Engineering Commons^™

Decoding Ldpc Codes With Probabilistic Local Maximum Likelihood Bit Flipping, Rejoy Roy Mathews

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Communication channels are inherently noisy making error correction coding a major topic of research for modern communication systems. Error correction coding is the addition of redundancy to information transmitted over communication channels to enable detection and recovery of erroneous information. Low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes are a class of error correcting codes that have been effective in maintaining reliability of information transmitted over communication channels. Multiple algorithms have been developed to benefit from the LDPC coding scheme to improve recovery of erroneous information. This work develops a matrix construction that stores the information error probability statistics for a communication channel. This …

Strategic Infrastructure Planning For Autonomous Vehicles, Zhaocai Liu

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Compared with conventional human-driven vehicles (HVs), AVs have various potential benefits, such as increasing road capacity and lowering vehicular fuel consumption and emissions. Road infrastructure management, adaptation, and upgrade plays a key role in promoting the adoption and benefit realization of AVs. This dissertation investigated several strategic infrastructure planning problems for AVs. First, it studied the potential impact of AVs on the congestion patterns of transportation networks. Second, it investigated the strategic planning problem for a new form of managed lanes for autonomous vehicles, designated as autonomous-vehicle/toll lanes, which are freely accessible to autonomous vehicles while allowing human-driven vehicles to …

Impact Of Parasitic Drag On A Family Of Optimal Lift Distributions, Austin J. Stewart

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Minimizing drag is a variational problem, and several minimum induced drag solutions have been found using different design constraints. The elliptic lift distribution is commonly used to minimize induced drag, but is only the optimal solution under one set of design constraints. Non-elliptic lift distributions are able to reduce induced drag, when compared to the elliptic lift distribution, by increasing the wingspan while maintaining a consistent wing–structure weight. However, these non-elliptic lift distributions are only optimal if the effects of viscous drag are neglected. In this study, numerical tools are used to estimate the total drag on rectangular wings that …

Big Data Management For Secured Smart Healthcare System: A Machine Learning Framework, Abrar Zahin

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Human action recognition and monitoring are a significant part of a smart healthcare system, which allows us to remotely monitor the behavior of patients or elderly persons to record their daily activities and to ensure safety. Ubiquitous smart wearable sensors are becoming convenient for generating and transmitting those healthcare data for further processing. Interpretation of such huge amount of data requires advanced learning systems where most important information can be extracted and analyzed. For example, current classification algorithms are not robust enough to differentiate among numerous variations of human actions due to the lack of sufficient processed samples. Thus, one …

Hardware Accelerator For Star Centroiding, Nazmus Sakib

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Since the dawn of civilization mankind has gazed upon the night sky and looked for directions. In this modern age, the stars have proved to be a reliable reference point for navigation in space. From small-satellites for gathering weather data to inter-planetary missions like Cassini Orbiter, figuring out the location of a spacecraft has been done successfully by taking images of star filed visible from the spacecraft, processing and analyzing the image to find the stars and then finding out from a star catalog which part of the sky the patterns of the visible stars best matches. But a lot …

Arsenic Release From Surface Soils Induced By Stormwater Bioretention, Kaisa H. Patterson

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Arsenic is a naturally occurring element known for its chronic and acute toxicity. The solubility of arsenic is highly dependent on environmental conditions. The soils of Cache Valley, UT, contain naturally occurring arsenic.

Bioretention systems rely on a combined plant-soil system to remove pollutants carried by stormwater, typically nitrogen, phosphorus, dissolved organic carbon, and select metals. Phosphate from stormwater potentially increases arsenic mobility, which makes stormwater pollutant loading an important factor for evaluating risks associated with stormwater bioretention. Pollutant removal in these systems occurs through sorption of contaminants onto the soils, physical filtration by the soil media, and uptake by …

Improvement Of Ultraviolet Digital Image Correlation (Uv-Dic) At Extreme Temperatures, Thinh Quang Thai

