Engineering Commons^™

Upgrading An Intermittent & Branched Water Network To A Continuous & Looped Network: A Case Study In Coastal Peru, Jennifer A. O'Neill

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

This case study sought to determine how the potable water network of Cerro Prieto, Peru could be improved. The network as it exists now is branched and operated intermittently, exposing residents to water contamination risks and inconvenience. Using EPANET, it was found that the as-built network can support continuous water service, all points could stay over 10 psi, and the current water consumption rate could be maintained. To keep all points over 20 psi, the height of elevated water tank must be increased 6 feet, and the pump switched on whenever the tank drains. It was also found that almost …

Alternating Current Dielectrophoretic Manipulation Of Erythrocytes In Medical Microdevice Technology, Kaela M. Leonard

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

Medical microdevices have gained popularity in the past few decades because they allow the medical laboratory to be taken out into the field and for disease diagnostics to happen with a smaller sample volume, at a lower cost and much faster. Blood is the human body's most readily available and informative diagnostic fluid because of the wealth of information it provides about the body's general health including enzymatic, proteomic and immunological states. The purpose of this project is to optimize operating conditions and study ABO-Rh erythrocytes dielectrophoretic responses to alternating current electric signals. The end goal of this project is …

The Quantification Of The Fly Ash Adsorption Capacity For The Purpose Of Characterization And Use In Concrete, Zeyad Tareq Ahmed

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

Fly ash has been shown to be an effective replacement for portland cement in concrete mixtures. However, many fly ash materials contain unburned carbon from the combustion process. Unburned carbon in fly ash adsorbs air entraining admixtures (AEAs) reducing their effectiveness in providing a specified air void system in concrete materials. Measurement tools and methods for characterization of the adsorption properties of fly ash materials are necessary for beneficial use of fly ash materials in concrete. In this research, two methods were developed to measure and quantify the adsorption capacity AEAs on fly ash materials. The first method is the …

Numerical Evaluation Of Different Retrofitting Techniques Of New Orleans Floodwalls And Implementation Of Advanced Constitutive Model In Flac3d, Sudarshan Adhikari

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The objective of this study was to re-examine some but the crucial established failure mechanism, and also to establish other failure mechanisms of the floodwalls due to hurricanes in New Orleans so that the necessary retrofitting techniques could be sought out. Depending on the failure mechanisms, two of the proposed retrofitting techniques such as "structural cap" to maintain integrity by tying adjacent panels of I-type floodwalls, and "bentonite apron" to self seal gaps that occur between the floodwall and foundation soil were chosen, for which their performances had to be evaluated. This dissertation documents all the numerical analysis conducted to …

Analysis Of Particulate Matter Air Quality Impacts On Sunland Park, New Mexico Due To Dust Emissions From Puerto Anapra, Mexico Using A Complex Terrain Air Dispersion Model Calpuff, Grisel Edith Arizpe

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The City of Sunland Park is located in Doña Ana County in southern New Mexico. The City has unusual boundaries which border not only with other communities in New Mexico but also the State of Chihuahua, Mexico to the south and the City of El Paso, Texas to the east. This area is considered part of the Paso del Norte Airshed (PdNA), which is comprised also by El Paso County, Texas and Ciudad (Cd.) Juarez, Mexico. Historically, this region has had air quality problems and compliance issues with National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS), including particulate matter and ozone pollution. …

Electric-Field-Induced Interfacial Instabilities Of A Soft Elastic Membrane Confined Between Viscous Layers, Mohar Dey, Dipankar Bandyopadhyay, Ashutosh Sharma, Shizhi Qian, Sang Woo Joo

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Faculty Publications

We explore the electric-field-induced interfacial instabilities of a trilayer composed of a thin elastic film confined between two viscous layers. A linear stability analysis (LSA) is performed to uncover the growth rate and length scale of the different unstable modes. Application of a normal external electric field on such a configuration can deform the two coupled elastic-viscous interfaces either by an in-phase bending or an antiphase squeezing mode. The bending mode has a long-wave nature, and is present even at a vanishingly small destabilizing field. In contrast, the squeezing mode has finite wave-number characteristics and originates only beyond a threshold …

