Engineering Commons^™

Performance Evaluation Of Experimental Paint-Stripe Beads, Kenneth R. Agent, Jerry G. Pigman

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

Eight experimental bead types in addition to Kentucky's currently used bead were applied with standard striping equipment at a field test location. Reflectivity measurements using a portable retroreflectometer were conducted, along with visual observations, to rate each bead type. The objective was to determine whether any of the experimental beads was superior to the currently used bead, and if so, would they be economically feasible for widespread use. The differences in bead types involved gradation, refractive index, and surface coating. Based on performance and economic considerations, it was recommended that Kentucky change its bead gradation specifications to correspond to that …

Robotic Realities: Near Term Prospects And Problems, Robert U. Ayres, Steven M. Miller

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Industrial robots are automation, but with a difference. Other machine tools are extensions of human capabilities, while robots are seen mainly as substitutes for human workers. Robots will find most of their industrial applications during the next decade or two in the metal-working sectors, where they will begin to displace semiskilled machine operatives in medium to large batch production operations. They cannot substitute for skilled machinists or other workers doing nonroutine jobs, or specialized, dedicated hard automation used in mass production. The current generation of robots, lacking sensory data processing and interpretation capabilities, can potentially replace up to 1.3 million …

Mathematical Models Of Unsteady Operation Of A Packed Column, Jen-Fu Chao

Dissertations

Analytical solutions of differential equations applicable to extraction, ion exchange, or adsorption processes in packed beds are presented. Results are given for three different cases. The first case accounts for adsorption phenomena only. The second one includes surface adsorption on particles and the effects of longitudinal dispersion in the bed. The third one deals with diffusion in particles and longitudinal dispersion in the bed. In the mathematical modelling of these three cases, a linear equilibrium relationship between the solute in the liquid phase and solute in the solid phase is used. The first case is solved using the single boundary …

The Settling Of An Arbitrary Number Of Spherical Particles Arranged On The Corners Of A Regular Polygon In A Viscous Fluid, Eric Robert Bixon

Dissertations

The creeping motion equation has been solved for the case of planar arrays of spheres settling under the influence of gravity in a viscous fluid. The solution is a general solution which applies to an arbitrary number of spheres. All particles will lie at the corners of a regular polygon. Thus, two particles side by side, three particles in an equilateral triangular array, or four spheres in a square array will be special cases of the general solution.

The solution has been obtained by a unique application of the method of reflections. Only a first correction to the drag has …

Passive Cooling Ideas For The Southeast, Florida Solar Energy Center, Chris Beck

FSEC Energy Research Center®

A passively cooled home is one which is kept relatively comfortable through natural means. Homeowners in the Southeast have been using passive building techniques in order to live more comfortably during hot, humid seasons since the early 1900's. The concept of designing for minimum use of artificial cooling and heating systems is not new, but with the advent of sophisticated mechanical air-conditioning and heating systems and the availability of inexpensive fossil fuels in the '40s and '50s, builders began bypassing passive techniques. Too many of today's homes are designed with more concern about accomodating a mechanical conditioning system than with …

Turbine Blade Image Processing System, Neal S. Page, Wesley E. Snyder, Sarah A. Rajala

Sarah A. Rajala

A vision system has been developed at North Carolina State University to identify the orientation and three dimensional location of steam turbine blades that are stacked in an industrial A-frame cart. The system uses a controlled light source for structured illumination and a single camera to extract the information required by the image processing software to calculate the position and orientation of a turbine blade in real time.

Molded Wood Particle Pallet Having Increased Bending Strength, Bruce A. Haataja

Michigan Tech Patents

The invention includes a molded unitarily formed pallet comprising wood particles bonded together by a cured binder in compressed relation and forming a deck having an upper surface supporting a load, and a plurality of elongated substantially parallel spaced channels supporting the deck. The channels extend from adjacent one edge of the pallet to adjacent an opposite edge. The channels each including spaced channel side walls extending downwardly from said deck and terminating in a planar bottom wall parallel to the deck. The side walls are integrally joined at their upper edges to the deck and integrally joined at their …

Bulletin - October, 1983, Civil Aviation Medical Association

Browse all Civil Aviation Medical Association Newsletters

A six page newsletter of the Civil Aviation Medical Association. The newsletter provided news about civil aviation medicine and information related to the organization.

Center For Science And Engineering Schedule Of Classes Fall 1983, Nova Southeastern University

College of Engineering and Computing Course Catalogs

No abstract provided.

Acuta Enews October 1983, Vol. 12, No. 10

ACUTA Newsletters

In This Issue

PARTY LINE

PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE

FREE PUBLICATION

ACCESS CHARGES CAUSE ANGER, DISMAY

THE BREAKUP OF AT&T IS A MONUMENTAL BLUNDER

THE SEVEN REGIONAL BELL OPERATING COMPANIES, JANUARY 1, 1984

FUTURE OF PHONE SERVICE CONCERNS BEREUTER

TAKING CONTROL OF AUTOMATION

BITS & PIECES

COMPUTER, CORRESPONDENCE COURSE PAIR UP IN 'ELECTRONIC UNIVERSITY'

H & V News

Building Services Engineering

No abstract provided.

