Engineering Commons^™

Reactor Physics Studies For The Afci Race Project: Reactor-Accelerator Coupling Experiments Project: Quarterly Progress Report September-December 2004, Denis Beller

Transmutation Sciences Physics (TRP)

In the RACE Project of the U.S. Advanced Fuel Cycle Initiative (AFCI), a series of accelerator driven subcritical systems (ADSS) experiments will be conducted at the Idaho State University’s Idaho Accelerator Center (ISU-IAC), at the University of Texas (UT) at Austin, and at the Texas A&M University. In these experiments we will use electron accelerators to induce bremsstrahlung photon-neutron reactions in heavy-metal targets; this source of about 10¹² to 10¹³ n/s will then initiate fission reactions in the subcritical systems. These systems will include a compact, transportable assembly at ISU and TRIGA reactors at UT-Austin and Texas A&M. …

Measurement Of Handle Forces For Crimping Connectors And Cutting Cable In The Electric Power Industry, Richard W. Marklin, Lia Lazuardi, Jeremy R. Wilzbacher

Mechanical Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Overhead and underground line work in the electric power industry is physically very strenuous and can expose workers to musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs), particularly in the upper extremity. Crimping compression connectors—such as sleeve connectors and lugs—and cutting cables are two of the most frequent tasks that line workers perform. Line workers at many utilities in the US crimp connectors and cut cable with long-handled manual tools. However, the actual magnitude of the forces applied to the handles of these tools is not known. The objectives of this laboratory study were to measure the forces applied to the handles of a manual …

Failure In Internally Pressurized Bent Tubes, Robin Stevenson, Boon-Chai Ng, Peter Polidoro

Faculty Publications

The analysis and modeling of tube-hydroformed components is more complicated than that employed for sheet-metal panels, due to the lengthier process sequence and variable strain path - from flat-rolled sheet to tube; from straight tube to bent tube; and from bent tube to hydroformed component. These additional process steps make it difficult to determine whether post mortem analyses of tube failure during hydroforming can, and should, be conducted with the same tools and databases as used for simple stampings. To provide a partial answer, the properties of commercially fabricated welded straight tubes were evaluated using a free-expansion internal pressure test …

Quantitative Models Of The Rat Pulmonary Arterial Tree Morphometry Applied To Hypoxia-Induced Arterial Remodeling, Robert C. Molthen, Kelly L. Karau, Christopher A. Dawson

Biomedical Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Little is known about the constituent hemodynamic consequences of structural changes that occur in the pulmonary arteries during the onset and progression of pulmonary arterial remodeling. Many disease processes are known to be responsible for vascular remodeling that leads to pulmonary arterial hypertension, cor pulmonale, and death. Histology has been the primary tool for evaluating pulmonary remodeling, but it does not provide information on intact vascular structure or the vessel mechanical properties. This study is an extension of our previous work in which we developed an alternative imaging technique to evaluate pulmonary arterial structure. The lungs from Sprague-Dawley rats were …

Cooling Load Reduction And Air Conditioner Design In A 19th Century Florida House Museum, Florida Solar Energy Center, Dave Chasar

FSEC Energy Research Center®

Restoration plans at the H.S. Williams house included the installation of a space conditioning system. This contract report details how building envelope construction and air conditioner design were optimized as a system. Many aspects of the effort lent themselves to maintaining important "character-defining" features of the building including the resurrection of passive cooling attributes like light colored exterior paint and operable storm shutters. In addition, outside air infiltration was measured on the Williams house and six other balloon-frame homes to document this often significant cooling load component.

Understanding And Improving Moment Method Scattering Solutions, Clayton Paul Davis

Theses and Dissertations

The accuracy of moment method solutions to electromagnetic scattering problems has been studied by many researchers. Error bounds for the moment method have been obtained in terms of Sobolev norms of the current solution. Motivated by the historical origins of Sobolev spaces as energy spaces, it is shown that the Sobolev norm used in these bounds is equivalent to the forward scattering amplitude, for the case of 2D scattering from a PEC circular cylinder. A slightly weaker relationship is obtained for 3D scattering from a PEC sphere. These results provide a physical meaning for abstract solution error bounds in terms …

Using A Reply Path And Handshaking Protocol To Allow For Incentives With Mix-Net Servers, Timothy J. Atkinson, Marius C. Silaghi

Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Faculty Publications

Sending a message to a destination anonymously so that the destination cannot figure out who the originator was, and ensuring that the message reaches the destination untampered with, can be a difficult problem. Chaum's mix-net solves this problem but offers little motivation for a person to set up a mix-net server. This paper discusses a method that not only allows monetary payments as an incentive to create a public mix-net server, but also provides some fraud detection at the time a message is being sent. Also compared with other methods, the method described here can be considered reasonable from the …

Telerobotic Controller, Michael Fewless, George Slater, Steve Waldron

Honors Theses

Atelerobotic system allows a user to interact with an environment indirectly. Our project successfully creates a telerobotic environment between the Phantom 1.5 controller and the UMI RTX robotic arm. Utilizing the haptic features of the Phantom controller, a more realistic interaction was created between the telerobotic system and the user by providing sensory feedback. As the user manipulates the hand-controlled Phantom device, signals are sent via a parallel port to the personal computer. A real-time WIN32 application, utilizing the GHOST SDK library, reads the position of the Phantom controller's coordinates and calculates the corresponding motor positions of the UMI RTXrobotic …

Introduction To Mechanical Engineering, Lorik Abdullai, Joseph R. Dunn

Honors Theses

I can still remember back in high school when I was faced with a decision thousands of students experience every year: What college was I going to choose, and what major was I going to study? It seemed like every time I saw friends and relatives they asked me that question. Meanwhile, I knew that going to a major university would give me more choices in case I changed majors. As it turned out, Western Michigan University was the best package for me when I considered the financial aid, the program ofmy major, location of the university, and its friendly …

Applications Of Power Electronics-Based Systems In Vehicular Technology: State-Of-The-Art And Future Trends, R. Jayabalan, Babak Fahimi, A. Koenig, Steven Pekarek

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Power electronics-Based systems and components have been increasingly used in land, air, and sea vehicles over the past decade. This has turned the vehicular products into a primary market for power electronics applications. Moreover, the existing trend in more electrification of the vehicles represents an even bigger potential for an increase in the existing demand. Although the primary incentive for introduction of multi-converter systems into vehicular technologies was to enhance fuel economy and environmental issues associated with vehicles; today, improvement of fault tolerance, cost, and compactness have boosted the motivation for development of the more electric vehicles. the use of …

The Effect Of Gas Pressure On No Conversion Energy Efficiency In Nonthermal Nitrogen Plasma, Morris D. Argyle, Gui-Bing Zhao, S.V.B. Janardhan Garikipati, Xudong Hu, Maciej Radosz

Faculty Publications

This work explores the effect of gas pressure on the rate of electron collision reactions and energy consumption for NO conversion in N2 in a pulsed corona discharge reactor. A previous study showed that the rate constant of electron collision reactions, multiplied by the electron concentration, can be expressed as k[e] = βα−0.5P−0.5W0.75exp(−αP/W). The model parameter α remains constant with increasing gas pressure, which verifies the previous assumption that the electron temperature is inversely proportional to gas pressure. However, the model parameter β decreases with increasing gas pressure, which indicates that the rate constant of electron collision reactions decreases with …

Studies On The Electrochemical Preparation And Electrochemical Properties Of Conducting Polymers——Brief Introduction To The Research Work Of Electrochemistry Of Conducting Polymers In Cas Key Laboratory Of Organic Solids(I), Yong-Fang Li

Journal of Electrochemistry

Conducting polymers have drawn much attention since the discovery of conducting polyacetylene in 1977, due to the novelty and curiosity of their structure and properties as well as their promising applications in many aspects. Among the studies of conducting polymers, the electrochemical preparation and electrochemical properties of conducting polymers are of special importance, because the electropolymerization is a main method for preparing conducting polymer films and the electrochemical properties are the basis for their applications in the fields of electrode materials for batteries, electrocatalysis, electrochromic display, etc. We are one of the earliest research groups in the world to perform …

Electrochemical Investigations On Pitting Susceptibility Of Iron-Based Alloy, Wei-Shan Li, Hong-Yu Chen, Zhong-Zhi Yuan, Hong Li, Qi-Ming Huang, Dong-Sheng Lv

