Engineering Commons^™

Feasibility Analysis Of Using Special Purpose Machines For Drilling-Related Operations, Ana Vafadarshamasbi

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This work focuses on special purpose machine tools (SPMs), providing a modular platform for performing drilling-related operations. One of the main challenges in using SPMs is selecting the most appropriate machine tool among many alternatives. This thesis introduces a feasibility analysis procedure developed to support decision-making through the assessment of the strengths and limitations of SPMs. To achieve this, technical and economic feasibility analyses, a sensitivity analysis, and an optimisation model were developed and a case study was provided for each analysis. The results indicated that although technical feasibility analysis leads decision-makers to select a feasible machine tool, complementary analyses …

Onboard Load Sensor For Use In Freight Railcar Applications, Constantine Tarawneh, Jazmin Ley, Dylan Blackwell, Stephen Crown, Brent Wilson

Mechanical Engineering Faculty Publications

Approximately 40% of intercity freight transportation occurs by rail, making it the most widely used method of transporting large commodities. This trend is expected to persist over the next thirty years as our highway systems are strained and experiencing increased congestion and costly delays. Currently, the load of freight railcars is typically measured by weighbridges or retrofitted tracks at isolated locations. This practice is not efficient and limited by the fact that the load of the railcar cannot be monitored continuously, not to mention the inherent inaccuracies of such systems. Hence, there is great merit for an onboard load sensor …

Forecasting Peak-Day Consumption For Year-Ahead Management Of Natural Gas Networks, Ronan Oliver, Aidan Duffy, Bernard Enright, Rodger O'Connor

Articles

Security of supply is at the forefront of energy policy in the EU and elsewhere. This paper develops a methodology to forecast peak-day gas consumption for the consideration of gas transmission system operators. It is developed for the domestic and small-to-medium enterprise (SME) gas market, based on a review of current practice. From this assessment, a climate-adjusted network degree day (NDDCA) variable is developed to estimate the weather-dependent gas consumption of such markets. We show that solar radiation significantly affects gas consumption and should be considered in consumption models. The study also quantifies the difference in capacity required under alternative …

Optimising The Performance Of Cement-Based Batteries, Aimee Byrne, Shane Barry, Niall Holmes Dr., Brian Norton

Articles

The development of a battery using different cement-based electrolytes to provide a low but potentially sustainable source of electricity is described. The current, voltage, and lifespan of batteries produced using different electrolyte additives, copper plate cathodes, and (usually) aluminium plate anodes were compared to identify the optimum design, components, and proportions to increase power output and longevity. Parameters examined include water/cement ratio, anode to cathode surface area ratio, electrode material, electrode spacing, and the effect of sand, aggregate, salts, carbon black, silica fume, and sodium silicate on the electrolyte. The results indicate that the greatest and longest lasting power can …

A Longitudinal Study Of Middle Eastern Women’S Experiences Studying Engineering Abroad: Emerging Results, Shannon Chance, Bill Williams, Allison Wagner

Conference papers

What is it like to study engineering in Ireland when you are female and you come from somewhere far away, in the Middle East, which has different social customs and norms? What is the lived experience? What aspects of the experience are common to all Middle Eastern women enrolled in your course? As education researchers, we aim to understand the essence of the experience such women have had studying engineering Ireland; we focus on what life has been like for them and what unique challenges they have faced that may be invisible to us as instructors. In this work-in-progress, a …

Geospatial Drivers Of The Groundwater Δ18o Isoscape In A Temperate Maritime Climate (Republic Of Ireland), S. Regan, R. Goodhue, O. Naughton, Paul Hynds

Articles

In recent years, the concept of “isoscapes” has been used to describe spatiotemporal stable isotope distributions within natural environments including groundwater systems at multiple scales. This study presents an updated groundwater δ18O isoscape for the Republic of Ireland and describes the climatic and geological drivers influencing 18O composition. In all, 142 geographically and geologically representative groundwater installations were sampled and analysed, in addition to 35 samples from six nested boreholes. Geospatially, Irish groundwater exhibits high δ18O values in southern and western coastal regions, becoming progressively depleted inland before reaching lowest measured values along the eastern coast, equating to a national …

