Engineering Commons^™

Plenum-To-Plenum Heat Transfer Characteristics Under Natural Circulation In A Scaled-Down Prismatic Modular Reactor, Salman Mohammed Alshehri

Doctoral Dissertations

“Gas-cooled reactor (GCR) is being developed under the Next Generation Nuclear Plant Program (NGNP) in nuclear engineering studies. As the world searches for an energy source with high energy density, clean, abundant, and storable nature to avoid global warming issues, GCR seems to be a promising solution, particularly the possibility of producing hydrogen. Studying and developing the safety analysis and GCR technologies are required for the optimum design and safety of GCR system. Multiphase Reactors Engineering and Applications Laboratory (mReal) at Missouri University of Science and Technology (S&T) has developed a natural convection heat transfer test facility with one riser …

Computational Fluid Dynamics Modeling And Comparison Of Advanced Techniques For Heat Transfer Augmentation For Nuclear Applications, Salman Mohammed Alzahrani

Doctoral Dissertations

“Passive safety is the most important feature of NuScale’s reactor designs. Twist tape is one passive heat enhance heat technique. The present research investigated thermo-hydraulic characteristics of natural and forced convection of water under different configurations of twisted tape inserted in tube as well as NuScale rod bundles for uniform wall heat flux using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) using ANSYS Fluent 18.1. Results for twist tape inserted in tube under natural circulation showed that heat transfer enhanced and pressure drop increased to 28% and 102.8% over the plain tube respectively. Regularly spaced tapes, and different widths of the twisted tapes …

Transient Multiphase Flow Simulation For Unloading Of Frac Hit Gas Wells, Miguel Angel Cedeno Moreno

Doctoral Dissertations

"This work seeks to develop a fully step-by-step transient multiphase flow simulation valid for unloading gas wells using nitrogen. It studies the behavior of nitrogen for unloading horizontal gas wells with gas injection in the annulus. The work investigates unloading non-Newtonian fluids such as those which invade offset wells when a frac hit occurs during hydraulic fracturing operations in unconventional wells. The effect of varying tubing depth and injection pressure are included in the study.

Results show that as the plastic viscosity increases, the nitrogen volume and time to unload will be increased. As tubing depth increases, the nitrogen volume …

The Effects Of Low Aspect Ratio And Heat Exchanging Internals On The Bubble Properties And Flow Regime In A Pilot-Plant Bubble/Slurry Bubble Column For Fischer-Tropsch Synthesis, Hayder Al-Naseri

Doctoral Dissertations

"Fischer-Tropsch synthesis (F-T) is a process utilized to convert the syngas mixture of CO and H₂ to synthetic fuel and chemicals that executed commercially by using the bubble/slurry bubble column reactor. The experimental results reveal that the investigated parameters, in terms the presence of internals, and reducing the aspect ratio and the solids loading, increase the local gas holdup, interfacial area, bubble passage frequency, and decrease the bubble rise velocity, bubble chord length. Meanwhile, the aspect ratio H/D = 4, and 5 provide enough height to established the fully developed flow regime. As a result of the variation in …

Modeling And Simulation Of Micro/Nano-Rod Distribution In Micro Channel Flows, Saman Monjezi

Doctoral Dissertations

"The behavior of a typical nanorod particle in microscale flows was theoretically investigated, considering the effect of the wall on the rotational and translation motions of the non-spherical particle. Initially, a systematic method using Brownian dynamics simulation of the rotational motion of nanorod was performed to obtain the average orientation distribution of a nanorod in various range of Peclet number and position from the confining wall. Subsequently, the results of the angle distributions simulation were employed to generate a universal mathematical model for the particle orientation distribution, which our model of concentration distribution of high aspect ratio nanorods in the …

Building Shared Knowledge For Eor Technologies: Screening Guideline Constructions, Dashboards, And Advanced Data Analysis, Na Zhang

Doctoral Dissertations

"Successful implementation of enhanced oil recovery (EOR) technology requires comprehensive knowledge and experiences based on existing EOR projects. EOR screening guidelines and EOR reservoir analog are served as such knowledge which are considered as the first step for a reservoir engineer to determine the next step techniques to improve the ultimate oil recovery from their assets. The objective of this research work is to provide better assistance for EOR selection by using fundamental statistics methods and machine learning techniques.

