bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Moving to Midsize
Authors: Thilmany Jean
Published: July 2018

This article elaborates the benefits of an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system for small-to-midsize businesses. A large number of small-to-midsize engineering and manufacturing operations are now bringing enterprise resource planning systems into their operations. ERP software is distinct from a product lifecycle management application, which is where engineers store information about the product they’ve defined. ERP systems link design and manufacturing with business processes such as new orders, purchasing, credit, accounting, supply chain management, and planning. They stretch from business headquarters across production facilities, warehouses, and sales offices. By linking these operations, ERP helps executives understand and forecast all the factors—from sales and purchases to asset utilization and hiring—that might affect profits. An ERP system offers control over all areas of the business in one centralized place. Several developments are now helping smaller companies make the transition: costs for ERP systems are coming down, implementation is becoming easier, and systems are targeted to smaller players.
Next Generation of Transport Engines
Authors: Mazzawy Robert S.
Published: July 2018

This article discusses the features of very high bypass ratio turbofans and open rotor engines. Each of these engine options has its pros and cons to consider. The very large bypass ratio turbofan engine maintains that the proven capability of containment of blade failures is inherently quieter due to ability to incorporate acoustic treatment in the fan duct and is not subject to high fan tip losses associated with direct exposure to higher cruise level flight speeds. The duct does not come for free, however, and installed weight becomes a primary concern as the increased bypass ratio drives up the engine diameter. Additionally, the fan is subject to higher local airfoil incidence when the fan nozzle un-chokes at low flight speed. The open rotor engine can achieve potentially greater improvements in propulsive efficiency than a turbofan but lacks the containment and noise reduction benefits of a duct. The rotor is also exposed to flight speed, driving up tip losses at today's accepted cruise flight speeds.
The Elephant in the Room–Gas Turbine Power
Authors: Langston Lee S.
Published: July 2018

This article presents an overview of gas turbine combined cycle (CCGT) power plants. Modern CCGT power plants are producing electric power as high as half a gigawatt with thermal efficiencies approaching the 60% mark. In a CCGT power plant, the gas turbine is the key player, driving an electrical generator. Heat from the hot gas turbine exhaust is recovered in a heat recovery steam generator, to generate steam, which drives a steam turbine to generate more electrical power. Thus, it is a combined power plant burning one unit of fuel to supply two sources of electrical power. Most of these CCGT plants burn natural gas, which has the lowest carbon content of any other hydrocarbon fuel. Their near 60% thermal efficiencies lower fuel costs by almost half compared to other gas-fired power plants. Their installed capital cost is the lowest in the electric power industry. Moreover, environmental permits, necessary for new plant construction, are much easier to obtain for CCGT power plants.
Cranking up Wrench Time
Authors: Shallwani Ali
Published: July 2018

This article discusses how Six Sigma analysis in a chemical plant helped it keeping the technicians efficient and its machinery reliable. The focus of this project was the wrench time of the technicians—that is, the actual time they spend in the field carrying out their primary job. An initial survey, based on examination of work records, discovered that the wrench time of the technicians was about 20%. It was suggested that by improving wrench time, the company would control overtime expenses of the technicians and would also improve service to ensure reliable and smooth operation of the plant’s machines. A Six Sigma approach was employed to identify the issues responsible for the low wrench time and to identify the solution for improvement. The approach had five steps: define, measure, analyze, improve, and control. The approach was useful in the identification of the factors responsible for the problem. The major success of the project was the reliable operation of the plant, the objective for which the management had been striving.
Risk-informed Decision Making
Authors: Ayyub Bilal M. , Prassinos Peter G. , Etherton John
Published: July 2018

This article presents an overview of the need for inclusion of an effective risk analysis program in a product’s lifecycle. Risk-based technologies (RBT) are tools and processes used to assess and manage the risks of a component—or even of an entire system. One RBT method is risk assessment, which consists of hazard identification, scenario-probability assessment, and consequence assessment. Another method is risk control, which uses failure prevention and consequence mitigation, as well as risk communication. Risk can be quantified by estimating probabilities and consequences in a qualitative manner using expert opinion and communicated using matrices for preliminary screening. There are four primary ways available to deal with risk within the context of a risk management strategy: risk reduction or elimination, risk transfer, risk avoidance, and risk absorbance or pooling. The use of tools such as risk analysis helps enable decision makers to be as informed on the risks involved with each choice as they are with other important parameters of the system such as strategic importance, schedule criticality, cost, and customer satisfaction.
Satisfaction
Authors: Frehill Lisa
Published: July 2018

