Engineering Commons^™

Constructing Series, Parallel And Mixed Circuits With Lightbulbs And Analyzing Their Behaviors, Adaeze A. Eze

A with Honors Projects

This honors project was an experiment "to find out if the principles of a series, parallel and a mixed circuit still apply under the given condition (varying bulb resistance)."

Evaluating The Impact Of Increased Cycling On Thermal Power Plants Due To Wind Energy Penetration In The Midwest: A Case Study, Joscelyne Larson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

One of the most significant shifts in the mix of U.S. electricity generation over the past few years has been the rapid expansion of renewable energy resources, especially solar and wind. However, fossil fuels are still necessary to fulfill the world’s energy requirements. Despite efforts to increase the use of renewable energy sources, these sources can be at times unreliable, causing countries around the world to continue to rely on base load units such as coal and natural gas. This decrease in fossil fuels and increase in renewable energy sources presents many complex issues in terms of power system planning, …

Chatgpt: Open Possibilities, Mohammad Aljanabi, Mohanad Ghazi, Ahmed Hussein Ali, Saad Abas Abed

Iraqi Journal for Computer Science and Mathematics

ChatGPT-3 is a powerful language model developed by OpenAI that has the potential to revolutionize the way we interact with technology. This model has been trained on a massive amount of data, allowing it to understand and generate human-like text with remarkable accuracy.One of the most exciting possibilities of ChatGPT-3 is its potential to improve natural language processing (NLP) and natural language understanding (NLU) in a wide range of applications. In particular, ChatGPT-3 can be used to power chatbots, virtual assistants, and other conversational interfaces. These types of systems are becoming increasingly important as more and more people use voice …

Passive Earplug Including Helmholtz Resonators Arranged In Series To Achieve Broadband Near Zero Occlusion Effect At Low Frequencies, Kevin Carillo, Franck Sgard, Olivier Dazel, Olivier Doutres

Études primaires

The use of passive earplugs is often associated with the occlusion effect: a phenomenon described as the increased auditory perception of one's own physiological noise at low frequencies. As a notable acoustic discomfort, the occlusion effect penalizes the use and the efficiency of earplugs. This phenomenon is objectively characterized by the increase in sound pressure level in the occluded ear canal compared to the open ear canal. Taking inspiration from acoustic metamaterials, a new design of a three-dimensional printed “meta-earplug,” made of four Helmholtz resonators arranged in series, is proposed for achieving near zero objective occlusion effect measured on artificial …

Optimizing Battery Performance: Investigating The Long-Term Impacts Of Bidirectional Battery Management Systems On Battery Cells, Drue Nathaniel Haskins

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

With the increased use of batteries in everyday life, it is crucial to have a robust and reliable battery system that can continue to power our devices. This paper will investigate the reliability, impact on the batteries, and functionality of the bidirectional battery management system (BMS). The design uses two bidirectional switches for each cell, one in series with the cell and one in parallel with the other bidirectional switch and cell. This will allow the cell to be taken in and out of the circuit for any reason determined by the BMS. Taking the battery in and out of …

Analytical Heat Transfer Modeling Of The Microwave Heating Process: A Focus On Carbon Black, Craig Offutt

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Electronic waste (e-waste) has become a significant environmental issue due to the rapid advancement of technology, increasing demand for electronic devices, and shorter lifespan of electronics. One critical step in processing the e-waste involves ball milling as a means of preparing the recycling e-waste for the recovery of critical materials. Ball milling is a technique that involves the mechanical crushing and grinding of electronic waste to reduce its size and improve its reactivity during recovery. Our focused recovery technique is based on a microwave recovery technique of these critical materials from e-waste. The size and distribution of the e-waste with …

Community And Key Player Detection For Disrupting Illicit Drug Supply Networks In Social Media Platforms – Especially On Instagram, Akassi Rachel Niamke Aman

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This thesis focuses on the pressing issue of illicit drug trafficking and its impact on public health and safety at a global level. With the advent of digital technologies and social media platforms, combating drug trafficking has become increasingly challenging for law enforcement and researchers alike. Among these platforms, Instagram, a popular photo and video-sharing social networking platform, has emerged as a prominent hub for drug trafficking activities.

