Engineering Commons^™

Benchmarking Product Service System Of Generator Set Distributors, Venny Violetta Tiurindah, Tanika Dewi Sofianti

Makara Journal of Technology

Power generation is an industry that is essential to sustain daily life and competes with generator set distributors. The product service system of distributors must be improved to survive the competition. This research aims to develop tools for benchmarking the product service system of generator set distributors. Benchmarking identifies gaps between a product and other competitors’ products. In this work, a product service system board is used to visualize the current product service system of a generator set distributor. A PPIAF framework and a SERVQUAL framework are adapted to assess product performance and service quality, respectively. AHP is used as …

3d Hydrodynamic, Temperature, And Water Quality Numerical Model For Surface Waterbodies: Development, Verification, And Field Case Studies, Hussein Ali Mahdi Al-Zubaidi

Dissertations and Theses

Numerical modeling has become a major tool for managing water quality in surface waterbodies such as rivers, lakes, reservoirs, and estuaries. Since the two-dimensional longitudinal/vertical model CE-QUAL-W2 is a well-known model and it has been applied to thousands of waterbodies around the world successfully, its numerical scheme was adapted to develop a new three-dimensional numerical model for simulating hydrodynamics, temperature, and water quality in surface waterbodies. Finite difference approximations were used to solve the fluid dynamic governing equations of continuity, free water surface, momentums, and mass transport. No coordinate transformations were performed and the z-coordinate system has been used. Higher-order …

Accuracy Improvement Of Pedestrian Trajectory Prediction By An Extended Kalman Filter And Pedestrian Behavior Classification, Jiayu Guo

Graduate Theses - Electrical and Computer Engineering

The objective of this thesis is to improve the accuracy of predicting motion trajectory, i.e., speed and direction, of a pedestrian in front of an Ego Vehicle which has a Mobileye camera with an advanced driver assistance system (ADAS). The Ego Vehicle captures and records videos of pedestrians in front of it, and these videos are analyzed to predict a pedestrian trajectory from instantaneous, random actions of a pedestrian. Instant actions include, but are not limited to, walking at a constant speed, sudden accelerations/decelerations, sudden dodging from the Ego Vehicle, sudden advancements to the Ego Vehicle, sudden withdrawals or sudden …

Economic Model Predictive Control Design Via Nonlinear Model Identification, Laura Giuliani, Helen Durand

Chemical Engineering and Materials Science Faculty Research Publications

Increasing pushes toward next-generation/smart manufacturing motivate the development of economic model predictive control (EMPC) designs which can be practically deployed. For EMPC, the constraints, objective function, and accuracy of the state predictions would benefit from process models that describe the process physics. However, obtaining first- principles models of chemical process systems can be time-consuming or challenging such that it is preferable to develop physics-based process models automatically from process operating data. In this work, we take initial steps in this direction by suggesting that because experiments that are used to characterize first-principles models often target specific types of data, an …

Respirometry Test Manual: Weerc Laboratory, Sepideh Sadeghi, Suzette Burckhard, Christopher Schmit

Civil and Environmental Engineering Reports and Manuals

Biological treatment methods are the basis for waste water treatment worldwide. Among biological treatment systems, activated sludge processes are most widely used to remove the oxygen demand and nutrients from wastewater. The activated sludge process uses naturally occurring bacteria at high concentrations in tanks. The bacteria in the activated sludge process remove small molecules of organic carbon, nitrogen, and phosphate as a consequence of bacterial growth and the waste water is purified. The effluent can then be safely released to the environment. Respirometry techniques are an effective tool to measure the respiration of living organisms. These techniques are associated with …

Imaging Characterization Of Current Generating Lipid-Protein Membranes, Joel D. Kamwa

Microelectronics-Photonics Student Works

Imaging Characterization of Current Generating Lipid-protein Membranes

Irrigania Game Activity - Ii, Kaveh Madani

All ECSTATIC Materials

Directed class activity for students to play the Irrigania Game by Seibert and Vis (2012). Students choose to irrigate fields each year (round) with rainwater, surface water, or groundwater to maximize profit. Six different games are described.

