Engineering Commons^™

Determination Of Water-Cement Ratio In Cement Paste By Atomic Absorption Spectrometry, Jiong Zhao

Theses

As one of the important characteristics of concrete, water-cement ratio controls porosity and thus strength and corrosion resistance of hardened concrete.

This paper presents a laboratory observation for determination of water-cement ratio of fresh concrete for quality control and quality assurance. The atomic absorption spectrophotometer and the flouresence spectrophtometer were used to determine the calcium concentration in cement solution of various water-cement ratio. The level of water-cement ratio investigated ranged from 0.4 to 0.55 which covers the most range of water-cement ratios in present practice. The result of lab experiments shows an immediate relation between the water-cement ratio and the …

A New Approach To Motion Analysis From A Sequence Of Stereo Images, Lin Zhou

Theses

A new approach to motion analysis from a sequence of stereo images is presented in this thesis. Based on a four-frame model, 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 motion can be reconstructed via the use of the field quantities of the unified optical flow field. In this thesis, the implementation of the approach is conducted. The simulation and …

Bad Data Identification In Power Systems, Shichun Zou

Theses

Two classes of bad data (BD) identification methods in power system state estimation are studied.

The first class is the perturbation method. In this method, the obtained measurements are perturbed a few times. Each time a state is obtained from which measurement corrections are calculated. The statistics of the corrections corresponding to a BD are different from those corresponding to a healthy data. The method uses those differences for identification purposes.

The effectiveness of different indicators is studied. These include the normalized residual, the weighted residual, and residuals incorporating the statistics of the corrections.

The success rate of using the …

Charcoal Catalyzed Ozone Decomposition Of Organic Pollutants In Water, Kin Ho

Theses

A laboratory study has been performed on the wastewater treatment (destruction of organic species in water) using a novel process called Integrated Adsorption-Oxidation (IAO) where activated carbon is being utilized as a catalyst-adsorbent, and ozone as oxidant. The results of ozonation alone on the pollutants in water are also reported to provide a comparison with the adsorption-oxidation scheme in semi-batch reactions. All experiments were conducted at room temperature in a semi-batch reactor using five (water soluble) representative chemicals as pollutants: Aniline, Acetamide, Pyridine, N,N-dimethyl formamide and O-cresol. We also studied two volatile compounds: Trichloroethylene and Chloroform. Phenol was studied in …

Catalytic Oxidation Of Chlorinated Compounds Over Pdo/Al2o3 On A Monolith, Tai-Chiang Yu

Theses

The catalytic oxidation of trichloroethylene(TCE) and dichloromethane (DCM) was investigated over a catalyst containing 4% PdO on Al₂O₃ washcoat and on a cordierite monolith with 400 channels per in². Reactivity and selectivity of the catalyst for the destruction of 200 ppm C₂HCl₃ and 500 ppm CH₂Cl₂ in air was evaluated over the temperature range 250 to 550 °C. This research was conducted in a tubular reactor system at space velocities of 4,000 to 24,000 v/v/hr. It was found that complete oxidation occurs at 500°C for DCM and 550°C for …

Evaluating The Role Of Geogrids In The Rehabilitation Of Cracked Dams Via Numerical Techniques, Kelly Dean Uhacz

Dissertations and Theses

Collapse and cracking of debris earth embankment dams is a serious problem in areas of the arid Western United States. The use of geogrids is evaluated in this thesis as a possible solution to prevent or reduce the amount of damage to the structures from collapse and cracking.

An apparatus was designed, constructed, and instrumented to electronically acquire data to evaluate the behavior of geogrids during pullout tests under various normal stresses. The pullout tests were also modelled using numerical techniques to correlate physical test data with numerical test data. Understanding the behavior of the geogrid, in both the physical …

Adiabatic Kinetic Studies Of The Cytidine/Acetic Anhydride Reaction By Utilizing Temperature Versus Time Data, Joseph John Shatynski

Theses

It is possible to predict the kinetics of a reaction by using temperature versus time data under adiabatic conditions. This method was used for the cytidine/acetic anhydride reaction using a RC1 Mettler Reaction Calorimeter.

The authenticity of the experimental adiabatic system was verified by determining the kinetic parameters of a known reaction (hydrolysis of acetic anhydride) and comparing them to literature values.

