Engineering Commons^™

Improving The Biological Control Of Persicaria Perfoliata (Polygonaceae) Using Rhinoncomimus Latipes Korotyaev (Coleoptera: Curculionidae), Jaewon Kim

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Persicaria perfoliata (L.) H. Gross (Polygonaceae; Mile-a-minute weed) is a rapid-growing invasive vine introduced from eastern Asia to northeastern United States in the 1930s. This vine has been invaded in disturbed areas and reforestation sites in 15 states in the U.S. and forms dense, monocultural patches that may inhibit natural forest regeneration. To control this weed, a host-specific biocontrol agent, Rhinoncomimus latipes Korotyaev (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) has been released in the P. perfoliata invaded states in the U.S. during the past 15 years. Currently, R. latipes is released by hand to the invaded area where the presence of the weed is …

Implementation Of Radial Basis Function Artificial Neural Network Into An Adaptive Equivalent Consumption Minimization Strategy For Optimized Control Of A Hybrid Electric Vehicle, Thomas P. Harris

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Continued increases in the emission of greenhouse gases by passenger vehicles has accelerated the production of hybrid electric vehicles. With this increase in production, there has been a parallel demand for continuously improving strategies of hybrid electric vehicle control. The goal of an ideal control strategy is to maximize fuel economy while minimizing emissions. The design and implementation of an optimized control strategy is a complex challenge. Methods exist by which the globally optimal control strategy may be found. However, these methods are not applicable in real-world driving applications since these methods require a priori knowledge of the upcoming drive …

Using Ai And Machine Learning To Indicate Shale Anisotropy And Assist In Completions Design, Cole E. Palmer

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Operating companies in the unconventional Marcellus shale play have all faced a similar and problematic issue, while attempting to produce natural gas over the last decade. Companies have quickly realized that not every perforation along their horizontal wells are producing gas. In fact, producing perforations are only ranging from 15%-70% of the total perforations along the horizontal wellbore [1]. This unexplained issue results in millions of dollars in lost revenue per well, in addition to the sunk cost of paying for completions that are not actually yielding any produced gas.

What is causing these perforations to have no produced gas? …

Impacts Of Bike Sharing On Transit Ridership, Moathe Salah Aljeri

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Biking is an active, environmentally friendly, and sustainable transportation mode that facilitates short utilitarian and recreational trips. As such, cities around the world have been implementing bicycle sharing/renting programs at stations in a wide network so that a traveler can mount one close to their origins and drop it off at a station nearest to their destinations. In addition, bike sharing programs can solve the first-mile and last-mile connectivity problems of transit modes. Such programs also enable short trips that were previously impossible without using transit modes. This research investigated the relationship between New York City (NYC) subway ridership and …

Effect Of Particle Concentration, Sealing Condition And Breathing Rate On Total Inward Leakage For N95 Filtering Facepiece Respirators, Taoreed T. Lawal

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Several researchers have considered the relationship between total inward leakage (TIL) and other parameters such as sealing condition, particle concentration, type of particulate material breathing parameters, etc., however, there is dearth of information on the effects of varying particle concentration on the penetration efficiency of filtering facepiece respirators (FFRs), hence, this study aims to study the effect of varying NaCl particle concentration, sealing condition and breathing rate on the TIL as a result of the filtering efficiency of the filters.

To achieve this, we followed the sampling procedure used by He et al., 2014. Four different sealing conditions (SCs) namely; …

Assessment Of Unmanned Aerial Systems And Lidar For The Utility Vegetation Management Of Electrical Distribution Rights-Of-Ways, Matthew R. Walker

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Utility Vegetation Management (UVM) is often the largest maintenance expense for many utilities. However, with advances in Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS; or more commonly, “drones”) and lidar technologies, vegetation managers may be able to more rapidly and accurately identify vegetation threats to critical infrastructures. The goal of this study was to assess the utility of Geodetics’ UAS-lidar system for vegetation threat assessment for 1.6 km of a distribution electric circuit. We investigated factors which contribute to accurate tree crown detection and segmentation of trees from within an UAS-lidar derived point cloud, and the factors which contribute to accurate tree risk …

