Engineering Commons^™

Integrating Engineering Design Challenges Into Secondary Stem Education, Ronald L. Carr

Publications

Engineering is being currently taught in the full spectrum of the P-12 system, with an emphasis on design-oriented teaching (Brophy, Klein, Portsmore, & Rogers, 2008). Due to only a small amount of research on the learning of engineering design in elementary and middle school settings, the community of practice lacks the necessary knowledge of the trajectory of students' learning progressions towards design mastery and expertise and the appropriateness of otherwise established design pedagogies. The issue is even more pressing since many states are embedding engineering into their standards without a clear notion of how engineering (often conceptualized as design) works …

Building A Framework For Engineering Design Experiences In Stem: A Synthesis, Cameron D. Denson

Publications

Since the inception of the National Center for Engineering and Technology Education in 2004, educators and researchers have struggled to identify the necessary components of a “good” engineering design challenge for high school students. In reading and analyzing the position papers on engineering design many themes emerged that may begin to form a narrative for engineering design in a high school setting. Before educators can provide a framework for engineering design in STEM courses, four questions need to be answered: (a) To what degree should engineering design challenges be open-ended or well-structured? (b) What are the relationships between engineering design …

Development Of Optimal Bubble-Seeding Microheaters To Study Nucleate Boiling Heat Transfer In Microgravity, Ryan Martineau

Reports and Proposals

No abstract provided.

Design Principles For High School Engineering Design Challenges: Experiences From High School Science Classrooms, Christian Schunn

Publications

At the University of Pittsburgh, we have been exploring a range of approaches to design challenges for implementation in high school science classrooms (Apedoe, Reynolds, Ellefson, & Schunn, 2008; Ellefson, Brinker, Vernacchio, & Schunn, 2008; Schunn, Silk, & Apedoe, in press). In general, our approach has always involved students working during class time over the course of many weeks. So, our understanding of what works must be contextualized to that situation (i.e., without significant home support, by students enrolled in traditional classrooms, involving content that is connected to traditional science classrooms). However, our approach has been implemented with thousands of …

Infusing Engineering Design Into High School Stem Courses, Morgan Hynes, Merredith Portsmore, Emily Dare, Elissa Milto, Chris Rogers, David Hammer, Adam Carberry

Publications

Society is recognizing the need to improve STEM education and introduce engineering design concepts before college. In the recent National Academy of Engineers report, Engineering in K-12 Education: Understanding the Status and Improving the Prospects, the authors suggest that the STEM disciplines not be treated as ―silos‖ and that engineering might serve as a motivating context to integrate the four STEM disciplines (Katehi, Pearson, & Feder, 2009). Recent research has suggested that integrated technology and engineering design curriculum can serve as a positive model for mathematics and science learning and retention (Ortiz, 2010; Wendell, 2011). The Tufts University Center for …

Engineering Design Challenges In A Science Curriculum, Arthur Eisenkraft

Publications

Create a light and sound show to entertain your friends. Design an improved safety device for a car. Develop a 2-3 minute voice-over for a sports clip explaining the physics involved in the sport. Modify the design of a roller coaster to meet the needs of a specific group of riders. Design an appliance package for a family limited by the power and energy of wind generator. Develop a museum exhibit to acquaint visitors with the atom and nucleus and create a product that can be sold at the museum store after visitors leave your exhibit. All of these challenges …

Engineering Design Challenges In High School Stem Courses A Compilation Of Invited Position Papers, Daniel L. Householder

Publications

Since its initial funding by the National Science Foundation in 2004, the National Center for Engineering and Technology Education (NCETE) has worked to understand the infusion of engineering design experiences into the high school setting. Over the years, an increasing number of educators and professional groups have participated in the expanding initiative seeking to acquaint all students with engineering design. While there is strong support for providing students with engineering design experiences in their high school STEM courses, the lack of consensus on purposes and strategies has become increasingly apparent as the work continues. Among the unsettled issues are the …

Observations On Braided Thin Wire Nucleate Boiling In Microgravity, Justin P. Koeln, Jeffrey C. Boulware, Heng Ban, Jr Dennison

Publications

A microgravity experiment was conducted on the Space Shuttle Endeavor (STS-108) to observe sustained nucleate boiling of water. Subcooled water was boiled with a single strand and a braid of three 0.16. mm diameter and 80. mm long Nichrome resistive wires. A CCD video camera recorded the experiment while six thermistors recorded the temperature of the fluid at various distances from the heating element. This paper reports experimental results in observations, measurements, and data analysis. Bubble explosions were found to take place shortly after the onset of boiling for both the single and braid of wires. The explosion may produce …

Estimation Of Dariy Particulate Matter Emission Rates By Lidar And Inverse Modeling, C. C. Marchant, Kori D. Moore, Michael D. Wojcik, Randy S. Martin, R L. Pfeiffer, K H. Prueger, J L. Hatfield

