Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Engineering Commons™

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

2010

Discipline
Institution
Keyword
Publication
Publication Type
File Type

Articles 331 - 360 of 5373

Full-Text Articles in Engineering

Foam Wars Ii, Sumant Advani, Sivadas Menon, Casey Pieplow Dec 2010

Foam Wars Ii, Sumant Advani, Sivadas Menon, Casey Pieplow

Mechanical Engineering

The team producing Foam Wars II consists of three Mechanical Engineering students and five Kinesiology students (three the first two quarters and two the last quarter) at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. The project is the second iteration of Foam Wars as a senior project at Cal Poly, sponsored by Dr. Kevin Taylor under the National Science Foundation grant. Persons with disabilities often feel limited when it comes to recreational activities and Foam Wars would provide them with an outlet to interact and engage themselves in a group setting. The game consists of various wheelchair attachments that would …

Go to article

Universal Play Frame Vi, Justin Bazant, Cullen Crackel, Anthony Franceschi Dec 2010

Universal Play Frame Vi, Justin Bazant, Cullen Crackel, Anthony Franceschi

Mechanical Engineering

This design report details the design process utilized by Adaptive Exercise Designs (AED) in creating the sixth design of the Universal Play Frame (UPF). The UPF is an adaptive frame which supports a variety of devices that allows athletes in wheelchairs with limited range of motion to participate in physical activity. The past five frame designs do not meet the needs of the Friday Club due to complications with function and time constraints. To ensure all of Fridays Club's needs were met, the problem was better defined by converting the customer requirements into engineering specifications. The design process our team …

Go to article

Piedras Blancas Clock Works, Andrew James, Andrew Jupin, Matt Weber Dec 2010

Piedras Blancas Clock Works, Andrew James, Andrew Jupin, Matt Weber

Mechanical Engineering

In 1875, the Piedras Blancas Lighthouse was built to warn ships sailing the California coast of the hazards of the rocky shore. In 1949 a fierce storm damaged the top portion of the lighthouse and the eight ton cast iron and brass assembly had to be replaced by a much lighter piece that still served the purpose of warning oncoming vessels. The former top portion came to rest in downtown Cambria and is still there today, enclosed in a glass room to be observed by visitors and townspeople. Today, the Piedras Blancas Light station is cared for by the Bureau …

Go to article

A Dynamic Approach To Determine The Product Flow Nature In Apparel Supply Chain Network, Mohammed Marufuzzaman, Ahmed M. Deif Dec 2010

A Dynamic Approach To Determine The Product Flow Nature In Apparel Supply Chain Network, Mohammed Marufuzzaman, Ahmed M. Deif

Industrial Technology and Packaging

This paper presents a novel metric, product flow number, to determine the product flow nature across the supply chain of apparel industries. The metric is based on mapping the dynamics of fluid flow across a pipe to product flow across a supply chain. Numerical analysis is conducted to examine the impact of the different metric parameters on the product flow. Results showed that smooth dynamics can be achieved through scaling production and extending delivery times, while undesirable dynamics are tied to complex product designs and increasing number of suppliers. Finally, the paper demonstrated how the new metric can be used …

Go to article

Carbon Fiber Subwoofer Enclosure, Dustin Trone Dec 2010

Carbon Fiber Subwoofer Enclosure, Dustin Trone

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

This project addressed a gap between consumer demand and market supply for performance car audio systems. It was recognized that there is a current desire for products made with carbon fiber due to its aesthetic appeal, strength to weight qualities, and general popularity. And this desire for such products applies to audio systems, and more specifically to aftermarket subwoofer systems. The projects main goal was to develop a product to meet the largely unmet demand for a carbon fiber subwoofer enclosure. This project centered on the best way to manufacture a carbon fiber subwoofer enclosure, with a focus on materials, …

Go to article

Offshore Wind Power Integration Into The South Carolina Power System, Mountaga Fane Dec 2010

Offshore Wind Power Integration Into The South Carolina Power System, Mountaga Fane

