Engineering Commons^™

Acuta Enews October 1999, Vol.28, No. 10

ACUTA Newsletters

In This Issue

ACUTA Strategizes for the Future

ACUTA EVENTS

Three Win Achievements Awards

DC Update

Integrating H.323 Video Conferencing into an Existing H.320 System

Winter Seminars: Surf and Substance!

Welcome New Members

Positions Available

Candidate Sets For Complex Interval Arithmetic, Juergen Wolff Von Gundenberg, Vladik Kreinovich

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

Uncertainty of measuring complex-valued physical quantities can be described by complex sets. These sets can have complicated shapes, so we would like to find a good approximating family of sets. Which approximating family is the best? We reduce the corresponding optimization problem to a geometric one: namely, we prove that, under some reasonable conditions, an optimal family must be shift-, rotation- and scale-invariant. We then use this geometric reduction to conclude that the best approximating low-dimensional families consist of sets with linear or circular boundaries. This result is consistent with the fact that such sets have indeed been successful in …

A Geometric Approach To Classification Of Trash In Ginned Cotton, Murali Siddaiah, Michael A. Lieberman, Nadipuram R. Prasad, Vladik Kreinovich

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

This paper discusses the use of geometric approach to classify different types of trash (non-lint, non-fiber material) in ginned cotton. Pieces of trash can have complicated shapes, so we would like to find a good approximating family of sets. Which approximating family is the best? We reduce the corresponding optimization problem to a geometric one: namely, we show that, under some reasonable conditions, an optimal family must be shift-, rotation- and scale-invariant. We then use this geometric reduction to conclude that the best approximating low-dimensional families consist of sets with linear or circular boundaries.

This result is in good agreement …

Interval Methods In Non-Destructive Testing Of Material Structures, Keith Worden, Roberto A. Osegueda, Carlos M. Ferregut, Soheil Nazarian, Debra L. George, Mary J. George, Vladik Kreinovich, Olga Kosheleva, Sergio Cabrera

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

In many practical situations, e.g., in aerospace applications and in mammography, it is important to test the structural integrity of material structures. We show that interval methods can help.

Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition Experiment Using The Advanced Communications Technology Satellite, Florida Solar Energy Center, Carol Emrich

FSEC Energy Research Center®

Satellite Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) was tested using the Advanced Communication Technology Satellite (ACTS) Ka-band signal and Ultra Small Aperture Terminal (USAT) ground stations. The SCADA system included a photovoltaic (PV)/diesel hybrid power generator designed to provide electricity to a rural community in a developing country. End-to-end baseline hardware checkout experiments have been completed. Results show that continuous two-second data transfers for real time monitoring can be completed with an error rate of less than 1%. The system recovers from simulated perturbations quickly and gracefully. Specifically, normal operation is resumed within 36 seconds following loss of power to …

From Fuzzy Values To Intuitionistic Fuzzy Values To Intuitionistic Fuzzy Intervals Etc.: Can We Get An Arbitrary Ordering?, Vladik Kreinovich, Masao Mukaidono, Krassimir Atanassov

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

Traditional fuzzy logic uses real numbers as truth values. This description is not always adequate, so in intuitionistic fuzzy logic, we use pairs of real numbers to describe a truth value. Such pairs can be described either as pairs (t,f) for which t+f<=1, or, alternatively, as pairs (t,1-f) for which t<=1-f. To make this description even more adequate, instead of using real numbers to described each value t and f, we can use intervals, and thus get interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy values which can be described by 4 real numbers each. We can iterate this procedure again and again. The question is: can we get an arbitrary partially ordered set in this manner? An arbitrary lattice? In this paper, we show that although we cannot thus generate arbitrary lattices, we can actually generate an arbitrary partially ordered set in this manner. In this sense, the "intervalization" operation which underlies the notion of an intuitionistic fuzzy set, is indeed universal.

