Engineering Commons^™

A Classification Methodology For Landfill Leachates, David J. Tonjes

Technology & Society Faculty Publications

A characterization scheme based on landfill leachate chemical signatures could support studies of leachate evolution over time, liner performance, and help confirm or disprove potential leachate contamination of groundwater. Wide variations in single constituents across time, sites, and site practices, and inconsistencies related to common bivariate measures suggest a robust, multivariate analysis could be useful. A variant Stiff diagram approach (a subjective analytical comparison of soluble salts) has been developed, and supports graphical depictions of multiple samples. The hypothesis is that leachates with similar chemistry form clusters, and this was tested using a data set of 652 samples from 26 …

Supplier Sustainability Evaluation Utilizing Multi Attribute Utility Modeling, Scott E. Ladd

Theses and Dissertations--Manufacturing Systems Engineering

Conventionally, the focus during supplier evaluation has been to assess cost, quality and delivery effectiveness due to their impact on profitability. In recent years, there has been increased emphasis on promoting more sustainable business practices that focus on reducing environmental impact and improve societal well-being, in addition to economic benefits. However, most of the existing supplier evaluation methods in literature as well as those used by leading companies fall short of comprehensively assessing suppliers from a Triple Bottom Line (TBL) perspective. TBL defined as holistically looking at the economic, environmental, and societal aspects of an entity. This paper presents a …

An Observational Study Of The Methods And Progress In Enterprise Lean Transformation At A Learning Health Care Organization, Christopher Michael Rosenbaum

Theses and Dissertations--Manufacturing Systems Engineering

The health care industry in the United States is increasingly pressured to improve safety and quality performance and increase revenue. In response, many health care institutions are moving to redesign their processes and practices in an effort to decrease costs and provide safer, higher quality, and more efficient care. The purpose of this paper is to document the Lean implementation strategy and progress in implementation at a large teaching health care organization undergoing Lean transformation in order to understand enterprise transformation strategies and the impact of leadership involvement on culture development and Lean implementation. Through direct observations and involvement and …

Modeling Of Biorefinery Supply Chain Economic Performance With Discrete Event Simulation, Joseph S. Amundson

Theses and Dissertations--Manufacturing Systems Engineering

As competition for fossil fuels accelerates, alternative sources of chemicals, fuels, and energy production become more appealing to researchers and the layman. Among the candidates to fill this growing niche is lignocellulosic biomass. Many researchers have examined supply chain design and optimization for biofuel and bioenergy production throughout the years. However, these models often fail to capture the variability and uncertainty inherent to the biomass supply chain. Multiple factors with high degrees of stochasticity can have major impacts on the performance of a biorefinery: weather, biomass quality, feedstock availability, and market demand for products are just a few. To begin …

Kentucky Water Resources Research Institute Annual Technical Report Fy 2012, Kentucky Water Resources Research Institute, University Of Kentucky

KWRRI Annual Technical Reports (USGS’s 104b Grant Program)

The 2012 Annual Technical Report for Kentucky consolidates reporting requirements for the Section 104(b) base grant award into a single document that includes; 1) a synopsis of each research project that was conducted during the period, 2) citations for related publications, reports, and presentations, 3) a description of information transfer activities, 4) a summary of student support during the reporting period, and 5) notable awards and achievements during the year.

A Linear Multiplexed Electrospray Thin Film Deposition System, Brandon Lojewski

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Liquid spray is essential to industries requiring processes such as spray coating, spray drying, spray pyrolysis, or spray cooling. This thesis reports the design, fabrication, and characterization of a thin film deposition system which utilizes a linear multiplexed electrospray (LINES) atomizer. First, a thorough review of the advantages and limitations of prior multiplexed electrospray systems leads to discussion of the design rationale for this work. Next, the line of charge model was extended to prescribe the operating conditions for the experiments and to estimate the spray profile. The spray profile was then simulated using a Lagrangian model and solved using …

Exploring Travel And Activity Behavior In Transit-Oriented Developments: Insights Into Transportation Benefits And Travel Demand Modelling, Sanghoon Son

Civil & Environmental Engineering Theses & Dissertations

As a sustainable urban development and transportation planning strategy, researchers and planners are increasingly interested in transit-oriented development (TOD). By integrating transit system and neighborhood design, TOD aims to provide a livable environment that is alternative mode friendly, higher density, and mixed-use to residents and workers in the vicinity of transit stations. Despite the recent growing interest in TOE), however, transportation benefits of TOD are not well quantified and characteristics of TOD are not adequately reflected in travel demand models.

