Engineering Commons^™

Automatic Contour Extraction From Hvem Image Of Microvessel, Yong-Gang Liu

Theses

The research work reported in the thesis is motivated by the problem raised in the biomedical research utilizing high voltage electron microscope (HVEM) to study microvessels. There the contour data of cross-sections of microvessels are fed into some special electronic device to reconstruct three-dimensional pictures of microvessels. However, the contour data acquisition as routinely conducted by manual operation. This tedious procedure costs large amount of human power.

In this thesis, computer image processing techniques are applied to replace the time-consuming manual operation. A synthetic method is recommended. A software with various digital image processing functions has been developed and tested …

Finite Element Stress Analysis Of Engine Piston, Anil Nanalal Mistry

Theses

In this analysis, Ford Motor Company's, modular engine seriespiston was selected for the analysis purposes. The engine has a capacity of 4.6 liter, V-8 cylinder and with 2 valves.The piston is made of aluminum alloy material Z-16-T6. A three-dimensional finite element model was created to analyze the piston. The model, which contains only the quarter section of the piston due to loading symmetry and geometry, was used to calculate operating temperatures and the corresponding thermal expansion. Operating stresses due to thermal and mechanical loads were also calculated. The accuracy of the model was verified by material data published in the …

A Study Of The Effect Of Flexibility On Manufacturing Performance, Prashanth B. Nagendra

Theses

Manufacturing flexibility has been a major topic of research in recent years. Researchers and managers are concerned about the role of flexibility in manufacturing performance. The strategic and economic impact of flexibility is of vital importance for managers in today's competitive industry.

This thesis initially provides an in-depth.perception of the prior research conducted in the area of manufacturing flexibility. Manufacturing flexibility, in this study, has been classified into four major types. Simple definitions and operational measures are provided for each of these primary types. The different factors effecting these flexibilities are identified. A new concept called the Cause-Effect-Flexibility-Technology diagrams based …

Biomechanical Analysis Of The Acetabulum And Acetabular Prothesis By Three Dimensional Finite Element Analysis, Mitchell J. Palmer

Theses

A biomechanical analysis modeling methodology of the acetabulum and acetabular prosthesis using three dimensional finite element analysis is presented. A simplified pelvis model is utilized which will yield accurate bone/component interfacial stresses. The SDRC IDEAS software program was used to perform the associated operations. Model generation of the simplified pelvic model and cup, finite element subdivision; material properties, restraints and load modeling are detailed. The model is comprised of 429 isoparametric elements in the simplified pelvis portion and 633 elements in the cup portion. Materials properties and loads are from the literature. The modeling methodology offers the advantages of determining …

Lossless Image Data Compression Techniques Using High Order Markov Arithmetic Encoding, Santo Politi

Theses

It is difficult to compress digital images with acceptable ratios if a distortion is not acceptable. The lack of a rule based structure as in a language is one of the main reasons. In this work a number of algorithms for lossless image data compression are considered. The coding and the modeling aspects are treated separately. Different approaches are proposed to combine. Markov Arithmetic Encoding, a very efficient plain text encoding scheme, with source modeling algorithms to obtain higher compressibility. A modular approach is selected which enables combining various models. Model statistics are studied for further improvements. The schemes presented …

Modification Of Turret For Enhancement Of Internal Turning Operations On A Cnc Lathe, Talla Rajasekhar

Theses

Towards the modification of the CNC turret a complete set of tool holders have been designed. They have been manufactured and installed according to the specifications. A detailed study of MARK CENTURY 2000 controller and PartMaster is presented. Additionally a component has been designed to be machined on the CNC lathe utilizing the MC2000 part programming capabilities. The part program of the machine component has been developed utilizing various phases of MC2000's Partmaster software. The generated part program has been executed on the CNC lathe.

Effective Use Of Management Information Systems In Manufacturing, Bhavik Shah

Theses

Information is the catalyst of management and the ingredient that coalesces the managerial functions of planning, organizing, actuating and controlling. The implementation of management information system (MIS) provides the vehicle by which management process can be administered and integrated. Information is at the core of creative thinking, which leads to new ways of improving products, process and services to the invention of new devices and to discovery of new marketable concepts. Thus information for an organization has a dual application for internal operation and external marketing potential.

The organization studied was a small to medium sized batch manufacturer of healthcare …

Design And Analysis Of Microengineered Accelerometer, Nana Shigematsu

Theses

This master's thesis is about microengineered accelerometer integrated on a silicon wafer using two polysilicon layers acting as capacitors. This accelerometer operates as a capacitor sensor which is built between two polysilicon layers. It senses a difference of acceleration of gravity, or weight of the polysilicon beam. Both changes tend to change the capacitance between two layers, therefore, to change the resonant frequency of a resonant circuit built using this device and external inductors.

