Engineering Commons^™

Model-Based Control Of An Rcci Engine, Akshat Abhay Raut

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Reactivity controlled compression ignition (RCCI) is a combustion strategy that offers high fuel conversion efficiency and near zero emissions of NOx and soot which can help in improving fuel economy in mobile and stationary internal combustion engine (ICE) applications and at the same time lower engine-out emissions. One of the main challenges associated with RCCI combustion is the difficulty in simultaneously controlling combustion phasing, engine load, and cyclic variability during transient engine operations.

This thesis focuses on developing model based controllers for cycle-to-cycle combustion phasing and load control during transient operations. A control oriented model (COM) is developed by using …

Multiscale Modeling: Thermal Conductivity Of Graphene/Cycloaliphatic Epoxy Composites, Sorayot Chinkanjanarot

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

The thermal property of epoxy as the binder in the Carbon Fiber (CF) composites, especially thermal conductivity is important to achieve the advance technology and to improve the performance of materials. Multiscale modeling including molecular dynamic (MD) modeling and micromechanical modeling is used to study the properties of neat Cycloaliphatic Epoxies (CE) and Graphene nanoplatelet (GNP)/CE with and without covalent functionalization.

The thermal properties (glass-transition temperature, thermal expansion coefficient, and thermal conductivity) and mechanical properties of CE system are investigated by MD modeling using OPLS-All Atom force field. A unique crosslinking technique is developed to achieve the cured CE models …

Planning For Intermittent Water Supply In Small Gravity-Fed Distribution Systems: Case Study In Rural Panama, Frank B. Dubasik

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Intermittent water supply (IWS) is defined as a piped water distribution system that operates in an intermittent fashion, i.e. less than 24 hours per day. Piped water distribution systems are designed to operate with continuous water supply (CWS), meaning the system is operated continuously and maintains positive pressures in the distribution network. Operating a system in an intermittent fashion can cause inequality of access in a water distribution system. It may also result in lower water quality and wear and tear on the system.

In the community of Espavé, Panamá a new water system was installed and brought online in …

Modeling Mass And Thermal Transport In Thin Porous Media Of Pem Fuel Cells, Vinaykumar Konduru

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Water transport in the Porous Transport Layer (PTL) plays an important role in the efficient operation of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFC). Excessive water content as well as dry operating conditions are unfavorable for efficient and reliable operation of the fuel cell. The effect of thermal conductivity and porosity on water management are investigated by simulating two-phase ow in the PTL of the fuel cell using a network model. In the model, the PTL consists of a pore-phase and a solid-phase. Different models of the PTLs are generated using independent Weibull distributions for the pore-phase and the solid-phase. The …

Social, Economic, And Technical Feasibility Of Ablution Gray Water Reuse In Tong, Ghana, Adrienne Masterton

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Water insecurity is a constant stressor for millions of people around the globe. The potential of gray water as an alternative water source has gained increasing attention in the literature. In water-scarce Muslim communities, the practice of ablution – the rinsing of the face, hands, and feet before prayer – offers a unique opportunity for gray water reuse.

This report investigates the feasibility of treating and reusing ablution gray water (AGW) with respect to religious acceptability, economic measures, and physical parameters in Tong, a rural community of Muslim subsistence farmers in northern Ghana. Investigatory tools included: household water use surveys, …

Minimum Time Control Of Paralleled Boost Converters, Shishir Patel

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Demand for electrification is booming in both, traditional and upcoming generations of technological advancements. One of the constituent blocks of these electrified systems is Power conversion. Power conversion systems are often constructed by paralleling multiple power converter blocks for high performance and reliability of overall system. An advanced control technique is developed with an aim to optimize system states of heterogeneous power converters within minimum time while maintaining feasible stress level on individual power converter blocks. Practical implementation of real-time controller and performance improvement strategies are addressed. Experimental results validating high performance control scheme, and sensitivity analysis of system states …

Development Of An Evaporation Sub-Model And Simulation Of Multiple Droplet Impingement In Volume Of Fluid Method, Sathya Prasad Potham

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Droplet collision and impingement on a substrate are widely observed phenomenon in many applications like spray injection of Internal Combustion Engines. Existing Lagrangian models do not provide a comprehensive picture of the outcome of these events and may involve model constants requiring experimental data for validation. Physics based models like Volume of Fluid (VOF) method involve no parametric tuning and are more accurate. The aim of this thesis is to extend the basic VOF method with an evaporation sub-model including an additional vapor phase and implement this model in an open source Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) software, OpenFOAM. The new …