This dissertation contributes to understanding of the travel and activity behavior by comprehensively exploring them in the context of TOD. …

Effects Of Signal Ambiguity And Signal Location On Target Detection Under Varying Degrees Of Time Constraint, Kimberly E. Culley

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of the current study was to investigate the effects of decision-making strategies and tendencies, time constraint, and signal characteristics on decision-making performance utilizing the fuzzy signal detection theory framework. Participants were tasked with deciding whether x-ray images of passenger luggage contained hazardous objects.

The first objective of the study was to develop a methodology for quantifying optimizing versus satisficing tendencies in decision making through direct measurement and observation.

The second objective of the study was to examine how time constraint and specific signal characteristics contribute to decision making. Interestingly, despite having more time available to conduct a comprehensive …

Investigation Of Nbnx Thin Films And Nanoparticles Grown By Pulsed Laser Deposition And Thermal Diffusion, Ashraf Hassan Farha

Electrical & Computer Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Niobium nitride films (NbNx) were grown on Nb and Si (100) substrates using pulsed laser deposition (PLD), laser heating, and thermal diffusion methods. Niobium nitride films were deposited on Nb substrates using PLD with a Q-switched Nd: YAG laser (λ = 1064 nm, 40 ns pulse width, and 10 Hz repetition rate) at different laser fluences, different nitrogen background pressures and deposition temperatures. The effect of changing PLD parameters for films done by PLD was studied. The seen observations establish guidelines for adjusting the laser parameters to achieve the desired morphology and phase of the grown NbNx films.

When the …

Functional Near Infrared Detection Of Real And Imagined Finger Taps Using Support Vector Machine, Linear Discriminant Analysis, And Decision Tree Classification Methods, Eugene A. Stoudenmire

Computational Modeling & Simulation Engineering Theses & Dissertations

This study investigates the thesis that given cerebral response samples of an individual's left, right, both, and imagined finger tapping, continuous wave (CW) functional Near Infrared (fNIR), unregistered with fMRI, can differentiate between any two of the four categories.

Fifty subjects were outfitted with a single source/detector attached to a single, square pad, affixed to their heads using devices such as elastic bands and caps for light shielding. Slides depicting arrows pointing left, right, both directions, or made of dashed lines were presented to each subject, with a slide of text interspersed between each. Subjects tapped with their left finger, …

Tailoring Spin-Orbit Torque In Diluted Magnetic Semiconductors, Hang Li, Xuhui Wang, Fatih Dogan, Aurelien Manchon

Materials Science and Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

We study the spin orbit torque arising from an intrinsic linear Dresselhaus spin-orbit coupling in a single layer III-V diluted magnetic semiconductor. We investigate the transport properties and spin torque using the linear response theory, and we report here: (1) a strong correlation exists between the angular dependence of the torque and the anisotropy of the Fermi surface; (2) the spin orbit torque depends nonlinearly on the exchange coupling. Our findings suggest the possibility to tailor the spin orbit torque magnitude and angular dependence by structural design.

Distal Placement Of An End-To-Side Bypass Graft Anastomosis: A 3d Computational Study, John Di Cicco, Ayodeji Demuren

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Faculty Publications

A three-dimensional (3D) computational fluid dynamics study of shear rates around distal end-to-side anastomoses has been conducted. Three 51% and three 75% cross-sectional area-reduced 6 mm cylinders were modeled each with a bypass cylinder attached at a 30-degree angle at different placements distal to the constriction. Steady, incompressible, Newtonian blood flow was assumed, and the full Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations, turbulent kinetic energy, and specific dissipation rate equations were solved on a locally structured multiblock mesh with hexahedral elements. Consequently, distal placement of an end-to-side bypass graft anastomosis was found to have an influence on the shear rate magnitudes. For the …

