Engineering Commons^™

Macros By Example In A Graphical Uims, Dan R. Olsen Jr., Jonathan Turner, Stephen Bart Wood, John R. Dance

Faculty Publications

A macro facility that allows end users to extend interactive graphical applications is presented as part of a user-interface management system (UIMS). Such macros are expressed by example; that is, the end user programs the macro in the application's generated user interface. Problems with macros-by-example in graphical applications are explored, and requirements to accommodate such a facility are defined for the UIMS dialogue model. Existing UIMS models are reviewed relative to these requirements, and the unique facilities of the MIKE (menu interaction kontrol environment) semantics-based model are presented. The implementation of the macro-by-example system is discussed, as well as the …

Statistical Continuum Theory For Inelastic Behavior Of A Two-Phase Medium, Brent L. Adams, H. Garmestani, S. Lin

Faculty Publications

This work was supported in part (B.L. Adams) by the MRSEC Program of the National Science Foundation under Award no. DMR-9632556. Further support was provided by the Center for Materials Research and Technology (MARTECH at FSU) and Center for Nonlinear and Nonequilibrium Sciences (CENNAS at FAMU). A statistical contiuum mechanics formulation is presented to predict the inelastic behavior of a medium consisting of two isotropic phases. The phase distribution and morphology are represented by a two-point probability function. The isotropic behavior of the single phase medium is represented by a power law relationship between the strain rate and the resolved …

Robotic Tcf And Rigid-Body Calibration Methods, Edward Red, Xuguang Wang

Faculty Publications

For off-line programming to work, systematic methods must be developed to account for non-ideal performance of the parts and devices in the manufacturing cell. Although much of the literature focuses on robot inaccuracy, this paper considers practical methods for the tool control frame (TCF) calibration and rigid-body compensation required to close the inverse kinematics loop for target driven tasks.

Extracting The Relative Grain Boundary Free Energy And Mobility Functions From The Geometry Of Microstructures, Brent L. Adams, D. Kinderlehrer, W. W. Mullins, Anthony D. Rollett, Shlomo Ta'asan

Faculty Publications

This work was supported primarily by the MRSEC Program of the National Science Foundation under Award Number DMR-9632556. This paper describes a method for extracting, from measurements of a polycrystal, the relative excess free energy and the relative mobility of the grain boundaries as functions of the crystallographic type (five degrees of freedom) and relevant thermodynamic variables. The method requires the simultaneous measurement of both the geometry and the crystallography of a large number of grain boundary intersections; the crystallographic information may be obtained from orientation imaging microscopy (OIM). For simplicity, the intersections will be assumed to be triple junctions …

Nonlinear Optimal Control Of A Hydraulically Actuated Positioning System, Timothy Mclain, Randal W. Beard

Faculty Publications

In this paper, the nonlinear optimal control problem is formulated for the position control of an electrohydraulic servo system. The optimal control is given by the solution to the Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman equation, which in this case cannot be solved explicitly. An alternative method, based upon successive Galerkin approximation, is used to obtain an approximate optimal solution. Preliminary simulation results, demonstrating the application of this approach to the position control of a hydraulically actuated device, are presented.

Local Refinement Of Three-Dimensional Finite Element Meshes, M. L. Staten, Norman L. Jones

Faculty Publications

Mesh refinement is an important tool for editing finite element meshes in order to increase the accuracy of the solution. Refinement is performed in an iterative procedure in which a solution is found, error estimates are calculated, and elements in regions of high error are refined. This process is repeated until the desired accuracy is obtained.

Much research has been done on mesh refinement. Research has been focused on two-dimensional meshes and three-dimensional tetrahedral meshes ([1] Ning et al. (1993) Finite Elements in Analysis and Design, 13, 299–318; [2] Rivara, M. (1991) …

Azimuthal Modulation Of C-Band Scatterometer Over Southern Ocean Sea Ice, David G. Long, David S. Early

Faculty Publications

In a continuing evaluation of the ERS-1 C-band scatterometer as a tool for studying polar sea ice, the authors evaluate the azimuthal modulation characteristics of Antarctic sea ice. ERS-1 AMI scatterometer mode data sets from several study regions dispersed in the Antarctic seasonal sea ice pack are evaluated for azimuthal modulation. When appropriate, the incidence angle dependence is estimated and removed in a study region before determining whether azimuthal modulation is present in the data. Other comparisons are made using the fore and aft beam measurement difference. The results show that over the ice pack, azimuthal modulation is less than …

