An investigation of joint strength in bolted connections for Carbon unitape material [0/45/-45/90]3s is presented. The simple case of bearing double shear joint is considered. In the first stage the objective of work was to test three different material configurations with three lay up sequences and further reduce to one material and one lay up sequence which yields maximum Bearing strength. Further this material with maximum bearing strength was used to study the effects of various geometrical parameters such as edge to width ratio, width to diameter ratio, hole clearance, external factors such as temperature and clamp up force on the bearing strength. The second objective of thesis was to build a 3D finite element model for the quasi-isotropic material, validate the results with the experimental results and provide a future scope to use this model for various combinations of material and parametric studies. / Thesis (M.S.)--Wichita State University, College of Engineering, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering.

Directors world-wide have made countless film adaptations of Shakespeare’s works, so a somewhat heated debate exists in terms of what deserves the label “Shakespearean film,” initiating conversation regarding what constitutes use of the word “Shakespearean.” Without a doubt, and for any given play, Shakespeare borrowed anything from character names to plots, settings, etc.—all the items that form the bulk of his plays. One cannot, however, limit consideration of a signature element to these items, for they exist as stock elements that have repeated and resurfaced over the span of the ages. The language, all inclusively—the diction, puns, measure, etc.—makes Shakespeare’s plays Shakespeare’s. In Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare writes, “[w]hat’s in a name? That which we call a rose / By any other word would smell as sweet” (2.2.43-4); however, can this statement metaphorically apply to that which we have come to know as Shakespearean film? In other words, when a filmmaker removes Shakespeare’s language, thereby removing Shakespeare’s signature from the work, would the film “smell as sweet,” so to speak, as Shakespeare’s play, purely on the basis that it names Shakespeare as its source material? My project will look at two of Shakespeare’s plays—Macbeth and King Lear—and Japanese director Akira Kurosawa’s corresponding film versions—Throne of Blood and Ran, and will assess what happens to the Shakespearean element of these films when Kurosawa translates the plays not only into another medium, but another language. / Thesis (M.A.)--Wichita State University, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Dept. of English

Airline companies are always looking for various services they can offer to differentiate them from others and increase there market share. On the other hand passengers in the aircraft always want to be in touch with the rest of the world through phone or internet to make there time more productive. The drive of gaining market share by airline companies and advances in wireless and internet technology has made voice communication possible from the aircraft. Present technologies offer cell phone access or allow voice communication over internet through satellite link. The major disadvantage they pose is the interference of cell phone transmission with navigational system of aircraft and the cost of implementation. Present research work attempts to address the above problem by designing an IP based network which is capable of connecting travelers from aircraft to the rest of the world. / Thesis (M.S)-- Wichita State University, College of Engineering, Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering / "July 2007."

Although IEEE 802.11a/b/g standards allow use of multiple channels, only a single channel is popularly used, due to the lack of efficient protocols that enable use of Multiple Channels. There are some papers challenging this problem. Some of them have requirements that will increase the cost, like requirement of multiple transceivers. Some others address the problem with single transceivers, but are very hard to be employed in highly mobile Ad Hoc networks due to network-wide synchronization requirements. In this Thesis, multiple channel use in a wireless network with single transceiver nodes is addressed, and attempted to be solved with a new efficient Ad Hoc network MAC protocol, which intends to remove the requirement of network-wide synchronization. / Thesis (M.S): Wichita State University, College of Engineering, Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering / "July 2007."

An adaptive and reconfigurable flight control system is developed for a general aviation aircraft. The flight control system consisting of two neural networks is developed using a two phase procedure called the pre-training phase and the online training phase. The adaptive critic method used in this thesis was developed by Ferrari and Stengel. In the pre-training phase the architecture and initial weights of the neural network are determined based on linear control. A set of local gains for the linearized model of the plant is obtained at different design points on the velocity v/s altitude envelope using an LQR method. The pre-training phase guarantees that the neural network controller meets the performance specifications of the linear controllers at the design points. Online training uses a dual heuristic adaptive critic architecture that trains the two networks to meet performance specifications in the presence of nonlinearities and control failures. The control system developed is implemented for a three-degree-of-freedom longitudinal aircraft simulation. As observed from the results the adaptive control system meets performance requirements, specified in terms of the damping ratio of the phugoid and short period modes, in the presence of nonlinearities. The neural network controller also compensates for partial elevator and thrust failures. It is also observed that the neural network controller meets the performance specification for large variations in the parameters of the assumed and actual models. / Thesis (M.S)--Wichita State University, College of Engineering, Dept. of Aerospace Engineering / "July 2007."