In this study, we delve into the effectiveness of community and key player detection algorithms in identifying and disrupting illicit drug supply networks on Instagram. To conduct our research, we collected real …

A Computer Vision-Based Method For Tack Coat Coverage Inspection Using Drone-Collected Images, Aida Da Silva

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Tack coat is a thin asphalt applied between the existing surface and asphalt overlay during road rehabilitation. The uniformity of tack coat coverage plays a vital role in providing adhesive bonding between the two layers in the pavement structures. To ensure tack coat uniformity, the current practice primarily relies on manual inspection during construction by field experts. This process is time-consuming and tedious, and the results can be subjective and error-prone. Drones have emerged as a non-destructive sensing technology in the construction industry for many inspection practices. Unlike other non-destructive inspection technologies, drones offer benefits ranging from accelerating data collection …

The Impact Of Fracture Properties On Adsorbed Gas Production From A Marcellus Shale Horizontal Well, Valcia Mildreth Vasco Bulule

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Abstract

In addition to the gas present in the pores of the rock, shale also contains gas in the adsorbed state within the surface of the organic matter within the formation. As the free gas is produced, the pressure in the reservoir depletes, causing the adsorbed gas to be released, complementing the gas production. At the same time, the pressure reduction leads to increase in the effective stress causing shale compaction. The shale compaction negatively impacts the permeability and hydraulic fracture conductivity. This study aimed to investigate the impact of hydraulic fracture characteristics on the adsorbed gas recovery and, ultimately, …

Face Image And Video Analysis In Biometrics And Health Applications, Na Zhang

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Computer Vision (CV) enables computers and systems to derive meaningful information from acquired visual inputs, such as images and videos, and make decisions based on the extracted information. Its goal is to acquire, process, analyze, and understand the information by developing a theoretical and algorithmic model. Biometrics are distinctive and measurable human characteristics used to label or describe individuals by combining computer vision with knowledge of human physiology (e.g., face, iris, fingerprint) and behavior (e.g., gait, gaze, voice). Face is one of the most informative biometric traits. Many studies have investigated the human face from the perspectives of various different …

Concentrated Wastewater Treatment Using A Ferric Iron-Dosed Anaerobic Upflow Sludge Blanket Reactor For Recovery Of Phosphorus And Ammonium, Carley E. Shingleton

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This study evaluated the performance of a novel, ferric iron-dosed anaerobic bioreactor to recover two separate nutrient products from concentrated wastewaters -- phosphorus as vivianite (Fe₃(PO₄)₂×8H₂O) and an ammonium-containing effluent with low organics. A bench-scale upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) reactor fed with a synthetic wastewater (458.0 mg/L total organic carbon, 282.7 mg/L ammonium, and 84.4 mg/L phosphate) was dosed with a ferric chloride solution at an org. C/Fe³⁺ molar ratio ~17.5 to facilitate organic carbon oxidation coupled to iron reduction. The reactor design allowed natural settling of vivianite to its …

Investigating The Change In Pavement Cracking Data Due To Automated Data Collection Methods, Faisal Quibria Chowdhury

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Data collection on pavement surface cracks is crucial for the state Departments of Transportation (DOTs) to make informed decisions on maintenance, repair, and rehabilitation (MR&R) activities. The collected cracking data is translated into a pavement performance indicator to assess the condition of pavement sections and identify MR&R needs based on predetermined threshold values set by the state DOTs. State DOTs have transitioned from manual to automated data collection as automation offers many advantages over manual data collection, such as improved data collection rates, efficiency, cost reduction, and safety. As the state DOTs have integrated automated data into the pavement performance …

Applying Thermal And Microwave Heating For Natural Gas Conversion To Value-Added Chemicals Over Zeolite-Supported Catalysts, Ashley Marie Caiola

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The world’s demand for natural gas has been consistently growing over the past few decades. Natural gas is considered a potential alternative to oil and coal because of its ability to burn cleaner. Although not completely emission-free, it has dominated the energy industry by providing a continuous supply of cheap fuel. Currently, natural gas makes up 41% of North American energy production. The conversion of natural gas to value-added chemicals typically involves the indirect production of synthesis gas (syngas) as an intermediate before the production of the desired product. Steam reforming and partial oxidation are two of the most common …

Synthesis Of Quasi-Freestanding Graphene Films Using Radical Species Formed In Cold Plasmas, Michael A. Mathews Jr.

