Engineering Commons^™

Neural Networks For Estimating The Productivity Of Brick Works And Plastering Works In Egypt, Mohamed Aly Masoud

Archived Theses and Dissertations

Neural networks have proven apparent success in solving a wide variety of problems. Various engineering applications in particular were studied using these powerful tools.

The Neural network resembles the function of the human brain. A training

process has to be applied first in order that the network acquires knowledge through learning. Then the network can generalize predicted solutions based on the a mount and accuracy of the training data. The target of this research is to develop two neural networks that can predict the productivity of two common construction-finishing activities, which are brick and plaster works. In order to adequately …

Treatment Of Municipal Wastewater And Sludge Using Cement Kiln Dust, Nesrine Nagui Taha

Archived Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Recycled Concrete Properties And Feasibility, Mourad Nabil Shenouda

Archived Theses and Dissertations

As conventional good quality aggregates are becoming scarce in some zones in Egypt and many areas worldwide, and as environmental concerns are raised on dumping old and fresh concrete in landfills, recycled concrete has been receiving increased interest worldwide for its potential environmental, economic and technical merits. In fact, many countries have adopted such concrete in their codes and the majority of their old concrete is being recycled. An attempt is being made to trigger factors and means that enhance the economic feasibility of recycled concrete. The overall goal of this work is to pinpoint strength and deficiencies in this …

A Multi-Processor Control System Architecture For A Cascaded Statcom With Energy Storage, Chang Qian, Stan Atcitty, Mariesa Crow

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This paper presents a multi-processor control system for a general purpose five-level cascaded inverter for real time power system applications. Practical design considerations for the digital controller architecture as well as the power converter are discussed and a 3 kVA laboratory prototype is presented. As a case study, a StatCom with battery energy storage was implemented on this multi-processor controlled inverter system. To eliminate the troublesome PI parameter tuning and the limitation of small signal models, which exist in conventional control for StatComs, a new and simple control method based on large signal model was designed to realize four-quadrant power …

Common-Mode Current Due To A Trace Near A Pcb Edge And Its Suppression By A Guard Band, Yoshiki Kayano, Motoshi Tanaka, James L. Drewniak, Hiroshi Inoue

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The common-mode (CM) current due to a trace near a printed circuit board (PCB) edge, and its suppression by a guard band have been studied experimentally and with finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) modeling. As the guard band, copper tape is connected along the entire edge of the ground plane. First, a PCB electromagnetic interference (EMI) coupling path that results from the nonzero impedance of the PCB ground plane is discussed. As the trace is moved closer to the PCB edge, the CM current increases. Then, the effect of the guard band on the CM current is detailed. A guard band parallel …

A Step Towards A Well Engineered Component Based Extensible Operating System, Mohamed Fathey Abdel Fattah

Archived Theses and Dissertations

Operating systems are the first developed piece of software for a computer and it is still the first application to run over our computers. Software developers spent a lot of time and efforts to build reliable systems using different philosophies and software engineering strategies. They built monolithic kernels, micro-kernels, pico-kernels, etc. to fulfill users' requirements and hardware developments as well. However, Most of the proposed solutions for operating systems design and implementation are for solving traditional problems. Operating systems are still constructed as a general piece of software used for either machine's resource management or as a virtual machine for …

Performance Evaluation Of Auc Backbone Network Using Simulation And Monitoring Tools, Nabawia Khalil Abdel-Karim

Archived Theses and Dissertations

Networks in the past were defined by the traffic they carried. The network management systems that can track performance statistics, alarms and diagnostics are usually called operations support systems. As number of applications carried over a network grew, networks cannot scale economically. They become large, complex and expensive. Network performance became an important issue to network designers, operators and implementers to design, implement and maintain scalable, reliable and resilient networks. In this research, we developed a comparative analysis for two tools commonly utilized to aid network operations support to arrive at decisions related to network scalability, performance evaluation and renewal. …

Durability And Stability Of Briquetting From Solid Agricultural Wastes, Ishaq Oladapo Adeleke

Archived Theses and Dissertations

This study is concerned with the transformation of agricultural wastes into useful solid form of energy known as briquettes. Being agricultural in nature, Egypt disposes huge quantities in adhoc manner resulting in economic loss and adverse environmental consequences. This improved form of agricultural waste eases utilization and storage. Two major parameters -residue size and processing conditions- were investigated. Bagasse-mudcake mixture, cotton stalk, rice straw and com stalk are the residues studied for briquetting. Since stable and durable briquettes are important qualities density and strength of the formed briquettes are calculated as measures of stability and durability. The problem is too …

Wide-Band/Dual-Band Packaged Antenna For 5-6 Ghz Wlan Application, Mohammod Ali, Tuangsit Sittironnarit, Huan-Sheng Hwang, Robert A. Sadler, Gerard James Hayes

Faculty Publications

A wide-band/dual-band packaged antenna is proposed for wireless local-area network (WLAN) applications in the 5.15-5.35 GHz and 5.725-5.825 GHz frequency range. The antenna is internal to the housing of a personal digital assistant, such as a Palm organizer, and has the dimensions of 28 by 9 by 3 ram on an FR4 substrate. The antenna meets or exceeds the bandwidth requirements for the dual-band IEEE 802.11a WLAN applications (5.15-5.35 GHz and 5.725-5.825 GHz) within 2:1 voltage standing-wave ratio.

