusive, both spatially and temporally averaging, and difficult to use. In this work a new method utilizing the spectral emission from water vapor is investigated through modeling and experimental measurements. This method was demonstrated along a 0.75m line of sight, averaged over 1 minute in the products of a natural gas flame but has the potential to produce a spatial resolution on the order of 5 …

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A Cloud-Based Gssha Index Map Editor Utility For Watershed Decision Support, Jocelynn Marie Anderson Jul 2015

A Cloud-Based Gssha Index Map Editor Utility For Watershed Decision Support, Jocelynn Marie Anderson

Theses and Dissertations

Preventing damages from flooding is critically important for city managers and planners.Efforts in protecting infrastructure from flooding are often coupled with building hydrologicmodels to provide predictions of what is likely to happen during storm events. As land usechanges, these models must be updated, which is more challenging with sophisticated models. Ateam of researchers from universities in Utah and Wyoming have been developing tools forwater management in the Intermountain West as part of a collaborative NSF research grantcalled CI-WATER. In particular, a free and open source web platform called Tethys has beendeveloped to support the development and hosting of hydrologic web …

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Evaluation Of Empirical Prediction Methods For Liquefaction-Induced Lateral Spread From The 2010 Maule, Chile, MW 8.8 Earthquake In Port Coronel, Nicole D. Williams Jul 2015

Evaluation Of Empirical Prediction Methods For Liquefaction-Induced Lateral Spread From The 2010 Maule, Chile, MW 8.8 Earthquake In Port Coronel, Nicole D. Williams

Theses and Dissertations

Over the past several decades, empirical formulas have been developed and improved to predict liquefaction and lateral spread based on a database of case histories from observed earthquakes, such as Youd et al. (2002) and Rauch and Martin (2000). The 2010 Maule Chile earthquake is unique first of all because it is recent and was not used to develop recent liquefaction and lateral spread evaluation methods, and therefore can be reasonably used to evaluate the effectiveness of such equations. Additionally, the 8.8 magnitude megathrust event fills a significant gap in the databases used to develop these empirical formulas, which tends …

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Comparison Of Two Wake Models For Use In Gradient-Based Wind Farm Layout Optimization, Jared Thomas, Eric Tingey, Andrew Ning Jul 2015

Comparison Of Two Wake Models For Use In Gradient-Based Wind Farm Layout Optimization, Jared Thomas, Eric Tingey, Andrew Ning

Faculty Publications

Wind farm layout has a significant impact on the productivity of a wind farm. To ensure that the turbines are placed in the most advantageous arrangement, optimization algorithms are often used during the layout design process. Depending on the wake model used for the optimization, optimizing the layout can be time intensive or potentially inaccurate. In this paper we present a comparison of optimization results using two simple wake models, the FLORIS model and the Jensen model. Results highlight some of the key similarities and differences of layout optimization results when different wake models are used.

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Plant-Level Dynamic Optimization Of Cryogenic Carbon Capture With Conventional And Renewable Power Sources, Seyed M. Safdarnejad, John Hedengren, Larry Lin Baxter Jul 2015

Plant-Level Dynamic Optimization Of Cryogenic Carbon Capture With Conventional And Renewable Power Sources, Seyed M. Safdarnejad, John Hedengren, Larry Lin Baxter

Faculty Publications

Increasing competitiveness of renewable power sources due to tightening restrictions on CO2 emission from fossil fuel combustion is expected to cause a shift in power generation systems of the future. This investigation considers the impact of the Cryogenic Carbon Capture™ (CCC) process on transitional power generation. The CCC process consumes less energy than chemical and physical absorption processes and has an energy storage capability that shifts the parasitic loss of the CCC process away from peak hours. The CCC process responds rapidly to the variation of electricity demand and has a time constant that is consistent with the intermittent …

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Effect Of Airfoil And Composite Layer Thicknesses On An Aerostructural Blade Optimization For Wind Turbines, Ryan Barrett, Ian Freeman, Andrew Ning Jul 2015

