Engineering Commons^™

Advanced Quantitative Methods For Imminent Detection Of Crash Prone Conditions And Safety Evaluation, Zhi Chen

Theses and Dissertations

Crashes can be accurately predicted through reliable data sources and rigorous statistical models; and prevented through data-driven, evidence-based traffic control strategies. Both predictive analysis and analysis to estimate the causal effect of traffic variables of real-time crashes are instrumental to crash prediction and a better understanding of the mechanism of crash occurrence. However, the research on the second analysis type is very limited for real-time crash prediction; and the conventional predictive analysis using inductive loop detector data has accuracy issues related to inconsistently and distantly spaced loop detectors. The effectiveness of traffic control strategies for improving safety performance cannot be …

Demand Side Management For Building Energy Efficiency Through Hybrid Daylighting System And Battery Energy Storage System, Tonghui Li

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation aims to investigate demand side management (DSM) to improve building energy efficiency and reduce on-peak electricity demand. Daylighting device and battery energy storage system (BESS) for peak shaving are proposed and studied. To reduce the cost and improve the efficiency of building lighting, an innovative parabolic trough solar lighting and thermal (PTL/T) system is designed and analyzed. In the proposed system, a parabolic trough collector (PTC) controlled by two-axis solar tracking system is used as solar collector. The collected sunlight is split by a cold mirror into visible light and infrared light. The visible light is reflected by …

Impact Load Identification Using Optimal Sensor Placement And Model Reduction, Bella Jackson Chembakassery

Theses and Dissertations

Any structure which is used in service can be subjected to different kinds of loads such as static, dynamic, moving or impact loads. It is very much necessary such structures are reliable and robust enough to be used for service. Hence accurately estimating the load acting on the structure is very important. In case of impact loading, it is very difficult to estimate the load because it acts for a short period of time. For such loading, the structural response of the system can be used as a medium to estimate the applied load. The structural response used could be …

Microgrid Reliability Evaluation Based On Condition-Dependent Failure Models Of Power Electronic Devices, Qi Li

Theses and Dissertations

Microgrid, a distributed energy system consisting of distributed energy and loads, aims to ensure reliable and affordable energy security in urban and rural communities. With the growing global energy need and the emerging threat of climate change, green renewable energy is becoming a new favorite in the field of power generation. Microgrids have received wide spread attention and application for their minimizing carbon dioxide and greenhouse gas emissions. Microgrids do so by maximizing clean local energy generation as well

as reducing the stress of the transmission and distribution system.

With the use of renewable energy, the reliability performance of microgrids …

Design Of A High Frequency Four Port Transformer For Dc/Dc Converters, Md Abdul Gaffar

Theses and Dissertations

Large scale integration of renewable energy systems (RES) and energy storage systems (ESS) demands a better connectivity between distributed sources and loads. Multi-port solid state transformer (MPSST) plays a critical role as a joint node to integrate RESs, ESSs, utility grid, and loads. MPSST offers several advantages including independent power flow control on each port, voltage or current regulations, compactness and portability, and galvanic isolation.

This thesis seeks to address some of the remaining challenges of using MPSST. Operation of the converter in closed-loop with phase shift modulation is analyzed for a dual active bridge as the control building block …

High Sensitivity Phosphate Ion Sensor Based On Graphene Oxide Field-Effect Transistor, Bing Jin

Theses and Dissertations

Excessive phosphates in water can lead to eutrophication and algae growth. Management of phosphorus in water requires accurate and accessible detection technologies to ensure real-time monitoring of phosphorus. Current sensing technologies for phosphorus have limitations and disadvantages. This thesis study will explore a low-cost, ultrasensitive, and real-time water sensor for monitoring phosphates in agriculture runoff, wastewater, and surface water by collaborating with MWRD (Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago), Grande Cheese Company and Wisconsin DNR (Department of Natural Resources). The innovative sensing technology takes advantage of nanomaterial advancements to realize real-time phosphorus detection.

