bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Heat to Power, Directly
Authors: Winters Jeffrey
Published: July 2018

This article elaborates the recent advancement of nanoscale engineering. With the developments in mechanical engineering labs, researchers have begun to fabricate high-efficiency thermoelectric materials with features as small as a few dozen nanometers. These nanoscale materials behave differently from bulk solids with the same chemistry, and in some cases are easier to produce. It is observed that the cooler made with nanomaterials brought the temperature down some 30° more than one made with two commercially available alloys could. The breakthroughs seen of late in nanoengineered materials suggest that thermoelectricity's day in the sun is closer than ever before. It is found that if nanostructure materials are used, then one can develop a thermoelectric generator that was 8 to 9 percent efficient; intercepting a fraction of the heat from a car's exhaust steam and converting it to electricity could recover 1 to 2 percent of the fuel's original energy.
Engineering vs. Disasters
Authors: Gad-el-Hak Mohamed
Published: July 2018

This article reviews application of science and technology in predicting and control of disasters. Science and technology can also help to control the severity of a disaster, but here the achievements to date are much less spectacular than those in the prediction arena. The prediction of weather-related disasters has had spectacular successes within the last few decades. For disasters that involve fluid transport phenomena, such as severe weather, fire, or release of a toxic substance, the governing equations can be formulated subject to some assumptions—the fewer, the better. The pains-taking advances made in fluid mechanics in general and turbulence research in particular, together with the exponential growth of computer memory and speed, no doubt contributed immeasurably to those successes.
Power to the Glider
Authors: Woods Robert O.
Published: July 2018

This article discusses developments in powered sailplane. Jet propulsion clearly demonstrates the future direction of powered sailplanes. Powered glider applies to a new class of aircraft that takes off under their own power, and then, with the power plant stopped and streamlined, behave as true sailplanes. The advent of radio control has allowed model aviation to progress to an almost unbelievable degree. There are now small turbojet engines commercially available that weigh a little over 5 pounds and deliver 40 pounds force of thrust. Jet propulsion clearly demonstrates the future direction of powered sailplanes.
The Sunshine Solution
Authors: Winters Jeffrey
Published: July 2018

This article discusses the innovative programs of Ausra, a solar power company based in Palo Alto, California, to convert sunshine into electricity. The team is trying to use the best tools available to design a renewable energy system that can be put together by largely unskilled labor and do it cheaply enough to be profitable. The paper also highlights that instead of using one parabolic surface, Ausra divides its mirrored reflectors into strips, each of which concentrates light into a set of pipes mounted 40 feet overhead. A single square mile of mirror field like this one near Bakersfield can generate as much as 80 MW. The Ausra manufacturing plant in Las Vegas is a garden-variety factory, using robotic welders and hard-hatted workers to build the trusses that support the mirrors. According to researchers, a look at a solar radiation map of the United States shows that finding sunshine ought not to be a problem. While the eastern half of the country has too many partly cloudy days to make much use of solar thermal power, the Southwest is one of the best locations in the world for it.
Tar on Tap
Authors: Testa Bridget Mintz
Published: July 2018

This article explores diverse ways adopted by companies to find ways to make extracting oil from the sands of northern Alberta a little easier. At Petrobank’s Whitesands site, heat from in situ combustion both melts and upgrades the bitumen in the underground deposit. Horizontal production wells carry the oil to the surface. However, even with the new processes in place, copious quantities of energy and water are needed to produce oil from sands. In situ production processes exploit bitumen deposits that are inaccessible through surface mining. The facility at EnCana’s Foster Creek site processes some of the water used to extract bitumen in situ. That recycled water is then boiled and reinjected below the surface. Environmental arguments aside, many observers contend that the only argument against exploiting the Alberta oil sands that might have any success is economic—that it might cost more than alternatives. The paper concludes that barring some unforeseen calamity, oil demand is expected to outstrip the capacity of conventional petroleum production. Even if wringing oil from the Alberta sands is expensive and energy-intensive, it is probably a cost most consumers will be willing to pay for access to the next easiest oil.
Pebbles Making Waves
Authors: Langston Lee S.
Published: July 2018

This paper describes various high-level nuclear researches including nuclear-fuelled pebbles that are being conducted across South Africa. The pebbles are ingenious industrial products, designed to passively limit the amount of heat unleashed by the nuclear fission reactions that drive the reactor. The spheres that give the pebble bed reactor its name enclose fissionable uranium inside layers that serve various roles, such as moderating fission, containing pressure, and accommodating deformation of the core. Nuclear-fuelled pebbles are introduced at the top of the reactor vessel and slowly wend their way down through the annular-packed bed under the action of gravity to the bottom of the reactor vessel. In a towering building at the headquarters of Nesca in Pelindaba, South Africa, reactor components are being tested for their ability to work with high-pressure helium. Those parts will go in the pebble bed modular reactor power plant to be constructed at Koeburg, near Cape Town. The plan of the pebble bed reactor power plant will use the helium coolant to run the turbine directly rather than heat a secondary fluid, as in a water reactor.
In-School Analysis
Authors: Thilmany Jean
Published: July 2018

