Engineering Commons^™

Smart Heating Systems For Green Homes, Cheryl Carmody

Theses

The focus of this research is to design an improved heating control system for a class of older energy inefficient dwelling to produce an improved living environment. Prerequisites for such control are sensors and models. Commercial sensor nodes enabled a multi-zone heating system to be considered. While the accompanying sensor node software was functional, it was not suitable for real-time control and was modified to achieve same. Once a prototype was developed and tested in the laboratory, it was deployed to a two-story residential dwelling in Cork city.

The requisite mathematical models describe the heat transfer characteristics for a particular …

Renovating A Control Engineering Laboratory For Enhanced Learning, David Hamilton

Theses

In an attempt to both place the student at the centre of the learning process and thus improve student engagement with the discipline, and to incorporate professional skills into the engineering curriculum at the module level, an enquiry based learning (EBL) component to enhance teamwork, problem solving skills and the student’s ability to learn independently was developed using current best practice in teaching and learning. As EBL is not widely used in engineering curricula in CIT, a pilot scale three week trial was performed during the academic year 2007-08 to evaluate the appropriateness of the pedagogy and student reactions to …

An Investigation On The Dynamic Behavior Of An Overhead Valve Actuating Mechanism, Michael Noonan

Theses

This project involves the measurement and simulation of the dynamic performance of a pushrod valvetrain, in particular that of the outer valve spring. The engine was donated by S&S Cycle Wisconsin. A motoring test rig was constructed to obtain high speed camera footage of the spring coils motion. Individual static spring coil displacement measurements were taken, and their stiffness studied. Spring and pushrod natural resonant frequencies were measured. All data acquisition and analysis was carried out with Labview programs written during the project. Programs were written to model individual static coil stiffness using the close coil, open coil, and theories …

True Binary Random Number Generator Based On A Double Scroll Attractor For Encryption, Marta Blaszczyk

Theses

Random binary sequences play an important role in modem digital communication systems. Their usage for providing secure communication between parties became indelible in cryptosystems. In increased access to the Internet network, random sequences are employed for ensuring that personal information remains confidential. To provide completely unpredictable keys in encipherment the usage of a true random number generator is necessary. True random bit streams are required to assure the security provided by the one-time pad encryption algorithm which is provably unbreakable.

The central objective of this research is the production of such random sequences for short key generation in data encryption …

Rf Mems Capacitors For Sdr, Yamuna Kuberappa

Theses

Micro electro mechanical systems (MEMS) applications in radio frequency (RF) and microwave electronics are revolutionizing the progress in wireless communications. In particular, MEMS switchable/tunable capacitors can facilitate the realization of multistandard software defined transceivers, offering better performance than existing solutions.

In this thesis, characterisation and RF modelling of MEMS switchable/tunable capacitors and the technical requirements for their application in multiband wireless transceiver circuits in a software defined radio (SDR) are described. The first device considered is a curled cantilever capacitive switch, configured in both shunt and series configuration where the capacitance is limited to two stable states. The second device, …

A Virtual Training Environment For Temporal Bone Surgery, Denis Stack

Theses

A virtual training environment for temporal bone surgery incorporating haptic, visual and audio feedback is presented in this work. Data are derived from Computed Tomography (CT) scans, thus patient-specific cases may be examined in the simulator.

Two main classes of volume haptic algorithm exist for virtual surgery, namely proxy-based and non proxy-based. A review of the evolution of relevant haptic algorithms is presented. Proxy-based and non proxy-based algorithms are implemented and their performance measured against each other by comparison with real-world force data. An improved proxy-based feedback algorithm is also presented. This algorithm uses a spherical proxy which prevents the …

Trust Based Agent Geographic Coalition Formation For Intelligent Transportation Systems, Gary O'Connor

