Engineering Commons^™

Vertical Electrical Impedance Measurements On Concrete Bridge Decks Using A Large-Area Electrode, Jeffrey David Barton

Theses and Dissertations

In regions where chloride-based deicing salts are applied to bridge decks, corrosion of the interior steel reinforcement is a major problem. Vertical electrical impedance (VEI) is an effective measurement technique to quantitatively assess the cover protection on bridges against aggressive chemical penetration of reinforced concrete. In its current form, traditional vertical electrical impedance is time-consuming and destructive because a direct connection to the reinforcing steel is required to provide a ground reference. A new method using a large-area electrode (LAE) permits VEI measurement without a direct electrical connection to the steel reinforcement. The LAE creates a nondestructive, semi-direct, low impedance …

Adjusting For Time Varying Confounding In Adaptive Interdisciplinary Pain Management Program, Nilabh Ohol

Industrial, Manufacturing, and Systems Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Interdisciplinary pain management combines multiple disciplines of professionals to understand the biological and psychosocial factors causing a patient's pain and to determine the best treatments among many to administer. The Eugene McDermott Center of Pain at University of Texas at Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas runs a two stage adaptive interdisciplinary pain management program with the aim to improve current and future pain outcomes. The sequential treatment regime for the pain and the observational nature of data yield to time varying confounding and a form of endogeneity. This yields biased estimates of the treatment effects which is undesirable. Our adaptive …

Elementet Lidhëse Tek Konstruksionet E Drurit – Shqyrtimi I Literaturës Ekzistuese Dhe Rast Studimi Analitik, Visar Nurshaba

Theses and Dissertations

Punimi i realizuar bazohet në lëndën: Konstruksionet e Drurit. Në këtë punim bëhet fjalë për konstruksionet e kulmeve në përgjithësi dhe elementet lidhëse të konstruksionit në veçanti. Materiali ka për qëllim prezantimin e elementeve lidhëse dhe mënyrat e ndryshme të përdorimit të tyre në strukturën e kulmit. Ndarja është bërë në kapituj ku pasqyrohet kronologjia e përdorimit të drurit nga koha kur zuri hapat e parë të përdorimit e deri tek përdorimi bashkëkohor me mjetet e avancuara të përpunimit. Elementet lidhëse ofrojnë një komoditet më të madh në aspektin e montimit të elementeve të drurit dhe jetëgjatësi më të madhe …

Organizimi I Objektit “Depo Per Materiale Elektrike”, Krenare Elezi

Theses and Dissertations

Qëllimi për këtë punim bazohet në hulumtimin e organizimit të punishtes, zgjidhjen e parakohshme të problemeve që mund të ndodhin gjatë ndërtimit, rritjen e cilësisë si dhe efektivitetin e proceseve të menaxhimit. Objekti që është marrë shembull në këtë punim është dedikuar për depo e materialit elektrik dhe vendodhja e tij është në zonën industriale Gjakovë. Problemi kryesor që shfaqet gjatë realizimit të një objekti ndërtimor shpesh vihet si shkak i një planifikimi jo korrekt, që mund të vjen deri në humbjet e shumta në aspektin kohor dhe financiar. Prandaj ky punim ka si motiv kryesor organizmin, si fazë kryesore …

A Framework For Estimating Immediate Interdependent Functionality Reduction Of A Steel Hospital Following A Seismic Event, Emad M. Hassan, Hussam Mahmoud

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Functionality of an infrastructure is its ability to provide its intended services. Maintaining an acceptable level of infrastructure functionality, particularly for critical infrastructure, following an extreme event is vital for effective community recovery. Estimating functionality depends on proper quantification of losses, which requires accurate assessment of infrastructure damage. The damage is presented in the form of fragility functions that are generally developed using nonlinear finite element analysis. To date, no study has been conducted to assess the effect of modeling approach on seismic fragilities of an infrastructure, the associated losses, and functionality reduction. In addition, existing frameworks for estimating functionality …

A New Approach To Measure Soil Shrinkage Curve, Lin Li, Xiong Zhang

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The shrinkage curve is widely used to characterize soil deformation during drying. Over the years, several methods have been developed to measure soil shrinkage curves. However, these methods suffered from several limitations and were rarely used because of difficulties in accurate soil volume measurement during drying. In this study, a simple method is proposed to measure soil shrinkage curves. The soil volume is measured using a photogrammetric technique from which a three-dimensional (3D) model of the soil specimen during drying can be accurately reconstructed. The soil volume is calculated based on the reconstructed 3D model. Meanwhile, a digital balance is …

