Engineering Commons^™

The Effects Of Aircraft Use And Available Repar Spares On Aircraft Sortie Generaiton: A Long-Duration Logistical Wargaming Simulationtool, Nathaniel M. Choo

Theses and Dissertations

A long-duration logistical wargame simulation tool that can provide quick insights into the daily aircraft availability and the daily number of missions accomplished for a variety of operational scenarios is developed. This simulation tool is designed to be a stepwise wargaming support tool for adjudication within long-duration logistical wargames and provides the user many capabilities including, but not limited to, the ability to have multiple bases and types of aircraft. Additionally, the user has the ability to control types of part failures, control parts availability, control maintenance capabilities, and control number of mission scheduled. Finally, the user can account for …

An Analysis Of The Benefits And Difficulties Of Aerial Magnetic Vector Navigation, Aaron J. Canciani, Christopher J. Brennan

Faculty Publications

Recent successful flight tests have demonstrated scalar magnetic anomaly navigation to be a viable GPS-alternative navigation system. These flight tests matched magnetic field measurements to maps of the Earth's crustal magnetic field in order to navigate. Scalar magnetic navigation uses only the magnetic field intensity, not direction, in order to navigate. While it appears obvious to extend aerial magnetic navigation to use the full vector field, in practice there are substantial obstacles to doing so. This article explores the key challenges of magnetic vector navigation including current sensor limitations, lack of high frequency magnetic vector maps of the Earth's crust, …

Homotopy Simulation Of Dissipative Micropolar Flow And Heat Transfer From A Two-Dimensional Body With Heat Sink Effect: Applications In Polymer Coating, O. A. Bég, B. Vasu, A. K. Ray, T. A. Beg, A. Kadir, H. J. Leonard, Rama S. R. Gorla

Faculty Publications

Non-Newtonian flow from a wedge constitutes a fundamental problem in chemical engineering systems and is relevant to processing of polymers, coating systems, etc. Motivated by such applications, the homotopy analysis method (HAM) was employed to obtain semi-analytical solutions for thermal convection boundary layer flow of incompressible micropolar fluid from a two-dimensional body (wedge). Viscous dissipation and heat sink effects were included. The non-dimensional boundary value problem emerges as a system of nonlinear coupled ordinary differential equations, by virtue of suitable coordinate transformations. The so-called Falkner-Skan flow cases are elaborated. Validation of the HAM solutions was achieved with earlier simpler models, …

Improved Virus Isoelectric Point Estimation By Exclusion Of Known And Predicted Genome-Binding Regions, Joe Heffron, Brooke K. Mayer

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Knowledge of the isoelectric points (pIs) of viruses is beneficial for predicting virus behavior in environmental transport and physical/chemical treatment applications. However, the empirically measured pIs of many viruses have thus far defied simple explanation, let alone prediction, based on the ionizable amino acid composition of the virus capsid. Here, we suggest an approach for predicting the pI of nonenveloped viruses by excluding capsid regions that stabilize the virus polynucleotide via electrostatic interactions. This method was applied first to viruses with known polynucleotide-binding regions (PBRs) and/or three-dimensional (3D) structures. Then, PBRs were predicted in a group of 32 unique viral …

Parallelization Of The Advancing Front Local Reconnection Mesh Generation Software Using A Pseudo-Constrained Parallel Data Refinement Method, Kevin Mark Garner Jr.

Computer Science Theses & Dissertations

Preliminary results of a long-term project entailing the parallelization of an industrial strength sequential mesh generator, called Advancing Front Local Reconnection (AFLR), are presented. AFLR has been under development for the last 25 years at the NSF/ERC center at Mississippi State University. The parallel procedure that is presented is called Pseudo-constrained (PsC) Parallel Data Refinement (PDR) and consists of the following steps: (i) use an octree data-decomposition scheme to divide the original geometry into subdomains (octree leaves), (ii) refine each subdomain with the proper adjustments of its neighbors using the given refinement code, and (iii) combine all subdomain data into …

The Effect Of Compaction Temperature And Pressure On Mechanical Properties Of 3d Printed Short Glass Fiber Composites, Pushpashree Jain Ajith Kumar Jain

