Mechanical Engineering Commons^™

City Of New Smyrna Beach Solar Feasibility Assessment, Florida Solar Energy Center, Charles Withers, Jr.

FSEC Energy Research Center®

At the request of the City of New Smyrna Beach, the Florida Solar Energy Center (FSEC) assessed rooftop solar and building energy efficiency improvement potential for 17 city-owned facilities. The intent has been to assist City leaders in identifying opportunities to reduce the City's overall electricity consumption and increase its use of renewable energy.

The FSEC team conducted Level 1 energy audit activities and site assessments including:

On-site assessment

• Solar feasibility measurements and characterization including orientation, roof shading (adjacent structures, encroaching trees, etc.), available roof area, system output, annualized savings
• HVAC characterization
• Lighting survey
• Occupancy density, schedule, thermostat settings

Post …

Environmental And Economic Implications Of Energy Efficiency In New Residential Buildings: A Multi-Criteria Selection Approach, Florida Solar Energy Center, Delia D'Agostino

FSEC Energy Research Center®

The choice of the most appropriate technologies in buildings is often a challenge at the design stage, especially when many different criteria are taken into account. Consequently, the decision process relies often on one criterion only, such as costs or energy savings. We propose a multi-criteria approach based on multi-attribute utility theory to assess alternative energy efficiency measures, explicitly considering both environmental and economic criteria. We apply it to the design of a new residential building in Milan (Italy), with the aim to maximize CO₂ emission savings related to electricity and gas consumption, and to minimize embodied energy and …

How Will Climate Alter Efficiency Objectives? Simulated Impact Of Using Recent Versus Historic European Weather Data For The Cost-Optimal Design Of Nearly Zero Energy Buildings (Nzebs), Florida Solar Energy Center, Delia D'Agostino

FSEC Energy Research Center®

Achieving "nearly zero energy buildings" (NZEB) has been established as a vital objective over the next decade within the European Union (EU) [1,2]. Previous work has shown that a series of very cost-effective thermal efficiency measures, equipment, appliance and renewable energy choices are available across climates to reach the NZEB objective. Resulting detailed energy and economic optimization findings have been obtained and published. One area that has just begun to be explored, however, is how selection of weather files and their application against coming climate change can influence outcomes from energy optimization procedures.

Presented at: CLIMA 2019, REHVA 13th HVAC …

Maximizing The Effectiveness Of Ductless Heat Pumps In Existing Homes By Demonstrating Integrated Controls: Measurement And Verification Plan, Florida Solar Energy Center, Eric Martin

FSEC Energy Research Center®

There is a trend for homeowners to install efficient ductless air-source heat pumps (ASHP) as a supplement to less efficient existing space conditioning systems, with most homeowners adding one unit in a central living area. Because of the potential for ASHPs to save energy by providing a large portion of the space conditioning, utilities have incentivized this strategy. However, post installation evaluations suggest ASHPs are not reaching their full potential because the existing heating system continues to operate more than necessary. This report describes a measurement and verifications strategy for a research project that aims to maximize savings from supplemental …

City Of New Smyrna Beach Solar Feasibility Assessment -- City Hall Annex, Florida Solar Energy Center, Charles Withers, Jr.

FSEC Energy Research Center®

This review and solar assessment is organized by component with brief description of intended details, challenges and recommendations.

Building: City of New Smyrna Beach, City Hall Annex (Renovation of a portion of the Historic First Baptist Church of New Smyrna Beach) Year of Construction: 1920's[1] Building Use: Renovation will create spaces for City workers and a new City Council Chambers Conditioned area: 1^st floor = 7856 ft² 2^nd floor = 3,967 ft² Total = 11,823 ft²[2]

[1] New Smyrna Beach Property Appraiser's website states 1920, historic marker states circa 1929. [2] New Smyrna …

Further Investigation Of Energy And Performance Impacts Of Whole-House Dehumidifier Duct Configurations, Florida Solar Energy Center, Charles Withers, Jr.

