Engineering Commons^™

Increasing Off-Chip Bandwidth And Mitigating Dark Silicon Via Switchable Pins, Shaoming Chen

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Off-chip memory bandwidth has been considered as one of the major limiting factors to processor performance, especially for multi-cores and many-cores. Conventional processor design allocates a large portion of off-chip pins to deliver power, leaving a small number of pins for processor signal communication. We observed that the processor requires much less power than that can be supplied during memory intensive stages in some cases. In this work, we propose a dynamic pin switch technique to alleviate the bandwidth limitation issue. The technique is introduced to dynamically exploit the surplus pins for power delivery in the memory intensive phases and …

Panic That Spreads Sociobehavioral Contagion In Pedestrian Evacuations, Terra Elzie, Erika Frydenlund, Andrew J. Collins, R. Michael Robinson

VMASC Publications

Crowds are a part of everyday public life, from stadiums and arenas to school hallways. Occasionally, pushing within the crowd spontaneously escalates to crushing behavior, resulting in injuries and even death. The rarity and unpredictability of these incidents provides few options to collect data for research on the prediction and prevention of hazardous emergent behaviors in crowds. This study takes a close look at the way states of agitation, such as panic, can spread through crowds. Group composition—mainly family groups composed of members with differing mobility levels—plays an important role in the spread of agitation through the crowd, ultimately affecting …

Kentucky Traffic Collision Facts 2015, Kentucky Transportation Center, Kentucky State Police

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

KENTUCKY’S TRAFFIC COLLISION FACTS report for 2015 is based on collision reports submitted to the Kentucky State Police Records Branch. As required by Kentucky Revised Statutes 189.635, “every law enforcement agency whose officers investigate a vehicle accident of which a report must be made...shall file a report of the accident...within ten days after investigation of the accident upon forms supplied by the bureau.” The stated purpose of this requirement is to utilize data on traffic collisions for such purposes as will improve the traffic safety program in the Commonwealth. Data contained in this report are based solely on the observations …

Experimental Rapid Renewal Project (Bridge Construction), Bobby W. Meade, Sudhir Palle, Theodore Hopwood Ii

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

The objectives of this study were to develop specifications and contract language and to monitor the implementation them to effectively use rapid reconstruction and extended service life concepts in new bridge construction. Through the use of A + B bidding, a duplex protective coating system using Hot Dipped Galvanizing (HDG) and paint, and preservation techniques such as concrete sealers and stains the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet attained those goals.

Internet Of Things To Smart Iot Through Semantic, Cognitive, And Perceptual Computing, Amit P. Sheth

Publications

Rapid growth in the Internet of Things (IoT) has resulted in a massive growth of data generated by these devices and sensors put on the Internet. Physical-cyber-social (PCS) big data consist of this IoT data, complemented by relevant Web-based and social data of various modalities. Smart data is about exploiting this PCS big data to get deep insights and make it actionable, and making it possible to facilitate building intelligent systems and applications. This article discusses key AI research in semantic computing, cognitive computing, and perceptual computing. Their synergistic use is expected to power future progress in building intelligent systems …

Nonrecursively Interconnected Fliess Operators Preserve Global Convergence: An Expanded View, Irina M. Winter-Arboleda, Luis A. Duffaut Espinosa, W. Steven Gray

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

A common representation of an input-output system in nonlinear control theory is the Chen-Fliess functional series or Fliess operator. Such a functional series is said to be globally convergent when there is a no a priori upper bound on both the L₁-norm of an admissible input and the length of time over which the corresponding output is well defined. Recent developments have expanded the class of globally convergent Fliess operators. The goal of this paper is to show that the global convergence property is preserved for nonrecursive inter-connections (i.e., the parallel, product and cascade connections) involving this largest known class …

Strain Distribution And Crack Detection In Thin Unbonded Concrete Pavement Overlays With Fully Distributed Fiber Optic Sensors, Yi Bao, Genda Chen

