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Articles 87901 - 87930 of 197092

Full-Text Articles in Engineering

Kentucky Vehicle License Plate Study, Valerie J. Keathley, Andrew Martin, Jerry Kissick, Gray Forlines, Jennifer R. Walton Feb 2017

Kentucky Vehicle License Plate Study, Valerie J. Keathley, Andrew Martin, Jerry Kissick, Gray Forlines, Jennifer R. Walton

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

This study assesses Kentucky’s options for potentially re-plating all motor vehicles registered in the Commonwealth. The report begins with a background and discussion of Kentucky’s plate production processes, the difference between flat and embossed plates, and the structure of license plate labor at the Kentucky State Reformatory in La Grange. It details current plate production costs and processes, along with fees and production numbers. It evaluates three scenarios for future plate production: flat plate production, a hybrid system with embossed general issue plates and flat specialty plates, and an embossed plate system with in-house printed sheeting. Also included is an …


Assessing Passenger Car Equivalency Factors For High Truck Percentages, Jianan Zhou, Laurence Rilett, Elizabeth Jones Feb 2017

Assessing Passenger Car Equivalency Factors For High Truck Percentages, Jianan Zhou, Laurence Rilett, Elizabeth Jones

Nebraska Department of Transportation: Research Reports

The Passenger Car Equivalent (PCE) values in the Highway Capacity Manual (HCM) 2010 might not be valid for western Nebraska freeway conditions. This is because: 1) Interstate 80 (I-80) experiences high truck percentages (25% to 60%), while the HCM provides PCE values up to 25% of the truck percentage; 2) the average speed of trucks are observed lower than passenger cars, which is incompatible with the HCM assumption that the free speed of all vehicle types is the same at level terrain; and 3) it is unclear whether the “average” truck used in the simulation study for PCE values in …


Us Residential Building Air Exchange Rates: New Perspectives To Improve Decision Making At Vapor Intrusion Sites, Rivka Reichman, Elham Shirazi, Donald G. Colliver, Kelly G. Pennell Feb 2017

Us Residential Building Air Exchange Rates: New Perspectives To Improve Decision Making At Vapor Intrusion Sites, Rivka Reichman, Elham Shirazi, Donald G. Colliver, Kelly G. Pennell

Civil Engineering Faculty Publications

Vapor intrusion (VI) is well-known to be difficult to characterize because indoor air (IA) concentrations exhibit considerable temporal and spatial variability in homes throughout impacted communities. To overcome this and other limitations, most VI science has focused on subsurface processes; however there is a need to understand the role of aboveground processes, especially building operation, in the context of VI exposure risks. This tutorial review focuses on building air exchange rates (AERs) and provides a review of literature related building AERs to inform decision making at VI sites. Commonly referenced AER values used by VI regulators and practitioners do not …


Factors Associated With Crash Severities In Built-Up Areas Along Rural Highways Of Nevada: A Case Study Of 11 Towns, Pramen P. Shrestha, Joseph Shrestha Feb 2017

Factors Associated With Crash Severities In Built-Up Areas Along Rural Highways Of Nevada: A Case Study Of 11 Towns, Pramen P. Shrestha, Joseph Shrestha

ETSU Faculty Works

In 2014, 32,675 deaths were recorded in vehicle crashes within the United States. Out of these, 51% of the fatalities occurred in rural highways compared to 49% in urban highways. No specific crash data are available for the built-up areas along rural highways. Due to high fatalities in rural highways, it is important to identify the factors that cause the vehicle crashes. The main objective of this study is to determine the factors associated with severities of crashes that occurred in built-up areas along the rural highways of Nevada. Those factors could aid in making informed decisions while setting up …


Comment On "Roles Of Bulk Viscosity On Rayleigh-Taylor Instability: Non-Equilibrium Thermodynamics Due To Spatio-Temporal Pressure Fronts" Phys. Fluids 28, 094102 (2016), Robert L. Ash Feb 2017

Comment On "Roles Of Bulk Viscosity On Rayleigh-Taylor Instability: Non-Equilibrium Thermodynamics Due To Spatio-Temporal Pressure Fronts" Phys. Fluids 28, 094102 (2016), Robert L. Ash

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.


