Engineering Commons^™

Multi-Fidelity Modeling For Aerothermal Analysis Of Deployable Planetary Entry Technologies, Mario J. Santos

Doctoral Dissertations

“NASA is developing deployable entry technologies in the form of the Hypersonic Inflatable Aerodynamic Decelerator (HIAD) and the Adaptable Deployable Entry Technology (ADEPT) vehicles to support human exploration of Mars. To ensure that these technologies are reliable under uncertain entry conditions and extreme aerothermal environments, uncertainty quantification must be integrated into the design process which typically requires large number of high-fidelity computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations with prohibitively high computational cost. To address this challenge, construction of multi-fidelity aerothermal response predictions which combine low-fidelity correlations with fewer high-fidelity CFD models in a way that produces highly accurate surrogates with reduced …

Enhanced Heavy Oil Recovery By Low Salinity Polymer Flood Combined With Microgel Treatment, Yang Zhao

Doctoral Dissertations

“Heavy oil resources account for a large portion of the total oil reserves around the world. The target heavy oil reservoir is located on Alaska’s North Slope (ANS). Advantages of low-salinity HPAM polymer (LSP) over high-salinity polymer (HSP) were demonstrated. LSP could recover more oil with 40% less polymer consumption. No additional oil was recovered by HSP after LSP flood. The first-ever polymer flood pilot on ANS showed remarkable success regarding water cut reduction, oil production increase, delayed breakthrough, and projected oil recovery improvement. Polymer alone was insufficient to achieve satisfactory recovery as the reservoirs were highly heterogeneous. Microgels could …

An Investigation Of Unsteady Thermal Exchange Processes In Geothermal Heat Exchangers, Ganesh Ravi Shanker

Doctoral Dissertations

“Geothermal heat exchangers, has become one of the highly recognized non conventional heat exchangers as they utilize renewable energy source earth to initiate the thermal energy transfer. However, these heat exchangers suffer from a expensive installation cost due to their conservative design model, thereby facilitating the need to identify and improve the design. In this dissertation, three gaps, which identifies improvement over conservative design were investigated, to assess the heat exchanger performance. In the first approach, borehole thermal and geometrical properties were investigated keeping the outlet leg of the heat exchanger as adiabatic, which neglects the thermal short-circuiting between the …

Adaptive Dynamic Programming Methods For Tracking Current Control Of Switched Reluctance Motor Drive, Hamad Alharkan

Doctoral Dissertations

“This research investigates the application of adaptive dynamic programming (ADP) methods for the current control of switched reluctance motors (SRM). Since the traditional current controllers have large current ripples that increase torque ripples and acoustic noise, optimal tracking controllers using reinforcement learning (RL) approaches are introduced as an alternative adaptive technique for SRM drives. The proposed optimal tracking controllers can minimize current ripples and cope with uncertainties within the inductance profile of the SRM. The work is composed of three papers. In the first paper, a novel Q-learning scheduling method for the current controller of a switched reluctance motor (SRM) …

Low Illumination Video Enhancement Based On Machine Learning, Mohsine Taarji

All ETDs from UAB

ow-brightness and image noise are common problems in computer vision that prohibit useful information extraction from video sequences. This problem is caused by insufficient illumination, low-quality cameras, external disturbances, and other factors. Dark image enhancement requires improvement of intensity and saturation; the missing data could be replaced by matching image regions using image feature detector-descriptor pairs. We proposed new metrics for evaluating image descriptors with regard to their uniqueness. Also, we developed new image enhancement techniques based on HSV color space. The idea behind the first contribution of our dissertation is to find the best descriptor that match pixels from …

Model Invariant Visual Tracking Using Deep Learning Of Trajectories, Pravinkumar G. Kandhare

All ETDs from UAB

A target tracking is a well-known computer vision problem due to its wide range of applications in industrial and biomedical domains, such as traffic planning and management, surveillance, robotics, economics, human-computer interaction prediction, and electrode tracking for surgical planning. A significant amount of research has been done to tackle the problem. However, it is still challenging to design a robust tracking system that can provide solutions for many real-world tracking applications and prediction. Most of the proposed tracking solutions are complex due to many model parameters. The overarching goal of this dissertation is to develop predictors and trackers that would …

