Engineering Commons^™

Bridge Deterioration Models, Christopher R.H. Howard

Theses

The deteriorated condition of America's bridges raises the need for a proper and optimal method of bridge management, from the conceptual stage through the construction stage, and throughout the useful life of our bridges. State agencies need to expand their data collection process so as to include additional information pertinent to the formulation of a credible system. This is critical in order to accommodate increased research efforts to investigate the behavioral pattern/s of the nations bridges and to eventually optimize bridge management systems. This thesis looks at the bridge deterioration model as a vital tool in realizing more effective bridge …

Liquid-Liquid Dispersion In Agitated Vessels Provided With Multiple Impellers, Yu-Tsang Huang

Theses

Baffled vessels with multiple impellers are widely used in industry to generate liquid-liquid dispersions. In this work, a new method to determine the minimum agitation speed for complete dispersion in two immiscible liquids was developed. This method was conceived to replace the traditional visual observation method that has been extensively used in the past for this purpose. The minimum agitation speeds for liquid-liquid dispersion with single and multiple impellers in baffled vessel were also measured. The effect of a number of variables such as size and type of impellers, size of tank, impeller location, spacing between impellers, and dispersed phase …

Fast Arithmetic Operations On The Hypercube Using Conditional Sum Addition And Modified Booth's Algorithm, Umar Bin Iftikhar

Theses

Algorithms for fast arithmetic operations (i.e., addition and multiplication) on the hypercube computer are presented. The hypercube network of dimension d interconnects N = 2^d processors in such a way that each processor is directly connected to d neighboring processors; m order to communicate between processors, the maximum length of the path is d. The addition algorithm is based on the conditional sum technique. The computational time using this algorithm is O(log₂ N+q) where q is the number of the bits per processor in the hypercube of N processors. Operands of size N*q are distributed among the hypercube …

Response Characteristics Of Inelastic Single Degree Of Freedom Systems Subjected To Intraplate Earthquakes, Linda C. Jones

Theses

Within recorded, although not recent, history, there have been several large magnitude earthquakes in the Eastern and Central United States and the need to provide measures to protect from potential damage is recognized by the engineering community. Since there are inherent differences between earthquakes that occur along tectonic plate boundaries, interplate, and those that occur within the plate boundaries, intraplate, it is important to understand how these differences impact structural design. A parametric study of single degree of freedom systems subjected to various recorded and artificial ground motions was performed to identify the variations in response characteristics.

It was found …

Stability And Durability Of Large Aggregate Asphalt Concrete, Rais A. Khan

Theses

There are many factors which affect the properties of asphalt concrete and one of these is a maximum aggregate size used in the mix. In this study of the effect of maximum aggregate size on Marshall stability, flow and durability of asphalt aggregate mixtures is investigated.

Two different mixes having gradations with maximum aggregate sizes of 3/4 and 1-1/2 inches were considered. The optimum asphalt content for mix having 3/4 inch maximum aggregate size, was determined by the standard Marshall procedure. The optimum asphalt content for the mix having 1-1/2 inch maximum aggregate size, was estimated based on thickness of …

Three Dimensional Visualisation Of Tmj Anatomy Using Mri Techniques, Mythreyi T. Krishnaswamy

Theses

The best assessment of temporomandibular joint (TMJ) can only be done by the scanning the jaw and getting an image without invivo analysis which causes patient discomfort. There have been innumerable efforts to get the best view using CT techniques for three dimensional visualisation. But very few have done work using MRI techniques.

The TMJ is an integral part of the jaw and helps in mastication and biting. Since the joint is a hinge sliding articulation any dislocation causes immense pain and discomfort.

To get a better assessment of the TMJ, MRI techniques have been used for data acquisition. The …

Computer Aided Design Of A Broadband Microwave Power Divider, Jaideep Mukherjee

Theses

The purpose of this thesis to provide alternative design procedure for a power divider that has broadband characteristics. The Wilkinson power divider consisting of cascaded quarter wave sections is known to increase the bandwidth while maintaining high isolation and good match conditions at individual ports. Resistors placed between the quarter wave sections served to increase isolation. The values of required components were determined using odd and even mode analysis. In this work, the approximate theory developed previously is used as a preliminary design model, and it is extended further by considering optimization techniques and coupling between adjacent arms. This novel …

Studying The Mechanical Response Of Outer Hair Cells To Electric Pulses Using Image Sensors, Wayel F. Mutlag

Theses

The purpose of this research was to develop a way to improve the method used by Dr. Santos-Sacchi at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey to detect the motion of the outer hair cell (OHC). As part of the work, the construction and functioning of the OHC are presented and two designs to detect the motion of the boundary of the OHC were investigated.