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

For over a decade, the Stinespring laboratory has investigated scalable, plasma assisted synthesis (PAS) methods for the growth of graphene films on silicon carbide (SiC). These typically utilized CF₄-based inductively coupled plasma (ICP) with reactive ion etching (RIE) to selectively etch silicon from the SiC lattice. This yielded a halogenated carbon-rich surface layer which was then annealed to produce the graphene layers. The thickness of the films was controlled by the plasma parameters, and overall, the process was readily scalable to the diameter of the SiC wafer.

The PAS process reproducibly yielded two- to three-layer thick graphene films …

Imitation Learning For Swarm Control Using Variational Inference, Hafeez Olafisayo Jimoh

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Swarms are groups of robots that can coordinate, cooperate, and communicate to achieve tasks that may be impossible for a single robot. These systems exhibit complex dynamical behavior, similar to those observed in physics, neuroscience, finance, biology, social and communication networks, etc. For instance, in Biology, schools of fish, swarm of bacteria, colony of termites exhibit flocking behavior to achieve simple and complex tasks. Modeling the dynamics of flocking in animals is challenging as we usually do not have full knowledge of the dynamics of the system and how individual agent interact. The environment of swarms is also very noisy …

Stability Of Ruddlesden-Popper Phase Lanthanum Nickelate As Air Electrode For Reversible Solid Oxide Cells, Daniel De Lorenzo Moreira

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This thesis studied the long-term stability of Ruddlesden-Popper phase Lanthanum Nickelate under operating conditions as the air electrode for Reversible Solid Oxide Cells (R-SOC). Renewable energies have gone through increase in popularity throughout the last decades, mainly due to the consequences of the rapid population growth in the world. These new energies have been pointed as the rightful successor of fossil fuel energies in order to decrease the environmental impact of our day-to-day life. Solid Oxide Fuel Cells as well as Solid Oxide Electrolysis Cells are believed to be the key to stabilizing the energy supply when environmental conditions are …

Evaluations Of Frp Composite Coupons Under Impact And Puncture, Lekhnath Bhandari

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Evaluations of FRP Composite Coupons Under Impact and Puncture

Lekhnath Bhandari

Railroad tank cars are the main mode of transportation for carrying flammable liquids and other hazardous materials, in any mode of ground transportation system. These tank cars, if punctured during derailments may explode releasing large amounts of hazardous materials and posing serious threats to human life and leading to economic losses. To minimize such catastrophes, in 2015, United States Department of Transportation (USDOT) proposed to improve the thermal and puncture performances of these tank cars and introduced two new design specifications: DOT-117 and DOT-117R. Tank cars with 9/16 inches …

Optimal Deployment Of Air Vehicle As Communication Relay For Multiple Ground Vehicles, Juan David Pabon Arias

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Heterogeneous teams of both air and ground mobile vehicles can combine the advantages of mobility, sensing capability, and operation time when performing complex tasks. However, when ground vehicles operate in cluttered environments with randomized obstacles, they may experience line of sight (LoS) obstructions and loss of communication due to those obstacles. To mitigate this issue, an airborne relay can be positioned in the vicinity of the ground vehicles to aid communication by establishing two-hop communication links between the vehicles.

This thesis develops an analytical framework to calculate the probability of spanning a two-hop communication between a pair of ground vehicles …

Single Field Of View Calibration Through Estimating Three Mutually Orthogonal Vanishing Points For Spatial Data Collection In Traffic Scenes, Sourav Dutta

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Accurately extracting the three mutually orthogonal vanishing points plays a vital role in the field of view calibration for many surveillance-based traffic applications. However, the paucity of parallel lines along the dominant directions in many traffic scenes engenders the inapplicability of the current methods for a successful calibration. This research proposed a novel vanishing point estimating method for traffic scenes. This method capitalizes on both the road scene and moving vehicles for the determination of the dominant directions of the real-world coordinate frame. It also exploits distinctive edgelets for the direct identification of vanishing point candidates. Both lab and field …

