Engineering Commons^™

The Error Probability Of Reed-Solomon Coding And Interleaving On A Bursty-Noise Channel, W. J. Ebel, William H. Tranter

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

A useful bursty-noise channel model is proposed and, using this model, a binary communication system using Reed-Solomon coding and interleaving is analyzed. The model includes both thermal noise, which gives rise to random errors, and burst noise, which gives rise to error bursts. Error probabilities are derived for the uncoded system, and error probability bounds are derived for the coded system. Monte Carlo simulation results agree well with theory.

Hierarchical Neurocontroller Architecture For Robotic Manipulation, Xavier J. R. Avula, Luis C. Rabelo

Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

A hierarchical neurocontroller architecture consisting of two artificial neural network systems for the manipulation of a robotic arm is presented. The higher-level network system participates in the delineation of the robot arm workspace and coordinates transformation and the motion decision-making process. The lower-level network provides the correct sequence of control actions. A straightforward example illustrates the architecture''s capabilities, including speed, adaptability, and computational efficiency

Planning And Control Of A Robotic Manipulator Using Neural Networks, Xavier J. R. Avula, Heng Ma, Anil Malkani, Jay-Shinn Tsai, Luis C. Rabelo

Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

An architecture which utilizes two artificial neural systems for planning and control of a robotic arm is presented. The first neural network system participates in the trajectory planning and the motion decision-making process. The second neural network system provides the correct sequence of control actions with a high accuracy due to the utilization of an unsupervised/supervised neural network scheme. The utilization of a hybrid hierarchical/distributed organization, supervised/unsupervised learning models, and forward modeling yielded an architecture with capabilities of high level functionality.

Composite Stock Cutting Through Simulated Annealing, Hanan Lutfiyya, Bruce M. Mcmillin, Pipatpong Poshyanonda, Cihan H. Dagli

Computer Science Faculty Research & Creative Works

This paper explores the use of Simulated Annealing as an optimization technique for the problem of Composite Material Stock Cutting. The shapes are not constrained to be convex polygons or even regular shapes. However, due to the composite nature of the material, the orientation of the shapes on the stock is restricted. For placements of various shapes, we show how to determine a cost function, annealing parameters and performance. © 1992.

An Optical Adaptive Resonance Neural Network Utilizing Phase Conjugation, Donald C. Wunsch, D. J. Morris, T. P. Caudell, R. A. Falk

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

An adaptive resonance (ART) device has been conceived that is fully optical in the input-output processing path. It is based on holographic information processing in a phase-conjugating crystal. This sets up an associative pattern retrieval in a resonating loop utilizing angle-multiplexed reference beams for pattern classification. A reset mechanism is used to reject any given beam, allowing an ART search strategy. The design is similar to an existing nonlearning optical associative memory, but it does allow learning and makes use of information the other device discards. This device is expected to offer higher information storage density than alternative ART implementations.

Fast Power Flow With Capability Of Corrective Control Using A Neural Network, Badrul H. Chowdhury, B. M. Wilamowski

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The authors present a number of different configurations of a neural network and identify a particular case which is most suitable for power flow analysis in real-time applications. The advantage of fast computation of the artificial neural network (ANN) is used for obtaining power flow solutions in real time. The inputs to the ANN are the real and reactive power generating and demand in the system, and the output data are the complex bus voltages. A few configurations of the neural network were experimented with, and the best results were achieved with a single-layer feedforward neural network with nonlinear feedback. …

Hybrid Clamping In Ntsc Digital Video Equipment, Norman R. Cox, Douglas William Irwin

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Two algorithms that are suitable for deriving the blanking level of a National Television Systems Committee (NTSC) composite video signal are described. One method consists of averaging digitized color-burst samples taken from successive scan lines. A second method involves processing a group of samples taken from a single burst interval. Either algorithm used in a hybrid clamping arrangement results in automatic drift compensation and the ability to tie the back porch or sync tip to a predetermined digital output code. This aids in matching the analog signal to the input of the analog-to-signal (A/D) converter for maximum signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). …

New Emc Design Guidelines For Multilayer Printed Wiring Boards, Todd H. Hubing, Thomas Van Doren

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

No abstract provided.

