Engineering Commons^™

Investigation Of Ribbed Dome Including Tuned Mass Damper, Ali Parva

Civil & Environmental Engineering Master's Projects

This research report presents the outcome of an investigation of lightweight ribbed steel dome structure. The proposed ribbed dome structure is studied both numerically and experimentally under static, natural vibration, and base excitation conditions. The base excitation is considered in the form of a sinusoidal as well as seismic loading in the form of a scaled-down 1940 El Centro earthquake. A numerical study of the ribbed dome is also conducted including a tuned mass damper (TMD). The performance of the dome is also compared with that of a hexagonal vertical structure showing a superior response of the dome under seismic …

Effects Of Alternate Wetting And Drying Irrigation Regime And Nitrogen Fertilizer On Yield And Nitrogen Use Efficiency Of Irrigated Rice In The Sahel, Koffi Djaman, Valere C. Mel, Lamine Diop, Abdoulaye Sow, Raafat El-Namaky, Baboucarr Manneh, Kazuki Saito, Koichi Futakuchi, Suat Irmak

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

The objectives of this study were to investigate water saving strategies in the paddy field and to evaluate the performance of some of the newly released rice varieties. Field experiments were conducted at Fanaye in the Senegal River Valley during two rice growing seasons in 2015. Three irrigation regimes ((i) continuous flooding, (ii) trigging irrigation at soil matric potential (SMP) of 30 kPa, (iii) trigging irrigation at SMP of 60 kPa) were tested in an irrigated lowland rice field. Irrigation regimes (ii) and (iii) are alternate wetting and drying (AWD) cycles. Four inbred rice varieties (NERICA S-21, NERICA S-44, Sahel …

The Impact Of Personal Privacy On The Acceptance Of Mobile Phone Technology: A Case Of Tanzanian Smes, Renatus Michael Mushi

Journal of International Technology and Information Management

The adoption of mobile technology has gained a serious attention in organizations and individuals. SMEs in the developing countries have hugely been relying on mobile phone technology in performing their activities. The main reasons for the popularity of mobile phones include their perceived low cost, less learning curve, mobility and its compatibility with the usage at the SMEs level as compared to the desktop computers. Despite existence on studies on adoption of mobile technology in different contexts, few of them have explicitly explored the way personal privacy can affect its acceptance to be used at the workplaces.

This study covers …

Drone Deliveries Logistics, Efficiency, Safety And Last Mile Trade-Offs, Miguel A. Figliozzi, Chad Tucker, Polina Polikakhina

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) or drone last mile deliveries are receiving a lot of attention from startups and big companies like Google, Amazon, and UPS. Around the world there are already examples of successful small scale delivery operations utilizing drones. Despite all the hype and excitement around this topic, there is surprisingly little research done on understanding the capabilities and technical tradeoffs among drones that are currently available in the market. The goal of this paper is to survey currently available multicopter drones and analyze them in terms of their potential for last mile and last yard deliveries. Novel data …

Selective Deposition Of Platinum By Strong Electrostatic Adsorption Onto Cobalt- And Iron-Based Catalysts For Fischer-Tropsch Synthesis, Fahad A. Almalki

Theses and Dissertations

Cobalt and iron based catalysts are commercially predominant for Fischer-Tropsch synthesis, Co-based catalysts for their stability, activity, and inactivity for the water gas shift reaction and Fe-based catalysts for their cheap cost, high light-olefins and alcohols selectivity, and tolerance to H2/CO ratio. These catalysts are structure sensitive with lower activity at nanoparticle sizes smaller than 6-8 nm. Co-based catalysts exhibit high activity, low CH4 selectivity, and high C5+ selectivity, while Fe-based catalysts are more selective to low-molecular-weight hydrocarbons such as olefins and alcohols. The reducibility of cobalt and iron is another important factor which may be key for improving their …

Cellulose And Sulfate Degradation In A Biochemical Reactor During Treatment Of Mine Drainage, Sweta Ojha

Masters Theses

"Seventy-two biochemical reactors were set up, and operated using a mixture of chip-bark, horse manure, and gravel as the biochemical treatment substrate. The simulated mine water containing sulfate (1000 mg/l) was pumped into each reactor at a flow rate of 0.5 ml/minute (approximate), giving an empty bed contact time of 8 days. The main idea is that the microorganisms present in horse manure would convert the cellulose in chip-bark into volatile fatty acids. The produced volatile fatty acid would enhance the metabolism of sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB) initially present in horse manure, which would degrade (and eventually remove) the sulfate from …

