Engineering Commons^™

Numerical And Experimental Study Of Machining Process Of High Strength Lightweight Materials, Chao Zhang

All Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Tradespace Exploration Of A Uav Conceptual Design Using Model-Based Systems Engineering, Ayan Srivastava

All Theses

The objective of this research is to apply model-based systems engineering approaches to the conceptual design of unmanned aerial vehicles. This is accomplished by evaluating the models of aircraft performance, extracting input and output parameters from the models, creating chains of models, and implementing the models in the MATLAB programming language. By following this process, it is possible to identify the global parameters that remain constant across models, the shared input parameters, the dependencies between models, and the feedback loops with the systems models.

The models are currently implemented in two files using Microsoft MS Excel, one is focused on …

Effect Of Long And Short Chain Fatty Acids On Methane Yield And Microbial Community Composition In Anaerobic Co-Digestion, Emmaline Spier Camposano

All Theses

Fats, oils and greases are produced from a variety of industries, including animal rendering operations, vegetable oil processing plants and the hospitality industry. These hydrophobic, COD-rich compounds are known to cause issues in municipal wastewater collection and treatment systems. Anaerobic co-digestion has been shown to be an effective way to treat FOG and presents an opportunity to produce greater quantities of biogas. However, many microorganisms are sensitive to the degradation products of FOG, including long and short chain fatty acids. Two studies were performed to address potential inhibitory effects of both.

The first study co-digested various percentages of FOG with …

Development And Promotion Of Mass Timber Noise Barrier For Highways, Harsh Bothra

All Theses

Highways are some of the biggest causes of noise pollution in the United States of America. To deal with the traffic noise coming from these highways, noise barriers have been erected across major highways. The goal is to reduce as much noise as possible through a sustainable solution. Unfortunately, the use of steel and concrete, commonly used materials, have undesired environmental impacts. A suggested sustainable alternative material would be mass timber. Mass timber products such as cross-laminated timber (CLT) and mass plywood panels (MPP) has attracted the attention of the construction industry in the U.S, as they are sustainable, light, …

Product Lifecycle Management - Application Of Patterning Methods To Gas Turbine Blades And Creation Of Learning Materials, David Procopio

All Theses

To compete in the global marketplace, companies need to embrace virtual design and manufacturing methods. Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) embodies both the workflow processes and tools to bring forth products from conception to design to fabrication to service to decommissioning, and to eventual recycling. In response to the growing demand for engineers and technicians with these critical skills, colleges and universities should introduce these virtual tools through seminars, software workshops, and computer laboratory sessions. Some of the opportunities in the PLM Center at Clemson University include short courses on PLM practices, focused software training sessions, hands-on exploration activities, and research …

Development Of Lambda Factors For Masonry Design With Lightweight Grout, Rumi Shrestha

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Reduction in structural mass, improvement in thermal performance, and reduction in shrinkage cracking through internal curing are some of the reasons that lightweight (LW) aggregates have been used in structures and pavements for decades. However, lightweight grout is still not permitted for use in reinforced masonry construction by the TMS 402/602-16 code. In order to realize the benefits of lightweight grout in U.S. reinforced masonry construction, a codified procedure for its use is required which must be informed by experimental testing.

This research is a pilot project directed to characterize the performance of LW grout in comparison to normal weight …

Chasing Target Zero: Contributing Factors Of Fatal Crashes In South Carolina, Matthew Stanley

All Theses

South Carolina consistently ranks in the top-10 in fatal crashes per 100,000 capita and 100 million vehicle miles traveled. This thesis summarizes an analysis of contributing factors for fatal crashes in South Carolina. A primary objective of this thesis is to investigate differences in contributing factors for fatal crashes as compared to all crashes in South Carolina. 2018 South Carolina fatal crashes (N=970) and all crashes (N=152,973) were analyzed and compared using classic Venn diagrams to compare differences in contributing factors between fatal crashes and all crashes. Fatal, non-fatal, and all crashes were aggregated into one of seven possible contributing …

