Digital Commons Network^™

Investigating The Potential Of Blended Feedstocks For Biofuel Production Via Pyrolysis Process: Experimental And Aspen Simulation Approach, Hasan Jawad Hammood Al-Abedi

Doctoral Dissertations

"The development of renewable energy sources has become increasingly urgent considering the climate crisis and the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Pyrolysis, which is decomposition of an organic feedstock without oxygen, is a thermo-chemical process that has garnered significant attention as a promising technology for sustainable energy production, capable of converting biomass and waste materials into biofuels.

The primary objective of this study is to investigate the pyrolysis and co-pyrolysis behaviors of corn stover (CS), refuse-derived fuel (RDF), and oil shale (OS) in equal mass ratios. Utilizing a thermogravimetric analyzer and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), the co-pyrolysis process is …

Development Of A Comprehensive Multi-Factored Methodology For Identification Of Landslides In The Buffalo National River Of Arkansas, Abdurraouf Okok

Doctoral Dissertations

"In northern Arkansas's Springfield and Boston Mountain Plateaus, distinctive geomorphological landslide features have shown historical continuity. USGS topographic maps (1:24,000, 7.5-minute series) serve as valuable resources for studying terrain characteristics and hydrological patterns.

This study uses a manual mapping approach with high-resolution LiDAR data and geological maps in a GIS environment. The method identifies historic landslide features by analyzing anomalous topographic contour patterns overlaid on LiDAR-derived hillshade maps, revealing various mass movements along the Buffalo National River. Data from the Office of State Geologist and fieldwork reconnaissance were utilized to map older landslide features with high confidence. Some previously unrecognized …

Adversarial Transferability And Generalization In Robust Deep Learning, Tao Wu

Doctoral Dissertations

Despite its remarkable achievements across a multitude of benchmark tasks, deep learning (DL) models exhibit significant fragility to adversarial examples, i.e., subtle modifications applied to inputs during testing yet effective in misleading DL models. These meticulously crafted perturbations possess the remarkable property of transferability: an adversarial example that effectively fools one model often retains its effectiveness against another model, even if the two models were trained independently. This research delves into the characteristics influencing the transferability of adversarial examples from three distinct and complementary perspectives: data, model, and optimization. Firstly, from the data perspective, we propose a new method of …

Optimizing The Total Life Cycle Of Li-Ion Batteries: From Constant Gradient Charging To Aged Cell Performance Restoration, Kasim Adesegun Adewuyi

Doctoral Dissertations

As demand for Lithium-Ion Batteries (LIBs) have skyrocketed over the past decade, the need for better charging methodologies and recycling methods have become vitally important. At a fundamental level, this dissertation strives to fulfill the green promise of a future without fossil fuels. In order to promote a transition away from fossil fuels, LIBs for vehicles require ultrafast charging times equivalent to a normal vehicle (6 mins). However, this process leads to high volume expansion for next generation electrode materials which causes degradation. Without limiting this factor, the environmental impact shifts from oil rigs to Li mines and landfills. The …

An Equivalent Coil Model Of A Wireless Power Transfer System Including Eddy Loss, Hanyu Zhang, Daryl G. Beetner

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

A wireless power transfer (WPT) system suffers from eddy loss if a conductive object is placed near the coupling coil. In this paper, a 3-coil equivalent circuit model for the coupling coil in a WPT system is proposed for analyzing the eddy loss due to nearby conductors. This model uses a third coil with inductive coupling to the original transmitting and receiving coils to model the eddy loss. The proposed model was validated by comparing the Z-parameters with a full-wave simulation and showing good correlation over the frequency of interest, where the traditional 2-coil model fails. The 3-coil model is …

Modelling Weave Effect In Pcbs Using 2d Cross-Sectional Analysis, Victor Khilkevich, Scott Hinaga

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Printed circuit board dielectric substrates are composite materials produced by embedding fiber glass fabrics into epoxy resin. Because of this the medium in the PCB transmission lines is inhomogeneous which often leads to degradation of the signal integrity performance of the lines, particularly due to the differential skew. The detrimental effect of the fiber weave can be modeled relatively accurately using full-wave analysis, but at a high computational cost. Alternative modelling techniques are less demanding but often lack accuracy. This article investigates a possibility of using the 2D cross-sectional analysis for the fiber weave effect modeling, which considerably decreases the …

Statistical Analysis Of Electromagnetic Coupling To Printed Circuit Boards, Shengxuan Xia, Victor Khilkevich, Daryl Beetner