Low-Cost Experimental System For Center Of Mass And Center Of Pressure Measurement, Cai Xia Yang

Mechanical Engineering Faculty Publications

Falls happen when the center of mass of body is outside of its base of support and the recovery of the center of mass back to the base of support failed. Balance ability is an essential ability needed for humans' daily routine activities. Improving balance ability should result in a better and more convenient way of living. There are various factors influence on balance ability. The focus of this paper is to investigate which factors have the greatest effect on balance. Balance ability is measured by deviations of center of pressure in both x-direction (side-to-side) and y-direction (front-to-back) with the …

Feature-Based Discretization Of A Turbine Disk For Probabilistic Risk Assessment, Michael Thomas, Jace Carter, Lloyd Matson, Tarun Goswami

Biomedical, Industrial & Human Factors Engineering Faculty Publications

There is an economic need to extend the useful life of jet engine rotors. Retirement-for-Cause (RFC) is a lifing method that allows for the continued operation of components passed traditional life limits. Under RFC, an extension of damage tolerance, components are deemed safe for a further service interval using non-destructive inspections (NDI) for crack like defe cts. As components are kept in-service beyond their designed service life it is essential that the probability of failure (POF), or risk, of continued service is known. Under current FAA rotor design certification practices the component POF is analyzed using a probabilistic framework focused …

Development Of A Framework To Estimate Social And Environmental Costs Of Truck, Railroad, And Underground Freight Transportation, Amir Tabesh

Civil Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Increasing freight transportation capacity is the most important factor to keep US economy viable. Trucks moved 11.5 billion tons of goods, or 63.8 percent of total freight shipments in 2015, which is projected to grow to 16.6 billion tons by 2045. It is predicted truck travel may increase from 282 million miles per day in 2012 to 488 million miles per day by 2045. The U.S. railroad system includes 138,000 rail miles, which 93,500 miles owned and operated by Class I railroad and the rest of them owned and operated by regional and local railroads. While the miles of railroad …

Planning, Design, And Operational Analysis Of Underground Freight Transportation Systems With Individual Autonomous Vehicles, Sirwan Shahooei

Civil Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Given the increases in freight transportation demand, the current infrastructure for freight transportation appears insufficient. Moreover, the future development of capacity for freight transportation infrastructure seems to be limited. Based on a U.S. DOT report, most of the U.S. freight transportation infrastructure’s construction dates back to the 1960s. This puts a heavy burden on the national highway and railroad systems. The growing demand for freight will increase truck traffic on both urban and rural highways. The increase in truck traffic on highways will result in multiple challenges, including traffic congestion, security concerns, infrastructure deterioration, environmental pollution, energy consumption, increase in …

Evaluation Of Fiber Reinforced Polymer (Frp) Strengthening For Deteriorated Bridge Bent Caps, Yazan Almomani

Civil Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Deterioration of aging highway bridges has been a serious concern in the U. S. A. Almost 39% percent of all bridges in the country have passed their 50-year design life, and approximately 9% of these bridges are structurally deficient due to concrete deterioration and truck weight increases on highways. Compared to superstructures, the deterioration of bridge substructures and associated repair/strengthening/evaluation has received much less attention in previous studies. A reinforced concrete bridge built in 1940 and located in Dallas, Texas, exhibited moderate to severe corrosion related concrete deterioration in the bent caps. Eight such bent caps were selected herein for …

A New Approach For Performance Evaluation Of Bridge Infrastructure Using Terrestrial Lidar And Advanced Mathematical Modeling, Ali Shafikhani

Civil Engineering Dissertations - Archive

High plastic expansive clays when subjected to different climatic conditions undergo large ground movements causing distress to infrastructures including bridges, pavements, buildings, retaining structures, and others. Performance assessment of these structures built on problematic soils such as expansive clays is important to reduce maintenance and extending the design life of infrastructure. Rapid developments in remote sensing technologies with precise evaluation have influenced the monitoring techniques for assessing the health condition of civil infrastructure projects. While these technologies have considerably aided in performance evaluation, cogent procedures for evaluating the ground movements are still required that integrates technologies, climatic factors, soil behavior …

