Engineering Commons^™

Reuse And Recycling Drill Cuttings In Concrete Applications, Maziar Foroutan

LSU Master's Theses

Drill cutting (DC) is a major waste produced during petroleum extraction, which could present a major source of contamination to soil and groundwater, if not disposed of properly. The objective of this study aims to test the hypothesis that drill cuttings can be incorporated as an aggregate in the production of concrete, and is suitable for use in controlled, low-strength material (CLSM) for non-structural applications. To achieve this objective, the physical and consensus properties of drill cuttings were characterized. Concrete mixtures were designed for CLSM applications with and without drill cuttings sampled from two sources. Prepared concrete mixes were then …

Improved Subset Generation For The Mu-Decoder, Utsav Agarwal

LSU Master's Theses

The MU-Decoder is a hardware subset generator that finds use in partial reconfiguration of FPGAs and in numerous other applications. It is capable of generating a set S of subsets of a large set Z_n with n elements. If the subsets in S satisfy the “isomorphic totally- ordered property”, then the MU-Decoder works very efficiently to produce a set of u subsets in O(log n) time and Θ(n √u log n) gate cost. In contrast, a vain approach requires Θ(un) gate cost. We show that this low cost for the MU-Decoder can be achieved without the isomorphism constraint, thereby allowing …

Aperiodic Multilayer Graphene Based Tunable And Switchable Thermal Emitter At Mid-Infrared Frequencies, Safura Sharifi

LSU Master's Theses

Over the past few decades, there have been tremendous innovations in electronics and photonics. The development of these ultra-fast growing technologies mostly relies on fundamental understanding of novel materials with unique properties as well as new designs of device architectures with more diverse and better functionalities. In this regard, the promising approach for next-generation nanoscale electronics and photonics is to exploit the extraordinary characteristics of novel nanomaterials. There has been an explosion of interest in graphene for photonic applications as it provides a degree of freedom to manipulate electromagnetic waves. In this thesis, to tailor the broadband blackbody radiation, new …

Transport And Degradation Of Oil Residues On Coastal Beaches, Sirui Wen

LSU Master's Theses

Fourchon Beach, a 9-mile coastal headland located in Louisiana Gulf Coast, has been heavily impacted by the Deepwater Horizon (DWH) oil spill, which began on April 20th 2010. Once on the beach, the oil spill residues were moved, suspended and transported by subsequent washover events. These washover events occur during storm surges, hurricanes or other situations with high water levels; pushing oil residues from the subtidal and intertidal zone of the beach and then depositing them in the supratidal marshes and mudflat areas. In order to determine the impacts of washover events on oil residues, two complementary studies regarding degradation …

Characterizing The Hydrodynamics Of A Meandering River Neck Cutoff, Christopher Turnipseed

LSU Master's Theses

Meandering river systems often experience a geomorphic phenomenon known as a neck cutoff. The White River of Arkansas has recently undergone several neck cut offs, which have provided a unique opportunity to collect field measurements of the first two years after the opening of the cutoff. In this study the field data was complemented with hydrodynamic simulations to assess the significance of different flow conditions. The findings suggest that flood events play a substantial role in the geomorphic adjustment of the river to the cutoff.

Cuticle Accumulation Of Petrogenic Pahs On Spartina Alterniflora: A Novel Exposure Pathway For Marsh Biota, Joyce Gabriel Kassenga

LSU Master's Theses

Louisiana coastal marshes were heavily impacted by the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill. MC252 oil pollution in coastal marshes lead to the exposure of biota to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). PAHs are persistent organic pollutants that can reside and accumulate in marsh biota. The aim of this study was to investigate the uptake mechanisms of PAHs by Spartina alterniflora at heavily oiled Bay Jimmy marsh in Barataria Basin, Louisiana. Study objectives were to quantify and investigate the uptake mechanisms of PAHs in the leaves of Spartina. The plant/air partitioning of PAHs was studied using a fugacity approach to determine their …

Photo-Effects On Current Transport In Back-Gate Graphene Field-Effect Transistor, Xinlu Chen