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This study aims at evaluating the feasibility of strain measurement and crack detection in thin unbonded concrete pavement overlays with pulse prepump Brillouin optical time domain analysis. Single-mode optical fibers with two-layer and three-layer coatings, respectively, were applied as fully distributed sensors, their performances were compared with analytical predictions. They were successfully protected from damage during concrete casting of three full-scale concrete panels when 5 to 10-cm-thick protective mortar covers had been set for 2 h. Experimental results from three-point loading tests of the panels indicated that the strain distributions measured from the two types of sensors were in good …

Impact Of Optimally Minimizing Delay Times On Safety At Signalized Intersections In Urban Areas, Case Study: The City Of Virginia Beach, Eugene Vida Maina, Albert Forde, R. Michael Robinson

VMASC Publications

Optimally minimizing delay times at signalized intersections can significantly improve both traffic flow and safety. However, most traffic flow optimizing tools do not measure the effect on safety. This study uses nonlinear programming (NLP) algorithms to optimally minimize delay times and employs both Safety performance functions (SPFs) and empirical Bayes (EB) before-after methodology to measure the impact on safety presented as a Crash Modification Factor (CMF). A crash modification factor (CMF) is a multiplicative factor used by transportation practitioners to compute the expected number of crashes at specific study site(s) after a countermeasure has been proposed or is implemented. Using …

Linear Burn Rates Of Monopropellants For Multi-Mode Micropropulsion, Alex J. Mundahl, Steven P. Berg, Joshua L. Rovey

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Multi-mode micro propulsion is a potential game-changing technology enabling rapidly composable small satellites with unprecedented mission flexibility. Maximum mission flexibility requires propellant that is shared between the chemical and electric propulsion systems. Previous research has identified a promising monopropellant that is both readily catalytically exothermically decomposed (chemical mode) and electro sprayable (electric mode). In this work the linear burn rate of this monopropellant is determined to aid design of the microtube catalytic chemical thruster. A pressurized fixed volume reactor is used to determine the linear burn rate. Benchmark experiments use a 13-molar mixture of hydroxylammonium nitrate and water and show …

Analysis Of The Cost Effectiveness Of Combined Particle And Activated Carbon Filters For Indoor Ozone Removal In Buildings, Josh R. Aldred, Erin Darling, Glenn Morrison, Jeffrey Siegel, Richard L. Corsi

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This study involved the development of a model for evaluating the potential costs and benefits of ozone control with combined particle/activated carbon filtration (referred to here as activated carbon filtration) in buildings. The modeling effort included the prediction of indoor ozone and ozone reaction products with and without activated carbon filtration in the HVAC system. Benefitto- cost ratios were estimated for various types of buildings in 12 American cities in 5 different climate zones. Health benefits were evaluated using disability-adjusted life-years attributed to the difference in indoor ozone concentration with and without activated carbon filtration and included city-specific age demographics …

Pre-College Engineering Activities With Electronic Circuits (Work-In-Progress), Steve Eugene Watkins

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Projects involving engineering experimentation, design, and measurement can be effective content for pre-college STEM outreach. Such applications-oriented activities can promote literacy and interest in technical topics and careers and have the added benefit of showing the relevance of science and mathematics. Exposure to electrical engineering concepts is discussed using the 555 timer integrated circuit. This low-cost device can be used for modular activities involving the production of light, sound, and motion. Specific projects are presented that are appropriate for pre-college students from 9th-grade through 12th-grade.

An Intermodal Network Model Of Coal Distribution In The United States And Its Economic Implications For The Inland Waterway System, Benjamin L. Blandford, Ted H. Grossardt, Michael Shouse, John Ripy

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

This paper describes a GIS-based intermodal network model for the shipment of coal in the United States. The purpose of this research was to investigate the role played by railways, waterways, and highways in the movement of coal from its source area to point of use, and to highlight the implications these movements have for the U.S. economy. The project team modeled coal movements across the U.S. intermodal transportation network using the Energy Information Administration’s 2010 data, which provided detailed origin, destination, primary mode, and volume information for coal shipments. The model identifies the optimum routes for coal shipments based …

Commercial Driver’S License (Cdl) Workflow Study, Steven Andrew Martin, Candice Y. Wallace, Valerie J. Keathley, Jennifer R. Walton

