Category: Seminars

Mechanical Engineering – Engineering Mechanics Graduate Seminar: November 29, 2012; 4:00 – 5:00 p.m., Room 112, ME-EM Building

Professor Rafael Fierro, Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, University of New Mexico

Rafael Fierro is an Associate Professor of the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, University of New Mexico where he has been since 2007.
He received a M.Sc. degree in control engineering from the University of Bradford, England and a Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from the University of Texas-Arlington. Prior to joining UNM, he held a postdoctoral appointment with the GRASP Lab at the University of Pennsylvania (1999- 2001) and a faculty position with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Oklahoma State University (2001-2007). His research interests include nonlinear and adaptive control, robotics, hybrid systems, autonomous vehicles, and multi-agent systems. He directs the Multi-Agent, Robotics, Hybrid and Embedded Systems (MARHES) Laboratory. Rafael Fierro was the recipient of a Fulbright Scholarship, a 2004 National Science Foundation
CAREER Award, and the 2007 International Society of Automation (ISA) Transactions Best Paper Award. He is serving as Associate Editor for the IEEE Control Systems Magazine and IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering.

Title: Coordination Strategies for Robotic Networks

Advances in embedded processor and sensor technology in the last thirty years have helped accelerate interest in the field of robotics. As robots become smaller, more capable, and less expensive, there is a growing demand for teams of robots in various application domains. Robotic networks are particularly well suited to execute tasks that cover wide geographic ranges, require significant parallelization, and/or depend on capabilities that are varied in both quantity and difficulty. Example applications include littoral exploration and surveillance, rainforest health monitoring, autonomous transportation systems, warehouse automation, and hazardous waste clean-up. This talk focuses on synchronization strategies to control robotic networks. I will first discuss an adaptive binary consensus approach to decentralized coordination of nonholonomic sensor networks. I will then show that this binary consensus protocol not only improves the performance of the adaptive law but allows the compression of the date shared among the mobile sensors. Finally, I will describe our recent work on the problem of detecting changes in the topology of a robotic network through synchronization of chaotic oscillators.

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Mechanical Engineering – Engineering Mechanics Graduate Seminar: November 15, 2012; 4:00 – 5:00 p.m., Room 112, ME-EM Building

Professor Ezra Bar-Ziv, Mechanical Engineering – Engineering Mechanics, Michigan Technological University

Dr. Bar-Ziv obtained his B.Sc. degree in Physics and Chemistry from the Hebrew University, then joined Nuclear Research Center (NRCN), Israel, during which he received his Ph.D. from the Weizmann Institute of Science in 1975. At NRCN he managed large projects on energy and materials, including substantial industrial work on coal combustion. Dr. Bar-Ziv moved to Ben-Gurion University (BGU) on 1998 as a Professor and founded the Laboratory for Clean Combustion, where he carried out extensive industrial research on coal combustion and thermal processes of various wastes. Dr. Bar-Ziv founded E.B. Clean Energy for the development of biomass and MSW torrefaction technology for the power industry.

On 2011 he moved as a Professor to Michigan Tech to establish a program on biomass torrefaction and its applications to the power industry. Dr. Bar-Ziv is areas of research are: combustion and gasification of coal; biomass torrefaction; combustion and pyrolysis of thermoplastics; and clean coal combustion in utility boilers.

Title: “Biocoal: A Drop-In Fuel in Coal-fired Power Plants”

Biomass torrefaction to produce biocoal gained interest as it solves hindrances encountered when using raw biomass for power generation. Biocoal is a premium drop-in fuel in pulverized-coal boilers aimed at the reduction of greenhouse gas and other emissions. Biomass torrefaction produces a material with properties similar to coal. Because these properties can be controlled and reproduced, biocoal can be utilized as a “drop-in” fuel replacement for coal. Coal’s efficiencies and energy generation capabilities are well documented as well as its high level of greenhouse gas and other emissions. Biocoal offers many of the benefits of coal and also: (1) significant reduction of emissions (NOx, SOx, particles, mercury, CO2), (2) uses low-cost equipment, and (3) a low-cost source of renewable energy. We will present an integrated-synergistic approach that will: (1) produce the most suitable biocoal for the specific boiler; and (2) carry out comprehensive analysis and evaluation of the performance of the entire coal-fired power plants, including the combustion chamber, the steam generation elements, auxiliary and supporting equipment, and emissions. The selection of the suitable biocoal properties and the reliable analysis of the power plant performance prior to firing will reduce significantly the risks involved in fuel change in the power plant by using biocoal.

