Engineering Commons^™

Design Of Wind Turbine Tower Height And Blade Length: An Optimization Approach, Ryan Wass

Mechanical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

The wind industry is a fast growing market and is quickly becoming competitive with traditional non-renewable energy resources. As with any developing industry, research must continually be redefined as more complex understandings of design variables are learned. Optimization studies are common ways to quickly refine design variable selections. Historical wind turbine data shows that the tower hub height to rotor diameter ratio scales almost linearly. However there is no specific rule that dictates the optimum hub height for a given diameter. This study addresses this question by using an Excel based optimization program to determine the height to diameter ratio …

The Correlation Between Energy Cost Share, Human, And Economic Development Using Time Series Data From Australasia, Europe, North America, And The Brics Nations, Ryan Roberts, Josephine Kaviti Musango, Alan Colin Brent, Matthew K. Heun

University Faculty Publications and Creative Works

This paper investigates how a change in a region's energy cost share (ECS), a ratio of a region's energy expenditure as a fraction of its gross domestic product (GDP), affects the region's social and economic development. Nations from four regions of the world, namely Australasia, Europe, North America, and the BRICS nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) were chosen for this study. Using time series data from the period of 1978 to 2010, the annual ECS of each country was compared to the year-on-year GDP change, as well as the components of the human development index (HDI). High …

Thermophotovoltaic Devices: Combustion Chamber Optimization And Modelling To Maximize Fuel Efficiency, Arnold Chris Toppo, Ernesto Marinero, Zhaxylyk Kudyshev

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Currently, 110 billion cubic meters of natural gas (primarily methane), a potent greenhouse gas, are flared off for environmental and safety reasons. This process results in enough fuel to provide the combined natural gas consumption of Germany and France. The research team developed a thermophotovoltaic device to convert thermal energy to electricity at a high efficiency using proprietary emitters and combustion system. With the current focus being fuel efficiency and the combustion process, the assembly was simulated using ANSYS Fluent modelling software and the following parameters were optimized: air/fuel ratios, flow rates, and inlet sizes. Simultaneously the heat transfer across …

Electronic Effect Of Platinum Alloy Catalysts On Olefin Hydrogenation Kinetics, Colin Reedy, Jeff Miller, Stephen Purdy

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Dehydrogenation of alkanes is the first step in transforming light hydrocarbons into liquid fuels and chemicals. This process has traditionally used platinum alloys as catalysts. Alloys are used industrially because they have a greater selectivity than monometallic platinum. Alloying platinum with an inactive promoter modifies the crystalline structure of the surface (geometric effect), and the 5d electrons in platinum responsible for chemistry (electronic effect); both have been suggested to be primarily responsible for dehydrogenation selectivity in platinum alloys. Alloy catalysts have been synthesized using early 3d transition metal promoters with the same Pt₃M crystal structure. X-Ray Absorption Spectroscopy …

Evaluation And Analysis Of Ethane Transformation To Liquid Hydrocarbons Through Steam Cracking, Christian Omar Villa Santos, Wasiu Peter Oladipupo, Taufik Ridha, Rakesh Agrawal

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Process design and sensitivity studies for a steam cracking reactor was performed. Steam cracking is commonly employed to convert ethane to ethylene, a building block of many other products. Although this technology is generally employed at large scale (>6 Billion pounds of ethylene per year), understanding the process and its economic performance is critical to set target criteria for other processes under development. Aspen Plus was used to simulate the ethane steam cracking reactor and other process units. Sensitivity analysis was performed to determine the most efficient and cost-effective operation regarding product yield. The results show that the maximum …

Design Day Analysis - Forecasting Extreme Daily Natural Gas Demand, David Joseph Kaftan

Master's Theses (2009 -)

This work provides a framework for Design Day analysis. First, we estimate the temperature conditions which are expected to be colder than all but one day in N years. This temperature is known as the Design Day condition. Then, we forecast an upper bound on natural gas demand when temperature is at the Design Day condition. Natural gas distribution companies (LDCs) need to meet demand during extreme cold days. Just as bridge builders design for a nominal load, natural gas distribution companies need to design for a nominal temperature. This nominal temperature is the Design Day condition. The Design Day …

Numerical Investigation Of The Effect Of Projectile Mass And Drop Height From Water Surface On Pinch-Off Time And Depth, Mohammad Hossein Taghizadeh Valdi, Mohammad Reza Atrechian

Journal of Marine Science and Technology–Taiwan

In this study, the water entry problem of spherical projectile was numerically simulated by the commercial finite element code Abaqus, and the effect of increasing the projectile mass and drop height from free water surface on deepwater displacement, viscous dissipation energy as well as pinch-off time and depth was investigated. An explicit dynamic analysis method was employed to model fluid-structure interactions using a Coupled Eulerian-Lagrangian (CEL) formulation. Accuracy of the numerical methodology and employed algorithm was verified by comparing the numerical results with the available experimental observations including shape of the air cavity and pinch-off time and depth. The results …

