Engineering Commons^™

Iron Ore Tailings Reprocessing By Electrostatic Separation Plus Two Stages Froth Flotation, Vincent Bailey Arohunmolase

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

The reprocessing of tailings is crucial for recovering valuable iron and reducing the environmental impact associated with tailings disposal. This study investigates the practicality of reprocessing tailings to enhance iron oxide content, combining electrostatic separation with a two-stage froth flotation process using oleic acid (direct flotation) and amine (reverse flotation). The primary goal is to efficiently recover valuable iron from tailings, thereby reducing waste and promoting sustainable resource utilization. The process aims to upgrade the iron oxide content to around 93-99% Fe₂O₃, making the recovered material suitable for the production of direct-reduced iron.

Electrostatic separation was …

Degradation Of Polymers And Polymer Composites In Extreme Environments, Ben T. Jewell

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Polymeric materials are widely used in engineering applications due to their high strength-to-weight ratio, easy manufacturability, and cost-effectiveness. When incorporated into composites, they provide further performance enhancements, enabling use in demanding structural applications. However, long-term exposure to harsh environments including elevated temperatures, UV radiation, harsh chemicals, and radiation, can drive degradation processes that alter the material’s network structure, and in turn, degrade its mechanical performance. Exposure to thermo-oxidative conditions is one of the most common environments driving polymer degradation, leading to chain scission and crosslinking events, with the resulting oxidative products causing discoloration, reduced ductility, and changes in glass transition …

Numerical Modelling And Co-Optimization Of Gasoline Fuels For Gasoline Compression Ignition Using Multi Component Approach, Ashwin Karthik Purushothaman

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Future mobility is expected to rely on a broad spectrum of powertrain technologies, including battery electric vehicles (BEVs), hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs), fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) and traditional internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles. Despite the shift toward electrification, internal combustion engines are projected to remain a key component of future powertrains, either as the primary power source or as range extenders to generate electricity in hybrid systems. As such, significant research efforts continue to focus on enhancing the efficiency and reducing the emissions of ICEs to meet increasingly stringent regulatory and environmental targets. Gasoline compression ignition (GCI) has been …

Investigation Of Under-Frequency Load Shedding Prevention Of Isolated Medium-Sized Power Systems Using Energy Storage, Dilan Indoopa Manamperi

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Due to the rapid uptake of distributed photovoltaic generation, the visible load to transmission operators in distribution feeders is reducing. Traditional load-shedding schemes are facing challenges due to this low-load situation. The required amount of load reduction cannot be achieved with the same load-shedding scheme as before. In some situations, with reverse power flows, load shedding can further increase the generation reduction. On the other hand, increased Rate of Change of Frequency (RoCoF) due to low inertia can result in false activation of under-frequency load shedding (UFLS) relays. These challenges can cause a serious problem with the power system security. …

Enhancing Energy Efficiency In Solar Thermal Systems: The Role Of Hybrid Nanofluids In Sustainable Energy Harvesting And Storage, Seyedehzahra Haeri

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Global energy demand continues to grow, making the reliance on fossil fuels increasingly unsustainable due to dwindling reserves and environmental impacts. Among these, solar thermal systems have emerged as a practical and environmentally friendly solution, with applications ranging from industrial heating and solar water heating to concentrated solar power (CSP) plants and solar desalination units. Solar-based thermal systems offer a promising alternative, with nanofluids (NFs) emerging as a transformative solution. Engineered by dispersing nanoparticles into base fluids, NFs enhance thermal conductivity, heat absorption, and efficiency. Notably, nanoparticles such as titanium nitride also act as nano-catalysts, improving chemical reactions and reducing …

Applications Of Reservoir Simulation And Machine Learning In Subsurface Energy Systems For Decarbonization, Seyedmohammadmehdi Nassabeh

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The transition to a low-carbon future necessitates innovative approaches to carbon management and hydrogen storage, particularly in the context of enhanced oil recovery (EOR) from hydrocarbon reservoirs. This study employs advanced analytics and machine learning techniques to optimize carbon management strategies. One key focus of this research is to evaluate the effectiveness of flue gas and CO2 in Water Alternating Gas (WAG) injection within a homogeneous fractured carbonate reservoir characterized by low porosity and permeability. A computational model was developed to depict the flow regime in the reservoir and simulate reservoir fluid behavior using Eclipse (E300) software, various hybrid EOR …

Lara : A Light And Anti-Overfitting Retraining Approach For Unsupervised Time Series Anomaly Detection, Feiyi Chen, Zhen Qin, Mengchu Zhou, Yingying Zhang, Shuiguang Deng, Lunting Fan, Guansong Pang, Qingsong Wen

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Most of current anomaly detection models assume that the normal pattern remains the same all the time. However, the normal patterns of web services can change dramatically and frequently over time. The model trained on old-distribution data becomes outdated and ineffective after such changes. Retraining the whole model whenever the pattern is changed is computationally expensive. Further, at the beginning of normal pattern changes, there is not enough observation data from the new distribution. Retraining a large neural network model with limited data is vulnerable to overfitting. Thus, we propose a Light Anti-overfitting Retraining Approach (LARA) based on deep variational …

