Engineering Commons^™

Selective Recovery Of Rare Earth Elements Using A Hydroxyapatite-Chitosan Composite, Zixuan Xie

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

Rare earth elements (REEs) have special properties that make them extremely important in modern clean energy technology. With rising global demand and increasing supply risks, sustainable use of rare earth resources is increasingly imperative. Coal fly ash is a promising source for recovering REEs, but the coexistence of large amounts of non-target elements requires recovery materials with a high preference for REEs. For this recovery study, we found that hydroxyapatite (HAP) that has high density of phosphate groups is efficient in selective REE recovery. The addition of chitosan (CS) as a binder increased the mechanical stability of composites and their …

A Modification To The Skiving Process For The Manufacture Of Offset Geometry Strip-Fin Heat Sinks, Daniel Luberda

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

High-powered electronics are extremely prevalent, and a vast majority of these devices use some form of heat sinks as either an active or passive cooling device. Although two-phase cooling technology has rapidly advanced to accommodate increasing heat loads on modern electronics, the added costs and complication inherent in two-phase cooling solutions makes effective air-cooled heat sinks potentially valuable.

A more effective heat sink can occupy a smaller footprint to dissipate the same heat flux, meaning material and packaging costs can be reduced. Aluminum heat sinks are produced through a variety of manufacturing processes, including machining, bonding, extrusion, casting, forging, 3D …

Student Training For Motor Performance Assessment In Industry, Jaime Ramos-Salas, Miguel Pineda

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

Energy used by electric motors in the USA According to the US Department of Energy [1], electric motors consume more than 50 percent of all electrical energy in the USA and more than 85 percent of industrial production electrical energy [2]. Furthermore, during the estimated life of an electric motor, approximately 20 years, its initial purchase price is less than 2 percent of the total cost of owning and operating it [3]. 2- The main objective of this work is to share our experience of training university students for performing electric motors energy assessments to local industries with a limited …

Arrayed Waveguide Lens For Beam Steering, Mostafa Honari-Latifpour, Ali Binaie, Mohammad Amin Eftekhar, Nicholas Madamopoulos, Mohammad-Ali Miri

Publications and Research

Integrated planar lenses are critical components for analog optical information processing that enable a wide range of applications including beam steering. Conventional planar lenses require gradient index control which makes their on-chip realization challenging. Here, we introduce a new approach for beam steering by designing an array of coupled waveguides with segmented tails that allow for simultaneously achieving planar lensing and off-chip radiation. The proposed arrayed waveguide lens is built on engineering the evanescent coupling between adjacent channels to realize a photonic lattice with an equi-distant ladder of propagation constants that emulates the continuous parabolic index profile. Through coupled-mode analysis …

Design Of A Hemi-Anechoic Chamber For Acoustic Testing Of Hearing Devices And Development Of Custom-Designed 3d Printed Pinnae For Accurate Representation Of The Anatomical Frequency Response, Hector Hugo Estrada Medinilla

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Sound localization is the capacity to identify the general location from which a sound is originating. The primary anatomical feature responsible for the ability to localize sound is the external portion of the ear, also known as the auricle or pinna. This faculty is significantly hindered when the ear is obstructed, as is the case with hearing protection devices (HPD), which act as a barrier between sound waves and the ear canal. In the case of electronic HPDs, certain frequencies are entirely filtered out by a digital sound processor (DSP) while the remaining frequencies are delivered directly into the ear …

Smart Manufacturing—Theories, Methods, And Applications, Zhuming Bi, Lida Xu, Puren Ouyang

Information Technology & Decision Sciences Faculty Publications

(First paragraph) Smart manufacturing (SM) distinguishes itself from other system paradigms by introducing ‘smartness’ as a measure to a manufacturing system; however, researchers in different domains have different expectations of system smartness from their own perspectives. In this Special Issue (SI), SM refers to a system paradigm where digital technologies are deployed to enhance system smartness by (1) empowering physical resources in production, (2) utilizing virtual and dynamic assets over the internet to expand system capabilities, (3) supporting data-driven decision making at all domains and levels of businesses, or (4) reconfiguring systems to adapt changes and uncertainties in dynamic environments. …

Snap : A Software-Defined & Named-Data Oriented Publish-Subscribe Framework For Emerging Wireless Application Systems, Manveen Kaur

