title: Development and modeling of a lab-scale integrated copper-chlorine cycle for hydrogen production

subject:
Hydrogen production
Thermochemical copper chlorine cycle
Energy and exergy efficiencies
Multi-objective optimization

abstract:
Hydrogen is one of the most important energy carriers, clean fuels, and storage media in the upcoming future. Hydrogen production through the thermochemical copper-chlorine (Cu-Cl) cycle is one of the most promising methods of nuclear hydrogen production on a large scale. Researchers at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT) have designed and developed a lab-scale integrated Cu-Cl cycle for producing hydrogen. This study aims to develop the thermodynamic, hydrodynamic, electrochemical, and heat and mass transfer models for the experimental Cu-Cl cycle to evaluate the performance of the cycle and its components. Also, an exergoeonomic and optimization study is performed for a more cost-effective approach and revealing optimal design conditions. The results of this study will be useful as a benchmark for the lab-scale Cu-Cl cycle performance assessment accounting for actual large-scale implementation.
In practical operation of the Cu-Cl cycle, besides the main steps of hydrolysis, thermolysis, electrolysis and drying, the depleted anolyte (consumed anolyte at the electrolyzer) needs to be recycled to be concentrated sufficiently for the electrochemical process. Recycling of the oxidized anolyte through the separation processes is achieved by distillation of anolyte, drying unit, separation cell, pressure swing distillation unit (PSDU), and CuCl2 concentrator. The overall exergy efficiency of the integrated lab-scale Cu-Cl cycle is found to be 33.4%. The estimated cost of produced hydrogen from the scaled-up facilities with a capacity of 1000 kg/day H2 is about 3.91 $/kg H2. In the hydrolysis reactor, with an increase of St/Cu ratio (from 5 to 17 and 30), the maximum exergetic efficiency of the system occurs at the lower reactor operating temperature (from 450℃ to 388℃ and 380℃, respectively). From the hydrodynamic study of CuCl/HCl(aq) electrolyzer, the cells close to the anolyte or catholyte input ports possess a higher voltage efficiency than other cells for the X-shape bipolar modules, resulting in less decomposition potential. In the PSDU, both heat and mass transfer model results predict the same values for the low and high pressure packing column height of 1.7 m and 2 m, respectively.


title: Alteration in neck neuromuscular responses and upper limb proprioception in response to neck muscle fatigue

contributor:
Murphy, Bernadette
Holmes, Michael

subject:
Proprioception
Elbow Joint Position Sense
Cervical Extensor Muscles
Fatigue
Flexion Relaxation Ratio

abstract:
Neck and upper limb disorders constitute two of the most frequent musculoskeletal
problems that place a huge burden on the healthcare system. Neck muscles have a very
high density of muscle sensory input to the central nervous system (CNS) and are known
to play an important role in sensory motor integration of upper limb movements. The
CNS uses the position of the head and neck in interpretation of upper limb joint position
sense (JPS). Therefore, any altered neuromuscular function of the cervical extensors has
the potential to impair the awareness of upper limb joint position which is critical for
carrying out smooth, purposeful movements. Despite this, only a small amount of basic
science research has attempted to explore the relationship between altered afferent input
from the neck on both neck and upper limb neuromuscular control. Additionally, the
cervical flexion relaxation ratio (FRR) is a reliable and reproducible neuromuscular
marker, which has been shown to differentiate between neck pain patients and healthy
controls, and presents an objective way to measure changes in neuromuscular function.
Induction of fatigue provides an experimental method for altering afferent input from the
neck muscles to the CNS, enabling the effects of both neck muscle function and upper
limb JPS to be investigated in an experimental setting. Studies in this thesis sought to
investigate whether the elbow JPS and neck FRR can be altered by fatigue of the cervical
extensor muscles (CEM). This study revealed that CEM fatigue decreased the cervical
FRR, by increasing the EMG activity in relaxation phase, and reduced the accuracy of
elbow joint position matching in healthy individuals. Whereas, slightly expanded the FRR
in subclinical neck pain patients, by increasing the EMG activity in re-extension phase.
This work has important implications for our understanding of the mechanisms that the
CNS uses to stabilize the neck in the face of altered afferent input, and the implications
that this may have for upper limb proprioception and associated motor performance.

abstract: University of Ontario Institute of Technology


title: Comparative study of ammonia-based clean rail transportation systems for Greater Toronto area

subject:
Ammonia
Locomotive
Environmental impact
Sustainability

abstract:
Ammonia as a transportation fuel offers a carbon-free, hydrogen rich energy source
that emits no greenhouse gases in combustion, and has no global warming potential.
Furthermore, it may be produced from any renewable energy resource, and is a
strong option for long term sustainability. Ammonia also provides a pathway
towards a hydrogen economy, which is the long term goal for environmental
sustainability.

This thesis investigates the feasibility of integrating ammonia as a combustion
fuel, hydrogen carrier, heat recovery and working fluid, and for indirect engine
cooling, within locomotive propulsion systems for nine novel ammonia-based
configurations. Thermodynamic, environmental, and economic analyses are
conducted for a typical modern diesel-fueled locomotive and the proposed ammonia
configurations. The study comparatively assesses potential long term solutions for
sustainable, clean rail transportation.

From the modeled results, the proposed systems operating with 50% of
required fuel energy replaced by ammonia have a reduction in diesel fuel
consumption from 0.211 kg/s to less than 0.10 kg/s. This is associated with a
reduction in GHG emissions of more than 8 tonnes CO2eq for a typical daily
locomotive duty cycle for commuter operation. Criteria air contaminants are reduced
to below upcoming Tier 3 emission levels for NOx and HC emissions, and meet
current levels for PM emissions. In total, ten locomotive propulsion systems are
investigated including the diesel-fueled locomotive baseline, and the performance
gains are considered against economic factors for fuel and equipment costs in a
comparative assessment.


title: Study on supercritical fluids in an intermediate heat exchanger for an SCWR hydrogen cogeneration system

subject:
Heat exchanger
Supercritical water
SCWR
Hydrogen cogeneration
Heat transfer

abstract:
SuperCritical Water-cooled Reactors (SCWRs) are one of six Generation-IV nuclear reactor concepts under development worldwide. SCWRs benefit from an increase in thermal efficiency due to the reactor coolant operating above the critical point of water. They are currently being designed to work at pressures of 25 MPa with outlet temperatures up to 625°C. These operating conditions make them a suitable candidate for thermochemical hydrogen cogeneration.
This work investigates the use of SCWR process heat for the thermochemical production of hydrogen. A thermochemical cycle currently being studied for this purpose is the 4-step Copper-Chlorine (Cu-Cl) cycle. This is due to its relatively low temperature requirements when compared to other existing thermochemical cycles. To achieve this, an intermediate Heat eXchanger (HX) linking a SuperCritical Water (SCW) Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) and a hydrogen production facility is considered. The objective of this work is to assess the performance of supercritical fluids in an intermediate HX to be used for the cogeneration of hydrogen.
The thermal energy requirement for the 4-step Cu-Cl cycle is identified and a numerical model is developed in MATLAB. Reference cases for an SCW-to-SCW HX and an SCW- to-supercritical CO₂ HX are developed. A heat transfer analysis is conducted on each of these reference cases as well as on subsequent test cases. In these test cases, various sensitivity analyses are performed to determine the effect that mass flux, pressure and piping dimensions will have on the overall system. Ultimately, this will give an indication as to what combination of parameters should be used to optimize the design of the HX in terms of overall heat transfer surface area.


title: Individual factors predicting mental health court diversion outcome

subject:
Mental health diversion
Treatment outcome
Client-specific characteristics

abstract:
Little research has examined which individual factors may predict mental health
court diversion outcome. Using data provided by a non-profit mental health services
agency operating in the Durham Region in Ontario, this study examined 419 persons with
mental illness participating in a post-charge diversion program. Socio-demographic and
clinical characteristics were employed to investigate the relationship between clientspecific
factors and level of program completion. Logistic regression results revealed that
unemployment was a significant predictor of program completion. Employment and
symptom severity were predictive of partial completion of court diversion. Additionally,
participants who did not complete programming were more likely to have a concurrent
disorder and were more likely to be residentially unstable than participants who did
complete programming. These findings are discussed with respect to their implications
for practice and future research.


title: An investigation of land-use impacts on water quality and phytoplankton communities of the Vermilion River and major tributaries, Sudbury, Ontario, Canada

subject:
Land-use
Water quality
Phytoplankton communities
Vermillion River and major tributaries
Sudbury ON

abstract:
The Vermilion River and major tributaries (VRMT) receive numerous inputs from point and non-point sources along their continuum. In addition to these inputs from the surrounding landscape, a hydroelectric impoundment and control dams/weirs have modified the natural flow regime. Further development in the Vermilion watershed has been proposed and there are concerns that it will push the system beyond a tipping point, leading to a state of permanent impairment. In order to understand how ecosystem health may be impacted by future stressors baseline water quality and phytoplankton data were collected monthly (6 months per year) over a period of two years (2013-2014) for twenty-eight sites. Landscape-scale data were also extracted for these sites using the geographical information software QGIS.
A broad range of quaternary geology types, land-cover types, and road densities were found to exist in the VRMT study area. Impervious land-cover types (i.e. barren and developed land-cover) and road density were positively correlated with many water quality parameters, whereas, forest land-cover was negatively correlated with many water quality parameters. Principal component analyses revealed that sites on the main-stem of the Junction tributary exhibited above average values for the majority of water quality parameters. Notably, sites located downstream of the Sudbury WWTP had above average values for chlorophyll-a, total phosphorus, nitrate, and nitrite, whereas the site upstream had above average values pH and total kjeldahl nitrogen.
Further correspondence analyses and canonical correspondence analyses demonstrated that the abundance and composition of major phytoplankton groups and genera were different between sites and likely influenced by the surrounding landscape (i.e. point and non-point sources) and water quality differences. For all CCAs general biological/chemical parameters and nutrients were slightly better predictors at explaining the variation in phytoplankton biomass compared to metals. Of these general biological/chemical parameters and nutrients, many of parameters were important or moderately important (e.g. Chl-a, CaCO3, DOC, Cond, Cl, TP, TN, TKN, NO3, and NO2). The major phytoplankton group Chlorophyta (i.e. green algae) was abundant at many sites located in Junction tributary in 2013 and in 2014, however, CC-12 which was also located in the Junction tributary was primarily dominated by the major phytoplankton group Bacillariophyta (i.e. diatoms) and had extremely low biomass for all sampling dates. In addition, the major phytoplankton group Cyanophyta (i.e. blue-green algae) was regularly abundant later in the sampling season at ELA-25 for both years and this major phytoplankton group was mainly comprised of Microcystis.


