Engineering Commons^™

Targeted Drug Delivery Using Peptoid Based Nanospheres, Kaylee J. Smith

Chemical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

While medicine has improved greatly in the last couple of decades, there are negative side effects that accompany many drugs. Undesirable side effects could be greatly reduced if non-systemic drug delivery systems were used because the medicine would harm diseased cells at a much higher rate than it does healthy cells. One possible non-systemic drug delivery system is peptoid nanospheres. These nanospheres will then be linked to another peptoid that is engineered to attach almost exclusively to diseased cells.

This research project is focused on designing peptoids that will form nanospheres in solution. Four specific peptoids were synthesized and tested …

Acceleration Of Ddscat Computation By Parallelization On A Supercomputer, Manoj V. Seeram

Chemical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

The DDSCAT software is enabled for use of MPI or OpenMP to distribute calculation of different particle orientations amongst multiple processors on a high performance system. Run times for these simulations have been tested to take hours or days however and simulating varying orientations is not always necessary. If a simulation with only one particle orientation is submitted, DDSCAT could still potentially parallelize the simulation by wavelength calculations but it is unknown if this is the case. In this paper, we will be (i) quantifying the reduction in computation time that MPI provides relative to an equivalent MPI disabled simulation …

Efficiency And Particulate Matter Emissions Testing Of Wood Burning Heating Units, Andrew J. Casey

Chemical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

For the 2016 WERC/IEE competition, our project regarded the efficiency and particulate matter emissions testing of wood burning heating units. The purpose of the project was to develop a cheap and effective testing method for combustion units in order to decrease manufacturers’ research and development costs. This would ultimately lower the entry barrier to the market and increase the number of manufacturers on the market. This would lead to more efficient stoves being designed and the stoves would be cheaper as a result of the increased competitive market. This would have many benefits on society; the primary benefit being that …

Development Of A Simple Handheld Biosensor For Waterborne Pathogens, Bryce C. Jones

Chemical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Current methods of detecting waterborne pathogens involve testing strips which take 24-48 hours to yield results, or require expensive equipment in order to function. In minimalist environments, these two technologies are not always applicable to test water quality. With the emergence of a new method of PCR, named LAMP PCR, it is possible to quickly and accurately detect pathogen DNA in a water sample. In order to scale this technique into a simple device, the aspects of the reaction must be accommodated, and a visual detection method chosen. A handheld device which keeps the isothermal LAMP PCR stable for the …

Haul Truck Tires Recycling, Marina E. Lee

Chemical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

The Ball Hogs competed in Task 2 - Haul Truck Tires in the 2016 Waste-Management Education and Research Consortium (WERC) International Environmental Design Contest. This task required designing a solution to recycle discarded haul truck tires from mining sites. Our solution was to use the treads of these haul truck tires to construct liners for ball mills. Recycling haul truck tires in this manner would save the mining companies a substantial amount of money and would result in a decrease of carbon emissions.

Wastewater Reuse, Zachary J. Bare

Chemical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Approximately 1.2 billion people around the world live in areas of physical water scarcity. This could increase to half of the world’s population by 2030 and could displace 24 to 700 million people unless steps are taken to ensure adequate water supply. Water scarcity is an escalating issue within the United States, specifically in Western inland states with arid climates. This scarcity is encouraging communities to investigate tertiary level municipal wastewater treatment, allowing for reuse of wastewater. Unfortunately, wastewater contains numerous contaminants that are not regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA). Many …

Efficiency And Particulate Matter Emissions Testing Of Wood Burning Heating Units, Lindsey Mayo

Chemical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

The performance and use of wood-burning stoves as a heating source is carefully regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The EPA requires a rigorous and exhaustive testing protocol be conducted on each unit before it can be sold commercially in order to ensure that the stove in question will not have a detrimental effect on the surrounding environment. However, this testing routine is incredibly time intensive and costly, resulting in a 90% decrease in the number of stove manufacturers since 1988. This decreased competition has ultimately fostered an industry free from competition and motivation to produce clean and efficient …

Efficiency And Particulate Matter Emissions Testing Of Wood Burning Heating Units, Elisabeth E. Westcott

Chemical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is continually revising the regulations on wood-burning units to reduce the particulate matter emissions in the United States. These revisions have caused a large decline in wood-burning stove manufacturers as they bring the need for research and development on current units and small manufacturers cannot burden the large costs. The StoveHogs became aware of this manufacturer decline in the industry and saw an opportunity to help small manufacturers, backyard inventors, and the stove industry as a whole. In order to reduce the costs of research and development on stoves, the StoveHogs designed and tested a …

Investigating The Modulation Of Aggregating Amyloid Beta 40, Marlee J. Motes

Chemical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Amyloid beta protein has been linked to the formation of Alzheimer’s disease in patients.¹ Plaques form from amyloid beta fibrils. The formation of these plaques between neural connections in the brain are associated with Alzheimer’s disease.² The reduction of the formation of fibrils can be linked to utilizing protein mimics. The protocols that are used to reproduce the simulation of amyloid beta in the brain can be very important. Also, the structure of the protein mimic that is being used to inhibit the formation of fibrils can determine how the amyloid beta plaques are reduced.