For example, the average experimental activation energy, heat of reaction, and ln k₀ values for the hydrolysis of acetic anhydride were 11.2 ±.5 kcal/gmole, -14.4 ± .2 kcal/gmole, and 12.74 ± .94 sec^-1, respectfully, while …

Performance Evaluation In Terms Of Congestion And Flow Control Of Interconnected Token Ring Local Area Networks, Muhammad Salim Raza

Theses

In an interconnected network, if user demands are allowed to exceed the system capacity, unpleasant congestion effects occur which rapidly neutralize the delay and efficiency advantages. Congestion can be eliminated by using an appropriate set of traffic monitoring and control procedures called flow control procedures. This thesis first investigates the major technical concepts underlying the token-ring technology; performance and flow control issues and then gives an approximate analytical solution in terms of mean end-toned delay in a system of token-ring local area network interconnected through bridges. The analytical solution is based on an approximation of the mean end-to-end delay in …

Image Enhancement And Analysis Of Leukocyte Adhesion, Yee-Ruh Lin

Theses

The image of leukocyte adhesion to microvascular walls in the isolated rat perfused heart model has been observed and processed. Some of the fluorescent labeled leukocytes are barely visible due to microscope focal plane and the motion of objects. The purpose of this thesis is to extract leukocyte from the image of the experimental data using image enhancement and analysis (segmentation) techniques and develop a program to handle automatically counting of leukocytes in a predefined scene.

Effect Of Shrinkage On The Design And Manufacture Of Plastic Parts In Injection Molding Using Cad/Cam Techniques, Deepak M. Shastri

Theses

Computer aided design software in injection molding has revolutionized injection molding in the design and manufacturing processes. Computer Aided Engineering can be applied to injection molding to increase the process efficiency, reduce part costs, and produce accurate parts in less time. The mold designer has many software programs to choose from to produce satisfactory mold designs from part geometries, and a correct selection can produce profitable results. A study of the need for and the scope of computers in injection molding is performed to evaluate the suitability of a CAE package by considering the value added to the parts using …

3-D Structure Recovery Using Unified Optical Flow Field Approach, Anees Ahmad

Theses

Recovery of the 3-D structure that is characterized by an N^th order factorable and/or non-factorable polynomial equation is studied in this thesis. Analytical tools have been employed to analyze and solve the problem. The solution is based on the direct method, which is derived from the unified optical flow field, which, in turn, is an extension of optical flow to spatial image sequences. Least squares formulation has been employed for optimum estimation. The method used does not require the establishment of point to point correspondence, nor the estimation of the optical flow, as an intermediate step.

The theoretical results …

A Process For Implementing Cim In A Small Manufacturing Facility, Tushar R. Desai

Theses

This work is dedicated to small manufacturing enterprises seeking to explore Computer Integrated Manufacturing (CIM) technology, which is the recent trend in the manufacturing world. The main theme of this thesis is to improve productivity, product quality and reliability, and to reduce costs by integrating various discipline in small manufacturing environment, using computer technology.

To achieve this goal, a hypothetical small manufacturing company was chosen as a subject. The typical functional and organizational structures were analyzed and possible problem areas were highlighted. The problems relating to manufacturing process were studied in detail, and possible solutions were proposed to computerize the …

Automated Determination Of Air Content In Hardened Concrete, Anita R. Navalurkar

Theses

An automated system was developed for the microscopic determination of air content and the related parameters in hardened concrete using the principles of Image Analysis and Computer Technology. Slices taken from the concrete specimen were viewed through a microscope with 40X magnification. The magnified image of the concrete slice is digitized by an Image Analyzing Software. Methodologies were developed for analysis of the digitized image and determination of air content and the required parameters. The automated system included a motorized positioner which translated microscope stage in a frame by frame sequence so that the whole image is digitized. Several tests …

Parallel Implementation Of Spatial Domain Image Processing Algorithms On The Mesh Connected Computer Simulator, Adury Devi Prasad

Theses

The performance of conventional computers in image processing applications is known to be inadequate due to the enormous computational requirements. Almost all image processing applications can be implemented in parallel. This thesis is the parallel implementation of neighborhood averaging and edge detection by the Sobel and Laplacian operators on the Mesh Connected Computer Computer Simulator (MCCS), a package developed at NJIT to study the behavior of SIMD machines. Expressions for speedup, utilization and efficiency have been derived. Suggestions for further improvements that can be incorporated in MCCS and its instruction set have been made.

