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2005

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Articles 2101 - 2130 of 3074

Full-Text Articles in Engineering

Ascertaining The Growth Of A Company A System Dynamics Approach, Fakir Mohideen Noor Mohideen Jan 2005

Ascertaining The Growth Of A Company A System Dynamics Approach, Fakir Mohideen Noor Mohideen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Business is often about creating change for other businesses. At times, these changes affect only the company and at other times they affect the entire industry. There is a time in the life of a business when its fundamental way of functioning is questioned and is subjected to change. That change can mean an opportunity to rise to new heights, or it might even signal the beginning of the end. This fundamental change in any business is known as an inflection point. Understanding the nature of its inflection point and responding to that point suitably will help to safeguard a …

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Enhancing Message Privacy In Wired Equivalent Privacy., Darshan Purandare Jan 2005

Enhancing Message Privacy In Wired Equivalent Privacy., Darshan Purandare

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The 802.11 standard defines the Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) and encapsulation of data frames. It is intended to provide data privacy to the level of a wired network. WEP suffered threat of attacks from hackers owing to certain security shortcomings in the WEP protocol. Lately, many new protocols like WiFi Protected Access (WPA), WPA2, Robust Secure Network (RSN) and 802.11i have come into being, yet their implementation is fairly limited. Despite its shortcomings one cannot undermine the importance of WEP as it still remains the most widely used system and we chose to address certain security issues and propose some …

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Detection Of The R-Wave In Ecg Signals, Sasanka Valluri Jan 2005

Detection Of The R-Wave In Ecg Signals, Sasanka Valluri

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis aims at providing a new approach for detecting R-waves in the ECG signal and generating the corresponding R-wave impulses with the delay between the original R-waves and the R-wave impulses being lesser than 100 ms. The algorithm was implemented in Matlab and tested with good results against 90 different ECG recordings from the MIT-BIH database. The Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT) forms the heart of the algorithm providing a multi-resolution analysis of the ECG signal. The wavelet transform decomposes the ECG signal into frequency scales where the ECG characteristic waveforms are indicated by zero crossings. The adaptive threshold algorithms …

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Rollback-Able Random Number Generators For The Synchronous Parallel Environment For Emulation And Discrete-Event Simulation (Spe, Ramaswamy Karthik Narayanan Jan 2005

Rollback-Able Random Number Generators For The Synchronous Parallel Environment For Emulation And Discrete-Event Simulation (Spe, Ramaswamy Karthik Narayanan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Random Numbers form the heart and soul of a discrete-event simulation system. There are few situations where the actions of the entities in the process being simulated can be completely predicted in advance. The real world processes are more probabilistic than deterministic. Hence, such chances are represented in the system by using various statistical models, like random number generators. These random number generators can be used to represent a various number of factors, such as length of the queue. However, simulations have grown in size and are sometimes required to run on multiple machines, which share the various methods or …

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Creating Geo-Specific Road Databases From Aerial Photos For Driving Simulation, Dahai Guo Jan 2005

Creating Geo-Specific Road Databases From Aerial Photos For Driving Simulation, Dahai Guo

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Geo-specific road database development is important to a driving simulation system and a very labor intensive process. Road databases for driving simulation need high resolution and accuracy. Even though commercial software is available on the market, a lot of manual work still has to be done when the road crosssectional profile is not uniform. This research deals with geo-specific road databases development, especially for roads with non-uniform cross sections. In this research, the United States Geographical Survey (USGS) road information is used with aerial photos to accurately extract road boundaries, using image segmentation and data compression techniques. Image segmentation plays …

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Nondestructive Evaluation Of Thermal Barrier Coatings With Thermal Wave Imaging And Photostimulated Luminescence Spectroscopy, Barbara Franke Jan 2005

Nondestructive Evaluation Of Thermal Barrier Coatings With Thermal Wave Imaging And Photostimulated Luminescence Spectroscopy, Barbara Franke

