Engineering Commons^™

Mechanical Properties Of Pecvd Boron Carbide, Dhairyashil Aher

Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

To the best of our knowledge, the mechanical properties of PECVD boron carbide (BC) grown using ortho-carborane as a source molecule have never been investigated before. Therefore, this thesis is an attempt to apply the bulge test and the nanoindentation technique for the mechanical characterization of PECVD BC thin films. Mechanical properties such as the Young’s modulus, hardness and residual stress were investigated. The bulge test system using an interferometry technique to measure the deflection of membrane has been designed. Commercially available LPCVD SiN_x membrane windows were used as a substrate to deposit BC films for the bulge test. …

The Effect Of Axial Conduction On Heat Transfer In A Liquid Microchannel Flow, Kevin D. Cole, Barbaros Çetin

Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering: Faculty Publications

Analysis is presented for conjugate heat transfer in a parallel-plate microchannel. Axial conduction in the fluid and in the adjacent wall are included. The fluid is a constant property liquid with a fully-developed velocity distribution. The microchannel is heated by a uniform heat flux applied to the outside of the channel wall. The analytic solution is given in the form of integrals by the method of Green’s functions. Quadrature is used to obtain numerical results for the local and average Nusselt number for various flow velocities, heating lengths, wall thicknesses, and wall conductivities. These results have application in the optimal …

Improving Concrete Containment Structures Associated With Fixed-Cone Valves, B. Skyler Buck

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Fixed-Cone valves are often used to dissipate energy and regulate flow at the low level outlet works of dams. Fixed-Cone valves, also known as Howell-Bunger valves, create an expanding conical jet allowing the energy of the water to dissipate over a large area. However, in many applications constructing the large stilling basin necessary for these valves is either not possible or not feasible. In order to reduce the relative size of the stilling basin, hoods or concrete containment structures have been used in conjunction with Fixed-Cone valves. This paper compares two methods of energy dissipation used in conjunction with concrete …

Assessing Phosphorus-Transport From Biosolids Land Application Sites In Utah, Mohan K. Kumar

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Phosphorus Site Index (PSI) is a phosphorus transport assessment tool used to estimate the risk of P transport from soils. Various components, such as soil erosion, P fertilizer application rate, plant available P in soil, etc. that have an influence on P transport from a site, are weighted and given ratings, and a combination of these components are expressed as PSI. This study has considered two biosolids land application sites in Utah, which received biosolids amendments over time, to develop a specialized PSI for the state of Utah.

Phosphorus from land application of biosolids has been considered a potential risk …

Theoretical Approach For Error Estimation Of Temperature And Thermal Conductivity In Uranium Dioxide Fuel, Adam John Gerth

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

The knowledge of in-reactor thermophysical properties of nuclear fuel rods, which are usually composed of uranium dioxide (UO2) ceramics, is important for the safe design and operation of nuclear power plants. A two thermocouple method can be utilized to determine the thermal conductivity within the fuel rods by measuring rod centerline temperature and cladding temperature. Using this technique, Halden Reactor Project (HRP) has developed a correlation for thermal conductivity of UO2 as a function of temperature and burnup. This correlation for thermal conductivity was extracted from experimental data based on a constant thermal conductivity assumption of the fuel rod. However, …

What Is Inverse-Geometry Ct?, Taly Gilat Schmidt

Biomedical Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Inverse-geometry computed tomography (IGCT) systems are being developed to provide improved volumetric imaging. In conventional multislice CT systems, x-rays are emitted from a small area and irradiate a large-area detector. In an IGCT system, x-ray sources are distributed over a large area, with each beam irradiating a small-area detector. Therefore, in the inverse geometry, a series of narrow x-ray beams are switched on and off while the gantry rotates. In conventional CT geometry, cone-beam and scatter artifacts increase with the imaged volume thickness. An inverse geometry may be less susceptible to scatter effects, because only a fraction of the field …

Requirements Determination Of A Novel Non-Pneumatic Wheel Shear Beam For Low Rolling Resistance, Niranjan Thyagaraja

All Theses

The hysteretic loss associated with cyclic shear in the elastomeric shear layer is one of the prevailing concerns for the development of a low rolling loss non-pneumatic wheel. We propose to eliminate the hysteretic losses associated with the elastomeric shear layer and thus, reduce the corresponding rolling resistance by using linear elastic materials which are inherently non-hysteretic. Since the shear modulus of a viscoelastic shear layer is less than that of an elastic material by several orders of magnitude, the challenge to achieve a low effective shear modulus shear layer with linear elastic materials directs towards the development of a …

Evaluation Of Biomass And Coal Briquettes For A Spreader Stoker Boiler Using An Experimental Furnace - Modeling And Test, Gavin Wiggins

