Engineering Commons^™

Large Scale Energy Signature Analysis: Tools For Utility Managers And Planners, Sukjoon Oh, John F. Gardner

Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Building energy signature analysis is a well-established tool for understanding the temperature sensitivity of building energy consumption and measuring energy savings. This tool has been used to measure energy savings of residential, commercial, and even industrial buildings. The public availability of electricity loads (i.e., hourly electricity demand (MW)) from entire Balancing Authorities (BAs) provide an interesting opportunity to apply this approach to a large aggregate load. In this paper, we explore that opportunity for BAs and show that the correlations for large geographical areas are surprisingly coherent when the change-point linear regression analysis is used with the daily interval data …

Quantification Of The State Of Practice Of Offsite Construction And Related Technologies: Current Trends And Future Prospects, Rayan H. Assaad, Islam H. El-Adaway, Makarand Hastak, Kim Lascola Needy

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Although some researchers and practitioners have perceived that the current reliance on offsite construction methods is high, other studies have hypothesized that the use of offsite construction techniques is still considered to be somehow limited. To this end, this paper aims to quantify the state of practice of offsite construction in terms of current trends and future prospects for the overall industry as well as the following main sectors: industrial, building and commercial, and infrastructure. First, a questionnaire was formed, pilot-tested, distributed, and completed by 100 construction practitioners. Second, the questionnaire's internal and external validity and reliability were examined using …

The Impact Of Offsite Construction On The Workforce: Required Skillset And Prioritization Of Training Needs, Rayan H. Assaad, Islam H. El-Adaway, Makarand Hastak, Kim Lascola Needy

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Offsite construction has showed great potential in addressing many of the industry's problems. While multiple research efforts have been directed at examining different offsite construction aspects, few studies investigated the workforce-related aspects. Therefore, this study aims to address this knowledge gap by examining the impact of offsite construction on the workforce, as represented by the following five workforce categories: offsite, onsite, engineering and design, construction and fabrication, and administrative workforce. To this end, this paper (1) determined the impact of offsite construction on the skillset (reskilling or upskilling) and the demand (shrink or growth) for the offsite and onsite construction …

Electrical Equipment Industry Cluster, Pragati Gautam

2022 REYES Proceedings

The growing collaboration between two or more industries in a specific region in which they work in a symbiotic relationship, providing benefits to each other and contributing in the overall development of the region, is what is popularly known as business clusters. Even though this concept is commonly known and implemented in the West, South Asian economies are unfamiliar with the advantages of this unique business strategy. There are, undeniably, many potential business clusters in these developing countries, which if tapped efficiently, could result into an industrial boom.

This research focuses on investigating the existence of a business cluster in …

Construction Industry Cluster: An Investigation Of Its Existence In Pakistan, Muhammad Yanzar Sarim

2022 REYES Proceedings

Introduction: Clusters can be defined as a geographical concentration of industries and institutes that are unified and interconnected. These industries and institutes are not just physically close to each other but also gain some advantage from being near to each other.

Supporting Information For “Predictions Of Household Water Affordability Under Conditions Of Climate Change, Demographic Growth, And Fresh Groundwater Depletion In A Southwest Us City Indicate Increasing Burdens On The Poor”, Josiah Heyman, Alex Mayer, Jessica Alger

Departmental Papers (CE)

The Supporting Information contains (a) supplemental tables of annual volumes and costs for each water supply source and by year for each scenario (see Supplemental Information.pdf), (b) the census tract numbers used in the analysis of incomes spent on water (see Supplemental Information.pdf), (c) a correlation matrix for demographic variables and the fraction of households in a census tracts paying > 5% for water in 2070 for the worst case scenario (see Supplemental Information.pdf), and (d) the shapefiles for the El Paso Water utility service area boundaries (see compressed folder boundary11.24.21.gdb).

Perceptions Of Future Careers For Middle Year Engineering Students, Catherine Mcgough Spence, Adam Kirn, Lisa Benson

Integrated Engineering Department Publications

Background: One facet of motivation relevant to students' learning is their perceptions of the future, including future career goals and how those perceptions influence their present actions; this is collectively referred to as their future time perspective (FTP).

Purpose/Hypothesis: This study describes the different FTPs of engineering students. We aim to help researchers and practitioners leverage students' motivations to improve learning experiences and inform future studies by providing a model of engineering students' FTP.

