Engineering Commons^™

Investigation Of Geomechanical Behavior Of Laminated Rock Mass Through Experimental And Numerical Approach, Qingwen Shi

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Roof failure in the Appalachian underground coal fields occurs often in laminated shale. Laminated shale roof in coal mines fails in unique ways, such as cutter failure or delamination failure. Extensive studies have investigated the influential factors that cause laminated roof failure, which include in-situ stress, entry layout, roof span, and roof support. However, cutter failure continues to occur frequently and erratically. This is due to the lack of in-depth understanding of the inherent properties of the laminations, such as bedding plane strength, matrix strength, and bedding plane spacing, which in turn influence the geomechanical behavior of the laminated rock. …

Development Of Machine Learning Algorithm To Identify High-Emitters From On-Road Data For Heavy-Duty (Hd) Vehicles, Filiz Kazan

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The process of on-road, heavy-duty engine family certification is regulated by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA). Currently, the US EPA 2010 emissions standards require the threshold from the Federal Testing Procedure (FTP) engine dynamometer cycle to be at or below a brake-specific NO_x (bs-NO_x) value of 0.20 g/bhp-hr for heavy-duty (HD) engines. The engine manufacturers are also required to conduct in-use portable emission measurement system (PEMS) testing to prove their products' compliance. The selected vehicles are required to satisfy not-to-exceed (NTE) analysis under normal driving conditions in the heavy-duty in-use testing (HDIUT) program. California …

Computational Analysis Of The Stability Limits Of Premixed Methane-Air Combustion In Micro-Channels, Almoutazbellah Adnan Kutkut

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Technological progress in the last decades facilitated the development of integrated microsystem devices, including electrical and mechanical components for micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS). Such systems necessitate an external power supply, but typical batteries yet have some unavoidable limitations. To address this problem, numerous studies have been conducted to develop alternatives powered by micro combustion – in order to effectively utilize the high-density energy of hydrocarbon fuels. Such a global need has resulted in much more attention devoted to the combustion-based micro-power generation systems. However, to better understand the typical combustion characteristics in such microscale systems, design and performance restrictions need to …

Direct Ink Writing Printability – Ashby-Like Plots For Guided Design, Domenic Cipollone

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Direct Ink Writing (DIW), an extrusion-based 3D printing technique, offers a broad application space. As such, the technique continues to find use in biomedical, flexible electronic, ceramic, and energy device applications, among others. With this broad application space comes an expanding material library of inks with diverse rheological and microstructural properties. This begs the question: what constitutes a printable ink? How does one define printability? And how does one design for printability?

Researchers currently have a broad understanding of what constitutes a printable ink. However, time and time again, inks with unique rheological properties and formulations are printed. Currently, ink …

Development Of A Thermal Desalination System Using Low Quality Thermal Energy, Takudzwa C. Chipunza

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Abstract

Development of a Thermal Desalination System Using Low Quality Thermal Energy

Takudzwa Chipunza

The blowdown water from the cooling tower of the power plant and the produced water from shale gas industry cannot be disposed directly to the environment as they may contain dissolved solids that are harmful to the environment. A detailed physical and chemical process to remove the mineral and organic solids has been developed in West Virginia University. Such a process includes running the blowdown and produced water through a softening tank, activated carbon tank, and a reverse osmosis (RO) system. The RO reject contains a …

Mechanical Response Of Vartm Infused Frp Composites, Andrew Kenney

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Mechanical Response of VARTM based FRP composites

Andrew Kenney

The United States Department of Transportation (USDOT) recently created two new design specification for rail tank cars. These new types of classification, DOT-117 and DOT-117R, are designed with additional safety precautions to prevent hazardous chemicals from leaking out in case of a derailment. Features such as a thicker outer steel wall, head shield, and top and bottom valve protections provide additional protection compared to the current DOT-113 tank cars at the cost of additional weight. The WVU-CFC proposes a multifunctional, composite jacket that could be used in place of current tank …

Calcite Depression In Bastnaesite-Calcite Flotation System Using Organic Acids, Emmy Muhoza

