Engineering Commons^™

2020 Civil And Environmental Engineering Department News, Department Of Civil And Environmental Engineering, Michigan Technological University

Department of Civil, Environmental, and Geospatial Engineering Newsletters

Table of Contents

• Research
• CEEPAC
• Surveying
• Department Awards
• Student Orgs
• CEE Academy
• Alumni Features
• Lifetime Giving

Joint Simulation Of Continuous And Categorical Variables For Mineral Resource Modeling And Recoverable Reserves Calculation, Sentle Augustinus Hlajoane

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Spatial variability and uncertainty of continuous variables (grade) and categorical variables (rock-types) in mineral evaluation significantly impact the economics of mining projects. The conventional approach of simulating grades using deterministic rock- types is problematic since spatial variability, and uncertainty of grades at rock-type contacts are not well captured in deposits where the grade changes gradually between rock-types. Therefore, jointly simulating these variables can improve confidence (reduce uncertainty) in a resource model. Also, resource classification and recoverable reserve calculation can significantly improve the understanding of the deposit and its economic viability. This research utilized the Plural-Gaussian geostatistical simulation to jointly simulate …

Generation Of Premix Laminar Flame Speed Library, Sai Prashanth Kumar

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

The Laminar flame speed is an essential parameter in measuring turbulent premixed combustion applied in Spark ignition engines. Instead of using power-law correlations, which is valid only for particular ranges, the procedure for generating a premixed laminar flame speed library is defined using MTU – Master mechanism for a wide range of charge mixture conditions inside an engine combustion chamber: Temperature (300 – 700 K), Pressure (1 – 70 bar) and reactant mixture composition of equivalence ratio (0.4 – 2.0) Laminar flame speed library is generated for methane. The mechanism's performance was improved by adjusting the pre-exponential factor of the …

Active Noise Control Using Carbon Nanotube Thermophones: Case Study For An Automotive Hvac Application, Walker H. Nelson

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

The goal of this project was to reduce the overall noise levels emitted by the HVAC components in a vehicle’s cabin. More specifically, the feasibility of achieving this goal using two key technologies was investigated.

The first of these technologies, Active Noise Control (ANC), is a noise attenuation technique that relies on destructive interference that “cancels” unwanted noise. Typically used in situations where physical constraints prevent passive attenuation techniques from being used, ANC is known for its high size-to-effectiveness ratio. This benefit cannot be gained without a cost however; the complexity of ANC systems is significantly higher than their passive …

Development Of An Eco Approach And Departure Application To Improve Energy Consumption Of A Plug-In Hybrid Vehicle In Charge Depleting Mode, Brandon Narodzonek

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

A recent study at Michigan Technological University as part of the NEXTCAR DOE APRA-E Project was conducted to determine the potential energy savings of a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) equipped with various Connected and Automated Vehicle (CAV) Technologies. One aspect of this study focused on the development of an Eco Approach and Departure (Eco AnD) Application that would further reduce the energy consumed around a signalized intersection.

Many modern intersections are equipped with traffic signals that can broadcast Basic Safety (BSM), MAP, and Signal Phase and Timing (SPaT) message sets that contain intersection ID, location, current phase, and cyclic …

Texture Evolution Induced By Twinning And Dynamic Recrystallization In Dilute Mg-1sn-1zn-1al Alloy During Hot Compression, Meijuan Hao, Weili Cheng, Lifei Wang, Ehsan Mostaed, Liping Bian, Hongxia Wang, Xiaofeng Niu

Michigan Tech Publications, Part 1

Texture evolution of an extruded dilute Mg-1Sn-1Zn-1Al alloy was thoroughly investigated based on the twinning and dynamic recrystallization (DRX) behavior via hot compression at a strain rate of 10 s−1 and temperature of 225°C. It was found that the types and intensities of the texture are strongly dependent on the fraction of twins and DRX modes as well as regions where sub-grain boundaries (sub-GBs) are intensively accumulated. At the initial stage of deformation, the formation of compression direction (CD)-tilted basal texture was mainly determined by the occurrence of {101¯2} extension twins. As the strain increases, the variation in the texture …