In this dissertation, a total of 977 worldwide EOR projects with the most uniformed, high-quality, and comprehensive information were collected from …

Hydrodynamics Of Trickle Bed Reactors (Tbrs) Packed With Industrial Catalyst Using Advanced Measurement Techniques, Mohammed Jaber Al-Ani

Doctoral Dissertations

"The impacts of the packing characteristics on the hydrodynamics od a trickle bed reactor (TBR) have been investigated using advanced measurements techniques of Gamma-ray densitometry (GRD) and Optical fiber probe and conventional measurement techniques of high-frequency differential pressure transducer and load cell. Two different reactor sizes of bench and pilot plant scale were used. Bench-scale TBR carried out the experiments to assess phase distribution and catalyst utilization with 1.18 cm inside diameter and 72 cm length at ambient pressure and temperature. The mixture of catalyst and fine particles displayed considerable improvements in the phase distribution, liquid holdup profile, and catalyst …

Multiscale Spatio-Temporal Modeling Of Cell Population In Tissue Architecture And Drug Delivery Nanoparticles, Mohammad Aminul Islam

Doctoral Dissertations

"Multiscale nature of a biological system span at many order of magnitudes in time and space. Molecular interaction at lower scale is connected with the higher scale behavior of tissue or organism. Integrating the dynamics and information at different time and space can give a fundamental physiological understanding of the higher level phenomena. But complex features, functions, interconnectivity between different scales and lack of information on the fundamental physiological property make the model difficult and computationally challenging. The multiscale modeling approach can bridge the gap between different scale by a systemic integration of the complex dynamic behavior.

Here, the focus …

Spatiotemporal Modeling And Model Restructuration Approaches In Studies Of Intracellular Signalling Pathways, Md Shahinuzzaman

Doctoral Dissertations

"The main focus of the research is to understand the complex phenomena of cell transduction pathways and cell biology in a single cell. Mathematical modeling and experimental evaluation are widely used approaches for this kind of research. Firstly, A multiscale framework for protein-protein interaction has been established using Brownian dynamics algorithm. Sit specific feature, steric collision, diffusion, co-localization and complex formation with time and space has been included in this spatial modeling framework. By implementation of the time adaptive feature in this framework, the computation time reduces in an order of magnitude compared with traditional modeling framework. This multiscale Brownian …

Investigating The Performance Of High Viscosity Friction Reducers Used For Proppant Transport During Hydraulic Fracturing, Mohammed Salem Ba Geri

Doctoral Dissertations

"Over the last few recent years, high viscosity friction reducers (HVFRs) have been successfully used in the oil and gas industry across all premier shale plays in North America including Permian, Bakken, and Eagle Ford. However, selecting the most suitable fracture fluid system plays an essential role in proppant transport and minimizing or eliminating formation damage.

This study investigates the influence of the use of produced water on the rheological behavior of HVFRs compared to a traditional linear guar gel. Experimental rheological characterization was studied to investigate the viscoelastic property of HVFRs on proppant transport. In addition, the successful implication …

Characterization Of A Green Electric Solid Propellant For Electric Propulsion, Matthew Scott Glascock

Doctoral Dissertations

"Electric solid propellants are advanced solid chemical rocket propellants that can be controlled (ignited, throttled and extinguished) through the application and removal of an electric current. These propellants are also being considered for use in ablative pulsed plasma thruster and multimode systems. In this work, the behavior and performance of a novel green electric solid propellant operating in an electrothermal ablation-fed pulsed plasma thruster was investigated. Using an inverted pendulum micro-Newton thrust stand, the impulse bit and specific impulse of the device using the electric solid propellant were measured for short-duration and long-duration runs to end-of-life, at energy levels of …

Experimental Study On Enhanced Oil Recovery (Eor) Mechanisms Of Nanogel Combining With Low Salinity Water For Carbonate Reservoirs, Pu Han

Doctoral Dissertations

"Nanomaterials have been widely studied and applied in the oil and gas industry. Among the developed nanomaterials, nano-sized crosslinked polymeric gel particle (nanogel) has shown great potential in recovering residual oil and improving oil recovery. This dissertation carried out their potential EOR mechanisms and the synergetic effect between nanogel and low salinity water. Nanogel used in this study was synthesized through the suspension polymerization process in our lab. The morphology, size distribution, and zeta potential were studied for nanogel dispersed in brine with variable ionic strength. The injectivity of nanogel was elucidated at first to ensure their in-depth penetration ability. …

Thermomechanical Analysis Of Rock Asperity In Fractures Of Enhanced Geothermal Systems, Chao Zeng

