Engineering Commons^™

Multi-Objective Optimization Of A Ridesharing System Performance, Mohammad Nasr Azadani

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Ridesharing is a shared vehicle service with the potential to meet the growing travel demand due to population increase, economic growth, and shortage in transportation infrastructure capacity. Compared to the current system of predominantly using personal vehicles, ridesharing services reduce the number of vehicles while providing mobility services to the same number of people with no additional investment in the transportation infrastructure. One of the big challenges in implementing ridesharing services is matching drivers and riders. Conflicts between matching-objectives to comply with the interests of diverse stakeholders influence the efficiency of ridesharing in a transportation system. This study investigates the …

Effect Of Binder Modification And Aggregate Size On Modulus And Fatigue Of Asphalt Concrete, Elizabeth Bashiti

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Asphalt concrete is one of the main ingredients used in the paving of roadways across the globe. These roadways have been deteriorating from overuse, under design, and a lack of understanding of the engineering properties. In the asphalt community, it is agreed upon that polymer modifiers and aggregate size have comparable impacts on the performance of a pavement, such as, low creep at high temperatures, high ductility at low temperatures, high toughness, resistance to moisture and temperature, high cohesive and adhesive strength. With all of these advantages, it has been often assumed that polymer modifiers extend/improve the expected life of …

Field Evaluation Of A Modular Press-Brake-Formed Steel Tub Girder In An Application That Includes Skew And Superelevation, Adam D. Roh

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

The Short Span Steel Bridge Alliance (SSSBA) is a group of bridge and culvert industry leaders (including steel manufacturers, fabricators, service centers, coaters, researchers, and representatives of related associations and government organizations) who have joined together to provide educational information on the design and construction of short span steel bridges in installations up to 140’-0” in length. A technical working group from within the SSSBA developed the notion for the modular shallow press-brake-formed steel tub girder as a solution for the short span steel bridge market.

After extensive testing at West Virginia University and multiple successful field demonstrations, members of …

Selective Precipitation And Recovery Of Rare Earth Elements From Acid Mine Drainage, Robyn Lauren Christoferson

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

The ability to secure rare earth elements (REEs) in the United States is of concern due to the rapid growth in demand and the monopolistic supply chain. The demand for REEs has skyrocketed in recent years due to the development of many green technologies. The United States and many other countries are currently reliant on China for REEs, who currently control greater than 90% of the global supply. Due to the severe impact of previous Chinese export quotas, it is important to lessen the reliance on importation and explore methods of recycling REEs from secondary sources. A secondary REE source …

Application Of Flowing Material Balance In Unconventional Reservoirs, Salem Alharbi

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

The application of the horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing to unconventional reservoirs, such as Marcellus Shale, has resulted in a significant increase in gas production in the United States. The estimation of the original hydrocarbons in place is an essential element for evaluating the economic success of any reservoir. There are a number of techniques available for estimating the original hydrocarbon in place such as decline curve analysis, volumetric method, and the material balance equation. Flowing Material Balance (FMB) is a more advanced techniques which has become popular in recent years because it does not require static (shut-in) pressure data …

On-Site Measurement Of The Water-Cementitious Ratio And Heat Of Hydration Of Delivered Concrete, Seyednavid Mardmomen

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

In this study, AASHTO T318-15 was adopted to estimate the water content of fresh concrete mixes and then revised to have better precision. The additional step required sieving out the coarse aggregate after drying the sample in a microwave oven, and it was then used in the calculation of the absorbed water and cementitious material content. Several laboratory batches, as well as on-site water-cementitious (w/cm) ratio tests, were performed on concrete mixes containing ordinary Portland cement, ground granulated blast furnace slag, and Class F fly ash. The results of the experiments indicated that the accuracy of the revised method was …

Confirmation Of Tdm Capabilities In Modeling Compartmentalized Wag Eor, Anthony William Morrow

