The Carbon Capture and Storage method has been acknowledged for the capabilities of reducing up to 20% CO2 emissions. Development of porous carbon materials prepared from polyurethane foam adsorbent were investigated for capture of CO2. In this thesis work, the carbon material was chemically activated through the direct and indirect methods. Pre-carbonization, mass ratio KOH/char, activation temperature, and activation time, the effect of the preparation conditions on the porous adsorbent were evaluated for the purpose of managing pore sizes and developing high adsorption capacity of CO2. During the direct method, polyurethane foam was directly treated with KOH before activation. Whereas during the indirect method, the foam was pre-carbonized to form char, which was treated instead. The indirectly and directly activated adsorbent prepared at optimum conditions show adsorption capacities of 152,10 and 151,29 mg/g at 1 atm and 25°C respectively. The produced adsorbents were evaluated for their CO2 separation performance with a thermogravimetric analyser with 100% CO2. The CO2 uptake and pore sizes were directly affected by the different parameters. A moderate activation time and temperature presented a higher adsorption capacity, where it decreased after reaching a higher time and temperature. A higher KOH/char mass ratio leads to a higher CO2 uptake, where it steadily increases from the lowest mass ratio.

In this master thesis project, attempts were made to synthesize, pore size tailor, and characterize ZIF-8 and several mixed-linker ZIF structures to improve capture of the greenhouse gasses CH4, CO2, and SF6. Three experimental linkers, 2-methylbenzimidazole, 2-aminobenzimidazole, and 5-nitrobenzimidazole were chosen to gradually substitute 2-methylimidazole as the linker in ZIF-8.  This substitution was intended to gradually reduce pore sizes and possibly adding functionality to the apertures present in ZIF-8 (three different series). The methods of synthesis were first evaluated by performance and modified. Three series of ZIF-hybrids were then synthesized and characterized using PXRD, FTIR, 1HNMR, SEM, extensive sorption measurements, and subsequent modeling to evaluate any success tailoring the hybrid ZIF apertures to increase gas sorption. After modifying synthesis conditions, the undertaking was deemed a success as all three linkers were possible to incorporate to some degree. Hybrid ZIFs were mostly XRD-crystalline. The cleaning process was deemed sufficient. Linker incorporation was not complete but increased with the added linker. Sodalite topology was confirmed in ZIF-8 samples and confirmed as modified in hybrid ZIFs. The hybrid ZIFs did indeed show altered sorption results and surprisingly promising results regarding gas selectivity (favoring sorption of one gas over that of another).

To achieve net-zero emissions by the year 2050, carbon capture, utilization and storage technologies must be implemented to decarbonize sectors with hard-to-abate emissions. Pressurized chemical looping (PCL) with a novel reactor design called a plug flow with internal recirculation (PFIR) fluidized bed reactor is proposed as an attractive carbon capture technology to decarbonize small- and medium-scale emitters. The objective of this work was to examine solid circulation rate, gas leakage between reactors, and purge gas fate in a cold flow chemical looping facility. These parameters were used to better understand the PFIR reactor and will be used to validate a computational particle fluid dynamic (CPFD) model of the PFIR reactor to inform the reactor operation and design for a hot flow PCL pilot plant. An energy balance across the fuel reactor was used to determine the solid circulation rate of the bed material, while helium and argon tracer gases were used to determine the amount of gas leaking between reactor sections and the fate of the purge gas, respectively. Statistical analyses were completed to determine the statistical significance of the data. At the base case condition, the solid circulation rate was 3000 kg/h. Approximately 10% of the fluidizing gas that entered the air reactor moved to the fuel reactor indicating that, with reacting flow, there will be nitrogen infiltrating the fuel reactor, decreasing the purity of the carbon dioxide effluent stream. Furthermore, approximately 31% of the fluidizing gas entering the fuel reactor moved to the air reactor, indicating that, with reacting flow, there will be natural gas leaking into the air reactor, which will increase carbon dioxide emissions. Finally, over half of the purge gases move to the adjacent reactor, which helps prevent gas leakage between reactor sections. The effect of static bed height, weir opening height and purge configuration on solid circulation rate, gas leakage and purge fate were investigated. The bed height has a small effect on the solid circulation rate and no effect of gas leakage, over the range of bed heights tested. Furthermore, increasing the weir opening height increases both solid circulation rate and gas leakage until the top of the circulation zone is reached. After this point, there is no change in either solid circulation rate or gas leakage. In terms of purge configuration, there appears to be no benefit for having two purge rows. Either one purge row or having a row of blanked tuyeres appear to be optimal as they decrease gas leakage, while having little effect on solid circulation rate. At the jet velocity tested, the vertical purge configuration prevented the solids from circulating, so it is not recommended for this purge configuration to be used in a PFIR reactor without further testing of different jet velocities. Across all configurations, it was shown that as more purge gas moves into the adjacent reactor section, less gas leakage between reactor sections occurs. It iii was also determined that the primary method of gas movement between the reactor sections is likely via bubbles and/or jets. The next step is to complete the validation of CPFD model of the PFIR reactor using the data presented herein. Additional conditions can also be run in the cold flow chemical looping pilot facility to fill in any gaps that are found during the CPFD model validation, or to fill in research gaps in better understanding the PFIR reactor.

