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Full-Text Articles in Engineering

Influencing Effective Electrical Distribution Modernization Through Advanced Metering, Jared R. Erickson Mar 2018

Influencing Effective Electrical Distribution Modernization Through Advanced Metering, Jared R. Erickson

Theses and Dissertations

In 2013, the Department of Defense (DoD) required its services to implement advanced metering for the purpose of reducing energy usage (Department of Defense, 2013). Additionally, the DoD has aimed to improve its ability to assure a continuous energy supply to all of its installations. This study investigated processes for applying advanced meters on Air Force bases to increase energy assurance. This study also identified strategies for using advanced meters to influence infrastructure funding. This was accomplished through the use of extensive advanced meter data. The data was analyzed for outages and a procedure was created to locate outages in …


An Analysis Of Aircraft Operating And Support Cost Element Structures, Garrett B. O'Hanlon Mar 2018

An Analysis Of Aircraft Operating And Support Cost Element Structures, Garrett B. O'Hanlon

Theses and Dissertations

As the cost of DoD Weapon Systems continue to increase, the ability to more accurately predict the Operating and Support (O&S) costs for the various weapon systems has become more vital for long run affordability. The investigation into the O&S arena has been overshadowed by the research and development (R&D) and acquisition fields. This research focuses on the O&S portion of the total life cycle costs, specifically the OSD-CAPE Cost Element Structure (CES) elements and sub-elements. The research investigates seven categories of 52 aircrafts and their cost expenditures within the CES from the years 1996-2016. The first portion of the …


The Effect Of Ms2 Bacteriophage On The Activity And Performance Of Activated Sludge, Sean M. Stuntz Mar 2018

The Effect Of Ms2 Bacteriophage On The Activity And Performance Of Activated Sludge, Sean M. Stuntz

Theses and Dissertations

As a medical waste product, the MS2 bacteriophage has been discharged into wastewater distribution and treatment networks. To categorize its impact to suspended growth treatment methods, this research investigated the effect of the MS2 bacteriophage on activated sludge through a series of respirometry tests. The effects of MS2 bacteriophage at a concentration of 3.2x108 PFU/mL were assessed by determining peak O2 consumption, cumulative O2 consumption, molar CO2/O2 ratios, and shape factors. None of the MS2 samples caused statistically significant effects on the peak or cumulative O2 consumption. The molar CO2/O2 …


Sentiment Analysis Of Twitter Data, Evan L. Munson Mar 2018

Sentiment Analysis Of Twitter Data, Evan L. Munson

Theses and Dissertations

The rapid expansion and acceptance of social media has opened doors into users’ opinions and perceptions that were never as accessible as they are with today's prevalence of mobile technology. Harvested data, analyzed for opinions and sentiment can provide powerful insight into a population. This research utilizes Twitter data due to its widespread global use, in order to examine the sentiment associated with tweets. An approach utilizing Twitter #hashtags and Latent Dirichlet Allocation topic modeling were utilized to differentiate between tweet topics. A lexicographical dictionary was then utilized to classify sentiment. This method provides a framework for an analyst to …


The Developmental Test Scheduling Problem, Joseph E. Schoenbeck Mar 2018

The Developmental Test Scheduling Problem, Joseph E. Schoenbeck

Theses and Dissertations

Developmental testing of aircraft systems in the United States Air Force requires a complex set of resources for each test. The optimal scheduling of those resources is the job of the 412th Test Wing at Edwards Air Force Base. With more than 20 different Combined Task Forces requesting resources for roughly 300 flying missions each week, manual scheduling is a difficult task. The current process takes a team of schedulers several days to get a workable result from which they can start tailoring the final schedule. While concepts and techniques can be taken from industry scheduling problems, the body of …


Aerial Port Of The Future: Developing Paperless Operations, Peter J. Williams Mar 2018