Tk-Mars: An Efficient Approach For Deterministic And Stochastic Black-Box Optimization, Hadis Anahideh

Industrial, Manufacturing, and Systems Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Surrogate optimization approaches for black-box functions focus on approximating the underlying function, using metamodeling techniques, in order to optimize computationally expensive simulation models. Historically, surrogate optimization models have been validated by deterministic (noiseless) functions with every variable being significant. As a result, many surrogate optimization models used interpolating surrogates. However, many real world experiments often times include parameters that are insignificant and uncertainties associated with the black-box function. Using traditional interpolating surrogate optimization methods can lead to surrogate models with unnecessary predictors and sensitivity to noise. Consequently, a surrogate model with flexible, non-interpolating, and parsimonious characteristics is required to overcome …

Highway Cross Slope Measurement Using Airborne And Mobile Lidar, Alireza Shams Esfandabadi

All Dissertations

Ensuring adequate pavement cross slope on highways can improve driver safety by reducing the potential for water sheeting and ponding. Collecting cross slope data is typically only based on small sample because efficient technology and means to collect accurate cross slope data has been evasive. The advent of Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) scanning technology has proven to be a valuable tool in the creation of 3D terrain models. Combined with other technologies such as Global Positioning Systems (GPS) and Inertial Measurement Unit devices (IMU) it is now possible to collect accurate 3D coordinate data in the form of a …

Demand-Aware Charger Planning For Electric Vehicle Sharing, Bowen Du, Yongxin Tong, Zimu Zhou, Qian Tao, Wenjun Zhou

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Cars of the future have been predicted as shared and electric. There has been a rapid growth in electric vehicle (EV) sharing services worldwide in recent years. For EV-sharing platforms to excel, it is essential for them to offer private charging infrastructure for exclusive use that meets the charging demand of their clients. Particularly, they need to plan not only the places to build charging stations, but also the amounts of chargers per station, to maximally satisfy the requirements on global charging coverage and local charging demand. Existing research efforts are either inapplicable for their different problem formulations or are …

Conformal Inkjet Printed Antennas For Small Spacecraft, Muhammadeziz Tursunniyaz

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Although small spacecraft are small in size and light in weight compared to the conventional satellites, they can offer lots of possibilities for space exploration, scientific observation, data collection and telecommunication. Also, they cost a lot less money than the conventional satellites, and the scientific missions can be planned in a relatively short period of time by using the COTS (Commercial Off-The-Shelf) materials. However, there is a big challenge for the small spacecraft that is the limited surface area of the small spacecraft and the outnumbered components to be mounted on the surface of the small spacecraft. The most obvious …

Tackling Choke Point Induced Performance Bottlenecks In A Near-Threshold Gpgpu, Tahmoures Shabanian

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Over the last decade, General Purpose Graphics Processing Units (GPGPUs) have garnered a substantial attention in the research community due to their extensive thread-level parallelism. GPGPUs provide a remarkable performance improvement over Central Processing Units (CPUs), for highly parallel applications. However, GPGPUs typically achieve this extensive thread-level parallelism at the cost of a large power consumption. Consequently, Near-Threshold Computing (NTC) provides a promising opportunity for designing energy-efficient GPGPUs (NTC-GPUs). However, NTC-GPUs suffer from a crucial Process Variation (PV)-inflicted performance bottleneck, which is called Choke Point. Choke Point is defined as one or small group of gates which is affected by …

Advancing Methods To Quantify Actual Evapotranspiration In Stony Soil Ecosystems, Kshitij Parajuli

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Water is undeniably among the most important natural resources and the most critical in semi-arid regions like the Intermountain West of the United States. Such regions are characterized by low precipitation, the majority of which is transferred to the atmosphere from the soil and vegetation as evapotranspiration (ET). Quantification of ET is thus crucial for understanding the balance of water within the region, which is important for efficiently planning the available water resources. This study was motivated towards advancing the estimation of actual ET (ET_A) in mountain ecosystems, where the variation in different types of vegetation and non-uniformity …

