Engineering Commons^™

Oscillations Of Capillary Surfaces With Volume And Edge Effects, Dingqian Ding

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Capillary surfaces are defined by an interface endowed with surface tension that is partially supported by a solid substrate and are susceptible to oscillations reflecting a balance between fluid inertia and the restorative force of surface tension. The wave dynamics strongly depend upon volume change within the domain and edge effects through the boundary conditions applied at the contact-line formed at the liquid-gas-solid interface, while the spatial wave structure conforms to the geometry of the capillary surface. This dissertation develops mathematical models to address these effects for several canonical capillary surfaces, which are organized into two parts that are focused …

Photovoltaics And Battery-Based End-To-End Direct Current Sustainable Power Networks- Concept, Design, And Control, Vishwas Powar

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The consequences of climate change have emphasized the need for a power network that is centered around green, low-cost, and renewable sources of energy. Currently, photovoltaics (PV) and wind turbines are the only two technologies that can convert renewable energy from the sun and wind, respectively, into large-scale power for the electricity network. This dissertation aims to provide a novel solution to implement direct current-based architecture for PV generation coupled with lithium-ion battery storage in an efficient and sustainable manner. Such a power network can enable efficiency, reliability, low cost, and sustainability with minimum impact on the environment. The first …

Design And Application Of Smart Systems To Address Analytical Problems, Lucas B. Ayres

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This dissertation is a multidisciplinary effort that integrates low-cost analytical instrumentation, redox chemistry, and artificial intelligence to overcome existing limitations in the fields of wearable sensing technology, Deep Eutectic Solvents (DES), and antioxidant chemistry. The overall goal behind each implemented strategy is to enhance the accuracy, efficiency, and accessibility of analytical processes and technologies. A general overview of the thesis, along with the research outcomes is included in Chapter One. The theoretical framework of this dissertation is presented in Chapter Two. Chapter Three describes the development of a wearable platform (sensor and instrumentation) to rapidly detect (~20 minutes) S. aureus …

Volatile Crystalline Semiconductor Core Fibers, Thomasina Zaengle

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Optical fibers play critical roles across many facets of everyday life from communications to e-commerce to sensing and security. The ubiquity of optical fibers arises from their intrinsic clarity and, as glasses, their ability to be thermally drawn at high speeds over long distances when suitably heated about their glass transition temperature. Sixteen years ago, the first thermally drawn crystalline core fibers were fabricated using the molten core method, whereby a melt is confined within a glass capillary tube that is then drawn to fiber. This opened the door to crystalline semiconductor core fibers, which are now the backbone of …

Tin-Silver As A Novel Biodegradable Metallic Biomaterial, Charley Goodwin

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The Essure device is a non-hormonal, minimally-invasive, permanent female sterilization implant, removed from the market due to an increase in adverse events, hypothesized to be caused by corrosion of the Sn-Ag component of the implant. The goals of this dissertation were to first develop implant retrieval methods for Essure devices and surrounding tissue, documenting signs of degradation and metallic degradation products, then to characterize the electrochemical behavior of Sn-Ag in biologically representative environments and finally, to assess the biological interaction of Sn-Ag. Retrieval analyses developed successful methods, qualifying the degree of corrosion, primarily of the Sn-Ag component and finding Sn …

Evacuation Of Students With Intellectual Disability In Building Fires: A Three-Part Methodology, Haley Hostetter

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People with disabilities are one of the most vulnerable groups in building fires. Despite this, they have traditionally been overlooked by fire evacuation researchers. This is perhaps the most alarming for the group with Intellectual Disability when given their present statistics for fire involvement, injuries, and death. Annually, people with mental disabilities are involved in 1700 home fires, resulting in 39 fatalities and 122 injuries per 1000 fires. Additionally, 40% of these fires were started intentionally by people with mental disabilities. When combined with their high fire risk, the lack of evacuation research focused on people with Intellectual Disability shows …

Real-Time Degradation Abatement Framework For Energy Storage System In Automotive Application Using Data-Driven Approaches, Laxman Timilsina

