Performance Comparison of Microstrip Patch Antenna Using h-BN Nanoceramic Substrate and FR4 Substrate

The recent communication receiver requires compact size, low cost, less weight and high-performance antenna for broadband applications. This paper compares the performance of the microstrip patch antenna designed using h-BN nano ceramic substrate with antenna designed using FR4 substrate. In this proposed new substrate is developed using powder metallurgy principle. Simulated and experimental results shows that proposed substrate for patch antenna in S-band applications achieve good resonance at two different frequencies 2.2 and 2.6 GHz with reflection coefficient of ?35 and ?40 dB respectively. Same antenna structure using FR4 structure is achieving good resonance at multiple frequency and broadband characteristics in C-band and X-band of the radio spectrum.

     

An automatic impact-based delamination detection system for concrete bridge decks

Delamination of concrete bridge decks is a commonly observed distress in corrosive environments. In traditional acoustic inspection methods, delamination is assessed by the “hollowness” of the sound created by impacting the bridge deck with a hammer or bar or by dragging a chain. The signals from such sounding methods are often contaminated by ambient traffic noise and delamination detection is highly subjective. In the proposed method, a modified version of independent component analysis (ICA) is used to filter the traffic noise. To eliminate subjectivity, mel-frequency cepstral coefficients (MFCC) are used as features for delamination detection and the delamination is detected by a radial basis function (RBF) neural network. Results from both laboratory and field data suggest that the proposed method is noise robust and has satisfactory performance. The method can also detect the debonding of repair patches and concrete delamination below the repair patches. The algorithms were incorporated into an automatic impact-based delamination detection (AIDD) system for field application.     

An Energy Efficient Clustered Gravitational and Fuzzy Based Routing Algorithm in WSNs

Wireless Personal Communications - Wireless sensor networks consist of many tiny sensor nodes which are deployed in various geographical locations for sensing the normal spectacles and also to...     

Sensors to Monitor CFRP/Concrete Bond in Beams Using Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy

The use of inexpensive electrochemical impedance spectroscopy based sensor technology for nondestructive evaluation (NDE) of bond degradation between external carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) reinforcement and concrete is examined. Copper tape on the surface of the CFRP sheet, stainless steel wire embedded in the concrete, and reinforcing bars were used as the sensing elements. Laboratory experiments were designed to test the capability of the sensors to detect the debonding of the CFRP from the concrete and to study the effect of short-term (humidity and temperature fluctuations) and long-term (freeze-thaw and wet-dry exposure and rebar corrosion) environmental conditions on the measurements. The CFRP sheet was debonded from the concrete, and impedance measurements were taken between various pairs of electrodes at various interfacial crack lengths. The dependence of the impedance spectra, and of the parameters obtained from equivalent circuit analysis, on the interfacial crack length was studied. Capacitance parameters in the equivalent circuit correlated strongly with the interfacial crack length and can be used to assess the global state of the bond between CFRP sheets and concrete. Impedance measurements taken between embedded wire sensors can be used to detect the location of debonded regions.     

Response of an Earth Dam to Spatially Varying Earthquake Ground Motion

The stochastic response of the Santa Felicia earth dam, in southern California, to spatially varying earthquake ground motion (SVEGM) is analyzed. An SVEGM model that accounts for both incoherence and propagation of seismic waves is used, the results are compared with those for various simplified excitations, and the sensitivity of the responses to coherency models proposed by different researchers is investigated. A 3D inhomogeneous finite-element model is used to represent the dam. Finite element-based random vibration analysis is performed and the statistical moments of Cartesian displacement, stress, and strain responses are computed. Statistical moments of the maximum shear stress are computed using Monte Carlo simulation that utilizes results from the random vibration analysis. The results indicate that the stress response of stiff material near the base of the dam can be significantly increased due to SVEGM, and that the increase is sensitive to the low-frequency variation of ground motion coherency.     

Capacity reduction and fire load factors for LRFD of steel columns exposed to fire

Capacity reduction and fire load factors corresponding to the load and resistance factor design (LRFD) format are developed for steel columns exposed to fire. A sample deterministic framework to determine fire and steel temperatures and the capacity of steel columns is adopted for this analysis to structure the methodology. A specific number of parameters that affect the structural response, including the fire load, ratio of floor area to the total area of the fire compartment, opening factor, thermal absorptivity of compartment boundaries, thickness, density and thermal conductivity of insulation, dead load, and live load are taken as random variables. Mechanical and sectional properties of steel (e.g., yield strength, cross-sectional area, etc.), are also considered to be random variables. The effect of active fire protection systems (e.g., sprinklers, smoke and heat detectors, fire brigade, etc.), in reducing the probability of occurrence of a severe fire is included. Given the choice of framework and based on detailed reliability analyses, it is shown that the capacity reduction and fire load factors should vary depending on the presence of active fire protection systems in a building.     

