Engineering Commons^™

Direct Shear Tests On Jsc-1a Lunar Regolith Simulant, Masafumi Iai, Ronaldo Luna

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

A series of direct shear tests were conducted on the JSC-1A lunar regolith simulant in a 101.6-mm- (4-in.-) diameter container. the direct shear test provides a unique mode of failure that aids the development of excavation tools for the Moon. Relative density and normal load were varied to study the strength behavior of such granular material at peak and critical state conditions. the values of the internal friction angle ranged from 30 to 70. a relationship between the internal friction angle of the direct shear and the published triaxial compression test results is presented. Additionally, the measured dilatancy angle is …

Post-Earthquake Reconnaissance Report On Transportation Infrastructure Impact Of The February 27, 2010, Offshore Maule Earthquake In Chile, Wen-Huei Phillip Yen, Genda Chen, Ian G. Buckle, Tony M. Allen, Daniel E. Alzamora, Jeffrey Ger, Juan G. Arias

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This report documents the findings and lessons learned from the February 27, 2010, M8.8 offshore Maule earthquake in Chile. Fewer than 0.15 percent of the bridges in Chile's inventory, most built after 1995, collapsed or suffered damage that rendered them useless. Many spans of precast prestressed discontinuous girder bridges with continuous decks fell off their supports, probably due to significant in-plane rotation of the superstructure as a result of severe shaking. Lateral steel stoppers used to provide both vertical and lateral restraints on girders were largely unsuccessful due to their inadequate connection detail to cap beams and abutments. Reinforced concrete …

Experimental And Numerical Evaluation Of Cured In Place Pipe Lining System For High Temperature Applications In Sewer Pipes, Shaurav Z. Alam

Doctoral Dissertations

Some of the older cities across North America and Europe had been using steam driven HVAC systems since beginning of the last century. Consolidated Edison (Con Ed.) of New York operates the New York City steam system, the largest commercial district heating system in the world, with more than 100 miles of transmission and distribution pipes serving Manhattan Island. Other steam district systems exist in San Francisco, Harrisburg, Minneapolis, Pittsburgh, San Diego, and Detroit, some dating back to 1903. In those cities the sewer pipes are used as venues for discharging the waste steam condensate from the HVAC system.

The …

Role Of Ammonia In The Activiation Of Methanol Dehydrogenase/Cytochrome C(L) Enzyme, Ancy Kunjumon

Doctoral Dissertations

Recent advancement in enzyme catalysis has opened ways to design efficient biocatalysts, bio-sensors and bio-fuel cells. An in-depth knowledge about the mechanism of the reaction taking place within the enzymes is of great importance to achieve these goals. In this dissertation, various computation methods are applied to investigate the mechanism behind enzyme catalysis in the presence of compounds called activators.

Methanol dehydrogenase (MDH) is a well-known bio-catalyst that can oxidize excess of methanol from the environment to formaldehyde. The enzyme works well within the bacterial environment, but under in vitro, it loses activity. Ammonia is used as an activator …

Plasma-Activated Fusion Bonding For Vacuum Encapsulation Of Microdevices, Joel Soman

Doctoral Dissertations

A fabrication process for vacuum-encapsulating PZT microcantilevers was designed in this dissertation. Initially, a low temperature wafer-bonding recipe was optimized with the help of plasma-activation. Conventional direct fusion bonding temperature was reduced from 400°C to 85°C, and final thermal annealing temperature and time of 1000°C for 4 hours (hr) were significantly reduced to 300°C and 1 hr respectively. Tensile tests conducted on dies diced from the bonded wafer stack revealed bond strengths of 22.15 MPa, which was close to the bulk fracture strength of 24 MPa for silicon. Near infrared images of the wafer stack showed no debonded regions at …

Passive Micromixers And Organic Electrochemical Transistors For Biosensor Applications, Senaka Krishna Kanakamedala

Doctoral Dissertations

Fluid handling at the microscale has greatly affected different fields such as biomedical, pharmaceutical, biochemical engineering and environmental monitoring due to its reduced reagent consumption, portability, high throughput, lower hardware cost and shorter analysis time compared to large devices. The challenges associated with mixing of fluids in microscale enabled us in designing, simulating, fabricating and characterizing various micromixers on silicon and flexible polyester substrates. The mixing efficiency was evaluated by injecting the fluids through the two inlets and collecting the sample at outlet. The images collected from the microscope were analyzed, and the absorbance of the color product at the …

Revised Reference Curves For Bone Mineral Content And Areal Bone Mineral Density According To Age And Sex For Black And Non-Black Children: Results Of The Bone Mineral Density In Childhood Study, Babette S. Zemel, Heidi J. Kalkwarf, Vicente Gilsanz, Joan M. Lappe, Sharon Oberfield, John A. Shepherd, Margaret M. Frederick, Xangke Huang, Ming Lu, Soroosh Mahboubi, Thomas N. Hangartner, Karen K. Winer

Biomedical, Industrial & Human Factors Engineering Faculty Publications

Context: Deficits in bone acquisition during growth may increase fracture risk. Assessment of bone health during childhood requires appropriate reference values relative to age, sex, and population ancestry to identify bone deficits.

