Engineering Commons^™

A Novel Long-Period Fiber Grating Optical Sensor For Large Strain Measurement, Genda Chen, Hai Xiao, Ying Huang, Zhi Zhou, Yinan Zhang

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Critical buildings such as hospitals and police stations must remain functional immediately following a major earthquake event. Due to earthquake effects, they often experience large strains, leading to progressive collapses. Therefore, monitoring and assessing the large strain condition of critical buildings is of paramount importance to post-earthquake responses and evacuations in earthquake-prone regions. In this study, a novel large strain sensor based on the long period fiber grating (LPFG) technology is proposed and developed. CO₂ laser induced LPFG sensors are characterized for such mechanical properties as strain sensitivity in extension and flexure, sensor stability, and measurement range. For practical …

Performance-Based Contracting For Roadway Maintenance Operations In Indiana, Bob G. Mccullouch, Kumares C. Sinha, Panagiotis Ch Anastasopoulos

JTRP Technical Reports

INDOT initiated a study to investigate Performance Based Contracting of maintenance operations. One of the main impetus for the study is that INDOT started a ten year road building program called Major Moves that will add over a 1900 lane miles to the current network. With this addition and coupled with a trend of reduction in maintenance personnel, INDOT is planning how maintenance will be performed. One viable option is the use of performance based contracting (PBC). This study has evaluated many aspects of PBC and the current INDOT maintenance program. Study specifics included:

* Investigated foreign agencies PBC programs. …

Miniaturization Techniques To Realize Very Small Satellites, Robert J. Twiggs

Robert "Bob" Twiggs STEM Education Collection

A PowerPoint presentation created by Professor Bob Twiggs titled "Miniaturization techniques to realize very small satellites" from April 1, 2009.

Opinion Mining With The Sentwordnet Lexical Resource, Bruno Ohana

Dissertations

Sentiment classification concerns the application of automatic methods for predicting the orientation of sentiment present on text documents. It is an important subject in opinion mining research, with applications on a number of areas including recommender and advertising systems, customer intelligence and information retrieval. SentiWordNet is a lexical resource of sentiment information for terms in the English language designed to assist in opinion mining tasks, where each term is associated with numerical scores for positive and negative sentiment information. A resource that makes term level sentiment information readily available could be of use in building more effective sentiment classification methods. …

Assessing The Prediction Potential Of An In Silico Computer Model Of Intracranial Pressure Dynamics, Wayne Wakeland, Rachel Agbeko, Kevin Vinecore, Mark Peters, Brahm Goldstein

Complex Systems Faculty Publications and Presentations

Objective: Traumatic brain injury (TBI) frequently results in poor outcome, suggesting that new approaches are needed. We hypothesized that a patient-specific in silico computer model of intracranial pressure (ICP) dynamics may predict the ICP response to therapy.

Design: In silico model analysis of prospectively collected data.

Setting: Twenty-three and 16-bed pediatric intensive care units in two tertiary care academic hospitals.

Patients: Nine subjects with severe TBI undergoing ICP monitoring (7 M/2 F, age range 3-17 years).

Interventions: Random changes in head-of-bed (HOB) (0[degrees], 10[degrees], 20[degrees], 30[degrees], 40[degrees]) elevation and respiratory rate (to achieve a [DELTA]ETco2 = +/-3-4 mm Hg) were …

Effectiveness Of Temporary Traffic Control Measures In Highway Work Zones, Yingfeng Li, Yong Bai

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

In the United States, hundreds of people lose their lives each year and many more are injured due to vehicle crashes in the work zones. Over the years, temporary traffic control (TCC) measures have been developed and deployed in work zones. To continuously improve the safety, there is a need to identify the traffic control deficiencies in work zones by evaluating the effectiveness of existing TTC measures based on the real crash cases. In this study, researchers evaluated the effectiveness of several commonly used TTC methods using logistic regression techniques and various significance test methods including likelihood ratio test, score …

Bs News

Building Services Engineering

No abstract provided.

