Engineering Commons^™

Feasibility Study Of Solar Generation Facilities: Are Ccr Landfills A Viable Location, Jaden Beachy

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

this report will examine the feasibility of constructing and operating a solar generation facility on a coal combustion residual landfill. The total generation capabilities of a generation facility located near Nashville, Tennessee will be compared to the total cost of construction, including but not limited to Photo-voltaic panels, construction materials and labor.

Effects Of Hurricane Harvey And Irma On State Building Codes, Nathaniel Otermat

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

2017 was one of the worst hurricane seasons on record. Two major hurricanes hit to date; one in Houston, one across the chain of islands South of Florida and then on to Florida directly. What ensued was massive flooding and total destruction of many structures.

To protect against these natural disasters, a set of building codes is in place. While this is effective for most buildings stateside, it is hardly a consideration outside the U.S. Many of the structures built in the islands were built with little regard to any sort of code in mind. Even in the states where …

Continuously Variable Transmission Design, Nicholas Wurst

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Continuously variable transmissions (CVT's) have been an alternative to traditional transmissions for internal combustion gas or diesel engines. They allow for an infinite number of gear ratios for better fuel economy and performance. One drawback to the CVT is that the belt between the two pulleys often wears or fails prematurely causing the entire CVT to need to be replaced. An alternative method for creating infinite gear ratios within a certain range without the need for a belt is the main objective of this project. The goal of the alternative design is to provide a concept that proves a CVT …

Basic Highway Workzone Safety, Collin Shamberger

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The purpose of this essay will be to examine, and provide information detailing work zone safety practices, and maximizing safety in construction zones. This report will examine the functionality of components of a work zone and how they work together, the use of standard construction drawings of work zones, personal protective equipment of workers, possible hazards of work zones, minimizing risks and ultimately work zone safety training. Also this report will provide a spreadsheet which can be used to calculate and layout a construction work zone based on a GPS location.

Residence Time Distribution Of Mixing Based On Mathematical Modeling, Michelle Ayers

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Two different mathematical models were investigated for their use in describing the residence time distribution (RTD) of an industrial mixer. The first model investigated was the tanks-in-series model, while the second model was a combination of two branches of tanks-in-series. The tanks-in-series model is capable of characterizing the mixing present in the flow, but cannot detect non-idealities in flow such as bypassing and dead space. The multi-branch model has mathematical complexity, but it uses the second branch of flow to detect the presence of this non-ideal flow, determine if it is dead space of bypassing, and characterize how well-mixed the …

Administrative Cost Reimbursement Online, Luciano Mogorovic

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Administrative Cost Reimbursement (ACR) is a program funded by the state of Ohio that reimburses non-public elementary and high schools for having employees perform a series of mandated activities. ACR Consultants is a company that collects data from schools that contains the amount of time each teacher spent on any of the mandated activities. The president of ACR Consultants is a neighbor and longtime family friend. Currently, to collect the time data, the company goes to each school it services and gives each teacher a large paper spreadsheet for them to fill in with the amount of time they spend …

Sweat Sensor Modelling, Katie Brumbaugh

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

There are no in-situ electrolyte sodium sensors available in the marketplace, however there is a demand and use for them. An in-situ sodium sensor can be used to monitor bodily functioning in many applications like medical patient monitoring and athlete monitoring during workouts. Patients with cystic fibrosis attempt to monitor salt content in sweat to maintain homoeostatic body function, this sweat sensor would change the way those patients took care of themselves [1]. Sweat sensor samples were made using multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWNT) and nylon 6. The MWNTs were functionalized on the nylon using cyclo-oligomeric calixarene [3]. In functionalizing the …

Winter Maintenance Of Akron Roadways, Kayla Hillegass

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The city of Akron experiences several hundred crashes each winter season due to winter road and weather conditions. The winter maintenance practices of the city follow a guide by the Salt Institute that uses a combination of plowing and salting to clear the roads. This paper provides an understanding of winter maintenance from its beginnings to present day and will discuss how certain practices came to be. Looking at three other cities across the United States with similar characteristics in size or snowfall amount show many similarities with a few new concepts that Akron can consider (e.g., better communication via …

Investigation Of Scanning Kelvin Probe Techniques, Nicholas D'Angelo Jr., Hongbo Cong

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The original scope of this work was to advance the understanding of corrosion properties of additively manufactured (AM) materials by correlating microstructural defects in AM materials to the material conventional counterparts utilizing a scanning kelvin probe [Ametek VeraSCAN Electrochemical System]. However, upon the initiation of project research, it was observed that the system was not operational due to unknown hardware and software problems. The evolved scope of this work was to reconcile the operational issues and develop a repair and mitigation plan. After extensive troubleshooting, it was determined that the software was not properly configured, and the electrometer had permanently …