Pencel Pressuremeter Testing To Determining P-Y Curves For Laterally Loaded Deep Foundations, Messaoud Farid, Nouaouria Md Salah, Paul J. Cosentino

Mechanical and Civil Engineering Faculty Publications

The pressuremeter used was essentially the PENCEL pressuremeter (PPMT), manufactured by ROCTEST, Inc. This paper offers a description of the equipment, testing procedure, theory to obtain parameters of the ground and to develop the p-y curves for laterally loaded piles. From PPMT data reduced to graphs of pressure versus volume, soil parameters including the lift-off pressure, the initial elastic and reload moduli, and the limit pressure were determined. Methods developed to determine p-y curves from pressuremeter and dilatometer (DMT) test. P-y curves are used in the analysis to represent lateral soil-pile interaction. The pressuremeter offers an almost ideal in-situ modelling …

Modelling And Configuration Control Of Wing-Shaped Bi-Stable Piezoelectric Composites Under Aerodynamic Loads, Andres F. Arrieta, Onur Bilgen, Michael I. Friswell, Paolo Ermanni

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Faculty Publications

Bi-stable composites have been considered for morphing applications thanks to their ability to hold two statically stable shapes with no energy consumption. In this paper, the modelling of the dynamic response of cantilevered wing-shaped bi-stable composites is presented. To this end, an analytical model approximating the dynamic response about each statically stable shape of wing-shaped bi-stable composites is derived. Theoretical modal properties are obtained to attain or stabilise a desired configuration following a previously introduced resonant control strategy. The resonant control technique is evaluated for a wing-shaped bi-stable composite subject to aerodynamic loads. Wind tunnel experiments are conducted on a …

Evaluation Of Interpolation Effects On Upsampling And Accuracy Of Cost Functions-Based Optimized Automatic Image Registration, Amir Pasha Mahmoudzadeh, Nasser H. Kashou

Biomedical, Industrial & Human Factors Engineering Faculty Publications

Interpolation has become a default operation in image processing and medical imaging and is one of the important factors in the success of an intensity-based registration method. Interpolation is needed if the fractional unit of motion is not matched and located on the high resolution (HR) grid. The purpose of this work is to present a systematic evaluation of eight standard interpolation techniques (trilinear, nearest neighbor, cubic Lagrangian, quintic Lagrangian, hepatic Lagrangian, windowed Sinc, B-spline 3rd order, and B-spline 4th order) and to compare the effect of cost functions (least squares (LS), normalized mutual information (NMI), normalized cross correlation (NCC), …

Micro-Mechanics Based Representative Volume Element Modeling Of Heterogeneous Cementitious Materials, Mohammadmehdi Shahzamanian Sichani

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The current work focuses on evaluation of the effective elastic properties of cementitious materials through a voxel based FEA approach. Voxels are generated for a heterogeneous cementitious material (Type-I cement) consisting of typical volume fractions of various constituent phases from digital microstructures. The microstructure is modeled as a micro-scale representative volume element (RVE) in ABAQUS to generate cubes several tens of microns in dimension and subjected to various prescribed deformation modes to generate the effective elastic tensor of the material. The RVE-calculated elastic properties such as moduli and Poisson's ratio are validated through an asymptotic expansion homogenization (AEH) and compared …

Measurements Of Three-Dimensional Velocity Fields Under Breaking Waves, Matthew Auch

The Journal of Undergraduate Research

The three-dimensional (3D) velocity fields under breaking waves were measured using a Volumetric Three-Component Velocimetry (V3V) system. The V3V instrumentation determines the 3D positions and velocities of seed particles within a 3D measurement volume by using a synchronized laser-camera system and image processing algorithms. Measured velocity fields showed 3D vortex structures descending to the bottom and quickly dissipating as breaking waves propagated onshore.

