Engineering Commons^™

Usage Of Fomblin Y To Improve Water Repellence Of Surface Coatings, Shawn Pj Kirby, Jeffrey Alston, Andrew Guenthner

STAR Program Research Presentations

Fluoro-Decyl POSS (FDP) has shown strong potential as a water repellant surface coating. Additionally, Fomblin is a solvent believed to have the ability to control the crystallization of POSS compounds on surfaces. Controlling the crystallization is key to improving water repelling abilities of surfaces. Thus, dip coating FDP and Fomblin onto surfaces is being investigated for water repulsion, mechanical stability, and deposition feasibility. First, temperature dependence of solubility of Fluoro-Decyl POSS in Fomblin was tested using Dynamic Light Scattering. Relative water repelling abilities of different coatings were determined by measuring contact angle of surfaces with water. Coatings with and without …

Loss Of Buffer Value Due To Aquifer Depletion: The Case Of High Plains Aquifer, Mani Rouhi Rad, Timothy Foster, Nicholas Brozovic

Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute: Faculty Publications

Existing literature in economics and engineering do not realistically capture the effects of aquifer depletion on loss of profits from agricultural production. While the former literature ignores the physical characteristics of aquifer and the relationship between aquifer levels and groundwater availability, the latter strand of literature does not consider farmers' decisionmaking as a result of aquifer depletion. Misspecification of these relationships and their effect on irrigation decisions can result in misunderstanding the consequences of aquifer depletion and may provide ineffective policies. This paper provides a framework to study the effects of aquifer depletion on the profit of agricultural production. We …

Santa Clara Magazine, Volume 58 Number 3, August 2017, Santa Clara University

Santa Clara Magazine

3 - PAINT BY NUMBERS By Harold Gutmann and Matt Morgan

4 - SUPERMAN By Sam Farmer

7 - A WILD GENEROSITY By Brian Doyle

Comparative Solubility Of Poss Compounds In Fomblin Y, Shawn Pj Kirby, Jeffrey Alston, Andrew Guenthner

STAR Program Research Presentations

Fluoro-Decyl POSS (FDP) has shown strong potential as a water repellant surface coating. Additionally, Fomblin is a solvent believed to have the ability to control the crystallization of POSS compounds on surfaces. Controlling the crystallization is key to improving water repelling abilities of surfaces. Thus, dip coating FDP and Fomblin onto surfaces is being investigated for water repulsion, mechanical stability, and deposition feasibility. However, in order for this to be successful, POSS must be soluble in Fomblin. Temperature dependence of solubility of Fluoro-Hexyl, Fluoro-Octyl, Fluoro-Decyl POSS in Fomblin was tested using Dynamic Light Scattering. The values were compared, and it …

How Governmental Greenhouse Gas Science Has Been Weathered Through Time And Why It Matters, Christopher Apple

STAR Program Research Presentations

Global consumption of materials and energy is accelerating. The rate of plant and animal species extinction is accelerating. On a finite Earth with a growing population, current consumption cannot continue sustainably. Greenhouse gases (GHGs) tell us an important part of this story. The Global Greenhouse Gas Reference Network, managed by scientists at NOAA’s Earth System Research Laboratory, is the largest greenhouse gas analysis network in the world. It has been shaped by scientific questions, stagnant funding despite rises in research costs, and the task of understanding how the Earth system will respond to a changing climate. The Network began by …

Using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (‘Drones’) To Collect Data From Tagged Fishers In The Environment, Vu A. Pham, Marc Horney, Aaron Drake

STAR Program Research Presentations

Fisher (Pekania pennant) belongs to the weasel family. In October 2014, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service proposed to list the West Coast Distinct Population Segment of fisher as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. We wish to better define where fishers live within their habitats and use that information to improve conservation efforts. Previously, to track the behavior of wild fishers, researchers put tracker collars on the animals and relied on networks of fixed antennas on the ground in the environment to collect data. We are experimenting with using unmanned aerial vehicles (‘drones’) to collect data …

