Engineering Commons^™

Application Of X-Ray Grating Interferometry To Polymer/Flame Retardant Blends In Additive Manufacturing, Omoefe Joy Kio

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

X-ray grating interferometry is a nondestructive tool for visualizing the internal structures of samples. Image contrast can be generated from the absorption of X-rays, the change in phase of the beam and small-angle X-ray scattering (dark-field). The attenuation and differential phase data obtained complement each other to give the internal composition of a material and large-scale structural information. The dark-field signal reveals sub-pixel structural detail usually invisible to the attenuation and phase probe, with the potential to highlight size distribution detail in a fashion faster than conventional small-angle scattering techniques. This work applies X-ray grating interferometry to the study of …

A Model-Based Framework For The Smart Manufacturing Of Polymers, Santiago D. Salas Ortiz

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

It is hard to point a daily activity in which polymeric materials or plastics are not involved. The synthesis of polymers occurs by reacting small molecules together to form, under certain conditions, long molecules. In polymer synthesis, it is mandatory to assure uniformity between batches, high-quality of end-products, efficiency, minimum environmental impact, and safety. It remains as a major challenge the establishment of operational conditions capable of achieving all objectives together. In this dissertation, different model-centric strategies are combined, assessed, and tested for two polymerization systems.

The first system is the synthesis of polyacrylamide in aqueous solution using potassium persulfate …

Analytical And Numerical Modeling Of Cavity Expansion In Anisotropic Poroelastoplastic Soil, Kai Liu

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Cavity expansion/contraction problems have attracted intensive attentions over the past several decades due to its versatile applications, such as the interpretation of pressuremeter/piezocone penetration testing results and the modelling of pile installation/tunnel excavation in civil engineering, and the prediction of critical mud pressure required to maintain the wellbore stability in petroleum engineering. Despite the fact that various types of constitutive models have been covered in the literature on this subject, the soils and/or rocks were usually treated as isotropic geomaterials.

In recognition of the above fact, this research makes a substantial extension of the fundamental cavity expansion theory by considering …

The 3d Scaffold Design Of De Novo Anterior Cruciate Ligament Graft, Dominique Angibeau

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

Identification And Reduction Of Uncertainties In Watershed-Scale Flow And Water Quality Modeling, Maryam Roostaee

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This study identified important uncertainties affecting watershed-scale flow and water quality simulations and recommended modeling options for reducing the uncertainties by means of the Hydrological Simulation Program-FORTRAN (HSPF) model. Specifically, parameter-induced uncertainties in HSPF model were estimated along with uncertainties associated with DEM resolutions and sources. National Elevation Dataset (NED) DEMs with original and resampled resolutions of 3.5, 10, 30 and 100m were utilized for manual and automatic delineation of three watersheds with different gradients in HSPF model to identify the effects of DEM resolution, DEM resampling, delineation method and watershed gradient on the simulation of streamflow, nitrate (NO_{3 …}

Examining The Effect Of Multiple Route Choice Criteria On Hurricane Evacuation Traffic Through External Validation Of Simulations, Haggai D. Davis Iii

LSU Master's Theses

Hurricane evacuations can be a chaotic experience for individuals involved, but researchers have attempted to find patterns in the routes people take. One paper laid out a model for predicting route choice based upon features that are different than standard route choice influencers. This thesis attempted to evaluate the accuracy of that model by using TransModeler modeling software. Using the building blocks of the HEMP project, this project compared the new model to the standard model and evaluated the two based upon the ability to reproduce real-world results. Interestingly, the two did not come out significantly different possibly because the …

Impacts Of Freight Consolidation And Truck Sharing On Freight Mobility, Tieming Liu, Chaoyue Zhao

Data

Corresponding data set for Tran-SET Project No. 17ITSOKS02. Abstract of the final report is stated below for reference:

"The trucking industry is an important sector of the U.S. economy. However, it is quite fragmented, hindering the efficiency of cargo transportation and the ability for small carriers to identify demands to fill full truck loads. The focus of this research is to study models and algorithms in order to aid online freight marketplaces to identify efficient consolidation strategies. To accomplish this aim, a new mixed integer programming model for the pickup and delivery problem has been developed. The model is geared …

Microfluidic Generation Of Orthogonal Chemical Gradients To Study Cellular Decision Making During 3d Migration, Joshua M. Campbell

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

Implementation Of A Particle Image Velocimetry System For Evaluation Of Microfluidic Chip Flows, Sheila Mallenahalli

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

Material Analysis Of A Tympanostomy Myringotomy Simulator, Abishek Stanley

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

Hierarchal Control Of Magnetic Metal Oxide Nanoparticles, Hunter Simonson

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

3d-Printed Culture Plate Insert With Agarose Barrier For The Evaluation Of Stem-Cancer Cell Signaling., Erika M. Lewis

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

Design And Optimization Of A Microfluidic Device To Study The Effects Of Fluid Shear Stress On Extravasation, Joseph B. Balhoff

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

Nanoparticle Burst Timing Optimization, Simon Grigoryan

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

Impacts Of Freight Consolidation And Truck Sharing On Freight Mobility, Tieming Liu, Chaoyue Zhao

Publications

The trucking industry is an important sector of the U.S. economy. However, it is quite fragmented, hindering the efficiency of cargo transportation and the ability for small carriers to identify demands to fill full truck loads. The focus of this research is to study models and algorithms in order to aid online freight marketplaces to identify efficient consolidation strategies. To accomplish this aim, a new mixed integer programming model for the pickup and delivery problem has been developed. The model is geared towards identifying effective freight consolidation opportunities. A branch-and-cut algorithm to solve the model was also developed. The model …

Distributed Wireless Algorithms For Rfid Systems: Grouping Proofs And Cardinality Estimation, Vanya D. Cherneva

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The breadth and depth of the use of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) are becoming more substantial. RFID is a technology useful for identifying unique items through radio waves. We design algorithms on RFID-based systems for the Grouping Proof and Cardinality Estimation problems.

A grouping-proof protocol is evidence that a reader simultaneously scanned the RFID tags in a group. In many practical scenarios, grouping-proofs greatly expand the potential of RFID-based systems such as supply chain applications, simultaneous scanning of multiple forms of IDs in banks or airports, and government paperwork. The design of RFID grouping-proofs that provide optimal security, privacy, and …

Assessment And Correction Of Lidar-Derived Dems In The Coastal Marshes Of Louisiana, William M. Lauve

LSU Master's Theses

The onset of airborne light detection and ranging (lidar) has resulted in expansive, precise digital elevation models (DEMs). DEMs are essential for modeling complex systems, such as the coastal land margin of Louisiana. They are used for many applications (e.g. tide, storm surge, and ecological modeling) and by diverse groups (e.g. state and federal agencies, NGOs, and academia). However, in a marsh environment, it is difficult for airborne lidar to produce accurate bare-earth measurements and even accurate elevations are rarely verified by ground truth data. The accuracy of lidar in marshes is limited by the sensor’s resolution …

Modeling Of Fluid Injection For Hydraulic Fracturing Initiation In Porous Rock Formations, Krishna Adhikari

LSU Master's Theses

Hydraulic fracturing has been widely opted in recent times to simulate the unconventional reservoirs and thus, has become key a subject of interest in petroleum engineering. The stress concentration around the borehole affects the breakdown pressure and fracture reopening pressure during the hydraulic fracturing treatments. Thus, the state of stress around borehole wall and its surrounding rocks due to instantaneous drilling and a fluid injection at borehole surface needs to be determined accurately to initiate the hydraulic fractures. This research intends to derive the analytical stress solution of inclined borehole subjected to time-dependent fluid injection and in-situ stress, verify the …

Natural Gas Conversion Into Value Added Chemicals Using Solid Acid Catalysts, Swarom Ravindra Kanitkar

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Direct, non-oxidative conversion of natural gas to value-added chemicals has been identified as one of the grand challenges of the 21^st century. Circumventing indirect and costly reforming steps is highly sought after and solid acids can play an important role in that.