An Integrated Method For Forecasting Well Deliverability In Gas Condensate Reservoirs With Bottom Aquifer Drive, Abdulaziz Ellafi, Ralph E. Flori, Shari Dunn-Norman

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Gas condensate reservoirs constitute a significant portion of global hydrocarbon reserves. In these reservoirs, liquids develop in the pore space once bottomhole pressure falls below dew point. This results in the formation of a liquid bank near the wellbore region which decreases gas mobility, which then reduces gas inflow. In such complex reservoirs, it is important to correctly describe PVT impacts, adjustments to well test analysis and inflow performance, and then combine all effects in the reservoir analysis. The literature contains many references to individual adjustments of PVT analysis, well testing, or inflow performance for gas condensate reservoirs, but few …

A Novel Multistage System For The Detection And Removal Of Pectoral Muscles Inmammograms, İdi̇l Işikli Esener, Semi̇h Ergi̇n, Tolga Yüksel

Turkish Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences

In this paper, a novel multistage scheme for pectoral muscle removal from mammography images is proposed, and the performance of this system is verified using the publicly available Mammographic Image Analysis Society digital mammogram database. This database is composed of mediolateral oblique mammography images including three different tissue types (fatty, fatty-glandular, and dense-glandular) with three health status types (normal, benign cancer, and malignant cancer). In the implementation of the proposed system, a mammography image is first preprocessed by performing noise reduction background removal followed by artifact suppression processes. Then a presegmentation procedure is applied using region growing and line fitting …

Nonlinear Analysis Of Hybrid Phase-Controlled Systems In Z-Domain With Convex Lmi Searches, Nur Syazreen Ahmad, Pei Ni Goh

Turkish Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences

Phase-controlled systems such as phase-locked loops (PLLs) have been used in numerous applications ranging from data communications to speed motor control. The hybrid case where only the phase detector is digital while others are analog has advantages over the classical PLLs in the sense that it provides a wider locking range and is more suitable when the input and output signals come in digital waveforms. Although such systems are inherently nonlinear due to the phase detector's characteristics, the nonlinearity is often bypassed in order to ease the analysis and design methods. This, however, will give erroneous results when the phase …

A Bim-Database-Integrated System For Evaluating Building Life-Cycle Costs Using A Multi-Parametric Model, Hang Thi Thu Le

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

Life-cycle cost analysis (LCCA) has become an essential requirement of the sustainable procurement for many construction projects. Conventional building LCCA methods are extremely complex and time-consuming due to repetitive works, numerous required data, scattered data inputs, and various regulatory requirements, which subsequently lead to inaccurate building life-cycle costs (LCC). Building information modeling (BIM) offers a revolutionary information technology, which can overcome the asperities of the conventional building LCCA. This research develops the BIM-database-integrated system for evaluating building life-cycle costs using a multi-parametric model (BIM-BLCC). The BIM-BLCC consists of four interrelated modules. The relational database management module collects and organizes the …

Information Provision And Economic Approach For Promotion Of Plastic Shopping Bag Reduction In Bangkok, Thailand., Nattapat Piromrat

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

This research aims to study the situations of plastic bag management from stakeholders, current plastic bag use trends, evaluate the effect of information provision and estimate the willingness to pay for plastic bag waste management in Bangkok. Online and field questionnaires had been distributed to collect the data. This study found that the trend of plastic bag use is moderate while most of respondents always reuse their plastic bag. Situations of plastic bag management indicate plastic bags are still distributed for free in the market, but some retailers started not to provide them. The plastic bag production is gradually affected …

Pre-Feasibility Study Of Silica Sand Processing Plant In Sihanoukville Province, Cambodia, Sochea Ros

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

Nowadays, bottom ash and flue gas desulfurization (FGD) gypsum are by-products of the coal combustion process from coal-fired power plant. Bottom ash has been applied in many applications such as landfill, cement industry etc., and FGD gypsum is applied in cement and wallboard industry. Also, they can be used in agricultural activities for soil amendment but the amount of bottom ash and FGD used in this function is still low. Furthermore, biochar has long been used to improve soil fertility. The positive impacts of biochar amendment on soils are that it can increase soil capacity to adsorb plant nutrients, decrease …

Utilization Of Biochar Coupled With Coal Combustion Products For Degraded Soil Amendment, Thidphavanh Sengsingkham

