Engineering Commons^™

Feasibility Analysis Of Solid Particles As A Thermal Energy Storage Medium Using Fluidization Process, Sebastian De La Rosa^, Arturo Sepulveda, Vinod Kumar*

COURI Symposium Abstracts, Spring 2012

No abstract provided.

Computational Simulations Of Carbon Dioxide Flow In Porous Media For Carbon Sequestration Applications, Eduardo Cordero^, Jesus D. Ortega, Dustin Crandall, Grant Bromhal, Vinod Kumar*

COURI Symposium Abstracts, Spring 2012

No abstract provided.

Pore Network Model Construction From Ct Scanned Rock Samples For Carbon Sequestration Simulation, Daniel Llausas^, P. Delgado, Vinod Kumar*

COURI Symposium Abstracts, Spring 2012

No abstract provided.

High Fidelity Thermocline Tracking Algorithm Using Weighted Essentially Non-Oscillatory Schemes, Claudia L. Guevara^, Kiran Kumar, Vinod Kumar*

COURI Symposium Abstracts, Spring 2012

No abstract provided.

Smart Home Prototype, Logistics & Planning, David G. Guzman^, Virgilio Gonzalez*

COURI Symposium Abstracts, Spring 2012

No abstract provided.

Computational Models Of Sub-Divided Thermal Energy Storage Tanks Used In Concentrating Solar Power Plants With Parabolic Trough Collectors, Jesus D. Ortega ^, Vinod Kumar *

COURI Symposium Abstracts, Spring 2012

No abstract provided.

Safety, Ergonomics And Human Factors Engineering On Biomedical Devices Design, Alejandra Sandoval Vazquez^, Noe Vargas Hernandez*

COURI Symposium Abstracts, Spring 2012

No abstract provided.

Synthesis And Characterization Of Aluminum Doped Zinc Oxide Nanowires For Photovoltaic Devices And Semiconductors, Travis J. Wilson^, Md. Ashiqur R. Khan, Mohammad A. I. Shuvo, Miguel Mendoza, Matthew Garcia, Yirong Lin*, Chintalapalle V. Ramana*

COURI Symposium Abstracts, Spring 2012

No abstract provided.

Sic-Cnt Multifunctional Nanocomposites For High Temperature Structural, Thermoelectric And Sensing Applications, Luisa A. Cabrera^, Arifur Chowdhury, Onasis Garcia, Mujibur R. Khan*

COURI Symposium Abstracts, Spring 2012

No abstract provided.

Design And Realization Of A Piezoelectric Ink Jet Head And Driver For Medical Diagnostics In Remote Areas, Alejandra Hernandez^, Annagiulia Morachioli, Julio Rincon, Sylvia Natividad, Thomas Boland*

COURI Symposium Abstracts, Spring 2012

No abstract provided.

Generating Minimal Pair-Wise Covering Test Suites, Luis C. Gutierrez ^, Martine Ceberio *

COURI Symposium Abstracts, Spring 2012

Software is ubiquitous and needs to be reliable. Software testing therefore plays an important role in software development. Proper testing a software system informs about its quality and reliability so as to prevent unexpected behavior during system execution. One of the methods to prevent failures consists in testing a system under different input values, but when all possible input values are tested, an impractical number of test cases might result. In software testing, pair-wise testing is a combinatorial technique which uses combination of pair input values to generate test cases. Using pair-wise testing dramatically reduces the number of test cases, …

Feasibility Of Desalination Of Winter Agricultural Return Flows In El Paso: Impact On Downstream Salinity, Aaron M. Cano ^, W. Shane Walker *

COURI Symposium Abstracts, Spring 2012

No abstract provided.

How To Describe And Propagate Uncertainty When Processing Time Series: Metrological And Computational Challenges, With Potential Applications To Environmental Studies, Christian Servin, Martine Ceberio, Aline Jaimes, Craig Tweedie, Vladik Kreinovich

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

Time series comes from measurements, and measurements are never absolutely accurate. Traditionally, when we deal with an individual measurement or with a sample of measurement results, we subdivide a measurement error into random and systematic components: systematic error does not change from measurement to measurement which random errors corresponding to different measurements are independent. In time series, when we measure the same quantity at different times, we can also have correlation between measurement errors corresponding to nearby moments of time. To capture this correlation, environmental science researchers proposed to consider the third type of measurement errors: periodic. This extended classification …

Optimizing Computer Representation And Computer Processing Of Epistemic Uncertainty For Risk-Informed Decision Making: Finances Etc., Vladik Kreinovich, Nitaya Buntao, Olga Kosheleva

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

Uncertainty is usually gauged by using standard statistical characteristics: mean, variance, correlation, etc. Then, we use the known values of these characteristics (or the known bounds on these values) to select a decision. Sometimes, it becomes clear that the selected characteristics do not always describe a situation well; then other known (or new) characteristics are proposed. A good example is description of volatility in finance: it started with variance, and now many descriptions are competing, all with their own advantages and limitations.