Specifically, we report an ultrasensitive phosphate …

New Approaches To Multi-Functional Soft Materials, Seyedali Banisadr

Theses and Dissertations

Soft robotics is a relatively new, but fast-developing field of science and technology that utilizes soft materials such as polymers in their body structure. Despite significant progress in soft robotic devices, robots that can sense their environments are still very rare. Although some soft robots have exhibited sensing capabilities, they still have not demonstrated synergistic coupling of sensing and actuation. From our perspective, this type of coupling may take us one step closer to fabricate soft robots with autonomous feedback dynamics. In this work, we present new approaches to soft robotic devices, which are fabricated from responsive soft materials and …

Angularly Resolved Deep Brain Fluorescence Imaging Using A Single Optical Fiber, Israel Delarosa

Theses and Dissertations

To further understand neural disorders as well as recognize complexities of normal brain functionality continuously drives the development and implementation of new research instruments and techniques. In neuroscience research one difficulty that these instruments face is accessing subcortical regions with minimal invasiveness. While electrode based deep brain stimulation (DBS) has been a primary technique in research it has also become an accepted alleviation method for some neurological diseases such as Parkinson’s, epilepsy, and depression in severe cases. However, there are possible side effects that may arise from the lack of cell targeting in electrical stimulation.

Optogenetics, uses proteins from microbial …

Novel Solar Cells Based On Two-Dimensional Nanomaterials And Recycled Lead Components, Xiaoru Guo

Theses and Dissertations

To meet the rapidly growing demand for energy and reduce the use of dwindling fossil fuels, the efficient utilization of renewable energy is a constant pursuit globally. Because solar cells convert vastly available sunlight into electricity, developing high-performance and low-cost solar cells is a top strategy for future energy supply. Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) and perovskite solar cells (PSCs) are the most promising choices. In the meantime, highly concentrated sulfuric acids from retired lead-acid batteries become an environmental concern, and lead contamination in drinking water raises concerns in general public. This study addresses both above-mentioned problems by using two-dimensional (2D) …

Reliability Evaluation And Improvement Based On Operational Failure Rate Of Power Electronics In Islanded Microgrid, Wen Zhong

Theses and Dissertations

With power electronics being widely applied in microgrids, they become a key part in micro-grid and the reliability assessment considering power electronic devices have become a hot research topic, and much work has been done to evaluate the reliability of power electronics in microgrids. However, the impact of operational failure of power electronics on the overall microgrid reliability has not been studied yet.

This thesis has three objectives. The first objective of this thesis is to construct a systematic operational failure rate model of power electronic systems. The power generated from renewable generation units, such as PV arrays or wind …

Design And Implementation Of A Domain Specific Language For Deep Learning, Xiao Bing Huang

Theses and Dissertations

\textit {Deep Learning} (DL) has found great success in well-diversified areas such as machine vision, speech recognition, big data analysis, and multimedia understanding recently. However, the existing state-of-the-art DL frameworks, e.g. Caffe2, Theano, TensorFlow, MxNet, Torch7, and CNTK, are programming libraries with fixed user interfaces, internal representations, and execution environments. Modifying the code of DL layers or data structure is very challenging without in-depth understanding of the underlying implementation. The optimization of the code and execution in these tools is often limited and relies on the specific DL computation graph manipulation and scheduling that lack systematic and universal strategies. Furthermore, …

A High Frequency, High Efficiency, High Power Factor Isolated On-Board Battery Charger For Electric Vehicles, Yuqi Wei

Theses and Dissertations

In this paper, a high frequency, high efficiency and high power factor isolated on-board battery charger is proposed. The proposed topology includes two parts, AC/DC power factor correction (PFC) circuit unit and DC/DC converter unit. For the PFC circuit, SiC based totem-pole interleaved bridgeless PFC is selected, the diode bridge rectifier is eliminated. In addition, it can operate in continuous conduction mode (CCM) thanks to the low reverse recovery losses of the SiC MOSFETs. Besides, the interleaved technology minimizes the input current ripple. The DC/DC converter unit is composed of two LLC resonant converters sharing the same full-bridge inverter with …

Synthesis And Characterization Of Transition Metal Oxide And Dichalcogenide Nanomaterials For Energy And Environmental Applications, Ren Ren

Theses and Dissertations

Transition metal oxides (TMOs) and transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) have gained immense interest recently for energy and environmental applications due to their exceptional structural, electronic, and optical properties. For example, titanium dioxide (TiO2) as one of the TMO photocatalysts has been widely studied due to its stability, non-toxicity, wide availability, and high efficiency. However, its wide bandgap significantly limits its use under visible light or solar light. Recent studies also show that semiconducting TMDs could be used as potential supercapacitor electrode materials and platinum (Pt)-free electrocatalysts for economical utilization of renewable energy, because the high cost and scarcity of Pt …

