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Title: Using Mitsimlab to Generate Dynamic Traffic for NS2 Simulation of Vanet
Creator: Diao, Zhaoshi
Date: 2011-04-25, 2011-05
Description: The vehicular ad hoc network (VANET) has attracted a lot of attentions due to their interesting and promising functionalities including...
Show moreThe vehicular ad hoc network (VANET) has attracted a lot of attentions due to their interesting and promising functionalities including vehicular safety, traffic congestion avoidance, and location based services. However, using a real VANET to do these researches costs too much. Simulation of VANET is useful and could solve this problem well. Nevertheless, many simulations of VANET base on simple road networks and relatively simple mobility models. Based on this road networks and mobility models, consequently, the results of simulation of VANET would be impractical and inaccurate. Therefore, MITSIMLAB which is a simulation of transportation system developed by Massachusetts Institution of Technology Intelligent Transportation System Program is introduced. In MITSIMLAB, a real world road network could be generated. Moreover, the mobility models in MITSIMLAB are more practical. However, MITSIMLAB is a simulation of transportation system. It cannot be used to simulate the VANET directly, while NS2 could simulate VANET properly. NS2 is an open sourced and free software, and it is widely used and successfully simulates plenty of situations in the wireless environment. It could well simulate the communication protocols and applications of VANET. But it cannot generate road network and mobility models to simulate a practical traffic by itself. As a result, it is important to incorporate MITSIMLAB by using its practical road network and mobility models with NS2. In the thesis, a method about how to translate the output file of MITSIMLAB into the format of NS2 would be proposed. In addition, a road network based on IIT main campus is generated by using MITSIMLAB. After translating it into the format usable by NS2, a VANET based on the map of IIT main campus and practical mobility models could be simulated.
M.S. in Electrical Engineering, May 2011
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Title: IMPROVED DYNAMIC CONTRAST ENHANCED MR IMAGING WITH AN APPLICATION TO PROSTATE CANCER LOCALIZATION
Creator: Afshar, Niloufar Totonchi
Date: 2011-07, 2011-07
Description: Prostate cancer is one of the most frequently detected cancers and a leading cause of death for men in the United States. Fortunately, chances...
Show moreProstate cancer is one of the most frequently detected cancers and a leading cause of death for men in the United States. Fortunately, chances of successful treatment significantly improve when prostate cancer is diagnosed at an early stage. An accurate and reliable imaging technique that can localize tumors is very valuable for example in guiding needle biopsy, therapy, as well as surgery. Current imaging techniques such as ultrasound provide unsatisfactory result for tumor localization. Therefore, Multispectral Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) emerged as an alternative method of imaging for prostate cancer. An important part of multispectral MRI is Dynamic contrast enhanced MRI (DCE-MRI). Traditionally, a compartmental model is used with DCE-MRI to estimate parametric images. However these images are usually very noisy. Therefore, we propose to use directly the series of DCE-MRI for tumor localization instead of the pharmacokinetic parameters which are derived from DCE MR images through a compartmental model. As a second contribution, we have developed new features in addition to traditional parameters based on different characteristic of tumor and normal pixels. These new features are standard deviation and the energy of the first half of the spectrum divided by the energy of the second half of the spectrum based on an analysis of TACs for tumor and normal pixels. We use quantitative and qualitative evaluation methods to demonstrate that employing DCE-MRI directly as features and our proposed features result in an improvement in terms of tumor localization performance.
M.S. in Electrical Engineering, July 2011
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Title: Impacts of Sulfur Capture Technology in Coal Power Plants (sequence unknown), IPRO 302 - Deliverables: IPRO 302 Final Report F09
Creator: Contreras, Abraham, Dickman, Justin, Enadeghe, Gregory, Garcia Rodriguez, Hector, Haddad, Michael, Kyle, Ryan, Mongillo, Michael, Murphy, Ryan, Shonubi, Oluwaseun, Swillum, Bryce, Wolber, Brian, Worthon, Terrika
Date: 2009-12
Description: The IPRO team was investigating the net impact of sulfur capture technologies used in current and next generation power plants in the United...