Effect Of Airfoil And Composite Layer Thicknesses On An Aerostructural Blade Optimization For Wind Turbines, Ryan Barrett, Ian Freeman, Andrew Ning

Faculty Publications

The purpose of this research is to enhance the performance of wind turbine blades by exploring the effect of adding airfoil and material layer thicknesses to the optimization design process. This is accomplished by performing an aerostructural blade optimization to minimize mass over annual energy production and thereby reduce the cost of energy. Changing airfoil thickness allows the airfoil shape to evolve as part of the optimization. The airfoil thicknesses are allowed to vary within two airfoil families, the TU-Delft and NACA 64-series, that are used in the NREL 5-MW reference turbine. Both experimental wind tunnel and computational data are …

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Wind Farm Layout Optimization Using Sound Pressure Level Constraints, Eric Tingey, Jared Thomas, Andrew Ning Jul 2015

Wind Farm Layout Optimization Using Sound Pressure Level Constraints, Eric Tingey, Jared Thomas, Andrew Ning

Faculty Publications

This project explored wind farm layout optimization using turbine acoustic and wake models. For two existing wind farms, the position of each wind turbine was optimized to maximize power output while constraining noise. Semi-empirical calculations were used for both the acoustic and wake models to predict how the turbine noise and wake disturbances propagated downstream. Turbine layout was optimized using a sequential quadratic programming optimizer called SNOPT. The optimization was able to constrain the noise level of the wind farms with a small impact on power output.

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Use Of Roadway Attributes In Hot Spot Identification And Analysis, David R. Bassett Jul 2015

Use Of Roadway Attributes In Hot Spot Identification And Analysis, David R. Bassett

Theses and Dissertations

The Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT) Traffic and Safety Division continues to advance the safety of roadway sections throughout the state. In an effort to aid UDOT in meeting their goal, the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Brigham Young University (BYU) has worked with the Statistics Department in developing analysis tools for safety. The most recent of these tools has been the development of a hierarchical Bayesian Poisson Mixture Model (PMM) of traffic crashes known as the Utah Crash Prediction Model (UCPM), a hierarchical Bayesian Binomial statistical model known as the Utah Crash Severity Model (UCSM), and a …

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Lateral Resistance Of Pipe Piles Near 20-Ft Tall Mse Abutment Wall With Strip Reinforcements, Jason James Besendorfer Jul 2015

Lateral Resistance Of Pipe Piles Near 20-Ft Tall Mse Abutment Wall With Strip Reinforcements, Jason James Besendorfer

Theses and Dissertations

Full scale lateral load testing was performed on four 12.75x0.375 pipe piles spaced at 3.9, 2.9, 2.8, and 1.7 pile diameters behind an MSE wall which was constructed for this research to determine appropriate reduction factors for lateral pile resistance based on pile spacing behind the back face of the wall. The load induced on eight soil reinforcements located at various transverse distances from the pile and at different depths was monitored to determine the relationship between lateral load on the pile and load induced in the reinforcement. Each pile was loaded towards the wall in 0.25 in. increments to …

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Curved-Folding-Inspired Deployable Compliant Rolling-Contact Element (D-Core), Todd Nelson, Robert Lang, Spencer P. Magleby, Larry L. Howell Jun 2015

Curved-Folding-Inspired Deployable Compliant Rolling-Contact Element (D-Core), Todd Nelson, Robert Lang, Spencer P. Magleby, Larry L. Howell

Faculty Publications

This work describes a deployable compliant rolling-contact element joint (DCORE joint) that employs curved-folding origami techniques to enable transition from a flat to deployed state. These deployable joints can be manufactured from a single sheet of material. Two fundamental configurations of the D-CORE are presented. The first configuration allows for motion similar to that of a Jacob’s ladder when the joint is in a planar state while achieving the motion of a CORE when in the deployed state. The second configuration constrains all degrees of freedom to create a static structure when the joint is in the planar state and …

