Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2000. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 235-255). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.

Thesis--M. Phil., University of Hong Kong, 1985.

Th. univ.--Université de Nantes--Ecole nationale supérieure de mécanique, 1987. / 1988 d'après la déclaration de dépôt légal. Bibliogr. p. 112-119.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1983. / Typescript. Vita. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 209-218).

Thèse 3 cycle--Mathématiques appliquées à l'économie--Dijon, 1979. / 1980 d'après la déclaration de dépôt légal. Bibliogr. p. 199-200.

Thesis (Ph.D.), Memorial University of Newfoundland, 1998. / Bibliography: leaves 230-240.

Wind power is the fastest growing sector of electricity generation in the world and the development of offshore wind resources is an increasingly important component of this growth. While more than 1.5GW have been installed in Europe and China, no turbines have been installed in United States waters even though several have been planned. Offshore wind power development in the United States must contend with significant challenges. There are numerous technical considerations including geological issues and undefined environmental conditions that affect the determination of appropriate design loads. Technological advancements are needed, and logistical questions must be addressed. The regulatory structure can be confusing and most permitting frameworks are not well established. Offshore wind projects are capital intensive and concerns exist that the industry will not be able to achieve a suitable economy of scale. Additionally, concerns about offshore wind impacts cross many areas such as the environment, visual and cultural concerns, navigational issues, and competing uses. This research project examines the technical issues of American offshore wind power and models basic project costs to provide an estimate of the total net present value for hypothetical utility-scale offshore wind projects in the United States. Costs have been examined by building a cost model and employing traditional cash flow analysis, regression, design of experiments, and random sampling techniques. / text

Mud pumps used on offshore installations for drilling operations have been known to experience unpredictable breakdowns, including during critical stages of drilling. The fluid end has been identified as requiring more maintenance work due to component failure, compared to the power end. The most common maintenance strategies in use include breakdown maintenance, time-based maintenance and condition monitoring. Time-based maintenance, based on running hours, is the most commonly preferred method by most, if not all, mud pump operators. However, the nature of drilling operations require pump performance with variable loads (pressures), variable speed characteristics and time-based maintenance would not be able to account for the different operating conditions within any identical time frames. To address this shortcoming, this research looked at the postulation that material wear loss is related to the energy expended and developed a dedicated reciprocating wear test system to identify and investigate the effect of operating variables on the wear loss of piston rubbers, which was considered to be the most problematic of the fluid end components.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2006. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 1998. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 399-404). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.