Today's Engineering Research Articles

Engineering Entanglement, Conceptualizing Quantum Information

Summary Proposed by Einstein, Podolsky, and Rosen (EPR) in 1935, the entangled state has played a central part in exploring the foundation of quantum mechanics. At the end of the twentieth century, however, some physicists and mathematicians set aside the epistemological debates associated with EPR and turned it from a philosophical puzzle into practical resources for information processing. This paper examines the origin of what is known as quantum information. Scientists had considered making quantum computers and employing entanglement in communications for a long time. But the real breakthrough only occurred in the 1980s when they shifted focus from general-purpose systems such as Turing machines to algorithms and protocols that solved particular problems, including quantum factorization, quantum search, superdense code, and teleportation. Key to their development was two groups of mathematical manipulations and deformations of entanglement—quantum parallelism and ‘feedback EPR’—that served as conceptual templates. The early success of quantum parallelism and feedback EPR was owed to the idealized formalism of entanglement researchers had prepared for philosophical discussions. Yet, such idealization is difficult to hold when the physical implementation of quantum information processors is at stake. A major challenge for today's quantum information scientists and engineers is thus to move from Einstein et al.'s well-defined scenarios into realistic models.

Bias Amelioration in Tradeoff Studies

AbstractBuilding large and complex systems continues to be a significant challenge for today's systems engineers and integrators. This tutorial sets forth new ways of thinking that could lead to improvements in how systems engineering and integration are carried out. In particular, nine new perspectives are suggested for “thinking outside the box”. Examples are provided for each, along with a discussion of their potential benefits. In addition, thinking in groups as well as historical thinking suggestions are examined. A summary provides an overview of notions that represent departures from current mainstream approaches.

Thinking Outside the Box ‐ In Systems Engineering and Integration

AbstractBuilding large and complex systems continues to be a significant challenge for today's systems engineers and integrators. This tutorial sets forth new ways of thinking that could lead to improvements in how systems engineering and integration are carried out. In particular, nine new perspectives are suggested for “thinking outside the box”. Examples are provided for each, along with a discussion of their potential benefits. In addition, thinking in groups as well as historical thinking suggestions are examined. A summary provides an overview of notions that represent departures from current mainstream approaches.

Matrix formulation of dynamic design of structures with semi-rigid connections

The structures with semi-rigid connections comprise systems with the connections in joints which are not absolutely rigid, but allow, in general, some relative movements in directions of generalized displacements. Such type of connections is considered very little, or not at all, in designing of structures in today's engineering practice. If the influence of rigidity of semi-rigid connections is underestimated, and they are treated in the design as pinned, it has a negative impact on cost of a structure. But if it is overstated, the calculation results are not on the side of safety, what is reflected on bearing capacity, durability and stability, especially in the case of precast structures. Therefore Eurocodes take due account to the structures with semi-rigid connections. Matrix formulation of the analysis of systems with semi-rigid connections opens wide possibilities for relatively easy calculation by use of computers that is shown by example of seismic design. The interpolation functions, stiffness matrix, equivalent load vectors, and the consistent mass matrix are presented in this paper, particularly with an emphasis on systems with semi-rigid connection.

Multiple criteria decision making with life cycle assessment for material selection of composites

With the advancement of interdisciplinary approaches in today's modern engineering, current efforts in optimal design of composites include seeking material selection protocols that can (1) simultaneously consider a series of mechan- ical/electrical/chemical cost criteria over a set of alternative material options, and (2) closely take into account environmen- tal aspects of final products including recycling and end-of-life disposal options. In this paper, in addition to a review of some recent experimental and methodological advances in the above areas, a new application of multiple criteria decision making (MCDM) is presented to deal with decision conflicts often seen among design criteria in composite material selec- tion with the help of life cycle assessment (LCA). To show the application, an illustrative case study on a plastic gear mate- rial selection is conducted where the cost, mechanical and thermal properties along with environmental impact criteria are to be satisfied simultaneously. A pure plastic gear is compared to a Polyethylene terephthalate (PET)/aluminum-powder composite alternative. Results suggest that simple MCDM models, including a signal-to-noise measure adapted to MCDM in the same case study, can be used to explore both trade-offs and design break-even points in large decision spaces as the decision maker's perspective over environmental, material performance and cost attributes change during the design process. More advanced topics including the account of material data uncertainties are addressed.

