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LSU Master's Theses

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Full-Text Articles in Engineering

Experimental Assessment Of Expandable Casing Technology As A Solution For Microannular Gas Flow, Darko Kupresan Jan 2014

Experimental Assessment Of Expandable Casing Technology As A Solution For Microannular Gas Flow, Darko Kupresan

LSU Master's Theses

Microannular gas flow in the wellbore is known to be one of the major reasons for Sustained Casing Pressure (SCP). Low success rate (under 50%) of costly remedial cementing operations and increasing difficulty in sealing off problematic areas motivated the industry to look for more practical remediation solutions. Expandable casing technology is one of those new proposed techniques. A bench-scale physical model tested the potential of expandable casing technology for remediation of microannular gas migration. The composite samples with pipe-inside-pipe cemented annulus were designed to simulate a wellbore system including a pre-manufactured microannulus on the inner pipe/cement interface. Multi-rate flow-through …


Effect Of Different Alarm Interfaces On Controller Response, Aritra Datta Jan 2014

Effect Of Different Alarm Interfaces On Controller Response, Aritra Datta

LSU Master's Theses

Pipelines transport millions of barrels of petroleum products every day. Oil and gas pipelines have become important assets of the economic development of almost any country. Government regulations or internal policies regulate the safety of the assets for the population and environment where these pipelines run. Various strategies and technologies have been introduced for monitoring pipelines, but the most common technology to protect pipelines from occasional hazardous incidents is Computational Pipeline Monitoring (CPM). This technique collects and gathers information from the field related to pressures, flows, and temperatures to estimate the hydraulic behavior of the product being transported. Using the …


A Sustainable Remediation Approach For Complete Destruction Of Chloroethanes In Groundwater, Michael Joseph Cheatham Jan 2014

A Sustainable Remediation Approach For Complete Destruction Of Chloroethanes In Groundwater, Michael Joseph Cheatham

LSU Master's Theses

An up-flow column study was operated in a greenhouse composed of a sand/peat mixed media to investigate the effectiveness of an aerobic zone on the disappearances of chloroethane. The oxygen was supplied by mean of porous Silastic tubing under pressure with a breathing air gas cylinder. Chloroethane was generated via reductive dechlorination of 1,1,1-trichloroethane (TCA) and 1,1-dichloroethane (DCA) in anaerobic bioreactors (ABRs). The columns study was conducted with two duplicate reactors (operated in parallel) that underwent separate perturbations of breathing air introduction. Aqueous samples were collected in 160 mL microcosm bottles and analyzed on a GC equipped with a Flame …


A Diagnosis Feature Space For Condition Monitoring And Fault Diagnosis Of Ball Bearings, Ali Kahirdeh Jan 2014

A Diagnosis Feature Space For Condition Monitoring And Fault Diagnosis Of Ball Bearings, Ali Kahirdeh

LSU Master's Theses

The problem of fault diagnosis and condition monitoring of ball bearings is a multidisciplinary subject. It involves research subjects from diverse disciplines of mechanical engineering, electrical engineering and in particular signal processing. In the first step, one should identify the correct method of investigation. The methods of investigation for condition monitoring of ball bearings include acoustic emission measurements, temperature monitoring, electrical current monitoring, debris analysis and vibration signal analysis. In this thesis the vibration signal analysis is employed. Once the method of analysis is selected, then features sensitive to faults should be calculated from the signal. While some of the …


Removal Of Sustained Casing Pressure By Gravity Displacement Of Annular Fluid, Efecan Demirci Jan 2014

Removal Of Sustained Casing Pressure By Gravity Displacement Of Annular Fluid, Efecan Demirci

LSU Master's Theses

Sustained Casing Pressure (SCP) is the undesirable casing head pressure of a well annulus that rebuilds when bled-down. As the conventional methods for SCP removal using rigs are expensive, there is a need for improvement. Annular intervention for replacing the fluid above the leaking cement with a heavier fluid to stop gas migration is a solution for SCP removal; however, previous attempts failed due to miscibility of injected fluids. Using hydrophobic heavy fluids for the purpose is a newly proposed technique to the technology. Potential of theoretically selected and produced immiscible heavy fluids are investigated in characterized annular fluids. A …


