Engineering Commons^™

Determining Power For A Cubesat, Robert J. Twiggs

Robert "Bob" Twiggs STEM Education Collection

A PowerPoint Presentation created by Professor Bob Twiggs titled "Determining Power for a CubeSat" from February 3, 2017.

Heat And Water Transport In Soils And Across The Soil-Atmosphere Interface: 2. Numerical Analysis, Jan Vanderborght, Thomas Fetzer, Klaus Mosthaf, Kathleen M. Smits, Rainer Helmig

Civil Engineering Faculty Publications - Archive

In an accompanying paper, we presented an overview of a wide variety of modeling concepts, varying in complexity, used to describe evaporation from soil. Using theoretical analyses, we explained the simplifications and parameterizations in the different approaches. In this paper, we numerically evaluate the consequences of these simplifications and parameterizations. Two sets of simulations were performed. The first set investigates lateral variations in vertical fluxes, which emerge from both homogeneous and heterogeneous porous media, and their importance to capturing evaporation behavior. When evaporation decreases from parts of the heterogeneous soil surface, lateral flow and transport processes in the free flow …

Analysis Of Rigid Extended Object Co-Manipulation By Human Dyads: Lateral Movement Characterization, Erich Mielke, Eric Townsend, Marc D. Killpack

Faculty Publications

During co-manipulation involving humans and robots, it is necessary to base robot controllers on human behaviors to achieve comfortable and coordinated movement between the human-robot dyad. In this paper, we describe an experiment between human-human dyads and we record the force and motion data as the leader-follower dyads moved in translation and rotation. The force/motion data was then analyzed for patterns found during lateral translation only. For extended objects, lateral translation and in-place rotation are ambiguous, but this paper determines a way to characterize lateral translation triggers for future use in human-robot interaction. The study has 4 main results. First, …

Lung Protection By Inhalation Of Exogenous Solubilized Extracellular Matrix, Jinglei Wu, Priya Ravikumar, Kytai Truong Nguyen, Connie C.W. Hsia, Yi Hong

Bioengineering Faculty Publications - Archive

Decellularized extracellular matrix (ECM) contains complex tissue-specific components that work in concert to promote tissue repair and constructive remodeling and has been used experimentally and clinically to accelerate epithelial wound repair, leading us to hypothesize that lung-derived ECM could mitigate acute lung injury. To explore the therapeutic potential of ECM for noninvasive delivery to the lung, we decellularized and solubilized porcine lung ECM, then characterized the composition, concentration, particle size and stability of the preparation. The ECM preparation at 3.2 mg/mL with average particle size <3 μm was tested in vitro on human A549 lung epithelial cells exposed to 95% O2 for 24 hours, and in vivo by tracheal instillation or nebulization into the lungs of rats exposed intermittently or continuously to 90% O2 for a cumulative 72 hours. Our results showed that the preparation was enriched in collagen, reduced in glycosaminoglycans, and contained various bioactive molecules. Particle size was concentration-dependent. Compared to the respective controls treated with cell culture medium in vitro or saline in vivo, ECM inhalation normalized cell survival and alveolar morphology, and reduced hyperoxia-induced apoptosis and oxidative damage. This proof-of-concept study established the methodology, feasibility and therapeutic potential of exogenous solubilized ECM for pulmonary cytoprotection, possibly as an adjunct or potentiator of conventional therapy.

Road Zipper™, Purdue Ect Team

ECT Fact Sheets Archive

Construction work zones are growing in number around the world. The natural aging of existing roadway infrastructure ensures that more and more maintenance and rehabilitation will be required. Work zones, by their very definition, create two major problems that must be addressed in some way: safety and mobility. In the United States, highway work zones are responsible for almost 25% of all non-recurring congestion and 10% of overall congestion. Vehicle accidents are more common in work zones, and traffic congestion through work zones on urban arterials and freeways is often considered to be “unavoidable." To address these issues, ROAD ZIPPER™ …

Luck & Skill: Black Swans & Machiavelli's Ideas On Power, Fortune, Virtu, Thomas W. Camm

