Beam Based Modeling of Open-Celled Foams
Research by: Matthew Kurry With modern polymer and composite technology helmets used by military personnel have become so good at preventing death from kinetic impacts that soldiers are surviving attacks that would have killed them before. While more soldiers are surviving, the momentum transfer due to the impact can injure the wearer’s brain. In this research we seek to understand the momentum and energy transfer physics of open-celled foams to better protect helmet wearers. Various projects in this research include the processing of scanned foam images and the used...
Modeling and simulation of particle doped materials under an electromagnetic field
Bhavesh Patel email: b.patel@berkeley.edu Research description Overview The interests of this research are particle doped composites materials, made by adding particles into a base material commonly called matrix material. The focus is on potential application for micro electromagnetic devices such as magnetic cores for planar inductor or nano composite capacitors. Based on these applications, the objective is to propose a numerical tool that allows simulating behavior of micro/nano particle doped material under an electromagnetic (EM) field. Specifically, knowing the external EM field the composite is immersed in, we want:...
Soil Simulations in Subterranean Blasts
Research by: Matthew Kury Underground blasts are of particular interests to civilian miners as well as military defense contractors. Soils are complicated composite of grains, fluids and other materials, which are often blown out during explosions. The complicated nature of the event requires a multi-method approach in order to capture the physics of the event and to make simulating the event possible. I am developing a parallel discrete element code to capture the behavior of the soil near the blast event and a finite element code to represent the...
Energy Efficient Facades for Buildings
Research by: Aashish Ahuja Lighting consumes a substantial amount of energy in buildings that has made it imperative to depend more on daylighting. My research tries to computationally assess the qualities of a novel light-channeling facade subsystem called ‘Translucent Concrete’ (TC). I conduct various simulations on my model, starting with: 1) Ray Tracing to estimate the performance of the TC system during the day. ...
Operational Analysis of Artificial Photosynthetic Systems
Research by: John Stevens I build computational models to predict the net fuel energy harvest by and light transmission through multiphase wireless photoelectrochemical systems that use optical concentration. With these models, I assess optimal designs to accommodate different solar tracking methodologies, photovoltaic cells, catalysts, deployment locations, optical concentration ratios and cell geometries. This allows me to propose designs to reduce energy costs, primary energy inputs and efficiency losses, while enhancing device lifetime. Additionally, I use computational models and experimental processes to study the effects of heat transfer on...
Thermal Barrier Coatings
Research by: Peter Minor To protect against high temperatures, gas turbines use highly porous ceramic thermal barrier coatings (TBCs) which are susceptible to erosion and foreign object impact damage. Few numerical tools exist which are capable of both accurately capturing the specific failure mechanisms inherent to TBCs and iterating design parameters without the requirement for coupled experimental data. To overcome these limitations, I’m developing a discrete element model (DEM) to simulate the microstructure of a TBC using a large-scale assembly of bonded particles. The particles can be combined to...
Electromagnetically Sensitive Ballistic Fabric
Research by: Alejandro Queiruga High strength textiles are a fundamental component of armors in multiple applications, where they are coupled with metal and ceramic plates and various other systems. In this research, the effect of applying electromagnetic fields to a ballistic fabric undergoing impact is explored, wherein an external magnetic field induces deformation in an electrified sheet to influence the behavior of the projectile. The interaction between the applied electromagnetic fields and the resulting range of forces that can be applied onto the moving projectile is modeled by simplified...
Multiphysical Modeling and Simulation of Selective Laser Sintering
Research by: Rishi Ganeriwala Additive manufacturing refers to a relatively recent group of manufacturing technologies whereby one can “3D print” parts, which has the potential to significantly reduce waste and alter the entire industry. Selective laser sintering/ melting (SLS/ SLM) is one type of additive manufacturing technology with the distinct advantage of being able to 3D print metals. In SLS/ SLM parts are built up layer-by-layer out of powder particles, which are selectively melted via a laser. However, in order to produce defect free parts of sufficient strength, the...
Flowing particulate media
Flowing particulate media are ubiquitous in a wide spectrum of applications that include transport systems, fluidized beds, manufacturing and materials processing technologies, energy conversion and propulsion technologies, sprays, jets, slurry flows, and biological...
Colliding and Flowing Particles
Flowing particulate media are ubiquitous in a wide spectrum of applications that include transport systems, fluidized beds, manufacturing and materials processing technologies, energy conversion and propulsion technologies, sprays, jets, slurry flows, and biological flows. The discrete nature of the media, along with their underlying coupled multi-physical interactions can lead to a variety of interesting phenomena, many of which are unique to such media. My research explores the utility of numerical simulations based on the discrete element method and collision driven particle dynamics methods for analyzing flowing particulate media. I...