Electrical and Computer Engineering Commons^™

The Integration Of Smart Meters Into Electrical Grids To Ensure Maximum Benefit For Consumers, Generators And Network Operators., Tom Bean, John Mcgrory

Dissertations

The term “smart metering” has been used in many project descriptions and publications produced by utility companies (e.g. gas, water and electricity), conference papers and journal papers, but the true meaning of the term has been fudged. Does smart metering signify rapid recording of data (i.e. data logger) or does it give totals (e.g. maximum, minimum and average), as neither of these are truly “Smart” or “Intelligent” virtues in themselves, or is there some additional role that needs to be explored. This dissertation examines the “smart metering” idiom jointly from energy supplier, grid manager and consumer perspectives and formulates a …

Production Of Multiwall Carbon Nanotuse For Alcohol Sensor Application., Ebtehal Saleh Alshaqaq

Student Works (2010-2019)

Multiwall carbon nanotube/polyethylene oxide (PEO), multiwall carbon nanoube/polyvinyl alcohol(PVA) and multiwall carbon nanotube/ polyvinyl alcohol(PVA)/zinc oxide(ZnO) have been tested as chemical sensors and detailed study on the effect of different gas concentration and material properties on gas sensitivity is presented. Initial composites were prepared by a simple solution casting and characterized by x-ray diffraction for ZnO, Fourier transform infra-red spectroscopy (FTIR) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) to demonstrate crystallite size of ZnO, the morphology and surface area respectively. On the other hand, MWCNT/PEO , MWCNT/PVA , MWCNT/PVA/ZnO were prepared with different loading MWCNT and ZnO. The chemical sensing properties of …

Vibrational Frequencies Of Magnetic Random Access Memory Materials., Lee Li Ling

Student Works (2010-2019)

The advantages of MRAM are so overwhelming which acts as motivation for scientist in further investigation for better read and write operation. The types of materials used are closely related to the cell performance in forming the ferromagnetic layers. Thus,the vibrational frequencies of the MRAM materials are of interest. Clusters for the two types of combinations, FexNiy and FexCoyBz are built. Subsequently, vibrational frequencies of each cluster are calculated theoretically from the first principles. The secular determinant is large when the number of electrons in a cluster is large. For the simplest combination of Fe-Ni cluster, (atomic number of an …

K-Delta-1-Sigma Modulators For Wideband Analog-To-Digital Conversion, Vishal Saxena

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

As CMOS technology scales, the transistor speed increases enabling higher speed communications and more complex systems. These benefits come at the cost of decreasing inherent device gain, increased transistor leakage currents, and additional mismatches due to process variations. All of these drawbacks affect the design of high-resolution analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) in nano-CMOS processes. To move towards an ADC topology useful in these small processes a first-order K-Delta-1-Sigma (KD1S) modulator-based ADC was proposed. The KD1S topology employs inherent time-interleaving with a shared integrator and K-quantizing feedback paths and can potentially achieve significantly higher conversion bandwidths when compared to the traditional …

Channel Equalization And Symbol Detection For Single-Carrier Mimo Systems In The Presence Of Multiple Carrier Frequency Offsets, Jian Zhang, Yahong Rosa Zheng, Chengshan Xiao, Khaled Ben Letaief

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

A new frequency-domain channel equalization and symbol detection scheme is proposed for multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) single-carrier broadband wireless systems in the presence of severely frequency-selective channel fading and multiple unknown carrier-frequency offsets (CFOs). Multiple CFOs cause severe phase distortion in the equalized data for large block lengths and/or constellation sizes, thus yielding poor detection performance. Instead of explicitly estimating the CFOs and then compensating them, the proposed scheme estimates the rotated phases (not frequencies) caused by multiple unknown CFOs and then removes the phase rotations from the equalized data before symbol detection. the estimation accuracy of the phase rotation is …

Signal Integrity Design For High-Speed Digital Circuits: Progress And Directions, Jun Fan, Xiaoning Ye, Jingook Kim, Bruce Archambeault, Antonio Orlandi

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This paper reviews recent progress and future directions of signal integrity design for high-speed digital circuits, focusing on four areas: signal propagation on transmission lines, discontinuity modeling and characterization, measurement techniques, and link-path design and analysis. © 2006 IEEE.

