Engineering Commons^™

A Transdisciplinary Analysis Of Just Transition Pathways To 100% Renewable Electricity, Adewale Aremu Adesanya

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

The transition to using clean, affordable, and reliable electrical energy is critical for enhancing human opportunities and capabilities. In the United States, many states and localities are engaging in this transition despite the lack of ambitious federal policy support. This research builds on the theoretical framework of the multilevel perspective (MLP) of sociotechnical transitions as well as the concept of energy justice to investigate potential pathways to 100 percent renewable energy (RE) for electricity provision in the U.S. This research seeks to answer the question: what are the technical, policy, and perceptual pathways, barriers, and opportunities for just transition to …

Superresolution Enhancement With Active Convolved Illumination, Anindya Ghoshroy

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

The first two decades of the 21st century witnessed the emergence of “metamaterials”. The prospect of unrestricted control over light-matter interactions was a major contributing factor leading to the realization of new technologies and advancement of existing ones. While the field certainly does not lack innovative applications, widespread commercial deployment may still be several decades away. Fabrication of sophisticated 3d micro and nano structures, specially for telecommunications and optical frequencies will require a significant advancement of current technologies. More importantly, the effects of absorption and scattering losses will require a robust solution since this renders any conceivable application of metamaterials …

Novel Methods In Computational Imaging With Applications In Remote Sensing, Adam Webb

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

This dissertation is devoted to novel computational imaging methods with applications in remote sensing. Computational imaging methods are applied to three distinct applications including imaging and detection of buried explosive hazards utilizing array radar, high resolution imaging of satellites in geosynchronous orbit utilizing optical hypertelescope arrays, and characterization of atmospheric turbulence through multi-frame blind deconvolution utilizing conventional optical digital sensors.

The first application considered utilizes a radar array employed as a forward looking ground penetrating radar system with applications in explosive hazard detection. A penalized least squares technique with sparsity-inducing regularization is applied to produce imagery, which is consistent with …

Application Of Remote Sensing For Permafrost Monitoring In Alaska, Iuliia V. Tcibulnikova

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Permafrost covers about 85% of the state of Alaska; it is a fragile cryogenic phenomenon prone to degradation under thermal and mechanical (natural and anthropogenic) influences. This research analyzes the application of remote sensing for permafrost monitoring in the Prudhoe Bay area, Alaska. Thawing thermokarst lakes are assessed as the signs of permafrost degradation. Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI) was used to detect thaw lakes in Landsat-8 satellite imagery within the 529-km² study area in 2013 and 2020. The lakes were then mapped according to their size and growth rate. Lakes do not grow uniformly; some lakes grow while …

Sensing Methods For Two-Target And Four-Target Detection In Time-Constrained Vector Poisson And Gaussian Channels, Muhammad Fahad

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

In this dissertation we consider a sensor scheduling or resource management problem for a vector Poisson and Gaussian channels. The input is a binary random vector and the output is a set of conditionally independent Poisson or Gaussian random variables. The objective is to design a scaling matrix, which is a linear transformation whose purpose is to entangle the different inputs, under a total given energy/time constraint. The two metrics are adopted to quantify the performance of the designed scaling matrix: mutual information and Bayesian inference. In other words, it is an experimental design problem where the objective is to …

Anaerobic Reductive Bioleaching Of Manganese Ores, Neha Sharma

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

The increasing demand of manganese in the industries and various hindrances in its production from low grade ores by conventional method has made it imperative for researchers around the world to develop a method of manganese extraction from low grade ores that is both environment friendly and economical. Bioleaching has shown significant potential in manganese extraction and efficiencies of extraction have been found to be 70-98% with the help of various bacteria and fungi.