The structure of sequence KLLFFLFFLLK …

Peptoid Morphology Studies And Its Performance In Inhibiting Islet Amyloid Polypeptide, Dongwon Park

Chemical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Abstract 1

Proteins have various arrays of functions in human bodies. The bio-functions of proteins are depend on their amino acid sequences and folding processes that affect protein structure. While most of proteins fold in their own pathways, some of them misfold and aggregate due to mutations caused by various reasons. These aggregations are believed to be main causes of protein conformation disorders like Alzheimer's disease, Type II diabetes, Huntington's disease, and prion disease. An aggregated form of amyloid beta is considered as a hallmark of Alzheimer's disease. Amyloid beta develops from oligomer into a fibril as the aggregation process …

Werc Task #1 - Efficiency And Particulate Matter Emissions Testing Of Wood Burning Heating Units, Jonathan A. Shumaker

Chemical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

A design of a method for calculating the efficiency and particulate matter emission rates was developed for use on wood stoves. The project was completed for the WERC competition which is an international design contest. The prevalence of wood burning as a form of heating, current EPA regulations, and current market conditions were major factors in forming the necessity of this testing method. Design was not limited to outlining the design specifications, the apparatus was built and run. Optimization of the method continued until completion of the project. If the method would continue to be improved then it would be …

Werc Task #1 - Open: Efficiency And Particulate Matter Emissions Testing Of Wood Burning Heating Units, Teni R. Butler

Chemical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Wood burning has significant environmental and health impacts. This research focused on creating low-cost, reliable test methods for identifying particulate matter emissions to the atmosphere, while obtaining essential data for efficiency calculations of wood combustion.

Validation Of An Internal Camera Based Volume Determination System For Triaxial Testing, Leah D. Miramontes

Civil Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Accurate strain and volume measurements are critical to phase relationships and strength determination for saturated and unsaturated soils. In recent years, laboratory-based photographic techniques of monitoring soil specimens have become more common. These techniques have been used to reconstruct 3D models and to determine strain and volumetric changes of triaxial specimens. A new technique that utilized digital photographs of the soil specimen, captured from within a triaxial testing cell, was utilized. Photographs were processed using photogrammetry software to reconstruct 3D models of the soil specimens. By placing camera equipment within the cell, the technique eliminated the need to account for …

Assessing Toxicity Of Endocrine Disrupting Compounds In Wastewater For Water Reuse, Ryan Duchanois

Civil Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Reclaiming treated wastewater for potable water use may be necessary to supplement drinking water sources in water scarce regions. However, Snyder et al. (2003) indicates that endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs) are commonly found in wastewater effluents and natural waters around the world. These compounds with endocrine disrupting potential are typically found in personal care products, pharmaceuticals, and pesticides. Furthermore, according to Lemanik et al. (2007), typical wastewater treatment plants are not designed to remove EDCs.

For the purpose of water reuse, benchmarking wastewater treatment for endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs) is necessary. The cytotoxicities of five EDCs (namely, amoxicillin, acetaminophen, triclosan, …

Towards A Fast Reconstruction Paradigm For Urban Environments In Developing Regions Affected By Natural Disasters, Christopher Maestri

Civil Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Natural disasters in developing regions often displace people from their homes, into temporary shelters. These temporary shelters often consist of single-story pre-assembled tents designed to provide short-term aid for individual families. Unfortunately, single-story temporary shelters are not sufficient for accommodating large displaced populations in urban settings due to issues of land overcrowding and disruption to utilities providing water sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services (along with many other issues).