Dynamic Biomechanical Characteristics Of The Optic Nerve Head By Oct Imaging, Jihee Kim

All ETDs from UAB

Approximately 80 million people in the world were estimated to suffer from glaucoma in 2020. To date, lowering intraocular pressure (IOP) is the only clinical treatment to delay or prevent the development and progression of glaucomatous vision loss. However, many glaucoma patients have IOP in the normal range, while some people with abnormally high pressure do not develop neuropathy. This indicates that biomechanical responses of the optic nerve head (ONH) to changes in IOP can vary significantly among individuals. This study investigated acute IOP-induced compliance in the ONH via SDOCT imaging, using computer vision, and deep learning networks to improve …

Applying Inverse Dynamics To A Biomechanical Model To Determine The Safety Of The Motogaitor, Ezzuddin Abuhussein

All ETDs from UAB

People with mobility impairments caused by conditions such as cerebral palsy (CP),stroke, and spina bifida have difficulty achieving high levels of exercise. The lack of exercise can lead to secondary conditions such as diabetes, obesity, and cardiovascular diseases. Gait-training devices are already commercially available; however, they are not fit for home use and are expensive. Therefore, there exists a need for an affordable gaittraining device that is compact and promotes exercise and rehabilitation in a home-setting. A motorized gait-training elliptical dubbed the “Motogaitor,” was designed by students to address the needs of people with mobility impairments. In this present study, …

Choking Under Pressure Detection Model Based On Expert System Foundation Using Tennis Performance Variables For Individual Performance Enhancement, Stepan Vancurik

All ETDs from UAB

Choking under pressure is a phenomenon understood as underperformance or suboptimal performance in a particular task or an action that occurs due to the presence of pressure situations. The phenomenon is feared by many people, especially athletes. Choking has been heavily addressed and studied in psychology and behavioral science research. Research works addressing the phenomenon have also been occasionally published in scientific literature; however, a structural approach to objectively measure, analyze, identify, and define its determinants is absent. Therefore, this dissertation study attempts to add to the existing choking research by proposing a novel approach for choking identification, analyzing domain …

Aerodynamic Analysis Of Utility Truck Safety In Severe Environments, Haibo Zhu

All ETDs from UAB

In the present study, the stability of utility trucks under strong wind conditions is analyzed. Since the lateral area of trucks is larger than that of ordinary vehicles, the impact of crosswind on trucks is the most serious. Therefore, the main consideration was to simulate the impact of crosswind conditions on the truck. The research direction of crosswinds affecting the performance of utility trucks can be divided into two major aspects: one is to consider crosswind aerodynamics, and the other is to test crosswind stability. In order to study the crosswind aerodynamics of the truck, the influence of the change …

Design, Construction, And Testing Of A Differential Resistance Elliptical Exercise Machine, John Easton

All ETDs from UAB

Hemiplegia and hemiparesis are life-altering conditions that lead to secondary effects including pain and health decline due to sedentary lifestyle. There exists a need for affordable, safe, and effective exercise equipment designed with these users in mind. Recent studies have demonstrated adaptability of post-stroke individuals to differential forces in a split belt treadmill regime, resulting in increased propulsive force generation of the paretic limb. An elliptical exercise machine with a differential resistance mechanism, free-wheeling motor assistance, and walker accessibility has been fabricated to test whether differential resistance is possible with an elliptical platform. Preliminary testing of 1 subject consisted of …

A Power Optimized Power Low-Noise High Linearity Rf Amplifier For Iot Applications, Shaoyu Fu

All ETDs from UAB

Recently, Ultra-Wide Band (UWB) technology has gradually become the focus of research in the wireless communication field. It is regarded as one of the key technologies of the next generation wireless communication system. FCC passed the UWB commercialization specification on February 14, 2002, the world’s first, allowing the use of low-power UWB systems in the 3.1 GHz to 10.6 GHz frequency band. UWB has more bandwidth than other wireless technologies that can be used, and at the same time it won’t seriously interfere with other wireless communication systems located in the same frequency band. In terms of transmission speed, UWB …

