Engineering Commons^™

Simultaneous Enhancement Of Fluidity And Thixotropy Of Vibration-Free Concrete, Piyush Rajendra Lunkad

Masters Theses

"This research articulates the development of a vibration-free concrete for slip-form paving enabling a simple and rapid construction process. To achieve this, properties such as rheology including thixotropy, shape stability, and workability loss with time are mainly investigated. Concrete mixture with high thixotropic strength and its shape holding ability, flowability, and workability retention with time is evaluated. This study consists of two phases: (1) selection of paste component from rheology of cement paste incorporating various micro- and nano- sized particles (2) study of fresh properties of concrete mixtures using the excess paste layer concept.

From the cement paste study, it …

Impact Of Nanobubbles On Mechanical Coal Flotation Process, Ahmed Sobhy, Dongping Tao

Mining Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

A bank of three 10-liter mechanical flotation cells integrated with nanobubble technology was investigated to assess the impact of nanobubbles on coal separation performance at different operating variables. The most significant operation parameters such as fuel oil collector dosage, methyl isobutyl carbinol (MIBC) frother concentration, flow rate to nanobubble generator, feed solid concentration, and feed flow rate were studied individually. Nanobubbles are generated selectively on the hydrophobic particles, which should have a positive effect on flotation separation efficiency. It has been shown that frother concentration, collector dosage, and flow rate to nanobubble generator had a positive and significant effect on …

Computational Modeling Of Heat Transport And Volatile Extraction From Asteroid Materials, Joel C. Sercel, Mark A. Crawford, Christopher Dreyer, Egboche Unobe, Robert Jedicke, Stanley Love, Leslie S. Gertsch

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This paper presents the results of a program of computational modeling focused on elucidating the physics and chemical processes associated with the extraction of volatile materials from asteroid feedstocks with an eye toward use of the extracted materials for propulsion, radiation shielding, and replenishment of mission consumables. We present a math model of conductive heat transport, chemical processes, and gas escape by Darcian diffusion. Chemical processes in the model include pyrolysis of organic chemical constituents and thermal dehydration and decarbonization of hydrates and carbonates. The model is implemented in a spherical finite difference computational engine that predicts time histories of …

A Proactive Drilling System To Prevent Stuck Pipe And Differential Sticking, Ethar H. K. Alkamil

Doctoral Dissertations

"During drilling operations for the E oilfield in the Mishrif formation in southern Iraq, stuck pipe and differential sticking have been identified as significant geomechanical and drilling problems for several deviated wells. In this work, an integrated approach with three phases is presented to serve as a proactive geo-drilling system to prevent wellbore instability. In the first phase, a comprehensive geomechanical assessment of the Mishrif formation has been carried out to evaluate the in-situ stresses, maximum horizontal stress orientation, pore pressure, rock properties, and rock strength parameters. Moreover, the geomechanical evaluation has been incorporated into the mud design using three …

The Significance Of Grouping And Missed Bubbles On Interfacial Area Concentration And Void Fraction, Chandller Stephen-Leslie Mills

Doctoral Dissertations

"The two-fluid model is used in nuclear reactor safety codes. Two of the important constitutive relations will be discussed in this study, the interfacial area concentration and void fraction. The Interfacial area concentration is directly affected by the number of bubbles and how these bubbles are categorized into groups. In this study, a new algorithm was implemented to account for trailing bubbles, bubbles with short response times, and the categorization of bubbles based upon diameter for all group 1 bubbles. The optical and conductivity probes were used to determine the void fraction and interfacial area concentration in a bubble column. …

An Analysis Of Common Drill Stem Vibration Models, Mohammed F. Al Dushaishi, Runar Nygaard, Daniel S. Stutts

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Excessive drill stem (DS) vibration while rotary drilling of oil and gas wells causes damages to drill bits and bottom hole assemblies (BHAs). In an attempt to mitigate DS vibrations, theoretical modeling of DS dynamics is used to predict severe vibration conditions. To construct the model, decisions have to be made on which beam theory to be used, how to implement forces acting on the DS, and the geometry of the DS. The objective of this paper is to emphasize the effect of these assumptions on DS vibration behavior under different, yet realistic, drilling conditions. The nonlinear equations of motion …

Investigation Of High Indium-Composition Ingan/Gan Heterostructures On Zno Grown By Metallic Organic Chemical Vapor Deposition, M. Tian, Y. D. Qian, C. Zhang, L. Li, S. D. Yao, I. T. Ferguson, D. N. Talwar, J. Y. Zhai, D. H. Meng, K. Y. He, L. Y. Wan, Z. C. Feng