All Theses

The compliance of coal-fired boilers with emissions regulations is a concern for many facilities. The introduction of biomass briquettes in industrial boilers can help to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and coal usage. In this research project, a thermodynamic chemical equilibrium model was derived and analytical simulations performed for a coal boiler system for several types of biomass fuels such as beech, hickory, maple, poplar, white oak, willow, sawdust, torrefied willow, and switchgrass. The biomass emissions were compared to coal and charcoal emissions. The chemical equilibrium analysis numerically estimated the emissions of CO, CO2, NO, NO2, N2O, SO2, and SO3. When …

Wave Reflection Characteristics Of Permeable And Impermeable Submerged Trapezoidal Breakwaters, Mathew Hornack

All Theses

The present study aims to quantify reflection coefficients in the vicinity of impermeable and permeable submerged trapezoidal breakwaters. Three impermeable breakwater models are tested, each with a unique side slope for the breakwater faces. Two permeable models are tested, one made of PVC pipe and the other consisting of golf balls contained within a mesh cage, to provide two separate porosities. Testing is carried out at the Clemson University Flow Physics Laboratory in a laboratory wave tank with the inclusion of a 1:20 sloping sandy beach to simulate natural environmental conditions. Wave elevations are collected during experiments by two capacitance …

Towards Securing Virtualization Using A Reconfigurable Platform, Tushar Janefalkar

All Theses

Virtualization is no longer limited to main stream processors and servers. Virtualization software for General Purpose Processors (GPP) that allow one Operating System (OS) to run as an application in another OS have become commonplace. To exploit the full potential of the available hardware, virtualization is now prevalent across all systems big and small. Besides GPPs, state-of-the-art embedded processors are now capable of running rich operating systems and their virtualization is now a hot topic of research. However, this technological progress also opens doors for attackers to snoop on data that is not only confined to storage servers but also …

Strengthening The Anonymity Of Anonymous Communication Systems, Christopher Abbott

All Theses

In this work, we examine why a popular anonymity network, Tor, is vulnerable to timing side-channel attacks. We explore removing this vulnerability from Tor without sacrificing its low-latency which is important for usability.
We find that Tor is vulnerable because inter-packet delays propagate along the network path from the source to the destination. This provides an easily detected signature. We explore techniques for making the timing signature either expensive or impossible to detect.
If each packet took a unique, disjoint path from source to destination the inter-packet delay signature would be undetectable. Jitter and latency would change packet arrival orders. …

Finite Element Analysis Prediction Of Stresses In H.L. Hunley Submarine By Global-To-Local Model Coordination, Aditya Sai Nag Choragudi

All Theses

H.L Hunley was a submarine of the Confederate States of America that participated in the American Civil War. On February 17, 1864, H.L.Hunley created history by becoming the first submarine to sink a enemy ship after its attack on USS Houstanic. After Hunley never returned to the shore and the details of its wreck were unknown. On August 8, 2000, H. L Hunley was brought to the surface after 136 years of its wreckage. The submarine is currently at the Warren Lasch Conservation Center located in Charleston.
This study focuses on the structural analysis of the H.L Hunley submarine to …

Implementing Transparent Compression And Leveraging Solid State Disks In A High Performance Parallel File System, David Bonnie

All Theses

In recent years computers have been increasing in compute density and speed at a dramatic pace. This increase allows for massively parallel programs to run faster than ever before. Unfortunately, many such programs are being held back by the relatively slow I/O subsystems that they are forced to work with. Storage technology simply has not followed the same curve of progression in the computing world. Because the storage systems are so slow in comparison the processors are forced to idle while waiting for data; a potentially performance crippling condition.
This performance disparity is lessened by the advent of parallel file …

Effects Of Microenvironment On Growth And Differentiation Of Human Dental Pulp Cells, Laura Datko

All Theses

Dental pulp stem cells (DPSCs) have recently been described as a potential stem cell source for various regenerative medicine and tissue engineering applications. They appear to be multipotent, however more characterization is necessary to determine the true potential of these cells. An important aspect of using DPSCs, or any stem cell type, tissue engineering application is the microenvironment within the construct. The microenvironment could include construct mechanical properties, construct composition, and 3D dynamic conditions in vivo. This work aims to study those specific microenvironment effects on DPSCs. To determine the effects of mechanical properties of the substrate on DPSCs, they …

A Quantitative, Technology Independent, Fidelity Metric For Evaluating Bioprinted Patterned Co-Cultures, Matthew Pepper

All Theses

The study of cell-cell interactions is crucial in the understanding of cell behaviors such as tumor genesis, proliferation, migration, metastasis, and apoptosis. To break down the complex web of signals in vivo, researchers must replicate some parts of this environment with in vitro tissue test systems, composed of multiple cell types arranged close enough to communicate with their neighbors, i.e. high-resolution co-culture patterns. The field of bioprinting is specifically focused on creating co-culture patterns for the purposes of cell studies, but the sample resolutions of most bioprinting systems are still too coarse to permit cell communication. No way currently exists …