This article discusses the results of a survey conducted to understand reasons why people give up engineering. The survey looked at engineers’ experiences in the workforce after they have graduated from college, including whether they have remained in engineering or not. The survey data show that there is not much difference in women’s and men’s retention in engineering when looking at new graduates. The results from the survey show that more than one in five of all engineers said that they are very satisfied with their job. The data show a complicated picture of job satisfaction that depends on gender, discipline, and whether they are still doing engineering work. The most satisfied men are chemical or electrical and computer engineers who are now in non-engineering jobs. The issue of equity in engineering is an important one for the Society of Women Engineers as an organization and for engineering as a discipline. There are larger differences in attrition across engineering disciplines. In addition, the data show that those who leave the job are not necessarily less satisfied with their jobs than those who stay.
Part of the Solution
Authors: Thilmany Jean
Published: July 2018

This article presents numerous examples of rapid prototyping applications in the United States and explains its benefits. Constructing housing via rapid prototyping methods is expected to save time and money and bring affordable and environmentally friendly housing to people in need. Using an additive-manufacturing technique for constructing new buildings could provide emergency housing for victims of disasters. The technique could also be used for affordable housing for those in the United States or in third-world countries, or for creating new housing styles that bring curved, organic designs rather than straight surfaces to the homes. In industrialized countries, automating the manufacturing of products such as shoes or cars can cut costs about 25% as compared to manual construction methods. Makers of rapid prototyping technology are using CT scans to create exact-fit implants for craniofacial and maxillofacial operations. The rapid prototyping process is also being matched with humanitarian efforts in another project, this one situated in war-torn Iraq. Analysts suggest that custom medical devices and low-cost housing—affordable for everyone and quick to manufacture accurately—will help grow rapid prototyping into a robust industry.
Wind, Fire and High-Rises
Authors: Madrzykowski Daniel , Kerber Stephen , Kumar Sunil , Panindre Prabodh
Published: July 2018

This article focuses on the need for synergy between the practical experience of fire departments and cutting-edge engineering practices that could lead to significant improvements in firefighting and firefighter safety. Experiments on Governors Island have been conducted to examine the effects of natural ventilation and positive pressure ventilation on a fire. The experiments would also allow researchers to study the means of egress from the building, and how conditions were affected by the use of wind control devices and high-rise nozzles. These studies provided real-scale data to guide the development of appropriate tactical operations for use under wind-driven conditions. Given the high cost and limited opportunities for full-scale experiments, modeling has used to address the need of understanding how to implement the tactics in buildings and under conditions outside the test parameters before the fire department would fully implement the new tactics as standard operating procedure. The Polytechnic Institute has developed a web-based, interactive multimedia general methodology, as well as a specific tool called Advanced Learning in Integrated Visual Environments (ALIVE).
Asking for Trouble
Authors: Langston Lee S.
Published: July 2018

This article focuses on the mechanical limitations of commercial jetliners while flying through volcanic ash clouds. Flying through thick volcanic ash cloud can cause millions of dollars’ worth of damage to the engines—or even shut them down entirely. In order to find out what actually happens in a jet engine ingesting volcanic ash, there is a large body of laboratory data and analysis carried out from 1980 to 1996 by Michael G. Dunn and his colleagues at the Calspan Corp. in Buffalo. Based on the work of Dunn and his co-authors, Boeing has produced a video that goes through a set of procedures that a flight crew can take when encountering ash clouds. The rather extensive research work done by the Dunn group details the effects of volcanic ash on jet engines themselves. According to Dunn, research yet needs to be done on the extent that unfilterable tiny ash particles contained in the ash-laden engine compressor enter the cabin air (the haze reported on flight BA 9) and its effect on sensitive aircraft electronic components and humans.
Digital Tolerence
Authors: Thilmany Jean
Published: July 2018

This article demonstrates the use of model-based definition (MBD), which can lead to improve productivity and reduce time-to-market. MBD is a method of annotating 3D computer-aided design models with geometric and tolerancing information. With Boeing moving to model-based definition, members of industry have approached the team in Montreal about investigating MBD’s usefulness. Experts believe that the MBD format, if widely adopted, would have implications for inspection. The part would be inspected against the tolerances contained within the CAD model rather than against the 2D engineering drawings, and that would speed the process and potentially make it even more accurate. The cultural change that will have to take place at most engineering companies will be difficult to tackle, and engineering and manufacturing managers know this. A model-based inspection software is being developed to read geometric, dimension, and tolerance information attached to a solid model. This will minimize operator input during development of coordinate measuring machine programs and improve the accuracy and integrity of the inspection process.
Credit to the Bicycle
Authors: Wicks Frank
Published: July 2018

