When pavement markings on roadways are removed, scarring can occur leaving behind traces of where the marking used to be called ghost lines. These ghost lines can confuse drivers on the roadway and divert their attention from the correct lane markings leading them into the false lane. Previous research has...
This work explores the mechanical properties of single-phase niobium alloy C103 from room temperature to 600°C for the purpose of expanding safe uses of the material into new applications. The study utilizes a symmetrically notched triaxial tensile specimens to manipulate the internal stress field in order to observe the changes...
Hydrogels have been attractive for use as a medium in porous flow studies,
but have always been limited in this role because of their poor mechanical properties.
This project analyzes and tests two recently developed hydrogels,
poly(methacrylamide-co-methacrylic acid) (PMM), and a heat-treated long chain
PVA hydrogel. Particle image velocimetry (PIV)...
To facilitate the design of Natural and Nature-Based Features (NNBF) for flood protection, this thesis expands an existing engineering design methodology to NNBF systems. The existing approach is a Level III reliability method for the performance-based design of traditional coastal engineering systems. The expanded methodology incorporates uncertainties inherent to both...
Walking is the single most universal mode of transportation in the world, but being a pedestrian exposes a traveler to high risk. Historically, pedestrians have consistently experienced disproportionately high rates of fatalities and severe injuries in traffic crashes. Research has probed into factors influencing pedestrian crash injury severity outcomes, but...
Considering the deadly impacts of commercial motor vehicle (CMV) crashes on road safety, many previous studies have put in efforts to find the determinants of CMV crash injury severities. However, studies examining the impact of the different number of lanes on CMV crash
injury severities are lacking. Besides, the importance...
This thesis presents novel feedback and feedforward control system design strategies for active to passive vibration mitigation of residual vibrations on high speed machine tools. Residual vibrations on high-speed machine tools are triggered when the machine axes (table) undergo large accelerations, which induce sudden inertial forces and excite the lightly...
Laser Powder Bed Fusion (LPBF) is a process commonly used to create additively manufactured metal parts. The flexibility and complexity allowed by the LPBF process provides opportunity for significant advancement in multiple industries as parts can be customized in shape and function for specific needs. These benefits can be compounded...
The integration of low-pressure membrane filtration and aerobic granular sludge (AGS) reactor leads to a novel environmental biotechnological process with strong potential to overcome membrane fouling and demonstrate excellent wastewater treatment performance. However, membrane fouling mechanisms in the AGS based membrane bioreactor (MBR) are lack of systematic elaboration. In the...
The aerospace industry uses chemical kinetic models when designing propulsion systems to acquire specific details about the rate of chemical reactions, heat release, and combustion stability. These models, however, are too large and stiff to be useful as they can take weeks to run computations on. The pyMARS python package...