Department of Civil and Mechanical Engineering (UMKC)
https://hdl.handle.net/10355/8001
The Department of Civil and Mechanical Engineering is a department in the UMKC School of Computing and Engineering. 2024-03-28T15:06:13Z3D Printing of Microneedles via Embedded 3D Printing using an Associative Surfactant System
https://hdl.handle.net/10355/93876
3D Printing of Microneedles via Embedded 3D Printing using an Associative Surfactant System
Dyke, Romario
Microneedles are drug-delivery devices specially adapted to penetrate the outer-most layer of the epidermis (stratum corneum). These devices have gained popularity over the last decades because they provide non-invasive drug delivery options. There are many types of microneedles to suit a wide variety of applications. This work is focused on using new lipid-hydrogel materials to fabricate microneedles using a liquid-in-liquid 3D printing process combining embedding and associative liquid-in-liquid 3D printing approaches. Although liquid-in-liquid 3D printing was successfully applied in previous research, printing at the microscale introduces additional complexities. To successfully fabricate microneedles at the microscale with good shape fidelity and appropriate mechanical properties, it is crucial to study the print parameters (printing process), the material properties, and how they work together. Through experiments, we investigated the effects of various print parameters, print materials, and suspension baths on the quality of the 3D printed microneedles.
Title from PDF of title page, viewed February 9, 2024; Thesis advisor: Zahra Niroobakhsh; Vita; Includes bibliographical references (pages 48-55); Thesis (M.S.)--School of Computing and Engineering. University of Missouri--Kansas City, 2022
2022-01-01T00:00:00ZA Synthesis and Optimization of Patented Direct Air Capture Technology
https://hdl.handle.net/10355/97314
A Synthesis and Optimization of Patented Direct Air Capture Technology
Lambrechts, Robert J
An engineering method termed direct air capture is used to take CO₂, the predominant global warming greenhouse gas, out of the atmosphere directly. Given that CO₂ levels in the air are only 0.04%, it presents a technical challenge. Ambient air has a concentration that is 2-4 orders of magnitude lower than other typically targeted sources for CO₂ capture, like flue gases from energy production and industrial activities. Nevertheless, direct air capture has drawn more attention recently, partly because of the creation and implementation by a small number of start-ups. An increasing quantity of research is being done on novel direct air capture materials and methods, and it’s important to comprehend the costs and environmental effects of direct air capture. The author believes that this engineering tool should be one of many tools utilized in the fight against climate change. This dissertation seeks to gather and analyze critical information on fifteen recently issued United States patents and then synthesize the findings from those fifteen patents and then to optimize the critical components of the patented direct air capture technology to advance the state of the art in carbon removal to ameliorate the impacts of increasing carbon concentrations in the atmosphere.
Title from PDF of title page, viewed November 10, 2023; Dissertation advisor: John Kevern; Vita; Includes bibliographical references (pages 142-157); Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Department of Civil and Mechanical Engineering, Department of Geosciences. University of Missouri--Kansas City, 2023
2023-01-01T00:00:00ZA universal approach to stabilize water-oil interface via surfactant self-assembly
https://hdl.handle.net/10355/97821
A universal approach to stabilize water-oil interface via surfactant self-assembly
Honaryar, Houman
Liquid-liquid interfaces represent an advantageous setting for the confinement, manipulation, and controlled assembly of colloids. Stabilizing liquid-liquid interfaces, whether between miscible or immiscible liquids, is crucial for a wide range of applications, including energy storage, microreactors, and biomimetic structures. While most of the attention has been on the adsorption of colloidal or surface-active particles and polymeric complexion, there have been no studies concerning the self-assembly of small molecules like surfactants. Therefore, in this study:
First, a novel liquid-in-liquid 3D printing approach is developed to successfully shape extremely soft materials into complex and mechanically robust constructs with internal nanostructures using in situ self-assembly of surfactants. Second, using experimental techniques (visual inspection, small-angle X-ray scattering, rheological measurements, and microscopy) and a simulation technique (dissipative particle dynamics), the ternary phase diagram for the same material system (involving water, surfactant, and polar oil) that was used in liquid-in-liquid 3D printing is established to study the equilibrium phase behavior. The ternary phase diagram obtained from the simulations agrees with the experimental results, specifically in terms of morphological transitions, indicating the robustness of the computational simulation as a supplement to the mesoscale experimental systems. Third, an exhaustive and comprehensive overview of the state-of-the-art research on liquid-in-liquid 3D printing techniques is provided, explaining their fundamental principles, underlying mechanisms, and various material systems. Moreover, the practical features in these 3D printing platforms such as structural, mechanical, optical, magnetic, and communicative properties of prints along with the future potential of the technology and its limitations are discussed in detail. Lastly, the universality and versatility of the use of surfactant self-assembly for stabilizing the water-oil interface are studied for a wide range of surfactant classes and the underlying morphological transition was studied in equilibrium and dynamics conditions using a complementary combination of experimental and computational methods.
Title from PDF of title page, viewed January 12, 2024; Dissertation advisor: Zahra Niroobakhsh; Vita; Includes bibliographical references (pages 197-231); Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Department of Civil and Mechanical Engineering, Department of Oral Biology and Craniofacial Sciences. University of Missouri--Kansas City, 2023
2023-01-01T00:00:00ZAge and Gender Effects on Strain Response and Biomechanical Performance of C57BL/6 Mice
https://hdl.handle.net/10355/67034
Age and Gender Effects on Strain Response and Biomechanical Performance of C57BL/6 Mice
Mumtaz, Hammad
Osteoporosis is a systemic skeletal disease resulting in low bone mass and micro architectural deterioration of bone tissue. It causes a consequent increase in bone fragility and susceptibility to fracture. This age-related bone loss is a major healthcare problem nowadays. Due to this fact, ability to maintain the quality of bone with aging has become an area of interest. C57Bl/6 mice have been commonly used in various studies to investigate the changes in a bone with aging. In this study, C57Bl/6 mice were divided into three age groups: 6 months old, 12 months old and 22 months old. Each age group consisted of 6-7 males and 6-7 female mice. Axial compression tests, three-point bending tests and micro-CT were used to assess age related changes in femurs, tibiae and ulnae. The strain response with aging on tibiae and ulnae was captured using digital image correlation (DIC) technique and strain gaging method. The ulna becomes stiffer compared to the tibia as the mice age and it could be because of a trabecular component which induces flexibility in tibia. The biomechanical performance of femurs, ulnae and tibiae were determined in C57Bl/6 mice. Femurs, tibiae and ulnae of all the groups of mice were analyzed using micro-CT and three-point bending. We calculated the ultimate load to failure (UL), elastic stiffness (ES), modulus of elasticity (E) and the moment of inertia about bending axis (MOI) for each bone.
Linear regression models with robust standard errors were used to determine differences in all the parameters with age in each bone and sex. Micro-CT scans of all the bones were analyzed to determine cortical bone volume per tissue volume (BV/TV), trabecular bone volume per tissue volume (BV/TV) and cortical bone area (B.Ar) and tested for correlation with the biomechanical parameters. The significance level was set to p < 0.05. In conclusion, aging effects on the skeleton need to be evaluated in a site-specific fashion and global conclusions extrapolated from one bone to another may not be valid. Significant differences between sexes occur across aging in bone.
Title from PDF of title page viewed February 4, 2019; Dissertation advisor: Ganesh Thiagarajan; Vita; Includes bibliographical references (pages 89-93); Thesis (Ph.D.)--School of Computing and Engineering and School of Dentistry. University of Missouri--Kansas City, 2018
2018-01-01T00:00:00Z