Pose Estimation For Robotic Disassembly Using Ransac With Line Features, Shyam Sundar Aswadha Narayanan

All Theses

In this thesis, a new technique to recognize and estimate the pose of a given 3-D object from a single real image provided known prior knowledge of its approximate structure is proposed. Metrics to evaluate the correctness of a calculated pose are presented and analyzed. The traditional and the more recent approaches used in solving this problem are explored and the various methodologies adopted are discussed.
The first step in disassembling a given assembly from its image is to recognize the attitude and translation of each of its constituent components - a fundamental problem which is being addressed in this …

Connective Complexity Methods For Analysis And Prediction In Engineering Design, James Mathieson

All Theses

Complexity is an aspect of engineering design that is often addressed directly with the principle that 'designs should be simple'. However, such a principle fails to offer an effective means of quantifying the complexity of a given design for comparison and decision making. The measurement of complexity within a specific representations and domains has been well established. However, such measurements are inherently limited in their applicability and not always clear in their implications. This research presents a method of measuring complexity from different engineering representations in a consistent manner and explores the application of these measures.
The development of a …

Predictive Modeling Of Wind Turbine Blades, Kendra Van Buren

All Theses

Wind turbine blades are being produced at a larger scale in order to meet demands from the burgeoning U.S. wind energy industry, and are forecasted to only grow larger for off-shore applications. Modeling and Simulation (M&S) provides a cost and time efficient alternative when studying the structural behavior of blades such as for loading conditions that are too difficult to replicate in laboratory conditions, and for various severity of damage in wind turbine blades. For this reason, M&S will continue to play an indispensible role in understanding the behavior of wind turbine blades and is gradually replacing the traditional test, …

Modeling And Finite Element Analysis Methods For The Dynamic Crushing Of Honeycomb Cellular Meso-Structures, Jesse Schultz

All Theses

The effective static mechanical properties, such as the moduli of elasticity and rigidity and Poisson's ratio, of honeycomb cellular meso-structures are capable of control due to variations of their cellular geometry. While the dynamic properties of these structures are a popular topic of research, there is a lack of both consistent modeling methods and generalizations in terms of honeycomb cellular geometry. In order to fill these gaps, this study presents a standard set of methods for the finite element analysis (FEA) of honeycomb cellular materials subject to dynamic loading conditions, as well as illustrates the effects of the cellular geometry …

Flexible Tuning Software: Beyond Equal Temperament, Erica Sponsler

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

The premise of this creative Capstone project was to develop a computer instrument that is capable of tuning itself flexibly in such a way as to not require a tempering of the Western scale, as is necessary for fixedly tuned instruments. The difficulty in creating such a system of tuning arises from the mathematical paradox of the musical harmonic series, which is the sequence of frequencies that sound naturally as overtones over a fundamental pitch. They follow a proportional pattern of 1:2, 2:3, 3:4, etc. These small-integer ratios of frequencies represent the consonant (in-tune) harmonic intervals. When an interval does …

Epoxy/Pcl/Cnf Nanocomposite Towards Electrically Triggered Self-Healing And Reversible Adhesion, Lawrence Matthew Levy

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

In this report, we summarize the results of research related to development of an electrically-triggered reversible-adhesive material. The material is made of an epoxy comprised of diglcidyl ether of bisphenol-A (DGEBA) and 4,4’-diaminodiphenylsulfone (DDS). By combining the epoxy with PCL a “bricks and mortar” morphology is created with reversible adhesion properties. A phenomenon known as differential expansive bleeding (DEB) is the driving force of the self-healing and reversible-adhesion. The epoxy/PCL was embedded within electrically conductive carbon nanofibers (CNF) created from electrospun poly(acrylonitrile) (PAN). The material’s high conductivity allowed convenient heating with a power source. Initial tests revealed a lack of …

Growndswell Iphone Application Development, Arti Chandok

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

GrowndSwell is a location-based social networking service developed to primarily solve the problem of trying to text several friends in order to convey a simple piece of information: “What are you planning to do today?” This capstone project is focused on developing an iPhone application as a tool for users to convey this information in an efficient and fun manner. The problem requires several tools to capture the market through development of phone applications that are compatible on several platforms and creating an attractive website for brand awareness. This capstone project has focused its attention on the product development of …

Primary And Secondary Flow Structures In A Model Cerebral Aneurysm, Morgan A. Nowak

