Engineering Commons^™

The Synthesis, Characterization, And Application Of Polysaccharide-Based Additive To Improve Wet And Dry Strength And High-Barrier Properties Of Paper Products, Cornellius Marcello

Dissertations

Paper products play an essential role in our daily lives owing to their low cost, environment-friendly character, renewability, and recyclability. Paper manufacturers have been using petroleum-based strength additives (cPAM, GPAM, PAE) to meet the perceived needs of customers. On the other hand, paper produced from cellulose is hydrophilic and porous, leading to shallow water and grease resistance, causing paper manufacturers to use many kinds of coating materials such as poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and synthetic plastic to improve water resistance, especially for food packaging paper products like cups, plates, food boxes, and packaging. However, PFAS are identified as likely carcinogenic to …

Autonomous Laparoscopic Surgeon’S Skill Assessment Using A Fuzzy Supervisor And A Multi-Class Detection Framework, Fatemeh Rashidi Fathabadi

Dissertations

For certain surgical procedures, Minimally Invasive Surgery (MIS) has become more advantageous than traditional open surgery. Therefore, mastery of laparoscopic skills is an essential component of surgical training and requires considerable time and effort. The Fundamentals of Laparoscopic Surgery (FLS) program has been developed as a tool to improve and assess fundamental surgical skills. In fact, using a low-cost Box-Trainer or a simulator, laparoscopic surgeons are required to train using a set of structured tasks that can be objectively used to assess their laparoscopic skills, which must be mastered before carrying out real-life laparoscopic procedures. These tasks include peg transfer, …

Printed Graphite Electrodes For Fast-Charging Lithium-Ion Batteries, Guanyi Wang

Dissertations

The rapid growth of the electric vehicle (EV) market has demanded lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) with high energy density and fast charging capability. However, charging energy-dense LIBs with thick graphite electrodes at high current densities is typically facing challenges and leading to adverse performance, such as low energy density, short cycle life, rapid temperature rises and safety issues. The root cause is the onset of Li plating. During fast charging application, the sluggish lithium ions accumulated at the surface of graphite due to kinetic limitation and formed Li plating, especially when lithiated to a high state of charge (SOC). It has …

A Model For Spacecraft Relative Motion Using Continuous Periodic Thrust, Philip Alan Hittepole

Dissertations

A model for modifying the relative orbit of a deputy satellite with respect to a chief satellite in a near-circular orbit using continuous periodic thrust is presented. This model is built on the Lovell-Spencer relative orbital elements (ROEs). The four linear ROEs (xr, yr, ar, and Az) can be linearly modified. The two angular ROEs (Er and ) can be set to advance at a desired, constant rate. Each ROE can be modified individually but may cause intra-orbit variations in other ROEs which return to their original values at the end of a thrust cycle. A method to easily calculate …

Development Of A Discrete Element Model For Artificial Turf, Justin Rittenhouse

Dissertations

NFL data exhibits a distinct correlation between an elevated lower extremity injury rate and synthetic surfaces. These ubiquitous injuries frequently relate to excessive foot traction (i.e., failure to release causing fracture or soft tissue damage). Consequently, a discrete element model was developed using open-source software to analyze stud traction. First, laboratory data was collected via bench level experiments covering seventeen different testing scenarios. A minimum of twenty-five samples were collected per scenario. Total work, average torque, and maximum torque were used as indicators of stud grip. And the latter two were statistically analyzed for outliers and significant differences. Next, an …

A Multi-Objective Stochastic Programming Model For Resilient And Sustainable Supply Chains Under Uncertainty, Mohammad H. Majdfaghihi

Dissertations

Supply chain resilience (SCRES) and sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) have garnered significant attention in the field of Supply Chain Management (SCM) science. This heightened interest is largely attributable to the increasing frequency and severity of uncertainty and disruptions in global supply chains. Resilience is a beneficial approach to managing uncertainties and preparing for and mitigating the adverse consequences of Supply Chain (SC) disruptions. Sustainability is a key concept in SCM, driven by governmental regulations and heightened stakeholder and customer concerns for environmental and societal well-being. Studies on SCRES have traditionally focused on preparing for and reacting to disruptions and …