title: Forensic electrochemistry: time since deposition (TSD) estimation of degrading bloodstains using differential pulse voltammetry

subject:
Forensic chemistry
Red blood cells
Hemoglobin
Heme redox activity
Trans-membrane electron transfer

abstract: Methods for bloodstain time since deposition (TSD) estimation are still in development. Hemoglobin (Hb) oxidative changes remain one of the primary means of bloodstain aging. This research explores the use of differential pulse voltammetry as a technique to analyze degrading bloodstains. The optimized conditions were determined to be 1μL of whole blood analyzed in a pH 7.0 phosphate buffer. This protocol was used to measure changes in electrochemical response in a two-week time series experiment using 9 biological replicates across 5 environmental conditions. Linear mixed models suggested that the peak height and area ratios for the Hb redox reactions were significantly correlated with time (p < 0.033). Absolute dating and principal component analysis demonstrate significant changes (p < 0.043) at the 96-hour time point and present opportunities for forensic TSD predictions. Overall, the changes in Hb redox peaks over time offers insight into oxidative changes and cellular degradation in bloodstains.


title: Modelling and simulating twitching bacteria and phytoglycogen nanoparticles

subject: Collective Motion Twitchers Phytoglycogen Amphiphilic

abstract: This thesis covers work conducted on two projects. Each of these projects involve application in the field of biology, and both have been completed through the use of computer simulation techniques. The first project is modelling and simulating the collective motion of twitching bacteria. This problem consists of hundreds of moving twitchers that can be modelled, tracked, and analysed easily through the use of computer simulation and visualization. Each twitcher was modelled as four spheres held into a rod-like configuration, and make use of two dummy spheres to guide twitching motility. Here, three different models of twitching motility were produced, and simulations confirmed the emergence of collective motion in each model. The second project involves the use of atomistic simulations with the purpose of investigating the structure of phytoglycogen nanoparticles. Here, simulations allow us to analyse a reduced structure in atomistic detail. Simulations were conducted of a group of amylopectin branches solvated in water in order to study their interactions with each other, with water, and with beta-carotene. The interactions observed were a combination of hydrophobic and hydrophilic interactions, suggesting that phytoglycogen might be amphiphilic in nature.


title: Influencing motivation to empathize in individuals with heightened psychopathic traits: neural and behavioural assessment of empathizing with others

subject:
Psychopathy
Empathy
Empathic accuracy
Motivation

abstract: Central to psychopathy is a purported lack of empathy for others. However, recent literature suggests that the decreased empathic responses of psychopathic individuals may be a result of aberrant motivations, rather than incapacities. To further consider the validity of these motivational hypotheses, a series of three studies was completed using a modified Empathic Accuracy (EA) task to assess whether empathic responses across conditions designed to influence empathy differed as a function of psychopathic traits. Studies 1a and 1b employed fMRI to assess whether community members with varying levels of psychopathic traits would show changes in EA as a function of the target’s social distance. There were no overall significant differences in neural or behavioural metrics of EA. However, EA functioned as a result of psychopathic traits such that those higher in psychopathic traits demonstrated decreased, rather than increased, EA for those closest to them. Study 2 assessed whether students with varying levels psychopathic traits would show changes in EA as a function of the utility of the emotional information. Contrary to study hypotheses, EA functioned as a result of psychopathic traits such that those higher in psychopathic traits demonstrated decreased, rather than increased, EA scores in the implicit motivation (i.e., high utility - emotional Lie Detection) condition. Study 3 expanded on Study 2, assessing the effect that influencing explicit (i.e., increase condition) versus implicit motivations had on the EA scores of individuals with varying levels of a psychopathic traits. Psychopathic traits influenced EA scores in the implicit, but not explicit, motivation condition, in line with results from Study 2. Overall, support for hypotheses was mixed. Empathic responses in those with heightened psychopathic traits did appear influenced by the various motivational manipulations, but not always in the expected direction. Supportive of motivational frameworks, these results suggest that empathic responses fluctuated across targets and contexts; however, more research is required to identify the specific drivers of empathy in those with heightened psychopathic traits. These findings may help further the identification of motivations deemed relevant to those high in psychopathic traits for use in the potential development of empathy-based treatments.


title: Patient and physician views of self-testing: blood glucose monitoring

subject:
Accountability
Patient autonomy
Safety
Self-monitoring blood glucose
Self-testing

abstract: Medical laboratories deliver an invaluable healthcare service by providing laboratory results to aid in the diagnosis and monitoring of disease states. Point-of-care testing (POCT), a sub-sector of medical laboratory services, is completed at the patient’s bedside with the goal of providing clinical laboratory results in a very short time frame to assist caregivers in clinical decision making (Ehrmeyer & Laessig, 2007). The technology within this sector of laboratory sciences continues to grow rapidly, making Point-of-Care (POC) tests more accessible for use in a variety of settings, essentially decentralizing laboratory testing. This represents an important shift in healthcare culture as it provides healthcare practitioners and patients alike, the opportunity to perform an ever-growing number of laboratory tests, anywhere and at any time. Through the use of semi-structured interview questions, this qualitative research project utilized a case study informed methodology to understand the role of patient autonomy in self-testing (ST) and the function of accountability as it relates to POCT, when testing occurs in an unregulated environment. Findings suggest that ST and self-care behaviours in diabetes that are autonomously initiated result in positive outcomes, as patients are more likely to be active participants in their own healthcare. The principle of patient autonomy was highlighted in the research by the need to build strong patient/physician relationships in order to facilitate dialogue that promotes informed decision-making, an important aspect of patient care. Patients also felt that participating in ST provided them with a greater sense of control over their health, and that an increased frequency of ST could be seen only in a positive manner, regardless of which self-test was being performed. Conversely, the cost and the possibility of encountering difficulties in the interpretation and troubleshooting of self-test results were seen as negative aspects of ST. Through this research endeavour, the necessity for greater measures of accountability were also made evident, as patients and physicians discussed how self-testing could impact patient care. Short-term and long-term goals are provided as recommendations to strengthen accountability in POCT within unregulated environments.


title: Pre-service teachers’ views of trauma-informed practices in online classrooms: a focus on refugee students and a sense of belonging

contributor:
Laffier, Jennifer
Hunter, Bill

subject: Refugee students

subject: Sense of belonging

subject: Trauma-informed practices in online classrooms

subject: Teacher education

abstract: This mixed methods study aimed to explore the pre-service teachers’ knowledge of trauma-informed practices, especially in the area of supporting refugee students and creating a sense of belonging for them in online spaces. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected from pre-service teachers in a teacher education program at an Ontario university through pre-and post-course surveys. Secondary data was used to answer two research questions (1) what knowledge pre-service teachers receive regarding trauma-informed education in the areas of general knowledge, supporting refugee students, and online learning and (2) what ideas pre-service teachers have for creating a sense of belonging in online spaces. The study findings indicate that many of the pre-service teachers lack trauma-informed knowledge in all three areas of trauma-informed practices. However, although they reported low levels of knowledge, they reported creative and innovative ideas for creating a sense of belonging in online spaces. These findings imply that teachers require training on effective strategies that promote a sense of belonging for students, especially in online classrooms, and to support students who are refugees. There is also the potential to harness the creative ideas of new and emerging teachers, many with technology skills, to develop online trauma-informed practices for students.


title: Performance of wide band gap switching devices in DC/DC converters of electric vehicles

subject:
Electric vehicles
WBG semiconductors
GaN on Si cascode
SiC ACCUFET
Hybrid module

abstract: Low losses fast switching wide band gap (WBG) semiconductors, such as Gallium Nitride (GaN) and Silicon Carbide (SiC), are becoming viable candidates for DC/DC converters switches in the powertrain of electric vehicle (EV). Thanks to the technology advancements, WBG power transistors are available now in the market with competing loss levels. In this research, the need for such devices to boost the system efficiency for extended vehicle mileage is justified. Case studies comparing the performance of the available options are presented, for the first time. The performance, motoring and regenerative braking, is studied at different junction temperatures. The results reported higher power density and increased car mileage using WBG semiconductors. These findings were consistent in automotive Nissan Leaf electric vehicle (NLEV) case and a Bombardier metro rail car, to provide the authentication of the developed plug-and-play model. Simulation and Experimental results were given to highlight the merits of the work.


title: Do university students who experience food insecurity report psychological distress?

