Engineering Commons^™

4d Printing Dielectric Elastomer Actuator Based Soft Robots, Jiyu Cai

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

4D printing is an emerging technology that prints 3D structural smart materials that can respond to external stimuli and change shape over time. 4D printing represents a major manufacturing paradigm shift from single-function static structures to dynamic structures with highly integrated functionalities. Direct printing of dynamic structures can provide great benefits (e.g., design freedom, low material cost) to a wide variety of applications, such as sensors and actuators, and robotics. Soft robotics is a new direction of robotics in which hard and rigid components are replaced by soft and flexible materials to mimic mechanisms that works in living creatures, which …

The Long-Term Performance Of Concrete Crack And Deck Surface Sealers, Emily A. Byl

Open Access Theses

Concrete bridge decks in the State of Indiana are undergoing continuous deterioration and loss of service life due to the use of deicing salts during winter weather conditions. As salt water penetrates the deck through cracks and the concrete surface, chlorides, water and oxygen are able to access the reinforcement to initiate corrosion. The corrosion of reinforcing steel over time creates an ongoing need for costly deck repairs and/or deck replacement. This study investigates the performance of crack sealers and deck surface sealers as a potentially cost-effective method of increasing bridge deck service life. An experimental program was developed and …

Improving Fuel Economy During High Load Diesel Engine System Operation Through Valve Train Flexibility, Xueting Lu

Open Access Theses

As emission regulations getting more stringent and the demand for fossil fuel growing, it is crucial to develop advanced technologies for internal combustion engine to lower emissions and fuel.

Strategies such as diesel oxidation catalysts (DOC) for UHC, diesel particulate filters (DPF) for PM, and selective catalytic reduction (SCR) for NOx have been developed and implemented to convert harmful emissions to innocuous species. However, the efficiencies of these after-treatment systems are heavily temperature dependent.

Heavy-duty over-the-road trucks require periodic active diesel particulate filter regeneration to clean the filter of stored particulate matter. These events require sustained temperatures between 500 and …

Development Of A Fluidic Mixing Nozzle For 3d Bioprinting, Will Hoggatt

Open Access Theses

3D bioprinting is a relatively new and very promising field that uses conventional 3D printing techniques and adapts them to print biological materials that are suited for use with cells. These bioprinters can be used to print cells encapsulated within biological "ink" (bio-ink) to create and customize complex three-dimensional tissues and organs. Our work has focused on developing a new bioprinter nozzle that addresses critical gaps with present-day bioprinters, namely, the lack of standardized, physiologically-relevant biomaterials, and their one nozzle per composition printing capacity. These shortcomings preclude printing a range of cellular and biomaterial compositions (including gradients of cells and …

Energy Consumption Modeling And Analyses In Automotive Manufacturing Plant, Lujia Feng, Laine Mears

Publications

Manufacturing plants energy consumption accounts for a large share in world energy usage. Energy consumption modeling and analyses are widely studied to understand how and where the energy is used inside of the plants. However, a systematic energy modeling approach is seldom studied to describe the holistic energy in the plants. Especially using layers of models to share information and guide the next step modeling is rarely studied. In this paper, a manufacturing system temporal and organizational framework was used to guide the systematic energy modeling approach. Various levels of models were established and tested in an automotive manufacturing plant …

Sediment Transport Modelling On The River Bandon, John Gamble, Joseph R. Harrington

Conference Papers

In November 2009 Ireland was subject to a severe weather event, causing widespread flooding nationwide. One of the worst effected towns was the town of Bandon in County Cork which regularly floods. The River Bandon is located in the South Western River District (SWRBD) with a catchment area of 608km2 . The River Bandon offers a positive environment for biodiversity, facilitating habitats for some endangered species. The River Bandon is planned to undergo significant river improvement works. This paper presents the findings of an extensive sediment sampling, testing and analysis programme, including for suspended and bed sediments and sediment loadings. …

Height And Pressure Test For Improving Spray Application, Anna Siebe, Joe D. Luck