The first design utilizes the position sensitive detector (PSD) S3932 made by Hamamatsu Inc. This detector, however, required excessive intensity of the optical signal that was not compatible with the operation of the …

A Graphical Tool For The Simulation Of Timed Petri Nets, Javaid Aslam Siddiqi

Theses

A highly interactive graphical tool is developed for the drawing and simulation of discrete event systems involving time constraints. The Timed Petri Net Simulator tool (TPNS) is capable of simulating systems with deterministic and stochastic delays. Performance and utilization parameters are collected during simulation for behavior and analysis purposes. Simulation results are stored in different files (log, verify, utilize, and mark). Conflict resolution on the basis of priority or random selection of multiple transitions in conflict is implemented to handle complex modeling situations. A user friendly interface is developed for effective interaction between the tool and the user. This interface …

The Strength Of Cement Bentonite In Containment Structures, Liong Tin So

Theses

In recent years the use of cutoff or slurry walls has increased in the containment of hazardous waste. Several materials have been utilized for backfill in slurry walls. Two important properties of the material are shear strength and permeability. Previously, sodium bentonite had been used. However, it was discovered that variable pH would cause an increase in permeability. Studies have shown calcium bentonite have a constant permeability with varied pH (Oweis and Khera, 1990). This study was undertaken to determine strength of calcium bentonite as affected by cement and slag.

Triaxial shear tests and unconfined compression tests were done on …

Temperature Regulation Post Hemorrhagic Shock In Rats : Atheoretical Analysis, Kahambwe Shungu

Theses

The adequacy of a mathematical model in simulating temperature regulation in rats after resuscitation from hemorrhagic shock is investigated. This model, proposed elsewhere, was devised to study temperature profiles during hyperthermia in humans.

Hemorrhagic shock was achieved by bleeding rats to an average mean arterial pressure (MAP) of 30mmHg. The rats were then maintained at this MAP for up to four hours by withdrawing or reinfusing the shed blood. One group (the control group), was allowed to return to normal body temperature after the shock episode without external intervention. A second group (microwave group) was irradiated, for an average of …

A Graphic Editor And Real Time Simulator Of Petri Net, Tenian Tang

Theses

A structurally designed graphic editor and real time simulator of Petri nets (PN) is presented. The package is programmed by Turbo C language, which runs in IBM-PC environmental with graphics adaptor. Various kinds of PN systems such as ordinary, general and timed Petri net can be modeled and analyzed by firing the models with real time token movement animations. Some properties of analyzed PN such as reachability, deadlock, firing time can be studied. Several illustrative examples are presented. The possible further enhancements are also discussed.

A Study Of The Potential Funding Mechanism For Surface Transportation In The New York Metropolitan Region, Krishnaveni Venkataswami

Theses

The present network of highways, soaring bridges, airports, seaports, and transit systems that serve the New York Metropolitan region are part of this region's inheritance from the generation of Americans who built them before us. These massive and sometimes daring achievements supported the economic growth of the region. Now that inheritance is in danger. The quality of the region's transportation infrastructure is barely adequate to fulfill current requirements, and insufficient to meet the demands of future economic growth and development. We are spending our inheritance.

A major problem is financial. Overall investment in transportation has slowed down in the last …

Image Deblurring For Visualization Of Coronary Microcirculation, Kaijun Wang

Theses

Blurred images of the rat coronary microcirculation have been obtained and processed. Heart motion, blood flow and noise cause the blur of the images. The objective of this thesis work was to study the effects of these factors on image quality and assess several models for image deblurring. The Wiener Filter and the Powei Spectrum Equalization Filter were implemented and were added to the existing image processing software. The images obtained after the application of these filters showed significant improvement over the original blurred images.

