Digital Commons Network^™

Identifying Early Warning Signs Of Construction Labor Shortages, Ahmed Shiha, Islam H. El-Adaway

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Construction labor shortages constrain project-level objectives and national development plans. The goal of this study is to utilize the lagged effects of macroeconomic conditions as early warning signs of construction labor shortages. To this end, the authors adopted a methodology, encompassing (1) retrieval of publicly available data and preprocessing of construction labor shortage as the target variable and macroeconomic measures as the explanatory variables, (2) identification of short-term associations between shortages and economic cycles using the Granger causality test, (3) examination of long-term relationships between labor shortages and economic conditions using the Johansen cointegration test, and (4) estimation of the …

Reevaluating The Van’T Hoff And Arrhenius Equations: How Temperature And Pressure Affect Chemical Reaction Thermodynamics, Equilibrium, And Kinetics, Jianmin Wang

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The van’t Hoff equation, which is used to calculate the effect of temperature on equilibrium constants, was derived from the Gibbs – Helmholtz equation that relates the molar Gibbs free energy to the molar enthalpy of a chemical reaction. However, the Gibbs – Helmholtz equation was developed for systems that do not consider contributions of Gibbs free energy from chemical species. Consequently, the van’t Hoff equation and the Arrhenius equation derived from it are technically incomplete.

By employing Hess’s law and the appropriate Gibbs free energy equation for chemical reaction systems, this investigation develops theoretical equations to calculate the effects …

Material Suppliers’ Perspective On Collaboration In Industrial Construction Projects, Seogjae Choi, William J. O'Brien

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Material suppliers' involvement in construction project planning has been recommended as an effective measure to improve project performance by using their expertise. However, the recommendation is not universal, and some researchers disputed the value of early involvement of suppliers depending on material type. Moreover, prior studies considered main contractors' and owners' perspectives mostly in examining how to increase the involvement of suppliers. To add material suppliers' perspective, this study conducted interviews with experienced professionals from 16 material suppliers including standardized, make-to-order, and custom products. The results are specified by separating the type of materials and sub-phases of planning. The results …

Polarimetry Based Radar Estimation Of Extreme Rainfall: Case Studies, Bong Chul Seo, Witold F. Krajewski, James A. Smith

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The study evaluated radar-derived polarimetric rainfall estimates for extreme rain events that occurred in the Kansas City Metropolitan area in the United States. To derive quantitative precipitation estimates (QPE), we implemented two polarimetric algorithms based on specific attenuation (A) and specific differential phase (KDP), along with the reflectivity (Z) based one using data from two radars in the study area. The analysis to assess radar-rainfall estimates (R) utilizes ground observations from a dense network of about 170 rain gauges. Based on our analysis results, the two polarimetric estimates from R(A) and R(KDP) outperform the conventional estimation R(Z). R(A) appeared to …

Effect Of Gluconate Molecules On The Reaction Kinetics Of C-(N)-A-S-H And N-A-S-H Gel Formation, Jiafeng Kong, Chao Sun, Zuhua Zhang, Chenglong Cai, Yubin Cao, Yanru Wang, Hongyan Ma, Xuesen Zeng, Hao Wang

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Organic ligands are widely used to regulate setting in cementitious binders, yet their chemistry-selective action in geopolymers (GPs) remains unclear. Here we isolate the role of sodium gluconate (SG) in early reaction kinetics across a Ca-rich GP that forms a calcium-(sodium)-aluminosilicate hydrate (C-(N)-A-S-H) gel and a Ca-poor GP that forms a sodium-aluminosilicate hydrate (N-A-S-H) gel. Four GPs spanning Ca/Si ≈ 1.01 to 0.01 were prepared with identical activator chemistry and dosages of SG up to 5 wt.% of precursors. Setting time, isothermal calorimetry, pore-solution speciation (TOC, ICP-OES, and pH), selective dissolution (reaction extent), low-field¹H NMR, XRD, FTIR, SEM-EDS, …

Every Publication Needs An Author Verified Tl;Dr Statement, Sarah Oerther, Daniel B. Oerther

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

No abstract provided.

