Digital Commons Network^™

Modeling The Controlled Delivery Power Grid, Vinit Madhukar Sahasrabudhe

Theses

Competitive energy markets, stricter regulation, and the integration of distributed renewable energy sources are forcing companies to reengineer energy production and distribution. The Controlled Delivery Power Grid is proposed as a novel approach to transport energy from generators to consumers. In this approach, energy distribution is performed in an asynchronous and distributed fashion. Much like the Internet, energy is delivered as addressable packets, which allow a controlled delivery of energy.

As a proof-of-concept of the controllable delivery grid, two experimental test beds, one with integrated energy storage and another with no energy storage, were designed and built to evaluate the …

Effect Of Endplate On The Blast Wave Profile In A Compressed Gas Shock Tube, Sudeepto Kahali

Theses

Blast related brain injuries are commonly encountered in the recent wars of Iraq and Afghanistan increased use of improvised explosive devices (IEDs). An estimated 20% of veterans returning from these operations have suffered traumatic brain injuries (TBI). The mechanisms and long-term effects of the injury are not fully understood, and extensive research effort is being focused toward identifying the mechanisms of primary blast injury. When a pure shock-blast wave encounters a subject, in the absence of shrapnel, casing or gaseous products, the loading is termed as primary blast loading, and its effects can be studied using shock tubes.

The wave …

Processing And Characterization Of Graphene And Graphene On Silicon, Cheng Peng

Theses

Graphene has become a promising material for applications in many areas including electronic devices, batteries and space crafts. Although it has a bright future, the commercial production of graphene has not yet been realized. In this thesis, an overview of the properties and applications of graphene is presented. The early research of preparing graphene and its composites is summarized, which gives the basis to synthesize graphene and improve the process. In this study, graphene oxide (GO) and graphene have been successfully made using graphite; graphene layer has been coated on the surface of a silicon wafer. The resulting specimens are …

An Extended Duration Operation For Solid Hollow Fiber Cooling Crystallization Method, Chi Jin

Theses

As recently demonstrated by Chen et al. [1], the solid hollow fiber cooling crystallization method to achieve continuous polymer coating/encapsulation of submicrometer particles, has advantages of no problem with high pressure, easy scale-up and production of free-flowing coated particles. There is a concern whether this crystallization method can be applied for an extended duration coating process; it was not investigated in the previous study. Therefore, in order to examine this problem, in this work, the duration of the whole crystallization coating process has been greatly extended from 5 min to 60 min and 120 min. For the purpose of being …

Principles And Applications Of Mechanical Dry Coating - Review And State-Of-The-Art, Sayani Bhaumik

Theses

Dry Coating of powders to form composite particulates has been firmly established and has garnered interest both in academia and industry due to its myriad applications. This thesis work is an attempt to map the progress of the dry coating technology from its incipient years in the '80s to the thriving practice in the present day. Dry coating is a relatively simple approach to coat powders with specific guest particles via mechanical means to produce composites with desired tailor-made properties, without the constraints of harmful emissions or huge capital investment. Composite particulates with enhanced flowability, high-temperature resistant properties, and modified …

Computational Studies Of Electronic Structure Of Doped Graphene, Yan Chu

Theses

In the literature, extensive studies have been performed to study the electronic properties of doped graphene. This is due to the potentially large number of applications of graphene in p-n junctions, transistors, photodiodes and lasers. By utilizing single heteroatom chemical doping method or electric field-induced method, one can introduce a band gap, ranging from 0.1eV to 0.5eV, in graphene. A tunable bandgap is highly desirable because it would allow significant flexibility in the design and optimization of such devices, particularly if it could be tuned by adjusting the doping configurations. Here, we demonstrate the realization of a widely tunable electronic …

Modeling Of Electrical Behavior Of Graphene-Based Ultracapacitors, Patrick Dzisah

Theses

Graphene has been identified as a promising material for energy storage, especially for high performance ultracapacitors. Graphene-based ultracapacitors show high stability, significantly-improved capacitance and energy density with fast charging and discharging time at a high current density, due to enhanced ionic electrolyte accessibility in deeper regions. The surface area of a single graphene sheet is 2630 m2/g, substantially higher than values derived from Brunauer Emmett Teller (BET) surface area measurements of activated carbons used in the current electrochemical double layer capacitors.

