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2018

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Articles 2341 - 2370 of 8951

Full-Text Articles in Engineering

Predicting And Optimizing Solar Cell Performance With Material/Surface Characteristics, Yiheng Zhu, Allison Perna, Peter Bermel Aug 2018

Predicting And Optimizing Solar Cell Performance With Material/Surface Characteristics, Yiheng Zhu, Allison Perna, Peter Bermel

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Renewable energy sources have begun replacing fossil fuels at the utility scale. In particular, photovoltaics has grown rapidly in recent years. To further improve solar technology in terms of cost and efficiency and promote adoption, researchers often seek material and device level advancements. Photovoltaic simulation tools can be utilized to predict device performance before fabrication and experimentation, streamline research processes, and interpret experimental results. Therefore, we developed ContourPV, which simulates various combinations of values of different device characteristics to optimize and predict photovoltaic performance. ContourPV sweeps the inputted range of values for each chosen device or layer characteristic and obtains …

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Spatial And Temporal Storm Generation From A Stochastic View, Jiaxiang Ding, Josept D. Revuelta-Acosta, Engel Bernard Aug 2018

Spatial And Temporal Storm Generation From A Stochastic View, Jiaxiang Ding, Josept D. Revuelta-Acosta, Engel Bernard

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Precipitation is one of the most important parameters in the study of hydrology and most of the research has been done on daily storm generation. Current weather generation models are used to replicate daily or monthly time resolution, which is not able to show the variability within one day or one month. This project deals with sub-daily storm generation with finer resolution and more accurate estimation, which also requires an independent storm separation method. And the Monte Carlo correlated multivariate simulation is applied to compute the variables. The description is essential for soil erosion and water quality research. Another reason …

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Incorporating Collisions And Resistance Into The Transition From Field Emission To The Space Charge Regime, Samuel D. Dynako, Adam M. Darr, Allen L. Garner Aug 2018

Incorporating Collisions And Resistance Into The Transition From Field Emission To The Space Charge Regime, Samuel D. Dynako, Adam M. Darr, Allen L. Garner

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Advancements in microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) and microplasmas, particularly with respect to applications in combustion and biotechnology, motivate studies into microscale gas breakdown to enable safe system design and implementation. Breakdown at microscale deviates from that predicted by Paschen’s law due to field emission—the stripping of electrons from the cathode in the presence of strong surface field—and follows the Fowler-Nordheim (FN) law. As injected current increases at this length scale, electrons accumulate in the gap and FN electron emission becomes space charge limited, leading to the Child-Langmuir (CL) law at vacuum and the Mott-Gurney (MG) law at high pressure. While theoretical …

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Real-Time Non-Contact Road Defect Detection Using Inexpensive Sensors, Zhao Xing Lim, Mohammad Jahanshahi, Tarutal Ghosh Mondal, Da Cheng, Shutao Wang, Mohammad K. Sweidan, Aanis Ahmad, Omar Hesham Abouhussein, Xi Chen Aug 2018

Real-Time Non-Contact Road Defect Detection Using Inexpensive Sensors, Zhao Xing Lim, Mohammad Jahanshahi, Tarutal Ghosh Mondal, Da Cheng, Shutao Wang, Mohammad K. Sweidan, Aanis Ahmad, Omar Hesham Abouhussein, Xi Chen

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Road defects such as potholes, humps, and road cracks have become one of the main concerns for road and traffic safety worldwide. Pavement defect detection is crucial to ensure road safety. However, current solutions to this problem are either too time-consuming or too expensive to be employed large-scale. We propose a novel approach which has the ability to autonomously detect potholes in real-time using cost-effective sensors. Inexpensive sensors are mounted on a vehicle and a deep learning algorithm is used to identify road defects. The detection system is paired with a GPS and positional sensors to map the location of …

