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Full-Text Articles in Mechanical Engineering

A Vacuum-Driven Distillation Technology Of Aqueous Solutions And Mixtures, Guo Guangyu Dec 2021

A Vacuum-Driven Distillation Technology Of Aqueous Solutions And Mixtures, Guo Guangyu

Dissertations

Distillation of aqueous solutions and aqueous mixtures has vast industrial applications, including desalination, wastewater treatment, and fruit juice concentration. Currently, two major distillation technologies are adopted in the industry, membrane separation and thermal distillation. However, both of them face certain inevitable drawbacks. Membrane separation has disadvantages as relying on high-grade energy, requiring membrane, fouling problem, narrow treatment range, limited scalability, and vibrating and noisy operating conditions. Traditional thermal distillation technologies can avoid above concerns but has other shortcomings, such as relatively low energy efficiency and yield rate, complicated and bulky system structure, and scaling problem.

This project proposes an innovative …


Electro-Chemo-Mechanics Of The Interfaces In 2d-3d Heterostructure Electrodes, Vidushi Sharma Dec 2021

Electro-Chemo-Mechanics Of The Interfaces In 2d-3d Heterostructure Electrodes, Vidushi Sharma

Dissertations

Unique heterostructure electrodes comprising two-dimensional (2D) materials and bulk three dimensional (3D) high-performance active electrodes are recently synthesized and experimentally tested for their electrochemical performance in metal-ion batteries. Such electrodes exhibit long cycle life while they also retain high-capacity inherent to the active electrode. The role of 2D material is to provide a supportive mesh that allows buffer space for volume expansions upon ion intercalation in the active material and establishes a continuous electronic contact. Therefore, the binding strength between both materials is crucial for the success of such electrodes. Furthermore, battery cycles may bring about phase transformations in the …


Electric Field Induced Self-Assembly Of Mesoscale Structured Materials And Smart Fluids, Suchandra Das May 2021

Electric Field Induced Self-Assembly Of Mesoscale Structured Materials And Smart Fluids, Suchandra Das

Dissertations

This dissertation aims to study the forces that drive self-assembly in binary mixtures of particles suspended in liquids and on fluid-liquid interfaces when they are subjected to a uniform electric or magnetic field. Three fluid-particle systems are investigated experimentally and theoretically : (i) Suspensions of dielectric particles in dielectric liquids; (ii) Suspensions of ferromagnetic and diamagnetic particles in ferrofluids; and (iii) Dielectric particles on dielectric fluid-liquid interfaces. The results of these studies are then used to estimate the parameter values needed to assemble materials with desired mesoscale microstructures.

The first fluid-particle system studied is an electrorheological (ER) fluid formed using …


Service Quality Assessment And Improvement Methods And Tools, Kevin M. Moriarty May 2021

Service Quality Assessment And Improvement Methods And Tools, Kevin M. Moriarty

Dissertations

The nucleus of this research concept and system is being applied to turret lathe and milling machine Computer Numerical Control (CNC) tool systems. The research has a generic application to the service of broad array of sophisticated computer controlled / integrated machines, devices / equipment such as industrial robotics, medical equipment, surgical robots, and similar types of engineered system. Quality design review for quality service systems is a unique concept. Standard product service systems are qualitative and subjective in nature. The quantitative system identifies Key Predictive Attributes (KPAs) and applies quantitative methods to these attributes to develop a systematic process …


Private Sound Environments In Public Space: Use Of Headphones In Public Parks And Public Transit, Chathurthi S. De Silva May 2021

Private Sound Environments In Public Space: Use Of Headphones In Public Parks And Public Transit, Chathurthi S. De Silva

Dissertations

The use of headphones is now so commonplace that it is almost second nature for many people to use them. Not only do these people use headphones all the time, but they use them nearly everywhere, including in urban public spaces. In using headphones, people create their own “private sound environments” in public space. This phenomenon merits attention from researchers since the creation of private sound environments may well alter people’s experiences of public space.

This study answers five research questions about the use of headphones in parks and on transit: why people use them, when they begin using headphones …


Investigation Of Topological Phonons In Discrete Mechanical Metamaterials, Kai Qian May 2021

Investigation Of Topological Phonons In Discrete Mechanical Metamaterials, Kai Qian

Dissertations

The study of topological mechanical metamaterials is a new emerging field that focuses on the topological properties of artificial mechanical structures. Inspired by topological insulators, topological mechanism has attracted intensive attention in condensed matter physics and successfully connected the quantum mechanical descriptions of electrons with the classical descriptions of phonons. It has led to experiments of mechanical metamaterials possessing topological characteristics, such as topologically protected conducting edges or surfaces without back-scattering. This dissertation presents a new experimental approach for mechanically engineering topological metamaterials based on patterning magnetically coupled spinners in order to localize the propagation of vibrations and evaluate different …