Engineering Commons^™

Impact Of 2000-2050 Climate Change On Global Atmospheric Transport And Deposition Of Mercury, Wenchao Chen

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

Since it is very toxic and accumulates in organisms, particularly in fish, mercury is a very important pollutant and one of the most studies. And this concern over the toxicity and human health risks of mercury has prompted efforts to regulate anthropogenic emissions. As mercury pollution problem is getting increasingly serious, we are curious about how serious this problem will be in the future. What is more, how the climate change in the future will affect the mercury concentration in the atmosphere. So we investigate the impact of climate change on mercury concentration in the atmosphere. We focus on the …

Large Eddy Simulation Of Dispersed Multiphase Flow, Yejun Gong

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

This thesis covers two main topics. The first is the comparison between the Reynoldsaveraged Navier-Stokes (RANS) simulation and the Large Eddy Simulation (LES) of high injection pressure diesel sprays under non-evaporating or evaporating conditions. The second topic is the comparison of the fuel behavior in the spray process between the hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) and the conventional EN 590, diesel #2 and n-heptane fuels.

To validate the RANS and LES spray simulations, comparisons were made with experimental data. The LES turbulence model, the initial drop size distribution (IDSD), the Levich jet breakup model and the CAB drop breakup model are …

Improving The Performance Of Gis/Spatial Analysts Though Novel Applications Of The Emotiv Epoc Eeg Headset , Justin Carter

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

Geospatial information systems are used to analyze spatial data to provide decision makers with relevant, up-to-date, information. The processing time required for this information is a critical component to response time. Despite advances in algorithms and processing power, we still have many “human-in-the-loop” factors. Given the limited number of geospatial professionals, analysts using their time effectively is very important. The automation and faster humancomputer interactions of common tasks that will not disrupt their workflow or attention is something that is very desirable. The following research describes a novel approach to increase productivity with a wireless, wearable, electroencephalograph (EEG) headset within …

Effect Of External Electric Field On Hydrogen Adsorption Over Activated Carbon Separated By Dielectric Materials, Zheng Zhang

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

Energy crisis and worldwide environmental problem make hydrogen a prospective energy carrier. However, storage and transportation of hydrogen in large quantities at small volume is currently not practical. Lots of materials and devices have been developed for storage hydrogen, but to today none is able to meet the DOE targets.

Activated carbon has been found to be a good hydrogen adsorbent due to its high surface area. However, the weak van der Waals force between hydrogen and the adsorbent has limited the adsorption capacity. Previous studies have found that enhanced adsorption can be obtained with applied electric field. Stronger interaction …

Optimization Of Redundancy In Branched Water Distribution Systems , Megan L. Abbott

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

In developing countries many water distribution systems are branched networks with little redundancy. If any component in the distribution system fails, many users are left relying on secondary water sources. These sources oftentimes do not provide potable water and prolonged use leads to increased cases of water borne illnesses. Increasing redundancy in branched networks increases the reliability of the networks, but is oftentimes viewed as unaffordable. This paper presents a procedure for water system managers to use to determine which loops when added to a branch network provide the most benefit for users. Two methods are presented, one ranking the …

Data Driven Intelligent Agent Networks For Adaptive Monitoring And Control, Wenjia Liu

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

To analyze the characteristics and predict the dynamic behaviors of complex systems over time, comprehensive research to enable the development of systems that can intelligently adapt to the evolving conditions and infer new knowledge with algorithms that are not predesigned is crucially needed. This dissertation research studies the integration of the techniques and methodologies resulted from the fields of pattern recognition, intelligent agents, artificial immune systems, and distributed computing platforms, to create technologies that can more accurately describe and control the dynamics of real-world complex systems. The need for such technologies is emerging in manufacturing, transportation, hazard mitigation, weather and …

Diffuse-Interface Field Approach To Modeling Self-Assembly Of Heterogeneous Colloidal Systems And Related Dipole-Dipole Interaction Phenomena, Tianle Cheng