This study investigates the feasibility of implementing a multi-story steel structure, constructed with multi-use structural members and special end connectors, into future relief efforts. A multi-use structural member is an element whose …

Analysis Of Bolted Beam-Column Connections With Multiple Bolts Per Row And Column Web Stiffeners, Benjamin C. Sutherland

Civil Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Bolted beam-column connections are a common moment connection used in the design of steel buildings. Existing design guides include design parameters for bolt configurations having one bolt on either side of the beam web for each row of bolts. There is potential for increasing connection strength by adding additional bolts on the outside of these rows. This addition could be useful in retrofit scenarios, or even in the design of new structures. In this research, finite element analysis is used to analyze various beam-column connections and t-stub connections. The modeling methods, research process, and conclusions are explained in the thesis …

Measuring Relative Humidity In Concrete Pavements As A Method To Assess Asr Mitigation Measures, Remington G. Reed

Civil Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Alkali-silica reaction (ASR) in concrete is partly facilitated by available moisture within the concrete. In order to better understand this facilitation and to develop processes for ASR mitigation methods, it is necessary to establish a means of monitoring internal relative humidity (RH) within the concrete. Current procedures for measuring RH are time consuming; requiring several hours of equilibration time and specific external conditions to yield accurate results. In order to better understand RH monitoring, laboratory tests were conducted using commercially available RH probes and different controlled environments. Probes were carefully monitored and calibrated in controlled environments, and laboratory tests on …

Multilayer Composite Solid Electrolytes For Lithium Ion Batteries, Wei Liu

Dissertations - ALL

Lithium ion batteries (LIBs) are becoming the standard energy storage option for an increasingly diverse range of applications from mobile phones to cars. The conventional liquid electrolytes based LIBs are prone to failure in conditions such as high operating temperature, solvent leakage, lithium dendrites formation and thermal runaway, etc. All-solid-state lithium ion batteries (ASSLIBs) provide a promising power strategy to overcome the drawbacks of liquid electrolyte by substituting the highly flammable organic liquid electrolyte with solid electrolytes (SEs). However, up to the present time, the SEs fabrication for practical ASSLIB construction is still a significant challenge. The existing problems include …

Effects Of Substrate Stiffness On Bacterial Biofilm Formation, Fangchao Song

Dissertations - ALL

Biofilms are communities of microbial cells attached on surfaces and embedded in a self-produced extracellular matrix comprised of polysaccharides, DNA, and proteins. Biofilms of pathogenic bacteria cause serious chronic infections due to high tolerance to antibiotics and host immune systems compared to their planktonic compartments. Biofilm formation is known to be influenced by many properties of substrate materials, such as surface chemistry, hydrophobicity, roughness, topography, and charge. However, few studies have been conducted to investigate the effects of substrate stiffness. In this study, Escherichia coli RP437 and Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO1 were used as model strains to investigate the early stage …

Fretting Corrosion Of Cocrmo Alloy Biomaterials: Instrumentation Development, Heredity Integral Modeling And The Effect Of Frequency, Zhe Li

Dissertations - ALL

Mechanically assisted crevice corrosion, a process of corrosion that generally occurs in joint replacements of the hip and knee, is a major problem for metallic biomaterials. Though extensive research has already been undertaken, the basic concepts of fretting corrosion including prediction of the instantaneous current response during fretting corrosion, still needs to be understood in a systematic form. The aim of this study is to present the mechanical and electrochemical elements of a model pertaining to the process of fretting crevice corrosion and the prediction of fretting corrosion current transients. The influence of sliding speed on fretting corrosion severity of …

Assessing Gender Inequality From Large Scale Online Student Reviews, Souradeep Sinha

Dissertations - ALL

Career growth in academia is often dependent on student reviews of university profes-

sors. A growing concern is how evaluation of teaching has been affected by gender biases

throughout the reviewing process. However, pinpointing the exact causes and consequen-

tial effects of this form of gender inequality has been a hard task.

Current work focusses on university-wide student reviewing system, that depends on

objective responses on a Likert scale to measure various aspects of an instructor’s qual-

ity. Through our work, we access online student review data which are not limited by

geographies, universities, or disciplines.

Thereafter, we come up …

Understanding Soft Molecular Interfaces Using Multiscale Molecular Dynamics, Xiaoyi Wang

Dissertations - ALL

Molecular dynamics simulations have proven to be a breakthrough approach in providing molecular structure and function details of biological macromolecules. The fact that molecular simulations can provide details of individual particle motions as a function of time, opens infinite possibilities of answering specific questions about a model system with atomistic and molecular precision, often more easily than experiments on the actual system. Instead of relying solely on experiments, molecular dynamics systems are based on empirical force fields that mimic molecular interactions over time. There has been increasing interest in utilizing the multiscale molecular dynamics (MD) approach to simulate the properties …

Development Of A “2-D” Test System For Visualizing Fretting Corrosion: A Study Of The Fretting Corrosion Behavior Of Co-Cr-Mo Alloy, Dongkai Zhu

