Engineering Commons^™

The Effects Of Dissolved Oxygen Concentration And Biological Solids Retention Time On Activated Sludge Treatment Performance, Jack Joseph Parker

Masters Theses

A bench scale treatment system with dissolved oxygen (DO) control was used to determine the effects of DO concentration and biological solids retention time (BSRT) on treatment performance using the activated sludge process. The four reactors, operating at BSRTs of 20, 10, 5, and 2 days, were fed settled municipal wastewater collected from the Kuwahee wastewater treatment plant in Knoxville, TN. The DO was maintained at different set points in each reactor ranging from 4.0 to 0.2 mg/L.

Experimental results indicate that carbon treatment performance improved, on average, with increasing BSRT but DO had little effect on carbon oxidation. Sludge …

Evaluation Of Poroton Masonry And Suggestion For Quick Design Procedure, Michael R. Radcliffe

Masters Theses

Poroton masonry units are highly cored extruded clay units with numerous thin webs. They have ground surfaces and are laid on a thin fluid mortar bed, with no mortar in the head joints. They offer the advantages of quick construction, which can be performed by a general labor force.

This thesis describes the results of component and prism testing of Poroton masonry. Compressive strength tests occurred on individual units and on prisms constructed with two units in accordance with the manufacturer’s directions. The average unit compressive strength was approximately 2900 psi. The average prism compressive strength was about 900 psi. …

Metallurgical Evaluation Of Cast Duplex Stainless Steels And Their Weldments, Songqing Wen

Masters Theses

Duplex stainless steels (DSS) are being specified for chloride containing environments due to their enhanced pitting and stress corrosion cracking resistance. They exhibit improved corrosion performance over the austenitic stainless steels. Duplex stainless steels also offer improved strength properties and are available in various wrought and cast forms.

Selected grades of duplex stainless steel castings and their welds, in comparison with their wrought counterparts, were evaluated, regarding corrosion performance and mechanical properties and weldability. Multiple heats of cast duplex stainless steel were evaluated in the as-cast, solution annealed (SA) static cast and SA centrifugal cast conditions, while their wrought counterparts …

Lateral Migration Of A Solid Particle In Shear Flow, Wutthapong Jiraporncharoen

Masters Theses

Lateral migration of solid particles in shear flow is observed in various industrial applications. Suspensions in a blade coater, a device used to apply coating pigment to a base paper to improve paper properties, is an example. Particle hydrodynamics will affect the quality of coated paper and runnability of the coater especially when the speed of the coating machine is very high or the pigment concentration is increased.

Many factors will affect the particle migration. The wall repulsion or lubrication effect forces the particle away from a wall to the channel center. The inertial effects are increased by increasing the …

Structural Studies Of Metastable Nanocrystalline Magnesium Titanate Ceramics, Renmei Xu

Masters Theses

Nanocrystalline magnesium titanate powders were produced using alkoxides of magnesium and titanium for the sol-gel method. High temperature phases which can only be formed at above 1200°C in equilibrium were formed at much lower temperature 600°C in nanometric system. Cation ordering and structural changes in qandilite (Mg₂TiO₄ ), geikielite (MgTiO₃ ) and karrooite (MgTi₂O₅ ) were studied by Rietveld refinement of neutron powder diffraction data and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Single qandilite phases were obtained in a wide range of Mg:Ti ratios from 2:038:1 to 1.52:1, and appeared to be Mg_2-xTi_{1+x …}

Hierarchical Image Segmentation Using The Watershed Algorithim With A Streaming Implementation, Annapoorani Gothandaraman

Masters Theses

We have implemented a graphical user interface (GUI) based semi-automatic hierarchical segmentation scheme, which works in three stages. In the first stage, we process the original image by filtering and threshold the gradient to reduce the level of noise. In the second stage, we compute the watershed segmentation of the image using the rainfalling simulation approach. In the third stage, we apply two region merging schemes, namely implicit region merging and seeded region merging, to the result of the watershed algorithm. Both the region merging schemes are based on the watershed depth of regions and serve to reduce the over …

A Computer Vision System For The Automatic Inspection Of Geometric Distortions In Television Displays, Geoffrey C. Yerem

Masters Theses

The ability to automatically measure the image quality of a television display is a valuable resource. In display manufacturing, automatic inspection enables automatic television alignment, which reduces manufacturing costs and improves product quality. Automatic inspection also comes in handy during competitive analysis and engineering review. Primarily though, commercial inspection systems are built and used for manufacturing.

