Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Engineering Commons™

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

2010

Discipline
Institution
Keyword
Publication
Publication Type
File Type

Articles 4471 - 4500 of 5375

Full-Text Articles in Engineering

Solid-Liquid Separation Technologies In The Conversion Of Bagasse To Liquid Fuel, Keith Miller Jan 2010

Solid-Liquid Separation Technologies In The Conversion Of Bagasse To Liquid Fuel, Keith Miller

LSU Master's Theses

Development of liquid biofuels has entered a new phase of large scale pilot demonstrations. A number of plants in operation or under construction face the engineering challenges of creating a viable plant design, scaling up, and optimizing various unit operations. It is well-known that separation technologies account for 50-70% of both capital and operating costs. Processes vary in terms of selection of unit operations; however, solid-liquid separations are likely to be a major contributor to the overall project costs. A typical process for ethanol production from biomass includes several solid-liquid separation steps. The nature of biomass derived materials makes it …

Go to article

Hydrogen Production From Molasses Using Chlorinated Alkane-Contaminated Groundwater As An Inoculum, Hector Narez Jan 2010

Hydrogen Production From Molasses Using Chlorinated Alkane-Contaminated Groundwater As An Inoculum, Hector Narez

LSU Master's Theses

The Scenic Highway area of the PetroProcessors of Louisiana, Inc. (PPI) Superfund site located near Baton Rouge, LA, has groundwater contaminated with a variety of chlorinated alkanes (e.g., 1,2-dichloroethane, 1,2-dichloropropane) and alkenes (e.g., trichloroethene and vinyl chloride). In March 2009, a field-scale pilot test was conducted to evaluate the efficacy of injecting diluted agricultural feed grade molasses into the groundwater in an effort to stimulate in-situ reductive dechlorination of these chlorinated contaminants. Because H2 plays an important role as an electron donor in the metabolism of reductively dechlorinating bacteria, in support of the pilot-scale effort, experiments described in this thesis …

Go to article

Nanomechanics Of Muscovite Subjected To Nanoindentation And The Pertinent Indentation Size Effect, Hang Yin Jan 2010

Nanomechanics Of Muscovite Subjected To Nanoindentation And The Pertinent Indentation Size Effect, Hang Yin

LSU Master's Theses

Two groups of nanoindentation experiments, including repeated loading tests and monotonic loading tests, were performed on muscovite with a sharp indenter tip and loading direction normal to the basal plane. By varying the maximum load in the first group of repeated experiments, influences of the load level can be examined on the modes of nanoscale deformation and the resulting estimation of hardness and elastic modulus. The incipient kink band concept was employed to interpret the observed dispersed loading-unloading hysteresis loops by considering formation and annihilation of IKBs. Furthermore, the material’s contact stiffness behavior was characterized by comparing the normalized unloading …

Go to article

Antisense Silver Nanoparticles For Photo-Activated Gene Silencing, Paige Kathleen Brown Jan 2010

Antisense Silver Nanoparticles For Photo-Activated Gene Silencing, Paige Kathleen Brown

LSU Master's Theses

The unique properties of noble metal nanoparticles, which include tunable electronic and photonic characteristics, contribute to their potential as novel delivery vectors with enhanced drug stability, cell uptake, and photo-activated functionalities. Silver, as one of best surface-enhancing substrates available for bulk nanostructure synthesis, is a prime choice for investigations of metal nanohybrids as antisense therapy vehicles with special surface plasmon resonance (SPR) enabled functional attributes. The singular photonic properties of silver nanoparticles (SNPs) may contribute to ease of delivery confirmation and in situ photo-activation of protected cargo packed on particle surfaces. Here we show the synthesis and characterization of 40-80nm …

Go to article

Design And Fabrication Of Micronozzles For Drug Delivery Applications, Yuxuan Zhou Jan 2010

Design And Fabrication Of Micronozzles For Drug Delivery Applications, Yuxuan Zhou