FSEC Energy Research Center®

This research project evaluated the energy impacts and dehumidification performance related to how ducted dehumidifiers (DHU) ducts were configured. Lab controlled testing over a variety of weather and latent loads evaluated five-different ducted DHU configurations as follows: Test 1 DHU air ducted from/to the central main body of building. Test 2 DHU air ducted from/to return side of central air conditioner (AC). Test 3 DHU air ducted from/to supply side of AC. Test 4 DHU air ducted from central main body and ducted to supply side of AC. Test 5 DHU air ducted from outdoors and indoors mixed before DHU …

Residential Attic Performance Comparison Research, Florida Solar Energy Center, Charles Withers, Jr.

FSEC Energy Research Center®

This research project evaluated cooling energy and moisture-related impacts between conventional attic venting and sealed attic vents in a lab home located in central Florida. All tests had R30 insulation on the ceiling and the roof deck uninsulated. A total of four different test configurations were tested. The four tested configurations were: Attic Vented with Attic Ducts, Attic Vents Sealed with Attic Ducts, Attic Vented with Indoor Ducts, and Attic Vents Sealed with Indoor Ducts. On average the impact from sealing attic vents will increase annual cooling energy use in a Florida home between 5%-10%. For a 1620 square foot …

Dynamic Behavior And Performance Of Different Types Of Multi-Effect Desalination Plants, Mohamed Abdelkareem

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Water and energy are two of the most vital resources for the socio-economic development and sustenance of humanity on earth. Desalination of seawater has been practiced for some decades and is a well-established means of water supply. However, this process consumes large amounts of energy and the global energy supply is also faced with some challenges. In this research, multi-effect desalination (MED) has been selected due to lower cost, lower operating temperature and efficient in terms of primary energy and electricity consumption compared to other thermal desalination systems. The motivation for this research is to address thermo-economics and dynamic behavior …

Mechanical Properties Of Brittle Ceramics: Case Study Of Boron Rich Ceramics And Acropora Cervicornis Coral Skeleton, Alejandro Carrasco-Pena

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Ceramics are ubiquitous in man-made and natural structures. Their mechanical properties highly depend on their composition, microstructure and level of defects in the bulk of the material, the latter affecting the integrity of the components; such is the case of boron-rich ceramics where large agglomerates create high stressed regions, or coral skeleton where porosity determines their strength against hydrodynamic forces present in the ocean tides. Therefore, studying the properties of ceramic materials using invasive and non-invasive methods helps in the understanding of the link between the properties and the performance of the structures. The aim of this research was to …

Vibration Reduction Of Mistuned Bladed Disks Via Piezoelectric-Based Resonance Frequency Detuning, Garrett Lopp

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Recent trends in turbomachinery blade technology have led to increased use of monolithically constructed bladed disks (blisks). Although offering a wealth of performance benefits, this construction removes the blade-attachment interface present in the conventional design, thus unintentionally removing a source of friction-based damping needed to counteract large vibrations during resonance passages. This issue is further exacerbated in the presence of blade mistuning that arises from small imperfections from otherwise identical blades and are unavoidable as they originate from manufacturing tolerances and operational wear over the lifespan of the engine. Mistuning is known to induce vibration localization with large vibration amplitudes …

Development Of A Single Sensor Approach For Capturing Three-Dimensional, Time Resolved Flame And Velocity Information, Jonathan Reyes

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Performing non-intrusive measurements is the key to acquiring accurate information representative of what is being observed. The act of measuring often changes the environment being observed altering the information that is being obtained. Due to this, the community of fluid scientists have gravitated towards using laser-based measurements to observe the phenomena occurring in their experiments. The study of fluids has advanced since this point, utilizing techniques such as planar laser induced florescence (PLIF), particle image velocimetry (PIV), laser doppler velocimetry (LDV), particle doppler anemometry (PDA), etc. to acquire chemical species information and velocity information. These techniques, though, are inherently two-dimensional …

Decentralized Consensus-Based Control Allocation For Some Dynamical Systems, August Mark

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In this dissertation, three separate studies, wherein techniques from graph theory and consensus control are used to address control allocation problems, are presented. In the first study, a decentralized allocator is presented for synthetic jet actuators and control surfaces onboard a small unmanned aerial vehicle to cooperatively generate desired aerodynamic moments. First order linear dynamics are assumed for both the synthetic jet actuators and control surfaces. A weighted consensus algorithm with limited feedback is used for the aerodynamic moment contribution allocator considering constraints. In the second study, the same allocation problem as in the first study is considered, but the …