Investigation Of Dimensionality-Dependent Foam Rheological Properties By Using Mechanistic Foam Model, Woochan Lee Jan 2014

Investigation Of Dimensionality-Dependent Foam Rheological Properties By Using Mechanistic Foam Model, Woochan Lee

LSU Master's Theses

A numerous laboratory and field tests revealed that foam can effectively control gas mobility, improve sweep efficiency, and increase oil production, if correctly designed. It is believed that there is a significant gap between small laboratory-scale experiments and large field-scale tests because of two main reasons: (i) typical laboratory flow tests are conducted in linear systems, while field-scale foam EOR processes are performed in radial (or spherical partly) systems in general; and (ii) through the complicated in-situ lamella creation and coalescence mechanisms and non-Newtonian behavior, foam rheology is thought to depend on geometry and dimensionality and, as a result, it …


Uptake And Deposition Of Pyrogenic And Petrogenic Pahs On Spartina Alterniflora, Yasmin Mohammad Jan 2014

Uptake And Deposition Of Pyrogenic And Petrogenic Pahs On Spartina Alterniflora, Yasmin Mohammad

LSU Master's Theses

Saline marshes dominated by Spartina alterniflora were impacted by MC252 crude oil along Louisiana’s shoreline. Two locations were evaluated in this study; a lightly oiled, saline marsh near Port Fourchon, LA and a less saline, heavily oiled marsh near Bay Jimmy in the Barataria Basin, LA. Objectives of this study were to develop a method to extract polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) from Spartina leaves and to compare and contrast the relative uptake and deposition of petrogenic and pyrogenic PAHs in Spartina leaves. A three-step sequential extraction procedure was developed for the extraction and analysis of PAHs on Spartina leaves. In …


Ultrasonic Pretreatment Of Energy Cane Bagasse For Biofuel Production, Niyaz Ahamed Methrath Liyakathali Jan 2014

Ultrasonic Pretreatment Of Energy Cane Bagasse For Biofuel Production, Niyaz Ahamed Methrath Liyakathali

LSU Master's Theses

High demand for energy and increasingly expensive petroleum prices led to development of new alternative fuels for transportation, such as bio-ethanol and bio-diesel. Even though a cost reduction in the production of cellulolytic enzymes is occurring, the conversion of plant cellulose into sugars still remains an expensive and slow process. Pretreatment of lignocellulose materials to remove lignin and alter physical/chemical structures significantly improves hydrolysis of cellulose to give high yield of sugars. In this study, ultrasonic pretreatment of energy cane bagasse was used in the presence of ammonia (NH4OH) to enhance the saccharification process by separating lignin, cellulose and hemicellulose …


Travel Time Reliability And Level Of Service, Marlene Beverley Russell Jan 2014

Travel Time Reliability And Level Of Service, Marlene Beverley Russell

LSU Master's Theses

Travel time reliability (TTR) is familiar to travelers, and its indices are useful measures of the quality of a freeway’s service. Technical groups such as highway agencies are more familiar with a freeway’s level of service (LOS), but the LOS does not capture the variability in travel time. Similar to Pu (2011) this thesis introduces a modified buffer index (BI) incorporating a median rather than average travel time as a new travel time reliability measure. Current research by the SHRP 2 L08 Project Team defines freeway reliability LOS by determining equivalent travel time index for similar travel speed ranges shown …


An Experimental Investigation Of Corrosion Fatigue Life Via Thermographic Method, Richard Wayne Purvis Jan 2014

An Experimental Investigation Of Corrosion Fatigue Life Via Thermographic Method, Richard Wayne Purvis

LSU Master's Theses

The effect of prior corrosion fatigue damage on the thermographic response of 1018 low carbon steel is investigated. Specimens were subject to rotating bending fatigue at 38 Hz loading frequency while being exposed to a 3.5% NaCl and distilled water solution. Some specimens were subject to corrosion fatigue for part of their fatigue life and then their thermographic response measured under fatigue in air at 62 Hz loading frequency. Fatigue tests in air with thermographic measurement were performed as a comparison. It was observed that the initial temperature rise after corrosion fatigue fits the previously proposed model for air fatigue, …


