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Articles 1 - 30 of 171
Full-Text Articles in Engineering
Accelerating Pattern Recognition Algorithms On Parallel Computing Architectures, Kenneth Rice
Accelerating Pattern Recognition Algorithms On Parallel Computing Architectures, Kenneth Rice
All Dissertations
The move to more parallel computing architectures places more responsibility on the programmer to achieve greater performance. The programmer must now have a greater understanding of the underlying architecture and the inherent algorithmic parallelism. Using parallel computing architectures for exploiting algorithmic parallelism can be a complex task. This dissertation demonstrates various techniques for using parallel computing architectures to exploit algorithmic parallelism. Specifically, three pattern recognition (PR) approaches are examined for acceleration across multiple parallel computing architectures, namely field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) and general purpose graphical processing units (GPGPUs).
Phase-only filter correlation for fingerprint identification was studied as the first …
An Investigation Of The Application Of Phase Change Materials In Practical Thermal Management Systems, David Ewing
An Investigation Of The Application Of Phase Change Materials In Practical Thermal Management Systems, David Ewing
All Dissertations
This work investigates the application of alternative cooling techniques to thermal management. In the first section, this work presents models and extensive simulation studies on an alternative cooling strategy based upon phase change materials (PCMs) for the thermal management system of a LED headlight assembly. These studies have shown that properly chosen PCMs, when suspended in metal foam matrices, increased the thermal conductivity of the PCM. The increased thermal conductivity can enhance the cooling characteristics of a practical thermal management system for a LED headlight system. To further enhance the advantages of using PCMs, nanoparticle enhanced fluids (nanofluids) are desirable …
Optimization-Based Power Management Of Hybrid Power Systems With Applications In Advanced Hybrid Electric Vehicles And Wind Farms With Battery Storage, Hoseinali Borhan
Optimization-Based Power Management Of Hybrid Power Systems With Applications In Advanced Hybrid Electric Vehicles And Wind Farms With Battery Storage, Hoseinali Borhan
All Dissertations
Modern hybrid electric vehicles and many stationary renewable power generation systems combine multiple power generating and energy storage devices to achieve an overall system-level efficiency and flexibility which is higher than their individual components. The power or energy management control, ``brain' of these ``hybrid' systems, determines adaptively and based on the power demand the power split between multiple subsystems and plays a critical role in overall system-level efficiency. This dissertation proposes that a receding horizon optimal control (aka Model Predictive Control) approach can be a natural and systematic framework for formulating this type of power management controls. More importantly the …
Quantitative Analysis And Structural Characterization Of Carbonaceous Pitches, Sourabh Kulkarni
Quantitative Analysis And Structural Characterization Of Carbonaceous Pitches, Sourabh Kulkarni
All Dissertations
Both petroleum pitches and pitches derived from pure polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are oligomeric materials that can serve as precursors for a wide variety of advanced carbon materials. The goal of this study was the structural characterization and quantitative analysis of the dominant constituent oligomers and species present in these pitches.
A key requirement for such work is the ability to fractionate these complex mixtures into samples of narrow molecular weight distribution (mol wt; MWD) that can be used as standards. To this end, semicontinuous (or semibatch) dense-gas/supercritical extraction (DGE/SCE) was used to produce monomer, dimer, and trimer fractions of …
Modeling And Synthesis Of Functionalized Meta-Poly(Phenylene Ethynylene) Helical Structures, Ha Nguyen
Modeling And Synthesis Of Functionalized Meta-Poly(Phenylene Ethynylene) Helical Structures, Ha Nguyen
All Dissertations
The ability of meta-poly(phenylene ethynylene) (mPPE) materials to undergo random coil to helix conformational changes under select conditions affords many opportunities for their use in sensor, separation, catalysis, and bio-related applications. Thus, to advance the development of these materials, a modeling procedure based on replica exchange molecular dynamics (REMD) simulation was developed to reliably assess factors affecting the folding behaviors of functionalized mPPE variants in solution. A combinational modeling study of 20 functionalized mPPEs in five solvent conditions provided insight into how mPPE secondary structure is impacted by the complex relationship between mPPE functional groups and solvent moieties. Further, these …
Probabilistic Approaches To Stability And Deformation Problems In Braced Excavation, Zhe Luo
Probabilistic Approaches To Stability And Deformation Problems In Braced Excavation, Zhe Luo
All Dissertations
This dissertation is aimed at applying probabilistic approaches to evaluating the basal-heave stability and the excavation-induced wall and ground movements for serviceability assessment of excavation in clays. The focuses herein are the influence of spatial variability of soil parameters and small sample size on the results of the probabilistic analysis, and Bayesian updating of soil parameters using field observations in braced excavations.
