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Description
With the increasing focus on developing environmentally benign electronic packages, lead-free solder alloys have received a great deal of attention. Mishandling of packages, during manufacture, assembly, or by the user may cause failure of solder joint. A fundamental understanding of the behavior of lead-free solders under mechanical shock conditions is

With the increasing focus on developing environmentally benign electronic packages, lead-free solder alloys have received a great deal of attention. Mishandling of packages, during manufacture, assembly, or by the user may cause failure of solder joint. A fundamental understanding of the behavior of lead-free solders under mechanical shock conditions is lacking. Reliable experimental and numerical analysis of lead-free solder joints in the intermediate strain rate regime need to be investigated. This dissertation mainly focuses on exploring the mechanical shock behavior of lead-free tin-rich solder alloys via multiscale modeling and numerical simulations. First, the macroscopic stress/strain behaviors of three bulk lead-free tin-rich solders were tested over a range of strain rates from 0.001/s to 30/s. Finite element analysis was conducted to determine appropriate specimen geometry that could reach a homogeneous stress/strain field and a relatively high strain rate. A novel self-consistent true stress correction method is developed to compensate the inaccuracy caused by the triaxial stress state at the post-necking stage. Then the material property of micron-scale intermetallic was examined by micro-compression test. The accuracy of this measure is systematically validated by finite element analysis, and empirical adjustments are provided. Moreover, the interfacial property of the solder/intermetallic interface is investigated, and a continuum traction-separation law of this interface is developed from an atomistic-based cohesive element method. The macroscopic stress/strain relation and microstructural properties are combined together to form a multiscale material behavior via a stochastic approach for both solder and intermetallic. As a result, solder is modeled by porous plasticity with random voids, and intermetallic is characterized as brittle material with random vulnerable region. Thereafter, the porous plasticity fracture of the solders and the brittle fracture of the intermetallics are coupled together in one finite element model. Finally, this study yields a multiscale model to understand and predict the mechanical shock behavior of lead-free tin-rich solder joints. Different fracture patterns are observed for various strain rates and/or intermetallic thicknesses. The predictions have a good agreement with the theory and experiments.
ContributorsFei, Huiyang (Author) / Jiang, Hanqing (Thesis advisor) / Chawla, Nikhilesh (Thesis advisor) / Tasooji, Amaneh (Committee member) / Mobasher, Barzin (Committee member) / Rajan, Subramaniam D. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
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Description
Concrete columns constitute the fundamental supports of buildings, bridges, and various other infrastructures, and their failure could lead to the collapse of the entire structure. As such, great effort goes into improving the fire resistance of such columns. In a time sensitive fire situation, a delay in the failure of

Concrete columns constitute the fundamental supports of buildings, bridges, and various other infrastructures, and their failure could lead to the collapse of the entire structure. As such, great effort goes into improving the fire resistance of such columns. In a time sensitive fire situation, a delay in the failure of critical load bearing structures can lead to an increase in time allowed for the evacuation of occupants, recovery of property, and access to the fire. Much work has been done in improving the structural performance of concrete including reducing column sizes and providing a safer structure. As a result, high-strength (HS) concrete has been developed to fulfill the needs of such improvements. HS concrete varies from normal-strength (NS) concrete in that it has a higher stiffness, lower permeability and larger durability. This, unfortunately, has resulted in poor performance under fire. The lower permeability allows for water vapor to build up causing HS concrete to suffer from explosive spalling under rapid heating. In addition, the coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) of HS concrete is lower than that of NS concrete. In this study, the effects of introducing a region of crumb rubber concrete into a steel-reinforced concrete column were analyzed. The inclusion of crumb rubber concrete into a column will greatly increase the thermal resistivity of the overall column, leading to a reduction in core temperature as well as the rate at which the column is heated. Different cases were analyzed while varying the positioning of the crumb-rubber region to characterize the effect of position on the improvement of fire resistance. Computer simulated finite element analysis was used to calculate the temperature and strain distribution with time across the column's cross-sectional area with specific interest in the steel - concrete region. Of the several cases which were investigated, it was found that the improvement of time before failure ranged between 32 to 45 minutes.
ContributorsZiadeh, Bassam Mohammed (Author) / Phelan, Patrick (Thesis advisor) / Kaloush, Kamil (Thesis advisor) / Jiang, Hanqing (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
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Description
Pb-free solders are used as interconnects in various levels of micro-electronic packaging. Reliability of these interconnects is very critical for the performance of the package. One of the main factors affecting the reliability of solder joints is the presence of porosity which is introduced during processing of the joints. In

