Compaction of soil is essential in the construction of highways, airports, buildings and bridges. Typically compaction is controlled by measuring the dry density and the water content of the compacted soil. There is a trend towards measuring the soil modulus instead or in addition to density. The reasons are that the density measurements are made using nuclear density meter, an undesirable tool in today's political environment and that pavement design uses moduli as an input parameter. Although there are many apparatus available to measure soil modulus in the field such as Falling Weight Deflectometer and Dynamic Cone Penetrometer, a light weight device which can measure the soil modulus fast and accurately is in great need. This book...
ISBN: 978-3-6390-7087-3
Издательство:
Книга по требованию
Дата выхода: июль 2011
The use of laminated and sandwich construction to achieve multi-functional objectives within a single structure continues to increase. It is especially desirable to use laminated construction in structures exposed to thermal loading, where heat resistant coating materials may be bonded to traditional structural materials. Design of such structures requires an accurate analysis of stresses induced by thermal as well as mechanical loads. A novel laminated plate theory and 3D finite element model based on first-order zig-zag sublaminate approximations are presented for thermal stress analysis of composite laminates and sandwich plates. The finite element is developed with the topology of an eight-noded brick, which can contain several...
ISBN: 978-3-8383-1777-9
Издательство:
Книга по требованию
Дата выхода: июль 2011
Energy use and associated greenhouse gas emissions, and their potential effects on the global climate change have been the worldwide concern particularly after the Kyoto Protocol. Improving the energy efficiency is one of the most effective ways to reduce energy use and associated emissions, especially for the residential sector. Since energy efficiency improvements have complex interrelated effects on the household energy use, detailed mathematical models are required to evaluate their effects on residential energy use. This book investigates the use of Neural Network (NN) approach for modeling residential end-use energy consumption at the national level. In addition to the NN model, a statistical residential end-use model is also...
ISBN: 978-3-6390-1972-8
Издательство:
Книга по требованию
Дата выхода: июль 2011
A lightweight and low-cost sediment profile camera system for remote acquisition of vertical sediment-profile pictures was proposed, designed, built, and used to remotely take pictures of vertical sediment profiles in the newly formed marsh at the Connecticut Audubon Coastal Center (CACC) in Milford, CT. The new style of SPI camera and methods for analyzing SPI images were given the name Benthic Profiling System (BPS). SPI imaging technology is routinely employed by environmental agencies, companies, and universities to rapidly obtain information about benthic communities and environments. High-tech and low-cost hardware was bundled into a lightweight sediment-profile camera which captured digital raster images of vertical sediment...
ISBN: 978-3-8383-3456-1
Издательство:
Книга по требованию
Дата выхода: июль 2011
A new heavy-duty vehicle visual classification and activity estimation method minimize uncertainties in current HDV conversion methods and the vehicle registration based HDV VMT estimation guidance. The HDV visual classification scheme called the X- scheme, which classifies HDV/truck classes by vehicle physical characteristics such as the number of axles, the number of tires, gross vehicle weight ratings, horsepower ranges, vehicle activity characteristics, and tractor-trailer configuration, converts FHWA truck classes into EPA HDV classes without losing the original resolution of HDV/truck activity and emission characteristics. The new heavy- duty vehicle visual classification and activity estimation method can be used for the...
ISBN: 978-3-6391-5813-7
Издательство:
Книга по требованию
Дата выхода: июль 2011
Direction of Arrival Estimation (DoA) is one of the major problems for many applications such as radar, navigation, mobile communications, electronic warfare systems, sonar and seismology. In the previous decade some powerfull and high-resolution methods for DoA estimation such as MUSIC and ESPRIT had already been developed. However, these conventional methods were having some drawbacks such as the number of arriving sources must be less than the number of antenna array elements and a accuracy degradation of DoA estimation under low SNR. Therefore they were not able to meet real-time requirements. Rapid growth in wireless communication accelerated the demand for DoA estimation. NN based DoA estimation algorithms have been developed to...
ISBN: 978-3-8383-1301-6
Издательство:
Книга по требованию
Дата выхода: июль 2011
Fireside corrosion in coal-fired power plants is a major obstacle to increase the overall efficiency for power producers because the increased use of cheap fuels or the requirements for clean combustion modes have aggravated corrosion on furnace walls. Corrosion-induced equipment failure can lead to catastrophic damage and inflict significant loss of production and cost for repair. Present corrosion monitoring technologies, however, were limited in effectively measuring high temperature corrosion,as these measurement techniques typically require planned periodic shutdowns, usually after the damage occurs. This book developed a novel sensor based on a new principle and thin-film technologies. Experiments using a measurement system were...
