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Full-Text Articles in Engineering

Arc-Discharge In Solution: A Novel Synthesis Method For Carbon Nanotubes And In Situ Decoration Of Carbon Nanotubes With Nanoparticles, Debasis Bera Jan 2005

Arc-Discharge In Solution: A Novel Synthesis Method For Carbon Nanotubes And In Situ Decoration Of Carbon Nanotubes With Nanoparticles, Debasis Bera

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Nanotechnology has reached the status of the 21st century's leading science and technology based on fundamental and applied research during the last two decades. An important feature of nanotechnology is to bridge the crucial dimensional gap between the atomic and molecular fundamental sciences and microstructural scale of engineering. Accordingly, it is very important to have an in-depth understanding of the synthesis of nanomaterials for the use of state-of-the-art high technological devices with enhanced properties. Recently, the 'bottom-up' approach for the fabrication of nanomaterials has received a great deal of attention for its simplicity and cost effectiveness. Tailoring the various parameters …


Development Of A Motor Speed Control System Using Matlab And Simulink, Implemented With A Digital Signal Processor, Andrew Klee Jan 2005

Development Of A Motor Speed Control System Using Matlab And Simulink, Implemented With A Digital Signal Processor, Andrew Klee

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis describes an improved methodology for embedded software development. MATLAB and Simulink allow engineers to simplify algorithm development and avoid duplication of effort in deploying these algorithms to the end hardware. Special new hardware targeting capabilities of MATLAB and Simulink are described in detail. A motor control system design served to demonstrate the efficacy of this new method. Initial data was collected to help model the motor in Simulink. This allowed for the design of the open and closed loop control systems. The designed system was very effective, with good response and no steady state error. The entire design …


Effects Of Reduced Ras And Volume On Anaerobic Zone Performance For A Septic Wastewater Biological Phosphorous Removal System, Daniel Magro Jan 2005

Effects Of Reduced Ras And Volume On Anaerobic Zone Performance For A Septic Wastewater Biological Phosphorous Removal System, Daniel Magro

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Enhanced Biological Phosphorous Removal (EBPR) performance was found to be adequate with reduced Return Activated Sludge (RAS) flows (50% of available RAS) to the anaerobic tank and smaller than typical anaerobic zone volume (1.08 hours hydraulic retention time or HRT). Three identical parallel biological nutrient removal (BNR) pilot plants were fed with strong, highly fermented (160 mg/L VFAs), domestic/industrial wastewater from a full scale wastewater treatment facility (WWTF). The pilot plants were operated at 100%, 50%, 40% and 25% RAS (percent of available RAS) flows to the anaerobic tank with the remaining RAS to the anoxic tank. In addition, varying …


Analysis And Simulation Tools For Solar Array Power Systems, Nattorn Pongratananukul Jan 2005

Analysis And Simulation Tools For Solar Array Power Systems, Nattorn Pongratananukul

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation presents simulation tools developed specifically for the design of solar array power systems. Contributions are made in several aspects of the system design phases, including solar source modeling, system simulation, and controller verification. A tool to automate the study of solar array configurations using general purpose circuit simulators has been developed based on the modeling of individual solar cells. Hierarchical structure of solar cell elements, including semiconductor properties, allows simulation of electrical properties as well as the evaluation of the impact of environmental conditions. A second developed tool provides a co-simulation platform with the capability to verify the …


Enhancing Message Privacy In Wired Equivalent Privacy., Darshan Purandare Jan 2005

Enhancing Message Privacy In Wired Equivalent Privacy., Darshan Purandare

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The 802.11 standard defines the Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) and encapsulation of data frames. It is intended to provide data privacy to the level of a wired network. WEP suffered threat of attacks from hackers owing to certain security shortcomings in the WEP protocol. Lately, many new protocols like WiFi Protected Access (WPA), WPA2, Robust Secure Network (RSN) and 802.11i have come into being, yet their implementation is fairly limited. Despite its shortcomings one cannot undermine the importance of WEP as it still remains the most widely used system and we chose to address certain security issues and propose some …