In such situations, a natural idea is to come up with characteristics tailored to specific application areas: e.g., …

Research-Related Projects For Graduate Students As A Tool To Motivate Graduate Students In Classes Outside Their Direct Interest Areas, Vladik Kreinovich

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

In most graduate programs, students are required to take both "depth" classes -- classes in the areas of the student's direct interest -- and "breadth" classes, classes outside their direct interest areas. Naturally, the student's interest in "breadth" classes is often naturally lower than their interest in the "depth" classes. To enhance the students' interest in the "breadth" classes, a natural idea is to make research-related project an important part of the class, a project in which the student can apply the skills that he or she learns in the class to the research area of direct interest to this …

Negative Results Of Computable Analysis Disappear If We Restrict Ourselves To Random (Or, More Generally, Typical) Inputs, Vladik Kreinovich

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

It is well known that many computational problems are, in general, not algorithmically solvable: e.g., it is not possible to algorithmically decide whether two computable real numbers are equal, and it is not possible to compute the roots of a computable function. We propose to constraint such operations to certain "sets of typical elements" or "sets of random elements".

In our previous papers, we proposed (and analyzed) physics-motivated definitions for these notions. In short, a set T is a set of typical elements if for every definable sequences of sets A_n for which each A_n is a subset …

Towards Formalizing Non-Monotonic Reasoning In Physics: Logical Approach Based On Physical Induction And Its Relation To Kolmogorov Complexity, Vladik Kreinovich

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

To formalize some types of non-monotonic reasoning in physics, researchers have proposed an approach based on Kolmogorov complexity. Inspired by Vladimir Lifschitz's belief that many features of reasoning can be described on a purely logical level, we show that an equivalent formalization can be described in purely logical terms: namely, in terms of physical induction.

One of the consequences of this formalization is that the set of not-abnormal states is (pre-)compact. We can therefore use Lifschitz's result that when there is only one state that satisfies a given equation (or system of equations), then we can algorithmically find this state. …

Validated Templates For Specification Of Complex Ltl Formulas, Salamah Salamah, Ann Q. Gates, Vladik Kreinovich

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

Formal verification approaches that check software correctness against formal specifications have been shown to improve program dependability. Tools such as Specification Pattern System (SPS) and Property Specification (Prospec) support the generation of formal specifications. SPS has defined a set of patterns (common recurring properties) and scopes (system states over which a pattern must hold) that allows a user to generate formal specifications by using direct substitution of propositions into parameters of selected patterns and scopes. Prospec extended SPS to support the definition of patterns and scopes that include the ability to specify parameters with multiple propositions (referred to as composite …

Towards Optimizing Cloud Computing: An Example Of Optimization Under Uncertainty, Vladik Kreinovich

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

One of the most efficient way to store and process data is cloud computing. In cloud computing, instead of storing the data at the user-defined location (e.g., at the user's computer or at the centralized server), the computer system ("cloud") selects the location of the data storage that speeds up computations -- by minimizing the (average) communication time. In this chapter, we provide an analytical solution to the corresponding optimization problem.

The demand for cloud computing is growing fast, and we expect that this demand -- and thus, the size of the resulting cloud -- will continue to grow. …

Do Constraints Facilitate Or Inhibit Creative Problem Solving: A Theoretical Explanation Of Two Seemingly Contradictory Experimental Studies, Karen Villaverde, Olga Kosheleva, Martine Ceberio

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

Do constraints facilitate or inhibit creative problem solving? Recently, two experimental studies appeared, one showing that removing constraints may enhance creativity, another showing that adding constraints can facilitate creative problem solving. In this paper, we provide a theoretical explanation of these two seemingly contradictory experimental results.

Estimating Statistical Characteristics Of Lognormal And Delta-Lognormal Distributions Under Interval Uncertainty: Algorithms And Computational Complexity, Nitaya Buntao, Sa-Aat Niwitpong, Vladik Kreinovich

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

Traditional statistical estimates S(x₁, ..., x_n) for different statistical characteristics S (such as mean, variance, etc.) implicitly assume that we know the sample values x₁, ..., x_n exactly. In practice, the sample values Xi come from measurements and are, therefore, in general, different from the actual (unknown) values x_i of the corresponding quantities. Sometimes, we know the probabilities of different values of the measurement error d_i = X_i - x_i, but often, the only information that we have about the measurement error is the upper bound D_{i …}

A Framework To Create Ontologies For Scientific Data Management, Leonardo Salayandia, Paulo Pinheiro Da Silva, Ann Q. Gates

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

Scientists often build and use highly customized systems to support observation and analysis efforts. Creating effective ontologies to manage and share data products created from those systems is a difficult task that requires collaboration among domain experts, e.g., scientists and knowledge representation experts. A framework is presented that scientists can use to create ontologies that describe how customized systems capture and transform data into products that support scientific findings. The framework establishes an abstraction that leverages knowledge representation expertise to describe data transformation processes in a consistent way that highlights properties relevant to data users. The intention is to create …

Towards Symmetry-Based Explanation Of (Approximate) Shapes Of Alpha-Helices And Beta-Sheets (And Beta-Barrels) In Protein Structure, Jaime Nava, Vladik Kreinovich

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

Protein structure is invariably connected to protein function. There are two important secondary structure elements: alpha helices and beta-sheets (which sometimes come in a shape of beta-barrels). The actual shapes of these structures can be complicated, but in the first approximation, they are usually approximated by, correspondingly, cylindrical spirals and planes (and cylinders, for beta-barrels). In this paper, following the ideas pioneered by a renowned mathematician M. Gromov, we use natural symmetries to show that, under reasonable assumptions, these geometric shapes are indeed the best approximating families for secondary structures.

