Engineering Commons^™

Biomechanical Investigation Of Individual With Over-Pronation And Over-Supination Foot During Walking, Ghani Nur Saibah

Student Works (2020-2029)

Over-pronation and over-supination foot conditions are foot deformity that can lead to unstable ankle and subtalar joint during walking. They are define as condition where the foot roll in and out excessively from its neutral line and can lead to misalignment of the foot and leg in human in which can create abnormal gait cycle. Therefore, the purposes of this study are to analyze the foot-ankle joint biomechanical behavior including the range of motion, joint moment, joint power and GRF in a complete gait cycle for all subjects in this study and to compare the foot-ankle biomechanical behavior between normal …

Synthesis And Characterization Of Self-Cleaning Hydrophobic Organic Coating, Abdul Jaafar Amirul Syafiq

Student Works (2020-2029)

Three self-cleaning coating systems namely Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS)/Sylgard, PDMS/3-Aminopropyltriethoxysilane (APTES) (tagged as A1) and A1 blended with nano-Calcium Carbonate (CaCO3) have been synthesised on glass substrates via dip-coating and spray-coating techniques. All of the prepared coatings were dried under ambient condition before being subjected to characterisations and testing(s). The effect of various weight percentages of Sylgard resin that are 5wt.% (S1 coating), 10wt.% (S2 coating), 15wt.% (S3 coating), and 20 wt.% (S4 coating) on the hydrophobicity, self-cleaning property, anti-fog performance and mechanical property of PDMS/Sylgard coating have been discussed in the first section of this thesis. The PDMS/Sylgard coated glass substrates …

Low-Power Cmos Cross-Coupled Differential-Drive Rectifier For Ambient Radio Frequency Energy Harvesting Systems, Sing Leung Gabriel Chong

Student Works (2020-2029)

Wireless Sensor Node (WSN) for the Internet of Things (IoT) and Internet of Everything (IoE) will require harvesting low-power ambient Radio Frequency (RF) energy to achieve self-power capabilities, alleviating the need of batteries. The research title of “Low-Power CMOS Cross-Coupled Differential-Drive Rectifier for Ambient Radio Frequency Energy Harvesting Systems” relates to the design of integrated circuit (IC) rectifiers for low-power ambient RF energy harvesting (RFEH) in complementary-metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) technology. The adoption of CMOS for the rectifier designs is to achieve small physical form factor, low-cost, and system-on-chip (SoC) integration. The rectifier is the main circuit in an ambient RFEH system …

Alumina Ceramic Membrane Incorporated With Graphene Oxide Frameworks For Protein Recovery, Ishak Noor Fauziyah

Student Works (2020-2029)

Alumina ceramic membrane is undergoing rapid development and innovation for protein recovery process. However, the limitation of this membrane type is membrane fouling due to the deposition and adsorption of proteins on the surface and pore walls of the membranes. It is crucial to minimize membrane fouling by reducing interactions between protein and the membrane surface via surface modification technique. Thus, the main objective of this research is to develop an alumina membrane with enhanced antifouling property for protein recovery process. An alumina dope consisting of 57 wt.% alumina loading was used to fabricate two alumina membrane configurations; which are …

Analysis Of Protection System Setting In 11kv Distribution System, Alamshah Ammar

Student Works (2020-2029)

One of the fundamental protections used in electrical network power system is Overcurrent and Earth Fault (OCEF) protection. They have to be both sensitive and quick in minimizing the electrodynamic and thermal stress imposed on the equipment during the fault time interval. It is utmost important for the relays to be capable of removing only the faulty section while keep up the flexibly to solid areas in the system. In order to achieve this objective, correct relay coordination setting is important to prevent the system from suffering catastrophic effects. These days, the consumer is enforcing raising performance demands by reducing …

Study Of Heat Transfer And Friction Loss Of Nanofluid Suspension Flow In Square Pipe Heat Exchanger, Krishnan Jayprasanth

Student Works (2020-2029)

