Engineering Commons^™

Ccfss Special Edition Technical Bulletin Summer 2014, Wei-Wen Yu Center For Cold-Formed Steel Structures

CCFSS Technical Bulletins (1993 - 2020)

No abstract provided.

Beehive Monitor, Tyler William Lewis

Computer Engineering

No abstract provided.

Talk Vox, Javier Thiele-Ruiz

Computer Engineering

No abstract provided.

Numerical Investigation Of Pyrolysis Gas Blowing Pattern And Thermal Response Using Orthotropic Charring Ablative Material, Haoyue Weng, Alexandre Martin

Mechanical Engineering Faculty Publications

An orthotropic material model is implemented in a three-dimensional material response code, and numerically studied for charring ablative material. Model comparison is performed using an iso-Q sample geometry. The comparison is presented using pyrolysis gas streamlines and time series of temperature at selected virtual thermocouples. Results show that orthotropic permeability affects both pyrolysis gas flow and thermal response, but orthotropic thermal conductivity essentially changes the thermal performance of the material. The effect of orthotropic properties may have practical use such that the material performance can be manipulated by altering the angle of orthotropic orientation.

Numerical Study Of Spallation Phenomenon In An Arc-Jet Environment, Raghava Davuluri, Alexandre Martin

Mechanical Engineering Faculty Publications

The spallation phenomenon might affect the aerodynamic heating rates of re-entry vehicles. To investigate spallation effects, a code is developed to compute the dynamics of spalled particles. The code uses a finite-rate chemistry model to study the chemical interactions of the particles with the flow field. The spallation code is one-way coupled to a CFD solver that models the hypersonic flow field around an ablative sample. Spalled particles behavior is numerically studied for argon and air flow field. The chemistry model is compared with that of Park's model which complies with oxidation and sublimation and shows disagreement for nitridation.

Full-Scale Experimental Modal Analysis Of An Arch Dam: The First Experience In Iran, Reza Tarinejad, Mohammad Taghi Ahmadi, Ronald S. Harichandran

Civil Engineering Faculty Publications

Forced vibration field tests and finite-element studies were conducted on the Shahid Rajaee concrete arch dam in Northern Iran to determine the dynamic properties of the dam–reservoir–foundation system. The first forced vibration tests on the dam were performed with two different types of exciter units, with a limited maximum force, bolted on the dam crest for alternative in-phase and out-of-phase sequencing. Because of an insufficient number of recording sensors, two arrangements of sensors were used to cover sufficient points on the dam crest and one gallery during tests. Two kinds of vibration tests, on–off and frequency sweeping, were carried out …

Influence Of Grain Size And Widmanstätten Colonies On Variability Of Tensile Properties Of Forged Ti-6al-4v, Blake T. Gaspar

Master's Theses

When testing forgings for specifications, it was found that some parts did not meet the requirements for mechanical properties. This triggered an investigation into two of the parts from the lot that did not meet specification. The ultimate reason for failure was due to lower than necessary yield strength and ultimate tensile strength values, as well as unwanted variability between regions of the part. Therefore, samples of the regions were tensile tested to determine the differences that existed in yield strength, ultimate tensile strength, and elongation. After tensile testing, quantitative metallography and fractography were conducted to identify aspects of the …

An Investigation Into The Properties And Fabrication Methods Of Thermoplastic Composites, Ann E. Livingston-Peters

Master's Theses

As applications for thermoplastic composites increase, the understanding of their properties become more important. Fabrication methods for thermoplastic composites continually improve to match designs specifications. These advanced thermoplastics have begun to show an improvement in mechanical properties over those found in thermoset composites commonly used in industry. Polyaryletherketones (PEK) have high service temperatures, good mechanical properties, and improved processing capabilities compared to thermoplastics used in the past making them important to the aerospace industry. The wide range of types of PEK make them suitable for a variety of applications, but selection of specific chemistries, processing parameters, and composite stack-ups determine …

Developent Of A Phospholipid Encapsulation Process For Quantum Dots To Be Used In Biologic Applications, Logan Grimes