All Theses

The steady state analysis of the impact of offshore wind on the South Carolina power transmission was conducted in three phases of incremental wind energy injection into the system using forecasted base power flow. The simulation of Phase I involved the generation capacity of 80 MW projected for 2014 in state water. The modeling Phases II and III, which will distribute the energy among neighboring utilities, involve a supplementary capacity of 1000 MW projected for 2020 and 2000 MW for 2030 in federal water. In addition to this steady state investigation, a contingency analysis was performed on the power system …

Go to article

Optimizing The Mechanical Properties Of Partially Yttria Stabilized Zirconia With Alumina Additions, Ramanaganapathy Kandaswamy Dec 2010

Optimizing The Mechanical Properties Of Partially Yttria Stabilized Zirconia With Alumina Additions, Ramanaganapathy Kandaswamy

All Theses

Zirconia is one of the extensively studied solid oxide ceramics with respect to its use in various industrial applications like electrolyte in fuel cells, sensors, refractories and exhaust chamber in automobile industry. It can be found from the literature 1-4 that are contradictory results on the mechanical properties when alumina is added. There are several factors like microstructure, phase composition and method of processing that affects the mechanical properties of the material. The focus of this research is to examine how hardness, tensile strength and other properties varies with alumina content and deduce the optimal amount of alumina that is …

Go to article

Vena Cava As An Alternative To Pericardium In Bioprosthetic Percutaneous Heart Valves, Amy Munnelly Dec 2010

Vena Cava As An Alternative To Pericardium In Bioprosthetic Percutaneous Heart Valves, Amy Munnelly

All Theses

Valve disease is a specialized form of cardiovascular disease that specifically affects the heart valves. Heart valves serve the vital function of maintaining unidirectional blood flow through the chambers of the heart during the cardiac cycle; however, as valve disease progresses, this function can become severely compromised [1]. Currently, the only cure for valve disease is to replace the defective valve with an engineered substitute. Each year, over 300,000 heart valve replacement surgeries are performed worldwide [2], and this number is expected to continue growing as life expectancies increase [3].
In the United States, the most common form of valve …

Go to article

Modeling Greenhouse Gas Emissions From Conventional Wastewater Treatment Plants In South Carolina, Andrea Hicks Dec 2010

Modeling Greenhouse Gas Emissions From Conventional Wastewater Treatment Plants In South Carolina, Andrea Hicks

All Theses

Wastewater treatment is an essential part of life in the urbanized world. As global climate change becomes a more pressing issue, the greenhouse gas emissions created through wastewater treatment will become a more prominent concern. Tertiary treatment will likely be standard for wastewater treatment plants in the near future, and therefore must be included in a model of greenhouse gas emissions. Also, the geographic location of a WWTP will change the mix of power types (e.g., coal, nuclear, biomass) used to run the plant. Although GHG emissions from the waste sector are small compared to the emissions of the United …

Go to article

Identifying Barriers To Address During The Delivery Of Sustainable Building Renovation Projects, Corey Cattano Dec 2010

Identifying Barriers To Address During The Delivery Of Sustainable Building Renovation Projects, Corey Cattano

All Theses

Architects, engineers, and contractors are continuously searching for tools and methods to reduce the unique risks associated with the delivery of construction projects. Since national policies to reduce carbon emissions and energy consumption will require drastic improvements to the existing building stock, one specific area in need of such tools is the sustainable renovation of existing buildings. The purpose of this research is to identify the barriers to address during the delivery of sustainable renovation projects and offer solutions that overcome these barriers. For example, typical renovation projects do not coordinate energy retrofits with building system renovations, resulting in poor …

Go to article

A Computational Method For Analysis Of Material Properties Of A Non-Pneumatic Tire And Their Effects On Static Load Deflection, Vibration And Energy Loss From Impact Rolling Over Obstacles, Akshay Narasimhan Dec 2010

A Computational Method For Analysis Of Material Properties Of A Non-Pneumatic Tire And Their Effects On Static Load Deflection, Vibration And Energy Loss From Impact Rolling Over Obstacles, Akshay Narasimhan

