published_or_final_version / Chemistry / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Chemistry / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

Non-destructive testing (NDT) plays an important role today in condition assessment of civil infrastructure. Among these NDT methods, the Impact-Echo (IE) method is widely used to determine the thickness of a plate structure and locate delaminations in concrete. The conventional IE test uses a contact impact source and a contact sensor, which limits the scanning speed. Recent studies show the feasibility of applying the air-coupled sensing technology to the IE test. With the contact requirement eliminated, a fully air-coupled NDT system can be realized to achieve rapid scanning on large scale structures. In this dissertation, the air-coupled IE test is first simulated using 2D finite element models. The numerical simulation results are validated by experimental measurements. It is shown that the airborne IE mode is a quasi-plane wave in air. A parabolic reflector is proposed to focus the airborne IE wave and amplify the air-coupled IE test signals. The focusing effect is validated by experimental results. By applying a parabolic reflector to the air-coupled sensor, it is found that large sensor lift-off height and source-receiver spacing can be used in the air-coupled IE test. The geometry of the parabolic reflector and source-receiver spacing are optimized using numerical simulations. A focused spark source is proposed as a non-contact source for the fully air-coupled test system. The spark source is first calibrated in an anechoic chamber. The feasibility of using the focused spark source for stress wave excitation is validated by experiments. A fully air-coupled testing system is realized by combining the air-coupled sensor and the air-coupled source. Experimental studies show that this system can measure surface wave and the IE mode. The fully air-coupled system is tested using a conventional IE test setup and a through transmission test setup. An acoustic muffler is introduced to suppress the acoustic noise from the spark source. Several advanced signal processing techniques to reduce the acoustic noises are also investigated. The air-coupled sensor has been adopted on a crawler NDT system for concrete inspection in a noisy field environment. / text

Kyoto University (京都大学) / 0048 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(工学) / 甲第18991号 / 工博第4033号 / 新制||工||1621 / 31942 / 京都大学大学院工学研究科電気工学専攻 / (主査)教授 引原 隆士, 教授 土居 伸二, 教授 小林 哲生 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当

M. Tech. Chemistry. / Methods developed for the analysis of used oil can play a vital role in monitoring the condition of engines and may help to improve overall equipment effectiveness. Quantification of trace elements in used lubricating oil forms a vital part in monitoring engine conditions and impact on the environment. The main objective of this work is to investigate methods used for the accurate determination of trace elements in lubricating oils. In this study, inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES) was used for the determination of trace elements (Ag, Ba, Cu, Mn and Ni) in lubricating oils.

Two-phase flow occurs during the production of oil and gas in the wellbores. Modeling this phenomenon is important for monitoring well productivity and designing surface facilities. Since the transient time period in the wellbore is usually shorter than reservoir time steps, stabilized flow is assumed in the wellbore. As such, semi-steady state models are used for modeling wellbore flow dynamics. However, in the case that flow variations happen in a short period of time (i.e., a gas kick during drilling) the use of a transient two-phase model is crucial. Over the last few years, a number of numerical and analytical wellbore simulators have been developed to mimic wellbore-reservoir interaction. However, some issues still remain a concern in these studies. The main issues surrounding a comprehensive wellbore model consist of fluid property calculations, such as black-oil or compositional models, governing equations, such as mechanistic or correlation-based models, effect of temperature variation and non-isothermal assumption, and methods for coupling the wellbore to the reservoir. In most cases, only standalone wellbore models for blackoil have been used to simulate reservoir and wellbore dynamic interactions. Those models are based on simplified assumptions that lead to an unrealistic estimation of pressure and temperature distributions inside the well. In addition, most reservoir simulators use rough estimates for the perforation pressure as a coupling condition between the wellbore and the reservoir, neglecting pressure drops in the horizontal section. In this study, we present an implementation of a compositional, pseudo steady-state, non-isothermal, coupled wellbore-reservoir simulator for fluid flow in wellbores with a vertical section and a horizontal section embedded on the producing reservoir. In addition, we present the implementation of a pseudo-compositional, fully implicit, transient two-fluid model for two-phase flow in wellbores. In this model, we solve gas/liquid mass balance, gas/liquid momentum balance, and two-phase energy equations in order to obtain the five primary variables: liquid velocity, gas velocity, pressure, holdup and temperature. In our simulation, we compared stratified, bubbly, intermittent flow effects on pressure and temperature distributions in either a transient or steady-state condition. We found that flow geometry variation in different regimes can significantly affect the flow parameters. We also observed that there are significant differences in flow rate prediction between a coupled wellbore-reservoir simulator and a stand-alone reservoir simulator, at the early stages of production. The outcome of this research leads to a more accurate and reliable simulation of multiphase flow in the wellbore, which can be applied to surface facility design, well performance optimization, and wellbore damage estimation. / text

published_or_final_version / Chemistry / Master / Master of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Chemistry / Master / Master of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Chemistry / Master / Master of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Chemistry / Master / Master of Philosophy