Engineering Commons^™

Annual Simulation Of Photovoltaic Retrofits Within Existing Parabolic Trough Concentrating Solar Powerplants, Nipun Goel, Hannah O'Hern, Matthew Orosz, Todd Otanicar

Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Solar power for electricity production comes from either photovoltaics or concentrating solar power plants. The former has seen rapid growth and expansion due to the rapid fall in global prices, while the latter has seen moderate growth due to ability to cheaply store thermal energy for later use. Hybridization, or combining photovoltaics with concentrating solar power represents a potential way for lowering cost while enabling long term storage. Over 5 GW of capacity exist worldwide using parabolic trough style technology for concentrating solar power which presents a unique option for optimization in the form of a photovoltaic retrofit. While it …

Passive Control Strategies For Cooling A Non-Residential Nearly Zero Energy Office: Simulated Comfort Resilience Now And In The Future, Adam O'Donovan, Michael D. Murphy, Paul D. O'Sullivan

Publications

The average global cooling demand in non-residential buildings is expected to increase by over 275% between now and 2050. Controlled passive cooling is fundamental to successful operational performance of buildings and in mitigating energy that would otherwise be consumed by mechanical systems. The aim of this study was to determine the resilience of different passive cooling control strategies in delivering optimal comfort and energy scenarios in both current and future extreme conditions, for low energy indoor office spaces. Simulations were conducted using a calibrated TRNSYS 17 model of a nearly zero energy building. The performance of ten passive cooling control …

Developing A Substation Design Curriculum For Electronics Engineering Technology, Filipe Santos Araujo, Erik A. Mayer

ASEE North Midwest Section Annual Conference 2020 Publications

Background: The latest technologies have created an increasing demand for the generation, transmission, and distribution of electricity. Substations are a crucial segment of our power grid. Substations are used to step-up voltages for the long-distance transmission of energy and to stepdown voltages for industrial and residential use. The demand for substation design curriculum was discussed at a meeting of the Industrial Advisory Committee (IAC) for EET. Members of the IAC consisted of professionals from Black & Veatch and other companies that work with power systems such as substations and switchgear. The curriculum was developed in close cooperation with Black & …

A Comparison Of Platform Configurations For Robotics Development Within Ros2, Raspberry Pi, Andwebots, Katherine Gisi, Diane T. Rover, Phillip H. Jones Iii

ASEE North Midwest Section Annual Conference 2020 Publications

Background: The field of robotics continues to expand with new, progressive technologies. The vast ecosystem of robotics, with its countless routes, is initially challenging to navigate. It is even more so during a season of virtual instruction. Creating strategic entrance points for the incoming students merits consideration. Purpose: Our aim is to provide a way for students to explore three critical areas in robotics: the physical robot (hardware), the simulated robot (digital twin), and the operating system and code (controller).
Method: We explore options for integrating two advanced robot development frameworks (i.e. Robot Operating System 2 (ROS2) and Webots) in …

An End-To-End Trainable Method For Generating And Detecting Fiducial Markers, J Brennan Peace

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Existing fiducial markers are designed for efficient detection and decoding. The methods are computationally efficient and capable of demonstrating impressive results, however, the markers are not explicitly designed to stand out in natural environments and their robustness is difficult to infer from relatively limited analysis. Worsening performance in challenging image capture scenarios - such as poorly exposed images, motion blur, and off-axis viewing - sheds light on their limitations. The method introduced in this work is an end-to-end trainable method for designing fiducial markers and a complimentary detector. By introducing back-propagatable marker augmentation and superimposition into training, the method learns …

An Aggregated And Equivalent Home Model For Power System Studies With Examples Of Building Insulation And Hvac Control Improvements, Huangjie Gong, Evan S. Jones, Dan M. Ionel

Power and Energy Institute of Kentucky Faculty Publications

Introducing new technologies into existing residences provides opportunities for the utility to enhance a community's power system performance. To validate the benefits of such technologies, an energy model is required in which their integration with a community's power system may be simulated. It can be difficult or impossible to properly model a power system without sufficient sample data. This paper proposes a method that uses Gaussian kernel density estimation (GKDE) to calculate the aggregated net power flow of a community's distribution system with only limited sample points at each time step. Example case studies that confirm the usefulness of the …

Development Of Reduced Chemical Kinetic Models For The Numerical Simulation Of Combustion And Emissions Behavior Of Representative Conventional And Bio-Derived Fuels, Mazen A. Eldeeb

Mineta Transportation Institute

The study addresses two of the main challenges facing combustion modeling for transportation fuels: simultaneous simulation of non-related combustion problems and reducing the computational cost of the modeling process itself. To address the first challenge, researchers determine a characteristic flame time from thermal diffusivity and laminar burning velocity. Researchers examine parametric dependence of flame time and ignition delay time on pressure, temperature and equivalence ratio for methane, based on validated chemical kinetic mechanisms. The study reveals flame time and ignition delay time show similar temperature dependence, flame time has stronger dependence on equivalence ratio and weaker dependence on pressure than …

Evaluating Driving Performance Of A Novel Behavior Planning Model On Connected Autonomous Vehicles, Keyur Shah

Honors Scholar Theses

Many current algorithms and approaches in autonomous driving attempt to solve the "trajectory generation" or "trajectory following” problems: given a target behavior (e.g. stay in the current lane at the speed limit or change lane), what trajectory should the vehicle follow, and what inputs should the driving agent apply to the throttle and brake to achieve this trajectory? In this work, we instead focus on the “behavior planning” problem—specifically, should an autonomous vehicle change lane or keep lane given the current state of the system?

