Engineering Commons^™

Drone Payload Storage & Release System (Dpsrs), Joseph E. Key

All Undergraduate Projects

The retail giant Amazon has become a household name synonymous with nearly instantaneous online shopping. What previously took weeks to deliver at exorbitant shipping fees can now arrive at your doorstep within two days—and all for free. This huge buyer incentive has skyrocketed the demand for online shopping, making Amazon the most valuable brand in the world. To meet this demand, Amazon and its distributors have proposed using drones to make deliveries. However, due to issues with cost and complexity, this has not yet materialized. As such, this project’s objective was to create a cheap and lightweight package-delivery system that …

Tensile Specimen Punch, Triet Huynh

All Undergraduate Projects

There is a significant demand of tensile specimen for the students in MET 426 Lab. The solution would be to facilitate specimen production in the lab. This project designed a punch and die to take raw sheet material and produce some tensile specimens. The project was conceived, analyzed, and designed at the Central Washington University (CWU) Mechanical Engineering Technology department. Working within the constraints of our university resource, all the parts were made in the CWU machine shop. This project includes the base, that holds the specimen in place, and the punch, that will remove the material. Two dies and …

Composite Ruddervator Replacement, Kelson Mills

All Undergraduate Projects

The Beechcraft V-tail Bonanza is a popular general aviation aircraft. Over 10,000 were built, but with the weakness of magnesium skinned control surfaces. Control surfaces on aircraft must be light, and precisely balanced. The V-tail Bonanza uses a unique “ruddervator” system, which combines the rudder and elevator into one surface to reduce drag, controlling the pitch and yaw of the aircraft. Magnesium was chosen by the designers for its lightweight properties, but corrodes badly and is becoming difficult to source for replacement parts. Aerodynamic flutter, from flexibility in the lightly built surface, and corrosion can cause breakup in flight, and …

Footsteps Power Generator, Faisal Alonazi, Mohammed Aljohani

All Undergraduate Projects

This project was motivated by the need for a device that would generate electricity from human motion, especially footsteps. Electricity is a very important resource in our daily life. There are numerous sources from which generate electrical energy. The major sources of energy include but are not limited to coal, natural gas, petroleum, and nuclear energy. Most of these sources have adverse effects on the environmental inclusion such as air pollution; for example, from coal energy generation plants which then cumulatively leads to effects such as increase in rates of global warming. This project seeks to establish an environmentally friendly …

General Aviation Modular Electric Tow Bar, Devon Tandberg

All Undergraduate Projects

In general aviation, pilots use either a tow bar or a tug to maneuver their planes to and from its parking place. A tow bar is a lightweight human powered device that allows a pilot to push and pull his/her pane by themselves using human power. A tug is a similar device, except much bigger and heavier, and is electrically powered, allowing for an easier time maneuvering a plane. The downside to a tug is since they are bigger and heaver, they cannot be taken with a pilot on a trip. The goal of this project was to combine the …

R/C Mini Baja Car: Drive Train And Steering, Carlton R. Mcdonald

All Undergraduate Projects

The purpose of the Baja R/C Car is to compete in the ASME eFX competition in a series of events to prove the functionality of the vehicle. This series of events includes the Slalom, Drag, and Baja race, The Slalom is a test in the steering capability of the vehicle, the Drag is a test in the acceleration of the vehicle in a straight line, and the Baja puts all factors together in a race to test every component of the vehicle. This project is about building an R/C car that not only functions, but also has maximum performance capabilities …

Fire Fighter Robot, Sultan Alhajrri

All Undergraduate Projects

The Fire Fighter Robot has been made in this project which can fight against the fire and that should be controllable over WiFi from the particular distance. The main objective of the design was that to fabricate the frame of the robot on which the whole top part of the robot can sit. The main constraint was that high-level skills were required for the implementation of some sections. The bottom part of the robot was first designed on the SOLIDWORK and Fusion360 software. the Whole dimensions were set for the bottom part so that the water tank, camera and the …

Modular Hardtop, Dennis Fedorchuk

All Undergraduate Projects

Title and Author: Modular Hardtop by Dennis Fedorchuk

Abstract:

A Jeep Wrangler Hardtop is a product that becomes inconvenient during the hot summer days when someone wants to remove the top for the next few months of sunshine. The question that comes up is “Where does someone store the top in the offseason?”. Unless an individual has a hardtop hoist in the garage, the hardtop will take up half of the garage. What if that individual does not want to drill holes in the ceiling or needs the floor space? That is where the Modular Hardtop comes into play. This …