Journal of Electrochemistry

The formation process of passive film on iron and electronic properties and pitting susceptibility of an iron-based alloy are investigated by using linear potential sweep, alternative current impedance and electrochemical nose technologies. The relationship between reciprocal square capacitance and potential following the Mott-Schottky behavior is limited at a narrow rang of low potentials. At higher potentials, linear relationship between reciprocal capacitance and potential is obtained, which is ascribed to the increasing thickness of the passive film with potential. The donor density of the passive film is influenced by the formation potential of the film, passivator and microstructure. The decrease in …

LicoXNi1-XO2 Cathode Materials Prepared By Electrolysis Of Co And Ni, Jin-Ping Wei, Xin Sun, Xiao-Yu Wang, Xi-Kui Bian, Jin-Ling Zhai, Yan-Jie Yan-Jie

Journal of Electrochemistry

A new electrolytic method was developed to prepare LiCo_xNi_1-xO₂ as a cathode material of lithium-ion battery. Contrary to the traditional method, electrolytic method is a potential method with simple process to industrialization and no pollution. Metal cobalt and nickel were electrolysed in parallel to prepare the precursor of Co_xNi_{1- x}(OH)₂.Different compositional precursors could be conveniently prepared by changing electrolytic current. The LiCo_0.3Ni_0.7O₂ cathode prepared by this method was found favorable charge-discharge and cycle properties. For the LiCo_0.3Ni_0.7O₂ cathode material, …

Preparation And Photo-Catalyst Properties Of The α-Fe2O3-Tio2 Films On Sodium Alginate Polymer, Li-Qin Chen, Huai-Zhen Zhong, Ri-Yao Chen, Xi Zheng, Zhen Chen

Journal of Electrochemistry

Three new nano thin films of α-Fe₂O_3, TiO₂ and α-Fe₂O₃-TiO₂ by doping their powder with sodium alginate polymer were prepared. Surface structure and catalytic activities of the films were characterized by FTIR, XRD, PL, TEM and I-V techniques. The results of UV-visible absorption showed that the methylene blue was mineralized in aqueous of α-Fe₂O₃/SA, TiO₂/SA and (α-(Fe₂O₃))-TiO₂ /SA upon radiation with ultra violet light. α-Fe₂O₃ enhanced their photo-decolorized-activities by doping 15% TiO₂.

Applications Of New Activated Carbon Meterials In The Electric Double-Layer Capacitor, Jian-Jun Zhang, Hua Jiang, Jian-Hui Fang, Li-Yi Shi, Ren-He Yin, Yi Wen, Ji-Quan Liu

Journal of Electrochemistry

A new type activated carbon whose precursor was coconut shell could be obtained using specific physics-chemistry activation, and the activated carbon was applied as the material of electrode in EDLC (electrical double-layer capacitor),which had a large specific capacitance, and could charge and discharged in some large currents. Carbon dioxide and acid were used to modify carbon,and the effects of post-treatment on surface area and pore volume were investigated. A moulding method which has influence on some properties of carbon electrode with PTFE additive was researched in the paper.

Effect Of Fe3+ Dopen Of Titanium Dioxide Film On Absorption Spectra And Photo Catalysis, Mei-Qun Xiao, Jia-Nian Shen, Moucheng Li, Peng-Fei Wu, Dong Liu, Yu-Juan Zhang

Journal of Electrochemistry

Photo-catalytic titanium dioxide film in nano crystalline has been prepared by electrochemical oxidation process and adding different amount of ferric ion into the electrolyte during the anodic oxidation.The effects of Fe³⁺ dopen on absorption spectra and photo-catalytic of the titanium dioxide films have been studied. It shows that the Fe³⁺ dopen caused the red shife of the absorption edge for the incoming light and exhibited the improved photocatalytic reactivity.

Electrochemical Behaviours Of Hemoglobin-Ddab-Modified Powder Microelectrode And The Application Of The Powder Microelectrode In Determination Of Nitric Oxide, Zhi-Mou Guo, Huan Liu, Jian Chen, Wen-Ting Zhang

Journal of Electrochemistry

The electrochemical behaviours of DDAB-Hb-PME were studied in this paper. The (apparent) surface concentration of Hb was enhanced greatly by using the powder microelectrode (technique). NO reacts with Hb and absorbs on the surface of the modified carbon powder. Therefore, the output of the electrode was enhanced greatly by employing PME with higher reaction surface (area). The sensitivity of DDAB-Hb-PME is 3.1 mA/μmol·L^-1·cm², which is much larger than the values obtained with the traditional electrodes. The detection limit is 9 nmol·L^-1 and the linear response range is 9～100 nmol·L^-1.

