Engineering Commons^™

Atomistic Thermo-Mechanical Description Of The Deformation Behavior, Scaling Laws, And Constitutive Modeling Of Nanoporous Gold, Mohammed Hassan Yousef Saffarini

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Metallic foams, or nanoporous (NP) metals as it is widely referred to in literature, with ligament sizes up to a few tens of nm show exceptional mechanical properties such as high strength and stiffness per weight ratio under different loading scenarios due to their high surface area to solid volume ratio. Therefore, they can be utilized in a wide range of applications making them of great interest to researchers. While their elasticity and yield strength have been the subject of several studies, very limited attention was given to the effect of size, strain rate, and temperature on the material plastic …

Mechanical Failure Of Metal/Ceramic Interfacial Regions Under Shear And Tensile Loading, Xiaoman Zhang

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Quantitative assessment of the adhesion strength of ceramic hard coatings on substrates is a subject of great technological importance as well as current scientific relevance. Achievement of reliable and quantitative measurements of interfacial strength has proven difficult over the past two decades. In this dissertation, how the deformation and fracture behavior of ceramic/metal/substrate interfacial regions under shear and tensile loading is influenced by the structure and chemical composition of the interfacial region were observed and discussed. Interfacial shear failure experiments were carried out on focused ion beam fabricated micro pillars containing interfacial regions of ceramic/metal/substrate systems. Detailed characterization was carried …

Characterizing And Optimizing Asynchronous Event-Driven Architecture For Modern Cloud Systems, Shungeng Zhang

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Achieving good performance and high efficiency simultaneously is an essential requirement for emerging modern cloud systems such as e-commerce due to their business impact. For example, Akamai reported that every 100ms delay in website load time could lead to a 6% drop in sales. Unfortunately, achieving good performance (e.g., low latency) for modern cloud systems at high resource utilization is significantly challenging. Despite continuing efforts by cloud professionals, however, they have consistently experienced performance degradation problems (e.g., the long-tail latency problem) due to the bursty workload in the cloud. To resolve the performance degradation problems, many previous research efforts have …

Evaluating Hazus-Mh Flood Model Consequence Assessments Of Urban And Rural Coastal Landscapes Using Adcirc Generated Flood Data From Hurricanes Isaac And Laura, Katherine Faye Jones

LSU Master's Theses

Emergency managers rely on a variety on models and outputs, such as Hazards United States Multi- Hazard (Hazus-MH) and the Coastal Emergency Risk Assessment (CERA) visualization tool, to make decisions in the days leading up to and following hurricane events. This study focuses on using Hurricane Isaac (2012) and Hurricane Laura (2020).ASGS-CERA geoTIFFs, created from generated ADCIRC Prediction System data, in the Hazus-MH Flood Model to test using these two tools together in urban and rural areas. These ASGS-CERA integrated Hazus-MH studies were compared with Hazus-MH studies using the standard Hazus-MH surge methodology. They were tested for accuracy in both …

Blowout - Capping - Fracturing - Relief Well, A Full Cycle Workflow, Youssuf A. Elnoamany

LSU Master's Theses

Broaching is defined as the uncontrolled release of hydrocarbons to ocean seafloor after a loss of subsurface well control event. Failed attempts to cap the offshore wells undergoing worst case discharge may lead to hydraulic fracture initiation and subsequent propagation, leading to renewed release of hydrocarbon to the seafloor. During the capping stack shut-in process, pressure build-up will occur along the wellbore, exposing locations of possible fracture initiation to overpressurized fluid, such as directly below the casing shoe, and critical points along the well casing. Shall there be enough build-up pressure to exceed the minimum horizontal stress in an exposed …

Local Calibration Of Pavement Me And Performance Evaluation Of Pavement Rehabilitation And Preservation Asphalt Overlays In Louisiana, Farzana Moon

LSU Master's Theses

Asphalt overlays can be categorized as pavement rehabilitation structural overlays or pavement preservation overlays in terms of the thickness and timing of maintenance activities. Pavement rehabilitation overlay contributes to the structural enhancement of pavements and pavement preservation overlays generally provide functional improvement to an existing pavement. In recent times, the pavement design approach employed by the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development (LADOTD) has been transitioning from the 1993 AASHTO design procedure to a locally calibrated Pavement ME method. The AASHTOWare Pavement ME (Mechanistic-Empirical) design procedure is considered the modern approach to pavement design. Significant updates have been introduced in …

