Utilization of renewable energy sources, as an approach to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, have been globally popular in the last few decades. Among renewable energy sources, pressure retarded osmosis (PRO) has been scrutinized by scientists since the mid 70's. However, even today, the existing river-sea PRO systems can only marginally meet the generally approved criterion of 5 W/m2 power density, a threshold for an economically feasible PRO system. As an approach to increase the performance of PRO systems, multi-staging of PRO modules are investigated. A mathematical model of the scaled up PRO process is proposed with consideration for internal and external concentration polarization, reverse salt flux, and spatial variations along the membrane. A thermodynamic model is also developed with consideration for entropy generation and losses in the process. It predicts the percentile of each work loss source compared to the net work in the system. Several confi gurations of dual stage PRO system are presented and compared to single stage PRO. The comparison is based on three proposed target functions of power density (PD), specifi c energy (SE), and work per drawn freshwater (Wdrawn). Applied hydraulic pressures and flow rates of draw and feed solutions are optimized for maximizing the target functions. The results indicate that overall performance of the system could be improved by up to 8 % with a dual stage PRO in the case of SE. The system performance is not improved by depressurizing the draw solution before the second module in cases of SE and Wdrawn. The thermodynamic analysis demonstrate the contribution of each work loss and justify the reason of diminishing the net work over the losses. The effect of membrane area and membrane characteristics on the SE target function is also investigated. The distribution of membrane area in each module depends on the selected con figuration and inlet draw solution. In the dual stage systems, the SE value increases up to 14% by improving the membrane characteristics. Reducing the salt rejection coefficient (B) is the most e ective membrane characteristic in our con figurations. Replacing seawater with RO brine in draw solution results in a signifi cant improvement in SE values. / Graduate

The Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) is a powerful tool for studying structure and dynamics at the nanometer scale. Despite its wide application in many applications, the slow imaging rate of AFM remains a severe limitation. Non-raster methods seek to overcome this limitation by appealing to alternative scan patterns, either designed to be easier for the actuators to follow or to reduce the amount of sampling needed. One particular example in this latter category is the local circular scan (LCS). LCS reduces the imaging time by scanning less sample area rather than scanning faster. It drives the tip of the AFM along a circular trajectory, using feedback to center that circle on a sample edge, and moving the circle along the feature, thus concentrating the samples to the region of interest. While this approach can have a significant impact on improving the imaging rate of any AFM, its impact is further enhanced when it is combined with high speed scanners. Due to its unique scanning pattern, a high-speed, Dual-Stage Actuator (DSA) system is a natural fit. DSAs consist of the serial combination of a (relatively) low-speed, long-range piezoelectric actuator (LRA) and a high-speed, short-range piezoelectric actuator (SRA). The SRA can be dedicated to implementing the local circular motion and the LRA to tracking the underlying sample. However, the control of a DSA scanner is challenging for at least three reasons: it is a multi-input, single-output system, it is a highly resonant system due to the underlying piezoelectric actuators, and it is a high-speed system. In this thesis, we address these challenges. First, we establish the controllability and observability of a general N-stage system whose outputs are summed to produce a single signal. This property allows us to develop individual controllers for the LRA and SRA of a DSA system so that we can focus our design on the specific requirements of each component and its desired action. While we apply both a Model Predictive Control (MPC) and simple state feedback approach to the LRA, our primary focus is on the SRA element as its high speed character makes it the more challenging component. Here we turn to receding horizon Linear Quadratic Tracking (LQT) control and develop methods to implement this approach at high speed using a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA). We develop three variants of LQT that differ in the required sample rates, memory resources, and computing power. Implementing and testing all three in both simulation and on a DSA scanning stage in our lab, we compare their performance and address the practical implementation considerations under the limitations imposed by the hardware. Finally, we combine the control of the LRA and SRA in two axes to demonstrate the LCS scanning approach. Overall, this thesis achieves a practical implementation of a model-based receding LQT design on a dual-stage, high speed, highly resonant actuator system. Through both simulation and experimental results, we demonstrate that this approach is robust to modeling error and disturbances and suitable for high-speed implementation of the LCS approach to non-raster AFM. / 2023-08-29T00:00:00Z

Nanopositioners have been developed with electrostatic, piezoelectric, magnetic, thermal, and electrochemical actuators. They move with as many as six degrees of freedom; some are composed of multiple stages that stack together. Both macro-scale and micro-scale nanopositioners have been fabricated. A summary of recent research in micropositioning and nanopositioning is presented to set the background for this work. This research project demonstrates that a dual-stage nanopositioner can be created with microelectromechanical systems technology such that the two stages are integrated on a single silicon chip. A nanopositioner is presented that has two stages, one for coarse motion and one for fine motion; both are fabricated by surface micromachining. The nanopositioner has one translational degree of freedom. Thermal microactuators operate both stages. The first stage includes a bistable mechanism: it travels 52 micrometers between two discrete positions. The second stage is mounted on the first stage and moves continuously through an additional 8 micrometers in the same direction as the first stage. Two approaches to the control of the second stage are evaluated: first, an electrical input is transmitted to an actuator that moves with the first stage; second, a mechanical input is applied to an amplifier mechanism mounted on the first stage after completing the coarse motion. Four devices were designed and fabricated to test these approaches; the one that performed best was selected to fulfill the objective of this work. Thermal analysis of the actuators was performed with previously developed tools. Pseudo-rigid-body models and finite element models were created to analyze the mechanical behavior of the devices. The nanopositioners were surface micromachined in a two-layer polysilicon process. Experiments were performed to characterize the resolution, repeatability, hysteresis, and drift of the second stages of the nanopositioners with open-loop control. Position measurements were obtained from scanning electron micrographs by a numerical procedure, which is described in detail. The selected nanopositioner demonstrated 170-nanometer resolution and repeatability within 37 nanometers. The hysteresis of the second stage was 6% of its full range. The nanopositioner drifted 25 nanometers in the first 60 minutes of operation with a time constant of about 6 minutes. The dual-stage nanopositioner may be useful for applications such as variable optical attenuators or wavelength-specific add--drop devices.

While moment matching can effectively reduce the dimension of a linear, time-invariant system, it can simultaneously fail to improve the stable time-step for the forward Euler scheme. In the context of a semi-discrete heat equation with spatially smooth forcing, the high frequency modes are virtually insignificant. Eliminating such modes dramatically improves the stable time-step without sacrificing output accuracy. This is accomplished by modal filtration, whose computational cost is relatively palatable when applied following an initial reduction stage by moment matching. A bound on the norm of the difference between the transfer functions of the moment-matched system and its modally-filtered counterpart yields an intelligent choice for the mode of truncation. The dual-stage algorithm disappoints in the context of highly nonnormal semi-discrete convection-diffusion equations. There, moment matching can be ineffective in dimension reduction, precluding a cost-effective modal filtering step.