Polygon Distances with Applications to High Performance Liquid Chromatography
Vito Michael Capuano · TigerPrints (Clemson University) · 2015
Analytical chemistry uses high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) to separate desired macromolecules from a fluid. This thesis is concerned with monolithic column environments used in HPLC separations. The monolithic column environment under consideration consists of many long polymer fibers suspended in a tube. Between the fibers are voids (interstices) which regulate the separation process. The goal of this thesis is both to identify interstices of a size such that the interstice contributes to the separation process, and to identify the boundaries of the fibers along such interstices. We model the cross section of the column environment with a collection of polygons. We define the desired interstices and boundaries in the model. We implement (using C++) an algorithmic approach to identify the desired boundaries from which we generate images and summarize relevant data.