Multi-Objective Optimization Of A Ridesharing System Performance, Mohammad Nasr Azadani

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Ridesharing is a shared vehicle service with the potential to meet the growing travel demand due to population increase, economic growth, and shortage in transportation infrastructure capacity. Compared to the current system of predominantly using personal vehicles, ridesharing services reduce the number of vehicles while providing mobility services to the same number of people with no additional investment in the transportation infrastructure. One of the big challenges in implementing ridesharing services is matching drivers and riders. Conflicts between matching-objectives to comply with the interests of diverse stakeholders influence the efficiency of ridesharing in a transportation system. This study investigates the …

Risk Assessment Of Architecture Technical Debt, Mrwan Omar Kh. Ben Idris

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Technical Debt (TD) is a metaphor that refers to short-term solutions in software development that may affect the software development life cycle cost. Researchers have found many TD types. These TD types include but are not limited to code debt (CD), design debt (DD), and architecture technical debt (ATD). Several methods have been used to detect technical debt, such as bad smells, software metrics, and code comments. Although TD has received many researchers’ attention, ATD has received less attention compared with CD and DD. We found a lack of tools to deal with ATD in contrast to CD and DD. …

Exploration Of Unknown Environments Using A Tethered Mobile Robot, Danylo Shapovalov

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Exploration with mobile robots is a well known field of research, but current solutions cannot be directly applied for tethered robots. In some applications, tethers may be very important to provide power or allow communication with the robot. This thesis presents an exploration algorithm that guarantees complete exploration of arbitrary environments within the length constraint of the tether, while keeping the tether tangle-free at all times. While a generalized algorithm that can be used with several exploration strategies is also proposed, the presented implementation uses a modified frontier-based exploration approach, where the robot chooses its next goal in the frontier …

A Study On The Hydrodynamics Of A Bench-Scale Top-Fed Bubbling Fluidized Bed Gasifier Using Biomass And Coal As Feedstocks, Ali Can Sivri

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The production of synthetic gas (syngas) from renewable or carbon-neutral sources can significantly reduce greenhouse and other emissions associated with conventional fuels. One of the most promising technologies to efficiently convert carbonaceous feedstocks such as biomass, coal, or municipal waste into syngas for transportation, power, heat, electricity generation, and or production of added-value chemicals is the bubbling fluidized-bed gasifier (BFBG). However, the gasification process inside a BFBG is a very complex high-temperature multiphase flow phenomena still not well understood, particularly when binary mixtures are investigated. As a result, despite the numerous correlations in the literature developed to predict the hydrodynamics …

Design And Optimization Of Dynamic System For A One-Kw Free Piston Linear Engine Alternator-Gensets Program, Nima Zamani Meymian

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

In power/energy systems, free-piston linear machines are referred to as a mechanism where the constrained crank motion is eliminated and replaced with free reciprocating piston motion. Depending on the application, the piston motion can be converted into other types of energy and includes compressed air/fluid, electricity, and high temperature/pressure gas. A research group at West Virginia University developed a free-piston linear engine alternator (LEA) in 1998 and have achieved significant accomplishment in the performance enhancement of the LEAs to date. The present LEA design incorporates flexure springs as energy restoration components and as bearing supports. The advantages of using flexure …

Fundamental Studies On The Recovery Of Rare Earth Elements From Acid Mine Drainage, Xue Huang

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The Rare Earth Elements (REEs) are a group of 17 chemically similar elements that are essential raw materials for modern society. Given their increasing importance in civil and defense applications, many national governments, including the US, have denoted the REEs as critical materials and emphasized the need to identify and develop both conventional and unconventional resources to meet the growing demand. To address this challenge, the US Department of Energy has recently spearheaded efforts to evaluate the technical and economic feasibility of recovering REEs from coal and coal byproducts, which have been shown to contain REEs at an elevated concentration …

