Engineering Commons^™

Process To Produce High Surface Area Nanoparticle Vanadium Phosphorus Oxide Catalyst And Product Derives Thereof, Yun Hin Taufiq-Yap, Ali A. Rownaghi

Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

An improved process to produce high surface area nanoparticle vanadium phosphorus oxide catalysts comprises the steps of reducing vanadium-containing compounds in an alcohol solution selected from the group consisting of isobutanol and benzyl alcohol and any combination derives thereof under reflux for 4 to 6 hours to form a suspended mixture; reacting dopants and phosphorus-containing compounds to the suspended mixture under reflux for 30 minutes to 3 hours to form precursors of the vanadium phosphorus oxide catalysts; drying the formed precursors; and calcining the dried precursors in a flow of gaseous n-butane/air mixture at 400 to 460° C. to form …

Synthesis And Characterization Of Electrospun Gelatin/Dendrimer Scaffold Encapsulated With A Silver As A Potential Antimicrobial Wound Dressing, Alpana Dongargaonkar

Theses and Dissertations

A novel nanofiber scaffold was fabricated and characterized as a potential antimicrobial wound dressing. Half generation polyamidoamine (PAMAM) dendrimer G3.5 was covalently conjugated to gelatin. Gelatin alone or with gelatin-dendrimer conjugates was electrospun into nanofiber scaffolds. Gelatin is a derivative of natural collagen, and it is biocompatible, non-toxic and inexpensive, making it a desirable component in a wound dressing. Dendrimers are synthetic polymers comprising of a central core, internal branches and reactive surface groups. They provide a structurally controlled architecture for drug release. Silver was incorporated into the scaffold in situ due to its broad spectrum of antimicrobial properties. The …

Reliability Of A Lunar Excavator, Amanda Michelle Huff

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Reliability Engineering is a field of engineering that studies the ability of a system (or component of a system) to function properly under specific conditions for a specific period of time; reliability analysis of such a system can take many forms. This thesis presents a quantified reliability study of a system that the author along with a team of Western Kentucky University Engineering students (designated Team ARTEMIS) designed, built, tested, and entered for competition in the Inaugural National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Lunabotics Mining Competition in May 2010. A detailed quantitative analysis has been completed using both a Failure …

Theory And Applications Of Compressive Sensing, Atul Divekar, Okan Ersoy

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Technical Reports

This thesis develops algorithms and applications for compressive sensing, a topic in signal processing that allows reconstruction of a signal from a limited number of linear combinations of the signal. New algorithms are described for common remote sensing problems including superresolution and fusion of images. The algorithms show superior results in comparison with conventional methods. We describe a method that uses compressive sensing to reduce the size of image databases used for content based image retrieval. The thesis also describes an improved estimator that enhances the performance of Matching Pursuit type algorithms, several variants of which have been developed for …

Flow Vision For Autonomous Underwater Vehicles Via An Artificial Lateral Line, Nam Nguyen, Douglas L. Jones, Yingchen Yang, Chang Liu

Mechanical Engineering Faculty Publications

Most fish have the capability of sensing flows and nearby movements even in dark or murky conditions by using the lateral line organs. This enables them to perform a variety of underwater activities, such as localizing prey, avoiding predators, navigating in narrow spaces, and schooling. To emulate this capability for Autonomous Underwater Vehicles, we developed an artificial lateral line using an array of Micro-Electro-Mechanical-Systems (MEMS) flow sensors. The signals collected via the artificial lateral line are then processed by an adaptive beamforming algorithm developed from Capon's method. The system produces 3D images of source locations for different hydrodynamic activities, including …

Automated Tool Design For Complex Free-Form Components, Kevin G. Foster

Theses and Dissertations

In today's competitive manufacturing industries, companies strive to reduce manufacturing development costs and lead times in hopes of reducing costs and capturing more market share from early release of their new or redesigned products. Tooling lead time constraints are some of the more significant challenges facing product development of advanced free-form components. This is especially true for complex designs in which large dies, molds or other large forming tools are required. The lead time for tooling, in general, consists of three main components; material acquisition, tool design and engineering, and tool manufacturing. Lead times for material acquisition and tool manufacture …

Development Of Electroencephalography Based Brain Controlled Switch And Nerve Conduction Study Simulator Software, Kai Qian

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis investigated the development of an EEG-based brain controlled switch and the design of a software for nerve conduction study. For EEG-based brain controlled switch, we proposed a novel paradigm for an online brain-controlled switch based on Event-Related Synchronizations (ERDs) following external sync signals. Furthermore, the ERD feature was enhanced by 3 event-related moving averages and the performance was tested online. Subjects were instructed to perform an intended motor task following an external sync signal in order to turn on a virtual switch. Meanwhile, the beta-band (16-20Hz) relative ERD power (ERD in reverse value order) of a single EEG …