Position Recovery And Motion Analysis From Stereo Image Sequences, Yuxin Xie

Theses

Based on four stereo images, a new concept of unified optical flow field has been developed recently [3]. It is a generalization of the optical flow in stereo imagery. A set of fundamental equations is established to characterize the unified optical flow field. Another set of equations is then derived from which 3-D structure can be reconstructed and its motion can be analyzed by the use of the unified optical flow field quantities. In this thesis, we use some synthetic images of a rotated conical structure to study and test the theoretical results. The simulation and results are presented, thus …

Extension And Applications Of Knitting Technique For Petri Net Synthesis, Yanzhong Zhang

Theses

Petri nets have been used for modeling and analyzing various systems [1,2,3,4,8]. One approach to Petri net synthesis is a knitting technique [4,5, 6,7]. It was developed for modeling concurrent systems. The Petri net model is incrementally expanded by adding paths of nodes according to rules. To extend the knitting technique to cover synchronized systems, a set of new rules based on synchronic distance concept is presented. The rules penult synchronizing M exclusive processes (M 2) to a synchronic distance of any positive integer N. They can be applied to both exclusive processes and independent processes. The resulting Petri net …

An Implementation Of Bionomial-Qmf For Subband Coding Of Speech, Feng Chen

Theses

A real-time subband speech codec is implemented by the author on TMS320C25 digital signal processor based hardware for speech compression down to 0.25 bit per sample.

The Binomial Quadrature Mirror Filters (B-QMFs) are employed as the basic block for the hierarchical, dynamic tree, analysis/synthesis filter bank. After the analysis, available bits are optimally allocated among subbands. Band statistics are updated to overcome the nonstationarities of speech signal.

The energy compaction performance of this codec is compared with different subband and DCT in simulations for speech signals and AR(1) source models.

It is shown that the speech codec implemented provides an …

Vision-Guided Servoing Robot Arm System, Shing Lee

Theses

This thesis investigate the problem of tracking 2-D circle parts with an eye-in-hand robot arm system. A vision module capable of measuring the motion of a circle is developed. Two algorithms based on the conic equation representation of circle and the symmetric property are developed. The first algorithm approximates the image of the circle as an ellipse. The second algorithm use the arc radius estimator to extract two image points of the circle located at the center of the largest arc. These image points are then used to solve for the inverse perspective transformation. An inverse kinematics solution based on …

Simulation And Modeling Of Kinetics Of Silicon Oxidation In The Thin Oxide Regime, Tirthankar Dutta

Theses

Thermal oxidation of Silicon in dry O₂, in the thin regime(< 500A) is of vital importance to VLSI device engineers, because thin layers of SiO₂ are exclusively used as gate dielectric for high performance of MOS devices. There exist a number of models to explain the kinetics of oxidation in this thin regime. However there is considerable variance among them and the reported rate constants, which are supposed to describe the oxidation process. Rather than arriving at an alternative model, the present study aims at an extensive study and simulation of existing models of oxidation in dry oxygen, in the thin regime, with a recent set of experimental data and …

Advanced Manufacturing Applications Of Cost Estimating Techniques For Metal Cutting Industries, Zubair Hamid

Theses

In this work, different cost estimating techniques in metal cutting industry were studied. A basic understanding of estimation concepts were given. The typical breakdown of total cost was also given and discussed in details. Practical applications of cost estimating is studied. The effect of different parameters which relate to the lot sizes or quantity were discussed. All these results show that total cost is minimum at a point which is called least cost point, after that cost increases because of the addition of extra resources, in terms of man, machine and increase in administrative expenses.

Biodegradation Of Tnt (2,4,6-Trinitrotoluene), Jin Lou

Theses

This study summaries the results of various methods treating 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT). Review of available literatures revealed that the most commonly used techniques in full-scale plant for TNT removal are chemical oxidation and carbon adsorption.

From economic point of view, the biological treatment system will be much more cost-effective. Various methods for improving the efficiency of biological system treating TNT wastewater were developed in the laboratory. Current laboratory results show that by isolating appropriate microorganisms under adequate conditions, TNT wastes can be degraded successfully.

At the some time, some pretreatment technologies are recommended in this study for improving the performance of …

Design For Manufacturability (Computer Aided Optimum Gear Design), Narayan R. Mareddy

Theses

Design for manufacturing has design as the first manufacturing step. It is important to recognize the importance of design clubing with manufacturing to reduce the production, set up time. In this thesis concepts of design, manufacturing and four different ways of bringing design and manufacturing together are discussed in detail.