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Determining electromagnetic (EM) coupling to printed circuit boards (PCBs) is essential to finding potential EM susceptibilities early in the design process. For realistic PCB structures, analysis usually relies heavily on time-consuming full-wave simulations because of the complexity of the geometries and the lack of analytical solutions. In this paper, we adopt a segmentation approach based on far-field reciprocity which allows for rapid estimation of the voltage induced at trace terminations over frequency, and which is then used to estimate statistical characteristic of coupling across trace geometries. Frequency-domain results can then be used to estimate time-domain responses with appropriate transformations. Super-position …

Uncertainty Quantification For Peec Based On Wasserstein Generative Adversarial Network, Yuan Ping, Yanming Zhang, Lijun Jiang

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This article proposes a modified generative adversarial network (GAN)-based approach, namely Wasserstein GAN (WGAN), for the uncertainty quantification (UQ) in partial equivalent element circuit (PEEC) models. Initially, the stochastic PEEC is constructed to obtain the sample data of the quantities of interest (QoI). This sample data, along with the fake data from the generator, serves as input for the discriminator in WGAN. The loss function of the generator in WGAN is constructed using the Wasserstein distance to provide a more usable gradient than that in the traditional GAN. By estimating the distribution of sample data using the fake data in …

Adaptive Critic Optimal Control Of An Uncertain Robot Manipulator With Applications, Ravi Prakash, Laxmidhar Behera, Sarangapani Jagannathan

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Realistic manipulation tasks involve a prolonged sequence of motor skills in varying control environments consisting of uncertain robot dynamic models and end-effector payloads. To address these challenges, this article proposes an adaptive critic (AC)-based basis function neural network (BFNN) optimal controller. Using a single neural network (NN) with a basis function, the proposed optimal controller simultaneously learns task-related optimal cost function, robot internal dynamics, and optimal control law. This is achieved through the development of a novel BFNN tuning law using closed-loop system stability. Therefore, the proposed optimal controller provides real-time, implementable, cost-effective control solutions for practical robotic tasks. The …

Evaluation Of Transfer Learning Models On Traumatic Brain Injury Severity Classification, Ngoc Do, Daniel B. Hier, Tayo Obafemi-Ajayi

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

After traumatic brain injury (TBI), clinicians use the Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) to classify patients by severity and radiologists use the Rotterdam score and the Marshall score to classify CT scans by severity. This work investigates a viable efficient low-cost transfer learning model to use MRI images to predict GCS, Rotterdam, and Marshall severity class after TBI. The enhanced transfer learning model architecture integrates multiple fine-tuning steps in which a few layers of the pre-trained model is unfrozen in each iteration so that the neural network is able to learn layer by layer further aspects of the image for better …

On The Feasibility Of A Direct Injection Probe With A Capacitively Coupled Return And Integrated Voltage Monitor, Aaron Harmon, Daniel Szanto, Victor Khilkevich, Daryl Beetner

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Characterizing the susceptibility of an IC while it is integrated within a system can be challenging. Characterization is even harder if one wants to know the waveform at the target IC pin when injecting a signal on the pin. In this work, the feasibility of a direct injection probe with a capacitively coupled return and integrated voltage monitor is proposed. This probe is advantageous because it does not need to be soldered to the test device and its ability to provide a measurement of the waveform on the target IC pin during the injection. Methods for reconstructing the pin waveform …

Towards Explainability Of Dimension Reduction Plots Of Unsupervised Learning Model Outcomes, Tony E.Astuhuaman Davila, Daniel B. Hier, Tayo Obafemi-Ajayi

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Dimension reduction methods are used to visualize the output of unsupervised learning models when applied to complex data. These techniques improve interpretability by transforming a high-dimension space to a lower-dimension space (usually 2D or 3D). The results are typically viewed as 2D scatter plots, and class centroids may be added to increase interpretability. Although useful, the relationship of these class centroids to the underlying feature space remains opaque. The innovative aspect of this work is to create a strong link between the dimension-reduced space and the underlying high-dimension feature space by adding selected feature centroids to the 2D scatter plots. …

Radiated Emission Modeling Of A Wireless Power Transfer System, Hanyu Zhang, Guanghua Li, Viswa Pilla, Chulsoon Hwang

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

A radiated emission (RE) model of a wireless power transfer (WPT) system is proposed in this paper to help designers predict, analyze, and mitigate the RE issues during the design process. The proposed model employs both full-wave simulation and circuit simulation to derive a transfer function. Subsequently, it predicts the emission level by combining the transfer function with the measured transmitter waveform through a straightforward calculation. The predicted emissions match the measured RE peaks well up to 300 MHz, with the error within 3 dB. The impact of functional parameters, such as load and coil gap distance, is analyzed based …