Design/Method: A phenomenographic approach was used to determine students' different characteristic FTPs within the context of their engineering courses. Interviews with engineering students (n=18) at a …

Asymmetric Control Of Light At The Nanoscale, Christos Argyropoulos

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering: Faculty Publications

Breaking reciprocity at the nanoscale can produce directional formation of images due to the asymmetric nonlinear optical response of subwavelength anisotropic resonators. The self-induced passive non-reciprocity has advantages compared to magnet or time modulation approaches and may impact both classical and quantum photonics.

Electrospray Deposition Of Polyvinylidene Fluoride (Pvdf) Microparticles: Impact Of Solvents And Flow Rate, Akinwunmi Joaquim, Omari Paul, Michael Ibezim, Dewayne Johnson, April Falconer, Ying Wu, Frances Williams, Richard Mu

TIGER Institute Faculty Research

Polymeric microparticles have been shown to have great impacts in the area of drug delivery, biosensing, and tissue engineering. Electrospray technology, which provides a simple yet effective technique in the creation of microparticles, was utilized in this work. In addition, altering the electrospray experimental parameters such as applied voltage, flow rate, collector distance, solvents, and the polymer-solvent mixtures can result in differences in the size and morphology of the produced microparticles. The effects of the flow rate at (0.15, 0.3, 0.45, 0.6, 0.8, and 1 mL/h) and N, N-Dimethylformamide (DMF)/acetone solvent ratios (20:80, 40:60, 60:40, 80:20, 100:0 v/v) in the …

Metastable Olivine Within Oceanic Lithosphere In The Uppermost Lower Mantle Beneath The Eastern United States, Fansheng Kong, Stephen S. Gao, Kelly H. Liu, Yinxia Fang, Hejun Zhu, Robert J. Stern, Jiabiao Li

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Approximately two-thirds of Earth's outermost shell is composed of oceanic plates that form at spreading ridges and recycle back to Earth's interior in subduction zones. A series of physical and chemical changes occur in the subducting lithospheric slab as the temperature and pressure increase with depth. In particular, olivine, the most abundant mineral in the upper mantle, progressively transforms to its high-pressure polymorphs near the mantle transition zone, which is bounded by the 410 km and 660 km discontinuities. However, whether olivine still exists in the core of slabs once they penetrate the 660 km discontinuity remains debated. Based on …

Effects Of Surface Topography On Macrophages And Bacterial Cells, Joseph Carnicelli

Theses - ALL

An association has been found between the texture of breast implants and anaplastic large cell lymphoma, which led to some textured implants to be withdrawn from the market in 2019. There is evidence that these cancers are associated with the harboring of bacteria on the surfaces of the textured implants. It is possible that specific topographic features hinder the removal of attached bacteria by inhibiting macrophage phagocytosis or promoting biofilm formation. Here we examine how bacteria and macrophages interact with recessive surface topographies as analogs to the surfaces seen on textured breast implants. Changes in bacteria morphology were observed among …

Microkinetic Modeling Of Acetone Hydrogenation Over Different Metal Surfaces With And Without Lateral Interactions In Julia, Emir Hadzic

Theses - ALL

Biomass conversion into near net zero carbon emission fuels as well as intermediates for other products is just one of the technologies that will help reduce the use of fossil fuels. When biomass is being converted to useful products the intermediate steps are often oxygen rich with carbonyl groups. These are further processed using metal catalysts such as platinum and ruthenium. Microkinetic modeling allows for these catalysts to be studied under various operating conditions. Previously hydrogenation of acetone over platinum and ruthenium was studied using algebraic models without lateral interactions with step 3 and 4 being rate determining for Pt …

Effects Of Pulsatile Flow Rate And Shunt Ratio In Bifurcated Distal Arteries On Hemodynamic Characteristics Involved In Two Patient-Specific Internal Carotid Artery Sidewall Aneurysms: A Numerical Study, Hang Yi, Mark Johnson, Luke C. Bramlage, Bryan Ludwig, Zifeng Yang

