The fow around bluff bodies is an essential topic in fuid dynamics. This fow is characterized by large vortical fow regions separating from the surface of the bluff body, and they cause oscillating drag and lift forces on the structure. The fow around an infinite long cylinder is a well-known case being studied in the literature. However, a cylinder with low aspect-ratio piercing the free surface has not been studied much although such an arrangement can be found in many floating offshore structures. In this thesis the results of CFD calculations are presented for a fixed, free surface piercing cylinder with an aspect-ratio L/D equals to 2. The Reynolds number was equal to 4:3 x 104 indicating that the flow is in the sub-critical turbulent regime. An extensive methodology of verication and validation is followed to investigate the reliability of the results. To investigate the effect of the free surface on the calculated hydrodynamic loads, two approaches have been considered: a double-body symmetry condition and an interface capturing Volume-of-Fluid (VoF) method. Additionally, two turbulence models are investigated: a two-equation turbulence model; a non-linear Explicit Algebraic Reynolds Stress Model (EARSM); and the Improved Delayed Detached Eddy Simulation (IDDES) turbulence model. The results are presented in terms of integral results (drag and lift coefficients) and flow visualizations. Based on the results of the cases in which the free surface was modeled as a double body symmetry boundary condition, it is concluded that the model is not suitable for this type of flow as the model damps out the flow dynamics due to over-production of eddy-viscosity. Hence, the characteristic oscillating lift forces are not captured using this turbulence model. However, this turbulence model showed good agreements regarding the flow fields in comparison with experimental PIV measurements. Results of the case modeled with EARSM turbulence model shows better agreement with the experimental results compared with the turbulence model. In the cases where the free-surface is considered, results with the EARSM turbulence model show similar results for the drag forces whereas the lift uctuations were one order of magnitude smaller, compared with the double body case. Lastly, the results using the IDDES turbulence model and free-surface VoF modeling are shown to produce the best comparison with the experimental results, regarding both, integral values and flow field results. / O escoamento ao redor de corpos rombudos é um tópico essencial na dinâmica de fluidos. O escoamento é caracterizado por regiões com grande vorticidade que se separam do corpo e causam oscilações das forças de arrasto e sustentação sobre a estrutura. O escoamento ao redor de cilindros longos é um tema que tem sido extensivamente estudado com muitos trabalhos encontrados na literatura. Entretanto, o cilindro com baixa razão de aspecto perfurante à superfície livre é um caso pouco estudado, apesar desta estrutura ser encontrada em várias estruturas oceânicas flutuantes. Esta dissertação apresenta cálculos numéricos para o escoamento ao redor de um cilindro fixo, que trespassa a superfície livre com razão de aspecto L/D igual a 2. O problema é estudado em um regime subcrítico de turbulência, com número de Reynolds igual a 4:3 x 104. Uma vasta metodologia de verificação e validação foi seguida para avaliar a confiabilidade dos resultados obtidos numericamente. Para investigar os efeitos da superfície livre nas cargas hidrodinâmicas, duas abordagens s~ao consideradas: condição de simetria de duplo corpo e um método de captura de interface Volume of Fluid. Além disso, dois modelos de turbulência foram investigados: o modelo não linear Explicit Algebraic Reynolds Stress Model (EARSM), e o modelo de turbulência Improved Delayed Detached Eddy Simulation (IDDES). Os resultados relacionados aos coeficientes de arrasto e sustentação são apresentados a partir de análise estatística, complementados através de ilustrações que permitem visualizar os campos de escoamento e pressão. Com base nos resultados de casos em que a superfície livre é modelada com uma condição de contorno de simetria, conclui-se que o modelo de turbulência não é adequado para este tipo de escoamento, pois o modelo amortece a dinâmica do escoamento devido à superprodução de viscosidade turbulenta. Consequentemente, as oscilações na força de sustentação não são capturadas usando este modelo. Entretanto, resultados dos campos médios do escoamento mostram-se concordantes com imagens experimentais obtidas com técnicas de PIV - Particle Image Velocimetry. Resultados do caso modelado com o modelo de turbulência EARSM mostram melhores concordâncias na comparação dos parâmetros estatísticos com experimentos do que o modelado com o modelo EARSM. Nos casos em que a superfície livre é modelada com o método VoF, o modelo de turbulência EARSM mostra resultados semelhantes para o arrasto, enquanto as flutuações da sustentação apresentam-se uma ordem de grandeza menores, quando comparadas ao caso de duplo corpo. Resultados usando o modelo de turbulência IDDES e VoF apresentam melhores comparações aos resultados experimentais, tanto para os parâmetros estatísticos quando para as visualizações do escoamento.

