Engineering Commons^™

Study On Passive And/Or Active Vibration Control For Flexible Structures, Qinghua Chen

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research is to present new methods of active and passive vibration control for flexible structures. The study includes: 1) passive viscoelastic damping treatment; 2 ) active vibration control using layered shape memory alloy (SMA); 3) combined application of viscoelastic damping treatment and SMA; 4) experiments.

In order to maximize damping and save weight of the structure and cost, a partially covered double sandwich cantilever beam model has been presented. It is shown that the double sandwich beam is better than single sandwich beam for some conditions. To take into account of end loads effect of elastic …

Flash Memory Boot Block Architecture For Safe Firmware Updates, Hsiang Chi

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The most significant risk of updating embedded system code is the possible loss of system firmware during the update process. If the firmware is lost, the system will cease to operate, which can be very costly to the end user. This thesis is concerned with exploring alternate architectures which exploit the integration of flash memory technology in order to overcome this problem. Three design models and associated software techniques will be presented. These design models are described in detail in terms of the strategies they employ in order to prevent system lockup and the loss of firmware. The most important …

An Experimental Study Of The Effects Of Double-Diffusive Convention Processes During The Solification Of Binary Alloys, Richard Burton

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Experiments were conducted to show the effects of thermal and geometric boundary conditions on the liquid pool of a binary alloy system which is undergoing phase change, solidification. Transparent analogue solutions were selected for study and experimental apparatus were designed and built. Thermal distribution and concentration data were collected and analysed for the melt pool of various selected geometries and boundary conditions of the systems under study. The data indicate-that characteristic flows develop for both Hypereutectic and Hypoeutectic concentration levels and that the development of macrosegregation and microsegregation defects in continuous casting materials can be minimised by the adjustment of …

Evaluating The Effectiveness Of A Delineated Wellhead Protection Area : The North West Wellfield In Dade County, Florida, Jose H. Olivo Jr.

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Methods for the evaluation of the effectiveness of the Wellhead Protection Program (WHPP) in the North West Wellfield, Dade County, Florida are presented. This is done through application of two computer programs developed by the Environmental Protection Agency: WHPA (Version 2.2), a Modular Semi-Analytical Model for the Delineation of Wellhead Protection Areas, and WHAEM, the Wellhead Analytical Element Model. In addition the Calculated Fixed Radius Method for capture zone delineation is also used. Wellhead delineation results from the afore mentioned three methods are obtained for both present and future water demands, based on population predictions done for the years 2010, …