Engineering Commons^™

Retention Strategies For Oil And Gas Industry Managers, Faye Gerard

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The turnover cost of specialized employees in the oil and gas industry can exceed 400% of an employee's annual salary. The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore successful strategies that oil and gas company managers used to retain specialized employees. The specific population for the study was 8 managers from 4 oil and gas companies in a metropolitan city in the southern United States, which included 5 hiring managers and 3 engineering managers who had demonstrated success in retaining specialized employees. The conceptual lens used in this research study was the job embeddedness theory. Study data were …

Evaluation Of Suas Education And Training Tools, Brent Terwilliger, Scott Burgess, James Solti, Kristine Kiernan, Christian Janke, Andrew Shepherd

Publications

The wide distribution and demographic composition of students seeking small unmanned aircraft system (sUAS) education presents a need to fully understand the capabilities, limitations, and dependencies of effective training tools. Concepts, practices, and technologies associated with modeling and simulation, immersive gaming, augmented and mixed-reality, and remote operation have demonstrated efficacy to support engaged student learning and objective satisfaction. Identification and comparison of key attributes critical to an aviation educational framework, such as competency-based training, enables educational designers to identify those tools with the highest potential to support successful learning. A series of factors, such as system performance, regulatory compliance, environmental …

Application Of Droop Control And Synchronization For Single-Phase Inverters In Ac Microgrid Integration, Shuai Yang

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

With the increasing requirements on environment-friendly and sustainable clean energy [1], people have paid more attention to renewable energy around the world in the past few decades. As a result, power systems have undergone a paradigm shift from centralized generation to distributed generation. Smart grids, which are a combination of power systems and communication networks, were proposed to allow power systems to meet future challenges. In smart grids, especially in AC microgrids, converters play an important role in many areas including microgrid integration, uninterrupted power supply, and flexible alternating current transmission systems. The inverter is a power conversion device [2] …

Development Of A Sensing System For Underground Optic Fiber Cable Conduit Mapping, Sherif Bakr

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

The motivation of this research is to obtain an accurate three-dimensional (3D) layout of an underground conduit, which may be beneficial to optic fiber cable installers and engineers. A newly designed algorithm for 3D position tracking with the help of an inertial sensor and an encoder has been developed. Two types of representations (Euler angle and Quaternion) for orientation and rotation are also introduced, followed by several data pre-processing procedures. A sensing fusion method is utilized to overcome the accumulated errors introduced by the sensor drifting. Considering the application of 3D underground duct mapping in this research, a sensing system …

Flow Fields Past Grain Bins As It Relates To Vertical Axis Wind Turbine Placement Optimization, Jon Richter

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

This thesis studies the 3D flow field of grain bins as it relates to Vertical Axis Wind Turbine (VAWT) placement. Numerical CFD simulations using ANSYS FLUENT were created and validated with the Minnesota State University, Mankato water channel. It was found that the best speed-up regions were on the outer most sides of the models, closest to the walls of the water channel. The model that is furthest upwind in the group has the best speed-up velocity. As the models become closer together, an asymmetric flow field develops. VAWT placement between the models for any case researched is not recommended. …

Thévenin Equivalent Of Solar Cell Model, Chiedozie Osigwe

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

This thesis considers the problem of determining impedance parameters of a solar cell in operation. Typically, solar cell devices are characterized by the manufacturer using empirical data prior to placing the solar cell in use. There are a number of solar cell degeneration mechanisms that are of interest to measure or detect. Therefore, active measurement of solar cell impedance parameters periodically over time is advantageous. We propose a methodology developed from a Thévenin equivalent model of a typical solar cell. This method allows periodic updating of the solar cell’s parameters which can be used to update the cells characterization and/or …

Synthesis Of Fault Traces In Se Louisiana Relative To Infrastructure, David Culpepper, Elizabeth Chinn Mcdade, Nancye Dawers, Mark Kulp, Rui Zhang

Data

Corresponding data set for Tran-SET Project No. 17GTLSU12. Abstract of the final report is stated below for reference:

"Geological faulting has been implicated as a contributor to subsidence, coastal land-loss and submergence of marshlands in southern Louisiana. This report reviews whether fault motion, either by slow creep or more sudden slip, can cause deformation of engineered structures resulting in increased infrastructure maintenance and repair costs. The impact of surface, or near-surface, geologic faulting on critical infrastructure is insufficiently documented in southeastern Louisiana, but the state has a vast amount of energy-sector subsurface data that to date has been under-utilized for …

Causes And Prevention Of Electric Power Industry Accidents: A Delphi Study, Ganesh Narine

