Engineering Commons^™

Passive Separation Of Binary Fluid Mixtures In Microchannels Using Lattice Boltzmann Method, Mohanad Kamil Radhi

Dissertations and Theses

Fluid mixtures in real life exist in two forms: miscible and immiscible. Separation of these mixtures using chemical agents or thermal energy has both environmental and economic disadvantages. The high cost and the environmental damage caused by the traditional separation techniques have stimulated both academia and industry to seek alternatives. The emergence of microfluidics offers robust solutions for a broad span of transport problems due to the high surface to volume ratio and reduced length scales. Particularly, the separation efficiency increases significantly due to the aforementioned feature. However, there is still a pressing need of passive separations for the sake …

Tracking Center Of Mass With Limited Inertial Measurement Units, Connor Nathaniel Morrow

Dissertations and Theses

Wearable motion tracking systems pose an opportunity to study and correct human balance and posture during movement. Currently, these observations are either being conducted in laboratories with the use of camera systems and markers placed on the body, or through the use of suits containing large numbers (15-20) of inertial measurement units. However, to aid with rehabilitation of individuals with impaired balance, there needs to be an option to collect these observations outside of clinics and without incurring much cost from the user. I have focused on three inertial measurement units, one placed on each shank and one placed on …

Non-Contact Distillation, Rawand Muzafar Rasheed

Dissertations and Theses

Leidenfrost phenomenon has been studied extensively for its role in applications ranging from nuclear reactor cooling, to metals manufacturing, combustion, and other fields. Herein, Leidenfrost phenomenon is pursued towards non-contact distillation processes with hopes of reducing or even eliminating contaminant fouling. In particular, the microgravity environment of a drop tower is exploited to demonstrate the facility with which droplets achieve and sustain the Leidenfrost state. Dynamic Leidenfrost impacts in microgravity are presented for impacts on hydrophilic and superhydrophobic planar substrates, macro-pillar arrays, confined passageways, and others. Nearly ideal elastic non-contact impacts and droplet oscillation modes are observed. Dynamic Leidenfrost impacts …

Surface Kinetic Energy Distributions In The Global Oceans From A High-Resolution Numerical Model And Surface Drifter Observations, Xiaolong Yu, Aurelien Ponte, Shane Elipot, Dimitris Menemenlis, Edward Zaron, Ryan Abernathey

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

The surface kinetic energy of a 1/48◦ global ocean simulation and its distribution as a function of frequency and location are compared with the one estimated from 15,329 globally distributed surface drifter observations at hourly resolution. These distributions follow similar patterns with a dominant low-frequency component and well-defined tidal and near-inertial peaks globally. Quantitative differences are identified with deficits of low-frequency energy near the equator (factor 2) and at near-inertial frequencies (factor 3) and an excess of energy at semidiurnal frequencies (factor 4) for the model. Owing to its hourly resolution and its near-global spatial coverage, the array of surface …

Design Of A Canine Inspired Quadruped Robot As A Platform For Synthetic Neural Network Control, Cody Warren Scharzenberger

Dissertations and Theses

Legged locomotion is a feat ubiquitous throughout the animal kingdom, but modern robots still fall far short of similar achievements. This paper presents the design of a canine-inspired quadruped robot named DoggyDeux as a platform for synthetic neural network (SNN) research that may be one avenue for robots to attain animal-like agility and adaptability. DoggyDeux features a fully 3D printed frame, 24 braided pneumatic actuators (BPAs) that drive four 3-DOF limbs in antagonistic extensor-flexor pairs, and an electrical system that allows it to respond to commands from a SNN comprised of central pattern generators (CPGs). Compared to the previous version …

Characterizing Tilt Effects On Wind Plants, Ryan Scott

Dissertations and Theses

Tilting the nacelle of a wind turbine modifies entrainment into the wind plant and impacts total efficiency. Extreme angles can produce flying and crashing wakes where the wake either disrupts entertainment from the undisturbed flow above or is decimated on the ground. The effect of tilt angle on downstream wake behavior was investigated in a series of wind tunnel experiments. Scale model turbines with a hub height and diameter of 12 cm were arranged in a Cartesian array comprised of four rows of three turbines each. Nacelle tilt was varied in the third row from -15° to 15° in chosen …

Infinite Photovoltaic Solar Arrays: Considering Flux Of Momentum And Heat Transfer, Andrew D. S. Glick