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The increasing popularity of electric vehicles (EVs) is driven by their compatibility with sustainable energy goals. However, the decline in the performance of energy storage systems, such as batteries, due to their degradation puts EVs and hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) at a disadvantage compared to traditional internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles. The batteries used in these vehicles have limited life. The degradation of the battery is accelerated by the operating conditions of the vehicle, which further reduces its life and increases the reliability and economic concerns for the vehicle’s operation. The aging mechanism inside a battery cannot be eliminated but …

Sustainability Of Apparel Exporting Industry Facilities In South Asia, Sree L. Anilkuma, George H. Berghorn, M.G. Matt Syal

The Professional Constructor

The apparel industry’s contribution to the gross domestic product in South Asian countries is significant and provides livelihoods for millions of people in this region. Although this industry’s contribution towards the economy is substantial, its negative impact on the environment and the working conditions have always been critical issues of concern. The two countries of emphasis in this research, Bangladesh, and India, have experienced numerous garment factory accidents in the form of building collapses, factory fires, and boiler explosions, which have killed and injured thousands of workers. These incidents have brought attention on the need to improve poor facilities and …

The Professional Constructor, Full Issue, Volume 49, Number 01

The Professional Constructor

No abstract provided.

Taxonomy Of Trust And Maslow’S Hierarchy Of Needsin The Construction Industry, Ann B. Lyons, Vivek Sharma, Shima Clarke

The Professional Constructor

Trust is vital in every facet of life, enabling collaborative efforts and valuing contributions from various individuals. This is particularly true in the construction industry, where teamwork is essential for success. Prior research has consistently demonstrated that heightened trust levels significantly contribute to better project outcomes and increased client satisfaction. Despite its critical role, the construction industry has yet to adopt a structured hierarchical perspective of trust that aligns with its unique demands. This study aims to fill this gap by validating a comprehensive taxonomy of trust specifically designed for the construction sector. Through literature review, this study identifies key …

Root And Causes Of Skilled Labor Shortage In Construction Industry: Comprehensive Literature Review, Nicholas Hardy, Carolina Barbosa-Resende, James Kereri, Arash Taghinezhad

The Professional Constructor

The skilled labor shortage is well documented from a historical perspective via studies focusing various construction trades such as carpentry, mechanical, electric and plumbing, and tile setters. Causes of such shortages such as industry image, college as a preferred choice after high school, and construction being a last resort have been investigated extensively. Consequently, possible solutions ranging from amplifying shop classes in high school to intensifying recruiting efforts for union training programs have all been addressed throughout the last 40 years. However, recent studies have focused on identifying the magnitude and reach of the skilled labor gap while limited attention …

Mixed Reality For In-Field Construction Activities: A Systematic Literature Review To Identify Challenges And Solutions, Sumanth Sai. P., Jason Lucas

The Professional Constructor

With the new industrial revolution, “Industry 4.0,” it is important to understand and incorporate the new standards and technologies evolving in the market. Industry 4.0 relies on the integrated use of big data and analytics coupled with various technologies to help make decisions and manage projects. This revolution has brought Mixed Reality (MR) into the construction field. Mixed reality (MR) offers significant benefits for smart industries, such as enhancing productivity, training, manufacturing, error correction, assembly, and packaging processes. But how feasible are Mixed Reality Technologies (MRTs) considering the high initial investment required for acquiring devices, subscribing to services, planning and …

Computer-Integrated Construction Management With Procore, Vedanth Ashoka, M.G. Matt Syal

The Professional Constructor

The construction industry faces difficulties in managing the enormous amounts of data generated at each stage of a project, impacting project coordination and decision-making. Currently the industry is facing the issue of a lack of interoperability among the multiple software programs being used for different functions. To address this lack of interoperability, there is a need for an integrated environment that allows seamless flow of data between different functions. Among the few software tools that have emerged in recent year, Procore, a cloud-based construction project management software, has emerged as a widely used solution in the industry, enabling collaboration among …

