Engineering Commons^™

Trip Production Models For Persons With Disabilities, Pouyan Saeidian

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Nearly 13% of the US population consists of people with disabilities, yet finding an equitable and comprehensive approach to meet their travel needs remains a challenge. Our research delves into the mobility patterns of people with disabilities to understand how their daily travel—both the frequency of trips and the distance covered—compares to those without disabilities. We also explore the factors influencing their travel behaviors and how these insights can guide policymakers in improving accessibility and mobility for this community. Utilizing data from the 2022 US National Household Travel Survey, we applied a blend of statistical analysis and machine learning methods. …

Rapid Prediction Of Buoyancy-Driven Exchange Flows At The Great Salt Lake: Ml Models And A 1d Shallow Water Approach, Eric M. Larsen

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

The Great Salt Lake in Utah, USA, is a hypersaline terminal lake divided in to northern and southern arms by the Union Pacific Railroad causeway since the 1950's. This separation has caused a difference in density and water surface elevation between lake arms. These differences result in a buoyancy-driven exchange flow occurring through an engineered breach in the causeway. Traditionally, modeling the flow through the breach has been done by numerically solving the 1D steady shallow water equations, and using computational fluid dynamics (CFD). The CFD models yield high accuracy results, but require substantial computing resources. This research proposes the …

Comparing Gas Composition From Fast Pyrolysis Of Live Foliage Measured In Bench-Scale And Fire-Scale Experiments, David R. Weise, Thomas H. Fletcher, Timothy J. Johnson, Wei Min Hao, Mark Dietenberger, Marko Princevac, Bret W. Butler, Sara S. Mcallister, Joseph J. O'Brien, E Louise Loudermilk, Roger D. Ottmar, Andrew T. Hudak, Akira Kato, Babak Shotorban, Shankar Mahalingham, Tanya L. Myers, Javier Palarea-Albaladejo, Stephen P. Baker

Faculty Publications

Background. Fire models have used pyrolysis data from oxidising and non-oxidising environments for flaming combustion. In wildland fires pyrolysis, flaming and smouldering combustion typically occur in an oxidising environment (the atmosphere). Aims. Using compositional data analysis methods, determine if the composition of pyrolysis gases measured in non-oxidising and ambient (oxidising) atmospheric conditions were similar. Methods. Permanent gases and tars were measured in a fuel-rich (non-oxidising) environment in a flat flame burner (FFB). Permanent and light hydrocarbon gases were measured for the same fuels heated by a fire flame in ambient atmospheric conditions (oxidising environment). Log-ratio balances of the measured gases …

Emerging Technologies And Advanced Analyses For Non-Invasive Near-Surface Site Characterization, Aser Abbas

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

This dissertation introduces novel techniques for estimating the soil small-strain shear modulus (G_max) and damping ratio (D), crucial for modeling soil behavior in various geotechnical engineering problems. For G_max estimation, a machine learning approach is proposed, capable of generating two-dimensional (2D) images of the subsurface shear wave velocity, which is directly related to G_max. The dissertation also presents a method for estimating frequency dependent attenuation coefficients from ambient vibrations collected using 2D arrays of seismic sensors deployed across the ground surface. These attenuation coefficients can then be used in an inversion process …

Computational Fluid Dynamics Modeling Of Air Demand For Fixed Cone Valve In Energy Dissipating Structure, Matthew S. Harames

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Fixed cone valves are commonly installed as low-level outlet devices to discharge water from reservoirs. When discharging water, the fixed cone valves require an air vent to properly operate and maintain the valve. There is a current lack of published information regarding the accuracy of model studies to properly estimate the air demand on the full-size prototype. This research aims to help close that gap by providing data comparison between a model and prototype. Furthermore, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations may be used to estimate the air demand, but the results of such have not been verified nor is information …

Ensemble Machine Learning At The Edge Using The Codec Classifier Structure And Weak Learners Guided By Mutual Information, Aj Beckwith

