Engineering Commons^™

Test Standard For Determining The Fastener-Sheathing Local Translational Stiffness Of Sheathed Cold-Formed Steel Assemblies, 2017 Edition, American Iron And Steel Institute

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

No abstract provided.

Test Standard For Determining The Fastener-Sheathing Rotational Stiffness Of Sheathed Cold-Formed Steel Assemblies, 2017 Edition, American Iron And Steel Institute

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

No abstract provided.

Rgb Painting Simulation, Brandon Eng

Computer Engineering

No abstract provided.

Managing Drip Filter Backflush Water, Charles M. Burt

BioResource and Agricultural Engineering

The paper discusses the principles of backflushing different types of filters, as well as pressure and flow requirements for proper backflushing of various filters. Additionally, it discusses options for what to do with the backflush water. A prototype ITRC design for cleaning and recycling backflush water is presented.

Mechanics Of Soft Polymers, Trisha Sain

TechTalks

Understanding the mechanics and physics of soft polymers are essential due to their widespread applications across disciplines. (e.g.-composite materials, bio mechanics, soft robotics etc.) The soft polymers in general inherent lightweight, high stretchability, extreme viscous damping and stimuli responsive behavior. Development of computational modeling strategy to predict their constitutive response, stimuli responsive behavior is indeed helpful for designing novel multifunctional soft composites, artificial mussels/tissues. In this talk I will briefly emphasize how we are developing multiscale-multiphysics based modeling methods for soft polymers to understand their macroscopic deformation mechanism, failure and other mechanical properties. The long term goal is to develop …

Stem Cell And Tissue Engineering Research, Feng Zhao

TechTalks

My research focuses on stem cell and tissue engineering. By combining stem cell biology and engineering tools, the Zhao Lab seeks strategies to biofabricate completely biological tissues to regenerate or repair damaged tissues or organs. The function of engineered tissues is being strengthened by recapitulating the in vivo environment of natural tissues. The underlying mechanism is being explored through investigating the interaction of cells with environmental factors such as topographical cues, biophysical forces, and oxygen tensions. We also prompt stem cell research at Michigan Tech to meet the progress and advance of the outside scientific society. Training opportunities are consistently …

Aps Labs (Advanced Power Systems Research Center), Jeffrey D. Naber

TechTalks

Our mission is to promote & facilitate education and research in clean, efficient, and sustainable power and powertrain systems. The center was established in 2007 and in 2014 the 55,000 sq ft APSRC building located near the airport was denoted as a MTU core facility. Our new research contracts in FY2016 were over $2.5M. Our partners include automotive OEMs: GM, Ford, FCA, Toyota, Honda; Commercial OEMs: Cummins, Deere, Detroit, Isuzu, MHI; Suppliers: Delphi, Denso, Borg Warner, Hitachi; and DOE Labs: ANL, ORNL, PNNL, SNL, & INL. We have seven staff to assist in educational and R&D programs and facilities to …

Electrospun Nanofibers As Neural Guidance Scaffolds, Michael Mullins

TechTalks

Highly-aligned electrospun PolyLactic-L-Acid (PLLA) nanofibers have been shown to promote and direct the axonal outgrowth of Central Nervous System (CNS) neurons. Aligned fibers deposited on 3D printed stages have been tested in vitro using chick Dorsal Root Ganglia (DRG's), and show highly directed neurite growth with improved extension. In vivo studies on rats indicate that similar results are attained, with substantial regrowth of fully transected spinal cords. Extension of these studies to new generation of coaxial nanofiber scaffolds which allow electrical stimulation are in progress.

Economic Feasibility Of Campus-Wide Photovoltaic Systems In New England, Jongsung Lee, Byungik Chang, Can B. Aktas, Ravi Gorthala

Civil Engineering Faculty Publications

Compared to the national average residential retail electricity price, Connecticut (CT) had the 4th 26 highest electricity price in the country with 19.23 cents/kWh in September 2015, nearly 50% 27 higher than the national average for price of electricity. This study aims to assess the economic 28 feasibility of the solar PV systems at the campus under realistic constraints, by analyzing actual 29 data from the solar array on campus. The project focused on the economic feasibility of solar PV 30 systems on campus with physical, spatial, and practical constraints that result in a project to 31 deviate from theoretical …

Novel Integration Of Conductive-Ink Circuitry With A Paper-Based Microfluidic Battery As An All-Printed Sensing Platform, Rishi A. Kripalani

