Engineering Commons^™

Enhanced Energy And Resource Recovery Via Synergistic Catalytic Pyrolysis Of Byproducts From Thermal Processing Of Wastewater Solids, Zhongzhe Liu, Matthew Hughes, Yiran Tong, Jizhi Zhoud, William Kreutter, Danny Valtierra, Simcha L. Singer, Daniel Zitomer, Patrick J. Mcnamara

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Wastewater sludge drying and incineration are conventional solids handling processes that are sometimes employed in water resource reclamation facilities. However, these two processes generate byproducts, sludge drying chaff and sludge incinerator ash, which are landfilled without taking advantage of their value. To gain value from these byproducts, a new synergistic catalytic pyrolysis process using chaff and ash was investigated in this study to improve energy production (i.e. generating a high yield pyrolysis gas) and generate useful products. Ash was used as a catalyst to decrease bio-oil that is corrosive and challenging for combustion in standard equipment, while increasing pyrolysis gas …

Design Mythbusters, Christopher Van Dyke, Steve Waddle, Doug Kreis

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

When highway project designs depart from design values found in the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC) Highway Design Manual and AASHTO’s A Policy on Geometric Design of Highways and Streets, project managers at the agency must obtain either a design exception or design variance. While designers are more comfortable with exceptions and variances than they were 10 or 20 years ago, some hesitancy remains, especially among the Cabinet’s consultants. Misperceptions about what exceptions or variances entail or about their performance may underlie this reluctance. Exceptions and variances are best conceptualized as formal justifications for design decisions. Project managers merely need …

A Conceptual Efficient Design Of Energy Recovery Systems Using A New Energy-Area Key Parameter, Ibrahim H. Alhajri, Mamdouh A. Gadalla, Hany A. Elazab

Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Energy integration in petrochemical and refining industries is an effective concept to minimize dependence on heating and cooling utilities through networks of exchanger equipment. Pinch Analysis is very popular and successful technique to optimize heat recovery between heat sources and sinks. Yet, design of networks of exchangers is challenging and requires careful attention to energy consumption and exchanger areas. This work presents a graphical methodology to design exchanger networks taking into account both heat loads and transfer areas of exchanger units in one single information. A new parameter is introduced for design that is the ratio between the heat load …

Investigation Of The Prevalence Of Faults In The Heating, Ventilation, And Air-Conditioning Systems Of Commercial Buildings, Amir Ebrahimifakhar

Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This dissertation describes a large-scale investigation of heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) fault prevalence in commercial buildings in the United States. A multi-year dataset with 36,556 pieces of HVAC equipment including air handling units (AHUs), air terminal units (ATUs), and packaged rooftop units (RTUs) was analyzed to determine values for several HVAC fault prevalence metrics. The primary source of data for this study comes from three commercial fault detection and diagnostics (FDD) providers. Since each FDD provider uses different terms to refer to the same fault in an HVAC system, a mapping function was created for each FDD provider’s dataset, …

Analyzing Internships In Construction Management Based On Student/Industry Interest And Experience, Jared C. Gormley

Construction Management

The goal of this research paper is to analyze feedback from both student interns, and the industry on whether there is a disconnect between what each group feels makes an internship beneficial or not. Research was done evaluating current Construction Management students with internship experience at Cal Poly, while also evaluating companies that have internship programs. This paper will provide student interns with insight from industry members regarding internship programs, and it will provide companies with insight from students regarding their experiences within internship programs. Two surveys were sent out, one to all Construction Management Students at Cal Poly, and …

Erratum: “Numerical Investigation Of Diesel Particulate Matter Dispersion In An Underground Development Face During Key Mining Activities”. [Adv. Powder Technol. 31 (2020) 3882–3896] (Advanced Powder Technology (2020) 31(9) (3882–3896), (S0921883120303691), (10.1016/J.Apt.2020.07.031)), Ping Chang, Guang Xu, Benjamin Mullins, S. Abishek, Mostafa Sharifzadeh

Mining Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The authors regret (M495), and the Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety, with in-kind support from Barminco, the SF6 measured data points provided by Chem Centre, and the computation resources provided by the Pawsey Supercomputing Centre with funding from the Australian Government and the Government of Western Australia.> The authors would like to apologize for any inconvenience caused.

