Engineering Commons^™

Amine-Thiol Solution Route Method For Fabricating Cdxzn1-Xs Thin Film Solar Cells, Preston D. Fernandez, Xianyi Hu, Carol Handwerker, Rakesh Agrawal

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Cadmium zinc sulfide, CdZnS, is a promising material for the buffer layer of thin film solar cells because the alloy is considerably more cost effective and more optimizable than pure cadmium sulfide, CdS, in terms of band gap. The current fabrication methods of the buffer layer often require expensive equipment or produce undesirable impurities in the alloy. This study investigates a cost effective and scalable solution route method to synthesize the CdZnS buffer layer. Molecular precursors of CdZnS were dissolved in varying molecular ratios of cadmium and zinc in a mixture of hexylamine and propanethiol. The resulting alloys produced were …

Infant Exposure To Resuspended Particles From Carpeted Flooring: Experimental Chamber Study With A Simplified Mechanical Crawling Infant, Manjie Fu, Brandon E. Boor

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Airborne particles of biological origin – bioaerosols – are present everywhere, including the indoor environment where people spend considerable amounts of time, and exposure to such materials via inhalation can have a number of health implications. Bioaerosol dynamics can occur through a variety of mechanisms, among them resuspension of deposited particles due to human activity. Because the breathing zone of infants is at a much lower height than that of adults, there is reason to suspect that infants are exposed to greater concentrations of bioaerosols resuspended from the floor, though knowledge in this specific area is limited. To investigate, a …

Dynamic Modeling And Validation Of Micro-Chp Systems, Apurva Badithela, Neera Jain, Austin Nash

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Micro-Combined Heat and Power (micro-CHP) units locally generate electricity to simultaneously provide power and heat for residential buildings. Apart from the potential benefits of reducing carbon emissions and increasing robustness to brownouts and blackouts, micro-CHP systems can be controlled to meet energy demands. Micro-CHP systems consist of a prime mover that generates electricity, such as a fuel cell, an internal combustion engine, or a Stirling engine, and a waste heat recovery system that enables utilization of heat generated as a byproduct of electricity generation. Often, a thermal energy storage system is integrated with micro-CHP systems, thereby decoupling, in time, the …

Fluid Flow Thermometry Using Thermographic Phosphors, Gabriel J. Fenoglio, Humberto J. Detrinidad, Aman Satija, Alex D. Casey, Robert P. Lucht, Terrence R. Meyer

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Phosphor thermometry is a non-intrusive thermometry technique that allows for spatially and temporally resolved surface temperature measurements. The thermographic method has been employed in a number of applications that include combustion, sprays, and gas flows. In the current work, we investigate the implementation of thermographic phosphors in liquid flows, which is of interest in a wide range of applications in heat transfer, fluid mechanics, and thermal systems. Zinc oxide doped with Zinc (ZnO:Zn) was the phosphor employed for experimentation due to its high emission intensity and insolubility. In order to explore this application, the phosphor powder was uniformly dispersed in …

Development Of Functional Requirements For A High-Capacity Airspace System, Noel J. Colon, Jeongjoon Boo, Steven J. Landry

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

NASA along with other researchers visualizes a future where more aircraft will transport passengers or goods around the world. Thus, they envision increasing air capacity from 10 to 100 times more than the current system without any reduction in efficiency or safety. Many models are being proposed that comply with the necessary requirements to form part of the method needed. However, knowing which of the proposed methods have the most desirable characteristics, such as efficiency and safety, are yet to be determined. For this reason, a standardized method to compare and assess them has to be developed, since is not …

A Proposal For A Wirelessly Powered, Implantable Pressure Sensor And Neural Stimulator For The Control Of Urinary Incontinence, Robert N. Tucker, Christopher J. Quinkert, Pedro P. Irazoqui

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

47 to 53 percent of women over the age of 20 suffer from urinary incontinence, often caused by childbirth-related damage to the pelvic nerve. This uncertainty of when bladder voiding will occur causes social anxiety and can compromise quality of life. This study explores one method to restore the ability to sense the need to urinate and prevent unwanted voiding. We propose a device to measure pressure due to bladder content as the difference between pressure in the bladder and pressure in the abdominal cavity. Integrated circuits, biocompatible packaging, and wireless radiofrequency powering allow for a fully implantable device to …

Pore Scale Transport Of Miscible And Immiscible Fluids In Porous Media, Tolulope O. Odimayomi, Arezoo M. Ardekani