Work Zone Simulator Analysis: Driver Performance And Acceptance Of Missouri Alternate Lane Shift Configurations, Suzanna Long, Ruwen Qin, Dincer Konur, Ming-Chuan Leu, S. Moradpour, S. Thind, H. Nadathur Feb 2017

Work Zone Simulator Analysis: Driver Performance And Acceptance Of Missouri Alternate Lane Shift Configurations, Suzanna Long, Ruwen Qin, Dincer Konur, Ming-Chuan Leu, S. Moradpour, S. Thind, H. Nadathur

Engineering Management and Systems Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The objective of this project is to evaluate MoDOT’s alternate lane shift sign configuration for work zones. The single signproposed by MoDOT provides the traveler with enough information to let them know that all lanes are available to shift around thework zone, whereas the MUTCD signs require drivers to see two signs. This research simulation project evaluates the drivers’ laneshifting performance and acceptance of the alternate lane shift sign proposed by MoDOT to be used on work zones as compared tothe MUTCD lane shift signs. Based on the study results, no difference was observed between MUTCD lane shift sign andMoDOT …


Center Pivot Irrigation Handbook (Ec3017), Derrel Martin, William Kranz, Tyler Smith, Suat Irmak, Charles Burr, Ron Yoder Feb 2017

Center Pivot Irrigation Handbook (Ec3017), Derrel Martin, William Kranz, Tyler Smith, Suat Irmak, Charles Burr, Ron Yoder

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Center pivot irrigation has been the most rapidly expanding form of irrigation in the Central Great Plains and across the United States. The amount of land irrigated with sprinkler, gravity and drip or trickle systems was determined for all states in the USA in the Farm and Ranch Irrigation Survey1 by the USDA in 2012. Results of the survey for the Great Plains States shows that approximately 85% of the land in Nebraska is irrigated with center pivots and that very little land was irrigated with drip systems in 2012 (Figure 1). The percentage of land irrigated with sprinklers in …


2017 Wheel Tax And Excise Surtax Report, Indiana Ltap Feb 2017

2017 Wheel Tax And Excise Surtax Report, Indiana Ltap

Indiana Local Technical Assistance Program (LTAP) Publications

This report contains an overview of the details of the wheel tax and excise surtax, a summary of the recent changes to the Indiana Code regarding the taxes, revenue estimates for both counties and municipalities, an estimate of revenue projected out to 2018, as well as some commonly asked questions and their answers.


Changes In Temporal Variability Of Precipitation Over Land Due To Anthropogenic Forcings, Goutam Konapala, Ashok Mishra, L. Ruby Leung Feb 2017

Changes In Temporal Variability Of Precipitation Over Land Due To Anthropogenic Forcings, Goutam Konapala, Ashok Mishra, L. Ruby Leung

Publications

This study investigated the anthropogenic influence on the temporal variability of annual precipitation for the period 1950–2005 as simulated by the CMIP5 models. The temporal variability of both annual precipitation amount (PRCPTOT) and intensity (SDII) was first measured using a metric of statistical dispersion called the Gini coefficient. Comparing simulations driven by both anthropogenic and natural forcing (ALL) with simulations of natural forcing only (NAT), we quantified the anthropogenic contributions to the changes in temporal variability at global, continental and sub-continental scales as a relative difference of the respective Gini coefficients of ALL and NAT. Over the period of 1950–2005, …


Contact Fatigue Design Of Helical Gear By Spur Gear Equivalency, Edward E. Osakue, Lucky Anetor Feb 2017

Contact Fatigue Design Of Helical Gear By Spur Gear Equivalency, Edward E. Osakue, Lucky Anetor

Faculty Publications

Contact fatigue failure or pitting is a common mode of gear failure. High speed gearing is therefore prone to pitting and scoring failure modes. A simplified contact stress capacity model that is explicit in the representation of helical gear design parameters is developed. The model gives estimate of the contact stress expected in a helical gearset during meshing. Also, the model clearly reveals the direct influence of the base helix angle on contact stress and normal module size estimates. Contact stresses for five design Examples from different references are computed using the new contact stress capacity model and compared with …


Decentralized Planning In Stochastic Environments With Submodular Rewards, Rajiv Ranjan Kumar, Pradeep Varakantham, Akshat Kumar Feb 2017

Decentralized Planning In Stochastic Environments With Submodular Rewards, Rajiv Ranjan Kumar, Pradeep Varakantham, Akshat Kumar

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Decentralized Markov Decision Process (Dec-MDP) providesa rich framework to represent cooperative decentralizedand stochastic planning problems under transition uncertainty.However, solving a Dec-MDP to generate coordinatedyet decentralized policies is NEXP-Hard. Researchershave made significant progress in providing approximate approachesto improve scalability with respect to number ofagents. However, there has been little or no research devotedto finding guarantees on solution quality for approximateapproaches considering multiple (more than 2 agents)agents. We have a similar situation with respect to the competitivedecentralized planning problem and the StochasticGame (SG) model. To address this, we identify models in thecooperative and competitive case that rely on submodular rewards,where we show …