As there are large number of variables in the gear rating equations, it is very difficult to achieve optimum design by manual methods unless an extensive trial and error process is carried out. An algorithm has been developed which allows rapid convergence to the optimum gear design. The algorithm has …

Redesign Of Parts And Simulation Of Flexible Assembly Cell For Safety Water Shower Assembly, Balraj Y. Gardilla

Theses

A Design for Assembly (DSA) method is used to analyze the safety water shower assembly and to redesign the components with emphasis on meeting the criteria of allowing for flexible Assembly Cell (FAS). An Expert System is developed to select the right Assembly using VP-Expert. This thesis contrasts the old and new safety water shower assembly designs and describes the design of a final Flexible Assembly Cell. A PUMA 550 robot was investigated for use in the cell design. The flexible Assembly cell is simulated on silicon graphics using the IGRIP software. The economics of each part presentation method is …

Software Development For Analysis Of Stochastic Petri Nets Using Transfer Functions, Aman U. Jamwal

Theses

This thesis research is an implementation of a closed-form analytical technique for study, evaluation and analysis of Stochastic Petri Nets (SPN). The technique is based on a theorem that an isomorphism exists between an SPN and a Markov Chain. The procedure comprises five main steps: reachability graph generation of the underlying Petri net, transformation of the reachability graph to a state machine Petri net, calculation of transfer functions, computation of equivalent transfer functions via Mason's rule, and computation of performance parameters of the SPN model from the equivalent transfer functions and their derivatives. The software is developed in UNIX using …

Frictional Resistance Of Geotextiles, Md. Khairul Alam

Theses

The pullout resistance of geotextiles was examined using pullout tests. A suitable wooden box with large (2 ft x 2 ft x 4 ft) dimensions was used to avoid the effect of boundary and to simulate field conditions. Two types of failure patterns were observed. For shallow embedment (<3 ft), geotextile produced a movement of the surrounding mass of sand in the shape of an inverted cone due to interlocking friction between geotextile and sand particles. The cone angle decreases with increase in depth of embedment. For embedment equal to or greater than 3 ft., no sand cone developed and the failure occurred along the interface of geotextile and sand. For 1 ft. surcharge, the increase in the pullout resistance due to combined horizontal and vertical embedment was about 30 %.

Minimum-Time Control For Submarine Interception, Zaiping Chen

Theses

This thesis attempts to offer a possible improvement for conventional anti-submarine system which is mounted on warship. It consists of two parts: the control law and its realization concerning the particular problem. The control based on optimal theory is devised for three-dimentional minimum-time interception. A microprocessor system is also designed to achieve all necessary steps to track and attack the target. The thesis focuses on the question of how to launch a group of subcharges to destroy a submarine cruising under water: find the optimal trajectory by developing a numerical method to solve the nonlinear dynamic system and design a …

A Color Petri Net Simulation Tool, Sanjaykumar V. Desai

Theses

A user friendly, modular and highly interactive graphical tool for drawing, editing and simulating color Petri nets is developed. The tool is designed to model concurrent and interlocked systems, such as flexible manufacturing systems, communication protocols and computer systems. A Color Petri Net(CPN) has a more concise graphical system representation than a standard Petri net, because net entities in CPN carry information. The CPNS(Color Petri Net Simulation) tool simulates a net having conflicts, reveals deadlocks, and creates a log file with the state history of the system yielding performance measures.

Design Of An Advanced Control Algorithm For A Nuclear Power Plant Feedwater Control System, Randall C. Ezzo

Theses

Electric power companies with nuclear power plants have been aggressively looking for ways to increase plant safety and availability by increasing the reliability and performance of the plant's control systems. The performance of the Oyster Creek Nuclear Station's feedwater control system can be significantly improved by replacing the proportional-integral compensator with a compensator based on modern control concepts. In response to a -10 inch reactor water level setpoint change, settling time is improved from 107 seconds with 3% overshoot to 34 seconds with no overshoot.

A Case Study On Petri Net Modeling, Animation, And Simulation, Suresh C. Gurala

Theses

Petri nets as a graphical tool has developed over the last decade into a suitable model for representing, modeling, designing, analyzing and studying concurrent systems. In this thesis, Petri nets are applied for analyzing, modeling and simulation of a flexible assembly station. An existing AT&T FWS200 flexible assembly workstation for printed circuit board is modeled using Petri nets without the consideration of insertion failures and other abnormalities in the system. The Petri net model is then simulated using Graphics simulation language (GSL).

Development Of An Expert System For The Safety Of Workers From Electrical Hazards At Work Place, Faizul Islam

Theses

This thesis presents the development of an expert system for the safety of workers from electrical hazards at work place.

The objective of this work is to show how an expert system within the workplace can be used in helping to create an effective safety program.

An effective expert system for electrical safety have been developed for the workers to prevent accidents from electrical hazards using the safety regulations of Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

The regulations developed by OSHA have been incorporated in rule based expert system which can be accessed by any non computer professional and the system …