Evaluation Of Fitts’ Throughput As A Possible Performance Measure For Manual Assembly Tasks, Pradyumna Bettagere Jagadish

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Assembly lines are the backbone of the manufacturing sector. Workers at the assembly lines are expected to perform fast pace hand-arm exertions with precision and accuracy. To protect the workers from injuries, OSHA mandates the use of personal protective equipment (PPE) including gloves. Certain assembly operations require the use of special gloves. Some of these gloves can inhibit hand performance, further increasing the task difficulty. The Index of Difficulty (ID) is a metric measured in ‘bits’ quantifies task difficulty through the quotient of target width and target motion, i.e., distance travelled. The time required to complete the target motion is …

Solutions To Some Mine Subsidence Research Challenges, Jian Yang

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The objective of this work is to address three challenging topics, (1) effects of overburden key strata on subsurface subsidence; (2) effects of longwall subsidence on interstate highways and highway bridges; and (3) effects of dewatering mine water on surface subsidence over inactive room-and-pillar mines, in mine subsidence and to continue improvement of mine safety and health by reducing mine-subsidence related hazards.

Surface and subsurface subsidence events induced by underground mining activities are often capable of causing significant disturbances not only to surface structures, but also to subsurface structures. In this work, models and techniques to study three challenging topics …

Design And Development Of A Multi-Nodal Methane Detection System For Longwall Coal Mining, Amber P. Barr

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Methane (CH4) explosions pose significant dangers in longwall mining that may lead to injuries and fatalities. Safety is improved through diligent monitoring of CH4 concentration. Currently, regulations require a CH4 monitor be placed on the shearer, downwind of the cutting head. Portable monitor measurements must be taken at various times and locations. If any CH4 monitor measures a concentration greater than 1%, a warning signal must be given. Based on previous research and the location of the CH4 monitor mounted on the shearer (closest monitor to the face), if 1% methane is measured, the concentration at the face may be …

Terrain Aware Traverse Planning For Mars Rovers, Gabrielle Hedrick

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

NASA is proposing a Mars Sample Return mission, to be completed within one Martian year, that will require enhanced autonomy to perform its duties faster, safer, and more efficiently. With its main purpose being to retrieve samples possibly tens of kilometers away, it will need to drive beyond line-of-sight to get to its target more quickly than any rovers before. This research proposes a new methodology to support a sample return mission and is divided into three compo-nents: map preparation (map of traversability, i.e., ability of a terrain to sustain the traversal of a vehicle), path planning (pre-planning and replanning), …

A Study Of Impact Protection Of Metacarpal Gloves, Faisal Mohammed Alessa

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Work-related wrist, hand, and finger injuries are highly prevalent in manufacturing and extractive industries. An analysis of mining-related hand injury data from over the past two decades (Alessa et al., 2020) showed that hand injuries caused by insufficient protection against impact loads (e.g. struck by accidents) were categorized with high severity. Existing literature lacks clear classification and quantification methods for the protection provided by impact-resistant gloves (i.e. metacarpal gloves). A new method to establish a quantitative measure of performance for commonly used metacarpal gloves was developed and evaluated.

In the first specific aim, an experimental study using cadaveric hand specimens …

Palmprint Gender Classification Using Deep Learning Methods, Minou Khayami

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Gender identification is an important technique that can improve the performance of authentication systems by reducing searching space and speeding up the matching process. Several biometric traits have been used to ascertain human gender. Among them, the human palmprint possesses several discriminating features such as principal-lines, wrinkles, ridges, and minutiae features and that offer cues for gender identification. The goal of this work is to develop novel deep-learning techniques to determine gender from palmprint images. PolyU and CASIA palmprint databases with 90,000 and 5502 images respectively were used for training and testing purposes in this research. After ROI extraction and …

Process Modeling And Techno-Economic Analysis Of Thermo-Catalytic Dimethyl Ether Synthesis And Microwave-Based Aromatics Production Technologies From Shale Gas, Chirag Mevawala