Ev Clutch System, Jacob Yordy

All Undergraduate Projects

This project’s goal was to add a clutch system to an electrical vehicle at Central Washington University. The project’s second goal was to have the clutch system improve the electrical vehicle’s fuel economy for Electrathon events. Electrathon uses an equivalent mpg formula to determine an electrical vehicle’s “fuel economy.” Based on the amount of energy in kilo-Watt hours in a gallon of gas, Electrathon assumes each car uses 0.026 gallons of “gas” in the hour long race and the mpg value given to an electrical vehicle is based on the distance the vehicle travels in the race. Analyzes and problem …

Mechanical Footstep Power Generator, Mohammed Saleh Aljohani, Faisal Alonazi

All Undergraduate Projects

Mechanical Footstep Power generator

By Author: Mohammed Aljohani

Abstract

Modern technology is focusing on newer and better sources of energy. Among the important areas are power generation methods since electricity has become part of our lives. Various researchers have conducted surveys to find out the feasibility of converting renewable kinetic energy into electricity. Some of the works done in the past emphasized the selection of suitable materials and power generation systems designs that appear complicated and expensive. To ensure there is cost efficiency and energy efficiency better power generation systems need to be embraced.

The footstep power generator is a …

Outrigger Project, Jose Reyna, Tyler Hoffman

All Undergraduate Projects

Outrigger Project

Author: Jose Reyna ([email protected])

Co-Author: Tyler Hoffman ([email protected])

Mentors: Neil Hauff ([email protected]), Dr. Choi ([email protected]), Professor Pringle ([email protected]), Professor Bramble ([email protected]), Dr. J ([email protected])

Abstract

Agricultural areas sometimes experience cold weather in early spring and risk damage to crops due to freezing. To combat this issue, farms can employ temporary fans to keep the blossoms from freezing. The design of a 17-foot-tall wind turbine mounted on 7-foot-wide trailer can help mix the warm air that’s above the wind turbine with the colder air that’s below to keep the crop from freezing. These wind turbines can produce …

C-Molecules: Molecular-Guided Surgery With Fluorescence Imaging, Riley Karp, Joshua Gutow, William Wolfe-Mcguire

ENGS 89/90 Reports

Surgeries may cost lives if performed inadequately, which is why tools such as fluorescence guided surgery exist to improve surgical outcomes. Fluorescence guided surgery (FGS) is the practice of injecting patients with a fluorescent molecule that, in combination with highly sensitive cameras, allows surgeons to clearly identify complex biological structures. While beneficial in procedures such as endoscopy and gallbladder surgery, this technique is most notable for its role in complex cancer surgeries where misidentifying the boundaries of a tumor can have deadly consequences. Although FGS has the potential to revolutionize cancer treatment, highly sensitive imaging systems are necessary to identify …

Compassionate Flexibility And Self-Discipline: Student Adaptation To Emergency Remote Teaching In An Integrated Engineering Energy Course During Covid-19, Laura A. Gelles, Susan M. Lord, Gordon D. Hoople, Diana A. Chen, Joel Alejandro Mejia

School of Engineering: Faculty Scholarship

The global pandemic of COVID-19 brought about the transition to Emergency Remote Teaching (ERT) at higher education institutions across the United States, prompting both students and the faculty to rapidly adjust to a different modality of teaching and learning. Other crises have induced disruptions to academic continuity (e.g., earthquakes, hurricanes), but not to the same extent as COVID-19, which has affected universities on a global scale. In this paper, we describe a qualitative case study where we interviewed 11 second-year Integrated Engineering students during the Spring 2020 semester to explore how they adapted to the transition to remote learning. Our …

Assessing 3d Printability Of Bioinks, Nicole Ramirez

Honors Undergraduate Theses

The field of tissue engineering (TE) is continuously improving through the use of additive manufacturing techniques (AM) such as three-dimensional (3D) bioprinting. The 3D bioprinter has significantly gained attention in the TE field because it is more efficient than regenerative medicine and is readily available as opposed to organ transplants. Working like a conventional 3D printer, the 3D bioprinter is able to dispense material layer by layer from the bottom up with the printing head able to move in the X, Y, and Z direction. This movement allows for the fabrication of structures with complex geometries. In this study, the …

A Generalized Low Order Model For Vortex Shedding From A Tandem Cylinder Arrangement Using Delay Coupled Van Der Pol Oscillators, Michael Soroka

