Engineering Commons^™

A Neural Network Approach To Predict The Performance Of Recycled Concrete Used In Permeable Reactive Barriers For The Treatment Of Acidic Groundwater, B Guruprasad, Buddhima Indraratna, Long Nghiem, G Regmi

Long D Nghiem

This study developed a neural network model for examining the performance of recycled concrete for the treatment of acidic groundwater. Concentrations of Al, Fe and Ca and alkalinity of the effluent were selected as the output parameters to simulate the performance of recycled concrete for neutralizing acidic groundwater. The input variables were the number of pore volumes, pH, oxidation reduction potential and the average hydraulic conductivity. Of the 658 experimental datasets available, 409 datasets were used for training, 184 datasets were used for validation, and the remaining datasets were used for cross-validation. The reported results indicate that the neural model …

Membrane Bioreactor Technology For Decentralised Wastewater Treatment And Reuse, Nichanan Tadkaew, Muttucumaru Sivakumar, Long Nghiem

Long D Nghiem

There is a growing interest in utilising non-traditional water resources by means of water reclamation and water recycling for long term sustainability. Amongst the many treatment alternatives, membrane bioreactors (MBRs) have been seen as an effective technology capable of transforming various types of wastewater into high-quality effluent exceeding most discharge requirements and suitable for a variety of reuse applications. To date MBRs are largely restricted to centralised large scale applications, with the most common capacity of 200 ML per day or above. The aim of this paper is to review and discuss the potential and limitations of MBRs for small …

Treatment Of Acidic Groundwater In Acid Sulfate Soil Terrain Using Recycled Concrete: Column Experiments, Gyanendra Regmi, Buddhima Indraratna, Long Nghiem, A. Golab, B Guru Prasad

Long D Nghiem

Acidic groundwater generated from pyrite oxidation in acid sulfate (AS) soil is a major geoenvironmental problem in Australia. This study aims to evaluate recycled concrete as a reactive material in permeable reactive barriers (PRBs) for the remediation of acidic groundwater in low-lying AS soil floodplains. Laboratory experiments were systematically conducted to investigate the acid neutralization behavior of recycled concrete and its potential to remove dissolved Al and Fe. The results confirmed that recycled concrete could effectively treat acidic groundwater from an AS soil terrain, resulting in near neutral effluent over a long period with complete removal of Al and Fe. …

Superconducting Magnetic Energy Storage Systems For Power System Applications, Danny Soetanto, K.W.E Cheng

Professor Darmawan Sutanto

Advancement in both superconducting technologies and power electronics led to High Temperature Superconducting Magnetic Energy Storage Systems (SMES) having some excellent performances for use in power systems, such as rapid response (millisecond), high power (multi-MW), high efficiency, and four- quadrant control. This paper provides a review on SMES applications to power systems.

Improved Controller For High Temperature Super Conducting Magnetic Energy Storage (Hts-Smes), Danny Soetanto, M Aware

Professor Darmawan Sutanto

This paper describes a novel controller for a High Temperature Superconducting Magnetic Energy Storage (HTSSMES) that can ensure (a) fast return of energy to the superconducting coil under constant current mode and (b) a constant and sinusoidal input supply current irrespective of the varying load demand with and without harmonics. A special feature of this controller is its ability to smoothly charge the superconducting coil using constant current charging so that it can be ready for the next discharging operation as soon as possible. Analysis of the circuit operation under hysteresis control is presented in details. Simulation and experimental results …

Concept Tests For A New Wire Flying Vehicle Designed To Achieve High Horizontal Resolution Profiling In Deep Water, Chris Roman, Dave Hebert

Christopher N. Roman

Efficiently profiling the water column to achieve both high vertical and horizontal resolution from a moving vessel in deep water is difficult. Current solutions, such as CTD tow-yos, moving vessel profilers, and undulating tow bodies, are limited by ship speed or water depth. As a consequence, it is difficult to obtain oceanographic sections with sufficient resolution to identify many relevant scales over the deeper sections of the water column. This paper presents a new concept for a profiling vehicle that slides up and down a towed wire in a controlled manner using the lift created by wing foils. The wings …

Spectral-Efficiency Of Multi-Antenna Links In Ad-Hoc Networks With Limited Tx Csi, Siddhartan Govindasamy, Daniel Bliss, David Staelin