LSU Master's Theses

Inhaled drug is an important drug delivery route. It is widely used in medications for respiratory disorders. However, it has some significant limitations, for examples, concentration of drug, output, and particles size, are not accurately controlled in most of the available drug delivery systems today. Various new devices and technologies continue to be developed and introduced. Vibrating orifice is one of them. The critical issue of vibrating orifice technology is the fabrication of micro-nozzles. Traditional technique to fabricate these nozzles is to use dry etching method, which tends to be expensive and inconvenient for mass production. Other two optional fabrication …

Go to article

A Portable Phonatory Feedback Device For Patients With Speech Disorders, Richie Sajan Jan 2010

A Portable Phonatory Feedback Device For Patients With Speech Disorders, Richie Sajan

LSU Master's Theses

Vocal intensity-related speech disorders such as dysarthria and vocal nodules can limit quality of life and reduce the patient’s ability to interact with family, socialize, or pursue employment. Behavioral speech therapies exist to address these issues but have limited effectiveness because they are expensive and clinic-based. The ability to monitor vocal intensity outside of the clinical setting will greatly aid in the treatment of these speech disorders, enabling patients to make quicker progress by reinforcing techniques learned in the clinic. The Voice Volume Monitor (VVM) is a portable and cost-effective therapeutic aid designed for this purpose, providing real-time feedback regarding …

Go to article

A Simulation Study Of Factors That Affect Pressure Control During Kick Circulation In Managed Pressure Drilling Operations, Jose Eduardo Eduardo Chirinos Jan 2010

A Simulation Study Of Factors That Affect Pressure Control During Kick Circulation In Managed Pressure Drilling Operations, Jose Eduardo Eduardo Chirinos

LSU Master's Theses

An university-industry consortium has been studying alternative well control procedures to be used for kicks taken during managed pressure drilling (MPD) operations using the constant bottom hole pressure (CBHP) method. The CBHP method of MPD allows more precise control of wellbore pressure than conventional drilling. MPD surface equipment allows more alternatives for controlling a kick and may support faster detection of kicks and losses which can reduce the severity of a well control event. Nevertheless, the elimination of well control incidents cannot be guaranteed, and the uncertainty in downhole drilling margins are not reduced by adopting MPD methods. The primary …

Go to article

Computational Examination Of Compaction Wave-Boundary Interaction In Granular Explosive, Anirban Mandal Jan 2010

Computational Examination Of Compaction Wave-Boundary Interaction In Granular Explosive, Anirban Mandal

LSU Master's Theses

Interactions between initially planar, piston supported compaction waves in heterogeneous energetic solids and macro-scale rigid boundaries were computationally examined for a wide range of piston impact speeds (20 ≤ Up ≤ 500 m/s) and initial solid volume fractions of the material (0.73 ≤ ϕ0 ≤ 0.90). The response of the material was described by a continuum theory that accounts for both elastic and inelastic compaction in a thermodynamically consistent manner. Initial conditions were imposed by interpolating the spatial structure of one-dimensional steady compaction waves onto two-dimensional domains considered in this study. For a planar wedge boundary, the peak …

Go to article

Surfactant-Induced Flow Behavior Effects In Gas Condensate Reservoirs, Bikash Deep. Saikia Jan 2010

Surfactant-Induced Flow Behavior Effects In Gas Condensate Reservoirs, Bikash Deep. Saikia

LSU Master's Theses

Natural gas, which accounts for a quarter of world’s energy, has been a major energy source because of its abundance and less impact on environment. With explorations at higher depth, pressure and temperature, the share of gas condensate reservoirs to global gas production is increasing. A unique production challenge associated with these reservoirs is the condensate blockage problem, which is the buildup of condensate liquid saturation around wellbore as a result of drawdown below dew point pressure. Mitigation of this problem requires in depth understanding of the multiphase flow of liquid and gas. Surfactants are well known in the literature …

Go to article

Development Of A Compact Optical System For A Forward-Looking Endoscope, Anandi Kalyan Dutta Jan 2010

Development Of A Compact Optical System For A Forward-Looking Endoscope, Anandi Kalyan Dutta

