Engineering Commons^™

Long Period Fiber Grating, Thin Coating Of Graphene And Silver Nanowires, And Corrosion Sensing For Life-Cycle Assessment Of Steel Structures, Chuanrui Guo

Doctoral Dissertations

"This study aims to develop and validate a compact, integrated lab-on-sensor system for simultaneous measurement of strain, temperature and corrosion-induced mass loss in steel structures and concrete reinforcement elements in order to assess their life-cycle performance. The sensing system operates based on the principle of long period fiber gratings (LPFG) that are responsive to both thermal and mechanical deformation, and the change in refractive index of any medium surrounding the optical fiber. To fabricate a LPFG sensor for strain and temperature measurement, a CO₂ laser aided fiber grating system was assembled. To enable mass loss measurement, a low pressure …

Unified Probe Launch Pattern Design And Methodology Of Differential Probe Characterization, Han Deng

Masters Theses

"Differential probe is wildly used in the signal integrity area to do the accuracy signal measurement in frequency domain or time domain. Comparing with traditional SMA connector measurement, the probe measurement has several advantages such as the high flexibility and measurement efficiency. Nevertheless, the probe has some disadvantages such as multiple design patterns and the difficulty of fast landing. In this thesis, a unified probe landing pattern is provided to solve the con of probes and a probe testing fixture is designed for characterize probe and extract the probe model.

In the first portion, a unified differential probe launching pattern …

Asphaltene Stability In Crude Oil During Carbon Dioxide Injection And Its Impact On Oil Recovery: A Review, Data Analysis, And Experimental Study, Sherif M. Fakher

Masters Theses

"Crude oils are usually associated with many compounds, some of which are favorable and others, which are not. One of the most unfavorable components of crude oil that pose severe operational problems and decreases oil production significantly are asphaltenes. These compounds are solids that are homogenized in the crude oil at room temperature but tend to separate from solution when agitated. They can deposit in the reservoir pores, wellbore, and transportation pipelines thus causing severe operational problems and oil recovery reduction.

Even though researchers have been studying asphaltenes for more than 100 years, there is still an ambiguity concerning asphaltene …

Investigating The Use Of Class C Flyash-Based Geopolymer Cement As A Potential Alternative To Portland Cement To Seal Co₂ Storage Wells, Priyesh Parimal Jani

Masters Theses

"Capturing emitted carbon dioxide from the source of emission and storing it underground is one effective way to reduce the amount of CO₂ in the atmosphere and is called carbon capture and storage (CCS). For the successful CCS project, it is necessary to ensure long term storage of injected CO₂ inside these selected reservoirs. Portland cement used to cast wells in these reservoirs degrade in CO₂ environment and can create migration path for leakage of CO₂. The aim of this study was to provide a comprehensive review about the problem, to propose a new geopolymer …

Routing Algorithm For The Ground Team In Transmission Line Inspection Using Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, Yu Li

Masters Theses

"With the rapid development of robotics technology, robots are increasingly used to conduct various tasks by utility companies. An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is an efficient robot that can be used to inspect high-voltage transmission lines. UAVs need to stay within a data transmission range from the ground station and periodically land to replace the battery in order to ensure that the power system can support its operation. A routing algorithm must be used in order to guide the motion and deployment of the ground station while using UAV in transmission line inspection. Most existing routing algorithms are dedicated to …

Emi Design Of Flyover Qsfp (Fqsfp) Connector For 56+ Gbps Applications, System Level Modelling Of The Z-Directed Component (Zdc), Pranay Kumar Vuppunutala

Masters Theses

"This thesis comprises of two parts. Firstly, the Flyover Quad Small Form Pluggable (FQSFP) approach for 56+ Gbps applications is introduced to overcome the limitations from a large loss on typical QSFP ports with surface mount to Printed Circuit Board (PCB) traces. By replacing the PCB traces to the twinax cables, it is possible to achieve around 7 dB lower insertion loss at 40 GHz for the 12-inch path from the switch IC to connector than that of PCB trace with a low loss substrate. Also, to investigate electromagnetic interference (EMI) aspect of FQSFP approach, a simulation model of FQSFP …

Gel Composition And Brine Concentration Effect On Hydrogel Dehydration Subjected To Uniaxial Compression, Xinrui Zhao

