331 H.K7

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Homework7 (60 Points)

Assignment:

a) Find a technical journal for your current or planned field of work, and write
an executive summary of one of the majorarticles in it. You may use a hard copy or an
electronic format of a journal of your choice. The library is a good source for a variety of different
journals. Remember to include the reference for the journal that you choose. Follow the format
referenced in “An Engineer’s Guide to Technical Communication” figure 6.1, on page 81.
Length: 1 ½ to 2 pages. ***Do not use the format shown in Figure 6.2 for this
assignment.***

b) Find a technical journal for your current or planned field of work, and look for an article
that has graphs, charts, or tables in it. Select two of the graphic presentations and represent
them in a different format. (If something is presented as a Pie Chart, consider using a Bar Chart
or other format). You must create two different graphic presentations. Remember to include
the reference for the journal source that you choose. Follow the “good” style formats referenced
in “An Engineer’s Guide to Technical Communication” chapter 9, starting on page 158. Excel is
a good choice for creating charts and tables and you can paste the results into a word file.

Formatting:

– Use black text only.

– Text size needs to be 12 point size.

– Text needs to be double spaced.

– Margins on the document should be 1’’ on all sides.

– The following name block should appear in the upper right of your document:

Your Name

TECH 331 –Technology Problem Analysis II

November 18, 2013

– Title of your document is “

Homework 7

.”

– Paragraphs should have correct indentation.

– Please spell check and proofread your work.

– Please add page numbers to your document.

Content:

Opinion: When a question asks for your opinion, its answer is exactly that-your opinion. Feel
free to use your own opinion.

Cite Examples: For this class, you may use a citation right after the answer to a question, or
you may list your references at the end of the project. It is not required to have a separate
reference page for this class.

Stating the Question before Answering It: While some reports require that you state the
question before your answer, in this class it is not required to do this.

6.1 !II Summarizing Information

Design of a Low Cost Portable Combustion Data Analysis System

Executive Summary

Summary
Current federal air-quality standards require all new automobile models to pass emissions tests before they
can be mass-produced. Government testing is conducted by determining tailpipe emissions; however,
measuring tailpipe emissions alone is not efficient during the development phase of a new vehicle model.
Testing in a dynamometer chamber is the accepted method for conducting the emissions tests during the
vehicle design; however, it is costly and not efficient for testing during the development phase of a new
automobile model. In this project, a low-cost alternative to dynamometer chamber testing was developed.
This development could potentially translate into a significant reduction in the cost associated with the
design of a new automobile.

Data were gathered through several pressure and temperature sensors mounted on the cylinders, the exhaust
manifold, and the catalytic converters ofthe test vehicle: a sport-utility vehicle. These data were input into a
data acquisition board and the signals were conditioned and converted from analog to digital and used to
approximate total emissions through several computational routines. The data analysis system that was
developed uses a LabVrEW program for sampling data, a C++ program for performing computational work,
and a Visual Basic macro for importing the data into an Excel spreadsheet. Once the data have been imported
into Excel in a usable format, they can be further manipulated and output to graphs as necessary.

Conclusions
Through this project, a data analysis system for estimating nitrous oxide (NO) emissions from vehicle cyl inders
was successfully developed. This system enables accurate prediction of emissions without the expense of a
dynamometer chamber. The system uses a simple Windows NT PC platform for analysis, and standard
sensors and software for data acquisition. The system is cost effective and user friendly, and it should greatly
reduce the time and expense involved in the design of new vehicle models.

Recommendations
Future enhancements of this data analysis system would be to improve the user interface for performing the
analysis and to streamline the system into a single routine. Another enhancement would be to migrate the
system to the MTS/CAS system so that additional data collected throughout the vehicle could be incorporated
into the analysis.

@ure0Examp,e executivesummary

Example
Figure 6.1 shows an executive summary derived from the design project
report shown in Figure 6.S. Note that the executive summary in Figure 6.1 is
separated into sections that include a summary, conc1.usions, and recom-
mendations. Figure 6.2 shows a poor executive summary. It is not separated
into sections. Although this example is not a good executive summary, it is
an acceptable abstract.

6.1.2 Abstract
Function. The function of an abstract is similar to that of an executive summary.
An abstract summarizes the content of a technical paper (an executive summary

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Homework 7
• TECH 331 – HW7