1990

Radio Frequency and Microwave Power Measurement

Tue, 12 Jun 2018 00:58:38 GMT

The need to measure electrical power is common to many branches of science and engineering. This book presents a wide-ranging survey of the many types of radio-frequency and microwave power meter and the techniques which are used for calibrating and intercomparing them. The frequency range is 1 MHz to 200 GHz.

The first of the sixteen chapters considers the fundamentals. Four chapters are then devoted to the subject of calorimetry, which forms the basis of the majority of primary standards for power measurement. A further five chapters describe the various types of non-calorimetric power meter, which include not only the commonly used thermistor, thermoelectric and diode types, but also force-operated instruments and a considerable number of miscellaneous devices. Calibration and intercomparison methods are covered in three closely linked chapters which treat respectively the basic techniques, the use of reflectometers for power meter calibration, and the problems associated with connectors and adapters. In the last three chapters a mixture of topics is covered. First a concise survey of pulsed power measurements is presented. Attention is then given to the topics of voltage and current measurement, which are closely related to power measurement. Finally, the subject of the international intercomparison of standards is discussed and the results of some of the more important intercomparison exercises are summarised.

Wireless: The Crucial Decade

Tue, 12 Jun 2018 00:38:33 GMT

The crucial decade for the development of the domestic wireless was 1924-34. At the beginning of the period most receivers in Britain were crystal sets, but by the end nearly all sets were on the mains, using valves and mostly with superhet circuits-broadly the same as those in use today.

This book describes the broadcasting trends and receiver developments in Europe and America, and includes a detailed account of wireless development in Britain. The vital changes in radio valves are described, and the book concludes with a fascinating account of the rise and fall of home construction of wireless receivers from kits of parts. In the early years it was a nationwide activity. By the end of the decade it had virtually died out. Sets had become too complex for the amateur and commercially produced sets were almost as cheap as construction kits.

The author has an encyclopaedic knowledge of the subject. Much of the information comes from his private collection of papers and early magazines, complete with their advertisements - material that is not generally available in public collections. The crucial decade is likely to prove the definitive work on the subject. It is essential reading for those interested in the history of wireless and the development of its technology.

A History of the World Semiconductor Industry

Tue, 12 Jun 2018 00:29:17 GMT

The book describes the development of semiconductor manufacture on a worldwide basis, from its early beginnings to date. Its approach is wide-ranging, encompassing early experimental work rooted in nineteenth century science, and it includes a brief historical review of the thermionic valve, which played an important part in the genesis of the semiconductor industry. The contents include a description of the establishment and subsequent development of semiconductor manufacture within the various nation states. Although not a technical treatise, major device types and manufacturing processes used in semiconductor fabrication are outlined. Factors affecting the performance of the industry within the major national participants are discussed, and the relationship of the industry to science and technology is also considered.

The book should be of interest to scientists and engineers, technical historians, and indeed anyone with an interest in the development of a modern, all-pervading technology.

The Development of a Strategy for Integrated Manufacturing Systems

Tue, 12 Jun 2018 00:24:52 GMT

This Guide is the first produced by The Integrated Manufacturing Systems Working Party of the Institution of Production Engineers. In considering the wide range of issues which arise for any Manufacturing company embarking on the integration of manufacturing systems, the Working Party decided to take a staged approach and this guide represents the first of several on topics relating to Integrated Manufacturing Systems.

Three such topics that arose immediately were:

A Strategic Approach
The Organisational Implications
Hardware and Software Communications

In this Guide we have concentrated on the first of these and tried to encapsulate all the major points which a senior executive should consider when developing a Strategy for Integrated Manufacturing Systems (IMS). Note that this is not a 'Manufacturing Strateg' - that is dealt with in another Institution guide. Here we are concentrating on the strategic considerations raised by integration.

Integration brings dramatic performance improvements and the system element - IMS - is one of the powerful ingredients which can help to bring about such a change. Every manufacturing business must now decide if, and when, to go for IMS. Some would say that the 'if' is not in question and that IMS will soon become a mandatory tool because all global competitors will have it. This Guide cannot answer the 'if' and 'when' directly but it aims to make you aware of the high-level issues involved in making IMS work.

