Mechanical Engineering Commons^™

An Experimental And Modeling Study Of Formaldehyde And 1,3,5-Trioxane Flame Chemistry, Jeffrey S. Santner, Francis M. Haas, Frederick L. Dryer, Yiguang Ju

Francis (Mac) Haas

Evaluation Of Thermal Radiation Effects On Apparent Propagation Rates Of High Pressure Spherical Flames, Jeffrey S. Santner, Francis M. Haas, Yiguang Ju, Frederick L. Dryer

Francis (Mac) Haas

Finite Element Analysis Of The Ramberg-Osgood Bar, Dongming Wei

Dongming Wei

In this work, we present a priori error estimates of finite element approximations of the solution for the equilibrium equation of an axially loaded Ramberg-Osgood bar. The existence and uniqueness of the solution to the associated nonlinear two point boundary value problem is established and used as a foundation for the finite element analysis.

Sugarmap: Location-Less Coverage For Micro-Aerial Sensing Swarms, Aveek Purohit, Zheng Sun, Pei Zhang

Zheng Sun

No abstract provided.

Measurements Of Nh3 Linestrengths And Collisional Broadening Coefficients In N2, O2, Co2, And H2o Near 1103.46 Cm−1, Kyle Owen, Et-Touhami Es-Sebbar, Aamir Farooq

Dr. Et-touhami Es-sebbar

Laser-based ammonia gas sensors have useful applications in many fields including combustion, atmospheric monitoring, and medical diagnostics. Calibration-free trace gas sensors require the spectroscopic parameters including linestrengths and collisional broadening coefficients to be known. Ammonia's strong ν2 vibrational band between View the MathML source has the high absorption strength needed for sensing small concentrations. Within this band, the 1103.46 cm−1 feature is one of the strongest and has minimal interference from CO2 and H2O. However, the six rotational transitions that make up this feature have not been studied previously with absorption spectroscopy due to their small line spacing ranging from …

Robust Course-Boundary Extraction Algorithms For Autonomous Vehicles, Chris Roman, Charles Reinholtz

Christopher N. Roman

Practical autonomous robotic vehicles require dependable methods for accurately identifying course or roadway boundaries. The authors have developed a method to reliably extract the boundary line using simple dynamic thresholding, noise filtering, and blob removal. This article describes their efforts to apply this procedure in developing an autonomous vehicle.

Effects Of N2o And O2 Addition To Nitrogen Townsend Dielectric Barrier Discharges At Atmospheric Pressure On The Absolute Ground-State Atomic Nitrogen Density, Et. Es-Sebbar, N. Gherardi, F. Massines

Dr. Et-touhami Es-sebbar

Absolute ground-state density of nitrogen atoms N (2p3 4S3/2) in non-equilibrium Townsend dielectric barrier discharges (TDBDs) at atmospheric pressure sustained in N2/N2O and N2/O2 gas mixtures has been measured using Two-photon absorption laser-induced fluorescence (TALIF) spectroscopy. The quantitative measurements have been obtained by TALIF calibration using krypton as a reference gas. We previously reported that the maximum of N (2p3 4S3/2) atom density is around 3 × 1014 cm−3 in pure nitrogen TDBD, and that this maximum depends strongly on the mean energy dissipated in the gas. In the two gas mixtures studied here, results show that the absolute N …

Inhibition Of Bacillus Cereus Growth By Bacteriocin Producing Bacillus Subtilis Isolated From Fermented Baobab Seeds (Maari) Is Substrate Dependent, Donatien Kaboré, Dennis S. Nielsen, Hagrétoui Sawadogo-Lingan, Bréhima Diawara, Mamoudou H. Dicko Prof., Mogens Jakobsen, Line Thorsen

Pr. Mamoudou H. DICKO, PhD

Autonomous Underwater Vehicles As Tools For Deep-Submergence Archaeology, Christopher N. Roman, Ian Roderick Mather

Christopher N. Roman

Marine archaeology beyond the capabilities of scuba divers is a technologically enabled field. The tool suite includes ship-based systems such as towed side-scan sonars and remotely operated vehicles, and more recently free-swimming autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs). Each of these platforms has various imaging and mapping capabilities appropriate for specific scales and tasks. Broadly speaking, AUVs are becoming effective tools for locating, identifying, and surveying archaeological sites. This paper discusses the role of AUVs in this suite of tools, outlines some specific design criteria necessary to maximize their utility in the field, and presents directions for future developments. Results are presented …

Development Of A New Lagrangian Float For Studying Coastal Marine Ecosystems, Alex Schwithal, Chris Roman

Christopher N. Roman

This paper presents an overview and initial testing results for a shallow water Lagrangian float designed to operate in coastal settings. The presented effort addresses the two main characteristics of the shallow coastal environment that preclude the direct of use of many successfully deep water floats, namely the higher variation of water densities near the coast compared with the open ocean and the highly varied bathymetry. Our idea is to develop a high capacity dynamic auto-ballasting system that is able to compensate for the expected seawater density variation over a broad range of water temperatures and salinities while using measurements …

Deep Sea Underwater Robotic Exploration In The Ice-Covered Arctic Ocean With Auvs, Clayton Kunz, Chris Murphy, Richard Camilli, Hanumant Singh, John Bailey, Ryan M. Eustice, Chris Roman, Michael Jakuba, Claire Willis, Taichi Sato, Ko-Ichi Nakamura, Robert A. Sohn

Christopher N. Roman

The Arctic seafloor remains one of the last unexplored areas on Earth. Exploration of this unique environment using standard remotely operated oceanographic tools has been obstructed by the dense Arctic ice cover. In the summer of 2007 the Arctic Gakkel Vents Expedition (AGAVE) was conducted with the express intention of understanding aspects of the marine biology, chemistry and geology associated with hydrothermal venting on the section of the mid-ocean ridge known as the Gakkel Ridge. Unlike previous research expeditions to the Arctic the focus was on high resolution imaging and sampling of the deep seafloor. To accomplish our goals we …

Determination Of Kinetic Parameters From The Thermogravimetric Data Set Of Biomass Samples, Karol Postawa, Wojciech M. Budzianowski

Wojciech Budzianowski

This article describes methods of the determination of kinetic parameters from the thermogravimetric data set of biomass samples. It presents the methodology of the research, description of the needed equipment, and the method of analysis of thermogravimetric data. It describes both methodology of obtaining quantitative data such as kinetic parameters as well as of obtaining qualitative data like the composition of biomass. The study is focused mainly on plant biomass because it is easy in harvesting and preparation. Methodology is shown on the sample containing corn stover which is subsequently pyrolysed. The investigated sample show the kinetic of first order …

Temperature-Dependent Absorption Cross-Section Measurements Of 1-Butene (1-C4h8) In Vuv And Ir, Et-Touhami Es-Sebbar, Yves Benilan, Aamir Farooq

Dr. Et-touhami Es-sebbar

Vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) and infrared (IR) absorption cross-section measurements of 1-butene (1-C4H8; CH2=CHCH2CH3; Butylene) are reported over the temperature range of 296–529 K. The VUV measurements are performed between 115 and 205 nm using synchrotron radiation as a tunable VUV light source. Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy is employed to measure absorption cross-section and band strengths in the IR region between 1.54 and 25 μm (∼6500–400 cm−1). The measured room-temperature VUV and IR absorption cross-sections are compared with available literature data and are found to be in good agreement. The oscillator strength for the electronic transition (A1A′→X1A′) around 150–205 nm …