This article focuses on the engineering credit that should be given to the bicycle designs and its hand in today’s technological innovations. Design improvements during the first 90 years of the bicycle’s history provided much of the initial technology that was extended to modern motorized forms of transportation. More important than the bicycle’s effect on the close of the 19th century was its influence on the 20th. The most common hybrid vehicle of the future may not be the now familiar four-wheel automobile combining an internal combustion engine and electric motor, but the electric bicycle that can be powered either by a rider’s muscles or energy stored in a battery. A development like that would be almost full circle. The only difference between that future and the first safety bicycle would be that electric power was harnessed along the way.
Engineers as Visionaries
Authors: Slabbert N.J.
Published: July 2018

This article emphasises on the need of intellectual leadership role for engineers in reindustrializing America. If America has lost its technological and industrial compass, it is strongly arguable that engineering is better equipped than most other professions to correct it by helping the nation build a new vision of its technological future. The reindustrialization of America on a massive scale is now needed more urgently than ever, and engineers have a pivotal role to play in it: not only in its implementation, but also in motivating the American public and its policymakers to pursue reindustrialization and technological innovation as a national goal. The article concludes that engineers must move into a central place in the nation’s intellectual life, rather than occupying a technical advisory role on the side. If they achieve this, a new golden age of industrial productivity may yet await America in the 21st century, with engineers in the forefront of the visionaries who lead it.
Manufacturing Crossroads
Authors: Brown Alan S.
Published: July 2018

This article examines the American manufacturer’s outsourcing strategy to bring production closer to home. According to a survey by the international accountant firm Grant Thornton, 20% of US respondents brought sourcing closer to home in 2010, and 28% did so in 2009. The survey results show that between 1980 and 2007, China’s share of value added in global manufacturing rose from 2% to 14 %, while the United States generally held steady from its 1980s level of 22%. Nearshoring is not the same as bringing work back to the United States. Yet nearshored plants are easier to manage because they are close and share the same time zones as the United States. This makes it far easier for US managers, researchers, and engineers to interact with plants, so those functions stay in the United States. The United States retains a reputation for quality, and exports are likely to grow if the dollar remains weak.
The Era of Insufficient Plenty
Authors: Voeller John G.
Published: July 2018

This article discusses the problem of insufficiency, recognizing limitations, and responding to the challenges posed by diminishing natural resources. Most of the world’s increase in energy consumption has been driven by developing nations, such as China and India, as well as Eastern Europe and Eurasia. Under intense international pressure, China said it would not eliminate rare earth exports. Still, China has sent a clear signal to manufacturers of advanced magnets, motors, superconductors, and other products. If they want unrestricted access to rare earth elements, they must move their factories and make their products in China. Armin Reller, a materials scientist at Germany’s University of Augsburg who has studied mineral reserves, estimated in 2007 that we are on track to run out of hafnium by 2017. Experts suggest that to solve the problems of insufficiency, the current generation needs to start thinking differently. The article concludes that the United States will need outstanding science and great engineering to resolve those potential shortfalls; however, they can no longer act in a vacuum.
Rebuilding a Broken Land
Authors: Blake Keller G.
Published: July 2018

This article highlights the joint efforts of the US military divisions and government programs in rebuilding Bab al-Sham in Iraq. Beginning in March 2009, the Industrial Advisor from Baghdad ePRT Northeast, embedded with the US Army’s First Brigade Combat Team, First Cavalry Division, began to work in an industrial center called Bab al-Sham, on the northern edge of Baghdad. The development team helped formalize a group into a registered nongovernmental organization called Noor Association representing Bab al-Sham’s factory owners. The three main problems—inadequate electrical power, competition with imports, and lack of loan capital—were largely beyond the reach of the project team; however, the team worked with Noor Association to address them. The project team and Noor Association began an effort to lobby the Ministry of Electricity to provide power in a continuous block of eight hours during the business day. It is believed that perhaps the key factor in the project’s success was that the project team served to enable efforts already underway, and worked within legal and cultural constraints to empower individuals to help themselves.
Tuning In
Authors: Thilmany Jean
Published: July 2018

This article focuses on challenges posed by human factor engineering and designing tools, applications for cross-cultural population. The companies who work on cross-cultural design projects face the problem of human-factors-engineering problem. Designers need to understand the culture of those they are designing for; however, they are expected to still face problems. In some African nations, pearl millet grows abundantly but cannot be used as a large source of food because villagers have a difficult time removing the grain from the husk. Developing practical, simple threshing tools is more difficult than it may seem. The article also highlights that the products must be designed specifically for the people who will use them. Catapult’s designers and engineers rely on the computer-aided design and analysis software common to the industry—and they follow the usual product development process. But they are uniquely sensitive to cultural differences. The human factor is the most important influence in the way people use their tools. Designing for that, it seems, requires quieting one’s own cultural expectations, observing, asking the right questions, and listening.
Positive Reinforcement
Authors: Brown Alan S
Published: July 2018