Famtile: An Algorithm For Learning High-Level Tactical Behavior From Observation, Brian Stensrud Jan 2005

Famtile: An Algorithm For Learning High-Level Tactical Behavior From Observation, Brian Stensrud

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This research focuses on the learning of a class of behaviors defined as high-level behaviors. High-level behaviors are defined here as behaviors that can be executed using a sequence of identifiable behaviors. Represented by low-level contexts, these behaviors are known a priori to learning and can be modeled separately by a knowledge engineer. The learning task, which is achieved by observing an expert within simulation, then becomes the identification and representation of the low-level context sequence executed by the expert. To learn this sequence, this research proposes FAMTILE - the Fuzzy ARTMAP / Template-Based Interpretation Learning Engine. This algorithm attempts …


Solar-Based Single-Stage High-Efficiency Grid-Connected Inverter, Feng Tian Jan 2005

Solar-Based Single-Stage High-Efficiency Grid-Connected Inverter, Feng Tian

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Renewable energy source plays an important role in the energy cogeneration and distribution. Traditional solar-based inverter system is two stages in cascaded, which has a simpler controller but low efficiency. A new solar-based single-stage grid-connected inverter system can achieve higher efficiency by reducing the power semiconductor switching loss and output stable and synchronized sinusoid current into the utility grid. Controlled by the digital signal processor, the inverter can also draw maximum power from the solar array, thereby maximizing the utilization of the solar array. In Chapter 1, a comparison between the traditional two-stage inverter and the single-stage inverter is made. …


Safety Issues Of Red-Light Running And Unprotected Left-Turn At Signalized Intersections, Xuedong Yan Jan 2005

Safety Issues Of Red-Light Running And Unprotected Left-Turn At Signalized Intersections, Xuedong Yan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Crashes categorized as running red light or left turning are most likely to occur at signalized intersections and resulted in substantial severe injuries and property damages. This dissertation mainly focused on these two types of vehicle crashes and the research methodology involved several perspectives. To examine the overall characteristics of red-light running and left-turning crashes, firstly, this study applied 1999-2001 Florida traffic crash data to investigate the accident propensity of three aspects of risk factors related to traffic environments, driver characteristics, and vehicle types. A quasi-induced exposure concept and statistical techniques including classification tree model and multiple logistic regression were …


Optimization Of An Unstructured Finite Element Mesh For Tide And Storm Surge Modeling Applications In The Western North Atlantic Ocean, Satoshi Kojima Jan 2005

Optimization Of An Unstructured Finite Element Mesh For Tide And Storm Surge Modeling Applications In The Western North Atlantic Ocean, Satoshi Kojima

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Recently, a highly resolved, finite element mesh was developed for the purpose of performing hydrodynamic calculations in the Western North Atlantic Tidal (WNAT) model domain. The WNAT model domain consists of the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean Sea, and the entire portion of the North Atlantic Ocean found west of the 60° W meridian. This high resolution mesh (333K) employs 332,582 computational nodes and 647,018 triangular elements to provide approximately 1.0 to 25 km node spacing. In the previous work, the 333K mesh was applied in a Localized Truncation Error Analysis (LTEA) to produce nodal density requirements for the WNAT …


A Comparative Analysis Between Context-Based Reasoning (Cxbr) And Contextual Graphs (Cxgs)., Peterson Marthen Lorins Jan 2005

A Comparative Analysis Between Context-Based Reasoning (Cxbr) And Contextual Graphs (Cxgs)., Peterson Marthen Lorins

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Context-based Reasoning (CxBR) and Contextual Graphs (CxGs) involve the modeling of human behavior in autonomous and decision-support situations in which optimal human decision-making is of utmost importance. Both formalisms use the notion of contexts to allow the implementation of intelligent agents equipped with a context sensitive knowledge base. However, CxBR uses a set of discrete contexts, implying that models created using CxBR operate within one context at a given time interval. CxGs use a continuous context-based representation for a given problem-solving scenario for decision-support processes. Both formalisms use contexts dynamically by continuously changing between necessary contexts as needed in appropriate …