Characterizing Heat Transfer Performance In A Slurry Bubble Column Reactor Equipped With A Real Heat Exchanger, Dalia S. Makki, Hasan Sh Majdi, Amer A. Abdulrahman, Abbas J. Sultan, Bashar J. Kadhim, Muthanna H. Al-Dahhan

Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Abstract: This study examines the impact of equipping a real heat exchanger in a slurry bubble column SBC on instantaneous and local heat transfer coefficients IHTC and LHTC, as well as the overall heat transfer coefficient U, employing advanced heat transfer techniques. The experiments were conducted in a 0.15 m inner diameter Plexiglas SBC with varying gas flowrates Ug (0.14–0.35) m/s at several radial sites along the column's diameter (±0.18, ±0.46, and ± 0.74) and three axial locations (H/D = 2, 3 and 4). To simulate the industrial Fischer–Tropsch bubble column reactor FT-BCR, a real heat exchanger consisting of 18 …

Mechanistic Scale-Up Of Gas-Solid Fluidized Beds Via Local Hydrodynamic Similarity, Faraj M. Zaid, Thaar M. Aljuwaya, Muthanna H. Al-Dahhan

Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This study presents a detailed experimental evaluation of a newly developed mechanistic scale-up methodology for gas-solid fluidized beds. Traditional scale-up approaches typically rely on matching global dimensionless groups, which often fail to ensure local hydrodynamic similarity. In contrast, the new mechanistic method aims to achieve scale-up by matching the radial profiles of gas holdup between geometrically similar beds at corresponding dimensionless axial positions (z/D_c). This approach is based on the premise that when gas holdup profiles align, other key hydrodynamic parameters—such as solids holdup and particle velocity—also become similar. To validate this methodology, experiments were conducted in two …

Nonlinear Control Of Buck-Type Converters For Micro-Wind Generators, Noah Wilding, Shuzan Kumar Sarkar, Shruti Pandey, Michael L. Mcintyre

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Small-scale wind turbines offer a promising solution for distributed renewable energy generation. However, this approach often leads to wasted energy when battery capacity is reached, as excess energy is typically dissipated into resistors. The reliance on batteries further increases the cost and complexity of such systems. This paper presents a nonlinear control algorithm for regulating buck-type converters, providing a more efficient energy management solution. By employing a grid-connected inverter, excess energy is utilized rather than dissipated, potentially eliminating the need for batteries and reducing micro-wind turbine installation costs. The proposed control strategy manages the DC-link voltage for the inverter by …

Filter Based Motor Control For Robotic Applications, Shuzan Kumar Sarkar, Noah Wilding, Shruti Pandey, Nicholas Hawkins, Michael L. Mcintyre

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Controlling coreless DC motor in the field of humanoid robotic application involves considering various surrounding electromagnetic environment interference and sudden change of load with parameters variation of motor dynamics which makes the system complex. This paper presents a filter-based control scheme for a coreless DC motor drive system using an H-bridge inverter as the input circuit of the motor which is easy to implement and cost effective. From the electromagnetic characteristics, the dynamic model of the motor along with the control scheme is implemented in the commercial software PLECS. Then the effectiveness of this approach is validated through simulations demonstrating …

Ibis Model Simulation Accuracy Improvement With Slew Rate Correction, Yifan Ding, Chulsoon Hwang

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The accuracy of Power-Supply-Induced Jitter (PSIJ) simulation in Input/Output Buffer Information Specification (IBIS) models is critical for ensuring robust high-speed signal integrity analysis, but it lacks accuracy in predicting the PSIJ when the pre-driver exists in the model. Previous studies have proposed methods to improve IBIS PSIJ simulation accuracy with pre-driver effect included in the IBIS switching coefficients modification process. However, these methods fail to accurately model the output waveform slew rate change with varied power noise. In this work, an improved modification method was proposed to incorporate power-aware characteristics into the modified IBIS model, thereby improving the accuracy of …

A High Step-Up Soft-Switched Converter Based On Coupled Inductor And Current-Fed Voltage Multiplier, Koosha Choobdari Omran, Reza Beiranvand, Pourya Shamsi

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

In this paper, a novel non-isolated DC-DC converter that combines coupled inductor (CI) and voltage multiplier (VM) techniques is proposed. The leakage energy of the CI is effectively recycled, and soft-switching conditions are achieved for all switches and diodes. Resonance between the leakage inductor of the CI and VM capacitors provides soft-switching conditions, without requiring a separate resonant tank. The use of VM stages not only lowers the voltage stress on semiconductor components but also allows for the use of low-voltage-rated devices, leading to reduced conduction losses, lower cost, and improved efficiency. High voltage gain can be achieved by appropriately …

Balanced Benchmarking Of Zero-Shot And Rag Approaches For Biomedical Term Normalization, Thanh Son Do, Daniel B. Hier, Tayo Obafemi-Ajayi

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Normalization of medical concepts to an ontology is a key aspect of the natural language processing of biomedical text. It enables the mapping of medical expressions to standardized ontology terms and their identifiers, thereby enhancing the interoperability and computability of medical concepts. Although large language models (LLMs) can identify and standardize medical terms, they may struggle to accurately map ontology terms to their corresponding ontology identifiers. These challenges arise from the stochastic nature of LLMs, their limited exposure to uncommon ontology identifiers during training, and their lack of an integrated lookup mechanism. We generated test sets of synthetic terms to …