Variable Fluid Flow Regimes Alter Endothelial Adherens Junctions And Tight Junctions, Dilshan Ranadewa

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Variable blood flow regimes influence a range of cellular properties ranging from cell orientation, shape, and permeability: all of which are dependent on endothelial cell-cell junctions. In fact, cell-cell junctions have shown to be an integral part of vascular homeostasis through the endothelium by allowing intercellular signaling and passage control through tight junctions (TJs), adherens junctions (AJs), and gap junctions (GJs). It was our objective to determine the structural response of both AJs and TJs under steady and oscillatory flow. Human brain microvascular endothelial cells (HBMECs) were cultured in a parallel plate flow chamber and exposed to separate trails of …

Evaluating Moisture Control Of Variable-Capacity Heat Pumps In Mechanically Ventilated, Low-Load Homes In Climate Zone 2a, Florida Solar Energy Center, Eric Martin

FSEC Energy Research Center®

The well-sealed, highly insulated building enclosures constructed by today's home building industry coupled with efficient lighting and appliances are achieving significantly reduced heating and cooling loads. These low-load homes can present a challenge when selecting appropriate space-conditioning equipment. Conventional, fixed-capacity heating and cooling equipment is often oversized for small homes, causing increased first costs and operating costs. Even if fixed-capacity equipment can be properly specified for peak loads, it remains oversized for use during much of the year. During these part-load cooling hours, oversized equipment meets the target dry-bulb temperatures very quickly, often without sufficient opportunity for moisture control. The …

A Study Of Organo-Phosphorous Simulants Thermal Destruction Using Shock Tube/Laser Diagnostics Techniques And Chemical Kinetics Modeling, Sneha Neupane

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

High-fidelity chemical kinetic models are critical in predictive modeling during design and optimization of next generation energy systems. Shock tube provides an ideal tool to investigate high-temperature chemical kinetics. Non-intrusive laser absorption diagnostics provide in-situ measurements of quantitative, time-resolved species concentration data in this complex chemically reacting system. In this work, shock tube and laser absorption spectroscopy were utilized to measure species concentration time-histories during pyrolysis and oxidation of organo-phosphorous compounds (OPCs). The experiments data obtained were used as benchmark to develop an improved kinetic model of OPCs combustion. Interest in combustion chemistry of OPCs is associated to their use …

A Theoretical, Numerical, And Experimental Study Of Trapped Droplet Coalescence And Mixing, Passively And Under Electric Field, Alireza Karbalaei Baba

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Passive and electrically active coalescence and mixing of pairs of trapped squeezed nanodroplets were studied in this work. PDMS-glass microfluidic devices were designed and fabricated using multilevel photolithography technique. Flow-focusing method was used to generate nanoliter droplets of died glycerol inside oleic acid. The effect of factors such as flow rates and their ratio, interfacial tension, and viscosities on the size and frequency of droplet generation was studied and concluded by demonstrating the capillary number effect. A passive droplet trapping technique based on minimizing the surface energy of the droplets was employed to minimize the shear flow effects and increase …

Modeling And Transient Simulation Of A Fully Integrated Multi-Pressure Heat Recovery Steam Generator Using Siemens T3000, Jonathan Mcconnell

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The focus of this research is on the transient thermodynamic properties and dynamic behavior of a Heat Recovery Steam Generator (HRSG). An HRSG is a crossflow heat exchanger designed for the extraction of energy from the hot exhaust gas of a traditional power plant through boiling induced phase change. Superheated steam is sent through a turbine to generate additional power, raising the overall efficiency of a power plant. The addition of renewable energies and the evolution of smart grids have brought forth a necessity to gain a comprehensive understanding of transient behavior within an HRSG in order to efficiently manage …

Fluid Flow Characteristics Of A Co-Flow Fluidic Slot Jet Thrust Augmentation Propulsion System, Brian Garrett

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The UAV industry is booming with investments in research and development on improving UAV systems in order to increase applications and reduce costs of the use of these machines. Current UAV machines are developed according to the quadcopter design which has a rotary propulsion system which provides the lift needed for the aerial vehicles. This design has some flaws; namely safety concerns and noise/vibration production both of which come from the rotary propulsion system. As such, a novel propulsion system using slip stream air passed through high performance slot jets is proposed and analysis of the fluid characteristics is presented …

