Energy efficient appliances and devices are becoming increasingly necessary as emissions from electricity production continue to increase the severity of global warming. Many of such appliances have not been substantially redesigned since their creation in the early 1900s. One device in particular which has arguably changed the least and consumes the most energy during use is the electric clothes dryer. The common form of this technology in the United States relies on the generation of thermal energy by passing electrical current through a metal. The resulting heat causes liquid within the clothing to evaporate where humid air is ejected from the control volume. While the conversion of energy from electrical to thermal through a heating element is efficient, the drying characteristics of fabrics in a warm humid environment are not, and much of the heat inside of the dryer does not perform work efficiently. In 2016, researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Knoxville, Tennessee, proposed an alternative mechanic for the drying of clothes which circumvents the need for thermal energy. This method is called direct-contact ultrasonic clothes drying, utilizing atomization through direct mechanical coupling between mesh piezoelectric transducers and wet fabric. During the atomization process, vertical oscillations of a contained liquid, called Faraday excitations, result in the formation of standing waves on the liquid surface. At increasing amplitudes and frequencies of oscillation, wave peaks become extended and form "necks" connecting small secondary droplets to the bulk liquid. When the oscillation reaches an acceleration threshold, the droplet momentum is sufficient to break the surface tension of the neck and enable the droplets to travel away from the liquid. For smaller drops where surface tension is high, a larger magnitude of acceleration is needed to reach the critical neck lengths necessary for droplet ejection. The various pore sizes within the many fabrics comprising our clothing results in many sizes of droplets retained by the fabric, affecting the rate of atomization due to the differences in surface tension. In this study, we will investigate the physical processes related to the direct contact ultrasonic drying process. Beginning with the electrical actuation of the transducer used in the world's first prototype dryer, we will develop an electromechanical model for predicting the resulting deformation. Various considerations for the material properties and geometry of the transducer will be made for optimizing the output acceleration of the device. Next, the drying rates of fabrics in contact with the transducer will be modeled for identification of parameters which will facilitate timely and energy efficient drying. This task will identify the first ever mechanically coupled drying equation for fabrics in contact with ultrasonic vibrations. The ejection rate of the water atomized by the transducer and passed through microchannels to facilitate drying will then be physically investigated to determine characteristics which may improve mass transport. Finally, future considerations and recommendations for the development of ultrasonic drying will be made as a result of the insight gained by this investigation. / Doctor of Philosophy / Energy efficient appliances and devices are becoming increasingly necessary as emissions from electricity production continue to increase the severity of global warming. Many of such appliances have not been substantially redesigned since their creation in the early 1900s. One device in particular which has arguably changed the least and consumes the most energy during use is the electric clothes dryer. The common form of this technology in the United States relies on the generation of thermal energy by passing electrical current through a metal. The resulting heat causes liquid within the clothing to evaporate where the humid air is ejected from the control volume. While the conversion of energy from electrical to thermal through a heating element is efficient, the drying characteristics of fabrics in a warm humid environment are not, and much of the heat inside of the volume does not perform drying as efficiently as possible. In 2016, researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Knoxville, Tennessee, proposed an alternative mechanism for the drying of clothes which circumvents the need for thermal energy. This method is called direct-contact ultrasonic clothes drying, and utilizes a vibrating disk made of piezoelectric and metal materials to physically turn the water retained in clothing into a mist, which can be vented away leaving behind dry fabric. This method results in the water leaving the fabric at room temperature, rather than being heated, which bypasses the need for a substantial amount of energy to convert from the liquid to gas phase. The first ever prototype dryer shows the potential of being twice as efficient as conventional dryers. This investigation is based around improving the device atomizing the water within the clothing, as well as understanding physical processes behind the ultrasonic drying process. These tasks will be conducted through experimental measurements and mathematical models to predict the behavior of the atomizing device, as well as computer software for both the parameters experimentally measured, and items which cannot be measured such as the flow in very small channels. The conclusions of this study will be recommendations for the future development of direct contact ultrasonic drying technology.

The mature textile industry coupled with our familiarity and comfort level with fabrics and the possibility of seamless integration of electronic components such as sensors, processors, and power sources in the fabric opens up a new dimension of computing. The electronic textile presents a suitable substrate over which numerous applications can be developed. Location awareness is one such application that can reap the benefits of e-textiles such that it can be widely deployed at a reasonable cost for assisting visually impaired people or to provide navigational help during emergency situations. This thesis describes an autonomous, wearable location awareness system that will determine a user's location within a building given a map of that building. The thesis examines the issues, constraints, and challenges concerning the design of such a system. The two-part location awareness algorithm computes the location and orientation within a room as well as determines the user's movement between rooms. The efficacy of the proposed system is demonstrated with a wearable prototype. / Master of Science

