Engineering Commons^™

Non-Contact Evaluation Methods For Infrastructure Condition Assessment, Sattar Dorafshan

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The United States infrastructure, e.g. roads and bridges, are in a critical condition. Inspection, monitoring, and maintenance of these infrastructure in the traditional manner can be expensive, dangerous, time-consuming, and tied to human judgment (the inspector). Non-contact methods can help overcoming these challenges. In this dissertation two aspects of non-contact methods are explored: inspections using unmanned aerial systems (UASs), and conditions assessment using image processing and machine learning techniques. This presents a set of investigations to determine a guideline for remote autonomous bridge inspections.

Supporting Adolescent Metacognition In Engineering Design Through Scripted Prompts From Peer Tutors: A Comparative Case Study, Kristin Marie Strong

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

In 2013, developers of the Next Generation Science Standards implemented national K-12 directives and elevated engineering design to the level of scientific inquiry. Teaching design, however, is challenging to educators due to the complex nature of design problems, which cannot be solved via simple algorithms. Solving design problems requires a more reflective and iterative approach that emphasizes metacognitive skills like planning, monitoring, and taking another person’s perspective. Educators are further challenged by children’s immature metacognitive skills, which may be insufficient to engage in the entire design process.

A qualitative study of paired seventh graders demonstrated a pragmatic learning activity for …

Sparse Signal Recovery Based On Compressive Sensing And Exploration Using Multiple Mobile Sensors, Mohammad Shekaramiz

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The work in this dissertation is focused on two areas within the general discipline of statistical signal processing. First, several new algorithms are developed and exhaustively tested for solving the inverse problem of compressive sensing (CS). CS is a recently developed sub-sampling technique for signal acquisition and reconstruction which is more efficient than the traditional Nyquist sampling method. It provides the possibility of compressed data acquisition approaches to directly acquire just the important information of the signal of interest. Many natural signals are sparse or compressible in some domain such as pixel domain of images, time, frequency and so forth. …

Development Of An Improved Low-Order Model For Propeller-Wing Interactions, Joshua Taylor Goates

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

For aircraft that have propellers mounted in front of the wings or tail, the prop wash produced by the propellers can have a strong influence on the aerodynamics of the aircraft. As the accelerated air from the propeller flows over the wings and tail, it can cause an alteration in the aerodynamic forces produced by those surfaces. Thus, an understanding of propeller-wing interactions is essential for the design and analysis of many aircraft.

There are multiple existing methods for analyzing the propeller-wing interactions. High order methods, such as wind tunnel testing or computational fluid dynamics, provide very accurate results but …

Spatial Ability Degradation In Undergraduate Mechanical Engineering Students During The Winter Semester Break, Benjamin J. Call

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Spatial ability represents our ability to mentally arrange, rotate, and explore objects in multiple dimensions. This ability has been found to be important for engineers and engineering students. Past research has shown that many interventions can be created to boost an individual’s spatial ability. In fact, past research has indicated that engineering students significantly increase in spatial ability without an intervention while they are enrolled in certain engineering courses. Some researchers have claimed that the spatial ability boosts are permanent after an intervention. However, most researchers do not check the validity of that claim with continued assessment after more than …

Identification And Engineering Of Nonribosomal Peptide Biosynthetic Systems, Fuchao Xu

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This research focuses on the understanding and engineering of nonribosomal peptide biosynthetic pathways in Streptomyces coelicolor CH999, Escherichia coli BAP1 and Saccharomyces cerevisiae BJ5464-NpgA. The biosynthetic systems of indigoidine from bacteria and beauvericin/bassianolide from fungi were studied in this research. The production of these valuble products was significantly increased by enhancing their synthetic pathway with metabolic engineering approaches.

