Engineering Commons^™

Effects Of Tempering Temperature On Gas Turbine Fan Cases, Seth Utter

Honors Scholar Theses

The project aimed to investigate the effects of tempering temperature on metals used for gas turbine engine fan cases as a major relevant concern is containing blades in during blade-out events. There are three ways to accomplish this: using a thicker metal, incorporating different materials into the case, or heat treating the metal. This project focused on the third solution: reviewing the impact toughness and hardness of fractured samples and their equivalent ductile-to-brittle transition shear faces. Given its availability, 1045 steel, as opposed to aerospace grade metals, was used for in-house testing. The data obtained from these experiments were then …

Investigation Of Neoprene Medical Gloves: Analysis Of Material Properties, Durability, And Bacterial Barrier Efficacy, Amanda Agui

Honors Scholar Theses

This work aims to investigate the material properties, durability, and bacterial barrier efficacy of neoprene for applications in the healthcare/medical field. A special focus on material stiffness and fatigue failure will be explored. Additionally, manufacturer regulations and testing will be inspected to ensure medical gloves made of neoprene blends have a proper lifespan for its desired application in the healthcare community. The resistance of protective gloves and its ability to withstand perforation failure will be investigated to guarantee the safety of users holds extreme importance. Lastly, an analysis of the bacterial barrier efficacy of neoprene gloves will be determined.

Hydrolytic Degradation Study Of Polyphosphazene-Plga Blends, Riley Blumenfield

Honors Scholar Theses

The synthesis and in vitro degradation analysis of thin films of poly[(glycineethylglycinato)₇₅(phenylphenoxy)₂₅phosphazene]
(PNGEG₇₅PhPh₂₅) and poly[(ethylphenylalanato)₂₅(glycine-
ethylglycinato)₇₅phosphazene] (PNEPA₂₅GEG₇₅) blended with poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) was conducted to determine the blends’ potential for use as scaffolding materials for tissue regeneration applications. The samples were synthesized with glycylglycine ethyl ester (GEG) acting as the primary substituent side group, with cosubstitution by phenylphenol (PhPh) and phenylalanine ethyl ester (EPA) to make the final product [1]. Blends of 25% polyphosphazene, 75% PLGA and 50% polyphosphazene, 50% PLGA were …

Modeling Of Vapor Sorption In Nanoparticle Chemiresistors, Alexandra Oliveira

Honors Scholar Theses

Chemical vapor sensors possess a number of uses in a variety of fields, from environmental and health monitoring to food safety and national security concerns, such as the detection of improvised explosive devices. Many sensors currently in the market have the ability to detect the presence of a select few compounds and measure the concentration at which the species is present. However, these types of sensors require that the vapor to be investigated is known beforehand; they cannot be used for identification except on a case by case basis. In response to this issue, one branch of vapor sensor research …

Development Of A Sonically Powered Biodegradable Nanogenerator For Bone Regeneration, Avi Patel

Honors Scholar Theses

Background: Reconstruction of bone fractures and defects remains a big challenge in orthopedic surgery. While regenerative engineering has advanced the field greatly using a combination of biomaterial scaffolds and stem cells, one matter of difficulty is inducing osteogenesis in these cells. Recent works have shown electricity’s ability to promote osteogenesis in stem cell lines when seeded in bone scaffolds; however, typical electrical stimulators are either (a) externally housed and require overcomplex percutaneous wires be connected to the implanted scaffold or (b) implanted non-degradable devices which contain toxic batteries and require invasive removal surgeries.

Objective: Here, we establish a biodegradable, piezoelectric …

A First-Principles Examination Of Dopants In Hfo2, Daniel Cunningham

Honors Scholar Theses

A systematic first-principles study using density functional theory was performed on dopants in HfO2, a material with great importance as a high-k dielectric. Sixteen dopants were tested, most of which came from the fourth period of the periodic table (K-Ge, Al and Si). The relative stability of the monoclinic, tetragonal, and cubic phases were calculated for HfO2 with each dopant in order to determine which dopants tend to stabilize which phases. It was found that the most important factor in determining relative phase stability of doped HfO2 was the ionic radius of the dopant, where dopants smaller than Hf tend …

Optimizing Polymer Fluorescence For Explosives Detection, Rose K. Cersonsky

Honors Scholar Theses

Pyrene is commonly used for explosives detection, as when mixed with polystyrene, the fluorescence intensity of the resulting film can be used as an indicator of the presence of nitro-aromatic, nitro-ether, or nitro-amine explosives. Previous studieshave tested a three-component system including pyrene, polystyrene, and a salt, tetrabutylammonium hexafluorophosphate (TBAHP). From these previous studies, it has been seen that vapor pressure of the preparation area is a governing factor in the formation of excimers, which are instrumental in achieving and maintaining fluorescence intensity. In this study, three parameters – solution concentration, film thickness, and molecular weight of polystyrene are examined to …