Optimizing The Integration Of Photovoltaic Systems With Electric Utilities, Badrul H. Chowdhury

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The author introduces a comprehensive simulation package whereby the optimal size, operation, performance and economics of a photovoltaic (PV) system can be determined in the utility-integrated mode. The central issue is to present a single definitive optimization model. A stepwise analytical methodology starting at the solar resource and culminating in the value of the PV system in terms of avoided costs is provided. The methodology includes processing of the solar irradiance; identification of the PV system''s configuration and operational features; identification of real-time system controls in the presence of PV generation; security assessment in the presence of PV and production …

Method Of Making Highly Sinterable Lanthanum Chromite Powder, Von Richards, Subhash C. Singhal

Materials Science and Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

A highly sinterable powder consisting essentially of LaCrO.sub.3, containing from 5 weight % to 20 weight % of a chromite of dopant Ca, Sr, Co, Ba, or Mg and a coating of a chromate of dopant Ca, Sr, Co, Ba, or Mg; is made by (1) forming a solution of La, Cr, and dopant; (2) heating their solutions; (3) forming a combined solution having a desired ratio of La, Cr, and dopant and heating to reduce solvent; (4) forming a foamed mass under vacuum; (5) burning off organic components and forming a charred material; (6) grinding the charred material; (7) …

Effect Of Strain Rate On Material Properties Of Sheet Steels, M. Kassar, Wei-Wen Yu

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The effect of strain rate on tensile and compressive mechanical properties of sheet steels is investigated experimentally and analytically. Three sheet steels are studied in both longitudinal and transverse directions under different strain rates and different amounts of prior cold stretching in order to determine the separate effects of strain rate and aging half of the cold-stretched coupons are tested in an average of two days after cold-stretching operation. The remaining half are tested to failure at least 30 days after cold-stretching operation The results show that the proportional limit yield strength and ultimate strength increase with increasing strain rate …

Effect Of Strain Rate On Cold-Formed Steel Stub Columns, M. Kassar, C. L. Pan, Wei-Wen Yu

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The material properties of steel and the strength of steel members are affected by strain rate to investigate this characteristic for compression members 49 stub columns fabricated from 35XF sheet steel and 48 stub columns fabricated from 50XF sheet steel are studied experimentally and analytically under different strain rates The strain rate ranged from 10^-5 to 0.1. in./in./sec (10^-5 to 0.1 mm/mm/s). The material properties of 35XF and 50XF sheet steels developed from previous tests are used for the evaluation of the test data obtained from the member tests using specimens fabricated from the same sheet steel. The …

Asce Lrfd Method For Stainless Steel Structures, Shin Hua Lin, Wei-Wen Yu, Theodore V. Galambos

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

In recent years, probability-based load-and-resistance-factor-design (LRFD) method has been successfully applied to the design of hot-rolled steel sections and cold-formed steel members in the United States and foreign countries. In order to develop the LRFD criteria for the design of cold-formed stainless steel structural members and connections, a research project was conducted at the University of Missouri-Rolla since 1986 under the sponsorship of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). This newly developed LRFD Specification with Commentary has been adopted by ASCE as a new standard in 1990. It supersedes the 1974 edition of the Specification for the Design of …

Grain Size Effect On The Induced Piezoelectric Properties Of 0.9pmn-0.1pt Ceramic, U. Kumar, Wayne Huebner, P. Marsh, H. Kankul, S. F. Wang, Clyde G. Oakley

Materials Science and Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Lead magnesium niobate-lead titanate (Pb(Mg_1/3Nb_2/3)O₃ - PbTiO₃ (PT) solid solutions have been widely researched to produce devices that can be used in low- and high-electric-field applications. For some applications, such as medical ultrasonic transducers, it is necessary to prepare the ceramic with high density and small average grain size. The effect of grain size on the low- and high-field properties of 0.9-PMN-0.10-PT ceramics is described in the present work. To prepare highly dense ceramic, vibratory and attrition milled powders were sintered between 1000 and 1250 ⁰C. The average grain sizes of the sintered ceramics …

An Optical Implementation Of Adaptive Resonance Utilizing Phase Conjugation, Donald C. Wunsch, T. P. Caudell, D. J. Morris, R. A. Falk

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

A novel adaptive resonance theory (ART) device has been conceived that is fully optical in the input-output processing path. This device is based on holographic information processing in a phase-conjugating crystal. This sets up an associative pattern retrieval in a resonating loop utilizing angle-multiplexed reference beams for pattern classification. A reset mechanism is used to reject any given beam, allowing an ART search strategy. The design is similar to that of an existing nonlearning optical associative memory, but is does allow learning and makes use of information the other device discards. This new device is expected to offer higher information …

A Methodology For Customer Requirements Generation In Communication Systems Planning, Negaa Albegami, Yildirim Omurtag

Engineering Management and Systems Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

