Engineering Commons^™

Distribution Analysis Of Freight Transportation With Gravity Model And Genetic Algorithm, Jun Duanmu, Peter Foytik, Asad Khattak, R. Michael Robinson

VMASC Publications

The application of a gravity model in freight modeling work on both short-haul and long-haul trips is discussed. A commodity-based gravity model was developed to assess the distribution of freight by long-haul trucks in southeastern Virginia. Although gravity models have been used extensively in transportation studies, little work has been done to address the special characteristics of freight transportation, such as the definition of friction factors and the differences between long-haul and short-haul trips. Results of a recent study of these and similar problems provide valuable insight into freight distribution modeling. A new calibration method that used a genetic algorithm …

The Value Of Modeling And Simulation Standards, Andrew J. Collins, David Meyr, Solomon Sherfey, Andreas Tolk, Mikel Petty

VMASC Publications

In the current economic climate, there is a requirement to justify all government spending by demonstrating the added-value that the expenditure gives. Modeling and Simulation (M&S) community is not exempted from this rule. This paper focuses on attempts to value standards and demonstrates that even though a myriad of different standards exist in the United States today, no one has "cracked the nut" on determining their value. This does not mean that standards are without value. The paper highlights their importance to our society and human development as a whole. Thus if we cannot give a value to M&S standards, …

Colonel Blotto Games And Lancaster's Equations: A Novel Military Modeling Combination, Andrew Collins, Patrick T. Hester

VMASC Publications

Military strategists face a difficult task when engaged in a battle against an adversarial force. They have to predict both what tactics their opponent will employ and the outcomes of any resultant conflicts in order to make the best decision about their actions. Game theory has been the dominant technique used by analysts to investigate the possible actions that an enemy will employ. Traditional game theory can be augmented by use of Lanchester equations, a set of differential equations used to determine the outcome of a conflict. This paper demonstrates a novel combination of game theory and Lanchester equations using …

Structural Identification Through Monitoring, Modeling And Predictive Analysis Under Uncertainty, Hasan Burak Gökçe

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Bridges are critical components of highway networks, which provide mobility and economical vitality to a nation. Ensuring the safety and regular operation as well as accurate structural assessment of bridges is essential. Structural Identification (St-Id) can be utilized for better assessment of structures by integrating experimental and analytical technologies in support of decision-making. St-Id is defined as creating parametric or nonparametric models to characterize structural behavior based on structural health monitoring (SHM) data. In a recent study by the ASCE St-Id Committee, St-Id framework is given in six steps, including modeling, experimentation and ultimately decision making for estimating the performance …

Forecasting Volcanic Activity Using An Event Tree Analysis System And Logistic Regression, William N. Junek

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Forecasts of short term volcanic activity are generated using an event tree process that is driven by a set of empirical statistical models derived through logistic regression. Each of the logistic models are constructed from a sparse and geographically diverse dataset that was assembled from a collection of historic volcanic unrest episodes. The dataset consists of monitoring measurements (e.g. seismic), source modeling results, and historic eruption information. Incorporating this data into a single set of models provides a simple mechanism for simultaneously accounting for the geophysical changes occurring within the volcano and the historic behavior of analog volcanoes. A bootstrapping …

Impact Of Intercity Tolls In Portugal – An Environmental Perspective, Jorge Bandeira, Margarida Coelho, Miguel Pimentel, Asad Khattak

Civil & Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

Alternative road pricing schemes are promising strategies to alleviate congestion and other environmental problems related to urban and regional road transportation. However, in practice, environmental issues are not often taken into account, especially at regional level. In 2010, due to the financial crisis in Portugal, several tolls were introduced in some motorways that were previously financed by the government. One of these cases was the A29 motorway, which connects the cities of Aveiro and Oporto. After the introduction of tolls about 50% of the Average Daily Traffic shifted to alternative routes or modes. This paper discusses the impact that tolls …

Technical Feasibility Of Storage On Large Dish Stirling Systems, Charles E. Andraka, K Scott Rawlinson, Nathan P. Siegel

