Engineering Commons^™

Plastic Fiber Rolling For Concrete Reinforcement, Jeffery S. Thomas

Masters Theses

"Fiber reinforced concrete is gaining in acceptance and usage as its strength and toughness benefits are realized. Polypropylene fibers are currently the most commonly used fibers. However, the cost of virgin plastics limits the percent content that can be economically added to concrete. One would first believe that recycled plastics could offer a viable alternative to virgin-plastic fibers, but at present time extra selection and cleaning steps required to reprocess the recycled plastic into fibers makes it more expensive than virgin-plastic fibers. A fiber rolling process conceived and developed at the University of Missouri-Rolla has the potential of making recycled …

Asynchronous Multiuser Decorrelating Detector For Awgn Channel, Ashwini A. Borkar

Theses

Decorrelating detector is one of the sub-optimum detectors for CDMA applications that generally has better performance than the conventional detector and is near-far resistant. Synchronous decorrelating detector employing DPSK modulation is considered and its simulation results are presented.

Attention is focussed on one-shot decorrelating detector for a two user case for asynchronous transmission, where each symbol interval is considered seperately. Initially the performance of the detector with exact estimation of the relative delay is analyzed and then the effect of inaccurate estimation on the probability of error is discussed.

Analysis Of Threaded Joint Behavior In An Airbag Module Assembly, Rustam Chemat

Retrospective Theses and Dissertations

While some of think of our cars as simply "buckets of bolts", the proper design choices, applications, and assemblies of threaded fasteners/bolted joints play critical roles in automobile safety.

Supplemental Restraint Systems (SRS), more commonly known as airbags, help prevent vehicle occupants from being thrown forward into the dashboard or windshield in the event of a collision. The components comprising the airbag, the inflator, the backing plate, and the cover are connected to each other, and to the vehicle, through a series of threaded fasteners. Proper and timely deployment of the airbag depends largely on the selection of suitable threaded …

Analysis Of Background Noise For Wireless Microwave Lan Channels, Jason C. Hislop

Theses : Honours

Perusal of the details within, should provide the reader with an insight into general wireless indoor communications within the microwave spectrum, with respect to the problems laced, specific to noise corruption of the transmitted signal. Indoor communication systems are difficult to model, due to the largely random nature of the relevant environment, and the compounding factors that degrade system performance. These factors are many and varied, in accordance with the operational topologies of possible application area. However, there exists a common and increasing need to effectively model the communication links in question. Part of this strategy involves having an understanding …

Simulator For The Performance Analysis Of Cpm Schemes In An Indoor Wireless Environment, Ronald Chua

Theses : Honours

A software simulator for characterising Continuous Phase Modulation (CPM) schemes in an indoor multipath environment has been developed using SIMULINK and MATLAB. The simulator is capable of simulating a wide range of CPM schemes to determine bandwidth efficiency and robustness to additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) and Rician fading. Initial trials of the simulator indicate that the simulator is functioning correctly. Eventually, the simulator will be used to determine the most suitable modulation scheme for the development of an actual indoor wireless system.

An Investigation Into Manufacturing Execution Systems, K. W. Duley

Theses : Honours

Hardware and software developments of this decade have exposed an hiatus between business/management applications and process control in heavy industry in the implementation of computer technology. This document examines the development of discrete manufacturing and of relevant implementations of computing. It seeks to examine and to clarify the issues involved in a perceived current drive to bridge this gap, to integrate all the systems in a manufacturing enterprise in a Manufacturing Execution System (MES) in order to address two hypotheses: I) That overseas trends towards the development of manufacturing execution systems have application in the Australian industrial context. 2) That …

Combustion Modeling Of Rdx, Hmx And Gap With Detailed Kinetics, Jeffrey E. Davidson

Theses and Dissertations

A one-dimensional, steady-state numerical model of the combustion of homogeneous solid propellant has been developed. The combustion processes is modeled in three regions: solid, two-phase (liquid and gas) and gas. Conservation of energy and mass equations are solved in the two-phase and gas regions and the eigenvalue of the system (the mass burning rate) is converged by matching the heat flux at the interface of these two regions. The chemical reactions of the system are modeled using a global kinetic mechanism in the two-phase region and an elementary kinetic mechanism in the gas region. The model has been applied to …

Modelling An Optical Fiber Bragg Grating, Claudio Oliveira Egalon

Electrical & Computer Engineering Theses & Dissertations

A theoretical investigation of a single mode optical fiber with one and two superimposed Bragg grating is presented. The formulation relies in the determination of an approximate solution in the asymptotic region of one of the fiber parameters. A correction is then applied to the asymptotic solution using the Method of the Successive Approximations also known as the Piccard Method. The approximation was then compared to the numerical solution using the Runge-Kutta method. Assuming that each Bragg grating has modulation frequencies given by Ω₁ and Ω₂, it has been found that the second Bragg grating shifts the …

Optical Fiber Fourier Transform Infrared Evanescent Wave Absorption Spectroscopy Of Aluminum Hydroxide And Natural Corrosion, Juock S. Namkung