LSU Master's Theses

ABSTRACT Optical Coherence Tomography has been effectively used for endoscopy in many previous studies. In this work, a 2 mm diameter forward-looking endoscope is developed with the help of MEMS technology and Optical Coherence Technology (OCT) to obtain in-vivo cross-sectional images of tissues or body cavities. The design consists of a GRIN lens, optical fiber and MEMS chip that are placed in line to fulfill the aim of achieving a 2 mm diameter probe. A standard assembly process has been established for the probe. An anisotropic etching was performed on the sample chip to create the V-groove for carrying the …

Go to article

Assessing The Suitability Of Coagulation Pretreatment On Poultry Processing Wastewater For Optimized Dissolved Air Flotation, Adam James Dassey Jan 2010

Assessing The Suitability Of Coagulation Pretreatment On Poultry Processing Wastewater For Optimized Dissolved Air Flotation, Adam James Dassey

LSU Master's Theses

Eleven metal coagulants and one polyelectrolyte were assessed on their suitability for assisting a dissolved air flotation (DAF) system in treating poultry processing wastewater. The DAF unit was designed to maximize the microbubble production by varying the pressure, temperature, hydraulic retention time, and air flow parameters. The maximum microbubble flow from the designed system produced 30 mL of air per L of water. This value was considered low compared to other systems, but attempts to increase the microbubble volume in the current system beyond this value resulted in the coalescing of microbubbles due to turbulent conditions. Jar tests were used …

Go to article

Modeling Pm Rotary-Linear Motors With Twin-Stator Using 3d Femm, Oleksandr Dobzhanskyi Jan 2010

Modeling Pm Rotary-Linear Motors With Twin-Stator Using 3d Femm, Oleksandr Dobzhanskyi

LSU Master's Theses

A rapid growth of automatization nowadays requires electric machines to be adjusted to any technological process. Therefore, a need in machines with two degrees of mechanical freedom (TDMF), which can operate rotationally and linearly, is relatively large. This thesis is directed on the design and study of performance of PM (permanent magnet) rotary-linear synchronous motors with twin-armature as a new type of electric machines which can perform linear, rotational and helical movements. Three stator versions are considered, namely: stator with rotary and linear armatures, two rotary armatures, and two linear armatures. The rotors have PMs skewed with respect to the …

Go to article

Biomechanical Evaluation Of Modified Track Shoes, Marlon Alberetos Greensword Jan 2010

Biomechanical Evaluation Of Modified Track Shoes, Marlon Alberetos Greensword

LSU Master's Theses

Track and field runners, especially sprinters and mid-distance runners, face many problems due to walking in spike shoes. Due to the fact that track and field spike shoes are designed specifically for running, the runner’s feet remain in an uncomfortable, flexed position when walking between workouts and races. Problems caused by the dangerous foot-positioning include, but are not limited to, the following: back pain, shin splints, bone spurs, blisters, and overall decreased level of running performance. Over time, runners wearing improper footwear for walking may face chronic injuries such as plantar fasciitis, shin splints, Achilles tendinitis, chondromalacia, and iliotibial band …

Go to article

Adaptive Quantization In Wireless Sensor Networks With Encryption, Niharika Konakalla Jan 2010

Adaptive Quantization In Wireless Sensor Networks With Encryption, Niharika Konakalla

LSU Master's Theses

We consider the estimation of a deterministic unknown parameter in an encrypted wireless sensor networks. Adaptive quantization is used on the sensor's observation and the outputs of the sensors are then encrypted using a probabilistic cipher. In a conventional fixed quantization scheme, estimation error grows exponentially with the difference between the threshold and the unknown parameter to be estimated. Hence, to avoid this, we used and adaptive quantization scheme where each sensor adaptively adjusts its quantization threshold. We find the Cramer-Rao Lower Bound for the Ally Fusion Center (AFC) and then find the optimal estimate of the unknown parameter for …

Go to article

Integrating Lattice Space-Time Codes Of Highest Rank And Multiplexing Over Rayleigh Fading Channels, Vamshi Krishna Samudrala Jan 2010

Integrating Lattice Space-Time Codes Of Highest Rank And Multiplexing Over Rayleigh Fading Channels, Vamshi Krishna Samudrala