contributor:
Cote, Pierre
Vogel, Ellen

subject:
Food insecurity
Psychological distress
Mental health
University student
Cross-sectional

abstract:
Introduction: Poor mental health is a substantial problem for university students and universities. Little is understood about the association between food insecurity and psychological distress in this population.
Purposes: To determine the association between food insecurity and psychological distress and to explore the lived experiences of students enrolled in the Faculty of Health Sciences (FHS) and Faculty of Education (FEd) at University of Ontario Institute of Technology.
Methods: I measured the association between food insecurity and psychological distress using data from a cross-sectional study. Focus group interviews were conducted with students in the FHS and FEd.
Findings: Food insecurity was associated with psychological distress in students from the FHS and FEd. Students identified economic and time constraints as key contributors to food insecurity.
Feelings of shame and aloneness were described as consequences of food insecurity. Students discussed the notion of “powering through” when describing responses to cope with food insecurity.
Discussion: Food insecurity is associated with psychological distress in university students. My research can inform programs to support the psychological wellness of university students.


title: Modeling and experimental investigation of renewable energy and ammonia-based systems for carbon capturing and useful outputs

subject:
Carbon capture
Ammonia
Efficiency
Power plant
Renewable energy

abstract: This thesis work focuses on developing ammonia-based carbon capturing systems that produce useful chemical outputs to offset the energy penalty typically imposed by implementing a carbon capture retrofitting to a power plant. These systems have been investigated through models that are based on exergy and economics tools. The motivation, and the objectives of this work are mentioned. Next, a thorough literature review of the topic of ammonia-based carbon capture systems is provided here to identify the gaps in knowledge. This review concluded that there is a significant lack in experimental investigations of ammonia-based carbon capture systems that are powered by renewable energy sources. Also, the direction of future carbon capture systems is moving towards co-producing of useful and valuable chemicals to offset the costs of operating such systems. By knowing this, renewable energy and ammonia-based carbon capturing systems that produce ammonium bicarbonate are developed and described. Thermodynamic models of the present carbon capturing systems are established using the energy and exergy tools. After that, exergoeconomic models are explained for these systems. Results of the simulation work show that the use of an electrochemical ammonia synthesizer has 13.3% lower energy requirements compared to the use of a proton-exchange membrane electrolyzer and the Haber-Bosch process for ammonia synthesis. The cost of producing ammonium bicarbonate is almost 16% of the market price of this chemical commodity. This indicates that the developed carbon capturing system are financially feasible to produce monetary value.


title: An in-depth analysis of the workforce characteristics of registered dietitians in Ontario

subject:
Workforce
Dietitian
Health human resources

abstract: The purpose of this study was to examine workforce characteristics of RDs in Ontario from 2003-2009. Descriptive statistics were used to determine: (1) What does the profession of dietetics look like? (2) What are the employment transition trends of RDs? Data analysis revealed two themes: (1) Succession planning for mid-career RDs- what are the priorities? (2) The shift to the community- who is paying the moving costs? Findings indicate the workforce of RDs aged 40-59 years has declined; these RDs represent the smallest proportion of the workforce with graduate-level education. There has been a shift of RDs out of government and public health settings into LTC/CCAC‟s and FHTs. Results indicate that while hospitals are the most attractive work setting, there are few RDs in the FSAD practice area. Recommendations include development of retention strategies for mid-career RDs and increasing understandings of RD workforce transition trends for future HHR planning.


title: Parents’ perspectives of the secondary effects of an early motor skill intervention for their four year-old children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

subject:
Autism Spectrum Disorder
Early motor skill intervention
Secondary effects

abstract: This qualitative study was grounded in interpretive phenomenology to elicit rich descriptions of parents’ (N=8) experiences with an early motor skill intervention for their four year-old children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). The results of this study suggest that motor skill interventions have several child and parent-level benefits. Key child-level benefits include improvements with: motor skills, social skills, listening skills, turn-taking skills, and transition skills. Key parent-level benefits include: observing their children succeed, learning strategies to address challenging behaviours, developing a greater appreciation for the motor domain as an important part of child development, and meeting other children with ASD as well as their parents. Parents also described how these child and parent-level benefits extended to their family unit; ultimately reducing parental stress and improving family quality of life. These findings indicate that early motor skill interventions have several meaningful secondary effects that can benefit families of children with ASD.


title: Conceptual design of a thermal hydraulic loop for multiple test geometries at supercritical conditions named supercritical phenomena experimental test apparatus (SPETA)

subject:
Nuclear reactors
Supercritical water
Experimental  loop design
Computational fluid dynamics

abstract:
The efficiency of nuclear reactors can be improved by increasing the operating pressure of current nuclear reactors. Current CANDU-type nuclear reactors use heavy water as coolant at an outlet pressure of up to 11.5 MPa. Conceptual SuperCritical Water Reactors (SCWRs) will operate at a higher coolant outlet pressure of 25 MPa. Supercritical water technology has been used in advanced coal plants and its application proves promising to be employed in nuclear reactors. To better understand how supercritical water technology can be applied in nuclear power plants, supercritical water loops are used to study the heat transfer phenomena as it applies to CANDU-type reactors.
A conceptual design of a loop known as the Supercritical Phenomena Experimental Apparatus (SPETA) has been done. This loop has been designed to fit in a 9 m by 2 m by 2.8 m enclosure that will be installed at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology Energy Research Laboratory. The loop include components to safely start up and shut down various test sections, produce a heat source to the test section, and to remove reject heat. It is expected that loop will be able to investigate the behaviour of supercritical water in various geometries including bare tubes, annulus tubes, and multi-element-type bundles. The experimental geometries are designed to match the fluid properties of Canadian SCWR fuel channel designs so that they are representative of a practical application of supercritical water technology in nuclear plants. This loop will investigate various test section orientations which are the horizontal, vertical, and inclined to investigate buoyancy effects. Frictional pressure drop effects and satisfactory methods of estimating hydraulic resistances in supercritical fluid shall also be estimated with the loop. Operating limits for SPETA have been established to be able to capture the important heat transfer phenomena at supercritical conditions. Heat balance and flow calculations have been done to appropriately size components in the loop.
Sensitivity analysis has been done to find the optimum design for the loop.


title: The World Trade Web: using network analysis and machine learning as tools for public policy decision-making

subject:
World Trade Web
Weighted network analysis
Machine learning
Public policy

abstract: The World Trade Web (WTW) contains a wealth of information that upon rigorous analysis can aid governments in public policy decision-making. In my attempt to provide this valuable input, this dissertation uses two main methods: weighted network analysis and machine learning. First, the topology of the WTW is explored, described, and analyzed. Secondly, the relationship between countries’ trade network characteristics and their income is modeled. Lastly, deep learning is used to predict trade interactions between countries using quantitative, dyadic binary, and categorical variables. Insightful remarks are obtained: countries with higher PCGDP tend to associate with more neighbors that are themselves weaker, reciprocate fewer of their trade links, and trade more strongly with countries that are themselves stronger, and have a higher export to GDP Ratio. The improved trade forecasting model obtained can result in better GDP forecasts, which can aid with the optimization of tariffs, quotas, and subsidies.


title: Post-traumatic stress disorder among veterans - a battle for benefits: a matter of social justice

contributor:
Grant, Judith
Cesaroni, Carla
Downing, Steven

subject:
Bureaucracy
Societal dissonance
Disenfranchisement
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

abstract: The effects of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) on military Veterans as they reintegrate back into a civilian role can be quite dramatic. In this thesis I discuss how society treats Veterans with PTSD upon their return from deployment. When services are denied to those who are entitled by the electoral government that oversees the wellbeing of society and the men and women who are sent into harm’s way, then I argue that that is a crime. PTSD is the result of exposure to a traumatic even causing cognitive dysfunction. Upon returning from deployment, Veterans face extreme challenges when trying to integrate back into society, such as a societal diagnosis and stigmatization coupled with a lack of social and governmental support. The current prevalence of PTSD among soldiers is extremely high and can be linked to aggressive behaviour and depression caused by psychological and physiological changes in the brain. Research affirms that trauma exposure resulting in cognitive impairment also risks an externalizing of internal manifested anxiety, which may lead to violence and police intervention. I argue that Veterans upon their return from battle become further traumatized through societal diagnosis and stigmatization by government agencies.

abstract: University of Ontario Institute of Technology


title: Unsupervised brand name extraction using domain adaptation

contributor:
Makrehchi, Masoud
Rahnamayan, Shahryar

subject:
Natural language processing
Named entity recognition
Word embedding
Domain adaptation

abstract: Business intelligence and analytics is an area of research that analyzes the existing business data to extract the insights needed for a successful business planning. Textual data derived from tweets, forum posts, and blogs are from different business domains, and contain useful information for the organizations. This thesis proposes a method for extracting brand and product names from text; brand names as a subset of named entities can give a great deal of information about the whole document. In this thesis, a context window is defined to capture the context of a word in a sentence. In addition, a word embedding model is locally trained to have a domain specific model and finally, a domain adaptation technique is employed to transfer the knowledge from one domain with labeled data to a new domain. The results indicate a significant improvement in recall measure for extracting brand names from a new domain.


title: Measuring cues to deception: a multitrait-multimethod analysis

subject:
Cues to deception
Validity
Multitrait-multimethod

abstract: Cognitive load and arousal are constructs typically included in theories of deception, but they are often measured using a range of unvalidated techniques. Using a multitrait-multimethod analysis, I assessed the reliability and construct validity of common measures of cognitive load and arousal – self-report, trained coders’ observations, and behavioral measures – across three studies as secondary data. All measures showed good reliability, but achieved differing levels of validation. Measures of cognitive load (i.e., self-reported cognitive load, trained coders’ observations of thinking hard, and average response latency) showed some evidence of construct validity. In contrast, measures of arousal (i.e., self-reported arousal, trained coders’ observations of nervousness, and average skin conductance) did not achieve sufficiently high levels of validity. These findings suggest that researchers may not be assessing constructs of interest. Thus, researchers should exercise caution when using unvalidated measures to evaluate theories of, and the diagnosticity of cognitive and arousal-based cues to, deception.


