Engineering Commons^™

Vehicle Tire-Pavement Interfacial Surface Pressure Measurements And Assessments, Jerry G. Rose, Timothy E. Guenther

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

This report examines a method of using Piezoelectric Pressure-Sensitive Ink (Tekscan) Pressure Measurement System to evaluate vehicle tire pressures that are exerted on the surface of pavements. Upgrades to the Tekscan system facilitated refinements from previous research and allows for procedures to be modified in order to account for these improvements. Among the most significant advances is the ability to select various sensitivities within the software program. In addition to the methodology of evaluating calibration practices, sensitivity and sensor selection, it was important to determine how accurately the pressures and wheel loads can be computed from pavement tests. Also examined …

Highway-Railway At-Grade Crossings: Rideability Measurements And Assessments, Jerry G. Rose, Thomas W. Witt, Aaron F. Renfro, Nathan E. Ridgeway

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

This report provides two analyses for obtaining a quantitative means of rating the condition of railroad‐highway at‐grade crossings based on their measured roughness. Phase One of this report examined 11 crossings in the Lexington area by use of a laser based inertial profiler from the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC) and a Face Rolling Dipstick. Phase Two was a continuation of Phase One with 26 crossings examined using inertial profilers from both the KYTC and the National Center of Asphalt technology. Objective ratings based on rideability were obtained and wheelpath profiles were measured for each crossing. Several roughness indexes were computed …

Synthesis And Analysis Of Nano-Thin Polymer Films For Separation Applications, Azadeh Samadi-Dezfouli

All Dissertations

This dissertation focuses on the fabrication of uniform polymer nanolayers using surface-initiated polymerization. The kinetics of low temperature surface-initiated atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) is discussed in detail. The work is then extended to the surface modification of polymeric membranes to tune the physical and chemical properties of the membranes for gas separations. I discuss how atom transfer radical polymerization might be advantageous compared to some of the techniques that have been proposed in the literature for preparing polymeric membranes for CO2 separation.
The first part of this dissertation describes the synthesis of polystyrene (PS) nanolayers by surface-initiated ATRP at …

Automated Crystal Phase And Orientation Mapping Of Nanocrystals In A Transmission Electron Microscope, Peter Moeck, Sergei Rouvimov, Edgar F. Rauch, Stavros Nicolopoulos

Physics Faculty Publications and Presentations

An automated technique for the mapping of nanocrystal phases and orientations in a transmission electron microscope (TEM) is described. It is based on the projected reciprocal lattice geometry that is extracted from electron diffraction spot patterns. The required hardware allows for a scanning‐precession movement of the primary electron beam on the crystalline sample and can be interfaced to any newer or older TEM. The software that goes with this hardware is flexible in its intake of raw data so that it can also create orientation and phase maps of nanocrystal from high resolution TEM (HRTEM) images. When the nanocrystals possess …

A Robust Process For Biodiesel Production Using Supercritical Methanol, Travis Roberts

Chemical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

The overarching purpose of Phase I was to test, at the bench scale, a continuous supercritical methanol reactor, and to determine the feasibility of implementing the technology at full scale. Specific objectives in reaching this purpose included:
Objective 1: Choose a viable feedstock
Objective 2: Perform experiments for oil extraction
Objective 3: Design, build and operate a continuous supercritical methanol reactor
Objective 4: Design and simulate full scale biodiesel facility
Objective 4a: Perform life-cycle and economic analysis on full scale design
Objective 5: Prepare a Phase II P3 project to demonstrate the entire biodiesel process
Project Scope: The students performed …

Adhesion Of Jurkat Cells In Defined Media And Substrates, Sarah De Leo

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

Numerical Implementation Of Prandtl’S Lifting-Line Theory And Modeling Of Aircraft Take-Off Phase For Wing Optimization, John William Dykes

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

An Examination Of Boiler Failures And Associated Design Issues, Tiffany Sherrell Grant

