Engineering Commons^™

A Patterned Single Layer Graphene Resistance Temperature Sensor, Benyamin Davaji, Hak Dong Cho, Mohamadali Malakoutian, Jong-Kwon Lee, Gennady Panin, Tae Wong Kang, Chung-Hoon Lee

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Micro-fabricated single-layer graphenes (SLGs) on a silicon dioxide (SiO₂)/Si substrate, a silicon nitride (SiN) membrane, and a suspended architecture are presented for their use as temperature sensors. These graphene temperature sensors act as resistance temperature detectors, showing a quadratic dependence of resistance on the temperature in a range between 283 K and 303 K. The observed resistance change of the graphene temperature sensors are explained by the temperature dependent electron mobility relationship (~T⁻⁴) and electron-phonon scattering. By analyzing the transient response of the SLG temperature sensors on different substrates, it is found that the graphene sensor …

Pvdf-Trfe Electroactive Polymer Mechanical-To-Electrical Energy Harvesting Experimental Bimorph Structure, William G. Kaval, Robert A. Lake, Ronald A. Coutu Jr.

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Research of electrostrictive polymers has generated new opportunities for harvesting energy from the surrounding environment and converting it into usable electrical energy. Electroactive polymer (EAP) research is one of the new opportunities for harvesting energy from the natural environment and converting it into usable electrical energy. Piezoelectric ceramic based energy harvesting devices tend to be unsuitable for low-frequency mechanical excitations such as human movement. Organic polymers are typically softer and more flexible therefore translated electrical energy output is considerably higher under the same mechanical force. In addition, cantilever geometry is one of the most used structures in piezoelectric energy harvesters, …

Cmos Approach To Compressed-Domain Image Acquisition, Javad Ghasemi, Manish Bhattarai, Glauco R.C. Fiorante, Payman Zarkesh-Ha, Sanjay Krishna, Majeed M. Hayat

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

A hardware implementation of a real-time compressed-domain image acquisition system is demonstrated. The system performs front-end computational imaging, whereby the inner product between an image and an arbitrarily-specified mask is implemented in silicon. The acquisition system is based on an intelligent readout integrated circuit (iROIC) that is capable of providing independent bias voltages to individual detectors, which enables implementation of spatial multiplication with any prescribed mask through a bias-controlled response-modulation mechanism. The modulated pixels are summed up in the image grabber to generate the compressed samples, namely aperture-coded coefficients, of an image. A rigorous bias-selection algorithm is presented to the …

Detection Theory For Accurate And Non-Invasive Skin Cancer Diagnosis Using Dynamic Thermal Imaging, Sebastian E. Godoy, Majeed M. Hayat, David A. Ramirez, Stephen A. Myers, R. Steven Padilla, Sanjay Krishna

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Skin cancer is the most common cancer in the United States with over 3.5M annual cases. Presently, visual inspection by a dermatologist has good sensitivity (> 90%) but poor specificity (< 10%), especially for melanoma, which leads to a high number of unnecessary biopsies. Here we use dynamic thermal imaging (DTI) to demonstrate a rapid, accurate and non-invasive imaging system for detection of skin cancer. In DTI, the lesion is cooled down and the thermal recovery is recorded using infrared imaging. The thermal recovery curves of the suspected lesions are then utilized in the context of continuous-time detection theory in order to define an optimal statistical decision rule such that the sensitivity of the algorithm is guaranteed to be at a maximum for every prescribed false-alarm probability. The proposed methodology was tested in a pilot study including 140 human subjects demonstrating a sensitivity in excess of 99% for a prescribed specificity in excess of 99% for detection of skin cancer. To the best of our knowledge, this is the highest reported accuracy for any non-invasive skin cancer diagnosis method.

Cradg: A Chaotic Radg Security System, Salah Albermany, Maryam Nathim, Zahir Hussain

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

A high-performance ciphering algorithm is presented. The proposed method combines old school ciphering (Reaction Automata Direct Graph (RADG)) with chaotic systems to obtain higher level of security. Chaotic sequences are highly sensitive to any changes in their parameters, adding a higher level of security to the proposed approach, called CRADG.