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Building Services Engineering

No abstract provided.

A Continuous Process For The Glycerolysis Of Soybean Oil , Hossein Noureddini, D W. Harkey, M R. Gutsman

Papers in Biomaterials

A continuous process for the glycerolysis of soybean oil with pure and crude glycerol, the co-product from the transesterification of soybean oil was investigated in a pilot plant. The process was equipped with a motionless and a high-shear mixer. The experimental studies explored the effects of variations in mixing intensity, temperature, reactant flow rates, and reactant stoichiometry on the formation of MG and DC. The developed process resulted in high conversion of TC to MC. The most favorable conditions were 230°C, 40 mL/min total flow, 25 mm of reaction time, 2.5:1 molar ratio of glycerol/soybean oil, and 3600 rpm for …

Ultrasound Diffusion For Crack Depth Determination In Concrete, S.K. Ramamoorthy, Y. Kane, Joseph A. Turner

Nebraska Center for Materials and Nanoscience: Faculty Publications

The determination of the depth of surface-breaking cracks in concrete specimens using an ultrasound diffusion technique is discussed. Experiments were carried out on precracked concrete specimens of varying crack depths (0%–40% of the specimen thickness). Contact transducers were placed at the specimen surface with source and receiver separated by the crack. Tone-burst excitations over a frequency range of 400–600 kHz were used. At these frequencies, ultrasound is scattered considerably by the heterogeneities in the concrete. In the limit of many scattering events, the evolution of energy may be modeled as a diffusion process. The arrival of the peak diffuse energy …

Implications Of On-Ground Nitrogen Loading And Soil Transformations On Ground Water Quality Management, M. Almasri, Jagath J. Kaluarachchi

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

This paper presents a modeling approach based on a geographic information system (GIS) to estimate the variability of on-ground nitrogen loading and the corresponding nitrate leaching to ground water. The methodology integrates all point and nonpoint sources of nitrogen, the national land cover database, soil nitrogen transformations, and the uncertainty of key soil and land use-related parameters to predict the nitrate mass leaching to ground water. The analysis considered 21 different land use classes with information derived from nitrogen sources such as fertilizer and dairy manure applications, dairy lagoons, septic systems, and dry and wet depositions. Simulations were performed at …

Optimal Calibration Of Pet Crystal Position Maps Using Gaussian Mixture Models, Kelly A. Stronger, Michael T. Johnson

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

A method is developed for estimating optimal PET gamma-ray detector crystal position maps, for arbitrary crystal configurations, based on a binomial distribution model for scintillation photon arrival. The approach is based on maximum likelihood estimation of Gaussian mixture model parameters using crystal position histogram data, with determination of the position map taken from the posterior probability boundaries between mixtures. This leads to minimum probability of error crystal identification under the assumed model.

Stochastic Analysis And Performance Evaluation Of Wireless Schedulers, R. Rom, Hwee-Pink Tan

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

In the last few years, wireless scheduling algorithms have been proposed by supplementing wireline scheduling algorithms with a wireless adaptation scheme. However, Quality of Service (QoS) bounds have either been derived for flows that perceive error-free conditions or a static worst-case channel condition. Such an assumption of the channel condition is unrealistic, since channel errors are known to be bursty in nature. Hence, these bounds are inadequate to characterize the scheduler's QoS performance. Our research focuses on performing an extensive analysis of wireless scheduling in order to derive statistical QoS performance bounds under realistic channel conditions. In this paper, we …

Final Report: A Comparison Of Three Evaluative Techniques For Validating Maintenance Documentation, Alex Chaparro, Bonnie Rogers, Chris Hambllin, Barbara Chaparro

Publications

Surveys and interviews reveal that general aviation manufacturers rely on user[s] to identify problems in maintenance documentation with corrections typically initiated in response to users-reported problems found in the manual;. This investigation compares techniques that manufacturers can use to improve the quality of the maintenance documentation developed by technical writing groups. The techniques, User Performance and Cognitive Walkthrough, were used to identify problems in aircraft maintenance documentation.