Development Of A Flexible Fpga-Based Platform For Flight Control System Research, Robert Demott

Theses and Dissertations

This work is part of ongoing research conducted at Virginia Commonwealth University relating to unmanned aerial vehicles. The primary objective of this thesis was to develop a flexible, high-performance autopilot platform in order to facilitate research on advanced flight control algorithms. A dual FPGA-based system architecture utilizing a stacked, multi-board design was created to meet this goal. Processing tasks were split between the two FPGA devices, allowing for improved system timing and increased throughput. A combination of analog and digital filtering techniques were employed in the new system, resulting in enhanced sensor accuracy and precision compared to the previous generation …

Optimization Design Of Electrodes For Anode-Supported Solid Oxide Fuel Cells Via Genetic Algorithm, Junxiang Shi, Xingjian Xue

Faculty Publications

Porous electrode is the critical component of solid-oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) and provides a functional material backbone for multi-physicochemical processes. Model based electrode designs could significantly improve SOFC performance. This task is usually performed via parameter studies for simple case and assumed property distributions for graded electrodes. When nonlinearly coupled multiparameters of electrodes are considered, it could be very difficult for the model based parameter study method to effectively and systematically search the design space. In this research, the optimization approach with a genetic algorithm is demonstrated for this purpose. An anode-supported proton conducting SOFC integrated with a fuel supply …

Two-Zone Transient Storage Modeling Using Temperature And Solute Data With Multiobjective Calibration: 1. Temperature, Bethany T. Neilson, S. C. Chapra, David King Stevens, Christina J. Bandaragoda

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

This paper presents the formulation and calibration of the temperature portion of a two-zone temperature and solute (TZTS) model which separates transient storage into surface (STS) and subsurface transient storage (HTS) zones. The inclusion of temperature required the TZTS model formulation to differ somewhat from past transient storage models in order to accommodate terms associated with heat transfer. These include surface heat fluxes in the main channel (MC) and STS, heat and mass exchange between the STS and MC, heat and mass exchange between the HTS and MC, and heat exchange due to bed and deeper ground conduction. To estimate …

Two-Zone Transient Storage Modeling Using Temperature And Solute Data With Multi-Objective Calibration: 2. Temperature And Solute, Bethany T. Neilson, David King Stevens, S. C. Chapra, Christina J. Bandaragoda

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

This paper presents the multiobjective calibration results for temperature and solutefrom a two‐zone temperature and solute (TZTS) model which separates transient storageinto surface (STS) and subsurface (HTS) transient storage components. This modelcontains terms associated with surface heat fluxes in the main channel (MC) and STS, heatand mass exchange between the STS and MC, heat and mass exchange between the HTSand MC, and heat exchange due to bed and deeper ground conduction. To estimate theadditional parameters associated with a multiple‐zone model, a data collection effort wasconducted to provide temperature time series and solute tracer curves representingthe movement of heat and/or solute …

Education For Renewable Electric Energy Delivery And Management Systems, Mariesa Crow, M. Baran, A. Q. Huang

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The Future Renewable Electric Energy Delivery and Management (FREEDM) Systems Center is a National Science Foundation (NSF) Generation-III Engineering Research Center (ERC) established in 2008 with the mission to develop the fundamental and enabling technologies necessary for a new and paradigm shifting power grid infrastructure, the FREEDM System. the center involves more than fifty professors and one hundred fifty graduate and undergraduate students from five US universities and two international universities, as well as more than sixty companies and national laboratories in 28 states and nine countries. This paper will discuss some of the on-going efforts to educate students to …

Gms Considering Uncertainty In Wind Power In A Wind-Hydrothermal Power System, Y. Yare, Ganesh K. Venayagamoorthy

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

An optimal preventive generator maintenance scheduling (GMS) in a smart grid environment comprising wind-hydrothermal energy resources is presented in this paper. GMS problem is solved with the aim of maximizing economic benefits subject to satisfying system constraints. This GMS formulation becomes a challenging problem because of the variability and intermittency of wind speed and the incorporation of uncertainty in wind generation. the objective is to perform preventive GMS in such a manner that the annual generation cost is minimized, the annual cost saving is increased while all operating constraints are satisfied in the presence of uncertainty in wind generation. Discrete …

Voltage Prediction Using A Cellular Network, Lisa L. Grant, Ganesh K. Venayagamoorthy

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Better identification tools are needed for power system voltage profile prediction. the power systems of the future will see an increase in both renewable energy sources and load demand increasing the need for quick estimation of bus voltages and line power flows for system security and contingency analysis. a Cellular Simultaneous Recurrent Neural Network (CSRN) to identify and predict bus voltage dynamics is presented in this paper. the benefit of using a cellular structure over traditional neural network architectures is that the network can represent a direct mapping of any power system allowing for easier scalability to large power systems. …