Game 1

• Objective: Maximize your individual rank (profit) in class

• Rules: 1) No communication between you and any other farmer, 2) Precipitation = Normal (P=1), 3) Number of years (rounds) = 15.

Game 2

• Objective: Maximize your individual rank (profit) in class
• Rules: 1) No communication constraints, 2) Precipitation = Normal (P=1), 3), Number of years (rounds) = 15.

Game 3

• Objective: Maximize …

Ice Adhesion Analysis Of Severely Aged Pdms Rubbers, Theodore R. Woll

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The goal of this study was to evaluate and optimize the ice adhesion test initially developed by the University of Denver and to examine Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) based silicone rubbers for their ice-phobicity as a function of their physical and chemistry properties, and under severe oxidative aging. The test is based on an ice block bonded to a silicone rubber substrate and subjected to shear. In its original state, the test had severe limitations that caused the ice to be dislodged through a mixture of shear and peeling. Several steps were taken in this research to improve the test, and the …

Nanoengineering Of Next Generation Silicone Rubber Materials For Extreme Applications, Monika Bleszynski

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Silicone rubber materials are frequently used in extreme environments, including aviation, space, high voltage and other applications. In service, however, complex and difficult to predict damage mechanisms in the rubbers can occur which can lead to severe failures of essential infrastructural components. For example, Non-Ceramic Insulators (NCIs), which support some of the most critical high voltage lines in the world, regularly exhibit severe polymer aging due to environmental pollution, ultra-violet (UV) radiation, and dry band and corona arcing. Designing silicone rubbers to resist aging in these demanding environments is difficult and requires an interdisciplinary approach, including correctly assessing the actual …

Fused Particle Fabrication 3-D Printing: Recycled Materials’ Optimization And Mechanical Properties, Aubrey Woern, Dennis Byard, Robert B. Oakley, Matthew J. Fiedler, Samantha Snabes, Joshua M. Pearce

Department of Materials Science and Engineering Publications

Fused particle fabrication (FPF) (or fused granular fabrication (FGF)) has potential for increasing recycled polymers in 3-D printing. Here, the open source Gigabot X is used to develop a new method to optimize FPF/FGF for recycled materials. Virgin polylactic acid (PLA) pellets and prints were analyzed and were then compared to four recycled polymers including the two most popular printing materials (PLA and acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS)) as well as the two most common waste plastics (polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and polypropylene (PP)). The size characteristics of the various materials were quantified using digital image processing. Then, power and nozzle velocity …

Climate-Informed Environmental Inflows To Revive A Drying Lake Facing Meteorological And Anthropogenic Droughts, Mojtaba Sadegh

Civil Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

The rapid shrinkage of Lake Urmia, one of the world’s largest saline lakes located in northwestern Iran, is a tragic wake-up call to revisit the principles of water resources management based on the socio-economic and environmental dimensions of sustainable development. The overarching goal of this paper is to set a framework for deriving dynamic, climate-informed environmental inflows for drying lakes considering both meteorological/climatic and anthropogenic conditions. We report on the compounding effects of meteorological drought and unsustainable water resource management that contributed to Lake Urmia’s contemporary environmental catastrophe. Using rich datasets of hydrologic attributes, water demands and withdrawals, as well …

Experimental Study And Modeling Of The GM-I Dependence Of Long-Channel Mosfets, Michael Cheng, Vladimir I. Prodanov

Electrical Engineering

This paper describes an experimental study and modeling of the current-transconductance dependence of the ALD1106 and ALD1107 arrays. The study tests the hypothesis that the I-g _m dependence of these 7.8 μm MOSFETs conforms to the Advanced Compact Model (ACM). Results from performed measurements, however, do not support this expectation. Despite the relatively large length, both ALD1106 and ALD1107 show sufficiently pronounced `short-channel' effects to render the ACM inadequate. As a byproduct of this effort, we confirmed the modified ACM equation. With an m factor of approximately 0.6, it captures the I-g _m dependence quite well. The paper also introduces …

Insights Into Low Salinity Water Flooding, Hasan N. Al-Saedi, Ralph E. Flori, Patrick V. Brady

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

In our previous work, we examined the potential of divalent cations (Mg²⁺ and Ca²⁺) in formation water (FW) for low-salinity (LS) EOR effect, where the increase in divalent cations in FW lowered the impact of LS water EOR.

