Engineering Commons^™

Estimation Of Reference Crop Evapotranspiration Using Fuzzy State Models, Lameck O. Odhiambo, R. E. Yoder, D. C. Yoder

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Daily evapotranspiration (ET) rates are needed for irrigation scheduling. Owing to the difficulty of obtaining accurate field measurements, ET rates are commonly estimated from weather parameters. A few empirical or semi–empirical methods have been developed for assessing daily reference crop ET, which is converted to actual crop ET using crop coefficients. The FAO Penman–Monteith method, which is now accepted as the standard method for the computation of daily reference ET, is sophisticated. It requires several input parameters, some of which have no actual measurements but are estimated from measured weather parameters. In this study, we examined the suitability of fuzzy …

Optimization Of Fuzzy Evapotranspiration Model Through Neural Training With Input–Output Examples, Lameck O. Odhiambo, R. E. Yoder, D. C. Yoder, J. W. Hines

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

In a previous study, we demonstrated that fuzzy evapotranspiration (ET) models can achieve accurate estimation of daily ET comparable to the FAO Penman–Monteith equation, and showed the advantages of the fuzzy approach over other methods. The estimation accuracy of the fuzzy models, however, depended on the shape of the membership functions and the control rules built by trial–and–error methods. This paper shows how the trial and error drawback is eliminated with the application of a fuzzy–neural system, which combines the advantages of fuzzy logic (FL) and artificial neural networks (ANN). The strategy consisted of fusing the FL and ANN on …

A Direct Correlation Function For Mesomorphic Polymers And Its Application To The ‘Smectic’ Phase Of Isotactic Polypropylene, Y Cohen, Ravi F. Saraf

Papers in Materials Science

A general model to calculate the structure of a smectic to nematic-like order in polymer systems is proposed. The model is limited to well-aligned molecules with respect to each other. It is especially suited for systems where the packing between neighboring chains is described by liquid-like disorder with axial registration in the chain-axis direction. In such a case the diffraction pattern from the oriented structure exhibits broad liquid-like reflections on the equatorial but sharper reflections on the layer lines. An Ornstein-Zernike approach is adopted to calculate the inter-chain packing and inter-chain registration, where the direct correlation function of packing and …

Linear-Nonequilibrium Thermodynamics Theory For Coupled Heat And Mass Transport, Yaşar Demirel, Stanley I. Sandler

Yaşar Demirel Publications

Linear-nonequilibrium thermodynamics (LNET) has been used to express the entropy generation and dissipation functions representing the true forces and flows for heat and mass transport in a multicomponent fluid. These forces and flows are introduced into the phenomenological equations to formulate the coupling phenomenon between heat and mass flows. The degree of the coupling is also discussed. In the literature such coupling has been formulated incompletely and sometimes in a confusing manner. The reason for this is the lack of a proper combination of LNET theory with the phenomenological theory. The LNET theory involves identifying the conjugated flows and forces …

Probability And Agents, Marco Valtorta, Michael N. Huhns

Faculty Publications

To make sense of the information that agents gather from the Web, they need to reason about it. If the information is precise and correct, they can use engines such as theorem provers to reason logically and derive correct conclusions. Unfortunately, the information is often imprecise and uncertain, which means they will need a probabilistic approach. More than 150 years ago, George Boole presented the logic that bears his name. There is concern that classical logic is not sufficient to model how people do or should reason. Adopting a probabilistic approach in constructing software agents and multiagent systems simplifies some …

Philosophical Agents, John R. Rose, Michael N. Huhns

Faculty Publications

Abstraction is the technique we use to deal with complexity. What is the proper kind and level of abstraction for complex software agents? We think it would be reasonable to endow agents with a philosophy. Then, by understanding their philosophies, we can use them more effectively. To endow agents with ethical principles, developers need an architecture that supports explicit goals, principles and capabilities, as well as laws and ways to sanction or punish miscreants. All of the ethical approaches described in this article are single-agent in orientation and encode other agents implicitly.

