Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/1807/9950

Our Department is home to a bright and diverse student body and exceptional teaching facilities that emphasize hands-on, continuous learning. The faculty at MIE conduct research in a wide range of cutting-edge fields, including bioengineering, artificial intelligence, robotics, mechatronics, information engineering, finance, aerospace, e-commerce, environmental engineering and alternative energy, to name a few. Many of our professors are recognized leaders in their fields and award-winning teachers.

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Synthetic Jet Actuators for Active Flow Control: A Review
(MDPI, 2024-12-06) Ho, Howard H.; Shirinzad, Ali; Essel, Ebenezer E.; Sullivan, Pierre E.
A synthetic jet actuator (SJA) is a fluidic device often consisting of a vibrating diaphragm that alters the volume of a cavity to produce a synthesized jet through an orifice. The cyclic ingestion and expulsion of the working fluid leads to a zero-net mass-flux and the transfer of linear momentum to the working fluid over an actuation cycle, leaving a train of vortex structures propagating away from the orifice. SJAs are a promising technology for flow control applications due to their unique features, such as no external fluid supply or ducting requirements, short response time, low weight, and compactness. Hence, they have been the focus of many research studies over the past few decades. Despite these advantages, implementing an effective control scheme using SJAs is quite challenging due to the large parameter space involving several geometrical and operational variables. This article aims to explain the working mechanism of SJAs and provide a comprehensive review of the effects of SJA design parameters in quiescent conditions and cross-flow
Carbon- and energy-efficient ethanol electrosynthesis via interfacial cation enrichment
(Springer Science and Business Media LLC, 2024-10-04) Shayesteh Zeraati, Ali; Li, Feng; Tartela Alkayyali, Tartela; Dorakhan, Roham; Shirzadi, Erfan; Arabyarmohammadi, Fatemeh; O’Brien, Colin P; Gabardo, Christine M; Kong, Jonathan; Ozden, Adnan; Zargartalebi, Mohammad; Zhao, Yong; Fan, Lizhou; Papangelakis, Panagiotis; Kim, Dongha; Park, Sungjin; Miao, Rui Kai; Edwards, Jonathan P; Young, Daniel; Ip, Alexander H; Sargent, Edward H; Sinton, David
The use of acidic electrolytes in CO2 reduction avoids costly carbonate loss. However, the energy efficiency of acid-fed electrolysers has been limited by high hydrogen production and operating potentials. We find that these stem from the lack of alkali cations at the catalyst surface, limiting CO2 and CO adsorption. In acid-fed membrane electrode assembly systems, the incorporation of these cations is challenging as there is no flowing catholyte. Here an interfacial cation matrix (ICM)–catalyst heterojunction is designed that directly attaches to the catalyst layer. The negatively charged nature of the ICM enriches the alkali cation concentration near the cathode surface, trapping generated hydroxide ions. This increases the local electric field and pH, increasing multi-carbon production. Integrating the ICM strategy with a tailored copper–silver catalyst enables selective ethanol production through a proton-spillover mechanism. We report a 45% CO2-to-ethanol Faradaic efficiency at 200 mA cm−2, carbon efficiency of 63%, full-cell ethanol energy efficiency of 15% (3-fold improvement over the best previous acidic CO2 reduction value) and energy cost of 260 GJ per tonne ethanol, the lowest among reported ethanol-producing CO2 electrolysers.
