Digital Commons Network^™

Development And Testing Of A Biochar Combustor For A Stirling Engine, Kyle Bryant Vickery

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Nonrenewable resources persist as a necessity for perpetuating the current technology and standards of living maintained throughout the world. Biochar is an alternative and renewable fuel source that constitutes the potential to provide energy comparable to coal. Designing and fabricating components that can efficiently harness biochar’s energy to power machinery would demonstrate a successful renewable energy source. The scope of this research is to explain the feasible design, fabrication, and results of technology involving the burning of biochar and transference of hot combustion products for the purpose of powering a Stirling Engine. This design consists of a solid fuel burner, …

An Analysis Of Thermal Comfort Perception In Cal Poly's Math & Science Building, Pouria Ali Fariborzi

Master's Theses

Since Americans, on average, spend approximately 90% of their time indoors according to the EPA, it is crucial to provide room occupants with the best, most comfortable, and healthiest possible environment, which is known as Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ). This thesis aims to identify how we can provide comfortable learning environments to improve student success. To determine the best possible environment for occupants, a model of the Math & Science Building was developed, validated, and modified using DesignBuilder. In addition, we compared thermal comfort surveys to actual measured conditions for some classrooms. Analysis indicates that students prefer a cooler thermal …

Investigations Of The Low Temperature Combustion Regions And Emissions Characteristics Of Aerospace F24 In A Constant Volume Combustion Chamber And A Common Rail Direct Injection Ci Engine, Richard C. Smith Iii

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

A study was conducted to investigate the low temperature combustion (LTC) regions of aerospace F24 and ULSD in the static setting of a CVCC and the dynamic setting of a CRDI research engine. This research is conducted to reduce in-cylinder emissions by understanding and implementing a technique to achieve an extended LTC. Emissions data for this study were collected during the operation of the CRDI research engine with a MKS 2030 FTIR and an AVL Microsoot 483. The parameters researched within the static setting of the CVCC included the determinations of the cool flames and NTC regions within the LTHR …

Analysis Of Bio-Alcohols With Mie-Scattering And Ltc For Lowered Emissions In Pcci, Cesar E. Carapia

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

An investigation was conducted on the optimal engine parameters for facilitating lower NOX and soot emissions of PCCI combustion with either ethanol or n-butanol. The PFI fuels selected were tested at loads of 3, 4, and 5 Bar IMEP for a total of 28 total combustion tests with variations made to the EGR% and boost pressure for each test in order to find the optimal emissions strategy. A Mie-scattering spray fuel analysis was also conducted on the three fuels to gain insight on their influence on combustion/emissions characteristics. It was found that ethanol had a greater average Sauter Mean Diameter …

An Innovative Elastohydrodynamic Seal Concept For Gases, Matthew J. Demond

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Supercritical CO₂ (sCO₂) power cycles are next generation power technologies offering improved efficiency, lower customer costs, and less water usage. They hold significant potential in many different industries such as nuclear power production, ship propulsion, geothermal power, solar power, and fossil fuel power plants. One of the largest hurdles preventing this milestone is the lack of suitable shaft seals for sCO₂ operating conditions. This component issue needs to be addressed for the next generation nuclear turbine and compressor development to progress. In this study, a novel Elastohydrodynamic (EHD) seal is proposed. This proposed design is capable …

Ternary Flow Simulation Based On The Conservative Phase Field Lattice Boltzmann Method, Chunheng Zhao

Dissertations and Theses

In this thesis, we numerically investigated multi-phase fluid dynamics (2 and 3-phase flow) by solving the Navier-Stokes equations coupled with the conservative phase field (CPF) equations using the Lattice Boltzmann method (LBM). To effectively simulate the large-scale multi-phase physics, we developed an open-source software, IMEXLBM, which can be easily parallelized on both CPUs and GPUs without significant modifications to the code. We first validated various parts of this software and then used this method to study the interaction of rising bubbles with a static oil droplet as well as the engulfment of the water droplet on solids coated with a …

