Engineering Commons^™

Mine Arnaud Project: Flotation Circuit Adjustment And Collector Reduction, Christine Croteau, Patrick Laflamme, Michel Lafontaine

Beneficiation of Phosphates VIII

The Mine Arnaud open deposit is located in Sept-Iles in the province of Quebec, Canada. The project, which is currently under development, consists of igneous apatite ore grading around 5% P₂O₅.The target metallurgical performances are set to a concentrate of P₂O₅ grade of at least 39% with an overall P₂O₅ recovery above 90%.The beneficiation of the ore is achieved by grinding to the liberation size, magnetic separation to remove the titaniferous magnetite and phosphate flotation. Most of Mine Arnaud’s apatite beneficiation flowsheet development testwork was realized by COREM. The most …

Effective Resource Utilization In Arkansas Public Schools, Ryan Sanders

Industrial Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Teacher pay in Arkansas public schools varies widely from district to district across the state. This pay discrepancy is driven by both the funds available to a district and by how these funds are allocated. There is a standard per student budget given to districts across the state, but this budget can be supplemented by additional property taxes collected on property within a district. This leaves districts with more highly valued property at an advantage. Districts are free to allocate their budget for teacher pay as they see fit, with constraints on number of students per teacher and minimum teacher …

Developing An Ergonomic Model And Automation Justification For Industrial Spraying Operations: A Case Study, Anthony Woods

Industrial Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Industrial spraying tasks prove to be some of the most dull, dirty, and dangerous jobs in the modern day. Although it is a ripe area for automation, justification methods do not typically account for the potential improvements in the ergonomics of a task from automating it. In addition, there is a gap in the ergonomics literature in formal methodologies to comprehensively evaluate an industrial spraying task ergonomically, including all relevant musculoskeletal elements. This research focuses on first developing a formal, comprehensive methodology for ergonomically evaluating industrial spraying tasks and attaining a final classification of the ergonomic ranking of the task. …

Multipurpose Iron Man Glove & Moveable Platform, Destinee Davis, João Marques, Thomas Plantin

Mechatronics Final Projects

The multipurpose glove is a hand-worn device that wirelessly controls the position of a platform and flashes a high power LED at a particular frequency in order to alias the motion of an oscillatory object. The position and motion of the platform is dictated by an accelerometer which is attached to the top of the glove, as shown in Fig. 1. The user can then tilt the hand forward, backward, left, or right, to cause the platform to move towards a desired location. The user can also adjust the flashing frequency of the high power LED that is attached to …

Identification Of Phase-Based Key Performance Factors And Their Best Practices In Construction Projects, Mohammadreza Habibi

Civil Engineering Theses - Archive

Delay and cost overrun in construction projects are two widespread problems arousing practitioners’ and scholars’ concerns as poor time and cost performance lead construction projects to failure. It is estimated that more than half of the construction industry’s projects encounter significant cost overruns and major delays, resulting in the industry having a tarnished reputation. Despite the attempts of numerous researchers to identify key performance factors, their results have been inconsistent. Most of the literature has focused solely on the construction phase budget and time overruns; the engineering/design and procurement phase costs and schedule performances have been rarely studied. Therefore, the …

Remaining Useful Life Prediction Of Water Pipes Using Artificial Neural Network And Adaptive Neuro Fuzzy Inference System Models, Razieh Tavakoli

Civil Engineering Dissertations - Archive

The U.S. water distribution system contains thousands of miles of pipes with differing materials, sizes, and ages. These pipes experience physical, environmental, structural and operational parameters that cause corrosion and eventually lead to their failures. The Remaining Useful Life (RUL) is the estimated time before a pipe will experience a failure mode specifically a pipe break. Pipe failure means collapse and deterioration of water pipes overtime. Pipe deterioration results in increased break rates, reduced hydraulic capacity, and detrimental impacts on water quality. Therefore, it is crucial to perform accurate models that can forecast deterioration rates along with estimates of remaining …