Electrochemical Behavior Of Galvanized Steel Embedded In Soil, Jesus F. Hinojos

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The investigation focused on the corrosion of galvanized steel embedded in soil. The primary objective of the study was to develop a technique for monitoring the corrosion behavior of samples in the field by measuring the potential and current with respect to time (or electrochemical noise). Electrochemical electrodes were designed to simulate the galvanized steel in contact with a thin-film of electrolytes which are usually generated in soils as they collect and drain rain water depending on soil porosity. The exposure of the galvanized steel to thin-film electrolytes consisted of cycling between two days of wetted soil followed by the …

Thin Film Growths Of Znte And Cdte On Various Substrates Using A Novel Close Space Sublimation Reactor Css4, Damian Marrufo

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Thin films of CdTe have been grown on CdS in a variety of methods for use in thin film photovoltaic systems. Limits to the efficiency of CdTe/CdS solar cells have been attributed to defects in the lattice that occur between the interface of CdS and CdTe due to a lattice mismatch. A close space sublimation (CSS) reactor known as the CSS4 was designed and fabricated in UTEP to deposit complex layers of CdTe and ZnTe on top of a CdS film that is grown via chemical bath deposition in order to obtain a CdTe photovoltaic. Unfortunately, the original design and …

Surface And Guided Waves On Structured Surfaces, Javier Polanco

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Surface and guided waves on structured surfaces and inhomogeneous media studies the propagation of waves in systems with spatially varying parameters. In the rainbow case (chapter 1), the dielectric constant changes with coordinates. In the cylinder case: boundary and the metal (chapter 2), it is a curved surface. Finally, in the last case (chapter 3), the dielectric constant changes in z-direction.

A Novel Method For The Curing Of Metal Particle Loaded Conductive Inks And Pastes, David Adrian Roberson

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The emerging technology of printed microelectronics involving the use of conductive inks in conjunction with standard printing techniques offers a fast and low waste method for creating microelectronics compared with standard manufacturing processes. A clear path to the creation of flexible electronics is present due to the ease of printing on flexible substrates. Moreover, creation of novel 3D structural electronics is possible via the integration of printing technologies and additive manufacturing (AM) techniques.

A key obstacle to the manufacturing of flexible and structural electronics comes from the temperature restrictions imposed by the substrates, which are typically polymeric. This hindrance has …

Structure Morphology And Optical Properties Of Nanocrystalline Ga2o3 Thin Films, Sampath Kumar Samala

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Gallium Oxide thin films were produced by sputter deposition by varying the substrate temperature (T_s) in a wide range (T_s=25-800 oC) and under variable deposition time. The structural characteristics and optical properties of Ga₂O₃ films were evaluated using X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy-dispersive X-ray spectrometry (EDS), Rutherford backscattering spectrometry (RBS) and spectrophotometric measurements. The effect of growth temperature is significant on the chemistry, crystal structure and morphology of Ga₂O₃ films. XRD and SEM analyses indicate that the Ga₂O₃ films grown at lower temperatures were …

Development Of Thermoelectric Temperature Sensors, Jennifer Jazmin Kuchle Ituarte

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Temperature measurements in power generation systems can provide useful information on the performance parameters of the units. This paper presents a conceptual measurement technique using a simulated thermoelectric loop (signal transmitter). The transmitter simulates the induced current and magnetic field emanating from the center of an n and p loop. The receiver used in this study is a Hall Effect sensing device which measures the magnetic flux density produced by the transmitter. Three experimental setups were designed and built for the measurements. The first setup used a pendulum to move a coil simulating a loop thermoelectric generator thereby creating a …

Sustainable Riparian Restoration - The Utilization Of Sewage Effluent To Construct Wetlands Along The Rio Grande: A String Of Pearls Approach To Replenishment, Michael Earl Landis

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The Rio Grande, from Elephant Butte Dam to El Paso, has been transformed from a free-flowing wild river into a highly engineered irrigation system. The Rio Grande Project, authorized by Congress in 1905, mandated the Bureau of Reclamation to store and deliver water exclusively to farmers. The river, maintained by the International Boundary and Water Commission, has been straightened and channelized between levees. The laws and policies governing the use of the waters of the Rio Grande are prohibitive to ecological restoration. Prior Appropriation doctrine allows for the exclusive use of these waters.

One sustainable tactic for replenishing the denuded …