Objective: The objective of this study was to provide revised and extended reference curves for bone mineral content (BMC) and areal bone mineral density (aBMD) in children.

Design: The Bone Mineral Density in Childhood Study was a multicenter longitudinal study with annual assessments for up to 7 yr.

Setting: The study was conducted at five clinical centers in the United States.

Participants: Two thousand fourteen healthy children (992 …

A Quantitative Study Of Robustness Characteristics In Steel Framed Structures, Christopher Herman Raebel

Dissertations (1934 -)

Robustness is a desirable property in any structural design. Robustness may be thought of as the building's inherent structural ability to resist loads other than those anticipated during design. Examples of unanticipated loads are damage to a column or beam due to impact; damage due to the concussion of a blast; strength reduction due to extreme heat during a fire; and localized accidental overload of a beam or column. Each of these events, although very different in their nature, has one major point in common; in each case the path of load resistance changes in a way that was not …

Thickness-Shear And Thickness-Twist Vibrations Of An At-Cut Quartz Mesa Resonator, Huijing He, Jinxi Liu, Jiashi Yang

Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering: Faculty Publications

We study thickness-shear and thickness-twist vibrations of an AT-cut quartz plate mesa resonator with stepped thickness. The equations of anisotropic elasticity are used with the omission of the small elastic constant c56. An analytical solution is obtained using Fourier series from which the resonant frequencies, mode shapes, and energy trapping are calculated and examined. The solution shows that a mesa resonator exhibits strong energy trapping of thickness-shear and thickness-twist modes, and that the trapping is sensitive to some of the structural parameters of the resonator.

Transient Finite Element Analysis Of A Base Excited Frame On A Six Dof Motion Simulator To Simulate Wave Slamming, Matthew Douglas Davis

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Theses & Dissertations

High speed performance crafts are subjected to repeated impact loads in open seas. In this study, an attempt is made to investigate the dynamic response of onboard equipment under an impact environment generated by a 6 degree-of-freedom (DOF) motion simulator. An aluminum frame is used to represent onboard equipment, which is mounted on the 6 DOF motion simulator at various orientations and with varying amounts of additional weight. A series of 15 single-axis drop tests are conducted with the DOF motion simulator to study the effects of these impact loads on the onboard equipment. The test data is analyzed to …

Blind Pass Stability Analysis, Robert Burgin Neal Ii

Civil & Environmental Engineering Theses & Dissertations

The stability of Blind Pass has been subjective since the opening of Redfish Pass in the 1920's. The inlet's stability, defined as its ability to maintain a consistent or equilibrium cross-section, is reviewed in terms of its historic performance and that provided through a 2009 maintenance project. Pre-project expectations are compared with physical results to illustrate the initial success of construction. The Escoffier relationship of tidal prism and cross-section area is implemented to gauge the 2009 projects long term stability. Additional monitoring within one year of construction is analyzed to further realize anticipated stability trends. The hydraulic benefit of a …

Green Residential Stormwater Management Demonstration: An Integrated Stormwater Management And Graywater System To Reduce The Quantity And Improve The Quality Of Residential Water Discharges, Post Co Data Analysis, Ni-Bin Chang, Martin Wanielista, Manoj Chopra, Mike Hardin, Matthew Allen Goolsby

BMP Trains Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Nitrogen Transport And Transformation Beneath Stormwater Retention Basins In Karst Areas And Effectiveness Of Stormwater Best Management Practices For Reducing Nitrate Leaching To Ground Water In Marion County, Florida, Stormwater Academy

BMP Trains Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Polymorphic Structures Of Alzheimer's Beta-Amyloid Globulomers, Jie Zheng

Chemical, Biomolecular, and Corrosion Engineering Faculty Research

Misfolding and self-assembly of Amyloid-β (Aβ) peptides into amyloid fibrils is pathologically linked to the development of Alzheimer's disease. Polymorphic Aβ structures derived from monomers to intermediate oligomers, protofilaments, and mature fibrils have been often observed in solution. Some aggregates are on-pathway species to amyloid fibrils, while the others are off-pathway species that do not evolve into amyloid fibrils. Both on-pathway and off-pathway species could be biologically relevant species. But, the lack of atomic-level structural information for these Aβ species leads to the difficulty in the understanding of their biological roles in amyloid toxicity and amyloid formation.