Simplified approaches for reliability analysis of basal-heave in a braced excavation in clay considering the effect of spatial variability in random fields are presented. The proposed approaches employ the variance reduction technique (or more precisely, equivalent variance method) …
Fabrication Of Grooved Hollow Fiber Membrane For Nerve Regeneration: Process Modeling And Performance Evaluation, Jun Yin
All Dissertations
Nerve injury is a general but intractable disease in traumatic injuries, leading to a significant reduction of functions in the nervous system. Extensive efforts are made on nerve injury rehabilitation. Since the appropriate connections between neurons and their targets are necessary, guiding axonal outgrowth is an essential step for neuron outgrowth in nervous system development, functioning, and regeneration. Besides the direct surgical nerve connection, an artificial means of guiding nerve regeneration called nerve conduits is widely applied in nerve injury rehabilitation. The main function of nerve conduits is to bridge the nerve gap, to help regenerating axons across damaged regions …
A Methodology For Estimating And Comparing The Lifecycles Of High-Build And Conventional Waterborne Pavement Markings On Primary And Secondary Roads In South Carolina, Joseph Robertson
All Theses
Highway pavement markings constitute a vital component of roadway transportation systems and provide crucial visual cues for the basic driver task of following the road. In 2008, the South Carolina Department of Transportation (SCDOT) initiated a multi-year study to evaluate pavement markings on non-interstate primary and secondary roads in South Carolina. This thesis discusses development of a methodology for estimating and comparing the lifecycles of high-build and conventional waterborne pavement markings based on retroreflectivity levels. The methodology was developed using nearly 3 years of field data from 66 sites throughout South Carolina. This thesis provides an overview of data collection …
A Comparison And Evaluation Of Three Different Pose Estimation Algorithms In Detecting Low Texture Manufactured Objects, Robert Kriener
A Comparison And Evaluation Of Three Different Pose Estimation Algorithms In Detecting Low Texture Manufactured Objects, Robert Kriener
All Theses
This thesis examines the problem of pose estimation, which is the problem of determining the pose of an object in some coordinate system. Pose refers to the object's position and orientation in the coordinate system. In particular, this thesis examines pose estimation techniques using either monocular or binocular vision systems.
Generally, when trying to find the pose of an object the objective is to generate a set of matching features, which may be points or lines, between a model of the object and the current image of the object. These matches can then be used to determine the pose of …
Performance Analysis And Fitness Of Gpgpu And Multicore Architectures For Scientific Applications, Mohammad Bhuiyan
Performance Analysis And Fitness Of Gpgpu And Multicore Architectures For Scientific Applications, Mohammad Bhuiyan
All Dissertations
Recent trends in computing architecture development have focused on exploiting task- and data-level parallelism from applications. Major hardware vendors are experimenting with novel parallel architectures, such as the Many Integrated Core (MIC) from Intel that integrates 50 or more x86 processors on a single chip, the Accelerated Processing Unit from AMD that integrates a multicore x86 processor with a graphical processing unit (GPU), and many other initiatives from other hardware vendors that are underway.
Therefore, various types of architectures are available to developers for accelerating an application. A performance model that predicts the suitability of the architecture for accelerating an …
An Early Warning Monitoring System For Cnc Spindle Bearing Failure, Andrew Werner
An Early Warning Monitoring System For Cnc Spindle Bearing Failure, Andrew Werner
All Theses
Equipment employed in a manufacturing environment must be able to operate as long as possible having as little downtime as possible. Therefore, maintenance is crucial in order to allow for the equipment to perform its designated tasks without failure, especially on critical systems. In a CNC machine, if the spindle fails, the machine is useless. Having the ability to detect spindle degradation to the point where a replacement spindle installation can be planned, via condition monitoring, is invaluable to a manufacturer who utilizes these types of machines.
