Engineering Commons^™

Desalination For Sustainable Water Production With An Emphasis On Low Pressure Distillation, Jessica Vivian Savage

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

Freshwater resources depletion is a growing concern. This freshwater scarcity motivates research into seawater desalination as a means for alleviating the stresses on water demands. The primary methods of desalination include filtration and distillation. This paper explores the potential energy savings of vacuum distillation for seawater desalination to reduce the amount of energy needed to achieve phase change.

Depending on the vacuum boiler design, the vaporization mechanism may be boiling, evaporation, or cavitation. There is very little literature on cavitation that involves mass transfer, so cavitation is not developed here. This thesis focuses on standard models for boiling and evaporation …

Flying Wing Uav For Surveillance And Object Tracking, Kristen Padgett, Scott Semmelink, Jared Lasley, Paul Horne

Senior Design Project For Engineers

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) have become ubiquitous in recent years due to their adaptability and ease of use. Surveillance UAVs in particular have seen increased interest and usage by law enforcement, civilian security, surveying, and federal services. The increased interest has led to the development of UAVs with increased endurance and payload capacity. Further as many of the applications of surveillance drones involve heightened security requirements, an aircraft of domestic make is preferential to many organizations. With this demand in mind, Inspired Products, LLC put forth a request for assistance in the design and testing of a surveillance UAV. More …

Impact Of Angiogenic And Osteogenic Factors In The Presence Of Biodegradable Piezoelectric Films, Jayla Millender

Honors Scholar Theses

One of the most common causes of bone graft rejection is lack of a vascular network connecting the graft to the existing native tissue – allowing for nutrient flow. Under current grafting techniques, the existing blood vessel network in the patient slowly invades the implant in order to supply the injured site with its necessary nutrients. The purpose of this research is to determine if a synthetic bone graft with a stable microvascular network can be developed in vitro. I hypothesize that the use of indirect angiogenic factors such as sonic hedgehog homolog and hypoxia-inducible factor-1 in combination with the …

Mechanical Engineering News, Georgia Southern University

Mechanical Engineering: News & Publications (2013-2023)

• Alumnus Receives PE Licensure

Silver Bow Creek/Butte Area Npl Site Butte Priority Soils Operable Unit, Pioneer Technical Services, Inc.

Silver Bow Creek/Butte Area Superfund Site

No abstract provided.

Semantics-Guided Human Motion Modeling In Virtual Reality Environment, Matthew Korban

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Human Motion Modeling is essential in Computer Animation and Human-Computer Interaction. This dissertation studies how to enhance the speed and robustness of Human Motion Modeling in Virtual Reality (VR) environments. Specifically, we aim to design a pipeline to effectively capture and use semantic action information to guide the motion capturing from users in physical worlds and its transfer onto digital avatars in VR environments. To recognize the user's action, we first proposed a new Dynamic Directed Graph Convolutional Network (DDGCN) to model spatial and temporal features from users' skeletal representations. The DDGCN consists of several dynamic feature modeling modules to …

6th Aawe Workshop Program - Conference Proceedings, Nigel Kaye

American Association for Wind Engineering (AAWE) Workshop

The Glenn Department of Civil Engineering at Clemson University is hosting the 6th AAWE Workshop with a focus on student and early career presentations. The workshop will include several keynote addresses and panel discussions on non-academic wind engineering careers and future directions for wind engineering research.

Quantum Chemistry Calculations For Metabolomics, Susanta K. Das, Ricardo M. Borges, Sean M. Colby, Arthur S. Edison, Oliver Fiehn, Tobias Kind, Jesi Lee, Amy T. Merrill, Kenneth M. Merz Jr., Thomas O. Metz, Jamie R. Nunez, Dean J. Tantillo, Lee-Ping Wang, Shunyang Wang, Ryan S. Renslow

Mechanical Engineering Publications

A primary goal of metabolomics studies is to fully characterize the small-molecule composition of complex biological and environmental samples. However, despite advances in analytical technologies over the past two decades, the majority of small molecules in complex samples are not readily identifiable due to the immense structural and chemical diversity present within the metabolome. Current gold-standard identification methods rely on reference libraries built using authentic chemical materials (“standards”), which are not available for most molecules. Computational quantum chemistry methods, which can be used to calculate chemical properties that are then measured by analytical platforms, offer an alternative route for building …

Queuing-Inventory Models With Map Demands And Random Replenishment Opportunities, Srinivas R. Chakravarthy, B. Madhu Rao

Industrial & Manufacturing Engineering Publications

Combining the study of queuing with inventory is very common and such systems are referred to as queuing-inventory systems in the literature. These systems occur naturally in practice and have been studied extensively in the literature. The inventory systems considered in the literature generally include (s, S)-type. However, in this paper we look at opportunistic-type inventory replenishment in which there is an independent point process that is used to model events that are called opportunistic for replenishing inventory. When an opportunity (to replenish) occurs, a probabilistic rule that depends on the inventory level is used to determine whether to avail …

Another Dangerous Fire Season Is Looming In The Western U.S., And The Drought-Stricken Region Is Headed For A Water Crisis, Mojtaba Sadegh, Amir Aghakouchak, John Abatzoglou

Civil Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Just about every indicator of drought is flashing red across the western U.S. after a dry winter and warm early spring. The snowpack is at less than half of normal in much of the region. Reservoirs are being drawn down, river levels are dropping and soils are drying out.

