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2017

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Articles 6301 - 6330 of 8353

Full-Text Articles in Engineering

A Framework For Lean Transformation In Developing Countries: The Case Of Saudi Arabian Industry, Murad Andejany Jan 2017

A Framework For Lean Transformation In Developing Countries: The Case Of Saudi Arabian Industry, Murad Andejany

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Lean is a dynamic, knowledge-driven, and customer focused philosophy that continuously eradicates waste and generates value, with a goal to improve a company's productivity, efficiency, and quality. Successful implementation of lean does not only offer cost reduction and improved quality and productivity, but also provides efficient guidance for organizations to attain significant and continued growth. Although its adoption by companies has proven successful in developed countries, there is no sufficient evidence of its successful implementation in developing countries such as Saudi Arabia. A review of the literature indicates that there is a need to study lean transformation in developing countries …

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A Comprehensive Assessment Of Vehicle-To-Grid Systems And Their Impact To The Sustainability Of Current Energy And Water Nexus, Yang Zhao Jan 2017

A Comprehensive Assessment Of Vehicle-To-Grid Systems And Their Impact To The Sustainability Of Current Energy And Water Nexus, Yang Zhao

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation aims to explore the feasibility of incorporating electric vehicles into the electric power grid and develop a comprehensive assessment framework to predict and evaluate the life cycle environmental, economic and social impact of the integration of Vehicle-to-Grid systems and the transportation-water-energy nexus. Based on the fact that electric vehicles of different classes have been widely adopted by both fleet operators and individual car owners, the following questions are investigated: 1. Will the life cycle environmental impacts due to vehicle operation be reduced? 2. Will the implementation of Vehicle-to-Grid systems bring environmental and economic benefits? 3. Will there be …

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The Effectiveness Of Child Restraint And Bicycle Helmet Policies To Improve Road Safety, Claudia Bustamante Jan 2017

The Effectiveness Of Child Restraint And Bicycle Helmet Policies To Improve Road Safety, Claudia Bustamante

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Analyzing the effect of legislation in children's safety when they travel as motor-vehicle passengers and bicycle riders can allow us to evaluate the effectiveness in transportation policies. The Child Restraint Laws (CRL) and Bicycle Helmet Laws (BHL) were studied by analyzing the nationwide Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) to estimate the fatality reduction as well as drivers' decisions to use Child Restraint Systems (CRS) and bicycle helmets respectively. Differences in legislation could have different effects on traffic fatalities. Therefore, this study presents multiple methodologies to study these effects. In the evaluation of traffic safety issues, several proven statistical models have …

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Evaluation Of The Hurricane Imaging Radiometer (Hirad) Brightness Temperatures, Saleem Sahawneh Jan 2017

Evaluation Of The Hurricane Imaging Radiometer (Hirad) Brightness Temperatures, Saleem Sahawneh

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Hurricane Imaging Radiometer (HIRAD) is an experimental, airborne, microwave remote sensor that was developed to measure hurricane surface wind speed and rain rate, and thereby, provide data for scientific research and for the next generation operational hurricane surveillance. The object of this dissertation is to develop objective procedures and techniques that can be used to evaluate and characterize the HIRAD brightness temperature (Tb) image product provided by NASA MSFC. First, the approach that was developed for geolocation (latitude and longitude) accuracy determination of HIRAD image pixels is presented. Using statistical estimation theory, high-contrast HIRAD imagery are compared with high …

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Physical Hydrogeological Modeling Of Florida's Sinkhole Hazard, Adam Perez Jan 2017

Physical Hydrogeological Modeling Of Florida's Sinkhole Hazard, Adam Perez

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Sinkholes are one of the major geohazards in karst terrain and pose a social, economic, and environmental risk. In Florida, sinkhole-related insurance claims between 2006 and the third quarter of 2010 amounted to $1.4 billion. Approximately 20 % of the United States is underlain by karst terrain formed from the dissolution of soluble rocks and is susceptible to a sinkhole hazard. Particularly, Texas, Florida, Tennessee, Alabama, Missouri, Kentucky, and Pennsylvania are known as sinkhole states. The scope of this study is to develop a physical model to simulate sinkholes (referred to as a sinkhole simulator), which can assess the qualitative …