Honors Undergraduate Theses

A generalized low order model (LOM) for the fluctuating lift coefficient caused by vortex shedding from a tandem cylinder pair is proposed to expand upon models from previous authors. This model could provide a reduced computational time method for collecting qualitative and quantitive data from a tandem shedding pair. A delay coupled system with sufficient bifurcation characteristics is developed to account for the different flow regimes (extended-body, reattachment, and co-shedding) which occur as cylinder spacing is varied. Coefficient and parameter fitting is performed to fit experimental data. Finally, results and physical interpretations of the interactions in the model are discussed. …

Investigating Factors Affecting Road Freight Overloading Through The Integrated Use Of Blr And Cart: A Case Study In China, Yikai Chen, Kai Wang, Yu Zhang, Renjia Luo, Shujun Yu, Qin Shi, Wenting Hu

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

Overloading of road freight vehicles accelerates road damage, creates unfair competition in the transport market, and increases safety risk. There is a dearth of research on the mining of data of highway Freight Weight (FW), and this paper therefore aims to discover factors affecting road freight overloading based on highway FW data, with a view of developing strategies to mitigate such occurrences. A comprehensive sampling survey of road freight transportation was conducted in Anhui Province (China). Vehicle Characteristics (VC), Operation Mode (OM), and transportation information from a total of 3248 trucks were collected. In order to take advantage of the …

High Order Explicit Semi-Lagrangian Method For The Solution Of Lagrangian Transport And Stochastic Differential Equations, Hareshram Natarajan

CGU Theses & Dissertations

A semi-Lagrangian method is developed for the solution of Lagrangian transport equations and stochastic differential equations that is consistent with Discontinuous Spectral Element Method (DSEM) approximations of Eulerian conservation laws. The method extends the favorable properties of DSEM that include its high-order accuracy, its local and boundary fitted properties and its high performance on parallel platforms for the concurrent semi-Lagrangian and Eulerian solution of a class of time-dependent problems that can be described by coupled Eulerian-Lagrangian formulations. Such formulations include the probabilistic models used for the simulation of chemically reacting turbulent flows or particle-laden flows. Motivated by the high-fidelity simulation …

Continuous Otm 33a Analysis Of Controlled Releases Of Methane With Various Time Periods, Data Rates And Wind Filters, Robert S. Heltzel, Mohammed T. Zaki, Aron K. Gebreslase, Omar I. Abdul-Aziz, Derek R. Johnson

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Other test method (OTM) 33A has been used to quantify emissions from natural gas sites since it was introduced by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The method relies on point source Gaussian (PSG) assumptions to estimate emissions rates from a targeted site or source. However, the method often results in low accuracy (typically ±70%, even under conducive conditions). These accuracies were verified with controlled-release experiments. Typically, controlled releases were performed for short periods (15–20 min) under atmospheric conditions that were ideal for effective plume transport. We examined three methane release rates from three distances over various periods of time ranging …

A Preliminary Study Of A Graphene Fractal Sierpinski Antenna, Alberto Boretti, Lorenzo Rosa, Jonathan Blackledge, Stefania Castelletto

Conference papers

We provide a preliminary study of a Graphene fractal antenna operating at THz frequencies with the opportunity to modulate the emission. There are a number of advantages of the fractal design, namely multiband/wideband ability, and, a smaller, lighter and simpler configuration for higher gain, that can benefit from the coupling with Graphene, the thinnest and strongest of materials exhibiting very high electrical conductivity and tunability. This paper proposes a conceptual background for the study and presents some preliminary results on the electromagnetic emission simulations undertaken

Impact Of Smart Phones’ Interaction Modality On Driving Performance For Conventional And Autonomous Vehicles, Francesca M. Favarò

Mineta Transportation Institute

Distracted driving related to cell phone usage ranks among the top three causes of fatal crashes on the road. Although forty-eight of 50 U.S. states allow the use of personal devices if operated hands-free and secured in the vehicle, scientific studies have yet to quantify the safety improvement presumed to be introduced by voice-to-text interactions. Thus, this study investigated how different modes of interaction of drivers with a smart phone (i.e., manual texting vs. vocal input) affect drivers’ distraction and performance in both conventional and semi-autonomous vehicles. The study was executed in a full-car integrated simulator and tested a population …

The Energy Efficiency And Living Comfort Of A Stabilized Rammed Earth Dwelling In Comparison With A Traditional Stud Frame Building, David C. Johnson Iii

