Digital Commons Network^™

Developing A New Storage Format And A Warp-Based Spmv Kernel For Configuration Interaction Sparse Matrices On The Gpu, Mohammed Mahmoud

Theses and Dissertations

Configuration interaction (CI) is a post Hartree–Fock method that is commonly used for solving the nonrelativistic Schrödinger equation for quantum many-electron systems of molecular scale. CI includes instantaneous electron correlation and it can deal with the ground state as well as multiple excited states.

The CI matrix is a sparse matrix, and the bigger the CI matrix, the more electron correlation can be captured. However, due to the large size of the CI sparse matrix that is involved in CI computations, a good amount of the time spent on the eigenvalue computations is associated with the multiplication of the CI …

Using Thermal Imaging To Characterize Groundwater Seepage In A North Dakota Fen, Ogochukwu Ozotta

Theses and Dissertations

Groundwater flow and its dissolved mineral transport plays a fundamental role in the ecology of many wetlands. Installation of equipment to map groundwater seepage, however, is invasive and may damage vegetation and potentially affect biodiversity. By mapping surface temperature remotely in the late summer, when the differential between warm soil and cold groundwater is the greatest, the temperature patterns may reveal areas of greatest upward gradient and flow.

To test the hypothesis, the effect that hydraulic gradient has on surface temperature in a fen located at the north end of the Cherry Lake Aquifer, Eddy County, ND (47.73, -98.66) was …

Mitigating Environmental Impacts Of Terminal Lake Flooding: A Case Study Of Devils Lake, North Dakota, Afshin Shabani

Theses and Dissertations

Devils Lake is an endorheic lake in the Red River of the North basin in northeastern North Dakota. During the last two decades, the lake water level has risen by nearly 10 m, causing floods that have cost more than 1 billion USD in mitigation measures. Another increase of approximately 3.0 m in the lake water level would cause spillage into the Sheyenne River. To alleviate this potentially catastrophic spillage, two artificial outlets were constructed. However, the artificial drainage of water into the Sheyenne River raises water quality concerns because the Devils Lake water contains significantly higher concentrations of dissolved …

The Mobility Of Semi-Volatile Trace Elements From Size Segregated Fly Ash Particles Generated During Pulverized Coal Combustion, Prasanna Seshadri

Theses and Dissertations

Fly ash generated from pulverized coal (PC) combustion has a wide size range, including some fine aerosols. Of particular concern is the abundance and mobility of elements present in the smaller size fractions of the ash, commonly referred to as PM2.5. These particles are usually enriched with toxic trace species which are classified as hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) under the amended clean air act (CAA). Interest in the control of PM2.5 is motivated mainly by health considerations and also due to their role impacting the performance of air pollution control devices such as selective catalytic reducers (SCRs).

The three trace …

Synthesis And Characterization Of Novel Metal-Ti3sic2 Based Multilayered Composites, Quan Tien Tran

Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis, the design and development of novel multilayered MAX reinforced metal (MRMs) composites is reported. In literature, different studies have focused on MAX Reinforced Metals (MRMs) composites, however no research on MRMs have been on multilayered composites. In this thesis, two different types of composites were designed, (a) Type I, and (b) Type II multilayered composites. In type I composites, MRMs layers were interleaved between metal layers to create a multilayered composite. Similarly, in Type II composites - MRMs were interleaved with two different types of metal layers. In the Chapter II, synthesis of the Ni-Ti3SiC2 multilayered Type …

A Study Of Two-Phase Flow Regime And Pressure Drop In Vertical Pipe, Yanbo Wang

Theses and Dissertations

In the oil industry, after the wellbore is drilled into a reservoir, oil and gas will flow into the bore hole and can be transported to the earth’s surface through tubing. Multiphase flow will take place in the pipe. Flow regime has a significant influence on production. For example, the slug flow will cause a huge pressure-drop in the surface system and can even cause a shut-down of the well.Therefore, it is important to test two-phase upwards flow in the pipe.

