Engineering Commons^™

Head Movement And Vision In Underwater-Feeding Birds Of Stream, Lake, And Seashore, Lee W. Casperson

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Studies head movement and vision in underwater-feeding birds. Review of relevant literature on the physiological and behavioral aspects of vision; Role of vertical head movement as an aid in the acquisition of visual information.

Experimental Studies With A Continually Online Trained Artificial Neural Network Controller For A Turbogenerator, Ganesh K. Venayagamoorthy, Ronald G. Harley

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This paper presents the design of a continually online trained (COT) artificial neural network (ANN) controller for a laboratory turbogenerator system connected to the infinite bus through a transmission line in real time. Two COT ANNs are used for the implementation: one ANN to identify the complex nonlinear dynamics of the power system, and the other ANN to control the turbogenerator. Practical results are presented to show that COT ANN controllers can control turbogenerators under steady state as well as transient conditions in the laboratory environment

Integrating Power Engineering Topics And Applications In Non-Power Courses, S. Legowski, Badrul H. Chowdhury, J. J. Cupal, R. G. Jacquot, B. J. W. Pierre, A. H. M. S. Ula, B. M. Wilamowski

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This paper investigates integrating power engineering material over the breadth of an electrical engineering curriculum. Electrical engineering curricula have a large number of required courses and many subareas for students to study. By introducing power concepts in a variety of courses, students may be motivated to take additional courses in the power area and are better prepared for the diverse background which will be required of them as practising power engineers. The important interrelationships between subareas of electrical engineering are better understood by students when cross discipline applications are discussed. This paper describes the introduction of power concepts and applications …

The Appearance Of Ferrielectric Phases In Confined Liquid Crystal Studied By Photon Correlation Spectroscopy, Yuri Panarin, Fouad M. Aliev, Charles Rosenblatt

Articles

The influence of confinement on the dynamic properties and appearance of ferrielectric phases has been investigated by dynamic light scattering, performed in the bulk AFLC as well as confined in 200 8, and 2000 8, cylindrical pores. The analysis of the experimental results shows that the ferrielectric phases are not formed in 200 A pores, while they appear in 2000 8, pores as well as in bulk.

Investigation Of The Thickness Mode In Surface Stabilized Ferroelectric Liquid Crystal Cells, O.E. Kalinovskaya, J.K. Vij, Yu. V. Tretyakov, Yuri Panarin, Yu. P. Kalmykov

Articles

Dielectric properties of surface stabilized ferroelectric liquid crystal (SSFLC) cells have been investigated both experimentally and theoretically. The thickness mode is found to consist of two relaxation processes. A decomposition of an analytical solution of the complex dielectric permittivitye(v) in terms ofthese processesis given. Theexperimental results showagreement with theory and lead to the conclusion that the thickness mode can be separated into two processes. It has been found that the ratio of the dielectric strengths for the two processes depends on the cell thickness, and that the ratio of their frequencies is approximately equal to 10. The lower frequency process …

The Dynamic Properties Of Confined Antiferroelectric Liquid Crystal Investigated By Photon Correlation Spectroscopy, Yuri Panarin, C. Rosenblatr, F.M. Aliev

Articles

Dynamic light scattering was used to examine ferrielectric liquid crystalline phases in porous media. Whereas in larger pores (200 Å) ferrielectric phases were observed, they were not found in the smallest pores (200 Å). Additionally, the temperatures of SmC - SmA phase transition were found to be suppressed in the pores relative to bulk, while SmCA - SmCγ phase transition is not affected by the confinement. These observations have been explained by the structural aspects of antiferroelectric liquid crystalline materials in a confined geometry and show the importance of long range electrostatic interaction for existence of ferrielectric phases.