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Mechanical Engineering – Engineering Mechanics Graduate Seminar: November 8, 2012; 4:00 – 5:00 p.m., Room 112, ME-EM Building

Dr. Chong-Min Wang, Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory,
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Dr. Chongmin Wang is a senior scientist at Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory (EMSL) of Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL). He received his undergraduate education in physics and a Master degree in solid state science both from Lanzhou University in China. He received his Ph.D in Materials Science and Engineering from University of Leeds, United Kingdom in 1994. He worked at the Max-Planck-Institute for Metal Research in Stuttgart, Germany from 1994 to 1996 as an Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellow. In 1996/97, Dr. Wang worked as a research scientist at the National Institute for Research in Inorganic Materials. He was a research scientist in the Materials Research Center at Lehigh University from 1997 to 2001.

Dr. Wang joined PNNL in June 2001. He leads the EMSL’s transmission electron microscopy (TEM) facilities. Dr. Wang has expertise on the atomic level characterization/visualization of materials structure and their physical and chemical behavior. He works on correlating materials structural and functional properties with atomic and electronic structure and chemical compositions, particularly nanomaterials related to energy conversion, storage, and sustainability. Currently, Dr. Wang’s focus is on developing methods that enable in-situ atomic level observation of electrochemical process (energy conversion and storage such as lithium ion battery), and mechanical behavior (such as stress-strain, impurity/dopant segregation, grainboundary or interface mediated mass transport, and defect clustering, radiation damage) using aberration corrected HRTEM and HR-STEM. These aspects of his research provide insight for correlating properties and structure at nanometer scale under dynamic operating conditions.
He is the recipient of the Rowland Snow Award from the American Ceramic Society, the Outstanding Invention Award from the Japanese Science and Education Committee, and a R&D100 award.

Dr. Wang pioneered the concept of a nanobattery using ionic liquid and a single nanowire for insitu TEM studies. This research led to the receipt of the 2012 Microscopy Today Innovation Award of Microscopy Society of American.

Title: Nanoscale designing towards high capacity, high power rate, long cycle life, and safe operation for lithium ion battery

We use lithium ion batteries daily as they power our everyday electronics such as cell phones, laptops, cameras, tools, and electrical cars, and potentially stationary storage. However, there are fundamental challenges that need to be addressed for these applications, such as capacity, power rate, cycle life, and safe operation. A range of materials has a high theoretical capacity, but in reality, this type of material cannot be used directly due to a fast capacity fade. It is believed that the capacity fading and short cycle life of the battery using this type of materials are directly related to the overall large volume expansion and anisotropic accommodation of the volume change. I will discuss the fundamental challenges and possible ways to counter act them. In particular, I will review some of the general nanoscale designing concepts for tailoring composite materials based on silicon and carbon as anode materials for high capacity and long cycle life. For the cathode materials, doping of
transition metals has proved to be a viable way for high voltage and high capacity. However, the spatial distribution of the dopant ions appears to play a key role on the performance of the cathode materials. I will also
present recent progress on the development of in-situ TEM capabilities for probing the structural evolution of both anode and cathode materials for lithium ion battery.

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Mechanical Engineering – Engineering Mechanics Graduate Seminar: November 1, 2012; 4:00 – 5:00 p.m., Room 112, ME-EM Building

Dr. Robert F. Klie, University of Illinois at Chicago

Dr. Robert F. Klie is a widely recognized expert in Z-contrast imaging, electron energy-loss spectroscopy (EELS) and in-situ experiments. Dr. Klie is an Associate Professor in the Physics Department at the University of Illinois at Chicago, where he has pioneered the in-situ heating and cooling experiments using atomic Z-contrast imaging and EELS of oxide grain boundaries, heterogeneous catalysts, as well as semiconductor thin-films.