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

The Codec Classifier is a low-computation, low-memory tree ensemble method that dramatically improves feasibility of image classification on resource-constrained edge devices. It achieves advantages over other tree ensemble methods due the separation of encoder and decoder tasks in the classifier. The encoder partitions feature space, and the decoder labels the regions in the partition. This functional separation of tasks enables the encoder design (partitioning) to be guided by maximizing the mutual information (MI) between class labels and the features (i.e. the encoded representation of the data) without regard to the error performance of the classifier. Experiments show maximizing MI leads …

Development Of A High-Throughput Methodology For Vibration-Based Fatigue Tests, Brandon Alexander Furman

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Global efforts towards the development of additively manufactured materials, biomaterials, metamaterials, self-healing materials, and composites have reached a staggering pace. With new materials being developed on a near-daily basis, it is more important than ever to be able to quickly and precisely quantify their mechanical performance. However, one of the most important mechanical properties, fatigue life, is notoriously time consuming to measure. Consequently, fatigue parameters are often calculated based on small sample sizes, resulting in high uncertainty of the measured parameters. In this dissertation a high-throughput approach to fatigue measurements is developed. This technique allows for multiple samples to accumulate …

Defining Engineering Leadership And Engineering Leadership Skills From The Perspectives Of Abet Leaders And Professional Engineers, Yemisi Victoria Oyewola

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Leadership within the engineering domain has gained significant recognition in recent years due to calls from the literature, industry, and engineering professional bodies to incorporate leadership training into the engineering curriculum. In response to these calls and despite various approaches that have been implemented by engineering institutions to teach engineering leadership, research indicates that there remains a lack of consensus on the definition of engineering leadership and the specific skills that should be emphasized in the teaching of engineering leadership. Also, there is evidence in the literature that there exists a debate regarding the nature of engineering leadership, with some …

Understanding Ion Rejection Mechanism Of Freeze Desalination By Molecular Dynamics Simulation, Mahbuba Jannat

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

This study explores a method called freeze desalination, which uses the natural process of ice formation to remove salt from water at lower than freezing temperature of water, which is 235K (Freezing temperature of this water model is 249K), making it safe for potable water. Unlike traditional methods, freeze desalination can be more efficient and environmentally friendly, but how it rejects salt at the molecular level is not very clear to understand. Using molecular dynamics simulation, this research aims to uncover the details of this process. We focused on understanding how water molecules interact with salt ions during freezing. Our …

Improving The Long-Term Maintenance And Durability Of Pervious Concrete Pavements, Kate Elizabeth Christiansen

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Impervious concrete is constructed for most new infrastructure such as housing developments, commercial projects, and industrial facilities, which prevents stormwater runoff from infiltrating into groundwater storage. Pervious concrete is a sustainable, economical, and safe alternative to collect runoff and prevent the issues resulting from increased land development.

Although pervious concrete has the benefit of a large porous structure for water infiltration, this high porosity leads to issues with debris, sand, and other materials clogging the porous areas. Pervious concrete also has the challenge of non-standardized material preparation techniques, testing, and construction practices. As such, more research is needed to improve …

Filter Incidence Narrowband Infrared Spectrometer For Space-Based Methane Measurement And Plume Detection, Bruno Mattos

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Monitoring methane emissions from space is essential for reducing global warming. This dissertation introduces the Filter Incidence Narrowband Infrared Spectrometer (FINIS), a compact, lightweight instrument designed for nanosatellites to accurately measure methane emissions. FINIS uses two innovative imaging spectrometers to capture the Earth's reflected light, focusing on the strongest methane absorption feature at 1666 nm. By using tiled interference filters, each imager collects detailed spectral data, allowing precise methane detection. FINIS has been significantly improved from its prototype to its space-ready version, set to launch on the ACMES CubeSat in late 2025. The new design includes a binocular optical system …

Cislunar Optimal Robust Trajectory Design With Corrective Maneuvers, Scott J. Kelly

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

One common method for determining how to get from point A to point B is by finding the most fuel-efficient path. This is a common method for spacecraft trajectory designers also. Without any random or unexpected occurrences this path is called the deterministic optimal trajectory. Sometimes unexpected events happen that result in deviating from the most fuel-efficient path; while driving, you may encounter a detour. Naturally, we tend to return to the original fuel-efficient path and continue the journey. Similar deviations happen in space. The rocket delivering a spacecraft to orbit likely will not deliver exactly to the intended starting …