Methods Of Variability Reduction In Ramjet Fuel Injection Using Fluid-Structure Interactions, Egan J. Rigney

Honors Undergraduate Theses

The Liquid Jet in Crossflow (LJIC) method of fuel injection in ramjet engines is widely used and well-studied. However, they experience variation in their behavior at different altitudes and flight speeds due to the varied flow conditions following the inlet. This variation becomes more noticeable at high-temperature and high-speed airflow conditions. The optimized and consistent breakup of liquid fuel is a key component in ramjet engine design as there is a minimum surface area requirement of the droplets for combustion to occur. Local equivalence ratios also have a significant influence on the effectiveness of combustion. As such, researchers at the …

Quantized Average Agreement Algorithms With Error Correction For Digraphs, Shuaib A. Mughal

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Multi-agent systems have become more and more prevalent as technology increasingly gets integrated into our daily lives. Some of these technological systems are large in size; for example, the smart grid where multiple devices are used to monitor and control different aspects of the energy grid. Another example is a team of autonomous systems deployed for a specific task. When these systems are spatially distributed, an important component of distributed algorithms is the ability for the agents to reach consensus on the global state of the system. Reaching agreement enables the spatially distributed agent make decisions or determine the next …

A Signal Processing And Mechanical Design Approach To Understanding Triboelectric And Piezoelectric Nanogenerators’ Output, Nicholas Rose

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Scalable energy harvesters—capable of converting motion into electrical output—provide promising solutions to increasing energy demands. This thesis was inspired by the potential biomedical applications of piezoelectric nanogenerators (PENG) and triboelectric nanogenerators (TENG). In theory, these devices could convert mechanical energy from the body into usable electricity for self-powered electronics such as pacemakers or cochlear implants. In line with this goal, this project worked to design a sustainable and biocompatible PENG; however, early devices produced inconsistent voltage. These output inconsistencies motivated an exploration of device reproducibility, but characterizing piezoelectric output signals is a particular challenge in the field. Subtle to significant …

Behavior Analysis Of Simple And Complex Workloads, Davi D. Dantas

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Complex tasks have evolved rapidly in recent times due to tremendous advancements in computational power and data availability. With the ever-increasing presence of complex applications, this paper attempts to distinguish between complex and simple applications. This paper explored side-channel analysis as a method to differentiate complex workloads from simple workloads by monitoring system-level metrics such as power consumption, cache behavior, and memory accesses. By leveraging side-channel effects such as power analysis and memory access, this study seeks to establish unique hardware signatures for complex workloads. Using tools such as Intel Pin, the data will be collected from complex and simple …

Effects Of Changes In Strouhal And Reynolds Numbers On Beetle Wing Aerodynamics, Keith L. Thiha

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Insect flight has long been a subject of interest across the scientific community, largely due to the exceptional aerodynamic performance insects demonstrate relative to their size. Insects tend to have very high aerodynamic performance characteristics like thrust and lift generation compared to their size. This has many potential applications in improving aircraft performance, however the flow phenomena concerning insect wing aerodynamics is still an area of ongoing research. This study aims to investigate how variations in key nondimensional flow parameters—specifically the Reynolds number and Strouhal number—affect the aerodynamic performance of beetle wings. Strouhal numbers ranging from 0.2 to 0.6 were …

Exploring The Dynamics Of Cislunar Space: A Detailed Study Of Periodic Orbits And Their Applications In The Circular Restricted Three-Body Problem, Nicole Weeden

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Ever since NASA announced the Artemis program in 2019, the cislunar space, a region between Earth and the Moon, has attracted substantial research interest. Nonetheless, understanding the complex multipart physics that guides our solar system is not a new area of interest. The ThreeBody Problem was first formulated by Lagrange in ”Essai sur le Probleme des Trois Corps” in 1772 and had additional refinements done by mathematicians like Poincare. However, it was not until NASA’s Apollo program that the cislunar space gained traction, and the Circular Restricted Three-Body Problem (CR3BP) model became more prominent. By deriving and explaining the necessary …

3d Printing Of A Solid-State Battery, Maurizio A. Brozzi

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Solid-state battery research has gained significant attention in recent years, as it provides a unique solution for several common issues in conventional Li-ion batteries. Additionally, as additive manufacturing technologies continue to advance, they have the potential to fabricate solid-state batteries with new materials. The objective of this study is to explore the feasibility of 3D printing of a solid-state battery. By creating an initial PEO-PSF hybrid polymer matrix dissolved in DMSO and adding a lithium salt, the base electrolyte ink was formed. With the addition of conductive additives and active material, electrode inks were also produced. Super P was used …

Effects Of Invigorating And Relaxing Music On Heart Rate, Blood Pressure, And Heart Rate Variability, Matthew Joshua Faur

