Engineering Commons^™

Lateral Migration Of A Solid Particle In Shear Flow, Wutthapong Jiraporncharoen

Masters Theses

Lateral migration of solid particles in shear flow is observed in various industrial applications. Suspensions in a blade coater, a device used to apply coating pigment to a base paper to improve paper properties, is an example. Particle hydrodynamics will affect the quality of coated paper and runnability of the coater especially when the speed of the coating machine is very high or the pigment concentration is increased.

Many factors will affect the particle migration. The wall repulsion or lubrication effect forces the particle away from a wall to the channel center. The inertial effects are increased by increasing the …

Structural Studies Of Metastable Nanocrystalline Magnesium Titanate Ceramics, Renmei Xu

Masters Theses

Nanocrystalline magnesium titanate powders were produced using alkoxides of magnesium and titanium for the sol-gel method. High temperature phases which can only be formed at above 1200°C in equilibrium were formed at much lower temperature 600°C in nanometric system. Cation ordering and structural changes in qandilite (Mg₂TiO₄ ), geikielite (MgTiO₃ ) and karrooite (MgTi₂O₅ ) were studied by Rietveld refinement of neutron powder diffraction data and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Single qandilite phases were obtained in a wide range of Mg:Ti ratios from 2:038:1 to 1.52:1, and appeared to be Mg_2-xTi_{1+x …}

Development Of An Integrated Sensor For The Measurement Of The Acoustic Local Volume Displacement Of Vibrating Beams, Randall Rozema

Masters Theses

Currently, the methods used for sensing the volume displacement of a vibrating structure entail the use of a polyvinylidene fluoride sensor that spans the entire length of the structure. However, this work shows that the surface behavior related to volume displacement can be measured through the use of a polyvinylidene fluoride sensor that spans only the area of interest. In this application it was shown that two-point sensors are required in addition to the distributed, polyvinylidene fluoride sensor to achieve an accurate measurement. As a result, a set of four beams with different end conditions were constructed so that the …

Maximum Acceptable Oral Reading Speed For Voice Input Systems, Nirari M. Oda

Masters Theses

The objective of this thesis was to study the effect of vocal duration period and background noise on psychophysical oral reading speed. Ten healthy white males (21-28 years old) were used as subjects. Experiment one was designed to determine Maximum Acceptable Oral Reading Speed (MAORS) for an 8-hour period using psychophysical methodology. Results indicate that 114 words/min was an acceptable oral reading rate for an 8-hour day. Furthermore, 2 hours and 20 minutes is an acceptable testing period ( equivalent to the 8-hour day). Acoustical and physiological variables support these findings. Experiment two was designed to study the effect of …