Engineering Commons^™

Byu 2021 High Power Rocketry Team, Ryan Thibaudeau, Ryan Merrell

Utah Space Grant Consortium

Project Objective

Design, build and test a high-power rocket that is capable of carrying a 4 kg payload to 10,000 feet AGL with a commercial motor with less than 40,960 N_-S of impulse.

Project Background

The BYU Rocketry Association competes annually in the Spaceport America Cup's International Rocket Engineering Competition. Previous rockets have flown to within 500 feet of the target with a variety of payloads.

Mapping Relative Sand Abundance, Ice-Rich Regions, And Linear Dune Properties Of Titan, Ben Lake, Delaney Rose

Utah Space Grant Consortium

The equatorial regions of Titan are dominated by linear dune fields made of complex organic particles [1, 2] and have many similarities to terrestrial dunes such as those found in the Namib Sand Sea [1, 3]. Previous studies of Titan’s sand seas included mapping sand sea margins [4, 5, 6, 7] and some dune tracing, but did not involve mapping relative sand abundances. Our work involves mapping relative sand abundances coupled with relative abundances of water ice, as well as more detailed mapping of linear dune morphology.

Lunar Mining: Designing A Versatile Robotic Mining System, James Ehlers, Alexander Charters, Joshua Miraglia, Rian Simpson

Utah Space Grant Consortium

The annual NASA Robotic Mining Challenge: Lunabotics tasks teams with building robots capable of traversing and mining in a simulated Lunar terrain. The competition goal is to utilize automation and sensing alongside mechanical systems to harvest icy regolith (simulated with gravel) from beneath the satellite’s surface.

Creation And Optimization Of A Mechanical Obstacle Avoidance Sensor For Autonomous Exploration Of Venus, Ryan Hardin

Utah Space Grant Consortium

Exploration of the surface of Venus is currently one of the most lacking areas of planetary research in our solar system today. This is because the surface of Venus is an extremely hostile environment, especially when considering the use of conventional Mars-type rovers. With temperatures exceeding 400 degrees Celsius, pressures 90 times that of Earth, and a sulfuric acid atmosphere, traditional electronics would quickly fail.

A Preliminary Approach To Select An Origami Source Pattern For Deployable Space Arrays, Diana S. Bolanos

Utah Space Grant Consortium

This paper presents a systematic approach for selecting an origami pattern for deployable space array applications. A wide variety of origami patterns exist, thereby introducing a daunting task to decide on which pattern is most suitable for the application at hand. Similarly, different space missions present varying requirements. The focus of this paper is to provide aerospace engineers and designers with a framework for identifying optimal origami source models for space array applications.

Ultra-Low Power Adcs For Space Sensors And Instruments, Shea Smith

Utah Space Grant Consortium

A 28nm 0.1V 10-bit 2kS/s time domain ADC design is proposed. This design opens the doors to both low supply and low power space sensors and instruments. Due to the stringent voltage supply, unique challenges arise that are met with innovation in the sample switch and the quantizer design. These components of the ADC architecture are optimized to perform successfully at a 0.1V supply with a sample rate suitable for most sensor applications.

Assessing Thickness Accommodation Techniques For Deployable Hexagonal Origami Space Arrays, Collin Ynchausti

Utah Space Grant Consortium

Origami-based and origami-inspired designs provide paths to achieve highly compact, stowable designs, that can be deployed to large surface areas. This potential is highly beneficial to the area of space antennas and LIDAR as these require compact stowing in a launch payload, but large apertures when deployed in space. Because the engineering materials used to build these antennas are thick, thickness accommodation techniques must be applied to realize the same folding motions as the zero-thickness models. This paper presents a hexagonal twist origami pattern in thick materials using three different thickness accommodation techniques. These techniques are compared. The metrics used …

Resolution Enhancement Limitations For Spaceborne Scatterometers, Harrison Garrett

Utah Space Grant Consortium

The main limitation to the resolution enhancement of spaceborne scatterometers is the amplification of both measurement noise and model error. A few components to model error include: model discretization errors, interpolation errors, and the aliasing of frequency content introduced by each measurement spatial response function (MSRF). Using bandlimited reconstruction theory, we estimate the maximum resolution enhancement of a given sampling geometry through its inherent maximum square bandlimit. Simulations suggest that under bandlimited assumptions, the number of independent and uniformly distributed samples are proportional to the area of the sampling geometry’s supported bandlimit. Furthermore, if we assume that the measurement noise …

Electromagnetic 3d Printing For Responsive Architectures With An Orthogonal Magnetic Field, Brian Elder

Utah Space Grant Consortium

The integration of nanomaterials with 3D printing can enable the creation of responsive architecture with highly tunable functional properties. Magnetic nanopatterning is attractive for its ability to produce untethered, high energy density actuation with a broad range of applications. For example, biocompatible materials (such as silicone rubber) can be programmed in an extrusion-based 3D printing process to create a responsive medical soft robot structure.

