Energy foundations can reduce carbon footprint and lead to energy savings. Understanding the process of heat migration in soil is therefore of great interest in the field of geotechnical engineering. However, limited literature exists on the thermo-dynamic interaction and structural performance of an energy foundation and the surrounding soil. Lab testing of energy foundations remains inexpensi...

In the first part of this thesis the means are described by which an industrial disc stack centrifuge may be scaled-down to process in a meaningful fashion small volumes of particle suspensions. The centrifuge separation characteristics so measured were suitable for direct scale-up predictions of centrifuge performance. Experiments with a dye tracer and a reduced number of discs indicated that ...

Measurement of drainage relative permeability by the centrifuge method was first introduced by Hagoort. It has been shown that capillary end effects can cause errors in the measurements if a minimum rotational speed is not honored. To determine the min ! , we propose maintaining the value of capillary-gravity number, cg N , to be of the order of 10 -2 or smaller, at which the capillary end effe...

Might the gravity levels found on other planets and on the moon be sufficient to provide an adequate perception of upright for astronauts? Can the amount of gravity required be predicted from the physiological threshold for linear acceleration? The perception of upright is determined not only by gravity but also visual information when available and assumptions about the orientation of the body...

*The 'thaw-expansion hypothesis' postulates that xylem embolism is caused by the formation of gas bubbles on freezing and their expansion on thawing. We evaluated the hypothesis using centrifuge experiments and ultrasonic emission monitoring in Pinus contorta. *Stem samples were exposed to freeze-thaw cycles at varying xylem pressure (P) in a centrifuge before the percentage loss of hydraulic c...

This report describes the development of a hand-powered centrifuge to determine hematocrit values in low-resource settings. A hand-powered centrifuge was constructed by using a salad spinner. Hematocrit values were measured by using the hand-powered device, and results were compared with those of a benchtop centrifuge. The packed cell volume (PCV) measured with the hand-powered device correlate...

For traditional centrifugal capillary pressure curve measurements, a short core plug is often employed. The capillary pressure is assumed to be zero at the outflow boundary of the core. The traditional experiments are time consuming. Measurement of the full capillary pressure curve often requires 7 to10 different centrifuge speeds, thus requiring one day to several days for measurement. Differe...

Purpose The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of gravity acceleration on choroidal and retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) thickness using swept-source optical coherence tomography (SS-OCT). Methods Thirteen healthy volunteers who planned to participate in human centrifuge training as part of the flight surgeon selection process enrolled this study. During centrifuge training, gra...