Mechanical Engineering Commons^™

Quantification Of Stochastic Uncertainty Propagation For Monte Carlo Depletion Methods In Reactor Analysis, Quentin Thomas Newell

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The Monte Carlo method provides powerful geometric modeling capabilities for large problem domains in 3-D; therefore, the Monte Carlo method is becoming popular for 3-D fuel depletion analyses to compute quantities of interest in spent nuclear fuel including isotopic compositions. The Monte Carlo approach has not been fully embraced due to unresolved issues concerning the effect of Monte Carlo uncertainties on the predicted results.

Use of the Monte Carlo method to solve the neutron transport equation introduces stochastic uncertainty in the computed fluxes. These fluxes are used to collapse cross sections, estimate power distributions, and deplete the fuel within depletion …

Pandaa: Physical Arrangement Detection Of Networked Devices Through Ambient-Sound Awareness, Zheng Sun, Aveek Purohit, Kaifei Chen, Shijia Pan, Trevor Pering, Pei Zhang

Zheng Sun

Future ubiquitous home environments can contain 10s or 100s of devices. Ubiquitous services running on these devices (i.e. localizing users, routing, security algorithms) will commonly require an accurate location of each device. In order to obtain these locations, existing techniques require either a manual survey, active sound sources, or estimation using wireless radios. These techniques, however, need additional hardware capabilities and are intrusive to the user. Non-intrusive, automatic localization of ubiquitous computing devices in the home has the potential to greatly facilitate device deployments.

This paper presents the PANDAA system, a zero-configuration spatial localization system for networked devices based on …

Pandaa: Physical Arrangement Detection Of Networked Devices Through Ambient-Sound Awareness, Zheng Sun, Aveek Purohit, Kaifei Chen, Shijia Pan, Trevor Pering, Pei Zhang

Aveek Purohit

Future ubiquitous home environments can contain 10s or 100s of devices. Ubiquitous services running on these devices (i.e. localizing users, routing, security algorithms) will commonly require an accurate location of each device. In order to obtain these locations, existing techniques require either a manual survey, active sound sources, or estimation using wireless radios. These techniques, however, need additional hardware capabilities and are intrusive to the user. Non-intrusive, automatic localization of ubiquitous computing devices in the home has the potential to greatly facilitate device deployments.

This paper presents the PANDAA system, a zero-configuration spatial localization system for networked devices based on …

Pandaa: A Physical Arrangement Detection Technique For Networked Devices Through Ambient-Sound Awareness, Zheng Sun, Aveek Purohit, Philippe De Wagter, Irina Brinster, Chorom Hamm, Pei Zhang

Zheng Sun

This demo presents PANDAA, a zero-configuration automatic spatial localization technique for networked devices based on ambient sound sensing. We will demonstrate that after initial placement of the devices, ambient sounds, such as human speech, music, footsteps, finger snaps, hand claps, or coughs and sneezes, can be used to autonomously resolve the spatial relative arrangement of devices, such as mobile phones, using trigonometric bounds and successive approximation.

A Study On Facility Planning Using Discrete Event Simulation: Case Study Of A Grain Delivery Terminal., Sarah M. Asio

Department of Industrial and Management Systems Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The application of traditional approaches to the design of efficient facilities can be tedious and time consuming when uncertainty and a number of constraints exist. Queuing models and mathematical programming techniques are not able to capture the complex interaction between resources, the environment and space constraints for dynamic stochastic processes. In the following study discrete event simulation is applied to the facility planning process for a grain delivery terminal. The discrete event simulation approach has been applied to studies such as capacity planning and facility layout for a gasoline station and evaluating the resource requirements for a manufacturing facility. To …

Coughloc: Location-Aware Indoor Acoustic Sensing For Non-Intrusive Cough Detection, Zheng Sun, Aveek Purohit, Kathleen Yang, Neha Pattan, Dan Siewiorek, Asim Smailagic, Ian Lane, Pei Zhang

Zheng Sun

Pervasive medical monitoring has become an ideal alter- native to nursing care for elderly people and patients in hospitals. Existing systems using single body-worn sensors are often intrusive and less reliable. By contrast, ubiqui- tous acoustic sensing techniques can support non-intrusive and robust medical monitoring. In this paper, we describe CoughLoc, a ubiquitous acoustic sensing system for con- tinuous cough detection using a wireless sensor network. We show how knowledge of sound source locations can be leveraged to improve the detection accuracy of sound events caused by mobile users. Experiments in indoor environ- ments show our system achieves over 90% …

College Of Engineering Senior Design Competition Fall 2011, University Of Nevada, Las Vegas

Fred and Harriet Cox Senior Design Competition Projects

Part of every UNLV engineering student’s academic experience, the senior design project stimulates engineering innovation and entrepreneurship. Each student in their senior year chooses, plans, designs, and prototypes a product in this required element of the curriculum. A capstone to the student’s educational career, the senior design project encourages the student to use everything learned in the engineering program to create a practical, real world solution to an engineering challenge. The senior design competition helps focus the senior students in increasing the quality and potential for commercial application for their design projects. Judges from local industry evaluate the projects on …

College Of Engineering Senior Design Competition Spring 2011, University Of Nevada, Las Vegas

Fred and Harriet Cox Senior Design Competition Projects

Part of every UNLV engineering student’s academic experience, the senior design project stimulates engineering innovation and entrepreneurship. Each student in their senior year chooses, plans, designs, and prototypes a product in this required element of the curriculum. A capstone to the student’s educational career, the senior design project encourages the student to use everything learned in the engineering program to create a practical, real world solution to an engineering challenge.