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

Low Salinity Waterflooding (LSWF) has been intensively studied worldwide as it is a low-cost technique. By injecting water with very low salinity compared to formation water in the reservoir, the method changes equilibrium between rock surface, oil and surrounding water, causing wettability alteration through Multi-component Ion Exchange (MIE) mechanism. In this study, ammonium ion is added into low salinity water to facilitate the MIE mechanism in shaly-sandstones reservoir. Experiments are performed with shaly-sandstone rock as it contains both calcium and magnesium ions as part of clays and ammonium ion can express its potential by triggering MIE mechanism. Stirring test, spontaneous …

Forecasting International Tourist Arrivals From Major Countries To Thailand, Ontheera Hwandee

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

Tourism industry is one of industries that are very important for Thai economy. In order to achieve effective marketing and resource planning, accurate forecasting of tourist arrivals from major countries to Thailand is necessary for Thai tourism industry. In this paper, various forecasting models are explored to forecast monthly tourist arrivals from China, Malaysia, Korea, Japan, Russia, UK and US. The proposed models include both time series models, i.e., SARIMA, Holt-Winter, and explanatory models, i.e., Multiple Regression and Feed Forward Artificial Neural Networks (FANNs). Economic factors such as income, relative price, exchange rates, and dummy variables of seasonality and news …

Synthesis Of High Efficiency Amidoxime Polymer Adsorbents For Uranium Extraction From Seawater By Radiation-Induced Polymerization, Wijittra Wongjaikham

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

This study synthesized amidoxime polymer gel for uranium extraction from seawater through a polymerization process with gamma ray or UV-C radiation. The synthesis started with a mixture of acrylonitrile (AN) and methacrylic acid (MAA) monomers together with methylene bisacrylamide as a crosslinker and hydrogen peroxide in the case of UV radiation. The mixture was irradiated with gamma ray at various doses or UV-C for various durations. The resulting polymer gel was ground into fine particles and immersed in a hydroxylamine hydrochloride solution for 90 minutes in order to convert the chemical functional group from the cyano group into the amidoxime …

Drought Assessment For The Greater Baribo Basin In Cambodia, Kimhuy Sok

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

Cambodia is a developing country. The development and economic of the country rely mainly on agricultural production. Cambodia is a major exporter in the world rice market. The Tonle Sap basin covers about 44% of country. Rice production in the Tonle Sap basin is a main driver for national economic and social development. Due to natural variability and climate change, many forms of the natural disaster such as heavy storm, flood, and drought have occurred in the Tonle Sap basin. Over the recent decades, increased attention has been drawn to drought due to the tendency of rainfall decline. The Royal …

Micro-Scale Flood Hazard Assessment In Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Naichy Sea

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

Water-related disasters in urban area, especially urban floods have become more frequent and severe. This leads to loss of life, infrastructure damage, business interruption as well as difficulties in conducting daily activities. Phnom Penh, the capital city of Cambodia, has frequently experienced significant rainfall-flood events during rainy season. Without proper prevention and mitigation and management of urban drainage system, Phnom Penh is expected to confront with the current and future challenge of water-related disaster. To address this urban flood issue, flood modeling could be used to assess flood severity and make a visual representation of the urban flood hazard as …

การประยุกต์ใช้เทคนิคการเรียนรู้เชิงลึกในการฝังคำเพื่อสร้างแบบจำลองสำหรับทำนายผลการวินิจฉัยโรคจากบันทึกทางการแพทย์ของแผนกออร์โธปิดิกส์, ธนากร รัตนจริยา

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

งานวิจัยนี้จะนำเสนอวิธีการฝังคำในการเรียนรู้เชิงลึกเพื่อสร้างแบบจำลองสำหรับทำนายผลการวินิจฉัยโรค ซึ่งปัจจัยสำคัญที่ทำให้ผลการวินิจฉัยโรคของแพทย์ผิดพลาดคือประสบการณ์ของแพทย์ที่ไม่เพียงพอ โดยการวินิจฉัยโรคที่ผิดพลาดนั้น นอกจากจะนำไปสู่การรักษาที่ผิดพลาดแล้ว ยังทำให้ผู้ป่วยเสียทั้งเงินและเวลา ดังนั้นเพื่อแก้ไขปัญหาการวินิจฉัยที่ผิดพลาด งานวิจัยนี้จึงนำเสนอวิธีการประยุกต์ใช้การเรียนรู้เชิงลึกกับการฝังคำ เพื่อทำนายผลการวินิจฉัยโรคจากระบบเวชระเบียน โดยจะสร้างแบบจำลองจากการใช้ข้อมูลในบันทึกของแพทย์ ซึ่งข้อมูลจะถูกนำไปวิเคราะห์ผ่านแบบจำลอง เพื่อทำนายผลการวินิจฉัยโรคที่มีความน่าจะเป็นออกมา เรียงตามลำดับความเชื่อมั่น และสุดท้ายจะใช้อัตราผลบวกจริง อัตราผลบวกเท็จ และค่าความแม่นยำมาเป็นตัววัดประสิทธิภาพของแบบจำลองที่ได้ ซึ่งพบว่าค่าความแม่นยำของแบบจำลองในงานวิจัยนี้มีค่าเท่ากับ 99.95% และอัตราผลบวกจริงมีค่าเท่ากับ 86.64% ด้วยการทำนายผลลัพธ์อันดับแรกเพียงอันดับเดียว