Analysis Of Deep Learning Methods For Wired Ethernet Physical Layer Security Of Operational Technology, Lucas Torlay

All Theses

The cybersecurity of power systems is jeopardized by the threat of spoofing and man-in-the-middle style attacks due to a lack of physical layer device authentication techniques for operational technology (OT) communication networks. OT networks cannot support the active probing cybersecurity methods that are popular in information technology (IT) networks. Furthermore, both active and passive scanning techniques are susceptible to medium access control (MAC) address spoofing when operating at Layer 2 of the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model. This thesis aims to analyze the role of deep learning in passively authenticating Ethernet devices by their communication signals. This method operates at …

Design And Fabrication Of A Polymer Fdm Printer Capable Of Build Parameter Monitoring And In-Sit Geometric Monitoring Via Photogrammetry, Travis Roberts

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Additive manufacturing, or 3D printing, is a complex process that creates free-form geometric objects by sequentially placing material in a location to construct an object, usually as a layer-by-layer process. One of the most widespread methods is Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM). FDM is used in many of the consumer-grade polymer 3D printers available today. While consumer grade machines are cheap and plentiful, they lack many of the features desired in a machine used for research purposes and are often closed-source platforms. Commercial-grade models are more expensive and are also usually closed-source platforms that do not offer flexibility for modifications often …

The Effect Of Using Palm Oil As An Electron Donor For The Reductive Dechlorination Of Trichloroethylene (Tce), Shivani Swamy

All Theses

TCE is currently remediated using physical methods like air stripping and granular activated carbon adsorption. While physical and chemical processes work on a site-specific basis, biological strategies have been favored as they are economical and reliable. The objective of this work was to determine the feasibility of using palm oil as an electron donor in the reductive dechlorination of TCE to ethene. Palm oil was considered for the study because it is locally grown in many parts of the world. The palm oil that does not meet the industry standards is discarded. Despite the environmental impacts caused by the palm …

Lossy Compression And Its Application On Large Scale Scientific Datasets, Tasmia Reza

All Theses

High Performance Computing (HPC) applications are always expanding in data size and computational complexity. It is becoming necessary to consider fault tolerance and system recovery to reduce computation and resource cost in HPC systems. The computation of modern large scale HPC applications are facing bottleneck due to computation complexities, increased runtime and large data storage requirements. These issues can not be ignored in current supercomputing era. Data compression is one of the effective ways to address data storage issue. Among data compression, the lossy compression is much more feasible and efficient than the traditional lossless compression due to low I/O …

Investigation On Effects Of Lactate Adaptation Using Metabolic Indicators And Amino Acids To Explore Cell Metabolism, Lisa Uy

All Theses

Biopharmaceutical products are drugs that are made from living cells. One protein type of high importance to biopharmaceuticals is monoclonal antibodies. Monoclonal antibodies allow for highly specific, targeted treatment of diseases and detection of molecules related to diseases. With major roles in detecting and/or treating diseases like human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), and some cancers, monoclonal antibodies are in demand. This demand has led to a need for efficient cell culture systems to produce high yields of protein with minimal waste. The most commonly used cell culture system for these high-value proteins is Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) …

Extraction Methodologies And Physicochemical Characterizations Of Nanocellulose Isolated From Kudzu For Potential Sustainable Packaging Applications, Elliott Love

All Theses

Flexible packaging is an integral part of the food supply chain due to its unique thermal, mechanical, and barrier properties. The many advantages (e.g., lightweight, product protection, reduction in food waste, communication medium, etc.) come with certain drawbacks (low recyclability rate, pollution of ecosystems, etc.). Still, the heavy reliance of the food industry on these products, many of them being non-sustainable polyolefins, is unlikely to diminish in the foreseeable future. Thus, more sustainable alternatives that do not sacrifice performance (machinability, shelf-life, etc.) are needed before pollution becomes irreversible and public outcry insurmountable. Nanocellulose, especially in the form of cellulose nanocrystals …