Dissertations and Theses

Large scale solar farms supply an increasing amount of the worlds electricity supply. However, in order to reach cost parity with fossil fuels, further reductions are necessary. Towards this end, photovoltaic (PV) panel cooling becomes increasingly important; high temperatures both decrease efficiency and panel lifetime. To better understand, characterize, and exploit the natural convective cooling of utility scale solar farms, a model solar farm was created. Using both thermal measurements and particle image velocimetry to characterize heat transfer and velocity fields, wind tunnel experiments were conducted using the model solar farm. Three parameters were examined for their effect on heat …

Using Thermal Gradient Measurements To Compare Bath Temperature And Agitation Effects On The Quenching Performance Of Palm Oil, Canola Oil And A Conventional Petroleum Oil, Bozidar Matijevic, Bruno F. Canale, Božidar Lišcic, George Totten

Mechanical and Materials Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

A proprietary Liscic/Petrofer cylindrical Inconel 600 probe of 50-mm diameter and 200-mm length which was instrumented with three thermocouples on the same radius of the crosssection at the middle of the length was used to determine the differences in quenching performance of two vegetable oils, palm oil and canola oil, and they were compared to a locally produced conventional petroleum oil quenchant. The cooling curves and heat transfer performance of these oils were determined at different bath temperatures and agitation rates. The work was performed at the Quenching Research Centre located at the Faculty for Mechanical Engineering, University of Zagreb, …

Fatigue Characteristics Of New Eco Series Aluminum 7175 Alloy, Chinh Q.L. Vu

Dissertations and Theses

In this dissertation, the fatigue characteristics of three newly developed experimental compositions for aluminum 7175, with improved mechanical strength, that uses magnesium-calcium alloy instead of pure magnesium are studied.

Specimens of each variant were fabricated and subjected to fatigue life testing, fatigue life data analysis, and observation of their fracture characteristics through optical microscopy and scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and metallography to study their grains and surface characteristics.

Fatigue life testing shows all three variants have a fatigue strength that is approaching approximately 200 MPa. ECO7175v3 is shown to have the highest fatigue strength of approximately 220 MPa at 5x10 …

A Study Of Thermal Energy Storage Of Phase Change Materials: Thermophysical Properties And Numerical Simulations, Kyung-Eun Min

Dissertations and Theses

A Thermal Energy Storage (TES) system is meant for holding thermal energy in the form of hot or cold materials for later utilization. A TES system is an important technological system in providing energy savings as well as efficient and optimum energy use. The main types of a TES system are sensible heat and latent heat. A latent heat storage is a very efficient method for storing or releasing thermal energy due to its high energy storage density at constant temperatures, and a latent heat storage material can store 5-14 times more heat per unit volume than a sensible heat …

Effects Of Steel Type And Sandblasting Pretreatment On The Solid-Liquid Compound Casting Characteristics Of Zinc-Coated Steel/Aluminum Bimetals, Jesik Shin, Taehyeong Kim, Kyoungmook Lim, Hoon Cho, Daeho Yang, Changyeol Jeong, Sung Yi

Mechanical and Materials Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Effects of zinc-coated steel type and steel surface sandblasting pretreatment in the solid-liquid compound casting of layered type steel/aluminum bimetals were investigated. The Zn coating behavior and its effects on interfacial microstructure evolution and fracture mechanism were also discussed. The aluminum fluidity in thin plate type flow channels formed by the steel insert and the mold wall primarily depended on the insert surface roughness and secondarily on the wettability. As-galvanized (GI) steel/aluminum bimetal joints showed the bonding strength of 20 MPa and more, while galvannealed (GA) steels showed poor bonding. The interfacial bonding zone consisted of most Al13Fe4, Al8Fe2Si, Al4.5FeSi …

Parallelized Particle Swarm Optimization To Estimate The Heat Transfer Coefficients Of Palm Oil, Canola Oil, Conventional, And Accelerated Petroleum Oil Quenchants, Zoltán Fried, Imre Felde, Rosa L. Simencio Otero, Jônatas M. Viscaino, George E. Totten, Lauralice Canale

Mechanical and Materials Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

An inverse solver for the estimation of the temporal-spatial heat transfer coefficients (HTC), without using prior information of the thermal boundary conditions, was used for immersion quenching into palm oil, canola oil, and two commercial petroleum oil quenchants. The particle swarm optimization (PSO) method was used on near-surface temperature-time cooling curve data obtained with the so-called Tensi multithermocouple, and a 12.5 by 45 mm Inconel 600 probe. The fitness function to be minimized by a PSO approach is defined by the deviation of the measured and calculated cooling curves. The PSO algorithm was parallelized and implemented on a graphics accelerator …