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Extreme temperature has increasingly played an essential role in design and operation of various engineering applications including spacecraft re-entry, hypersonic flight, next-generation nuclear reactors, and hot-fire rocket testing. To protect instruments against the harsh environments, it is preferable to use non-contacting measurements when monitoring the integrity of those mechanical structures. Digital Image Correlation (DIC) is a popular method which uses digital cameras in order to track motion thanks to images acquired before and after deformation. Displacements and strains are plotted over a full-field region which is conducive to identify highly risky zones. At high temperature, objects emit light which interferes …

Nonpoint Source Pollution Control Using A Multi-Objective Optimization Tool For Best Management Practices Selection And Spatial Placement In The Lower Bear River Watershed, Utah, Ali A. Salha

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This dissertation presents a set of approaches to help address water quality problems related to total phosphorus loads in water bodies. Water quality degradation is caused by many nonpoint sources such as agricultural runoff, fertilizers applications, and bank erosion. Three studies present methodologies for water quality protection from degradation in watersheds. The first study demonstrates the application of a watershed simulation tool that can quantify flows in the watershed, the amount of released pollutants and identify the areas contributing to the pollutants’ release in the watershed. The second study presents a simple combination tool that can pair potential management practices …

System-Level Analysis Of Autonomous Uav Landing Sensitivities In Gps-Denied Environments, Terran R. Gerratt

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This paper presents an analysis of the navigation accuracy of an fixed-wing Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) landing on a aircraft carrier. The UAV is equipped with typical sensors used in landing scenarios. Data from the Office of Naval Research is used to accurately capture the behavior of the aircraft carrier. Through simulation, the position and orientation of both the UAV and carrier are estimated. The quality of the UAV’s sensors are varied to determine the sensitivity of these estimates to sensor accuracy. The system’s sensitivity to GPS signals and visual markers on the carrier is also analyzed. These results allow …

Practical Optical Survey Strategies For Near Geostationary Orbital Debris, Akhter Mahmud Nafi

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Uncontrolled space objects, more commonly known as space debris, consist of dead satellites, satellite deployment packages, and lost elements of these systems such as insulation blankets. These uncontrolled objects represent hazards to our nation’s most valuable space assets which include communication satellites, weather satellites, Earth monitoring systems, and military assets. To help mitigate this problem, this research proposes using the known astrodynamics of the near geosynchronous orbit (GEO) along with the known concentration of the uncontrolled GEO objects and observation constraints to design ground-based optical surveys that will detect uncatalogued debris. Furthermore, a scoring metric is developed to evaluate the …

Experimental Static And Cyclic Behavior Of Hybrid Non-Metallic Bridge Decks Reinforced With Discrete Gfrp Rebar And Gfrp Macrofiber, Jared W. Mcrory

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Bridge deck corrosion is a major expense in the U.S. every year. The increased use of deicing salts in cold weather climates has led to corrosion of the steel reinforcement in bridge decks, which leads to spalling and delamination of the concrete cover. This results in costly rehabilitations or repairs, and more sustainable bridge deck solutions must be provided to prevent this cycle.

As a part of this research project, a corrosion-resistant, hybrid reinforcement strategy that is shown to be cost neutral with epoxy coated rebar is proposed. The hybrid reinforcement strategy, consisting of discrete Glass Fiber Reinforced Polymer (GFRP) …

Observation Of Struvite In The Mixed Microalgae Biofilm Matrix Of A Rotating Algal Biofilm Reactor During Nutrient Removal From Municipal Anaerobic Digester Filtrate, Kyle M. Hillman

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Central Valley Water Reclamation Facility (CVWRF) in Salt Lake City is the largest municipal wastewater treatment plant in Utah and must meet new and rigorous nutrient effluent standards–over 95% reduction in phosphorus output by 2025. Filtrate from CVWRF anaerobic digesters contains high levels of nitrogen, phosphorus, and magnesium. Supersaturation of these constituents leads to nuisance struvite precipitation that clogs belts, pumps, and pipes downstream of anaerobic digesters. Struvite is a mineral precipitate composed of equimolar magnesium, ammonium, and phosphate. Controlled precipitation of struvite helps prevent clogging and scaling, removes phosphate from wastewater, and generates a marketable fertilizer product.