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

Particulate matter (PM) emissions from agricultural operations are an important issue for air quality and human health and a topic of interest to government regulators. PM emission rates from a dairy in the San Joaquin Valley of California were investigated during June 2008. The facility had 1,885 total animals, including 950 milking cows housed in free-stall pens with an open-lot exercise area, and 935 dry cows, steers, bulls, and heifers housed in open lots. Point sensors, including filter-based aerodynamic mass samplers and optical particle counters (OPC), were deployed at select points around the facility to measure optical and aerodynamic particulate …

Experimental Method Calibration (Mecr): A New Relative Method For Heat Flux Sensor Calibration, Craig D. Adams, A Jean, M Medina, F Miranville

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

Heat flux sensor calibration is often expensive, but it is also a fundamental step to obtain valid results. According to the needs, several calibration procedures could be considered. If experimental interpretations focus on heat flux values comparison rather than true values, a relative calibration with high accuracy can be performed. This paper focuses on a new relative calibration-type method of heat flux sensors (HFSs). In general, the HFSs were originally (even recently) factory and in-house-calibrated, but this method was used to calibrate them to an exact common reading to help in performing accurate experiments and eliminating errors that could result …

Bayesian Method For Groundwater Quality Monitoring Network Analysis, K. Ammar, Mac Mckee, Jagath J. Kaluarachchi, H. Moe, M. Almasri, A. Khalil

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

: A new methodology is developed to analyze existing monitoring networks. This methodology incorporates different aspects of monitoring, including vulnerability/probability assessment, environmental health risk, the value of information, and redundancy reduction. A conceptual framework for groundwater quality monitoring is formulated to represent the methodology‚Äôs context. Relevance vector machine RVM plays a basic role in this conceptual framework, and is employed to reduce redundancy and to create probability map of contaminant distribution, and accordingly to estimate the expected value of sample information. Disability adjusted life years approach of the global burden of disease is used for quantifying the health risk consequences. …

Parameter Dependent Convergence Bounds And Complexity Measure For A Class Of Conceptual Hydrological Models, S. Pande, L. Bastidas, S. Bhulai, Mac Mckee

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

We provide analytical bounds on convergence rates for a class of hydrologic models and consequently derive a complexity measure based on the Vapnik–Chervonenkis (VC) generalization theory. The class of hydrologic models is a spatially explicit interconnected set of linear reservoirs with the aim of representing globally nonlinear hydrologic behavior by locally linear models. Here, by convergence rate, we mean convergence of the empirical risk to the expected risk. The derived measure of complexity measures a model’s propensity to overfit data. We explore how data finiteness can affect model selection for this class of hydrologic model and provide theoretical results on …

Two-Zone Transient Storage Modeling Using Temperature And Solute Data With Multiobjective Calibration: 1. Temperature, Bethany T. Neilson, S. C. Chapra, David King Stevens, Christina J. Bandaragoda

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

This paper presents the formulation and calibration of the temperature portion of a two-zone temperature and solute (TZTS) model which separates transient storage into surface (STS) and subsurface transient storage (HTS) zones. The inclusion of temperature required the TZTS model formulation to differ somewhat from past transient storage models in order to accommodate terms associated with heat transfer. These include surface heat fluxes in the main channel (MC) and STS, heat and mass exchange between the STS and MC, heat and mass exchange between the HTS and MC, and heat exchange due to bed and deeper ground conduction. To estimate …

Two-Zone Transient Storage Modeling Using Temperature And Solute Data With Multi-Objective Calibration: 2. Temperature And Solute, Bethany T. Neilson, David King Stevens, S. C. Chapra, Christina J. Bandaragoda

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

This paper presents the multiobjective calibration results for temperature and solutefrom a two‐zone temperature and solute (TZTS) model which separates transient storageinto surface (STS) and subsurface (HTS) transient storage components. This modelcontains terms associated with surface heat fluxes in the main channel (MC) and STS, heatand mass exchange between the STS and MC, heat and mass exchange between the HTSand MC, and heat exchange due to bed and deeper ground conduction. To estimate theadditional parameters associated with a multiple‐zone model, a data collection effort wasconducted to provide temperature time series and solute tracer curves representingthe movement of heat and/or solute …

Creating Tomorrow, Fall 2010, College Of Engineering

College of Engineering Magazines

Annual magazine of the College of Engineering at Utah State University.

Retrieval Of Aerosol Mass Concentration From Elastic Lidar Data, Christian C. Marchant

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Agricultural aerosol sources can contribute significantly to air pollution in many regions of the country. Characterization of the aerosol emissions of agricultural operations is required to establish a scientific basis for crafting regulations concerning agricultural aerosols. A new lidar instrument for measuring aerosol emissions is described, as well as two new algorithms for converting lidar measurements into aerosol concentration data. The average daily aerosol emission rate is estimated from a dairy using lidar.