Model Of Surface Waves On A Viscoelastic Material In A Cylindrical Container With Edge Constraints, Phillip Wilson

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A theoretical model is developed for the resonant frequencies and mode shapes of pinned edge surface waves on a viscoelastic fluid contained in a finite depth cylindrical container. A boundary integral approach is used to map the governing equations to the domain boundary. The surface waves obey an eigenvalue operator equation that depends on four dimensionless parameters: the cylinder aspect ratio, the Bond number, the Ohnesorge number, and the elastocapillary number. A solution is constructed using a Rayleigh-Ritz variational procedure over a constrained function space, which is able to effectively incorporate the pinned edge boundary condition. Mode shapes are defined …

Evaluation Of The Long-Term Performance Of Ogfc In South Carolina, Rishiraj Brahmbhatt

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Since the 1970s, South Carolina has employed open graded friction courses (OGFC) on high-speed asphalt roadways to enhance wet weather safety. While these mixes have indeed enhanced safety, they still grapple with durability issues, particularly concerning raveling. This research aimed to assess the prolonged performance of OGFC pavements in South Carolina, with a specific emphasis on isolated raveling occurrences. In 2012, the South Carolina Department of Transportation (SCDOT), constructed the first Warm Mix OGFC test section in South Carolina on I-20 Eastbound in Kershaw County, spanning 3.9 miles, using the Evotherm additive and excluding fibers. Following the success of this …

Resilient, Sustainable, And Secure Systems Support For Ultra-Low-Power Computational Things, Nicole Tobias

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Wireless battery-free and energy-harvesting devices are expanding the reach and vision of the Internet of Things, where trillions of embedded computational things interconnect ubiquitously around us and inform many different aspects of our everyday lives. Designing these systems without batteries and interconnecting wires lowers maintenance, environmental, and economic costs while also extending device lifetime and deployment opportunities. Over the last decade, research on these ultra-low-power embedded sensors and systems has dramatically increased — enabling new and exciting prospects in many different scientific fields, from smart building and health monitoring applications to animal and activity tracking.

These systems are not without …

Developing High-Performance 2d Heterostructured Electrocatalysts And Photocatalysts For Hydrogen Production And Utilizationsts And Photocatalysts For Hydrogen Production And Utilization, Xiaohan Ma

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H₂ is a pivotal chemical in modern society, not only as a clean energy carrier but also as a versatile chemical reactant. However, traditional hydrogen production and utilization heavily rely on thermocatalysis, which is highly energy-intensive and can result in heavy carbon emission and severe environmental problems. Photocatalysis and electrocatalysis are greener alternatives to thermocatalysis that can capitalize on the renewable sunlight and electricity and thus dramatically reduce energy requirements. However, heterogeneous electro/photocatalysts are still far from application to hydrogen economy due to the lack of design principles that can lead to sufficient efficiency. To address this challenge, the …

Computationally-Driven Insights Into The Ligand Environments Of Materials For Catalysis And Separations, Stephen Vicchio

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Designing new catalytic and sorption materials is necessary to limit global temperature rise below 1.5 ◦C by 2050, while also meeting global energy demands. Climate change and energy production are not mutually exclusive; global population growth has direct impacts on global energy demands and climate. In both catalysis and adsorption applications, new technologies are needed to address these challenges. Catalysis can provide alternate, low-energy routes for converting low-value gases into higher-value chemical commodities, thus altering our current energy production. Likewise, new sorption materials can capture previously emitted CO₂ from decades of energy production from fossil fuels, thus helping to …

Temperature Gradient Effect On Solid-Liqid Interface Properties Of Al-Cu Alloy: A Molecular Dynamics Study, Prashant Kumar Jha