This report describes the results of computerized ultrasonic C-scanning of solid steel bridge pins using a raytrace model. The raytrace model was developed to facilitate interpretation of data obtained from an ultrasonic C-scanning system for the Virginia Transportation Research Council (VTRC). The report discusses the reasons behind the development of the raytrace model, as well as specifications of the model, the input conditions, and the data output and visualization. The model uses as input, various "boundary" conditions of the solid steel pin with reduced diameter pin ends, as well as size and location information of a flaw or a wear groove placed within the main pin body. The model considers sound beams to be composed of rays and calculates ray reflections/conversions. This is done until the ray returns to a receiver location or is lost due to exceeding the time-of-flight. Once the model has returned with the received ray data, it uses the receiver conditions provided (transducer used, size of scanning grid, grid resolution, etc.), and calculates a 2-Dimensional C-scan image for each particular depth/time selected. Using PV-Wave visualization software, it is possible to plot the values for each depth to view a color graph. This graphical plot can then be analyzed/compared with the field C-scans to determine the closest match of a flaw or a wear groove inside the bridge pin. This helps in deciding if the condition of the pin is acceptable. / Master of Science

The performance advances of radar-guided missiles have created a need for radome materials with improved strength, toughness, and thermal shock capabilities. Zirconium phosphate bonded silicon nitride (Zr-PBSN), which has a low and thermally stable dielectric constant, high rain erosion resistance and a low-cost processing method, has been developed for radome applications in advanced tactical missiles. Pressureless sintering reduces processing costs, but is untried for radome manufacturing. The tendency for catastrophic failure requires that each radome fabricated with this material/method be inspected for defects prior to use. Visible, thermographic and ultrasonic nondestructive evaluation (NDE) methods have been tested with Zr-PBSN discs containing fabricated flaws likely to be present in a radome. Ultrasonic C-scanning using a 0.25" diameter, 15 MHz focused transducer with a pulse-echo configuration was clearly superior at detecting cracks, delaminations, impurities, voids and porosity variation. A method for determining local porosity via the longitudinal elastic wave velocity was developed and can be incorporated into an ultrasonic scanning system. A system that uses a computer to perform all motion control, data acquisition, and data manipulation, but requiring a skilled operator for scan setup and interpretation of the data has been proposed. / Master of Science

The accurate measurement of multiphase flows of oil/water/gas is a critical element of oil exploration and production. Thus, over the last three decades; the development and deployment of in-line multiphase flow metering systems has been a major focus worldwide. Accurate measurement of multiphase flow in the oil and gas industry is difficult because there is a wide range of flow regimes and multiphase meters do not generally perform well under the intermittent slug flow conditions which commonly occur in oil production. This thesis investigates the use of Doppler and cross-correlation ultrasonic measurements made in different high gas void fraction flow, partially separated liquid and gas flows, and homogeneous flow and raw slug flow, to assess the accuracy of measurement in these regimes. This approach has been tested on water/air flows in a 50mm diameter pipe facility. The system employs a partial gas/liquid separation and homogenisation using a T-Y junction configuration. A combination of ultrasonic measurement techniques was used to measure flow velocities and conductivity rings to measure the gas fraction. In the partially separated regime, ultrasonic cross-correlation and conductivity rings are used to measure the liquid flow-rate. In the homogeneous flow, a clamp-on ultrasonic Doppler meter is used to measure the homogeneous velocity and combined with conductivity ring measurements to provide measurement of the liquid and gas flow-rates. The slug flow regime measurements employ the raw Doppler shift data from the ultrasonic Doppler flowmeter, together with the slug flow closure equation and combined with gas fraction obtained by conductivity rings, to determine the liquid and gas flow-rates. Measurements were made with liquid velocities from 1.0m/s to 2.0m/s with gas void fractions up to 60%. Using these techniques the accuracies of the liquid flow-rate measurement in the partially separated, homogeneous and slug regimes were 10%, 10% and 15% respectively. The accuracy of the gas flow-rate in both the homogeneous and raw slug regimes was 10%. The method offers the possibility of further improvement in the accuracy by combining measurement from different regimes.

