Engineering Commons^™

Integration Of Instrumentation And Processing Software Of A Laser Speckle Contrast Imaging System, Jacob James Carrick

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

Laser speckle contrast imaging (LSCI) has the potential to be a powerful tool in medicine, but more research in the field is required so it can be used properly. To help in the progression of Michigan Tech's research in the field, a graphical user interface (GUI) was designed in Matlab to control the instrumentation of the experiments as well as process the raw speckle images into contrast images while they are being acquired. The design of the system was successful and is currently being used by Michigan Tech's Biomedical Engineering department. This thesis describes the development of the LSCI GUI …

Multidimensional Optimal Droop Control For Wind Resources In Dc Microgrids, Kaitlyn J. Bunker

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

Two important and upcoming technologies, microgrids and electricity generation from wind resources, are increasingly being combined. Various control strategies can be implemented, and droop control provides a simple option without requiring communication between microgrid components. Eliminating the single source of potential failure around the communication system is especially important in remote, islanded microgrids, which are considered in this work. However, traditional droop control does not allow the microgrid to utilize much of the power available from the wind. This dissertation presents a novel droop control strategy, which implements a droop surface in higher dimension than the traditional strategy. The droop …

High Performance, Low Cost Subspace Decomposition And Polynomial Rooting For Real Time Direction Of Arrival Estimation: Analysis And Implementation, Mrudula V. Athi

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

This thesis develops high performance real-time signal processing modules for direction of arrival (DOA) estimation for localization systems. It proposes highly parallel algorithms for performing subspace decomposition and polynomial rooting, which are otherwise traditionally implemented using sequential algorithms. The proposed algorithms address the emerging need for real-time localization for a wide range of applications. As the antenna array size increases, the complexity of signal processing algorithms increases, making it increasingly difficult to satisfy the real-time constraints. This thesis addresses real-time implementation by proposing parallel algorithms, that maintain considerable improvement over traditional algorithms, especially for systems with larger number of antenna …

Life Cycle Assessments (Lcas) Of Pyrolysis-Based Gasoline And Diesel From Different Regional Feedstocks: Corn Stover, Switchgrass, Sugar Cane Bagasse, Waste Wood, Guinea Grass, Algae, And Albizia, Matthew J. Mihalek

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

Renewable hydrocarbon biofuels are being investigated as possible alternatives to conventional liquid transportation fossil fuels like gasoline, kerosene (aviation fuel), and diesel. A diverse range of biomass feedstocks such as corn stover, sugarcane bagasse, switchgrass, waste wood, and algae, are being evaluated as candidates for pyrolysis and catalytic upgrading to produce drop-in hydrocarbon fuels. This research has developed preliminary life cycle assessments (LCA) for each feedstock-specific pathway and compared the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of the hydrocarbon biofuels to current fossil fuels. As a comprehensive study, this analysis attempts to account for all of the GHG emissions associated with each …

Proof Of Concept Prototype For A Railroad Pedestrian Warning System Using Wireless Sensor Networks, Puneeth Ramesh

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

Wireless sensor network is an emerging research topic due to its vast and ever-growing applications. Wireless sensor networks are made up of small nodes whose main goal is to monitor, compute and transmit data. The nodes are basically made up of low powered microcontrollers, wireless transceiver chips, sensors to monitor their environment and a power source. The applications of wireless sensor networks range from basic household applications, such as health monitoring, appliance control and security to military application, such as intruder detection.

The wide spread application of wireless sensor networks has brought to light many research issues such as battery …

Measuring Head Impact Contact Pressure In Collegiate Football Games To Correlate Head Kinematics To Brain Kinetics Elucidating Brain Injury Dynamics, Chandrika S. Abhang

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

Does a brain store thoughts and memories the way a computer saves its files? How can a single hit or a fall erase all those memories? Brain Mapping and traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) have become widely researched fields today. Many researchers have been studying TBIs caused to adult American football players however youth athletes have been rarely considered for these studies, contradicting to the fact that American football enrolls highest number of collegiate and high-school children than adults. This research is an attempt to contribute to the field of youth TBIs.

Earlier studies have related head kinematics (linear and angular …

Purification And Effectiveness Of Vaccines And Antiviral Compounds, Maria F. Gencoglu

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

Viral infections account for over 13 million deaths per year. Antiviral drugs and vaccines are the most effective method to treat viral diseases. Antiviral compounds have revolutionized the treatment of AIDS, and reduced the mortality rate. However, this disease still causes a large number of deaths in developing countries that lack these types of drugs. Vaccination is the most effective method to treat viral disease; vaccines prevent around 2.5 million deaths per year. Vaccines are not able to offer full coverage due to high operational costs in the manufacturing processes. Although vaccines have saved millions of lives, conventional vaccines often …