Materials And Coatings Derived From The Polymerizable Ionic Liquid Surfactants 1-(2-Acryloyloxyundecyl)-3-Methylimidazolium Tetrafluoroborate And 1-(2-Acryloyloxyundecyl)-3-Methylimidazolium 2-Acrylamido-2-Methyl-Propylsulfonate, Hong Gu

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

Polymerizable ionic liquid surfactants were synthesized and polymerized, yielding engineered advanced polymers that can be tailored for diverse applications. First, 1-(2-acryloyloxyundecyl)-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate (IL-BF₄) was synthesized and was copolymerized with methyl methacrylate (MMA) via microemulsion polymerization. The resulting polymer gels can be transformed into porous materials by anion exchange, and the porosity of the material can be tuned through the solvent shifting. Second, an ionic liquid composed of a 1-(2-acryloyloxyundecyl)-3- methylimidazolium (IL) cation and 2-acryloamido-2-methyl-propylsulfonate (AMPS) anion was synthesized and polymerized by UV irradiation, and introductory data are illustrated for humidity sensitive preparations suitable for chemFETs, for proton conducting …

Generalized Neuron Based Secure Media Access Control Protocol For Wireless Sensor Networks, Raghavendra V. Kulkarni, Ganesh K. Venayagamoorthy, Abhishek V. Thakur, Sanjay Kumar Madria

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Security plays a pivotal role in most applications of wireless sensor networks. It is common to find inadequately secure networks confined only to controlled environments. The issue of security in wireless sensor networks is a hot research topic for over a decade. This paper presents a compact generalized neuron (GN) based medium access protocol that renders a CSMA/CD network secure against denial-of-service attacks launched by adversaries. The GN enhances the security by constantly monitoring multiple parameters that reflect the possibility that an attack is launched by an adversary. Particle swarm optimization, a popular bio-inspired evolutionary-like optimization algorithm is used for …

Online Synchronous Machine Parameter Extraction From Small-Signal Injection Techniques, Jing Huang, Keith Corzine, M. Belkhayat

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This paper proposes using a novel line-to-line voltage perturbation as a technique for online measurement of synchronous machine parameters. The perturbation is created by a chopper circuit connected between two phases of the machine. Using this method, it is possible to obtain the full set of four complex small-signal impedances of the synchronous machine d-q model over a wide frequency range. Typically, two chopper switching frequencies are needed to obtain one data point. However, it is shown herein that, due to the symmetry of the machine equations, only one chopper switching frequency is needed to obtain the information. A 3.7-kW …

Development Of Microbial And Enzymatic Fuel Cells For Bio-Inspired Power Sources, Fatih Dogan, Shelley Minteer

Materials Science and Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This report is based on some of the revolutionary concepts described in the Road Map on Bioinspired Power Systems within the AFRLRW Campus Challenge II. Development of biofuel cell concepts integrated with fuel regeneration and energy storage capabilities are proposed to create a compact and self-sustaining power system. The first part of this work identified a sediment based microbial fuel cell that could power small electronics and maintain electrical activity over long periods of time. AFRLRW does not feel that this work adequately addresses the original scope nor does it provide a basis on which to continue work. The second …

A Study Of The Discrete-Time Switched Lqr Problem, Wei Zhang, Jianghai Hu, Alessandro Abate

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Technical Reports

This paper studies the discrete-time switched LQR (DSLQR) problem based on a dynamic programming approach. One contribution of this paper is the analytical characterization of both the value function and the optimal hybridcontrol strategy of the DSLQR problem. Their connections to the Riccati equation and the Kalman gain of the classical LQR problem are also discussed. Several interesting properties of the value functions are derived. In particular, we show that under some mild conditions, the family of finite-horizon value functions of the DSLQR problem is homogeneous (of degree 2), uniformly bounded over the unit ball, and converges exponentially fast to …

Deep Levels In Gate And Gate:In Crystals Investigated By Deep-Level Transient Spectroscopy And Photoluminescence, Y. Cui, D. D. Caudel, P. Bhattacharya, A. Burger, K. C. Mandal, D. Johnstone, S. A. Payne

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Marketing For Summer Session: What Do The Students Want?, Paul Savory

Department of Industrial and Management Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Dr. Savory will share four campaign ideas his office developed to better target Summer Sessions marketing to the new generation of students. Each is unique and generates different reactions. He will talk about which was chosen and the campus reaction of choosing an “edgy” theme. He will also highlight the challenges and impact of offering a “Bucks for Summer Books” sweepstakes targeting freshman and sophomore students to take summer courses.