An experimentational analysis was done to evaluate heat transfer features of graphene oxide (GO) nanofluid inside the cross section of square cross tube that was exposed to a uniform constant heat flux of the test segments. Lately huge figures of researches have been are proceeded out to examine the outcome of nanofluid in augmentation of the heat transfer rate in numerous heat exchangers particularly using hummer method to attain GO. In this case, advanced hummer method was used to obtain GO and further analyses the effect of the nanofluids. The viscosity and thermal conductivity for the (GO) nanofluids at the …

Quantitative Risk Assessment And Dispersion Modelling Using Aloha For Chlorine Gas Handling Facility, Kusala Uvaraja

Student Works (2020-2029)

Malay-Sino Chemical Industries Sdn Bhd (Lahat) is a chlor-alkali industry consist of Emergency Chlorine Gas Handling Facility (ECGHF) which have the tendency to affect the plant workers and nearby residential area in the event of accidental chlorine gas release. HAZOP tool with risk assessment was used to identify the hazard and quantifying the hazards in order to prioritize the recommendations at the ECGHF. Possible incident scenario was selected from the HAZOP outcome which was the chlorine gas release from the stack due to scrubbing flow failure. The consequences of the released chlorine gas to the atmosphere was simulated by using …

Kinetic Study Of In-Pipe Water Flow For Power Generation, Surendaran Venuthan

Student Works (2020-2029)

In-pipe turbine generator has a potential to harvest energy from an existing water flow from distribution pipe which have natural and pumping capacity. That flow will be used to convert kinetic energy from the pipe to rotate the turbine. In turn, the turbine may be connected to a generator to produce electric power. The fact that the in-pipe turbine generator will be a useful energy harvesting tool with potential with industrial application is recommended by many scholars. However, there is a concern where there are many types and sizes of pipe that is readily used in the water works industry. …

Hybrid Microwave Power Amplifiers For Broadband Communication, Sangaran Pragash

Student Works (2020-2029)

The software-defined radio is the future of radio technology. The development of a broadband power amplifier is the most challenging radio component to design in achieving software-defined radio goals due to the PA gain-bandwidth limitation. The distributed power amplifier (DPA) overcomes the limitation by combining output power from several transistors in an additive fashion. Matrix Amplifier (MA) consists of two or more DPA stacked together in a multiplicative manner. In this project, a high power and high gain DPA for a two-way radio system is demonstrated. The DPA exhibits 10W output power and 32dB gain across the frequency range of …

Modeling, Fabrication And Characterization Of Coated Calcium Phosphate Scaffolds Produced By 3d-Printing For Tissue Engineering Application, Touri Maria

Student Works (2020-2029)

A fully interconnected 3-dimensional scaffold with pre-determined dimensions and porosity can be attained by design-dependent rapid prototyping techniques which possess precise control over the internal and external architecture of the scaffolds thus they can overcome the problems associated with the process-dependent classical approaches. Interruption of vascular flow with fracture or surgical osteotomy results in a transient hypoxic gradient within the wound and subsequent tissue necrosis. Tissue engineering scaffolds with oxygen generating elements have shown to be able to increase the level of oxygen and cell survivability. In this study, biphasic calcium phosphate (BCP) scaffolds with the composition of 60% hydroxyapatite …

Microstructural Evolution And Mechanical Properties Of Ultra-Fine Grained Tubular Components Processed By Severe Plastic Deformation, Mesbah Mohsen

Student Works (2020-2029)

The lightweight alloys have been widely used in various engineering applications such as automotive, aerospace, construction, and biomedical industries due to their low densities, high ductility, formability, and facile machining. However, the emerging trend for materials with high mechanical strength and plasticity hampers the widespread application of these alloys. Over the last two decades, severe plastic deformation (SPD) has been introduced as a promising approach for enhancement of the mechanical performance of the lightweight alloys through microstructural manipulations and grain refinement. However, the SPD techniques have been extensively utilized for the fabrication of non-tubular geometries and the studies on the …

Learning Transferrable Parameters For Long-Tailed Sequential User Behavior Modeling, Jianwen Yin, Chenghao Liu, Weiqing Wang, Jianling Sun, Steven C. H. Hoi