Improvement And Its Mechanism Of Storage Performance Of Ni-Mh Battery, Xiao-Feng Li, Li-Ping Ma, Yu-Wan Lou, Feng Li, Bao-Jia Xia

Journal of Electrochemistry

The storage performance of nickel-metal-hydride (Ni-MH) battery was studied by using galvanostatic charge-discharge and cyclic voltammetry. The experimental results indicated that CoOOH could not be completely restored after its being thoroughly reduced at lower potential, which might weaken electric conduction network in the positive electrode and result in fading of electrochemical properties of Ni-MH battery. Addition of nickel powder as a conductive agent into the positive electrode was beneficial to the capacity recovery after storage.

Preparation And Electrochemical Magnesium Insertion Behaviors Of Mgv2O6, Hua-Tang Yuan, Li-Fang Jiao, Jian-Sheng Cao, Xiu-Sheng Liu, Ming Zhao, Yong-Mei Wang

Journal of Electrochemistry

MgV₂O₆ was synthesized by conventional solid-state reaction from MgO and V₂O₅ as starting materials. X-Ray diffraction analysis showed that the prepared sample belongs to the monoclinic structure. Electrochemical magnesium insertion from aprotic electrolytes such as organomagnesium halides into this host was found possible and exhibited charge/discharge circulation.

Anodic Dissolution Of Aluminum In Koh-Ethanol Solutions, Hai-Bo Shao, Jian-Ming Wang, Xiao-Yan Wang, Yi Zheng, Jian-Qing Zhang

Journal of Electrochemistry

The feasibility of employing aluminum in KOH ethanol solution as a battery anode system was discussed. Weight loss measurement showed that the corrosion rate of Al is low enough to be used in sealed batteries. Through the measurements done by anodic polarization, EIS and galvanostatic discharge, it was found that Al is electrochemical active in a wide potential range in this system, and its discharge mechanism is similar to that of Al in aqueous solution. The discharge potential increased rapidly after a period of time, which might be caused by the discharge products depositing on the electrode surface.

Study On Mass Transport In Liquid Layer Adjacent To The Electrode Through Transmission Vop-Spectroellipsometry, Wei Zhu, Yu-Ru Yang, Zong-Qing Huang

Journal of Electrochemistry

In electrochemical system, the mass transport process in liquid layer adjacent to electrode is studied through theoretical analysis only.The diffusion process can be analyzed theoretically by Fick's law for homogeneous media. Up to now, none of satisfied experimental method has been reported for studying mass transport of a whole process in liquid media yet. This paper described the experimental approach to explore mass transport in electrochemical system by transmission Vop-spectroellipsometry briefly.

Electrocatalytic Performances Of Carbon Nanotube Air Electrode For Oxygen Reduction, Feng-Ming Zhao, Chun-An Ma

Journal of Electrochemistry

The air electrodes with different mass ratio of Pt/active carbon or carbon nanotube as catalyst layer material have been prepared. The electrocatalytic performances for oxygen reduction were evaluated by means of polarization curve and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). The results disclosed that carbon nanotubes dealt with nitric acid in the catalyst layer had been improved obviously on the electrocatalytic activity. After the surface of carbon nanotube was oxygenated and aggraded with platinum, the catalyst had obviously effects on the electrocatalytic activity. The air electrode with the mass ratio of active carbon to Pt/carbon nanotube in 4∶1 showed better electrocatalytic activity, …

The Investigation Of Bafesi/C Alloy Composite As Anode Materials For Li-Ion Battery, Rui-Xiang Feng, Hua Dong, Xin-Ping Ai, Han-Xi Yang

Journal of Electrochemistry

A novel BaFeSi/C composite was prepared by mechanical ball milling, and lithium insertion reactions on the composite electrode were investigated by cyclic voltammetry , charge-discharge measurements, XRD and XPS spectroscopy. It is demonstrated that the capacity retention with indiscernible capacity decas during charge-discharge cycling. The improved cycling ability of the composite is suggested from a cooperative action by inactive FeSi₂ and BaSi₂ matrix and outer graphite shell, which both buffer the volumetric changes of the active Si phase and provide a good connection for electronic and ionic conduction during lithium insertion and extraction processes.