Data Analysis Of Low-Salinity Waterflooding To Enhance The Oil Recovery In Sandstone Reservoirs, Nadia Ariani

Masters Theses

"The lack of a single reasonable general mechanism to describe how low-salinity waterflooding can improve oil recovery in both laboratory and field pilot projects has increased the interests of many researchers and stakeholders. There has not been observed the relationship of formation brine salinity and injected brine salinity to see how much salinity is reduced to produce the maximum enhanced oil recovery by LSWF. There is no guidance in what EOR stage the LSWF is best implemented. This work collects data from various published literature to develop a comprehensive data set regarding low-salinity waterflooding in sandstone reservoirs. The LSWF mechanisms …

Management Of Coal Dust Explosions In United States' Coal Mines Using Bag Type Passive Explosion Barriers, Jay Robert Schafler

Masters Theses

"The most significant and powerful hazard that exists in an underground coal mine is a coal dust explosion. A coal dust explosion has the potential to propagate throughout a mine resulting in massive damage to the mine and equipment, as well as tragic loss of life. An assessment of current global regulations and practices uncovered four main control methods utilized to prevent coal dust explosions in coal mines world-wide. The United States is one of the few countries that does not regulate or employ all four of these safety practices. Additionally, a review of past research into coal dust explosions …

Carbon Black Production, Analyzing And Characterization, Shadha Khalid Jebur

Masters Theses

"Carbon black (CB) plays a significant function in the development of the electrical and mechanical properties of high performance for a tough elastic polymeric substance such as rubber materials. Thus, CB is widely used to manufacture a massive number of products such as reinforcing and pigment phase in automobile tires due to its high ability to increase tire life by reducing the thermal damage. This material is also used in belts, hoses, and other non-tire rubber goods. Before use in valuable materials. CB should first be analyzed and characterized by different instruments to obtain its mechanical properties. A new thermal …

Evaluating The Role Of Energy Demand Prediction And Renewable Energy Utilization On Energy Dependency Management: A Generic System Dynamics Model, Emad Rabiei Hosseinabad

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Supplying energy has become one of the biggest concerns of developed countries due to the growing energy needs in the last decades. Security of energy supply has forced countries to rely more on energy imports from external sources, and become energy dependent to a greater extent. Utilizing available renewable energy resources has been characterized as a reliable indicator to mitigate energy dependency in countries as well as securing the supplying of energy-based needs in the future. This research explores the impact of renewable energies as trustful resources in mitigating energy imports form external sources with investigation of its viability with …

Moderating Effects Of Age And Experience On The Factors Influencing The Actual Usage Of Cloud Computing, Shailja Tripathi

Journal of International Technology and Information Management

Cloud computing technology (CCT) has attracted extensive attention of organizations to enhance their agility, flexibility and competitive advantage. Successful implementation of CCT depends on its acceptance and useby senior IT managers in the organizations. This study proposes an extended technology acceptance model (TAM) to predict actual CCT usage by the managers. A questionnaire is used to collect the needful data. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses are performed to analyze the factor structure and measurement model. Structural equation modeling is used to analyze the structural model. The results supported all the hypotheses of the model. The moderating effect of experience and …

Annual Report 2017-2018, Depaul University College Of Computing And Digital Media

CDM Annual Reports

LETTER FROM THE DEAN

I am pleased to share with you the College of Computing and Digital Media’s (CDM) 2017-18 annual report, highlighting the many achievements across our community. It was a big year. We began offering five new programs (two bachelor’s, two master’s, and one PhD) across our three schools, in addition to several new certificate programs through our Institute for Professional Development. We built new, cutting-edge spaces to support these and other programs— most notably a 4,500 square-foot makerspace, a robotics and medical engineering lab, an augmented and virtual reality lab, and plans for a cyber-physical systems project …