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Bastnaesite is the primary source of light REEs, namely cerium (Ce), lanthanum (La), praseodymium (Pr), neodymium (Nd), to name a few. Bastnaesite is typically concentrated using the froth flotation beneficiation method. Flotation of bastnaesite suffers from high reagent consumption due to the similar surface characteristics of bastnaesite and associated gangue minerals, including calcite. Additionally, complex stages of high-temperature conditioning are often required to suppress the detrimental impact of dissolved calcium ions on the flotation of bastnaesite. This research seeks to investigate the capabilities of organic acids in the bastnaesite-calcite flotation systems to selectively depress calcite minerals and effectively chelate calcium …

Improving Robotic Decision-Making In Unmodeled Situations, Nicholas Scott Ohi

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Existing methods of autonomous robotic decision-making are often fragile when faced with inaccurate or incompletely modeled distributions of uncertainty, also known as ambiguity. While decision-making under ambiguity is a field of study that has been gaining interest, many existing methods tend to be computationally challenging, require many assumptions about the nature of the problem, and often require much prior knowledge. Therefore, they do not scale well to complex real-world problems where fulfilling all of these requirements is often impractical if not impossible. The research described in this dissertation investigates novel approaches to robotic decision-making strategies which are resilient to …

A Novel Computational Network Methodology For Discovery Of Biomarkers And Therapeutic Targets, Qing Ye

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Lung cancer has the second highest cancer incidence rate and the top cancer-related mortality worldwide. An estimate from the American Cancer Society shows that, in 2022, there will be about 236,740 lung cancer cases (117,910 men and 118,830 women) in the US. To date, there are no prognostic/predictive biomarkers to select chemotherapy, immunotherapy, and radiotherapy in individual non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients. There is an unmet clinical need to identify patients with early-stage NSCLC who are likely to develop recurrence and to predict their therapeutic responses. This dissertation developed a novel computational methodology for modeling molecular gene association networks …

Ear Biometrics: A Comprehensive Study Of Taxonomy, Detection, And Recognition Methods, Susan Awm El-Naggar

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Due to the recent challenges in access control, surveillance and security, there is an increased need for efficient human authentication solutions. Ear recognition is an appealing choice to identify individuals in controlled or challenging environments. The outer part of the ear demonstrates high discriminative information across individuals and has shown to be robust for recognition. In addition, the data acquisition procedure is contactless, non-intrusive, and covert. This work focuses on using ear images for human authentication in visible and thermal spectrums. We perform a systematic study of the ear features and propose a taxonomy for them. Also, we investigate the …

Tumor-Targeted Ph-Sensitive Manganese Oxide Nanoparticle For Enhanced Detection Of Breast Cancer Using Mri, Celia Martinez De La Torre

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

In the United States, approximately 287,850 new cases of invasive breast cancer will be diagnosed, and over 43,000 women will die because of it in 2022. Currently, mammography is the gold standard for breast cancer surveillance. Although this detection technique is relatively cheap and fast, it misses about 1 in 5 breast cancers in younger women with dense breast tissue, causing a delay in treatment. Compared to mammography, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has superior soft-tissue contrast that elucidates structural differences within soft tissue to detect more breast cancers. However, MRI still misses

NEMO particles were produced by synthesizing manganese oxide …

Development Of A Machine Learning Model To Characterize The Performance Of A Selective Catalytic Reduction On Filter After-Treatment System For A Heavy-Duty Diesel Engine, Samuel A. Okeleye

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Particulate matter (PM) and Oxides of Nitrogen (NOx) are the major pollutants in diesel engines, an attempt to control one leads to an increase in the other, a phenomenon known as PM-NOx trade-off in diesel engine emission control. Currently, these two pollutants are controlled by the Diesel Particulate Filter (DPF) and the Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) after-treatment system respectively, in addition to the Diesel Oxidation Catalyst (DOC) which helps to provide 1:1 split of NO/NO₂ and helps with raising exhaust gas temperatures. Today, heavy-duty diesel engines feature a DPF, a primary SCR and a secondary SCR. Despite this complex …

Review Of Innovative Rehabilitation Techniques For Reinforced Concrete Buildings, Demetrius Karoubas

