Engineering Commons^™

An Intermodal Network Model Of Coal Distribution In The United States And Its Economic Implications For The Inland Waterway System, Benjamin L. Blandford, Ted H. Grossardt, Michael Shouse, John Ripy

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

This paper describes a GIS-based intermodal network model for the shipment of coal in the United States. The purpose of this research was to investigate the role played by railways, waterways, and highways in the movement of coal from its source area to point of use, and to highlight the implications these movements have for the U.S. economy. The project team modeled coal movements across the U.S. intermodal transportation network using the Energy Information Administration’s 2010 data, which provided detailed origin, destination, primary mode, and volume information for coal shipments. The model identifies the optimum routes for coal shipments based …

Kentucky Traffic Collision Facts 2015, Kentucky Transportation Center, Kentucky State Police

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

KENTUCKY’S TRAFFIC COLLISION FACTS report for 2015 is based on collision reports submitted to the Kentucky State Police Records Branch. As required by Kentucky Revised Statutes 189.635, “every law enforcement agency whose officers investigate a vehicle accident of which a report must be made...shall file a report of the accident...within ten days after investigation of the accident upon forms supplied by the bureau.” The stated purpose of this requirement is to utilize data on traffic collisions for such purposes as will improve the traffic safety program in the Commonwealth. Data contained in this report are based solely on the observations …

Object Detection For Agricultural And Construction Environments Using An Ultrasonic Sensor, Joseph S. Dvorak, Marvin L. Stone, Kelvin P. Self

Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering Faculty Publications

This study tested an ultrasonic sensor‘s ability to detect several objects commonly encountered in outdoor agricultural or construction environments: a water jug, a sheet of oriented strand board (OSB), a metal fence post, a human model, a wooden fence post, a Dracaena plant, a juniper plant, and a dog model. Tests were performed with each target object at distances from 0.01 to 3 m. Five tests were performed with each object at each location, and the sensor‘s ability to detect the object during each test was categorized as "undetected," "intermittent," "incorrect distance," "good." Rigid objects that presented a larger surface …

Recalibration Methodology To Compensate For Changing Fluid Properties In An Individual Nozzle Direct Injection System, Joe D. Luck, Scott A. Shearer, Brian D. Luck, Michael P. Sama

Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering Faculty Publications

Limited advancement of direct injection pesticide application systems has been made in recent years, which has hindered further commercialization of this technology. One approach to solving the lag and mixing issues typically associated with injection-based systems is high-pressure individual nozzle injection. However, accurate monitoring of the chemical concentrate flow rate can pose a challenge due to the high pressure, low flow, and changing viscosities of the fluid. A methodology was developed for recalibrating high-pressure chemical concentrate injectors to compensate for fluid property variations and evaluate the performance of this technique for operating injectors in an open-loop configuration. Specific objectives were …

Reference Point Indentation Of Human Trabecular Bone Treated With Bisphosphonates For Varying Durations, Drew Jones

Theses and Dissertations--Biomedical Engineering

Reference point indentation (RPI), a novel form of micro-indentation, quantifies RPI material parameters which correlate with modulus, yield stress, strength, or toughness. Information linking bisphosphonate treatment length with the material properties of osteoporotic trabecular bone is needed to improve patient treatment. The objectives of this study were to: 1) determine if RPI can be used to successfully evaluate human trabecular bone and if so, determine an optimized test method for using RPI on trabecular bone, and 2) use this method to determine if any RPI parameters are related to the duration of bisphosphonate treatment.

Indentation using a 4 N applied …

Closed-Loop Afferent Nerve Electrical Stimulation For Rehabilitation Of Hand Function In Subjects With Incomplete Spinal Cord Injury, Christopher J. Schildt

Theses and Dissertations--Biomedical Engineering

Peripheral nerve stimulation (PNS) is commonly used to promote use-dependent cortical plasticity for rehabilitation of motor function in spinal cord injury. Pairing transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) with PNS has been shown to increase motor evoked potentials most when the two stimuli are timed to arrive in the cortex simultaneously. This suggests that a mechanism of timing-dependent plasticity (TDP) may be a more effective method of promoting motor rehabilitation. The following thesis is the result of applying a brain-computer interface to apply PNS in closed-loop simultaneously to movement intention onset as measured by EEG of the sensorimotor cortex to test whether …

