Rapid mixing is crucial for the efficient and environment-friendly operation of many industrial and propulsion devices involving jet flows. In this dissertation, two methodologies, self-excited nozzles and radially lobed nozzles, are studied and presented in order to enhance mixing in the near field of coflowing, subsonic, turbulent, free jet flows. The characteristics of the concentration field and the mixing performance are examined, mainly in quantitative manner. Two new parameters, mixing index and mixing efficiency index, are defined for free jets, allowing quantitative analysis of the mixing performance and efficiency. The flow fields are studied with hot wire anemometry, and with CFD simulation for some of the radially lobed nozzles. Due to the large vectoring angle of the jet flows from these nozzles, a new definition for the entrainment ratio is also adopted in order to take the large radial velocity component into consideration. Self-excited nozzles, rectangular and square shaped, are examined at Reynolds numbers of 17,000 and 31,000. The self-excited square jet has fastest mixing and highest mixing efficiency, with 400% higher mixing index at 4 diameters downstream than the unexcited square jet. The mixing is improved as the excitation frequency or coflow velocity increases. The study of flow field shows the presence of one pair of periodic, coherent array of large-scale, streamwise, counter-rotating inviscid vortices shedding from each of the two flaps which dominate the mean flow and the mixing process. The coflow is primarily entrained into the jet in the minor plane while the jet fluid vectors in the major plane. Significant increase in turbulent kinetic energy immediately downstream the nozzle exit improves small-scale mixing. Radially lobed nozzles, a cross-shaped and a clover-shaped with four lobes each, are analyzed in comparison to a conical nozzle. In addition, a few modified radially lobe nozzles, including a 6-lobe nozzle and an 8-lobe nozzle, two type of fully penetrating nozzles, and a cross-shaped nozzle with centerbody, are examined in order to achieve better mixing than the cross-shaped nozzle. At 4 diameters downstream, the mixing index of the cross-shaped nozzle is 650% higher than that of the conical nozzle. The cross-shaped nozzle with centerbody, the 6- lobe and 8-lobe nozzles have slower mixing and lower efficiency than the cross-shaped nozzle,but the fully-penetrating nozzles are generally better than the cross-shaped nozzle, especially at low coflow velocities and in the far field. The flow field study shows that parallel lobe walls and deep penetration of the coflow are importance factors responsible for the observed mixing enhancement. / Ph. D.

This thesis documents trailing edge blowing research performed to reduce rotor / stator interaction noise in turbofan engines. The existing technique of filling every velocity deficit requires a large amount of air and is therefore impractical. The purpose of this research is to investigate new blowing configurations in order to achieve noise reduction with lesser amounts of air. Using the new configurations air is not injected into every fan blade, but is instead varied circumferentially. For example, blowing air may be applied to alternating fan blades. This type of blowing configuration both reduces the amount of air used and changes the spectral shape of the tonal interaction noise. The original tones at the blade passing frequency and its harmonics are reduced and new tones are introduced between them. This change in the tonal spectral shape increases the performance of acoustic liners used in conjunction with trailing edge blowing. This thesis presents numerical predictions performed to estimate the sound power reductions due to these concepts, as well as experimental results taken on the ANCF rig at NASA Glenn for validation purposes. The results show that the new concepts are successful in increasing the efficiency of trailing edge blowing. / Master of Science

"A flow control method for minimizing losses in a highly loaded compressor blade was analyzed. Passive and active flow control experiments with vortex generator jets were conducted on a seven blade linear compressor cascade to demonstrate the potential application of passive flow control on a highly loaded blade. Passive flow control vortex generator jets use the pressure distribution generated by air flow over the blade profile to drive jets from the pressure side to the suction side. Active flow control was analyzed by pressuring the blade plenum with an auxiliary compressor unit. Active flow control decreased profile losses by approximately 37 % while passive flow control had negligible impact on the profile loss of a highly loaded blade. Passive flow control was able to achieve a jet velocity ratio, jet velocity to upstream velocity, of 0.525. The success of active flow control with a velocity ratio of 0.9 suggests there is potential for passive flow control to be effective. The research presented in this thesis is motivated by the potential savings in the applications of passive flow control in gas turbine axial compressors by increasing the aerodynamic load of each stage. Increased stage loading that is properly controlled can reduce the number of stages required to achieve the desired pressure compression ratio."