Evaluation Of The Effect Of Product Demand Uncertainty On Manufacturing System Selection, Ana Vafadar, Majid Tolouei-Rad, Kevin Hayward

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

The use of advanced manufacturing systems is widespread; however, manufacturers frequently face difficult decisions when it comes to selecting the most appropriate system. Uncertainty regarding product demand makes this process more difficult, as many factors are influencing simultaneously. This paper focuses on analyzing the demand uncertainty on the performance of modular drilling manufacturing systems versus other alternatives and evaluating the uncertainty’s impacts on the final decision. To do so, a model is suggested and the effect of demand uncertainty on the output is investigated. Three automotive components of varying complexity are used to examine the approach for making reliable decisions

An Investigation Into Spike-Based Neuromorphic Approaches For Artificial Olfactory Systems, Anup Vanarse, Adam Osseiran, Alexander Rassau

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

The implementation of neuromorphic methods has delivered promising results for vision and auditory sensors. These methods focus on mimicking the neuro-biological architecture to generate and process spike-based information with minimal power consumption. With increasing interest in developing low-power and robust chemical sensors, the application of neuromorphic engineering concepts for electronic noses has provided an impetus for research focusing on improving these instruments. While conventional e-noses apply computationally expensive and power-consuming data-processing strategies, neuromorphic olfactory sensors implement the biological olfaction principles found in humans and insects to simplify the handling of multivariate sensory data by generating and processing spike-based information. Over …

Resistivity Profiles Of Perth Soil In Australia In Leak-Detection Test, Lopa M. Pandey, Sanjay K. Shukla, Daryoush Habibi

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

The use of a suitable leak-detection system for the prevention and mitigation of pollution due to lining system failures is integral to the proper management of landfill facilities. This paper briefly summarises various methods of leak detection that are currently being practised. The details of a newly developed leak-detection technique are also presented. The tests were conducted to evaluate the performance of the new technique by use of controlled leakage. The resulting resistivity profiles for Perth soil in Australia were obtained at 10 min. This method is found to be effective in detecting and locating liner leakage issues within 30 …

Gradient In Microstructure And Mechanical Property Of Selective Laser Melted Alsi10mg, Yujing Liu, Zeng Qian Liu, Y Jiang, G.W Wang, Yang Yang, Laichang Zhang

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

It is known that metal parts can be made stronger, tougher and better wear resistance by introducing gradient microstructure. This work reports the cooling rate of melt pool induced discrepancy in microstructural gradient and element distribution during selective laser melting (SLM), thereby resulting in decrease in microhardness and wear resistance from surface to inside with a range of ∼100 μm of SLM- manufactured AlSi10Mg alloy. The cooling rate in the top surface of melt pool reaches ∼ 1.44 × 10⁶ K/s, which is much higher than that at the bottom ( ≤ 1 × 10³ K/s). Such a …

Enhanced Corrosion And Wear Resistance Properties Of Carbon Fiber Reinforced Ni-Based Composite Coating By Laser Cladding, Jianbo Lei, Chuan Shi, Shenfeng Zhou, Zhenjie Gu, Laichang Zhang

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

To enhance the wear resistance and corrosion resistance of Ni-based coatings, carbon fibers reinforced nickel-based composite coatings (CFs/Ni) were fabricated on the surface of 1Cr13 stainless steel by laser cladding (LC). The microstructure characteristics, microhardness, wear and corrosion performances of the composite coatings were investigated. The results show that CFs can effectively improve the corrosion and wear resistances of Ni-based coatings. With increasing laser scanning speed, the morphology of CFs in composite coatings is more integral and the corrosion and wear resistances of the composite coatings are improved. Especially, when laser scanning speed is increased to 8 mm/s, the average …

Foreword: Special Issue On Coalgebraic Logic, Alexander Kurz

Engineering Faculty Articles and Research

The second Dagstuhl seminar on coalgebraic logics took place from October 7-12, 2012, in the Leibniz Forschungszentrum Schloss Dagstuhl, following a successful earlier one in December 2009. From the 44 researchers who attended and the 30 talks presented, this collection highlights some of the progress that has been made in the field. We are grateful to Giuseppe Longo and his interest in a special issue in Mathematical Structures in Computer Science.

Quasivarieties And Varieties Of Ordered Algebras: Regularity And Exactness, Alexander Kurz

Engineering Faculty Articles and Research

We characterise quasivarieties and varieties of ordered algebras categorically in terms of regularity, exactness and the existence of a suitable generator. The notions of regularity and exactness need to be understood in the sense of category theory enriched over posets.