Master's Theses

The American Cancer Society predicts that 1,665,540 people will be diagnosed with cancer, and 585,720 people will die from cancer in 2014. One of the most common types of cancer in the United States is skin cancer. Melanoma alone is predicted to account for 10,000 of the cancer related deaths in 2014. As a highly mobile and aggressive form of cancer, melanoma is difficult to fight once it has metastasized through the body. Early detection in such varieties of cancer is critical in improving survival rates in afflicted patients. Present methods of detection rely on visual examination of suspicious regions …

The 360° Of Information Fluency Delivery To Freshman Engineering Students, Marian G. Armour-Gemmen, Robin A.M. Hensel, Mary L. Strife

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

For three years, engineering librarians from West Virginia University (WVU) have been teaching information fluency skills to 700-1000 freshman engineering students per year, using a specific information fluency cycle. The librarians’ responsibilities in the Fall 2013 course syllabus included teaching once in each section, providing a two-hour, in-library group sessions to accommodate almost 700 students, delivering an intellectual property Blackboard™ module for students to complete over a specific period of time, and requiring students to complete a Plagiarism Avoidance Tutorial with quiz. Some of these components are similar to those of past semesters. However, past collection of the data was …

Acuta Enews June 2014 Vol. 43, No. 6

ACUTA Newsletters

In this Issue...

The Association for College and University Technology Advancement

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Cold-Formed Steel Design - Vol. 2, American Iron And Steel Institute (Aisi)

American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) Specifications, Standards, Manuals and Research Reports (1946 - present)

No abstract provided.

Design, Implementation, And Test Of A Micro Force Displacement System, Evan Derek Cate

Master's Theses

The design and implementation of a micro-force displacement system was completed to test the force-displacement characteristics of square silicon diaphragms with side lengths of 4mm, 5mm, and 7mm with a thickness of 10um. The system utilizes a World Precision Instruments Fort 10g force transducer attached to a World Precession Instruments TBM4M amplifier. A Keithley 2400 source meter provided data acquisition of the force component of the system. A micro prober tip was utilized as the testing probe attached to the force transducer with a tip radius of 5um. The displacement of samples was measured using a Newport M433 linear stage …

Strength And Stiffness Characterization Of Controlled Low-Strength Material Using Native High-Plasticity Clay, Bhaskar Chittoori, Anand J. Puppala, Anil Raavi

Civil Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

A research attempt was made to design a controlled low-strength material (CLSM) mix that can be used as bedding and haunch material for a pipeline by using the native soil as fine aggregate. Several CLSM mix designs were attempted using native high-plasticity clay as fine aggregate material. Comprehensive material characterization studies including flowability to strength tests were performed. These results were analyzed to address the applicability of each mix to serve as pipe bedding/backfilling zones in a pipeline construction. Both flowability and density test results are first evaluated, and as a result, several mixes are formulated. These mixes were further …

Possible Geometric Explanations For Basic Empirical Dependencies Of Systems Engineering, Francisco Zapata, Vladik Kreinovich

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

In this paper, we provide possible geometric explanation for basic empirical dependencies of system engineering: that a properly designed system should have no more than 7 plus minus 2 elements reporting to it, and that the relative cost of correcting a defect on different stages of the system's life cycle is 3--6 on the second (design) stage, 20--100 on the third (development) stage, and 250--1000 on the fourth (production and testing) stage.

Towards Fast And Reliable Localization Of An Underwater Object: An Interval Approach, Quentin Brefort, Luc Jaulin, Martine Ceberio, Vladik Kreinovich

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

To localize an underwater object, we measure the distance to this object from several sonar sensors with known locations. The problem is that the signal sent by some of the sonars is reflected not by the desired object(s), but by some auxiliary object and thus, the values measured by these sensors are drastically different from the distance to the desired object. To solve this problem, currently probabilistic methods are used; however, since we do not know the exact probability distributions, these methods may miss the actual location of the object. There exist interval-based methods which provide guaranteed (reliable) bounds on …

Splice Performance Evaluation Of Enamel-Coated Rebar For Structural Safety, Genda Chen, Chenglin Wu

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This report summarizes the findings and results from an experimental study of vitreous enamel coating effects on the bond strength between deformed rebar and normal strength concrete. A total of 24 beam splice specimens were tested under four-point loading with four parameters investigated: bar size, lap splice length, coating, and confinement conditions. As the splice length increases, the ratio of bond strength between coated rebar and black rebar first increases from 1.0 to a maximum value of 1.44, and then decreases to 1.0. The maximum bond strength ratio corresponds to the near initial yielding of coated rebar. On the average, …

Stress Corrosion Cracking In Polymer Matrix Glass Fiber Composites, Jonathan Kosak

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

With the use of Polymer Matrix Glass Fiber Composites ever expanding, understanding conditions that lead to failure before expected service life is of increasing importance. Stress Corrosion Cracking (SCC) has proven to be one such example of conditions found in use in high voltage transmission line applications that leads to brittle fracture of polymer matrix composites.