Siddhartan Govindasamy

An asymptotic expression is derived for the mean spectral efficiency of multi-antenna links randomly distributed on a plane in a uniform manner where transmitters (Tx) have Channel-State-Information (CSI) of the channels between themselves and their target receivers while receivers (Rx) have CSI between themselves and all transmitters. The mean per-link spectral efficiency in the network is found to increase if nodes transmit using a subset of their strongest channel modes instead of the link-optimal strategy of water-filling on all channel modes (Farrokhi et al.). For reasonable parameters, this system which requires limited Tx CSI, has approximately double the mean spectral …

Spectral Efficiency In Single-Hop Ad-Hoc Wireless Networks With Interference Using Adaptive Antenna Arrays, Siddhartan Govindasamy, Daniel Bliss, David Staelin

Siddhartan Govindasamy

Receivers with N antennas in single-hop, ad-hoc wireless networks with nodes randomly distributed on an infinite plane with uniform area density are studied. Transmitting nodes have single antennas and transmit simultaneously in the same frequency band with power P that decays with distance via the commonly-used inverse-polynomial model with path-loss-exponent (PLE) greater than 2. This model applies to shared spectrum systems where multiple links share the same frequency band. In the interference-limited regime, the average spectral efficiency of a representative link E[C] (b/s/Hz/link) is found to grow as log(N) and linearly with PLE, and its variance decays as 1/N. The …

Cdf Of The Spectral-Efficiency Of A Simple Distributed Channel Assignment Algorithm In Spatially Distributed Wireless Networks, Siddhartan Govindasamy, Raghu Rangan, Elena Koukina, Ashley Lloyd

Siddhartan Govindasamy

The Cumulative-Distribution-Function (CDF) of the spectral efficiency of links in spatially distributed networks with orthogonal channels and a simple channel assignment algorithm is presented for constant link-lengths and nearest-neighbor links. Transmitters are randomly distributed on the plane with uniform probability, and receivers are either randomly distributed or at hexagonal lattice sites. This result includes random channel assignments as a special case. The CDF is used to find the spectral efficiency for a given, small outage probability which is used to optimize the number of channels to maximize the spectral efficiency. The optimum number of channels represents the best trade off …

On The Spectral Efficiency Of Links With Multi-Antenna Receivers In Non-Homogenous Wireless Networks, Siddhartan Govindasamy, Daniel Bliss

Siddhartan Govindasamy

An asymptotic technique is developed to find the Signal-to-Interference-plus-Noise-Ratio (SINR) and spectral efficiency of a link with N receiver antennas in wireless networks with non-homogeneous distributions of nodes. It is found that with appropriate normalization, the SINR and spectral efficiency converge with probability 1 to asymptotic limits as N increases. This technique is applied to networks with power-law node intensities, which includes homogeneous networks as a special case, to find a simple approximation for the spectral efficiency. It is found that for receivers in dense clusters, the SINR grows with N at rates higher than that of homogeneous networks and …

The Performance Of Linear Multiple-Antenna Receivers With Interferes Distributed On A Plane, Siddhartan Govindasamy, Filip Antic, Daniel Bliss, David Staelin

Siddhartan Govindasamy

We find an asymptotic expression for the average signal to interference ratio (SIR) between a transmitter with a single isotropic antenna and a multi-antenna linear receiver in the presence of interferers with single isotropic transmit antennas distributed uniformly on an infinite plane. The channels are modeled as complex Gaussian random variables with average received power dependent on the distance separating nodes. We find that in large networks, the average SIR for a representative link depends primarily on the ratio of the number of receive antenna elements to the area density of interferers. Furthermore for our network model, the SIR grows …

Minimizing Hidden-Node Network Interference By Optimizing Siso And Mimo Spectral Efficiency, Daniel Bliss, Siddhartan Govindasamy

Siddhartan Govindasamy

In this paper, the optimal spectral efficiency (data rate divided by the message bandwidth) that minimizes the probability of causing disruptive interference for ad hoc wireless networks or cognitive radios is investigated. Two basic problem constraints are considered: a given message size, or fixed data rate. Implicitly, the trade being optimized is between longer transmit duration and wider bandwidth versus higher transmit power. Both single-input single-output (SISO) and multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) links are considered. Here, a link optimizes its spectral efficiency to be a “good neighbor.” The probability of interference is characterized by the probability that the signal power received …

