Engineering Commons^™

Quantitative Imaging Of Radiation Intensity From A Turbulent Sooting Flame, Robert Kapaku

Open Access Theses

Quantitative imaging of radiation intensity (QIRI) is a method of investigating temporally and spatially resolved radiation from species and particulates in turbulent flames. The current study reports quantitative images of radiation intensity from a turbulent ethylene flame that matches the Reynolds number (15,200) of a non-sooting flame from the International Workshop on Measurement and Computation of Turbulent Non-premixed Flames. A calibrated high-speed infrared camera with four band-pass filters was used to acquire images of radiation intensity in wavelengths corresponding to carbon dioxide, water vapor, and soot. The luminous flame measurements show thin radiating structures corresponding to soot layers and higher …

Controlling Protein Release Using Biodegradable Microparticles, Benjamin Patrick Kline

Open Access Theses

Research in the field of protein therapeutics has exploded over the past decade and continues to grow in both academia and in industry. Protein drugs have advantages of being highly specific and highly active making them coveted targets for high profile disease states like cancer and multiple sclerosis. Unfortunately, their many advantages are complemented by their obstacles. Because proteins are highly active and highly specific, the window between efficacy and toxicity is very narrow and drug development can be long and arduous. In addition, protein activity is dependent on its specific folding conformation that is easily disrupted by a variety …

Investigating Surface Performance Trade-Offs Of Unimpeded Taxiways, Tiffany T. Le

Open Access Theses

Optimizing usage of unimpeded taxiways is a near-term operational change to mitigate emission impact on aviation and increase efficiency at airports. An unimpeded taxiway is a path for an aircraft to taxi around an active runway. Unimpeded taxiways provide benefits such as increased departure throughput, increased safety, reduced surface congestion, more efficient taxi-in procedures, and thereby also yield environmental benefits. The goals of this work are to investigate the use of current taxiways, examine surface performance and fuel burn trade-offs, and to develop a decision-support model based on potential fuel savings of unimpeded taxiways. This study analyzes unimpeded taxiway use …

Detecting Air Traffic Controller Interventions In Recorded Air Transportation System Data, Yul Kwon

Open Access Theses

In this study, I propose a systematic method of detecting aircraft deviation due to air traffic controller (ATC) intervention. The aircraft deviations associated with ATC interventions are detected using a heuristic algorithm developed from analyzing the actual positions of an aircraft to its filed flight plan when the aircraft trajectories were identified as having an encounter in a loss-of-separation incident. An actual (closed-loop) flight trajectory of the Cleveland Air Route Traffic Control Center (ZOB ARTCC) was collected from the FlightAware database. This was compared with the corresponding planned (open-loop) trajectory dataset generated by the Microsoft© Flight Simulator X (FSX). I …

An Algorithm For Impacting Soft Structures, Tengfei Long

Open Access Theses

Impact among soft structures is often difficult to model because of the geometrical non-linearity involved. There are a number of previous studies of the contact dynamics of rigid bodies, but few has focused on soft structures so far.

This thesis models impact between soft structures without any restraint on their geometries. The goal is to simulate the dynamics involved among soft structures during an impact process. This has been done through designing and implementing an contact algorithm that uses the finite element method along with a three-dimensional solid element to solve the fundamental time integration problem. Modeling of the contact …

Experimental And Numerical Study Of The Air Distribution In An Airliner Cabin, Wei Liu

Open Access Theses

Nowadays, more people, including those with impaired health or who are otherwise potentially sensitive to the cabin environment, are traveling by air than ever before. The flying public demands a higher comfort level and a cleaner environment because they encounter a combination of environmental factors including low humidity, low air pressure, and sometimes, exposure to air contaminants such as ozone, carbon monoxide, various organic chemicals, and biological agents. Moreover, international air travel has increased the potential risks associated with airborne disease transmission and the release, whether accidentally or intentionally, of noxious substances during flight. Many studies suggest that the risk …

Exhaust Thermal Management Using Cylinder Deactivation And Late Intake Valve Closing, Mark E. Magee

Open Access Theses

Progressively stricter emission regulations have compelled diesel engine manufacturers to develop new technologies that reduce harmful pollutants like NOx and soot. While manufacturers have previously been able to meet these regulations through the use of on engine technology such as exhaust gas recirculation and multiple pulse injections, exhaust after treatment systems such as diesel particulate filters and selective catalytic reduction systems have become necessary to meet recent stricter policies. While these after treatment systems are incredibly effective at reducing harmful emissions, to operate effectively the system needs to be above a certain temperature level typically between 250 and 300°C. Many …

Modeling And Optimization Of Care Transitions, Yuming Mo

Open Access Theses

More than 145 million people live with at least one chronic condition, and almost half of them have multiple conditions. As a result, many managed care and integrated delivery systems have taken a great interest in alleviating the many deficiencies in managing the current care system that spans across various care delivery settings. In addition, many Americans have to rely on some social health insurance plan to cover her care expenses. As a result, these patients often may not been sufficiently cured but have to be transitioned to less expensive but less medically intensive facilities, due to the increasing pressure …

Properties Of Ambiguity Functions, John Mulcahy-Stanislawczyk

Open Access Theses

The use of ambiguity functions in radar signal design and analysis is very common. Understanding the various properties and meanings of ambiguity functions allow a signal designer to understand the time delay and doppler shift properties of a given signal. Through the years, several different versions of the ambiguity function have been used.