ISBN: 978-3-8383-0855-5
Издательство:
Книга по требованию
Дата выхода: июль 2011
A novel dual-band feed for reflector antennas is presented. This feed is a combination of a novel circular Eleven feed for C band and a modified choke horn for Ku band. The circular Eleven feed has better rotational symmetry (i.e. BOR1 efficiency) and return loss performance as compared to linear Eleven feed. The choke horn has been designed to obtain optimal performance for both horn at Ku band and Eleven feed at C band. The combined feed has been characterized in terms of total feed efficiency of reflector antenna (60%) and coupling coefficient of C Данное издание не является оригинальным. Книга печатается по технологии принт-он-деманд после...
ISBN: 978-3-6391-5755-0
Издательство:
Книга по требованию
Дата выхода: июль 2011
Today's energy needs and environmental concerns push the development of renewable and efficient energy systems. Fuel cells running on hydrogen are likely to become these engines. Significant progress has been made to improve these systems. However, they need to be backed up by efficient hydrogen storage containers in order to enable a full hydrogen based economy. Current storage techniques do not satisfy the needs, as they were not designed for such an application and in that extend. Therefore novel storage methods have recently been subject to many research activities including this work. The concept proposed herein features a high pressure tank wall with dual functionality, as to store some amount of hydrogen and provide strength at...
ISBN: 978-3-6391-6366-7
Издательство:
Книга по требованию
Дата выхода: июль 2011
A theoretical analysis of a lever enhanced double acting wave pump is presented. Pump performance is analysed using the linear wave theory, and a mathematical model of the system is developed. A linear second order differential equation results, for which a closed form heaving solution is obtained. This heaving equation is solved numerically. It is shown that a pump optimized for Eastern Caribbean wave conditions can realize a hydraulic power output of 53.7 kW at 31.2% efficiency, and can handle 26.6 cubic meters/hour of water at a pressure of 7.26 MPa. The capacity of the lever enhanced wave pump is comparable to that of other extant wave pumps indicating its feasibility for reverse osmosis desalination purposes. For maximum loading...
ISBN: 978-3-6391-6791-7
Издательство:
Книга по требованию
Дата выхода: июль 2011
Recently, a novel hybrid image alignment method for 2D images was presented, which is based on configural matching of automatically extracted, scale-invariant salient region features. The approach combines advantageous aspects of both feature and intensity based methods. This work proposes an extension of the algorithm to 3D. Its applicability is discussed on both mono- and multi-modality medical 3D images for change detection, tumor localization or time based intra person studies. We describe how results of the rigid body alignment approach can be incorporated into a subsequent non-linear registration. Besides the practical work, the work presents an overview of current research in the field of rigid and non-rigid hybrid image alignment...
ISBN: 978-3-6391-8143-2
Издательство:
Книга по требованию
Дата выхода: июль 2011
This book has evolved from a PhD thesis. It takes the view that Leadership can be learned. These skills have a flow-on effect across the full spectrum of management activities. The result; more productive, more efficient teams that finish projects on time and on budget. The Leadership Process Reference Model is the result of cutting-edge Design Research. It offers design researchers an innovative new application for DR. It also offers Project Managers the means to improve your ability to manage/lead projects involving complex virtual teams. The model is a set of processes that comprehensively describe effective leadership behavior in complex virtual teams. The model can also be applied to similar good effect in co-located and/or simple...
ISBN: 978-3-6392-4513-4
Издательство:
Книга по требованию
Дата выхода: июль 2011
Irrational resource consumption together with irresponsible environmental pollution resulting from industry is the main causes of exceeding the global carrying capacity and the depleting of natural resources. The traditional end-of-pipe technologies for environmental management are being questioned due to the increased concern about potentially significant environmental problems on global, regional, and local scales. These approaches alone are unlikely to provide satisfactory and cost- effective protection of the ecosystem and human health in the near future. Global industries are confronted with the responsibility of producing products in an environmentally friendly manner. They are recognizing that implementing design for environment...
ISBN: 978-3-6391-1598-7
Издательство:
Книга по требованию
Дата выхода: июль 2011
In this study, the potential for a wastewater recycling scheme in the Guadalquivir river basin, located in southern Spain, was examined. Spatial analysis was used to identify candidate territories with the necessary criteria: irrigation zones in close proximity to large population centres, sufficient wastewater treatment infrastructure and geographical characteristics conducive to the implementation of a wastewater recycling scheme. Данное издание не является оригинальным. Книга печатается по технологии принт-он-деманд после получения заказа.
ISBN: 978-3-8433-7746-1
Издательство:
Книга по требованию
Дата выхода: июль 2011
Understanding, quantifying, and dealing with supply chain risk in energy sector necessitates the amalgamation of knowledge and techniques from several domains. Some of those domains are critical infrastructure analysis, risk analysis, systems simulation, geographic information systems, and supply chain management. The objective of this study is to develop a framework to explore and quantify risk of disruptions in the U.S. petroleum supply chain caused by natural disasters. The analysis is based on numerical and empirical data collected during Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. A semi- continuous simulation model of the petroleum supply chain is designed and implemented. A Geographic Information System (GIS) is employed for better management of...