Quantifying Discharge On The Lower Mississippi River Physical Model, Taylor S. Cagle

LSU Master's Theses

The Lower Mississippi River Physical Model (LMRPM) is a distorted, movable-bed physical model that replicates the hydraulics and bedload (sand) transport of the lower 195 miles of the Mississippi River. One year of flow and sediment transport on the prototype can be modeled in approximately one hour. With the ability to simulate long periods of time on the Lower Mississippi River in such a short time frame, the model can provide unique insight into subjects such as the potential effects from relative sea level rise on the lower river’s hydraulics and sediment transport. Quantifying discharge on the LMRPM is an …

Assessment Of Endogenous Biomass Decay As A Source Of Precursors For Microbially-Mediated Toluene And P-Cresol Production, Samuel J. Reynolds

LSU Master's Theses

The research reported in this thesis was conducted to investigate whether protein hydrolysis associated with endogenous decay of biomass produced following the addition of a readily fermentable substrate is a potential source of precursors that can ultimately be transformed to toluene and p-cresol in environments undergoing enhanced bioremediation.

A packed column intended to represent a laboratory-scale section of an aquifer was seeded with groundwater and then supplied with molasses-amended groundwater for a two-day interval. The injected molasses concentration and surface loading rate were selected to be representative of conditions in the vicinity of injection wells at a Superfund Site …

Variability In The Hamburg Wheel-Tracking Device (Hwtd) Data And Results, Ilerioluwa S. Giwa

LSU Master's Theses

Over the years, the Hamburg Wheel-Tracking Test (HWTT) has become one of the most popular devices used for characterizing asphalt mixtures for rutting potential and moisture susceptibility. However, although the HWTT is a reliable standard test for evaluating asphalt mixtures, it is not exempt from variability in the test data and result. Variability in the HWTT test data and results have been majorly attributed to imprecision in the test practice and due to some limitations in the HWT device setup.

The primary goal of this study is to evaluate the variability in the HWTT data and result by investigating a …

High Density Cement-Rock Interface Characterization, Zahid Farid

LSU Master's Theses

The strength and stability of a well depends primarily on the seal that is created between a geologic formation and a wellbore cement. To protect and maintain this well integrity during production and after well abandonment, fixed seals are installed in the wellbore. For this purpose, Portland cement of class H and G are used throughout the world as a plugging and sealing material for offshore oil and gas wells. The cement-rock interface is an area of vulnerability with a pathway that provides possible routes for leakage out into the wellbore environment and in the proximity of the seals. Therefore, …

Fatigue Monitoring Through Wearable Sensors For Construction Workers, Srikanth Sagar Bangaru

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

About 40% of the US construction workforce experiences high-level fatigue, which leads to poor judgment, increased risk of injuries, a decrease in productivity, and a lower quality of work. Excessive fatigue from working in unpleasant working conditions, long working hours, or heavy workloads can aggravate fatigue's adverse effects, leading to work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs) and productivity loss. Therefore, it is essential to monitor fatigue to reduce the adverse effects and preventing long-term health problems. However, since fatigue demonstrates itself in several complex processes, there is no single standard measurement method for fatigue detection. This research aims to develop a system …

Bio-Mediated Ground Improvement For Fine-Grained Soil, Guantao Cheng

LSU Master's Theses

The research explored the use of microbially induced carbonate precipitation (MICP) to improve the mechanical properties of fine-grained soil and rapidly repair soil cracks on embankment slopes. Slope failures are often induced by surface cracks on the embankment slopes. To date, most rapid repair methods for slope failures (e.g., geosynthetics, soil nails, plastic pins, and lime treatment, etc.) involve large earthwork, special installation equipment, and unique construction processes, which may require extended construction time, disturb traffic, or increase the total construction cost. This research explored the feasibility of using bio-cement (MICP) to improve soil mechanical properties, seal the soil cracks, …

Semantics-Guided Human Motion Modeling In Virtual Reality Environment, Matthew Korban

