Engineering Commons^™

Thermal And Mechanical Numerical Modeling Of Extrusion-Based 3d Printed Reinforced Polymers For Selecting Manufacturing Process Parameters, Sunil Bhandari

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Extrusion-based 3D printing of thermoplastic polymer composites manufactures parts that have nonhomogenous, orthotropic, and process-dependent macro-scale material properties. As a part of the dissertation, research works were carried out to: • improve the interlayer mechanical properties and reduce the orthotropy, • use experimentally homogenized orthotropic material properties to numerically model the mechanical behavior of the non-homogenous orthotropic 3D printed parts, • create an efficient numerical thermal model to predict the process-dependent thermal history of the 3D printed part, and • aid the manufacturing process by selecting a suitable set of processing parameters based on a simplified sequentially coupled thermomechanical model. …

Modeling Driver Distraction Mechanism And Its Safety Impact In Automated Vehicle Environment., Song Wang

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Automated Vehicle (AV) technology expects to enhance driving safety by eliminating human errors. However, driver distraction still exists under automated driving. The Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) has defined six levels of driving automation from Level 0~5. Until achieving Level 5, human drivers are still needed. Therefore, the Human-Vehicle Interaction (HVI) necessarily diverts a driver’s attention away from driving. Existing research mainly focused on quantifying distraction in human-operated vehicles rather than in the AV environment. It causes a lack of knowledge on how AV distraction can be detected, quantified, and understood. Moreover, existing research in exploring AV distraction has mainly …

Hybrid Structural Health Monitoring Using Data-Driven Modal Analysis And Model-Based Bayesian Inference., Jice Zeng

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Civil infrastructures that are valuable assets for the public and owners must be adequately and periodically maintained to guarantee safety, continuous service, and avoid economic losses. Vibration-based structural health monitoring (VBSHM) has been a significant tool to assess the structural performance of civil infrastructures over the last decades. Challenges in VBSHM exist in two aspects: operational modal analysis (OMA) and Finite element model updating (FEMU). The former aims to extract natural frequency, damping ratio, and mode shapes using vibrational data under normal operation; the latter focuses on minimizing the discrepancies between measurements and model prediction. The main impediments to real-world …

Determination Of Bridge Behavior Through Live-Load Testing And Advanced Numerical Analysis, Andrew Schanck

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Bridges represent critical nodes in the United States’ transportation network, and an accurate understanding of their strength and durability is paramount to their continued use to transport people and goods. Traditionally, bridge assessment has been conducted through conventional beam-line analysis of isolated bridge components as specified by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO). Although this method is reasonable for relatively new structures whose behavior are well understood, it can lead to significant over-conservative estimates of live-load capacity for older structures and for new types of structure for which design bases are still being developed. For such …

Methods Of Determining And Predicating Community Annoyance Due To Aircraft Noise, Kevin Zielinski

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

As the importance of the aviation industry continues to grow, airports continue to expand, andincrease operations; noise generated from aircraft is becoming a growing concern to people livingwithin the communities surrounding the airports. Community members have shown concern throughcomplaints and annoyance due to the disturbances that aircraft noise cause in their everyday life. Thepurpose of this study is to determine which factors most affect community annoyance towards aircraftnoise. There are two main factors to be considered when analyzing annoyance due to aircraft noise.The first is the acoustic factors caused by the aircrafts themselves, such as the noise the aircraft emitsor …

Hydrogen Production During The Dark Fermentation Of Glycerol, Guochen Zhang

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The focus of this thesis was on the production of H2 from glycerol by mixed anaerobic cultures through dark fermentation. Laboratory scale experiments were conducted to demonstrate H2 production from glycerol. The impact of various factors was evaluated using different analytical and statistical methods. Three pH levels (5.5, 6.5, and 7.5) were examined to determine the effects of the initial pH on H2 production from glycerol. A hydrogen yield of 0.33 ± 0.03 mol H2 mol–1 glycerol was observed in cultures with the initial pH set at 5.5.

Further experiments were focused on increasing the H2 yield using long chain …

Wake Characteristics Of Wall-Mounted Finite Solid And Foam-Covered Cylinders, Subhadip Das

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The wake characteristics of a wall-mounted finite foam-covered cylinder are explored by comparing the flow properties with the wake of a solid cylinder. The velocity data are acquired experimentally using planar particle image velocimetry (PIV) and numerically by large eddy simulation at Reynolds number of 35100 based on the flow depth and 13100 based on the cylinder diameter. The wake characteristics may vary significantly if the approach flow properties change and also depend on the relative height of the boundary layer thickness with respect to the cylinder height. Therefore, it is a necessity to achieve a fully developed approach flow …

Finite Element Analysis Of Complex Vectorbloc Beam-Column Connections, Labiba Kalam

