Engineering Commons^™

Designing And Installing Radiant Barrier Systems, Florida Solar Energy Center, Philip Fairey

FSEC Energy Research Center®

A radiant barrier system is, in general, a layer of foil facing an airspace, installed in the envelope of a building. Such systems are very effective in impeding radiant heat transfer and consequent heat gain, especially in southern residences. Before designing and installing a radiant barrier system, you should become familiar with the concept of radiant energy transfer. Design Note 6, Radiant Energy Transfer and Radiant Barrier Systems in Buildings, is required reading if you are not familiar with this concept.

Solar Distillation Of Water, Florida Solar Energy Center, Ross Mccluney

FSEC Energy Research Center®

The Florida Solar Energy Center receives frequent requests for information about solar distillation for purifying water. Distillations is one of many processes available for water purification, and sunlight is one of several forms of heat energy that can be used to power that process. Sunlight has the advantage of zero fuel cost but it requires more space (for its collection) and generally more costly equipment.

To dispel a common belief, it is not necessary to boil water to distill it. Simply elevating its temperature, short of boiling, will adequately increase the evaporation rate. In fact, although vigorous boiling hastens the …

An Integrated Test Plan For An Advanced Very Large Scale Integrated Circuit Design Group, William S. Didden

Retrospective Theses and Dissertations

VLSI testing poses a number of problems which includes the selection of test techniques, the determination of acceptable fault coverage levels, and test vector generation. Available device test techniques are examined and compared. Design rules should be employed to assure the design is testable. Logic simulation systems and available test utilities are compared. The various methods of test vector generation are also examined. The selection criteria for test techniques are identified. A table of proposed design rules is included. Testability measurement utilities can be used to statistically predict the test generation effort. Field reject rates and fault coverage are statistically …

A Robotic Vision System, Murat Draman

Retrospective Theses and Dissertations

A survey was done to summarize the state of the art and the future directions in the robotic vision field, in the industrial applications and research areas. An assembly language program, "GETIT", was written to control a MC6800 microprocessor in gathering data from an analog-to-digital converter hooked up to a camera, to find the center of a white marble placed on a black surface, and to send the coordinates to a five axis robot. A VAL language program, "VISION!", was written to receive the coordinate data from the microprocessor and to direct the robot to the specified location, to pick …

Geotechnical Investigation Of In-Lake Sediment Treatment For Megginnis Arm Of Lake Jackson, Tallahassee, Florida, Richard L. Johnson

Retrospective Theses and Dissertations

Megginnis Arm of Lake Jackson in Tallahassee, Florida, has experienced rapid eutrophication as a result of development within the contributing area watershed. Bottom sediments were sampled for purposes of mapping, classifying and designating for removal. Sediment desiccation studies were performed to determine the percent of consolidation and sealing characteristics of the soils in the event of a lake drawdown. Restoration alternatives are presented and compared on the basis of field investigations, laboratory testing and analysis, and the desiccation study. Alternative methods are discussed with respect to the cost, the flexibility and the problems inherent in the different proposals. From the …

The Design Of Standard Cell Vlsi Circuits, Randolph L. Abidin

Retrospective Theses and Dissertations

There are basically three methods of designing Very Large Scale Integrated (VLSI) circuits; Gate Array, Standard Cell, and Full Custom. The objective of this research is to design a VLSI circuit using the Standard Cell approach. A prime requisite for a successful design of these circuits is an integrated Computer Aided Design (CAD) system. The chip design requirements for an integrated CAD system are developed and their interrelationships are presented. As VLSI circuits grow in complexity, the problem of how to test them becomes more difficult. Two methods for testing are defined: 1. Insertion within the system of which the …

Computer Simulation Of Cross Correlators For Correlated Inputs, Linda J. Coulter

Retrospective Theses and Dissertations

Cross correlator systems, analog and clipped input channels, with correlated random narrow band Gaussian noise as inputs are computer simulated. The performance of each system is evaluated on the basis of the output signal-to-noise ratio. The output SNR of each system is compared with theoretical asymptotic approximations computed as a function of the SNR of the input channels. The output of the simulation compares within 3 dB of the asymptotic approximations for the analog correlator for all values of the correlation coefficient tested and for the systems with clipped input channels with uncorrelated inputs. For the systems with clipped input …

An Application Of Speech Synthesis, Edward J. Purvis

Retrospective Theses and Dissertations

This paper discusses the implementation of a synthesized computer voice facility for a missile trainer. The actual facility hardware is described. Software used to control the hardware operation is presented and discussed.