Synthesis Of Glucomannan-Xylan Composite Biofilms: Characterization And Applications For Food Packaging, Kholoud Al-Ajlouni

Dissertations

Scientists are most concerned about the need for green alternatives for efficient food packaging polymers to replace petroleum-based packaging products. The waste of corn cobs and the roots of the konjac plant contain hemicellulose, xylan and glucomannan respectively, and can be used to produce biofilms for food packaging.

The aim of these studies is to formulate biofilms from glucomannan-xylan blends that compete with petroleum-based plastic wrap. The biofilms must be strong, smooth, transparent, have a water vapor barrier, have the required mechanical properties and be cheap. Biofilms from glucomannan were stiff, lacked mechanical properties, and absorbed moisture. Therefore, it reacts …

Av Operation And Energy Efficiency Improved Through The Evaluation And Demonstration Of Av Sensor Technology, Nicholas Brown

Dissertations

The majority of states have passed legislation or have signed an executive order enacting safe testing, development, and deployment of level 4 and level 5 autonomous vehicles (AVs) in accordance with SAE standard J3016, which has led to an increase in the frequency of AV testing. The major driving force behind the push for AVs on public roads appears to be the increases the number of AVs on the road to decrease the chances of fatalities from distracted drivers. There are reports of disengagement from companies, which are required to report them to operate within California. The continuance of disengagements …

Towards Reliable Hepatocytic Anatomy Segmentation In Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy Using U-Net With Auto-Encoder, Koloud Najem Alkhamaiseh

Dissertations

Despite the advantages of minimally invasive surgeries that depend heavily on vision, the indirect access and lack of the 3D field of view of the area of interest introduce some complications in the desired procedures. Fortunately, the recorded videos from these procedures offer the opportunity for intra-operative and post-operative analyses, to improve future performance and safety.

Deep learning models for surgical video analysis could therefore support visual tasks such as identifying the critical view of safety (CVS) in laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC), potentially contributing to the reduction of the current rates of bile duct injuries in LC. Most bile duct injuries …

Wideband Parameter Estimation Of Overhead Transmission Lines From Terminal Measurements, Fahad J. Alqahtani

Dissertations

The accurate and efficient determination of electrical parameters of transmission lines is essential when performing computer-aided analyses of power systems, including power-flow, state estimation, short-circuit, transient stability, power quality, and electromagnetic transients.

In this dissertation, a novel technique for wideband parameter estimation of frequency-dependent single-phase, three-phase transposed, and three-phase untransposed overhead lines, is proposed. The proposed technique utilizes terminal measurements of transient voltages and currents and is based on an analytical approach to solve the frequency domain 2-port nodal model of the line for the series impedance and shunt conductance per unit length as a function of the frequency. The …

Enabling Energy Efficiency In Connected And Automated Vehicles Through Predictive Control Techniques, Farhang Motallebiaraghi

Dissertations

The transportation sector is a significant contributor to global energy consumption and emissions, necessitating the development of sustainable transportation systems. In this regard, connected and automated vehicles (CAVs) have emerged as a potential solution to transform the transportation industry. By harnessing advanced mapping and location technologies, Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) and Vehicle-to-Infrastructure (V2I) communication, CAVs offer the promise of improving efficiency, reducing traffic congestion, and enhancing safety and comfort. However, the adoption of CAVs also brings about various challenges, including energy efficiency concerns that need to be addressed to fully realize their potential benefits. This dissertation investigates energy-efficient control techniques for transportation …

Improving Autonomous Vehicles Operational Performance Using Resilience Engineering, Johan Fanas Rojas