Theses

In recent years there has been an increase in the area of applied research for the intelligent transport domain. This surge in research has many contributing factors such as: advancements in information technologies, substantial escalations of traffic congestion and the advent of wireless networking. The possibility of collaboration among vehicles and roadside infrastructure enriches transportation systems, where the goals of improved safety, traffic efficiency and environmental benefits can be addressed. The primary objective of these Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) is the creation of advanced road traffic safety systems for improved traffic safety, efficiency and travelling comfort. These systems provide a …

Cross-Verified, Combined Methodologies For High Frequency Electrical Characterisation Of Electronic Packaging, Eoin Mcgibney

Theses

Methodologies for cross-verified, wide bandwidth (50MHz-20GHz) electrical model extraction for as-manufactured electronic packaging and interconnection are presented. They are presented in the context that packaging and interconnection is now following a rapidly-evolving Moore’s-type Law in terms of new generations of packaging and interconnection materials, technologies and manufacturing processes. Significant frequency content is also increasing while, at the same time, final product cost constraints mean that packages and circuit boards must typically be manufactured using low cost materials and mass-manufacturing processes, often geographically remote, with their inherently higher levels of variability. Wide bandwidth signal integrity analysis cannot be performed during electronic …

Carbon Dioxide Capture From Flue Gases, Mohamed Rashid Al Rashid

Theses

Global warming and climate change are believed to be caused by the greenhouse effect. CO₂ has been regarded as the main contributor to global climate change which directly results in serious environmental problems. Half of the anthropogenic CO₂ emission sources are emitted from the combustion of fossil fuels in industries and power plants worldwide. The absorption behavior of Carbon dioxide from flue gases can be studied using conventional absorber and polymeric hollow fiber membrane contractors. An industrial absorber data was compared with simulated data using hollow fiber membrane contractor using the gPROMs software package. In this analysis, with …

The Future Of The Irish Manufacturing Industry In Relation To Global Competitiveness, Joceley Martins Wilson

Theses

This study is an examination of the challenges faced by the manufacturing sector in Ireland. As the speed of globalization intensifies, new demands are constantly being levied on the manufacturing sector. In order to maintain this very important sector in Ireland, the manufacturing industry must promote constant innovation, automation and specialization, specifically in niche areas where there is a requirement for specific specialized skills, and where the labor cost is not a prohibitive or fundamental issue.

Innovation has been a key success factor for the manufactures to date, and will continue to be an ai'ea of focus as competitive forces …

Material Selection And Optimization To Mitigate 316l Stainless Steel Corrosion In A Condensate Stabilizer, Afif Saif Nasser Harhara

Theses

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is one of the key players of the oil and gas industry of the world; with oil reserves estimated at 9% of the total world reserves, the petroleum industry is considered to be the backbone of the economy.

In one of the gas processing facilities in Abu Dhabi, UAE; a case of material failure occurred in the fractionating column twice in a cycle of less than 2 years. The materials used for the internals of the column was stainless steel 316L. The different types of stainless steel corrosion were studied with emphasis on the suspected …

Optimum Non Hydrocarbon Gas Injection Development Process And Ultimate Recovery Maximization., Abdulla A.F. Abed

Theses

A multi layered heterogeneous reservoir was selected for this study. The integrated reservoir characterization model and the pertinent transformed reservoir simulation history matched model were quality assured and quality checked.

The development scheme was identified and selected where the pattern and completion of the wells were defined to fit the heterogeneity of the reservoir characterization model. Lateral and maximum block contact holes were investigated.