A Model For Corona Streamer Propagation On Glass During An Air Discharge, Zhekun Peng, Jianchi Zhou, Darryl Kostka, David Pommerenke, Daryl G. Beetner

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Corona discharge to a glass surface is challenging to model due to a poorly understood air and surface ionization process. A modeling methodology based on the transmission line modeling (TLM) approach is proposed to simulate the streamer propagation process. The time-changing corona streamer resistance is estimated using the Rompe and Weizel spark model. The streamer is represented using small segments consisting of the arc resistance, per unit length (PUL) capacitance of the streamer, PUL inductance, a switch representing streamer formation, and a surface discharge gap voltage representing the voltage drop caused by ions within the streamer length. The propagation of …

Influence Of Variations In Imbalanced Lisn Termination Impedances On Radiated Emissions, Hossein Rezaei, Morten Sørensen, Kim Jensen, David Pommerenke, Daryl G. Beetner

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Radiated emissions measurements are often performed using a line impedance stabilization network (LISN) with a balanced termination, but in the real-world the common-mode characteristic of the termination may be highly variable. An asymmetric LISN allows testing under more realistic asymmetric termination conditions. The common-mode termination impedance of these LISNs must fall within set tolerances, but the impact of these tolerances is unknown. An analysis of the radiated emissions from a device under test (DUT) for a wide variety of power cable termination impedances is performed in the following paper to estimate the impact of allowed variations in imbalanced LISN termination …

Design Of Experiment Analysis On Multiple Pim Sources In An Rf Antenna System, Shengxuan Xia, Yuchu He, Haicheng Zhou, Hanfeng Wang, Chulsoon Hwang

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Passive intermodulation (PIM) has been identified as one of the common root causes for receiving sensitivity degradation (desense) on radiofrequency (RF) antennas working in frequency-division duplex mode. The component-level PIM characterization and simulation have been well-established over the years. However, the study has been using an ideal 50 Ω transmission line system while antenna modules are more complicated than a simple transmission line structure. Moreover, the metallic contacts can exist in multiple locations with different connection topologies in real applications. This paper provides a method to simulate the PIM performance caused by the metallic contacts in a practical environment. In …

Evaluating Electromagnetic Interference Effects On Gnss Receivers, Giorgi Tsintsadze, Haran Manoharan, Arushi Sahai, Daryl G. Beetner, Brian Booth

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Electromagnetic interference can be highly disruptive to global navigation satellite system (GNSS) receivers. Interference can be intentional but can also occur from electronics modules placed within the same system, where these modules may create sufficient unintended radiated emissions to disrupt GNSS operation. In this paper, GNSS receiver performance is evaluated in the presence of multi-tone interference. An expression for the GNSS correlator output in the presence of continuous wave interference (CWI) is derived and is extended to predict the carrier to noise density ratio, C/N0, of the receiver in the presence of multi-tone interference. C/N0 is widely used for characterizing …

A Method For Measuring The Transfer Function Inside A Compact Metallic Enclosure Using A Slot Antenna, Xiangrui Su, Wenchang Huang, Junghee Cho, Joonki Paek, Chulsoon Hwang

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Radio frequency desensitization issues comprise two components: noise radiation sources and the transfer function from noise sources to the victim antenna. For modern electronic products, noise sources are often located inside a compact metal enclosure, making it difficult to measure the transfer function using conventional methods. Moreover, opening the metallic enclosure would dramatically change the transfer function, and inserting a near-field probe into the enclosure is challenging and may not even be possible because of the limited space inside. In this article, a novel practical method for measuring the transfer function inside a compact metallic enclosure is proposed and experimentally …

Mechanisms For Unwanted Magnetic Field Coupling To A Shielded Magnetic Near-Field Probe, Xin Yan, Wei Zhang, Sajjad Sadeghi, Mehdi Gholizadeh, David J. Pommerenke, Daryl G. Beetner

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Unwanted field coupling is a major concern when using magnetic near-field probes for high-frequency scanning. The unwanted coupling of the tangential electric field to a tangential magnetic field probe has been studied extensively. This article shows a second unwanted coupling mechanism: coupling from a vertical magnetic field. The standing wave of a shorted pure TEM microstrip in air is utilized to separate the magnetic and electric field coupling. Simulations show that the eddy currents induced within the probe by the vertical magnetic field couple inductively to the pickup loop if the layer stack up is not symmetric. The unwanted magnetic …