Fall 1983, 90.9 Wmpg Fm

WMPG Program Guides

WMPG Program Guide, Fall 1983.

The Fundamental Hardware Elements And Options Of Digital Signal Processing, Mark A. Hemmerlein

Retrospective Theses and Dissertations

The hardware available for digital signal processing is evaluated. The elements required for implementation of digital signal processing applications are identified. These elements--memories, ALUs and multipliers -- are analyzed. Then the operation of parts which make up a range of possible solutions are evaluated. Thus, the graduating engineer is aided in making a transition from the theoretical to the practical world.

Development Of Pavement Thickness Designs Using Pozzolanic Base Materials, Gary W. Sharpe, Herbert F. Southgate, Robert C. Deen

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

With the escalating costs of materials and construction for highways and streets, many agencies chargedwith the repsonsibility of designing and constructing highwyas are utilizing by-product materials. One application of by-product materials has involved the use of stabilized aggregate bases where pozzolanic materials are used as a stabilizing agent.

The use of pozzolanic materials is not new. However, the use of pozzolanic materials is relatively new to Kentucky. This may be primarily attributed to the availability o an abundant supply of economical aggregate materials. However, as costs of production and processing of aggregate materials have increased, so has the feasibility of …

Evaluation Of Asphaltic Pavements For Overlay Design, Robert C. Deen, Herbert F. Southgate, Gary W. Sharpe

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

To evaluate projects involving approximately 200 route-miles of interstate and primary pavements in Kentucky and Tennessee in relatively short time frames, it was decided to test, analyze, and design overlays using test equipment (Road Rater) and procedures developed by the University of Kentucky Transportation Research Program. This paper presents the analysis methodology and the evaluation and overlay designs for selected projects, including the before-and-after analysis of milling on one project.

The Road Rater applies a dynamic sinusoidal loading of known force and frequency. The velocity of the vibration waves are measured by sensors and integrated electronically to obtain surface deflections …

Survey Of Guardrail End Treatment Usage, Jerry G. Pigman, Kenneth R. Agent

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

Whenever a guardrail terminates within the "clear zone," a crashworthy end treatment is required. To be crashworthy, the end-treatment should not spear, vault, or roll a vehicle during a head-on impact while maintaining vehicle decelerations below recommended limits. As a means of determining types of end treatments currently used in various states and criteria to determine what type to use, a survey letter was sent to each state.

It was found that, generally, the preferred method to use to end roadside steel beam guardrail is to bury the end in a cut slope. When this is not feasible, either a …

On The Theory And Experimental Results Of A Sensitive Fiber Optic Laser Accelerometer, Steven C. Furlong

Retrospective Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Application Of Ground Penetrating Radar To The Detection Of Subsurface Cavities, Gary L. Kuhns

Retrospective Theses and Dissertations

Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) identifies subsurface features by distinguishing materials with different dielectric constants and electrical conductivities. Subsurface cavities can, therefore, be detected by the variation in their electrical properties from the electrical properties of the surrounding material. To test the cavity detection ability of GPR, subsurface cavities of varying size, shape and content were modeled. Radar response to the cavity models was found to be affected by the composition of the surrounding soil material, the depth of the groundwater table, and the radar signal frequency. Based on knowledge gained from the cavity modeling study, a natural subsurface cavity was …

Testing Of Active Feedback Applied To Piezoelectric Devices, William H. Barrow

Retrospective Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research is to test a unique implementation of active feedback applied to a low frequency piezoelectric transducer. Understanding that active feedback can be used to shape the frequency response of an electrical system a method for applying active electroacoustical feedback will be used to obtain a wider acoustical bandwidth in a piezoelectric transmitter. By applying active feedback to a resonant device its bandwidth was increased by a factor of 2.5. This is a significant improvement for applications where minimum electrical phase shift versus frequency is desired.

Digital Filtering With The Iapx 86/20, Robert E. Canright

Retrospective Theses and Dissertations

The iAPX 86/20 (8086 with the 8087 numeric coprocessor) is considered for digital filtering. The advantage in using the iAPX 86/20 lies in the 80-bit width of the 8087 floating-point arithmetic-registers. With such large arithmetic registers, the effects of coefficient roundoff and arithmetic roundoff errors on the filter output are reduced. The price paid for the improved numerical performance is the increased time spent by the system moving data to and from memory. The method of Knowles and Olcayto for measuring the effect of coefficient roundoff is studies in detail. This method is applied to an example filter in order …

Models For Economic Evaluation Of Flexible Manufacturing Systems, Daniel P. Salomon

Retrospective Theses and Dissertations

The current methods of economic justification are not suitable for identifying the benefits of automated manufacturing systems. This study is an introduction to Flexible Manufacturing Systems (FMS), its main features, and the economic benefits that can be expected. The models are designed to perform the following analyses: 1. Analysis of direct cost savings. 2. Analysis of the impact of incremental implementation on capital recovery costs. 3. Analysis of the cost effects of improving machine utilization and reducing manufacturing lead time. 4. Sensitivity analysis of the after-tax equivalent uniform annual cost of a FMS and a conventional system. The models are …