This master's thesis involves theoretical calculations of capacitor sensor for three sizes of capacitor area. Even though this sensor has not been fabricated yet, this sensor …

Multi-Sensor System For An Articulated Robot Hand, Narendra Sucahyo

Theses

The precision and dexterity of a manipulator hand critically depends on the proper extraction and processing of sensory information. This thesis describes how a sensor system equipped with fingertip sensors and strain gauges can provide proper feedback to drive the grasp kinematics of an articulated robot hand. The grasp kinematic that provide the manipulator hand with precision and dexterity is based on impedance control. The fingertip sensors and the strain gauges are constructed of piezoresistive materials for force transduction. Through optimization, based on the sensitivity and capability of the sensors, a synergism of force and contact information can be obtained …

Shear Behavior Of Steel Fiber Reinforced Concrete Beams Under Monotonic And Cyclic Loads, June Suh

Theses

Up to now relatively few tests have been reported on shear behavior in fiber reinforced concrete beams. Even less experiments have been carried out under fatigue loading. In the present experiment, the reinforced concrete beams with 1 percent and 2 percent steel fiber volume fraction are investigated. Conventional stirrups are included in number of beams at certain intervals. Beams are loaded under monotonic and cyclic loads. The strength of beams are determined and the behavior of beams under each loading are observed in order to determine some advantages of adding steel fibers to reinforced concrete beams.

It has been found …

The Optimal Design Process : Integrating Creativity And The Axiomatic Approach, John V. P. Tirrell

Theses

This thesis will show that the optimal design process incorporates both creativity and the axiomatic approach. An examination of past and current design methods will substantiate the need for the integration of these components. Creativity is the designer's tool to produce innovative designs which transcend existing design solutions. Creativity is also an integral element of the axiomatic approach to design. In the axiomatic approach, two design axioms are applied to efficiently ascertain the best design solution from the infinite number of choices. Application of the design axioms, theorems, and corollaries streamlines the design process. The integration of creativity and the …

Study Of Essential Factors Affecting The Efficiency Of Sludge Digestion, I-Chang Tsao

Theses

The sludge produced by wastewater treatment plant has some major characteristics such as high COD ( 52093 mg/1 - 79683 mg/1) and VS ( 19247 mg/1 - 44178 mg/1). The present laboratory investigation has indicated that successful treatment and purification of the subject of sludge is possible using multiple-stage anaerobic digestion system.

The multiple-stage system is capable of degrading 40-55% of COD and 50 to 60% of VS. The conventional digestion system degrades 30-45% of COD and 40-50% of VS. After treated by conventional system and multiple-stage system, the concentration of COD and VS are still high (21200 mg/1 - …

An Adaptive Robotic Controller With High Robustness, Xiao-Tian Wen

Theses

A complex industrial application of robotic manipulators are beyond the capability of the relatively simple constant gain linear control system. They compensate poorly for nonlinear dynamic model and environment changes, especially when the plant model comes with the unknown coefficients. An adaptive controller for a two joints robotic arm is designed in this thesis. Firstly, the highly coupled nonlinear model is linearized, and then an adaptive regulator is employed which adjust the controller parameters directly based on the on-line parameter estimation, where a least square identification is used. At last the computer simulation is also performed.

Modeling Packed Bed Catalytic Reactors, Jing Yang

Theses

Catalytic reactors provide a potentially important tool in the control of process emissions to the environment. This work provides a detailed chemical/physical model for analysing the operational characteristics of packed bed catalytic reactors. Mass, momentum, and energy conservation equations are written for the gas and solid phases. Heterogeneous and homogeneous reactions are used to convey the required stoichiometry, reaction rate, and heat release rate. Reaction in each phase is modeled as a one-step, global reaction. Heat and mass transfer, fluid friction, and axial heat conduction in the solid phase are modeled using suitable literature correlations. The resulting non-linear, first-order differential …

Effects Of Fly Ash And Kiln Dust On The Compressive Strength Of Cement Mortar, Yitao Yu

Theses

Fly ash generated from coal-burning power plants has been an increasing problem to the utility company in terms of storage and disposal in compliance with the environmental regulations. Presently, fly ash has been widely used in the concrete mix. Research shows that fly ash can improve many properties of fresh and harden concrete. Landfill is another significant usage of fly ash. Usually, fly ash is stored in dry and weathered conditions. The properties of fly ashes from different sources and in different storage conditions are different.