Assessment Of Annular Flow Boiling In The Context Of Computational Fluid Dynamics (Cfd) Simulations, Experiments, And Existing Correlations, Hrishikesh Prasad Ranga Prasad

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

The main objective of the current work is to achieve a better understanding – through modeling and simulation/programming activities – of annular flow-boiling and its applications based on a synthesis of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations, existing correlations, and experiments. A unique and rigorous 2-D CFD simulations technique was developed for annular flow-boiling to propose a correlation for convective component of Heat Transfer Coefficient (HTC) – defined here as flow-boiling in the absence of nucleation. To provide a context for the correlation structure of convective component of HTC, flow-physics details of annular flow-boiling and correlation structure (based on fundamental considerations) …

Design, Laboratory Testing, And Yield Line Analysis Of A Ferrocement Pit Latrine Slab, Larry Alan Schirmer Jr

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Access to sanitation for rural and indigenous Panamanians is the vision of global efforts to improve their quality of life. As part of on-site work from the Peace Corps to change public perceptions about open defecation, the author designed and tested a new type of ferrocement latrine slab to reduce the amount of materials involved in building latrines and by extension the manual labor involved. In the course of this investigation, a sanitation based case study establishes the precedent for working with ferrocement in these areas, and the author explores the history and structural properties of ferrocement. In laboratory experiments, …

Polymer Waveguide Manufacturing And Printed Circuit Board Integration, Brandon Swatowski

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

In this age of ever increasing data rates in communication systems, optics are becoming more commonplace for long length (>10m) signal transmission in High Performance Computing (HPC) systems due to their bandwidth capabilities which are higher than their electrical counterparts. In these optical based communication systems, Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Lasers (VCSELs) are the most commonly used communications lasing medium for multimode fiber applications. These lasers are active in the 850 nm region, with speeds commonly at 10 Gbps/channel. VCSEL vendors are now commercializing lasers at 25 Gbps/channel as well, with research groups actively pursuing rates beyond 40 Gbps/channel, …

Polyvinyl Alcohol (Pva) Fiber-Reinforced Rubber Concrete And Rubberized Self-Compacting Concrete, Jiaqing Wang

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

This study experimentally investigates the mechanical performance and durability of Polyvinyl Alcohol (PVA) fiber-reinforced rubber concrete and the rubberized self-compacting concrete. The waste rubber particles were introduced as a partial replacement of fine aggregate in the plain concrete. In addition, the waste tire rubbers were pre-treated with alkali surface treatment method to enhance the performance. The PVA fibers were added to the concrete mixes to enhance the post-failure resistance and thus fracture energy. Rubberized fiber concrete samples were prepared with different fine aggregate replacement ratios and the optimum fiber content. At the same time, the rubber particles had been used …

Microstructural Evolution And Mechanical Properties Of Zn-Ti Alloys For Biodegradable Stent Applications, Zhiyong Yin

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Stents made of biodegradable metallic materials are increasingly gaining interest within the biomaterials field because of their superior mechanical properties and biodegradation rates as compared to polymeric materials. Zinc and its alloys have been developed and investigated as possible candidates for biodegradable stent applications in the last five years. This study intended to formulate and characterize a new series of Zn-Ti alloys, with titanium additions of less than 1-3 wt%, with the primary objective to develop and select an alloy that meets benchmark values of mechanical properties for biodegradable stents. A series of Zn-Ti alloys was formulated through vacuum induction …

The Impact Of Water Injection On Spark Ignition Engine Performance Under High Load Operation, Jeremy Worm

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

An experimental effort has been completed in which water injection was investigated as a means of enabling increases in engine output and high load efficiency. Water was injected into the intake port of a direct fuel injected, 4-cylinder, boosted engine with dual independent variable valve timing. The water was shown to increase volumetric efficiency and decrease the onset of knock which in turn enable more optimal combustion phasing. Both of these affects resulted increases in load of up to 5.5% at the same manifold pressure as the baseline case. The advancement of combustion phasing, combined with elimination of fuel enrichment …

Influence Of Magnetic Nanoparticles And Magnetic Stress On An Ionic Liquid Electrospray Source, Kurt Joseph Terhune

