Engineering Commons^™

Leveraging Biomimicry And Additive Manufacturing To Improve Load Transfer In Brittle Materials, Ana Paula Bernardo

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

With the emergence of Additive Manufacturing (i.e., 3D printing) in construction, new strategically designed shapes can be created to improve load transfer through structural members and foundations. Cross-sections can be optimized to carry load using less material, or even using weaker constituent materials, like soils, which are cheap and abundant. The goal of this research is to investigate the benefits of using cellular patterns which leverage biomimicry in civil engineering applications, since nature has perfectly engineered materials and patterns which carry loads with the least amount of material possible. Most of the periodic cellular work to date has focused on …

Centrifugal Microfluidic Platform For Solid-Phase-Extraction (Spe) And Fluorescence Detection Applications, Yong Zhang

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Solid phase extraction (SPE) is a widely used method to separate and concentrate the target molecules in liquid mixture. Traditional SPE has to be conducted in the laboratory with professional equipment and skilled operators. The microfluidic and 3D printing technology have opened up the opportunity in developing miniaturized automatic instruments. The main contribution of this research is to integrate the SPE process on a novel centrifugal platform. Various valves are applied on the platform to help control the aqueous sample and reagents in the cartridge.

First, a centrifugal microfluidic platform was built for automatically detecting trace oil pollution in water. …

Synthesis And Characterization Of Material Systems For 3d Printed Smart Structures, Hilda Fontes

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The silica hollow spheres have demonstrated excellent results in multiple applications such as light-weight composites, and optical applications as a glass coating. This material also exhibits excellent thermal, shock impact, and hydrophilic properties extremely useful for industrial applications. However, a controllable size of the particle is desired to further increase the number of applications of the silica hollow spheres.

This Thesis aims a method to fabricate silica hollow spheres in a single step with a controlled diameter size. A study was developed to demonstrate the particle size change when adjusting the molecular weight of the medium by using different alcohol …