Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Engineering Commons™

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

2017

Discipline
Institution
Keyword
Publication
Publication Type
File Type

Articles 2101 - 2130 of 8353

Full-Text Articles in Engineering

Advanced Methods Of Nondestructive Inspection Of Composite Structures Based On Limited Angle X-Ray Computed Tomography, Ekaterina Bostaph Aug 2017

Advanced Methods Of Nondestructive Inspection Of Composite Structures Based On Limited Angle X-Ray Computed Tomography, Ekaterina Bostaph

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Dissertations - Archive

This research aimed to study the potential for breaking through object size limitations of current X-ray computed tomography (CT) systems by implementing a limited angle scanning technique. CT stands out among other industrial nondestructive inspection (NDI) methods due to its unique ability to perform 3D volumetric inspection, unmatched micro-focus resolution, and objectivity that allows for automated result interpretation. This work attempts to advance NDI technique to enable microstructural material characterization and structural diagnostics of composite structures, where object sizes often prohibit the application of full 360o CT. Even in situations where the objects can be accommodated within existing micro-CT configuration, …


Modeling And Measurements Of Thermal Transport In Li-Ion Based Energy Conversion And Storage Devices, Krishna Shah Aug 2017

Modeling And Measurements Of Thermal Transport In Li-Ion Based Energy Conversion And Storage Devices, Krishna Shah

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Heat transfer is of significant importance in energy conversion and storage devices such as Lithium-ion batteries for its safe operation and performance. Li-ion batteries are considered to be the state of the art among the energy storage devices due to their very high energy density and high power density. However, the safety of Li-ion batteries has become a concern in light of recent incidents, where there have been catastrophic events reported due to overheating of large battery packs. It is imperative to fully understand the nature of thermal transport in Li-ion cells. However, this has not been explored in detail …


Processing Beta-Tricalcium Phosphate And 45s5 Bioglass Mixtures For Osteogenic Bone Tissue Scaffolds, Phillip Zachary James Aug 2017

Processing Beta-Tricalcium Phosphate And 45s5 Bioglass Mixtures For Osteogenic Bone Tissue Scaffolds, Phillip Zachary James

Material Science and Engineering Theses - Archive

A 30% 45S5 Bioglass and 70% -tricalcium phosphate ceramic mixture, which was previously shown to be osteogenic [1], was sintered and the process was investigated as a strengthening mechanism. Samples were sintered for dwell times of 1,2, and 4 hrs at 500°C to avoid crystallization of the 45S5 Bioglass. Two different binders were used, 2% gelatin in deionized water and 2% laponite with 2% oleic acidin deionized water. The mixture was also robocasted as a slurry to evaluate the manufacturing process. Mechanical compression testing shows that the laponite with oleic acid binder acted as a sintering aid leading to a …


Space Access Systems Design: Synthesis Methodology Development For Conceptual Design Of Future Space Access Systems, Loveneesh Rana Aug 2017

Space Access Systems Design: Synthesis Methodology Development For Conceptual Design Of Future Space Access Systems, Loveneesh Rana

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Dissertations - Archive

The early Conceptual Design (CD) of a Space Access System (SAS) is the most abstract, innovative, and technologically challenging phase throughout the entire aerospace product development life-cycle. While it is the most important life-cycle phase which influences around 80 percent of the overall life-cycle-cost, it is also the least understood design phase. The history of space access vehicle design provides numerous examples of projects that failed due to lack of a proper technology-hardware-mission assessment in the CD phase. The present dissertation addresses this crucial phase and develops a prototype best practice solution process to advance the current state of the …


Micro/Nanoencapsulated Phase Change Materials (Pcms) Toward High Temperature Thermal Energy Storage Applications, Hanfei Zhang Aug 2017

Micro/Nanoencapsulated Phase Change Materials (Pcms) Toward High Temperature Thermal Energy Storage Applications, Hanfei Zhang