An early warning monitoring system for CNC spindle bearing failure has been developed …
Laminar Flame Speed Estimation From Experimental Data Using A Quasi-Dimensional Turbulent Flame Entrainment Combustion Simulation For Spark Ignition Engines, Akash Desai
All Theses
The goal of this research is to develop a thermodynamic simulation of spark-ignition engine combustion that uses a predictive burn-rate model. Previously done thermodynamic engine simulations in MATLAB are based on a specified burn rate model. Also, the effect of turbulence parameters on the rate of mass burn up is not considered. A predictive burn rate model is necessary to study the effect of different fuels on spark ignition engine combustion. The effect of laminar flame speed and turbulent intensity on combustion is difficult to assess experimental due to the difficulty in the measurement of these two variables. Thus, the …
Novel Oxadiazole Containing Monomers For Polymeric Light Emitting Devices, Alexandra Foguth
Novel Oxadiazole Containing Monomers For Polymeric Light Emitting Devices, Alexandra Foguth
All Theses
Organic light emitting diodes (OLED) have received a great deal of
attention in the research community in the past few decades. This
work focuses on OLEDs utilizing the donor-acceptor operational
approach. In specific a single layer device architecture with an
emissive layer of copolymerized hole and electron transport moieties
in an effort to frustrate phase segregation that can occur during
device operation. A new methacryalate based oxadiazole monomer,
4-[5-(biphenly-4-yl)- 1,3,4-oxadiazol-2-yl] phenyl methacrylate (mPBD) an electron transporter, was successfully synthesized. The new monomer was copolymerized with N-vinylcarbazole (VK), a hole transporter, to form statistical copolymers. The glass transition of the copolymers …
Interfacial Force Field Parameterization Using The Dual Force Field Charmm Program For The Accurate Simulation Of Peptide-Surface Interaction, Nadeem Vellore
Interfacial Force Field Parameterization Using The Dual Force Field Charmm Program For The Accurate Simulation Of Peptide-Surface Interaction, Nadeem Vellore
All Dissertations
Protein adsorption to solid material surfaces is a complex phenomenon and various factors play a role in controlling these processes. Inherent limitations to understand these biological interactions using experimental approaches alone have led to the possibility of exploring these systems using computational molecular simulation methodologies. Before confidence can be placed on these computational protocols, however, rigorous validation of the applicability of these methods to accurately represent protein adsorption processes is needed. In this research, we evaluated the use of all-atom empirical force field (FF) based simulations using the CHARMM simulation program and FF for the study of peptide adsorption processes …
A Formal Representation Of Mechanical Functions To Support Physics-Based Computational Reasoning In Early Mechanical Design, Chiradeep Sen
A Formal Representation Of Mechanical Functions To Support Physics-Based Computational Reasoning In Early Mechanical Design, Chiradeep Sen
All Dissertations
The lack of computational support to the conceptual phase of mechanical engineering design is well recognized. Function-based modeling and thinking is widely recommended in design texts as useful means for describing design concepts and using them in tasks such as solution search, problem decomposition, and design archival. Graph-based function structure models that describe a product as a network of transformative actions of material, energy, and information, are discussed as a potential tool for this purpose, but in the current state of the art, function structures are not formalized as a computational representation. Consequently, no computer tool exists with which a …
Effect Of Relative Humidity And Temperature Control On In-Cabin Thermal Comfort State, Ali Alahmer
Effect Of Relative Humidity And Temperature Control On In-Cabin Thermal Comfort State, Ali Alahmer
All Dissertations
This dissertation discusses the effect of manipulating the relative humidity RH levels inside vehicular cabins on the thermal comfort and human occupants' thermal sensation. Three different techniques are used to investigate this effect. Firstly, thermodynamic and psychometric analyses are used to incorporate the effect of changing RH along with the dry bulb temperature on the human comfort window. Specifically, the study computes the effect of changing the relative humidity on the amount of heat rejected from the passenger compartment and the effect on occupants comfort zone. A practical system implementation is also discussed in terms of an evaporative cooler design. …
Characterizing Mechanical Heterogeneity In Cardiovascular Cells, Sandra Deitch
Characterizing Mechanical Heterogeneity In Cardiovascular Cells, Sandra Deitch
All Dissertations
Most tissue-level mechanical models assume homogeneous mechanical properties within a single cell type. However, measurements of cellular mechanical properties show large variability in whole-cell mechanical properties between cells from a single population. This heterogeneity has been observed in many cell populations and with several measurement techniques but the sources are not yet fully understood. Cell mechanical properties are directly related to the composition and organization of the cytoskeleton, which is physically coupled to neighboring cells through adherens junctions and to underlying matrix scaffolds through focal adhesion complexes. As such, we believe that this high level of heterogeneity can be attributed …
Fluid Mud Underflows In Coastal Dredge Disposal, Mijanur Chowdhury
Fluid Mud Underflows In Coastal Dredge Disposal, Mijanur Chowdhury
All Dissertations
This manuscript presents the results of a thorough theoretical and experimental investigation on fluid mud underflows generated in a typical coastal dredge disposal operation. The main goal of this investigation is to understand the propagation dynamics of fluid mud underflows that depends upon a number of factors, including: concentrations, rheological properties and released configurations of fluid mud. Laboratory experiments were conducted with different initial fluid mud concentrations in three different experimental set-ups: rectangular flume for constant volume release, rectangular flume for constant flux release, and a square pool for radial constant flux release of fluid mud. The experiments in the …
Printing Carbon Nanotube Based Supercapacitors For Packaging, Alexandra Hartman
Printing Carbon Nanotube Based Supercapacitors For Packaging, Alexandra Hartman
All Theses
Living in a world full of portable electronics, there is great need for energy storage devices. Currently, limitations for storage involve power inefficiencies as well as bulkiness. This is why printable charge storage devices that display good electrochemical performance are needed. It is for this reason that research into the production and packaging of carbon nanotube based super capacitors was carried out.