This article focuses on the future applications and challenges of nanotube-enhanced composites. In spite of their well-known strength and stiffness, nanotubes have proved incredibly difficult to harness, especially in composites. Researchers have eventually found ways to compatibilize nanotubes by attaching molecules to the nanotube surface. Some formulators compatibilize nanotubes for infusion processes, which pump resin into reinforcing fiber preforms. Electric hybrid car designer Velozzi is working with Bayer Materials Science LLC, a subsidiary of Germany’s Bayer AG, to use nanotube-based composites in its high-performance electric Supercar and its more affordable plug-in hybrid Solo. Lockheed Martin is investigating a complete range of applications for carbon nanotubes in both materials and electronics. The company wants to incorporate nanotubes into its established production methods. Nanotubes improve resistance to impact, fatigue, and microcracking, all properties related to resins. The result is a much stronger and more durable composite.
Viking vs. Samurai
Authors: Brown Alan S
Published: July 2018

This article discusses the application of mechanical engineering concepts in a day-to-day TV serial world. Instrumenting weapons and armor showed that Viking chain mail could withstand the slashing attack of a Samurai katana in the TV series named Deadliest Warrior. The show pits fighters with different styles of fighting who never met—Spartan vs. Ninja or Apache vs. Gladiator —against one another. The show’s experts include a doctor, a computer programmer, and Desmoulin, the go-to guy for figuring out the impact of ancient arms. They feed their findings into a Monte Carlo simulation that runs hundreds of simulations and picks the most likely winner.
The FUD factor
Authors: Teska Kirk
Published: July 2018

This article explains the Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt (FUD) factor with patent searching. FUD also applies to aspects of patents other than searching. The Internet has made patent searches easy, but there is always a chance that something will be overlooked. The main reason to search patents is to evaluate the likelihood that an invention is new and unobvious enough to be patentable. However, there is no law or Patent Office regulation that requires you to perform a patent search before filing a patent application. In fact, the Patent Office will always conduct a search once you file a patent application whether you perform a search or not. However, patent search is a cost-benefit decision, because if your searching uncovers evidence demonstrating you probably will not get a patent, you will save the money you would have spent to have a patent application prepared and filed. In the final analysis, business decisions need to be made despite FUD. Today, the data set upon which patent business decisions are based, although still incomplete, is at least a lot easier to build.
Approaching Zero
Authors: Lieuwen Tim , Richards George , Weber Justin
Published: July 2018

This article explores different ways to keep carbon emissions to minimum. The pressure of meeting environmental and energy security concerns while also satisfying growing demand requires the current generation to increase, diversify, and optimize the use of energy sources. The alternative to pre-combustion capture approaches, which generally lead to high hydrogen combustion, is to capture the carbon after combustion. Combusting biomass is another approach to achieve low net carbon emissions. Recently, significant interest has emerged in algae as a biomass supply. Some species of algae grow at phenomenal rates, providing a new option for biomass supply. Continued development of advanced combustion methods, materials, and process controls might be expected to increase the potential to follow the load. However, the relative contributions of load following and energy storage are expected to depend on the specific combination of renewable power and fossil fuel backup. Major programs from the US Department of Energy, the European Union, China, India, and other countries are underway, in addition to internal programs at many of the largest energy and petrochemical companies in the world.
The Question of Credibility
Authors: Thornton Jack
Published: July 2018

This article presents an overview of capabilities and applications of finite element analysis (FEA) in engineering analysis. FEA is useful wherever the risk of material failure or engineering error has serious consequences—any of the legal, regulatory, and bottom-line ramifications of product failure. They also point out that credibility lies at the heart of every simulation effort, FEA or otherwise. FEA software developers have made it easier to use their software via user-friendly graphical user interfaces. FEA is a uniquely powerful tool for prototyping, as well as reducing the traditional build-test-break cycle from months or even years of trial and error to weeks of digital calculations and validations. Digital prototyping also allows designers to quickly dig into more design options. Most complicated engineering analyses use nonlinear FEA for challenging problems. Nonlinear FEA includes elastic and plastic transformations; tension and compression; buckling; fixed and sliding contacts, fatigue, creep, large deflections and deformations; large strain; hyperelasticity, viscoelasticity, viscoplasticity, and many others. In the real world, each of the linear and nonlinear uses is problematical. Getting them right depends heavily on the analysts, so their skills should be also validated and verified.
Tuned to the Forces of Nature
Authors: Zimmerman Greg
Published: July 2018