A Control Oriented Comprehensive Degradation Model For Battery Energy Storage System Life Prediction, Yaqi Zhu, Tazdik Plateau, Brody Riemann, Robert Landers, Jonghyun Park

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

In order to ensure that stationary battery energy storage systems (BESSs) provide reliable energy buffering, both for power quality and economic purposes, the degradation must be considered. Cell degradation involves various side reactions and is highly dependent on its operating conditions. To accurately track cell degradation and predict its impact on battery behavior, a comprehensive physics-based degradation model based on an electrolyte phase-enhanced single particle (SP) model is developed. Key degradation physics, namely solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) layer formation and growth, Li plating on the graphite anode, and Mn dissolution on cathode of nickel-cobalt-manganese oxide (NMC622) are considered. The model …

Research Experiences Instrument: Validation Evidence For An Instrument To Assess The Research Experiences Of Engineering Ph.D. Students’ Professional Practice Opportunities, Eric A. Holloway, Kerrie A. Douglas, David F. Radcliffe, William C. Oakes

School of Mechanical Engineering Faculty Publications

Background. There are long-held concerns about how graduate research programs prepare engineering Ph.D. students for professional practice. Suitable instruments are lacking to effectively assess how research experiences contribute to the success of graduate students becoming professionals.

Purpose. The purpose of this work is to examine evidence of internal reliability and validity of using the Research Experiences Instrument (REI) scores as a measure of engineering Ph.D. students’ professional practice opportunities in their research experiences.

Method. REI was constructed using an ontological framework. REI was administered twice to engineering Ph.D. students, once to a single university (n = 236) and …

Building Services Engineering November/December 2021

Building Services Engineering

No abstract provided.

Efficient Server-Aided Secure Two-Party Computation In Heterogeneous Mobile Cloud Computing, Yulin Wu, Xuan Wang, Willy Susilo, Guomin Yang, Zoe L. Jiang, Qian Chen, Peng Xu

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

With the ubiquity of mobile devices and rapid development of cloud computing, mobile cloud computing (MCC) has been considered as an essential computation setting to support complicated, scalable and flexible mobile applications by overcoming the physical limitations of mobile devices with the aid of cloud. In the MCC setting, since many mobile applications (e.g., map apps) interacting with cloud server and application server need to perform computation with the private data of users, it is important to realize secure computation for MCC. In this article, we propose an efficient server-aided secure two-party computation (2PC) protocol for MCC. This is the …

Meshfree Simulation And Experimental Validation Of Extreme Thermomechanical Conditions In Friction Stir Extrusion, Lei Li, Varun Gupta, Xiao Li, Anthony P. Reynolds, Glenn Grant, Ayoub Soulami

Faculty Publications

Friction stir extrusion (FSE) is a novel solid-phase processing technique that consolidates and extrudes metal powders, flakes, chips, or billets into high-performance parts by plastic deformation, which has the potential to save substantial processing time and energy. Currently, most studies on FSE are experimental and only a few numerical models have been developed to explain and predict the complex physics of the process. In this work, a meshfree simulation framework based on smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) was developed for FSE. Unlike traditional grid-based methods, SPH is a Lagrangian particle-based method that can handle severe material deformations, capture moving interfaces and …

Evaluation Of Orthogonal Strain Components In Friction Extrusion, X Li, Md. Reza-E Rabby, M Ryan, G. Grant, Anthony P. Reynolds

Faculty Publications

Friction extrusion is a thermomechanical process that combines conventional extrusion with the action of a rotating die. The plastic deformation of the material being sheared and extruded is the primary source of process heat and it produces strain distributions unlike those resulting from conventional extrusion. This paper proposes an improved strain analysis that evaluates three main strain components in a series of rate-controlled friction extrusions in which the steady state was achieved. Cylindrical AA1100 extrusion billets with two embedded markers were extruded to wire with a 10:1 diametral reduction. The shape change of the embedded markers was determined via serial, …

