Engineering Commons^™

Predicting The Longevity Of Dvdr Media By Periodic Analysis Of Parity, Jitter, And Ecc Performance Parameters, Daniel Patrick Wells

Theses and Dissertations

For the last ten years, DVD-R media have played an important role in the storage of large amounts of digital data throughout the world. During this time it was assumed that the DVD-R was as long-lasting and stable as its predecessor, the CD-R. Several reports have surfaced over the last few years questioning the DVD-R's ability to maintain many of its claims regarding archival quality life spans. These reports have shown a wide range of longevity between the different brands. While some DVD-Rs may last a while, others may result in an early and unexpected failure. Compounding this problem is …

A Finite Queue Model Analysis Of Pmrc-Based Wireless Sensor Networks, Qiaoqin Li, Mei Yang, Hongyan Wang, Yingtao Jiang, Jiazhi Zeng

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Research

In our previous work, a highly scalable and fault- tolerant network architecture, the Progressive Multi-hop Rotational Clustered (PMRC) structure, is proposed for constructing large-scale wireless sensor networks. Further, the overlapped scheme is proposed to solve the bottleneck problem in PMRC-based sensor networks. As buffer space is often scarce in sensor nodes, in this paper, we focus on studying the queuing performance of cluster heads in PMRC-based sensor networks. We develop a finite queuing model to analyze the queuing performance of cluster heads for both non-overlapped and overlapped PMRC-based sensor network. The average queue length and average queue delay of cluster …

Modeling Phase Transitions Of Nanoemulsion For Ultrasonic Gene Delivery, Ghaleb A. Husseini, William G. Pitt, Ram Singh

Faculty Publications

A computer model was written that simulates the transformation of a nanoemulsion droplet to a gas bubble by the application of ultrasound. Experimentally such a technique could be used to enhance non-viral gene transfection beyond the boundary of the endothelial lining of the circulatory system, particularly in tumors exhibiting enhanced permeation and retention of nanoparticles.

Randomly Generating Manufacturing Flow Line Models Using Mathematica, Paul Savory

Department of Industrial and Management Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

To test heuristic algorithms and techniques, researchers need numerous datasets so as to measure effectiveness and improve approaches. This paper discusses using Mathematica, a mathematical programming language, for randomly generating the specifications for manufacturing flow line models. Important issues include determining an arrival rate to a flow line, the number of flow line stations, the number of parallel servers for each production station, and specifying the service time distributions and their associated parameters. The paper concludes with a discussion on generating more general types of simulation models.

Semiconductor Yield Analysis And Prediction Using A Stochastic Layout Sensitivity Model, Rani S. Ghaida

Electrical and Computer Engineering ETDs

Spot defects represent the main challenge for enhancement of semiconductor manufacturing yield. As a result, the yield of modern integrated circuits is associated with the layout sensitivity to defects. The term layout sensitivity' is defined as the ratio of 'critical area', i.e. part of the layout in which a defect must be placed to cause a functional failure of the device, to the overall layout area. Semiconductor yield models are traditionally based on the analysis of the 'critical area'. Such models give accurate results; however, critical area analysis requires massive computations that render these models effort and time consuming. The …

Analog Feedback Control Of An Active Sound Transmission Control Module, Jason Derek Sagers

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis provides analytical and experimental proof-of-concept for a new feedback-controlled sound transmission control module for use in an active segmented partition (ASP) array. The objective of such a module is to provide high transmission loss down to low audible frequencies while minimizing the overall mass of the module. This objective is accomplished in the new module by using actively controlled panels in conjunction with analog feedback controllers. The new module also overcomes two limitations that exist in current ASP modules: the inability to control broadband random-noise and the lack of bidirectional control through the module. Overcoming these limitations represents …

Multi-Physics Modeling And Calibration For Self-Sensing Of Thermomechanical In-Plane Microactuators, Kendall B. Teichert

Theses and Dissertations

As technology advances and engineering capabilities improve, more research has focused on microscopic possibilities. Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) is one area that has received much attention recently. Within MEMS much research has focused on sensing and actuation. This thesis presents work on a particular actuator of interest, the thermomechanical in-plane microactuator (TIM). Recent work has shown the possibility of a novel approach of sensing mechanical outputs of the TIM without ancillary sensors. This sensing approach exploits the piezoresistive property of silicon. However, to implement this approach a full model of the TIM would need to be obtained to describe the physics …