Synthesis And Characterization Of Hazelnut Oil-Based Biodiesel, Yixiang Xu, Milford Hanna

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

The demand for diesel fuel far exceeds the current and future biodiesel production capabilities of the vegetable oil and animal fat industries. New oilseed crops that do not compete with traditional food crop are needed to meet existing energy demands. Hybrid hazelnut oil is just such an attractive raw material for production of biodiesel. Hazelnut oil was extracted from hybrid hazelnuts and the crude oil was refined. Hazelnut oil-based biodiesel was prepared via the transesterification of the refined hazelnut oil with excess methanol using an alkaline catalyst. The effects of reaction temperature, time and catalyst concentration on the yield of …

Adsorption And Desorption Of Phosphorus And Nitrogen By Immersed Stalks, John E. Gilley, Bahman Eghball, David B. Marx

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Adsorption and desorption of phosphorus (P) and nitrogen (N) by stalk residues may influence the concentrations of P and N in runoff. A laboratory study was conducted to measure the effects of P and N constituents in solution on adsorption and desorption of P and N by corn, soybean, and wheat stalk residues. Experimental variables included type of stalk material (corn, soybean, and wheat), inorganic nutrients in solution (PO₄-P and NO₃-N; PO₄-P and NH₄-N; NO₃-N and NH₄-N; and PO₄-P, NO₃-N, and NH₄-N), …

Thermodynamically Coupled Heat And Mass Flows In A Reaction-Transport System With External Resistances, Yaşar Demirel

Yaşar Demirel Publications

Considerable work has been published on mathematically coupled nonlinear differential equations by neglecting thermodynamic coupling between heat and mass flows in reaction-transport systems. The thermodynamic coupling refers that a flow occurs without or against its primary thermodynamic driving force, which may be a gradient of temperature, or chemical potential, or reaction affinity. This study presents the modeling of thermodynamically coupled heat and mass flows of two components in a reaction-transport system with external heat and mass transfer resistances. The modeling equations are based on the linear nonequilibrium thermodynamics approach by assuming that the system is in the vicinity of global …

Molecular Dynamics Study Of Crystal Plasticity During Nanoindentation In Ni Nanowires, V. Dupont, F. Sansoz

Aerospace Engineering - Daytona Beach

Molecular dynamics simulations were performed to gain fundamental insight into crystal plasticity, and its size effects in nanowires deformed by spherical indentation. This work focused on-oriented single-crystal, defect-free Ni nanowires of cylindrical shape with diameters of 12 and 30 nm. The indentation of thin films was also comparatively studied to characterize the influence of free surfaces in the emission and absorption of lattice dislocations in single-crystal Ni. All of the simulations were conducted at 300 K by using a virtual spherical indenter of 18 nm in diameter with a displacement rate of1 ms1. No significant effect of sample size was …

The Effect Of Silicon Content On Impact Toughness Of T91 Grade Steels, Ajit K. Roy, Pankaj Kumar, Debajyoti Maitra

Mechanical Engineering Faculty Research

The impact resistance of silicon (Si)-containing modified 9Cr-1Mo steels has been investigated within a temperature regime of -40 to 440°C using the Charpy method. The results indicate that the energies absorbed in fracturing the tested specimens were substantially lower at temperatures of -40, 25, and 75°C compared to those at elevated temperatures. Lower impact energies and higher ductile-to-brittle-transition-temperatures (DBTTs) were observed with the steels containing 1.5 and 1.9 wt.% Si. The steels containing higher Si levels exhibited both ductile and brittle failures at elevated temperatures. However, at lower temperatures, brittle failures characterized by cleavage and intergranular cracking were observed for …