All Dissertations

The evolution of Cyber-Physical Systems (CPSs) has given rise to an emergent class of CPSs defined by ad-hoc wireless connectivity, mobility, and resource constraints in computation, memory, communications, and battery power. These systems are expected to fulfill essential roles in critical infrastructure sectors. Vehicular Ad-Hoc Network (VANET) and a swarm of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV swarm) are examples of such systems. The significant utility of these systems, coupled with their economic viability, is a crucial indicator of their anticipated growth in the future. Typically, the tasks assigned to these systems have strict Quality-of-Service (QoS) requirements and require sensing, perception, and …

Quantifying The Workability Of Calcium Sulfoaluminate Cement Paste Using Time-Dependent Rheology, Sukanta K. Mondal, Adam Welz, Carrie Clinton, Kamal Khayat, Aditya Kumar, Monday Uchenna Okoronkwo

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Poor workability is a common feature of calcium sulfoaluminate (CSA) cement paste. Multiple chemical admixtures, such as set retarders and dispersants, are frequently employed to improve the workability and delay the setting of CSA cement paste. A quantitative assessment of the compatibility, efficiency, and the effects of the admixtures on cement paste workability is critical for the design of an appropriate paste formulation and admixture proportioning. Very limited studies are available on the quantitative rheology-based method for evaluating the workability of calcium sulfoaluminate cement pastes. This study presents a novel and robust time-dependent rheological method for quantifying the workability of …

Source Reconstruction Of Electronic Circuits In Shielding Enclosures Based On Numerical Green's Function And Application In Electromagnetic Interference Estimation, Zi An Wang, Zhi Fei Xiao, Jun Fa Mao, Li (Lijun) Jun Jiang, Hakan Bagci, Ping Li

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

In this work, to characterize the radiated emission from electronic circuits in shielding enclosure, an improved electric dipole-based source reconstruction method (SRM) is developed. Moreover, by resorting to this reconstructed equivalent source, the estimation of electromagnetic interference (EMI) between different circuit modules in the enclosure can be conveniently and accurately evaluated. Different from the free-space SRM, the equivalent dipoles of the proposed SRM are directly placed over the shielding box enclosed circuit board, and the numerical Green's function (NGF) is developed to bridge the connection between the equivalent dipoles and the planar scanned magnetic near-field. With the NGF strategy, the …

A Millimeter-Wave Frequency-Reconfigurable Fabry-Pérot Cavity Antenna, Min Li, Muhammad Yasir Jamal, Xiaoqiang Li, Kwan Lawrence Yeung, Lijun Jiang, Tatsuo Itoh, Ross Murch

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This letter introduces a method for implementing a frequency-reconfigurable Fabry-Pérot cavity (FPC) antenna utilizing polarization standing waves (PSWs). The PSW is supported by two metasurfaces (MSs) at cavity ends. The resonant condition allows the antenna to have frequency-reconfigurable characteristic by mechanically rotating the top MS around the center and relative to the bottom MS, without adjusting the physical dimension. The antenna is prototyped at 60 GHz for millimeter-wave applications. Simulated and measured results demonstrate that a tunable frequency range of 60.8-66.2 GHz with a maximum boresight gain of around 22.2 dBi can be attained, verifying the antenna concept.

Analytical Method For Joint Optimization Of Ffe And Dfe Equalizations For Multi-Level Signals, Nana Dikhaminjia, Mikheil Tsiklauri, Zurab Kiguradze, Jiayi He, Arun Chada, Bhyrav Mutnury, James L. Drewniak

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Channel equalization is the efficient method for recovering distorted signal and correspondingly reducing bit error rate (BER). Different type of equalizations, like feed forward equalization (FFE) and decision feedback equalization (DFE) are canceling channel effect and recovering channel response. Separate optimization of tap coefficients for FFE and DFE does not give optimal result. In this case FFE and DFE tap coefficients are found separately and they are not collaborating. Therefore, the final equalization result is not global optimal. In the present paper new analytical method for finding best tap coefficients for FFE and DFE joint equalization is introduced. The proposed …

A Spice-Compatible Model To Simulate Rfi-Induced Buzz Noise Problem In A Camera, Wei Zhang, Shengxuan Xia, Xin Fang, Xu Wang, Takashi Enomoto, Hideki Shumiya, Kenji Araki, Chulsoon Hwang