This article discusses the importance and need of bearing simulation models for designing efficient and high-performing bearing systems. Bearings play a key role in ensuring critical rotating parts spin freely under all operating conditions. Yet bearings remain among the more difficult components to model accurately. Bearings are a key component in industrial gears, but they are rarely modeled with any fidelity. Most simulations rely on simplified bearing models or simply assume rotating parts will spin perfectly. Accurate and validated bearing models must represent many rotating and interacting components. They must also consider complex boundary conditions, since bearing performance is highly dependent on the application and its operating environment. Many different system design and operating parameters influence the performance of bearings. Some can be controlled during operation. Others cannot, but may still have a significant impact on system performance. Design for Six Sigma enables engineers to gain insight into these parameters by designing experiments for virtual testing.
Preparing for the Intelligence Era
Authors: Noor Ahmed K.
Published: July 2018

This article provides an overview of various technologies meant for developing intelligent digital engineering ecosystems. The article also highlights the need to develop new methods for combining visual and haptic impressions to provide a high degree of immersion, and enable touching and moving virtual objects. Some current activities are devoted to studying and improving the relation between humans and computing devices. One of these activities is the Human–Computer Confluence, an interdisciplinary initiative funded by the European Commission, as part of its Future and Emerging Technologies program. Intelligent digital engineering ecosystems will closely link research and academic institutions with industry and policymakers, and will facilitate the networking of innovation knowledge. They will enable the widespread adoption of augmented reality; the seamless integration of virtual and physical worlds; establishing a new baseline for human functionality; and experimentation with novel modalities of expression. They will accelerate advances in neurocomputation, artificial general intelligence, and other novel technologies, as well as the synergistic union of the human brain, intelligent computing devices, and the ambient intelligence environment to usher in the Intelligence Era.
Cells into Systems
Authors: Kamm Roger D. , Nerem Robert M. , Jimmy Hsia K.
Published: July 2018

This article focuses on different research efforts of Emergent Behaviors of Integrated Cellular Systems (EBICS) for creating biological machines. EBICS’s mission is to create a new scientific discipline for building living, multicellular machines that solve real-world problems in health, security, and the environment. The goal of building biological machines may be achieved through either of two distinct pathways— engineered systems and emergent systems—and the distinctions between them are important and fundamental. While a great deal of progress has been made developing the components for biological machines, one key challenge is the limited understanding of how cells interact with each other and with their environment. In order to create a biological machine, engineers will need to understand the language that cells of different types use to communicate with each other. Biological machines of the future will encompass the complexities of nature, the intricacies of which we are just beginning to comprehend.
A chill to the heart
Authors: Merrill Tom
Published: July 2018

This chapter focuses on various aspects of therapeutic hypothermia. Scientists and researchers are exploring new applications and devices that seek to save vital organs, particularly hearts and brains, from undergoing excessive damage after a heart has stopped and been restarted. Research is under way to make cooling more efficient by concentrating o n a specific organ of interest. A medical company is working on an endovascular regional cooler for the heart. Funded by Small Business Innovative Research grants from the National Institutes of Health and by angel investment, the technology seeks to rapidly cool heart tissue during emergency angioplasty. FocalCool is developing a new guide catheter called CoolGuide. CoolGuide maintains the functionality of standard guide catheters, providing coronary artery access for devices like angioplasty catheters and stents, while also delivering targeted chilled blood to heart tissue at risk. Researchers believe that therapeutic hypothermia can also improve lives by saving seemingly tiny amounts of tissue at risk, enabling vital organs to continue working well. Therapeutic hypothermia is an exciting and evolving field of medical care.
Fishing for Robots
Authors: Brown Alan S.
Published: July 2018

This chapter reviews various research efforts to study animal group behaviors to boost bioengineering. The chapter also shows that understanding how a school of fish moves as one provides insights into controlling teams of autonomous robots. Unpowered robotic gliders can use simple rules to maintain their formation, even in choppy waters. Researchers have tried to use dynamical systems analysis to understand how the group makes the right decisions, how it uses feedback to correct poor decisions, and whether such rules would work with robots. Using analytic methods, teams looked at how the two informed groups of fish battled it out to lead the naive fish, which made up the vast majority of the school. Research has shown how sensitive group patterns can be to who is sensing whom. As soon as everyone starts sensing everyone else, the only stable solution is the whole group moving in a straight-line direction.
Open roads
Authors: Winters Jeffrey
Published: July 2018