Optimal Tuning Of System Stabilizer Parameters Using Pbil With Adaptive Learning Rate, K. A. Folly, Ganesh K. Venayagamoorthy

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This paper presents an optimal tuning of Power System Stabilizers (PSS) for a multi-machine power system using Population-Based Incremental Learning (PBIL) algorithm with adaptive learning rate. the proposed (APBIL) algorithm can adjust the learning rate automatically according to the degree of evolution of the search. the objective of the design is to achieve adequate stability over a wide range of operating conditions. the proposed controller is compared with traditional PBIL with fixed learning rate (PBIL) and tested under various operating conditions. Simulation results show that the APBIL based PSS provides a more efficient search capability and gives a better damping …

Supporting Islanded Microgrid Operations In The Presence Of Intermittent Wind Generation, Nikhil K. Ardeshna, Badrul H. Chowdhury

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Although microgrids have the potential to solve several sticky problems that beset the present-day grid, indiscriminate application can cause serious problems. Thorough studies are needed on many aspects to identify the potential problems and to develop effective mitigation techniques. Microgrids can operate in parallel with the main grid or as an isolated system to support customers isolated from the grid. during parallel operations, the microgrid supplies only a fraction of the power demand of the grid. However, in islanded operations, the microgrid must continue to supply 100% of power to the customers. Both types of operations are studied to identify …

Study Of Solid State Fault Interruption Device For Medium Voltage Distribution Systems With Distributed Generators, Mehul K. Madan, Badrul H. Chowdhury

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Solid state fault interruption devices (FID) can interrupt fault currents much faster than the presently available circuit breakers. Due to their current inability to block system level voltages, presently available semiconductor devices are connected in series to increase blocking capability of the fault interrupting device. to verify the ability of the interruption device for use in a medium voltage distribution system, a FID model is subjected to simulated tests for continuous current carrying capability, rated fault current interruption, and lightning impulse withstand tests. a simulation to demonstrate the ability of the FID to interrupt fault currents in a 7.2kV distribution …

Feedback Linearization Internal Control For The Unified Power Flow Controller, Keyou Wang, Mariesa L. Crow

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This paper presents feedback linearization-based controller design methodology for a unified power flow controller (UPFC) to achieve rapid reference signal tracking in the internal level. Feedback linearization control (FBLC) is a nonlinear technique based on differential geometry theory and overcomes the drawback of traditional PI control linearizing at one specific operating condition. FBLC is applied on UPFC dynamic model via an appropriate coordinate transformation and LQR control is then applied on the transferred linear system. the proposed control is validated on the IEEE 118-bus system with full-order generator and network models. ©2010 IEEE.

Soil Behavior Under Blast Loading, Jichong An

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Understanding the behavior of soil under blast loading is very important to engineers in mining, tunneling, and military construction. Due to the very complex structure of a soil mass it is very difficult to describe its constitutive relation, especially when it has different water contents and it is under blast loading conditions. New protective system designs subjected to blast loading need to be proved its validation prior to predict effect of explosive before implementation. Full-scale, buried explosive tests are costly. Finite element simulations play a significant role in the design of protective systems, for example a bottom platform of lightweight …

A Generalized Non-Parametric Approach For Uncertainty Evaluation In Travel Time Prediction Models, Bhaven Naik

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

A core component within Advanced Traveler Information Systems is travel time information because it is easily understood and perceived by travelers. However, the suggested travel time information should be based not only on historical and real-time conditions, but also on forecasted or “unknown” future conditions.

Existing research has focused primarily on developing models that forecast point estimates of the mean travel time that are in close comparison to their respective field values. There has been limited research on any insight into the reliability or uncertainty margin that exists around the forecasted point estimate. As well, these researches have a limitation …

Digital Implementation Of A True Random Number Generator, Sam Mitchum

Theses and Dissertations

Random numbers are important for gaming, simulation and cryptography. Random numbers have been generated using analog circuitry. Two problems exist with using analog circuits in a digital design: (1) analog components require an analog circuit designer to insure proper structure and functionality and (2) analog components are not easily transmigrated into a different fabrication technology. This paper proposes a class of random number generators that are constructed using only digital components and typical digital design methodology. The proposed classification is called divergent path since the path of generated numbers through the range of possible values diverges at every sampling. One …

Numerical Simulation Of Underground Solar Thermal Energy Storage, Marshall Sweet

Theses and Dissertations

The United States Department of Energy indicates that 97% of all homes in the US use fossil fuels either directly or indirectly for space heating. In 2005, space heating in residential homes was responsible for releasing approximately 502 million metric tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Meanwhile, the Sun provides the Earth with 1000 watts per square meter of power everyday. This document discusses the research of modeling a system that will capture and store solar energy during the summer for use during the following winter. Specifically, flat plate solar thermal collectors attached to the roof of a single …