The direct conversion of methane to higher hydrocarbons and hydrogen can be catalyzed using “superacids” at < 450 °C. Reported superacid catalysts in solid, liquid, and gas phase included sulfated zirconia (SZ), HF-SbF₅, FSO₃H-SbF₅, and HBr-AlBr₃. Liquid and gas phase superacids presented difficulties in separation while the solid ones provided low yields. Here, we report a new class of Br-based solid superacids, AlBr_x/H-ZSM-5 (“ABZ-5”, …

Concentration Flow Cells For Efficient Salinity Energy Recovery With Carbonized Peat Moss And Molybdenum Disulfide Electrodes, Haihui Zhu

LSU Master's Theses

The globally extractable salinity gradient (SG) energy from the mixing of seawater and river water is estimated to be 3% of worldwide electricity consumption. Here we applied carbonized peat moss (CPM) electrodes and molybdenum disulfide (MoS₂) electrodes to a concentration flow cell that is capable of harvesting SG energy based on the electrode (pseudo-)capacitance together with the Donnan potential. The CPM electrodes were made from the visually inexhaustible peat moss by a facile pyrolysis process. With two identical CPM electrodes and a cation-exchange membrane, the cell produced a peak power density of 5.33 W m^-2 and an …

Theoretical Investigation Of The Ring Opening Of Cyclohexane On Ir(111) And Pt(111), Kushal Ghale

LSU Master's Theses

Diesel engines have higher fuel efficiency and can burn cleaner than gasoline engines. To enhance quality of diesel fuels as measured by the cetane number (CN), the removal of aromatic compounds is necessary. A potentially highly efficient approach would be to convert aromatics to saturated cycloparaffin, followed by selective ring opening to linear or branched alkanes, to increase the CN. Here the focus of the project is to study the mechanism of metal-catalyzed ring opening (RO) of cyclohexane (denoted CHA, or c-C₆H₁₂) through theoretical and computational modeling. CHA, a simplest cycloparaffin, is used as probe molecule …

String Out And Compressibility Effect On Pressure Rise In A Shut-In Well, Nicholas Henry

LSU Master's Theses

Gas kick migration experiments were performed in a small-scale well prototype model of annular geometry to analyze the behavior of gas kicks in highly non-Newtonian fluids. The objective was to isolate and estimate the effects system compressibility and bubble string out have on the pressure build up in a situation in which a gas kick rises through a noncirculating drilling mud in a vertical well.

The experiments consisted of 2 tests. The first test measured the apparent compressibility of the liquid phase of the experiment – that phase which simulated the drilling mud in a gas kick situation. The second …

Quantitative Evaluation Of A Lightweight Sediment For A Physical Model Of The Lower Mississippi River, Mauricio Hooper

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The Lower Mississippi River Physical Model (LMRPM), housed at the LSU Center for River Studies on the Baton Rouge, LA Water Campus, is a distorted, movable bed model comprising the lower 195 miles of the Mississippi River from Donaldsonville through the Head of Passes into the Gulf of Mexico. Since the LMRPM was designed to replicate the hydraulics (i.e., flow and river stages) and bulk non-cohesive sediment transport, the model lightweight sediment must replicate both the incipient motion and two-dimensional dune characteristics (height and length). In addition, the model scale and distortion require that the sediment time scale be determined …

Effective Geometric Modeling For Scientific Computing And Forensic Reconstruction, Celong Liu

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Geometric modeling is a fundamental and critical problem for many computer graphic and computer vision problems. We usually want to build a parameterization which establishes a low-distortion one-to-one map between geometric data and canonical parametric domain, and it is a fundamental tool to support many visual data processing tasks such as mesh generation, finite element simulations, visual analytics, geometric reconstruction, etc. In this dissertation, I studied two problems. The first is to construct low- distortion canonical (polycube) parameterization of large-scale geometric regions, with which high-quality semi-structured quad meshes can be generated and used to facilitate more efficient scientific computing. The …

Aerodynamic Flutter And Buffeting Of Long-Span Bridges Under Wind Load, Shuqian Liu

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

With the continuous increase of span lengths, the aerodynamic characteristics of long-span bridges under external wind excitation have become much more complex and wind-induced vibration has always been a problem of great concern. The present research targets on the aerodynamic performance of long-span bridges under wind load with an emphasis on bridge flutter and buffeting.