SCC has been proven to be the result of acid buildup on the lines due to corona discharges and water buildup. This acid leaches minerals from the fibers, leading to fracture at low loads and service life. In order to combat this problem, efforts …

Implementation Of A Sexual Harassment Workshop Targeting Female Engineers, Lisa Rae Volpatti, Cheryl A. Bodnar, Lauren M. Byland

Title IX Research and Resources

While sexual harassment (SH) of women in male-dominated fields was the focus of much research after the publication of Catharine MacKinnon’s 1979 book, Sexual Harassment of Working Women: A Case of Sex Discrimination, investigations within this field have become much less frequent in the past decade. Nevertheless, SH continues to be considered an important obstacle in the retention and success of women in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). The workshop developed and implemented as described in this study helped educate female engineering students on how to recognize situations that could be construed as SH through the provision of a …

Second Generation Design Of An Operator Independent Teflon Coating Adhesion Tester For Coronary Guidewires, Garrett L. Wong

Materials Engineering

No abstract provided.

Electrochemical Characterization Of Precious Metal Braze Alloys Using Potentiodynamic Polarization, Maxwell Glen Martin, Mason Gregory Morgan, Matthew David Vance

Materials Engineering

This study aimed to characterize the electrochemical behavior of six precious metal braze alloys by performing potentiodynamic polarization tests (ParStat 2273) based on ASTM Specifications G5 and G59. To determine the extent to which the alloys will contribute to galvanic corrosion in a marine environment (3.5 wt% NaCl), corrosion analysis software was used to produce fitted Tafel lines to determine the open circuit potential, V_oc, for each alloy. The V_oc values for the alloys were found to be -66.58 mV for Gold ABA, 13.01 mV for Nicoro^®, -39.00 mV for Nioro^®, 23.4 mV …

Geographic Information System-Based Tools In Environmental Management, Zeinab Bedri, Michael Bruen

Articles

The authors reviewed existing modelling platforms as part of a large study of water and pollution pathways through catchments in Ireland (Irish EPA Pathways project). Worldwide, work on producing catchment management tools (CMTs) has been underway for some time and some of the tools identified here date from as early as 1989. Some of the management problems and model conceptualisations have not changed very much but now there is a stronger emphasis on water quality and more concern about a wider range of contaminants. What has changed substantially is the use of Geographical Information System and Graphical Windows interfaces as …

Fire Protection And Life Safety Evaluation- Houston Community College- San Jacinto Building, Will Clay

Fire Protection Engineering: Culminating Experience Project Reports

This report evaluates the life safety features of the HCC San Jacinto Building (SJB) both prescriptively and on a performance basis. The goal is to present the building code requirements for the HCC San Jacinto building and determine if the design is in compliance, as well as analyze the building on the basis of performance criteria to determine if there are any excessive threats to life safety. The building is designed in compliance with the Houston Building Code, and takes advantage of lesser requirements for existing features. The performance section determines that based on fire and egress modeling, that while …

Fabrication And Testing Of Arabinan Cellulose Nanocomposites, Ross Johnson, Austin Rosso, Nick Semansky

Materials Engineering

Inspired by the structure and composition of cactus spines found in nature, arabinan-cellulose nanocomposites were fabricated into thin films and tested for mechanical stiffness. The composites consisted of varying amounts of nanocrystalline cellulose reinforcement suspended in an arabinan matrix. Both materials are polysaccharides and are known to be biodegradable and food safe. The thin film samples were tensile tested using a dynamic mechanical analysis machine both as-cast and after a heat-treatment. The heat treatment of the arabinan itself resulted in an order of magnitude increase in stiffness, while the cellulose reinforced composites increased roughly six fold. The arabinan-50 wt% cellulose …

