In the thesis, an application of a genetic algorithm (GA) is considered to solve the vehicle routing problem (VRP) which involves heterogeneous vehicles to serve known customer demands from multiple depots achieving the minimum delivery cost, where each customer must be satisfied by one or more visit(s), and each vehicle...
This study was conducted to support a research project sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF). The purpose of the NSF research project was to determine how to design kaizen events that result in both short term and long term performance improvements. One of the tools developed to evaluate the...
Diffusion bonding cycle times can be a large cost factor in the production of metal microchannel devices. The challenge is to significantly minimize this cost by reducing the bonding cycle time through rapid and uniform heating and cooling within the bonding process. Heating rates in diffusion bonding processes are typically...
Synthetic adhesives, such as phenol-formaldehyde (PF) resins and urea-formaldehyde (UF) resins, have dominated the wood adhesive market since they were introduced in the wood products industry. Formaldehyde, as a key component in the manufacturing of PF and UF resins, has been classified as a known human carcinogen by the International...
Micro Energy and Chemical Systems (MECS) devices enable at least two
areas of benefit due to the accelerated heat and mass transfer that can be
accomplished in microchannels. First, MECS devices enable process
intensification; the ability to reduce the volume of space needed to implement
systems of thermal and chemical...
The fabrication of nano-scale devices is a challenging, but potentially important, technology that has drawn a great deal of interest among researchers. Such nanoscale constructions utilizing a bottom-up approach for device building have many foreseeable applications in areas as diverse as miniaturized electronics, sensors, and biomedical devices.
One of the...
For resin based dental restorative composites, one of the major challenges is to optimize the balance between mechanical and optical properties. Although fracture is the second leading cause of dental restorative failures, very limited mechanistic understanding exists on a microscopic level. In the present study, the fracture properties and mechanisms...
In this work, continuous synthesis routes for binary nanoparticles using advantages of microchannel mixing (low diffusion distances and higher mass transfer) and fast heating rates provided by ultrasound induced heating are investigated. In addition, the application of silica nanoparticles in anti-reflective coatings on glass and understanding the structure property-performance correlation...
New methods, sensors, and devices based on redox indicators were developed to
monitor redox conditions in anoxic and anaerobic laboratory systems and the subsurface
environment. The primary application was monitoring redox conditions
during the dechlorination of tetrachioroethene (PCE) to ethene (ETH) in packed
columns and microcosm bottles containing an enriched...
Non-destructive commercial ultrasonic grading provides laminated veneer lumber (LVL) manufacturers a means for sorting veneer based on average ultrasonic propagation time (UPT) and/or average dynamic modulus of elasticity (MOEd). While this may provide reliable estimations of modulus of elasticity (MOE), little is known about the influence of veneer defects on...