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

Colloid self-assembly under external control is a new route to fabrication of advanced materials with novel microstructures and appealing functionalities. The kinetic processes of colloidal self-assembly have attracted great interests also because they are similar to many atomic level kinetic processes of materials. In the past decades, rapid technological progresses have been achieved on producing shape-anisotropic, patchy, core-shell structured particles and particles with electric/magnetic charges/dipoles, which greatly enriched the self-assembled structures. Multi-phase carrier liquids offer new route to controlling colloidal self-assembly. Therefore, heterogeneity is the essential characteristics of colloid system, while so far there still lacks a model that is …

Evaluation Of Surface Defect Detection In Reinforced Concrete Bridge Decks Using Terrestrial Lidar , Ryan C. Hoensheid

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

Routine bridge inspections require labor intensive and highly subjective visual interpretation to determine bridge deck surface condition. Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) a relatively new class of survey instrument has become a popular and increasingly used technology for providing as-built and inventory data in civil applications. While an increasing number of private and governmental agencies possess terrestrial and mobile LiDAR systems, an understanding of the technology’s capabilities and potential applications continues to evolve. LiDAR is a line-of-sight instrument and as such, care must be taken when establishing scan locations and resolution to allow the capture of data at an adequate …

Great Lakes Tributary Phosphorus Bioavailability, Renn Sterling Lambert

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

Information on phosphorus bioavailability can provide water quality managers with the support required to target point source and watershed loads contributing most significantly to water quality conditions. This study presents results from a limited sampling program focusing on the five largest sources of total phosphorus to the U.S. waters of the Great Lakes. The work provides validation of the utility of a bioavailability-based approach, confirming that the method is robust and repeatable. Chemical surrogates for bioavailability were shown to hold promise, however further research is needed to address site-to-site and seasonal variability before a universal relationship can be accepted. Recent …

Analysis Of Spring Break-Up And Its Effects On A Biomass Feedstock Supply Chain In Northern Michigan , Huihui Lin

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

Demand for bio-fuels is expected to increase, due to rising prices of fossil fuels and concerns over greenhouse gas emissions and energy security. The overall cost of biomass energy generation is primarily related to biomass harvesting activity, transportation, and storage. With a commercial-scale cellulosic ethanol processing facility in Kinross Township of Chippewa County, Michigan about to be built, models including a simulation model and an optimization model have been developed to provide decision support for the facility. Both models track cost, emissions and energy consumption. While the optimization model provides guidance for a long-term strategic plan, the simulation model aims …

Application Of Ultra High Performance Concrete (Uhpc) As A Thin-Bonded Overlay For Concrete Bridge Decks, Sarah V. Shann

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

As transportation infrastructure across the globe approaches the end of its service life, new innovative materials and applications are needed to sustainably repair and prevent damage to these structures. Bridge structures in the United States in particular are at risk as a large percentage will be reaching their design service lives in the coming decades. Superstructure deterioration occurs due to a variety of factors, but a major contributor comes in the form of deteriorating concrete bridge decks. Within a concrete bridge deck system, deterioration mechanisms can include spalling, delaminations, scaling from unsuitable material selection, freeze-thaw damage, and corrosion of reinforcing …

Implementation Of A Phenomenological Evaporation Model Into A Porous Network Simulation For Water Management In Low Temperature Fuel Cells, David L. Fritz Iii.

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

A phenomenological transition film evaporation model was introduced to a pore network model with the consideration of pore radius, contact angle, non-isothermal interface temperature, microscale fluid flows and heat and mass transfers. This was achieved by modeling the transition film region of the menisci in each pore throughout the porous transport layer of a half-cell polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel cell. The model presented in this research is compared with the standard diffusive fuel cell modeling approach to evaporation and shown to surpass the conventional modeling approach in terms of predicting the evaporation rates in porous media.