Design Of An Anti-Jerk Controller For Both Locked And Slipping Torque Converter Conditions In A Vehicle, Syed Ahmad Nadeem

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

With the advancement in the automotive technologies, the customer scrutiny on the ride comfort of automobiles has come to light. Vehicle drivability is one of the important aspects that defines the ride comfort for a vehicle. Drivability of a vehicle is a qualitative measure and may differ from person to person, however, researches have come up to highlight a few parameters that can categorize the drivability performance of a vehicle into good or bad for a majority of the targeted audience. One of those parameters include shuffle, which is defined as the longitudinal oscillations that occurs in the drivetrain when …

Initial Transformation Of Photo-Viable Free Amino Acids In The Presence Of Surrogate And Standard Dissolved Organic Matter Under Sunlit Irradiation, Ryan J. Kibler

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

With more than half of the nation’s drinking water affected by wastewater discharge from upstream and more indirect and direct reuse of treated wastewater, human health and ecotoxicological impacts resulting from effluent organic material (EfOM) will increase. Dissolved free amino acids (DFAAs), nitrogen components of EfOM, are essential nitrogen sources for microorganisms and play important roles in global N-cycling in natural aquatic environments. Several DFAAs including histidine, methionine, and tyrosine in sunlit surface waters are susceptible to direct and indirect photochemical transformation with reactive oxygen species. In this study, we investigated the reaction kinetics and initial reaction mechanisms involved in …

Assessment And Improvement Of Computational Fluid Dynamics Methods For Separated Turbulent Flows At Low Reynolds Numbers, Tom Mancuso

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

This study investigates the accuracy of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) models to predict heat transfer in turbulent separated flows at low Reynolds numbers. A novel improvement of a Scale Adaptive technique is also presented. A spectrum of turbulence models is used to simulate flow and heat transfer of two geometries; fully developed flow through a staggered tube bank and a square prism in cross flow. Experimental data for both local heat transfer and velocity data are available in the literature for these cases and have been used extensively evaluate various CFD methods. Six unsteady models were used and the results …

Data Driven Sensor Fusion For Cycle-Cycle Imep Estimation, Cooper Heyne Minehart

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

As the world searches for ways to reduce humanity’s impact on the environment, the automotive industry looks to extend the viable use of the gasoline engine by improving efficiency. One way to improve engine efficiency is through more effective control – effective control systems require a feedback signal. Indicated mean effective pressure (IMEP) is a useful feedback signal for automotive control but is costly to measure directly.

Successful machine learning based sensor fusion requires effective feature extraction and model creation. Through a multistage application of machine learning to both the feature extraction process and the IMEP estimation process we are …

Energy Consumption And Savings Analysis Of A Phev In Real World Driving Through Vehicle Connectivity Using Vehicle Platooning, Blended Mode Operation And Engine Start-Stop Optimizers, Pruthwiraj Santhosh

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

This report presents an analysis on energy consumption of a Gen II Chevrolet Volt PHEV and its energy savings potential in Real World Driving scenarios with the help of vehicle connectivity. The research on the energy consumption analysis and optimization using connectivity will focus on four main areas of contribution which includes 1.) vehicle testing on a pre-defined drive cycle and alternative routing near the Michigan Tech campus and APS research center that is a continuation of previous students' works, 2) the energy savings potential of vehicle platooning and various vehicle platoon configurations, 3) the updating of a PHEV implementation …

Ambient Noise Seismic Interferometry Through Surface Seismic Data Acquisition Vs Zero-Offset Vertical Seismic Profiling (Vsp), Erdi Apatay