An Overview Of Dissolved Organic Carbon In Groundwater And Implications For Drinking Water Safety, S. Regan, Paul Hynds, R. Flynn

Articles

Dissolved organic carbon (DOC) is composed of a diverse array of compounds, predominantly humic substances, and is a near ubiquitous component of natural groundwater, notwithstanding climatic extremes such as arid and hyper-arid settings. Despite being a frequently measured parameter of groundwater quality, the complexity of DOC composition and reaction behaviour means that links between concentration and human health risk are difficult to quantify and few examples are reported in the literature. Measured concentrations from natural/unpolluted groundwater are typically below 4 mg C/l, whilst concentrations above these levels generally indicate anthropogenic influences and/or contamination issues and can potentially compromise water safety. …

Application Of Artificial Intelligence For Detecting Derived Viruses, Omotayo Asiru, Moses Dlamini, Jonathan Blackledge

Conference papers

Computer viruses have become complex and operates in a stealth mode to avoid detection. New viruses are argued to be created each and every day. However, most of these supposedly ‘new’ viruses are not completely new. Most of the supposedly ‘new’ viruses are not necessarily created from scratch with completely new (something novel that has never been seen before) mechanisms. For example, most of these viruses just change their form and signatures to avoid detection. But their operation and the way they infect files and systems is still the same. Hence, such viruses cannot be argued to be new. In …

Professional Roles And Employability Of Future Engineers, Kevin Gaughan, S. Craps, M. Pinxten, G. Saunders, M. Leandro-Cruz

Conference papers

Although there is high degree of agreement on the importance of transversal skills for engineers, employers observe a significant gap between expectations and reality. This paper discusses the need for the development of a framework of professional roles for future engineers and the implementation of dedicated skills education in engineering curricula to train students for this role. Based on an extensive literature study, an overview is given of previous research on this topic. The paper also outlines the next steps that will be taken by the authors as part of a European project PREFER to develop and implement these roles …

A Review Of Control Methodologies For Dynamic Glazing, Eoin D. Mclean, Brian Norton, Derek Kearney, Philippe Lemarchand

Conference papers

With adaptive building façade technologies, a building envelope can provide a comfortable indoor environment under varying external conditions with minimal additional heating or cooling. The control strategy applied to the adaptation of the façade is a key determining factor in the successful integration of these technologies into a building. The building envelope plays a key role in regulating light, heat and mass transfer from the outdoor environment to the indoor. Dynamic glazing can be used to adjust the amount of solar radiation entering a building. The control strategies that ultimately determine the success of these switchable technologies to affect a …

Reactive Power Control For Smarter (Urban) Distribution Network Management With Increasing Integration Of Renewable Prosumers, Arsalan Zaidi, Keith Sunderland, Massimiliano Coppo, Michael Conlon, Roberto Turri

Conference papers

Smart cities need to deliver reliable electric energy while utilizing every renewable energy source available in a sustainable manner. Increasing renewable electricity capacity, through Distributed Generation (DG) such as small wind and PV generation, causes difficulties for the distribution network operator (DNO) in sustaining adequate and appropriate power quality across the network. The positive impacts provided by such energy sources can be undermined by voltage increases and voltage balance issues. To overcome these problems, urban distribution networks need to transform ideally into smarter energy networks that can deliver renewable electricity locally, predictably and in a controllable and optimized manner. The …

Design Of An Underwater Cable Fault Location Device To Precisely Locate Submarine Cable Faults, Glenn O'Reilly, Joseph Kearney, John Lawler, Tom Looby

Conference papers

The objective of the paper is to develop a robust and reliable method to pinpoint submarine cable faults. Submarine cables have existed for over 100 years but there is still no single method used to determine the precise location of a submarine cable fault. The various methods used to pinpoint cable faults, both submarine and non-submarine were researched and investigated to produce a method which would accurately pinpoint submarine cable faults. From this, the idea of a hydrophone string was derived from a non-submarine pinpointing method currently used. The hydrophone string was tested and it accurately pinpointed the location of …

Stochastic Modelling For Levy Distributed Systems, Jonathan Blackledge, T Raja Rani

