Engineering Commons^™

Solvent Recovery For An Extraction Process, Denise C. Ratcliff

Opportunities for Undergraduate Research Experience Program (OURE)

The solvent recovery project involves the recovery of a valuable solute, acetic acid, from a spend solvent stream generated in a laboratory extraction experiment. The majority of this project’s efforts center on the simulation of a ten-stage distillation column that will recover the acid. These simulation results will then be used to specify the ancillary process equipment needed for this distillation process.

Evaluation Of The Edge Strength Of Architectural Glass, Kevin L. Alexander

Opportunities for Undergraduate Research Experience Program (OURE)

A mechanical device to test the edge strength of glass was developed in a previous study and was to be modified for more accurate results in this study. The mechanical apparatus allows for a load to be applied and directed along one diagonal of a glass beam making the other diagonal the neutral axis. This allows only one edge to be in tension where the failure is desired.

This study evaluated the scored edge lines and the other edge lines of annealed glass which was cut by an experienced glass cutter with a steel scoring wheel, and a carbide scoring …

Automation Of Process Data Management, Stephen C. Chadwick

Opportunities for Undergraduate Research Experience Program (OURE)

The project goal is to create an automated system for managing data that describes a chemical process. The data is both graphical, such as piping and instrumentation diagrams, and numerical, such as pipe schedule and diameter. AutoLisp and C++ programs were developed and tested to simplify the creation of the automated system.

The Affects Of Butyl Acetate And Acetone On Plexiglass, Tracy E. Downs

Opportunities for Undergraduate Research Experience Program (OURE)

The actions that solvents take on polymers was the focus of the summer 1993 research. There were two goals: one was to measure the distances between the cracks that formed in the plexiglass and two was to determine the time of arrival of the cracks. Two solvents, butyl acetate and acetone were used to generate data on polymethyl methacrylate (PMNA/Plexiglass).

The measurement of the time of arrival of a crack was another goal. This quantity is related to the growth of the fractures. This was difficult since only a localized portion of the plexiglass sample could be viewed.

Automation Of The Electrostatic Aerosol Classifier And The Continuous Flow Cloud Diffusion Chamber, Daron W. Dryer

Opportunities for Undergraduate Research Experience Program (OURE)

Analyzing cloud condensation nuclei through the use of a Continuous Flow Thermal Diffusion Cloud Chamber (CFD) and an Electrostatic Aerosol Classifier (EAC) can be very time consuming. An alternative to manually monitoring these devices is to automate the equipment, thus freeing personnel for other research as well increasing CCN data collection.

Automation of the EAC will be carried out by digital command through the use of a Quick Basic program. This program will be run from an IBM personal computer outfitted with a digital input/output board.

RS-485 Standard will also be incorporated into the Quick Basic program in order to …

Improved Techniques For Manufacturing Layered Laminate Composite Materials, Michael D. Grabber

Opportunities for Undergraduate Research Experience Program (OURE)

An increasingly important class of engineering materials are known as fiber reinforced composite materials. They offer outstanding mechanical properties, unique flexibility in design, and ease of fabrication. Because of this, fiber reinforced composites are being found more and more in such diverse applications as aircraft, space vehicles, automobiles, sporting goods, and appliances.

The main objective of this research project was to develop a procedure for which high quality composite plates could be manufactured. The procedure needed to be able to accommodate materials of various thicknesses as well as various sizes. We also wanted the procedure to be versatile enough to …

An Extension Of Pdxi Data Models To Include Process Control Data, Joseph D. Graber

Opportunities for Undergraduate Research Experience Program (OURE)

The results described herein have culminated into the creation of an object model which extends an existing engineering data model to include process control data. The existing data model is described in Volume I of the deliverables for the Process Data Exchange Institute (PDXI) Data File Interchange Format Project. This object model was created using the OMTooP software package on Sun Stations in the Intelligent Systems Center(ISC) of the University of Missouri--Rolla (UMR). It expands on the classes of signal port, control element, and control system.