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Sequential user behavior modeling plays a crucial role in online user-oriented services, such as product purchasing, news feed consumption, and online advertising. The performance of sequential modeling heavily depends on the scale and quality of historical behaviors. However, the number of user behaviors inherently follows a long-tailed distribution, which has been seldom explored. In this work, we argue that focusing on tail users could bring more benefits and address the long tails issue by learning transferrable parameters from both optimization and feature perspectives. Specifically, we propose a gradient alignment optimizer and adopt an adversarial training scheme to facilitate knowledge transfer …

Beacon Aided Robotics For Martian Cave Mapping, Ryan Joseph Capozzi

Theses and Dissertations

At present, lava tubes on the Moon and Mars have been left wholly unexplored. There are many aspects of subterranean exploration that pose additional challenges over surface exploration, and one of these issues is in localization. This project seeks to expand upon the traditional communication beacon that is dropped behind a robotic operator in subterranean environments and make low cost and low power modifications to increase their functionality by making robot localization from these beacons possible. This has been tested with the use of LED beacons that could be easily added to current solutions and used for localization of the …

General Electric J85 Engine Flame Holder Tooling, Jacob Portugal

Theses and Dissertations

Larsen Motorsports competes in drag racing events all over the country using their jet power drag cars. These competitions are focused on getting the most performance out of the engine as possible by shaving weight off the vehicle and increasing the amount of power produced. One of the many factors in the amount of power produced by the car is the afterburner. Afterburners can increase thrust from ~3,000lb to ~5,000lb in a standard J85 engine. Due to this there is a good deal of attention paid to the efficiency and performance of the afterburner. The specific portion this thesis focused …

Application Of Neural Networks For Solving One Dimensional Inverse Heat Conduction Problems With Surface Ablation, Jian Zhang

Theses and Dissertations

Thermal protection systems (TPS) are critical for space vehicles to keep them safe against extensive aerothermal heating, particularly during the atmospheric entry. Ablative materials burn away gradually when subjected to extreme heat flux and therefore are considered as a practical option for TPS application. Measurement of TPS surface condition, particularly heat flux, is essential to reduce design margins and also improve active control strategies for damage avoidance. However, it is not possible to directly measure TPS surface heat flux, and alternative approaches must be utilized for this purpose. One method is to use temperature sensors at internal layers and solve …

Development Of A Graphical User Interface For Ecg Signals Classification Using Statistical Features Analysis, Mousa Hammad S Aldosari

Theses and Dissertations

Cardiac diseases are the most common cause of mortality in the world. The detection of cardiac arrhythmias is not a straightforward process, since minor variations in the electrocardiogram (ECG) signals cannot be easily identified manually. Therefore, automatic detection and classification of cardiac arrhythmia would shorten the diagnostic time and accelerate medical intervention resulting in reducing the mortality rate. In this thesis, I have developed a simple and low-cost computer-aided diagnostic system using MATLAB-based Graphical User Interface (GUI) to facilitate fast operation and access to the data along with the overall accuracy of the system. The acquired ECG signals are processed …

Mechanical And Material Properties Of Nitinol And Its Application To Stents, Ariana Solis Eichler

Theses and Dissertations

Nitinol is a functional material with superelastic and shape memory properties derived from its unique molecular structure. The purpose of this thesis is to explore how the material and mechanical properties of self-expanding Nitinol stents affects the forces applied to arterial walls during stent deployment compared to the traditional balloon-expanding stainless steel stents, in addition to contrasting thin and thick-walled pressure vessel mathematical models. Nitinol’s mechanical properties can be optimized for stent applications by tailoring its processing procedures. Nitinol stents demonstrated a reduced circumferential hoop stress on the vessel wall and greater factor of safety with respect to vessel rupture …

Application Of Classification In Machine Learning: An Analysis Of Highway-Rail Grade Crossing Systems Safety, Christopher John Helmer Cox