The Dynamic Properties Of 5cb Filled With Aerosil Particles Investigated By Pcs, F.M. Aliev, M. Kreuzer, Yuri Panarin

Articles

Nematic liquid crystal filled with Aerosil particles, a prospective composite material for optoelectronic application, has been investigated by static light scattering and Photon Correlation Spectroscopy (PCS). The Aerosil particles in filled nematic liquid crystals (FN) form a network structure with LC domains about 2500 Å in size with a random distribution of the director orientation of each domain. We found that the properties of 5CB are considerably affected by the network. The N-I phase transition in filled 5CB was found to be smeared out and depressed. PCS experiments show that two new relaxation processes appear in filled 5CB in addition …

Micropolarizer Array For Infrared Imaging Polarimetry, M. W. Jones, Gregory P. Nordin, P. C. Deguzman, J. T. Meier

Faculty Publications

The design and fabrication of a micropolarizer array for imaging polarimetry is described for the 3–5-μm-wavelength region. Each micropolarizer consists of a 475-nm-period Mo wire grid in a 16 μm × 16 μm aperture. Interference lithography is used to generate the small grating features through an etch mask layer. Arrays of 256 × 256 micropolarizers at three distinct angular orientations have been fabricated that permit the measurement of the first three Stokes vector components in each pixel of an imaging polarimeter. An imaging system composed of a micropolarizer array integrated directly onto a focal plane array has been assembled, and …

Mössbauer Effect Determination Of Relative Recoilless Fractions For Iron Oxides, Sei J. Oh, Desmond C. Cook

Physics Faculty Publications

The relative recoilless fraction (F-value) of each of six iron oxides, defined as the ratio of the recoil-free fractions of two different materials, was experimentally determined relative to hematite at 300 K and 77 K by Mössbauer spectroscopy. Using the relative recoil-free fractions compared to that of hematite, the relative recoilless fractions between all pairs of the seven iron oxides were determined. The F-values can allow conversion of Mössbauer subspectral areas to the relative atomic, molecular, or weight fractions of each iron oxide present in a mixed oxide phase sample.

Nonlinear Constrained Optimizer And Parallel Processing For Golden Block Line Search, Duc T. Nguyen, Wilson H. Tang, Yeou K. Tung, Hakizumwami B. Runesha

Civil & Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

Generalized exponential penalty functions are constructed for the multiplier methods in solving nonlinear programming problems. The non-smooth extreme constraint Gext is replaced by a single smooth constraint Gs by using the generalized exponential function (base a>1). The well-known K.S. function is found to be a special case of our proposed formulation. Parallel processing for Golden block line search algorithm is then summarized, which can also be integrated into our formulation. Both small and large-scale nonlinear programming problems (up to 2000 variables and 2000 nonlinear constraints) have been solved to validate the proposed algorithms.

Reduction Of Quantum Noise In Transmittance Estimation Using Photonecorrelated Beams, Majeed M. Hayat, Adel Joobeur, Bahaa E.A. Saleh

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

The accuracy of optical measurements at low light levels is limited by the quantum noise of the source and by the random nature of the interaction with the measured object. The source noise may be reduced by use of nonclassical photon-number squeezed light. This paper considers the use of two photon-correlated beams (generated, for example, by spontaneous parametric downconversion) to measure the optical transmittance of an object. The photons of each beam obey a random Poisson process, but are synchronized in time. One beam is used to probe the object while the other is used as a reference providing information …

Surface Resistance Measurements Of Superconducting Niobium Samples With A Triaxial Cavity, Paul Martin Boccard

Physics Theses & Dissertations

This experimental study has revealed and investigated many of the physical issues that affect accurate measurement of the surface resistance for small samples consisting of superconducting niobium films on copper substrates. It is believed that this work provides the groundwork for future research directed towards solving this important problem. Accurate measurement of surface resistance for such samples is needed to allow the rapid evaluation and optimization of the deposition parameters necessary for manufacturing low-loss superconducting niobium films.