Connected Component Labelling On A Pair Of Parallel Systems, Imran Shahid

Theses

Hypercubes and meshes are of the most successful parallel processing structures and are widely used in image processing applications. The mesh is a natural multiprocessor architecture for image processing because an N x N image can be directly mapped onto a mesh of N x N PEs (processing elements), holding each PE responsible for one pixel, with neighboring PEs responsible for neighboring pixels. Thus, local operations can be performed on the image, or local image features can be detected in parallel, with each processor simultaneously accessing its neighbor and computing the appropriate function for its neighborhood. Meshes and several other …

Automated Computer Drafting Of Precision Tooling For Drawing Operation, Basani Venkateswarlu

Theses

Based on customer requirements of components, design engineers create the necessary tooling using CAD to produce the exact part desired by the customer. A software package using CARL is developed to help the design engineer to create the drawings of Pinch off Punch and Pinch off for both rectangular/square and round punches. A variety of hole patterns for the punches are automatically created through the software, along with a possibility of selecting one of the standard patterns automatically for a drawing. The drawings are created such that the dimensions and the notes are automatically generated with the input of the …

Androx Implementation Of Nonlinear Filter, Keh-Chao Chu

Theses

Nonlinear filters, such as morphological operations, play an important role in image processing. Several software implementations of nonlinear filters are presented in this thesis. There may exist more than one method to implement a specific operation. The methods used in this thesis are chosen to be most suited for the machine used according to its structure. These most suited methods are also generally best for software implementations on other machines as well. The machine used here is the Androx image computing workstation.

Solidification/Stabilization Of Chromium Contaminated Soil Using Cement And Fly Ash, Arunkumar Sripathi

Theses

Chromium, when present in the soil, can cause serious health hazards. Toxicity depends upon the concentration in the soil. Chromium in soil has become a major problem in some sites and a method must be developed so that it can be treated or disposed of in a safe manner.

In this research experiments are conducted to check whether the chromium contaminated soil can be solidified and landfilled in a safe way. To have a control over the amount of chromium present in the soil, pure soil (free from chromium contamination) was used and chromium was added in different proportion.

Another …

Tisi2/N+/P Silicon Junction Formation By Ion Implantation Through Metal Technique, Ying Wu

Theses

Experimental analysis, modeling and simulation of the formation and electrical characterization of TiSi₂/n⁺/p-Si shallow junctions are presented here. The formation of shallow n⁺-p junction, by ion implantation of As⁺ through Ti films evaporated on p-Si substrates followed by Rapid Thermal Annealing ( RTA ) and conventional furnace annealing has been performed in these experiments. Structural techniques such as Secondary Ion Mass Spectroscopy ( SIMS ) and Rutherford Backscattering spectroscopy ( RBS ) experiments have been employed to characterize the devices, and RUMP simulator was used to analyze and interpret the RBS data. Current-voltage …

Eeg Data Compression, Yun-Chu Wu

Theses

This paper presents two different ways to compress EEC data-direct data com pression and a data transformation technique. The Adaptive Delta modulation and Huffman coding are used in the former method to predict or interpolate the data. Linear orthognal transformation algorithms are used in the latter method to detect and reduce the redundancies of the data by analyzing the spectral and energy distribution. Each method is implemented by programming the computer. The experimental results of their efficiencies and errors with different requirements and under different situations are compared and discussed. By comparing the EEC data compression degree and normalized square …

Interfacing Plasticating Extruders With Personal Computers For Data Acquisition, Information Analysis And Retrieval Purposes, Gautamkumar Y. Shah

Theses

The current manufacturing industries are influenced more and more by computers and automation. Two of the major areas of computer uses are data acquisition and interfacing, both lead towards automation.

The intent of this thesis is to focus on the area of interfacing personal computers with plasticating extruders for information retrieval and storage. The requirements for software and hardware are discussed. Analysis of the stored information can be used to improve the quality of the final product. Implications of the stored parameters on the final product are also discussed. A sample program to store and retrieve the important parameters is …

Novel Artificial Dielectric Plannar Waveguides, Jialing Yang

Theses

An artificial dielectric is a composite material consisting of a dielectric with a large number of conducting particles arranged in a three-dimensional pattern. The particle dimensions are smaller than the optical wavelength of interest. In this thesis, the theoretical and experimental results of some novel artifical dielectric planar waveguide structures are presented. By comparing near field intensity profile measurements from various waveguide structures, we have shown that by adding small clusters of the conductor material into the waveguide we can tailor the mode profile of the waveguide. Also, we were able to fabricate waveguides on a substrate with relatively higher …

Design For Assembly : Re-Design Of An Electrical Switch For The Ease Of Automatic Assembly, Achyuta Reddy Pannala

Theses

A design for assembly (DFA) method is used to analyze the existing design of parts of an electrical switch, and to reduce and re-design them, for the ease of automatic assembly. The procedure for the selection of suitable and economical assembly method is presented based on the Boothroyd & Dewhurst methods. Analysis of the initial design for manual assembly and the re-design for automatic assembly are presented. An algorithmic approach for simplified generation of all mechanical assembly sequences and selecting the good assembly sequences is presented with graphical representations. A work station needed for the automatic assembly is developed, which …

Low To Medium Level Image Processing For A Mobile Robot, Cecilia H. Espinosa

Dissertations and Theses

The use of visual perception in autonomous mobile systems was approached with caution by mobile robot developers because of the high computational cost and huge memory requirements of most image processing operations. When used, the image processing is implemented on multiprocessors or complex and expensive systems, thereby requiring the robot to be wired or radio controlled from the computer system base.

