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open access

Biomass-Derived Activated Carbon Through Self-Activation Process

Description: Self-activation is a process that takes advantage of the gases emitted from the pyrolysis process of biomass to activate the converted carbon. The pyrolytic gases from the biomass contain CO2 and H2O, which can be used as activating agents. As two common methods, both of physical activation using CO2 and chemical activation using ZnCl2 introduce additional gas (CO2) or chemical (ZnCl2), in which the CO2 emission from the activation process or the zinc compound removal by acid from the follow-up… more
Date: May 2016
Creator: Xia, Changlei

Carbon Capture Utilization for Bio-Based Building Insulation Foams

Description: Ecological, health and environmental concerns are driving the need for bio-resourced foams for the building industry and for other applications. This is because insulation is one of the most important aspects of the building envelope. Global building insulation is expected to reach USD 27.74 billion in 2022. Conventional insulation materials currently used in buildings are made from nonrenewable products (petroleum, fiber glass). However, they yield increasing unrecyclable eco-unfriendly waste … more
Date: August 2021
Creator: Oluwabunmi, Kayode Emmanuel

Characterization, Analysis, and Optimization of Rotary Displacer Stirling Engines

Description: This work focuses on an innovative Rotary Displacer SE (RDSE) configuration for Stirling engines (SEs). RDSE features rotary displacers instead of reciprocating displacers (found in conventional SE configurations), as well as combined compression and expansion spaces. Guided by the research question "can RDSE as a novel configuration achieve a higher efficiency compared to conventional SE configurations at comparable operating conditions?", the goal of this study is to characterize, analyze, an… more
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Date: December 2019
Creator: Bagheri, Amirhossein
open access

Comparative Study of Thermal Comfort Models Using Remote-Location Data for Local Sample Campus Building as a Case Study for Scalable Energy Modeling at Urban Level Using Virtual Information Fabric Infrastructure (VIFI)

Description: The goal of this dissertation is to demonstrate that data from a remotely located building can be utilized for energy modeling of a similar type of building and to demonstrate how to use this remote data without physically moving the data from one server to another using Virtual Information Fabric Infrastructure (VIFI). In order to achieve this goal, firstly an EnergyPlus model was created for Greek Life Center, a campus building located at University of North Texas campus at Denton in Texas, U… more
Date: December 2018
Creator: Talele, Suraj Harish
open access

Design Optimization of Functionalized Silica-Polymer Nanocomposite through Finite Element and Molecular Dynamics Modeling

Description: This dissertation focuses on studying membrane air dehumidification for a membrane moisture exchanger in a membrane heat pump system. The study has two parts: an optimization of membrane moisture exchanger for air dehumidification in the macroscale, and diffusion of water vapor in polymer nanocomposites membrane for humid air dehumidification in the nanoscale. In the first part of the research, the mass transport of water vapor molecules through hydrophilic silica nanochannel chains in hydropho… more
Date: August 2020
Creator: Almahmoud, Omar H. M.
open access

Development of an Interpolation-Free Sharp Interface Immersed Boundary Method for General CFD Simulations

Description: Immersed boundary (IB) methods are attractive due to their ability to simulate flow over complex geometries on a simple Cartesian mesh. Unlike conformal grid formulation, the mesh does not need to conform to the shape and orientation of the boundary. This eliminates the need for complex mesh and/or re-meshing in simulations with moving/morphing boundaries, which can be cumbersome and computationally expensive. However, the imposition of boundary conditions in IB methods is not straightforward … more
Date: August 2022
Creator: Kamau, Kingora
open access

Effectiveness of Fillers for Corrosion Protection of AISI-SAE 1018 Steel in Sea Salt Solution

Description: Corrosion represents the single most frequent cause for product replacement or loss of product functionality with a 5% coat to the industrial revenue generation of any country in this dissertation the efficacy of using filled coatings as a protection coating are investigated. Fillers disrupt the polymer-substrate coating interfacial area and lead to poor adhesion. Conflicting benefits of increasing surface hardness and corrosion with long term durability through loss of adhesion to the subst… more
Date: May 2017
Creator: Al-Shenawa, Amaal
open access

Enhanced Coarse-Graining for Multiscale Modeling of Elastomers

Description: One of the major goal of the researchers is to reduce energy loss including nanoscale to the structural level. For instance, around 65% of fuel energy is lost during the propulsion of the automobiles, where 11% of the loss happens at tires due to rolling friction. Out of that tire loss, 90 to 95% loss happens due to hysteresis of tire materials. This dissertation focuses on multiscale modeling techniques in order to facilitate the discovery new rubber materials. Enhanced coarse-grained models o… more
Date: December 2016
Creator: Uddin, Md Salah
open access