The current diffusive …

Algorithms For Spacecraft Formation Flying Navigation Based On Wireless Positioning System Measurements, Shu Ting Goh

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

Spacecraft formation flying navigation continues to receive a great deal of interest. The research presented in this dissertation focuses on developing methods for estimating spacecraft absolute and relative positions, assuming measurements of only relative positions using wireless sensors. The implementation of the extended Kalman filter to the spacecraft formation navigation problem results in high estimation errors and instabilities in state estimation at times. This is due tp the high nonlinearities in the system dynamic model. Several approaches are attempted in this dissertation aiming at increasing the estimation stability and improving the estimation accuracy.

A differential geometric filter is implemented for …

Heat Transfer In Microwave Heating, Zhiwei Peng

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

Heat transfer is considered as one of the most critical issues for design and implement of large-scale microwave heating systems, in which improvement of the microwave absorption of materials and suppression of uneven temperature distribution are the two main objectives. The present work focuses on the analysis of heat transfer in microwave heating for achieving highly efficient microwave assisted steelmaking through the investigations on the following aspects: (1) characterization of microwave dissipation using the derived equations, (2) quantification of magnetic loss, (3) determination of microwave absorption properties of materials, (4) modeling of microwave propagation, (5) simulation of heat transfer, and …

Molecular Modeling Of Epon 862-Detda Polymer , Ananyo Bandyopadhyay

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

EPON 862 is an epoxy resin which is cured with the hardening agent DETDA to form a crosslinked epoxy polymer and is used as a component in modern aircraft structures. These crosslinked polymers are often exposed to prolonged periods of temperatures below glass transition range which cause physical aging to occur. Because physical aging can compromise the performance of epoxies and their composites and because experimental techniques cannot provide all of the necessary physical insight that is needed to fully understand physical aging, efficient computational approaches to predict the effects of physical aging on thermo-mechanical properties are needed. In this …

Minimizing Residential Distribution System Operating Costs Through Intelligently Scheduled Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicle Charging, Nathan Steven Fettinger

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

Rising fuel prices and environmental concerns are threatening the stability of current electrical grid systems. These factors are pushing the automobile industry towards more effcient, hybrid vehicles. Current trends show petroleum is being edged out in favor of electricity as the main vehicular motive force. The proposed methods create an optimized charging control schedule for all participating Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles in a distribution grid. The optimization will minimize daily operating costs, reduce system losses, and improve power quality. This requires participation from Vehicle-to-Grid capable vehicles, load forecasting, and Locational Marginal Pricing market predictions. Vehicles equipped with bidirectional chargers further …

Body Sensor Network For In-Home Personal Healthcare, Sheng Hu

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

A body sensor network solution for personal healthcare under an indoor environment is developed. The system is capable of logging the physiological signals of human beings, tracking the orientations of human body, and monitoring the environmental attributes, which covers all necessary information for the personal healthcare in an indoor environment.

The major three chapters of this dissertation contain three subsystems in this work, each corresponding to one subsystem: BioLogger, PAMS and CosNet. Each chapter covers the background and motivation of the subsystem, the related theory, the hardware/software design, and the evaluation of the prototype’s performance.

Implementation Of Porous Silicon Technology For A Fluidic Flow-Through Optical Sensor For Ph Measurements, Kumar L. Vanga

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

This work presents an innovative integration of sensing and nano-scaled fluidic actuation in the combination of pH sensitive optical dye immobilization with the electro-osmotic phenomena in polar solvents like water for flow-through pH measurements. These flow-through measurements are performed in a flow-through sensing device (FTSD) configuration that is designed and fabricated at MTU.

A relatively novel and interesting material, through-wafer mesoporous silica substrates with pore diameters of 20 -200 nm and pore depths of 500 µm are fabricated and implemented for electro-osmotic pumping and flow-through fluorescence sensing for the first time. Performance characteristics of macroporous silicon (> 500 µm) implemented …

Utilizing Gaussian-Schell Model Beams To Mitigate Atmospheric Turbulence In Free Space Optical Communications / By Kyle R. Drexler., Kyle R. Drexler

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

Turbulence affects traditional free space optical communication by causing speckle to appear in the received beam profile. This occurs due to changes in the refractive index of the atmosphere that are caused by fluctuations in temperature and pressure, resulting in an inhomogeneous medium. The Gaussian-Schell model of partial coherence has been suggested as a means of mitigating these atmospheric inhomogeneities on the transmission side.