Faculty Journal Articles

Dish-Stirling systems have been demonstrated to provide high-efficiency solar-only electrical generation, holding the world record at 31.25%. This high efficiency results in a system with a high possibility of meeting the DOE SunShot goal of $0.06/kWh. Current dish-Stirling systems do not incorporate thermal storage. For the next generation of non-intermittent and cost-competitive solar power plants, we propose a thermal energy storage system that combines latent (phase-change) energy transport and latent energy storage in order to match the isothermal input requirements of Stirling engines while also maximizing the exergetic efficiency of the entire system. This report takes an initial look at …

Development Of Hydrograph-Based Approach To Modeling Fate And Transport Of Sediment-Borne Bacteria In Lowland Rivers, Bhuban Ghimire

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Fecal pollution is one of the major factors responsible for water quality impairments of rivers and streams, particularly organic-rich fine-grained lowland streams. While predicting fecal pollution is generally required in the development of water quality restoration plans like Total Maximum Daily Loads, no single model has been widely recognized as an efficient and effective tool for estimating fecal pollution. This dissertation develops a simple yet effective modeling approach, called Hydrograph-based Approach, to bacterial fate and transport modeling in lowland rivers. The new hydrograph-based approach is simple and efficient in terms of its less data requirements as compared with other models. …

Evaluation Of The Thermal Performance And Cost Effectiveness Of Radiant Barrier Thermal Insulation Materials In Residential Construction, Somayeh Asadi

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Reducing heating and cooling systems loads in buildings is a cost effective way to decrease energy consumption in residential houses. This reduction can be achieved in many ways including proper insulation of the building envelope. In recent years, considerable attention was given to the use of radiant reflective insulating barriers. Over the past years, reflective barrier insulation companies nationwide have experienced significant growth resulting in an industry average growth rate of 26.8%. This significant growth is expected to continue as a result of increased cooling demands and pressure from the energy sector and the economy. Growth is also predicted to …

Effect Of Surfactants And Brine Salinity And Composition On Spreading, Wettability And Flow Behavior In Gas-Condensate Reservoirs, Yu Zheng

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The well-known condensate blockage problem causes severe impairment of gas productivity as the flowing bottom-hole pressure falls below the dew point in gas-condensate reservoirs. Hence, this study attempts to investigate the concept of modifying the spreading coefficient and wettability using low-cost surfactants in the near wellbore region, to prevent the gas flow problems associated with condensate buildup. This study also examines the effect of brine salinity and composition on wettability, spreading and adhesion in condensate buildup regions, to evaluate the ability of brine salinity/composition for enhanced gas productivity in gas-condensate reservoirs. In this study, experiments were performed at both ambient …

Low Temperature Carbon Material Deposition With Photo-Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition, Kyungnam Kang

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Photo-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (CVD) technique is investigated here for low temperature deposition of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and hexagonal diamond. Most current deposition methods require high substrate temperature. Photo-enhanced CVD utilizes light energy to dissociate carbon containing precursor molecules and hence has a potential for low temperature deposition. CCl4, having a high absorption coefficient compared to other commonly employed hydrocarbons in the UV emission spectrum from a Xe arc lamp, is selected as a carbon precursor in this work. Extensive experimentation conducted by varying Al/Ni/Al catalyst layer thicknesses on SiO2 coated Si substrates, substrate annealing temperature in the range 350 …

Global And Local Performance Of Prestressed Girder Bridges With Positive Moment Continuity Detail, Tanvir Hossain

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Global as well as local behavior of prestressed girder bridges made continuous by adding continuity diaphragms with a recently proposed positive moment continuity detail were investigated in this study. The focus of the investigation is on the positive moment caused by temperature gradients, time dependent effects such as creep and shrinkage, and some live load positions, and on the force transfer mechanisms through the diaphragm. The study utilized different approaches including analytical models for temperature evaluations and finite element models for structural assessments. Field data from a bridge using the new detail were used to validate the developed models. The …

Synthesis And Characterization Of Geopolymers For Infrastructural Applications, Jian He

