Digital Commons Network^™

Nascar Restrictor Plate Exhaust Manifold Design Strategies, Matthew John Dollhopf

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This paper presents the results of a study on exhaust manifold design for a NASCAR Restrictor plate internal combustion engine. A computer simulation model was developed using Ricardo WAVE software. WAVE is a computer-aided engineering code developed by Ricardo to analyze the dynamics of pressure waves, mass flows and energy losses in ducts, plenums and the intake and exhaust manifolds of various systems and machines. [1] The model was validated against experimental data from a current NASCAR Winston Cup restrictor plate motor. The parameters studied have been exhaust manifold diameters and lengths. A response surface analysis of the simulation output …

Surface Chemistry Of Application Specific Pads And Copper Chemical Mechanical Planarization, Sameer Arun Deshpande

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Advances in the interconnection technology have played a key role in the continued improvement of the integrated circuit (IC) density, performance and cost. Copper (Cu) metallization, dual damascenes processing and integration of copper with low dielectric constant material are key issues in the IC industries. Chemical mechanical planarization of copper (CuCMP) has emerged as an important process for the manufacturing of ICs. Usually, Cu-CMP process consists of several steps such as the removal of surface layer by mechanical action of the pad and the abrasive particles, the dissolution of the abraded particles in the CMP solution, and the protection of …

Basic Study Of Micromachined Dep (Dielectrophoretic) Manipulator, Vivek Sundaram

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The capability of manipulating microparticle in small volumes is fundamental to many biological and medical applications, including separation and detection of cells. The development of microtools for effective sample handling and separation in such volumes is still a challenge. DEP (dielectrophoresis) is one of the most widely used methods in handling the microparticles. In this thesis we show that forces generated by nonuniform electric field (DEP) can be used for trapping and separating the microparticles (latex beads). This work further explores the DEP force based on different electrode geometries and medium conductivity. A micromanipulator for latex bead separation was designed, …

Detection And Evaluation Of Exisiting Pavement System With Brick Base, Karishma Desai

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

At the turn of the century, the City of Orlando initiated the "Neighborhood Horizon Program." This program involved local citizens to help improve their community resources by engaging in a process of planning where the problems associated with the communities were identified. Many residents favored to bring back the brick roads that were overlaid with asphalt concrete to provided better transportation in the mid 1900s. With majority of the neighborhood streets already bricked, removing asphalt ensured safety, served as a technique for slowing traffic, and added to the historical integrity. Since there were no official documentations available that stated the …

Degradation Of Halogenated Aliphatic Compounds In Sequential Anaerobic, Scott Hoxworth

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The objective of this study was to utilize an alternating anaerobic/aerobic sequence to biologically transform perchloroethylene to non-hazardous end products such as ethylene, CO2 and H2 using a single microbial consortia in a methanogenic and/or a homoacetogenic environment followed by a aerobic methanotrophic environment. Reductive dechlorination of PCE and TCE to cDCE and VC in an anaerobic environment is typically carried out by methanogens, sulfidogens, or homoacetogens but often (e.g. in-situ) leads to an accumulation of daughter compounds (cDCE, VC) which are more toxic than their parent compounds (PCE, TCE). Furthermore, PCE is resistant to degradation in aerobic environments while …

Toward Building A Social Robot With An Emotion-Based Internal Control, Andreas Marpaung

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis, we aim at modeling some aspects of the functional role of emotions on an autonomous embodied agent. We begin by describing our robotic prototype, Cherry--a robot with the task of being a tour guide and an office assistant for the Computer Science Department at the University of Central Florida. Cherry did not have a formal emotion representation of internal states, but did have the ability to express emotions through her multimodal interface. The thesis presents the results of a survey we performed via our social informatics approach where we found that: (1) the idea of having emotions …