Show moreThe IPRO team was investigating the net impact of sulfur capture technologies used in current and next generation power plants in the United States. It planned to use this knowledge to determine which sulfur capture technologies produce the greatest benefit for industry and society and to find the marketability of the sulfur byproducts created in these power plants.
Sponsorship: Sargent & Lundy, LLC
These are the deliverables for IPRO 302: Impacts of Sulfur Capture Technology in Coal Power Plants from the Fall 2009 semester.
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Title: INSTANTANEOUS DETECTION OF SPATIAL GRADIENT ERRORS IN DIFFERENTIAL GNSS
Creator: Jing, Jing
Date: 2014, 2014-12
Description: Differential GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) is currently being ex- tended using a high integrity Ground Based Augmentation System ...
Show moreDifferential GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) is currently being ex- tended using a high integrity Ground Based Augmentation System (GBAS) to enable civil aircraft precision approach and landing. Differential GPS carrier phase measure- ments between ground-based GBAS reference antennas can provide the means to de- tect and isolate certain signal-in-space (SIS) failures and anomalies that are hazardous to aircraft, most notably ionospheric anomalies and ephemeris failures, which can be characterized as spatial range error gradients. In this research, we develop a monitor capable of instantaneously detecting multi-dimensional spatial gradient faults. The existence of large gradients, while rare, has prompted the development of numerous ground monitors for their detection. One drawback of previously proposed monitors is that their performance for a given ground antenna con guration is de- pendent on how antennas are paired to form measurement differences. In contrast, in this work a new monitor approach is developed to provide consistent detection performance, regardless of how the antennas are paired, by combining measurements from multiple, spatially separated ground antennas through a null space transforma- tion. It is shown that the `null space' monitor signi cantly improves the detection performance over existing fault detection algorithms and enables GBAS to support Category III precision approach and landing. The instantaneous carrier phase monitor cannot detect all gradients due to the presence of integer cycle ambiguities. These ambiguities cannot be resolved because the gradient magnitude is unknown a priori. Furthermore, it has been shown that the performance of such monitors is highly dependent on the reference antenna topol- ogy. The range of detectable gradients for all carrier phase monitors depends on two factors: the number of antennas and their con guration. One can always expand the detection range by using many antennas, but only at greatly increased operational cost. Optimizing antenna con guration has been overlooked as a means to improve performance; simple, heuristic arguments typically prevail in the associated siting decisions. For example, when given four antennas it is generally assumed that they should be sited in a square arrangement to balance performance in all directions. However, such heuristics do not provide the maximum detectable range of gradients, and exploiting the freedom to choose the antenna topology can dramatically expand the detectable range. Due to the presence of carrier phase cycle ambiguities, the re- sulting optimization problem is a constrained, mixed integer nonlinear programming problem. By solving the nonlinear program, the optimal GBAS antenna topology that maximizes the range of detectable gradients can be found for any number of antennas. For ionospheric fronts, the magnitude of the resulting gradient is bounded. However, orbit ephemeris faults can be arbitrarily large. The monitor must be able to detect all large gradients. To detect gradients beyond the capability of the car- rier phase monitor, code phase measurements are integrated into the monitor. Al- though we show this allows for the detection of all gradients, the number and spacing of ground antennas may not be suitable for all ground stations. Therefore, dual frequency carrier phase measurements are also considered to reduce the number of antennas required to achieve the desired detection performance. Finally, a search algorithm is developed to nd the antenna topology that enables the null space mon- itor to detect all hazardous gradients using code and dual frequency carrier phase measurements.
Ph.D. in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, December 2014
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Title: CHANGES OF BACTERIAL SPECIES AND HEME PROTEIN OCCURRENCE IN ACTIVATED SLUDGE COMMUNITIES CULTURED IN THE LABORATORY
Creator: Wang, Xiaomeng
Date: 2016, 2016-05
Description: An activated sludge sample that had originally been collected from an aeration tank of the Stickney wastewater treatment plant in Chicago, and...