Additive Manufacturing Of Miniaturized Peak Temperature Monitors For In-Pile Applications, Kiyo T. Fujimoto, Yaqiao Wu, David Estrada

Materials Science and Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Passive monitoring techniques have been used for peak temperature measurements during irradiation tests by exploiting the melting point of well-characterized materials. Recent efforts to expand the capabilities of such peak temperature detection instrumentation include the development and testing of additively manufactured (AM) melt wires. In an effort to demonstrate and benchmark the performance and reliability of AM melt wires, we conducted a study to compare prototypical standard melt wires to an AM melt wire capsule, composed of printed aluminum, zinc, and tin melt wires. The lowest melting-point material used was Sn, with a melting point of approximately 230 °C, Zn …

Additive Manufacturing Of Stainless Steel -- Copper Functionally Graded Materials Via Inconel 718 Interlayer, Xinchang Zhang, Lan Li, Frank W. Liou

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The joining of dissimilar materials is becoming increasingly prevalent to integrate different material properties to enhance design flexibility and overall performance. This study introduced an innovative approach to additively manufacture copper on 316L stainless steel (SS316L) via Inconel 718 interlayers using directed energy deposition (DED). The novel multi-material structure was studied both experimentally and theoretically. The microstructure, tensile properties, microhardness, and thermal performance of the structure were characterized. Residual stress distribution over the structure was revealed by experimental-validated numerical modeling. The result exhibits that defect-free structures with excellent interfacial bonding can be achieved by introducing Inconel 718 interlayers. The bonding …

Analysis Of The Dispute Between American And Gulf Carriers In Aviation, Aminda Fernando

Senior Honors Theses

During the last decade, a significant disagreement has grown over unfair government financial subsidies in the aviation industry for Persian Gulf region carriers: $40 Billion US Dollars since 2000. The most prominent international airlines of North America, United, American, and Delta, have made claims on a white paper document directed toward the American government against the primary Persian Gulf region air carriers: Emirates, Qatar, and Etihad. Assertions made by both sides will be carefully scrutinized in this thesis with a fair analysis of both sides of the dispute over government aid in the aviation industry. This study also includes a …

A Comparative Study On Soil Stabilization Relevant To Transport Infrastructure Using Bagasse Ash And Stone Dust And Cost Effectiveness, Sudip Basack, Ghritartha Goswami, Hadi Khabbaz, Moses Karakouzian, Parinita Baruah, Niky Kalita

Civil and Environmental Engineering and Construction Faculty Research

Soft ground improvement to provide stable foundations for infrastructure is national priority for most countries. Weak soil may initiate instability to foundations reducing their lifespan, which necessitates the adoption of a suitable soil stabilization method. Amongst various soil stabilization techniques, using appropriate admixtures is quite popular. The present study aims to investigate the suitability of bagasse ash and stone dust as the admixtures for stabilizing soft clay, in terms of compaction and penetration characteristics. The studies were conducted by means of a series of laboratory experimentations with standard Proctor compaction and CBR tests. From the test results it was observed …

Global 3d Radiation Hydrodynamic Simulations Of Proto-Jupiter’S Convective Envelope, Zhaohuan Zhu, Yan-Fei Jiang, Hans Baehr, Andrew N. Youdin, Philip J. Armitage, Rebecca G. Martin

Physics & Astronomy Faculty Research

The core accretion model of giant planet formation has been challenged by the discovery of recycling flows between the planetary envelope and the disc that can slow or stall envelope accretion. We carry out 3D radiation hydrodynamic simulations with an updated opacity compilation to model the proto-Jupiter’s envelope. To isolate the 3D effects of convection and recycling, we simulate both isolated spherical envelopes and envelopes embedded in discs. The envelopes are heated at given rates to achieve steady states, enabling comparisons with 1D models. We vary envelope properties to obtain both radiative and convective solutions. Using a passive scalar, we …

Investigating Black Silicon Surface Geometry Via Parameter Modification And Low Flow Inductively Coupled Plasma Deep Reactive Ion Etching, Noah Mulherin Smith