UCARE: Research Products

Pesticide application in agricultural fields affects a little over a million acres each year (USDA 2012). Current spray application equipment can automatically adjust nozzle flow rates in reaction to speed changes to maintain consistent application rates across the field. Uniform distribution of pesticides from the spray boom is critical to ensure proper crop care while minimizing negative environmental effects. Boom pressure and height are two primary factors that affect proper spray uniformity; however information on the combined effects of these factors are limited. The goal of this study was to provide end users with quantified data regarding the effects of …

Study Of An All-Vanadium Photoelectrochemical Cell For High-Efficiency Solar Energy Storage, Zi Wei

Material Science and Engineering Dissertations - Archive

In an attempt to explore a clean and renewable alternative to existing energy sources such as fossil fuel, we studied the feasibility of using vanadium redox species to store the inexhaustible solar energy via photoelectrochemical (PEC) reactions with photogenerated charge carriers from semiconductor photocatalysts such as TiO2. Based on our fundamental study of the compatibility of vanadium redox and TiO2, modification of TiO2 such as carbon coating and geometry enhancement, and development of a continuous-flow solar energy storage cell, we demonstrated high-efficiency solar energy storage cell.The research focuses on the following four directions. Firstly, a highly-efficient all-vanadium (all-V) PEC storage …

Enhanced Customer Demand Load Profiles Estimation Algorithms For Field Application, Xin Wang

Electrical Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Due to the deregulation of the power system, the electric power industry is undergoing a transformation in terms of its planning and operation strategies. Because of the importance in reducing financial and operational risk, improving load forecasting accuracy is paramount. In some load forecasting applications, K-means clustering is used to group customers prior to forecasting. This method has been shown to improve the accuracy of load predictions. However, there are situations where K-means clustering reduces load forecasting accuracy. This dissertation studies the factors that affect the performance of K-means clustering. The data used for validating the proposed strategies associated with …

Ultra-Thin Aluminum Nitride Thin Films For Flexible Mems Sensors, Md Sajeeb Rayhan

Electrical Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) sensors using ultrathin aluminum nitride (AlN) film were developed and fabricated using conventional photolithography techniques in the class 100 clean room with a view to integrate them in flexible substrates along with flexible electronics. The MEMS sensors were designed, analytically modeled, fabricated and characterized. Some of the MEMS sensors were only designed and simulated using finite element method (FEM) for the scope of the dissertation. These MEMS sensors can be applied to many applications such as automobile, robotics, biomedical, biometrics, health condition monitoring, GPS tracking devices, smartphones and aircrafts. MEMS pressure sensors using AlN based piezoelectric film …

The Impact Of External And Self-Induced Magnetic Fields On The Development Of Corrosion On Ferous And Non-Ferrous Materials, Clint G. Gnegy-Davidson

Electrical Engineering Dissertations - Archive

As the US Navy continues to field ships with an increasing number of electrical generators and loads, it is unclear how the high magnetic fields being generated throughout the ship will affect the corrosion rate of the ships structural and high current conducting alloys. Given the high- pulsed current carried by pulsed power systems, it is of increased interest to understand what impact their deployment will have on metallic corrosion. In this work, a number of experiments have been designed and performed to study these phenomena. In the first set of experiments several alloys have been subjected to a continuous, …

Multi-Modal Sensory Input And Novel Interfaces For Robotic Prosthetic Devices, Joseph Sanford

Electrical Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Automated systems have progressed to begin allowing for Human-robot interaction and collaboration in the workplace and rehabilitation settings. Seamless collaboration between robotic systems and users requires intuitive modes of interaction and systems with advanced sensing capabilities. The research presented below focuses on identifying human intent through safe, intuitive and optimized input method and sensing. In this dissertation novel sensor input modalities for Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) are discussed, fundamental research regarding physical Human-Robot Interaction (pHRI) is presented, and solutions towards optimal placement of sensors to facilitate intuitive interfaces are shown. EMG and Pressure: EMG and intrasocket pressure sensors are used in …