Evaluating The Influence Of Moisture Variation On Resilient Modulus For Unsaturated Pavement Subgrades, Ayan Mehrotra Jan 2014

Evaluating The Influence Of Moisture Variation On Resilient Modulus For Unsaturated Pavement Subgrades, Ayan Mehrotra

LSU Master's Theses

The cost of repairing pavements that fail before the end of their service life is enormous in the United States and it is continuously rising. Premature pavement failure is often associated with loss of support in the subgrade layer, especially in regions with fine-grained subgrade soils. Resilient modulus (Mr) is analogous to the stiffness of a subgrade and a key design parameter for pavements. Due to seasonal variation, Mr varies periodically due to changes in moisture content. However, Mr depends not only on moisture content but also the stress state of the subgrade, which for unsaturated soils is dependent on …


A Thermographic Method For Remaining Fatigue Life Prediction Of Welded Joints, Paul Thomas Williams Jan 2014

A Thermographic Method For Remaining Fatigue Life Prediction Of Welded Joints, Paul Thomas Williams

LSU Master's Theses

A non-destructive thermographic technique is adapted and applied to study the fatigue life and behavior of welded specimens made from two different materials. Results show good agreement between experimental predictions of consumed fatigue life and predicted fatigue life. Further, the thermal evolution of the specimens is used to calculate Damage Parameter, which is also used to make fatigue life predictions with promising results. To gain further insight Buckingham Pi theorem is also applied to determine the role of the important parameters involved in a dimensionless form. For this purpose, a series of experiments were performed and used for the analysis …


Accounting For Travel Time Reliability, Trip Purpose And Departure Time Choice In An Agent-Based Dynamic Feedback-Control Toll Pricing Approach, Wan Li Jan 2014

Accounting For Travel Time Reliability, Trip Purpose And Departure Time Choice In An Agent-Based Dynamic Feedback-Control Toll Pricing Approach, Wan Li

LSU Master's Theses

The primary goal of this study is to modify the original strategy developed by Cheng and Ishak (2013) into an agent-based dynamic feedback-control toll pricing strategy that accounts for the trip purpose, travel time reliability, departure time choice and level of income such that the toll revenue is maximized while maintaining a minimum desired level of service on the managed lanes. An external module was developed to execute the modified strategy. An agent-based modeling was applied to simulate drivers’ learning process based on their previous commuting experience. The study also analyzed how driver’s heterogeneity in value of time, value of …


Effects Of Drill-Pipe Whirling Motion On Cuttings Transport Performance For Horizontal Drilling, Yasin Demiralp Jan 2014

Effects Of Drill-Pipe Whirling Motion On Cuttings Transport Performance For Horizontal Drilling, Yasin Demiralp

LSU Master's Theses

Dispersion, deposition, and suspension of particulate materials in the carrier fluid play a significant role in the oil industry. Increasing the cuttings transport performance in deviated wells is difficult due to the rolling/sliding transport, and cuttings settling on the low side of the annulus. Insufficient cuttings transport may lead to some crucial problems such as pipe sticking, increasing in torque and drag, material damage and bed cementing quality. Increasing flow rates and improving mud properties may not be applicable for a proper hole cleaning because of the hydraulic and mechanical limitations. In such cases, additional pressure may be generated, and …


Identifying Local Transit Resources For Evacuation, Alaa Shams Jan 2014

Identifying Local Transit Resources For Evacuation, Alaa Shams

LSU Master's Theses

The objective of this thesis is to establish a GIS that can be used to identify local human-services and special-needs transit resources in Louisiana’s 20 coastal parishes. The intention is that the system be used to identify and then call upon local transit services to assist in the evacuation of an area during an emergency. ArcGIS Online was selected as the platform on which to establish the GIS for this purpose. Socio-economic and transit vehicle data were collected from a variety of official sources and loaded on to the ArcGIS Online portal at LSU. The development of the system is …


Effects Of Different Preparation Methods On Structure And Catalytic Behavior Of Iron-Based Catalyst Via Fischer Trospch Synthesis Of Biomass-Derived Syngas, Khietlethanh Mai Jan 2014