Indigoidine is a bacterial natural product with antioxidant and antimicrobial activities. Its bright blue color resembles the industrial dye indigo, thus representing a new natural blue dye that may find uses in industry. Indigo is a dark blue crystalline powder and has …

Droplet Impact Onto Super-Hydrophobic Surfaces And Determining The Response To Heat And Light Of Terrestrial Cyanobacteria, Benjamin B. Lovett

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This thesis examines droplets striking water repelling surfaces as well as the movement of a soil based bacteria under various light and heat conditions. Droplet impact studies have shown that introducing a macroscopic feature to a water repelling surface can reduce the amount of time that droplet is in contact with the surface. By manipulating water droplets to impact different sized needles at varying speeds, we present how a needle can induce a similar reduction in the residence time of the droplet to more widely studied features. Results show the spreading and lift-off characteristics of the droplet are dependent on …

Application Of Winslamm To Evaluate The Effect Of Green Infrastructure Implementation In Northern Utah, Rosa A. Fernández Velásquez

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This study provides an evaluation of the performance of the WinSLAMM model in two cities of northern Utah, a region in which it has not been validated to date. Runoff volumes for a series of events from 2015 to 2017 were calculated for six study areas. These results were compared to model outputs to evaluate the prediction accuracy. The model performed poorly when default parameters where used, as expected. Thus, the calibration of runoff coefficient was done with local data. Total suspended solids (TSS), total phosphorus (TP) and total dissolved phosphorus (TDP) were also evaluated and calibrations were developed. The …

Flight Vehicle Design, Andrew Ning

Books

No abstract provided.

Evaluation Of Bond Properties Between Fiber Reinforced Concrete Overlay And Substrate Concrete, Emad Okrush Alshammari

Theses and Dissertations

Bonded concrete overlay is the most economical and quick option in concrete rehabilitation methods to provide strength for the existing structure. Bonded concrete overlay strength rely on properties of both layers (substrate and new layers). Poor bonding in interface zone leads to two main failures of concrete overlays; debonding and cracks. There are several traditional factors affect bond strength such as water to cement (w/c) ratio, moisture condition, and surface roughness for substrate layer. However, the effect of using fiber consider a new variable affecting bond strength. Fiber reinforced concrete (FRC) is one type of overlay system which has been …

Exploratory Analysis Of Accuracy Monitoring Techniques In Vehicle Detection Systems For Intelligent Transportation Systems Applications And Maintenance, Manasi Sanjay Palod

Theses and Dissertations

The goal of transportation management is to ensure the mobility of people and goods, in a reliable and efficient manner. Operation and maintenance of transportation infrastructure is key to accomplish their objectives. Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) applications rely on massive detection networks that collectively demand significant maintenance resources. Resource constraints force transportation agencies to look for innovative ways to optimize their operational and maintenance costs while serving their users at intended performance levels. The system inputs come from vehicle detection system (VDS), acting as field data collection devices, enabling traffic monitoring and management through response to specific conditions. This research …

Quantitative Measurement Techniques For Vibration And Buffet, Edward Thomas Meyer

Theses and Dissertations

This paper outlines a proposed parameter for measurement of vibration and buffet in vehicles. It is intended to be used where applicable in lieu of raw accelerometer data or qualitative comments to measure ride quality, quantify vibration levels, and aid in certification matters. In flight vehicle applications which employ fly-by wire flight control systems with closed loop and variable gain control laws, the phenomenon of buffet in its various forms is becoming somewhat specious as an aircrew cue in relation to the stability and control of flight vehicles. In these applications, stability and control throughout the operating envelope is designed …

Development Of A Simplified Analysis Approach For Predicting Pile Deflections Of Piers Subjected To Lateral Spread Displacements And Application To A Pier Damaged During The 2010 Maule, Chile, M8.8 Earthquake, Logan Matthew Palmer