This study focuses on extraction of manganese with the help of mixed bacterial strains that have been collected from their natural anaerobic environment. The extraction of …

Investigation Of A Machine-Plant Interface For Extracting Rooted Invasive Aquatic Plants, Brad Baas

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

The current solutions for managing rooted aquatic invasive plants are time consuming, have negative environmental impacts, or are cost-limiting for management organizations. The most effective treatment method is hand pulling, but hand pulling is not a feasible solution for a whole lake. A new device, the invasive aquatic plant extractor, aims to replace human divers who hand pull plants with a mechanical system. The device implements a machine-plant interface that resembles the tines of a fork. These tines will be pushed linearly through the substrate, and then raised from the substrate with the plant caught in the tines. The primary …

Light Field Compression And Manipulation Via Residual Convolutional Neural Network, Eisa Hedayati

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Light field (LF) imaging has gained significant attention due to its recent success in microscopy, 3-dimensional (3D) displaying and rendering, augmented and virtual reality usage. Postprocessing of LF enables us to extract more information from a scene compared to traditional cameras. However, the use of LF is still a research novelty because of the current limitations in capturing high-resolution LF in all of its four dimensions. While researchers are actively improving methods of capturing high-resolution LF's, using simulation, it is possible to explore a high-quality captured LF's properties. The immediate concerns following the LF capture are its storage and processing …

Studying The Effects Of Initial Crack Angle On The Crack Propagation In Graphene Nano-Ribbon Through Molecular Dynamics Simulations, Vijay Kumar Pathak

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

In this research, we have worked on the brittle fracture of graphene nano-ribbon to explore the behavior of crack propagation at different crack angles. We have performed classical Molecular Dynamics simulations using LAMMPS at ten different crack angles between 0 degrees and 45 degrees, in an increment of 5 degrees to observe the parameters that dominate the crack path. The graphene nanoribbon is loaded in the zigzag direction by pulling it in the armchair direction with a pre-existing crack in the center. We have used OVITO for the visualization of the simulation. AIREBO potential is employed in this work because …

Phase-Field Fracture Modeling For Interlocking Micro-Architectured Materials, Shubham Sinha

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

It is fascinating to see how natural materials like teeth enamel, bone and nacre possess a very high stiffness and strength in spite of the fact that they are composed of minerals mostly. Studies have shown the reason for this aberration as the presence of weaker interfaces with intricate interlocking architectures at microscopic levels in these materials. Inspired by the architecture of these materials, micro-architectured sutures with jig-saw like geometry is being studied in this research study. The main focus of this study is to examine the effects of friction co-efficient and interlocking angles of the jig-saw tabs on pullout …

Integration Of Robotic And Electro-Pneumatic Systems Using Advanced Control And Communication Schemes, Chinmay Kondekar

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Modern industrial automation systems are designed by interconnecting various subsystems which work together to perform a process. The thesis project aims to integrate fragmented subsystems into a flexible and reconfigurable system through advanced communication protocols and perform a process to demonstrate the effectiveness of interconnected systems.

The system consists of three six-axis robots, one electro-pneumatic robot, and two conveyors connected using EthernetIP communication and hardwired connections. The interconnected system works together to perform machining of a workpiece using advanced control methods of CAD to robot path generation, central control through a PLC, and process control through HMI.

Standardized programming blocks …

Nonlinear Model Predictive Control Of Wave Energy Converter, Isha Malekar

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

In this report model predictive control (MPC) is applied to a simulated, spherical, point absorber wave energy converter to maximize energy extraction. Constraints are applied to the buoy's displacement and the power take-off (PTO) generator force. The WEC's "truth” model uses nonlinear Froude-Krylov (FK) hydrostatic and hydrodynamic forces. This is in contrast with previous studies where linear approximations are used in the form of a hydrostatic stiffness force and a wave excitation force. The nonlinear forces become significant when the vertical displacement of the buoy exceeds about 40% of the buoy's radius. Two versions of MPC are compared where optimal …

