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Mechanical Engineering Commons

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Nanoscience and Nanotechnology

Selected Works

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Ganesh Balasubramanian

Articles 1 - 2 of 2

Full-Text Articles in Mechanical Engineering

The Development And Implementation Of A Nanotechnology Module Into A Large, Freshman Engineering Course, Vinod Lohani, Ganesh Balasubramanian, Ishwar Puri, Scott Case, Roop Mahajan Jan 2009

The Development And Implementation Of A Nanotechnology Module Into A Large, Freshman Engineering Course, Vinod Lohani, Ganesh Balasubramanian, Ishwar Puri, Scott Case, Roop Mahajan

Ganesh Balasubramanian

The development and implementation of a nanotechnology learning module into a freshman engineering course in Virginia Tech’s large engineering program is discussed. This module, a part of a spiral theory based nanotechnology option that will be implemented in the curriculum of the Engineering Science Mechanics (ESM) department at Virginia Tech, was piloted with ~180 freshmen in Spring ’08. The pilot included a prior knowledge survey, a 40-minute in-class presentation on nanotechnology, a hands-on module involving analysis of nanoscale images, plotting of force functions at atomic scale using LABVIEW, and a post-module survey. Students’ misconceptions, observed through the prior knowledge survey, …


Unsteady Nanoscale Thermal Transport Across A Solid-Fluid Interface, Ganesh Balasubramanian, Soumik Banerjee, Ishwar K. Puri Sep 2008

Unsteady Nanoscale Thermal Transport Across A Solid-Fluid Interface, Ganesh Balasubramanian, Soumik Banerjee, Ishwar K. Puri

Ganesh Balasubramanian

We simulate unsteady nanoscale thermal transport at a solid-fluidinterface by placing cooler liquid-vapor Ar mixtures adjacent to warmer Fe walls. The equilibration of the system towards a uniform overall temperature is investigated using nonequilibrium molecular dynamics simulations from which the heat flux is also determined explicitly. The Ar–Fe intermolecular interactions induce the migration of fluid atoms into quasicrystallineinterfacial layers adjacent to the walls, creating vacancies at the migration sites. This induces temperature discontinuities between the solidlikeinterfaces and their neighboring fluid molecules. The interfacial temperature difference and thus the heat flux decrease as the system equilibrates over time. The averaged interfacial …