The development processes studied were mainly hydrogen sulphide, carbon dioxide, nitrogen and rich hydrocarbon gas. The Water Alternating Gas/ Simultaneous Water Alternating Gas (WAG/SWAG) processes were also assured. In addition to the main gas and WAG/SWAG …

Biomechanical Testing Of Upright Range Of Motion Versus Overhead Supine Range Of Motion, Linda Uko

Theses

Rehabilitation of an elbow, following injury, is not a well-studied subject. Clinically, there is not a general consensus on which recovery method is optimal for healing an unstable elbow. When dealing with medial collateral ligament deficiency, many authors have proposed several forearm positions that will yield proper healing of the unstable elbow. Some researchers believe that active mobilization of the elbow with the arm in a vertical position is a safe protocol for rehabilitation with the forearm oriented in a supine pronated position. It was also mentioned that the compressive forces due to the active mobilization of the arm will …

A Two Dimensional Model Of Magnetic Field Assisted Assembly, Gaurev Devrani

Theses

A simplified model to simulate the magnetic field distribution for applications in magnetic field assisted assembly of semiconductor device structures, using commercial software (Vizimag), has been implemented. Solenoids have been utilized to serve as electromagnets that are responsible for the assembly process. Magnetic shielding techniques have been deployed to isolate the influence of one solenoid over another. These solenoids are used to move the devices that need to be placed in recesses within the substrate. The bottom of the devices and the recesses are coated with magnetic materials to facilitate the movement and placement of devices within the recesses in …

Precipitation Of Ultrafine Particles Using Liquid Antisolvent With Concentric Ultrasonic Nozzle And Subcritical Co2, Satya Chaitanya Kunchala

Theses

Nanotechnology has become more relevant in the pharmaceutical industry. Almost 40% of the drugs developed by pharmaceutical industries are poorly soluble in water which limits the bioavailability of these drugs in body fluids. Hence, it is necessary to reduce the particle size, which increases the interfacial surface area. This work focuses on micronization of class ii drug Griseofulvin which is poorly water soluble. Two processes namely, liquid antisolvent precipitation using ultrasonic nozzle and other process using subcritical CO₂ have been used to produce ultrafine particles of this drug.

In liquid antisolvent precipitation, a combination of ultrasound, polymer and surfactant …

Classification Of Hand Held Shapes And Locations In Continuous Signing, Swetha Karri

Theses

Sign language for the deaf and hearing impaired replaces speech with manually produced signs. Each sign has been categorized as being combinations of handshape, movement, orientation, location, and facial expressions. Of the five sign parameters, this thesis focuses on classification of two of the main parameters, the hand shapes and locations, in continuous signing.

Since the nature of hand shapes is transient and not static, neural networks was used as a classifier for hand shapes. And since locations in sign language are defined by linguistic variables rather than by hard core position values, fuzzy logic was used as a classifier …

Experimental Investigation Of The Effect Of Sonication On The Precipitation Of Grieseofluvin By Impinging Jets, Ankit H. Patel

Theses

Almost 80% of drugs on the market are manufactured as solid dosage forms, such as tablets. Drug bioavailability increases as the particle size decreases and the surface area per unit volume of drug increases. Therefore, there is a keen interest by the pharmaceutical industry to develop techniques that can be used to manufacture particles of active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) in the nano/micro particle range. Impinging jets is one of the most promising techniques to do so.

In this work, a submerged impinging jet system coupled with an ultrasonic probe (sonicator) was used to precipitate Griseofulvin, a common, poorly water-soluble antifungal …

Photoplethysmorgraph-Derived Respiration, Priyanka Pankaj Shah

Theses

Stress & Motivated Behavioral Institute (SMBI) has developed a research program to provide an objective evaluation of the physiological and neurocognitive impact of human electromuscular muscular interference (HEMI) devices in humans. The initial step is to understand their physiological impact, which is characterized by vital signs. Volunteers are recruited from HEMI training programs with the provision that data collection can not interfere with training. Thus, an ambulatory system was assembled. There are two main issues in the current ambulatory system, one of which is the reliability of the respiration signal obtained using a strain gauge respiration band, mainly due to …

Design And Fabrication Of A Microneedle For The Implantation Of Floating Microstimulators, Faysal Ahmed

