Digital Commons Network^™

Laboratory Evaluation Of Unbound Rap As A Pavement Base Material, Wenbin He

Masters Theses

More than 50 million tons of asphalt pavements are milled every year in the United States (Taha 1999). The economical benefit attracts the recycling practice of utilizing RAP as paving materials.

In unbound RAP material, aged asphalt wraps aggregates. It is believed that unbound RAP performs differently from usual unbound material due to the existence of asphalt wrap. In the present study, triaxial tests were conducted for the unbound RAP under different temperatures. In addition, limestone and gravel were tested in order to compare with RAP. The resilient modulus, triaxial static creep behavior and hysteresis loops were obtained to compare …

Microprocessor Implementation Of Autoregressive Analysis Of Process Sensor Signals, Swetha Priyanka Pakala

Masters Theses

Automated signal analysis can help for effective system surveillance and also to analyze the dynamic behavior of the system such as impulse response, step response etc. Autoregressive analysis is a parametric technique widely used for system surveillance and diagnosis. The main aim objective of this research work is to develop an embedded system for autoregressive analysis of sensor signals in an online fashion for monitoring system parameters. This thesis presents the algorithm, data representation and performance of the optimized microprocessor implementation of autoregressive analysis.

In this work an autoregressive (AR) model is generated as a solution to a linear system …

A Distributed Solution For Visual Sensor Networks To Detect Targets In Crowds, Cheng Qian

Masters Theses

Visual sensor networks (VSNs), a novel concept about fulfilling vision tasks by a network of collaborative visual sensors, has been attracting more and more attentions these days. This thesis introduces some pioneering research on developing a distributed algorithm for VSNs to detect targets in a cluttered scene. The algorithm is aimed to achieve excellent performances on both detection accuracy and energy efficiency.

Based on a statistical model of the cluttered scene, the development starts with a centralized version where all the nodes send visual data to a central node and the central node invokes an iterative prioritization strategy (IPS) to …

Design And Optimization Of A Wind Deflector For Round-Nose Md-500 Series Helicopters, James Joseph Wright

Masters Theses

This thesis examines the problem experienced by the numerous rotary wing operators whose operations require flight with personnel seated outside the fuselage or with doors off. This investigation is specific to the round nose configured MD-500 series aircraft due to test aircraft availability and the wide range of missions it conducts worldwide. During cruise flight, personnel exposed to the aircraft slipstream are subjected to high wind loads and extreme wind chill effects, compromising their ability to perform required tasks. External passengers also add to the overall helicopter parasite drag, decreasing its performance as well as interfering with the crew through …

Terminal Velocity Determinations For Component Separation Biomas, Sarah Elizabeth Klasek

Masters Theses

Biomass processors require a technology that will separate node and internode segments to enhance the end product or to reduce production cost. Separation techniques that segregate by particle density and aerodynamic differences use terminal velocity properties as exemplified by classifiers and cyclones.

A fabricated vertical wind tunnel for determining terminal velocity had a velocity range from 3.0 to 9.5 m/s. Velocity variations between highest and lowest readings across the outlet was a maximum of about 20% at a given air velocity. Comparisons of measured terminal velocity to values calculated using Mohsenin (Mohsenin, N.N. 1970. Physical Properties of Plant and Animal …

“Design, Development And Characterization Of A Thermal Sensor Brick System For Modular Robotics, Nikhil Arun Naik

Masters Theses

This thesis presents the work on thermal imaging sensor brick (TISB) system for modular robotics. The research demonstrates the design, development and characterization of the TISB system. The TISB system is based on the design philosophy of sensor bricks for modular robotics. In under vehicle surveillance for threat detection, which is a target application of this work we have demonstrated the advantages of the TISB system over purely vision-based systems. We have highlighted the advantages of the TISB system as an illumination invariant threat detection system for detecting hidden threat objects in the undercarriage of a car. We have compared …

Computer Model To Select Leed Certification For Building Projects, Ruba Mirghani Mohammed

Masters Theses

According to the US Green Building Council (USGBC) residential and commercial buildings in the United State consume huge amounts of natural resources; pollute the environment, and generate large amounts of waste, all of which affect the environment, economy, public health, and productivity. As a result, USGBC committees developed the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating system to help professionals improve the quality of buildings and lessen their impact on the environment.