3D modelling is a technology in massive demand now and can potentially become a key factor for enabling subsequent technological evolutions such as metaverses, digital twins, and virtual reality. Current 3D modellings include high-precision 3D human body modelling and rapid modelling through single or multiple monocular photos. However, some problems persist in both modellings. The modelling based on high-precision equipment has low practicability, few applicable scenarios, and high cost. Modelling through monocular photos, on the other hand, has low accuracy and is sensitive to noisy data. And both modellings generate static 3D models. Therefore, to realize the model's dynamic effect in various fields while retaining fast modelling, we propose a system that recovers a 3D model from a single photo to fuse skeleton animation extracted from videos, for a realization of the Digital Twin (DT). DT is defined as "digital replications of living as well as non-living entities that enable data to be seamlessly transmitted between the physical and virtual worlds". Rigging is setting up the skeleton-based animation to combine the 3D model and skeleton animation. Traditional rigging method is time-consuming and non-reusable, since rigging is often done manually or semi-automatically. In this thesis, we propose an automatic rigging method to achieve a loose coupling fusion of one-to-many or many-to-one 3D models and skeletal animations. Our rigging method is fast and efficient, and only needs a single photo as input.

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Product development is continually becoming more challenging as global competition requires more efficient design methods. The reuse of company knowledge, specifically the design rationale that occurs during projects is essential to success. This thesis presents a method for integrating engineering and communication tools for purposes of automating the capture of communication-based design rationale. The method is based on four basic principles: to integrate, to make data retrievable, to minimize user interaction, and to store as much DR as possible. The core method consists of two primary operations, the first being to capture the design rationale, and the second being to provide for effective retrieval. An implementation of this method that uses NX as the engineering tool and Skype VoIP software as the communication tool was created for the purpose of testing integration as a means of DR capture. The implementation was evaluated using four separate tests, which focus on efficiency of capture and retrieval, cost analysis, and user satisfaction. These results show that the tool provides improvement in each of the tested categories. From this testing I conclude that integrating communication and engineering tools is an excellent way to capture communication-based design rationale. The tool presented is more efficient than traditional methods in the test cases and provides a user-friendly solution to DR capture. This tool also has various other important applications, such as global collaboration and expectation management. It also provides an excellent framework for upcoming multi-user CAx tools.

Ever since the first use of crowds in films and videogames there has been an interest in larger, more efficient and more realistic simulations of crowds. Most crowd simulation algorithms are able to satisfy the viewer from a distance but when inspected from close up the flaws in the individual agent's movements become noticeable. One of the bigger challenges faced in crowd simulation is finding a solution that models the actual movement of an individual in a crowd. This paper simulates a more realistic crowd by using individual motion capture data as well as traditional crowd control techniques to reach an agent's desired goal. By augmenting traditional crowd control algorithms with the use of motion capture data for individual agents, we can simulate crowds that mimic more realistic crowd motion, while maintaining real-time simulation speed.

A novel anatomical behavioral descriptive taxonomy improves motion capture in complex motor stereotypies (CMS) by indexing precise time data without degradation in the complexity of whole body movement in CMS. The absence of etiological explanation of complex motor stereotypies warrants the aggregation of a core CMS dataset to compare regulation of repetitive behaviors in the time domain. A set of visual formalisms trap configurations of behavioral markers (lateralized movements) for behavioral phenotype discovery as paired transitions (from, to) and asymmetries within repetitive restrictive behaviors. This translational project integrates NIH MeSH (medical subject headings) taxonomy with direct biological interface (wearable sensors and nanoscience in vitro assays) to design the architecture for exploratory diagnostic instruments. Motion capture technology when calibrated to multi-resolution indexing system (MeSH based) quantifies potential diagnostic criteria for comparing severity of CMS within behavioral plasticity and switching (sustained repetition or cyclic repetition) time-signatures. Diagnostic instruments sensitive to high behavioral resolution promote measurement to maximize behavioral activity while minimizing biological uncertainty. A novel protocol advances CMS research through instruments with recursive design.