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Theses/Dissertations

Other Mechanical Engineering

2016

Western University

Articles 1 - 6 of 6

Full-Text Articles in Engineering

Fabrication Of Large Mechanically Flexible Multi-Layered Pdms Optical Devices, Robert S. Green Sep 2016

Fabrication Of Large Mechanically Flexible Multi-Layered Pdms Optical Devices, Robert S. Green

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Mechanically flexible large area polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) optical devices are fabricated using soft-lithography techniques based on replica moulding. These non-rigid optical devices can be designed as sheets to act as either light concentrators (collectors) or diffusers (illuminators) based on the position and geometry of micro-optical structures (MOSs) embedded within the sheet or imprinted on its surface. The active surface area of the device can range from less than a sq. cm to several sq. m. The performance of the large area optical device is a function of the location and geometry of micro-optical structures, thickness and shape of the flexible waveguide, …

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Parametric Design, Modeling, And Optical Evaluation Of Retroreflective Prismatic Structures, Sama Hussein Aug 2016

Parametric Design, Modeling, And Optical Evaluation Of Retroreflective Prismatic Structures, Sama Hussein

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Retroreflectors (RR) are defined as passive optical structures that redirect incident light to its originating source. Specific types of retroreflectors called inverted cubes (ICs) function through total internal reflection (TIR) and are used in various applications such as measurement tools, traffic signs and automotive rear and side lighting. This thesis aims to model, analyze, fabricate and study a novel type of IC retroreflectors called right triangular prism (RTP). A parametric approach is used to model existing IC geometries from a generic unit cube and is then implemented to model the novel RTP geometry. Those elements are then tested by optical …

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The Effect Of Mesh-Type Bubble Breakers On Two-Phase Vertical Co-Flow, Alan Kalbfleisch Jun 2016

The Effect Of Mesh-Type Bubble Breakers On Two-Phase Vertical Co-Flow, Alan Kalbfleisch

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

It is proposed that mesh-type bubble breakers can be used in two-phase gas-liquid vertical cocurrent pipe flow to enhance the heat and mass transfer rates. Two experimental studies were performed to investigate the effect of mesh-type bubble breakers with varying geometries on two-phase flow behaviour. The first used highspeed imaging to measure bubble size and observe the resulting flow regime for two-phase vertical co-flow consisting of air and water. A Froude number correlation that can be used to predict the bubble size generated by mesh-type bubble breakers is proposed. Flow regime maps for two-phase flow in the presence of bubble …

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Thermal Modeling For Light Armored Vehicle, Marc-André H. Brooks May 2016

Thermal Modeling For Light Armored Vehicle, Marc-André H. Brooks

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Light Armored vehicles are required to operate in a variety of extremely hot and arid climates. As such, these vehicles are often subject to large heat gains due to environmental factors. The current systems employed for vehicle cooling do not always perform to the levels that are required, mainly due to the lack of a good estimate of the cooling load. A thermal analog circuit was created which separated each of the heat sources into its own module. Using material properties provided by General Dynamics Land Systems as well as information from acquired from CFD studies and ASHRAE, the values …

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Numerical Investigation Of Full Scale Thunderstorm Downbursts: A Parametric Study And Comparison To Meteorological Model, Christopher Oreskovic Apr 2016

Numerical Investigation Of Full Scale Thunderstorm Downbursts: A Parametric Study And Comparison To Meteorological Model, Christopher Oreskovic

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

A series of Large Eddy Simulations using an atmospheric meteorological cloud model have been used to investigate the important geometric and thermal parameters that influence a thunderstorm downburst outflow, as it pertains specifically to the idealized cooling source model. A separate set of Large Eddy Simulations make use of the same idealized cooling source model, in a realistic atmospheric base state using real field sounding data, in an attempt to make a quantifiable comparison to a downburst from a full cloud simulation. Randomness has been added to the cooling source forcing function to mimic the thermal variation in a real …

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Application Of Natural Convection For Photovoltaic Cooling And Photocatalytic Disinfection, Usman J. Rajput Mar 2016

Application Of Natural Convection For Photovoltaic Cooling And Photocatalytic Disinfection, Usman J. Rajput

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Two investigations for improving renewable technologies are engaged. First is the examination of the enhancement of heat transfer at the rear of a hot photovoltaic panel by natural convection using various configurations and the other is analyzing a new photocatalytic collector for water heating and cleaning. A 20 Watt polycrystalline panel is exposed to indoor simulated solar light, under constant ambient temperature and stagnant wind conditions. Three configurations are considered: a partial heat sink, a water cavity and a water channel. The experimentally obtained convective heat transfer coefficients are 4.4 W•m-2•K-1 at the rear of the bare …

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