Remote Sensing Of Soil Moisture Using Airborne Hyperspectral Data, Michael Finn, Mark Lewis, David Bosch, Mario Giraldo, Kristina Yamamoto, Dana Sullivan, Russell Kincaid, Ronaldo Luna, Gopala Allam, Craig Kvien, Michael Williams

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Landscape assessment of soil moisture is critical to understanding the hydrological cycle at the regional scale and in broad-scale studies of biophysical processes affected by global climate changes in temperature and precipitation. Traditional efforts to measure soil moisture have been principally restricted to in situ measurements, so remote sensing techniques are often employed. Hyperspectral sensors with finer spatial resolution and narrow band widths may offer an alternative to traditional multispectral analysis of soil moisture, particularly in landscapes with high spatial heterogeneity. This preliminary research evaluates the ability of remotely sensed hyperspectral data to quantify soil moisture for the Little River …

Phytoscreening For Chlorinated Solvents Using Rapid In Vitro Spme Sampling: Application To Urban Plume In Verl, Germany, Matt A. Limmer, Jean Christophe Balouet, Frank Karg, Don A. Vroblesky, Joel Gerard Burken

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Rapid Detection and Delineation of Contaminants in Urban Settings is Critically Important in Protecting Human Health. Cores from Trees Growing above a Plume of Contaminated Groundwater in Verl, Germany, Were Collected in 1 Day, with Subsequent Analysis and Plume Mapping Completed over Several Days. Solid-Phase Microextraction (SPME) Analysis Was Applied to Detect Tetrachloroethene (PCE) and Trichloroethene (TCE) to Below Nanogram/liter Levels in the Transpiration Stream of the Trees. the Tree Core Concentrations Showed a Clear Areal Correlation to the Distribution of PCE and TCE in the Groundwater. Concentrations in Tree Cores Were Lower Than the Underlying Groundwater, as Anticipated; However, …

Supply Chain And Logistics Technology Investment In Small And Medium-Sized Enterprises, Edward Sweeney

Practitioner Journals

No abstract provided.

Active Learning For Text Classification, Rong Hu

Doctoral

Text classification approaches are used extensively to solve real-world challenges. The success or failure of text classification systems hangs on the datasets used to train them, without a good dataset it is impossible to build a quality system. This thesis examines the applicability of active learning in text classification for the rapid and economical creation of labelled training data. Four main contributions are made in this thesis. First, we present two novel selection strategies to choose the most informative examples for manually labelling. One is an approach using an advanced aggregated confidence measurement instead of the direct output of classifiers …

Ceg 361/561-01: Introduction To Software Testing, John A. Reisner

Computer Science & Engineering Syllabi

This course covers software testing strategies, along with established best practices, so students team how to test their software in a complete and systematic (vice ad-hoc) manner. Particular attention is paid to planning, writing, and executing software tests, along with associated documentation, (i.e., a software test plan), which includes documented results. Various projects are assigned, designed to illustrate various challenges associated with software testing, and to reinforce the strategies and techniques used to overcome these challenges.

Ceg 702-01: Advanced Communication Networks, Bin Wang

Computer Science & Engineering Syllabi

This is a graduate level course on advanced computer communication and networking technologies. The course involves both a reading/lecture/discussion component and a project component. We will read papers on various aspects of advanced computer networking: LAN/WAN technologies, congestion/flow control, self-similar traffic analysis, queuing theory, link scheduling, routing, internetworking, multicast, wireless technologies, quality of services, and peer-to-peer networks. Various technical and research issues involved will be studied in depth.

Ceg 724-01: Computer Vision I, Arthur A. Goshtasby

Computer Science & Engineering Syllabi

This course covers basic algorithms for low-level and mid-level vision. The algorithm; deal with edge detection and image segmentation, feature detection and matching, and image alignment. Also covered in the course are structure from motion, dense motion estimation, and stereo depth percepti011

Ceg 2350: Os Concepts And Usage, Prabhaker Mateti

Computer Science & Engineering Syllabi

Introduction to Linux and Windows systems. GUT and Windowing Systems. Files and Directories. Ownership and Sharing. Programs and Processes. System calls, Libraries. Loading. Dynamic linking. Command Line Shells. Scripting languages. Regular expressions. Clients and Servers. Web browser clients and servers. Secure shell, sftp. SSL/TSL. HTTPS. System Administration. 4 credit hours. 3 hours lectures, 2 hours labs. Prerequisites: CS 240 or CS 220 or equivalent.