The senior design competition helps focus the senior students in increasing the quality and potential for commercial application for their design projects. Judges from local industry evaluate the projects on …

Coughloc: Location-Aware Indoor Acoustic Sensing For Non-Intrusive Cough Detection, Zheng Sun, Aveek Purohit, Kathleen Yang, Neha Pattan, Dan Siewiorek, Asim Smailagic, Ian Lane, Pei Zhang

Aveek Purohit

Pervasive medical monitoring has become an ideal alter- native to nursing care for elderly people and patients in hospitals. Existing systems using single body-worn sensors are often intrusive and less reliable. By contrast, ubiqui- tous acoustic sensing techniques can support non-intrusive and robust medical monitoring. In this paper, we describe CoughLoc, a ubiquitous acoustic sensing system for con- tinuous cough detection using a wireless sensor network. We show how knowledge of sound source locations can be leveraged to improve the detection accuracy of sound events caused by mobile users. Experiments in indoor environ- ments show our system achieves over 90% …

Sensorfly: Controlled-Mobile Sensing Platform For Indoor Emergency Response Applications, Aveek Purohit, Zheng Sun, Frank Mokaya, Pei Zhang

Aveek Purohit

Indoor emergency response situations, such as urban fire, are characterized by dangerous constantly-changing operating environments with little access to situational information for first responders. In-situ information about the conditions, such as the extent and evolution of an indoor fire, can augment rescue efforts and reduce risk to emergency personnel. Static sensor networks that are pre-deployed or manually deployed have been proposed, but are less practical due to need for large infrastructure, lack of adaptivity and limited coverage. Controlled-mobility in sensor networks, i.e. the capability of nodes to move as per network needs can provide the desired autonomy to overcome these …

Sensorfly: Controlled-Mobile Sensing Platform For Indoor Emergency Response Applications, Aveek Purohit, Zheng Sun, Frank Mokaya, Pei Zhang

Zheng Sun

Indoor emergency response situations, such as urban fire, are characterized by dangerous constantly-changing operating environments with little access to situational information for first responders. In-situ information about the conditions, such as the extent and evolution of an indoor fire, can augment rescue efforts and reduce risk to emergency personnel. Static sensor networks that are pre-deployed or manually deployed have been proposed, but are less practical due to need for large infrastructure, lack of adaptivity and limited coverage. Controlled-mobility in sensor networks, i.e. the capability of nodes to move as per network needs can provide the desired autonomy to overcome these …

Cortina: Collaborative Context-Aware Indoor Positioning Employing Rss And Rtof Techniques, Zheng Sun, Richard Farley, Telis Kaleas, Judy Ellis, Kiran Chikkappa

Zheng Sun

Cortina is an energy-efficient indoor localization system, which leverages a wireless sensor network to support navigation and tracking applications. To improve the localization performance, we develop a hybrid ranging system, which incor- porate both RSS and RToF-based techniques. To overcome effects from indoor multipath, we design and implement algorithms to take account various context information. We evaluated the system over a 2000m2 area instrumented with twenty-six fixed nodes. Evaluation results show the system achieved 2.5m accuracy in a pedestrian tracking application.

Termodynamika Procesowa (Dla Me Aparatura Procesowa) Ćw., Wojciech M. Budzianowski

Wojciech Budzianowski

No abstract provided.

The Analysis Of Heat Transfer In A Gas-Gas Heat Exchanger Operated Under A Heat-Recirculating Mode, Mariusz Salaniec, Wojciech M. Budzianowski

Wojciech Budzianowski

The present paper presents the analysis of heat transfer in a gas-gas heat exchanger operated in a heat-recirculating mode.

An Overview Of Technologies For Upgrading Of Biogas To Biomethane, Wojciech M. Budzianowski

Wojciech Budzianowski

The present contribution presents an overview of technologies available for upgrading of biogas to biomethane. Technologies under study include pressure swing adsorption (PSA), high-pressure water wash (HPWW), reactive absorption (RA), physical absorption (PA), membrane separation (MS) and cryogenic separation (CS).

Influence Of Energy Policy On The Rate Of Implementation Of Biogas Power Plants In Germany During The 2001-2010 Decade, Izabela Chasiak, Wojciech M. Budzianowski

Wojciech Budzianowski

The current article describes energy policy tools, which caused intensive development of biogas-based power generation in Germany during the 2001-2010 decade. The German system of financial support to biogas power plants is presented in details. It is shown that in Germany, i.e. in a country characterised by similar climate and potentials to renewable energy to Poland, biogas power plants cover 10,7% of electricity demands in 2010, while all renewable energy sources cover only 5,4% of electricity demands. It is emphasised that under favourable Polish energy policy, the development of biogas energy can be very rapid.

Parallel-Sparse Symmetrical/Unsymmetrical Finite Element Domain Decomposition Solver With Multi-Point Constraints For Structural/Acoustic Analysis, Siroj Tungkahotara, Willie R. Watson, Duc T. Nguyen, Subramaniam D. Rajan

Civil & Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

Details of parallel-sparse Domain Decomposition (DD) with multi-point constraints (MPC) formulation are explained. Major computational components of the DD formulation are identified. Critical roles of parallel (direct) sparse and iterative solvers with MPC are discussed within the framework of DD formulation. Both symmetrical and unsymmetrical system of simultaneous linear equations (SLE) can be handled by the developed DD formulation. For symmetrical SLE, option for imposing MPC equations is also provided.

Large-scale (up to 25 million unknowns involving complex numbers) structural and acoustic Finite Element (FE) analysis are used to evaluate the parallel computational performance of the proposed DD implementation using …