Reaction Kinetics Of The Hydrogenation Of Phenol In A Tubular Reactor, Michael Selzer

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The reaction kinetic parameters for the hydrogenation of phenol to cyclohexanone are determined for the liquid phase reaction with the palladium catalyst supported on an electrospun PVDF membrane. Runs of the reactor were completed at catalyst loadings of 40, 50, and 60 g/m², and tube diameters of 0.187 in and 0.25 in with a runtime of ten hours. One-dimensional and two-dimensional models of the experimental setup were developed. Fitting data to the one-dimensional model found that the pre-exponential factor was 2.50 x 10⁴, the activation energy was 7.69 kJ/mol, and the order with respect to phenol …

Polyhexamethylene Biguanide Release By Chitosan-Heparin Nanoparticles, Jacob Ress

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Chitosan and heparin were used to synthesize nanoparticles using polyelectrolyte complexation. The optimal mixing ratio was determined to be 1:4 by studying the particle characteristics of zeta potential and dynamic light scattering of the ratios 1:2, 1:3, 1:4, 1:5 and 1:6 (chitosan: heparin). The particles were loaded with the antibiotic polyhexamethylene biguanide (PHMB) and the release was measured over 335 hours using the dialysis membrane incubation method and detected via ultraviolet-visible (UV-Vis) spectroscopy. Around 80% of the encapsulated PHMB was released over the measured period. The goal of this part of the study was to determine the drug release behavior …

Human Powered Vehicle Frame Design, Analysis, Manufacturing, And Testing, Christopher Reed, Kole W. Williams

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The University of Akron Human Powered Vehicle Design Team began this academic year with a mission to create a practical, lightweight, safe, and efficient human powered vehicle. The main objectives of ZC18 were inspired by competition in the 2018 Human Powered Vehicle Challenge at ASME E-Fest East. In addition to adhering to the rules of this competition, scoring high on the submitted reports, and competing well in the racing events, the team set a goal to assist in furthering knowledge related to the topic of human powered vehicles.

ZC18 was constructed nearly completely in the University of Akron’s Design Center …

Correlation Of Electrospun Polyvinylpyrrolidone Fiber Mat Thickness With Basis Weight, Fiber Diameter, Pore Size Distribution, And Air Permeability, Leah Mcpherson

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This project developed correlations between electrospun polyvinylpyrrolidone fiber mat thickness, basis weight, fiber diameter, pore size, and air permeability. The hypotheses were thinner fibers produce thicker mats, pore size decreases with fiber diameter, pore size and permeability decrease as basis weight increases. Project results could be used for modeling or quality control purposes.

Fiber diameter distributions were analyzed using a Scanning Electron Microscope and FibraQuant 1.3 software. Four conditions were chosen for further study: 0.284 ± 0.104 µm, 0.379 ± 0.128 µm, 0.520 ± 0.138 µm, and 0.733 ± 0.177 µm. Lower PVP concentrations produced thinner fibers.

Sample thickness (nm) …

Vanadium Redox Flow Batteries: Design And Experimentation, Matthew George

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Vanadium flow batteries (VFB) are a type of battery that has potential as a grid-scale energy storage solution. An original design for a lab-scale VFB is presented herein, along with a procedure for electrolyte preparation from V₂O₅ using oxalic acid. The flow cell is constructed from Delrin, Teflon, Kynar, Santoprene, Nafion, graphite plate, and porous carbon. Two diaphragm pumps along with polyethylene, PVC, and Santoprene tubing are used. The active area is 58 cm². The battery was charged using a DC power supply at a constant current of 4 A with corresponding initial voltage of …

Swagelok Adjustable Check Valve Setting Device, Brandon Sours, Paul Olson, David Race, Nick Rimpf

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Check valves are used to control the amount of flow through a valve and only open when a certain pressure is reached. The path of the fluid is strictly in one direction, which allows the valve to prevent any back flow within a system. They are also one of few self-automated piping system components that do not require assistance to open or close. Some check valves use a combination spring-and-nut compression assembly to set an opening pressure. As the nut is used to set the spring compression, and by extension the opening pressure, problems tend to arise when adjusting the …

Design Of Shape-Conforming Nosecone For Optimal Fluid Flow From Transonic To Supersonic Range, Anna Tombazzi

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Modern flight vehicles, such as rockets, missiles, and airplanes, experience a force caused by forebody wave drag during the flight. This drag force is induced when the frontal point of each vehicle breaks the pressure wave during flight. Efforts to reduce this wave drag force to improve flight efficiency include modifying the nosecone profile of the flight vehicles to lower the drag force.