Illuminating quinone-mediated CO2 capture and release
(Springer Nature, 2024-12-16) Liu, Shijie; David, Sinton
Improving the SO2 tolerance of CO2 reduction electrocatalysts using a polymer:catalyst:ionomer heterojunction design
(Springer Nature, 2024-07-04) Papangelakis, Panagiotis; Miao, Rui Kai; Lu, Ruihu; Liu, Hanqi; Wang, Xi; Ozden, Adnan; Liu, Shijie; Sun, Ning; O’Brien, Colin P.; Hu, Yongfeng; Shakouri, Mohsen; Qunfeng, Xiao; Li, Mengsha; Khatir, Behrooz; Huang, Jianan Erick; Wang, Ya-Kun; Yurou Celine , Xiao; Feng, Li; Ali Shayesteh, Zeraati; Zhang, Qiang; Liu, Pengyu; Golovin, Kevin; Howe, Jane Y.; Hongyan, Liang; Ziyun, Wang; Jun, Li; Sargent, Edward H.; Sinton, David
Rheological behaviour of phase change slurries for thermal energy applications
(American Chemical Society, 2023-01-10) McPhee, Hannah; Soni, Vikram; Sepehr, Saber; Zargartalebi, Mohammad; Riordon, Jason; Holmes, Michael; Toews, Matthew; Sinton, David
Phase change materials that leverage the latent heat of solid-liquid transition have many applications in thermal energy transport and storage. When employed as particles within a carrier fluid, the resulting phase change slurries (PCSs) could outperform present-day single-phase working fluids–provided that viscous losses can be minimized. This work investigates the rheological behavior of encapsulated and non-encapsulated phase change slurries (PCSs) for applicability in flowing thermal energy systems. The physical and thermal properties of the PCS candidates, along with their rheological behaviour, are investigated below and above their phase transition points at shear rates of 1-300 s-1, temperatures of 20-80°C, and concentrations of 15-37.5wt%. The effect of shell robustness and melting on local shear thickening and global shear thinning is discussed, followed by an analysis of the required pumping power. A hysteresis analysis is performed to test the transient response of the PCS under a range of shear rates. We assess the complex viscoelastic behavior by employing oscillatory flow tests and by delineating the flow indices–flow consistency index (K), and flow behavior index (n). We identify a viscosity limit of 0.1 Pa.s for optimal thermal performance in high-flow applications such as renewable geothermal energy.
Mitigation of crosswind effects on high-speed trains using vortex generators
(AIP, 2024-07-26) Xu, Bin; Liu, Tanghong; Chen, Zhengwei; E. Sullivan, Pierre; Chen, Xiaodong; Shi, Xuan
Vortex generators can enhance the operational safety of high-speed trains and offer effective anti-rolling performance. This paper investigates the influence of vortex generator installation angles on the aerodynamic characteristics of trains. The Improved Delayed Detached Eddy Simulation method is used to analyze the leeward side vortex structure. It is found that when the angle between the vortex generators and the relative wind is 30 , the rolling moment of the train is minimized, as it significantly reduces side forces while preventing excessive growth of lift force inducing rolling moment. The reduction in rolling moment of the train by vortex generators is attributed to the suppression of lee- ward side trailing vortices of the train, which delays flow separation at the roof of the train, inducing a downward trend in the separated flow. Dynamic Mode Decomposition reveals that vortex generators do not alter the stability of near-body trailing vortices but enhance the pulsatile characteristics of far-body trailing vortices, which do not affect the pressure distribution on the leeward side of the train.
Plasma Actuator Separation Control Investigated with Spectral Proper Orthogonal Decomposition
(AIAA, 2024-05) Shi, Xuan; Sullivan, Pierre E.
A single dielectric-barrier discharge plasma actuator is an active flow control device that imparts momentum to the fluid through ion acceleration using electromagnetic forces and has been used to suppress flow separation. This paper studies flow over an airfoil and how adding a single dielectric-barrier discharge actuator influences flow characteristics through numerical modeling. Using the spectral proper orthogonal decomposition and large-eddy simulation, flow instabilities are analyzed at their different temporal and spatial scales in the wake region. This study aims to explore the viability of spectral proper orthogonal decomposition for separation control and correlate the decomposed flow modes to the different actuation modes.
Visualizing three-dimensional effects of synthetic jet flow control
(Springer, 2024-05-01) Machado, Adnan; Xu, Kecheng; Sullivan, Pierre E.