Mechanical and Materials Engineering Faculty Publications

The pulsatile flow rate (PFR) in the cerebral artery system and shunt ratios in bifurcated arteries are two patient-specific parameters that may affect the hemodynamic characteristics in the pathobiology of cerebral aneurysms, which needs to be identified comprehensively. Accordingly, a systematic study was employed to study the effects of pulsatile flow rate (i.e., PFR−I, PFR−II, and PFR−III) and shunt ratio (i.e., 75:25 and 64:36) in bifurcated distal arteries, and transient cardiac pulsatile waveform on hemodynamic patterns in two internal carotid artery sidewall aneurysm models using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modeling. Numerical results indicate that larger PFRs can cause higher wall …

Dlr Covid-19 Mobility Review - Coastal Mobility Route (Ph1b): Mobility Update, Sarah Rock Dr, Dave O'Connor, Michael Banim

Reports

The Phase 1b study is a follow up to the evaluation and review of the Phase 1 'Covid-19 Mobility and Public Realm Works' undertaken by Dun Laoghaire- Rathdown County Council in 2020, which included the development of the Coastal Mobility Route (new cycle infrastructure). These works were part of the Council's response to some of the urban and transport planning challenges associated with Covid-19.

This study reports on ongoing monitoring and evaluation of the changing mobility patterns in the region of the Coastal Mobility Route throughout 2021 and 2022, as government and societal responses to the Covid-19 pandemic changed and …

Robust Sensor Design For The Novel Reduced Models Of The Mead-Marcus Sandwich Beam Equation, Ahmet Aydin

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Novel space-discretized Finite Differences-based model reductions are proposed for the partial differential equations (PDE) model of a multi-layer Mead-Marcus-type beam with (i) hinged-hinged and (ii) clamped-free boundary conditions. The PDE model describes transverse vibrations for a sandwich beam whose alternating outer elastic layers constrain viscoelastic core layers, which allow transverse shear. The major goal of this project is to design a single boundary sensor, placed at the tip of the beam, to control the overall dynamics on the beam.

For (i), it is first shown that the PDE model is exactly observable by the so-called nonharmonic Fourier series approach. However, …

Deep Learning And Feature Engineering For Human Activity Recognition: Exploiting Novel Rich Learning Representations And Sub-Transfer Learning To Boost Practical Performance, Ria Kanjilal

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A significant gap exists in our knowledge of how domain-specific feature extraction compares to unsupervised feature learning in the latent space of a deep neural network for a range of temporal applications including human activity recognition. This dissertation aims to address this gap specifically for human activity recognition using acceleration data. To ensure reproducibility, we use two publicly available datasets, UniMiB-SHAR and ExtraSensory, with a well-established history in the human activity recognition literature. We methodically analyze the performance of 64 different combinations of i) learning representations (in the form of raw temporal data or extracted features), ii) traditional and modern …

A Proactive Risk Assessment Framework To Maximize Schedule Benefits Of Modularization In Construction Projects, Mohamad Abdul Nabi, Islam H. El-Adaway

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Various studies developed models and decision support tools to assess the feasibility and optimize the use of modularization. However, none has explored the schedule benefits of modular construction. This paper fills this knowledge gap. To this end, the authors completed the following: (1) analyzed the criticalities of the various modular risk factors on potential schedule savings using data collected from 48 industry professionals, (2) investigated the schedule savings associated with the use of modularization using data collected from 68 modular construction projects, and (3) developed an interrelated assessment model to calculate the schedule savings of using modularization. The provided model …

Experimentation And Correlation Development Of Mass Transfer In A Mimicked Fischer–Tropsch Slurry Bubble Column Reactor, Lu Han, Mahmoud M. Taha, Premkumar Kamalanathan, Nora Y. Selem, Muthanna H. Al-Dahhan

Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Gas–liquid volumetric mass transfer coefficient "k_La " for CH₄, CO₂, and Ar were experimentally measured at different conditions in a mimicked Fischer–Tropsch (FT) slurry bubble column reactor by using a non-invasive gaseous tracer technique and the axial dispersion model. Results validate the square root relation, between k_La and diffusivity "D_g", that can be used to predict k_La for different species with k La values available in the literature. Additionally, Higbie's penetration theory was adopted along with bubble dynamics parameters estimation to develop a correlation for predicting k_{L …}

In-Situ Infrared Thermographic Inspection For Local Powder Layer Thickness Measurement In Laser Powder Bed Fusion, Tao Liu, Cody S. Lough, Hossein Sehhat, Yi Ming Ren, Panagiotis D. Christofides, Edward C. Kinzel, Ming-Chuan Leu