Hysteresis During Cycling Of Nickel Hydroxide Active Material, Venkat Srinivasan, John W. Weidner, John Newman

Faculty Publications

The nickel hydroxide electrode is known to exhibit a stable hysteresis loop, with the potential on charge being higher than that on discharge at every state-of-charge (SOC). What we show here is that this loop created during a complete charge and discharge (i.e., boundary curves) is not sufficient to define the state of the system. Rather, internal paths within the boundary curves (i.e., scanning curves) can be generated that access potentials between the boundary curves. The potential obtained at any SOC, as well as how the material charges and discharges from that point, depends on the …

Multimode Quantitative Scanning Microwave Microscopy Of In Situ Grown Epitaxial Ba1-XSrXTio3 Composition Spreads, K. S. Chang, M. Aronova, O. Famodu, I. Takeuchi, S. E. Lofland, Jason R. Hattrick-Simpers, H. Chang

Faculty Publications

We have performed variable-temperature multimode quantitative microwavemicroscopy of in situepitaxial Ba_1−xSr_xTiO₃ thin-film composition spreads fabricated on (100) LaA₁O₃ substrates. Dielectric properties were mapped as a function of continuously varying composition from BaTiO₃ to SrTiO₃. We have demonstrated nondestructive temperature-dependent dielectric characterization of local thin-film regions. Measurements are simultaneously taken at multiple resonant frequencies of the microscope cavity. The multimode measurements allow frequency dispersion studies. We observe strong composition-dependent dielectric relaxation in Ba_1−xSr_xTiO₃ at microwave frequencies.

Preparation Of Ordered Macroporous Sr0.5sm0.5coo3 As Cathode For Solid Oxide Fuel Cells, Fanglin Chen, Changrong Xia, Meilin Liu

Faculty Publications

Ordered macroporous Sr_0.5Sm_0.5CoO₃ structrures with an average pore size of 140 nm have been prepared using closepacked arrangement of monodispersed polystyrene spheres as templates. A fuel cell using ordered macroporous Sr_0.5Sm_0.5CoO₃ as the cathode, gadolinia-doped ceria (GDC) film as the electrolyte, and GDC–NiO as the anode generated maximum power densities of 150, 196 and 267 mW/cm² at 500, 550 and 600 °C, respectively.

Approximate Solutions For Galvanostatic Discharge Of Spherical Particles I. Constant Diffusion Coefficient, Venkat R. Subramanian, James A. Ritter, Ralph E. White

Faculty Publications

Approximate models are developed, based on second, fourth, and sixth order polynomials, that describe the concentration profile of an electrochemically active species in a spherical electrode particle. Analytical expressions are obtained that describe the way the concentration profiles, surface concentrations, and electrode utilization change during the galvanostatic discharge of an electrode particle. Based on a comparison with an exact analytical model over a wide range of dimensionless current densities, all three approximate models performed extremely well in predicting these quantities. Quantitative criterion for the validity of these models is also developed and shows that the sixth order, four parameter approximate …

Modeling Of A Nickel-Hydrogen Cell: Phase Reactions In The Nickel Active Material, B. Wu, Ralph E. White

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Modeling Lithium Intercalation In A Porous Carbon Electrode, Gerardine G. Botte, Ralph E. White

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Synthesis And Characterization Of Hydrous Ruthenium Oxide-Carbon Supercapacitors, Manikandan Ramani, Bala S. Haran, Ralph E. White, Branko N. Popov

Faculty Publications

It is shown that composite Ru oxide-carbon based supercapacitors possess superior energy and power densities as compared to bare carbon. An electroless deposition process was used to synthesize the ruthenium oxide-carbon composites. Ru is dispersed on the carbon matrix as small particles. The effect of electrochemical oxidation and temperature treatment on the material performance has been studied extensively. Increasing the oxidation temperature reduces the proton transport rate and also increases the degree of crystallinity of the deposits. This adversely affects the performance of the composite. Loading a small amount of Ru oxide (9 wt %) on carbon increases the capacitance …