In this paper, we demonstrate the importance of the same divalent cations in the injected water (both FW and LS water). We also try to relate the percentage of the divalent cations in the injected water to that in the FW to engineer the optimum concentration of the injected water and obtain the maximum oil recovery from sandstone reservoirs. …

Analysis Of Metallic Shielding For Reduction Of Rf Induced Heating Of Electrode During Mri For Active Implants, Krishna M. Singhal

Open Access Dissertations

The options available to patients with implantable devices are limited. It is because there are multiple interactions between the MRI environment and the implantable medical devices. The three main components of MRI systems- static magnet, RF coil, and a gradient coil- interact with the implantable medical devices. These interactions can cause force, torque, device vibrations and RF-induced heating. Among all these potential hazards is the heating caused by the RF electromagnetic field. The lead wires of the implants can act as antennas and pick up the electric field generated by the RF coil. This results in the induced current traveling …

Santa Clara Magazine, Volume 59 Number 2, 3, 4, August 2018 [Print Issues V. 58:2, 3, 4], Santa Clara University

Santa Clara Magazine

3 - GOOOAL! By Giannina Ong ’18

4 - LOVE, ARMAND Letters from a freshman to his widowed mother from a century ago

Measuring The Vortex-Shedding Frequency Behind Staggered Cylinders In Cross-Flow, Christopher Clark

Mechanical Engineering Master's Theses

In this thesis, the Strouhal numbers from the downstream cylinder in a two cylinder configuration have been measured experimentally. Special apparatuses were designed to secure the cylinders in the wind tunnel as well as to hold a hot film anemometer probe in the center of the downstream cylinder’s wake. The cylinders were smooth, of equal diameter and extended the entire width of the wind tunnel. Because the cylinders used in this thesis were sufficiently long compared to their diameters and measurements were taken at center span, they were assumed to be infinite. The anemometer was calibrated according to King’s Law, …

Evaluation Of Seismic Performance Of Mid-Rise Reinforced Concrete Frames Subjected To Far-Field And Near-Field Ground Motions, Mokhtar Ansari, Masoud Ansari, Amir Safiey

Publications

Damages to buildings affected by a near-fault strong ground motion are largely attributed to the vertical component of the earthquake resulting in column failures, which could lead to disproportionate building catastrophic collapse in a progressive fashion. Recently, considerable interests are awakening to study effects of earthquake vertical components on structural responses. In this study, detailed modeling and time-history analyses of a 12-story code-conforming reinforced concrete moment frame building carrying the gravity loads, and exposed to once only the horizontal component of, and second time simultaneously the horizontal and vertical components of an ensemble of far-field and near-field earthquakes are conducted. …

Mechanically Assisted Electrochemical Degradation Of Alumina-Tic Composites, Hetal Umesh Maharaja, Guigen Zhang

Publications

Alumina-TiC composite material is a tough ceramic composite with excellent hardness, wear resistance and oxidation resistance in dry and high-temperature conditions. In aqueous conditions, however, it is likely to be electrochemically active facilitating charge transfer processes due to the conductive nature of TiC. For application as an orthopedic biomaterial, it is crucial to assess the electrochemical behavior of this composite, especially under a combined mechanical and electrochemical environment. In this study, we examined the mechanically assisted electrochemical performance of alumina-TiC composite in an aqueous environment. The spontaneous electrochemical response to brushing abrasion was measured. Changes in the magnitude of electrochemical …