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) process is strongly influenced by the characteristics of the powder layer, including its thickness and thermal transport properties. This paper investigates in-situ characterization of the powder layer using thermographic inspection. A thermal camera monitors the temperature history of the powder surface immediately after a layer of new powder is deposited by the recoating system. During this process, thermal energy diffuses from the underlying solid part, eventually raising the temperature of the above powder layer. Guided by 1D modeling of this heat-up process, experiments show how the parameterized thermal history can be correlated with powder …

Adaptive Control Of Robotic Manipulators Using Deep Neural Networks, Irfan Ganie, Sarangapani Jagannathan

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

In this paper, we present a lifelong deep learning-based control of robotic manipulators with nonstandard adaptive laws using singular value decomposition (SVD) based direct tracking error driven (DTED) approach. Moreover, we incorporate concurrent learning (CL) to relax persistency of excitation condition and elastic weight consolidation (EWC) for lifelong learning on different tasks in the adaptive laws. Simulation results confirm theoretical conclusions.

Pressure Disturbance Upstream Of The Boundary Layer Data System, Michelle S. Leclere

Master's Theses

The primary objective for this work was to evaluate the reliability of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) tools in the prediction of upstream surface pressure disturbance and pressure drag of various instrument excrescence shapes for a small aircraft flight test device called the Boundary Layer Data System (BLDS). Insights on pressure disturbance will serve as a guide for the placement of BLDS probes/sensors, and pressure drag can be used to ensure sufficient adhesive is used to install BLDS instrumentation. The Mach number for all CFD cases was 0.12 and the Reynolds number based on excrescence height varied from 4 x 10 …

Impact Of Stormwater Infiltration On Rainfall-Derived Inflow And Infiltration: A Physically Based Surface–Subsurface Urban Hydrologic Model, Kun Zhang, Anthony J. Parolari

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

The subsurface fate of stormwater infiltration enhanced by green infrastructure (GI) is unknown. GI redirects stormflows from the surface into the subsurface, which can be partitioned to evapotranspiration or baseflow, or be intercepted by buried infrastructure trenches. Stormwater that infiltrates sanitary sewer pipes is referred to as rainfall-derived inflow and infiltration (RDII) and represents a rapid pathway for infiltrated stormwater to reach receiving waters. To quantify the partitioning of infiltrated stormwater between slow and fast flows, a physically-based hydrologic model was developed integrating coupled surface–subsurface processes and urban sewer systems and applied to a sewershed near Milwaukee, WI. In this …

Dice Testing With The Running Chi-Square Distribution, Warren Campbell, Hunter Wimsatt

SEAS Faculty Publications

Dice are not fair. Producing a geometrically precise, uniform die is not possible. Casino dice come as close as possible to perfectly random dice because they are machined to an accuracy of a few ten-thousandths of an inch and the putty used for the pips (dots) is the same density as the plastic die body. Polyhedral dice used in games like Dungeons and Dragons are far more difficult to manufacture to high tolerances. Some dice are fairer than others. Since 20-sided dice (D20s) are very difficult to manufacture precisely, they were the focus of this study. The running chi-square distribution …

Influence Of Rainfall-Induced Erosion On The Stability Of Sandy Slopes Treated By Micp, Shihui Liu, Kang Du, Kejun Wen, Catherine Armwood-Gordon, Lin Li

Civil and Architectural Engineering Faculty Research

As an environmentally friendly technology, microbially induced calcite precipitation (MICP) is widely used to improve the engineering properties of soil. The goal of this study was to investigate the effect of rainfall-induced erosion on the stability of sandy slopes which were treated by MICP technology. The observation of the erosion pattern of low concentration (0.25 M Ca) and high concentration (0.5 M Ca) of MICP-treated slopes, the mechanical behaviors of MICP-treated and cement-treated samples, and the effects of rainfall-induced erosion on the roughness of 0.5 M Ca MICP-treated and 10% cement-treated slope were studied through visual observation, unconfined compressive tests, …

Power Management Strategy Of A Pem Fuel Cell-Battery Powered Electric Vehicle, Susanta K. Das, Jinsu Kim