Theses and Dissertations

Highway-rail grade crossing accidents are the second leading cause of fatalities within the railway transportation industry. Highway-rail grade crossing fatality statistics have failed to improve over the last decade, and in some years have increased. Because of these trends, research has found that considerable Federal funding initiatives exist to support and develop contemporary risk reduction methodologies involving machine learning and artificial intelligence. In accord with these initiatives, this thesis investigates the highway-rail grade crossing safety problem using machine learning to implement an ensemble decision tree-based classification application. The resulting classifier has been validated to achieve a less than three percent …

Social Participation Performance Of Wheelchair Users Using Clustering And Geolocational Sensor's Data, Yukun Yin, Kar Way Tan

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

For wheelchair users, social participation and physical mobility play a significant part in determining their mental health and quality of life outcomes. However, little is known about how wheelchair users move about and engage in social interactions within their life-spaces. In this project, we investigate the social participation performance of the wheelchair users based on a combination of geolocational and lifestyle survey data collected over a period of three months. This paper adopts a multi-variate approach combining geolocational travel patterns and various factors such as independence, willingness and self-perception to provide multi-faceted analysis to their lifestyles. We provide profiles of …

An Adaptive Approach To Gibbs’ Phenomenon, Jannatul Ferdous Chhoa

Master's Theses

Gibbs’ Phenomenon, an unusual behavior of functions with sharp jumps, is encountered while applying the Fourier Transform on them. The resulting reconstructions have high frequency oscillations near the jumps making the reconstructions far from being accurate. To get rid of the unwanted oscillations, we used the Lanczos sigma factor to adjust the Fourier series and we came across three cases. Out of the three, two of them failed to give us the right reconstructions because either it was removing the oscillations partially but not entirely or it was completely removing them but smoothing out the jumps a little too much. …

Investigating The Use Of 3d Printing Pens For Additive Manufacturing Component Repair, Kyle Andrew Koren

Theses and Dissertations

The work presented in this thesis provides fundamental research for investigating the application of 3D printing pens for the repair of components manufactured by 3D printers. Test specimens of three different print orientations were 3D printed with acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS) and underwent a tensile load test, through rupture, to determine the maximum tensile load experienced. These ruptured specimens were then manually repaired with a 3D printing pen and put through another tensile test to determine the percentage of maximum tensile load retained. The two print orientations that had the axis of tensile load applied parallel to their print layers experienced rupture …

Changes In Neural Network Connectivity Of Normal Young Adults In Response To Power Wheelchair Trainer Using Eeg Coherence, Ruby Phung

Masters Theses

The ability to move and explore their surrounding environment plays a critical role in the development of cognitive function in children, especially during early childhood. The lack of independent and autonomous mobility is, therefore, a clear disadvantage for the overall development of children with multiple, severe disabilities. Limited number of studies have been conducted on the impact of power mobility device on this specific population. Previous exploratory and pilot studies showed promising results regarding quantifiable and consistent changes in the electroencephalogram (EEG) of children with multiple, severe disabilities when provided with power mobility training. This study aimed to further extend …

Analysis Of Center Of Pressure And Center Of Mass To Determine Patterns Of Postural Stability In Neurotypical Subjects, Natalie Tipton

Masters Theses

The body’s postural control mechanism is responsible for responding to perturbations of balance and keeping the body upright. One of the main ways that this is completed during quiet standing, where both feet are planted on the ground, is through center of pressure oscillations. In these oscillations, the center of pressure circles around the center of mass, constantly counteracting any lean that exists in the body. These oscillations can be recorded with floorembedded force plates and center of mass can be recorded with a motion capture system. In this research, these signals were recorded for stances with feet together and …

Alternative Designs Of Molten Salt Storage Shells For Use In Solar Energy Storage, Samaan G. Ladkany, Nathan Loyd

Civil and Environmental Engineering and Construction Faculty Research

Molten salt (MS) storage systems in the 565°C range can store green solar energy from thermal solar power station, such as the Crescent Dunes solar plant in Nevada. Large containers can be used to store energy and generate electricity for eight hours or more to be used at night or during peak demand hours, depending on the container size. Energy storage can reduce the fluctuation due to weather conditions experienced at thermal solar power stations because stable diurnal energy supply is made available by MS energy storage. Supported by the Office of Naval Research (ONR), the research presented discusses the …