Comparison Of Ground Movements During Trenchless Technology Operations For Pipe And Box Installations By Numerical Analysis, Taha Ashoori

Civil Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Trenchless Technologies (TTs) are alternatives or methods of choice for the construction and renewal of buried pipe or box with little or no surface disruption. Specifically, TTs are used when other traditional methods, such as cut-and-cover methods are not physically possible. Other reasons for TT methods to be increasingly adopted by owners, engineers, and contractors are their low environmental impacts and, based on the project and the site conditions, lower costs per foot of installed pipe, making these technologies much more efficient and versatile with final results within a shorter time span. Trenchless technology methods are divided into two main …

Environmental Life Cycle Assessment Of Commercial Space Transportation Activities In The United States, Shelia Scott Neumann

Civil Engineering Dissertations - Archive

The Commercial Space Transportation (CST) activities in the United States are increasing and have increased over 50% in the last year. The launches in the United States for commercial purposes are expected to increase another 50% in the next 3-5 years. National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) environmental assessments do provide the regulatory environmental analysis for launching space vehicles within the United States. However, the environmental impacts from these launches have not been fully characterized. One method to characterize environmental impacts from a system is through conducting a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) based on an international standard, ISO14040. The results from …

Assessment Of Sustainability And Resilience In Transportation Infrastructure Geotechnics, Jasaswee T. Das

Civil Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Transportation infrastructure, such as roads, embankments, bridges, railroads, airports, docks, and canals, serve as pathways for the mobility of people, goods, and services, and form the backbone of cities and communities. The construction, operation, and rehabilitation of these facilities put significant strain on the local, state, and federal agencies, including depletion of natural resources, and contributing to the global carbon footprint and greenhouse gas emissions. Further, these features stimulate anthropocentric development in a region which affects the land-use patterns and influences the demography of communities. In recent years, most transportation infrastructure are typically designed to withstand external and internal disturbances …

Association Learning Via Deep Neural Networks, Trevor J. Landeen

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Deep learning has been making headlines in recent years and is often portrayed as an emerging technology on a meteoric rise towards fully sentient artificial intelligence. In reality, deep learning is the most recent renaissance of a 70 year old technology and is far from possessing true intelligence. The renewed interest is motivated by recent successes in challenging problems, the accessibility made possible by hardware developments, and dataset availability.

The predecessor to deep learning, commonly known as the artificial neural network, is a computational network setup to mimic the biological neural structure found in brains. However, unlike human brains, artificial …

The Use Of Microfluidics And Dielectrophoresis For Separation, Concentration, And Identification Of Bacteria, Cynthia Hanson

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Typical bacterial analysis involves culturing and visualizing colonies on an array of agar plates. The growth patterns and colors among the array are used to identify the bacteria. For fast growing bacteria such as Escherichia coli, analysis will take one to two days. However, slow growing bacteria such as mycobacteria can take weeks to identify. In addition, there are some species of bacteria that are viable but nonculturable. This lengthy analysis time is unacceptable for life-threatening infections and emergency situations. It is clear that to decrease the analysis of the bacteria, the culturing and growth steps must be avoided. …

Investigations Of Polyhydroxyalkanoate Secretion And Production Using Sustainable Carbon Sources, Chad L. Nielsen

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) are a type of biologically-produced plastic known for their biocompatibility and biodegradability. They have the potential to replace petroleum-based plastics as an environmentally-friendly alternative. This is beneficial because the release of plastics into environments such as the ocean and the buildup of plastics in landfills are major concerns facing society today. Currently, however, PHAs are significantly more expensive than their petroleum-based counterparts. This is largely due to the cost of carbon sources and of extracting the bioplastics from bacteria. The goal of these studies was to examine replacing traditional carbon sources used in PHA production like sugar and …

Numerical Evaluation Of Energy Release Rate At Material Interfaces For Fatigue Life Predictions, Robert L. Hendrickson