The goal of this project is to use inspiration acquired from bird flight to optimize the wing planform of micro-air vehicle wings. Micro-air vehicles are used by the military for surveillance and for search and rescue missions by civilian first-responders. These vehicles fly in the same low Reynolds number regime as birds, and have low aspect ratios similar to the pheasants and grouse of the order Galliformes. Conventional analysis is difficult for low Reynolds numbers, prompting use of biologically inspired methods of optimization. Genetic algorithms, which mimic the process of evolution in nature, were used to define wing shapes that were tested in wind tunnel experiments. In these experiments, lift-drag ratios at various angles of attack were measured on scale model micro-air vehicle wings (with variable length feathers) similar in shape to a bird wing. The planform shape of the scale model wing evolved in the wind tunnel flow over successive generations to ultimately produce superior wings with higher lift-drag ratios. The low angle of attack wings were easily optimized into a wing shape different from and potentially more efficient than the oft-used Zimmerman planform. The process was repeated for a higher angle of attack, near stall conditions, which yielded a different wing planform shape. Chord distributions of the optimized low angle of attack wings were found to closely match the same distributions of birds from the order Galliformes. Results from flow visualization studies meant to illuminate possible physics responsible for the higher lift-drag ratios were also investigated.

The effects of shape and relative submergence (the ratio of flow depth to obstacle height, d/H) were investigated on the wakes around four different low-aspect-ratio wall-mounted obstacles: semi-ellipsoids with the major axes of the base ellipses aligned in the streamwise and transverse directions, two cylinders with aspect ratios matching the ellipsoids. Wake structure of a fully submerged, spherical obstacle was also investigated in the same flow conditions to provide insight into the flow obstacle interaction with ramification to sediment transport. A low-aspect-ratio semi-ellipsoid was chosen as broad representative of a freshwater mussel projecting from a river bed, and a sphere was employed as representative of a boulder. Two cylinders were used due to their similarity to geometries investigated in other studies. Digital Particle Image Velocimetry and thermal anemometry were used to interrogate the flow. For ellipsoids and cylinders, streamwise features observed in the mean wake included counter-rotating distributions of vorticity inducing downwash (tip structures), upwash (base structures), and horseshoe vortices. In particular, the relatively subtle change in geometry produced by the rotation of the ellipsoid from the streamwise to the transverse orientation resulted in a striking modification of the mean streamwise vorticity distribution in the wake. Tip structures were dominant in the former case while base structures were dominant in the latter. A vortex skeleton model of the wake is proposed in which arch vortex structures, shed from the obstacle, are deformed by the competing mechanisms of Biot-Savart self-induction and the external shear flow. An inverse relationship was observed between the relative submergence and the strength of the base structures for the ellipsoids, with a dominant base structure observed for d/H = 1 in both cases. The wake of the sphere is more complex than ellipsoidal geometries. Streamwise features observed in the mean wake including tip, horseshoe structures, and weak upwash. The shedding characteristics and dynamics of the wake were examined. Weak symmetric shedding was observed in the wakes of streamwise and transverse ellipsoids at d/H = 3.9 while cross-spectral measurements confirmed downstream and upstream tilting of arch structures shed by the transverse and streamwise ellipsoids, respectively. Much weaker peaks in the power spectrum were observed for low- and high-aspect-ratio cylinders. While the dominant Strouhal number remained constant as the relative submergence was reduced to d/H = 2.5 for the ellipsoids, it increased abruptly at d/H = 1 and transitioned to an antisymmetric mode. For sphere geometry at d/H = 3.9, a weak dominant frequency was observed close to obstacle junction and the cross-correlation function for symmetric measurements in the wake indicates symmetric shedding. These results demonstrate a means by which to achieve significant modifications to flow structure and transport mechanisms in the flow.