Dynamic Repositioning To Reduce Lost Demand In Bike Sharing Systems, Supriyo Ghosh, Pradeep Varakantham, Yossiri Adulyasak, Patrick Jaillet Feb 2017

Dynamic Repositioning To Reduce Lost Demand In Bike Sharing Systems, Supriyo Ghosh, Pradeep Varakantham, Yossiri Adulyasak, Patrick Jaillet

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Bike Sharing Systems (BSSs) are widely adopted in major cities of the world due to concerns associated with extensive private vehicle usage, namely, increased carbon emissions, traffic congestion and usage of nonrenewable resources. In a BSS, base stations are strategically placed throughout a city and each station is stocked with a pre-determined number of bikes at the beginning of the day. Customers hire the bikes from one station and return them at another station. Due to unpredictable movements of customers hiring bikes, there is either congestion (more than required) or starvation (fewer than required) of bikes at base stations. Existing …


Spatio-Temporal Patterning In Primary Motor Cortex At Movement Onset, Matthew D. Best, Aaron J. Suminski, Kazutaka Takahashi, Kevin A. Brown, Nicholas G. Hatsopoulos Feb 2017

Spatio-Temporal Patterning In Primary Motor Cortex At Movement Onset, Matthew D. Best, Aaron J. Suminski, Kazutaka Takahashi, Kevin A. Brown, Nicholas G. Hatsopoulos

Biomedical Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Voluntary movement initiation involves the engagement of large populations of motor cortical neurons around movement onset. Despite knowledge of the temporal dynamics that lead to movement, the spatial structure of these dynamics across the cortical surface remains unknown. In data from 4 rhesus macaques, we show that the timing of attenuation of beta frequency local field potential oscillations, a correlate of locally activated cortex, forms a spatial gradient across primary motor cortex (MI). We show that these spatio-temporal dynamics are recapitulated in the engagement order of ensembles of MI neurons. We demonstrate that these patterns are unique to movement onset …


Professional Pilot Commercial Off-The-Shelf (Cots) Efb Usage, Policies And Reliability, Tyler A. Babb Feb 2017

Professional Pilot Commercial Off-The-Shelf (Cots) Efb Usage, Policies And Reliability, Tyler A. Babb

International Journal of Aviation, Aeronautics, and Aerospace

Electronic Flight Bags (EFBs) have flooded the aviation industry. Commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) tablets are now commonly used by pilots as EFBs. Operators use EFBs for ease of use, faster access to information, to remove weight from the aircraft, and to increase pilots’ quality of life. Identifying trends in EFB usage among professional pilots could benefit operators and universities with flight training programs. EFB policies and procedures may vary among operators but achieve FAA compliance. This study identified these policies and procedures. The types of devices and software vary, and identifying these devices and software could be useful. This research used …


Impedance Optimized Electric Pulses For Enhancing Cutaneous Gene Electrotransfer, Reginald Morley Atkins Feb 2017

Impedance Optimized Electric Pulses For Enhancing Cutaneous Gene Electrotransfer, Reginald Morley Atkins

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Electric field mediated gene delivery modalities have preferable safety profiles with the ability to rapidly transfect cells in vitro and in vivo with high efficiency. However, the current state of the art has relied on trial and error studies that target the average cell within a population present in treated tissue to derive electric pulse parameters. This results in fixed gene electrotransfer (GET) parameters that are not universally optimum. Slow progress towards the validation of a mechanism that explains this phenomena has also hindered its advancement in the clinic. To date, GET methods utilizing feedback control as a means to …


Porous Magnesium-Based Scaffolds For Tissue Engineering, Mostafa Yazdimamaghani, Mehdi Razavi, Daryoosh Vashaee, Keyvan Moharamzadeh, Aldo R. Boccaccini, Lobat Tayebi Feb 2017

Porous Magnesium-Based Scaffolds For Tissue Engineering, Mostafa Yazdimamaghani, Mehdi Razavi, Daryoosh Vashaee, Keyvan Moharamzadeh, Aldo R. Boccaccini, Lobat Tayebi

Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Significant amount of research efforts has been dedicated to the development of scaffolds for tissue engineering. Although at present most of the studies are focused on non-load bearing scaffolds, many scaffolds have also been investigated for hard tissue repair. In particular, metallic scaffolds are being studied for hard tissue engineering due to their suitable mechanical properties. Several biocompatible metallic materials such as stainless steels, cobalt alloys, titanium alloys, tantalum, nitinol and magnesium alloys have been commonly employed as implants in orthopedic and dental treatments. They are often used to replace and regenerate the damaged bones or to provide structural support …


Arctic Micromonas Uses Protein Pools And Non-Photochemical Quenching To Cope With Temperature Restrictions On Photosystem Ii Protein Turnover, Guangyan Ni, Gabrielle Zimbalatti, Cole D. Murphy, Audrey B. Barnett, Christopher M. Arsenault, Gang Li, Amanda M. Cockshutt, Douglas A. Campbell Feb 2017

Arctic Micromonas Uses Protein Pools And Non-Photochemical Quenching To Cope With Temperature Restrictions On Photosystem Ii Protein Turnover, Guangyan Ni, Gabrielle Zimbalatti, Cole D. Murphy, Audrey B. Barnett, Christopher M. Arsenault, Gang Li, Amanda M. Cockshutt, Douglas A. Campbell

Michigan Tech Publications, Part 1

Micromonas strains of small prasinophyte green algae are found throughout the world’s oceans, exploiting widely different niches. We grew arctic and temperate strains of Micromonas and compared their susceptibilities to photoinactivation of Photosystem II, their counteracting Photosystem II repair capacities, their Photosystem II content, and their induction and relaxation of non-photochemical quenching. In the arctic strain Micromonas NCMA 2099, the cellular content of active Photosystem II represents only about 50 % of total Photosystem II protein, as a slow rate constant for clearance of PsbA protein limits instantaneous repair. In contrast, the temperate strain NCMA 1646 shows a faster clearance …


Design Of A Community-Supported Capable Microwave System For People With Intellectual And Physical Disabilities, Matteo Zallio, Damon Berry, Paula Kelly, Hicham Rifai, Modestas Jakuska Feb 2017

Design Of A Community-Supported Capable Microwave System For People With Intellectual And Physical Disabilities, Matteo Zallio, Damon Berry, Paula Kelly, Hicham Rifai, Modestas Jakuska

Conference papers

Product personalisation has become a central topic and expected part of every day life. Different people have different characteristics and abilities and every single user has different needs which means that products have to be tailored accordingly. Micro- wave ovens are one of the most commonly used home appliances. People use them to quickly heat or cook certain foods. Today, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statis- tics, more than 90% of U.S. households own a microwave oven [11]. This project seeks to enable people with intellectual disabilities and physical impairments to perform sim- ple cooking tasks. The target …


Electroanalytical Measurements Of Binary-Analyte Mixtures In Molten Licl-Kcl Eutectic: Uranium(Iii)- And Magnesium(Ii)-Chloride, Devin Rappleye, Matthew L. Newton, Chao Zhang, Michael F. Simpson Feb 2017

Electroanalytical Measurements Of Binary-Analyte Mixtures In Molten Licl-Kcl Eutectic: Uranium(Iii)- And Magnesium(Ii)-Chloride, Devin Rappleye, Matthew L. Newton, Chao Zhang, Michael F. Simpson

Faculty Publications

The electrochemical behavior of MgCl2 in molten LiCl-KCl eutectic was investigated to evaluate its suitability as a surrogate for PuCl3 in studies related to the eletrorefining of used nuclear fuel. The reduction of Mg2+ was found to be electrochemically reversible up to 300 mV s−1 at 773 K. The diffusion coefficient for Mg2+ was calculated to be 1.74 and 2.17 × 10−5 cm2 s−1 with and without U3+ present, respectively, at 773 K using cyclic voltammetry (CV). Upon comparison to literature data, the diffusion coefficient of Mg2+ differs by only 8.8% (with U …


Transient Analysis Of Dispersive Power-Ground Plate Pairs With Arbitrarily Shaped Antipads By The Dgtd Method With Wave Port Excitation, Ping Li, Li Jun Jiang, Hakan Bagci Feb 2017

Transient Analysis Of Dispersive Power-Ground Plate Pairs With Arbitrarily Shaped Antipads By The Dgtd Method With Wave Port Excitation, Ping Li, Li Jun Jiang, Hakan Bagci

