Engineering Commons^™

Influence Of Two Changes In The Composition Of An Acrylic Bone Cement On Its Handling, Thermal, Physical, And Mechanical Properties, G. Lewis, J. Xu, S. Madigan, Mark R. Towler

Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This study is a contribution to the growing body of work on the influence of changes in the composition of an acrylic bone cement on various properties of the curing and cured material. The focus is on one commercially-available acrylic bone cement brand, Surgical Simplex®P, and three variants of it and a series of properties, namely, setting time, maximum exotherm temperature, activation energy and frequency factor for the polymerization reaction, diffusion coefficient for the uptake of phosphate buffered saline, at 37°C, ultimate compressive strength (UCS), plane-strain fracture toughness, fatigue life (under fully-reversed tension-compression stress), hardness (H) and elastic modulus (both …

A Chemical Engineering Laboratory Over Distributed Control And Measurement Systems, Jing Guo, David Kettler, Muthanna H. Al-Dahhan

Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Remote Control of Lab Apparatus Via the Internet Allows Flexible Scheduling of Experiments and Exercises. This Paper Presents a Novel Application of Computers and Internet Technology in Chemical Engineering Education that Highlights Interactive Learning for an Undergraduate Course in Online Measurement and Control. the Proposed Client-Server Architecture Can Be Adapted to Drive Different Kinds of Devices and Can Be Easily Expanded. the Developed Online Laboratory Has Been Tested by Many Students using Different Connections and Operating Conditions. This Internet-Based Solution Can Improve Undergraduate Engineering Education in a Conventional Unit Operation Laboratory. as an Example, the Application of Remote Experiments to …

Clock-Free Nanowire Crossbar Architecture Based On Null Convention Logic (Ncl), Ravi Bonam, Shikha Chaudhary, Yadunandana Yellambalase, Minsu Choi

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

There have been numerous nanowire crossbar architectures proposed till date, although all of them are envisioned to be synchronous (i.e., clocked). The clock is an important part in a circuit and it needs to be connected to all the components to synchronize their operation. Considering non-deterministic nature of nanoscale integration, realizing them on a nano wire crossbar system would be quite cumbersome. Unlike the conventional clocked counterparts, a new clock-free crossbar architecture is proposed to resolve the issues with clocked counterparts in this paper, where the use of clock is eliminated from the architecture. This has been done by implementing …

Evaluation Of Kentucky’S “Buckle Up Kentucky: It’S The Law & It’S Enforced” 2007 Campaign, Kenneth R. Agent, Eric R. Green, Ronald E. Langley

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

The objective of this report was to document the results of the “Buckle Up Kentucky: It’s the Law & It’s Enforced” 2007 campaign in Kentucky. Data were also taken to document the change in usage after enactment of the primary enforcement law. The campaign involved a combination of earned media, paid media, and enforcement. The earned media started about five weeks prior to Memorial Day 2007 and continued through the enforcement periods. The paid media campaign was for the two weeks prior to Memorial Day while the enforcement period was a two-week period including the week before and the week …

Impact Of A Microwave Curing Process On Tensile Strength Of Selected Carbon Fiber Composites, Brian B. Balzer

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The traditional process for curing carbon fiber (CF) composites has been the autoclave system. A review of recent research indicates curing CF composites in a microwave oven has the potential for reducing processing time. The problem statement of the experimental study was that the impact of a microwave curing process on tensile strength of selected CF composite specimens was unknown. The research study describes the statistical procedure and analysis of data to answer the specific question for the experimental trials: What is the effect on the tensile strength of cured CF composite samples due to the relationship of the autoclave …

Leanness And Agility In Job Shops: A Framework For A Survey Instrument Developed Using The Delphi Method, Zaki Kuruppalil

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Manufacturers are facing new challenges as competition has become global. Manufacturing companies arc looking for strategies which would help them gain an edge over their competitors. In the United States, lean manufacturing and agile manufacturing have been gaining importance among industries. Agile manufacturing was developed when the United States Department of Defense (DOD) requested Iacocca Institute at Lehigh University to develop a manufacturing framework that could give US companies an edge over their worldwide competitors whereas lean manufacturing has its roots tied to the Toyota Production System (TPS). This raises the questions: what is the clear difference between the two …

Channel Management In Heterogeneous Cellular Networks, Mohammad Hadi Arbabi

Computer Science Theses & Dissertations

Motivated by the need to increase system capacity in the face of tight FCC regulations, modem cellular systems are under constant pressure to increase the sharing of the frequency spectrum among the users of the network.