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Composite materials are becoming popular in almost all industries. Carbon-fiber and glass-fiber composites are used in aircraft, sports equipment, boats, prosthetics, and wind turbine blades. In all these applications, the composites are subjected to different loads. Loads can take the form of impact or cyclic/fatigue loading, both of which decrease the strength of composites as micro-cracks grow through the composite. Composite laminates are made up of fiber plies (thin layers of fiber) and the fibers are surrounded by a resin like epoxy. It is common for laminates to fail because of delamination growth (plies peeling apart). Small delaminations do not …

Methods For The Aerostructural Design And Optimization Of Wings With Arbitrary Planform And Payload Distribution, Jeffrey D. Taylor

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The design of an aircraft wing often involves the use of mathematical methods for simultaneous aerodynamic and structural design. The goal of many of these methods is to minimize the drag on the wing. A variety of computer models exist for this purpose, but some require the use of expensive time and computational resources to give meaningful results. As an alternative, some mathematical methods have been developed that give reason ably accurate results without the need for a computer. However, most of these methods can only be used for wings with specific shapes and payload distributions. In this thesis, a …

Thrust Augmented Nozzle For A Hybrid Rocket With A Helical Fuel Port, Joel H. Marshall

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

A thrust augmented nozzle for hybrid rocket systems is investigated. The design lever-ages 3-D additive manufacturing to embed a helical fuel port into the thrust chamber of a hybrid rocket burning gaseous oxygen and ABS plastic as propellants. The helical port significantly increases how quickly the fuel burns, resulting in a fuel-rich exhaust exiting the nozzle. When a secondary gaseous oxygen flow is injected into the nozzle downstream of the throat, all of the remaining unburned fuel in the plume spontaneously ignites. This secondary reaction produces additional high pressure gases that are captured by the nozzle and significantly increases the …

Characterization Of Carbon Nanostructured Composite Film Using Photothermal Measurement Technique, Kurt E. Harris

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Graphene is a form of carbon with unique thermal and structural properties, giving it high potential in many applications, from electronics to driveway heating. Advanced fabrication techniques putting small, graphene-like structures in a polymer matrix could allow for incorporation of some of the benefits of graphene into very lightweight materials, and allow for broader commercialization. Measuring the thermal properties of these thin-film samples is a technical capability in need of development for use with the specific specimens used in this study. Relating those thermal properties to the microstructural composition was the focus of this work.

Several conclusions could be drawn …

Integrated Systems Modeling To Improve Watershed Habitat Management And Decision Making, Ayman H. Alafifi

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Existing river management tools prioritize human uses and provide for ecosystem water needs as minimum instream flow requirements. Management efforts to provide water for multiple human and ecological needs can be improved by tools that recommend when, where, and how to allocate water between competing users across a river basin. This dissertation presents a set of tools in three studies to help managers make decisions on the allocation of water and money to improve habitat quality and area. The first study develops a new metric to measure habitat quality and area for priority river, riparian, and wetland species. The second …

Full Scale Experimental Testing Of Partially Composite Precast Concrete Sandwich Panels, Brandon L. Cox

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Precast concrete sandwich panels are a structural system consisting of concrete layers with insulation layers in between. The concrete layers are connected through the insulation with specially designed connectors. For engineers to properly design and analyze the strength characteristics of sandwich panels and their connectors, the engineers need to obtain recommendations from the individual connector manufacturers, which can be a very rigorous process. This project tested eight full scale precast concrete sandwich panels with two concrete layers on either side of an insulation layer with connectors concentrated at either end of each panel.

