Engineering Commons^™

Ole Miss Engineer 1998

Ole Miss Engineer

No abstract provided.

Santa Clara Magazine, Volume 40 Number 1,Spring 1998, Santa Clara University

Santa Clara Magazine

12 - ROMANCING THE WATER Sam Scott '96. Rigorous training and mandatory practice test the athletes' - and coach's - mettle as a father passes the oar to his son, continuing a proud SCU tradition.

18 - A FAMILY MATTER By Tegan M. McLane. An innovative program in the business school opens the door to frank, incisive communication among family members whose kinship extends to the business world.

22 - POSTCARDS FROM GUATEMALA By Tegan M. McLane. For the third year, a group of faculty and staff journey to the outback of Guatemala. As observers and recorders, they learn much …

22nd Conference On Senior Engineering Design Projects, College Of Engineering And Applied Sciences

Senior Engineering Design Conference

The 22nd Conference on Senior Engineering Design Projects was held on April 14, 1998 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.

A Study Of The Volume Of Fluid Method For Moving Boundary Problems, Marianne Francois

Master's Theses - Daytona Beach

Moving boundary problems are often encountered in engineering and science. One of the methods to solve such problems numerically is the volume of fluid (VOF) method. The VOF method uses an additional field variable/to track the interface using the Eulerian fixed grid. In this work, the VOF method is combined with the Continuum surface force model. The governing flow equations for Newtonian fluids in incompressible flow in two dimensions are solved using the pressure-based algorithm. A linear interface reconstruction algorithm is developed and improved by interpolations. In order to validate the code, the problem of the convection of a two-fluid …

The Effect Of Automation On Helicopter Crew Communication: A Low-Fidelity Investigation, Margaret A. Maclsaac

Master's Theses - Daytona Beach

Increasing levels of technology have changed the task of flying modern helicopter cockpits by allowing many crew functions to be performed automatically. This study attempted to understand the relation between automation and helicopter crew coordination. Twenty-eight helicopter pilots were assigned to two-person crews and asked to fly a simulated mission in either automated or manual conditions using a low-fidelity helicopter simulator. Communication was transcribed and coded into a nine-category content classification system by two trained raters. The inter-rater reliability was +.84. Results indicated that a higher frequency of total communications was demonstrated during manual flights.

Evaluation Of Corrugated Steel Pipe Culverts On Ky 61, Cumberland County, L. John Fleckenstein, David L. Allen, Brad W. Rister

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

In February of 1998, the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet requested that the Kentucky Transportation Center investigate three corrugated metal pipe culverts on the relocation project of KY 61. The pipes were installed in June and July of 1997. The embankments over the three pipes were completed In October of 1997. Based on the information that was gathered, it appears that the pipes were manufactured according to specifications. The gage of the pipe is on the lower end of acceptance. The pipes appear to have been well aligned and properly bedded. Some of the dents and buckles in the pipe may have …

Degree Of Manufacturer Readiness For Skill-Based Pay Programs, Michael R. Willett

Graduate Research Papers

The purpose of this study is to determine the degree of readiness of manufacturing companies in Black Hawk County, Iowa, to adopt a skill-based pay plan. Readiness, or change orientation, will be determined by comparing current characteristics of companies in this sample to those characteristics of American companies that have already implemented successful skill-based pay plans.

Field Emission And Breakdown Processes In Vacuum Gaps With Sio(X)-Coated Cathodes, Raymond Jack Allen Iii

Electrical & Computer Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Field emission of electrons is the major cause of electrical breakdown in high voltage systems in vacuum. The highest hold-off electric field of the carefully polished and cleaned stainless steel cathodes was increased to 70MV/m. Thin silicon monoxide, SiO_x, cathode coatings reduced field emission and increased the hold-off field further. Coating the stainless steel cathodes with 2μ SiO_x reduced the field emission current by at least two orders of magnitude at field of 50MV/m and increased the breakdown field to 140MV/m, doubling the breakdown voltage.

