Ahmad Fayed, Abigail Gillis

In this project, the degradation of mechanical properties of 3D printed parts experiencing thermal cyclic loads is investigated. The project is sponsored by Louisiana Space Grant Consortium (LaSPACE) through their program Louisiana Undergraduate Research Assistantship (LURA). The scope of the project includes the study of the effect of various thermal loads on the tensile strength of the commonly used 3D printing material polylactide (PLA). Using the results achieved by the previous research group along with Initial experiments, the best printing parameters were determined. These parameters include printing orientation, infill pattern, percent infill, as well as other printer specific settings. The American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) standards were followed to prepare and test the tensile test specimens on a vertical ADMET tensile testing machine. Thermal loads will be applied in different magnitudes and durations. The temperature ranges will be 15, 30 and 45 °C with starting low temperatures of -15, 0, 15, and 30 °C. A thermal cycle will consist of 1 interval of low temperature followed by an interval of a higher temperature and repeated for up to six times. The duration of each temperature will be 10 minutes, one hour, and one day. Control specimens will be kept at room temperature and their strength will be evaluated and compared to different batches of specimens subjected to the aforementioned thermal loads.

Haeyeon Yang, Ke-Sean Peter, Jovana Latinovic, Stecy Chirinda, Uchechukwu Alih, Oluwafayemidara Sowemimo, Mosopefoluwa John, Maitaishe Mangundhla

Planetary high energy ball milling technique is employed to increase the fraction of finer powder materials. Transmission electron microscope (TEM) is used to characterize the size and shape of the ball milled powders. The Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (EDS) within the TEM machine revealed some particles have shown Fe peaks only with no traces of Mn and Co, suggesting nanoparticles were created from the stainless steel balls during the milling process. The size and distribution of size of ball milled powder were characterized by a technique based on dynamic light scattering (DLS), which shows that the size distribution is bimodal: a major peak is found at 241.7± 73.7nm over 96% while smaller one peaked at 22.70±3.17 nm. The results suggest that the high energy ball milling resulted in nanoparticles in the powder as the DLS measurements of as-received SmCo5 sample showed the size is peaked at 1,095±407.9nm with no trace of nanoparticles. The ball milled SmCo5 powder was melted with CW laser and their properties will be discussed.

Haeyeon Yang, Uchechukwu Alih, Ke-Sean Peter, Jovana Latinovic, Stecy Chirinda, Nonso Duaka, Oluwafayemidara Sowemimo

Dynamic light scattering (DLS) technique has been widely used to analyze micrometer to nanometer size particles that are suspended in liquids. Nanoparticles of various chemical compositions have been found in wide range of applications including those in bio-medical applications. It is important to characterize nanoparticles in colloidal suspension such as in biological applications of nanoparticle in human body. Compared to other techniques such as transmission electron microscopy (TEM), DLS method has advantages of ease of use and cost effective. We have examined various nanoparticles using DLS technique, including commercially available nanoparticles of titanium and copper as well as high energy ball milled SmCo5 nanoparticle. In this presentation, the discrepancies between nominal size and the DLS measured size as well as zeta potential of nanoparticles will be discussed.

Mohamed Zeidan, Jace Angelette, Dylan Di Costantino, Jacob Rosales

The proposed research project aims to research using potential Supplementary Cementitious Material (SCM) to improve concrete sustainability. The main goal is to investigate an SCM to reduce the carbon footprint of concrete. When dealing in the production of concrete especially cement which is the key binding agent in concrete it brings a big toll on the environment. Cement production is responsible for generating large quantities of CO2 to convert limestone into clinker which is used to procure cement. Thus, the authors believe that reducing the amount of cement used in typical concrete mixes can significantly reduce the carbon footprint of concrete. Pumice is a naturally occurring material created when super-heated and pressurized rock rapidly ejected from volcanoes. This research is focusing on partially replacing Portland cement in concrete mixes by volcanic pumice powder ash (VPPA) to enhance concrete sustainability. Several concrete mixes incorporating different doses and types of available VPPA will be designed and tested.  Three basic tests will be used to assess the performance of the mixes. These tests include evaluating workability using slump tests, compressive strength evaluation at different ages and the concrete surface resistivity (SR) as an indicator of permeability. The results of these tests will be analyzed to evaluate VPPA as a possible greener alternative SCM.

Haeyeon Yang, Ke-Sean Peter, Yalearie Wildy, Jovana Latinovic, Stecy Chirinda, Uchechukwu Alih, Oluwafayemidara Sowemimo, Mosopefoluwa John

X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) has been used to characterize the crystalline quality of laser melted powders that are mixed with nanoparticles (NPs). Continuous wave (CW) laser was used to melt micrometer sized SmCo5 powders mixed with various NPs including titanium and copper NPs. During the laser melting, NPs of high melting point keep the solid phase while the lower melting point powder elements, such as SmCo5 becomes liquid. During this laser melting period, the materials system can be viewed as a liquid with NPs suspended or nanoliquid. XRD provides a valuable insight on the laser melting process as it measures the crystalline quality of these laser melts including on how NPs improve crystallinity. In this presentation, the effects of NPs on the crystalline quality of laser melted powders mixed with various nanoparticles including titanium and copper. Also discussed will be the effects of high energy ball milling on the laser melted SmCo5 powders as the milling increases the fraction of NPs in the powder without NPs added to them.

Haeyeon Yang, Ke-Sean Peter, Jovana Latinovic, Stecy Chirinda, Uchechukwu Alih, Oluwafayemidara Sowemimo, Mosopefoluwa John

The hardness of laser melted powders has been measured. Continuous wave (CW) laser was used to melt micrometer sized SmCo5 powders with nanoparticles (NPs). The fraction of NPs in the powder is increased either by high energy ball milling of the powders or simply add NPs to it. During the laser melting, NPs of high melting point such as titanium NPs would be in the solid phase while the lower melting point powder elements such as, SmCo5 powder become liquid. This effectively creates nanoliquids during the short period of laser melting process. Hardness of these laser melts provides us the insight on the quality of laser melts including the effects of nanoparticles on the laser melting process. A micro hardness tester was used to measure the hardness of laser melted powders mixed with nanoparticles. In this presentation, the hardness of laser melt with various NPs including titanium and copper will be compared. Also discussed will be the hardness of high energy ball milled SmCo5 powders with no nanoparticles added.

Ayodeji Olanite

Technology has turned things around in the microelectronics world and Integrated Circuit (IC) has been the driving force behind all these innovations. A lot of improvements have been made since the inception of the IC with the goal of improving performance of an IC. However, as the number of transistors on a chip increase with the goal of improving performance, it comes with a major drawback of more power dissipation. To address these challenges, this study investigates the energy efficiencies between two different types of adiabatic logic families, implemented with Metal-Oxide- Semiconductor Field-Effect Transistor (MOSFET) and Fin Field Effect Transistor (FinFET) 32 nm technology node. LTSPICE (SPICE based analog electronic circuit simulator computer software) is used as the simulation tool to evaluate the power dissipation between both the Energy Charge Recovery Logic (ECRL) and the Positive Feedback Adiabatic Logic (PFAL). The results obtained revealed clearly that the Energy Charge Recovery Logic (ECRL) Inverter and NAND gates dissipate more power than the PFAL Inverter and NAND gate using MOSFET transistor. On the other hand, the power dissipated for the ECRL NOR gate is less than the PFAL NOR gate. Furthermore, the experimental results demonstrate that for all gates configurations (Inverter, NOR and NAND), ECRL dissipate less power than the PFAL using the FinFET transistor