Dissertations

Autonomous vehicles are expected to revolutionize the transportation industry by providing a safer and more efficient means of transportation. However, as autonomous vehicles are deployed on public roads, they are exposed to significant risks, both in terms of safety and system performance. Recent studies have highlighted a range of errors and accidents associated with autonomous vehicles, underscoring the need for a systematic approach to improve their operational resilience. Resilience engineering, a discipline focused on designing and analyzing complex systems to better cope with unexpected events and disruptions, offers a promising framework for addressing these challenges. Despite the potential benefits of …

An Engineering Approach For Evaluating The Lifetime Experience Of Sex Trafficking Victimization, Kimberly Starr Nagulpelli

Dissertations

This research is an original approach that applies industrial engineering and operations research tools to the sociological problem of sex trafficking victimization. Such an approach enables quantitative evaluation of the impacts on an individual’s lifetime by anti-trafficking efforts and public policies.

A fully interconnected, lifetime model for the experience of sex trafficking victimization is defined as the result of a comprehensive review of literature. Beginning with victimization risk, the defined model is an anticipatory tool to understand the incidences and consequences to individuals during their lifetime. This research develops the model further into a Discrete-Time Markov Chain (DTMC) with definitions …

Design, Simulation, Modeling, And Implementation Of Triboelectric Nanogenerator (Teng) Sensors For Automotive Applications, Sam Ali

Dissertations

Triboelectricity is a promising technique for energy harvesting in which mechanical energy converts to electricity for powering small electronic devices. This method of energy harvesting serves as an alternative to traditional battery power sources and can significantly benefit low-power sensing applications by generating unlimited electrical energy. This study focuses on the development of flexible triboelectric nanogenerators (TENG) and energy harvesting devices for various applications in the automotive industry.

The study is organized into four projects. In the first project, various polymeric materials were used to investigate the performance of different TENGs. Four designs (D1, D2, D3, and D4) of flexible …

Instance Segmentation-Based Depth Completion Using Sensor Fusion And Adaptive Clustering For Autonomous Vehicle Perception, Mohammad Z. El-Yabroudi

Dissertations

Depth sensing is critical for safe and accurate maneuvering in robotics and self-driving car (SDC) applications. Most recent LiDAR sensors, such as Ouster and Velodyne, offer 360 degrees of scanning at the rate of ten frames per second, making them very appropriate for autonomous driving applications. However, LiDAR point cloud data show many shortcomings, especially its data sparsity and unassigned nature, making it very challenging to utilize in applications such as perception, 3D object detection, 3D scene reconstruction, and simultaneous localization and mapping.

In this study, a novel framework using instance image segmentation and the raw LiDAR data for the …

Developing Distributed Real-Time Hybrid Simulation For Dynamic Response Evaluation Of Floating Wind Turbine, Hezha Lutfalla Sadraddin

Dissertations

Floating wind turbine (FWT) has a significant role in producing clean and sustainable energy in unlimited spaces with more steady wind and less cost. The design, construction, and safe operation of FWTs require a deep understanding of their dynamic responses under combined aerodynamic and hydrodynamic loads. Conventional FWT model experiments utilize wave tanks and wind tunnels. However, laboratory size and capacity and the scaling conflicts between the Froude and the Reynold numbers in these coupled wind-wave loading tests impose challenges to replicate dynamic responses of FWT. Alternatively, real-time hybrid simulation (RTHS), which combines numerical simulation and physical experiment of FWT …

Study Of Sustainable Development In Paper, Printing And Packaging Material Applications To Support Circular Economy, Prashant Ramesh Kotkar

Dissertations

To support circular economy and sustainability, the use of suitable material in paper, printing, and packaging industries, for several types of industrial printing material and printed product applications, plays a significant role for end user applications. Several types of packaging printing materials, specifically those finished with different printing technologies and exposed to different environmental conditions are targeted.

