Engineering Commons^™

Prototype Device For The Detection Of Subsurface Peach Pit Fragments, Colby Lippincott, Hamilton Little, Rick Hayes, Elliot Wenzel

Mechanical Engineering

Peach pits can break during processing into several small fragments and are difficult to see and remove from the peach. Wawona Frozen Foods is asking for a fully designed, built and tested prototype that can detect these pit fragments with ease and speed. Our design uses an array of needles that puncture into a peach half. A pressure sensor measures the force on the needles and determines whether or not each needle hit the peach flesh or a pit fragment. The array of needles consists of 313 needles each with a diameter of 0.6 mm with a total array diameter …

Thermodynamic Efficiency Evaluation For Distillation Of Ethanol, Joe A. Cavaletto

BioResource and Agricultural Engineering

Energy will always be a consideration when distilling any product. Fog’s End Distillery in Gonzales, CA is a small scale micro distillery for ethanol. For Fog’s End, efficiency is key to staying competitive. In this project the efficiency of energy in vs product out will be calculated. While collecting this data the price/bottle for energy will be determined and used for an assembly cost. To determine the efficiency the fuel usage will be recorded for several distillation trials. The mash contents and product contents will all be measured and calculations will be performed to find the theoretical amount of energy …

Microcontroller Design: Control Electronics For Rantec's 28vdc Input 3-U Power Supply, Leo Hernandez

Electrical Engineering

The Control Electronics is a real-time data acquisition and control system based on Atmel’s AVR microcontroller. The Control Electronics will be embedded into Rantec’s 3U power supply to monitor and report power supply data [1]. The power supply data monitored includes power supply output voltages, input voltage, DC bus voltage, and temperature.

The microcontroller continuously monitors DC voltages through seven I²C compatible analog-to-digital converters via a custom Two-Wire interface. An analog temperature sensor measures power supply data and feeds it as an analog voltage to the microcontroller’s built-in analog to digital interface. The microcontroller stores the acquired power …

In-Plane Loading Of Brick Veneer Over Wood Shear Walls, Elias Anis Toubia, James M. Lintz

Civil and Environmental Engineering and Engineering Mechanics Faculty Publications

In the design of wood stud walls with brick veneer, current design building codes specify that the wood stud wall should resist all in-plane and out-of-plane loads (IBC 2009). For out-of-plane loads, this assumption is entirely justified as the brittle brick veneer will crack and lose its capacity to resist bending. For in-plane loads, the brick veneer is significantly stiffer than the wood shear wall, and the veneer is unlikely to crack before the wood shear wall reaches its allowable capacity. The assumption that the wood shear wall resists the entire load is based on the further assumption that the …

Characteristics And Contributing Factors Of Emergency Vehicle Crashes, Naji Abdelwanis

All Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to determine the contributing factors and characteristics associated with emergency vehicle(EV) crashes in order to generate insights about the emergency crashes. This dissertation consists of three approaches to address the purpose. In the first analysis a binary logistic regression model was used to identify the critical factors associated with EV crashes that resulted in fatality compared to those that did not. In the second analysis, an ordered regression model was used to identify critical factors that contributed to the severity of injuries that EV occupants experience in crashes as well as the effect of …

Characterization Of Polyetherimide Under Static, Dynamic, And Multiple Impact Conditions, Bryan Zuanetti

HIM 1990-2015

The application of polymers in robust engineering designs is on the rise due to their excellent mechanical properties such as high fracture toughness, specific strength, durability, as well as, thermal and chemical resistances. Implementation of some advanced polymeric solids is limited due to the lack of available mechanical properties. In order for these materials to endure strenuous engineering designs it is vital to investigate their response in multiple loading rates and conditions. In this thesis, the mechanical response of polyethermide (PEI) is characterized under quasi-static, high strain rate, and multiple impact conditions. Standard tension, torsion, and compression experiments are performed …

Fracture Toughness Of A Hyperelastic Material During Surgical Cutting, Kevin Smith

HIM 1990-2015

Despite being one of the most important organs of vertebrates, the material properties of skin are also one of the most poorly understood. In the field of designing medical devices and surgical tools there are significant advantages to having a model that describes the interaction of forces between a blade tip and skin during surgical cutting. In general, skin can best be described as a composite layer consisting of a viscoelastic dermis with interwoven collagen and elastin fibers beneath a superficial epidermis. The purpose of this research is to study the fracture toughness of porcine skin during practical cutting applications, …

Development And Validation Of An Absorption Sensor For Time-Resolved Measurements Of Co And Co2, Kyle Thurmond