A Method For Ontology-Based Semantic Relatedness Measurement, Görkem Gi̇ray, Murat Osman Ünalir

Turkish Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences

There are many methods having different approaches for assessing similarity and relatedness and they are used in many application areas, including web service discovery, invocation and composition, word sense disambiguation, information retrieval, ontology alignment and merging, document clustering, and short answer grading. These methods can be categorized as path-based, information content-based, feature-based, geometric model-based, and hybrid approaches. These approaches use resources such as concept hierarchy, conceptual graph, and corpus for computing similarity and relatedness. With the rise of the semantic web, ontologies have attracted the attention of several researchers. Ontologies represented in the Web Ontology Language (OWL) are also valuable …

Analysis Of Corn Stover Structural Properties For Mechanical Processing Applications, Taylor Suess

The Journal of Undergraduate Research

The research objective of this study is to examine the behavior of chopped corn stover biomass as it undergoes a variety of mechanical loading conditions. Biomass materials, including corn stover, have unique properties that make it challenging to effectively and efficiently feed into thermochemical conversion systems that produce biofuels and bioproducts. These properties include large particle size, fibrous structure, and low density, to name a few. The most common difficulty in creating a system like this for corn stover is plugging within mechanical and pneumatic feeding systems. It is hypothesized that the material properties of fibrous corn stover contribute to …

Magnetohydrodynamic Simulations Of Hypersonic Flow Over A Cylinder Using Axial- And Transverse-Oriented Magnetic Dipoles, Andrew N. Guarendi, Abhilash J. Chandy

Mechanical Engineering Faculty Research

Numerical simulations of magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) hypersonic flow over a cylinder are presented for axial- and transverse-oriented dipoles with different strengths. ANSYS CFX is used to carry out calculations for steady, laminar flows at a Mach number of 6.1, with a model for electrical conductivity as a function of temperature and pressure. The low magnetic Reynolds number (≪1) calculated based on the velocity and length scales in this problem justifies the quasistatic approximation, which assumes negligible effect of velocity on magnetic fields. Therefore, the governing equations employed in the simulations are the compressible Navier-Stokes and the energy equations with MHD-related source …

Nonoscillatory Central Schemes For Hyperbolic Systems Of Conservation Laws In Three-Space Dimensions, Andrew N. Guarendi, Abhilash J. Chandy

Mechanical Engineering Faculty Research

We extend a family of high-resolution, semidiscrete central schemes for hyperbolic systems of conservation laws to three-space dimensions. Details of the schemes, their implementation, and properties are presented together with results from several prototypical applications of hyperbolic conservation laws including a nonlinear scalar equation, the Euler equations of gas dynamics, and the ideal magnetohydrodynamic equations. Parallel scaling analysis and grid-independent results including contours and isosurfaces of density and velocity and magnetic field vectors are shown in this study, confirming the ability of these types of solvers to approximate the solutions of hyperbolic equations efficiently and accurately.

Coupled Continuum And Molecular Model Of Flow Through Fibrous Filter, Shunliu Zhao, Alex Povitsky

Mechanical Engineering Faculty Research

A coupled approach combining the continuum boundary singularity method (BSM) and the molecular direct simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) is developed and validated using Taylor-Couette flow and the flow about a single fiber confined between two parallel walls. In the proposed approach, the DSMC is applied to an annular region enclosing the fiber and the BSM is employed in the entire flow domain. The parameters used in the DSMC and the coupling procedure, such as the number of simulated particles, the cell size, and the size of the coupling zone are determined by inspecting the accuracy of pressure drop obtained for …

Probability Of Failure For Slopes With Sensitivity Analysis, Michelle Deng, Ronaldo Luna

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The significance of random variables on the probability of failure of slopes is generally evaluated by changing a different set of values for each variable and repeating the approach several times to conclude a trend. This method is very straightforward but requires time and computational resources; and it is inefficient especially when the number of random variables is large. This paper presents an analysis approach in which the sensitivity analysis is introduced to quantify the influence of the random variables on the probability of failure for slopes. In this study, the factor of safety of the slope was determined using …

Appropriate Viscous Damping For Nonlinear Time-History Analysis Of Base-Isolated Reinforced Concrete Buildings, Deepak R. Pant, Anil C. Wijeyewickrema, Mohamed A. Elgawady