Torrefaction Of Mixed Solid Waste, Zhuo Xu

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

The world is witnessing unprecedented accumulation of solid wastes in the environment and landfills with well-documented ecological, environmental, health, and economic consequences. With population growth and rise in living standards, solid wastes generation will increase, making the issue more pressing. In addition, current practices of solid waste disposal are creating an immediate challenge and a long-term disaster-scale problem. The solid wastes comprises two main groups of materials: (i) fiber wastes (paper, food, wood, trimming, 61% of U.S. municipal solid waste) and (ii)uniquely challenging subset of plastic wastes (13%) that become a threat to global sustainability including dangers to marine and …

Carbon Capture And Utilization, Sriram Valluri

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

As the world moves towards clean energy initiative, carbon capture and utilization technologies are key to achieving net zero emissions. CO2 capture with amines has many disadvantages and cannot be applied to commercial power plants. The current manuscript will address this issue as well as a solution that involves the use of low-cost alkali absorbent CO₂ capture solutions, combined with an electrochemical regeneration method that uses the least amount of energy available for capture and regeneration. This research will also further address the issue of how to deal with the captured CO2. Several viable storage and utilization methods have …

Real Time Adaptive Relay Settings For Microgrid Protection Verified Using Hardware In Loop, Aadam Harnekar

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Microgrids with penetration of renewables is imposing new challenges for system protection. Renewables are characterized with high source impedance which limit the short circuit current. The value of short-circuit current is limited due to converters used which limit the current to a maximum of 1.1 to 1.5 times maximum rated load current. This can result in faults during the islanded mode of microgrid to go unnoticed if the relay settings are not adapted to account for it. The presence of such uncleared faults in the microgrid can result in exposing it to overcurrent for a long time which can damage …

An Overview Of Converting Kabul’S Traffic Circles And Rotaries To Modern Roundabouts, Mohammad Anas Taeb

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Circular intersections, in the form of traffic circles and rotaries, were built around the world in the first half of the twentieth century. However, with the rise in traffic flow, regular traffic congestion and accidents forced authorities to look for alternative solutions and, in many cases, signalized intersections became the preferred alternative. In the 1960s, the UK introduced concept of modern roundabouts and a new set of priority rules for the circulating traffic. Since the inception of modern roundabouts, they have enhanced both operational and safety aspects at these locations, even when used to replace large traffic circles/rotaries, proving that …

The Extraction Of Waxes And Lipids From Sorghum Using Green And Renewable Solvents Followed By Conversion To Biofuels Using Gamma-Valerolactone Pretreatment, Marissa Gallmeyer

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Plant matter contains waxes and lipids that can be extracted and used or sold as a value-added product prior to conversion of the remaining plant material to biofuels. Wax and lipid extraction of plant materials is currently performed using volatile, non-renewable hydrocarbons, primarily hexane, which is produced from fossil fuels and can pose a health and safety hazard. The purpose of this study is to compare the amount and characteristics of waxes extracted by hexane with those extracted using organic solvents that are less toxic and can be produced from renewable sources.

Sorghum samples were extracted separately with hexane, 2-methyltetrahydrofuran …

The Application Of Leaky Wave Antennas For Medical Hyperthermia Treatment And Beamformer In Fmcw Automotive Radar Systems, Masoud Sarabi

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Thousands of years ago human discovered that if a slice of amber is rubbed against fur, it would absorb light-weight objects. Hundreds of years after that the ancient people figured out that there are actually two different characteristics of attraction and repulsion. Another 2000 years passed when human discovered that these two wonders of nature, magnetism and electricity are actually linked together like the two sides of the same coin. Since then, in the early 19th century great huge achievements were made in antennas and propagation by scientists such as Hans Christen Oersted, Heinrich Hertz, Alexander Popov and Marconi. Since …

Local Watershed Analysis For Hubbell And Lake Linden, Michigan, Brittany Hubbard

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

This report analyzes flood frequency risk, examines drainage, and delineates local level watershed characteristics for the Site located in western HUC 12-040201 030304 Torch Lake Subwatershed. Specifically, unnamed catchments in need of HUC-14 or HUC-16 local level delineation are evaluated to determine the effects of excess runoff on the cities of Hubbell and Lake Linden, Michigan. Further, this report aims to identify the location of known or suspected historical and current drainage infrastructure, and to prioritize locations for low-impact sustainable designs that reduce excess runoff and provide flood protection for these lakeshore communities.