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Among many thermoplastics that are used in engineering, polyamide 6 (nylon 6) is an extremely versatile engineering thermoplastic. Nylon filled with glass fibers has higher mechanical strength and high wear resistance than general purpose nylon. 3D printed composites, based on fused filament modeling, typically suffer from poor bead-to-bead bonding and relatively high void content, limiting their mechanical properties

This thesis explores the effect of compaction pressure and temperature on improving the mechanical properties of 3D printed composites. Engineering moduli in the printing and transverse to printing direction, as well as ultimate strength were measured using the tensile testing with Digital …

Framework For Reasoning With Speech Processing, Ahmed Laarfi

Theses and Dissertations

It is known that programming languages are textual. We try here to take the advantages of Speech Recognition (SR) and employ them in creating a verbal Language, which takes its instruction from the voice. Because this work is a novel approach in the programming world, we could not find any resources. This dissertation aims to make essential developments in Speech Recognition (SR)and Artificial Intelligence by constructing a new compiler that receives commands verbally and executes them. That means entering data into the Computer by voice commands. This method of input means that we link several major computer topics with several …

Modern Standard Arabic Speech Recognition: Using Formants Measurements To Extract Vowels From Arabic Words’ Consonant-Vowel-Consonant-Vowel Structure, Mohamed Ali Alshaari

Theses and Dissertations

Arabic texts suffer from missing diacritics (short vowels) which become obstacles for new learners. Speech Recognition is the translation of words spoken to text through intelligent computer programs. As of today, it has been integrated into many computer systems. Arabic Speech Recognition has made progress over the years, but it is still not as good as English speech recognition due to the problem of short vowels not being recognized. This is mainly because the Arabic language is unlike the English language in the nature because it is a Semitic language. This is reflected in different characteristics such as grammar, morphology, …

A Modified Peng-Robinson Cubic Equation Of State Based On Bayesian Framework, Wei Chen

Theses and Dissertations

Peng-Robinson cubic equations of state (PR-EoSs) as one of the most popular two-parameter cubic equations of state (2P-EoSs) are widely used to calculate thermodynamic properties of pure substances and their mixtures. However, the prediction accuracy of 2P-EoSs varies significantly among different substances due to its intrinsic limitation. To this end, many modifications have focused on changing the dependence structure of 𝛼 function with temperature for PR-EoS to enhance prediction accuracy. In this paper, we propose a Bayesian framework to calibrate a new 𝛼 function, which is a bias-corrected parametrized model form for the PR-EoS. The developed PR-EoS with the calibrated …

A Finite State Automata-Based Description Of Device States For Function Modeling Of Multi-State Technical Devices, Ahmed Mohammed Sobhan Chowdhury

Theses and Dissertations

Many modern and innovative design problems require multi-modal, reconfigurable solutions. Function modeling (FM) is a common tool used to explore solutions in early stages of mechanical engineering design. Currently, function structure representations do not abet the modeling of formally-defined reconfigurable function models as graph-based function models used in early-stage systems design usually represent only one operational mode of the system. Currently there is a need, but no rigorous formalism to model multiple possible modes in the model and logically predict the behavior of the system as it transitions between the modes. Additionally, function modeling representations will benefit from dynamically capturing …

Development Of Nirs Based Noninvasive Cerebrovascular Regulation Assessment, Stephanie Marie Miller

Theses and Dissertations

Alterations to cerebral blood flow (CBF) have been implicated in diverse neurological conditions, including mild traumatic brain injury, microgravity induced intracranial pressure (ICP) and intraocular pressure (IOP) increases, and mild cognitive impairment. Near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS)-measured regional cerebral tissue oxygen saturation (rSO2) provides an estimate of oxygenation of the interrogated cerebral volume that is useful in identifying trends and changes in oxygen supply to cerebral tissue and has been used to monitor cerebrovascular function during surgery and ventilation. In this study, CO2-inhalation-based hypercapnic breathing challenges were used as a tool to simulate CBF dysregulation, and NIRS was used to monitor …