Highway Runoff And Sediment Control, Susanna H. Rehmann-Koo

Retrospective Theses and Dissertations

A literature survey was conducted on the erosion and sedimentation process and techniques for control. Erosion and sediment control techniques were found to be very site specific. Several techniques are analyzed for their maintenance and operation requirements, construction costs, and effectiveness in quantity and quality control. Once technique, namely swale blocks or berms was designed and constructed to illustrate cost and effectiveness. Design aids were developed for various berm heights and highway slopes as a function of berm spacing for typical highway cross-sections to aid in the design of swale blocks. Construction costs were estimated for the berms and retention/detention …

Transformation Of Phosphorus In Highway Runoff Management Systems, David B. Pearce

Retrospective Theses and Dissertations

The operation and maintenance of highways contributes a variety of pollutants to surface and subsurface waters. Solids, heavy metals, nutrients, oil and grease, pesticides and bacteria can all be associated with highway runoff. Although the full extent of the effect of all these runoff constituents upon the quality of surrounding waters is not well defined, this study will mainly concentrate on nutrient contaminants (essentially phosphorus). The last decade has seen increasing efforts in research and development to abate contaminant discharges from highway runoff using a number of treatment facilities such as swale and detention/retention ponds. An evaluation of the effectiveness …

A Single Fault-Tolerant Dual Channel Controller, Thomas J. Lowery

Retrospective Theses and Dissertations

The advent of the VLSI technology makes it feasible to offer a once expensive system attribute called fault-tolerance to a wide variety of applications. This can be accomplished by using off-the-shelf single board computers and peripherals as the heart of the system. Custom design boards can then be added to meet the specific requirements of each application.

Display To Camera Calibration Techniques, Philip Gatt

Retrospective Theses and Dissertations

In today's technology, with digitally controlled optic sensing devices, there exists a need for a fast and accurate calibration procedure. Typical display devices and optic fiber bundles are plagued with inaccuracies. There are many sources of error such as delay, time constants, pixel distortion, pixel bleeding, and noise. The calibration procedure must measure these inaccuracies, and compute a set of correction factors. These correction factors are then used in real time to alter the command data, such that the intended pixels are correctly commanded. This paper discusses a calibration procedure, which employs a special matrix inverse algorithm. This algorithm, which …

Image Analysis And Segmentation Based On The Circular Pipeline Video Processor, Jon M. Albritton

Retrospective Theses and Dissertations

Visual inspection of printed circuit boards has generally depended on human inspectors. However, a system has been developed which allows for automated visual inspection using robotics and modern image processing techniques. This paper first introduces automatic visual inspection processes, overviews the Automatic Board Assembly, Inspection and Test (ABAIT) system, reviews image processing concepts and describes the Circular Pipeline Video Processor (CPVP). Image data from the CPVP is analyzed and an investigation into alternate segmentation algorithms to identify circuit board features is presented. The relative performance of these algorithms is compared conclusions drawn.

Stormwater Detention Systems With Effluent Filtration, Linda M. Van De Graaff

Retrospective Theses and Dissertations

The growing concern for water quality enhancement of our surface waters has led to changes in detention facility design. Providing a filter media for the effluent water to travel through before discharge into the environment has become an area of interest. Thus, detention facilities may be used for both water quality and quantity control. Different soil medias were studied for the potential of pollutant removal and infiltration rates usable in design work. Both laboratory and field experimentation were performed. A computer program was also developed to model stormwater movement through a swale detention system. This research was performed to examine …

A Non-Contact Technique For Direct Strain Measurement Using Laser Speckle Spectral Density, Reza M. Sheikhrezai

Retrospective Theses and Dissertations

When an optically rough surface is illuminated by laser, a grainy pattern is produced at a distance away from the surface, which is known as laser speckle pattern. This pattern is random in intensity with its grains separated by an average amount controlled by the intermediate optical system or the diameter of the illuminated area of the surface in absence of an optical system. It has been shown that the grain spacing of such pattern may be correlated to yield a singly-peaked power spectral density of an intensity ensemble which is found by spatial ensemble averages. This correlation holds only …