In addition, current theory mainly focuses on single-vehicle systems, where vehicles do not communicate with …

A Quantile-Based Approach For Transmission Expansion Planning, Jairo Cervantes, F. Fred Choobineh

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering: Faculty Publications

Transmission expansion planning is an integral part of power system planning and consists of generating and selecting transmission proposals for maintaining sufficient transmission capacity to satisfy the electric load. Specifically, the desire to increase the use of renewable energy has exposed the limitations of transmission networks and has elevated the importance of transmission expansion planning. However, considering the random nature of renewable sources in conjunction with the power outages makes the planning process very challenging. We present a new procedure for selecting the best transmission enhancement proposal from a set of finite proposals under uncertainty. The selection is based on …

An Agent-Based Model To Study Competitive Construction Bidding And The Winner's Curse, Amr Elsayegh, Cihan H. Dagli, Islam H. El-Adaway

Engineering Management and Systems Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Reverse auction theory is the basis for competitive construction bidding process. The lowest bid method is utilized for selecting contractors in public projects. The winning contractor having the lowest bid value could be cursed when the submitted bid value results in negative profits. This is caused by many factors such as the contractor's estimation accuracy and markup. This is addressed in this paper by providing a model simulating the construction competitive bidding and the occurrence of the winner's curse. To this end, the authors show the extent to which the winner's curse affects the status of contracting companies. The objectives …

Hybrid Phase-Change Lattice Boltzmann Simulation Of Vapor Condensation On Vertical Subcooled Walls, Wandong Zhao, Yuan Gao, Ruijie Li, Songgang Qiu, Yin Zhang, Ben Xu

Mechanical Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Saturated vapor condensation on homogenous and heterogeneous subcooled walls is presented in this study by adopting a hybrid phase-change multiple-relaxation-time Lattice Boltzmann model. The effects of wall wettability on the condensation process, including droplets’ growth, coalescence and falling, and the influence of vapor flow to condensation are investigated. The results demonstrate that the heat fluxes around the triple-phase contact lines are higher than that in other cold areas in homogeneous subcooled walls, which actually indicates the fact that filmwise condensation is preventing the continuous condensation process. Furthermore, the dropwise condensation can be formed more easily on the heterogeneous surface with …

Target Flow-Pressure Operating Range For Designing A Failing Fontan Cavopulmonary Support Device, Masoud Farahmand, Minoo N. Kavarana, Phillip M. Trusty, Ethan Kung

Publications

Fontan operation as the current standard of care for the palliation of single ventricle defects results in significant late complications. Using a mechanical circulatory device for the right circulation to serve the function of the missing subpulmonary ventricle could potentially stabilize the failing Fontan circulation. This study aims to elucidate the hydraulic operating regions that should be targeted for designing cavopulmonary blood pumps. By integrating numerical analysis and available clinical information, the interaction of the cavopulmonary support via the IVC and full assist configurations with a wide range of simulated adult failing scenarios was investigated; with IVC and full assist …

Computational Simulation Of Eccentrically Loaded Circular Thin-Walled Concrete-Filled Double Steel Tubular Slender Columns, Mizan Ahmed, Qing Liang, Vipulkumar Patel, Muhammad N. S Hadi

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

The concrete confinement provided by the circular steel tubes improves the performance of circular concretefilled double steel tubular (CFDST) columns, which have increasingly been employed as high-performance structural members in tall buildings. This paper presents computational and design models for the simulation and design of high strength CFDST slender columns composed of circular thin-walled sections that are eccentrically loaded. The formulation of the computational model is described, which takes into account the influences of concrete confinement, geometric imperfection, second-order, gradual plasticity of steel, and geometric and material nonlinearities. The inverse quadratic method is implemented in computational algorithms which solve the …

Towards Agent-Based Traffic Simulation Using Live Data From Sensors For Smart Cities, Johan Barthelemy, Yan Qian, Pascal Perez

SMART Infrastructure Facility - Papers

The Smart City and Internet-of-Things revolutions enable the collection of various types of data in real-time through sensors. This data can be used to improve the decision tools and simulations used by city planners. This paper presents a new framework for real-time traffic simulation integrating an agent-based methodology with live CCTV and other sensor data while respecting the privacy regulations. The framework simulates traffic flows of pedestrians, vehicles and bicycles and their interactions. The approach has been applied in Liverpool (NSW, Australia) showing promising preliminary results and can easily ingest additional sensor data, e.g. air quality.