This article highlights introducing undergrads to computerized fluid dynamics (CFD) and FEA software that is not a straightforward affair. Computerized fluid dynamics has become mainstream more recently, but many engineers are finding it just as important to their daily work. In order to prepare engineers to enter such a world, professors have begun a conversation to determine the best way and the best time to introduce students to the analysis software they will likely need on the job. The subject is more challenging, both to learn and to introduce into the curriculum, than computer-aided design. Instructors agree that their students first need a good grounding in CAD before moving on to analysis. Introduction to the software comes after instructors are sure students are comfortable with CAD and have become familiar with a range of analysis concepts. Teaching CAD is a lot easier than teaching CAE, so schools are finding they cannot substitute their CAD teaching methods when it comes to CFD and FEA.
Who Owns Mechatronics?
Authors: Brown Alan S.
Published: July 2018

This paper explains the concept of mechatronics and tries to resolve problem of leadership. It consists of four overlapping circles: mechanical systems, electronic systems, control systems, and computers. Their overlaps form digital control systems, control electronics, electromechanics, and mechanical computer-aided design. The question of who owns mechatronics—who will lead the development of next-generation electromechanical systems—often depends on where engineers work. Companies that make mechanical systems tend to let mechanical engineers lead; those that make electronics assign the lead to software and electrical engineers. In the future, though, the issue may be decided by how colleges train the next generation of mechanical engineers. Right now, most schools teach controls, basic electronics, and programming as part of the mechanical engineering curriculum. Universities are introducing courses with a goal to integrate courses so that electrical, control, and mechanical engineers learn how different disciplines use the same core knowledge to achieve different results.
Bill of Materials: The Record of Choice
Authors: Thilmany Jean
Published: July 2018

This paper describes features of a software that translates bill of materials (BOM) information into formats other systems can use readily. According to experts, an automated system can reduce operator error when moving numbers between software systems. The developers have entered a heretofore little-known software space, which lurks between the BOM and various company systems. In order to truly make use of BOM, many manufacturers must turn to third-party software that not only automates the transfer of data, but also translates information between systems. Third-party software, such as that from Logic Design Corp. of Pewaukee, Wisconsin, ties together manufacturing technologies. The software is particularly useful at engineer-to-order operations. The article also illustrates that the enterprise resource planning (ERP) system is a rich storehouse of information that can be analyzed from a number of angles to get an overall sense of company operations. Many companies rely on ERP information for important tasks such as scheduling manufacturing jobs and ordering parts. This is where tightly integrating BOM and ERP can be a boon to engineering companies.
Managing the Unpredictable
Authors: Bea Robert
Published: July 2018

This paper focuses on case studies regarding Seattle Symphony and hospital pediatric emergency warts for handling the unpredictable situations in different fields. A symphony orchestra is the model of hierarchical organization. The paper emphasizes that the proactive approach attempts to eliminate or mitigate potential failure modes and their consequences through design and training. The reactive approach seeks to learn from previous failures. The paper also discusses that quality assurance is proactive, done before an activity to realize quality goals. Quality control is interactive, undertaken during an activity to ensure that plans achieve the desired result. We can envision interactive crisis management as lifecycle quality control processes that help achieve target quality and reliability in engineered systems. Through hospital emergency study, successful teams transitioned seamlessly from their highly structured everyday organization into loosely structured teams during emergencies. Heedful and respectful interactions characterized the pediatric teamwork. Because they had worked together so long, team members could almost read one another&s minds.
Changing the Game
Authors: Langston Lee S.
Published: July 2018

This article reviews potentially radical advances in gas turbines that came in all shapes and sizes in 2007. Gas turbine production is now a $30 billion industry, one that has been dominated, except for a stretch in the late 1990s, by commercial and military aviation. In its 70-year history, the gas turbine has become one of society’s most important and versatile energy conversion, which is relatively inert. Fuel converted to power through a gas turbine is as kinetic a substance as you can find, and one that can create great wealth. In the $21.8 billion aviation market, nearly 80 percent is for commercial aircraft engines, while the dominance of electrical generation in the $10.5 billion non-aviation market is even greater. New aircraft represents advances for commercial aviation, but commercial jet engines are themselves the key to future growth of the airline industry. While the aviation market has seen steady growth over the past decade or so, the non-aviation market for gas turbines has a noticeable production spike.
Tapping Communities of Practice
Authors: Kerno, Jr. Steven J.
Published: July 2018

