Digital Commons Network^™

Correlation Of Acoustic Emission Parameters With Weight And Velocity Of Moving Vehicles, Amar Kolgaonkar

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The thesis is motivated by the goal of doing initial investigation and experimentation for the development of Weigh-in-Motion (WIM) system using acoustic emission phenomenon. A great deal of research is going on for measuring the weight of moving vehicles. Weigh-in-motion of commercial vehicles is essential for management of freight traffic, highway infrastructure design and maintenance, and monitoring of heavy weight vehicles. The research work presents a methodology for correlating the weight of a moving vehicle with acoustic emission parameters (such as counts and energy). Furthermore, the correlation between the speed of vehicle with the acoustic emission parameters is developed. Preliminary …

A New Circularly Polarized Rectenna For Wireless Power Transmission And Data Communication, Mohammod Ali, G. Yang, Roger A. Dougal

Faculty Publications

Small distributed wireless sensors are becoming very important in many aspects of our lives. While low data rate passive sensors operate with little energy there is a need for moderate to high data rate distributed sensors for infrastructure monitoring and other applications. Such sensors will require their batteries or onboard capacitors to be charged when depleted for proper operation. In this letter, we propose a circularly polarized (CP) microstrip patch antenna that can function as a WLAN antenna in the 5.15-5.35 GHz and as a rectenna at 5.5 GHz.

Evaluation Of Proprietary Stormwater Treatment Devices In Field And Laboratory Conditions, Saheeda Marie Romah

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Proper stormwater management acknowledges both water quantity and water quality. Historically, stormwater quantity and quality have been separately considered; runoff was routed as quickly as possible into the nearest body of water. Although this alleviates potential flooding concerns, water quality is often compromised. Common stormwater quality problems include gross pollutants, sediment, nutrients, and heavy metals. The chronic elevated presence of these pollutants is detrimental to the environment. As a result, the government has passed legislature to protect waterways. The passage of the National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit requires that municipalities implement stormwater treatment techniques, known as Best Management …

A Tablet Pc Application For Construction Site Safety Inspection And Fatality Prevention, Prabhu Sunkara

LSU Master's Theses

Construction industry accounts for the largest number of occupational injuries and fatalities every year. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is an organization responsible for regulating and enforcing standards for various occupations to ensure safe working conditions including construction industry. As an OSHA requirement, every construction employer should employ a safety program that involves both training of the employees and frequent site inspections. OSHA has provided an online ‘construction eTool’ as a training tool which also aids in the development of safety inspection procedures. Traditionally, safety inspections are paper based and usually designed to address a specific work area or …

Network-Centric First Responder Architecture With Swarming Robots Entity, Lakshmanan Meyyappan, Cihan H. Dagli

Engineering Management and Systems Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This paper proposes a new network centric architecture that can be used by first responders to effectively respond to crisis situations. The powerful network-centric concept originally developed for and mainly used in the military environment, can be effectively used for civilian security and emergency response missions. This paper also proposes the use of a swarm of intelligent robots as a part of the network-centric architecture to aid the first responders. The swarm of robots works in tandem with the first responders and provides them with the necessary information on a real time basis. The proposed network centric architecture with a …

A Critical Time For Ultra-Wide Band, Gary F. Templeton, Mark B. Schmidt

Journal of International Technology and Information Management

Ultra-wideband (UWB) is a promising class of high-speed wireless communications applications that is projected to significantly change local and wide area network architectures. This article describes the technology, its probable application areas, the environmental forces that are constraining and enabling commercialization, and the prospects for short-term growth for UWB services. Commercial sale and distribution of UWB products has been approved, and widespread sale is expected by 2007.

Structural Integrity And Fatigue Crack Propagation Life Assessment Of Welded And Weld-Repaired Structures, Mohammad Shah Alam

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Structural integrity is the science and technology of the margin between safety and disaster. Proper evaluation of the structural integrity and fatigue life of any structure (aircraft, ship, railways, bridges, gas and oil transmission pipelines, etc.) is important to ensure the public safety, environmental protection, and economical consideration. Catastrophic failure of any structure can be avoided if structural integrity is assessed and necessary precaution is taken appropriately. Structural integrity includes tasks in many areas, such as structural analysis, failure analysis, nondestructive testing, corrosion, fatigue and creep analysis, metallurgy and materials, fracture mechanics, fatigue life assessment, welding metallurgy, development of repairing …