Enzyme Optimization For Lignocellulose Hydrolysis Using Mechanistic Modeling, Adam S. Marlowe

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

A novel mechanistic model for the saccharification of cellulose and hemicellulose is utilized to predict the products of hydrolysis over a range of enzyme loadings and times. The mechanistic model considers the morphology of the substrate and the kinetics of enzymes to optimize enzyme concentrations for the enzymatic hydrolysis of cellulose and hemicellulose simultaneously. Substrates are modeled based on their fraction of accessible sites, glucan content, xylan content, and degree of polymerizations. This enzyme optimization model takes into account the kinetics of six core enzymes for lignocellulose hydrolysis: endoglucanase I (EG1), cellobiohydrolase I (CBH1), cellobiohydrolase II (CBH2), and endo-xylanase (EX) …

State Of Charge Based Droop Surface For Optimal Control Of Dc Microgrids, Arthur John Jones

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

For a microgrid with a high penetration level of renewable energy, energy storage use becomes more integral to the system performance due to the stochastic nature of most renewable energy sources. This thesis examines the use of droop control of an energy storage source in dc microgrids in order to optimize a global cost function. The approach involves using a multidimensional surface to determine the optimal droop parameters based on load and state of charge. The optimal surface is determined using knowledge of the system architecture and can be implemented with fully decentralized source controllers. The optimal surface control of …

Characterization Of The Atmospheric Effects On The Transmission Of Thermal Radiation, Mohamed E. Hanafy

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

Atmospheric scattering plays a crucial rule in degrading the performance of electro optical imaging systems operating in the visible and infra-red spectral bands, and hence limits the quality of the acquired images, either through reduction of contrast or increase of image blur. The exact nature of light scattering by atmospheric media is highly complex and depends on the types, orientations, sizes and distributions of particles constituting these media, as well as wavelengths, polarization states and directions of the propagating radiation. Here we follow the common approach for solving imaging and propagation problems by treating the propagating light through atmospheric media …

Characterizing And Improving Production Of Fermentable Sugars And Co-Products From A Forest Product Industry Wastewater Stream, Jifei Liu

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

Hardboard processing wastewater was evaluated as a feedstock in a bio refinery co-located with the hardboard facility for the production of fuel grade ethanol. A thorough characterization was conducted on the wastewater and the composition changes of which during the process in the bio refinery were tracked. It was determined that the wastewater had a low solid content (1.4%), and hemicellulose was the main component in the solid, accounting for up to 70%. Acid pretreatment alone can hydrolyze the majority of the hemicellulose as well as oligomers, and over 50% of the monomer sugars generated were xylose. The percentage of …

New Microfluidic System To Increase Robustness Of Electrode Performance And Develop Point-Of-Care Hematocrit Device, Hwi Yong Lee

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

The present dissertation aimed to develop a new microfluidic system for a point-of-care hematocrit device. Stabilization of microfluidic systems via surfactant additives and integration of semipermeable SnakeSkin® membranes was investigated. Both methods stabilized the microfluidic systems by controlling electrolysis bubbles. Surfactant additives, Triton X-100 and SDS stabilized promoted faster bubble detachment at electrode surfaces by lowering surface tension and decreased gas bubble formation by increasing gas solubility. The SnakeSkin® membranes blocked bubbles from entering the microchannel and thus less disturbance to the electric field by bubbles occurred in the microchannel. Platinum electrode performance was improved by carbonizing electrode surface using …

Military Vehicle Optimization And Control, Denise M. Rizzo

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

It is remarkable that there are no deployed military hybrid vehicles since battlefield fuel is approximately 100 times the cost of civilian fuel. In the commercial marketplace, where fuel prices are much lower, electric hybrid vehicles have become increasingly common due to their increased fuel efficiency and the associated operating cost benefit. An absence of military hybrid vehicles is not due to a lack of investment in research and development, but rather because applying hybrid vehicle architectures to a military application has unique challenges. These challenges include inconsistent duty cycles for propulsion requirements and the absence of methods to look …

Investigation Of Air Jigging And Air Classification To Recover Metallic Particles From Analytical Samples, Hrishikesh Vilas Shinde

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

Analyzing “nuggety” gold samples commonly produces erratic fire assay results, due to random inclusion or exclusion of coarse gold in analytical samples. Preconcentrating gold samples might allow the nuggets to be concentrated and fire assayed separately. In this investigation synthetic gold samples were made using similar density tungsten powder and silica, and were preconcentrated using two approaches: an air jig and an air classifier. Current analytical gold sampling method is time and labor intensive and our aim is to design a set-up for rapid testing. It was observed that the preliminary air classifier design showed more promise than the air …