Articles

The purpose of this paper is to examine a range of results that can be derived from Einstein’s evolution equation focusing on (but not in an exclusive sense) the effect of introducing a L´evy distribution. In this context, we examine the derivation (as derived from the Einstein’s evolution equation) of the classical and fractional diffusion equations, the classical and generalised Kolmogorov-Feller equations, the evolution of self-affine stochastic fields through the fractional diffusion equation and the fractional Schr¨odinger equation, the fractional Poisson equation (for the time independent case), and, a derivation of the Lyapunov exponent. In this way, we provide a …

Enhanced Network Voltage Management (Nvm) Techniques Under The Proliferation Of Rooftop Solar Pv Installation In Low Voltage Distribution Network (Lvdn), Shivananda Pukhrem, Malabika Basu, Michael Conlon, Keith Sunderland

Articles

Proliferation of rooftop solar PV distributed generator (PVDG) installation in low voltage distribution network (LVDN) imposes voltage fluctuation challenges that are a threat to distribution system operators. Reactive power control (RPC) methods are insufficient in isolation to combat the overvoltage fluctuations manifested in LVDN with significant grid-tied PVDG installations. Whereas active power curtailment (APC) control can alleviate the voltage fluctuation in such situations and it is achieved at the cost of reduced active power injection. This paper explores how deficiencies in both RPC and APC as separate approaches can be mitigated by suitably combining RPC and APC algorithms. Strategies combining …

Dye-Sensitised Solar Cell Antenna, Oisin O'Conchubhair, Patrick Mcevoy, Max Ammann

Articles

Dye-sensitised solar cells are proposed as a solarantenna in the form of a proof-of-concept dipole operating at 1.1 GHz. Comprised of glass plates in basic rectangular shapes, various material properties are considered for impact on antenna performance at three phases of assembly. Simulated and empirical analyses indicate how such low-cost solar cells can also realise viable concurrent antenna designs.

Development Of Ferroelectricity In The Smectic Phases Of 4-Cyanoresorcinol Derived Achiral Bent-Core Liquid Crystals With Long Terminal Alkyl Chains, Sithara Pavithran Sreenilayam, J. K. Vij, Yuri Panarin, Anne Lehman

Articles

Bent-core molecules can form numerous polar and symmetry broken liquid crystalline phases with fascinating properties. Here we report the characteristics of a previously unknown polar synclinic smectic phase, Sm C S P X , found in the phase sequence of an achiral bent-core material with a 4-cyanoresorcinol bisbenzoate core, terminated by long linear alkyl chains ( n = 18 ) on both ends. This phase exists over a narrow range of temperatures and is sandwiched in between the random polar synclinic smectic phase ( Sm C S P R ) and polar synclinic ferroelectric ( Sm C S P F …

Magnetic Field Sensor Based On A Combination Of A Microfiber Coupler Covered With Magnetic Fluid And A Sagnac Loop, Fangfang Wei, Arun Mallik, Dejun Liu, Qiang Wu, Gang-Ding Peng, Gerald Farrell, Yuliya Semenova

Articles

This paper proposes a novel magnetic field sensor based on a microfiber coupler (MFC) combined with a magnetic fluid (MF) in a Sagnac loop formed from a polarization maintaining fiber (PMF). Thanks to the small (~2.6 μm) waist diameter of the MFC, the resulting interference is strongly influenced by the presence of the MF and this leads to the desirable high sensitivity of the structure to the applied magnetic field. The maximum magnetic field sensitivities of −100 pm/mT and −488 pm/mT have been experimentally demonstrated with the PMF lengths of 75 cm and 20 cm respectively in the range of …

High Sensitivity Refractometer Based On Reflective Smf-Small Diameter No Core Fiber Structure, Guorui Zhou, Qiang Qu, Rahul Kumar, Wai Pang Ng, Hao Liu, Longfei Niu, Nageswara Lalam, Xiaodong Yuan, Yuliya Semenova

Conference Papers

A high sensitivity refractive index sensor based on a single mode-small diameter no core fiber structure is proposed. In this structure, a small diameter no core fiber (SDNCF) used as a sensor probe, was fusion spliced to the end face of a traditional single mode fiber (SMF) and the end face of the SDNCF was coated with a thin film of gold to provide reflective light. The influence of SDNCF diameter and length on the refractive index sensitivity of the sensor has been investigated by both simulations and experiments, where results show that the diameter of SDNCF has significant influence. …

