Engineering Commons^™

Photovoltaic Cooking In The Developing World, Tyler Watkins, Christopher O'Day, Omar Arriaga

Mechanical Engineering

The challenge of clean cooking is faced by hundreds of millions of people worldwide. We present a cooking technology consisting of a solar panel directly connected to an electric heater in a well-insulated chamber. Assuming continued decrease in solar panel prices, we anticipate that in a few decades Solar Electric Cooking technologies will be the most common cooking technology for the poor. Appropriate use of insulation reduces the power demand making low-power Insulated Solar Electric Cooking systems already cost competitive.

Non-Destructive Testing Of Carbon Fiber Crank Arms, Timothy Hoekstra, Grant Pocklington, Johnathan Simeroth

Mechanical Engineering

Carbon fiber components present unique challenges for detecting defects, damage, and fatigue. Nondestructive methods exist for testing and locating defects. However, most of these methods are expensive, not versatile enough for practical use on non-idealized parts, or both. Vibrothermography can be an affordable option and has shown promising results with thin rectangular panels. The goal of this senior project was to assess the feasibility of using vibrothermography to find defects in SRAM carbon fiber crank arms. Our team found vibrothermography to be a feasible method of non-destructive testing for carbon fiber crank arms, and this report discusses the development and …

Final Design Report: Polymer Fatigue Characterization Test Method, Wyatt Ayling, Tyler Price, Brandon Stell, Michela Upson

Mechanical Engineering

Polylogix is a team dedicated to the design, build, and testing of a fatigue machine to simulate cyclic loading on a biomedical polymer. This project is sponsored by Endologix, Inc. to provide test data characterizing mechanical material properties of various formulations of polymer used in abdominal aortic aneurysm surgeries. With this project goal, the machine must be able to test the polymer at body conditions; these include a testing temperature of 37°C and a cycling frequency ranging from 1 Hz to 10 Hz. This report proposes the following solution to this design challenge: an AC motor-driven mechanism utilizing a planetary …

Geotechnical Properties Of The Travis Peak (Hosston) Formation In East Texas: A Compressive And Tensile Strength Analysis Using Regression Analysis., Pawan Kakarla

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The estimation of rock mass strength is a key parameter in geotechnical engineering which is used in the design of geotechnical structures like tunnels, dams and slopes. Geotechnical engineering is the branch of civil engineering which works on the principles of soil and rock mechanics to evaluate subsurface conditions, stability of slopes, foundations of structures and construction of earthworks. The main focus of this study was to calculate the strength of Lower Cretaceous Travis Peak Formation rocks of East Texas and to check the accuracy by comparing it with Regression analysis. The parameters which were used were the Uniaxial Compression …

Teaching The Internet Of Things: Bridging A Path From Cpe329, Steven Han, Rafael Lopez

Computer Engineering

“The ability to connect, communicate with, and remotely manage an incalculable number of networked, automated devices via the Internet is becoming pervasive, from the commercial kitchen to the residential basement room to the arm of the fitness buff.” - WSO2

In this report, we will investigate procedures and technologies used in IoT. A variety of cloud platforms will be described to demonstrate its strengths and usage on IoT applications. Furthermore, demonstrate the most popular hardware being used in several of these applications. This report is aimed to give a good understanding on what it takes to put together an IoT …

Robostock: Autonomous Inventory Tracking, Drew Christian Balthazor

Computer Engineering

No abstract provided.

Android Drone: Remote Quadcopter Control With A Phone, Aubrey John Russell

Computer Engineering

The purpose of the “Android Drone” project was to create a quadcopter that can be controlled by user input sent over the phone’s Wi-Fi connection or 4G internet connection. Furthermore, the purpose was also to be able to receive live video feedback over the internet connection, thus making the drone an inexpensive option compared to other, equivalent drones that might cost thousands of dollars. Not only that, but the Android phone also has a host of other useful features that could be utilized by the drone: this includes GPS, pathing, picture taking, data storage, networking and TCP/IP, a Java software …

Smart Rock Technology For Real-Time Monitoring Of Bridge Scour And Riprap Effectiveness -- Design Guidelines And Visualization Tools, Genda Chen, Yan Tang, Yizheng Chen, Zhaochao Li, Chuanrui Guo, Liang Fan, Yi Bao, Xiuyan Hu, Matthew Klegseth

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This study aims to further develop and demonstrate the recently-proposed smart rock technology for scour depth and protection effectiveness monitoring. A smart rock is one or two stacked magnets encased in a concrete sphere with a specially-designed rotational mechanism. Design guidelines, rotational mechanisms, remote measurement tools and localization algorithms of smart rocks were developed and validated at three bridge sites. The effect of steel reinforcement in bridge piers/deck on the orientation of gravity-controlled magnets was negligible. The localization accuracy with a single smart rock met a general requirement of less than 0.5 m in engineering applications. The spherical smart rock …

Optical Sub-Diffraction Limited Focusing For Confined Heating And Lithography, Luis M. Traverso

Open Access Dissertations

Electronics and nanotechnology is constantly demanding a decrease in size of fabricated nanoscale features. This decrease in size has become much more difficult recently due to the limited resolution of optical systems that are fundamental to many nanofabrication methods. A lot of effort has been made to fabricate devices smaller than the diffraction limit of light. Creating devices that are capable of confining fields by means of interference patterns of propagating wave modes and surface plasmon, has proven successful to confine light into smaller spot sizes.