For the aerodynamic flutter analysis of long-span bridges, the present research investigated the effects of the wind turbulence on flutter stability. The characterizations of the self-excited forces are presented in both the frequency-domain and in the time-domain, and the flutter analysis is conducted under both …

Microscale Metal Forming: Mesoscopic Size Effect, Extrusion And Molding, Bin Zhang

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The continuing trend of metallic device and product miniaturization has motivated studies on microscale metal forming technologies. A better understanding of materials’ mechanical response and deformation behavior is of importance for the design and operation of micro metal forming processes. In this dissertation, uniaxial compression testing was conducted on Al ring and pillar specimens with characteristic dimensions at meso to micro scales. The experimental data reveal inadequacies of the existing surface layer model and provides a baseline for delineating deformation mechanisms in micro metal forming operations. Microscale reverse extrusion experiment was carried out on Cu and Al rod specimens with …

Experimental And Numerical Study Of Dynamic Water Control In Naturally Fractured Reservoirs, Younes Ahmed Alblooshi

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Excessive water production problem is more troubling in naturally fractured reservoirs (NFR) than matrix-only deposits. In NFR, fluid flow through fracture conduits substantially differs from that in the rock matrix. Development of fractured hydrocarbon reservoirs require good understanding of fluid flow in the network of fractures. In NFR with bottom-water drive, mitigation of excessive water is always a challenge.

This dissertation presents an experimental and numerical study of dynamic water control in fractured basements using downhole water sink (DWS) well technology. A DWS well is a dual-completed well with the top completion used for oil production from payzone and a …

Coastal Louisiana Landscape And Hurricane Storm Surge Evolution 1850 - 2110, Christopher George Siverd

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The hurricane storm surge analysis presented in this dissertation examines surge response to changes in the Louisiana coastal landscape and Gulf of Mexico water level from 1850 to 2110. Land to water (L:W) isopleths, lines depicting areas of constant land to water ratio along the modern Louisiana coast, are utilized in the development of a simplified storm surge model that closely reproduces the surge output of a state-of-the-art detailed model. Eleven comparable storm surge models are constructed with each featuring a representation of the Louisiana coastal landscape circa 1850, 1890, 1930, 1970, 1990, 2010, 2030, 2050, 2070, 2090 and 2110. …

A Comprehensive Techno-Economic Framework For Shale Gas Exploitation And Distribution In The United States, Jorge Asis Charbel Chebeir

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Over the past years, shale gas has turned into one of the most significant sources of energy in the United States. Technological advancements have provided the energy industry with the necessary tools to allow the economic exploitation of an enormous volume of natural gas trapped in shale formations. This has boosted the domestic gas production and generated a boom in other sectors of the economy in the country. However, major challenges are involved in the development of shale gas resources. A drastic decline of wells’ productivity, the costs involved in the gas production and distribution facets, and the volatile behavior …

Iron Mediated Organic Preservation In A River Influenced Continental Margin, Neha Ajit Ghaisas

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Continental margins such as the Mississippi river influenced Louisiana shelf (MIS), are important land-ocean interfaces where excessive water column productivity and rapid burial results in large amounts of organic carbon (OC) being sequestered in the sediments. The preservation of OC in sediments is controlled by a number of processes among which mineral-OC interactions are considered to be more important. Specifically, the interactions between sediment iron (Fe) species and OC have been shown to promote carbon preservation. However, the exact nature of preservation mechanism is not well understood and is based on limited global data, which specifically lacks estimates from large …