Key to increasing system capacity is an efficient channel management strategy that provides higher capacity for the system while, at the same time, providing the users with Quality of Service guarantees. Not surprisingly, dynamic channel management has become a high profile topic in wireless communications. Consider a highly populated urban area, where mobile traffic loads are increased due to highway backups or sporting events. …

Simulation, Visualization And Self-Assessment Tools For Enhanced Engineering Education The Stiffness Matrix Method Module For Structural Analysis, Ahmed Ali Mohammed

Civil & Environmental Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Existing macromedia FLASH software which has extensive and exciting simulation and visualization capabilities is utilized to develop the "Stiffness Matrix Method" (SMM) module, which is one of the new topics ( offered for the first time in Spring 2007 semester) covered in a Structural Analysis I course, offered at the junior level at Old Dominion University. The developed software (under the FLASH environment), including tutorial lectures to explain all necessary theoretical backgrounds, formulas, step-by-step computerized procedures and numerical examples are presented in simple, user friendly, visualized, interactive fashion to enhance the student's learning capabilities. Through numerous graphical visualization and simulation …

2007 Safety Belt Usage Survey In Kentucky, Kenneth R. Agent, Eric R. Green

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

The objective of this study was to establish 2007 safety belt and child safety seat usage rates in Kentucky. The 2007 survey continues to document the results after enactment of the original “secondary enforcement” statewide mandatory safety belt law in 1994 and the change to “primary enforcement” which was enacted in 2006. Data were collected at 200 randomly selected sites spread across Kentucky. Data from the individual sites were combined into a statewide percentage considering roadway functional classification, geographic region, and vehicle miles traveled. The data show that the usage rate in 2007 (71.8 percent) increased several percentage points compared …

Using Reconstructability Analysis For Input Variable Reduction: A Business Example, Stephen Shervais, Martin Zwick

Complex Systems Faculty Publications and Presentations

We demonstrate the use of reconstructability analysis (RA) on the UCI Australian Credit dataset to reduce the number of input variables for two different analysis tools. Using 14 variables, an artificial neural net (NN) is able to predict whether or not credit was granted, with a 79.1% success rate. RA preprocessing allows us to reduce the number of independent variables from 14 to two different sets of three, which have success rates of 77.2% and 76.9% respectively. The difference between these rates and that of the 14-variable NN is not statistically significant. The three-variable rulesets given by RA achieve success …

New Theoretical Considerations In Polymer Rheology: Elastic Breakdown Of Chain Entanglement Network, Shi-Qing Wang, Sham Ravindranath, Yangyang Wang, Pouyan Boukany

College of Polymer Science and Polymer Engineering

Recent experimental evidence has motivated us to present a set of new theoretical considerations and to provide a rationale for interpreting the intriguing flow phenomena observed in entangled polymer solutions and melts [P. Tapadia and S. Q. Wang, Phys. Rev. Lett. 96, 016001 (2006); 96, 196001 (2006); S. Q. Wang , ibid. 97, 187801 (2006)]. Three forces have been recognized to play important roles in controlling the response of a strained entanglement network. During flow, an intermolecular locking force f(iml) arises and causes conformational deformation in each load-bearing strand between entanglements. The chain deformation builds up a retractive force f(retract) …

Comparison Of Material Properties And Microstructure Of Specimens Built Using The 3d Systems Vanguard Hs And Vanguard Hiq+Hs Sls Systems, T.J. Silverman, Allison Kinney, W. Yong, J.H. Koo