Pitch-Efficient Trajectory Tracking For Winged Evtol Uavs, Jacob B. Willis

Utah Space Grant Consortium

Current control methods for winged eVTOL UAVs consider the vehicle primarily as a fixed-wing aircraft with the addition of vertical thrust used only during takeoff and landing. These methods provide good long-range flight handling but fail to consider the full dynamics of the vehicle for tracking complex trajectories. We present a trajectory tracking controller for the full dynamics of a winged eVTOL UAV in hover, fixed-wing, and partially transitioned flight scenarios. We show that in low-to moderate-speed flight, trajectory tracking can be achieved using a variety of pitch angles. In these conditions, the pitch of the vehicle is a free …

A Process To Produce Battery Grade Silicon From Natural Halloysite Clay, Nathan Clarke

Utah Space Grant Consortium

We demonstrate the production of silicon from a clay mineral, halloysite, as a low-cost silicon source for high-energy anodes in aviation batteries. The halloysite-derived silicon demonstrated 1800 mAh/g capacity after formation cycles, comparable to other developing silicon materials.

Long-Term Spatiotemporal Monitoring And Analysis Of Chlorophyll-A Concentrations In Utah Lake, Kaylee Tanner

Utah Space Grant Consortium

Utah Lake is a unique and valuable natural resource in the semi-arid Utah Valley. Shallow, turbid, eutrophic, and slightly saline, the lake degrades and stabilizes pollution well [1]. The lake is a highly productive ecosystem and provides ecological habitats, water storage, and recreation. Detection of harmful algal blooms (HABs), however, has closed Utah Lake beaches every summer since 2016 [2] and raised concerns over the health of the lake ecosystem [3, 4]. HABs, which involve excessive algal growth that can cause hypoxic and/or toxic water conditions [5], have numerous detrimental effects [6] on lakes and reservoirs in the United States …

Predicting Propofol-Induced Burst Suppression Using An Individualized Model-Based Approach Over Repeated Treatments, Jason C. Huang

Utah Space Grant Consortium

Our group is investigating the antidepressant effects of high-dose propofol, but dosing propofol to induce standardized changes in EEG activity (“burst suppression”) is challenging due to limited knowledge of each subject’s pharmacokinetics (PK) and pharmacodynamics (PD). In this paper, we approximated PK-PD models for propofol-induced burst suppression (PIBS), based on multiple subjects over repeated treatments. We then applied these models to predict BSR in each subject’s repeated treatment, then evaluate their predictive performances. We hypothesized that predicting BSR from a greater number of previous treatments would improve performance, but our current results are not conclusive enough to validate the hypothesis. …

Defect Detection Limits For Additively Manufactured Parts Using Current Thermography Techniques, Nicholas J. Wallace

Utah Space Grant Consortium

Additive manufacturing (AM) will support NASA in their moon and mars missions by reducing the amount of redundant equipment carried into space and by providing crew members with the flexibility to design and create parts as needed. The ability to monitor the quality of these additively manufactured parts is critical, especially when using recycled or in-situ materials as NASA plans to do. This project assesses the possibility of detecting small, shallow AM defects with existing active thermography techniques. An axisymmetric, numerical model was created in COMSOL to simulate the heat transfer within AM structures during active thermography. The effects of …

Aerodynamic Interactions Of Synchronized Propellers, Nathan Welker

Utah Space Grant Consortium

Emerging advances in electric-propulsion technology are enabling aircraft to use distributed electric propulsion (DEP) to increase efficiency and maneuverability. Distributed electric propulsion can also provide unique take-off and landing abilities which are not commonly found on traditional aircraft. The implementation of DEP effectively decreases the spacing between propellers, introducing complex aerodynamic interactions that are not well understood. This study aims to obtain experimental measurements of the flow fields of synchronized propellers at close-proximity in a side-by-side configuration using both 2D particle image velocimetry (PIV) and 3D stereoscopic PIV (SPIV) in a wind tunnel. The results of this work will be …

Feedback Control Of Particle Positions Using Electric Fields And Chemical Gradients, Mark Mcdonald

Utah Space Grant Consortium

Programmable self-assembly is a promising route to new biomaterial and metamaterial synthesis methods. An important step towards programmable self-assembly is moving component parts to desired locations. We do this by designing and simulating a controller that modifies an external field to move particles on desired paths. We first design a controller using electric fields by modifying established methods, then we apply the insights gained from the electric field controller to a chemical controller that uses model predictive control.