Pb-free solders are used as interconnects in various levels of micro-electronic packaging. Reliability of these interconnects is very critical for the performance of the package. One of the main factors affecting the reliability of solder joints is the presence of porosity which is introduced during processing of the joints. In this thesis, the effect of such porosity on the deformation behavior and eventual failure of the joints is studied using Finite Element (FE) modeling technique. A 3D model obtained by reconstruction of x-ray tomographic image data is used as input for FE analysis to simulate shear deformation and eventual failure of the joint using ductile damage model. The modeling was done in ABAQUS (v 6.10). The FE model predictions are validated with experimental results by comparing the deformation of the pores and the crack path as predicted by the model with the experimentally observed deformation and failure pattern. To understand the influence of size, shape, and distribution of pores on the mechanical behavior of the joint four different solder joints with varying degrees of porosity are modeled using the validated FE model. The validation technique mentioned above enables comparison of the simulated and actual deformation only. A more robust way of validating the FE model would be to compare the strain distribution in the joint as predicted by the model and as observed experimentally. In this study, to enable visualization of the experimental strain for the 3D microstructure obtained from tomography, a three dimensional digital image correlation (3D DIC) code has been implemented in MATLAB (MathWorks Inc). This developed 3D DIC code can be used as another tool to verify the numerical model predictions. The capability of the developed code in measuring local displacement and strain is demonstrated by considering a test case.
ContributorsJakkali, Vaidehi (Author) / Chawla, Nikhilesh K (Thesis advisor) / Jiang, Hanqing (Committee member) / Solanki, Kiran (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
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Description
Increasing demand for high strength powder metallurgy (PM) steels has resulted in the development of dual phase PM steels. In this work, the effects of thermal aging on the microstructure and mechanical behavior of dual phase precipitation hardened powder metallurgy (PM) stainless steels of varying ferrite-martensite content were examined. Quantitative

Increasing demand for high strength powder metallurgy (PM) steels has resulted in the development of dual phase PM steels. In this work, the effects of thermal aging on the microstructure and mechanical behavior of dual phase precipitation hardened powder metallurgy (PM) stainless steels of varying ferrite-martensite content were examined. Quantitative analyses of the inherent porosity and phase fractions were conducted on the steels and no significant differences were noted with respect to aging temperature. Tensile strength, yield strength, and elongation to fracture all increased with increasing aging temperature reaching maxima at 538oC in most cases. Increased strength and decreased ductility were observed in steels of higher martensite content. Nanoindentation of the individual microconstituents was employed to obtain a fundamental understanding of the strengthening contributions. Both the ferrite and martensite hardness values increased with aging temperature and exhibited similar maxima to the bulk tensile properties. Due to the complex non-uniform stresses and strains associated with conventional nanoindentation, micropillar compression has become an attractive method to probe local mechanical behavior while limiting strain gradients and contributions from surrounding features. In this study, micropillars of ferrite and martensite were fabricated by focused ion beam (FIB) milling of dual phase precipitation hardened powder metallurgy (PM) stainless steels. Compression testing was conducted using a nanoindenter equipped with a flat punch indenter. The stress-strain curves of the individual microconstituents were calculated from the load-displacement curves less the extraneous displacements of the system. Using a rule of mixtures approach in conjunction with porosity corrections, the mechanical properties of ferrite and martensite were combined for comparison to tensile tests of the bulk material, and reasonable agreement was found for the ultimate tensile strength. Micropillar compression experiments of both as sintered and thermally aged material allowed for investigation of the effect of thermal aging.
ContributorsStewart, Jennifer (Author) / Chawla, Nikhilesh (Thesis advisor) / Jiang, Hanqing (Committee member) / Krause, Stephen (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
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Description
Recent changes in the energy markets structure combined with the conti-nuous load growth have caused power systems to be operated under more stressed conditions. In addition, the nature of power systems has also grown more complex and dynamic because of the increasing use of long inter-area tie-lines and the high