Effect of 100 MeV O7+ ion beam irradiation on radio frequency reactive magnetron sputtered ZnO thin films

Zinc oxide (ZnO) thin films were deposited on sapphire substrates at room temperature by radio frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering. These films were irradiated with 100 MeV O⁷⁺ ions of the fluencies 5×10¹³ ions/cm² at room temperature (RT) and at liquid nitrogen temperature (LNT). Profilometer studies showed that the roughness of pristine and LNT irradiated ZnO thin films were higher than that of the RT irradiated ZnO thin film. The glancing angle X-ray diffraction analysis reveals a reduced intensity and increased full width at half maximum (FWHM) of the (002) diffraction peak in the case of LNT irradiated film indicating disorder. However, the intensity and FWHM of the (002) diffraction peak in the case of RT irradiated ZnO thin films are comparable to those of the pristine film. UV–visible transmission spectra show that the percentage of transmission and band gap energy are different for RT and LNT irradiated films. While the pristine ZnO thin film exhibits two emissions—a broad emission at 403 nm and a sharp emission at 472 nm in its photoluminescence spectrum; the emission at 472 nm was absent for the irradiated films. The atomic concentrations of zinc and oxygen during the irradiation process were obtained using auger electron spectroscopy.     

Eigenproperties of large-scale structures by finite element partitioning and homotopy continuation

Finite element partitioning (or substructuring) is employed to estimate the eigenproperties of large-scale structural systems. A homotopy equation is constructed and its solutions are characterized by a number of curves which connect the eigensolutions of the partitions with those of the complete system. A step-by-step tracing procedure is developed to follow these curves. At each step, prediction and correction are performed. The Rayleigh–Ritz procedure and the conjugate gradient method are used as predictor and corrector, respectively. Compared with the sole use of either the Rayleigh–Ritz or gradient methods, the proposed method is more reliable and more efficient for large-scale problems. Numerical implementation is well suited for supercomputers.     

Application of Noise Cancelling and Damage Detection Algorithms in NDE of Concrete Bridge Decks Using Impact Signals

Delamination is a commonly observed distress in concrete bridge decks. Among all the delamination detection methods, acoustic methods have the advantages of being fast and inexpensive. In traditional acoustic inspection methods, the inspector drags a chain alone or hammers on the bridge deck and detects delamination from the “hollowness” of the sound. The signals are often contaminated by ambient traffic noise and the detection of delamination is highly subjective. This paper describes the performance of an impact-based acoustic NDE method where the traffic noise was filtered by employing a noise cancelling algorithm and where subjectivity was eliminated by introducing feature extraction and pattern recognition algorithms. Different algorithms were compared and the best one was selected in each category. The comparison showed that the modified independent component analysis (ICA) algorithm was most effective in cancelling the traffic noise and features consisting of mel-frequency cepstral coefficients (MFCCs) had the best performance in terms of repeatability and separability. The condition of the bridge deck was then detected by a radial basis function (RBF) neural network. The performance of the system was evaluated using both experimental and field data. The results show that the selected algorithms increase the noise robustness of acoustic methods and perform satisfactorily if the training data is representative.     

Effect of h‐BN nanoceramic substrate on the performance of microstrip patch antenna in S‐band applications

The modern portable communication devices demand compact antenna with superior performance and reduced size and weight. The design and development of such antennas for broadband applications is a challenge for the researchers. In this paper, a microstrip patch antenna with h BN nanoceramic‐based substrate for S‐band application has been proposed and analyzed its performance experimentally. The proposed antenna has been fabricated using powder metallurgy and etching process. The performance of the fabricated antenna has been analyzed in terms of its characteristics such as return loss, gain, and radiation efficiency. Return loss of the proposed antenna is obtained as ?43 dB at resonance frequency. Proposed antenna using h‐BN nanoceramic substrate achieves peak gain of 8 dB and acceptable radiation efficiency in S‐band.