Theses

Neural prosthetics are used to stimulate any remaining functional nervous tissue in order to restore function in visual, auditory, or other physiological components associated with the nervous system. Microelectrodes have been used in stimulating and detecting electrical activity in neurons. When stimulating or recording neural tissue activity using microelectrodes, there are usually many problems and difficulties in obtaining the correct functionality and results. There is great difficulty in placing these microelectrodes in a specific location in the central nervous system due to various problems with the methodology used. Many different techniques such as the traditional interconnected microelectrodes have been an …

Dem Simulated Radial And Axial Pressure In A Cylindrical Granular Column, Meng Cui

Theses

The study of packed beds of granular spheres and their applications are of great interest to industries, and one of the most important subjects that has been studied is cylindrical beds. In 1895, H. A. Janssen discovered that in a vertical cylinder the pressure measured at the bottom does not depend upon the height of the filling in contrast to Newtonian fluids that possess linear hydrostatic pressure equilibrium. One of assumptions of his theory stated that the horizontal pressure is proportional to the vertical. In this thesis, this physical hypothesis is investigated using Discrete Element Simulations of inelastic with a …

Synthesis Of Corn-Derived Carbohydrate Derivatives As Effective Multifunctional Sunscreen, Xianhong Feng

Theses

The eighty-years-old sunscreen industry is sustained by the growing incidence of skin cancer and the continual exploration of skin aging. From the UVB-induced erythema to the UVA-induced persistent pigment darkening, scientists have used versatile methods to reveal that not only does UVB damage skin but also that longer wavelengths such as UVAIL (290nm ~ 340nm) and UVAL rays (340nm ~ 400nm) trigger skin cancer, premature skin aging and immunosuppression.

To meet a significant demand for improved photoprotection, a broad-spectrum sunscreen with a high extinction coefficient has been desired. As part of our ongoing studies on isosorbide-cinnamate derivatives, this work have …

Derivation Of The Respiratory Rate Signal From A Single Lead Ecg, Murtaza M. Lakdawala

Theses

It has been long established that respiration has an influence on heart rate, and this effect is called respiratory sinus arrhythmia. As a result, two inferences can be postulated: first respiration information can be derived from cardiac activity, and second this effect offers the potential of removing the respiration effect that suppresses cardiac information which is of clinical significance. As a result of research performed at NJIT, there is a significant amount of data on exercise and heart rate recovery, but not the associated respiration signal. The motivation of this research was to compare and implement an optimal ECG derived …

Thermal And Morphological Analysis Of Collagen-Plla Electrospun Blends, Angana Banerjee

Theses

Electrospinning of bovine Type I collagen and Poly (L-lactic acid) produces blended nanofiber scaffolds that may have application in tissue engineering, wound dressing and drug delivery.

The goal of this research work was to produce and characterize blended nanofibers of a protein, collagen, and a synthetic polymer, poly (L-lactic acid). This study focuses on the in-depth analysis of the appearance of the structural relaxation occurring at the glass transition temperature of PLLA in the collagen-PLLA blended electrospun mats. It is speculated that occurrence of this thermal event is more prominent in PLLA with high molecular weight due to the presence …

Altered Brain Activity In Autistic Children Versus Healthy Controls While Performing Simple Tasks Using Fmri, Donald Martin Adams Jr.

Theses

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies dealing with Autistic children have primarily been concerned with cognitive facial recognition. Recent studies have demonstrated that Autistic children, when compared to healthy matched controls, exhibit higher neuronal activity when identifying patterns or objects, but lower levels of activity in regards to facial recognition.