HIM 1990-2015

A sensor was developed for simultaneous measurements of carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide fluctuations in internal combustion engine exhaust gases. This sensor utilizes low-cost and compact LEDs that emit in the 3-5[micro]m wavelength range which are more appropriate for practical applications than the more traditionally used lasers. An affordable, fast response sensor that can measure these gases has broad application that can lead to more efficient, fuel flexible engines and regulations of harmful emissions. LEDs have a more spectrally broad and diverging emission than lasers which presented many design challenges. The optical design software ZEMAX was utilized to overcome these …

Analysis Of A Miniature Radio Frequency Ion Thruster With An Inductively Coupled Plasma Source, Peter Paul Bumbarger

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

The performance of a 2 cm miniature ion thruster was analyzed. A thruster of this size was predicted to produce a thrust of 200 μN. The plasma density was measured against rf input power and propellant flow rate for three configurations: the ICP source by itself; the ICP source with discharge chamber; and finally, the ICP source, the discharge chamber, and the permanent magnet cusp system. Once the optimum case was determined, electrostatic grids were added and thrust measurements were taken with a set of segmented ion collector plates.

The miniature rf ion thruster obtained a thrust of 22.35 μN …

Optimization Of The Transition From Connector To Pcb Board, Shuai Jin, Jiangfan Zhang, Jun Fan

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

A transition from vertically launched coaxial connector to routed trace on board is simulated and optimized to achieve very small reflections for precise TRL calibration. The mismatch of the discontinuities in the transition was reduced by controlling the via-impedance, introducing capacitive via-pads and applying diving boards. Each segment was optimized first, and then the whole cascaded structure was simulated to achieve the optimized smooth signal transition. © 2013 IEEE.

Manufacturing The Next Generation Of Vaccines: Non-Egg Based Platform For Influenza Vaccine, Andrew B. Price

Chemical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

This report explores the design of an influenza vaccine manufacturing facility using a non-egg based expression platform. The current standard procedure in flu vaccine production is to grow the virus in bird eggs. However, recently there is evidence that supports production by other expression platforms. The Sf9 insect cell is considered in this report. Facility design including cell culture media formulation through product storage for shipment and final formulation is considered based on the use of an existing facility. The new design also employs the use of disposable equipment such as bioreactors and purification unit operations. These disposables help reduce …

Passive Stormwater Samplers For Sampling Highway Runoff From Bmps: Feasibility Studies, Tian C. Zhang, John S. Stansbury, Massom Moussavi

Nebraska Department of Transportation: Research Reports

No abstract provided.

Fertilizer Effects On Attaining Vegetation Requirements, Walter H. Schacht, Carol Wienhold

Nebraska Department of Transportation: Research Reports

No abstract provided.

Implementation Of Precast Concrete Deck System Nudeck (2nd Generation), George Morcous, Maher K. Tadros

Nebraska Department of Transportation: Research Reports

No abstract provided.

Development And Evaluation If Best Management Practices For Highway Runoff Pollution Control, Tian C. Zhang, John S. Stansbury, Massom Moussavi

Nebraska Department of Transportation: Research Reports

No abstract provided.

Microfluidics Guided By Redox-Magnetohydrodynamics (Mhd) For Lab-On-A-Chip Applications, Vishal Sahore

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Unique microfluidic control actuated by simply turning off and on microfabricated electrodes in a small-volume system was investigated for lab-on-a-chip applications. This was accomplished using a relatively new pumping technique of redox-magnetohydrodynamics (MHD), which as shown in this dissertation generated the important microfluidic features of flat flow profile and fluid circulation. MHD is driven by the body force, FB = j × B, which is the magnetic part of the Lorentz force equation, and its direction is given by the right hand rule. The ionic current density, j, was generated in an equimolar solution of potassium ferri/ferro cyanide by applying …

An Open Source, Line Rate Datagram Protocol Facilitating Message Resiliency Over An Imperfect Channel, Christina Marie Smith

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Remote Direct Memory Access (RDMA) is the transfer of data into buffers between two compute nodes that does not require the involvement of a CPU or Operating System (OS). The idea is borrowed from Direct Memory Access (DMA) which allows memory within a compute node to be transferred without transiting through the CPU. RDMA is termed a zero-copy protocol as it eliminates the need to copy data between buffers within the protocol stack. Because of this and other features, RDMA promotes reliable, high throughput and low latency transfer for packet-switched networking. While the benefits of RMDA are well known and …

Monodentate, Bidentate And Photocrosslinkable Thiol Ligands For Improving Aqueous Biocompatible Quantum Dots, Hiroko Takeuchi