Linear Mmse Receivers For Random Cdma In Wireless Networks With Equal Transmit Powers, Siddhartan Govindasamy, David Staelin

Siddhartan Govindasamy

The performance of single-hop links in ad-hoc wireless systems using direct-sequence (DS) code-division-multiple-access (CDMA) with random signature sequences and linear minimum-mean-square-error (MMSE) receivers is investigated. Expressions for the average signal-to-interference-plus-noise-ratio (SINR) and spectral efficiency (b s^-1 Hz^-1 link^-1) were derived for a representative link in the presence of interferers distributed randomly on a plane with uniform area density p interferers m^-2. Nodes transmit with equal power P, which decays with distance r as r^-alpha. An expression for the optimum spreading factor given system parameters is also provided. It is found that for …

Asymptotic Spectral Efficiency Of Multiantenna Links In Wireless Networks With Limited Tx Csi, Siddhartan Govindasamy, Daniel Bliss, David Staelin

Siddhartan Govindasamy

An asymptotic technique is presented for finding the spectral efficiency of multiantenna links in spatially distributed wireless networks where transmitters have channel-state-information (CSI) corresponding to their target receiver. Transmitters are assumed to transmit independent data streams on a limited number of channel modes which limits the rank of transmit covariance matrices. An approximation for the spectral efficiency in the interference-limited regime as a function of link-length, interferer density, number of antennas per receiver and transmitter, number of transmit streams, and path-loss exponent is derived. It is found that targeted-receiver CSI, which can be acquired with low overhead in duplex systems …

Asymptotic Data Rates Of Receive-Diversity Systems With Mmse Estimation And Interferers At Correlated Locations, Siddhartan Govindasamy

Siddhartan Govindasamy

An asymptotic technique is presented to characterize the bits/symbol achievable on a representative wireless link in a spatially distributed network with active interferers at correlated positions, N receive diversity branches, and linear Minimum-Mean-Square-Error (MMSE) receivers. The models analyzed include analogs to Matern type I and type II networks. It is found that for our network models, with large N, the correlation between interferer positions does not significantly influence the bits/symbol resulting in simple approximations for the data rates achievable in such networks with moderately large numbers of diversity branches.

Spectral Efficiency Of Wireless Networks With Multi-Antenna Base Stations And Spatially Distributed Nodes, Siddhartan Govindasamy, Daniel Bliss, David Staelin

Siddhartan Govindasamy

We analyze networks with wireless nodes distributed randomly in space, transmitting simultaneously in the same channel to their nearest base-stations using a simple power control algorithm. Base-stations are on a hexagonal grid and have N optimally-phased antennas. We derive the asymptotic mean upstream spectral efficiency(validated by simulation) as a function of N, wireless-node density, base-station separation, and path-loss-exponent which controls signal attenuation with distance. These results indicate that mean per-link spectralefficiency is constant if the number of receive antennas or density of base-stations is increased linearly withwireless node density. They also improve our understanding of systems like city-wide wireless Internet …

Determination Of The Lithium Ion Diffusion Coefficient In Graphite, Ping Yu, Branko Popov, James Ritter, Ralph White

Dr Ping Yu

A complex impedance model for spherical particles was used to determine the lithium ion diffusion coefficient in graphite as a function of the state of charge (SOC) and temperature. The values obtained range from of 1.12 × 10–10 to 6.51 × 10–11 cm2/s at 25°C for 0 and 30% SOC, respectively, and for 0% SOC, the value at 55°C was 1.35 × 10–10 cm2/s. The conventional potentiostatic intermittent titration technique (PITT) and Warburg impedance approaches were also evaluated, and the advantages and disadvantages of these techniques were exposed

Power Electronics Enabled System Design And Power Management Control In Future Fuel Cell Vehicle, Lei Wang

Dr Lei Wang

Advanced vehicle technology including hybrid electric vehicles, plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, and fuel cell hybrid electric vehicles are attracting attention recently, as climate change and energy shortage become a more and more severe problem. Among all the options, fuel cell hybrid electric vehicles (FCHV) are considered to be next generation dominant technology because of its zero emission characteristic and other advantages.