A super capacitor can be built by using high surface area multi-walled carbon nanotubes suspended in an ionic liquid. The two active electrodes are made from a combination of the multi-walled carbon nanotubes and an ionic liquid, ground …
Product And Process Based Assembly Time Estimation In Engineering Design, Michael Miller
Product And Process Based Assembly Time Estimation In Engineering Design, Michael Miller
All Theses
This thesis presents the research and development of two assembly time estimation techniques for the automotive industry. Both of these techniques are capable of being implemented early in the product life-cycle of a vehicle and require information available in this phase. Currently, assembly time estimation is performed after production has begun and is a tedious manual process requiring hours of motion-time method studies for each assembly activity. The techniques proposed in this thesis can both be performed prior to the start of production and are capable of being performed automatically after the initial mapping.
The first assembly time estimation technique …
Influence Of Aging And Severe Plastic Deformation On The Shape Memory Behavior Of Ti-50.6at%Ni, William Shirley
Influence Of Aging And Severe Plastic Deformation On The Shape Memory Behavior Of Ti-50.6at%Ni, William Shirley
All Theses
Martensitic phase transformations were investigated for Ti -50.6 at % Ni processed via severe plastic deformation (SPD) and subsequent aging for temperatures between 400 and 550C and times ranging from 1hr to 100hrs. Phase transformations of the SPD material were compared to material processed via solution treated at 800C and 850C for 1hr. Transformations were investigated with differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and confirmed by X-ray diffraction (XRD) with optical microscopy being used to determine grain size. Solution treated samples displayed a single (1-1) B2↔B19' transformation prior to and upon initial aging, i.e. 400C/1h, 450C/1/10h. Intermediate aging conditions, 450C/100h; 500C/1/10/100h; and …
Role Of Surface Coatings In Lithium-Ion Batteries, Archana Kayyar
Role Of Surface Coatings In Lithium-Ion Batteries, Archana Kayyar
All Theses
Rechargeable batteries that can charge and discharge at high rates have applications in hybrid and plug-in hybrid vehicles and they provide energy storages for wind energy. Various methods like reducing particle size, aliovalent doping and carbon coating have been researched in order to attain higher charge and discharge rates in rechargeable Li-ion batteries. In this work, the electrode materials were coated with amorphous films in an attempt to improve the rate capability of the batteries.
A study by Kang and Ceder suggested that a Li4P2O7-like 'fast-ion conducting surface phase' could form on the surface …
A Comparison Of The Performance Of Neural Q-Learning And Soar-Rl On A Derivative Of The Block Design (Bd)/Block Design Multiple Choice (Bdmc) Subtests On The Wisc-Iv Intelligence Test, Charreau Bell
All Theses
Teaching an autonomous agent to perform tasks that are simple to humans can be complex, especially when the task requires successive steps, has a low likelihood of successful completion with a brute force approach, and when the solution space is too large or too complex to be explicitly encoded. Reinforcement learning algorithms are particularly suited to such situations, and are based on rewards that help the agent to find the optimal action to execute given a certain state. The task investigated in this thesis is a modified form of the Block Design (BD) and Block Design Multiple Choice (BDMC) subtests, …
Spectral Engineering Of Optical Fiber Through Active Nanoparticle Doping, Tiffany Lindstrom-James
Spectral Engineering Of Optical Fiber Through Active Nanoparticle Doping, Tiffany Lindstrom-James
All Dissertations
The spectral engineering of optical fiber is a method of intentional doping of the core region in order to absorb/emit specific wavelengths of light therby providing enhanced performance over current fibers. Efforts here focused on developing an understanding of optically active nanoparticles based on alkaline earth fluorides that could be easily and homogeneously incorporated into the core of a silica based optical fiber preform and result in efficient and tailorable spectral emissions.