Nebraska Summary: S856 New Holland T6 140, Nebraska Tractor Test Lab

Nebraska Tractor Tests

ABOUT THE TEST REPORT AND USE OF THE DATA The test data contained in this report are a tabulation of the results of a series of tests. Due to the restricted format of these pages, only a limited amount of data and not all of the tractor specifications are included. The full OECD report contains usually about 30 pages of data and specifications. The test data were obtained for each tractor under similar conditions and therefore, provide a means of comparison of performance based on a limited set of reported data. EXPLANATION OF THE TEST PROCEDURES Purpose The purpose of …

Test 2049: Case Ih Steiger 600 Quadtrac, Nebraska Tractor Test Lab

Nebraska Tractor Tests

ABOUT THE TEST REPORT AND USE OF THE DATA The test data contained in this report are a tabulation of the results of a series of tests. Due to the restricted format of these pages, only a limited amount of data and not all of the tractor specifications are included. The full OECD report contains usually about 30 pages of data and specifications. The test data were obtained for each tractor under similar conditions and therefore, provide a means of comparison of performance based on a limited set of reported data. EXPLANATION OF THE TEST PROCEDURES Purpose The purpose of …

Automated System To Improve Levelness Of Reconstructed Soil, Venkata Srikiran Bodapati, Larry G. Wells

Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering Faculty Publications

Extraction of coal, ores, and minerals from the earth by surface mining has occurred for many years and has always presented a significant challenge with regard to restoration of productive soil to mined areas. Federal and state regulations require that land should be returned to pre-mine productivity or reclaimed as per specific standards following mining. Excessive compaction of reconstructed soil caused by traffic of heavy earth moving equipment has been an enduring challenge regarding successful restoration of soil. A mechanical system was previously designed and developed to reconstruct soil to a depth of 1.22 m (48 in.) while completely avoiding …

Prescribed Grazing On Pasturelands, Lynn E. Sollenberger, Carmen T. Agouridis, Eric S. Vanzant, Alan J. Franzluebbers, Lloyd B. Owens

Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Multimodal Imaging Evidence For Axonal And Myelin Deterioration In Amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment, Brian T. Gold, Yang Jiang, David K. Powell, Charles D. Smith

Neuroscience Faculty Publications

White matter (WM) microstructural declines have been demonstrated in Alzheimer's disease and amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI). However, the pattern of WM microstructural changes in aMCI after controlling for WM atrophy is unknown. Here, we address this issue through joint consideration of aMCI alterations in fractional anisotropy, mean diffusivity, axial diffusivity, and radial diffusivity, as well as macrostructural volume in WM and gray matter compartments. Participants were 18 individuals with aMCI and 24 healthy seniors. Voxelwise analyses of diffusion tensor imaging data was carried out using tract-based spatial statistics (TBSS) and voxelwise analyses of high-resolution structural data was conducted using …

Complete Genome Sequence Of Clostridium Clariflavum Dsm 19732, Javier A. Izquierdo, Lynne Goodwin, Karen W. Davenport, Hazuki Teshima

Dartmouth Scholarship

Clostridium clariflavum is a Cluster III Clostridium within the family Clostridiaceae isolated from thermophilic anaerobic sludge (Shiratori et al, 2009). This species is of interest because of its similarity to the model cellulolytic organism Clostridium thermocellum and for the ability of environmental isolates to break down cellulose and hemicellulose. Here we describe features of the 4,897,678 bp long genome and its annotation, consisting of 4,131 protein-coding and 98 RNA genes, for the type strain DSM 19732.

