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Description
Granulation is a process within particle technology where a liquid binding agent is added to a powder bed to create larger granules to modify bulk properties for easier processing. Three sets of experiments were conducted to screen for which factors had the greatest effect on granule formation, size distribution,

Granulation is a process within particle technology where a liquid binding agent is added to a powder bed to create larger granules to modify bulk properties for easier processing. Three sets of experiments were conducted to screen for which factors had the greatest effect on granule formation, size distribution, and morphological properties when wet granulating microcrystalline cellulose and water. Previous experiments had identified the different growth regimes within wet granulation, as well as the granule formation mechanisms in single-drop granulation experiments, but little research has been conducted to determine how results extracted from single drop experiments could be used to better understand the first principles that drive high shear granulation. The experiment found that under a liquid solid ratio of 110%, the granule growth rate was linear as opposed to the induction growth regime experienced at higher liquid solid ratios. L/S ratios less than 100% led to a bimodal distribution comprised of large distributions of ungranulated powder and large irregular granules. Insufficient water hampered the growth of granules due to lack of enough water bridges to connect the granules and powder, while the large molecules continued to agglomerate with particles as they rotated around the mixer. The nozzle end was augmented so that drop size as well as drop height could be adjusted and compared to single-drop granulation experiments in proceeding investigations. As individual factors, neither augmentation had significant contributions to granule size, but preliminary screens identified that interaction between increasing L/S ratio and decreasing drop size could lead to narrower distributions of particles as well as greater circularity. Preliminary screening also identified that decreasing the drop height of the nozzle could increase the rate of particle growth during the 110% L/S trials without changing the growth mechanisms, indicating a way to alter the rate of steady-state particle growth. This paper screens for which factors are most pertinent to associating single-drop and wet granulation in order to develop granulation models that can ascertain information from single-drop granulations and predict the shape and size distribution of any wet granulation, without the need to run costly wet granulation experiments.
ContributorsLay, Michael (Author) / Emady, Heather (Thesis advisor) / Muhich, Christopher (Committee member) / Holloway, Julianne (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019
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Description
Rotary drums are commonly used for their high heat and mass transfer rates in the manufacture of cement, pharmaceuticals, food, and other particulate products. These processes are difficult to model because the particulate behavior is governed by the process conditions such as particle size, particle size distribution, shape, composition, and

Rotary drums are commonly used for their high heat and mass transfer rates in the manufacture of cement, pharmaceuticals, food, and other particulate products. These processes are difficult to model because the particulate behavior is governed by the process conditions such as particle size, particle size distribution, shape, composition, and operating parameters, such as fill level and rotation rate. More research on heat transfer in rotary drums will increase operating efficiency, leading to significant energy savings on a global scale.

This research utilizes infrared imaging to investigate the effects of fill level and rotation rate on the particle bed hydrodynamics and the average wall-particle heat transfer coefficient. 3 mm silica beads and a stainless steel rotary drum with a diameter of 6 in and a length of 3 in were used at fill levels of 10 %, 17.5 %, and 25 %, and rotation rates of 2 rpm, 6 rpm, and 10 rpm. Two full factorial designs of experiments were completed to understand the effects of these factors in the presence of conduction only (Case 1) and conduction with forced convection (Case 2). Particle-particle friction caused the particle bed to stagnate at elevated temperatures in Case 1, while the inlet air velocity in Case 2 dominated the particle friction effects to maintain the flow profile. The maximum heat transfer coefficient was achieved at a high rotation rate and low fill level in Case 1, and at a high rotation rate and high fill level in Case 2. Heat losses from the system were dominated by natural convection between the hot air in the drum and the external surroundings.
ContributorsBoepple, Brandon (Author) / Emady, Heather (Thesis advisor) / Muhich, Christopher (Committee member) / Holloway, Julianne (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019
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Description
Excessive weight gain during pregnancy is a significant public health concern and has been the recent focus of novel, control systems-based interventions. Healthy Mom Zone (HMZ) is an intervention study that aims to develop and validate an individually tailored and intensively adaptive intervention to manage weight gain for overweight or

Excessive weight gain during pregnancy is a significant public health concern and has been the recent focus of novel, control systems-based interventions. Healthy Mom Zone (HMZ) is an intervention study that aims to develop and validate an individually tailored and intensively adaptive intervention to manage weight gain for overweight or obese pregnant women using control engineering approaches. Motivated by the needs of the HMZ, this dissertation presents how to use system identification and state estimation techniques to assist in dynamical systems modeling and further enhance the performance of the closed-loop control system for interventions.