Mining Engineering

We hear all the time about the value of hard work and perseverance, and the part they play in the professional life of successful people. What we do not hear so much about are the many professionals who work hard and persevere, yet never seem to quite reach the level of success they aim for. Some current authors are beginning to give more attention to the part luck/black swans/outliers play in success. This is not a new phenomenon, Machiavelli had a lot to say about it back in the Renaissance. So how can knowledge of this dynamic help in a …

Quality Improvement Of Acidic Soils By Biochar Derived From Renewable Materials, Deok Hyun Moon, Inseong Hwang, Yoon-Young Chang, Agamemnon Koutsospyros, Kyung Hoon Cheong, Won Hyun Ji, Jeong Hun Park

Civil Engineering Faculty Publications

Biochar derived from waste plant materials and agricultural residues was used to improve the quality of an acidic soil. The acidic soil was treated for 1 month with both soy bean stover-derived biochar and oak-derived biochar in the range of 1 to 5 wt% for pH improvement and exchangeable cation enhancement. Following 1 month of treatment, the soil pH was monitored and exchangeable cations were measured. Moreover, a maize growth experiment was performed for 14 days with selected treated soil samples to confirm the effectiveness of the treatment. The results showed that the pH of the treated acidic soil increased …

Implementation Strategy Report, G Jager, M Musariri

Policy

In essence the Implementation Strategy provides a plan for implementing and maintaining an optimal South African Water Resources Monitoring Network. As such the Strategy includes a number of key aspects considered for each of the surface water, groundwater and water quality monitoring programs, as summarized below:

Finalizing the optimal monitoring network design, including the location, the variables/constituents being monitored, the frequency of observations, as well as the implementation priority for each monitoring site.

Identifying opportunities for the integration of processes involved in the implementation process, such as the coordinated development or upgrading of monitoring sites based on physical location and …

Determine The Potential Drill Utilization Improvements And Rock Fragmentation Requirements Using Directional Drilling In A Coal Mining Overburden Highwall Application, K. D. Dill, S. D. Rosenthal

Mining Engineering

This project analyzed the efficiency of incorporating the use of directional drilling technology into coal overburden blasting. Directional drilling is currently in use in the petroleum industry and it is believed that it will be a valuable asset in the mining industry. This project has shown that directional drilling can be a viable technology for use in the coal overburden removal process resulting in increased drill utilization and potential for cost savings. Future work regarding blasting and geotechnical evaluation should be performed to solidify the concept.

Block Matching And Wiener Filtering Approach To Optical Turbulence Mitigation And Its Application To Simulated And Real Imagery With Quantitative Error Analysis, Russell C. Hardie, Michael Armand Rucci, Barry K. Karch, Alexander J. Dapore

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

We present a block-matching and Wiener filtering approach to atmospheric turbulence mitigation for long-range imaging of extended scenes. We evaluate the proposed method, along with some benchmark methods, using simulated and real-image sequences. The simulated data are generated with a simulation tool developed by one of the authors. These data provide objective truth and allow for quantitative error analysis. The proposed turbulence mitigation method takes a sequence of short-exposure frames of a static scene and outputs a single restored image. A block-matching registration algorithm is used to provide geometric correction for each of the individual input frames. The registered frames …

Simulation Of Anisoplanatic Imaging Through Optical Turbulence Using Numerical Wave Propagation With New Validation Analysis, Russell C. Hardie, Jonathan D. Power, Daniel A. Lemaster, Douglas R. Droege, Szymon Gladysz, Santasri Bose-Pillai

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

We present a numerical wave propagation method for simulating imaging of an extended scene under anisoplanatic conditions. While isoplanatic simulation is relatively common, few tools are specifically designed for simulating the imaging of extended scenes under anisoplanatic conditions. We provide a complete description of the proposed simulation tool, including the wave propagation method used. Our approach computes an array of point spread functions (PSFs) for a two-dimensional grid on the object plane. The PSFs are then used in a spatially varying weighted sum operation, with an ideal image, to produce a simulated image with realistic optical turbulence degradation. The degradation …

A Molecular Dynamics Study Of Self-Diffusion Along A Screw Dislocaton Core In Face-Centered Cubic Crystals, Siavash Soltanibajestani