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In this study, the synthesis process, composition, and microstructure as well as mechanical properties of geopolymers generated by 3 different kinds of raw materials (i.e., metakaolin, mixture of red mud and fly ash, mixture of red mud and rice husk ash) was explored. For geopolymers from identical raw materials, variable parameters involved in the synthesis were examined to investigate the extent and degree of geopolymerization. Uniaxial compression testing was used to examine the mechanical properties (i.e. compressive strength, stiffness, and failure strain). Then the composition and microstructure were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) as well …

An Experimental Investigation Of The Role Of Small Hydrocarbons And Combustion-Generated Nanoparticles On The Formation And Growth Reactions Of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons During The Pyrolysis Of A Model-Fuel And Hydrocarbon Gases, Nimesh Bharat Poddar

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) are an important class of environmental pollutants formed during fuel combustion or pyrolysis. Therefore, an experimental study has been undertaken to better understand the formation and growth pathways of PAH.

To investigate the efficacy of C₃ species as PAH growth agents in the context of solid fuels, pyrolysis experiments have been performed in an isothermal quartz flow reactor in the temperature range of 700–1000 °C and a fixed residence time of 0.3 s. Experiments are performed with the C₃ hydrocarbon, propyne; with catechol (ortho-dihydroxybenzene), a model-fuel representative of aromatic moieties in coal …

Turbine Blade Internal Cooling: Trailing Edge, Coolant-Passage Entry, Bend Effect And Improvement In Thermal Performance, Krishnendu Saha

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Efficient cooling of gas turbine blade is imperative for safe operation of the gas turbine engine at high temperatures. In the present work, two converging lattice structures suitable for trailing edge applications are tested and their performance is compared with a conventional pin-fin configuration. Another constant cross section lattice structure is tested to see the cooling efficiency of lattice channels with different number of sub-channels. Converging lattice structures show higher heat transfer enhancement and comparable or higher thermal performance than traditional pin-fin cooling used in gas turbine trailing edge. The highest pressure drop incurred in a multi-pass channel is at …

Compressibility And Hydraulic Conductivity Of Zeolite-Amended Soil-Bentonite Backfills, Catherine Hong, Charles D. Shackelford, Michael A. Malusis

Faculty Journal Articles

The effect of zeolite amendment for enhanced sorption capacity on the consolidation behavior and hydraulic conductivity, k, of a typical soil-bentonite (SB) backfill for vertical cutoff walls was evaluated via laboratory testing. The consolidation behavior and k of test specimens containing fine sand, 5.8 % (dry wt.) sodium bentonite, and 0, 2, 5, or 10 % (dry wt.) of one of three types of zeolite (clinoptilolite, chabazite-lower bed, or chabazite-upper bed) were measured using fixed-ring oedometers, and k also was measured on separate specimens using a flexible-wall permeameter. The results indicated that addition of a zeolite had little impact …

Propuesta De Implementación De Energía Solar Fotovoltaica En Instalaciones Pesqueras En Venezuela, Juan Zambrano, Aleyani Zambrano, Buitrago Franklin, Nelson Fumo

Mechanical Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Los sistemas de obtención de energía por medios renovables han venido creciendo de manera interesante en los últimos años debido a los altos precios de la energía y a la limitada disponibilidad del recurso, en el caso de los sistemas de energía solar fotovoltaica (FV), a nivel mundial se ha demostrado gran potencial en proyectos de electrificación rural para aplicaciones domésticas y labores agropecuarias. Venezuela por su posición geográfica privilegiada, cuenta con un gran potencial energético solar, se tiene garantizado un 85% de la incidencia solar estable durante todo el día, incluso en períodos de verano se alcanzan hasta 8 …

Airlift Column Photobioreactors For Porphyridium Sp. Culturing: Part Ii. Verification Of Dynamic Growth Rate Model For Reactor Performance Evaluation, Hu Ping Luo, Muthanna H. Al-Dahhan

Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Dynamic Growth Rate Model Has Been Developed to Quantify the Impact of Hydrodynamics on the Growth of Photosynthetic Microorganisms and to Predict the Photobioreactor Performance. Rigorous Verification of Such Reactor Models, However, is Rare in the Literature. in This Part of Work, Verification of a Dynamic Growth Rate Model Developed in Luo and Al-Dahhan (2004) [Biotech Bioeng 85(4): 382-393.] Was Attempted using the Experimental Results Reported in Part I of This Work and Results from Literature. the Irradiance Distribution Inside the Studied Reactor Was Also Measured at Different Optical Densities and Successfully Correlated by the Lambert-Beer Law. When Reliable Hydrodynamic …