Water Resources Systems Analysis - Course Notes, A Bruce Bishop, Trevor Hughes, Mac Mckee

All ECSTATIC Materials

Water resources systems analysis course notes for CEE 6410 taught at Utah State University. Coverage includes:

Chapter 1 - Concepts and methods

Chapter 2 - Linear programming-introduction and graphical methods

Chapter 3 - Linear programming - simplex method

Chapter 4 - Linear programming - applications to simple water problems

Chapter 5 - Dual LP and post optimality analysis

Chapter 6 - Integer programming

Chapter 7 - More applications of integer programmign

Chapter 8 - Piecewise linearization

Chapter 9 - Other types of LP models

Chapter 10 - Dynamic programming

Chapter 11 - Gradient-based nonlinear optimization methods

Chapter 12 - Genetic …

Parallel Ac-Ac Converters Using Stationary Master Slave Control, Taufik, F. E. Villaseca

Electrical Engineering

This study proposes parallel ac-ac converters using Stationary Master Slave Control with Sinusoidal Pulse Width Modulation to achieve voltage regulation and equal current sharing among parallel generators such that it minimizes the total production cost. Development of Pspice model representing the parallel ac-ac converters is presented and then simulated. In addition, computer simulations are also used to perform robustness study on the parallel converters.

Temperature Dependence Of Electrical And Optical Modulation Responses Of Quantum-Well Lasers, T. Keating, Xiaomin Jin, Shun Lien Chuang, K. Hess

Electrical Engineering

We present theory and experiment for high-speed optical injection in the absorption region of a quantum-well laser and compare the results with those of electrical injection including the carrier transport effect. We show that the main difference between the two responses is the low-frequency roll-off. By using both injection methods, we obtain more accurate and consistent measurements of many important dynamic laser parameters, including the differential gain, carrier lifetime, K factor, and gain compression factor. Temperature-dependent data of the test laser are presented which show that the most dominant effect is the linear degradation of differential gain and injection efficiency …

Ole Miss Engineer 1999

Ole Miss Engineer

No abstract provided.

Introduction To Industrial Engineering: Team Tower, Paul Savory

Department of Industrial and Management Systems Engineering: Instructional Materials

Classroom exercise for IMSE 150 at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. This goal is to introduce freshman industrial engineering students to various aspects of industrial engineering and being an engineer. One of the key areas of Industrial Engineering is quality control. Quality control is concerned with testing and inspecting a product to confirm that it meets production and customer specifications. To understand some of the basics of quality control, let’s consider the production of M&M candies.

Introduction To Industrial Engineering: Group Resume, Paul Savory

Department of Industrial and Management Systems Engineering: Instructional Materials

Classroom exercise for IMSE 150 at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. This goal is to introduce freshman industrial engineering students to various aspects of industrial engineering and being an engineer. This ice-breaking exercise has students work in groups to create a group resume to get to know each other better.

Introduction To Industrial Engineering: Bad Human Factor Designs, Paul Savory

Department of Industrial and Management Systems Engineering: Instructional Materials

Classroom exercise for IMSE 150 at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. This goal is to introduce freshman industrial engineering students to various aspects of industrial engineering and being an engineer. Ergonomics or human factors does not only encompass product design, but safety, and product use. A simple definition is “to make the work place safe and less stressful on the worker.” Human factors or ergonomics impacts all aspects of our lives. Let's consider each of the following examples of bad human factor designs.

Introduction To Industrial Engineering: Theme Park Design And Layout, Paul Savory

Department of Industrial and Management Systems Engineering: Instructional Materials

Classroom exercise for IMSE 150 at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. This goal is to introduce freshman industrial engineering students to various aspects of industrial engineering and being an engineer. Plant layout and design is one of the key areas of industrial engineering. There are numerous issues that must be accounted for. A subset include: machine utilization, queueing space, and flow of materials. To provide students with an introduction to plant layout and design, let's consider designing a theme park. As we will see, many of the concepts will be the same.

Introduction To Industrial Engineering: Interpretation Of Visual Displays, Paul Savory

Department of Industrial and Management Systems Engineering: Instructional Materials

Classroom exercise for IMSE 150 at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. This goal is to introduce freshman industrial engineering students to various aspects of industrial engineering and being an engineer. The area of human factors or ergonomics focuses on human beings and their interaction with products, equipment, facilities, producers, and environments used in work and everyday life. The emphasis is on human beings and how the design of things influences people. One small area of ergonomics is concerned with how humans interpret visual displays. For an introduction to this area, let's consider the visual interpretation of static displays (i.e., information that …

From Interval Methods Of Representing Uncertainty To A General Description Of Uncertainty, Vladik Kreinovich, Scott Ferson, Lev Ginzburg, Harry Schulte, Matthew R. Barry, Hung T. Nguyen