Theses and Dissertations

The 2010, moment magnitude 8.8 earthquake that occurred near Maule, Chile caused major damages to several piers in the Port of Coronel located approximately 160 kilometers (100 miles) to the South of the earthquake epicenter. One of the piers, the North Pier, experienced significant lateral spreading that was caused from liquefaction of the soils at the approach zone of the pier. Damages from lateral spreading and liquefaction effects consisted of sheet pile welding ruptures of the cross-support beams, stiffener buckling, pile displacements, pile rotations, and pier deck displacement. Researchers analyzed the North Pier after the earthquake and documented in detail …

Investigation Of An Isotruss Structure As A Compliant Member Used In Bending And Torsion, Jens Garret Jacobson

Theses and Dissertations

An investigation of IsoTruss structures in bending and torsion was conducted. A model was developed in ANSYS APDL where bay length and longitudinal member to helical member cross-sectional area ratio could be varied while holding the diameter constant. The model was validated using previously reported values from analytical models and empirical data. The model was used to make predictions of a specific geometry that was manufactured, tested and compared against the model. 12 specimens were built and tested. In flexure, empirical data had a percent error with respect to the model ranging from 10.9 to 65.4% with one outlier at …

Rapid Separation Of Bacteria From Blood For Sepsis Diagnosis, Mahsa Alizadeh

Theses and Dissertations

Sepsis is a severe blood infection caused by bacteria entering the blood stream. Sepsis caused by antibiotic resistant bacteria is very dangerous with a high mortality rate. The current clinical diagnostic methods for sepsis require culturing the blood sample prior to other steps of the diagnosis procedure. Culturing the blood samples is a time-consuming step which increases the time required for the diagnostic procedure. Considering the fact that the mortality rate of the sepsis increases as time passes, it is essential to find methods for sepsis diagnosis that do not require culturing the samples. The first step of a new …

Pore Pressure Generation And Shear Modulus Degradation During Laminar Shear Box Testing With Prefabricated Vertical Drains, Landon Scott Kinney

Theses and Dissertations

Liquefaction is a costly phenomenon where soil shear modulus degrades as the generation of excess pore pressures begins. One of the methods to mitigate liquefaction, is the use of prefabricated vertical drains. Prefabricated vertical drains provide a drainage path to effectively mitigate the generation of pore pressures and aid in shear modulus recovery. The aims of this study were to define shear modulus degradation vs. shear strain as a function of excess pore pressure ratio; define the effects of prefabricated vertical drains on the behavior of pore pressure generation vs. shear strain; and to define volumetric strain as a function …

Property Localization For Grain Boundary Diffusivity Via Inverse Problem Theory, Christian Kurniawan

Theses and Dissertations

The structure and spatial arrangement of grain boundaries strongly affect the properties of polycrystalline materials such as corrosion, creep, weldability, superconductivity, and diffusivity. However, constructing predictive grain boundary structure-property models is taxing, both experimentally and computationally due to the high dimensionality of the grain boundary character space. The purpose of this work is to develop an effective method to infer grain boundary structure-property models from measurement of the effective properties of polycrystals by utilizing the inverse problem theory. This study presents an idealized case in which structure-property models for grain boundary diffusivity are inferred from a noisy simulation. The method …

Strength Investigation Of Damaged And Repaired Thin-Walled Composite Structures, Analise Barlow

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research was to quantify the strength of novel composite repair methods for thin-walled composite structures. Carbon/epoxy plates were manufactured and repairs were made at Gloyer-Taylor Laboratories. At BYU, specimens were damaged in a controlled and repeatable process. Three damage modes were implemented: impact, groove, and abrasive damage. Tensile strength tests were performed on control, damaged, and repaired specimens. Four 24 x 24 in (60 x 60 cm) carbon/epoxy plates were received. Each plate was made up of seven plies cured together with epoxy resin for a nominal total thickness of 0.04 in (1.02 mm). The thickness, …