Master's Theses

The addition of powered components for active assays into paper-based analytical devices opens new opportunities for medical and environmental analysis in resource-limited applications. Current battery designs within such devices have yet to adopt a ubiquitous circuitry material, necessitating investigation into printed circuitry for scalable platforms. In this study, a microfluidic battery was mated with silver-nanoparticle conductive ink to prototype an all-printed sensing platform. A multi-layer, two-cell device was fabricated, generating 200 μA of direct electrical current at 2.5 V sustained for 16 minutes with a power loss of less than 0.1% through the printed circuitry. Printed circuitry traces exhibited resistivity …

Quality Of Condensate From Air-Handling Units, Diana D. Glawe, Marilyn Wooten, B Lye

Engineering Faculty Research

Areas with humid climates, such as Georgia, are currently experiencing a severe drought. Collecting condensate from large AHUs for on-site use is compelling, but how do you assess the quality of this water? The authors discuss how condensate from properly maintained large AHUs is high-quality water. They go on to explain how system design and maintenance affect its quality, and they give the readers guidance for how to use the condensate for on-site applications

Cluster Control Of A Multi-Robot Tracking Network And Tracking Geometry Optimization, Jasmine Cashbaugh

Engineering Ph.D. Theses

The position of a moving object can be tracked in numerous ways, the simplest of which is to use a single static sensor. However, the information from a single sensor cannot be verified and may not be reliable without performing multiple measurements of the same object. When multiple static sensors are used, each sensor need only take a single measurement which can be combined with other sensor measurements to produce a more accurate position estimate. Work has been done to develop sensors that move with the tracked object, such as relative positioning, but this research takes this concept one step …

Carbon Nanotube Interconnects For End-Of-Roadmap Semiconductor Technology Nodes, Anshul A. Vyas

Engineering Ph.D. Theses

Advances in semiconductor technology due to aggressive downward scaling of on-chip feature sizes have led to rapid rises in resistivity and current density of interconnect conductors. As a result, current interconnect materials, Cu and W, are subject to performance and reliability constraints approaching or exceeding their physical limits. Therefore, alternative materials such as nanocarbons, metal silicides, and Ag nanowires are actively considered as potential replacements to meet such constraints. Among nanocarbons, carbon nanotube (CNT) is among the leading replacement candidate for on-chip interconnect vias due to its high aspect-ratio nanostructure and superior currentcarrying capacity to those of Cu, W, and …

Interplanetary Mission Design With Applications To Guidance And Optimal Control Of Aero-Assisted Trajectories, Peter J. Edelman

Open Access Dissertations

A method for finding optimal aerogravity-assist tours of the solar system is developed using indirect methods. Two cost functionals are used in the optimization; finding the minimum required maximum lift-to-drag ratio, with and without a convective heating-rate path constraint, and the path which provides the minimum total stagnation point convective heat load. It is found that using present or near-future thermal protection system materials will suffice for certain aerogravity assist trajectories at Mars. Minimum heat load optimal trajectories are found for aerocapture maneuvers at Uranus and Neptune. With a large radius, and short rotational periods, atmospheric rotation must be taken …

Statistical Modeling And Simulation Of Variability And Reliability Of Cmos Technology, Khaled Hassan Md

Open Access Dissertations

The introduction of High-κ Metal Gate transistors led to higher integration density, low leakage current, and faster switching speed. However, this transition in technology roadmap brought about new failure mechanisms such as Positive Bias Temperature Instability and Stress Induced Leakage Current. In addition, the relentless downscaling of devices to keep up with Moore's law has significantly increased the time-zero variability caused by Random Dopant Fluctuation, Mean Gate Length Deviation, and Line Edge Roughness. Because of their possible correlation with time dependent aging effects, the quantification of reliability has become more complex than ever. To that effect, we propose a framework …

Early Bearing Fault Analysis Using High Frequency Enveloping Techniques, Ilya Shulkin

Open Access Theses

High frequency acceleration enveloping is one of many tools that vibration analysts have at their disposal for the diagnosis of bearing faults in rotating machinery. This technique is believed to facilitate very early detection of potential failures by detecting low amplitude repetitive impacts in frequency ranges above conventional condition monitoring. One traditional enveloping method uses a mathematical operation known as the Hilbert transform along with other signal processing procedures such as band-pass filtering and full-wave rectification. For comparison, another method uses a proprietary algorithm included in National Instruments’ LabVIEWTM add-on package: Sound and Measurement Suite. Enveloping’s inherent problem with noise …

Design And Implementation Of A Fixture For Robotic Welding, Isaac Nathaniel Williams