This chapter explores experiments conducted by different automotive engineering teams competing in the Automotive X Prize to design a car that can get 100 miles per gallon. The performance goals the X Prize Foundation laid out are so specific that they could have a positive effect on the entire high-efficiency segment of the automotive industry. Unlike a lot of the cars entered in the X Prize, the Tango is a production vehicle, though the runs are small. Tango is one of the heavier cars in the competition. It is also solidly built with a race car-style roll cage protecting the driver. The car, entered by Edison2 of Lynchburg, Va., is quite narrow, however, instead of tucking its wheels inside, the footprint mounted them on posts that extend away from the body, or fuselage. The vehicles had some performance standards to meet, and each one would be taken to Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois to undergo rigorous emissions testing. The biggest effect the Automotive X Prize competition may have is providing a new set of benchmarks for car designers to meet.
The Culture of ABS
Authors: Johnson Ann
Published: July 2018

This article explains features and advancements in the antilock braking systems (ABS). The ABS campaign is an example of the way that advertisements can inadvertently make engineering design seem like a process of fulfilling corporate visions. An antilock braking system monitors the rotating speed of an automobile’s wheels and, when it detects a too-rapid deceleration, momentarily releases the pressure applied to the brake. As ABS developed as a device, so did the community working on it. The problem at hand and the community addressing it were defined and evolved simultaneously. Initially, a community of about 50 researchers and design engineers formed around the problem of skidding automobiles. Electrical engineers from electronics firms, including Siemens and American Microsystems, joined the community by presenting papers at conferences on the use of purpose-design, solid-state microprocessors in cars. The challenge of introducing electronic control to the automobile industry, questionably reliable new technologies in general, was therefore shared by several companies that all moved to include integrated circuits and microprocessors in their designs. The real history of ABS presents a much more engaging picture of how engineers really bring products to market.
Childhood Engineers
Authors: Thilmany Jean
Published: July 2018

This article discusses features of various engineering programs developed for children to nourish them with engineering know-how from their childhood. Scientists believe that to encourage children to grow up wanting to be scientists or engineers it is necessary to have a culture that visibly values such professions and emphasizes their excitement. Reaching children early and giving them the tools they need is characteristic of the FIRST Robotics Competitions, which have been a major force in reviving children’s interest in hands-on mechanical activity in recent years. As a direct result of FIRST, there are thousands of teams of young people building robots that perform specified tasks. SAM Animation, built by Tufts professor Chris Rogers, is a stop-action program that helps kids visualize sequenced events and scientific concepts. The program combines the hands-on animation program with other communal aspects of learning to introduce hard-to-grasp concepts to students. This mingling of techniques helps all types of learners grasp the concept.
Mass Customization's Missing Link
Authors: Anderson David M.
Published: July 2018

This article focuses on the missing link in mass customization. Mass customization has not really caught on yet because of a missing link—knowing how to actually design and build mass-customized products. The solution is concurrently engineering product families and flexible processes so any product variation within a family can be built on-demand using common parts that are always available. Accomplishing this requires some new and different strategies: production strategy, supply chain strategy, design strategy, and marketing strategy. The production strategy aims to build any variation in a product family on demand economically, which requires versatile flexible processes without expensive setup charges or delays. Supply chain strategy assures that all parts, modules, and materials must be always nearby and spontaneously resupplied by using some specific techniques. Design strategy concurrently engineers the design of the product families and their flexible processes to build customized products on-demand from common parts and materials. Marketing strategy identifies product families that have a need for mass-customized products and can be economically built on demand.
Scale Matters
Authors: Goldsmith Marc
Published: July 2018

This article highlights the need to reevaluate the size of power plants for electricity generation. For decades, the common wisdom has been that increasing the scale of new electric generating units would lead to declining electricity costs. However, since the economic crisis of 2008, the load growth has declined with the declining economy. The elements that argue for bigger scale have become less important, and new factors have arisen that may reduce or mitigate the advantages of scale. The rate of growth in electric demand has become much less predictable. It is also becoming more difficult to raise capital for large plants. The high cost of large new generations of baseload renewable, nuclear, or carbon-free power plants is difficult to support in today’s investment environment. Smaller plants today are both more efficient and more economical to operate than past designs—and thus offer the possibility of overcoming many of the advantages of scale. Moreover, the progress in this area is continuing, both at the grid level and at the distributed or community level.
A freeze in time
Authors: Taagepera Jaan , Tyson Nathan
Published: July 2018

