Engineering Commons^™

Three-Dimensional Bioi/Biox (X = Cl Or Br) Nanohybrids For Enhanced Visible-Light Photocatalytic Activity, Yazi Liu, Jian Xu, Liqiong Wang, Huayang Zhang, Ping Xu, Xiaoguang Duan, Hongqi Sun, Shaobin Wang

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Three-dimensional flower-like BiOI/BiOX (X = Br or Cl) hybrids were synthesized via a facile one-pot solvothermal approach. With systematic characterizations by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), the Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET)specific surface area, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and the UV-Vis diffuse reflectance spectra (DRS), the BiOI/BiOCl composites showed a fluffy and porous 3-D architecture with a large specific surface area (SSA) and high capability for light absorption. Among all the BiOX (X = Cl, Br, I) and BiOI/BiOX (X = Cl or Br) composites, BiOI/BiOCl stands out as the most efficient photocatalyst under both visible and …

Tidal Energy And How It Pertains To The Construction Industry, Armin Latifi

Construction Management

Renewable Energy is on the forefront of many global discussions. The concern of numerous scientific findings on the impact humanity has had on the environment has grown in recent years. Since alternative energy sources, such as solar and wind, have already made substantial progress, I have decided to focus my attention on tidal energy specifically. This topic will serve as the main focus of this essay. Within this essay, I will examine how tidal energy pertains to the construction industry through four distinguished chapters: (1) What kind of tidal technology exist and what does the construction aspect of these tidal …

An Analysis Of The Benefits In Estimating At Different Pipe Union Labor Rates, A.J. Chamorro

Construction Management

This paper is an analysis of the costs and benefits of estimating at different union labor rates, based on the location of the project and which jurisdiction the project falls in. The basis of the research is a case study of a Bay Area mechanical contractor (Contractor X) which previously estimated at a single labor rate, and recently developed variable estimating. Through that case study, best practices are developed for union pipe trade estimating. The results of the case study show that estimating protocol should be determined on a project by project basis, and company resources and manpower have to …

Photovoltaic System Installation In Belize, Austin J. Stewart

Construction Management

California Polytechnic State University’s National Electrical Contractors Association Student Chapter (NECA) was selected by the ELECTRI Council to take part in its Student Passport Initiative program, through which participants engage in meaningful service-learning experiences in developing communities. The team was tasked with the design and construction of a photovoltaic system for San Pedro Roman Catholic Primary School in San Pedro, Belize, with the purpose of enabling the school to achieve carbon neutrality with respect to utility grid power consumption. The team of five students collaborated primarily with two professors, two alumni, and an accomplished electrical contractor from Belize to perform …

Aei Student Design Competition: Texas Tech Sports Performance Facility, Jacob G. Kockrow

Construction Management

The AEI Student Competition is an annual event that pushes students in the disciplines of engineering and construction management to collaborate and demonstrate creative solutions to the challenges presented. This year, the competition is focused on the new Texas Tech Sports Performance Sports Facility located in Lubbock, Texas, where they tore down the existing building and are in the process of completing the new facility. Instead of recreating the plans given, we designed a brand new building to meet the project requirements, which included a $48 million budget and a 34-month construction duration. As the Construction Manager for the project, …

Ui X-Ray: Interactive Mobile Ui Testing Based On Computer Vision, Chun-Fu Richard Chen, Marco Pistoia, Conglei Shi, Paolo Girolami, Joseph W. Ligman, Yong Wang

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

User Interface/eXperience (UI/UX) significantly affects the lifetime of any software program, particularly mobile apps. A bad UX can undermine the success of a mobile app even if that app enables sophisticated capabilities. A good UX, however, needs to be supported of a highly functional and user friendly UI design. In spite of the importance of building mobile apps based on solid UI designs, UI discrepancies- inconsistencies between UI design and implementation-Are among the most numerous and expensive defects encountered during testing. This paper presents UI X-RAY, an interactive UI testing system that integrates computer-vision methods to facilitate the correction of …

Predictive Modeling Of A Buoyancy-Operated Cooling Tower Under Saturated Conditions - I: Adjoint Sensitivity Model, Dan Gabriel Cacuci, Federico Di Rocco