Multi-Channel All-Optical Signal Processing, Lu Li

Electrical Engineering Dissertations - Archive

We experimentally demonstrate, for the first time to our knowledge, a stand-alone all-optical regenerator capable of simultaneous 2R regeneration of multiple WDM channels. Recently, our group has proposed an all-optical 2R regeneration scheme for multiple WDM channels. This novel multi-channel regenerator is a modified configuration of Mamyshev 2R regenerator, in which a conventional highly-nonlinear-fiber (HNLF) is replaced by a novel group-delay-managed (GDM) nonlinear medium. The proposed multi-channel regeneration scheme uses multiple concatenated GDM unit cells, where each unit cell contains a piece of HNLF and a periodic-group-delay device (PGDD). Afterwards, the proof-of-principle experiment has also been demonstrated by using a …

On The Enhancement Of Thermo-Mechanical And Impact Reliability Of Passive And Active Microelectronic Devices, A R Nazmus Sakib

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Microelectronic devices are an essential part of human life. The idea of Internet of Things (IoT) where all the everyday devices will be connected with each other transmitting information and operating on their own is becoming very popular. A silicon chip which has millions of transistors in it, has been the heart and brain of the everyday components ranging from personal entertainment, communication to Automotive ECU (electronic control Unit), and health care management systems to home security systems. Every aspect of modern human experience is dependent on this tiny silicon chip. Microelectronic devices can be divided into two broad categories …

Investigation Of Exothermic Reaction Dynamics Via Computational Fluid Dynamics Coupled With A Feedback Controller, Siusan Choi

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Dissertations - Archive

The control of reaction temperature under continuous flow conditions is important in a variety of chemical manufacturing industries. For many reactions, operating at off-design temperatures can result in the production of undesired products, reduced feedstock conversion and, in some cases, reduced catalyst lifetime. In many exothermic reactions, maintaining a desired set point temperature at high reactant flow rates becomes challenging if the chemical kinetics exhibit highly non-linear behavior. In these situations, the interaction between commonly used linear controllers and the physical system can lead to unexpected dynamic response and undesired swings in reaction temperature. In this research, a computational model …

General Solutions To Temperature Distribution In Orthotropic Systems Subject To Variable Heat Transfer And Biological Systems During Bioheat Transfer, Daipayan Sakar

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Bioheat transfer is the phenomenon of heat transfer in biological systems where the dominant modes of heat transfer are conduction and advection. Other factors such as rate of metabolism that are unique to biological systems contribute significantly towards bioheat transfer. In the present work, the Pennes bioheat equation has been solved for a multilayer system to derive steady state and transient temperature solutions in the multilayer skin tissue with a tumor. In nanoparticle based hyperthermia therapy, the body temperature elevates from the physiological core body temperature, 37 deg. C. Analytical solutions for three different therapeutic techniques have been developed to …

Integration Of A Portfolio-Based Approach To Evaluate Aerospace R&D Problem Formulation Into A Parametric Synthesis Tool, Amit R. Oza

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Dissertations - Archive

The focus of this study is to improve R&D effectiveness towards aerospace and defense planning in the early stages of the product development lifecycle. Emphasis is on: correct formulation of a decision problem, with special attention to account for data relationships between the individual design problem and the system capability required to size the aircraft, understanding of the meaning of the acquisition strategy objective and subjective data requirements that are required to arrive at a balanced analysis and/or “correct” mix of technology projects, understanding the meaning of the outputs that can be created from the technology analysis, and methods the …

Performance Analysis, Dynamic Simulation And Control Of Mass-Actuated Airplane, Sukru Akif Erturk

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Dissertations - Archive

The control of space, aerial and underwater vehicles requires moment generation mechanisms to change their orientation. In addition to or in place of conventional moment generation actuators, internally moving-mass actuation has been proposed and/or used for such vehicles. The primary principle for mass-actuation is to reposition gravitational force to change the associated moment while the secondary effect may come from the inertial force due to the motion of the masses. Recent development/miniaturization in flight control sensor, computing and actuation, and electric motors and expansion of applications for small UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) offer a potential for implementation of internal mass-actuation …

