Engineering Commons^™

Design, Development, And Testing Of A Multi-Agent Autonomous Surface Fleet For Environmental Applications, Daniel Davis Smith

LSU Master's Theses

As costs have decreased and both computational complexity and robustness have increased, the use of autonomous vehicles in real-world environments has increased dramatically. The development of a fleet of autonomous surface vehicles able to coordinate their actions through communications provides a significant tool for numerous water-based applications such as the reduction of predatory birds on aquaculture ponds, tracking of pollutant gradients, and water quality mapping applications. A fleet of three autonomous surface vehicles (ASVs) was developed using the best characteristics from earlier designs. Each vehicle is a dual-pontoon, dual-paddlewheel design powered by batteries recharged using a vehicle-mounted solar array that …

A Study Of The Scale-Invariant Feature Transform On A Parallel Pipeline, Phaneendra Vinukonda

LSU Master's Theses

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In this thesis we study the running of the Scale Invariant Feature Transform (SIFT) algorithm on a pipelined computational platform. The SIFT algorithm is one of the most widely used methods for image feature extraction.

We develop a tile based template for running SIFT that facilitates the analysis while abstracting away lower-level details. We formalize the computational pipeline and the time to execute any algorithm on it based on the relative times taken by the pipeline stages. In the context of the SIFT algorithm, this reduces the time to that of running the entire image through a …

Surface Parameterization Over Regular Domains, Shenghua Wan

LSU Master's Theses

Surface parameterization has been widely studied and it has been playing a critical role in many geometric processing tasks in graphics, computer-aided design, visualization, vision, physical simulation and etc. Regular domains, such as polycubes, are favored due to their structural regularity and geometric simplicity. This thesis focuses on studying the surface parameterization over regular domains, i.e. polycubes, and develops effective computation algorithms. Firstly, the motivation for surface parameterization and polycube mapping is introduced. Secondly, we briefly review existing surface parameterization techniques, especially for extensively studied parameterization algorithms for topological disk surfaces and parameterizations over regular domains for closed surfaces. Then …

Modeling Of First-Flush Reactor For Stormwater Treatment, Shaowei Sun

LSU Master's Theses

Stormwater runoff is one of the most common sources of non-point source water pollution to lakes, rivers and estuaries. Nitrate-nitrogen in stormwater runoff is an important limiting factor to the eutrophication phenomenon. While most pollutants and nutrients, including nitrate-nitrogen, in stormwater are discharged into receiving waters during the first-flush period, no existing Best Management Practices (BMPs) are specifically designed to capture and treat the first-flush portion of urban stormwater runoff. In addition, nitrate-nitrogen removal rates of most existing BMPs are relatively low. This thesis presents results from both laboratory experiments and numerical modeling of nitrate-nitrogen removal in a designed first-flush …

Electrochemical Etching Of Isolated Structures In P-Type Silicon, Joel Nino Bugayong

LSU Master's Theses

The role of the space charge region (SCR) was demonstrated in isolated structures for the first time. Electrochemical etching was conducted in differently pitched structures in p-type silicon. A design of experiment was also performed to evaluate the effect of electrolyte and applied potential. Finally chemical etching was demonstrated as a possible post-etch clean to porous structures. The results showed that the morphology of etched structures in pre-patterned silicon is strongly influenced by the SCR even in isolated structures. Using lightly-doped p-type Si (1,000-10,000 Ω-cm), deep macropores were obtained in wide-pitched patterns. However, the diameter of the pores grew larger …

Blind Yield Detection In Steel Structure For Automatic Nondestructive Testing Using Ultrasonic Sensors, Hongting Zhang

LSU Master's Theses

Detection of yield zones using nondestructive testing (NDT) technology for assessing the structural integrity of the existing steel buildings/bridges is extremely important. The average energy over the “effective echoes” (in “good” signal quality) is a robust feature for the yield detection in steel structures. Nevertheless, this average-energy feature extraction requires rigorous manual data-acquisition and human operation. Therefore, in this thesis, we make the first-ever attempt to design a totally-blind and automatic steel-structure yielddetection mechanism, which requires neither the a priori information about the signal nor the human effort in calibration, operation, or data analysis. This new scheme is built upon …