Metal nanoparticles have unique optical, electrical, catalytic and mechanical properties, which lead them to various applications in nanotechnology. In particular, noble metal nanowires are attracting growing attention due to their potential applications such as in opto-electronic devices and transparent conductive contacts (TCCs). There are two general approaches to synthesize nanowires: template-assisted and solution phase methods. However, these synthesis approaches have various disadvantages. For example, removal of the template to ensure the purity of the synthesized nanowires is the major problem. In solution methods like the widely used &ldquo / seed mediated growth method&rdquo / , nanowires are synthesized in low yield with the significant amount of by-products and requirement of purification is a major problem for further applications. Among all solution based methods, hydrothermal process is a very promising way of preparing gold (Au) nanowires in high yield and structural purity. In this thesis, hydrothermal process was modified to synthesize high aspect ratio Au nanowires with high morphological purity. Parametric study was performed to examine the effect of surfactant concentration, reaction time and temperature on the quality of products. The optimum conditions were determined for two different surfactant molecules (hexamethylenetetramine (HMTA) and ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (Na2-EDTA)). Characterization of the products was done by detailed analysis via scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), energy-dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), X-Ray diffraction (XRD) and X-Ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The analyses demonstrated that the Au nanowires synthesized at optimum conditions have high aspect ratio (diameters 50-110 nm range and lengths in micrometer range) and high structural purity.

Monolithic materials are not meeting the increasing demand for flexible, lightweight and compact high energy density dielectrics. This limitation in performance is due to the trade-off between dielectric constant and dielectric breakdown. Insulating polymers are of interest owing to their high inherent electrical resistance, low dielectric loss, flexibility, light weight, and low cost; however, capacitors produced with dielectric polymers are limited to an energy density of ~1-2 J/cc. Polymer nanocomposites, i.e., high dielectric particles embedded into a high dielectric breakdown polymer, are promising candidates to overcome the limitations of monolithic materials for energy storage applications. The main objective of this dissertation is to simultaneously increase the dielectric permittivity and dielectric breakdown without increasing the loss, resulting in a significant enhancement in the energy density over the unmodified polymer. The key is maintaining a low volume content to ensure a high inter-particle distance, effectively minimizing the effect of local field on the composite's dielectric breakdown. The first step is studying the particle size and aspect ratio effects on the dielectric properties to ensure a judicious choice in order to obtain the highest enhancement. The best results, as a combination of dielectric constant, loss and dielectric breakdown, were with the particles with the highest aspect ratio. Further improvement in the dielectric behavior is observed when the nanoparticles surface is chemically tailored to tune transport properties. The particles treatment leads to better dispersion, planar distribution and stronger interaction with the polymer matrix. The planar distribution of the high aspect ratio particles is essential to limit the enhancement of local fields, where minimum local fields result in higher dielectric breakdown in the composite. The most significant improvement in the dielectric properties is achieved with chemically-treated nano TiO2 with an aspect ratio of 14 at a low 4.6 vol% loading, where the energy density increased by 500% compared to pure PVDF. At this loading, simultaneous enhancement in the dielectric constant and dielectric breakdown occurs while the dielectric loss remains in the same range as that of the pristine polymer.