Complex Multidisciplinary System Composition For Aerospace Vehicle Conceptual Design, Alexis R. Gonzalez

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Although, there exists a vast amount of work concerning the analysis, design, integration of aerospace vehicle systems, there is no standard for how this data and knowledge should be combined in order to create a synthesis system. Each institution creating a synthesis system has in house vehicle and hardware components they are attempting to model and proprietary methods with which to model them. This leads to the fact that synthesis systems begin as one-off creations meant to answer a specific problem. As the scope of the synthesis system grows to encompass more and more problems, so does its size and …

Experimental Investigation Of Methane Reformer With A Continuous Flow Reactor, Xiao Zhang

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Over the decades, seeking for an alternative energy source has been more and more significant because of increasing demand with rapid industry expansion. Liquid hydrocarbon from Fischer-Tropsch process is considered as an alternative fuel source because the product is considered as subtle for petroleum-derived. Syngas as feedstock for F-T process plays a crucial role in liquid hydrocarbon production. Among several commercial and experiment technologies, the most common technology for syngas production is natural gas reforming. The product from reforming process has proper carbon monoxide/hydrogen ratio for direct application in F-T synthesis. Meanwhile, combined carbon dioxide into reforming reaction has attracted …

Complex Multidisciplinary Systems Decomposition For Aerospace Vehicle Conceptual Design And Technology Acquisition, Amen Omoragbon

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Although, the Aerospace and Defense (A&D) industry is a significant contributor to the United States’ economy, national prestige and national security, it experiences significant cost and schedule overruns. This problem is related to the differences between technology acquisition assessments and aerospace vehicle conceptual design. Acquisition assessments evaluate broad sets of alternatives with mostly qualitative techniques, while conceptual design tools evaluate narrow set of alternatives with multidisciplinary tools. In order for these two fields to communicate effectively, a common platform for both concerns is desired. This research is an original contribution to a three-part solution to this problem. It discusses the …

The Effects Of Temperature And Relative Humidity On Exposure Of Legacy And Future Technology Hardware, Under Real Data Center Conditions In An Ansi/Isa Classified G2 Environment, Oluwaseun Michael Awe

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Dissertations - Archive

It is well established that it is safe to operate information technology (IT) equipment in a G1 classified contaminant severity level when operating within specified ASHRAE recommended and allowable limits in an air-side economizer data center. This is basis for which electronic equipment manufacturers provide warranty for their products. IT equipment manufacturers in the US now requires data centers operators to demonstrate that they meet all the specified conditions consistently before fulfilling warranty equipment failure. This places limitation to where data center utilizing air-side economizer can be located. In order to determine the reliability of electronic hardware in higher severity …

Analysis Of Composite Beams With Airfoil Cross-Sections With I-Section Stiffener Under Tension And Bi-Directional Moments, Peter Louis Leboulluec

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Annual wind power generation capacity in the US has increased from 3 gigawatts in 2000 to 61 gigawatts in 2013 and is on track to fulfill 20% of projected U.S. electricity needs (305 gigawatts) by 2030. To enable the increase in electricity generation of wind turbines, longer blades are being designed which require improved engineered blades to handle higher loads. Thus, the wind turbine industry is turning to the use of carbon-epoxy composite materials to take advantage of their low weight yet high strength ratio and improved fatigue resistance. Current analyses to design turbine blades utilize either Finite Element Analysis …

Thermal Energy Storage For Expanded Use Of Data Center Indirect/Direct Evaporative Cooling, Jefferey Luttrell

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Computer cooling system design evolved over time with goals of increasing efficiency and decreasing cost. Early computers were essentially hand-built and very expensive. Reliable operation required aggressive cooling to maintain acceptable component temperatures and this was achieved with relatively low ventilation air temperatures. With time, the scale of operations increased to the point that operating cost began to strongly influence design decisions. Computer room air conditioners consumed substantial amounts of electrical power, in some situations almost as much power as the computer equipment. One cost saving idea used outside air when the ambient temperature fell below the normal cooling supply …