In an ultracapacitor cell, chemically modified graphene (CMG) materials demonstrate high specific capacitances of 135 and 99 F/g in …

Structural Health Monitoring Of Bridges Using Wireless Sensor Networks, Seyed Behrad Ghazi Sharyatpanahi

Theses

Structural Health Monitoring, damage detection and localization of bridges using Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) are studied in this thesis. The continuous monitoring of bridges to detect damage is a very useful tools for preventing unnecessary costly and emergent maintenance. The optimal design aims to maximize the lifetime of the system, the accuracy of the sensed data, and the system reliability, and to minimize the system cost and complexity

Finite Element Analysis (FEA) is carried out using LUSAS Bridge Plus software to determine sensor locations and measurement types and effectively minimize the number of sensors, data for transmission, and volume of …

Thermal Properties Of Graphene, Vishal Vijay Nakhate

Theses

The two-dimensional (2D) monolayer structure of carbon atoms were initially considered as unstable. The 2D materials have recently been discovered and many researchers have started analyzing these materials. Graphene, a two-dimensional allotrope of graphite with sp2 bonded carbon atoms, is arranged in honeycomb structure. Graphene has excellent thermal conductivity and can be considered as a potential material for applications in the electronics industry where heating of materials is a serious concern.

In this study, thermal properties of p and n doped graphene nanosheets and nanoribbons are studied as function of percentage composition of the dopants and the direction of dissipation …

Tendon Reflex Protocol For Exploring The Mechanisms Associated With Whole Body Vibration, Ikechukwu Okeke

Theses

Whole body vibration (WBV) machines have in recent years been widely used as rehabilitation equipment. Whole body vibration has been shown to have positive effects on muscle response. Cerebral palsy (CP) is a neurodevelopmental condition that includes a group of non-progressive, but often changing, motor impairment syndromes arising in the early stages of human development. The aim of this project was to design a protocol and related instruments to assess the tendon reflex in response to WBV. Both a press pedal used for measuring the force exerted by the foot and a hammer used for measuring the stimulating force were …

Behavior Of Deformed Dermal Fibroblasts Seeded On A Silicon Membrane Under High Levels Of Strain, Laura Osorno

Theses

The main objective of this thesis is to understand, from a molecular perspective, the morphological and functional abnormalities of human dermal fibroblasts as a response to deformation produced by a normal force that can lead to the potential formation of stretch marks in pregnant women, adolescents, and people with Cushing's syndrome. The main function of dermal fibroblasts is to produce the essential fibrous components of the extracellular matrix (ECM) of the skin.

In order to study the mechanism of stretch mark formation, neonatal human dermal fibroblasts were seeded on a silicon membrane for controlled deformation. Upon reaching a confluence of …

Experimental Determination Of The Agitation Requirements For Solids Suspension In Dissolution Systems Using A Mini Paddle Apparatus, Yang Song

Theses

Dissolution testing is a critical step in quality control of manufactured final products in the pharmaceutical industry. The United State Pharmacopeia (USP) Dissolution Testing Apparatus 2 (paddle) is the most widely used dissolution test devices in the pharmaceutical industry to formulate solid drug dosage forms and to develop quality control specifications for its manufacturing process.