LSU Master's Theses

Graphene, which has attracted wide attention because of its two-dimensional structure and high carrier mobility, is a promising candidate for potential application in optics and electronics. In this dissertation, the photonic effects on current transport in back-gate graphene field-effect transistor is investigated. Chemical vapor deposition (CVD) on metal provides a promising way for large area, controllability and high quality graphene film. The transfer and back-gate transistor fabrication processes are proposed in this dissertation. The theoretical analysis of photodetector based on back-gate graphene field-effect transistor has been done. It is shown that the photo-electronic current consists of current contributions from photovoltaic, …

Novel Design And Synthesis Of Nanostructured Electrode Materials For Advanced Lithium Ion Batteries, Zhiqiang Xie

LSU Master's Theses

Nowadays, rechargeable lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) have been widely used as energy storage devices for portable electronic devices. The increasing demand for their emerging applications in hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) and electric vehicles (EVs) requires us to develop LIBs with higher energy density and power density. However, both the commercial cathode material (LiCoO2) and anode material (graphite) exhibit low specific capacity and poor rate capability, which severely hinder the practical application of lithium-ion batteries for transportation. This thesis mainly includes four research works on novel design and synthesis of nanostructured electrode materials for advanced lithium-ion batteries. To improve the electrochemical performances …

Analysis Of Cost And Energy Performance Of Geothermal Heat Pump Systems In Southern Louisiana, Claudia De Lourdes Duran Tapia

LSU Master's Theses

In the last three decades of geothermal heat pump (GHP) industry, there has been an urge to present data, especially performance and itemized installation cost, as a plan to reduce the lack of knowledge and trust towards GHP systems for heating and cooling. The potential of GHPs in hot and humid climates is significant [Tao and Zhu, 2012]. However, past research efforts have demonstrated this potential through the use of simulation rather than real-time data. Therefore, the scope of work for this research is to investigate GHP system applications for residential buildings in areas with hot and humid climates. Based …

Network Performance Analysis Using Cisco Virl, Charitra Maharjan

LSU Master's Theses

This thesis provides a detailed analysis of the effects of TCP and UDP traffic over a LAN and WAN medium. In addition, it also analyses some real time applications like audio, video and web browsing that is affected by TCP traffic while sharing a bottleneck node and/or link resources. As network industry is growing continuously, the network administrator should be aware of TCP and UDP traffic that is traversing through their network. The analysis and monitoring of the traffic is crucial as it directly affects the performance of the network. Finding a cause for the poor performance of the network …

Characterization Of Hybrid Synthetic/Adipose-Derived Ecm Scaffolds, John Nicholas Poche

LSU Master's Theses

Evolving out of a need to address growing concerns regarding current methods of tissue transplantation, the field of tissue engineering seeks to facilitate the regeneration of viable tissue through the use of cellular scaffolds. The first aim of this thesis was to provide a summary of the current literature on advances in biomaterial synthesis and pertaining methods of stem cell delivery in tissue engineering. Improvements in the processing of decellularized tissue and the expansion of synthetic hydrogels as platforms for stem cell encapsulation have led to the development of extracellular matrix (ECM)-based hybrid hydrogels. These stem cell scaffolds are currently …

New Efficient And Robust Multimedia Archiving Technique Using Quick-Response Codes, Sayani Sarkar

LSU Master's Theses

A Quick Response (QR) code is a two-dimensional bar-code, which is quite popular due to its excellent storage capacity and error resilience. Generally, QR codes are widely used to store text information such as URL links, geographical coordinates, name cards, inventory information, authorship, etc. To reach the current limit of QR codes, in this thesis, we would like to propose an innovative multimedia archiving technique, which is built upon the advanced signal processing scheme to tackle the multiple QR codes all at once. The multimedia data often include texts, images, audio data, special-purpose codes, music files etc. The recently proposed …

Unsteady Flow Simulations To Develop Model Scale Discharge Hydrographs For The Expanded Small Scale Physical Model Of The Mississippi River, Ronald Joseph Rodi