In this research, the compressive strength of mortar containing cement replacement of Deep Hollow, …

Multichannel Input Moniter, Geng Lin Chen

Theses

In order to communicate ,with each other, people must use the same kind of language. MIDI, the Musical Instrument Digital Interface, was established as a hardware and software specification which makes the communication between musical instruments become possible.

What this thesis does is interfacing a musical instrument with other devices using MIDI protocol. The hardware is a multichannel priority interrupt system which has already been done and was included in the discussion of this thesis. The focus of this thesis is concentrated on the software development of multichannel input monitor.

A Micro-Based Machine Vision System, Hsueh-Chung Michael Feng

Theses

In this thesis, a low-cost general purpose machine vision system based on a personal computer of the PC-XT/AT family and an electronic camera controller based upon a Motorola 6811C11 single-chip microcontroller has been designed and implemented. This work is focused on image formation. The system supports a long distance camera-computer configuration. A picture editor, generic image manipulation software was designed and implemented. A single computer can supervise multiple cameras.

Analysis Of The Effects Of Biofeedback On Cardiovascular And Neuromuscular System, Andreas T. Gikas

Theses

Time series signal processing techniques (Fourier based) were applied to study the effects of biofeedback on the cardiovascular and neuromuscular system.

A medical instrumentattion system was developed to monitor ECG, EEG and EMG biopotential signals and temperature.

Data from two experiments were first analyzed. These data were from two normal male subjects who engaged in relaxation techniques (Transcendental Meditation & Imagery). If we assumed that for both subjects relaxation produced a decrease of the sympathetic activity then that resulted in a decrease of the heart rate (ECG) and an increase in skin temperature. Spectral analysis of the EEG signal showed …

Reliability Of Titanium Dioxide Capacitors, Md. Badrul Hasan

Theses

In recent years many different materials have been investigated as potential thin-film capacitor dielectrics. Silicon monoxide (SiO) and tantalum pentoxide (Ta₂O₅) are the two dielectric materials that are being used by most companies.

This thesis provides some theory and experiments to evaluate the reliability of TiO₂ as a material which would yield a dielectric constant much higher than Ta₂O₅. It has also been shown that titanium dioxide is economically and technically capable of miniaturization demanded by the latest electronic systems.

Included here are the sections covering evaporant materials and their purities, …

A Theoretical Model For Radio Attenuation Inside Buildings, Kyu-Sung Kim

Theses

Research to expand the capability of indoor, portable, radio frequency links for voice and data transmission is being pursued worldwide. Sophisticated communication systems using digital portable radio telephones have been proposed. To accomplish this goal, it is necessary to ascertain the attenuation of electromagnetic signal propagation inside buildings. Because modeling of the indoor environment at radio frequencies is very complicated, most publications document experimental results. In this study,. a theoretical model is proposed for predicting path loss inside buildings. The theory involves a waveguide model of the indoor environment which permits a rigorous modal solution similar to that developed by …

Development Of Air-Break Circuit Breaker, Ravi Kanth Korrapati

Theses

This thesis describes the development of an Air-Break circuit breaker, for Heinemann Electric Co., New Jersey, using I-DEAS CAD software. The physical properties obtained from the software, for the components of the armature assembly and the contact arm and the carriage, are used in determining the initial forces on a helical delay spring and in calculating accelerations of links in the trip mechanism. The trip mechanism is a four-bar mechanism with a spring as a coupler. Two second order differential equations define the motion of its links, the contact arm and the carriage. A time history of the links is …

Design Of An Ionized Cluster Beam System For Thin Film Deposition And Cluster Size Measurement, Steven K. Krommenhoek

Theses

This thesis describes a study of a unique deposition technique known as Ionized Cluster Beam (I.C.B.) deposition. According to I. Yamada and T. Takagi, the inventors of the I.C.B. concept, the beam of deposited material contains clusters as large as thousands of atoms. To study the mass distribution of the ionized species, an I.C.B. source was designed and built by the author. The design provided temperature control along the axis of the crucible by using electron beam heating with two independently controlled emission filaments. Special attention was given to minimizing the background of charged particles generated in various sections of …

Image Data Compression With Neural Networks, Jianjun Li

Theses

Three efficient image coding schemes, based orb neural networks, have been developed in this thesis: (1) Neural network vector quantization (NNVQ). The main advantage of this new technology is that it can accomplish the complex encoding process much faster than the previous algorithms. Its properties are studied and demonstrated by simulations. (2) A adaptive NNVQ for image sequence coding. Simulation experiments have been carried out with 4 x 4 blocks of pixels from an image sequence consisting of 40 frames. At 0.67 bits/pixel, this scheme achieves good image quality suitable for videoconferencing systems; (3) Neural network prediction. This new prediction …

Trellis Coded Tamed Frequency Modulation In Rayleigh Fading Channels, Kiran R. Patel

Theses

It is usually difficult to reduce the effects of channel impairements on transmitted information. A fading channel is one such media in which digital communications system operates. A signal is subject to distortion in amplitude and phase when propagating towards the receiver. This puts constraint in required SNR at the receiver, for given performance. Various modulation/coding and demodulation/decoding techniques are employed to lessen the effects of fading. Bit error rate is a performance parameter that sets the criteria for signal design, system architecture and performance.

