Engineering Commons^™

Life Cycle Assessment Of Greenhouse Gas Emissions From Ethanol And Biopolymers, Adam J. Liska, Xiao Xue Fang

Adam Liska Papers

Conclusions

• Regulatory LCA is not likely to be used for non‐fuel chemicals alone in the near future

• Significant GHG emission credits for corn‐ethanol can be obtained by using only roughly 6‐9% of initial starch for production of biopolymers based on previous LCA theory

• Pay close attention to values in calculating credits per kg—these have to stand up in litigation to ensure the credit

• Credits are proportional to the mass of polymer produced

• Many theoretical issues are uncertain and credits will only be determined in conjunction with EPA

• Indirect emissions are uncertain and are a …

Assessment Of State Composting Regulations In The United States, Nazli Yesiller, Samuel A. Vigil, James L. Hanson

Civil and Environmental Engineering

This investigation was conducted to identify the current "status of state composting regulations in the U.S. using an extensive survey administered to regulators from all 50 states. Questions were included regarding: background information on composting: status of regulations: regulatory details including feedstock specific provisions and regulatory framework with respect to MSW regulations: details regarding type, properties, and amount of materials handled by composting activities; outgoing materials and storage of materials; type of composting facilities: initial development of the regulations; level of rigor of regulations: enforcement and reporting requirements; efficiency and level of satisfaction with regulations: permitting fees; and modifications to …

Surface Geometry And Heat Flux Effect On Thin Wire Nucleate Pool Boiling Of Subcooled Water In Microgravity, Troy Munro, Andrew Fassman

Presentations

The motivation of this nucleate boiling research is to understand the effects of surface geometry and heat flux as applied to a thin wire heater. This will further the understanding of the fundamental behaviors of boiling onset, steady state heat transfer, and bubble dynamics with respect to nucleate boiling with the goal of creating efficient thermal management systems for future space applications. Using three different thin platinum wire geometries and five different power levels, subcooled water was boiled over a period of approximately 30 seconds for 15 parabolic arcs to simulate microgravity. To represent the trends in bubbles behavior across …

Engaging Students In Learning, Madeleine Andrawis

ASEE Best Practice Series Presentations

No abstract provided.

Making The Transition To Active Learning, Byron G. Garry

ASEE Best Practice Series Presentations

No abstract provided.

On Prolonging Network Lifetime Through Load-Similar Node Deployment In Wireless Sensor Networks, Qiao-Qin Li, Haigang Gong, Ming Liu, Mei Yang, Jun Zheng

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Research

This paper is focused on the study of the energy hole problem in the Progressive Multi-hop Rotational Clustered (PMRC)-structure, a highly scalable wireless sensor network (WSN) architecture. Based on an analysis on the traffic load distribution in PMRC-based WSNs, we propose a novel load-similar node distribution strategy combined with the Minimum Overlapping Layers (MOL) scheme to address the energy hole problem in PMRC-based WSNs. In this strategy, sensor nodes are deployed in the network area according to the load distribution. That is, more nodes shall be deployed in the range where the average load is higher, and then the loads …

Green Building Policy And School Performance, S. Kelting, M. Montoya

Construction Management

The movement to construct high performance “green” buildings has had unprecedented market growth and continues to become a mainstream practice for constructing schools in the United States. This paper will consider how the results of government requirements for higher performance school buildings may affect the health and performance of students. The research focuses on educational leaders’ perceptions of how they would prioritize green building strategies based on recent governmental policy that requires building green schools. There is clear and compelling evidence that schools currently built to specific green standards of indoor environmental quality, specifically lighting, result in healthier and more …

Interfacial Effects On Droplet Dynamics In Poiseuille Flow, Kendra Erk, Jonathan T. Schwalbe, Frederick R. Phelan Jr., Petia M. Vlahovska, Steven D. Hudson

School of Materials Engineering Faculty Publications

Many properties of emulsions arise from interfacial rheology, but a theoretical understanding of the effect of interfacial viscosities on droplet dynamics is lacking. Here we report such a theory, relating to isolated spherical drops in a Poiseuille flow. Stokes flow is assumed in the bulk phases, and a jump in hydrodynamic stress at the interface is balanced by Marangoni and surface viscous forces according to the Boussinesq–Scriven constitutive law. Our model employs a linear equation of state for the surfactant. Our analysis predicts slip, cross-stream migration and droplet-circulation velocities. These results and the corresponding interfacial parameters are separable: e.g., cross-stream …

Poster Session, Kentucky Water Resources Research Institute, University Of Kentucky