Stress Corrosion Cracking And Hydrogen Embrittlement Of Martensitic Alloy Ep-823, Mohammad K. Hossain

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This investigation is focused on the evaluation of stress corrosion cracking (SCC), localized corrosion, and hydrogen embrittlement (HE) susceptibility of martensitic Alloy EP-823 in neutral and acidic solutions at ambient and elevated temperatures. While no failures were observed in smooth specimens in the neutral solution, failures were noticed in the 90°C acidic solution at constant-load (CL) leading to a threshold stress (O'_th) of 102 ksi. The presence of a notch reduced the O'_th value to 91 ksi in a similar environment. The ductility (%El and %RA), time-to-failure (TTF), and true failure stress (O'_r) were gradually …

A Study Of Umts Turbo Codes Across Space Time Spreading Channel With The Case Of M = 1 And M = 2, Ibrahim S. Raad, Peter Vial, Tadeusz A. Wysocki

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering: Faculty Publications (to 2015)

The study presented in this paper is that of Universal Mobile Telecommunications Systems (UMTS) Turbo Codes across Space Time Spreading channel with one transmitter antenna, one receiver (m = 1) and two transmitter antennas and one receiver (m = 2) to see to what extent the bit error rate (BER) can be improved. Using the Max-log decoding algorithm and 12 iterations it is shown in the simulation results that an extra 5 dB is achievable.

The Role Of Moral Philosophy In Promoting Academic Integrity Among Engineering Students, Brian K. Etter, Trevor S. Harding, Cynthia J. Finelli, Donald D. Carpenter

Materials Engineering

Academic dishonesty is nothing new, yet it is particularly disturbing to find among engineering students, whose professional lives need to be guided by the highest ethical standards. Moral philosophy may illuminate some of the conditions for recovering a sense of the ethical for engineering students. Classical moral philosophers held that people belong to communities in ways that inform their sense of obligation. Recognition of these communities would make concrete the engineer's responsibility for the health, safety and welfare of the public. A further difficulty is that the primary community that students know is simply that of their peers in school …

Inspection And Deterioration Of Bridge Decks Constructed Using Stay-In-Place Metal Forms And Epoxy-Coated Reinforcement, Nabil Grace, James L. Hanson, Hany I. Abdelmessih

Civil and Environmental Engineering

A comprehensive research investigation was conducted to evaluate the use of Stay-in-Place Metal Forms (SIPMFs) in construction of concrete bridge decks. The objectives of this research project were to establish the state-of-the-practice for use and performance of SIPMFs for bridge decks, to evaluate the field performance of bridge decks with and without SIPMFs, and to investigate the behavior of environmentally conditioned large-scale laboratory bridge deck specimens with and without SIPMFs. A survey was developed and administered to all DOTs to examine the state-of-the-practice of using SIPMFs for concrete bridge deck construction. Additionally, a field investigation was conducted to evaluate the …

Safety And Health Concerns For Kytc And Contractor Personnel, Theodore Hopwood Ii, Sudhir Palle

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

This study was initiated to provide a review of safety and health issues related to Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC) construction activities including both KYTC and contractor personnel. Work included a literature search, interviews with KYTC resident engineers, and both a survey of and subsequent meeting with district construction safety coordinators. Recommendations are provided for implementing changes to improve safety and health regulatory compliance for both KYTC and contractor personnel.

Environment-Induced Degradations In A Target Structural Material For Transmutation Applications, Ramprashad Prabhakaran

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This investigation is focused on the evaluation of stress corrosion cracking (SCC) and localized corrosion behavior of Type 422 stainless steel in aqueous environments at ambient and elevated temperature. The results of constant load SCC testing using smooth specimens showed no failure in the neutral solution but a threshold stress of 97 ksi was observed in the 90°C acidic environment. SCC testing by the slow-strain-rate test method indicate that the time-to-failure, true failure stress and ductility parameters were gradually reduced with increasing temperature, showing more pronounced effect in the acidic solution. The application of a controlled cathodic potential showed further …

Inside Unlv, Holly Ivy De Vore, Carol C. Harter, Stuart Mann

Inside UNLV

No abstract provided.

Inside Unlv, Holly Ivy De Vore, Caryn Key, Carol C. Harter, Richard Morgan

Inside UNLV

No abstract provided.