Nonlinear Frequency Tuning Of Pre-Curved Micro-Scale Beams, Mackenzie Rae Robatin

Theses and Dissertations

Micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) have many common advantages in applications due to their small size and ability to integrate with electronics. For MEMS with vibrating elements, other advantages include their tunable resonant frequencies and the frequency range in which the systems operate. Also, the damping in these devices is often so light that it is nearly negligible, resulting in sharp resonance peaks with good frequency selectivity. Most such devices are designed to operate in their linear range. However, large amplitudes are often desired in order to reduce the relative effects of noise. In such cases, due to mechanical and electrostatic nonlinear …

Salt Transport To Saturated Porous Media Under Unstable Conditions: Experimental, Analytical, And Numerical Studies, Kamal Mamoua

Theses and Dissertations

There are three main transport mechanisms that occur under unstable flow conditions: a) The transport of saltwater from the overlying salt source to the underlying porous media, b) the transport of an equivalent volume of displaced groundwater from the porous media into the source, and c) the transport of the saltwater through the porous media. In many situations; such as, estuaries, salt lakes, and landfills, it may be necessary to determine the rate of saltwater transport from an overlying unstable salt source that has heavier saline water overlying porous media fully saturated by lighter saline water. Studies of unstable density …

Evaluation Of Accumulated Strain From Both Cyclic Triaxial And Static Creep Tests On Unbound Pavement Materials, Amir Mohammad Sajjadi

Theses and Dissertations

In this research, the behavior of Limerock (LR) aggregates blended with different reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP) materials were investigated as an unbound base layer. Various combinations of LR and RAP, including 100%LR, 25%RAP75%LR, 50%RAP50%LR, and 100%RAP, were evaluated. Three main experiments performed on the samples were: static creep, static triaxial test, and cyclic triaxial test. The cyclic triaxial test was performed to measure the resilient modulus (MR) of materials. The results of the static triaxial test for 100% RAP showed that the deviator stress at failure steadily increased by increasing the confining pressure, while the 100% LR showed a maximum …

Finite Element Method For Assessment Of Air Cushion Skirt Performance, Thomas Arthur Lipscomb

Theses and Dissertations

The objective of this thesis is to create a method of simulating the performance of new materials for use in air cushion vehicle skirts. These systems currently exhibit unacceptable design lifetimes to be considered for widespread adoption, except in specific applications such a military or rapid transport, where high cost is not an obstacle. This project also focuses on using a new high strain to failure resin system that has recently been developed, in combination with high performance reinforcing fibers, to increase the lifespan of the skirt systems. Using industry-standard finite element modelling (FEM) software, a 3d model of the …

Extreme Response Analysis Of A Site-Specific Offshore Wind Turbine And Offshore Wind Farm Layout Optimization, Xiaosen Xu

Theses and Dissertations

Offshore floating wind turbines have been developed in deep water where bottom-fixed offshore wind turbines are cost-prohibitive. Gulf of Maine has one of the greatest potential wind energy on the east coast. A detailed analysis of metocean data is essential for the dynamic simulation of the floating offshore wind turbine and the offshore wind farm layout optimization. Wave scatter diagram represents the joint probability of significant wave height and peak periods. In the wind energy industry, turbulence intensity is defined as the standard deviation of the horizontal wind speed divided by the average wind speed over certain time period. Uniform …

Flight Tests Of Trajectory Energy Management Systems Using A Vertical Takeoff And Landing Vehicle, Emils Senkans

Theses and Dissertations

The rise of new aircraft propulsion methods (e.g. powered by batteries, fuel cells or hybrid electric systems), the increased use of automated and integrated flight control systems, and the envisioned use of personal Vertical Takeoff and Landing (VTOL) vehicles in urban environments (urban aerial mobility) leads to novel technical and regulatory challenges for aircraft manufacturers, certification authorities and operators. Of primary concern is operational safety, and closely connected pilot situation awareness and workload. A particular safety factor for operating VTOL vehicles that depend on propulsive lift for the majority of their operations and that are operated over urban terrain, is …