Understanding The Alchemilla Leaf And Its Hydrophobicity, Atul Mohandas Kootathil

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Theses - Archive

The Alchemilla leaf has been well known and studied frequently for its hydrophobic ability. However, much difficulty has been met in replicating its microstructure for hydrophobic applications. Also, not much experimental data was found on the behavior of leaf’s microstructure. Gathering information from experimental results may provide new understanding of its wetting properties before attempting to mimetic its wetting behavior. In this research, the focus is to detail the observed solid-water-air interaction on Alchemilla leaf by simulating condensation, evaporation and rainfall conditions, which are the common ways that a plant may interact with water drops in nature. Documenting these observations …

Attitude Stabilization Of Spacecraft Using Moving Masses, Juran Hwang

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Theses - Archive

This research investigates the ability of stabilizing spacecraft rotational motion by internal mass actuation. The mass actuation mechanism consists of three internal masses placed along the three axes at some offset distance that can move to induce inertial forces and moments and change the inertia matrix and center of mass. A set of nonlinear equations of motion are developed to model the motion, both orbital and rotational dynamics and kinematics, of a spacecraft with mass and inertial variation due to internal mass actuation, under the gravitational field of Earth. The equations inherently include the inertia effect of the mass motion …

Developing And Validating Energy Models For Indirect And Direct Evaporative Cooling Used In Datacenters, Rajesh Kasukurthy

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Theses - Archive

In the present day to day life, Internet of things is everything, i.e., we need internet and telecommunication for almost every task of our life and these require data from data centers. These data centers provide various facilities like data processing, storage, and transmission, and maintenance, operations etc., for performing these tasks, a huge amount of power is consumed by the data center, which in turn generates large amount of heat. As these data centers are to be made operational throughout the year, cooling of data centers is of utmost importance. These cooling systems like air conditioners, economizers and evaporative …

Mechanical Property Evaluation Of Magnesium Rich Primer Coating System Over Aa 2024 T-3 Aluminum Alloy By Nano-Inedntation, Hongyi Qu

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Theses - Archive

Aluminum alloy is widely used as a major structural material, such as for wing and fuselage, in aerospace industry. Corrosion is the most insidious form of damage to aluminum alloy, which can cause aircraft structure damage and related safety issue. Coating is generally used in industry to protect metal structure. An alternative to present toxic chromium primer coating system, magnesium rich primer (MgRP) has been developed to protect AA 2024 T-3. Studies have demonstrated the anti-corrosion performance of MgRP. However, the interlayer material heterogeneity can affect the mechanical properties of coating such as modulus, hardness and interfacial behavior. In the …

Active Torque Vectoring For All Wheel Drive Fsae Electric Car, Vikas Tukaram T Pawar

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Theses - Archive

UTA Racing is known for building well-engineered FSAE racecars. This year team is building, its first electric car by using AWD in-wheel motor concept car E-16. All wheel drive electric vehicles has an ability to apply instantaneous torque to all four wheels permit increased car performance. An ‘Active Model Based Torque Vectoring System controller’ is designed to realize this objective. The controller was designed to replicate three electronically controlled LSD's on an all-wheel drive platform with different control strategies. This was achieved based on the principal of distributing total driver requested torque between wheels, equivalent to the percentage of the …

Guidance Navigation And Control Implementation For Unmanned Ground Vehicle Using Ni-Myrio, Ishwarya Srinivasan

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Theses - Archive

This research effort aims at investigating alternative real-time implementation software and hardware for Guidance, Navigation and Control (GNC) algorithms for an Unmanned Ground Vehicle (UGV). A GNC algorithm was previously developed for a skid-steered tracked UGV to go through assigned waypoints based on encoder counts. The UGV has two electric motors driving the tracks on each side and two encoders providing the speeds of the drive wheels. This algorithm was implemented using Matlab/Simulink-based model running on a mini computer, interfacing with the electric motors and encoders through a specialty control board. This current effort is to implement the same GNC …