Dissertations - ALL

Fretting corrosion, one of the most common forms of mechanically-assisted corrosion (MAC), has become a major concern in orthopedic medical devices. In order to a better understand of the mechanism of fretting corrosion in orthopedic alloys and the ways to prevent implants from corroding, custom test systems need to be developed to simulate fretting corrosion in vitro and to allow visualizing of the process. This study aimed to develop a new “two dimensional” fretting crevice corrosion test system with the capacity to visualize damage progression during systematic controlled fretting corrosion processes. Another goal of the study was to experimentally verify …

Size Scale Effects On Linear Weir Hydraulics, Kedric W. Curtis

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Linear weirs are a type of hydraulic structure that have been used for centuries with many different applications. One of the characteristics of weirs that is particularly useful is the head-discharge relationship where the discharge over the weir is directly related to the upstream water depth above the crest. In general, the head-discharge relationship for a weir is determined experimentally using geometrically similar models. Due to space, time, money, and discharge capacity limitations at water laboratories, creating full scale models is not always a feasible option when determining head-discharge relationships for weirs, resulting in the use of smaller scale models. …

Synergistic Timing Speculation For Multi-Threaded Programs, Atif Yasin

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Timing speculation is a promising approach to increase the processor performance and energy efficiency. Under timing speculation, an integrated circuit is allowed to operate at a speed faster than the rated speed specified by its vendor. However, doing so might result in an incorrect execution. Consequently, as long as the processor is equipped with an error detection and recovery mechanism, its performance can be increased and/or energy consumption reduced beyond that achievable by any other conventional operation.

While many past works have dealt with timing speculation within a single core, in this work, a new direction is being uncovered by …

Impact Of Mass And Bond Energy Difference And Interface Defects On Thermal Boundary Conductance, Changjin Choi

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Many portions of energy generated in the U.S. are not used and take the form of wasted heat due to a poor heat transfer efficiency. This fact leads research communities to focus on thermoelectrics as a means for using waste heat through direct thermal to electrical energy conversion. One way to enhance thermoelectric efficiency is to reduce thermal conductivity through nanostructuring. In nanostructures, understanding energy transport across the interface of two materials is important because interfaces dominate the resistance to overall thermal transport of the system and can be described by thermal boundary conductance (TBC). Also of note, an understanding …

Quality Of Experience Aware Spectrum Efficiency And Energy Efficiency Over Wireless Heterogeneous Networks, Yiran Xu

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Propelled by the explosive increases in mobile data traffic volume, existing wireless technologies are stretched to their capacity limits. There is a tremendous need for an expansion in system capacity and an improvement on energy efficiency. In addition, wireless network will support more and more multimedia services and applications, in which user experience has been always an important factor in evaluating the overall network performance. In order to keep pace with this explosion of data traffic and to meet the emerging quality of experience needs, wireless heterogeneous networks have been introduced as a promising network architecture evolution of the traditional …

Anaerobic Hydrogen And Methane Production From Dairy Processing Waste: Experiment And Modeling, Jianming Zhong

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Dairy processing waste (DPW) is the waste produced from manufacturing dairy products: cheese, yogurt, ice cream, milk, butter, etc. DPW is high in chemical oxygen demand (COD) due to its lactose, fat and protein content, and therefore needs to be appropriately treated. An investigation was conducted to produce energy (hydrogen and methane) from DPW by anaerobic digestion. This project developed an effective engineering method for stable methane production from DPW without adding pH control chemicals. This study also explored the optimal operational condition for hydrogen production from DPW. We further built a mathematical model to help us monitor and predict …

Low-Temperature Aqueous Corrosion Behavior Of Uranium Molybdenum Alloys, Levi D. Gardner

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Nuclear fuel characterization requires understanding of the various conditions to which materials are exposed in-reactor. One of these important conditions is corrosion, particularly that of fuel constituents. Therefore, corrosion behavior is of special interest and an essential part of nuclear materials characterization efforts. In support of the Office of Material Management and Minimization’s Reactor Conversion Program, monolithic uranium-10 wt% molybdenum alloy (UMo) is being investigated as a low enriched uranium alternative to highly enriched uranium dispersion fuel currently used in domestic high performance research reactors. The aqueous corrosion behavior of U-Mo is being examined at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) …

Effects On A Wedge Flowmeter Installed Downstream Of A Double Elbow Out Of Plane, Devan S. Radle

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Precise flow measurement is a critical part of many industries including industrial, hydropower, petroleum, nuclear, and water/wastewater. Lengthy upstream piping is required for many flowmeters to obtain accurate results. Due to piping constraints, sub- optimal flow meter installations can occur. One of these conditions is the installment of a flow meter in close proximity downstream of a double elbow out of plane (DEOP). A DEOP can cause swirl to form in the flow and can cause inaccurate metering results due to the non-uniform flow and pressure conditions. This study investigated the effect of installing a differential pressure producing wedge flow …