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Purdue Air Sense: A Methodology For Improving The Accuracy Of Ambient Aerosol Mass Concentration And Size Distribution Measurement With Low-Cost Optical Sensing Techniques, Rishabh Ramsisaria, Satya Sundar Patra, Brandon Emil Boor Aug 2018

Purdue Air Sense: A Methodology For Improving The Accuracy Of Ambient Aerosol Mass Concentration And Size Distribution Measurement With Low-Cost Optical Sensing Techniques, Rishabh Ramsisaria, Satya Sundar Patra, Brandon Emil Boor

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

There is a global lack of a means for monitoring air pollutant levels at a local level due to expensive and bulky instrument requirements. It is important to monitor toxic gas levels, as well as particulate matter levels, in the atmosphere to study their effects on human health and to further develop city- and community-level air pollution solutions. In this study, with the means of a Raspberry Pi, low-cost Alphasense Optical Particle Counter and gas sensors, and methodical calibration techniques, we built a portable 3-D printed module powered by clean electricity generated by an on-board Voltaic solar cell that measures …

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Experimental Evaluation Of A Krypton Propellant Arrangement In A T-100-3 Hall-Effect Thruster, Adam Patel, Javier Cortina Fernandez, Justin Chow, Osvaldo Alejandro Martin, Alexey Shashurin Aug 2018

Experimental Evaluation Of A Krypton Propellant Arrangement In A T-100-3 Hall-Effect Thruster, Adam Patel, Javier Cortina Fernandez, Justin Chow, Osvaldo Alejandro Martin, Alexey Shashurin

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Stationary Hall thrusters are electric, moderate-specific impulse propulsion systems developed in Russia. These devices manipulate electric and magnetic fields to expel ionized gas (plasma) components, resulting in thrust. The success of Hall-effect engines in USSR satellite-transfer missions quickly sparked western interest in the design. Extensive government and academic study commenced shortly after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, when the technology was made available to the United States. The common SPT-100 model was the primary subject of such studies. Unfortunately, limited literature exists for rare and uncommon Hall thruster models. The T-100-3 stationary plasma thruster suffers from this gap; few …

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Image Analysis Of A Vesicle To Calculate The Bending Modulus, Pheobe Appel, Charlie Lin, Vivek Narsimhan Aug 2018

Image Analysis Of A Vesicle To Calculate The Bending Modulus, Pheobe Appel, Charlie Lin, Vivek Narsimhan

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

The cell membrane is an essential component of living cells and the dynamics of the membrane will provide insight into how a biological cell reacts to mechanical strain. Membrane mechanics are important in a variety of cellular processes like secretion, trafficking, signaling, and storage. Giant unilamellar vesicles are a model system for cellular membranes since the major component of all membranes is a phospholipid bilayer. Giant unilamellar vesicles allow one to examine physicochemical processes that occur in all cellular membranes, such as fusion, budding, and fission in a more controlled fashion. Contour fluctuations of the vesicles are analyzed to calculate …

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Waste Heat Recovery From A Vented Electric Clothes Dryer Utilizing A Finned-Tube Heat Exchanger, Abdul Raheem A. Shaik, Stephen L. Caskey, Eckhard A. Groll Aug 2018

Waste Heat Recovery From A Vented Electric Clothes Dryer Utilizing A Finned-Tube Heat Exchanger, Abdul Raheem A. Shaik, Stephen L. Caskey, Eckhard A. Groll

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Conventional residential clothes dryers continuously vent moist, hot air during the drying process. The vented air leaves the home but still has useful temperature and humidity that could be recovered to offset other heating demands in the home. A study is carried out to quantify the amount of heat extracted from the waste heat stream of a conventional, vented clothes dryer. To extract the heat, a water cooled, fin-and-tube heat exchanger is located within the exhaust duct. A steady state thermodynamic dry coil and wet coil model was built in Engineering Equation Solver (EES). The model accounts for the heat …

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Predict The Failure Of Hydraulic Pumps By Different Machine Learning Algorithms, Yifei Zhou, Monika Ivantysynova, Nathan Keller Aug 2018