Measurement- And Simulated Annealing (Sa) Optimization-Based Inductor Model Coupled To Chassis, Junyong Park, Reza Vahdani, Donghyun Kim

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

In automotive systems, a metal chassis protects the components against the external environment. However, the metal chassis is conductive, which results in unwanted conducted emission (CE) coupling to electric components. An inductor used for power factor correction (PFC) is one of the affected components. When the inductor is mated with the metal chassis, the impedance of the inductor changes. It is also hard to predict the CE coupling due to the structure-dependent characteristics. That is, the CE coupling is not negligible and hard to clarify. Therefore, this article proposes an efficient modeling method for the inductor which is mated with …

Impact Of Voltage Regulator Modules On Power Distribution Network Impedance, Hanyu Zhang, Zhiping Yang, Alvis Hsu, Ryan Hou, Chulsoon Hwang

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The voltage regulator module (VRM) impacts the power distribution network (PDN) impedance in the low frequency range. The effect of VRM is essential for reliable PDN analysis and simulation. However, the existing VRM models for power integrity (PI) simulation lack an in-depth understanding of the effect of the feedback control in the VRM. In this paper, the impact of the VRM control loop on the PDN impedance is investigated. The relationship between the VRM output impedance and the PDN impedance at the IC input pin is derived. The output impedance of a VRM is analyzed using small signal analysis. Eventually, …

Method Of Termination With Absorbers For Far-End Crosstalk Measurements, Daniel L. Commerou, Reza Asadi, Sathvika Bandi, Seyed Mostafa Mousavi, Xiaoning Ye, Donghyun Kim

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The increasing demand for higher data rates in modern electronic systems has heightened the challenges of maintaining signal integrity, particularly in addressing farend crosstalk (FEXT). This paper presents a novel approach using absorber-based terminations to perform signal integrity measurements in high-speed PCB designs. The performance of magnetically and electrically loaded absorber materials is evaluated against traditional 50Ω terminations with performance parameters such as S-parameters, Time-Domain reflectometry (TDR), and induced far-end crosstalk voltage. Simulations and experimental measurements demonstrate that electrically loaded absorbers can achieve performance characteristics comparable to high-quality terminations, particularly for reflections and impedance matching. The results indicate that absorbers …

Extended S-Parameter Model Of The Power Distribution Network For Rapid Coupling Predictions, Cody Goins, Aaron Harmon, Mckennan Starkey, Kristen Donnell, Victor Khilkevich, Daryl Beetner

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Power and return planes are part of the power delivery network of almost all modern high frequency printed circuit boards. These power and return planes can form the basis of unintended radiated emissions from, or radiated coupling to, these boards. Predicting coupling to complex systems is a difficult problem and typically reserved for full wave simulations. Recent works have introduced segmentation approaches that are able to predict coupling to complex printed circuit board designs by using pre-rendered segments and cascading these segments through a circuit solver approach. The extended S-parameter models used by the segmentation approach currently do not include …

Usb 3.0 Ibis-Ami Model Construction Using Measurement And Neural Network, Jiahuan Huang, Wenchang Huang, Muqi Ouyang, Hank Lin, Bin Chyi Tseng, Chulsoon Hwang

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The input/ output modes are essential for high-speed signal integrity analysis and channel simulation. This work aims to develop a method for generating an IBIS-AMI model for USB 3.0 using measurement data. Instead of requiring a specially designed motherboard with test points for specific measurements, this method uses measurement data obtained from an assembled motherboard. The only available data for measurement in this case is the output voltage waveform from the USB 3.0 port on the motherboard. To address this, a novel approach is proposed to extract all the required parameters for the IBIS-AMI model from a single available measurement …

Mitigating Optical Module Emi Using Common- And Differential-Mode Filters, Shivali Singh, Rakshith Kumar Gopalaiah, Di Li, Mokshit Tejasvi, Shipra Shipra, Victor Khilkevich

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

A strategy to mitigate electromagnetic interference in quad/octal small form-factor pluggable interfaces using a common-mode/differential-mode filter is presented in this research. Differential source imbalance produces significant common- and differential-mode noise in the differential pseudorandom binary sequence signal. EMI associated with this noise can be reduced by incorporating a band stop filter onto the differential line on a printed circuit board. Two kinds of filters were tested: common mode and common/differential mode. It was demonstrated that the application of a common-mode/differential-mode filter is more advantageous than a common-mode filter and allows to achieve the suppression of the total radiated power by …