Evaluation Of Volumetric And Mechanistic Properties Of Asphalt Mixtures: Laboratory Vs. Field, Samuel Booth Cooper Iii

LSU Master's Theses

The maintenance and growth of the United States infrastructure is vital to the economic, social, and cultural success of the country. For this reason significant resources must be allocated to ensure adequate paving mixtures are designed, produced, and constructed. A critical issue that has received considerable attention in recent years is to identify and quantify causes, sources, and levels of variability in volumetric and mechanical properties of the mixture. This requires evaluation of three possible scenarios for production of asphalt mixture specimens: (1) laboratory mixed and laboratory compacted specimens (LL), (2) plant mixed and laboratory compacted specimens (PL), and (3) …

Implementing Lean In Healthcare Warehouse Operations - Evaluation Of 5s Best Practice, Sanjith Venkateswaran

LSU Master's Theses

Lean strategies in healthcare aim at improving patient throughput, reducing medication errors, redesigning work flow, improving patient safety, and reducing cycle time. Documented studies to improve healthcare’s warehouse operation are not common in the literature. Managing types of medical supplies has always been a priority due to demand uncertainties and the risk of shortages that would profoundly affect patient safety. This study showcases two implementation approaches for the Lean tool 5S (Hybrid and Traditional) conducted in three different hospitals’ central warehouses at Ochsner Health System. These warehouses store similar medical products with over 1000 types of supplies (e.g. syringes, gloves, …

Two-Dimensional Numerical Modeling Of A Proposed Freshwater Diversion From The Bonnet Carre Spillway To The Labranche Wetlands, Josef Patrick Hoffmann

LSU Master's Theses

Engineered modifications to the lower Mississippi River within the past century have limited the magnitude and frequency of flood events in wetlands along the Louisiana coast. Without this natural delivery of freshwater, sediment, and nutrients, the ecological health of these wetlands are now degrading. A recent study within the Bonnet Carre Spillway has revealed that the 7,623 acres of floodway between the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain is one of the few areas in Louisiana that is actively accreting land as a result of pulsed sediment-laden freshwater input during high discharge events in the Mississippi River. On the other hand, …

Fragility Analysis Of Building Envelope Components Subject To Windborne Debris Impact Hazard, Alexander Henry Herbin

LSU Master's Theses

This thesis presents a methodology for developing windborne debris (WBD) impact fragility curves for building envelope components (BECs) by using stochastic finite element (FE) models. These fragility curves provide the probabilistic description of the impact resistance of BECs subject to an impact event described by an appropriate intensity measure (IM). Accurate fragility curves are essential in the development of a general probabilistic performance-based engineering framework for mitigation of WBD impact hazard. Monte Carlo simulation is used in combination with the FE method to propagate uncertainties in the BEC’s model parameters and WBD impact location. As an application example, the fragility …

Experimental Study Of Cognitive Radio Test-Bed Using Usrp, Venkat Vinod Patcha

LSU Master's Theses

Cognitive Radio is an emerging technology that enables efficient utilization of the spectrum. As such, it has created great interests in industrial and research fields. Many people have proposed test-bed models for the performance analysis of primary and secondary users in a real-time noise environment. However, these test-beds are generally lacking in their range of capabilities as well as accurate implementation of the proposed models. In this thesis, we develop our test-bed on USRP to achieve the spectrum sensing and co-existence of primary and secondary users, while implementing the rendezvous protocols for secondary traffic coordination. We first demonstrate the spectrum …

Network Traffic Data Analysis, Harish Kapri

LSU Master's Theses

The desire to conceptualize network traffic in a prevailing communication network is a facet for many types of network research studies. In this research, real traffic traces collected over trans-Pacific backbone links (the MAWI repository, providing publicly available anonymized traces) are analyzed to study the underlying traffic patterns. All data analysis and visualization is carried out using Matlab (Matlab is a trademark of The Mathworks, Inc.). At packet level, we first measure parameters such as distribution of packet lengths, distribution of protocol types, and then fit following analytical models. Next, the concept of flow is introduced and flow based analysis …