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The optical properties and film quality for a series of high-In composition InGaN films grown on ZnO substrate by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) are characterized by using high resolution X-ray diffraction (HRXRD), Rutherford backscattering (RBS), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), photoluminescence (PL), and Raman scattering spectroscopy (RSS). The In composition is evaluated by analyzing the RBS and PL emission spectra. The XPS measurements revealed the diffusion of Zn atoms from the substrate into InGaN films. All the analyses of experimental measurements have shown that the growth temperature played an important role in indium composition as well as of film quality. …

Detection Of Orbital Angular Momentum With Metasurface At Microwave Band, Menglin L.N. Chen, Li (Lijun) Jun Jiang, Wei E.I. Sha

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

An orbital angular momentum (OAM) detection approach at microwave band is proposed. A transmittance function is exploited to model a transmissive metasurface. Then, the metasurface is designed to convert an OAM wave to multiple waves, only one of which is Gaussian. The radiation direction of the Gaussian wave is distinguishable according to the order of incident OAM. Consequently, by locating the Gaussian wave, the incident OAM can be conveniently determined. We use a simple field source to simulate the incident OAM wave in full-wave simulation. It largely simplifies the simulation process when an incident wave carrying OAM is needed. Both …

Fast Direct Equivalence Principle Algorithm For Multi-Scale Electromagnetic Problems, Qin S. Liu, Qi Dai, Tian Xia, Ting Wan, Li (Lijun) Jun Jiang, Sheng Sun, Weng Cho Chew

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The Equivalence principle algorithm is proposed to integrated with hierarchical matrix based fast direct solver in order to solve deep multi-scale problem accurately and efficiently. Additionally, model order reduction techniques are applied to the equivalence principle algorithm to further reduce the computational complexities.

Calibration Of Mine Ventilation Network Models Using The Non-Linear Optimization Algorithm, Guang Xu, Jinxin Huang, Baisheng Nie, Duncan Chalmers, Zhuoming Yang

Mining Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Effective ventilation planning is vital to underground mining. To ensure stable operation of the ventilation system and to avoid airflow disorder, mine ventilation network (MVN) models have been widely used in simulating and optimizing the mine ventilation system. However, one of the challenges for MVN model simulation is that the simulated airflow distribution results do not match the measured data. To solve this problem, a simple and effective calibration method is proposed based on the non-linear optimization algorithm. The calibrated model not only makes simulated airflow distribution results in accordance with the on-site measured data, but also controls the errors …

A Preliminary Evaluation Of The Ability Of Keratotic Tissue To Act As A Prognostic Indicator Of Hip Fracture Risk, J. Renwick Beattie, Diane Feskanich, M. Clare Caraher, Mark R. Towler

Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Studies have shown that Raman spectroscopic analysis of fingernail clippings can help differentiate between post-menopausal women who have and who have not suffered a fracture. However, all studies to date have been retrospective in nature, comparing the proteins in nails sourced from women, post-fracture. The objective of this study was to investigate the potential of a prospective test for hip fracture based on spectroscopic analysis of nail tissue. Archived toenail samples from post-menopausal women aged 50 to 63 years in the Nurses' Health Study were obtained and analysed by Raman spectroscopy. Nails were matched case-controls sourced from 161 women; 82 …

The Impact Of Gallium Content On Degradation, Bioactivity, And Antibacterial Potency Of Zinc Borate Bioactive Glass, Alireza Rahimnejad Yazdi, Lawrence Torkan, Wendy Stone, Mark R. Towler

Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Zinc borate glasses with increasing gallium content (0, 2.5, 5, 10, and 15 Wt % Ga) were synthesized and their degradation, bioactivity in simulated body fluid (SBF), and antibacterial properties were investigated. ICP measurements showed that increased gallium content in the glass resulted in increased gallium ion release and decreased release of other ions. Degradability declined with the addition of gallium, indicating the formation of more symmetric BO₃ units with three bridging oxygens and asymmetric BO₃ units with two bridging oxygens in the glass network as the gallium content in the series increased. The formation of amorphous Ca-P …

Evaluation Of The Mechanical Properties, In Vitro Biodegradability And Cytocompatibility Of Natural Chitosan/Hydroxyapatite/Nano-Fe3o4 Composite, Fatemeh Heidari, Mehdi Razavi, Mohammad E. Bahrololoom, Mostafa Yazdimamaghani, Mohammadreza Tahriri, Hari Kotturi, Lobat Tayebi

Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The main goal of this research was the preparation and evaluation of the mechanical properties, in vitro biodegradability and cytocompatibility, of natural chitosan/hydroxyapatite/nano magnetite (nano-Fe3O4) composite. Different ratios of these components were investigated, including chitosan/hydroxyapatite: 4/4 (S1), chitosan/hydroxyapatite: 4/6 (S2), and chitosan/hydroxyapatite: 6/4 (S3). Mechanical properties of fabricated composites were examined using bending and compression tests before immersion, and after 2 and 9 weeks of immersion in the Ringer's solution. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) was employed for observing the bending fracture surface and analyzing the degradation morphology. Human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSC) were also cultured on the samples in order …

Efficient Inverse Design Of Transonic Airfoils Using Variable-Resolution Models And Manifold Mapping, Xiaosong Du, Leifur Leifsson, Slawomir Koziel

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This paper presents an efficient approach for simulation-based inverse design of airfoil shapes using variable-fidelity computational fluid dynamics models and manifold mapping (MM). Inverse design involves determining an airfoil shape fulfilling a given target performance characteristic. In particular, the pressure coefficient distribution is typically used in aerodynamic inverse design. Such a task can be challenging when using computationally expensive simulations. In the context of local optimization, the MM technique searches for a new design in the vicinity of the current design by constructing a fast multi-fidelity model, which is setup by the available evaluations of each of the high- and …

Review Of Metal Am Simulation Validation Techniques, Aaron Flood, Frank W. Liou

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Due to the complexity of metal AM (additive manufacturing), it can require many trial runs to obtain processing parameters which produce a quality build. Because of this trial and error process, the drive for simulations of AM has grown significantly. A simulation only becomes useful to researchers if it can be shown that it is a true representation of the physical process being simulated. Each process being simulated has a different method of validation to show it is an accurate representation of the process. This paper explores the various methodologies for validation of laser-based metal AM simulations, focusing mainly on …

Industrial Robot Trajectory Accuracy Evaluation Maps For Hybrid Manufacturing Process Based On Joint Angle Error Analysis, Zhiyuan Wang, Renwei Liu, Todd E. Sparks, Xueyang Chen, Frank W. Liou

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Industrial robots have been widely used in various fields. The joint angle error is the main factor that affects the accuracy performance of the robot. It is important to notice that these kinematic parameters error cannot be eliminated from the robot system completely. Even after calibration, these errors still exist and will be fluctuated during the robot system running. This paper proposed a new method of finding the best position and orientation to perform a specific working path based on the current accuracy capacity of the robot system. By analyzing the robot forward/inverse kinematic and the angle error sensitivity of …

An Integrated Method For Forecasting Well Deliverability In Gas Condensate Reservoirs With Bottom Aquifer Drive, Abdulaziz Ellafi, Ralph E. Flori, Shari Dunn-Norman

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Gas condensate reservoirs constitute a significant portion of global hydrocarbon reserves. In these reservoirs, liquids develop in the pore space once bottomhole pressure falls below dew point. This results in the formation of a liquid bank near the wellbore region which decreases gas mobility, which then reduces gas inflow. In such complex reservoirs, it is important to correctly describe PVT impacts, adjustments to well test analysis and inflow performance, and then combine all effects in the reservoir analysis. The literature contains many references to individual adjustments of PVT analysis, well testing, or inflow performance for gas condensate reservoirs, but few …

Miscible Gases Based Eor In Unconventional Liquids Rich Reservoirs: What We Can Learn, Dheiaa Alfarge, Mortadha Alsaba, Mingzhen Wei, Baojun Bai

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Over the last decade, Unconventional Liquids Rich Reservoirs (ULR) have become the main target for oil and gas investors as conventional formations started to deplete and diminish in numbers. These unconventional plays have a huge oil reserve; however, the primary oil recovery factor is predicted to be less than 10%. Unconventional Improved Oil Recovery (UIOR) techniques are still a new concept in the oil industry since there is no commercial project reported for any IOR technique yet. Miscible gas based EOR technique might be the most potential strategy to improve oil recovery in such complex plays. In this study, a …

New Insights Of Low Salinity Water Flooding In Low Permeability-Low Porosity Clay Rich Sandstone Reservoir, Ali K. Alhuraishawy, Baojun Bai, Mingzhen Wei, Waleed H. Al-Bazzaz