Examination Of The Correlation Between Shear Strength, California Bearing Ratio, And Index Properties Of Fine-Grained Soil, Billy W. Rushema

Master of Science in Civil Engineering Theses

Abstract

California Bering Ratio (CBR) is used to evaluate the strength of the pavement materials by comparing bearing capacity of the material with that of a high-quality crushed stone. This test adopted by transportation agencies and widely used in the design and analysis of pavement. Several agencies developed design thickness chart based on the CBR values of the subgrade. However, CBR test is time consuming and expensive to perform compared to shear strength test and therefore several studies have been conducted to establish correlation between shear strength and CBR. The published correlation models between CBR and shear strength of soil …

Stem Education In The Early Childhood Classroom, Julia Biagiotti

Honors Program Theses and Projects

This qualitative study focuses on the type of STEM education students are getting at the early childhood level (PK-2). Based on gaps found in literature, an interview protocol was created and six participants with various careers in the field of STEM education were interviewed. The research was concentrated on trying to determine what components of STEM education make it successful in the early childhood classroom. All of the interview responses were analyzed and coded and determined the results found below. A few integral parts of a successful STEM education seem to be curiosity, asking questions and a hands-on component, but …

Systematic Design, Optimization, And Sustainability Assessment For Generation Of Efficient Wastewater Treatment Networks, Kirti Maheshkumar Yenkie, Emmanuel A Aboagye, Sean M. Burnham, James Dailey, Rohan Zia, Carley Tran, Maya Desai

Henry M. Rowan College of Engineering Departmental Research

Due to population growth and economic development, there has been an increase in global wastewater (WW) generation footprint. There are different technologies associated with the wastewater treatment (WWT) process. The challenge is to select technologies that minimize the cost of treatment, as well as meet purity requirements. Further, there is a need to integrate sustainability analysis to facilitate a holistic decision. With the application of systems engineering, sustainable and cost-effective solutions can be achieved. In this work, we apply systems engineering to generate a sustainable and cost-effective solution. A superstructure was generated by categorizing technologies into four treatment stages. After …

Effect Of Galvanic Corrosion On Crack Propagation Of Cold Expanded Holes In Aa2024-T3, Ken Shishino

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

A search for the balance between weight reduction and durability of a structure has always been a popular topic within the aerospace industry. Among numerous researches to improve a structure’s fatigue life, processes on mechanically fastened joints have been a topic of focus as it is naturally a discontinuity in the material leading to a local stress concentration under loading. Cold expansion is a well-known technique with a wide range of applications in both new and repaired structures. The benefits include the extension of fatigue life and a delay in crack growth without addition of weight. However, localized galvanic corrosion …

A Comprehensive Study On Printed Circuit Board Backdoor Coupling In High Intensity Radiated Fields Environments, Ryan Patrick Tortorich

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Due to the prevalence of unintentional electromagnetic interference (EMI) and the growth of intentional electromagnetic interference (IEMI) or high power microwave (HPM) sources, it is now more important than ever to understand how electronic systems are affected by high intensity radiated fields (HIRF) environments. Both historic events and experimental testing have demonstrated that HIRF environments are capable of disrupting and potentially damaging critical systems including but not limited to civil and military aircraft, industrial control systems (ICS), and internet of things (IoT) devices. However, there is limited understanding on the complex electromagnetic interactions that lead to such effects. This study …

A Bibliometric Analysis On Recent Classification Techniques For Alzheimer’S Disease, Sumit Dhananjay Salunkhe, Mrinal Rahul Bachute Ph.D Guide And Associate Professor

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

Alzheimer's disease (AD) has been studied extensively to better understand the complexities of this disease and to address the numerous unanswered questions about prognosis and diagnosis. To be able to determine and allocate the resources appropriate to the research area, a detailed understanding of the research topic is much needed. Along with the tremendous expansion in the scope of neurodegenerative disease treatment research, the diversity of technologies to help the research continues to expand. Many studies have investigated into how AD affects different brain structures as the disease progresses, using various image processing methods to derive a variety of brain …

International Analysis On The Traffic Impact Of The Covid-19 Pandemic, Fanny Margaretha Kristiansson

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

The purpose of this research was to assess, compare, and contrast the impact of COVID-19 activity restrictions on road-based transportation activity in regions of the US, Sweden, and China from January 1st to December 31st, 2020. Roadway traffic volumes were used to relate the progression of reported COVID-19 cases and government directives for social separation in three countries with diverse governmental responses.