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Advances In Catalyst Deactivation And Regeneration, Calvin H. Bartholomew, Morris D. Argyle Jun 2015

Advances In Catalyst Deactivation And Regeneration, Calvin H. Bartholomew, Morris D. Argyle

Faculty Publications

Catalyst deactivation, the loss over time of catalytic activity and/or selectivity, is a problem of great and continuing concern in the practice of industrial catalytic processes. Costs to industry for catalyst replacement and process shutdown total tens of billions of dollars per year. While catalyst deactivation is inevitable for most processes, some of its immediate, drastic consequences may be avoided, postponed, or even reversed through regeneration.

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Void Modeling In Resin Infusion, Mark Wesley Brandley Jun 2015

Void Modeling In Resin Infusion, Mark Wesley Brandley

Theses and Dissertations

Resin infusion of composite parts has continually been reaching to achieve laminate quality equal to, or exceeding, the quality produced with prepreg in an autoclave. In order for this to occur, developers must understand the key process variables that go in to producing a laminate with minimal void content. The purpose of this research is to continue efforts in understanding 1) the effect of process conditions on the resultant void content, with a focus on resin infusion flow rate, 2) applying statistical metrics to the formation, location and size of voids formed, and 3) correlate these metrics with the local …

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A Simplified Performance-Based Procedure For The Prediction Of Lateral Spread Displacements, Levi Thomas Ekstrom Jun 2015

A Simplified Performance-Based Procedure For The Prediction Of Lateral Spread Displacements, Levi Thomas Ekstrom

Theses and Dissertations

Characterization of the seismic hazard and ground-failure hazard of a site using traditional empirical lateral spread displacement models requires consideration of uncertainties in seismic loading, site conditions, and model prediction. Researchers have developed performance-based design methods to simultaneously account for these sources of uncertainty through the incorporation of a probabilistic analytical framework. While these methods can effectively handle the various sources of uncertainty associated with empirical lateral spread displacement prediction, they can be difficult for engineers to perform in a practical manner without the use of specialized numerical tools. To make the benefits of a performance-based approach accessible to a …

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Address Space Translation For Fpga Accelerated Simulators, Michael Thaddeus Chamberlain Jun 2015

Address Space Translation For Fpga Accelerated Simulators, Michael Thaddeus Chamberlain

Theses and Dissertations

Microarchitectural simulation is needed to help explore the large design space of new computer systems. These simulations are taking increasingly longer amounts of time to run due to the increasing complexity of modern processors. Co-simulation and high level synthesis are promising fields to improve the overall time required for microarchitectural simulators, and can contribute to low design times and fast simulation speeds permitting a larger range of design space exploration. While promising, co-simulation techniques must find effective ways to map the host memory address space to the FPGA memory address space to be able to correctly transfer simulation data between …

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Service Dependency Analysis Via Tcp/Udp Port Tracing, John K. Clawson Jun 2015

Service Dependency Analysis Via Tcp/Udp Port Tracing, John K. Clawson

Theses and Dissertations

Enterprise networks are traditionally mapped via layers two or three, providing a view of what devices are connected to different parts of the network infrastructure. A method was developed to map connections at layer four, providing a view of interconnected systems and services instead of network infrastructure. This data was graphed and displayed in a web application. The information proved beneficial in identifying connections between systems or imbalanced clusters when troubleshooting problems with enterprise applications.