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Steel modular construction provides an efficient alternative to traditional construction practices. A key component to modular construction is the connection between the individual modules, which hold the building together against applied loads such as gravity, snow, and wind. The VectorBloc connector is an innovative cast steel connector that is used in the connections between steel modules made from hollow structural steel (HSS) members. The current VectorBloc connector, called VB4, is limited in its uplift capacity and thus faces challenges when applied to structures facing high uplift forces. Thus, a new design of the VectorBloc connector, called VB6, with a focus …

Finite Element Analysis Of Complex Vectorbloc Beam-Column Connections, Labiba Kalem

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Steel modular construction provides an efficient alternative to traditional construction practices. A key component to modular construction is the connection between the individual modules, which hold the building together against applied loads such as gravity, snow, and wind. The VectorBloc connector is an innovative cast steel connector that is used in the connections between steel modules made from hollow structural steel (HSS) members. The current VectorBloc connector, called VB4, is limited in its uplift capacity and thus faces challenges when applied to structures facing high uplift forces. Thus, a new design of the VectorBloc connector, called VB6, with a focus …

Structural Performance Of Shelf Angle Connection With Innovative Detailing, Shivam Sharma

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Recent legislations are demanding more efficient thermal insulation of the building envelopes. However, most of the energy used for heating is lost through openings and small air gaps resulting from various penetrations of highly conductive elements through the building envelope. These thermal bridges can also give rise to mould growth and condensation problems. One such example is the anchoring of shelf angles to the load bearing structures, as they have to cut through the exterior insulation used to enhance the thermal performance of a building envelope.

Steel through-bolts have been conventionally used by the construction industry to anchor shelf angles …

Demand Response For Electric Vehicles Using Options, Hui Yang

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Electricity spot prices in emerging electricity markets exhibit high volatilities and occasional distinctive price spikes due to the non-storable nature of electricity. Furthermore, the inherent variability and uncertainty of renewable energy generation require balancing supply and demand all the time for electric power systems. In the context of reliable electricity service, demand response (DR) programs allow end-users to adapt their electricity usage to changes in the price of electricity over time. DR programs include price-based and incentive-based DR programs. Real-time pricing (RTP) is a price-based DR program, which charges customers electricity rates based on the utility’s real-time production costs. Electric …

Bim-Based Sustainability Rating System For Single-Family Detached Homes, Zahra Mokhtari Salehabadi,

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The contemporary social, environmental, and economic challenges and the emerging debate about resiliency have called for a new definition for sustainable buildings. The current green building rating systems are limited in their scope and cannot provide a comprehensive assessment. Hence, an ideal rating system should encompass the triple bottom line (TBL) of sustainability and resiliency with a life cycle thinking perspective. Previous studies highlight a number of issues with green buildings rating systems, such as focusing on point hunting, being complicated, and being expensive in small-scale projects.

This research developed a BIM-based sustainability rating method for single-family detached houses (SFDHs). …

Develop A Multi-Functional Green Pervious Concrete (Mgpc) Pavement With Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (Pahs) Removal Function., Hong Shang

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Stormwater runoff induced Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) contaminant increasingly imperils the groundwater quality and the sustainable development of human society due to the potential carcinogenic risks. Pavement can be considered as the first line of defense for contaminant removal of the stormwater runoff. New construction materials with stormwater runoff quantity and quality control are in urgent demand for updating the existing pavement system. An innovative material called Multi-functional Green Pervious Concrete (MGPC) was developed in the department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at University of Louisville. This material uses organoclay as the amendment to enhance the PAHs removal capacity of …

High-Density Parking For Autonomous Vehicles., Parag J. Siddique

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In a common parking lot, much of the space is devoted to lanes. Lanes must not be blocked for one simple reason: a blocked car might need to leave before the car that blocks it. However, the advent of autonomous vehicles gives us an opportunity to overcome this constraint, and to achieve a higher storage capacity of cars. Taking advantage of self-parking and intelligent communication systems of autonomous vehicles, we propose puzzle-based parking, a high-density design for a parking lot. We introduce a novel method of vehicle parking, which leads to maximum parking density. We then propose a heuristic method …

Comparison Of Land Use And Flowslide Incidence In Palu Valley Following The 2018 Mw 7.5 Palu-Donggala Earthquake, Peta C. Fifield

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The September 28 Mw 7.5 Palu-Donggala earthquake in Indonesia was the deadliest natural disaster in 2018. Five flowslides on the eastern side of Palu Valley, which were attributed to the substantial majority of deaths and economic losses in the region, occurred due to liquefaction of naturally dry alluvial deposits in gently sloping ground (2 to 6%). The requisite conditions for soil liquefaction are the presence of loose granular sediments and full saturation. Instigation of these catastrophic ground failures were linked to artificial saturation by an unlined agricultural irrigation canal. From a civil engineering perspective, the Palu ground failures on the …