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Human Motion Modeling is essential in Computer Animation and Human-Computer Interaction. This dissertation studies how to enhance the speed and robustness of Human Motion Modeling in Virtual Reality (VR) environments. Specifically, we aim to design a pipeline to effectively capture and use semantic action information to guide the motion capturing from users in physical worlds and its transfer onto digital avatars in VR environments. To recognize the user's action, we first proposed a new Dynamic Directed Graph Convolutional Network (DDGCN) to model spatial and temporal features from users' skeletal representations. The DDGCN consists of several dynamic feature modeling modules to …

Error Prevention In Sensors And Sensor Systems, Pedro J. Chacon Dominguez

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Achievements in all fields of engineering and fabrication methods have led towards optimization and integration of multiple sensing devices into a concise system. These advances have caused significant innovation in various commercial, industrial, and research efforts. Integrations of subsystems have important applications for sensor systems in particular. The need for reporting and real time awareness of a device’s condition and surroundings have led to sensor systems being implemented in a wide variety of fields. From environmental sensors for agriculture, to object characterization and biomedical sensing, the application for sensor systems has impacted all modern facets of innovation. With these innovations, …

A Comprehensive Study On Printed Circuit Board Backdoor Coupling In High Intensity Radiated Fields Environments, Ryan Patrick Tortorich

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Due to the prevalence of unintentional electromagnetic interference (EMI) and the growth of intentional electromagnetic interference (IEMI) or high power microwave (HPM) sources, it is now more important than ever to understand how electronic systems are affected by high intensity radiated fields (HIRF) environments. Both historic events and experimental testing have demonstrated that HIRF environments are capable of disrupting and potentially damaging critical systems including but not limited to civil and military aircraft, industrial control systems (ICS), and internet of things (IoT) devices. However, there is limited understanding on the complex electromagnetic interactions that lead to such effects. This study …

Modeling Hydraulic Fracturing Initiation And Propagation In Porous Rock Formationsl, Chang Huang

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Hydraulic fracturing has long been introduced to the oil and gas industry since the early nineteenth century for both reservoir characterization and reservoir stimulation. Despite the progress made in the last two decades, many challenges still have not been tackled regarding not only the propagation problem but also the initiation problem due to its complexity. The dissertation is divided into two stages, i.e., before and after fracture initiation. The first stage of the research aimed at improving the accuracy in solving the poro-mechanical response of wellbore during fluid injection before a tensile fracture occurs, which is crucial to determine the …

An Investigation Of The Effects Of Variable Magnetic Field Gradients On Soot And Co Emissions From Non-Premixed Hydrocarbon Flames, Edison Ekperechukwu Chukwuemeka

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The interaction of the paramagnetic species in a combustion process with the mag- netic field placed in the vicinity of non-premixed flames affects the characteristics of the non-premixed flames - flame height and flame lift-off height. However, the effect of this magnetic interaction on the pollutants generated by the flame is unknown.

In general, pollutant formation is promoted in most combustion systems due to in- complete combustion of the hydrocarbon due to improper mixing. Since paramagnetic combustion species such as O2, O, OH, etc interacts with magnetic fields and possess a preferential motion direction, imposing magnetic field on non-premixed flames …

On The Computational Efficiency Of Les And Hybrid Rans-Les Models In Building Aerodynamics, Aly Mousaad Aly, Faiaz Khaled

Faculty Publications

Large-eddy simulation (LES) has proven to offer superior accuracy in regards to predicting surface pressures compared to the Reynolds-averaged Navier Stokes (RANS) models. However, the primary impediment is the high computational cost associated with LES. The authors attempt to investigate the computational cost and accuracy by employing different sub-grid scale (SGS) models in LES and hybrid RANS-LES models. One of the prerequisites of accurate pressure estimations is to ensure a horizontally homogeneous empty computational domain. This study aims to compare the computational competence qualitatively and quantitatively using an empty domain in regards to the ability to maintain horizontal homogeneity. The …

Analysis, Modeling, And Simulation (Ams) Case Studies Of Connected And Automated Vehicle (Cav) Implementations Specific To The South Central Region, Christopher Melson, Jiaqi Ma

Data

Connected and automated vehicles (CAVs) offer potentially transformative and far-reaching impacts to the transportation system. However, realized benefits will be directly tied to how well agencies prepare for these technologies. This report documents efforts that support CAV preparatory actions in Louisiana and includes: (1) conducting a stakeholder survey to inform engagement activities to develop strategic partnerships in CAV deployment and (2) conducting crash analyses for deployment scenarios of CAV-based queue warning systems (QWSs).