This project revolved around creating a design to make the transformation of nosecone shapes from a ¾ Parabolic profile to a ½ Power Series profile possible, mid-flight. Using a novel nosecone assembly, shape memory alloys (SMAs) and …

Molded Features In Pdms For Fabricating Bacterial Cellulose For Various Geometries, Mitchell Habegger

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The purpose of producing features on bacterial cellulose (BC) is to facilitate the elongation and alignment for cells, in this case Normal Human Dermal Fibroblast (NHDF) cells. The elongated cells have applications in wound healing, tissue engineering, disease diagnostics, and many other fields. Experiments were run to test the effectiveness of transferring features to BC sheets from features induced by fracturing on polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) and those duplicated from molds with existing features. The features were duplicated to BC sheets by either air drying or Guided Assembly-Based Biolithography (GAB). The research results showed that fracture inducing on PDMS produced very small …

Modeling The Effect Thickener Structure Has On The Oil Release Of Grease, Dana Cressman

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Our hypothesis was that the thickener type and micelle concentration of grease affected its viscoelastic properties. Measurements were made using a TA AR G2 rheometer and calculations were made using TA rheometer analysis software to characterize the viscoelastic response of grease under oscillatory shear and frequency tests. The oscillatory frequency tests determined the critical micelle concentration. The oscillatory stress tests were taken at temperatures from 5 to 65 degrees Celsius to create a master curve based on time temperature superposition of the measurements. The crossover points of G’ and G” on the oscillatory stress tests demonstrated where the grease transitions …

Galvanic And Pitting Corrosion Of A Fastener Assembly, Julie Shallman

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This research focuses on coupled galvanic/pitting corrosion of AA7075 when combined with stainless steel in a fastener assembly. A one-dimensional mathematical model of a well-mixed thin film electrolyte is developed to predict the damage profile of the AA7075 surface when its protective coating is damaged. The damage exposes the galvanic couple. A time dependent system of partial differential equations for potential, chloride concentration, aluminum ion concentration, and damage is developed and solved numerically. Two approaches to calculate the current density within aluminum pits are discussed. The first is a current balance between the cathodic, anodic and passive portions of the …

Modification Of Bacterial Cellulose Using Organosilanes To Enhance Cell Adhesion And Growth, Kristi Ferrato

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

In this project, drying bacterial cellulose (BC) to maintain its structural integrity, and treating BC with organosilanes 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane (APTES) and (3-Mercaptopropyl)trimethoxysilane (MPTMS) as well as with various concentration of gelatin to increase the cells per area was studied. Drying BC with hexamethyldisilazane (HMDS) by soaking the BC in ascending concentrations of ethanol and HMDS did not protect the structural integrity of the BC grown in lab but did for the BC grown in Dr. Siriporn Taokaew’s lab. Freeze drying also did not fully protect the structural integrity as the BC was placed in a freezer for several hours at -20oC …

Applying Control Logic To The End Of The Ohio Canal Interceptor Tunnel Based On Downstream Capacity To Reduce Overflow Of Akron’S Wastewater Collection System, William Troyer

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

During the Akron Waterways Renewed Program, the city of Akron is studying ways to improve efficiency in the existing sewer system while also reducing the number and scale of combined sewer overflow (CSO) events. Real time control logic can be developed to reduce CSO events by improving flow and storage capacity. Looking at one point in the system, when the target capacity of the downstream pipe was increased from 20% to 80%, the peak volume of overflow from the Ohio Canal Interceptor Tunnel decreased from 9,067 gallons to 5,965 gallons the total system overflow increased from 10.3 million gallons to …

Dynamic Mechanical Analysis Piezoelectric Design, Letia Bass, Michaela N. Mccrae, Ethan W. Goodman, Joesph W. Mazur

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This project is a continuation into the design and implementation of a Dynamic Mechanical Analysis (DMA) device that will be used to conduct high frequency testing on tire tread compounds. The design requirements necessary were to design a device that will produce a target frequency of 10 kHz with a 0.05% strain, while being at room temperature. The 3-D model developed by the previous year’s students was improved upon and new parts were designed as well. The assemblies (most importantly the connector piece) were 3-D modeled using Creo Parametric and analyzed with COMSOL Multiphysics. A new design involving flexures was …

Navigational Heads-Up Display, Alex Walenchok, Nicholas Seifert, Joshua Reed, Joshua Humphrey