Underreporting of energy intake (EI) has been found to be an important consideration that interferes with accurate weight control assessment and the effective use of energy balance (EB) models in an intervention setting. To better understand underreporting, a variety of estimation approaches are developed; these include back-calculating energy intake from a closed-form of the EB model, a Kalman-filter based algorithm for recursive estimation from randomly intermittent measurements in real time, and two semi-physical identification approaches that can parameterize the extent of systematic underreporting with global/local modeling techniques. Each approach is analyzed with intervention participant data and demonstrates potential of promoting the success of weight control.

In addition, substantial efforts have been devoted to develop participant-validated models and incorporate into the Hybrid Model Predictive Control (HMPC) framework for closed-loop interventions. System identification analyses from Phase I led to modifications of the measurement protocols for Phase II, from which longer and more informative data sets were collected. Participant-validated models obtained from Phase II data significantly increase predictive ability for individual behaviors and provide reliable open-loop dynamic information for HMPC implementation. The HMPC algorithm that assigns optimized dosages in response to participant real time intervention outcomes relies on a Mixed Logical Dynamical framework which can address the categorical nature of dosage components, and translates sequential decision rules and other clinical considerations into mixed-integer linear constraints. The performance of the HMPC decision algorithm was tested with participant-validated models, with the results indicating that HMPC is superior to "IF-THEN" decision rules.
ContributorsGuo, Penghong (Author) / Rivera, Daniel E. (Thesis advisor) / Peet, Matthew M. (Committee member) / Forzani, Erica (Committee member) / Deng, Shuguang (Committee member) / Pavlic, Theodore P. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
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Description
In Nepal, a viable solution for environmental management, food and water security is the production of biochar, a carbon material made of plants burned in low oxygen conditions. Currently, the biochar is manufactured into charcoal briquettes and sold on the market for energy usage, however this may not provide the

In Nepal, a viable solution for environmental management, food and water security is the production of biochar, a carbon material made of plants burned in low oxygen conditions. Currently, the biochar is manufactured into charcoal briquettes and sold on the market for energy usage, however this may not provide the best value for community members who make less than a dollar a day and sell the biochar for as little as 16 cents per kilogram. This thesis seeks to improve the price of biochar and help their livelihoods as well as explore innovative solutions. One way to improve biochar while addressing water security problems is to create activated carbon, which uses its heightened porosity to adsorb contaminants from water or air. Activated carbon is also worth 100x the price of biochar. This thesis evaluates the mass content of biochar produced in Nepal, comparing it to literature values, and performed gravimetric and thermogravimetric analysis, comparing it to Activated Charcoal. Analysis of the biochar system used in Nepal reveals that the byproduct of biochar, biofuels, is highly underutilized. The higher heating value of biochar is 17.95 MJ/kg, which is much lower than other charcoals which burn around 30 MJ/kg. Low volatile content, less than 5% in biochar, provides a smokeless briquette, which is favorable on the market, however low heating value and misutilizations of biofuels in the solution indicate that creating a briquette is not the best use for biochar. Ash content is really high in this biochar, averaging around 12% and it may be due to the feedstock, a composite between Mikania and Lantana, which have 5.23% and 10.77% ash content respectively. This does not necessarily indicate a poor quality biochar, since ash values can vary widely between charcoals. Producing activated charcoal from this biochar is a favored solution; it will increase the price of the biochar, provide water security solutions, and be an appropriate process for this biochar, where heating value and underutilization of biofuel byproducts pose a problem.
ContributorsCayer, Joelle Marie Caroline (Author) / Chhetri, Netra (Thesis director) / Henderson, Mark (Committee member) / Deng, Shuguang (Committee member) / Chemical Engineering Program (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05