Struvite was …

Same Stone, Different Outcomes: Marine Communities On Engineered Vs. Natural Rock Shores, Lucy Anne Dando Lockwood

Graduate Masters Theses

The effort to protect coastal property and infrastructure from storm damage, erosion, and sea level rise has resulted in increased construction of coastal protection structures (CPS) worldwide. Researchers around the globe have found that the marine communities living on CPS differ from those living on natural rock outcroppings in the same area. We conducted a classic disturbance experiment to investigate possible differences in marine organism response and community assembly between natural and human-constructed rocky intertidal habitat along the Massachusetts coast. The one-year study used naturally occurring rock shores and human-made granite seawalls with both wave-exposed and wave-protected areas. Significant differences …

Quantitative Resistance Assessment Of Sfrp-Strengthened Rc Bridge Columns Subjected To Blast Loads, Ahmad Alsendi, Christopher D. Eamon

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research Publications

The blast resistance of a typical reinforced concrete bridge pier column design was modeled with a nonlinear finite element approach that considers material damage, fracture, and separation. While varying concrete strength, amount of longitudinal reinforcing steel, and gravity load, the effect of applying an externally bonded steel fiber reinforced polymer (SFRP) wrapping was assessed. The presented approach uniquely quantifies column blast resistance in terms of charge weight. It was found that blast capacity was roughly linearly related to concrete strength and steel reinforcement ratio, the former of which is most influential. It was further found that a single layer of …

Final Report - Uav-Enabled Measurement For Spatial Magnetic Field Of Smart Rocks In Bridge Scour Monitoring, Genda Chen, Haibin Zhang, Zhaochao Li

Project SN-1

This project proposed an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)-based method to measure the change in magnetic field as a result of the movement of a smart rock to monitor the maximum depth of bridge scour. A high resolution 3-axis magnetometer and global positioning system (GPS) unit were installed on the UAV to obtain the magnetic field intensity and its corresponding coordinate. The optimization algorithm for the localization of smart rock was demonstrated and adopted. The impact factors on accurate smart rock positioning were experimentally investigated. Utilizing finite element method, the influence of steel reinforcing bars on the distribution of ambient magnetic …

Final Report - In-Line Long Period Grating And Brillouin Scattering Fiber Optic Sensors For Strain, Temperature, Chloride Concentration, And Steel Mass Loss Measurement In Bridge Applications, Genda Chen, Chuanrai Guo

Project SN-3

This project developed an in-line grating and scattering fiber optic sensing system for strain, temperature, and steel mass loss measurement in bridge applications. Long period fiber gratings (LPFG) sensors are responsive to thermal and mechanical deformation, and the refractive index change of their surrounding medium. Brillouin scattering sensors are responsive to temperature and strain along an optical fiber. A CO2 laser aided fiber grating system was assembled for LPFG fabrication. To enable mass loss measurement, a low pressure chemical vapor deposition (LPCVD) system was built to synthesize a graphene/silver nanowire composite film as flexible transparent electrode for the electroplating of …

Positive Effects Of A Small Grant For Creation Of Open Education Resources, Cherian Mathews

All Faculty Presentations - School of Engineering and Computer Science

Open educational resources have been shown to have the potential to improve student learning outcomes while lowering student costs associated with curricular materials. University competitively awarded small grants of $2500 to encourage faculty to create or adopt Open Educational Resources (OER) to help reduce student costs or enhance the student learning experience. This paper outlines how the grant award was used to create open tutorial resources and lab materials that helped students independently learn to use the simulation software Simulink in conjunction with a Digital Signal Processing course. Students were required to review the OER materials and complete the lab …