Effect Of Film Cooling Hole Size On A Turbine Rotor Blade, Klint Martis

Theses and Dissertations

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of the cooling hole size on the adiabatic film cooling effectiveness over a rotating turbine blade section. The study was conducted using ANSYS FLUENT to determine the adiabatic wall temperature over the blade surface. The geometry was created to be a single section of a turbine rotating at 4000 rpm, and the blade increases in camber from tip to hub. Cylindrical cooling holes were created and the diameters were varied from 0.5 mm to 1.5 mm. The pitch-to-diameter ratio and the length-to-diameter ratio were kept constant at a value of …

A Framework For Characterizing The Security Posture Of Cyber Systems, Matthew Ridley

Theses and Dissertations

Modern day applications can be spread across multiple virtual or physical systems, and be accessed or attacked by pretty much any one any where. Cybersecurity is used to mitigate these cyber threats but there are limited resources that can be dedicated to security. As result, trade-offs and decisions must be made around what is prioritized and what isn’t. Cyber risk management provides methodologies for identifying threats, evaluating risks and making decisions, however, it can be difficult to determine whether the system is actually secure enough and the risk is actually within an acceptable parameters. This thesis provides a framework for …

Discrete Event Simulation And Cost Model For Optimization Of Manufacturing Resource Usages Associated With Implementation Of A Redesigned Product, Alexander Eierle

Theses and Dissertations

This paper demonstrates an approach to evaluating production factors related to schedule and resources based on changes to the production process. A discrete event simulation model was developed to evaluate different production factors, such as arrival times, number of entities, resource availabilities, and work in process (WIP) times, compared to the total yield at a production facility. This model helped to develop relationships between the required asset resource usages and the overall production resource allocation with the related effects to process wait times and production outputs. A comparative analysis with cost was performed to determine the effect that varied resources …

Early Prediction Of Merged Code Changes To Prioritize Reviewing Tasks, Yuanrui Fan, Xin Xia, David Lo, Shanping Li

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Modern Code Review (MCR) has been widely used by open source and proprietary software projects. Inspecting code changes consumes reviewers much time and effort since they need to comprehend patches, and many reviewers are often assigned to review many code changes. Note that a code change might be eventually abandoned, which causes waste of time and effort. Thus, a tool that predicts early on whether a code change will be merged can help developers prioritize changes to inspect, accomplish more things given tight schedule, and not waste reviewing effort on low quality changes. In this paper, motivated by the above …

Integrated Reward Scheme And Surge Pricing In A Ride-Sourcing Market, Hai Yang, Chaoyi Shao, Hai Wang, Jieping Ye

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Surge pricing is commonly used in on-demand ride-sourcing platforms (e.g., Uber, Lyft and Didi) to dynamically balance demand and supply. However, since the price for ride service cannot be unlimited, there is usually a reasonable or legitimate range of prices in practice. Such a constrained surge pricing strategy fails to balance demand and supply in certain cases, e.g., even adopting the maximum allowed price cannot reduce the demand to an affordable level during peak hours. In addition, the practice of surge pricing is controversial and has stimulated long debate regarding its pros and cons. To address the limitation of current …

Automatically `Verifying’ Discrete-Time Complex Systems Through Learning, Abstraction And Refinement, Jingyi Wang, Jun Sun, Shengchao Qin, Cyrille Jegourel

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Precisely modeling complex systems like cyber-physical systems is challenging, which often render model-based system verification techniques like model checking infeasible. To overcome this challenge, we propose a method called LAR to automatically ‘verify’ such complex systems through a combination of learning, abstraction and refinement from a set of system log traces. We assume that log traces and sampling frequency are adequate to capture ‘enough’ behaviour of the system. Given a safety property and the concrete system log traces as input, LAR automatically learns and refines system models, and produces two kinds of outputs. One is a counterexample with a bounded …

Data Center Holistic Demand Response Algorithm To Smooth Microgrid Tie-Line Power Fluctuation, Ting Yang, Yingjie Zhao, Haibo Pen, Zhaoxia Wang