Faculty Publications

A cooling tower discharges waste heat produced by an industrial plant to the external environment. The amount of thermal energy discharged into the environment can be determined by measurements of quantities representing the external conditions, such as outlet air temperature, outlet water temperature, and outlet air relative humidity, in conjunction with computational models that simulate numerically the cooling tower's behavior. Variations in the model's parameters (e.g., material properties, model correlations, boundary conditions) cause variations in the model's response. The functional derivatives of the model response with respect to the model parameters (called "sensitivities") are needed to quantify such response variations …

Common Support Equipment And Its Impact On Aircraft Availability, Jason M. Leighton

Theses and Dissertations

The ability of military aircraft maintenance personnel to prepare aircraft for flight depends not only on the technical ability and availability of replacement parts, but also on access to serviceable support equipment. While the general relationship between support equipment failures and aircraft availability is understood, the struggle to quantify that relationship makes targeted support equipment replacement or quantity authorization increases difficult. Tight budgets and aging equipment further complicate the task of keeping serviceable support equipment assets in the hands of maintainers. We identify key pieces of support equipment which may affect aircraft availability and other metrics and investigate the associated …

The Fresnel Zone Light Field Spectral Imager, Francis D. Hallada

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis provides a computational model and the first experimental demonstration of a Fresnel zone light field spectral imaging (FZLFSI) system. This type of system couples an axial dispersion binary diffractive optic with light field (plenoptic) camera designs providing a snapshot spectral imaging capability. A computational model of the system was developed based on wave optics methods using Fresnel propagation. It was validated experimentally and provides excellent demonstration of system capabilities. The experimentally demonstrated system was able to synthetically refocus monochromatic images across greater than a 100nm bandwidth. Furthermore, the demonstrated system was modeled to have a full range of …

Using Satellite Observations To Characterize The Response Of Estuarine Turbidity Maxima To External Forcing, Austin S. Hudson, Stefan A. Talke, David A. Jay

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

This study explores the spatial and temporal character of turbidity maxima in the Columbia River Estuary (CRE) using satellite observations. Surface reflectance data measured by the Moderate Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) were calibrated against in situ measurements of surface turbidity (R2 = 0.85 for 205 measurements). More than 1500 satellite images from 2000 to 2015 were then conditionally sampled to explore the physical processes that drive the spatial distribution of the turbidity field. We find satellite measurements are able to describe seasonal, spring–neap, and spatial features of the estuarine turbidity maxima (ETM) that are not easily observable by other means. System-wide …

Video Frame Interpolation Via Adaptive Convolution, Simon Niklaus, Long Mai, Feng Liu

Computer Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

Video frame interpolation typically involves two steps: motion estimation and pixel synthesis. Such a two-step approach heavily depends on the quality of motion estimation. This paper presents a robust video frame interpolation method that combines these two steps into a single process. Specifically, our method considers pixel synthesis for the interpolated frame as local convolution over two input frames. The convolution kernel captures both the local motion between the input frames and the coefficients for pixel synthesis. Our method employs a deep fully convolu- tional neural network to estimate a spatially-adaptive con- volution kernel for each pixel. This deep neural …

Bayesian Optimization For Refining Object Proposals, Anthony D. Rhodes, Jordan Witte, Melanie Mitchell, Bruno Jedynak

Computer Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

We develop a general-purpose algorithm using a Bayesian optimization framework for the efficient refinement of object proposals. While recent research has achieved substantial progress for object localization and related objectives in computer vision, current state-of-the-art object localization procedures are nevertheless encumbered by inefficiency and inaccuracy. We present a novel, computationally efficient method for refining inaccurate bounding-box proposals for a target object using Bayesian optimization. Offline, image features from a convolutional neural network are used to train a model to predict an object proposal’s offset distance from a target object. Online, this model is used in a Bayesian active search to …

Implementing A Working Bim Model Halfway Through A Public Cm Multi-Prime Project: A Case Study, Jim Roth

Construction Management

The development of a BIM (building information model) model is a standard practice in today’s construction world. While the process of model adoption nearly has a written formula, implementing a BIM model in the midst of a project is a rare occurrence. This paper will examine the implementation of a working BIM model halfway through a public multiple prime contractor project managed by a construction manager (CM) in California. The project cost is roughly $20 million and of moderate complexity. This paper will outline the factors leading up to the ultimate decision of creating a working model, the process of …

Investigation Into Feasibility Of Off-Grid Small Dwelling In Slo County, Sam Labberton