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Faculty Publications

The HiQ upgrade to the 3D Systems Vanguard selective laser sintering (SLS) machine incorporates a revised thermal calibration system and new control software. The paper compares the tensile modulus, tensile strength, elongation at break, flexural modulus, Izod impact resistance and microstructure of two batteries of standard specimens built from recycled Duraform PA (Nylon 12). The first set is built on a Vanguard HS system and the second on the same system with the HiQ upgrade installed. The upgrade reduces user intervention, decreases total build time and improves surface finish. However, using the default processing parameters, tensile, flexure and impact properties …

Anwendung Von Interferenz- Und Ir-Mikroskopie Zur Charakterisierung Und Untersuchung Des Stofftransportes In Nanoporösen Materialien, Lars Heinke, Christian Chmelik, Pavel Kortunov, Sergey Vasenkov, Douglas M. Ruthven, Dhananjai B. Shah, Jörg Kärger

Chemical & Biomedical Engineering Faculty Publications

Die Anwendung der Interferenz-Mikroskopie bedeutet einen entscheidenden Durchbruch in der Untersuchung des Stofftransports von Gastmolekülen in nanoporösen Wirtsmaterialien. Diese Technik ermöglicht die Beobachtung der zeitaufgelösten intrakristallinen Konzentrationsprofile, die durch eine Änderung des umgebenden Gasdruckes entstehen. Dieser Ansatz wurde zur Untersuchung von Adsorptions- und Desorptionsprozessen in verschiedenen Zeolithsystemen verwendet. Die Vorteile dieser Technik, vor allem wenn sie mit Infrarotabsorptionsmessungen kombiniert wird, werden an Hand der experimentellen Resultate des Methanol-in-Ferrierit-Systems illustriert.

Experimental Tuning Of The Aifsn Parameter To Prioritize Voice Over Data Transmission In 802.11e Wlan Networks, Miroslaw Narbutt, Mark Davis

Conference papers

In this paper we experimentally study the impact of one EDCA parameter, namely AIFSN on a mixed voice/data wireless transmission. In particular we investigate how the tuning of this parameter affects both the voice transmission quality and background data throughput. We predict end-to-end voice transmission quality from time varying transmission impairements using the latest Appendix to the ITU-T E-model. Our experiemental results show that the tuning of the AIFSN parameter can successfully prioritize voice transmission over data in a real 802.11e network. To the best of our knowledge this is the first experimental investigation on tuning of MAC layer parameters …

Treating Water Contamination Using Ultraviolet Radiation To Control Cryptosporidium And E.Coli, Michael O'Hehir, David Kennedy, Thomas Dunphy

Articles

Concerns about the quality of drinking water in Ireland have come into sharp focus with the recent Cryptosporidium outbreak in Galway City. This article looks at how ultraviolet radiation can offer a potential solution in the control of Cryptosporidium contamination.

Determination Of Three-Dimensional Grain Boundary Connectivity From Two-Dimensional Microstructures, Megan Frary

Materials Science and Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

The connectivity of so-called "special" and "general" grain boundaries at a quadruple node is known to be nonrandom as a result of crystallographic constraints. Although a quadruple node is a three-dimensional feature, there exist two-dimensional features which are topologically identical. Therefore, the distribution of these two-dimensional features may be used to determine the three-dimensional connectivity. Computer simulations of a three-dimensional microstructure which is virtually serial sectioned are used to validate the proposed approach.

Exploration Of Dynamic Memory, Delvin Curvin Defoe

All Computer Science and Engineering Research

Since the advent of the Java programming language and the development of real-time garbage collection, Java has become an option for implementing real-time applications. The memory management choices provided by real-time garbage collection allow for real-time eJava developers to spend more of their time implementing real-time solutions. Unfortunately, the real-time community is not convinced that real-time garbage collection works in managing memory for Java applications deployed in a real-time context. Consequently, the Real-Time for Java Expert Group formulated the Real-Time Specification for Java (RTSJ) standards to make Java a real-time programming language. In lieu of garbage collection, the RTSJ proposed …

Health Monitoring Of Concrete Bridges Utilizing Sensor Technology, Ammar Zalt

Masters Theses

Structural health monitoring using sensor technology is a promising way to provide excellent means for protecting important structures such as bridges, dams, and nuclear reactors. These sensors provide real-time information about structural conditions, They work together as a nervous system to provide timely information for emergency and risk mitigation. The information obtained from these sensors can later be analyzed and compared to the design data so that the problem can be detected and fixed before it develops into a serious and costly hazard.