title: Measuring the effects of subclinical neck pain on sensorimotor integration using electroencephalography event related potentials and source localization

subject:
Sensorimotor integration
Sematosensory evoked potentials (SEPs)
Motor learning
Electroencephalography

abstract: Subclinical neck pain (SCNP) is recurrent neck pain that has not yet been treated. This thesis investigated whether acute pain affects motor learning acquisition in SCNP vs. healthy individuals. 10 healthy and 10 SCNP participants underwent stimulation of the right median nerve to generate evoked potentials before and after the application of capsaicin cream to elicit pain followed by motor learning acquisition of a tracing task. Both groups improved in accuracy following motor learning (p<0.001), with greater improvement in the healthy group during retention (p<0.001). Source localization revealed a medial dipole shift of the maximal brain source activity post motor learning in both groups, with greater medial shift in the SCNP group. This shift corresponds to the sensorimotor cortex, and lateral premotor cortex, with the SCNP group also showing potential contribution from the mesial premotor cortex, indicating altered neural responses to pain, and possible compensatory mechanisms to improve sensorimotor integration in an SCNP population.


title: Examining the relationship between cervical anthropometics, head kinematics and cervical muscle responses to sudden head perturbations in competitive ice hockey players

contributor:
Holmes, Michael
Murphy, Bernadette

subject:
Perturbations
Head acceleration
Muscle activation
HC/NC ratio
Estimated TNV

abstract: Sex differences in neck muscle characteristics may explain the higher incidence of concussions in female hockey players. The purpose of this study was to examine differences in cervical muscle characteristics between male and female hockey players when exposed to sudden head perturbations. Sixteen competitive ice hockey players (8 female) were measured for total neck volume (TNV) and head circumference/neck circumference ratio (HC/NC). Participants underwent multidirectional head perturbations (causing head flexion, extension, left and right lateral bend). Muscle onset latency, muscle activity and head acceleration data were collected before, during and after each perturbation. TNV and HC/NC showed weak relationships to head acceleration. Females displayed significantly greater head acceleration in left lateral bend and flexion despite having significantly shorter muscle onset latencies in flexion. Females displayed significantly more muscle activity in the reflex period of extension. These findings demonstrate sex differences in muscle activation and head acceleration. Further investigation of neck stiffness could place females at a greater risk of concussion.


title: Benefits of apology for offenders: the effects of victim presence and coercion on apologies

subject:
Restorative justice
Apology
Victims
Coercion

abstract: Offenders in some restorative justice programs are required to offer an apology as a condition of successful completion of the restorative justice procedure, or else return to court. Apologies can be required even when victims do not attend the restorative justice procedure. Apologising can result in several benefits for apologisers, but previous research suggests that coercion and lack of victim presence in restorative justice procedures may reduce those benefits. Participants (n = 120) took part in a deceptive live study designed to elicit confessions for a transgression and subsequent apologies. In this study, I manipulated coercion (Coerced, Not coerced) and victim presence (Direct, Surrogate, Ambiguous), to test their effects on the outcome benefits that offenders derived from offering an apology. Findings indicated that victim presence and coercion significantly impact outcome benefits for apologisers, including: perceptions of personal responsibility, accountability for consequences, transgression exaggeration and procedural fairness judgments. Implications for restorative justice programs are discussed.


title: The development of an anesthesia crisis scenario builder for virtual reality training

contributor:
Kapralos, Bill
Uribe-Quevedo, Alvaro

subject:
Active Learning
Anesthesia
Framework
Interactive Learning
Virtual Reality

abstract: Anesthesiologists are trained in the field of anesthesia and preoperative medicine; they are required to develop anesthetic plans and monitor patients vitals. Currently, anesthesia trainees are taught using traditional educational approaches (e.g., by attending lectures, reading textbooks/journals, etc.). Although knowledge is best retained by actively doing rather than passively learning, there limited active methods that are easily accessible to anesthesia trainees. Here I present a scenario builder that allows for the simple development of anesthesia-based virtual simulations that can be tailored to specific (common and uncommon) anesthesia crisis scenarios providing a potential tool for interactive skills development. A study was conducted that examined the overall usability of the scenario builder. The results indicate that the scenario builder can be used to develop anesthesia-based scenarios without merely having an extensive technology-based background.


title: Evolutionary multi-objective design of autoencoder for compact representation of histopathology images

subject:
Evolving autoencoder
Digital pathology
Dimension reduction
Neural architecture search
Multi-objective optimization

abstract: Deep learning can cope with complex tasks; however, it suffers from the crucial problem of high dimensionality which makes it intractable to learn the patterns and classify the data. Importantly, having a fixed model cannot achieve high accuracy on every issue and the optimal solution is embodied in the architecture of the model tailored, specifically, for that issue. Motivated by these challenges, we propose a multi-objective evolutionary scheme that evolves autoencoders for the goal of dimension reduction. Throughout the evolution of each model, multiple minimization objectives are considered. These objectives can obtain compressed models that extract significant features while having the highest classification accuracy. In our case study, we use the extracted features of Histopathology images from a DenseNet trained to classify 30 subtypes of carcinomas from TCGA repository. As a result, we increased classification accuracy over 8% and compressed the representation of gigapixel images above 46,000 times, simultaneously.


title: Development and investigation of alkaline electrolyte based direct ammonia fuel cells

subject:
Ammonia fuel cell
Alkaline electrolyte
Open circuit voltage
Peak power density
Efficiency

abstract: In the present thesis study, alkaline electrolyte based direct ammonia fuel cells are developed, and their performances are evaluated through various parameters and efficiencies, such as open circuit voltages, polarization curves, peak power densities and energy and exergy efficiencies. The open circuit voltage and peak power density for the anion exchange membrane based direct ammonia single-cell fuel cell are observed to be 279 mV and 19.2 W/m2 respectively, and the energy and exergy efficiencies are evaluated to be 15.2% and 14.4% respectively. Furthermore, a molten alkaline electrolyte based fuel cell provides an open circuit voltage and peak power density of 520 mV and 2.1 W/m2 respectively. The energy and exergy efficiencies for this type of fuel cell are evaluated to be 24.9% and 23.4%. Lastly, a novel hybrid ammonia fuel cell and battery system is developed that provides an energy efficiency of 27.5% and an exergy efficiency of 27.5%.


title: Bi-directional AC-DC matrix converter with unity power factor for electric vehicle chargers

subject:
Electric vehicle chargers
V2G
Matrix converter
Bi-directional switch
Unity power factor

abstract:
Automobile industries are striving to meet growing demands of producing electric vehicles for a sustainable environment. Rising number of EVs pose many challenges including increased number of charging stations to meet the needs of EVs. EV chargers are recognized to impact the power quality of the grid when used in large quantities. This challenge is addressed in this thesis work to reduce the impact on the grid.
First, this thesis reviews two rectifier configurations under steady state, dynamic state and fault conditions. Implementation of IGBT rectifier using SPWM with a feedback controller and a matrix converter rectifier using SV-PWM modulation are carried out in MATLAB Simulink.
Second, the matrix converter when used with reduced switch count to be used in a rectifier configuration, the simulation results show that a unity power factor and bi-directional power flow are achievable without sophisticated controls and can benefit in V2G operation.


title: Performance assessment of transient behaviour of small wind turbines

subject:
Wind turbine
Transient power coefficient
Savonius wind turbine

abstract:
Small wind turbine installations have a variety of potential uses, each with unique
performance demands and operating conditions. Many applications require that the
turbine is placed in wind conditions that are not ideal for optimum operation. Better
predictive techniques can improve wind turbine performance through improved control
strategies and enhanced designs. Conventional methods of wind power design and control
utilize an average power coefficient. In this thesis, various techniques to predict the
transient power coefficient of a wind turbine are developed. The operation of a Savonius
wind turbine is accurately represented, with a new model which considers the flow
distributions to predict the changes in power output at all rotor positions. Another model
is developed that represents the dynamics of a small horizontal wind turbine, including
the effect of transient wind conditions on rotor speed and acceleration. These can
supplement current methods to determine turbine placement, selection and categorization.


title: Design and development of an autonomous flying excavator platform using a drone

subject: Drone Excavator Sensing Mapping ROS

abstract: In this research, a drone-based excavation platform prototype is presented with the primary goals of balancing stability during excavation, sensing, and excavating the soil pile autonomously without human intervention. These objectives have been met entirely by first designing the entire drone prototype on a CAD tool and then bringing it to the physical structure. The physical system was then integrated with various electronic components and connected with different software tools to achieve the autonomous excavation operation using a drone. To check the proper functionality of the developed platform, it was tested with two scenarios. The first scenario is that in which the drone flies autonomously to some construction site, and after landing, it senses the soil and excavates it, and then flies again and dumps it into another place prescribed in the mission. In the second scenario, the drone flight is also autonomous, and it tries to dig the soil during the flight operation.


