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2d Seismic Data And Gas Chimney Interpretation In The South Taranaki Graben, New Zealand, Taqi Talib Alzaki

Masters Theses

"The Taranaki Basin is one of the major oil and gas producing basins offshore New Zealand. The study area covers an area of 10,000 km² in the basin, and includes 171 2D seismic lines and six wells, which are provided by the New Zealand Petroleum & Minerals. Some previous studies refer to the study area as the South Taranaki Graben.

This thesis provides detailed mapping and interpreted subsurface stratigraphy and structure of five horizons, i.e. basement top, Pakawau Group top, Kapuni Group top, Wai-iti Group top, and seafloor. It undertakes studies of the relation between the basin evolution, faults, …

Particle Mediated Enhanced Mass Transfer Of Diethylhexyl Phthalate: A Pilot Scale System Design, Melissa Buechlein

Masters Theses

"Phthalates are a class of SVOCs that are widely used as plasticizers and recently epidemiological and toxicological research has found a link between phthalate exposure and increased occurrences of adverse health effects. SVOCs can potentially partition into household dust and airborne particles. Models and micro chamber studies have identified that airborne particles effectively increase SVOC deposition to or emissions from surfaces; SVOCs partition to aerosols in the bulk air, the aerosols then migrate to the surfaces due to eddy and Brownian motion, and then the SVOCs is released inside the SVOC concentration boundary layer adjacent to the surface. Concentration boundary …

Caseload/Workload Study Of Speech Language Pathologists In Missouri Public Schools, Jinyu Du

Masters Theses

"A survey was distributed to speech-language pathologists (SLPs) in Missouri public schools to obtain statewide information regarding caseload number, workload related activities and SLPs' level job satisfaction on various aspects of their job. An online questionnaire was sent to school-based SLPs in Missouri to solicit factual information on average monthly caseload numbers, factors that impact caseload assignments and the percentage of time spent on various professional responsibilities and job satisfaction ratings. Results indicated that 24% of the respondents had caseloads that exceeded the maximum state regulated caseload number for SLPs. Respondents were also largely unaware of the maximum caseload regulation …

Phytoforensics Tools: The Degradation And Detection Of Chlorinated Solvents In Integrated Systems, Tommy J. Goodwin Jr.

Masters Theses

"Due to decades of mismanaged pollutants entering groundwater, subsurface pollution of various compounds has become a widespread challenge. Chlorinated solvents are the most common groundwater contaminants that persist in aquifers, and remediation of these wide-spread plumes is difficult. Bioremediation, permeable reactive barriers, and phytoremediation are remedial technologies that have been developed and applied to chlorinated solvents in groundwater systems. This study integrates these technologies in different combinations to demonstrate the remediation potential of this approach. Zerovalent iron (ZVI) and bioaugmentation with a Dehalococcoides sp. (DHC) culture were applied separately and in combination for degradation of perchloroethene (PCE). Salix pentandra were …

Using Adaptive Thresholding And Skewness Correction To Detect Gray Areas In Melanoma In Situ Images, Jason R. Hagerty

Masters Theses

"The incidence of melanoma in situ (MIS) is growing significantly. Detection at the MIS stage provides the highest cure rate for melanoma, but reliable detection of MIS with dermoscopy alone is not yet possible. Adjunct dermoscopic instrumentation using digital image analysis may allow more accurate detection of MIS. Gray areas are a critical component of MIS diagnosis, but automatic detection of these areas remains difficult because similar gray areas are also found in benign lesions. This paper proposes a novel adaptive thresholding technique for automatically detecting gray areas specific to MIS. The proposed model uses only MIS dermoscopic images to …

Behavior Of Ultra-High Performance Concrete Bridge Deck Panels Compared To Conventional Stay-In-Place Deck Panels, Valter Gora Venancio

Masters Theses

"The remarkable features of ultra-high performance concrete (UHPC) have been reported. Its application in bridge construction has been an active research area in recent years, attributed to its higher compressive strength, higher ductility and reduced permeability when compared with conventional concrete and even high-strength concrete. Those characteristics are known to increase bridge durability and, consequently, decrease life-cycle maintenance costs.