Aerial Port Of The Future: Developing Paperless Operations, Peter J. Williams

Theses and Dissertations

Air Mobility Command (AMC) is combatting manning mismatches with antiquated processes and equipment in Aerial Port operations, and has chosen to address these issues through an initiative called “Aerial Port of the Future.” This initiative is designed to understand challenges in Aerial Ports and implement technological tools, where appropriate, to aid AMC Airmen in their duties of transporting goods and personnel through military channels. Oftentimes, personnel are forced to utilize technology that may not meet their needs, and in turn may resist implementation of the imposed technology. Therefore, first, this research identifies potential technologies designed to improve Aerial Port efficiency …


Assessing The Reliability Of The B-1b Lancer Using Survival Analysis, Francisco J. Rodriguez Mar 2018

Assessing The Reliability Of The B-1b Lancer Using Survival Analysis, Francisco J. Rodriguez

Theses and Dissertations

During the 2017 posture statement to the US Senate Armed Services Committee, the Secretary of the Air Force and Chief of Staff of the Air Force stated the Air Force suffers from shrinking aircraft inventory, aging aircraft fleets, and flying beyond the expected service life. These trends are not an exception to the B-1B Lancer, which has been in service since 1986. Recently, the B-1B Lancer has maintained the lowest mission capable (MC) rates of 47.7 percent. The purpose of this research is to explore the failure rates of the B-1B Lancer using survival analysis that investigates the failure behavior …


Manipulation And Automation Of Fbj Short-Axis Fasteners, Shane Forrest Wood Mar 2018

Manipulation And Automation Of Fbj Short-Axis Fasteners, Shane Forrest Wood

Theses and Dissertations

Legislative and market pressures are pushing automakers to achieve new fuel economy requirements in the coming years. To help achieve these goals automakers are reducing the overall weight of the vehicle by increasing the use of high-strength aluminum and advanced high-strength steels, and with this increased use comes the desire to quickly, and securely, join these materials within the vehicle. Friction bit joining is a process that lends itself well to joining these materials. This process uses consumable fasteners that need to be used in an automated production line. The geometry of these fasteners causes two main problems: the bits …


Nonlinear Control Framework For Gimbal And Multirotor In Target Tracking, Jae Hun Lee Mar 2018

Nonlinear Control Framework For Gimbal And Multirotor In Target Tracking, Jae Hun Lee

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis presents some existing gimbal and UAV control algorithms as well as novel algorithms developed as the extensions of the existing ones. The existing image-based visual servoing algorithms for both gimbal and UAV require the depth information to the object of interest. The depth information is not measurable when only a monocular camera is used for tracking. This thesis is the result of contemplation to the question: how can the necessity for a depth measurement be removed? A novel gimbal algorithm using adaptive control is developed and presented with simulation and hardware results. Although the estimated depth using the …


Mechanical Properties Of Inconel 718 Processed Using Electron Beam Free Form Fabrication (Ebf3), Brent R. Waters Mar 2018

Mechanical Properties Of Inconel 718 Processed Using Electron Beam Free Form Fabrication (Ebf3), Brent R. Waters

Theses and Dissertations

Electron beam freeform fabrication (EBF3) is a rapid metal deposition process that works efficiently with the wieldable alloy Inconel 718 (IN 718). EBF3 is a developing additive manufacturing (AM) process that can manufacture IN 718 parts directly from computer aided design (CAD) data. EBF3 can produce parts significantly faster and more energy efficient than competing IN 718 AM technologies. The EBF3 process utilizes metal wire feedstock which is induced into a molten pool using a focused electron beam in a vacuum environment. This allows parts to be built layer by layer, creating intricate shapes that …


A Flexible Fpga-Assisted Framework For Remote Attestation Of Internet Connected Embedded Devices, Jared Russell Patten Mar 2018

A Flexible Fpga-Assisted Framework For Remote Attestation Of Internet Connected Embedded Devices, Jared Russell Patten