Detection Of Electrical Alternans In Ventricular Depolarization Phase Of Human Electrocardiogram, David R. Wasemiller

Theses and Dissertations--Biomedical Engineering

T-wave Alternans (TWA) in an electrocardiogram (ECG) has received considerable interest as a potential predictor of sudden cardiac death (SCD). However, large clinical trials have shown that while TWA has a very high negative predictive value, its positive predictive value is poor. Results of previous studies suggest that arrhythmia onset can be affected by the phase relationship of alternans of the depolarization and repolarization phase of the action potentials of the ventricles. To assess this relationship, one would first need to establish that depolarization alternans can be detected and then develop methods to determine its relationship with repolarization alternans, which …

Use Of Laboratory Geophysical And Geotechnical Investigation Methods To Characterize Gypsum Rich Soils, Raghava A. Bhamidipati

Theses and Dissertations--Civil Engineering

Gypsum rich soils are found in many parts of the world, particularly in arid and semi-arid regions. Most gypsum occurs in the form of evaporites, which are minerals that precipitate out of water due to a high rate of evaporation and a high mineral concentration. Gypsum rich soils make good foundation material under dry conditions but pose major engineering hazards when exposed to water. Gypsum acts as a weak cementing material and has a moderate solubility of about 2.5 g/liter. The dissolution of gypsum causes the soils to undergo unpredictable collapse settlement leading to severe structural damages. The damages incur …

Forecasting Long Term Highway Staffing Requirements For State Transportation Agencies, Ying Li

Theses and Dissertations--Civil Engineering

The transportation system is vital to the nation’s economic growth and stability, as it provides mobility for commuters while supporting the United States’ ability to compete in an increasingly competitive global economy. State Transportation Agencies across the country continue to face many challenges to repair and enhance highway infrastructure to meet the rapid increasing transportation needs. One of these challenges is maintaining an adequate and efficient agency staff. In order to effectively plan for future staffing levels, State Transportation Agencies need a method for forecasting long term staffing requirements. However, current methods in use cannot function without well-defined projects and …

Study Of Macroturbulence And Bursting Via The -1 Spectral Power Law Region Of Turbulent Open Channel Flows Over Gravel Beds, Amirreza Ghasemi

Theses and Dissertations--Civil Engineering

The large scale and smaller production scale motions contain over the half of turbulent kinetic energy in the flow. These motions are responsible for sediment transport and deposition processes, contaminant mixing and stream bio-diversity. These motions are corresponded to the left and right bounds of -1 power region of the spectral energy. The most well recognized and highly studied power law has been upon Kolmogorov’s -5/3 power law region of the streamwise spectral energy density and this research focused on investigating the -1 power region bounds and energy. Energy budget and time-average turbulence calculations along with spectral analysis …

Evaluating Arterial Congestion And Travel Time Reliability Performance, Galen T. Smith

Theses and Dissertations--Civil Engineering

This thesis presents an investigation of arterial travel time and reliability. Specifically an examination of the proposed arterial travel time reliability performance measures detailed in Federal Highway Administration’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on national performance management measures are performed. These measures, including level of travel time reliability and peak hour travel time ratio, are computed and compared to those currently used to quantify congestion and travel time reliability. Within this process several commonly used data sources are evaluated to determine the effects of data quality and data source on performance measure evaluation. The newly created Urban Streets Reliability tool is …

A Data Driven Approach To Quantify The Impact Of Crashes, Obaidur Rahman Kazi

Theses and Dissertations--Civil Engineering

The growth of data has begun to transform the transportation research and policy, and open a new window for analyzing the impact of crashes. Currently for the crash impact analysis, researchers tend to rely on reported incident duration, which may not always be accurate. Further, impact of the crashes could linger a much longer time at upstream, even if the records are correct for the crash spot and it is a challenge to quantify the impact of a crash from the complex dynamics of the recurrent and non-recurrent congested condition. Therefore, a difference-in-speed approach is developed in this research to …

Using Unmanned Aerial Systems (Uas) And Photogrammetry To Remotely Assess Landslide Events In Near Real-Time, Jordan T. Keeney

Theses and Dissertations--Civil Engineering

Commercially available unmanned aerial systems (UAS) and photogrammetry software have undergone rapid advancements in recent years. However, the use of UAS and photogrammetry techniques for monitoring surface landform deformation has not been adopted for the most part due to complicated workflows and complex UAS systems. This study demonstrates the ability to monitor landslides in near-real time with commercially available UAS and photogrammetry software using direct georeferencing and co- registration techniques. The results of this research were then assessed to develop an optimal workflow for the rapid assessment of surface deformations with direct georeferenced UAS obtained imagery and photogrammetry software.