Graph-Theoretic Approach To Modeling Propagation And Control Of Network Worms, Zoran Nikoloski Jan 2005

Graph-Theoretic Approach To Modeling Propagation And Control Of Network Worms, Zoran Nikoloski

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In today's network-dependent society, cyber attacks with network worms have become the predominant threat to confidentiality, integrity, and availability of network computing resources. Despite ongoing research efforts, there is still no comprehensive network-security solution aimed at controling large-scale worm propagation. The aim of this work is fivefold: (1) Developing an accurate combinatorial model of worm propagation that can facilitate the analysis of worm control strategies, (2) Building an accurate epidemiological model for the propagation of a worm employing local strategies, (3) Devising distributed architecture and algorithms for detection of worm scanning activities, (4) Designing effective control strategies against the worm, …


Interdiffusion Analysis For Nicocraly And Nial Vs. Various Superalloys, Emmanuel Perez Jan 2005

Interdiffusion Analysis For Nicocraly And Nial Vs. Various Superalloys, Emmanuel Perez

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Hot section components in gas turbines can be NiCoCrAlY-coated to provide the component with an Al reservoir that maintains a protective oxide layer on its surface. Over the service life of the component, the coatings degrade by composition and phase changes due to oxidation/hot-corrosion, and multicomponent interdiffusion from and into the superalloy substrate. In this study, the rate of Al interdiffusion into selected Ni-base superalloys using various diffusion couples of two-phase NiCoCrAlY (beta + gamma) and single beta-phase NiAl with the selected alloys is measured. The diffusion couples were examined with an emphasis on the composition-dependence of Al interdiffusion. Microstructural …


Instrumented Nanoindentation Studies Of Deformation In Shape Memory Alloys, Sudhir Rajagopalan Jan 2005

Instrumented Nanoindentation Studies Of Deformation In Shape Memory Alloys, Sudhir Rajagopalan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Near equi-atomic nickel titanium (NiTi) shape memory alloys (SMAs) are a class of materials characterized by their unique deformation behavior. In these alloys, deformation mechanisms such as mechanical twinning and stress induced phase transformation between a high symmetry phase (austenite) and a low symmetry phase (martensite) additionally occur and influence mechanical behavior and thus their functionality. Consequently, applications of SMAs usually call for precise phase transformation temperatures, which depend on the thermomechanical history and the composition of the alloy. Instrumented indentation, inherently a mechanical characterization technique for small sampling volumes, offers a cost effective means of empirically testing SMAs in …


Investigation Of High-K Gate Dielectrics And Metals For Mosfet Devices., Sriram Mannargudi Seshadri Jan 2005

Investigation Of High-K Gate Dielectrics And Metals For Mosfet Devices., Sriram Mannargudi Seshadri

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Progress in advanced microlithography and deposition techniques have made feasible high- k dielectric materials for MOS transistors. The continued scaling of CMOS devices is pushing the Si-SiO2 to its limit to consider high-k gate dielectrics. The demand for faster, low power, smaller, less expensive devices with good functionality and higher performance increases the demand for high-k dielectric based MOS devices. This thesis gives an in-depth study of threshold voltages of PMOS and NMOS transistors using various high-k dielectric materials like Tantalum pent oxide (Ta2O5), Hafnium oxide (HfO2), Zirconium oxide (ZrO2) and Aluminum oxide (Al2O3) gate oxides. Higher dielectric constant may …


Solution Of Electromagnetic Scattering Parameters And Radiation Patterns Of Arbitrary Body Of Revolution Radiators, Wendell Brokaw Jan 2005

Solution Of Electromagnetic Scattering Parameters And Radiation Patterns Of Arbitrary Body Of Revolution Radiators, Wendell Brokaw