Different kinds of characteristics are used to distinguish between different kinds of flow patterns. I introduce the development of …

Digital Rock Reconstruction And Property Calculation Of Fractured Shale Rock Samples, Hongsheng Wang

Theses and Dissertations

As the preferential flow channels in the shale reservoir, the fracture systems including the natural micro-cracks and hydraulic fractures have received great attention from the whole energy industry worldwide. However, it is challenging to quantify the fracture systems in the shale rocks precisely because most of well-developed “histogram-based” image processing techniques cannot handle the case of small target segmentation. Because the fracture apertures are very thin, the over-segmentation or insufficient segmentation would lead to significant error in the quantification, including the fracture porosity, aperture, length, tortuosity etc., which would lead to serious mistakes to the property calculation.

In this research, …

Regolith Transport Rates And Grain Size Distributions On Hillslopes, Sierra Nevada, Ca, Timothy Wuenscher

Theses and Dissertations

Earth’s landforms constantly change as a result of erosion at the surface. Surface regolith is composed of a variety of different grains sizes, each having a different rate of transport. The varying rates of transport between grain sizes cause the distribution of grain sizes to change along hillslopes over time. The ability to predict grain size distributions as a function of time would be useful for determining slope stability and determining ages of landforms. However, current knowledge is limited for the varying rates of transport of different grain sizes. To better understand grain transport rates, a set of experiments was …

Analysis Of Pressure Distribution Along Pipeline Blockage Based On The Cfd Simulation, Lu Yang

Theses and Dissertations

Pipeline blockage, which results from solid and hydrocarbon deposition caused by changes in pressure, temperature, or composition, is a critical issue in oil & gas production and transportation systems. Sometimes blockage, which extends several miles in the long-distance pipeline, can be assumed as a new pipe with a smaller diameter. Therefore, it is imperative to detect the location and size of blockage in pipelines more accurately and efficiently to reduce the number of pipeline accidents.

This paper explores the distribution of pressure and pressure gradient through the pipeline without/with single blockage under different operating conditions. 3-dimensional (3D) computational fluid dynamic …

Digital Rock Analysis On Berea Sandstone And An Eor Study On Middle Bakken, Barco N. Yolo

Theses and Dissertations

Oil production from tight formations such as the Bakken Formation has experienced a boom in the last decade with recent breakthroughs in horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing. However, despite the technological progress, the oil recovery is still less than 10 percent, leaving a considerable amount of potentially recoverable oil. While miscible flooding is well understood in the conventional reservoir, it is not fully explored in unconventional reservoirs. Therefore, it is essential to evaluate different enhanced oil recovery techniques potential in tight shale plays.

In this thesis, the research studies CO2 and ethane interactions with oil at reservoir conditions through laboratory …

The Impact Of Pre-Entry Attributes And College Experiences On Degree Attainment For Students In A Collegiate Flight Program, Andrew Leonard

Theses and Dissertations

The aviation industry is currently experiencing significant growth. While several challenges exist due to this increase in demand, a major issue facing the airlines is a lack of pilots. Today, collegiate aviation programs are one of the primary pipelines to train individuals seeking careers as commercial pilots. This study explored different variables that impact students' success or lack of success in graduating from a collegiate program. Furthermore, it looked at what collegiate flight programs can do to more effectively and efficiently train individuals seeking careers as commercial pilots.

It was determined that there is a significant relationship between certain attributes …

Enhancement Of Phoshorus Removal Via Bioretention Cells Amended With Low Cost Materials, Nick Lindstrom

Theses and Dissertations

As bioretention systems are becoming an increasingly popular low impact development (LID) application for stormwater mitigation, they lack mechanisms that demobilize phosphorus (P) especially dissolved phosphorus (DP). In many cases, these LIDs release more P than is input due to a high P index derived from the plant material inherent within bioretention systems. The objectives of this project are to utilize low-cost water treatment residuals (WTR) as bioretention amendments to capture P. The adsorption characteristics are observed by means of batch level experiments to observe the P adsorption potential without the influence of hydraulic parameters, and column experiments to observe …