Mini vessels and mini paddle dissolution testing systems are smaller versions of the USP 2 Apparatus. The concept of the mini paddle apparatus is similar to that of the USP 2 setup but it is scaled down about to 1/5 of the volume and 40% …

Effect Of Impeller Submergence On Power Dissipation And Solids Suspension In Mixing Systems Equipped With Pitch-Blade Turbines, Yufeng Song

Theses

Mixing and dispersion of solids in a liquid is a process frequently encountered in the pharmaceutical industry and often conducted in cylindrical baffled tanks stirred by mechanical impellers. In operations where the liquid level is decreased (as often which emptying the tank) the process must be stopped when the solids are no longer suspended. In this work, the minimum agitation to suspend solids (Njs) when the liquid level was lowered, and the impeller submergence S_b changed as a result were determined for the case of a six-blade, pitch-blade turbine (6-PBT) impeller. The power consumed by the impeller …

Ultracapacitors For Off Grid Wind Power Systems, Hans Tanis

Theses

The main reason for wind turbine to be not as prevalent as traditional power systems is because they do not have an effective storage capacity. However, researchers in material science and engineering have found ways to resolve this problem by developing “ultracapacitors” that store energy by assembling ions at the surface of a porous material. That is why ultracapacitors coupled with the energy storage battery could present a challenge to the electrical power grid. Such a design allows ultracapacitors to charge in matter of minutes and not hours. This innovation would create a significant impact on electronic items such as …

Design, Construction And Characterization Ofa Magnetic Augmented Rotation System (Mars) Based Wind Turbine, Da Li

Theses

Magnetic Augmented Rotation System (MARS) works by magnetic field coupling, to transfer torque from the driver to the rotor without contact. This characteristic has significant applications to the wind turbine but research in combination of MARS and wind turbine has not been done in the literature. In this thesis, a small-scale wind turbine is designed, built and characterized in a prototype wind tunnel. The test results are analyzed and computer-aided software simulation is used as an auxiliary method to understand the mechanism of MARS. The power coefficient of this new wind turbine is estimated to be about 40%. The “gear …

Bio-Medicinal Application For Plasma Electrolytic Oxidation Of Metals, Zunjian Yang

Theses

Plasma electrolytic oxidation (PEO), a novel method for forming ceramic coatings on metals, has been researched extensively in recent times. By applying high voltage between dielectric thin films, a plasma micro-arc is induced through penetration of breakdown in film boiling layer. Such a method takes advantage of high processing time, low equipment requirement and advanced coating performance.

Titanium alloys, Ti-6Al-4V and pure Titanium Grade 2, are two of most common Titanium alloys in daily use. Both of such Titanium alloys show great potential utilization in bio-medicinal application, especially in implants, for its excellent biocompatibility, high tensile strength, and high elastic …

Optical Properties Of Black Silicon - An Analysis, Suramya Sekhri

Theses

Silicon is the preeminent solar cell material of the day because it is the first semiconductor that was learned to commercialize and continues to be the principal semiconducting material used in photovoltaic technology for the manufacture of solar cells. Silicon, an indirect band gap semiconducting material, has a reflectance of about 30% in the visible range of wavelengths. Standard Silicon solar cells are not entirely useful in the infrared spectrum region. In order to enhance the performance of Silicon solar cells, reflectance losses must be minimized and absorption must be maximized. In the solar cell industry, anti-reflection (AR) coating is …

The Kinetics Of Drug Dissolution In Polymers During Hot-Melt Extrusion, Huayang Fang

Theses

Extrusion has been a most important and widely used continuous process in polymer processing for over one hundred and fifty years. However, it has only been recently applied and adopted by the pharmaceutical industry to prepare solid oral dosage formulations with increased bioavailability for the poorly-water soluble drugs and controlled release characteristics for the water-soluble drugs. In pharmaceutical Hot-melt extrusion poorly water soluble drug particulates are mixed with water soluble polymer excipient particulates and fed in the extruder, where the polymer is melted, after which the drug particulates begin to dissolve into the polymer melt. Extrusion-generated mixing accelerates dissolution process. …