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

The Cal Poly IME department recently purchased a robotic welder. The faculty would like to see this robot incorporated into the welding class. The robot was capable of moving, but was not able to perform a weld prior to this project. This problem is addressed by creating a demonstration part for the welding class. The objectives that need to be complete for this to be possible is designing a part, designing a fixture, analyzing the cost of robotic welding, and implement welding the part in the class. The part is designed with specific requirements in mind. The fixture is designed …

Application Of Gearbox Drivetrains For Commuting Bicycles, Loren Sunding

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

People all over the world are beginning to ride their bicycles more often to destinations which include work, school, and local markets. Most bicycles being used for these activities have an external drivetrain exposed to the elements of the road including water, mud, dirt, and debris. External drivetrains are very fragile and when damaged, pedaling efficiency is greatly reduced and the overall riding experience diminishes.

One solution to this issue is a gearbox specifically designed for a bicycle frame. A gearbox has several mechanical mechanisms operating inside a protective housing. Since the housing is fully sealed, outside elements are not …

Assembly Line Kitting: Foam Mold Material Substitute, Samer Samy Saleh

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

Kitting is considered an incredibly innovative and effective solution intended to aid operators within a mixed model assembly line. However, it is a non-value added procedure and one that customers may not be willing to pay for. With this project, the goal is to examine opportunities to employ lean principles and provide a solution that further eliminates non-value added procedures, while also producing the potential for a flexible, mixed model assembly line.

To achieve the aforementioned purpose, the production of foam molds, located within industrial totes and sent to the assembly line, was found to be a major waste within …

Identity‐Based Schemes For A Secured Big Data And Cloud Ict Framework In Smart Grid System, Feng Ye, Yi Qian, Rose Qingyang Hu

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

Smart grid is an intelligent cyber physical system (CPS). The CPS generates a massive amount of data for efficient grid operation. In this paper, a big data‐driven, cloud‐based information and communication technology (ICT) framework for smart grid CPS is proposed. The proposed ICT framework deploys hybrid cloud servers to enhance scalability and reliability of smart grid communication infrastructure. Because the data in the ICT framework contains much privacy of customers and important data for automated controlling, the security of data transmission must be ensured. In order to secure the communications over the Internet in the system, identity‐based schemes are proposed …

Energy-Efficient Management Of Mechanical Ventilation And Relative Humidity In Hot-Humid Climates, Florida Solar Energy Center, Charles Withers, Jr.

FSEC Energy Research Center®

The U.S. Department of Energy's Building America research team Building America Partnership for Improved Residential Construction conducted this research project to gain data and insight into these issues. The project focused on energy-efficient management of mechanical ventilation and RH during the cooling season. It consisted of eight test configurations. A particular focus evaluated how well a ductless seasonal energy-efficiency ratio (SEER) 21.5 mini-split heat pump (MSHP) could perform as the primary cooling system without a dehumidifier for supplemental dehumidification in a continuously mechanically ventilated house.

Compressive Properties And Imaging Analysis Of A New Metal Foam-Natural Rubber Hybrid Structure, A Chaturvedi, G Sanyal, S Chaturvedi, As Patil

Journal of Metals, Materials and Minerals

In this study an attempt has been made to create a new hybrid structure. The hybrid structure has been made by hierarchically combining closed cell Aluminum foam and natural rubber. The hybrid structure, when subjected to compressive loading, displayed improved energy absorption characteristics compared to its parent monoliths. It also displayed significant strain recovery post deformation. High resolution imaging was also carried out to compare the internal structure of hybrid samples before and after compression. Critical discussion of the experimental results has been made.

Students' Explanations In Complex Learning Of Disciplinary Programming, Camilo Vieira

Open Access Dissertations

Computational Science and Engineering (CSE) has been denominated as the third pillar of science and as a set of important skills to solve the problems of a global society. Along with the theoretical and the experimental approaches, computation offers a third alternative to solve complex problems that require processing large amounts of data, or representing complex phenomena that are not easy to experiment with. Despite the relevance of CSE, current professionals and scientists are not well prepared to take advantage of this set of tools and methods. Computation is usually taught in an isolated way from engineering disciplines, and therefore, …

Passive Thermal Management Using Phase Change Materials, Yash Yogesh Ganatra

Open Access Theses

The trend of enhanced functionality and reducing thickness of mobile devices has led to a rapid increase in power density and a potential thermal bottleneck since thermal limits of components remain unchanged. Active cooling mechanisms are not feasible due to size, weight and cost constraints. This work explores the feasibility of a passive cooling system based on Phase Change Materials (PCMs) for thermal management of mobile devices. PCMs stabilize temperatures due to the latent heat of phase change thus increasing the operating time of the device before threshold temperatures are exceeded. The primary contribution of this work is the identification …

