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open access

Electromagnetic Shielding Properties of Iron Oxide Impregnated Kenaf Bast Fiberboard

Description: The electromagnetic shielding effectiveness of kenaf bast fiber based composites with different iron oxide impregnation levels was investigated. The kenaf fibers were retted to remove the lignin and extractives from the pores in fibers, and then magnetized. Using the unsaturated polyester and the magnetized fibers, kenaf fiber based composites were manufactured by compression molding process. The transmission energies of the composites were characterized when the composite samples were exposed… more
Date: December 2014
Creator: Ding, Zhiguang
open access

Energy Usage While Maintaining Thermal Comfort : A Case Study of a UNT Dormitory

Description: Campus dormitories for the University of North Texas house over 5500 students per year; each one of them requires certain comfortable living conditions while they live there. There is an inherit amount of money required in order to achieve minimal comfort levels; the cost is mostly natural gas for water and room heating and electricity for cooling, lighting and peripherals. The US Department of Energy has developed several programs to aid in performing energy simulations to help those interest… more
Date: December 2011
Creator: Gambrell, Dusten
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

Estimating Thermal Conductivity and Volumetric Specific Heat of a Functionally Graded Material using Photothermal Radiometry

Description: Functionally graded materials (FGMs) are inhomogeneous materials in which the material properties vary with respect to space. Research has been done by scientific community in developing techniques like photothermal radiometry (PTR) to measure the thermal conductivity and volumetric heat capacity of FGMs. One of the problems involved in the technique is to solve the inverse problem, i.e., estimating the thermal properties after the frequency scan has been obtained. The present work involves fin… more
Date: December 2017
Creator: Koppanooru, Sampat Kumar Reddy
open access

Estimation of Air Emissions During Production Phase from Active Oil and Gas Wells in the Barnett Shale Basin: 2010-2013

Description: The Barnett shale basin, the largest onshore gas field in the state of Texas, mainly produces natural gas. The basin’s oil and gas productions have dramatically increased over the past two decades with the enhancement via shale fracturing (fracking) technology. However, recent studies suggest that air emissions from shale fracking have significantly contributed to the growing air pollution problem in North Texas. In this study, air emissions from the Barnett shale basin during the production ph… more
Date: May 2015
Creator: Dohde, Farhan A.
open access

Estimation of Aircraft Emissions for the Corpus Christi International Airport, Corpus Christi, Texas

Description: Commercial aviation is a vital part of the United States economy. It generates over $1 trillion annually, which is more than 5% of the U.S. GDP, and produces approximately 10 million jobs. Every year there is an increase in commercial air traffic. This is attributed to expanding trade between states and other countries, which requires larger amounts of cargo aircraft in operation, and also catering to the growing number of middle and upper class passengers who travel for business and pleasure p… more
Date: May 2013
Creator: Thomas, Gregson Johann
open access

Evaluation of the Influence of Non-Conventional Sources of Emissions on Ambient Air Pollutant Concentrations in North Texas

Description: Emissions of air pollutants from non-conventional sources have been on the rise in the North Texas area over the past decade. These include primary pollutants such as volatile organic compound (VOC) and oxides of nitrogen (NOx) which also act as precursors in the formation of ozone. Most of these have been attributed to a significant increase in oil and gas production activities since 2000 within the Barnett Shale region adjacent to the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex region. In this study, air q… more
Date: August 2015
Creator: Lim, Guo Quan
open access

Experimental Study on Fluidization of Biomass, Inert Particles, and Biomass/Sand Mixtures

Description: Fluidization of biomass particles is an important process in the gasification, pyrolysis and combustion in order to extract energy from biomass. Studies on the fluidization of biomass particles (corn cob and walnut shell), inert particles (sand, glass bead, and alumina), which are added to facilitate fluidization of biomass, and biomass/sand mixture were performed. Experiments were carried out in a 14.5 cm internal diameter cold flow fluidization bed to determine minimum fluidization velocities… more
Date: May 2011
Creator: Paudel, Basu
open access

Feasibility of a New Technique to Determine Dynamic Tensile Behavior of Brittle Materials

Description: Dynamic tensile characterization of geo-materials is critical to the modeling and design of protective structures that are often made of concrete. One of the most commonly used techniques currently associated with this type of testing is performed with a Kolsky bar and is known as the spall technique. The validity of the data from the spall technique is highly debated because the necessary boundary conditions for the experiment are not satisfied. By using a technique called pulse shaping, a new… more
Date: May 2016
Creator: Dean, Andrew W.
open access

Feasibility Study of Consolidation by Direct Compaction and Friction Stir Processing of Commercially Pure Titanium Powder

Description: Commercially pure titanium can take up to six months to successfully manufacture a six-inch in diameter ingot in which can be shipped to be melted and shaped into other useful components. The applications to the corrosion-resistant, light weight, strong metal are endless, yet so is the manufacturing processing time. At a cost of around $80 per pound of certain grades of titanium powder, the everyday consumer cannot afford to use titanium in the many ways it is beneficial simply because the numb… more
Date: August 2016
Creator: Nichols, Leannah Marie
open access

Field Validation of Zero Energy Lab Water-to-Water Ground Coupled Heat Pump Model

Description: Heat pumps are a vital part of each building for their role in keeping the space conditioned for the occupant. This study focuses on developing a model for the ground-source heat pump at the Zero Energy lab at the University of North Texas, and finding the minimum data required for generating the model. The literature includes many models with different approaches to determine the performance of the heat pump. Each method has its pros and cons. In this research the equation-fit method was used … more
Date: May 2016
Creator: Abdulameer, Saif
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

