Radio over fibre enabled sensing and communications system for in building

This paper describes work on radio over fiber distributed antenna systems for improving the quality of radio coverage for in-building applications. The DAS network has also been shown to provide improved detection for Gen 2 UHF RFID tags. Using pre-distortion to reduce the problem of the RFID second harmonic, a simple heterogeneous sensing and communications system is demonstrated. © 2011 NOrthumbria University.

Building blocks towards VR-based flow sculpting

This paper reports work exploring the relationship between solid modelling, mesh generating and flow solving in the general context of design optimisation. In particular, the work is interested in the opportunities derived by tightly integrating these traditionally separate activities together within one piece of software. The near term aim is to ask the question: how might a truly virtual, rapid prototyping design system, with a tactile response like sculpting in clay, be constructed? This paper reports the building blocks supporting that ambition.

Centrifuge modelling-based verification of response spectra design methods for some vulnerable structures

Residential RC framed structures suffered heavily during the 2001 Bhuj earthquake in Gujarat, India. These types of structures also saw severe damage in other earthquakes such as the 1999 Kocaeli earthquake in Turkey and 921 Ji-Ji earthquake in Taiwan. In this paper the seismic response of residential structures was investigated using physical modelling. Idealised soft storey and top heavy, two degrees of freedom (2DOF) portal frame structures were developed and tested on saturated and dry sand models at 25 g using the Schofield Centre 10-m Beam Centrifuge. It was possible to recreate observed field behaviour using these models. As observed in many of the recent earthquakes, soft storey structures were found to be particularly vulnerable to seismic loads. Elastic response spectra methods are often used in the design of simple portal frame structures. The seismic risk of these structures can be significantly increased due to modifications such as removal of a column or addition of heavy water tanks on the roof. The experimental data from the dynamic centrifuge tests on such soft storey or top-heavy models was used to evaluate the predictions obtained from the response spectra. Response spectra were able to predict seismic response during small to moderate intensity earthquakes, but became inaccurate during strong earthquakes and when soil structure interaction effects became important. Re-evaluation of seismic risk of such modified structures is required and time domain analyses suggested by building codes such as IBC, UBC or NEHRP may be more appropriate. © Springer 2006.