Thermoelectric materials are playing an increasingly significant role in the global effort to develop sustainable energy technologies. Consequently, the demand for materials with greater thermoelectric efficiency has stimulated the development of state-of-the-art interstitially doped skutterudite-based materials. However, since intermetallics are often embrittled by interstitial substitution, optimal skutterudite-based device design, manufacture,...
Coal-fired power plants constitute a significant source of energy production for the United States, and are projected to do so for decades to come. Most of the scrutiny coal-fired power plants receive is in the form of environmental concerns regarding green house gas emissions of carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, and...
Steam distillation is the traditional method used for the extraction of peppermint oil. This process is able to remove approximately 20% of the oils from the leaves of the plant. It is a very costly and un-sustainable process due to the release of carbon emissions. Solvent free microwave extraction promises...
The stupendous growth in wireless and mobile devices in the recent years has prompted researchers to look at innovative approaches that enable effective use of the available resources. In this thesis, we propose a medium access control (MAC) protocol, referred to as EM-MAC, that enables wireless devices with multi-channel access...
With continued development of the electronic industry, the demand for highly efficient heat removal solutions requires innovative cooling technologies. A computational fluid dynamic (CFD) study, including heat transfer, is performed for an axisymmetric, confined jet impingement experiencing boiling and coupled with vapor extraction. Boiling occurs at the target surface while...
Spent nuclear fuel (SNF) resultant from the generation of nuclear power is a chemically and radiologically diverse system which is advantageous to chemically process prior to geologic disposal. Hydrometallurgy is the primary technology for chemical processing for light water reactor spent fuels, where spent fuel is dissolved in an acid...
Innovation is a key element for a product to achieve market success, but identifying it within product or even defining the term is a difficult task. Identifying innovation has been approached in many different ways. Experts in design engineering may identify innovative designs based on an analysis of a product's...
Bulk metallic glasses (BMGs) offer a great deal of potential through their near-theoretical strength, potentially high toughness and unique forming and molding traits. However, there are still a number of outstanding issues that bar their widespread use. This thesis describes the investigation of three research questions each designed to further...
In 2008, the Department of Energy (DOE) and Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NCR) decided that the Next Generation Nuclear Plant (NGNP) would be the Very High Temperature Reactor (VHTR). In support of the licensing and validation effort of the VHTR, Oregon State University was tasked with designing, building, and operating a...
The objective of this work was to determine and optimize the resolution of a neutron sensitive Multi-Channel Plate (MCP) detector in order to determine its capabilities in radiography and tomography. The Oregon State University, Neutron Radiography Facility added an MCP Detector in 2012 in order to analyze these capabilities. The...
The elimination of soluble boron creates several advantages for Small Modular Reactor (SMR) operation. Most of these advantages are realized through significant core simplification (removal of pipes, pumping, and purification systems), the removal of the corrosive effects of soluble boron, and from improved safety effects. However, removing soluble boron creates...
In many geotechnical design situations involving tight right-of-way constraints, Mechanically Stabilized Earth (MSE) walls are often the most cost-effective and reliable earth retention technology among available alternatives. However, few well-documented case histories with detailed material testing, instrumentation programs and construction observation of performance are available in the literature. Despite the...
The steel diagrid structural system is a recent load bearing and lateral resisting structural system for tall building structures that is relatively unexplored in the western United States. One possible reason for the little use of diagrid systems in earthquake prone regions is the lack of guidelines and application examples...
This thesis presents a novel approach for propagation of uncertainty in river systems. Errors in data observations and predictions (e.g., stream inflows), in model parameters, and resulting from the discretization of continuous systems, all point to the need to accurately quantify the amount of uncertainty carried through the modeling process....
The development of solution-based methods for deposition of different thin film material is presented as an alternative to high cost vacuum-based methods. For certain materials, vacuum techniques are unsuitable for processing. Additionally, vacuum-based processes present high capital costs associated with equipment, and slow processing times. Atmospheric pressure solution based techniques...
The most widely used and versatile medical radioisotope today is technetium-99m. Roughly 30 million people depend on this radioisotope for diagnostic procedures each year, and this demand is expected to grow. Although there are numerous ways of procuring this isotope, the most common and most practical, for reasons to be...
We consider the problem of wireless spectrum management in cognitive wireless networks that maximizes the revenue for a spectrum operator. Specifically, we study the problem on how a wireless spectrum operator can optimally allocate its limited spectrum to various classes users/devices who pay differently for their spectrum per unit time....
This research considers a combinatorial optimization scheduling problem in the assembly of printed circuit boards (PCBs) in electronic manufacturing. For the first time in this research, the preparation process, which is typically called kitting operation, is paid attention to and is performed along with the assembly operation, described in this...
Robots are being utilized in ever more complex tasks and environments to help humans with difficult or dangerous tasks. However, robotic grasping is still in its infancy and is one of the limiting factors which prevent the deployment of robots in the home and other assisted living scenarios. Traditional methods...
Some of the next generation of small modular reactors have been designed with helically coiled steam generators integrated into the reactor vessel to enhance natural circulation. According to the developers of TASS/SMR, a one-dimensional thermal hydraulic code written to model the Korean Atomic Energy Research Institute's SMART reactor, the Žukauskas...