Engineering Commons^™

Effects Of Adding Acid Plant Sulfur On Heap Leaching, Jibin George

Masters Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

Mining industry is heavily invested in mining various precious metals from their natural ore deposits. Copper ore deposits are found across the world and heap leaching of copper has been implemented effectively for years. The ore is broken down to copper ions and elemental sulfur in the heap. Acid plants are used in mines to replenish the raffinate leaching the heaps which consists of sulfuric acid. Molten sulfur carried in rail cars to the acid plant is often accidentally spilled on the ground. The contaminated sulfur cannot be added to the acid plant and has been disposed of as hazardous …

Bs News March/April

Building Services Engineering

No abstract provided.

2012 (Spring) Ensi Informer Magazine, Morehead State University. Engineering Sciences Department

ENSI Informer Magazine Archive

The ENSI Informer Magazine published in the spring of 2012.

Determining The Maximum Or Minimum Impedance Of A Special Parallel Rlc Circuit Without Calculus, Kenneth V. Cartwright, Edit J. Kaminsky

Electrical Engineering Faculty Publications

We show that the maximum or minimum impedance of a special parallel RLC studied in a previous paper can be found analytically, without using calculus. In fact, we show that the maximum or minimum value occurs when the driving frequency  is equal to o 1/ LC , a fact that was determined graphically in that previous paper. Furthermore, we show that either the maximum or minimum value is given by     2 2 R  1  3 ,where   L/C / R. Also, for the minimum impedance   2 min Z  R …

Effects Of Middle-Ear Disorders On Power Reflectance Measured In Cadaveric Ear Canals, Susan E. Voss, Gabrielle R. Merchant, Nicholas J. Horton

Engineering: Faculty Publications

Objective: Reflectance measured in the ear canal offers a noninvasive method to monitor the acoustic properties of the middle ear, and few systematic measurements exist on the effects of various middleear disorders on the reflectance. This work uses a human cadaver-ear preparation and a mathematical middle-ear model to both measure and predict how power reflectance R is affected by the middle-ear disorders of static middle-ear pressures, middle-ear fluid, fixed stapes, disarticulated incudostapedial joint, and tympanic-membrane perforations. Design: R was calculated from ear-canal pressure measurements made on human-cadaver ears in the normal condition and five states: (1) positive and negative pressure …

Transmission Strategies In Multiple-Access Fading Channels With Statistical Qos Constraints, Deli Qiao, M. Cenk Gursoy, Senem Velipasalar

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering: Faculty Publications

Effective capacity, which provides the maximum constant arrival rate that a given service process can support while satisfying statistical queueing constraints, is analyzed in a multiuser scenario. In particular, the effective capacity region of fading multiple-access channels in the presence of quality of service (QoS) constraints is studied. Perfect channel side information is assumed to be available at both the transmitters and the receiver. It is initially assumed that the transmitters send the information at a fixed power level and, hence, do not employ power control policies. Under this assumption, the performance achieved by superposition coding with successive decoding techniques …

Wheat Strip Effects On Nutrient Loads Following Variable Manure Applications, Chance Thayer, John E. Gilley, Lisa M. Durso, David B. Marx

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Vegetative filters have been found to significantly reduce nutrient loads in runoff. This study was conducted to: (1) evaluate the effects of a narrow wheat strip, varying manure application rates, and different overland flow rates on runoff nutrient loads following application of beef cattle manure; (2) determine the upper capacity of a narrow wheat strip to reduce nutrient loads by applying excessive amounts of manure; and (3) compare the effectiveness of narrow wheat strips and grass hedges in reducing runoff nutrient loads. A 1.4 m wide strip of actively growing winter wheat was located at the bottom of selected 0.75 …

Toward Reduction Of Model Uncertainty: Integration Of Bayesian Model Averaging And Data Assimilation, Mark A. Parrish, Hamid Moradkhani, Caleb Matthew Dechant

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Multimodeling in hydrologic forecasting has proved to improve upon the systematic bias and general limitations of a single model. This is typically done by establishing a new model as a linear combination or a weighted average of several models with weights on the basis of individual model performance in previous time steps. The most commonly used multimodeling method, Bayesian model averaging (BMA), assumes a fixed probability distribution around individual models' forecast in establishing the prior and uses a calibration period to determine static weights for each individual model. More recent work has focused on a sequential Bayesian model selection technique …

Development Of The Oregon Traffic Safety Data Archive: Phases 1 And 2, Christopher M. Monsere, Myenwoo Lim, Chengxin Dai, Xiaowei Wu