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

The separation of harmful or valuable substances entrapped in porous media has applications in processes such as enhanced oil recovery, diffusion in tissue, and aquifer remediation. In this study the motion and removal rate of immiscible and miscible solutions have been analyzed to gain understanding of solvent effectiveness as it is diluted due to diffusion or mixing within porous materials. The extraction of oil using water, a surfactant solution of 4% CTAB in water, and a foam produced form the surfactant solution is observed using two dimensional flows between parallel slides containing cylindrical obstacles. The fluid motion is visualized. The …

Cold Atmospheric Pressure Plasmas For Food Applications, Michael V. Lauria, Russell S. Brayfield Ii, Ronald G. Johnson, Allen L. Garner

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Successfully distributing shelf food requires treatment to eliminate microorganisms. Current chemical methods, such as chlorine wash, can alter food quality while only being effective for a limited time. Cold atmospheric pressure plasmas (CAPs) can eradicate the microorganisms responsible for food spoilage and foodborne illness. Optimizing CAP treatments requires understanding the reactive species generated and relating them to eradication efficiency. Recent studies have used optical emission spectroscopy (OES) to determine the species generated in a sealed package that would hold food. In this study,we supplement the OES results with optical absorption spectroscopy (OAS) using the same gases (helium, nitrogen, compressed air, …

Development Of Micro-/Nano-Architectures For Intracellular Sensing Platform, Ryan M. Preston, Dae Seung Wie, Chi Hwan Lee

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Currently available nanotechnologies are capable of creating various nanostructures in controlled dimensions such as particles (0D), wires (1D), membranes (2D), and cubes (3D) by exploiting “top-down” or “bottom-up” methods. However, there exist limitations to systematically construct hierarchical nanostructures with geometric complexities. This study is focused on developing a novel nanofabrication strategy that can rationally produce a set of hierarchical nanostructures configured with precisely engineered facets, tip shapes, and tectonic motifs. We aim to identify a collection of optimal materials, array layouts, basic components, and nanofabrication techniques for the production of hierarchical nanostructures by exploiting device-grade semiconducting silicon materials. To accomplish …

3d Modeling Of Murine Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms: Quantification Of Segmentation And Volumetric Reconstruction, Paula A. Sarmiento, Amelia R. Adelsperger, Craig J. Goergen Ph.D.

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms (AAA) cause 5,900 deaths in the United States each year. Surgical intervention is clinically studied by non-invasive techniques such as computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging. However, three-dimensional (3D) ultrasound imaging has become an inexpensive alternative and useful tool to characterize aneurysms, allowing for reconstruction of the vessel, quantification of hemodynamics through computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation, and possible prediction of aortic expansion and rupture. However, current analysis techniques for these images require the use of multiple software platforms for either modeling or simulation, prompting the need for alternatives to improve data processing. This study monitors the …

Atomistic Configuration Interaction Simulation Tool For Semiconductor Based Quantum Computing Devices, Jingbo Wu, Archana Tankasala, Jim Fonseca, Rajib Rahman, Gerhard Klimeck

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Solid-state devices are promising candidates for quantum computing applications due to obvious advantages in compatibility with semiconductor fabrication technologies and the extremely long coherent times of electron and nuclear spins in these devices. In such devices, electron interactions are crucial for single and two qubit gate operations. Thus it is essential to evaluate these electron-electron interactions accurately for precise qubit control. It is shown that Atomistic Configuration Interaction can be used to accurately determine electron-electron interactions in realistic semiconductor quantum computing devices. In this work, an online simulation tool on Atomistic Configuration Interaction has been implemented and published on nanoHUB.org, …

Radiation Tailored Polymers For Detectors, Adhesive-Coatings And Other Industrial Uses, Anna M. Earley, Alex Bakken, Rusi P. Taleyarkhan

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

The ever growing importance of humans to depend on renewable resources has shifted the focus of consumers, producers, and even politicians to more sustainable answers. Furthermore, pressure on the oil and natural gas industry has elevated the status of biopolymers in this regard. Polylactic acid (PLA) is unique polymer that offers unique abilities for tailored property derivation; thereby, enabling one to replace many engineered polymers and provide a sustainable solution as a nontoxic renewable resource. As a bioplastic, the tailoring of PLA under various conditions is important to the application and integration into current industry uses. After irradiating high molecular …