This dissertation analyzed the Gaussian-Schell model of partial coherence by verifying the Gaussian-Schell model in the far-field, investigated the number of independent phase control screens necessary to approach the ideal Gaussian-Schell model, and showed experimentally that …

Expansion Of Mortar Bars In The Presence Of Potassium Acetate Deicer , Gerald C. Anzalone Iii

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

Carboxylate-based deicing and anti-icing chemicals became widely used in the mid 1990s, replacing more environmentally burdensome chemicals. Within a few years of their adoption, distress of portland cement concrete runways was reported by a few airports using the new chemicals. Distress manifested characteristics identical to that of alkali silica reactivity (ASR), but onset occurred early in the pavement’s operating life and with pavements thought to contain innocuous aggregate. The carboxylate-based deicing chemicals were suspected of exacerbating ASR-like expansion.

Innocuous, moderately, and highly reactive aggregates were tested using modified ASTM C1260 and ASTM C1567 procedures with soak solutions containing deicer solutions …

Probabilistic-Based Hurricane Risk Assessment And Mitigation Considering The Potential Impacts Of Climate Change , Sigridur Osk Bjarnadottir

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

Studies are suggesting that hurricane hazard patterns (e.g. intensity and frequency) may change as a consequence of the changing global climate. As hurricane patterns change, it can be expected that hurricane damage risks and costs may change as a result. This indicates the necessity to develop hurricane risk assessment models that are capable of accounting for changing hurricane hazard patterns, and develop hurricane mitigation and climatic adaptation strategies. This thesis proposes a comprehensive hurricane risk assessment and mitigation strategies that account for a changing global climate and that has the ability of being adapted to various types of infrastructure including …

Compatibility Of Ultra High Performance Concrete As Repair Material : Bond Characterization With Concrete Under Different Loading Scenarios, Miguel Ángel Carbonell Muñoz

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

The rehabilitation of concrete structures, especially concrete bridge decks, is a major challenge for transportation agencies in the United States. Often, the most appropriate strategy to preserve or rehabilitate these structures is to provide some form of a protective coating or barrier. These surface treatments have typically been some form of polymer, asphalt, or low-permeability concrete, but the application of UHPC has shown promise for this application mainly due to its negligible permeability, but also as a result of its excellent mechanical properties, self-consolidating nature, rapid gain strength, and minimal creep and shrinkage characteristics. However, for widespread acceptance, durability and …

Structural Response And Dynamics Of Fluid-Structure-Control Interaction In Wind Turbine Blades, Lucan Ignacio Lago

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

Reducing the uncertainties related to blade dynamics by the improvement of the quality of numerical simulations of the fluid structure interaction process is a key for a breakthrough in wind-turbine technology. A fundamental step in that direction is the implementation of aeroelastic models capable of capturing the complex features of innovative prototype blades, so they can be tested at realistic full-scale conditions with a reasonable computational cost.

We make use of a code based on a combination of two advanced numerical models implemented in a parallel HPC supercomputer platform: First, a model of the structural response of heterogeneous composite blades, …

Development Of One-Dimensional And Two-Dimensional Computational Tools That Simulate Steady Internal Condensing Flows In Terrestrial And Zero-Gravity Environments, Soumya Asimkumar Mitra

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

This dissertation presents an effective quasi one-dimensional (1-D) computational simulation tool and a full two-dimensional (2-D) computational simulation methodology for steady annular/stratified internal condensing flows of pure vapor. These simulation tools are used to investigate internal condensing flows in both gravity as well as shear driven environments. Through accurate numerical simulations of the full two dimensional governing equations, results for laminar/laminar condensing flows inside mm-scale ducts are presented. The methodology has been developed using MATLAB/COMSOL platform and is currently capable of simulating film-wise condensation for steady (and unsteady flows). Moreover, a novel 1-D solution technique, capable of simulating condensing flows …

