Engineering Commons^™

An Investigation Into The Analysis Of Truncated Standard Normal Distributions Using Heuristic Techniques, John Walter Ralls

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Standard normal distributions (SND) and truncated standard normal distributions (TSND) have been widely used and accepted methods to characterize the data sets in various engineering disciplines, financial industries, medical fields, management, and other mathematic and scientific applications. For engineering managers, risk managers and quality practitioners, the use of the standard normal distribution and truncated standard normal distribution have particular relevance when bounding data sets, evaluating manufacturing and assembly tolerances, and identifying measures of quality. In particular, truncated standard normal distributions are used in areas such as component assemblies to bound upper and lower process specification limits.

This dissertation presents a …

An Analysis Of Indicator Organism Suitability For Lower James And York Rivers, Rhonda Ashonti Ford

Civil & Environmental Engineering Theses & Dissertations

The primary objectives of this thesis are (1) determine if the proper indicator organism is being utilized to determine the bacterial water quality in the State of Virginia. (2) If other environmental factors can predict the bacterial water quality. The current indicator organism of choice for bacterial water quality of waters in the State of Virginia is enterococci, for estuarine and brackish waters. E. coli is the indicator organism of choice for fresh waters in Virginia.

The study concluded (1) Enterococci are the best indicator organism for beaches located in the Hampton Roads Harbor and the Lower James River. (2) …

Materially Nonlinear Finite Element Analyses Of Trusses And Slab-On-Grade Problems, Moayyad Moh'd Al-Nasra

Civil & Environmental Engineering Theses & Dissertations

The overall approach is to employ the finite-element method along with specified material models to account for material nonlinearity. This study includes two different applications: truss structures and slabs-on-grade.

Procedures for materially nonlinear analysis of truss structures, which apply for both determinate and indeterminate cases are proposed. The proposed procedures are simple and can handle a variety of different stress-strain functions, and the applied load does not have to be incremental. Proposed procedures results are verified with the output of NASTRAN.

A finite-element model for slab-on-grade is introduced. The concrete slab is represented by eight-node brick elements, and the joints …

Fundamental Analysis Of The Linear Multiple Regression Technique For Quantification Of Water Quality Parameters From Remote Sensing Data, Charles Henry Whitlock Iii

Civil & Environmental Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Inconsistent results have been obtained from previous experiments which have applied linear multiple regression techniques to remote sensing data for quantification of water quality parameters. The objective of this investigation is to define optical physics and/or environmental conditions under which the linear multiple regression should be applicable. To achieve this objective, an investigation of the signal response equations is conducted and the concept is tested by application to both analytical test cases and actual remote sensing data from a laboratory under controlled conditions.

Investigation of the signed response equations shows that the exact solution for a number of optical physics …