Masters Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine if common boiler failures were mainly due to uncontrollable events or from the effects from selecting lower grade materials and processes for the components. Eighteen case studies of tubing failures were selected and examined from boilers all around the world. Twelve of the tubes failed due to excess hoop stress and six failed from some kind of cracking. Calculations were made and it was determined that seventy-five percent of the failures would not have happened if a higher grade but more expensive material had been used. It was also found that 83.3 …

The Probabilistic Integration Of Demand-Side Load And Generation In A Representative Irish Distribution Network, Keith Sunderland, Michael Conlon

Conference papers

This paper introduces a methodology for investigating the behaviour of a distribution network incorporating both load variations and variable micro-wind generation output. The probabilistic methodology is applied to a representative model of the Irish Distribution Network. Application of a selection of commercially available micro-wind turbines to the model is investigated for a range of load and generation scenarios based on a standard load profile and varying mean wind speed. Analysis of the results of the analysis forms the basis for defining the limitations of the methodology but also presents the opportunities for future work.

Highway-Railway At-Grade Crossing Structures: Optimum Design/Installation Practices And Management Program – An Overview, Jerry G. Rose

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

Replacing and rehabilitating highway-railway at-grade crossings represent major track maintenance expenses for the U.S. highway governmental agencies and railroad industry. The ideal crossing system is one that will maintain a smooth surface and stable highway/trackbed for a long period of time minimizing costly and inconvenient disruptions to highway and rail traffic.

This report describes the consensus goals for, and the development of, a cooperative, fast-track crossing renewal system for an ideal highway-railway crossing management program. The performance-based process utilizes premium structural materials and construction techniques to provide long-term, cost effective, smooth, and safe crossings. Specifically stressed is the desirability of …

Highway-Railway At-Grade Crossings: Long-Term Settlement Measurements And Assessments, Jerry G. Rose, Mary G. Swiderski, Justin S. Anderson, Lindsay A. Walker

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

The purpose of this research was to evaluate the long-term settlements for a wide variety of at-grade crossings. Twenty-four highway crossings were monitored to determine the effects of enhanced support on minimizing long-term settlements of the crossing surfaces. Settlements of the rail and highway approaches to the crossing areas were compared to settlements of the common crossing areas over an average service period of three years. Long-term settlements of crossings with traditional all-granular support materials were compared to crossings with enhanced support. The enhanced support was provided by substituting a layer of asphalt (termed underlayment) for the all-granular subballast layer. …

Automated Identification Of Tumor Microscopic Morphology Based On Macroscopically Measured Scatter Signatures, Pilar Beatriz Garcia-Allende, Venkataramanan Krishnaswamy, P Jack Hoopes, Kimberley S. Samkoe, Olga M. Conde, Brian W. Pogue

Dartmouth Scholarship

An automated algorithm and methodology is presented to identify tumor-tissue morphologies based on broadband scatter data measured by raster scan imaging of the samples. A quasi-confocal reflectance imaging system was used to directly measure the tissue scatter reflectance in situ, and the spectrum was used to identify the scattering power, amplitude, and total wavelength-integrated intensity. Pancreatic tumor and normal samples were characterized using the instrument, and subtle changes in the scatter signal were encountered within regions of each sample. Discrimination between normal versus tumor tissue was readily performed using a K-nearest neighbor classifier algorithm. A similar approach worked …

Environmental Durability Of Reinforced Concrete Deck Girders Strengthened For Shear With Surface Bonded Carbon Fiber-Reinforced Polymer, Christopher Higgins, Matthew R. Dawson, Mikal M. Mitchell, Gautam Sopal, A. Ekin Senturk

TREC Final Reports

This research investigated the durability of carbon fiber-reinforced polymer composites (CFRP) used for shear strengthening reinforced concrete deck girders. Large beams were used to avoid accounting for size effects in the data analysis. The effort included determining the role of freeze-thaw, moisture, and fatigue on structural performance and developing analytical design procedures that account for durability.