Test And Evaluation Of An Artec Leo 3d Scanner, Chelsea Alexis Reichard

Theses and Dissertations

With new and innovative technologies, companies have begun utilizing 3-Dimensional Scanners to reverse engineer objects of virtually any size or complexity. These scanners increase efficiency, allowing companies to import physical items into the computer without the hassle of modeling it themselves in Computer Aided Design (CAD) software. Although these highly advanced devices can be very fast and effective, we will be studying the surfaces that are incompatible to these scanners. The study performed in this research will test the limitations of a new, highly advanced, wireless 3D Scanner; The Artec Leo. For many scanners, including the one used in this …

Measuring Pilot Control Force In General Aviation: Strain Gauges And Load Cell, Benjamin David Wyma

Theses and Dissertations

Flight test requires a variety of sensors and data systems to accurately read variables on an aircraft during testing. One of these important variables is the pilots control force. Control force is used in many tests in flight test to ensure the aircraft being tested meets the required FAA standards. One essential test is stick free longitudinal stability where control force is needed to calculate the stick free neutral points of the aircraft [1]. The objective of the project was to explore two methods of electronically measuring control force and determining which method is best suited for Florida Institute of …

Existence Of Ballistic Capture Transfer Trajectories From Trans-Lunar Injection To Lunar Polar Orbit For All Lunar Phases At Time Of Departure, Anthony Lawrence Genova

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation reveals several families of trajectories that can reduce the change in velocity(ΔV) required to transfer from trans-lunar injection (TLI) to a lunar polar circular orbit with 100 km altitude by up to 26.5% compared to conventional transfers. The primary hypothesis states that such trajectories, termed lunar polar ballistic capture (LPBC) transfers, exist for all lunar phases at the time of lunar departure (i.e., initial lunar flyby).The existence of LPBC transfers for all lunar phases can enable missions with ride-share restrictions (CubeSat), limited propellant capability (small spacecraft), and/or payloads that are not time sensitive (cargo).Evidence to support the primary …

Efficient Edge Analytics: Addressing Cyber-Physical Masint With Machine Learning On Audio At The Edge, David Elliott

Theses and Dissertations

With the growth of the Internet of Things and the rise of Big Data, data processing and machine learning applications are being moved to cheap and low size, weight, and power (SWaP) devices at the edge, often in the form of mobile phones, embedded systems, or microcontrollers. The field of Cyber-Physical Measurements and Signature Intelligence (MASINT) makes use of these devices to analyze and exploit data in ways not otherwise possible, which results in increased data quality, increased security, and decreased bandwidth. However, methods to train and deploy models at the edge are limited, and models with sufficient accuracy are …

A Parametric Evaluation Of Iot Applications To Freight Transportation Using Model-Based Systems Engineering, Paul George Crawford

Theses and Dissertations

Industrial Internet of Things or IIoT consists of computing and communication at the operational edge of a value chain. Applications span manufacturing, energy, and transportation, among others. In the transportation context, IIoT translates to connected vehicle architecture and ITS applications. Current trends in communication allow more applications and devices to contribute to functions traditionally allocated to transportation ITS infrastructure. This poses challenges to design engineers to prototype emerging technologies in the existing transportation context and reduce integration, validation, and time to market. Model-based systems engineering is crucial step for IIoT deployment since it allows for a feature-rich digital representation of …

The Effect Of Intensive Auditory Cues On Flight Passengers’ Safe Behaviors, Tianhua Li

Theses and Dissertations

When passengers do not follow in-flight announcements, injuries can occur. It is critical to draw passengers’ attention and help them be aware of the importance of the instructions provided during in-flight announcements. Passengers’ attention can be improved by providing intensive auditory cues before announcements. The auditory cues with intensive acoustic parameters increase the hearers’ perceived level of urgency, and then, they are more likely to perform safer behaviors. Also, when the intensity level increases to an intermediate level, the stimulated persons should have better performance. However, when it increases excessively, their performance may be impaired. The study examined the effect …

Assessing The Methodological Quality Of Aviation Research: A Content Analysis Of Articles Published In Subscription And Open Access Aviation Journals 2014-2016, Isa Tuncman