Microstructures And Nanomechanical Properties Of The Bakken Shale, Kouqi Liu

Theses and Dissertations

The focus of this thesis is to study the pore structures along with mechanical properties of the shale rocks from the Bakken Formation. The pore structures that are obtained from the SEM image analysis method showed that total surface porosity of the studied samples is less than 12% and that organic porosity is not the main contributor to total porosity for the samples analyzed. Clay minerals and feldspar have a positive influence on porosity while quartz, pyrite, and TOC has a negative impact. The results from the multifractal theory and lacunarity methods based on the segmented SEM images indicated that …

Determining The Correlation Significance Between S-Type Asteroid Orbital Inclination And Albedo Attributable To Space Weathering, Benjamin Wright Mcgee

Theses and Dissertations

Recent research suggests that ion bombardment is more effective than micrometeoroid bombardment in albedo darkening of mature lunar soils, whereas micrometeoroid bombardment may act on longer timescales and is more effective in modifying the spectral features of a surface. This, in turn, may be extrapolated to suggest the following: 1) Increased intensities of ion bombardment would correlate negatively with the surface reflectivity of airless, silicate-bearing bodies known to express lunar-style space weathering, such as S-type asteroids, and 2) beyond that of sputtering and ion implantation, there is a gradient of potential interactions between the two weathering processes that may be …

A 3d Geomechanical Model Of Blue Buttes Field In Williston Basin, North Dakota, Rehan Ali Mohammed

Theses and Dissertations

Minimizing the costs and risks of drilling and achieving a maximum production rate are

technically and economically challenging, this becomes more crucial when drilling in tight

shale formations, an in-depth investigation of geomechanical behavior of the reservoir,

including elastic properties, and the in-situ stresses also known as Mechanical Earth Model

(MEM) is inevitable, which is studied by concept of Mechanical Earth Model (MEM). In this

thesis, the concept of the MEM is used to determine rock strength and elastic properties of the

wells in the Blue Buttes Field, Williston Basin, North Dakota. Blue Buttes is one of the major

oil …

Dead End Body Component Inspections With Convolutional Neural Networks Using Uas Imagery, Ian Edward Nordeng

Theses and Dissertations

This work presents a novel system utilizing previously developed convolutional neural network (CNN) architectures to aid in automating maintenance inspections of the dead-end body component (DEBC) from high-tension power lines. To maximize resolution of inspection images gathered via unmanned aerial systems (UAS), two different CNNs were developed. One to detect and crop the DEBC from an image. The second to classify the likelihood the component in question contains a crack. The DEBC detection CNN utilized a Python implementation of Faster R-CNN fine-tuned for three classes via 270 inspection photos collected during UAS inspection, alongside 111 images from provided simulated imagery. …

Modeling Of Detonations Using Scenarios With Hydrogen As A Fuel, Lucky Mulenga

Theses and Dissertations

The goal of this dissertation was to obtain greater insights into detonation scenarios involving hydrogen-air/oxygen mixtures using computer simulations. A primary goal was to use coarse meshes to study detonations for realistic geometries and scales in a computationally efficient manner. We identified the chemistry model, kinetics model, and turbulence model that helped us during our investigation. We further studied the influence of equivalence ratio, viscosity and radiation on various detonation scenarios.

In the first chapter, we begin by introducing the pertinent experimental and theoretical background of detonations. This section serves the purpose of preparing the reader on the main ideas …

Plate Vibration Dispalcement Curve Measurement Using Pvdf, Aniket Nandkumar Pinjan

Theses and Dissertations

Beam and plate dynamics are often measured using accelerometers and in some cases laserbased systems. Natural frequencies, mode shapes, and deflections are then derived from these measurements. The work presented here describes a method to directly measure the deflection curve of a vibrating beam and plate using piezoelectric films. The sensor consists of constant shape segment of PolyVinyliDene Fluoride (PVDF) films bonded to the surface of the structure. We show in here that each segment of the sensor measures the deflection slope at its particular location. The overall lateral displacement curve of the structure (beam/plate) is calculated from these slopes …