Zone plate diffraction lenses generate spots with dimensions very close to the diffraction limit. …

Effective Supplier Quality Practices In The Construction Industry, Ashleigh Hegwood

Industrial Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

The dynamic and irregular nature of projects in the construction industry causes the complexity of supplier quality management (SQM). The Construction Industry Institute (CII) Research Team (RT) 308 is focused on achieving zero rework through effective supplier quality practices.

This honors thesis is an extension of RT 308’s project work. Its purpose is to look at current supplier evaluation practices within the construction industry, confirm arecommended supplier cutoff rating through data analysis, and determine if outliers in the data set could be normalized. A survey was developed in Qualtrics (an online survey software tool) and sent to CII members for …

Hydraulic Performance Evaluation Of Evapotranspiration Cover Systems, Brett James De Vries

Civil Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Although alternative covers such as the evapotranspiration (ET) landfill cover system promise to provide equivalent or greater performance than conventional cover systems, uncertainties remain on the performance of these type of cover systems. The uncertainties associated with performance may derive from the relative newness of these covers (when compared to conventional landfill cover systems); and their dependency on relatively site-specific factors such as: climatic, vegetation, and soil conditions. As a results, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) requires a landfill facility to design and then verify the design and performance through site specific field scale testing (TCEQ 2012). Utilizing …

Novel Approach For Selective Decomposition Of Target Water Contaminants Onto Porous Titanium Dioxide, Abolfazl Zakersalehi

Civil Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Manipulation of physical and chemical properties of matter with nanoscale precision will enhance our ability for fabrication of material with intended characteristics for environmental applications. In this study we presented two main frameworks for addressing non-selectivity issue in TiO2 photocatalysts, which is believed to be a major drawback in full-scale application of this technology. First, a purely physical approach for enhancing selectivity of nanostructured TiO2 photocatalysts toward water target contaminants have been achieved via tailor-designing meso-porous structure of TiO2. This simple, yet effective method is mainly based on size-exclusion as a mean toward preferential decomposition. It was hypothesized controlled mesoporous …

Harmful Algal Blooms And Biological Toxins Productions; From Integrated Monitoring Approach To On-Site Solar Photocatalytic Decomposition, Hesam Zaman Khan Malayeri

Civil Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Occurrence of Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs) worldwide has caused concern to environmental and health authorities because of their potential to generate and release biological toxins. In particular, microcystins (MCs) produced from cyanobacteria are of great concern. MCs are among the most powerful natural poisons. The presence of MCs in drinking water sources has raised major concern. The overall goal of this research is to predict formation of biological toxins in water bodies and to develop a new sustainable approach to decompose them, if feasible, on-site and in real-time with minimal efforts, less chemicals, and low energy inputs. In order to …

Moisture Distribution Efficiency And Performance Evaluations Of Bioreactor Landfill Operations, Md Zahangir Alam

Civil Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Bioreactor landfills are operated in a modern engineered way to accelerate waste decomposition, gas production, and waste stabilization. The major aspect of a bioreactor landfill operation is associated with the addition of supplemental liquid or leachate recirculation, and the effective operation primarily depends on efficient moisture distribution throughout the waste mass, which enhances performance. The performance of an effective landfill operation can be assessed by several indicators, i.e., leachate generation, gas production, and landfill settlement. Bioreactor landfill operations have several significant economic and environmental advantages, but the impact of efficient moisture distribution and the assessment of performance through combined indicators …

Investigation Of Fiber-Reinforced Concrete Crack Width Measurement By Finite Element Method, Sina Abhaee

Civil Engineering Theses - Archive

This study presents numerical and experimental investigations of flexural cracking, post-cracking strength, and fracture energy of the dry-cast synthetic fiber reinforced concrete (FRC). Notched and un-notched beams for two fiber volume fractions were tested under flexural loading based on the recommendations of RILEM TC 162-TDF and ASTM C1609. The crack profile in terms of crack propagation and crack width, was assessed, using the two-dimensional digital image correlation (2D DIC) technique. Images of the specimen’s surface were captured during the test, and, surface deformation field was obtained by means of 2D DIC analysis. The nonlinear, 3D finite element method (FEM) modeling …

