Double Loop Network Architectures--A Performance Study

Single loop networks tend to become unreliable and suffer from poor performance when the number of nodes in the network becomes large. One approach to increasing reliability and improving performance is to use a double loop. In this paper, the performance (using analytical and simulation models) of a class of highly reliable double loop network architectures is presented. The richer topology of double loop networks allows more sophisticated routing algorithms to be used. Several routing algorithms are studied, including: fixed, adaptive to failure, and fully adaptive to failure and traffic load conditions.     

Corrosion-resistant polypyrrole-banana carbon (PPy-BC) nanocomposites for protection against electromagnetic interference: a green approach

Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Electronics - The article focuses on the suitability of electrically characterized polypyrrole-banana carbon (PPy-BC) nanocomposites for broadband...     

Reduction of sidelobe levels in multicarrier radar signals via the fusion of hill patterns and geometric progression

Multi-carrier waveforms have several advantages over single-carrier waveforms for radar communication. Employing multi-carrier complementary phase-coded (MCPC) waveforms in radar applications has recently attracted significant attention. MCPC radar signals take advantage of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing properties, and several authors have explored the use of MCPC signals and the difficulties associated with their implementation. The sidelobe level and peak-to-mean-envelope-power ratio (PMEPR) are the key issues that must be addressed to improve the performance of radar signals. We propose a scheme that applies pattern-based scaling and geometric progression methods to enhance sidelobe and PMEPR levels in MCPC radar signals. Numerical results demonstrate the improvement of sidelobe and PMEPR levels in the proposed scheme. Additionally, autocorrelations are obtained and analyzed by applying the proposed scheme in extensive simulation experiments.     

An Automata Based Approach for Verifying Information Flow Properties

We present an automated verification technique to verify trace based information flow properties for finite state systems. We show that the Basic Security Predicates (BSPs) defined by Mantel in [Mantel, H., Possibilistic Definitions of Security – An Assembly Kit, in: Proceedings of the 13th IEEE Computer Security Foundations Workshop (2000), pp. 185–199], which are shown to be the building blocks of known trace based information flow properties, can be characterised in terms of regularity preserving language theoretic operations. This leads to a decision procedure for checking whether a finite state system satisfies a given BSP. Verification techniques in the literature (e.g. unwinding) are based on the structure of the transition system and are incomplete in some cases. In contrast, our technique is language based and complete for all information flow properties that can be expressed in terms of BSPs.     

Fracture of Ti-Al<Subscript>3</Subscript>Ti metal-intermetallic laminate composites: Effects of lamination on resistance-curve behavior

The fracture toughness and resistance-curve (R-curve) behavior of Ti-Al₃Ti metal-intermetallic laminate (MIL) composites have been studied in the crack-divider orientation, by examining the effect of ductile-laminate-layer thickness and volume fraction. The MIL composites were fabricated in open air by a novel one-step process, and the final structure consists of alternating layers of ductile Ti and brittle Al₃Ti. Such a laminate architecture in conjunction with a relatively low volume fraction of tougher Ti (18 to 40 pct) was seen to augment the fracture toughness of the inherently brittle intermetallic by over an order of magnitude. Additionally, as a result of their low density, MIL composites exhibit a specific fracture toughness (K/ρ) on par with tougher but relatively denser ductile metals such as high-strength steel. Such vast improvements may be rationalized through the toughening provided by the ductile Ti layers. Specifically, toughening was obtained through plastically stretching the intact ductile Ti layers that formed bridging zones in the crack wake, thus reducing the crack driving force. Such toughening resulted in R-curve behavior, and the toughness values increased with an increase in the volume percentage of Ti. Weight-function methods were used to model the bridging behavior, and they indicated that large bridging zones (∼2 to 3 mm) were responsible for the observed increase in toughness. The role of large-scale bridging (LSB) conditions on the resistance curves is explored, and steady-state toughness (K _SS ) values are estimated using small-scale bridging (SSB) approximations. A new approach to gage the potential of laminate composites in terms of their true fracture-toughness values as determined from a cyclic crack-growth fatigue test is proposed, wherein small-scale specimens can be utilized to obtain fracture-toughness values.     

Optimization of infrared radiation cure process parameters for glass fiber reinforced polymer composites

Elevated temperature post curing is one of the most critical step in the processing of polymer composites. It ensures that the complete cross-linking takes place to produce the targeted properties of composites. In this work infrared radiation (IR) post curing process for glass fiber reinforced polymer composite laminates is studied as an alternative to conventional thermal cure. Distance from the IR source, curing schedule and volume of the composite were selected as the IR cure parameters for optimization. Design of experiments (DOE) approach was adopted for conducting the experiments. Tensile strength and flexural strength of the composite laminate were the responses measured to select the final cure parameters. Analysis of variance (ANOVA), surface plots and contour plots clearly demonstrate that the distance from the IR source and volume of the composite contribute nearly 70% to the response functions. This establishes that polymer composites cured using IR technique can achieve the same properties using only 25% of the total time compared to that of conventional thermal curing.     

A dynamic load-balancing policy with a central job dispatcher (LBC)

A dynamic load-balancing policy is proposed with a central job dispatcher called the LBC policy for distributed systems. The design of this policy is motivated by the operation of a single-queue multiserver queueing system, and the average job response time is the same as that of a single-queue multiserver system, which is the best achievable performance when the communication delay is reduced to zero. Hence, near-minimum average job response time is expected for distributed systems with high-speed communication subnets. The performance is studied for systems with nonnegligible job transfer delays in the following three aspects: average job response time, overhead due to information exchanges, and sensitivity to heterogeneous load     

Photoelastic determination of mode i stress intensity factor in tensile strips—effect of crack length

This paper reports an experimental investigation carried out, using the photoelastic technique, to determine the Mode I stress intensity factor in case of cracks of varying $\text{a}\text{w}$ ratio in single edge-notch specimens. The photoelastic information was analysed using the several methods proposed by earlier workers. The experimental results are compared with the analytical expressions.