The results showed that moisture infiltration behind the CFRP, combined with freeze-thaw, was critical in reducing shear panel stiffness and shear capacity. Long-term moisture exposure alone produced only a minor decrease in shear capacity. Freeze-thaw, combined with fatigue, had little effect on shear capacity …

Automated Flight Through Inertial Navigation And Digital Fly-By-Wire Systems, Aaron French

Mechanical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

With technology advancing by leaps and bounds by the year, the uses of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles are becoming more apparent. The possibilities for an aerial vehicle that is fully autonomous are endless. Such aerial vehicles could divert manpower to humanitarian efforts, airlift, and other non‐attack operations. Leaders can put their focus elsewhere on the battlefield with the knowledge that the skies over their heads will be well guarded. These desires give life to projects such as this. No advancement in civilization has ever been made without the collective revolutionary research of great minds, trial by fire, and daring to dream.

Vascular Injury After Whole Thoracic X-Ray Irradiation In The Rat, S. N. Ghosh, Q. Wu, M. Mäder, B. L. Fish, John E. Moulder, Elizabeth R. Jacobs, Meetha Medhora, Robert C. Molthen

Biomedical Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Purpose

To study vascular injury after whole thoracic irradiation with single sublethal doses of X-rays in the rat and to develop markers that might predict the severity of injury.

Methods and Materials

Rats that received 5- or 10-Gy thorax-only irradiation and age-matched controls were studied at 3 days, 2 weeks, and 1, 2, 5, and 12 months. Several pulmonary vascular parameters were evaluated, including hemodynamics, vessel density, total lung angiotensin-converting enzyme activity, and right ventricular hypertrophy.

Results

By 1 month, the rats in the 10-Gy group had pulmonary vascular dropout, right ventricular hypertrophy, increased pulmonary vascular resistance, increased dry lung …

Bioresorbable Film For The Prevention Of Adhesion To The Anterior Spine After Anterolateral Discectomy, Lisa S. Klopp, Jeffrey M. Toth, William C. Welch, Sangeeta Rao, Joseph W. Tai, Kevin A. Thomas, Simon Turner

Biomedical Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Background context

The development of scar tissue and adhesions postoperatively is a natural consequence of healing but can be associated with medical complications and render reoperation difficult. Many biocompatible products have been evaluated as barriers or deterrents to adhesions.

Purpose

To evaluate the efficacy of a bioresorbable polylactide film as a barrier to adhesion formation after anterolateral discectomy.

Study design

Experimental study.

Methods

Seven, skeletally mature female sheep underwent a retroperitoneal approach to the anterolateral lumbar spine. A discectomy was performed at two levels with an intervening unoperated disc site. One site was treated with a polylactide film barrier (Hydrosorb …

Effect Of Molecular Weight Reduction By Gamma Irradiation On The Antimicrobial Activity Of Chitosan, Ebuel Sirmats

All Theses

The antimicrobial effectiveness of lower molecular weight (LMW) chitosan solutions was tested against Listeria innocua inoculated on TSA and MOX agar plates by the direct droplet method. The chitosan solutions were prepared by dissolving chitosan in 1% (v/v) acetic acid at concentrations ranging from 0.5 to 2.0% and irradiating with Co60 gamma rays ranging from 1 to 20 kGy. MW measurements of chitosan were determined by using HPSEC-MALLS-RI. The MW of chitosan varied from 114.8 kDa to 17.4 kDa and decreased with increasing irradiation dosages. Plate counts on TSA agar from shaker flask assays showed no significant differences among chitosan …

Development Of A Nonlinear Ride Quality Model To Aid In Tweelå© Parameter Selection, Marc Paradiso

All Theses

The ride comfort of a vehicle is very important to both automotive and tire manufacturers. Unfortunately the ride comfort provided by the tire has an inverse relationship with the handling ability of the vehicle. Michelin has sought to decouple ride comfort and handling capability by developing a non-pneumatic tire they have dubbed the TWEEL©. To better understand what effects fitting a TWEEL with specific characteristics would have on the ride comfort of a vehicle a computer simulation was developed to study the effects of TWEEL stiffness and deflection on ride comfort.
The vehicle model used in the simulation is a …