Recent changes in the energy markets structure combined with the conti-nuous load growth have caused power systems to be operated under more stressed conditions. In addition, the nature of power systems has also grown more complex and dynamic because of the increasing use of long inter-area tie-lines and the high motor loads especially those comprised mainly of residential single phase A/C motors. Therefore, delayed voltage recovery, fast voltage collapse and short term voltage stability issues in general have obtained significant importance in relia-bility studies. Shunt VAr injection has been used as a countermeasure for voltage instability. However, the dynamic and fast nature of short term voltage instability requires fast and sufficient VAr injection, and therefore dynamic VAr devices such as Static VAr Compensators (SVCs) and STATic COMpensators (STAT-COMs) are used. The location and size of such devices are optimized in order to improve their efficiency and reduce initial costs. In this work time domain dy-namic analysis was used to evaluate trajectory voltage sensitivities for each time step. Linear programming was then performed to determine the optimal amount of required VAr injection at each bus, using voltage sensitivities as weighting factors. Optimal VAr injection values from different operating conditions were weighted and averaged in order to obtain a final setting of the VAr requirement. Some buses under consideration were either assigned very small VAr injection values, or not assigned any value at all. Therefore, the approach used in this work was found to be useful in not only determining the optimal size of SVCs, but also their location.
ContributorsSalloum, Ahmed (Author) / Vittal, Vijay (Thesis advisor) / Heydt, Gerald (Committee member) / Ayyanar, Raja (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
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Description
This research work describes the design of a fault current limiter (FCL) using digital logic and a microcontroller based data acquisition system for an ultra fast pilot protection system. These systems have been designed according to the requirements of the Future Renewable Electric Energy Delivery and Management (FREEDM) system (or

This research work describes the design of a fault current limiter (FCL) using digital logic and a microcontroller based data acquisition system for an ultra fast pilot protection system. These systems have been designed according to the requirements of the Future Renewable Electric Energy Delivery and Management (FREEDM) system (or loop), a 1 MW green energy hub. The FREEDM loop merges advanced power electronics technology with information tech-nology to form an efficient power grid that can be integrated with the existing power system. With the addition of loads to the FREEDM system, the level of fault current rises because of increased energy flow to supply the loads, and this requires the design of a limiter which can limit this current to a level which the existing switchgear can interrupt. The FCL limits the fault current to around three times the rated current. Fast switching Insulated-gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) with its gate control logic implements a switching strategy which enables this operation. A complete simulation of the system was built on Simulink and it was verified that the FCL limits the fault current to 1000 A compared to more than 3000 A fault current in the non-existence of a FCL. This setting is made user-defined. In FREEDM system, there is a need to interrupt a fault faster or make intelligent deci-sions relating to fault events, to ensure maximum availability of power to the loads connected to the system. This necessitates fast acquisition of data which is performed by the designed data acquisition system. The microcontroller acquires the data from a current transformer (CT). Mea-surements are made at different points in the FREEDM system and merged together, to input it to the intelligent protection algorithm that has been developed by another student on the project. The algorithm will generate a tripping signal in the event of a fault. The developed hardware and the programmed software to accomplish data acquisition and transmission are presented here. The designed FCL ensures that the existing switchgear equipments need not be replaced thus aiding future power system expansion. The developed data acquisition system enables fast fault sensing in protection schemes improving its reliability.
ContributorsThirumalai, Arvind (Author) / Karady, George G. (Thesis advisor) / Vittal, Vijay (Committee member) / Hedman, Kory (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
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Description
There will always be a need for high current/voltage transistors. A transistor that has the ability to be both or either of these things is the silicon metal-silicon field effect transistor (MESFET). An additional perk that silicon MESFET transistors have is the ability to be integrated into the standard silicon

