Abstract
The motivation behind pursuing the topics of thermal metrology and historic trades is multifaceted due to the varying nature of their related papers. When it comes to thermal metrology, the motivation lies in attempting to understand material characteristics and operations at extreme temperatures. Missions to space require operation in low temperature vacuum environments much like the environment the technical capstone hopes to model. Material testing in these environments helps engineers and scientists learn what materials are made of, how they operate, and understand possible uses at a variety of temperatures. Historic trades, their historical uses and current standings, are a personal interest of mine as a huge fan of fantasy worlds and historical dramas. Many fantasy books and movies written today use historical trades and skills, like sword making and sword fighting, to enrich the narrative and to compliment worldbuilding. Often while reading these books or watching these shows, I am left to wonder if these historic trades are being depicted accurately and why such skills are not used to the same magnitude today.
Thermal management and material characterization are critical in modern engineering, especially for applications involving heat and energy transport in electronics. One of the most important material properties is thermal conductivity k, defined as the rate at which a material conducts heat (Parsonage, N. G., 1966). Accurate measurement of k allows engineers to predict performance, prevent overheating, and improve efficiency. The three-omega, 3ω, method is the k measurement technique we seek to employ in this project (Cahill, 1990). Thermal conductivity is highly dependent on temperature, especially as materials approach cryogenic, near absolute zero, temperatures (Parsonage, N. G., 1966). For most materials, k increases nearly linearly with decreasing temperature until about 10 Kelvin, where the slope flattens (Parsonage, N. G., 1966). Understanding material behavior in this region requires precision experimentation. This precision thermal metrology capstone will focus on refurbishment of a cryostat chamber, seeking to reach 10 Kelvin and below, equivalent to –263.15 °C. A cold head will be in the center of the chamber, on which the 3ω experiment will occur. This cold head will have a line for helium flowing through it to maintain the low temperature. The cryostat will interface with a refurbished compressor that pumps the helium. A vacuum environment is necessary to reach ultra-low temperatures, and therefore necessary for these experiments (Vacuum | Research Starters | EBSCO Research). The cryostat will need to withstand an interior operating pressure of 10^(-8) Torr while Earth’s atmospheric pressure is applied onto the whole exterior of the chamber and the vacuum seal. At such a low interior pressure, heat transfer through convection, a transfer of heat through fluid, air in this instance, is negligible.
Historic trades are dying; that should be obvious by their distinction as being ‘historic.’ This loss is not due to lack of interest or whimsy, but due to a lack of education and viability. There are hundreds if not thousands of trades and skills that have been lost to time. These trades are defined by no longer being widely accessible or necessary for everyday life like they once were. Only specialized and modestly sized programs at arts colleges, living museums, and apprenticeships offer the immersion necessary for true mastery of these trades (Start your career | the campaign for historic trades, n.d.). Sometimes tradespeople must travel across the country or even abroad to receive the preferred and often required training for a trade due to its sparseness. Many tradespeople today are a result of their family’s trade educational background or due to access within their local community to a historic trade program (Young People Keeping Dying Trades Alive, 2019). Understanding how historic trades are kept alive and used today is the major emphasis of the STS research paper. Additionally, the paradigm shift away from historic trades and into the Industrial Revolution and mass manufacturing will be explored.
While the technical capstone and STS research papers are unrelated from a scientific lens, both are research heavy and the diverging topics required the development of a variety of skills. The most insights were gained from the STS research paper on historic trades; the topic was personally very interesting to me and took my knowledge from a cursory level to the position of an informed and scholarly writer. The technical capstone educated me on the quite lengthy and iterative processes for building a device for scientific testing. Additionally, serving as the treasurer for the technical capstone developed my skills in project budgeting and management. If these two projects had been completed separately, I would not have learned the variety of research techniques needed to investigate a broad swath of topics concurrently, a temperature testing device and a paradigm shift phenomenon within historic trades.
Notes
School of Engineering and Applied Science
Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering
Technical Advisor: Ethan Scott
STS Advisor: Bryn Seabrook
Technical Team Members: Mia Petersen, Mary Cotter, Mohammad Ahmadzai, Andrea Rojas Ramirez, Brandon Flores Castaneda, Matthew Alexander Orellana-Aquino, Raymond Ni, Philip Li, Jimmy Chen, Jonathan Martinez, Tristan Huynh, Jimmy Bastos Infantas