Theses and Dissertations

Embedded devices permeate our every day lives. They exist in our vehicles, traffic lights, medical equipment, and infrastructure controls. In many cases, improper functionality of these devices can present a physical danger to their users, data or financial loss, etc. Improper functionality can be a result of software or hardware bugs, but now more than ever, is often the result of malicious compromise and tampering, or as it is known colloquially "hacking". We are beginning to witness a proliferation of cyber-crime, and as more devices are built with internet connectivity (in the so called "Internet of Things"), security should be …


Occupational Noise Dose Reduction Via Behavior Modification Using In-Ear Dosimetry Among Usaf Personnel Exposed To Continuous Impulse Noise, Jesse A. Trawick Mar 2018

Occupational Noise Dose Reduction Via Behavior Modification Using In-Ear Dosimetry Among Usaf Personnel Exposed To Continuous Impulse Noise, Jesse A. Trawick

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research was to investigate the use of in-ear noise dosimetry and worker feedback to reduce noise exposures among combat arms instructors and heavy equipment operators in the Air Force. Specifically, this thesis sought to determine how effectively hearing protection devices (HPDs) are being utilized currently, and whether providing at-ear noise exposure data to workers results in reduced noise exposures or changes in worker attitude. These questions were addressed by performing a six-month field study using dosimeters to record worker noise exposures under HPDs. Subjects served as their own control, receiving feedback in only the latter half …


Evolutionary Learning Of Boosted Features For Visual Inspection Automation, Meng Zhang Mar 2018

Evolutionary Learning Of Boosted Features For Visual Inspection Automation, Meng Zhang

Theses and Dissertations

Feature extraction is one of the major challenges in object recognition. Features that are extracted from one type of objects cannot always be used directly for a different type of objects, therefore limiting the performance of feature extraction. Having an automatic feature learning algorithm could be a big advantage for an object recognition algorithm. This research first introduces several improvements on a fully automatic feature construction method called Evolution COnstructed Feature (ECO-Feature). These improvements are developed to construct more robust features and make the training process more efficient than the original version. The main weakness of the original ECO-Feature algorithm …


Towards Tools For Achieving Third-Party Ip Assurance, Sean Talbot Jensen Mar 2018

Towards Tools For Achieving Third-Party Ip Assurance, Sean Talbot Jensen

Theses and Dissertations

Intellectual Property (IP) is used to speed up the design process and save money. The use of IP and complex CAD tools reduce visibility into the design and what is actually happening during synthesis and implementation. All of the complexity makes it easier for an attacker to insert malicious logic or tamper with the design in ways that are difficult to detect. Not very much work has been done towards the creation of tools to facilitate the safe use of 3rd-party IP. This work presents Physical and Functional Assurance, two approaches that aim to accomplish this task through physically and …


Toward A Production Ready Fbj Process For Joining Dissimilar Combinations Of Gadp 1180 Steel And Aa 7085-T76, Kevin Alexander Shirley Mar 2018

Toward A Production Ready Fbj Process For Joining Dissimilar Combinations Of Gadp 1180 Steel And Aa 7085-T76, Kevin Alexander Shirley

Theses and Dissertations

Friction Bit Joining (FBJ) is a new technology that can be used to join dissimilar materials together. This ability makes it a good candidate for creating light weight structures for the automotive industry by combining lightweight materials such as aluminum to stronger materials like advanced high-strength steels. The automotive industry and many other industries have great interest in reducing structure weight to increase fuel efficiency. The purpose of this research is to make FBJ of GADP 1180 to AA 7085-T76 a production ready process by (1) better understanding the effects of process parameters, bit design and tool design on joint …


Compiler-Assisted Software Fault Tolerance For Microcontrollers, Matthew Kendall Bohman Mar 2018

Compiler-Assisted Software Fault Tolerance For Microcontrollers, Matthew Kendall Bohman