Doped and undoped calcium, strontium and barium fluoride nanoparticles were successfully synthesized and characterized for their physical, chemical, and optical behavior. Distinct spectroscopic differences as a result of …
Development Of A Dynamic In Vitro Model Of A Stented Blood Vessel To Evaluate The Effects Of Stent Strut Material Selection And Surface Coating On Smooth Muscle Cell Response, Bradley Winn
All Dissertations
Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of mortality in The United States and Europe, accounting for approximately half of all deaths. The most common form of cardiovascular disease is atherosclerosis, which is characterized by the formation of fatty atheromatous plaques that can grow to occlude the vessel lumen, thus causing ischemia distal to the occlusion. This is commonly treated using balloon angioplasty, which is usually done in conjunction with the deployment of a stent. Stent deployment helps hold the vessel open following the local injury caused by balloon inflation and prevents elastic recoil and subsequent negative remodeling. Stenting has been …
Electrical Coupling Between Micropatterned Cardiomyocytes And Stem Cells, Zhen Ma
Electrical Coupling Between Micropatterned Cardiomyocytes And Stem Cells, Zhen Ma
All Dissertations
To understand how stem cells functionally couple with native cardiomyocytes is crucial for cell-based therapies to restore the loss of cardiomyocytes that occurs during heart infarction and other cardiac diseases. Due to the complexity of the in vivo environment, our knowledge of cell coupling is heavily dependent on cell-culture models. However, conventional in vitro studies involve undefined cell shapes and random length of cell-cell contacts in addition to the presence of multiple homotypic and heterotypic contacts between interacting cells. Thus, it has not been feasible to study electrical coupling corresponding to isolated specific types of cell contact modes.
To address …
Analyzing Of Tort Claims And Lawsuits Against South Carolina Department Of Transportation Through Classification And Regression Tree Analysis, Sara Familian
All Dissertations
After losing sovereign immunity in 1985, SCDOT employees now focus a significant amount of time in processing tort claims and lawsuits filed against the agency. This is an important issue for transportation agencies considering the fact that money spent defending tort claims and lawsuits, is no longer available for safety and mobility improvements on the state highway system.
The South Carolina Department of Transportation (SCDOT) processes approximately one thousand claims per year and is engaged in nearly one hundred lawsuits per year. SCDOT has paid just over a half million ($523,607) to settle on 1007 claims - approximately 1/3 of …
Pitch-Based Activated Carbon Fibers: The Effect Of Precursor Composition On Pore Structure, Halil Tekinalp
Pitch-Based Activated Carbon Fibers: The Effect Of Precursor Composition On Pore Structure, Halil Tekinalp
All Dissertations
Although researchers have previously investigated the effect of precursor differences on the final properties of activated carbon fibers (ACFs), those precursors were not well-characterized. In particular, detailed information about their molecular composition and anisotropy was not available.
In this study, seven oligomeric fractions, each of well-defined composition and molecular weight (mol wt) distribution, were isolated from a commercially produced isotropic petroleum pitch (i.e., Marathon M–50) and used for the production of ACFs. Four of these precursors of varying oligomeric composition were fully isotropic and three contained different levels of mesophase, so that the effects of molecular composition and molecular order …
Influence Of Warm Mix Additives Upon High Rap Asphalt Mixes, William Rogers
Influence Of Warm Mix Additives Upon High Rap Asphalt Mixes, William Rogers
All Dissertations
This study was conducted to determine the effect of warm mix (WMA) modifiers on asphalt mixes containing high percentages of reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP). Mixes were created using three aggregate sources, four RAP percentages (0%, 20%, 35%, and 50%), and three warm mix modifiers (HMA, zeolite, and Sasobit®). Base binders from the same source (PG 64 -22, 58 -28, 52 -28) and one rejuvenator were used for each mix to ensure the final blended binder grade was at least PG 64 -10.
Specimens were created at HMA or suggested WMA temperatures and tested for rut depth, indirect tensile strength (ITS), …
Evaluating The Use Of Functional Representations For Ideation In Conceptual Design, Benjamin Caldwell
Evaluating The Use Of Functional Representations For Ideation In Conceptual Design, Benjamin Caldwell
All Dissertations
Functional representations are often used in the conceptual stages of design because they encourage the designer to focus on the intended use and purpose of a system rather than the physical solution. Function models have been proposed by many researchers as a tool to expand the solution search space and guide concept generation, and many design tools have been created to support function-based design. These tools require designers to create function models of new or existing artifacts, but there is limited published research describing what types of functions should be included in a model or the appropriate level of abstraction …