Construction Management

The trend towards green, sustainable living has grown more and more in the housing industry each year since before the turn of the century; solar in the last decade alone has grown by 60% (http://www.seia.org/research-resources/solar-industry-data). Living on a grid that runs on unclean sources of energy already has led us into an environmental disaster some call irreversible. This paper takes a detailed look into the feasibility of a small, off-grid, dwelling that utilizes modern technology in order to live more modestly. In conjunction with great advancements in solar technology along with energy storage such as deep cycle lead-acid batteries, on-site …

Case Study: Laborer Safety Training For Small To Mid-Sized General Contractors, Shawn Kuehter

Construction Management

The purpose of this study is to determine a relationship between safety spending and the resulting safety records for small to mid sized construction companies, particularly general contractors, and build on existing safety practices. It will shed light on why safety spending in construction is a very important aspect to include in any company’s budget. A case study of Quiring General, LLC, a small to mid sized general contractor based out of Fresno, CA will be the core of this paper as it includes examples of injuries of laborers and their impact they have. The impact focused on in this …

Defect-Related Optical Absorption Bands In Cdsip2 Crystals, Elizabeth M. Scherrer, Brant T. Kananen, Eric M. Golden, F. Kenneth Hopkins, Kevin T. Zawilski, Peter G. Schunemann, Larry E. Halliburton, Nancy C. Giles

Faculty Publications

When used as optical parametric oscillators, CdSiP₂ crystals generate tunable output in the mid-infrared. Their performance, however, is often limited by unwanted optical absorption bands that overlap the pump wavelengths. A broad defect-related optical absorption band peaking near 800 nm, with a shoulder near 1 µm, can be photoinduced at room temperature in many CdSiP₂ crystals. This absorption band is efficiently produced with 633 nm laser light and decays with a lifetime of ∼0.5 s after removal of the excitation light. The 800 nm band is accompanied by a less intense absorption band peaking near 1.90 µm. Data …

Irish Bim Study 2017, Barry Mcauley, Alan Hore, Roger West

Articles

The Construction IT Alliance (CitA) recently published its Global BIM Study as part of its BIM Innovation Capability Programme (BICP). The study sought to identify how BIM was being currently addressed in 27 countries across the globe. The study sought to identify the presence of three key ingredients in these countries:

1. Regulatory requirement for BIM

2. Champions driving BIM

3. Noteworthy publications

The report identified a number of recurring themes that would help to shape Ireland’s BIM programme. The report concluded that Ireland should adopt a programme of partnership between industry and the Irish Government in order to affect …

Assessing The Sunguide® And Steward Databases, Florida Solar Energy Center, Richard Raustad

FSEC Energy Research Center®

This report is a final research report for Assessing the SunGuide® and STEWARD Databases project of the Electric Vehicle Transportation Center (EVTC) at the University of Central Florida (UCF). The Electric Vehicle Transportation Center is a University Transportation Center funded by the Research and Innovative Technology Administration of the U.S. Department of Transportation. The EVTC is a research and education center whose projects prepare the U.S. transportation system for the influx of electric vehicles into a sustainable transportation network and investigate the opportunity these vehicles present to enhance electric grid modernization efforts. The EVTC is led by UCF's Florida Solar …

Performance Of Piperidine Ionic Liquid Based Mixed Electrolyte In Li/Licoo2 Cell, Hu Cheng, Xiao-Yan Nie, Ye-Dan Shen

Journal of Electrochemistry

The N-methyl-N-ethyl (propyl, butyl) piperidinium bis (trifluo romethanesulfonyl) imide (PP12(3,4)TFSI) ionic liquids were prepared, and their influences on the performances of Li/LiCoO₂ cells were investigated. The electrochemical performance and thermostability of ionic liquids based mixed electrolytes were characterized by electrochemical methods and thermogravimetric analysis. The results showed that the piperidine ionic liquids could improve the thermostability of organic electrolyte, and the size of their side chain had played an important role on the electrochemical performance of Li/LiCoO₂ cell. The Li/LiCoO₂ cell used the electrolyte mixed with PP13TFSI exhibited the best electrochemical performance among the three ionic liquids. …

The Problem Of The Anode Electrolyte In H-Type Electrolytic Cell For Electrochemical Reduction Of Carbon Dioxide, Rui Zhang, Wei-Xin Lv, Li-Xu Lei

