Mechanical Engineering Commons^™

Aeroponic System Optimization For Butterhead Lettuce Growth And Future Sustainability Using Flow Blurring Atomization, Taylor J. Johnson

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

The global population has grown by 6 billion people over the last century and is trending toward 9.7 billion people by the year 2050. Agriculture accounts for 70% of global fresh water usage. Technology must be developed to accommodate the increase of food production demanded by the growing global population and the subsequent increase in water usage. Aeroponic technology is a water-efficient vertical farming technology that can reduce water usage by 90% by suspending plant roots in air within a controlled chamber and supplying atomized droplets of a water-nutrient solution directly to the roots.

This study simultaneously tests six droplet …

Desalination For Sustainable Water Production With An Emphasis On Low Pressure Distillation, Jessica Vivian Savage

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

Freshwater resources depletion is a growing concern. This freshwater scarcity motivates research into seawater desalination as a means for alleviating the stresses on water demands. The primary methods of desalination include filtration and distillation. This paper explores the potential energy savings of vacuum distillation for seawater desalination to reduce the amount of energy needed to achieve phase change.

Depending on the vacuum boiler design, the vaporization mechanism may be boiling, evaporation, or cavitation. There is very little literature on cavitation that involves mass transfer, so cavitation is not developed here. This thesis focuses on standard models for boiling and evaporation …

Residential Thermal Storage And Cooling, Joao Marcelo Rocha Belmonte, Jacob Anderson, Andrew Clarke, Daphne Forester, Bianca Hardtke, Josh Hartman, Marc D. Compere

Sustainability Conference

No abstract provided.

Solar Powered Parking Lot Lights, Jordyn Taylor

Sustainability Conference

Solar energy is a renewable resource growing exponentially around the country over the past few decades. Solar energy works through the use of photo-voltaic cells, which work to convert energy from sunlight into electricity. This is done within solar panels, which are then connected to batteries for energy storage to use as needed. As production has increased over past decades, the cost for solar panel hardware and installment has thus fallen to meet consumer need. While most common implementations include solar panels attached to one’s home or solar panel ‘fields’ for charging entire towns, there has been a steady rise …

Thermodynamic Model Of Co2 Deposition In Cold Climates, Sandra K. S. Boetcher, Ted Von Hippel, Matthew J. Traum

Publications

A thermodynamic model, borrowing ideas from psychrometric principles, of a cryogenic direct-air CO2-capture system utilizing a precooler is used to estimate the optimal CO2 removal fraction to minimize energy input per tonne of CO2. Energy costs to operate the system scale almost linearly with the temperature drop between the ingested air and the cryogenic desublimation temperature of CO2, driving siting to the coldest accessible locations. System performance in three Arctic/Antarctic regions where the proposed system can potentially be located is analyzed. Colder ambient temperatures provide colder system input air temperature yielding lower CO2 removal energy requirements. A case is also …

Highly Vented Truss Wall Honeycomb Structures, David J. Sypeck

Publications

A vented honeycomb structure with a plurality of honey­comb cells arranged in a hierarchical order and having a plurality of truss walls, each truss wall including a plurality of members. The vented honeycomb structure is fabricated by joining a plurality of sheets of trusses using any one of an expansion, a corrugation, and a slotting process. Fabri­cation can also occur by deposition, casting, additive, extru­sion, or aligning and joining methods. The honeycomb cells, truss walls, truss wall openings, and truss wall members can be functionally graded.

Determination Of Aqueous Surfactant Solution Surface Tensions With A Surface Tensiometer, Remelisa Esteves, Birce Dikici Ph.D, Matthew Lehman, Qayyum Mazumder, Nonso Onukwuba

Beyond: Undergraduate Research Journal

Surfactant solutions are applicable to engineering systems for cooling equipment for electronics. Surfactants can be added to water to improve heat transfer. An application of using aqueous surfactant solutions can be through microchannel heat sink. Although it is ideal to redesign these systems to reduce heat, it is a costly method. Surfactant solutions at optimal solution concentration can be able to transfer heat quickly and effectively with minimum expense. The surface tension of surfactant solutions is an important parameter for boiling heat transfer and must be taken into consideration. The purpose of this research is to measure surface tension of …

Determination Of Surfactant Solution Viscosities With A Rotational Viscometer, Remelisa Esteves, Nonso Onukwuba, Birce Dikici Ph.D

Beyond: Undergraduate Research Journal

Aqueous surfactant solutions are used in engineering systems for improving boiling heat transfer. The purpose of this research is to determine the viscosities of surfactant solutions and to investigate the effect of composition on viscosity. The results obtained can possibly be used as reference for further study in the effects of surfactant solution viscosities on nucleate boiling. A rotational viscometer was used to determine the viscosities of three surfactant solutions – SLS, EH-14, and SA-9 – of various compositions at room temperature. It was discovered that the viscosities of SLS, EH-14, and SA-9 had a nearly consistent pattern as their …