<p>Highly loaded aerodynamic devices for propulsion and power generation are emerging to increase power output in a more compact machine are emerging. These devices can experience increased losses due to separation, as in the low-pressure turbine, which arise due to the operation at conditions that increases the adverse pressure gradients ore decrease the Reynolds number of the flow through the device. Therefore, flow control strategies become appealing to reduce losses at these conditions. This work aims to validate flow injection as an effective flow control strategy in the transonic regime.</p> <p>A test facility which was used to study boundary layer separation in a quasi-2d test article was modified to include flow injection and conditions were modified so that the facility was operated in the transonic regime. Valves were chosen which could achieve a wide range of excitation frequencies and the flow control ports were designed to accommodate their nominal flow rate. A preliminary test matrix was built while considering the limitations of the test facility.</p> <p>A numerical study was conducted to identify flow structures of interest and determine a preliminary understanding of the test article. The flow control was then added to the numerical study to guide the experimental set points for injected flow. The response of the flow to continuous slot blowing was characterized, and a 3D simulation with discrete injection ports was done to ensure the set-points determined from the 2D study were viable for discrete injection.</p> <p>Blow-down experiments were then conducted to study the behavior of bulk separation in a transonic regime for a quasi-2D geometry. Once behavior of the separation was understood, steady injection and then pulsated injection were applied in attempts to mitigate the separation. Steady injection was utilized to find the required pressure of injection relative to the total pressure at the inlet of the test article, while the pulsated injection served to identify a frequency at which the time averaged mitigation of separation was greatest.</p> <p>The experiments show that both steady and pulsated flow injection are viable techniques in flow control. It is also shown that pulsation does not allow for a lower pressure injection, but instead allows for the same effect with a lower mass flow requirement. Two-dimensional computational simulations are shown to be effective in determining injection frequencies but not the extent of separation or required injection pressures.</p>

Ph.D. / Computer Science and Electrical Engineering / We envision that next-generation spoken dialogue systems will be supporting a complex user goal and multiple parallel tasks, which requires the system and the user to jointly direct the flow of conversation. The problem, however, is that there lacks an effective model of directing the flow of conversation. This thesis research aims to develop such a model for next-generation spoken dialogue systems. We started with conventions actually used in human-human dialogue, which are natural for users to follow and probably also efficient in problem-solving. An annotation framework, DialogueView, was established to allow for the investigation of complex interaction in dialogue. A series of empirical studies on two corpora, the Trains and the MTD, were then conducted to understand people's initiative behavior of directing the conversation flow. We first examined people's initiative behavior in decomposing a complex goal into sub-goals and achieving each of them in the Trains domain. We found that initiative is subservient to discourse goal. We next examined people's initiative behavior in switching the conversation to a more urgent task. We found that conversants strive to switch tasks at a less disruptive place; but where they cannot, they exert additional effort to signal the task switching, such as increasing pitch. We finally examined people's behavior on initiative conflicts, where both conversants try to direct the conversation at the same time. We found that conversants try to avoid initiative conflicts; but when initiative conflicts occur, they are efficiently resolved with simple linguistic devices such as volume. Computer simulation experiments were also conducted to better understand the underlying benefits of using the human conventions. Our findings on human-human dialogues have important implication for building next-generation spoken dialogue systems by (1) guiding the system when to show initiative, and when to let the user show initiative; (2) guiding the system when and how to switch to a more urgent task, and to understand the user's switch; and (3) guiding the system how to resolve and repair initiative conflicts.

No description available.