All Theses

One of the potential sources of vibration during rolling of a non pneumatic tire is the buckling phenomenon and snapping back of the spokes in tension when they enter and exit the contact zone. Another source of noise was hypothesized due to a flower pedal ring vibration effect due to discrete spoke interaction with the ring and contact with the ground during rolling as the spokes cycle between tension and compression. Transmission of vibration between the ground force, ring and spokes to the hub was also considered to be a significant contributor to vibration and noise characteristics of the Tweel. …

Go to article

Discontinuous Galerkin Method For 1d Shallow Water Flow With Water Surface Slope Limiter, Wencong Lai Dec 2010

Discontinuous Galerkin Method For 1d Shallow Water Flow With Water Surface Slope Limiter, Wencong Lai

All Theses

A water surface slope limiting scheme is applied to numerically solve the one dimensional shallow water equations with bottom slope source term. The total variation diminishing Runge-Kutta discontinuous Galerkin finite element method with slope limiter schemes based on water surface and water depth are investigated for solving one-dimensional shallow water equations. For each slope limiter, three different Riemann solvers based on HLL, LF, and Roe flux functions are used. The three different solvers with slope limiters based on water surface and water depth are applied to simulate idealized dambreak problem, hydraulic jump, quiescent flow, subcritical flow, supercritical flow, and transcritical …

Go to article

A Computational Investigation Of Contact Pressure For A Non-Pnemautic Wheel With A Meta-Material Shear Band, Renuka Jagadish Dec 2010

A Computational Investigation Of Contact Pressure For A Non-Pnemautic Wheel With A Meta-Material Shear Band, Renuka Jagadish

All Theses

One of the missions of National Aeronautics Space Administration (NASA) is to develop a vehicle that can travel for a longer distance on the moon and have a greater degree of mobility compared to the currently used Lunar Roving Vehicles (LRV). This led to the development of the All-Terrain Hex-Limed Extra-Terrestrial Explorer (ATHLETE), which requires a significant advance in the type of wheels that must be used on this highly mobile lander. The Michelin Lunar Wheel, which is a non-pneumatic tire invented by Michelin Researche et Technologie has been identified as one of the key designs capable of performing on …

Go to article

Investigation Of Northeast Extreme Tee (Next) D Beam Bridges As An Alternative To Precast Hollow Core Bridges: An Exploration Of Appropriate Slab Design Forces, Daniel Deery Dec 2010

Investigation Of Northeast Extreme Tee (Next) D Beam Bridges As An Alternative To Precast Hollow Core Bridges: An Exploration Of Appropriate Slab Design Forces, Daniel Deery

All Theses

Adjacent precast, prestressed concrete beam bridges have become a popular solution throughout the country because deck forming can be eliminated and construction is rapid. In South Carolina, adjacent beam bridges primarily consist of flat slab or hollow core sections, and they are currently only used on secondary, low-volume, short-span bridges. Durability and load sharing issues stemming from cracking, however, have caused concern with the longevity of these bridge types. Thus, the South Carolina Department of Transportation (SCDOT) has sought an alternative to the flat slab for short span bridges that can be used on high volume roads without an overlay. …

Go to article

Molecular Characterization Of Enrichment Cultures That Grow On Tetrachloroethene, 1,2 Dichloroethane And Ethylene Dibromide, Hari Shankar Peethambaram Dec 2010

Molecular Characterization Of Enrichment Cultures That Grow On Tetrachloroethene, 1,2 Dichloroethane And Ethylene Dibromide, Hari Shankar Peethambaram

All Theses

Halogenated aliphatic hydrocarbons are among the most common contaminants in soil and groundwater found at hazardous waste sites throughout the United States. Among them are tetrachloroethene (PCE), 1,2-dichloroethane (1,2-DCA) and ethylene dibromide (EDB). Organohalide respiration of each compound has been reported. However, considerably less information is known about EDB than PCE and 1,2-DCA, including the yield that occurs during growth with EDB as the sole TEA. The main objective of this project was to determine which types of chlororespiring microbes predominate during growth of enrichment cultures when PCE, 1,2-DCA and EDB served as the TEA, and what their yield is. …

