Thesis (M.S.)--Rochester Institute of Technology, 2006. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 43-44).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Idaho, 2005. / Also available online in PDF format. Abstract. "July, 2005." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 94-98).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2006. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

This thesis presents the results of research on sandwich panel construction, with the aims of developing tools for modelling sandwich panel fire performance and hence to use the tools to aid the development of sandwich panel construction with improved fire resistance. The research focuses on sandwich panels made of thin steel sheeting and a polyisocyanurate (PIR) foam core. For non-loadbearing sandwich panel construction, fire resistance is measured in terms of thermal insulation and integrity only. However, these two parameters are affected by mechanical performance of sandwich panel construction due to the high distortion and large deformation nature of sandwich panel construction under fire attack. Therefore, it is necessary to consider both thermal and mechanical performances of sandwich panels under fire conditions. The work in this thesis includes development of a thermal conductivity model for PIR foam as this thermal property is one of the key values in determining heat transfer through sandwich panels; this thermal conductivity model is based on the effective thermal conductivity of porous foams proposed by Glicksman (1994) and includes the effects of polymer decomposition and increases in foam cell size. It is validated against fire tests carried out on PIR sandwich panels 80mm and 100mm thick with steel facings of thickness 0.5mm. A large 3D sequentially coupled thermal-stress model of a full scale fire test has been developed in the commercial finite element analysis (FEA) software ABAQUS to provide insight into the way sandwich panels behave in a fire resistance test and also to assess different modelling techniques. Aspects and stages of the simulation that agree well with test data are explained. Limitations of the ABAQUS software for simulating sandwich panel fire tests are highlighted; namely, it is not possible to simulate the correct radiation heat transfer through panel joints, as cavity radiation cannot be specified in a fully coupled thermal-stress analysis. Joints are key components of sandwich panel construction. In order to obtain temperature development data for modelling joints, a number of fire tests have been carried out. These fire tests were conducted with different joint configurations and panel thicknesses under realistic fire conditions using timber cribs. The joint fire tests revealed significant ablation of the foam core within the joints of sandwich panels at high temperatures. At the beginning of fire exposure, the joint temperature on the unexposed surface was lower than that on the panel due to the better insulation property of air compared to the foam. However, as the joint gap increased due to ablation of the foam, the joint temperatures became higher than in the panel. A numerical simulation model has been created to investigate this behaviour. Using the aforementioned thermal model, numerical simulations have been carried out to examine the influences of possible changes to sandwich panel design on sandwich panel construction fire performance. It was suggested that if the maximum gap in the joints can be limited to 5mm, for example, by applying intumescent coating strips within the sandwich panel joints to counter the increasing gap formed due to core ablation, then the joint temperature on the unexposed surface would not exceed that of the panel surface, hence the joint would cease to be the weak link. To increase the panel fire resistance, the use of graphite particles in the PIR foam formulation may be considered to lower the contribution of radiative heat transfer within the foam cells by reducing the transmissivity of the cell walls. Graphite particles may offer considerable increases in the thermal resistance of PIR foam at high temperatures by limiting the radiation contribution which dominates heat transfer above 300oC.

A systematic study has been made of the electrical conduction processes through electrically etched porous silicon (PS) films sandwiched between two metal electrodes. The PS layers were formed by anodisation of p-type silicon wafers in a hydrofluoric (HF) acid solution. The effect of fabrication conditions on the structural and electrical properties of PS have been investigated. The thickness of PS layers was found to depend on the anodisation time, whereas porosity was regarded to be controlled by the current density and HF acid concentration. The dark current-voltage I(V) characteristics at fixed temperature and the variation of current as a function of temperature have been established. The characteristics for all devices, regardless the metal contact, show a rectifying behaviour with ideality factor close to unity. It was found that PS films fabricated from p-type silicon substrates behave like n-type silicon due to the depletion of electronic holes. The results suggest that a pn heterojunction between PS and p-Si is responsible for the rectifying behaviour. A value of 0.7 eV was obtained for the barrier height at the interface between PS and p-Si at room temperature. The barrier height was found to increase with rising temperature. Recombination conduction process was found to be dominant at low temperatures as the activation energy did not exceed 0.22 eV. At high temperatures, thermionic emission diffusion process was found to be responsible for the current transport in the PS structures. A band model was proposed for metal/PS/p-Si/metal structures in order to explain the observed characteristics. A.c. dark current measurements revealed that the a.c. conductivity varies as ws where w is the angular frequency and s' is an index which depends on temperature and having a value less than unity. A.c. activation energy was interpreted in terms of hopping conduction at low temperatures (less than 200 K) and diffusion transport of charge carriers through PS layers at higher temperatures. Measurements of capacitance as a function of frequency and temperature showed a decrease with increasing frequency and increase with increasing temperature. The photoconduction behaviour of PS was characterised by high dark resistivity, a clear photosensitivity for visible light, and a bias voltage dependence of the spectral response.