Effects Of Different Preparation Methods On Structure And Catalytic Behavior Of Iron-Based Catalyst Via Fischer Trospch Synthesis Of Biomass-Derived Syngas, Khietlethanh Mai

LSU Master's Theses

Lignocellulosic biomass is a promising feedstock for producing liquid fuels via synthetic gas (syngas) and Fischer Tropsch Synthesis (FTS). Syngas produced from biomass has low H2/CO ratio (~0.7/1) and high concentration of CO2. In order to produce liquid hydrocarbons from this syngas, a catalyst must be used to increase the H2/CO ratio to 2 or higher. This catalyst must also have reasonable reverse water-gas-shift (R-WGS) activity in a CO2 rich environment. In this study, two 100Fe/4Cu/4K/6Zn were prepared using coprecipitation (Cat_C) and impregnation (Cat_I) methods. The effects of these preparation methods on the catalyst structure and FTS performance in biomass …


Comparison Of Land Building By Mississippi River Diversion Using One And Two Dimensional Numerical Models, Gyan Prasad Basyal Jan 2014

Comparison Of Land Building By Mississippi River Diversion Using One And Two Dimensional Numerical Models, Gyan Prasad Basyal

LSU Master's Theses

River sediment diversions have been identified as one strategy for creating new land and offsetting Mississippi River delta plain land loss. Numerical modeling is one tool for estimating the amount of land, geomorphic features and ecological benefits from diversions. There are a number of models proposed to estimate sediment diversion land building, ranging from simplistic approaches that provide bulk characteristics and use little computational resources to process-based models that require a large amount of input parameters and computing power. This thesis aims to compare and contrast two approaches to simulating the land building processes in a simplified receiving basin: a …


Modeling The Effect Of Gusty Hurricane Wind Force On Vehicles Using The Lsu Driving Simulator, Jose Manuel Rodriguez Jan 2014

Modeling The Effect Of Gusty Hurricane Wind Force On Vehicles Using The Lsu Driving Simulator, Jose Manuel Rodriguez

LSU Master's Theses

While traffic planning is important for developing a hurricane evacuation plan, vehicle performance on the roads during extreme weather conditions is critical to the success of the planning process. This study was designed to lay a foundation for modeling driving behavior and vehicle performance as an assessment tool in the decision making process for planning evacuation routes during hurricane and tropical storms. The study explores how the parameters of a driving simulator could be modified to reproduce wind loadings experienced by three vehicle types (a passenger car, an ambulance, and a bus) during gusty hurricane winds, through manipulation of appropriate …


Biogeochemical Controls On Biodegradation Of Mc252 Crude Oil In Coastal Wetland Systems, Matthew Paul Rodrigue Jan 2014

Biogeochemical Controls On Biodegradation Of Mc252 Crude Oil In Coastal Wetland Systems, Matthew Paul Rodrigue

LSU Master's Theses

Weathering of MC252 oil from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill is taking place in coastal Louisiana marsh and mangrove wetland systems. Alkylated phenanthrenes and dibenzothiophenes, which are the most prominent PAHs found at MC252 contaminated sites, are weathering at rates up to 5% per year relative to alkylated chrysenes 3 years after initial oiling. Flux chambers at marsh locations trapped CO2 that exhibited δ13C signatures lower than indigenous organic matter signifying hydrocarbon mineralization to CO2. Weathering rates at each of these locations are heavily influenced by the biogeochemistry of the surrounding environment. High-resolution nutrient profiles were obtained at different locations …


Fabrication And Enhancement Of Aluminum-Based Microchannel Devices, Paul Joseph Hymel Jan 2014

Fabrication And Enhancement Of Aluminum-Based Microchannel Devices, Paul Joseph Hymel

LSU Master's Theses

Microscale molding replication and transient liquid phase (TLP) bonding were used to fabricate Al-based microchannel heat exchangers (MHEs) and micro gas chromatograph (mGC) columns. Metal-based microchannel heat exchangers often experience corrosion as a result of their operating conditions. To address this problem, an internal anodization method was developed in Al microtubes by pulsing the flow of electrolyte through a microtube when the current dropped below a set value. The anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) films were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), focused ion beam (FIB) cross sections, and X-ray energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) to determine their growth rate and morphology. …