Masters Theses

"Gel treatment is a process that injects the gel into a reservoir to control the conformance and improve the sweep efficiency of injection fluids. At a certain pressure gradient, the gel dehydrates in a reservoir due to mechanical forces. This work evaluates the effects of the gel composition and brine concentration on gel dehydration under uniaxial compression. A sodium acrylate-co-acrylamide based gel cross-linked with N, N'-Methylenebisacrylamide (MBAA) was used for the study. The compression test is performed with a rheometer with a plate-plate geometry. The gel dehydration under pressure was measured to see how gel dehydration would be impacted by …

Breaker Evaluation And Formation Damage Remediation Of Re-Crosslinkable Preformed Particle Gel (Rppg), Enze Zhou

Masters Theses

"Re-crosslinkable preformed particle gel (RPPG) is a newly developed preformed particle gel for improving sweep efficiency and oil recovery by blocking or reducing the conductivity of fractures and fracture-like channels or conduits. However, RPPG has the potential to plug the facilities or damage the formation if a treatment is not properly conducted.

This work presents the performance of selected oxidizing breakers on the degradation of RPPG. The influence of a few factors on the degradation process was investigated, including breaker type, breaker concentration, temperature, gel concentration, gel aging time, and gel size. Results indicate that breaker type, concentration, and temperature …

Passively-Coded Embedded Microwave Sensors For Materials Characterization And Structural Health Monitoring (Shm), Katelyn Rose Brinker

Masters Theses

"Monitoring and maintaining civil, space, and aerospace infrastructure is an ongoing critical problem facing our nation. As new complex materials and structures, such as multilayer composites and inflatable habitats, become ubiquitous, performing inspection of their structural integrity becomes even more challenging. Thus, novel nondestructive testing (NDT) methods are needed. Chipless RFID is a relatively new technology that has the potential to address these needs. Chipless RFID tags have the advantage of being wireless and passive, meaning that they do not require a power source or an electronic chip. They can also be used in a variety of sensing applications including …

Less Is More: Beating The Market With Recurrent Reinforcement Learning, Louis Kurt Bernhard Steinmeister

Masters Theses

"Multiple recurrent reinforcement learners were implemented to make trading decisions based on real and freely available macro-economic data. The learning algorithm and different reinforcement functions (the Differential Sharpe Ratio, Differential Downside Deviation Ratio and Returns) were revised and the performances were compared while transaction costs were taken into account. (This is important for practical implementations even though many publications ignore this consideration.) It was assumed that the traders make long-short decisions in the S&P500 with complementary 3-month treasury bill investments. Leveraged positions in the S&P500 were disallowed. Notably, the Differential Sharpe Ratio and the Differential Downside Deviation Ratio are risk …

Propagation Of Uncertainty Through Coning, Sculling, And Scrolling Corrections For Inertial Navigation, James Daniel Alan Brouk

Masters Theses

"This thesis investigates the propagation of estimation errors through generalized coning, sculling, and scrolling algorithms used in modern day inertial navigation systems, in order to accurately quantify the uncertainty in the estimation of position, velocity, and attitude. The corrections for coning, sculling, and scrolling algorithms have an often unaccounted for effect on documented and empirically derived error statistics for measurements used to predict the uncertainty in a vehicle's position, velocity, and attitude estimates. Through the development of an error analysis for these generalized algorithms, mappings of the measurement and estimation errors through the correction termare generated. Using the developed mappings, …

Performance Investigation Of Surface Modified Ceramic Microfiltration Membranes And The Effects Of Ionic Strength, Choji Bitrus Daches

Masters Theses

"The performance of ceramic membranes surface coated with cysteic acid to improve efficiency and reduce fouling rate was studied under two transmembrane pressure (TMP) and constant crossflow velocity (CFV). The filtration process was done in crossflow mode to allow for extended operation of the membranes. the performance of the membranes were determined in terms of the measured fluxes and on content rejection. Cleaning-in-place (CIP) was done on the membranes to ensure flux recovery after each run. The results showed significant improvement on the performance of the membranes with respect to high permeate fluxes and high oil content rejection (> 99.5%). …

Geophysical Imaging Beneath Lake Chesterfield, Missouri, James Daniell Hayes

Masters Theses

"Lake Chesterfield in Wildwood, Missouri, has been leaking since construction of the earth-fill dam was completed in 1986, despite numerous mitigation efforts. The mitigation efforts, including the injection of grouting and the emplacement of clay liners, has not solve the leakage problem.