It’s only May, and states are already considering water use restrictions to make the supply last longer. California’s governor declared a drought emergency in 41 of 58 counties. In Utah, irrigation water providers are increasing fines for overuse. Some Idaho ranchers are talking about selling off livestock because rivers and reservoirs …

Energy Efficient Cutting Parameter Optimization, Xingzheng Chen, Congbo Li, Ying Tang, Li Li, Hongcheng Li

Henry M. Rowan College of Engineering Departmental Research

Mechanical manufacturing industry consumes substantial energy with low energy efficiency. Increasing pressures from energy price and environmental directive force mechanical manufacturing industries to implement energy efficient technologies for reducing energy consumption and improving energy efficiency of their machining processes. In a practical machining process, cutting parameters are vital variables set by manufacturers in accordance with machining requirements of workpiece and machining condition. Proper selection of cutting parameters with energy consideration can effectively reduce energy consumption and improve energy efficiency of the machining process. Over the past 10 years, many researchers have been engaged in energy efficient cutting parameter optimization, and …

Error Prevention In Sensors And Sensor Systems, Pedro J. Chacon Dominguez

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Achievements in all fields of engineering and fabrication methods have led towards optimization and integration of multiple sensing devices into a concise system. These advances have caused significant innovation in various commercial, industrial, and research efforts. Integrations of subsystems have important applications for sensor systems in particular. The need for reporting and real time awareness of a device’s condition and surroundings have led to sensor systems being implemented in a wide variety of fields. From environmental sensors for agriculture, to object characterization and biomedical sensing, the application for sensor systems has impacted all modern facets of innovation. With these innovations, …

A Deep Learning Model For Predicting Covid-19 Transmission In Connecticut, Nathan Choi

Honors Scholar Theses

COVID-19 has immensely impacted life as we know it, as the virus quickly spread throughout the entire world in a matter of weeks since its emergence. It has toppled economies, tested healthcare systems worldwide, and has un- fortunately taken the lives of many in the process. While extensive research has analyzed the issue on a large scale, focusing on entire countries and states, there has not been as much focus on the meso-scale, mainly compris- ing towns and cities, due to the lack of available COVID-19 data at this scale. However, in the case of countries like the United States …

Renewing The Paradigm: Simulating The Miso Region Electrical Grid Using Renewable Energy Generation With Implementation Of Long-Term Hydrogen Storage, Jackson C. Henningfield

Macalester Journal of Physics and Astronomy

The current electrical grid regime is not optimized to include renewable sources of power generation such as wind and solar. Electrical storage, as of now, is primarily established through the short-term generation and demand-meeting consumption leaving much of the grid susceptible to inefficiencies and power loss during natural events that leave grids out of commission. Delineating a new type of long-term storage, a hydrogen fuel cell, would ensure a reliable source of power to the masses regardless of the physical and climatic geography. The MISO region provides a perfect case study to introduce the ideas of diverse energy generation and …

Reliability Of Sfrp-Strengthened Rc Bridge Columns Subjected To Blast Loads, Ahmad Alsendi, Christopher D. Eamon

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research Publications

The reliability of reinforced concrete bridge columns strengthened with externally bonded, steel-fiber reinforced polymer fabric subjected to blast loads was investigated. Columns were modeled with a nonlinear finite element approach that considers material damage, fracture, and separation. Different concrete strengths, longitudinal reinforcement ratios, and gravity and blast load levels were considered, while uncertainties in material strength and stiffness parameters, as well as load characteristics, were incorporated in the probabilistic analysis. It was found that the use of SFRP can allow significant increases in blast load while maintaining the same level of column reliability.