The increase in hold-off voltage with SiO_x coatings is discussed in …

Reduction Of Thermal Deflection And Random Response Of Composite Structures With Embedded Shape Memory Alloy At Elevated Temperature, Zhiwei Zhong

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Theses & Dissertations

A feasibility study on the reduction of thermal deflection and random response of the composite structures using shape memory alloys (SMA) at elevated temperatures is presented in this dissertation. The characteristics of SMA are introduced and the structural problems, static and dynamic, of SMA fiber reinforced composites are investigated. The stress-strain relations are developed for a composite lamina with embedded SMA fibers. The finite element system equations including shape memory effect are derived. A consistent two-step solution procedure is developed for solving the static and dynamic problems of composite structures with embedded SMA fibers subjected to combined acoustic and thermal …

Spectral/Temporal Segment Features For Automatic Speech Recognition, Xi Hong Wang

Electrical & Computer Engineering Theses & Dissertations

In this thesis an approach for efficiently computing a compact spectral/temporal feature set for representing a segment of speech, with effective resolution depending on both frequency and time position within the segment, is developed, analyzed, and tested. The goal of this method is to mimic the resolution properties of the human auditory system, but using a computationally efficient FFT-based front end rather than a more complex auditory model. In particular this method applies both frequency and time "warping" to FFT spectra to obtain good frequency resolution at low frequencies and good time resolution at high frequencies. Time resolution is also …

Material Evaluation By Pulsed Diode Laser Optoacoustics, Xiaodong Xu

Electrical & Computer Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Pulsed diode laser optoacoustic diagnostics were carried out to characterize solid sample materials. The apparatus developed is compact, portable, cost-effective and therefore very promising for both industrial as well as laboratory applications. To our knowledge, this is the first time that optoacoustic characterization and measurement have been performed with a diode laser. The method was successfully applied to measure the thickness of a multilayer structure non-intrusively. Internal cracks of the material were detected by this technique.

A theory for optoacoustic signal generation, propagation and detection is given. A numerical analysis technique is developed to solve for the expected signal. In …

Ir-Hot Gas Heat Source For Automated Tow Placement, Ray Walton Grenoble

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Theses & Dissertations

A series of five experiments on the NASA Langley automated tow placement robot revealed stagnation of gas flow in the nip region. Since the torches could not heat effectively in the nip region, the roller temperature was the dominant influence on interlaminar bond strength. The roller temperatures required for high bond strength caused resin and fiber on the panel top surface to adhere to the compaction roller. Resin and fiber was pulled from the panel surface and wrapped around the roller, which was a severe processing problem. A supplemental radiant heat source was designed to permit reductions in roller temperature. …

Evaluation Of Airport Operating Efficiencies Using Data Envelopment Analysis, Scott Andrew Cummings

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Airport congestion represents a serious obstacle to the future growth of the air transportation industry in the United States. Future development of new airports, and expansion of existing ones is required to meet the growing demands in domestic and commercial air travel. Globalization of economies and international travel has placed additional burdens on airports nationwide. This growth is requiring airports to operate at peak efficiencies. Economic growth of surrounding industries is dependent on the airport that services that geographical region. The variations in functions that airports offer, and therefore the differences in operations, do not lend themselves to traditional efficiency …

A Report On County Road Program Finance, Patsy Anderson, Kris Koehler

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

This report reflects the findings of a study of county road finance in Kentucky. Statistics contained in the report were derived from financial statements submitted by the counties to the Kentucky Department of Local Government.

Investigation And Analysis Of Heavy Truck Accidents, Jerry G. Pigman, Kenneth R. Agent

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

The objectives of this study were to investigate and analyze traffic accidents involving trucks and to study the relationship between heavy loads and truck braking efficiency. Field tests were made to determine the effect of increased loads on the ability of a truck to brake to a stop and determine if the trucks could meet the requirements of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations. The test combination truck with a gross weight of up to 151,180 was able to meet both braking distance and maximum G requirements. The test single-unit truck failed to meet requirements only at the maximum weight …

Performance Evaluation Of Recycled Pcc Pavement Used As A Crushed Stone Base And Dense Grade Aggregate, Mike Shull, David L. Allen, L. John Fleckenstein, Clark Graves, David Q. Hunsucker