In electronic communication systems it is nearly impossible to keep up with changing technology. This problem is further aggregated in the developing countries where the contractor (probably a western company) is expected to develop the system from the ground up. A basic problem which confronts this approach is either: 1) The customer will start adding or rejecting some of the capabilities, or 2) The local operation will never use some of the capabilities. Both of these outcomes are costly in terms of time and resources available to a developing country. This paper describes a new methodology for requirements generation to …

Porting Chorus To The Pa-Risc: Overall Evaluation, Jonathan Walpole, Marion Hakanson, Jon Inouye, Ravi Konuru

Computer Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

This document is part of a series of reports describing the design decisions made in porting the Chorus Operating System kernel to the Hewlett-Packard 9000 Series 800 workstation. This document summarizes the matches and mis-matches between Chorus and the PA-RISC and outlines the general lessons learned during the project.

This document is intended for people who are interested in (a) the separation of machinedependent micro-kernel code from machine-independent micro-kernel code, (b) the interaction between operating system design and the PA-RISC architecture, and (c) the portability ofthe Chorus operating system.

The first report in the series, Porting Chorus to the PA-RISe: …

Porting The Chorus Supervisor And Related Low-Level Functions To The Pa-Risc, Ravi Konuru, Marion Hakanson, Jon Inouye, Jonathan Walpole

Computer Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

This document is part of a series of reports describing the design decisions made in porting the Chorus Operating System to the Hewlett-Packard 9000 Series 800 workstation.

The Supervisor is the name given by Chorus to a collection of low-level functions that are machine dependent and have to be implemented when Chorus is ported from one machine to another. The Supervisor is responsible for interrupt, trap and exception handling, managing low-level thread initialization, context switch, kernel initialization, managing simple devices (timer and console) and offering a low-level debugger. This document describes the port of the Supervisor and related low-level functions. …

Porting Chorus To The Pa-Risc: Building, Debugging, Testing And Validation, Ravi Konuru, Marion Hakanson, Jon Inouye, Jonathan Walpole

Computer Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

This document is part of a series of reports describing the design decisions made in porting the Chorus Operating System to the Hewlett-Packard 9000 Series 800 workstation. This document describes the environment for building the Chorus kernel, the various kernel tests, and the debugging environment used for porting the Chorus operating system to the HP PA-RISC.

The information contained in this paper will be of interest to people who wish to:

• Use the PA-Chorus kernel for development and/or modification, • Know about the build environment for Chorus kernel on PA-RISC, • Know about the PA-Chorus approach to debugging, • …

Comparison Of Timing Jitter In External And Monolithic Cavity Mode-Locked Semiconductor Lasers, Dennis J. Derickson, P. A. Morton, J. E. Bowers, R. L. Thornton

Electrical Engineering

A comprehensive timing jitter comparison is made for mode-locked semiconductor lasers using active, passive, and hybrid mode-locking techniques in both external and monolithic cavity configurations. Active mode locking gives the lowest residual rms timing jitter of 65 fs (150 Hz-50 MHz), followed by the hybrid and passive mode-locking techniques. It is found that monolithic cavity devices with all active waveguides have higher timing jitter levels than the comparable external cavity case.

Method For Gaseous Component Indentification With #3 Polymeric Film, Edward S. Kolesar Jr.

AFIT Patents

A sensor having an interdigitated gate electrode field effect transistor (IGEFET) coupled to an electron beam evaporated copper phthalocyanine thin film is used to selectively detect parts-per-billion concentration levels of atmosphere contaminants such as nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) and diisopropyl methylphosphonate (DIMP). The sensor is excited with a voltage pulse, and its time- and frequency-domain response are examined. The envelopes of the magnitude of the normalized difference frequency spectrums reveal features which unambiguously distinguish the NO₂ and DIMP exposures.

An Investigation Of Digital Microprocessor Algorithms In Active Suspension Systems, Toby L. Mcclellan

Graduate Research Papers

The need for knowledge and understanding of these systems at the technician level will increase dramatically as other manufacturers develop production systems in the 90's. Current technical literature on the subject of active and semi-active suspension systems does not well explain a major aspect of these systems, the origin and nature of the control algorithms used. A review of 30 articles and technical papers, and a title search of over 300 others discovered only 2 vague presentations of the actual control logic used in such systems. Furthermore, the control information that was printed was presented in terms of Laplace transforms …

Migrating A C-Based Cad Tool To An Object-Oriented Database/C++ Environment: Conversion Costs And Performance Analysis, Mark A. Roth, Timothy M. Jacobs