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This article proposed a SPICE-compatible model to fast simulate the buzz noise problem in a camera device. Based on the reciprocity theorem, the proposed SPICE-compatible model consists of cascaded scattering (S) parameters extracted from the field coupling. It can provide an accurate estimation of the buzz noise transfer function (TFtotal) between the radio-frequency antenna and the audio system within an average error of 1 dB. Besides, the proposed model allows for coupling decomposition by separating the audio system into different regions, fast buzz noise mitigation by adding filtering circuits, and fast antenna evaluation/selection by characterizing the TFtotal with different antenna …

Z-Source-Based High Step-Up Dc-Dc Converters For Photovoltaic Applications, Ramin Rahimi, Saeed Habibi, Mehdi Ferdowsi, Pourya Shamsi

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This article proposes three high step-up Z-source (ZS)-based dc-dc converters by integrating the conventional ZS network with switched-capacitor (SC) cells. The proposed converters offer a simple structure with a smooth input current, a high-voltage gain, and low voltage stress on the semiconductor devices. In addition, the proposed converters, unlike some existing ZS-based topologies in the literature, do not impose any limitation on the duty cycle of the power switch. These characteristics make the proposed converters excellent candidates to interface a low-voltage solar photovoltaic (PV) panel with a high-voltage dc bus in PV applications. Among the proposed three converters, the operating …

On The Sensitivity Of Microwave Fabry-Perot Interferometers For Displacement Detection, Chen Zhu, Rex E. Gerald, Jie Huang

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Microwave Interferometers Have Been Attractive Devices for High-Precision Measurements of Displacement-Related Physical Quantities in a Variety of Scientific and Engineering Applications. However, Due to the Long Operating Wavelength, the Displacement Measurement Resolution of Microwave Interferometers is Limited to the Micrometer Scale. in This Article, We Propose and Demonstrate a Novel Technology based on Microwave Interferometry for Displacement Measurements with Potential Picometer Resolution. an Open-Ended (OE) Transmission Line Resonator based on a Homemade Hollow Coaxial Cable is Explored in Proof-Of-Concept Numerical and Experimental Investigations. the Technique Involves Two Stages of Displacement Sensitivity Amplification: One is the Open End-Based Phase Sensitivity Amplification, …

Characterization Of Thermal Gelation Properties In Bioresorbable Thermally Activated Hydrogel Polymers For Hernia Surgery Applications, Alexander Mayfield

All Theses

Hydrogel adhesives are a new class of materials with excellent biocompatibility, which makes them very attractive for biomaterial applications. It has been previously shown that Tetronic T1107, a four-arm poly (propylene oxide)-poly (ethylene oxide) (PPO-PEO) block copolymer, is useful as a chemical crosslinking thermo-responsive hydrogel for bioadhesive applications. The end groups of this polymer are modified with acrylate and N-hydroxysuccinimide (NHS) functional groups. The acrylate end group gives the polymer cohesive properties with long-range chemical crosslinking using dithiothreitol (DTT), while the NHS end group gives the polymer adhesive properties through bonding with amines found in organic tissue. It was found …

Characterization Of Fatigue Strength Of Additively Manufactured Ti-6al-4v With Recoater Blade Interference Flaws And Residual Stresses Towards An Enhanced Fatigue Substantiation Methodology For Aerospace Structures Applications, Joshua Manyara Mochache

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Dissertations - Archive

This research characterized the fatigue strength of additively manufactured (AM) Ti-6Al-4V, through fatigue and static tests conducted using specimens with and without recoater blade interference flaws (RBIF), and thus further enhanced the fatigue substantiation methodology for AM parts by using combined fatigue strength knock-down-factors (KDF) developed from this study. Qualification and certification (Q&C) of metallic AM parts, through acceptable methods for fatigue and damage tolerance (F&DT) substantiation, is an area where significant gaps still exist. While progress has been made in design as well as materials and process standardization, Q&C of additively manufactured metallic structural parts, especially those in civil …

Development Of A Reverse Engineered, Parameterized, And Structurally Validated Computational Model To Identify Design Parameters That Influence American Football Faceguard Performance, William Ferriell

All Dissertations

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) continues to have the greatest incidence among athletes participating in American football. The headgear design research community has focused on developing accurate computational and experimental analysis techniques to better assess the ability of headgear technology to attenuate impacts and protect athletes from TBI. Despite efforts to innovate the headgear system, minimal progress has been made to innovate the faceguard. Although the faceguard is not the primary component of the headgear system that contributes to impact attenuation, faceguard performance metrics, such as weight, structural stiffness, and visual field occlusions, have been linked to athlete safety. To improve …