Advancing Compact Pulsed Power, Jon C. Pouncey

Electrical and Computer Engineering ETDs

The first two decades of the 21^st century have seen significant interest in expanding the application of pulsed power technology beyond its traditional use in physics and nuclear weapons research. Applications in the field of national defense, which present unique constraints on system size, have provided impetus to increase the exploration of compact pulsed power solutions. Innovations related to energy density, insulation, switching, and power conversion systems have been realized, bringing deployable compact pulsed power systems closer to realization than ever before. However, recent systems integration efforts have shown that work still remains to develop needed tools and technologies …

Chehalis River And Tributary Water Quality And Hydrodynamic Modeling: Model Setup, Calibration Analysis For 2013-2015, Tel Jensen

Dissertations and Theses

The Chehalis River is located in southwest Washington State. Its headwaters are in the Willapa Hills, and it drains parts of the Doty Hills, the western foothills of the Cascade Mountains, and the southern Olympic Mountains. The Chehalis River is over 125 miles long and its basin is over 2000 square miles spanning parts of seven counties and diverse land uses.

CE-QUAL-W2 is a widely used two-dimensional (vertical and longitudinal) hydrodynamic and water quality model developed by the US Army Corp of Engineers and the Water Quality Research Group at Portland State University. Version 4.2 includes the ability to run …

Emotional Awareness During Bug Fixes: A Pilot Study, Jada O. Loro, Abigail L. Schneff, Sarah J. Oran, Bonita Sharif

School of Computing: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This study examines the effects of a programmer's emotional awareness on progress while fixing bugs. The goal of the study is to capitalize on emotional awareness to ultimately increase progress made during software development. This process could result in improved software maintenance.

Editorial: Structure And Mechanical Properties Of Titanium Alloys And Titanium Matrix Composites (Tmcs), Lechun Xie, Liqiang Wang, Lai-Chang Zhang, Weijie Lu

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

No abstract provided.

Target Control Of Networked Systems, Isaac S. Klickstein

Mechanical Engineering ETDs

The control of complex networks is an emerging field yet it has already garnered interest from across the scientific disciplines, from robotics to sociology. It has quickly been noticed that many of the classical techniques from controls engineering, while applicable, are not as illuminating as they were for single systems of relatively small dimension. Instead, properties borrowed from graph theory provide equivalent but more practical conditions to guarantee controllability, reachability, observability, and other typical properties of interest to the controls engineer when dealing with large networked systems. This manuscript covers three topics investigated in detail by the author: (i) the …

Investigation Of Activated Carbon And Protein Polysaccharide Amendments In Capping Applications For Sediment Remediation, Mehdi Begag

Honors Scholar Theses

Contaminated sediment is a major environmental problem in numerous sites across the US and requires costly treatment to effectively remediate the sediment and prevent contaminants from entering the water column. Capping of contaminated sediment has emerged as the preferred treatment design as it is more cost effective and effectively isolates the contaminants in-situ. Powdered Activated Carbon (PAC) is commonly introduced in capping designs due to its high sorption capacity of organic contaminants. However, its low bulk density and fine particle size result in significant carbon resuspension during cap placement. This report provides experimental and modeling results focused on the effects …

Mechanical Analysis Of In Vitro Tbi Models, Dana Hamed

Honors Scholar Theses

This work details the damage done to cells when mechanically hit. The goal was to mechanically analyze in vitro traumatic brain injury (TBI) models. Parts were designed in SolidWorks to create the machine that is used to induce this damage on the cells. A force applicator that uses a 3D-printed micro-hammer to apply force on the brain cells that are being tested was created. Mechanical trauma experimentation was performed with the force applicator, while a high-speed camera recorded the damage, in order to analyze TBI models. Displacement along the scaffold can be tracked from multiple video frames. With these results, …

A Forward Analytic Model Of Neutron Time-Of-Flight Signals With Single Elastic Scattering And Beamline Attenuation For Inferring Ion Temperatures From Maglif Experiments, Colin A. Weaver