Integrating Balanced Scorecard And Simulation Modelling To Improve Emergency Department Performance In Irish Hospitals, Amr Arisha, Waleed Abo-Hamad, Khaled Ismail

Conference papers

In the healthcare sector, there is a requirement for innovative solutions in managing the high levels of complexity and uncertainty within Emergency Departments (EDs). Simulation modeling is currently seen as a competent means of analyzing EDs, which allows changes effects to be understood and predicted more easily. The Balanced Scorecard (BSC), well-known performance management concept, has become a steering method in approaching new improvement cycles. This paper presents a methodology that integrates BSC and simulation modeling to improve the performance of ED in a University Hospital in North Dublin. BSC design began with understanding patient's needs, ED activities, as well …

Embedded Radio Frequency Identification Device License Plates For Roadside Use In Nebraska, Dwight L. Mosby Jr.

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The transportation industry has many stakeholders with different needs that work with advanced technologies. Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is an emerging technology that is used to track inventory and it holds promise for the transportation industry. This research identifies how to evaluate transportation stakeholder requirements for RFID technologies using a tool described as the House of Quality (HOQ). This research investigates RFID’s ability to work in license plates and may provide infrastructure to support identifying RFID enabled commercial vehicles. This research considers variables that affect the performance of a RFID License Plate System that will use a scanner located at …

Evaluating Obsolete Inventory Policies In A Hospital's Supply Chain, Maurice D. Cavitt

Department of Industrial and Management Systems Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Numerous organizations are currently facing inventory management problems including distributing inventory on time and maintaining the appropriate inventory level to satisfy the end user. Organizations understand the importance of inventory accuracy as any error will increase the purchasing and holding costs affecting investment decisions. Lack of information about effective measures that will allow management to make important business decisions motivated this research to identify a decision criterion for warehouse management. A feasible solution of calculating the carrying cost ratio from purchasing and holding cost is the main objective of this thesis. The carrying cost ratio will allow managers to make …

Evaluation Of Optimization Algorithms For Improvement Of A Transportation Companies (In-House) Vehicle Routing System, Jian Han

Department of Industrial and Management Systems Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Vehicle routing problem (VRP) is the main issue of the transportation. It is becoming more and more popular. Trucking companies play an important role in the transportation industry. Most trucking companies are developing their own software to make profit. Often, the software is used for routing optimization models to minimize cost because the first work is organized over the road.

Linear Programming and saving heuristics are traditional algorithms for solving the vehicle routing problems. However, none of the companies want to make a decision of routing by calculating with mathematics models in their companies. So the vehicle routing software is …

The Development Of A Phase Locked Wind Turbine Blade Finite Element Model To Predict Loads And Deflections During Fatigue Testing, Kyle Andrew Freeman

Master's Theses - Daytona Beach

Full scale blade testing provides blade manufacturers with quantitative data in order to assess blade design, manufacturing and durability. Structural testing is a requirement in order to design reliable blades, and to develop a further understanding of the dynamics involved in a modern turbine blade. Blade tests can be conducted in either a single axis or dual axis configurations. Historically, fatigue testing has been performed by utilizing forced displacement systems. These systems do not allow for the load phase angle to be controlled, and the maximum load application in the edge and flap directions are allowed to vary. The PhLEX …

Network Science: Using Information Technology To Enable Collaboration, Arden L. Bement Jr.

PPRI Digital Library

No abstract provided.

Note: Autonomous Pulsed Power Generator Based On Transverse Shock Wave Depolarization Of Ferroelectric Ceramics, S. I. Shkuratov, Jason Baird, E. F. Talantsev

Mining Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Autonomous pulsed generators utilizing transverse shock wave depolarization (shock front propagates across the polarization vector P₀) of Pb(Zr_0.52Ti_0.48)O₃ poled piezoelectric ceramics were designed, constructed, and experimentally tested. It was demonstrated that generators having total volume of 50 cm³ were capable of producing the output voltage pulses with amplitude up to 43 kV with pulse duration 4 µs. A comparison of high-voltage operation of transverse and longitudinal shock wave ferroelectric generators is given.

The Development Of An Adaptive Control System For A Phase-Locked Excitation (Phlex) Method For Advanced Wind Turbine Blade Fatigue Testing, William Michael Haupfear

Master's Theses - Daytona Beach

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory's (NREL) National Wind Technology Center (NWTC) provides the means necessary for advanced wind turbine blade testing. To improve on the current testing methods, a new testing method is being developed using the existing dual-axis fatigue testing capabilities in conjunction with another actuator to provide a phase-locked excitation method with adaptive algorithms and advanced control system strategies. This testing method will provide a more representative loading of the blade for fatigue testing as compared to loading seen in the field. The control system will integrate the MTS software and controller with a supervisory controller, programmed in …