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The electric power industry is very complex, dangerous, and challenging. The number of workplace accidents declined over the last decade, but worker injuries and fatalities continue to occur. The purpose of this Delphi study was to gain consensus regarding the most feasible and desirable methods to prevent accidents and deaths. The research question focused on gaining consensus from a panel of experts regarding the most desirable and feasible solutions to fatal and serious workplace accidents in the United States. The Bolman and Deal 4-frame model proved useful for understanding challenges within the electric industry and how workers and leaders can …

Noise Reduction In Eeg Signals Using Convolutional Autoencoding Techniques, Conor Hanrahan

Dissertations

The presence of noise in electroencephalography (EEG) signals can significantly reduce the accuracy of the analysis of the signal. This study assesses to what extent stacked autoencoders designed using one-dimensional convolutional neural network layers can reduce noise in EEG signals. The EEG signals, obtained from 81 people, were processed by a two-layer one-dimensional convolutional autoencoder (CAE), whom performed 3 independent button pressing tasks. The signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) of the signals before and after processing were calculated and the distributions of the SNRs were compared. The performance of the model was compared to noise reduction performance of Principal Component Analysis, with …

Exploring Age-Related Metamemory Differences Using Modified Brier Scores And Hierarchical Clustering, Chelsea Parlett-Pelleriti, Grace C. Lin, Masha R. Jones, Erik Linstead, Susanne M. Jaeggi

Engineering Faculty Articles and Research

Older adults (OAs) typically experience memory failures as they age. However, with some exceptions, studies of OAs’ ability to assess their own memory functions—Metamemory (MM)— find little evidence that this function is susceptible to age-related decline. Our study examines OAs’ and young adults’ (YAs) MM performance and strategy use. Groups of YAs (N = 138) and OAs (N = 79) performed a MM task that required participants to place bets on how likely they were to remember words in a list. Our analytical approach includes hierarchical clustering, and we introduce a new measure of MM—the modified Brier—in order to adjust …

Deep Temporal Convolutional Networks For Short-Term Traffic Flow Forecasting, Wentian Zhao, Yanyun Gao, Tingxiang Ji, Xili Wan, Feng Ye, Guangwei Bai

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

To reduce the increasingly congestion in cities, it is essential for intelligent transportation system (ITS) to accurately forecast the short-term traffic flow to identify the potential congestion sites. In recent years, the emerging deep learning method has been introduced to design traffic flow predictors, such as recurrent neural network (RNN) and long short-term memory (LSTM), which has demonstrated its promising results. In this paper, different from existing work, we study the temporal convolutional network (TCN) and propose a deep learning framework based on TCN model for short-term city-wide traffic forecast to accurately capture the temporal and spatial evolution of traffic …

Techno-Economic And Sustainability Study Of Pv Inverter Controllers In Distribution Networks For Voltage Regulation, Kapil Duwadi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Increasing distributed solar installations in low voltage distribution grids tend to increase the feeder voltage. The rise in voltage is only acceptable to a certain limit, and control strategies are required to keep voltage within defined bounds for equipment safety and system reliability. PV inverter control strategies are cost-effective methods to prevent overvoltage. Different inverter control strategies have different impacts on their techno-economic performance, ultimately affecting their sustainability. An evaluation framework for long-term techno-economic and sustainability analysis of overvoltage prevention methods in PV-rich LV networks is proposed to decide suitable control methods by making use of quasi-steady-state time-series (QSTS) software …

Flexure Properties Of 3d Printed Nylon Carbon Fiber Composite And Stiffness Of 3d Printed Modified Cuttlefish Bone Structure, Shashikanth Reddy

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Flexure strength is one of the most widely used mechanical properties to represent the mechanical behavior of the composite. Fiber reinforcements increase the flexure strength of a composite. Specifically, there has been tremendous growth in the use of Carbon Fiber (CF) in the manufacturing industry due to its significant contribution to enhance the mechanical properties of a composite. Fiber orientation, void content, bonding between the layers (delamination), and fiber distribution are some of the factors that affect the flexure strength of a reinforced composite. The laminate (composite with reinforced layers) composites, has been a focus of study by researchers from …

Modeling Runoff From Small Agricultural Watersheds In Eastern South Dakota, Bryce Siverling

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The capability to be able to consistently and accurately model any problem has potential time and money savings. The present study aimed to determine if the Natural Resources Conservation Service’s Curve Number (CN) model or the more detailed Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) Model can consistently and accurately model runoff events from small agricultural fields in Eastern South Dakota. The overall goal was to better understand models used to predict runoff and determine if they can produce accurate estimates of runoff from the watersheds being studied. Runoff measurements were collected from an agricultural field located south of Coleman, South …