Development Of A Falling Sphere Instrument For High-Resolution Neutral Wind Measurements In The Mesosphere And Lower Thermosphere, Arpan Shah

All Theses

Passive falling spheres launched from small rockets have been used extensively in the past to measure the winds and densities in the mesosphere. In principle, the same technique can be extended to higher altitudes that cover the lower thermosphere, in addition to the mesosphere. The main difficulties are that accelerations decrease rapidly with height due to the decreasing atmospheric density and rigid spheres are required at higher altitudes, which implies larger mass and smaller accelerations. Accelerometers with broad dynamic range and high sensitivity are required for the measurements, but such devices are not readily available. We describe an instrumented falling …

Investigation Of Roundoff Noise In Iir Digital Filters Using Matlab, Sierra Williams

All Theses

As technology increases, more and more devices are becoming digital. The typical purpose of a digital filter is to detect unwanted signals and noise and remove them by filtering. The infinite impulse response (IIR) filter is also called a recursive filter because of the feedback necessary during implementation. A filter can be expressed as a cascade of second-order sections (SOS). For N sections, there are (N!) ways to pair the poles and zeros. There are also (N!) ways to order the resulting second-order sections, for a total of (N!)2 different filter configurations for implementation. In this thesis, for a 6th …

An Investigation Of Human Induced Vibrations On Clemson Memorial Stadium, Benjamin Morris

All Theses

Human induced stadium vibrations have become of increasing concern to design engineers and facility managers as more energetic crowds and increasingly efficient structures have increased the likelihood of serviceability issues. The 'in-time' bouncing of spectators due to music has caused one such issue in the south upper deck of Clemson University's Memorial Stadium. To gain an understanding of the severity of vibrations in Memorial Stadium, a combination of experimental and analytical modeling is utilized. Data collected by an array of accelerometers installed on a main post tensioned precast cantilever girder provides a season and a half of response histories in …

An Evaluation Of Function-Based Representations And Information Archival In Engineering Design, Benjamin Caldwell

All Theses

Recent research in function-based design includes the development of a vocabulary of functions, the Functional Basis, and a repository of products and their functions. Many design tools are being developed around this vocabulary and repository to support conceptual design. The usefulness of these tools, however, is dependent on the quality of the vocabulary and the information contained in the repository. In this research, both the vocabulary and the repository are empirically evaluated to understand their strengths and limitations. A statistical analysis is performed on function models in the repository to determine the frequency of usage of Functional Basis terms. It …

Experimental Study Of The Three-Stream Scalar Mixing In A Turbulent Coaxial Jet, Matthew Dinger

All Theses

In the present study we investigate three-stream scalar mixing in a turbulent coaxial jet. In
this flow the center jet and the annulus, consisting of acetone-doped air and ethylene respectively, are
mixed with the co-flow air. A unique aspect of this study compared to previous studies of three-scalar
mixing is that two of the scalars (the center jet and air) are separated from the third (annulus);
therefore, this flow better approximates the mixing process in a nonpremixed turbulent reactive
flow. Planar laser-indiced fluorescence and Rayleigh scattering are employed to measure the mass
fractions of the acetone-doped air and ethylene, respectively. …

Atomic Transfer For Distributed Systems, Haraldur Darri Thorvaldsson

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

Building applications and information systems increasingly means dealing with concurrency and faults stemming from distribution of system components. Atomic transactions are a well-known method for transferring the responsibility for handling concurrency and faults from developers to the software's execution environment, but incur considerable execution overhead. This dissertation investigates methods that shift some of the burden of concurrency control into the network layer, to reduce response times and increase throughput. It anticipates future programmable network devices, enabling customized high-performance network protocols.