Optimized Modeling Of Pcb Vias With Nonfunctional Pads And High-Frequency Behavior Up To 150 Ghz, Mehdi Mousavi, Kevin Cai, Chaofeng Li, Sathvika Bandi, Manish Mathew, Mehdi Khaleghi, Shameem Ahmed, Donghyun Kim

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This paper presents an enhanced closed-form approach for modeling and optimizing high-frequency PCB vias, implemented in Python and validated against industry standard tools such as ADS and HFSS. The model incorporates resistance alongside inductance and capacitance to capture frequency-dependent losses and integrates non-functional pads (NFPs), demonstrating significant improvements in signal integrity by reducing reflections and enhancing return loss, particularly at 100 GHz. The methodology extends the frequency range of previous models from 100 GHz to 150 GHz, ensuring compatibility with next-generation standards like PCIe Gen 6. Validation results show insertion loss deviations under 3 dB and consistent return loss across …

Ai-Driven Traffic Scene Understanding Using Static Lidar Sensors, Elham Binshaflout, Chaima Zaghouani, Charalampos Antoniadis, Hakim Ghazzai, Nawfal Guefrachi, Ahmad Alsharoa, Sameh Najeh, Gianluca Setti

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Traffic congestion and road safety remain critical challenges in urban environments, driving the need for more effective traffic monitoring solutions. While recent advancements in computer vision have enhanced traffic perception, the dynamic viewpoint of autonomous vehicles is often insufficient for comprehensive traffic management. To address this gap, we propose an AI-driven framework for enhanced traffic scene understanding using static LiDAR sensors at road intersections. The system collects 3D point clouds from roadside static LiDAR sensors, providing a complete view of vehicles and pedestrians. We integrate state-of-the-art 3D object detection (i.e., PV-RCNN) and instance segmentation models (i.e., PointGroup3heads) to accurately identify …

Efficient Decoupling Capacitor Impact Calculation, Faye Squires, Yifan Ding, Matthew Doyle, Matteo Cocchini, Samuel Connor, Francesco De Paulis, Albert E. Ruehli, Chulsoon Hwang, Lijun Jiang

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Methods of optimizing decoupling capacitor placement on power distribution networks (PDNs) are often limited due to the computational complexity required to calculate the impact of connecting loads to an impedance matrix with hundreds of rows and columns. This work proposes that by removing all but one member of the impedance matrix before calculating, checking the impact of adding capacitors to the matrix can be done efficiently, and optimization methods can be viable even when requiring millions of impedance calculations.

Obstacles And Mitigations For An Accurate Low Impedance, Low Frequency Measurement, Faye Squires, Yifan Ding, Matthew Doyle, Matteo Cocchini, Samuel Connor, Francesco De Paulis, Albert E. Ruehli, Chulsoon Hwang, Lijun Jiang

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The two-port shunt configuration is often heralded as the gold standard for low-impedance measurements. However, this measurement method is not without its own issues. The shunt configuration inherently creates a ground loop between the measurement device's reference plane and the reference of the device under test (DUT). Additionally, probes often must be oriented in such a way that allows inductive coupling to occur. This work uses microprobes to measure the shunt impedance of a non-ideal short to explore the limitations of this measurement method in terms of both frequency and impedance. It highlights the importance of ground loop isolation and …

Multi-Objective Inverse Optimization Of High-Speed Interconnects Using Cascaded Deep Neural Network, Yicheng Zhang, Ling Zhang, Hyunwook Park, Bo Pu, Xiao Ding Cai, Chulsoon Hwang, Bidyut Sen, Jun Fan, Er Ping Li, James L. Drewniak

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This paper proposes a novel multi-objective inverse optimization method for high-speed interconnects based on a cascaded deep neural network (DNN) structure, which can efficiently optimize characteristic impedance, insertion loss, and far-end crosstalk (FEXT) simultaneously. Parameter optimization for high-speed interconnects is essential to the signal integrity and electrical performance of complex designs such as multilayer printed circuit boards (PCBs) and chiplets. Conventional optimization approaches often rely on numerous optimization iterations, which is highly time-consuming, especially in high dimensional parameter spaces. This paper proposes a novel DNN based method by cascading an inverse-prediction network and a forward-prediction network to achieve multi-objective optimization …

Differential Via Modeling Using Multilayer Perceptron-Sequential (Mlp-Seq) Neural Network, Hyunwook Park, Shruti Sawant, Bandi Sathvika, Arun Chada, Soumya Singh, Seema Pk, Taein Shin, Haeseok Suh, Junyong Park, Bhyrav Mutnury, Donghyun Kim