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

This report describes the preliminary work to develop the Oregon Traffic Safety Data Archive (OrTSDA). The mission of OrTSDA is to "build the knowledge base of traffic safety data in Oregon". The archive hopes to become a valuable traffic safety data resource with researchers, practitioners, and community supporters. As envisioned, the archive will provide current and historical versions of related data, encompass complete documentation, and contain an online interface to the variety of traffic safety related data. Working with partner state agencies, the archive contains reported motor vehicle crashes statewide, population data, estimates of vehicle miles traveled, traffic crime, and …

Hierarchical Fuzzy Logic System For Implementing Maintenance Schedules Of Offshore Power Systems, C. S. Chang, Zhaoxia Wang, Fan Yang, W. W. Tan

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Smart grid provides the technology for modernizing electricity delivery systems by using distributed and computer-based remote sensing, control and automation, and two-way communications. Potential benefits of the technology are that the smart grid's central control will now be able to control and operate many remote power plant, optimize the overall asset utilization and operational efficiently. In this paper, we propose an innovative approach for the smart grid to handle uncertainties arising from condition monitoring and maintenance of power plant. The approach uses an adaptive maintenance advisor and a system-maintenance optimizer for designing/implementing optimized condition-based maintenance activities, and collectively handles operational …

Study On Fracture Behavior Of Aa5083–H111 Friction Stir Welded Joint, Mohammed El Sayed Allam

Theses

The fracture behavior of friction stir welded joints of aluminum alloy 5083-H111 was studied in this investigation. Different samples of stir welded joints at variable tool rotational speeds (1660 rpm, 850 rpm, and 675 rpm), different traveling speeds (24, 42, 55, 74, and 98 mm/min), and different tool pin shapes (cylindrical, tapered and threaded) were studied to investigate the effect of process parameters on the joint strength/load-bearing capacity. A series of tensile tests using an MTS machine, scanning electron microscope (SEM) analysis, and optical microscope analysis was conducted to study the effect of varying the rotational speed, traveling speed, and …

Lunalight Project: Solar-Rechargeable Led Lantern And Cell Phone Charger, Sean C. Dawson, Michael E. Deagen, Francisco N. Dye, Brian S. Mircheff, Ryan O. Ramelb

Materials Engineering

Today, 1.6 billion people in the world do not have access to grid electricity. Villagers living off the grid in developing nations resort to kerosene lanterns to light their homes. The fumes from burning kerosene are toxic and lead to respiratory illnesses over time. Our sponsor, OneMillionLights, plans to help people to escape poverty by providing them with a clean source of light at night. Children that must work in the fields during the day can use a solar-rechargeable lantern at night to read or study, and street vendors can use the lanterns at night to improve their businesses.

The …

Fire And Life Safety Analysis Of The Performing Arts Center's Christopher Cohan Center, David Phillips

Fire Protection Engineering: Culminating Experience Project Reports

This report is a review of the fire protection systems installed in the Christopher Cohan Center on the Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo campus. The systems reviewed are the passive structural fire protection, passive and active egress components, and active detection and suppression systems. The report examines whether the reviewed systems in the building meet the prescriptive requirements of the 2010 California Building Code(CBC) and California Fire Code(CFC). The building will be further subjected to a performance based analysis. Two design fire scenarios are presented, and an analysis of available safe egress time (ASET) is compared with an analysis of …

Fire Protection Analysis Of The Orfalea College Of Business Building (#3), William Fletcher

Fire Protection Engineering: Culminating Experience Project Reports

A performance and prescriptive based analysis was performed on the Orfalea College of Business Building (#3) on Cal Poly’s Campus. The building was originally designed to meet the 1985 Uniform Building Code (UBC). The building’s original design and current existing condition will be examined. The business building will be evaluated using the California Building Code, California Fire Code, NFPA 101 Life Safety code and other relevant NFPA Codes. The fire protection systems will be separated and evaluated into systems by Egress Components, Fire Alarm and Detection, Water- Based Suppression and Structural Fire Protection. The combined interactions of the systems are …

Practical Active Disturbance Rejection Solution For Monitoring Automatic Gauge Control System With Large Time-Delay, Li-Jun Wang, Chao-Nan Tong, Qing Li, Yi-Xin Yin, Zhi-Qiang Gao, Qin-Ling Zheng

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

A practical active disturbance rejection control (ADRC) solution is proposed for the furnace temperature system. Employing a linear reduced-order model with optimized parameters, the practical ADRC is simple to use, easy to tune and energy-efficient in dealing with the uncertainties and disturbances in plant dynamics. Through the order reduction in both the plant model and the state observer, we develop a first order extended state observer for estimating in real-time the total value of the external and internal disturbances. The practical and standard ADRCs outperform the Smith Predictor and the PID controller in disturbance-rejection and robustness; however, the practical ADRC …