Supporting Real-Time Pda Interaction With Virtual Environment, Radhey Shah

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) are becoming more and more powerful with advances in technology and are expanding their applications in a variety of fields. This work explores the use of PDAs in Virtual Environments (VE). The goal is to support highly interactive bi-directional user interactions in Virtual Environments in more natural and less cumbersome ways. A proxy-based approach is adopted to support a wide-range of handheld devices and have a multi-PDA interaction with the virtual world. The architecture consists of three components in the complete system, a PDA, a desktop that acts as a proxy and Virtual Environment Software Sandbox …

Polarimetric Characterization Of Random Electromagnetic Beams And Applications, Mircea Mujat

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Polarimetry is one of the principal means of investigating the interaction of light with matter. Theoretical models and experimental techniques are presented in this dissertation for polarimetric characterization of random electromagnetic beams and of signatures of random media in different scattering regimes and configurations. The degree of polarization rather than the full description of the state of polarization is of interest in multiple scattering and free space propagation where the statistical nature and not the deterministic component of light bears the relevant information. A new interferometric technique for determining the degree of polarization by measuring the intensity fluctuations in a …

Quadratic Spatial Soliton Interactions, Ladislav Jankovic

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Quadratic spatial soliton interactions were investigated in this Dissertation. The first part deals with characterizing the principal features of multi-soliton generation and soliton self-reflection. The second deals with two beam processes leading to soliton interactions and collisions. These subjects were investigated both theoretically and experimentally. The experiments were performed by using potassium niobate (KNBO3) and periodically poled potassium titanyl phosphate (KTP) crystals. These particular crystals were desirable for these experiments because of their large nonlinear coefficients and, more importantly, because the experiments could be performed under non-critical-phase-matching (NCPM) conditions. The single soliton generation measurements, performed on KNBO3 by launching the …

Stable Spatial Solitons In Semiconductor Optical Amplifiers, Erdem Ultanir

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A spatial soliton is a shape invariant self guided beam of light or a self induced waveguide. Spatial solitons appear as a result of the balance of diffraction and nonlinear focusing in a system. They have been observed in many different conservative media in the last couple of years. Solitons are ubiquitous, because of the probability of using their interactions in optical data processing, communications etc. Up to now due to the power required to generate the solitons, and the response times of the soliton supporting media, these special waves of nature could not penetrate the applications arena. Semiconductors, with …

Dispersion-Managed Breathing-Mode Semiconductor Mode-Locked Ring Laser, Bojan Resan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A novel dispersion-managed breathing-mode semiconductor mode-locked ring laser is developed. The "breathing-mode" designation derives from the fact that intracavity pulses are alternately stretched and compressed as they circulate around the ring resonator. The pulses are stretched before entering the semiconductor gain medium to minimize the detrimental strong integrating self-phase modulation and to enable efficient pulse amplification. Subsequently compressed pulses facilitate bleaching the semiconductor saturable absorber. The intracavity pulse compression ratio is higher than 50. Down chirping when compared to up chirping allows broader mode-locked spectra and shorter pulse generation owing to temporal and spectral semiconductor gain dynamics. Pulses as short …

Towards Direct Writing Of 3-D Photonic Circuits Using Ultrafast Lasers, Arnaud Zoubir

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The advent of ultrafast lasers has enabled micromachining schemes that cannot be achieved by other current techniques. Laser direct writing has emerged as one of the possible routes for fabrication of optical waveguides in transparent materials. In this thesis, the advantages and limitations of this technique are explored. Two extended-cavity ultrafast lasers were built and characterized as the laser sources for this study, with improved performance over existing systems. Waveguides are fabricated in oxide glass, chalcogenide glass, and polymers, these being the three major classes of materials for the telecommunication industry. Standard waveguide metrology is performed on the fabricated waveguides, …

Optimal Design Of Pump And Treat Remediation Systems : Treatment Modeling, Source Modeling And Time As A Decision Variable, Karen L. Endres

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

Groundwater optimization and simulation is a maturing science. Research work contained in this thesis extends into areas that have not been fully explored. The incorporation of source and treatment systems selection and design produces information to help decision makers. Further insight is gained by evaluating some of the requirements and standards enforced by regulations such as, remediation time.