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

Kentucky uses federally funded, time-limited (FFTL) employees to handle some of the administrative work necessary to meet federal compliance standards for commercial driver’s licenses (CDLs). The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) has decided not to continue funding FFTLs for these purposes, meaning that states will have to find other ways to meet CDL program requirements and maintain compliance. Given the potential ramifications of losing federal transportation and enforcement funding due to lack of compliance with federal standards, it is imperative that state lawmakers act to ensure KYTC has the resources to carry out its mandated functions. The study delineates …

The Next Generation Of Wireless Cyber-Physical Simulator, Xinghan Wang, Kevin Xu

Undergraduate Research Symposium Posters

In order to make Wireless Cyber-Physical Simulator(WCPS) more accessible to people in the research community, and also to improve its accuracy of representing real industrial models, we worked on the dockerization of WCPS, and implemented the multi-rate feature for WCPS, enabling the simulator to have different network rate and plant rate when running a simulation. We created a new version of WCPS by dockerizing run-time libraries and the TOSSIM server and also embedding the multi-rate feature in the old version. This report includes the introduction and dockerization of WCPS, and shows the results of using the new generation of WCPS …

Bs News January/February

Building Services Engineering

No abstract provided.

Optimal Configuration And Tuning Of Wave Energy Converter Arrays, Emma Edwards

Link Foundation Ocean Engineering and Instrumentation Fellowship Reports

Power from ocean waves is becoming an increasingly attractive option as a source of renewable energy. Ocean waves are more reliable and predictable than sun and wind, and have a higher energy density [1]. There are locations where solar and wind energy would not be viable, due to the large amount of space they take up, either on land (solar) or above ground (wind). In addition, wave energy devices are less of a visual deterrent than wind turbines, and wave energy is particularly attractive for areas with a lot of coast line. Wave energy is still in its infancy, though, …

Gallium-Containing Mesoporous Bioactive Glass With Potent Hemostatic Activity And Antibacterial Efficacy, Sara Pourshahrestani, Ehsan Zeimaran, Nahrizul Adib Kadri, Nicola Gargiulo, Shani Samuel, Sangeetha Vasudevaraj Naveen, Tunku Kamarul, Mark R. Towler

Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Haemorrhage remains the leading cause of potentially survivable death in both military and civilian populations. Although a large variety of hemostatic agents have been developed, many of them have an inadequate capacity to induce hemostasis and are not effective in killing bacteria. In recent years, mesoporous bioactive glasses (MBGs) were found to be effective in inducing hemostasis. However, the materials may not be considered as ideal hemostats since they do not offer antimicrobial activity. The gallium ion (Ga⁺³) not only exhibits antibacterial properties but also accelerates the blood coagulation cascade. The aim of this study was to develop …

3for2: Realizing Spatial, Material, And Energy Savings Through Integrated Design, Arno Schlueter, Adam Rysanek, Clayton Miller, Jovan Pantelic, Forrest Meggers, Matthias Mast, Marcel Bruelisauer, Chen Kian Wee

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

As the world adapts to dual trends of climate change and urbanization, tall office buildings in hot and humid climate zones near the equator are among the prime candidates for a significant change in design approach. Though many individualized improvements to operating systems, envelopes and material selections have been introduced in recent years, it is generally agreed a holistic approach is needed to truly capitalize on the smaller-scale innovations. With a focus on reducing the necessary size of the services plenum, in this paper, an alternative paradigm for the optimization of space, material, and energy use in buildings is presented: …

Bioactivity/Cytotoxicity Of Micro-/Nano-Materials And Novel Development Of Fiber-Optic Probes For Single Cell Monitoring, Qingbo Yang

Doctoral Dissertations

"Manufactured nano-/micro-materials (MNMs) have been widely used and their interactions with niche biological environment are highly concerned for both of their biohazardous and bioactive effects, whereas no available comprehensive evaluations or regulations have been provided yet. This dissertation thus focuses on three major aspects: 1) fundamental toxicity understandings of a typical MNMs (zinc oxide nanoparticles), 2) bioactivity evaluations of representative bioactive MNMs, and 3) development of novel micro-probes for high spatial resolution monitoring. Firstly, the NP's concentration, irradiation, hydrodynamic size, and the localized pH, ionic strength, NP zeta-potential as well as dissolved oxygen levels were found correlated with the production …