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A novel full wave analysis method to determine the scattering parameters and the radiation field intensities of arbitrary Body of Revolution (BOR) radiators consisting of impenetrable media is explored through derived components of modal analysis and the method of moments (MoM). Modal excitation is utilized to excite the structural feed; allowing for a more accurate measure of the scattering parameters of the total structure as opposed to the use of external excitation sources. The derivation of the mode matching method introduces a novel approach to achieving a frequency independent coupling matrix that will reduce the computational requirements for iterations utilized …


Estimation Of Tangential Momentum Accommodation Coefficient Using Molecular Dynamics Simulation, George Finger Jan 2005

Estimation Of Tangential Momentum Accommodation Coefficient Using Molecular Dynamics Simulation, George Finger

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Tangential Momentum Accommodation Coefficient (TMAC) is used to improve the accuracy of fluid flow calculations in the slip flow regime. Under such conditions (indicated by Knudsen number greater than 0.001), the continuum assumption that a fluid velocity at a solid surface is equal to the surface velocity is inaccurate because relatively significant fluid "slip" occurs at the surface. Prior work has not led to a method to quickly estimate a value for TMAC - it is frequently assumed. In this work, Molecular Dynamics techniques are used to study the impacts of individual gas atoms upon solid surfaces to understand …


Solar Driven Photoelectrochemical Water Splitting For Hydrogen Generation Using Multiple Bandgap Tandem Of Cigs2 Pv Cells And Thin Film Photocatalyst, Anant Jahagirdar Jan 2005

Solar Driven Photoelectrochemical Water Splitting For Hydrogen Generation Using Multiple Bandgap Tandem Of Cigs2 Pv Cells And Thin Film Photocatalyst, Anant Jahagirdar

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The main objective of this research was to develop efficient CuIn1-xGaxS2 (CIGS2)/CdS thin film solar cells for photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting to produce very pure hydrogen and oxygen. Efficiencies obtained using CIGS2 have been lower than those achieved using CuInSe2 and CuIn1-xGaxSe2. The basic limitation in the efficiencies is attributed to lower open circuit voltages with respect to the bandgap of the material. Presently, the main mechanism used to increase the open circuit voltage of these copper chalcopyrites (CuInSe2 and CuInS2) is the addition of gallium. However, addition of gallium has its own challenges. This research was intended to (i) …


Predictive Control For Dynamic Systems To Track Unknown Input In The Presence Of Time Delay, Yulan Li Jan 2005

Predictive Control For Dynamic Systems To Track Unknown Input In The Presence Of Time Delay, Yulan Li

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated a tracking system to trace unknown signal in the presence oftime delay. A predictive control method is proposed in order to compensate the time delay. Root locus method is applied when designing the controller, parameter setting is carried out through error and trail technique in w-plane. State space equation is derived for the system, with special state chose of tracking error. To analyze the asymptotic stability of the proposed predictive control system, the Lyapunov function is constructed. It is shown that the designed system is asymptotically stable when input signal is rather low frequency signal. In order …


Micromachined Electrochemical Sensors For Hydrogen Peroxide And Chlorine Detection, Anjum Mehta Jan 2005

Micromachined Electrochemical Sensors For Hydrogen Peroxide And Chlorine Detection, Anjum Mehta

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Hydrogen peroxide and chlorine detection is critical for many biological and environmental applications. Hydrogen peroxide plays important roles in a variety of fields including plant physiology, medical, environmental and biochemical applications. Its role in plant defense and signal transduction, diseases such as Parkinson's and Alzhemier's, industrial processes such as disinfection and wastewater treatment and biochemical enzymatic reactions is critical. Given the gamut of areas that hydrogen peroxide is a key component of; its detection assumes great importance. Similarly chlorine has long been used as a disinfectant for making drinking water safe, but excessive chlorination is an environmental and health hazard …


The Effect Of Tidal Inlets On Open Coast Storm Surge Hydrographs: A Case Study Of Hurricane Ivan (2004), Michael Salisbury Jan 2005

