Other Civil and Environmental Engineering Commons^™

Long-Term Patterns Of Air Temperatures, Daily Temperature Range, Precipitation, Grass-Reference Evapotranspiration And Aridity Index In The Usa Great Plains: Part I. Spatial Trends, Meetpal S. Kukal, Suat Irmak

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Due to their substantial spatio-temporal behavior, long-term quantification and analyses of important hydrological variables are essential for practical applications in water resources planning, evaluating the water use of agricultural crop production and quantifying crop evapotranspiration patterns and irrigation management vs. hydrologic balance relationships. Observed data at over 800 sites across the Great Plains of USA, comprising of 9 states and 2,307,410 km² of surface area, which is about 30% of the terrestrial area of the USA, were used to quantify and map large-scale and long-term (1968-2013) spatial trends of air temperatures, daily temperature range (DTR), precipitation, grass-reference evapotranspiration (ET …

Calibration Procedure For Fuel Flow Meters At The Nebraska Tractor Test Lab, Michael F. Kocher, Matthew T. Wold, Roger M. Hoy, Austin Lammers, Erin E. Blankenship

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Reports in the literature indicated several factors that can influence the accuracy of Coriolis Effect mass flow meters. A Coriolis Effect mass flow meter is used to verify tractor manufacturer’s fuel consumption claims at the Nebraska Tractor Test Laboratory (NTTL). The accuracy requirement placed on the flow meter by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in the Code 2 tractor performance test procedure is not clear, but in the most conservative interpretation is ±0.5% of each flow rate measured. Results showed a dynamic weighing calibration method was not accurate enough to obtain a calibration of the flow meter …

Temporal Dynamics Of Maize Plant Growth, Water Use, And Leaf Water Content Using Automated High Throughput Rgb And Hyperspectral Imaging, Yufeng Ge, Geng Bai, Vincent Stoerger, James C. Schnable

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Automated collection of large scale plant phenotype datasets using high throughput imaging systems has the potential to alleviate current bottlenecks in data-driven plant breeding and crop improvement. In this study, we demonstrate the characterization of temporal dynamics of plant growth and water use, and leaf water content of two maize genotypes under two different water treatments. RGB (Red Green Blue) images are processed to estimate projected plant area, which are correlated with destructively measured plant shoot fresh weight (FW), dry weight (DW) and leaf area. Estimated plant FW and DW, along with pot weights, are used to derive daily plant …

Analytical Solution For Speed To Achieve A Desired Operating Point For A Given Fan Or Pump, Michael F. Kocher, Jeyamkondan Subbiah

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

The Affinity Laws for fans (and pumps) provide a way of determining new fan or pump speed given fan or pump performance curve data and a desired operating point (combination of flow rate and pressure) that does not fall on the curve. However, the affinity law calculations require using a point on the curve (hereafter referred to as the “basic point”) to determine the new speed. Most references regarding the Affinity Laws do not give a clear description of the method for determining the “basic point”, and improper selection of this point can affect the results considerably. This article describes …

Tractor Hydraulic Power Data Acquisition System, J. B.W. Roeber, Santosh Pitla, Michael F. Kocher, Joe D. Luck, Roger M. Hoy

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Tractor hydraulic power is used on a wide range of agricultural implements; however, the availability of operational hydraulic data at points other than full engine throttle position is limited. Operators could utilize this hydraulic data to maximize field efficiency and minimize machinery costs when determining suitable machinery for field operations. A field usable hydraulic test apparatus capable of measuring tractor hydraulic pressure and flow rate data was developed. The goal of this study was to determine if a hydraulic flow and pressure measurement device could be installed on the rear of a tractor to provide implement hydraulic power consumption at …

Comparing Various Hardware/Software Solutions And Conversion Methods For Controller Area Network (Can) Bus Data Collection, Samuel E. Marx, Joe D. Luck, Santosh Pitla, Roger M. Hoy

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Various hardware and software solutions exist for collecting Controller Area Network (CAN) bus data. Digital data accuracy could vary based upon different data logging methods (e.g., hardware/software timing, processor timing, etc.). CAN bus data were collected from agricultural tractors using multiple data acquisition solutions to quantify differences among collection methods and demonstrate potential data accumulation rates. Two types of data were observed for this study. The first, CAN bus frame data, represents data collected for each line of hex data sent from an ECU. One issue with frame data is the resulting large file sizes, therefore a second logging format …