Systematic Microwave Network Analysis For Multilayer Printed Circuit Boards With Vias And Decoupling Capacitors, Yao Jiang Zhang, Zaw Zaw Oo, Xing Chang Wei, En Xiao Liu, Jun Fan, Er Ping Li

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

An efficient microwave network method is proposed for signal and power integrity analysis of a multilayer printed circuit board with multiple vias and decoupling capacitors. the multilayer parallel plate structure is described as a cascaded microwave network. the admittance matrix of a single plate pair with ports defined in via holes both on top and bottom plates is obtained through the intrinsic via circuit model and impedance matrix between two plates. a recursive algorithm is provided to obtain the combined admittance matrix of two layers of plate pair coupled through via holes on a common plate. Decoupling capacitors are naturally …

Design Of Adaptive Collective Foraging In Swarm Robotic Systems, Hanyi Dai

Dissertations

Inspired by the collective behavior observed in biological colonies, swarm robotics is a new approach to design a distributed control algorithm in order to coordinate a group of simple robots performing a complex group task. With only limited computation and communication ability of individual robots, one of the challenges in designing such multi-robotic systems is to understand the effect of individual robots behavior on the group performance. This thesis dedicates the research to designing a set of local interaction and adaptation rule for individual robots so that optimized collective foraging performance can be achieved at group level.

The research starts …

Autonomous Security Patrol System, Jake Erramouspe

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

This project provides an efficient and cost-effective solution to building security and active monitoring. The security is monitored and controlled by autonomous patrol robots. Any indication of a security breach will result in an immediate alarm and activation of the robot group to subdue and tranquilize the intruder.

Micronetworking: Reliable Communication On 3d Integrated Circuits, Andres A. Contreras

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The potential failure in through-silicon vias (TSVs) still poses a challenge in trying to extend the useful life of a 3D integrated circuit (IC). A model is proposed to mitigate the communication problem in 3D integrated circuits caused by the breaks at the TSVs. We provide the details of a low-complexity network that takes advantages of redundant TSVs to make it possible to re-route around breaks and maintain effective communication between layers. Different configurations for the micronetwork are analyzed and discussed. We also present an evaluation of the micronetwork's performance, which turns out to be quite promising, based on several …

A Finite Domain Constraint Approach For Placement And Routing Of Coarse-Grained Reconfigurable Architectures, Rohit Saraswat

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Scheduling, placement, and routing are important steps in Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) design. Researchers have developed numerous techniques to solve placement and routing problems. As the complexity of Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs) increased over the past decades, so did the demand for improved place and route techniques. The primary objective of these place and route approaches has typically been wirelength minimization due to its impact on signal delay and design performance. With the advent of Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs), the same place and route techniques were applied to FPGA-based design. However, traditional place and route techniques may …

An Improved Wideband Vivaldi Antenna Design, Fang Chen

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

The objectives of this thesis are to 1) determine how Vivaldi antenna parameters affect the performance and 2) design a Vivaldi antenna with improved overall performance over existing designs. The methodology is to divide the Vivaldi antenna into two parts consisting of microstrip-to-slotline transition and tapered curve part. This has great advantages in finding the relationships between the different antenna parameters and the antenna performance. By combining the methods of improving the impedance- and usable gain bandwidth concluded by the parameter study on the two individual parts, a final Vivaldi antenna design with 10:1 bandwidth is achieved in terms of …

A Realistic Mobility Model For Wireless Networks Of Scale-Free Node Connectivity, Sunho Lim, Chansu Yu, Chita R. Das

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

Recent studies discovered that many of social, natural and biological networks are characterised by scale-free power-law connectivity distribution. We envision that wireless networks are directly deployed over such real-world networks to facilitate communication among participating entities. This paper proposes Clustered Mobility Model (CMM), in which nodes do not move randomly but are attracted more to more populated areas. Unlike most of prior mobility models, CMM is shown to exhibit scale-free connectivity distribution. Extensive simulation study has been conducted to highlight the difference between Random WayPoint (RWP) and CMM by measuring network capacities at the physical, link and network layers.