This article discusses about engineers who by nature have an insatiable need to learn. Regardless of specialty, engineers are often most comfortable in an environment that includes like-minded individuals who are not afraid to push the limits to achieve something new or original. Whether they are designing the architecture for the next generation of computer chips, evaluating the barriers that must be overcome to allow human travel to Mars, or reducing the costs of staple items to raise the standard of living in an emerging nation, engineers are constantly learning, with society reaping the rewards of their efforts. Communities of practice have potential benefits for everyone involved practitioners, the organizations they work for, and the engineering profession as a whole. Communities of practice exist in nearly every organization, whether or not they are formally recognized. Companies and their management must not expect a community of practice to be the magic solution to a business problem. Inappropriate application and cooptation of communities of practice by managers can be especially damaging.
A Man for His People
Authors: Reis Ed
Published: July 2018

This article discusses the stature of George Westinghouse as an engineer who is rivaled by his skill and integrity as a leader. Beginning with the railroad air brake, Westinghouse’s inventiveness formed the basis of a commercial empire. Given the evidence of his companies when he controlled them, there is another case to be made for George Westinghouse that he may also have been America’s greatest living industrial manager. George Westinghouse was honored in many ways during his lifetime. In 1874, he was awarded the Scott Legacy Medal by the Franklin Institute. He was made a member of France’s Legion of Honor in 1895. The American engineering societies in 1905 honored him with the John Fritz Medal. He was awarded the Edison Medal, named for his greatest competitor, in 1912. In 1913, he became the first American to receive the Grashoff Medal from Germany.
Buying Wisely
Authors: Gree Stephen
Published: July 2018

This article reviews about rigorous equipment specification, which is a sound engineering practice and is important in capital procurement. A complete and robust specification document serves as the basis of all important procurement activities: requesting a bid and competitive bidding, purchasing contract development, and interim and final quality inspection of the delivered equipment. Once the bids have been received, a rigorous, organized, and documented bid analysis should be done. A format that incorporates a comparison of critical variables’ values in each bid should be designed. A rigorous post-delivery inspection is required because there may be serious flaws with the equipment that escaped the manufacturer’s internal quality control. The engineer is better able to thoroughly inspect the equipment at the company site rather than the factory site. Checks involving measurement devices should be included, depending on the type of equipment ordered. Since this is usually precommissioning activity, calibration of instrumentation for this activity is desired, though not required.
Interdisciplinary By Design
Authors: Simpson Tim , Barton Russell , Celento Dave
Published: July 2018

This article highlights about the fact that many speculate on the outcomes of design, but how many consider the process by which designs are executed. The seed for many of these emerging interdisciplinary programs in design is not new either—cutting-edge research and advancements invariably lie at the boundaries of departmental silos. The product-architecture program at Stevens has successfully integrated architecture, engineering, computation, and product development, attracting students with wide-ranging interests and diverse backgrounds in architecture, visual arts, industrial design, mathematics, computer science, and mechanical, aerospace, and biomedical engineering. By focusing on the product or system being designed, the program is dissolving boundaries in design education and launching students along trajectories of design leadership and social entrepreneurialism. As globalization moves engineering, business, and design closer together, many argued that interdisciplinary graduate design programs are the future for the United States to maintain its position in product leadership.
Rethinking Design Theory
Authors: Maier Jonathan R.A.
Published: July 2018

This article reviews a concept borrowed from psychology that has given perspectives on product development. Much progress has been made in new areas opened by the systems-level approach to engineering design. Among them are advancements in our understanding of decision-making, ideation, collaboration, modularity, requirements modeling, lifecycle considerations, robust design, green design, and various other "design for x" strategies. The rethinking of design that is needed now is a conceptual basis that allows engineers to better describe and solve problems at the system level, problems that involve user interaction. The concept we propose to deal with these problems is affordance, a term borrowed from perceptual psychology and popularized by the psychologist Donald Norman is his book The Design of Everyday Things. As the theoretical tenets of design are brought up to date with the increasing demands of systems-level design, systems integration, global marketplaces, new materials, new processes, and other recent demands, we anticipate continued growth and advancement in the field of design theory that will benefit all engineers and designers.
The Route That Forces Take
Authors: Skakoon James G.
Published: July 2018