Mechanical Engineering Publications

A MATLAB-Simulink based mathematical vehicle simulation model is developed in this investigation to analyze power management strategy of a proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell and battery powered electric vehicle. The vehicle simulation model incorporated a real- world commercial passenger vehicle operator’s drive cycle inputs and associated vehicle dynamics to determine accurate estimation of total onboard power requirements and withdrawal of power from the fuel cell and battery sources to meet the demand. The power management strategy is designed to meet the vehicle’s onboard power demand based on the availability of hybrid combi-nation of fuel cell and battery power sources. …

Breast Cancer-Caps: A Breast Cancer Screening System Based On Capsule Network Utilizing The Multiview Breast Thermal Infrared Images, Devanshu Tiwari, Manish Dixit, Kamlesh Gupta

Turkish Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences

This paper proposed an accurate and fully automated breast cancer early screening system called the "Breast Cancer-Caps". The capsule network is used in this approach for the cancer detection in breast utilizing the thermal infrared images for the first time. This capsule network is trained with the help of Dynamic as well as Static breast thermal images dataset consisting of left, right, frontal views along with a new multiview thermal images. These multiview breast thermal images are fabricated by concatenating the conventional left, frontal and right view breast thermal images. The other current and popular deep transfer learning models such …

Snow Parameters Inversion From Passive Microwave Remote Sensing Measurements By Deep Convolutional Neural Networks, Heming Yao, Yanming Zhang, Lijun Jiang, Hong Tat Ewe, Michael Ng

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This paper proposes a novel inverse method based on the deep convolutional neural network (ConvNet) to extract snow's layer thickness and temperature via passive microwave remote sensing (PMRS). The proposed ConvNet is trained using simulated data obtained through conventional computational electromagnetic methods. Compared with the traditional inverse method, the trained ConvNet can predict the result with higher accuracy. Besides, the proposed method has a strong tolerance for noise. The proposed ConvNet composes three pairs of convolutional and activation layers with one additional fully connected layer to realize regression, i.e., the inversion of snow parameters. The feasibility of the proposed method …

An Explicit Time-Domain Finite-Element Boundary Integral Method For Analysis Of Electromagnetic Scattering, Ming Dong, Liang Chen, Lijun Jiang, Ping Li, Hakan Bagci

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

A numerical scheme, which hybridizes the element-level dual-field time-domain finite-element domain decomposition method (ELDDM) and the time-domain boundary integral (TDBI) method to accurately and efficiently analyze open-region transient electromagnetic scattering problems, is proposed. Element-level decomposition decouples Maxwell equations on a discretization element from those on its neighboring elements using equivalent currents defined on their faces. For any element inside the computation domain, the equivalent currents are obtained from fields in the neighboring elements. For any element on the boundary of the computation domain, the equivalent currents are obtained using the fields generated by TDBI. To generate these fields, TDBI 'radiates' …

A Deep Learning Approach To Detect Blood Vessels In Basal Cell Carcinoma, A. Maurya, R. Joe Stanley, N. Lama, Sarangapani Jagannathan, D. Saeed, S. Swinfard, J. R. Hagerty, William V. Stoecker

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Purpose: Blood vessels called telangiectasia are visible in skin lesions with the aid of dermoscopy. Telangiectasia are a pivotal identifying feature of basal cell carcinoma. These vessels appear thready, serpiginous, and may also appear arborizing, that is, wide vessels branch into successively thinner vessels. Due to these intricacies, their detection is not an easy task, neither with manual annotation nor with computerized techniques. In this study, we automate the segmentation of telangiectasia in dermoscopic images with a deep learning U-Net approach. Methods: We apply a combination of image processing techniques and a deep learning-based U-Net approach to detect telangiectasia in …

Improved Current Shunt Characterization Method For Core Loss Measurement, Anfeng Huang, Xu Wang, Hanyu Zhang, Chulsoon Hwang, David Pommerenke, Jun Fan

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

With the increasing switching frequencies and power densities in modern power converters, magnetic core losses are becoming more essential for efficiency and thermal optimization. Traditionally, the two-winding method suffers from sensitivity to phase error in practical measurements; this is mainly created by the unknown phase shift of a current-sensing resistor. Several methods have been developed to characterize the phase shift of a current shunt resistor; however, the load effects of oscilloscopes are ignored. As a result, the corresponding phase shift can be significantly underestimated. This article proposes an improved method for phase shift extraction of a current shunt to solve …