The (LEED) Green Building Rating System is a point-based system for certifying the level of a building's sustainability. There are four LEED certification categories: (1) Certified, (2) …

Simulation Based Evaluation Of Parking Facilities, Niru Tiwari

Masters Theses

Transportation facility has emerged as one of the main indicators of a national's prosperity at the advent of 21^st century and is the backbone of American commerce and industry. There are over 600 million motor vehicles that are driven in the world today and the number of cars in use is expected to be doubled in next 30 years. As the number increases, more parking spaces should also be provided; however, it is difficult to supply sufficient parking space due to space limitations. To meet the need, new types of parking and new parking technologies have been introduced. However, …

Investigation Of Knock In Gaseous Fuels In The Presence Of Diluents, Roshan Ashok Rodrigues

Masters Theses

Recent energy security and environmental concerns have prompted growing interest into utilization of alternative fuels such as, natural gas and landfill gas. These gaseous fuels contain significant amount of diluents in the fuel composition, such as carbon dioxide, nitrogen, water vapor and other trace gases, which vary by geographical location. Successful engine operation is limited by a phenomenon called "knock", which occurs due to auto-ignition of the end gas ahead of the flame front, and therefore, needs to be investigated with the utilization of these gaseous fuels.

The present contribution discusses the experimental set-up, procedure and results of the investigation …

Increasing The Reliability Of General Purpose Bomb Fuzing In Precision Strike Warfare, Mitchell Ralph Conover

Masters Theses

The advent of modern high-precision guided airborne weapons has increased the need for extremely reliable bomb fuzing systems. An electro-mechanical bomb fuzing system is currently used in U.S. Navy and Air Force General Purpose bomb based-weapons to include Joint Direct Attack Munition and Laser Guided Bombs. The demonstrated reliability of that fuzing system in combat operations on average has been less than perfect. The operational commanders have expressed that this is unacceptable since any dud results in coalition forces being held at additional risk because a duded bomb could be utilized as an Improvised Explosive Device by enemy forces. Just …

An Evaluation Of The Ah-64 Night Vision Systems For Use In 21st Century Urban Combat, John Kevin Heinecke

Masters Theses

Currently one of the most arduous and dangerous aviation missions for the military attack helicopter pilot is the night combat mission. The mission entails flight at close proximity to the ground and obstacles such as wires, trees, and buildings in an effort to avoid detection by enemy air defense and insurgent small arms fire. Night flight requires the use of augmented vision systems and enhanced aircraft stability and control systems to allow pilots to effectively see and negotiate those hazards that would otherwise be visible during daylight.

The U.S. Army currently fields two variants of augmented visionics, the Aviator Night …

A Parametric Study Of Water Vapor Condensation In Supersonic Nozzle Flow Fields, Todd Branson Vanpelt

Masters Theses

Combustion driven hypersonic and supersonic wind tunnels are impaired in their flight simulation abilities by the condensation of water vapor introduced into the test stream by the burning byproducts of air and hydrocarbon fuels. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the abilities of a condensation model to predict the beginning axial locations of vapor changing into liquid droplets and study the correlations with initial combustion chamber conditions. A test matrix with different fuels, chamber pressure, and equivalence ratio was applied to the FIRACON model written by Erickson, et al. [7] using the dimensions of the NASA Langley …

Processing And Characterization Of A Novel Bioabsorbable Polymer For Biomedical Applications, Katherine Atchley