A Unified Green's Function Analysis Of Complicated Dfb Lasers, Jim D. Freeze, Michael A. Jensen, Richard H. Selfridge

Faculty Publications

An efficient full-wave analysis technique for one-dimensional optical domains, known as the recursive Green's function method (RGFM), is presented for evaluation of distributed feedback (DFB) laser cavities with arbitrary material profiles. The method first constructs the Green's function of an inhomogeneous domain and subsequently uses Green's theorem to determine the laser optical field, lasing wavelength, and threshold gain. The technique is applied to investigate the performance of three DFB laser structures: a chirped-grating configuration, a modulated stripe width design, and a reduced duty cycle complex-coupled device. These structures are evaluated in terms of their single-mode lasing behavior and the uniformity …

Predicting The Viscosity Of Alkanes Using Nonequilibrium Molecular Dynamics: Evaluation Of Intermolecular Potential Models, Richard L. Rowley, William Allen

Faculty Publications

Nonequilibrium molecular dynamics (NEMD) viscosity simulations of branched and linear alkanes at liquid densities were performed using both united-atom (UA) and all-atom (AA) intermolecular potential models in order to study the relative efficacy of the models in predicting fluid viscosity. Both models were used in conjunction with fixed bond lengths and bond angles, but different torsional potentials were investigated. The commonly used Ryckaert—Bellemans intermolecular potential model, which accurately predicts viscosities for short straight-chain alkanes, produced values for branched and long-chain alkanes that were significantly below experimental values. Likewise, a more complex UA model that uses transferrable site potentials and is …

On-Line Cartesian Trajectory Control Of Mechanisms Along Complex Curves, Edward Red, Zhaoxue Yang

Faculty Publications

New methods have been developed to control a mechanism's realtime Cartesian motion along spatially complex curves such as Non-Uniform Rational B-splines (NURBS). The methods dynamically map the critical trajectory parameters between parameter space, Cartesian space, and joint space. Trajectory models that relate Cartesian tool speeds and accelerations to joint speeds and accelerations have been generalized so that they can be applied to most classes of robots and CNC mechanisms.

Secondary Dark Rings Of Internal Conical Refraction, Karl F. Warnick, David V. Arnold

Faculty Publications

This paper treats the phenomenon of internal conical refraction, in which a narrow beam propagating along an optical axis of a biaxial anisotropic medium spreads into a hollow cone. An expression is obtained for the intensity distribution produced by conical refraction that predicts additional fringes concentric to the well known Poggendorf dark ring for certain propagation distances and beam widths.

Teaching Electromagnetic Field Theory Using Differential Forms, Karl F. Warnick, Richard H. Selfridge, David V. Arnold

Faculty Publications

The calculus of differential forms has significant advantages over traditional methods as a tool for teaching electromagnetic (EM) field theory. First, films clarify the relationship between field intensity and flux density, by providing distinct mathematical and graphical representations for the two types of fields. Second, Ampere's and Faraday's laws obtain graphical representations that are as intuitive as the representation of Gauss's law. Third, the vector Stokes theorem and the divergence theorem become special cases of a single relationship that is easier for the student to remember, apply, and visualize than their vector formulations. Fourth, computational simplifications result from the use …

Effects Of Monomer Structure Ontheir Organization And Polymerizationin A Smectic Liquid Crystal, C. Allan Guymon, Erik N. Hoggan, Noal A. Clark, Thomas P. Rieker, David M. Walba, Christopher N. Bowman

Faculty Publications

Photopolymerizable diacrylate monomers dissolved in fluid-layer smectic A and smectic C liquid crystal (LC) hosts exhibited significant spatial segregation and orientation that depend strongly on monomer structure. Small, flexible monomers such as 1,6-hexanediol diacrylate (HDDA) oriented parallel to the smectic layers and intercalated, whereas rod-shaped mesogen-like monomers such as 1,4-di-(4-(6-acryloyloxyhexyloxy)benzoyloxy)-2-methylbenzene (C6M) oriented normal to the smectic layers and collected within them. Such spatial segregation caused by the smectic layering dramatically enhanced photopolymerization rates; for HDDA, termination rates were reduced, whereas for C6M, both the termination and propagation rates were increased. These polymerization precursor structures suggest novel materials-design paradigms for gel …

