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Full-Text Articles in Engineering

Developing General Purpose Apps To Automate Image Analysis Of Wave-Augmented-Varicose-Explosion Atomization And Other Multi-Phase Interfacial Flows, Ethan Newkirk May 2024

Developing General Purpose Apps To Automate Image Analysis Of Wave-Augmented-Varicose-Explosion Atomization And Other Multi-Phase Interfacial Flows, Ethan Newkirk

Senior Honors Theses

Atomization involves disrupting a flow of contiguous liquid into small droplets ranging from one submicron to several hundred microns (micrometers) in diameter through the processes of exerting sufficient forces that disrupt the retaining surface tensions of the liquid. Understanding this phenomenon requires high-speed imaging from physical models or rigorous multiphase computational fluid dynamics models. We produce a MATLAB application that utilizes various methods of image analysis to quickly analyze and store mathematical data from detailed image analyses. We present a user with numerous tools and capabilities that provide results that deviate from 1.8% to 8.9% of the original image sequence …


A New Atomization Paradigm: Smart Wave-Augmented Varicose Explosions, Daniel Mason Wilson May 2023

A New Atomization Paradigm: Smart Wave-Augmented Varicose Explosions, Daniel Mason Wilson

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The characterization of viscous, non-Newtonian slurry heating and atomization by means of internal wave excitation is presented for a twin-fluid injector. We detail mechanisms that enhance their disintegration in a novel process called “Wave-Augmented Varicose Explosions” (WAVE). Atomization of such fluids is challenging, especially at low gas-liquid mass ratios. Droplet production is further complicated when slurry viscosity varies widely; if viscosity levels are too high, atomization quality suffers, and an undesirable pressure drop restricts the flow. To mitigate, we introduce and demonstrate “Smart” atomization, a novel implementation of simultaneous proportional integral derivative (PID) control algorithms to accommodate dynamically and extensively …


An Exploration Of The Application Of Desalination In Disaster Relief, Emma Sager May 2023

An Exploration Of The Application Of Desalination In Disaster Relief, Emma Sager

Senior Honors Theses

This paper aims to explore the application of small-scale desalination systems to provide clean water in the wake of marine natural disasters. A lack of clean water is a devastating impact of many natural disasters. Desalination technologies, both thermal and membrane, show potential for being scaled down and self-powered by renewable energy. Desalination can transform ocean water and contaminated drinking water with a high salt content into drinkable, usable water. While these techniques are not perfected, and the solution to a need for clean water is multifaceted, desalination shows potential. Through further research and ever-advancing technology, small-scale desalination could develop …


Flexible Materials And Applications For Wearable Sensors, Brock Ferrari Apr 2023

Flexible Materials And Applications For Wearable Sensors, Brock Ferrari

Senior Honors Theses

This literature review aimed to address the limitations of rigid wearable sensors in the medical community by investigating the development of flexible materials for remote health monitoring. A keyword search was conducted on Google Scholar, PubMed, and the Jerry Falwell Library, which yielded 9,102 articles. After applying filtering techniques, the results were narrowed down to 21 articles, which were categorized into "Present Market Conditions," "Flexible Materials for Medical Use," "Applications for Wearable Sensors," and "Potential Use Cases." Discussions were held on prominent materials such as substrate, nanocomposite, and liquid metal materials, exploring their potential applications for chemical and physical sensing, …


Simulating Steam Jets Due To Rapid Plate Tectonics: A Computational Fluid Dynamics Analysis, Emilie Hatton Apr 2023

Simulating Steam Jets Due To Rapid Plate Tectonics: A Computational Fluid Dynamics Analysis, Emilie Hatton

Senior Honors Theses

According to the Bible's account of earth's physical history, the majority of geological change from creation to the Ice Age is a consequence of the global Flood cataclysm described in Genesis 6-8. The changes included large-scale tectonic activity, recycling all pre-Flood ocean floor into the mantle, and generating all present-day igneous ocean floor by seafloor spreading at mid-ocean rift zones. Along the middle of these zones, strips of newly formed seafloor were present near the melting temperature of basaltic magma. Above these strips of extremely hot rock, intense jets of steam would almost certainly form. This research seeks to investigate …


Study Of Urethane Double-Coated Nylon Membranes For Fluid-Storage Applications, Micah Austin Howell Aug 2022

Study Of Urethane Double-Coated Nylon Membranes For Fluid-Storage Applications, Micah Austin Howell

Masters Theses

Polymer-coated fabrics are used for many fuel and water storage applications, such as in U.S. military field operations. Urethane-double-coated nylon (UDCN) is one such material used in collapsible fluid storage tanks. Research into the mechanical properties of UDCN membranes under different environmental conditions is necessary for substantiating its current operations as well as developing new technologies. Novel modular, closed-loop and scalable pumped-storage hydropower (PSH) systems are one technology that could use UDCN membrane tanks in order to mitigate large costs, risks, environmental impacts, and time-for deployment associated with PSH system construction due to their modular, closed-loop technology. This study focuses …


Modelling And Development Of An Automated Ldpe Autoclave Reactor In Cfd For Revealing Ethylene Hot Spots, Eric Turman May 2022

Modelling And Development Of An Automated Ldpe Autoclave Reactor In Cfd For Revealing Ethylene Hot Spots, Eric Turman

Masters Theses

Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) was employed to develop a rigorous model of a low-density polyethylene (LDPE) autoclave reactor. Different numerical settings within the solver were evaluated to minimize false diffusion and to reflect the sensitive heat generation taking place during free radical polymerization. The rigorous CFD model employed reaction kinetics, Proportional Integral Derivative (PID) automated thermal management, and a rotating stirrer shaft. Validation was carried out to determine the sensitivity to time-step size, turbulence model, and grid resolution. Data were compared to an industrial scale plant autoclave to guide the development of CFD. Time-step independence was confirmed by comparing the …