Understanding The Relationship Between Urban Areas And The Boundary Layer Using Remote Sensing Methods, Gabriel A. Rios

Dissertations and Theses

The atmospheric boundary layer is crucial to the exchange in energy between the Earth's surface and the atmosphere. Within this layer, the majority of human activities are carried out, which makes understanding the boundary layer especially important for many of our interests. A key component of this energy exchange is found at the surface, was surface properties are the interface through which momentum, heat, moisture, and other fluxes are transferred between media. Not only does the surface act as an interface, but as an actor that influences the exchange efficiency and rates. This concept is the crux of atmospheric boundary …

Fundamentals Of Microgel Flooding And Nanoparticles-Stabilized Foams In Enhanced Oil Recovery, Shuaijun Li

Dissertations and Theses

For centuries oil has remained a critical energy source for human civilization. After years of extraction, many oil fields have reached or are reaching a decline stage of production, even though up to a half of the total crude oil reserves in these fields has not been recovered yet. One reason is due to the structural heterogeneity of the oil reservoirs—reservoirs may consist of regions of higher permeability with larger pore size and regions of lower permeability with smaller pore size. Displacing fluids tend to flow through large permeability zones only without reaching the oil trapped in low permeability region; …

Stress Analysis On Walls In Complex Fluids With Fluid-Solid Interaction, Dehong Fang

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

The wall shear stress (WSS) in blood vessels influences many biological processes, such as atherosclerosis, clot growth, angiogenesis, aneurysm rupture, and blood cell transport and adhesion. The deformable red blood cells (RBCs) in blood flow make the WSS even more complex. To analyze the WSS in complex fluids with cell suspensions, numerical simulations of blood flows in simple straight channels were conducted, where the fluid-solid interactions were simulated by immersed boundary-lattice Boltzmann method. The spatiotemporal dynamics of WSS were analyzed using dynamic mode decomposition (DMD), which is a technique that can extract the low-rank spatiotemporal features from complex fluids. The …

A New Boundary Interlock Geometry Design Method For Fdm Multi-Material Part Strengthening, Shivaram Sree Venkata Shanmukha Kakaraparthi

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Multi-material Fused Deposition Modelling (FDM) enables the cost-effective realization of designs in complex geometries built with multiple materials. However, achieving an adequate level of bonding strength between different materials remains a significant challenge. Besides the traditional way of addressing this challenge by strengthening material bonding at the molecular scale by optimizing the printing parameters, introducing a new design methodology that creates stronger multi-material interface geometry could also offer effective solutions. This work studied the mechanical properties of multi-material printed objects, with a particular focus on the interface zone formed between different materials at their geometrical boundaries. A new mathematical simulation …

A Parametric Study Of Thermochemical Energy Storage Using Chemical Looping For Concentrated Solar Power (Csp) Plants, Imran Anees Mohammed

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

The use of conventional fossil fuels to generate power has caused great harm to the environment. These fossil fuels, when burnt, release copious amounts of CO_2, causing global warming. Therefore, it is imperative that current energy sources are substituted with renewable energy sources. However, the critical obstacle with renewable energy sources is their intermittency. Solar energy is being captured through photovoltaic plants and concentrated solar power plants. Photovoltaic plants use batteries, which makes the storage of energy limited. Furthermore, an alternative downside is that the constant use of many batteries will considerably increaseincrease the project’s cost. Concentrated solar power plants …

Temperature Analysis Of A Square Lid-Driven Cavity With Particle Suspensions, Justin Kortge

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and discrete element method (DEM) are powerful tools for simulating systems that contain fluids and particles. Studies of particle fluid systems greatly vary in their applications and complexity, and yet there is a scarcity of studies focused on the thermal characteristics of the fluid. A computational analysis is conducted on two-dimensional flow in a square thermal lid-driven cavity to assess the effect of particle suspensions on the thermal characteristics of the cavity. Most studies analyzing the effect of suspensions in a thermal lid-driven cavity treat the medium as a single homogeneous nanofluid. Those that do treat …