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Design And Simulation Of Device Failure Models For Electrostatic Discharge (Esd) Event, Meng Miao Jan 2017

Design And Simulation Of Device Failure Models For Electrostatic Discharge (Esd) Event, Meng Miao

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In this dissertation, the research mainly focused on discussing ESD failure event simulation and ESD modeling, seeking solutions for ESD issues by simulating ESD event and predict possible ESD reliability problem in IC design. The research involves failure phenomenon caused by ESD/ EOS stress, mainly on the thermal failure due to inevitable self-heating during an ESD stress. Standard Complementary Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor (CMOS) process and high voltage Doublediffusion Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor (DMOS) process are used for design of experiment. A multi-function test platform High Power Pulse Instrument (HPPI) is used for ESD event evaluation and device characterization. SPICE-like software ADICE is for back-end simulation. …

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Academic Blade Geometries For Baseline Comparisons Of Forced Vibration Response Predictions, James Little Jan 2017

Academic Blade Geometries For Baseline Comparisons Of Forced Vibration Response Predictions, James Little

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Predicting the damping associated with underplatform dampers remains a challenge in turbomachinery blade and friction damper design. Turbomachinery blade forced response analysis methods usually rely on nonlinear codes and reduced order models to predict vibration characteristics of blades. Two academic blade geometries coupled with underplatform dampers are presented here for comparison of these model reduction and forced response simulation techniques. The two blades are representative of free-standing turbine blades and exhibit qualitatively similar behavior as highly-complex industrial blades. This thesis fully describes the proposed academic blade geometries and models; it further analyzes and predicts the blades forced response characteristics using …

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Hydrologic Controls On The Natural Drainage Networks Extracted From High-Resolution Topographic Data, Milad Hooshyar Jan 2017

Hydrologic Controls On The Natural Drainage Networks Extracted From High-Resolution Topographic Data, Milad Hooshyar

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Drainage networks are important geomorphologic and hydrologic features which significantly control runoff generation. Drainage networks are composed of unchannelized valleys and channels. At valley heads, flow changes from unconfined sheet flow on the hillslope to confined flow in valley. Localized confined flow dominates in valleys as a result of convergent topography with positive curvature. Channels initiate at some distance down from the valley head, and the transition from unchannelized valley to channel is referred to as the channel head. Channel heads occur at a point where fluvial transport dominates over diffusive transport. From the hydrologic perspective, channels are categorized as …

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Study Of Surface Passivation Behavior Of Crystalline Silicon Solar Cells, Haider Ali Jan 2017

Study Of Surface Passivation Behavior Of Crystalline Silicon Solar Cells, Haider Ali

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

To achieve efficiencies approaching the theoretical limit of 29.4% for industrially manufactured solar cells based on crystalline silicon, it is essential to have very low surface recombination velocities at both the front and rear surfaces of the silicon substrate. Typically, the substrate surfaces feature contacted and uncontacted regions, and recombination should be limited for both to maximize the energy conversion efficiency. Uncontacted silicon surfaces are often passivated by the deposition of silicon nitride (SiNx) or an aluminum oxide film with SiNx as capping layer (Al2O3/SiNx stack). Further, proper surface preparation and cleaning of Si wafers prior to deposition also plays …

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Hydro-Thermo-Mechanical Behavior Of Concrete At Elevated Temperatures, Manar Al Fadul Jan 2017

Hydro-Thermo-Mechanical Behavior Of Concrete At Elevated Temperatures, Manar Al Fadul

