Speech driven user interface for an intelligent house : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Engineering in Information Engineering at Massey University, Albany, New Zealand

Speech driven user interface for an intelligent house is one of a number of Graduate research projects at Massey University. It is part of Project 'Smart House'. This thesis details development of a control system whose inputs are speech signal rather than manual. The control system consists of several sub-systems including speech recognition, command generation, signal transmission, signal reception and command manipulation. The completed speech driven user interface should operate in conjunction with Real-time implementation of a Microphone Array beam-former and Personal identity recognition that were developed concurrently with this project. The speech recognition and command generation subsystems are implemented on a PC whereas the signal transmission, signal reception and command manipulation subsystems are designed at embedded board level. The remote controller can control some electrical appliances, such as TV and CD player, and switch and dim the light

Numerical Study of the Wake Flow of a Wind Turbine with Consideration of the Inflow Turbulence

Considering the fact that wind turbines operate at the bottom of the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) where the turbulence is at a high level, and the difficulty of mesh generation in the fully modeled numerical simulation, it is necessary to carry out researches to study the wake flow of wind turbines with consideration of the inflow turbulence. Therefore, a numerical method generating turbulence was proposed and the results show good agreement with those in experiments, based on which the flow fields in the wake of a wind turbine at two tip speed ratios are examined in detail through three actuator methods, namely, ADM, ADM-R and ALM. The performances of these methods were studied and the error sources for each method are clarified. Moreover, the computational efficiency were revealed and the influencing factor for the efficiency is concluded. Besides, the equilibrium relation of the N-S equation in the wake is revealed, which provides a theoretical basis for the optimal arrangement of the wind turbine. It shows that the mean velocity and fluctuating velocity vary greatly near the wind turbine, and become stable gradually away from the wind turbine. The results of ALM method shows the best agreement with the experiment. At near wake region, the turbulent stress term, pressure gradient term and convection term mainly contribute to the equation equilibrium, and convection term is in equilibrium with the turbulent stress term at the far wake

LESモデルを用いた数値流体解析による竜巻状渦に伴う流れ場と空気力に関する研究

学位の種別:課程博士University of Tokyo(東京大学

Scalar Transport over a Forest Edge with Impact of Vertical Distribution of Foliage and Source Types

The dynamics of forest-boundary-layer interactions over a forest edge have been an interesting research topic in recent years. A better understanding of edge flow has implications for the siting and interpretation of flux measurements near a forest edge. In the present study, we use large-eddy simulations with the newly developed multi-layer canopy model MCANOPY to investigate canopy flows, or more specifically scalar transfer, over a forest edge. Two important impact factors for edge flows are considered: the vertical distribution of foliage and the scalar source/sink distribution. The simulations show that both factors have non-ignored impacts on the scalar transfer over a forest edge. For plants with a deep, and sparse trunk space, a strong and long sub-canopy jet is observed, which qualitatively changes the flow dynamics and thus the scalar distributions. For relatively uniform distributed foliage plants, a strong flow convergence is found near the leading edge, which dominates the edge flow patterns and leads to a scalar flux peak region at the canopy top. Investigation has shown that the scalar concentrations are mainly affected by the flow advection rather than the turbulent for plants in our simulations with leaf area density of 4. The scalar fluxes are mainly affected by the vertical gradient of scalar concentration since the turbulence near a forest edge is qualitatively similar. In consistent with previous studies, the uniform ground scalar source shows the most pronounced spatial variations. While considering the source from the MCANOPY model that is close to reality, the behavior of scalars (i.e., CO2 and water vapor) is even more complicated owing to the interaction between flow dynamics and scalar source/sink distributions. It implies that both the scalar source distributions and canopy structures should be considered when interpreting flux measurement near a forest edge. The work here has important implications for interpreting measurement data and improves the understanding of scalar transfer over a forest edge

Sequence Analysis of Alginate-Derived Oligosaccharides by Negative-Ion Electrospray Tandem Mass Spectrometry

Negative-ion electrospray tandem mass spectrometry (ES-MS/MS) with collision-induced dissociation (CID) is attempted for sequence determination of alginate oligosaccharides, derived from polyanionic alginic acid, polymannuronate, and polyguluronate by partial depolymerization using either alginate lyase or mild acid hydrolysis. Sixteen homo- and hetero-oligomeric fragments were obtained after fractionation by gel-filtration and strong anion exchange high performance liquid chromatography. The product-ion spectra of these alginate oligosaccharides were dominated by intense B-, C-, Y-, and Z-type ions together with 0,2A- and 2,5A-ions of lower intensities. Internal mannuronate residues (M) produce weak but specific decarboxylated Zint-ions (Zint − 44 Da; int: denotes internal), which can be used for distinction of M and a guluronate residue (G) at an internal position. A reducing terminal M or G, although neither gives rise to a specific ion, can be identified by differences in the intensity ratio of fragment ions of the reducing terminal residue [2,5Ared]/[0,4Ared] (red: denotes reducing terminal)

Study on Tensile Properties of Nanoreinforced Epoxy Polymer: Macroscopic Experiments and Nanoscale FEM Simulation Prediction

The effect of nanosilica contents on mechanical properties of the epoxy matrix with some nanoparticle aggregations was studied in macroscopic experiments and nanoscale simulation, particularly with regard to the effective modulus and ultimate stress. Three analytical models were used to obtain the effective elastic modulus of nanoparticle-reinforced composites. Based on Monte-Carlo method, the special program for the automatic generation of 2D random distribution particles without overlapping was developed for nanocomposite modeling. Weight fractions of nanoparticles were converted to volume fractions, in order to coordinate the content unit in the simulation. In numerical analysis, the weak interface strengthening and toughening mechanism was adopted. Virtual crack closure technique (VCCT) and extended finite element method (XFEM) were used to simulate phenomena of nanoparticle debonding and matrix crack growth. Experimental and simulation results show a good agreement with each other. By way of simulation, the weak interface toughening and strengthening mechanism of nanocomposites is confirmed