Time Domain Analysis Of Terahertz Photoconductive Antennas Using High- Frequency Structure Simulator (Hfss), David Carballo

Electrical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

In this thesis, an in-depth guide and description on how to model and perform frequency and mainly time domain analysis of a THz photoconductive antenna using HFSS will be presented. The main purpose of this thesis is to master and document the procedures for transient domain analysis in HFSS to fill the lack of documentation about this topic. Moreover, another goal is to compare the results from HFSS with the ones from another program, COMSOL (conducted by a PhD student), in order to validate the correctness of the procedure.

From this thesis, it can be concluded that in order to …

A Sharp Interface Isogeometric Strategy For Moving Boundary Problems, Tao Song

Open Access Dissertations

The proposed methodology is first utilized to model stationary and propagating cracks. The crack face is enriched with the Heaviside function which captures the displacement discontinuity. Meanwhile, the crack tips are enriched with asymptotic displacement functions to reproduce the tip singularity. The enriching degrees of freedom associated with the crack tips are chosen as stress intensity factors (SIFs) such that these quantities can be directly extracted from the solution without a-posteriori integral calculation.

As a second application, the Stefan problem is modeled with a hybrid function/derivative enriched interface. Since the interface geometry is explicitly defined, normals and curvatures can be …

Adaptive Biasing Cell Association In Ffr Aided Multi-Tier Heterogeneous Networks Under Dynamic Load Variation, Didarul Alam, Tashikur Rahman, Shakil Ahmed, Mostafa Zaman Chowdhury

Electrical and Computer Engineering Student Research

Heterogeneous networks (HetNets) adopting fractional frequency reuse (FFR) improves cell coverage, network capacity, efficiency, assures higher data rates, and better quality of service (QoS) for next generation wireless networks. However they fail to handle dynamic load variation. So we attempt biasing cell association (BCA) to offload user from macrocell to small cell base stations (SCBs) to overcome capacity reduction and throughput degradation. It is based on range expansion of SCBSs by adding a positive bias to the reference signal received power (RSRP). In this paper we propose a FFR aided twin layer HetNet with an adaptive biasing scheme for load …

Ua66 Ogden College Of Science & Engineering Newsletter, Wku Ogden College Of Science & Engineering

Ogden College of Science & Engineering Publications

Newsletter created by and about WKU Ogden College of Science & Engineering.

• Ogden College Hall Taking Shape on TIme & on Budget
• Alumni Focus: Dr. Talia McKinney Collins
• WKU Research Foundation Launches New Website
• French, Jackson. Stemshot Rocketry Competition
• Agriculture
• Architectural & Manufacturing Sciences
• Grants & Publications
• Dr. Noah Ashley Receives NIH Grant
• Biology - News & Notes
• WKU Chemistry Welcomes Dr. Lawrence Hill & Dr. David Wolfgang
• Gary Kwong Receives McNally Award
• Student Teams Compete in National Engineering Contests Over the Summer
• Geology Major Conducts Research in Ethiopia - Deborah Flynn
• Geography & Geology
• WKU Meterology Launches White Squirrel …

Mri Upgrades At Radiology Associates, Patrick Cheung, Charlene Donlon

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

Problem Statement: The MRI machines at Radiology Associates are limiting the company’s ability to expand and compete within the local market. After discussing with technicians and managers at Radiology Associates, we decided to focus on hardware and software upgrades for the MRI machines. With 2 of the 3 locations purchasing new machines in the near future, our focus was on upgrades at the Santa Maria facility. The two machines at this location needed hardware and/or software upgrades to remain on par competitively both within the company and with local scanning options. Flexible coils are beneficial in terms of size, weight, …

Development Of A Process Monitoring Tool For The Manufacturing Process Of An Electric Vehicle Battery Enclosure, Ian Lamond

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

High volume manufacturing requires process control that is responsive to manufacturing related issues. It is critical that tools and resources are implemented that gauge manufacturing performance and identify root cause issues.

This project focuses on the design and manufacturing process of an electric vehicle aluminum battery enclosure and the implementation of a production measurement system. The current problem is a lack of process control communication and out of control alarms when uncontrolled events occur for manufacturing associates at the battery enclosure manufacturing work station.

This report examines the core principles of Quality Engineering, the economic advantages of implementing a vision …