Undergraduate Research Projects

The following projects were done as Ch.E. 499 projects at the University of Washington, under the supervision of Professor Bruce A. Finlayson. Over 100 undergraduates did these projects from Spring, 2001 through Spring, 2009.

Flow

Delta p
•  Suwimol Kunaridtipol, Sp, 01, “Pressure Drop in Microdevice”
•  Marlina Lukman with Suzanne Snyder (Neah Power), A, 01, “Predicting Pressure Drop in Microfluidic Device”
•  Albert Witarsa, A, 01, “Resistance Coefficients (K) for Sudden Contraction and Expansion”
•  Marlina Lukman with Suzanne Snyder (Neah Power), W, 02, “Predicting Pressure Drop in Microfluidic Device”
•  Albert Witarsa, W, 02, “Resistance Coefficients (K) for Sudden Contraction and Expansion (Cont’d)”
•  Won Ng, Sp, 02, “Pressure Drop Coefficients in a T-sensor”
•  Febe Kusmanto, Sp, 02, “Effect of Orifice Width on Pressure Drop in Microfluidic Orifices”
•  Febe Kusmanto, A, 02, “Pressure Drop in Small Orifices”
•  Michael Harrison, A, 02, "Pressure Drop in Microfluidic Devices”
•  Febe Kusmanto, Sp, 03, “Effect of Domain Length on Orifice Pressure Drops”
•  Bryan Johnson, Sp, 04, “Pressure Losses for Fluid Flow Through Abrupt Area Contraction in Compact Heat Exchangers”
•  Matt Gebhardt, Sp, 04, “Pressure Drop Correlations in Tapered Contractions and Expansions for Laminar Flow”
•  Jeremy VanBuren, Sp, 04, “Pressure Loss due to Sudden Contraction in Rectangular Ducts”
•  Thin Thin Swe, Sp, 06, "Pressure Drop in Expansion Flow"
•  Steve Tian Huang, Sp, 06, "Pressure Drop Study of a Micro-jet Device"
•  Dan Yates, Sp, 06, "Flow Modeling of Swagelok Modular Platform Components"
•  Karl Fincken, Sp, 06, "Fluid Dynamics Analysis of a Modified Venturi Model"
•  Lisa Dahl and Ha Dinh, A, 07, “Pressure Drop in Fittings”
•  Nhu-Chi Ha, A, 07, “Pressure drop for ejectors”
•  Ho Hack Song, A, 07, “Pressure drop for multiple flows in and out”
•  Jordan Flynn, Sp, 09, “Pressure Drop in Microchannels with Slip”
Entry length
•  Trevor Plaisted, W, 02, “Calculating Entry Length Effects of Sudden Contractions in Cylindrical and Planar Geometry”
•  Febe Kusmanto, Sp, 03, “Effect of Domain Length on Orifice Pressure Drops”
•  Jeremy Vanburen, Sp, 06, “Recirculation length and recovery length for expansion flow”
•  Nick Cox, Sp, 07, “Part 1: Microwell mixing with surface tension, Part 2: The effect of entry region on thermal field flow fractionation”
Delta p gases - Kaarin E. Dawes, Sp, 03, “Pressure Drop of Gases in Contractions and Expansions in Microchannels”
Turbulent flow - Zudtky Wisecarver, W, 05, “Modeling Turbulent Flow Past a Hole“
Cryolite flow – Zudtky Wisecarver (Alcoa), Sp, 05, "3-Dimensional Cryolite Flow”
Flow in porous media - Anna Moon, Sp, 07, “Flow of Water in Partially-saturated Soils”
Viscoelastic flow
•  Andrew Griffith, W, 07, “Phan-Thien-Tanner Modeling of a Viscoelastic Fluid in the Stick-Slip Scenario”
•  Hannah Wong, W, 07, “Modeling viscoelastic Flow Through a Quarter Circle Contraction”
Surface tension
•  Nick Cox,, Sp, 07, “Part 1: Microwell mixing with surface tension, Part 2: The effect of entry region on thermal field flow fractionation”
•  Brendan Mercer, W, 08, “Surface Tension of Bubbles”
Charged particles - Ha Tran, A, 03, “Analysis of Flow Containing Charged Particles Through Pipes”
Immiscible flow – Michael Harrison, W, 03, “Laminar Flow of Two Immiscible Fluids Through a Square Duct”
Hole pressure – Stephanie Yuen, Sp, 07, “Calculation of Hole Pressure for Newtonian Fluids”