The objectives of this project were to …

Comparing Sandwich Wall Panel Shear Connector Testing Methodologies, Parker S. Syndergaard

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Precast concrete sandwich wall panels (PCSWPs) have been used in the precast industry for decades due to their durability, rapid construction, and thermal efficiency. Shear connectors are used to connect the two wythes of concrete to allow composite action of the system. In order to design concrete sandwich panel systems to act compositely, the engineer must obtain design values from a connector manufacturer, often times making engineers uncomfortable. Shear connectors are typically proprietary, and are required to first have design values validated through destructive testing. The method in which connectors are validated often times varies by each company. This project …

A Uniform Strain Transfer Scheme For Accurate Distributed Optical Fiber Strain Measurements In Civil Structures, Yang Du, Yizheng Chen, Yiyang Zhuang, Chen Zhu, Rex E. Gerald Ii, Jie Huang

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

We report a screw-like package design for an embeddable distributed optical fiber strain sensor for civil engineering applications. The screw-like structure is the exterior support for an optical fiber sensor. The bare optical fiber is embedded and secured in a longitudinal groove of the screw-like package using a rigid adhesive. Our packaging scheme prevents damage to the bare optical fiber and ensures that the packaged sensor is accurately and optimally sensing strain fields in civil structures. Moreover, our screw-like design has an equal area in a cross-section perpendicular to and along the screw axis, so strain field distributions are metered …

Research Of A Non-Linearity Control Algorithm For Uav Target Tracking Based On Fuzzy Logic Systems, Chaoying Pei, Jingjuan Zhang, Xueyun Wang, Qian Zhang

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Target tracking is one of the most widely used applications of UAVs and visual based tracking is the main method for non-cooperative tracking. In non-cooperative tracking missions, the UAV circles around the target and the gimbal rotates to keep the optic axis of the onboard camera pointing to the target. Compared with the biaxial gimbal, the single-axis gimbal system consists of only one torque motor, forming a great lightweight sensor suite, which also increases the requirement of the control accuracy. In the process of tracking moving target using a UAV with single-axis gimbal, there are still several challenges: (1) The …

Articulated Robot Hand, Nick Lo Bue, Tanner Peterson, Sam Steup, Andres Suarez-Domit

Mechatronics Final Projects

The purpose of this project is to create a robotic hand that articulates and grips objects like a human hand. The robotic hand includes a single miniature servo for each finger joint, as shown in Figures 2 through 4, allowing full and independent articulation of the nine different primary joints in the hand. The motion of each servo, and therefore each finger joint, is governed by a PIC microcontroller. Use of a microcontroller-based control scheme, as opposed to PC-based control, allows for a more portable, versatile design.

A buzzer-based warning system notifies the user of any major irregularities in the …

Automated Farm Tunnels: Scaled Prototype, Axel Anderson, Bryan Granizo, Samuel Studebaker

Mechatronics Final Projects

The use of covered tunnels in agriculture has increased dramatically in the Texas Hill Country over the past few years. These tunnels are similar to greenhouses but do not have climate control so they need natural venting for humidity and temperature purposes, which means that the plastic covering the tunnel (see Figure 1) needs to be raised and lowered repeatedly. The first generation of these tunnels seen in Figure 1 did not have a mechanism to roll the plastic up or down, but the second generation tunnel shown in Figure 2 has implemented a pipe, which will be referred to …

Rfid Controlled Door Lock, Brayden Burns, Daniel Dahlinger, Brian Guenther, Trevor Johnson

Mechatronics Final Projects

This device is an automated door lock attachment for an existing deadbolt-locked door. The device takes an exterior RFID input and can both lock and unlock the door. The device also implements an exterior doorbell switch where a guest can turn on a buzzer, and an interior switch for the operator to unlock the door from the inside. The front interface of the device is pictured in Figure 1; the working mechanism to turn the lock is pictured in Figure 2, and the housing for the processing and wirings is pictured in Figure 3. The logic is implemented using a …