Each of these functions essentially have the same physical meaning; however, the use of different functions makes it difficult to be sure that certain properties hold for different formulations. This work proves several parallel properties of two versions of the asymmetric ambiguity function, the symmetric ambiguity function, …

Comparison Of A Sierpinski Gasket Monopole Antenna To Bow-Tie Antennas Based Off The Fractal Iterative Shapes, Kyle Nathan Murg

Open Access Theses

Antennas are an integral part of mobile devices. Recently, the demand for smaller phones has increased requiring smaller components within the device. This leads to problems with performance and limitations of RF systems within mobile devices including antennas which have been affected by the size thus affected frequency output. In this thesis, fractal theory will be utilized to compare the performance of the Sierpinski Gasket Monopole antenna to single band antennas to see if this is a viable substitute in mobile applications. By utilizing simulations and physical antennas, the performance will be observed at each frequency band and compared.

Improving Indoor Air Quality Through Botanical Air Filtration In Energy Efficient Residences, Daniel William Newkirk

Open Access Theses

According to the U.S. EPA, the average American spends 90% of their time indoors where pollutants are two to five times more prevalent than outside. The consequences of these pollutants are estimated to cost the U.S. 125 billion dollars in lost health and productivity. Background literature suggests botanical air filtration may be able to solve this problem by leveraging the natural ability of plants to purify indoor air. By improving indoor air quality, energy consumption can also be reduced by bringing in less outside air to dilute contaminants within the space. A botanical air filter, called the Biowall, was designed …

Variability In Uv Disinfection Of Municipal Wastewater, Angela Patricia Ortiz

Open Access Theses

Variability in the performance of UV disinfection systems is hypothesized to be attributable to variability in the parameters that influence the overall performance. Predictability of process performance in UV disinfection systems should be possible, if variability in these input parameters can be defined. The objective of this project was to define variability in parameters that are known to affect the performance of UV disinfection systems so as to inform design and operation conditions for a large-scale UV disinfection system that was recently applied at the Belmont facility in Indianapolis, Indiana, and other systems. The present study focused on quantification of …

Software Architecture And Development For Controlling A Hubo Humanoid Robot, Manas Ajit Paldhe

Open Access Theses

Due to their human-like structure, humanoid robots are capable of doing some complex tasks. Since a humanoid robot has a large number of actuators and sensors, controlling it is a difficult task. For various tasks like balancing, driving a car, and interacting with humans, real-time response of the robot is essential. Efficiently controlling a humanoid robot requires a software that guarantees real-time interface and control mechanism so that real-time response of the robot is possible. Addition- ally, to reduce the development effort and time, the software should be open-source, multi-lingual and should have high-level constructs inbuilt in it.

Currently Robot …

Nanohub Database Analysis: Using Anomaly Detection Method And Principal Component Analysis, Mengyang Qi

Open Access Theses

This thesis analyzes usage data from nanoHUB.org, which is a web-based infrastructure for e-collaboration among nanotechnology simulation community. Previous analysis of nanoHUB database showed he nanoHUB usage data follows an unknown, heavy-tailed distributions. This thesis extends the analysis and develops an automatic anomaly detection method based on piece-wise linear approximation. The anomaly here refers to collective user behaviors different from others. The result shows that the method can accurately detect the anomalies in the unknown, heavily detailed distribution. This thesis also applies anomaly detection method and principal component analysis to other databases in nanoHUB and successfully reveals differences between different …

A Comparative Analysis Of An Original And A Post-Hoc Application Of Lean Six Sigma Methodology, Jin Qiu

Open Access Theses

Current society develops faster and faster every day with customers' demands increasing rapidly. Decreasing time for product development and enhancing customer satisfaction are becoming more significant. In the business world, there is no industry that could exist without an efficient supply chain. In the fierce competitive environment of today, the supply chain must address potential problems and risks that may exist and assure continuous improvement.