title: Energy storage management and load scheduling with renewable integration

subject:
Storage management
Load scheduling
Smart grid
Renewable
Lyapunov

abstract:
In this dissertation, the energy storage management and load scheduling problems
are studied. The main objective is to design real-time cost-effective control policies
at a residential site with integrated renewable generation. Stochastic nature of system
dynamic for renewable generation, user load, and electricity pricing has been
formulated in problems. Furthermore, battery degradation costs due to battery operation
have been incorporated into the system cost. Both infinite and finite time
horizon approaches have been designed in this dissertation. Lyapunov optimization
technique has been applied to design the real-time control algorithms that rely only
on the current system dynamics. Close-form solutions have been obtained for simple
implementation. The proposed algorithms are shown to have bounded performance
gap to the optimal control policies.
The first problem is to minimize the long-term time-averaged system cost with
i.i.d system inputs, where battery operation cost is considered. In the second problem,
a finite time horizon approach is provided to minimize the system cost over a fixed
time period. Non-stationary stochastic nature of system dynamics is considered in
formulating the problem. Furthermore, the detailed battery operation costs is incorporated
into the system cost. A special technique to tackle the technical challenges in problem solving is developed. In the third problem, a joint energy storage management
and load scheduling problem is proposed. The problem is to optimize the load
scheduling and energy storage control simultaneously in order to minimize the overall
system cost over a finite time horizon. In this real-time optimization design, the joint
scheduling and energy storage control is separated and sequentially determined. Both
scheduling and energy control decisions have close-form solutions for simple implementation.
Through analysis, it is shown that the proposed real-time algorithm has
a bounded performance guarantee from the optimal T-slot look-ahead solution and is
asymptotically equivalent to it as the battery capacity and time period go to infinite.


title: Development of an autonomous omnicopter aerial vehicle

subject:
UAV
Multirotor
Mobile manipulator
Omni-directional

abstract:
Traditional multirotors and helicopters control translational movement by changing
the orientation of the entire vehicle. This limits the effectiveness of such vehicles in
applications as a mobile manipulator base. In these applications it is often necessary
to fly in proximity to large structures where unpredictable aerodynamic conditions
exist. In order to maintain precise control of position it is necessary to counteract
disturbance forces quickly, and, due to the delay induced by rolling and pitching
the entire vehicle, traditional multirotors and helicopters have a limited ability to
maintain position precisely. Additionally, a mobile base must be capable of resisting
arbitrary combinations of force and torque resulting from use of a manipulator arm.
This is also not possible for traditional multirotors and helicopters.
A novel Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) concept is presented which features the
addition of four rotors directed orthogonally to the main lift rotors of a traditional
quadrotor design. These rotors allow de-coupling of orientation from translational
movement.
Tests done on a physical prototype demonstrated improvements in disturbance rejection and an ability to roll or pitch up to 20 degrees independently of translational
movement, including the ability to move backwards at an angle. This type of motion
is impossible for a traditional multirotor vehicle.
By adding a goal velocity term to the control algorithm, the ability to match the
position and velocity of a moving target was demonstrated. This, combined with
the ability to control orientation independently of the direction of flight, gives the
OmniCopter the ability to land on or dock with a moving target.


title: Experimental investigation of hydrogen production from ammonia decomposition

subject:
Hydrogen production
Ammonia
Membrane reactor
Heat transfer
Packed bed

abstract:
This thesis examines the production of hydrogen from ammonia in a continuous flow, packed bed membrane reactor. The experimental study examines the effects of operating temperature, pressure, and residence time on hydrogen production rate, energy and exergy ratios for the reaction, energy and exergy efficiencies of the overall system, ammonia conversion efficiency, transient ammonia concentration, and ammonia decomposition rate. With the exception of transient ammonia conversion, all of the above underwent increases with respect to operating temperature, pressure and residence time. The increases in operating temperature led to increase catalytic activity and further favouring of the reaction thermodynamics due to the Gibb’s free energy tending towards zero or increasing negatively. The increases in operating pressure resulted in increased residence times and trans – membrane pressure differences which caused increased hydrogen flux.
The best results were obtained at 20 bar, 500oC and with a residence time of approximately four seconds. The maximum hydrogen production was approximately 287 mL/min. This lightly undershoots the stoichiometric production rate of approximately 300 mL/min. The maximum energy and exergy ratios for the reaction were 6.77:1 and 1.08:1, respectively. Also, the maximum energy and exergy efficiencies of the overall system were 16.9% and 20.3%, respectively. The maximum ammonia conversion efficiency and minimum ammonia concentration was found to be approximately 95.64% and 4.2%, respectively. The system took approximately 50.0 minutes to reach steady state in this particular scenario.
On the results drawn from this experimental work, some technical recommendations to further improve the system’s performance and reliability were made. Also, a potential design for the rail industry was proposed and lightly explained based on the results of this thesis work. Overall, the results of this experimental work were insightful and will be useful as an initial benchmark for future work in the area hydrogen production from ammonia decomposition at UOIT.


title: Sum-rate maximization for active channels

subject:
Sum-rate
Active channel
Karush-Kuhn-Tucker (KKT) conditions
Water-filling

abstract:
In conventional wireless channel models, there is no control on the gains of different
subchannels. In such channels, the transmitted signal undergoes attenuation and
phase shift and is subject to multi-path propagation effects. We herein refer to such
channels as passive channels. In this dissertation, we study the problem of joint power
allocation and channel design for a parallel channel which conveys information from a
source to a destination through multiple orthogonal subchannels. In such a link, the
power over each subchannel can be adjusted not only at the source but also at each
subchannel. We refer to this link as an active parallel channel. For such a channel, we
study the problem of sum-rate maximization under the assumption that the source
power as well as the energy of the active channel are constrained. This problem is
investigated for equal and unequal noise power at different subchannels.
For equal noise power over different subchannels, although the sum-rate maximization
problem is not convex, we propose a closed-form solution to this maximization
problem. An interesting aspect of this solution is that it requires only a subset of
the subchannels to be active and the remaining subchannels should be switched off.
This is in contrast with passive parallel channels with equal subchannel signal-tonoise-
ratios (SNRs), where water-filling solution to the sum-rate maximization under
a total source power constraint leads to an equal power allocation among all subchannels.
Furthermore, we prove that the number of active channels depends on the
product of the source and channel powers. We also prove that if the total power
available to the source and to the channel is limited, then in order to maximize the
sum-rate via optimal power allocation to the source and to the active channel, half
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of the total available power should be allocated to the source and the remaining half
should be allocated to the active channel.
We extend our analysis to the case where the noise powers are unequal over different
subchannels. we show that the sum-rate maximization problem is not convex.
Nevertheless, with the aid of Karush-Kuhn-Tucker (KKT) conditions, we propose a
computationally efficient algorithm for optimal source and channel power allocation.
To this end, first, we obtain the feasible number of active subchannels. Then, we show
that the optimal solution can be obtained by comparing a finite number of points
in the feasible set and by choosing the best point which yields the best sum-rate
performance. The worst-case computational complexity of this solution is linear in
terms of number of subchannels.


title: Process analysis and aspen plus simulation of nuclear-based hydrogen production with a copper-chlorine cycle

contributor:
Rosen, Marc
Naterer, Greg

subject: Hydrogen - - Research

subject: Hydrogen as fuel - - Research

subject: Nuclear Power Plants -- By-products - - Research

subject: ASPEN PLUS (Computer program)

abstract: Thermochemical processes for hydrogen production driven by nuclear energy are promising alternatives to existing technologies for large-scale commercial production of hydrogen, without dependence on fossil fuels. In the Copper-Chlorine (Cu-Cl) cycle, water is decomposed in a sequence of intermediate processes with a net input of water and heat, while hydrogen and oxygen gases are generated as the products. The Super Critical Water-cooled Reactor (SCWR) has been identified as a promising source of heat for these processes. In this thesis, the process analysis and simulation models are developed using the Aspen PlusTM chemical process simulation package, based on experimental work conducted at the Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) and Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL). A successful simulation is performed with an Electrolyte Non Random Two Liquid (ElecNRTL) model of Aspen Plus. The efficiency of the cycle based on three and four step process routes is examined in this thesis. The thermal efficiency of the four step thermochemical process is calculated as 45%, while the three step hybrid thermochemical cycle is 42%, based on the lower heating value (LHV) of hydrogen. Sensitivity analyses are performed to study the effects of various operating parameters on the efficiency, yield, and thermodynamic properties. Possible efficiency improvements are discussed. The results will assist the development of a lab-scale cycle which is currently being conducted at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT), in collaboration with its partners.


title: The role of urban wetland diversity and function in contaminant fate

subject:
Wetland
Biodegradation
Microbial diversity
BIOLOG
DGGE

abstract: It is recognized that microbial transformations are the primary mechanism of organic contaminant removal in natural and constructed wetland systems. However, not much is known about urban wetland microbial communities or their functional capacity to process contaminants. The objective of this research was to first characterize the physiological and phylogenetic diversity of microbial communities of different urban wetland types using the BIOLOG™ method and through DGGE of 16S rRNA sequences. The capacity of urban wetlands to attenuate model chlorinated aromatic compounds (2,4-D and 3-CBA) was assessed by UPLC biodegradation and 14C mineralization experiments. Toxicity tests were conducted to assess microbial tolerance to pollutant addition. In general, results indicate that urbanization has a homogenizing effect on microbial community structure and distribution within urban wetland systems, regardless of type. Urban wetlands also appear to have a limited capacity to remove chlorinated organic pollutants. Microbial community tolerance to chlorinated organic pollutants is relatively high, whereas heavy metal tolerance was found to coincide with history of contaminant exposure.