A high unburned carbon fly ash concrete's performance characteristics

Engineering today requires that structures are strong and durable; the latter concept is a decisive factor in their design and construction. The scientific community continues developing new cementitious materials and improving traditional concrete's properties, specifically reducing permeability by incorporating materials such as pozzolans. This paper analyses the effect of fly ash (FA) added to concrete on mechanical strength regarding compression, capillary absorption and chloride permeability and their behaviour compared to concrete containing silica fume (SF). An optimum 10% mechanical strength was found for fly ash; however, this increased with addition, resulting in positive effects on durability. Fly ash had lower performance for all properties evaluated when compared to silica fume.

Доходные дома в Саратове

The article considers merchant tenement houses genesis in Saratov. The paper analyses the architecture of objects in question. One deals with three directions replacing each other successively: classicism, eclecticism (historicism), and modern. Apart from the history and the development of tenement houses that are worth paying attention to, interest to such buildings is also explained by resuming of such civil engineering today.

A Process for Design, Verification, Validation, and Manufacture of Medical Devices Using Immersive VR Environments

This paper presents a framework and detailed vision for using immersive virtual reality (VR) environments to improve the design, verification, validation, and manufacture of medical devices. Major advances in medical device design and manufacture currently require extensive and expensive product cycles that include animal and clinical trials. The current design process limits opportunities to thoroughly understand and refine current designs and to explore new high-risk, high-payoff designs. For the past 4 years, our interdisciplinary research group has been working toward developing strategies to dramatically increase the role of simulation in medical device engineering, including linking simulations with visualization and interactive design. Although this vision aligns nicely with the stated goals of the FDA and the increasingly important role that simulation plays in engineering, manufacturing, and science today, the interdisciplinary expertise needed to realize a simulation-based visual design environment for real-world medical device design problems makes implementing (and even generating a system-level design for) such a system extremely challenging. In this paper, we present our vision for a new process of simulation-based medical device engineering and the impact it can have within the field. We also present our experiences developing the initial components of a framework to realize this vision and applying them to improve the design of replacement mechanical heart valves. Relative to commercial software packages and other systems used in engineering research, the vision and framework described are unique in the combined emphasis on 3D user interfaces, ensemble visualization, and incorporating state-of-the-art custom computational fluid dynamics codes. We believe that this holistic conception of simulation-based engineering, including abilities to not just simulate with unprecedented accuracy but also to visualize and interact with simulation results, is critical to making simulation-based engineering practical as a tool for major innovation in medical devices. Beyond the medical device arena, the framework and strategies described may well generalize to simulation-based engineering processes in other domains that also involve simulating, visualizing, and interacting with data that describe spatially complex time-varying phenomena.

Scaffold Vascularization: A Challenge for Three-Dimensional Tissue Engineering

The prevalent challenge facing tissue engineering today is the lack of adequate vascularization to support the growth, function, and viability of tissue substitutes that require blood vessel supply. Researchers rely on the increasing knowledge of angiogenic and vasculogenic processes to stimulate vascular network formation within three-dimensional tissue constructs. These processes are mainly endothelial cell-regulated, although in the context of tissue engineering, specific interactions with scaffold materials, growth factors and other cell types may require in vitro vascularization schemes to be altered accordingly. To better mimic the complete in vivo environment, increasing attention is given to the integration of co-cultures and mechanical conditioning in bioreactors. Such approaches show great promise for the enhancement of the functionality and clinical applicability of tissue engineering constructs. This paper reviews some scaffold materials used in tissue engineering and the effect of their properties on the vascularization process. Also, it specifically addresses the pivotal role of biomaterials vascularization in tissue engineering applications, along with the effect of angiogenic factors and adhesive molecules on angiogenesis. Assays and markers of angiogenesis are also outlined. One section highlights the need for bioreactor cultures and mechanical conditioning in controlling endothelial cell responses. Finally, we conclude with a brief section on the effects of oxygen concentration and hypoxia over microvessel formation.

Social engineering today: psychology, strategies and tricks

Much has been written about hackers and their methodologies over the years from a technology perspective, but very little - at least in the past decade - has been penned about the psychology of hacking. Social engineering techniques have been used by hackers since pre-Internet days. But the extent to which they are exploited - by themselves or as part of malware-based or other technology-based attacks - is still under-appreciated. Perhaps this is because the attacker almost never comes face-to-face with the victim. But while the techniques are old, the latest technology is giving it a new lease of life.