Nuclear Engineering ETDs

A forward analytic model is required to rapidly simulate the neutron time-of-flight (nToF) signals that result from magnetized liner inertial fusion (MagLIF) experiments at Sandia’s Z Pulsed Power Facility. Various experimental parameters, such as the burn-weighted fuel-ion temperature and liner areal density, determine the shape of the nToF signal and are important for characterizing any given MagLIF experiment. Extracting these parameters from measured nToF signals requires an appropriate analytic model that includes the primary DD neutron peak, once-scattered neutrons in the beryllium liner of the MagLIF target, and direct beamline attenuation. Mathematical expressions for this model were derived from the …

Antibacterial And Anticancer Activity Of Hydrothermally-Synthesized Zinc Oxide Nanomaterials Using Natural Extracts Of Neem, Pepper And Turmeric As Solvent Media, C. Abinaya, R. Manjula Devi, P. Suresh, N. Balasubramanian, N. Muthaiya, N. D. Kannan, J. Annaraj, V. Shanmugaiah, Joshua Pearce, P. Shanmugapriya, J. Mayandi

Michigan Tech Publications, Part 1

A novel and simple wet chemical hydrothermal synthesis method was employed in the preparation of zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles using neem (N), pepper (P) and turmeric (T) extracts as solvent media. The structural and optical properties as well as the antibacterial and anticancer properties of all the samples (ZnO, N/ZnO, P/ZnO, T/ZnO and NPT/ZnO) were characterized and analyzed. Solvent media was found to have an effect on both the size and the morphology of the nanoparticles, which in turn effected their optical and cytotoxic properties. The colony forming unit (CFU) assays were done for E. coli, S. aureus and S. …

Designing An Antibiotic Eluting Trauma Screw To Reduce Short Term Infection In Bone Fractures, Dominic Lincoln

Honors Theses

Orthopedic infection in the United States is one of the most common and severe health risks faced by trauma patients. The most prevalent infection is orthopedic and trauma device-related infection (ORDI) and often occurs in long bones at the fracture site. The purpose of this paper is to explore this infection, its causes, and solutions currently on the market while providing novel solutions to the problem. The designs proposed will be evaluated for their effectiveness and value, while attempting to keep costs low for all stakeholders. The feasibility of patenting these ideas will also be considered, as will the testing …

Evaluating Machine Learning Models For Semantic Segmentation Over Cloud Images For Classification, Harsh Nagarkar

Honors Theses

Due to the increasing number of available approaches nowadays, choosing the most accurate image semantic segmentation model has become hard. The purpose of this research is to find the best-performing image semantic segmentation model for Cloud classification. For the purpose of this study, a data set of cloud images from the Max Planck Institute for meteorology is used. These images were taken from the by two NASA space satellite.Three main models UNet, PSPNet and FPN were used in combination of 4 differ-ent encoder Inception-ResNet-v2, MobileNet-v2, ResNet-34, and ResNet 101. After training all the models in the Mississippi Center for Super …

Resilience Engineering: Theory And Practice, Michaela Jones

Civil Engineering ETDs

Civil and environmental engineering works at the interface of humans and the natural environment, making the environment hospitable for people and limiting adverse anthropogenic impacts on the ecosystem. Such socioecological systems are often complex and highly interconnected, and traditional engineering interventions focused on optimizing system elements result in unanticipated consequences. Resilience engineering utilizes a holistic methodology grounded in systems analysis and adaptation. This work broadly explores the concept of resilience engineering and contextualizes the approach using the case study of the Rio Chama. The resilience of the watershed is characterized in terms of its response to both traditional and resilience …

Sediment Outflow Under Simulated Rainfall Conditions With Varying Geotechnical Properties, Pranjay Joshi, Akhilesh Kumar, P. V. Singh, Jahangeer Jahangeer

Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute: Faculty Publications

The vulnerability of soil toward erosion might be reduced by having a good vegetative cover over the soil surface, slope improvement, and improving soil properties so that it is not easily detached and transported. However, the establishment of proper vegetative cover is a long process because it takes time for seeds to germinate and attain maturity. As an alternative approach, if soil resistance was increased by increasing the shear strength of soil against erosive forces offered by eroding agents, the soil system would become capable of withstanding the detachment of its particles on the application of shear stress. To achieve …