Dr. Klie has authored over 80 papers in peer-reviewed journals, which have been cited over 1400 times since 1998, and has an h-index of 20. As a scientist, Dr. Klie has over 10 years of experience in academic and industrial research, including his current appointment at UIC and previously Brookhaven
National Laboratory. Recently, Dr. Klie was the PI on a grant to purchase an aberration-corrected scanning transmission electron microscope (STEM), which has been installed at UIC last year. Currently, the JEOL JEMARM200CF is the highest resolution 200 kV STEM in the United States which allows for in-situ experiments, and provides 68 pm spatial, as well as 0.35 eV energy resolution.

Title: Chemical analysis with sub-Å resolution: T he power and challenges of aberration-corrected scanning transmission electron microscopy

The last few years have seen a paradigm change in (scanning) transmission electron microscopy, (S)TEM, with unprecedented improvements in both spatial and spectroscopic resolution being realized by aberration
correctors, cold-field emission guns and monochromators. The spatial resolution now extends to the subangstrom
level, while the spectroscopic resolution has reached the sub-100 meV regime. In-situ stages
have further extended the temperature range where atomic-resolution can be achieved between 10 K and
1,000 K. These instrumentation developments have brought notable successes in materials analysis, in
particular for interfacial, catalysis and thin-film studies. However, they have also challenged the established
experimental protocols and our fundamental understanding of both imaging and spectroscopy in the STEM.

In this presentation, examples of where the new instrumentation has been successfully used to address materials physics issues in nanoscale systems will be described, including magnetic transitions in oxide thin films, pn-junctions in semiconductor nanowires, and promoter diffusion in heterogeneous nanocatalysts.

Furthermore, the challenges associated with operating these new STEMs for reliable quantitative imaging and spectroscopy will be discussed. Finally, I will present a perspective on the future developments in STEM analysis.
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Mechanical Engineering – Engineering Mechanics Graduate Seminar: October 25, 2012; 4:00 – 5:00 p.m., Room 112, ME-EM Building

Professor Robert J. Santoro, the George L. Guillet Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University

Robert J. Santoro, George L. Guillet Professor of Mechanical Engineering, received his Ph.D. degree in physics from Boston College in 1975. He then joined the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Princeton University as a research engineer. In 1978, he joined the National Bureau of Standards (now the National Institute of Standards and Technology) in Washington, D.C., where he remained until 1986. At NBS, Dr. Santoro developed research efforts in the areas of particle formation in flames, laser tomography, and spray combustion research. In 1986 he joined the Pennsylvania State University as an associate professor of mechanical engineering and was promoted to full professor in 1990. In 1994, Dr. Santoro was appointed to the position of Director of the Propulsion Engineering Research Center and promoted to Distinguished Professor of Mechanical Engineering in 2000. In 2003 Dr. Santoro was named as the George L. Guillet Professor of Mechanical Engineering and elected a Fellow of the ASME. In 1985 he was awarded the U.S. Department of Commerce Silver Medal for his research in soot particle formation. Dr. Santoro is also active in the AIAA, ASME and Combustion Institute where he has organized numerous sessions for national meetings. He serves as an Associate Editor for Combustion, Science and Technology and is on the editorial advisory board of the Progress in Energy and Combustion Science. His research interests include studies of rocket propulsion, rocket-based combined cycle engines, combustion of coal-based fuel, soot formation in flames, liquid spray combustion, laser diagnostics, gas turbine combustion, combustion instability, and chemical kinetics.