Conduction and Induction Heating

Mon, 11 Jun 2018 23:14:31 GMT

This book aims at a theoretical and practical treatment of both conduction and induction heating. They share a common theory, one being the 'mirror image' of the other, and so one gets two for the price of one.

The book comprises four parts: conduction theory, induction theory, heat flow and practice.

Modern induction practice is treated in four big chapters - through heating, surface heating, special applications and metal melting. In addition, there is a smaller chapter on conduction heating. Although, at first sight, this might seem a lot of theory, the practical chapters make up half of the book and the theory itself is practically oriented. Throughout, the emphasis is on fundamentals and understanding, usually starting from first principles, with plenty of worked examples. Much of the theory is new, being either presented differently or solving new problems. Most of the Direct Resistance Heating is new.

There are new approaches to tube heating, both for DRH and induction; these show clearly the relationship to the solid solution. There are also chapters on saturation and the effect of permeability.

This is a book that should be invaluable to engineers and technicians, designers and users. It will be useful to students studying either the theory of the heating process or its practice. The mathematics is not difficult and SI units are used throughout.

Weibull Radar Clutter

Mon, 11 Jun 2018 23:07:32 GMT

The material presented in this book is intended to provide the reader with a practical treatment of Weibull distribution as applied to radar systems.

Topics include general derivation of Weibull distribution, measurements of Webull-distributed clutter, comparison of Webull distribution with various distributions including Rayleigh, gamma, log-normal and k- distributions, constant false alarm rate (CFAR) detectors for Weibull clutter, non-parametric CFAR detectors, and signal detection in the time and frequency domains. In particular, the Akaike Information Criterion (AIC), which is a rigorously mathematical fit of the hypothetical distribution to the data, is emphasised.

This book is written primarily for radar engineers. It is hoped that it will also be of value to teachers and graduate students and of interest to all who are working with Weibull distribution in various fields.

Ionospheric Radio

Mon, 11 Jun 2018 22:27:36 GMT

Ionospheric Radio replaces an earlier publication Ionospheric Propogation and is aimed at professional scientists, engineers, and students who need an intermediate-level reference and/or text. Students of aeronomy and radio wave propogation are introduced to basic wave theory in absorbing, anisotropic and dispersive media, and to the physics of production, loss and movement of plasma in the ionosphere in the presence of the geomagnetic field. Various radio techniques are described, and applications to the interpretation of ionospheric structures and dynamics are presented. The application of ionospheric data to radio communications problems includes the use of numerical and physical models and prediction techniques, and methods for calculating signal strengths are presented. Topics include Earth-space propagation, ionospheric modification, ionospheric disturbances, propagation by scattering from plasma irregularities, topside sounding, and propagation on frequencies from the extremely low to the super high. Reference lists are extensive and a section of questions tests the reader's understanding of the material.

Knowledge-based Systems for Industrial Control

Mon, 11 Jun 2018 21:24:04 GMT

Expert and knowledge-based systems have great potential for industrial control systems, particularly in the process industries. Recognising the importance of this emerging area, the Institution of Electrical Engineers organised a Vacation School on the subject, for engineers from industry and academia, at the University of Strathclyde in September 1990.

The course and this resulting text cover four main issues: the background of knowledge-based control, artificial intelligence, applications of knowledge expertise, and deductive control.

The background material presents knowledge based control from the perspective of Systems Engineering and Information Technology. When combined with an introduction to both artificial intelligence and fuzzy logic, a firm foundation is laid for consolidation of the later material of the book.

The importance of fuzzy control is considered and the use of expert systems in self-tuning control is discussed. The use of real-time knowledged based systems in Fermentation supervisory control is described and the impact of neural networks in process modelling is also considered. The development of COGSYS which is an environment for building expert systems and its applications is described, together with its application to a gas processing plant.