Inside An Agent, José M. Vidal, Paul A. Buhler, Michael N. Huhns

Faculty Publications

When we discuss agent-based system construction with software developers or ask students to implement common agent architectures using object-oriented techniques, we find that it is not trivial for them to create an elegant system design from the standard presentation of these architectures in textbooks or research papers. To better communicate our interpretation of popular agent architectures, we draw UML (Unified Modeling Language) diagrams to guide an implementer's design. However, before we describe these diagrams, we need to review some basic features of agents. The paper considers an architecture showing a simple agent interacting with an environment. The agent senses its …

Indoor Radio Channel Of Bluetooth Technology, Kai Hock Charlie Khoo

Theses : Honours

This thesis discusses the findings of the final year project involving the characterisation of indoor radio channel specified by Bluetooth technology through theoretical analysis, simulations and actual measurements through field experiments. The concepts of indoor radio propagation effects and its statistical models arc explored. In addition, Bluetooth specifications are also studied and presented in Section 1. These provided a clear understanding of the radio propagation behaviour inside a building and the radio performance of Bluetooth specifications. Profound understanding of the propagation characteristics of the indoor radio channel is a major requirement for successful design of any indoor wireless communication systems. …

A Cable/Wireless Modulation/Demodulation Frontend Module For High Speed/Broadband Datalink, Pay Peng Clarice Chong

Theses : Honours

What are the modulation/demodulation schemes that are suitable tor cable or wireless high speed or broadband data link, between 1 Mbps to 30 Mbps? The recent adoption of modulation schemes such as OFDM, 8-VSB, OAM, for Digital Television broadcast (DTV), Asymmetrical Digital Subscriber Lines (ADSL), and Cable Modem (CM) for Internet access, is poss'1ble because of the increase bit/Hz in these modulations over conventional modulation schemes. These modulation/demodulation schemes could also offer similar advantages to dedicated data link applications such as home-networking using cable or wireless medium. This report document the project implementation of Quadrature Amplitude Modulation as the modulation …

High Precision Solder Droplet Printing Technology: Principle And Applications, Qingbin Liu, M. Orme, Ming-Chuan Leu

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Solder droplet printing technology, which is low-cost, noncontact, flexible, data-driven, and environmentally friendly, has emerged as an enabling technology for precisely placing fine solder deposits on a variety of small substrates. It is suitable for a variety of applications including direct chip attach site preparation, 3D substrates, fine line interconnect, substrate via fill, optoelectronics and many others. It enables manufacturing techniques that are impossible or unfeasible with current technology, such as localized replacement of solder on board, depositing solder in different thicknesses on the same board, or using more than one type of solder on the same board. This makes …

Microstructure-Sensitive Design Of A Compliant Beam, Brent L. Adams, Alisa J. Millar Henrie, B. Henrie, M. Lyon, H. Garmestani, Surya R. Kalidindi

Faculty Publications

BA acknowledges financial support provided by the MRSEC Program of the National Science Foundation under Award Number DMR-9632556. SK acknowledges financial support from National Science Foundation under Award Number CMS-9732699. BA, SK and HG also acknowledge support from the NSF-CIRE program centered at Florida A&M University, facilitating collaborations. Support was also provided by the College of Engineering and Technology at BYU (AH, BH and ML). Computations were performed on the new SGI Origin 2000 supercomputer at Brigham Young University, donated by Ira Fulton. We show that mechanical design can be conducted where consideration of polycrystalline microstructure as a continuous design …

An Investigation Of Eddy Current Analysis For Laser Surface Treatment Of Steel, Ronald Edward O'Meara

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

The problem of this exploratory study was to determine the strength of the bivariate correlational relationship between microhardness readings converted to Rockwell values and eddy current values of laser heat-treated AISI 1045 steel. Further, the microstructure was analyzed to determine the microstructural changes formed by laser surface treatment utilizing a carbon dioxide laser.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the microhardness and depth of hardness formed by laser surface treatment, to develop a measure of correlation between microhardness and eddy current values, and to study microstructural changes formed by the laser surface treatment. This knowledge could be used …

Attitudes And Perceptions Regarding Internet-Based Electronic Data Interchange In A Public Organization In Saudi Arabia, Abdulrahman S. Al-Zumaia

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

This study examined the attitudes and perceptions of staff members and administrators in the General Directorate for Private Institutes & Centers (GDPI&C), Training institutes, and Centers in Saudi Arabia toward Internet-based Electronic Data Interchange (I-EDI) in a public organization. A survey was conducted of a group of GDPI&C members and randomly selected Institutes and Centers. The 339 respondents participated anonymously by providing demographic information and completing the attitudes and perceptions section of I-EDI questionnaire. The survey response rate was 82.6%.