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Building rehabilitation encompasses the act of repairing damaged structural elements, as well as the upgrading of older buildings to bring them up to modern standards. In recent years, due to the extreme economic and environmental cost of new construction, building rehabilitation is gaining ground as the most viable solution to the problem posed by damaged or substandard buildings. With the constant development of new materials with favorable properties and the improvement of our understanding of earthquakes, new rehabilitation techniques are being developed, improving on the efficiency and effectiveness of older ones. Reinforced Concrete (RC) buildings are a type of building …

Morphologic Clustering Of Earcanals Using Deep Learning Algorithm To Design Artificial Ears Dedicated To Earplugs Attenuation Measurement, Bastien Poissenot-Arrigoni, Chun Hong Law, Djamal Berbiche, Franck Sgard, Olivier Doutres

Études primaires

Designing earplugs adapted for the widest number of earcanals requires acoustical test fixtures (ATFs) geometrically representative of the population. Most existing ATFs are equipped with unique sized straight cylindrical earcanals, considered representative of average human morphology, and are therefore unable to assess how earplugs can fit different earcanal morphologies. In this study, a methodology to cluster earcanals as a function of their morphologies with the objective of designing artificial ears dedicated to sound attenuation measurement is developed and applied to a sample of Canadian workers’ earcanals. The earcanal morphologic indicators that correlate with the attenuations of six models of commercial …

Risk-Based Inspection Applied To Two-Post Above-Ground Automotive Lifts, Damien Burlet-Vienney, François Gauthier, Bertrand Galy

Études primaires

The safe use of two-post above-ground automotive lifts (2PAG lifts) has received particular attention in the province of Québec (Canada) following the death of a young mechanic. The inspection and preventive maintenance of this equipment is a problem highlighted in accident investigation reports and by representatives of the sector. Therefore, the work presented in this article aimed at proposing a complete and detailed inspection grid for 2PAG lifts by establishing an exhaustive list of verification criteria, baseline states and the inspection frequency for each criterion according to their criticality. The grid was built from standards, existing grids, manufacturers’ manuals, interviews …

Developing An Open Database To Support Forensic Investigation Of Disasters In South East Asia: Forinsea V1.0, Andres Payo, Raushan Arnhardt, Angelo Carlo R. Galindo, Pham Van Dong, Ma. Aileen Leah G. Guzman, Yasmin O. Hatta, Andrew Bevan, Jose Claro N. Monje

Electronics, Computer, and Communications Engineering Faculty Publications

This article describes the development of a bespoke database, FORINSEA1.0, created to address the need for a systematic curation of information needed for the descriptive phase of the FORIN approach and its application to two study areas in the South East Asia region. FORINSEA1.0 allows researchers, for the first time, to explore and make use of subnational, geocoded data on major disasters triggered by natural hazards (flooding, earthquake, landslide and meteorological hazards) since 1945 until 2020 in the hydrological catchment of the Red River in Vietnam and the Marikina Basin in the Philippines. FORINSEA1.0 also contains relevant subnational information on …

Nbp 2.0: Updated Next Bar Predictor, An Improved Algorithmic Music Generator, Belinda M. Dungan, Proceso L. Fernandez Jr

Electronics, Computer, and Communications Engineering Faculty Publications

Deep neural network advancements have enabled machines to produce melodies emulating human-composed music. However, the implementation of such machines is costly in terms of resources. In this paper, we present NBP 2.0, a refinement of the previous model next bar predictor (NBP) with two notable improvements: first, transforming each training instance to anchor all the notes to its musical scale, and second, changing the model architecture itself. NBP 2.0 maintained its straightforward and lightweight implementation, which is an advantage over the baseline models. Improvements were assessed using quantitative and qualitative metrics and, based on the results, the improvements from these …

Precise Landing Of Vtol Uavs Using A Tether, Jeremy W. Rathjen

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), also known as drones, are often considered the solution to complex robotics problems. The significant freedom to explore an environment is a major reason why UAVs are a popular choice for automated solutions. UAVs, however, have a very limited flight time due to the low capacity and weight ratio of current batteries. One way to extend the vehicles' flight time is to use a tether to provide power from external batteries, generators on the ground, or another vehicle. Attaching a tether to a vehicle may constrain its navigation but it may also create some opportunities for …