abstract: University of Ontario Institute of Technology


title: Beyond prosocial motivations to empathize

subject:
Empathy
Motivation
Prosocial
Empathic concern
Psychopathic traits

abstract:
This study aimed to re-evaluate the lay assumption that empathic concern is entirely guided by prosocial motivations. To this end, the Empathic Concern Motivations Scale was created to measure the magnitude of one’s prosocial and/or antisocial motivations to manifest empathic concern for another person. Participants reported both prosocial and antisocial motivations for empathic concern, and these motivation types were uncorrelated, independent constructs. The degree of prosociality of participants’ motivations varied by target types, such that more prosocial motivations were reported for ingroup targets while more antisocial motivations were reported for outgroup targets. Responses to the scale were subsequently compared to established measures of empathy (the Interpersonal Reactivity Index) and antisocial personality (the Psychopathic Personality Inventory – Revised). These comparisons indicated that the relationship between motivations to empathize and the IRI depended on valence of motivation, but not target type, such that prosocial motivations were positively correlated with
IRI’s measurement of empathy. As for psychopathic personality traits, motivation reports depended on both the valence of motivation (i.e. prosocial or antisocial) and the target of one’s empathic concern, such that PPI-R scores were positively correlated with antisocial motivations and uncorrelated with prosocial motivations. Furthermore, those higher in psychopathic traits did not show the heightened prosocial motivations towards ingroup targets, as was demonstrated across the sample more generally. These findings support a broader conceptualization of empathic concern that considers the potential for more than just prosocial antecedents, while reiterating the importance of the empathizer-target relationship.


title: Galo: guided automated learning for query workload re-optimization

subject:
Query performance problem determination
Graph-based systems
Knowledge bases
Business intelligence

abstract: Traditional query optimization techniques often fail when logical subtleties in business queries and schemas circumvent them. Query performance problem determination is typically performed manually in consultation with experts through the analysis of query execution plans (QEPs). Galo, a novel graph-based system, is presented in this work. Galo's knowledge base is built on RDF and SPARQL, W3C graph database standards, which is well suited for manipulating and querying over SQL query plans, which are graphs themselves. Galo acts as a third-tier of optimization, after query rewrite and cost-based optimization, as a query-plan rewrite. Galo's knowledge base is also an invaluable tool for database experts to debug query performance issues by tracking to known issues/solutions and refine optimizer with new and better tuned techniques by the development team. An experimental study of the effectiveness of the developed techniques is demonstrated over a synthetic query workload.


title: Flow-sound interaction mechanism of a single finned cylinder in cross-flow

subject:
Finned cylinders
Flow-excited acoustic resonance
Aeroacoustics
Flow coherence

abstract:
The flow-sound interaction mechanism of a single finned cylinder in cross-flow is experimentally investigated and compared to that resulting from an equivalent bare cylinder. The flow field changes that result from the fins are captured by flow measurements and numerical simulations in order to be correlated to the observed acoustic resonance excitation. It is observed that the finned cylinders experience an earlier acoustic resonance and higher levels of acoustic pressure compared to their equivalent bare cylinders. This suggests that adding fins to the cylinder changes the flow field in a manner that makes it more susceptible to acoustic excitation. Flow measurements show that the vortex shedding process becomes stronger in the case of finned cylinders and the spanwise flow coherence is enhanced. The stronger vortex shedding process and coherent flow field promote the occurrence of the acoustic resonance and increase the observed noise levels. The acoustic resonance excitation is found to be significantly dependent on the fin spacing and thickness, which is explained by the impact of these fin parameters on the wake structures.
Numerical simulations of the flow field downstream of the finned cylinders show that
the fins lead to an organized flow structure, which is attained by concentrating the flow energy in the large-scale vortices and reducing the small-scale hair-pin vortices. This leads to the reduction of the vortex formation region in the near-wake of the cylinder, which subsequently increases the dynamic loading on the cylinder. The effect of the cylinder's aspect ratio on the acoustic resonance excitation is also investigated using the same analysis. It is shown that the finned cylinder provides a coherent flow field that is not affected by the aspect ratio, and hence, its acoustic resonance excitation levels increase with the increase of the cylinder's length. On the other hand, the bare cylinder exhibits a significant stretching in the vortex formation region with the increase in the aspect ratio. Therefore, the acoustic resonance excitation levels for the bare cylinder decrease with the increase of aspect ratio.


title: Autism Serious Game Framework (ASGF) for Developing Games for Children with Autism

subject:
Serious Games
Framework
Autism
ASD
Neuroplasticity

abstract: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is characterized by impaired social communication and interaction, and by restricted, repetitive interests and behaviours. The mean clinical age of diagnosis is still four to five years, despite advances in knowledge about early signs of the disorder and is associated with substantial disability throughout the affected individual’s lifespan. There is currently no one standard treatment for ASD given that its symptoms vary across individuals although research indicates that interactive media including virtual worlds and serious games (that is, games whose primary purpose is education and training), can be effective. However, designing such virtual worlds and serious games is not a trivial task, and is time-consuming requiring expertise in game development/computer science, education, and knowledge in ASD. As a result, serious games are often designed and developed to address one specific problem/scenario that cannot be easily modified. Changes to scenarios require the serious game’s source code to be modified, which is a difficult and time-consuming process. To overcome some of the limitations currently associated with serious gaming, working with ASD content experts, I have developed the Autism Serious Game Framework (ASGF) to allow therapists who may have a limited (or lack any) technical/programming background and experience, to create serious games (or modify existing ones), specifically for children with autism. Preliminary testing with childhood autism experts indicates that ASGF will allow for the simple development of autism-based serious games, and will assist and help children with autism to develop skills and obtain functional gains, such as recognizing faces.


title: Developing and validating a survey to assess physician-implementation of dietary guidelines for patients with hypertension in primary care

subject:
Hypertension
Nutrition education
Diet
Sodium
Physicians
Knowledge

abstract:
Dietary modifications are a key component for the health behaviour management of
hypertension. Primary care physicians are key facilitators in encouraging patients with
hypertension to adopt healthy diets; however, barriers related to nutrition knowledge, attitudes
and behaviours may influence their provision of diet to hypertensive patients. Such barriers
have not been well described in the literature. The study objective was to develop and validate
a survey to identify barriers and facilitators to the implementation of dietary guidelines for
hypertensive patients. A MEDLINE search was conducted to identify physician-related barriers,
and facilitators related to dietary advice in clinical practice. Content and face validity were
assessed by consulting primary care physicians, experts on hypertension, and experts on
survey development. Finally, a feasibility study was conducted among primary care physicians
and medical residents in the Durham region, Ontario. The final web-based survey included 33
questions. The survey takes 8 minutes to complete.


title: Assessing district energy systems performance integrated with multiple thermal energy storages.

subject:
Multiple thermal energy storages
Thermal energy storage
District energy systems
District heating systems

abstract:
The goal of this study is to examine various energy resources in district energy (DE) systems and then DE system performance development by means of multiple thermal energy storages (TES) application. This study sheds light on areas not yet investigated precisely in detail. Throughout the research, major components of the heat plant, energy suppliers of the DE systems, and TES characteristics are separately examined; integration of various configurations of the multiple TESs in the DE system is then analysed. In the first part of the study, various sources of energy are compared, in a consistent manner, financially and environmentally. The TES performance is then assessed from various aspects. Then, TES(s) and DE systems with several sources of energy are integrated, and are investigated as a heat process centre. The most efficient configurations of the multiple TESs integrated with the DE system are investigated. Some of the findings of this study are applied on an actual DE system. The outcomes of this study provide insight for researchers and engineers who work in this field, as well as policy makers and project managers who are decision-makers. The accomplishments of the study are original developments TESs and DE systems.
As an original development the Enviro-Economic Function, to balance the economic and environmental aspects of energy resources technologies in DE systems, is developed; various configurations of multiple TESs, including series, parallel, and general grid, are developed. The developed related functions are discharge temperature and energy of the TES, and energy and exergy efficiencies of the TES. The TES charging and discharging behavior of TES instantaneously is also investigated to obtain the charging temperature, the maximum charging temperature, the charging energy flow, maximum heat flow capacity, the discharging temperature, the minimum charging temperature, the discharging energy flow, the maximum heat flow capacity, and performance cycle time functions of the TES. Expanding to analysis of one TES integrated with the DE system, characteristics of various configurations of TES integrated with DE systems are obtained as functions of known properties, energy and exergy balances of the DE system including the TES(s); and energy and exergy efficiencies of the DE system.
iv
The energy, exergy, economic, and CO2 emissions of various energy options for the DE system are investigated in a consistent manner. Different sources of energy considered include natural gas, solar energy, ground source heat pump (GSHP), and municipal solid waste. The economic and environmental aspects and prioritization, and the advantages of each technology are reported. A community-based DE system is considered as a case study. For the considered case study, various existing sizing methods are applied, and then compared. The energy sources are natural gas, solar thermal, geothermal, and solid waste. The technologies are sized for each energy option, then the CO2 emissions and economic characteristics of each technology are analysed.
The parallel configuration of the TESs delivers more energy to the DE system compared with other configurations, when the stored energy is the same. With increasing the number of parallel TESs results in a higher energy supply to the DE system. The efficiency of the set of the TESs is also improved by increasing the number of parallel TESs. The tax policy, including the tax benefits and carbon tax, is a strong tool which will influence the overall cost of the energy supplier’s technology for the DE systems.The Enviro-Economic Function for the TESs is proposed and is integrated with the DE system, which suggests that the number of TESs required.
The energy and exergy analyses are applied to the charging and discharging stages of an actual TES in the Friedrichshafen DE system. For the Friedrichshafen DE system, the performance is analysed based on energy and exergy analyses approach. Furthermore, by using the developed functions in the present study some modifications are suggested for the Friedrichshafen DE system for better performance.