An attitude survey was distributed to staff members, administrators, and faculty members in the Saudi Arabian GDPI&C, Training Institutes, and …

Simulation Of Coal Pyrolysis In Plasma Jet By Cpd Model, Yajun Tian, Kechang Xie, Suyu Zhu, Thomas H. Fletcher

Faculty Publications

Reaction of coal in a plasma jet is complex and extremely rapid, and acetylene and carbon monoxide are the main products in the pyrolysis gas. Coal pyrolysis is assumed as the first step reaction when coal is injected into hot plasma jet with initial average temperature of 3700 K. Chemical percolation devolatilization (CPD) is employed first to simulate this procedure in mechanism. The calculation results indicate coal pyrolysis rate in plasma jet is very fast and the retention time of coal staying in reactor is only several milliseconds. Comparing the calculation with experiment result, it was concluded that the CPD …

Towards Comparative Profiling Of Parallel Applications With Pperfdb, Christian Leland Hansen

Dissertations and Theses

Due to the complex nature of parallel programming, it is difficult to diagnose and solve performance related problems. Knowledge of program behavior is obtained experimentally, with repeated runs of a slightly modified version of the application or the same code in different environments. In these circumstances, comparative performance analysis can provide meaningful insights into the subtle effects of system and code changes on parallel program behavior by highlighting the difference in performance results across executions.

I have designed and implemented modules which extend the PPerfDB performance tool to allow access to existing performance data generated by several commonly used tracing …

13-C Nmr Analysis Of Soot Produced From Model Compounds And A Coal, Mark S. Solum, Adel F. Sarofim, Ronald J. Pugmire, Thomas H. Fletcher, Haifeng Zhang

Faculty Publications

Soot samples, including the associated organics, produced from an Illinois No. 6 coal (five samples) and two model compounds, biphenyl (three samples) and pyrene (two samples), have been studied by ¹³C NMR methods. The coal soot data served as a guide to selection of the temperature range that would be most fruitful for investigation of the evolution of aerosols composed of soot and tars that are generated from model compounds. The evolution of the different materials in the gas phase followed different paths. The coal derived soots exhibited loss of aliphatic and oxygen functional groups prior to significant growth …

Use Of Incremental Adaptation And Habituation Regimens For Mitigating Optokinetic Side-Effects, David A. Graeber

Retrospective Theses and Dissertations

The use of incremental and repeated exposures regimens have been put forth as effective means to mitigate visually induced motion sickness based on the Dual Process Theory (DPT) (Groves & Thompson, 1970) of neural plasticity. In essence, DPT suggests that by incrementing stimulus intensity the depression opponent process should be allowed to exert greater control over the net outcome than the sensitization opponent process, thereby minimizing side-effects. This conceptual model was tested by empirically validating the effectiveness of adaptation, incremental adaptation, habituation, and incremental habituation regimens to mitigate side-effects arising from exposure to an optokinetic drum. Forty college students from …

Low Voltage Regulator Modules And Single Stage Front-End Converters, Wei Gu

Retrospective Theses and Dissertations

Evolution in microprocessor technology poses new challenges for supplying power to these devices. To meet demands for faster and more efficient data processing, modem microprocessors are being designed with lower voltage implementations. More devices will be packed on a single processor chip and the processors will operate at higher frequencies, exceeding 1GHz. New high-performance microprocessors may require from 40 to 80 watts of power for the CPU alone. Load current must be supplied with up to 30A/µs slew rate while keeping the output voltage within tight regulation and response time tolerances. Therefore, special power supplies and Voltage Regulator Modules (VRMs) …