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

An Interactive Software Tool To Assist Dsp Education Of Electrical And Computer Engineering Undergraduates Through Audio, Kyle Andrew Sellers

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

Immobilization Of Lipase On Metal Organic Frameworks For Biodiesel Production, Reem L Husam Safwan Shoma

Theses

For the economical application of enzymatic processes in biodiesel production, lipase enzyme has to be used in immobilized form to allow easy retention and reuse. The main challenges facing the industrialization of the enzymatic process are the high mass transfer resistance, the tendency to adsorb the by-product glycerol onto the support matrix and poor operational stability. These problems can be solved by a good selection of supports of favourable surface characteristics and pore sizes. In that regard, increasing interest has recently been in Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs) as a new kind of porous support for enzyme immobilization. Physical adsorption, which is …

The Potential Impact Of A Voluntary Non-Punitive Self Report Program Under The Scope Of The Brazilian Civil Aviation Authority, Audrey Gonzalez, Bráullio Amaral, Felipe Piton, Laércio De Araujo, Marcelo Marcusso

Student Works

The key recommendation from this study is to purpose the Brazilian National Civil Aviation Authority evaluation over the implementation of a new voluntary and non-punitive safety reporting program, with a different scope from the current one. The voluntary self-reporting programs in place in the USA, Europe and Australia should be used as a regulatory reference and the program development and implementation should be executed in close coordination with the different industry stakeholders.

To access if the current Brazilian State Safety reporting system meets ICAO requirements, the researchers accessed pertinent aviation safety regulatory legislation. Additionally, to access if the current Brazilian …

Durability Of Concrete Produced With Alternative Supplementary Cementitious Material, Craig Newtson, Brad Weldon, Judit Garcia, Seyedsaleh Mousavinezhad, William Toledo

Publications

Historically, Class F fly ash has been chosen as a supplementary cementitious material (SCM) in concrete for its ability to mitigate alkali-silica reaction (ASR). However, future availability of fly ash is uncertain because the energy industry has been investing in renewable energy production and removing coal burning generating stations from operation. Consequently, there is a growing need to find new, cost effective and environmentally friendly alternatives to fly ash. This study investigated a locally available natural pozzolan mined from a pumicite deposit near Espanola, NM for its ability to mediate ASR. Concrete and mortar mixtures included SCM contents ranging from …

Energy Harvesting For Self-Powered Sensors For Smart Transportation Infrastructures, Anil K. Agrawal, Mohsen Amjadian, Hani Nassif

Civil Engineering Faculty Publications

In this research project, an Electromagnetic Energy Harvesting System (EMEHS) is developed for harvesting the kinetic energy of ambient and traffic-induced vibrations and carry out a detailed feasibility study and impacts of such system for application on transportation infrastructures. The proposed EMEHS utilizes the innovative concept of creating array of large number of small permanent magnets through certain optimization criteria to achieve strong and focused magnetic field in a particular orientation. When these magnets are attached to a flexible sub-system and placed close to the copper coil, ambient and traffic-induced vibration of the sub-system induces eddy current in copper the …

Dlr Covid-19 Mobility Review: Evaluation And Review Of The Phase 1 Covid-19 Mobility And Public Realm Works Undertaken By Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County Council, Sarah Rock Dr., Dave O'Connor, Lorraine D'Arcy Dr., Odran Reid

Reports

Evaluation and Review of the Phase 1 Covid-19 Mobility and Public Realm Works undertaken by Dún Laoghaire- Rathdown County Council.

Interim findings, June 2021.

