Engineering Commons^™

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 …

Water Treatment Plant Sludge As Sanitary Landfill Liner, Sinnadurai Sockanathan

Theses

This study was performed to explore the possibility of using the sludge waste from the water treatment plant at Boonton New Jersey as a containment material for the sanitary landfills or as a fill material. At present natural clay is being used as a containment liner for the landfills and by using this sludge, recycling of a waste product will be achieved in an economical manner.

As a first part of this studies, efforts were made to utilize the liquid sludge having a solid content of about 3%. Attempts to dewater the liquid sludge to a workable mix by adding …

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 …

Controlling Hazards Associated With Confined Spaces, Srinivas S. Varahabhotla

Theses

Work in Confined Spaces poses special health and safety problems. To avoid the serious consequences which may follow poorly planned or poorly supervised confined space work, a comprehensive program of recognition, evaluation and control of potential dangers must be developed.

The work force should be aware of the extreme dangers associated with confined space and of the procedures and equipment used to overcome these dangers effectively and safely.

The purpose of this thesis is to present the hazardous conditions in a confined space and different means of overcoming these dangers which are not readily apparent. It shows how confined spaces …

Analysis Of The Effects Of Wear And Tear Of Gates And Runners In The Injection Molding Process For Multi-Cavity Injection Molds In Natural Imbalance, Krishna Siva Rama Vellanki

Theses

Intuition, prior experience, and trial and error experimentation have previously been the key factors in solving the mold design and process optimization problems, when there is a dimensional change in gates and runners due to wear and tear in multi-cavity injection molding. The effect of wear and tear of gates and runners of circular and rectangular geometries, using the flow analysis package MOLDFLOW have been studied. A mold with two rectangular cavities of volume in the ratio 2:1 has been taken as the reference model for the analysis. It is observed that the amount of imbalance due to wear and …

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 …

Development Of Plasma Ion Nitriding Process Parameters To Increase Durability Of Machine Components, Wenge Yang

Theses

In this work glow discharge ion nitriding process was selected to increase durability of machine components. To achieve this goal, the process parameters were designed, established and optimized based on the desired surface properties. The orthogonal experiment method is used to optimize multifactors process parameters. Using the image analyzing approach the microstructure of differently treated materials were obtained and analyzed. Developed coating layers, including different nitrides such as Fe3N, Fe4N, and diffusion zone were controlled by the optimized process parameters. Analysis of the obtained microstructure and microhardness showed the improvement of surface mechanical properties. Performed wear testing experiments showed increased …

Genetic Algorithm For Solving Printed Circuit Board Assembly Planning Problems, Hermean Wong

Theses

The application of the genetic algorithm for solving the planning problems for various printed circuit board assembly machines is presented. The genetic algorithm finds the sequence of component placement/insertion and arrangement of feeders simultaneously, for achieving the shortest assembly time. Three types of assembly planning problems are modeled such that they can be solved by the genetic algorithm. The algorithm uses links (parents) to represent possible solutions and applies genetic operators to generate new links (offspring) in an iterative procedure to obtain the optimal solution. Some examples are provided to illustrate the solutions generated by the genetic algorithm, and these …

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 …

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 …

A Mouse-Driven Interface For Androx Ics-400, Chin-Tien Chen

Theses

A mouse-driven interface is extremely useful for software performing image processing tasks. This thesis describes an implementation of a mouse-driven interface for the Androx ICS-400 image processing board. The Androx board is housed in a Sun 4/330 running a UNIX-based operating system. The main goal of this interface is to provide a consistent and friendly user interface for image processing tasks and integrating the Sun window libraries with the Androx libraries. Various image processing tasks, such as gray scale and binary morphological operations, histogram, thresholding, filtering, spot, logical operations, arithmetic operations, zooming, scrolling, rank and image acquisition are implemented in …

Modification Of Wear Testing Methodology, Muhammed Farooq

Theses

In this work the existing computer controlled methodology has been modified A loading and unloading mechanism has been designed, manufactured and assembled. A specimen fixture has been designed and installed. Alloy steel specimens with different surface treatment were tested on the modified wear testing machine. Operational surface roughness was measured in all stages of running-in, steady state and catastrophic wear. The difference between technological and operational surface roughness was observed. The results show that the surface treatment by Plasma Ion-Nitriding with Magnetic treatment increases wear resistance. It was found that the coated material which had been magnetically treated with a …

Modeling Of Vacuum Microelectronic Lateral And Vertical Devices, Qiong Gui

Theses

Vertical and lateral configurations of the vacuum microelectronic device have been modeled using the simulation tools. Both cone and ridge cathode structures are used. Simulation results are compared with experimental data where available. These device structures include cathode, extraction grid, anode, and deflectors. The electric field at the tip of the cathode has been calculated for tip radius as small as 0.1nm. The model used takes into account the effect of potential on all electrodes on the E-field at the cathode tip. Also the effect of cathode geometry on the E-field is detailed.

Static characteristics are based on a new …

Numerical Simulation Of The Heating Of Glass Mat Thermoplastic (Gmt) By Combined Conduction And Dual Beam Microwave Source Terms, Shrenik Kasturi

Theses

Fabrication of parts from glass mat thermoplastic involves the heating of the composite to a temperature above the melting point of the matrix iesin to obtain a low viscosity and to allow sheets to be molded without fractui ing. The focus of this work is this heating stage, particularly the influence of a source term in the energy equation.

