EXTRACTION OF PICTORIAL ENERGY INFORMATION FROM CAMPUS UNMETERED BUILDINGS USING IMAGE PROCESSING TECHNIQUES

In recent years, advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) has been the main research focus due to the traditional power grid has been restricted to meet development requirements. There has been an ongoing effort to increase the number of AMI devices that provide real-time data readings to improve system observability. Deployed AMI across distribution secondary networks provides load and consumption information for individual households which can improve grid management. Significant upgrade costs associated with retrofitting existing meters with network-capable sensing can be made more economical by using image processing methods to extract usage information from images of the existing meters. This thesis presents a new solution that uses online data exchange of power consumption information to a cloud server without modifying the existing electromechanical analog meters. In this framework, application of a systematic approach to extract energy data from images replaces the manual reading process. One case study illustrates the digital imaging approach is compared to the averages determined by visual readings over a one-month period.

Characterization Of Porous Media In Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell Based on Percolation Studies

Water management in the porous media of proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells, catalyst layer and porous transport layers (PTL) is confronted by two issues, flooding and dry out, both of which result in improper functioning of the fuel cell and lead to poor performance and degradation. The data that has been reported about water percolation and wettability within a fuel cell catalyst layer is limited to porosimetry. A new method and apparatus for measuring the percolation pressure in the catalyst layer has been developed. The experimental setup is similar to a Hele-Shaw experiment where samples are compressed and a fluid is injected into the sample. Pressure-Wetted Volume plots as well as Permeability plots for the catalyst layers were generated from the percolation testing. PTL samples were also characterizes using a Hele-Shaw method. Characterization for the PTLs was completed for the three states: new, conditioned and aged. This is represented in a Ce-t* plots, which show a large offset between new and aged samples.

DEVELOPMENT OF ION EXCHANGE MODELS FOR WATER TREATMENT AND APPLICATION TO THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION WATER PROCESSOR

The International Space Station (ISS) requires a substantial amount of potable water for use by the crew. The economic and logistic limitations of transporting the vast amount of water required onboard the ISS necessitate onboard recovery and reuse of the aqueous waste streams. Various treatment technologies are employed within the ISS water processor to render the waste water potable, including filtration, ion exchange, adsorption, and catalytic wet oxidation. The ion exchange resins and adsorption media are combined in multifiltration beds for removal of ionic and organic compounds. A mathematical model (MFBMODEL™) designed to predict the performance of a multifiltration (MF) bed was developed. MFBMODEL consists of ion exchange models for describing the behavior of the different resin types in a MF bed (e.g., mixed bed, strong acid cation, strong base anion, and weak base anion exchange resins) and an adsorption model capable of predicting the performance of the adsorbents in a MF bed. Multicomponent ion exchange ii equilibrium models that incorporate the water formation reaction, electroneutrality condition, and degree of ionization of weak acids and bases for mixed bed, strong acid cation, strong base anion, and weak base anion exchange resins were developed and verified. The equilibrium models developed use a tanks-inseries approach that allows for consideration of variable influent concentrations. The adsorption modeling approach was developed in related studies and application within the MFBMODEL framework was demonstrated in the Appendix to this study. MFBMODEL consists of a graphical user interface programmed in Visual Basic and Fortran computational routines. This dissertation shows MF bed modeling results in which the model is verified for a surrogate of the ISS waste shower and handwash stream. In addition, a multicomponent ion exchange model that incorporates mass transfer effects was developed, which is capable of describing the performance of strong acid cation (SAC) and strong base anion (SBA) exchange resins, but not including reaction effects. This dissertation presents results showing the mass transfer model's capability to predict the performance of binary and multicomponent column data for SAC and SBA exchange resins. The ion exchange equilibrium and mass transfer models developed in this study are also applicable to terrestrial water treatment systems. They could be applied for removal of cations and anions from groundwater (e.g., hardness, nitrate, perchlorate) and from industrial process waters (e.g. boiler water, ultrapure water in the semiconductor industry).