Hereby developed is a simple, inexpensive and automatic image processing subsystem that is completely implementable on a PC-386SX with 640K base memory. The subsystem will serve as the front end of the vision system for the PSUBOT, an autonomous …

Exploiting And/Or Parallelism In Prolog, Bankim Shah

Dissertations and Theses

Logic programming languages have generated increasing interest over the last few years. Logic programming languages like Prolog are being explored for different applications. Prolog is inherently parallel. Attempts are being made to utilize this inherent parallelism. There are two kinds of parallelism present in Prolog, OR parallelism and AND parallelism. OR parallelism is relatively easy to exploit while AND parallelism poses interesting issues. One of the main issues is dependencies between literals.

It is very important to use the AND parallelism available in the language structure as not exploiting it would result in a substantial loss of parallelism. Any system …

Metabolism Of Arachidonate-Containing Phospholipid Molecular Species In The Murine Macrophage-Like Cell Line, P388d1, Crystal R. Waites

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Glycerophospholipids of mammalian cells exist as chemically diverse structures with various fatty acids at the sn-1 and sn-2 positions. Arachidonic acid, a polyunsaturated fatty acid, which may be converted to biologically active eicosanoids such as prostaglandins, thromboxanes, and leukotrienes, is found predominantly in the sn-2 position of glycerophospholipids. The purpose of this study was to examine, at the level of the individual molecular species, the incorporation of arachidonate into phospholipids and its release from phospholipids during stimulation. In this way, the specificity of the enzymes controlling arachidonate metabolism could be examined in order to clarify the processes that control the …

Estimation Of Crop Evapotranspiration By Means Of The Penman-Monteith Equation, Paul J. Vanderkimpen

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This study evaluated the potential of using simple, semi-empirical resistance models for the direct estimation of crop evapotranspiration as an alternative to the traditional approach involving a reference equation and a crop coefficient. It consisted of three major parts.

The first part originally aimed at the development of simple expressions for the aerodynamic and surface resistance terms in the Penman-Monteith equation. This goal could not be achieved because of two reasons: First, the determination of aerodynamic resistance was rendered impossible because of problems with the measurements, and, secondly, the values of surface resistance, back-calculated from the Penman-Monteith equation, turned out …

Investigation Of The Effects Of Geometry On The Efficiency Of The Double Lap Joint Of Unidirectional Fiberglass Composites, Joseph Anthony Musco

Master's Theses - Daytona Beach

The fracture toughness in shear mode (Mode II) has been studied for double lap adhesive joints where geometry of the joint is the major parameter. A unidirectional fiberglass - epoxy system was selected for experimental tests and theoretical analysis. Both rectangular and elliptical planform geometries were investigated. In order to evaluate the results, the adhesion area of the two geometries was purposely made identical. Through computer analysis, the effects on the stress concentration factor as a function of geometry was investigated. Then, using testing and fracture mechanics techniques, calibration factors for Mode II loading of the two geometries were obtained. …

Effect Of Acoustic Oscillations On The Burning Of Carbon, Vivek Lall

Master's Theses - Daytona Beach

This study is concerned with the investigation of the effect of oscillatory flow on the burning of carbon. This involves the study of two separate problems. The first is to obtain a solution for combustion of a carbon particle surrounded by a stationary gaseous film, and the second is to obtain a solution for combustion of the carbon particle subjected to acoustic oscillations. A computer program is developed to solve the governing equations of both problems. Comparison of the solutions to the steady and the oscillatory cases provides information on the effect of the oscillations on carbon particle combustion.

Various …

An Analytical Study Of The Effects Of Age And Experience On Flight Safety, Patrick C. Guide

Master's Theses - Daytona Beach

The purpose of this study was to determine whether there are any significant decreases in the safety and effectiveness of pilots by age 60. The data for this study came from records of general aviation accidents (i.e., for private pilots, commercial pilots, and air transport pilots), and airline accidents (Part 121). These accident data were acquired from many specialized aviation data banks; these include: NTSB, AOPA, FAA, and the COMSIS Research Corporation. The data were organized into groups according to the ages of the pilots-in-command responsible for the accidents. Groupings progress in five-year increments starting at 20-24, and ending with …