Show moreAn activated sludge sample that had originally been collected from an aeration tank of the Stickney wastewater treatment plant in Chicago, and had previously been cultured at low dissolved oxygen (DO) for 48 weekly passages was used as starting material for continuation of the low DO acclimation. The culture was continued at low dissolved oxygen in synthetic wastewater for 25 additional weekly passages to study what would happen to the activated sludge if the low DO continued. In order to do that, some important data were measured during the culture, including the specific oxygen uptake rates (SOUR) which could reflect the ability of oxygen utilization, 16S rDNA information which could tell the community diversity of sludge, and the dominant species genome data which suggested what really happened to the sludge and some reasons. The results showed that SOUR decreased modestly during the course of low DO adaptation, which was contrary to the results of the previous study. There were significant changes in community structure with respect to bacterial species during the first fifteen additional passages. Species known to produce both flavohemoglobins (FHbs) and truncated hemoglobins (trHbs) were common at all passages tested, although the dominant species were totally different from passage to passage. Specifically, during the course of the experiment, the frequency of cells encoding an FHb decreased substantially, from 84% to 50%, while the percentage of cells encoding a trHb decreased slightly from 84% to 78%. The overall content in the culture of heme b (the heme type found in bacterial hemoglobins) decreased, however, during continuation of the low DO conditions. So it is indicated that the oxygen utilization ability of the activated sludge does not increase all the time.
M.S. in Biology, May 2016
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Title: Widget Applications to Enhance the Tru2Way Consumer Experience (sequence unknown), IPRO 312 - Deliverables: IPRO 312 IPRO Day Presentation F09
Creator: Alsharief, Yagoob, Aulfata, Muluken, Curtis, Christopher, Dhewaju, Anusuya, Mooney, Kevin, Mutyaba, Kevin, Ndoping, Marco, Onaissi, Samah, Peterson, Naomi, Siwek, Steven, Wallace, Sean, Yi, Won-jae
Date: 2009-12
Description: The IPRO teams objectives are to provide Comcast with feedback from an outside perspective, allowing them to see where their Tru2Way system...
Show moreThe IPRO teams objectives are to provide Comcast with feedback from an outside perspective, allowing them to see where their Tru2Way system needs additional attention or support.
Sponsorship: Comcast
Deliverables for IPRO 312: Widget Applications to Enhance the Tru2Way Consumer Experience for the fall 2009 semester
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Title: COMPUTATION AND ANALYSIS OF TUMOR GROWTH
Creator: Turian, Emma
Date: 2016, 2016-05
Description: The ability of tumors to metastasize is preceded by morphological instabilities such as chains or fingers that invade the host environment....
Show moreThe ability of tumors to metastasize is preceded by morphological instabilities such as chains or fingers that invade the host environment. Parameters that control tumor morphology may also contribute to its invasive ability. In this thesis, we investigate tumor growth using a two-phase Stokes model. We first examine the morphological changes using the surface energy of the tumor-host interface and investigate its nonlinear dynamics using a boundary integral method. In an effort to understand the interface stiffness, we then model the tumor-host interface as an elastic membrane governed by the Helfrich bending energy. Using an energy variation approach, we derive a modified Young-Laplace condition for the stress jump across the interface, and perform a linear stability analysis to evaluate the effects of viscosity, bending rigidity, and apoptosis on tumor morphology. Results show that increased bending rigidity versus mitosis rate contributes to a more stable growth. On the other hand, increased tumor viscosity or apoptosis may lead to an invasive fingering morphology. Comparison with experimental data on glioblastoma spheroids shows good agreement especially for tumors with high adhesion and low proliferation. Next, we evaluate tumor regression during cancer therapy by a combined modality involving chemotherapy and radiotherapy. The goal is to address the complexities of a vascular tumor (e.g. apoptosis and vascularization) during treatment. We introduce an apoptotic time delay and study its impact on tumor regression using numerical and asymptotic techniques. In particular, we implement the linear-quadratic model and identify two extreme sets of parameter data, namely the slow, and fast tumor response to therapy. Numerical simulations for the slow response set show good agreements with data representing non-small cell lung carcinoma. Using the evolution equation for tumor radius with time delay, we find that tumors with shorter time interval to the onset of apoptosis shrink faster.
Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics, May 2016
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Title: Large Scale Integration of Sustainable Energy and Congestion Management in Western Interconnection
Creator: Aflaki Khosrosha, Kaveh
Date: 2012-07-12, 2012-07
Description: Large scale sustainable energy like wind and solar energy integration to the bulk grid could introduce inevitable challenges to regional...
Show moreLarge scale sustainable energy like wind and solar energy integration to the bulk grid could introduce inevitable challenges to regional transmission and generation systems. The most important challenges for transmission system are the congestion management and planning for transmission expansion to transfer the zero cost generated electricity. Another big challenge is competition of current fuel based generation units in the electricity market with zero cost sustainable energy. In this dissertation all these challenges identified and analyzed for large scale grid. This thesis brings a new method used to study transmission congestions in Western Interconnection of the United States. The process involved Security-Constrained Unit Commitment (SCUC) formulation applying its results for analysis of transmission congestion. This thesis also presents results and findings in simulation of the system operation in the Western Interconnection of the United States with the inclusion of large scale wind and solar energy integration for year 2030. High level of wind and solar energy with the forecasted wind and solar time series profiles were integrated to the Western Interconnection grid. Their impact on different existing types of generation plants is studied. The sensitivity of the fuel prices, wind turbine power output, load volatility and demand side management as well as carbon tax are analyzed in different possible scenarios. In order to incorporate large scale of sustainable energy into a bulk electricity grid footprint, planned transmission expansion showed need to take place. Transmission expansion reduces grid congestion and balances Locational Marginal Prices (LMP). This thesis explores the advancements in high-performance computing and visual analytics of economic-based transmission expansion in the Western Electricity Coordinating Council (WECC). This expansion is based on 2018 and 2029 forecasted data. It identifies transmission congestions and average of LMP for each area, and expands the transmission system while accommodating large scale wind and solar energy to achieve the Department of Energy’s renewable energy vision for year 2030. An iterative transmission expansion analysis, based on the average LMP for each area, is used to identify the minimum WECC transmission lines required. All results are visualized on the Geographical Information System (GIS) format map of North America.
Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering, July 2012
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Title: AXISYMMETRICAL JET FORCED BY FUNDAMENTAL AND SUBHARMONIC TONES
Creator: Raman, G, Rice, Ej
Date: 1991-07
Publisher: AMER INST AERONAUT ASTRONAUT
Description: A circular jet was excited simultaneously by two harmonically related tones. The results of this excitation on jet behavior are reported for...
Show moreA circular jet was excited simultaneously by two harmonically related tones. The results of this excitation on jet behavior are reported for three pairs of Strouhal numbers [St(D) = f*D/U(j) = 0.2 and 0.4, 0.3 and 0.6, 0.4 and 0.8]. For each case, the initial phase difference between the two tones was varied in steps of 45 deg for one full cycle, and the amplitude of the fundamental and subharmonic tones was varied independently over the range of 0.1-7.0% of the jet exit velocity. Several results of this study agreed with other published findings, such as a critical amplitude or the fundamental being required for subharmonic augmentation and the initial phase difference being critical in determining whether the subharmonic is augmented or suppressed. In addition, the detailed documentation or several aspects of this phenomenon, measured in the same experimental facility in a controlled manner, brought out two important points that had eluded previous researchers. First, at high levels of the fundamental and subharmonic forcing amplitudes, the subharmonic augmentation is independent of the initial phase difference. Second, two-frequency excitation is indeed more effective than single-frequency excitation in jet mixing enhancement. Higher spreading rates seem to go along with higher subharmonic levels.
