Engineering Commons^™

Voltage-Controlled Deposition Of Nanoparticles For Next Generation Electronic Materials, Subhodip Maulik

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This work presents both a feasibility study and an investigation into the voltage-controlled spray deposition of different nanoparticles, namely, carbon nanotubes (CNTs), as well as molybdenum disulfide (MoS₂) and tungsten disulfide (WS₂) from the transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) family of materials. The study considers five different types of substrates as per their potential application to next-generation device electronics. The substrates selected for this research were: 1) aluminum as a conducting substrate, 2) silicon as a semiconducting substrate, 3) glass, silicon dioxide (SiO₂), and syndiotactic poly methyl methacrylate (syndiotactic PMMA) as insulating substrates.

Since the …

Effect Of Driver, Vehicle, And Road Related Factors On Crashes At Intersections And Non-Intersections: A Naturalistic Driving Study, Grace Naa Ashley

LSU Master's Theses

Traffic accidents in the U.S. have declined over the last two decades but continue to cost the country billions of U.S. dollars each year. Intersection accidents alone account for 23% of the 32,675 deaths that occurred by motor vehicle crashes in 2014. In light of this, the first part of this study sought to identify driver behavior and secondary tasks that influenced the occurrence of a crashes at controlled, uncontrolled and non-intersections with multiple logistic regression. The second part of the study used decision tree which applied machine learning algorithms to identify significant factors that influenced the occurrence of crashes …

Quality Function Deployment Method And Its Application On Wearable Technology Product Development, Mir Salahuddin

LSU Master's Theses

The purpose of this thesis was to investigate consumers and product developer’s expectations of wearable technology products in the context of the Quality Function Deployment (QFD) framework. The specific objectives were to: 1) Explore the quality features that consumers consider most important when purchasing wearable technology product. 2) Explore the technical features product developers consider most important in the development of wearable technology. 3) Identify the technical features that wearable technology product developers need to focus on to meet the customer requirements.

The Qualtrix online survey system was used to collect demographic, quantitative and essay length written responses from participants. …

Distributed Iterative Graph Processing Using Nosql With Data Locality, Ayam Pokhrel

LSU Master's Theses

A tremendous amount of data is generated every day from a wide range of sources such as social networks, sensors, and application logs. Among them, graph data is one type that represents valuable relationships between various entities. Analytics of large graphs has become an essential part of business processes and scientific studies because it leads to deep and meaningful insights into the related domain based on the connections between various entities. However, the optimal processing of large-scale iterative graph computations is very challenging due to the issues like fault tolerance, high memory requirement, parallelization, and scalability. Most of the contemporary …

Nanostructured Materials Derived From Metal-Organic Frameworks For Energy And Environmental Applications, Zhiqiang Xie

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Nowadays, energy and environmental issues have become the top priority among a series of global issues. Fossil fuels as the dominant source are depleted fast and usually lead to some environmental problems. Heavy metal pollution has posed a severe threat to environment and public health. Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), as a very promising category of porous materials, have attracted more and more interest in research communities due to their extremely high surface areas, diverse nanostructures and unique properties. To meet the ever-increasing energy demand and tackle the heavy metal pollution in water, MOFs can function as ideal templates to prepare various …

Waste Management By Waste: Removal Of Acid Dyes From Wastewaters Of Textile Coloration Using Fish Scales, S M Fijul Kabir

LSU Master's Theses

Removal of hazardous acid dyes by economical process using low-cost bio-sorbents from wool industry wastewaters is of a pressing need, since it causes skin and respiratory diseases and disrupts other environmental components. Fish scales (FS), a by-product of fish industry, a type of solid waste, are usually discarded carelessly resulting in pungent odor and environmental burden. In this research, the FS of black drum (Pogonias cromis) were used for the removal of acid dyes (acid red 1 (AR1), acid blue 45 (AB45) and acid yellow 127 (AY126)) from wool industry wastewaters by absorption process with a view to …