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Gas Turbine manufacturers strive for increased operating temperatures of gas turbine engines to improve efficiency and performance. One method of increasing the temperature beyond material limits is by applying thermal barrier coatings (TBCs) to hot section components. TBCs provide a thermal gradient between the hot gases and metallic substrate, and allow an increase in turbine inlet temperatures of 100-150ºC. However, spallation of TBCs can cause catastrophic failure of turbine engines by incipient melting of the substrate. To prevent such an occurrence, non-destructive evaluation (NDE) techniques are critical for quality control, health monitoring, and life assessment of TBCs. Two techniques in …

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A New Paradigm Of Modeling Watershed Water Quality, Fan Zhang Jan 2005

A New Paradigm Of Modeling Watershed Water Quality, Fan Zhang

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Accurate models to reliably predict sediment and chemical transport in watershed water systems enhance the ability of environmental scientists, engineers and decision makers to analyze the impact of contamination problems and to evaluate the efficacy of alternative remediation techniques and management strategies prior to incurring expense in the field. This dissertation presents the conceptual and mathematical development of a general numerical model simulating (1) sediment and reactive chemical transport in river/stream networks of watershed systems; (2) sediment and reactive chemical transport in overland shallow water of watershed systems; and (3) reactive chemical transport in three-dimensional subsurface systems. Through the decomposition …

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Design And Implementation Of Wireles Sensor Networks For Parking Management System, Sudhir Chandrasekar Kora Jan 2005

Design And Implementation Of Wireles Sensor Networks For Parking Management System, Sudhir Chandrasekar Kora

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The technology of wirelessly networked micro sensors promises to revolutionize the way we interact with the physical environment. A new approach to solve parking-related issues of vehicles in parking lots using wireless sensor networks is presented. This approach enables the implementation of the Parking Management System (PMS®) in public parking lots found in Airports, Commercial Buildings, Universities, etc. The design architecture of the sensor nodes is discussed here. An overall view of the sensor network, which covers the whole of the parking lot, is also summarized. Detailed description of the software architecture that supports the hardware is provided. A sample …

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Optimization Of An Unstructured Finite Element Mesh For Tide And Storm Surge Modeling Applications In The Western North Atlantic Ocean, Satoshi Kojima Jan 2005

Optimization Of An Unstructured Finite Element Mesh For Tide And Storm Surge Modeling Applications In The Western North Atlantic Ocean, Satoshi Kojima

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Recently, a highly resolved, finite element mesh was developed for the purpose of performing hydrodynamic calculations in the Western North Atlantic Tidal (WNAT) model domain. The WNAT model domain consists of the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean Sea, and the entire portion of the North Atlantic Ocean found west of the 60° W meridian. This high resolution mesh (333K) employs 332,582 computational nodes and 647,018 triangular elements to provide approximately 1.0 to 25 km node spacing. In the previous work, the 333K mesh was applied in a Localized Truncation Error Analysis (LTEA) to produce nodal density requirements for the WNAT …

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Benchmark Studies For Structural Health Monitoring Using Analytical And Experimental Models, Jason Lee Burkett Jan 2005

Benchmark Studies For Structural Health Monitoring Using Analytical And Experimental Models, Jason Lee Burkett

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The latest bridge inventory report for the United States indicates that 25% of the highway bridges are structurally deficient or functionally obsolete. With such a large number of bridges in this condition, safety and serviceability concerns become increasingly relevant along with the associated increase in user costs and delays. Biennial inspections have proven subjective and need to be coupled with standardized non-destructive testing methods to accurately assess a bridge's condition for decision making purposes. Structural health monitoring is typically used to track and evaluate performance, symptoms of operational incidents, anomalies due to deterioration and damage during regular operation as well …

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The Use Of The Ucf Driving Simiulator To Test The Contribution Of Larger Size Vehicles (Lsvs) In Rear-End Collisions And Red Light Running On Intersections., Rami Charles Harb Jan 2005