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Thermal energy is one of the most important renewable energy sources because of its abundancy. However, despite the long history of people practically trying to harvest thermal energy, the efficiency of thermal energy storage and application to daily life utilization is still a major limitation, especially for high temperature (>300oC) applications. Concentrating solar power (CSP) is one of the very few technologies that have been used commercially to produce electricity from solar thermal energy. Benefiting from the extra latent heat stored during melting/freezing, phase change materials (PCMs) with a high melting point are commonly used in these systems functioning …


Field-Directed Fabrication Of Hierarchical Structures Toward Electrochemical Applications, Anirudh Balram Aug 2017

Field-Directed Fabrication Of Hierarchical Structures Toward Electrochemical Applications, Anirudh Balram

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Dissertations - Archive

The ubiquity of hierarchical structures in nature indicates an inherent advantage to having morphological features comprised of multiple length scales. Such structures help maximize interfacial surface area, allowing for efficient chemical reactions and mass transport despite volumetric constraints. In electrochemical applications such as batteries, supercapacitors, electrolysis, fuel cells, catalysis etc. there is a similar necessity to maximize electrochemically active surface area to facilitate facile charge and mass transport. Inspired by examples in nature, this work seeks to develop scalable fabrication techniques to obtain hierarchically structured high-performance electrodes for electrochemical applications, with a focus on energy applications. Particular emphasis was laid …


Numerical Investigation Of Stability Characteristics Of A Jet In Counterflow, Siddarth Chintamani Aug 2017

Numerical Investigation Of Stability Characteristics Of A Jet In Counterflow, Siddarth Chintamani

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Dissertations - Archive

A jet in counterflow is a configuration in which a jet is issued into an opposing external stream of fluid. Some of the possible applications of this configuration include study of pollutant discharge into body of water, aerodynamic flame holder in after burner, reduction of drag and cooling of bluff body by ejecting a jet of coolant gas into counterflowing stream, thrust vectoring of supersonic jets, sonic boom mitigation. The instability associated with flow reversal which is observed in this configuration of the jet leads to enhanced mixing. However, a detailed understanding of the dynamics and control is needed to …


Multi-Mesh Reduced-Order Basis Method For Finite Element Analysis, Ashkan Akbariyeh Aug 2017

Multi-Mesh Reduced-Order Basis Method For Finite Element Analysis, Ashkan Akbariyeh

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Reduced order modeling of differential equations parametrized over a parameter space can be used to accelerate optimization and parameter estimation problems. The method of snapshots or reduced order basis is well established among researchers as a tool to build reduced order models of ordinary differential equations. The reduced order basis method has been utilized for numerical solution of parametric PDE problems by researchers in recent years and has many advantages over response surface methods. The application of ROB to finite element analysis has been restricted to using a fixed mesh for snapshots. In this work, a new method is developed …


Thermal Measurement And Optimization Of Materials And Processes In A Li-Ion Cell, Vivek Vishwakarma Aug 2017

Thermal Measurement And Optimization Of Materials And Processes In A Li-Ion Cell, Vivek Vishwakarma

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Applications of Lithium-ion cells range from consumer electronics to electric cars because of their excellent electrochemical performance and energy density. However, a Li-ion cell also suffers from poor thermal transport characteristics, which reduces performance, causes overheating and thermal runaway. This work contributes towards thermal characterization of key Li-ion battery materials and identifies and improves the rate-limiting, material-level thermal conduction process in a Li-ion cell. Among the various materials within a Li-ion cell, the separator is expected to have the lowest thermal conductivity. In this work, we have carried out first-ever measurements of thermal conductivity and heat capacity of the separator …


Flexible-Continuum Robot For Bladder Tissue Diagnostics, Samson Abimbola Adejokun Aug 2017

Flexible-Continuum Robot For Bladder Tissue Diagnostics, Samson Abimbola Adejokun

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Theses - Archive

The aim of this thesis is to investigate and develop a robotic system capable of a transurethral palpation of any targeted area on the bladder interior wall tissue to determine the biomechanical properties of the tissue considering the urinary tract geometric constraints and to demonstrate the motion kinematics of such robot to achieve a desired robot pose normal to any localized region throughout the bladder workspace. Current technologies have, to varied degree of success, provide approximate, global diagnostics information to bladder tissue elasticity. However, no direct access qualitative methods to measure the bladder tissue properties are known. For this reason, …