Cool Thermal Energy Storage: Water And Ice To Alternative Phase Change Materials, Sandra K. S. Boetcher

Publications

Cool thermal energy storage has a long history dating back to ancient times with modern developments beginning in the mid-nineteenth century where blocks of ice were cut from frozen lakes for cooling applications. Today, the prevalent mode of thermal energy storage is the utilization of ice tanks in commercial buildings for peak shaving and load shifting. In this chapter, a summary of different types of water/ice thermal energy storage systems is provided; an overview of alternative phase change materials for use in cool thermal energy storage is given; and alternative phase change material thermal energy systems, their implementation, challenges, and …

Determining Cause Of Failure For Load Cells Supporting Vertical Pressure Vessels Subject To Wind Loading, Seth Nowak

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Wind loads cannot be avoided during a natural disaster such as a hurricane and could affect the strength and stability of vertical pressure vessels during exposure. Vertical pressure vessels cater to large wind loads; therefore, it is imperative to study the effect of additional loading on the structures. In this study, three pressure vessels with volumes of 50 CuFt, 200 CuFt, and 1100 CuFt, supported by three equidistant load cells under their legs are individually analyzed to determine von mises stress to estimate yield failure criteria. Two load rating criteria, maximum load capacity and water-filled condition (critical condition) are utilized …

Am Surface Roughness And Its Impact On Drag, Jackson Landry Chandler

Honors Academy

“The main goal of this thesis is to quantify additive manufacturing (AM) surface roughness, as a precursor to identifying its impact on unsteady transient flow properties. Experimental data using the Hirox optical microscopes and SEM imaging collected from the nylon and stainless-steel lattice structures contained an inherent level of surface roughness at the finer scale. Surface Roughness have a negative effect on additively manufactured materials and as such should be mitigated whenever possible. Surface roughness increases unwanted features such as the level of drag, skin friction, negative heat transfer/mass transfer properties, and other unwanted unsteady transitional flow characteristics. Though exceptions …

A Study Of Reduced Activation Ferritic Martensitic Metal Core Wire For Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing, Alexander L. Reichenbach

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

This study seeks to determine the technical feasibility of fabricating reduced activation ferritic martensitic (RAFM) steel parts, using a wire arc additive manufacturing (WAAM) process. The WAAM process, manufactures a part by depositing layers of metal onto a substrate to build a large scale near net shape part. RAFM alloy steels are next generation steels designed to resist radiation effects in the radiation intense working environments, such as nuclear reactors. To achieve this, process development and testing to design the WAAM production process with the custom RAFM filler wire was carried out. Several welding waveform modes were tested, and it …

Cfd And Heat Transfer Analysis Of Rocket Cooling Techniques On An Aerospike Nozzle, Geoffrey Sullivan

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

In recent years the development of rocket engines has been mainly focused on improving the engine cycle and creating new fuels. Rocket nozzle design has not been changed since the late 1960s. Recent needs for reliable and reusable rockets, as well as advancements in additive manufacturing, have brought new interest into the aerospike nozzle concept. This nozzle is a type of altitude adjusting nozzle that is up to 90% more efficient than bell nozzles at low altitudes and spends up to 30% less fuel. Since the nozzle body is submerged in the hot exhaust gasses it is difficult to keep …

Construction Of A Peridynamic Model For Viscous Flow, Jiangming Zhao, Adam Larios, Florin Bobaru Ph.D.

Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering: Faculty Publications

We derive the Eulerian formulation for a peridynamic (PD) model of Newtonian viscous flow starting from fundamental principles: conservation of mass and momentum. This formulation is different from models for viscous flow that utilize the so-called “peridynamic differential operator” with the classical Navier- Stokes equations. We show that the classical continuity equation is a limiting case of the PD one, assuming certain smoothness conditions. The PD model for viscous flow is calibrated to the classical Navier-Stokes equations by enforcing linear consistency for the viscous stress term. Couette and Poiseuille flows, and incompressible fluid flow past a regular lattice of cylinders …

Recent Advances In Biosensors For Detection Of Covid-19 And Other Viruses, Shobhit K. Patel, Jaymit Surve, Juveriya Parmar, Kawsar Ahmed, Francis M. Bui, Fahad Ahmed Al-Zahrani

Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering: Faculty Publications

This century has introduced very deadly, dangerous, and infectious diseases to humankind such as the influenza virus, Ebola virus, Zika virus, and the most infectious SARS-CoV-2 commonly known as COVID-19 and have caused epidemics and pandemics across the globe. For some of these diseases, proper medications, and vaccinations are missing and the early detection of these viruses will be critical to saving the patients. And even the vaccines are available for COVID-19, the new variants of COVID-19 such as Delta, and Omicron are spreading at large. The available virus detection techniques take a long time, are costly, and complex and …

Grinding And Super-Finishing Test Machine Project, Michael Simon

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

A research project in The University of Akron to study grinding and super-finishing of silicon nitride ceramic was initiated by Dr. Siamak Farhad and sponsored by the Timken Company, with the assistance of undergraduate students Michael Simon, Ryan Hosso and Mathew Rozmajzl. The study required analysis of forces and scratches generated during grinding processes of silicon nitride samples. A testing assembly was designed and constructed to record the forces generated during grinding and super-finishing of silicon nitride samples in a computer-numerical-control machine. Silicon nitride samples were subjected to desired grinding and super-finishing operations and all forces generated during the process …

Ballistic Impact Mitigation Pad, Adam Pianalto, Nathan Mayer, Wyatt Smith, Nick Green, Douglas Wild

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

In our senior design project we have decided to work under Dr. Jon Gerhardt on creating a gel pad to mitigate blunt force behind bulletproof vests. Extensive research on injury, materials, manufacturing methods, and NIJ standards was completed during this project. Through the use of advanced modeling software and additive manufacturing, we prototyped a functioning pad to test and compare to a pad that is currently available in today's market. The results proved to be very successful, but there are many areas to improve upon down the road.

Human Ergonomic Simulation To Support The Design Of An Exoskeleton For Lashing/De-Lashing Operations Of Containers Cargo, Francesco Longo, Antonio Padovano, Vittorio Solina, Virginia D' Augusta, Stefan Venzl, Roberto Calbi, Michele Bartuni, Ornella Anastasi, Rafael Diaz

VMASC Publications

Lashing and de-lashing operations of containers cargo on board containerships are considered as quite strenuous activities in which operators are required to work continuously over a 6 or 8 hours shift with very limited break. This is mostly because containerships need to leave the port as soon as possible and containers loading and unloading operations must be executed with very high productivity (stay moored in a port is a totally unproductive time for a ship and a loss-making business for a shipping company). Operators performing lashing and de-lashing operations are subjected to intense ergonomic stress and uncomfortable working postures. To …

Advances In Control Of Uncertain Dynamical Systems With Optimal And Adaptive Approaches, Meryem Deniz

Doctoral Dissertations

"This research starts with designing optimal control for uncertain systems, adding the adaptive control input to suppress the uncertainty. It then follows with designing the optimal control for state constraint, designing the optimal nonlinear reference model, designing adaptive control to handle state constraint and uncertainty. Finally, it designs the finite-time controller for uncertain multiagent systems.