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Heart-rate variability (HRV) has been documented to correlate with several health measures, including autonomic nervous system longevity and athletic performance (Zulfiqar, 2010). While increasing age does not affect heart rate, there is a steady decline in HRV, which is a biological marker of aging and the decline of autonomic nervous system function. Furthermore, men who exercise regularly tend to have increased HRV, suggesting a mitigation of the typical age-dependent loss of HRV (Kristal-Boneh et al., 1995). Previous studies have suggested that music may have a physiological effect (e.g., fluctuating vitals, emotional changes) on cardiovascular parameters. However, little is known about …

The Aerodynamics Of Bird Perching: Understanding Wing And Body Interactions In Pigeon Flight, Anirudh Sriram

Honors Undergraduate Theses

During landing, birds often execute a perching maneuver. The perching maneuver refers to the complex series of actions that birds, and pigeons in particular, will perform when landing. They will typically decelerate by pitching their body to a high angle of attack and spreading their wings. It is believed to help achieve better control and reach optimal lift and drag coefficients. This study seeks to better understand the vortex interactions between the main and tail wings during this maneuver. However, it is still an unexplored phenomenon. Thus, two bird models were conceived to analyze it, one with and one without …

Measuring Achilles Tendon Stiffness And Kinetics In-Vivo, Chloe L. Pinkston

Honors Undergraduate Theses

This study aims to measure the gastrocnemii Achilles subtendon passive stiffness and energy storage during walking. Stiffness was first determined using a noninvasive method that combines ultrasound, motion capture, musculoskeletal modeling, and a force transducer. Eight healthy participants were tested using this method to obtain the passive force-displacement relationship of the Achilles tendon at two different knee angles to calculate stiffness of the gastrocnemii subtendon. A gait analysis session was then performed using ultrasound, motion capture, and an instrumented treadmill at self-selected slow, normal, and fast walking speeds, using stiffness to calculate the subtendon’s force and energy storage. Gastrocnemii Achilles …

Effect Of Metal Ions On The Reactive Oxygen Species Scavenging Capabilities Of Cerium Oxide For Biological Applications, Agastya Mittal

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Ceria nanoparticles' capabilities to defend cells against oxidative stress through superoxide dismutase activity are well-documented. Ceria nanoparticles demonstrate a ratio between 3⁺/4⁺ oxidative states on the surface of the particles to exhibit oxygen vacancies, a feature that allows these particles to scavenge Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) in times of Oxidative Stress. Oxidative stress arises from many wounds in the body, such as wounds in the skin, and can have significant impacts on the health of an individual. Even when receiving treatment for the skin wound, ROS can circulate from around the wound, be generated from an imbalance …

Synthesis And Characterization Of Multifunctional Cerium Oxide Containing Nanoparticles For Biomedical Applications, Ishaan Patel

Honors Undergraduate Theses

This study presents the synthesis and comprehensive characterization of a novel core-shell nanoparticle composed of a maghemite (γ-Fe₂O₃) core and a europium-doped cerium oxide (EuCNP) shell, developed for potential use in cancer theranostics. Using a co-precipitation method, Fe₂O₃–EuCNP core-shell nanoparticles were synthesized and compared against control samples of CNPs, EuCNPs, and Fe₂O₃. A variety of characterization techniques, including UV-Vis spectroscopy, fluorescence spectroscopy, TEM, XRD, XPS, DLS, TGA, and DSC confirmed the successful synthesis of core-shell architecture and europium doping. Moreover, Fe₂O₃–EuCNPs demonstrating strong colloidal …

Utilizing Pneumatic Artificial Muscles To Simulate Wingbeat Kinematics For Morphing Uav Wings, Vireli S. Anbarasu

Honors Undergraduate Theses

The controlling muscles of a bird wing change stiffness and length to provide high efficiency when executing a flight maneuver. This variable stiffness allows the muscles to cycle between increasing energy, transmitting it, and restoring it, allowing an overall increase in mechanical and aerodynamic efficiency. Inspired by this, we have developed a system that uses pneumatic artificial muscles (PAMs) to actuate a morphing wing. The stiffness in the PAMS can be controlled to mimic the changes bird flight muscles undergo when executing a forward flapping maneuver. We will evaluate the performance of the PAMs in actuating a morphing wing through …

Salinity Effects On Cu(Ii) Bioremediation By Chlamydomonas Reinhardtii Microalgae, Jennifer Hughes

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Microalgae offer a sustainable approach to wastewater treatment by removing pollutants such as excess nutrients, CO₂, and heavy metals. Among various species, Chlamydomonas reinhardtii shows strong potential in removing Cu(II) ions from wastewater. In addition, salinity stress in C. reinhardtii has been linked to morphological and metabolic changes that enhance lipid and phytochemical production. While salinity stress has been studied for enhancing biofuel production, its impact on microalgal removal of heavy metals, particularly Cu(II), remains largely unexplored. Understanding how varying salinity conditions affect both algal growth and the efficiency of Cu(II) remediation could provide critical insights for improving integrated wastewater …