The technical aspects of a remediation system are set by the physical properties and the regulatory constraints enforced. As an example, the addition of a realistic treatment system gives more accurate cost estimates, but the pump and treat (PAT) systems parameters do …

Performance Estimation Of A Sip Based Push-To-Talk Service For 3g Wireless Networks, Eoin O'Regan

Theses

Push To Talk (PTT) services have been in existence for several decades providing dispatch services via two-way radio such as walkie-talkies. For a number of years now PTT services have been available for use over mobile phone networks. These mobile PTT services have occupied a niche market with business users and have been provided on proprietary networks that do not enable roaming.

Over the past year there has been an explosion of interest in the concept of PTT provided over mobile networks using Internet Protocol (IP) technology. This service uses cellular access and radio resources more efficiently than circuit-switched cellular …

A Service-Based Architecture For Learning Management Systems Which Supports Personalisation And Collaboration, Markus Schmid

Theses

This work develops a service-based architecture for an extensible and customisable learning management system (LMS) runtime environment. The architecture mainly defines interfaces for the interaction of functional system components represented by loosely coupled distributed services. Services that represent functional components of the distributed LMS are called e-leaming services. In addition, underlying infrastructure services provide supportive functionality such as service-lookup within an institution. Users access the system using an LMS portal component that acts as a front-end for the LMS services.

While existing e-leaming environments provide a relatively good coverage of most of the functional requirements defined in this work, they …

Synthysis Of Polymer/Nano-Droplet Composites From Reverse Microemulsion Polymerization, Liehui Ge

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

L₁ and L₂ domains of the water/AOT/MMA ternary system were investigated at 22±1°C. Free radical polymerizations were conducted in L₂ domain. Only opaque polymer rods were obtained. Acrylamide, a water soluble monomer, plays a role of co-surfactant which greatly expands the L₂ domain. However, polymerizations only yielded opaque material. SEM showed images of phase separation.

MDOS (2-Methacryloyloxy)ethyl trimethylammonium bis(2-ethylhexyl) sulfosuccinate, was synthesized by ion exchange method. L₁ and L₂ domains of the water/MDOS/MMA ternary system were also investigated at 22±1°C. Free radical polymerizations were conducted in L₂ domain. Transparent polymer was produced. The …

Delivery Of Wireless Ad Hoc Services Using Jini, Sinead Cummins

Theses

Traditionally, networks were planned infrastructures consisting mainly ot desktop machines and servers. As a result of the careful planning carried out prior to their construction, these networks were easily managed and controlled by network administrators. Today these networks are joined by cell phones, PDAs and other handheld devices as well as a host of sensors. This has led to a migration from traditional networks to ad hoc networks.

One way to envisage what this new environment will be like is to imagine what life will be like at the edge of the network. Today the edge mostly consists ot clients …

Closed Material Cycles And Organic Solvent Recovery, Tim De Jong

Theses

A survey was conducted of the pharmaceutical sector in Ireland to establish organic solvent usage, recovery and treatment practices. The eleven companies covered by the survey, which included several of the worlds largest multinational companies, consumed in the region of 122,000 tonnes of organic solvent in 2002. Approximately 53,000 tonnes was recovered on-site while 69,000 tonnes of virgin solvent was brought on-site to replace that which was lost through wastewater treatment, incineration, fugitive emissions and off-site treatment or reuse. The total quantity of virgin solvent consumed by the eleven companies accounted for 75.4 % of organic solvent imports to Ireland. …

A Highway Travel Information System: Forecasting And Publicizing Delays In The Indiana State Highway Network, Shu-Ling Yu, Jon D. Fricker