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Two electrospray sources were developed to operate on an ionic liquid ferrofluid; one source was a pressure‑fed capillary electrospray source and the other was a novel electrospray source which used a magnetically‑induced instability to produce a peak from which an electric field could extract electrospray. Multiple characteristics of electrospray operation were examined for both sources using faraday plates/cups, a quartz crystal microbalance, a retarding potential analyzer, and a time-of-flight mass spectrometer. The ILFF electrosprays for a capillary source were shown to operate in a mixed ion/droplet regime. The mass flow of the electrospray beam was primarily transported by larger particles …

Formulation And Testing Of Biodegradable Polymeric Coating On Zinc Wires In Cardiovascular Stent Application, Avishan Arab Shomali

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Biodegradable and biocompatible poly (L-lactic-acid) (PLLA) coating was applied on a modified zinc (Zn) substrate by dip coating, with the intent to delay the bio-corrosion and slow the degradation rate of zinc substrate. 3-(Trimethoxysilyl) propyl methacrylate (MPS) was used for modification of the zinc substrate for promoting the adhesion between the metallic substrate and the polymer coating. It is hypothesized that the delay in Zn biodegradation could be useful in the first several weeks to prevent the early loss of mechanical integrity of the endovascular stent and to improve the healing process of the diseased vascular site. The PLLA coating …

A Regional Study Of Wilcox Reservoirs In The Deepwater Northern Gulf Of Mexico, Margaret Elizabeth Dice

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Deepwater Wilcox trend covers more than 34,000 mi2, extending from the northwestern block, Alaminos Canyon, to Keathley Canyon, and to the north-central block, Walker Ridge. The Wilcox trend is widely studied in the oil and gas industry as it has significant proven hydrocarbons, but has considerable economic challenges due to the reservoir characteristics. The purpose of this study is to provide a regional study of the Wilcox reservoir economics and quality. Great white field is the most successful Wilcox field located in the northwestern Gulf of Mexico and Jack and St. Malo are the most successful Wilcox fields located …

การลดเสียงรบกวนจากเครื่องกรอฟันที่ขึ้นกับการตัดออกเสียงรบกวนแบบปรับตัว, จิฏิณ เข็มวงษ์

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

วิทยานิพนธ์นี้นำเสนอเทคนิคการลดเสียงรบกวนจากเครื่องกรอฟันแบบสองขั้นตอน (Two-Step Dental-Drill Noise Reduction, TSDNR) โดยใช้ระบบการตัดออกเสียงรบกวนแบบปรับตัว (Adaptive Noise Cancellation, ANC) เทคนิคที่นำเสนอถูกออกแบบสำหรับหูฟังสวมศีรษะตัดออกเสียงรบกวน (noise-cancelling headphone) เพื่อให้ทันตแพทย์และคนไข้สวมใส่ขณะที่มีการรักษาฟัน โดยเฉพาะอย่างยิ่ง เพื่อป้องกันการสูญเสียการได้ยินของทันตแพทย์ที่ต้องทำงานภายใต้สถานการณ์ที่มีเสียงรบกวนจากเครื่องกรอฟันเป็นระยะเวลานานๆ เทคนิค TSDNR ประกอบด้วยสองขั้นตอน เพื่อลดเสียงรบกวนจากเครื่องกรอฟัน ในขั้นตอนแรก ขั้นตอนวิธีการสกัดความถี่หลักมูลและความถี่ฮาร์มอนิก (fundamental-and-harmonic frequencies extraction algorithm) ถูกนำเสนอเพื่อใช้ประมาณความถี่หลักมูลและความถี่ฮาร์มอนิกของเสียงรบกวนจากเครื่องกรอฟัน หลังจากนั้น สัญญาณไซนูซอยด์ของความถี่หลักมูลและความถี่ฮาร์มอนิกต่างๆจะถูกสร้างและใช้เป็นสัญญาณอ้างอิงของระบบ ANC หลายระบบพร้อมๆกันเพื่อตัดออกความถี่หลักมูลและความถี่ฮาร์มอนิกของเสียงรบกวนจากเครื่องกรอฟัน ในขั้นตอนที่สอง ตัวกรองแบบปรับตัวอีกตัวหนึ่งของระบบ ANC จะถูกใช้ร่วมกับตัวกรองผ่านสูงเพื่อกำจัดองค์ประกอบความถี่สูงอื่นๆของเสียงรบกวนจากเครื่องกรอฟัน ผลการจำลองผ่านคอมพิวเตอร์โดยใช้เสียงรบกวนจากเครื่องกรอฟันที่บันทึกเสียงไว้ และสัญญาณเสียงพูดจากฐานข้อมูล IEEE แสดงให้เห็นว่าเทคนิค TSDNR ที่นำเสนอสามารถลดเสียงรบกวนจากเครื่องกรอฟันได้อย่างมีประสิทธิภาพ ทั้งในด้านของสมรรถนะในการลดทอนเสียงรบกวนและในด้านของคุณภาพของเสียงพูด ยิ่งไปกว่านั้น ผลจากการทดสอบฟังจากผู้ฟัง 15 คน ยืนยันประสิทธิภาพของเทคนิคที่นำเสนอนี้อีกด้วย