With that in mind, this study investigated the performance of UHPC stay-in-place (SIP) bridge deck panels subjected to high loads in both flexure and shear. The test matrix consisted of twelve (12) half-scale panels that were 4 feet long and 2 …

The Impact Of Heat Exchanging Internals On Hydrodynamics Of Bubble Column Reactor, Ahmed Jasim

Masters Theses

"In this study, the impact of configuration and size of vertical heat exchanging internals in bubble columns on gas holdup, specific gas-liquid interfacial area, bubble chord length, and bubble rise velocity were investigated. Three different configurations of internals, each covering 25% of the column's cross-sectional area, were used to simulate the heat exchanging tubes utilized in the F-T process. The First configuration is a circular-like arrangement of 0.5 inch diameter vertical rods, whereas the second is a hexagonal-like arrangement of 0.5 inch diameter vertical rods. The third configuration is also a circular arrangement but of 1 inch diameter vertical rods …

Imaging Reinforced Concrete: A Comparative Study Of Ground Penetration Radar And Rebarscope, Abhishek Kodi

Masters Theses

"Geophysical techniques have been playing a very vital role in subsurface imaging in the recent past. Technology has been making it both reliable and convenient to utilize non-destructive geophysics techniques like Ground Penetration Radar, Induction current based Rebarscope, Seismic methods, ERT, etc. The applications range from shallow subsurface investigation of Bridge decks to old tunnels, mapping of rabars in a pre-existing construction and analyzing the concrete strength.

The thesis constitutes of a comparative study and analysis of a Ground Penetration Radar system and a Rebarscope. Individual parameters obtained directly from the study and obtained indirectly from the study shall be …

Silicone Hollow Fiber Membrane Bioreactors For Mixed Aerobic And Anaerobic Treatment Of Gas Phase Toluene And Trichloroethylene, Alexander Lee Korff

Masters Theses

"Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) are common in effluent waste streams from many sectors of industry and low-cost emission control technologies have the potential to mitigate long-term impacts on the environment. Federal Regulations, such as the Clean Air Act and National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAPS), as well as state regulations are imposing stricter requirements on point-source emissions, with an emphasis on toxic VOCs. Trichloroethylene (TCE) and tetrachloroethylene (PCE), which are toxic VOCs, have been used since the 1920's for a variety of industrial applications like: degreasing, paint and printing operations, as extraction solvents, and for cleaning and drying …

Effect Of Build Parameters On Mechanical Properties Of Ultem 9085 Parts By Fused Deposition Modeling, Krishna Prasanth Motaparti

Masters Theses

"Additive manufacturing is a fabrication technique that is used to build components by depositing material in a layer-by-layer manner. Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) is one of the additive manufacturing techniques which is widely used for prototyping and production applications of thermoplastic components. In load bearing applications, the flexural and compression forces often coexist. In order to avoid failure under these loads, it is essential to study the mechanical properties of the components fabricated by FDM. The main focus of this research is to study the mechanical properties of the fabricated components and to comprehend their dependence on various build parameters. …

Assessing Downstream Stormwater Impacts For Urban Watershed Planning, Johanna Meyer Pavlowsky

Masters Theses

"The urbanization of watersheds has caused debilitating effects to downstream aquatic ecosystems in catchments and streams. The implementation of green infrastructure (GI), such as permeable pavements and bioretention facilities, has been shown to alleviate these effects by both reducing runoff and mitigating pollutants; however, the implements are often not designed with a specific goal of water improvement. This study targets understanding a small, impaired urban watershed, and the benefits green infrastructure may have to provide environmental, social, and economic improvement to the watershed.

