2024 Faculty and Student Research Poster Session and Research Fair
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Browsing 2024 Faculty and Student Research Poster Session and Research Fair by Author "Aria, Saman"
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Item Engineering of a Microfluidic Platform for Investigation of Immersion Freezing in the Atmosphere(2024-03-07) Bithi, Swastika; Das, Pronab; Aria, Saman; Devadoss, Timothy; Bhattacharia, Sanjoy; Hiranuma, NarukiThe West Texas A&M University Microfluidic Static Droplet Array (WT-MFSDA) platform was developed for studying atmospheric ice nucleation, specifically immersion freezing. It combines a microfluidic device with interconnected droplet parking traps and a unique hand pipetting method to create an array of nanoliter-sized droplets containing ice-nucleating particles (INPs). A commercialized cooling unit facilitates the visualization and characterization of freezing events in individual droplets. Each droplet is carefully isolated and covered with a thin mineral oil film, enhancing measurement reliability by eliminating artifacts due to surface contact, mass transfer, and evaporation. The WT-MFSDA platform allows simulation and investigation of immersion freezing in water and INP-involved suspensions at temperatures below -35 °C, with cooling rates relevant to atmospheric cloud updraft velocities. Temperature uncertainty is controlled within ± 0.3 °C. Platform performance is verified using well-known bulk powder INP surrogates, such as illite NX, Snomax, and microcrystalline cellulose. The results from nanoliter freezing assays in WT-MFSDA are compared and validated against other freezing assays and published data. A calorimetry analysis of single droplet freezing is conducted to understand thermodynamics, kinetics, and exothermic energy release during the liquid-to-solid phase transition. Future plans include testing freezing properties of high-latitude soil dust samples from the North Slope of Alaska region using WT-MFSDA and integrating research and teaching activities by training students, and expanding laboratory exercises to classrooms. The advanced ice nucleation capabilities of WT-MFSDA enable enhanced science teaching in atmospheric ice nucleation research.Item Tuning the Crystallization Properties of Advanced Phase Change Materials(2024-03-07) Bithi, Swastika; Aria, Saman; Larson, WilliamPetroleum-based paraffin waxes are versatile phase change materials (PCMs) with attractive benefits such as high latent heat, chemical inertness, low vapor pressure, and good thermal stability. Nevertheless, a significant drawback of paraffin waxes is low thermal conductivity, making heat storage and release slow. Nanomaterials with high thermal conductivity can be used as dopants in paraffin waxes. However, the PCMs must undergo many heating and cooling cycles (>1000) in a PCM-based energy storage system. The stability and dispersion characteristic of nanomaterials after several thermal cycles also change the phase transition properties of PCMs. Due to the repetitive thermal cycle, little fundamental understanding exists of phase change behavior. We propose to exploit the effect of thermal cycles on the phase transition behavior of carbon nanotube (CNT) doped commercial paraffin. In this study, we take two approaches: 1) a bulk phase measurement of the phase change behavior mechanism (dispersion of nanomaterial, heat of fusion, crystallinity, and weight loss) using SEM-EDS, DSC, XRD, and TGA, respectively, and 2) parallel a phase contrast microscopy methods to directly visualize the stochastic nature of the onset of crystallization and melting of microcapsules of CNT-doped paraffin.