Graphene is a single atomic sheet of graphite that exhibits a diverse range of unique properties. The electrons in intrinsic graphene behave like relativistic Dirac fermions; graphene has a record high Young's modulus but extremely low bending rigidity; and suspended graphene exhibits very high thermal conductivity. These properties are made more intriguing because with a thickness of only a single atomic layer, graphene is both especially affected by its environment and readily manipulated. In this dissertation the interaction between graphene and its environment as well as the exciting new physics realized by manipulating graphene's lattice are investigated. Lattice manipulations in the form of strain cause alterations in graphene's electrical dispersion mathematically analogous to the vector potential associated with a magnetic field. We complete the standard description of the strain-induced vector potential by explicitly including the lattice deformations and find new, leading order terms. Additionally, a strain engineered device with large, localized, plasmonically enhanced pseudomagnetic fields is proposed to couple light to pseudomagnetic fields. Accurate strain engineering requires a complete understanding of the interactions between a two dimensional material and its environment, particularly the adhesion and friction between graphene and its supporting substrate. We measure the load dependent sliding friction between mono-, bi-, and trilayer graphene and the commonly used silicon dioxide substrate by analyzing Raman spectra of circular, graphene sealed microchambers under variable external pressure. We find that the sliding friction for trilayer graphene behaves normally, scaling with the applied load, whereas the friction for monolayer and bilayer graphene is anomalous, scaling with the inverse of the strain in the graphene. Both strain and graphene's environment are expected to affect the quadratically dispersed out of plane acoustic phonon. Although this phonon is believed to provide the majority of graphene's very high thermal conductivity, its contributions have never been isolated. By measuring strain and pressure dependent thermal conductivity, we gain insight into the mechanism of graphene's thermal transport.

abstract: The current method of measuring thermal conductivity requires flat plates. For most common civil engineering materials, creating or extracting such samples is difficult. A prototype thermal conductivity experiment had been developed at Arizona State University (ASU) to test cylindrical specimens but proved difficult for repeated testing. In this study, enhancements to both testing methods were made. Additionally, test results of cylindrical testing were correlated with the results from identical materials tested by the Guarded Hot&ndashPlate; method, which uses flat plate specimens. In validating the enhancements made to the Guarded Hot&ndashPlate; and Cylindrical Specimen methods, 23 tests were ran on five different materials. The percent difference shown for the Guarded Hot&ndashPlate; method was less than 1%. This gives strong evidence that the enhanced Guarded Hot-Plate apparatus in itself is now more accurate for measuring thermal conductivity. The correlation between the thermal conductivity values of the Guarded Hot&ndashPlate; to those of the enhanced Cylindrical Specimen method was excellent. The conventional concrete mixture, due to much higher thermal conductivity values compared to the other mixtures, yielded a P&ndashvalue; of 0.600 which provided confidence in the performance of the enhanced Cylindrical Specimen Apparatus. Several recommendations were made for the future implementation of both test methods. The work in this study fulfills the research community and industry desire for a more streamlined, cost effective, and inexpensive means to determine the thermal conductivity of various civil engineering materials. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.S. Civil and Environmental Engineering 2011

Orientador: Anna Silvia Palcheco Peixoto / Banca: Roger Augusto Rodrigues / Banca: Paulo José Rocha de Albuquerque / Resumo: Os estudos de técnicos modernas na investigação geotécnica vêm avançando a cada ano com o objetivo de obter resultados mais rápidos e práticos com maior precisão. A resistividade elétrica vem ganhando atenção devido ao seu apelo ambiental, visto que, a obtenção desta medida se dá por meio da imposição de um fluxo de corrente elétrica em um dado material. Porém a interpretação dos resultados em solo tropical é dificultada pelas variáveis envolvidas, como a não saturação e os argilo-minerais. O objetivo desta dissertação de mestrado é verificar a influência que a sucção, presente em solos não saturados, têm sobre os valores de resistividade/condutividade elétrica. Também foi possível analisar as curvas de retenção de água dos solos obtidos pelas diferentes trajetórias, secagem e umedecimento, observando sua interferência nos valores de Resistividade elétrica. Essas trajetórias representam o fluxo de água no solo durante o ano, como as estações secas e úmidas. Esse estudo tem importância em regiões de clima árido e tropical em que solos têm como característica principal baixa umidade próxima à superfície, podendo sofrer ciclos alternados de secagem e umedecimento, e assim, constante mudança dos valores de sucção. Utilizaram-se três solos: areia argilosa de origem residual do Arenito Bauru, retirada do Aterro de Resíduos Sólidos de Bauru; argila arenosa residual de diabásio, proveniente do Aeroporto Estadual de Piracicaba; e uma areia fina com pouca argila, retirada do processo erosivo ao longo do córrego Água Comprida. Em cada ensaio foram obtidos: resistividade elétrica, temperatura do solo e do fluido, teor de umidade, grau de saturação e índice de vazios. Para a curva de retenção de água no solo, foi utilizado o método do Papel Filtro sob trajetóriade secagem e de umedecimento. O formato da curva de retenção depende, dentre outros fatores, do tipo de solo e do tamanho... / Mestre

In this study, highly ionic conductive solid polymer electrolytes have been prepared by blending high molecular weight polyethylene oxide (PEO: MW 35,000 and 100,000) and bis(trifluoromethane)sulfonamide lithium (LiTFSI) salt. The ionic conductivities were determined for several compositions of the blends at different temperatures. A maximum ionic conductivity of 9.45 x 10-6 S cm-1 at 25 °C has been obtained for the blends containing PEO-35,000/LiTFSI at an ethylene oxide to lithium salt ratio (EO/Li+) of 5, whereas a maximum ionic conductivity 7.7 x 10-6 S cm-1 at 25 °C was observed for the PEO-100,000/LiTFSI blend at EO/Li+ mole ratio of 5. For all the blends, increasing the temperature resulted in enhanced ionic conductivity. Furthermore, addition of tris(pentafluorophenyl)borane (TPFB) increased the conductivities at 25 oC. The overall conclusion of the study is that using LiTFSI and the TPFB in the blends results in ionic conductivities suitable for use in Li-air and/or Li-ion batteries.

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / Low thermal conductivity is a primary limitation in the development of energy-efficient heat transfer fluids that are required in numerous industrial sectors. Recently submicron and high aspect ratio particles (nanoparticles and nanotubes) were introduced into the heat transfer fluids to enhance the thermal conductivity of the resulting nanofluids. The aim of this project was to investigate the physico-chemical properties of nanofluids synthesized using submicron and high aspect ratio particles suspended in heat transfer fluids. / South Africa