Cooking Systems Using Aluminum Foam, Ryan Tetsuo Mizukami

Physics

In developing countries, the use of wood burning fires for cooking is cause for illness and death. With this in mind, research was conducted to develop a solar cooking device capable of cooking of soup within 15 mins in order to reduce the negative impacts of cooking with wood. Current methods of solar-based cooking, such as solar concentrators and solar tube ovens, are impractical. A small solar panel is a cost-effective way to produce energy but will not produce enough power to cook within a reasonable amount of time. Even if it is assumed that all of the energy produced …

Machine Learning-Based Temporary Traffic Control Cost Analysis, Yuhan Jiang, Sisi Han, Yong Bai

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

In a design-bid-build infrastructural project, the agency may use a lump-sum, or unit-price for temporary traffic control (TTC) items, while their cost is hard to estimate. This paper presents the research results of developing a machine learning model of the relationship between the TTC items’ cost with the project total cost and non-TTC items in infrastructural projects. In detail, 163 infrastructural projects’ data were collected for analyzing two research questions: first, the relationship between the TTC items with the project total cost and non-TTC items; second, the relationship between the TTC items’ payment option with the project total cost and …

Formula Sae Monocoque Chassis Development, Kc Egger, Brian Ford, Kyle Nagao, Neal Sharma, Donovan Zusalim

Mechanical Engineering

Formula SAE is a collegiate competition hosted by SAE International with the primary goal being to design, manufacture, and race an open wheel race car. The Cal Poly Racing Formula SAE team strives for improvement every race season and has remained competitive as a result. The 2019-2020 management team determined that further research and development towards the chassis would yield the greatest performance benefit for future seasons, as the previous chassis platform limited packaging and mounting options for vehicle subsystems which interfaced with the chassis.

A redesign of the Cal Poly Racing Formula SAE team’s carbon fiber reinforced polymer monocoque …

Methods To Investigate Hyperthermia Induced By Tumor Treating Fields, Ruchi Singh

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

Tumor Treating Fields (TTFields) are an antineoplastic treatment delivered via application of alternating electric fields using insulated transducer arrays placed directly on the skin in the region surrounding the tumor. TTF’s is a non-invasive application of low-intensity (1-3 V/cm), intermediate-frequency (100-500 kHz) alternating electric fields. The predominant mechanism by which TTFields are thought to kill tumor cells is the disruption of mitosis through the depolymerization of microtubules and interruption of the spindle structure leading to mitotic catastrophe and the formation of non-viable daughter cells. Tumor Treating fields do not stimulate nerves and muscle because of their high frequency, and do …

Wind Uplifting Performance Of Roof-To-Wall Connections And Roof Structures With Elastomeric Adhesives In Light-Frame Wood Buildings, Bilal M. Alhawamdeh

Dissertations

Light-frame wood residential buildings are highly susceptible to damage caused by severe wind events such as hurricanes and tornados. Roof failures in residential buildings are commonly observed due to weaknesses of or missing connections. Roof-to-wall connections not only have significant influences on roof performance but also affect building resistance due to their critical role of transferring wind loads to the wall system and ultimately to the foundation. Roof fails when it has no sufficient wind uplift resistance due to improper selection or installation of construction materials (including fasteners) and strength degradation due to aging or long service. Toenailing is commonly …

Production And Characterization Of Uranium Sol Gel Surrogates Produced With Cerium Acetate And Cerium Nitrate, Matthew Brett Alford

All Dissertations

For the production of ceramic microspheres for future space travel, new methods of processing must be explored. The sol gel method proves promising for the production of uranium-based ceramic microspheres that are consistent enough in size and shape for such an application. A process for producing these microspheres has already been established, but there are avenues for improvement.

Handling of radioactive material like uranium is not always possible or warranted. As such, a non-radioactive surrogate that greatly resembles the processing of its actual radioactive counterpart. Herein this work a cerium-based surrogate is developed to closely resemble an already established process …