LSU Master's Theses

In this thesis, we consider the problem of finding an optimal combination of multiplexing and space-time coding over a MIMO array when a transmitter has a prior knowledge about correlation. Some existing work in this area used multiplexing and space-time coding methods as a technique to achieve capacity over a MIMO wireless channel. In this work, we consider a 2x2 lattice space-time code of highest rank and multiplex it over a MIMO system to improve the bit error rate performance. The main focus of this thesis is to address the problem of switching between spatial multiplexing and space-time coding to …

Go to article

Enhancement Of Single-Lap Joint Strength Under Tension Using Piezoelectric Actuation, Ryan Michael Meyer Jan 2010

Enhancement Of Single-Lap Joint Strength Under Tension Using Piezoelectric Actuation, Ryan Michael Meyer

LSU Master's Theses

Composite adhesively bonded joint structures have seen increased use over conventional riveted due to their ease of manufacturing and quality strength-to-weight ratios. However, adhesively bonded joints lack the rigidity and failure strength of riveted assemblies, due to high stress concentrations which develop in the adhesive layer, which makes them prone to undesirable deformation and failure. Piezoelectric materials feature the ability to produce mechanical strain when subjected to an applied voltage and vice-versa. Therefore, it is proposed to use piezoelectric actuators to transmit counterbalancing forces to increase the rigidity and strength of composite joints. Existing studies have been limited in that …

Go to article

An Operational Policy For A Single Vendor Multi Buyer Integrated Inventory Supply Chain System Considering Shipping Time, Chiranjit Saha Jan 2010

An Operational Policy For A Single Vendor Multi Buyer Integrated Inventory Supply Chain System Considering Shipping Time, Chiranjit Saha

LSU Master's Theses

Since its introduction, the concept of integrated inventory supply chain has received a considerable amount of attention. The majority of studies in the last three decades revealed an increase in holding cost as product moves further down the chain or up the chain. A recent study Hoque (2008) considered vendor’s setup cost and inventory holding cost. Some research also considered fixed transportation cost, which is unrealistic. This study focuses on a single-vendor, multi-buyer scenario and presents three models. First, two models illustrate the transferring of equally-sized batches. Then, a third model considers the transferring of unequally-sized batches in a lot. …

Go to article

Factors Affecting The Interface Shear Strength Of Pavement Layers, Nachiketa Bharat Patel Jan 2010

Factors Affecting The Interface Shear Strength Of Pavement Layers, Nachiketa Bharat Patel

LSU Master's Theses

Flexible pavement structures are built in layers with a certain degree of bonding at the interface, which is affected by several factors which could be either material related, or construction related. The tack coat material type, residual application rate, tack coat coverage, and pavement surface type are attributed as material related factors. On the other hand, cleanliness, moisture, and vertical confinement pressure could be classified as construction related factors. The objective of this study was to quantify the effects of these factors on the pavement interface bonding in terms of interface shear strength. Five types of tack coats, four of …

Go to article

An Experimental Study Of Surfactant Enhanced Waterflooding, Paulina Metili Mwangi Jan 2010

An Experimental Study Of Surfactant Enhanced Waterflooding, Paulina Metili Mwangi

LSU Master's Theses

Surfactants have a variety of applications in the petroleum industry due to their remarkable ability to lower the oil-water interfacial tension and alter wettability. However, surfactant adsorption on rock surfaces has severely crippled this means of improving oil recovery due to the high cost associated with the large quantities of surfactant needed. A previous experimental study by Ayirala (2002) reported the development of mixed wettability using a nonionic surfactant. At this mixed-wet state he was able to recover about 94% of the original oil in place. The underlying motivation of this study was to achieve such high recoveries without using …

Go to article

Design Techniques To Improve Time Dependent Dielectric Breakdown Based Failure For Cmos Circuits, Emanuel S. Tarog Jan 2010

Design Techniques To Improve Time Dependent Dielectric Breakdown Based Failure For Cmos Circuits, Emanuel S. Tarog

Master's Theses

This project investigates the failure of various CMOS circuits as a result of Time Dependent Dielectric Breakdown (TDDB) and explores design techniques to increase the mean time to failure (MTTF) of large-scale circuits. Time Dependent Dielectric Breakdown is a phenomenon where the oxide underneath the gate degrades as a result of the electric field in the material. Currently, there are few well documented design techniques that can increase lifetime, but with a tool chain I created called the MTTF Analyzing Program, or MAP, I was able to test circuits under various conditions in order to identify weak links, discover relationships, …