Mechanical Engineering Master's Theses

The topic of this research is self-diffusion along a 1⁄2 〈110〉 screw dislocation core in face-centered cubic metals. Using molecular dynamics, self-diffusion along a screw dislocation core in four FCC metals, aluminum, copper, nickel and silver is investigated. In all metals under study except in Ag, the results show high diffusivity along the core even in the absence of any preexisting point defects (intrinsic diffusion). Enhanced self-diffusion due to screw dislocations is more remarkable in Al and Ni than in Cu. This behavior has been related to the stacking fault energy and dissociation width of partial dislocations.

The simulations show …

Generating Swarm Solution Classes Using The Hamiltonian Method Of Swarm Design, M. Li, C. Qiu, J. Park, D. Chan, J. Na, C. Wong, B. Zhao, E. Chang, Sanza Kazadi, S. Hettiarachchi

Staff Publications & Research

We utilize a swarm design methodology that enables us to develop classes of swarm solutions to specific specifications. The method utilizes metrics devised to evaluate the swarm’s progress – the global variables – along with the set of available technologies in order to answer varied questions surrounding a swarm design for the task. These questions include the question of whether or not a swarm is necessary for a given task. The Jacobian matrix, here identified as the technology matrix, is created from the global variables. This matrix may be interpreted in a way that allows the identification of classes …

Carbon Footprint Stock Analysis Of U.S. Manufacturing: A Time Series Input-Output Lca, Gokhan Egilmez, Khurrum Bhutta, Bulent Erenay, Yong Shin Park, Ridvan Gedik

Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Faculty Publications

The purpose of this paper is to provide an input-output life cycle assessment model to estimate the carbon footprint of US manufacturing sectors. To achieve this, the paper sets out the following objectives: develop a time series carbon footprint estimation model for US manufacturing sectors; analyze the annual and cumulative carbon footprint; analyze and identify the most carbon emitting and carbon intensive manufacturing industries in the last four decades; and analyze the supply chains of US manufacturing industries to help identify the most critical carbon emitting industries.

Managing Engineering Talent: Unique Challenges To Optimize The Best And Brightest, Thomas W. Camm, J. C. Johnson

Mining Engineering

Most engineers are bright, hard-working, reliable, and prefer to avoid conflict. An engineering curriculum tends to self-select these characteristics. By most standards, you would expect workers exhibiting these traits to require minimal supervision. But is this true? Is this how most current engineering managers lead? Looking at some current theories on leadership combined with personal anecdotes, this presentation will look at some common misconceptions about leading engineers.

All-In Sustaining Cost Analysis: Pros And Cons, Asseu Gilbert Yapo, Thomas W. Camm

Mining Engineering

All-in sustaining cost is a metric used by mining companies to reflect the cost of gold mining in a consistent format useful to both investors and mining professionals. Cost reporting focused on the direct cost of mining and processing ore was summarized in the non-GAAP cash cost developed by the Gold Institute in 1996. In 2013, a group of mining companies, working with the World Gold Council, developed a more inclusive approach to reporting costs designed to solve the dilemma of showing a more comprehensive reflection of recurring costs involved in producing gold, without discouraging investors.

Embrace The Unknown: Stop Saying “It’S Too Hard” And Start Embracing Uncertainty In Your Mine Plans, C. Roos

Mining Engineering

Nearly every input to a mine plan is based on an estimate. The estimates may be from sample data, historical information, models, or personal opinion, but in all cases, these values are simply expected values (means). In real life, we do not get to iterate the exact conditions at our mining operation many times to ensure that that average value is attained. The expected value also tells us nothing about the spread of values that that input might take on. The result is a significant amount of unquantified uncertainty in our mine plans. Unfortunately, it is often too expensive or …

Evaluation & Selection Of Novel Surveying Systems For Use In Surface Coal Mining, M. Drake, C. Roos, P. Conrad, T. Stack