Theses and Dissertations

Commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) microcontrollers can be useful for non-critical processing on spaceborne platforms. Many of these microprocessors are inexpensive and consume little power. However, the software running on these processors is vulnerable to radiation upsets, which can cause unpredictable program execution or corrupt data. Space missions cannot allow these errors to interrupt functionality or destroy gathered data. As a result, several techniques have been developed to reduce the effect of these upsets. Some proposed techniques involve altering the processor hardware, which is impossible for a COTS device. Alternately, the software running on the microcontroller can be modified to detect or …


Rotational Stiffness Models For Shallow Embedded Column-To-Footing Connections, Ashley Lauren Sadler Mar 2018

Rotational Stiffness Models For Shallow Embedded Column-To-Footing Connections, Ashley Lauren Sadler

Theses and Dissertations

Shallow embedded steel column connections are widely used in steel buildings; however, there is insufficient research about this connection type to understand the actual rotational stiffness that the connection provides. Shallow embedded steel columns are when a steel column is anchored to the foundation slab and then unreinforced concrete is poured around the base plate and the base of the column. This thesis seeks to further quantify the rotational stiffness available in this type of connection due to the added concrete and improve an existing model in order to represent the rotational stiffness. Existing data from two series of experiments …


The Use Of Evidence-Based Design In Hospital Renovation Projects, David S. Whitaker Mar 2018

The Use Of Evidence-Based Design In Hospital Renovation Projects, David S. Whitaker

Theses and Dissertations

Since the 1960s, researchers have been exploring how the design of the built environment impacts the health and well-being of occupants and users. By the 1980s, further research began to focus on healthcare facilities in particular and how design could influence patient healing and medical staff performance (Alfonsi, 2014). Evidence-Based Design (EBD) is "the process of basing decisions about the built environment on credible research to achieve the best possible outcomes" (CHD, 2016). The desired outcomes of Evidence-Based Design recommendations include improvements in the following: patient healing, patient experience and comfort, medical staff performance, and medical staff job satisfaction (CHD, …


Waveguide-Based Spatial Light Modulators For Use In Holographic Video Displays, Kamran Qaderi Mar 2018

Waveguide-Based Spatial Light Modulators For Use In Holographic Video Displays, Kamran Qaderi

Theses and Dissertations

Film display holograms typically diffract light over a wide enough view-angle to be viewed, directly, without intervening optics. However, all holographic video displays must use optics beyond the hologram surface to overcome the challenges of small display extent and low diffraction angle by using some form of demagnification and derotation. We report a leaky mode waveg- uide spatial light modulator (SLM) with sufficiently high angular diffraction to obviate the need for demagnification in scanned aperture systems. This was achieved by performing a number of experiments to determine the depth of the annealed, proton-exchanged waveguide which corresponded to a maximized diffracted …


Developing Pennycress ( Thlaspi Arvense ) As A Biodiesel Feedstock Crop And Plant Model System, Michaela Mcginn Feb 2018

Developing Pennycress ( Thlaspi Arvense ) As A Biodiesel Feedstock Crop And Plant Model System, Michaela Mcginn

Theses and Dissertations

Thlapsi arvense L. (pennycress) is currently being developed as a profitable oilseed-producing winter annual cover crop with extreme cold tolerance and a rapid life cycle that can be grown on fallow farmland throughout the U.S. Midwest Corn Belt, controlling soil erosion and nutrient runoff while serving as an additional source of income for the American farmer without displacing food crops. The research comprising this dissertation demonstrates that pennycress can serve as a user-friendly model system highly similar to Arabidopsis thaliana, and is well-suited for both laboratory and field experimentation, being readily employable in existing growth facilities. After 10 generations of …


A Detailed Hydrodynamic Study To Help Community Based Resiliency Planning Under Extreme Climatic And Weather Events, Md Golam Rabbani Fahad Feb 2018

A Detailed Hydrodynamic Study To Help Community Based Resiliency Planning Under Extreme Climatic And Weather Events, Md Golam Rabbani Fahad