Throughout the course of this thesis the feasibility and performance of two types of sensors will be …

Disbond Thickness Evaluation Employing Multiple-Frequency Near-Field Microwave Measurements, Mohamed A. Abou-Khousa, R. Zoughi

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Near-field microwave nondestructive evaluation (NDE) techniques have shown great potential for disbond detection in multilayer dielectric composite structures. The high detection capability associated with these techniques stems from the fact that near-field microwave signals are sensitive to minute variations in the dielectric properties and geometry of the medium in which they propagate. In the past, the sensitivity of the near-field microwave NDE techniques to the presence and properties of disbonds in multilayer dielectric composites has been investigated extensively. However, a quantitative disbond thickness estimation method has yet to be introduced. In this paper, we propose a maximum-likelihood (ML) disbond thickness …

Optimal Control Of A Photovoltaic Solar Energy System With Adaptive Critics, Richard L. Welch, Ganesh K. Venayagamoorthy

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This paper presents an optimal energy control scheme for a grid independent photovoltaic (PV) solar system consisting of a PV array, battery energy storage, and time varying loads (a small critical load and a larger variable non-critical load). The optimal controller design is based on a class of adaptive critic designs (ACDs) called the action dependant heuristic dynamic programming (ADHDP). The ADHDP class of ACDs uses two neural networks, an "action" network (which actually dispenses the control signals) and a "critic" network (which critics the action network performance). An optimal control policy is evolved by the action network over a …

Optimal Scheduling Of Generator Maintenance Using Modified Discrete Particle Swarm Optimization, Yusuf Yare, Ganesh K. Venayagamoorthy

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This paper presents a modified discrete particle swarm optimization (PSO) based technique for generating optimal preventive maintenance schedule of generating units for economical and reliable operation of a power system while satisfying system load demand and crew constraints. While GA and other analytical methods might suffer from premature convergence and the curse of dimensionality, heuristics based swarm intelligence can be an efficient alternative. PSO is known to effectively solve large scale multi-objective optimization problems. Here, a modified discrete PSO approach is proposed for the GMS optimization problem in order to overcome the limitations of the conventional methods and come up …

Parameter Optimization Of Pss Based On Estimated Hessian Matrix From Trajectory Sensitivities, Jung-Wook Park, Ganesh K. Venayagamoorthy, Seung-Mook Baek

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This paper describes the optimal tuning for the output limits of the power system stabilizer (PSS), which can improve the system damping performance immediately following a large disturbance. The non-smooth nonlinear parameters such as the saturation limits of the PSS cannot be tuned by the conventional methods based on linear approaches. To implement the systematic optimal tuning for the output limits of the PSS, a feedforward neural network (FFNN) is applied to the hybrid system model based on the differential-algebraic-impulsive-switched (DAIS) structure. The FFNN is firstly designed to identify the trajectory sensitivities obtained from the DAIS structure. Thereafter, it estimates …

Hand-Assembled Cable Bundle Modeling For Crosstalk And Common-Mode Radiation Prediction, Shishuang Sun, Geping Liu, James L. Drewniak, David Pommerenke

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

A statistical cable bundle model is developed to account for the random disturbance of the wire positions along hand-assembled cable bundles. The nonuniform random bundles are modeled as n-cascaded segments of a uniform multiconductor transmission line. At each section, all wire positions are disturbed with random numbers obeying a Gaussian distribution. In addition, a spline interpolation function is used to improve the continuity of wires winding along the bundle. The wire crosstalk and the common-mode (CM) current distribution along the bundle can be calculated with simulation program with integrated circuit emphasis (SPICE)-like solvers. By injecting the CM current along the …

Optimization Of Coupling From A Sub-Wavelength Metal Nanoaperture To A Gaussian Mode, Muthiah Annamalai