Stream Flow Analysis Of The Big Sioux River Just South Of Brookings, South Dakota, Samuel Ruppert

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Floods are the most common type of natural disaster in the world and one of the most damaging. Changes in climate conditions such as precipitation and temperature are causing changes in stream flow. This means that in order to better understand flooding and possibly develop a system for making flood predictions, stream flow needs to be analyzed more closely. The primary objective of this thesis is to analyze the Big Sioux River just south of Brookings, South Dakota, both annually and seasonally. The United States Geological Survey (USGS) has stream gauges placed in rivers and streams all over the United …

Development Of Semantic Scene Conversion Model For Image-Based Localization At Night, Dongyoun Kim

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Developing an autonomous vehicle navigation system invariant to illumination change is one of the biggest challenges in vision-based localization field due to the fact that the appearance of an image becomes inconsistent under different light conditions even with the same location. In particular, the night scene images have greatest change in appearance compared to the according day scenes. Moreover, the night images do not have enough information in Image-based localization. To deal with illumination change, image conversion methods have been researched. However, these methods could lose the detail of objects and add fake objects into the output images. In this …

New Approach For Temporal Stability Evaluation Of Pseudo-Invariant Calibration Sites (Pics), Fatima Tuz Zafrin Tuli

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Pseudo-Invariant Calibration Sites (PICS) are one of the most popular methods for in-flight vicarious radiometric calibration of Earth remote sensing satellites. The fundamental question of PICS temporal stability has not been adequately addressed. However, the main purpose of this work is to evaluate the temporal stability of a few PICS using a new approach. The analysis was performed over six PICS (Libya 1, Libya 4, Niger 1, Niger 2, Egypt 1 and Sudan 1). The concept of a “Virtual Constellation” was developed to provide greater temporal coverage and also to overcome the dependence limitation of any specific characteristic derived from …

Empirical Absolute Calibration Model For Multiple Pseudo-Invariant Calibration Sites, Bipin Raut

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This work extends an empirical absolute calibration model initially developed for the Libya 4 Pseudo-Invariant Calibration Site (PICS) to five additional Saharan Desert PICS (Egypt 1, Libya 1, Niger 1, Niger 2, and Sudan 1), and demonstrates the efficacy of the resulting models at predicting sensor top-of-atmosphere (TOA) reflectance. It attempts to generate absolute calibration models for these PICS that have an accuracy and precision comparable to or better than the current Libya 4 model, with the intent of providing additional opportunities for sensor calibration. In addition, this work attempts to validate the general applicability of the model to other …

Intra-Day Solar Irradiance Forecasting For Remote Microgrids Using Hidden Markov Model, Abhilasha Bajracharya

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Accurate solar irradiance forecasting is the key to accurate estimation of solar power output at any given time. The accuracy of this information is especially crucial in diesel-PV based remote microgrids with batteries to determine the set points of the batteries and generators for their optimal dispatch. This, in turn, is related directly to the overall operating cost because both an overestimation and an underestimation of the irradiance means additional operating costs for either suddenly ramping up the backup resources or causing under-utilization of the available PV power output. Accurately predicting the solar irradiance is not an easy task because …

Field And Numerical Study For Deteriorating Precast Double-Tee Girder Bridges, Brian Kidd

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Two deteriorating DT bridges in South Dakota, both over 30-years old, were field tested with a static and dynamic load. From the recorded strain values, the liveload distribution factors (LLDFs) and dynamic load allowance (IM) factors were calculated. The AASHTO LRFD and AASHTO Standard Specifications were compared with the field LLDFs and IMs. It was determined that the AASHTO LRFD Specifications were conservative for deteriorating DT girder bridges, with two exceptions. The AASHTO Standard codified LLDFs were significantly higher than the field LLDFs in all cases. The AASHTO LRFD and AASHTO Standard specifications were conservative when calculating the IM factors …

Evaluation Of An Extended Pics (Epics) For Calibration And Stability Monitoring Of Optical Satellite Sensors, Md Nahid Hasan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Pseudo Invariant Calibration Sites (PICS) have been increasingly used as an independent data source for on-orbit radiometric calibration and stability monitoring of optical satellite sensors. Generally, this would be a small region of land that is extremely stable in time and space, predominantly found in North Africa. Use of these small regions, referred to as traditional PICS, can be limited by: i) the spatial extent of an individual Region of Interest (ROI) and/or site; ii) and the frequency of how often the site can be acquired, based on orbital patterns and cloud cover at the site, both impacting the time …