LSU Master's Theses

Small-scale HEC-RAS models were used to analyze discharges used to test the Louisiana State University and the Louisiana Coastal Protection & Restoration Authority Expanded Small Scale Physical Model (ESSPM) of the Mississippi River. The HEC-RAS models extend from River Mile 228.4 (Baton Rouge) to the Gulf of Mexico that includes the ESSPM reach which begins at River Mile 173.5 (Donaldsonville). The model scales are 1:6000 horizontally and 1:400 vertically. Using the historic river discharges from 2008 through 2015, the small-scale numerical models proved capable of replicating observed stages along eleven sites of the lower Mississippi River within the targets of …

Novel Design Of Nanostructured Material For Advanced Energy Conversion And Storage Devices, Wangwang Xu

LSU Master's Theses

Nowadays, the fast-increasing energy demand for efficient, sustainable and environmentally-friendly energy storage devices remains a significant and challenging issue. Lithium ion batteries (LIBs) have been widely used as commercial energy devices in portable electronics and also shown great promise in upcoming large scale applications due to their advantages of environmental safety, efficiency in energy delivering and light weight. However, due to their limited capacity, energy densities and cycle ability, LIBs still need further improvement to expand their applications to a larger field, especially electric vehicle (EVs) and hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs), in which energy storage devices with large capacity and …

Heat And Mass Transfer In A Cylindrical Heat Pipe With Idealized Porous Lining, Pramesh Regmi

LSU Master's Theses

Many devices use heat pipes for cooling. They can be of different cross-sectional shapes and can range from 15 m long to 10 mm. In this work, the heat and mass transfer in a cylindrical heat pipe is modelled. The heat pipe is lined with a wick next to the wall. The wick consists of straight capillaries that run the whole length of the pipe and radially aligned capillaries that span the width of the wick. The capillaries are filled with a partially wetting liquid, and the center of the pipe is filled with its vapor. The radial capillaries are …

Impact Of Connected Vehicle Safety Applications On Driving Behavior At Varying Market Penetrations: A Driving Simulator Study, Matthew Alexander Theriot

LSU Master's Theses

The studies conducted in this thesis evaluate the safety benefits of a blind spot warning (BSW) application and a do not pass warning (DNPW) application at low, medium, and high market penetrations (MP) of connected vehicles (CV) using a high-fidelity driving simulator. Using vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication, CVs can exchange information to alert drivers of potential safety hazards and reduce potential crashes during lane change and overtaking maneuvers. A CV testbed was developed to relay visual and auditory warnings when dangerous thresholds were met for each application. For the BSW a proximity-based threshold was used to trigger a warning as a …

Method For Quantifying Floating Marsh Strength And Interaction With Hydrodynamics, Jason Haydel Collins Iii

LSU Master's Theses

Louisiana possesses over 350,000 acres of unique floating vegetated systems known as floating marshes or flotants. Due to their buoyant nature, floating marshes are susceptible to high energy changes in the hydrodynamic environment that may result from proposed river diversion projects which introduce flow to areas that are typically somewhat isolated. The overall goal of this research is to improve the understanding of how exposed flotants deteriorate under increased hydrodynamic stresses. More specifically, this thesis aims to answer how the material limits of floating marshes can be measured and how the mats interact with hydrodynamics. The two primary objectives are: …

Congestion Quantification Using The National Performance Management Research Data Set, Shaghayegh Rostami Hosuri

All ETDs from UAB

Traffic congestion is a serious urban transportation problem, compounded by the fact that demand for travel grows all the time. Monitoring of transportation system performance is a key part of any transportation operation and planning strategy and depends on the estimation of performance measures generated from analysis of large amounts of traffic data. This thesis focused on analyses of travel time data using the Regional Planning Commission of Greater Birmingham travel time database. The goal of this research was to develop an automated process to utilize the National Performance Management Research Data Set (NPMRDS) for generating performance measures for congestion …

The Effects Of Different Spinal Fusion Instrumentation On Thoracic Vertebrae: A Parametric Finite Element Study, Thomas Henry Ballard