JTRP Technical Reports

The Highway Travel Information System (HTIS) is a long-term pre-trip information system providing information about expected events, such as road construction. The HTIS can be beneficial to both highway travelers and roadway project schedulers. Project schedulers can use the HTIS to check the forecasted traffic impacts of a proposed construction project schedule. If the schedule would cause unacceptable delays, a scheduler can try new schedules to reduce the delay. Travelers who have flexible schedules and would like to do pre-trip planning can obtain knowledge of traffic conditions in the near future from HTIS to avoid unnecessary delays. An approach called …

Photonic Band Gap Analysis Using Finite-Difference Frequency-Domain Method, Shangping Guo, Feng Wu, Sacharia Albin

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

A finite-difference frequency-domain (FDFD) method is applied for photonic band gap calculations. The Maxwell’s equations under generalized coordinates are solved for both orthogonal and non-orthogonal lattice geometries. Complete and accurate band gap information is obtained by using this FDFD approach. Numerical results for 2D TE/TM modes in square and triangular lattices are in excellent agreements with results from plane wave method (PWM). The accuracy, convergence and computation time of this method are also discussed.

Quantum Lattice Representation Of Dark Solitons, George Vahala, Linda L. Vahala, Jeffrey Yepez

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

The nonlinear Schrodinger (NLS) equation in a self-defocusing Kerr medium supports dark solitons. Moreover the mean field description of a dilute Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) is described by the Gross-Pitaevskii equation, which for a highly anisotropic (cigar-shaped) magnetic trap reduces to a one-dimensional (1D) cubic NLS in an external potential. A quantum lattice algorithm is developed for the dark solitons. Simulations are presented for both black (stationary) solitons as well as (moving) dark solitons. Collisions of dark solitons are compared with the exact analytic solutions and coupled dark-bright vector solitons are examined. The quantum algorithm requires 2 qubits per scalar field …

Termination-Dependent Diversity Performance Of Coupled Antennas: Network Theory Analysis, Michael A. Jensen, Jon W. Wallace

Faculty Publications

A new analysis of mutually coupled diversity antenna systems is presented that includes the effects of coupling on the radiation pattern and received power. This analysis, based upon the network scattering parameters, makes use of the singular value decomposition to both specify the characteristics of and analyze terminated antenna networks. The approach facilitates a simplified proof of the multiport conjugate matching condition as well as development of expressions for diversity performance as a function of various impedance terminations. Application of the analysis to coupled dipole antennas characterized using full-wave electromagnetic analysis leads to a comprehensive examination of the diversity performance …

Wideband Channel Model For Aeronautical Telemetry, Christian Bettweiser, Adam Davis, Michael D. Rice

Faculty Publications

A multipath channel model for wideband aeronautical telemetry links is presented. Channel sounding data were collected at Edwards AFB, CA, at both L-band and lower S-band. Frequency domain analysis techniques were used to evaluate candidate channel models. The channel model is composed of three propagation paths: a line-of-sight direct path and two specular reflections. The first specular reflection is characterized by a relative amplitude of 70% to 96% of the line-of-sight amplitude and a delay of 10—80 ns. This path is the result of “ground bounces” off the dry lake bed at Edwards and is a typical terrain feature at …

Including Organizational Cultural Parameters In Work Processes, Holly A. H. Handley, Nancy J. Heacox

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Faculty Publications

Recent work in modeling decision-making work processes has focused on including the national culture of individual decision-makers in order to emphasize the differences in decision criteria between decision-makers of different nationalities. In addition to nationality, a decision-maker is also a member of an organization and brings this organizational culture to his role in the work process, where it may also affect his task performance. In order to represent the organizational impact on the work process, five organizational cultural parameters were identified and included in an algorithm for modeling and simulation of cultural difference in human decision-making. While the five modifiers …

A Sip Based Multimedia Messaging Service, Donna Griffin

Theses

The Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) is the protocol of choice for establishing multimedia sessions in Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) networks as stated by 3GPP. SIP is a protocol that will merge together the cellular and Internet worlds and is also scalable, highly available and extensible. It enables mobile carriers to extend operations, administration, maintenance and provisioning (OAMP) in one application to all applications. In addition, while SIP permits presence. Instant Messaging, File Sharing etc., its ultimate value lies in seamlessly aggregating these applications in more powerful offerings, such as Multimedia Messaging, Push to Talk and Voice over IP.