Morphological And Energy Transport Optimization Of Spectrally-Selective Solar Absorber Coatings At Mesoscale, Dale Karas

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

A special class of cuprous-based inorganic oxide materials, synthesized as nanoparticles via hydrothermal and co-precipitation methods, are portable to spectrally-selective absorber coatings with high solar-thermal energy conversion efficiency. Operating reliably at elevated temperatures when used in tandem with solar concentrators, these materials enable cost-competitive solar energy conversion technology that can be incorporated with thermal energy storage systems, supporting the viability of novel renewable power generation; notably, optimizing absorptive performance while mitigating thermal losses through re-radiated waste heat motivates sustainable energy production particular to desert climates, where water conservation and ecological sensitivity needs are paramount.

This work targets the chemical synthesis …

Thermoelectrics And Thermoelectric Devices, Benjamin T. Erck

Senior Theses

The field of thermoelectrics has many applications, and more are found in everyday systems. From its current studies, it is apparent that improving the figure of merit zT (which defines a good thermoelectric material) is important in the effectiveness of power generation. Another important part of thermoelectrics is the duality of these devices. They can both move heat and generate power, depending on their role in the system. In this thesis research, a process was made to test these thermoelectric relationships for a few Peltier devices in order to understand their efficiencies and what systems they can be applied to.

Lithium And The Foreseeable Future, Paolo Vargas

Mechanical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

This paper aims to clarify the uncertainties regarding worldwide lithium resource availability in the years to come. Previous studies made on the subject are presented with some ambiguity and this work intends to fill the gaps. The information and data presented throughout this script with respect to global lithium resources and reserves are mostly based on data released by the United States Geological Survey (USGS). Lithium resource availability in the future is a point of paramount significance primarily for the automotive, portable electronics, and the power generation industry. Since, a change of supply would ultimately affect the price of lithium, …

Single-Stage, Venturi-Driven Desalination System, Brandon Proetto

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Water demand is increasing at a rapid pace due to population increase, industrial expansion, and agricultural development. The use of desalination technology to meet the high water demands has increased global online desalination capacity from 47 million m^3/d in 2007 to 92.5 million m^3/d as of June 2017 [49]. Membrane and thermal processes are the two mainstream desalination categories used worldwide for desalination plants. Reverse Osmosis (RO) is the most widely used membrane process and it has become the dominant technology for building desalination plants over recent decades. Thermal distillation, however, has become less and less competitive due to its …

Resiliency Vs Reality, Ainsley E. Henderson

Construction Management

This study analyzes the resilient design and construction features desired by Great Northern Services (GNS) for the design and construction of a new housing division in the City of Weed, California. This was compared to what the Cal Poly interdisciplinary student design teams were able to offer, by providing different design options. The study begins by showcasing the Boles fire and the connections that Cal Poly had made to support the City of Weed. The support was made through design and collaboration with Great Northern Services to create affordable housing. The study then discusses the needs that GNS wanted to …

Modeling The Interdependencies Of Energy And Water In New Mexico: Historic Drivers, Hydrologic Impacts, And Energy Requirements, Catherine M. Zemlick 5774203

Civil Engineering ETDs

There is increasing need to understand the interdependencies between energy resource development and water resources, particularly in arid regions with vast energy reserves like New Mexico. The state has a long history of energy resource development, including both uranium and fossil fuels. These activities have and continue to impact scarce water resources. There exist gaps in knowledge regarding the drivers of historic uranium mining and the uncertainties inherent in past estimates of groundwater impacts because of mining activity and in current understanding of the energy required to manage water in the oil and gas industry. Although uranium has not been …

Simulation Of The Inertia Friction Welding Process Using A Subscale Specimen And A Friction Stir Welder, Ty Samual Dansie

Theses and Dissertations

This study develops a method to simulate a full-scale inertia friction weld with a sub-scale specimen and modifies a direct drive friction stir welder to perform the welding process. A torque meter is fabricated for the FSW machine to measure weld torque. Machine controls are modified to enable a force control during the IFW process. An equation is created to measure weld upset due to deflection of the FSW machine. Data obtained from a full-scale inertia friction weld are altered to account for the geometrical differences between the sub-scale and full-scale specimens. The IFW are simulated with the sub-scale specimen …

Functionalized Nanoporous Carbon Scaffolds For Hydrogen Storage Applications, Christopher Carr

Dissertations

Recent efforts have demonstrated confinement in porous scaffolds at the nanoscale can alter the hydrogen sorption properties of metal hydrides, though not to an extent feasible for use in onboard hydrogen storage applications, proposing the need for a method allowing further modifications. The work presented here explores how the functionalization of nanoporous carbon scaffold surfaces with heteroatoms can modify the hydrogen sorption properties of confined metal hydrides in relation to non-functionalized scaffolds (FS). Investigations of nanoconfined LiBH₄and NaAlH₄indicate functionalizing the carbon scaffold surface with nitrogen can shift the activation energy of hydrogen desorption in excess of …

Preventing Crossover In Redox Flow Batteries Through Active Material Oligomerization, Susan A. Odom

Chemistry Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Pico Grid-Smart Home Energy Management System, Kristina Istre, James E. Conaway Mr.