Procedural Historic Building Information Modelling (Hbim) For Recording And Documenting European Classical Architecture, Conor Dore

Doctoral

Procedural Historic Building Information Modelling (HBIM) is a new approach for modelling historic buildings which develops full building information models from remotely sensed data. HBIM consists of a novel library of reusable parametric objects, based on historic architectural data and a system for mapping these library objects to survey data. Using concepts from procedural modelling, a new set of rules and algorithms have been developed to automatically combine HBIM library objects and generate different building arrangements by altering parameters. This is a semi-automatic process where the required building structure and objects are first automatically generated and then refined to match …

Effect Of Atmospheric Transmittance On Performance Of Adaptive Spd-Vacuum Switchable Glazing, Aritra Ghosh, Brian Norton, Aidan Duffy

Articles

Combined suspended particle device (SPD)-vacuum glazing is a potential adaptive glazing for low energy building application. Glazing transmission is an essential parameter to determine indoor comfort level of building due to glazing. In this work, above 0.5 clearness index, a strong correlation between glazing transmission and clearness index (Atmospheric transmission) has been evaluated for south facing vertical plane glazing. Below 0.5 clearness index, isotropic diffuse transmittance was dominant and one single value of glazing transmission was found which is suitable for building energy calculation throughout the year. Below 0.5 clearness index, for south facing vertical plane SPD-vacuum glazing transmission was …

Solar Dryers For Tropical Food Preservation: Thermophysics Of Crops, Systems And Components, Vivek Tomar, G. N. Tiwari, Brian Norton

Articles

Drying reduces the moisture content of harvested crops thus slowing decay processes to enable longerterm storage. Solar dryers contain the crop being dried, to enhance solar energy collection incurring lower crop losses than are associated with open-sun drying and recurrent costs than are inherent to uses of fossil-fuels for drying. The influences of key environmental, operational and design parameters for solar dryers are discussed including: (i) psychrometry of drying processes and ambient conditions, (ii) how initial crop properties are converted to final desired product attributes, (iii) feasibility of using powered components such as fans and (iv) air-heating solar collector selection.

Clustering Opportunistic Ant-Based Routing Protocol For Wireless Sensor Networks, Xinlu Li, Brian Keegan, Fredrick Mtenzi

Conference papers

The wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) have a wide range of applications in many ereas, including many kinds of uses such as environmental monitoring and chemical detection. Due to the restriction of energy supply, the improvement of routing performance is the major motivation in WSNs. We present a Clustering Opportunistic Ant-based Routing protocol (COAR), which comprises the following main contributions to achieve high energy efficient and well load-balance: (i) in the clustering algorithm, we caculate the theoretical value of energy dissipation, which will make the number of clusters fluctuate around the expected value, (ii) define novel heuristic function and pheromone update …

Bootstrapping Labelled Dataset Construction For Cow Tracking And Behavior Analysis, Aram Ter-Sarkisov, Robert J. Ross, John D. Kelleher

Conference papers

This paper introduces a new approach to the longterm tracking of an object in a challenging environment. The object is a cow and the environment is an enclosure in a cowshed. Some of the key challenges in this domain are a cluttered background, low contrast and high similarity between moving objects – which greatly reduces the efficiency of most existing approaches, including those based on background subtraction. Our approach is split into object localization, instance segmentation, learning and tracking stages. Our solution is benchmarked against a range of semi-supervised object tracking algorithms and we show that the performance is strong …

Benchmarking Javascript Frameworks, Carl Lawrence Mariano

Dissertations

JavaScript programming language has been in existence for many years already and is one of the most widely known, if not, the most used front-end programming language in web development. However, JavaScript is still evolving and with the emergence of JavaScript Frameworks (JSF), there has been a major change in how developers develop software nowadays. Developers these days often use more than one framework in order to fulfil their job which has given rise to the problem for developers when it comes to choosing the right JavaScript framework to develop software which is partly due to the availability of countless …

Comparison Study Of The Most Common Virtual Machine Load Balancing Algorithms In Large-Scale Cloud Environment Using Cloud Simulator, Rowaa Filimban