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In the light of recent tragic events, such as, natural disasters, arson and terrorism, studying the thermo mechanical behavior of concrete at elevated temperatures has become of special concern. In addition, the fact that concrete has been widely used as a structural material in many critical applications, such as high rise buildings, pressure vessels, and nuclear plants, enhances the potential risk of exposing concrete to high temperatures. Accordingly, the potential damage to large-scale structures during the course of the fire, besides the possible loss of human life, emphasizes the necessity to better understand the thermo-structural behavior and failure mechanism of …

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Site Specific Sinkhole Risk Assessment In Central Florida Using Cone Penetrometer Testing, Ryan Shamet Jan 2017

Site Specific Sinkhole Risk Assessment In Central Florida Using Cone Penetrometer Testing, Ryan Shamet

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

As Florida's population is expanding and greater fluctuations in groundwater levels are being recorded, Central Florida has been experiencing a higher frequency of sinkhole occurrences than ever before in recorded history. Sinkholes in Central Florida are formed by a combination of bedrock weathering and overburden soil erosion due to the groundwater recharge and are a part of Florida's past and future geology. The initial stage of a sinkhole is referred to as soil raveling and is the most effective time to perform soil improvement measures, such as grouting, to mitigate further expansion of a subterranean void. Subsurface exploration tests, commonly …

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Interaction Between Carbon Nanotubes And Metals (Al, Cu) And The Effects On Resultant Properties Of The Hybrid Materials, Jingyin Jiang Jan 2017

Interaction Between Carbon Nanotubes And Metals (Al, Cu) And The Effects On Resultant Properties Of The Hybrid Materials, Jingyin Jiang

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Due to the exceptional strength, stiffness and excellent electrical and thermal properties, carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have been regarded as promising candidates for advanced nanoelectronics and multifunctional nanocomposites. In this dissertation, the interaction of CNTs with metals have been investigated and the resultant electrical conduction have been analyzed, aiming to develop innovative avenues to best utilize CNTs' potential. In order to do so, quantum mechanics calculations have been carried out to study that how to obtain greater electrical conduction by doping metals (Cu, Al) which tailor the electronic structure of three different types of metal-CNT interactions, : 1) encapsulation of atoms …

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A Study On The Plasticity And Fracture Behaviors Of Inconel 718 Under Multiaxial Stress And Extremely Low Cycle Fatigue Loadings, Mohammed Algarni Jan 2017

A Study On The Plasticity And Fracture Behaviors Of Inconel 718 Under Multiaxial Stress And Extremely Low Cycle Fatigue Loadings, Mohammed Algarni

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Engineering materials and structures are usually subjected to multiaxial stress states loading due to geometrical effects, residual stresses, or multi-directional loading. Ductile fracture and Extremely Low Cycle Fatigue (ELCF), less than 100 cycles to fail, are two common and co-exist failure modes in many engineering structures. However, the linkage between these two failure modes under multi-axial loading conditions has never been systematically studied. This research summarizes an extensive work of experimental and numerical studies of ductile fracture and ELCF under different stress states for nickel-base superalloy material "IN718" under room temperature. Specially designed specimens and tests were used to achieve …

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Pedestrian Safety Analysis Through Effective Exposure Measures And Examination Of Injury Severity, Md Imran Shah Jan 2017

Pedestrian Safety Analysis Through Effective Exposure Measures And Examination Of Injury Severity, Md Imran Shah

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Pedestrians are considered the most vulnerable road users who are directly exposed to traffic crashes. In 2014, there were 4,884 pedestrians killed and 65,000 injured in the United States. Pedestrian safety is a growing concern in the development of sustainable transportation system. But often it is found that safety analysis suffers from lack of accurate pedestrian trip information. In such cases, determining effective exposure measures is the most appropriate safety analysis approach. Also it is very important to clearly understand the relationship between pedestrian injury severity and the factors contributing to higher injury severity. Accurate safety analysis can play a …

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Water And Energy Costs Of Landfilled Food Waste, Tonmoy Sarker Jan 2017