Enhancing Indirect / Direct Evaporative Heat Exchanger In Data Center Cooling By Using Phase Change Material, Ahmed Ali Abuklam Aug 2017

Enhancing Indirect / Direct Evaporative Heat Exchanger In Data Center Cooling By Using Phase Change Material, Ahmed Ali Abuklam

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Theses - Archive

Electrical usage in data center continues to grow and recent projection estimate that it contributes 2% in the electricity use in the U.S. One method of controlling the electrical usage during cooling is to reduce or eliminate mechanical cooling; however, using indirect/direct evaporative (IDE) cooling system is starting to be quite popular. IDE has limitations and in this paper we will show how phase change material (PCM) can extend the cooling capacity of IDE. The PCM has been used for temperature control operations. Latent heat storage is one of the most efficient ways of storing thermal energy in PCM. The …


Cfd Simulation And Design Optimization To Improve Cooling Performance Of Open Compute ‘Big Sur’ Server, Mangesh Mohan Dhadve Aug 2017

Cfd Simulation And Design Optimization To Improve Cooling Performance Of Open Compute ‘Big Sur’ Server, Mangesh Mohan Dhadve

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Theses - Archive

In recent years, there have been a phenomenal increase in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning that require data collection, mining and using data sets to teach computers certain things to learn, analyze image and speech recognition. Machine Learning tasks require a lot of computing power to carry out numerous calculations. Therefore, most servers are powered by Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) instead of traditional CPUs. GPUs provide more computational throughput per dollar spent than traditional CPUs. Open Compute Servers forum has introduced the state-of-the-art machine learning servers “Big Sur” recently. Big Sur unit consists of 4OU (OpenU) chassis housing eight NVIDIA …


Analysis Of Composite Structures With Curvature Under Temperature Environment, Muthu Ram Prabhu Elenchezhian Aug 2017

Analysis Of Composite Structures With Curvature Under Temperature Environment, Muthu Ram Prabhu Elenchezhian

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Theses - Archive

Composite structures are frequently exposed to environments with change in temperatures during their service life. The thermal behaviours of the laminated composite structures are more pronounced than that of the structures made of isotropic materials. For the structures under thermal environment, extensive studies have been conducted to investigate the induced thermal stresses and deformation of composite laminated plates by linear/non-linear analysis and composite structures by finite element analysis. The main focus of this study is concentrated on development of an analytical method for analyzing composite thin shells and/or moderate curved beam structures under temperature environment. This includes the derivation of …


Finite Element Analysis On Hybrid Boron-Carbon Composites, Amruta Rupa Nemani Aug 2017

Finite Element Analysis On Hybrid Boron-Carbon Composites, Amruta Rupa Nemani

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Theses - Archive

Adaptability to different situations and the ease of combination makes composites one of the most extensively used materials in the engineering industries. One of the ways of managing properties of composites is hybridization of different fibers in one composite. This work merely focuses upon the analysis of effective stiffness of Hybrid materials which is carried out using Finite Element Method. A series of models were experimented in a sequence by imposing various conditions on each of them. Boron and Carbon fibers were used primarily for these experiments because of their better compatibility than other combinations of fibers. Due to the …


Thermal Modeling Of 3-Dimensionally Stacked Dram Memory, Ratnesh Raj Aug 2017

Thermal Modeling Of 3-Dimensionally Stacked Dram Memory, Ratnesh Raj

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Theses - Archive

A large fraction of energy consumed in modern microelectronic devices and systems is taken up by memory access operations, which is expected to cause significant temperature rise. Since memory access operations are very short this is expected to inherently be a transient thermal phenomenon. Despite the critical importance of thermal management in microelectronics, not much work exists on understanding the nature of thermal transport during memory access operations. In this work, a mathematical model to predict the transient temperature rise within a 3D layered memory chip is presented. Most heat-generating memory access processes occur over a short timescale for which …


Numerical Simulation Of Flow In Fluidic Valves In Rotating Detonation Engines, Nandini Gopalakrishnan Aug 2017