Autonomous Power Distribution Systems, Barzin Moridian

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

Using robotic systems for many missions that require power distribution can decrease the need for human intervention in such missions significantly. For accomplishing this capability a robotic system capable of autonomous navigation, power systems adaptation, and establishing physical connection needs to be developed. This thesis presents developed path planning and navigation algorithms for an autonomous ground power distribution system. In this work, a survey on existing path planning methods along with two developed algorithms by author is presented. One of these algorithms is a simple path planner suitable for implementation on lab-size platforms. A navigation hierarchy is developed for experimental …

Microwave Absorption Properties Of Tires, Yuzhe Zhang

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

The waste tire is belonging to insoluble high polymer elastic materials. It takes hundreds of years to resolve the macromolecules of waste tire into the standard which does not pollute the environment. More and more waste tires are air stored which causes space occupation and mosquito-breeding in the places that will spread diseases. The disposal methods include landfill, stockpiles, dumping and incising into particles. However, all these methods are not technically and economically efficient. The trend for the development of waste tire treatment processes is low cost, on-site, and high product recovery at high energy efficiency. In this project, microwave …

Model Updating And Structural Health Monitoring Of Horizontal Axis Wind Turbines Via Advanced Spinning Finite Elements And Stochastic Subspace Identification Methods, Antonio Velazquez Hernandez

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

Wind energy has been one of the most growing sectors of the nation’s renewable energy portfolio for the past decade, and the same tendency is being projected for the upcoming years given the aggressive governmental policies for the reduction of fossil fuel dependency. Great technological expectation and outstanding commercial penetration has shown the so called Horizontal Axis Wind Turbines (HAWT) technologies. Given its great acceptance, size evolution of wind turbines over time has increased exponentially. However, safety and economical concerns have emerged as a result of the newly design tendencies for massive scale wind turbine structures presenting high slenderness ratios …

Dynamics And Control Of Reactive Distillation Process For Monomer Synthesis Of Polycarbonate Plants, Mathkar Alawi A Alharthi

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

Polycarbonate (PC) is an important engineering thermoplastic that is currently produced in large industrial scale using bisphenol A and monomers such as phosgene. Since phosgene is highly toxic, a non-phosgene approach using diphenyl carbonate (DPC) as an alternative monomer, as developed by Asahi Corporation of Japan, is a significantly more environmentally friendly alternative. Other advantages include the use of CO₂ instead of CO as raw material and the elimination of major waste water production. However, for the production of DPC to be economically viable, reactive-distillation units are needed to obtain the necessary yields by shifting the reaction-equilibrium to the …

Modeling Dynamics Of Ozone And Nitrogen Oxides At Summit, Greenland With A 1-D Process-Scale Model, Keenan Anton Murray

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

This work presents a 1-D process scale model used to investigate the chemical dynamics and temporal variability of nitrogen oxides (NO_x) and ozone (O₃) within and above snowpack at Summit, Greenland for March-May 2009 and estimates surface exchange of NO_x between the snowpack and surface layer in April-May 2009. The model assumes the surface of snowflakes have a Liquid Like Layer (LLL) where aqueous chemistry occurs and interacts with the interstitial air of the snowpack. Model parameters and initialization are physically and chemically representative of snowpack at Summit, Greenland and model results are compared to …

Mse Annual Report 2014, Department Of Materials Science And Engineering, Michigan Technological University

Department of Materials Science and Engineering Annual Reports

Table of Contents

• Department Legends
• Wonder Material
• Student News
• Faculty and Staff News
• Alumni News
• Endowed Scholarships

2013-2014 Che Newsletter, Department Of Chemical Engineering, Michigan Technological University

Department of Chemical Engineering Newsletters

Table of Contents

• Department
• Research
• Student News
• Faculty News
• Alumni & Friends

Free-Troposphere Ozone And Carbon Monoxide Over The North Atlantic For 2001-2011, Aditya Kumar, S. Wu, M. F. Weise, R. Honrath, R. C. Owen, D. Helmig, L. Kramer, M. Val Martin, Q. Li

Michigan Tech Publications, Part 1

In situ measurements of carbon monoxide (CO) and ozone (O3) at the Pico Mountain Observatory (PMO) located in the Azores, Portugal, are analyzed together with results from an atmospheric chemical transport model (GEOS-Chem) and satellite remote sensing data (AIRS (Atmospheric Infrared Sounder) for CO, and TES (Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer) for O3) to examine the evolution of free-troposphere CO and O3 over the North Atlantic for 2001-2011. GEOS-Chem captured the seasonal cycles for CO and O3 well but significantly underestimated the mixing ratios of CO, particularly in spring. Statistically significant (using a significance level of 0.05) decreasing trends were found for …

Me-Em Enewsbrief, December 2013, Department Of Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics, Michigan Technological University

Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering eNewsBrief

No abstract provided.