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Water-soluble Quantum Dots (QDs) are highly sensitive fluorescent probes that are often used to study biological species. One of the most common ways to render QDs water-soluble for such applications is to apply hydrophilic thiolated ligands to the QD surface. However, these ligands are labile and can be easily exchanged on the QD surface, which can severely limit their application. As one way to overcome this limitation while maintaining a small colloidal size of QDs, we developed a method to stabilize hydrophilic thiolated ligands on the surface of QDs through the formation of a crosslinked shell using a photocrosslinking approach. …

Attitudes And Behaviors In Online Communities: Empirical Studies Of The Effects Of Social, Community, And Individual Characteristics, Richard Kumi

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Online communities and communities of practice bring people together to promote and support shared goals and exchange information. Personal interactions are important to many of these communities and one of the important outcomes of personal interactions in online communities and communities of practice is user-generated content. The three essays in the current study examines behavior motivation in online communities and communities of practice to understand how Social and personal psychological factors, and user-generated influence attitudes, intentions and behaviors in online communities.

The first essay addresses two research questions. First, how does Social capital influence exchange and combination behaviors in online …

In Vitro Simulation Of Pathological Bone Conditions To Predict Clinical Outcome Of Bone Tissue Engineered Materials, Duong Nguyen

All Dissertations

According to the Centers for Disease Control, the geriatric population of ≥65 years of age will increase to 51.5 million in 2020; 40% of white women and 13% of white men will be at risk for fragility fractures or fractures sustained under normal stress and loading conditions due to bone disease, leading to hospitalization and surgical treatment. Fracture management strategies can be divided into pharmaceutical therapy, surgical intervention, and tissue regeneration for fracture prevention, fracture stabilization, and fracture site regeneration, respectively. However, these strategies fail to accommodate the pathological nature of fragility fractures, leading to unwanted side effects, implant failures, …

Predictive Maturity Of Inexact And Uncertain Strongly Coupled Numerical Models, Ismail Farajpour

All Dissertations

The Computer simulations are commonly used to predict the response of complex systems in many branches of engineering and science. These computer simulations involve the theoretical foundation, numerical modeling and supporting experimental data, all of which contain their associated errors. Furthermore, real-world problems are generally complex in nature, in which each phenomenon is described by the respective constituent models representing different physics and/or scales. The interactions between such constituents are typically complex in nature, such that the outputs of a particular constituent may be the inputs for one or more constituents. Thus, the natural question then arises concerning the validity …

Comparison Of Ball-On-Disc And Taber Wear Tests In Assessing Wear Performance Of Electrolessly-Deposited Alloys, K Theeratatpong, S Danchaivijit, Y Boonyongmaneerat

Journal of Metals, Materials and Minerals

In the industry, a Taber wear test is commonly employed to assess the wear resistance of coatings, which are applied on a panel of relatively large scales. On the other hand, other wear testing methods, such as ball-on-disc, is preferred in laboratory settings, as they require smaller test specimens and can determine coefficient of friction. In this study, we systematically compare the differences of Taber wear and ball-on disc by evaluating with an electrolessly-deposited Ni-P alloy systems. The Taber wear shows purely abrasive wear, whereas the ball-on-disc test offers a complex blend of wear mechanisms, and provides the coefficient of …

Investigation Of Supersaturated Silver Alloys For High Hardness Jewelry Application, S Praiphruk, G Lothongkum, E Nisaratanaporn, B Lohwongwatana

Journal of Metals, Materials and Minerals

Sterling silver is one of the most widely used precious metal alloys in jewelry industry. 92.5 wt% silver content is the standard for sterling products, while 7.5 wt% is reserved for other alloying elements. Because the mechanical properties of pure silver such as yield strength and hardness are extremely low. In the bounds of 7.5 wt% solute addition, different approaches have been introduced in order to improve the properties of sterling silver. For example, to increase the hardness of the jewelry pieces, metallurgists introduced age hardening, cold working, and surface treatments. We reported on the trend of intrinsic hardness increase …

Fabrication Of Chitosan/Titanium Dioxide Composites Film For The Photocatalytic Degradation Of Dye, P Norranattrakul, K Siralertmukul, R Nuisin

Journal of Metals, Materials and Minerals

The investigation of the chitosan film as a polymer matrix for titanium dioxide (TiO2) dispersion was carried out. Chitosantitanium dioxide composite films were prepared by solution casting, using Chitosan, TiO2, Arquad T50 HFP as surfactant. The mixture of 1.0 g chitosan in 100 mL acetic acid was prepared, subsequently with the addition of TiO2. The solution was then cast onto an acrylic mold and allowed to air-dry. The external morphology of the composite film revealed the high dispersion of TiO2 in the polymer matrix. Three types of crosslinking agent; glutaraldehyde, citric acid, and itaconic acid were studied. It was found …