A superconducting niobium triaxial cavity was investigated to determine its suitability for measuring the residual surface resistance of copper samples that were sputter-coated …

Extracting Consistent Weight Ratio Matrices From Inconsistent Judgement Matrices., Christian Alphonce

Tanzania Journal of Engineering and Technology (TJET)

The Analy,'ic Hierarchy Process (AHP) developed by Saaty Inore (han a decade ago has been widely applied in diverse decision making problenls ranging from socio-economic planning to engineering designs. One of the basic steps of this popular decision support tool is concerned with estimating a ratio scale of a set of entities from their inconsistent pairwise comparison judgement matrix. A number of estimation procedures for this purpose have been proposed. These include Saaty's eigenvector meihod, various geometric means methods, and methods using logarithmic least squares, least squares. and means Transformanons, amongst O,'hers. One Thing conunon to all these Inethods is …

Multi-Baseline Interferometric Sar For Iterative Height Estimation, Adam E. Robertson

Theses and Dissertations

Multiple SAR interferograms with judiciously selected height sensitivities can be iteratively combined to create a high accuracy digital elevation map. An initial height estimate is refined by iteratively using larger baselines to obtain a height estimation accuracy limited by the spatial decorrelation of the antenna baseline. Spatial filtering is used to reduce the propagation of errors for accurate height estimation. Images containing regions isolated by phase discontinuities, as often found in urban environments, can be resolved by this iterative multi-baseline technique. Computationally demanding and potentially unreliable phase unwrapping is not required to determine scene elevation using SAR inMultiple SAR interferograms …

What Can Humor And Advertising Teach Us About Legal Drafting?, Dallin D. Oaks, Jeremy Lewis

Faculty Publications

In his book Legal Drafting in a Nutshell, Haggard includes a useful chapter of nearly 50 pages in which he lists various lexical and structural elements and explains how these can lead to ambiguous writing. The kind of inventory approach that he presents is helpful and reveals that ambiguity doesn't just happen but often results from the careless use of identifiable structures or particular words.

A Recursive Green's Function Method For Boundary Integral Analysis Of Inhomogeneous Domains, Jim D. Freeze, Michael A. Jensen

Faculty Publications

The recursive Green's function method (RGFM) for computation of fields scattered by two-dimensional (2-D) inhomogeneous dielectric bodies is presented. The algorithm efficiently constructs the Green's function for the inhomogeneous region by recursively combining known Green's functions from smaller subdomains. The fields on the scatterer surface are then computed using a boundary integral formulation. Proper implementation of the RGFM results in computational and storage complexities which scale as N1.5 and N, respectively, where N is the total number of discrete cells in a domain. Comparisons of results obtained using the RGFM with those computed from moment method and exact solutions show …

Powergraf: An Educational Software Package For Power Systems Analysis And Design, Tian Yane, Max Darwin Anderson

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The purpose of PowerGraf is to present a graphical user interface (GUI) and a convenient tool for building one-line diagrams displaying data. The GUI is open and friendly for power systems design, analysis and control, because a picture provides a better illustration of cause-and-effect relationships than a tabular printout does. Basic elements such as buses, lines and transformers are given such that the power system topology is easily drawn with this tool, and the system parameters are entered on the picture and checked visually. This enables the power system topology and the system data to be shown on one picture …

Fitness Landscape Analysis Of Discrete Constrained Optimization Problems, Sai Prasanna Ravichandran

Masters Theses

The exponentially large size of the solution space of typical optimization problems precludes the use of any deterministic approach to search for an optimal solution. A more efficient and efficacious approach is to use heuristic algorithms based on rules of thumb to guide the search process in the solution space. Associated with every solution in the space is a real number called fitness that signifies the quality of a solution. This space and the fitness values together form the fitness landscapes. Knowledge about the topology of these fitness landscapes is vital for any heuristic search operator to expedite the search …

Adaptive Channel Equalization Techniques, Saied Razavilar

Masters Theses

Inter Symbol Interference (ISI) is a characteristic of band-limited communication channels that can severely degrade the digital communication system performance if not treated properly. Channel equalization techniques may be used to mitigate the effects of ISI in the system, thereby improving the system capacity and performance. In this thesis, the problem of Inter Symbol Interference caused by the nonlinear characteristics of band limited communication channels and adaptive equalization techniques to combat the effects of ISI are discussed. First, the analysis of ISI in a band limited communication channel using a concrete theoretical framework is presented. Next, various adaptive equalization techniques …