An Evaluation of Long-Term Air Quality Trends in North Texas using Statistical and Machine Learning Techniques

Description: While ozone design values have decreased since 2000, the values measured in Denton Airport South (DEN), an exurban region in the northwest tip of the Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) metroplex, remains above those measured in Dallas Hinton (DAL) and Fort Worth Northwest (FWNW), two extremely urbanized regions; in addition, all three sites remained in nonattainment of National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) ozone despite reductions in measured NOx and CO concentrations. The region's inability to a… more
Date: May 2020
Creator: Lim, Guo Quan

Green Manufacturing of Lignocellulosic Fiber through Bacterial Degradation Process

Description: Lignocellulose is the most abundant biopolymer on earth and offers excellent potential for sustainable manufacturing. Because lignocellulose is structurally complex and resistant to decomposition, innovative degradation strategies are necessary to unlock its value. In this dissertation, a green manufacturing process through enzyme-triggered self-cultured bacteria retting for lignocellulosic fiber was developed and investigated. The mechanism of the lignocellulosic fiber retting at a controlled … more
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Date: December 2023
Creator: Fu, Yu
open access

Heat Transfer in Low Dimensional Materials Characterized by Micro/Nanoscae Thermometry

Description: In this study, the thermal properties of low dimensional materials such as graphene and boron nitride nanotube were investigated. As one of important heat transfer characteristics, interfacial thermal resistance (ITR) between graphene and Cu film was estimated by both experiment and simulation. In order to characterize ITR, the micropipette sensing technique was utilized to measure the temperature profile of suspended and supported graphene on Cu substrate that is subjected to continuous wave l… more
Date: August 2018
Creator: Jeong, Jae Young
open access

Indirect Fabrication of Lattice Metals with Thin Sections Using Centrifugal Casting

Description: There is a wide range of applications for 3D printing technology with an additive manufacturing such as aerospace, automotive, marine and oil/gas, medical, consumer, electronics, building construction, and many others. There have been many pros and cons for 3D additive manufacturing. Even though 3D printing technology has many advantages: freedom to design and innovate without penalties, rapid iteration through design permutations, excellence mass customization, elimination of tolling, green ma… more
Date: December 2015
Creator: Mun, Jiwon
open access

Investigation of Structure-Property Effects on Nanoindentation and Small-Scale Mechanical Testing of Irradiated Additively Manufactured Stainless Steels

Description: Additively manufactured (AM) 316L and 17-4PH stainless steel parts, concretely made by laser powder bed fusion (L-PBF), are characterized and micro-mechanical properties of those steels are analyzed. This study also explored and extended to proton irradiation and small-scale mechanical testing of those materials, to investigate how irradiation affects microstructural evolution and thus mechanical properties at the surface level, which could be detrimental in the long term in nuclear application… more
Date: August 2022
Creator: Uddin, Mohammad Jashim

Investigations of the Fresnel Lens Based Solar Concentrator System through a Unique Statistical-Algorithmic Approach

Description: This work investigates the Fresnel-lens-based solar concentrator-receiver system in a multi-perspective manner to design, test and fabricate this concentrator with high-efficiency photon and heat outputs and a minimized effect of chromatic aberrations. First, a MATLAB®-incorporated algorithm optimizes both the flat-spot and the curved lens designs via a statistical ray-tracing methodology of the incident light, considering all of its incidence parameters. The target is to maximize the solar ray… more
Access: Restricted to UNT Community Members. Login required if off-campus.
Date: December 2019
Creator: Qandil, Hassan Darwish Hassan

Lignocellulose-Based Nanobiocomposites for Water Purification

Description: The research focuses on the synthesis and application of multifunctional lignocellulosic biomass bioadsorbent and nanobiocomposites for water purification. A bioadsorbent was prepared from kenaf fiber by self-activation without the use of any toxic chemicals in an innovative method. Silver nanoparticles were synthesized by the green route and then impregnated on the surface of kenaf-based activated carbon (KAC), and hemp fibers by heating and photoirradiation. The formation of hemp-based and ke… more
Date: August 2021
Creator: Mandal, Sujata
open access

Micro-Pipette Thermal Sensor: A Unique Technique for Thermal Characterization of Microfluids, Microsphere, and Biological Cell

Description: In this research work, an innovative method for measurement of thermal conductivity of a small volume of liquids, microsphere, and the single cancer cell is demonstrated using a micro-pipette thermal sensor (MPTS). The method is based on laser point heating thermometry (LPHT) and transient heat transfer. When a single pulse of a laser beam heats the sensor tip which is in contact with the surrounding liquids or microsphere/cells, the temperature change in the sensor is reliant on the thermal pr… more
Date: May 2020
Creator: Shrestha, Ramesh
open access