Portions of Rolla including much of the S&T campus drain into the impaired urban waterbody Frisco Lake, …

Material Properties Affecting The Penetration Of Metal Targets By Copper Linear Shaped Charges, Kevin Lee Phelps

Masters Theses

"A linear shaped charge (LSC) is an explosive device used in demolition, aerospace, and in other applications that require the cutting of metal. Users of LSC's typically know the size of shaped charge needed to cut their target but commonly encounter previously untested materials. The motivation for this thesis is to provide an understanding as to what target material properties are good indicators of cutting performance so the selection of LSC can be more efficient. The author found that penetration theories for other types shaped charges were insufficient for the LSC, possibly because of the relatively slow projectile created by …

Application Of Embedded Frequency Selective Surfaces For Structural Health Monitoring, Dustin Franklin Pieper

Masters Theses

"This thesis proposes the use of Frequency Selective Surfaces (FSSs) as an embedded structural health monitoring (SHM) sensor. FSSs are periodic arrays of conductive elements that filter certain frequencies of incident electromagnetic radiation. The behavior of this filter is heavily dependent on the geometry of the FSS and local environment. Therefore, by monitoring how this filtering response changes when the geometric or environmental changes take place, information about those changes may be determined. In previous works, FSS-based sensing has shown promise for sensing normal strain (a stretching or compressing geometrical deformation). This concept is extended in this thesis by investigating …

A Feasibility Study Of A Nuclear Power Plant With No Moving Parts, Jonathan Mark Schattke

Masters Theses

"In a nuclear reactor design, every moving part in a system is considered a failure point. In this study, a proposal is made for designing a nuclear reactor that has no moving parts by coupling an accelerator driven core (removing control system moving parts) to a magnetohydrodynamic generator (removing power generation moving parts) using mercury coolant (removing pumping system moving parts). Further safety is realized by using a subcritical core, where the core is never able to sustain a chain reaction on its own, obviating many safety systems. The design is verified with a Monte Carlo simulation "--Abstract, page iii.

Data Analysis Of Surfactant-Induced Wettability Alteration In Carbonate Reservoirs, Hao Sun

Masters Theses

"Most carbonate formations prove to be oil-wet due to oil aging effect. Therefore it is essential to employ wettability alteration methods for a more effective enhanced oil recovery process. It is confirmed by researchers that surfactant treatment has positive effects on wettability alteration of carbonate rock, from strong oil-wet to intermediate wet or to even weak water-wet. A number of experiments have the same conclusion and yet, a systematic screening guide development with the support of sufficient data analysis is lacking.

This study involves screening guide development for surfactant-induced wettability alteration method. 199 experiments collected from published literatures are analyzed …

Automated Channel Emulator Based On Mems Switch And Improvement Of Signal Transition, Jingdong Sun

Masters Theses

"Channel Emulator, which is widely used in communication system development, is an instrument that emulates the real-world signal propagation environment between transmitter and. [sic] To overcome the disadvantages of traditional channel emulator, we propose a novel structure of the automated channel emulator in Section 1, which can be controlled by software and integrated into auto-testing system. MEMS switch, with good RF performance, is used to connect and isolate multiple channels.

In Section 2, we divide the whole channel emulator system into Channel, Support, and Controller Board, and provide detailed design procedures with critical parameters of each board. The well-designed high …

Esd Related Soft Error Detection And Root Cause Analysis, Suyu Yang

Masters Theses

"In this article, several methods are outlined for detecting functional changes in an IC due to external interference such as ESD or EMI. The goal is to provide diagnostic tools for detection of potential soft failure susceptibilities of complex systems during the hardware design stage without the aid of any complex software. After the soft errors are found, circuit modeling techniques are used to characterize the DUT. By running the circuit model, the soft error threshold can be predicted and the circuit model can be used to evaluate the performance of other ESD protection methods. In the end several methods …

3d Seismic Structural And Stratigraphic Interpretation Of The Tui-3d Field, Taranaki Basin, New Zealand, Gorkem Yagci

Masters Theses

"Identifying seismic structures and stratigraphy are important for exploration of hydrocarbons. The purpose of this study is to discover seismic structural and stratigraphic features and to utilize the results for interpreting depositional environments. A 3D seismic dataset from the Tui-3D Field, the Taranaki Basin, New Zealand with well data were used to visualize structures, to detect stratigraphic features, to identify main lithology, to understand depositional environment, and to describe seismic facies and reflection patterns of the target horizons. The major formations are in the Kapuni Group.