An Image Model Based On Occluding Object Images And Maximum Entropy, John A. Stuller, Rahul Shah

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This Paper Introduces a Statistical Image Model based on Occlusion and Maximum Entropy. the Statistical Model Combines a Fundamental Property of Image Formation, Occlusion, with Both Object-Image Shape and Nonuniform Object-Image Intensity. the Model is a Composition of Individual Object-Images that Have Random Positions, Shapes, and Intensities, and that Occlude Both Background and One Another. We Derive the Autocorrelation and Second-Order Probability Density Functions of This Model and Give Several Examples. © 1998 IEEE.

The Latest World Wide Progress In Solid Oxide Fuel Cell, Yi Jiang

Journal of Electrochemistry

Solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) is a novel, green electricity generation technology, which has been showing rapid development since 1980's. In light of its high efficiency, environmental friendly, fuel adaptability and long term stability, the Research, Development and Demonstration (RD&D) of this hype of full cell have been emphasized in a large number of developed countries. Based on the information communicated at the latest symposium on SOFC held last year in Aachen (Germany) and the knowledge gained through years of research in this field, a comprehensive review on the latest development of the tubular, this planar SOFC as well as …

A Preliminary Study Of The Synthesis Of Tin-Based Amorphous Material And Its Behavior On Lithium Intercalation, Li Liu, Han-Xi Yang, Ju-Tang Sun, Xing-Ping Ai

Journal of Electrochemistry

An amorphous lithium inserting anode material based on Tin oxide glass was synthesized by salification in solution and its properties on lithium intercalation was investigated by X ray diffraction (XRD), microelectrode voltammetry and charge discharge measurements. The results have shown that this kind of material has considerable electrochemical reversibility toward lithium intercalation deintercalation. The available discharge capacity of the material reaches 430 mAh/g with charge-discharge efficiency over 90%, showing a great potential for practical use.

Studies Of Spinal Li(1+X)Mn(2-X)O4 Rechargeable Lithium Ion Battery, Xiao-Mei Wu, Qing-He Yang, Zhong-Kao Jin, Hao-Qing Wu, Xiang-Fu Zong

Journal of Electrochemistry

The spinel Li intercalation compound Li_1+xMn_2-xO₄ (0< x <1) was prepared by using techniques of cyclic voltammetry. The electrochemical parameters of Li_1+xMn_2-xO₄ electrode vary as either the starting materials or the synthesis temperature changes. It was found that the initial capacity and reversible behaviors of the Li_1+xMn_2-xO₄ electrode depends on the amount of the excess Li, represented as x in Li_1+xMn_2-xO₄. The reversible of Li intercalation process for Li_1+xMn_2-xO₄ electrode was demonstrate by cyclic voltammograms.

Direct Electro-Oxidation Synthesis Of D-Arabinose On Spectroscopic Graphite Electrode, Hei Wei, Huang Ying

Journal of Electrochemistry

D Arabinose synthesized by direct electro-oxidative decarboxylation of D gluconate on graphite electrode from aqueous solutions. The effects of D gluconate concentration, electrolysis potential, temperature and electrolyte composition on the current efficiency and product yield of electrosynthsis are discussed. The laboratory scale electrosynthesis was achieved with flow through cell. The optimum technology conditions for electrosynthesis were obtained with orthogonal design method. Both galvanostatic and potentionstatic conditions have been exploited, the later was found to be more effective.

Study On Electrosynthesis Of Butyl Butyrate At Conducting Oxide Anode Support On Titanium, Jun-Xiang He, Jin-Cheng Zhou, Kang-Ning Chen

Journal of Electrochemistry

Synthesis of butyl butyrate by direct electroxidation of n butyl alcohol and the electrochemical behaviors of several selected conducting oxide electrodes (Pb/PbO_2, Ti/PbO_2, i/SnO₂+Sb₂O₃/PbO₂ and Ti/SnO₂+Sb₂O₃+PdO_x/PbO₂) have been investigated. The results demonstrated that the intermediate layers of SnO₂, Sb₂O₃ and PdO_x could significantly decrease the interfacial resistance of the electrodes, and that the Ti/SnO₂+Sb₂O₃+PdO_x/PbO₂ electrode possessed better electrocatelytic performance than others.