Boron And Rare Earth Oxide Composite Nanoparticles For Enhancement Of Combustion, Jacob Hanberry

LSU Master's Theses

Metallic fuels are of interest as additives in bio-fuel combustion because of their high heating values, and this thesis deals with the experimental investigation of boron nanoparticles and their effect on ethanol combustion. Two grades of boron nanoparticles were commercially purchased and modified to obtain different physical characteristics, by ball milling and sintering. Also, a mixture of rare-earth oxide (CeO2, La2O3, and Gd2O3) nanoparticles was synthesized and added to the boron nanoparticles in varying amounts to form composite mixtures. The effects of rare-earth oxides on boron combustion were investigated using these composites. Particle characterizations were carried out by X-ray diffraction, …

Investigations Of Wave-Induced Turbulent Structures In Vegetated Flows, Agnimitro Chakrabarti

LSU Master's Theses

The role of coastal vegetation in mitigating shoreline erosion by damping of incoming waves and the resultant effect on sediment transport is a critical area of coastal management research. However our understanding of the underlying hydrodynamic processes is limited. Laboratory flume experiments were conducted where a naturally grown emergent vegetation channel and a vegetation-less sand channel were exposed to regular waves. Wave height data was collected using wave gauges located at various points along the channel in the direction of oncoming waves. Acoustic Doppler Velocimeters (ADVs) placed at various depths in the water column measured wave orbital velocity signatures. This …

3d Quantification Of Particle Interaction Of Compacted Powders Using Synchrotron Micro Tomography (Smt), Md. Nafiul Haque

LSU Master's Theses

Synchrotron Micro Tomography (SMT) is a powerful, non-destructive scanning technique for studying the internal structure of materials. SMT was utilized for two applications in this thesis. The first application involves tracking particle rotation of aluminum powder under different compaction strains. The experiments were conducted on two geometrical configurations by applying axial load to compact the powder in the die and acquiring SMT scans at different strain levels. The SMT scans were processed using AVIZO visualization software for further analyses. The analyses included tracking the same particle at different compaction strain levels, analyzing their volume compressibility, and then quantifying their rotational …

The Stereospecific Hydrogenation And Dehydrogenation Of Rosin And Fatty Acids, Edward O'Brien

LSU Master's Theses

Tall oil is a byproduct of the standard wood pulping process in the paper industry. It is primarily made up of C:18 fatty acids, rosin acids and a minor fraction of neutrals. Normally, tall oil is further distilled into fractions and then hydrogenated or dehydrogenated into different products. In this project, three heterogeneous catalytic methods of producing byproducts of various distilled tall oil fractions were examined at lower temperatures and pressures than the industry norm in an attempt to develop cheaper production processes. Reactions were conducted in stirred batch reactors of different sizes and product compositions were analyzed primarily by …

Simulation Of Cell Seeding And Retention In A Disordered Polymeric Scaffold, Tejaswini Narayana

LSU Master's Theses

Historically, bone repair has been performed using materials like metals, ceramics, cements and bioactive glass. The major problem with all these materials is that they do not perform the necessary non-structural functions of bone. Engineered tissue, created by growing bone cells on porous biodegradable material (scaffold), will address this issue with current bone repair techniques. Improving engineered tissue treatments requires a thorough understanding of factors affecting cell seeding and proliferation inside a disordered porous material which is not feasible using current experimental techniques. A model for particle transport in a disordered porous material that can predict the particle deposition pattern …

V2o5-Wo3 Composite Films And Surface-Coated Licoo2 For Enhanced Li-Ion Intercalation Properties, Chuan Cai

LSU Master's Theses

We have investigated the enhanced Li-ion intercalation properties of two different materials, which are V2O5-WO3 composite and surface-coated LiCoO2. A simple and novel solution processing method is employed to prepare V2O5-WO3 composite films that demonstrate enhanced Li-ion intercalation properties for applications in Li-ion batteries or electrochromic displays. This solution processing method employs precursors that only contain the elements of V, W, O and H, which avoids impurity elements such as Na that has been commonly used in other solution methods (e.g. using precursors of sodium metavanadate and sodium tungstate solution). The V2O5-WO3 composite films show enhanced Li-ion intercalation properties compared …