Journal of Electrochemistry

Electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide (CO₂) was studied in the H-type electrolytic cell. It was found that the voltage between the cathode and the anode would increase during the long time electrolysis process, for this reason the electrolytic process would be unsustainable. After the experimental investigations carried out by constant potential electrolysis, constant current electrolysis, pH test and KHCO₃ concentration analysis of anode electrolyte before and after the electrolysis, the increase in cell voltage might be caused by the following process: H⁺, that was generated from the anodic oxygen evolution reaction, reacted with HCO_{3 …}

Effects Of Flame Retardant On The Rate Capability And Safety Performances Of The Soft-Package 5ah Lithium Ion Battery, Yan-Zhuo Lv, Xiao-He Wang, Yi-Ming Qin, Zhen-Bo Wang, Ke Ke

Journal of Electrochemistry

The 5 Ah soft packed lithium ion batteries with LiNi _0.4Co_0.2Mn_0.4 O₂ as the positive electrode material and the organic electrolytes with different amounts of fire retardants as the electrolyte solution were prepared. The effects of the fire retardant amount (5 %,10 %,20 %) of the fire retardants on the rate performances, short-circuit characteristics and overcharged behaviors of the 5 Ah soft packed lithium ion battery were investigated by electrochemical methods. The results indicated that the best rate performances were obtained by adding 5 vol.% of the fire retardants in the electrolyte solution when the …

Application Of Composite Ionic Liquid In Electro-Oxidation Activation Of A C-H Bond, Zi-Ying Chen, Qian-Qian Wu, Jian-Qing Zhang, Ying-Hong Zhu, Chun-An Ma

Journal of Electrochemistry

In this paper, the ionic liquid/carbon nanotube composite material was prepared through modifying the ionic liquid 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium acetate to multi-walled carbon nanotubes. The electro-oxidation properties of p-methoxy toluene (p-MT) were studied using the composite as an electrolyte. The effects of scanning speed, temperature and substrate concentration were studied by cyclic voltammetry and chronoamperometry. The electrochemical kinetics of p-MT in this system was also studied. The results showed that the electrochemical oxidation of p-MT in the composite electrolyte solution was irreversible. The process was mainly controlled by diffusion, and the diffusion coefficient (D) was 7.69×10-10 cm²·s^-1. Increasing …

Electrochemical Nucleation Of Invar Alloy On Glassy Carbon Electrode, Xian-Jie Huang, Hui Yan, Shuai-Shuai Huang, Fang-Zu Yang, Zhong-Qun Tian, Shao-Min Zhou

Journal of Electrochemistry

The linear sweep voltammetry, cyclic voltammetry and potential step methods were used to study the electrodeposition mechanism of Invar nickel-iron alloy (the mass fraction of nickel was 32~36%) on glassy carbon electrode surface in the weak acidic bath. The results demonstrate that the electrodeposition is was a diffusion controlled irreversible electrode process in this system. The Scharifker-Hill (SH) theory theoritic model (SH) were was used employed to fitting the experimental data and the result shows that the codeposition of Invar alloy on glassy carbon electrode surface conformed to the diffusion controlled three-dimensional instantaneous nucleation mechanism. The kinetic parameters were obtained …

Electrochemical Synthesis Of Porous Polyaniline Electrodes Using Hkust-1 As A Template And Their Electrochemical Supercapacitor Property, Qiong Luan, Chun-Feng Xue, Hong-Ye Zhu, Fu-Juan Yang, Xu-Li Ma, Xiao-Gang Hao

Journal of Electrochemistry

Excellent electrode plays vital important role in the performance of supercapacitors. Polyaniline (PANI) with good conductivity is often used to prepare electrode. However, its available surface is limited and results in a poor supercapacitance in many cases. It is desirable to fabricate an electrode containing electroactive PANI with high surface area deriving from its porous structure. Here, the metal-organic framework (MOF) material with high surface area was selected as a hard template for synthesizing porous PANI. Microporous PANI composite electrodes (Micro-PANI/CC) were fabricated by depositing aniline on to carbon cloth (CC) pre-coated with MOF material of HKUST-1 using a unipolar …

Sn-Doped Α-Fe2O3 Photocatalyst Containing Oxygen Vacancy For Water-Splitting, Zu-Hua Wang, Dong-Fang Niu, Hui-Cheng Li, Rong-Bin Du, Heng Xu, Xin-Sheng Zhang