Predict The Failure Of Hydraulic Pumps By Different Machine Learning Algorithms, Yifei Zhou, Monika Ivantysynova, Nathan Keller

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Pump failure is a general concerned problem in the hydraulic field. Once happening, it will cause a huge property loss and even the life loss. The common methods to prevent the occurrence of pump failure is by preventative maintenance and breakdown maintenance, however, both of them have significant drawbacks. This research focuses on the axial piston pump and provides a new solution by the prognostic of pump failure using the classification of machine learning. Different kinds of sensors (temperature, acceleration and etc.) were installed into a good condition pump and three different kinds of damaged pumps to measure 10 of …

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Sort Vs. Hash Join On Knights Landing Architecture, Victor L. Pan, Felix Lin Aug 2018

Sort Vs. Hash Join On Knights Landing Architecture, Victor L. Pan, Felix Lin

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

With the increasing amount of information stored, there is a need for efficient database algorithms. One of the most important database operations is “join”. This involves combining columns from two tables and grouping common values in the same row in order to minimize redundant data. The two main algorithms used are hash join and sort merge join. Hash join builds a hash table to allow for faster searching. Sort merge join first sorts the two tables to make it more efficient when comparing values. There has been a lot of debate over which approach is superior. At first, hash join …

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Building Modern Cloud Accessible Tools For Materials Simulations, Nicholas J. Finan, Saaketh Desai, Samuel Reeve, Alejandro Strachan Aug 2018

Building Modern Cloud Accessible Tools For Materials Simulations, Nicholas J. Finan, Saaketh Desai, Samuel Reeve, Alejandro Strachan

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

In recent years, commercial computer systems have grown more user friendly, allowing for new users to quickly and easily make contributions. Unfortunately, this trend is not as apparent in the field of computational materials simulations. The tools used by researchers in this field have remained just as esoteric as the systems of the past. While the methods used in materials simulations continue to grow in complexity and accuracy, the user experience has been neglected entirely. This project aims to eliminate the need for hours spent adjusting file formats and searching for preexisting code, and instead allow researchers to focus on …

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Developing Strategies To Toughen Bio-Inspired Adhesives, Narelli P. Narciso, Samuel Lee Huntington, Jonathan J. Wilker Aug 2018

Developing Strategies To Toughen Bio-Inspired Adhesives, Narelli P. Narciso, Samuel Lee Huntington, Jonathan J. Wilker

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Mussels and other marine creatures adhere very well in underwater environments, having the ability to withstand the force of the sea. These animals have inspired synthetic biomimetic adhesives for wet systems, presenting potential for biomedical applications. However, most current commercial adhesives tend to be brittle, not resisting repetitive movements. This study assesses toughening strategies to improve the mussel-inspired adhesives’ ductility while maintaining its strength. The strategies included altering the polymer’s chemical structure by changing the percentage of polyethylene glycol (PEG) in the molecule and by adding fillers, such as calcium carbonate, silica and nacre - a calcium carbonate compound found …

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Thermophotovoltaic Devices: Combustion Chamber Optimization And Modelling To Maximize Fuel Efficiency, Arnold Chris Toppo, Ernesto Marinero, Zhaxylyk Kudyshev Aug 2018

Thermophotovoltaic Devices: Combustion Chamber Optimization And Modelling To Maximize Fuel Efficiency, Arnold Chris Toppo, Ernesto Marinero, Zhaxylyk Kudyshev

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Currently, 110 billion cubic meters of natural gas (primarily methane), a potent greenhouse gas, are flared off for environmental and safety reasons. This process results in enough fuel to provide the combined natural gas consumption of Germany and France. The research team developed a thermophotovoltaic device to convert thermal energy to electricity at a high efficiency using proprietary emitters and combustion system. With the current focus being fuel efficiency and the combustion process, the assembly was simulated using ANSYS Fluent modelling software and the following parameters were optimized: air/fuel ratios, flow rates, and inlet sizes. Simultaneously the heat transfer across …