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Data-Driven Reservoir Modeling (DDRM), commonly referred to as Top-Down Modeling (TDM), is a relatively new and cutting-edge approach to the traditional numerical reservoir modeling and simulation techniques. DDRM uses artificial intelligence and machine learning in tandem to construct full-field models using measured data instead of calculations that refer to equations derived from averaged values and type curves. TDM allows all of the measured data from a field to be combined and used towards generating predictions of the production on a well by well basis for a specific field. Due to TDM not using the traditional physics-based approach, it is subjected …

Utilization Of A Numerical Reservoir Simulation With Water And Gas Injection For Verification Of Top Down Modeling, Ashley Konya

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

The primary purpose of this thesis was to confirm the capabilities of artificial intelligence and machine learning through Top Down Modeling in history matching and predicting the oil, gas, and water production rates, reservoir pressure, and water saturation, of one limb of an anticline with water and gas injection. Several other characteristics were also applied to make the model more realistic to industry standards. The second purpose of this thesis was to determine the minimum amount of training and calibration data required in order to obtain good results for this particular dataset by increasing the blind validation in one year …

Paper-Based Point-Of-Care Tools For Blood Testing, Xuefei Gao

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Early detection of malignant disease is crucial for timely diagnosis and effective medical intervention, which significantly increases survival rates and reduce financial burden on patients. Biomarkers are becoming increasingly important in detection of malignant diseases, because they can be employed for indicating diseases, predicting risks and monitoring the progression of diseases. In addition, biomarkers show up at early stages of diseases in human tissues and fluids (e.g., blood, urine and saliva), which shows great promise for early disease detection. In this dissertation, paper-based lateral flow strips (PLFSs) have been developed for the detection of disease biomarkers, including protein biomarkers and …

Plasmon-Enhanced Optical Probes For Sensing Of Drug Metabolite, Jennifer Boryczka

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

An Au@SiO₂ core-shell nanostar structure was synthesized along with CuInS2 quantum dots. The quantum dots display near-infrared fluorescence. In this work, the nanostar structure was functionalized with antibodies and then was utilized as a SERS probe for drug metabolite detection. Drugs are an illicit substance that police, medics, and hospitals need to know if an individual is under the influence of but that individual will not always be willing or able to provide that information. A sensor based on this new probe has been developed for detection of drug metabolites in buffer.

Environment Search Planning Subject To High Robot Localization Uncertainty, Jared Joseph Beard

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

As robots find applications in more complex roles, ranging from search and rescue to healthcare and services, they must be robust to greater levels of localization uncertainty and uncertainty about their environments. Without consideration for such uncertainties, robots will not be able to compensate accordingly, potentially leading to mission failure or injury to bystanders. This work addresses the task of searching a 2D area while reducing localization uncertainty. Wherein, the environment provides low uncertainty pose updates from beacons with a short range, covering only part of the environment. Otherwise the robot localizes using dead reckoning, relying on wheel encoder and …

Techno-Economic Feasibility Of Solar Powered Electric Vehicle Charging Stations In West Virginia, Houssem Eddine Younes

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

This project explores the techno-economic feasibility of installing a photovoltaic (PV) system to power electric vehicle (EV) charging stations in West Virginia. A case study of a parking garage charging station is considered. The PV system performance and economic feasibility are assessed for two different system configurations and two financial scenarios. Two system variations one including PV only and another with on-site storage battery are modelled using the System Advisor Model (SAM) developed by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Initial technical specifications of the PV system, battery system and EV chargers were selected as a reference case. Through parametric simulation, …

Scaling-Based Robust Predictions Of Periodic Stream Water Quality Variables Across The Contiguous U.S., Mohammad Abu Zafer Siddik

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Stream water quality is at the core of the biological and ecological health of streams and rivers. Subject to the environmental variation and in-stream metabolic activities, key water quality indicators such as dissolved oxygen (DO), water temperature (Tw), and chlorophyll a (Chl a, an indicator of primary productivity) typically follow a concave-shaped diurnal cycle. Variation and changes in climatic drivers (e.g., solar radiation, air temperature, and pressure), land uses, and hydrologic variables lead to a high spatiotemporal variability in stream water quality. The spatiotemporal variation challenges the development of robust models for predictions across large scales (e.g., county, state, country), …