This article discusses that visualizing the load path in a design can uncover areas open to improvement. Planning the force transmission path during mechanical design is hardly dazzling engineering analysis, but explicitly doing so will improve your designs. By visualizing the transmission of forces, one can eliminate unnecessary parts, strengthen the design, and identify potential problems for further analysis or correction. Visualizing the path of transmitted forces for cables is pretty easy; forces follow the tension cables. But it is only slightly more complex with compression and shear involved. Although design is never a strictly linear progression, reviewing and refining the load path should be a formal part of the design process. Troubles with the load path in user-centered device design may become obvious with testing, but thinking about load paths as a human factor design issue can save time and effort. It is not a highly analytical design tool, but visualizing and refining load paths in structures and mechanisms is extraordinarily useful for designers, and it’s simple.
Strength in Numbers
Authors: Brown Alan S.
Published: July 2018

This article highlights that today, however, American factories are in decline; their products cannot compete internationally, and they are being overtaken by global competitors. US manufacturers not only face very real challenges, but they also have their share of success when compared with many of their counterparts in other countries around the globe. Economists spend a lot of time arguing about the trends behind the data. Yet the debate takes place against a changing background. The US economy has grown more international and more globally integrated than anyone could have imagined 30 years ago. Federal Reserve economists use marketplace feedback to place a value on such added capability, and that is the number that shows up in the IP Index for computer and electronic products. Subtract computers from the index for the manufacturing sector, and the numbers look very different. Hence, manufacturing output should include computers and electronics, but subtracting them from the total provides a very different picture of the rest of the manufacturing economy.
Rolling with It
Authors: Winters Jeffrey
Published: July 2018

This article discusses how researchers are reducing friction in MEMS devices using a very old solution in a new size. In the mid-1990s, the idea that microscale engines could soon be propelling flying skateboards did not seem so far-fetched, because MEMS devices were quickly moving from the laboratory to the marketplace. Researchers had been making the progress needed to produce millimeter-scale turbines to overcome the dilemma. By the mid-1990s, researchers at MIT had built the first air bearing on the microscale. Beginning in the early 2000s, Ghodssi and a research team at Maryland’s MEMS Sensors and Actuators Laboratory that included Matthew McCarthy and Mike Waits began investigating just how to incorporate ball bearings into MEMS devices. Ghodssi is also interested in using ball bearings to support rotating MEMS involved in precision applications. The bearings can provide low-friction support to devices such as sensors that need to rotate just a few degrees at a time.
Nano Entrepreneurship
Authors: Moore Valerie
Published: July 2018

This article focuses on nanotechnological innovations that need to be commercialized before nanotechnology can transform industries, such as energy or biotech. Till date there has been a disconnection between the advances in the lab and commercialization of the nanotechnological breakthroughs. Scientific innovations, especially in fields, such as nanotechnology and clean energy technology, have several barriers within the commercialization cycle. The two biggest barriers to turning university discoveries into commercialized ideas are infrastructure and business development. Texas has the potential to build on its research strength to become the center of the nascent nanotechnology industry, and all that is needed now is an institutional structure that facilitates the collaboration of ideas leading to greater commercial opportunities. Nano World Headquarters’ (NWHQ) target tenants are the startup companies that focus on nanomaterial commercialization. NWHQ facilities and equipment are staged for growth opportunities within the nanomaterials market, starting with aerospace, defense, energy, electronics, catalysis, and consumer products.
Democratization of Customization
Authors: Thilmany Jean
Published: July 2018

This review discusses growth of mass customization since the mid-1990s of the commercial and engineered products. Almost all types of durable consumer products, including clothing, footwear, household furnishings, toys, vehicles, and electrical and electronic devices can now be customized by the buyer at the time of purchase. Mass customization is when something is efficiently customized on demand—not in advance—and it does not cost a heck of a lot more to make than it would if one were making it for everyone at once. Designers who use Shapeways create their models using the free Google Sketchup or the Rhino modeling programs, though Shapeways also offers its own Shapeways Creator program. These simple design tools—along with 3D printing techniques—have played a big role in bringing mass customization methods to the fore. Future prospects shows that the Internet will facilitate a new wave of mass customization, where customers will create and trade designs for physical products in the same way they trade music files.
Patent Slugfest
Authors: Teska Kirk
Published: July 2018

This article focuses on one of the particular patents that have impacted five companies over a span of 10 years. In early 2000, DeMarini sold the Eggiman patent to Wilson Sporting Goods and his company joined forces with Wilson, which itself was faced with a new competitor for the DeMarini double-walled bat. The Eggiman double-walled bat leaf spring design was different from and had advantages over previously known bats. But, because of the existence of these two prior patents, Eggiman’s patent could not cover every possible configuration of an insert within a bat frame or, in the case of the Worth EST bat, the transposition of the frame and the insert. To win a patent, some requirement that is not found in prior technologies must be claimed in the patent application. If that same requirement is not present in a competitor's product, however, there is no patent infringement. Make a contrast of “improvement patents” with disruptive technologies that can be more broadly covered via a patent.
Feedback Loop
Authors: Conrad Sean
Published: July 2018