Quantifying Plot-Scale Evapotranspiration In Northeast Utah, W. Sheridan Stewart

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Evapotranspiration, the combined movement of water from the earth's surface and plants to the atmosphere, is a component of the energy balance of the land surface atmosphere continuum. Often, irrigation is used to replace water removed from the soil through evapotranspiration. Water management for irrigation is often done at the plot or field scale. Due to the smaller footprint size and the large upfront costs, evaluating evapotranspiration at such a small scale can be difficult to justify. The aim of the study was to quantify evapotranspiration at the plot scale. An energy balance model that evaluates energy from two sources, …

Dynamic Modeling Of A Nuclear Integrated Energy System With Thermal Energy Storage And Hydrogen Production, Seth J. Dana

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Historically, nuclear reactors have used water for cooling and moderating the nuclear reaction within the core. Advanced generation IV nuclear reactors currently under development are designed with different coolants which enable operation at higher temperatures. A higher operating temperature makes nuclear power suitable for co-located hydrogen production via high temperature electrolysis. Natrium, an advanced reactor design by TerraPower and GE Hitachi, combines a sodium fast reactor with molten salt thermal energy storage. The work presented in this thesis models and analyzes three Natrium systems which integrate hydrogen production with the Natrium nuclear power plant. The first two configurations focus on …

Trade-Offs In Lighting For Dic Strain Measurements In Vibration-Based Fatigue Testing, Jacob R. Rigby

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Vibration based fatigue testing offers a fast and efficient method for determining the breaking point of a material. This method often uses a device, called a strain gage, to measure the deformation of a test sample at a single spot on the test sample. However, these strain gages often break before testing is complete. To overcome this premature break, a laser vibrometer is often used to measure the amount of movement or the speed of the test sample throughout the vibration test. The deformation measured by the strain gage is compared against the amount of movement or velocity of the …

Assessment Of Future Streamflow In The Colorado River Basin With Some Implications For Water Management, Homa Salehabadi

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Long-range water supply planning in many river basins, such as the Colorado, requires assessing plausible future streamflow scenarios. Given nature's randomness and climate change, it is important to evaluate water resources system behavior under a wide range of plausible conditions. The research described in this dissertation examined various future streamflow scenarios in the Colorado River Basin to provide essential inputs needed for planning in the uncertain future. First, the research examined historical severe droughts in the basin and created three sets, or ensembles, of plausible future streamflow time series by resampling these past droughts. These ensembles are thus consistent with …

Analysis Of The Relationship Between Speed Consistency And Traffic Accident Probability (On The Mojokerto-Surabaya Toll Road), Riki Risfiandi, Martha Leni Siregar

Smart City

Vehicle speed consistency plays a crucial role in maintaining traffic safety, with speed limits set to reduce accident fatalities. While the direct impact of speed limits on vehicle speed is minimal, their implementation significantly influences driver behavior, with about 85% of drivers complying with speed limits. However, variables such as traffic volume, weather conditions, and travel urgency often cause drivers to be inconsistent in adhering to these limits, increasing accident risk. On the Mojokerto-Surabaya toll road, data from Traffic Corps and Jasa Marga recorded 193 accidents with 101 fatalities from 2018 to August 2023, mostly caused by driver behavior such …

Enhancing Fuel Injection System Reliability Through Weibull Family Functions Analysis, Ali Nouri Qarahasanlou, Abbas Barabadi, Meisam Saleki, Ali Rahimazar, Parisa Rezakhania, Masoume Gholamia

Journal of Sustainable Mining

The efficient operation of heavy machinery is crucial to the success of mining and civil construction operations. To guarantee this performance, equipment performance is assessed using the Reliability Index, which analyzes failures to study the ability of a system to carry out its intended functions under predetermined conditions. On the other hand, the failure rate and operational environmental condition (such as management decisions, maintenance performance, etc., that are defined as “risk factors”) over the life cycle of industrial systems pose a significant challenge to reliability analysis. This paper proposes an approach to address these challenges by extending Weibull family functions …