The Use Of The Ucf Driving Simiulator To Test The Contribution Of Larger Size Vehicles (Lsvs) In Rear-End Collisions And Red Light Running On Intersections., Rami Charles Harb

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Driving safety has been an issue of great concern in the United States throughout the years. According to the National Center for Statistics and Analysis (NCSA), in 2003 alone, there were 6,267,000 crashes in the U.S. from which 1,915,000 were injury crashes, including 38,764 fatal crashes and 43,220 human casualties. The U.S. Department of Transportation spends millions of dollars every year on research that aims to improve roadway safety and decrease the number of traffic collisions. In spring 2002, the Center for Advanced Traffic System Simulation (CATSS), at the University of Central Florida, acquired a sophisticated reconfigurable driving simulator. This …

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Development Of A Knowledge Management Model In Large-Scale International Space Science Projects, Jose Luis Nunez Jan 2005

Development Of A Knowledge Management Model In Large-Scale International Space Science Projects, Jose Luis Nunez

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Large-scale international science projects (LISPs) are those projects where two or more countries formally agree to cooperate toward the achievement of a scientific, research and development, or engineering goal. In general, only projects exceeding $1 billion U.S. are considered LISPs, so sheer size commands attention, and because they are so costly and visible, failure can lead to significant scientific, financial and political consequences. This researched focused on how 7 different critical success factors impacted the level of technical interface knowledge shared among international partners involved in a large-scale international space science project (LISSP) – the International Space Station (ISS), which …

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Assessment Framework For The Evaluation And Prioritization Of University Technologies For Licensing And Commercialization, Ahmad D. Rahal Jan 2005

Assessment Framework For The Evaluation And Prioritization Of University Technologies For Licensing And Commercialization, Ahmad D. Rahal

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

US corporations have long recognized university related scientific research as an important source of long term economic growth and technological innovation. This dynamic involvement with industry has drastically increased the university technology transfer and licensing activities, and has stretched the human and financial resources of Technology Management and Licensing Offices of many US universities. This research provides a mechanism that can aid in the complex process of properly assessing university-owned technologies and intellectual properties, to identify those with licensing and commercialization potential for the pursuit of truly important breakthrough discoveries. This research focuses on the university technology licensing and commercialization …

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Designing A Document Delivery System For Ucf S Interlibrary Loan Department, Abha Y. Trivedi Jan 2005

Designing A Document Delivery System For Ucf S Interlibrary Loan Department, Abha Y. Trivedi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Interlibrary Loan entails obtaining copies of library materials not found in the library's collection on behalf of the library's patrons (borrowing), as well as providing copies of library materials requested by other libraries (lending). The dynamic nature of today's library environment is well illustrated by the rapid changes occurring in the role of interlibrary loan. The vision statement of the University of Central Florida Library is: The library performs a central role of adding value to information for the academic community by creatively improving and providing information resources and services. The library strives to create an environment that encourages the …

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Quality Of Service Measures At Signalized Intersections, Kamal Goyal Jan 2005

Quality Of Service Measures At Signalized Intersections, Kamal Goyal

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The concept of using qualitative measures to describe the quality of service at signalized intersections provided by different designs and controls has been discussed in numerous conferences. Such measures may include driver's comfort, convenience, anxiety, and preferences. The primary objective of this study was to demonstrate the feasibility of using the University of Central Florida's interactive driving simulator to execute several scenarios involving different unusual design and operation practices to measure the quality of service at a signalized intersection. This thesis describes the scenarios, the experiments conducted, the data collected, and analysis of results. Signalized intersections with 3 types of …

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Design And Synthesis Of Clockless Pipelines Based On Self-Resetting Stage Logic, Abdelhalim Alsharqawi Jan 2005