Cubic Hamiltonian Graphs And Generalized Knight's Tours, Siew Hui Ong

Student Works (2000-2009)

This thesis is divided into two parts, both related to hamiltonian graphs. The first part deals with 3-connected cubic bipartite planar graphs. By assuming that all 3-connected cubic bipartite planar graphs are hamiltonian, lower bounds for the number of Hamilton cycles in cubic bipartite planar graphs with given cyclic connectivity are obtained in Chapter 2. In Chapter 3, we show that Barnette's Conjecture is equivalent to the conjecture which states that for any two edges x and y on the same face of a 3-connected cubic bipartite planar hamiltonian graph, there is a Hamilton cycle passing through x and y1 …

Vhdl Implementation For Jawi Character Recognition, Mustafa Norita Adila

Student Works (2000-2009)

Kewujudan tulisan jawi sejak dahulu lagi telah menghasilkan pelbagai karya penting dalam perkembangan islam. Sebagai satu bahasa pengantara, tulisan jawi dianggap penting dalam bidang penulisan. Tidak terhad hanya kepada buku-buku, dokumen-dokumen dan manuskrip-manuskrip yang ditulis dalam tulisan jawi, malah penggunaanya amat meluas dan meliputi keseluruhan bidang. Menyedari kepentingannya, timbul minat saya untuk mengkaji dengan lebih mendalam bagaimana komputer boleh mengenali dan memahami tulisan ini tanpa menggunakan tenaga manusia berdasarkan kepada beberapa kajian yang sedia ada yang telah dijalankan oleb mereka yang pakar dalam teknologi komputer digital. Secara keseluruhan, kajian ini akan membantu memudahkan lagi pengecaman tulisan tangan jawi yang dilakukan …

Sistem Pengendalian @ Penyelenggaraan Kenderaan Um, Tat San Tan

Student Works (2000-2009)

Sistem Pengendalian & Penyelenggaraan Kenderaan UM (SPPKUM) adalah satu sistem dibangunkan untuk: membantu pengguna dalam pengendalian dan penyelenggaraan kenderaan- kenderaan UM terutamanya bagi kakitangan Jabatan Pembangunan & Penyelenggaraan Harta Benda di Universiti Malaya (JPPHBUM). Ia membolehkan pengguna merekod, menyelenggara, dan menghasilkan laporan data yang dikehendaki. Bahagian memasukkan data tentang penyelenggaraan kenderaan adalah tujuan merekod, menyimpan, dan menyemak semula. Bahagian laporan adalah menghasilkan maklumat yang berguna kepada pengguna untuk menyelenggarakan kenderaan UM. Bahagian yang lain, iaitu bahagian Peringatan yang bertujuan untuk: memberi peringatan pada masa yang dikehendaki dan bahagian Penukaran Katalaluan adalah untuk membolehkan pengguna menukar katalaluan dan nama pengguna sistem …

Design And Develop A Generic Cut-Through Switch, Nazaruddin Noraini

Student Works (2000-2009)

Today's advancement in network is related to the advancement of packet switching technology. Switching directs network traffic in an efficient manner – it sends information directly from the port of origin to only its destination port. Without switching, many networks are experiencing bandwidth shortages because of an increase in traffic due to the increased numbers of users, the amount of data transported between client/server applications, and the inefficient traffic patterns of some networks. Transmission of data from one destination to another is unguaranty successful. Sometimes the data will lost or conupted during transmission to destination port. To make data more …

Optical Coherent Communication System Using Phase Shift Keying, Syed Javaid Iqbal

Student Works (2000-2009)

This thesis presents the experimental study and design of a coherent communication system by using phase shift keying (PSK). Systems are designed by using all passive elements, which make the system very easy to operate, and less maintenance is required. All the PSK designs are based on a single light source. In this thesis there are five different types of PSK with a single light source communication systems are designed. All designs are experimentally tested in free space. The systems are • All optical two-channel PSK communication system, by using single light source, "All optical single channel, two-way PSK communication, …