Removal Of Cattle Manure Constituents In Runoff From No-Till Cropland As Affected By Setback Distance, John E. Gilley, Aaron J. Sindelar, Brian L. Woodbury

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Vegetative filter strips located at the bottom of a hillslope have been shown to substantially reduce nutrients and sediment in runoff. Cropland areas could serve a similar function. However, little scientifically derived information is available to help identify the setback distances required to effectively reduce the transport of contaminants in runoff. The objective of this study was to determine the effects of setback distance and runoff rate on the concentrations and mass transport rates of selected constituents following land application of beef cattle manure to a no-till cropland area. The study site had a residue cover of 8.84 Mg ha-1 …

Removal Of Cattle Manure Constituents In Runoff From No-Till Cropland As Affected By Setback Distance, John E. Gilley, Aaron J. Sindelar, Bryan L. Woodbury

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Vegetative filter strips located at the bottom of a hillslope have been shown to substantially reduce nutrients and sediment in runoff. Cropland areas could serve a similar function. However, little scientifically derived information is available to help identify the setback distances required to effectively reduce the transport of contaminants in runoff. The objective of this study was to determine the effects of setback distance and runoff rate on the concentrations and mass transport rates of selected constituents following land application of beef cattle manure to a no-till cropland area. The study site had a residue cover of 8.84 Mg ha …

Protein-Targeted Corona Phase Molecular Recognition, Gili Bisker, Juyao Dong, Hoyoung D. Park, Nicole M. Iverson, Jiyoung Ahn, Justin T. Nelson, Markita P. Landry, Sebastian Kruss, Michael S. Strano

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Corona phase molecular recognition (CoPhMoRe) uses a heteropolymer adsorbed onto and templated by a nanoparticle surface to recognize a specific target analyte. This method has not yet been extended to macromolecular analytes, including proteins. Herein we develop a variant of a CoPhMoRe screening procedure of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNT) and use it against a panel of human blood proteins, revealing a specific corona phase that recognizes fibrinogen with high selectivity. In response to fibrinogen binding, SWCNT fluorescence decreases by >80% at saturation. Sequential binding of the three fibrinogen nodules is suggested by selective fluorescence quenching by isolated sub-domains and validated …

Preliminary Investigation Into The Rate Of Carbonation Of Concrete Blocks Under Normal Production Yard Conditions, Aimee Byrne, Eanna Nolan

Conference papers

The release of CO2 from calcination during the manufacture of cement can be partially or fully offset by the CO2 it naturally absorbs during its lifetime. This paper reports results from a preliminary investigation into the rate of carbonation in concrete blocks stacked in a production yard over a period of 6 months. The blocks were stacked in a normal manner under natural exposure conditions. Carbonation progress was determined by splitting the blocks and spraying the freshly exposed surface with a phenolphthalein solution at intervals over the test period. It was found that the rate of the carbonation front progression …

Designing A Permeable Reactive Barrier For The Remediation Of Copper Contaminated Groundwater., Christopher Walkons

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

This project details the design of a sorption based pilot-scale permeable reactive barrier (PRB) for the removal of copper from groundwater. The reactive material for the barrier is the residual of coagulants used in drinking water treatment operations. Physical and chemical properties of these water treatment residuals (WTR) have been studied to optimize PRB design. Batch reactor tests have shown that equilibrium sorption of copper can be fit to a Langmuir type isotherm. Kinetic and column experiments have been conducted to understand the significance of chemical and physical mass transfer limitations. A leaching test indicated the concentrations of hazardous elements …

A Sustainability-Based Project Selection Algorithm: Socio-Technical-Economic Project Selection (Steps) Algorithm, Bharathi Bhattu

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Multi-dimensional aspects play a vital role in the task of project-decision making. Environmental effects are to be considered in addition to other technical and non-technical aspects in order to avoid undue environmental damage. This current work introduces a new decision-making algorithm (Socio-Technical-Economic Project Selection or STEPS) that is demonstrated with the use of RCA (recycled concrete aggregate) as riprap for slope stabilization and erosion control which leaches chemical arsenic when in contact with water. Arsenic has long been recognized for its lethal properties. The main intention of introducing this new algorithm is to use sustainability concepts of social, technical, and …

In-Field Fuel Use And Load States Of Agricultural Field Machinery, Santosh Pitla, Joe D. Luck, Jared Werner, Nannan Lin, Scott A. Shearer