An Automation Framework Based On System Api To Improve The Execution Time And Reduce Test Flakiness, Tejaswini Subhash Chilke

All ETDs from UAB

Software Testing is an important activity in the software development life cycle. Software Testing is a process that ensures the quality of the software under development by evaluating whether it matches the requirement specifications provided by stakeholders and is defect-free. Software testing methodologies have evolved with the shift in the development models. Over the years new development model namely Agile is getting popular which practices a short release cycle typical of two to three weeks. The agile methodology requires a continuous cycle of coding and testing, thus reduced the time for elaborated testing. In addition to that modern software are …

Causey Reservoir Access Project: Improving Visitor Safety And Access Now And For The Future, Michael Merrill, Carly Jo Petersen, Isaiah Norman, Jordan Jones, Nathan Chidester

Civil and Environmental Engineering

In coordination with the Central Federal Lands Highway Division, the Causey Reservoir Access Project is a multidisciplinary endeavor to address infrastructural deficiencies around Causey Reservoir. The reservoir is a high-use land- and water-based recreation site on Cache National Forest, about a half hour east of Ogden, Utah. This project addresses a deteriorating bridge, insufficient parking, and roads damaged by landslides as shown in Figure 1.

Utah Transit Authority (Uta) Frontrunner Extension – Ogden To Brigham City, Ut, Cortni Chandler, Ned Mcfarlane, Kyler Nielsen, Tyson Roper, Joshua Ward

Civil and Environmental Engineering

UTA is planning to extend the FrontRunner commuter rail line (Fig. 1) from Ogden, Utah, to Brigham City, Utah, to enhance interurban transportation in Northern Utah between Box Elder, Weber, and Davis counties. UTA asked SpotOn Engineering to perform a feasibility analysis on extending the FrontRunner commuter rail line northward and to design a possible station location for the Brigham City area.

Design Of A Concrete Canoe For The Asce Competition With Washout Improvement And Hydraulic Testing, Nick Rogers, Izzy Timms, Minjie Kim, Jodiah Andresen, Hayden Quinn, Rex Guyer, Tyson Hymas

Civil and Environmental Engineering

The concrete canoe project is put together as a response to the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) issuance of a Request for Proposal (RFP) for their yearly competition. This year, the RFP expanded beyond its usual scope due to the influence of COVID-19, allowing more variability in the approach. While the requirements to design a hull, a mix design, and perform a structural analysis remained the same, the construction of the prototype was left as optional for each school. In place of the construction requirement, enhanced focus areas are implemented, letting the project have a broader scope with more …

Identification And Mitigation Of Harmful Algal Blooms In Mantua Reservoir, Jeffrey Kennedy, Timothy Place, Tyler Wallace, Steven White, Carolina Williams

Civil and Environmental Engineering

Cyanobacteria, also known as blue-green algae, are capable of emitting cyanotoxins which are harmful to humans and animals. Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs) occur when cyanobacteria multiply to great densities. Mantua Reservoir in Box Elder County, UT, experiences seasonal HABs, which has resulted in seasonal reservoir closures.

The EnVision team investigated the cause of HABs at Mantua Reservoir by collecting samples from the reservoir’s known point sources and frequently visited recreation areas. The samples were analyzed to determine total phosphorus, nitrate, and cyanotoxin concentrations. The team concluded that excessive phosphorus loading in the reservoir is most culpable for the annual HABs …

Idaho National Laboratory Water Test Bed: Improving The Security Of Water Distribution Systems, Sadie Boyer, Caleb Child, Maren Hulse, Emma Lyon, Dalton Richins, Andrew Walker

Civil and Environmental Engineering

To protect the water supply in our nation's cities, the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) built a test facility to evaluate how pollution moves in a water system. Mitigating harmful pollutants in municipal water distribution networks is crucial for the protection of city residents.

JARVIS Engineering worked with the INL to create the plans for a proposed expansion of the current, straight-line Water Security Test Bed to better model a city block.

An expanded looping system was designed by the JARVIS team and modeled in EPANET to provide flow values for various scenarios.