We also prove that finitary varieties of ordered algebras are cocompletions of their theories under sifted colimits (again, in the enriched sense).

The Positivication Of Coalgebraic Logics, Fredrik Dahlqvist, Alexander Kurz

Engineering Faculty Articles and Research

We present positive coalgebraic logic in full generality, and show how to obtain a positive coalgebraic logic from a boolean one. On the model side this involves canonically computing a endofunctor T': Pos->Pos from an endofunctor T: Set->Set, in a procedure previously defined by the second author et alii called posetification. On the syntax side, it involves canonically computing a syntax-building functor L': DL->DL from a syntax-building functor L: BA->BA, in a dual procedure which we call positivication. These operations are interesting in their own right and we explicitly compute posetifications and positivications in the case …

Features Of Agent-Based Models, Reiko Heckel, Alexander Kurz, Edmund Chattoe-Brown

Engineering Faculty Articles and Research

The design of agent-based models (ABMs) is often ad-hoc when it comes to defining their scope. In order for the inclusion of features such as network structure, location, or dynamic change to be justified, their role in a model should be systematically analysed. We propose a mechanism to compare and assess the impact of such features. In particular we are using techniques from software engineering and semantics to support the development and assessment of ABMs, such as graph transformations as semantic representations for agent-based models, feature diagrams to identify ingredients under consideration, and extension relations between graph transformation systems to …

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 …

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.

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, …

A New Computational Framework For Efficient Parallelization And Optimization Of Large Scale Graph Matching, Sahar Marefat Navaz

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

There are so many applications in data fusion, comparison, and recognition that require a robust and efficient algorithm to match features of multiple images. To improve accuracy and get a more stable result is important to take into consideration both local appearance and the pairwise relationship of features. Graphs are a powerful and flexible data structure, allowing for the description of complex relationships between data elements, whose nodes correspond to salient features and edges correspond to relational aspects between features. Therefore, the problem of graph matching is to find a mapping between the two sets of nodes that preserves the …

Vibration Control In Wind Turbines For Multi Hazards, Milad Rezaee

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The increasing demand for reliable and clean energy with a low running cost, has developed wind energy harvesting industry in a fast rate during the past two decades, and has led to wind farms’ spreading in various regions with larger and taller wind turbines. Consequently, it is more likely that wind turbines are installed or planned to be installed in areas with higher possibility of natural multihazard. Therefore, flexible modern wind turbines are subjected to severe dynamic environmental loads. Generated excessive vibrations in the wind turbine’s structure due to these loads can have detrimental effects on energy production, structural lifecycle …

Computational Studies On Fluid And Particle Dynamics, Chenguang Zhang

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation is divided into two parts. The first part includes chapter 2 to 4, which focus on development and application of numerical algorithm on particle and fluid simulation. Starting with a pure granular system in a driven cavity setup (Chapter 2), we move on to the immersed boundary simulation of fluid solid interaction (Chapter 3). This part ends with a coupled immersed boundary-discrete particle implementation. The second part includes Chapter 5 and Appendix A, each deals with an independent problem and focuses more on the theoretical aspects. Chapter 5 deals with a classic fluid dynamics problem of thermal wave …

Characterization Of Dehalogenimonas Strains From A Louisiana Superfund Site That Reductively Dehalogenate Polychlorinated Alkanes, Trent Anthony Key

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The research described in this dissertation was aimed at expanding understanding of the diversity and functional roles of microorganisms able to anaerobically transform chlorinated compounds. During the course of the research, a novel strictly anaerobic bacterial isolate originating from chlorinated solvent contaminated groundwater at a Superfund Site in south Louisiana (USA) was characterized. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequencing placed the newly isolated strain, designated as NSZ-14 T, within the genus Dehalogenimonas but within a separate lineage from previously described species. Like previously described species within the genus Dehalogenimonas (i.e., D. lykanthroporepellens and D. alkenigignens), strain NSZ-14T was …