Pyramid Of Disco, Daniel Henkes, Molly Mccullough

Mechatronics Final Projects

The purpose of the following project was to design, build, and test a device controlled by one or more microcontrollers. Three potential projects were first evaluated, shown by Figure A1 in Appendix A, and the Pyramid of Disco project was chosen. A high-level sketch of the project along with its functions is shown by Figure A2 in Appendix A, while the final product is shown by Figure A3 in Appendix A. The Pyramid of Disco is a 3D printed pyramid containing 221 light-emitting diodes that rotates above a fixed wooden base. The purpose of the Pyramid of Disco is to …

Role Of Local Renin-Angiotensin System In Altering Valve Interstitial Cell Phenotype, Sophia Scalise

Biomedical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Hypertension is a disorder prevalent in adults around the world and is a common attributable cause of heart disease and mortality [1]. Calcification is much more common in the aortic valve than the other three heart valves [2]. Aortic valve interstitial cells (VICs), the principal cell type found in the human aortic valve, have been linked to disease development when they change in phenotype to become osteoblast like cells [3]. The phenotypes of these cells play a role in the development of calcification in the aortic valves [4].

Angiotensin II is a hormone in the body that has been implicated …

Antibacterial Properties Of A Cationic Imidazolium-Containing Poly(Ionic Liquid), Kaitlyn P. Brickey

Biomedical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Poly(ionic liquids), or PILs, have been shown to have a number of biological applications as ligands, drug delivery vehicles, and nonviral DNA delivery mechanisms. Additionally, PILs have been proven to be efficient antibacterials. Imidazolium-containing PILs have promising results in antibacterial studies, but relating to their chain and charge density, only the effects of mono- & bis-imidazolium PILs have been sufficiently described in literature. The work detailed in this thesis aimed to further existing research on the effect of chain density by controlling the UV-initiator immobilization time. The effects of chain density were investigated by grafting poly(vinylimidazolium chloride) onto SiO_{2 …}

Analysis Of Verification And Validation Techniques For Educational Cubesat Programs, Noah Weitz

Master's Theses

Since their creation, CubeSats have become a valuable educational tool for university science and engineering programs. Unfortunately, while aerospace companies invest resources to develop verification and validation methodologies based on larger-scale aerospace projects, university programs tend to focus resources on spacecraft development. This paper looks at two different types of methodologies in an attempt to improve CubeSat reliability: generating software requirements and utilizing system and software architecture modeling. Both the Consortium Requirements Engineering (CoRE) method for software requirements and the Monterey Phoenix modeling language for architecture modeling were tested for usability in the context of PolySat, Cal Poly's CubeSat research …

Optimizing The Distributed Hydrology Soil Vegetation Model For Uncertainty Assessment With Serial, Multicore And Distributed Accelerations, Andrew Adriance

Master's Theses

Hydrology is the study of water. Hydrology tracks various attributes of water such as its quality and movement. As a tool Hydrology allows researchers to investigate topics such as the impacts of wildfires, logging, and commercial development. With perfect and complete data collection researchers could answer these questions with complete certainty. However, due to cost and potential sources of error this is impractical. As such researchers rely on simulations.

The Distributed Hydrology Soil Vegetation Model(also referenced to as DHSVM) is a scientific mathematical model to numerically represent watersheds. Hydrology, as with all fields, continues to produce large amounts of data …

Bio-Sorption Activated Media For Nitrogen Removal In A Rapid Infiltration Basin – Monitoring Project, Ni-Bin Chang, Martin Wanielista, Arvind Singh, Steven J. Duranceau, Dingbao Wang

BMP Trains Research and Publications

The Bent Oak City of DeLand pond (see Appendix A for the Environmental Resource Permit #76187-5) was increased in size and permitted in March of 2016 so that it could function to discharge both excess reclaimed water and excess stormwater to the ground. It was called in the permit a reclaimed water storage and recovery modification. Because of the discharge of treated sewage, it can be referred to as a rapid infiltration basin (RIB). However, it is used for the disposal of both reclaimed water and excess stormwater. The RIB was again modified in the fall of 2016 for additional …