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Module 6 (Elective)
In module 6 the choice is up to you what type of module you are going to follow. Students have the option to choose between: Materials Science and Engineering, Systems and Control, Transport Phenomena and Software Systems & Introduction to Mathematical Analysis. Below you can find more information about each individual module.
Module 6A Materials Science and Engineering
In any device whether this is an electronic transistor, solid-state battery or a gas sensor, several properties of different materials are combined to achieve a desired functionality. The objective of the module Materials Science and Engineering is to get the student acquainted with the relation between basic properties of materials and their functional application. This includes obtaining knowledge of the direct connection between material properties, structure/composition and material synthesis. At the end of the course, the student should be able to describe the functional properties of materials used in a specific device and be able to connect these to basic material properties in relation to the ability to synthesize these materials.
The module consists of a general part in which first the relation between the functional properties of materials and the microstructure is discussed; subsequently the relation between the microstructure and specific synthesis techniques is studied. The second part is an elective part of either a chemistry track course that focuses on the effects of interfaces in materials with emphasis on catalytic reactions, or a physics track course that focuses on charge transport in semiconductor devices.
The course Advanced Materials deals with the relationships between material properties and microstructure/composition. The course provides knowledge and insight into the functional properties of various material classes; and it provides understanding of the relations between microstructure and properties of materials. Topics to be discussed are magnetic materials, dielectric and optical materials, mechanical properties, electrical properties, and thermal properties.
The course consists of lectures on the structure and functional properties of several material classes (polymer, ceramic and metal). In the lectures theory as well as practical cases are discussed. Furthermore, groups of 3 students will study a specific, technologically relevant material system, which will be presented to the other students.
This lecture series addresses a number of fundamental topics that are at the basis of modern materials science. Both thermodynamics and kinetic aspects of solids and solids formation are discussed. The fundamentals of thin film growth kinetics, the theory of nucleation and growth, phase diagrams, and the thermodynamics of phase transformations will be treated. Solid state aspects of diffusion of atoms and ions in crystalline materials will also be addressed in detail.
The course Chemistry and technology of materials deals with the relation between material synthesis and structure/composition. It will focus on the effect of specific synthesis techniques on the achieved microstructure, which determines the material properties, and therefore, can determines specific functionalities in materials.
The course consists of lectures on the relation between microstructure and applied synthesis techniques (thin film, thick film, bulk) of inorganic materials. Various physical vapour deposition techniques as well as chemical vapour techniques for films will be discussed as well as sol gel and sintering techniques for obtaining bulk materials. The effect of strain in materials, caused by epitaxial growth, will also be studied. Furthermore, groups of 3 students will study a specific, technologically relevant material system, which will be presented to the other students.
Semiconductor Devices
Microelectronics strongly affects our daily life. The amount of integrated microelectronic circuits (ICs) rises drastically in many applications such as automotive, telecommunication, health care, portable computing and internet (ICT). In addition there is a continuous trend in increasing the complexity of the basic electronics building block, the microchip, realized in advanced CMOS (complementary metal-oxide semiconductor) technology, partly driven by the desire for increasing functionality. The microchip is formed by several key components, basically semiconductor devices. This course describes the physical working of these basic semiconductor devices and translates those to electrical characteristics.
It covers an introduction to the classical electron devices: the pn-junction and the Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor Field-Effect Transistor (MOSFET). The physical working is illustrated using diagrams of energy, electric field, electrical potential and concentration, and the principal formulae for the simplified devices are treated. After the lectures and tutorials the students should understand the limits of the electrical performance of classical devices and should perform a literature survey on how to tackle these. Finally, they should write a 5-10 pages report about their findings.
Physical Chemistry of Interfaces
Physical Chemistry of Interfaces is a broad introduction in interfacial science, with a special emphasis on catalysis. Interfaces are everywhere in our daily life and interface effects are in many cases crucial (for instance in the functioning of the lungs). Interfaces become increasingly important when we reduce the dimensions. The behaviour of nanoparticles is for instance, mostly determined by their interfaces. We’ll explain the relationship between catalysis and nanotechnology in this course.
We’ll start the course with an introduction in (chemical) kinetics: the mathematical description of (the speed) of (chemical) reactions. We also explain some chemical reaction mechanisms. Subsequently we study the physical and chemical properties of different interfaces (solid-gas, solid-liquid, gas-liquid), with special attention for topics like the wetting properties of surfaces (contact angle), stability of colloidal systems (like emulsions and foams). This knowledge is then applied on catalytic reactions, where we study adsorption and desorption of reactants and products, catalytic mechanisms, transport of the reactants/products and the identification of the catalytic mechanisms/materials in detail.
Module 6B Systems and Control
The module focuses on the analysis, modelling, simulation, and control of dynamic systems and consists for AT students of three parts.
The aim of this course is to learn how to model and analyse the behaviour of physical systems, in which several physical domains can be present like a loudspeaker, an electrically driven fluid pump, an automotive transmission and an electric motor. Bond graphs are used as a modelling language: the system behaviour is represented in terms of elementary behavioural concepts and their relations, independent of the physical domain. This port-based modelling approach is based on the use of the concept of energy as a conserved physical quantity. The interactive simulation program 20-sim is used to simulate and analyse these dynamical models. The use of numerical solution methods for simulation is discussed as well with the aim to be able to find the proper numerical method and its settings for the simulation of specific dynamic models and to judge the accuracy of the results.