Real-Time Stereo Vision For Resource Limited Systems, Beau J. Tippetts

Theses and Dissertations

A significant amount of research in the field of stereo vision has been published in the past decade. Considerable progress has been made in improving accuracy of results as well as achieving real-time performance in obtaining those results. Although much of the literature does not address it, many applications are sensitive to the tradeoff between accuracy and speed that exists among stereo vision algorithms. Overall, this work aims to organize existing efforts and encourage new ones in the development of stereo vision algorithms for resource limited systems. It does this through a review of the status quo as well as …

Me-Em Enewsbrief, March 2012, Department Of Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics, Michigan Technological University

Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering eNewsBrief

No abstract provided.

Location Of Processor Allocator And Job Scheduler And Its Impact On Cmp Performance, Dawid Zydek, Grzegorz Chmaj, Alaa Shawky, Henry Selvaraj

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Research

High Performance Computing (HPC) architectures are being developed continually with an aim of achieving exascale capability by 2020. Processors that are being developed and used as nodes in HPC systems are Chip Multiprocessors (CMPs) with a number of cores. In this paper, we continue our effort towards a better processor allocation process. The Processor Allocator (PA) and Job Scheduler (JS) proposed and implemented in our previous works are explored in the context of its best location on the chip. We propose a system, where all locations on a chip can be analyzed, considering energy used by Network-on-Chip (NoC), PA and …

Debris Propagation Due To A Space Vehicle Breakup At High Altitudes, Juan A. Alvarado

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

Recently, there has been a surge of interest in the estimation of the extent of the airspace containing falling debris due to a space vehicle breakup. A precise computation of propagation of debris to the ground is not practical for many reasons. There is insufficient knowledge of the initial state vector, ambient wind conditions and the key parameters including the ballistic coecients. In addition, propagation of all debris pieces to the ground would require extensive computer time. In this thesis, a covariance propagation method is introduced for the estimation of debris propagation due to a space vehicle breakup. The falling …

Power Characteristics Of Homogeneously Broadened Index-Antiguided Waveguide Lasers, Chaofan Wang, Tsing-Hua Her, Lee W. Casperson

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

A model is reported that describes a bidirectional homogeneously broadened index-antiguided (IAG) slab laser having arbitrary single-pass gain and distributed losses. Maximum extraction efficiency and corresponding optimum output coupling are determined for various values of unsaturated gain and loss per pass. A method is proposed to determine the intrinsic laser parameters from output power measurements.

Dc Dielectrophoretic Assisted Anti-Fouling Filtration System, Nathan M. Cohen

Master's Theses

Filtration processes, whether on the microfluidic, clinical treatment systems, or industrial scale (e.g., point-of-care diagnostics, dialysis, and biopharmaceutical manufacturing, respectively), are often inseparable from membrane clogging (fouling). As a consequence, most, if not all, filtration systems require frequent maintenance to maintain functionality and efficiency. The thesis of this project hypothesizes that Dielectrophoresis can be combined with standard filtration to reduce filter fouling, extending membrane life, and enabling continuous operation. This project investigates a method to reduce fouling, add specificity and efficiency, and decrease the cost and challenge of filtration based biofluid separations.

To substantiate this thesis, we designed, fabricated, and …

Effect Of End-Plate Tabs On Drag Reduction Of A 3d Bluff Body With A Blunt Base, Jarred Michael Pinn

Master's Theses

This thesis involves the experimental testing of a bluff body with a blunt base to evaluate the effectiveness of end-plate tabs in reducing drag. The bluff body is fitted with interchangeable end plates; one plate is flush with the rest of the exterior and the other plate has small tabs protruding perpendicularly into the flow. The body is tested in the Cal Poly 3ft x 4ft low speed wind tunnel. Testing is conducted in three phases.

The first phase was the hot-wire measurement of streamwise velocity of the near wake behind the bluff body. An IFA300 thermal anemometry system with …

Mechanical Integration Of A Versatile Air Suspension Into A Powered Wheelchair, Joel Michael Steinkraus

Master's Theses

Mechanical Integration of a Versatile Air Suspension into a Powered Wheelchair

Joel Steinkraus

It is undeniable that the vibration environment created by prolonged exposure to wheelchair use can cause discomfort for the rider and put him/her at risk of developing more severe medical conditions. While more research must be done to accurately quantify what constitues a harmful vibration environment, improved vibraiton isolation is an essential step. In order to incorporate structurally sound and effetive air suspension systems into motorized wheelchairs, a support structure is necessary. An after market wheelchair suspension system was designed, modeled, built and tested. Approximately 18 inches …