Creep and fatigue interaction in the PWA1484 single crystal nickel-base alloy

While methods for modeling creep behavior of single crystal turbine airfoils are generally well developed, constant load creep does not fully represent the loading conditions present in a jet engine due to cyclic loading caused by the mission profile and throttle movements. As the aerospace industry seeks to become more accurate in physics-based modeling of materials that are used in turbine blades, creep–fatigue interaction must be incorporated into characterization of turbine blade materials. PWA1484, a second generation single crystal nickel-base superalloy that is used for turbine blades in many of today's high performance jet engines was tested in a creep–fatigue environment that is meant to simulate some conditions of the service environment of a jet engine. This research explores the behavior and microstructural evolution of samples of PWA1484 tested in a creep–fatigue environment at 871 °C in air. It was found that specimens subjected to prior fatigue loading exhibit a smaller region of primary creep that is proportional to the number of prior fatigue cycles, and an accelerated transition to a tertiary creep regime. However, specimens that are subject to a static load and allowed to creep to 2.5% creep strain exhibited an un-affected fatigue behavior. Post-test microstructural analysis revealed a coarsening of the gamma prime ( γ′) precipitates that was dependent on loading condition and time spent at elevated temperature.

Arnoldi versus GMRES for computing pageRank

PageRank is one of the most important ranking techniques used in today's search engines. A recent very interesting research track focuses on exploiting efficient numerical methods to speed up the computation of PageRank, among which the Arnoldi-type algorithm and the GMRES algorithm are competitive candidates. In essence, the former deals with the PageRank problem from an eigenproblem, while the latter from a linear system, point of view. However, there is little known about the relations between the two approaches for PageRank. In this article, we focus on a theoretical and numerical comparison of the two approaches. Numerical experiments illustrate the effectiveness of our theoretical results.

Transport Properties of Hydrogen-Water Vapor Mixture in Fuel Cell Systems

Knowledge of the transport property of viscosity and thermal conductivity of a hydrogen-water vapor mixture is very important in solving today's engineering problems in fuel cell applications. The properties may be conveniently represented as a function of the quantity of moisture by weight in grams of water per kilogram of dry hydrogen. Values of viscosity and thermal conductivity are calculated for constant pressures of 0.1 MPa, 0.5 MPa and 1 MPa, respectively, on the basis of the equations of state of real gases in the temperature range from 340 K to 500 K and in the range of water vapor concentrations from 10 g H2O/kg dry hydrogen to 105 g H2O/kg dry hydrogen. Useful information obtained indicates that accurate humidity measurements and control are required for the thermal conductivity decreases significantly at a temperature above 120 {degree sign}C and a pressure above 0.1 MPa as water vapor concentration increases.

Two Conceptions of Fundamentality

This article aims to show that fundamentality is construed differently in the two most prominent strategies of analysis we find in physical science and engineering today: (1) atomistic, reductive analysis and (2) Systems analysis. Correspondingly, atomism is the conception according to which the simplest (smallest) indivisible entity of a certain kind is most fundamental; while systemism, as will be articulated here, is the conception according to which the bonds that structure wholes are most fundamental, and scale and/or constituting entities are of no significance whatsoever for fundamentality. Accordingly, atomists maintain that the basic entities—the atoms—are fundamental, and together with the “external” interactions among them, are sufficient for illuminating all the features and behaviors of the wholes they constitute; whereas systemists proclaim that it is instead structural qualities of systems, that flow from internal relations among their constituents and translate directly into behaviors, that are fundamental, and by themselves largely (if not entirely) sufficient for illuminating the features and behaviors of the wholes thereby structured. Systemism, as will be argued, is consistent with the nonexistence of a fundamental “level” of nondecomposable entities, just as it is consistent with the existence of such a level. Still, systemism is a conception of the fundamental in quite different, but still ontological terms. Systemism can serve the special sciences—the social sciences especially—better than the conception of fundamentality in terms of atoms. Systemism is, in fact, a conception of fundamentality that has rather different uses—and importantly, different resonances. This conception of fundamentality makes contact with questions pertaining to natural kinds and their situation in the metaphysics of the special sciences—their situation within an order of autonomous sciences. The controversy over fundamentality is evident in the social sciences too, albeit somewhat imperfectly, in the terms of debate between methodological individualists and functionalists/holists .This article will thus clarify the difference between systemism and holism.

Lock-In and the Transition to Hydrogen Cars: Should Governments Intervene?

Abstract The density of fuel filling stations influences consumers' utility of private car transport. We investigate the technology choice of firms and consumers in a formal model of the private transport market. Two competing technologies exist; today's internal combustion engine based on fossil fuels, and tomorrow's hydrogen car. Due to network externalities, several market equilibria may exist, of which one is likely to Pareto dominate the other(s). Thus, a lock-in situation is possible. On the other hand, if either the costs of establishing hydrogen filling stations are too high or the hydrogen car technology is still in its infancy, the only equilibrium is the current internal combustion engine equilibrium. Hence, apart from internalizing the environmental externality on gasoline cars, the government has no reason to intervene before the technology is ripe.