Cu-Based Electrocatalysts For Carbon Dioxide Conversion To Value-Added Chemicals, Qingyang Li

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Massive usage of fossil fuel has being causing considerable emission of CO₂, which increases the temperature of the planet and greatly threaten human living environment, such as soil degradation, lower agricultural productivity, desertification, less biodiversity, fresh-water reduction, ocean acidification, ozone sphere destruction, etc. A number of technologies are being developed to reduce the CO₂ amount, however, all existing technologies except utilizing CO₂ as a feedstock, are hardly to essentially close the anthropogenic carbon loop. Currently, considering the economy and operability, electroreduction of CO₂ seems to be the most promising strategy to convert CO₂ to …

Review Of Modern Nondestructive Testing Techniques For Civil Infrastructure, Shabnam Khanal

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

The repair and maintenance of aging infrastructures, in the United States alone, are estimated to have backlogs of trillions of dollars. This has posed widespread concerns about the existing and proposed infrastructures to adequately sustain the quality of life in the near future. Efficient and cost-effective approaches, such as nondestructive testing (NDT), are therefore required to better shape our future. Various NDT techniques have been developed over the past two decades with cutting-edge advances towards investigation and condition assessment of civil infrastructures. While the performance of NDT techniques has reached unparalleled heights, limitations remain. On one side, are the instrument …

Integrated Techno-Economic And Life Cycle Analyses Of Biomass Utilization For Value-Added Bioproducts In The Northeastern United States, Yuxi Wang

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

A multi-stage spatial analysis was first conducted to select locations for lignocellulosic biomass-based bioproduct facility, using Geographical Information System (GIS) spatial analysis, multi-criteria analysis ranking algorithm, and social-economic assessment. A case study was developed to determine locations for lignocellulosic biorefineries using feedstocks including forest residue biomass and three energy crops for 13 states in the northeastern United States. In the entire study area, 11.1% of the counties are high-suitable, 48.8% are medium-suitable for biorefinery siting locations. A non-parametric analysis of cross-group surveys showed that preferences on biorefinery siting are homogeneous for experts in academia and industry groups, but people in …

Innovative Fe(Iii)-Dosed Anaerobic Biological Treatment System: From Fe And S Biogeochemical Reactions To Engineering Process, Musfique Ahmed

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

In moving toward more sustainable wastewater management, anaerobic treatment is gaining increasing popularity due to its simplicity, low energy requirement, low sludge production and less emission of greenhouse gases compared to typical aerobic wastewater treatment systems. Electron acceptors such as nitrate, sulfate, and CO₂ have been used in various anaerobic processes for removal of organic matters from wastewater under anoxic or anaerobic environments. In energy producing regions, ferric iron, Fe(III), is a predominant element in iron containing wastes such as acid mine drainage (AMD) and coal ash, which can potentially be used as a source of iron in novel …

Potential Benefits From Practices In Construction Waste Material Controls, Abdulaziz Alwadhenani

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Construction waste is generated from the various construction activities of building, maintaining, renovating, and demolishing infrastructure facilities. These materials include, but are not limited to, concrete, rubble, fiberglass, asphalt, bricks, wood, and scrap metals. In the last few decades, there has been a significant increase in the volume of construction and demolition (C&D) waste materials in the United States (U.S.). Between 1990 and 2017, the total increase in debris generation has surpassed 320%. According to U.S. solid waste management statistics, more than 50% of C&D waste has been and continues to be transported to landfills. The disposal of C&D waste …

Investigation Of Particle Measurement In Different Dilution Ratios With Gasoline Direct Injection And Port Fuel Injection, John Adam Phillips