Title: Soot formation studies using JP-8 and JP-8 surrogate fuels

Design methodologies for practical combustion systems using Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) tools have been a focus for fundamental and applied research for at least three decades. One of the challenges faced in developing CFD design tools lies in how to simulate the chemical kinetics of practical fuels that contain hundreds components. Consequently, development of surrogate fuels containing a small number of components that replicate the combustion of practical fuels is an active research topic. Recently, a team of researchers from Princeton University, University of Connecticut, University of Illinois at Chicago and Penn State University completed a five year study to develop a methodology for making a surrogate fuel to simulate the combustion of the current fuel used by the U.S. Air Force, JP-8. This methodology relies on matching four parameters: H/C ratio, molecular weight, derived cetane number and sooting threshold index of the practical fuel. The composition of the surrogate fuel includes several families of hydrocarbon compounds: n-alkanes, branched-chain alkanes, cycloalkanes and aromatics. Concurrently, chemical kinetic models that include oxidation chemistry for the surrogate components were developed by some of the team members. In this talk, the emphasis will be on the work done at Penn State to simulate the sooting characteristics of the surrogate fuels. In addition, the basis for the selection of four parameters used to identify suitable surrogate components and results from the chemical kinetic modeling studies will be presented.

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Mechanical Engineering – Engineering Mechanics Graduate Seminar: October 18, 2012; 4:00 – 5:00 p.m., Room 112, ME-EM Building
Dr. Arnold Lumsdaine, Fusion Energy Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Dr. Lumsdaine currently works as the Senior Research and Development Engineer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the Fusion Energy Division. He serves in a lead engineering and project management role for the design and analysis of a variety of components related to fusion energy research projects at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Dr. Lumsdaine received his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Michigan. He has served as an Associate Professor at the University of Tennessee, an Assistant Professor at the University of Texas-Pan American in Edinburg, Texas, and was the Research and Development Manager for the Nanomechanics Operations of Agilent Technologies and MTS Nano Instruments. He has over 40 publications in the fields of fusion technology, nanomechanics, smart structures, design optimization and vibration damping.

Title: Making a Star on Earth – the Future of Fusion Energy

Abstract
Nuclear fusion is the primary source of energy in the universe, powering all active stars including our sun. The realization of commercially viable fusion power would essentially end the current societal problems of energy supply (greenhouse gas emission, release of other pollutants, fuel importation from hostile nations, non-renewable supply, storage of long-term radioactive waste, risk of runaway reaction or meltdown, risk of proliferation of nuclear materials). But the promise of achieving power from a controlled fusion reaction has thus far been elusive. The ITER magnetic fusion device, currently under construction in Cadarache, France, is the largest scientific experiment ever undertaken, and promises to produce 500 megawatts of output power and only 50 megawatts to operate.

This presentation will review:
– the basic concepts in magnetic confinement fusion (“what is it?”);
– the challenges in worldwide energy supply (“why do we need it?”);
– the history of magnetic confinement fusion and the status of the ITER experiment (“where are we now?”);
– the major issues that remain to be solved to achieve commercial fusion power, and the role that engineers will play in solving these issues (“what’s next, and what can I do about it?”).

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Mechanical Engineering – Engineering Mechanics Graduate Seminar: October 11, 2012; 4:00 – 5:00 p.m., Room 112, ME-EM Building
Dr. Alexander Yarin, University of Illinois Chicago, Multiscale Mechanics and Nanotechnology Laboratory 

Professor Alexander L. Yarin received his PhD in 1980, his DSc (Habilitation) in 1989. He was a Senior Research Associate at The Academy of Sciences of the USSR, Moscow from (1977-1990). In 1990 he became a Professor at the Technion-Israel Institute of
Technology and is currently with the University of Illinois at Chicago. Since 2008, Dr. Yarin has been a Fellow of the Center for Smart Interfaces at the Technical University of Darmstadt, Germany.

Professor Yarin is the author of 2 books, 10 book chapters, approximately 210 research papers, and 5 patents. He is one of the three co-Editors of “Springer Handbook of Experimental Fluid Mechanics” (2007) and an Associate Editor of the journal “Experiments in Fluids”.