Computational Fluids Domain Reduction To A Simplified Fluid Network, Robert E. Smith

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

The primary goal of this project is to demonstrate the practical use of data mining algorithms to cluster a solved steady-state computational fluids simulation (CFD) flow domain into a simplified lumped-parameter network. A commercial-quality code, “cfdMine” was created using a volume-weighted k-means clustering that that can accomplish the clustering of a 20 million cell CFD domain on a single CPU in several hours or less. Additionally agglomeration and k-means Mahalanobis were added as optional post-processing steps to further enhance the separation of the clusters. The resultant nodal network is considered a reduced-order model and can be solved transiently at a …

Mechanical Modeling Of Intraneural Ganglion Cyst, Puneet Soman

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

Intraneural Ganglion Cyst is a 200 year old mystery related to nerve injury which is yet to be solved. Current treatments for the above problem are relatively simple procedures related to removal of cystic contents from the nerve. However, these treatments may result into neuropathic pain and recurrence of the cyst. The articular theory proposed by Spinner et al., (Spinner et al. 2003) takes into consideration the neurological deficit in Common Peroneal Nerve (CPN) branch of the sciatic nerve and affirms that in addition to the above treatments, ligation of articular branch results into foolproof eradication of the deficit. Mechanical …

Torque Converter Turbine Noise And Cavitation Noise Over Varying Speed Ratio, Chad Michael Walber

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

These investigations will discuss the operational noise caused by automotive torque converters during speed ratio operation. Two specific cases of torque converter noise will be studied; cavitation, and a monotonic turbine induced noise. Cavitation occurs at or near stall, or zero turbine speed. The bubbles produced due to the extreme torques at low speed ratio operation, upon collapse, may cause a broadband noise that is unwanted by those who are occupying the vehicle as other portions of the vehicle drive train improve acoustically. Turbine induced noise, which occurs at high engine torque at around 0.5 speed ratio, is a narrow-band …

Laser Thomson Scattering Measurements Of Electron Temperature And Density In A Hall-Effect Plasma, Robert L. Washeleski

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

Hall-effect thrusters (HETs) are compact electric propulsion devices with high specific impulse used for a variety of space propulsion applications. HET technology is well developed but the electron properties in the discharge are not completely understood, mainly due to the difficulty involved in performing accurate measurements in the discharge. Measurements of electron temperature and density have been performed using electrostatic probes, but presence of the probes can significantly disrupt thruster operation, and thus alter the electron temperature and density. While fast-probe studies have expanded understanding of HET discharges, a non-invasive method of measuring the electron temperature and density in the …

Impact Of E22 On Two-Stroke And Four-Stroke Snowmobiles, James Corey Weber

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

A push to reduce dependency on foreign energy and increase the use of renewable energy has many gas stations pumping ethanol blended fuels. Recreational engines typically have less complex fuel management systems than that of the automotive sector. This prevents the engine from being able to adapt to different ethanol concentrations. Using ethanol blended fuels in recreational engines raises several consumer concerns. Engine performance and emissions are both affected by ethanol blended fuels.

This research focused on assessing the impact of E22 on two-stroke and four-stroke snowmobiles. Three snowmobiles were used for this study. A 2009 Arctic Cat Z1 Turbo …

Advanced Nanostructured Electro-Catalysts For Electricity Generation And Biorenewable Alcohol Conversion, Zhiyong Zhang

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

In my Ph.D research, a wet chemistry-based organic solution phase reduction method was developed, and was successfully applied in the preparation of a series of advanced electro-catalysts, including 0-dimensional (0-D) Pt, Pd, Au, and Pd-Ni nanoparticles (NPs), 1-D Pt-Fe nanowires (NWs) and 2-D Pd-Fe nanoleaves (NLs), with controlled size, shape, and morphology. These nanostructured catalysts have demonstrated unique electro-catalytic functions towards electricity production and biorenewable alcohol conversion.

The molecular oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) is a long-standing scientific issue for fuel cells due to its sluggish kinetics and the poor catalyst durability. The activity and durability of an electro-catalyst is strongly …