Water And Energy Costs Of Landfilled Food Waste, Tonmoy Sarker

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Energy and water are consumed or contaminated during both the production and disposal of wasted food. To date, evaluations of water and energy resources associated with food waste have considered only resources used in food production. To allow for the full characterization of food waste within a Food Energy Water (FEW) nexus framework, this study addresses a fundamental knowledge gap related to the energy and water impacts of food waste after disposal. Fluxes of water and energy related to disposal of wasted food in landfills within the state of Florida were characterized. It is estimated that each metric ton (Mg) …

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Multi-Transit Echo Suppression For Passive Wireless Surface Acoustic Wave Sensors Using 3rd Harmonic Unidirectional Transducers And Walsh-Hadamard-Like Reflectors, Luis Manuel Rodriguez Cordoves Jan 2017

Multi-Transit Echo Suppression For Passive Wireless Surface Acoustic Wave Sensors Using 3rd Harmonic Unidirectional Transducers And Walsh-Hadamard-Like Reflectors, Luis Manuel Rodriguez Cordoves

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A passive wireless surface acoustic wave sensor of a delay-line type is composed of an antenna, a transducer that converts the EM signal into a surface acoustic wave, and a set of acoustic reflectors that reflect the incoming signal back out through the antenna. A cavity forms between the transducer and the reflectors, trapping energy and causing multiple unwanted echoes. The work in this dissertation aims to reduce the unwanted echoes so that only the main transit signal is left--the signal of interest with sensor information. The contributions of this dissertation include reflective delay-line device response in the form of …

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Hymod Matlab Code, Mohammadhossein Alipour Jan 2017

Hymod Matlab Code, Mohammadhossein Alipour

Streamflow Prediction under Extreme Data-scarcity

No abstract provided.

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The Effect Of Morphology On Reflectance In Silicon Nanowires Grown By Electroless Etching, Victor Velez Jan 2017

The Effect Of Morphology On Reflectance In Silicon Nanowires Grown By Electroless Etching, Victor Velez

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The strong light trapping properties of Silicon Nanowires have attracted much interest in the past few years for the conversion of sun energy into conventional electricity. Studies have been completed for many researchers to reduce the cost of fabrication and reflectance of solar light in these nanostructures to make a cheaper and more efficient solar cell technology by using less equipment for fabrication and employing different materials and solution concentrations. Silver, a conducting and stable metal is used these days as a precursor to react with silicon and then form the nanowires. Its adequate selection of solution concentration for a …

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Prototype Development In General Purpose Representation And Association Machine Using Communication Theory, Huihui Li Jan 2017

Prototype Development In General Purpose Representation And Association Machine Using Communication Theory, Huihui Li

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Biological system study has been an intense research area in neuroscience and cognitive science for decades of years. Biological human brain is created as an intelligent system that integrates various types of sensor information and processes them intelligently. Neurons, as activated brain cells help the brain to make instant and rough decisions. From the 1950s, researchers start attempting to understand the strategies the biological system employs, then eventually translate them into machine-based algorithms. Modern computers have been developed to meet our need to handle computational tasks which our brains are not capable of performing with precision and speed. While in …

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Spray-Deposited Titanium-Oxide Films For Infrared Optics, Photonics, And Solar Cell Applications., Sarmad Alhasan Jan 2017

Spray-Deposited Titanium-Oxide Films For Infrared Optics, Photonics, And Solar Cell Applications., Sarmad Alhasan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Self-assembled TiO2 foam-like films, were grown by the water based Streaming Process for Electrodeless Electrochemical Deposition (SPEED). The morphology of the ∼1 µm thick films consists of a tangled ropy structure with individual strands of ∼ 200 nm diameter and open pores of 0.1 to 3 micron dimensions. Such films are advantageous for proposed perovskite solar cell comprising CH3NH3PbI3 absorber with additional inorganic films as contact and conduction layers, all deposited by SPEED. Lateral film resistivity is in the range 20 - 200 kΩ-cm, increasing with growth temperature, while sheet resistance is in the range 2 − 20 × 108 …

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Investigating And Modeling The Impacts Of Illegal U-Turn Violations At Medials Located On Florida's Limited Access Highways, Omar Al-Sahili Jan 2017