การหาสัดส่วนที่เหมาะสมของการใช้หินฝุ่นเป็นส่วนผสมในการผลิตคอนกรีตผสมเสร็จโดยวิธีซิกซ์ ซิกมา, วีระชัย อารีรักษ์

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

งานวิจัยนี้มีวัตถุประสงค์ เพื่อหาสัดส่วนที่เหมาะสมของการใช้หินฝุ่นเป็นส่วนผสมในการผลิตคอนกรีตผสมเสร็จกรณีศึกษาของโรงงานผลิตคอนกรีตตัวอย่าง โดยนำแนวทางซิกซ์ ซิกมามาประยุกต์ใช้ ซึ่งแนวทางซิกซ์ ซิกมาจะมีระยะการทำงาน 5 ระยะ ได้แก่ ระยะนิยามปัญหา (Define Phase) ระยะตรวจวัดปัญหา (Measurement Phase) ระยะการวิเคราะห์ปัญหา (Analysis Phase ) ระยะการแก้ไขปรับปรุง (Improvement Phase ) และระยะสุดท้าย คือ ระยะการควบคุมกระบวนการ (Control Phase ) ในงานวิจัยนี้จะดำเนินการตามขั้นตอนตามระยะการทำงาน 5 ระยะ ดังนี้ 1.) ระยะการนิยามปัญหา ทำการพิจารณาการปัญหาคุณภาพคอนกรีตที่ต่ำกว่ามาตรฐานทำให้เพิ่มสัดส่วนเผื่อของปูนซีเมนต์ให้มากขึ้นจากมาตรฐานในการผลิตคอนกรีตประมาณ 30 กิโลกรัมต่อลูกบาศก์เมตร คิดเป็นต้นทุนส่วนเผื่อปูนซีเมนต์จากสูตรมาตรฐานประมาณ 1 ล้านบาทในช่วง 6 เดือน ทางโรงงานมีความต้องการลดส่วนเผื่อปูนซีเมนต์ลงโดยมีความต้องการที่จะนำหินฝุ่นซึ่งเป็นวัสดุทดแทนที่สามารถนำมาใช้เป็นส่วนผสมกับมวลรวมละเอียด 2.) ระยะตรวจวัด จะเริ่มด้วยการทำการตรวจสอบระบบการวัดซึ่งได้ผลการตรวจสอบผ่านเกณฑ์การยอมรับ จากนั้นทำการวิเคราะห์หาปัญหาด้วยแผนภูมิก้างปลาจนได้ 17 ปัจจัย และทำการคัดกรองปัจจัยต่าง ๆ ด้วย Cause and Effect Matrix ทำให้เหลือปัจจัย 4 ปัจจัย 3.)ระยะของการวิเคราะห์ปัญหา ทำการวิเคราะห์ปัจจัยทั้ง 4 ด้วยวิธีการทางสถิติ ทำให้สรุปได้ว่า ปัจจัยเหล่านี้มีผลต่อค่ากำลังอัดคอนกรีตอย่างแท้จริง 4.) ระยะการปรับปรุงแก้ไข ใช้วิธีการออกแบบการทดลองแบบแฟคทอเรียล ทำการทดลองซ้ำ 2 ครั้ง ทำให้ได้ค่าที่เหมาะสมของแต่ละปัจจัย 5.)ระยะควบคุม จะดำเนินการโดยนำสัดส่วนหินฝุ่นที่เหมาะสมไปเป็นส่วนผสมในคอนกรีตผสมเสร็จ หลังจากการปรับปรุงได้ทำการเปรียบเทียบต้นทุนวัตถุดิบที่ใช้ในการผลิตคอนกรีตระหว่างก่อนการปรับปรุงและหลังการปรับปรุง พบว่าหลังการปรับปรุงส่งผลให้ลดปริมาณส่วนเผื่อปูนซีเมนต์ลงได้ คิดเป็นต้นทุนวัตถุดิบที่ลดลงได้ที่ 67 บาทต่อลูกบาศก์เมตร