Current State Of The Assets In The Chemical Engineering Laboratory At Rose-Hulman Institute Of Technology And Their Use In The Undergraduate Laboratory Course Sequence, Matthew Adams

Graduate Theses - Chemical Engineering

The Chemical Engineering Laboratory, also referred to as the Unit Operations (UO) Laboratory, is integral to any undergraduate Chemical Engineering curriculum as it provides students with the opportunity to gain practical and hands-on experience with processes that are commonplace throughout industry. The Chemical Engineering Department at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology prides itself in providing its students with a practical education that will allow for an easy transition into industry as well as continued success throughout the students’ careers; as such, the assets in the Chemical Engineering Laboratory space and their use are paramount to this objective. The Chemical Engineering Department …

Implementing Inexpensive Alternatives To The West’S Largest New Water Project, Utah Rivers Council

All In-stream Flows Material

In 2006, the Utah Rivers Council published our first paper on Bear River Development after completing a comprehensive analysis about the many inexpensive options to provide water for the future of the Wasatch Front. This 2^nd edition summarizes new research conducted by Utah Rivers Council staff, colleagues and that of other agencies, which demonstrates that Bear River Development is completely unnecessary for Utah’s future water needs. Although this is good news to Utah taxpayers, it is bad news for the many special interests that seek to profit from billions of dollars in spending for Bear River Water Development and …

A Mathematical Model And Numerical Simulations Of Redox Electrochemical Systems With Mhd And Natural Convection, Kakkattukuzhy M. Isaac, Fangping Yuan

Collaborative Research: Actively Controllable Microfluidics with Film-Confined Redox-Magnetohydrodynamics -- Video and Data

A comprehensive mathematical model for redox electrochemical systems with magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) and natural convection are presented. The model is based on density changes in isothermal systems that accompany redox reaction at the electrode due to supporting electrolyte ions migrating into and out of the diffusion layer to satisfy electroneutrality. Numerical simulations have been performed for an axisymmetric, milli-electrode electrochemical cell with gravity directed along the axis in both directions to investigate the effect of the electrode orientation with respect to gravity. Results show that natural convection is significant in both cases, with the maximum velocity being an order of magnitude …

Robust Classification Of City Roadway Objects For Traffic Related Applications, Niveditha Bhandary, Charles Mackay, Alex Richards, Ji Tong, David Anastasiu

Faculty Publications

The increasing prevalence of video data, particularly from traffic and surveillance cameras, is accompanied by a growing need for improved object detection, tracking, and classification techniques. In order to encourage development in this area, the AI City Challenge, sponsored by IEEE Smart World and NVIDIA, cultivated a competitive environment in which teams from all over the world sought to demonstrate the effectiveness of their models after training and testing on a common dataset of 114,766 unique traffic camera keyframes. Models were constructed for two distinct purposes; track 1 designs addressed object detection, localization and classification, while track 2 designs aimed …

The Nvidia Ai City Challenge, Milind Naphade, David Anastasiu, Anuj Sharma, Vamsi Jagrlamudi, Hyeran Jeon, Kaikai Liu, Ming-Ching Chang, Siwei Lyu, Zeyu Gao

Faculty Publications

Web image analysis has witnessed an AI renaissance. The ILSVRC benchmark has been instrumental in providing a corpus and standardized evaluation. The NVIDIA AI City Challenge is envisioned to provide similar impetus to the analysis of image and video data that helps make cities smarter and safer. In its first year, this Challenge has focused on traffic video data. While millions of traffic video cameras around the world capture data, albeit low-quality, very little automated analysis and value creation results. Lack of labeled data, and trained models that can be deployed at the edge of the city fabric, ensure that …

Unified Solution To Drained Expansion Of A Spherical Cavity In Clay And Sand, Lin Li, Jingpei Li, De'an Sun, Weibing Gong

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This paper presents a novel unified solution to drained expansion of a spherical cavity in both clay and sand. The large-strain theory and a critical state model with a unified hardening parameter are used to describe the elastoplastic behavior of the soils after yielding. The elastoplastic constitutive tensor of the critical state model is developed to be a system of first-order differential equations for the drained expansion of a spherical cavity. The problem is formulated as an initial value problem in terms of the Lagrangian scheme by introducing an auxiliary variable and is solved numerically. With the present solution, curves …

