Browsing by Department "Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science"
Now showing items 1-20 of 278
-
A Cell Decomposition Approach to Robotic Trajectory Planning via Disjunctive Programming
(2012)This thesis develops a novel solution method for the problem of collision-free, optimal control of a robotic vehicle in an obstacle populated environment. The technique presented combines the well established approximate ... -
A Distributed Optimal Control Approach for Multi-agent Trajectory Optimization
(2013)This dissertation presents a novel distributed optimal control (DOC) problem formulation that is applicable to multiscale dynamical systems comprised of numerous interacting systems, or agents, that together give rise to ... -
A Dynamic Fracture Simulation Based on Embedded Finite Element Methods
(2012)In this thesis, a hybrid numerical approach is proposed for modeling dynamic fracture in brittle materials. This method is based on a combination of embedded finite element methods and extrinsic cohesive zone models. The ... -
A High-Throughput Framework for Materials Research And Space Group Determination Algorithm
(2012)Effective computational materials search, categorization, and design necessitates a high-throughput (HT) approach. System by system analyses lack the scope and speed needed to uncover large portions of the materials landscape. ... -
A Multi-Disciplinary Systems Approach for Modeling and Predicting Physiological Responses and Biomechanical Movement Patterns
(2017)It is currently an exciting time to be doing research at the intersection of sports and engineering. Advances in wearable sensor technology now enable large quantities of physiological and biomechanical data to be collected ... -
A New Approach to Model Order Reduction of the Navier-Stokes Equations
(2012)A new method of stabilizing low-order, proper orthogonal decomposition based reduced-order models of the Navier Stokes equations is proposed. Unlike traditional approaches, this method does not rely on empirical turbulence ... -
A New Hybrid Free-Wake Model for Wind Turbine Aerodynamics with Application to Wake Steering
(2017)Wind energy has emerged as one of the most promising and rapidly growing renewable energy technologies in the United States and over the world. The offshore wind energy is of special interest because it has more consistent ... -
A NEW ZEROTH-ORDER ORACLE FOR DISTRIBUTED AND NON-STATIONARY LEARNING
(2021)Zeroth-Order (ZO) methods have been applied to solve black-box or simulation-based optimization prroblems. These problems arise in many important applications nowa- days, e.g., generating adversarial attacks on machine learning ... -
A Nonlinear Harmonic Balance Solver for an Implicit CFD Code: OVERFLOW 2
(2009)A National Aeronautics and Space Administration computational fluid dynamics code, OVERFLOW 2, was modified to utilize a harmonic balance solution method. This modification allows for the direct calculation of the nonlinear ... -
A Q-Learning Approach to Minefield Characterization from Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
(2012)The treasure hunt problem to determine how a computational agent can maximize its ability to detect and/or classify multiple targets located in a region of interest (ROI) populated with multiple obstacles. One particular ... -
A Study of Non-Smooth Impacting Behaviors
(2015)The dynamics of impacting components is of particular interest to engineers due to concerns about noise and wear, but is particularly difficult to study due to impact's non-linear nature. To begin transferring concepts studied ... -
A study of the aeroelastic behavior of flat plates and membranes with mixed boundary conditions in axial subsonic flow
(2011)In support of the noise reduction targets for future generations of transport aircraft, as set forth by NASA, the fundamental aeroelastic behavior of trailing edge flap technology was explored. Using a plate structural model ... -
A systems engineering approach to regulating autonomous systems
(2017)Autonomous systems are emerging across many industries. From unmanned aircraft to self-driving cars to closed-loop medical devices, these systems offer great benefits but also pose new risks. Regulators must grapple with ... -
A Theoretical and Computational Study of Limit Cycle Oscillations in High Performance Aircraft
(2015)High performance fighter aircraft such as the F-16 experience aeroelastic Limit Cycle Oscillations (LCO) when they carry certain combinations of under-wing stores. This `store-induced LCO' causes serious problems including ... -
A Variational Framework for Phase-Field Fracture Modeling with Applications to Fragmentation, Desiccation, Ductile Failure, and Spallation
(2021)Fracture is a common phenomenon in engineering applications. Many types of fracture exist, including, but not limited to, brittle fracture, quasi-brittle fracture, cohesive fracture, and ductile fracture. Predicting fracture ... -
A Workload Model for Designing & Staffing Future Transportation Network Operations
(2019)Across multiple industries (e.g., railroads, airlines, on-demand air taxi services), there are growing investments in future automated transportation systems. Even with these investments, there are still significant human-systems ... -
Acoustic resonators with integrated microfluidic channels for ultra-high Q-factor: a new paradigm for in-liquid gravimetric detection
(2023)Biosensing is a critical area of research that involves detecting and measuring biological molecules. Among the various types of biosensors, acoustic biosensors are attractive for their simplicity, robustness, and low cost, ... -
Acoustics-induced Fluid Motions
(2021)Acoustic waves, as a form of mechanical vibration, not only induces the force directly on the object, but also induces the motion of the medium that propagates throughout the system. The study of acoustofluidic mainly focuses ... -
Acoustofluidic Innovations for Cellular Processing On-Chip
(2018)The advent of increasingly proficient cell handling tools has led to a drastic maturation of our understanding of life on the microscale. Thus far, impressive strides have been made towards creating efficient and compact ... -
Acoustofluidic Manipulation for Diagnosis and Drug Loading
(2021)Showing increased application in biological and medical fields, acoustofluidics is a combined technology between acoustics and microfluidics. The core function of acoustofluidics is a label-free and contact-free manipulation ...