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Aluminum-copper (Al-Cu) alloys are widely used in the aerospace industry due to their favorable strength-to-weight ratio, good fatigue resistance, and corrosion resistance. These properties make Al-Cu alloys an excellent choice for aircraft structural components that require high strength and low weight. Additive manufacturing (AM), also known as 3D printing, has emerged as a promising processing method for Al-Cu alloys in aerospace manufacturing. AM enables the production of lightweight optimized geometries difficult to manufacture through conventional subtractive methods. AM also reduces material waste by only depositing material where needed in the part geometry. The rapid solidification conditions in AM processes motivate …

Experimental Study On The Impact Of Low Thermal Inertia Thermal Barrier Coatings On Ppci-Diffusion Gci Combustion, Kunal Vedpathak

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The application of thermal barrier coatings (TBCs) has been studied in homogenous charge compression ignition (HCCI), conventional diesel combustion (CDC), and spark ignition (SI). Gasoline compression ignition (GCI) combines the low soot and NOx emissions of HCCI with combustion controllability through fuel stratification. GCI has become an interesting prospect due to the reduction in gasoline consumption due to the electrification and hybridization of the light-duty sector. It can be used as a preferred combustion mode in heavy-duty engines to reduce emissions with minimal modifications. GCI exhibits better combustion efficiency than HCCI. Advances in material technology have combined low thermal conductivity …

Finite Element Analysis On Laser Sintering Of Ceramic Materials, Shardul Sharma

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Laser sintering of ceramics plays a vital role in advanced additive manufacturing due to its precise fabrication of complex ceramic structures, localized heating and microstructural control. It allows the production of complex and customized ceramic parts for applications such as the aerospace industry and biomedical devices. However, due to the high thermal gradients produced during the process, laser sintering technology faces fundamental challenges, such as thermal stresses and crack formation. Establishing a valid numerical model to guide the ceramic laser sintering process, which predicts the thermal and mechanical behavior of the component, is necessary.

In this work, the modified Skorohod-Olevsky …

Nanobubble Technology For The Removal Of Mib And Geosmin From Drinking Water, Meryem Soyluoglu

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The presence of taste and odor (T&O) compounds in drinking water has been historically a major challenge for water utilities. They are difficult to remove using conventional water treatment processes, a combination of coagulation, flocculation, sedimentation, filtration, and chlorination. However, activated carbon (AC) adsorption, advanced oxidation processes, and biofiltration can be effective. The seasonal nature of T&O events makes it difficult to justify installing dedicated treatment technologies. Additionally, incorporating these technologies into existing water treatment plants can be expensive and require significant upgrades. Therefore, water utilities are always interested in exploring new approaches to minimize the occurrence and removal of …

Amine-Functionalized Lignin-Based Ionomer Nanocomposites For Redox Flow Batteries, Joshua Wilder

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As the development of energy storage technologies for renewable energy sources continues to garner attention, vanadium redox flow batteries (VRFBs) have emerged as promising source for grid-scale energy storage. A major component of the VRFB is the ion exchange membrane (IEM), as it serves to physically separate the two liquid electrolytes and also directly impacts the battery’s capacity, efficiency, and cost. The current industry standard IEM, Nafion™, not only accounts for a large portion of the cost of the VRFB but also suffers from poor proton selectivity. Herein, we have synthesized sulfonated poly(ether ether ketone) (SPEEK) composite membranes containing amine …

Effect Of Latex Modified Concrete Overlays With Reduced Surface Preparation On The Load Distribution And Flexural Strength Of Channel Girders, Samuel Dodd

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This thesis investigates the use of a Latex Modified Concrete (LMC) overlay to increase the strength of prestressed channel girders and enhance their ability to distribute load. The research conducted in this thesis involved material testing of several different LMC mixes and flexural testing of an LMC overlay and girder system. The material testing was used to determine a reasonable LMC mix design and surface preparation method to be used for the overlay. Based on material testing it was concluded that a rapid-set mix and pressure washing of the girder surfaces were a reasonable mix design and surface preparation for …

Radiation Exposure Calibration Of The Al2o3:C With Radium-226 And Cesium-137 Using The Osl Method, Selma Tepeli Aydin