Logan Pass Improvement Project: Glacier National Park, Devan Peterson, Jordan Duncan, Kyle Horton, Luke Martineau, Jake Egley, Cooper Karras

Civil and Environmental Engineering

Glacier National Park has seen drastic increases in park visitation. The number of visitors has increased from 2.3 million to 3 million visitors in the past 5 years.

The Going to the Sun Road at Logan Pass exhibits an iconic overlook of the park. The parking lot is often full before 10:00 AM and remains full the remainder of the day during peak season (See Figure 1).

The purpose of the Logan Pass Improvement Project is to enhance visitor experience at Logan Pass. This will be accomplished by reducing traffic congestion and increasing safety and accessibility while maintaining the environmental …

Providence Ridge Subdivision, Karter Issacson, Seth Robertson, Skyler Allred, Brayden Chamberlain, Cody Zohner

Civil and Environmental Engineering

Cache Valley has a housing shortage. There is prime real estate in Providence to subdivide. The State of Utah is the first fastest growing State in the United States of America (U.S. Census Bureau, 2020)*

Temple Fork Dam, Riley Manwaring, Kendall Maedgen, Taylor Kesler, Logan Thackeray, John Sumsion, Adam Pack

Civil and Environmental Engineering

Constructing a dam in Temple Fork will provide additional water storage to meet the needs of a growing population in Cache County. A roller-compacted concrete (RCC) style dam is best suited for the current conditions at Temple Fork, which will provide a total of 10,000 acre-ft of water storage.

Timpanogos Wastewater Treatment Plant, Laura Christiansen, Silas Schneider, Marissa Croft, Melanie Sullivan, Brent Jacobson, Steven Wright

Civil and Environmental Engineering

The Timpanogos Special Service District (TSSD) wants to improve their Wastewater treatment facility. They requested that the new facility accounts for the following:

• Smell coming from the drying beds.

• Future population growth in the area.

• New phosphorus limitations in the effluent set by the state of Utah.

• Treat wastewater to meet Type 1 reuse standards.

In Figure 1, the image displays the current service area for TSSD. TSSD serves 10 different cities, and currently discharges the effluent wastewater into Utah Lake. Utah Lake has problems with algal blooms. Reducing the amount of nutrients discharged into Utah …

Vadose Zone Recharge Through Shallow Hydraulic Fracturing, Daniela Barrera-Zarco, Lucila Campos, Ryan Eberhard, Brackon Rawlinson

Civil and Environmental Engineering

Effective utilization of water is an ever-increasing concern throughout the world. Finding new ways to store and effectively utilize water received from rainfall events is crucial to mitigate flooding and to recharge the Earth’s subsurface aquifers. In a growing and changing world, the need for adaptive and cost-effective solutions to water storage and utilization is critical.

Solutions Centered Engineering (SCE) set out to find an economical and environmentally friendly solution to the collection and storage of water. We were specifically searching for ways to reduce runoff and recharge water in the vadose zone. The vadose zone is below the ground …

Utah State University Parking Garage, Reed Burr, Ty Koppenhafer, Nathan Lamoreaux, Taylor Shapiro, Kaehan Shour, Nathan Williams

Civil and Environmental Engineering

Utah State University (USU) is known for its excellent engineering and agricultural programs. USU’s main campus is in Logan, UT and is Utah’s largest public residential campus.

USU’s Logan campus currently has a parking deficiency that cannot accommodate increasing parking demand each year.

• USU had a total of 17,667 students and 2,585 faculty and staff during the Fall 2019.

• Only 8,924 parking spots available to accommodate this student and staff population.

• Office of enrollment is expecting a growth of 691- 1400 more students by 2025.

• USU’s 2017 Transportation Master Plan determines a need for 414 additional …

Comparison And Evaluation Of Two Sensors For Dynamic Measuring Of Foam Level In Single-Use Bioreactors, Alyssa Cisneros, Harley Cragun, Crystal Rain Fowler, Mikelle Kearnes, Annika Saunders

Biological Engineering

Single Use Bioreactors (SUBs) are used for microbial cell culture for many industries, such as cell cultures of pilot-studies, food, and cosmetics¹. Foaming in bioreactors is common and is responsible for the fouling of equipment.