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

One problem drivers face is distraction from looking at their mobile device while navigating rather than watching the road. This problem can be solved with a heads-up display placed directly on the driver’s windshield. By using a mobile device with a custom GPS application, the following design will be able to send GPS data to a device that will display navigational information on a car windshield. The design includes two primary components, a mobile device and a System Unit, where the System Unit is composed of a portable power supply, a single board computer, and a display. For the design, …

Enhancement Of Instruction Pamphlet Insertion Machine, Zachary Skraba, Colton Rentsch, Brad Ruhaak, Abdulwahab Almuhwish, Faris Almulhim

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

For this project, we were tasked with improving the current operation of a pamphlet insertion machine for Weaver Industries. Located in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, Weaver Industries is a company whose mission is to “maximize the independence and personal fulfillment of individuals with disabilities.” The main operation of the prototype is to assist the handicapped operator by automating the process for one of their products, a “Kong” dog toy. Currently, the workers manually insert each pamphlet into the cardboard packaging by hand. Over the past three years, there have been three separate design groups tasked with building and improving upon each …

Mht Assembly Line, Sean Lundholm

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The purpose of this report is to record the process followed and steps taken to design and implement a new product assembly line. While the implementation of the line required more than what is in this report, the projects outlined are those I was personally involved in and responsible for. This report will outline why the project was required, the steps taken to complete the project, and the challenges faced. Throughout the progression of the project, many different parts and areas were considered. As each of these was brought into focus, new challenges presented themselves and were dealt with accordingly. …

Sandia Senior Design Collaboration: Vacuum Sensor Design, James L. Valerio, Eric J. Black, Joseph P. Bednarz, David R. Warther

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Sandia National Laboratories has requested a fully mechanical device to close a circuit after launch has occurred and the device enters a vacuum. Intended for applications in rockets and missiles, the device must fit in a 36 degree wedge with a 6.8 inch radius that is 6 inches in height and be ready to bolt onto a rocket. The pressure switch must be prevented from actuating until a launch acceleration ranging from 20 to 27g is detected. The pressure switch must close the circuit after a pressure of 10^-1 Torr is reached and before a pressure of 10^{-6 …}

Evaluating Augmented Reality For Space Telerobotics Training, John Karasinski

Link Foundation Modeling, Simulation and Training Fellowship Reports

Despite the extensive previous research into manual tracking, to the author’s knowledge there exists no study in the literature addressing human performance or workload changes in manual tracking tasks between traditional computer monitors and mobile, augmented reality headsets. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of several factors on human performance and workload in a three-axis manual tracking task. Recent advances in computing hardware have enabled a new generation of augmented reality stereoscopic devices, such as the Microsoft HoloLens, which have yet to be evaluated in the literature. The Microsoft HoloLens provides depth cues to the user …

Digital Forensic Tools & Cloud-Based Machine Learning For Analyzing Crime Data, Majeed Kayode Raji

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Digital forensics is a branch of forensic science in which we can recreate past events using forensic tools for legal measure. Also, the increase in the availability of mobile devices has led to their use in criminal activities. Moreover, the rate at which data is being generated has been on the increase which has led to big data problems. With cloud computing, data can now be stored, processed and analyzed as they are generated. This thesis documents consists of three studies related to data analysis. The first study involves analyzing data from an android smartphone while making a comparison between …

Nonlinear Computational Analysis Of Postural Stability And Its Relationship To Estrogen Deficiency In Postmenopausal Women, Zachary Mitchell

Honors Theses

This study aims to determine if multi-scale entropy analysis will more accurately differentiate the postural stability of postmenopausal women as a function of their estrogen status than traditional measures of postural assessment. The study participants included 7 non-Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) postmenopausal women (mean age = 57) and 4 HRT postmenopausal women (mean age = 55). Postural stability was measured with the NeuroCom Equitest and the use of conditions 1-4 of the Sensory Organization Test (SOT). The subjects received an equilibrium score for each condition with a score near 100 representing good postural stability. A modification of the Multi-Scale Entropy …

Imidazolium Magnetic Ionic Liquid Solubilities In Water, Ward Toler

Honors Theses

Magnetic ionic liquids (MILs) are room temperature ionic liquids that exhibit paramagnetic behavior. These liquids have tunable physiochemical properties with proposed applications in separations and drug delivery. It is, therefore, useful to know the solubility and micellar behavior of MILs in aqueous environments. Our group synthesized MILs with a FeCl4 anion and 1-alkyl-3-methylimidazolium cations and investigated aqueous solubility vs alkyl size (C2 through C10). We measured water solubility (MIL content in water saturated with the MIL) using UV-Vis spectroscopy, total organic carbon (TOC) analysis, and Total Nitrogen (TN) analysis. After observing micellar behavior for C(n)mim[FeCl4], where n > 6, we investigated …