Role Of Forward Model In Surface-Wave Studies To Delineate A Buried High-Velocity Layer, Xiaohui Jin, Barbara Luke, Carlos Calderon-Macias

Civil and Environmental Engineering and Construction Faculty Research

Procedures are tested and compared for processing Rayleigh surface wave data to obtain one-dimensional shear wave velocity profiles for a hypothetical site that contains a buried high-velocity layer (HVL). The main purpose of such an investigation would be to discriminate and characterize the HVL. When target dispersion curves are derived from synthetic time histories, for the most part, the HVL is better identified when profiles are inverted using only the fundamental mode of Rayleigh wave propagation, rather than a more compatible but more complex forward model. The outcomes imply that in practice, a simple forward model might be more successful …

Examination Of The Regional Supply And Demand Balance For Renewable Electricity In The United States Through 2015, Lori Bird, David Hurlbut, Pearl Donohoo, Karlynn Cory, Claire Kreycik

Publications (E)

This report examines the balance between the demand and supply of new renewable electricity in the United States on a regional basis through 2015. It expands on a 2007 NREL study (Swezey et al. 2007) that assessed the supplynational basis. As with the earlier study, this analysis relies on estimates of renewable energy supplies compared to demand for renewable energy generation needed to meet existing state renewable portfolio standard (RPS) policies in 28 states, as well as demand by consumers who voluntarily purchase renewable energy. However, it does not address demand by utilities that may procure cost-effective renewables through an …

Effect Of Transport Vibration On Quality Of Minimally Processed And Packaged Fresh-Cut Cantaloupe, Koushik Saha, S. Paul Singh, Bruce Harte

Industrial Technology and Packaging

This study was undertaken to determine the quality of packaged fresh cut cantaloupe subjected to transport vibration after treating with various anti-browning agents. Cantaloupe (Cucumis melo) pieces were dipped in two anti-browning solutions: Treatment- A (2% ascorbic acid + 1% calcium chloride + 0.5% citric acid) and Treatment-B (3% NatureSeal™) for 2 minutes and packaged in bio-based clamshell containers and vibrated for 60 minutes (ASTM 4169, Truck assurance level II). Vibration of cut-cantaloupe packaged in sample containers had a positive effect on the flavor and overall liking. The overall liking scores were higher than 6(slightly like) on a hedonic scale …

Enhancing The Ns-2 Network Simulator For Near Real-Time Control Feedback And Distributed Simulation Breaks, John S. Weir

Theses and Dissertations

A network simulator coupled with a visualization package enables the human visual system to analyze the results of network modeling as a supplement to analytical data analysis. This research takes the next step in network simulator and visualization suite interaction. A mediator (or run-time infrastructure (RTI) in the literature) provides researchers the potential to interact with a simulation as it executes. Utilizing TCP/IP sockets, the mediator has the capability to connect multiple visualization packages to a single simulation. This new tool allows researchers to change simulation parameters on the y without restarting the network simulation.

Utilizing Microelectromechanical Systems (Mems) Micro-Shutter Designs For Adaptive Coded Aperture Imaging (Acai) Technologies, Mary M. Ledet

Theses and Dissertations

The Air Force has long relied on surveillance for intelligence and strategic purposes. Most surveillance systems rely on a lensing system to acquire their images, most of which are in either the visible or infrared wavelengths. Because lensing systems can be expensive, obtrusive, or hard to maintain, researchers have designed adaptive coded aperture imaging (ACAI) as a replacement system. Coded aperture imaging (CAI) has been used in both the astronomical and medical communities for years due to its ability to image light at short wavelengths and thus replacing conventional lenses. Where CAI is limited, researchers have discovered that adaptive coded …

An Analysis Of Construction Contractor Performance Evaluation System, Rebecca S. Brown