While active research is continuously being pursued in the use of energy storage elements and power management strategies in fuel cell hybrid vehicle applications, the research reported so far in literature has limited guidance in real application. They consider …

Study Of The Cascaded Z-Source Inverter To Solve The Partial Shading For The Grid-Connected Pv System, Lei Wang

Dr Lei Wang

Recently there have been increasing interests in developing the renewable energy resources for the future energy need. Solar energy generation has shown its great potential to serve as a clean distributed energy source. While one drawback of the solar source is that when partial shading happens, which means the PV panels receive the non-uniform irradiation, the PV system output power would reduce depending on the partial shading scenario. Under this circumstance, the cascaded Z-source inverter for the grid-connected PV system is proposed to solve the partial shading problem. In order to demonstrate the proposed technology, the single stage Z-source inverter …

Monte Carlo Study Of The Energy Response And Depth Dose Water Equivalence Of The Moskin Radiation Dosimeter At Clinical Kilovoltage Photon Energies, C Lian, M Othman, D Cutajar, M Butson, Susanna Guatelli, Anatoly Rosenfeld

Susanna Guatelli

Skin dose is often the quantity of interest for radiological protection, as the skin is the organ that receives maximum dose during kilovoltage X-ray irradiations. The purpose of this study was to simulate the energy response and the depth dose water equivalence of the MOSkin radiation detector (Centre for Medical Radiation Physics (CMRP), University of Wollongong, Australia), a MOSFET-based radiation sensor with a novel packaging design, at clinical kilovoltage photon energies typically used for superficial/orthovoltage therapy and X-ray CT imaging. Monte Carlo simulations by means of the Geant4 toolkit were employed to investigate the energy response of the CMRP MOSkin …

Effect Of A Magnetic Field On The Track Structure Of Low-Energy Electrons: A Monte Carlo Study, M Bug, E Gargioni, Susanna Guatelli, S Incerti, H Rabus, R Schulte, Anatoly Rosenfeld

Susanna Guatelli

The increasing use of MRI-guided radiation therapy evokes the necessity to investigate the potential impact of a magnetic field on the biological effectiveness of therapeutic radiation beams. While it is known that a magnetic field, applied during irradiation, can improve the macroscopic absorbed dose distribution of electrons in the tumor region, effects on the microscopic distribution of energy depositions and ionizations have not yet been investigated. An effect on the number of ionizations in a DNA segment, which is related to initial DNA damage in form of complex strand breaks, could be beneficial in radiation therapy. In this work we …

From Imaging To Dosimetry: Geant4-Based Study On The Application Of Medipix To Neutron Dosimetry, M Othman, D Marinaro, M Petasecca, S Guatelli, D Cutajar, M Lerch, Dale Prokopovich, M Reinhard, J Uher, J Jakubek, S Pospisil, Anatoly Rosenfeld

Susanna Guatelli

An application of Medipix2 using a newly developed segmented multiple thickness polyethylene (PE) converter for fast neutron detection is presented. The system has the ability to provide an energy independent response for the dose equivalent for fast neutrons. The application of weighting factors to each defined thickness of PE allows for a flattening of the response of the detector system for dosimetry applications. Six PE converter segments were applied, and their thicknesses and weighting factors were optimised to obtain the required energy independent detector response. The study performed by means of GEANT4. Its suitability for neutron dosimetry was studied with …

Monte Carlo Study Of Mosfet Packaging, Optimised For Improved Energy Response: Single Mosfet Filtration, M Othman, D Cutajar, Nicholas Hardcastle, S Guatelli, Anatoly Rosenfeld

Susanna Guatelli

Monte Carlo simulations of the energy response of a conventionally packaged single metal-oxide field effect transistors (MOSFET) detector were performed with the goal of improving MOSFET energy dependence for personal accident or military dosimetry. The MOSFET detector packaging was optimised. Two different ‘drop-in’ design packages for a single MOSFET detector were modelled and optimised using the GEANT4 Monte Carlo toolkit. Absorbed photon dose simulations of the MOSFET dosemeter placed in free-air response, corresponding to the absorbed doses at depths of 0.07 mm (Dw(0.07)) and 10 mm (Dw(10)) in a water equivalent phantom of size 30 x 30 x30 cm3 for …