Developing A Sense Of Academic Ownership : A Longitudinal Analysis, Gwen Catherine Marchand

Dissertations and Theses

Student responsibility has emerged as a key developmental task, particularly during the transition to middle school. A developmental and motivational perspective was taken for the present study that emphasized agency, ownership, and engagement as key parts of the development of student responsibility. Self-determination Theory (SDT) was selected as the overarching framework for the present investigation due to the theory's emphasis on autonomy, which refers to the experience of oneself as the authentic origin of one's own actions (Deci & Ryan, 1985). In SDT, the construct of autonomy is used to integrate views of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation and to differentiate …

Mode I Fracture Toughness Testing Of Friction Stir Processed Hsla-65, Jeffery D. Horschel

Theses and Dissertations

In order to investigate the viability of friction stir welding for use in Naval construction, mode one elastic-plastic fracture toughness of friction stir processed HSLA-65 was determined using current ASTM 1820 and BS 7448 standards. Double-sided welds were used to achieve 12.7 mm thick samples. A constant feed rate of 100 mm/min was used for all welds. To explore the effect of weld parameters on toughness, welds were produced using two rotational speeds: 340 RPM and 490 RPM. The weld centerline, advancing side hardened region (ASHR), and TMAZ/HAZ regions were sampled, in addition to un-welded parent material. All elastic-plastic fracture …

Ceas E-News 07.08.2008, College Of Engineering And Applied Sciences

College of Engineering and Applied Sciences News

WMU's Sunseeker races for a place in the sun in 2008 NASC

A Compliant Threshold Acceleration Sensor Integrated With Radio Frequency Identifiable Tags, Benjamin L. Todd

Theses and Dissertations

Fully compliant bistable mechanisms have been proposed to be used as threshold accelerometers. The advantages to using these devices are that they require no external power to operate and maintain their sensing state. Using this characteristic the devices can be integrated with passive radio frequency identification tags (RFID). This allows for the sensing package to lay dormant with no maintenance needed until the sensor is read by the RFID reader. This thesis presents a successfully fabricated and integrated threshold accelerometer with a passive RFID tag. This in turn has been successfully read with an RFID reader and shown to act …

Facilitating Use Of The Odor Footprint Tool By Nebraska Pork Producers, Rick R. Stowell

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

The goal of this project was to make Odor Footprint Tool (OFT) resources readily usable by pork producers and their technical advisors as a planning and screening tool when siting swine facilities. Detailed odor footprints for five specified sizes of swine facilities were developed for twenty-four locations throughout Nebraska: six regional sites and three “localized” sites within each region. Each odor footprint shows the predicted odor annoyance-free frequency as a function of the distance from the facility. Footprints developed using localized weather data differed only slightly from footprints produced using weather data from a regional site when the general topography …

Characterization And Compression Properties Of Injection Molded Carbon Nanotube Composites, Grey Curtzwiler, Jay Singh, J. Miltz, Jimmy Doi, Keith Vorst

Industrial Technology and Packaging

Since the development of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) in 1991, they have received much attention with improved mechanical, thermal, and electrical properties of their composites compared to common polymer composites. The CNTs are currently used to increase the modulus of common thermoplastics and thermosets, including urethanes and epoxies. The CNTs are difficult to disperse within any media because of limited chemical reactivity and potential agglomeration in their ‘‘as grown’’ state. This study evaluated the effect of incorporating bundled and unbundled CNTs at different concentrations into Polyurethane/CNT/woven fiber reinforced composites. Optical microscopy and atomic force microscopy (AFM) characterized the dispersion of CNTs …

The Application Of Web 2.0 Technologies As An Experimental Method Of Teaching Remote Sensing At Dit, Ireland, Avril Behan

Conference Papers

This paper describes the implementation of an experimental method of delivery for a module of remote sensing material to second year students on the BSc (Hons) in Geomatics at the Dublin Institute of Technology. The project began as a reaction to poor levels of student engagement and unsatisfactory grades, as well as the requirement to focus more on real-world type problems due to the implementation of a work-placement semester for third year students. Both pedagogical considerations (movement towards formative feedback, interactivity and group-based work) and the effect of technological drivers, such as the popularity of the internet in general and …