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

A discontinuous Galerkin time-domain (DGTD) method analyzing signal/power integrity on multilayered power-ground parallel plate pairs is proposed. The excitation is realized by introducing wave ports on the antipads where electric/magnetic current sources are represented in terms of the eigenmodes of the antipads. Since closed-forms solutions do not exist for the eigenmodes of the arbitrarily shaped antipads, they have to be calculated using numerical schemes. Spatial orthogonality of the eigenmodes permits determination of each mode's temporal expansion coefficient by integrating the product of the electric field and the mode over the wave port. The temporal mode coefficients are then Fourier transformed …


The Derived Equivalent Circuit Model For Magnetized Anisotropic Graphene, Ying S. Cao, Ping Li, Li (Lijun) Jun Jiang, Albert E. Ruehli Feb 2017

The Derived Equivalent Circuit Model For Magnetized Anisotropic Graphene, Ying S. Cao, Ping Li, Li (Lijun) Jun Jiang, Albert E. Ruehli

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Due to the static magnetic field, the conductivity for graphene becomes a dispersive and anisotropic tensor, which complicates most modeling methodologies. In this communication, a novel equivalent circuit model is proposed for graphene with the magnetostatic bias based on the electric field integral equation. To characterize the anisotropic property of the biased graphene, the resistive part of the unit circuit is replaced by a resistor in series with current-controlled voltage sources (CCVSs). The CCVSs account for the off-diagonal parts of the surface conductivity tensor for the magnetized graphene. This proposed method is benchmarked with numerical examples. This communication also provides …


Biotransformation Of 2,4-Dinitroanisole By A Fungal Penicillium Sp, Hunter W. Schroer, Kathryn L. Langenfeld, Xueshu Li, Hans Joachim Lehmler, Craig L. Just Feb 2017

Biotransformation Of 2,4-Dinitroanisole By A Fungal Penicillium Sp, Hunter W. Schroer, Kathryn L. Langenfeld, Xueshu Li, Hans Joachim Lehmler, Craig L. Just

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Insensitive munitions explosives are new formulations that are less prone to unintended detonation compared to traditional explosives. While these formulations have safety benefits, the individual constituents, such as 2,4-dinitroanisole (DNAN), have an unknown ecosystem fate with potentially toxic impacts to flora and fauna exposed to DNAN and/or its metabolites. Fungi may be useful in remediation and have been shown to degrade traditional nitroaromatic explosives, such as 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene and 2,4-dinitrotoluene, that are structurally similar to DNAN. In this study, a fungal Penicillium sp., isolated from willow trees and designated strain KH1, was shown to degrade DNAN in solution within 14 days. …


An Efficient Approach To Model-Based Hierarchical Reinforcement Learning, Zhuoru Li, Akshay Narayan, Tze-Yun Leong Feb 2017

An Efficient Approach To Model-Based Hierarchical Reinforcement Learning, Zhuoru Li, Akshay Narayan, Tze-Yun Leong

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

We propose a model-based approach to hierarchical reinforcement learning that exploits shared knowledge and selective execution at different levels of abstraction, to efficiently solve large, complex problems. Our framework adopts a new transition dynamics learning algorithm that identifies the common action-feature combinations of the subtasks, and evaluates the subtask execution choices through simulation. The framework is sample efficient, and tolerates uncertain and incomplete problem characterization of the subtasks. We test the framework on common benchmark problems and complex simulated robotic environments. It compares favorably against the stateof-the-art algorithms, and scales well in very large problems.


Toward Improving Electrocardiogram (Ecg) Biometric Verification Using Mobile Sensors: A Two-Stage Classifier Approach, Robin Tan, Marek Perkowski Feb 2017

Toward Improving Electrocardiogram (Ecg) Biometric Verification Using Mobile Sensors: A Two-Stage Classifier Approach, Robin Tan, Marek Perkowski

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Electrocardiogram (ECG) signals sensed from mobile devices pertain the potential for biometric identity recognition applicable in remote access control systems where enhanced data security is demanding. In this study, we propose a new algorithm that consists of a two-stage classifier combining random forest and wavelet distance measure through a probabilistic threshold schema, to improve the effectiveness and robustness of a biometric recognition system using ECG data acquired from a biosensor integrated into mobile devices. The proposed algorithm is evaluated using a mixed dataset from 184 subjects under different health conditions. The proposed two-stage classifier achieves a total of 99.52% subject …


Stakeholder Outcomes In A Wind Turbine Investment; Is The Irish Energy Policy Effective In Reducing Ghg Emissions By Promoting Small-Scale Embedded Turbines In Sme's?, Tony Kealy Feb 2017