Laser-Assisted Microchanneling On Pmma Substrate Utilizing Two-Pass Fabrication Method, Sijie Zhang, Yung C. Shin

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Microchannel is widely used in microfluidic devices for mixing, chemical reaction, detection, particle separation and etc. CO₂ laser-based microchanneling of PMMA as a low cost, rapid, noncontact fabrication method has attracted the attention of industry. However, the typical V-shape grooves fabricated by CO₂ laser microchanneling have limitations since the V-shape grooves will affect the flow behavior and heat transfer of the fluid, which are important to the performance of microfluidic devices. A two-pass fabrication method is proposed and investigated in this paper to improve the quality of the PMMA microchannel fabricated by CO₂ laser. It was found …

Plant Phenotyping On Mobile Devices, Ziling Chen, Jian Jin, Zhihang Song, Jialei Wang

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Plants phenotyping is a fast and non-destructive method to obtain the physiological features of plants, compared with the expensive and time costing chemical analysis with plant sampling. Through plant phenotyping, scientists and farmers can tell plant health status more accurately compared to visual inspection, thus avoid the waste in time and resources and even to predict the productivity. However, the size and price of current plant phenotyping equipment restrict them from being widely applied at a farmer’s household level. Everyday field operation is barely achieved because of the availability of easy-to-carry and cost-effective equipment such as hyper-spectrum cameras, infrared cameras …

Hydrophobic Zeolites For Applications In Adsorption And Catalysis, Zige Huang, Michael Cordon, Rajamani Gounder

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Lewis acidic zeolites such as Sn-Beta are commonly studied for use as selective catalysts for glucose isomerization to fructose in liquid water. Glucose to fructose isomerization is a critical reaction for lignocellulosic biomass upgrading, which converts abundant and renewable feedstocks into commercially desirable fuels and chemicals.

Industrial applications require catalysts that maintain optimal reactivity over long time scales, yet at typical reaction temperatures, Lewis acidic Beta zeolites are known to deactivate in liquid water through poorly understood mechanisms. Recent work in our group has shown that interactions between water and Sn-Beta zeolites can cause leaching of active Sn sites from …

Study Of Oxidative-Crosslink Reaction In Polyphenyl Sulfide (Pps) / Carbon Fiber And Its Influence In Additive Manufacturing, Dong Hee Kim, Eduardo Barocio, Bastian Brenken, Anthony Favaloro, Byron Pipes

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Ever since its development in 1980s, Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF) has been an attractive additive manufacturing technology due to its flexibility to create intricate shapes at lower costs and faster manufacturing process than subtractive techniques. These advantages make FFF suitable for printing molds for use in traditional composites manufacturing processes. Combining FFF with high-temperature thermoplastic composites enables producing molds that not only sustain autoclave conditions but also have low coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE). A semi-crystalline polymer, Poly-phenylene Sulfide (PPS), with 50% by weight of carbon fiber is used as feedstock material for FFF. Nonetheless, PPS is sensitive to undergo …

Wearable Piezotronic Devices For Heart Rate Monitoring, Adam J. Miller, Wenzhuo Wu Dr.

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Self-powered multifunctional wearable devices that are capable of human-device interfacing are highly desired. Piezotronic devices utilize piezoelectricity and semiconductor properties to enable devices to have seamless interaction between human and device. One important use for piezotronic devices is for pressure sensing. Pressure sensing devices have been employed in smart skins, biomonitoring, gesture recognition, and many more applications. This study aims to create a flexible piezotronic device, specifically for use in pressure sensing to monitor heart rate. ZnO nanowires are grown on a flexible polymer substrate so that they can be made into wearable devices. A p-n heterojunction is formed by …

Pah Analysis Of Sediments From Pleasant Run Creek Adjacent To A Former Manufactured Gas Plant, Celeste A. Bronson, Xuda Lin, Amisha D. Shah, Nadya Zyaykina, Chad Jafvert

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are known to be toxic and some are even carcinogenic. A prime source of PAHs is coal tar. Coal tar can be found in soils and sediments near former manufactured gas plants (MGPs) or coking facilities. This study involves characterizing the chemical composition and concentrations of PAHs within stream sediments at a former MGP site by Pleasant Run Creek in Indianapolis, Indiana. To characterize the stream sediments, sediment cores were removed from various locations along the stream and sampled with depth. Sample collection was conducted in partnership with the environmental engineering firm, August Mack Environmental. Samples …