Kentucky Water Resources Annual Symposium

• Fate of Stable Isotope Label During Predation of 15N-Tagged Wild-Type Escherichia coli by Protozoa, Ashley Barton and Alan Fryar, Dept Earth and Environmental Sciences, UK
• Cane Run Watershed Assessment and Restoration – Phase One Accomplishments, Amanda Gumbert and others, UK Cooperative Extension Service
• Improving Water Quality: Riparian Edge versus River Channel, Renee Kirtman and Kristy Hopfensperger, Biological Sciences, Northern Kentucky University
• Microscopic Population Dynamics and their Relationships to the Activated Sludge Process in a 30 MGD Wastewater Treatment Plant, Maria Lundin and David Price, LFUCG Division of Water Quality
• Southern Region Down-Well Camera Project, Glynn …

Session 2d, Kentucky Water Resources Research Institute, University Of Kentucky

Kentucky Water Resources Annual Symposium

• Water Quality Credit Trading Feasibilities for Kentucky, Marie Pelton and others, Dept of Agricultural Economics, UK
• Participation in Agricultural Governmental Cost Share Programs in the Kentucky River Watershed in the Context of Water Quality Trading, Pedro Fernandes da Costa and others, Dept of Agricultural Economics, UK
• Point Source Polluters in the Kentucky River Watershed and the Potential for Water Quality Trading, Ron Childress and others, Dept of Agricultural Economics, UK
• Nonpoint Source Abatement Costs in the Kentucky River Watershed, Zheng Liu and others, Dept of Agricultural Economics, UK

Session 2c, Kentucky Water Resources Research Institute, University Of Kentucky

Kentucky Water Resources Annual Symposium

• Comparing the Kentucky Phosphorus Index with the P Loss Calculated with a Process-Based Model, Carl Bolster, USDA-ARS, AWMRU, Bowling Green, KY
• Kentucky Nutrient Criteria Development and Reduction Strategy, Clark Dorman, Water Quality Branch, KY DOW
• Genotypic Diversity of Escherichia coli Isolates from Environmental Sources and the Influence on Transport Behavior, Kimberly Cook and others, USDA-ARS, AWMRU, Bowling Green, KY
• A Multiparameter Approach for the Identification of Leaking and Overflowing Sanitary Sewers in the Wolf Run Watershed, Tricia Coakley and Gail Brion, Depts of Earth and Environmental Sciences and Civil Engineering, UK

Session 2b, Kentucky Water Resources Research Institute, University Of Kentucky

Kentucky Water Resources Annual Symposium

• Building Support for Protecting and Restoring Plain, Frumpy, Dowdy Streams, Barry Tonning, Tetra Tech, Mt. Sterling, KY
• Monitoring Water Quality in Hinkston Creek: Providing Information for Action, Brian Reeder and April Haight, Center for Environmental Education, Morehead State University
• The Story of the Hinkston Creek Watershed Data, Gregory Sousa and others, Tetra Tech
• Implementation of Watershed Based Plans in the Dix River Watershed, Caroline Walz and Malissa McAlister, OSM/VISTA Dix River Watershed Coordinator and KWRRI

Session 2a, Kentucky Water Resources Research Institute, University Of Kentucky

Kentucky Water Resources Annual Symposium

• Pollutant Removal Effectiveness of the McConnell Springs Stormwater Quality Wetland Pond and the Gainesway Pond Retrofit Project, Lexington, KY, David Price and Susan Plueger, LFUCG Division of Water
• Combined Sewer Separation: A Constructed Wetland Approach, Jonathan Nieman, CDP Engineers Inc., Lexington, KY
• Water Quality Retrofit Basin Selection Process in Louisville Kentucky, Eric Senn, Land Design and Development, Louisville KY
• Live Green Lexington: Water Partner Program, Darcy Everett and Joanna Isaacs, Bluegrass PRIDE

Session 1d, Kentucky Water Resources Research Institute, University Of Kentucky

Kentucky Water Resources Annual Symposium

• The Carboxylic Acid-Bound Iodine Layer – Towards an Anti- Fouling Coating for Water Sensors and Water Treatment Facilities, Lingbo Lu and Yuguang Cai, Dept of Chemistry, UK
• Aqueous Arsenic Removal by Thiol-Containing Filtration Columns, Partha Jana and David Atwood, Dept of Chemistry, UK
• Green Construction in an Urban Landscape, Elizabeth Bullock and others, CDP Engineers, Lexington, KY
• Developing a Storm Water Management Plan in the Jackson Ditch Watershed, City of Trenton, Butler County, Ohio, Erman Caudill, Stantec Consulting Services, Inc., Lexington, KY