Factors Associated With Mutations: Their Matching Rates To Cardiovascular And Neurological Diseases, Hannah B. Lucas, Ian Mcknight, Regan Raines, Abdullah Hijazi, Christoph Hart, Chan Lee, Do-Gyoon Kim, Wei Li, Peter H. U. Lee, Joon W. Shim

Biomedical Engineering Faculty Research

Monogenic hypertension is rare and caused by genetic mutations, but whether factors associated with mutations are disease-specific remains uncertain. Given two factors associated with high mutation rates, we tested how many previously known genes match with (i) proximity to telomeres or (ii) high adenine and thymine content in cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) related to vascular stiffening. We extracted genomic information using a genome data viewer. In human chromosomes, 64 of 79 genetic loci involving >25 rare mutations and single nucleotide polymorphisms satisfied (i) or (ii), resulting in an 81% matching rate. However, this high matching rate was no longer observed as …

Self-Breakdown Study Of Spherical Electrodes In Air Spanning Pressures From Atmosphere To 2000 Psia, And Stress Times From Seconds To Nanoseconds, Joseph G. Felix

Electrical and Computer Engineering ETDs

In this research, a self-breakdown switch with 12.7 mm diameter spherical electrodes and a 380-micron gap was assembled and the effect of pressure and stress time on breakdown voltage and closure time were measured. Specifically, the pressure was varied from atmosphere to 2000 psia and the stress time was varied from seconds to nanoseconds. Few studies have investigated equivalent ranges of pressure and charge times on sub millimeter gap switches with electric field intensities reaching 2 MV/cm. The correlation of the parameters and switch behavior are explored in this study. In addition, the effects of humidity and electrode surface deformities …

Feature-Based Point Cloud-Based Assessment Of Heritage Structures For Nondestructive And Noncontact Surface Damage Detection, Richard L. Wood, Mohammad Ebrahim Mohammadi

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Faculty Publications

Assessment and evaluation of damage in cultural heritage structures are conducted primarily using nondestructive and noncontact methods. One common deployment is laser scanners or ground-based lidar scanners that produce a point cloud containing information at the centimeter to the millimeter level. This type of data allows for detecting surface damage, defects, cracks, and other anomalies based only on geometric surface descriptors using a single dataset, which does not rely on a change detection approach. Moreover, geometric features are not influenced by color, which is essential for heritage structures because they are nonuniform in color due to anthropologic and environmental effects …

Lagrangian Diffusion Properties Of A Free Shear Turbulent Jet, Bianca F. Viggiano, Thomas Basset, Stephen Solovitz, Thomas Barois, Mathieu Gibert, Nicolas Mordant, Laurent Chevillard, Romain Volk, Mickael Bourgoin, Raul Bayoan Cal

Mechanical and Materials Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

A Lagrangian experimental study of an axisymmetric turbulent water jet is performed to investigate the highly anisotropic and inhomogeneous flow field. Measurements are conducted within a Lagrangian exploration module, an icosahedron apparatus, to facilitate optical access of three cameras. Stereoscopic particle tracking velocimetry results in three-component tracks of position, velocity and acceleration of the tracer particles within the vertically oriented jet with a Taylor-based Reynolds number Reλ≃230. Analysis is performed at seven locations from 15 diameters up to 45 diameters downstream. Eulerian analysis is first carried out to obtain critical parameters of the jet and relevant scales, namely the Kolmogorov …

Evolution Of A Digital Twin For Wing Assembly By Refill Friction Stir Spot Welding, Johnathon Hunt

Utah Space Grant Consortium

Refill Friction Stir Spot Welding (RFSSW) is an emerging solid state joining process for thin sheet aluminum. Many researchers are developing RFSSW process parameters and best practices for manufacturing, thus enabling the use of RFSSW in many industries. Within this development, this work focuses to predict the resultant residual stresses and distortion in a joined part after welding. These residual stresses are caused by the heat & mechanical inputs from the RFSSW process. This report provides the preliminary results of the two step solution to resultant temperature and stresses from a series of RFSSW in thin sheet aluminum.

Reliable Mode Tracking In Gradient-Based Optimization Frameworks With Flutter Constraints, Taylor Mcdonnell

Utah Space Grant Consortium

In this paper a new mode tracking method is presented which incorporates backtracking logic to maintain a high degree of confidence in mode tracking results. The effectiveness of this mode tracking method is demonstrated on linear and nonlinear aeroelastic systems of varying complexity in the context of aeroelastic analyses and optimizations with stability constraints. The high degree of confidence in mode correlations provided by the new mode tracking method allows for the creation and use of mode-specific C¹ continuous stability constraints in gradient-based optimization frameworks. Using our mode tracking method in the context of a gradient-based optimization framework with …

Sparse Monocular Scene Reconstruction Using Rolling Voxel Maps, Jacob Johnson

Utah Space Grant Consortium

We present a method for creating 3D obstacle maps in real-time using only a monocular camera and an inertial measurement unit (IMU). We track a large amount of sparse features in the image frame. Then, given scale-accurate pose estimates from a front-end visual-inertial odometry (VIO) algorithm, we estimate the inverse depth to each of the tracked features using a keyframe-based feature-only bundle adjustment. These features are then accumulated within a probabilistic robocentric 3D voxel map that rolls as the camera moves. This local rolling voxel map provides a simple scene representation within which obstacle avoidance planning can easily be done. …