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

One of the EOR technologies is low-salinity water flooding (LSWF) is an EOR method that operates at a lower cost than other EOR methods, which makes it a preferred area of interest for oil industry economists, who continue to call for EOR costs to come down. The aim is to minimize the possible cost to recover as much oil as possible. The performance of low salinity waterflooding in decreasing residual oil saturation in low permeability-porosity clay-rich sandstone reservoir. Porosity test, core flooding test, XRD and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) tests were achieved in this study. Salinity effect on the porosity, …

Application Of Integrated Reservoir Geomechanics For Well Planning Of High-Angled Wells In A Mature Oil Field, Ahmed K. Abbas, Ralph E. Flori, Yousif M.B. Al-Asadi, Mortadha Alsaba, Nasser A. Al-Hamad

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Zubair oil reservoir has a significant potential to contribute to the petroleum supply in Iraq. Drilling highly deviated wells is a commonly used approach to enhance the production in mature fields. Drilling these wells in the Zubair Formation has been a challenge due to severe wellbore instability issues. This study presents how integrated reservoir geomechanics was used for efficient well planning and safe drilling of nearly horizontal wells (75° Inclination) through Zubair depleted sandstone oil reservoir. In this study, an integrated workflow was implemented mainly to build a geomechanical model using offset well data. The in-situ principal stresses and their …

Learning From Experience: An Automatic Ph Neutralization System Using Hybrid Fuzzy System And Neural Network, Ethar H.K. Alkamil, Seaar Al-Dabooni, Ahmed K. Abbas, Ralph Flori, Donald C. Wunsch

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

In oil and gas industry, the pH level is one of the most important indicators of mud contamination while drilling. Although the process has simple components, the pH neutralization process is complicated in the mud circulation system. This difficulty is due to the high nonlinearity of the process. In this paper, the fuzzy neural network (FNN) is integrated to the fuzzy logic controller (FLC) to create a system which identifies pH fluctuation into a drilling mud system, assesses and signals its severity. And then, it automatically actuates a chemical treating fluids valve (CTFV), such as Caustic Soda (CS), for neutralizing …

Using Managed Pressure Drilling To Reduce Stuck Pipe Problem, Ethar H.K. Alkamil, Husam R. Abbood, Ralph E. Flori, George Medley, Sagar Nauduri, Mortadha Alsaba

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Differences between mud pressure in a wellbore and pore pressure in high permeability rocks can lead to differential sticking, particularly when drilling deviated wells and encountering mud losses. Several solutions, all challenging, can be used to address this problem, where the conventional mitigation method of managing the mud weight (MW) is often used. However, managed pressure drilling (MPD) offers a promising solution with a positive risk-adjusted cost and other benefits. Wells in the E oilfield in southern Iraq are typically drilled overbalanced and therefore often experience a high percentage of non-productive time (NPT) due to differential sticking. This study evaluates …

A Novel Ultra-Low Interfacial Tension Nanofluid For Enhanced Oil Recovery In Super-Low Permeability Reservoirs, Derong Xu, Baojun Bai, Ziyu Meng, Qiong Zhou, Zhe Li, Yao Lu, Hairong Wu, Jirui Hou, Wanli Kang

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The exploration and development of super-low permeability reservoirs have become a global focus in recent years. However, conventional flooding systems commonly face problems of high injection pressure and poor displacement efficiency in super-low permeability reservoirs. Thus, it is imperative to find new flooding agents that tackle such problems. In this study, a novel ultra-low interfacial tension (IFT) nanofluid was formulated, consisting of surfactants to achieve ultra-low IFT and silica nanoparticles to reduce injection pressure. The compatibility test between the surfactants and silica nanoparticles in 10,000 mg/L NaCl solution at 90 °C was conducted to ensure their adaption to harsh reservoir …

Study Of Gas Production From Shale Reservoirs With Multi-Stage Hydraulic Fracturing Horizontal Well Considering Multiple Transport Mechanisms, Chaohua Guo, Mingzhen Wei, Hong Liu

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Development of unconventional shale gas reservoirs (SGRs) has been boosted by the advancements in two key technologies: horizontal drilling and multi-stage hydraulic fracturing. A large number of multi-stage fractured horizontal wells (MsFHW) have been drilled to enhance reservoir production performance. Gas flow in SGRs is a multi-mechanism process, including: desorption, diffusion, and non-Darcy flow. The productivity of the SGRs with MsFHW is influenced by both reservoir conditions and hydraulic fracture properties. However, rare simulation work has been conducted for multi-stage hydraulic fractured SGRs. Most of them use well testing methods, which have too many unrealistic simplifications and assumptions. Also, no …

