Biology implements intriguing structural design principles that allow for attractive mechanical properties—such as high strength, toughness, and extensibility despite being made of weak and brittle constituents, as observed in biomineralized structures. For example, diatom algae contain nanoporous hierarchical silicified shells, called frustules, which provide mechanical protection from predato...

Regenerative Thermal Oxidizer (RTO) is one of the best solutions for removal of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC) from industrial processes. In the RTO, VOC in a raw gas are usually decomposed at 950-1300 K and the combustion heat of VOC is recovered by regenerative heat exchangers charged with ceramic honeycombs. The optimization of the treatment of VOC leads to the reduction of fuel addition t...

Deformable energy absorbers play a vital role in crash protection systems. However, prevailing stringent design requirements to mitigate impact damage in a limited space have advocated a need for superior energy absorbing materials and versatile and compact structures. In this thesis, an intelligent compact energy absorbing structure is presented that alleviates the impact by distributing load ...

Wood has been used as a material to build mechanical structures for thousands of years. As a natural composite of cellulose fibers embedded in a matrix of lignin, this organic, cellular solid resists both tension and compression. Its properties depend on the direction of loading of its cells − whether radially, tangentially, or axially − and such anisotropy is modeled well as a regular honeycom...

We report a two-step process for the growth/patterning of Ni honeycomb nanostructures on various substrates, such as carbon paper, carbon nanotubes (CNTs), silicon wafers, and copper grids, via the combination of a sputter-coating/patterning technique and a replacement reaction solution method. The morphology, crystallinity, and chemical composition of the honeycombs were analyzed by SEM, TEM, ...

The standard n n torus consists of two sets of axes: horizontal and vertical ones. For routing h-relations, the bisection bound gives a lower bound of h n=4. Several algorithms nearly matching this bound have been given. In this paper we analyze the routing capacity of modiied tori: tes-sellations of the plane with triangles or hexagons and tori with added diagonals. On some of these networks t...

We use ab initio density functional calculations to study the formation and structural as well as thermal stability of cellular foamlike carbon nanostructures. These systems with a mixed sp(2)/sp(3) bonding character may be viewed as bundles of carbon nanotubes fused to a rigid contiguous 3D honeycomb structure that can be compressed more easily by reducing the symmetry of the honeycombs. The f...