Extenics In Higher Dimensions, Florentin Smarandache

Branch Mathematics and Statistics Faculty and Staff Publications

Prof. Dr. Florentin Smarandache, during his research period in the Summer of 2012 at

the Research Institute of Extenics and Innovation Methods, from Guangdong University of

Technology, in Guangzhou, China, has introduced the Linear and Non-Linear Attraction

Point Principle and the Network of Attraction Curves, he has generalized the 1D Extension

Distance and the 1D Dependent Function to 2D, 3D, and in general to n-D Spaces, and he

generalized Qiao-Xing Li’s and Xing-Sen Li’s definitions of the Location Value of a Point

and the Dependent Function of a Point on a Single Finite Interval from one dimension (1D) …

Erasure Techniques In Mrd Codes, Florentin Smarandache, W.B. Vasantha Kandasamy, R. Sujatha, R.S. Raja Durai

Branch Mathematics and Statistics Faculty and Staff Publications

In this book the authors study the erasure techniques in concatenated Maximum Rank Distance (MRD) codes. The authors for the first time in this book introduce the new notion of concatenation of MRD codes with binary codes, where we take the outer code as the RD code and the binary code as the inner code. The concatenated code consists of the codewords of the outer code expressed in terms of the alphabets of the inner code. These new class of codes are defined as CRM codes. This concatenation techniques helps one to construct any CRM code of desired minimum distance …

Neutrosophic Masses & Indeterminate Models Applications To Information Fusion, Florentin Smarandache

Branch Mathematics and Statistics Faculty and Staff Publications

In this paper we introduce the indeterminate models in information fusion, which are due either to the existence of some indeterminate elements in the fusion space or to some indeterminate masses. The best approach for dealing with such models is the neutrosophic logic.

Epistemic Uncertainty Analysis: An Approach Using Expert Judgment And Evidential Credibility, Patrick Hester

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Faculty Publications

When dealing with complex systems, all decision making occurs under some level of uncertainty. This is due to the physical attributes of the system being analyzed, the environment in which the system operates, and the individuals which operate the system. Techniques for decision making that rely on traditional probability theory have been extensively pursued to incorporate these inherent aleatory uncertainties. However, complex problems also typically include epistemic uncertainties that result from lack of knowledge. These problems are fundamentally different and cannot be addressed in the same fashion. In these instances, decision makers typically use subject matter expert judgment to assist …

Identification And Implementation Of Patterns Towards A Model Of Environmental Sustainability, S. Jimmy Gandhi, Santiago Perez, Danial Rushton, Robert Cloutier, Ipek Bozkurt, C. Ariel Pinto

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Faculty Publications

Much like the Quality Revolution did in the 1980's, corporate sustainability has the potential to drive significant changes in the processes and structure of various organizations in the coming decade. With a rapidly growing global population and an ever increasing global demand for resources (Population-Resource-Center, 2012). Sustainability has emerged as one of the primary challenges that organizations will have to deal with in the 21st century. An increasing realization among business executives that profitability by itself is not enough as a measure of success is also driving the increased adoption of sustainable practices in the corporate world (Lowitt and Grimsley, …

Research Methodologies: A Look At The Underlying Philosophical Foundations Of Research, Nathapon Siangchokyoo, Andres Sousa-Poza

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Faculty Publications

Quantitative and qualitative research methodologies have had their greatest share of debates dating back to the 1970s. Researchers have long argued over the underlying philosophical features between the two methodologies and their ability to derive knowledge (Onwuegbuzie & Leech, 2005, Sale, Lohfeld, & Brazil, 2002; Powell, Mihalas, Onwuegbuzie, Suldo and Daley, 2008; Sechrest and Sidani, 1995). More recently, modern researchers have argued that the integration of quantitative and qualitative methods into a single methodology (known simply as mixed methods research) allows researchers to answer questions otherwise unobtainable (Carey, 1993). The emergence of mixed methods research has gained increasing popularities in …