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Investigation Of Parameters Affecting The Nanoinjection Of Hela 229 Cancer Cells, Tyler E. Lewis Jun 2015

Investigation Of Parameters Affecting The Nanoinjection Of Hela 229 Cancer Cells, Tyler E. Lewis

Theses and Dissertations

The ability to deliver sequences of DNA and other molecular loads across the membrane of a cell and into its nucleus is an area of interest in the medical community. One of its many applications is that of gene therapy. In contrast to other forms of treatment, gene therapy seeks to treat diseases at the cellular level. The success of these treatments depends on the technologies for cell transfection that are available. Physical methods are sometimes able to overcome poor efficiencies of chemical methods and the safety concerns of viral methods, but are usually impractical due to the limited number …

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A Study Of Reconfigurable Antennas As A Solution For Efficiency, Robustness, And Security Of Wireless Systems, Rashid Mehmood Jun 2015

A Study Of Reconfigurable Antennas As A Solution For Efficiency, Robustness, And Security Of Wireless Systems, Rashid Mehmood

Theses and Dissertations

The reconfigurable aperture (RECAP) is a reconfigurable antenna consisting of a dense array of electronically controlled elements, which can be manipulated to support many antenna functions within a single architecture. RECAPs are explored herein as an enabling technology for future software defined and cognitive radio architectures, as well as compact wireless devices supporting many bands and services. First, the concept of a parasitic RECAP is developed and analyzed for various communication applications. This begins with the analysis of existing RECAP topologies (e.g. planar and parasitic) using a hybrid method combining full wave simulations and network analysis. Next, a performance versus …

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On The Free Surface Skipping Characteristics Of Highly Deformable Elastic Spheres, Randy C. Hurd Jun 2015

On The Free Surface Skipping Characteristics Of Highly Deformable Elastic Spheres, Randy C. Hurd

Theses and Dissertations

When a highly deformable elastic sphere impacts a water surface at an oblique angle it can skip several times in a manner similar to a skipping stone. However, this sphere seems to skip more readily and with more ease than a traditional skipping stone. This thesis examines the improved skipping characteristics of highly deformable elastic spheres made from cured silicone rubber. The effect of impact velocity, impact angle, sphere diamter and material shear modulus on ricochet trajectory is experimentally examined using high speed photography and image processing techniques. Experimental evaluation shows that deformation is the primary contributor to an increased …

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Assessing The Repercussions Of A Mass Departure Of Building Inspectors From The Code Professional Industry In Utah, George Reese Williams Jun 2015

Assessing The Repercussions Of A Mass Departure Of Building Inspectors From The Code Professional Industry In Utah, George Reese Williams

Theses and Dissertations

National studies suggest that eighty percent of existing code professionals are expected to retire within the next fifteen years. As part of this research, it was determined that approximately half of all licensed building inspectors in the State of Utah will reach retirement age within the next ten years. As building inspectors make up a large part of the Code Professional Industry this demographic was selected as the focus of this research. The purpose of this research project was to assess the urgent need for new entrants into the Code Professional Industry in Utah. As part of this research, trends …

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Using The Offset Panel Technique To Develop Innovative Origami-Based Applications, Michael Robert Morgan Jun 2015

Using The Offset Panel Technique To Develop Innovative Origami-Based Applications, Michael Robert Morgan

Theses and Dissertations

Origami, the art of folding paper, was once only an art form. In recent years, it has collided with the world of engineering and is acting as a source of inspiration for solutions to various engineering problems. Paper, the typical material used in the art form, is thin and works well for origami, but is not often suitable for use in engineering. Researchers have developed a handful of methods for accommodating thick/rigid materials in origami design. Most of these preserve only the kinematics of the model or its range of motion. Not only does the offset panel technique (OPT) preserve …

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Tethys Platform: A Development And Hosting Platform For Water Resources Web Apps, Nathan R. Swain Jun 2015

Tethys Platform: A Development And Hosting Platform For Water Resources Web Apps, Nathan R. Swain

Theses and Dissertations

The interactive nature of web applications or “web apps” makes it an excellent medium for conveying complex scientific concepts to lay audiences and creating decision support tools that harness cutting edge modeling techniques. However, the technical expertise required to develop them represents a barrier for would-be developers. The barrier can be characterized by the following hurdles that developers must overcome: (1) identify, select, and install software that meet the spatial and computational capabilities commonly required for water resources modeling; (2) orchestrate the use of multiple FOSS and FOSS4G projects and navigate their differing application programming interfaces (APIs); (3) learn the …