High-Density Polyethylene/Peanut Shell Biocomposites

Description: A recent trend in the development of renewable and biodegradable materials has led to the development of composites from renewal sources such as natural fibers. This agricultural activity generates a large amount of waste in the form of peanut shells. The motivation for this research is based on the utilization of peanut shells as a viable source for the manufacture of biocomposites. High-density polyethylene (HDPE) is a plastic largely used in the industry due to its durability, high strength … more
Date: May 2014
Creator: Londoño Ceballos, Mauricio
open access

High-Precision Micropipette Thermal Sensor for Measurement of Thermal Conductivity of Carbon Nanotubes Thin Film

Description: The thesis describes novel glass micropipette thermal sensor fabricated in cost-effective manner and thermal conductivity measurement of carbon nanotubes (CNT) thin film using the developed sensor. Various micrometer-sized sensors, which range from 2 µm to 30 µm, were produced and tested. The capability of the sensor in measuring thermal fluctuation at micro level with an estimated resolution of ±0.002oC is demonstrated. The sensitivity of sensors was recorded from 3.34 to 8.86 µV/oC, which is … more
Date: August 2011
Creator: Shrestha, Ramesh
open access

Highly Stretchable Miniature Strain Sensor for Large Dynamic Strain Measurement

Description: This thesis aims to develop a new type of highly stretchable strain sensor to measure large deformation of a specimen subjected to dynamic loading. The sensor was based on the piezo-resistive response of carbon nanotube(CNT)/polydimethysiloxane (PDMS) composites thin films, some nickel particles were added into the sensor composite to improve the sensor performance. The piezo-resistive response of CNT composite gives high frequency response in strain measurement, while the ultra-soft PDMS matri… more
Date: May 2016
Creator: Yao, Shulong
open access

Increasing Effective Thermal Resistance of Building Envelope's Insulation Using Polyurethane Foam Incorporated with Phase Change Material

Description: Incorporating insulation material with phase change materials (PCMs) could help enhance the insulation capability for further building energy savings by reducing the HVAC loadings. During the phase change process between the solid and liquid states, heat is being absorbed or released by PCMs depending on the surrounding temperature. This research explores the benefits of a polyurethane (PU)-PCM composite insulation material through infiltrating paraffin wax as PCM into PU open cell foam. The ne… more
Date: May 2019
Creator: Houl, Yassine
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

The Influence of Surface Roughness and Its Geometry on Dynamic Behavior of Water Droplets

Description: In this study the author reports the effects of surface roughness on dynamic behavior of water droplets on different types of rough structures. First, the influence of roughness geometry on the Wenzel/ Cassie-Baxter transition of water droplets on one-tier (solid substrates with Si micropillars) surfaces is studied (Chapter 3). In order to address distinct wetting behaviors of the advancing and receding motions, the author investigates the Wenzel/ Cassie-Baxter transition of water droplets on o… more
Date: December 2014
Creator: Sadeghpour, Nima.
open access

Investigation of a Novel Vapor Chamber for Efficient Heat Spreading and Removal for Power Electronics in Electric Vehicles

Description: This work investigated a novel vapor chamber for efficient heat spreading and heat removal. A vapor chamber acting as a heat spreader enables for more uniform temperature distribution along the surface of the device being cooled. First, a vapor chamber was studied and compared with the traditional copper heat spreader. The thickness of vapor chamber was kept 1.35 mm which was considered to be ultra-thin vapor chamber. Then, a new geometrical model having graphite foam in vapor space was propose… more
Date: May 2017
Creator: Patel, Anand Kishorbhai
open access

Investigation of an Investment Casting Method Combined with Additive Manufacturing Methods for Manufacturing Lattice Structures

Description: Cellular metals exhibit combinations of mechanical, thermal and acoustic properties that provide opportunities for various implementations and applications; light weight aerospace and automobile structures, impact and noise absorption, heat dissipation, and heat exchange. Engineered cell topologies enable one to control mechanical, thermal, and acoustic properties of the gross cell structures. A possible way to manufacture complex 3D metallic cellular solids for mass production with a relativel… more
Date: August 2013
Creator: Kodira, Ganapathy D.
open access

Investigation of the Effect of Particle Size and Particle Loading on Thermal Conductivity and Dielectric Strength of Thermoset Polymers

Description: Semiconductor die attach materials for high voltage, high reliability analog devices require high thermal conductivity and retention of dielectric strength. A comparative study of effective thermal conductivity and dielectric strength of selected thermoset/ceramic composites was conducted to determine the effect of ceramic particle size and ceramic particle loading on thermoset polymers. The polymer chosen for this study is bismaleimide, a common aerospace material chosen for its strength and t… more
Date: May 2016
Creator: Warner, Nathaniel A.
open access

Investigation on the Effects of Indoor Temperature Modulations on Building Energy Usage and Human Thermal Comfort

Description: Energy efficiency in the operation of buildings is becoming increasingly important with a growing emphasis on sustainability and reducing environmental impacts of irresponsible energy usage. Improvements have been made both on the technology side of energy efficiency and on the human behavior side. However, when changing human behavior, it is critical to find energy conservation measures that will maintain comfort for occupants. This paper analyzes how this can be done by implementing a modulat… more
Date: May 2017
Creator: Traylor, Caleb

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
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Date: December 2019
Creator: Qandil, Hassan Darwish Hassan
open access

Laminar Natural Convection From Isothermal Vertical Cylinders

Description: Laminar natural convection heat transfer from the vertical surface of a cylinder is a classical subject, which has been studied extensively. Furthermore, this subject has generated some recent interest in the literature. In the present investigation, numerical experiments were performed to determine average Nusselt numbers for isothermal vertical cylinders (103 < RaL < 109, 0.5 < L/D <10, and Pr = 0.7) with and without an adiabatic top in a quiescent ambient environment which will allow for plu… more
Date: August 2012
Creator: Day, Jerod
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