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Cost-Effective Paper-Based Diagnostic Using Split Proteins To Detect Yeast Infections, Zachary R. Berglund, Kevin V. Solomon, Mohit S. Verma, Moiz Rasheed, Zachary Hartley, Kevin Fitzgerald, Kok Zhi Lee, Janice Chan, Julianne Dejoie, Makayla Schacht, Alex Zavala Aug 2018

Cost-Effective Paper-Based Diagnostic Using Split Proteins To Detect Yeast Infections, Zachary R. Berglund, Kevin V. Solomon, Mohit S. Verma, Moiz Rasheed, Zachary Hartley, Kevin Fitzgerald, Kok Zhi Lee, Janice Chan, Julianne Dejoie, Makayla Schacht, Alex Zavala

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

The common yeast infection, vulvovaginal candidiasis, affects three out of four women throughout their lifetime and can be spread to their child in the form of oral candidiasis (thrush). This disease is caused by the fungal pathogen Candida albicans, which is also a major cause of systemic candidiasis, a rarer but deadly disease with up to a 49% lethality rate. Current widely-used diagnostic methods include cell cultures, pH tests, and antibody detection, to assist effective treatment. Despite availability of various diagnostic methods, there is no inexpensive, rapid, and accurate way to detect C. albicans infection. This project aims to …

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Improving Biomanufacturing Production With Novel Elp-Based Transcriptional Regulators, Juya Jeon, Logan R. Readnour, Kevin V. Solomon Aug 2018

Improving Biomanufacturing Production With Novel Elp-Based Transcriptional Regulators, Juya Jeon, Logan R. Readnour, Kevin V. Solomon

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Microbes can be used to produce valuable drugs, chemicals, and biofuels, but their potential has not been fully realized due to low production yields. To improve biomanufacturing processes and yield, we are developing novel, transcriptional regulators using biosynthesis technology in order to improve cellular health and overall production. Our regulator contains elastin-like polypeptides (ELPs), which make ideal sensors since they exhibit a sharp, inverse phase transition to indicators of cell health such as intracellular pH and ionic strength, and external stimuli such as temperature. We hypothesize that ELP can be fused to transcription factors to control expression of target genes. …

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Indoor Premise Plumbing: The Relationship Between Water Stagnation, Chlorine Decay, And Total Organic Carbon Levels, Emerson M. Ringger, Andrew J. Whelton, Tolulope Odimayomi, Maryam Salehi Aug 2018

Indoor Premise Plumbing: The Relationship Between Water Stagnation, Chlorine Decay, And Total Organic Carbon Levels, Emerson M. Ringger, Andrew J. Whelton, Tolulope Odimayomi, Maryam Salehi

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Drinking water safety is critical to the health of populations worldwide, and modern plumbing infrastructure can influence drinking water chemical characteristics. Inside residential and commercial buildings however, water use and contact with different plumbing components can vary. For example, water can endure lengthy stagnation periods and residual disinfectant agents like chlorine can decay, leaving the water vulnerable to microbial growth. Plastic cross-linked polyethylene (PEX) pipes have become popular and have shown to influence water quality. While several studies have been carried out on chemical leaching from PEX piping, none were found that examined the role of pipe diameter in relation …

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Spatial Variation Of Surface Residual Stress In Metallic Materials, Chengyang Zhang, David Bahr, Siavash Ghanbari, Raheleh Mohammad Rahimi Aug 2018

Spatial Variation Of Surface Residual Stress In Metallic Materials, Chengyang Zhang, David Bahr, Siavash Ghanbari, Raheleh Mohammad Rahimi

