Engineering Commons^™

Acuta Enews February 2006, Vol.35, No. 2

ACUTA Newsletters

ln This Issue

Nominate Now for 2006-07 Board of Directors

From the President:Volunteer and Grow......... Patricia Todus, Northwestern Univ., ACUTA President

Share Your Struggles?

Text Message Marketing Encounters the Law.............. William B. Baker, Wiley Rein & fielding

lnfo Links Randy Hayes, Univ. of Northern lowa

Tech Talk: Short Takes: Interconnects and That Pesky Skype ................ Kevin Tanzillo, Dux PR

Just for Fun: Predictions from the Past

Web Tip: ACUTA Quick Search................ Aaron Fuehrer, ACUTA lnformation Tech. Mgr.

lnstitutional Excellence Award Deadline

Thanks to Journal Advertisers for 2005

Board Report..................... Riny Ledgerwood, San Diego State Univ., ACUTA, Sec./Treasurer

DC Update..................... Whitney …

Velocity Distribution Of Helium And Neon Atoms Released From Graphite And Tungsten Limiters In Textor, P. Lindner, M. Brix, Ph Mertens, A. Pospieszczyk, U. Samm, B. Schweer, B. Unterberg

Engineering Management and Systems Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The release mechanisms of noble gases from plasma-facing components were observed spectroscopically in the TEXTOR plasma boundary by determining the velocity distribution from Doppler broadening. For the first time, three different mechanisms for helium and neon release from graphite and tungsten limiters could be distinguished quantitatively in a tokamak: thermal desorption, ion-induced desorption and particle reflection. Under the assumption that the thermal desorption follows a Maxwellian velocity distribution, the ion-induced desorption can be expressed by a Thompson velocity distribution. Calculating the particle reflection by the Monte-Carlo code TRIM, these processes could be separated in the measured velocity distribution. © 2005 …

Parallel Simulated Annealing For Scheduling Agile Manufacturing Systems, Ahmed Osama Abdulrahman

Archived Theses and Dissertations

The problem addressed in this research is the scheduling of an agile manufacturing system comprised of machining and assembly operations with the objective of minimizing the makespan. This problem has been addressed in the literature using heuristics and metaheuristics. In addition, a lower bound has been developed. This research builds upon the findings of the recent literature and proposes two enhanced algorithms, parallel simulated annealing and parallel modified simulated annealing, to solve the addressed problem. The performance of the developed algorithms is compared to that of another simulated annealing algorithm that is available in the literature. Performance comparisons are based …

Patterns In Team Communication During A Simulation Game, David M. Baca, Ray Luechtefeld, Steve Eugene Watkins

Engineering Management and Systems Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The development of communication skills is a necessary preparation for effective engineering teamwork. Argyris' "Theory of Action" provides a framework for understanding patterns in team dialogue. Students can benefit from an awareness of these patterns. The theory highlights the detection and correction of errors by sharing information during group collaboration and interactions. Quality decision-making can be enhanced when members of a team develop high degrees of openness and interdependence. Quality decision-making can be diminished when members of a team regulate the information shared within the team. This work analyzes team interactions from simulation games used in an interdisciplinary engineering course …

Acuta Enews January 2006, Vol.35, No. 1

ACUTA Newsletters

In This lssue

From ACUTA Headquarters Jeri A. Semer, CAE, ACUTA Executive Director

ACUTA Audio Seminar: Creative Cost Savings in Communications Technology

Tech Talk: Skype May be Unwanted, But at Least lt's Not Harmful............ Kevin Tanzillo, Dux PR

Institutional Excellence Award Deadline

FYI: Useful lnformation from the Campus................ Student Monitor

Web Tip: Online Directory and Other Useful Resources. Aaron Fuehrer, ACUTA lnformation Tech. Mgr.

Thanks to Sponsors for 2005

Board Report................. Riny Ledgerwood, San Diego State Univ., ACUTA Sec./Treasurer

DC Update.................. Whitney Johnson, Retired, No. Michigan Univ.