The purpose of this research study is to improve design and evaluation for paper, printing, and packaging material sustainability in end-user applications, to deal with the addressed sustainability issues brought by the paper, printing and packaging products end user groups. As the impacts …

Development Of Smart Wearable Sensory Systems On Flexible And Fabric Platforms For Health Monitoring Applications, Simin Masihi

Dissertations

Wearable sensing technology has recently received an increased attention in both research and commercialization phases and has moved from a vision of science fiction to reality with a wide variety of applications. This incredible growth can be attributed to several factors, such as affordability and ergonomics provided by advances in flexible electronics. The other factors that realized wearable sensing technology include a critical need for more accessible health care services experienced during the recent COVID pandemic, integration to the Internet of Things (IoT), and a growing consumer desire for health awareness. This dissertation presents the fulfillment of three main projects …

Additive Metal Deposition Feedback Optimization For The 3d Hybrid Metal Printer, Andrew James Wyman

Dissertations

In the additive manufacturing realm, explicitly the direct energy deposition method, there continues to be numerous advancements along with advantages to control print quality of the component and the ability to apply the successful repetition of metallic layers consecutively. Metal additive printed components have the capacity to directly use the component for the desired application or intended purpose from which the three-dimensional model was created. In contrast, plastic printers that produce components that would not hold to the physical conditions required such as a metallic component could withstand.

Research exertions were focused on improving the present Western Michigan University patented …

Peridynamic Modeling Of Crack Propagation In Brittle Materials With Electromechanical Coupling, Semsi Coskun

Dissertations

The bond-based peridynamics (BB-PD) is a widely used peridynamic model in the literature. Despite Poisson's ratio restriction, it still serves as a powerful tool to solve challenging engineering problems with a relatively cheap computational cost. Consider the Poisson ratio of the material does not deviate from the ones that BB-PD can model. In that case, it becomes advantageous to use the BB-PD compared to other PD models in terms of computational cost and simplicity. However, the BB-PD suffers from the so-called surface or skin effect where the material response at boundaries becomes softer than the bulk material points. As a …

Channeling Influence On Noise And Aerodynamic Performance Of Naca 0012 Airfoil As A Possible Solution Of Wind Turbines Noise, Hussein Khudhayer Mohammad

Dissertations

This work numerically and experimentally investigates the effect of using channels inside airfoils on the noise level as a possible resolution for aerodynamic noise generated by wind turbines. The work also investigates aerodynamic performance and turbulence around the employed airfoils. The results reveal that some of the samples show some improvement in reducing the aerodynamic noise. The reduction of the aerodynamic noise is explained as the trailing edge blowing injection that reduces the wake momentum deficit of the blade and reduces the pressure fluctuation which is responsible for noise production. Particularly, the angles of channel inclination with respect to the …

Analysis Of The Cyclic Behavior And Fatigue Damage Of Low Alloy Steels, Zahra Salemi Najafabadi

Dissertations

Fatigue is the most common type of failure in many structures and components subjected to cyclic loading. Surface effects in fatigued materials are of particular importance, since in most cases the surface is the preferred site of fatigue crack initiation. Microcracks originate at the metal surface due to stress concentration introduced by macro notches and micro defects in the surface layers. The microcrack initiation and propagation are controlled by the localized plastic deformation in the surface layers especially in the initial stage of fatigue failure process. Therefore, the knowledge regarding the cyclically induced changes in deformation resistance at the metal …

Model Predictive Controller Design For Internal Combustion Engines Based On The Second Law Of Thermodynamics, Muataz Abotabik

Dissertations

Energy resources depletion and worldwide strict emissions policies pose challenges that automotive manufacturers try to overcome through researching advanced powertrain technologies such as lean-burn gasoline, direct injection, homogeneous charge compression ignition engines, powertrain electrification, etc. Most of these developments have been focused on conventional internal combustion engines (ICE) emissions and performance enhancements. Most ICE control strategies are built based on the First Law of Thermodynamics (FLT) i.e., to deliver a specific load requirement, enhancing thermal efficiency, etc. The FLT doesn’t account for in-cylinder high temperature thermodynamics process irreversibilities that cause losses in the work potential; up to 25% of the …

Development Of Flexible Hybrid Electronics For Sterilization And Structural Health Monitoring Applications, Arnesh Kumar Bose

Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Connected And Automated Vehicles: Their Implication On Capacity Of A Basic Freeway Section And Impacts On Walkway Safety, Sia Macmillan Lyimo

Dissertations

Autonomous vehicles have recently gained the attention of researchers due to their expected potential benefits on highway traffic streams, such as improving roadway capacity, among others. It is imperative to investigate how these expected benefits can be leveraged in the transportation sector. Understanding the safety and operational benefits helps the concerned transportation agencies and other key stakeholders to make necessary infrastructural and policy adjustments to accommodate such future traffic operation changes. The main goal of this dissertation is to study the impact of connected and automated vehicles on freeway capacity. The simulated environment was created to emulate autonomous vehicle behaviors, …

Impact Of Exposure On Thin Epoxy Overlay Performance, Abul Fazal Mazumder

Dissertations

Thin epoxy overlays are used for improving the condition and extending the service life of bridge decks. The tensile bond pull-off strength, evaluated as per the ASTM C1583, is used as the performance indicator. A failure in the substrate with a tensile strength of 250 psi or greater is considered acceptable. However, the performance evaluated on in-service bridge decks shows inconsistent results. Laboratory studies by several researchers documented a distinct performance difference when the overlays are exposed to room temperatures in comparison to elevated temperatures. However, the most influential parameters such as concrete surface profile, thermal compatibility between overlay and …

Development Of Sensor, Sensory System And Signal Processing Algorithm For Intelligent Sensing Applications, Xingzhe Zhang

Dissertations

Sensors have been receiving significant attention in the last decade and the demand for sensory systems has increased in recent years due to the rapid growth in the field of artificial intelligence (AI). Sensors can improve people’s awareness by providing them with real-time information on the environment and their immediate health conditions. This dissertation presents the fulfilment of three main projects and focuses on the development of a sensor, a sensory system, and a sensor signal recognition system for AI applications by employing printed electronics, analog circuit design, and digital signal processing techniques.

In the first project, a multi-channel stethograph …

Intelligent System For Laparoscopic Surgery Suturing Skill Assessment, Mohammed Yasser Al-Gailani

Dissertations

In laparoscopic surgery, which is also referred to as minimally invasive surgery (MIS), surgeons carry out surgical procedures with the assistance of a video camera and several surgical instruments. Laparoscopic surgeons should possess excellent eye-hand coordination capabilities, strong cognitive knowledge, case and problem management, and manual dexterity skills. Such skills can be acquired through simulation using a basic, low-fidelity setup, such as the surgical box-trainer. General surgeons must pass a set of tests on a Fundamentals of Laparoscopic Surgery (FLS) Trainer device.

One pivotal skill for a successful operation is developing a sense of the applied forces on the tissue …

Performance Evaluation Of Transportation Systems For Sustainability And Smart-Growth Of Cities: An Integrated Assessment Of Health Impacts, Ahmad Feizi

Dissertations

The performance of transportation systems is a significant component that influences the quality of life. The performance evaluation refers to a process of determining how well transportation systems perform regarding their intended goals and objectives. The advancement of information and communication technology and the integration between transportation systems and advanced technologies have directed more attention to the concept of smart cities. Smart cities are constituted of several interrelated components. Therefore, this offers comprehensive and integrated frameworks to evaluate the transportation performance and understanding of multifaceted interactions between the components from a transportation engineering perspective in four sections.

In the first …

Optimized Insulation Design Of Power Transformer Windings Under Fast Voltage Pulses, Juan Manuel Villanueva Ramirez

Dissertations

Power transformers are essential electrical power system devices. Using the principle of electromagnetic induction, they can transfer electric energy between two otherwise isolated circuits, as well as reduce or increase voltage levels without modifying the frequency. This allows reduction of power losses when electric energy is transferred between power plants and consumers. Because of their importance and widespread use, transformers failures can have a severe economic impact due to the temporary interruption of electric service.

The insulation design of power transformers is performed by considering the maximum values of voltage or current to which the device will be exposed during …