Theses and Dissertations

The State of New Jersey is particularly vulnerable to extreme weather and climatic events. This study concentrates on spatial and temporal vulnerability of these events using climate and hydrodynamic modelling. The first chapter focuses on historical climatic trend of temperature and precipitation as well as the future scenarios using 10 bias corrected climate model output considering high end emission scenario derived from Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5). In the second chapter a coastal hydrodynamic model called ADCIRC-2DDI was implemented to assess the impact of hurricanes in the Western North Atlantic (WNAT) model domain. The efficiency of the model …


Improving Resource Allocation And Power Fairness In Emerging Mobile Cellular Network Technologies, Bilal Al-Doori Feb 2018

Improving Resource Allocation And Power Fairness In Emerging Mobile Cellular Network Technologies, Bilal Al-Doori

Theses and Dissertations

This new millennium has been regarded as the era of the digital wireless communications revolution. With the intention of meeting the demands of the current customers’ services and bridging to the future digital network, namely 5G network, the duty of the radio resource management (RRM) to quantify different altitudes should be carried out in an effective mechanism for avoiding any potential waste of resources, power, and processing time. Therefore, this research intends to study and investigate the resource management for downlink radio access network in LTE-A and 5G systems. Furthermore, the packet scheduling, minimizing power, and guaranteeing suitable fairness of …


Analysis Of Cross-Cultural Training Provided To United States Air Force Civil Engineer Officers, And How Engineering Efforts Are Affected On Overseas Air Force Installations: A Delphi Study, Bianca E. Boney Feb 2018

Analysis Of Cross-Cultural Training Provided To United States Air Force Civil Engineer Officers, And How Engineering Efforts Are Affected On Overseas Air Force Installations: A Delphi Study, Bianca E. Boney

Theses and Dissertations

U.S. military personnel perform a wide array of roles and missions at locations all over the world. As such, this research investigates and describes the current process of cultural training, its adequacy, and examines how cultural differences and collaboration efforts may impede or enhance project management and engineering efforts. This qualitative analysis is conducted through a Delphi study of U.S. Air Force officers consisting of 15 subject matter experts (SMEs) with experiences from 13 different countries. All reported to have daily to weekly interactions with locals and foreign partners due to job requirements; however, no set standard of cultural training …


Demonstration Of Head Mounted Displays And Its Effects On Situational Awareness, Adam Richard Goetz Feb 2018

Demonstration Of Head Mounted Displays And Its Effects On Situational Awareness, Adam Richard Goetz

Theses and Dissertations

In this investigation, I discussed the use of Head-Mounted Displayed (HMD) Augmented Reality and its effects on a driver’s Situational Awareness (SA) while observing two driving scenarios. In this study I showed participants two videos, one with a simulated HMD and one without. Throughout the video, the participants were asked questions about their environment to see if they can retain information presented to them. This included the current speed of the vehicle, the next navigation direction, how many cars are surrounding the vehicle, and several others. These questions will give insight into the participant’s SA. This method is called the …


Improving And Predicting The Effectiveness Of Dispersed, Multi-Disciplinary Design Teams, Matthew Oliver Wald Feb 2018

Improving And Predicting The Effectiveness Of Dispersed, Multi-Disciplinary Design Teams, Matthew Oliver Wald

Theses and Dissertations

The use of dispersed (virtual) teams is growing rapidly in the engineering profession. To help prepare students for work in this type of industry, university engineering courses are requiring students to work in teams. Industry leaders and university faculty are interested in improving and measuring the performance of these distributed teams. Surveys, interviews, and observations from the AerosPACE Partners for the Advancement of Collaborative Engineering (AerosPACE) capstone design course are examined to demonstrate how different collaboration tools can be used to best enhance a distributed design team's effectiveness. Collaboration tools to which distributed design teams should give extra consideration at …


Novel Approaches For Mutual Coupling Reduction Among Vertical And Planar Monopole Elements, Ayman Abbosh Isaac Jan 2018

Novel Approaches For Mutual Coupling Reduction Among Vertical And Planar Monopole Elements, Ayman Abbosh Isaac