A Process Development Study On Reducing The Anisotropy While Maintaining The Strength Of Extruded Aluminum Alloy 2195 Through Heat Treatment, Theodore James Arehart

Materials Engineering

The purpose of this study was two-fold: develop an aging curve for extruded 2195 aluminum and test the magnitude of the anisotropy in the extrusion throughout the aging process. Two aging curves were developed, one at 290^oF and the other at 320^oF, through hardness tests of aged samples. The hardness was found to change, from approximately 72 HRB to 90 HRB, within the first 6 hours and not change more than 2 HRB in the 42 hours following. It was determined that the 320^oF temperature was more promising due to faster aging time, and …

Manufacture And Mechanical Testing Of Thin Film Composites Composed Of Poly-Lactic Acid And Nanocrystalline Cellulose, Catherine E. Mohan

Materials Engineering

Society’s overuse of petroleum-based plastic products has created a waste problem that is threatening environments around the world. New efforts have been made to find a suitable replacement derived from a renewable source. Poly-lactic acid has become one of the front-runners in this search. It is derived from starches found in potatoes, corn, and other grains. There are many factors that make Poly-lactic acid-based polymers a suitable replacement for petroleum-based ones, but it still suffers from low mechanical strength due to low crystallinity percentages. Doping the polymer with nanocrystalline cellulose provides more nucleation sites for the crystallization of the polymer …

Micro-Irrigation Design For Avocado Orchard In California, Michael C. Meyer

BioResource and Agricultural Engineering

This project encompasses the design and recommendations for a micro-irrigation system on an avocado orchard owned by Underwood Family Farms in Somis, California. The main objective of this report is to improve the existing irrigation system’s efficiency and uniformity with the new design and recommendations. The analysis includes information about good irrigation practices, irrigation system design and all the processes herein. Although there are many opinions on growing, irrigating and maintaining an avocado orchard, all of the methods, procedures and suggestions must be based on accurate data to provide reliable information to the grower. Evaluating the irrigation system and suggesting …

Fire And Life Safety Analysis Of The Bonderson Engineering Projects Center, Brian Sackett

Fire Protection Engineering: Culminating Experience Project Reports

As part of the requirements for the Degree of Masters of Science in Fire Protection Engineering from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, a prescriptive and performance based design analysis was conducted for the Bonderson Engineering Projects Center building (Cal Poly campus). The purpose of this analysis was to review the Bonderson Engineering Projects Center’s compliance with applicable and recognized fire and building codes with regards to its fire protection systems and features. The fire protection systems and features analyzed in this report include: 1) Egress Systems, 2) Structural Fire Protection, 3) Fire Detection and Alarm Systems, 4) Fire …

An Integrated Approach To Developing Technical Communication Skills In Engineering Students, Ronald S. Harichandran, David J. Adams, Michael Collura, Nadiye O. Erdil, David Harding, Jean Nocito-Gobel, Amy Thompson

Engineering and Applied Science Education Faculty Publications

The Project to Integrate Technical Communication Habits (PITCH) is being implemented across seven engineering and computer science undergraduate programs. The overarching goal of PITCH is to develop written, oral and visual communication skills and professional habits in engineering students. PITCH activities begin in the very first semester and are reinforced and extended through all four years of each program. Senior design becomes the culminating experience in which students demonstrate the skills and habits acquired through PITCH courses. Student outcomes for the project were established based on an extensive survey of employers, alumni and faculty. Communication instruments include technical memoranda, poster …

Electrochemical-Mechanistic Model For Concrete Cover Cracking Due To Corrosion Initiated By Chloride Diffusion, Goli Nossoni, Ronald S. Harichandran

Civil Engineering Faculty Publications

A holistic electrochemical-mechanistic model of the corrosion of steel reinforcing bars inside concrete that accounts for the diffusion of oxygen and moisture into the concrete and rust layers, the densification of rust due to confinement, the flow of rust into the concrete pores, the development of internal pressure due to rust buildup, and cracking of the concrete cover is presented. The relationship between the corrosion current and the pressure buildup due to the corrosion products for different concrete cover thicknesses and concrete quality was calibrated through experiments using an accelerated corrosion test with an applied current. Results from finite-element analysis …