Design And Synthesis Of Clockless Pipelines Based On Self-Resetting Stage Logic, Abdelhalim Alsharqawi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

For decades, digital design has been primarily dominated by clocked circuits. With larger scales of integration made possible by improved semiconductor manufacturing techniques, relying on a clock signal to orchestrate logic operations across an entire chip became increasingly difficult. Motivated by this problem, designers are currently considering circuits which can operate without a clock. However, the wide acceptance of these circuits by the digital design community requires two ingredients: (i) a unified design methodology supported by widely available CAD tools, and (ii) a granularity of design techniques suitable for synthesizing large designs. Currently, there is no unified established design methodology …

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Stormwater Irrigation Of Saint Augustine Grass: Nitrogen Balance And Evapotranspiration, Ewoud Hulstein Jan 2005

Stormwater Irrigation Of Saint Augustine Grass: Nitrogen Balance And Evapotranspiration, Ewoud Hulstein

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A change in surface condition of a watershed, which is usually caused by development, can have measured effects on the naturally occurring hydrologic cycle and nitrogen cycle. This could result in environmental problems, such as reduced springflow and eutrophication. In an effort to address these issues, a combination of best management practices (BMPs) can be adhered to. The practice of using excess stormwater as a source for irrigation is proposed as a BMP for the minimization of impacts by development to the hydrologic and nitrogen cycles. To study the proposed BMP, a field experiment was installed in an outdoor location …

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Frequency Domain Independent Component Analysis Applied To Wireless Communications Over Frequency-Selective Channels, Yuan Liu Jan 2005

Frequency Domain Independent Component Analysis Applied To Wireless Communications Over Frequency-Selective Channels, Yuan Liu

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In wireless communications, frequency-selective fading is a major source of impairment for wireless communications. In this research, a novel Frequency-Domain Independent Component Analysis (ICA-F) approach is proposed to blindly separate and deconvolve signals traveling through frequency-selective, slow fading channels. Compared with existing time-domain approaches, the ICA-F is computationally efficient and possesses fast convergence properties. Simulation results confirm the effectiveness of the proposed ICA-F. Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) systems are widely used in wireless communications nowadays. However, OFDM systems are very sensitive to Carrier Frequency Offset (CFO). Thus, an accurate CFO compensation technique is required in order to achieve acceptable …

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Estimation Of Hybrid Models For Real-Time Crash Risk Assessment On Freeways, Anurag Pande Jan 2005

Estimation Of Hybrid Models For Real-Time Crash Risk Assessment On Freeways, Anurag Pande

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Relevance of reactive traffic management strategies such as freeway incident detection has been diminishing with advancements in mobile phone usage and video surveillance technology. On the other hand, capacity to collect, store, and analyze traffic data from underground loop detectors has witnessed enormous growth in the recent past. These two facts together provide us with motivation as well as the means to shift the focus of freeway traffic management toward proactive strategies that would involve anticipating incidents such as crashes. The primary element of proactive traffic management strategy would be model(s) that can separate 'crash prone' conditions from 'normal' traffic …

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Control And Topology Improvements In Half-Bridge Dc-Dc Converters, Songquan Deng Jan 2005

Control And Topology Improvements In Half-Bridge Dc-Dc Converters, Songquan Deng

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Efficiency and transient response are two key requirements for DC-DC converters. Topology and control are two key topics in this dissertation. A variety of techniques for DC-DC converter performance improvement are presented in this work. Focusing on the efficiency issue, a variety of clamping techniques including both active and passive methods are presented after the ringing issues in DC-DC converters are investigated. By presenting the clamping techniques, a big variety of energy management concepts are introduced. The active bridge-capacitor tank clamping and FET-diode-capacitor tank clamping are close ideas, which transfer the leakage inductor energy to clamping capacitor to prevent oscillation …

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Qos In Cognitive Packet Networks: Adaptive Routing, Flow And Congestion Control, Pu Su Jan 2005

