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Full-Text Articles in Mechanical Engineering
Project Oasis: Optimizing Aquaponic Systems To Improve Sustainability, Siddharth Nigam, Paige Balcom
Project Oasis: Optimizing Aquaponic Systems To Improve Sustainability, Siddharth Nigam, Paige Balcom
Honors Theses and Capstones
Started in Fall 2015, Project OASIS (Optimizing Aquaponic Systems to Improve Sustainability) is an interdisciplinary capstone project with the goal of designing a sustainable and affordable small-scale aquaponic system for use in developing nations to tackle the problems of malnutrition and food insecurity. Aquaponics is a symbiotic relationship between fish and vegetables growing together in a recirculating system. The project’s goals were to minimize energy consumption and construction costs while using universally available materials. The computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software OpenFOAM was used to create transient and steady-state models of fish tanks to visualize velocity profiles, streamlines, and particle movement. …
Spatial Light Dilution As A Technique For Conversion Of Solar Energy To Algal Biomass, Daniel J. Dye
Spatial Light Dilution As A Technique For Conversion Of Solar Energy To Algal Biomass, Daniel J. Dye
All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023
A photobioreactor has been designed and developed to efficiently utilize solar irradiance through spatial dilution of sunlight. The concept of spatial light dilution is simple: incident sunlight is spread over a large surface area, thus reducing the photon flux density of the light. The implementation of this technique, however, is difficult. The reactor described within uses a new approach to spatial light dilution, utilizing recently-developed optical components to diffuse concentrated sunlight inside an algae culture. Preliminary productivity tests indicate a 2-3 fold increase in productivity per unit aperture (sunlight collection area) over a control reactor with direct-sunlight. Aperture productivity of …