Ultra-Wideband Technology For Short-Range Wireless Communication, Li Zhao

Dissertations

The ultra-wideband (UWB) radio core idea is to open large amounts of spectrum to a variety of users with little mutual interference between them. While ultra-wideband is being championed by several commercial companies, this technology has not followed the conventional path where commercial interest is preceded by years of academic research. This work attempts to fill in some of the gap by studying fundamental properties of communications with impulse-based radio UWB signals. We study jam resistance and capacity of UWB. Jam resistance is analyzed for binary pulse position modulation (PPM) with the interference being modeled as correlated Gaussian. Closed-form expressions …

Particle Size Dependence On Immobilized Molecular Sensors : Assay Of Nucleic Acid Probes Attached To Paramagnetic Particles, Celin Sunny

Theses

Nanotechnology is concerned with materials and systems whose structure and components exhibit novel and significantly improved physical, chemical and biological properties, phenomena and processes due to their nano scale size.

The transition from micro scale to nano scale leads to a number of changes in physical properties, possibly including new physical principles, some of which may be yet to be discovered. One of the major factors in this is the increase in ratio of surface area to volume.

This thesis research uses the increase in ratio of surface area to volume property of going from macro to micro to nano …

Liquefaction Susceptibility: Proposed New York City Building Code Revision, Robert Alperstein, Carl Costantino, Peter Edinger, Michael Greenman, Magued Iskander, Stephen K. Law, Sam Leifer, George Mylonakis, Sissy Nikolaou, Ray Sandiford, Thomas Thomann

International Conference on Case Histories in Geotechnical Engineering

A simplified procedure is presented for evaluating liquefaction susceptibility of cohesionless saturated soils based on available technology. In 2001, a Committee of engineers working in the New York City (NYC) area was formed under the direction of the first Author, to review the liquefaction aspects of the 1995 New York City Building Code. The purpose was to gain consensus on a possible revision and augmentation of the exisiting regulations as part of the ongoing Code review by the Structural Engineers Association of New York (SEAoNY). This article summarizes the recommendations of the Committee, as compiled in 2002. The following topics …

Landslides In Shale-Derived Glacial Till, Vernon R. Schaefer, Robert A. Lohnes

International Conference on Case Histories in Geotechnical Engineering

An area in south-east Iowa is notorious for landslides in both cut slopes and embankments. Most of the failed slopes have been modified to lower slope angles as attempted remediation; however in many instances the failure reoccurred. The dominant soil in the cuts and used for borrow material is Kansan age glacial till, while the underlying bedrock is Pennsylvanian shale of the Des Moines series. The till contains significant amounts of the underlying bedrock. In an effort to gain insight into the cause of these failures, an embankment with extensive failures in Monroe County was studied. One slide selected for …

An Analysis Of Electromagnetic Interference (Emi) Of Ultra Wideband(Uwb) And Ieee 802.11a Wireless Local Area Network (Wlan) Employing Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (Ofdm), Juan Lopez Jr.

Theses and Dissertations

Military communications require the rapid deployment of mobile, high-bandwidth systems. These systems must provide anytime, anywhere capabilities with minimal interference to existing military, private, and commercial communications. Ultra Wideband (UWB) technology is being advanced as the next generation radio technology and has the potential to revolutionize indoor wireless communications. The ability of UWB to mitigate multipath fading, provide high-throughput data rates (e.g., greater than 100 Mbps), provide excellent signal penetration (e.g., through walls), and low implementation costs makes it an ideal technology for a wide range of private and public sector applications. Preliminary UWB studies conducted by The Institute for …

Modeling And Analysis Of Post-Conflict Reconstruction, Damon B. Richardson

Theses and Dissertations

The forces at play in reconstruction operations are a complex system of time phased interlocking cause and effect relationships that are not thoroughly understood. A model capable of capturing the general dynamics involved in post-conflict reconstruction would provide insight to decision makers regarding potential policy alternatives. This research effort demonstrates the viability of using systems dynamics modeling techniques to simulate the establishment of public order and safety in a post-conflict reconstruction operation (Phase IV operations). A high level generic framework is developed that can be used as a general template for modeling post-conflict reconstruction. It is then demonstrated with a …

Techniques For Assessing And Improving Performance In Navigation And Wayfinding Using Mobile Augmented Reality, Brian Goldiez