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

The ability to define in-field tractor load states offers the potential to better specify and characterize fuel consumption rate for various field operations. For the same field operation, the tractor experiences diverse load demands and corresponding fuel use rates as it maneuvers through straight passes, turns, suspended operation for adjustments, repair and maintenance, and biomass or other material transfer operations. It is challenging to determine the actual fuel rate and load states of agricultural machinery using force prediction models, and hence, some form of in-field data acquisition capability is required. Controller Area Networks (CAN) available on the current model tractors …

Inter-Row Robot Navigation Using 1d Ranging Sensors, Tyler A. Troyer, Santosh Pitla, Ethan Nutter

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

In this paper a fuzzy logic navigation controller for an inter-row agricultural robot is developed and evaluated in laboratory settings. The controller receives input from one-dimensional (1D) ranging sensors on the robotic platform, and operated on ten fuzzy rules for basic row-following behavior. The control system was implemented on basic hardware for proof of concept and operated on a commonly available microcontroller development platform and open source software libraries. The robot platform used for experimentation was a small tracked vehicle with differential steering control. Fuzzy inferencing and defuzzification, step response and cross track error were obtained from the test conducted …

Quantifying The Fate Of Agricultural Nitrogen In An Unconfined Aquifer: Stream-Based Observations At Three Measurement Scales, Troy E. Gilmore, David P. Genereux, D. Kip Solomon, John E. Solder, Briant A. Kimball, Helena Mitasova, Francois Birgand

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

We compared three stream-based sampling methods to study the fate of nitrate in groundwater in a coastal plain watershed: point measurements beneath the streambed, seepage blankets (novel seepage-meter design), and reach mass-balance. The methods gave similar mean groundwater seepage rates into the stream (0.3–0.6 m/d) during two 3–4 day field campaigns despite an order of magnitude difference in stream discharge between the campaigns. At low flow, estimates of flowweighted mean nitrate concentrations in groundwater discharge ([NO^-₃ ]_FWM) and nitrate flux from groundwater to the stream decreased with increasing degree of channel influence and measurement scale, i.e., …

Groundwater Transit Time Distribution And Mean From Streambed Sampling In An Agricultural Coastal Plain Watershed, North Carolina, Usa, Troy E. Gilmore, David P. Genereux, D. Kip Solomon, John E. Solder

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

We measured groundwater apparent age (s) and seepage rate (v) in a sandy streambed using point-scale sampling and seepage blankets (a novel seepage meter). We found very similar MTT estimates from streambed point sampling in a 58 m reach (29 years) and a 2.5 km reach (31 years). The TTD for groundwater discharging to the stream was best fit by a gamma distribution model and was very similar for streambed point sampling in both reaches. Between adjacent point-scale and seepage blanket samples, water from the seepage blankets was generally younger, largely because blanket samples contained a fraction of ‘‘young’’ stream …

Impact Of Scale/Resolution On Evapotranspiration From Landsat And Modis Images, Vivek Sharma, Ayse Kilic, Suat Irmak

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Understanding the role of landscape heterogeneity and its influence on the scaling behavior of surface fluxes as observed by satellite sensors with different spatial resolutions is a critical need to investigate. In this study, the effects of pixel scales on ETc estimation and other parameters that are used to calculate ETc were investigated over different vegetation surfaces in south central Nebraska, USA. Surface Energy Balance System (SEBS) was used to estimate spatially distributed ETc by combining ground-based meteorological data for Landsat and MODIS imagery. The estimated surface energy fluxes were compared and validated to the measured Bowen Ratio Energy Balance …

262. Direct Measure Of Cervical Interbody Forces In Vivo: Load Reversal After Plating, Eric H. Ledet, Josh Peterson, Rebecca A. Wachs, Mary Beth M. Grabowsky, Joseph C. Glennon, Darryl J. Dirisio

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

BACKGROUND CONTEXT: Biomechanics play an important role in spine fusion, but the in vivo biomechanics of the cervical spine are not well characterized and the in vivo biomechanics after spinal arthrodesis have never been studied. Load sharing facilitates fusion, but overloading of interbody implants can lead to subsidence and failure. In vitro studies have demonstrated that anterior plating significantly alters mechanical loading in the cervical spine. The instantaneous axis of rotation is shifted anteriorly and loading is reversed relative to an uninstrumented spine; the interbody space is compressed during extension and unloaded during flexion. However, this has never been tested …

Moisture Insensitive Prediction Of Soil Properties From Vnir Reflectance Spectra Based On External Parameter Orthogonalization, Nuwan K. Wijewardane, Yufeng Ge, Cristine L.S. Morgan