Welcome New Members

ACUTA Online Press Room

Reducing Long-Term Remedial Costs By Transport Modeling Optimization, David Becker, Barbara Minsker, Robert Greenwald, Yan Zhang, Karla Harre, Kathleen Yager, Chunmiao Zheng, Richard Peralta

United States Navy: Publications

The Department of Defense (DoD) Environmental Security Technology Certification Program and the Environmental Protection Agency sponsored a project to evaluate the benefits and utility of contaminant transport simulation-optimization algorithms against traditional (trial and error) modeling approaches. Three pump-and-treat facilities operated by the DoD were selected for inclusion in the project. Three optimization formulations were developed for each facility and solved independently by three modeling teams (two using simulation-optimization algorithms and one applying trial-and-error methods). The results clearly indicate that simulation-optimization methods are able to search a wider range of well locations and flow rates and identify better solutions than current …

A Simulated Annealing Heuristic For A Crane Sequencing Problem, Alan Mckendall, Jin Shang, James Noble, Cerry Klein

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

When maintenance activities during outages at electric power plants are scheduled using project management software, the locations of the resources required to perform the activities are determined such that the total distance the resources travel during the outage is minimized. This problem is defined as the dynamic space allocation problem (DSAP). Once the DSAP solution (i.e., assignment of activities and their required resources to workspaces and of idle resources to storage spaces) is obtained, the problem then is to determine the sequence in which the crane moves the resources to their required locations at the beginning of each period (i.e., …

A Tabu Search Heuristic For The Dynamic Space Allocation Problem, Alan Mckendall, Juan Jaramillo

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

The dynamic space allocation problem(DSAP) presented here is a relatively new problem in the literature. It looks at the optimization of space/resource assignments during the implementation of project activities. More specifically, the DSAP assigns project activities and their required resources to workspaces and idle resources to storage spaces with respect to minimizing the sum of the distances the resources travel. In this paper, construction algorithms and a tabu search heuristic are presented for the DSAP, and a set of test problems taken from the literature is used to test the performances of the heuristics. The results show that the proposed …

Hybrid Ant Systems For The Dynamic Facility Layout Problem, Alan Mckendall, Jin Shang

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Today’s consumer market demands that manufacturers must be competitive. This requires the efficient operation of manufacturing plants and their ability to quickly respond to changes in product mix and demand. In addition, studies show that material-handling cost make up between 20 and 50 percent of the total operating cost. Therefore, this paper considers the problem of arranging and rearranging, when there are changes in product mix and demand, manufacturing facilities such that the sum of material handling and rearrangement costs is minimized. This problem is called the dynamic facility layout problem (DFLP). In this paper, hybrid ant systems (HASs) are …

Simulated Annealing Heuristics For The Dynamic Facility Layout Problem, Alan Mckendall, Jin Shang, Saravanan Kuppusamy

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

In today’s economy, manufacturing plants must be able to operate efficiently and respond quickly to changes in product mix and demand. Therefore, this paper considers the problem of arranging and rearranging (when there are changes between the flows of materials between departments) manufacturing facilities such that the sum of the material handling and rearrangement costs is minimized. This problem is known as the dynamic facility layout problem (DFLP). In this paper, two simulated annealing (SA) heuristics are developed for the DFLP. The first SA heuristic (SAI) is a direct adaptation of SA to the DFLP. The second SA heuristic(SAII) is …

Process Modeling For Simulation, John Ryan, Cathal Heavey

Articles

This paper discusses shortfalls in relation to the requirements gathering phases of simulation. While many developments have taken place around supporting the model coding task of simulation, there are few tools available to assist in the requirements gathering phase. This is surprising as it has been reported by several researchers that the requirements phase can absorb twice as much resources as the coding phase. There are numerous process modeling tools available (over 100) that can and have been used to support the requirements phase of simulation. This paper provides a selective review of some of the most important in relation …

Effects, Transfer, And Fate Of Rdx From Aged Soil In Plants And Worms, E.P.H. Best, K.N. Geter, H.E. Tatem, B.K. Lane

United States Army: Publications

The objectives of this study were to provide data that can be used to predict exposure-based effects of RDX in aged soil on multiple endpoint organisms representing two trophic levels. These data can be used for defining criteria or reference values for environmental management and conducting specific risk assessment. Dose–response experiments formed the basis for the evaluation of toxic effects and transfer of contaminants from soil into two trophic levels. Long-term exposure tests were conducted to evaluate chronic, sublethal, toxicity and transfer of aged soil-based explosives, with RDX as main contaminant. In these tests, plants were exposed for 55 days …

The Effect Of Reflow Profile On Snpb And Snagcu Solder Joint Shear Strength, Jianbiao Pan, Brian J. Toleno, Tzu-Chien Chou, Wesley J. Dee

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

Purpose –The purpose of this work is to study the effect of the reflow peak temperature and time above liquidus on both SnPb and SnAgCu solder joint shear strength.