Filtration Performance, Fit Test And Side Effects Of Respiratory Personal Protective Equipment Following Decontamination: Observations For User Safety And Comfort, Nathalie Turgeon, Melissa Pagé, Justin Robillard, Véronique Goulet, Ali Bahloul, Clothilde Brochot, Mohamed Nejib Saidi, Nathan Dumont-Leblond, Caroline Duchaine

Études primaires

Objective

While facing personal protective equipment (PPE) shortages during the COVID-19 pandemic, several institutions looked to PPE decontamination and reuse options. This study documents the effect of two hydrogen peroxide treatments on filtration efficiency and fit tests as well as the side effects for volunteers after the decontamination of N95 filtering facepiece respirators (FFRs). We also propose an efficient and large-scale treatment protocol that allows for the traceability of this protective equipment in hospitals during PPE shortages.

Methods

The effects of low-temperature hydrogen peroxide sterilization and hydrogen peroxide vapor (HPV) on two FFR models (filtration, decontamination level, residual emanation) were …

Pressure Induced By Roll-Down Foam-Earplugs On Earcanal, Ahmed Dalaq, Luiz Melo, Franck Sgard, Olivier Doutres, Éric Wagnac

Études primaires

Physical discomfort of earplug is a common complaint, so much so it jeopardizes the health and safety of workers, resulting in frequent noncompliance to proper wearing of earplugs. A pressing need thus arises to understand the underlying mechanics for the interaction of earplugs with earcanal walls. An idealized cylindrical geometry of earcanal is first treated with computational and analytical modeling to predict the pressure induced by roll-down cylindrical PVC foam earplugs. In order to predict representative pressure values and distribution, we estimated the hyperelastic properties of foam-based earplugs and characterized their behavior using a stent testing machine (J-Crimp^TM machine) …

An Investigation Of 3.5 Μm Emission In Er3+-Doped Fluorozirconate Glasses Under 638 Nm Laser Excitation, Haiyan Zhao, Ke Tian, Xin Wang, Dejun Liu, Shunbin Wang, Gerald Farrell, Pengfei Wang

Articles

Intense 3.5 μm mid-infrared emission has been achieved in Er3+-doped ZBYA glasses, which is ascribed to the Er3+: 4F9/2→4I9/2 transition. Based on the absorption spectrum of Er3+ ions, a 638 nm laser was utilized to directly pump the upper level (Er3+: 4F9/2) to achieve 3.5 μm emission with enhanced quantum efficiency. Spectroscopic parameters were predicted by Judd-Ofelt theory. The maximum emission cross-section of the Er3+-doped ZBYA glass was estimated to be 5.5×10-22 cm2 at 3496 nm. Additionally, the fluorescence spectra and energy level lifetimes of ZBYA glass samples with different Er3+ ions doping concentrations were also measured. The theoretical and …

Utility And Usability Of Two Forms Of Supplemental Vibrotactile Kinesthetic Feedback For Enhancing Movement Accuracy And Efficiency In Goal-Directed Reaching, Ramsey K. Rayes, Rachel N. Mazorow, Leigh A. Mrotek, Robert A. Scheidt

Biomedical Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Recent advances in wearable sensors and computing have made possible the development of novel sensory augmentation technologies that promise to enhance human motor performance and quality of life in a wide range of applications. We compared the objective utility and subjective user experience for two biologically inspired ways to encode movement-related information into supplemental feedback for the real-time control of goal-directed reaching in healthy, neurologically intact adults. One encoding scheme mimicked visual feedback encoding by converting real-time hand position in a Cartesian frame of reference into supplemental kinesthetic feedback provided by a vibrotactile display attached to the non-moving arm and …

Accelerating A Software Defined Satnav Receiver Using Multiple Parallel Processing Schemes, Logan Reich, Sanjeev Gunawardena, Michael Braasch

Faculty Publications

Excerpt: Satnav SDRs present many benefits in terms of flexibility and configurability. However, due to the high bandwidth signals involved in satnav SDR processing, the software must be highly optimized for the host platform in order to achieve acceptable runtimes. Modules such as sample decoding, carrier replica generation, carrier wipeoff, and correlation are computationally intensive components that benefit from accelerations.

