MRI: Acquisition of a High-Speed Camera for a Primarily Undergraduate Institution

这项NSF重大研究仪器奖将支持对Phantom VEO 640L高速相机的收购，这是一种关键的研究工具，可用于西部新英格兰大学(WNE)校园内的尖端研究和教育，特别是在机械工程和生物医学工程系内。这款相机的速度、分辨率和内存将使WNE的研究人员能够在能源-热流体、材料科学和生物医学工程领域进行开创性的研究。WNE主要是一所本科院校，有很高比例的第一代学生、少数民族学生和非传统学生。该项目将为本科生提供研究经验，并将为以后的更多研究机会打开大门，特别是为妇女和少数群体。拟议的设备将加强WNE的工程课程，因为本科研究活动被整合到高级设计项目中。此外，它还将为参与拟议研究活动的学生提供研究培训机会。此外，拟议的工作将加强学术界和产业界之间的合作。高速相机将用于增进对质子交换膜(PEM)燃料电池中的传输现象、机械脉动射流的剪应力分布、二氧化硅包裹纳米颗粒的纳米制造以及对被忽视的传染病的诊断测试的了解。PEM燃料电池输运现象的研究将包括：(1)液体水滴在气体扩散层表面和声波压力波影响下的变形和去除；(2)液体水滴出现和生长过程中PEM燃料电池流道内气液两相流压降的变化；(3)PEM燃料电池中液滴在机械振动作用下的变形；(4)微通道内毛细尺度两相流的失稳。所有这些现象都发生在毫秒量级，因此，研究它们将需要高速成像。通过测量不同雷诺数、不同距离、不同脉动频率和不同喷嘴出口速度下平面上的剪应力分布，研究了机械脉动射流的剪应力分布。这些发现将被用来进一步改进冲击射流在各种应用中的性能，并验证关于这一主题的许多数值研究。该高速相机还将用于研究二氧化硅涂层纳米粒子在电喷涂纳米加工过程中的毛细流体不稳定性，这有望解决先进结构纳米材料制造中长期存在的可伸缩性问题。在生物医学工程系，将研究微流控流动，以提高在被忽视的传染病诊断测试中的样品制备性能。这项研究中获得的结果可以成为这一特定应用以及在低资源环境中使用的多个护理点式微流控平台的转型因素。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This NSF Major Research Instrumentation award will support the acquisition of a Phantom VEO 640L high-speed camera which is a critical research instrument toward cutting-edge research and education across campus at Western New England University (WNE), particularly within the departments of Mechanical Engineering and Biomedical Engineering. The speed, resolution, and memory of this camera will enable researchers at WNE to conduct pioneering research in the areas of energy-thermo-fluids, material science, and biomedical engineering. WNE is a primarily undergraduate institution, with a high proportion of first-generation, minority, and non-traditional students. This project will provide research experiences to undergraduates and will open doors for additional research opportunities thereafter, especially for women and minorities. The proposed equipment will enhance WNE's engineering curriculum as undergraduate research activities are integrated in senior design projects. In addition, it will provide research training opportunities for students who will be involved in the proposed research activities. Moreover, the proposed work will increase partnership between academia and industry.The high-speed camera will be used to advance knowledge in transport phenomena in proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells, shear stress distribution of a mechanical pulsating jet, nanomanufacturing of silica-coated nanoparticles, and diagnostic tests for neglected infectious disease. The studies on PEM fuel cells transport phenomena will include; (i) liquid water droplet deformation and removal on the surface of the gas diffusion layer and under the influence of acoustic pressure waves, (ii) variation of liquid-gas two-phase flow pressure drop in PEM fuel cell flow channel during emergence and growth of liquid water droplets, (iii) deformation of liquid water droplet under mechanical vibrations in PEM fuel cells, and (iv) destabilized capillary-scale two-phase flow in microchannels. All of these phenomena occur in orders of milliseconds and therefore, studying them will require high-speed imaging. The shear stress distribution of a mechanical pulsating jet will be investigated by measuring the spatial and temporal shear stress distribution on a flat surface at various Reynolds numbers, stand-off distances, pulsating frequencies and nozzle exit speeds. The findings will be used to further improve the performance of the impinging jet for various applications and to validate numerous numerical studies on this topic. The high-speed camera will also be used to study the capillary fluid instabilities during Nanomanfucaturing of silica-coated nanoparticles using Electrospraying, which holds great promise to solve the long-standing scalability issue in manufacturing of advanced structured nanomaterials. In the Department of Biomedical Engineering, microfluidic flows will be studied to achieve enhanced sample preparation performance in diagnostic tests for neglected infectious diseases. The results obtained in this study can be a transformational factor for this particular application as well as across a number of point-of-care microfluidic platforms for use in low-resource environments.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.