Water Entry Cavity Dynamics, Nathan B. Speirs

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

When a sphere or a stream of water hits the surface of a pool of water and enters a crater or air cavity often forms. This topic has been studied, both formally and informally, for a long time. This dissertation investigates four areas of water impact that are still poorly understood using high-speed photography. First, it examines a stream of droplets impacting on a pool of water, similar to a faucet drizzling into a full bucket. For these types of impacts we predict the depth, diameter, velocity, and shape of the cavities that the droplet stream forms. Second, it examines …

Application Aware Reconfigurable Antennas And Arrays For 5g And Beyond Wireless Communication Systems, Md Asaduzzaman Towfiq

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Antennas enable wireless communication by transmission and reception of electromagnetic (EM) signals, which carry information in space. Signal reception and hence the quality of service depends significantly on the antenna properties, e.g. radiation pattern, operational frequency, and polarization. Legacy antennas, with their fixed properties, fail to adapt to the changing environment and degrade signal quality. Reconfigurable antennas (RAs) capable of changing their properties dynamically increase the capacity and data rate of wireless systems while offering a compact design. However, these advantages come at the cost of increased complexity compared to legacy antennas. Therefore it is important to design RAs with …

Nanometer Ultrastructural Brain Damage Following Low Intensity Primary Blast Wave Exposure, Hailong Song, Landry M. Konan, Jiankun Cui, Catherine E. Johnson, Graham K. Hubler, Ralph G. Depalma, Zezong Gu

Mining Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Blast-induced mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) is of particular concern among military personnel due to exposure to blast energy during military training and combat. The impact of primary low-intensity blast mediated pathophysiology upon later neurobehavioral disorders has been controversial. Developing a military preclinical blast model to simulate the pathophysiology of human blast injury is an important first step. This article provides an overview of primary blast effects and perspectives of our recent studies demonstrating ultrastructural changes in the brain and behavioral disorders resulting from open-field blast exposures up to 46.6 kPa using a murine model. The model is scalable and …

Fast Prediction Of Thermal Distortion In Metal Powder Bed Fusion Additive Manufacturing: Part 2, A Quasi-Static Thermo-Mechanical Model, Hao Peng, Morteza Ghasri-Khouzani, Shan Gong, Ross Attardo, Pierre Ostiguy, Ronald B. Rogge, Bernice Aboud Gatrell, Joseph Budzinski, Charles Tomonto, Joel Neidig, M. Ravi Shankar, Richard Billo, David B. Go, David Hoelzle

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The additive manufacturing (AM) process metal powder bed fusion (PBF) can quickly produce complex parts with mechanical properties comparable to that of wrought materials. However, thermal stress accumulated during Metal PBF may induce part distortion and even cause failure of the entire process. This manuscript is the second part of two companion manuscripts that collectively present a part-scale simulation method for fast prediction of thermal distortion in Metal PBF. The first part provides a fast prediction of the temperature history in the part via a thermal circuit network (TCN) model. This second part uses the temperature history from the TCN …

Inverse Dynamic Analysis Of Acl Reconstructed Knee Joint Biomechanics During Gait And Cycling Using Opensim, Megan V. Pottinger

Master's Theses

ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) injuries of the knee joint alter biomechanics and may cause abnormal loading conditions that place patients at a higher risk of developing osteoarthritis (OA). There are multiple types of ACL reconstruction (ACLR), but all types aim to restore anterior tibial translation and internal tibial rotation following surgery. Analyzing knee joint contact loads provide insight into the loading conditions following ACLR that may contribute to the long-term development of OA. Ten ACLR subjects, who underwent the same reconstruction, performed gait and cycling experiments while kinematic and kinetic data were collected. Inverse dynamic analyses were performed on processed …

Design And Analysis Of A Parabolic Trough Solar Concentrator, George N. Skouras

Master's Theses

A prototype solar desalination system (SODESAL) with a parabolic-trough solar concentrator (PTSC) and evacuated tube was designed and analyzed to determine the solar thermal capabilities for small-scale distillation and energy generation. A proof-of-concept study verified that distillation is possible with the system as designed, however a rupture occurred in the copper heat-pipe heat exchanger due to overheating. The internal temperatures of an aluminum heat transfer fin were measured inside an evacuated tube typically used in solar water heater systems to understand the lateral heat distribution and identify possible causes of the rupture. Solar radiation was measured for both the summer …

Antimicrobial Efficacy And Safety Of A Novel Gas Plasma-Activated Catheter Lock Solution, Sudhir Bhatt, Poonam Mehta, Chen Chen, Dayle A. Daines, Leonard A. Mermel, Hai-Lan Chen, Michael G. Kong