Evaluation Of Liquid Doping Methods For Use In Laser Powder Bed Fusion, Taylor Davis

Utah Space Grant Consortium

Laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) is an additive manufacturing (AM) process that is well known for its geometric versatility and high-quality parts. While the properties of LPBF parts are commonly superior to those made using other AM techniques, LPBF is generally limited to a single material in any given build. While LPBF can accommodate the integration of multiple components into a single part geometrically, the material limitation leads to over-designing to ensure that every component can complete their various functions. Some studies have shown potential methods of 3D composition control throughout a part, but these methods are subject to high …

Wake Expansion Continuation: Multi-Modality Reduction In The Wind Farm Layout Optimization Problem, Jared J. Thomas

Utah Space Grant Consortium

In this paper we present a continuation optimization method for reducing multi-modality in the wind farm layout optimization problem that we call Wake Expansion Continuation (WEC). We achieve the reduction in multi-modality by starting with an increased wake diameter while maintaining normal velocity deficits at the center of the wakes, and then reducing the wake diameter for each of a series of optimization runs until the accurate wake diameter is used. We applied and demonstrated the effectiveness of WEC with two different wake models. We tested WEC on four optimization case studies with a gradient-based optimization method and a gradient-free …

Passive Atmospheric Safety Feature For Small Molten Salt Reactors In Accident Conditions, Brent Edgerton

Utah Space Grant Consortium

This investigation aims to discover the utility of atmospheric cooling of residual heat in Martian applications (1.5 MW_t). It also considers the possible terrestrial application (45 MW_t) of these concepts. The peculiarities of atmospheric cooling require novel geometric arrangements and material selection. The average convection coefficient is derived and applied to ANSYS Transient Thermal analysis for both terrestrial and Martian environments. This preliminary analysis found that atmospheric cooling is a viable method of Martian passive cooling and may serve as a possible method in terrestrial conditions. The key finding of this investigation is that the …

Automatic Data Collection System And Video Laryngoscope Database, Gabrielle Hoyer

Utah Space Grant Consortium

The aggregate intubation data collected by a network of video laryngoscopes can be processed to understand the quality of an individual’s or a group of individual’s practice(s). Currently, all data surrounding intubations is self-reported and not understood on an aggregate basis. We are developing a technology which can enable monitoring and benchmarking of intubations across a wide variety of practices.

Tuning Radiation And Microgravity Exposure For Human Brain Organoids, Bailey Mcfarland

Utah Space Grant Consortium

The environment of space, specifically radiation and microgravity, poses a substantial threat to astronauts' brain health. Understanding the damage mechanism and therefore paving the way to finding potential remedies is critical to protect astronauts during space flight. Current models are insufficient at representing the human brain, and insufficient research has been conducted on the effect of radiation and microgravity on the higher structures of the human brain. This ongoing research aims to use brain organoids, a tissue-engineered model that recapitulates the human brain's anatomy and structure and investigate the effects of radiation and microgravity on the brain. At the current …

Miniature Multi-Sensor Array (Mini-Msa) For Ground-To-Stratosphere Air Measurement, Phase Ii, Zachary Kennedy, Drew Huber, Huiling Renee Xie

Utah Space Grant Consortium

There are numerous college research groups doing high altitude ballooning and working with drones. Many of these are making air quality measurements. Those measurements are effectively random. We are designing an inexpensive and easy to build assembly that others can build for under $500 with the goal of having a uniform data set that can be compared. This will provide more useful data for atmospheric studies. Our first version had too many noise issues and the gas sensor signals were unstable. In December 2020 Winsen Sensors (China) came out with a “multi-in-one sensor module,” the ZPHS01B. At a price point …

Simulated And Phantom Detection Of Microscopic Targets By Raman Spectroscopy, Jordyn Hales

Utah Space Grant Consortium

The goal of this study is to determine the minimum spatial sampling resolution required to accurately detect microscopic targets within a sample using Raman spectroscopy. The resolution depends on the light scattering properties of the material. We use Monte Carlo simulations to study how measurement geometry and optical properties of a sample affect the Raman signal detected from an embedded target. We confirm these results using polystyrene beads embedded in artificial tissue phantoms.

Identifying Carbon Structure Via Raman Spectroscopy, Nathaniel Bunker

Utah Space Grant Consortium

• Raman Spectroscopy: a method to determine molecular composition.
• Graphene: a conductive, strong, and lightweight material.
• Our Setup: meant for examining biological samples, not optimized for graphene analysis.