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

Kentucky Highway Investigative Task No. 24, "Recycled Concrete Pavement", (SSP-059-7965) involved the use of Recycled/Crushed Portland Cement Concrete (RPCC) for use as Crushed Stone Base (CSB) on the Thomas More Parkway in Kenton County, Kentucky. The Parkway, which connects Dudley Road to South Loop Road in front of the Thomas More College campus, was the first roadway to be built in Kentucky using recycled Portland Cement Concrete for crushed stone base. The Kentucky Transportation Center was requested to evaluate the material's performance versus the normal limestone CSB and make appropriate recommendations. Both field and laboratory testing were required, along with …

Analysis And Testing Of Plates With Piezoelectric Sensors And Actuators, Jeffrey S. Bevan

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Faculty Publications

Piezoelectric material inherently possesses coupling between electrostatics and structural dynamics. Utilizing linear piezoelectric theory results in an intrinsically coupled pair of piezoelectric constitutive equations. One equation describes the direct piezoelectric effect where strains produce an electric field and the other describes the converse effect where an applied electrical field produces strain. The purpose of this study is to compare finite element analysis and experiments of a thin plate with bonded piezoelectric material. Since an isotropic plate in combination with a thin piezoelectric layer constitutes a special case of a laminated composite, the classical laminated plate theory is used in the …

The Airline Quality Rating 1998, Brent Bowen, Dean Headley, Uno Aviation Institute

Faculty Books and Monographs

UNOAI Report 98-1

The Airline Quality Rating (AQR) was developed and first announced in early 1991 as an objective method of comparing airline performance on combined multiple factors important to consumers. Development history and calculation details for the AQR rating system are detailed in The Airline Quality Rating issued in April, 1991, by the National Institute for Aviation Research at Wichita State University. This current report, Airline Quality Rating 1998, contains monthly Airline Quality Rating scores for 1997. Additional copies are available by contacting Wichita State University or the University of Nebraska at Omaha.

The Airline Quality Rating 1998 is …

Study Of Human Factors Variables In Battle Outcome Prediction Models, David Andrew Glovier

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Over time there have been many improvements in models that are used to predict the outcome of battles. Currently there is much supposition and speculation surrounding the use of human performance related factors as additional inputs to battle simulation models to improve their accuracy. However there is no conclusive scientific evidence which shows that these factors do make a significant difference. This study investigates the use of factors that may impact on the human performance directly or indirectly in battle prediction models. These factors consist of traditional human factors and external factors that may influence the human performance. The research …

The Design And Testing Of An Inlet-Airfoil For A High Altitude Remotely Piloted Aircraft, Preston Bradley Martin

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Theses & Dissertations

The following work describes and validates a methodology for the aerodynamic design of a low drag, efficient inlet-airfoil to be used on the cooling installations of a high altitude remotely piloted aircraft. Owing to the primary aircraft design requirement of subsonic endurance at high altitude (85,000 ft), the flight conditions present an aerodynamically unfavorable combination of low chord Reynolds number (500,000) and high subsonic Mach number (0.5). At this flight condition, the inlet-airfoil must meet the heat exchanger cooling flow requirements while maintaining the aerodynamic performance of the airfoil. As a result, the design method is closely coupled with not …

Building Lms Adaptive Filters With Register-Based Fpgas, Li Ding

Electrical & Computer Engineering Theses & Dissertations

In this thesis, an 8-bit least mean squares (LMS) adaptive digital filter with 16 coefficients is implemented on a single FPGA, using the MaxPlus+2 design environment. The system is constructed as a hierarchical structure, using four different levels of design hierarchy. Subdesigns at each level of the hierarchy project are complied, fitted and simulated to test and verify their functional correctness. The complete system is tested and verified by checking the MaxPlus+2 simulator results against fixed-point integer arithmetic simulations written in Matlab. The resulting adaptive filter is subsequently mapped to the Alters FLEX I OK20TC144-3 device, resulting in a 14,500 …

Bikeways Guide, Jay Grossman

Indiana Local Technical Assistance Program (LTAP) Publications

This guide is intended to familiarize counties and cities with the basic aspects of bicycle facilities.

Bs News

Building Services Engineering

No abstract provided.

