Engineering Commons^™

State Of Charge Estimation Of Ev Secondary Battery Pack Using Hybrid Hedge Feedforward Feedback-Based Gated Recurrent Unit To Extend Lifespan, Md Ohirul Qays, Iftekhar Ahmad, Daryoush Habibi, Mohammad A.S. Masoum, Paul Moses

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Accurate estimation of state of charge (SoC) and maintaining balanced charge levels across secondary battery cells are crucial in battery management systems (BMSs) to extend battery life while improving the performance and thermal stability of Li-ion batteries (LIBs) in electric vehicles (EVs). However, there are still underexplored challenges associated with circulating currents in electrochemical cells during continuous operation which can overheat battery packs, reducing their life span or result in dangerous thermal runaways. This paper investigates SoC estimation using various real-world charging and discharging profiles, along with charge-balancing strategies to enhance the longevity of parallel-connected Li-ion battery cells. A newly …

Irrigation Efficiency In Green Wall Systems Utilizing Iot: Developing And Testing A Method To Optimize Water Use For Green Walls, Yomna Zaghloul

Theses and Dissertations

This study investigates the application of an Internet of Things (IoT)-based automated irrigation system for green walls in Cairo, Egypt, assessing its impact on water conservation, energy consumption, and plant health across a three-month experimental period. The research compared a sensor-controlled drip irrigation system utilizing the ESP8266 microcontroller and real-time environmental monitoring against conventional timer-based irrigation methods. Water usage data revealed that the IoT system consistently achieved substantial savings—averaging nearly 60% less water consumption than the control group—without compromising overall plant vitality. Energy efficiency was also improved, with automated cycles reducing pump operating time by more than 50%. Plant growth …

Modeling Studies Of An Intensified Reforming/Fischer-Tropsch Synthesis Process For Gas To Liquid Conversion, Brian Gray

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Despite rigorous study and advancement in fields of green energy, the world's transportation industry remains poised to continue reliance on liquid hydrocarbon fuels. To date, the primary source of diesel and jet fuels is the petroleum industry; however, continuing trends in rising greenhouse gas emissions present a need for study into processes for the production of synthetic hydrocarbon fuels. The most promising technologies to meet this goal are gas-to-liquid (GtL), biomass-to-liquid (BtL) and coal-to-liquid (CtL). The commonality of these technologies is that they utilize a feedstock to produce carbon monoxide and hydrogen gas (syngas) which becomes the building blocks of …

Preliminary Study On The Effects Of Vinegar As Pre- Treatment For The Oven-Drying Of Pacific Yellowtail Emperor (Lethrinus Atkinsoni) Fillets, Nurisa A. Suhaili, Rafael S. Jamih, Normina A. Abubakar, Jaro O. Ajik, Merilyn Q. Amlani

ASEAN Journal on Science and Technology for Development

This study aimed to assess the impact of various vinegar compositions used as pre-treatment for Pacific Yellowtail Emperor (PYE) fillets during the oven-drying process, with a focus on moisture content and optimal drying conditions. Two types of commercially available vinegar, Superior Vinegar and Datu Puti Vinegar, were compared, and different drying temperatures were evaluated. The investigation revealed that the drying temperature significantly influenced the moisture content of the dried PYE fillets. Among the tested temperatures (40°C, 60°C, and 80°C), the most favorable outcome in terms of moisture content was achieved when fillets were dried at 80°C for a duration of …

Design And Implementation Of An Optimization Platform For Common Fixed Photovoltaic Systems, Amro Ahmad Zahrawi

Mechanical Engineering Theses

Most household photovoltaic (PV) panels are installed in a fixed arrangement (fixed-type) based on a rule of thumb that comes from experience. The azimuth angle is usually set facing south with a tilt angle equivalent to the location's latitude. However, research shows that this is not the best for all geographical locations and during all hours of the day. Consequently, this brings up the hypothesis that optimizing the PV system's azimuth and tilt angles would ensure that the PV panel produces the most possible output as it is adjusted to face the sun most effectively during peak sunlight hours. This …

Optimizing Technical And Economic Aspects Of Off-Grid Hybrid Renewable Systems: A Case Study Of Manoka Island, Cameroon, Reagan J. J. Molu, Serge R. D. Naoussi, Patrice Wira, Wulfran F. Mbasso, Saatong T. Kenfack, Barun K. Das, Enas Ali, Muhannad J. Alshareef, Sherif S. M. Ghoneim

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

The lack of accessible and reliable electrical energy in Cameroon has become a pervasive obstacle to the nation's progress, with energy availability, quality, and cost identified as key hindrances to development over the past 15 years. Conventional solutions that rely on combustion engines and electrochemical storage systems have proven to be cost-prohibitive, limited in power output, and constrained in capacity. The dependence on traditional diesel generators has perpetuated maintenance challenges and a continuous demand for fuel supply, while the accompanying noise and pollution have restricted their use in residential areas. Recognizing the imperative of reducing dependence on fossil fuels and …