Vertical Interconnect Technology In Silicon, Package, And Printed Circuit Board (Pcb) With Coaxial Structure, Junyong Park, Chaofeng Li, Eddie Mok, Joe Dickson, Joan Tourne, Donghyun Kim

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This paper introduces vertical interconnect technology in silicon, package, and printed circuit board (PCB) levels with a coaxial structure, respectively. The coaxial structure has been known to be advantageous in terms of signal integrity (SI) compared to the non-coaxial structure. The coaxial structure is easy to control the characteristic impedance Z0 and robust to crosstalk. The silicon-level interconnect includes the wire bonding (WB) and through-silicon via (TSV) technology, the package-level interconnect includes an elastomer package test socket. The PCB-level interconnect includes the vias, and vertical conductive structure (VeCS). For each level, the non-coaxial and coaxial interconnects are compared with the …

Low Noise Wireless Sensing In Termite Detection, Wei Zhang, Xiangshu Qi, Yunlong Luo, Alex Qi, Yihong Qi, Gang Feng

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Termites cause enormous financial damages all around the world every year. The majority of research on wireless sensing is always concerned with the various human-centric applications, however, the vast potential of wireless sensing for termite detection is often disregarded. In this article, a Wireless Intelligent Sensing (WISe) millimeter-wave (mmWave) radar system for termite detection is proposed. Here, we design a three-layer architecture with some intelligent resources to monitor the movement signs of the termites. In addition, we present a low noise sensing architecture that minimizes the noise in hardware and digital signal processing, which can reduce the impact of environment …

Novel Formulation For Generalization Of Mixed-Mode S-Parameters For Coupled Differential High-Speed Digital Channels, Manish K. Mathew, Kevin Cai, Chaofeng Li, Mehdi Mousavi, Shameem Ahmed, Donghyun Kim

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

As the demand for higher data rates intensifies, achieving accurate S-parameter calculation becomes increasingly critical. The conventional single-ended to mixed-mode S-parameter conversion formulation assumes uncoupled structures, which may not be true for high-speed digital channels. This work introduces a novel, generalized formulation for mixed-mode S-parameters and their corresponding transformation matrices [M1] and [M2], enabling comprehensive analysis of multi-pair coupled differential traces. An intra-pair crosstalk analysis of a tightly coupled strip line and microstrip line verifies and highlights the difference between the proposed and old formulations. A loosely coupled case is analyzed as an additional validation of the proposed formulation. Finally, …

Virtual Inertia Scheduling (Vis) For Microgrids With Static And Dynamic Security Constraints, Buxin She, Fangxing Li, Jinning Wang, Hantao Cui, Xiaofei Wang, Rui Bo

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Microgrids feature a high penetration of inverter-interfaced distributed energy resources (DERs). The low inertia characteristic and fast dynamics of DERs pose challenges to conventional decoupled static economic operation and dynamic control design within microgrids. Hence, this paper proposed virtual inertia scheduling (VIS) for microgrids, aiming to ensure both economy and security. First, a unified framework for device-level control and grid-level operation is introduced, with VIS serving as a key application to address low inertia issues. VIS actively harnesses the controllability and flexibility of DERs to effectively manage microgrid inertia. It updates the conventional economic operation framework by incorporating the virtual …

Coupling-Informed Data-Driven Scheme For Joint Angle And Frequency Estimation In Uniform Linear Array With Mutual Coupling Present, Yanming Zhang, Wenchao Xu, A. Long Jin, Min Li, Peifeng Ma, Lijun Jiang, Steven Gao

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This paper proposes a novel coupling-informed data-driven algorithm tailored for the concurrent estimation of frequency and angle within a uniform linear array (ULA), while addressing the complicating influence of mutual coupling. Leveraging the hybrid dynamic mode decomposition (DMD) methodology, termed as averaged DMD, we incorporate moving average techniques to achieve effective denoising. The averaged DMD further decomposes the received signal into eigenvalues and corresponding eigenvectors. The frequency information is derived from the eigenvalues and the corresponding eigenvectors represent the steering vectors of sources. Subsequently, mutual coupling is informed into the calibration of the steering vector for each source. Specifically, the …

Design Of The Tm010 Mode Cylindrical Cavity Resonator For Pcb Dielectric Characterization, Reza Asadi, Chaofeng Li, Seyedmehdi Mousavi, Seyed Moastafa Mousavi, Reza Vahdani, Xiaoning Ye, Donghyun Kim