Workplace Futures: A Case Study Of An Adaptive Scenarios Approach To Establish Strategies For Tomorrow’S Workplace, Ruth Saurin

Doctoral

Workplace change and innovation will become critical to the organisation’s future in a dynamic, knowledge-based economy and society. As such, anticipating and managing future change is fast becoming a vital dimension underpinning the successful transition – to new work styles, patterns and locations; yet traditional workplace planning methods are rather limited in their ability to fulfil this task. This research, therefore, examines how the potential application of Futures Studies, and more specifically the Prospective
Through Scenarios process, can address this issue in order for the workplace to be actively sustained to stay effective for the organisation in the long-term.Using a …

A Design Tool For Wsn Design In Buildings, Antony Guinard

Theses

The combination of sensing, processing, communication and actuation has made the monitoring and operation of buildings a significant emerging application area for Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN). The design, implementation and management of WSN is a complex task requiring a broad spectrum of disciplines such as networking and protocols, information management and embedding engineering to be successful. Indoor environments in particular pose a number of challenges that make the design of wireless networks a difficult task. These include the influence of obstacles and people on radio propagation, ever evolving building layout and interference from other wireless networks. The large-scale adoption of …

Settlement Of Municipal Solid Waste, Emmet Burke

Theses

The mechanical properties of waste (compression index, elastic modulus, stresses) are an important aspect for the design, operation and post-closure uses of landfills. In recent years the requirement to utilise the acreage that the landfill occupies to its maximum potential has necessitated the landfill structure to accommodate a greater volume of waste over a smaller plan area. This pushes the boundaries of design relating to side-slope and infrastructural elements of landfill structures.

The objectives of this research were identified from significant gaps in the knowledge relating to the settlement and mechanical properties of municipal solid waste. The main objectives are …

Optimisation Of Cold-Formed Steel Purlin Cross-Sections, Matt Clifford

Theses

The subject of buckling of steel members is introduced and the critical nature of local buckling in slender members is highlighted.

The main thrust of work this semester is an investigation into the following buckling modes:

Flexural buckling;

Lateral torsional buckling;

Torsional buckling;

Shear buckling;

Web buckling;

Distortional buckling;

Local buckling.

This investigation has three main components:

1. Review of theory, books and appropriate published work;

2. Investigation into the relevant parts of Eurocode 3;

3. Finite element analysis using the LUSAS FE program to illustrate the various buckling modes.

Finally, the areas to be covered in the Realisation Stage …

Effects Of Cyclic Loading On Offshore Foundation Systems, Shane Browne

Theses

A brief description of the various offshore foundation systems currently available is provided in this report, including the advantages and disadvantages for each system and water depth in which they can be used. These foundation types include floating structures, jacket structures, gravity base structures and the monopile foundation, on which this research specifically focuses.

The monotonic lateral loading of the monopile structure is also examined and the reasons why monotonic testing is required are highlighted, along with the potential analysis that can be generated to improve the design of the monopile foundation. A review of previous test programmes for monopiles …

A Traffic Metering And Marking Technique For Fair Bandwidth Allocation In High Speed Networks, Mary Looney

Theses

The deployment of Quality of Service (QoS) in high speed networks is vital to successful application delivery, especially those that are data-intensive. Continuous efforts have been made to develop infrastructures for enhancing QoS capabilities to manage available bandwidth through the use of traffic conditioners. However, research shows that these techniques distribute bandwidth in an unfair manner. This thesis addresses the failings of traffic conditioning techniques for bandwidth QoS provisioning. Traffic conditioners are comprised of two components, a traffic meter that is responsible for measuring transient characteristics of a traffic stream through a rate estimation technique and a traffic marker that …

The Effects Of Deposition Conditions On Rf Sputtered Gallium Tin Zinc Oxide Thin Film Transistors, Tanina Bradley

Dissertations

Thin film transistors (TFTs) were fabricated with a transparent amorphous gallium tin zinc oxide (GSZO) channel layer. GSZO is a promising, low cost replacement for the commonly used indium gallium zinc oxide (IGZO).The transistors were fabricated on Si substrates to optimize performance prior to transferring device production to flexible substrates. This dissertation will address the effects of deposition and post-deposition parameters on the film properties and interface traps. It will also address the parameters’ resultant effects on device performance and stability with the use of various characterization techniques. Film properties were studied using x-ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission measurements to …