Laboratory Project In Wireless Fsk Receiver Design, Michael A. Jensen, Cynthia Fuse, Raymond Woodward

Faculty Publications

This paper describes a wireless local area network laboratory project that provides senior and first-year graduate students in microwave engineering courses the opportunity to design, build, and test several passive microstrip components and integrate them into a working system. Students design filters, couplers, amplifiers, diode detectors, quarter-wave transformers, antennas, and stub matching networks in weekly labs that parallel-lectures in a one-semester microwave engineering course. This paper also describes simple inexpensive prototyping and testing methods that have been used in this course. Laboratory materials and technical details of the design are provided on the web for students and educators.

Adaptive Learning For Event Modeling And Pattern Classification, Shuangshuang Dai

Dissertations

It is crucial to detect, characterize and model events of interest in a new propulsion system. As technology advances, the amount of data being generated increases significantly with respect to time. This increase substantially strains our ability to interpret the data at an equivalent rate. It demands efficient methodologies and algorithms in the development of automated event modeling and pattern recognition to detect and characterize events of interest and correlate them to the system performance. The fact that the information required to properly evaluate system performance and health is seldom known in advance further exacerbates this issue.

Event modeling and …

A Micromachined Thermo-Optical Light Modulator Based On Semiconductor-To-Metal Phase Transition, Lijun Jiang

Dissertations

In this research, a micromachined thermo-optical light modulator was realized based on the semiconductor-to-metal phase transition of vanadium dioxide (VO₂) thin film. VO₂ undergoes a reversible phase transition at approximately 68 0C, which is accompanied with drastic changes in its electrical and optical properties. The sharp electrical resistivity change can be as great as five orders. Optically, VO₂ film will switch from a transparent semiconductor phase to a reflective metal phase upon the phase transition. The light modulator in this research exploits this phase transition related optical switching by using surface micromachined low-thermal-mass pixels to achieve …

Intercity Travel Demand : A Utility-Consistent Simultaneous Trip Generation And Mode Choice Model, Guilin Li

Dissertations

An intercity travel decision includes a complex set of subdecisions, such as when to travel, where to travel, which mode to choose, and others. The main focus of this dissertation is to examine trip frequency and mode choice of intercity non-business travel.

The objective of this study is to understand intercity travel behavior using disaggregate models. The proposed conceptual framework for intercity travel behavior leads to a nested logit/continuous choice model that is rigorously linked to the utility maximization theory. Compared to a traditional intercity travel demand model, the proposed model is utility consistent in that trip generation and mode …

Effect Of Fullerene Containing Lubricants On Wear Resistance Of Machine Components In Boundary Lubrication, Andriy Titov

Dissertations

Fullerenes, a new form of carbon nanomaterials, possess unique physical and mechanical properties that make their use as additives to liquid lubricants potentially beneficial. The goal of this study was to investigate the effect of fullerene containing lubricants on wear resistance of steel-bronze couples operating under boundary lubrication conditions. A mathematical model of deformed asperity contact was built to calculate real contact area and real contact pressure. Computer controlled wear friction testing methodology and equipment were designed, developed and implemented for obtaining reliable and objective experimental data. In addition, optical and scanning electron microscopy and standard surface texture analysis were …

Migration Of An Intruder Particle In A Boundary Driven Shear Flow, Jian Liu

Dissertations

This study reports on three-dimensional, discrete element simulations of a single large spherical intruder in a Couette shear flow composed of uniform sized particles. The simulation results are useful in providing a numerical reproduction of the experiments for size segregation and mixing. This in turn has a major importance in many industries which are concerned with handling of particles and powders, such as pharmaceutical manufacturing, agriculture, chemical and mineral processing.

Discrete element simulations are carried out using the "soft sphere" model of Walton, et. al., which provides a method for obtaining the information at a macroscopic level from multi-body collisions …

Reactive Modification Of Polyesters And Their Blends, Chen Wan

Dissertations

As part of a broader research effort to investigate the chemical modification of polyesters by reactive processing a low molecular weight (MW) unsaturated polyester (UP) and a higher MW saturated polyester, polyethylene terephthalate (PET), alone or blended with polypropylene (PP) were melt processed in a batch mixer and continuous twin screw extruders. Modification was monitored by on-line rheology and the products were characterized primarily by off-line rheology, morphology and thermal analysis. Efforts were made to establish processing/property relationships and provide an insight of the accompanying structural changes. The overall response of the reactively modified systems was found to be strongly …

Oblivious Data Hiding : A Practical Approach, Husrev T. Sencar

Dissertations

This dissertation presents an in-depth study of oblivious data hiding with the emphasis on quantization based schemes. Three main issues are specifically addressed:

1. Theoretical and practical aspects of embedder-detector design.

2. Performance evaluation, and analysis of performance vs. complexity tradeoffs.

3. Some application specific implementations.

A communications framework based on channel adaptive encoding and channel independent decoding is proposed and interpreted in terms of oblivious data hiding problem. The duality between the suggested encoding-decoding scheme and practical embedding-detection schemes are examined. With this perspective, a formal treatment of the "processing" employed in quantization based hiding methods is presented. In …

Fabrication And Characterization Of Microcrystalline Silicon Solar Cells, Liwei Li

Dissertations

In this study, single junction p-i-n μc-Si:H solar cells were prepared using plasma of silane diluted by hydrogen in a low-cost, single chamber, non-load-locked RF-PECVD system. Direct structural characterization of μc-Si:H solar cells, rather than stand-alone films, was conducted using Raman Spectroscopy, XRD, and AFM. Strong correlations among device deposition, i-layer structural properties, and device performance have been established. With such correlations, critical issues in fabricating low-cost, large-scale, high performance μc-Si:H solar cells were identified.

The critical importance of seeding processes in determining the microstructure of μc-Si:H i-layers and performance of μc-Si:H solar cells has been demonstrated. Using …

Studies On Improved Integrated Membrane-Based Chromatographic Process For Bioseparation, Yanke Xu

Dissertations

To improve protein separation and purification directly from a fermentation broth, a novel membrane filtration-cum-chromatography device configuration having a relatively impermeable coated zone near the hollow fiber module outlet has been developed. The integrated membrane filtration-cum-chromatography unit packed with chromatographic beads on the shell side of the hollow fiber unit enjoys the advantages of both membrane filtration and chromatography; it allows one to load the chromatographic media directly from the fermentation broth or lysate and separate the adsorbed proteins through the subsequent elution step in a cyclic process.

Interfacial polymerization was carried out to coat the bottom section of the …

The Use Of A Water Quality Model To Evaluate The Impacts Of Combined Sewer Overflows On The Lower Hudson River, Wen-Pin Shu

Dissertations

CSO discharges have long been recognized as a significant source of water pollution. While many sources of water pollution have been controlled over the past 20 years, CSOs continue to be a main environmental concern in several areas, especially in old cities. In the past, most CSO research focused on the CSO control processes, including floatables and suspended solids removal. Few studies have been conducted in the area of the impacts of CSO discharge on the receiving water quality. To achieve this purpose, a powerful water-modeling tool, WASP 6.1, is utilized in this study. The Lower Hudson River is selected …

Vibration-Induced Densification Of Granule Materials, Ninghua Zhang

Dissertations

Physical experiments as well as discrete element simulations of vibration are carried out. The use of different amplitudes and frequencies are applied in the experiments to facilitate the observation of densification trends with mono-disperse acrylic spheres and multi-disperse polyethylene pellets. For mono-disperse acrylic spheres, four densification trends are found at different vibration conditions, and attaining the "maximum density" is closely related to the combination of vibration frequency and amplitude, in agreement with experiments in the literature. For multi-disperse polyethylene pellets, there is a substantial increase in solids fraction due to the effects of particle shape and surface friction. Computer simulations …

Multi-Spectral Light Interaction Modeling And Imaging Of Skin Lesions, Sachin Vidyanand Patwardhan

Dissertations

Nevoscope as a diagnostic tool for melanoma was evaluated using a white light source with promising results. Information about the lesion depth and its structure will further improve the sensitivity and specificity of melanoma diagnosis. Wavelength-dependent variable penetration power of monochromatic light in the trans-illumination imaging using the Nevoscope can be used to obtain this information. Optimal selection of wavelengths for multi-spectral imaging requires light-tissue interaction modeling. For this, three-dimensional wavelength dependent voxel-based models of skin lesions with different depths are proposed. A Monte Carlo simulation algorithm (MCSVL) is developed in MATLAB and the tissue models are simulated using the …

Ip-Based Virtual Private Networks And Proportional Quality Of Service Differentiation, Jingdi Zeng

Dissertations

IP-based virtual private networks (VPNs) have the potential of delivering cost-effective, secure, and private network-like services. Having surveyed current enabling techniques, an overall picture of IP VPN implementations is presented.

In order to provision the equivalent quality of service (QoS) of legacy connection-oriented layer 2 VPNs (e.g., Frame Relay and ATM), IP VPNs have to overcome the intrinsically best effort characteristics of the Internet. Subsequently, a hierarchical QoS guarantee framework for IP VPNs is proposed, stitching together development progresses from recent research and engineering work.

To differentiate IP VPN QoS, the proportional QoS differentiation model, whose QoS specification granularity compromises …