Doctoral Dissertations

"Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS) offer great potential for dramatically expanding the use of geothermal energy and become a promising supplement for fossil energy. The EGS is to extract heat by creating a subsurface system to which cold water can be added through injection wells. Injected water is heated by contact with rock and returns to the surface through production well. Fracture provides the primary conduit for fluid flow and heat transfer in natural rock. Fracture is propped by fracture roughness with varying heights which is called asperity. The stability of asperity determines fracture aperture and hence imposes substantial effect on …

Development Of Functional Ionic Liquids For Separation And Recovery Of Rare Earth Elements, Mostafa Khodakarami

Doctoral Dissertations

“This research focused on the design and synthesis of task-specific ionic liquids for enhanced extraction and separation of rare earth elements (REEs). Two novel ammonium-based functional ionic liquids (FILs) with oxygen donating groups: trioctyl(2-ethoxy-2-oxoethyl)ammonium dihexyl diglycolamate, [OcGBOEt][DHDGA], and tricaprylmethylammonium dihexyl diglycolamate, [A336][DHDGA] were synthesized and tested for the recovery and separation of selected REEs from aqueous solutions. Functionalities with different denticities were incorporated into both anionic and cationic parts of ionic liquids, which are solely composed of incinerable atoms including C, H, O, and N. The structural, physical, and chemical properties of the synthesized FILs were studied using nuclear magnetic …

Chemically Dealloyed Fe-Based Metallic Glass With Void Channels-Like Architecture For Highly Enhanced Peroxymonosulfate Activation In Catalysis, J.C. Wang, S.X. Liang, Z. Jia, W.C. Zhang, W.M. Wang, Y.J. Lui, J. Lu, L.C Zhang

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Metallic glasses (MGs) with their intrinsic disordered atomic structure and widely controllable atomic components have recently emerged as fascinating functional materials in wastewater treatment. Compared to crystalline alloys, the less-noble atomic components in monolithic metallic glass are more efficient to be selectively dissolved during dealloying process. This work reported a facile chemical dealloying approach to fabricate a void channels-like structured MG with the elemental components of Fe73.5Si13.5B9Cu1Nb3 for methylene blue (MB) degradation. Results indicated that the dealloyed Fe73.5Si13.5B9Cu1Nb3 MGs with the void channels-like morphology presented a significant improvement of catalytic efficiency and reusability. The dye degradation reaction rate (kobs) of …

Review Of Carbonaceous Annealing Effects On O2 And Co2 Coal Reactivity, Troy Michael Holland, Thomas H. Fletcher, Osvalda Senneca

Faculty Publications

Coal is, and will remain for the foreseeable future, a critical energy production resource. Advanced models of coal conversion behavior in air and oxy-coal environments enhance the boiler operational efficiency and design optimization. Although coal conversion models have continuously improved over decades of research, not all aspects of coal particle heating and conversion have received equal treatment. Coal particle annealing is one aspect of the coal conversion process that is simultaneously highly sensitive to the conversion environment, exceptionally impactful on coal chemistry, and frequently neglected in coal models. However, the current body of literature has explored numerous aspects of coal …

Correlations Of The Elemental Compositions Of Primary Coal Tar And Char, Andrew P. Richards, Colson Johnson, Thomas H. Fletcher

Faculty Publications

Simulations of large-scale coal combustors rely on accurate submodels to describe the chemical and physical changes in coal during reaction. Typically, simplified empirical submodels are tuned to experimental data to reduce the computational complexity. When data are not readily available, simplifying assumptions are used, which can create inaccuracies and biases in a large simulation. One such simplifying assumption in coal research is how to describe the elemental composition of primary pyrolysis products. This paper explores several different empirical model forms to predict the dry, ash-free fractions of C, H, O, N, and S in both the char and tar, using …

Pyrolysis Kinetics Of Live And Dead Wildland Vegetation From The Southern United States, Elham Amini, Mohammad-Saeed Safdari, David R. Weise, Thomas H. Fletcher

Faculty Publications

The fundamental combustion behavior of live wildland vegetation is not fully understood. Since the combustion process during wildland fire starts with pyrolysis, there is a need for better understanding of pyrolysis to develop improved wildland fire models. The kinetics of pyrolysis of live and dead wildland vegetation has not been explored in detail. In this study, the pyrolysis kinetics were determined for 14 different plant species (live and dead) which are all native to the forests in the southern United States. Pyrolysis experiments were carried out in a Thermogravimetric analyzer (TGA) under inert conditions at 5 different heating rates ranged …