The Development And Analysis Of Methods Used To Evaluate American Football Facemasks, Alexander Bina

All Dissertations

The motivation for this Ph.D. dissertation is to provide football equipment managers, coaches, parents, athletes, and relevant industry personnel with an understanding of the implication a chosen football facemask design will have on the safety of the athlete. As athletes have increased their capacity for speed, size, and strength, so too has the head injury risk increased in American football. To align with the increase in head impact injury in American football, the protective head impact community must expand its capacity to evaluate protective equipment systems. This dissertation focuses specifically on one helmet system component: the football facemask. This dissertation …

3d Printed Multicomponent Polymer Based Materials Via Hybrid Filaments: Fabrication And Characterization, Erik Antonio

All Dissertations

Additive manufacturing, also known as 3D printing, promises a manufacturing revolution for both industry and academic circles. One of the most widely used method of 3D printing is Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) or Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF), which requires a thermoplastic filament to be directed towards a heating block and then deposited via extrusion layer by layer to produce a finished part. However, there are significant issues with this technology, mainly a limitation on the materials available for use and mechanical property deficiencies when compared to traditional manufacturing. These issues are brought about by the temperature limited nature of the …

Feasibility Of Using Ultra-High-Performance Concrete (Uhpc) As A Repair Material Durability Performance, Rebar Coating, And Bond Characterization, Haitham Hussein

All Dissertations

Ultra-High Performance Concrete can be a very good material for use in repair works. The ability of chloride ions to pass through repaired concrete layers is suppressed if an impermeable concrete like UHPC is used. However, thickness of the UHPC layer and the orientation of the repair layer relative to the direction of chloride ingress may influence its effectiveness. This study is an attempt to evaluate the effect of varying thicknesses and cross sections areas of UHPC over a precast concrete and the direction of the UHPC layers relative to the direction of chloride ion movement on the resistance offered …

Computational Methods, Investigations, And Codes To Support Corrosion Experiments In Molten Lead And Transfer To Reactor Conditions, Khaled A. Talaat

Nuclear Engineering ETDs

Lead cooled fast reactors have many potential economic advantages over other Generation IV reactor designs due to the high boiling point of lead (~1750 °C) at atmospheric pressure and excellent neutronic properties which have made them attractive to the commercial energy sector in the recent years. They, however, remain hampered by challenges in cladding material compatibility with the heavy liquid metal coolant. A forced circulation loop was established at the University of New Mexico (“Lobo Lead Loop”) to prequalify materials for Versatile Test Reactor (VTR) testing and to improve the understanding of flow accelerated corrosion in molten lead environment. Corrosion …

Automatically Generating Scenarios From A Text Corpus: A Case Study On Electric Vehicles, Christopher W.H. Davis, Antoine J. Jetter, Philippe J. Giabbanelli

Engineering and Technology Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

Creating ‘what-if’ scenarios to estimate possible futures is a key component of decision-making processes. However, this activity is labor intensive as it is primarily done manually by subject-matter experts who start by identifying relevant themes and their interconnections to build models, and then craft diverse and meaningful stories as scenarios to run on these models. Previous works have shown that text mining could automate the model-building aspect, for example, by using topic modeling to extract themes from a large corpus and employing variations of association rule mining to connect them in quantitative ways. In this paper, we propose to further …

Microbiological, Environmental, And Compositional Factors In Efficacy Of Micp Treatment In Clayey Soils, Somaye Asghari

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Expansive clayey soils can cause billions of dollars of damage to infrastructure such as roads and foundations annually. Researchers propose many techniques (e.g., pre-wetting, soil replacement, and chemical stabilization) to improve the mechanical properties of these soils; however, some of these methods are impractical in certain situations, and are unsustainable in others due to the economic and environmental impacts. One possible method for enhancing soil’s mechanical properties is Microbial Induced Calcium Carbonate Precipitation (MICP). This environmentally friendly technique is a biological process where microbes play a key role in precipitating calcium carbonate. This precipitating calcium carbonate can coat soil particles …