Masters Theses

A series of amino acid based bioanalogous polymers have been synthesized by Dr. C. C. Chu at Cornell University for future use in biomedical applications. These poly(ester amide)s have been designed to be bioabsorbable, with particular interest in internal fixation and drug delivery applications. The polymers PEA 4-Phe-4, 4-Phe-Das, and 8-Phe-Das were studied; however, due to better material properties, the focus mainly centered on 4-Phe-4. Since these are new polymers, processing conditions needed to be determined and the structure and properties characterized. The fibers were also processed post-extrusion in an effort to induce orientation and crystallinity within the polymer chains. …

A Reconfigurable Supercomputing Library For Accelerated Parallel Lagged-Fibonacci Pseudorandom Number Generation, Yu Bi

Masters Theses

To help promote more widespread adoption of hardware acceleration in parallel scientific computing, we present portable, flexible design components for pseudorandom number generation. Due to the success of the Scalable Parallel Random Number Generators (SPRNG) software library in stochastic computations (e.g., Monte Carlo simulations), we developed an efficient and portable hardware architecture fully compatible with SPRNG’s Parallel Additive Lagged Fibonacci Generator (PALFG). Our general design produces identical results for all the parameter sets that SPRNG supports and yields high performance parallel random number generators which can each generate 162 million 31-bit uniform random integers per second on Xilinx Virtex II …

Retrofit Reconfigurable Flight Control System And The F/A-18c, Matthew E. Doyle

Masters Theses

The United States Navy has completed the initial flight test of a Reconfigurable Control Law System (RCLAWS) on the F/A-18C. The purpose of reconfigurable control is to allow for the safe operation of an aircraft that has experienced a sudden change in aircraft dynamics resulting from aircraft damage or flight control effector damage. The RCLAWS utilized during this flight test are novel in that they are designed to augment the production flight control system instead of replacing it. In order to reduce verification and certification requirements, this retrofit reconfigurable methodology supplements pilot commands to compensate for undesirable aircraft dynamics instead …

Fpga Logic Design For Analog-To-Digital-Converter Hardware Utilizing High Speed Serial Data Links, Joshua Brandon Jones

Masters Theses

The Computer Assisted Dynamic Data Monitoring and Analysis System (CADDMAS) used by the aeropropulsion test cells at Arnold Engineering Development Center (AEDC) processes a large amount of high bandwidth accelerometer and strain gage data. Data from each sensor must be digitized before being processed by software running on networked computers. This thesis describes some of the original analog-to- digital converter (ADC) hardware used by the CADDMAS as well as some of its limitations. More up-to-date ADC hardware was designed to be used in the CADDMAS to enhance capabilities required by the aeropropulsion test cells. These new capabilities included an increase …

Analysis Of Information Networks Of Freshman Engineering Students, Sara Noel Abdulla

Masters Theses

The main purpose of this study was to determine if social interaction within the University of Tennessee, Knoxville college freshman engineering classrooms correlates with academic performance. Also of interest was whether the interactions between genders had a significant affect on academic performance. Better academic performance is cited in the literature as improving retention and graduation rates; therefore, if factors that affect academic performance can be understood measures can be taken to help students perform better.

Five UT freshman engineering classes were surveyed to determine their level of involvement with the rest of the members in their class. Academic performance of …

An Investigation Of Different Golf Ball Dimple Flow Fields, Walter Robert Michalchuk

Masters Theses

This experimental study evaluated the potential of various golf ball dimple designs to reduce the drag produced by a golf ball in flight. An experimental setup using four dimple models placed between the leading and trailing edges of a wing section was used. A traditional spherical dimple design was used as the baseline to comparatively study and evaluate the results of the other three different designs. This study was performed on scaled dimple geometries in a water channel at realistic Reynolds number. Surface dye flow visualization, pressure measurements and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) were used to evaluate the various designs. …

Controlling The Dispersion Of Nanoparticles In Polymer Matrices, Chang-Uk Lee

Masters Theses

The dispersion of nanoparticles in a polymer matrix is a critical parameter to design and realize targeted morphologies and properties of a final polymer-based nanocomposite. This thesis presents experimental studies to investigate the dispersion of nanoparticles is polymer matrices using specific intermolecular hydrogen bonding between the nanoparticles and polymer matrices under two main topics.