Investigating And Modeling The Impacts Of Illegal U-Turn Violations At Medials Located On Florida's Limited Access Highways, Omar Al-Sahili

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Illegal U-turn violations are considered part of the Wrong-Way Driving (WWD) maneuvers that could result in head-on crashes and severe injuries, which are often severe because of the high speed of the approaching traffic and limited time to avoid such crash. Therefore, reviewing this type of violation and understanding the contributing factors that may lead drivers to commit such illegal maneuver would help officials foresee and consequently minimize the potential risks that could lead to WWD crashes. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the illegal U-turn maneuvers on limited access facilities and find the significant contributing factors that …

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Analysis Of Pedestrian Safety Using Micro-Simulation And Driving Simulator, Jiawei Wu Jan 2017

Analysis Of Pedestrian Safety Using Micro-Simulation And Driving Simulator, Jiawei Wu

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In recent years, traffic agencies have begun to place emphasis on the importance of pedestrian safety. In the United States, nearly 70,000 pedestrians were reported injured in 2015. Although the number only account for 3% of all the people injured in traffic crashes, the number of pedestrian fatalities is still around 15% of total traffic fatalities. Furthermore, the state of Florida has consistently ranked as one of the worst states in terms of pedestrian crashes, injuries and fatalities. Therefore, it is befitting to focus on the pedestrian safety. This dissertation mainly focused on pedestrian safety at both midblock crossings and …

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An Emissive Antenna Correction For The Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission Microwave Imager (Tmi), Faisal Alquaied Jan 2017

An Emissive Antenna Correction For The Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission Microwave Imager (Tmi), Faisal Alquaied

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation deals with the radiometric calibration of a satellite microwave radiometer known as the TRMM Microwave Imager (TMI), which operated on NASA’s Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM). This multi-frequency, conical-scanning, passive microwave, remote sensor measures the earth’s blackbody emissions (brightness temperature, Tb) from a low earth orbit and covers the tropics (±35° latitude). The original scientific objective for TRMM’s 3-year mission was to measure the statistics of rainfall in the tropics. However, the mission was quite successful, and TRMM was extended for greater than 17 years to provide a long-term satellite rain measurements, which has contributed significantly to the …

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A Multiagent Q-Learning-Based Restoration Algorithm For Resilient Distribution System Operation, Jungseok Hong Jan 2017

A Multiagent Q-Learning-Based Restoration Algorithm For Resilient Distribution System Operation, Jungseok Hong

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Natural disasters, human errors, and technical issues have caused disastrous blackouts to power systems and resulted in enormous economic losses. Moreover, distributed energy resources have been integrated into distribution systems, which bring extra uncertainty and challenges to system restoration. Therefore, the restoration of power distribution systems requires more efficient and effective methods to provide resilient operation. In the literature, using Q-learning and multiagent system (MAS) to restore power systems has the limitation in real system application, without considering power system operation constraints. In order to adapt to system condition changes quickly, a restoration algorithm using Q-learning and MAS, together with …

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Continuous Oscillation: Vibrational Effects And Acceptable Frequency Ranges Of Small Bore Piping In Field Applications, Marie Kasprzyk Jan 2017

Continuous Oscillation: Vibrational Effects And Acceptable Frequency Ranges Of Small Bore Piping In Field Applications, Marie Kasprzyk

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In turbomachinery, a common failure mode is cracking of welds at the equipment and piping connection point. Each incidence of these cracks causes a forced shutdown to perform repairs that cost millions of dollars. This type of failure is predominately seen in small bore piping, which has a nominal diameter of 2 inches and smaller. This thesis addresses the failure prediction analysis of small bore piping, specifically in turbomachinery applications. Performing failure analysis to predict the potential cracking of welds will allow for replacement of the piping during a planned shutdown which in the long term saves money due to …

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Statistical Analysis Of Multi-Row Film Cooling Flowfields, Craig Fernandes Jan 2017