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Moisture is the single most important factor that affects soil reflectance spectra, particularly for field applications. Interest in using soil VNIR spectral libraries, which are commonly based on dry ground soils, to predict soils in the intact field-moist condition (in situ VNIR) is growing. External parameter orthogonalization (EPO) has been proposed as a useful method that links dry ground VNIR models to field moist scans. The goal of this study is to test EPO on a wider set of soil properties and four different modeling techniques, namely, Partial Least Squares Regression (PLS), Artificial Neural Network (ANN), Random Forest (RF), and …

Neural Encoding Of Saltatory Pneumotactile Velocity In Human Glabrous Hand, Hyuntaek Oh, Rebecca Custead, Yingying Wang, Steven M. Barlow

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Neurons in the somatosensory cortex are exquisitely sensitive to mechanical stimulation of the skin surface. The location, velocity, direction, and adaptation of tactile stimuli on the skin's surface are discriminable features of somatosensory processing, however the representation and processing of dynamic tactile arrays in the human somatosensory cortex are poorly understood. The principal aim of this study was to map the relation between dynamic saltatory pneumatic stimuli at discrete traverse velocities on the glabrous hand and the resultant pattern of evoked BOLD response in the human brain. Moreover, we hypothesized that the hand representation in contralateral Brodmann Area (BA) 3b …

A Multi-Sensor System For High Throughput Field Phenotyping In Soybean And Wheat Breeding, Geng Bai, Yufeng Ge, Waseem Hussain, P. Stephen Baenziger, George L. Graef

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Collecting plant phenotypic data with sufficient resolution (in both space and time) and accuracy represents a long standing challenge in plant science research, and has been a major limiting factor for the effective use of genomic data for crop improvement. This is particularly true in plant breeding where collecting large-scale field-based plant phenotypes can be very labor intensive and costly. In this paper we reported a multi-sensor system for high throughput phenotyping in plant breeding. The system comprised five sensor modules (ultrasonic distance sensors, thermal infrared radiometers, NDVI sensors, portable spectrometers, and RGB web cameras) to measure crop canopy traits …

A Multi-Scale Comparison Of Modeled And Observed Seasonal Methane Emissions In Northern Wetlands, Xiyan Xu, William J. Riley, Charles D. Koven, Dave P. Billesbach, Rachel Y.-W. Chang, Roisin Commane, Eugenie S. Euskirchen, Sean Hartery, Yoshinobu Harazono, Hiroki Iwata, Kyle C. Mcdonald, Charles E. Miller, Walter C. Oechel, Benjamin Poulter, Naama Raz-Yaseef, Colm Sweeny, Margaret Torn, Steven C. Wofsy, Zhen Zhang, Donatella Zona

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Wetlands are the largest global natural methane (CH₄) source, and emissions between 50 and 70° N latitude contribute 10–30% to this source. Predictive capability of land models for northern wetland CH₄ emissions is still low due to limited site measurements, strong spatial and temporal variability in emissions, and complex hydrological and biogeochemical dynamics. To explore this issue, we compare wetland CH₄ emission predictions from the Community Land Model 4.5 (CLM4.5-BGC) with siteto regional-scale observations. A comparison of the CH₄ fluxes with eddy flux data highlighted needed changes to the model’s estimate of aerenchyma area, which …

Cellulase Immobilization On Superparamagnetic Nanoparticles For Reuse In Cellulosic Biomass Conversion, Qing Song, Yu Mao, Mark Wilkins, Fernando Segato, Rolf Prade

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Current cellulosic biomass hydrolysis is based on the one-time use of cellulases. Cellulases immobilized on magnetic nanocarriers offer the advantages of magnetic separation and repeated use for continuous hydrolysis. Most immobilization methods focus on only one type of cellulase. Here, we report co-immobilization of two types of cellulases, β-glucosidase A (BglA) and cellobiohydrolase D (CelD), on sub-20 nm superparamagnetic nanoparticles. The nanoparticles demonstrated 100% immobilization efficiency for both BglA and CelD. The total enzyme activities of immobilized BglA and CelD were up to 67.1% and 41.5% of that of the free cellulases, respectively. The immobilized BglA and CelD each retained …

Incorporation Of Globally Available Datasets Into The Roving Cosmic-Ray Neutron Probe Method For Estimating Field-Scale Soil Water Content, William A. Avery, Catherine Finkenbiner, Trenton E. Franz, Tiejun Wang, Anthony L. Nguy-Robertson, Andrew E. Suyker, Timothy J. Arkebauer, Francisco Munoz-Arriola