Forced Convective Diffusion And Interphase Heat And Mass Transfer: Computations Of Radial Functions, Temperature And Concentration Fields, And Presentation Of Local And Average Nusselt And Sherwood Numbers, Stephen Myers, X B. Reed Jr., N. Y. Shah, A. E. Penn

Opportunities for Undergraduate Research Experience Program (OURE)

Theoretical calculations have been carried out for forced convective transport for uniform streaming and uniaxial and biaxial extensional axisymmetric flows past single spheres. Homogeneous and heterogeneous chemical reactions, both of first and of second order have also been or are presently being treated. Orthogonality and other properties of Legendre functions have been used, together with introduction of an eigenfunction expansion, to reduce the mathematical description from a partial differential equation with variable coefficients, which is nonlinear for homogeneous second order chemical reactions, to a system of coupled ordinary differential equations for the radial modes. The numerical solutions of the latter …

A Computer Graphic Teaching Aid For The Synthesis Of Four-Bar Linkages, Sew K. Woon

Opportunities for Undergraduate Research Experience Program (OURE)

This project involves developing software for the use as a teaching tool in the classroom. The "four-bar linkage mechanism", often used in kinematic movement, is the main subject

The software provides a working environment to perform a graphical synthesis of a four- bar linkage to move one of the links through three specified positions in the plane. The construction process is facilitated by the built in kinematic intelligence so that the student can quickly and easily visualize the process. The construction lines are dynamically updated as the free parameters in the design are modified. This is particularly beneficial because it …

Institutional Issues Related To The Application Of Intelligent Vehicle Highway Systems Technologies To Commercial Vehicle Operations In Indiana, James G. Kavalaris, Kumares C. Sinha

JTRP Technical Reports

The study focused on potential barriers and opportunities to implementing Intelligent Vehicle-Highway System (IVHS) technologies to Commercial Vehicle Operations (CVO) in Indiana. Specific concepts included: (1) Automatic payment of tolls while driving at mainline speeds; (2) Pre-Clearance of vehicles and drivers past weigh stations; (3) "One-Stop-Shopping" for licenses, registrations, and permits; and (4) Transparent state borders. The study reviewed existing laws and policies applying to commercial vehicles operating in Indiana; prepared an inventory of the agencies responsible, their existing procedures, their physical facilities, and their human resources used to implement these regulations; itemized present impediments preventing the implementation of IVHS-CVO …

Modeling Of Natural Settling In A Trapezoidal Sedimentation Basin, Kent S. Wilkerson

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The objectives of this thesis are to 1) review current theory relative to numerically modeling a trapezoidal settling basin, 2) develop a more appropriate model to better predict settling and deposition within a basin, and 3) confirm the accuracy of the model. The TSB (Trapezoidal Settling Basin) model was developed as part of this thesis. The Bureau of Reclamation's SETSIZE model performs similar analysis, but the TSB model makes significant improvements. The TSB model improves numerical modeling of a trapezoidal basin by allowing both sediment and sieve particle data, complex basin geometries with a multidimensional sediment deposition, and improved hydrograph …

Non‐Rayleigh Statistics Of Ultrasonic Backscattered Echo From Tissues, V. Manjo Narayanan, Robert C. Molthen, P. M. Shankar, J. M. Reid

Biomedical Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

The envelope of the backscattered signal from tissues can exhibit non‐Rayleigh statistics if the number density of scatterers is small or if the variations in the scattering cross sections are random. The K distribution which has been used extensively in radar, is introduced to model this non‐Rayleigh behavior. The generalized K distribution is extremely useful since it encompasses a wide range of distributions such as Rayleigh, Lognormal, and Rician. Computer simulations were conducted using a simple one‐dimensional discrete scatteringmodel to investigate the properties of the echo envelope. In addition to cases of low number densities, significant departures from Rayleigh statistics …

Behavior Of Web Elements With Openings Subjected To Bending, Shear And The Combination Of Bending And Shear, Ming-Yang Shan, Roger A. Laboube, Wei-Wen Yu

CCFSS Library (1939 - present)

PREFACE The current design criteria for cold-formed steel members published by the American Iron and Steel Institute (1986,1991) do not provide sufficient information for the design of web elements with openings. The primary objective of this investigation was to study the structural behavior of cold-formed steel C-sections with web openings. This study deals with the structural behavior of beam webs subjected to bending moment, shear force and combined bending moment and shear force. This report presents a summary of experimental study and findings of analytical results. The test results indicate that the current AISI Specification does not account for the …

Constraint Objects, Divesh Srivastava, Raghu Ramakrishnan, Peter Revesz

School of Computing: Conference and Workshop Papers

We describe the Constraint Object Data Model (CODM), which enhances an object-based data model with existential constraints to naturally represent partially specified information. We present the Constraint Object Query Language (COQL), a declarative, rule-based query language that can be used to infer relationships about and monotonically refine information represented in the CODM. COQL has a model-theoretic and an equivalent fixed-point semantics, based on the notions of constraint entailment and "proofs in all possible worlds." We also provide a novel polynomial-time algorithm for quantifier elimination for set-order constraints, a restricted class of set constraints that uses membership of subset-equal.