Radar Backscatter Measurement Accuracy For A Spaceborne Pencil-Beam Wind Scatterometer With Transmit Modulation, David G. Long, Michael W. Spencer

Faculty Publications

Scatterometers are remote sensing radars designed to measure near-surface winds over the ocean. The difficulties of accommodating traditional fan-beam scatterometers on spacecraft has lead to the development of a scanning pencil-beam instrument known as SeaWinds. SeaWinds will be part of the Japanese Advanced Earth Observing Satellite II (ADEOS-II) to be launched in 1999. To analyze the performance of the SeaWinds design, a new expression for the measurement accuracy of a pencil-beam system is required. In this paper the authors derive a general expression for the backscatter measurement accuracy for a pencil-beam scatterometer which includes the effects of transmit signal modulation …

Extracting The Grain Boundary Character/Free Energy Relationship From The Microstructure: Pure <100> And <111> Tilt Boundaries, Brent L. Adams, S. Costiner, D. Kinderlehrer, W. W. Mullins, Shlomo Ta'asan

Faculty Publications

This work was supported primarily by the MRSEC Program of the National Science Foundation under Award Number DMR-9632556. Analysis is described to extract the excess free energy of grain boundaries from the mesotexture of well-equilibrated polycrystalline samples. The approach is based upon the force and torque balances at triple junctions described in the classical work of Herring. The main advantage of the approach is that the free energy function is obtained over the full fundamental zone of grain boundary types. For the purposes of exposition, the method is described for specified two-parameter hypersurfaces in the fundamental zone for cubic polycrystals …

Release Of Inorganic Material During Coal Devolatilization, Larry L. Baxter, Reginald E. Mitchell, Thomas H. Fletcher

Faculty Publications

Experimental results presented in this paper indicate that coal devolatilization products convectively remove a fraction of the nonvolatile components of inorganic material atomically dispersed in the coal matrix. Results from three facilities burning six different coals illustrate this mechanism of ash transformation and release from coal particles. Titanium is chosen to illustrate this type of mass release from coal particles on the basis of its low volatility and mode of occurrence in the coal. During moderate rates of devolatilization (10⁴ K/s heating rate), no significant loss of titanium is noted. At more rapid rates of heating/devolatilization (10⁵ K/s) …

Tradeoffs In The Design Of A Spaceborne Scanning Pencil Beam Scatterometer: Application To Seawinds, David G. Long, Chialin T. Wu, Michael W. Spencer

Faculty Publications

SeaWinds is a spaceborne wind scatterometer to be flown on the second Japanese Advanced Earth Observing Satellite (ADEOS-II) in 1999. An important international element of NASA's Earth Observing System (EOS), SeaWinds is an advanced follow-on to the NASA scatterometer (NSCAT) on the first ADEOS platform. Unlike previous operational spaceborne scatterometer systems. SeaWinds employs a scanning "pencil-beam" antenna rather than a "fan-beam" antenna, making the instrument more compact and yielding greater ocean coverage. The goals of this paper are twofold. First, the overall SeaWinds functional design and backscatter measurement approach are described, and the relative advantages of the pencil-beam technique are …

The Effect Of Ultrasonic Frequency Upon Enhanced Killing Ofp. Aeruginosa Biofilms, Zhen Qian, Richard D. Sagers, William G. Pitt

Faculty Publications

It is widely recognized that the bacteria sequestered in a biofilm on a medical implant are much more resistant to antibiotics than their planktonic counterparts. Recent studies have shown that application of antibiotic along with low power ultrasound significantly increases the killing of planktonic bacteria by the antibiotic. Herein is reported a similar application of antibiotic and ultrasound to sessile bacteria in biofilms of Pseudomonas aeruginosa on a polyethylene substrate. Biofilm viability was measured after exposure to 12 μg/ml gentamicin sulfate and 10 mW/cm² ultrasound at frequencies of 70 kHz, 500 kHz, 2.25 MHz, and 10 MHz. The results …