Covid Response: Iterative Model Development In The Deployment Of Hand Sanitation Stations At A Large Public University, Tyler Obrien

All Theses

This study illustrates the significance of iterative model development using the deployment of hand sanitizer stations in buildings at Clemson University as a case study. The COVID-19 problem affected Clemson University, a major institution, in several ways requiring adaptations to existing policies and procedures to take place. Following guidelines provided by the Centers for Disease and Control (CDC), the university implemented several new strategies including placing hand sanitizer stations in several buildings on campus in order to try and mitigate the transmission of the virus. This study focuses on learning how the initial decision-making took place to then design a …

Theoretical Development And Numerical Validation Of An Asymmetric Linear Bilateral Control Model For An Automated Truck Platoon, M Sabbir Salek

All Theses

In this study, the author theoretically develops and numerically validates an asymmetric linear bilateral control model (LBCM) for an automated truck platoon, in which the motion information (i.e., position and speed) from the immediate leading truck and the immediate following truck are weighted differently. The novelty of the asymmetric LBCM is that using this model, all the follower trucks in a platoon can adjust their acceleration and deceleration to closely follow a constant desired time headway at all times to improve platoon operational efficiency while maintaining local and string stability. The author theoretically proves the local stability of the asymmetric …

Deriving Generalized Temperature-Dependent Material Models For Masonry Through Fire Tests And Machine Learning, Aditya Avinash Daware

All Theses

Masonry is one of the oldest and commonly used building materials in the construction industry. Among a variety of benefits, masonry provides low-cost construction, fire, and weather protection as well as thermal and sound insulation. In addition, masonry has superior material properties at elevated temperatures which is reflected by its slow degradation of its mechanical and thermal properties. Literature shows that we do not have a uniform material model that describes the mechanical degradation of masonry under fire conditions. As such, this limits the use of masonry in fire-based performance design of masonry structures. To bridge this knowledge gap, this …

Seismic Performance Assessment Of Building Contents: Monetary Losses And Injuries, Sereen Majdalaweyh

All Dissertations

Building contents include all the components that are not attached to the building which the owners place after the construction phase, such as furniture, electrical equipment, glassware, and other personal items. Loss and damage assessment of building contents proved to be challenging in performance-based earthquake engineering frameworks because of the data sparsity. Damages to building contents during an earthquake not only cause monetary losses; tumbling and over-toppling of heavy building contents could result in injuries and even deaths of occupants. While major advancements have been made in performance-based earthquake engineering; however, the focus is mainly on damages and collapse risk …

Mechanical Interfacial Locking And Multiscale Modeling Of Reinforced Thermoplastic Composites For Structural Applications, Anmol Kothari

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The ever-growing pressure of reducing the adverse impact of transportation systems on environment has pushed industries towards fuel-efficient and sustainable solutions. While several approaches have been used to improve fuel efficiency, the light-weighting of structural components has proven broadly effective. In this regard, reinforced thermoplastic composites (RTPC), owing to their high recyclability, higher impact strength and fast cycle times, have become competitive candidates at an industrial scale. However, to implement RTPC toward large scale structural applications several challenges pertaining to material design and manufacturing effects need to be addressed. To this end, a computational study is carried out to address …

Coupled Thermal Mechanical Analysis Methodology For Thermal Performance Evaluation And Failure Mode Identification Of Thermal Barrier Coatings For Heavy Duty Diesel Engines, Sean Moser

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Consumer demand and government regulation, as well as the Department of Energy’s SuperTruck program has motivated extraordinary effort to maximize the heavy-duty diesel engine’s thermal efficiency. Thermal barrier coatings (TBCs) provide an avenue for increasing the thermal efficiency of the mixing controlled combustion (MCC) process through the reduction of heat transfer losses. The myriad of previous studies presents conflicting conclusions, both in the merit of TBCs for cycle improvement, and also for coating durability and potential adverse effects from coating failure. While the most recent studies with thin thermal barrier coatings (~100-250 µm) have shown a majority of positive cycle …