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Title: A study of the effects produced on Portland cement by the addition of various percentages of hydrated lime
Creator: Knuepfer, Claude Albert, Hook, Leonard Doolittle
Date: 2009, 1915
Publisher: Armour Institute of Technology
Description: http://www.archive.org/details/studyofeffectspr00knue
Thesis (B.S.)--Armour Institute of Technology; Bibliography: leaf 99

Title: CORROSION-RESISTANT ELECTRO-CATALYSTS AND SUPPORTS FOR ELECTROCHEMICAL ENERGY CONVERSION
Creator: Wang, Guanxiong
Date: 2016, 2016-12
Description: Polymer electrolyte fuel cells (PEFCs) convert chemical energy of fuels (eg. Hydrogen) directly to electrical energy with excellent power...
Show morePolymer electrolyte fuel cells (PEFCs) convert chemical energy of fuels (eg. Hydrogen) directly to electrical energy with excellent power density, high efficiency, and zero emissions. Several challenges have delayed the commercialization of fuel cells with one being the high cost and durability of the carbon-supported-platinum-based (Pt/C) electrocatalysts. The lifetime/durability issue is critical as insufficient durability/reliability of the catalysts affects the lifetime and economical viability of these devices. Carbon support corrosion is a major durability issue since the corrosion reaction is thermodynamically favorable but kinetically sluggish under normal operating conditions. The potential transients that occur during start and stop in automotive applications can lead to electrode potential excursions of up to 1.5 V and contribute to carbon corrosion. The best way to mitigate support corrosion in PEFCs is to replace the carbon supports with alternatives having high electronic conductivity, surface area and porosity. This dissertation investigates the following carbon alternatives: (i) tin doped indium oxide (ITO) and (ii) 1:1 mixed oxides of ruthenia and silica (RSO). Microstructure characterization and electrochemical evaluations, including accelerated stress tests (start-up/shut-down and load cycling protocols) were performed to evaluate ORR activity, fuel cell performance, and electrochemical stability under PEFC operating conditions. The ITO support and 40%Pt/ITO catalysts demonstrated exceptional electrochemical stability (and reasonable ORR activity) in rotating disk electrode (RDE) experiments under accelerated potential cycling that mimicked automotive drive cycles. However, Pt/ITO exhibited poor performance and stability during MEA evaluation in a PEFC. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) was employed to reveal the degradation modes of Pt/ITO during PEFC operation and it was found that the increase in the surface hydroxide concentration generates a passivating In(OH)3 layer that increases electrode resistance and undermines PEFC performance. The influence of the catalyst support on PEM degradation during PEFC operation was also studied. Rotating ring-disk electrode (RRDE) experiments were employed to estimate the fraction of H2O2 generated during the ORR on the supports (C and RSO) and catalysts (benchmark Pt/C and Pt/RSO). The percentage of H2O2 generated on C and Pt/C was 50% higher than that on RSO and Pt/RSO thus explaining the observed oxidative degradation resistance of the PEM with the latter supports/catalysts.
Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering, December 2016
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Title: A modular simulation package for fed-batch fermentation: penicillin production
Creator: Birol, G., Undey, C., Cinar, A.
Date: 2002-11-15
Publisher: PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD
Description: Simulation software based on a detailed unstructured model for penicillin production in a fed-batch fermentor has been developed. The model...
Show moreSimulation software based on a detailed unstructured model for penicillin production in a fed-batch fermentor has been developed. The model extends the mechanistic model of Bajpai and Reuss by adding input variables such as pH, temperature, aeration rate, agitation power, and feed flow rate of substrate and introducing the CO2 evolution term. The simulation package was then used for monitoring and fault diagnosis of a typical penicillin fermentation process. The simulator developed may be used for both research and educational purposes and is available at the web site: http://www.chee.iit.edu/ similar to control/software.html.
Endnote format citation
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Title: AUTOMATIC SUMMARIZATION OF CLINICAL ABSTRACTS FOR EVIDENCE-BASED MEDICINE
Creator: Summerscales, Rodney L.
Date: 2013, 2013-12
Description: The practice of evidence-based medicine (EBM) encourages health professionals to make informed treatment decisions based on a careful analysis...