Lifetime Maximization In Underwater Wireless Communication Networks, Kazi Yasin Islam, Iftekhar Ahmad, Daryoush Habibi, Jiong Jin, Muhammad Waqas

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

The rise in demand for underwater wireless communication networks (UWCN) has been driven by the emergence of new applications including unmanned underwater vehicles, deep-sea exploration, maritime and underwater archaeology research, and diver communications. For various applications, underwater network lifetime must be long, since unlike terrestrial sensor networks, it is a major job to change/recharge node batteries in underwater environments. In this paper, we introduce a solution where critical nodes in a UWCN are periodically recharged by small renewable energy sources. Further, a caching mechanism is introduced to relieve critical nodes of heavy workload when their residual energies run low. By …

Energy Planning Model Design For Forecasting The Final Energy Consumption Using Artificial Neural Networks, Haidy Eissa

Theses and Dissertations

“Energy Trilemma” has recently received an increasing concern among policy makers. The trilemma conceptual framework is based on three main dimensions: environmental sustainability, energy equity, and energy security. Energy security reflects a nation’s capability to meet current and future energy demand. Rational energy planning is thus a fundamental aspect to articulate energy policies. The energy system is huge and complex, accordingly in order to guarantee the availability of energy supply, it is necessary to implement strategies on the consumption side. Energy modeling is a tool that helps policy makers and researchers understand the fluctuations in the energy system. Over the …

Drone Location And Scheduling Problems In Humanitarian Logistics., Zabih Ghelichi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), commonly referred to as drones, are a promising technology for the last-mile delivery of medical and aid items in humanitarian logistics. In emergency scenarios, like disasters, where transportation networks are destroyed and people are stranded, drones can accelerate the delivery of urgently needed items, e.g., food and water, insulin shots and blood pressure pills, to those trapped in the disaster-affected areas. Drones can also provide logistics services in many non-emergency situations by delivering medical items, e.g., vaccine shots and lab specimens, to remote communities and hard-to-access locations. The contribution of using UAVs goes beyond merely having …

Pressure Retarded Osmosis: A Potential Technology For Seawater Desalination Energy Recovery And Concentrate Management, Joshua Benjamin

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Currently, a significant challenge with reverse osmosis-based desalination is reducing the energy consumption and environmental impacts of the process. This project analyzed the viability of using pressure-retarded osmosis (PRO) for energy recovery in seawater desalination facilities using brine concentrate (the draw solution) and other water sources (the feed solution) such as wastewater effluent. The primary goal of this project is to decrease the cost and overall energy consumption of seawater desalination through PRO-based energy recovery. Process modeling, statistical and sensitivity analysis, energy and cost analysis, geospatial and GIS analysis, laboratory-scale testing, water quality analysis, SEM-EDS microscopy, computational fluid dynamics (CFD), …

Considering Social Impact When Engineering For Global Development, Hans Jorgen Ottosson

Theses and Dissertations

Every manufactured product has an environmental impact, a social impact, and an economic impact. As engineers, we should do our best to understand how our design decisions influence these impacts (the three pillars of sustainability), and at the same time make decisions that collectively lead to maximum positive impacts, or minimum negative impacts on the economy, environment, and society. Many times, engineers show interest and want to design for all three pillars of sustainability but are often constrained to focus on the environmental and economic aspects, leaving out social sustainability due to lack of understanding and resources. In practice, this …

Scheduling Allocation And Inventory Replenishment Problems Under Uncertainty: Applications In Managing Electric Vehicle And Drone Battery Swap Stations, Amin Asadi

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this dissertation, motivated by electric vehicle (EV) and drone application growth, we propose novel optimization problems and solution techniques for managing the operations at EV and drone battery swap stations. In Chapter 2, we introduce a novel class of stochastic scheduling allocation and inventory replenishment problems (SAIRP), which determines the recharging, discharging, and replacement decisions at a swap station over time to maximize the expected total profit. We use Markov Decision Process (MDP) to model SAIRPs facing uncertain demands, varying costs, and battery degradation. Considering battery degradation is crucial as it relaxes the assumption that charging/discharging batteries do not …

Optimization Of Vaccine Supply Chains In Low- And Middle-Income Countries Utilizing Drones, Maximilian Kolter

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Despite tremendous efforts from governments and humanitarian organizations, millions of children in low- and low-middle-income countries (LICs and LMICs) are still excluded from the benefits of immunization. The vaccine distribution in LICs and LMICs is challenging for several reasons, such as limited cold chain capacities, vaccine wastage, uncertain demand, and lack of access to immunization services. A promising avenue to address these issues is the utilization of drones for vaccine delivery. Drones can fly at high speed on direct paths and could enable on-demand deliveries to mitigate limited storage capacities. Further, their independence of road networks could allow them reaching …