Primary Research Of Reversible Proton Exchange Membrane Regenerative Fuel Cells, Zhi-Gang Shao, Bao-Lian Yi, Ming Han

Journal of Electrochemistry

In this paper, we report the results of our studies on regenerative proton exchange membrane fuel cell (RPEMRFC) catalysts, electrode preparation and their performances. The Pt catalyst for the oxygen electrode was replaced by 60 w%Pt + 40 w%IrO₂ which reduces polarization by 0.2 V in a polymer protone exchange membrane fuel cell. The cycle performance of RPEMRFC was found to be manly effected by the stability of the diffiusion layer of bifunctional oxygen electrode.

Self-Enhancement Of Dynamic Gratings In Photogalvanic Crystals, Nickolai Kukhtarev, Sergei F. Lyuksyutov, Preben Buchhave, Tatiana Kukhtareva, K. Sayano, Partha P. Banerjee

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

We have developed a compact closed-form solution of the band transport model for high-contrast gratings in photogalvanic crystals. Our solution predicts the effect of the photoconductivity and the electric field grating enhancement due to the photogalvanic effect. We predict a pronounced dependence of the steady-state photogalvanic current on the contrast of the interference pattern and an increase of holographic storage time due to the enhancement of the photoconductivity grating contrast. In the high contrast limit and a large photogalvanic effect the refractive index grating will be shifted from the position of the intensity modulation pattern, contrary to the usually adopted …

Case Study Comparisons Of Standard And Energy Efficient Polyphase Induction Motors Subjected To Unbalances Phase Voltages, Brian L. Bidwell

Masters Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

This study investigates the behaviors and economics of standard and energy efficient polyphase induction motors under unbalanced phase voltage conditions ofup to 5 percent. Motors sizes of 25, 50, 100,150,200, 250 and 300 hp are used in this investigation. Computer simulations are used to study the efficiencies, power losses and economics of motor behavior when unbalanced phase voltage system conditions exist. Previous polyphase induction motor studies simulated unbalanced phase voltage conditions by assuming a high impedance fault at the motor terminals. In this study, a method is used to simulate unbalanced phase voltage conditions by varying the phase voltage at …

A Virtual Classroom Via Dataconferencing: A Multi-Institutional Experience, Shelli K. Starrett, Anil Pahwa, Kraig J. Olejniczak, S. D. Sudhoff, Mariesa Crow

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This paper presents the experience of five faculty from four universities who are co-developing and team teaching courses using the world-wide web (WWW). In particular two novel power engineering courses, Flexible Control of Transmission Systems and Flexible Control of Distribuction Systems, introduce the student to the application of power electronic-based controllers, known specifically as flexible AC transmission systems (FACTS) controllers, to enhance the performance of the transmission and distribution systems in an electric power system. In order to leverage faculty expertise in the various topics included in each course, a unique partnership was formed among five faculty from the following …

Deriving Of Single Intensive Picosecond Optical Pulses From A High-Power Gain-Switched Laser Diode By Spectral Filtering, S. N. Vainshtein, Grigory Simin, J. T. Kostamovaara

Faculty Publications

Single 25 ps/16 W optical pulses were achieved by spectral filtering from a multiheterostructure gain-switched laser diode with its quasisteady-state modes suppressed by a factor of 10³ as compared with the peak power. A significant transient spectrum broadening makes this possible provided that a very high dI/dt rate of the pumping current pulse is used. A simple numerical model is suggested which describes adequately both the spectral and transient features of the observed phenomenon. It follows from the model that single picosecond optical pulses can be obtained from any type of high power semiconductor laser.