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

During the last several decades, rammed earth construction has received renewed attention due to its many desirable characteristics. For construction, use, and end of life treatment, rammed earth construction has shown in research to reduce the embodied energy of residential building construction by 66-85% compared to building methods that use fired brick and concrete members. Research thus far also indicates that rammed earth construction may indeed be more energy efficient since the building material has a very high thermal inertia, henceforth, the rammed earth walls absorb thermal energy from the sun and release it into the building to reduce the …

Review Of Modern Nondestructive Testing Techniques For Civil Infrastructure, Shabnam Khanal

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The repair and maintenance of aging infrastructures, in the United States alone, are estimated to have backlogs of trillions of dollars. This has posed widespread concerns about the existing and proposed infrastructures to adequately sustain the quality of life in the near future. Efficient and cost-effective approaches, such as nondestructive testing (NDT), are therefore required to better shape our future. Various NDT techniques have been developed over the past two decades with cutting-edge advances towards investigation and condition assessment of civil infrastructures. While the performance of NDT techniques has reached unparalleled heights, limitations remain. On one side, are the instrument …

Innovative Fe(Iii)-Dosed Anaerobic Biological Treatment System: From Fe And S Biogeochemical Reactions To Engineering Process, Musfique Ahmed

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

In moving toward more sustainable wastewater management, anaerobic treatment is gaining increasing popularity due to its simplicity, low energy requirement, low sludge production and less emission of greenhouse gases compared to typical aerobic wastewater treatment systems. Electron acceptors such as nitrate, sulfate, and CO₂ have been used in various anaerobic processes for removal of organic matters from wastewater under anoxic or anaerobic environments. In energy producing regions, ferric iron, Fe(III), is a predominant element in iron containing wastes such as acid mine drainage (AMD) and coal ash, which can potentially be used as a source of iron in novel …

Semi Analytical Approach For Binary Mixture Conductivity In Hydraulic Fracturing, Vuong V. Pham

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

In hydraulic fracturing, a proppant injection schedule practice typically applies a binary proppant mixture (for example: 100 Mesh sand following by 40/70 Mesh sand in well MIP-3H, Marcellus Shale). The former injection agent is finer in size or less resistant to stress, whereas the latter injection agent is coarser in size or more resistant to stress. This practice creates a special region inside the fracture, in which two injected proppant types co-exist and is defined as the mixture zone. This research concentrates on the variability of the mixture zone under impact of different factors, introduces novel semi-analytical modelling approach to …

Utilization Of A Numerical Reservoir Simulation With Water And Gas Injection For Verification Of Top Down Modeling, Ashley Konya

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The primary purpose of this thesis was to confirm the capabilities of artificial intelligence and machine learning through Top Down Modeling in history matching and predicting the oil, gas, and water production rates, reservoir pressure, and water saturation, of one limb of an anticline with water and gas injection. Several other characteristics were also applied to make the model more realistic to industry standards. The second purpose of this thesis was to determine the minimum amount of training and calibration data required in order to obtain good results for this particular dataset by increasing the blind validation in one year …

Assess The Performance Against Ets And Pm1 And Evaluate The Users’ Experiences Of Comfort Of Nasal Filters, Ibrahim Almuhaidib

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Many cities around the world experience severe air pollution. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 7 million people die annually from exposure to small airborne Particulate Matter (PM) that is found in atmospheric pollution. Particulate matter in atmospheric pollution is one of six classifications of common air pollutants and is typically referred to as PM₁ and PM_2.5. Particulates designated as PM₁ and PM_2.5 refer to particles having aerodynamic diameters of 1 or 2.5 micrometer (µm), respectively. These size ranges of particles are the most commonly found in air pollution. It is hard to differentiate …

Application Of Decline Curve Analysis To Unconventional Reservoirs, Majed Hisham Kabbani

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Supply and demand are the main key factors for oil and gas industry. Moreover, natural gas was not important until early 18^th century after the World War II. The first shale gas well was successfully drilled 27 ft deep in 1821. The well was drilled in the Devonian Dunkirk shale. Later in the 1980s producers began investigating into the more difficult tight gas sands in order to keep up with the growing market. A decade later in 1990s investors were looking at coalbed methane. Today, as demand is increasing globally, the oil and gas industry is moving toward shale. …

Tolerance Intervals For Time Series Models And Specifying Trimming/Winsorizing Cutoffs, Kedai Cheng