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the study was to determine to what extent aviation research articles were consistent with commonly recommended research protocols. Using a purposive sampling strategy, two subscription and five open access journals published from 2014 to 2016 were targeted, and 139 articles were reviewed using a category based, researcher-developed coding form grounded in commonly accepted research practices presented in educational research methods textbooks. The form reflected models from the medical research community and employed a 3-point scoring rubric: 0 = Not Reported, 1 = Inadequate, and 2 = Adequate. At least two coders reviewed each article, and corresponding Krippendorff …

Hardware Implementations Of Ccsds Deep Space Ldpc Codes For A Satellite Transponder, Dana R. Sorensen

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Error-correction coding is a technique that adds mathematical structure to a message, allowing corruptions to be detected and corrected when the message is received. This is especially important for deep space satellite communications, since the long distances and low signal power levels often cause message corruption. A very strong type of error-correction coding known as LDPC codes was recently standardized for use with space communications. This project implements the encoding and decoding algorithms required for a small satellite radio to be able to use these LDPC codes. Several decoder architectures are implemented and compared by their performance, speed, and complexity. …

Hardware Development For The Generation Of Large-Volume High Pressure Plasma By Spatiotemporal Control Of Space Charge, Nikhil Boothpur

Electrical & Computer Engineering Theses & Dissertations

While generating a plasma under laboratory conditions, any attempt to scale the pressure and volume leads to instabilities due to the build-up of localized space-charge. This poses a challenge in the design of the discharge chamber, type of excitation field, and the type of gas that is used in the discharge. This work investigates a spatially and temporally varying electric field to control the formation of space-charge in large-volume (greater than 5 mm in the smallest dimension) near atmospheric pressure. The simulations show that in a space-charge dominated transport, the charged species disperse both in azimuthal and radial directions in …

Nanosecond Stimulation And Defibrillation Of Langendorff-Perfused Rabbit Hearts, Johanna Neuber

Biomedical Engineering Theses & Dissertations

The search for novel defibrillation methodologies focuses on minimizing deposition of energy to the heart, as this is an indicator for side effects including pain and tissue death. In this work, we investigate the effect of reducing the duration of the applied shocks from low milliseconds to the nanosecond range.

300 ns defibrillation was observed and confirmed to require lower energy than monophasic shocks by almost an order of magnitude with no tissue damage. Additionally, the safety factor, the ratio of median effective doses for electroporative damage and defibrillation, was similar for both durations. To predict how defibrillation shocks of …

Enhanced Traffic Incident Analysis With Advanced Machine Learning Algorithms, Zhenyu Wang

Computational Modeling & Simulation Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Traffic incident analysis is a crucial task in traffic management centers (TMCs) that typically manage many highways with limited staff and resources. An effective automatic incident analysis approach that can report abnormal events timely and accurately will benefit TMCs in optimizing the use of limited incident response and management resources. During the past decades, significant efforts have been made by researchers towards the development of data-driven approaches for incident analysis. Nevertheless, many developed approaches have shown limited success in the field. This is largely attributed to the long detection time (i.e., waiting for overwhelmed upstream detection stations; meanwhile, downstream stations …

The Bridge Newsletter Winter 2020, Missouri University Of Science And Technology

The Bridge Newsletter

-Kummers give largest single gift in the history of Missouri higher education
-$1M gift from the Sunderland Foundation completes ACML lab
-Miner alumni step up
-Academy of Civil Engineers inducts 11 new members

Improving Long-Term Vascular Graft Viability Using Peritoneal Pre-Implantation And Epsin-Mimetic Peptides, Mahyar Sameti

Theses and Dissertations

The primary goal of this project was to produce and develop a tissue-engineered small-diameter vascular graft which can replace the arteries and function well for long-term grafting. Implanting an electrospun tubular conduit into the peritoneal cavity to recruit autologous cells prior to grafting the conduit into the artery is a method to achieve this goal. Incorporating an epsin-mimetic peptide on the conduit prior to grafting is another proposed method to reach the goal. This will be accomplished through four complementary studies: (1) determining the effect of a pouch in peritoneal pre-implantation and reducing the potential peritoneal adhesion formation;(2) determining the …