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Augmented reality is a field of technology in which the real world is overlaid with additional information from a computer generated display. Enhancements to augmented reality technology presently support limited mobility which is expected to increase in the future to provide much greater real world functionality. This work reports on a set of experiments that investigate performance in search and rescue navigating tasks using augmented reality. Augmentation consisted of a spatially and temporally registered map of a maze that was overlaid onto a real world maze. Participants were required to traverse the maze, answer spatially oriented questions in the maze, …

Analysis And Integration Of A Debris Model In The Virtual Range Projec, Luis Robledo

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

After the accident of the STS 107 Columbia Space Shuttle, great concern has been focused on the risk associated to the population on the ground. Before this accident happened, re-entry routes as well as risk calculation of were not of public concern. Two issues that have been raised from this lamentable accident relate to spacecraft security and to public safety. The integration of a debris model has been part of the original conceptual architecture of the Virtual Range Project. Its integration has been considered as a specific research due to the complexity of the models and the difficulties to obtain …

Natural Gas Delivery, Storage & Lng Pipeline Inspection Technologies Demonstration Report

United States Department of Transportation: Publications

Assessing the integrity of natural gas transmission and distribution pipelines costs industry millions each year. With passage of the Pipeline Safety Improvement Act (PSIA) in 2002, industry will be required to invest significantly more capital to inspect and maintain their systems. The PSIA requires enhanced maintenance programs and continuing integrity inspection of all pipelines located within “high consequence areas” where a pipeline failure could threaten public safety, property and the environment. According to the Interstate Natural Gas Association of America (INGAA) the cost to industry to implement the PSIA in the first ten years will exceed $2 billion.

The Strategic …

Sub-Optimal Ultra-Wide Band Receivers, Nilesh Bhuvanendran

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Ultra-wide Band (UWB) has sparked a lot of interest lately from the industry and academia. The growing capacity of the wireless industry is requires a new communication system that satisfies the high data rate which does not interfere with existing RF systems. UWB promises to be this new technology. UWB also promises low power, low cost and flexibility. The UWB Channel opens up a huge new wireless channel with Giga Hertz Capacities as well as the highest spatial capacities measured in bits per hertz per square meter. When properly implemented UWB channel can share spectrum with traditional radio systems without …

Administration And Management Of Local Roads And Streets 2004, Indiana Ltap

Indiana Local Technical Assistance Program (LTAP) Publications

This handbook begins by examining government officials’ authority to carry out their road and street work. Next is the ever important challenge of intergovernmental relations, becoming more routine, albeit challenging. Funding road and street efforts, inherent in the intergovernmental environment, and transportation planning follow. The chapter on right-of-way issues is varied and extensive because current topics are now often confrontational. The management chapter addresses such topics as managerial functions, training, and a number of related issues. The discussion then moves to the serious matter of risk management and transportation security, along with traditional tort liability topics, the imperative of transportation …

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 …

Development Of An Augmented Haptic Control For In-Vehicle Law Enforcement Applications, Edward R. Guest Iii

Theses and Dissertations

Typical police vehicles are filled with as much technology as the department can afford. Everything from the newest digital camera system to a simple entertainment radio is within the reach of an officer. Currently, most of these systems are installed without any consideration toward the other systems or the interaction required between the driver and the car. The lack of a systems approach in the installation has spawned a project to look at the safety and overall system installation in the New Jersey State Police vehicles.

The research presented in this thesis suggests consolidation of the various controls into one …

Trust, Collaboration, And Financial Return In Conservation/Development Partnerships, New England Environmental Finance Center

Economics and Finance

In early 2002 the New England Environmental Finance Center hosted a series of roundtable discussions among municipal officials, residential developers, land trust representatives, and others about "Innovative Approaches to Land Conservation and Smart Growth". Among our observations was that for many of the over 20 conservation/development partnerships we discussed in the series, creation and maintenance of trust was central to success or failure of various stages of the partnership. This suggested a link between creation of trust and financial return for traditionally opposed project partners.

To further examine this matter, we interviewed 11 round table participants and asked questions about …

Fiscal Year 2003 Fhwa-536 Report For The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet, Steven Douglas Kreis

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) requires state transportation agencies to submit a biennial report on local highway finances. The purpose of these reports is to provide FHWA with the data it needs to capture the financing of highway activities at the local level. Based on this information, it can identify trends in revenue, expenditures, investments, and program development, and in turn make decisions about future investments. The report, FHWA-536, asks agencies to report on four areas of local highway finance: 1) disposition of highway-user revenues; 2) revenues used for roads and streets identified by source and funding type; 3) road …