An Enhanced Framework To Compute Road User Costs Associated With Construction Zones, Jeremiah Adebiyi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The monetary quantification of inconveniences caused to the road users by ongoing construction activities is known as the Road Users Costs (RUCs). While the importance of RUCs is widely known, some highway agencies lack an appropriate methodology to compute RUCs. Thus, there is a need to develop a framework to compute RUCs that can be adopted quickly by highway agencies. This study reviewed existing literature and conducted a nationwide survey to identify and summarize the current practices of computing RUCs. It developed an enhanced framework and tool to compute RUCs that balances the effort required to calculate RUCs and the …

Wind Tunnel Study Of Wind-Induced Loads On Building Balconies, Tingzhou Tong

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The wind-induced pressure coefficients for the balcony guardrail design are based on the provision of wall cladding and components provided in building codes, such as the National Building Code of Canada 2015. However, the balcony guard’s failure frequently occurred, which caused a number of accidents and casualties in the past years. This work studies the wind-induced pressure coefficients on the two typical balconies guard models, an isolated balcony and a continuous balcony, based on various wind direction, wind speeds, and balcony configurations through wind tunnel test. The test results in the wind tunnel are compared with the provisions of the …

Wind Tunnel Study Of Wind-Induced Loads On Building Balconies, Tingzhou Tong

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The wind-induced pressure coefficients for the balcony guardrail design are based on the provision of wall cladding and components provided in building codes, such as the National Building Code of Canada 2015. However, the balcony guard’s failure frequently occurred, which caused a number of accidents and casualties in the past years. This work studies the wind-induced pressure coefficients on the two typical balconies guard models, an isolated balcony and a continuous balcony, based on various wind direction, wind speeds, and balcony configurations through wind tunnel test. The test results in the wind tunnel are compared with the provisions of the …

Biomethane Recovery Potential From Brewer’S Yeast Using Two-Stage Anaerobic Digestion, Ashnabanu Jariwala

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The brewery industry is a major global industry which produces several waste by-products, one of which is Residual Beer Yeast (RBY). After series of treatments, the RBY, because of its high nutritional content, is either sold as animal feed to generate some revenue or disposed of in the landfill. The treatment of RBY is an additional expense for the brewery sector as it involves chemical and thermal treatments. This makes it crucial to explore alternatives such as biogas production from the Anaerobic Digestion (AD) process to generate revenues that can aid in sustaining the brewery sector. In this study, an …

Hydrodynamic Impacts Of Expanding Aquaculture, Zhilong Liu

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Climate change may potentially change aquatic systems and bring certain risks for aquaculture development. Understanding interactions between aquaculture and the environment helps to ensure aquaculture expansion is sustainable in the future. It is critical to determine how farms influence tidal flow patterns, turbulence, mixing and material transport in estuaries. This research aims to determine the flow response of an oyster farm, predict how expanding farms and farm placement will alter estuarine dynamics, and understand how the design of a farm influences material transport.

The hydrodynamic response of a floating oyster aquaculture farm in a low inflow estuary (the Damariscotta River …

Understanding Hydrologic Risk Within The Context Of Climate Variability And Atmospheric Moisture Pathways, Ali Aljoda

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Nonstationarity in the means and extremes of water resources (e.g., streamflow) due to climate change presents challenges to water resources management and planning. Changes in hydrologic variables such as streamflow critically impact infrastructure, water use planning and adaptation strategies, and can lead to increased societal vulnerability. As such, existing water resources infrastructure designed based on limited records of historical flow may deteriorate under future hydro-climatic changes. Thus, important scientific tasks are: a) examining and redefining the risk, reliability, and return periods under nonstationary conditions, b) understanding the changes in extreme events statistics (i.e. frequency, and magnitude), and c) linking these …

Evaluation Of Conventional Energy Conservation Strategies And Active Thermal Insulation Wall System And Economic Analyses., Li Liu

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

For the past few decades, the importance and the technology of building energy conservation is increasing. In support of this research into energy efficiency, the Department of Energy has developed simulation models of sixteen buildings representing most commercial buildings in the US. In this research, four of these sixteen prototype models were used in energy conservation analyses variety of energy conservation strategies in the seven US Climate Zones. To estimate the effectiveness of several common energy conservation measures on yearly building energy use, holistic analyses were conducted using software that accounts for the interactions of the building systems, occupants and …

Thermo-Hydro-Mechanical Characterization Of Ottawa Sand And Kaolin Clay Through Experimental Models., Mohammad Joshaghani

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Recent advances in energy geotechnics and increased utilization of ground source heat pump systems (e.g., geothermal boreholes and energy y piles) and energy geo-structures require improving the understanding of the thermo-hydro-mechanical behavior of soil. Energy geo-structures consist of above-ground facilities, buried structures, and the soil surrounding the buried structure. A buried structure transfers the energy between the ground and above-ground facilities. Energy transfer between above-ground facilities and the soil will cause temperature changes in soil and this will affect soil hydro-mechanical properties. The changes in soil temperature can also significantly alter the soil-structure interaction and its mechanical strength. Soil temperature …