AFIT Documents

his paper examines the potential of object-oriented databases to support complex design applications. To do this we migrated the Magic very large scale integrated (VLSI) circuit design tool written in the C language to a new environment in which Magic's existing file management code is replaced with a C++ language interface to the commercial object-oriented database management system (OODBMS) product Object Store. In our initial implementation we found the performance of this tool as implemented on the OODBMS to be marginally faster than the tool as currently implemented with a flat file system in several critical areas. Increased functionality, including …

Unsteady Flow In Vertical, Converging Tubes, Hamid Johari, William W. Durgin

Office of the Provost Scholarship

The discharge of liquids from vertical tubes with various contraction geometries was studied via the unsteady Bernoulli equation. The temporal variations of the exit velocity and fluid level in the tube were found from the numerical integration of nonlinear differential equations. Sudden, quadratic, and exponential contraction geometries were considered. For inlet to exit area ratios greater than two, the flow initially accelerates to a maximum speed and then it decelerates for the geometries studied. The exponential contraction has the shortest discharge time. The solutions also reveal that the largest possible velocity and the shortest discharge time are achieved in a …

Acuta Enews December 1991, Vol. 20, No. 12

ACUTA Newsletters

In This Issue

10-XXX gives occasion for fraud

President's Message

YaleNET, a variety of services

Think ahead to prevent fraud

MOREnet links 12 campuses

Positions available

Part 1 Of The Mcmaster University Laboratory Test Program On Brick Veneer/Steel Stud Wall Systems, Robert G. Drysdale, Normand Breton

CCFSS Library (1939 - present)

The behaviour of steel stud backup wall panels subjected to lateral loads was investigated experimentally and analytically. In addition, various steel stud to track connections were investigated experimentally.

The experimental work consisted of the fabrication and testing of 109 steel stud to track connections. Thirty-two full size steel stud backup wall panels were also tested. Some of the panels were braced with various types of commonly used steel bridging while others were braced with gypsum board sheathing or Styrofoam SM insulation. Twelve beam tests were also performed in order to establish the flexural bending capacity of the steel studs tested. …

Illustrative Examples Based On The Asce Standard Specification For The Design Of Cold-Formed Stainless Steel Structural Members, Shin-Hua Lin, Wei-Wen Yu, Theodore V. Galambos

CCFSS Library (1939 - present)

PREFACE During the past four years, two methods were developed for the design of stainless steel structural members at the University of Missouri-Rolla with consultation of Professor T. V. Galambos at the University of Minnesota. One of the methods is based on the load and resistance factor design (LRFD) and the other is based on the allowable stress design (ASD). Both design methods are now included in the new ASCE Standard 8-90, Specification for the Design of Cold-Formed Stainless Steel Structural Members. At the September 21, 1990 meeting of the Control Group of the ASCE Stainless Steel Cold-Formed Section Standards …

Evaluation Of Torsional Provisions In Seismic Codes, Anil K. Chopra, Rakesh K. Goel

Civil and Environmental Engineering

The effects of plan asymmetry on the earthquake response of code-designed, one-story systems are identified with the objective of evaluating how well these effects are represented by torsional provisions in building codes. The earthquake-induced deformations and ductility demands on resisting elements of asymmetric-plan systems, designed according to several different codes, are compared with their values if the system plan were symmetric. The presented results demonstrate that the design eccentricity in building codes should be modified in order to achieve the desirable goal of similar ductility demands on asymmetric-plan and symmetric-plan systems. The design eccentricity should be defined differently for elastic …

9th Conference On Senior Engineering Design Projects, College Of Engineering And Applied Sciences

Senior Engineering Design Conference

The 9th Conference on Senior Engineering Design Projects was held on December 10, 1991 at the College of Engineering and applied Sciences on the Parkview Campus of Western Michigan University. The college sponsors the conference to showcase the work of its graduating seniors, who are required to complete a capstone project that puts into practice what they have learned. Many of the projects are sponsored by business and industry.

Composite Damage Assessment Employing An Optical Neural Network Processor And An Embedded Fiberoptic Sensor Array, Barry G. Grossman, Xing Gao, Michael H. Thursby

Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Faculty Publications

This paper discusses a novel approach for composite damage assessment with potential for DoD, NASA, and commercial applications. We have analyzed and modeled a two dimensional composite damage assessment system for real-time monitoring and determination of damage location in a composite structure. The system combines two techniques: a fiberoptic strain sensor array and an optical neural network processor. A two dimensional fiberoptic sensor array embedded in the composite structure during the manufacturing process can be used to detect changes in the mechanical strain distribution caused by subsequent damage to the structure. The optical processor, a pre-trained Kohonen neural network, has …