Integrated Weather Sensor Platform And Decision Support System For Improved Sweet Potato Production, Jose Pablo Rojas Jimenez

LSU Master's Theses

Water management represents an essential component in all agricultural activities, where significant improvements can be achieved through the implementation of field measuring devices and irrigation scheduling models. The methods that integrate these tools may be based on information regarding the soil, crop, and weather. Evapotranspiration (ET) is one of the most important components of the soil water-balance used in modeling. A number of estimation methods have been developed to determine Reference Evapotranspiration (ETo) under various types of weather conditions. In this research, an analysis was conducted between different ETo estimation methods and ETo calculated from soil water content measurements and …

Anti-Microbial Self-Assembling "Click" Monolayers Utilizing Silver Nanoparticles For Indwelling Medical Devices, Emily Ann Hodges

LSU Master's Theses

The objective of this study was to synthesize and characterize antimicrobial, silver nanoparticles based self-assembling monolayer coatings, for use on chronic indwelling medical devices. The coatings are comprised of novel biomass mediated silver nano particles (SNP) that are biocompatible, highly concentrated, highly pure, cost-effective, polydispersed and compatible for use with existing chronic indwelling medical devices. The HPC SNPs were functionalized with an azide functional group and covalently bound to titanium substrates via ¨Dclick¡¬ chemistry.

Comparison Of Different Integral Histogram Based Tracking Algorithms, Sriharsha Atluri

LSU Master's Theses

Object tracking is an important subject in computer vision with a wide range of applications – security and surveillance, motion-based recognition, driver assistance systems, and human-computer interaction. The proliferation of high-powered computers, the availability of high quality and inexpensive video cameras, and the increasing need for automated video analysis have generated a great deal of interest in object tracking algorithms. Tracking is usually performed in the context of high-level applications that require the location and/or shape of the object in every frame. Research is being conducted in the development of object tracking algorithms over decades and a number of approaches …

Dry Reforming Of Methane On Rhodium And Nickel Substituted Pyrochlore Catalysts, Sarthak Gaur

LSU Master's Theses

Dry reforming of methane (DRM) has been widely investigated, with most studies showing rapid deactivation due to carbon deposition. This suggests a need to develop catalysts that limit carbon formation while avoiding structural changes at the elevated temperatures typical of this reaction. Here, we report CO2 reforming of methane on four pyrochlore catalysts. First, Rh was partially substituted for Zr in lanthanum zirconate (La2Zr2O7) to give La2Zr2-xRhxO7.5 (LRZ, x=0.112, 2 wt% Rh) pyrochlore. A second pyrochlore catalyst was synthesized in which Ca was further substituted into the La-site to give La1.95Ca0.05Zr2-xRhxO7 (LCRZ, x=0.055, 1 wt% Rh). A third catalyst was …

Discrete Element Modeling Of Cone Penetration In Jsc-1a Lunar Regolith Simulant, Mehmet Burak Cil

LSU Master's Theses

NASA plans to return back to the Moon for a long term presence and use of the Moon as a launch station for further space exploration to other planets. This scenario increases the importance of determining the geotechnical properties of the lunar surface. However, due to the limited availability of lunar regolith and its high scientific value, a simulant material which closely matches the composition and grain size distribution and other characteristics of the lunar regolith has become an indispensable need to benefit in hardware development as well as estimating lunar regolith properties. Therefore, JSC-1A lunar regolith simulant, which was …

Wave Forces On Bridge Decks And Damping Techniques To Reduce Damages, Aaron Michael Henry

LSU Master's Theses

The population of the Gulf Coast has grown immensely since 1960. Bridges along the coast are a vital part of this area’s infrastructure. They impact the transportation of goods and services, as well as the tourism in these areas. Many of these coastal bridges are at risk of being damaged or even destroyed during extreme weather events. This can cause not only short and long-term monetary problems, but the damage also can exacerbate the issues in getting people out of dangerous areas and getting help into areas in need, after an event. Damages during extreme weather events are the result …