The Aglite Lidar is a portable scanning lidar for mapping the concentration of particulate matter from agricultural and other sources. The instrument is described and performance and …

Dynamic Testing, Finite Element Modeling, And Long-Term Instrumentation Of A Box Girder Post-Tensioned Bridge For The Long-Term Bridge Performance Program, Timothy Paul Thurgood

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

As part of the Long-Term Bridge Performance (LTBP) program, a flagship research program funded by the Federal Highway Administration in response to the aging bridge network, the Lambert Road Bridge near Elk Grove California was selected as the California Pilot bridge set to undergo non-destructive testing and monitoring. The purpose of the program is to obtain a database of scientific quality data concerning the health and maintenance procedures currently in use across the nation. FHWA program managers along with members of the Utah State University LTBP research team selected the bridge with the assistance of the National Bridge index and …

Triso Fuel Compact Thermal Conductivity Measurement Instrument Development, Colby Jensen

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Thermal conductivity is an important thermophysical property needed for effectively predicting fuel performance. As part of the Next Generation Nuclear Plant (NGNP) program, the thermal conductivity of tri-isotropic (TRISO) fuel needs to be measured over a temperature range characteristic of its usage. The composite nature of TRISO fuel requires that measurement be performed over the entire length of the compact in a non-destructive manner. No existing measurement system is capable of performing such a measurement.

A measurement system has been designed based on the steady-state, guarded-comparative-longitudinal heat flow technique. The system as currently designed is capable of measuring cylindrical samples …

Destructive Testing Of Composite Precast Concrete Deck Panels And Built-Up Steel Plate Girders, Wesley J. Cook

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT) has implemented the use of precast concrete panels for bridge deck construction. A bridge utilizing these panels as a reconstruction method was decommissioned three years after the new deck installation, due to unrelated matters. Two sections of this bridge were salvaged and sent to Utah State University (USU) for destructive testing.

Each bridge section consisted of two built-up steel plate girders intact with the precast concrete deck panels. The precast panels were designed and constructed to achieve full composite action between the deck and built-up steel plate girders through the use of Nelson shear …

Safety Evaluation Of Work Zone Practices In Utah, Tomás Ernesto Lindheimer

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Work zones present a risk to drivers and to personnel constructing the roadway. In 2005 work zones accounted for 2.5% of fatalities nationwide, 3.5% for the state of Utah. The goal of this research is to make work zones safer by quantifying the risk that they present to drivers. The approach of this research has been to review part 6 of the Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD) and compare the differences from the 2003 and 2009 editions, conduct field studies of Utah work zones, and develop a tool for measuring risk in work zones. In the 2009 MUTCD …

Plasticity And Damage In Bimodal Grain Size Al-5083: Microstructural Finite Element, Steven Nelson

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Bimodal and nanocrystalline aluminum alloys are being investigated as stronger replacements for conventional polycrystalline aluminum alloys. Higher strengths are achieved by reducing the grain size of a metal; however, as the grain size is reduced the ductility diminishes. One solution that limits this decrease in ductility is the addition of a few microcrystalline grains into a nanocrystalline alloy, creating a bimodal microstructure that offers a better balance of strength and ductility. Two- and three-dimensional microstructural finite element (FE) simulations of monotonic and fatigue failures in Al-5083 having bimodal grain structures are conducted. To reduce the computational time and facilitate the …

Spatial Light Dilution As A Technique For Conversion Of Solar Energy To Algal Biomass, Daniel J. Dye

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

A photobioreactor has been designed and developed to efficiently utilize solar irradiance through spatial dilution of sunlight. The concept of spatial light dilution is simple: incident sunlight is spread over a large surface area, thus reducing the photon flux density of the light. The implementation of this technique, however, is difficult. The reactor described within uses a new approach to spatial light dilution, utilizing recently-developed optical components to diffuse concentrated sunlight inside an algae culture. Preliminary productivity tests indicate a 2-3 fold increase in productivity per unit aperture (sunlight collection area) over a control reactor with direct-sunlight. Aperture productivity of …

Estimating And Verifying Household Potential To Conserve Water, Francisco J. Suero

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This thesis identifies impacts of behaviors and technology on residential indoor water use and conservation efforts. We use pre-existing detailed end-use data collected before and after toilets, faucets, showerheads, and clothes washers were retrofitted in 96 owner-occupied, single-family households in Oakland, California; Seattle, Washington; and Tampa, Florida between 2000 and 2003.