Development Of Hybrid Ultra-High Performance Concrete Thermoplastic Composite Panels For Blast And Ballistic Protection, Alyssa M. Libby

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In recent years, ultra-high performance concrete (UHPC) has become a material of interest for structures needing resistance to impact and blast loadings. These types of loadings have induced brittle flexural failure in UHPC due to punching shear from the impactor. One way to improve the impact resistance, energy absorption, and ductility of UHPC is by adding fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) skins to the front and rear faces of the concrete, resulting in a sandwich configuration. In this study, E-glass fiber-reinforced thermoplastic laminates were bonded to UHPC panels using a heated consolidation process known as stamp thermoforming. The bond between the UHPC …

Urban Arterial Lane Flow Distribution: A Before And After Traffic Microsimulation Analysis On The Effect Of Implementing New Route Markings And Signage., Larry Michael Summers

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Urban arterials may not effectively utilize available lanes to move vehicles efficiently as drivers try to establish position along the corridor. This study evaluates lane flow distribution before and after implementing new route markings and overhead signs to utilize existing lanes better. A cellphone-based traffic data service called StreetLight gathered the traffic data used to establish the VISSIM model parameters for simulating current and projected conditions. This study shows that the lane assignment signage and route markers affected the lane flow distribution in the simulation. The simulation indicated the existing condition had average queue lengths of 320.6 meters, average travel …

A Spatial Analysis Of Supply-Demand Of Public Transportation In Jefferson County, Kentucky., Nastaran Abdoli

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Public transportation is important as it serves individuals, especially the transit-dependent population, by providing a basic mobility service to these people and all others who rely on public transportation. This research utilized estimating public transportation demand and supply to analyze the spatial patterns of public transportation in Jefferson County, Kentucky. The study focuses on the transit-dependent population, and it considers indicators of age, poverty status, vehicle ownership, and foreign-born population with less than five years residency in the United States. This study conducted a public transit supply-demand analysis to identify areas with imbalanced supply and demand in Jefferson County at …

Annealing Of Encapsulated Heavy Metals From Brine Water Utilizing Microwave Enabled Sol-Gel Process, Adam Michael Flynn

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Various waste encapsulation strategies have been investigated to solidify and stabilize heavy metal wastewater for proper long-term storage. This work aims to enhance a method of novel sol-gel encapsulation of heavy metals from mock brine waters using tetramethyl orthosilicate with the addition of an annealing step at various temperatures in order to reduce leaching of metals from the silica monoliths when exposed to water. The metals tested for encapsulation and leaching were mercury (II) chloride, potassium dichromate, sodium selenite, boric acid, cadmium chloride, and copper (II) acetate. The annealing of the silica monoliths led to an increased degree of for …

Quantification Of Climate Variability And Extreme Events In The Great Plains, Angelinah Ntsieng Rasoeu

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Climate variability and extreme events continue to worsen resulting in significant impacts to society and the environment. Quantifying precipitation variability, streamflow, and extreme events at local scale is crucial for local planning and management due to spatial and temporal precipitation variability which influences streamflow and thus, water resources. This study uses statistical tools to analyze 1895-2019 (125 years) of historical precipitation data to examine how long-term precipitation varies annually, seasonally, and monthly, and create climate classifications. The results show that annual precipitation is increasing linearly over time ranging from 13.2 in (1976) to 43.1 in (2010) and 5 climate classes …

An Exploration Of The Application Of Spatial Network Screening Methods On Iowa Rural Road Crashes, Rosanna Maria Novellino Suarez

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Safety on the roadway system is important due to its usage on mobility and accessibility, especially on rural roads in the state of Iowa. Single vehicle run off road crashes have been increasing in the United States and studies and research has increased due to the concern with those. For this effort, a spatial-temporal method of traffic safety network screening is utilized in order to evaluate the concerning type of crashes in particular locations. The study of single vehicle run off road crashes using the proposed method is important since distributions and clusters of crashes along roadways can be observed …

Mechanically Spliced Precast Bridge Columns, Ted Sjurseth

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Mechanical bar splices provide an alternative to the traditional method of lap splicing to achieve reinforcement bar continuity in reinforced concrete. Even though mechanical bar splices can be used as new precast column connections to accelerate the bridge construction (ABC), The use of bar couplers in the plastic hinge region of bridge columns is prohibited by the current US codes since the effects of bar couplers on the seismic behavior of columns is not fully investigated. A bridge column including precast columns with couplers located in a high seismic region must be designed to handle large inelastic lateral deformations. The …