Live-Sky Gnss Signal Processing Using A Dual-Polarized Antenna Array For Multipath Mitigation, Eric Hahn, Sanjeev Gunawardena, Chris Bartone

Faculty Publications

Excerpt: Multipath results from reflections of Global navigation satellite signals (GNSS) signals arriving at a receiver that are delayed with respect to the desired line-of-sight (LOS) signals. The delayed signals distort the received LOS signals, thereby causing pseudorange and carrier phase measurement errors. Traditional multipath mitigation techniques include antenna gain pattern shaping (primarily to reduce ground multipath) and correlator gating techniques (such as narrow correlator and double-delta correlator [1]).

Preparing Undergraduates For The Post-Pandemic Workplace: Teams Of Education And Engineering Students Teach Engineering Virtually, Kristie S. Gutierrez, Jennifer Kidd, Min J. Lee, Krishnanand Kaipa, Orlando Ayala

Teaching & Learning Faculty Publications

When schools and universities across the world transitioned online due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Ed+gineering, a National Science Foundation (NSF) project that partners engineering and education undergraduates to design and deliver engineering lessons to elementary students, also had to shift its hands-on lessons to a virtual format. Through the lens of social cognitive theory (SCT), this study investigates engineering and education students’ experiences during the shift to online instruction to understand how they perceived its influence on their learning. As a result of modifying their lessons for online delivery, students reported learning professional skills, including skills for teaching online and …

Mechanical Design Of A Microwave Imaging Device For Breast Cancer Detection In Mri Scanners, Grace M. Player

Dartmouth College Master’s Theses

This project seeks to develop an updated version of a microwave imaging device for use in conjunction with breast MRI, improving upon existing technology and developing novel concepts for the device. It posits three primary redesign targets for updating the previous system: resizing the system height, making the device more iteration- friendly, and improving the overall manufacturability of the device by replacing custom components with commercially available alternatives. All three of these redesign targets are met in the new design, V2.0. The height is reduced by reducing antenna travel and height, embedding some components, and shortening the tank wall, resulting …

A Platform For In-Situ Creation Of Markerless, Location-Based Augmented Reality Content, Brett Kidman

Dartmouth College Master’s Theses

Augmented reality (AR) renders virtual objects over a real-world physical environment. Currently, the majority of the digital content for AR is created by professional developers with knowledge of AR frameworks such as ARKit and ARCore. User-Generated Content (UGC) is critical for the future of AR, as it will not only increase the number of AR experiences to match the projected rapid growth in the user base, but also democratize content creation. However, there is a current lack of UGC authoring tools for Augmented Reality (AR) to enable users to create, save, and share location-based, markerless AR content. Location-based AR persistently …

Renal Proximal Tubule Tissue Chips For Disease Modeling And Drug Toxicity Testing, Leslie Donoghue

All ETDs from UAB

The current pathway for drug discovery is associated with costs of $2.55 billion and between 10-15 years of development for a single drug to reach the market. The challenges in predicting drug toxicities and efficacies are attributed to inherent species differences in drug-metabolizing enzyme activities and cell-type-specific sensitivities to toxicants. Organs-on-a-chip are an emerging technology in disease modeling and screening therapeutics to address discrepancies between animal models and human clinical trials. They utilize tissue engineering, fluid mechanics, and biomaterials to replicate in vivo architectures and functions of complex organs and tissues. Herein, the effect of pressure and stretch on bioengineered …

Analytical Methods Using Cardiac Mri To Assess Systolic And Diastolic Ventricular Function, Muhammad Rifqi Aufan

All ETDs from UAB

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has proven invaluable for clinical and research investigations due to its minimal invasiveness and excellent measurement precision and reproducibility. In particular, Cardiac MRI (CMR) is a powerful tool for evaluating anatomical and functional properties of the left ventricle (LV). In this study, two aspects of CMR applications of the LV are investigated: 1) assessment of diastolic function by quantifying LV stiffness index and related properties as a representation of intrinsic myocardium properties in patients with diastolic dysfunction and 2) evaluation of systolic function by relating myocardial strain and LV geometrical configuration with ejection fraction (EF). The …