Hands-On For Whom?, Isabella Stuopis, Avneet Hira

Journal of Pre-College Engineering Education Research (J-PEER)

Hands-on technology-enhanced pedagogies have been hailed as a panacea for engaging K–12 students in engineering. We unpack how the entanglement of the sociopolitical with the educational, namely how factors pertaining to resources and individual characteristics, impact engagement with such pedagogies. In particular, we expand upon how school funding, teacher preparation and support, access to out-of- school resources, and family background impact the in-and out-of- school resources students have access to. Further, we explain how characteristics such as a sense of belonging, pedagogical approaches, and assumptions and gatekeeping by adults impact students’ ability to engage with hands-on engineering education. In doing …

A Survival Guide To The Aviation Flight Science Degree At Western Michigan University, Aidan Schmidt

Honors Theses

For my thesis project, I decided to write a paper about A Survival Guide to the Aviation Flight Science Degree at Western Michigan University. Given my four years of experience in this program, I have plenty of insights, recommendations, and do’s and don’ts regarding this degree for incoming freshman as well as current students in the program looking for advice. I decided to choose topics based on knowledge I wish I was provided before coming to Western for this program, as well as insight it would have nice to been provided during my tenure here.

I start off providing a …

Development Of An Efficient Multi-Objective Approach For Secure Live Virtual Machine Migration, Venkata Subramanian N

Theses and Dissertations

Cloud computing offers organizations flexibility and cost-efficiency through pay-asyou- go services, allowing them to scale resources according to their needs and reduce expenditures. Cloud as a Service (CaaS) offloads IT management complexities, while Cloud Data Center (CDC) provides infrastructure for on-demand, scalable, and flexible services over the Internet. Virtualization improves operational efficiency by providing simultaneous access to multiple virtual machines, while Live Virtual Machine Migration enhances agility, resilience, resource allocation, and fault tolerance.

However, achieving effective VMM requires forecasting cloud resource utilization, selecting the right target host, and ensuring security. Live VM migration is inevitable for optimizing CDC resource utilization. …

Chemical Recycling Of Bio-Based Polyurethane Foams: Evaluating Bio-Based Glycols In Comparison To Petroleum-Based Glycols, Anirudh Thorbole Mr.

Electronic Theses & Dissertations

The paradigm shift towards bio-based polyurethane foams (bio-PUF) has significantly increased post-consumer waste. To address this issue, this research represents a novel approach to enhance sustainable development in the recycling industry by replacing traditional petroleum-based glycols with sustainable bio-based alternatives. This study explores the glycolysis of bio-PUF using bio-based SG-522 glycol and polyethylene glycol (PEG) for comparison. The findings from this research as outlined, reveal no significant differences in depolymerization time between the two glycols, achieving proper depolymerization and high recovery yields of over 95% after solvent purification. Comprehensive FT-IR and NMR analyses confirmed the successful degradation of bio-PUF and …

Medical Imaging Dataset Management Leveraging Deep Learning Frameworks In Breast Cancer Screening, Inchan Hwang

Dissertations

In the domain of Computer-Aided Diagnosis (CADx) for breast cancer diagnosis through mammography, prevailing models have traditionally been trained and validated using old film-based mammography. However, contemporary U.S. hospital practices involve the utilization of Full Field Digital Mammography (FFDM), offering more detailed images captured at various angles than old film-scanned mammography. Despite this shift, the existing body of research predominantly focuses on old-film based datasets, the implications of FFDM for CADx systems have not been understood. This dissertation addresses the issues emerged from FFDM such as data augmentation between old film-based set and new FFDM whether they are more effective …

Randomly Generated Non-Negative Linear Programs, Jay Rosenberger

Industrial, Manufacturing, and Systems Engineering Datasets - Archive

This dataset include randomly generated non-negative linear programs that appears in several papers on Constraint Optimal Selection Techniques (COSTs) for Linear Programming.