Investigation Of Rope Formation In Gas–Solid Flows Through A 90° Pipe Bend Using High-Speed Video And Cfd Simulations, Sai S. Guda, Steven L. Rowan, Tao Yang

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

A study of rope formation in gas–solid flows through abrupt turns has been conducted. Experiments in which high-speed video was recorded and analyzed for solid concentration profiles were compared to CFD simulations utilizing both RANS and large eddy simulation turbulence models. In both simulations and experiments, particle-laden flows of air and ground flaxseed, with solid loadings of 35, 42, and 51% were considered. The results of the study demonstrate that both RANS and large eddy simulation can accurately predict particle roping. Furthermore, simulations show that the roping phenomenon is strongly dependent upon selection of an appropriate value for the coefficient …

Emerging New Types Of Absorbents For Postcombustion Carbon Capture, Quan Zhuang, Bruce Clements, Bingyun Li

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Carbon capture is the most probable technology in combating anthropogenic increase of CO2 in the atmosphere. Works on developing emerging absorbents for improving carbon capture performance and reducing process energy consumption are actively going on. The most worked‐on emerging absorbents, including liquid‐liquid biphasic, liquid‐solid biphasic, enzymatic, and encapsulated absorbents, already show encouraging results in improved energy efficiency, enhanced CO2 absorption kinetics, increased cyclic CO2 loading, or reduced regeneration temperature. In this chapter, the latest research and development progress of these emerging absorbents are reviewed along with the future directions in moving these technologies to higher‐technology readiness levels.

Supplier Evaluation And Selection In Automotive Industry Using Conditional Probability, Anand Raj

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Supplier evaluation and selection is one very important factor for the success of a company. There are many supplier evaluation and selection tools and software available in the market. But this approach is different from the others. Here a comprehensive list of suppliers selection criteria is selected and they are divided in 3 supplier selection group. This group of criteria is done based on the relationship among them. All the suppliers are evaluated based on these 3 supplier selection group. The supplier with the highest value is selected. The probability associated with that factor is assigned and at the end …

Influence Of Overlay Thickness On Interface Bonding, Aliasghar Dormohammadi

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Overlaying is an efficient and proven pavement preservation approach for flexible pavements. The overlay thickness varies from 1 in. to 4 in. depending on the conditions of the existing pavement, financial resources, etc. In the recent decade, financial constraints in conjunction with the push for pavement preservation, the overlay thickness is being reduced to less than an in. The ultra-thin overlay is a new cost-effective method that can be used to preserve functional pavement problems and provide satisfactory ride quality. Although studies have been conducted to evaluate pavement systems using numerical simulation, the research in the area of evaluating existing …

Trend Analysis In Rainfall, Reference Evapotranspiration And Aridity Index In Southern Senegal: Adaptation To The Vulnerability Of Rainfed Rice Cultivation To Climate Change, Komlan Koudahe, Koffi Djaman, Ansoumana Bodian, Suat Irkmak, Mamadou Sall, Lamine Diop, Alpha B. Balde, Daran Rudnick

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Rainfall and evapotranspiration are two vital elements for food production under rainfed agriculture. This study aims at investigating the combined changes in these variables in the form of aridly index in the southern Senegal. The temporal trends in annual and monthly (from May to October) aridity index, rainfall and evapotranspiration are examined and adaptation strategies to the vulnerability of rainfed rice cultivation to the changes are developed. The results show a significant decreasing trend in annual rainfall at all study locations for the period 1922-2015. When analyzing the trends in sub-periods, there are two clear patterns in the annual rainfall …