This article discusses the use of freeze plugs in the maintenance of industrial plants. In 2006, ASME published a standard PCC-2—Repair of Pressure Equipment and Piping—to guide plant personnel in the swift and safe execution of several lesser-known but very valuable repair techniques, regardless of their experience. One such repair technique that is well documented in PCC-2 is the use of freeze plugs, which prevent flow in pipes to allow for downstream maintenance activity. A freeze plug, unlike the hot tap, does not compromise the integrity of the pipe pressure boundary by welding or drilling. The freeze plug is created by installing a bolt-on jacket around the pipe through which liquid nitrogen (at –321°F) is circulated until the water in the line freezes. Employing a freeze plug can prove to be more efficient both in terms of cost and schedule than the other repair alternatives. The concept is simple but execution must be well planned.
PBMR-A Future Failsafe Gas Turbine Nuclear Power Plant?
Authors: Langston Lee S.
Published: July 2018

This article presents an overview of a pebble bed modular reactor (PBMR) power plant. A PBMR power plant is a gas turbine nuclear power plant that completely eliminates the possibility of a devastating loss-of-coolant accident. In a PBMR power plant, uranium dioxide nuclear fuel, coated with mass diffusion and radioactive fission product containment layers of pyrolytic carbon and silicon carbide, is formed into nuclear poppy seed-sized fuel particles. Some 15,000 of these are embedded in a tennis ball-sized graphite sphere, which is encased in a thin carbon shell, sintered, annealed and machined to a uniformed diameter of 6 cm. The PBMR reactor vessel, 90 ft high and 20 ft wide, is packed with about 450,000 heat-producing nuclear pebbles. Helium gas coolant then flows around and between the pebbles stacked in the reactor vessel, emerging at about 900°F. The Chinese are currently building two pebble reactors that will be used to generate steam for a conventional Rankine cycle.
Rebranding Engineering
Authors: Brown Susan Ipri
Published: July 2018

This article explains why it is important to remove the growing conception that engineering sciences can be treated as a commodity. It highlights that currently, non-engineers are making laws for engineers. These same people evaluate candidate’s statements on the issues and elect officials. An informed electorate—aware of the value of engineering for maintaining the bridges, safety of the cars, etc.—will demand that the public conversation supports and funds these issues. Until engineers’ community gets there, there will be a lack of support for major infrastructure and other long-term projects, budget attacks on funding for and support of research and development programs, and politicians who can ignore scientific facts and still get elected. If engineers’ community gets success in changing the public conversation, more engineers might be encouraged to run for public office. Scientific advisors within the State Department would get public attention and their opinions expressed in front page news articles. However, their efforts will bear only minimal fruit as long as the public conversation stays as it is now.
A New Breed of Robots that Drive Themselves
Authors: Tilbury Dawn , Ulsoy A. Galip
Published: July 2018

This article elaborates the advancement in unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) technology. UGVs are the robotic ground vehicles capable of operating in a variety of environments and functioning in place of humans. They are being used for a variety of commercial and military purposes. UGVs can go to places where humans cannot, such as hundreds of meters down oil well pipes. These kinds of robots are on the brink of becoming an integral part of the everyday world. However, to truly become revolutionary, UGVs need a capability beyond locomotion, a suite of sensors, and a manipulator arm. They need to be able to navigate new environments without the guidance of a human operator. There are several research projects aimed at improving UGVs and making the technology ready to take on a larger role in the economy. These projects include such concepts as adjustable autonomy, enhanced reliability through design optimization, control reconfiguration, and augmented reality user interfaces.
Project + Lifecycle Together
Authors: Thilmany Jean
Published: July 2018

This article discusses the advantages of integrating project portfolio management (PPM) with product lifecycle management (PLM) software for project planning. Many engineering companies are now stepping forward to integrate their PPM and PLM systems for more close-up project planning. By tying the two systems, engineering firms are better able to manage time spent on specific projects, to get an overarching and realistic view of where the project stands, to stay on the schedule and to meet specific goals. The tied systems also allow engineers to get a broad view of the project that extends beyond their engineering piece. In engineering companies, where the project status is inevitably tied to the engineering department, closing the loop between theoretical plans and engineering progress can make for big budgetary savings and offer important insight into product planning. Many engineering companies that do not yet have a PPM system are now considering implementing one to plan their product mixes.
Engineering a Better Guitar
Authors: Schile Richard
Published: July 2018

This article discusses applying engineering principles to build a superior guitar. In one prototype created, the transverse underbrace, located directly opposite the bridge, is proportioned so that the neutral plane at this location lies within the soundboard. The underbrace is notched to allow the king brace, made of fir, to pass through. Four spruce diagonal braces are also present in the compression zone between the bridge and the lower edge of the sound hole. To support the soundboard, two short, stiff cantilever beams are bonded to the upper neck extension using spacer blocks to allow the beams to pass outside of the sound hole. The free ends are connected with a short bar to provide a reactive member supporting the compressive forces in the soundboard. In the first six months or so after construction, the acoustic performance of the first prototype was good but unexceptional. After a year, however, both the acoustic power and quality of sound were found to be outstanding.
Five Steps to Evaluate a Gas Turbine Inlet Air Filtration System
Authors: Wilcox Melissa
Published: July 2018

