Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

College Of Engineering Senior Design Competition Fall 2013, University Of Nevada, Las Vegas

Fred and Harriet Cox Senior Design Competition Projects

Part of every UNLV engineering student’s academic experience, the senior design project stimulates engineering innovation and entrepreneurship. Each student in their senior year chooses, plans, designs, and prototypes a product in this required element of the curriculum. A capstone to the student’s educational career, the senior design project encourages the student to use everything learned in the engineering program to create a practical, real world solution to an engineering challenge. The senior design competition helps focus the senior students in increasing the quality and potential for commercial application for their design projects. Judges from local industry evaluate the projects on …

Impacts Of Climate Changes On The Spatiotemporal Distribution Of Precipitation In The Western United States, Peng Jiang

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Precipitation in the Intermountain West is characterized by its great variability in both spatial and temporal distributions. Moreover, the spatiotemporal distribution of the precipitation is changing due to the climate changes. In this dissertation, three studies are conducted to investigate the multi-scale temporal variability of precipitation, the performance of current climate models on this variability, the influence of large-scale ocean oscillations on heavy precipitation, and the impact of human induced global warming on storm properties.

The first study is to examine the performance of current climate models on the simulation of the multi-scale temporal variability determined from the observed station …

Evaluation Of Alternative Project Delivery Methods In Water And Wastewater Projects, Ruiko Maharjan

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The United States (U.S.) is facing significant challenges in addressing aging water infrastructure. Most of the drinking water infrastructure is reaching the end of their useful lives. The American Water Works Association (AWWA) estimated that it will cost about $1 trillion to repair or replace drinking water pipes. Over the next 20 years, it will cost about $298 billion to fix or expand pipes of the nation's wastewater and storm-water systems (AWWA, 2012). Owners, engineers, and contractors are using Alternative Project Delivery (APD) methods - e.g., Design-Build Construction Management-at-Risk Construction Management/General Contractor- to build water and wastewater projects in order …

A Case Study Of Zero Energy Home Built For Solar Decathlon Competition 2013, Sanjib Mulepati

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Energy consumption in residential homes has been a subject of research related to sustainability. Reduction in the consumption of energy is a goal of sustainable construction. The Department of Energy (DOE) started a Solar Decathlon competition in 2002 in which the students from different universities around the globe build an energy efficient and affordable home suitable for their climate and location. The main goal of this competition is to select the best home that is designed and built in a sustainable way. In this study, the home designed and constructed for participation in the competition by the students at University …

Phosphorus Removal From Ebpr Sludge Dewatering Liquors Using Lanthanum Chloride, Aluminum Sulfate And Ferric Chloride, Michael Strileski

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

In wastewater treatment, enhanced biological phosphorus removal (EBPR) is becoming an increasingly popular alternative to chemical precipitation (CP) because of its lower costs and reduced sludge production. However, downstream solids handling processes such as digestion, sludge storage and dewatering promote an undesirable release (i.e. secondary release) of polyphosphate that was stored within EBPR sludge. Released phosphate is recycled to the head of the plant with the liquors of sludge dewatering processes. The concentration of phosphate in recycle streams from EBPR systems can be one to two orders of magnitude higher than the influent phosphorus concentration entering the EBPR system. Plants …

College Of Engineering Senior Design Competition Spring 2013, University Of Nevada, Las Vegas

Fred and Harriet Cox Senior Design Competition Projects

Senior Design Experience

Part of every UNLV engineering student's academic experience, the Senior Design project stimulates engineering innovation and entrepreneurship. Each student in their senior year chooses, plans, designs and prototypes a product in this required element of the curriculum. Working in teams, the senior design project encourages students to use everything learned in the engineering and computer design programs to create a practical, real world solution to an engineering challenge.

Beyond the classroom ...

Because of the requirement to work in teams, students also build good communication skills, presentation skills and even business writing skills. They also have to …

Investigating The Feasibility Of Growing Algae For Fuel In Southern Nevada, Faegheh Moazeni

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Microalgae capable of growing in waste are adequate to be mass-cultivated for biodiesel, avoiding fertilizers and clean water, two obstacles to sustainability of the feedstock production. This study replaces fertilizers and clean water with waste products. The investigated wastes include (1) the liquid fraction of sewage after solids and particles are removed, known as centrate, and (2) algal biomass residue, i.e. the algae remaining at the end of the lipids extraction process at biofuel plants. These wastes contain sufficient amount of nitrogen and phosphorus required for algal growth. This study proposes a system in which centrate would be used as …

Initial Elastic Modulus Degradation Using Pressuremeter And Standard Penetration Test Results At Two Sites, Dustin Robbins

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

In-situ testing was performed at two sites consisting of pre-bored pressuremeter testing, seismic surface wave testing to develop a shear wave velocity profile, and Standard Penetration testing during the soil boring phase in order to evaluate the feasibility of using large shallow foundations for a project. This study focuses on a comparison of the in-situ direct measurements of soil stiffness obtained from this testing program. The small strain modulus obtained from the seismic surface wave test results is compared to the intermediate strain modulus obtained from both the initial loading pressuremeter modulus and reload pressuremeter modulus. The modulus calculated from …

New N-Nitrosodimethylamine (Ndma) Precursors That React With Ozone: Implications For Water Reuse, Erica Marti, Aleks Pisarenko, Eric Dickenson

College of Engineering: Graduate Celebration Programs

Ozonation is a promising treatment step for water reuse. Compared to the “gold standard” with reverse osmosis and advanced oxidation, ozone requires less energy and does not result in a waste brine. This makes ozone more cost-effective. However, the formation of nitrosamines may be a significant barrier to the use of ozonation in water reuse applications, particularly for potable reuse.

Estimation Of Performance Indices For The Planning Of Sustainable Transportation Systems, Alexander Paz, Pankaj Maheshwari, Pushkin Kachroo, Sajjad Ahmad

Civil and Environmental Engineering and Construction Faculty Research

In the context of sustainable transportation systems, previous studies have either focused only on the transportation system or have not used a methodology that enables the treatment of incomplete, vague, and qualitative information associated with the available data. This study proposes a system of systems (SOS) and a fuzzy logic modeling approach. The SOS includes the Transportation, Activity, and Environment systems. The fuzzy logic modeling approach enables the treatment of the vagueness associated with some of the relevant data. Performance Indices (PIs) are computed for each system using a number of performance measures. The PIs illustrate the aggregated performance of …