Matching Items (17)
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- All Subjects: engineering
- All Subjects: solar
- Creators: Chemical Engineering Program
- Member of: Barrett, The Honors College Thesis/Creative Project Collection
Description
Engineering is a multidisciplinary field with a variety of applications. However, since there are so many disciplines of engineering, it is often challenging to find the discipline that best suits an individual interested in engineering. Not knowing which area of engineering most aligns to one’s interests is challenging when deciding on a major and a career. With the development of the Engineering Interest Quiz (EIQ), the goal was to help individuals find the field of engineering that is most similar to their interests. Initially, an Engineering Faculty Survey (EFS) was created to gather information from engineering faculty at Arizona State University (ASU) and to determine keywords that describe each field of engineering. With this list of keywords, the EIQ was developed. Data from the EIQ compared the engineering students’ top three results for the best engineering discipline for them with their current engineering major of study. The data analysis showed that 70% of the respondents had their major listed as one of the top three results they were given and 30% of the respondents did not have their major listed. Of that 70%, 64% had their current major listed as the highest or tied for the highest percentage and 36% had their major listed as the second or third highest percentage. Furthermore, the EIQ data was compared between genders. Only 33% of the male students had their current major listed as their highest percentage, but 55% had their major as one of their top three results. Women had higher percentages with 63% listing their current major as their highest percentage and 81% listing it in the top three of their final results.
ContributorsWagner, Avery Rose (Co-author) / Lucca, Claudia (Co-author) / Taylor, David (Thesis director) / Miller, Cindy (Committee member) / Chemical Engineering Program (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05
Description
Hydrocephalus is a chronic medical condition characterized by the excessive accumulation of cerebrospinal fluid in the brain. It is estimated that 1-2 of every 1000 babies in the United States is born with congenital hydrocephalus, with many individuals acquiring hydrocephalus later in life through brain injury. Despite these alarming statistics, current shunts for the treatment of hydrocephalus display operational failure rates as high as 40-50% within two years following implantation. Failure of current shunts is attributed to complexity of design, external implantation, and the requirement of multiple catheters. The presented hydrogel wafer check valve avoids all the debilitating features of current shunts, relying only on the swelling of hydrogel for operation, and is designed to directly replace failed arachnoid granulations- the brain’s natural cerebrospinal fluid drainage valves. The valve was validated via bench-top (1) hydrodynamic pressure-flow response characterizations, (2) transient response analysis, and (3) overtime performance response in brain-analogous conditions. In-vitro measurements display operation in range of natural CSF draining (cracking pressure, PT ~ 1–110 mmH2O and outflow hydraulic resistance, Rh ~ 24 – 152 mmH2O/mL/min), negligible reverse flow leakages (flow, QO > -10 µL/min), and demonstrate the valve’s operational reproducibility of this new valve as an implantable treatment.
ContributorsAmjad, Usamma Muhammad (Author) / Chae, Junseok (Thesis director) / Appel, Jennie (Committee member) / Chemical Engineering Program (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
Based on theoretical calculations, a material that is highly transmissive below 3000 nm and opaque above 3000 nm is desired to replace glass covers for flat plate solar thermal systems. Additionally, a suitable replacement material needs to have a sufficiently high operating temperature in order to prevent the glazing from melting and warping in a solar system. Traditional solar thermal applications use conventional soda lime glass or low iron content glass to accomplish this; however, this project aims to investigate acrylic, polycarbonate, and FEP film as suitable alternatives for conventional solar glazings. While UV-Vis and FT-IR spectroscopy indicate that these polymer substitutes may not be ideal when used alone, when used in combination with coatings and additives, these materials may present an opportunity for a glazing replacement. A model representing a flat plate solar collector was developed to qualitatively analyze the various materials and their performance. Using gathered spectroscopy data, the model was developed for a multi-glazing system and it was found that polymer substitutes could perform better in certain system configurations. To complete the model, the model must be verified using empirical data and coatings and additives investigated for the purposes of achieving the desired materials optical specifications.