Temperature Dependent Surface Modification Of Tungsten Exposed To High-Flux Low-Energy Helium Ion Irradiation, Antony Q. Damico, Jitendra K. Tripathi, Theodore J. Novakowski, Gennady Miloshevsky, Ahmed Hassanein

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Nuclear fusion is a great potential energy source that can provide a relatively safe and clean limitless supply of energy using hydrogen isotopes as fuel material. ITER (international thermonuclear experimental reactor) is the world first fusion reactor currently being built in France. Tungsten (W) is a prime candidate material as plasma facing component (PFC) due to its excellent mechanical properties, high melting point, and low erosion rate. However, W undergoes a severe surface morphology change when exposed to helium ion (He⁺) bombardment under fusion conditions. It forms nanoscopic fiber-form structures, i.e., fuzz on the surface. Fuzz is brittle …

Development Of A Diode-Laser Absorption-Spectroscopy Sensor For Real-Time Control Of Combustion Systems, Rahul P. Balla, Christopher S. Goldenstein

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Tunable diode-laser absorption spectroscopy (TDLAS) sensors are widely used for measuring gas properties. These sensors offer several advantages including: small footprint, affordability, applicability to harsh environments, rapid time response, and calibration-free operation. As a result, diode-laser sensors can be integrated into control-systems and have previously been used to control gas-turbine combustors. In this study, high-frequency sine waves were generated continuously by a LabVIEW program to simultaneously scan and modulate the wavelength and intensity of a diode laser. The modulated laser light was transmitted 20 cm through the air and measured on a photodetector. Custom-built lock-in software was used to acquire …

Development Of A New Nanohub Simulation Tool: Coarse Graining Of Crystalline Nano-Cellulose., Kuo Tian, Mehdi Shishehbor, Pablo Zavattieri

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Crystalline Nano-cellulose (CNC) is a general molecular structure obtained from acid hydrolysis of native fiber. They are often very short (100 to 1000 manometers) and the mechanical properties of CNC varies depend on length scale. Due to defect formation of the structure, the mechanical properties of the material composed of such CNC may vary drastically. This study was to provide a numerical tool to integrate a few valid modules and to better understand the mechanical properties of CNC and the overall performance of the bio-inspired material composed of CNC. Our focus is mainly on two type of composite structure [1] …

Bioconjugation Of N-Terminal Functionalized Ca2+/Calmodulin-Dependent Protein Kinase Ii (Camkii) On Magnetic Beads, Benjamin Moy, Aya Saleh, Tamara L. Kinzer-Ursem

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Protein purification is a fundamental step that commonly precedes structural and functional characterization of proteins. Most of the current protein purification methods are laborious and time consuming due to the multistep nature of the process. Searching for alternative methods that are capable of shortening the purification time and simultaneously enhancing the purity of the purified proteins is therefore needed. The method described in this paper entails surface immobilization of the protein of interest on alkyne-functionalized magnetic beads following selective labeling of the protein’s N-terminus with an azide tag. The utility of this method was tested using Ca2+/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II …

Dynamic Modeling Of Contact-Mode Triboelectric Generators By Lagrange’S Equations, Sean M. Gauntt, James Gibert

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Electret based energy scavenging devices utilize electrostatic induction to convert mechanical energy into electrical energy. Uses for these devices include harvesting ambient energy in the environment and acting as sensors for a range of applications. These types of devices have been used in MEMS applications for over a decade. However, recently there is an interest in Triboelectric generators/harvesters, i.e., electret based harvesters that relies on triboelectrification as well as electrostatic induction. The literature is filled with a variety of designs for the latter devices, constructed from materials ranging from paper and thin films; rendering the generators lightweight, flexible and inexpensive. …

Lipid Detection In Pig Arteries Using Intravascular Photoacoustic Imaging, Jieying Mai, Yingchun Cao, Ayeeshik Kole, Michael Sturek, Ji-Xin Cheng

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States and worldwide. Each year over 370,000 people died from coronary artery disease in America. As the primary form of coronary artery disease, atherosclerosis behaves as lipid-rich plaque development inside an artery wall. Vulnerable plaques are those prone to rupture, which may result in thrombus or even death. Typical hallmarks of a vulnerable plaque include thin fibrous cap, a large lipid-rich necrotic core and inflammatory infiltrate. The identification and accurate detection of these lipid depositions in the arterial wall is crucial in the diagnosis of atherosclerosis. However, none of …