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

With the rapid development of cloud computing, artificial intelligence technologies and big data applications, data centers have become widely deployed. High density IT equipment in data centers consumes a lot of electrical power, and makes data center a hungry monster of energy consumption. To solve this problem, renewable energy is increasingly integrated into data center power provisioning systems. Compared to the traditional power supply methods, renewable energy has its unique characteristics, such as intermittency and randomness. When renewable energy supplies power to the data center industrial park, this kind of power supply not only has negative effects on the normal …

Material Identification And Target Imaging With Rfids [Iot Connection], Ju Wang, Xiaojiang Chen, Dingyi Fang, Jie Xiong, Hongbo Jiang, Rajesh Krishna Balan

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

TagScan is a system that determines the material type and shape of an object with inexpensive commercial RFID technology. Real-world experiments show that TagScan can identify 10 common liquids with accuracy greater than 94%.

Deep Unsupervised Pixelization, Chu Han, Qiang Wen, Shengfeng He, Qianshu Zhu, Yinjie Tan, Guoqiang Han, Tien-Tsin Wong

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

In this paper, we present a novel unsupervised learning method for pixelization. Due to the difficulty in creating pixel art, preparing the paired training data for supervised learning is impractical. Instead, we propose an unsupervised learning framework to circumvent such difficulty. We leverage the dual nature of the pixelization and depixelization, and model these two tasks in the same network in a bi-directional manner with the input itself as training supervision. These two tasks are modeled as a cascaded network which consists of three stages for different purposes. GridNet transfers the input image into multi-scale grid-structured images with different aliasing …

Consideration Of Key Process Parameters For Achieving Robust And Uniform Cutting Of Ti-6al-4v Sheet Metal Using Fiber Laser With Nitrogen Assisted Gas, V Poshyananda, J Darayen, K Tumkhanon, C Puncreobutr, A Khamkongkaeo, B Lohwongwatana

Journal of Metals, Materials and Minerals

In laser cutting, to work on sensitive and intricate materials, such as titanium, requires rigorous control of parameters to achieve the best cutting results due to high power throughput and rapid cutting speed. Titanium is known for severe reaction with oxygen and nitrogen at elevated temperatures, however the more inert argon assist gas is cost prohibitive in commercial application. To achieve cut quality using nitrogen as an assist gas in titanium cutting, careful control is needed to prevent the formation of hard and brittle martensite as well as nitride- and oxide- phases. To better understand the roles of industrial grade …

Plasticity Of Light Metal Matrix Composites Under Anodic Polarization, Y B. Unigovski, E M. Gutman, Z Koren, H Rosenson

Journal of Metals, Materials and Minerals

Light metal matrix composites (MMCs), reinforced with ceramic particles, demonstrate an improvement in strength, elasticity, and wear resistance with regards to matrix alloys. Unfortunately, the plasticity of MMCs is rather low, and their hardness is relatively high. Therefore, there are serious problems in formability and machinability of these materials. In the present study, an improvement in the surface plasticity of such light MMCs as Al 6063-10% SiC (AMC) and Mg AZ31-10% SiC (MgMC) as well as the high-strength Al 7075 T6 alloy under anodic polarization was observed. To assess the effect of polarization on plasticity of composites, the relative Vickers …

Self-Striking Red Glass Fabrication At Low Temperature Using Gold Nanoparticles, Y Ruangtaweep, J Kaewkhao, N Sangwaranatee

Journal of Metals, Materials and Minerals

This research is intended to determine the appropriate condition for gold ruby glass production at low temperature. The effects of reducing agent (SnO2 and SeO2) concentrations on coloration of gold nanoparticle (AuNPs) in glass samples have been investigated. The glasses with chemical compositions of SiO2, B2O3, Al2O3, Na2O, CaO, K2O, Sb2O3, SnO2, SeO2 and AuNPs were fabricated by conventional melt-quench technique at 1,200°C in normal atmosphere. The results found that the red glasses were obtained by SnO2 with concentration of 0.5 wt% and SeO2 with concentration of 0.05 wt%. The color of glasses were confirmed by UV-visible spectrophotometer in the …