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This paper presents the study of the TM₀₁₀ mode cylindrical resonator, which can be used for printed circuit board (PCB) material properties extraction, e.g., the dielectric constant (Dk) and the loss tangent (Df) extraction. The theoretical formulas of the resonance frequency and Q-factor of the resonator are presented. In real measurement, the TM₀₁₀ mode cylindrical cavity resonator needs to be excited by the probe. The study emphasizes the impact of probe orientation, location, and field distribution on the accuracy of material property extraction. The relationship between cavity dimensions and resonance frequency is explored, highlighting the influence of cavity …

Experimental Study Of Pcb Vibration Induced By Mlcc Assembly Orientation And Process Variations, Yifan Ding, Ming Feng Xue, Jianmin Zhang, Xin Hua, Benjamin Leung, Eric A. Macintosh, Chulsoon Hwang

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The piezoelectric effect will cause the multilayer ceramic capacitor (MLCC) to deform in several directions. When it is soldered to the printed circuit board (PCB) and powered on, these deformations will exert a certain force on the PCB, causing the PCB to vibrate and emit acoustic noise at a certain frequency. Determining the dominant deformation direction that MLCC can affect the PCB is relevant and important for efficiently extracting the equivalent source of noise. This paper provides a method to determine the dominant deformation direction produced by MLCC, explores it through experimental measurement results, and finally provides a conclusion to …

A Tensor-Based Data-Driven Approach For Multidimensional Harmonic Retrieval And Its Application For Mimo Channel Sounding., Yanming Zhang, Wenchao Xu, A. Long Jin, Min Li, Ping Yuan, Lijun Jiang, Steven Gao

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

In wireless channel sounding, accurately estimating multiple parameters within a multipath signal, such as azimuth, elevation, Doppler shift, and delay, necessitates addressing the challenges posed by the multidimensional harmonic retrieval (MHR) problem. To overcome these complexities, we propose a framework based on high-order dynamic mode decomposition (HODMD) that designed for robustly estimating frequencies of interest from high-dimensional sinusoidal signals, particularly in additive white Gaussian noise conditions. The HODMD approach, a hybrid algorithm amalgamating high-order singular value decomposition (HOSVD) and dynamic mode decomposition (DMD), operates by initially decomposing observed tensorial data into a core tensor and R mode matrices through HOSVD. …

High-Speed Channel Simulator Using Neural Language Models, Hyunwook Park, Yifan Ding, Ling Zhang, Natalia Bondarenko, Hanqin Ye, Brice Achkir, Chulsoon Hwang

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

In this paper, high-speed channel simulators using neural language models are proposed. Given the input sequence of geometry design parameters of differential channels, the proposed channel simulator predicts SI characteristic sequences such as insertion loss (IL) and far-end crosstalk (FEXT). Sequence-to-sequence (seq2seq) networks using a recurrent neural network (RNN) and a long short-term memory (LSTM) are utilized for the estimator. Moreover, a transformer network which is a recent neural engine of large language models (LLMs) is introduced for the first time. Compared to seq2seq networks, the transformer network-based simulator can achieve shorter computing time due to its parallel computation called …

Design Of Waveguide Probe For Emi Characterization Of Ddr5 Sodimm, Xiangrui Su, Junho Joo, Minsu Lee, Jeongho Ju, Hyunsik Kim, Taeil Bae, Haekang Jung, Chulsoon Hwang

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

In the latest portable electronic devices, 5th generation double data rate small outline dual in-line memory modules (DDR5 SODIMMs) are more and more used and have been identified as one of the critical electromagnetic interferences (EMI) noise sources that could cause RF desensitization. In this paper, the radiation mechanism of DDR5 SODIMM deployed in a laptop is identified and investigated based on near-field scanning. It was found that a cavity formed by the SODIMM and the main board can generate strong radiation around 2.4 GHz due to their dimensions, which overlap with the Wi-Fi band. To quantify the radiation from …

Behavior Model Of A Multiphase Voltage Regulator Module With Rapid Voltage Drop Protection, Junho Joo, Hanyu Zhang, Hanfeng Wang, Wei Shen, Zhigang Liang, Lihui Cao, Seungtaek Jeong, Chulsoon Hwang

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

In this paper, a modeling method of voltage regulator module (VRM) with rapid voltage drop protection is introduced. The proposed VRM model captures a pulse-width modulation scheme developed to counteract substantial load currents with high di/dt, resulting in a large voltage drop across the power delivery network (PDN). The equations to describe the non-linear behavior associated with the multiphase VRM behavior are proposed and successfully validated for both light and heavy loads, the latter being particularly crucial to trigger the voltage drop protection measures.