This collection includes most of the ASU Theses and Dissertations from 2011 to present. ASU Theses and Dissertations are available in downloadable PDF format; however, a small percentage of items are under embargo. Information about the dissertations/theses includes degree information, committee members, an abstract, supporting data or media.

In addition to the electronic theses found in the ASU Digital Repository, ASU Theses and Dissertations can be found in the ASU Library Catalog.

Dissertations and Theses granted by Arizona State University are archived and made available through a joint effort of the ASU Graduate College and the ASU Libraries. For more information or questions about this collection contact or visit the Digital Repository ETD Library Guide or contact the ASU Graduate College at gradformat@asu.edu.

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Description
Buildings consume a large portion of the world's energy, but with the integration of phase change materials (PCMs) in building elements this energy cost can be greatly reduced. The addition of PCMs into building elements, however, becomes a challenge to model and analyze how the material actually affects the energy

Buildings consume a large portion of the world's energy, but with the integration of phase change materials (PCMs) in building elements this energy cost can be greatly reduced. The addition of PCMs into building elements, however, becomes a challenge to model and analyze how the material actually affects the energy flow and temperatures in the system. This research work presents a comprehensive computer program used to model and analyze PCM embedded wall systems. The use of the finite element method (FEM) provides the tool to analyze the energy flow of these systems. Finite element analysis (FEA) can model the transient analysis of a typical climate cycle along with nonlinear problems, which the addition of PCM causes. The use of phase change materials is also a costly material expense. The initial expense of using PCMs can be compensated by the reduction in energy costs it can provide. Optimization is the tool used to determine the optimal point between adding PCM into a wall and the amount of energy savings that layer will provide. The integration of these two tools into a computer program allows for models to be efficiently created, analyzed and optimized. The program was then used to understand the benefits between two different wall models, a wall with a single layer of PCM or a wall with two different PCM layers. The effect of the PCMs on the inside wall temperature along with the energy flow across the wall are computed. The numerical results show that a multi-layer PCM wall was more energy efficient and cost effective than the single PCM layer wall. A structural analysis was then performed on the optimized designs using ABAQUS v. 6.10 to ensure the structural integrity of the wall was not affected by adding PCM layer(s).
ContributorsStockwell, Amie (Author) / Rajan, Subramaniam D. (Thesis advisor) / Neithalath, Narayanan (Thesis advisor) / Mobasher, Barzin (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
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Description
Tall buildings are spreading across the globe at an ever-increasing rate (www.ctbuh.org). The global number of buildings 200m or more in height has risen from 286 to 602 in the last decade alone. The increasing complexity of building architecture poses unique challenges in the structural design of modern tall buildings.

Tall buildings are spreading across the globe at an ever-increasing rate (www.ctbuh.org). The global number of buildings 200m or more in height has risen from 286 to 602 in the last decade alone. The increasing complexity of building architecture poses unique challenges in the structural design of modern tall buildings. Hence, innovative structural systems need to be evaluated to create an economical design that satisfies multiple design criteria. Design using traditional trial-and-error approach can be extremely time-consuming and the resultant design uneconomical. Thus, there is a need for an efficient numerical optimization tool that can explore and generate several design alternatives in the preliminary design phase which can lead to a more desirable final design. In this study, we present the details of a tool that can be very useful in preliminary design optimization - finite element modeling, design optimization, translating design code requirements into components of the FE and design optimization models, and pre-and post-processing to verify the veracity of the model. Emphasis is placed on development and deployment of various FE models (static, modal and dynamic analyses; linear, beam and plate/shell finite elements), design optimization problem formulation (sizing, shape, topology and material selection optimization) and numerical optimization tools (gradient-based and evolutionary optimization methods) [Rajan, 2001]. The design optimization results of full scale three dimensional buildings subject to multiple design criteria including stress, serviceability and dynamic response are discussed.
ContributorsSirigiri, Mamatha (Author) / Rajan, Subramaniam D. (Thesis advisor) / Neithalath, Narayanan (Committee member) / Mobasher, Barzin (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
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Description
The need for sustainability in construction has encouraged scientists to develop novel environmentally friendly materials. The use of supplementary cementitious materials was one such initiative which aided in enhancing the fresh and hardened concrete properties. This thesis aims to explore the understanding of the early age rheological properties of such

The need for sustainability in construction has encouraged scientists to develop novel environmentally friendly materials. The use of supplementary cementitious materials was one such initiative which aided in enhancing the fresh and hardened concrete properties. This thesis aims to explore the understanding of the early age rheological properties of such cementitious systems.

The first phase of the work investigates the influence of supplementary cementitious materials (SCM) in combination with ordinary Portland cement (OPC) on the rheological properties of fresh paste with and without the effect of superplasticizers. Yield stress, plastic viscosity and storage modulus are the rheological parameters which were evaluated for all the design mixtures to fundamentally understand the synergistic effects of the SCM. A time-dependent study was conducted on these blends to explore the structure formation at various time intervals which explains the effect of hydration in conjecture to its physical stiffening. The second phase focuses on the rheological characterization of novel iron powder based binder system.

The results of this work indicate that the rheological characteristics of cementitious suspensions are complex, and strongly dependent on several key parameters including: the solid loading, inter-particle forces, shape of the particle, particle size distribution of the particles, and rheological nature of the media in which the particles are suspended. Chemical composition and reactivity of the material play an important role in the time-dependent rheological study.

A stress plateau method is utilized for the determination of rheological properties of concentrated suspensions, as it better predicts the apparent yield stress and is shown to correlate well with other viscoelastic properties of the suspensions. Plastic viscosity is obtained by calculating the slope of the stress-strain rate curve of ramp down values of shear rates. In oscillatory stress measurements the plateau obtained within the linear visco-elastic region was considered to be the value for storage modulus.

Between the different types of fly ash, class F fly ash indicated a reduction in the rheological parameters as opposed to class C fly ash that is attributable to the enhanced ettringite formation in the latter. Use of superplasticizer led to a huge influence on yield stress and storage modulus of the paste due to the steric hindrance effect.

In the study of iron based binder systems, metakaolin had comparatively higher influence than fly ash on the rheology due to its tendency to agglomerate as opposed to the ball bearing effect observed in the latter. Iron increment above 60% resulted in a decrease in all the parameters of rheology discussed in this thesis. In the OPC-iron binder, the iron behaved as reinforcements yielding higher yield stress and plastic viscosity.
ContributorsInbasekaran, Aditya (Author) / Neithalath, Narayanan (Thesis advisor) / Rajan, Subramaniam D. (Committee member) / Mobasher, Barzin (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016