The objective of this thesis is to develop high dielectric constant nanoparticle dispersion for switchable aircraft antenna systems. Two steps were designed to achieve the objective. First, obtain high dielectric, high aspect ratio nanoparticles and disperse them in dielectric oil medium. Second, manipulate the particle-oil dispersion using an external alternating current (AC) electric field to increase the effective dielectric constant. In order to obtain high dielectric dispersions, different sizes and shapes of titanium dioxide (TiO2) and barium titanate (BaTiO3) nanoparticles were purchased and measured. However, after a number of experiments detailed in the thesis, it was found that none of the commercially available nanoparticles could satisfy our requirements for a minimum effective dielectric constant. Thus, to achieve the goals above, we synthesized high aspect ratio BaTiO3 nanowires with BaC2O4 and TiO2 powders as precursors using a molten salt method. The as-synthesized BaTiO3 nanowires were characterized using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) mapping. The nanowires have a diameter ranging from 100 nm to 300 nm, and their lengths range from 1.5 micrometers to 5 micrometers. Mechanical stirring and bath sonication were used to obtain even colloidal dispersions. Different concentrations of BaTiO3 nanoparticles well dispersed in the oil medium were successfully manipulated using AC electric field. To monitor the change in microstructure of BaTiO3 nanoparticles, optical microscopy was used to observe the alignment of particles in the sample under the applied electric field. Various parameters including the magnitude, frequency, and duration of the electric field, and the concentration of BaTiO3 nanoparticles were investigated to achieve the optimal alignment of nanoparticles. The experimental results were validated by theoretical analysis using Maxwell-Garnett mixing rule. It was demonstrated that the effective dielectric constant of the colloidal dispersions would increase with the increase of the magnitude, frequency and duration of applied electric field. Synthesized BaTiO3 nanowire-based dispersions exhibit significant enhancement of the effective dielectric constant compared to other colloidal materials. The effective dielectric constant of 5 wt percent BaTiO3-oil dispersions could reach up to 10 when aligned at 1000 V/mm electric field at 1 kHz frequency for 1 hour.

There are a significant number of microwave applications, including active antenna arrays, wireless communication systems, navigational applications, etc., where improvement of such qualities as manufacturing costs, size, weight, power consumption, etc. is still on the agenda of todays RF design. In order to meet these requirements, new technologies must be actively involved in fabrication of RF components with improved characteristics. One of such fabrication technologies is called LIGA, used before primarily in fluidics, photonics, bioengineering, and micromechanics, and only recently receiving growing attention in RF component fabrication. One of the RF components suffering limitations in performance due to limitations in fabrication capabilities is the compact single metal layer (SML) coupled-line 3-dB coupler, also called hybrid, required in some applications thanks to its ability to divide power equally and electrically isolate the output from the input. In todays practical edge-coupled SML coupler designs, the level of coupling is limited by the capabilities of the photolithographic process to print the coupled lines close enough for tight coupling and it is usually no tighter that 8 dB. A promising way to overcome this limitation is increasing the area of metallic interface of the coupled lines, thus increasing the mutual capacitance of the lines, and inherently the coupling between them. This should be preferably done with keeping the coupler compact with respect to the footprint area, which is attained by making taller conductors, i.e. employing the third dimension. In contrast with previously used RF component fabrication processes, LIGA is the technology that allows the designer to explore the third dimension and build tall conductors while being also able to use small features. When the two-dimensional edge-coupled SML couplers are extended into the three-dimensional structures, they rather become the side-coupled SML couplers. Tall-conductor coupled lines have been characterized in this work to reveal their dependence on their geometry and a 3-dB SML coupler with tall conductors has been developed and fabricated using LIGA at the Institute for Microstructure Technology (IMT), Karlsruhe, Germany. The simulation and measurement results demonstrate the potentially superior performance of LIGA couplers, and the promising capabilities of LIGA for fabrication of RF microstructures.