Analyzing Moment Arm Profiles In A Full-Muscle Rat Hindlimb Model, Fletcher Young, Christian Rode, Alexander Hunt, Roger Quinn

Mechanical and Materials Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Understanding the kinematics of a hindlimb model is a fundamental aspect of modeling coordinated locomotion. This work describes the development process of a rat hindlimb model that contains a complete muscular system and incorporates physiological walking data to examine realistic muscle movements during a step cycle. Moment arm profiles for selected muscles are analyzed and presented as the first steps to calculating torque generation at hindlimb joints. A technique for calculating muscle moment arms from muscle attachment points in a three-dimensional (3D) space has been established. This model accounts for the configuration of adjacent joints, a critical aspect of biarticular …

Simulation To Fabrication—Understanding The Effect Of Niaucu Alloy Catalysts For Controlled Growth Of Graphene At Reduced Temperature, Huahan Zhan, Bin Jiang, Otto Zietz, Samuel Olson, Jun Jiao

Mechanical and Materials Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

It is a significant challenge to grow large-scale, high quality, monolayer graphene at low temperature for the applications in industry, especially for the complementary metal oxide semiconductor fabrication process. To overcome this difficulty, we simulated the decomposition of acetylene (C2H2) on (100) surfaces of primarily nickel (Ni) catalysts with small mol fractions of gold (Au) and copper (Cu), using a 4 × 4 × 4 periodic supercell model. Based on the calculation of the reaction energies to decompose the C-H or C≡C bonds on different catalyst surfaces, a differential energy is proposed to clearly scale the decomposition difficulties such that …

Planning For Change In The Electric Power Industry: A Primer For Transactive Energy Scenario Development, Joshua Binus

Engineering and Technology Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

The electric power industry and its associated infrastructures (a.k.a. "the grid") are evolving from centrally planned, organized, and operated networks of players, technologies, and resources to systems of systems that are increasingly digitized and distributed in their operation and innovative capacity. Subsequently, strategic planners and technology managers associated with the electric power industry are faced with a range of scenarios to evaluate, including one that considers the emergence of commercialized transactive energy systems in the coming ten-year time horizon. The crafting of a transactive energy scenario can help inform technology innovation and management efforts that benefit consumers, electricity providers, and …

The Tides They Are A-Changin’: A Comprehensive Review Of Past And Future Nonastronomical Changes In Tides, Their Driving Mechanisms And Future Implications, Ivan D. Haigh, Mark D. Pickering, J.A. Mattias Green, Brian K. Arbic, Arne Arns, Soenke Dangendorf, David Hill, David A. Jay, Multiple Additional Authors

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Scientists and engineers have observed for some time that tidal amplitudes at many locations are shifting considerably due to non-astronomical factors. Here we review comprehensively these important changes in tidal properties, many of which remain poorly understood. Over long geological time-scales, tectonic processes drive variations in basin size, depth, and shape, and hence the resonant properties of ocean basins. On shorter geological time-scales, changes in oceanic tidal properties are dominated by variations in water depth. A growing number of studies have identified widespread, sometimes regionally-coherent, positive and negative trends in tidal constituents and levels during the 19th, 20th and early …

Neuromechanical Model Of Rat Hindlimb Walking With Two-Layer Cpgs, Kaiyu Deng, Nicholas Szczecinski, Dirk Arnold, Emanuel Andrada, Martin Fischer, Roger Quinn, Alexander J. Hunt

Mechanical and Materials Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

This work demonstrates a neuromechanical model of rat hindlimb locomotion undergoing nominal walking with perturbations. In the animal, two types of responses to perturbations are observed: resetting and non-resetting deletions. This suggests that the animal locomotor system contains a memory-like organization. To model this phenomenon, we built a synthetic nervous system that uses separate rhythm generator and pattern formation layers to activate antagonistic muscle pairs about each joint in the sagittal plane. Our model replicates the resetting and non-resetting deletions observed in the animal. In addition, in the intact (i.e., fully afferented) rat walking simulation, we observe slower recovery after …

Good Similar Patches For Image Denoising (Poster), Si Lu

Computer Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

Patch-based denoising algorithms like BM3D have achieved outstanding performance. An important idea for the success of these methods is to exploit the recurrence of similar patches in an input image to estimate the underlying image structures....