The following M.Eng project experiences are available:
Combustion Dynamics of Transportation Fuel Droplets
This project is in the field of liquid fuel combustion. The goal is to understand how transportation fuels burn to improve the fuel efficiencies of combustion engines, and to reduce the consumption of petroleum fuels and the harmful emissions they generate.
A unique facility at Cornell and the International Space Station has developed a large body of raw data (digital video images) of the burning histories for a range of fuels under conditions whereby droplets can burn without the influence of convection (buoyancy or forced flow) to promote spherical symmetry, which is ideal for modeling. The figures below show a photograph and typical data derived from such images.
photograph of a n-decane droplet at one evolution of droplet diameter (D); instant during its burning history. slope is the "burning rate"Anchor
For more information please contact Prof. C. Thomas Avedisian at cta2@cornell.edu [see http://www.mae.cornell.edu/mae/people/profile.cfm?netid=cta2 for relevant publications].
Thermal Decomposition of Organic Liquids in a Self-asembled Reactor
In this project we seek to apply a unique chemical processing technology to transform a waste project from biodiesel production to synthesis gas ('syngas', a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen). The concept uses the vapor film formed during the so-called "film boiling" regime of multiphase heat transfer as a high temperature space to promote chemical change.
The figure below is a schematic of the configuration of film boiling on a horizontal tube, and a photograph on-plane is shown.
The project will involve modifying an apparatus to accommodate the high temperatures associated with glycerine (a biodiesel waste) to transform it to syngas. Some capacity for doing hands-on experimental work would be useful.
For more information please contact Prof. C. Thomas Avedisian at cta2@cornell.edu [see http://www.mae.cornell.edu/mae/people/profile.cfm?netid=cta2 for relevant publications].
Design of a More Energy Efficient Ink Jet Printer
Some ink jet printers rely on bubble formation on microscale thin metal films to push ink through tiny nozzles aligned with the metal films to form ink droplets. The droplets are directed to paper to form print characters by programmed motion of the print head. This concept relies on rapidly heating the print head to nucleate an ink bubble, which requires energy that can be a critical concern in portable, battery-operated, printers.
The conventional design is for the print heads to be fabricated onto solid substrates. In this project the configuration to be investigated is a structure fabricated across an air gap that provides an insulating effect to heat flow, shown in the schematic below. Significantly less energy is anticipated to be required for nucleating bubbles compared to configurations with a solid in place of the air (the typical configuration).
The project will concern heating the metal films while immersed in various organic liquids to temperatures well above their normal boiling points. Detection of bubble formation is facilitated by making the microscale thin film heaters part of a "wheatstone bridge" with suitable electrical filtering to produce a clear response signal that can ultimately be related to average metal film temperature.
For this project, some familiarity with operating digital oscilloscopes, pulse generators and Labview, as well as a bit of circuits would be helpful (though not necessary).
For more information please contact Prof. C. Thomas Avedisian at cta2@cornell.edu [see http://www.mae.cornell.edu/mae/people/profile.cfm?netid=cta2 for relevant publications].