Ceg 260-01: Digital Computer Hardware And Switching Circuits, John C. Gallagher

Computer Science & Engineering Syllabi

This course covers the design and analysis of basic digital circuits for computation. Topics will Include number systems, basic Boolean algebra, combinational circuit design and analysis, basic Medium Scale Integration (MSI) components, basic memory devices, basic sequential circuits, and binary arithmetic. At the end of this course you should be able to design, optimize, and Implement combinational logic for a variety of applications. You should also be familiar with basic MSI components and sequential circuit concepts In preparation for more advanced study of computer architecture, sequential circuit analysis, design, and optimization.

Ceg 402/602-01: Introduction To Computer Communication, Bin Wang

Computer Science & Engineering Syllabi

This course provides an introduction to basic concepts of communication networks, different types of networks, protocols over different layers, and network applications through lectures, labs, homework, and reading on relevant materials. You will
•Understand networking principles, protocols, and technologies.
•Understand some design and performance issues involved in providing a network service.
•Acquire background for supporting e-commerce, e-government, and e-education.
•Gain hands-on experience with programming techniques for network protocols.
•Obtain background for original research in computer networks.

Investigation Of Aluminum Equation Of State Generation, Aaron Ward

Master's Theses (2009 -)

There are many forms and methods to construct equations of state, EOSs. These methods are usually tailored for the particular problem of interest. Here, the EOSs of interest are those used in modeling shock responses. These EOSs cover a wide range of physical characteristics such as detonation and explosions, armor and anti-armor materials, and space structures protection. Aluminum will be the primary focus of this work. Aluminum was chosen because it has been studied in great length in the shock regime and is a common component in shock experiments and space type vehicles.

Improving Cardiovascular Stent Design Using Patient-Specific Models And Shape Optimization, Timothy J. Gundert

Master's Theses (2009 -)

Stent geometry influences local hemodynamic alterations (i.e. the forces moving blood through the cardiovascular system) associated with adverse clinical outcomes. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is frequently used to quantify stent-induced hemodynamic disturbances, but previous CFD studies have relied on simplified device or vascular representations. Additionally, efforts to minimize stent-induced hemodynamic disturbances using CFD models often only compare a small number of possible stent geometries. This thesis describes methods for modeling commercial stents in patient-specific vessels along with computational techniques for determining optimal stent geometries that address the limitations of previous studies.

An efficient and robust method was developed for virtually …

Analysis Of An Air-Spaced Patch Antenna Near 1800 Mhz, Hermine Nathalie Akouemo Kengmo Kenfack

Master's Theses (2009 -)

Microstrip antennas are a type of printed antenna which consists of a patch on top of a grounded substrate. A major limitation for the performance of the patch antenna is the dielectric substrate. The idea of using air as dielectric was therefore considered to overcome that limitation because air has the lowest permittivity and no loss. The goal of this work is to build an air-spaced patch antenna, with the minimum resonant frequency at 1800 MHz and with a return loss of at least 10 dB.

This work is novel because the air-spaced patch antenna has not been extensively studied. …

A Multi-Regulator Sliding Mode Control Strategy For Output-Constrained Systems, Hanz Richter

Mechanical Engineering Faculty Publications

This paper proposes a multi-regulator control scheme for single-input systems, where the setpoint of a regulated output must be changed under the constraint that a set of minimum-phase outputs remain within prescribed bounds. The strategy is based on a max–min selector system frequently used in the aerospace field. The regulators used for the regulated and limited outputs are of the sliding mode type, where the sliding variable is defined as the difference between an output and its allowable limit. The paper establishes overall asymptotic stability, as well as invariance properties leading to limit protection. The design methodology is illustrated with …

Exploration Of Nde Properties Of Amb Supported Rotors For Structural Damage Detection, Jerzy T. Sawicki, Dmitry L. Storozhev, John D. Lekki

Mechanical Engineering Faculty Publications

Recent advancements in actuator technology, power electronics, sensors, and signal processing have created a rapid development of smart machine technologies for rotating machinery. Ranging from machine condition monitoring and diagnostics to full active control of machine behavior, the integration of electrical and computer systems has produced significant advances in machine performance and reliability. Magnetic bearings are a typical mechatronics product. The hardware is composed of mechanical components combined with electronic elements such as sensors and power amplifiers and an information processing part, usually in the form of a microprocessor. In addition, an increasingly important part is software, which specifies the …

Cs 208: Computer Programming For Business I, David M. Hutchison

Computer Science & Engineering Syllabi

CS 208 Is the first In a sequence of two programming classes required for MIS majors. This course will Introduce students to the basic concepts of programming. Examples are from business applications and display graphics and emphasis Is on problem solving with the computer as a tool.