This study investigates the three-dimensionality of synthetic jet flow control over a NACA 0025 profile wing using horizontal and vertical smoke wire visualization. The stalled flow in the baseline case is visualized, providing insights into the shear layer roll-up process, the transition to turbulence, and vortex shedding in the wake. In the controlled flow study, two actuation frequencies, F+ =1.18 and F+ =11.76, are investigated, with a focus on spanwise control authority and the role of coherent structures in flow reattachment. The results indicate that while the control is effective at the midspan over the entire chord length, its effect diminishes with increasing distance from the midspan. Both control cases result in significant spanwise velocities, observed by a contraction of the flow toward midspan. Lastly, the high-frequency actuation results in unique small-scale structures at the shear layer-freestream interface.
Constrained multi-objective wind farm layout optimization: Novel constraint handling approach based on constraint programming
(Elsevier, 2018-10) Yamani Douzi Sorkhabi, Sami; Romero, David A.; Beck, J. Christopher; Amon, Cristina H.
Wind farms are frequently located in proximity to human dwellings, natural habitats, and infrastructure making land use constraints and noise matters of increasing concern for all stakeholders. In this study, we perform a constrained multi-objective wind farm layout optimization considering energy and noise as objective functions, and considering land use constraints arising from landowner participation, environmental setbacks and proximity to existing infrastructure. A multi-objective, continuous variable Genetic Algorithm (NSGA-II) is combined with a novel constraint handling approach to solve the optimization problem. This constraint handling approach uses a combination of penalty functions and Constraint Programming to balance local and global exploration to find feasible solutions. The proposed approach is used to solve the wind farm layout optimization problem with different numbers of turbines and under different levels of land availability (constraint severity). Our results show increasing land availability and/or number of turbines, increases energy generation, noise production, and computational cost. Results also illustrate the potential of the proposed constraint handling approach to outperform existing methods in the context of evolutionary optimization, yielding better solutions at a lower computational cost.
Spanwise Control Authority of Synthetic Jets on a Stalled Airfoil
(American Institute of Physics, 2024-06-20) Adnan Machado; Kecheng Xu; Pierre E. Sullivan
This study investigates the aerodynamic effects of low- and high-frequency synthetic jet control strategies on a National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) 0025 airfoil. Visualizations and measurements are employed to assess the stability of the flow, focusing on the shear layer and wake dynamics under two forcing frequencies. High-frequency actuation is found to induce steadier flow reattachment and more favorable aerodynamic characteristics compared to low-frequency control. Flow structures resulting from high-frequency actuation, notably vortex rings, are identified and their significance in flow control is evaluated. Furthermore, the spanwise control authority is analyzed, revealing variations in aerodynamic stability away from the midspan. Insights from modal analysis provide additional understanding of flow structures and their evolution across different spanwise planes.
Effect of Cell-to-Cell Thermal Imbalance and Cooling Strategy on Electric Vehicle Battery Performance and Longevity
(IEEE, 2022-09-22) Escobar, Camilo; Gong, Zhe; Da Silva, Carlos; Trescases, Olivier; Amon, Cristina H.
This work develops a reduced-order numerical model of a custom-built commuter electric vehicle (EV) to study the lifetime performance of EV battery packs and battery thermal management systems (BTMS). The model uses experimental battery and BTMS data collected from a commuter EV and applies drive cycles corresponding to typical highway and city driving conditions. The main advantage of this numerical modeling approach is its ability to simulate large timescales, spanning years of vehicle operation. Cell level degradation is captured, allowing for the study of battery pack longevity under a variety of temperature profiles generated by various BTMS strategies with series and parallel indirect liquid cooling configurations. Monte Carlo simulations are also used to estimate the variation in BTMS performance caused by beginning-of-life (BOL) variations and cell-to-cell thermal imbalance/spreading in the battery cells. The proposed modeling approach was demonstrated to be an effective tool in studying long timescale BTMS performance, and tradeoffs between BTMS energy consumption and pack energy retention for the case-study commuter vehicle. A 7% reduction in the mean maximum pack temperature and a 10% reduction in the mean lifetime BTMS energy consumption were achieved by tuning BTMS control parameter thresholds. However, the variability in pack energy retention greatly increased, highlighting the need to consider BOL variations and cell spreading in BTMS modeling and design.