Inspire E-News 8 2017, College Of Engineering And Applied Sciences

College of Engineering and Applied Sciences News

• Young inventors enjoy innovation and entrepreneurship camp
• Georgeau Institute awards five research grants to address global construction challenges
• Butt named fellow of Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers
• WMU hosts 4th Annual Summer Conference on Livable Communities

Lb3d: A Parallel Implementation Of The Lattice-Boltzmann Method For Simulation Of Interacting Amphiphilic Fluids, S. Schmieschek, L. Shamardin, S. Frijters, T. Krüger, U. D. Schiller, J. Harting, P. V. Coveney

Publications

We introduce the lattice-Boltzmann code LB3D, version 7.1. Building on a parallel program and supporting tools which have enabled research utilising high performance computing resources for nearly two decades, LB3D version 7 provides a subset of the research code functionality as an open source project. Here, we describe the theoretical basis of the algorithm as well as computational aspects of the implementation. The software package is validated against simulations of meso-phases resulting from self-assembly in ternary fluid mixtures comprising immiscible and amphiphilic components such as water–oil–surfactant systems. The impact of the surfactant species on the dynamics of spinodal decomposition are …

Episodic Memory Via Spans And Cospans: A Hierarchy Of Spatiotemporal Colimits, Michael John Healy Ms, Thomas Preston Caudell Phd

Electrical & Computer Engineering Technical Reports

We introduce a category-theoretic account of episodic memory as an outgrowth of an existing mathematical theory of the semantics of neural networks. We propose that neu- ral systems which can be said to have episodic memory represent sequences of events and their associated information within a hierarchy of concepts, represented in their neu- ral networks. In the categorical model presented here, the hierarchy is based upon col- imits. Colimits “put everything together” mathematically, and appear throughout many categories. The event-sequence colimits can be visualized as assemblies of categorical structures known as spans and cospans. A string of cospans formalizes a …

Developing Methods Of Obtaining Quality Failure Information From Complex Systems, Oladapo Olalekan Bello

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The complexity in most engineering systems is constantly growing due to ever-increasing technological advancements. This result in a corresponding need for methods that adequately account for the reliability of such systems based on failure information from components that make up these systems.

This dissertation presents an approach to validating qualitative function failure results from model abstraction details. The impact of the level of detail available to a system designer during conceptual stages of design is considered for failure space exploration in a complex system. Specifically, the study develops an efficient approach towards detailed function and behavior modeling required for complex …

Deformation Behavior Of Al/A-Si Core-Shell Nanostructures, Robert Andrew Fleming

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Al/a-Si core-shell nanostructures (CSNs), consisting of a hemispherical Al core surrounded by a hard shell of a-Si, have been shown to display unusual mechanical behavior in response to compression loading. Most notably, these nanostructures exhibit substantial deformation recovery, even when loaded much beyond the elastic limit. Nanoindentation measurements revealed a unique mechanical response characterized by discontinuous signatures in the load-displacement data. In conjunction with the indentation signatures, nearly complete deformation recovery is observed. This behavior is attributed to dislocation nucleation and annihilation events enabled by the 3-dimensional confinement of the Al core. As the core confinement is reduced, either through …

Soil-Structure Interaction Effects On The Seismic Response Of Low-Rise Eccentrically Braced Frames, Luis Gerardo Buitrago Goyez

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The importance of soil-structure interaction (SSI) effects on the seismic response of buildings has been long recognized and has been researched for over 40 years. However, SSI analysis has only been applied in a few building projects because the fixed base condition is considered to provide a conservative estimation for the response of buildings under seismic loads. This assumption of a fixed base condition adopted by practitioners is not always conservative or cost-effective, especially for rigid buildings over soft soils. Additionally, for the case of ductile steel frames with eccentric configurations, the influence of SSI on their seismic performance has …

A Spreadsheet Algorithm For Determining The Economic Feasibility Of Micro-Chp Systems In The Arkansas Manufacturing Sector, Ford R. Lewallen

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Combined heat and power (CHP) systems are not new to the market. However, advances in technology, specifically MicroTurbines, have presented new opportunities for installations of micro-CHP units - defined as 50 kWe to 300 kWe, specifically at small- to medium-sized industrial facilities. One pressing concern is whether or not an industrial plant has a high enough process thermal load requirement to fully utilize the energy output.

