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Full-Text Articles in Mechanical Engineering

Selective Resistive Sintering: A Novel Additive Manufacturing Process, Austin Bryan Van Horn Dec 2016

Selective Resistive Sintering: A Novel Additive Manufacturing Process, Austin Bryan Van Horn

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Selective laser sintering (SLS) is one of the most popular 3D printing methods that uses a laser to pattern energy and selectively sinter powder particles to build 3D geometries. However, this printing method is plagued by slow printing speeds, high power consumption, difficulty to scale, and high overhead expense. In this research, a new 3D printing method is proposed to overcome these limitations of SLS. Instead of using a laser to pattern energy, this new method, termed selective resistive sintering (SRS), uses an array of microheaters to pattern heat for selectively sintering materials. Using microheaters offers significant power savings, significantly …


4d Printing Dielectric Elastomer Actuator Based Soft Robots, Jiyu Cai Aug 2016

4d Printing Dielectric Elastomer Actuator Based Soft Robots, Jiyu Cai

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

4D printing is an emerging technology that prints 3D structural smart materials that can respond to external stimuli and change shape over time. 4D printing represents a major manufacturing paradigm shift from single-function static structures to dynamic structures with highly integrated functionalities. Direct printing of dynamic structures can provide great benefits (e.g., design freedom, low material cost) to a wide variety of applications, such as sensors and actuators, and robotics. Soft robotics is a new direction of robotics in which hard and rigid components are replaced by soft and flexible materials to mimic mechanisms that works in living creatures, which …


Optical Analysis And Fabrication Of Micro And Nanoscale Plasmonically Enhanced Devices, Avery M. Hill May 2016

Optical Analysis And Fabrication Of Micro And Nanoscale Plasmonically Enhanced Devices, Avery M. Hill

Physics Undergraduate Honors Theses

Plasmonic nanostructures have been shown to act as optical antennas that enhance optical devices due to their ability to focus light below the diffraction limit of light and enhance the intensity of the incident light. This study focuses on computational electromagnetic (CEM) analysis of two devices: 1) GaAs photodetectors with Au interdigital electrodes and 2) Au thin-film microstructures. Experiments showed that the photoresponse of the interdigital photodetectors depend greatly on the electrode gap and the polarization of the incident light. Smaller electrode gap and transverse polarization give rise to a larger photoresponse. It was also shown that the response from …


Cfd Model For Ventilation In Broiler Holding Sheds, Christian Heymsfield May 2016

Cfd Model For Ventilation In Broiler Holding Sheds, Christian Heymsfield

Biological and Agricultural Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Broiler production in Arkansas was valued at over $3.6 billion in 2013 (University of Arkansas Extension of Agriculture). Consequently, improvement in any phase of the production process can have significant economic impact and animal welfare implications. From the time poultry leave the farm and until they are slaughtered, they can be exposed to harsh environmental conditions, both in winter and in summer. After road transportation, birds are left to wait in holding sheds once they arrive at the processing plant, for periods of approximately 30 minutes to two hours. This project was interested in this holding shed waiting time during …


Optical Analysis And Fabrication Of Micro And Nanoscale Plasmonically Enhanced Devices, Avery M. Hill May 2016

Optical Analysis And Fabrication Of Micro And Nanoscale Plasmonically Enhanced Devices, Avery M. Hill

Mechanical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Plasmonic nanostructures have been shown to act as optical antennas that enhance optical devices due to their ability to focus light below the diffraction limit of light and enhance the intensity of the incident light. This study focuses on computational electromagnetic (CEM) analysis of two devices: 1) GaAs photodetectors with Au interdigital electrodes and 2) Au thin-film microstructures. Experiments showed that the photoresponse of the interdigital photodetectors depend greatly on the electrode gap and the polarization of the incident light. Smaller electrode gap and transverse polarization give rise to a larger photoresponse. It was also shown that the response from …