One common supply chain management practice in many industries is to apply lean methodology to the supply chain model in order to maximize the customers' value and eliminate waste. By eliminating waste, the process can …

A Novel Three Degree-Of-Freedoms Oscillation System Of Insect Flapping Wings, Yi Qin

Open Access Theses

We propose an oscillation system to replicate the dynamic behavior of flapping wings, inspired by insect flight muscles. In particular, we study the flight of the fruit fly Drosophila virilis . We model the wing as a rigid body with three degree-of-freedom, described by three Euler angles: the stroke angle, the rotation angle and the deviation angle. Insect flight muscles are separated into two types: power muscles and control muscles. One actuator and one torsional spring at the stroke angle act as the power muscles. Two torsional springs at the rotation angle and the deviation angle mimic the control muscles. …

Risk-Based Bridge Inspection Practices, Rebecca Reising

Open Access Theses

Improving bridge safety, reliability, and the allocation of bridge inspection resources are the goals of the proposed risk based bridge inspection practices. Currently, most bridges in the United States are inspected at a fixed calendar interval of 24 months, without regard to the condition of the bridge. Newer bridges with little or no damage are inspected with the same frequency as older, more deteriorated bridges thus creating inefficiency in the allocation of inspection resources. Because of limited resources, it is not possible to spend the necessary time examining bridges that are in poor condition and require extra attention since equal …

Modeling Preventive Maintenance In Complex Systems, Jessica Rivas

Open Access Theses

This thesis presents an explicit consideration of the impacts of modeling decisions on the resulting maintenance planning. Incomplete data is common in maintenance planning, but is rarely considered explicitly. Robust optimization aims to minimize the impact of uncertainty--here, in contrast, I show how its impact can be explicitly quantified. Doing so allows decision makers to determine whether it is worthwhile to invest in reducing uncertainty about the system or the effect of maintenance. The thesis consists of two parts. Part I uses a case study to show how incomplete data arises and how the data can be used to derive …

A Lean Logistics Assessment Tool For Smes In The Manufacturing Sector, Diana Lorena Sanchez Ramirez

Open Access Theses

This study developed an assessment tool to rate the maturity of the current and desired states of lean logistics operations in small and medium enterprises. The tool consists of 48 best practices classified into 8 critical factors: Inventory, Transportation, Administration, Information Systems, Warehouse, Forecasting, Packaging and Supplier Network. Each of the best practices and critical factors were identified throughout a thorough literature review and comparative analysis between authors to define commonalities among them. Using gap analysis; this tool results in a SWOT matrix providing a roadmap for lean implementation. The resulting model was evaluated by subject matter experts in different …

Investigating The Role Of Dem Resolution And Accuracy On Flood Inundation Mapping, Siddharth Saksena

Open Access Theses

Saksena, Siddharth. M.S.C.E., Purdue University, May 2014. Investigating the Role of DEM Resolution and Accuracy on Flood Inundation Mapping. Major Professor: Venkatesh Merwade. Topography plays an important role in determining the accuracy of flood inundation maps. A lot of the current flood inundation maps are created using topographic information derived from Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) data. Although LiDAR data is very accurate, it is expensive, computationally time consuming and not available in several areas across the United States and around the world. As a result, coarser resolution DEMs which are easily available but less accurate are used for flood …

Floodplain Mapping Using Soil Survey Geographic (Ssurgo) Database, Nikhil Sangwan

Open Access Theses

Floods are the most damaging of all natural disasters, adversely affecting millions of lives and causing financial losses worth billions of dollars every year across the globe. Flood inundation maps play a key role in assessment and mitigation of the potential flood hazards. However, there are several communities in the United States for which the flood risk maps have not been published yet, as the current flood inundation mapping methods are typically very expensive and time consuming. The objective of this study is to develop and examine an economical alternative approach to floodplain mapping using widely available soil survey data. …

Analysis Of Eye Tracking Data Obtained By Customers’ Product Evaluations, Shweta Sanjay Sareen

Open Access Theses

Within the mechanical engineering discipline, product representational studies have been used to inform engineers on the suitability of their product designs for prospective customers. Mainly based in customers' oral responses, engineers would modify the product design accordingly. The incorporation of eye tracking data, in addition to the oral responses, in these product representational studies is a recent addition. This case study performs data analysis of a product representational study conducted by Reid, MacDonald and Du (2012), which considers the impact of 2D and 3D product representation on customer judgments with associated eye gaze patterns. The aim of this thesis is …

Rheological Properties Of Laponite And Chemically Modified Laponite Suspensions, Meng Shen

Open Access Theses

This research investigates the rheological properties of concentrated laponite RD suspensions modified through the addition of laponite RDS and sodium pyrophosphate (SPP). The work is aimed at establishing the possible suitability of these materials for treating liquefaction susceptible sands. This application requires that a laponite suspension initially exhibits liquid like behavior and low viscosity that allow its delivery into the pore space of a sand, but that over time the suspension develop a gel structure with solid like behavior that can serve to restrict sand particle mobility during earthquake shaking.