Qos In Cognitive Packet Networks: Adaptive Routing, Flow And Congestion Control, Pu Su

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

With the emergence of various applications that have different Quality of Service (QoS) requirements, the capability of a network to support QoS becomes more and more important and necessary. This dissertation explores QoS in Cognitive Packet Networks (CPN) by using adaptive routing, flow and congestion control. We present a detailed description and analysis of our proposed routing algorithms based on single and multiple QoS constraints. An online estimation of packet loss rate over a path is introduced. We implement and evaluate the adaptive routing scheme in an experimental CPN test-bed. Our experiments support our claims that the users can achieve …

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Debris Tracking In A Semistable Background, Karthikkalathi Vanumamalai Jan 2005

Debris Tracking In A Semistable Background, Karthikkalathi Vanumamalai

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Object Tracking plays a very pivotal role in many computer vision applications such as video surveillance, human gesture recognition and object based video compressions such as MPEG-4. Automatic detection of any moving object and tracking its motion is always an important topic of computer vision and robotic fields. This thesis deals with the problem of detecting the presence of debris or any other unexpected objects in footage obtained during spacecraft launches, and this poses a challenge because of the non-stationary background. When the background is stationary, moving objects can be detected by frame differencing. Therefore there is a need for …

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Resource Allocation Schemes And Performance Evaluation Models For Wavelength Division Multiplexed Optical Networks, Mounire El Houmaidi Jan 2005

Resource Allocation Schemes And Performance Evaluation Models For Wavelength Division Multiplexed Optical Networks, Mounire El Houmaidi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Wavelength division multiplexed (WDM) optical networks are rapidly becoming the technology of choice in network infrastructure and next-generation Internet architectures. WDM networks have the potential to provide unprecedented bandwidth, reduce processing cost, achieve protocol transparency, and enable efficient failure handling. This dissertation addresses the important issues of improving the performance and enhancing the reliability of WDM networks as well as modeling and evaluating the performance of these networks. Optical wavelength conversion is one of the emerging WDM enabling technologies that can significantly improve bandwidth utilization in optical networks. A new approach for the sparse placement of full wavelength converters based …

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A Trade Construction Knowledge Module To Enable Use Of Design Component Data In Project Management, Zhigang Shen, Raja R. A. Issa, William J. O'Brien, Ian Flood Jan 2005

A Trade Construction Knowledge Module To Enable Use Of Design Component Data In Project Management, Zhigang Shen, Raja R. A. Issa, William J. O'Brien, Ian Flood

Department of Construction Engineering and Management: Faculty Publications

The complexity, tight budget, and dynamic market of today's construction project require the seamless integration of both design and construction data, However, despite the availability of both digital design tools (various CAD applications) and digital project management tools (such as schedule software and construction management software), design data has to still be entered manually into construction applications. In order to close this gap, CAD applications widely used in AEC industries are evolving toward providing the product data within the CAD package itself, in addition to the existing graphic-oriented data. While useful, those new data-driven CAD applications are largely design-oriented and …

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Tether Reel Mechanism For The Mr Sat Project, Abbie Stewart Jan 2005

Tether Reel Mechanism For The Mr Sat Project, Abbie Stewart

Opportunities for Undergraduate Research Experience Program (OURE)

The Missouri-Rolla Satellite (MR SAT) system is being designed and constructed by students at the University of Missouri - Rolla in order to give Aerospace Engineering students along with other major's practical experience in spaceflight concepts. The satellite system will consist of two tethered satellites that will eventually be completely disconnected and use a propulsion method to enter the chase phase of our mission. New design concepts are being used on this satellite including the possible use of a honeycomb-aluminum friction stir-welded structure and micro-pulse plasma thrusters for maneuvering. The research done this summer focused on the tether reel mechanism …

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Adhesion Of An Axisymmetric Film Onto A Rigid Substrate: Application To A Mem-Rf-Switch, Ming-Fung Wong Jan 2005

