Engineering Commons^™

Supervisory Control Optimization For A Series Hybrid Electric Vehicle With Consideration Of Battery Thermal Management And Aging, Xueyu Zhang

All Dissertations

This dissertation integrates battery thermal management and aging into the supervisory control optimization for a heavy-duty series hybrid electric vehicle (HEV). The framework for multi-objective optimization relies on novel implementation of the Dynamic Programing algorithm, and predictive models of critical phenomena. Electrochemistry based battery aging model is integrated into the framework to assesses the battery aging rate by considering instantaneous lithium ion (Li+) surface concentration rather than average concentration. This creates a large state-action space. Therefore, the computational effort required to solve a Deterministic or Stochastic Dynamic Programming becomes prohibitively intense, and a neuro-dynamic programming approach is proposed to remove …

Towards An Efficient Cloud Computing System: Data Management, Resource Allocation And Job Scheduling, Jinwei Liu

All Dissertations

Cloud computing is an emerging technology in distributed computing, and it has proved to be an effective infrastructure to provide services to users. Cloud is developing day by day and faces many challenges. One of challenges is to build cost-effective data management system that can ensure high data availability while maintaining consistency. Another challenge in cloud is efficient resource allocation which ensures high resource utilization and high SLO availability. Scheduling, referring to a set of policies to control the order of the work to be performed by a computer system, for high throughput is another challenge. In this dissertation, we …

Optimizing Virtual Resource Management In Cloud Datacenters, Liuhua Chen

All Dissertations

Datacenter clouds (e.g., Microsoft's Azure, Google's App Engine, and Amazon's EC2) are emerging as a popular infrastructure for computing and storage due to their high scalability and elasticity. More and more companies and organizations shift their services (e.g., online social networks, Dropbox file hosting) to clouds to avoid large capital expenditures. Cloud systems employ virtualization technology to provide resources in physical machines (PMs) in the form of virtual machines (VMs). Users create VMs deployed on the cloud and each VM consumes resources (e.g., CPU, memory and bandwidth) from its host PM. Cloud providers supply services by signing Service Level Agreement …

Development Of A New Multimodal Membrane Adsorber And Its Application In Chromatographic Bioseparations, Juan Wang

All Dissertations

This dissertation presents work on the design and synthesis of a new membrane chromatography material, the description of its protein binding behavior using a thermodynamic adsorption isotherm model, and the application of the new membrane material in biologics downstream recovery and purification processes. As protein titers continue to increase dramatically in upstream biomanufacturing, innovations in downstream purification are not keeping pace, resulting in manufacturing capacity constraints and high production costs. Chromatography is the key unit operation used in several steps of the downstream purification platform. Traditional resin bead chromatography, while effective and reliable for isolation and purification of proteins, limits …

Optimization Techniques For Modern Power Systems Planning, Operation And Control, Karthikeyan Balasubramaniam

All Dissertations

Recent developments in computing, communication and improvements in optimization techniques have piqued interest in improving the current operational practices and in addressing the challenges of future power grids. This dissertation leverages these new developments for improved quasi-static analysis of power systems for applications in power system planning, operation and control.

The premise of much of the work presented in this dissertation centers around development of better mathematical modeling for optimization problems which are then used to solve current and future challenges of power grid. To this end, the models developed in this research work contributes to the area of renewable …

Material Selection And Testing For A Radiation Therapy Catheter, Philip James Wadlow

Master's Theses

Three different polymers (a high-density polymer and two other polymers) were tested for use as an x-ray catheter in a radiation therapy application. This report describes the testing of these three materials to determine which material is the best option for a long use catheter. Tests included tensile, simulated clinical life, and other tests. Some testing was performed using nitrogen and an industrial coolant. Testing revealed significant non-circularities for some catheters. With increasing pressure, the circularity of these catheters increased. The tensile tests were performed on samples with varying doses of radiation. Tensile testing showed significant decreases in ultimate tensile …

Elevational And Seasonal Patterns In Methylmercury Production Across The Montane Landscape Of Whiteface Mountain In The Adirondack Region Of New York, Jacqueline R. Gerson

Dissertations - ALL

Global mercury contamination results from direct primary atmospheric and secondary legacy emissions, which can be deposited to ecosystems, converted to methylmercury, and bioaccumulated along food chains. I examined soil samples collected across an elevational gradient on Whiteface Mountain in the Adirondack region of New York State to determine spatial patterns in methylmercury concentrations across a forested montane landscape. I found that soil methylmercury concentrations were highest in the mid-elevation coniferous zone (0.39 ± 0.07 ng/g) compared to the alpine (0.28 ± 0.04 ng/g) and deciduous zones (0.17 ± 0.02 ng/g), while the percent mercury as methylmercury in soils decreased linearly …

On Distributed And Acoustic Sensing For Situational Awareness, Fangrong Peng

Dissertations - ALL

Recent advances in electronics enable the development of small-sized, low-cost, low-power, multi-functional sensor nodes that possess local processing capability as well as to work collaboratively through communications. They are able to sense, collect, and process data from the surrounding environment locally. Collaboration among the nodes are enabled due to their integrated communication capability. Such a system, generally referred to as sensor networks are widely used in various of areas, such as environmental monitoring, asset tracking, indoor navigation, etc.