Reinforcement Learning And Game Theory For Smart Grid Security, Shuva Paul

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation focuses on one of the most critical and complicated challenges facing electric power transmission and distribution systems which is their vulnerability against failure and attacks. Large scale power outages in Australia (2016), Ukraine (2015), India (2013), Nigeria (2018), and the United States (2011, 2003) have demonstrated the vulnerability of power grids to cyber and physical attacks and failures. These incidents clearly indicate the necessity of extensive research efforts to protect the power system from external intrusion and to reduce the damages from post-attack effects. We analyze the vulnerability of smart power grids to cyber and physical attacks and …

Background And Design Of A Qualitative Study On Globally Responsible Decision-Making In Civil Engineering, Shannon Chance, Inês Direito, Rob Lawlor, Katie Cresswell-Maynard, Jon Pritchard, Nick Tyler, John Mitchell

Conference papers

Abstract: Organizations that regulate civil engineering have been pressing for integration of 'global responsibility' into higher education curricula since around 2006, with a goal of achieving environmental sustainability and social justice. In an effort led by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE, 2007, 2009), a global vision for civil engineering was identified. Within the UK, the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) has been leading the way alongside non-governmental organizations (Bourn & Neal, 2008). Via the in-progress study reported here, a UK-based research team is now studying the effects of ACSE and ICE initiatives. The team seeks to benchmark how …

Series Compensation To Increase Power Flow: A Case Study On The Irish Transmission System, Aidan Heffernan, Jane Courtney

Conference papers

Ireland presents an interesting case study for transmission network strengthening. The majority of load in the country is located at the nation's capital, Dublin, in the East, while most of the new conventional generation and renewable generation are found in the South-West. Power is transferred between the two via a 400 kV network. This leads to large cross- country power flows. This power distribution disparity is due to increase. A large thermal generating station which is connected to the 400 kV system in the West, will close by 2025. This generation will be replaced partially with wind generation in the …

Impact Of Consumer Profiles On A Consumer Convenience Prioritised Demand Response, Chittesh Veni Chandran, Keith Sunderland, Malabika Basu

Conference papers

Distribution network (DN) load flexibility has simultaneously created challenges and opportunities. The major challenge is to meet the demand-supply balance while maintaining a positive profit-loss ratio. Further, Government enforced climate change policies attract low carbon technology (LCT) distributed energy resources (DER), which further complicate matters. Along with DN, the domestic appliance industry has undergone drastic modernization leading to appliances with advanced control and power efficient technologies as well as automation capabilities. This paper proposes a demand response (DR) program that facilitates these advancements while micromanaging the domestic load consumption pattern so as to manage peak demand in the network. This …

Sliding Mode Control Strategy For Three-Phase Three-Level T-Type Shunt Active Power Filters, Hasan Komurcugil, Sertac Bayhan, Samet Biricik

Conference papers

In this paper, a sliding mode control (SMC) strategy is proposed for three-phase three-level T-type shunt active power filters (SAPF). The proposed control strategy has the ability to balance the capacitor voltages with respect to the neutral-point. The proposed SMC strategy is formulated in the natural frame which eliminates abc/dq transformation and two PI controllers compared to the design in the dq frame. In natural frame, only one PI controller is needed to generate the amplitude of grid current reference. The output of the PI controller is multiplied by the unity sinusoidal waveforms, obtained from the grid voltages, so as …

Reliability Issues Caused By The Retirement Of Large Thermal Generation Facilities: An Irish Case Study, Kyle Lawson, Jane Courtney

Conference papers

Like all developed countries Ireland faces increasing pressure to reduce their carbon footprint. Part of the governments plans include the scaling back of fossil fuel generation facilities and increasing renewable resources. Moneypoint is Irelands only coal fired generation station. In 2025 Moneypoint is due to reach the end of its life cycle. At this point the Irish government will have to make a decission on the future of the generation facility. Currently Moneypoint is responsible for the generation of approximately 10 % of Irelands energy needs. In this paper, the removal of Moneypoint from the Irish generation portfolio will be …

The Deployment Of An Iot Network Infrastructure, As A Localised Regional Service, John Fox, Andrew Donnellan, Liam Doumen

Conference papers

The Internet of things (IoT) is fast evolving with a wide range of technologies being designated specifically as IoT solutions. Studies on such solutions generally reference the specific communication medium while negating the complete architecture of the IoT system. From a system perspective, a complete IoT solution can be separated into three categories, the data collector, the communication method and the cloud platform service. The data collector relates to the embedded system device (or the `things' element) at the source of the application, the communication method relates to the network protocol used to send or receive the data and the …

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