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Ambient noise seismic interferometry (ANSI) is a method that uses passive noise created by unknown sources such as local or teleseismic earthquakes, waves, wind, fracturing and fault movement in a reservoir to obtain an image of subsurface. ANSI has been used in some various disciplines, including earthquake engineering, time-lapse monitoring, borehole seismology and seismic exploration for years. Compared to conventional active seismic surveys, it is advantageous in terms of cost-efficiency as no active source such dynamite or vibroseis is used. Although many promising results have been obtained from surface wave ANSI, body wave ANSI is still challenging. Such a challenge …

Physical Modeling Of The Krauklis Waves: Insights From Two Experimental Apparatuses, Haitao Cao

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Fractures play an important role in the geological related processes such as hydraulic fracturing, water-water disposal, and volcanic earthquake. Seismic waves can provide useful information from fractures at a relatively low cost. In particular, the acoustic property of fractures containing magmatic or hydrothermal fluids can provide useful information about the fracture size and the fluid composition within the fracture. For instance, in volcanology, the resonant frequency of long-period events that are linked to crack interface waves is used to obtain fluid properties of cracks in magmatic systems. However, in order to rely on seismic data, they should be precisely characterized …

Deep Learning Of Nonlinear Dynamical System, Aditya Wagh

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

A data-driven approach, such as neural networks, is an alternative to traditional parametric-model methods for nonlinear system identification. Recently, long Short- Term Memory (LSTM) neural networks have been studied to model nonlinear dynamical systems. However, many of these contributions are made considering that the input to the system is known or measurable, which often may not be the case. This thesis presents a method based on LSTM for output-only modeling, identification, and prediction of nonlinear systems. A numerical study is performed and discussed on Duffing systems with various cubic nonlinearity.

Magnetism In Γ-Fesi2 Nanostructures: A First Principles Study, Sahil Dhoka

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

First-principles calculations are performed on γ-FeSi₂ nanostructures grown on Si (111) and (001) substrate. An attempt to explain the origin of emergent magnetic properties of the metastable gamma phase of iron di-silicide (γ-FeSi₂) is made, which show ferromagnetic behavior on nanoscale, unlike its possible bulk form. Many papers try to explain this magnetism from factors like bulk, epitaxial strain, interface, surface, edges, and corners but doesn’t provide an analytical study for these explanations. Density functional theory is used to analyze the magnetic effects of these factors. The results for the epitaxial structures show no magnetic behavior for …

A Neural Network Approach To Estimate Buoy Mooring Line Sensor Deflection, Tom Price

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Instrumented moorings are often used to measure characteristics, such as temperature and current, over the water column. However, the moorings deflect from the effects of currents and waves, which could lead to innacurate measurements. In this work, a computationally efficient method to compensate for mooring sensor position errors is developed. The two-step process first uses a hydrodynamic model of the buoy and mooring line system to create estimated mooring line deflections in a steady current. A neural network model is trained to approximate the hydrodynamic model’s mooring line displacement given the spatial location of the buoy and current profile measurements. …

Sensitivity And Uncertainty Quantification Of Continuum And Stochastic Bond Dissociation Kinetics Based Cohesive Laws, Rishabh Awasthi

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Polymeric adhesives are being extensively used to develop light weight and durable Composite Materials which are have been employed in automotive, aeronautical, medical industry. Polymeric adhesives undergo failure due to relative opening sliding of bonded interfaces which requires a need to characterize the fracture mechanism. Numerous experiments are conducted to predict the fracture response for Mode-I, II,III and numerical simulations are employed to inversely calibrate the material parameters governing the constitutive laws. Cohesive zone models are largely employed in fracture mechanics to predict failure of interfaces undergoing large plastic deformations. The objective of this report is to employ the cohesive …

Analysis Of A Circular Resonant Plate For Shock Testing, Jon Markl

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Designing a resonant plate for shock test specifications involves an understanding of how a system will respond with a given set of input and output locations in all three directions. To investigate how to effectively change the off-axis responses to meet test specifications, a finite element model (FEM) was created and examinations of input location/angle of impact, placement of the test fixture, and placement of the impact pad were conducted. The primary tool used to determine how a structure will respond to a given input at a given output on the test structure was done using the shock response spectra …