Application Of The Human-Machine Interaction Model To Multiple Attribute Task Battery (Matb): Task Component Interaction And The Strategy Paradigm, Craig M. Walters

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

The Multiple-Attribute Task Battery (MATB) is composed of four simultaneously running components to which a human operator responds. A prior report has quantified information content as a machine input baud rate using the Hick-Hyman and Fitt's Laws for three of the four components and defines a strategy function. This report covers methods to quantify information content of the fourth component, creating a single metric which describes overall task complexity and evaluates human performance and strategy. Six MATB task-scenarios (combinations of two, three, or all four MATB components) each at two input baud rates are evaluated. Subjects were also provided with …

Regulation Of The Transcription And Subcellular Localization Of The Tumor Suppressor Pten By Δnp63Α, Mary Kathryn Leonard

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

Non-melanoma skin cancers (NMSCs) are the most common form of cancer in the United States with an estimated 3.5 million new cases each year. Surgical excision is the main treatment for NMSC, but leaves the potential for disfiguring scars and does not fully reduce the risk of recurrence since the surrounding tissue is also sun damaged and may contain tumor-promoting mutations. By understanding the molecular etiology of NMSC we may be able to expand treatment options to more than just resection. Normal epidermal development is dependent upon the expression of the transcription factor p63. Amplification of the ΔNp63α isoform is …

Characterization Of Doped Gallium Nitride Substrates, Jack Lee Owsley Iii

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis the characteristics of five bulk semi-insulated doped gallium nitride samples provided by Kyma Technologies, Inc were explored. The five GaN samples were grown on sapphire substrates by hydride vapor phase epitaxy (HVPE) and doped with different concentrations of iron, hydrogen, carbon, oxygen and silicon. The first step of characterization was measuring the optical absorption of all the samples using a UV-NIR fiber spectrometer. Through this procedure it was found that they all showed a strong absorption at 518 nm. Thus, time-resolved differential transmission measurements were conducted at this wavelength using the second harmonic generation (SHG) of a …

The Demonstration Of Smse Based Cognitive Radio In Mobile Environment Via Software Defined Radio, Ruolin Zhou

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

With the emergence of increasing number of wireless devices and demands for higher data rates, spectrum crowding and congestion increases. Spectrum congestion problem has been challenging wireless communication engineers for a few decades. However, recent studies indicate that most of the time wide ranges of the radio spectrum are rarely utilized. Hence, the spectrum congestion is mainly due to the inefficient spectrum usage rather than the spectrum scarcity. To exploit under used spectrum and utilize the spectrum efficiently in dynamically changing environments, a new technology is needed. Cognitive Radio (CR) arises to be a possible solution to spectral crowding problem …

Experimental And Numerical Analysis Of Nano-Enhanced Polymer Coated Steel Plates Subjected To Ballistic Loading, Miles Coleman Fowler

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The following is a summary of research for a portion of the project titled Nano-Enhanced and Bio-Inspired Composite Materials for Mitigation and Protection of TIH Railcars and Stationary Tanks Against High Power Impact. This research investigated several nano-enhanced polymers for their suitability in high-speed impact protection applications. The polymers were tested mechanically to find ideal nano-particle additive percentages then coated onto steel substrates. These coated substrates were impacted using 0.50-caliber projectiles in order to find the ballistic limit (V50) for each combination. Computer modeling in ANSYS AUTODYN was undertaken to calculate a numerical ballistic limit for each plate configuration. The …

Reconfigurable Wideband Circularly Polarized Microstrip Patch Antenna For Wireless Applications, Ahmed Khidre

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis, developments of rectangular microstrip patch antenna to have circular polarization agility with wideband performance, for wireless applications are presented. First, a new technique to achieve circularly polarized (CP) probe feed single-layer microstrip patch antenna with wideband characteristics is proposed. The antenna is a modified form of the popular E-shaped patch, used to broaden the impedance bandwidth of a basic rectangular patch antenna. This is established by letting the two parallel slots of the E-patch unequal. Thus, by introducing asymmetry two orthogonal currents on the patch are excited and circularly polarized fields are realized. The proposed technique exhibits …