The first topic is the impact of sample preparation processes on the properties of polymer carbon nanotube nanocomposites. Polymer nanocomposites composed of poly(styrene-co-vinyl phenol) (PSVPh) copolymers and 5 wt % multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) were prepared from three different methods, including melt-mixing and solution casting. The …

Preparation And Characterization Of Melt Blown And Electro-Spun Polyurethane Webs, Constance Rebecca Eastman

Masters Theses

Nonwoven fiber webs were formed through the processes of melt blowing and electro-spinning with the use of polyester thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU), aromatic polyether TPU, and aliphatic polycarbonate TPU. Each polyurethane was used to form fiber webs into sheets and onto stainless steel springs. Three types of fiber sheets were made: (1) melt blown, (2) electro-spun, and (3) melt blown coated with electro-spun fibers to form a composite structure. The melt blown sheets consisted of polyether TPU or aliphatic polycarbonate (PC) TPU. The electro-spun sheets were made from a 15wt% polymer solution of polyester TPU or aliphatic PC TPU. There were …

Developing A Model To Evaluate Maintenance Operations, Soundararajan Kannan

Masters Theses

Maintenance has become a prominent function in today's manufacturing environment. Tremendous efforts have been put into in developing different types of maintenance strategies for enhancing the performance of the equipment but very little has been done in actually streamlining maintenance activities. This refers to systematically evaluating and analyzing the non-value added activities within the maintenance function. One of the primary lean tools that can provide a different dimension in identifying and analyzing non-value added activities is Value Stream Mapping (VSM). However, the traditional VSM cannot be utilized "as is" because the maintenance activities do not completely correspond with VSM terminology. …

System Identification And Parameter Estimation Of The Piper Pa32-301 Saratoga, Catherine Anne Kelly

Masters Theses

The purpose of this project was to estimate the longitudinal stability derivatives of the Piper Saratoga (tail number N22UT), one of the aircraft owned and operated by the University of Tennessee Space Institute (UTSI), using the System Identification Programs for Aircraft, SIDPCAC. After the instrumentation error was reduced by means of a data compatibility analysis, the stability derivatives were estimated using both an output error and an equation error parameter estimation technique.

Following a discussion of the test aircraft and instrumentation and a brief overview of stability derivatives and parameter estimation, the flight test is discussed in detail along with …

Compressible Flow In Slab Rocket Motors, Brian A. Maicke

Masters Theses

In this thesis, the compressible flow inside a rectangular, porous channel is considered. A Rayleigh-Janzen perturbation is applied to the inviscid, steady, two-dimensional, isentropic flow equations. Closed form expressions are derived for the main properties of interest. The results of the study are verified via numerical simulation, with laminar and turbulent models, and with available experimental data. The critical point where the flow field reaches sonic conditions is determined analytically. Our analysis captures the steepening of the velocity profiles that has been reported in several studies using either computational or experimental methods. Explicit design criteria are presented to quantify the …

Using Gps And Gis To Evaluate Military Vehicle Traffic Patterns For The Prediction Of Vegetation Removal, Matthew Kendall Rice

Masters Theses

Military vehicle traffic during military training at installations can result in land degradation, vegetation removal, and increased soil erosion in training areas. Multiple vehicle passes (possible column movement) over the same terrain result in more severe damage to the soil and vegetation. Military training area land managers have a responsibility to manage the military lands in a sustainable way and maintain the environmental integrity of the land. This study utilized the Global Positioning System (GPS) and Geographic Information System (GIS) to evaluate military vehicle traffic patterns to predict vegetation removal. Investigation included vehicle tracking, estimation of impact during maneuvers, comparison …

Cooling Of Qps Modular Coils Using Embedded Copper Tubes, Shankar Narasimhaswami

Masters Theses

In an era of insatiable appetite for energy, mankind is challenged to develop a sustainable, safe and clean means of energy production, which would virtually eliminate the existing dependence on fossil fuels. In this regard, Nuclear Fusion technology would give man a quantum leap to mark a near end to the long-term energy concerns and redefine the basis of energy production on earth and elsewhere. This explanation holds rationale on two principal elements 1-Abundant supply of cheap fusion fuel and 2-Surpassingly superior energy production efficiency.