Thermomechanical Modeling Of Polymerica Actuators, Qianxi Yang

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In this dissertation, the application of smart polymers as actuators was investigated, with focuses on shape memory polymers and twisted-then-coiled artificial muscles. Thermomechanical models have been developed for various polymeric actuators, so as to facilitate interpretation of the underlying mechanisms and to provide guidance for future design. The classical one-way shape memory effect in amorphous shape memory polymers was first reproduced. The amorphous shape memory polymer was treated as a frozen-phase matrix with active-phase inclusions embedded in it. A phase evolution law was proposed from the physics perspective and the Mori-Tanaka approach was used to predict the effective mechanical properties. …

Analytical Solutions And Multiscale Creep Analysis Of Functionally Graded Cylindrical Pressure Vessels, Jasem Amjad Ahmed

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This study deals with the time-dependent creep analysis of functionally graded thick-cylinders under various thermal and mechanical boundary conditions. Firstly, exact thermoelastic stress, and iterative creep solutions for a heat generating and rotating cylindrical vessel made of functionally graded thermal and mechanical properties are proposed. Equations of equilibrium, compatibility, stress-strain, and strain-displacement relations are solved to obtain closed-form initial stress and strain solutions. It is found that material gradient indices have significant influences on thermoelastic stress profiles. For creep analysis, Norton’s model is incorporated into rate forms of the above-mentioned equations to obtain time-dependent stress and strain results using an …

Tribological And Dynamical Study Of An Automotive Transmission System, Meng Li

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The transmission system is critical for automotive and heavy duty equipment due to its prominent role in the powertrain system, which is often challenged with degraded torque capacity and harsh dynamic response. Simulation-guided design can provide appropriate guidelines to resolve these problems with virtual analyses. In current study, the tribological and dynamical study of an automatic transmission is performed at two levels: a wet clutch and powertrain. In this dissertation, tribological study is performed for a wet clutch based on the thermohydrodynamic (THD) analysis that takes the following factors into account. • The groove effect (depth, area, and pattern) is …

Evaluation Of Compositional Effects On Gas-Oil Miscibility And Gas-Assisted Gravity Drainage (Gagd) Eor Process, Mohamed Al Riyami

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The Vanishing interface technique (VIT), offers fast and accurate determination of minimum miscibility pressure (MMP) between the reservoir crude oil and the various gases injected for enhancing oil recovery (EOR). The technique is based on miscibility being the condition where an interface between the injected fluid and the reservoir crude oil vanishes. This research has evaluated the effect of the gas-oil ratio on zero-IFT pressure. VIT experiments were simulated using an equation of state (EOS) and the Parachor model. This work proves the robustness of VIT in estimating miscibility pressures for gas injection EOR projects. Also this work presents a …

Performance Evaluation Of Virtual Flow Metering Models And Its Application To Metering Backup And Production Allocation, Kahila Mokhtari Jadid

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In the oil and gas industry, reliable and accurate measurements of the amount of oil, gas and water being produced by individual wells is essential. The production revenue for each well is determined from measured flow rates. Measurement of well production can be achieved by using multiphase flow meters on individual wells. However, the use of such metering technique is not always reliable or economical. As an alternative technique to monitoring individual well performance in real-time, multiphase flow simulators together with pressure and temperature sensors located at different locations in the production systems have been recently deployed to estimate individual …

A Model-Centric Framework For Advanced Operation Of Crystallization Processes, Navid Ghadipasha

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Crystallization is the main physical separation process in many chemical industries. It is an old unit operation which can separate solids of high purity from liquids, and is widely applied in the production of food, pharmaceuticals, and fine chemicals. While industries in crystallization operation quite rely on rule-of-thumb techniques to fulfill their requirement, the move towards a scientific- and technological- based approach is becoming more important as it provides a mechanism for driving crystallization processes optimally and in more depth without increasing costs. Optimal operation of industrial crystallizers is a prerequisite these days for achieving the stringent requirements of the …

Protection Challenges Of Distributed Energy Resources Integration In Power Systems, Pooria Mohammadi

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

It is a century that electrical power system are the main source of energy for the societies and industries. Most parts of these infrastructures are built long time ago. There are plenty of high rating high voltage equipment which are designed and manufactured in mid-20th and are currently operating in United States’ power network. These assets are capable to do what they are doing now. However, the issue rises with the recent trend, i.e. DERs integration, causing fundamental changes in electrical power systems and violating traditional network design basis in various ways. Recently, there have been a steep rise in …