Go to article

Advanced Automotive Thermal Management - Operation Of An Electric Radiator Fan Array For Reduced Electric Power Consumption, Amit Jagarwal Dec 2010

Advanced Automotive Thermal Management - Operation Of An Electric Radiator Fan Array For Reduced Electric Power Consumption, Amit Jagarwal

All Theses

The depletion of fossil fuel reserves and the limited renewable energy resources have raised public awareness about the need to improve fuel efficiency in ground transportation vehicles. The internal combustion engine remains one of the primary industrial machines using gasoline or diesel fuel to produce mechanical work. In these engines, the cooling system performs the vital role of removing waste heat to ensure normal combustion processes in the cylinders. To accomplish this task, the radiator, the radiator fan(s), the thermostat valve, and the water pump operated by circulating cooling fluid through the engine block and rejecting heat to the atmosphere. …

Go to article

Assessment And Analysis Of Emotional Intelligence In Engineering Students, Xiaodan Zhou Dec 2010

Assessment And Analysis Of Emotional Intelligence In Engineering Students, Xiaodan Zhou

All Theses

ABSTRACT
Current research on the importance and relevance of the relationship between emotional intelligence and work outcomes has continuously gained momentum since the publication of Daniel Goleman's best seller Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ (Goleman, 1995). Professional expertise is no longer the only standard by which to evaluate graduates. 'Soft skills', like emotional intelligence are viewed as effective ways, to distinguish potential high-performance workers and those who will be 'no more than' a worker. This paper made an attempt to correlate emotional intelligence with academic performance of civil engineering students. The emotional capability of the students …

Go to article

Incorporating Function Structures Into Morphological Charts: A User Study, Jenkins Richardson Iii Dec 2010

Incorporating Function Structures Into Morphological Charts: A User Study, Jenkins Richardson Iii

All Theses

A morphological chart is an ideation tool that represents a large qualitative design space. Currently, morphological charts use a function list to as the function representation of the design problem. Using the morphological chart means (solutions) that can perform each function are generated. Combining one means from each function produces an integrated conceptual design solution. By repeating this process with all possible combination contained in the morphological chart, a long list of conceptual design solutions will be generated, although not all will be practical. This long list of potential design solutions is difficult to analyze and there are limited systematic …

Go to article

Evaluation Of Utility Relocation Costs And Best Management Practices, Michael Reinke Dec 2010

Evaluation Of Utility Relocation Costs And Best Management Practices, Michael Reinke

All Theses

In recent years, the SCDOT has experienced a significant variation in estimated costs for the relocation of utilities on many projects. This has led to cost overruns and caused concerns for the district engineers responsible for the projects. Through meetings with SCDOT personnel and utility company representatives it was determined that a standardized cost estimate form combined with improved change order management and cost management strategies was needed. Recently submitted estimates were analyzed and rated by a panel on multiple criteria to generate a list of 'poor', 'good', and 'excellent' estimates. The 'excellent' estimates provided insight into the development of …

Go to article

Mass And Assembly Time Reduction For Future Generation Automotive Vehicles Based On Existing Vehicle Model, Essam Namouz Dec 2010

Mass And Assembly Time Reduction For Future Generation Automotive Vehicles Based On Existing Vehicle Model, Essam Namouz

All Theses

This research presents method for evaluating the lightweightedness of a vehicle and an approach for vehicle assembly time savings potential developed through a case study. The Lazy Part Identification method for mass reduction specifically addresses those components whose primary purpose is to aid in manufacturing and assembly rather than to provide end-user function. Seven specific laziness indicators are described and illustrated: rigid-to-rigid connection, support for a flexible, non-moving part, positioning feature, duplicate geometry, fastener, bridging system, and material flow restriction. These indicators are used to evaluate individual vehicle components as part of a proposed method for identifying mass reduction potential. …