Electrical & Computer Engineering Theses & Dissertations

A new technique for continuous, real-time, in-situ detection of natural corrosion of aluminum alloys is presented. The technique is a generalized version of attenuated total reflectance (ATR) spectroscopy, that combines optical fibers and a Michelson interferometer spectrometer to make evanescent wave absorption measurements. Aluminum hydroxide is one of the major corrosion products of aluminum. Absorption spectra of powdered samples of aluminum corrosion, in the spectral region around three micrometers have been studied and compared with the spectra from pure powdered aluminum hydroxide. A chalcogenide optical fiber was used as an attenuated total reflectance (ATR) optical element. The same samples were …

An Investigation Of Diameter Measurement Repeatability Using A Coordinate Measuring Machine And A Multi-Baseline Repeatability Assessment Methodology, Bruce Marsh

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

The need for reliable and consistent measurement has become more acute with the use of statistical process control (SPC), gage repeatability and reproducibility (Gage R&R) assessment, and high precision, computer-controlled gaging systems. Although it is often overlooked, the inspection methodology under which various features are inspected has an impact on Gage R&R results. This notion was confirmed when a 1993 thesis study substantiated inspection methodology as a source of measurement variability in direct computer-controlled, coordinate measuring machines (DCC/CMMs). Although this study explored a methodology to bring measurement variability under statistical control, the tested assessment methodology--single baseline repeatability assessment--was not validated. …

Maintenance Conditions And Occupant Behavior In Government Provided Housing In Lagos, Nigeria, Paul Abayomi Bajere

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Maintenance conditions and occupant behavior towards maintenance in government housing in developing countries are universal problems. Perceptions, construction technology, competencies, tenureship, cultural tradition, and demographic factors have been identified as major constraints influencing housing maintenance behavior. There was a need for this study because limited literature exists on maintenance of urban government provided housing in Nigeria. Also, the degree of success of the government's efforts concerning environmental cleaning has not been remarkable.

The primary purpose of this study was to investigate the maintenance of government provided housing, as perceived by the residents and observed by the researcher, to determine the …

Full Field Nondestructive Techniques For Imaging Composite Fiber Volume Fraction, Joseph Nomasa Zalameda

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

No abstract provided.

Work And Play: Recreation And Reality In A Southern Female Textile World, Beth Anne English

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

No abstract provided.

Laboratory And Field Investigations To Determine The Chemical Factors Affecting Zinc And Iron Transport At An Industrial Waste Facility, Michael Lawrence Chasey

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

No abstract provided.

Effect Of Light Source On The Sorting Performance Of A Vision-Based Robot System, Johnny T. Li

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Industries look toward computer vision as a means to automate materials handling. To make this choice more appealing, useful and feasible vision applications must be explored. However, illuminance variation in the factory environment can undermine the capability and applicability of vision-based control systems. The purposes of this study were (a) to design and develop a vision-based robot material sorting system, (b) to determine the optimal settings for this system under fluorescent and incandescent lighting for two different color parts on a moving conveyor, and (c) to determine the sorting performance of this system under each light source.

The main components …

Investigation Of Electrotribological And Arc Erosion Behavior Of Cu-15vol.%Cr In Situ Composite, Zhongyu Chen

Masters Theses

Electrotribological and arc erosion behavior of Cu-15vol.%Cr in situ composite was investigated in terms of coefficient of friction, interfacial resistance, bulk temperature, and wear rate as a function of normal pressure, sliding speed, and electrical current. Microstructural change due to electrical sliding was studied to understand wear mechanisms. Cu-15vol.%Cr in situ composite was selected in this research because it exhibits an excellent combination of mechanical strength and electrical/thermal conductivity.

It was found that the average coefficient of friction decreased with increasing electrical current under dry electrical sliding. The average coefficient of friction was lower under lubricated electrical sliding than that …

The Mobile Telephone: The Transportation Of Social Relationships, Kenneth C. Staples

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

In the studies of contemporary electronic media artifacts and their effects on society, television, satellites, and computers have been extensively investigated and their various impacts well documented. With regards to telecommunication technologies, academic scholarship is somewhat less, with most comment being restricted to either historic evolution, or technical description. Exceptions to this are, Marvin's reference to the telephone in her publication, When Old Technologies Were New: Thinking About Electronic Communication in the Late Nineteenth Century (1988}, and Umble's The Amish and the telephone: resistance and reconstruction (1992). Both of these publications are used for supporting arguments in my thesis investigating …

Terminal Sliding Mode Control For Rigid Robotic Manipulators With Uncertain Dynamics, Nicola Ritter

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This thesis presents two new adaptive control laws that use the terminal sliding mode technique for the tracking problem of rigid robotic manipulators with non-linearities, dynamic couplings and uncertain parameters. The first law provides a robust scheme which uses several properties of rigid robotic mauipulators and adaptively adjusts seven uncertain parameter bounds. The law ensures finite time error convergence to the system origin and is simple to implement The second law treats the manipulator as a partially known system. The known dynamics are used to build a nominal control law and the effects of unknown system dynamics arc compensated for …