Show moreThe practice of evidence-based medicine (EBM) encourages health professionals to make informed treatment decisions based on a careful analysis of current research. However, after caring for their patients, medical practitioners have little time to spend reading even a small fraction of the rapidly growing body of medical research literature. As a result, physicians must often rely on potentially outdated knowledge acquired in medical school. Systematic reviews of the literature exist for speci c clinical questions, but these must be manually created and updated as new research is published. Abstracts from well-written clinical research papers contain key information regarding the design and results of clinical trials. Unfortunately, the free text nature of abstracts makes it di cult for computer systems to use and time consuming for humans to read. I present a software system that reads abstracts from randomized controlled trials, extracts key clinical entities, computes the e ectiveness of the proposed interventions and compiles this information into machine readable and human readable summaries. This system uses machine learning and natural language processing techniques to extract the key clinical information describing the trial and its results. It extracts the names and sizes of treatment groups, population demographics, outcome measured in the trial and outcome results for each treatment group. Using the extracted outcome measurements, the system calculates key summary measures used by physicians when evaluating the e ectiveness of treatments. It computes absolute risk reduction (ARR) and number needed to treat (NNT) values complete with con dence intervals. The extracted information and computed statistics are automatically compiled into XML and HTML summaries that describe the details and results of the trial. xiii Extracting the necessary information needed to calculate these measures is not trivial. While there have been various approaches to generating summaries of medical research, this work has mostly focused on extracting trial characteristics (e.g. population demographics, intervention/outcome information). No one has attempted to extract all of the information needed, nor has anyone attempted to solve many of the tasks needed to reliably calculate the summary statistics.
PH.D in Computer Science, December 2013
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Title: SUSTAINABLE NEW CITY VAN, TURKEY
Creator: Dursun, Kevser Pinar
Date: 2013, 2013-07
Description: While the negative effects of rapid urbanization is threatening cities and the environment, being more conscientious about the current...
Show moreWhile the negative effects of rapid urbanization is threatening cities and the environment, being more conscientious about the current problems and future expansions of the cities and developing new visions and strategies for new cities is crucial. In this proposal, the aim is to develop a prototype of a sustainable new city in Turkey. Design area is called Carpanak, at the east shore of Lake Van. It is in the north of Van, the biggest city in the Eastern Anatolia district of Turkey. Eastern Anatolia is a mountainous district with a severe climate. The region is less developed than the other regions in every aspect. Severe climate and lack of job opportunities caused outmigration from this region to big cities or onshore regions with more developed industries. A city with sufficient infrastructure, efficient energy solutions, green areas, well-designed transportation, economic viability, and open social structure will help reverse the migration and rescue Eastern Anatolia from being abandoned. It is hoped that the design decisions, ideas, and the research can be applied as an outline to other underdeveloped areas in Turkey.
M.S. in Architecture, July 2013
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Title: OIL RECOVERY IN SINGLE CAPILLARIES AND POROUS MEDIA USING WETTING NANOFLUIDS
Creator: Zhang, Hua
Date: 2016, 2016-05
Description: Recent experiments and modeling conducted in our laboratory have demonstrated that the spreading of nanofluids, liquid suspensions of...