Seismic structural interpretation indicates thirty-two minor faults, which may play an important role in …

Variable Stress Orientations In The Offshore Nile Delta: The Role Of Salt As A Mechanical Detachment Horizon, Weicheng Zhang

Masters Theses

"The offshore Nile Delta is characterized by variations of the maximum horizontal stress orientation in subsalt and supra-salt sequences. Margin-parallel SH, typical for tertiary deltas, is observed for regions that are below or do not contain evaporites. In sequences underlain by evaporates pre-dominantly margin-normal SH is observed. This observation yielded the first conclusive in situ evidence that salt acts as a mechanical detachment layer. In this study, 3D finite element analysis (FEA) is used to simulate the total stress distribution in the offshore Nile Delta featuring evaporate sequences. Several parameters such as different salt sequence geometries, friction coefficient on faults, …

Study On The Applicability Of Relative Permeability Modifiers For Water Shutoff Using Numerical Simulation, Dheiaa Khafief Khashan Alfarge

Masters Theses

"Water production is a challenging problem to be controlled during hydrocarbon-reservoirs production life. Disproportionate Permeability Reduction (DPR) is often used as water shutoff treatment in production wells when other conventional solutions like mechanical isolations are difficult to perform. This study applied numerical simulation methods to diagnose the factors impacting DPR treatment success on macroscopic level and to see when, where and at which conditions DPR treatment can give best results.

This work indicated that the following points should be considered before DPR treatment is executed in any reservoir to get a successful treatment. Firstly, this research explored that DPR performance …

A Control Algorithm For The Solar Village Microgrid System, Hamad Ahmed Alharkan

Masters Theses

"In this thesis, the concept of microgrid system is introduced. Also, the major components of a microgrid will be discussed thoroughly. Both grid-connected and autonomous modes are explained. In addition, the control of a microgrid is defined for the following types: local, centralized and decentralized control.

As one of the nation's premiere research universities, the Missouri University of Science and Technology has built four inspirational solar houses (solar villages) for a competition in the US Department of Energy Solar Decathlon to allow students to research and improve different aspects of the microgrid system. Consequently, this thesis develops a computer model …

Shale Instability Of Deviated Wellbores In Southern Iraqi Fields, Ahmed Ali Shanshool Alsubaih

Masters Theses

"Wellbore instability problems are the cause for the majority of nonproductive time in the southern Iraqi fields' developments. The most severe problem in terms of effort and disbursement which is referred to a pipe sticking in Tanuma shale formation. Examining the drilling data revealed that this phenomenon was mostly related to the shear failure of the wellbore. Thus, a geomechanical analysis and drilling parameters/ practice optimization analysis were performed on a field in southern Iraq based on data from 45 deviated wells. The geomechanics analysis predicted the suitable drilling fluid density to prevent onset shear failure by using the Mogi-Coulomb …

Mixing Dynamics In Municipal Water Storage Tanks, Pramod Narayan Bangalore

Masters Theses

"The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of different control variables on mixing in municipal water storage tanks using Computational Fluid Dynamics(CFD) solutions with ANSYS FLUENT for isothermal, positively and negatively buoyant inflow conditions. Poor mixing of old water and new water leads to dead zone formation, which when introduced in the distribution system can cause major water quality issues. Data for this study was generated using Multiphase CFD flow modeling technique using Volume of Fluid (VOF) approach with species transport. The vessel was considered to be mixed when Coefficient of Variation (COV) dropped below 0.10.