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Production of dimethyl ether (DME) and direct non-oxidative methane dehydroaromatization (DHA) to aromatics via conventional and microwave (MW)-assisted processes are investigated in this research. Plant-wide models of the shale gas to DME process with integrated CO₂ capture via direct and indirect synthesis routes have been developed. Optimal parameter estimation, and model validation are undertaken for various sections of the process including the pre-reforming reactor, auto-thermal reforming reactor, DME synthesis reactors, CO₂ capture units and separation sections. A novel DME separation process has been developed for efficient separation of DME, syngas, and CO₂. Plant-wide techno-economic optimization is …

Rail-To-Rail Operational In Low-Power Reconfigurable Analog Circuitry, Jared Dale Baker

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Analog signal processing (ASP) can be used to decrease energy consumption by several orders of magnitude over completely digital applications. Low-power field programmable analog arrays (FPAA) have been previously used by analog designers to decrease energy consumption. Combining ASP with an FPAA, energy consumption of these systems can be further reduced. For ASP to be most functional, it must achieve rail-to-rail operation to maintain a high dynamic range. This work strives to further reduce power consumption in reconfigurable analog circuitry by presenting a novel data converter that utilizes ASP and rail-to-rail operation. Rail-to-Rail operation is achieved in the data converter …

Green Completion As A Mitigation For Btex Exposure In Gas Flaring: Nigeria Case Study (Exposure Assessment And Cost Model), Akintunde S. Akinyemi

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Gas flaring is an essential part of the oil and gas industry safety and waste management procedures; however, it presents a potential exposure to BTEX compounds, a group of Non-Methane Volatile Organic Compounds (NMVOC), within up to a 10-mile radius of the flare point. The physical and the psychological cost of the journey to work, make employees live close to the workplace. This study examined the perceived exposure of oil and gas industry workers to possible carcinogenic emissions outside the workplace. It looked at the outcomes of the exposure to BTEX through gas flaring drawing on archival data and using …

Effect Of Binder Modification And Aggregate Size On Modulus And Fatigue Of Asphalt Concrete, Elizabeth Bashiti

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Asphalt concrete is one of the main ingredients used in the paving of roadways across the globe. These roadways have been deteriorating from overuse, under design, and a lack of understanding of the engineering properties. In the asphalt community, it is agreed upon that polymer modifiers and aggregate size have comparable impacts on the performance of a pavement, such as, low creep at high temperatures, high ductility at low temperatures, high toughness, resistance to moisture and temperature, high cohesive and adhesive strength. With all of these advantages, it has been often assumed that polymer modifiers extend/improve the expected life of …

Towards Large Eddy Simulation Of A Staged, Pressurized Oxy-Fuel Combustor, Alain Islas Montero

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Identified by the DoE among the novel and transformational technologies, staged-pressurized oxy-fuel combustion (SPOC) is a promising low-cost, low-emission, and highly efficient tool for carbon capture utilization and storage (CCUS), with pulverized coal burning under elevated pressures and low recycled flue gas. A lab-scale SPOC facility, under establishment at Washington University in St. Louis (WUSTL), causes the critical need to develop accurate and reliable computational models to assist the ongoing WUSTL experiments. This constitutes the driving motivation of the present work. Specifically, comprehensive three-dimensional Large-eddy simulations (LES) of the lab-scale SPOC reactor, with most of important characteristics of a multi-phase …

Impact Of Particle Injection On Gas Flow At Elevated Pressure: A Numerical Study, Ansan Pokharel

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Modeling of a turbulent two-phase gaseous-solid flow still faces challenges. The present study is devoted to two-phase flow in an annular pipe (hollow cylinder) operating at an elevated pressure of 15 bar and moderate Reynolds numbers of circa 6 x 10³. The influence of the various factors – such as the particle loading, the interaction between the phases, and turbulent dispersion – on the flow dynamics is systematically studied by means of the computational simulation employing the ANSYS FLUENT commercial package. To be specific, particle loading with a volumetric fraction of 1.2 % is defined as high particle …