Mining Engineering

This paper presents the evaluation Montana Tech completed for the Western Energy Company Rosebud Mine relating to the benefits of survey data collected using novel technologies over traditional methods for topographic surveys. These technologies include Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS), photogrammetry, and laser scanning/LIDAR. Utilizing these technologies, large areas such as reclamation areas and cast blasts can be surveyed in a timely manner for use by the mining operation. The areas that were evaluated were the improvements in the safety of employees and the time required to collect data. In addition, there is also a potential cost savings for the operation, …

Inspire E-News 2 2017, College Of Engineering And Applied Sciences

College of Engineering and Applied Sciences News

• College brings IMAX Dream Big film to community
• WMU to be leader in innovative construction research
• New laser assisted process offers better drilling for advanced materials
• Engineers Week Dinner to feature MDOT state transportation director

Superior Performance Of Continuous Over Pulsatile Flow Ventricular Assist Devices In The Single Ventricle Circulation: A Computational Study, Tyler Schmidt, David Rosenthal, Olaf Reinhartz, Kirk Riemer, Fei He, Tain-Yen Hsia, Alison Marsden, Ethan Kung

Publications

This study compares the physiological responses of systemic-to-pulmonary shunted single ventricle patients to pulsatile and continuous flow ventricular assist devices (VADs). Performance differences between pulsatile and continuous flow VADs have been clinically observed, but the underlying mechanism remains poorly understood. Six systemic-to-pulmonary shunted single ventricle patients (mean BSA=0.30 m2) were computationally simulated using a lumped-parameter network tuned to match patient specific clinical data. A first set of simulations compared current clinical implementation of VADs in single ventricle patients. A second set modified pulsatile flow VAD settings with the goal to optimize cardiac output (CO). For all patients, the best-case continuous …

Effects Of Microstructure On The Strain Rate Sensitivity Of Advanced Steels, Rakan Alturk, Steven Mates, Zeren Xu, Fadi Abu-Farha

Publications

The dependence of the strain rate sensitivity of advanced ~1 GPa tensile strength steels on the phases present in their microstructures was studied by testing different steels at 0.005 and 500 s−¹. The high strain rate tests were performed using a Kolsky bar setup, while the quasi-static tests were performed using a universal testing machine. The two main steels of interest were the Ferrite-Martensite DP980 and the Ferrite-Martensite-Austenite QP980; the latter being a transformation induced plasticity (TRIP) assisted steel. For comparison, ferritic CR5 mild steel and austenitic stainless steel 201 were also tested under the same conditions. Though …

Cold Atmospheric Plasma, A Novel Promising Anti-Cancer Treatment Modality., Dayun Yan, Jonathan H Sherman, Michael Keidar

Neurological Surgery Faculty Publications

Over the past decade, cold atmospheric plasma (CAP), a near room temperature ionized gas has shown its promising application in cancer therapy. Two CAP devices, namely dielectric barrier discharge and plasma jet, show significantly anti-cancer capacity over dozens of cancer cell lines in vitro and several subcutaneous xenograft tumors in vivo. In contrast to conventional anti-cancer approaches and drugs, CAP is a selective anti-cancer treatment modality. Thus far establishing the chemical and molecular mechanism of the anti-cancer capacity of CAP is far from complete. In this review, we provide a comprehensive introduction of the basics of CAP, state of the …

The Effect Of Biocomposite Material In A Composite Structure Under Compression Loading, Benjamin Andrew Sweeney

Master's Theses

While composite structures exhibit exceptional strength and weight saving possibilities for engineering applications, sometimes their overall cost and/or material performance can limit their usage when compared to conventional structural materials. Meanwhile ‘biocomposites’, composite structures consisting of natural fibers (i.e. bamboo fibers), display higher cost efficiency and unique structural benefits such as ‘sustainability’. This analysis will determine if the integration of these two different types of composites are beneficial to the overall structure. Specifically, the structure will consist of a one internal bamboo veneer biocomposite ply; and two external carbon fiber weave composite plies surrounding the bamboo biocomposite. To acquire results …

Economic Impacts Of Electric Vehicle Adoption, Florida Solar Energy Center, Makena Coffman