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

Cerebral aneurysms affect 5% of western populations and can cause morbidity and mortality if they rupture. Various treatments can be used to minimize the risk of rupture, with new diagnostics and treatments under development that require information from non-invasive techniques such as Particle Imaging Velocimetery (PIV). The current study focused on developing a setup as a basis for future experiments and work on intracranial aneurysms involving PIV. PIV experimentation and data collection were carried out during the summer of 2010 at Ohta Labs of Tohoku University in Sendai, Japan. The experimental setup consisted of a pulsatile flow system, which was …

Characteristics Of The Fields In The Near And Far Zone Of Antennas And Its Significance In Wireless Communication, Arijit De

Electrical Engineering and Computer Science - Dissertations

The characterization of the fields radiated from antennas in wireless communication scenario has been mostly overlooked by communication society. The definition and application of Near-Field and Far-field has mostly been considered from the antenna measurement community. To date no critical study does exist for the evaluation of the far-field criterion in a wireless communication scenario. This dissertation tries to provide certain guidelines characterizing the near-field and the far-field using a Maxwellian framework. The implications of the near-field environment are then discussed. It appears that the concept of near and far fields are not clearly interpreted in the wireless communication literature. …

Integration Of Ce-Sscp In Genetic Analysis: Fabrication And Optimization Of The Polymer Matrix, Hannah Lintag

Chemical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Genetic analysis has become an essential aspect in the field of biological research. Genetic material contains an abundance of information that can be harnessed, from the pathological study of diseases to the identification of algal species used for alternative fuel. The detection of genetic species and/or their mutated counterparts is an approach that still warrants improvement, however. Capillary electrophoresis-single strand conformation polymorphism (CE-SSCP) offers a rapid and highly-reproducible means to detect alterations in genetic material. In this project, its implementation in the field of genetic studies as a way to detect mutations in hereditary diseases and identifying species via genetic …

Process And Automation Design For The Construction Of A Fully Automated Biofuel Production Unit, Kylan Rakestraw

Chemical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Phase I investigated a method for producing butanol from algae using a novel automated hydrolysis, fermentation, and separation process. The Phase I research team sought to experimentally optimize individual steps and parameters of the process, design and build an automated unit to produce fuel-grade butanol from algae in a batch process, evaluate the sustainability and large scale economics of the process, and design an outreach program encouraging energy and environmental awareness centered around K-12 students. The team used macroalgae samples obtained through the generosity of the City of New York from Jamaica Bay to test the equipment and viability of …

Biodiesel Production From Waste Algae Through Supercritical Methanol And Solid Catalysts, Alexander Lopez

Chemical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

The need for alternate fuels continues to rise as fossil fuel reserves decline, and the effects of harmful fuel emissions on the environment begin to take its toll. One alternate fuel that has great potential is biodiesel. Biodiesel is a non-petroleum based fuel composed of alkyl esters from feedstocks. Using biodiesel as an alternate fuel source has a variety of advantages over traditional petroleum diesel, including producing no SOx emissions and low COx emissions. Another important advantage of biodiesel is that it can be produced from a wide variety of feedstocks. Biodiesel processes using waste cooking oil, animal fats, and …

Fiber Reinforced Polymer Bridge Decks, Rita E. Rodriguez-Vera, Nicolas J. Lombardi, Marcelo A.S. Machado, Judy Liu, Elisa D. Sotelino

JTRP Technical Reports

The overarching goal of this study was to perform a comprehensive evaluation of various issues related to the strength and serviceability of the FRP deck panels that are available in the industry. Specific objectives were to establish critical limit states to be considered in the design of FRP deck panel, to provide performance specifications to designers, and to develop evaluation techniques for the deck panels in service.

Two different FRP panels were studied during the research project: a sandwich panel and a pultruded panel. The sandwich panel was initially selected for the rehabilitation case study bridge. However, for a variety …

Unified Point-Edgelet Feature Tracking, Kalaivani Sundararajan

All Theses

Feature tracking algorithms have conventionally tracked `corner' features or windows with high spatial frequency content. However, this conventional point feature representation of scenes would be inappropriate for poorly textured image sequences like indoor image sequences. To overcome this problem, we propose a feature tracking algorithm which tracks point features and edgelets
simultaneously. Edgelets are straight line approximations of intensity edges in an image. Hence, a combination of point features and edgelets provides a better representation of untextured sequences with the point features and edgelets complementing each other. We show that this property results in more robust tracking.
Tracking edgelets is …

Fluid Dynamics Of Cell Printing, Ping He

All Dissertations

Cell printing is an emerging technology that uses droplets to deliver cells to desired positions with resolution potentially comparable to the size of single cells. In particular, ink–jet based cell printing technique has been successfully used to build simple bio–constructs and has shown a promise in building complex bio–structures or even organs. Two important issues in ink–jet based cell printing are the moderate survival rate of delicate cells and the limited cell placement resolution. Resolving these issues is critical for the ink–jet based cell printing techniques to realize their full potential.
In this work, we use numerical simulations to reconstruct …