Case studies in condition monitoring are presented. The development of qualitative models for physical systems which is currently attracting considerable interest from the Al community is considered. The design of multivariable control systems and other aspects of process control are also covered.

Digital Signal Processing

Mon, 11 Jun 2018 21:15:47 GMT

Recent progress in the design and production of digital signal processing (DSP) devices has provided significant new opportunities to workers in the already extensive field of signal processing. It is now possible to contemplate the use of DSP techniques in cost-sensitive wide bandwidth applications, thereby making more effective use of the large body of available signal processing knowledge. Digital signal processing, long the province of telecommunications is, in both research and applications contexts, of growing importance in fields of medical signal analysis, industrial control (particularly robotics), in the analysis and synthesis of speech and in both audio and video entertainment systems. The growing demand for engineering skills in these areas has led to the writing of this book and the presentation of the material of the book at an lEE-sponsored Vacation School at the University of Leicester.

This book is different from others in the field in that it not only presents the fundamentals of DSP ranging from data conversion to z-transforms and spectral analysis, extending this into the areas of digital filtering and control, but also gives significant detail of the new devices themselves and how to use them. In addition to presenting the basic theory and describing the devices and how to design with them, the material is consolidated by extensive use of real examples in specific case studies.

The book is directed at readers with first degree level training in engineering, physical sciences or mathematics and with some understanding of electronics, and is appropriate for design engineers in industry, users of DSP devices in scientific research and in all technical development areas associated with the processing of signals for display, storage, transmission or control.

Deterministic Control of Uncertain Systems

Mon, 11 Jun 2018 21:14:45 GMT

One of the main fields of study in the control of dynamical systems has been the effective control of time-varying systems with uncertain parameters and external disturbances. In contrast to stochastic adaptive controllers with identification algorithms, the deterministic control of uncertain time-varying systems has a fixed nonlinear feedback controller, which operates effectively over a specified magnitude range of a class of system variations. If the variations satisfy certain matching conditions, complete insensitivity to system uncertainties can be achieved. The two main approaches are Variables Structure and Lyapunov control. The contents of this book reflect the research output of many authors. The chapters include material of an introductory nature as well as some of the latest research results. Attention has also been focussed upon some of the main areas of application, which include electric motor drives, robotics and flight control systems. The book should prove useful to control designers, theoreticians and graduate students.

Computer Control of Real-Time Processes

Mon, 11 Jun 2018 21:10:06 GMT

This book provides an introduction to many aspects of computer control. It covers techniques or control algorithm design and tuning of controllers; computer communications; parallel processing; and software design and implementation. The theoretical material is supported by case studies covering power systems control, robot manipulators, liquid natural as vaporisers, batch control of chemical processes; and active control of aircraft.

The book is suitable for practising engineers, postgraduate students and third year undergraduates specialising in control systems. It assumes some knowledge of control systems theory and computer hardware.

Managing Complexity in Software Engineering

Mon, 11 Jun 2018 20:58:15 GMT

Software engineering products are becoming ever more complex, because software is being used in the solution of more technically difficult problems and because the size of software projects continues to grow. A key question for software engineers is how to cope with this complexity. There is no single answer, and software engineers must attack the problem from a number of perspectives. A technical perspective reveals new paradigms for system development, including two paradigms that show particular promise: object-oriented design and formal methods. A management perspective recognises that good project management is vital to the success of a complex project. The scale of modern projects makes it essential to use automated support, so software engineers must also look at how to manage complexity from an automation perspective. Automated support can come in the form of discrete tools for particular tasks, or a packaged set of tools in a support environment.

The papers in this book address the problem of managing complexity in software engineering from these different perspectives. The papers are grouped into three sections: Paradigms of software development; Project management; and Automated support. The papers are selected from those presented at the 4th European Seminar on Industrial Software Technology organised by the European Workshop on Industrial Computer Systems (EWICS), whose aim is to promote the effective use of industrial computer systems through education, the dissemination of information and the development of guidelines and standards.