Engineering Commons^™

Design And Performance Estimation Of A Low-Reynolds Number Unmanned Aircraft System, Sean Lauderdale King

LSU Master's Theses

The purpose of this thesis is to conceptually design a fixed-wing unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) with a higher flight-time and top stable speed than comparable systems. The vehicle adheres to specifications derived from the client, the market, and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). To broadly meet these requirements, the vehicle must fly for a minimum of three hours, return to the original flight path quickly if perturbed, and must be hand-launched. The vehicle designed must also have a large potential center of gravity movement to allow for customization of the planform and client customization.

An iterative design process was used …

Synthesis And Characterization Of Polyaniline Agglomerates And Polyaniline Nanoparticles To Use As Printed Sensors To Detect Spoilage Of Catfish During Refrigerated Storage, Vashti Martae Campbell

LSU Master's Theses

There is growing interest in the development of sensors contained in packaging for seafood that are applicable at the consumer level to monitor freshness in a non-destructive manner. Total volatile basic nitrogen (TVB-N) analysis indicates the freshness of seafood. TVB-N analysis is sensitive to the spoilage compounds comprised of ammonia, trimethylamine, dimethylamine, and biogenic amines commonly found in seafood and whose concentration increases when spoilage microbial growth occurs. However, TVB-N analysis is laborious and is not suitable for use at the consumer level. Polyaniline (PANI) is a polymer that may be used as a sensor for detecting TVB-N in seafood. …

Modeling And Analysis Of Thermal Effects On A Fractured Wellbore During Lost Circulation And Wellbore Strengthening Processes, Ze Wang

LSU Master's Theses

To successfully prevent fracture propagation and combat lost circulation, a thorough understanding of the stress state in the near-wellbore region with fractures is imperative. One important factor that is not yet fully understood is how temperature variation during lost circulation affects pre-existing or newly initiated fractures. To address this problem, a 3D finite element analysis was conducted in this study to simulate the transport processes and state of stresses in the near-wellbore region during mud invasion into fractures. To take the thermal effects into account, a thermo-poro-elasticity model was coupled with flow and heat transfer processes. This study included a …

Integrated Reservoir-Wellbore Nodal Analysis Workflow For Worst-Case Discharge Modeling, Florencia Anahi Vasquez Cordoba

LSU Master's Theses

According to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), worst-case discharge (WCD) is the single highest possible daily flow rate of liquid hydrocarbon during an uncontrolled wellbore flow event [49]. The main objective of this research is to develop a workflow to calculate worst case discharge (WCD) volumes for a drilling scenario using an integrated reservoir-nodal analyses approach. Using robust integrated production modeling (IPM) tools, a nodal analysis workflow is developed to compute WCD volumes and rates that operators can use easily if they have IPM, or adapt to using a different software (including excel) in absence of IPM. A …

Predicting River Stage Using Recurrent Neural Networks, Eric Rohli

LSU Master's Theses

River stage prediction is an important problem in the water transportation industry. Accurate river stage predictions provide crucial information to barge and tow boat operators, port terminal captains, and lock management officials. Shallow river levels caused by prolonged drought impact the loading capacity of barges and tow boats. High river levels caused by excessive rainfall or snowmelt allow for greater tow capacities but make downstream transportation and lock management risky. Current academic river height prediction systems utilize either time series statistical analysis or machine learning algorithms to forecast future river heights, but systems that combine these two areas often limit …

Demonstration Of The Gas Assisted Gravity Drainage (Gagd) Process In Carbonate Rocks., Alok Jiteshkumar Shah

LSU Master's Theses

The Gas Assisted Gravity Drainage (GAGD) process was developed and patented by Dr. Rao at LSU in the early 2000s. The process involves the use of several existing or new vertical injection wells to inject gas and use the natural segregation of reservoir fluids from the density difference and the gravitational forces to displace the trapped oil and mobilize the oil downwards to be produced by a horizontal producing well. The GAGD process can be implemented as a secondary or tertiary oil recovery method. Several physical model experiments have been conducted to demonstrate the effectiveness of the GAGD process for …