Design/methodology/approach –Nine reflow profiles for Sn3.0Ag0.5Cu and nine reflow profiles for Sn37Pb have been developed with three levels of peak temperature (230°C, 240°C, and 250°C for Sn3.0Ag0.5Cu; and 195°C, 205°C, and 215°C for Sn37Pb) and three levels of time above solder liquidus temperature (30, 60, and 90 s). The shear force data of four different sizes of chip resistors (1206, 0805, 0603, and 0402) are compared across the different …

A Simplified Model For Ploughing Forces In Turning, Daniel Waldorf

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

This paper aims to provide experimental data in support of a modified theoretical model for quantifying the effect of cutting tool edge geometry on machining forces. A previously published slip-line model is simplified and extended to the case of turning. Several sets of machining experiments were run with custom-fabricated cutting inserts of varying edge hone radius and chamfer geometry. Cutting forces were measured using a dynamometer during cutting. Results show that varying edge geometry can have a major effect on cutting forces. The developed model effectively captures the edge phenomenon and its effect on cutting forces and also offers a …

Identity And Distribution Of Residues Of Energetic Compounds At Army Live-Fire Training Ranges, Thomas F. Jenkins, Alan D. Hewitt, Clarence L. Grant, Sonia Thiboutot, Guy Ampleman, Marianne E. Walsh, Thomas A. Ranney, Charles A. Ramsey, Antonio J. Palazzo, Judith C. Pennington

United States Army: Publications

Environmental investigations have been conducted at 23 military firing ranges in the United States and Canada. The specific training facilities most frequently evaluated were hand grenade, antitank rocket, and artillery ranges. Energetic compounds (explosives and propellants) were determined and linked to the type of munition used and the major mechanisms of deposition.

The Dielectric Behavior Of Polycrystalline Ferroelectric Films With Fiber Textures, Quangen Du, Jiangyu Li, William Nothwang, Melanie W. Cole

United States Army: Publications

We consider the effects of crystallographic symmetry, texture, and internal strain on the dielectric properties of polycrystalline ferroelectric thin films with fiber textures, including spontaneous polarization, coercivity, dielectric constant, dielectric tunability, and strain-induced phase transition, by combining Landau–Ginzburg–Devonshire phenomenological theory for ferroelectrics with the micromechanics theory for polycrystalline thin films. Cubic and tetragonal BaxSr1_xTiO3 (BST) films with [001] fiber texture, and cubic and rhombohedral BST films with [111] texture are considered. The results show that for [001]-textured film compressive strain enhances the spontaneous polarization, coercivity, and tunability while it decreases the dielectric constant; for [111]-textured film the effects are the …

Proposed Evaluation Of Switchgrass Selections For Caddo House Construction, Charles Allen, Sara Thames, Jim Grafton, Bill Welton, Lorene Williams, Katina Mcclure, Darryl Monteau, Phil Cross, Andrew Hamblin, William Meyer

United States Army: Publications

The Caddo Indian tribe’s range was northwest Louisiana, northeast Texas, eastern Oklahoma, western Arkansas, and southwest Missouri. Historical records indicate the use of native switchgrass (Panicum virgatum) in the construction of houses. The frame and stringers for the houses were wood but the entire covering was bundles of switchgrass. In 2005, Fort Polk personnel and faculty and students at Haskell Indian Nations University in Lawrence, Kansas initiated a joint monitoring effort of biological (density, height, seed production), cultural, and other characteristics of switchgrass. Both groups have ongoing field and greenhouse plots with selections of switchgrass from throughout the …