Master of Science / Department of Kinesiology / Thomas Barstow / Previously in our laboratory, capillary blood flow (QCAP) kinetics were found to be significantly slower than femoral artery (QFA) kinetics following the onset of knee extension exercise. If the increase in QCAP does not follow a similar time course to QFA, blood must be flowing into the leg but not to the working muscle. One possible explanation for this discrepancy is that blood flow also increases to the nonworking lower leg muscles. Purpose: To determine if cuffing below the knee alters the kinetics of QFA and QCAP during knee extension exercise, and provide insight into the potential mechanisms controlling the rapid increase in QFA. Methods: Subjects performed a ramp max test to determine the work rate at which gas exchange threshold (GET) occurred. At least four constant work rate trials in each condition were conducted at work rates eliciting ~80% GET. Trials were performed with and without below knee occlusion. Pulmonary gas exchange, near-infrared spectroscopy, QFA and mean arterial pressure (MAP) measurements were taken. Muscle oxygen uptake (VO2m) and deoxy[hemoglobin + myoglobin] were used to estimate QCAP. Conductance (C) was calculated (QFA/MAP) and the percent change from baseline at 60s into exercise was calculated to indicate a time course of change. Results: There was no significant difference between the uncuffed and cuffed conditions (P>0.05). The mean response times (MRT) of QFA were 18.7 ± 14.2s (uncuffed) and 24.6 ± 14.9s (cuffed). QCAP MRTs were 51.8 ± 23.4s (uncuffed) and 56.7 ± 23.2s (cuffed), which were not significantly different from the time constants (τ) of VO2m (39.7 ± 23.2s (uncuffed) and 46.3 ± 24.1s (cuffed)). However, the MRT of QFA was significantly faster (P<0.05) than the MRT of QCAP and τVO2m. τVO2m and MRT QCAP were significantly correlated. The QFA and C percent increase from baseline at 60s were significantly different from MAP but not from each other. Conclusion: Cuffing below the knee did not significantly change the kinetics of QFA, QCAP or VO2m. Estimated QCAP kinetics tracked VO2m following exercise onset, while changes in QFA appeared to be primarily driven by an increase in C, not an increase in MAP.

Modern web applications use several third-party JavaScript libraries to achieve higher levels of engagement. The third-party libraries range from utility libraries such as jQuery to libraries that provide services such as Google Analytics and context- sensitive advertisement. These third-party libraries have access to most (if not all) the elements of the displayed webpage. This allows malicious third-party libraries to perform attacks that steal information from the end-user or perform an action without the end-user consent. These types of attacks are the stealthiest and the hardest to defend against, because they are agnostic to the browser type and platform of the end-user and at the same time they rely on web standards when performing the attacks. Such kind of attacks can perform actions using the victim’s browser without her permission. The nature of such actions can range from posting an embarrassing message on the victim’s behalf over her social network account, to performing online biding using the victim’s account. This poses the need to develop effective mechanisms for protecting against client-side web attacks that mainly target the end-user. In the proposed research, we address the above challenges from information flow monitoring perspective by developing a framework that restricts the flow of information on the client-side to legitimate channels. The proposed model tracks sensitive information flow in the JavaScript code and prevents information leakage from happening. The main component of the framework is a hybrid flow-sensitive security monitor that controls, at runtime, the dissemination of information flow and its inlining. The security monitor is hybrid as it combines both static analysis and runtime monitoring of the running JavaScript program. We provide the soundness proof of the model with respect to termination-insensitive non-interference security policy and develop a new security benchmark to establish experimentally its effectiveness in detecting and preventing illicit information flow. When applied to the context of client-side web-based attacks, the proposed model provides a more secure browsing environment for the end-user. / Graduate

Electro-hydraulic proportional flow valves are widely used in hydraulic industry. There are several different structures and working principles. However, flow valves based on the existing principles usually have some shortcomings such as the complexity of the system and additional energy losses. A concept for a two-stage poppet flow valve with pilot pressure drop – pilot spool opening compensation is presented, and the linear relationship between the pilot stage and main stage, the semi-empirical flow equation are used in the electronic flow controller. To achieve the accurate control of the outlet flow, the actual input voltage of the pilot spool valve is regulated according to the actual pilot pressure drop, the desired flow rate and the given input voltage. The results show that the pilot pressure drop – pilot spool opening compensation method is feasible, and the proposed proportional flow control valve with this compensation method has a good static and dynamic performance.

The present paper describes an innovative electro-hydraulic system developed for automated side loaders. The system is based on Intelligent Flow Control (IFC), a concept where open circuit electric displacement controlled pumps are coupled with EH directional control valves. IFC was selected in order to achieve the level of performance required, in terms of efficiency and productivity (i.e. cycle times), and also to provide the best possible control of the side loader arm. The paper describes the system layout and the basics of the controls: from the alghorithms of the arm actuators to the vehicle on board telemetry and diagnostic. The paper reports the comparison between the IFC system (implemented on the vehicle) and a more traditional approach based on a Load Sense Flow Sharing concept. The benefits of the IFC solution are highlighted focusing on the energy efficiency (very important especially in the case of CNG engines, where the torque available at idle is significantly lower than diesel engines), but also in terms of controlability and response (due to the lack of load sensing signal lines).