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Shot peening is commonly used to reduce fatigue failures in industrial parts by introducing compressive residual stress into the surface of a material. However, it is challenging to assess the performance of the parts without destroying them. Solving this problem requires a combined model that predicts both recrystallization and residual stress using experimental measurements and predictive computational modelling. Experiments were performed to prove that the surface properties of materials after thermal treatments can be accessed, and the spatial variation of residual stress in metallic materials, including the relationship between surface and subsurface behavior can be evaluated. This process involves investigating …

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Fluidic Control With Wax Valves For Paper-Based Diagnostics, Emilie I. Newsham, Elizabeth A. Phillips, Katherine N. Clayton, Jacqueline C. Linnes Aug 2018

Fluidic Control With Wax Valves For Paper-Based Diagnostics, Emilie I. Newsham, Elizabeth A. Phillips, Katherine N. Clayton, Jacqueline C. Linnes

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Paper-fluidic devices are a common platform for point-of-care disease detection in under-resourced areas because of their low cost and minimal instrumentation requirements. Limited fluidic control in paper-fluidic devices has hindered the incorporation of multistep reactions that are necessary for more sensitive disease detection. One potential fluidic control mechanism is the incorporation of thermally actuated wax valves to separate assay stages. Such valving would expand the detection capabilities of these devices by permitting fluid obstruction for sustained reactions and facilitating controlled volume release within a fully-automated, self-contained device. Despite the potential to exploit wax valves for innovative paper-fluidic diagnostics, a thorough, …

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Spice Based Compact Model For Electrical Switching Of Antiferromagnet, Xe Jin Chan, Jan Kaiser, Pramey Upadhyaya Aug 2018

Spice Based Compact Model For Electrical Switching Of Antiferromagnet, Xe Jin Chan, Jan Kaiser, Pramey Upadhyaya

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

A simulation framework that can model the behavior of antiferromagnets (AFMs) is essential to building novel high-speed devices. The electrical switching of AFMs allows for high performance memory applications. With new phenomena in spintronics being discovered, there is a need for flexible and expandable models. With that in mind, we developed a model for AFMs which can be used to simulate AFM switching behavior in SPICE. This approach can be modified for adding modules, keeping pace with new developments. The proposed AFM switching model is based on the Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert equation (LLG). LLG along with an exchange coupling module is implemented …

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Deep Neural Network Architectures For Modulation Classification Using Principal Component Analysis, Sharan Ramjee, Shengtai Ju, Diyu Yang, Aly El Gamal Aug 2018

Deep Neural Network Architectures For Modulation Classification Using Principal Component Analysis, Sharan Ramjee, Shengtai Ju, Diyu Yang, Aly El Gamal

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

In this work, we investigate the application of Principal Component Analysis to the task of wireless signal modulation recognition using deep neural network architectures. Sampling signals at the Nyquist rate, which is often very high, requires a large amount of energy and space to collect and store the samples. Moreover, the time taken to train neural networks for the task of modulation classification is large due to the large number of samples. These problems can be drastically reduced using Principal Component Analysis, which is a technique that allows us to reduce the dimensionality or number of features of the samples …

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Design Of Selectively Compliant Morphing Wind Turbine Blade Section Using Bistable Laminate For Passive Load Alleviation, Abhishek Chopra, Dr. Andres Arrieta, Janav Udani, Jose Rivas Padilla Aug 2018

Design Of Selectively Compliant Morphing Wind Turbine Blade Section Using Bistable Laminate For Passive Load Alleviation, Abhishek Chopra, Dr. Andres Arrieta, Janav Udani, Jose Rivas Padilla

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

The design of passively controlled compliant morphing structures for large scale wind turbine blades has been of interest due to the inherent advantages of lower mass and reduced complexity over their active counterparts. Previous studies have indicated that embedding a locally bi-stable element within the turbine blade section successfully allows for achieving passive load alleviation. The embedded bi-stable member switches from one stable state to another at a critical aerodynamic load. This local structural change results in a global shift in the aeroelastic response of the blade section. Building on these preliminary results, this research investigates a two- dimensional wind …