This article highlights about young engineers who want early performance feedback on how they are doing their jobs. One difference is that younger engineers believe the feedback should stream to them the same way other digitized information does: instantly and often. Managers are finding that tying performance reviews and job feedback to an in-house software system not only makes the younger engineers on their staff happy, but also drives the company's overall performance. Engineering managers looking to attract and retain young talent need to understand that the newest generation of employees—members of Generation Y—seek more feedback and direction than do their older counterparts. Managers at firms with talent management applications in place find they spend less on salaries, bonuses, and other financial incentives. Kennedy/Jenks has clearly defined corporate strategies that are used to drive employees’ goals. Employee, manager, and department goals all contribute toward achieving corporate objectives. In automating the performance management process, Kennedy/Jenks has been able to create a culture where the value of each individual’s performance is clearly understood.
Nixing Engineerese
Authors: Thilmany Jean
Published: July 2018

This article focuses on requirement of soft skills for communicating across departments in an organization. Fortunately, laying the foundation for good working relationships with other departments is a learned skill as experienced by management consultants. It starts with evaluating the role of the engineering department in an enterprise and continues with learning how to best communicate with employees of all personalities and skill levels. One soft skill that is easily learned and honed over time is the ability to communicate clearly. Another tip is to treat the person making a request of you the way you would for an outside customer. If another customer request supersedes, explain that to the employee requesting your time. Always take the time to proofread an e-mail or instant message, or any other form of written communication. Always treat employees from other departments just as you would for those in your own engineering team.
The Oil Age
Authors: Wicks Frank
Published: July 2018

This article focuses on the Oil Age, which began 150 years ago in Pennsylvania and forecasts suggest that it has only few decades left for extinction. In today’s world, much of the fire comes from petroleum, which was first extracted from the ground for commercial purposes 150 years ago. Whale oil was prized for best light and low soot, but production peaked in the 1840s. This was the decade when Herman Melville sailed on a whaling ship, which inspired Moby Dick. The modern Oil Age can be traced to a well near Oil Creek in the northwestern Pennsylvania community of Titusville, where an enterprise managed by Edwin Drake discovered petroleum on August 27, 1859. It was not the first strike of oil in history, but it was the first that intended to exploit oil commercially as fuel. The petrochemical industry that uses mostly oil and natural gas for feedstock started at the beginning of the 20th century in the form of fertilizers and synthetic plastics and polymers. Today our vehicles have better tires that have resulted from using synthetic polymers rather than natural rubber from trees.
Building the New Electric Grid
Authors: Testa Bridget Mintz
Published: July 2018

This article focuses on benefits of the electric meters capable of sharing real-time usage data with the company and customers alike. Creating the smart grid on a national scale will be perhaps the biggest change to the electrical system since the rural electrification effort of the 1930s. Companies are trying to get a more reliable energy system through, for example, outage management systems, rebalancing loads, and getting help with rebalancing through consumers controlling their usage. To provide real-time or near-real time information, which is needed for consumers to monitor and control their usage, the electric meters must communicate with each other frequently. Sensing and monitoring devices at customer premises that let customers control their electric use are explicit elements of smart grids The future smart grid, Smart Grid 2.0, is next-generation, interactive, self-healing, distributed everywhere, and has an innate capability to reach every device.
Facts & Fission
Authors: Rockwell Theodore
Published: July 2018

This article discusses the real-world practicality of nuclear power. Neither reactors nor casks of spent fuel have the capability of going “prompt critical” like a bomb. The laws of nature prohibit it and engineers must make clear that facts of nature are not matters of opinion. The Chernobyl reactor, which failed so spectacularly in Ukraine in 1986, became for many a symbol of the dangers represented by nuclear reactors. But that is not warranted; such an accident is simply impossible for the kind of commercial reactors now being planned or built. From a public safety standpoint, the most important feature of our current reactors is that, after any event that ruptures the reactor coolant system, a large amount of water and steam would be violently swirling around inside the containment structure, even if containment structure has been ruptured. In the emerging context of realistically reexamining many long-held assumptions, engineers will find opportunities to drastically improve the way nuclear power plants are built and operated.
Outside Help
Authors: Borchardt John K.
Published: July 2018