Ensemble Tree-Based Machine Learning For Imaging Data, Reza Iranzad

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In particular medical imaging data, such as positron emission tomography (PET), computed tomography (CT), and fluorescence intravital microscopy (IVM), have become prevalent for use in a wide variety of applications, from diagnostic purposes, tracking diseases' progress, and monitoring the effectiveness of treatments to decision-making processes. The detailed information generated by medical imaging has enabled physicians to provide more comprehensive care. Although numerous machine learning algorithms, especially those used for imaging data, have been developed, dealing with unique structures in imaging data remained a big challenge. In this dissertation, we are proposing novel statistical tree-based methods with more efficient and more …

Parallel Algorithms For Scalable Graph Mining: Applications On Big Data And Machine Learning, Naw Safrin Sattar

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Parallel computing plays a crucial role in processing large-scale graph data. Complex network analysis is an exciting area of research for many applications in different scientific domains e.g., sociology, biology, online media, recommendation systems and many more. Graph mining is an area of interest with diverse problems from different domains of our daily life. Due to the advancement of data and computing technologies, graph data is growing at an enormous rate, for example, the number of links in social networks is growing every millisecond. Machine/Deep learning plays a significant role for technological accomplishments to work with big data in modern …

Aerodynamics And Vibrations Of A Helicopter Rotor Blade, Mohammad Khairul Habib Pulok

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

The nature of the aerodynamic environment surrounding a helicopter causes a significant amount of vibration to its whole body. Among different sources of vibrations, the aerodynamic loading on the main rotor blade is the major contributor. Therefore, analyzing a rotor blade's vibration characteristics and aerodynamic behavior becomes essential. The vortex characteristics and the wake surrounding a helicopter rotor blade play an important role because they affect the aerodynamic behavior of the rotor blade. An advanced mathematical and computational model of rotor wake and blade vortex gives a better understanding of the helicopter rotor dynamics. This study develops computational models of …

Ocean Wave Prediction And Characterization For Intelligent Maritime Transportation, Pujan Pokhrel

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

The national Earth System Prediction (ESPC) initiative aims to develop the predictions
for the next generation predictions of atmosphere, ocean, and sea-ice interactions in the scale of days to decades. This dissertation seeks to demonstrate the methods we can use to improve the ESPC models, especially the ocean prediction model. In the application side of the weather forecasts, this dissertation explores imitation learning with constraints to solve combinatorial optimization problems, focusing on the weather routing of surface vessels. Prediction of ocean waves is essential for various purposes, including vessel routing, ocean energy harvesting, agriculture, etc. Since the machine learning approaches …

Inspection Of Flexible Fillers In Post-Tensioned Bridges, Carley Gonzalez

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

The Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) is currently pushing toward the use of flexible fillers (FF) in new post-tensioned (PT) bridges. Flexible fillers have several advantages compared to the currently used cementitious grouts (CG) and can offer longer-lasting structures by providing better corrosion protection and allowing for replaceable tendons, which reduces the overall maintenance costs over the structure’s lifespan. Due to these fillers being used in new bridges, FDOT needs effective nondestructive evaluation (NDE) methods to employ in their biennial inspections. There are currently numerous NDE methods available to inspectors that have been used to identify defects in PT bridges …

Evaluation Of Decision-Making Prediction Models For Sewer Pipes Asset Management, Salar Shirkhanloo

Civil Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Wastewater collection systems deteriorate over time, requiring continuous adjustments and the development of asset management frameworks on the part of utility owners to maintain the performance of their assets. Any asset management framework should emphasize the importance of asset inspection and condition evaluation for efficient system operation and maintenance. Closed-circuit television (CCTV) is the most widely used tool in the United States for inspecting the interior of sewer pipes, which is a somewhat expensive and time-consuming process given the extensive inventory of pipes in a city. Due to their vast inventory of these pipes, no municipality can inspect every individual …

Hybrid Smart Transformer For Enhanced Power System Protection Against Dc With Advanced Grid Support, Moazzam Nazir

All Dissertations

The traditional grid is rapidly transforming into smart substations and grid assets incorporating advanced control equipment with enhanced functionalities and rapid self-healing features. The most important and strategic equipment in the substation is the transformer and is expected to perform a variety of functions beyond mere voltage conversion and isolation. While the concept of smart solid-state transformers (SSTs) is being widely recognized, their respective lifetime and reliability raise concerns, thus hampering the complete replacement of traditional transformers with SSTs. Under this scenario, introducing smart features in conventional transformers utilizing simple, cost-effective, and easy to install modules is a highly desired …