Data-Driven Optimization Models For Feeder Bus Network Design, Yaojun Wang

Theses and Dissertations

Urbanization is not a modern phenomenon. However, it is worthwhile to note that the world urban population growth curve has up till recently followed a quadratic-hyperbolic pattern (Korotayey and Khaltourina, 2006). As cities become larger and their population expand, large and growing metropolises have to face the enormous traffic demand. To alleviate the increasing traffic congestion, public transit has been considered as the ideal solution to such troubles and problems restricting urban development. The metro is a type of efficient, dependable and high-capacity public transport adapted in metropolises worldwide. At the same time, the residents from crowded cities migrated to …

Optimal Decision Making For Capacitated Reverse Logistics Networks With Quality Variations, Sajjad Farahani

Theses and Dissertations

Increasing concerns about the environmental impact of production, product take-back laws and dwindling natural resources have heightened the need to address the impact of disposing end-of-life (EOL) products. To cope this challenge, manufacturers have integrated reverse logistics into their supply chain or chosen to outsource product recovery activities to third party firms. The uncertain quality of returns as well as uncertainty in return flow limit the effectiveness of planning, control and monitoring of reverse logistics networks. In addition, there are different recovery routes for each returned product such as reuse, repair, disassembling, remanufacturing and recycling. To determine the most profitable …

The Allocation Of Micro-Grid Energy Storage System Considering Controlling Parameter, Ting Hu

Theses and Dissertations

This research proposes a novel method of how to integrate controlling parameters, voltage and frequency, into to the energy storage system (ESS) allocation in a microgrid with renewable sources. The goal is to use the sensitivity analysis to find the most effective bus where the ESS should be in-stored to minimize the fluctuations both in terms of voltage and frequency. Indicators, such as SAIDI and SAIFI, are used to measure system reliability after the optimum size and location of ESS are determined.

Novel Nanostructured Metal Oxide Materials For Water Treatment And Advanced Rechargeable Batteries, Jingwan Huo

Theses and Dissertations

Clean water and energy shortage problems are pressing issues human facing today, as they not only cause many problems including public health and environmental deteriorations, but also threaten sustainable development of human society. It is urgent and critical to address and solve these problems.

Among various technologies, photocatalysis and adsorption applications in water and wastewater catch a lot of attention in recent years, for their low costs and for no requirement for chemical additives or thermal inputs. Photodegradation of contaminants by nanomaterials as catalysts is an important method in water and wastewater treatment. The adsorption is mainly through complexation between …

Study Of Separator Damage Effects On Lithium Ion Battery Cell's Performance, Mason Pingel

Theses and Dissertations

In the world of energy storage technology, Lithium Ion batteries are considered to be among the most efficient in terms of energy- and power density. However, many consumers are fearful of the potential dangers involved in using this technology. One approach to improving the battery’s safety is to focus on design of the cell itself. The separator seems to be the obvious choice in a quest to improve its safety since alterations to the other components of a battery could easily compromise the efficiency of the cell. The methods herein provide experimental results and insights that could be used to …

Optimization For Integration Of Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicles Into Distribution Grid, Shuaiyu Bu

Theses and Dissertations

Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) feature combined electric and gasoline powertrains with internal combustion engine and electric motors powered by battery packs. The battery packs of PHEVs are mostly charged during off-peaks hours at lower prices and meanwhile absorb the excess power from the grid. Similarly, the power stored in the batteries can also flow back to the electric grid in response to ease the peak load demands.

With the increasing penetration and integration of PHEVs, the reliability of PHEVs is essential to overall power system reliability since the charging mechanisms of PHEVs can influence the reliability of power system. …

Seismic Tensile Force On Steel Girder-Concrete Wall Connections In High-Rise Composite Building Structures, Yuchen Hui

Theses and Dissertations

Composite steel frame – reinforced concrete (RC) core wall structures are often used in high-rise buildings. It is commonly assumed that reinforced concrete walls carry lateral loads such as earthquake loads, while steel frames carry gravity loads. As a result, lateral loads are directly applied to wall elements during a typical structural analysis. This design based on this simplification can be adequate for most structural members except the connections between steel girders and RC walls. This study focuses on the tensile loads on girder-wall connections for composite building structures in earthquakes.