Surface-Initiated Polymerizations For The Rapid Sorting Of Rare Cancer Cells, Jacob L. Lilly

Theses and Dissertations--Chemical and Materials Engineering

Cancer metastasis directly accounts for an estimated 90% of all cancer related deaths and is correlated with the presence of malignant cells in systemic circulation. This observed relationship has prompted efforts to develop a fluid biopsy, with the goal of detecting these rare cells in patient peripheral blood as surrogate markers for metastatic disease as a partial replacement or supplement to tissue biopsies. Numerous platforms have been designed, yet these have generally failed to support a reliable fluid biopsy due to poor performance parameters such as low throughput, low purity of enriched antigen positive cells, and insufficiently low detection thresholds …

Effectiveness Of Biochar Addition In Reducing Concentrations Of Selected Nutrients And Bacteria In Runoff, Rachel Williams

Theses and Dissertations--Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering

Land application and storage of horse manure and municipal sludge can increase nutrient and bacteria concentrations in runoff. Biochar increases soil nutrient retention when used as a soil amendment. The objectives of this study were to determine if biochar, when mixed with horse manure or sludge, affects runoff concentrations of total Kjehldahl nitrogen (TKN), ammonia-nitrogen (NH3-N), nitrate (NO3-N), total phosphorus (TP), dissolved phosphorus (DP), total suspended solids (TSS), chemical oxygen demand (COD), and fecal coliforms (FC). Horse manure and sludge were applied to 2.4 x 6.1 m fescue plots (six each), with three plots of each material amended with 5-8% …

Evaluation Of Flocculation, Sedimentation, And Filtration For Dewatering Of Algal Biomass, Nicholas A. Rhea

Theses and Dissertations--Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering

Algae can be used as a feedstock for agricultural fertilizers, livestock/poultry feeds, anaerobic digestion, and biofuel production. Regardless of the end product, water removal is necessary and difficult to do cost effectively. For each product the requirements for moisture content (or solids content) vary, such that a desirable water removal strategy would need to be adaptable to varying levels of water removal. Flocculation, with sedimentation and drying was evaluated as a possible strategy for algae dewatering. Anionic and nonionic flocculants are known to be ineffective at flocculating algal culture, which was confirmed for this case by electro-osmotic flow testing of …

Recirculating Calcium Hydroxide Solution: A Practical Choice For On-Farm High Solids Lignocellulose Pretreatment, William S. Sympson Jr.

Theses and Dissertations--Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering

Pretreatment is a necessary step in the utilization of lignocellulosic biomass for biochemical conversion to higher value products. There are multiple chemical choices for industrial settings, however on-farm choices are constrained to near ambient conditions with minimal specialized equipment, training, and limited waste disposal. Calcium hydroxide (lime) is suitable for on-farm use. This work presents the novel idea of pretreating biomass by recirculating a filtered, saturated lime solution in an up-flow, high solids (14-16% w/w) configuration at ambient conditions. In this system, lime solids were efficiently consumed, post-pretreatment washing of substrate did not significantly improve glucose yields, and energy and …

Heat And Mass Transfer In Baled Switchgrass For Storage And Bioconversion Applications, Drew F. Schiavone

Theses and Dissertations--Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering

The temperature and moisture content of biomass feedstocks both play a critical role in minimizing storage and transportation costs, achieving effective bioconversion, and developing relevant postharvest quality models. Hence, this study characterizes the heat and mass transfer occurring within baled switchgrass through the development of a mathematical model describing the relevant thermal and physical properties of this specific substrate. This mathematical model accounts for the effect of internal heat generation and temperature-induced free convection within the material in order to improve prediction accuracy. Inclusion of these terms is considered novel in terms of similar biomass models.