The solution to this physical situation is complicated by the nature of the GMT sheet, which has a layeied structure, with diffeient thermophysical properties in different layers. The use of source terms has not been reported yet. and is the piimary …

Implementation Of A Production Planning And Control System In A Small Manufacturing Company, Carmelo Pernice

Theses

This thesis analyzed and discussed the implementation of a production control system in a small manufacturing firm. The basic concepts of production control were provided to give insight on the methodologies typically applied in production control systems. Overviews were presented on Material Resource Planning, Capacity Planning, and Shop Floor Control, as well as any supporting methodologies and technologies.

As with any project, some investigation was done in order to choose a system which best suits the company's needs. At Teledyne Adams, The DCD Shop Floor Control System was chosen since it is capable of handling batch manufacturing as well as …

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 …

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 …

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 …

A Parallelogram Four-Frame Model In 3-D Motion And Structure Recovery Using Unified Optical Flow Field Approach, Zhichun Lin

Theses

In this paper a new concept of the unified optical flow field (UOFF) for 3 D motion analysis from a stereo image sequence is implemented which is an extension of the temporal optical flow formulations developed by Horn and Schunck. A four frame model is established and a spatial optical flow is also introduced.

In order to alleviate the problem of the strict requirement of two identical sensors in common stereo imagery a new imaging system is presented in this paper that needs only one camera, two plane mirrors and two switches to generate a phase shifted binocular sequence of …

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 …

Analysis Of The Influence Of Natural Wear And Tear In Gates And Runners On The Filling Of A Balanced Multi-Cavity Injection Mold, Ranga Reddy V. Adavelly

Theses

Design of injection molds is outmost important in the manufacture of parts. Its components runners and gates significantly influence the mold filling. Using a simulation package for injection molding a balanced multi-cavity mold was designed. Wear in the gates of runner was simulated by varying the cross-sectional area of the components. Influence of wear of tear in gates of runners on mold filling was measured in terms of flow rate of time of fill. Detailed analysis is done on four different models using four different materials Polycarbonate, Polypropylene, Nylon6 and Polybutylene terephthalate. Graphical display of result is presented and analyzed …

Development Of An Adaptive Fuzzy Shell Clustering Algorithm And Validity Measures, Kurra Bhaswan

Theses

In objective functional based fuzzy clustering algorithms the weighted sum of the distances of the feature vectors from cluster prototype are minimized. The fuzzy memberships are utilized as weighing factors. The cluster prototype can be a point or a line or a plane, etc. This work extends the recent concept of using curved prototypes by utilizing the Adaptive Norm Theorem proposed by Dave¹ to develop an algorithm for the detection of fuzzy hyper-ellipsoidal shell prototypes. The Objective functional associates a norm for each cluster in which to measure the proximity of the shell prototype adaptively. The resulting implementation necessitates …

Petri Net Modeling And Analysis Of An Fms Cell, Paresh A. Patel

Theses

Petri nets have evolved into a powerful tool for the modeling, analysis and design of asynchronous, concurrent systems. This thesis presents the modeling and analysis of a flexible manufacturing system (FMS) cell using Petri nets. In order to improve the productivity of such systems, the building of mathematical models is a crucial step.

In this thesis, the theory and application of Petri nets are presented with emphasis on their application to the modeling and analysis of practical automated manufacturing systems. The theory of Petri nets includes their basic notation and properties. In order to illustrate how a Petri net with …

Computer Graphic Simulation Of Sweeping Of Solid Objects, Jr-Jyun Jang

Theses

This thesis is on the computer graphic simulation of the swept volume of a solid object undergoing Euclidean motions (including translation and rotation). The study helps visualize different types of Euclidean motions and supports the previously developed swept volume theories by providing graphic realism.Included in the thesis presentation are the following :

1. Description of Euclidean motions of polyhedral objects, using ruled surfaces to represent swept volumes.
2. Representation of sweeping of solid objects, -using parametric cubic equation and sweep differential equation.
3. Simulation of motions of PUMA and IBM robots.
4. Wire-frame and shaded image displays of swept volumes.

Influence Of Fly Ash Characteristics On Compressive Strength Of Mortar, Poorna Rajeswari Ratnaweera

Theses

Fly ash-cement mortar, constituting of fly ash, cement and sand, vary in strength characteristics from conventional cement sand mortar. Out of many parameters effecting the compressive strength characteristics of fly ash-cement mortar, four were investigated in this study. They are particle size and its distribution, weathering of fly ash, moisture content & water/cementitious ratio and mix proportioning.

Class F fly ashes from three different sources were used in this study. The particle size distribution and moisture content of fly ashes were investigated by standard ASTM methods. The unconfined compressive strength of mortar was obtained by testing 2"x2"x2" test cubes conforming …

Linear Regulator And Singular Control In Generalised State Space System, Devesh Kumar Thodimela

Theses

The problem of unconstrained optimal control of continuous-time singular systems is considered, by straight forward extension of some well-known equations derived for ordinary state-space systems by variational calculus and by the aid of the simplest algebraic and matrix tools: In this thesis, the interest is restricted to the case where the system is to be driven from a fixed initial state to a fixed final state as well as free final state tf while minimizing a performance index of the form

J = 1/2 ∫t_f t_o <( Y - Y_i), Q ( Y - Y_i) > d_t

Subject …

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 …