Cavitation And Heat Transfer Over Micro Pin Fins, Arash Nayebzadeh

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

With the dramatic increase in the usage of compact yet more powerful electronic devices, advanced cooling technologies are required to maintain delicate electronic components below their maximum allowable temperatures and prevent them from failure. One solution is to use innovative pin finned heat sinks. This research is centered on the evaluation of hydrodynamic cavitation properties downstream pin fins and extended toward single-phase heat transfer enhancement of array of pin fins in microchannel. In this work, transparent micro-devices capable of local wall temperature measurements were micro fabricated and tested. Various experimental methods, numerical modeling and advanced data processing techniques are presented. …

Investigation Of Flow Field Structures In A Rectangular Channel With A Pin Fin Array, Patrick Tran

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Pin fin arrays are commonly found in heat exchangers, turbine blades, and electronic heat sinks. Fin arrays are extended surfaces that are used as turbulence promoters by inducing horseshoe vortex (HSV) and von Karman vortex (KV) structures. The horseshoe vortex are primarily studied in the leading edge of the blunt body, whereas the KV are formed in the trailing side. This study presents an experimental investigation of flow field structures and pressure loss on staggered pin fin array in the wake region, where KV are dominate. These flow structures increase the local levels turbulence and generate eddies that promote flow …

Experiment And Computational Analysis On Effect Of Plasma Actuation Incompressible Flow Around Tandem Cylinders, Emmanuel C. Gabriel-Ohanu

Honors Undergraduate Theses

The utilization of steady state flow of air over tandem circular cylinders has several applications in engineering systems. Incompressible flow over circular cylinders in tandem at different spacing with and without plasma actuation on the leading cylinder will be investigated in this paper to understand the effects of plasma actuation on flow properties and wake region of the two cylinders in cross flow. The principal focus of the research is on the use of experimental and computational methods to study and provide valid results, the research will analyze the wake region, the effect of Reynolds number and the longitudinal spacing …

The Influence Of 3d Porous Chitosan-Alginate Biomaterial Scaffold Properties On The Behavior Of Breast Cancer Cells, Minh-Chau N. Le

Honors Undergraduate Theses

The tumor microenvironment plays an important role in regulating cancer cell behavior. The tumor microenvironment describes the cancer cells, and the surrounding endothelial cells, fibroblasts, and mesenchymal stem cells, along with the extracellular matrix (ECM). The tumor microenvironment stiffens as cancer undergoes malignant progression, providing biophysical cues that promote invasive, metastatic cellular behaviors. This project investigated the influence of three dimensional (3D) chitosan-alginate (CA) scaffold stiffness on the morphology, growth, and migration of green fluorescent protein (GFP) – transfected MDA-MB-231 (231-GFP) breast cancer (BCa) cells. The CA scaffolds were produced by the freeze casting method at three concentrations, 2 wt%, …

Experimental And Numerical Investigation Of A Novel Adsorption Bed Design For Cooling Applications, Ramy H. Mohammed

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A global challenge is to develop environmentally friendly, affordable, compact and sustainable technologies to provide heating and cooling power. Adsorption cooling (AC) technology is one of the most promising ways to solve the environmental issues and cut down the energy consumption related to the traditional air conditioning and refrigeration systems. However, AC systems still suffer from poor heat and mass transfer inside the adsorption bed, which is the main obstacle to commercialization of adsorption cooling units. The main goal of this study is designing an efficient adsorption cooling cycle. In this research work, an in-depth scaling analysis of heat and …

Color-Ratio Based Strawberry Plant Localization And Nutrition Deficiency Detection, Xiangling Kong

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In recent years, precision agriculture has become popular anticipating to partially meet the needs of an ever-growing population with limited resources. Plant localization and nutrient deficiency detection are two important tasks in precision agriculture. In this dissertation, these two tasks are studied by using a new color-ratio(C-R) index technique. Firstly, a low cost and light scene invariant approach is proposed to detect green and yellow leaves based on the color-ratio (C-R) indices. A plant localization approach is then developed using the relative pixel relationships of adjacent plants. Secondly, the Sobel operator and morphology techniques are applied to segment the target …