Automatic Voltage Distortion Compensation for Improved State Estimation Accuracy in Battery Management Systems with Continuous Cell Balancing
(IEEE, 2020-06) Gong, Zhe; Gupta, Kshitij; da Silva, Carlos; Amon, Cristina; Trescases, Olivier
In battery systems, the electrical connections between the voltage nodes and battery management system are typically implemented with a single wire per node to limit the system cost, resulting in limited voltage sampling frequency and reduced effective balancing power rating. An augmented equivalent circuit model for Lithium-ion battery packs is proposed that incorporates the parasitic cell connection resistance and improves the state-of-charge and available power estimation accuracy during continuous cell balancing. A new cell connection resistance extraction technique is introduced that leverages an existing isolated C'uk converter designed for active cell balancing. Simulation results estimate a potential elimination of 6.7% stateof- charge estimation drift per hour, when cell balancing is active. The wire resistance extraction technique is demonstrated experimentally in a 4kWh custom liquid-cooled battery module with a prototype battery management system.
The Prediction of the Thermal Conductivity of Gallium Arsenide: A Molecular Dynamics Study
(ASME, 2015-11-19) Saiz, Fernan; Amon, Cristina H.
Gallium arsenide is the second most used semiconductor material with applications in light-emitting diodes, field-effect transistors, and integrated circuits. Thus, understanding and controlling the thermal conductivity of gallium arsenide is crucial to design devices for such applications. The goal of this study is to predict the thermal conductivity of gallium arsenide as a function of temperature and vacancy concentration. Thermal conductivities are predicted using an equilibrium molecular dynamics method based on the Green-Kubo formalism with temperatures between 300 K and 900 K and vacancy concentrations up to 0.5%. Our results show that the thermal conductivities of the vacancy-free system predicted by our model are in good agreement with experimental values around the Debye temperature. In addition, our model predicts that conductivities significantly decrease with increasing vacancy concentration. At 300 K conductivities drop by 39.5% with a 0.1% defect content and 74.4% with 0.5% respect to that of the pure system. The power spectra of thermal conductivities and heat current auto correlation functions indicate that phonon scattering produced near the vacancies reduces the contribution of the acoustic frequencies. The density of states quantifies the decrease of acoustic and optic frequencies by increasing the vacancy concentration.
Mechanical characterization of multifunctional highly porous carbon nanotube‐reinforced foams
(Wiley, 2023-01-06) Ghahramani, Pardis; Moradi‐Dastjerdi, Rasool; Behdinan, Kamran; Naguib, Hani E.
In recent years, novel features of ultra-flexible nanocomposite foams have drawn tremendous attention towards these materials to be utilized in a variety of engineering applications. Since Young’s modulus of nanocomposite foams is related to their mechanical strength and directly affects their applications, in this study, this property was evaluated experimentally and theoretically. In this regard, polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS)/multiwalled carbon nanotube (MWCNT) nanocomposite foams with different filler contents (e.g., 0.1, 0.25, and 0.5 wt.%) and different porosities (e.g., 60%, 70%, and 80%) were fabricated by solvent casting and particulate leaching methods. The results suggested that the optimum value for foam porosity and MWCNT content is required to elevate Young’s modulus of nanocomposite foams. The experimental data indicated that in the samples with 60% porosity increasing MWCNT content improved Young’s modulus of the samples; however, in the samples with 70% porosity Young’s modulus was elevated when the filler content was up to 0.25 wt.%. Moreover, using the experimental data, a theoretical approach was successfully extended to predict Young’s modulus of nanocomposite foams with the combination of different void fractions and CNT contents.
Effect of concentration-driven magnetic phase changes on adsorption and diffusion in VSe2 monolayers: Implications for lithium-ion batteries
(AIP, 2023-10-30) Nair, A. K.; Silva, C. M. Da; Amon, C. H.