In the past two decades, the advent of microcomputers has made automatic inspection feasible through the use of computer vision. Most of the approaches developed can be divided into two groups: fixtured systems, with fixed or movable cameras, and position independent systems, which …

Arsenic Removal For Small Drinking Water Treatment Systems: A Multimedia Cd-Rom For Drinking Water Professionals, Greg A. Harrison

Masters Theses

This thesis, in conjunction with the accompanying CD-ROM, are intended to be used by small public water system operators, owners, regulators, and engineers as an educational tool for future compliance with a lowered Arsenic Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL). The CD-ROM is the third in a series of water treatment technology CDs that were created by a collaboration of Dr. R. Bruce Robinson, the University of Tennessee, and Dr. M. Robin Collins, the Water Treatment Technology Center, the University of New Hampshire. The CD-ROM includes multimedia tools such as video and photos, which will aid in the understanding of the included …

Development Of An Integrated Sensor For The Measurement Of The Acoustic Local Volume Displacement Of Vibrating Beams, Randall Rozema

Masters Theses

Currently, the methods used for sensing the volume displacement of a vibrating structure entail the use of a polyvinylidene fluoride sensor that spans the entire length of the structure. However, this work shows that the surface behavior related to volume displacement can be measured through the use of a polyvinylidene fluoride sensor that spans only the area of interest. In this application it was shown that two-point sensors are required in addition to the distributed, polyvinylidene fluoride sensor to achieve an accurate measurement. As a result, a set of four beams with different end conditions were constructed so that the …

Implementation Of Wavelet Transform And Area, Power And Delay Design Space Exploration, Sowmyan Rajagopalan

Masters Theses

The need for designing chips that are smaller, faster and less power consuming has been increasing, as these chips are increasingly being used in communication and portable electronic devices. These design space vectors also play a big role in the profitability and productivity of the vendor and hence prove to be one of the most important steps in the Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) flow (design process). The research reported here consists of implementing the Wavelet Transform using a hardware description language (VHDL) and testing the Register Transfer Level (RTL) for its functionality. The RTL was synthesized and optimized using …

Determination Of Threshold Velocity And Entrainment Rates From A Copper Tailings Pond, Fook-Chi Soo

Masters Theses

Wind erosion is a phenomenon that has plagued many people for centuries. There are many sources for wind erosion, such as agricultural farmlands, deserts, coal piles and mining areas.

Significant research has been conducted on wind erosion, especially on paved and unpaved roads, construction sites and quarry areas. Open storage coal piles have also been a target for wind erosion studies, as a lot of power plants bum coal to produce power. However, this study does not include any of the sources mentioned above. This study involves wind erosion from a copper tailings pond of a closed down copper mining …

Data Analysis And Correlations For The Particulate Matter Continuous Emission Monitoring System Test Program At The Tsca Incinerator, James A. Calcagno, Iii

Masters Theses

A field study was conducted to evaluate the performance of three commercially available particulate matter (PM) continuous emission monitoring systems (CEMS) during 1999-2000 at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Toxic Substance Control Act (TSCA) Incinerator located near Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The incinerator is permitted to treat mixed-waste, Resource Conservation Recovery Act (RCRA) hazardous and nonhazardous waste, and wastes containing polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB). The mixedwaste treated at the incinerator contains both low-level radioactive and hazardous chemical constituents. The air pollution control system of the incinerator utilizes Maximum Achievable Control Technology (MACT), which is comprised of a rapid quench, venturi scrubber, …

Stormwater Management In Tennessee: Guidelines To Preventative Maintenance Practices And Improvements, Jacob S. Chandler

Masters Theses

The management of urban stormwater runoff is an important issue throughout Tennessee as urban development keeps expanding. With the rise of urban development, there is an ever-growing need for urban stormwater management systems and facilities which are built to protect downstream property owners from potential flood damage as well as to manage and control the increased stormwater runoff. However well-designed a drainage system or facility might be, adequate maintenance is vital for it to function as intended by the design engineer.

This thesis was written to serve as a document that provides information needed to support an effective maintenance program …

Evaluation Of Alternatives For Hydraulic Design Of Bridges With Hec-Ras, William Wesley Peck

Masters Theses

On average, flooding causes over five billion dollars of damage and 99 fatalities per year in the United States alone. These ever-increasing numbers indicate a need for rigorous design procedures for any structures which exacerbate flood risk. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Hydraulic Engineering Center (HEC) has developed a computer program called River Analysis System, and more commonly referred to as HEC-RAS or RAS.