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Ambient air quality has been a concern in the United States since the mid-1900’s, forcing legislations like the Air Pollution Control Act and Clean Air Act necessary to bring focus on air pollution and quality. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) continues to update the requirements for more efficient vehicles and emissions sampling methods. Today the EPA has implemented regulations on modern spark ignited engines without any major focus on the type of injection technologies being used. While particle matter (PM) is a requirement to measure for a vehicle certification, more research should focus on the particle number (PN) measurements that …

Doping With Rare Earth Elements And Resultant Nano-Inclusions On The Electrical And Thermal Properties Of The Mis-Fit Layered Thermoelectric Oxide, Geoffroy Gauneau

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Thermoelectric generators produce electricity by directly converting temperature differences into electrical energy through Seebeck effect. Thermoelectric generators possess many unique features, such as having no moving part and being very reliable with a relatively long lifespan once built. They are solid-state waste heat harvesters. With various waste heat available throughout many industries, thermoelectric generators could offer economically competitive renewable energy. The current state of the art thermoelectric materials includes materials with relatively toxic elements and must work under vacuum, making them quite expensive to produce. Among the various thermoelectric materials, ceramic oxides have been proved to be more chemically stable …

Solution Tool To Predict Filter Cake Formation For Acid Mine Drainage (Amd) Slurries, Roberto Ecuador Martinez Ochoa

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Acid Mine Drainage (AMD), also known as alkaline mine drainage resulted from abandoned and active coal mining areas has been a major water pollutant in the mid-Atlantic region of the United States affecting aquatic life, recreational areas, tourism, etc. AMD results from during and post mining activities all around the US and the world containing high levels of acidic materials such as sulfate and other heavy metals.

The United States Environmental Protecting Agency (EPA) has recommended the use of different mechanisms for mitigation purposes due to considerable existing and potential damage generated by AMD. This report focuses on the usage …

Fundamental Studies On The Recovery Of Rare Earth Elements From Acid Mine Drainage, Xue Huang

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

The Rare Earth Elements (REEs) are a group of 17 chemically similar elements that are essential raw materials for modern society. Given their increasing importance in civil and defense applications, many national governments, including the US, have denoted the REEs as critical materials and emphasized the need to identify and develop both conventional and unconventional resources to meet the growing demand. To address this challenge, the US Department of Energy has recently spearheaded efforts to evaluate the technical and economic feasibility of recovering REEs from coal and coal byproducts, which have been shown to contain REEs at an elevated concentration …

Process Modeling And Techno-Economic Analysis Of Thermo-Catalytic Dimethyl Ether Synthesis And Microwave-Based Aromatics Production Technologies From Shale Gas, Chirag Mevawala

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Production of dimethyl ether (DME) and direct non-oxidative methane dehydroaromatization (DHA) to aromatics via conventional and microwave (MW)-assisted processes are investigated in this research. Plant-wide models of the shale gas to DME process with integrated CO₂ capture via direct and indirect synthesis routes have been developed. Optimal parameter estimation, and model validation are undertaken for various sections of the process including the pre-reforming reactor, auto-thermal reforming reactor, DME synthesis reactors, CO₂ capture units and separation sections. A novel DME separation process has been developed for efficient separation of DME, syngas, and CO₂. Plant-wide techno-economic optimization is …

A Study On The Hydrodynamics Of A Bench-Scale Top-Fed Bubbling Fluidized Bed Gasifier Using Biomass And Coal As Feedstocks, Ali Can Sivri

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

The production of synthetic gas (syngas) from renewable or carbon-neutral sources can significantly reduce greenhouse and other emissions associated with conventional fuels. One of the most promising technologies to efficiently convert carbonaceous feedstocks such as biomass, coal, or municipal waste into syngas for transportation, power, heat, electricity generation, and or production of added-value chemicals is the bubbling fluidized-bed gasifier (BFBG). However, the gasification process inside a BFBG is a very complex high-temperature multiphase flow phenomena still not well understood, particularly when binary mixtures are investigated. As a result, despite the numerous correlations in the literature developed to predict the hydrodynamics …