This thesis consists of two separate applications of such mobile sensors. In this first part, we study decentralized inference problems with dependent …

Cufa: A More Formal Definition For Digital Forensic Artifacts, Vikram S. Harichandran, Daniel Walnycky, Ibrahim Baggili, Frank Breitinger

Electrical & Computer Engineering and Computer Science Faculty Publications

The term “artifact” currently does not have a formal definition within the domain of cyber/ digital forensics, resulting in a lack of standardized reporting, linguistic understanding between professionals, and efficiency. In this paper we propose a new definition based on a survey we conducted, literature usage, prior definitions of the word itself, and similarities with archival science. This definition includes required fields that all artifacts must have and encompasses the notion of curation. Thus, we propose using a new term e curated forensic artifact (CuFA) e to address items which have been cleared for entry into a CuFA database (one …

Deleting Collected Digital Evidence By Exploiting A Widely Adopted Hardware Write Blocker, Christopher S. Meffert, Ibrahim Baggili, Frank Breitinger

Electrical & Computer Engineering and Computer Science Faculty Publications

In this primary work we call for the importance of integrating security testing into the process of testing digital forensic tools. We postulate that digital forensic tools are increasing in features (such as network imaging), becoming networkable, and are being proposed as forensic cloud services. This raises the need for testing the security of these tools, especially since digital evidence integrity is of paramount importance. At the time of conducting this work, little to no published anti-forensic research had focused on attacks against the forensic tools/process.We used the TD3, a popular, validated, touch screen disk duplicator and hardware write blocker …

Comparing Efficacy Of Different Dynamic Models For Control Of Underdamped, Antagonistic, Pneumatically Actuated Soft Robots, Morgan Thomas Gillespie

Theses and Dissertations

Research in soft robot hardware has led to the development of platforms that allow for safer performance when working in uncertain or dynamic environments. The potential of these platforms is limited by the lack of proper dynamic models to describe or controllers to operate them. A common difficulty associated with these soft robots is a representation for torque, the common electromechanical relation seen in motors does not apply. In this thesis, several different torque models are presented and used to construct linear state-space models. The control limitations on soft robots are induced by natural compliance inherent to the hardware. This …

Functional Vasodilation And Vascular Reactivity In Arteriolar Collaterals In The Spinotrapezius Of Males And Females, Britta C. Nelson

Biomedical Engineering

Peripheral arterial occlusive disease (PAOD) occurs when there is narrowing or blockage of the peripheral arteries that carry blood to the extremities, most commonly the legs. The most common symptom of PAOD is intermittent claudication, or ischemic pain during exercise. Women with PAOD experience a greater extremity functional impairment than men. Since impaired vasodilation might cause the ischemic pain from PAOD, we should evaluate vasodilation post ligation in males and females in collateral vessels, which connect two arterial segments to maintain blood flow to an otherwise hypoxic area. First, we need to examine collateral vasodilation in unoperated male and female …

Design, Testing And Evaluation Of Robotic Mechanisms And Systems For Environmental Monitoring And Interaction, James K. Higgins

Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) have significantly lowered the cost of remote aerial data collection. The next generation of UAVs, however, will transform the way that scientists and practitioners interact with the environment. In this thesis, we address the challenges of flying low over water to collect water samples and temperature data. We also develop a system that allows UAVs to ignite prescribed fires. Specifically, this thesis contributes a new peristaltic pump designed for use on a UAV for collecting water samples from up to 3m depth and capable of pumping over 6m above the water. Next, temperature sensors and their …

Incorporating A New Class Of Uncertainty In Disaster Relief Logistics Planning, Emre Kirac

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In recent years, there has been a growing interest among emergency managers in using Social data in disaster response planning. However, the trustworthiness and reliability of posted information are two of the most significant concerns, because much of the user-generated data is initially not verified. Therefore, a key tradeoff exists for emergency managers when considering whether to incorporate Social data in disaster planning efforts. By considering Social data, a larger number of needs can be identified in a shorter amount of time, potentially enabling a faster response and satisfying a class of demand that might not otherwise be discovered. However, …

Variable Response Of A Thermally Tuned Mems Pressure Sensor, Robert A. Lake, Ronald A. Coutu Jr.