Unsupervised Feature Selection For Outlier Detection By Modelling Hierarchical Value-Feature Couplings, Guansong Pang, Longbing Cao, Ling Chen, Huan Liu

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Proper feature selection for unsupervised outlier detection can improve detection performance but is very challenging due to complex feature interactions, the mixture of relevant features with noisy/redundant features in imbalanced data, and the unavailability of class labels. Little work has been done on this challenge. This paper proposes a novel Coupled Unsupervised Feature Selection framework (CUFS for short) to filter out noisy or redundant features for subsequent outlier detection in categorical data. CUFS quantifies the outlierness (or relevance) of features by learning and integrating both the feature value couplings and feature couplings. Such value-to-feature couplings capture intrinsic data characteristics and …

From Footprint To Evidence: An Exploratory Study Of Mining Social Data For Credit Scoring, Guangming Guo, Feida Zhu, Enhong Chen, Qi Liu, Le Wu, Chu Guan

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

With the booming popularity of online social networks like Twitter and Weibo, online user footprints are accumulating rapidly on the social web. Simultaneously, the question of how to leverage the large-scale user-generated social media data for personal credit scoring comes into the sight of both researchers and practitioners. It has also become a topic of great importance and growing interest in the P2P lending industry. However, compared with traditional financial data, heterogeneous social data presents both opportunities and challenges for personal credit scoring. In this article, we seek a deep understanding of how to learn users’ credit labels from social …

Materials, Mechanics, And Patterning Techniques For Elastomer-Based Stretchable Conductors, X. Yu, B. Mahajan, W. Shou, Heng Pan

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

No abstract provided.

Innovative Gtfs Data Application For Transit Network Analysis Using A Graph-Oriented Method, Philippe Fortin, Catherine Morency, Martin Trépanier

Journal of Public Transportation

Public transit networks are constantly evolving in the face of frequent economic and social challenges. There exists a large knowledge base on travel demand; however, there is a shortage of information on travel supply and networks. To our knowledge, no analysis tool can, at this point, systematically characterize a network and observe changes over time in a structured and automated manner. This paper addresses this issue and proposes a graph-oriented method for developing an analysis tool that will characterize a single network and then provide the necessary means to compare two distinct networks. A time-expanded model was applied to import …

Applying Ahp And Clustering Approaches For Public Transportation Decisionmaking: A Case Study Of Isfahan City, Alireza Salavati, Hossein Haghshenas, Bahador Ghadirifaraz, Jamshid Laghaei, Ghodrat Eftekhari

Journal of Public Transportation

The main purpose of this paper is to define appropriate criteria for the systematic approach to evaluate and prioritize multiple candidate corridors for public transport investment simultaneously to serve travel demand, regarding supply of current public transportation system and road network conditions of Isfahan, Iran. To optimize resource allocation, policymakers need to identify proper corridors to implement a public transportation system. In fact, the main question is to adopt the best public transportation system for each main corridor of Isfahan. In this regard, 137 questionnaires were completed by experts, directors, and policymakers of Isfahan to identify goals and objectives in …

Assessing Park-And-Ride Efficiency And User Reactions To Parking Management Strategies, Krae E. Stieffenhofer, Michael Barton, Vikash Gayah V.

Journal of Public Transportation

Increasing the number of spaces at overutilized park-and-rides often is not possible due to budgetary and other constraints. Instead, transit agencies may instead seek to maximize the number of people that are able to use the existing spaces through various parking management strategies. Unfortunately, the efficiency of park-and-rides is difficult to measure, so agencies cannot accurately quantify existing use or improvement after parking management strategies have been applied. This study proposed and tested a method to measure the person-efficiency of park-and-ride lots through an onsite audit. Additionally, a user survey was proposed to confirm the audit results and unveil reactions …

Investigation Of Wheeled Mobility Device Orientation And Movement On Streetcars And Light Rail Vehicles During Normal And Emergency Braking, Andrea J. Mather, Katharine M. Hunter-Zaworski

Journal of Public Transportation

Wheeled mobility devices have been accessing public transit vehicles for decades, and most new rail transit systems are accessible. This has increased ridership by people with disabilities. Side-facing orientation on rail transit vehicles often is considered an option to increase capacity for wheeled mobility devices. This paper reports findings of a study of vehicle dynamics and wheeled mobility device orientation on rail transit vehicles. The study used acceleration data and field observations to evaluate wheeled mobility devices in longitudinal and side-facing orientations on streetcar and light rail vehicles. Results from the study include recommendations for longitudinal-oriented areas for wheeled mobility …

Numerical Investigation Of Crossflow Instability On The Hifire-5, Matthew T. Lakebrink