Theses and Dissertations

A rigorous system for rating construction contractor performance does not exist for the USAF as identified by the Air Force Civil Engineer (USAF CE), Major General Del Eulberg (Eulberg, 2007). The United States Army Corp of Engineers (USACE) uses DD Form 2626 for contractor performance evaluation and contractor selection. The objective of this research is to strengthen the USAF contractor rating system by exploring USACE‘s use of DD Form 2626. Using data from DD Form 2626, statistical analysis was conducted to determine if the measured performance sub-items reflect their respective performance elements, whether the resulting performance elements relate to the …

Evaluation Of Performance Of A Maximum Likelihood Estimator For Tracking Purposes In The Presence Of Speckle Noise, Adrian Brett Monz

Theses and Dissertations

In many cases, optical tracking systems do not have cooperative beacons avail- able. This is particularly true for the case involving tracking a laser illuminated target such as a missile seeker head, where the object of interest is an extended source. Furthermore the extended source is often observed in the presence of noise such as shot and speckle noise as well as atmospheric turbulence which further degrades the signal. This research effort presents the evaluation of an existing algorithm based on the maximum-likelihood technique for tilt estimation in the presence of extended sources and speckle noise, with particular application to …

Modernizing A Preventive Maintenance Strategy For Facility And Infrastructure Maintenance, Ross E. Dotzlaf

Theses and Dissertations

Preventive maintenance (PM) is defined as regularly scheduled maintenance actions based on average failure rates. A properly implemented PM strategy can provide many benefits to an organization in terms of extending equipment life, optimizing resource expenditures, and balancing work schedules. Periodic evaluation of a PM strategy can help identify ways to improve efficiencies and maximize effectiveness. This research effort was accomplished by performing a case study of the United States Air Force’s infrastructure and facility PM program known as the Recurring Work Program (RWP). The methodology consisted of two phases. The first phase, intended to develop an understanding of the …

Ohio River Denial As A Transportation Corridor And Its Economic Impacts On The Energy Industry, Caglar Utku Guler

Theses and Dissertations

What if the Ohio River is disrupted or denied partially or completely as a transportation corridor? A disruption may be either a natural or man-made disaster or a planned outage on the river’s lock and dam structures. Recent history is full of water transport disruption events having significant economic effects on the waterside industries. To assess coal-based economic impacts, we developed a network flow model to represent waterside coal-fired power plants situated along the Ohio River, their respective coal supplying mines, and the various transportation modes that connect them. We show that significant transportation-centric insights can be derived by using …

A Novel Discrete Dimming Ballast For Linear Fluorescent Lamps, Haiyan Wang, Ana Vladan Stankovic, Louis Nerone, David Kachmarik

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

A novel discrete dimming ballast for linear fluorescent lamps is proposed in this paper. A proposed dimming control circuit is combined with a ballast module for multiple lamps to realize control of three discrete lighting levels. Compared with conventional step dimming or ON-OFF control methods, the proposed discrete dimming method has the following advantages: 1) digital signal is generated by the dimming control circuit to control the lamps' turn- ON and -OFF, which makes the system more reliable and integrated; 2) the proposed discrete dimming system replaces relays, which are necessary in conventional lamp ON-OFF control, and therefore decreases the …

Visual Word Proximity And Linguistics For Semantic Video Indexing And Near-Duplicate Retrieval, Yu-Gang Jiang, Chong-Wah Ngo

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Bag-of-visual-words (BoW) has recently become a popular representation to describe video and image content. Most existing approaches, nevertheless, neglect inter-word relatedness and measure similarity by bin-to-bin comparison of visual words in histograms. In this paper, we explore the linguistic and ontological aspects of visual words for video analysis. Two approaches, soft-weighting and constraint-based earth mover’s distance (CEMD), are proposed to model different aspects of visual word linguistics and proximity. In soft-weighting, visual words are cleverly weighted such that the linguistic meaning of words is taken into account for bin-to-bin histogram comparison. In CEMD, a cross-bin matching algorithm is formulated such …