title: Design and optimization of a compliant parallel robotic surgical instrument with multifunctional forceps for minimally invasive surgery

subject:
Compliant parallel mechanism
Multifunctional forceps
Surgical instrument
Lamina emergent mechanism

abstract:
Minimally Invasive Surgery (MIS) technique has seen its great success in the last few decades due to its significant advantages compared to the traditional open surgeries. This technique requires only a few 10 mm incisions through which the surgical instruments can be inserted to perform operations inside the human body. The benefits it brings to surgeons and patients are so obvious that recent advances in MIS continue to demand the development of surgical tools for different types of MIS.
This thesis presents a surgical instrument based on compliant parallel mechanism with multifunctional forceps attempting to overcome the problems arise from the advances in MIS. Due to the inherent properties of compliant mechanism, the surgical tool can be designed very compact to meet the strict requirements of MIS with very restricted operation area. With parallel mechanism, this tool has multiple degrees of freedom and the stiffness to transmit motions dexterously and accurately. By integrating the PCB motor, the end-effector is able to rotate 360 degrees. The parallel mechanism was analyzed in terms of kinematics, workspace and stiffness modeling. Workspace and stiffness were optimized using Genetic Algorithm to get the optimal performance out of this parallel mechanism.
The multifunctional forceps with the functions of scissor-cutting, grasping and Cautery was also designed. The CAD model was constructed and Finite Element Analysis was conducted to make sure that the design meets the requirements.


title: A comparison of male versus female University of Ontario Institute of Technology students who use electronic or digital devices and technologies with a video display terminal and associated negative health outcomes experienced

subject:
VDT and health
VDT and eyestrain
VDT and psychosocial effects
Internet addiction

abstract:
Aims and Significance:
Electronic and digital device and technologies use with Video Display Terminals (VDTs) has increased exponentially. There are negative health effects associated with their use. This study compares VDT use between the sexes and assesses the relationship between VDT exposure and associated potential negative health effects.
Methods:
A cross-sectional study was employed using self-reported questionnaires to explore the negative health effects associated with VDT use. 278 undergraduate University of Ontario Institute of Technology (University of Ontario Institute of Technology) students in participated in the study of which 65.8% were females (aged between 17-30 years) and 34.2% were males (aged between 18-30 years).
Results:
Female University of Ontario Institute of Technology students reported more pain in the neck/shoulder/hand and eye discomfort and headaches/migraines in comparison to their male counterparts.
Conclusion:
This study provide preliminary evidence to suggest that female University of Ontario Institute of Technology students experienced increased negative health effects on exposure to VDTs in comparison to their male counterparts.


title: Effect of an emotional situation on decision recipients' and decision makers' justice appraisals.

subject:
Procedural justice
Distributive justice
Group value model
Emotional engagement
Deservingness heuristic

abstract:
Previous procedural and distributive justice theories have not accounted for the vivid and emotionally compelling situations in which people often make justice judgments. In this
study I investigated whether previous theory generalized to emotionally engaging
contexts, such as a forceful police arrest. Undergraduates (N = 258) read a vignette in
which a student was suspected of possessing a smoke bomb and forcefully arrested. I
used a 2 (Role: Suspect, Officer) x2 (Video: Present, Absent) x 2 (Voice: High, Low) x 3
(Guilt/Harm: Harmful, Harmless, Innocent) between-subjects factorial design to test three challenges to Lind and Tyler’s (1988) group value model. A path model analysis indicated that factors influencing justice judgments were affected by participants’
emotional engagement. When participants were emotionally engaged, deservingness effects were strengthened, and treatment effects were suppressed. These findings suggest
that participants used different psychological mechanisms to determine what is fair depending on whether they were more or less emotionally engaged. Implications include the importance of engaging participants emotionally when conducting justice research.


title: Design and development of an automated uranium pellet stacking system

subject:
automated uranium pellet stacking
uranium pellets
CANDU fuel bundlles
Cameco Fuel Manufacturing
radiation exposure
enriched uranium bundles
laser triangulation sensors

abstract:
A novel design for an automated uranium pellet stacking system is presented. This
system is designed to replace the manual method for stacking uranium pellets for
CANDU fuel bundles that is currently used at Cameco Fuel Manufacturing in Port Hope, ON. The system presented is designed as a drop-in solution to the current production line at Cameco. As a result, there are constraints that prevent certain parameters from modification.
The three main goals of this system are to reduce worker exposure to radiation to as
low as reasonably achievable, improve product quality, and increase the productivity of the production line. The proposed system will remove the workers from a position of having to handle the uranium pellets and physically place them on the stacks. While the natural uranium currently in production is not a major health risk for short-term exposure, the possibility of production of slightly enriched uranium bundles makes this system a real need. This system also removes the random pellet placement that the manual system uses by taking precise measurements using laser triangulation sensors.
These measurements are used to determine which sizes of end pellets are required to
complete the stack to within the specified tolerances. A final measurement is done to
ensure the stack is within tolerance. All of this information is recorded and can be
traced back to the stacks during quality inspection, which is a major improvement over
the existing system. This single automated system will replace two manual stations,
while increasing the total output production, thus eliminating pellet stacking as a bottleneck in the fuel bundle assembly process. Current production rates can be met
by this single, automated station in two shifts per day, while the current manual
process requires three shifts using two stations.
Test results of a proof-of-concept prototype indicate that the proposed design meets
or exceeds all of the design requirements.


title: Patient involvement in interprofessional collaboration, a catalyst to the delivery of patient-centered care at community-based mental health settings

subject:
Interprofessional
Collaboration
Patient involvement

abstract:
Rationale: The purpose of this study was to examine the patient-lived experience and their role with interprofessional teams.
Methods: This case study used a mixed method approach that was focused on the views of patients with mental illness (12) and healthcare and social care professionals (11) at a mental health unit in a Canadian community hospital. Data collection included contextual observations of interprofessional team meetings, a questionnaire completed by professionals, and individual interviews with professionals and patients.
Results: Shortage of social workers, low interprofessional team diversity, and a lack of patient education created negative patient experiences and delays in patient discharge plans. Improving patient satisfaction and adherence to treatment plans were associated with developing patient decision-support aids and including a diverse group of professionals and community partners.
Conclusions: Shared decision-making is a fundamental component of patient-centered care, and encourages patients to take responsibility of their own mental health needs.


title: Vibration suppression of straight and curved beams traversed by moving loads

subject:
Vibration supression
Beam
Moving load

abstract: Vibration suppression of beams traversed by moving loads, using optimal Tuned-Mass-Damper (TMD) systems, is investigated. This study is performed on two different geometrical shapes of the beam, namely, uniform homogenous straight beam, and the uniform homogenous curved beam. Initially, three different models of the moving load on a straight beam were developed using the APDL coding in ANSYS©, a commercially available software. Results obtained from the numerical simulation of either a single moving load or a moving mass on the straight beam were compared and validated with those reported in literature. A comprehensive parameter sensitivity analysis was carried out on the beam traversed by moving load with and without the presence of random base excitation and the effects of different beam parameters on the dynamic response of the system were closely examined. Vehicles travelling on suspension bridges induce undesirable vibration, which must be suppressed to a great extent. A half-car planar model moving on a straight beam is considered to study the suppression of vibration and parameter optimization. Attempt is made to design an optimal TMD system to suppress the induced vibration of the bridge due to the moving vehicle, considerably. Furthermore, the effect of non-symmetrical and side-way motion of vehicles on bridges has been considered when both the torsional and flexural vibrations of the bridge-vehicle have been present. Optimum values of the double-acting TMDs parameters have been found to suppress the combined flexural and torsional vibrations of the supporting beam structure. Similar work has been carried out on a uniform homogenous curved beam traversed by either a moving load or a half-car planner model. The effects of the beam curvature angle and the type of loading are closely studied. Optimum values of the two TMDs were obtained to suppress the combined flexural and torsional vibrations of bridges traversed by traveling vehicles.


title: Experimental investigation of scroll based organic Rankine systems

subject:
Scroll compressor
Expander
ORC
Exergy
Organic Rankine cycle
Heat recovery
Heat engine
Efficiency

abstract:
In this thesis, an experimental research is conducted on scroll-based Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) focusing on the expansion process. An important feature of the ORC is the ability to utilize low or moderate temperature heat sources derived from renewable energy such as concentrated solar radiation, biomass/biofuels combustion streams, geothermal heat and waste heat recovery. The ORC is more appropriate than steam Rankine cycle to generate power from low capacity heat sources (5-500 kW thermal). For example, expansion of superheated steam from 280oC/1000 kPa to a pressure corresponding to 35oC saturation requires a volume ratio as high as 86, whereas for the same operating conditions toluene shows an expansion ratio of 6 which can be achieved in a single stage turbine or expander.
The objective of this work is to experimentally study the performance of a selected refrigeration scroll compressor operating in reverse as expander in an ORC. To this purpose, three experimental systems are designed, built and used for conducting a comprehensive experimental programme aimed at determining the features of the expansion process. In preliminary tests the working fluid utilized is dry air while the main experiments are done with the organic fluid R134a.
Experimental data of the scroll expander are collected under different operating conditions. Power generation in various conditions is analyzed in order to determine the optimum performance parameters for the scroll expander. In addition, thermodynamic analysis of the system is conducted through energy and exergy efficiencies to study the system performance.
Based on the experimental measurements, the optimum parameters for an ORC cycle operating with the Bitzer-based expander-generator unit are determined. The cycle energy and exergy efficiencies are found 5% and 30% respectively from a heat source of 120oC.