Flow Rate Measurement In A High Temperature, Radioactive, And Corrosive Environment, Taleb Moazzeni

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Accurate measurement of coolant flow rate is essential for determining the maximum power required by the nuclear plant operation and critical for monitoring its operation safety. However, no practical off-the-shelf flowmeter is available to satisfy all the pressing multidimensional operation requirements (i. e., high temperature, high irradiation, and high corrosion). This work thus deals with the development of a new flowmeter for nuclear power plant/reactor process-monitoring and real time analysis; this proposed flowmeter shall be able to continuously conduct robust measurements under extremely harsh environment with high irradiation, high pressure, high temperature and corrosive media. We investigate a transit-time based …

Wavelets As A De-Noising Approach Of Cartilage Displacement Field Determined By Mri, David Francisco Toribio Carvajal

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Tissue engineering was once categorized as a subfield of biomaterials, but having grown in scope and importance, it can be considered as a field in its own right. Tissue engineering studies the mechanical properties of tissues and the applications that repair or replace portions of or whole tissues. The analyses of the mechanical properties of tissues can help in the diagnosis of tissue diseases and in the monitoring of the progress of tissue treatments and replacements.

In order to study the mechanical properties of tissues, it is often required to repeatedly compress and decompress the tissue. This deformation process helps …

An Integral Equation Analysis Of A Two-Aperture Coaxial Waveguide, John Luke

All Theses

Two different, two-aperture coaxial waveguide configurations are modeled. Integral equations are formulated and then solved by means of the Method of Moments. The results of the analyses are used to formulate a microwave network representation for each structure. Commercial electromagnetic modeling software, along with data acquired through the building and testing of one of the structures, is used to prove the validity of the solution technique developed within the text.

Detecting And Tracking Tractor-Trailers Using View-Based Templates, Vinay Gidla

All Theses

Vehicle tracking and classification is an important application of computer vision. There exist mainly two types of tracking techniques: Appearance-based tracking and Feature-based tracking.
Appearance-based techniques generally require a model or template of the target to be tracked. However the model needs to be robust to the multitude of deformations possible in the course of the target's movement. This research explores the use of a collection of view based templates, instead of a single template, to accurately trace the contours of the tractor-trailers in moving traffic.

The tracking begins with creation of a template sequence by manually processing a segment …

An Assessment Of Linear Wrist Motion During The Taking Of A Bite Of Food, Meredith Drennan

All Theses

Motivated by the goal of building a device capable of detecting when a user takes a bite of food, we examine whether there is a correlation between linear wrist motion and bite detection. Such a device could be used to manage weight loss by tracking eating trends over time and providing real time feedback to the user regarding eating rate or total consumption. A comprehensive analysis of tracking linear motion using low cost inertial sensors is presented. Based on this theory, we discuss the design and tracking accuracy of a prototype bite counting device. We show that tracking position using …

Software Algorithms To Coordinate And Improve Voltage Sag Ridethrough Capabilities Of Networked Industrial Processes, Owen Parks

All Dissertations

For those who design, operate, and troubleshoot industrial processes, electric power quality is a subject that requires much consideration. Processes that use electronic sensors, actuators, and computation devices are heavily reliant on a stable, consistent input power source. When a power quality event such as a voltage fluctuation occurs, automation equipment often behaves unpredictably and causes process malfunction or failure.
Because industrial power consumers often blame their electric utility for these events, some utilities offer process susceptibility studies as a service for their customers. During a typical study, utility technicians and engineers perform in-house tests on suspect components or systems …

A Lyapunov Based Approach To Energy Maximization In Renewable Energy Technologies, Erhun Iyasere

All Dissertations

This dissertation describes the design and implementation of Lyapunov-based control strategies for the maximization of the power captured by renewable energy harnessing technologies such as (i) a variable speed, variable pitch wind turbine, (ii) a variable speed wind turbine coupled to a doubly fed induction generator, and (iii) a solar power generating system charging a constant voltage battery.
First, a torque control strategy is presented to maximize wind energy captured in variable speed, variable pitch wind turbines at low to medium wind speeds. The proposed strategy applies control torque to the wind turbine pitch and rotor subsystems to simultaneously control …