HEC-RAS is the best and most recent method for hydraulic design of bridges, and available documentation provides guidance for its use. The author is experienced in hydraulic design of bridges and has developed this thesis …

Data Analysis And Correlations For The Particulate Matter Continuous Emission Monitoring System Test Program At The Tsca Incinerator, James A. Calcagno Iii

Masters Theses

A field study was conducted to evaluate the performance of three commercially available particulate matter (PM) continuous emission monitoring systems (CEMS) during 1999-2000 at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Toxic Substance Control Act (TSCA) Incinerator located near Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The incinerator is permitted to treat mixed-waste, Resource Conservation Recovery Act (RCRA) hazardous and nonhazardous waste, and wastes containing polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB). The mixed-waste treated at the incinerator contains both low-level radioactive and hazardous chemical constituents. The air pollution control system of the incinerator utilizes Maximum Achievable Control Technology (MACT), which is comprised of a rapid quench, venturi scrubber, …

Increasing The Speed And Efficiency Of Search In Fbi/Codis Dna Datadase Through Multivariate Statistical Clustering Approach And Development Of A Similarity Ranking Scheme, Puneet Yadav

Masters Theses

A new method has been developed to create and maintain a search tree-structured index to multidimensional data using naturally occurring patterns and clusters within the data, and thereby allows the implementation of efficient search and retrieval strategies in a database. This method was applied to a DNA database, which was developed by the FBI for forensic uses. A set of 10,000 DNA/STR profiles based on the STR allele probability distribution density for the Caucasians has been generated for the sixteen loci. The resulting allele distribution has been analyzed using Multivariate Statistical analysis, in specific; the Principal Component Analysis (PCA) approach …

Evaluation Of Alternatives For Hydraulic Design Of Bridges With Hec-Ras, William Wesley Peck

Masters Theses

On average, flooding causes over five billion dollars of damage and 99 fatalities per year in the United States alone. These ever-increasing numbers indicate a need for rigorous design procedures for any structures which exacerbate flood risk. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Hydraulic Engineering Center (HEC) has developed a computer program called River Analysis System, and more commonly referred to as HEC-RAS or RAS.

HEC-RAS is the best and most recent method for hydraulic design of bridges, and available documentation provides guidance for its use. The author is experienced in hydraulic design of bridges and has developed this thesis …

Maximum Acceptable Oral Reading Speed For Voice Input Systems, Nirari M. Oda

Masters Theses

The objective of this thesis was to study the effect of vocal duration period and background noise on psychophysical oral reading speed. Ten healthy white males (21-28 years old) were used as subjects. Experiment one was designed to determine Maximum Acceptable Oral Reading Speed (MAORS) for an 8-hour period using psychophysical methodology. Results indicate that 114 words/min was an acceptable oral reading rate for an 8-hour day. Furthermore, 2 hours and 20 minutes is an acceptable testing period ( equivalent to the 8-hour day). Acoustical and physiological variables support these findings. Experiment two was designed to study the effect of …

A Dynamic Programming-Based Approach To Microarray Image Comparison And Registration, Sunil Bosco Rodrigues

Masters Theses

"Microarray technology is increasingly used as a means of high throughput analysis of human, non-human and plant genomes. Manual methods of array production have inherent imperfections and variations of the quality of output data derived from these arrays. A dynamic programming-based approach is presented to validate the quality of such data prior to insertion into evolving databases in order to assign reliably, genetic aberrations to bio-medical functions. Dynamic programming is used for comparing normal and tumor microarray image pairs and a cost function is developed which gives a value representing the difference between the images. Quality of the image pairs …

Investigation Of Quantum Resistor Networks For Electron Wave Computing, Diwakar Ramamurthy

Masters Theses

A new computing methodology using electron waves has been developed with three and four terminal Quantum Resistor Networks as the basic computational structure. Transmission probability matrices for these networks were derived from first principles from which the behavior of single and simultaneously incident electron waves have been accurately evaluated. Classification and scaling laws have also been provided according to their transmission behavior. Techniques for constructing devices from these networks analogous to the logic gates used in digital computing today have been explained. Numerous examples of such devices performing functions like Inversion, OR, and AND have been provided. The operating principles …

System Security In An Open Lab Environment, Erik Quist

Masters Theses

This thesis presents a system security process for computer workstations in a university open lab environment, which was developed and implemented for the Lumpkin Hall Computer Labs at Eastern Illinois University (EIU). The system security includes the use of policies and NTFS permissions, registry hacks and script files. These techniques were applied to a mixture of Windows NT 4.0 service pack 6a and Windows 2000 Professional workstations in the Lumpkin Hall Computer Labs. They were then tested for appropriate security setup using a Network Security Checksheet and a survey. The Network Security Checksheet ensured that all of the workstations were …

Effects Of Compression Processing Parameters And Antioxidants On Molecular Degradation Of Biodegradable Poly-L-Lactide (Plla), Thomas J. Hannan Jr.

Masters Theses

The purpose of this research was to find a combination of poly (L-lactic acid), also known as poly-L-lactide or (PLLA) and antioxidants that would, together, produce a product whose degradation rate would be advantageous for use in biodegradable medical implants. Intrinsic viscosity tests were conducted on compression molded samples of PLLA that were molded at various processing parameters in order to find optimal parameters. The optimal processing parameters were found to be time 10 minutes, temperature 220°C, and pressure 1000 psi.

The molecular weight of PLLA sample was taken while pressure, time, and temperature were varied. As pressure increased, no …