This article discusses companies are making connections to enrich and accelerate the product development. Procter & Gamble (P&G) has more than 300 brands, most of them recognized worldwide, under which it sells products ranging from pet food and laundry detergent to prescription drugs and cosmetics. It is not surprising that the invitation is extended through a Web site, www.pgconnectdevelop.com. The idea of making business-to-business contact over the Internet is not unique to this Web site. Yet2.com (http://www.yet2.com) founded in 1999 by a consortium of P&G, DuPont, Bayer, Honeywell, Caterpillar, Siemens and NTT Leason, offers services that bring buyers and sellers of technology together, enabling participants to maximize the financial return on their intellectual assets. Open innovation creates the opportunity for engineers to engage in a broader range of activities and assume new responsibilities. For open innovation to succeed, engineers need to overcome the "not invented here" mindset and both welcome and use ideas from outside their own organization.
Hands Around The Job
Authors: Wagner Sam
Published: July 2018

This paper focuses on Training within Industry (TWI) that provides a strong foundation for a lean culture. Many manufacturing companies incorporate Lean Manufacturing initiatives to streamline their business procedures. One of the best known is Kaizen, the Japanese word for “continuous improvement.” It is based on short term, focused projects to eliminate waste and improve processes. When integrated into a work environment, TWI can produce sustainable improvements in your operations, creating a strong foundation that can keep your business productive and vital even during today’s challenging economic climate. TWI consists of three key teachings: job instruction, job methods, and job relations. The TWI process provides employees with an opportunity to become certified trainers in each of the three teachings. TWI can teach an entire organization to look at challenges not as problems, but as opportunities for innovation. This tool of the Lean Manufacturing toolbox can serve as the foundation your organization needs to stay competitive and vital for years to come.
Down To The Atom
Authors: Testa Bridget Mintz
Published: July 2018

This paper focuses on supercomputing that is more commonly associated with electrical rather than mechanical engineering. A vast range of mechanical engineering problems-issues of optimization, friction, turbulence, combustion, manufacturing processes, events at the molecular or atomic level, events that involve multiple physics phenomena, and processes that involve many orders of magnitude of space and time-require advanced computational resources to simulate them with high fidelity. Researching processes from the smallest practical level to the largest requires immense calculating resources. Companies, universities, and government agencies are building larger and faster computers to push research and analysis to new levels of complexity. If MEMS switches worked as advertised in civilian and military communications, not only could the radios and phones use less power and therefore be lighter and cheaper to manufacture and operate, but they could also function across a greater frequency range than they do now. Computational engineering and science are seen as a very important tool in moving forward with mechanical systems, design, and technology.
There’s the Rub
Authors: Skakoon James G.
Published: July 2018

This article reviews the mechanical design and a set of practical guidelines for design engineers. Engineers have plenty of technology for controlling friction and wear, including naturally lubricious materials, high-performance lubricants, and rolling element bearings. But where friction is concerned, good mechanical design starts with guidelines. Friction changes with time, reflecting sliding-induced changes to the interface. The traditional single static and single dynamic coefficients of friction are misleading because they do not reflect fluctuations and transitions in friction. The friction coefficient, static or dynamic, has no single, unique value for a given material pair, but rather is a characteristic of those materials when rubbed together under specific conditions. Friction and wear are not material properties; they are system properties. So many test protocols, such as thrust washer tests, will give one result, but actual systems will have different results.
Technology Making It Into Production
Authors: Wilfert Glinter
Published: July 2018

This paper discusses the concept of MTU Aero Engines’ high-speed low-pressure turbine for the geared turbofan, which is based on the European Union research program ‘Clean’. Under the program, MTU developed the high-speed low-pressure turbine, the turbine centre frame, and an integrated heat exchanger. The paper also highlights that Pratt & Whitney, launched its geared turbofan (GTF) demonstrator project and asked MTU to be a partner. MTU has secured a 15 percent stake in either GTF version, which brings its high-speed low-pressure turbine, plus the first four stages of the high-pressure compressor.
Disruption from the Virtual World
Authors: Noor Ahmed K.
Published: July 2018

This review discusses the concept of virtual world and its increasing implementation in the engineering domain. Current virtual worlds are computer-based simulated environments accessed by numerous users through an online interface. Virtual world applications cover a broad spectrum of activities. Globally distributed engineering teams can use virtual worlds as immersive and interactive platforms for concurrent product design, for virtual prototyping and manufacturing, and for workforce training. Virtual worlds are making a paradigm shift in new product development and are becoming an integral part of computer-aided engineering. Virtual worlds provide an opportunity for businesses to reduce production cycle time and increase user input earlier in the development process. NASA is using simulations of remote landscapes in virtual worlds to evaluate extra-terrestrial transportation options and operators. The review also highlights that virtual worlds have the potential of transforming the 2D Internet into a 360° multisensory 3D immersive experience, with all the richness, depth, and extendibility that it implies.
For Keeps
Authors: Winters Jeffrey
Published: July 2018