ENgaging Educators in Renewable enerGY (ENERGY): Lesson Plans & Slideshows (2017-2019)

No abstract provided.

Principles Of Wind Energy Production, Willie Haynes, Dianne Lhotte, Johnetta Moore

ENgaging Educators in Renewable enerGY (ENERGY): Lesson Plans & Slideshows (2017-2019)

Three public school teachers designed basic wind turbine energy production tests to help them teach wind energy principles to middle and high school students. Variables affecting wind turbine energy production were identified (distance from wind tunnel, blade design, angle of attack, and wind speed), and experiments were conducted to test each variable. This research aligns with Georgia DOE curriculum standard STEM-FET-3.7: Apply STEM knowledge and skills through hands-on research and lab experiments that are focused upon recreating the inventions and social solutions that were realized in the past, present, and possible future. These experiments will be a part of an …

Hydrogen Fuel Cells, Sydney Pilgrim, Skyler Smith

ENgaging Educators in Renewable enerGY (ENERGY): Lesson Plans & Slideshows (2017-2019)

Hydrogen fuel cells are hydrogen powered energy sources. They convert chemical energy into electrical energy by separating water molecules into the two elements that make up water, Hydrogen (2) and Oxygen (1). Hydrogen fuel cells are looking to become a paramount energy producer to avoid consuming fossil fuels for power. Along with the abundance of Hydrogen in the atmosphere being a benefit of using Hydrogen powered fuel cells, the only emission from these energy sources is water vapor. Many car engines only operate at a 20% fuel efficiency, whereas fuel cell powered cars utilize 60% of the energy produced. Although …

Solar Tracking Sustainable Energy Education, Tara Hart, Donita Legonas

ENgaging Educators in Renewable enerGY (ENERGY): Lesson Plans & Slideshows (2017-2019)

Two middle school science teachers collaborated with Georgia Southern lab students to conduct research and experimentation on the benefits of utilizing a dual-axis solar tracking system to assess the amount of voltage received during various times of the day. A smaller similar dual-axis solar tracking system was designed and fabricated to utilize in the teachers’ middle school classrooms in the study of renewable energy and the engineering and design process.

Dynamic Rops Test For Tractors Over 6,000 Kilograms, Caleb M. Lindhorst, Roger M. Hoy, Santosh Pitla, Michael F. Kocher

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

OECD static tests (Codes 4, 6, 7, and 8) for agricultural rollover protective structures (ROPS) have become accepted standards for evaluating the ability of these structures to protect the operator during tractor rollover events. The strength properties of some materials typically used in ROPS change because of cold weather embrittlement at low temperatures. The static ROPS tests lack the ability to evaluate the strength of these structures during cold weather. The use of the dynamic ROPS test is well noted as a means for proving cold weather embrittlement resistance properties. Unfortunately, application of the OECD dynamic ROPS test (Code 3) …

A Quantification Analysis On Potential Use Of Recuperated Regenerative Braking Energy From Nyct Subways Into Charging Electric Buses, Ahmed S. Rahman

Dissertations and Theses

The New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) is one of the biggest consumers of electricity in east coast of the United States. According to a report published by Dayton T. Brown in 2013, MTA consumes approximately 2150 GWh electrical energy per year for traction power, where the New York City Transit (NYCT) alone is a consumer of about 80% of the total annual MTA energy consumption. This continuous high demand for electricity from a single organization opens research opportunities to search for alternative ways to reduce the needs. NYCT Subways has an existing total rolling stock of 6,418 train cars …

Conjugated Dynamic Modeling On Vanadium Redox Flow Battery With Non-Constant Variance For Renewable Power Plant Applications, Abu Nayem Md. Asraf Siddiquee

Student Theses and Dissertations

A parametric modeling study has been carried out to assess the impact of change in operating parameters on the performance of Vanadium Redox Flow Battery (VRFB). The objective of this research is to develop a computer program to predict the dynamic behavior of VRFB combining fluid mechanics, reaction kinetics, and electric circuit. The computer program was developed using Maple 2015 and calculations were made at different operating parameters. Modeling results show that the discharging time increases from 2.2 hours to 6.7 hours when the concentration of V2+ in electrolytes increases from 1M to 3M. The operation time during the charging …