Extraction Rate In Vapor Assisted Extraction Of Heavy Oil (Vapex), Vijitha Mohan, Parthasakha Neogi

Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Heavy oil recovery requires either heat (SAGD) or a solvent (VAPEX) to reduce its high viscosity first and then the less viscous oil can be recovered. We show here that the existing data, on the rate of oil recovered in VAPEX process in sand packs show a square root dependence on the height of pay zone, following expectation. This dependence had remained uncertain and is of importance in oil field operations. We have used dimensional analysis and inverse viscosity-diffusivity dependence to obtain an expression for the rate that agrees well with the available sand pack data. The dimensional analysis overcomes …

Slightly Fluorination Of Al2o3 Ald Coating On Li1.2mn0.54co0.13ni0.13o2 Electrodes: Interface Reaction To Create Stable Solid Permeable Interphase Layer, Han Yu, Yan Gao, Xinhua Liang

Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Improving the performance of cathodes by using surface coatings has proven to be an effective method for improving the stability of Li-ion batteries (LIBs), while a high-quality film satisfying all requirements of electrochemical inertia, chemical stability, and lithium-ion conductivity has not been found. In this study, a composite film composed of Al₂O₃ and AlF₃ layers was coated on the surface of Li_1.2Mn_0.54Co_0.13Ni_0.13O₂ (Li-rich NMC) based electrodes by atomic layer deposition (ALD). By varying the ratio of Al₂O₃ and AlF₃, an optimal coating …

Magnetic Composite Biomaterials For Neural Regeneration, Jessica L. Funnell, Bailey Balouch, Ryan J. Gilbert

Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Nervous system damage caused by physical trauma or degenerative diseases can result in loss of sensory and motor function for patients. Biomaterial interventions have shown promise in animal studies, providing contact guidance for extending neurites or sustained release of various drugs and growth factors; however, these approaches often target only one aspect of the regeneration process. More recent studies investigate hybrid approaches, creating complex materials that can reduce inflammation or provide neuroprotection in addition to stimulating growth and regeneration. Magnetic materials have shown promise in this field, as they can be manipulated non-invasively, are easily functionalized, and can be used …

Investigate The Rheological Behavior Of High Viscosity Friction Reducer Fracture Fluid And Its Impact On Proppant Static Settling Velocity, Mohammed Ba Geri, Abdulmohsin Imqam, Andrey Bogdan, Lingjuan Shen

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The recent and rapid success of using high viscosity friction reducers (HVFRs) in hydraulic fracturing treatments is due to several advantages over other fracture fluids (e.g. linear gel), which include better proppant carrying capability, induce more complex fracture system network with higher fracture length, and overall lower costs due to fewer chemicals and less equipment on location. However, some concerns remain, like how HVFRs rheological properties can have impact on proppant transport into fractures. The objective of this study is to provide a comprehensive understanding of the influence the rheological characterization of HVFRs have on proppant static settling velocity within …

Well-Ordered Mesoporous Silica And Bioactive Glasses: Promise For Improved Hemostasis, Sara Pourshahrestani, Nahrizul Adib Kadri, Ehsan Zeimaran, Mark R. Towler

Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Immediate control of uncontrolled bleeding and infection are essential for saving lives in both combat and civilian arenas. Inorganic well-ordered mesoporous silica and bioactive glasses have recently shown great promise for accelerating hemostasis and infection control. However, to date, there has been no comprehensive report assessing their specific mechanism of action in accelerating the hemostasis process and exerting an antibacterial effect. After providing a brief overview of the hemostasis process, this review presents a critical overview of the recently developed inorganic mesoporous silica and bioactive glass-based materials proposed for hemostatic clinical applications and specifically investigates their unique characteristics that render …

Degradation And Hydrate Phase Equilibria Measurement Methods Of Monoethylene Glycol, Khalid Alef, Stefan Iglauer, Ahmed Barifcani

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Monoethylene glycol (MEG), a common chemical used for the inhibition of gas hydrate formation may undergo degradation in the regeneration/reclamation process. Limited research exists on the effect of degradation of MEG on hydrate formation, production facilities and equipment especially in the presence of other chemical additives. The proposed method allows for streamlining the process of preparing, degrading and analysis of MEG solutions for hydrate testing and degradation products.

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Procedure to prepare accurate MEG solutions avoiding oxidative degradation of MEG (i.e., controlling oxygen ingress).