Evaluation Of Kentucky’S Policy On Tourist Information Signs, Jerry G. Pigman

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

As a result of recommendations made by the Governor's Task Force on Signage and Tourism, the Transportation Cabinet requested that an evaluation be made of Kentucky's policy on tourist information signs. Among the tasks undertaken were a review of the formula tor Parks, Historic, and Recreation Area signs, a survey of interstates and parkways to determine the extent of the constraints imposed by the limitation of one supplemental sign tor each interchange approach, and an investigation of the potential for application of Tourist Oriented Directional signs (TODS).

The opportunity tor increased tourism through improvements in signing and accessibility was evaluated. …

Summary Of Stress Evaluations Of Welded Steel Bridges On Coal-Haul Routes, Theodore Hopwood Ii, Keith J. Hogan, Christopher M. Oberst

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

Stress analyses were performed on continuous girder welded steel bridges on extended weights coal-haul routes. The tests were intended to determine whether extended weight coal trucks pose fatigue problems to those bridges. Measurements were performed by strain gaging selected bridges subject to high coal transport tonnages. Stress measurements were conducted on fatigue-prone weld details or test sites where high tensile stresses were anticipated. Test sites on the bridges were instrumented with strain gages. Strains induced by routine traffic including coal trucks were monitored for periods of one to two weeks. Unattended monitoring of the variable amplitude strain data was performed …

Bs News

Building Services Engineering

No abstract provided.

Tensile And Bearing Capacities Of Bolted Connections, Jeffrey L. Carril, Roger A. Laboube, Wei-Wen Yu

CCFSS Library (1939 - present)

PREFACE Experimental studies were preformed to investigate the tensile capacity, bearing capacity and the interaction of tension and bearing capacities of flat sheet cold-formed steel bolted connections. The effect of bolt hole deformation on the bearing capacity of bolted connections, was also investigated. In the experimental investigation, single shear flat sheet connections were investigated for single bolt and multiple bolt configurations. The intent of this investigation was to compare the current AISI and AISC Specifications for the nominal bearing and tensile capacities and to develop appropriate serviceability design criteria. A review and evaluation of past research on the tensile and …

Structural Behavior Of Perforated Web Elements Of Cold-Formed Steel Flexural Members Subjected To Web Crippling And A Combination Of Web Crippling And Bending, James E. Langan, Roger A. Laboube, Wei-Wen Yu

CCFSS Library (1939 - present)

PREFACE A study of structural behavior was conducted and design equations were developed that account for the degradation in web crippling capacity caused by web openings for single web cold-formed steel flexural members. The sections were subjected to a concentrated load applied to one flange. The load application satisfied the AISI definition for either End-One-Flange or Interior-One-Flange loading. The research findings enable the current design provisions for sections without web openings to be modified by a reduction factor equation to obtain the web crippling capacity for sections with web openings. The modified capacity is considered for the web crippling capacity …

Load Transfer Mechanisms For Piles In Soft Soils, Andrew L. Palmer

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of this thesis is to interpret pile load test data for several instrumented piles to determine the load transfer characteristics of driven piles in soft soils. Piles develop resistance to axial loads through two different mechanisms, side friction and end bearing. The rate that resistance develops is dependent upon soil type, pile type, and movement of the pile with respect to the soil. This thesis addresses load transfer for driven pipe piles in deep lacustrine deposits along the Wasatch Front area of Utah. The piles used in this study were installed for the support of highway structures in …

Multirate Time-Frequency Distributions, John R. O'Hair

Theses and Dissertations

Multirate systems, which find application in the design and analysis of filter banks, are demonstrated to also be useful as a computational paradigm. It is shown that any problem which can be expressed a set of vector-vector, matrix-vector or matrix-matrix operations can be recast using multirate. This means all of numerical linear algebra can be recast using multirate as the underlying computational paradigm. As a non-trivial example, the multirate computational paradigm is applied to the problem of Generalized Discrete Time- Frequency Distributions GDTFD to create a new family of fast algorithms. The first of this new class of distributions is …

Evaluation Of Flood Routing Techniques For Incremental Damage Assessment, Enan Fakhri Jayyousi

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Incremental damage assessment is a tool used to assess the justification for expensive modifications of inadequate dams. The input data to incremental damage assessment are the output from the breach analysis and flood routing. For this reason, flood routing should be conducted carefully. Distorted results from the flood routing technique or unstable modeling of the problem will distort the results of an incremental damage assessment, because an error in the estimated incremental stage will cause a certain error in the estimated incremental damages.