Vanadium Diselenide (VSe2) monolayer is a two-dimensional (2D) magnetic material that exhibits ferromagnetic ordering at room temperature and exceptional metal-ion storage capacity, making it useful in spintronics and energy storage applications. However, a robust correlation between the magnetic and electrochemical properties of VSe2 remains to be established. In this study, first-principles density functional theory calculations were performed to investigate the effect of increasing Li-ion concentrations on the magnetic properties, particularly the magnetic ground state of VSe2 monolayer. The results indicate that, as the concentration of Li ions on the surface of VSe2 monolayer increases, magnetic phase transitions occur, leading to a shift from the intrinsic ferromagnetic (FM) state to antiferromagnetic (AFM) and non-magnetic ground states. Analyses of the diffusion properties of ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic VSe2 monolayers revealed a considerable (∼71%) increase in theLi-ion diffusion energy barrier for the AFM state compared to the FM state. This implies that FM-VSe2 facilitates relatively faster diffusion of Li ions than AFM-VSe2. Therefore, the Li-ion concentration-induced phase change in VSe2 monolayer leads tovariable adsorption and diffusion characteristics, which will have significant implications for its use in Li-ion battery anodes.
Understanding the Influence of Turbine Geometry and Atmospheric Turbulence on Wind Turbine Wakes
(ASME, 2016-11) Gu, Ping; Kuo, Jim Y. J.; Romero, David A.; Amon, Cristina H.
A wind turbine wake is divided into two regions, near wake and far wake. In the near wake region, the flow is highly turbulent and is strongly influenced by the rotor geometry. In the far wake region, the influence of rotor geometry becomes less important as atmospheric effects become dominant. However, how turbine geometry and atmospheric condition affect the two wake regions is not well studied. In this work, the influence of atmospheric turbulence and the blade aerodynamic forces on wake development is studied using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) models. The CFD simulation results are based on an actuator disk model and an k–ε turbulence model. The effects of blade geometry are captured by prescribing aerodynamics forces exerted by a LM8.2 blade on an actuator disk, and are compared with that of an equivalent uniform normalized force, under two atmospheric turbulence conditions. The finding shows that the length of the near wake region is strongly affected by atmospheric turbulence, with the wake becoming fully developed as far as 2.5 rotor diameters downstream of the rotor under low turbulence conditions. Furthermore, the velocity profile in the far wake region is independent of the blade profile. In other words, in the cases studied, an actuator disk with an equivalent uniform force will produce nearly identical velocity profiles in the far wake region as one with nonuniform aerodynamic force profiles. These findings have implications on existing wake models where the far wake is the region of interest. Specifically, the beginning of the far wake region should be properly defined for each scenario, and that it is not necessary to provide detailed rotor geometry for far wake simulations.
Enhanced Alkali-Ion Adsorption in Strongly Bonded Two-Dimensional TiS2/MoS2 van der Waals Heterostructures
(2023-05-25) K. Nair, A.; Da Silva, C. M.; Amon, C. H.
Despite their remarkable properties, many two-dimensional (2D) materials do not possess the desired characteristics to enhance the energy density, rate performance, and cycle life of batteries when used as standalone materials for battery electrodes. However, engineering 2D van der Waals (vdW) heterostructures by stacking different 2D materials offers new opportunities for battery electrodes, combining desirable features and overcoming the limitations of the constituent 2D layers. In this work, using first-principles calculations, we investigated the electronic structure, thermal stability, stress–strain response, alkali (Li/Na/K)-ion adsorption, and diffusion characteristics of 2D heterostructures of titanium disulfide (TiS2) and molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) monolayers with attractive applications in alkali-metal ion batteries (AMIBs). This work revealed relatively strong interlayer interactions in the heterostructure, resulting in significant enhancements in the adsorption of alkali ions compared to the respective monolayers. This work demonstrates that TiS2/MoS2 heterostructures offer excellent mechanical flexibility, increased strength, and greater strain endurance. The results indicate that TiS2/MoS2 heterostructures are promising materials for next-generation flexible anodes for AMIBs.