This article discusses five steps for evaluating a gas turbine inlet air filtration system. The first step to evaluate an inlet filtration system is to study the operating environment. It is important to understand what must be removed from the air by the filtration system before evaluating the existing system. Once the operating environment is defined, the existing filtration system can be evaluated. Third step is the maintenance, which is an important part of any system. It ensures that the system will stay in an operable condition and perform as required. There are several tasks which, if performed consistently and correctly, can ensure that the filtration system operates properly. Fourth step is the upgrades, which should be considered if the operator finds deficiencies in the current filtration system. The fifth step is completing a lifecycle cost analysis. This analysis quantifies the cost and performance of a system in monetary terms to obtain a lifetime cost of the system. The lifetime costs between two different system options can be directly compared.
Myth v. Fact
Authors: Reilly John , Crimmins Allison
Published: July 2018

This article predicts future global energy demand under a business-as-usual scenario. According to the MIT projections, conventional technology supported by fossil fuels will continue to dominate under a business-as-usual scenario. In fact, in the absence of climate policies that would impact energy prices, fossil fuels will supply nearly 80% of global primary energy demand in 2100. Alternative energy technologies will expand rapidly. Non-fossil fuel use will grow from 13% to 20% by 2100, with renewable electricity production expanding nearly tenfold and nuclear energy increasing by a factor of 8.5. However, those sources currently provide such a small share of the world's energy that even rapid growth is not enough to significantly displace fossil fuels. In spite of the growth in renewables, the projections indicate that coal will remain among the least expensive fuel sources. Non-fossil fuel alternatives, such as renewable energy and nuclear energy, will be between 40% and 80% more expensive than coal.
The International Language of Codes
Authors: Thomas Aby
Published: July 2018

This article discusses how knowledge of ASME codes helped an engineer in his career. Aby Thomas was a young engineer in India in the 1990s when he got an invitation from a Saudi Arabian company for the job of a project engineer. Aby was able to get this job, thanks to his knowledge of manufacturing pressure vessels and boilers and of ASME code requirements. In that job, Aby helped the company in setting up to meet all the requirements for obtaining the ASME, USA, and PP Stamps in the first external audit. As a result, Aby was promoted a level, from project engineer (mechanical) to superintendent (fabrication) immediately and in the next year one more level as general superintendent. Later, Aby's experience with ASME and National Board codes helped him secure another job in Bahrain. He joined the Bahrain Petroleum Co. in 2002 at the Bahrain Refinery as a field supervisor and today he is employed as a senior engineer for cost and planning in the plant engineering department.
A Cable to Shrink the Earth
Authors: Woods Robert O.
Published: July 2018

This article discusses how the invention of the telegram revolutionized the communication process in the mid-19th century. On August 15, 1858, Queen Victoria sent a telegram to President Buchanan. It was a joint American and British effort, spearheaded from the American side by an indefatigable financier, Cyrus West Field, and on the British side by a telegraph company. The message of 98 words took sixteen and a half hours to transmit. The cable that carried Victoria’s message was laid in two sections beginning from a rendezvous point in mid-Atlantic. Two converted battleships spliced their cargoes and parted laying cable; the Agamemnon provided by the British government steered east to Ireland, and the American Niagara west to Newfoundland. Before this cable was laid, there was no direct communication between continents. No message could travel faster than the fastest steamships, which required at least 10 days to make the sea voyage between America and Europe. The submarine telegraph cable reduced communication time from days to hours.
Energy Meets Water
Authors: Hightower Mike
Published: July 2018

This article discusses the need for new technologies to address emerging energy and water challenges. The demand for both energy and water is expected to grow with growth in global economy and population. Therefore, there is a need to minimize future conflicts between energy and water development and to foster more reliable and sustainable use of these two very important natural resources. Several renewable energy technologies and alternative cooling approaches for thermoelectric power plants exist that could reduce water consumption for electric power generation. Improving dry, hybrid, and other alternative cooling technologies and carbon sequestration approaches could help lower future water consumption and reduce the water footprint of power plants. Likewise, research to address the issues that are limiting the implementation of low-water-use renewable energy technologies could accelerate their use, reducing both water consumption and carbon emissions. Any major scale-up of alternative transportation fuels must consider approaches that use less fresh water than current methods, and must improve water use efficiency in mining, processing, and refining future fuel resources.