All ETDs from UAB

Proximal junction kyphosis is a condition that can occur after a long spinal fusion, typically seen in deformity correction surgery. Patients are said to exhibit proximal junc-tion kyphosis when the angle between the uppermost instrumented vertebra and two ver-tebra above that is greater than 10°. Proximal junction kyphosis does not always lead to another surgery but can progress and become symptomatic causing pain and discomfort. Symptomatic proximal junction kyphosis is referred to as proximal junction failure, char-acterized by degradation of the adjacent intervertebral disc or collapse of the proximal vertebral body. It is believed that proximal junction kyphosis/failure arises from …

Nanoindentation Properties Of Newly Formed Bone Surrounding Dental Implants Treated With E7-Modified Rbmp-2 Peptides, Ryan Doud

All ETDs from UAB

Statement of Purpose: Use of titanium dental implants for treatment of partial or total edentulism has been well documented since the 1980s with consistent long term results. Osseointegration of these implants can be complicated by insufficient bone after healing of extraction sockets or systemic conditions such as osteoporosis or diabetes. Surface modifications, such as grit blasting (mechanical abrasion) or calcium phosphate (CaP) (chemical treatment) can improve healing time and bone quality around an implant. Our study combined a CaP coating with recombinant bone morphogenetic protein-2 (rBMP-2) mimetic peptide and the polyglutamate domain E7. We used nanoindentation to compare the elastic …

Fabrication And Characterization Of A Composite Fibrous Construct With Photocatalytic Activity And Physical Adsorption Capabilities For Water Treatment Applications, Dominique Tresten Everett

All ETDs from UAB

Environmental pollution has exponentially increased since the industrial revolution due to many advancements in technology which has led to the use of innovative materials. In the manufacturing and fabrication processes of modern technology, society has become victim to the contamination via production byproducts. This issue needs to be addressed with greater efforts to solve this worldwide issue to ultimately minimize these potential detrimental public health effects and improve environmental preservation. This research study focuses on contributing to efforts with minimizing wastewater pollution by the fabrication and characterization of complex porosity gradient fibrous membrane that purifies via particle size exclusion, photocatalysis …

Mechanical Characterization And Non-Destructive Evaluation Of Sicf-Sicm Composite Tubing With The Impulse Excitation Technique, Nathaniel Truesdale

Theses and Dissertations

With growing interest on ceramic fiber reinforced ceramic matrix composites (CMC) for accident tolerant fuel, the need for mechanical characterization of ceramic composite arises. It has been of particular interest to non-destructively evaluate the mechanical performance of these composites. Impulse excitation (IE) is a well-established method for non-destructive mechanical characterization of homogeneous isotropic material of well-defined shapes. In this thesis, impulse excitation technique was applied for non-destructive characterization of composite tube for the first time as far as we know. CMC, when stressed beyond its damage threshold, will experience various forms of structural damage, such as matrix micro-cracking, fiber-matrix debonding, …

Underwater Cave Mapping And Reconstruction Using Stereo Vision, Nicholas Weidner

Theses and Dissertations

This work presents a systematic approach for 3-D mapping and reconstruction of underwater caves. Exploration of underwater caves is very important for furthering our understanding of hydrogeology, managing efficiently water resources, and advancing our knowledge in marine archaeology. Underwater cave exploration by human divers however, is a tedious, labor intensive, extremely dangerous operation, and requires highly skilled people. As such, it is an excellent fit for robotic technology. The proposed solution employs a stereo camera and a video-light. The approach utilizes the intersection of the cone of video-light with the cave boundaries resulting in the construction of a wire frame …

Development Of Novel Catalysts For Air Pollution Control, Chao Wang

Theses and Dissertations

The development of economy strongly related with increased consumption of fossil fuels, which causes severe air pollution issue. With more and more strict environmental regulations implemented all over the world, robust and efficient emission control technologies need to be innovated and applied to overcome the pollution challenge. This dissertation focuses on utilizing heterogeneous catalysis to eliminate carbon monoxide (CO), hydrocarbons (CH_x) and nitric oxides (NO_x) emissions produced from fossil fuel combustion.