Exploring The Relationship Between Online Discourse And Commitment In Twitter Professional Learning Communities, Wanli Xing, Fei Gao

Visual Communications and Technology Education Faculty Publications

Educators show great interest in participating in social-media communities, such as Twitter, to support their professional development and learning. The majority of the research into Twitter-based professional learning communities has investigated why educators choose to use Twitter for professional development and learning and what they actually do in these communities. However, few studies have examined why certain community members remain committed and others gradually drop out. To fill this gap in the research, this study investigated how some key features of online discourse influenced the continued participation of the members of a Twitter-based professional learning community. More than 600,000 tweets …

Grasp And Stress Analysis Of An Underactuated Finger For Proprioceptive Tactile Sensing, Mahyar Abdeetedal, Mehrdad Kermani Ph.D., P.Eng.

Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications

This paper presents the design and evaluation of a new sensorized underactuated self-adaptive finger. The design incorporates a two-degrees-of-freedom link-driven underactuated mechanism with an embedded load cell for contact force measurement and a trimmer potentiometer for acquiring joint variables. The utilization of proprioceptive (internal) sensors results in tactile-like sensations in the finger without compromising the size and complexity of the proposed design. To obtain an optimum finger design, the placement of the load cell is analyzed using finite element method. The design of the finger features a particular rounded shape of the distal phalanx and specific size ratio between the …

High-Resolution Qpf Uncertainty And Its Implications For Flood Prediction: A Case Study For The Eastern Iowa Flood Of 2016, Bong Chul Seo, Felipe Quintero, Witold F. Krajewski

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This study addresses the uncertainty of High-Resolution Rapid Refresh (HRRR) quantitative precipitation forecasts (QPFs), which were recently appended to the operational hydrologic forecasting framework. In this study, we examine the uncertainty features of HRRR QPFs for an Iowa flooding event that occurred in September 2016. Our evaluation of HRRR QPFs is based on the conventional approach of QPF verification and the analysis of mean areal precipitation (MAP) with respect to forecast lead time. The QPF verification results show that the precipitation forecast skill of HRRR significantly drops during short lead times and then gradually decreases for further lead times. The …

Geophysical Assessment Of Subsurface Soil Conditions Using Capacitively Coupled Resistivity, Folaseye Coker

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research is to explore the applicability of Capacitively-Coupled Resistivity (CCR) as an improvement on traditional drilling and sampling methods for subsurface soil investigations. The CCR method could be used to identify critical locations for drilling and sampling such as expansive clay layers and anomalies (sinkholes, unknown landfills, etc.) rather than uniformly sampling across a site. CCR surveys were performed at Alpena, Arkansas along a highway expansion project changing US 62 from a two lane to four lane highway, and at Alton, Illinois along the Mel Price Levee, a 5.2 mile levee along a portion of the …

Computer Modeling Of Close-To-Ground Tornado Wind-Fields For Different Tornado Widths, Mohammadhossein Kashefizadeh

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Tornadoes induce different wind forces on buildings than straight-line (SL) winds. The tangential velocity (Vθ) of tornados is the main parameter that causes damage to the buildings. In-field tornado measurements cannot evaluate the tornado’s Vθ at less than 20m above ground level (AGL). The laboratory tornado simulators suggest that the Swirl ratio (S) and the radius (ro) are the most influential factors affecting Vθ. However, due to scaling problems, laboratory simulators cannot report the Vθ for elevations less than 10m AGL. Well refined computational fluid dynamics (CFD) models can evaluate the Vθ at less than 10m AGL. However, the CFD …

Proposed Astm Standard For The Stokoe-Type Resonant Column Torsional Shear Device, Anh Tuan Tran

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Resonant Column Torsional Shear (RCTS) testing has become one of the most commonly used methods for determining laboratory soil stiffness and soil damping. The RCTS test has been accepted and is commonly utilized during the permitting of new nuclear facilities. However, there is still no available public standard for performing RCTS tests using the Stokoe-type device. Therefore, an ASTM standard for calibration and performance of RCTS tests using the Stokoe-type RCTS device is presented herein. Data collected using the Stokoe-type RCTS devices at the University of Arkansas (UofA) and at the Norwegian Geotechnical Institute (NGI) also aided in the development …