A Study Of The Impact Of Prognostic Errors On System Performance, Mauricio Carrasco

Inquiry: The University of Arkansas Undergraduate Research Journal

Condition-based maintenance is growing in popularity as a means of improving equipment maintenance efficiency. Whether it be the maintenance of an airplane, a computer system, or any type of physical system, the prognostic tools associated with condition-based maintenance are subject to statistical error. These errors can lead to unnecessary preventive maintenance due to underestimation of system remaining life and unnecessary system failures due to overestimation of system remaining life. What is not clear is if these statistical errors outweigh the benefits of a condition-based maintenance policy. This study attempts to address this concern through the evaluation and comparison of three …

Class Exercise For Assessing Abilities And Providing A Structure For A Course, Paul Savory

Department of Industrial and Management Systems Engineering: Instructional Materials

I developed this class exercise to assess students abilities and to highlight the range of questions/issues that they will learn in my IMSE 440/840 (Discrete Event Computer Simulation) course. I draw a picture of the case scenario for students and explain the system’s operation to them. I then ask that they complete the questions regarding the system and/or how they would analyze it. Following class, I develop a summary of the range of student answers. At the next class session, I share the range of answers and share what my answers would be and how these questions/topics relate to what …

Enterprise Resource Planning Survey Of Korean Manufacturing Firms, Lee Taehyung, Young Moon, Lee Heeseok

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering - All Scholarship

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems are packaged software designed to integrate and optimise the business processes of an enterprise. The ERP systems have been embraced by industry as a de facto solution to integrate their business functions. The adoption of the ERP concept is a truly global phenomenon. This paper reports a recently completed survey study on Korean manufacturing firms. The study used the same survey questionnaires used in two previous surveys done on US and Swedish manufacturing firms. Our objective is to determine the extent of adoption of the ERP system in the Korean manufacturing firms, their motivations, implementation …

Neural Network-Based Output Feedback Controller For Lean Operation Of Spark Ignition Engines, Brian C. Kaul, Jagannathan Sarangapani, J. A. Drallmeier, Jonathan B. Vance, Pingan He

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Spark ignition (SI) engines running at very lean conditions demonstrate significant nonlinear behavior by exhibiting cycle-to-cycle dispersion of heat release even though such operation can significantly reduce NOx emissions and improve fuel efficiency by as much as 5-10%. A suite of neural network (NN) controller without and with reinforcement learning employing output feedback has shown ability to reduce the nonlinear cyclic dispersion observed under lean operating conditions. The neural network controllers consists of three NN: a) A NN observer to estimate the states of the engine such as total fuel and air; b) a second NN for generating virtual input; …

Modeling Net-Centric System Of Systems Using The Dystems Modeling Language Sysml, Rao Madwaraj, Sreeram Ramakrishnan, Cihan H. Dagli

Engineering Management and Systems Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Understanding the operations of a large 'net-centric system-of-systems requires in-depth knowledge of the interfaces among the various systems, sub-systems and components. Architectural modeling can help in reducing the complexity involved in designing such large networked systems. An example of such a complex system is the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS) - a system for monitoring and collecting information related to Earth's resources. This paper demonstrates the use of Systems Modeling Language (SysML), which supports specification, analysis, design, verification and validation of a broad range of complex systems, to model some aspects of the GEOSS. The paper discusses issues …

Analyzing Faulty Knowledge Systems In Project-Based Environments: An Empirical Investigation In A R&D Organization, Rafael E. Landaeta, Cesar Ariel Pinto, Timothy G. Kotnour, William R. Peterson

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Faculty Publications

This investigation contributes a framework of the relationships among the faulty elements of a knowledge system in a project-based organization. The framework was developed during an applied research project at a R&D organization. A knowledge system can be defined as a series of inputs, processes, and outputs that interact with each other with the purpose of enhance the performance and capabilities of an organization or work unit through knowledge. The framework was developed using literature, our experience as applied researchers, and data collected from members of a R&D organization. Data was collected through a survey, interviews, and group meetings. The …

An Integrated Framework For Modeling And Simulation Of The U.S. Southern Border: A Border Patrol Perspective, Shannon R. Bowling, Ghaith Rabadi, Charles Keating