The experimental program made use of a Physica MCR 301 …

Signalized Corridor Assessment, William Benjamin Smith

Open Access Theses

Traffic engineers are often required to investigate the operation of a corridor and determine if there are any areas for improvement. Typical performance measures used to aid in the analysis are volume-to-capacity ratio and average delays based on the Highway Capacity Manual method. Signal timing software might also be used to adjust the split timings in effort to improve the corridor. This thesis discusses procedure to implement split timing optimization and delay analysis to enhance the current process of corridor assessment.

This study examined the newly opened US-231 bypass corridor outside of West Lafayette, IN. Initially, all intersections were operating …

Guidelines For Construction Companies To Decide Between Outsourcing And Self-Performing For Prefabricated Components, Sebastian Soto Ortiz

Open Access Theses

Prefabrication and modularization has been used in the construction industry for decades. It has recently made a resurgence worldwide providing increased productivity, safety, quality and construction schedule. This research has focused on the situation where a construction company has decided to use prefabrication and faces two possibilities, they either will self-perform or they will outsource the construction of the prefabricated components. The decision making process used by a construction company to determine whether to outsource or self-perform prefabricated components is examined and analyzed.

Prefabrication is an industrial process in which certain components are manufactured in a specialized facility. These items …

Computer Modeling And Simulation Of Implantable Medical Device Heating Due To Mri Gradient Coil Fields, Bryan David Stem

Open Access Theses

For patients with implantable medical devices, the ability to safely undergo MRI scanning is critical to ensuring the highest standard of care. The gradient coils of an MRI generate kilohertz frequency, time varying magnetic fields. These magnetic fields induce a voltage on the external case of metallic, implantable medical devices through electromagnetic induction. Since the magnetic field generated by a gradient coil is time varying, the induced voltage results in the flow of eddy currents which can cause heating effects. These heating effects have been successfully modeled using ANSYS Maxwell and ANSYS Mechanical software packages.

The multi-physics simulation and solution …

Effects Of Crossflow In An Internal-Cooling Channel On Film Cooling Of A Flat Plate Through Compound-Angle Holes, Zachary Taylor Stratton

Open Access Theses

The film-cooling holes in turbine blades are fed from an internal cooling channel. This channel imposes a crossflow at the entrance of the holes that can significantly affect the performance of the cooling jets that emanate from those holes. In this study, CFD simulations based on steady RANS with the shear-stress transport (SST) and the realizable k -ε turbulence models were performed to study film cooling of a flat plate with cooling jets issuing from eight round holes with a compound angle of 45 degrees, where the coolant channel that fed the cooling jets was oriented perpendicular to the direction …

Biaxial Shear/Tension Failure Criteria Of Spectra Single Fibers, Jianzhuo Sun

Open Access Theses

An experimental study was conducted to develop the biaxial failure surface criteria of single Spectra 130d and 100d filaments in a torsion-tension environment. The cross-sectional profiles of single Spectra fibers were investigated using scanning electron microscopy and X-ray computed tomography. A pin-gripping method to fix the ends of a polyethylene single fiber was developed. Effects of pin diameter on failure stress for both Spectra 130d and 100d were characterized. It was found that the perturbed stress field effect can be neglected when the pin diameter is larger than 0.8 mm. Additionally, the effect of the sample's gage length on fiber …

Attached-Growth System For Nitrification At Low Temperature, Zhe Sun

Open Access Theses

Attached-growth biological treatment systems have potential to conduct nitrification in cold-temperature climates. In this research, in order to simulate the attached-growth nitrification process (using BOBBER biological reactor) at a real wastewater treatment facility, two laboratory-scale mini-BOBBER systems were installed in a temperature-controlled room and were operated for 101 days with pure ammonium chloride feed solution. Steady-state conditions were approached at 20°C, 15°C, 10°C, and 5°C. In addition, a series of batch experiments were conducted at temperatures of 20°C and 5°C to investigate the relationship between nitrification rate and ammonia-N concentration. Results from these experiments were analyzed and compared with the …

Characterization Of Thermal And Mechanical Properties Of Porous Material For Electronic Cooling Applications, Ninad Tushar Trifale

Open Access Theses

Metal foams are considered beneficial for several applications because of its significantly large surface area for a given volume. Foams form a high thermal conductive network in a thermal interface for electro cooling applications. The porous structures are relatively compliant and can provide for a better contact and thereby have a lower thermal resistance. Porous heat sinks made of aluminum foam have been well studied in the past. It is not only cost effective due to the unique production process, but also attractive for the theoretical modeling study to determine the performance. A study on the thermal and mechanical characterization …