Characterization Of A Phased Array Feed Model, David A. Jones

Theses and Dissertations

Creating accurate software based models of phased array feeds (PAFs) is one of many steps to successfully integrating PAFs with current and future radio telescopes, which is a goal of many groups around the globe. This thesis characterizes the latest models of a 19 element hexagonal PAF of dipoles used by the BYU radio astronomy research group and presents comparisons of these models with experimental data obtained using a prototype array. Experiments were performed at the NRAO site in Green Bank, West Virginia, and utilized the outdoor antenna test range and 20 meter radio telescope. Accurate modeling of the PAF …

Effects Of Narrow Grass Hedges On Nutrient Transport From Land Application Areas, John E. Gilley, Bahman Eghball, David B. Marx

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Presentations and White Papers

The placement of stiff-stemmed grass hedges on the contour along a hill slope has been shown to decrease runoff nutrient transport. This study was conducted to measure the effectiveness of a narrow grass hedge in reducing runoff nutrient transport from plots with a range of soil nutrient values. Composted beef cattle manure was applied at dry weights of 0, 68, 105, 142, and 178 Mg ha^-1 to a silty clay loam soil and then incorporated by disking. Soil samples were collected 243 days later for analysis of water-soluble phosphorus (WSP), Bray and Kurtz No.1 phosphorus (Bray-1 P), NO_{3 …}

Person Detection And Tracking Using Binocular Lucas-Kanade Feature Tracking And K-Means Clustering, Christopher Dunkel

All Theses

In this thesis, we present the design and implementation of a method for real-time person detection and tracking. Many current methods for detecting and tracking people rely on color contrast or movement to segment the image. Using color, however, requires the target and the background to be significantly different, and motion segmentation requires the target to be in constant motion relative to the background, often requiring stationary cameras. Pattern detection methods have also been applied to the problem of detecting pedestrians, but these approaches are slower and require stationary cameras to function. The method we present in this work does …

Deep Deck And Cellular Deck Diaphragm Strength And Stiffness Evaluation, American Iron And Steel Institute

American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) Specifications, Standards, Manuals and Research Reports (1946 - present)

No abstract provided.

Evaluation Of The Performance Efficiency Of The New York Avenue Exfiltration Facility, Stormwater Academy

BMP Trains Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Independent Study On Infinite Graph Theory, Martin Zimmermann

Technical Reports

In this paper we will prove some results about infinite graphs. We show that for every linear order there is a graph with a distinguished vertex such that the edges adjacent to that vertex have the given order in any plane drawing. The other results are concerned with connectivity. We prove a generalization of a characterization of 2-­connected graphs and prove that k-­connectedness does not imply the existence of finite k­connected subgraphs for k > 2.

Engineering At San Jose State University, Summer 2008, San Jose State University, Charles W. Davidson College Of Engineering

Engineering at San Jose State University

No abstract provided.

Diffusion Bonding Of Stainless Astm A240 Grade 304 In Double Side Flux Cored Arc Welding, S Pitaknorachon, B Poopat

Journal of Metals, Materials and Minerals

Double side flux cored arc welding (DS-FCAW) has been developed from conventional flux cored arc welding (FCAW). DS-FCAW, dual torches are used by placing an opposite to each other and welding on both sides simultaneously. The objective of this research paper is to investigate diffusion bonding effect due to DS-FCAW. Stainless steel ASTM A240 Grade 304 was studied. Other welding parameters were set constant except welding current and voltage. Diffusion bonding was observed even though weld profiles from macro inspection showed lack of penetration by weld metal in all experiments. It can be concluded that, at certain conditions, the welds …

Improvement Of Mechanical Properties For En Aw 6082 Aluminium Alloy Using Equal-Channel Angular Pressing (Ecap) And Post-Ecap Aging, M Fujda, T Kvačkaj, K Nagyová

Journal of Metals, Materials and Minerals

The mechanical properties and microstructure of EN AW 6082 aluminium alloy subjected to severe plastic deformation and aging treatment were compared with those of the extruded and artificially aged state (initial state). The initial state of alloy subjected to solution annealing and quenching was severely deformed at ambient temperature by equal channel angular pressing (ECAP) following route C up to three passes. Polyedric microstructure of initial state was considerably changed by the repetitive ECA-pressing. Deformation bands with different density of slip lines were observed in microstructure of ECAPed and aged states, which indicated non-uniform deformation across the cross-section of ECAPed …