There are a significant number of microwave applications, including active antenna arrays, wireless communication systems, navigational applications, etc., where improvement of such qualities as manufacturing costs, size, weight, power consumption, etc. is still on the agenda of todays RF design. In order to meet these requirements, new technologies must be actively involved in fabrication of RF components with improved characteristics. One of such fabrication technologies is called LIGA, used before primarily in fluidics, photonics, bioengineering, and micromechanics, and only recently receiving growing attention in RF component fabrication. One of the RF components suffering limitations in performance due to limitations in fabrication capabilities is the compact single metal layer (SML) coupled-line 3-dB coupler, also called hybrid, required in some applications thanks to its ability to divide power equally and electrically isolate the output from the input. In todays practical edge-coupled SML coupler designs, the level of coupling is limited by the capabilities of the photolithographic process to print the coupled lines close enough for tight coupling and it is usually no tighter that 8 dB. A promising way to overcome this limitation is increasing the area of metallic interface of the coupled lines, thus increasing the mutual capacitance of the lines, and inherently the coupling between them. This should be preferably done with keeping the coupler compact with respect to the footprint area, which is attained by making taller conductors, i.e. employing the third dimension. In contrast with previously used RF component fabrication processes, LIGA is the technology that allows the designer to explore the third dimension and build tall conductors while being also able to use small features. When the two-dimensional edge-coupled SML couplers are extended into the three-dimensional structures, they rather become the side-coupled SML couplers. Tall-conductor coupled lines have been characterized in this work to reveal their dependence on their geometry and a 3-dB SML coupler with tall conductors has been developed and fabricated using LIGA at the Institute for Microstructure Technology (IMT), Karlsruhe, Germany. The simulation and measurement results demonstrate the potentially superior performance of LIGA couplers, and the promising capabilities of LIGA for fabrication of RF microstructures.

The main components of the vibration-based microgenerator incorporate vibratile structure, magnetic thin film, and coils. In this thesis work, bulk-micromachining technology and laser-micromachining technology were used to fabricate the vibratile structure of the microgenerator. And this is the beginning of the development of the microgenerator. Bulk-micromachining technology was widely used in micro-electromechanical system (MEMS). The most advantage of the technology is that it can be integrated with IC process in the future. And the roughness of the wafer is the key point of the etching process. In addition, 355nm UV Nd:YAG laser was also used to fabricate the vibratile structure. The period of fabricating prototype can be shortened by laser-micromachining. In laser-micromachining system, the dual-prism was used to change the direction of the laser beam by adjusting the initial phase of one of the prisms. When the laser beam moves relatively to workstation, the cutting process can be proceeded. By this system, the cutting linewidth is controllable. This technology has be used to fabricate the microstructure successfully, and the aspect ratio is up to 10, and the feature size is 50µm. Circular spiral spring structure was fabricated successfully, and it is to be the vibratile structure of the microgenerator. Finite element software ANSYS was used to simulate the dynamic characterization of the vibratile structure and the vibration testing experiment was carried out. The result shows that the experimental resonant frequency is very close to the simulative resonant frequency. So this vibratile structure can be used in microgenerator.

Polycondensation reaction was carried out for synthesizing rigid-rod polymer hPBI. Various molar ratios (50:1, 25:1, and 15:1) of 2-hydroterephthalic acid and 5-hydroisophthalic acid were also introduced in the synthesis for articulated rigid-rod polymer a-hPBI. The polymers were further derivatized with 1,3-propanesulton for pendants of lithium ionomer to become water soluble polyelectrolytes hPBI-PS(Li+) and a-hPBI-PS(Li+), respectively. Lithium salt doped cast film of the rigid-rod polyelectrolyte hPBI-PS(Li+) showed a room-temperature DC conductivity parallel to film surface as high as 4.02¡Ñ10-3 S/cm. Molecular weight of the rigid-rod polyelectrolyte was low indicating a small molecular aspect ratio. In cast film, the molecules were randomly distributed and highly isotropic facilitated Li cations mobility for a high film conductivity. The conductivity was also insensitive to the anion of lithium salt. No apparent layered structure was revealed by scanning electron microscope suggesting that the cast films had near three-dimensionally isotropic structure and conductivity.