title: Optimal temperature range identification for a hydrogen production cycle using genetic algorithm-based Monte Carlo simulation method

subject:
Genetic algorithm
Monte Carlo simulation method
Cu-Cl cycle
Heat transfer process
Optimal range identification

abstract: Nuclear-based hydrogen generation is accumulating more and more interest, both from academia and industry. In nuclear hydrogen production system based on 4-step Cu-Cl cycle, proper temperature inputs play an essential role to ensure the heat transfer process performance as expected. Three major temperature variations exist in this process: room temperature, hydrolysis temperature and oxygen decomposition temperature. The heat requirement of the system varies with temperatures. Therefore, it is important to identify the optimal ranges of the temperatures to ensure the heat requirement satisfied when the temperatures are fluctuating. A Genetic-Algorithm-based Monte-Carlo Simulation method is developed in this thesis to identify the optimal temperature ranges. The process of establishing the model of GA-based MCS is illustrated. Essential parameters of the method are decided through experiments. The confidence interval estimation of the results are presented to improve the reliability. The final result indicates that this method can be applied to identify the optimal ranges and the results are reliable.


title: School resource officers: interrogation training, developmental knowledge, and questioning practices

subject:
Juveniles
Interrogation
School resource officers
Training
REID

abstract: Given the prevalence of School Resource Officers (SROs) in American schools, it is surprising that relatively little is known empirically about SRO training, including with regard to their questioning of students suspected or accused of offending in schools. We surveyed 287 eligible SROs from the U.S. We focused on how SROs are trained with respect to questioning students in schools and how this is related to SROs’ developmental knowledge and questioning practices in the schools. We conceptualized training as reported attendance of the Reid interrogation training (RIT) or child/youth-specific interviewing/interrogation training (DIT: developmental interrogation training). Overall, RIT and non-RIT SROs demonstrated similar developmental knowledge and used similar questioning tactics. The few differences that emerged suggest that RIT SROs are using more advisable techniques than non-RIT SROs. Moreover, DIT SROs demonstrated less knowledge concerning children’s comprehension of their Miranda rights, and endorsed several of the ‘more advisable’ tactics, at significantly higher rates than non-DIT. More knowledge is required regarding the child/youth oriented interviewing/interrogation training.


title: Experimental investigation and modeling of integrated tri-generation systems.

subject:
Tri-generation
Exergy analysis
Optimization
Solar power tower
Gasification
Fischer-Tropsch synthesis

abstract:
Energy demand in the world is increasing with population growth and higher living standards. Today, the need for energy requires a focus on renewable sources without abandoning fossil fuels. Efficient use of energy is one of the most important tasks in modern energy systems to achieve. In addition to the energy need, growing environmental concerns are linked with energy is emerged. Multi-purpose energy generation allows a higher efficiency by generating more outputs with the same input in the same system. Tri-generation systems are expected to provide at least three commodities, such as heating, cooling, desalination, storable fuel production and some other useful outputs, in addition to power generation.
In this study, an experimental investigation of gasification is presented and two integrated tri-generation systems are proposed. The first integrated tri-generation system (System 1) utilizes solar energy as input and the outputs are power, fresh water and hot water. It consists of four sub-systems, namely solar power tower system, desalination system, Rankine cycle and organic Rankine cycle (ORC). The second integrated tri-generation system (System 2) utilizes coal and biomass as input and the outputs are power, fuel and hot water. It consists of five sub-systems: gasification plant, Brayton cycle, Rankine cycle, Fischer-Tropsch synthesis plant and an organic Rankine cycle (ORC). Experimental investigation includes coal and biomass gasification, where the experimental results of synthesis gas compositions are utilized in the analysis of the second systems.
To maximize efficiency, heat losses from the system should be minimized through a recovery system to make the heat a useful commodity for other systems, such as ORCs which can utilize the low-grade heat. In this respect, ORCs are first analyzed for three different configurations in terms of energy and exergy efficiencies altering working fluids to increase the power output.
Among two types of coal and one type biomass tried in the laboratory scale experimental set-up, Tunçbilek-Ömerler is found to be superior to Konya-Ilgın coal in terms of the highest amount of hydrogen in the synthesis gas composition. As
biomass, wheat straw is gasified, which shows higher exergetic efficiency in comparison to Konya-Ilgın coal.
Based on theoretical analysis conducted for the integrated systems, System 2 is found to be more efficient in terms of energy and exergy in comparison with System 1. However, when local needs are taken into account, fresh water can be a desirable useful output where solar irradiation is high. Both systems are compared to conventional and co-generation systems having the same inputs to quantify the improvement in efficiency. System 1 has an energy efficiency of 69% and an exergy efficiency of 58%, whereas System 2 has an energy efficiency of 71% and an exergy efficiency of 73%. When single generation is obtained from the same inputs, it is observed that the energy and exergy efficiencies drop drastically down to 34% and 42% for System 1; 33% and 42% for System 2, respectively.


title: The effects of rapport building on information disclosure in virtual interviews

publisher: University of Ontario Institute of Technology

subject:
Virtual interviews
Investigative interviews
Rapport
Rapport-building
Information disclosure

abstract: Rapport-building has been identified as an effective tool when interviewing victims and witnesses of events that may be sensitive in nature. The objective of this study was to examine the rapport-building process within a virtual interviewing context. Participants (N = 94) were shown a sexual education video and then questioned about the content of the video in a live virtual interview using either a Rapport (e.g., empathy, personalization, smiling) or No-Rapport (e.g., flat tone, no smiling, no personalization) approach. Results showed that perceived rapport was much higher in the Rapport condition compared to the No-Rapport condition (d = 1.47). Participants in the Rapport condition also provided substantially more dialogue (d = 0.85) and reported more accurate details (d = 0.42) in the substantive phase of the interview than those in the No-Rapport Condition. Implications of this study for investigative interviews conducted virtually will be discussed.


title: Digital privacy in the classroom: an analysis of the intent and realization  of Ontario policy in context

subject:
Privacy
Digital privacy
Digital tools
Digital footprint
Digital citizenship

abstract: Digital tools are becoming more commonplace within the K-12 classroom, but with the renewed opportunities come associated risks for student privacy. Digital tool use creates a digital footprint of the user which may contain personally identifiable information possibly compromising the user’s digital privacy. This study analyzes Ontario’s educational policies on the topic of digital privacy as it relates to digital tool use in the classroom. A digital survey was sent to teachers in one Ontario district school board to obtain their views regarding policy awareness and implementation, with 404 respondents. The findings of the policy analysis and survey indicate that there is a policy gap surrounding digital tool use in Ontario schools. The survey findings indicate that, though there is a high use of digital tools in classrooms, without policy support, there is an incomplete understanding of what constitutes digital privacy and the implications of its protection. This study concludes that there is a gap in policy development in Ontario education leaving early adopters of technology caught in an innovation-policy gap without relevant policies on digital privacy and digital tool use.

abstract: University of Ontario Institute of Technology


title: Optimal planning and operation of CHP within micro energy grids

subject:
CHP
Genetic algorithm
Micro energy grid
Planning
Operation

abstract: In this study, an optimal planning with respect to capacity sizes and types of prime movers for CHP systems within micro energy grids has been discussed. The objective is to minimize the total net present cost, carbon dioxide (CO2) emission, and mono-nitrogen oxides (NOx) emission for a certain load (electrical or heat) condition. A multi-objective GA (genetic algorithm) was applied to solve the planning problem in order to optimize CHP prime mover types and capacities. Costs, emissions, and efficiencies of CHP prime movers depend on their types, capacity range, and part-load performance. Four candidate CHP prime mover technologies with different characteristics are involved in this study which are; internal combustion engine (ICE), gas turbine (GT), fuel cell (FC), and Stirling engine (SE). The surplus/deficient electricity can possibly be sold to/bought from the main electrical grid, while the remaining heat demand is met from the conventional natural gas based heating units. The approach was applied to four different load type including a typical micro energy grid system as a case study, and the effectiveness of the proposed method was verified. Moreover, a hybrid operational planning algorithm (to maximize primary resource utilization or minimize running cost operation) for CHP prime mover in micro energy grids (MEGs) has been introduced. The proposed operational planning algorithm has been compared with conventional heat and thermal load following modes of operation. The results found the study are very much dependent on the load (heat and electrical) of the system. However, in almost all the scenarios discussed in the study, proposed system with CHP technologies having optimum sizing results is a significant economic and environmental benefit over the conventional energy infrastructure. It is found that, with optimal capacity of PMs, return on investment of the CHP system could be as high as 13% which leads to a payback period of only 7.8 years. Similarly, with the proposed capacity planning tool, maximum achievable CO2 and NOx emission reduction were 15% and 61% respectively. Moreover, from the case studies it is also seen that, proposed hybrid load following modes were consistently able to maximize PM efficiency and minimize system cost during operation.


title: Design of a novel ferrite core based highly efficient wireless resonant inductive power transfer system

subject: Magnetic resonance inductive power transfer

subject: Wireless charging

subject: Ferrite core

subject: Resonant converter

abstract: Using ferrite magnetic cores improves the efficiency of IPT and magnetic resonance based IPT systems, and can reduce unwanted stray magnetic radiation in addition to improving coupling efficiency. Performance of different ferrite geometries and various winding configurations are explored and their performance is studied using JMAG® FEA analysis. From the analysis and the experimental results, it is seen that the U-U core based ferrite geometry system with windings placed close to the air gap provides the most efficient coupling in larger airgap WRIPT applications. A 1.0 kW, 10 cm prototype is developed and experimental results are presented for various operating conditions. Electrical model for this novel WRIPT system is developed and the simulation results very closely match with experimental results. It is seen that the designed system can transfer power with 94.7% DC to DC efficiency over 10 cm airgap. It is also experimentally verified that this system operates with reduced magnetic radiation without an extra shielding design. Various control methods are presented to achieve required system voltage gain for charging an industrial electric vehicle (IEV) with 48 VDC battery pack from a 400 VDC DC link input.