Repair Of Full-Scale Timber Bridge Chord Members By Shear Spiking, Travis A. Burgers, Richard M. Gutkowski, Jeno Balogh, Donald W. Radford

Mechanical Engineering Faculty Publications

The addition of vertically-oriented shear spikes (fiberglass reinforced polymer rods) was shown to increase the effective stiffness of the stringers of a full-scale timber bridge chord specimen. Results found from the flexural load testing of a full-scale timber bridge chord laboratory specimen are presented. Reinforcement was provided with 19 mm diameter shear spikes bonded to the wood by an epoxy resin. The bridge chord specimen was intentionally damaged to simulate degradation. Shear spikes were then installed from the top of the member into pre‑drilled holes to provide horizontal shear resistance and to improve the flexural effective stiffness. Results from the …

Toward Formalizing Non-Monotonic Reasoning In Physics: The Use Of Kolmogorov Complexity, Vladik Kreinovich

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

When a physicist writes down equations, or formulates a theory in any other terms, he usually means not only that these equations are true for the real world, but also that the model corresponding to the real world is "typical" among all the solutions of these equations. This type of argument is used when physicists conclude that some property is true by showing that it is true for "almost all" cases. There are formalisms that partially capture this type of reasoning, e.g., techniques based on the Kolmogorov-Martin-Lof definition of a random sequence. The existing formalisms, however, have difficulty formalizing, e.g., …

A Finite Difference Method For Studying Thermal Deformation In Three-Dimensional Thin Films Exposed To Ultrashort Pulsed Lasers, Suyang Zhang

Doctoral Dissertations

Thermal analysis related to ultrashort-pulsed lasers has been intensely studied in science and engineering communities in recent years, because the pulse duration of ultrashort-pulsed lasers is only the order of sub-picoseconds to femtoseconds, and the lasers have exclusive capabilities in limiting the undesirable spread of the thermal process zone in the heated sample. Studying the thermal deformation induced by ultrashort-pulsed lasers is essential for preventing thermal damage. For the ultrashort-pulsed laser, the thermal damage is different from that caused by the long pulsed lasers and cracks occur after heating.

This dissertation presents a new finite difference method for studying thermal …

Role Of Shear Keys In Seismic Behavior Of Bridges Crossing Fault-Rupture Zones, Rakesh K. Goel, Anil K. Chopra

Civil and Environmental Engineering

This paper examines the role of shear keys at bridge abutments in the seismic behavior of “ordinary” bridges. The seismic responses of bridges subjected to spatially uniform and spatially varying ground motions for three shear-key conditions—nonlinear shear keys that break off and cease to provide transverse restraint if deformed beyond a certain limit; elastic shear keys that do not break off and continue to provide transverse restraint throughout the ground shaking; and no shear keys—are examined. Results show that seismic demands for a bridge with nonlinear shear keys can generally be bounded by the demands of a bridge with elastic …

A Longitudinal Study Of The Ethical Development Of Engineering And Non-Engineering Students At A National Research University, Cynthia J. Finelli, Janel A. Sutkus, Donald D. Carpenter, Trevor S. Harding

Materials Engineering

No abstract provided.

Numerical Prediction And Wind Tunnel Experiment For A Pitching Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle, Russell M. Cummings, Scott A. Morton, Stefan G. Siegel

Aerospace Engineering

The low-speed flowfield for a generic unmanned combat air vehicle (UCAV) is investigated both experimentally and numerically. A wind tunnel experiment was conducted with the Boeing 1301 UCAV at a variety of angles of attack up to 70 degrees, both statically and with various frequencies of pitch oscillation (0.5, 1.0, and 2.0 Hz). In addition, pitching was performed about three longitudinal locations on the configuration (the nose, 35% MAC, and the tail). Solutions to the unsteady, laminar, compressible Navier–Stokes equations were obtained on an unstructured mesh to match results from the static and dynamic experiments. The computational results are compared …

A Simplex Model For Layered Niche Networks, Philip Fraundorf

Physics Faculty Works

No abstract provided.