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Optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dosimetry was utilized to calibrate Al₂O₃:C powder dosimeters, available commercially as the nanoDot® from Landauer Inc., and compare the dosimeter response to radium-226 (²²⁶Ra) and cesium-137 (¹³⁷Cs). The signal from the OSL was quantified using a microSTARii^® OSL reader also produced by Landauer Inc. Dose-response curves were developed for ²²⁶Ra and ¹³⁷Cs experiments (5 dosimeters each) at thirteen absorbed doses. Individual dosimeter response was tracked by serial number. Linear regression analysis was performed to determine if there were significant differences between the intercepts of the …

Development Of Scope Of Services For Procurement Of Professional Consultant Services On Transportation Projects – A Study Of South Carolina Department Of Transportation, Ajay Jadhav

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Project Scoping Process (PSP) is one of the significant steps that starts at the very beginning of the project life cycle. During project initiation phase, project scoping is kicked off which includes documenting a list of project-specific goals, deliverables, tasks, costs, and deadlines. The scoping phase duration depends on the project complexity and involves various stakeholders, establishing team, confirming the project purpose and need, initiating the environmental revie process, determining the level of environmental documentation and permit requirements, conducting survey, identifying project risks and tools to mitigate them, and evaluating public involvement strategies. A well-defined PSP is therefore essential for …

The Generation Of A Physics Informed Machine Learning Model To Predict Defect Evolution In Materials & On The Thermally Activated Regime Of Dislocation Motion: A Simulation Driven Study On The Mechanical Behavior Of Crystals, Liam Myhill

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Line defects in crystals, known as dislocations, govern the mechanisms of plastic deformation at the micro-meso scale. The study of dislocations has proliferated the field of materials science and engineering for since the 1950’s, and modern studies show increasing utilization of computational methods to model the evolution of line defects in material systems. In keeping with modern research practice, the studies herewith demonstrate the use of advanced computing to generate models which can be used to better understand the behaviors of dislocations within crystal matrices. An advanced high-throughput model for a physically informed machine learning graph neural network (PIML-GNN) is …

Cfrp Delamination Density Propagation Analysis By Magnetostriction Theory, Brandon Eugene Williams

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While Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymers (CFRPs) have exceptional mechanical properties concerning their overall weight, their failure profile in demanding high-stress environments raises reliability concerns in structural applications. Two crucial limiting factors in CFRP reliability are low-strain material degradation and low fracture toughness. Due to CFRP’s low strain degradation characteristics, a wide variety of interlaminar damage can be sustained without any appreciable change to the physical structure itself. This damage suffered by the energy transfer from high- stress levels appears in the form of microporosity, crazes, microcracks, and delamination in the matrix material before any severe laminate damage is observed. This …

Trust-Based Variable Impedance Control And Passivity-Based Switched System Analysis For Human-Robot Cooperative Manipulation, Zhanrui Liao

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Human-robot cooperative manipulation (co-manipulation) is one of the most prominent human-robot collaboration (HRC) tasks, where humans and robots manipulate the same object. Trust in HRC is crucial in determining human acceptance of robots and, hence, robot utilization. A probabilistic dynamic Bayesian network (DBN) trust model that integrates a time-series trust model is presented in this thesis. The trust model is learned using a continuous and normalized Baum-Welch (BW) algorithm, devised to account for the continuous nature of trust evolution and the limitations of the classic parameter learning method. To ensure a good HRC in co-manipulation, a variable impedance control framework …

Controlled Manipulation And Transport By Microswimmers In Stokes Flows, Jake Buzhardt

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Remotely actuated microscale swimming robots have the potential to revolutionize many aspects of biomedicine. However, for the longterm goals of this field of research to be achievable, it is necessary to develop modelling, simulation, and control strategies which effectively and efficiently account for not only the motion of individual swimmers, but also the complex interactions of such swimmers with their environment including other nearby swimmers, boundaries, other cargo and passive particles, and the fluid medium itself. The aim of this thesis is to study these problems in simulation from the perspective of controls and dynamical systems, with a particular focus …