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

Measurements do not result in an exact value of the measured quantity; even after the most accurate measurement, there is still some uncertainty about the actual value of the measured quantity. Traditionally, in science and engineering, this uncertainty is characterized by a probability distribution; however, often, we do not know this probability distribution exactly. So, to get a more adequate description of this uncertainty, we must consider classes of possible probability distributions. A natural question is: Are all possible classes needed for this description? In this paper, we show that even for simple situations, we indeed need arbitrary closed convex …

On Combining Statistical And Fuzzy Techniques: Detection Of Business Cycles From Uncertain Data, Hung T. Nguyen, Berlin Wu, Vladik Kreinovich

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

Detecting the beginning and the end of the business cycle is an important and difficult economic problem. One of the reasons why this problem is difficult is that for each year, we have only expert estimates (subjective probabilities) indicating to what extent the economy was in growth or recession. In our previous papers, we used fuzzy techniques to process this uncertain information; namely, we used the operation min(a,b) to combine the subjective probabilities (expert estimates) of two events into a probability that both events happen. This function corresponds to the most optimistic estimate of the joint probability. In this paper, …

General Aviation Aircraft: A Comparative Analysis Of Analog Instrument Display And Conceptual Primary Flight Display, Ungul Laptaned

Master's Theses - Daytona Beach

The primary purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects that analog instrument display versus primary flight display (PFD) had on pilot performance. Pilot performance was evaluated by: (a) time, and (b) number of errors. There were twenty subjects with a minimum of a private pilot license selected from the Aeronautical Science department at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. Three flight conditions (spoiler problem, engine problem, and flap failure) acting as a control group was given to the flight students while flying a traffic pattern. A Silicon Graphics® flight simulation software program and a video camera were used as the data …

1999 Scholars And Artists Bibliography, Michael Schwartz Library, Cleveland State University, Friends Of The Michael Schwartz Library

Scholars and Artists Bibliographies

This bibliography was created for the annual Friends of the Michael Schwartz Library Scholars and Artists Reception, recognizing scholarly and creative achievements of Cleveland State University faculty, staff and emeriti

Metadata In A Digital Special Library: The Energy And Environmental Information Resources Center In Lafayette, Louisiana, Dan Foley

E-JASL: Electronic Journal of Academic and Special Librarianship (1999-2009, Volumes 1-10)

This paper discusses three kinds of metadata and how they are used in the Energy & Environmental Information Resources Center (EE-IR Center), a digital special library of text, numeric, and geospatial data, located in Lafayette, Louisiana. These metadata are Dublin Core (DC), MARC21 (formerly USMARC), and Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) metadata.

The EE-IR Center was formed as a partnership between the National Wetlands Research Center (NWRC) of the U.S. Geological Survey and the Center for Advanced Computer Studies of the University of Southwestern Louisiana (CACS/USL). Both partners are located in Lafayette, Louisiana. The EE-IR Center is funded by a …

Inspec On Firstsearch: An Evaluation And Tutorial For Effective Searching, Lutishoor Salisbury, Usha Gupta

E-JASL: Electronic Journal of Academic and Special Librarianship (1999-2009, Volumes 1-10)

This paper focuses on providing critical evaluation and searching tips for users of the INSPEC database on FirstSearch on the Web. It introduces the idea of records and fields, fields searching to focus a search for effective retrieval, and the use of the Related Headings feature. Also explained is the idea of precision searching using the proximity operators and bound-phrase searching capabilities. Other ways to search for specific types of information (for example, foreign names, reviews, theses and dissertations, and chemical searching) are also presented. We provide practical examples to illustrate the search features using the Basic, Advanced, and Command …

The Impact Of The Simulated Digital Data Radio Communication Induced Interference On Voice Radio Communication, Daniela T. Kratchounova

Master's Theses - Daytona Beach

The transition of air/ground communications, from its present analog structure to a new digital communications architecture, will span a 10-year time frame. Testing to date indicates that the potential for interference from the digital system to the analog system would be critical, especially for General Aviation (GA) aircraft. This type of interference can be described as short, random bursts of noise capable of completely obliterating parts of the voice communication. The subsequent degrading effects on voice radio communications could jeopardize flight safety. The masking of parts of important information would result in distracted attention, debilitated cognitive performance, high level of …

An Intermittent-Combustion General Aviation Aircraft Engine Exhaust Noise Prediction Algorithm, Hiroko Tada