Soot In Coal Combustion Systems, Thomas H. Fletcher, Jinliang Ma, Jim Rigby, Alexander L. Brown, Brent W. Webb

Faculty Publications

Soot is generated from coal when volatile matter, tar in particular, undergoes secondary reactions at high temperatures. A description of soot in coal flames allows better calculations of radiative transfer and temperatures in near-burner regions, which in turn allows more accurate predictions of NO_x formation in coal-fired furnaces. Experiments are reviewed that examine the formation, agglomeration and properties of coal-derived soot, including pyrolysis experiments and combustion experiments. This review includes the types of experiments performed, the soot yields obtained, the size of the soot particles and agglomerates, the optical properties of soot, the relationship between coal-derived soot and soot …

High-Pressure Oxidation Rates For Large Coal And Char Particles, James A. Mathias

Theses and Dissertations

The main objective of this study was to investigate the factors that influence the oxidation rate of large (five to eight millimeters in diameter) coal and char particles. To accomplish this, experiments were performed in which the gas temperature, gas velocity, particle size, partial pressure of oxygen, and total pressure were varied. The experiments were performed with the cantilever balance attachment and the high pressure controlled profile reactor.

Approximately 90 combustion experiments were performed with Pittsburgh, Utah Blind Canyon, and Wyodak-Anderson coal. These experiments were performed at atmospheric pressure with air and varied gas temperature, gas velocity, and particle size. …

Three-Dimensional Display Utilizing A Diffractive Optical Element And An Active Matrix Liquid Crystal Display, Gregory P. Nordin, M. W. Jones, S. T. Kowel, J. H. Kulick, R. G. Lindquist

Faculty Publications

We describe the design, construction, and performance of the first real-time autostereoscopic three-dimensional (3-D) display based on the partial pixel 3-D display architecture. The primary optical components of the 3-D display are an active-matrix liquid crystal display and a diffractive optical element (DOE). The display operates at video frame rates and is driven with a conventional VGA signal. Three-dimensional animations with horizontal motion parallax are readily viewable as sets of stereo images. Formation of the virtual viewing slits by diffraction from the partial pixel apertures is experimentally verified. The measured contrast and perceived brightness of the display are excellent, but …

Bounding Elastic Constants Of An Orthotropic Polycrystal Using Measurements Of The Microstructure, Brent L. Adams, M. J. Beran, T. A. Mason, Ted Olsen

Faculty Publications

We show how information about the elastic stiffness and compliance of an orthotropic polycrystal may be obtained from measurements of the statistical properties of the microstructure. We begin by discussing the statistical properties of the governing equations and the hierarchy that results when the equations are averaged. Perturbation solutions are obtained in terms of low-order statistical information. Using methods previously developed, we derive bounds for the elastic stiffnesses and compliances. A heirarchy of bounds is derived using the statistical information obtained from measurements of the microstructure. We discuss the methods used to obtain the correlation functions of the microstructure and …

A Comprehensive Modeling Environment For The Simulation Of Groundwater Flow And Transport, S. J. Owen, Norman L. Jones, J. P. Holland

Faculty Publications

A comprehensive graphical modeling environment has been developed to address the needs of the computer simulation of groundwater flow and transport. The Department of Defense Groundwater Modeling Systems (GMS), developed at the Engineering Computer Graphics Laboratory at Brigham Young University, is part of a multi-year project funded through the Department of Defense, Department of Energy and Environmental Protection Agency. GMS is a graphically based software tool providing facility through all aspects of the groundwater flow and transport modeling process. Facilities include geometric modeling of hydrostratigraphy, two- and three-dimensional mesh generation, graphically based model input for specific flow and transport codes, …

The Development And Evaluation Of The Knife Finite Element, Brett W. Clark

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis presents the development and evaluation of the knife finite element which is a degenerate case of a hexahedral element. The knife connectivity is an artifact of automatic all-hexahedral mesh generators. Currently, knives are propagated to the surface of the mesh for removal. However since this disturbs the surface mesh, other alternatives are needed. This thesis investigates the option of leaving the knife connectivity in the mesh and treating it as a valid finite element. The shape functions and stiffness matrix for the knife element are derived and evaluated using theoretical and practical evaluations. It is concluded that the …