Evaluation Of Different Harvesting And Storage Practices: Sweet Sorghum And Energycane, Ana Lucia Amaya Arroyave Jan 2014

Evaluation Of Different Harvesting And Storage Practices: Sweet Sorghum And Energycane, Ana Lucia Amaya Arroyave

LSU Master's Theses

Two attractive potential feed stocks for biofuel production are energycane and sweet sorghum due to the environmental adaptability, sugars concentration and yield. Evaluation and development of harvesting, transportation and storage practices is critical for bringing the production of these crops to industrial levels. This research aims to analyze the supply system of energy crops and evaluate the effect of different harvesting and storage in the yields of the feedstock and the efficiencies of the processes. Harvesting trials were conducted at St. Gabriel, LA for evaluating the feasibility of using energy crops as inputs for ethanol production. The parameters that were …


Biogeochemical Controls On Fate Of Subsurface Oiled Sands On A Coastal Headland Beach, Autumn Anastasia Westrick Jan 2014

Biogeochemical Controls On Fate Of Subsurface Oiled Sands On A Coastal Headland Beach, Autumn Anastasia Westrick

LSU Master's Theses

The fate of subsurface oiled sands collected from Fourchon Beach in Louisiana were determined while modifying biogeochemical controls on the degradation of PAHs. Groundwater on the beach has intrinsically low dissolved oxygen concentrations, which may limit natural biodegradation of the crude oil components. The intent of this research was to characterize the biogeochemical properties and degradability of oiled sands (with >10% of pore filled with MC252 oil) using a combination of laboratory flow-through reactor studies, field measurements and time-series microelectrode profiles of down-flow and cross flow geometries. Reactor experiments indicate that optimal conditions for substantial oil degradation are aerobic under …


Application Of Tubular Crossflow Microfiltration In Harvesting Microalgae, Mostafa Khademi Jan 2014

Application Of Tubular Crossflow Microfiltration In Harvesting Microalgae, Mostafa Khademi

LSU Master's Theses

Separation of microalgal cells from culture medium is a challenging phase of algal production. Application of microfiltration as Stage 1 harvesting technology to pre-concentrate algal suspension from 0.2 g-dry/L to 10 g-dry/L (1% solids) prior to the final dewatering stage by centrifugation (Stage 2) was studied in this research. A bench-scale filtration setup with three tubular crossflow membrane modules (pore sizes: 0.05 µm, 0.1 µm, 0.5µm) equipped with data acquisition systems was constructed. In phase-1 experiments, the influence of algal species and the size of particles in the culture media on the filterability of microalgae were studied. It was found …


Mechanical And Thermal Properties Of Fly Ash-Based Geopolymer Cement, Fenghong Fan Jan 2014

Mechanical And Thermal Properties Of Fly Ash-Based Geopolymer Cement, Fenghong Fan

LSU Master's Theses

The geopolymer concrete is a more durable and green material with less CO2 emission and less energy consuming as compared with the widely used Portland cement (PC) concrete. In this thesis, an experimental study of the thermo-mechanical properties of a cement prepared using a class F fly ash and three different alkali-activators (NaOH activator, NaOH and Na2SiO3 mixture activator, and KOH and Na2SiO3 mixture activator) is presented. The mechanical properties, including the compressive strength, shrinkage, weight loss, and chemical composition, are investigated utilizing several key tools, such as X-ray Diffraction (XRD), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), and Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy …


Integration Of Network Protector Relays On Downtown Distribution Networks With Penetration Of Renewable Energy, Nigel Ramon Jordan Jan 2014

Integration Of Network Protector Relays On Downtown Distribution Networks With Penetration Of Renewable Energy, Nigel Ramon Jordan

