Wildfires pose serious threats to the society and environment. Simulation of wildfire spread and fire suppression remains a challenging task due to the complexity of wildfire behavior and fire suppression tactics. In previous work, a wildfire spread and suppression simulation model called DEVS-FIRE has been developed. Based on that model, this thesis develops a graphic user interface to support an interactive simulation environment for surface wildfire spread and suppression simulation. The developed environment allows users to dynamically set up fire spread simulations, and to interacticaly deploy firefighting agents to experiment different fire suppression tactics. This graphic user interface is implemented using the Java Swing framework, and is intergrated with the DEVS-FIRE model in a well-designed manner. The software architecture is described and the simulation environment and experiment results with different fuel, terrain and weather data are presented.

<p>Disturbances in power systems are common and they result in electromechanical oscillations called power swing. The power swings could be severe and it may lead to loss of synchronism among the interconnected generators. This is referred to as out-of-step condition. The voltage and current swings during an out-of-step condition damage power system equipments and also cause unwanted operations of various protective devices. The protection systems require an effective algorithm for fast and accurate detection of out-of-step condition. </p> <p>This research is focused on the development of a simple and effective out-of-step relay capable of detecting out-of-step condition in a complex power system. To achieve this, the research has gone through four distinct stages: development of an algorithm, simulation, hardware implementation and its testing. </p> <p>An out-of-step algorithm is proposed based on equal area criterion in time domain. The equal area criterion in time domain is obtained by modifying the traditional equal area criterion in power angle domain. A single machine infinite bus system, a two machine infinite bus system and a three machine infinite bus system and a 17-bus multiple machines system are used as case studies and are modeled using simulation tool(PSCAD). </p> <p>To test the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm, various out-of-step conditions are simulated by applying disturbances at various locations in the above chosen power system configurations. For hardware implementation and testing of the algorithm, a digital signal processing board (ADSP-BF533 from Analog Devices ) is used. To test the performance of the developed digital relay in a closed loop, real time power system signals are necessary and therefore for this purpose, a Real Time Digital Simulator (RTDS) available in the power research laboratory is used. The RTDS simulator mimics the actual power systems in real time. The signals required by the relays can be tapped from the RTDS and the signals coming from relay can be fed back into the RTDS, which makes the closed loop testing of the digital relay possible. This research has yielded a simple out-of-step algorithm and unlike the other out-of-step detection techniques proposed in the literature does not need offline system studies to arrive at a solution.The developed digital out-of-step relay is capable of making decisions based only on the information available from its point of installation, thus it avoids the communication devices which is advantageous for the out-of-step protection of a complex power system. Finally, the simulation results show that the proposed algorithm can be applied to any power configurations and is faster compared to the conventional concentric rectangle schemes used in the literature.</p>

none

none

Dredge cutting forces produced by the movement of the cutterhead through the sediment have been measured with the laboratory dredge carriage located at the Haynes Coastal Engineering Laboratory. The sediment bed that was used for the dredging test was considered to be relatively smooth and the sediment used was sand with a d50=0.27 mm. Forces on the dredge carriage were measured using five 13.3 kN (3000 lb) one directional load cells placed on the dredge ladder in various places so the transmitted cutting forces could be obtained. The objectives for this study are to determine the vertical, horizontal, and axial forces that are produced by the cutterhead while testing. So, to find these cutter forces, a static analysis was performed on the carriage by applying static loads to the cutterhead in the vertical, horizontal, and axial directions, and for each load that was applied, readings were recorded for all five of the load cells. Then, static equilibrium equations were developed for the dredge carriage ladder to determine loads in the five load cells. Also, equilibrium equations can be applied to a dredging test to find the cutterhead forces by taking the measured data from the five load cells and applying the known forces to the equations, and the cutterhead forces can be determined. These static equilibrium equations have been confirmed by using a program called SolidWorks, which is modeling software that can be used to do static finite element analysis of structural systems to determine stresses, displacement, and pin and bolt forces. Data that were gathered from the experimental procedure and the theoretical calculations show that the force on the dredge cutterhead can be determined. However, the results from the static equilibrium calculations and the results from the SolidWorks program were compared to the experiment procedure results, and from the comparison the procedure results show irregularities when a force of approximately 0.889 kN (200 lb) or above is applied to the cutterhead in a north, south, west, or east orientation. The SolidWorks program was used to determine the results for displacements of the dredge carriage ladder system, which showed that large displacements were occurring at the location of the cutterhead, and when the cutterhead displaces it means that the carriage ladder is also moving, which causes false readings in the five load cells. From this analysis it was determined that a sixth force transducer was needed to produce more resistance on the ladder; and the cell #1 location needed to be redesigned to make the ladder system as rigid as possible and able to produce good testing results. The SolidWorks program was used to determine the best location where the sixth force transducer would give the best results, and this location was determined to be on the lower south-west corner oriented in the direction east to west. The static equilibrium equations were rewritten to include the new redesigned cell #1 location and the new location of the sixth load cell. From the new system of equations, forces on the cutterhead can be determined for future dredging studies conducted with the dredge carriage. Finally, the forces on the laboratory cuttersuction dredge model cutterhead were scaled up to the prototype 61 cm (24 in) cuttersuction dredge. These scaled up cutting forces on the dredge cutterhead can be utilized in the design of the swing winches, swing cable size, ladder supports, and ladder.

This report is mainly based on the paper "Optimal multiple stopping and valuation of swing options" by R. Carmona and N. Touzi (1). Here the authors model and solve optimal stopping problems with more than one exercise time. The existence of optimal stopping times is firstly proved and they then construct the value function of American put options with multiple exercises in the case of the Black-Scholes model, characterizing the exercise boundaries of the perpetual case. Finally, they extend the analysis to the swing contracts with infinitely many exercise rights. In this report, we concentrate on explaining their rigorous mathematical analysis in detail, especially for the valuation of the perpetual American put options with single exercise and two exercise rights, and the characteristics of the exercise boundaries of the multiple stopping case. These results are presented as theorems in Chapter 2 and Chapter 3. / text

No description available.

A large number of studies have concentrated on golf swing biomechanics, ranging from planar rigid-link models to 3D kinematic analysis. A promising technique, instantaneous screw axis (ISA) theory, has not been covered in the literature and could provide a better true segment rotation approximation. The objectives of this study are to identify ISA location and orientation, as well as segment angular velocity, of the major body segments involved in the golf swing. For all subjects, it was found that the magnitude of maximum angular velocities increased from the most proximal segment (the pelvis) to the most distal segment (the left arm), in accordance with the summation of speeds principle. Furthermore, most subjects achieved their maximum angular velocities in the desired kinematic sequence, where the first maxima was achieved by the most proximal segment and followed by the more distal segments in the kinematic chain.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2007. / The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file. Title from title screen of research.pdf file (viewed on April 1, 2008) Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.H.A.)--University of Michigan, 1969.