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Two methods are suggested to mimic field-like degradation of MEG solutions (i.e., degradation by reclamation …

The Cooperative Effects Of Channel Length-Bias, Width Asymmetry, Gradient Steepness, And Contact-Guidance On Fibroblasts’ Directional Decision Making, Quang Long Pham

Dissertations

Cell migration in complex micro-environments, that are similar to tissue pores, is important for predicting locations of tissue nucleation and optimizing scaffold architectures. Firstly, how fibroblast cells - relevant to tissue engineering, affect each other’s directional decisions when encountered with a bifurcation of different channel lengths was investigated. It was found that cell sequence and cell mitosis influence the directional choices that the cells made while chemotaxing. Specifically, the fibroblasts chose to alternate between two possible paths - one longer and the other shorter - at a bifurcation. This finding was counter-intuitive given that the shorter path had a steeper …

Experimental And Numerical Characterization Of Multiphase Subsurface Oil Release, Feng Gao

Dissertations

Subsurface oil release is commonly encountered in the natural environment and engineering applications and has received the substantial attention of researchers after the disastrous Deepwater Horizon Blowout oil spill in 2009. The main focus on the present research is to systematically study the hydrodynamics of underwater oil jet under a variety of conditions, including the effect of dispersant and different gas to oil ratios (GOR) by using experimental measurement as well as a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) approach, from which the measured turbulent characteristics (e.g., velocity, turbulent kinetic energy, turbulence dissipation rate, etc.) of underwater oil jet are thoroughly examined …

Overcoming Conventional Modeling Limitations Using Image- Driven Lattice-Boltzmann Method Simulations For Biophysical Applications, Olufemi E. Kadri

Dissertations

The challenges involved in modeling biological systems are significant and push the boundaries of conventional modeling. This is because biological systems are distinctly complex, and their emergent properties are results of the interplay of numerous components/processes. Unfortunately, conventional modeling approaches are often limited by their inability to capture all these complexities. By using in vivo data derived from biomedical imaging, image-based modeling is able to overcome this limitation.

In this work, a combination of imaging data with the Lattice-Boltzmann Method for computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is applied to tissue engineering and thrombogenesis. Using this approach, some of the unanswered questions …

Interactions Between Polymer Nanoparticles And Blood Plasma Applied To Drug Delivery Systems, Mark Bannon

Theses

Targeted nanoparticle drug delivery has the potential to replace current forms of cancer therapy with previously unparalleled efficiency. Upon introduction into the human body, nanoparticles exhibit a substantial increase in diameter due to a biomolecular corona formation caused by interactions between blood plasma proteins and the nanoparticles. These interactions must be analyzed and understood for targeted delivery to reach its potential in both feasibility and efficiency.

To study the formation of the protein corona, polystyrene nanoparticles were incubated in vitro in goat blood plasma for 10-minute intervals, diluted to different degrees and then measured to obtain the hydrodynamic diameter of …

Performance Of C2H4 Reductant In Activated-Carbon-Supported Mnox-Based Scr Catalyst At Low Temperatures, Guangli Liu, Dongtai Han, Jie Cheng, Yongshi Feng, Wenbin Quan, Li Yang, Kozo Saito

Mechanical Engineering Faculty Publications

Hydrocarbons as reductants show promising results for replacing NH₃ in SCR technology. Therefore, considerable interest exists for developing low-temperature (< 200 °C) and environmentally friendly HC-SCR catalysts. Hence, C₂H₄ was examined as a reductant using activated-carbon-supported MnOx-based catalyst in low-temperature SCR operation. Its sensitivity to Mn concentration and operating temperature was parametrically studied, the results of which showed that the catalyst activity followed the order of 130 °C > 150 °C > 180 °C with an optimized Mn concentration near 3.0 wt.%. However, rapid deactivation of catalytic activity also occurred when using C₂H₄ as the reductant. The mechanism of deactivation was explored and is …

Stabilization Strategies Of Pt Catalysts Forproton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells, Da-Ping He, Shi-Chun Mu

Journal of Electrochemistry

The low service lifetime of proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) is the main bottleneck for their commercial applications. One of the main factors is that the expensive metal Pt catalyst is easy to degradation under the harsh working environment of PEMFC (such as variable voltage, strong acidity, gas-liquid two-phase flow), which leads to the inevitable decay of the catalytic performance, thus, seriously restricting the lifetime of PEMFC. Therefore, the electrochemical stability of Pt-based electrocatalysts has become an important and hot topic to improve the PEMFC lifetime. In this paper, we review the recent development in enhancing the stability of …