Carbon Nanotube/Polymer Composite Membrane For Co2 Capture, Pacharaporn Yaisanga

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

Membrane gas absorption (MGA) was applied for carbon dioxide capture due to its unique potential, such as independent adjustment of gas and liquid, compact equipment installation, and sizable module. However, a major issue of MGA is membrane wetting, causing lower absorption efficiency and membrane damages. Hydrophobicity is one of the key parameters to improve membrane property for solving such problem. This thesis focused on using carbon nanotubes as the filler to composite with polyacrylonitrile (PAN) or polyvinylidene fluoride (PDVF) via a phase inversion technique to improve membranes hydrophobicity. In case of PAN, the results showed that the addition of CNT …

Novel Shape Memory Polymer From Bio-Based Polybenzoxazine/Bio-Based Epoxy Copolymers, Phakakrong Hombunma

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

Shape memory polymers (SMPs) are known as smart polymer materials which can be deformed and fixed in a temporary shape and can recover to its original shape upon an external stimulus such as temperature which is the main stimulus for general SMPs. In this research, a renewable natural resource based on vanillin-furfurylamine benzoxazine (V-fa) and eugenol-furfurylamine benzoxazine (E-fa) are developed to substitute the use of petroleum based polybenzoxazine. The as-synthesized V-fa and E-fa show the degradation temperature at 5% weight loss to be as high as 343 and 310°C and char content to be 66 and 54%, respectively. Effects of …

Travel Time Estimation And Prediction For Urban Arterial Roads, Porntep Puangprakhon

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

Travel time information has been accepted as the core of advanced traveler information systems (ATIS) and advanced traffic management systems (ATMS). Providing the accurate travel time information to traffic operators and travelers allows them to make informed decisions, leading to more advantage for individual road users and the entire transportation system. Most of the traffic information providers normally deliver the current traffic conditions or current travel times to public assuming the state of traffic remains constant in the near future. Aimed at the more effective applications, short-term future traffic conditions have been proposed as a valuable piece of information in …

Prototype Development Of Small Scale Transportable Fuel Production System For Agricultural Byproducts, Jurarat Nisamaneenate

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

The objective is to study the potential of peanut shell waste and cassava rhizome conversion using a modular fixed bed gasifier coupled with thermal integration unit. The thermal integration unit improved gasification reaction in which lower tar content and high gas production efficiency can be achieved. The air flow rate had integrated effects on product yield and composition; higher air flow rate resulted in higher gas yield with less tar and char. The result from peanut shell gasification indicated the optimal conditions without catalyst addition at air flow rate of 3.06 m3/hr where carbon and hydrogen conversions were 87.10% and …

A Comparison On The Classification Of Short-Text Documents Using Latent Dirichlet Allocation And Formal Concept Analysis, Noel Rogers, Luca Longo

Books/Book Chapters

With the increasing amounts of textual data being collected online, automated text classification techniques are becoming increasingly important. However, a lot of this data is in the form of short-text with just a handful of terms per document (e.g. Text messages, tweets or Facebook posts). This data is generally too sparse and noisy to obtain satisfactory classification. Two techniques which aim to alleviate this problem are Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) and Formal Concept Analysis (FCA). Both techniques have been shown to improve the performance of short-text classification by reducing the sparsity of the input data. The relative performance of classifiers …

Energy Management System Considering Battery Lifetime, Prajina Tandukar

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The contribution of renewable energy resources in the global energy generation has been increasing at a fast pace. Variability and uncertainty are the two main issues related to renewable energy integration. Thus, energy storage systems (ESSs) are used in such systems to smooth the power generated by the renewable energy sources. In order to ensure reliable and economic operation of the system, energy management system (EMS) is implemented to control the dispatch of the available resources. ESS such as a battery requires significant capital investment and frequent replacement. A battery has a maximum lifetime called float life, regardless of energy …

Cellulose Nanocrystal Stabilized Pickering Emulsions, Sangeet Adhikari

Honors Theses

The use of Pickering Emulsions in place of conventional surfactants has opened new doors in fields like pharmacy, cosmetology, and oil and gas industry. Pickering emulsions using Cellulose Nanocrystals (CNCs) are generally stable to heating in a wide range of temperatures and show great stability against salt and pH changes. The management of water resources in the United States has been a challenge. The injection of water in aging oil fields and unconventional tight-gas, shale-gas, and coal bed-fields often generate substantial amounts contaminated wastewater. This research project is expected to help future efforts in promoting oil biodegradation in emulsified mixtures. …