An electronic survey was developed and disseminated to 273 Louisiana organizations. The purpose of the survey was to engage these organizations under the context of CAV planning …

On The Computational Efficiency Of Les And Hybrid Rans-Les Models In Building Aerodynamics, Faiaz Khaled, Aly Mousaad Aly

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Analysis, Modeling, And Simulation (Ams) Case Studies Of Connected And Automated Vehicle (Cav) Implementations Specific To The South Central Region, Christopher Melson, Jiaqi Ma

Publications

Connected and automated vehicles (CAVs) offer potentially transformative and far-reaching impacts to the transportation system. However, realized benefits will be directly tied to how well agencies prepare for these technologies. This report documents efforts that support CAV preparatory actions in Louisiana and includes: (1) conducting a stakeholder survey to inform engagement activities to develop strategic partnerships in CAV deployment and (2) conducting crash analyses for deployment scenarios of CAV-based queue warning systems (QWSs).

An electronic survey was developed and disseminated to 273 Louisiana organizations. The purpose of the survey was to engage these organizations under the context of CAV planning …

Controlling The Orientation Of Fluorescent Dyes Using External Electric Fields, Henry J. Kantrow

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

High Temperature Polymer Electrolytes For Hydrogen Fuel Cells And Electrochemical Pumps, Gokul Venugopalan

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Hydrogen fuel cell and separation technologies such as proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) and electrochemical hydrogen pump (ECHP) offer a profound advantage in the transition to a low-carbon economy. An imperative hitch in hydrogen fuel cells and ECHP technology has been the electrocatalyst poisoning by carbon monoxide (CO) and other contaminants in the reactant mixture. By operating, hydrogen fuel cells and ECHPs at high temperatures (>200 °C), the effect of CO adsorption on the electrocatalyst surface could be curtailed. The high-temperature operation of devices necessitates a proton exchange membrane (PEM) to operate under anhydrous conditions.

In this work, …

Evaluation Of Vertical And Horizontal Wells For Utilization In Carbon Sequestration, Michael R. Bohnet

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

Effects Of Historical Land-Use Change On Surface Runoff And Flooding In The Amite River Basin, Louisiana, Usa Using Coupled 1d/2d Hec-Ras–Hec-Hms Hydrological Modeling, Alexandre G. H. Cowles

LSU Master's Theses

The Amite River Basin is a largely rural watershed spanning parts of four counties in southern Mississippi and seven parishes in southeast Louisiana, with basinwide imperviousness increasing from 0.82% in 1938 to 3.85% in 2016. The Basin has been the subject of significant research interest since catastrophic flooding in 2016 caused 13 deaths and widespread damages. Rapid development in recent decades has led to an expansion of impervious surfaces in Baton Rouge and surrounding areas, encroaching on floodplains and wetlands. At the basin scale, differences in flooding due to impervious cover changes were found to be somewhat limited, particularly along …

Development And Mechanical Characterization Of A Composite Biomaterial Made From Agricultural Waste Reinforcement In A Fungal Mycelium Matrix., John Adam Howe

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

Velocity Distribution And Stress Analysis In A Continuous Exchange Cell-Free Protein Synthesis System, Grace Nguyen

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

Lean Implementation In An Aquatic Cryopreservation Laboratory, Jennafer Zimmerman

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

Plant-Wide Control System Proposal Of Ethylene Cracking Plant Simulation, Estelle Seghers

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

Distance-Based Formation Control Using Decentralized Sensing With Infrared Photodiodes, Steven Williams

LSU Master's Theses

This study presents an onboard sensor system for determining the relative positions of mobile robots, which is used in decentralized distance-based formation controllers for multi-agent systems. This sensor system uses infrared photodiodes and LEDs; its effective use requires coordination between the emitting and detecting robots. A technique is introduced for calculating the relative positions based on photodiode readings, and an automated calibration system is designed for future maintenance. By measuring the relative positions of their neighbors, each robot is capable of running an onboard formation controller, which is independent of both a centralized controller and a global positioning-like system (e.g., …