• Radio Frequency Heating of Washable Conductive Textiles for Bacteria and Virus Inactivation

    Abstract: The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has increased the use of single-use medical fabrics such as surgical masks, respirators, and other personal protective equipment (PPE), which have faced worldwide supply chain shortages. Reusable PPE is desirable in light of such shortages; however, the use of reusable PPE is largely restricted by the difficulty of rapid sterilization. In this work, we demonstrate successful bacterial and viral inactivation through remote and rapid radio frequency (RF) heating of conductive textiles. The RF heating behavior of conductive polymer-coated fabrics was measured for several different fabrics and coating compositions. Next, to determine the robustness and repeatability of this heating response, we investigated the textile’s RF heating response after multiple detergent washes. Finally, we show a rapid reduction of bacteria and virus by RF heating our conductive fabric. 99.9% of methicillin¬resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) was removed from our conductive fabrics after only 10 min of RF heating; human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) was completely sterilized after 5 min of RF heating. These results demonstrate that RF heating conductive polymer-coated fabrics offer new opportunities for applications of conductive textiles in the medical and/or electronic fields.
  • Influence of Chemical Coatings on Solar Panel Performance Snow Accumulation

    Abstract: Solar panel performance can be impacted when panel surfaces are coated with substances like dust, dirt, snow, or ice that scatter and/or absorb light and may reduce efficiency. As a consequence, time and resources are required to clean solar panels during and after extreme weather events or whenever surface coating occurs. Treating solar panels with chemical coatings that shed materials may decrease the operating costs associated with solar panel maintenance and cleaning. This study investigates three commercial coatings for use as self-cleaning glass technologies. Optical and thermal properties (reflectivity, absorption, and transmission) are investigated for each coating as well as their surface wettability and particle size. Incoming solar radiation was continuously monitored and snow events were logged to estimate power production capabilities and surface accumulation for each panel. In terms of power output, the commercial coatings made little impact on overall power production compared to the control (uncoated) panels. This was attributable to the overall high transmission, low absorption, and low reflection of each of the commercial coatings, making their presence on the surface of solar panels have minimal impact besides to potentially shed snow While the coatings made no observable difference to increase power production compared to the control panels, the shedding results from video monitoring suggest both the hydrophilic or hydrophobic test coatings decreased snow accumulation to a greater extent than the control panels (uncoated). Controlling the wettability properties of the solar panel surfaces has the potential to limit snow accumulation when compared to uncoated panel surfaces.
  • Dockerization of the Coastal Model Test Bed Toolkit

    Purpose: The purpose of this technical note is to document and describe changes made to the Coastal Model Test Bed (CMTB) suite of software in conjunction with the version 2 (V2) update.
  • USACE awards $617 million contract for VA Health Care Center in El Paso

    The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Fort Worth District, in conjunction with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, awarded a $617.5 million contract to Clark Construction Group, LLC, to construct a state-of-the-art Health Care Center in El Paso, Texas.
  • Repurpose Your Live Christmas Tree for Fish Habitat

    Repurpose your live Christmas tree by donating it to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Rend Lake Project for fish habitat. Donated trees will be bundled together and placed in the lake to create underwater fish structures that improves fish habitat and angling opportunities.
  • Rend Lake Announces the 2024 Small World Program Schedule

    Each month, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers at Rend Lake hosts a Small World environmental education program designed for children five years old and younger, at the Rend Lake Visitor Center. This popular series will continue in 2024 with old favorites and new program offerings. Small World Programs are offered the third Tuesday of each month at 10:00 AM and are free to the public. Each month, a new theme is explored through a story, craft, and activity. While the programs are designed for children five years old and younger, all ages are welcome to attend. Children must be accompanied by an adult.
  • Student Internship Opportunities at Rend Lake for Summer 2024

    The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Rend Lake Project is seeking qualified candidates to fill student internship vacancies for the 2024 summer recreation season. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers offers a great work experience opportunity for students currently enrolled at accredited institutions interested in careers related to the biological sciences, natural resources, park and recreation management, or law enforcement.
  • From Villain to Victor: History of the Bald Eagle Watch

    Bald eagle watches are a popular winter event in many states with wintering eagle populations. Watches began after eagle populations crashed in the 1960s to share information about challenges threatening the birds’ survival.
  • ERDC-PT: A Multidimensional Particle Tracking Model

    Abstract: This report describes the technical engine details of the particle- and species-tracking software ERDC-PT. The development of ERDC-PT leveraged a legacy ERDC tracking model, “PT123,” developed by a civil works basic research project titled “Efficient Resolution of Complex Transport Phenomena Using Eulerian-Lagrangian Techniques” and in part by the System-Wide Water Resources Program. Given hydrodynamic velocities, ERDC-PT can track thousands of massless particles on 2D and 3D unstructured or converted structured meshes through distributed processing. At the time of this report, ERDC-PT supports triangular elements in 2D and tetrahedral elements in 3D. First-, second-, and fourth-order Runge-Kutta time integration methods are included in ERDC-PT to solve the ordinary differential equations describing the motion of particles. An element-by-element tracking algorithm is used for efficient particle tracking over the mesh. ERDC-PT tracks particles along the closed and free surface boundaries by velocity projection and stops tracking when a particle encounters the open boundary. In addition to passive particles, ERDC-PT can transport behavioral species, such as oyster larvae. This report is the first report of the series describing the technical details of the tracking engine. It details the governing equation and numerical approaching associated with ERDC-PT Version 1.0 contents.
  • Amite River feasibility study public meetings scheduled

    Corps seeks public feedback