Simulation Of Electronic And Optical Properties Of Graphene, Biao Leng

Theses

Graphene is a recently discovered two-dimensional crystal. Due to its excellent electronic properties, transport properties, optical properties, and many other features, it has tremendous potential for applications in many areas. This thesis discusses the structure and properties of graphene using several different models of graphene and carries out detailed theoretical studies and calculations of its electronic and optical properties. Using two modules of Materials Studio, CASTAP and Doml3, four graphene models have been constructed. Their electronic and optical properties have also been calculated via these two modules. By comparing the results of calculations with experimental results and the literature, the …

Differentiation Of Mouse Embryonic Stem Cells Into Insulin-Producing Cells: Optimization To Enhance The Overall Differentiation Efficiency, Xiaotang Ma

Theses

Embryonic stem cells have the potential to differentiate into multiple cell types including insulin-producing cells (IPCs), which is becoming one of the promising cell sources for treating type 1 diabetes mellitus. However, in order to achieve functional stem cell-derived cells, it is important to generate more mature IPCs and to keep long-term viability post differentiation process. In this study, we varied several factors including different embryonic body culture conditions, digested cells seeding density and various coatings required for differentiation to optimize a previously established protocol to enhance the overall differentiation efficiency. Moreover, a three-dimensional in vitro collagen tissue culture system …

Experimental Determination Of Solids Suspension With Angled Impeller In A Pharmaceutical Mixing Vessel, Yingxi Tang

Theses

Angled-mounted impellers are commonly used in a number of pharmaceutical industry applications, from laboratory reactors to full-scale tanks. In these systems, the impeller is not centrally and vertically mounted, as in most stirred vessels, but it enters the vessel, and is therefore immersed in the fluid, at an angle from the vertical. This arrangement provides some baffling effects that would not otherwise exist if the impeller was centrally mounted.

One common requirement for such systems is that they are capable of suspending small solids dispersed in the liquid. Therefore, it is critical to know the value of the minimum agitation …

Hollow Cathode Sputtering System - Installation, Operation And Theoretical Background, Sebastian Falk

Theses

The objective of this work was to assemble, install and operate a hollow cathode sputtering system (HCSS). Therefore a complex vacuum system was built to create the right sputtering environment. The purpose of the HCSS is to develop advanced thin conducting oxides (TCOs) as well as high resistivity transparent (HRT) layers which are used for thin film photovoltaic technology, particularly cadmium telluride based and copper indium gallium selenide based solar cells.

A theoretical background of the thin film technology and a comparison of different deposition methods in regards to the sputtering process is provided. Thereby, an in-depth investigation of zinc …

Design, Construction And Characterization Of A Wind Tunnel, Chang Ge

Theses

The wind tunnel is the most fundamental test equipment for aircraft testing and studying aerodynamics. Because of the complexity of the test-subject's geometry, it is difficult to study the aerodynamic pattern simply based on theoretical calculations. Most of the aerodynamics experiments still use wind tunnels. The progress of the wind tunnel is highly related to the advancements in air crafts. Aircraft manufacturing has pushed the wind tunnel technology forward. Wind tunnels can be categorized by the wind speed limit differences, which are controlled by the mechanism of the driving methods, structure applications, etc. In this case, we built a small …

Development Of A Finite Element Method For Light Activated Polymers, Craig Hamel

Theses

Traditional Shape Memory Polymers (SMPs) belong to a class of smart materials which have shown promise for a wide range of applications. They are characterized by their ability to maintain a temporary deformed shape and return to an original parent permanent shape. The first SMPs developed responded to changes in temperature by exploiting the difference in modulus and chain mobility through the glass transition temperature. However, in recent years, new SMPs have been developed that respond to other stimuli besides temperature; these can include electricity, magnetism, changes in chemical concentration, and even light.