The objective of this study was to examine both facial and object recognition and compare them to simple sensorimotor tasks. All subjects were administered 5 stimuli each lasting 320 seconds. Subjects were instructed to use a button press box to identify between a Person/Object and an Arrow/Object. They were then …

Automated Multi-Well Neural Injury Device, Linda Y. Chen

Theses

Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) is a wide spread pathological problem occurring in 1.4 million individuals every year according to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. There are several types of TBI and the most prominent ones are concussion, contusion, hematoma, coup-contrecoup injury and diffuse axonal injury (DAI). The most severe type and the one that is the hardest to diagnose is DAI. DAI occurs mostly due to accidents relating to automobile, motorcycles and in some cases fall and assault, resulting in a "shearing" phenomenon of the brain. Patients with DAI can range from being, mildly injured, severely disabled …

Raman Scattering In Free Standing Porous Si Films, Thenappan Chidambaram

Theses

In this thesis, Raman Scattering of free standing porous silicon on sapphire samples of controllably varying porosity is studied. The free standing, fully crystalline porous silicon films were prepared by electrochemical etching and the porous structure were lifted-off by a procedure based on electro-polishing. During Raman scattering measurements, the samples are exposed to relatively high intensity laser radiation. Free-standing porous Si sample temperature and thermal conductivity are calculated by comparing intensities of Stokes and anti-Stokes Raman peaks. Compared to crystalline Si, we find strong decrease in thermal conductivity accompanied by a change in the phonon spectra. Also, comparing Stokes and …

Surface Recordings Of Evoked Field Potentials From The Cerebellum With A Flexmea Microelectrode Array, Jonathan David Groth

Theses

The cerebellum is an integral part of multijoint control. There are two input pathways to the cerebellar cortex, the mossy fiber and the climbing fiber pathways. The mossy fiber pathway forms a disynaptic input to Purkinje cells through the granular cells. This disynaptic input produces a multicomponent field potential composed of the P1, N 1, N2, N3, N4, and P3 waves. The climbing fiber input forms a monosynaptic input to the Purkinje cells and thus creates a much simpler field potential.

The mossy and climbing fiber field potentials were recorded with a FlexMEA microelectrode array from the pial surface of …

Experimental Investigation Of The Fluid Velocity Distribution In Stirred Tank Reactors Equipped With Retreat-Blade Impellers Using Laser Doppler Velocimetry, Deepak Rajesh Madhrani

Theses

Stirred tank reactors are commonly used in the pharmaceutical industry for synthesis of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (API's) and their intermediates. Typically, these vessels are glass-lined and are provided with a single retreat-blade glass-lined impeller and a single baffle. Despite their ubiquitous utilization in the pharmaceutical industry for at least the past 40 years, the mixing characteristics of these systems have not been studied to any great extent, making it difficult to predict mixing performance in any given operation.

In this work, the velocity distribution inside the typical glass-lined vessel/impeller system was experimentally quantified using Laser Doppler Velocimetry (LDV), which is …

Synthesis And Analysis Of Carbon Nanowalls And Their Raman Spectroscopy, Amit Mahajan

Theses

Growth of Carbon Nanowalls has been carried out by Radio Frequency Chemical Vapor Deposition (RF-PECVD) on various substrates. Hydrogen was used as an active gas for the growth where as Ethanol bubbled with Argon was used as carbon source for formation of Carbon Nanowalls (CNW). The growth was then confinned by Raman Spectroscopy and Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) images. Also the need of using catalyst in CNW has been analyzed. The intensities of D and G bands obtained from Raman spectrum have been related to the length of Graphene walls, to study the CNW's length on different substrates.

The growth …

Interactions Between Adult Human Mesenchymal Stem Cells And Nanofibrous Scaffolds Of Different Compositions, Lisamarie Moore

Theses

Stem cells have become increasingly important in the biomedical field because they have the potential to invade and regenerate damaged tissue. In particular, the bone marrow contains meesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) that have the capacity to differentiate into many cell lineages. The incorporation of MSCs within a multidimensional biomaterial provides a delivery vehicle to areas of injury. Natural and synthetic biomaterials can be made into scaffolds to represent different types of tissues. The ratio of synthetic to natural biomaterials in the scaffold influences the interaction with MSCs. This thesis created two different nanofibrous scaffolds by a process of electrospinning. The …