Diagnoses using images made with non-ionizing ultrasound are based on qualitive criteria and are not more accurate than those made with mammography. Information about tissue state is lost in the processing required to produce ultrasound images, and textural information may not be perceptible to a human observer. This study uses statistical pattern recognition to classify ultrasound A-scans, before any processing other than amplification occurs. A U. I. Octoson was used to collect data from normal, benign, and malignant, in vivo breast tissues. Features based on textural or frequency content of received sound were computed from digitized A-scans. Most textural features have been used previously in image processing, while frequency features assumed differences in frequency-dependent attenuation. Data were collected at the University of Arizona from 17 malignant masses, 8 benign masses, and 7 normal tissues. Univariate and multivariate statistical tests were used to find combinations of features which discriminated best between the classes of tissue. Equal a priori probabilities were used in a Bayesian classifier to classify malignant vs. nonmalignant. Specificity of 76% (13 of 17 malignant masses correct) was found with a sensitivity of 80% (12 of 15 masses correct). A linear combination of one frequency feature and three textural features was used. For malignant vs. benign, sensitivity of 88% (15 of 17 masses) and specificity of 75% (6 of 8 masses) were found. Features used were the same as for classification of malignant vs. nonmalignant, except for modification of one textural feature. The inability to visually detect and gather data from some palpable masses means that further study is needed to determine the effectiveness of applying the method to all breast masses. A set of A-scans from Thomas Jefferson Hospital in Philadelphia was gathered using similar procedures, and analysed with the following results: 18 of 21 (86%) malignant masses, and 45 of 66 (68%) nonmalignant masses were classified correctly, using a linear combination of one textural feature and five frequency features. Confidence limits on the results show that the majority of masses can be classified correctly with this procedure, but success rates are not high enough for breast cancer screening.

No description available.

No description available.

A series of experimental studies was performed to investigate two separate fluid impingement flow systems intended for removal of particles from a surface or deposition of particles onto a surface. One of these flow systems is generated using a nozzle that incorporates both tilted jets and suction to create what we call a "bounded vortex flow", consisting of an annular swirling jet and a wall-normal vortex with axial upflow into a suction outlet. The other flow system is generated by a combination of acoustic streaming and substrate heating from an ultrasonic source. The primary methods used in the study for flow field measurements included laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) and particle-image velocimetry (PIV). Thermocouples are utilized for gathering temperature information from the ultrasonic induced flow. For the bounded vortex flow, different jet/suction flow rates and different nozzle-substrate separation distances were examined. In the acoustic-generated flow system, different acoustic intensities and transducer-substrate separation distances and different choices of substrate material were examined. Both flow systems achieve high levels of shear stress on the impingement surface via a combination of flow oriented toward and/or away from the surface and via formation of vortex structures near the impingement surface. In the bounded flow configuration, the vortex flow is oriented with axis normal to the impingement surface, whereas in the acoustic-generated flow a series of vortex rings form with axes parallel to the impingement surface. For both flow fields, conditions are observed with high impingement surface shear stress that are well suited to particle removal from the impingement surface. However, as the variables controlling the flows are varied, other conditions are observed in which the flow fields become unstable, leading to oscillatory flows that generally have much smaller shear stress values on the impingement surface. The rate of fluid mixing, as characterized by upward and downward flows normal to the impingement surface, is also generally decreased after these flow transitions have occurred, implying that the unstable flows will be less suited for both particle deposition on and particle removal from the impingement surface.

Non-Destructive Testing of industrial components carries vital importance, both financially and safety-wise. Among all Non-Destructive techniques, Long Range Ultrasonic Testing utilizing the guided wave phenomena is a young technology proven to be commercially valid. Owing to its well-documented analytical models, Ultrasonic Guided Waves has been successfully applied to cylindrical and plate-like structures. Its applications to complex structures such as multi-wire cables are fairly immature, mainly due to the high complexity of wave propagation. Research performed by the author approaches the long range inspection of overhead transmission line cables using ultrasonic guided waves. Existing studies focusing on guided wave application on power cables are extremely limited in inspection range, which dramatically degrades its chances of commercialization. This thesis consists of three main chapters, all of which approaches different problems associated with the inspection of power cables. In the first chapter, a thorough analysis of wave propagation in ACSR (most widely used power cable) cables is conducted. It is shown that high frequency guided waves, by concentrating the energy on the surface layers, can travel much further in the form of fundamental longitudinal wave mode, than previous studies have shown. Defect detection studies proved the system’s capability of detecting defects which introduce either increase or decrease in cross sectional area of the cable. Results of the chapter indicate the detectability of defects as small as 4.5% of the cross sectional area through a 26.5 meter long cable without any post-processing. In the second chapter, several algorithms are proposed to increase the inspection range and signal quality. Well-documented wavelet-denoising algorithm is optimized for power cables and up to 24% signal-to-noise ratio improvement is achieved. By introducing an attenuation correction framework, a theoretical inspection range of 75 meters is presented. A new framework combining dispersion compensation and attenuation correction is proposed and verified, which shows an inspection range of 130 meters and SNR improvement up to 8 dBs. Last chapter addresses the accurate localization of structural defects. Having proven the optimum excitation and related wave propagation in ACSR cables, a system having a more complex wave propagation characteristics is studied. A new algorithm combining pulse compression using Maximal Length Sequences and dispersion compensation is applied to multi-modal signals obtained from a solid aluminum rod. The algorithm proved to be able to improve signal quality and extract an accurate location for defects. Maximal Length Sequences are compared to chirp signals in terms of SNR improvement and localization, which produced favourable results for MLS in terms of localization and for chirp in terms of SNR improvement.