Effect Of Cobalt In Thin Wall Ductile Iron And Solid Solution Strengthened Ferritic Ductile Iron, Alejandra I. Almanza

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Ductile Iron is a material that is constantly evolving. Consequently, the ferrous industry is not only focusing on lightweighting but also on improving the impact strength and fracture toughness of typical ferritic-pearlitic ductile iron grades and solid solution strengthened ferritic ductile irons. Recently, the demand for thin-wall ductile iron and solid solution strengthened ferritic ductile iron grades has increased. The challenges behind the fabrication of these two ductile iron materials are the presence of carbides and the embrittlement of ferrite. In response, research has been focused on looking at alternative methods that can mitigate carbide formation in thin sections and …

Experimental Characterization Of Spool Valve Flow Noise, Zachary Cohen

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

The purpose of this research was to experimentally measure the flow noise produced by a spool valve and compare with measurements of orifice flow noise to reduce flow noise modelling complexity. The similarities and differences are compared over a range of volume flow rates, back pressures, and cross section areas. The impact of down stream boundary conditions on the flow noise are also examined. The results are generalized and plotted against Froude number. The valve results are curve fit to generate empirical equations that can be used to predict flow noise under typical operating conditions. The valve and orifice data …

Estimation Of Vehicle Trailer Rotation Using Calibrated Radars With Multiple Viewpoints, Kunle Olutomilayo

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Multiple sensors are increasingly being deployed on systems for perception applications. In particular, vehicles are becoming equipped with a suite of sensors for advanced driver assistance features and autonomous driving. This dissertation considers automotive radar sensors mounted at the rear of a vehicle with the main objective of using their point cloud detections to estimate the rotation of a trailer which is attached to the vehicle's hitch ball. A simulation-based study of the problem is presented first. Thereafter, the problem is considered with respect to experimental radar data collected in both indoor and outdoor environments; the environmental difference is in …

Design, Build, And Analysis Of A Compressed Natural Gas Direct Injection Compression Ignition Single Cylinder Research Engine, Tyler Miller

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Both experimental and simulation efforts have been employed to further advance the design and build of a single cylinder research engine. The engine will aid in advancing technology and understanding the operation of compression-ignition (CI) engines using natural gas within the heavy-duty engine industry. The basis for the engine is a Cummins 15L ISX engine that has been modified, retrofitted, and instrumented to allow for late-cycle direct-injection of high-pressure compressed natural gas. Along with the engine build, a one-dimensional GT-Power simulation model has been created and used to analyze the engine operation and specify components including the engine compression ratio …

A Study Of Model-Based Control Strategy For A Gasoline Turbocharged Direct Injection Spark Ignited Engine, Xin Wang

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

To meet increasingly stringent fuel economy and emissions legislation, more advanced technologies have been added to spark-ignition (SI) engines, thus exponentially increase the complexity and calibration work of traditional map-based engine control. To achieve better engine performance without introducing significant calibration efforts and make the developed control system easily adapt to future engines upgrades and designs, this research proposes a model-based optimal control system for cycle-by-cycle Gasoline Turbocharged Direct Injection (GTDI) SI engine control, which aims to deliver the requested torque output and operate the engine to achieve the best achievable fuel economy and minimum emission under wide range of …

Real-Time Predictive Control Of Connected Vehicle Powertrains For Improved Energy Efficiency, Joseph Oncken

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

The continued push for the reduction of energy consumption across the automotive vehicle fleet has led to widespread adoption of hybrid and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV) by auto manufacturers. In addition, connected and automated vehicle (CAV) technologies have seen rapid development in recent years and bring with them the potential to significantly impact vehicle energy consumption. This dissertation studies predictive control methods for PHEV powertrains that are enabled by CAV technologies with the goal of reducing vehicle energy consumption.