ISBN: 978-3-6392-2585-3
Издательство:
Книга по требованию
Дата выхода: июль 2011
An industrial designer's job is to solve problems of form, usability, ergonomics or marketing through design solutions which ensure good user interaction with a product. The purpose of the game described in this book was to introduce and attract young people, particularly young women, to the world of engineering. A ball game that included a robotic arm was designed to provide both amusement and education at exhibitions and in student environments. This book, a degree thesis project written by an industrial design student, details the development process of both a physical and computer prototype of a ball game involving interaction with an industrial robot Данное издание не является оригинальным....
ISBN: 978-3-8433-5810-1
Издательство:
Книга по требованию
Дата выхода: июль 2011
This book presents a wireless, mobile robotic pool player. The robotic system serves as a prototype for vision, trajectory plan for potting and manipulator dynamics, tested on a miniature pool table and mini pool ball-set. The system consists of 3 subsystems and 1 intelligent decision algorithm, i.e. i) Vision subsystem: image acquisition and image processing for ball detection and classification, ii) Trajectory planning: a fuzzy logic based decision algorithm to decide on the best object ball to pot and playing style, iii) Manipulator and vehicle subsystem: robotic arm and vehicle design and construction of the mobile robot (mechanical and control), as well as motion planning, iv) Communications subsystem: transmitter system and...
ISBN: 978-3-6391-4054-5
Издательство:
Книга по требованию
Дата выхода: июль 2011
Fuel cells which were first employed in spacecraft, are part of the ongoing pursuit for renewable energy sources, and environmentally compatible electric power generation. Recent enhancements in design and materials might establish fuel cells in a sustainable hydrogen energy economy (SHEE) as viable alternatives to the internal combustion engine. This study investigates the conductive properties of metal-oxide thin films by developing a new deposition technique called dual channel ultrasonic spray pyrolysis (DC-USP). The DC-USP process has proved to be a reliable and cost-effective method to fabricate thin films. We have then created a novel mixed ionic electronic conductor (MIEC) composed of two metal-oxides: lanthanum strontium ferrite...
ISBN: 978-3-6390-3405-9
Издательство:
Книга по требованию
Дата выхода: июль 2011
Over the last few years, the study in adaptive intelligent control utilizing Fuzzy, Neural Network for a class of unknown nonlinear systems has attracted considerable attention. In this book, a new hybrid adaptive cerebeller model articulation controller (CMAC) sliding mode control system is developed. The hybrid adaptive CMAC sliding mode controller (HACSMC) uses the direct and indirect adaptive CMAC controllers to perform the equivalent control of sliding mode control (SMC). Two types of methods, sign function switching controller and CMAC switching controller are proposed to design the switching control law of SMC. In addition, the adaptive laws of the control system are derived in the sense of Lyapunov theorem, so that the stability...
ISBN: 978-3-6391-3939-6
Издательство:
Книга по требованию
Дата выхода: июль 2011
Engineering design often requires that one consider multiple criteria; pursuing just one objective can be insufficient. The process of optimizing a collection of objective functions is called multi-objective optimization, and it necessitates the use special optimization methods. Potential applications for even the most fundamental and common methods span a variety fields. Consequently, the significance of any contribution to this process is far reaching, with implications in terms of computational problem solving and in terms of conceptual decision-making. However, the study of fundamental methods has been deficient. Critical information concerning the significance of method-parameters, the effect of formulation variations, and...
ISBN: 978-3-6391-6352-0
Издательство:
Книга по требованию
Дата выхода: июль 2011
In the age of knowledge explosion, a Keener competition exits between corporations and puts great pressure on leaders. Enterprises should, therefore, rely on R Данное издание не является оригинальным. Книга печатается по технологии принт-он-деманд после получения заказа.
ISBN: 978-3-8364-9231-7
Издательство:
Книга по требованию
Дата выхода: июль 2011
Arterial remodeling is a process by which arteries respond to sustained changes in their mechanical environment. This process occurs in a way such that an artery’s local mechanical environment (circumferential, shear, and axial stress) is maintained at a homeostatic level. However, most studies utilize a methodology that controls the global parameters (pressure, flow rate, and axial stretch). This approach often confounds the results since the actual drivers of remodeling are not independently isolated. The results of this study demonstrate the ability of a novel organ culture system to achieve and maintain target values of stress throughout the culture period. Cell viability, general arterial morphology, and collagen synthesis rates...
ISBN: 978-3-8364-9105-1
Издательство:
Книга по требованию
Дата выхода: июль 2011