A Comparison Of Two Techniques For Estimating The Travel Time Of An Acoustic Wavefront Between Two Receiving Sensors, Frank J. Montalbano

Retrospective Theses and Dissertations

In recent years the United States Navy has concentrated most of its Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) research and development efforts toward passive sonar. Its ability to locate enemy targets without being detected gives the passive sonar system a supreme strategic advantage over its active counterpart. One aspect of passive sonar signal processing is the time delay estimation of an underwater acoustic wavefront. From this estimation the location and velocity of the radiating source (target) can then be determined. This report compares two popular methods of estimating time delay utilizing computer simulations of each: the cross correlator and the beamformer.

A 'User-Friendly' Robot Operator Training Aid, Donald A. Washburn

Retrospective Theses and Dissertations

There will be an increasing demand for robot operators, since more companies are using robots in production and material handling. In order to train these would-be operators, a 'user-friendly' robot operator training aid was developed. This aid helps the trainee learn how to program a robot using on-line programming, and the trainee also obtains valuable hands-on experience. Since this training aid is user-friendly and has safety features, it requires little or no previous experience with robots or computers and minimal supervision. With this training, the would-be operators will acquire a basic understanding of how they can apply this experience to …

Gain Control Of A Time-Varying Signal Using A Multiplaying Dac, Yassin Movassaghi

Retrospective Theses and Dissertations

The design of a high speed circuit accepting a bipolar analog signal with a 3 db bandwidth of 20 MHZ and an eight bit unipolar gain control signal is presented in this thesis. The system produces the product of these two signals at a rate of one digital byte every 25 nsec. At the heart of the system are two multiplying digital to analog converters (DACs) operating in parallel. The circuit design was based on a statistically validated model for a multiplying DAC. This circuit could be used for controlling the intensity of each picture element (i.e. pixel) for many …

Surface Acoustic Wave Bidirectional Filter Synthesis And Analysis, Raymond L. Yap

Retrospective Theses and Dissertations

Surface Acoustic Wave (SAW) devices are manufactured using standard metallization and photolithographic techniques that have been established by the semiconductor industry. The facilities in the newly developed Microelectronics laboratory at the University of Central Florida will be utilized in the fabrication of a SAW device.

This thesis will outline the complete procedure beginning with the initial design from given specifications, up to mask generation, fabricating and testing of the device. This will serve to calibrate the fabrication process for future work in SAW device and semiconductor fabrication.

The models that are used in the SAWCAD design software will be verified …

The Frequency Response Computation Of H(Z) Models That Include Digital Error Effects, Carol R. Smith

Retrospective Theses and Dissertations

Pulse responses are not suitable for evaluating H(z) frequency responses that include digital errors. Digital error effects, however, are conveniently included in H(z) frequency response calculations based on the step response. A non-real time algorithm for computing the frequency response of a real time digital filters based on the filter step response is developed and verified through an example.

The Design Of A Qpsk Modem And The Probability Of Error Analysis For An Sca Based Digital Communication System, Fouad Guediri

Retrospective Theses and Dissertations

An analysis of the probability of error for an SCA based digital communication system is developed. QPSK modulation and the signal to noise ratio degradation due to the SCA transmission are analyzed to predict the performance of the system in terms of probability of error. The design and analysis of a QPSK model, a pseudorandom generator, and a pseudorandom correlator are also presented in this thesis.

Finite Impulse Response Filter Implementation Via Windowing Technique, Thomas J. Horrigan

Retrospective Theses and Dissertations

This research report is devoted to an investigation of finite impulse response (FIR) filters and their implementation via windowing techniques. Analysis is restricted to those FIR filters that possess both a nonrecursive structure and a linear phase response. Initially an informative yet concise overview of FIR filters is presented. Some knowledge of "discrete – time" systems is assumed. Next, the concepts associated with FIR filter implementation through the utilization of window functions is developed. Analysis is performed in both the time and frequency domains. Results obtained define optimal window function criteria. The last design technique is devoted to computer aided …