Design Of Cmos Four-Quadrant Gilbert Cell Multiplier Circuits In Weak And Moderate Inversion, Craig Timothy Remund

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis presents four-quadrant CMOS current-mode multiplier architectures based on the bipolar Gilbert cell multiplier architecture. Multipliers are designed using the CMOS subthreshold region to take advantage of the subthreshold exponential I-V relationship that closely matches bipolar modeling. It is discovered that biasing to remove drift current components and to address higher order effects such as ideality factor mismatch, threshold mismatch, body effect, and short channel effects, is important to provide a linear multiplier. It is also shown that distortion caused by device size mismatch and offset input currents can be used to cancel the distortion introduced by drift currents …

Development Of Pole Impact Testing At Multiple Vehicle Side Locations As Applied To The Ford Taurus Structural Platform, Mark Halford Warner

Theses and Dissertations

A test method was developed whereby repeated pole impacts could be performed at multiple locations per test vehicle, allowing a comparison of energy and crush relationships. Testing was performed on vehicles moving laterally into a 12.75 inch diameter rigid pole barrier. Crush energy absorption characteristics at the different locations were analyzed, and the results compared to test data from broad moving barrier crashes and available crash tests with similar pole impacts. The research documents the crush stiffness characteristics for narrow impacts at various points on the side of the Taurus vehicle platform. Factors encountered during the research include the importance …

Kalman Consensus Strategies And Their Application To Cooperative Control, Randal Beard, Derek Kingston, Wei Ren

Faculty Publications

Sponsorship: AFOSR, NSF. In this paper, we propose discrete-time and continuous-time consensus update schemes motivated by the discrete-time and continuous-time Kalman filters. With certainty information encoded into each agent, the proposed consensus schemes explicitly account for relative confidence in the information that is communicated from each agent in the team. We show mild sufficient conditions under which consensus can be achieved using the proposed schemes in the presence of switching interaction topologies. The Kalman consensus scheme is shown to be input-to-state stable. We show how to exploit this fact in multi-agent cooperative control scenarios.

The Effectiveness Of Computer-Based Tutorials In Learning Computer-Aided Design Methods For Tool Design Procedures, Andrew Moroni Hall

Theses and Dissertations

Throughout the past twenty-five years the process of designing and manufacturing a product has been revolutionized by the integration of Computer Aided Design (CAD). Although three-dimensional solid modeling, or 3-D CAD offers a better representation of the product in a virtual environment, it can be complicated and difficult to learn. Tutorials have been developed to assist manufacturing tool design student in the learning of 3-D CAD principles as they apply to tool design. This study seeks to test the effectiveness of those tutorials. A BYU tool design class was divided into two groups according to their assigned laboratory time. The …

Polarimetric Temperature Sensor Using Core-Replaced Fiber, Benjamin L. Ipson

Theses and Dissertations

Optical fibers are increasingly being used to create sensing devices. The D-fiber has an elliptical core and exhibits birefringence. This birefringence can be used to create a polarimetric sensor. The elliptical core supports two orthogonal modes that have separate effective indices of refraction. The indices of refraction change with a change in temperature. Since the effective indices of refraction change differently for the two modes, the birefringence also changes. This change in birefringence can be seen as a change in detected power through the fiber through the use of polarizers. The fiber then becomes a temperature sensor. The sensitivity of …

Condition Monitoring Of Squirrel-Cage Induction Motors Fed By Pwm-Based Drives Using A Parameter Estimation Approach, Behrooz Mirafzal, F. Fateh, Chia-Chou Yeh, Richard J. Povinelli, Nabeel Demerdash

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Abstract:

A rotor condition monitoring technique is presented in this paper based on a parameter estimation approach. In this technique, the stator currents, voltages and motor speed are used as the input signals, where the outputs will be the rotor's inductance, resistance and consequently rotor time constant. This approach is verified by simulation of two different induction motor cases. These simulations are buttressed by experimental data obtained for a 2-hp induction motor in the case of healthy as well as one, three and five rotor bar breakages. In these tests, the induction motor was energized from a PWM-based drive, in …