Quantitative Analysis Of Rate Transient Analysis In Unconventional Shale Gas Reserviors, Gabriel Quintero

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Rate Transient Analysis is a quick reservoir modeling solution that has been used throughout the oil and gas industry over its continuous development and has provided breakthroughs for modeling conventional plays for decades. As the Marcellus Shale play continues to be a massive producer of Natural Gas in the world, operators look to find economical yet fairly accurate solutions to develop accurate reservoir models of their wells given the complex nature of unconventional reservoirs. Due to extremely low permeability and heterogeneity along with its complex fracture networks, it becomes an extremely difficult problem to model and predict the fluid flow …

Controlling The Thermal And Electrical Properties Of Camno3-Δ Based Perovskite Ceramics, Sergio Andres Paredes Navia

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Most of the energy lost during the conversion process comes in the form of waste heat. The world's energy consumption loses over 60% of its energy after conversion. In order to increase the efficiency of the conversion process, it is essential to harness waste heat and reutilize this energy resource. Heat recovery technology as thermoelectric (TE) technology is one of the growing alternatives to harvest excessive amounts of energy lost as waste heat for a more efficient, safe, and sustainable future. Due to the Seebeck effect, TE materials have the potential to convert waste heat directly into electricity, improving efficiency …

Ethane Dehydrogenation For Light Olefins Production Over Stable Catalyst, Xiaoyan Wang

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Accompanied by the development of modern industry, the demand for light olefins (e.g., ethylene, propylene, butene, butadiene) increases year by year. Light olefins are important intermediates in producing polymers (Polyethylene, Polypropylene, etc.) and rubber (Styrene Butadiene Rubber, Polybutadiene rubber, etc.). The primary process for the production of light olefins is steam cracking of petroleum liquids (naphtha and distillate fuel oil). It is an energy-intensive process, requiring high temperature (750-850℃) and pressure (1.0-4.5 MPa). Meanwhile, due to undesired side reactions, this process has lowered the efficiency of light olefins production and suffers from severe coking issues. Furthermore, as petroleum liquids become …

Expanding The Applicability Of Press-Brake-Formed Tub Girders Through The Extension Of The Maximum Span Length And The Evaluation Of Pier Continuity, Robert M. Tennant

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The Short Span Steel Bridge Alliance (SSSBA) is a group of bridge and buried soil steel structure industry leaders who provide educational information on the design and construction of short-span steel bridges in installations up to 140 feet in length. Within the SSSBA technical working group, a modular, shallow press-brake-formed tub girder (PBFTG) was developed to address the demand in the short-span steel bridge market for rapid infrastructure replacement solutions. PBFTGs consist of modular, shallow, trapezoidal boxes fabricated from cold-bent structural steel plate. A concrete deck, or other deck option, may be placed on the girder, and the modular unit …

Top-Down & Bottom-Up Approaches To Robot Design, Dylan Michael Covell

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This thesis presents a study of different engineering design methodologies and demonstrates their effectiveness and limitations in actual robot designs. Some of these methods were blended together with focus on providing an easily interpreted project design flow while implementing more bottom-up, or feedback, elements into the design methodology. Typically design methods are learned through experience, and design taught in academia aims to shape and formalize previous experience. Usually, inexperienced engineers are taught approaches resembling the Verein Deutscher Ingenieure (VDI) 2221 process. This method presented by the Association of German Engineers in 2006 is regarded as the general system design process. …

An Electrochemical-Mechanical Investigation Of Next Generation Lithium Metal Electrode And Solid Electrolyte, Andrew Meyer

Theses and Dissertations--Chemical and Materials Engineering

Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) are a staple in today’s society. From our cellphones, laptops, power tools, the ever-growing electric vehicle, and many more application, LIBs are more important to us than most realize. They provide the best combination of both high-energy and high-power density compared to other battery types such as Ni-Cd, Ni-MH, or the lead acid batteries used in our cars. Plus, LIBs are much safer. However, as new technologies grow and are developed, the demand for higher energy and power density, better safety, lower costs, and longer life increases. One way to achieve the ever-increasing demands is to replace …

Improving Manufacturing Processes For Making Lithium Ion Battery Electrodes, Ming Wang

Theses and Dissertations--Chemical and Materials Engineering

Rechargeable lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) are widely used to provide energy and power in portable electronics, electric vehicles, and energy storage systems. The LIB market has grown dramatically as they have a combination of high energy density, high power density, proven reliability, and long cycle life. The manufacturing process is one of the key factors as it strongly affects the cost and performance of LIBs.