The Use Of Computers In Construction Management, Joella S. Francois

Retrospective Theses and Dissertations

A study on the use of computers for the management of construction projects has been conducted. The findings of this study will be presented here and will consist of: 1. An examination of the different utilization of computers in the field of construction management. 2. An analysis of the methodology of some well known computer software packages used by many construction companies. 3. A complete documentation of computer codes that have been developed a. to illustrate the use of computer graphics for an effective utilization of some construction management techniques such as the bar chart b. to solve the problem …

Digital Hearing Aids, Somsak Deawsurintr

Retrospective Theses and Dissertations

This paper describes the design of a hearing aid using digital techniques. The Amplitude Compression Amplifier and Digital Filter are discussed. General review of different filter types are presented as background for the design of Digital Filters. The design procedure for Digital Filters and the software program for the Intel-2920 signal processor are created. Finally, the program is tested by simulation via the 2920-Simulator.

Millimeter Wave Scattering From A Rough Surface, Charles H. Hargraves

Retrospective Theses and Dissertations

This thesis presents an introduction to rough surface scattering and describes techniques that were used during the course of this project to measure and characterize electromagnetic scattering from a rough surface. An analytical model is described that accurately predicts the statistics of the measured scattering data. The CW measurement process that was used is described and scattering measurement results are presented. Calculated and measured statistical moments are compared in order to show agreement of measurements with various statistical scattering models. Recommendations for additional work in the area of measurement and analytical modeling of rough surface scattering are given.

The Combination Of Artificial Intelligence And Robotics For A Mobile Robot Application, Leslie D. Interrante

Retrospective Theses and Dissertations

The combination of artificial intelligence and robotics led to more flexibility and powerful mobile robot applications. The robot and its environment were simulated with a microcomputer to gather statistical information. An application was demonstrated in the laboratory with a mobile robot. The robot recognized an obstacle in its path and generated the necessary changes in its environment so that it could successfully complete a required task.

Design Of An Evaluation System For The Electro-Oculometer, Chrysanthos A. Panayiotou

Retrospective Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this paper is to develop a system for evaluation of a skin-voltage Oculometer. A test set-up is designed that allows any person to attach the input of the Oculometer (electrodes) on his/her-self and obtain the transfer characteristics of the system. Two set-ups are designed. In the first one, the static transfer characteristics are obtained with the aid of a wall chart. In the second one, the dynamic transfer characteristics are obtained with the aid of a computer moving a bright spot on a large screen television set. An investigation of the possible sources of error is also …

Awqpsk : An Optimum Modulation Technique For Spread Spectrum Communication, Madjid A. Belkerdid

Retrospective Theses and Dissertations

Quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK) and minimum shift keying (MSK) are the two most used M-ary modulation techniques in Direct-Sequence (DS) Spread Spectrum Communication systems. This thesis introduces a new modulation technique that can compete well with QPSK and MSK in many applications. This new modulation technique, made up of a superposition of one QPSK signal and two amplitude weighted QPSK signals, is called Amplitude Weighted Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (AWQPSK). It is found to have the same probability of error as QPSK and MSK techniques. It has a higher bandwidth efficiency in bits/sec/Hz than QPSK and MSK. It has …

Digital Image Processing Using Ntec Facilities, James F. Roesch

Retrospective Theses and Dissertations

Digital image enhancement refers to the improvement of a given image for human interpretation. Digital image processing facilities are those in which hardware and software computing elements are combined in such a way as to enable the processing of digital images. This report describes the use of the Naval Training Equipment Center (NTEC) Computer Systems Laboratory computing facilities to enhance digital images. Described are two major hardware systems, the IKONAS RDS-3000 raster display graphics system and the VAX-11/780, and the digital image processing program (DIMPRP) written by the author. Digital image enhancement theory and practice are addressed through a discussion …

Transformation Of Nitrogen In Highway Runoff Management Systems, Robert D. Tolbert

Retrospective Theses and Dissertations

The operation and maintenance of highways contributes a variety of pollutants to surface and subsurface waters. Solids, heavy metals, nutrients, oil and grease, pesticides and bacteria can all be associated with highway runoff. Although the full extent of the effect of all of these runoff constituents upon the quality of surrounding waters is not well defined, this study will mainly concentrate on nutrient contaminants (essentially nitrogen). The last decade has seen increasing efforts in research and development to abate contaminant discharges from highway runoff using a number of treatment facilities such as retention/detention basins, swales and wetland systems. An evaluation …