In the current study, geophysical (subsurface imaging) data was acquired across the drained and dry lake bed and along the base of the earth-fill dam to 1) map variable depth to top of bedrock, 2) determine the variable quality of the bedrock to depths on the order of 80 ft., 3) identify any significant karst features beneath the …

Practical Methods For Source Separation In Emc Measurements, Yuanzhuo Liu

Masters Theses

"Electromagnetic emission is critical in the electronic industry with the rapid growth of the development of the electronic device. To identify the emission from the multipule sources, two methods are proposed in the near field scan and total radiated power measurement respectively.

The first method can be applied in the measurement of the field generated by multiple non-correlated sources. The contribution of each source is determined using a blind source separation (BSS) technique. The measurements are performed using one scanning probe and stationary reference probes, avoiding the need to measure the spatial correlations of the random field. The resolving result …

Changes In Fresh Properties Of Flowable Concrete Induced By Pumping And Composition Of The Lubrication Layer, Alexis Salinas

Masters Theses

"Pumping is an easy method to move concrete while keeping stability. It is worldwide accepted as one of the principal methods for concrete placement, as it accelerates construction. Typically, concrete acceptance in terms of fresh quantitative empirical properties (i.e. slump/slump flow and air content) are performed prior to the pumping process. However, empirical measurements have the drawback that they only measure 1 point. Rheology is better tool to evaluate the behavior of concrete. Pumping is a process that induces considerable shearing in the concrete that can impact its rheological properties. Therefore, the magnitude of these changes in fresh properties depends …

Review And Data Analysis Of Low Salinity Water Effect Through Induced Fine Migration, Dawei Xu

Masters Theses

"Low salinity water flooding (LSWF) is well proved to be an effective EOR technology both in laboratory and field tests, however, the conditions for LSWF to work and EOR mechanism is still debatable. Up till now, many mechanisms have been proposed to explain the incremental oil recovery in sandstone by LSWF, for instance, fine migration, ionic exchange, wettability alteration and pH increase.

In this study, we only focus on low salinity water flooding effect through induced fine migration mechanism. The objective of this study is to conduct a comprehensive analysis using statistical analysis methods and explaining the mechanism of fine …

Projectile Impact Effects On A 50 Psi Plug Type Coal Mine Seal, Bruce Albert Von Niederhäusern

Masters Theses

"The current lack of projectile damage criteria for mine seals is assessed to determine if criteria should be developed. Impact experiments were performed on a full-scale 50 psi mine seal to determine failure modes, dynamic stress state, and assess risk to existing operational mine seals. Test projectiles were selected from common underground coal mine items propelled by means of a black powder projectile generator. Projectile velocities attained in testing ranged from approximately 100 to 650 ft/s (30 to 200 m/s). Dynamic strain was measured on the non-impact face to derive the state of stress and estimate failure criteria. Penetration models …

Performance Evaluation Of Bmi Resin System For Thin-Ply Composites, Manoj Kumar Reddy Rangapuram

Masters Theses

"Composites materials are increasingly being used in aerospace applications over the past few years. The unique properties like high strength to weight ratio, thermal stability, fatigue and corrosion resistance set them apart from the conventional materials. Composite materials are well suited for the applications where weight is the primary concern in the design. Composites structures are vulnerable to mechanical as well as thermal loadings. Transverse micro-cracking and delamination are the most common type of failures in composite materials. The thickness of the ply being used play a key role dictating the properties of the resultant composite structure. As the ply …

Aerosol-Jet Printing And Flash Sintering Of Conformal Conductors On Non-Planar Surfaces, I-Meng Chen

Masters Theses

”The printed electronics have been broadly applied in our daily lives, many new manufacturing methodologies are studied and investigated. The research here presented the full manufacturing process of printed conductors of aerosol printing and flash sintering techniques on substrates such as planar and non-planar surfaces.

