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Full-Text Articles in Engineering

Preliminary Testing Of Plasma-Induced Combustion, Ahmed Thalib Razi, Carson Slabaugh, Robert Lucht Aug 2014

Preliminary Testing Of Plasma-Induced Combustion, Ahmed Thalib Razi, Carson Slabaugh, Robert Lucht

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Plasma-induced combustion (PIC) has been shown to improve the reliability, efficiency, and delay time of ignition in flight systems like augmentors and scramjets. These high-velocity systems are mostly used in military applications, and improvement may help commercial viability. To understand this chemical process, the concentration of radicals, particularly H radicals, must be tracked through the flame using laser diagnostics. This requires a steady source of plasma-assisted combustion to be secured and well-understood. A plasma torch flowing partially premixed air and methane was installed and successfully operated, and preliminary testing was carried out. Primarily it was observed that PIC created stable …


The Role Of Surface Area In Catalytic Gasification Of Biomass, Elizabeth A. Wachs, Nitish Kumar, Indraneel Sircar, Prithviraja Basak, Jay P. Gore Phd Aug 2014

The Role Of Surface Area In Catalytic Gasification Of Biomass, Elizabeth A. Wachs, Nitish Kumar, Indraneel Sircar, Prithviraja Basak, Jay P. Gore Phd

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Gasification of biomass has the potential to provide a carbon-negative source of liquid fuels. The current limited use of gasification is due in part to the high temperatures necessary to achieve high conversion levels. These temperatures can be lowered by the use of catalysts, but the mechanisms by which catalysts affect the reaction rate are not fully understood. Here, the structural component of potassium carbonate’s role in the gasification process was examined. Samples of pinewood sawdust were impregnated with potassium carbonate, then pyrolyzed with N2 in a fixed bed reactor at 750°C (heater thermocouple reading). Half of the char was …


Radiation Measurements And Data Analysis Of Turbulent Premixed Lean Flame, Yunzhe Yang, Dong Han, Jay P. Gore Aug 2014

Radiation Measurements And Data Analysis Of Turbulent Premixed Lean Flame, Yunzhe Yang, Dong Han, Jay P. Gore

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

An accurate understanding of the radiation transfer in turbulent premixed lean flame is critical for improving energy efficiencies and reducing emissions such as nitric oxide and soot. Radiation measurement is an effective and nonintrusive way to study the radiation properties of turbulent premixed lean flames. In this study, a high-speed infrared camera was utilized to measure the planar radiation from turbulent premixed lean flames under different conditions. Time-dependent flame images were acquired and radiation statistics were calculated and compared to investigate the effects of equivalence ratio, heat release rate, hydrogen pilot flame rate, and co-flow rate on the radiation intensity …


Thermal Properties Of Soft Nanomaterials: Materials Synthesis And Fabrication, Meng Pan, Collier Miers, Amy Marconnet, Yu Han Aug 2014

Thermal Properties Of Soft Nanomaterials: Materials Synthesis And Fabrication, Meng Pan, Collier Miers, Amy Marconnet, Yu Han

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

The properties of soft nanomaterials are hard to measure exactly due to their mechanical properties and unstable shape. In particular, hydrogels are a class of cross-linked polymers that can absorb large quantities of water changing their shape under the influence of various conditions such as humidity, temperature, and pH. This research addresses the fabrication of a material that has a significant contrast in properties under different conditions (e.g. temperature, wetting, and pH) and determine the physical mechanisms of heat transfer in this nanomaterial. The hydrogels are made using a several cycles of a freeze-thaw method. The method requires soluble material. …


Thermal Properties Of Soft Nanomaterials: Thermal Measurement Design, Yu Han, Meng Pan, Amy Marconnet, Collier Miers Aug 2014

Thermal Properties Of Soft Nanomaterials: Thermal Measurement Design, Yu Han, Meng Pan, Amy Marconnet, Collier Miers

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Soft materials like hydrogels have multiple tunable material properties because of their unique structures. Due to the ability to respond to stimuli like temperature or chemical environment, they have numerous applications in different fields like delivering drugs inside the human body and other medical uses. Details of the thermal transport mechanisms, as well as the overall thermal properties, are critical for a variety of applications. Multi-property measurements elucidate the underlying transport mechanisms in the soft materials. This research demonstrates a new methodology of measuring thermal properties of soft materials. This work uses the 3w method [1,2] for measuring the thermal …