The first type of catalyst is Pd supported on Mn-Ce solid solution. It achieves 100% CO conversion at room temperature. The high activity is attributed …

Towards Improving Visqol (Virtual Speech Quality Objective Listener) Using Machine Learning Techniques, Joseph Mcnally

Dissertations

Vast amounts of sound data are transmitted every second over digital networks. VoIP services and cellular networks transmit speech data in increasingly greater volumes. Objective sound quality models provide an essential function to measure the quality of this data in real-time. However, these models can suffer from a lack of accuracy with various degradations over networks. This research uses machine learning techniques to create one support vector regression and three neural network mapping models for use with ViSQOLAudio. Each of the mapping models (including ViSQOL and ViSQOLAudio) are tested against two separate speech datasets in order to comparatively study accuracy …

Oxygen Transport In Carotid And Stented Coronary Arteries, Eoin A. Murphy

Doctoral

Oxygen deficiency, known as hypoxia, in arterial walls has been linked to increased intimal hyperplasia, which is the main adverse biological process causing in-stent restenosis. Stent implantation can have significant effects on the oxygen transport into the arterial wall. Helical flow has been theorised to improve the local haemodynamics and the oxygen transport within stented arteries. In this study an advanced oxygen transport model was developed to assess different stent designs. This advanced oxygen transport model incorporates both the free and bound oxygen contained in blood and includes a shear-dependent dispersion coefficient for red blood cells. In two test cases …

Critical Comparison Of The Classification Ability Of Deep Convolutional Neural Network Frameworks With Support Vector Machine Techniques In The Image Classification Process, Robert Kelly

Dissertations

Recently, a number of new image classification models have been developed to diversify the number of options available to prospective machine learning classifiers, such as Deep Learning. This is particularly important in the field of medical image classification as a misdiagnosis could have a severe impact on the patient. However, an assessment on the level to which a deep learning based Convolutional Neural Network can outperform a Support Vector Machine has not been discussed. In this project, the use of CNN and SVM classifiers is used on a dataset of approx. 55,000 images. This dataset was used to assess the …

Robust Vehicle Routing In Disaster Relief And Ride-Sharing: Models And Algorithms, Yinglei Li

Graduate Dissertations and Theses

In this dissertation, the variants of vehicle routing problems (VRPs) are specifically considered in two applications: disaster relief routing and ride-sharing. In disaster relief operations, VRPs are important, especially in the immediate response phase, as vehicles are an essential part of the supply chain for delivering critical supplies. This dissertation addresses the capacitated vehicle routing problem (CVRP) and the split delivery vehicle routing problem (SDVRP) with uncertain travel times and demands when planning vehicle routes for delivering critical supplies to the affected population in need after a disaster. A robust optimization approach is used for the CVRP and the SDVRP …

Modeling Battery Performance Due To Volume Change In Porous Electrodes Due To Intercalation, Taylor R. Garrick

Theses and Dissertations

The demand for energy continues to increase as the economies of developing countries become more modern and show an increased need for a reliable energy infrastructure in order to meet the increased demand associated with a large and more mobile population. An increased demand puts a strain on all sectors, however it is specifically noticeable in the transportation sector where a significant portion of the fuel utilized for transportation comes from petroleum and other fossil fuels. Recently, using alternative forms of energy for transportation has become reality, and in turn, using electricity as a transportation fuel has gained significant momentum, …

Fifty-Plus-Year Postflight Analysis Of First Fluid Experiment Aboard A Spacecraft, Mark M. Weislogel, Yongkang Chen, William J. Masica, Fred J. Kohl, Robert D. Green

Mechanical and Materials Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

This year marks the 55th anniversary of the first fluid physics experiment performed aboard a spacecraft during the Mercury-Atlas 7 mission. Since then, NASA has conducted over 80 fluids physics experiments aboard a variety of spacecraft, many of which have enhanced the understanding of large-length-scale capillary phenomena relevant to liquid management in the weightless state. As both celebration and demonstration, the Mercury-Atlas 7 fluids experiment is revisited in light of the current understanding of large-length-scale capillary fluidics. Employing a modern numerical tool, a rich variety of experimental outcomes are discovered that were not observed during the flight experiment. Interestingly, experimental …