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

SUMMARY: There is no consensus at the present time regarding an appropriate approach to model viscous damping in nonlinear time-history analysis of base-isolated buildings because of uncertainties associated with quantification of energy dissipation. Therefore, in this study, the effects of modeling viscous damping on the response of base-isolated reinforced concrete buildings subjected to earthquake ground motions are investigated. The test results of a reduced-scale three-story building previously tested on a shaking table are compared with three-dimensional finite element simulation results. The study is primarily focused on nonlinear direct-integration time-history analysis, where many different approaches of modeling viscous damping, developed within …

System Modeling And Optimization In Phase-Modulated Optical Fiber Communication Systems, Craig Huang

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

In this two-part study, the conclusions drawn from optimization of interferometer incoherent detection carried out by examining the effect of pre-emphasis within the electrical signal-driving path are examined first. This is an expansion upon a widespread industry standard as realized by the Oclaro group. System performance in tight optical filtering conditions can be improved with concurrent adjustments to the level of pre- emphasis and breadth of the delay-line interferometer free-spectral range. In the second study, we implement a dual-polarization quadrature phase-shift keyed modulation format with a digital signal processing block based upon the constant modulus algorithm realized via a feed-forward …

Technology Management Competencies, Mark Doggett, Pam Mcgee, Sophia Scott

SEAS Faculty Publications

In order to meet the increasing expectations of industry, technology management programs combine the application of technical skills with management competencies. The aim of the Association of Technology, Management, and Applied Engineering (ATMAE) is to develop professionals committed to solving complex technological problems, while advancing the technologist and applied engineering workforce. However, there is a wide variability of perceptions regarding the technologist and the technology manager. Clarity concerning the required competencies for an entry- level technology manager is essential. In order for technology management programs to be relevant, their competencies must be acknowledged and agreed upon. In addition, these technology …

Multidimensional Signal Analysis For Wireless Communications Systems, Ali Gorcin

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Wireless communications systems underwent an evolution as the voice oriented applications evolved to data and multimedia based services. Furthermore, current wireless technologies, regulations and the un-

derstanding of the technology are insufficient for the requirements of future wireless systems. Along with the rapid rise at the number of users, increasing demand for more communications capacity to deploy multimedia applications entail effective utilization of communications resources. Therefore, there is a need for effective spectrum allocation, adaptive and complex modulation, error recovery, channel estimation, diversity and code design techniques to allow high data rates while maintaining desired quality of service, and reconfigurable …

Approximate Sub-Graph Isomorphism For Watermarking Finite State Machine Hardware, Richard William Piper Meana

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

We present a method of mitigating theft of sequential circuit Intellectual Property hardware designs through means of watermarking. Hardware watermarking can be performed by selectively embedding a watermark in the state encoding of the Finite State Machine. This form of watermarking can be achieved by matching a directed graph representation of the watermark with a sub-graph in state transition graph representation of the FSM. We experiment with three approaches: a brute force method that provides a proof of concept, a greedy algorithm that provides excellent runtime with a drawback of sub-optimal results, and finally a simulated annealing method that provides …

A Distributed Local-Leg Feedback Algorithm For Robust Walking On Uneven Terrain, Mayur Ramakant Palankar

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Legged animals can traverse significantly more of the Earth's land mass than man-made wheeled and tracked vehicles~\cite{Anonymous67}. Their impressive mobility is largely due to multiple dexterous legs and the robust algorithms that coordinate and control them. A legged animal such as a squirrel can exhibit multiple locomotion modes such as walking, running and jumping and also multiple gaits or leg phase timings within each mode. A robot that could mimic this level of robust locomotion would be highly useful for planetary exploration, military reconnaissance, and time-critical search and rescue in cluttered or collapsed buildings.

A number of biological studies on …

A Novel Method For Watermarking Sequential Circuits, Matthew Lewandowski

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

We present an Intellectual Property (IP) protection technique for sequential circuits driven by embedding a decomposed signature into a Finite State Machine (FSM) through the manipulation of the arbitrary state encoding of the unprotected FSM. This technique is composed of three steps: (a) transforming the signature into a watermark graph, (b) embedding watermark graphs into the original FSM's State Transition Graph (STG) and (c) generating models for verification and extraction. In the watermark construction process watermark graphs are generated from signatures. The proposed methods for watermark construction are: (1) BSD, (2) FSD, and (3) HSD. The HSD method is shown …