Go to article

Analysis Of Alternative Manufacturing Processes For Lightweight Biw Designs, Using Analytical Hierarchy Process, Srinath Vijayakumar Dec 2010

Analysis Of Alternative Manufacturing Processes For Lightweight Biw Designs, Using Analytical Hierarchy Process, Srinath Vijayakumar

All Theses

The main objective of the analysis was to investigate the forming of Body in White (BIW) panels using alternative processes most suitable for replacing the conventional press working process in order to achieve a reduction in the total mass of the vehicle body structure. The selection of the alternatives was guided by multi criteria decision making tool, the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). Here the alternatives were selected based on their relative importance to the different manufacturing attributes considered. The selected processes were applied to the manufacturing of different parts of BIW indicated in the BOM along with suggestion of the …

Go to article

Circuit Modules For Cmos High-Power Short Pulse Generators, Yongtao Geng Dec 2010

Circuit Modules For Cmos High-Power Short Pulse Generators, Yongtao Geng

All Theses

High-power short electrical pulses are important for high-performance functionality integration, such as the development of microelectromechanical/nanoelectromechanical systems (MEMS/NEMS), system on chip (SoC) and lab on chip (LoC). Many of these applications need high-power (low impedance load) short electrical pulses, in addition to CMOS digital intelligence. Therefore, it is of great interest to develop new circuit techniques to generate high-power high-voltage short electrical pulses on-chip.
Results on pulse forming line (PFL) based CMOS pulse generator studies are reported. Through simulations, the effects of PFL length, switch speed and switch resistance on the output pulses are clarified. CMOS pulse generators are modeled …

Go to article

Determining The Global Maximum Biofuel Production Potential Without Conflicting With Food And Feed Consumption, Watcharapol Pumkaew Dec 2010

Determining The Global Maximum Biofuel Production Potential Without Conflicting With Food And Feed Consumption, Watcharapol Pumkaew

All Theses

This study tries to resolve the competition between food and biofuel by balancing the allocation between food and feed areas and biofuel areas for the entire world. The maximum energy production is calculated by determining the theoretical amount of energy that can be grown, once food and feed consumption is taken into account, based on the assumption that unprotected grass and woody lands and forest lands can be converted into cultivated lands. The total optimum land area for biofuel energy, 4,926.49 Mha, consists of corn, rapeseed, sugar beet, sugar cane, and grasses. When considering energy conversion efficiency, the maximum energy …

Go to article

Molecular Physics Of Electrical Double Layers In Electrochemical Capacitors, Guang Feng Dec 2010

Molecular Physics Of Electrical Double Layers In Electrochemical Capacitors, Guang Feng

All Dissertations

At present, electrochemical capacitors (ECs) are emerging as a novel type of energy storage devices and have attracted remarkable attention, due to their key characteristics, such as high power density and excellent durability. However, the moderate energy density of ECs restricts their widespread deployment in everyday technology. To surmount this limitation, four strategies are adopted: (1) to reduce the total system mass, (2) to increase the specific surface area of electrodes, (3) to enhance normalized capacitance, and (4) to expand the range of potentials applied on electrodes. The implementation of these approaches critically relies on the fundamental understanding of physical …

Go to article

An Investigation Of Metaheuristics Using Path- Relinking On The Quadratic Assignment Problem, Thashika Rupasinghe Dec 2010

An Investigation Of Metaheuristics Using Path- Relinking On The Quadratic Assignment Problem, Thashika Rupasinghe

All Dissertations

The Quadratic Assignment Problem (QAP) is a widely researched, yet complex, combinatorial optimization problem that is applicable in modeling many real-world problems. Specifically, many optimization problems are formulated as QAPs. To resolve QAPs, the recent trends have been to use metaheuristics rather than exact or heuristic methods, and many researchers have found that the use of hybrid metaheuristics is actually more effective. A newly proposed hybrid metaheuristic is path relinking (PR), which is used to generate solutions by combining two or more reference solutions. In this dissertation, we investigated these diversification and intensification mechanisms using QAP. To satisfy the extensive …