Bridge Design For Earthquake Fault Crossings – Synthesis Of Design Issues And Strategies, Osmar Rodriguez

Master's Theses

This research evaluates the seismic demands for a three-span curved bridge crossing fault-rupture zones. Two approximate procedures which have been proved adequate for ordinary straight bridges crossing fault-rupture zones, i.e., the fault-rupture response spectrum analysis (FR-RSA) procedure and the fault-rupture linear static analysis (FR-LSA) procedure, were considered in this investigation. These two procedures estimate the seismic demands by superposing the peak values of quasi-static and dynamic bridge responses. The peak quasi-static response in both methods is computed by nonlinear static analysis of the bridge under the ground displacement offset associated with fault-rupture. In FR-RSA and FR-LSA, the peak dynamic responses …

An Interactive Visualization Model For Analyzing Data Storage System Workloads, Steven Charubhat Pungdumri

Master's Theses

The performance of hard disks has become increasingly important as the volume of data storage increases. At the bottom level of large-scale storage networks is the hard disk. Despite the importance of hard drives in a storage network, it is often difficult to analyze the performance of hard disks due to the sheer size of the datasets seen by hard disks. Additionally, hard drive workloads can have several multi-dimensional characteristics, such as access time, queue depth and block-address space. The result is that hard drive workloads are extremely diverse and large, making extracting meaningful information from hard drive workloads very …

Analyzing Logistic Map Pseudorandom Number Generators For Periodicity Induced By Finite Precision Floating-Point Representation, Kyle Persohn, Richard J. Povinelli

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Because of the mixing and aperiodic properties of chaotic maps, such maps have been used as the basis for pseudorandom number generators (PRNGs). However, when implemented on a finite precision computer, chaotic maps have finite and periodic orbits. This manuscript explores the consequences finite precision has on the periodicity of a PRNG based on the logistic map. A comparison is made with conventional methods of generating pseudorandom numbers. The approach used to determine the number, delay, and period of the orbits of the logistic map at varying degrees of precision (3 to 23 bits) is described in detail, including the …

Emergent Criticality Through Adaptive Information Processing In Boolean Networks, Alireza Goudarzi, Christof Teuscher, Natali Gulbahce, Thimo Rohlf

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

We study information processing in populations of Boolean networks with evolving connectivity and systematically explore the interplay between the learning capability, robustness, the network topology, and the task complexity. We solve a long-standing open question and find computationally that, for large system sizes N, adaptive information processing drives the networks to a critical connectivity K_{c}=2. For finite size networks, the connectivity approaches the critical value with a power law of the system size N. We show that network learning and generalization are optimized near criticality, given that the task complexity and the amount of information provided surpass threshold values. Both …

Development Of A Standardized Method For Comparing Biomechanical Properties Of Various Sternal Closure Techniques, Ramzi P. Hawit

Master's Theses

Background:

33.6% of all deaths in America are caused by cardiovascular disease. An estimated 82.6 million adults (>1 in 3) in America have some form of cardiovascular disease. There were over 400,000 bypass surgeries requiring open-heart surgery. Sternal dehiscence is associated with a morbidity rate of over 47% if mediastinitis supervenes. A rigid closure is required to avoid healing complications, and wire, plates, and bands are all used in an attempt to make a better closure. The purpose of this study it to compare multiple closures and validate a new testing method.

Methods:

Polyurethane foam blocks will be used, …

Novel On-Demand Droplet Generation For Selective Fluid Sample Extraction, Melinda Simon, Jeffrey Fisher, Melinda Simon, Abraham Lee

Faculty Publications

 A novel microfluidic device enabling selective generation of droplets and encapsulation of targets is presented. Unlike conventional methods, the presented mechanism generates droplets with unique selectivity by utilizing a K-junction design. The K-junction is a modified version of the classic T-junction with an added leg that serves as the exit channel for waste. The dispersed phase fluid enters from one diagonal of the K and exits the other diagonal while the continuous phase travels in the straight leg of the K. The intersection forms an interface that allows the dispersed phase to be controllably injected through actuation of an elastomer …

Water Quality Monitoring In A Pilot Marine Integrated Aquaculture System, Alex W. Kruglick

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Land based aquaculture systems are growing in popularity, and there is a drive to improve the efficiency of their energy and water systems for both economic and environmental benefit. Recirculating Aquaculture Systems (RAS) generally refer to systems that recycle their wastewater streams to be more or less a zero discharge facility. A more sustainable approach is emerging in the form of Integrated Aquaculture Systems (IAS) where maximum utility is realized from the various components so that fresh water use is reduced, water quality is improved, energy use is reduced, and new markets are created or fulfilled. Under a grant from …