Theses and Dissertations--Statistics

Confidence intervals are used to capture a parameter of interest, usually a mean or a quantile, at a specified confidence level. Prediction intervals are another practical interval that aim at making sound predictions of future values with some confidence. Although these are useful inference tools, neither of them gives people a plausible range of the sampled population. Tolerance intervals are such an inference tool that captures a specified proportion of the sampled population at a predetermined confidence level. In this dissertation, tolerance intervals for an autoregressive process with order p are constructed. In addition, a method of utilizing tolerance interval …

การปรับปรุงวิธีการจำแนกพรรณไม้ในเมืองด้วยภาพถ่ายทางอากาศความละเอียดสูง ด้วยการใช้รูปตัดตามแนวลองจิจูด และข้อมูลเสริมจากการสำรวจด้วยไลดาร์ทางอากาศ, สุภาภรณ์ รักษาล้ำ

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

การศึกษาเรื่องการกระจายตัวของต้นไม้ และการจำแนกพรรณไม้ในพื้นที่เมืองมีความจำเป็นอย่างมาก ต่อการบริหารจัดการและติดตามดูแลสิ่งแวดล้อมในเขตเมืองอย่างยั่งยืน งานวิจัยนี้นี้มีวัตถุประสงค์เพื่อปรับปรุงวิธีการจำแนกพรรณไม้ในเมืองด้วยภาพถ่ายทางอากาศความละเอียดสูงด้วยวิธีการจำแนกแบบต้นไม้การตัดสินใจ (Decision Tree) โดยใช้รูปตัดตามแนวลองจิจูด (Longitudinal Profiles) และข้อมูลเสริมจากการสำรวจด้วยไลดาร์ (LiDAR) ทางอากาศเพื่อจำแนกต้นไม้ 7 ชนิดในพื้นที่ศึกษาบริเวณสวนสาธารณะสวนหลวง ร.9 กรุงเทพมหานคร พบว่าการปรับปรุงวิธีการดังกล่าวจากงานศึกษาเดิมสามารถจำแนกต้นไม้ที่มีลักษณะต้นเดี่ยวและกลุ่มทั้ง 7 ชนิดได้อย่างถูกต้อง โดยได้ค่าความถูกต้องโดยรวมเฉลี่ย (Overall Accuracy) 78.7% สังเกตได้ว่าค่าความถูกต้องโดยรวมของการจำแนกมีค่าน้อยกว่างานอ้างอิงที่รายงานค่าความถูกต้อง Overall Accuracy ที่ระดับ 88.9% เนื่องจากลักษณะทางกายภาพของต้นไม้ทั้ง 7 ชนิด มีลักษณะใกล้เคียงกันและแยกออกจากกันได้ยากกว่างานอ้างอิงที่ศึกษาต้นไม้ในพื้นที่ศึกษาเพียงแค่ 3 ชนิด ในอนาคตหากมีการปรับปรุงวิธีการจำแนกด้วยการลดอิทธิพลจากผู้ทดลองและใช้วิธีการเรียนรู้เชิงลึก (Deep Learning) คาดว่าจะสามารถช่วยหาเงื่อนไขของการจำแนกที่ดีที่สุด (optimal criteria) และสามารถจำแนกต้นไม้ที่มีลักษณะใกล้เคียงกันให้ถูกต้องมากยิ่งขึ้นได้ อย่างไรก็ตามลัพธ์ที่ได้จากการวิจัยครั้งนี้ให้ค่าความถูกต้องอยู่ในเกณฑ์ที่ยอมรับได้ ซึ่งสามารถนำไปใช้เพื่อช่วยการบริหารจัดการต้นไม้ในพื้นที่ศึกษาอื่นทีมีพืชคล้ายกันได้อย่างมีประสิทธิภาพ

Aqueous And Oil Products From Hydrothermal Liquefaction Of Manure Digestate, Kenzie Burns

Honors Theses

Hydrothermal liquefaction is a promising thermochemical waste-to-energy (WtE) technology for conversion of wet biomasses, such as manure and digested manure, into value-added products, namely energy-rich biofuel and a nutrient-rich aqueous product. WtE technologies can address environmental issues relating to overproduction of organic wastes and increasing dependence on fossil fuels, which leads to climate change. HTL has not been implemented on a commercial scale, in part due to the uncertainty regarding specific reaction pathways for different feedstocks and ideal conditions for production of the most valuable products.

This research investigates the compositions of the aqueous and oil products from HTL of …