Design Of A Single User Deconcentrator For A Conferenced Voice Communication Circuit Switching System, Ming-Yung Wen

Retrospective Theses and Dissertations

A single user deconcentrator is designed for a circuit switched digital switching system which emphasizes mass conferencing. The switching system consists of distributed concentrators which include a first level of conferencing and a broadcast bus which includes a second level of conferencing. The deconcentrator features volume adjustment of individual conferences as well as a third and last level of conferencing- a conference of the individual conferences obtained from the broadcast bus. The design identifies the MSI and SSI components of the deconcentrator and provides an estimate of timing and board size. An alternative volume adjustment algorithm and the extension of …

Concrete Barrier Geometrics (Us-41 Bridge In Henderson, Kentucky), Kentucky Transportation Research Program

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

The bridge railing constructed on the approaches to the US-41 northbound bridge over the Ohio River at Henderson, Kentucky, is not in conformance with specifications The vertical face was constructed to be an average height of 4 3/4 inches above the pavement surface rather than the specified 3 inches. From the top of the vertical face, the barrier conformed to a standard New Jersey barrier. However, this meant the intersection between the two sloping surfaces was 14 1/2 inches rather than 13 inches above the pavement surface.

An analysis was conducted to ascertain whether the in-place barrier walls (bridge rail) …

Design Of Efficient Algorithms Through Minimization Of Data Transfers, Yong Mo Chong

Electrical & Computer Engineering Theses & Dissertations

This thesis explores the time optimal implementation of computational graphs on a finite register machine. The implementation fully exploits the machine architecture, especially, the number of registers. The derived algorithms allow one to obtain time efficient implementations of a given graph in machines with a known number of registers.

These optimization procedures are applied to digital signal processing graphs. It is shown that the regular structure of these graphs allows one to identify computational kernels which, when used repeatedly, can cover the entire graph. The l- and r-register implementations of Hadamard and Fast Fourier Transforms using various computational kernels are …

Kinetics Of Biodegradation Of Phenol And 2,6-Dichlorophenol, Samir Shrikant Desai

Theses

Biological removal of phenol up to 600 ppm and 2,6-dichlorophenol up to 20 ppm was studied in a well aerated fill-and-draw reactor of 41 capacity at 26 C using an activated sludge obtained from the municipal treatment plant in Livingston, N.J. Experimental evaluation of kinetic parameters showed that biodegradation of both phenol and 2,6-DCP followed zero-order kinetics. As expected, the lag time for both compounds was considerably reduced when acclimated sludge was used. However, the metabolism of 2,6-DCP was very slow even for preacclimated sludge, requiring about 36 hours to degrade only 15 ppm.. This was markedly improved by the …

The Lewis-Matheson Method On Computer, William Raymond Castner

Theses

Lewis and Matheson, in the early 1930's, developed a manual calculation technique for the solution of multicomponent distillation problems. The object of this study was to see if there would be any advantage to using the Lewis-Matheson method, once incorporated onto a computer, over current multicomponent distillation solution techniques. The immediate advantage of using the L-M technique is that it requires fewer preliminary calculations than other computer methods. It was found that the L-M technique uses about half the execution time of a typical Newton-Raphson program, while using only one tenth the computer core (memory). This was not intended to …

Mathematical Model Of Temperature Profiles And Coking In A Crude Oil Heater Tube, Joseph C. Polimeni

Theses

A mathematical model to predict temperature profiles and coking of crude oil in furnace tubes is presented. The model assumes that the coking mechanism is due to a reaction in the laminar sublayer, whose rate depends upon the temperature profile. That profile is obtained by a numerical solution of the appropriate transport equations, with velocity profiles that may be laminar or turbulent, and including the temperature dependence of the crude oil properties. In addition, velocity and temperature profiles were adjusted when necessary to ensure closure of the heat and material balances. As a by-product of this study, a correction was …

Acuta Enews September 1983, Vol. 12, No. 9

ACUTA Newsletters

In This Issue

PARTY LINE

FROM THE PRESIDENT

BOCS WILL BREATHE NEW LIFE INTO VOICE STORE AND FORWARD

ACUTA SERVICE AWARDS-- 1983

SLOW-SCAN BRINGS STUDENTS AND FACULTY TOGETHER IN UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII EXPERIMENT

RADIO OPERATORS USE SLOW-SCAN

TRANSMISSION FACILITIES A MUST

BITS & PIECES

H & V News

Building Services Engineering

No abstract provided.

Explicit Equations For The Second Brewster Angle Of An Interface Between A Transparent And An Absorbing Medium, R. M.A. Azzam

Electrical Engineering Faculty Publications

The second Brewster angle _ΦB2, at which the ratio R_p/R_s of intensity reflectances R_p and R_s for the parallel (p) and the perpendicular (s) polarizations of a dielectric-conductor interface reaches a minimum, is determined by Im[(u - ∊)(u - ∊)²/(u - 2∊)²] = 0, where ∊ is the complex ratio of dielectric constants of the media of refraction and incidence, ∊ = ∊/(∊ + 1), and u= sin²_ΦB2. An equivalent quartic equation in u …