FSEC Energy Research Center®

The objective of the Economic Impacts of Electric Vehicle Adoption research project was to examine the predicted levels of electric vehicle (EV) adoption, to analyze the life cycle costs of EVs compared to internal combustion engine vehicles and to evaluate EV impacts on GHG emissions for Hawaii. The results were presented in three publications. The first report evaluated EV penetration rates and provided an assessment of expected EV penetration over time. The research also assessed factors that affect EVs adoption, including regulatory mechanisms. The results estimated there will be 140,000 EVs on the road in Hawaii by the year 2040 …

Energy Management System Modeling Of Dc Data Center With Hybrid Energy Sources Using Neural Network, Khalid Althomali

Master's Theses

As data centers continue to grow rapidly, engineers will face the greater challenge in finding ways to minimize the cost of powering data centers while improving their reliability. The continuing growth of renewable energy sources such as photovoltaics (PV) system presents an opportunity to reduce the long-term energy cost of data centers and to enhance reliability when used with utility AC power and energy storage. However, the inter-temporal and the intermittency nature of solar energy makes it necessary for the proper coordination and management of these energy sources.

This thesis proposes an energy management system in DC data center using …

Biophysical Tools To Study Cellular Mechanotransduction, Ismeel Muhamed, Farhan Chowdhury, Venkat Maruthamuthu

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Faculty Publications

The cell membrane is the interface that volumetrically isolates cellular components from the cell's environment. Proteins embedded within and on the membrane have varied biological functions: reception of external biochemical signals, as membrane channels, amplification and regulation of chemical signals through secondary messenger molecules, controlled exocytosis, endocytosis, phagocytosis, organized recruitment and sequestration of cytosolic complex proteins, cell division processes, organization of the cytoskeleton and more. The membrane's bioelectrical role is enabled by the physiologically controlled release and accumulation of electrochemical potential modulating molecules across the membrane through specialized ion channels (e.g., Na^⁺, Ca²⁺, K^⁺ channels). …

An X Band Patch Antenna Integrated With Commercial Triple-Junction Space Solar Cells, Taha Yekan, Reyhan Baktur

Civil and Environmental Engineering Student Research

An X band patch antenna was integrated on top of the cover glass of commercial space-certified solar cell and was studied for understanding the interaction between the solar cell and the antenna. It was found that the solar cell acts as a lossy substrate for the antenna and reduces the gain of the antenna by about 2 dB, and such a reduction remains consistent for different working states of the solar cell. The patch antenna reduces the efficiency of the solar cells because it blocks light, however, at 10 GHz, the impact of a patch antenna alone to the solar …

Smart: Small Machine For Research And Teaching, Nozar Tabrizi

Electrical & Computer Engineering Publications

We introduce SMaRT, a 16-bit single-cycle RISC-type processor with 16-bit-wide instructions. SMaRT features the novel concept of 2.5-address instructions to avoid the data loss that inherently exists in 2-address processors. Additionally, SMaRT’s short-branch instructions take advantage of the temporal locality of reference in accessing the upper or lower halves of the CPU’s 16x16 orthogonal register file. This allows SMaRT to significantly extend the range of the short-branch instructions. We show that these novelties are achieved at almost no performance cost and negligible hardware cost. SMaRT has four operation modes, namely Single-Step, to execute one instruction at a time, Manual, to …

Develop A Highway Inventory Data Quality Control Scheme (Pl-26), Mei Chen, Obaidur Rahman Kazi, Tony Fields

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

Since passage of the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century (MAP-21), transportation agencies have become increasingly reliant on data for planning and programming, asset management, and performance tracking. An efficient asset inventory database with accurate data is critical for states to comply with MAP-21 (and now FAST Act) requirements.

The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet’s (KYTC) Division of Planning maintains the Highway Information System (HIS), which is a primary source of this information for transportation professionals at the Cabinet (KYTC). Because highway system is continually changing, it is a challenging task to keep the information in the HIS up to …

Preface To Special Topic: A Tribute To John Lumley, Kiran Bhaganagar, Thomas B. Gatski, William K. George

CCPO Publications

This Special Topic Section is dedicated to the life and memory of John Leask Lumley(1930-2015), professor and scientist extraordinaire.