Delamination is recognized as one of the most critical defects that can result from the machining of composites. Delamination has been a major form of failure in drilled composite materials due to the composite’s lack of strength in the direction of drilling, which results in poor surface finish, reduction in bearing strength, reduction in structural integrity, and ultimately poor performance of the composite. Delamination due to drilling has been a major research interest for many years, and a considerable amount of work has been done to reduce it. This thesis work involved deriving a formula to determine what applied thrust force would cause delamination in a particular drill bit, the multi-facet drill bit. To achieve that goal, a formula was developed. The conditions and the drill bit used were altered. The thrust force at which delamination occurred was dependent on the thickness and the composition of the material being used. Experimental validation of the physical model involved calculating the thrust force that would cause delamination, using the formula, and drilling at the calculated thrust force. The thrust force was applied as a correlation of feed rate and spindle speed. / Thesis (M.S.)--Wichita State University, College of Engineering, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering

The object of this thesis was to find the stability regions for control of an arbitrary order continuous or discrete-time plan transfer function with time delay using a unified approach. The stability boundaries of the proportional-integral (PI), proportional-derivative (PD), and proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controllers were found in terms of the proportional gain Kp , integral gain Ki , and derivative gain Kd . The delta operator was used to describe the controllers because it provides not only numerical properties superior to the discrete time shift operator but also converges to the continuous time derivative operator as the sampling period approaches zero. A key advantage of this approach is that stability boundaries can be found when only the frequency response and not the parameters of the plant transfer function are known. A unified approach allows use of the same procedure for finding the discrete time and continuous time stability regions. If the plant transfer function is known, the stability regions can be found analytically. Regions where phase and gain margin specifications are met can also be found. Finally, it was shown how the number of unstable poles changes as the stability boundaries are crossed. / Thesis (M.S.)--Wichita State University, College of Engineering, Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering / "July 2007."

Direction of arrival (DOA) estimation algorithms is the method used to estimate the direction of arrival angle of several signals impinging on a sensor array, which plays an important role in array signal processing. The requirement for DOA estimation arises in different areas of signal processing applications including radar, sonar, and wireless communications. The uniform circular array estimation of signal parameters via rotational invariance techniques (UCA-ESPRIT) and the root multiple signal classification for uniform circular array (UCA-ROOT-MUSIC) algorithms were proposed to estimate the DOA of coherent signals using one single snapshot. First, the mode excitation method was used to transform the uniform circular array (UCA) in element space into a virtual uniform linear array (VULA) in mode space as explained in many papers. Then, the Hermitian Toeplitz matrix was reconstructed from the observed data vector as a decorrelated algorithm in order to rearrange the data and to extend the dimensionality of the noise space. Consequently, signal and noise spaces could be estimated more accurately. The proposed method did not need forward/backward spatial smoothing of the covariance matrix, resulting in reduced computational complexity. Simulation results verify that the proposed algorithm with one snapshot has a close performance to the conventional mode of spatial smoothing with 100 snapshots. / Thesis (M.S.)--Wichita State University, College of Engineering, Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering / "December 2007."

This thesis includes the redesign and construction details of a salient pole rotor for an existing aircraft alternator. Salient pole rotor was designed to increase reliability of the conventional automotive and aircraft alternator. Details of the mechanical and electrical design methodology and implementation are included. Various parameters considered for design are also explained. The designed rotor matches the dimensions of the conventional automotive and aircraft alternator rotor, since the same alternator stator was used. The stator had a three phase delta-connected winding. It is used in aircraft to charge a battery at various modes of operation, as explained here. The experimental results of conventional automotive and aircraft alternator rotors and the salient pole rotor are compared and discussed. The salient pole rotor experiment included various air gaps and different field-winding tests. The rotor design is not exactly as required, but a thorough understanding of different aspects of the machine was achieved. Guidelines for further modifications are included in this thesis. / Thesis (M.S.)--Wichita State University, College of Engineering, Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering / "December 2007."

The speciation and reactivity of uranium is a topic of sustained interest because species dependent chemistry controls processes ranging from nuclear fuel processing to mobility and fate in the geological surface. Past condensed phase studies have shown uranium a wide range of oxidation states and coordinate ion numbers in the environment. These studies have also suggested the strong interactions such as charge transfer between the uranium cations and solvent molecules cause the latter to behave like equatorial ligands. Studying and understanding intrinsic uranium chemistry is challenging because it is difficult to gain explicit control over the interactions of solvent and non-solvent ligands with uranyl ions in the condensed phase. An attractive alternative, therefore, is to monitor reaction in the gas phase (i.e. a solution free environment) in order to gain control over the chemical species chosen for study and the specific neutral reagents. Recent studies shown that ion-trap mass spectrometry can be applied to the study of intrinsic metal and metal-complex chemistry by generating the metal complexes as ions through electrospray ionization ESI and allowing species to interact with neutral reagents present in the collision gas. Throughout these series of uranyl studies, ESI is used to produce gas-phase ions from solutions containing uranyl nitrate complexes in deionized water. Several studies were conducted to monitor uranium and ligands behavior under different systems by controlling factors such as the numbers of ligands attached to the uranium dioxo cation center, ligand degrees of freedom, and ligand basicities. These studies were designed to gain clear insight to the intrinsic behavior of uranium complexes. / Thesis (M.S.)--Wichita State University, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Dept. of Chemistry / "December 2007."