Crystallization Of Carnallite From Kcl-Mgcl2 Brine Solutions By Solvent Evaporation Process And Its Structural And Mechanical Characterization, J Podder, S Gao, R W Evitts, Rw Besant, D Matthews

Journal of Metals, Materials and Minerals

Carnallite crystals have been synthesized from brine solutions at room temperature (23C) by solvent evaporation growth technique to show the effect of the concentration of potassium chloride (KCl) and magnesium chloride (MgCl2) on the growth, structural and mechanical properties of the crystal. Transparent and pseudo-hexagonal shape carnallite crystals with the dimension of 4 5 2 mm to 16 13 3 mm were grown. The crystals were characterized by powder X-ray diffraction and the lattice parameters were found to be a = 9.598 b = 16.141and c = 22.519 space group: Pnna, Z: 12, ? = ? = ? = 90 …

Heat Treatment Of Steel Parts In Different Media, Sc Maidargi, V Rani

Journal of Metals, Materials and Minerals

This study reports an investigation of the effect of different media (oil and polymer) on the properties of different grade steel parts. Steel parts after manufacture, will not have the desired properties like wear resistance, tensile strength, surface and core hardness. To attain these, heat treatment processes like Case Hardening (CH) or Through Hardening (TH) were carried out in sealed quench furnace and rotary furnace. The microstructure of the steel part influences the hardness of the same. The required microstructure is Fine Tempered Martensite (FTM) and the Quench media has a very important role in achieving this. Using different grades …

Analysis Of An Inflatable Gossamer Device To Efficiently De-Orbit Cubesats, Robert A. Hawkins Jr.

Master's Theses

There is an increased need for spacecraft to quickly and efficiently de-orbit themselves as the amount of debris in orbit around Earth grows. Defunct spacecraft pose a significant threat to the LEO environment due to their risk of fragmentation. If these spacecraft are de-orbited at the end of their useful life their risk to future spacecraft is greatly lessened. A proposed method of efficiently de-orbiting spacecraft is to use an inflatable thin-film envelope to increase the body's area to mass ratio and thusly shortening its orbital lifetime. The system and analysis presented in this project is sized for use on …

A Software Development Kit For Camera-Based Gesture Interaction, Devlin Cronin

Master's Theses

Human-Computer Interaction is a rapidly expanding field, in which new implementations of ideas are consistently being released. In recent years, much of the concentration in this field has been on gesture-based control, either touch-based or camera-based. Even though camera-based gesture recognition was previously seen more in science fiction than in reality, this method of interaction is rising in popularity. There are a number of devices readily available to the average consumer that are designed to support this type of input, including the popular Microsoft Kinect and Leap Motion devices.

Despite this rise in availability and popularity, development for these devices …

Biogeochemical Modeling Of The Response Of Forest Watersheds In The Northeastern U.S. To Future Climate Change, Afshin Pourmokhtarian

Dissertations - ALL

In this dissertation I assessed the potential hydrochemical responses of future climate change conditions on forested watersheds in the northeastern U.S. using climate projections from several atmosphere ocean general circulation models (AOGCMs) under different carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions scenarios. The impacts of changing climate on terrestrial ecosystems have been assessed by observational, gradient, laboratory and field studies; however, state-of-the-art biogeochemical models provide an excellent tool to investigate climatic perturbations to these complex ecosystems. The overarching goal of this dissertation was to apply a fully integrated coupled hydrological and biogeochemical model (PnET-BGC) to evaluate the effects of climate change and increasing …

Development And Evaluation Of Chitosan Particle Based Antigen Delivery Systems For Enhanced Antigen Specific Immune Response, Bhanuprasanth Koppolu

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Particle-based vaccine delivery systems are under exploration to enhance antigen-specific immunity against safe but poorly immunogenic polypeptide antigens. Chitosan is a promising biomaterial for antigen encapsulation and delivery due to its ability to form nano- and microparticles in mild aqueous conditions thus preserving the antigenicity of loaded polypeptides. The objective of this work is to develop a chitosan particle based antigen delivery system for enhanced vaccine response. Chitosan particle sizes, which ranged from 300 nm to 3 ìm, were influenced by chitosan concentration, chitosan molecular weight and addition rate of precipitant salt. The composition of precipitant salt played a significant …