It is well known that the design of the control algorithm for an uncertain dynamical system is not trivial. Motivated by this standpoint, this study focuses on optimal and adaptive control approaches with stability and performance guarantees for uncertain sole and multiagent dynamical systems. From …

Wireless Power Transfer In Autonomous Mobile Microgrids, Carl Greene

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

The ability to autonomously dock unmanned ground vehicles plays a key role in mobile micro-grids, where efficient power transfer is paramount. The approach utilized in this work allows for near-field wireless power transfer in remote locations with minimal support. Establishing a micro-grid power system connection autonomously using wireless power eliminates the arduous task of designing a complex, multiple degrees of freedom (MDOF) robotic arm. The work presented in this thesis focuses on both the hardware and software within the micro-grid system. This particular near-field wireless system consists of a primary and secondary set of modules, comprised of Litz wire coils, …

Development And Validation Of A Force Measuring Device For A Laboratory Wave Tank, Jacob K. Colling

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

The ability to predict the hydrodynamic force exerted on floating bodies plays a critical role in creating more effective control strategies for wave energy converters (WECs). Developing a test apparatus capable of directly measuring the forces exerted on a floating body subjected to a wavefield provides the means to validate theoretical prediction methods with experimental results and to develop data-based prediction methods for hydrodynamic forces. This report will discuss the development and validation of a device that measures the total vertical force exerted on a test artifact. The device requirements and design are discussed to examine the factors taken into …

Passivity-Based Numerical Modeling And Grid Integration Strategies For Wave Energy Converter Arrays, Salman Husain

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

The body of work presented here develops numerical time-domain models of Wave Energy Converter (WEC) arrays or wave farms. It will be shown here that a cluster of WECs can be more effective in extracting oceanic energy, can facilitate deployment logistics, and help with grid integration. The objectives of this work are: (i) developing a theoretical metric to evaluate the energy extraction potential of a WEC array, (ii) developing an algorithm that ensures the stability of the time-domain models of WEC arrays, and (iii) identifying strategies that facilitate grid integration and power management of a WEC array. In the process …

Development Of An Interactive Robot For Overground Physical Human-Robot Interaction, Sambad Regmi

Doctoral Dissertations

"The overground interactive robots are potentially beneficial for humans in various areas, such as overground rehabilitation therapies and robotic interactive assistance. However, it is unclear what the expectations and challenges are for a robot to be physically interactive with a human during overground tasks, such as a robot helping an older adult walk. To develop such a robot, one must first build a clear understanding of how the human motor intent is communicated when interacting with another agent. Specifically, how do humans understand the leader’s intention when being led?

Based on previous works, we hypothesized that humans modulate their arm …

Formation Control Of Mobile Robot Swarm In Search Operation, Chanun Asavasirikulkij

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

The use of swarm mobile robots has emerged as a promising approach to enhance search efficiency in various applications. This thesis focuses on proposing an effective design and fabrication methodology for a swarm mobile robot system based on the Robot Operating System (ROS) framework. Additionally, a novel network architecture is presented to improve communication efficiency among the robots. The primary objective of this research is to investigate the formation control of swarm mobile robots and their superior ability in search operations. Through extensive experiments and quantitative analysis, the performance of the proposed formation control strategy is evaluated in terms of …

Development Of Stiffness Sensing And Adaptive Grasping With Soft Pneumatic Grippers, Chaiwuth Sithiwichankit

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

This study presents a framework for stiffness sensing and adaptive grasping using soft pneumatic grippers (SPGs). The motivation was to imitate the capabilities of human hands. The challenge was the compliance of soft pneumatic actuators (SPAs). The study associated the behaviors of grasped objects with those on SPAs, introduced a new concept of SPA modeling, and proposed a method for stiffness sensing through SPG pincer grasping. Compression testing was conducted for validation. A technique for forecasting deformation and force on grasped objects based on their stiffness was established, and a control law was elaborated. The presented technique and control architecture …

ผลกระทบของการเปลี่ยนแปลงอัตราการระบายอากาศตาม ข้อมูลความหนาแน่นของบุคคลในอาคารสำนักงานเพื่อ ป้องกันการแพร่กระจายเชื้อโรคโควิด-19, พิชชาพร ประพิณศรี