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

The need for accurate, real-time, reliable, and multi-scale soil water content (SWC) monitoring is critical for a multitude of scientific disciplines trying to understand and predict the Earth’s terrestrial energy, water, and nutrient cycles. One promising technique to help meet this demand is fixed and roving cosmic-ray neutron probes (CRNPs). However, the relationship between observed low-energy neutrons and SWC is affected by local soil and vegetation calibration parameters. This effect may be accounted for by a calibration equation based on local soil type and the amount of vegetation. However, determining the calibration parameters for this equation is labor- and time-intensive, …

Production And Harvest Of Microalgae In Wastewater Raceways With Resource Recycling, Alexander Colin Roberts

Master's Theses

Microalgae can be grown on municipal wastewater media to both treat the wastewater and produce feedstock for algae biofuel production. However the reliability of treatment must be demonstrated, as well as high areal algae productivity on recycled wastewater media and efficient sedimentation harvesting. This processes was studied at pilot scale in the present research.

A pilot facility was operated with nine CO₂-supplemented raceway ponds, each with a 33-m² surface area and a 0.3-m depth, continuously from March 6, 2013 through September 24, 2014. The ponds were operated as three sets of triplicates with two sets continuously fed …

Review Of Robotic Technology For Strawberry Production, S. G. Defterli, Yeyin Shi, Yunjun Xu

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

With an increasing world population in need of food and a limited amount of land for cultivation, higher efficiency in agricultural production, especially fruits and vegetables, is increasingly required. The success of agricultural production in the marketplace depends on its quality and cost. The cost of labor for crop production, harvesting, and post-harvesting operations is a major portion of the overall production cost, especially for specialty crops such as strawberry. As a result, a multitude of automation technologies involving semi-autonomous and autonomous robots have been utilized, with an aim of minimizing labor costs and operation time to achieve a considerable …

Detecting Grain Flow Rate Using A Laser Scanner, Hossein Navid, Randal K. Taylor, Arzu Yazgi, Ning Wang, Yeyin Shi, Paul Weckler

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Detecting and measuring agricultural material flow is important in a wide range of applications in agricultural engineering, such as material handling, food processing, yield monitoring, and fertilizer spreading. In these applications, flow rate is determined by measuring material mass or volume as a function of time. Although different materials require detection, the methods for a given material type (e.g., granular) can be similar. Researchers have developed methods such as impact based sensors, radiometric-based sensors, and optical methods to detect and measure material flow. Abdul Rahim and Green (1998) studied an optical-fiber sensor (containing 32 light sources and 32 light detectors) …

Computer Vision System For Grading Mangos In Bangladesh, Md Abdul Momin, Md Towfiqur Rahman, Mst Sabrina Sultana, Igathinathane Cannayen

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Mango (Mangifera indica) is one of the most common, important, and popular fruits among fruits produced in Bangladesh. In Bangladesh, mango was cultivated in about 0.078 million acres with an annual production of 0.8 million tonne. However, the technologies used in post-harvest processing (e.g., grading, sorting, etc.) of mango are mostly traditional involving human labors; and the methods are far from satisfactory, in terms of accuracy and throughput. In order to grade mango according to size, we developed a machine vision system with image processing capabilities that can measure sizes of mango fruits from the images. In this system images …

Using Swat To Simulate Crop Yields And Salinity Levels In The North Fork River Basin, Usa, Aaron R. Mittelstet, Daniel E. Storm, Art L. Stoecker

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Crop yields and salinity levels in the North Fork of the Red River (North Fork River) basin, located in southwestern Oklahoma and the Texas Panhandle, were analyzed based on the diverse climate in the region. Saline irrigation water is a major problem in the basin. The Elm Fork Creek flows through salt deposits, making the creek and its receiving stream, the North Fork River, too saline to use for irrigation. This greatly reduces the number of hectares that can be utilized for agricultural crops within the basin. A baseline SWAT model was setup, calibrated and validated to simulate streamflow and …

Ensc 300 (Energy Seminar) Annotated Bibliography, Supplementary Reading, Adam Liska

Adam Liska Papers

Innovation
Sociology of Innovation, Business, & Work
Sustainable Business Strategy
Leadership
Science, Engineering, & Business History
Economics
Energy, Business, & Environmental Policy
Climate Change & Insurance
Education
Ethics

62 monographic resources