This thesis will discuss simulations that were run on several actual electric and thermal load combinations, which correspond to types of manufacturing facilities commonly found in Arkansas. Analysis of the plant usage profiles will …

Laboratory Resistivity Measurements For Soil Characterization, Behdad Mofarraj Kouchaki

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Field based electrical resistivity measurements, such as electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) and capacitively coupled resistivity (CCR), are geophysical methods that offer a non-destructive and rapid means to collect continuous data. As such, ERT and CCR are becoming increasingly popular tools for geotechnical engineers; however, it is challenging to derive geotechnical information such as soil type, density, and water content from the data. A laboratory geophysical investigation was carried out to gain a better understanding of the parameters that affect the electrical resistivity of soils and devise a relationship between resistivity and soil type or classification. In this study, a soil …

Development Of Deep Site Specific And Reference Shear Wave Velocity Profiles In The Canterbury Plains, New Zealand, Michael Ryan Deschenes

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Deep (typically >1000 m) shear wave velocity profiles were developed across the Canterbury basin at nine strong motion stations using a combination of active and passive surface wave methods and horizontal to vertical spectral ratio measurements. A multi-mode, multi-method joint inversion process, which included Rayleigh and Love wave dispersion and horizontal to vertical spectral ratio data, was used to estimate the shear wave velocity profiles at each site. A-priori geologic information was utilized in defining preliminary constraints on the complex geologic layering of the Canterbury basin. At sites where interbedded layers were present, velocity reversals were considered in the inversion. …

Geophysical Assessment Of Kinion Lake Dam, Tim Allen Moody

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Geophysical methods including Capacitively-Coupled Resistivity (CCR), Electrical Resistivity Tomography/Imaging (ERT/ERI), Multichannel Analysis of Surface Waves (MASW) with Love and Rayleigh waves and a Full-Waveform Inversion (FWI) were performed on Kinion Lake Dam, an earth-filled embankment dam that has historically experienced significant seepage and internal erosion issues. Surveys were completed along the crest and downstream toe of the dam. Results from the surveys indicate that each method is capable of resolving the bedrock depth within 1-2 m of locations shown on previous drilling logs, though some discrepancies between the methods exist. A weathered bedrock layer is believed to have led to …

Mitigation And Evaluation Of Alkali-Silica Reaction (Asr) And Freezing And Thawing In Concrete Transportation Structures, Richard Albert Deschenes Jr.

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

An evaluation of alkali-silica reaction (ASR) and freezing and thawing (F/T) in concrete transportation structures is presented along with mitigation methods for slowing the rate of deterioration in concrete. A combination of field and laboratory testing confirms ASR deterioration is exacerbated by exposure to F/T. Laboratory testing indicates an aggregate previously deemed inert to ASR, caused ASR deterioration in several concrete pavement and transportation structures. Existing standard test methods deem this aggregate safe for use in concrete. A modified test method shows the concrete can deteriorate rapidly when subjected to cycles of conditions promoting ASR and F/T. Several structures containing …

Optimization Of Concrete Mixtures For Use In Structural Elements, Waleed Almutairi

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Portland cement is an essential ingredient in concrete. The use of cement is to enhance the strength as well as other hardened properties of concrete mixtures. Determining the accurate amount of cement is important because the required strength may not be achieved if not enough cement is used. By contrast, when using too much cement, concrete cracking may occur that leads to reducing durability. Researchers at the University of Arkansas (UA) have shown that many bridge decks achieve their 28 day design strength of 4000 psi by 7 days of age. Bridge decks having high strength may experience cracking, which …