Flow and diffusion

Mixing
•  Zachary Tyree, Sp, 02, “Mixing in a Microfluidic Chip”
•  Marlina Lukman, Sp, 02, “Mixing of Miscible Fluids in Microdevices”
•  Febe Kusmanto with Elena Garcia (Bioengineering graduate student), W, 03, "Dissolution from a Cavity";
•  Zachary Tyree, W & Sp, 03, (with Bioengineering Post-doc), “Mixing in a Microfluidic Chip”
•  Richard Yasin, A, 03, “Mixing concentration in pipes with indentations and oscillating pressures”
•  Nick Tapias, Sp, 06, “Effect of 2D velocity profiles on optical measurements”
•  Won Choe, A, 06, “How the Permeability and Concentration Profile Changes with Void Fraction”
•  Rachel Freeman, A, 06, “Velocity and Concentration Profiles in Microfluidic Device“
•  Shawn Lillie, A, 06, “Two-Dimensional Orbital Mixing for a Fluid“
•  Nicholas Cox, A, 06, “Microwell Mixing Via Jet Injection and Removal”
•  Nick Cox,, Sp, 07, “Part 1: Microwell mixing with surface tension, Part 2: The effect of entry region on thermal field flow fractionation”
•  Shawn Lillie, Sp, 07, “Orbital Mixing in Comsol using Coriolis and Centrifugal Forces”
•  Daniel Kress, Sp, 07, “Mixing Properties of a Microfluidic Device”
•  Anna Moon, A, 07, “Mixing and Pressure Drop in Serpentine Mixers”
•  Cindy Yuen, Jordan Flynn, Vann Brasher, Lisa Dahl,Ha Dinh, Ho Hack Song, Francis Ninh, Curtis Jenssen, Andi Aditya, Adam Field, Andrew Nordmeier, Sp, 08, "Mixing in Different Devices"
•  Curtis Jenssen, Sp, 09, “Modeling a Micromixer as a Tesla mixer, straight channel, and cross”
Knife edge – Pawel W. Drapala, Sp, 03, "Miscible Fluid Flow Past a Knife Edge"
Dow reactor
•  Albert Witarsa (Dow Chemical), Sp, 02, “Study of Mixing in Dow Microreactor”
•  Richard Yasin (Dow Chemical), Sp, 04, “Characterization of the Dow Reactor”
Catalytic converter – Jacob Harding, A, 07, “Modeling a Catalytic Converter”

Flow and heat transfer

Convective instability – Michael D. Harrison, Sp, 03, "Modeling Convective Instability In FEMLAB"
Heat transfer
•  Yuli Tan, Sp, 04, “Heat Transfer Effects in Small Orifices”
•  Megan McCauley, "FEMLAB Models Used to Test Correlations of Evaporation from Surfaces"
Thermal phoretic
•  Pawel Drapala, A, 03, “Trapping of DNA by Thermophoretic Depletion and Convection in MATLAB”
•  Pawel Drapala, Sp, 04, “Trapping of DNA by Thermophoretic Depletion and Convection in MATLAB”
•  Pawel Drapala, Sp, 04, “Thermophoretic Trapping of DNA: Youtube movie of concentration”
•  Pawel Drapala, Sp, 04, “Development of Velocity Profile: Youtube movie of velocity profile”
Thermal fractionation
•  Nicholas Cox,, W, 07, “Computational Exploration of Thermal Flow Field Fractionation as a Technique for Separating Polymers”
•  Nick Cox,, Sp, 07, “Part 1: Microwell mixing with surface tension, Part 2: The effect of entry region on thermal field flow fractionation”

Flow and mass transfer

•  Megan McCauley, "FEMLAB Models Used to Test Correlations of Evaporation from Surfaces"

Special

Ferrofluid
•  Inga Sellien, Sp, 01, “Simulation of laminar ferrofluid pipe flow in an oscillating magnetic field”
•  Colin Reese, A, 02, “Flow of a Ferrofluid in a Linearly Polarized Magnetic Field”
•  Jonathan Lundt, W, 07, “High Gradient Magnetic Separation as a Means of Water Purification”
•  Karen Pukalo, Sp, 07, “Prediction of the Vortex Viscosity of a Ferrofluid”
•  Yusyani Setyono, Sp, 07 “Perturbation Method applied to Pipe Flow of a Ferrofluid in an Oscillating Magnetic Field”
•  Dewi L. Kauw, Sp, 03, “Use of MATLAB m-files in FEMLAB”
Fuel cell
•  Malia Akana (with Neah Power), W, 03, “Effect of Pore Geometry on the Diffusion Reaction Rate in a Fuel Cell”
•  Malia L. Akana (Neah Power), Sp, 03, "Silicon Etching Related to Fuel Cells"
Electrochemical printer
•  Aaron Lee, A, 07, "Electrochemical Printer Modeling"
•  Mankit Yuen, A, 07, “Modeling an Electrochemical Printer”
•  Paul Roeter, A, 07, “Modeling an Electrochemical Printer with a Moving Boundary”
•  Aaron Lee, Sp, 08, “Modeling an Electrochemical Printer”
Adsorption – Francis Ninh, Sp, 09, “Maximum Adsorption in Microchannels”
Wastewater treatment, Sp, 05, Steve Huang, Toai Nguyen, Sheena Cruz, Albert Change, Angelo Ambion, Dan Ho, Joanne Crompton, Thin Thin Swe, Diana Chung, Nicholas Tapias.

Techniques

•  Dewi L. Kauw, Sp, 03, “Use of MATLAB m-files in FEMLAB”
•  Abhi Banerjee, Sp, 06, "Mesh Refinement Analysis for a Standard 3:1 Contraction"

See also a list in chronological order and the supervisor's web page. These projects were instrumental in helping Professor Finlayson write his book, Introduction to Chemical Engineering Computing (Wiley, 2006, 2012).