Resampling Methods And Visualization Tools For Computer Performance Comparisons In The Presence Of Performance Variation, Samuel Oridge Irving

LSU Master's Theses

Performance variability, stemming from non-deterministic hardware and software behaviors or deterministic behaviors such as measurement bias, is a well-known phenomenon of computer systems which increases the difficulty of comparing computer performance metrics and is slated to become even more of a concern as interest in Big Data Analytics increases. Conventional methods use various measures (such as geometric mean) to quantify the performance of different benchmarks to compare computers without considering this variability which may lead to wrong conclusions. In this paper, we propose three resampling methods for performance evaluation and comparison: a randomization test for a general performance comparison between …

On The Computation Of The Rate-Equivocation Region For Wyner's Wire-Tap Channels, Meena Gangula

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In a wire tap channel, the transmitter Alice communicates with the legitimate receiver, Bob, in the presence of another receiver, Eve. The goal is to keep the wiretapper, Eve, as ignorant as possible about the information sent to Bob. For communication channels where the adversary, Eve, eavesdrops on the information sent between the legitimate users by wiretapping at the Bob's end, Wyner introduced secure encoding schemes and showed that non zero reliable transmission rate is possible in perfect secrecy. Wyner also obtained the information theoretic achievable rate equivocation region (Rb, DeltaK) for discrete memoryless wire tap channels. The rate equivocation …

Advanced Modeling, Design, And Control Of Ac-Dc Microgrids, Hossein Saberi Khorzoughi

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

An interconnected dc grid that comprises resistive and constant-power loads (CPLs) that is fed by Photovoltaic (PV) units is studied first. All the sources and CPLs are connected to the grid via dc-dc buck converters. Nonlinear behavior of PV units in addition to the effect of the negative-resistance CPLs can destabilize the dc grid. A decentralized nonlinear model and control are proposed where an adaptive output-feedback controller is employed to stabilize the dc grid with assured stability through Lyapunov stability method while each converter employs only local measurements. Adaptive Neural Networks (NNs) are utilized to overcome the unknown dynamics of …

Formation Control Of Multi-Agent Systems By Using Rigid Graphs, Pengpeng Zhang

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This research is devoted to the decentralized formation control of multi-agent systems in two- and three-dimensional space. Rigid graph theory is used to describe the interactions between the agents, and Lyapunov theory and input-to-state stability are the main tools for designing and analyzing the stability of the proposed formation controllers. Two formation problems are addressed in this work: formation acquisition, where the goal is for the agents to form and maintain a pre-defined geometric shape; and formation maneuvering, where the agents need to acquire a formation and move cohesively as a virtual rigid body.

In the first problem, we tackle …

Considerations On Direct Balancing Of Ultra-High Power Ac Arc Furnaces In Uneasy State, Ikenna Louis Ezeonwumelu

LSU Master's Theses

During the operation of ultra-high-power ac arc furnace the negative effects of unbalance mostly occur in the secondary terminals of the transformer connected to the load. Hence balancing and compensating the furnace at this terminal will not only improve the transformer efficiency but also reduce energy losses that do occur. In this thesis a computer modeling of a reference ac arc furnace in both balanced and unbalanced states were simulated, and the effects of a reactive balancing compensator installed on the secondary side of the furnace transformer was evaluated to see how much delivered energy improvement can be obtained. The …

Over-Height Vehicle Impact Reduction On Bridges: A Case Study, Marc Alexander Hoffmann

LSU Master's Theses

Over-height vehicle collisions are a growing concern as commercial vehicles, as well as their cargo, become taller. Engineers recognize the dangers of over-weight vehicles traveling on our bridges and are able to adequately predict the behavior of a bridge subjected to increased live loads. However, bridges are becoming more vulnerable to collisions from over-height vehicles. Not only are the time and place of over-height vehicle collisions difficult to predict, but also the exact response of the bridge subjected to the lateral impact force is difficult to predict.