Thermomechanical Mechanisms That Cause Adhesion Of Aluminum High Pressure Die Castings To The Die, Alex Monroe

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

In high pressure die casting (HPDC) of aluminum, cast material adhering to die is a significant defect. Adhesion occurs in two primary ways. The casting may stick preventing its removal from the die. Aluminum can also adhere to the die and buildup in local areas on the die surface with additional casting cycles. This second form of adhesion is called soldering. Lubricant is the best technology to control all forms of adhesion, but it comes at the cost of casting porosity, blisters, reduced die life, and increased die casting machine wear. New strategies to prevent adhesion are desired to eliminate …

Saturation Behaviors In Deep Turbulence, Jeffrey R. R. Beck

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Distributed-volume atmospheric turbulence near the ground significantly limits the performance of incoherent imaging and coherent beam projection systems operating over long horizontal paths. Defense, military and civilian surveillance, border security, and target identification systems are interested in terrestrial imaging and beam projection over very long horizontal paths, but atmospheric turbulence can blur the imagery and aberrate the laser beam such that they are beyond usefulness. While many post-processing and adaptive optics techniques have been developed to mitigate the effects of turbulence, many of these techniques do not work as expected in stronger volumetric turbulence, or in many cases don't work …

Integrated Torrefaction-Extrusion System For Conversion Of Fiber-Plastic Wastes Into Solid Fuels, Shreyas Kolapkar

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Waste generation is increasing, and a significant portion is being landfilled. In parallel, we are constantly pursuing cleaner fuels due to environmental and regulatory factors. To address both these challenges, torrefaction of wastes to produce clean fuels and feedstock for other thermochemical processes is one of the potential solutions. This work focuses on (a) fundamental understanding of the properties of un-torrefied and torrefied wastes and (b) development of a pilot-scale integrated torrefaction-extrusion system for converting fiber-plastic wastes to solid fuels.

In this study, a 60:40 fiber-plastic waste blend was used for performing extensive experiments on densified and un-densified wastes to …

Atomistic Monte Carlo Simulation Study Of Phase Transitions In Metal Alloys, Xiaoxu Guo

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

The atomic-scale Monte Carlo simulation study focuses on the intrinsic behaviors of a defect-free crystal that undergoes a cubic-to-tetragonal martensitic transformation. The quasi-spin variable associated with the lattice sites characterizes the local unit cells of the orientation variants of the ground-state martensite phase, which interact with each other through long-range elastic interactions. It is shown that the diffuse scattering in the premartensitic austenite state results from the spatial correlation of the atomic-scale heterogeneous lattice displacements and manifests the displacement short-range ordering. The effects of temperature, elastic anisotropy, and shear modulus softening on the diffuse scattering and displacement short-range ordering are …

Advancement Of Full-Vector Variable-Temperature Magnetometry For Rock-Magnetic And Paleointensity Applications, Leonid Surovitskii

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Data on the variation of the direction and strength of Earth’s ancient magnetic field (absolute paleointensity) provide crucial information into the mechanisms of the geodynamo and the Earth’s thermal history. However, the use of conventional methods and instrumentation for absolute paleointensity determination has been hampered by physicochemical alteration of the samples caused by multiple high-temperature cycles and long experiment durations. The reliability and efficiency of the measurement process can be improved by the measurement of the full remanent magnetization vector simultaneously with the temperature cycling of a sample. Such as approach can also substantially expand the scope of materials available …

Role Of Eta Phase Evolution On Creep Properties Of Nickel Base Superalloys Used In Advanced Electric Power Generation Plants, Ninad Mohale