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High Aspect Ratio, Carbon Nanotube Membranes Decorated With Pt Nanoparticle Urchins For Micro Underwater Vehicle Propulsion Via H2O2 Decomposition, Kevin M. Marr, Bolin Chen, Eric J. Mootz, Jason Geder, Marius Pruessner, Brian J. Melde, Richard R. Vanfleet, Igor L. Medintz, Brian D. Iverson, Jonathan C. Claussen Jun 2015

High Aspect Ratio, Carbon Nanotube Membranes Decorated With Pt Nanoparticle Urchins For Micro Underwater Vehicle Propulsion Via H2O2 Decomposition, Kevin M. Marr, Bolin Chen, Eric J. Mootz, Jason Geder, Marius Pruessner, Brian J. Melde, Richard R. Vanfleet, Igor L. Medintz, Brian D. Iverson, Jonathan C. Claussen

Faculty Publications

The utility of unmanned Micro Underwater Vehicles (MUVs) is paramount for exploring confined spaces, but their spatial agility is often impaired when maneuvers require burst-propulsion. herein we develop high-aspect ratio (150:1), multi-walled carbon nanotube microarray membranes (CNT-MMs) for propulsive, MUV thrust generation by the decomposition of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2). The CNT-MMs are grown via chemical vapor deposition with diamond shaped pores (nominal diagonal dimensions of 4.5 × 9.0 [µm]) and subsequently decorated with urchin-like, platinum (Pt) nanoparticles via a facile, electroless, chemical deposition process. The Pt-CNT-MMs display robust, high catalytic ability with an effective activation energy …

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A Study Of Carbon Infiltrated Carbon Nanotubes Fabricated On Convex Cylindrical Substrates For The Creation Of A Coronary Stent, Warren Beecroft Robison Jun 2015

A Study Of Carbon Infiltrated Carbon Nanotubes Fabricated On Convex Cylindrical Substrates For The Creation Of A Coronary Stent, Warren Beecroft Robison

Theses and Dissertations

This research explores the minimizing of cracks in the fabrication of carbon-infiltrated carbon nanotube (CI-CNT) forests on cylindrical rods for the purposes of creating a CI-CNT coronary stent. It is a continuation of the work begun by Jones [1] and Skousen [2] whose work included the creation of a feasible CI-CNT coronary stent on a planar surface. The current research was performed in two parts: 1) growth on the whole circumference of the rod for ~20mm in length and 2) growth in lines and patterns. Experiments were done on either a 309 or 304 stainless steel rod ~3mm in diameter.The …

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Post-Installed Fiber Optic Pressure Sensors On Subsea Production Risers For Severe Slugging Control, Ammon Eaton, Seyed M. Safdarnejad, John Hedengren, Kristi Moffat, Casey Hubbell, David Brower, Alexis Brower Jun 2015

Post-Installed Fiber Optic Pressure Sensors On Subsea Production Risers For Severe Slugging Control, Ammon Eaton, Seyed M. Safdarnejad, John Hedengren, Kristi Moffat, Casey Hubbell, David Brower, Alexis Brower

Faculty Publications

Fiber optic sensors have gained increasing use in monitoring offshore structures. The sensors have successfully monitored flowlines, umbilicals, wells, Tension Leg Platform (TLP) tendons, production and drilling risers, and mooring lines. Fiber optic sensors are capable of monitoring strain, temperature, pressure, and vibration. While the success of fiber optic monitoring has been clearly demonstrated, the sensors are now under consideration for automation applications. This paper details the plausibility of using pressure measurements from post-installed fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensors with Model Predictive Control (MPC) to suppress severe slugging in subsea risers. Prior control schemes demonstrate that slugging is mitigated using …