But, as every boon comes with a ‘But’, the criticality of technology is that fusion …

Synthesis Of Lipase-Catalyzed Saccharide-Fatty Acid Esters Using A Packed Bed Bioreactor System With Continuous Re-Circulation Of Reaction Medium: A Continuation Of Batch-Mode-Related Research, Oriana Okutu Obiri

Masters Theses

The purpose of this thesis study was to further study the batch synthesis of lipase- catalyzed saccharide-fatty acid esters and to introduce the fed-batch synthesis of saccharide-fatty acid esters as a preliminary design to the continuous synthesis of these esters in a packed bed bioreactor system. The batch reaction method is the conventional mode of synthesizing saccharide-fatty acid esters on a lab-scale basis and some conversion-related parameters of the reaction mode were investigated. These experiments included investigating the effect of water content on the equilibrium conversion of fructose oleates and exploring the activity retention of immobilized Rhizomucor miehei lipase (RML) …

Experimental Analyses Of An Atmospheric Pressure Electrical Plasma Decontaminator, Eric Pius Pradeep

Masters Theses

Electrical Gas Plasmas have been widely utilized in the frontiers of sterilization and disinfection of hazardous chemicals and unsafe microorganisms. In this research Atmospheric Pressure Non-thermal Plasma has been employed using various working gases such as air, helium and nitrogen to study its decontamination effects. Focus is given to analyze the constituents of the plasma such as UV light, charged particles, and chemical components produced during the operation of the discharge which influences the incapacitation of the exposed entities, in this specific study, only bacteria and bacteriophages were exposed. Biological tests involved the cultivation of bacteria and bacteriophages on Petri …

Integrated Corridor Management: Operational Strategies Under Interstate Diversion Scenarios, Shaun Michael Quayle

Masters Theses

This thesis looks at operational strategies to increase capacity within the context of Integrated Corridor Management (ICM) under a non-recurring Interstate incident scenario. This incident scenario creates lengthy queues and increased delay and travel times on the Interstate, forcing a portion of Interstate traffic to utilize alternate routes throughout the corridor, changing the network traffic patterns. Particular operational strategies are tested under this premise to qualify and mildly quantify the benefits of relaying incident and diversion routing information to corridor drivers, mimicking ITS information dissemination elements such as changeable message signs, highway advisory radio, in vehicle navigation systems and etc. …

Outside The Fence,' The Threat To The U.S. Aviation Industry, David Thomas Ramsey

Masters Theses

The purpose of this thesis was to examine the threat to the Aviation Industry from within the United States. The overall investigation starts with one assumption “that there will at some time in the near future be a covert operative group that desires to attack or engage the United States in war on its home land.” The principles of war will be analyzed resulting in covert cell guidance specifically; “economy of force” will require the covert units to be as small as possible to affect as many nodes as possible. Endurance will require the covert team to restrict any tactics …

Application Of Energy Analysis To The Problem Of Propulsion Driven Nutation Instability Of Spin Stabilized Spacecraft, Tina Morina Rice

Masters Theses

Propulsion driven nutation instability in spin stabilized spacecraft was first observed in the late nineteen seventies. It’s often referred to as the PAM-D coning anomaly, as it first occurred in the McDonnell Douglas Payload Assist Module (PAM-D). Propulsion driven nutation instability is a performance degrading phenomenon that occurs in spin-stabilized spacecraft used for the raising of satellite payloads to geosynchronous orbit. It is characterized by a coning (wobbling) motion that grows to a large degree during the final seconds of motor burn. The instability is clearly related to the increased size of the rocket needed to support the increasing …