Water volume, duration of use, and time of use were recorded and disaggregated by appliance for two weeks before and four weeks after appliances were retrofitted. For each appliance, we compare observed differences in water use before and after retrofits to water savings predicted by analytical engineering, semi-analytical engineering, …

Transportation Network Resiliency: A Fuzzy Systems Approach, Nayel Urena Serulle

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Every day the dependence on transportation grows as local, regional, national, and international independence increases. Resilient transportation systems are needed to secure the highest possible level of service during disruptive events, including natural and man-made disasters. Because of limited resources, decision makers need guidance on how, when, and where to invest to improve resiliency of their networks. The research objective is to develop a method to assess and quantify resiliency, at pre-event conditions, using a fuzzy inference approach. This research expands previous work, refining key variable definitions, adjusting model interactions, and increasing transparency between metrics. This thesis presents the method …

Fabrication Of Multi-Material Structures Using Ultrasonic Consolidation And Laser-Engineered Net Shaping, John Olorunshola Obielodan

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This research explores the use of two additive manufacturing processes for the fabrication of multi-material structures. Ultrasonic consolidation (UC) and laser- engineered net shaping (LENS) processes were used for parallel systematic investigations of the process parameters and methodologies for the development of multi-material structures.

The UC process uses ultrasonic energy at low temperature to bond metallic foils. A wide range of metallic materials including nickel; titanium; copper; molybdenum; tantalum; MetPreg®; silver; stainless steel; and aluminum alloys 1100, 3003, and 6061 were bonded in different combinations. Material domains are inherently discrete in ultrasonically consolidated structures. The mechanical properties of some of …

Integration Of Ultrasonic Consolidation And Direct-Write To Fabricate An Embedded Electrical System Within A Metallic Enclosure, Ludwing A. Hernandez

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

A research project was undertaken to integrate Ultrasonic Consolitation (UC) and Direct-Write (DW) technologies into a single apparatus to fabricate embedded electrical systems within an ultrasonically consolidated metallic enclosure. Process and design guidelines were developed after performing fundamental research on the operational capabilities of the implemented system. In order to develop such guidelines, numerous tests were performed on both UC and DW. The results from those tests, as well as the design and process guidelines for the fabrication of an embedded touch switch, can be used as a base for future research and experimentation on the UC-DW apparatus. The successful …

Axisymmetric Finite Element Modeling For The Design And Analysis Of Cylindrical Adhesive Joints Based On Dimensional Stability, Paul E. Lyon

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The use and implementation of adhesive joints for space structures is necessary for incorporating fiber-reinforced composite materials. Correct modeling and design of cylindrical adhesive joints can increase the dimensional stability of space structures. The few analytical models for cylindrical adhesive joints do not fully describe the displacement or stress field of the joint.

A two-dimensional axisymmetric finite element model for the design and analysis of adhesive joints was developed. The model was developed solely for the analysis of cylindrical adhesive joints, but the energy techniques used to develop the model can be applied to other types of joints as well. …

Analysis Of Field Programmable Gate Array-Based Kalman Filter Architectures, Arvind Sudarsanam

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

A Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA)-based Polymorphic Faddeev Systolic Array (PolyFSA) architecture is proposed to accelerate an Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) algorithm. A system architecture comprising a software processor as the host processor, a hardware controller, a cache-based memory sub-system, and the proposed PolyFSA as co-processor, is presented. PolyFSA-based system architecture is implemented on a Xilinx Virtex 4 family of FPGAs. Results indicate significant speed-ups for the proposed architecture when compared against a space-based software processor. This dissertation proposes a comprehensive architecture analysis that is comprised of (i) error analysis, (ii) performance analysis, and (iii) area analysis. Results are presented …

Complexity And Power Consumption In Stochastic Iterative Decoders, Keyur M. Payak

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Stochastic iterative decoding is a novel method to decode the bits received at the end of a communication channel and to control the rate of error happening in the message bits due to noise being injected into the channel. This decoder uses stochastic computation that is based on manipulation of probabilities from a random sequence of digital bits. Hardware needed for implementing this arithmetic is very simple and can be completely implemented using simple digital complementary metal oxide gates. This helps the decoder to be technology independent, which is a major advantage over its digital and analog counterparts, which are …

Design Of An Adaptable Run-Time Reconfigurable Software-Defined Radio Processing Architecture, Joshua R. Templin

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Processing power is a key technical challenge holding back the development of a high-performance software defined radio (SDR). Traditionally, SDR has utilized digital signal processors (DSPs), but increasingly complex algorithms, higher data rates, and multi-tasking needs have exceed the processing capabilities of modern DSPs. Reconfigurable computers, such as field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), are popular alternatives because of their performance gains over software for streaming data applications like SDR. However, FPGAs have not yet realized the ideal SDR because architectures have not fully utilized their partial reconfiguration (PR) capabilities to bring needed flexibility. A reconfigurable processor architecture is proposed that utilizes …