Barrett, The Honors College Thesis/Creative Project Collection
Barrett, The Honors College at Arizona State University proudly showcases the work of undergraduate honors students by sharing this collection exclusively with the ASU community.
Barrett accepts high performing, academically engaged undergraduate students and works with them in collaboration with all of the other academic units at Arizona State University. All Barrett students complete a thesis or creative project which is an opportunity to explore an intellectual interest and produce an original piece of scholarly research. The thesis or creative project is supervised and defended in front of a faculty committee. Students are able to engage with professors who are nationally recognized in their fields and committed to working with honors students. Completing a Barrett thesis or creative project is an opportunity for undergraduate honors students to contribute to the ASU academic community in a meaningful way.
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- Creators: Phelan, Patrick
Description
Current applications of the traditional vapor-compression refrigeration system are not feasible. Space cooling and refrigeration systems that employ vapor-compression refrigeration cycles utilize harmful refrigerants, produce large amounts of carbon dioxide, and have high energy consumption. Adsorption cooling technology is seen as a possible alternative to traditional vapor-compression refrigeration systems. The low-grade heat requirement and eco-friendly adsorbent and refrigerant materials make adsorption cooling an attractive technology. Adsorption cooling technology employs the adsorption principle—the phenomenon in which an adsorbate fluid adheres to the surfaces and micropores of an adsorbent solid. The purpose of this study was to explore the adsorption cooling process through the use of a prototype adsorption test bed design. A basic intermittent adsorption cooling cycle was utilized for the test bed design. Several requirements for the design include low-cost, simple fabrication, and capable of holding a vacuum. In this study, an experiment was carried out to analyze the desorption process, in which the original weight of adsorbed water was compared to the weight of the desorbed water. The system pressure was decreased to sub-atmospheric absolute pressure of 16.67 kPa in order to increase the desorption rate and drive the desorption process. A hot water pump provided 81.6 °C hot water to heat the adsorption bed. The desorption process lasted for a duration of 162 minutes. The experiment resulted in 3.60 g (16.04%) of the initial adsorbed water being desorbed during the desorption process. The study demonstrates the potential of adsorption cooling. This paper outlines the design, fabrication, and analysis of a prototype adsorption cooling test bed.
ContributorsCaballes, Christopher C. (Author) / Phelan, Patrick (Thesis director) / Bocanegra, Luis (Committee member) / School for Engineering of Matter,Transport & Enrgy (Contributor) / Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Program (Contributor) / School of Sustainability (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05
Description
Photovoltaic panels are commonly used for their versatility in on-site generation of clean electricity in urban environments, specifically on rooftops. However, their implementation on rooftops poses potential (positive and negative) impacts on the energy use of buildings, and urban climates. The negative impacts are compounded if PV is installed on top of a high-albedo rooftop. This study quantitively investigates these impacts from PV installation on top of a building with a white roof in Phoenix, AZ. We supplemented our measurements with EnergyPlus simulations to model the energy implications for archetypical residential and retail buildings and calculated the energy penalty to generation ratio as well as sensible heat flux for each combination of panel height and building type. Results indicate that the daily cooling energy penalty to due blockage of outgoing longwave radiation can be 4.9—11.2% of the PV generation. In addition, while we observed a small decrease in nighttime sensible heat flux to the ambient, PV cases increased the daytime heat flux by more than a factor of 10. This study highlights the potential unintended consequences of rooftop PV under certain conditions and provides a broader perspective for building designers and urban planners.
ContributorsBrown, Kyle (Author) / Sailor, David (Thesis director) / Phelan, Patrick (Committee member) / Department of Physics (Contributor) / Dean, W.P. Carey School of Business (Contributor) / School of Sustainability (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05
Description
The research analyzes the transformation of wasted thermal energy into a usable form through thermogalvanic devices. This technology helps mitigate international growing energy demands. Building energy efficiency is a critical research topic, since the loads account for 40% of all energy demand in developed nations, and 30% in less developed nations. A significant portion of the energy consumed for heating and cooling, where a majority is dissipated to the ambient as waste heat. This research answers how much power output (µW·cm-2) can the thermogalvanic brick experimentally produce from an induced temperature gradient? While there are multiple avenues for the initial and optimized prototype design, one key area of interest relating to thermogalvanic devices is the effective surface area of the electrodes. This report highlights the experimental power output measurements of a Cu/Cu2+ thermogalvanic brick by manipulating the effective surface area of the electrodes. Across three meshes, the maximum power output normalized for temperature was found to be between 2.13-2.87 x 10-3 μWcm-2K-2. The highest normalized power output corresponded to the mesh with the highest effective surface area, which was classified as the fine mesh. This intuitively aligned with the theoretical understanding of surface area and maximum power output, where decreasing the activation resistance also reduces the internal resistance, which increases the theoretical maximum power.