Session 1c, Kentucky Water Resources Research Institute, University Of Kentucky

Kentucky Water Resources Annual Symposium

• Bush Honeysuckle Induced Aquatic Hypoxia, Stephanie Hayes and Richard Durtsche, Dept of Biological Sciences, NKU
• A Laboratory Scale, Continuous Flow Bioreactor for the Removal of Manganese in Water Supplies, Michael Snyder and Y.T. Wang, Dept of Civil Engineering, UK
• Flood Impact Due to Dam Failure: An Assessment of Current Studies and the Appropriateness of the Methodologies Applied to the Dix Dam, Allen Cantrell and Scott Yost, Dept of Civil Engineering, UK
• Development of a Comprehensive Sediment Transport Method in First Order Watersheds with Contour Coal Mining, Darren Martin and Jimmy Fox, Dept of Civil Engineering, UK

Session 1b, Kentucky Water Resources Research Institute, University Of Kentucky

Kentucky Water Resources Annual Symposium

• Land-Use, Stream Channel Dynamics, and Macroinvertebrate Community Responses: A Northern Kentucky Case Study, Bob Hawley and others, Sustainable Streams, LLC
• Kentucky LiDAR Meets NAIP Multispectral Imagery: Toward Data Fusion in the Assessment of Watershed Change, Demetrio Zourarakis, Kentucky Div of Geographic Information, Frankfort
• Seasonal Variation in Water Quality and Dissolved Methane of Barren River Lake, John Loughrin and Carl Bolster, USDA-ARS, AWMRU, Bowling Green, KY
• Water Quality Investigation in the Eastern Kentucky Coalfields, Lisa Underwood and Lisa Hicks, USACE and KY DOW

Session 1a, Kentucky Water Resources Research Institute, University Of Kentucky

Kentucky Water Resources Annual Symposium

• Pilot Study to Integrate Existing Karst Flow Data for Kentucky in the National Hydrography Dataset Created by the U.S. Geological Survey, Rob Blair and others, KY DOW
• An Evaluation of Physical and Chemical Discharge Parameters from a Spring that Drains the Epikarst, David Jackson, Groundwater Section, KY DOW
• Characterizing Health Risks in Privately Supplied Drinking Water Due to Agricultural Practices in Rural Western Kentucky, Leading to an Intervention Study, Karen Card and E. Glynn Beck, Dept of Epidemiology and KGS, UK
• Aqueous Geochemistry of a CO2-Enhanced Oil Recovery Project in the Sugar Creek Oil Field, Hopkins County, …

Proceedings Of 2011 Kentucky Water Resources Annual Symposium, Kentucky Water Resources Research Institute, University Of Kentucky

Kentucky Water Resources Annual Symposium

This conference was planned and conducted as part of the state water resources research annual program with the support and collaboration of the Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey and the University of Kentucky Research Foundation, under Grant Agreement Number 06HQGR0087.

The views and conclusions contained in this document and presented at the symposium are those of the abstract authors and presenters and should not be interpreted as necessarily representing the official policies, either expressed or implied, of the U.S. Government or other symposium organizers and sponsors.

Ceas E-News 03.21.2011, College Of Engineering And Applied Sciences

College of Engineering and Applied Sciences News

"Where in the World is this CEAS Bronco" Challenge, Perennial BioEnery Takes 4th Place, & Senior Design Conference

Quest Hierarchy For Hyperspectral Face Recognition, David M. Ryer

Theses and Dissertations

Face recognition is an attractive biometric due to the ease in which photographs of the human face can be acquired and processed. The non-intrusive ability of many surveillance systems permits face recognition applications to be used in a myriad of environments. Despite decades of impressive research in this area, face recognition still struggles with variations in illumination, pose and expression not to mention the larger challenge of willful circumvention. The integration of supporting contextual information in a fusion hierarchy known as QUalia Exploitation of Sensor Technology (QUEST) is a novel approach for hyperspectral face recognition that results in performance advantages …

Scale Modeling Of Cessna 172, Chee-Woon Kim

Aerospace Engineering

This report describes how the scale-model aircraft can be built when the Reynolds number is out of range for using dynamic similitude method. Due to lack of time and budget for designing an actual model for testing, Cessna 172 was used to calculate the size of the temporary scale-model aircraft. The method that was used for this project was matching aerodynamic coefficients such as drag coefficient or lift coefficient of the prototype and the model. Based on this method, the takeoff distance, landing distance and the rate of climb of the model came out to be 218 ft, 91 ft …

Bitten By The Science Bug (Nycsef 2011), Maribel Vazquez

Publications and Research

The invited keynote address to the participants of the final round of the 2011 New York City Science and Engineering Fair (NYCSeF) at the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH).