Electrical Engineering Theses - Archive

We model the surface resonance effects in a 1D-array of corrugations on a metal-dielectric film with a sub-wavelength nanoaperture, following the earlier work by Moreno et-al [Moreno:2003]. We are interested in computing the coupling of the highly-directional light field emerging from the metal nanoaperture to the lowest-order Gaussian mode. We follow the approach by Vasilyev [Vasilyev:2005], to compute the coupling to a fundamental Gaussian mode. We have developed an optimization routine to compute the field emission patterns from a metal nanoaperture, resonant wavelength and transmission coupling to fundamental Gaussian mode for various geometrical parameters of the metal nanoastructure. We optimize …

A Decision Support Model For Project Manager Assignments, Peerasit Patanakul, Dragan Milošević, Timothy R. Anderson

Engineering and Technology Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

The question, "How to assign projects to project managers?" is considered to be one of the most important questions in project management. Nevertheless, methods to answer this question have not yet been sufficiently addressed in the literature. In practice, even though the question is rather common, practitioners still seek an effective project assignment methodology - especially, for the assignments of project managers of multiple concurrent projects, such as a project manager of new product development projects in typical high-technology industries. To respond to this question, we performed an inductive study to develop a theoretical framework for project assignments, including some …

A Pre-Crash Simulator To Evaluate Vehicle Collision Prediction Algorithms, Dana Desrosiers, Charles Birdsong, Peter Schuster

Mechanical Engineering

This paper describes a software simulator for pre-crash collision predictions. The simulator is a surrogate test bed for evaluating the performance of proposed pre-crash algorithms. It reads data from a file, transfers distance and angular position of a target to a test algorithm, and then records the algorithm’s predictions. To illustrate the simulator functionality, a simplified test algorithm is also described. This algorithm predicts collision risks based on assumptions about the size and acceleration of a target object, and the turning and braking limits of the host vehicle. The test algorithm is shown to be effective for cases where both …

Streambank Stabilization Using Traditional And Bioengineering Methods:A Literature Review, David M. Admiraal

Nebraska Department of Transportation: Research Reports

No abstract provided.

Applications Of Diffusion Maps In Gene Expression Data-Based Cancer Diagnosis Analysis, Rui Xu, Donald C. Wunsch, Steven Damelin

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Early detection of a tumor's site of origin is particularly important for cancer diagnosis and treatment. The employment of gene expression profiles for different cancer types or subtypes has already shown significant advantages over traditional cancer classification methods. One of the major problems in cancer type recognition-oriented gene expression data analysis is the overwhelming number of measures of gene expression levels versus the small number of samples, which causes the curse of dimension issue. Here, we use diffusion maps, which interpret the eigenfunctions of Markov matrices as a system of coordinates on the original data set in order to obtain …

Localization With Limited Sensing, Jason M. O'Kane, Steven M. Lavalle

Faculty Publications

Localization is a fundamental problem for many kinds of mobile robots. Sensor systems of varying ability have been proposed and successfully used to solve the problem. This paper probes the lower limits of this range by describing three extremely simple robot models and addresses the active localization problem for each. The robot, whose configuration is composed of its position and orientation, moves in a fully-known, simply connected polygonal environment. We pose the localization task as a planning problem in the robot's information space, which encapsulates the uncertainty in the robot's configuration. We consider robots equipped with: 1) angular and linear …

A Robust Cooperative Localization System For A Heterogeneous Team Of Small Unmanned Ground Vehicles, Veera Jawahar Vibeeshanan

Industrial, Manufacturing, and Systems Engineering Dissertations - Archive

This dissertation presents an organic approach to the cooperative localization problem by sequentially solving the problems of sensor calibration, multi-sensor fusion filtering, and cooperative localization. Successful navigation of unmanned ground vehicles requires accurate localization. Localization refers to the determination of the pose (position and orientation) of an unmanned ground vehicle with respect to a local or a global frame of reference. Cooperative localization is suited to multi-vehicle systems where vehicles with better accuracy in localization can assist those with poor accuracy through communication and relative pose sensing. A parametric modeling approach is presented for sensor calibration. Designed experiments are conducted …