Influencing The Inflammatory Response Through Multi-Scale Geometry, Antibiotic Release, And Fluid Management In A Textile-Based Biomaterial Wound Dressing, Elizabeth Gianino

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The total population of diagnosed and undiagnosed diabetes mellitus in the United states is expected to rise by 54% between the years of 2015 and 2030 contributing to $200 billion in health care expense. The exponential rise in common diabetic wounds, such as diabetic foot ulcers, puts a large population at risk for complications such as infection, amputation, and even death. Peripheral neuropathy leading to late diagnoses, patient non-compliance, and lack of holistic treatment options all contribute to complications with the incidence of new ulcer formation after treatment reaching 50%. This work explores the design, development, and in vitro evaluation …

Investigation And Characterization Of New Optically Stimulated Luminescence (Osl) Dosimetric Materials, Linyu Pan

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Optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dosimeters have attracted increasing attention due to advantages over TL dosimeters, including no thermal quenching and higher sensitivity. Nevertheless, currently, there are only two commercially available OSL dosimeters, BeO and Al₂O₃:C. An OSL dosimeter requires low effective atomic number (Z_eff < 16), at least one type of recombination center and one type of trap, and UV~blue emission. In this dissertation, motivated by the search of new OSL dosimetric materials, a systematic investigation of alumina (Z_eff = 11.3) and magnesium aluminate spinel (Z_eff = 11.2) based materials was performed in terms of the engineering of the recombination centers and electronic traps. Microstructural characterization was executed by means of X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Raman spectroscopy. Luminescence was characterized under X-ray excitation (radioluminescence; RL) at ambient and …

Towards Understanding Protein Immobilization Rules Through Site-Specific Covalent Immobilization Of T4 Lysozyme, Maxwell Hilbert

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Soluble enzymes have the unique ability to assist the conversion of complex substrates in fewer steps compared to conventional chemical synthesis; however, when immobilized to a surface, the insoluble enzyme's activity and stability can suffer in its new environment. To improve upon future immobilized enzyme efficacy, a fundamental understanding of the interactions across the enzyme, linker, and surface during covalent, site-specific immobilization that can be detrimental to its activity is required. More specifically, using a well-characterized and model enzyme, T4 lysozyme (T4L), 28 different cysteine attachment points' effects on site-specifically immobilized activity are examined. Different combinations of heterobifunctional amine-to-sulfhydryl crosslinkers …

Time-Lapse Observation Of Sarcomeric Addition In Hypertrophic Models Based On A Tissue Like Cardiomyocyte Culture, Ailin Wei

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Cardiac hypertrophy is the response of the heart to increased mechanical stress exerted on the heart. In a hypertrophic heart, the muscles elongate or/and thicken with cardiomyocytes growing sizes. It is assumed that cardiomyocytes elongate by adding sarcomeres in series; the cardiomyocytes thicken with the addition of sarcomeres in the parallel position.

In this study, a tissue-like culture model was achieved with step-like ICDs. Uniaxial static stretch has been applied to our unique culture model for studying mechanical-load-induced cardiac hypertrophy. Hypertrophic responses of these cardiomyocytes have been confirmed on transcriptional and translational levels in our tissue-like model. The two-photon excitation …

Development Of Solution Blow Spun Nanofibers As Electrical And Whole Cell Biosensing Interfaces, Craig Levar Miller

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Infectious pathogens place a huge burden on the US economy with more than $120 billion spent annually for direct and indirect costs for the treatment of infectious diseases. Rapid detection schemes continue to evolve in order to meet the demand of early diagnosis. In chronic wound infections, bacterial load is capable of impeding the healing process. Additionally, bacterial virulence production works coherently with bacterial load to produce toxins and molecules that prolongs the healing cycle. This work examines the use of nonwoven polymeric conductive and non-conductive nanofiber mats as synthetic biosensor scaffolds, drug delivery and biosensor interface constructs. A custom-made …