Two disparate length scales, …

Long-Term Effects Of Forestry Best Management Practices On Hydrology And Water Chemistry In Three Appalchian Headwater Catchments, Kameryn I. Wright

Theses and Dissertations--Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering

In 1982, a study was initiated in the Field Branch watershed, in the University of Kentucky’s Robinson Forest, to evaluate forestry best management practice (BMP) effectiveness after intensive harvesting. The study utilized a paired watershed approach on three adjacent Field Branch subcatchments. One subcatchment was left as the control, one had BMPs implemented (including a 50-ft undisturbed buffer along the stream), and one was clear-cut to the stream’s banks without the use of BMPs (i.e. logger’s choice). Prior research has shown that logging can negatively impact watershed functions by altering stream hydrology, geomorphology, water quality, and instream habitat. Thus, the …

Induction Of Cellulase In High Solids Cultivation Of Trichoderma Reesei For Enhanced Enzymatic Hydrolysis Of Lignocellulose, Danielle Empson

Theses and Dissertations--Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering

This project aimed investigated cellulase in-situ production for large-scale on-farm production of lignocellulosic biofuel. Cellulase activity and glucose released by T. reesei with corn stover and wheat bran as co-substrates for solid state cultivation (SSC) were examined. Co-cultivation has previously increased T. reesei cellulase, but corn stover and wheat bran have not been co-cultivated (Dhillon, Oberoi et al. 2011). This work compared cellulase activity and glucose concentration of corn stover co-cultivated with 0-40% wheat bran in high solids. Samples with at least 20% wheat bran exhibited increased cellulase activity. However, the average glucose concentration without wheat bran was 3.29 g/L …

Physico-Chemical, Rheological And Baking Properties Of Proso Millet, Manjot Singh

Theses and Dissertations--Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering

Due to climate change, water scarcity, increasing population and rising food prices, agriculture and food security has been affected worldwide. Cereal grains being a major part of world food supply also act as important energy source in human diet. In order to counter food insecurity, alternative grains are being explored, and millet being drought-resistant has the potential to serve as an alternative grain due to its comparable nutritional composition with other major cereals and its gluten free proteins. The evidence that gluten sensitivity is one of the increasing food intolerances is driving an increasing demand for gluten-free foods. However, gluten …

Development Of Regional And Hydraulic Geometry Curves For The Eastern Kentucky Coalfields, Ashlan Berry

Theses and Dissertations--Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering

Regional curves and hydraulic geometry curves relate bankfull channel dimensions to drainage area and bankfull discharge, respectively. These curves are used in the natural channel design process to help identify bankfull and to estimate bankfull dimensions of the design channel. Nineteen streams were surveyed to determine their bankfull parameters (cross-sectional area, width, mean depth, discharge, slope, and Manning’s n), along with 27 streams previously surveyed in other studies. The data were used to create regional and hydraulic geometry curves for three hydrologic landscape regions (HLR 9, HLR 11, and HLR 16, individually) in the Eastern Kentucky Coalfields (EKC) as well …

Modern Rock Dust Development And Evaluation For Use In Underground Coal Mines, Robert Eades

Theses and Dissertations--Mining Engineering

Following the promulgation of new permissible respirable dust standards by MSHA in 2014, new alternative rock dusts were created that combined the advantages of current industry applications while potentially reducing miner exposure to respirable dust. Research was performed to compare the explosion suppressing and ejection characteristics of three new types of rock dust to existing rock dust types. Explosion suppression tests were conducted in a 38-L chamber where pressures were recorded. Angle of ejection tests were conducted using a high explosive shock tube and high speed photography to determine angle of ejection and lift velocity. A comprehensive comparison of the …

Techno-Economic Potential Of Enhanced Coal Recovery Through Middlings Liberation And Re-Processing, Shivani

Theses and Dissertations--Mining Engineering

The typical preparation plant producing coal for the utility market targets a relative separation density in the plant of around 1.60 whereas plants generating metallurgical coal use relative cut point density values approaching 1.50. In some cases, achieving the specified coal quality requires operating at lower cut point values, which results in a significant loss of valuable coal. In these situations, a middlings stream can be produced using a secondary separator or a three-product unit, which would allow crushing of the middlings for liberation purposes and re-introduction into the plant feed. In this manner, higher quality coal can be produced …