Most states use early warning detection systems to alert over-height vehicles and/or crash …

Multitarget Joint Delay And Doppler Shift Estimation In Bistatic Passive Radar, Mohammed Rashid

LSU Master's Theses

Bistatic passive radar (BPR) system does not transmit any electromagnetic signal unlike the active radar, but employs an existing Illuminator of opportunity (IO) in the environment, for instance, a broadcast station, to detect and track the targets of interest. Therefore, a BPR system is comprised of two channels. One is the reference channel that collects only the IO signal, and the other is the surveillance channel which is used to capture the targets' reflected signals. When the IO signal reflected from multiple targets is captured in the surveillance channel (SC) then estimating the delays and Doppler shifts of all the …

Developing Nanopore Electromechanical Sensors With Transverse Electrodes For The Study Of Nanoparticles/Biomolecules, Mohammadsadegh Beheshti

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This study concerns development of a technology of utilizing metallic nanowires for a sensing element in nanofluidic single molecular (nanoparticle) sensors formed in plastic substrates to detect the translocation of single molecules through the nanochannel. We aimed to develop nanofluidic single molecular sensors in plastic substrates due to their scalability towards high through and low cost manufacturing for point-of-care applications. Despite significant research efforts recently on the technologies and applications of nanowires, using individual nanowires as electric sensing element in nanofluidic bioanalytic devices has not been realized yet. This dissertation work tackles several technical challenges involved in this development, which …

Thermogenic Gas Hydrate Formation In Gulf Of Mexico Offshore Environment- Results From Numerical Simulation, Sulav Dhakal

LSU Master's Theses

Development of civilization and the resulting quest for energy have led us to previously uncharted territory in exploration and production of fuel. As the demand continues to grow and conventional oil reserves become depleted, we are looking into unconventional resources such as gas hydrates. However, due to the volatile nature of the energy market and production technology yet to perfected, we are not able to fully utilize the potential of gas hydrates yet.

Reservoir characterization of hydrates have so far been limited to seismic mapping, well log interpretation and laboratory scale studies. This research uses numerical simulation to understand the …

Mechanical And Physical Properties Of Fluorogypsum-Cement-Fly Ash Blends For Artificial Reef And Coastal Protection Structures, Yasser Bigdeli

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The State of Louisiana faces severe soil erosion along its coastlines. Coastal protection structures most commonly are made of limestone and concrete. However, in Louisiana, these materials are not widely available, which makes it significantly expensive to protect the coastlines and marine life. This study proposes to use locally available materials that have lower cost and lower density than limestone and concrete to reduce the economic burden of protecting and enhancing coastlines.

This study presents an extensive investigation of strength and durability properties of a low-cost concrete-like composite material made of pH-adjusted fluorogypsum (FG), class C fly ash (FA), and …

Image Processing Applications In Real Life: 2d Fragmented Image And Document Reassembly And Frequency Division Multiplexed Imaging, Houman Kamran Habibkhani

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In this era of modern technology, image processing is one the most studied disciplines of signal processing and its applications can be found in every aspect of our daily life. In this work three main applications for image processing has been studied.

In chapter 1, frequency division multiplexed imaging (FDMI), a novel idea in the field of computational photography, has been introduced. Using FDMI, multiple images are captured simultaneously in a single shot and can later be extracted from the multiplexed image. This is achieved by spatially modulating the images so that they are placed at different locations in the …

Mobility Of Nano-Particles In Rock Based Micro-Models, Jagannath Upadhyay

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

A confocal micro-particle image velocimetry (C-μPIV) technique along with associated post-processing algorithms is detailed for obtaining three dimensional distributions of nano-particle velocity and concentrations at select locations of the 2.5D (pseudo 3D) Poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) and ceramic micro-model. The designed and fabricated 2.5D micro-model incorporates microchannel networks with 3D wall structures with one at observation wall which resembles fourteen morphological and flow parameters to those of fully 3D actual reservoir rock (Boise Sandstone) at resolutions of 5 and 10 μm in depth and 5 and 25 μm on plane. In addition, an in-situ, non-destructive method for measuring the geometry of …

Development Of A Thiol-Acrylate-Based Hydrogel For Tumor Spheroid Generation In A Microfluidic Device, Wayne Joseph Wortmann Iii

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

Plasmonic Structures For Subwavelength Guiding And Enhanced Light-Matter Interactions, Amirreza Mahigir

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In this dissertation we design and analyze nanostructures for subwavelength guiding and enhanced light-matter interactions.