Thin-Layer Prestressed Composite Ferroelectric Driver And Sensor Characterization With Application To Separation Flow Control, Karla M. Mossi

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Experiments were conducted in two different stages--general piezoelectric actuator characterization and flow separation control applications. The characterization of the piezoelectric devices was performed in several stages, due to the many variables that affect performance. The first stage of the characterization consisted of tests conducted on 13 different THUNDER^TM (thin-layer composite unimorph ferroelectric driver and sensor) configurations. These configurations consisted of a combination of 1, 3, 5, 7, and 9 layers of 25μ thick aluminum as backing material, with and without a top layer of 25μ aluminum. All of these configurations used the same piezoelectric ceramic wafer (PZT-5A) with dimensions …

Hermite–Sinusoidal-Gaussian Beams In Complex Optical Systems, Lee W. Casperson, Anthony A. Tovar

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Sinusoidal-Gaussian beams have recently been obtained as exact solutions of the paraxial wave equation for propagation in complex optical systems. Another useful set of beam solutions for Cartesian coordinate systems is based on Hermite–Gaussian functions. A generalization of these solution sets is developed here. The new solutions are referred to as Hermite–sinusoidal-Gaussian beams, because they are in the form of a product of Hermite-polynomial functions of either complex or real argument, sinusoidal functions of complex argument, and Gaussian functions of complex argument. These beams are valid for propagation through systems that can be represented in terms of complex beam matrices, …

Thermal Lattice Boltzmann Simulations Of Variable Prandtl Number Turbulent Flows, Min Soe, George Vahala, Pavol Pavlo, Linda L. Vahala, Hudong Chen

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

Thermal lattice Boltzmann (TLBE) models that utilize the single relaxation time scalar Bhatnagar, Gross, and Krook collision operator have an invariant Prandtl number. For flows with arbitrary Prandtl number, a matrix collision operator is introduced. The relaxation parameters are generalized so that the transport coefficients become density independent. TLBE simulations are presented for two-dimensional free decaying turbulence induced by a strongly perturbed double velocity shear layer for various Prandtl numbers.

Touch The Wind, Tim Brady

Publications

Historical background on the development of flight navigational instruments based on discoveries made by Lt. James H. Doolittle.

Fiber-Reinforced Plastic Composite Beam Stability And Load And Resistance Factor Design Approach, Mojtaba B. Sirjani

Civil & Environmental Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Fiber Reinforced Plastic (FRP) structural members are rapidly gaining impetus in civil engineering applications. Also, thin-walled open beams with I-shaped, channel, and other types of sections are of practical importance to both structural analysts and designers. This dissertation presents the outcome of a detailed experimental and theoretical investigation of the strength and stability of FRP composite beams. Three- and four-point loading tests are conducted on FRP I- and channel section beams. The behavior of these beams is studied under gradually increasing static loads up to the maximum load-carrying capacity corresponding to either material cracking or flexural-torsional instability. First, the theoretical …

Multiple-Input Joint Transform Correlator For Wavelet Feature Extraction, Samuel Peter Kozaitis, Mark A. Getbehead

Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Faculty Publications

We describe a joint transform correlator (JTC) that uses multiple input images encoded in the spatial domain for multiwavelet feature extraction. We extend the theory of a JTC to multiple inputs, which enables various combinations of cross-correlations between input images to be performed. Furthermore, we provide experimental results for four inputs with an optically addressed spatial light modulator in the Fourier plane. In addition, it is possible that the space-bandwidth product for multiwavelet feature extraction can be made the same as for a two-input JTC. © 1998 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers.

Experimental Geometry Optimization Techniques For Multi-Element Airfoils, Drew Landman

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Theses & Dissertations

A study is reported on geometry optimization techniques for high-lift airfoils. A modern three-element airfoil model with a remotely actuated flap was designed, tested, and used in wind tunnel experiments to investigate optimum flap positioning based on lift. All the results presented were obtained in the Old Dominion University low-speed wind tunnel. Detailed results for lift coefficient versus flap vertical and horizontal position are presented for two airfoil angles-of-attack: 8 and 14 degrees. Three automated optimization simulations, the method of steepest ascent and two variants of the sequential simplex method, were demonstrated using experimental data. An on-line optimizer was demonstrated …