Optimization Of A High-Speed X-Ray Imaging System For Studying Sprays, Lane E. Schultz, Mikhail N. Slipchenko, Terrence R. Meyer, Wilbert C. Slowman

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Spray-based liquid atomization and liquid mixing is critical for development of efficient combustors and drug delivery systems as well as multiple coating-related applications. While optical methods allow characterization of low density regions of sprays, the scattering of optical photons hinders the characterization of a dense core. Unlike optical photons, higher-energy X-ray photons have the capability to penetrate and image the core structure of sprays. Here we characterized temporal and spatial resolution of an X-Ray imaging system based on a commercially available tube source with an anode size of 0.6 mm. For high-speed imaging, a phosphor screen in combination with a …

Quantum Dot Lab : Incorporation Of Alloys In The Capping Layer Of Multi-Layer Quantum Dot, Unmesha U. Kale, Prasad Sarangapani, Jim Fonseca, Gerhard Klimeck

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Quantum dots have enhanced the performance of several optoelectronic devices. Designing and obtaining optimal quantum dot structures requires intensive simulation. Quantum Dot Lab on nanoHUB provides such a simulation platform. The simulation is fully parallelized and depending on the structure, the tool decides the computational resource which is to be used for the simulation. To obtain accurate predictions of quantum dot structures it is essential to provide a variety of simulation parameters to the user. In this research, a user interface was created where the user can simulate alloys by Random distribution and by Virtual Crystal Approximation(VCA) type distribution in …

Multi-Objective Optimization Under Uncertainty Using The Hyper-Volume Expected Improvement, Martin Figura, Piyush Pandita, Rohit K. Tripathy, Ilias Bilionis

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

The design of real engineering systems requires the optimization of multiple quantities of interest. In the electric motor design, one wants to maximize the average torque and minimize the torque variation. A study has shown that these attributes vary for different geometries of the rotor teeth. However, simulations of a large number of designs cannot be performed due to their high cost. In many problems, design optimization of multi-objective functions is a very challenging task due to the difficulty to evaluate the expectation of the objectives. Current multi-objective optimization (MOO) techniques, e.g., evolutionary algorithms cannot solve such problems because they …

Tfit Modeling Of Wave Propagation For Flow Excursion, Brachston Grubbs, Krishna Chetty, Martin Bertodano

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

In the nuclear power industry, the Two-Fluid Model (TFM) is mainly used in the simulation of Loss of Coolant Accident (LOCA). The Two-Fluid Model is a wave mechanics formulation that may also be used to analytically perform stability analysis, which requires numerous assumptions and simplifications. This project aimed to advance the TFIT-TFM simulations in the modeling of the flow excursion instability. By using the TFIT computational code, simulation results can be obtained without the need for assumptions and simplifications. In this project, a simulation was performed to verify the nonlinear wave propagation capability of TFIT. During the verification process, the …

Effect Of Aggregation And Particle Size On The Thermal Conductivity Of Nickel-Epoxy Nanocomposites, Jacob M. Faulkner, Xiangyu Li, Xiulin Ruan Dr.

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Microprocessor advancements have been stunted in recent years by inadequate means of heat dissipation as power continues to grow and size continues to shrink. One way to increase thermal conductivity while maintaining electrical insulation is to add metal nanoparticles to a polymer matrix. This cheap material has become a popular thermal interface for this reason. However, optimization of the interface is dependent upon a number of factors including particle size, shape, orientation, and aggregation. Various theoretical models and numerical approximations have been developed to find the effective thermal conductivity of such nanocomposites, but none has been able to fully incorporate …

The Effect Of Honeycomb Cavity: Acoustic Performance Of A Double-Leaf Micro Perforated Panel, Yuxian Huang, Kai Ming Li

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

A micro perforated panel (MPP) is a device consisting of a thin plate and submillimeter perforations for reducing low frequency noise. MPPs have many advantages compared to traditional sound absorption materials, such as durability and designability, and they can be used in a variety of places such as room interior designs, passenger and crew compartments of aircrafts and combustion engines. The models in this study were designed and fabricated with the latest 3-D printing technology. The transmission loss and sound absorption coefficient of the 3-D printed double-leaf MPPs with honeycomb cavities were studied. According to the established theory, MPPs work …