A Review Of Kentucky’S Extended-Weight Hauling Programs, P. Gayle Marks, Jon Wilcoxson, Bryan Gibson, Chris Van Dyke, Andrew Martin, Jennifer Walton, Doug Kreis

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

Kentucky established its Extended Weight Coal or Coal By-products Haul Road System (EWCHRS) to increase the state’s competitiveness within the coal industry and reduce financial burdens on coal haulers. A new extended-weight haul system for unrefined petroleum products will come online in 2022. To facilitate enforcement of weight limits throughout Kentucky, this report surveys literature on how overweight vehicles affect roads and bridges, describes statutes and regulations governing weight limits in the state, discusses policies and strategies used throughout the US to handle overweight vehicles, and makes recommendations for improving extended-weight policies in Kentucky. It is apparent that pavements and …

Study Of Atmospheric Pollution And Health Risk Assessment: A Case Study For The Sharjah And Ajman Emirates (Uae), Yousef Nazzal, Nadine Bou Orm, Alina Barbulescu, Fares Howari, Manish Sharma, Alaa E. Badawi, Ahmed A. Al-Taani, Jibran Iqbal, Farid El Ktaibi, Cijo M. Xavier, Cristian Stefan Dumitriu

All Works

Dust is a significant pollution source in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) that impacts population health. Therefore, the present study aims to determine the concentration of heavy metals (Cd, Pb, Cr, Cu, Ni, and Zn) in the air in the Sharjah and Ajman emirates’ urban areas and assesses the health risk. Three indicators were used for this purpose: the average daily dose (ADD), the hazard quotient (HQ), and the health index (HI). Data were collected during the period April–August 2020. Moreover, the observation sites were clustered based on the pollutants’ concentration, given that the greater the heavy metal concentration is, …

Influence Of Pressure, Temperature And Organic Surface Concentration On Hydrogen Wettability Of Caprock, Implications For Hydrogen Geo-Storage, Muhammad Ali, Nurudeen Yekeen, Nilanjan Pal, Alireza Keshavarz, Stefan Iglauer, Hussein Hoteit

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Hydrogen (H₂) as a cleaner fuel has been suggested as a viable method of achieving the de-carbonization objectives and meeting increasing global energy demand. However, successful implementation of a full-scale hydrogen economy requires large-scale hydrogen storage (as hydrogen is highly compressible). A potential solution to this challenge is injecting hydrogen into geologic formations from where it can be withdrawn again at later stages for utilization purposes. The geo-storage capacity of a porous formation is a function of its wetting characteristics, which strongly influence residual saturations, fluid flow, rate of injection, rate of withdrawal, and containment security. However, literature …

Calculation Of Measurement Uncertainty, Ibush Luzha, Fidan Feka, Berat Durmishi, Burim Morina

UBT International Conference

Calculation of measurement uncertainty is the basis of measurements, tests in calibration laboratories, tests and their calibration, tests reports. Calculation of measurement uncertainty is one of the basic requirements of the international standard ISO/IEC 17025 General requirements for the competence of testing and calibration laboratories, on the metrological traceability of measurements. Calculation of measurement uncertainty has a direct impact on the development of trade and technology, the production and marketing of certain products in the measurement chain with a high degree of accuracy. The measurement uncertainty is calculated and defined as a value, accompanied by the result of a measurement, …

Application Of Prestressing With Pretension And Post-Tension In Precast Beams, Bardh Kurteshi, Nebi Pllana

UBT International Conference

In Nowdays, prestressed concrete founds wide application in the construction of engineering structures. Where concrete elements are subjected to mandatory stresses to gain more favorable behaviors. This can be realized by applying prestressing force with system of pre-tension and post-tension.

Analysis of precast beams elements with different sections by applying these prestressing methods, will help us to determine which method of force application is going to be more favorable for realization.

Analysis of precast beams elements for different shapes of sections for two methods of prestressing, that with pretensioned and post-tension, by checking the basic condition criteria of servisability limit …

Audit Of Road Safety Elements In National Road N25.2 “Prishtinë – Gjilan”, Gresa Xhemaili, Nol Dedaj

UBT International Conference

With the increase of the number of vehicles and the number of kilometers of the road as well as the time of their construction, the number of accidents has also increased, therefore it is very important to audit the road elements (level of roughness, macro and micro deformations, turns, longitudinal and transverse slope, shoulders, erosion and filling in roads, drainage, etc.) which directly affect the safety of road traffic. The audit of road elements will give us a clear picture on the identification of road factor elements in certain road segments of the road N -25.2 Prishtina - Gjilan, which …