Multimedia …

Enhancement Of Linear Prediction Coefficient Quantisation In The 3g Adaptive Multi Rate Speech Coder, John Raymond Mccarthy

Theses

Most speech coding algorithms in use today utilise the source-filter model of human speech production in which speech is modelled as the response of a time varying, linear, all-pole, synthesis filter to an input excitation. In mobile communications, it is the coefficients of this filter and details of the excitation that are transmitted. The filter coefficients are first quantised using a limited number of bits. Due to coefficient sensitivity, direct quantisation of the filter coefficients may lead to an unstable filter during speech synthesis at the receiver and hence an alternative representation is needed. Line Spectral Frequencies (LSFs) have evolved …

The Development Of A Highway Tort Liability Management System For The Indiana Department Of Transportation, Thomas Giraud, Vorasett Chovichien, Samuel -1962 Labi, Kumares C. Sinha

JTRP Technical Reports

The loss of states’ sovereign immunity in the 1970’s opened the gates for highway-related tort liability suits against the states. Between January 2001 and September 2002, the State of Indiana investigated and settled hundreds of highwayrelated tort cases, involving several millions of dollars in taxpayers’ money. There is a need to assess the frequency of occurrence and financial impacts of such claims, and to examine how the growth of highway tort claims could be arrested. This study aimed at reviewing existing highway tort liability risk management practices at other states for possible applicability to INDOT, developing a framework for managing …

Using Imaging Technology To Evaluate Highway Safety, Praprut Songchitruksa, Andrzej P. Tarko

JTRP Technical Reports

Crash-based safety analysis is set back by several shortcomings such as randomness and rarity of crash occurrences, lack of timeliness, and inconsistency in crash reporting. Non-crash-based safety analysis has been around for more than three decades but its potential was limited due to a difficulty in the data collection and the evaluation. Recent advancement in digital videos and image detection technology renewed our interest in facilitating the data collection and improving the evaluation method. Two image detection systems for the measurement of traffic characteristics were evaluated: (a) a commercial video detection system and (b) proprietary image processing software. The measurement …

Using Precast Concrete Panels For Pavement Construction In Indiana, Luh M. Chang, Yu-Tzu Chen, Sangwook Lee

JTRP Technical Reports

The closure of roadways for new pavement, overlays, or removal and replacement applications constantly causes traffic congestions. To minimize the effects of traffic congestions, the study is intended to assess the feasibility of using Precsat Concrete Pavement (PCP) method in INDOT pavement construction. The research investigated the state-of-the-art of the PCP methods lately developed in United States. The conventional concrete pavement methods such as Portland Cement Concrete Pavement (PCCP) including Jointed Plain Concrete Pavement (JPCP), Jointed Reinforced Concrete Pavement (JRCP), and Continuously Reinforced Concrete Pavement (CRCP) were reviewed and compared with PCP methods. With the speedy construction and lower user …

Evaluation Of Indot Hyperfix Project, Kumares C. Sinha, Bob G. Mccullouch, Darcy M. Bullock, Sravanthi Konduri, Jon D. Fricker, Samuel Labi

JTRP Technical Reports

In 2003 the Indiana Department of Transportation executed an ambitious interstate reconstruction project in Indianapolis, named Hyperfix. This project completely closed the I-65/70 section during reconstruction, on which approximately 250,000 vehicles travel daily. Due to the scope and risk involved, an extensive amount of planning, coordination, and cooperation occurred. The main section was rebuilt during the total closure phase, which lasted 55 days. The total closure approach had never been performed before by INDOT on such a high volume artery in a downtown metropolitan area. This present study analyzed the project and its impact on the Indianapolis area. The report …