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

A typical microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) pressure sensor consists of a thin, deformable membrane and sensing element such as a piezoresistive element which is used to measure the amount of deflection in response to an applied pressure. Previous efforts demonstrated that buckled membranes, from silicon on insulator (SOI) wafers, can be thermally tuned via joule heating. By applying heat to the membrane through a resistive heating element, compressive stress is induced in the membrane causing it to buckle further out of plane and increasing its overall stiffness response. It is demonstrated that by increasing the stiffness of the membrane, the response …

Utilizing Egocentric Video And Sensors To Conduct Naturalistic Bicycling Studies, Feng Liu, Miguel A. Figliozzi

TREC Final Reports

Existing data collection methods are mostly designed for videos captured by stationary cameras and are not designed to follow cyclists along a route or to integrate other sensor data. The goals of this research are: a) to develop a platform to collect naturalistic video bicycling data, b) to develop a methodology to integrate video data with other sensors that measure cyclists’ position and comfort levels, and c) to apply the platform and data collection methodology to a real-world route. This research effort has successfully integrated video and sensor data to describe cyclists’ comfort levels along a route. It was found …

Contact Radius And Insulator-Metal Transition In Films Comprised Of Touching Semiconductor Nanocrystals, Deanna M. Lanigan

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

Nanocrystal assemblies are being explored for a number of optoelectronic applications such as transparent conductors, photovoltaic solar cells, and electrochromic windows. Majority carrier transport is important for these applications, yet it remains relatively poorly understood in films comprised of touching nanocrystals. Specifically, the underlying structural parameters expected to determine the transport mechanism have not been fully elucidated. In this report, we demonstrate experimentally that the contact radius, between touching heavily doped ZnO nanocrystals, controls the electron transport mechanism. Spherical nanocrystals are considered, which are connected by a circular area. The radius of this circular area is the contact radius. For …

Learning In The Real World: Constraints On Cost, Space, And Privacy, Matt J. Kusner

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

The sheer demand for machine learning in fields as varied as: healthcare, web-search ranking, factory automation, collision prediction, spam filtering, and many others, frequently outpaces the intended use-case of machine learning models. In fact, a growing number of companies hire machine learning researchers to rectify this very problem: to tailor and/or design new state-of-the-art models to the setting at hand.

However, we can generalize a large set of the machine learning problems encountered in practical settings into three categories: cost, space, and privacy. The first category (cost) considers problems that need to balance the accuracy of a machine learning model …

Evaluation Of Various Turbulence Models For Shock-Wave Boundary Layer Interaction Flows, Francis K. Acquaye

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

Despite the modeling capabilities of current computational fluid dynamics (CFD), there still exist problems and inconsistencies in simulating fluid flow in certain flow regimes. Most difficult are the high-speed transonic, supersonic and hypersonic wall-bounded turbulent flows with small or massive regions of separation. To address the problem of the lack of computational accuracy in turbulence modeling, NASA has established the Turbulence Modeling Resource (TMR) website and has issued the NASA 40% Challenge. The aim of this challenge is to identify and improve/develop turbulence and transition models as well as numerical techniques to achieve a 40% reduction in the predictive error …

Value Based Methodology To Evaluate Sensors For Bridge Structural Health Monitoring Systems, Jefferson Santos De Oliveira

Theses and Dissertations

Structural health monitoring (SHM) systems have become important tools in the transportation industry to help monitor the behavior and health of civil structures. Today, there is a real concern about the health of bridges because these structures are aging, and various failure events have contributed to increase that concern. Consequently, the topic of improving the effectiveness and appropriate use of SHM systems have become the focus of various government agencies and researchers, both in industry and academia. In this context, this thesis work was developed to understand the general components of bridge SHM systems, and present a methodology to help …

Miss Lonesome: Old Boats Past Their Prime, Garth Woodruff

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Parameter Estimation For Hvac System Models From Standard Test Data, Hannah Luthman

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Nearly all cooling systems, and an increasing proportion of heating systems, utilize the vapor compression cycle (VCC) to provide and remove heat from conditioned spaces. Even though the application of VCC’s throughout the building environment is ubiquitous, effective and accessible models of the performance of these systems remains elusive. Such models could be important tools for VCC designers, building designers and building energy managers as well as those who are attempting to optimize building energy performance through the use of model-based control systems.

Strides have been made in developing lumped parameter models for VCC’s. In spite of these contributions, widespread …

Thermoelectric Material Property Measurement For Flexible Films, Courtney Hollar

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

The market for wearable electronics and implantable medical devices continues to grow. Within the next several years, the wearable electronic and implantable medical devices market will reach $31.2 billion and $73.9 billion, respectively. Currently, the most commonly used power source is the rigid lithium ion battery. In order to further optimize the devices, flexible autonomous power sources, such as thermoelectric generators, can replace traditional battery systems.