Open Access Dissertations

Stability analysis was performed with the Langley Stability and Transition Analysis Code (LASTRAC) on a 38.1% scale model of the HIFiRE-5 elliptic-cone forebody to study crossflow-induced transition in hypersonic boundary layers. A resolution study consisting of three grids (30e6, 45e6, and 91e6 points) indicated that the fine grid was sufficiently resolved. Results were largely insensitive to grid resolution over the acreage and near the attachment line. The percent variation in second-mode properties along the semi-minor axis was less than 1% between the medium and fine grids. The variation in crossflow-wave properties was less than 0.04% between the medium and fine …

Integration And Qualification Of The P-Pods On The Vega Maiden Flight, Ryan Nugent

Master's Theses

On February 13, 2012, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo flew three Poly-Picosatellite Orbital Deployers (P-PODs), carrying seven European University CubeSats sponsored by the European Space Agency (ESA), on the Vega Maiden Flight. This was the first time CubeSats shared a ride to space with other payloads on an ESA-owned launch opportunity. In order to meet launch requirements, it must be proven through proper documentation that the P-POD would operate properly and not interfere with the launch vehicle or other payloads on the mission. This thesis outlines the program flow, required documentation, and issues encountered during the launch campaign …

Lap Splice Development Length Of Rebar In Stabilized Hollow Interlocking Compressed Earth Blocks, Thomas S. Bowdey

Master's Theses

This thesis investigates the tensile performance of unconfined lap splices in specimens constructed from interlocking compressed earth block (ICEB) units. All lap splice specimens were constructed from hollow ICEB half units with one side grouting channel. ICEB units used in this research were exclusively produced from the Soeng Thai Model BP6 block press. The BP6 block press is currently manufactured in Thailand under the guidance and direction of the Center of Vocational Building Technologies (CVBT). All ICEB units and grout constructed for this research were created from mix proportions of soil, sand, cement, and water. Rebar bar sizes were restricted …

Modelling And Analysis Of A Cavity-Less Tyre Pressure Sensor With Dielectric Composite Material, Kevin A. Mathias

Manipal Journal of Science and Technology

The development that has taken place in automobiles over the past decades is tremendous. A number of sophisticated sensors and actuators have been installed to monitor the satisfactory working of an automobile. The pressure sensor present in a tyre helps to monitor continuously the air pressure. The present study is focused on modelling of Cavity-Less Pressure Sensor for sensing the air pressure inside a tyre. Silicone Rubber filled with Barium Titanate composite material is considered a soft dielectric material for the sensor. The sensor is modelled using an analytical method and Bond Graph modelling technique. The influence of volume fraction …

Design And Deployment Of A Real Time Wireless Controller For An Active Angle Foot Orthosis, Mary Ann George

Manipal Journal of Science and Technology

The complex ankle foot movements of patients suffering from muscular and neurological abnormalities are supported and restored by an active ankle foot orthosis (AFO). Foot drop is a symptom in which the muscles around the ankle become weak due to the paralysis of the neural system. Patients with foot drop show abnormal gait patterns, which can reduce the speed of walking and increase the energy consumption. The gait pattern deviation in patients with foot drop can be corrected by designing a fuzzy controller for gait pattern. This paper focuses on designing a fuzzy controller for an active AFO that can …

A Cost-Effective Braille Printer: Aiding The Visually Impaired, Palash Thakur

Manipal Journal of Science and Technology

A pervasively high level of braille illiteracy has hampered heavily the large number of partially or completely visually impaired persons in today’s society, their integration into society as productive, educated, and capable members. This problem is further compounded by the fact that the braille printers are prohibitively expensive – generally starting from two thousand US dollars, beyond the reach of a common person. The purpose of this paper is to introduce a highly cost-effective Braille printer primarily utilizing an Atmel AVR microcontroller (ATMega 32a) and servomotors acting as rotary and linear actuators, coupled with gears. The printer can be controlled …

Enterprise 3.0: Next-Generation Technologies That Redefine Enterprise Collaboration, Ashalatha Nayak

Manipal Journal of Science and Technology

No abstract provided.

Development Of Printed Cross-Functional Sensors For Gearbox Lubricant Prognostics, John Omondi Manyala

Dissertations

Lubricant oil degradation is a major cause of failures in transportation machinery such as pumps, engines, and gearboxes. Proactive oil maintenance techniques such as the off-line oil sampling for laboratory analysis are not only costly but are also susceptible to various influences during the oil sampling, transportation and testing. In this study, an on-line oil condition monitoring system is presented with an integrated predictive prognostic scheme, describing the evolution in time of the identified fault indicators for purposes of estimating the remaining useful life of oil in real-time inside the gearbox. The proposed methodology facilitates on-demand gearbox maintenance rather than …