There will always be a need for high current/voltage transistors. A transistor that has the ability to be both or either of these things is the silicon metal-silicon field effect transistor (MESFET). An additional perk that silicon MESFET transistors have is the ability to be integrated into the standard silicon on insulator (SOI) complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) process flow. This makes a silicon MESFET transistor a very valuable device for use in any standard CMOS circuit that may usually need a separate integrated circuit (IC) in order to switch power on or from a high current/voltage because it allows this function to be performed with a single chip thereby cutting costs. The ability for the MESFET to cost effectively satisfy the needs of this any many other high current/voltage device application markets is what drives the study of MESFET optimization. Silicon MESFETs that are integrated into standard SOI CMOS processes often receive dopings during fabrication that would not ideally be there in a process made exclusively for MESFETs. Since these remnants of SOI CMOS processing effect the operation of a MESFET device, their effect can be seen in the current-voltage characteristics of a measured MESFET device. Device simulations are done and compared to measured silicon MESFET data in order to deduce the cause and effect of many of these SOI CMOS remnants. MESFET devices can be made in both fully depleted (FD) and partially depleted (PD) SOI CMOS technologies. Device simulations are used to do a comparison of FD and PD MESFETs in order to show the advantages and disadvantages of MESFETs fabricated in different technologies. It is shown that PD MESFET have the highest current per area capability. Since the PD MESFET is shown to have the highest current capability, a layout optimization method to further increase the current per area capability of the PD silicon MESFET is presented, derived, and proven to a first order.
ContributorsSochacki, John (Author) / Thornton, Trevor J (Thesis advisor) / Schroder, Dieter (Committee member) / Vasileska, Dragica (Committee member) / Goryll, Michael (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
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Description
ABSTRACT The purpose of this study is to demonstrate that stable lipid bilayers can be set up on an array of silicon micropores and can be used as sites for self-inserting ion-channel proteins which can be studied independently of each other. In course of this study an acrylic

ABSTRACT The purpose of this study is to demonstrate that stable lipid bilayers can be set up on an array of silicon micropores and can be used as sites for self-inserting ion-channel proteins which can be studied independently of each other. In course of this study an acrylic based holder was designed and machined to ensure leak-free fluidic access to the silicon micropores and physical isolation of the individual array channels. To measure the ion-channel currents, we simulated, designed and manufactured low-noise transimpedance amplifiers and support circuits based on published patch clamp amplifier designs, using currently available surface-mount components. This was done in order to achieve a reduction in size and costs as well as isolation of individual channels without the need for multiplexing of the input. During the experiments performed, stable bilayers were formed across an array of four vertically mounted 30 µm silicon micropores and OmpF porins were added for self insertion in each of the bilayers. To further demonstrate the independence of these bilayer recording sites, the antibiotic Ampicillin (2.5 mM) was added to one of the fluidic wells. The ionic current in each of the wells was recorded simultaneously. Sub-conductance states of Ompf porin were observed in two of the measurement sites. In addition, the conductance steps in the site containing the antibiotic could be clearly seen to be larger compared to those of the unmodified site. This is due to the transient blocking of ion flow through the porin due to translocation of the antibiotic. Based on this demonstration, ion-channel array reconstitution is a potential method for efficient electrophysiological characterization of different types of ion-channels simultaneously as well as for studying membrane permeation processes.
ContributorsRamakrishnan, Shankar (Author) / Goryll, Michael (Thesis advisor) / Thornton, Trevor J (Committee member) / Blain Christen, Jennifer M (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
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Description
In the last few years, significant advances in nanofabrication have allowed tailoring of structures and materials at a molecular level enabling nanofabrication with precise control of dimensions and organization at molecular length scales, a development leading to significant advances in nanoscale systems. Although, the direction of progress seems to follow