Road To Sustainability: Developing A Sustainability Performance Measurement Framework For City Logistics From A Multi-Stakeholder Perspective, Xu Zhang

Doctoral

Sustainability assessment in city logistics has been a perpetual and salient agenda among city managers and logistics industry practitioners, especially in light of the promotion of the new Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS). Research studies to date have tried to assess city logistics operations’ sustainability performance and their impact, but most endeavours have ended in vain due to elusive sustainability goals, inconsistent indicator quality, ambiguous stakeholder responsibility, and poor data availability on city levels.

To address these challenges, this study is advocating for a collaborative sustainability reporting and assessment process among public and private …

Periodic Information Leakage Fault Detection On A Risc-V Microprocessor, Idris Somoye

Electrical and Computer Engineering ETDs

The execution behavior of a Microprocessor (μP) in the presence of a fault is difficult to predict because of the complex interactions across pipeline stages and between functional units within the architecture. Fault effects are known to not introduce any type of anomaly in the input-output behavior for 10s of thousands to millions of clock cycles. These characteristics increase the difficulty of evaluating μP architectures for resilience to information leakage events, i.e., scenarios where a fault causes sensitive data such as an encryption key to be inadvertently diverted to a primary output channel. This dissertation explores two promising strategies for …

Foreword From Editor - 15th Edition, Yandi Andri Yatmo

ASEAN Journal of Community Engagement

In this edition, AJCE thoroughly explores the topic of community engagement programs and their impact, as well as innovative and integrative approaches that highlight their potential to improve the community’s livelihood. This issue features four research articles with unique perspectives on community engagement, one review article that critically evaluates existing approaches, and three case-based articles that explore various concepts further and offer practical insights. The contributors to this edition cover diverse expertise in business and economy, humanity and social sciences, communication, design, and education, presenting a comprehensive range of perspectives on community engagement and its practical implementations.

Computational Cognitive Modeling Of Pilot Performance In Pre-Flight And Take-Off Procedures, Rongbing Xu, Shi Cao, Suzanne K. Kearns, Ewa Niechwiej-Szwedo, Elizabeth Irving

Journal of Aviation/Aerospace Education & Research

While the current practice of pilot training relies on flight instructors’ subjective assessment, computational cognitive modeling may be used to support future objective assessment and diagnosis of pilot performance. We built two models in a cognitive architecture to simulate pilot flight performance during pre-flight and take-off tasks. Modeling results were compared with human results collected from the same tasks using X-Plane 11 flight simulator. The models were able to capture human pilot performance and workload results from both tasks with good levels of fitness (percentage errors ranging from 0.8% to 13.2%). This work demonstrated the capability and advantage of this …

Machine Learning - Hail Awareness Spatial Analysis Toolkit (Hasat), Haoruo Fu, Joseph P. Hupy, Chien-Tsung Lu, Zhenglei Ji

Journal of Aviation/Aerospace Education & Research

The National Airspace System (NAS) is a sophisticated network of air traffic control, navigation, and communication systems that play a critical role in ensuring the safe and efficient flow of air traffic across the United States. However, the occurrence of severe weather conditions, particularly hailstorms, poses a significant threat to flight safety within the NAS. To mitigate the risks associated with hail, aviation organizations have implemented a range of safety measures. This study utilized Esri’s ArcGIS as a mapping software to conduct a geospatial analysis of the impact of severe weather, particularly hail, on the NAS. The Hail Awareness Spatial …

An Exploratory Single-Case Study Unveiling The Promise Of Artificial Intelligence In Aviation Education, Jorge L. D. Albelo, Stacey Mcintire

Journal of Aviation/Aerospace Education & Research

Higher education institutions continuously seek ways to improve teaching methods and enhance student learning experiences by leveraging emerging technologies in the classroom. One such technology is ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence (AI) application. The integration of this AI technology in aviation education has the potential to transform teaching and learning experiences. This study aims to investigate the acceptance and integration of ChatGPT in aviation education and understand the benefits and challenges associated with integrating such technology. The study employs a mixed methods approach, combining qualitative focus group discussions with aviation professors and a quantitative survey administered to students. The study included …