Multi-Fidelity Study of Aerodynamics and Aeroacoustics Characteristics of a Quadrotor Biplane Tailsitter

Description: Recent advances in manufacturing and growing concerns on the sustainability of aviation environment have led to a remarkable interest in electrical unmanned aerial systems (UASs) in the past decade. Among various UAS types, the newly designed quadrotor biplane tailsitter class is capable of delivering a wide range of civilian and military tasks, relying on its Vertical Take-Off and Landing (VTOL) capability as well as great maneuverability. Nevertheless, as such UASs employ rotors to generate t… more
Date: May 2022
Creator: Heydari, Morteza
open access

Piezoelectric-Based Gas Sensors for Harsh Environment Gas Component Monitoring

Description: In this study, gas sensing systems that are based on piezoelectric smart material and structures are proposed, designed, developed, and tested, which are mainly aimed to address the temperature dependent CO2 gas sensing in a real environment. The state-of-the-art of gas sensing technologies are firstly reviewed and discussed for their pros and cons. The adsorption mechanisms including physisorption and chemisorption are subsequently investigated to characterize and provide solutions to various … more
Date: August 2019
Creator: Zhang, Chen
open access

Programmable Mechanical Metamaterials with Negative Poisson's Ratio and Negative Thermal Expansion

Description: Programmable matter is a material whose properties can be programmed to achieve particular shapes or mechanical properties upon command. This is an essential technique that could one day lead to morphing aircraft and ground vehicles. Metamaterials are the rationally designed artificial materials whose properties are not observed in nature. Their properties are typically controlled by geometry rather than chemical compositions. Combining metamaterials with a programmable function will create… more
Date: December 2016
Creator: Heo, Hyeonu

Real Time Gas Monitoring and Modeling on the Pyrolysis Process of Biomass

Description: In order to better understand the changes occurring in the internal environment of the pyrolysis process a method of monitoring the internal environment in real time is the key objective of this study. To accomplish this objective four tasks were laid out in order to develop an effective way of monitoring the changes in gases present as pyrolysis is occurring as well as in material activation processing. For all processing the self-activation process was used which combines pyrolysis and ther… more
Date: December 2021
Creator: Smith, Lee Miller

Remotely Controlled Magneto-Phononic Devices Achieving Nonreciprocity and Anderson Localization in Ferrofluid

Description: Motivated by previous relevant research on phononics including both active and passive phononics, the interest of faster turnability and more functions of the active phononics of further study led to this proposing research topic: magnetic field tunable active functional phononics. The first design of magnetic field tunable reciprocal--non-reciprocal transmission acoustic device was established, material was characterized, and numerical simulation has been performed. The simulation results show… more
Date: December 2021
Creator: Jin, Yuqi
open access

The Role of Interface in Crystal Growth, Energy Harvesting and Storage Applications

Description: A flexible nanofibrous PVDF-BaTiO3 composite material is prepared for impact sensing and biomechanical energy harvesting applications. Dielectric polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) and barium titanate (BaTiO3)-PVDF nanofibrous composites were made using the electrospinning process based on a design of experiments approach. The ultrasonication process was optimized using a 2k factorial DoE approach to disperse BaTiO3 particles in PVDF solution in DMF. Scanning electron microscopy was used to charact… more
Date: December 2020
Creator: Ramesh, Dinesh
open access

Thermal Transport Modeling in Three-Dimensional Pillared-Graphene Structures for Efficient Heat Removal

Description: Pillared-graphene structure (PGS) is a novel three-dimensional structure consists of parallel graphene sheets that are separated by carbon nanotube (CNT) pillars that is proposed for efficient thermal management of electronics. For microscale simulations, finite element analyses were carried out by imposing a heat flux on several PGS configurations using a Gaussian pulse. The temperature gradient and distribution in the structures was evaluated to determine the optimum design for heat transfer.… more
Date: December 2020
Creator: Almahmoud, Khaled Hasan Musa

Thermal Transport Properties Enhancement of Phase Change Material by Using Boron Nitride Nanomaterials for Efficient Thermal Management

Description: In this research thermal properties enhancement of phase change material (PCM) using boron nitride nanomaterials such as nanoparticles and nanotubes is studied through experimental measurements, finite element method (FEM) through COMSOL 5.3 package and molecular dynamics simulations via equilibrium molecular dynamics simulation (EMD) with the Materials and Process Simulations (MAPS 4.3). This study includes two sections: thermal properties enhancement of inorganic salt hydrate (CaCl2∙6H2O) as … more
Date: December 2020
Creator: Barhemmati Rajab, Nastaran
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