Title: From Electrospinning
to Thermal Management in Microelectronics, from Co-Electrospinning to Nanofluidics

Abstract

In the first part, a novel method of enhancement of drop and spray cooling for microelectronic, optical and radiological elements and server rooms, which require extremely high heat fluxes, is discussed. The key idea of the method is to cover the heat transfer surfaces with electrospun nonwoven polymer or metal-plated “thorny devil” nanofiber mats. The experiments revealed that drop impacts on nanotextured surfaces of nanofiber mats produce spreading similar to that on the impermeable surfaces. However, at the end of the spreading stage the contact line is pinned and drop receding is prevented. All the mats appeared to be dynamically permeable for coolant drops. The enhanced efficiency of drop cooling in the presence of nanofiber mats observed experimentally results from full elimination of receding and bouncing of the drops, characteristic of the current spray cooling technology. Therefore, the drops evaporate completely, and the large cooling potential associated with the latent heat of evaporation is more fully exploited. This is paradoxical: the best cooling can be provided by a “furry overcoat”! Using this approach very high cooling rates of about 1 kW/cm2 were achieved and the anti-Leidenfrost effect was discovered.

In the second part, carbon nanotubes are synthesized and self-assembled via co-electrospinning, emulsion electrospinning, or template electrospinning and subsequent carbonization. Then, controlled flows through macroscopically long (~1cm) carbon nanotubes are demonstrated. It is shown that a higher flow rate of liquid in a bi-layer gas-liquid system can be achieved as compared to the case when the same liquid flows through the same tube subjected to the same pressure drop and occupies the whole bore. This means that it is possible to release more liquid than predicted by the Poiseuille law, even though in the bi-layer flow liquid does not occupy the whole crosssection.
This paradoxical result is related to the fact, that the less viscous gas layer can flow much faster than the underlying liquid layer and entrain the latter via a significant shear stress. This quasi-giant-slip phenomenon occurs in relatively large nanotubes (of the order of 500 nm dia.) where the no-slip condition holds with sufficient accuracy.
This phenomenon can be beneficial in reverse osmosis systems. In addition, parallel bundles of these carbon nanotubes are used as nanoreactors to polymerize sufficiently monodisperse thermo-responsive nanoparticles of the order of 400 nm dia. at the rate of 107 particles per sec. Nanoparticles of this size are therapeutically beneficial and can be used as drug carriers. Controlled release from them modulated by temperature variation was demonstrated.

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Mechanical Engineering – Engineering Mechanics Graduate Seminar: October 4, 2012; 4:00 – 5:00 p.m., Room 112, ME-EM Building

Marie Cleveland. Worldwide Corporate Account Manager,
FedEx

This year, Marie won the Five Star Award, FedEx’s highest award within the entire FedEx organization. Currently, Marie’s position is a Worldwide Corporate Account Manager responsible for 6 accounts bringing in about $60 million in revenue per year to FedEx. She has broad international experience, having traveled in Europe, Asia, and Latin America, and has expertise in cultural issues associated with international business. In 2010, she won the highest sales award called the President’s Club. Prior to this award, she won Corporate Account Executive of the Year and has been the recipient of both the Ambassador’s Club Award, Largest Corporate Account Close Award and the elusive Wall of Fame Award. Before moving into corporate sales, Marie has been recognized several times as “Account Representative of the Year” and was also the “Administrative Region of the Year” winner. She has been with FedEx for 24 years.

Marie graduated from Michigan Tech in 1982 with a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration co-oping with GM for most of her student career. Marie is currently serving as Vice President of the Michigan Tech Chicago Chapter Alumni Association. She serves as a volunteer working in the Chicago area to recruit students for Michigan Tech. Marie is also an Alumni Association Gold Carpet and Life Member, a member of the Michigan Tech Presidential Council of Alumnae and the McNair Society.

She is huge on giving back and is active in her community as treasurer for her neighborhood, volunteering at church and is president of the North County Chapter of Thrivent Financial for Lutherans which was able to assist in raising about $900,000 for the local community last year.