LSU Master's Theses

The demand and use of renewable energy sources such as solar panels is steadily increasing in today’s world. Renewable energy sources in distribution networks effectively reduce the amount of load consumed by customers. Renewable energy sources are also a solution to many environmental concerns. However, when these sources of energy are added to downtown networks they interfere with the normal operation of the protective relays and impose challenges such as unexpected tripping of network protector relays. In this paper, the effects of network protector relay operation is studied as a function of increasing photovoltaic (PV) penetration within the secondary grid …


Ethical Hacking Using Penetration Testing, Bharath Kumar Koopari Roopkumar Jan 2014

Ethical Hacking Using Penetration Testing, Bharath Kumar Koopari Roopkumar

LSU Master's Theses

This thesis provides details of the hardware architecture and the software scripting, which are employed to demonstrate penetration testing in a laboratory setup. The architecture depicts an organizational computing asset or an environment.¬¬¬ With the increasing number of cyber-attacks throughout the world, the network security is becoming an important issue. This has motivated a large number of “ethical hackers” to indulge and develop methodologies and scripts to defend against the security attacks. As it is too onerous to maintain and monitor attacks on individual hardware and software in an organization, the demand for the new ways to manage security systems …


Efficient Dense 3d Reconstruction Using Image Pairs, Padmapriya Ravi Jan 2014

Efficient Dense 3d Reconstruction Using Image Pairs, Padmapriya Ravi

LSU Master's Theses

The 3D reconstruction of a scene from 2D images is an important topic in the _x000C_eld of Computer Vision due to the high demand in various applications such as gaming, animations, face recognition, parts inspections, etc. The accuracy of a 3D reconstruction is highly dependent on the accuracy of the correspondence matching between the images. For the purpose of high accuracy of 3D reconstruction system using just two images of the scene, it is important to _x000C_nd accurate correspondence between the image pairs. In this thesis, we implement an accurate 3D reconstruction system from two images of the scene at …


Graphical Models In Characterizing The Dependency Relationship In Wireless Networks And Social Networks, Phuoc Doan Huu Vu Jan 2014

Graphical Models In Characterizing The Dependency Relationship In Wireless Networks And Social Networks, Phuoc Doan Huu Vu

LSU Master's Theses

Semi-Markov processes have become increasingly important in probability and statistical modeling, which have found applications in traffic analysis, reliability and maintenance, survival analysis, performance evaluation, biology, DNA analysis, risk processes, insurance and finance, earthquake modeling, etc. In the first part of this thesis, our focus is on applying semi-Markov processes to modeling the on-off duty cycles of different nodes in wireless networks. More specifically, we are interested in restoration of statistics of individual occupancy patterns of specific users based on wireless RF observation traces. In particular, we present a novel approach to finding the statistics of several operations, namely down-sampling, …


Using Eye-Tracking To Investigate Strategy And Performance Of Expert And Novice Control Room Operators, Christina Marie Koffskey Jan 2014

Using Eye-Tracking To Investigate Strategy And Performance Of Expert And Novice Control Room Operators, Christina Marie Koffskey

LSU Master's Theses

There is lacking research within the Petrochemical Industry that uses eye-tracking to explore the differences between the strategies of expert and novice control room operators as they monitor and address process parameters that could be used to improve novice training programs and interface design. Scan paths and three eye-tracking metrics (Fixation Frequency, Gaze Duration Mean, and Gaze Percentage) were used to investigate the differences in eye behavior of three expert control room operators and six novice students as they monitored and corrected a Crude Refinement simulation. A 2x2x2 mixed factor design was used to explore the effects that expertise (expert …


Minimization Of Transportation, Installation And Maintenance Operations Costs For Offshore Wind Turbines, Tasnim Ibn Faiz Jan 2014

Minimization Of Transportation, Installation And Maintenance Operations Costs For Offshore Wind Turbines, Tasnim Ibn Faiz

LSU Master's Theses

Although it is a sustainable source and there is abundant potential for energy, cost of energy generated from offshore wind is still high compared to other sustainable energy sources. Apart from the manufacturing cost of turbines, cost of energy is significantly affected by costs of transportation and installation operations of wind turbines and maintenance operations of turbine components. Through optimum selection of decision variables, such as turbine installation method and rated power output of each turbine, cost of transportation and installation operations can be minimized. The first model in this study investigates the impact of these decision variables and effect …