Among the contributions of this paper was the illustration of the timeline and level of public responses to closures, lockdowns, and reopening as represented through rapid traffic decreases and increases. Traffic was greatly impacted, showing that the pandemic …

Peering Inside A Cough Or Sneeze To Explain Enhanced Airborne Transmission Under Dry Weather, Kai Liu, Majid Allahyari, Jorge S. Salinas, ‪Nadim Zgheib, S. Balachandar

Mechanical Engineering Faculty Publications

High-fidelity simulations of coughs and sneezes that serve as virtual experiments are presented, and they offer an unprecedented opportunity to peer into the chaotic evolution of the resulting airborne droplet clouds. While larger droplets quickly fall-out of the cloud, smaller droplets evaporate rapidly. The non-volatiles remain airborne as droplet nuclei for a long time to be transported over long distances. The substantial variation observed between the different realizations has important social distancing implications, since probabilistic outlier-events do occur and may need to be taken into account when assessing the risk of contagion. Contrary to common expectations, we observe dry ambient …

Breast Cancer Detection From Histopathology Images Using Machine Learning Techniques: A Bibliometric Analysis, Shubhangi A. Joshi, Anupkumar M. Bongale Dr., Arunkumar M. Bongale Dr.

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

Computer aided diagnosis has become upcoming area of research over past few years. With the advent of machine learning and especially deep learning techniques, the scenario of work flow management in healthcare sector is changing drastically. Artificial intelligence has shown potential in the field of breast cancer care. With datasets for machine learning frameworks getting eventually richer with time, we can definitely get newer insights in the field of breast cancer care. This will help in narrowing down the treatment range for patients and increasing patient survivability. The purpose of this study was to perform bibliometric analysis of the literature …

Prediction Of Stocks And Stock Price Using Artificial Intelligence : A Bibliometric Study Using Scopus Database, Priyanka Tupe-Waghmare, Priyanka Tupe-Waghmare

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

Prediction of stocks and the prices of the stock is one of the most crucial points of discussion amongst the researchers and analysts in the financial domain to date. Every stakeholder and most importantly the investor desires to earn higher profit for his investment in the market and try to use several different strategies to invest their money. There are numerous methods to predict and analyse the movement of the stock prices. They are broadly divided into – statistical and artificial intelligence-based methods. Artificial intelligence is used to predict the futuristic prices of stocks and use wide range of algorithms …

Toppings Refinery Retrofit, Connor Meyer Gulledge

Honors Capstone Projects and Theses

No abstract provided.

Exploration Of The Sludge Biodiesel Pathway, Zachary Christman

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Wastewater sludge is an overlooked source of fat, oil, and grease (FOG) that could be converted into biodiesel. The United States produces about 8 million tons of sludge per year. The disposal cost for this amount of sludge is about 2 billion US dollars. The widespread availability and low cost of sludge compared to other biodiesel raw materials make it an economical choice for a renewable fuel. Using sludge as a raw material can produce 25 to 30 mg per gram of fatty acid methyl ester (FAME); the main component of biodiesel. Sludge biodiesel has the potential of transforming a …

The Correlation Between Poverty, Water Quality, Community Health, And Education In Guatemala And Tanzania, Jessica R. Besnier

Senior Honors Projects, 2020-current

This paper explores the relationship between poverty, water quality, community health, and education in Tanzania and Guatemala. These metrics will allow for a thorough analysis of the relationships between the countries and will determine their impact on the other aspects in these two countries. While Guatemala and Tanzania are very different countries, they share many things in common such as inequalities among different groups, having many different groups of indigenous people, having most people living in rural areas, and are located on a coast. Also, they share similarities regarding poverty, water quality, community health, and education. By looking into these …

The Effect Of Nanostructures In Aluminum Alloys Processed Using Additive Manufacturing On Microstructural Evolution And Mechanical Performance Behavior, Rachel Boillat, Sriram Praneeth Isanaka, Frank W. Liou

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This paper reviews the status of nanoparticle technology as it relates to the additive manufacturing (AM) of aluminum-based alloys. A broad overview of common AM processes is given. Additive manufacturing is a promising field for the advancement of manufacturing due to its ability to yield near-net-shaped components that require minimal post-processing prior to end-use. AM also allows for the fabrication of prototypes as well as economical small batch production. Aluminum alloys processed via AM would be very beneficial to the manufacturing industry due to their high strength to weight ratio; however, many of the conventional alloy compositions have been shown …