Flexible thermoelectric films were created using a wet deposition approach and synthesized into ink suitable for either spin coating or screen printing. This study focuses on Seebeck coefficient, electrical conductivity, and thermal conductivity measurements. …

Augmenting Sensorimotor Control Using “Goal-Aware” Vibrotactile Stimulation During Reaching And Manipulation Behaviors, Emmanouil Tzorakoleftherakis, Todd D. Murphey, Robert A. Scheidt

Biomedical Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

We describe two sets of experiments that examine the ability of vibrotactile encoding of simple position error and combined object states (calculated from an optimal controller) to enhance performance of reaching and manipulation tasks in healthy human adults. The goal of the first experiment (tracking) was to follow a moving target with a cursor on a computer screen. Visual and/or vibrotactile cues were provided in this experiment, and vibrotactile feedback was redundant with visual feedback in that it did not encode any information above and beyond what was already available via vision. After only 10 minutes of practice using vibrotactile …

Position And Stiffness Control Of Inflatable Robotic Links Using Rotary Pneumatic Actuation, Charles Mansel Best

Theses and Dissertations

Inflatable robots with pneumatic actuation are naturally lightweight and compliant. Both of these characteristics make a robot of this type better suited for human environments where unintentional impacts will occur. The dynamics of an inflatable robot are complex and dynamic models that explicitly allow variable stiffness control have not been well developed. In this thesis, a dynamic model was developed for an antagonistic, pneumatically actuated joint with inflatable links.The antagonistic nature of the joint allows for the control of two states, primarily joint position and stiffness. First a model was developed to describe the position states. The model was used …

Complex Traffic Network Modeling & Area-Wide Hierarchical Control, Saumya Gupta

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This thesis presents a novel methodology to divide a traffic region into subregions such that in each subregion a Macroscopic Fundamental Diagram (MFD) can be used to determine the state of that subregion. The region division is based on the theory of complex networks. We exploit the inherent network characteristics through PageRank centrality algorithm to identify the most significant nodes in the traffic network. We use these significant nodes as the seeds for a Voronoi diagram based partitioning mechanism of the network. A network wide hierarchical control framework is then presented which controls these sub regions individually and the network …

Strain Energy Absorption Corresponds To Decreased Incidence Of Ventricular Fibrillation In A Commotio Cordis Model, Kayt E. Frisch, Mark S. Link, John Van Weelden

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

A healthy teenage boy is playing high school baseball, when he is struck in the chest by the ball; minutes later, his heart is experiencing ventricular fibrillation (VF) and the only way to resuscitate him is to use a defibrillator. This phenomenon, is known as Commotio Cordis (CC), and occurs as many as 20 times each year in the United States. CC most frequently occurs in sports with small balls (e.g. baseball or lacrosse) and requires a specific set of circumstances–a projectile with a certain amount of energy that impacts directly over the left ventricle of the heart during a …

Trend Analysis Of Water Quality In Northwest Arkansas Streams Reflects Changes In The Watershed, Zachary Paul Simpson

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Watershed export of nutrients, sediments, and chemicals impacts receiving waters. Changes within the watershed (e.g., anthropogenic or climatic) can alter the transport of constituents in streams. Stream monitoring is crucial for understanding these effects. This study developed a potential improvement to flow-adjusting constituent concentrations in streams, an important step of analyzing monitoring data in lotic systems for trends. The method incorporates a K-fold cross-validation procedure to optimize a model explaining the relationship between the concentration and streamflow, thus providing a valuable tool to researchers in water quality. Additionally, two case studies were conducted on watersheds located in northwest Arkansas using …

Evaluating A Measure-Calculate Method For Determining Sediment Oxygen Demand In Lakes, Adrian Beirise

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A steady-state mass diffusion model used with simple measurable and calculable inputs for determining sediment oxygen demand (SOD) is compared to an intact core incubation (ICI) SOD method using samples from three lakes. The mass diffusion model coupled with inputs is known as the measure-calculate method (M-C) and is a potential alternative to existing methods for measuring SOD which are more complex, time-consuming, and costly. The M-C method requires inputs for volumetric sediment oxygen uptake (Ṅsed), sediment density and porosity, and water properties. Ṅsed was determined by suspending sediment in oxygen-saturated water with a DO probe and determining the steady …

Study Of Plasmonic Properties Of The Gold Nanorods In The Visible To Near Infrared Light Regime, Pijush Kanti Ghosh

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Nanostructures of noble metals show unique plasmonic behavior in the visible to near-infrared light range. Gold nanostructures exhibit a particularly strong plasmonic response for these wavelengths of light. In this study we have investigated optical enhancement and absorption of gold nanorods with different thickness using finite element method simulations. This study reports on the resonance wavelength of the sharp-corner and round-corner rectangles of constant length 100 nm and width 60 nm. The result shows that resonance wavelength depends on the polarization of the incident light; there also exists a strong dependence of the optical enhancement and absorption on the thickness …