A Channel Ranking And Selection Scheme Based On Channel Occupancy And Snr For Cognitive Radio Systems, Adnan Quadri

Theses and Dissertations

Wireless networks and information traffic have grown exponentially over the last decade. Consequently, an increase in demand for radio spectrum frequency bandwidth has resulted. Recent studies have shown that with the current fixed spectrum allocation (FSA), radio frequency band utilization ranges from 15% to 85%. Therefore, there are spectrum holes that are not utilized all the time by the licensed users, and, thus the radio spectrum is inefficiently exploited. To solve the problem of scarcity and inefficient utilization of the spectrum resources, dynamic spectrum access has been proposed as a solution to enable sharing and using available frequency channels. With …

Effects Of Friction Stir Welding Parameters On The Mechanical Properties Of Am60 And Al-Si Cast Alloys, Sara Richmire-Kint

Theses and Dissertations

Friction stir welding, as a solid-state joining method, seems a viable joining/assembly method for difficult-to-weld cast magnesium and cast aluminum alloys. Due to the high flammability of Mg alloys, and the brittle joints of welded Al alloys, fusion based welding techniques may not be successful to join Mg or Al made component. Therefore, a solid-state operation, in which applied heat input and induced temperature within the work piece are below the melting temperature of the base alloys, can be considered as a viable method to join so-called unweldable Mg and Al alloys. To this end, friction stir welding, as one …

American Indian Biculturalism Inventory - Pueblo, Royleen J. Ross

Theses and Dissertations

A time in American history existed when Native Americans were not allowed to express, much less retain their traditions, culture, language, and livelihood. Today, Natives are thriving in various fields at many different professional levels and have not only mastered majority culture’s ways, but have integrated them, on their own terms, into their lives. Warfare was declared upon Native Americans in the educational arena beginning in the late 1800’s, resulting in many indigenous individuals not only meeting the educational challenge posed to them, but excelled beyond expectation. Thus, in contemporary society, many Native Americans have retained their traditional ways and …

Implementation Of Computational Resources Focusing On Forecast Model Access For Universities, Timothy Wayne See Jr

Theses and Dissertations

This research combines recent technological advances (i.e. Docker software containers, and cloud computing) in conjunction with the WRF model to create a portable NWP educational module. Incorporating the educational module into a senior level numerical methods course at the University of North Dakota allowed for analysis of the economic, policy, and privacy issues associated with using new software/tools. It also allowed for documentation of the benefits of tool usage within the classroom, both positive and negative. Use of these new tools also allowed for greater computational power to be accessed within the university computer labs. While the university labs were …

Plastic Properties Of High Performance Self-Compacting Concrete, Kyle Seidler

Theses and Dissertations

As the world becomes more complex and people become more evolved the desire to build taller building and design more complex structures is on the rise. The major problem that occurs with larger structures are the forces associated with building bigger. One way to help solve the problem of large stresses in concrete structures is to include more reinforcing steel and design more complex reinforcing configurations. The down side to increasing the amount of reinforcing steel is that the steel creates smaller gaps for the concrete to flow through. This problem was realized in the early 1980’s and the concept …

A Comparison Of Direct And Indirect Assessments Of Standing Lumbar Lordosis In Asymptomatic Adults, Nolan Adam Larson

Theses and Dissertations

Background: While lumbar lordosis is often indirectly (visually) assessed by practitioners to guide treatment, it is not clear how well direct and indirect assessments agree. The aims of this study were to (a) determine the intra- and inter-rater reliability of two indirect assessments (visual assessments of real and 3D body scanned people), and (b) determine the agreement between direct and indirect assessments (3D scan-extracted vs. visual assessments).