La Yeguada Volcanic Vomplex In The Republic Of Panama: An Assessment Of The Geologic Hazards Using 40ar/39ar Geochronology, Karinne L. Knutsen, William I. Rose, Brian Jicha

Department of Geological and Mining Engineering and Sciences Publications

La Yeguada volcanic complex is one of three Quaternary volcanic centers in Panama. To assess potential geologic hazards, new samples were analyzed using argon analysis (⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar), and obtained the following: the most recent eruption occurred approximately 32,000 years ago at the Media Luna cinder cone; the youngest dated eruption from the main dome complex occurred 357 ± 19 ka, producing the Castillo dome unit; Cerro Picacho, a separate dacite dome 1.5 km east of the main complex is 4.47 ± 0.23 Ma; and the El Satro Pyroclastic Flow unit surrounds the northern portion of the volcanic …

Performances Evaluation Of Cecabase® Rt In Warm Mix Asphalt Technology, Shu Wei Goh, Mohd Rosli Mohd Hasan, Zhanping You

Michigan Tech Publications, Part 1

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the performance of warm mix asphalt (WMA) mixtures containing different percentages of Cecabase® RT using dynamic modulus (|E*|), tensile strength ratio (TSR), four point beam fatigue, flow number and asphalt pavement analyzer (APA) rutting tests. In this study, 0.2%, 0.35% and 0.5% Cecabase® RT were incorporated in the 5E3 Superpave mixtures prepared at three different temperatures, 100 °C, 115 °C and 130 °C. A Hot Mix Asphalt (HMA) mixture was used as the control mixture. All the mixture samples were prepared using PG 58-34 binder and compacted at 86 gyrations under different …

Rheological Evaluation Of Foamed Wma Modified With Nano Hydrated Lime, Aboelkasim Diab, Zhanping You, Hainian Wang

Michigan Tech Publications, Part 1

Although the Warm Mix Asphalt (WMA) is gaining popularity very rapidly and becoming a mainstream technique for producing asphalt mixtures, there are many concerns regarding its long-term performance. Over the years, the Regular Hydrated Lime (RHL) has gained considerable recognition as a common additive to bituminous pavements. However, the Nano Hydrated Lime (NHL) (particle sizes 100 nanometer (nm) or less) has not been used as an additive to the asphalt mixtures before. The rheology properties of foamed WMA were studied since the pavement performance is primarily controlled by the rheological properties of asphalt cement. NHL materials with particle sizes of …

Method For Coating Mineral Granules To Improve Bonding To Hydrocarbon-Based Substrate And Coloring Of Same, Bowen Li, Ralph Hodek, Domenic Popko, Jiann-Yang Hwang

Michigan Tech Patents

Provided are compositions comprising stamp sand granules embedded in asphalt, where the stamp sand granules comprise a silane coating. Additionally provided are methods of making a silane-coated stamp sand, the methods comprising combining stamp sand granules and a silane solution to form a mixture and drying the mixture. Additionally provided are methods of covering a surface, the methods comprising combining silane-coated particles and asphalt to provide a mixture and distributing the mixture on the surface.

Bacteriorhodopsin-Based Sensors, Craig Friedrich, Donald Lueking, Mark Griep

Michigan Tech Patents

A sensor comprising a membrane containing bacteriorhodopsin. In one embodiment, the sensor comprises a layer of purple membrane between a first and a second electrode, wherein the electrodes are connected to a circuit such that a signal is produced when a charge is transferred across the membrane. In another embodiment, the sensor comprises a field effect transistor with a layer of purple membrane deposited on the gate. The layer of purple membrane may be further functionalized by adding fluorophores to the layer of purple membrane. The fluorophores may be deposited adjacent to the layer of purple membrane, or the fluorophores …

Optimal Via Placement In Under Filled Embedded Multimode Waveguides, Nicholas J. Riegel, Matthew Howard, Christopher Middlebrook

Michigan Tech Publications, Part 1

The self-imaging property of multimode waveguides creates a challenging problem when finding the optimal placement position of an out-of-plane coupler for embedded waveguides. This problem is compounded when the waveguides are coupled using a small input such as a vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL) or a single mode fiber where only some of the modes are generated. When the waveguide system is under filled, the coupling efficiency for the optical vertical interconnect assembly (VIA) can vary by as much as 6.2 dB depending on the length of the proceeding waveguide due to different output fields from the self-imaging property. …

Water Removal From Gas Flow Channels Of Fuel Cells, Jeffrey S. Allen

Michigan Tech Patents

An apparatus for water management in a fuel cell. The apparatus includes a fuel cell having a first porous electrode layer, a second porous electrode layer, a proton-conducting membrane positioned between the first electrode and second electrode layers, and a first and second bi-polar distribution plate, wherein the first bi-polar distribution plate is positioned on a top of the first electrode layer and defining a first gas flow channel, and wherein the second bi-polar distribution plate is positioned on a bottom of the second electrode layer and defining a second gas flow channel. The apparatus further includes a mechanism for …