Direct Sequence Modified Time Hopping Ppm Over Ultra Wideband S-V Channel, Peter Vial, Beata Wysocki, Tadeusz Wysocki

Dr Peter Vial

A three position Pulse Position Modulation (PPM) scheme is proposed for a Direct Sequence Time Hopping Ultra Wideband wireless communication system. The channel is based on the Saleh-Valenzuela model. We show that by adapting the Space Time Spreading technique to use three pulse positions in a single input single output system representing -2,0,2 an improvement in Bit Error Rate is achieved compared to sending the same bits using two pulse positions only. In addition, the bit access rate is doubled as two bits can be successfully sent in the same time using our proposed system.

Non-Optimal Receiver For Space Time Spreading Across A Time Hopping Over Ultra Wideband Ppm, Peter Vial, Beata Wysocki, Tadeusz Wysocki

Dr Peter Vial

A novel non-optimal chip based technique is proposed to use two antennas to transmit data across a Direct Sequence Time Hopping Ultra Wideband dual antenna wireless communication system to a single receiver. The spread data is sent over the independent channels using the Space Time Spreading technique to encode the chips which are sent on each antenna simultaneously. A hard decision is made at each chip of the spreading code received based on the known Channel State Information which Pulse Position Modulated signal was received from each antenna. The paper shows that by adapting the Space Time Spreading technique to …

Orthogonal Spreading Sequences Constructed Using Hall’S Difference Set, Jennifer Seberry, Le Chung Tran, Yejing Wang, Beata Wysocki, Tadeusz Wysocki, Ying Zhao

Dr Le Chung Tran

In the paper we propose a new set of orthogonal spreading sequences based on the Hadamard matrix of order 32 constructed using the Hall difference set. The proposed sequences are characterised by low peaks in the aperiodic cross-correlation functions and have also good aperiodic auto-correlation properties.

A Generalized Algorithm For The Generation Of Correlated Rayleigh Fading Envelopes In Radio Channels, Le Chung Tran, Tadeusz Wysocki, Jennifer Seberry, Alfred Mertins

Dr Le Chung Tran

Although generation of correlated Rayleigh fading envelopes has been intensively considered in the literature, all conventional methods have their own shortcomings, which seriously impede their applicability. In this paper, a very general, straightforward algorithm for generation of an arbitrary number of Rayleigh envelopes with any desired, equal or unequal power, in wireless channels either with or without Doppler frequency shifts, is proposed. The proposed algorithm can be applied in case of spatial correlation, such as with antenna arrays in Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) systems, or spectral correlation between the random processes like in Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) systems. …

Novel Constructions Of Improved Square Complex Orthogonal Designs For Eight Transmit Antennas, Le Chung Tran, Tadeusz Wysocki, Jennifer Seberry, Alfred Mertins, Sarah Adams

Dr Le Chung Tran

Constructions of square, maximum rate complex orthogonal space-time block codes (CO STBCs) are well known, however codes constructed via the known methods include numerous zeros, which impede their practical implementation. By modifying the Williamson and Wallis-Whiteman arrays to apply to complex matrices, we propose two methods of construction of square, order-4n CO STBCs from square, order-n codes which satisfy certain properties. Applying the proposed methods, we construct square, maximum rate, order-8 CO STBCs with no zeros, such that the transmitted symbols are equally dispersed through transmit antennas. Those codes, referred to as the improved square CO STBCs, have the advantages …

Response Errors Of Nonproportionally Lightly Damped Structures, W. Gawronski, Jerzy Sawicki

Jerzy T. Sawicki

No abstract provided.

Rotor Fault Diagnosis Utilizing Active Magnetic Bearings, Jerzy Sawicki, Andrew Gyekenyesi, George Baaklini

Jerzy T. Sawicki

6176-09, Session 2 This paper conducts an analytical modeling effort and an experimental system design in order to assess the feasibility of utilizing active magnetic bearings (AMB) for rotor fault diagnosis. Mathematical models are developed in order to gain an understanding of the interaction between the rotor system and the AMBs (both conical and radial). The rotor system is in the form of a Jeffcott rotor, therefore, the set-up involves a rigid disk located mid-span on a flexible shaft with rigid supports (i.e., traditional ball bearings providing support). Based on the modeling results, the AMBs are located along the shaft …