In the last few years, significant advances in nanofabrication have allowed tailoring of structures and materials at a molecular level enabling nanofabrication with precise control of dimensions and organization at molecular length scales, a development leading to significant advances in nanoscale systems. Although, the direction of progress seems to follow the path of microelectronics, the fundamental physics in a nanoscale system changes more rapidly compared to microelectronics, as the size scale is decreased. The changes in length, area, and volume ratios due to reduction in size alter the relative influence of various physical effects determining the overall operation of a system in unexpected ways. One such category of nanofluidic structures demonstrating unique ionic and molecular transport characteristics are nanopores. Nanopores derive their unique transport characteristics from the electrostatic interaction of nanopore surface charge with aqueous ionic solutions. In this doctoral research cylindrical nanopores, in single and array configuration, were fabricated in silicon-on-insulator (SOI) using a combination of electron beam lithography (EBL) and reactive ion etching (RIE). The fabrication method presented is compatible with standard semiconductor foundries and allows fabrication of nanopores with desired geometries and precise dimensional control, providing near ideal and isolated physical modeling systems to study ion transport at the nanometer level. Ion transport through nanopores was characterized by measuring ionic conductances of arrays of nanopores of various diameters for a wide range of concentration of aqueous hydrochloric acid (HCl) ionic solutions. Measured ionic conductances demonstrated two distinct regimes based on surface charge interactions at low ionic concentrations and nanopore geometry at high ionic concentrations. Field effect modulation of ion transport through nanopore arrays, in a fashion similar to semiconductor transistors, was also studied. Using ionic conductance measurements, it was shown that the concentration of ions in the nanopore volume was significantly changed when a gate voltage on nanopore arrays was applied, hence controlling their transport. Based on the ion transport results, single nanopores were used to demonstrate their application as nanoscale particle counters by using polystyrene nanobeads, monodispersed in aqueous HCl solutions of different molarities. Effects of field effect modulation on particle transition events were also demonstrated.
ContributorsJoshi, Punarvasu (Author) / Thornton, Trevor J (Thesis advisor) / Goryll, Michael (Thesis advisor) / Spanias, Andreas (Committee member) / Saraniti, Marco (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
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Description
The electric transmission grid is conventionally treated as a fixed asset and is operated around a single topology. Though several instances of switching transmission lines for corrective mechaism, congestion management, and minimization of losses can be found in literature, the idea of co-optimizing transmission with generation dispatch has not been

The electric transmission grid is conventionally treated as a fixed asset and is operated around a single topology. Though several instances of switching transmission lines for corrective mechaism, congestion management, and minimization of losses can be found in literature, the idea of co-optimizing transmission with generation dispatch has not been widely investigated. Network topology optimization exploits the redundancies that are an integral part of the network to allow for improvement in dispatch efficiency. Although, the concept of a dispatchable network initially appears counterintuitive questioning the wisdom of switching transmission lines on a more regu-lar basis, results obtained in the previous research on transmission switching with a Direct Current Optimal Power Flow (DCOPF) show significant cost reductions. This thesis on network topology optimization with ACOPF emphasizes the need for additional research in this area. It examines the performance of network topology optimization in an Alternating Current (AC) setting and its impact on various parameters like active power loss and voltages that are ignored in the DC setting. An ACOPF model, with binary variables representing the status of transmission lines incorporated into the formulation, is written in AMPL, a mathematical programming language and this optimization problem is solved using the solver KNITRO. ACOPF is a non-convex, nonlinear optimization problem, making it a very hard problem to solve. The introduction of bi-nary variables makes ACOPF a mixed integer nonlinear programming problem, further increasing the complexity of the optimization problem. An iterative method of opening each transmission line individually before choosing the best solution has been proposed as a purely investigative approach to studying the impact of transmission switching with ACOPF. Economic savings of up to 6% achieved using this approach indicate the potential of this concept. In addition, a heuristic has been proposed to improve the computational efficiency of network topology optimization. This research also makes a comparative analysis between transmission switching in a DC setting and switching in an AC setting. Results presented in this thesis indicate significant economic savings achieved by controlled topology optimization, thereby reconfirming the need for further examination of this idea.
ContributorsPotluri, Tejaswi (Author) / Hedman, Kory (Thesis advisor) / Vittal, Vijay (Committee member) / Heydt, Gerald (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011