This course focuses on the analysis, modeling, simulation and control of dynamics systems. Topics covered include representation and analysis of dynamic systems in the s-domain, analysis of dynamic systems in the frequency domain, synthesis of feed-forward and state-feedback, feed-back control to reduce the sensitivity of a dynamic systems for disturbances and parameter variations, and stability and sensitivity analysis.
In the project the knowledge of Engineering System Dynamics and Control Engineering has to be applied to design and build a controlled system. Examples of these are a hovercraft and a Segway.
Design Lab
As an AT student you can make use of the design lab to produce the parts of your project
Module 6C Transport Phenomena
For ‘Transport Phenomena’ as a whole, the course is a first introduction in the field and serves as a basis for subsequent courses in the areas of fluid dynamics, transport phenomena, process technology and separation technologies. The course uses a systematic approach to quantitatively describe the transport phenomena occurring in physical and chemical technology and engineering practice.
This course consists of the parts ‘Fluid Dynamics’ and ‘Heat and Mass Transfer’
Fluid Dynamics
In the course ‘Fluid Dynamics’ is the starting point in these approaches the use of the Laws of Conservations for mass and momentum. These dictate that these quantities can only change, for a given control volume, by means of inflow and outflow or (in case of momentum) by an external force exerted. These ‘conservation law’-principles can be applied to macroscopic volumes (“macro balances”) but also to infinite small volumes (“micro balances”). This results in the Navier-Stokes equation, which is the fundamental basic differential equation for describing Fluid Dynamics. The latter equation is also at the basis of nearly all fluid dynamic problem descriptions, as encountered in e.g. meteorology, aerodynamics, aeronautics, process technology and bio-rheology. In the course relatively simple, but frequent encountered examples will be discussed, like tube flow and flow past a sphere.
Heat and Mass Transfer
For ‘Heat and Mass Transfer’ subsequently the different transport mechanisms for heat and mass (molecules) will be introduced and discussed: molecular transport, convective transport and radiation (heat only). For molecular transport (in case of heat and mass this is conduction respectively diffusion) both stationary as well as instationary (transient) transport will be treated, mostly based on analytical solutions (among which the penetration-theory) for Fourier’s Law. For convective transport, both forced and free (‘natural’) convection will be discussed, based on correlations for the transport coefficients. Convective transport will be discussed for flow through tubes and past objects (sphere, plate, cylinder). For laminar flow analytical solutions and approximations will be used (laminar tube flow, boundary layer theory). Tools and methods introduced in the Numerical Methods sections will be applied and used for comparison. For turbulent flow the approach using experiment-based correlations prevails.
Heat transfer by radiation is confined to (chemical) engineering applications. Mass transfer from one phase to another will be introduced as an analogy to heat transport. Hereby the film model will be introduced. Attention will be given to the specific differences between heat and mass transfer, like a difference in solubility (distribution coefficient) and a possible effect of drift flux. Additionally, the phenomenon of coupled heat and mass transport will be discussed.
Finally, conceptual descriptions for concurrent and countercurrent apparatuses for heat and mass transfer will be discussed.
Transport phenomena are ubiquitous in science and technology, with a wide range of applications in different fields. Transport processes are usually described by a set of mathematical (differential) equations, which often cannot be solved analytically. Consequently, a numerical approach is valuable and needed to understand the transport problems. This course will introduce the fundamentals of numerical computation, programming and solving of (differential) equations. A powerful software package, Matlab, will be used. The examples, problems and assignments used in this course will be closely related to the Transport Phenomena discussed elsewhere in the module.
In the project, skills of problem analysis, systematic approach, recognizing the appropriate transport phenomena, formulating and solving (modeling) the correct balances, and reporting are further integrated and developed.
Module 6D Software Systems & Introduction to Mathematical Analysis
In this module the students are introduced to the design, implementation and testing of software systems, and to performing a project independently.
For the design of software systems, they learn to use Software Engineering models, particularly the UML diagrams (class diagrams, activity diagrams and statecharts), and they get acquainted with the waterfall software development processes.
For the programming of software systems, they learn the core concepts of program structuring, object-orientation and multi-threading with the help of the Java programming language, with attention to correctness by means of (informal) preconditions and postconditions. In addition, the module addresses security engineering aspects in the context of Java. For testing software systems, the students learn to distinguish among the different levels at which testing can be performed (specially unit testing and system testing), the principles underlying a test plan and a couple of relatively simple testing techniques.
For academic and project skills, attention is given to project management, planning, time- and self-management, and reflection on one’s own behavior with respect to planning.
The course aims at providing a further step to real mathematical thinking. You will develop an arsenal of techniques to help you unlock the meaning of definitions, theorems and proofs, solve problems, and write mathematics effectively. All the major methods of proof – direct method, cases, induction, contradiction and contrapositive – are featured. Concrete examples are taken from the field of real analysis: concepts like completeness, limit, continuity, differentiability, integrability and (uniform) convergence of series and functions are treated. The objective is that you’ll be able to catch the motivation behind the mathematics and be able to construct your own valid proofs.
Astatine
The member's room of study association Astatine is a great way to relax and chat