First, a real-time predictive powertrain controller for PHEV energy management is developed. This controller utilizes predictions of future vehicle velocity …

Phase Field Fracture Modeling Of Chemically Strengthened Glass, Parag Nikam

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

The objective of the report is to implement the phase-field model in the Abaqus standard to compute the fracture properties of a glass strengthened by an ion-exchange process. Implemented the phase-field model which is based on the rate-independent variational principle of diffuse fracture in Abaqus standard software using the UEL and UMAT subroutines. SDVINI subroutine is used to give the residual stress or prestress conditions to simulate the stress profile of strengthened glass. Studied the effect of parameters such as length scale parameter and step size and the optimum parameters are selected. The experimental model of chemically strengthened glass is …

Numerical Investigation Of Spray Characterization Of Heater-Gdi System, Ashwin Karthik Purushothaman

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Gasoline engines require fuel enrichment at low temperature cranking (cold start) conditions for efficient engine operation. Since the amount of fuel injected is high at cold start to compensate low fuel evaporation, fuel sprays tend to impinge on the cold surfaces of the piston and cylinder walls leading to the formation of excessive unburned hydrocarbons. One of the ways to ensure reliable cold start performance and to reduce UHC emissions is to have the fuel subjected to preheating. The objective of this study is to investigate the effects of fuel preheating on Gasoline Direct Injection sprays to improve the mixture …

Metalimnetic Oxygen Minimum In Green Lake, Wisconsin, Mahta Naziri Saeed

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Green Lake, located in Green Lake County, Wisconsin, has been experiencing summer Metalimnetic Oxygen Minima (MOM). The severity of the MOM has increased in recent years and the lake was listed as impaired in 2014. To investigate the MOM, the lake was monitored during 2017 and 2018 at two sites using moored temperature and oxygen sensors recording at 1-hour intervals. Using these data, a hydrodynamic model (Simstrat) was configured for the lake. A new model was then developed to simulate the oxygen changes in the lake. Productivity, respiration, sediment oxygen demand (SOD) and fluxes were included, and hydrodynamics were driven …

Optimization Of Shape And Control Of Linear And Nonlinear Wave Energy Converters, Jiajun Song

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

In this dissertation, we address the optimal control and shape optimization of Wave Energy Converters. The wave energy converters considered in this study are the single-body heaving wave energy converters, and the two-body heaving wave energy converters. Different types of wave energy converters are modeled mathematically, and different optimal controls are developed for them. The concept of shape optimization is introduced in this dissertation; the goal is to leverage nonlinear hydrodynamic forces which are dependent on the buoy shape. In this dissertation, shape optimization is carried out and its impact on energy extraction is investigated. In all the studies conducted …

Dynamic Testing: An Experimental Approach To Defect Identification In Additive Manufactured Parts, Aimee Allen

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Today’s additive manufacturing (AM) industry produces specialized parts at low volume or with complex geometries. Traditional testing methods are effective, but costly and time consuming to perform. The AM industry lacks an optimized testing method for identifying internal defects that occur in parts. The evaluation of multiple parts printed on the same build plate for internal defects using various nondestructive (dynamic) testing techniques is presented. From these experiments, perspective was gained on when and how dynamic testing can be used to find defects. Insight gained from these experiments can help the industry in future testing for internal defects.

Multiscale Modeling Of Carbon Fibers/Graphene Nanoplatelets/Epoxy Hybrid Composites For Aerospace Applications, Hashim Al Mahmud

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Significant research effort has been dedicated for decades to improve the mechanical properties of aerospace polymer-based composite materials. Lightweight epoxy-based composite materials have increasingly replaced the comparatively heavy and expensive metal alloys used in aeronautical and aerospace structural components. In particular, carbon fibers (CF)/graphene nanoplatelets (GNP)/epoxy hybrid composites can be used for this purpose owing to their high specific stiffness and strength. Therefore, this work has been completed to design, predict, and optimize the effective mechanical properties of CF/GNP/epoxy composite materials at different length scales using a multiscale modeling approach. The work-flow of modeling involves a first step of using …