Optimizing Cost And Performance Of Infrastrucure Alternatives At Contingency Bases In A Hub-And-Spoke Network, Kyle J. Rodriguez

Theses and Dissertations

Military contingency bases require substantial resources and funding sustain and are often not connected to an infrastructure grid. Infrastructure assets produce the required outputs for sustainment, but are often expensive and inefficient, producing a significant logistical burden. With the increasing near-peer threats of opposing military forces, there is a need for more self-sufficient contingency bases with alternatives that reduce resources usage and the cost of sustainment. Accordingly, the goal of this research is to develop an optimization model capable of selecting infrastructure alternative combinations that minimize the overall resource usage and cost of sustainment at the contingency base level.

Two-Level Surrogate-Assisted Differential Evolution Multi-Objective Optimization Of Electric Machines Using 3-D Fea, Narges Taran, Dan M. Ionel, David G. Dorrell

Power and Energy Institute of Kentucky Faculty Publications

A two-level surrogate-assisted optimization algorithm is proposed for electric machine design using 3-D finite-element analysis (FEA). The algorithm achieves the optima with much fewer FEA evaluations than conventional methods. It is composed of interior and exterior levels. The exploration is performed mainly in the interior level, which evaluates hundreds of designs employing affordable kriging models. Then, the most promising designs are evaluated in the exterior loop with expensive 3-D FEA models. The sample pool is constructed in a self-adjustable and dynamic way. A hybrid stopping criterion is used to avoid unnecessary expensive function evaluations.

Design Optimization Of Polymer Heat Exchanger For Automated Household-Scale Solar Water Pasteurizer, David C. Denkenberger, Joshua M. Pearce

Civil and Architectural Engineering Faculty Research

A promising approach to reducing the >870,000 deaths/year globally from unsafe water is flow-through solar water pasteurization systems (SWPs). Unfortunately, demonstrated systems have high capital costs, which limits access for the poor. The most expensive component of such systems is the heat exchanger (HX). Thus, this study focuses on cost optimization of HX designs for flow-through SWPs using high-effectiveness polymer microchannel HXs. The theoretical foundation for the cost optimization of a polymer microchannel HX is provided, and outputs are plotted in order to provide guidelines for designers to perform HX optimizations. These plots are used in two case studies: (1) …

Design Optimization Of Polymer Heat Exchanger For Automated Household-Scale Solar Water Pasteurizer, David C. Denkenberger, Joshua M. Pearce

Department of Materials Science and Engineering Publications

A promising approach to reducing the >870,000 deaths/year globally from unsafe water is flow-through solar water pasteurization systems (SWPs). Unfortunately, demonstrated systems have high capital costs, which limits access for the poor. The most expensive component of such systems is the heat exchanger (HX). Thus, this study focuses on cost optimization of HX designs for flow-through SWPs using high-effectiveness polymer microchannel HXs. The theoretical foundation for the cost optimization of a polymer microchannel HX is provided, and outputs are plotted in order to provide guidelines for designers to perform HX optimizations. These plots are used in two case studies: (1) …

Ionolab-Map: An Automatic Spatial Interpolation Algorithm For Total Electron Content, Muhammet Necat Devi̇ren, Feza Arikan

Turkish Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences

Investigation of the variability of total electron content (TEC) is one of the most important parameters of the observation and monitoring of space weather, which is the main cause of signal disturbance in space-based communication, positioning, and navigation systems. TEC is defined as the total number of electrons on a ray path. The Global Positioning System (GPS) provides a cost-effective solution for the estimation of TEC. Due to various physical and operational disturbances, TEC may have temporal and spatial domain gaps. Global ionospheric maps (GIMs) provide worldwide TEC with 1- to 2-h temporal resolution and $2.5^{\circ}\, \times 5^{\circ}$ spatial resolution …

Cost And Fuel Usage Optimization Of Activating Solution Based Silica Fume Geopolymer Concrete, Lateef Najeh Assi

Theses and Dissertations

Development of sustainable construction materials has been the focus of research efforts worldwide in recent years. Concrete is a major construction material; hence, finding alternatives to ordinary Portland cement is of extreme importance due to high levels of carbon dioxide emissions associated with its manufacturing process. Geopolymer concrete is a potential solution; however, concerns about the high cost and the low real fuel energy efficiency are obstacles against its increase in the market share.