Statistical Analysis Of Multi-Row Film Cooling Flowfields, Craig Fernandes

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A huge part of modern day power generation research and development strives to achieve higher thermal efficiencies and specific work outputs for both gas turbine Brayton and combined cycles. Advances in cooling technologies, both internal to turbine blades and external, provide the easiest way to accomplish this by raising the turbine inlet temperature far beyond the super-alloy's allowable temperature. Discrete film cooling injection, an external cooling technique, ensures a cool blanket of compressed air protects the blade surface from the harsh mainstream gas. To optimize the coverage and effectiveness of the film, a thorough understanding of the behavior and flow …

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Dynamic Job-Shop Scheduling Program (Djsp) Analysis For Preventive Military Helicopter Maintenance System (Pms), Kyungjin Park Jan 2017

Dynamic Job-Shop Scheduling Program (Djsp) Analysis For Preventive Military Helicopter Maintenance System (Pms), Kyungjin Park

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Republic of Korea Army(ROKA) has been founding new attack helicopter troops since last year by adopting US main attack helicopter, AH-64E Apache, and peripheral system like pilots and mechanics training systems and their organization. The AH-64E Apache is a major attack helicopter of the US Army and all of its systems are verified in terms of the effectiveness in real operations for several decades. However, ROKA still needs their own version of systems including tactics, template, and maintenance which are suitable for Korean terrain, climate, personnel, and so on. At least ROKA needs to have a chance to verify that …

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Printable Carbon Nanotube Based Multifunctional Nanocomposites For Strain Sensing And Self-Heating, Xin Wang Jan 2017

Printable Carbon Nanotube Based Multifunctional Nanocomposites For Strain Sensing And Self-Heating, Xin Wang

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The unique properties of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) represent a potential for developing a piezo-resistive strain sensor and a resistive heating sheet with a smart structure. Conventional fabrication techniques of CNT based nanocomposites such as molding, casting or spray coating lack the ability to control the geometry and properties of fabricated composites. In order to meet the various requirements of strain sensing or self-heating applications, nanocomposites with complex geometry and controllable properties are in high demand. Digital printing technique is able to fabricate CNT films with precisely controlled geometry with the help of computer aided design, and their properties could also …

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Development And Implementation Of A Streamlined Process For The Creation And Mechanization Of Negative Poisson's Ratio Meso-Scale Patterns, Matthew Shuler Jan 2017

Development And Implementation Of A Streamlined Process For The Creation And Mechanization Of Negative Poisson's Ratio Meso-Scale Patterns, Matthew Shuler

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis focuses on the development a streamlined process used to create novel meso-scale pattern used to induce negative Poisson's ratio (NPR) behavior at the bulk scale. This process includes, the development, optimization, and implementation of a candidate pattern. Currently, the majority of NPR structures are too porous to be utilized in conventional applications. For others, manufacturing methods have yet to realize the meso-scale pattern. Consequently, new NPR meta-materials must be developed in order to confer transformative thermomechanical responses to structures where transverse expansion is more desirable than contraction. For example, materials at high temperature. Additionally, patterns that take into …

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Tensile-Compressive Asymmetry And Anisotropy Of Fused Deposition Modeling Pla Under Monotonic Conditions, Casey Perkowski Jan 2017

Tensile-Compressive Asymmetry And Anisotropy Of Fused Deposition Modeling Pla Under Monotonic Conditions, Casey Perkowski

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Additive Manufacturing (AM) continues to gain popularity for its ability to produce complexly-shaped final use components that are impractical to manufacture by traditional methods; however, additive manufactured parts contain complex mesostructures that result in directionally-dependent mechanical properties that have yet to be fully characterized. This effort demonstrates a framework of experimental and analytical methods needed to characterize the uniaxial monotonic behavior of fused deposition modeling PLA using tensile and compressive experiments on specimens printed at various orientations. Based on experimental results, the asymmetry and anisotropy of the tensile and compressive response was analyzed for a candidate material. Specimens from different …

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