Cost And Performance Modeling Of The Mu-Decoder, Raghavendra Kongari

LSU Master's Theses

In this thesis we study the implementation details of the MU-Decoders, a recently proposed hardware module that has been theoretically shown to be superior to other methods for generating subsets of large sets. Our study confirms this advantage. Specifically, we compare the performance of implementations of the LUT-Decoder (the most common configurable decoder) to the MU-Decoder. We show that for while the LUT-Decoder is slightly better than the MU-Decoder for arbitrary (and artificial) inputs, for a large class of inputs called totally ordered subsets, that have practical significance, the MU-Decoder is vastly superior in area to the LUT-Decoder. In terms …

Hydrodynamic Focusing Micropump Module With Pdms/Nickel-Particle Composite Diaphragms For Microfluidic Systems, Jeonghwan Kim

LSU Master's Theses

In this research, a rapid prototype of multi-fluidic speed-modulating (MFSM) micropump which enables modulation of hydrodynamic focusing in micro-fluidic flow has been designed, fabricated, and characterized. The size of the entire module is 33 mm x 25 mm x 8 mm and comprises of three MFSM micropumps to achieve hydrodynamic focusing. These pumps are simultaneously operated by the same actuation source. Each micropump consists of Tesla-type valves in the bottom layer and PDMS/Ni-particle composite (PNPC) diaphragm in the middle layer. The deflection of the diaphragm is obtained by the external pneumatic force, and the permanent magnet controls the displacement resulting …

Working Active Power, Reflected Active Power, And Detrimental Active Power In The Power System, Tracy Nakamura Toups

LSU Master's Theses

Study of decomposition of the active power into components with deeper economical meanings, namely working active power, reflected active power, and detrimental active power is the subject of the thesis. The decomposition of active power will be based on the Current’s Physical Component (CPC) Theory. Working active power is equivalent to useful power that is the rate of energy used to do work, such as mechanical power. Reflected active power is the rate of energy transfer that the load sends back to the supply which dissipates off the supply resistance. This reflected active power is not taken into account on …

A Study Of A Smog-Fog-Smog Cycle And The Processing Of Pah And Oxy-Pah By A Fog Cloud, Kalindi Pramod Khadapkar

LSU Master's Theses

Fog is a multiphase dynamic system which can provide a setting for various physicochemical processes affecting the fate of various organic pollutants such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) and their oxygenated forms (oxy-PAH) in the atmosphere. This study focuses on the processing of PAH and oxy-PAH during a smog-fog-smog cycle. Two field campaigns were carried out during the winters of year 2010 and year 2011 in the Central Valley of California, sampling two fog events in Fresno and five fog events in Davis. To study the transformations and distributions of PAH and oxy-PAH, different atmospheric species (fog water, gas phase, …

Modeling The Response Of A Beach Restoration Project In Louisiana To Two Consecutive Hurricanes, Naveen Khammampati

LSU Master's Theses

The current study is concentrated in modeling the cross-shore beach profile evolution and severe erosion of the dune (overwash) of a restored barrier island due to Hurricanes Gustav (2008) and Ike (2008) in coastal Louisiana. Pre-storm and post-storm survey data sets of Chaland Headland located in Plaquemines Parish, LA, were analyzed and categorized based on the overwash processes, and numerically modeled using SBEACH (Storm-induced BEAch CHange). The model results were compared with the measured topographic data. A total of 10 survey profiles were used in this study. SBEACH simulates cross-shore beach, berm and dune erosion produced by storm waves and …

Analysis Of Static Lateral Load Test Of Battered Pile Group At I-10 Twin Span Bridge, Binay Pathak

LSU Master's Theses

In offshore structures, battered piles have been used as an alternative to vertical piles because of their capability in resisting higher lateral loads. The foundations of the newly built I-10 Twin Span Bridge over Lake Pontchartrain, LA, mostly consist of battered piles group. Understanding the behavior of these batter pile group foundations under lateral loading is very important to the design of highway bridge foundations. This study focuses on the evaluation of the lateral responses of battered pile group subjected to lateral loading and assessment of the current design methodology used for the design of I-10 Twin Span Bridge over …