Prestressed CFRP for Strengthening of Reinforced Concrete Structures: Recent Developments at Empa, Switzerland

In civil engineering today, only 20 to 30% of the strength of carbon-fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) strips is used when they are applied as externally bonded strips for flexural and shear strengthening or in confinement of reinforced concrete (RC) structural elements. The strips are better used when the CFRP material is prestressed. This offers several advantages, including reduced crack widths, reduced deflections, reduced stress in the internal steel, and possibly increased fatigue resistance. In this paper, recent developments in the field of RC strengthening using prestressed CFRP are presented. The paper focuses on developments in flexural and shear strengthening and column confinement made at the Swiss Federal Laboratory for Materials Testing and Research (Empa). Several innovative ideas have been successfully realized in the laboratory. For example, a gradient prestressing technique without end anchorage plates was developed and successfully applied to a 17 m RC bridge girder. A confinement techni...

Impact Assessment as a Means to Train Future Engineers for Sustainable Development

Today's engineers are not only expected to develop new products and technical solutions to everyday problems. Against the background of sustainable development (SD) they should also be involved in developing comprehensive long-term solutions for global interrelated socio-economic and environmental problems. These comprise poverty, climate change, energy supply, drinking water scarcity, and other features. Besides, even useful technologies that were developed for the improvement of the standard of living can have short- or long-term irreversible negative impacts on human life or the environment (e.g., cooling systems with non-explosive CFC gases were developed to improve safety at home and ended up being banned for their ozone-depletion potential). Therefore, engineers need to consider social and environ mental side effects as well as potential unintended impacts that could be caused by technological developments. Consequently, methods for inter- and transdisciplinary impact assessment (IA) should play a key role in engineering education (EE) right from the start. This paper points out some key questions for further research related to IA-relevant courses in EE.

Women in engineering: pioneers and trailblazers

Women in Engineering: Pioneers and Trailblazers introduces the visionary women who opened the door for today's female engineers. Pioneers such as Emily Roebling, Kate Gleason, Edith Clarke, and Katherine Stinson come to life in this anthology of essays, articles, lectures, and reports. The significant contributions women have made to engineering, in areas as diverse as construction management, environmental protection, and industrial efficiency, are finally placed in their proper historical context. Studies on women engineers in the 1920s and in the years following World War II underscore how far women have progressed in engineering—and how far they have to go. With selections that span a century of historical and social analysis, Women in Engineering: Pioneers and Trailblazers and its companion volume, Women in Engineering: Professional Life , present a range of perspectives on women in engineering that will be of interest to historians, engineers, educators, and students.

Benchmark of thin film coatings for lubricated slip-rolling contacts

The light-weight approach and fuel economy targets in today's automotive engineering require tribosystems, which can withstand higher contact pressures associated with low coefficients of friction. The application of high-performance coatings represents one approach among others. This paper presents some recently developed DLC coatings (a-C:H and ta-C) as well as a novel coating-substrate system (Zr(C,N)) in a benchmark test procedure under slip-rolling conditions in the presence of liquid lubricants. Various coatings with different thickness, interlayer and substrates were evaluated for their slip-rolling resistance in different lubricants at ambient temperature and at 120 °C. Results indicate that some of these coating systems can withstand at least 10 million cycles under initial Hertzian contact pressures of up to P max = 3.500 MPa and oil temperatures of at least 120 °C associated with low coefficients of friction under mixed/boundary conditions. Surface of the coatings and the counter bodies were analysed and compared with untreated substrates.

The efficiency of round channels fitted with porous, highly heat-conducting insert in a laminar fluid coolant flow at boundary conditions of the third kind

An important problem of the development of thermal power engineering today is the development of compact, highly efficient heat exchangers that are made of porous materials with high heat conductivity. Along with obvious advantage – high efficiency of heat transfer due to high heat conductivity of porous material, there is also a disadvantage – high hydraulic resistance of porous structures. The purpose of this work was to discover the area of parameters of porous heat exchangers, where gain in heat transfer would exceed losses in hydraulics. Computation of comparative efficiency was carried out for porous materials made from metal-felt with a laminar flow of an incompressible fluid – water and boundary condition of the third kind. Smooth-wall pipe was taken as a standard surface for comparison. The accounts showed that the increase in the efficiency of porous channels occurs with decrease in the diameter of the channel, in the difference of temperatures of the environment and coolant at the beginning of the pipe, decrease in the Biot number, increase in the porosity, increase in the Reynolds numbers in the compared channel with a smooth wall and decrease in the relative length of compared channels with a smooth wall.