The objectives of this study were (1) to perform a comprehensive survey of the available dam break …

Design And Evaluation Of Stepped Spillways For High Dams, Jeffrey Scott Rau

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of this research was to investigate the hydraulic performance of stepped spillways. A thorough investigation was made of all printed material on stepped spillways, and a summary of this material is presented in the text. Data from experiments in the laboratory were used to develop a design procedure for stepped spillways and hydraulic jump stilling basins. The experimental study was conducted at Utah State University - Utah Water Research Laboratory in Logan, Utah. Four models were built and tested in the laboratory under various flowrates.

The crest of the model spillway was constructed in the shape of a …

Plains Electric Members Service Area_04-29-1994, University Of New Mexico Bureau Of Business And Economic Research

BBER Publications

This report presents historical and projected socioeconomic data for 19 New Mexico and two Arizona counties which comprise the service areas of the distribution cooperatives in the Plains Electric Generation and Transmission Cooperative, Inc., system.

Logic Synthesis With High Testability For Cellular Arrays, Andisheh Sarabi

Dissertations and Theses

The new Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) technologies and their structures have opened up new approaches to logic design and synthesis. The main feature of an FPGA is an array of logic blocks surrounded by a programmable interconnection structure. Cellular FPGAs are a special class of FPGAs which are distinguished by their fine granularity and their emphasis on local cell interconnects. While these characteristics call for specialized synthesis tools, the availability of logic gates other than Boolean AND, OR and NOT in these architectures opens up new possibilities for synthesis. Among the possible realizations of Boolean functions, XOR logic is …

Patient Flow Through A Hospital Emergency Department, Mark Czuk

Honors Theses

Bronson Methodist Hospital, located in Kalamazoo, Michigan, is committed to the goal of providing comprehensive health care to the people of Southwestern Michigan. Bronson is actively involved in continually improving their services in order to better serve the community. This process of continuous improvement covers all hospital operations including the Emergency Department. Through studying the Emergency Department process, and how the department interacts with other departments in the hospital, improvements can be made which can lead to a better service provided to the community.

An Analysis Of The Linked-Pulse In Steady-State Free Precession In Mri, Fang Li

Dissertations and Theses

The steady-state free precession (SSFP) is one type of the fast scanning technique in MRI. So far most of its analysis are concentrated on the gradient echo SSFP (GR SSFP), very few paper discuss the spin echo SSFP (SE SSFP), and they are usually based on the simplified the hard pulse assumption. The advantage of the SE SSFP is that it can refocus the dephasing caused by the magnetic field inhomogeneity, which is the disadvantage of the GR SSFP. Also the hard pulse model can provide very limited information.

The purpose of this paper is to establish the soft pulse …

Developing A Benchmark For Evaluating The Performance Of Parallel Computers, D. Ladd Williamson

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

This paper discusses the development of a portable suite of benchmarking programs for parallel computers. Comparative measurement of the performance of parallel computing systems has been limited because of the great diversity of architectures and of processor interconnection schemes. One solution is to translate benchmark codes into a consistent and portable parallel language. This paper reports on progress in developing such a portable suite of benchmarks. An extensive introduction to parallel computing is included as an appendix, to provide a thorough understanding of the factors complicating development of the performance suite. Key to the development was the use of p4, …

Minutes Ag Tractor Test And Power Committee April 28th, 1994, Tractor Museum

Lester F. Larsen Tractor Museum: Planning and Development Documents

Discussion and revision of Articles of Incorporation and Bylaws. Report of museum accession, inventory and steps to take

Donor Complex Formation Due To A High-Dose Ge Implant Into Si, Ashawant Gupta, M. Mahmudur Rahman, Jianmin Qiao, Cary Y. Yang

Electrical and Computer Engineering

To investigate boron deactivation and/or donor complex formation due to a high‐dose Ge and C implantation and the subsequent solid phase epitaxy, SiGe and SiGeC layers were fabricated and characterized. Cross‐sectional transmission electron microscopy indicated that the SiGe layer with a peak Ge concentration of 5 at. % was strained; whereas, for higher concentrations, stacking faults were observed from the surface to the projected range of the Ge as a result of strain relaxation. Photoluminescence (PL) results were found to be consistent with dopant deactivation due to Ge implantation and the subsequent solid phase epitaxial growth of the amorphous layer. …