Go to article

Circuit Modules For Broadband Cmos Six-Port Systems, Chaojiang Li Dec 2010

Circuit Modules For Broadband Cmos Six-Port Systems, Chaojiang Li

All Dissertations

This dissertation investigates four circuit modules used in a CMOS integrated six-port measurement system. The first circuit module is a wideband power source generator, which can be implemented with a voltage controlled ring oscillator. The second circuit module is a low-power 0.5 GHz - 20.5 GHz power detector with an embedded amplifier and a wideband quasi T-coil matching network. The third circuit module is a six-port circuit, which can be implemented with distributed or lumped- lement techniques. The fourth circuit module is the phase sifter used as calibration loads. The theoretical analysis, circuit design, simulated or experimental verifications of each …

Go to article

Comprehensive Thermal Modeling Of Power Split Hybrid Power-Train And Electronics, Abdel Mayyas Dec 2010

Comprehensive Thermal Modeling Of Power Split Hybrid Power-Train And Electronics, Abdel Mayyas

All Dissertations

Hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) uses both internal combustion engine (ICE) with an electric system. The combination of the electric power train with the ICE is intended to achieve both better fuel economies than the conventional vehicles and better performance. Several types of HEV exist with different layouts. Recent HEVs' make use of regenerative braking, which converts the vehicles' kinetic energy into electric energy instead of wasting it as heat as conventional brakes do. A hybrid-electric is more fuel efficient than ICE and has less environmental impact.
The new HEV with its new Key Characteristics and Configurations (i.e. Mechanical complexity, Multiple …

Go to article

Packet Error Rate Predictive Model For Sensor Radios On Fast Rotating Structures, Lei Tang Dec 2010

Packet Error Rate Predictive Model For Sensor Radios On Fast Rotating Structures, Lei Tang

All Dissertations

Wireless sensing technologies have raised widespread interests in the applications for monitoring fast rotating or moving machinery structures in manufacturing environments. Over the past five years, a few wireless sensor systems have been implemented and proven to feasibly work under fast rotation conditions. However, few of these studies evaluated data transmission performance of the wireless communication systems. Although the manufacturing environments are known to be harsh for wireless communication, in many cases, an excellent data throughput is critical for such systems. Conventional statistical methods for studying wireless communication channels are not sufficient in this specific field.
This dissertation presents systematic …

Go to article

High Frequency Ferromagnetic Inductive Elements For On-Chip Integration And Their Magnetization Dynamics, Hanqiao Zhang Dec 2010

High Frequency Ferromagnetic Inductive Elements For On-Chip Integration And Their Magnetization Dynamics, Hanqiao Zhang

All Dissertations

The dissertation focuses on the broadband characterization of magnetization dynamics of submicron (200-550 nm wide, 10 µm long, 100 nm thick) and micron (2-10 µm wide, 100 µm long, 100 nm thick) size patterned ferromagnetic material (Permalloy, Py) with low frequency and microwave measurement methods. Particularly the ferromagnetic resonance (FMR), damping process, magnetization reversal, mag-noise, and 1/f noise in different pattern geometry, DC current and external magnetic field bias situations are investigated. In addition to simple microwave transmission line measurements, a sensitive on-chip microwave interferometer is proposed and fabricated by means of nano-fabrication techniques. The FMR properties of an individual …

Go to article

Pulsed-Laser Direct Writing Of Biological Materials, Yafu Lin Dec 2010

Pulsed-Laser Direct Writing Of Biological Materials, Yafu Lin

All Dissertations

Laser direct writing, developed based on modified laser-induced forward transfer (LIFT), has been emerging as one of the most promising biofabrication techniques. While some studies have been conducted to investigate laser direct writing of biological materials, there are some key challenges such as mechanisms of bubble formation, droplet formation and process-induced cell injury that have not been well elucidated. The objective of this dissertation is to study laser-induced droplet formation dynamics and process-induced cell injury in pulsed-laser direct writing of biological materials, and improve the existing laser direct-write techniques.
Phase explosion is identified as the dominant bubble formation mechanism in …

Go to article

First Prev Next Last