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Magnetically Actuated Cell Stretching Platform To Induce Phenotypic Changes In Metastatic Cells, Yong Gyun Cho, Hyunsu Park, Hyowon Lee, Sarah Libring Aug 2018

Magnetically Actuated Cell Stretching Platform To Induce Phenotypic Changes In Metastatic Cells, Yong Gyun Cho, Hyunsu Park, Hyowon Lee, Sarah Libring

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Although metastasis is responsible for about 90% of cancer deaths, only few in vitro models can be used to evaluate dynamic behaviors of metastatic cancer cells. Many studies have shown that mechanical stimuli can trigger various cellular responses such as gene and protein expression, which could lead to changes in cellular phenotype. Similarly, metastasized breast cancer cells in the lung tissue are constantly stretched by cyclic mechanical stress due to breathing, which alters cellular morphology and proliferation state. Such transitions can make the secondary tumors resistant to the chemotherapy used to effectively treat the primary tumors. In this work, we …

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Universality In Viscous Fluid Spreading And Leveling, Zoë S. Penko, Ivan C. Christov, Daihui Lu Aug 2018

Universality In Viscous Fluid Spreading And Leveling, Zoë S. Penko, Ivan C. Christov, Daihui Lu

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Multiphase fluid flows, or flows where the dynamics of an interface between unlike fluids can be observed, require study to further understand the fundamental relationships of the fluids’ properties and their dynamics in multiple applications. The scope of this research project pertains to low Reynolds number flow, a dense fluid spreading through a less dense ambient fluid, with the spreading fluid movement being driven by gravitational buoyancy forces and density differences. The primary investigation involves studying the spreading and leveling of such fluids in shaped geometries, such as subsurface fractures. The objective is to determine the effect of a wide …

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Robust Allocation Of Funds For Nonstructural Flood Risk Mitigation In Coastal Louisiana, Simón Gómez Sierra, David R. Johnson, Matthew P. Shisler, Zachariah T. Richardson Aug 2018

Robust Allocation Of Funds For Nonstructural Flood Risk Mitigation In Coastal Louisiana, Simón Gómez Sierra, David R. Johnson, Matthew P. Shisler, Zachariah T. Richardson

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Coastal Louisiana is a critical economic, ecological and cultural asset, acting as a major hub for waterborne commerce, fisheries, and the petrochemical industry, and also as one of the world’s unique wetlands. Unfortunately, this rich environment is in great danger from the threat of hurricanes and storm surge flooding. Direct economic losses are estimated to average $2.7 billion per year under current conditions, and this could increase to $12 billion a year, or more, within 50 years if nothing is done. To prevent this catastrophe, Louisiana has developed a Comprehensive Master Plan for a Sustainable Coast, which plans to spend …

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Computational Catalysis: Creating A User-Friendly Tool For Research And Education, Kevin P. Greenman, Peilin Liao Aug 2018

Computational Catalysis: Creating A User-Friendly Tool For Research And Education, Kevin P. Greenman, Peilin Liao

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Catalysis is used in a significant portion of production processes in the industrialized world, including most processing of chemicals and fuels. This makes maximizing the efficiency of catalysts a high priority. However, the immense number of candidates for new catalysts precludes the possibility of testing all of them by experiments. Density functional theory (DFT) has been widely and successfully used to calculate material properties relevant to catalysis and to screen promising candidates for experimental testing, but there currently exists no publicly- available, user-friendly tool for performing these DFT calculations. This work details the development of such a tool for nanoHUB.org …

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A High-Efficiency Low Power Rectifier For Wireless Power Transfer, Zachary Loy, Alden Fisher, Brian Vaughn, Dimitrios Peroulis Aug 2018

A High-Efficiency Low Power Rectifier For Wireless Power Transfer, Zachary Loy, Alden Fisher, Brian Vaughn, Dimitrios Peroulis