A Youthful Metaverse: Towards Designing Safe, Equitable, And Emotionally Fulfilling Social Virtual Reality Spaces For Younger Users, Divine Maloney

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Social virtual reality (VR) represents the modern rendition of the metaverse, this dissertation aims to fill the research gaps while highlighting trends of youth in VR. The scientific contributions of this research include 1) expanding the current HCI understanding of the social dynamics and the interactions of teens in emerging novel online digital spaces; 2) bridging two research areas that have not been widely studied in HCI, social VR and young users in social VR; and 3) generating design implications to inform the design of future social VR platforms to better support and protect teens’ online social experiences, results which …

Systematic Review And Regression Modeling Of The Effects Of Age, Body Size, And Exercise On Cardiovascular Parameters In Healthy Adults, Aseem Pradhan, John Scaringi, Patrick Gerard, Ross Arena, Jonathan Myers, Leonard A. Kaminsky, Ethan Kung

Publications

Purpose

Blood pressure, cardiac output, and ventricular volumes correlate to various subject features such as age, body size, and exercise intensity. The purpose of this study is to quantify this correlation through regression modeling.

Methods

We conducted a systematic review to compile reference data of healthy subjects for several cardiovascular parameters and subject features. Regression algorithms used these aggregate data to formulate predictive models for the outputs—systolic and diastolic blood pressure, ventricular volumes, cardiac output, and heart rate—against the features—age, height, weight, and exercise intensity. A simulation-based procedure generated data of virtual subjects to test whether these regression models built …

Plaque Contact Surface Area And Flow Lumen Volume Predict Stroke Risk In Extracranial Carotid Artery Stenosis, Ryan Gendey, Ethan Kung, Veena Mehta, Adam Brown, Matthew Bridges, Ravi Veeraswamy

Publications

The standard indication for intervention in asymptomatic disease is currently percent stenosis in the internal carotid artery as measured by the NASCET method, which remains limited in discriminating power. CT angiography (CTA) is widely used to calculate NASCET stenosis but also offers the opportunity to analyze carotid artery plaques from a morphological perspective that has not been widely utilized. We aim to improve stroke risk stratification of patients with carotid artery stenosis using plaque 3D modeling and image analysis. Patients with CTAs appropriate for 3D reconstruction were identified from an NIH designated stroke center database, and carotid arteries were segmented …

The Professional Constructor, Full Issue, Volume 46, Number 02

The Professional Constructor

No abstract provided.

Prefabrication In Buildings With Focus On Emerging Mep Rack Systems, Mark Daniels, M.G. Matt Syal

The Professional Constructor

The growth in technology and automation has influenced the construction industry to explore prefabrication alternatives in building design and construction. In addition, the shortage of skilled labor is accelerating the push for the adoption of prefabrication in building industry. This paper provides an overview of the present construction market and labor trends and summarizes various levels and categories of prefabrication. It then provides detailed information on an emerging MEP prefabricated solution known as the MEP rack systems. The implementation of the MEP rack systems is discussed with the help of a hospital case study project. It concludes with the discussion …

Case Study Of Using Unmanned Aircraft Systems To Support Bridge Inspections, Joseph M. Burgett, Gurcan Comert

The Professional Constructor

This paper presents the results of a case study conducted to evaluate the potential benefit of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), commonly referred to as drones, as a tool to improve the bridge inspection workflow. The study conducted two experiments to determine how well deficiencies could be detected using a UAS. Both experiments were conducted using the same test bridge. The first experiment was carried out by the bridge inspection engineers (BIEs), who had previously inspected the bridge using traditional methods. They used the drone to search for inspection points identified in the inspection report. The second experiment was conducted by …