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An Efficient Feature Descriptor And Its Real-Time Applications, Alok Desai Jun 2015

An Efficient Feature Descriptor And Its Real-Time Applications, Alok Desai

Theses and Dissertations

Finding salient features in an image, and matching them to their corresponding features in another image is an important step for many vision-based applications. Feature description plays an important role in the feature matching process. A robust feature descriptor must works with a number of image deformations and should be computationally efficient. For resource-limited systems, floating point and complex operations such as multiplication and square root are not desirable. This research first introduces a robust and efficient feature descriptor called PRObability (PRO) descriptor that meets these requirements without sacrificing matching accuracy. The PRO descriptor is further improved by incorporating only …

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The Performance Of Structured High-Capacity Si Anodes For Lithium-Ion Batteries, Jui Chin Fan Jun 2015

The Performance Of Structured High-Capacity Si Anodes For Lithium-Ion Batteries, Jui Chin Fan

Theses and Dissertations

This study sought to improve the performance of Si-based anodes through the use of hierarchically structured electrodes to provide the nanoscale framework needed to accommodate large volume changes while controlling the interfacial area – which affects solid-electrolyte interphase (SEI) formation. To accomplish this, electrodes were fabricated from vertically aligned carbon nanotubes (VACNT) infiltrated with silicon. On the nanoscale, these electrodes allowed us to adjust the surface area, tube diameter, and silicon layer thickness. On the micro-scale, we have the ability to control the electrode thickness and the incorporation of micro-sized features. Treatment of the interfacial area between the electrolyte and …

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Integrating Synchronous Collaborative Applications With Product Lifecycle Management Workflows, Jordan Lowell Johnson Jun 2015

Integrating Synchronous Collaborative Applications With Product Lifecycle Management Workflows, Jordan Lowell Johnson

Theses and Dissertations

Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) systems are used by thousands of engineering companies world wide. Improving these systems will have a drastic and global effect. One possible improvement is to integrate synchronous collaborative applications with PLM systems. These applications allow multiple people to work on a single digital object simultaneously. They have already been shown to reduce the time a task requires. Using these applications to complete a project will reduce the project time. However, simply including synchronous collaborative applications within a PLM system ignores powerful benefits that could provide further time-saving benefits. The integration must allow improved awareness at the …

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Temperature Control In Friction Stir Welding Using Model Predictive Control, Brandon Scott Taysom Jun 2015

Temperature Control In Friction Stir Welding Using Model Predictive Control, Brandon Scott Taysom

Theses and Dissertations

Temperature is a very important process parameter in Friction Stir Welding (FSW), but until lately active control of temperature has not been practiced. Recently, temperature control via a PID controller has proven to be effective. Model Predictive Control (MPC) is a control method that holds promise, but has not been attempted in FSW before. Two different model forms are developed for MPC and are evaluated. The first is a simple first-order plus dead time (FOPDT) model. The second is the Hybrid Heat Source model and is more complex; it combines the heat source method and a 1D discretized thermal model …

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Friction Bit Joining Of Dissimilar Combinations Of Dp 980 Steel And Aa 7075, Rebecca Hilary Peterson Jun 2015

Friction Bit Joining Of Dissimilar Combinations Of Dp 980 Steel And Aa 7075, Rebecca Hilary Peterson

Theses and Dissertations

Friction Bit Joining (FBJ) is a new technology that allows lightweight metals to be joined to advanced high-strength steels (AHSS). Joining of dissimilar metals is especially beneficial to the automotive industry because of the desire to use materials such as aluminum and AHSS in order to reduce weight and increase fuel efficiency. In this study, FBJ was used to join 7075 aluminum and DP980 ultra-high-strength steel. FBJ is a two-stage process using a consumable bit. In the first stage, the bit cuts through the top material (aluminum), and in the second stage the bit is friction welded to the base …

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