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

In this paper, an encoder-decoder structured multi-layer perceptron-sequential (MLP-SEQ) networks are proposed to model high-speed differential vias for estimating differential insertion loss (IL) and return loss (RL). Sequential neural networks including recurrent neural network (RNN), long short-term memory (LSTM), and gated recurrent unit (GRU) are introduced as the decoder NN to treat frequency responses as sequences. The proposed models are validated by finite element method (FEM) simulation results. The accuracy and training times of MLP-RNN, MLP-LSTM, and MLP-GRU models are compared and analyzed. Based on the MLP-LSTM model, various design of experiments (DoEs) are conducted to enhance the reproducibility and …

Coupling Path Analysis Of Data Center Ssd Storage Systems Based On Visualization Technique, Xiangrui Su, Haran Manoharan, Jihun Kim, Lalit Kumar, Heewon Kang, Chunghyun Ryu, Chulsoon Hwang

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Electrostatic discharge (ESD) is a major source of electromagnetic interference, capable of causing damage, malfunctions, or disruptions in electronic devices. As a result, ESD immunity testing is a critical component of electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) standards. In this study, the radiation emitted from the ESD gun body over 2 GHz is characterized and modeled using Huygens' principle. The equivalent field source was validated across three different environments, demonstrating accuracy with errors of less than 10 dB. A coupling path visualization technique was then employed to identify critical coupling paths, providing guidance for the strategic placement of absorbers. Simulation results showed that …

Design Strategies For Skew Compensation In Highspeed Pcb Strip Line Interconnects, Sathvika Bandi, Reza Asadi, Zhekun Peng, Srinivas Venkataraman, Granthana Rangaswamy, Santosh Pappu, Xu Wang, Donghyun Kim

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This paper presents a comprehensive analysis of the impact of intra-pair PN skew compensation in printed circuit board (PCB) strip line (SL) traces, for a high-speed 224 Gbps lane for the first time. The study investigates the effects of skew compensation placement both with and without via discontinuities. Detailed evaluations are performed in both time and frequency domains, examining critical parameters such as time-domain reflectometry (TDR), input impedance, return loss, insertion loss, and common-mode S -parameters. The findings reveal that, in a simple strip line trace without via discontinuities, the location of skew compensation has negligible influence on signal margins. …

Enhanced Continual Reinforcement Learning-Based Output Feedback Control Of Heterogeneous Quadrotors Formation, Ehsan Soleimani, S. Jagannathan

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This paper presents a unified framework for the safe and optimal control of heterogeneous quadrotor unmanned aerial vehicles (QUAVs) in formation, enabling multitask missions without requiring precise system dynamics. To address partial state observability, a multilayer neural network (MNN) observer is designed to estimate unmeasured states. Reinforcement learning (RL) is employed for optimal control utilizing an MNN ensuring adaptability. Barrier Lyapunov Functions (BLFs) are integrated into the RL framework to enforce safety by maintaining QUAVs within predefined constraints. An enhanced continual learning (ECL) method is proposed to improve the adaptability of MNNs. This method enables effective multitask learning while mitigating …

Modeling Of Slot-Backed Microstrip Line For Emi Applications, Jongsuk Hyun, Wenchang Huang, Chulsoon Hwang

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Radiated emissions from the noise-generating components in modern electronic devices are a significant concern for both electromagnetic interference and RF interference. Shielding cans are commonly used to suppress emissions from noise sources, but accurate shielding effectiveness evaluation requires a clean, well-defined radiation source that can reliably mimic real emissions for repeatable measurements. Slot-backed microstrip antennas provide a practical alternative to loop antennas, offering zero height, low parasitic radiation, and seamless printed circuit board integration. This article proposes an analytical model for estimating the magnetic dipole moment of slot-backed microstrip structures. The model captures both the discontinuity effects and radiated characteristics …

Spatially Distributed Optical Fiber Sensing With Weak Fiber Bragg Grating Arrays Based On Microwave Photonics, Wassana Naku, Osamah Alsalman, Chen Zhu

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs) have been one of the most widely used optical fiber sensors in both scientific and industrial applications due to their unique advantages of high sensitivity, ease of signal transduction, and capabilities for remote operation and multiplexing. However, the majority of sensing systems based on FBGs can only achieve quasi-distributed sensing along the fiber under test, leaving dark zones in between discrete FBG elements. In this work, we propose and demonstrate a microwave photonics enabled approach for the interrogation of cascaded FBGs to achieve spatially distributed sensing. The core of the system includes an incoherent optical frequency-domain …