Here, a slow Rayleigh fading channel with three propagation paths possesing a scattering function of …

A Study Of Methane Gas Production On Anaerobic Digestion System, Seng-Fung Su

Theses

The anaerobic sludge digestion process is not a recent development. At least 100 years ago in France,Louis H. Mouras designed and constructed fermenters to liquefy the sludge obtained from domestic wastes.

Since the turn of the century, the anaerobic fermentation process has been used extensively in the treatment of waste-water solids.

The necessity of preventing pollution of water resource, as a consequence of the rapid increase in human waste, demands adequate treatment of liquid wastes from domestic and industrial sources. For this purpose, the anaerobic digestion process can play an important role as a method for stabilizing and eliminating wastes …

A Study Of Signal Cancellation Effects In Adaptive Arrays, Cheng-Der Sun

Theses

An adaptive array can automatically place pattern nulls in directions from which undesired signals (interference, jamming, or clutter, etc.) arrive and can also provide gain for a desired signal. The purpose of this study was to study the effects of the adaptive array on the desired signal while suppressing the undesired signal.

This was done by studying the transfer characteristics of the adaptive array between its input and output. In this study, C.W. jammers along with the desired signal were considered and input and output relationship of the adaptive array were determined. Several basic types of adaptive arrays were studied …

Memory Card Memory Read-Out Module For 8052ah Basic Single Board Computer, Yongyi Sun

Theses

A Memory Card Memory Read-out Module is described that is used to collect the data stored in the RAMs of 8052AH BASIC SBCs and transfer it to the storage of another system called stationary recall unit.

The motivation for this system is as follows:

Automatic Rail Diagnostic System (ARDS) of New Jersey Transit Rail Operation (NJTRO) will revolutionize the maintenance of rail cars by monitoring selected on-board subsystems and components. The on-board unit of ARDS is a data gatherer. It can collect data describing the status and performance of selected on-board operating subsystems and components. A 8052AH BASIC SBC is …

Demulsification And Separation Of Oil In A Water/Particulate System, Fong-Jung Tai

Theses

The wastewater generated from installation factories contains high suspended solids ( SS ) and oil. Effective removal of oil and clay particles in washrack wastewater can be achieved by using organic polymer TFL-398 alone or in conjunction with alum. The dissolved/emulsified oil concentration and suspended solids are used to represent the degree of oil demulsification and clay particles destabilization, respectively.

To improve the efficiency of oil demulsification and reduce the chemical consumption, pretreatment of the influent wastewater is essentially necessary. pH adjustment to 11-12 generally reduces chemical requirement. Total oil concentration was reduced significantly at pH = 11.7 without any …

Calcium Bentonite In Containment Structures, Ramnarayan K. Tirumala

Theses

Experiments were conducted on calcium bentonite from different sources to determine its suitability as a material for slurry wall. The emphasis was placed on cement-bentonite types of materials. A few tests were conducted on specimens consisting of soil-bentonite materials. Permeability, swelling potential, and immersion tests were conducted. Specimens were initially permeated with water to determine which variety of bentonite was most suitable and later with chemicals. In cement bentonite specimens, the effect of addition of blast furnace slag, fly ash, and sand were also studied. Addition of slag cement lowered the permeability value by an order of magnitude, and with …

Performance Studies Of Lapped Orthogonal Transforms, Frank E. Wadas

Theses

The comparative performance of several Lapped Orthogonal Transforms(LOTs) [1][2][3][12] is studied in this thesis . Blocking effects of conventional block transforms at low bit rates are reduced with LOT, through basis functions that overlap in adjacent blocks. The block transforms of Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT), Discrete Sine Transform (DST)[4], Discrete Legendre Transform (DLT), and the Modified Hermite Transform (MHT)[16] are extended to LOT in a way that a fast algorithm for nearly optimal LOTs is derived. The Markov and two different exponential correlation models are used as the source models for the derivation of these LOTs. It is shown that …