Shape Recovery Behavior Of Carbon Nanopaper Shape Memory Polymer Composite, Veli Bugra Ozdemir

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis presents analytical, experimental and modeling studies of the shape recovery behavior of electrically activated Carbon Nanopaper (CNP) Shape Memory Polymer (SMP)composite. The composite structure studied consists of a CNP layer sandwiched by two SMP layers where the CNP layer acts as a flexible electrical heater when a voltage difference is applied. The behavior of CNP/SMP composite presents a coupled electrical - thermal - structural problem. The governing equations for the multiphysics behavior are derived. Derived parameters as a result of multiphysics analysis and effects of these parameters on the shape recovery behavior are investigated. The mechanical properties of …

Numerical Investigation And Optimization Of Pin Fins In Micro Heat Sinks, Fuad Ismayilov

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Operating temperature in electronics applications is continuously increasing. Therefore, for the past few decades, high heat flux removing micro heat sinks are investigated in terms of heat transfer effectiveness. This study generally concentrates on improving the passive heat transfer techniques. Micro heat sinks used in experiments are fabricated using MEMS techniques. Resistance temperature detectors, RTDs, were used for temperature measurements. The experimental data was obtained for single and two phase flow regions; however, only single phase flow results were considered in numerical simulations. Numerical validations were performed on the micro heat sinks, including cylinder and hydrofoil shaped pin fins. Following …

Improving Turbine Performance: A Contribution To The Understanding Of Heat Transfer And Vortical Structures In Staggered Pin Fin Arrays, Marcel Otto

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Through the comparison of flow structures, velocity contours, turbulence statistics, and additional flow quantities, the error sources of RANS are qualitatively described. The findings in this work will help gas turbine design engineers to tweak their turbulence models and give guidance on the interpretation of their results. The novelty is the application of the transient TLC method on this type of geometry as well as the near-wall PIV measurements. The advancements in additive manufacturing disrupt the classic turbine cooling development for casted airfoils. More and more complicated shapes and cooling schemes are possible. Nonetheless, a detailed physical understanding of fundamental …

Piezoresistive Behavior Of Carbon Nanopaper Polymer Composites For Strain Sensing, Jayden Beyrooti

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Carbon nanopapers made of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) or carbon nanofibers (CNFs), possess unique electrical, thermal and mechanical properties and when integrated with a polymer matrix, can become a multifunctional composite capable of strain sensing and heat actuation. Smart structures such as these can be used in many applications including deployable space structures, human motion detection, and structural health monitoring as flexible, sensitive and stable strain sensors in addition to providing electrical heat actuation for the shape memory effect in polymers. This study focuses on strain sensing capabilities by developing a numerical model to predict piezoresistive behavior. The piezoresistive effect is …

Design, Development, And Testing Of A Miniature Fixture For Uniaxial Compression Of Ceramics Coupled With In-Situ Raman Spectrometer, Ryan Jordan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is about the design, development and integration of an in-situ compression stage which interfaces through the Leica optical microscope coupled with a Renishaw InVia micro-Raman spectrometer. This combined compression stage and Raman system will enable structural characterization of ceramics and ceramic composites. The in-situ compression stage incorporates a 440C stainless steel structural components, 6061 aluminum frame, a NEMA 23 stepper motor. Two load screws that allow to apply compressive loads up to 14,137 N, with negligible off axis loading, achieving target stresses of 500 MPa for samples of up to 6.00 mm in diameter. The system will be …

Detection Of Ddh In Infants And Children Using Audible Acoustics, Tanvir Hassan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Detection of developmental dysplasia of the hip (DDH) in infants and children is important as it leads to permanent hip instability. Current methods for detecting DDH, such as ultrasound and x-rays, are relatively expensive and need qualified medical personnel to administer the test. Furthermore, x-ray ionizing radiation can have potential harmful effects. In the current study, an acoustic non-invasive and simple approach was investigated for detection of DDH. Different benchtop simplified models and pig models were constructed and tested. Models were stimulated with band-limited white acoustic noise (10-2500 Hz) and the response of the models was measured. The power spectrum …