Methods: Fifty asymptomatic participants were physically landmarked and scanned with and without landmarks using the Vitus Smart 3D whole body scanner, after which 10 practitioners visually assessed the lumbar lordosis of each participant. …

Regional And Residential Short Term Electric Demand Forecast Using Deep Learning, Tareq Hossen

Theses and Dissertations

For optimal power system operations, electric generation must follow load demand. The generation, transmission, and distribution utilities require load forecasting for planning and operating grid infrastructure efficiently, securely, and economically. This thesis work focuses on short-term load forecast (STLF), that concentrates on the time-interval from few hours to few days. An inaccurate short-term load forecast can result in higher cost of generating and delivering power. Hence, accurate short-term load forecasting is essential. Traditionally, short-term load forecasting of electrical demand is typically performed using linear regression, autoregressive integrated moving average models (ARIMA), and artificial neural networks (ANN). These conventional methods are …

Using Citizen Scientists To Inform Machine Learning Algorithms To Automate The Detection Of Species In Ecological Imagery, Marshall Mattingly

Theses and Dissertations

Modern data collection techniques used by ecologists has created a deluge of data that is becoming increasingly difficult to store, filter, and analyze in an efficient and timely manner. In just two summers, over 65,000 unmanned aerial system (UAS) images were collected, comprising the several terabytes (TB) of data that was reviewed by citizen scientists to generate inputs for machine learning algorithms. Uncontrolled conditions and the small size of target species relative to the background further increase the difficulty of manually cataloging the images. To assist with locating and identifying snow geese in the UAS images, a citizen science web …

Women Engineering Majors' Choice To Stay: A Phenomenological Exploration Of Persistence Experiences, Victoria Morrissette

Theses and Dissertations

The historical underrepresentation of women in engineering persists for women engineering majors in college and once they enter the workforce. While some engineering disciplines have seen an increase in women students, overall the numbers still have fallen well behind other STEM disciplines despite years of research. Most studies on this issue have been quantitative and have looked at factors associated with why women leave engineering. This qualitative study, in contrast, gave women engineering majors the opportunity to share their experiences in answer to the question of why women choose to stay in an engineering major. Phenomenological methods, including semi-structured interviews, …

Isolation And Characterization Of Stem Cell Population In Human Proximal Tubule Cells And The Effect Of Cadmium In The Isolated Proximal Tubule Stem/Progenitor Cell Line., Swojani Shrestha

Theses and Dissertations

The proximal tubules of the kidney are target sites of injury by various toxicants. Cadmium (Cd2+), an environmental nephrotoxicant can cause adverse effects and overt renal damage. To decipher the mechanisms involved in nephrotoxicity, an in-vitro model system is required. Mortal cultures of human proximal tubule (HPT) cells isolated from the renal cortex are used as models, but are difficult to acquire and have limited passage number. The immortalized HK-2 cell line, has served as a model but it lacks vectorial active transport and shows signs of lost epithelial features. Recently a new proximal tubule cell line, the RPTEC/TERT1, was …

Heat Transfer And Pressure Drop Measurements In A High-Solidity Pin-Fin Array With Variable Hole Size Incremental Impingements, Abdulqadir Sheikhmohamed

Theses and Dissertations

Gas turbines play a very critical role in the current energy sector in both power generation and in propulsion for almost the entire commercial and military aviation industry. Higher efficiencies can be developed from gas turbines, either land based or aero-propulsion by raising both the pressure and the temperature of combustion gases which discharge into the turbine section, which is also known as the Turbine Entry Temperature (TET). Turbine blade materials simply cannot operate safely at current TET’s of 3000 °F without implementing comprehensive cooling schemes developed in the industry over the years. Normally some of the compressed air is …

Online Resources And The Transgender Community, Mason Maxwell Wehse

Theses and Dissertations

Transgender individuals are characterized by identifying as a gender other than the gender they were assigned at birth based on their biological sex (Meerwijk & Sevelius, 2017). Transgender identities can include being born female but identifying as male and vice versa. Identities can also include people who are non-binary meaning that they identify as a gender other than male or female, such as identifying as no gender (i.e., agender). Being transgender can be seen as controversial and there is a lot of misinformation and little formal research conducted on this topic. Because of this, transgender people often face discrimination and …