ContributorsKiracofe, Ryan Moore (Author) / Phelan, Patrick (Thesis director) / El Asmar, Mounir (Committee member) / Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Program (Contributor, Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05
Description
This thesis research project seeks to provide an investigation to find the most appropriate organogel serving as a lithium ion battery separator that is compatible with stretchable electronics. Separators play a key role in all batteries. Their main function is to keep the positive and negative electrodes apart to prevent electrical short circuits and at the same time allow rapid transport of ionic charge carriers that are needed to complete the circuit during the passage of current in an electrochemical cell [1].Li-ion batteries have become important in the field of electronic industry due to their advantages like compactness, lightweight, high operational voltage and providing highest energy density. Typical Li-ion battery has a cathode (LiCoO2, LiMnO2, LiFePO4 etc.), an anode (graphite, graphene, carbon nanotubes, carbon nanofibers, lithium titanium oxides etc.) and a separator [1]. The separator provides an electrical insulation between anode and cathode and allows ion transfer during operation. It also plays a significant role in determining battery performance. The performance of the Li-ion battery separator is determined by several factors such as permeability, porosity, electrolyte uptake capacity, mechanical, thermal and chemical stability. Several commercially available polymers have been used as separators and the most common polymers are poly(ethylene), poly(propylene), poly (ethylene oxide), poly(acrylonitrile), poly (methyl methacrylate) and poly (vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) [3]. In this project, organogels were chosen because of their flexible, semi-permeable and reliable bendable characteristics which becomes useful in stretchable batteries. The first part is to use Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) which belongs to a group of polymeric organosilicon compounds that are commonly referred to as silicones, then mixed with hexane and sucrose solvents to make the required organogel. Different organogels from PDMS and Dragon skin in different amounts and conditions were created and tested to see what works best in stretchable lithium batteries, thus improving the battery’s efficiency and life cycle. Ion conductivity values were obtained after running the Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy Test. Graphs produced after this test proved that the most effective combination to use was at a porosity of 0.8, at a ratio of Sucrose: PDMS wt Ratio of 5: 0.764 respectively. The future endeavors of this project will involve working with reduced cell thickness so as to reduce the overall distance traveled by the ions, which also reduces the overall cost of making each separator.
ContributorsMatsika, Clive (Author) / Jiang, Hanqing (Thesis director) / Phelan, Patrick (Committee member) / Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Program (Contributor, Contributor, Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05
Description
Ensuring that people across the globe have enough water and electricity are two large issues that continue to grow. This study performs a test on whether using solar photovoltaic modules to shade water can potentially help diminish the issues of water and power. Using the setup of a PV module shading water, a stand-alone PV module, and unshaded water, it was found that shading water can reduce evaporation and lower PV module operating temperature at the same time. Using averaged data from two days of testing, the volume per unit surface area of water that evaporated per hour was 0.319 cm3/cm2 less for the shaded water compared to the unshaded water. The evaporation rates found in the experiment are compared to those of Lake Mead to see the amount of water lost on a large scale. For the operating temperature of the PV module, the module used for shading had a consistently lower temperature than the stand-alone module. On the first day, the shading module had an average temperature 5.1 C lower than the stand-alone module average temperature. On day two, the shading module had an average temperature 3.4 C lower than the stand-alone module average temperature. Using average temperatures between the two days from 10:30am and 4:45pm, the average daily temperature of the panel used for shading was 4.5C less than the temperature of the stand-alone panel. These results prove water shading by solar PV modules to be effective in reducing evaporation and lowering module operating temperature. Last, suggestions for future studies are discussed, such as performance analysis of the PV modules in this setting, economic analysis of using PV modules as shading, and the isolation of the different factors of evaporation (temperature, wind speed, and humidity).
ContributorsLee, John C (Author) / Phelan, Patrick (Thesis director) / Roedel, Ronald (Committee member) / Dean, W.P. Carey School of Business (Contributor) / Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Program (Contributor, Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05
Description
In June of 2016, the United Kingdom held a referendum for its citizens to decide whether to remain a part of the European Union or take their leave. The vote was close but ultimately the U.K. decided to leave, triggering the two-year process of negotiations that would shape the U.K.’s departure (Brexit). The question of what will become of the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland is heavy with implications for the national identity of people living on either side of the border, and this makes it one of the more pressing concerns in Brexit discourse. This research analyzes how national identity is used as a rhetorical tactic in media to influence and persuade readers to vote in accordance with the author’s political goals. It does so by evaluating how borders shape national identity and analyzing newspaper articles from the two highest circulating Northern Irish daily newspapers (The Irish News and the Belfast Telegraph) during the week leading up to the June 23rd, 2016 referendum. In analyzing news articles relating to the Irish border issue of Brexit from The Irish News and the Belfast Telegraph during the time frame of June 16th-23rd, 2016, four analytical categories of how identity-related rhetoric was used were discovered: fear, self-interest, Irish Nationalism, and a negative association of the past. Further, it was hypothesized and confirmed the political leanings of the papers influenced which type of rhetorical tactic was used. In the broad realm of Brexit and media related discussion, this research could help strengthen understanding of how traditional media uses national identity to persuade readers to and influence voting behavior in the midst of such a divisive referendum.
Key Words: Brexit, Irish border, national identity, rhetoric, newspapers
Key Words: Brexit, Irish border, national identity, rhetoric, newspapers
ContributorsCaldwell, Tara (Author) / O'Flaherty, Katherine (Thesis director) / Ripley, Charles (Committee member) / School of Social Transformation (Contributor) / School of Politics and Global Studies (Contributor, Contributor, Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05
Description
Nuclear power has recently experienced a resurgence in interest due to its ability to generate significant amounts of relatively clean energy. However, the overall size of nuclear power plants still poses a problem to future advancements. The bulkiness of components in the plant contribute to longer construction times, higher building and maintenance costs, and the isolation of nuclear plants from populated areas. The goal of this project was to analyze the thermal performance of nanocrystalline copper tantalum (NC Cu-Ta) inside the steam generator of a pressurized water reactor to see how much the size of these units could be reduced without affecting the amount of heat transferred through it. The analysis revealed that using this material, with its higher thermal conductivity than the traditional Inconel Alloy 600 that is typically used in steam generators, it is possible to reduce the height of a steam generator from 21 meters to about 18.6 meters, signifying a 11.6% reduction in height. This analysis also revealed a diminishing return that occurs with increasing the thermal conductivity on both reducing the required heat transfer area and increasing the overall heat transfer coefficient.
ContributorsRiese, Alexander (Author) / Phelan, Patrick (Thesis director) / Bocanegra, Luis (Committee member) / Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Program (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05