Title: Promote your Work with a Powerful Presentation

-Gain skills to make your presentation even better
-How to capture your audience’s attention
-What to do when you get off track in a presentation
-Tips for a smooth presentation on and off the screen

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Mechanical Engineering – Engineering Mechanics Graduate Seminar: September 27, 2012; 4:00 – 5:00 p.m., Room 112, ME-EM Building

Dr. Waruna D. Kulatilaka, Spectral Energies, LLC, Dayton, OH
Air Force Research Laboratory, Propulsion Directorate, WPAFB, OH

Dr. Waruna D Kulatilaka is a Research Scientist at and Spectral Energies, LLC working for the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL). Over the years, he has made outstanding contribution towards the advancement of non-intrusive laser-based diagnostics for propulsion systems, using the stateof- the-art ultrafast lasers as well as fiber optic diagnostic systems. Some examples include, femtosecond coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (fs- CARS) and femtosecond two-photon laser-induced fluorescence (fs-TPLIF) for high-repetition-rate one- and two-dimensional imaging of temperature and species concentration in reacting flows and plasmas and numerous fiberbased diagnostic developments using nanosecond and picosecond pulse duration lasers. Such measurement tools are already providing unprecedented levels of experimental data critical for validating complex turbulent combustion models, facilitating improved combustion efficiency and reduced pollutant formation in propulsion and power generation applications. He has published over 30 peer-reviewed journal articles as well as over 100 presentations and posters in national and international conferences along with a numerous of invited talks. Dr. Kulatilaka holds a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from Purdue University and has extensive involvement in the Combustion Research Facility at the Sandia National Laboratories including his postdoctoral research work. He is an Associate Fellow of American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), member of American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), Optical Society of America (OSA), Combustion Institute (CI), and Society for Applied Spectroscopy (SAS). He was awarded the 2012 Outstanding Technical Contribution Award from the Dayton Section of the ASME.

Title: Fiber-Based Optical Diagnostics for Real-World Applications

Advances in nonintrusive laser-based diagnostic tools have had tremendous impact on our understanding of the fundamental physical and chemical characteristics of reacting flows such as flames and plasmas. However, application of such diagnostic methods in practical combustion devices, for example gas turbine combustors, are rather infrequent because of limited optical access as well as performance limitations of traditional laser systems. In recent years, our research group has made significant advances in developing optical-fiber-based linear and nonlinear optical diagnostic techniques such as particle-image velocimetry (PIV), laser-induced fluorescence (LIF), and coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (CARS). We exploit the fibercoupled point and planar imaging of temperature and key reaction species using laser sources in the repetition rate range 10–10,000 Hz. The effects of delivering intense visible and ultraviolet laser beams through long optical fibers are investigated, and the system improvements for allfiber- coupled CARS and planar LIF (PLIF) imaging systems are discussed. Furthermore, our research efforts extend to developing pulse-burst laser sources, which have the potential of extending data-acquisition bandwidths to the megahertz (MHz) regime for highly dynamic flow systems. Development of such fiber-based imaging systems and next-generation pulse-burst laser sources constitutes a major step in transitioning laser diagnostic tools from research laboratories to reacting flow facilities of practical interest.

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Mechanical Engineering – Engineering Mechanics Graduate Seminar: September 20, 2012; 4:00 – 5:00 p.m., Room 112, ME-EM Building

Professor Todd Murphey. Mechanical Engineering and Physical Therapy and Human Movement Science Northwestern University

Todd Murphey is an Associate professor of Mechanical Engineering
at Northwestern University, with a secondary appointment in Physical
Therapy and Human Movement Science. He received an undergraduate degree in mathematics from the University of Arizona and a Ph.D. in Control and Dynamical Systems from the California Institute of Technology. His a recipient of a National Science Foundation CAREER award. His research interests include computational methods in dynamics and control and design of embedded systems.

Title: Control Synthesis for Discrete Mechanical Systems

Mechanical systems are typically nonlinear and constrained and are often under actuated with many degrees of freedom. Moreover, the choice of numerical methods for simulation can have a dramatic impact on control synthesis, particularly for high degree-of-freedom systems. Integrated methods that are specifically applicable to mechanical systems, such as variation integrators, can make simulation much more stable at the cost of making control synthesis less intuitive. This talk highlights our recent work on software automation of control synthesis for mechanical systems, including the use of discrete mechanical system representations for nonlinear controller and estimator design. I will discuss animatronics marionettes and walking robots as example applications. The talk will end with a discussion
of the role that mechanical design plays in controlling impacting mechanical systems.

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