Rock Dust Surface Chemistry Modifications For Eliminating Cake Formation And Improving Dispersion In Coal Dust Explosion Mitigation Applications, Qingqing Huang

Theses and Dissertations--Mining Engineering

Rock dust has been historically applied to mitigate the coal dust explosion in either dry or wet form. Dry rock dust performs best in inerting the potential coal dust explosion due to the greatest dispersive properties. However, it undesirably exposes underground coal miners to respirable dust particles which imposes a severe health danger. Wet dust application is able to significantly reduce the floatable dust particles but another problem associated with caking is predominant. Caking phenomenon is usually used to describe the change of free-flowing bulk solids into agglomerated chunks. Unfortunately, the environmental conditions of an underground mine have the potential …

Utilization Of A Small Unmanned Aircraft System For Direct Sampling Of Nitrogen Oxides Produced By Full-Scale Surface Mine Blasting, Robert B. Mccray

Theses and Dissertations--Mining Engineering

Emerging health concern for gaseous nitrogen oxides (NO_x) emitted during surface mine blasting has prompted mining authorities in the United States to pursue new regulations. NO_x is comprised of various binary compounds of nitrogen and oxygen. Nitric oxide (NO) and nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) are the most prominent. Modern explosive formulations are not designed to produce NO_x during properly-sustained detonations, and researchers have identified several causes through laboratory experiments; however, direct sampling of NO_x following full-scale surface mine blasting has not been accomplished.

The purpose of this thesis was to demonstrate a safe, innovative …

Optimal Roof Coverage And Identification Of Potential Roof Problems In Underground Coal Mines Using Led Lighting, James A. Samples

Theses and Dissertations--Mining Engineering

The popularity and implementation of light emitting diode (LED) lighting have increased drastically over recent years into both residential and industrial applications. However, due to MSHA permissibility requirements, LED lighting is not currently being fully utilized in underground coal mining. While previous research has focused on examining the benefits that LED lighting possesses over other common light sources, very few have been done to find the optimum configuration to illuminate underground excavations better for the safety of the miners. In this research, multiple experiments were conducted to evaluate the potential impacts LED lighting can have on underground mine safety. The …

Energy Resources Use Metrics, Rahul Y. Nehete

Theses and Dissertations--Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Energy resources use has been considered as a key component of sustainable development. Data related to global, regional, state, sector, industry and process demonstrate that a significant reduction of energy resources for a given production rate in manufacturing processes requires an introduction of transformational technologies at the process level, propagating the impact to higher scales, leading not just to a gradual improvement of traditional technologies but to more sustainable development.

The study offers two approaches to the formulation of the limits of energy use in the context of sustainable development. The first is to construct a map of key selected …

Flow Visualization Of Buoyant Instability In A Cross-Flow: An Implication For Flame Spread Over Forest Fuel Beds, Nikolay Gustenyov

Theses and Dissertations--Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

This thesis reports small-scale laboratory experiments designed to visualize the flow over a heated plate. A low-speed wind tunnel was built, and a heating plate was flush mounted on the wind tunnel floor to provide a uniform heat flux over its surface. A paper thin cloth soaked with commercially available Vaseline was placed on top of the heating plate to produce thick smoke streaks that were carried downstream by a horizontal airflow. Both LED light and a laser sheet of approximately 30-degrees open angle were separately used to illuminate this flow, the latter advanced downstream with 1-cm interval from the …

Studies To Improve Exhaust System Acoustic Performance By Determination And Assessment Of The Source Characteristics And Impedance Optimization, Yitian Zhang

Theses and Dissertations--Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

It is shown that the relationship between an impedance change and the dynamic response of a linear system is in the form of the Moebius transformation. The Moebius transformation is a conformal complex transformation that maps straight lines and circles in one complex plane into straight lines and circles in another complex plane. The center and radius of the mapped circle can be predicted provided that all the complex coefficients are known. This feature enables rapid determination of the optimal impedance change to achieve desired performance.

This dissertation is primarily focused on the application of the Moebius transformation to enhance …