Numerical Simulation Of Flow In Fluidic Valves In Rotating Detonation Engines, Nandini Gopalakrishnan

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Theses - Archive

Rotating detonation engines (RDE) have received considerable research attention in recent times for use in propulsion systems. The cycle frequency of operation of an RDE can be as high as 10,000 Hz. Conventional mechanical valves cannot operate at such high frequencies, leading to the need for propellant injectors or valves with no moving parts. A fluidic valve is such a valve and is the focus of this study. The valve consists of an orifice connected to a constant area plenum cavity which operates at constant pressure. The fluidic valve supplies propellants to the detonation tube through the orifice. Hydrogen – …


Investigation Of Microstructure Effects On Hardness And Oxidation Resistance Of New Generation Ceramic Coatings, Minghui Zhang Aug 2017

Investigation Of Microstructure Effects On Hardness And Oxidation Resistance Of New Generation Ceramic Coatings, Minghui Zhang

Material Science and Engineering Dissertations - Archive

This work was motivated by the demand for a new generation of materials capable for harsh environment applications, and focused on developing a better understanding of the effects of elemental composition and microstructure on the mechanical and thermal properties of coatings. The knowledge gained from this work can be used to design protective coatings with tailored properties for harsh environment applications in the future. High resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) and electron diffraction have been mainly employed in the microstructure studies of the new generation ceramics, with the assistance of other materials characterization techniques, such as x-ray diffraction (XRD), x-ray …


Metabolic, Hemodynamic And Electrophysiological Effects Of Transcranial Photobiomodulation (Tpbm) On The Human Brain, Xinlong Wang Aug 2017

Metabolic, Hemodynamic And Electrophysiological Effects Of Transcranial Photobiomodulation (Tpbm) On The Human Brain, Xinlong Wang

Bioengineering Dissertations - Archive

Photobiomodulation (PBM) refers to the use of red-to-near-infrared light to stimulate cellular functions for physiological or clinical benefits. Transcranial photobiomodulation (tPBM) is a noninvasive form of cerebral photobiomodulation that has been observed with various improvements in human cognitive functions. The mechanism of tPBM is assumed to rely on photon absorption by cytochrome c oxidase (CCO), the terminal enzyme in the mitochondrial respiratory chain that catalyzes the reduction of oxygen for energy metabolism. However, few studies have objectively investigated hemodynamic, metabolic and electrophysiological response of the human brain to tPBM. To address this gap, my dissertation research has focused on objective …


Understanding Key Genetic Mutations And Molecular Alterations On Increasing Migration, Viability, Drug Resistance Of Malignant Brain Tumor In Confinement, Loan Thuy Bui Aug 2017

Understanding Key Genetic Mutations And Molecular Alterations On Increasing Migration, Viability, Drug Resistance Of Malignant Brain Tumor In Confinement, Loan Thuy Bui

Bioengineering Dissertations - Archive

There are more than 120 types of primary brain and central nervous system tumors that affect people of all ages. Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), for example, is the most frequent type of brain cancers and also among the deadliest of all cancers due to its high invasiveness and resistance to radiation and chemotherapy. Recently, most genetic mutations of malignant brain tumors have been well characterized, but the focus on migrating cancers that directly cause invasion is still in its infancy. We have learned from the literature that most glioma cells infiltrate surrounding brain tissue via by the confined tracks, and fascinated …


Naturally-Derived Extracellular Matrix Materials For Meniscus Repair And Regeneration, Jinglei Wu Aug 2017

Naturally-Derived Extracellular Matrix Materials For Meniscus Repair And Regeneration, Jinglei Wu

Bioengineering Dissertations - Archive

Human meniscus plays critical roles in a knee joint by transmitting weight-bearing force, absorbing shock, and stabilizing the knee joint capsule. Meniscal injuries are mainly caused by sports-related activities and age-related degeneration, which significantly reduce the life quality of patients. The injured meniscus has a very limited self-healing capability due to its poorly vascularized nature, specifically in the inner area. Surgical interventions are required to treat the injured meniscus, but the current treatments are not satisfactory because the post-surgery complications are frequently observed. Therefore, tissue regeneration approaches are developed to repair and functionally restore injured menisci. In this thesis, we …