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Faculty Publications

Border Security is a complex system consisting of many interrelated components that must function as a whole in order to be effective. The efficacy of border security is dependent on several independent agencies; these include U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the Department of Justice (DOJ), state and local law enforcement, and many others. Border security is not only a function of how well each of the agencies perform individually but also how well they interact to accomplish a goal. This paper attempts to model border security from a Border Patrol (BP) perspective using discrete …

Unifying Value Methodology And Robust Design To Achieve Design For Six Sigma, Vivek K. Jikar, Elizabeth A. Cudney, Kenneth M. Ragsdell, Chuck T. Hui

Engineering Management and Systems Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The concept of product or system function is considered as described in the Taguchi System of Quality Engineering. the importance of transfer functions is also discussed, and a review of conventional value analysis techniques is given. This paper proposes a combination of the principles of robust design and value methodology to enable on-target functionality and direct cost allocation early in the product development process. the discussion on integration of value analysis principles in robust design methodology is provided considering the six-sigma environment. Copyright © 2006 SAE International.

A Dynamic Heuristic For The Stochastic Unrelated Parallel Machine Scheduling Problem, Jean-Paul Arnaout, Ghaith Rabadi, Ji Hyon Mun

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Faculty Publications

This paper addresses the problem of batch scheduling in an unrelated parallel machine environment with sequence dependent setup times and an objective of minimizing the total weighted mean completion time. The jobs' processing times and setup times are stochastic for better depiction of the real world. This is a NP-hard problem and in this paper, new heuristics are developed and compared to existing ones using simulation. The results and analysis obtained from the computational experiments proved the superiority of the proposed algorithm PMWP over the other algorithms presented.

Forecasting Using The Mahalanobis-Taguchi System In The Presence Of Collinearity, Elizabeth A. Cudney, Kenneth M. Ragsdell

Engineering Management and Systems Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The Mahalanobis Taguchi System is a diagnosis and forecasting method for multivariate data. Mahalanobis distance is a measure based on correlations between the variables and different patterns that can be identified and analyzed with respect to a base or reference group. the issue of multicollinearity is not adequately addressed in the MTS method. in cases where strong relationships exist between variables, the correlation matrix becomes almost singular, and the inverse matrix is not accurate. Multicollinearity can be handled by utilizing the adjoint matrix of the correlation matrix and Gram-Schmidt orthogonalization. This paper presents a case study of the MTS methodology …

Decentralized Power Control With Implementation For Rfid Networks, Kainan Cha, Anil Ramachandran, David Pommerenke, Jagannathan Sarangapani

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

In radio frequency identification (RFID) systems, the detection range and read rates will suffer from interference among high power reading devices. This problem grows severely and degrades system performance in dense RFID networks. In this paper, we investigate a suite of feasible power control schemes to ensure overall coverage area of the system while maintaining a desired read rate. The power control scheme and MAC protocol dynamically adjusts the RFID reader power output in response to the interference level seen locally during tag reading for an acceptable signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). We present novel distributed adaptive power control (DAPC) and probabilistic …

Distributed Power Control For Cellular Networks In The Presence Of Channel Uncertainties, Maciej Jan Zawodniok, Q. Shang, Jagannathan Sarangapani

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

In this paper, a novel distributed power control (DPC) scheme for cellular network in the presence of radio channel uncertainties such as path loss, shadowing, and Rayleigh fading is presented. Since these uncertainties can attenuate the received signal strength and can cause variations in the received Signal-to-Interference ratio (SIR), a new DPC scheme, which can estimate the slowly varying channel uncertainty, is proposed so that a target SIR at the receiver can be maintained. Further, the standard assumption of a constant interference during a link's power update used in other works in the literature is relaxed. A CDMA-based cellular network …

Requirements Gathering For Simulation, John Ryan, Cathal Heavey

Conference papers

This paper discusses the current shortfalls in support for the pre-coding phases of a discrete event simulation project. The paper then presents a process modelling technique, Simulation Activity Diagrams (SADs), developed to specifically support the initial requirements gathering phases of a simulation project. The paper concludes with an outline of proposed future developments to the modelling technique.