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

การแพร่กระจายเชื้อทางอากาศผ่านระบบทางเดินหายใจเป็นสิ่งที่มนุษย์เผชิญมาตั้งแต่อดีต การควบคุมสภาพแวดล้อมสามารถลดปริมาณเชื้อโรค และความเสี่ยงในการติดเชื้อของผู้ใช้งานพื้นที่ได้ ผู้วิจัยจึงได้พัฒนาแบบจำลองค่าความเสี่ยงในการติดเชื้อร่วมกับดัชนีชี้วัดระยะห่างทางสังคม และประสิทธิภาพอุปกรณ์ป้องกันซึ่งแบบจำลองมีความคลาดเคลื่อนเฉลี่ยเพียง 10.78 เปอร์เซ็นต์จากตัวอย่างสถานการณ์จริงทั้งหมด 11 สถานการณ์ แบบจำลองใช้เป็นเครื่องมือในการวิเคราะห์ความสัมพันธ์ระหว่างความหนาแน่นคนกับอัตราการระบายอากาศในพื้นที่ได้ เพื่อใช้กำหนดมาตรการป้องกันโรคติดต่อ เช่น การกำหนดความหนาแน่นคนในพื้นที่ การกำหนดระยะเวลาเข้าใช้ และการสวมใส่หน้ากากอนามัย ในงานวิจัยนี้วิเคราะห์จำนวนคนที่เหมาะสมในแต่ละพื้นที่เมื่อมีการระบายอากาศที่จำกัด กำหนดให้เป็นไปตามมาตรฐานของ ASHRAE 62.1 และวิเคราะห์หาอัตราการระบายอากาศที่เหมาะสมกับจำนวนคนที่เข้าออกโดยพื้นที่มีการรักษาค่าความเสี่ยงในการติดเชื้อที่ยอมรับได้ พื้นที่ตัวอย่าง คือ พื้นที่สำนักงาน ร้านอาหาร และบาร์ ผลการวิจัยพบว่า เมื่อกำหนดระยะเวลาที่อยู่ในพื้นที่เป็นเวลา 1 – 3 ชั่วโมงและค่าความเสี่ยงในการติดเชื้อไม่เกิน 0.01 – 0.05 ในที่ที่มีการระบายอากาศจำกัด การใส่หน้ากากอนามัยจะรับความหนาแน่นได้สูงกว่าการไม่ใส่หน้ากากอนามัย โดยเพิ่มขึ้นได้ 51.52 – 800.00 เปอร์เซ็นต์เมื่อพิจารณาค่าความเสี่ยงในการติดเชื้อที่ยอมรับได้มีค่าไม่เกิน 0.02 หากยอมรับค่าที่มากขึ้นได้จะทำให้พื้นที่สามารถรับคนได้มากขึ้น ในขณะที่การปรับอัตราการระบายอากาศตามจำนวนคนที่เข้าออกพื้นที่เพื่อรักษาค่าความเสี่ยงในการติดเชื้อให้ไม่เกิน 0.02 ในช่วงเวลาที่อยู่ในพื้นที่ 3 ชั่วโมง การใส่หน้ากากอนามัยจะทำให้สามารถลดอัตราการระบายอากาศลง แต่ยังคงมีค่าสูงกว่าค่าการระบายอากาศมาตรฐาน จึงกล่าวได้ว่า การระบายอากาศตามมาตรฐานมีค่าไม่เพียงพอในการรักษาค่าความเสี่ยงในการติดเชื้อให้ไม่เกิน 0.02 ในช่วงเวลาที่อยู่ในพื้นที่ 3 ชั่วโมง การปรับค่าดังกล่าวส่งผลให้ค่าพลังงานและค่าไฟฟ้าสูง ซึ่งในกรณีไม่ใส่หน้ากากอนามัย และใส่หน้ากากอนามัยสูงกว่าถึง 1,351 – 1,802 และ 169 – 269 เปอร์เซ็นต์ตามลำดับ