Techniques To Improve Ultrasound-Switchable Fluorescence Imaging, Jayanth Kandukuri Aug 2017

Techniques To Improve Ultrasound-Switchable Fluorescence Imaging, Jayanth Kandukuri

Bioengineering Dissertations - Archive

Novel approaches to the improvement of ultrasound-switchable fluorescence (USF) imaging—a relatively new imaging modality that combines ultrasound and optical imaging techniques—have been proposed for early cancer detection. In USF, a high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) beam is used to induce temperature rise within its acoustic focal region due to which a thermo-sensitive USF contrast agent undergoes a switch in its state by increasing the output of fluorescence photons. By using an increase in fluorescence, one can isolate and quantify the fluorescence properties within the ultrasonic focal area. Therefore, USF is able to provide fluorescence contrast while maintaining ultrasound resolution in tissue. …


Conditional Bias-Penalized Kalman Filter For Improved Estimation And Prediction Of Extremes, Miah Mohammad Saifuddin Aug 2017

Conditional Bias-Penalized Kalman Filter For Improved Estimation And Prediction Of Extremes, Miah Mohammad Saifuddin

Civil Engineering Theses - Archive

Kalman filter (KF) and its variants are widely used for real-time updating of model states and prediction in environmental sciences and engineering. Whereas in many applications the most important performance criteria may be the fraction of the times when the filter performs satisfactorily under different conditions, in many other applications the performance for estimation and prediction of extremes, such as floods, droughts, algal blooms, etc., may be of primary importance. Because KF is essentially a least squares solution, it is subject to conditional biases (CB) which arise from the error-in-variable, attenuation, effects when the model dynamics are highly uncertain, the …


Hydrocarbon Pool Fire Performance Of Reinforced Elastomeric Bearing Pads, Shashank Malal Aug 2017

Hydrocarbon Pool Fire Performance Of Reinforced Elastomeric Bearing Pads, Shashank Malal

Civil Engineering Theses - Archive

Bearing pads are used as support for bridge girders to transfer the reaction forces to the substructure. They are designed to accommodate high axial loads from girder, shear deformations due to lateral thermal expansion of girder, and rotational deformation. Apart from these deformations bearing pads may also be subjected to thermal stresses due to daily temperature variations and extreme events like fire hazard. Current design methods do not account for these thermally induced stresses in elastomeric bearing pads. The objective of this research is to study the hydrocarbon pool fire performance of elastomeric bearing pad. This research has three parts. …


Visualization And 3d Printing Of A 3d Solar Tracker Model Using Mayavi And Pov-Ray, Aditya Mehra Aug 2017

Visualization And 3d Printing Of A 3d Solar Tracker Model Using Mayavi And Pov-Ray, Aditya Mehra

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

In this work, we have created a realistic model of a solar tracker using Mayavi: 3D scientific data visualization and plotting in Python, Enthought Canopy:a comprehensive Python analysis environment and Persistence of Vision Ray Tracer, or POV-Ray, a ray tracing program which generates photo-realistic images from a text-based scene description, a model of the solar tracker was also 3D printed.


Experimental And Computational Study Of Multi-Level Cooling Systems At Elevated Coolant Temperatures In Data Centers, Manasa Sahini Aug 2017

Experimental And Computational Study Of Multi-Level Cooling Systems At Elevated Coolant Temperatures In Data Centers, Manasa Sahini

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Data centers house a variety of compute, storage, network IT hardware where equipment reliability is of utmost importance. Heat generated by the IT equipment can substantially reduce its service life if T_(J,Max), maximum temperature that the microelectronic device tolerates to guarantee reliable operation, is exceeded. Hence, data center rooms are bound to maintain continuous conditioning of the cooling medium. This approach often results in over-provisioned cooling systems. In 2014, U.S. Data center electricity consumption is about 1.8% of the total electrical energy in the country. Hence, data center power and cooling have become significant issues facing the IT industry. The …


Virtual Surveyor Based Object Extraction From Airborne Lidar Data, Md Ahsan Habib Aug 2017