We first investigate three-dimensional plasmonic waveguide-cavity structures, built by side-coupling stub resonators that consist of plasmonic coaxial waveguides of finite length, to a plasmonic coaxial waveguide. These structures are capable of guiding and manipulating light in deep-subwavelength volumes. We show that three-dimensional plasmonic coaxial waveguides offer a platform for practical realization of deep-subwavelength optical waveguides.

We then introduce compact wavelength-scale slit-based structures for coupling free space light into the fundamental mode of plasmonic coaxial waveguides. We consider single-, double-, and triple-slit structures optimized at the …

Pressure Transient Techniques For Continuous Monitoring Of Co2 Storage/Eor, Nam Hoang Tran

LSU Master's Theses

Pressure well testing has been widely used in the oil and gas industry for determining reservoir properties and well conditions. More recently, studies have been done to show the applicability of well testing for the continuous monitoring of CO₂ storage projects. In the current thesis, we study a diverse range of pressure transient techniques with the same goal of characterizing CO₂. The thesis finds that the use of pressure transient analysis is a strong tool for CO₂ monitoring. Each method discussed within the paper has its advantages and disadvantages. The first technique is able to determine …

The Evaluation Of The Integration Of Sustainability In Industrial Engineering Education At Louisiana State University, Kloe’ M. Liner

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

Simulating Fluid Flow And Gas Expansion In The Marine Riser Using Computational Fluid Dynamics (Cfd) Software, Ross Teichman

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

Automated Filament Positioner For Microcombustion Pyrometry, Lauren F. Baxter

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

“Effectiveness Of Measuring Pedestrian And Bicycle Traffic Volumes Using Eco-Counter Passive Infrared Counting Technology”, Clarissa Bruns

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

On The Use Of Hertz’S Contact Stress For A Deformable Roller On A Half Space, Trent M. Andrus

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

Vacuum-Operated Microfluidic Device For Colorimetric Determination Of Sperm Motility In Aquatic Species, Faiz Alam

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

Evaluation Of Hertz’S Contact Stress Solution For Deformable Truncated Indenters, Kathleen M. Edwards

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

Pore-Scale Analysis Of Interfacial Instabilities And Impact Of Heterogeneity On Relative Permeability By Lattice Boltzmann Method, Zhipeng Zhu

LSU Master's Theses

Interfacial instabilities occur often during immiscible fluid flow through porous media and their understanding is essential for waterflooding operations or other oil recovery processes. Although many studies including experimental and numerical have been done to reproduce and analyze the interfacial instabilities in porous median, there is still significant knowledge gap in fundamental understanding of these flow instabilities at the pore-scale. In order to better understand the interfacial instabilities phenomenon, the pore-scale simulations are performed. In this study, Lattice Boltzmann Method is used to simulate two different types of interfacial instabilities: viscous fingering and capillary fingering in irregular sphere packs by …

Artificial Recharge Of Groundwater As A Management Tool For The Kabul Basin, Afghanistan, Mohammad Farid Masoom

LSU Master's Theses

Decades of war and political instability, consecutive droughts, population increase and displacement, caused serious infrastructural damages to water resources of Afghanistan. The main source of water supply for people in Afghanistan is groundwater. However, over-exploitation of groundwater has led to groundwater level declines in most parts of the country. Kabul, the largest city of Afghanistan, is the capital city with a population of 4.5 million and the fifth fastest-growing city in the world. The city has observed groundwater level declines of 5-10 meters (m) since 1980. Decline of about 30 m has also been observed in one of the monitoring …