ContributorsBessant, Justin Zachary (Author) / Friesen, Cody (Thesis director) / Lorzel, Heath (Committee member) / Chemical Engineering Program (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
As prices for fuel along with the demand for renewable resources grow, it becomes of paramount importance to develop new ways of obtaining the energy needed to carry out the tasks we face daily. Costs of production due to energy and time constraints impose severe limitations on what is viable. Biological systems, on the other hand, are innately efficient both in terms of time and energy by handling tasks at the molecular level. Utilizing this efficiency is at the core of this research. Proper manipulation of even common proteins can render complexes functionalized for specific tasks. In this case, the coupling of a rhenium-based organometallic ligand to a modified myoglobin containing a zinc porphyrin, allow for efficient reduction of carbon dioxide, resulting in energy that can be harnessed and byproducts which can be used for further processing. Additionally, a rhenium based ligand functionalized via biotin is tested in conjunction with streptavidin and ruthenium-bipyridine.
ContributorsAllen, Jason Kenneth (Author) / Ghirlanda, Giovanna (Thesis director) / Francisco, Wilson (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Chemical Engineering Program (Contributor)
Created2014-12
Description
In our modern world the source of for many chemicals is to acquire and refine oil. This process is becoming an expensive to the environment and to human health. Alternative processes for acquiring the final product have been developed but still need work. One product that is valuable is butanol. The normal process for butanol production is very intensive but there is a method to produce butanol from bacteria. This process is better because it is more environmentally safe than using oil. One problem however is that when the bacteria produce too much butanol it reaches the toxicity limit and stops the production of butanol. In order to keep butanol from reaching the toxicity limit an adsorbent is used to remove the butanol without harming the bacteria. The adsorbent is a mesoporous carbon powder that allows the butanol to be adsorbed on it. This thesis explores different designs for a magnetic separation process to extract the carbon powder from the culture.
ContributorsChabra, Rohin (Author) / Nielsen, David (Thesis director) / Torres, Cesar (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Chemical Engineering Program (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
The objective of this research study is to assess the effectiveness of a poster-based messaging campaign and engineering-based activities for middle school and high school students to encourage students to explore and to pursue chemical engineering. Additionally, presentations are incorporated into both methods to provide context and improve understanding of the presented poster material or activity. Pre-assessments and post-assessments are the quantitative method of measuring effectiveness. For the poster campaign, ASU juniors and seniors participated in the poster campaign by producing socially relevant messages about their research or aspirations to address relevant chemical engineering problems. For the engineering-based activity, high school students participated in an Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering program "Young Engineers Shape the World" in which the students participated in six-hour event learning about four engineering disciplines, and the chemical engineering presentation and activity was conducted in one of the sessions. Pre-assessments were given at the beginning of the event, and the post-assessments were provided towards the end of the event. This honors thesis project will analyze the collected data.
ContributorsBueno, Daniel Tolentino (Author) / Ganesh, Tirupalavanam (Thesis director) / Parker, Hope (Committee member) / Chemical Engineering Program (Contributor) / School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies (Contributor) / W. P. Carey School of Business (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-05
Description
The goal of this study was to understand elementary school children’s perceptions of engineering. A total of 949 elementary school students were surveyed, individually or as a whole group, to examine gender and age differences in achievement-related beliefs (i.e., competency, interest, and importance) pertaining to engineering-related skills and activities. The results of this study found that specific skills and activities showed significant gender and age differences for each of the three measures. Significant findings showed that younger students (kindergarten through second grade) found many of the engineering-related skills and activities more interesting than the older students (third through fifth grade); however, the older students rated more of the skills and activities as being important. Gender differences showed that girls typically rated themselves as being more competent, more interested in, and valuing the skills and activities that pertained more to mindset ideas, such as learning from your mistakes and failures or not giving up, whereas boys rated themselves higher in more of the hands-on activities, such as building with things like legos, blocks, and k’nex.