Go to article

Phase Change Materials For Thermal Regulation Of Building Integrated Photovoltaics, Ahmad Hassan Jan 2010

Phase Change Materials For Thermal Regulation Of Building Integrated Photovoltaics, Ahmad Hassan

Doctoral

In outdoor deployed photovoltaics (PV), standard test conditions (STC) of 25 °C PV temperature, 1000 Wm-2 solar radiation intensity and 1.5 air-mass rarely prevail. PV temperature can rise 40-100 °C above STC inducing a power drop in crystalline silicon PV with a coefficient of -0.4 to -0.65 %/K above STC. Increased operating temperature also results in accelerated PV degradation due to cell delamination allowing moisture ingress. vConventional building integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) cooling techniques using passive
or active heat removal by air or water flow are limited by (i) very low heat transfer or (ii) large capital as well as maintenance …

Go to article

Incorporation Of Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor And Pleiotrophin Into A Multiluminal Biosynthetic Nerve Implant For The Repair Of Peripheral Nerve Long Gap Defects, An Hai Nguyen Jan 2010

Incorporation Of Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor And Pleiotrophin Into A Multiluminal Biosynthetic Nerve Implant For The Repair Of Peripheral Nerve Long Gap Defects, An Hai Nguyen

Bioengineering Theses - Archive

To repair a fully transected nerve without putting undue tension on the nerve stumps, and too circumvent many of the obvious problems of using harvested nerve grafts synthetic nerve guides have been used in the clinical setting. Thus far this strategy has met with minimal success for the repair of short defects (i.e. 1 - 2.5 cm) while any defect larger than 3 cm have failed. We hypothesize that neurotorphic support, early vascularization, and contact guidance are needed to successfully regenerate a nerve across a long-gap defect. To this end we proposed a biosynthetic nerve implant (BNI) with a multiluminal …

Go to article

Exomedicine Synthesis Paper, Rita Briggs Jan 2010

Exomedicine Synthesis Paper, Rita Briggs

Robert "Bob" Twiggs STEM Education Collection

A report by Rita Briggs titled "Exomedicine Synthesis Paper" from 2010.

Go to article

Development Of A Contingency Capillary Wastewater Management Device, Evan A. Thomas Jan 2010

Development Of A Contingency Capillary Wastewater Management Device, Evan A. Thomas

Mechanical and Materials Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

The personal body-attached liquid liquidator (PBALL) is conceived as a passive, capillary-driven, contingency wastewater disposal device. In this contingency scenario, the airflow system on the NASA crew exploration vehicle is assumed to have failed, leaving only passive hardware and vacuum vent to dispose of wastewater. To meet these needs, the PBALL was conceived to rely on capillary action and urine wetting conditions from 0° < θadv ∼ 90°, be adaptable for both male and female use, collect and retain up to 1 L of urine, minimize splash-back, and allow continuous draining of the wastewater to vacuum while minimizing cabin air loss. A subscale PBALL test article, which was tested on NASA's reduced-gravity aircraft in April 2010, successfully demonstrated key components of this design.

Go to article

Climate And More Sustainable Cities: Climate Information For Improved Planning And Management Of Cities (Producers/Capabilities Perspective), C.S.B. Grimmond, Matthias Roth, Tim R. Oke, Y. C. Au, M. Best, R. Betts, Gregory R. Carmichael, Helen Cleugh, Walter F. Dabberdt, Rohinton Emmanuel, E. Freitas, K. Fortuniak, Steven Hanna, Petra M. Klein, Laurence S. Kalkstein, C. H. Liu, Alex Nickson, David Pearlmutter, David J. Sailor, James Voogt Jan 2010

