Daisy Huang

University of Alaska Fairbanks · Department of Mechanical Engineering

title>ABSTRACT A new integrated testing system for the validation of stochastic vehicle-snow interaction models is presented in this paper. The testing system consists of an instrumented test vehicle, vehicle-mounted laser profilometer and a snow micropenetrometer. The test vehicle is equipped on each tire with a set of 6-axis wheel transducers, a...

Food, energy, and water (FEW) security require adequate quantities and forms of each resource, conditions that are threatened by climate change and other factors. Assessing FEW security is important, and needs to be understood in the context of multiple factors. Existing frameworks make it hard to disentangle the contributors to FEW insecurity and...

Many Alaska communities rely on heating oil for heat and diesel fuel for electricity. For remote communities, fuel must be barged or flown in, leading to high costs. While renewable energy resources may be available, the variability of wind and solar energy limits the amount that can be used coincidentally without adequate storage. This study devel...

The food–energy–water (FEW) nexus describes interactions among domains that yield gains or trade-offs when analysed together rather than independently. In a project about renewable energy in rural Alaska communities, we applied this concept to examine the implications for sustainability and resilience. The FEW nexus provided a useful framework for...

The food-energy-water (FEW) nexus describes interactions among domains that yield gains or tradeoffs when analyzed together rather than independently. In a project about renewable energy in rural Alaska communities, we applied this concept to examine the implications for sustainability and resilience. The FEW nexus provided a useful framework for i...

In recent years, there has been increased recognition of the importance of a nexus approach to optimize food, energy, and water (FEW) security at regional and global scales. Remote communities in the Arctic and Subarctic regions in Alaska provide unique examples of closed and isolated systems, wherein the FEW nexus not only needs to be examined to...

In recent years, there has been increased recognition of the importance of a nexus approach to optimize food, energy, and water (FEW) security at regional and global scales. Remote communities in the Arctic and Subarctic regions in Alaska provide unique examples of closed and isolated systems, wherein the FEW nexus not only needs to be examined to...

This review examines commercial biomass boilers installed around the state of Alaska for key performance and cost metrics. Capital costs and operation and maintenance costs vary with the boiler type and location around the state. Most boiler manufacturers claim system life expectancies of 20–30 years, assuming normal running conditions and adherenc...

For a vehicle interacting with snow, whether dry or wet, uncertainties exist in the mechanical properties of snow, and in the interfacial properties between the tires of the vehicle and snow. For dry snow, these uncertainties have been studied recently using methods within a statistical framework employing a simple stochastic tire-snow interaction...

Penetration by a cone into snow is commonly used to characterize snow properties. However, the effects of the diameter and half-angle of the cone on the mechanical properties of snow have not been systematically studied. In addition, no estimation of material parameters in a physically-based model has been made such that the results from penetratio...

This paper presents test results of a 50 kW Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) system and proposed guidelines for how to effectively apply this system to the rural Alaska power industry. In rural Alaska, approximately 180 villages rely on off-grid diesel generators for power. Most of the generators have capacities of about 1 MW or less. In general, the av...

General operations of a vehicle involve simultaneous slip in the longitudinal and lateral directions, the combination of which is much more complicated than purely longitudinal or lateral motions. During vehicle–snow interactions, additional complexities arise due to uncertainties of snow material properties and of interfacial properties between th...

An attempt is made to obtain and quantify the mechanical properties of two common types of seasonal snow on the ground. Different samples of natural snow whose metamorphism had stabilized (such as would remain on a road throughout winter in a cold, snowy area) were gathered and tested using mesoscale indentation tests (metrics on the order of mm to...

Quantification of the mechanical behavior of snow in response to loading is of importance in vehicle-terrain interaction studies. Snow, like other engineering materials, may be studied using indentation tests. However, unlike engineered materials with targeted and repeatable material properties, snow is a naturally-occurring, heterogeneous material...

As longitudinal slip affects vehicle–pavement interactions on roads and hard surfaces, so too does it play an important role in interactions between vehicles and soft terrains, including snow. Although many slip-based models have been developed recently for tire–snow interactions (e.g., [1] and references cited therein), these models have only been...

Accurate characterization and modeling of low-density snow under rapid loading is desirable for researchers in a broad range of fields, from avalanche prediction to ground-vehicle dynamic studies. This study uses a progressive damage model to study the reaction forces and subsequent mechanical behavior of snow under three different controlled load...