Master's Theses - Daytona Beach

From an environmental point of view, the reduction of aircraft noise has become an important factor recently. There are two factors that make airplane noise: propeller noise and engine noise. This report puts emphasis on only the engine noise in order to begin understanding what airplane engine exhaust noise is. At first, the engine exhaust noise is comprehended using the Dobrzynski's engine noise theory. Next, a discussion about an Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU) engine system, engine exhaust system configurations, and microphone setting standards that show the ERAU engine system exhaust noise data. Finally, an Intermittent-Combustion (IC) General Aviation (GA) aircraft …

Introduction To Industrial Engineering: Operations Research, Paul Savory

Department of Industrial and Management Systems Engineering: Instructional Materials

Classroom exercise for IMSE 150 at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. This goal is to introduce freshman industrial engineering students to various aspects of industrial engineering and being an engineer. Operations Research is an area of industrial engineering concerned with the allocation of scarce resources. One area of operations research is linear programming. Linear programming is a method often used to solve large, complicated problems. These problems often require a manager to determine how to use the company’s limited resources most efficiently.

Introduction To Industrial Engineering: Simulation Analysis, Paul Savory

Department of Industrial and Management Systems Engineering: Instructional Materials

Classroom exercise for IMSE 150 at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. This goal is to introduce freshman industrial engineering students to various aspects of industrial engineering and being an engineer. Simulation is one of industry’s most used operations research. Its uses range from answering questions about work-in-process and production feasibility to comparing alternative plans for system routing and scheduling.

Introduction To Industrial Engineering: Manufacturing Variability, Paul Savory

Department of Industrial and Management Systems Engineering: Instructional Materials

Classroom exercise for IMSE 150 at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. This goal is to introduce freshman industrial engineering students to various aspects of industrial engineering and being an engineer. This fun and interactive penny manufacturing game highlights the impact of variability, capacity, and overtime.

Introduction To Industrial Engineering: Ethical Choices, Paul Savory

Department of Industrial and Management Systems Engineering: Instructional Materials

Classroom exercise for IMSE 150 at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. This goal is to introduce freshman industrial engineering students to various aspects of industrial engineering and being an engineer. All industrial engineering, product designers, and managers must at some point in their career face an issue that requires some amount of ethical or moral judgment. Consider the following scenarios and discuss with your group members what each of you would do.

A Thin-Film Micromanufactured Oxygen Microelectrode, James Clay Mcguyer Jr.

Doctoral Dissertations

The methods for production of recessed oxygen microelectrodes developed by Whalen, et al. (1967) and improved upon by Linsenmeier, et al. (1987) are dated production methods by the standards of sensor production of the current time. The production process for this type of polarographic oxygen sensing electrode has remained unchanged for over 10 years, and is a time consuming, extremely low-yield process. The goal of this project has been to use the techniques of micromanufacturing available at the Institute for Micromanufacturing at Louisiana Tech University to construct a recessed oxygen microelectrode with a batch process that has higher yield than …

The Microchannel Flow Of A Micropolar Fluid, Guohua Liu

Doctoral Dissertations

Micro-channel flows have been computed to investigate the influence of Navier-Stokes formulation for the slip-flow boundary condition, and a micro-polar fluid model, respectively.

The results of the slip boundary condition show that the current methodology is valid for slip-flow regime (i.e., for values of Knudsen number less than approximately 0.1). Drag reduction phenomena apparent in some micro-channels can be explained by slip-flow theory. These results are in agreement with some computations and experiments.

An ad hoc micro-polar fluid model is developed to investigate the influence of micro effects, such as micro-gyration, in micro-scale flows. The foundation of the ad hoc …

Reactive Infiltration Of Silicon Melt Through Microporous Amorphous Carbon Preforms, P. Sangsuwan, Surendra N. Tewari, Jorge E. Gatica, M. Singh, R. Dickerson

Chemical & Biomedical Engineering Faculty Publications

The kinetics of unidirectional capillary infiltration of silicon melt into microporous carbon preforms has been investigated as a function of the pore morphology and melt temperature. The infiltrated specimens showed alternating bands of dark and bright regions, which corresponded to the unreacted free carbon and free silicon regions, respectively. The decrease in the infiltration front velocity for increasing infiltration distances is in qualitative agreement with the closed-form solution of capillarity-driven fluid flow through constant-cross-section cylindrical pores. However, drastic changes in the thermal response and infiltration front morphologies were observed for minute differences in the preform's microstructure. This suggests the need …