Testing And Development Of Pre-Stressed Cfrp Retrofit Strategies For Controlling Fatigue Cracking In Steel Waterway Lock Gate Structures, Maggie Langston

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Steel waterway lock gates across the national inland waterway transportation network are reaching and exceeding their intended service life, often experiencing component failures that lead to service interruptions. Unscheduled maintenance and repair of lock gates can be expensive and cause economic ripples throughout the entire inland waterway network. These lock gate component failures are often caused by fatigue cracking from repeated loading during operation. This thesis develops and tests a prestressed carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) fatigue retrofit for controlling fatigue demands within lock gate components. The study expands upon a recent analytical work by Lozano (2017) by experimentally investigating …

Graduate School Of Engineering And Management Catalog 2018-2019, Graduate School Of Engineering And Management, Air Force Institute Of Technology

AFIT Documents

The Graduate Catalog represents the offerings, programs, and requirements in effect at the time of publication.

Development Of Iowa Dot Combination Bridge Separation Barrier With Bicycle Railing, Chaz M. Ginger

Department of Engineering Mechanics: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The Iowa Department of Transportation typically builds separation barriers between vehicle and pedestrian/bicycle facilities when sidewalks or trails are present on vehicular bridges. Currently, Iowa DOT employs a combination bridge rail that utilizes a concrete parapet that previously had been successfully evaluated to National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Report 350 Test Level 4 (TL-4) criteria for these situations. While the parapet had been successfully evaluated, the combination bridge rail system as a whole had not been evaluated to any crash test standards. Iowa DOT desired that researchers at Midwest Roadside Safety Facility (MwRSF) design and test a combination bridge …

Computational Study On The Cu-Rich Side Of Aluminum-Copper Phase Diagram, Khaled Ahmed Hirmas

Material Science and Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Cu-rich side of Al-Cu phase diagram has not been studied extensively as the Al-rich side. It is well established that a one-phase (a phase) exists at 300oC between the 82% Cu and pure Cu, and at the eutectic temperature (1032oC) between 86% Cu and pure Cu, a phase, when quenched from above 600oC and subjected to annealing below about 300oC, or deformation, show ordering effects in resistivity, heat capacity, diffuse X-ray, microstructure, and in mechanical properties. This has been studied to determine whether these effects are due to short-range or long-range ordered domain [1]. The present computational study is to …

Lifepo4 Batteries: Impact Of Highly Parallel Packs On Load Distribution And Cycle Life, Caroline Storm Westenhover

Electrical Engineering Dissertations - Archive

The United States Navy is considering Li-ion batteries for use as a primary power source for future naval shipboard pulsed-power applications. To supply sufficient power to a load, electrochemical cells are connected in series and parallel to create a higher voltage and higher capacity battery. The simplest way of connecting multiple cells in parallel is to tie all positive terminals together, all negative terminals together, and then electrically treat the array of cells as a single cell within the larger battery. In this configuration, a single battery management system (BMS) can be used to manage N parallel cells but there …

Multi-Physics Design Optimization Of 2d And Advanced Heterogenous 3d Integrated Circuits, Pavan Rajmane

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Dissertations - Archive

The convergence and miniaturization of computing and communications dictate building up rather than out. As planar device miniaturization continues to its ultimate limits, the complexity of circuit interconnections for 2-D devices becomes a limitation for performance and drives up power dissipation [1]. Failure analysis and its effects are major reliability concerns in electronic packaging. More accurate fatigue life prediction can be obtained after the consideration of all affecting loads on the electronic devices. In this study, an attempt is made to analyze 3 types of packages i.e. Wafer Level Chip Scale Package (WCSP), Quad Flat No-Lead (QFN) Package and 2-Die …