Combinatorial screening of 3D biomaterial properties that promote myofibrogenesis for mesenchymal stromal cell-based heart valve tissue engineering
(Elsevier, 2017-08) Usprech, Jenna; Romero, David A; Amon, Cristina H; Simmons, Craig A
The physical and chemical properties of a biomaterial integrate with soluble cues in the cell microenvironment to direct cell fate and function. Predictable biomaterial-based control of integrated cell responses has been investigated with two-dimensional (2D) screening platforms, but integrated responses in 3D have largely not been explored systematically. To address this need, we developed a screening platform using polyethylene glycol norbornene (PEG-NB) as a model biomaterial with which the polymer wt% (to control elastic modulus) and adhesion peptide types (RGD, DGEA, YIGSR) and densities could be controlled independently and combinatorially in arrays of 3D hydrogels. We applied this platform and regression modeling to identify combinations of biomaterial and soluble biochemical (TGF-β1) factors that best promoted myofibrogenesis of human mesenchymal stromal cells (hMSCs) in order to inform our understanding of regenerative processes for heart valve tissue engineering. In contrast to 2D culture, our screens revealed that soft hydrogels (low PEG-NB wt%) best promoted spread myofibroblastic cells that expressed high levels of α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA) and collagen type I. High concentrations of RGD enhanced α-SMA expression in the presence of TGF-β1 and cell spreading regardless of whether TGF-β1 was in the culture medium. Strikingly, combinations of peptides that maximized collagen expression depended on the presence or absence of TGF-β1, indicating that biomaterial properties can modulate MSC response to soluble signals. This combination of a 3D biomaterial array screening platform with statistical modeling is broadly applicable to systematically identify combinations of biomaterial and microenvironmental conditions that optimally guide cell responses.
The Effect of Geometric and Hemodynamic Parameters on Blood Flow Efficiency in Repaired Tetralogy of Fallot Patients
(Springer, 2021-09) Louvelle, Leslie; Doyle, Matthew; Van Arsdell, Glen; Amon, Cristina
Surgical repair of Tetralogy of Fallot (TOF) involves a series of steps to remove right ventricular outflow tract and pulmonary artery obstruction. However, the large degree of anatomic variability among preoperative TOF patients may impact the effectiveness of different repair strategies and, subsequently, different geometric modifications for different patients. This study investigates the relationships between geometric and hemodynamic parameters and mechanical energy efficiency for a patient-specific dataset of 16 postoperative TOF repairs, using morphometric and statistical shape analyses, as well as computational fluid dynamics simulations with physiologically-relevant inlet and outlet boundary conditions. Quantitatively, negative correlations were found between the right and left pulmonary artery centerline tract cumulative torsion and energy efficiency (r = - 0.65, p = 0.01, for both). A positive correlation was also found for a statistical shape mode associated with skewing of the geometric sub-regions (r = 0.61, p = 0.01). Qualitatively, medium- and low-efficiency geometries exhibit disturbed flow and much more proximal vortex formation as compared to a high-efficiency geometry. Thus, it is recommended, as much as possible, to both relieve and avoid the introduction of torsion into the patient's anatomy during surgical repair of TOF.
Battery Health Diagnosis Approach Integrating Physics‐Based Modeling with Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy
(2022-02) Galatro, Daniela; Da Silva, Carlos; Romero, David A.; Gong, Zhe; Trescases, Olivier; Amon, Cristina H.
This work proposes a battery health diagnosis approach that combines electrochemical performance-aging and lumped thermal models with electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and voltage monitoring, allowing the segregation and quantification of ohmic, chemical and diffusion-mechanical related losses. This approach accurately identifies battery lifetime thresholds such as first-life, second-life and turnaround points, combining the use of a capacity indicator and overpotentials as battery health indicators. This approach, which is demonstrated at the cell level, is scalable to module and pack levels, and applicable to any cell chemistry and battery configuration. This battery health diagnosis approach is validated with degradation data from lithium iron phosphate (LFP) and nickel-manganese-cobalt (NMC) cells, showing good agreement when comparing the predicted capacity fade against measured values.

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