Adhesion Of An Axisymmetric Film Onto A Rigid Substrate: Application To A Mem-Rf-Switch, Ming-Fung Wong

Opportunities for Undergraduate Research Experience Program (OURE)

A solid mechanics model is constructed to discuss the mechanical aspect of a MEM-RF-switch. A thin circular membrane clamped at the perimeter is adhered to a rigid cylindrical flat punch. A tensile load applied to the punch causes an interfacial de lamination. Once the contact circle shrinks to 0.1758 - 0.3651 of the punch dimension depending on the magnitude of the tensile residual stress on the film, a spontaneous delamination, or "pull-off', occurs and the film snaps from the substrate at a critical load and punch displacement. The theoretical model has significant implications in MEMS that involves active moveable films.

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Modal Perturbation Method For The Dynamic Characteristics Of Timoshenko Beams, Meng-Lin Lou, Quihua Duan, Genda Chen Jan 2005

Modal Perturbation Method For The Dynamic Characteristics Of Timoshenko Beams, Meng-Lin Lou, Quihua Duan, Genda Chen

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Timoshenko beams have been widely used in structural and mechanical systems. under dynamic loading, the analytical solution of a Timoshenko beam is often difficult to obtain due to the complexity involved in the equation of motion. In this paper, a modal perturbation method is introduced to approximately determine the dynamic characteristics of a Timoshenko beam. In this approach, the differential equation of motion describing the dynamic behavior of the Timoshenko beam can be transformed into a set of nonlinear algebraic equations. Therefore, the solution process can be simplified significantly for the Timoshenko beam with arbitrary boundaries. Several examples are given …

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The Effect Of The Internal Field On The Ir Absorption Spectra Of Small Particles In Case Of 3d, 2d And 1d Size Confinement, Igor I. Shaganov, Tatiana S. Perova, R. Alan Moore, Kevin Berwick Jan 2005

The Effect Of The Internal Field On The Ir Absorption Spectra Of Small Particles In Case Of 3d, 2d And 1d Size Confinement, Igor I. Shaganov, Tatiana S. Perova, R. Alan Moore, Kevin Berwick

Articles

The spectral properties of composite materials based on small particles under 1D, 2D, and 3D size confinement are described using a combination of dispersive internal field and effective media theory approaches. Calculations performed for a number of crystalline materials have shown that the peak position and intensity of the vibrational band of the material under conditions of 1D, 2D, and 3D size confinement are changed, whereas the bandwidth of the band remains the same. In the case of 3D confinement, the peak position of the spectrum of isolated “mesoparticles” ( ) appears to be very close to the intrinsic frequency …

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Current And Future Applications Of Surface Engineering, David Kennedy, Yueqiang Xue, Emilia Mihaylova Jan 2005

Current And Future Applications Of Surface Engineering, David Kennedy, Yueqiang Xue, Emilia Mihaylova

Articles

No abstract provided.

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Accuracy Of Heat-Pulse Sensors For Determining Moisture Of Capillary Mat Material Used To Support Plant Growth, Marisa Wyssling Jan 2005

Accuracy Of Heat-Pulse Sensors For Determining Moisture Of Capillary Mat Material Used To Support Plant Growth, Marisa Wyssling

Master's Theses - Daytona Beach

The accuracy and precision of Orbital Technologies (Orbitec, Madison, WI) Thermal and Moisture Acquisition System (TMAS) sensors were investigated for use in the WONDER space flight experiment. WONDER is studying the effect of multiple wetness level regimes and two different nutrient delivery systems (NDS) on plants grown in the microgravity of space. The following research concentrates on the porous tube NDS consisting solely of a capillary mat surrounding a bare porous tube used for water delivery. Sensors and plants will be attached to the capillary mat, which transports water by capillary action. The TMAS sensors, single probe heat-pulse moisture sensors, …

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