Assessment Of The Physical And Chemical Qualities Of Brine And The Application Of Nano Zerovalent Iron For The Treatment Of Brine Effluent, M. J. Alegbe, O. S. Ayanda, P. Ndungu, O. O. Fatoba, A. Nechaev, L. F. Petrik

Mining Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The arbitrary discharge of brine effluent from reverse osmosis treatment plants impacts negatively to the environment due to its high salinity. In the present study, brine effluent obtained from eMalahleni treatment plant, South Africa, was analyzed by pH, electrical conductivity and total dissolved solids measurements. The ion chromatography and the inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy were also used to examine the anion and cation content of the brine effluent. The analysis of major cations and anions indicated that the brine water quality was above the target water quality range for potable water. Geochemical modelling of the brine effluent classified …

Evaluation On Expansive Performance Of The Expansive Soil Using Electrical Responses, Ya Chu, Songyu Liu, Bate Bate, Lei Xu

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Light structures, such as highways and railroads, built on expansive soils are prone to damages from the swelling of their underlain soil layers. Considerable amount of research has been conducted to characterize the swelling properties of expansive soils. Current swell characterization models, however, are limited by lack of standardized tests. Electrical methods are non-destructive and are faster and less expensive than the traditional geotechnical methods. Therefore, geo-electrical methods are attractive for defining soil characteristics, including the swelling behavior. In this study, comprehensive laboratory experiments were undertaken to measure the free swelling and electrical resistivity of the mixtures of commercial kaolinite …

A New Signal Processing Method For Acoustic Emission/Microseismic Data Analysis, Charles Mborah

Doctoral Dissertations

"The acoustic emission/microseismic technique (AE/MS) has emerged as one of the most important techniques in recent decades and has found wide applications in different fields. Extraction of seismic event with precise timing is the first step and also the foundation for processing AE/MS signals. However, this process remains a challenging task for most AE/MS applications. The process has generally been performed by human analysts. However, manual processing is time consuming and subjective. These challenges continue to provide motivation for the search for new and innovative ways to improve the signal processing needs of the AE/MS technique. This research has developed …

Applying Convolutional Neural Networks For The Source Reconstruction, He Ming Yao, Wei E.I. Sha, Li (Lijun) Jun Jiang

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

This paper proposes a novel source reconstruction method (SRM) based on the convolutional neural network algorithm. The conventional SRM method usually requires the scattered field data oversampled compared to that of target object grids. To achieve higher accuracy, the conventional SRM numerical system is highly singular. To overcome these difficulties, we model the equivalent source reconstruction process using the machine learning. The equivalent sources of the target are constructed by a convolutional neural networks (ConvNets). It allows us to employ less scattered field samples or radar cross section (RCS) data. And the ill-conditioned numerical system is effectively avoided. Numerical examples …

Machine Learning Based Multilevel Fast Multipole Algorithm, Jia Jing Sun, Sheng Sun, Yongpin Chen, Li (Lijun) Jun Jiang

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

In this paper, a novel translator calculation method for the multilevel fast multipole algorithm (MLFMA) is proposed based on a machine learning approach. The generalized regression neural networks are introduced to fit the translation function of MLFMA during the procedure of eletromagnetic scattering analysis. Compared to the traditional method, the new method inherits advantages of the generalized regression neural networks (GRNN) and can approximate the translator with high accuracy simultaneously. As an example, a two-level 2D MLFMA for a perfect electrically conductor (PEC) is finally implemented and the translators are reconstructed by using the proposed model. The numerical results validate …

Machine Learning Based Neural Network Solving Methods For The Fdtd Method, He Ming Yao, Li (Lijun) Jun Jiang

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

In this paper, two novel computational processes are proposed to solve Finite-Difference Time-Domain (FDTD) based on machine learning deep neural networks. The field and boundary conditions are employed to establish recurrent neural network FDTD (RNN-FDTD) model and convolution neural network FDTD (CNN-FDTD) model respectively. Numerical examples from scalar wave equations are provided to benchmark the performance of the proposed methods. The results demonstrate that the newly proposed methods could solve FDTD steps with satisfactory accuracy. According to our knowledge, these are unreported new approaches for machine learning based FDTD solving methods.