The aerosol printing (AJP) was introduced because of its simplicity in experimental setup and flexibility of printing. It produces less ink waste and consumes less manufacturing cost. Furthermore, it has the direct-write ability to print in any customized patterns or shapes on non-planar surfaces. In this study, the Cu NPs was selected as the functioning …

Estimating Electromagnetic Emissions From A Site Installation With Multiple Racks Of Server Equipment, Ze Sun

Masters Theses

“There are hundreds, sometimes even thousands, of servers working simultaneously inside a data center. Their radiation can be a problem and cause EMI issues. However, it is not feasible to perform full-wave simulation of these racks because of the large electric size of the model. In this thesis, an algorithm is proposed to predict the emission form rack array. The equivalent dipole source is extracted from EMI measurement data of a single rack and used as the radiation source in the multiple rack model. The coupling between racks cannot be ignored, but through the simulation, it is also found that …

Influence Of Pumping Parameters On The Freeze-Thaw And Scaling Resistance Of Highly Workable Concrete, Alexandra Nicole Wehar

Masters Theses

“Over the past 60 years, pumping concrete has gained popularity due to the economic and technical benefits that typically accompanies it. However, boom configuration and flow rate can adversely affect freeze-thaw and scaling resistance of concrete due to the effects of pressure on the air-void system. Therefore, the objective of this research is to assess the influence of different pumping parameters on the durability of hardened self-consolidating concrete. Self-consolidating, flowable, and conventional concrete mixtures were tested during large scale pumping experiments positioning the pump boom in an “A” and a flat shape as well as using different pumping speeds. In …

Controlled Switching In Kalman Filtering And Iterative Learning Controls, He Li

Masters Theses

“Switching is not an uncommon phenomenon in practical systems and processes, for examples, power switches opening and closing, transmissions lifting from low gear to high gear, and air planes crossing different layers in air. Switching can be a disaster to a system since frequent switching between two asymptotically stable subsystems may result in unstable dynamics. On the contrary, switching can be a benefit to a system since controlled switching is sometimes imposed by the designers to achieve desired performance. This encourages the study of system dynamics and performance when undesired switching occurs or controlled switching is imposed. In this research, …

Electric Solid Propellant Ablation In An Arc Discharge, Matthew S. Glascock, Joshua L. Rovey, Kurt A. Polzin

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Electric solid propellants are advanced solid chemical rocket propellants that can be controlled (ignited, throttled, and extinguished) through the application and removal of an electric current. Electric solid propellants are also being considered for pulsed arc ablation electric thrusters, such as the pulsed plasma thruster. The focus of this work is the electrical and ablation characteristics of electric solid propellant within an arc discharge. Arc discharges of 5–20 J per pulse were created within a cylindrical cavity, and results for the electric solid propellant are compared with polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), which is a traditional propellant in ablative pulsed plasma thrusters. The …

Experimental Investigation Of Mixtures Of 1-Ethyl-3-Methylimidazolium Ethyl Sulfate And Ethylammonium Nitrate With Electrospray Propulsion Applications, Mitchell J. Wainwright, Joshua L. Rovey, Shawn W. Miller, Benjamin D. Prince

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Physical properties, performance metrics, and mass spectra of mixtures of two ionic liquids (1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium ethyl-sulfate aka [Emim][EtSO4] and ethyl ammonium nitrate aka EAN) are investigated from the standpoint of electrospray propulsive characteristics. Spectra suggest that as the [Emim][EtSO4] mixture fraction increases, the intensity of [Emim][EtSO4] related species in the plume also increases, while the presence of EAN decreases. Spectra also show presence of both EAN proton transfer species and species related to chemical reaction of [EtSO4] and water. Despite the volatility of EAN, it emits stably into vacuum at low flow rates when mixed with 25% [Emim][EtSO4]. Spectra also show …

Hydroxylammonium Nitrate Species In A Monopropellant Electrospray Plume, Mitchell J. Wainwright, Joshua L. Rovey, Shawn W. Miller, Benjamin D. Prince, Steven P. Berg

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

A mixture of 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium ethyl sulfate ([Emim][EtSO4]) and hydroxylammonium nitrate (HAN) is an energetic monopropellant potentially suitable in a multi-mode chemical-electric microtube-electrospray micro propulsion system. In this work, electrospray plume mass spectra are compared between the monopropellant mixture and neat [Emim][EtSO4]. This comparison clearly indicates new and additional species present in the plume due to the addition of HAN. Mass spectra from 20-600 amu/q were obtained over a variety of angles and flow rates from 2 pL/sec to 3 nL/sec in both cation and anion extraction modes. Mass spectrum dependence on flow rate and angular orientation agree qualitatively well with …