In this thesis, we consider the photo-mechanical …

Review Of Steganalysis Of Digital Images, Xinlei Pan

Theses

Steganography is the science and art of embedding hidden messages into cover multimedia such as text, image, audio and video. Steganalysis is the counterpart of steganography, which wants to identify if there is data hidden inside a digital medium. In this study, some specific steganographic schemes such as HUGO and LSB are studied and the steganalytic schemes developed to steganalyze the hidden message are studied. Furthermore, some new approaches such as deep learning and game theory, which have seldom been utilized in steganalysis before, are studied. In the rest of thesis study some steganalytic schemes using textural features including the …

Fates Of Spilt Oil And Factors Affecting The Bio-Degradation Of Oil: A Review, Amogh-Ranganath Chakravarthy

Theses

The usage of crude oil and its products is increasing; in turn, the number of spills is also going up. The inland spills are the more recurrent spills in the U.S today. This review article deals with the weathering of oils, which commences just after oil spills into the environment with various processes such as evaporation, dissolution, photo-oxidation, dispersion, emulsification and bio-degradation along with other possible fates. Biodegradation is one of the most significant processes of weathering which depends on oil physical and chemical characteristics, environmental characteristics, pH, salinity and oil concentration. There is a range of oil concentration for …

Assessment Of Flood Protection Strategies For Combined Critical Infrastructure Failure And Hurricane/Storm Surge Events In The Meadowlands Area, Nisharg Dipakkumar Dalwadi

Theses

As a result of a wide-reaching comprehensive post-Sandy NJIT project entitled "Flood Mitigation Engineering Resource Center (FMERC)", a detailed investigation of alternative measures for flood mitigation in the Meadowlands area was completed in June 2014. The project involved the assessment of flood impacts, and the evaluation of a range of structural and non-structural capital improvement measures, maintenance, operations and regulatory measures, and broad system design and redundancy measures.

The basic objective of this thesis is to develop an innovative procedure for the enumeration and simulation of probability-weighted combined events, e.g., Oradell dam failure under various scenarios (sunny day, water level, …

Petri Net Models Of Microgrids With Distributed Generators, Xiaoyu Lu

Theses

This thesis introduces some basic concepts and control methods about a microgrid. Then, two hot issues are investigated. One is how to control multiple distributed generators; and another is how to model both discrete event and continuous behaviors of a microgrid. To address these two issues, this thesis work applies Petri nets to both modeling and control of a microgrid. Ordinary Petri nets, hybrid Petri nets, and finite capacity Petri nets, are introduced with their examples targeted at modeling the behavior of a microgrid. Coordination control of multiple distributed generators based on a Petri net model is proposed. Compared with …

An Electrospinning Apparatus For The Production Of Heterogeneous Scaffolds And Their Application In Cartilage Regeneration, Andrew Ryan Hollingsworth

Theses

The human body contains a vast array of soft and hard tissues, each with their own unique set of physical, chemical, mechanical, and electrical properties. It is the combination of these tissues that allows the human body to function as it does. However, these tissues are subject to wear, fatigue, and injury and thus can potentially limit the functions of the body. Therefore, tissue engineering has sought various natural and synthetic materials that can be used for fabrication of cellular scaffolds that have the ability to promote cellular attachment, proliferation, differentiation, and eventual whole tissue formation for replacement and repair …

Combustion Dynamics Of Metal Powders In Mixed Gas Flows, Amy Lee Corcoran

Theses

Predictive mechanisms for particle ignition and combustion rates are required in order to develop optimized propellant and energetic formulations using micron-sized metal powders, such as aluminum and magnesium. Most current descriptions are based on laboratory experiments performed in stationary or laminar combustion configurations using pure metals burned in single oxidizers. However, practical configurations take into account different metals, including alloys, that burn in various oxidizing environments and various flow conditions. Validity of the present descriptions for such environments has not been established. This experimental study is aimed to measure burn times for aluminum, magnesium, and mechanically alloyed Al-Mg particles burning …