Journal of Electrochemistry

The α-Fe₂O₃ nanoparticles containing oxygen vacancies were synthesized in atmospheric N₂ by dip-dropping method without a high vacuum employed before annealing. The influences of annealing atmosphere and Sn-doping on the photocatalytic performance of α-Fe₂O₃ nanoparticles were studied by annealing the photocatalyst in N₂ or air and adding SnCl₄ to the precursor directly. The results showed that the current density of Sn-doping α-Fe₂O₃ annealed in N₂ at 550 °C and 1.23 V (vs. RHE) was 35 times greater than that of pristine α-Fe₂O₃ annealed in …

Preparation And Electrochemical Properties Of Attapulgite-Supported Nitrogen-Doped Carbon@Nico2O4 Composites For Supercapacitors, Hui Wan, Zong-Rong Ying, Xin-Dong Liu, Jian-Jian Lu, Wen-Wen Zhang

Journal of Electrochemistry

In this work, the attapulgite-supported nitrogen-doped carbon (ANC) was prepared by in-situ chemically polymerizing polyaniline coating upon attapulgite, followed by high temperature heat treatment, and then NiCo₂O₄was reacted onto the surface of ANC by a combination of hydrothermal reaction and calcination to synthesize ANC@NiCo₂O₄ composites. The chemical composition and morphology of the samples were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and N₂ adsorption/desorption. The electrochemical properties were evaluated by means of constant current charge discharge (GCD) and cyclic voltammetry (CV). …

Preparations Of Mno2 Reference Electrodes For Corrosion Monitoring Of Reinforced Concrete, Li Yang, Bing Xu, Hai Wang, Ze-Hua Dong

Journal of Electrochemistry

In this work, the solid reference electrode was assemblied by using the electrochemically synthesized manganese dioxide (MnO₂) (EMD) powder, gel electrolyte and thin mortar layer for the durability evaluation of concrete. The EMD reference electrode exhibited higher potential stability (< 10 mV drift) than the chemically synthesied MnO₂ (CMD) based on half year potential tests in the saturated Ca(OH)₂ solution and hardened mortar. In addition, the EMD electrode was almost insensitive to the presences of chloride ion and corrosion inhibitor. Electrochemical impedance and polarization curves indicate that the EMD electrode had lower charge transfer resistance,higher exchange current density and lower temperature coefficient than the …

Aligning Electronic Energy Levels On The Anatase Tio2(101) Surface, Jun-Jie Zhao, Jun Cheng

Journal of Electrochemistry

As one of the most commonly-used materials for photocatalysis and solar energy conversion, titanium dioxide (TiO₂) has been extensively studied for more than 40 years. Its photoelectrochemical activity crucially depends on the band positions at the interface. In this work, the valence band maximum (VBM) and conduction band minimum (CBM) of a model TiO₂ surface are computed using the standard work function method at the level of Perdew-Burke-Ernzerhof (PBE) density functional, which are then converted to the scale of the standard hydrogen electrode (SHE) by subtracting the absolute SHE potential. Comparing with the rutile TiO₂(110) …

Effect Of Pressure On Ion Selectivity In Biomimetic Nanopores With Ph-Tunable Polyelectrolyte Brushes, Hui-Xia Shan, Zhen-Ping Zeng, Li-Xian Ye, Feng Shu

Journal of Electrochemistry

Biomimetic ionic channels of synthetic nanopores functionalized with pH-tunable polyelectrolyte (PE) brushes have significant application potentials for active transport control of ions, fluids, and bioparticles on the nanoscale. Ion selectivity is an important phenomenon of ion transport in nanofluidic devices, which has great theoretical significance and practical values. We propose a pressure control scheme to control the ion selectivity in biomimetic nano-systems with pH-tunable PE brushes. Effects of the solution properties (i.e., pH and background salt concentration), the applied voltage and pressure on ion selectivity are comprehensively investigated. The results show that ion selectivity is sensitive to pressure. Unlike the …

An Investigation In The Performance Of Lithium Sulfur Battery With A Tic Coated Separator, Jian-Hua Fang, Yong Cao, Mao-Ping Yang, Ming-Sen Zheng, Quan-Feng Dong

Journal of Electrochemistry

To improve the specific capacity and cycle stability of lithium-sulfur (Li-S) battery, a TiC/Celgard coating separator was developed and its performance in Li-S battery was investigated. The electrochemical test results confirmed that the TiC coating layer could significantly increase the capacity and cycle stability. At a high rate of 2C, it still delivered the capacity of 650 mAh·g^-1. At 0.5C, the specific capacity was maintained at 841.3 mAh·g^-1 after 100 cycles.