Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) is known as the process of implementation of damage detection and characterization strategy. The method is widely used in modern critical equipment to minimize the risk of failures. While a significant effort has been devoted by researchers for the detection of faults in situations including periodic...
Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) technology is a rapidly developing technological marketspace. This thesis focuses on micro, tethered, coaxial UASs and the development of an electrically-tethered observation platform (ETOP). The thesis details the current status of the technology as well as current products on the market. Stability considerations, critical when adding...
Tropical peatlands play an important role in global climate system by storing an immense of carbon that had been accumulated over thousands of years. Peatlands provide another important ecosystem service by regulating the hydrology. It is believed that peatlands act like a giant sponge by absorbing substantial amounts of water...
Lower atmospheric flux measurements are a difficult subset of atmospheric data to accurately collect. The interplay of cost, precision, specialty, resolution and repeatability compound an already difficult experimental problem. In response to this, a new, novel instrumentation approach to measuring within the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) is introduced.
The combination...
Designing a carbon fiber chassis for the Global Formula Race car has historically proven to be both time intensive and difficult. The goal of this thesis is to improve the design process for testing Global Formula Racing team's composite chassis sandwich panels. Consideration was taken regarding Formula SAE rules, and...
Micro air vehicles (MAV's) and small unmanned aerial vehicles (SUAV) are remotely piloted or autonomous aircraft with a take-off mass range between 50 g and few kilograms. These vehicles, as well as natural fliers such as bats and insects, utilize a variety of elastic wing structures including thin membranes. Over...
Many different models and mechanisms of water imbibition into soil have been described in the literature. Theoretical equations based on those models exist to predict how water will flow in porous media. These models can be useful, but have their weaknesses. Research on imbibition and infiltration into soils has mostly...
Geologic CO₂ sequestration is a climate change mitigation strategy that prevents CO₂ emissions to the atmosphere by capturing CO₂ gasses from large point source emissions streams and then pressurizing and pumping the supercritical-state CO₂ into underground geologic storage reservoirs. Once underground, CO₂ is prevented from buoyant migration to the surface...
The objective of this project is to demonstrate the feasibility fiber-reinforced turbine components through a design and manufacturing study. The motivation for using composites is to reduce weight and simplify manufacturing especially at high production volumes. In addition, natural fiber composites are implemented for applicable components to reduce environmental impact....
Among the many safety hazards facing chainsaw operators, the phenomenon known as kickback is the most dangerous. Kickback occurs when the chain at the tip of the chainsaw is caused to stop abruptly, and transfers the energy of the cutting chain to motion of the saw. The saw will rotate...