Transient Cfd Simulations Of Pumping And Mixing Using Electromagnetic, Fangping Yuan

Doctoral Dissertations

"In this dissertation, two dimensional and three dimensional, transient CFD simulations are conducted to investigate the active pumping and mixing in microfluidics driven by Electromagnetic/Lorentz force. Shallow disk/ring cylindrical microfluidic cell and shallow cuboid microfluidic cell with electrodes deposited on the bottom surface are modelled for mixing and pumping purposes respectively. By applying voltage across specific pair of electrodes, an ionic current is established in the weak conductive liquid present in the cell. The current interacts with an externally applied magnetic field generating a Lorentz force that causes fluid motion in the cell. Velocity vectors, electric potential distributions and ionic …

Applications Of Simulation And Optimization Techniques In Optimizing Room And Pillar Mining Systems, Angelina Konadu Anani

Doctoral Dissertations

"The goal of this research was to apply simulation and optimization techniques in solving mine design and production sequencing problems in room and pillar mines (R&P). The specific objectives were to: (1) apply Discrete Event Simulation (DES) to determine the optimal width of coal R&P panels under specific mining conditions; (2) investigate if the shuttle car fleet size used to mine a particular panel width is optimal in different segments of the panel; (3) test the hypothesis that binary integer linear programming (BILP) can be used to account for mining risk in R&P long range mine production sequencing; and (4) …

Evaluating Of Scale-Up Methodologies Of Gas-Solid Spouted Beds For Coating Triso Nuclear Fuel Particles Using Advanced Measurement Techniques, Neven Y. Ali

Doctoral Dissertations

"The work focuses on implementing for the first time advanced non-invasive measurement techniques to evaluate the scale-up methodology of gas-solid spouted beds for hydrodynamics similarity that has been reported in the literature based on matching dimensionless groups and the new mechanistic scale up methodology that has been developed in our laboratory based on matching the radial profile of gas holdup since the gas dynamics dictate the hydrodynamics of the gas-solid spouted beds. These techniques are gamma-ray computed tomography (CT) to measure the cross-sectional distribution of the phases' holdups and their radial profiles along the bed height and radioactive particle tracking …

Subterranean Photobioreactors For Commercial-Industrial Scale Algal Culture, Daniel James Vidt

Doctoral Dissertations

"There are many potential benefits to the mining industry accruing from the application of algal biotechnology. The main benefits are in the production of biodiesel and in the remediation of mining brownfields. The research in this study was centered in the original idea that these brownfields represent a tremendous opportunity for use as a hybrid model for redevelopment into sustainable "mines" of biomass. The ability of these underground spaces serving as bioreactors to control all aspects of the growing environment, from lighting, to temperature, to biosecurity, are key advantages that have been identified in the literature. The many benefits inherent …

Study Of Heat Transfer Phenomenon During Natural Convection, Muhammad Yousaf

Doctoral Dissertations

"The purpose of the present study was to numerically investigate the effects of the roughness elements on the heat transfer during natural convection. A computational algorithm was developed based on the Lattice Boltzmann method to conduct numerical study in two-dimensional rectangular cavities and Rayleigh-Bénard cell. A single relaxation time Bhatnagar-Gross-Krook model of Lattice Boltzmann method was used to solve the coupled momentum and energy equations in two-dimensional lattices. Computational model was validated against previous benchmark solutions, and a good agreement was found to exist. A Newtonian fluid of Prandtl (Pr) number 1.0 was considered for this numerical study. The range …

Detecting, Segmenting And Tracking Bio-Medical Objects, Mingzhong Li

Doctoral Dissertations

"Studying the behavior patterns of biomedical objects helps scientists understand the underlying mechanisms. With computer vision techniques, automated monitoring can be implemented for efficient and effective analysis in biomedical studies. Promising applications have been carried out in various research topics, including insect group monitoring, malignant cell detection and segmentation, human organ segmentation and nano-particle tracking.