Climate And More Sustainable Cities: Climate Information For Improved Planning And Management Of Cities (Producers/Capabilities Perspective), C.S.B. Grimmond, Matthias Roth, Tim R. Oke, Y. C. Au, M. Best, R. Betts, Gregory R. Carmichael, Helen Cleugh, Walter F. Dabberdt, Rohinton Emmanuel, E. Freitas, K. Fortuniak, Steven Hanna, Petra M. Klein, Laurence S. Kalkstein, C. H. Liu, Alex Nickson, David Pearlmutter, David J. Sailor, James Voogt

Mechanical and Materials Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

In the last two decades substantial advances have been made in the understanding of the scientific basis of urban climates. These are reviewed here with attention to sustainability of cities, applications that use climate information, and scientific understanding in relation to measurements and modelling. Consideration is given from street (micro) scale to neighbourhood (local) to city and region (meso) scale. Those areas where improvements are needed in the next decade to ensure more sustainable cities are identified. High-priority recommendations are made in the following six strategic areas: observations, data, understanding, modelling, tools and education. These include the need for more …

Go to article

Feasibility Of Using Passive Monitoring Techniques In Mesh Networks For The Support Of Routing, Chenzhe Zhang Jan 2010

Feasibility Of Using Passive Monitoring Techniques In Mesh Networks For The Support Of Routing, Chenzhe Zhang

Masters

In recent years, Wireless Mesh Networks (WMNs) have emerged as a promising solution to provide low cost access networks that extend Internet access and other networking services. Mesh routers form the backbone connectivity through cooperative routing in an often unstable wireless medium. Therefore, the techniques used to monitor and manage the performance of the wireless network are expected to play a significant role in providing the necessary performance metrics to help optimize the link performance in WMNs. This thesis initially presents an assessment of the correlation between passive monitoring and active probing techniques used for link performance measurement in single …

Go to article

Development Of A Quality Of Service Framework For Multimedia Streaming Applications, Stuart Wallace Jan 2010

Development Of A Quality Of Service Framework For Multimedia Streaming Applications, Stuart Wallace

Masters

By the year 2012, it is expected that the majority of all Internet traffic will be video content. Coupled with this is the increasing availability of Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs) due to their ease of deployment, flexibility and reducing roll out costs. Unfortunately the contention based access mechanism utilised by IEEE 802.11 WLANs does not suit the non-uniform or bursty bandwidth profile of a video stream which can lead to a reduced quality of service (QoS) being experienced by the end-user. In 2005, the IEEE 802.11e protocol was ratified in an attempt to solve this emerging problem. It provides …

Go to article

Near Infrared Photovoltaic Micro-Cell For Optical Fibre Based Power Harvesting, Gary Allwood Jan 2010

Near Infrared Photovoltaic Micro-Cell For Optical Fibre Based Power Harvesting, Gary Allwood

Theses : Honours

A photonic power system using a silicon or germanium based device as a photonic power converter was proposed. The properties of each device were investigated to determine the optimum structure, design, configuration and efficiency for power conversion. These included, but were not limited to, device geometry, doping concentration and the wavelength of the incident beam. Relevant inferences were made from the results obtained and compared to previous work. Currently, research into photovoltaic power converters is focused on the efficiencies of complex heterostuctures made from gallium-arsenide compounds. Here, the properties of a silicon device were investigated in detail as the predicted …

Go to article

Simulation Modelling A Tool To Inform And Support Decisions In Iron Ore Mining, Steven Richardson Jan 2010

Simulation Modelling A Tool To Inform And Support Decisions In Iron Ore Mining, Steven Richardson

ECU Research Week

Presented at a Showcase of Research at the School of Engineering.

Go to article

Trust Account Fraud And Effective Information Security Management, Sameera Mubarak Jan 2010

Trust Account Fraud And Effective Information Security Management, Sameera Mubarak

Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law

The integrity of lawyers’ trust accounts has come under scrutiny in the last few years. There are strong possibilities of information technology security breaches happening within the firms, either accidental or deliberate. The damage caused by these security breaches could be extreme. For example, a trust account fund in an Australian law firm was misused in a security breach in which Telstra charged A$50,000 for phone usage, mainly for ISD calls to Hong Kong. Our study involved interviewing principals of ten law companies to find out solicitors’ attitudes to computer security and the possibility of breaches of their trust accounts. …

Go to article

First Prev Next Last