Dissertations

This is era of internet. There is barely any field where internet do not play important role. Nowadays, CloudComputing links to the internet that has rebelled the whole universe. CloudComputing is a rapid enlarging domain in computing industry and research. Three main services offered by the cloud are SaaS, PaaS and IaaS. With the technology advancement of the CloudComputing, there are many new chances pioneer on how applications can be developed and how several services can be provided to the end user throughout Virtualization, on the internet. What's more, there are cloud service providers who offer and provide large-scaled computing …

The Compartmented Alginate Fibres Optimisation For Bitumen Rejuvenator Encapsulation, Amir Tabakovic, Dirk Braak, Mark Van Gerwen, Oguzhan Copuroglu, Wouter Post, Santiago J. Garcia, Erik Schlangen

Research and Innovation - Articles

This article presents development of a novel self-healing technology for asphalt pavements, where asphalt binder rejuvenator is encapsulated within the compartmented alginate fibres. The key objective of the study was to optimise the compartmented alginate fibre design, i.e., maximising amount of rejuvenator encapsulated within the fibre. The results demonstrate that optimum rejuvenator content in the alginate fibre is of 70:30 rejuvenator/alginate ratio. The fibres are of sufficient thermal and mechanical strength to survive harsh asphalt mixing and compaction processes. Furthermore, results illustrate that zeer open asfalt beton (ZOAB) asphalt mix containing 5% of 70:30 rejuvenator/alginate ratio compartmented alginate fibres has …

Flexural Creep Behavior Of Adhesively Bonded Metal And Composite Laminates, Hasan M. Nuwayer

Wayne State University Dissertations

Adhesively bonded structures exhibit time dependent behavior when subjected to constant load (creep). In this investigation, long-term creep behavior of adhesively bonded aluminum and carbon fiber composite beams under flexural loading was investigated. Three point bending test was selected because of its simplicity and the fact that bending stresses are quite common. In this study, two types of adhesively bonded beam specimens were tested: specimens prepared by adhesively bonding two aluminum beams and specimens prepared by adhesively bonding two unidirectional carbon fiber laminated beams. Accelerated creep tests were performed at higher temperatures up to 60 °C and deflection was measured …

Mechanical Interventions In Soft Tissue Repair, Elizabeth Marie Meier

Wayne State University Dissertations

This body of work sets to investigate some of these mechanical interventions that are designed to promote wound healing, repair, or even replace an injured tissue. By investigating three separate tissues and three separate mechanical interventions, we can draw conclusions about the implications of including mechanical interventions in biomedical research and clinical treatments. The use of sutures to close wounds is highly common, however the effects of sutures on the tensile mechanics of human skin are largely unknown. To evaluate how sutures may affect uniaxial tensile mechanics, human skin samples were sutured and loaded in tension in multiple orientations. The …

Development Of A Programmed Electrospun Three Dimensional (3d) Nanofiber Collecter And It’S Application To Orthopedic Implant Coatings, Liang Chen

Wayne State University Dissertations

Orthopedic implants might not directly unite with bones especially in compromised patients even if they have been appropriately fixed. The lack of early osseointegration would lead to the failure of the orthopedic implant. A “bone-like” implant surface is urgently needed to accelerate osseointegration. Electrospun nanofiber (NF) is a promising implant coating due to its highly porous nanoscale structure. It mimics the collagen I nanofibrous network of bone tissue; meanwhile it has been widely used as a drug delivery device. However, its compact and dense structure is not ideal for cell growth. Our strategy was to develop a functional three-dimensional (3D) …

Essays On Stochastic Programming In Service Operations Management, Sina Faridimehr

Wayne State University Dissertations

Deterministic mathematical modeling is a branch of optimization that deals with decision making in real-world problems. While deterministic models assume that data and parameters are known, these numbers are often unknown in the real world applications.The presence of uncertainty in decision making can make the optimal solution of a deterministic model infeasible or sub-optimal.

On the other hand, stochastic programming approach assumes that parameters and coefficients are unknown and only their probability distribution can be estimated. Although stochastic programming could include uncertainties in objective function and/or constraints, we only study problems that the goal of stochastic programming is to maximize …