This paper presents views of award-winning inventor Saul Griffith on creating products that are environmental friendly. Griffith presents controlling carbon emissions as not so much a moral imperative, but as an active design choice. His start-up company, Makani Power, is working to tap the energy of strong, steady winds a half mile above the ground through use of high-tech kites. Another of Griffith’s projects, the web site Wattzon, was established to enable individuals to estimate their personal power consumption. According to Griffith, objects designed to endure over decades need to be not only functional, but also beautiful. Some of the conceptual framework that Griffith lays out as heirloom design is as much provocation as proposal. It is the increase in quality that Griffith said differentiates his concept of an heirloom-based economy from the idea that constraining carbon emissions is going to require undue sacrifice or even enforced poverty.
Out of the Vortex
Authors: Bernitsas Michael
Published: July 2018

This article presents an overview of the Vortex Induced Vibration for Aquatic Clean Energy (VIVACE) converter. Unlike typical hydroelectric power stations, the VIVACE converter does not need to impound water behind a dam to create a head. Water is allowed to flow freely over the cylinders. Also in contrast to many hydrokinetic technologies that have been proposed in the last decade, the converter does not use a turbine, making it safer for aquatic life that swim past or through it. Another advantage of the VIVACE technology is its scalability. Not only can the technology be deployed in few watt-, kilowatt-, megawatt-, or even gigawatt-scale installations, but also the science and engineering is basically the same at every scale. The VIVACE converter is a clean and simple machine that promises to provide cheap and plentiful electricity. There is certainly work that needs to be done to optimize the system, but there is no reason to doubt that the converter can operate as expected.
Visitng the Museum of the World's First Gas Turbine Powerplant
Authors: Langston Lee S.
Published: July 2018

This article presents an overview of the world’s very first industrial gas turbine, which started operation in the Swiss city of Neuchâtel, in 1939. This 4-MWe machine is now on display in a special museum on the grounds of Alstom in Birr village. The museum is housed in an attractive glassed-in building, adjacent to the rotor plant. The gas turbine had originally been in operation for 63 years in a bombproof building, serving the city of Neuchâtel as a standby and peaking unit for electrical power. It was closed down in 2002 after damage to the generator occurred, and then was moved to Birr by Alstom for restoration. It was put on display in its new museum home in 2006. The Neuchâtel gas turbine looks surprisingly “modern.” The axial flow compressor, axial flow turbine, and electrical generator are inline, and directly coupled, and run at 3000 rpm to produce 4 MWe. It is roughly 3–5 times larger than the 7-MWe Solar Taurus gas turbines in the University of Connecticut cogen plant.
30-Year Anniversary of Friction Damper Technolgy in Turbine Blades
Authors: Szwedowicz Jaroslaw
Published: July 2018

This article discusses the use of friction damper technology in turbine blades. In 1980, Jerry Griffin published an integrated approach for the underplatform friction damper design, utilizing centrifugal loading. The idea was to apply an individual metal piece, which is pressed by the centrifugal load against the platforms of vibrating turbine blades. The dissipation energy is then produced by friction sliding between the vibrating platforms and the pressed damper. Griffin’s findings have opened up friction damping technology, which is now commonly utilized by many Original Equipment Manufacturers in gas and steam turbines. Every year, new publications show the development of sophisticated interdisciplinary knowledge for predicting the nonlinear blade dynamic behavior in the most reliable manner. Friction dampers reduce resonance amplitudes several times with respect to that for sticking contact condition. But they only act efficiently in a narrow frequency range for the resonance of interest. Therefore, other technologies are continuously being developed, based for instance on piezomaterials, which can extend the allowable limits of High Cyclic Fatigue for the conventional blade alloys.
Peer Pressure
Authors: Kerno Steven
Published: July 2018

This article outlines various inside and outside influences that organizational leadership has to deal with during decision making. Governmental regulatory agencies have the vested authority to impose sanctions upon non-compliant companies. The dictates of regulatory agencies often create legalistic mazes and bureaucratic rituals that bear little relation to a framework conducive to rational decision making. Deviation from legally codified procedures can subject an organization to a situation where its legitimacy is threatened. Socially conscious groups, from NOW to PETA, have also gained significant constituencies, as well as credibility, for their causes within society as a whole. Many such organizations use more formal methods to give various populations of workers protected legal status. The number of stakeholders relevant to an organization has also increased sharply during the past 50 years. To complicate matters further, different stakeholders are likely to have competing interests. There are cases where organizational leadership proposes actions that are reasonable and necessary for the continuation of the organization, but are resisted very strongly, even by constituencies that might benefit, either immediately or eventually, from their implementation.
Focus on Fans
Authors: Langston Lee S.
Published: July 2018