In general, applications of computer vision techniques in monitoring biomedical objects include the following stages: detection, segmentation and tracking. Challenges in each stage will potentially lead to unsatisfactory results of automated monitoring. These challenges include different foreground-background contrast, fast motion blur, clutter, object overlap and …

A Control Theoretic Approach For Security Of Cyber-Physical Systems, Haifeng Niu

Doctoral Dissertations

"In this dissertation, several novel defense methodologies for cyber-physical systems have been proposed. First, a special type of cyber-physical system, the RFID system, is considered for which a lightweight mutual authentication and ownership management protocol is proposed in order to protect the data confidentiality and integrity. Then considering the fact that the protection of the data confidentiality and integrity is insufficient to guarantee the security in cyber-physical systems, we turn to the development of a general framework for developing security schemes for cyber-physical systems wherein the cyber system states affect the physical system and vice versa. After that, we apply …

Efficient And Quantitative Emc Predictions (Emission And Immunity) For Ecu Modules, Guangyao Shen

Doctoral Dissertations

"This dissertation consists of three papers. In the first paper, a methodology of building an IC model capable of predicting failures for given disturbances at the clock input based on limited or no knowledge about IC internals was developed.

In the second paper, the maximized radiated emissions of the heat-sink/IC structure are predicted up to 40 GHz by creating an equivalent source using the measured electrical field in the gap between the heat-sink and ICs. The electric field is detected by an E-field probe made of an open coaxial cable coated with absorbing material. A numerical model is built in …

Development Of Implants Composed Of Bioactive Materials For Bone Repair, Wei Xiao

Doctoral Dissertations

"The purpose of this Ph.D. research was to address the clinical need for synthetic bioactive materials to heal defects in non-loaded and loaded bone. Hollow hydroxyapatite (HA) microspheres created in a previous study were evaluated as a carrier for controlled release of bone morphogenetic protein-2 (BMP2) in bone regeneration. New bone formation in rat calvarial defects implanted with BMP2-loaded microspheres (43%) was significantly higher than microspheres without BMP2 (17%) at 6 weeks postimplantation. Then hollow HA microspheres with a carbonate-substituted composition were prepared to improve their resorption rate. Hollow HA microspheres with ~12 wt. % of carbonate showed significantly higher …

Post-Disaster Supply Chain Interdependent Critical Infrastructure System Restoration: A Review Of Data Necessary And Available For Modeling, Varun Ramachandran, Suzanna Long, Tom Shoberg, Steven Corns, Hector J. Carlo

Engineering Management and Systems Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The majority of restoration strategies in the wake of large-scale disasters have focused on short-term emergency response solutions. Few consider medium- to long-term restoration strategies to reconnect urban areas to national supply chain interdependent critical infrastructure systems (SCICI). These SCICI promote the effective flow of goods, services, and information vital to the economic vitality of an urban environment. To re-establish the connectivity that has been broken during a disaster between the different SCICI, relationships between these systems must be identified, formulated, and added to a common framework to form a system-level restoration plan. To accomplish this goal, a considerable collection …

Electrostatically-Actuated 4h-Sic In-Plane And Out-Of-Plane High Frequency Mems Resonator, Allen V. Lim, Tutku Karacolak, Jheng Yi Jiang, Chih Fang Huang, Feng Zhao

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

As a wide bandgap and single crystalline semiconductor, 4H-polytype silicon carbide (4H-SiC) is an excellent material choice for devices operating in harsh environments of high temperature, high pressure, radiation, chemical and biomedical, etc. In this letter, an electrostatically actuated 4H-SiC micro resonator was fabricated by dopant-selective photoelectrochemical etching of n-p-n homoepitaxial structure. Resonant frequencies of 3.463 MHz (out-of-plane) and 16.9 MHz (in-plane) were attained, and they are in good agreement with theoretical calculation. To the best of our knowledge, these frequencies are the highest values ever reported from single crystalline 4H-SiC MEMS resonators.