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Advanced fossil energy power generation plants require materials that withstand high temperatures and corrosive environments. One such material that is used in steam turbines is Nimonic 263. It is a nickel-base superalloy that is principally strengthened by gamma primephase (Ni₃(Ti, Al)) and has an L1₂structure. At extended times and at turbine operating temperatures however, eta (Ni₃Ti) phase is known to form at the expense of gamma prime. Eta has a complex DO₂₄structure and is the stable phase between 750°C and 900°C, but with slow kinetics of formation. Little is understood about eta …

Defect Detection Using Dynamic Analysis For Additive Manufactured Metals, Gita Deonarain

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Additive manufacturing (AM) has the ability to produce parts with complex geometries and internal features, however, for demanding applications such as the automotive and aerospace industries, it is crucial that the parts can meet the demanding functional and geometric requirements. Quality control for AM parts focuses on nondestructive methods of testing, but many of the current methods are expensive and time-consuming. The research presented in this report explores various methods of nondestructive evaluation (NDE) using dynamic analysis on stainless steel parts produced with selective laser melting (SLM). Methods include, but are not limited to, frequency response functions (FRF), impedance-based measurements, …

Open-Source Tig-Based Metal 3d-Printing, Shane Oberloier

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Metal 3-D printing has been relegated to high-cost proprietary high-resolution systems and low-resolution low-cost metal inert gas (MIG) systems. In order to provide a path to high-resolution, low-cost, metal 3-D printing, this manuscript proposes a new open source metal 3-D printer design based around a low-cost tungsten inert gas (TIG) welder coupled to a commercial open source self replicating rapid prototyper. Optimal printing parameters for the machine are acquired using a novel computational intelligence software. TIG has many advantages over MIG, such as having a low heat input, clean beads, and the potential for both high-resolution prints as well as …

Effects Of Microporous Structure On The Enzymatic Conversion Of Biomass Using A Multiscale Model, Saketh Merugu

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

The generation of biofuels from lignocellulosic biomass involves innovative process technology that is being investigated worldwide. Enzymatic hydrolysis is a major step in the contemporary process of the generation of biofuels. Guided by pore size distribution measured using NMR cryoporometry, we developed pore-enzyme diffusion and adsorption models at the particle level coupled with a kinetic model for cellulose, cellobiose, and glucose production at flask level. By simulating these models in MATLAB, COMSOL, and Polymath software packages, we investigate the effects of various biomass particle-related parameters (particle dimensions, porosity, enzyme accessibility) on the characteristic time of enzyme diffusion and adsorption and …

Model-Based Predictive Controller Design, Soheil Sadeghi

Graduate Research Papers

Process control in industries is becoming more critical due to demands on reducing consumed energy, reducing cost, and improving system efficiency and performance. In this work, a well-developed, model-based controller is introduced and implemented in one of the most common processes in the industry. Model Predictive Controller (MPC) has been studied for ten years, but recently has emerged into small industries as the number of current applications grows. These controllers need a process model in the forms of transfer functions, step response, or state-space. Although obtaining a process model can be a cumbersome task, it is worth having it (the …

A New Hybrid Genetic Algorithm For Protein Structure Prediction On The 2dtriangular Lattice, Bouroubi Sadek, Nabil Boumedine

Turkish Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences

The flawless functioning of the protein is essentially related to its three-dimensional structure. Therefore,predicting protein structure from its amino acid sequence is a fundamental problem that draws researchers' attentionin many areas. The protein structure prediction problem (PSP) can be formulated as a combinatorial optimization problem based on simplified lattice models such as the hydrophobic-polar model. In this paper, we propose a new hybridalgorithm that combines three different known heuristic algorithms: the genetic algorithm, the tabu search strategy,and the local search algorithm to solve the PSP problem. Regarding the evaluation of the proposed approach, wepresent an experimental study, where we consider …