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

With the number of implantable devices that utilize electronics increasing, there is an increasing need to find alternative ways of powering them. Currently, surgery is required to replace a battery for these devices; however, with advancements in Wireless Power Transfer (WPT) methods, the need for further surgeries will become negated. This paper explores the ability of WPT as an alternative powering method by investigating rectifier Power Conversion Efficiency (PCE). The rectifier converts high frequency waves to Direct Current (DC) energy that can provide usable power to devices requiring electrical power. It is targeted for low power applications centered around a …

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Load Distribution Of Adjacent Prestressed Concrete Box Beam Bridges, Luis F. Urrego, Ryan T. Whelchel, Robert J. Frosch, Christopher S. Williams Aug 2018

Load Distribution Of Adjacent Prestressed Concrete Box Beam Bridges, Luis F. Urrego, Ryan T. Whelchel, Robert J. Frosch, Christopher S. Williams

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

One of the most common bridge types is the adjacent prestressed concrete box beam bridge because the system is economical and simple to build; over 43,000 are currently in service within the US. However, they are highly susceptible to strand corrosion and concrete deterioration which can result in early loss of load capacity. Therefore, an experimental program sponsored by the Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) was initiated to determine the behavior of deteriorated beams and develop recommendations for load rating and design of this bridge type. Displacement sensors were installed on a bridge in service to measure its deformation under …

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Neural Coding Of An Auditory Pitch Illusion, Maria Alejandra Barrera, Mark Sayles, Ravinderjit Singh Aug 2018

Neural Coding Of An Auditory Pitch Illusion, Maria Alejandra Barrera, Mark Sayles, Ravinderjit Singh

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Pitch is an important perceptual dimension in audition, supporting auditory object segregation, melody recognition and lexical distinction. Huggins’ pitch, for example, is a phenomenon evoked by two sources of broadband noise presented binaurally with an inter-aural phase shift over a narrow frequency band. Huggins’ pitch and other dichotic pitches have been studied extensively using perceptual experiments. Several models have been proposed to explain and predict the perception of pitch; however, no studies have tried to record in vivo neuron responses to Huggins’ pitch (HP) nor have tried to explain how the HP is coded by neurons. The existence of pitches …

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Virtual Reality For Baseball Batting, Fengchen Gong, Tianjie Jia, Hong Tan, Casey Kohr Aug 2018

Virtual Reality For Baseball Batting, Fengchen Gong, Tianjie Jia, Hong Tan, Casey Kohr

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Nowadays, researchers explore the applications of Virtual Reality in different aspects of people’s lives. A few studies of Virtual Reality focus on applications in sports training. In this research area, one of the most important benefits is that athletes can focus on the training of one specific skill at one time. This SURF project focuses on the development of the virtual reality environment by designing targeted training for baseball batters, with the goal to achieve sufficient realism as judged by the Purdue baseball coaches. With the Virtual Reality training, baseball batters can practice and perfect a specific skill without a …

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Electronic Effect Of Platinum Alloy Catalysts On Olefin Hydrogenation Kinetics, Colin Reedy, Jeff Miller, Stephen Purdy Aug 2018

Electronic Effect Of Platinum Alloy Catalysts On Olefin Hydrogenation Kinetics, Colin Reedy, Jeff Miller, Stephen Purdy

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Dehydrogenation of alkanes is the first step in transforming light hydrocarbons into liquid fuels and chemicals. This process has traditionally used platinum alloys as catalysts. Alloys are used industrially because they have a greater selectivity than monometallic platinum. Alloying platinum with an inactive promoter modifies the crystalline structure of the surface (geometric effect), and the 5d electrons in platinum responsible for chemistry (electronic effect); both have been suggested to be primarily responsible for dehydrogenation selectivity in platinum alloys. Alloy catalysts have been synthesized using early 3d transition metal promoters with the same Pt3M crystal structure. X-Ray Absorption Spectroscopy …

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