We propose Atomic Transfer (AT), a distributed algorithm to prevent race conditions due to messages crossing on a path of …

High-Rate Channel Catfish Fingerling Production In The Partitioned Aquaculture System, Tim Wells

All Theses

The objective of this 4-year research project was to evaluate the performance of channel catfish (Ictalurus punctatus) fingerling production in the Partitioned Aquaculture System (PAS). The goal was to demonstrate production of 80-gram minimum sized fingerlings in a single growing season, allowing for 100% market-size fish production after one additional season in the grow-out PAS.
A series of 2-inch airlift pumps fed by a single 3-hp low-head blower was found to be capable of supplying sufficient water flow-rate (in 2005, 2006, and 2007) of gpm per container to 9 cohorts. A series of 0.75-hp axial flow pumps (in 2005, 2006, …

Reliability Of Light Frame Roof Systems Subject To High Winds, Angelina Gleason

All Theses

Recent hurricane damages have devastated coastal communities and focused national attention on hurricane damage mitigation. Structural damage is one of the most significant impacts of a hurricane. Even small levels of structural damage can result in large economic losses; when gaps open in the roof system, rain water can leak in, ruining the contents of the structure and rendering it uninhabitable although it is still standing. In order to prevent these secondary damages from occurring, a better understanding of the roof system behavior is essential. This research aims to ascertain the behavior of the roof system by determining the influence …

Sustainable Fitness Centers, Matthew Mockaitis

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

The world is in the midst of an energy crisis and it is only going to get worse. World energy consumption rates are increasing by the day; meanwhile, the amount of available natural resources to generate energy is decreasing at impressive rates. In addition, humans are becoming more aware and educated about the vast impact that their daily lives have on the environment. Scientists have discovered that the earth has been gradually warming over the past few decades. Natural cycles within the earth’s climate, at this time, cannot fully explain the relatively large increases in surface temperature in such a …

Synthesis Minimizations And Mesh Algorithm Selection: An Extension Of The Ultrasonic 3d Camera, Taylor Johnson

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

Statement of Purpose

The purpose of this Capstone project was to perform synthesis minimizations and optimal mesh algorithm selection for some of the digital components of a prototype Ultrasonic 3D Camera, the subject of my group senior design project for computer engineering. Both of the high-level design tasks that I performed were unnecessary for the scope of the senior design class, whose focus was simply to perform a proof-of-concept or create a basic, functioning prototype. The steps I took in performing synthesis optimizations and mesh algorithm selection went beyond the scope of the senior project, by doing the polishing that …

Analysis Of The Performance Of Iodinated Contrast X-Ray Attenuator Under Physiologically Relevant Conditions, Peter Frey

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

X-ray is a radiological tool utilized in healthcare institutions around the world to diagnose abnormalities such as bone fractures or the presence of foreign material within patients. The ability for healthcare providers to properly diagnose a problem is improved with advancements in the quality of radiological images. One way to improve image quality is to optimize the contrast range within a single image created by different attenuating characteristics in various types of tissue. In this study, I used a proof-of-concept prototype model of an x-ray attenuation system and an experimental protocol to examine its capacity to equalize x-ray beam signal …

Theoretical Analysis Of Alendronate And Risedronate Effects On Canine Vertebral Remodeling And Microdamage, Xiang Wang, Antonia M. Erickson, Matthew R. Allen, David B. Burr, R. Bruce Martin, Scott J. Hazelwood

Biomedical Engineering

Bisphosphonates suppress bone remodeling activity, increase bone volume, and significantly reduce fracture risk in individuals with osteoporosis and other metabolic bone diseases. The objectives of the current study were to develop a mathematical model that simulates control and 1 year experimental results following bisphosphonate treatment (alendronate or risedronate) in the canine fourth lumbar vertebral body, validate the model by comparing simulation predictions to 3 year experimental results, and then use the model to predict potential long term effects of bisphosphonates on remodeling and microdamage accumulation. To investigate the effects of bisphosphonates on bone volume and microdamage, a mechanistic biological model …