• The goal of the project is to test and develop two possible dynamic foam level sensors for the 30 and 300L SUBs

Objectives:

1. Manufacture a scalable foam sensor housing unit

2. Create a program that allows for ease of sensor use when implemented into controller

3. Safe for biological cultures

4. Test the system to ensure accurate and simple sensor output …

Computational Model Of Angiogenesis In Wet Age-Related Macular Degeneration, Kelsey Bradshaw, Michael Cotner, Jacilyn Fielding, Andrew Kjar, Teren Teeples

Biological Engineering

Age-Related Macular Degeneration (AMD)

• Leads to vision loss and blindness

• Localized to subretinal layers (Figure 1.)

Electrocoagulation For Removal Of Nitrates From Fgd Wastewater, Jacob Watkins, Julissa Van Renselaar, Amanda Moravek, Tallon Beckstrom, Shaylynn Cannon

Biological Engineering

Flue gas desulfurization (FGD) processes are often utilized to mitigate pollution from coal-based plants by removing sulfur oxides¹. However, FGD wastewater streams still contain pollutants such as nitrates that must undergo further treatment². The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has Effluent Limitation Guidelines (ELG) that dictate the allowable concentrations of the contaminants in FGD wastewater effluent. While common treatment approaches can meet these requirements, efficiency drops with chemical concentration flux, which is a common situation with FGD wastewater. A novel method that could both meet ELG requirements and handle chemical concentration flux is electrocoagulation (EC). EC is able to target a …

Optically Transparent Microwave Absorber Based On Water-Based Moth-Eye Structures, H Kwon, G D’Aguanno, Andrea Alù

Advanced Science Research Center

We propose an approach to realize an optically transparent microwave absorber based on water-based moth-eye metamaterial structures. The absorber is made of a periodic array of properly shaped glass caps infiltrated with distilled water. Analytical calculations and numerical simulations show that the water-based metamaterial absorbs electromagnetic waves over a wide spectral band ranging from 4GHz to well above 120GHz, showing absorption levels close to 100% for incident radiation that ranges from normal to grazing angles, for both TE and TM polarizations. Yet, the structure is optically transparent, offering exciting opportunities in a variety of civil and military applications, such as …

Doping Graphene With Substitutional Mn, Pin-Cheng Lin, Renan Villarreal, Simona Achilli, Harsh Bana, Maya N. Nair, Antonio Tejeda, Ken Verguts, Stefan De Gendt, Manuel Auge, Hans Hofsäss, Steven De Feyter, Giovanni Di Santo, Luca Petaccia, Steven Brems, Guido Fratesi, Lino M. C. Pereira

Advanced Science Research Center

We report the incorporation of substitutional Mn atoms in high-quality, epitaxial graphene on Cu(111), using ultralow-energy ion implantation. We characterize in detail the atomic structure of substitutional Mn in a single carbon vacancy and quantify its concentration. In particular, we are able to determine the position of substitutional Mn atoms with respect to the Moiré superstructure (i.e., local graphene-Cu stacking symmetry) and to the carbon sublattice; in the out-of-plane direction, substitutional Mn atoms are found to be slightly displaced toward the Cu surface, that is, effectively underneath the graphene layer. Regarding electronic properties, we show that graphene doped with substitutional …

Smart Parking Systems: Reviewing The Literature, Architecture And Ways Forward, Can Biyik, Zaheer Allam, Gabriele Pieri, Davide Moroni, Muftah O' Fraifer, Eoin O' Connell, Stephan Olariu, Muhammad Khalid

Computer Science Faculty Publications

The Internet of Things (IoT) has come of age, and complex solutions can now be implemented seamlessly within urban governance and management frameworks and processes. For cities, growing rates of car ownership are rendering parking availability a challenge and lowering the quality of life through increased carbon emissions. The development of smart parking solutions is thus necessary to reduce the time spent looking for parking and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The principal role of this research paper is to analyze smart parking solutions from a technical perspective, underlining the systems and sensors that are available, as documented in the …