This dissertation is focused firstly on the development of a conventional slurry-based electrode manufacturing process. Slurry making is a critical step that affects the subsequent steps in battery manufacturing. In this work, we have investigated the …

Microscale Contact And Friction Of Low Modulus, Lightly Crosslinked Polydimethylsiloxane, Justin Glover

Theses and Dissertations--Chemical and Materials Engineering

Friction and adhesion of soft materials are important for pressure sensitive adhesives, biomaterials, and soft robotics; however, the behavior on the microscale is not fully understood. When two objects come into contact, their interactions are usually mediated by small contact points due to surface roughness. At the microscale size, surface forces can deform soft materials to minimize energy by increasing the contact area, which is balanced by the elastic deformation of the polymer network. However, for soft, crosslinked materials with a modulus below ~100 kPa, it is challenging to predict the behavior with prior contact and friction models. Additionally, lightly …

Versatile Functionalization Strategy For The Capture Of Antibodies Using Silica Nanoparticles, Sayma Afrin

Theses and Dissertations--Chemical and Materials Engineering

In this work, the synthesis of protein-functionalized nonporous silica nanoparticles and their application to capture antibodies was demonstrated. Silica nanoparticles were chosen as they offered particle and pore size tunability, low toxicity, thermal stability, ease of synthesis and ease of surface functionalization. A biotin-streptavidin-biotin bridge was constructed on the surface of the particles and used to attach biotinylated Protein A/G (PAG), which has high affinity for antibodies. The biotin-streptavidin-biotin bridge is hypothesized to orient the PAG in a favorable manner for efficient antibody capture. Nonporous silica nanoparticles (approximately 270 nm in diameter) were synthesized via the Stöber method. Following amine …

Development Of Soluble Bioactive Poly(Beta Amino Esters) (Pβaes) For Post-Synthesis Processing, Kelley Wiegman

Theses and Dissertations--Chemical and Materials Engineering

Polymers have proven to be a viable platform to facilitate the controlled and targeted release for a variety of therapeutic agents. Polymeric prodrugs are a growing area of drug delivery in which active pharmaceutical ingredients are covalently linked to a polymeric form in an effort to enhance stability, delivery, and pharmacology. One naturally occurring class of active ingredients, known as polyphenols, can potentially offer a vast array of beneficial therapeutic properties. However, the therapeutic efficacy of these compounds is severely limited due to poor solubility and bioavailability as well as an oxidative and thermal instability. To improve the efficacy of …

Photocatalytic Degradation Of Lignin By Supported Silver Nanoparticles, Ning Wei

Theses and Dissertations--Chemical and Materials Engineering

Lignin is the second most abundant form of biomass on earth. The phenolic structure and high carbon to oxygen ratio make lignin an attractive renewable source of fuel and chemicals. However, its recalcitrance and heterogeneous nature prove difficult for decomposing lignin’s polymer structure and separation of the products. This work has focused on the use of low-energy catalytic approaches to overcome these barriers. A mimic of the lignin degrading enzyme laccase, consisting of a copper cluster Cu4Py4I4 modified with AgNO3, was developed to function similarly to the laccase active site. The prepared copper complex solution was found to be active …

Derivation, Exploration And Evaluation Of Non-Equiatomic High Entropy Alloys, Artashes Ter-Isahakyan

Theses and Dissertations--Chemical and Materials Engineering

High-entropy alloys (HEAs) are a class of multicomponent alloys based on an innovative alloying strategy that employs multi-principle elements in relatively high concentrations. Commonly defined as alloys that contain at least five principal elements, each with a concentration between 5 and 35 at %. The term entropy refers to the excess configurational entropy associated with HEAs, which is thought to facilitate the formation of solid solutions. The design strategy results in vast compositional space for exploration and innovative potential triggering a renaissance in physical metallurgy. These alloys may have favorable properties compared to conventional dilute solid solutions, but their preeminent …