In this thesis, the current cost and fuel (thermal energy) usage are calculated. In addition, the cost and fuel usage were optimized based on previous experimental …

Optimized Sizing And Placing Of Distributed Energy Resources (Ders) In An Island Microgrid Using Der-Cam, Bhuwan B. Bastola

Electrical and Computer Engineering ETDs

The electric grid at La Gomera, an island in the Canary archipelago, has been the subject of interest in optimized integration of Distributed Energy Resources (DERs) primarily because of high distribution losses and concerns about complying with emission regulations. Consequently, the utility that operates the island power system wishes to mitigate the problem with installation of renewable and distributed energy sources like PV and battery, which is the focus of this research.

Specifically, the focus of this thesis is to use Distributed Energy Resource - Customer Adoption Model (DER-CAM) to optimize the installation of PV and battery in terms of …

Ad-Hoc Automated Teller Machine Failure Forecast And Field Service Optimization, Michelle L. F. Cheong, Ping Shung Koo, B. Chandra Babu

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

As part of its overall effort to maintain good customer service while managing operational efficiency and reducing cost, a bank in Singapore has embarked on using data and decision analytics methodologies to perform better ad-hoc ATM failure forecasting and plan the field service engineers to repair the machines. We propose using a combined Data and Decision Analytics Framework which helps the analyst to first understand the business problem by collecting, preparing and exploring data to gain business insights, before proposing what objectives and solutions can and should be done to solve the problem. This paper reports the work in analyzing …

Economic Growth Assumptions In Climate And Energy Policy, Nir Y. Krakauer

Publications and Research

The assumption that the economic growth seen in recent decades will continue has dominated the discussion of future greenhouse gas emissions and the mitigation of and adaptation to climate change. Given that long-term economic growth is uncertain, the impacts of a wide range of growth trajectories should be considered. In particular, slower economic growth would imply that future generations will be relatively less able to invest in emissions controls or adapt to the detrimental impacts of climate change. Taking into consideration the possibility of economic slowdown therefore heightens the urgency of reducing greenhouse gas emissions now by moving to renewable …

Assessment, Optimization, And Enhancement Of Ultrafiltration (Uf) Membrane Processes In Potable Water Treatment, Christopher Boyd

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation reports on research related to ultrafiltration (UF) membranes in drinking water applications. A pilot-scale investigation identified seasonal surface water quality impacts on UF performance and resulted in the development of a dynamic chemically enhanced backwash protocol for fouling management. Subsequent analysis of UF process data revealed limitations with the use of specific flux, transmembrane pressure (TMP), and other normalization techniques for assessing UF process fouling. A new TMP balance approach is presented that identifies the pressure contribution of membrane fouling and structural changes, enables direct process performance comparisons at different operating fluxes, and distinguishes between physically and chemically …

Determining The Global Maximum Biofuel Production Potential Without Conflicting With Food And Feed Consumption, Watcharapol Pumkaew

All Theses

This study tries to resolve the competition between food and biofuel by balancing the allocation between food and feed areas and biofuel areas for the entire world. The maximum energy production is calculated by determining the theoretical amount of energy that can be grown, once food and feed consumption is taken into account, based on the assumption that unprotected grass and woody lands and forest lands can be converted into cultivated lands. The total optimum land area for biofuel energy, 4,926.49 Mha, consists of corn, rapeseed, sugar beet, sugar cane, and grasses. When considering energy conversion efficiency, the maximum energy …

Efficient Utilization Of Renewable Energy Sources By Gridable Vehicles In Cyber-Physical Energy Systems, Ahmed Yousuf Saber, Ganesh K. Venayagamoorthy

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The main sources of emission today are from the electric power and transportation sectors. One of the main goals of a cyber-physical energy system (CPES) is the integration of renewable energy sources and grid able vehicles (GVs) to maximize emission reduction. GVs can be used as loads, sources and energy storages in CPES. a large CPES is very complex considering all conventional and green distributed energy resources, dynamic data from sensors, and smart operations (e.g., charging/discharging, control, etc.) from/to the grid to reduce both cost and emission. If large number of GVs are connected to the electric grid randomly, peak …

Biohydrogen Production By The Hyperthermophilic Bacterium Thermotoga Neapolitana, Xiaohui Yu

All Dissertations

ABSTRACT Thermotoga neapolitana can use different sources of carbon and nitrogen for growth and produces biological hydrogen. Sources of carbon (glucose, sucrose, xylose, xylan, cellulose, cellobiose, starch, corn starch, beet bulp pellet, and rice flour) and nitrogen (yeast extract, fish meal, cottonseed meal, canola meal, linseed meal, and soybean meal) were compared. In the carbon studies, glucose, sucrose, rice flour, and xylan produced similar levels of hydrogen. In the nitrogen studies, Trypticase combined with alternative nitrogen sources can efficiently increases the yield of hydrogen produced by Thermotoga neapolitana. Yeast extract with trypticase as the dual nitrogen sources produced significantly increased …