Results …

Structural Analysis And Fluid Flow Modeling Of The Kapuni Field, New Zealand, Jarret Taylor Baldwin

Masters Theses

"The Taranaki Basin is the largest hydrocarbon producing basin in New Zealand. A total area of over 330,000 km

Attenuation Properties Of Cement Composites: Experimental Measurements And Monte Carlo Calculations, Raul Florez

Masters Theses

"Developing new cement based materials with excellent mechanical and attenuation properties is critically important for both medical and nuclear power industries. Concrete continues to be the primary choice material for the shielding of gamma and neutron radiation in facilities such as nuclear reactors, nuclear waste repositories, spent nuclear fuel pools, heavy particle radiotherapy rooms, particles accelerators, among others. The purpose of this research was to manufacture cement pastes modified with magnetite and samarium oxide and evaluate the feasibility of utilizing them for shielding of gamma and neutron radiation. Two different experiments were conducted to accomplish these goals. In the first …

A Study On Non-Metallic Inclusions In Foundry Steel Process, Marc Leonard Harris

Masters Theses

"The effects of sample area and automated SEM/EDS feature analysis parameters (step size, magnification and threshold) on nonmetallic inclusion characterization results has been investigated and optimized. A post-processing program was developed to automatically determine average inclusion chemistry, total element concentrations within inclusions, and for generating joint ternary diagrams with size visualization for representing nonmetallic inclusion populations. Using these tools the evolution of nonmetallic inclusions was examined for 4320 steel at a participating industrial steel foundry. The steel was sampled throughout electric arc furnace melting through ladle refining to the final casting where an in-mold sampling procedure was developed to procure …

Design Of A Microwave Imaging System For Rapid Wideband Imaging, Matthew Jared Horst

Masters Theses

An imaging system composed of two linear arrays of antennas is designed through full-wave simulation and fabricated for use in synthetic aperture radar imaging. The arrays electronically scan along their antenna elements and are mechanically moved along a second orthogonal direction for scanning large two-dimensional areas quickly. Each linear array is printed on a circuit board where the antenna elements are integrated into the edge of the board as tapered slot-line antennas operating at 22 to 27 GHz. A multiplexer circuit is printed onto each linear array to transmit wideband signals to each antenna in the array. Receivers are printed …

Mixed Metal Oxide Catalysts Supported On H-Beta For Hydrogenolysis Of Glycerol Into 1,3-Propanediol, Amit Kant

Masters Theses

"Bioglycerol is the by-product which is produced largely from the microbial fermentation, hydrogenolysis of glucose in the mixture of polyols, fatty ester, soap manufacturing process and fatty acid production. Hydrogenolysis of glycerol is one of the most promising ways to convert glycerol and many work has been done towards 1,3-propanediol, 1,2-propanediol and 1-propanol using various metals and mixed-metal oxides such as W, Ru, Rh, Pt, Pd, Cu, Ni and different zeolites have been extensively used as the active components.

It has been well documented that the presence of Bronsted acid sites leads to the formation of acrolein, while Lewis acid …

Influence Of Mix Design Parameters On Dynamic Segregation Of Self-Consolidating Concrete And Consequences On Performance Of Precast Beams, Aida Margarita Ley Hernandez

Masters Theses

"Self-Consolidating Concrete (SCC) is more vulnerable to stability problems as a consequence of its high flowing ability compared to conventional vibrated concrete. Dynamic segregation refers to the tendency of the concrete constituents to separate from the suspended matrix, usually in horizontal direction while being cast into the formwork or due to an impact. Similarly to static segregation, dynamic segregation can affect the homogeneity of SCC. Therefore, it is highly essential to ensure a proper dynamic stability in order to enhance the uniformity of in-situ properties of pre-stressed beams.

In this research project, the effects of SCC mix design parameters are …

Seismic Anisotropy And Mantle Dynamics Beneath The Southeastern United States Inferred From Shear-Wave Splitting Analysis, Yunhua Liu

Masters Theses

"Systematic spatial variations of mantle azimuthal anisotropy are revealed by over 3000 pairs of high-quality shear-wave splitting parameters (fast polarization orientations and splitting times) recorded at ~400 USArray and other network stations in the SE United States (75⁰-90⁰ W, and 24⁰-40⁰ N). The fast polarization orientations observed in the continental interior are subparallel to the absolute plate motion (APM) direction of the North American plate with apparent larger-than-normal splitting times, indicating a significant asthenospheric contribution. Fast orientations parallel to the edge of the North American craton are revealed along the southern and eastern margins of the continent. A portion of …