Forces And Disease: Electrostatic Force Differences Caused By Mutations In Kinesin Motor Domains Can Distinguish Between Disease-Causing And Non-Disease-Causing Mutations, Lin Li, Yunhui Peng, Subash Godar, Ivan Getov, Shaolei Teng, Joshua Alper, Emil Alexov

Publications

The ability to predict if a given mutation is disease-causing or not has enormous potential to impact human health. Typically, these predictions are made by assessing the effects of mutation on macromolecular stability and amino acid conservation. Here we report a novel feature: the electrostatic component of the force acting between a kinesin motor domain and tubulin. We demonstrate that changes in the electrostatic component of the binding force are able to discriminate between disease-causing and non-disease-causing mutations found in human kinesin motor domains using the receiver operating characteristic (ROC). Because diseases may originate from multiple effects not related to …

Neuroadaptive Human-Machine Interfaces For Collaborative Robots, Sven Cremer

Electrical Engineering Dissertations - Archive

With an increasing number of collaborative robots or “co-robots” entering human environments, there is a growing need for safe, intuitive, and efficient (physical) Human-Machine Interfaces. Unlike industrial robots, co-robots operate in cluttered and dynamic working spaces, where accidental collisions are more likely to occur. To minimize interaction forces, co-robots are usually lightweight and compliant. However, this makes the robot dynamics highly nonlinear and therefore difficult to model and control. In addition, the control loop must incorporate feedback from integrated sensors. Future systems under development are covered with force-sensing robot skin comprised of thousands of multi-modal sensors, creating the need for …

Early Detection Of Metastatic Cancer Using Computational Analysis, Nuzhat Mansur

Electrical Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Metastasis is the leading cause of cancer related deaths. Early detection of cancer cells can enable early disease diagnosis and stage specific therapeutics. Metastatic cancer cells have abnormal expression of certain proteins. One such protein is Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor (EGFR). Anti-EGFR aptamers have emerged as more effective probe molecules for selectively binding with EGFR compared to antibodies. Capturing cancer cells with aptamer is an emerging and developing technique for cancer cell isolation. Nanotextured substrates inspired by naturally occurring basement membranes are promising platform for triggering unique cell behavior. Along with the biochemical and physical techniques to probe cancer cell …

Multi-Source Uav-Based Object Classification Using Cnn’S And Data Acquisition System For Robotic Skin, Raghavendra Sriram Margasahayam Subrahamanyam

Electrical Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Autonomous robots are intelligent systems capable of performing tasks in the world by themselves, without explicit human control. Examples range from autonomous helicopters to Roomba, the robot vacuum cleaner to robotic manipulators. The numerous sensors onboard gather data related to the desired actions and this poses several challenges and design constraints in terms of computation and hardware design that can prove to be extremely difficult and expensive to avoid. The objective of this research is to study, develop and implement various Intelligent solutions to help solve several real-world problems with respect to multi agent configurations of unmanned systems. We shall …

Formal Verification Of Dc Distribution Networks, Omar Ali Beg

Electrical Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Power electronics-intensive DC distribution networks are emerging as popular alternative to their AC counterparts being more efficient and reliable power delivery platforms. With the recent evolution of control methodology from legacy centralized architecture to distributed control strategy employing communication networks, the DC distribution networks employing such software-based control schemes are evolving into cyber-physical systems. Since there is no central entity to monitor and assess the global cyber scenario, such cyber-physical systems are prone to adversary's cyber attacks. However, cyber attack detection in such cyber-physical DC power systems has not been systematically investigated yet. To fill the gap, this work successfully …

Nanosilica Based 3d Printed Scaffold Facilitate Osteoblast Mineral Formation, Tugba Cebe

Material Science and Engineering Theses - Archive

Bone has the ability to heal fractures so long as the size of the fracture is sufficiently small. If the defect is large or of critical size, a filling material or graft will be needed to help bone union. Among all the available methods to address this medical condition, the common drawback of grafts is that they are limited in supply since a biological site or organism is needed to harvest the biological graft. As a new approach, researchers have been working with bioceramics and biopolymers for their use in bone tissue engineering. In this work, chitosan was modified with …