A Human View Model For Socio-Technical Interactions, Holly A. H. Handley, Andreas Tolk

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Faculty Publications

The Human View was developed as an additional architectural viewpoint to focus on the human part of a system. The Human View can be used to collect and organize data in order to understand how human operators interact and impact the other elements of a system. This framework can also be used to develop a model to describe how humans interact with each other in network enabled systems. These socio-technical interactions form the foundation of the emerging area of Human Interoperability. Human Interoperability strives to understand the relationships required between human operators that impact collaboration across networked environments, including the …

Modeling And Evaluating Role And Team Work Processes Using The Improved Performance Research And Integration Tool, Holly A. H. Handley, Pilar Pazos

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Faculty Publications

The Human View architecture was designed to capture the human requirements of a system and to answer questions about the interactions between humans and systems. Data captured in the Human View can be used to populate a simulation model to evaluate the performance of the humans interacting in a work process. The work process model can be used to investigate different types of human system analyses, at both the role and team levels, and to identify the appropriate metrics to evaluate the results. This study examined individual role performance using the metrics readily available in the simulation tool, and then …

Agile Knowledge Management: A Review, Reconceptualization, And Extension To Military Applications, Dogan Ozturk, Rafael E. Landaeta, Resit Unal, Cesar Ariel Pinto, Gokay Sursal

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Faculty Publications

This study contributes to the literature by integrating agility in knowledge management (KM) operations, especially in military environments via major findings of (a) introducing a new approach to KM with integration of 'agility'; (b) articulating the application of an enhanced process of Agile Knowledge Management (AKM) across the military. The purpose of the study is to explore the conceptual background of agility in KM, re-conceptualize it and extend it to military applications with a special focus on counterinsurgency (COIN). An initial qualitative exploration of agility in KM was performed. Three different concepts and their interrelationships were analyzed: (a) KM, (b) …

A Bench Top Study Of The Optimization Of Lvad Cannula Implantation To Reduce Risk Of Cerebral Embolism, William D. Clark

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Physical bench top experiments are performed to validate and complement ongoing computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analyses of ventricular assist device (VAD) circulation. VADs are used in patients whose hearts do not function to their maximum potential due advanced stages of heart disease and, consequently, are unable to adequately supply blood to the systemic circulation. VADs are commonly utilized as a bridge-to-transplantation, meaning that they are implanted in patients while waiting for a heart transplant. In such cases of long term utilization of VADs, it has been reported in the literatures that thrombo-embolic cerebral events occur in 14-47% of patients over …

A Study Of Localization And Latency Reduction For Action Recognition, Syed Zain Masood

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The success of recognizing periodic actions in single-person-simple-background datasets, such as Weizmann and KTH, has created a need for more complex datasets to push the performance of action recognition systems. In this work, we create a new synthetic action dataset and use it to highlight weaknesses in current recognition systems. Experiments show that introducing background complexity to action video sequences causes a significant degradation in recognition performance. Moreover, this degradation cannot be fixed by fine-tuning system parameters or by selecting better feature points. Instead, we show that the problem lies in the spatio-temporal cuboid volume extracted from the interest point …

Real-Time Stereo Matching On Cuda Using An Iterative Refinement Method For Adaptive Support-Weight Correspondences, Jedrzej Kowalczuk, Eric T. Psota, Lance C. Pérez

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering: Faculty Publications

High-quality real-time stereo matching has the potential to enable various computer vision applications including semi-automated robotic surgery, tele-immersion, and three-dimensional video surveillance. A novel real-time stereo matching method is presented that uses a two-pass approximation of adaptive support-weight aggregation, and a low-complexity iterative disparity refinement technique. Through an evaluation of computationally efficient approaches to adaptive support weight cost aggregation, it is shown that the two-pass method produces an accurate approximation of the support weights while greatly reducing the complexity of aggregation. The refinement technique, constructed using a probabilistic framework, incorporates an additive term into matching cost minimization and facilitates iterative …