Exploring Water Filtration Methods For Implementation In Rural Mozambique, Cole Glasson Apr 2022

Exploring Water Filtration Methods For Implementation In Rural Mozambique, Cole Glasson

Senior Honors Theses

Of Mozambicans living in rural areas, nearly two-thirds are without access to clean drinking water sources, leading to waterborne diseases and diarrhea. Thus, a great need exists for an effective and sustainable water treatment solution for rural Mozambicans. Boiling, solar disinfection, and membrane-based processes are analyzed with respect to their effectiveness and economic sustainability in an attempt to propose a solution to those living in rural Mozambique. The most sustainable option is membrane-based processes, with two particular systems showing the most promise: Skyhydrant™ and LifeStraw®. These two ultrafiltration system are extremely effective at retaining almost all forms of bacterial and …


Integrating Temperature Dependence Into A Microstructure-Sensitive Fatigue Model For Titanium Alloys, Jared Michael Darius Jan 2022

Integrating Temperature Dependence Into A Microstructure-Sensitive Fatigue Model For Titanium Alloys, Jared Michael Darius

Masters Theses

This work seeks to integrate temperature dependence into a microstructure-sensitive fatigue model for titanium alloys produced by both extrusion and electron beam melting (EBM) additive manufacturing, revising and enhancing the MultiStage Fatigue (MSF) model as the foundational model framework. Traditional fatigue modeling has required design engineers to conservatively use a lower-bound estimate of fatigue life predictions given a statistically significant spread of experimental data that can span up to two or sometimes three orders of magnitude for a given test condition. This variation in fatigue data has since been accounted for with the advent of the MSF model, linking individual …


Investigating The Effects Of Flue Gas Injection, Hot Water Distribution, And Fill Distribution On Natural Draft Wet Cooling Tower Performance, John Stapleton Jan 2020

Investigating The Effects Of Flue Gas Injection, Hot Water Distribution, And Fill Distribution On Natural Draft Wet Cooling Tower Performance, John Stapleton

Senior Honors Theses

Natural draft wet cooling towers (NDWCT) are a common method of heat removal in powerplants. This study employs a numerical cooling tower model developed by Eldredge, Benton & Hodgson (1997) to examine whether utilizing nonuniform water, fill profiles, and flue gas injection can improve NDWCT efficiency. The results show that each of these variables can be optimized to lower outlet water temperature. Within the range tested for each parameter, the water profile had the most significant effect on outlet water temperature, followed by the flue gas temperature and then the fill profile. The optimum parameter combination reduced the predicted outlet …


Finding A Single Equation To Represent Urea Evaporation, Sublimation, And Decomposition In Selective Catalytic Reduction Systems, Noah Hertzler Jan 2020

Finding A Single Equation To Represent Urea Evaporation, Sublimation, And Decomposition In Selective Catalytic Reduction Systems, Noah Hertzler

Senior Honors Theses

Aqueous Urea used in Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) Systems undergoes three sequential processes that result in ammonia being produced to reduce harmful NOx emissions: Water evaporation, Urea sublimation, and Urea decomposition into ammonia and isocyanic acid. While these phases can be simplified by modeling the Urea as pure water, accuracy is sacrificed to do so. In order to make SCR modelling both accurate and simple, this project set out to find an equation that could represent all three processes. Simulations were run in ANSYS and Particle to generate a set of data, then an empirical equation was created to model …


Cavitation Number As A Function Of Disk Cavitator Radius: A Numerical Analysis Of Natural Supercavitation, Reid Prichard Apr 2019

Cavitation Number As A Function Of Disk Cavitator Radius: A Numerical Analysis Of Natural Supercavitation, Reid Prichard

Senior Honors Theses

Due to the greater viscosity and density of water compared to air, the maximum speed of underwater travel is severely limited compared to other methods of transportation. However, a technology called supercavitation – which uses a disk-shaped cavitator to envelop a vehicle in a bubble of steam – promises to greatly decrease skin friction drag. While a large cavitator enables the occurrence of supercavitation at low velocities, it adds substantial unnecessary drag at higher speeds. Based on CFD results, a relationship between cavitator diameter and cavitation number is developed, and it is substituted into an existing equation relating drag coefficient …


The Design Of An Innovative Automotive Suspension For Formula Sae Racing Applications, Jared Darius Apr 2019

The Design Of An Innovative Automotive Suspension For Formula Sae Racing Applications, Jared Darius

Senior Honors Theses

This thesis details an analytical approach to an innovative suspension system design for implementation to the Formula SAE collegiate competition. It focuses specifically on design relating to geometry, mathematical modeling, energy element relationships, and computer analysis and simulation to visualize system behavior. The bond graph approach is utilized for a quarter car model to facilitate understanding of the analytical process, then applied to a comparative analysis between two transverse half car models. The second half car model contains an additional transverse linkage with a third damper, and is compared against the baseline of the first half car model without the …


Construction Techniques And Statistical Analysis Of Dielectric Elastomer Actuators, Adam Morrone May 2018

Construction Techniques And Statistical Analysis Of Dielectric Elastomer Actuators, Adam Morrone

Senior Honors Theses

In this study, a series of experiments were conducted to investigate and improve upon existing construction methods of dielectric elastomer actuators (DEAs). First, a proof of concept was built, which utilized a DEA as an active diaphragm to reproduce sound. Next, two electrode sizes and construction methods were compared via statistical analysis of electrode strain. In an attempt to develop an easier and more efficacious electrode construction method, the substance used for electrodes was then dissolved in six solvents. A commercially available graphite spray was compared against the solutions and determined to be the most promising on the basis of …