Development Of A Scn1a Null Zebrafish Model For Screening Potential Anti-Epileptic Natural Products, Patricia Ann Lipson

Honors Theses

Epilepsy affects around 50 million people in the world. Thus, it is imperative that new more effective and safe treatments be found. This study was designed to use zebrafish to screen potential anti-epileptic natural products. We utilized two scn1Lab null zebrafish models (morpholino-injected fish where scn1Lab was transiently knocked down and a transgenic scn1Lab -/- fish line). Alternatively, we used AB wildtype fish to test compounds in a chemically-induced seizure model. Natural compounds including cannabidiol, CBD, and Tapinanthus globiferous, TG, extracts were screened for their anti-seizure activity. When scn1Lab -/- fish were treated with CBD (0.075 and 0.3 mg/L) from …

Efficiency Of Structurally Integrated Surface Articulation (Sisa) Panels For Structural Engineering Applications, Feyza Nur Yildirim

All ETDs from UAB

The objective of this project is to investigate the efficiency of a newly developed structurally integrated surface articulation (SISA) building system for encapsulating an extensive range of specific and multi-purpose functions such as exterior panels for buildings and solar panels for structural engineering applications. SISA is a modular system, consisting of a 3-space, dynamically configured, geometrically need renewal surface panels that are internally supported by a "wire-frame" space frame structure. The appropriate articulations to these different methods will vary from one element to another. Surface articulation development is an efficiently developing issue, especially in continuing research on new generational frame …

Magnetotelluric Analysis Of Central Kenya Kenyan Rift Volcanoes For Geothermal Development, Anna Wairimu Mwangi

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Abstract

High temperature geothermal resources are vast along rift margins because of emplacement of magma in shallow crust. This is the case along the Kenyan Rift valley also known as the Gregory Rift. It is the Eastern arm of the East African rift and a chain of volcanoes along the rift graben characterizes it. We use (MT) magnetotelluric method to image beneath the peralkaline province of the Kenya Rift i.e. Olkaria, Eburru, Badlands, and Longonot volcanoes. The resistivity structure shows active geothermal activity happening at the upper 3km from the subsurface as evidenced by low resistivity cap rock comprised of …

An Lcl-Filter Design With Optimum Total Inductance And Capacitance, Sampath Jayalath, Mohamed Moin Hanif

Articles

LCL-filter is among the best performing filters for grid-connected voltage source inverters. Designing of the filter parameters (grid-side and inverter-side inductors and capacitor), takes an iterative approach due to the coherence between the parameters and design requirements such as IEEE-519 Std for harmonic current limitations, reactive power compensation limit, and maximum allowable voltage drop across the filter to limit the switching losses. Most of the proposed LCL-filter optimization strategies emphasize on reducing the total inductance and losses of the filter while meeting the design requirements. There is less emphasis given on the capacitor selection and optimizing its value. Therefore, this …

Computational Dynamics And Virtual Dragline Simulation For Extended Rope Service Life, Muhammad Wardeh

Doctoral Dissertations

"The dragline machinery is one of the largest equipment for stripping overburden materials in surface mining operations. Its effectiveness requires rigorous kinematic and dynamic analyses. Current dragline research studies are limited in computational dynamic modeling because they eliminate important structural components from the front-end assembly. Thus, the derived kinematic, dynamic and stress intensity models fail to capture the true response of the dragline under full operating cycle conditions. This research study advances a new and robust computational dynamic model of the dragline front-end assembly using Kane's method. The model is a 3-DOF dynamic model that describes the spatial kinematics and …

Predicting Energy And Water Consumption On Dairy Farms Through Statistical Analysis And Machine-Learning Methods, Philip Shine

Theses

With the abolishment of milking quotas across all European Union member states in April 2015, dairy farmers must adjust their farming practises to minimise milk production costs to adequately prepare for potential periods of reduced revenue. Milk production is an intense energy and water consuming process. Coupled with challenging European greenhouse gas reduction targets and legislation regarding the prevention of groundwater pollution and deterioration, increasing the production of milk in Ireland must be met with the sustainable consumption of on-farm energy and direct water resources, to ensure the future monetary and environmental sustainability of Ireland’s dairy industry. Thus, this body …