Theses and Dissertations

Modern wireless systems such as 4G LTE-A, RFID, Wi-Fi, WiMAX, and GPS utilize miniaturized antenna array elements to improve performance and reliability through diversity and increase throughput using spatial multiplexing schemes of MIMO systems. One original contribution in this thesis is to significantly reduce the complexity of traditional design approaches targeting mutual coupling reductions such as metamaterials, defected ground plane structures, soft electromagnetic surfaces using novel design alternatives. A decoupling network is proposed, which consists of a rectangular metallic ring along with two tuning strips printed on a dielectric substrate, surrounding a two-element monopole antenna array fed by a coplanar …


Toward Biologically-Inspired Self-Healing, Resilient Architectures For Digital Instrumentation And Control Systems And Embedded Devices, Shawkat Sabah Khairullah Jan 2018

Toward Biologically-Inspired Self-Healing, Resilient Architectures For Digital Instrumentation And Control Systems And Embedded Devices, Shawkat Sabah Khairullah

Theses and Dissertations

Digital Instrumentation and Control (I&C) systems in safety-related applications of next generation industrial automation systems require high levels of resilience against different fault classes. One of the more essential concepts for achieving this goal is the notion of resilient and survivable digital I&C systems. In recent years, self-healing concepts based on biological physiology have received attention for the design of robust digital systems. However, many of these approaches have not been architected from the outset with safety in mind, nor have they been targeted for the automation community where a significant need exists. This dissertation presents a new self-healing digital …


Innovative Fuel Design To Improve Proliferation Management, Taylor C. Britt Jan 2018

Innovative Fuel Design To Improve Proliferation Management, Taylor C. Britt

Theses and Dissertations

This research uses an existing innovative fuel design (IFD) that has intrinsic safety features and enhanced economics over the current uranium dioxide (UO2) light water fuel design and evaluates promising methods to improve the waste management and proliferation resistance of the IFD by doping the fresh fuel with select actinides.The most robust approach for proliferation resistance is to denature these materials by adding a uranium or plutonium isotope that hampers the usability of the materials in weapons. The proposed modifications to the IFD use this approach through elevated fractions of 238Pu. 238Pu generates large quantities of …


Cenozoic Tectono-Stratigraphic Evolution And Petroleum System Of The Eastern Cordillera Foothills And Adjacent Basins (Colombia), Essam Saeid Jan 2018

Cenozoic Tectono-Stratigraphic Evolution And Petroleum System Of The Eastern Cordillera Foothills And Adjacent Basins (Colombia), Essam Saeid

Theses and Dissertations

New gravity, magnetic, well and 3D seismic data provides a better understanding of regional structures and tectonic movement affecting the petroleum system and sedimentary history of an important region of oil production in the Foothills of the Eastern Cordillera of Colombia. To the south the Garzón fault was previously interpreted as a right-lateral strikeslip fault. New seismic, well, and gravity data demonstrate that this fault is also a low-angle (12–17 degrees) Andean fault that thrusts PreCambrian basement 10 to 17 km northwestward over Miocene rocks of the Upper Magdalena Valley (UMV) in a prospective footwall anticline. New geophysical data as …


Material Thermal Property Estimation Of Fibrous Insulation: Heat Transfer Modeling And The Continuous Genetic Algorithm, Elora Frye Jan 2018

Material Thermal Property Estimation Of Fibrous Insulation: Heat Transfer Modeling And The Continuous Genetic Algorithm, Elora Frye

Theses and Dissertations

Material thermal properties are highly sought after to better understand the performance of a material under particular conditions. As new materials are created, their physical properties will determine their performance for various applications. These properties have been estimated using many techniques including experimental testing, numerical modeling, and a combination of both. Existing methods can be time consuming, thus, a time-efficient and precise method to estimate these thermal properties was desired. A one-dimensional finite difference numerical model was developed to replicate the heat transfer through an experimental apparatus. A combination of this numerical model and the Continuous Genetic Algorithm optimization technique …