Evaluation Of Portable Devices For Monitoring Microcracking Of Cement-Treated Base Layers, Charles A. Hope

Theses and Dissertations

A relatively new method used to reduce the amount of cement-treated base (CTB) shrinkage cracking is microcracking of the CTB shortly after construction. Three portable instruments used in this study for monitoring the microcracking process include the heavy Clegg impact soil tester (CIST), portable falling-weight deflectometer (PFWD), and soil stiffness gauge (SSG). The specific objectives of this research were 1) to evaluate the sensitivity of each of the three portable instruments to microcracking, and 2) to compare measurements of CTB stiffness reduction obtained using the three devices. The test locations included in this study were Redwood Drive and Dale Avenue …

Newsletter 44 Issue 1 - Spring 2011 - Nuts And Bolts

Friends of the Larsen Tractor Museum

No abstract provided.

Fiber Optic Sensor Interrogation Advancements For Research And Industrial Use, Wesley Mont Kunzler

Theses and Dissertations

Spectrally-based fiber optic sensors are a rapidly maturing technology capable of sensing several environmental parameters in environments that are unfitting to electrical sensors. However, the sensor interrogation systems for this type of sensors are not yet fit to replace conventional sensor systems. They lack the speed, compact size, and usability necessary to move into mainstream test and measurement. The Fiber Sensor Integrated Monitor (FSIM) technology leverages rapid optical components and parallel hardware architecture to move these sensors across the research threshold into greater mainstream use. By dramatically increasing speed, shrinking size, and targeting an interface that can be used in …

Development Of Single-Chip Silicon Photonic Microcantilever Arrays For Sensing Applications, Weisheng Hu

Theses and Dissertations

Microcantilever arrays have been shown to be promising label-free nanomechanical sensing devices with high sensitivity. Two factors that affect the usefulness of microcantilevers in sensing scenarios are the sensitivity of the transduction method for measuring changes in microcantilever properties and the ability to create large compact arrays of microcantilevers. In this dissertation, we demonstrate that microcantilevers with an in-plane photonic transduction method are attractive because they maintain the sensitivity of the traditional laser beam reflection method while being scalable to simultaneous readout of large microcantilever arrays. First I demonstrate the integration of a compact waveguide splitter network with in-plane photonic …

Calibration Of The Highway Safety Manual Safety Performance Function And Development Of Jurisdiction-Specific Models For Rural Two-Lane Two-Way Roads In Utah, Bradford Keith Brimley

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis documents the results of the calibration of the Highway Safety Manual (HSM) safety performance function (SPF) for rural two-lane two-way roadway segments in Utah and the development of new SPFs using negative binomial and hierarchical Bayesian modeling techniques. SPFs estimate the safety of a roadway entity, such as a segment or intersection, in terms of number of crashes. The new SPFs were developed for comparison to the calibrated HSM SPF. This research was performed for the Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT).The study area was the state of Utah. Crash data from 2005-2007 on 157 selected study segments provided …

Strength And Deformation Characteristics Of A Cement-Treated Reclaimed Pavement With A Chip Seal, Bryan T. Wilson

Theses and Dissertations

The objective of this research was to analyze the strength and deformation characteristics of a cement-treated base (CTB) constructed using full-depth reclamation, microcracked, and then surfaced with a single chip seal. In this field study, strength characteristics of the CTB layer were determined at the time of construction, and then both strength and deformation characteristics were evaluated after 9 months of low-volume, heavy truck traffic. After 9 months, observed distresses included transverse cracking, rutting, and chip seal joint failure. The loss of the chip seal was caused by poor chip seal construction practices and not a deficiency in the CTB …

Increasing Design Productivity For Fpgas Through Ip Reuse And Meta-Data Encapsulation, Adam T. Arnesen

Theses and Dissertations

As Moore's law continues to progress, it is becoming increasingly difficult for hardware designers to fully utilize the increasing number of transistors available semiconductor devices including FPGAs. This design productivity gap must be addressed to allow designs to take full advantage of the increased logic density that results from rising transistor density. The reuse of previously developed and verified intellectual property (IP) is one approach that has claimed to narrow the design productivity gap. Reuse, however, has proved difficult to realize in practice because of the complexity of IP and the reluctance of designers to reuse IP that they do …

Automatic All-Hex Topology Operations Using Edge Valence Prediction With Application To Localized Coarsening, Timothy Ira Miller

Theses and Dissertations

In this work, we propose using edge valence as a quality predictor when used as a driver for adapting all hexahedral meshes. Edge valence, for hexahedra, is defined as the number of faces attached to an edge. It has shown to be a more reliable quality predictor than node valence for hexahedral meshes. An edge valence of 3, 4, or 5 within the volume of a hexahedral mesh has provided at least a positive scaled Jacobian for all observed meshes, without the presence of over constraining geometry. It is often desirable to adapt an existing mesh through sheet operations such …