Virtual Surveyor Based Object Extraction From Airborne Lidar Data, Md Ahsan Habib

Electrical Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Topographic feature detection of land cover from LiDAR data is important in various fields - city planning, disaster response and prevention, soil conservation, infrastructure or forestry. In recent years, feature classification, compliant with Object-Based Image Analysis (OBIA) methodology has been gaining traction in remote sensing and geographic information science (GIS). In OBIA, the LiDAR image is first divided into meaningful segments called object candidates. This results, in addition to spectral values, in a plethora of new information such as aggregated spectral pixel values, morphology, texture, context as well as topology. Traditional nonparametric segmentation methods rely on segmentations at different scales …


Change Of Brain Network Connectivity Among Different Human Vigilance States Investigated By Eeg, Yudhajit Das Aug 2017

Change Of Brain Network Connectivity Among Different Human Vigilance States Investigated By Eeg, Yudhajit Das

Bioengineering Theses - Archive

Understanding the brain network connectivity associated with human vigilance states, to investigate the basic neural processes that underlie complex higher-order cognitive operations and functional domains, has become an important topic in biological science research. Also, there is growing concern about the prevalence and effects of sleep deprivation. Given the increasingly fast-paced nature of our society, the focus of the researchers is not only to identify the changes occurring within the brain during sleeping stages, but also to extract meaningful psycho-behavioral reason behind such change patterns which can lead to an improved understanding of brain activity during sleep which may further …


Prediction Of Process-Induced Defects By Ply-Drops In The Design Optimization Of A Complex Composite Laminate, Sitanshu Pandya Aug 2017

Prediction Of Process-Induced Defects By Ply-Drops In The Design Optimization Of A Complex Composite Laminate, Sitanshu Pandya

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Theses - Archive

The objective of this work is to characterize manufacturing process-induced warping defects due to ply drops in composite laminates to guide composite laminate design. Composite laminate optimization seeks weight efficient models, but the process can also generate complex ply geometry, which compounds the challenges of the already rigorous composite laminate manufacturing process. Increased design complexity enhances the likelihood of manufacturing process-induced defects like warping; therefore, it is important to predict such defects in the design phase to make the product more efficient yet producible and thereby avoid such defects. This work study is manufacturing process induced warpage in complex composite …


Investigation And Proposed Remedy Of Vibration Problem In Industrial Crane System Due To Human Operation, Dustin C. Lorance Aug 2017

Investigation And Proposed Remedy Of Vibration Problem In Industrial Crane System Due To Human Operation, Dustin C. Lorance

Civil Engineering Theses - Archive

A recent investigation of a crane system began when a facilities manager reported a runway beam under-going torsional vibration during operations. The investigation revealed the runway beam’s twisting was caused by resonance vibration due to “inching” of the crane hoist. A Fourier spectrum analysis revealed that one of the harmonic frequencies of this rhythmical motion coincided very close to the natural frequency of the crane system. The runway beam, although met strength requirements, failed to meet serviceability criteria due to the resonance vibration. Resonance vibration issues due to human activity in crane operation (inching, sway, etc.) is often encountered by …


Performance Of Lime- And Cement- Based Treatments Of Sulfate-Rich Soil Via Rc Testing, Azadeh Asghariastaneh Aug 2017

Performance Of Lime- And Cement- Based Treatments Of Sulfate-Rich Soil Via Rc Testing, Azadeh Asghariastaneh

Civil Engineering Theses - Archive

Chemical treatment of expansive sulfate-rich soils, particularly lime- and cement-based methods, had been rather popular due to their relatively low cost and ready availability. However, over the last few decades, extensively documented pavement failures, mainly caused by excessive heaving and/or shrinkage of lime- and cement-treated subgrades with moderate-to-high sulfate content, have led to thorough investigations to assess the actual feasibility and effectiveness of calcium based stabilizers in sulfate-rich soils. Studies have concluded, with solid experimental evidence, that the calcium present in the chemical stabilizers react with the sulfate and alumina of the treated soil to form Ettringite, an expansive mineral …