Reviving floodplain in Miami

This is a thesis carried out in three phases. Phase 1 and Phase 2 are research-based, and Phase 3 is exploring the future design schemes under the principles and criteria that have been set up in Phase 1 and 2. Phase 1 is focused on understanding the water dynamics and major issues in Miami, questions like why Miami is so vulnerable to flooding, and where the water comes from are answered. The conclusions of this phase are scientific principles of how water behaves and how water is managed in the South Florida region. Moreover, critical issues caused by flooding and sea level rise are identified. Phase 2 is more specific research and analysis of the conditions along the canals in Miami area. Sea level rise will cause flooding not just coastal but also inland along the canals. Inspired by the historical conditions of the Everglades, the author defines the concept of this thesis to revive floodplain in Miami, to bring back floodplain structures in urban area and let flooding express its dynamic, thus to make the city more resilient. This phase includes research and information that would help the author narrow down time scope and site to design with. Phase 3 is systematic analysis and schematic design showing how the thesis concept is realized in space. Case studies are carried out to examine what has been done in precedent projects. Detailed landscape design is the focus to express how the author’s intentions are displayed in the physical landscape

Ultrasensitive vibrational resonance induced by small disturbances

We have found two kinds of ultra-sensitive vibrational resonance in coupled nonlinear systems. It is particularly worth pointing out that this ultra-sensitive vibrational resonance is a transient behavior caused by transient chaos. Considering long-term response, the system will transform from transient chaos to periodic response. The pattern of vibrational resonance will also transform from ultra-sensitive vibrational resonance to conventional vibrational resonance. This article focuses on the transient ultra-sensitive vibrational resonance phenomenon. It is induced by a small disturbance of the high-frequency excitation and the initial simulation conditions, respectively. The damping coefficient and the coupling strength are the key factors to induce the ultra-sensitive vibrational resonance. By increasing these two parameters, the vibrational resonance pattern can be transformed from an ultra-sensitive vibrational resonance to a conventional vibrational resonance. The reason for different vibrational resonance patterns to occur lies in the state of the system response. The response usually presents transient chaotic behavior when the ultra-sensitive vibrational resonance appears and the plot of the response amplitude versus the controlled parameters shows a highly fractalized pattern. When the response is periodic or doubly-periodic, it usually corresponds to the conventional vibrational resonance. The ultra-sensitive vibrational resonance not only occurs at the excitation frequency, but it also occurs at some more nonlinear frequency components. The ultra-sensitive vibrational resonance as a transient behavior and the transformation of vibrational resonance patterns are new phenomena in coupled nonlinear systems

Distributed Coherent Aperture Radar Enabled by Microwave Photonics

Distributed Coherent Aperture Radar (DCAR) utilizes multiple separated antenna apertures to emit signals in the same space area, realizing spatial coherent synthesis of electro-magnetic waves. Such a flexible radar system has advantages such as higher resolution, greater radar power, and lower cost. Combined with microwave photonic technologies, which have merits in wideband signal generation, transmission and procession, the DCAR has a comprehensive and better performance. This paper introduces a microwave photonics-based high-resolution distributed coherent aperture radar that was proposed by researchers of Tsinghua University. Taking advantages of microwave photonic technology, a group of wideband orthogonal phase-coded linear frequency modulation waves is generated in the coherence-on-receive mode, with the frequency ranging from 8.5 GHz to 11.5 GHz, all with phase coding under a bit rate of 0.5 Gbps. The orthogonality of the signals is nearly 30 dB, and the range resolution is better than 0.05 m. While in the full coherence mode, the transmitted waveforms can be flexibly switched to the wideband coherent linear frequency modulation waves, and the full coherent synthesis can be realized. The waveforms generated by the proposed system can meet the waveform requirements of the DCAR in different operation modes. In the experiment, full coherence is achieved with two sets of radars, resulting a signal- to-noise ratio gain of 8.3 dB

Research on Optical Spectrum Processing for Photonic-Assisted Broadband RF Cross- Eye Jamming System

Cross-eye jamming technology has been used in electronic warfare, which attempts to protect a military platform from monopulse tracking radars. The cross-eye jamming technology has the ability of inducing angular errors to the monopulse tracking radars by transmitting two jamming signals with equal amplitudes and opposite phases. At present, high operation frequency and broadband cross-eye jamming system has been rarely demonstrated. Therefore, the present cross-eye jamming systems are hard to jam frequency-agile radar or multi-band radar, whose carrier frequency covers a large spectral range. In this paper, a photonic-assisted broadband radio frequency (RF) cross-eye jamming system is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. To achieve effective jamming effect, the intercepted radar signal is modulated to optical carriers and the phase shift is realized by optical spectrum processing. The relationship between system parameter tolerances and jamming effects are also simulated. Furthermore, the RF transfer function of X-band, Ku-band and K-band has been obtained in the experiments. The experimental results show that the amplitude and phase mismatch are below 2.15 degrees and 0.4 dB, respectively. Calculated cross-eye gain is 39 dB

Effects of wheat starch content on its flour and frozen dough bread

The refined wheat flour was mixed with different types of wheat starch in different addition levels, their microstructure, chemical bonds in the dough and baking characteristics of 0–8 weeks frozen dough bread were studied. With the increase of A-Type starch granules and whole wheat starch, the pores of gluten network first decreased and then increased. Conversely, an increase in B-Type starch granules consistently reduced gluten network porosity. With the increase of whole wheat starch, the content of free sulfhydryl group and hydrophobic interaction decreased gradually. Minimal additions of B-Type granules were found to enhance the specific volume of fresh bread, whereas increased quantities improved the specific volume of frozen dough bread. The addition of a small quantity of A- or B-Type granules enhances the freezing stability of bread. This study provides effective information for elucidating the effects of wheat starch on the frozen dough and bread properties in protein-starch matrix

Numerical Analysis of the Factors Influencing a Vertical U-Tube Ground Heat Exchanger

The development of a three-dimensional, unsteady state model, which couples heat transfer with groundwater seepage for a vertical U-tube ground heat exchanger (GHE) is presented. The influence of underground soil thermal properties, grout materials, inlet water temperature and velocity, and groundwater seepage on heat transfer in the GHE is examined. The results indicate that before the heat in the borehole is saturated, the heat flux in the GHE is directly proportional to the thermal conductivity coefficient of the grout materials. The radius of the thermal effect of the GHE and the recovery rate of the temperature in the soil are also proportional to the thermal diffusion coefficient of the soil. In cooling mode, the increase of the inlet water temperature of the GHE results in enhanced heat transfer. However, this may cause issues with heat buildup. The increase of the inlet water velocity in the GHE enhances heat convection in the tube. The effect of thermal-seepage coupling in groundwater can reduce the accumulated heat, thus resulting in the effective enhancement of the heat transfer in the GHE