Browsing by Subject "Collision"
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Item A Collision Deformer for Autodesk Maya(2015-03-04) Wang, WeiBelievable physical interactions involving collisions between objects are essential in motion graphics and video games. The most common approach to create such effect is to employ dynamics simulation. However, to create a simple collision effect, dynamics simulation is time-consuming and lacks artistic control. This paper presents a custom deformer for creating simple collision effects in Autodesk Maya. The deformer determines intersection between objects by performing inclusion tests for selected vertices, and approximates the elastic behavior of the soft body in response to collisions by applying a controllable deforming algorithm to the object surface. No physics simulation is required in this process. The deformer supports interacting with multiple collider objects and at the same time provides artistic control for the user to manage the deformation. The deformer has proven successful for creating plausible deformation of simple collision interactions in a fast, controllable manner.Item The impact of climate and tectonics on sedimentary and deformational processes, Gulf of Alaska(2012-12) Reece, Robert Sherman; Gulick, Sean P. S.Collision of the Yakutat Terrane with North America in southern Alaska has driven growth of the Chugach-St. Elias orogen. Glaciation of the St. Elias Range has periodically increased since the Miocene, but began dominating erosion and spurred enhanced exhumation since the mid-Pleistocene transition at ~1 Ma. Ice associated with this glacial intensification carved cross-shelf sea valleys that connect the St. Elias Range to the deep-sea Surveyor Fan. A newly increased terrigenous sediment flux into the fan triggered the formation and growth of the Surveyor Channel. The change in geomorphology observed throughout Fan sequences allows us to characterize the influence that a glaciated orogen can have in shaping margin processes and the sediment pathways from source to sink. Seismic data also reveal an isolated, large, short runout, mass-transport deposit (MTD) buried in the Surveyor Fan. The MTD geometry, size and location on a convergent margin lend support to recent studies suggesting seismic strengthening and infrequent sediment failure on active margins. This study provides insight into the magnitude and scope of events required to cause submarine mega-slides and overcome higher than normal sediment shear strength, including the influence of climate and sea level change. Beneath the Surveyor Fan, integrated geophysical data reveals massive intraplate shearing, and a lack of oceanic crust magnetic lineaments in regions of Pacific Plate crust. We argue that stress from the Yakutat-North America collision transferred outboard to the Pacific Plate is the major driver for the deformation causing these features. This stress would have resulted in significant strain in the NE corner of the Pacific Plate, creating pathways for sill formation in the crust and Surveyor Fan. The collision further intensified as the thickest Yakutat portion began to subduct during the Pleistocene, possibly providing the impetus for the creation of the Gulf of Alaska Shear Zone, a >200 km zone of shear extending out into the Pacific Plate. This study highlights the importance of farfield stress from complex tectonic regimes in consideration of large-scale oceanic intraplate deformation.Item Tailored functional colloids and interfaces for nanoparticle impact electroanalysis(2016-05) Robinson III, Donald Arlington; Crooks, Richard M. (Richard McConnell); Stevenson, Keith J.; Johnston, Keith P; Mullins, Charles B; Shear, Jason B; Yeh, Hsin-ChihNanoparticle impact electroanalysis (NIE) is a new electrochemical method under development for fundamental physicochemical studies of single nanoparticles (NPs) and potential applications in biosensing of single molecules with ultralow limits of detection. This dissertation introduces the tailored design, synthesis, characterization, and optimization of functional materials that comprise the foundation for the NIE detection strategy of interest, which is based on the principle of electrocatatlytic amplication (ECA). The investigations presented herein focus on two materials that function as the foundation in the ECA-NIE detection strategy: 1) the ultramicroelectrode (UME) used to contact these NPs individually from solution and 2) the NPs themselves, which are the primary focus of this dissertation. The specially designed materials described have helped to overcome major fundamental limitations associated with the ECA detection strategy and thus improve critical figures of merit for NIE. In Chapter 1, the incorporation of Hg as the UME material is shown to significantly improve signal-to-noise, reproducibility, and time resolution for the NIE platform. In Chapter 2, the fundamental problem of colloidal instability is addressed and rectified by experimentally guided systematic optimization of the ECA solution conditions, in turn providing the means to properly calibrate and theoretically model NP impact events in terms of NP size and rate of impact at the UME surface. Chapters 3 and 4 highlight the synthesis, characterization, and analytical application of bifunctional catalytic/magnetic Pt-decorated iron oxide NPs for NIE. The bifunctional NPs serve as essential tools to overcome fundamental limitations of mass transport, which is achieved by physical manipulation using an externally applied magnetic field focused at the UME detection surface. The incorporation of magnetophoretically focused and accelerated NP transport results in a significantly improved limit of detection in comparison to diffusion-limited NIE strategies. In Chapter 5 we return to the study of NP aggregation kinetics with NIE and discuss mechanistic insights into the physicochemical processes that most likely influence Pt NP colloidal stability. The methodologies described in this dissertation provide an experimental blueprint to help establish a solid physical/analytical foundation of this rapidly evolving field of research.