This article discusses ongoing research in the area of turbofans used in jet engines. P&W’s gear facilities in Middletown Connecticut have been developing the fan gearbox over a period of 20 years. The company has a long history of gearbox experience associated with their very popular turboprop gas turbines at Pratt & Whitney Canada. Field tests have shown that the geared turbofan has a much lower level of noise. Currently, some airlines have as much as 35–60% of their operating costs in jet fuel use. If the geared fan engine does indeed significantly reduce fuel use, this improvement in fan performance will be hard for the competition to beat. Another way to improve fan performance is to change the pitch of fan blades, during an aircraft flight cycle. Rotating Composite Technologies, a small firm in Kensington, Conn. has also come up with a unique patented design for the variable pitch fan that promises to overcome the deficiencies of those tested in the 1990s.
130 Fathoms
Authors: Borchardt John K.
Published: July 2018

This article presents an overview of the Perdido development site—the world’s deepest offshore drilling and production facility in the Gulf of Mexico. Perdido is located about 250 miles south of Houston. The production platform sits 60 miles beyond any other development in the Gulf. The Perdido platform sits in approximately 8000 feet of water and will access reservoirs deep beneath the ocean floor. Perdido is designed to produce hydrocarbons from not one, but three oil fields. The platform floats over the largest of the three fields, Great White, which is penetrated by 22 wells. Another 13 wells penetrate the more distant Silvertip and Tobago fields. The Tobago field is the deepest of the three, at an ocean depth of more than 9500 feet. Together, the three fields contain 650 million barrels of oil equivalent (boe), of which 300 million boe is thought to be recoverable. Daily peak production is forecast to be 130,000 boe.
Below the Horizon
Authors: Giraud Kellen M. , Kunze Jay F. , Mahar James M. , Myers Carl W.
Published: July 2018

This article elaborates the advantages of underground nuclear parks over conventional nuclear power plant designs. Locating the reactors a few hundred feet underground in bedrock at a suitable site eliminates the need for containment structures, and the site would be largely impervious to physical attack from terrorists. (Indeed, it would be far easier to secure the few access points to an underground nuclear park than it is to protect the large perimeter of an isolated nuclear power plant.) A properly constructed underground facility would also be less subject to weather-related construction delays or the effects of hurricanes, tornadoes, flooding, or heat waves. Also, if designers were careful in the site selection, an underground nuclear park could virtually eliminate the transportation of hazardous nuclear waste material. Spent nuclear fuel could be moved via tunnel from the reactors to an array of storage tunnels; high-level waste could be permanently stored in another set of tunnels. When the reactors reach the end of their productive life, they can be decommissioned in place.
Nationalizing the Grid
Authors: Harris Phillip G. , McCall Jack
Published: July 2018

This article discusses how the Tres Amigas SuperStation project will unite the long broken electrical grid system in the United States. The Tres Amigas SuperStation will be located in Clovis, NM, USA, close to large amounts of established and potential renewable generation. In its first phase, the project will support the 5000 MW of power transfer capacity. It will employ ultraefficient, high-capacity DC superconductor cables coupled with voltage-source converters in what will be, in essence, a superconductive electricity pipeline. SuperStation will make it practical, and economical, to “firm up” intermittent and variable renewable energy by taking advantage of geographical diversity and energy storage, such as the onsite batteries at Tres Amigas or systems such as compressed air energy storage. This capability greatly enhances the value of new generation, creating additional economic incentives for its development. Tres Amigas will also expand the geographic reach of markets, offering new opportunities to take advantage of load and resource diversity, which will reduce costs.
The Unwritten Laws of Engineering
Authors: King W. J. , Skakoon James G.
Published: July 2018

This article discusses tips for engineers about personal and professional behavior in the workplace. It is important to cultivate the ability to appreciate the good qualities, rather than dislike the shortcomings, of each individual. Engineers should not give vent to impatience and annoyance on slight provocation. Some offensive individuals seem to develop a striking capacity for becoming annoyed, which they indulge with little or no restraint. Engineers should not harbor grudges after disagreements involving honest differences of opinion. They should develop the habit of considering the feelings and interests of others, and should never become unduly preoccupied with their own selfish interests. It is also important for engineers to put themselves out just a little to be genuinely cordial in greeting people. True cordiality is spontaneous and should never be affected, but neither should it be inhibited. Mutual distrust and suspicion generate a great deal of unnecessary friction, and therefore people should be given the benefit of the doubt.