Computer models were created for a 28-story composite structures …

A Distribution Network Reconfiguration And Islanding Strategy, Zikai Jiang

Theses and Dissertations

With the development of Smart Grid, the reliability and stability of the power system are significantly improved. However, a large-scale outage still possibly occurs when the power system is exposed to extreme conditions. Power system blackstart, the restoration after a complete or partial outage is a key issue needed to be studied for the safety of power system. Network reconfiguration is one of the most important steps when crews try to rapidly restore the network. Therefore, planning an optimal network reconfiguration scheme with the most efficient restoration target at the primary stage of system restoration is necessary and it also …

Analysis Of Dynamic Mode Decomposition, Archana Muniraju

Theses and Dissertations

In this master thesis, a study was conducted on a method known as Dynamic mode decomposition(DMD), an equation-free technique which does not require to know the underlying governing equations of the complex data. As a result of massive datasets from various resources, like experiments, simulation, historical records, etc. has led to an increasing demand for an efficient method for data mining and analysis techniques. The main goals of data mining are the description and prediction. Description involves finding patterns in the data and prediction involves predicting the system dynamics. An important aspect when analyzing an algorithm is testing. In this …

Analysis Of Impacts Of Electrical Architectures, Social-Economic Considerations And Regions, On Requirements For Residential Combined Solar And Battery Implementations, Swachala Veerapaneni

Theses and Dissertations

A community DC MG in an urban environment is analyzed and aimed at driving down the utility costs in a low-income household. A typical home conventional AC loads is compared with smart technologies to prove that utility bills can be significantly reduced. The optimal installation and usage of solar and battery energy storage is determined for the entire integrated community aiming to achieve net zero energy community. This study revealed a need for better understanding of the loads in each house and load patterns across a wide range of regions nationally and more typical houses, as opposed to the specialized …

Transient Load Recovery Using Strain Measurements And Model Reduction, Bibek Wagle

Theses and Dissertations

A transient load is defined as a loading condition where the magnitude of the load changes rapidly in a short period of time. Impact loads are a common example of transient loading. It is well known that impact loads can have disastrous effect on the structure compared loads applied over a longer period of time. An identification of impact loads is an important aspect in the design of structures.

A direct identification of applied force on a structure through use of force transducers is not possible under all situations. In such cases, the structural response could be used to recover …

The Effect Of Kinesiology Tape During Isotonic Knee Flexion Extension Exercise On Time To Fatigue, Rate, And Quadricep Muscle Oxygenation, Yu-Wei Wang

Theses and Dissertations

Some Kinesiology Tape manufacturers claim that Kinesiology Tape (KT) can enhance performance and increase blood flow. Therefore, this study recruited 14 healthy male subjects (college population, 182.9 ± 5.1 cm, 76.52 ± 10.2 kg). to complete an eight-day KT intervention experiment. On Day 1 and Day 2 the subjects did not wear KT. During Days 3 to 6 the subjects wore the KT on their dominant leg (treatment leg) only. Limb dominance was defined by asking the subjects which leg they use to kick a ball. During Days 7 and 8 the subjects did not wear KT. Furthermore, the KT …

Cost-Effective Scheduling Of Load And Microgrid In Wastewater Treatment Plant, Wentao Zou

Theses and Dissertations

ABSTRACT

COST-EFFECTIVE SCHEDULING OF LOAD AND MICROGRID IN WASTEWATER TREATMENT PLANT

By

Wentao Zou

The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee,2018

Under the Supervision of Dr. Lingfeng Wang

As a big consumer of energy, water and wastewater treatment used about 75000 to 100000 GWh electricity, which accounts for nearly 3% of U.S. annual energy [1]. Not only being energy-intensive, wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) also consumes a lot of electricity during peak hours, which makes WWTP a good candidate of DR (demand response). The main purpose of demand response is to improve the stability of the electric grid and reduce the use of electricity …

Design And Optimization Of Hybrid Energy Storage For Photovoltaicpower Fluctuation Smoothing Based On Frequency Analysis, Yanting Zeng

Theses and Dissertations

As the output power of photovoltaic generation system is affected by factors such as light intensity and temperature, it creates greater randomness and volatility. When the power changes quickly and fluctuates, the traditional energy storage devices often can’t balance the power effectively. In this research Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) method is used to transform the photovoltaic stabilization power in the original time domain to the frequency domain for analysis. And percentage method was used to select the most typical PV data in the frequency domain. Then, the selected power was converted back to the time domain using Inverse Fast Fourier …