Dependence Of The Normalized Radar Cross Section Of Water Waves On Bragg Wavelength-Wind Speed Sensitivity, David G. Long, R. Scott Collyer, David V. Arnold

Faculty Publications

Measurements of the normalized radar cross section (O) made by the YSCAT ultrawideband scatterometer during an extended deployment on the Canada Centre for Inland Waters (CCIW) Research Tower located at Lake Ontario are analyzed and compared with anemometer wind measurements to study the sensitivity of O to the wind speed as a function of the Bragg wavelength. This paper concentrates on upwind and downwind azimuth angles in the wind speed range of 4.5-12 m/s. While YSCAT collected measurements of O at a variety of frequencies and incidence angles, this paper focuses on frequencies of 2.0, 3.05, 5.30, 10.02, and 14.0 …

Grain-Boundary Structure Effects On Intergranular Stress Corrosion Cracking Of Alloy X-750, Brent L. Adams, Ted Olsen, N. Panayotou, Y. Pan

Faculty Publications

This work was supported by the Department of Energy under Grant No. DE-FG02-88ER 45355. TO was supported by the National Science Foundation during her 1993-94 stay at the Institute for Advanced Studies (Princeton) under grant DMS-9304580. The authors wish to acknowledge helpful discussion with Carol Nichols, John Hack, Gino Palumbo, Karl Aust, and Gary Was. It is well known that the properties and behavior of grain boundaries are strongly affected by local chemistry and atomic structure. This paper focuses on the mesoscale description of grain boundary structure (i.e. the five crystallographic degrees of freedom) and correlations with intergranular stress corrosion …

Calibration Of Spaceborne Scatterometers Using Tropical Rain Forests, David G. Long, Gary B. Skouson

Faculty Publications

Wind scatterometers are radar systems designed specifically to measure the normalized radar backscatter coefficient (O) of the ocean's surface in order to determine the near-surface wind vector. Postlaunch calibration of a wind scatterometer can be performed with an extended-area natural target such as the Amazon tropical rain forest. Rain forests exhibit a remarkably high degree of homogeneity in their radar response over a very large area though some spatial and temporal variability exist. The authors present a simple technique for calibrating scatterometer data using tropical rain forests, Using a polynomial model for the rolloff of O with incidence angle, the …

Experiments In The Coordinated Control Of An Underwater Arm/Vehicle System, Timothy W. Mclain, Stephen M. Rock, Michael J. Lee

Faculty Publications

The addition of manipulators to small autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) can pose significant control challenges due to hydrodynamic interactions between the arm and the vehicle. Experiments conducted at the monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) using the OTTER vehicle have shown that dynamical interactions between an arm and a vehicle can be very significant. For the experiments reported in this paper, a single-link "arm" was mounted on OTTER. Tests showed that for 90-degree, two-second repetitive slews of the arm, the vehicle would move as much as 18 degrees in roll and 14 degrees in yaw when no vehicle control was …

Chemical Structure Of Coal Tar During Devolatilization, Thomas H. Fletcher, Mathew Watt

Faculty Publications

Three coals of different rank were pyrolyzed in a drop-tube reactor at a maximum temperature of 900 K and a residence time of 160 ms. The coal and char were analyzed with solid-state ¹³C NMR. The tar was dissolved in deuterated methylene chloride. It was found that the tar was only partially soluble in CD₂Cl₂. The nonsoluble tar portion was analyzed in the same manner as the coal and char, while the soluble tar portion was analyzed using a recently developed high-resolution 13CNMRtechnique developed for liquid phases. The tar structure was found to be significantly …

Nitrogen Release During Coal Combustion, Thomas H. Fletcher, Larry L. Baxter, Reginald E. Mitchell, Robert H. Hurt

Faculty Publications

Experiments in entrained flow reactors at combustion temperatures are performed to resolve the rank dependence of nitrogen release on an elemental basis for a suite of 15 U.S. coals ranging from lignite to low-volatile bituminous. Data were obtained as a function of particle conversion, with overall mass loss up to 99 % on a dry, ash-free basis. Nitrogen release rates are presented relative to both carbon loss and overall mass loss. During devolatilization, fractional nitrogen release from low-rank coals is much slower than fractional mass release and noticeably slower than fractional carbon release. As coal rank increases, fractional nitrogen release …