Engineering Commons^™

Design Of Versatile Feedback Control System Components For Selective Laser Sintering, Thomas Chessman

University Scholar Projects

Selective laser sintering (SLS) is an additive manufacturing technique that involves using a laser to fuse powdered material together, layer by layer, in order to create a 3-D product. Despite its numerous benefits over traditional methods of manufacturing, including higher efficiency, versatility, and the ability to process many materials, selective laser sintering suffers from its propensity to generate structural errors during operation.

Feedback control has been shown to improve fabrication quality in other laser-based additive manufacturing techniques when implemented properly. Widespread exploration of applying feedback control in SLS might lead to significant performance improvements in this form of manufacturing.

This …

Investigation Of Particle Interference In Induced Electromagnetic Coil, Elizabeth Soha

Honors Scholar Theses

The purpose of this thesis work is to study the effect of a ferromagnetic particle on an induced solenoid’s magnetic field. Solenoids are wound coils that are charged with current to induce a magnetic field. The placement of a particle inside a solenoid interacts with the coil’s magnetic field and therefore changes the coil’s field behavior. This work comprises a parametric study of how particle size and placement within a solenoid affect the solenoid’s magnetic field. A model of the coil and particle is created and parametrically studied using the computational software ANSYS. The results from this simulation help to …

Automating 35mm Photographic Film Digitization: X-Y Table Capture System Design And Assessment, Michael J. Bennett

Published Works

35mm still image formats are some of the most abundant photographic film types in cultural heritage collections. However, their special handling needs coupled with high resolution digital capture requirements have traditionally posed logistical constraints with regard to the formats’ digitization at scale. Through the use of a programmable X-Y table camera capture system, both slide and strip 35mm photographic film can be digitized in an automated fashion following Federal Agencies Digitization Guidelines (FADGI).

Thermodynamic Potential Of Very High Performance Fuel Cells, Kimberly Liang

Honors Scholar Theses

Fuel Cells are devices that use the chemical energy of a fuel (e.g. hydrogen) to electrochemically produce electricity. Similar to a conventual combustion engine, a fuel cell will continue to run and generate electricity as long as fuel is supplied. However, unlike a conventional combustion engine, fuel cells have a much higher theoretical efficiency and do not directly emit harmful air pollutants. This project will focus on a fuel cell that uses hydrogen as fuel and oxygen as an oxidizing agent.

As fuel cell technology evolved, high pressure fuel cell systems became of interest in portable applications, such as submarine …

An Assessment Of Renewable Energy Technology Implementation In Storrs, Connecticut: Emissions Reduction And Feasibility Of A Microgrid System At Uconn, Sophie Macdonald

Honors Scholar Theses

The purpose of this project is to design a clean energy-sourced microgrid for UConn’s main campus that would reduce the university’s energy emissions while remaining within the geographic boundaries of viable UConn-owned land. Economic cost was not considered in this analysis; instead, emissions and space constraints were the optimized measures of value and feasibility. Sources of energy that were considered include photovoltaics (PV), wind turbines, hydrokinetic systems, and fuel cells. Energy storage capacity was included in the analysis as well. The overall system was optimized first by ignoring space constraints and for a minimum of 10% reduction from the current …

Computational Analysis Of A New Planar Mixing Layer Flame Configuration To Study Soot Inception, Carmen Ciardiello

Honors Scholar Theses

The production of soot is omnipresent in society today. Soot is the product of many of the combustion processes that provide the bulk of the usable energy throughout the world. Furthermore, soot particulate poses a great danger to both the environment and all forms of life on Earth. It has proven to pollute ecosystems, foster health problems for human beings, and degrade air quality [1].

These dangers make studying and understanding soot particulate paramount for improving the quality of life. Thus, this study introduces a new flame configuration for studying soot inception. Presently, various common flame configurations have been found …