Comparative Study Of One Parameter Budyko Model Index And The Scs Curve Number, Cihad Ayberk Doner

LSU Master's Theses

This study investigates two water balance models from different levels of complexity to recognize the impacts of climate change on water resources. The main objective is to examine the capacity of future runoff calculations of a parsimonious simple water balance model compared to a more complex model under the climate change variables. The selected water balance models are the simple one-parameter Budyko-type model using the Zhang’s equation with single parameter (a) and the more complex model (HELP3) applying Soil Conservation Service (SCS) curve number method to calculate future runoff predictions. The study has a twofold focus, first on explaining the …

Wave Attenuation By Constructed Oyster Reef Breakwaters, Jason M. Chauvin

LSU Master's Theses

Biloxi Marsh, located along the shoreline of Eloi Bay in St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana has experienced significant shoreline erosion in recent years. The Living Shoreline Demonstration Project, completed in November 2016, constructed three miles of living shoreline structures to attenuate waves and thus combat marsh edge erosion along the shoreline of Eloi Bay. Several types of constructed oyster reef breakwaters were installed for this demonstration project. Due to the experimental nature of these products, available performance characteristics are limited.

This research measures wave attenuation across the constructed oyster reef breakwaters using bottom-mounted pressure gauges. Seven pressure gauges were deployed to …

Risk Assessment Of Concrete Gravity Dams Under Earthquake Loads, Ufuk Sen

LSU Master's Theses

Dams are important structures to supply water for irrigation or drinking, to control flood, and to generate electricity. In seismic regions, the structural safety of concrete gravity dams is important due to the high potential of life and economic loss if they fail. Therefore, the seismic analysis of existing dams in seismically active regions is very crucial to predict responses of dams to ground motions. In this thesis, earthquake response of concrete gravity dams is investigated using the finite element (FE) method. The selected dam is the Pine Flat Dam which is located in the Central Valley of Fresno County, …

Two-Phase Flow Regime Map For Large Diameter Pipes And High-Velocity Flows, Matheus Sigaki Capovilla

LSU Master's Theses

Worst-case-discharge (WCD) calculations are a pre-requisite for any new well to be drilled in the Gulf of Mexico (GoM). Models that were mostly developed for production rates prediction are currently used to calculate the WCD rate. These models were mostly developed for pipe diameters and flow velocities much smaller than those expected during WCD events. Therefore, these models may be miscalculating WCD rates.

This study aims at analyzing one of possible sources of errors in these models: the flow regime maps. The influence of diameter change on flow regimes is discussed. A thorough literature review is carried out for different …

The Fabrication Of High-Aspect Ratio Gratings For Talbot Interferometer With Medical Imaging Application., Vikaram Singh

LSU Master's Theses

X-ray Phase contrast-based Talbot interferometer creates high contrast between weak and strong absorbing materials, which makes it effective in imaging soft tissues. However, its performance is bounded by the aspect-ratio, features and symmetry of its gratings. For 40 KeV energy X-rays, the analyzer grating thickness should be 100 µm or more to achieve > 90% absorption in order to obtain high contrast images. Moreover, the smaller period in grating is desired for higher resolution. Therefore, researchers are exploring various fabrication techniques to achieve greater aspect-ratio gratings. Utilizing modern LIGA techniques, the aspect-ratio of gratings can be improved with a simplified …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

Operational Impact Of Shadow Evacuation On Regional Road Networks During Short-Notice Emergency Evacuations, Efe Emre Tuncer

LSU Master's Theses

As part of evacuation planning, development of effective tactical and operational strategies are essential to safely and efficiently mobilize the public away from the threat. Evacuations are classified by the time between notification and the anticipated arrival of the threat which can be categorized as short, or no-notice emergencies. Emergencies involve the computation of the time required to evacuate the area of risk, which is the time to clear a radius of up to about 10-miles around the nuclear power plant, known as the emergency planning zone (EPZ). These evacuation time estimates (ETE) also account for the evacuation of the …