Energy Potentials Of Briquette Produced From Tannery Solid Waste, Olatunde Ajani Oyelaran, Faralu Muhammed Sani, Olawale Monsur Sanusi, Olusegun Balogun, Adeyinka Okeowo Fagbemigun

Makara Journal of Technology

The vast quantity of waste generated from industries is one of the serious outcomes of unplanned development, resulting into quantum of hazardous organic and inorganic waste generating daily. Proper waste management is a challenging issue that must be addressed adequately. This is, therefore, carried out with a view of assessing the energy and combustion quality of tannery solid waste with a view of converting them into briquettes for cooking, heating and small home industries and reducing the menace caused by tannery waste disposal. The results of the experiments showed that the combustion rate ranged between 0.171 and 0.217 g/min, the …

Pepso: Reducing Electricity Usage And Associated Pollution Emissions Of Water Pumps, Seyed Mohsen Sadatiyan Abkenar, Carol J. Miller

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research Publications

Using metaheuristic optimization methods has enabled researchers to reduce the electricity consumption cost of small water distribution systems (WDSs). However, dealing with complicated WDSs and reducing their environmental footprint remains a challenge. In this study a multi-objective version of Pollution Emission Pump Station Optimization tool (PEPSO) is introduced that can reduce the electricity cost and pollution emissions (associated with the energy consumption) of pumps of WDSs. PEPSO includes a user-friendly graphical interface and a customized version of the non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm. A measure that is called “Undesirability Index” (UI) is defined to assist the search for a promising optimization …

Proton Transfer In Molten Lithium Carbonate: Mechanism And Kinetics By Density Functional Theory Calculations, Xueling Lei, Kevin Huang, Changyong Qin

Faculty Publications

Using static and dynamic density functional theory (DFT) methods with a cluster model of [(Li2CO3)8H]+, the mechanism and kinetics of proton transfer in lithium molten carbonate (MC) were investigated. The migration of proton prefers an inter-carbonate pathway with an energy barrier of 8.0 kcal/mol at the B3LYP/6-31 G(d,p) level, which is in good agreement with the value of 7.6 kcal/mol and 7.5 kcal/mol from experiment and FPMD simulation, respectively. At transition state (TS), a linkage of O–H–O involving O 2p and H 1 s orbitals is formed between two carbonate ions. The calculated trajectory of H indicates that proton has …

Metabolic Comparison Of Wild-Type And Transgenic Synechocystis Pcc 6803 Cyanobacteria, Ian A. Mcluckey, John A. Morgan, Joel Yu King Hing

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

The Calvin-Benson (CBB) cycle is an essential part of nature. This phenomenon allows carbon molecules in carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to be converted into useful energy in the form of sugars. Cyanobacteria are single-celled organisms capable of utilizing energy from sunlight to drive this cycle and are also readily engineered. In hopes of improving this cycle, we compared a wild-type version of the Synechocystis PCC6803 cyanobacteria to an engineered version overexpressing the enzyme FBA (fructose-biphosphate aldolase), called 70 glpX, to deduce how the overexpressing strain is able to be more photosynthetically efficient. To do this, comparative metabolomics were done …

Visualization And 3d Printing Of A 3d Solar Tracker Model Using Mayavi And Pov-Ray, Aditya Mehra

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

In this work, we have created a realistic model of a solar tracker using Mayavi: 3D scientific data visualization and plotting in Python, Enthought Canopy:a comprehensive Python analysis environment and Persistence of Vision Ray Tracer, or POV-Ray, a ray tracing program which generates photo-realistic images from a text-based scene description, a model of the solar tracker was also 3D printed.

Benchmarking The Energy Intensity Of Small Nebraska Wastewater Treatment Plants, Steven M. Hanna

Department of Environmental Engineering: Theses and Other Student Research

To help small communities improve the energy efficiency of their wastewater treatment plants, this study created energy benchmarking models for small wastewater plants serving populations of 10,000 or less and having average flows less than 1.5 million gallons per day (MGD). The purpose of these models is to allow comparisons among plants of similar type and size, identify what factors most significantly impact energy usage, and predict potential savings from changes in key plant characteristics.

Energy usage and plant data from 83 small, mechanical wastewater plants in Nebraska were collected and used to create energy benchmarking models. Data obtained from …

Hybrid Water Pump, Dylan W. Grant, Wei Chen Yeh

Electrical Engineering

This project seeks to use multiple sources to power a water pump. We will design a system which will combine inputs from solar and wind energy production to ensure the pump will have enough power to run. This will create a system powered by clean energy and will be self-sustained once completed. This will theoretically create a more sustainable source of power for the pump than only one of the sources. Because the power sources don’t require outside inputs (aside from sun and wind), the pump can be placed in a remote area. This could be very helpful in developing …