Enhanced Quantum Dots Spontaneous Emission With Metamaterial Perfect Absorbers, Wei Wang, Xiaodong Yang, Ting S. Luk, Jie Gao

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Metamaterial perfect absorbers (PAs) made of a hexagonal array of holes on Ag-SiO 2 -Ag thin films have been realized and utilized to enhance the spontaneous emission rate and photoluminescence intensity of CdSe/ZnS quantum dots (QDs) spin-coated on the absorber top surface. Perfect absorption of incoming light occurs at the wavelength where the impedance is matched to that of the free space. When QDs strongly excite both the electric and magnetic resonances at this perfect absorption wavelength, a significant Purcell effect on the spontaneous emission process and enhanced radiative outcoupling of photoluminescence intensity are expected. For perfect absorbers with near-unity …

Fabrication Of Alcocrfeni High-Entropy Alloy Coating On An Aisi 304 Substrate Via A Cofe₂Ni Intermediate Layer, Wenyuan Cui, Sreekar Karnati, Xinchang Zhang, Elizabeth Burns, Frank W. Liou

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Through laser metal deposition, attempts were made to coat AlCoCrFeNi, a high-entropy alloy (HEA), on an AISI 304 stainless steel substrate to integrate their properties. However, the direct coating of the AlCoCrFeNi HEA on the AISI 304 substrate was found to be unviable due to cracks at the interface between these two materials. The difference in compositional change was suspected to be the source of the cracks. Therefore, a new transition route was performed by coating an intermediate layer of CoFe₂Ni on the AISI 304 substrate. Investigations into the microstructure, phase composition, elemental composition and Vickers hardness were …

Development Of A Switchable Radioisotope Generator, Kyle Mitchell Paaren

Doctoral Dissertations

The Switchable Radioisotope Generator utilizes alpha-induced reactions to produce a combination of photons, neutrons, and protons with varying fluxes dependent on target materials and source geometry. The activity/strength of the secondary radiation is further controlled by manipulating the number of alpha particles that can interact with the target material(s). Analytical equations were solved to confirm secondary radiation production from target materials using average cross sections from TENDL data. TENDL and JENDL data was confirmed by analytically solving for the total alpha-induced cross sections. This information was used to produce the provisional and utility Patent No: US20190013109A1. TENDL data was then …

Polyvinylpyrrolidone - Reduced Graphene Oxide - Pd Nanoparticles As An Efficient Nanocomposite For Catalysis Applications In Cross-Coupling Reactions, Hany A. Elazab, Tamer T. El-Idreesy

Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This paper reported a scientific approach adopting microwave-assisted synthesis as a synthetic route for preparing highly active palladium nanoparticles stabilized by polyvinylpyrrolidone (Pd/PVP) and supported on reduced Graphene oxide (rGO) as a highly active catalyst used for Suzuki, Heck, and Sonogashira cross coupling reactions with remarkable turnover number (6500) and turnover frequency of 78000 h-1. Pd/PVP nanoparticles supported on reduced Graphene oxide nanosheets (Pd-PVP/rGO) showed an outstanding performance through high catalytic activity towards cross coupling reactions. A simple, reproducible, and reliable method was used to prepare this efficient catalyst using microwave irradiation synthetic conditions. The synthesis approach requires simultaneous reduction …

Facile Synthesis Of Reduced Graphene Oxide-Supported Pd/Cuo Nanoparticles As An Efficient Catalyst For Cross-Coupling Reactions, Hany A. Elazab, M. A. Sadek, Tamer T. El-Idreesy

Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The present communication reports a scientific investigation of a simple and versatile synthetic route for the synthesis of palladium nanoparticles decorated with copper oxide and supported on reduced graphene oxide (rGO). They are used as a highly active catalyst of Suzuki, Heck, and Sonogashira cross coupling reactions with a remarkable turnover number of 7000 and a turnover frequency of 85000 h-1. The Pd-CuO nanoparticles supported on reduced graphene oxide nanosheets (Pd-CuO/rGO) exhibit an outstanding performance through a high catalytic activity towards cross coupling reactions. A simple, reproducible, and reliable method is used to prepare this efficient catalyst using microwave irradiation …