Impact Of Design Parameters On Detached-Die Tapered Resin Injection Pultrusion, Sudip Ranjit

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Injection pultrusion is an efficient process for manufacturing composites of continuous lengths with constant cross-section area. The main objective of this study is to compare the performances of the detached-die with the attached-die resin injection chamber configurations. In this work the impact of various geometric design parameters (the length of the injection chamber, slot width, multiple injection slot locations, and part thickness) on the performances and complete wetout of the composite parts for both the attached-die and detached-die configurations is investigated with various chamber lengths and compression ratios. A 3-D finite volume technique is employed to simulate the liquid resin …

Admicellar Polymerization Of Calcium Carbonate And Its Performance In Drilling Fluids, Poh Lee Cheah

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Admicellar polymerization using sodium dodecylsulfate (SDS) template to form ultrafilm polystyrene on commercial calcium carbonate (CaCO3 ) of various particle sizes was studied. Adsorption isotherms of SDS decrease after the critical micelle concentration (CMC) of SDS was observed. This is explained by the phase behavior of SDS with calcium ion. The solubility product constants (Ksp) for calcium dodecylsulfate (Ca(DS) 2) were calculated as 1.55x10?9M3 at 30°C and 8.58x10?9M3 at 50°C. At SDS concentrations above the CMC, precipitation of Ca(DS)2 was governed by the critical ratio of calcium ion concentration bound onto anionic micelles which was 0.22 at 30°C and 0.20 …

Heat Transfer Enhancement In A Straight Channel Via A Rotationally Oscillating Adiabatic Cylinder, Ali Beskok, Mehrdad Raisee, Bayram Celik, Bedri Yagiz, Mohsen Cheraghi

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Faculty Publications

Heat convection from the uniformly heated walls of a straight channel in presence of a rotationally oscillating cylinder (ROC) is simulated at Re = 100. Heat transfer enhancement due to vortex shedding from the ROC is investigated. Systematic studies are performed to explore the rotation angle and frequency influences on heat transfer by varying the latter in range of the lock-in regime and the former from 0 to 2 π/3. All simulation results are based on the numerical solutions of two-dimensional, unsteady, incompressible Navier-Stokes and energy equations using an h/p type finite element algorithm. Considering time periodicity of the resulting …

Microfluidic Separation Of Live And Dead Yeast Cells Using Reservoir-Based Dielectrophoresis, Saurin Patel, Daniel Showers, Pallavi Vedantam, Tzuen-Rong Tzeng, Shizhi Qian, Xiangchun Xuan

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Faculty Publications

Separating live and dead cells is critical to the diagnosis of early stage diseases and to the efficacy test of drug screening, etc. This work demonstrates a novel microfluidic approach to dielectrophoretic separation of yeast cells by viability. It exploits the cell dielectrophoresis that is induced by the inherent electric field gradient at the reservoir-microchannel junction to selectively trap dead yeast cells and continuously separate them from live ones right inside the reservoir. This approach is therefore termed reservoir-based dielectrophoresis (rDEP). It has unique advantages as compared to existing dielectrophoretic approaches such as the occupation of zero channel space and …

A System Dynamics Model For Simulating Ambulatory Health Care Demands, Rafael Diaz, Joshua G. Behr, Mandar Tulpule

VMASC Publications

Introduction: This article demonstrates the utility of the system dynamics approach to model and simulate US demand for ambulatory health care service both for the general population and for specific cohort subpopulations over the 5-year period, from 2003 to 2008. A system dynamics approach that is shown to meaningfully project demand for services has implications for health resource planning and for generating knowledge that is critical to assessing interventions.

Methods: The study uses a cohort-component method in combination with structural modeling to simulate ambulatory health care utilization. Data are drawn from the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey and the National …