ContributorsHandlos, Jamie Lynn Harte (Author) / Miller, Cindy (Thesis director) / Reisslein, Martin (Committee member) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor) / Chemical Engineering Program (Contributor, Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05
Fabrication of Alignment and Chemical Gradient Scaffold for Tendon-Bone Repair using Electrospinning
Description
Heterogeneous musculoskeletal tissues, such as the tendon-bone junction, is crucial for transferring mechanical loading during human physical activity. This region, also known as the enthesis, is composed of a complex extracellular matrix with gradient fiber orientations and chemistries. These different physical and chemical properties are crucial in providing the support that these junctions need in handling mechanical loading of everyday activities. Currently, surgical restorative procedures for a torn enthesis entail a very invasive technique of suturing the torn tendon onto the bone. This results in improper reinjury. To circumvent this issue, one common strategy within tissue engineering is to introduce a biomaterial scaffold which acts as a template for the local damaged tissue. Electrospinning can be utilized to fabricate a fibrous material to recapitulate the structure of the extracellular matrix. Currently electrospinning techniques only allow the creation of scaffold that consists of only one orientation and material. In this work, we investigated a multicomponent, magnetically assisted, electrospinning technique to fabricate a fiber alignment and chemical gradient scaffold for tendon-bone repair
ContributorsLe, Minh (Author) / Holloway, Julianne (Thesis director) / Green, Matthew (Committee member) / W.P. Carey School of Business (Contributor) / Chemical Engineering Program (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
Fresh water is essential to the human population and is an integral component in global economics for its multiple uses, and population growth/development cause concern for the possible exhaustion of the limited supply of freshwater. A combined computational and experimental approach to observe and evaluate pervaporation membrane performance for brackish water recovery was done to assess its efficiency and practicality for real world application. Results from modeling conveyed accuracy to reported parameter values from literature as well as strong dependence of performance on input parameters such as temperature. Experimentation results showed improved performance in flux by 34%-42% with radiative effect and then additional performance improvement (9%-33%) with the photothermal effect from carbon black application. Future work will include improvements to the model to include scaling propensity and energy consumption as well as continued experimentation to assess quality of pervaporation in water recovery.
ContributorsDurbin, Mitchell (Co-author) / Rivers, Frederick (Co-author) / Lind Thomas, MaryLaura (Thesis director) / Durgan, Pinar Cay (Committee member) / Chemical Engineering Program (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
Pasta is a staple food for many people and understanding how the process of making it at a homemade level and industrial level should be examined. Pasta is a large and growing market due to growing populations and new products, therefore, researching the pasta has many benefits. The goal of the research is to determine a consistent way to make homemade pasta and compare it to the industrial method. The comparisons that will be examined are the costs and the process to make the pasta. From there it can be determined where homemade pasta can fit in the market. Through experimentation, an optimal ratio of 1.65 grams of flour to 1 gram of egg was found to create pasta dough that would consistently make pasta easy to work with. Different methods of storage were tested to find a viable method to store fresh pasta. It was found that storing the pasta in an enclosed bag with a condensed shape in the freezer was the best method because it created the most durable pasta out of all the trials and it could be cooked. The industrial method for making pasta differed in some aspects to the homemade pasta method. The biggest changes were the use of an extruder and a drying machine which makes it easier to mass produce uniform pasta. The cost per kilogram based off ingredient prices to make homemade pasta was 0.92 dollars while the industrial pasta cost 0.89 dollars per kilogram. The biggest changes in cost comes from the method of storage of homemade pasta. It was determined that following the drying process of the industrial method would be best because then the price difference is dependent on the price of ingredients. This led to multiple possibilities where homemade pasta could enter the market, for example, as a part of premade meals. Overall, it is possible to create a better quality pasta that can be supplied to a wide arrange of demographics.
ContributorsKupres, Matthew David (Author) / Taylor, David (Thesis director) / Schoepf, Jared (Committee member) / Economics Program in CLAS (Contributor) / Chemical Engineering Program (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-12