Bioelectrics Publications

Antimicrobial lock solutions are important for prevention of microbial colonization and infection of long-term central venous catheters. We investigated the efficacy and safety of a novel antibiotic-free lock solution formed from gas plasma-activated disinfectant (PAD). Using a luminal biofilm model, viable cells of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, Staphylococcus epidermidis, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Candida albicans in mature biofilms were reduced by 6 to 8 orders of magnitude with a PAD lock for 60 min. Subsequent 24-h incubation of PAD-treated samples resulted in no detectable regrowth of viable bacteria or fungi. As a comparison, the use of a minocycline-EDTA-ethanol lock solution for 60 …

A Reference High-Pressure Co2 Adsorption Isotherm For Ammonium Zsm-5 Zeolite: Results Of An Interlaboratory Study, H. G.T. Nguyen, L. Espinal, R. D. Van Zee, M. Thommes, B. Toman, M. S.L. Hudson, E. Mangano, S. Brandani, D. P. Broom, M. J. Benham, K. Cychosz, P. Bertier, F. Yang, B. M. Krooss, R. L. Siegelman, M. Hakuman, K. Nakai, A. D. Ebner, L. Erden, J. A. Ritter, A. Moran, Orhan Talu, Y. Huang, K. S. Walton, P. Billemont, G. De Weireld

Chemical & Biomedical Engineering Faculty Publications

© 2018, The Author(s). This paper reports the results of an international interlaboratory study led by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) on the measurement of high-pressure surface excess carbon dioxide adsorption isotherms on NIST Reference Material RM 8852 (ammonium ZSM-5 zeolite), at 293.15 K (20 °C) from 1 kPa up to 4.5 MPa. Eleven laboratories participated in this exercise and, for the first time, high-pressure adsorption reference data are reported using a reference material. An empirical reference equation nex=d(1+exp[(-ln(P)+a)/b])c, [nex-surface excess uptake (mmol/g), P-equilibrium pressure (MPa), a = −6.22, b = 1.97, c = 4.73, and d …

Evaluation Of Roadway Lighting Practices, Brian K. Howell, William Nicholas Staats, Austin William Obenauf, Jerry G. Pigman

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

Adequate roadway lighting allows better driver visibility during nighttime conditions. Research studies show that lighted roadways on average experience 28 percent fewer vehicles crashes on all roadway types. Most state DOTs have historically used High-Pressure Sodium (HPS) lights for their roadside lighting programs due to their wide availability and relatively low purchase costs. However, the short lifespan of HPS results in frequent replacement, leading to high life cycle costs. Light-Emitting Diode (LED) lights consume less energy, demonstrate improved performance, and require less overall maintenance due to their longer lifespans. Over time, this translates into maintenance cost savings for stateDOTs. In …

Enginews, August 2018, School Of Computer Science & Engineering

News, Magazines and Reports

A Summer of Collaboration: MakerSpace students.

Bird Hazard Mitigation Training For General Aviation Pilots - A Prospective Research Study, Flavio A. C. Mendonca, Thomas Q. Carney

Publications

• General aviation industry
• 446,000 aircraft worldwide
• 211,000 in the U.S.
• Supports $219 billion in total economic output and 1.1 million jobs in the U.S
• Flies approximately 25 million flight hours (U.S.)
• Flies to more than 5,000 public airports
• Primary training ground for most commercial airline pilots

Measuring Solid–Liquid Interfacial Energy Fields: Diffusion-Limited Patterns, Martin E. Glicksman

Mechanical and Civil Engineering Faculty Publications

The Leibniz–Reynolds transport theorem yields an omnimetric interface energy balance, i.e., one valid over all continuum length scales. The transport theorem, moreover, indicates that solid–liquid interfaces support capillary-mediated redistributions of energy capable of modulating an interface’s motion—a thermodynamic phenomenon not captured by Stefan balances that exclude capillarity. Capillary energy fields affect interfacial dynamics on scales from about 10 nm to several mm. These mesoscopic fields were studied using entropy density multiphase-field simulations. Energy rate distributions were exposed and measured by simulating equilibrated solid–liquid interfaces configured as stationary grain boundary grooves (GBGs). Negative rates of energy distributed over GBGs were measured …