Modulation Of Semiconductor Photoconversion With Surface Modification And Plasmon, Joeseph Martin Bright

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Semiconductor devices are the basis of modern technology. Semiconductor-based photoconversion devices that convert light into electrical signals have shown potential for light energy harvesting and conversion, environmental remediation, and sensors for detection of light, chemicals, and biological substances. Despite this potential for use in many applications, semiconductor photoconversion devices need further improvement in the photoconversion performance. This photoconversion improvement may be manifested as increased photoconversion efficiencies for light harvesting devices for power generation such as photovoltaics and photoelectrochemical (PEC) cells or improved photoconversion modulation to increase the sensitivity of semiconductor photoconversion-based sensors. In addition, alternative semiconductor materials to semiconductors that …

Comparative Assessment Of Different Ultra-Low Nox Measurement Instruments For Heavy-Duty Diesel Engines, Diego Bernabe Mejia

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Constant Volume Sampling (CVS) systems are an approved method for emission testing as stated in CFR Title 40 Part 1065 Engine Emission Testing Program. For future near zero emission vehicles, the emission measurement equipment must verify the results with the same accuracy as the limits in the past. The most critical values are the limitations for THC, NO_x and particulate matter.

The objective of this study was aimed at identifying challenges associated with measuring system-out emissions at proposed ultra-low NO_x (ULNO_x) levels - 0.02 (g/bhp-hr) and system robustness. The study compared a variety of existing instrument …

Programming Of Floating-Gate Transistors For Nonvolatile Analog Memory Array, Haifa Abulaiha

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Since they were introduced, floating-gate (FG) transistors have been used as non-volatile digital memory. Recent research has shown that floating-gate transistors can be successfully used as analog memory, specifically as programmable voltage and current sources. However, their proliferation has been limited due to the complex programming procedure and the complex testing equipment. Analog applications such as field-programmable analog arrays (FPAAs) require hundreds to thousands of floating-gate transistors on a single chip which makes the programming process even more complicated and very challenging. Therefore, a simplified, compact, and low-power scheme to program FGs are necessary. This work presents an improved version …

Speech Mode Classification Using The Fusion Of Cnns And Lstm Networks, Pratyusha Chowdary Vakkantula

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Speech mode classification is an area that has not been as widely explored in the field of sound classification as others such as environmental sounds, music genre, and speaker identification. But what is speech mode? While mode is defined as the way or the manner in which something occurs or is expressed or done, speech mode is defined as the style in which the speech is delivered by a person.

There are some reports on speech mode classification using conventional methods, such as whispering and talking using a normal phonetic sound. However, to the best of our knowledge, deep learning-based …

Application Of Decline Curve Analysis To Unconventional Reservoir, Ahmed Wasel Alqattan

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

The oil and gas industry has been dealing with the unconventional reservoirs for about only two decades. Consequently, many challenges remain in evaluating the unconventional reservoirs. A few of these obstacles are the absence of the adequate production history, understanding the fluid flow regime after hydraulic fracturing, and estimating the drainage volume of the reservoir. One of the essential elements for evaluation of the oil and reservoir is to estimate the production rates over time in order to investigate the economic potential of the project.

Decline Curve Analysis (DCA) is most common the methodology for predicting the production rates over …

Impacts Of Bike Sharing On Transit Ridership, Moathe Salah Aljeri

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Biking is an active, environmentally friendly, and sustainable transportation mode that facilitates short utilitarian and recreational trips. As such, cities around the world have been implementing bicycle sharing/renting programs at stations in a wide network so that a traveler can mount one close to their origins and drop it off at a station nearest to their destinations. In addition, bike sharing programs can solve the first-mile and last-mile connectivity problems of transit modes. Such programs also enable short trips that were previously impossible without using transit modes. This research investigated the relationship between New York City (NYC) subway ridership and …