Show moreRecent experiments and modeling conducted in our laboratory have demonstrated that the spreading of nanofluids, liquid suspensions of nanosized particles, on solids are enhanced due to self-structuring of nanoparticles in the confined three-phase oil-nanofluid-solid contact region. Nanofluids have recently been proposed as agents for enhanced oil recovery (EOR). Despite recently widely conducted research using nanofluids for EOR, the underlying operating mechanism is not well understood. In this thesis, we attempt to understand the mechanism of nanofluid based EOR and evaluate its performance from reservoir core samples and model systems (glass capillary and sintered bead-pack). To visualize how oil displacement in the rock pores by nanofluid, we conducted model study using hexadecane and single glass capillary and showed the oil film dynamics in air and nanofluid after oil was displaced in the capillary. Based on the understanding of the role of nanofluid on oil displacement in capillaries, we conducted imbibition tests using Berea sandstones and flooding experiments in sintered glass-beads. X-ray microtomography was used to visualize and analyze fluid distribution and to see the effect of nanofluid in EOR. We finally considered fractured media by fabricating such structures. The dynamics of a cylindrical hexadecane layer deposited inside glass capillaries after the oil/air displacement was studied experimentally and by modeling. The oil layer subject to surface perturbation becomes unstable forming uniform, regularly-spaced double concave menisci across the capillary that are bridged with dimples (collars). In order to reveal the phenomena of the film thinning and stability between the double concave meniscus and the dimple, we monitored an air bubble approaching a flat glass surface in hexadecane. We found that the oil film thinning in a cylindrical glass capillary and on a flat glass substrate were similar; We adapted the model proposed by Gauglitz and Radke for our system (oil-air displacement) and solved it numerically. The numerical result shows a stable film between the liquid bridge and the dimple, which is consistent with our experimental observations. We also estimated the meniscus-film-dimple thickness profile and found it was in fair agreement with the model prediction. The dynamics of cylindrical hexadecane film after displacement by a nanofluid in a glass capillary was studied. We found the thick hexadecane film is unstable, and over time it breaks and forms a thin film. Once the thick film ruptures, it retracts and forms an annular rim (liquid ridge) that collects liquid. As the volume of the annular rim increases over time, it forms a double concave meniscus across the capillary and dewetting stops. The thin film on the right side of the double concave meniscus then breaks and the contact angle increases. The process repeats until droplets build along the capillary wall. Finally, the droplets are displaced from the capillary wall by the nanofluid and spherical droplets appear inside the capillary. This is a novel phenomenon not observed during dewetting by a solution without nanoparticles. The theoretical model based on the lubrication approximation using the capillary pressure gradient was developed to estimate the annular rim dewetting velocity. The predicted dewetting velocity is found to be in fair agreement with the experimental value. We conducted imbibition tests using a reservoir crude oil and a reservoir brine solution with a high salinity and a suitable nanofluid that displaces crude oil from Berea sandstone and single glass capillaries. We present visual evidence of the underlying mechanism based on the structural disjoining pressure for the crude oil displacement using a polymeric nanofluid (our definition of such a fluid means a suspension of polymeric particles in an aqueous substrate) in high salinity brine. The polymeric nanofluid is specially formulated to survive in a high salinity environment and is found to result in an increased efficiency of 50% for Berea sandstone compared to 17% using the brine alone at a reservoir temperature of 55 oC. These results aid our understanding of the role of the nanofluid in displacing crude oil from the rock especially in a high salinity environment containing Ca++ and Mg++ ions. Results are also reported using Berea sandstone and a nanofluid containing silica nanoparticles. We conducted a series of flooding experiments at different capillary numbers to quantify the performance of a polymeric nanofluid compared to brine using the sintered glass-beads. A high resolution X-ray microtomography (microCT) was used to visualize oil and brine distribution in a sintered bead-pack before and after nanofluid flooding. The results of flooding experiments showed that an additional oil recovery of approximately 15% is possible with nanofluids compared to brine at low capillary numbers, and is as effective as high capillary number brine flooding. Nanofluid induced additional oil recovery decreases as we increase the capillary number and the total oil recovered shows a marginal decrease. At first glance, these results are opposite of what one expects in the conventional EOR, where oil recovery is known to increase progressively with increasing capillary number. These results cannot be explained based on mobilization theories due to the reduced capillarity. Our results however are consistent with the mechanism of wettability alteration caused by structural disjoining pressure leading to the formation of the wetting nanofluid film between oil and substrate.We presented experimental studies of nanofluid flooding in fractured porous media formed with sintered glass-beads. The nanofluid injection is conducted at a rate where structural disjoining pressure driven recovery is operational. We found an additional 23.8% oil can be displaced using nanofluid after brine injection with an overall displacement efficiency of 90.4% provided the matrix was in its native wettability state. In summary, nanofluids are excellent EOR agents and their economic viability needs to be examined.
Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering, May 2016
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Title: Interactive Urban Landmark Kiosks for Memorial Walk of Martin Luther King (sequence unknown), IPRO 314 - Deliverables
Creator: O’leary, Kevin, Petty, Sonya, Qi, Tianshu, Tan, Sophia, Noor, Nashrah, Schleich, Kenneth, Akhtar, Ayesha, Cheng, Eric, Kim, James, Parker, Joseph, Saha, Sougata
Date: 2009-12
Description: The objective of this IPRO is to help the students of Gage Park H.S. bring their vision of a memorial to a historical event into existence.
Spo...
Show moreThe objective of this IPRO is to help the students of Gage Park H.S. bring their vision of a memorial to a historical event into existence.
Sponsorship: Gage Park High School
Deliverables for IPRO 314: Interactive Urban Landmark Kiosks for Memorial Walk of Martin Luther King for the fall 2009 semester.
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Title: WIDESPAN: 2030-board 1
Creator: Ninan, Janice
Date: 2011-05, 2010-12
Description: Widespan design.Investigating the integration of windmills into longspan structure and investigating the axial forces of tension to span...
Show moreWidespan design.Investigating the integration of windmills into longspan structure and investigating the axial forces of tension to span grater spans using virtual depth concepts with slender lightweight design.
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Title: Incubator for Small Business Manufacturing
Creator: Victor, Jimeniz
Date: 2010-07-29

Title: The thermal conductivity of various forms of tile and their value as fireproofing materials
Creator: Anderson, S. W., Chamberlin, J. F.
Date: 2009, 1915
Publisher: Armour Institute of Technology
Description: http://www.archive.org/details/thermalconductiv00ande
Thesis (B.S.)--Armour Institute of Technology

Title: COVERAGE AND CONNECTIVITY IN WIRELESS NETWORKS
Creator: Xu, Xiaohua
Date: 2012-04-25, 2012-05
Description: The limited energy resources, instability, and lacking central control in wireless networks motivates the study of connected dominating set ...
Show moreThe limited energy resources, instability, and lacking central control in wireless networks motivates the study of connected dominating set (CDS) which serves as rout- ing backbone to support service discovery, and area monitoring and also broadcasting. The construction of CDS involves both coverage and connectivity. We ¯rst study sev- eral problems related to coverage. Given are a set of nodes and targets in a plane, the problem Minimum Wireless Cover (MWC) seeks the fewest nodes to cover the targets. If all nodes are associated with some positive prices, the problem Cheapest Wireless Cover (CWC) seeks a cheapest set of nodes to cover the targets. If all nodes have bounded lives, the problem Max-Life Wireless Cover (MLWC) seeks wireless coverage schedule of maximum life subject to the life constraints of individ- ual nodes. We present a polynomial time approximation scheme (PTAS) for MWC, and two randomized approximation algorithms for CWC and MLWC respectively. Given a node-weighted graph, the problem Minimum-Weighted Dominating Set (MWDS) is to ¯nd a minimum-weighted vertex subset such that, for any vertex, it is contained in this subset or it has a neighbor contained in this set. We will propose a (4+²)-approximation algorithm for MWDS in unit disk graphs. Meanwhile, for the connecting part, given a node-weighted connected graph and a subset of terminals, the problem Node-Weighted Steiner Tree (NWST) seeks a lightest tree connecting a given set of terminals in a node-weighted graph. We present three approximation algorithms for NWST restricted to UDGs. This dissertation also explores the applications of CDS, and develops e±cient algorithms for the applications such as real-time aggregation scheduling in wireless networks. Given a set of periodic aggregation queries, each query has its own period , and the subset of source nodes Si containing the data, we ¯rst propose a family of e±cient and e®ective real-time scheduling protocols that can answer every job of each query task within a relative delay under resource constraints by addressing the following tightly coupled tasks: routing, transmission plan constructions, node activity scheduling, and packet scheduling. Based on our protocol design, we further propose schedulability test schemes to e±ciently and e®ectively test whether, for a set of queries, each query job can be ¯nished within a ¯nite delay. We also conduct extensive simulations to validate the proposed protocol and evaluate its practical performance. The simulations corroborate our theoretical analysis.
Ph.D. in Computer Science, May 2012
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