The Effect Of Tidal Inlets On Open Coast Storm Surge Hydrographs: A Case Study Of Hurricane Ivan (2004), Michael Salisbury

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Florida's Department of Transportation requires design storm tide hydrographs for coastal waters surrounding tidal inlets along the coast of Florida. These hydrographs are used as open ocean boundary conditions for local bridge scour models. At present, very little information is available on the effect that tidal inlets have on these open coast storm tide hydrographs. Furthermore, current modeling practice enforces a single design hydrograph along the open coast boundary for bridge scour models. This thesis expands on these concepts and provides a more fundamental understanding on both of these modeling areas. A numerical parameter study is undertaken to elucidate the …


Studies Of Liquid Crystal Response Time, Haiying Wang Jan 2005

Studies Of Liquid Crystal Response Time, Haiying Wang

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In this dissertation, the response time issue of the liquid crystal (LC) devices is investigated in meeting the challenges for display and photonic applications. The correlation between the LC director response time and the optical response time is derived theoretically and confirmed experimentally. A major contribution of this thesis is that, based on the small angle approximation, we derive rigorous analytical solutions for correlating the LC director response time to its consequent optical response times (both rise and decay) of a vertical-aligned nematic LC cell. This work successfully fills the gap in the literature of LCD switching dynamics. An important …


Contributions To Automatic Particle Identification In Electron Micrographs: Algorithms, Implementation, And Applications, Vivek Singh Jan 2005

Contributions To Automatic Particle Identification In Electron Micrographs: Algorithms, Implementation, And Applications, Vivek Singh

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Three dimensional reconstruction of large macromolecules like viruses at resolutions below 8 Ã… - 10 Ã… requires a large set of projection images and the particle identification step becomes a bottleneck. Several automatic and semi-automatic particle detection algorithms have been developed along the years. We present a general technique designed to automatically identify the projection images of particles. The method utilizes Markov random field modelling of the projected images and involves a preprocessing of electron micrographs followed by image segmentation and post processing for boxing of the particle projections. Due to the typically extensive computational requirements for extracting hundreds of …


An Optimized Kinetics Model For Oh Chemiluminescence At High Temperatures And Atmospheric Pressures, Joel Hall Jan 2005

An Optimized Kinetics Model For Oh Chemiluminescence At High Temperatures And Atmospheric Pressures, Joel Hall

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Chemiluminescence from the OH(A-X) transition near 307 nm is a commonly used diagnostic in combustion applications such as flame chemistry, shock-tube experiments, and reacting-flow visualization. Measurements of the chemiluminescent intensity provide a simple, cost-effective, non-intrusive look at the combustion environment. The presence of the ultra-violet emission is often used as an indicator of the flame zone in practical combustion systems, and its intensity may be correlated to the temperature distribution or other parameters of interest. While absolute measurements of the ground-state OH(X) concentrations are well-defined, there is no elementary relation between emission from the electronically excited state (OH*) and its …


Refractive Indices Of Liquid Crystals And Their Applications In Display And Photonic Devices, Jun Li Jan 2005

Refractive Indices Of Liquid Crystals And Their Applications In Display And Photonic Devices, Jun Li

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Liquid crystals (LCs) are important materials for flat panel display and photonic devices. Most LC devices use electrical field-, magnetic field-, or temperature-induced refractive index change to modulate the incident light. Molecular constituents, wavelength, and temperature are the three primary factors determining the liquid crystal refractive indices: ne and no for the extraordinary and ordinary rays, respectively. In this dissertation, we derive several physical models for describing the wavelength and temperature effects on liquid crystal refractive indices, average refractive index, and birefringence. Based on these models, we develop some high temperature gradient refractive index LC mixtures for photonic applications, such …