Evaluating Classifiers' Optimal Performances Over A Range Of Misclassification Costs By Using Cost-Sensitive Classification, Ramy Al-Saffar

LSU Master's Theses

We believe that using the classification accuracy is not enough to evaluate the performances of classification algorithms. It can be misleading due to overlooking an important element which is the cost if classification is inaccurate. Furthermore, the Receiver Operational Characteristic (ROC) is one of the most popular graphs used to evaluate classifiers performances. However, one of the biggest ROC’s shortcomings is the assumption of equal costs for all misclassified data. Therefore, our goal is to reduce the total cost of decision making by selecting the classifier that has the least total misclassification cost. Nevertheless, the exact misclassification cost is usually …

Magnetic Gradient Drilling, Garrett Lowry Nielsen

LSU Master's Theses

The drilling industry has always had difficulties with staying within the mud weight window. The problems associated with failure to stay within the mud weight window include uncontrolled influxes and wellbore collapse on the low pressure side of the window, and fluid losses and wellbore damage on the high pressure side of the window. When the risk for getting outside of this mud window becomes too great, casing must be set in order to isolate formations from each other. If too many strings of casing are set, or if the damage from getting out of the mud weight window is …

Enhanced Grain Partitioning Of X-Ray Microtomography Segmented Images, Nicholas C. Skrivanos Ii

LSU Master's Theses

In the field of petroleum engineering, rock samples are often taken from wells during the drilling process. Grain partitioning of digital three-dimensional microtomography segmented images obtained from these samples provides valuable in-situ properties and statistics that allow for accurate particle and structure characterization. This information can be used directly in detailed production and reservoir analysis, and can also be used to generate realistic packing models for advanced simulation. Additionally, the partitioned image can be used as a building block for realistic hydraulic fracture modeling. This technology has applications in other fields as well, such as core analysis in soil sciences …

Effect Of Pipe Rotation On Casing Pressure Within Mpd Applications, Zahrah Ahmed Al Marhoon

LSU Master's Theses

Well control is one of the most crucial sectors in drilling engineering. Human lives and safety depend on the correct execution of the engineering design. Managed Pressure Drilling (MPD) is a new technology that has recently emerged in the oil and gas industry. It has special well control abilities supported by the RCD to continue drilling or carry operations that involve pipe rotation, while circulating out a gas kick. This thesis examines the effect of pipe rotation on casing pressure profiles within MPD kick circulation application. The analysis was carried on real scale kick experiments. These experiments were carried in …

Numerical Simulation Of Uncoiling And Roller Leveling Processes From Steel Coils, Yufei Xiong

LSU Master's Theses

Uncoiling and roller leveling play an important role in pipe forming because it is prerequisite to make products with good quality. Uncoiling and roller leveling are used to reduce undesired characteristics such as imperfections in sheet flatness and residual stress. Considering residual stress in steel coil which has been ignored to date, a simplified coiling process is combined with uncoiling and leveling processes to investigate their effects on residual stress and curvature. The objective of this thesis research focuses particularly on studying the influence of coil diameter, uncoiling direction and leveling settings on residual stress and residual strip curvature after …

Investigation Of Morphological Changes In Small Coastal Rivers During Flood, Tanzina Afrin

LSU Master's Theses

The delivery of fluvial sediment to coastal margins is one of the major concerns for river and coastal morphodynamics. Relevant research has primarily focused on large rivers that transport substantial sediment load and thus are responsible for building deltaic landscapes. However, less research is concentrated on small coastal rivers. A need exists to better understand the sediment dynamics in small coastal rivers that have different backwater regimes than their larger counterparts. The main objective of this research was to examine the influence of backwater on the morphodynamics of a small coastal meandering river during a large flood event. The investigation …