Experimental, Computational And Analytical Studies Towards A Predictive Scenario For A Burning Accident, Furkan Kodakoglu

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Historically, accidental gas and dust explosions constitute one of the major hazards to both personnel and equipment in the process industries. The current knowledgebase on such explosions does not provide an acceptable level of risk. Therefore, novel preventive mining/fire safety strategies, based on a rigorous predictive scenario for burning accidents, are critically needed. The present dissertation is devoted to such a predictive scenario, with a particular focus on the flame and pressure evolutions in explosions encountered in an enclosure with or without obstructions. The experimental component of this dissertation comprises a series of experiments on explosion venting. Specifically, the influence …

An In-Depth Investigation Of The Effects Of Work-Related Factors On The Development Of Knee Musculoskeletal Disorders Among Construction Roofers, Amrita Dutta

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Construction roofers have the uppermost likelihood of developing knee musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs). Roofers spend more than 75% of their total working time being restricted to awkward kneeling postures and repetitive motions in a sloped roof setting. However, the combined effect of knee-straining posture, roof slope and their association to knee MSDs among roofers are still unknown. This dissertation aimed to provide empirical evidence of the effects of two roofing work-related factors namely, roof slope and kneeling working posture, on the development of knee MSDs among construction roofers. These two factors were assessed as potential to increase knee MSD risks in …

Plasmon-Enhanced Optical Probes For Sensing Of Drug Metabolite, Jennifer Boryczka

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

An Au@SiO₂ core-shell nanostar structure was synthesized along with CuInS2 quantum dots. The quantum dots display near-infrared fluorescence. In this work, the nanostar structure was functionalized with antibodies and then was utilized as a SERS probe for drug metabolite detection. Drugs are an illicit substance that police, medics, and hospitals need to know if an individual is under the influence of but that individual will not always be willing or able to provide that information. A sensor based on this new probe has been developed for detection of drug metabolites in buffer.

Video And Image Super-Resolution Via Deep Learning With Attention Mechanism, Xuan Xu

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Image demosaicing, image super-resolution and video super-resolution are three important tasks in color imaging pipeline. Demosaicing deals with the recovery of missing color information and generation of full-resolution color images from so-called Color filter Array (CFA) such as Bayer pattern. Image super-resolution aims at increasing the spatial resolution and enhance important structures (e.g., edges and textures) in super-resolved images. Both spatial and temporal dependency are important to the task of video super-resolution, which has received increasingly more attention in recent years. Traditional solutions to these three low-level vision tasks lack generalization capability especially for real-world data. Recently, deep learning methods …

Evaluation Of Test Specimen Geometry Of Asphalt Mixes Tested With The Asphalt Mixture Performance Tester, Abha Dwivedy

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Asphalt concrete, AC, is a heterogeneous material that is modeled as a homogeneous material. The disparity between material structure and theory presents issue with performance testing with test sample geometries, resulting in variability. The purpose of this research is to develop appropriate sample geometry for AMPT test for accurate characterization of asphalt mix and ease of testing.

Four sample geometries were fabricated for three mix types. All specimens are fabricated at 7%0.5% air voids and tested for AMPT tests. The effect of sample geometry was statistically analyzed using laboratory test results and performance predictions using FlexPAVE. For ranking analysis all …

Assessment Of Heat Stress For Outdoor Work Conditions In Saudi Arabia, Jamal Alanazi

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Outdoor workers have an increased risk of heat stress in Saudi Arabia since it is one of the hottest places in the Middle East. Recently, the government decided to limit outdoor work hours during the months of June, July, and August every year, and banned working under the direct sunlight from 12:00 to 03:00 p.m., although outdoor workers in the petroleum, natural gas, or emergency maintenance work industries are exempt from this prohibition. Traditionally, the efforts by safety and health professionals to mitigate work-related heat injury has been directed toward the assessment of environmental heat stress (e.g., wet-bulb globe temperature), …