Multizoom Activity Recognition Using Machine Learning, Raymond Smith Jan 2005

Multizoom Activity Recognition Using Machine Learning, Raymond Smith

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis we present a system for detection of events in video. First a multiview approach to automatically detect and track heads and hands in a scene is described. Then, by making use of epipolar, spatial, trajectory, and appearance constraints, objects are labeled consistently across cameras (zooms). Finally, we demonstrate a new machine learning paradigm, TemporalBoost, that can recognize events in video. One aspect of any machine learning algorithm is in the feature set used. The approach taken here is to build a large set of activity features, though TemporalBoost itself is able to work with any feature set …


Debris Tracking In A Semistable Background, Karthikkalathi Vanumamalai Jan 2005

Debris Tracking In A Semistable Background, Karthikkalathi Vanumamalai

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Object Tracking plays a very pivotal role in many computer vision applications such as video surveillance, human gesture recognition and object based video compressions such as MPEG-4. Automatic detection of any moving object and tracking its motion is always an important topic of computer vision and robotic fields. This thesis deals with the problem of detecting the presence of debris or any other unexpected objects in footage obtained during spacecraft launches, and this poses a challenge because of the non-stationary background. When the background is stationary, moving objects can be detected by frame differencing. Therefore there is a need for …


Benchmark Studies For Structural Health Monitoring Using Analytical And Experimental Models, Jason Lee Burkett Jan 2005

Benchmark Studies For Structural Health Monitoring Using Analytical And Experimental Models, Jason Lee Burkett

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The latest bridge inventory report for the United States indicates that 25% of the highway bridges are structurally deficient or functionally obsolete. With such a large number of bridges in this condition, safety and serviceability concerns become increasingly relevant along with the associated increase in user costs and delays. Biennial inspections have proven subjective and need to be coupled with standardized non-destructive testing methods to accurately assess a bridge's condition for decision making purposes. Structural health monitoring is typically used to track and evaluate performance, symptoms of operational incidents, anomalies due to deterioration and damage during regular operation as well …


The Effect Of Immediate Feedback And After Action Reviews (Aars) On Learning, Retention And Transfer, Michael Sanders Jan 2005

The Effect Of Immediate Feedback And After Action Reviews (Aars) On Learning, Retention And Transfer, Michael Sanders

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

An After Action Review (AAR) is the Army training system's performance feedback mechanism. The purpose of the AAR is to improve team (unit) and individual performance in order to increase organizational readiness. While a large body of knowledge exists that discusses instructional strategies, feedback and training systems, neither the AAR process nor the AAR systems have been examined in terms of learning effectiveness and efficiency for embedded trainers as part of a holistic training system. In this thesis, different feedback methods for embedded training are evaluated based on the timing and type of feedback used during and after training exercises. …


A Methodology For Minimizing The Oscillations In Supply Chains Using System Dynamics And Genetic Algorithms, Ramamoorthy C.V.V. Lakkoju Jan 2005

A Methodology For Minimizing The Oscillations In Supply Chains Using System Dynamics And Genetic Algorithms, Ramamoorthy C.V.V. Lakkoju

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Supply Chain Management (SCM) is a critically significant strategy that enterprises depend on to meet challenges that they face because of highly competitive and dynamic business environments of today. Supply chain management involves the entire network of processes from procurement of raw materials/services/technologies to manufacturing or servicing intermediate products/services to converting them into final products or services and then distributing and retailing them till they reach final customers. A supply chain network by nature is a large and complex, engineering and management system. Oscillations occurring in a supply chain because of internal and/or external influences and measures to be taken …


International Space Station Remote Sensing Pointing Analysis, Craig Jacobson Jan 2005

International Space Station Remote Sensing Pointing Analysis, Craig Jacobson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This paper analyzes the geometric and disturbance aspects of utilizing the International Space Station for remote sensing of earth targets. The proposed instrument is SHORE (Station High-Sensitivity Ocean Research Experiment), a multi-band optical spectrometer with 15 m pixel resolution. The analysis investigates the contribution of the error effects to the quality of data collected by the instrument. The analysis begins with the discussion of the coordinate systems involved and then conversion from the target coordinate system to the instrument coordinate system. Next the geometry of remote observations from the Space Station is investigated including the effects of the instrument location …