Stakeholder Outcomes In A Wind Turbine Investment; Is The Irish Energy Policy Effective In Reducing Ghg Emissions By Promoting Small-Scale Embedded Turbines In Sme's?, Tony Kealy

Articles

As a member state of the European Union (EU), Ireland has adopted an energy policy which includes promoting wind powered electricity generators as an economically viable, GHG-reducing, alternative to environmentally damaging fossil-fuel driven electrical generators. This longitudinal, inductive in-depth study investigates the outcomes for the government and other stakeholders involved in a wind turbine project investment by a Small-to-Medium-Enterprise (SME) based in rural Ireland. A case study research methodology is used to acquire and analyse quantitative numerical data from multiple sources including electrical power and energy meters, historical electricity bills and company sustainability reports. The study found that the installation …


Climate-Based Policies May Increase Life-Cycle Social Costs Of Vehicle Fleet Operation, Isaac Emery, Eric G.. Mbonimpa, Alfred E. Thal Jr. Feb 2017

Climate-Based Policies May Increase Life-Cycle Social Costs Of Vehicle Fleet Operation, Isaac Emery, Eric G.. Mbonimpa, Alfred E. Thal Jr.

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.


The Effect Of Plant Water Storage On Water Fluxes Within The Coupled Soil–Plant System, Cheng-Wei Huang, Jean-Christopher Domec, Eric J. Ward, Tomer Duman, Gabriele Manolia, Anthony J. Parolari, Gabriel Katul Feb 2017

The Effect Of Plant Water Storage On Water Fluxes Within The Coupled Soil–Plant System, Cheng-Wei Huang, Jean-Christopher Domec, Eric J. Ward, Tomer Duman, Gabriele Manolia, Anthony J. Parolari, Gabriel Katul

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

In addition to buffering plants from water stress during severe droughts, plant water storage (PWS) alters many features of the spatio-temporal dynamics of water movement in the soil–plant system. How PWS impacts water dynamics and drought resilience is explored using a multi-layer porous media model.


Interpolation Methods For Coverage Area In Cellular Systems, Abdlmagid Mohamed Basere Feb 2017

Interpolation Methods For Coverage Area In Cellular Systems, Abdlmagid Mohamed Basere

Theses and Dissertations

Evaluating the coverage area in a wireless network is very important for cellular system designers in order to provide good service to users. It is hard to collect the Receive Signal Level (RSL) for an entire coverage area because of many obstacles, such as buildings, lakes, and vegetation. Therefore, estimation of the coverage area is essential for locations for which it is difficult to measure the RSL. This dissertation considers the process of RSL interpolation. Two main aspects of the interpolation are considered. Firstly, various interpolation methods are considered and it was determined that a very good performance is obtained …


Hydrodynamic Resistance Of A Surfboard: An Analytical, Empirical, And Statistical Analysis, Andrew Leonard Kledzik Feb 2017

Hydrodynamic Resistance Of A Surfboard: An Analytical, Empirical, And Statistical Analysis, Andrew Leonard Kledzik

Theses and Dissertations

The objective of the present study defines a drag coefficient for a 9’0” surfboard. The hydrodynamic drag of a surfboard is derived from theory outlining the mathematical foundation used. Analytical solutions provide values for boundary layer thickness, momentum flux width, shear stress, drag force and the drag coefficient. This study also examines maximum velocities attainable from in-situ observations of surfers paddling in a controlled environment. The theoretical predictions are compared with experimental observations of surfboard resistance; while simultaneously validating instrumentation and methods of measurement. A number of problems are highlighted, ranging from mathematical problems on turbulent flow analysis to impacts …


Frequency Response Reduced Order Model Of Primary Resonance Of Electrostatically Actuated Mems Circular Plate Resonators, Dumitru I. Caruntu, Reynaldo Oyervides Feb 2017

Frequency Response Reduced Order Model Of Primary Resonance Of Electrostatically Actuated Mems Circular Plate Resonators, Dumitru I. Caruntu, Reynaldo Oyervides

Mechanical Engineering Faculty Publications

This paper deals with the amplitude-frequency response of soft AC electrostatically actuated MEMS clamped circular plates. Alternating Current (AC) frequency is near half natural frequency of the plate. This results in primary resonance of the system. Two methods are used and compared, namely the Method of Multiple Scales (MMS), and Reduced Order Model (ROM). Both methods are in excellent agreement for amplitudes less than 0.4 of the gap. For amplitudes between 0.4 and 1 of the gap only seven terms ROM accurately predicts the behavior of the system. The effects of the voltage and damping parameters on the frequency response …