Two stories that recently came to my attention:
This is a really amazing design for a high-speed land yacht. There are lots of details, pictures, etc at their web site and blog.
This is a really good article, complete with pictures (some of which have links to higher-resolution versions), about the deterioration and partial failure of an important multi-lane bridge in Ann Arbor, Michigan. (Additional background information and pictures are in an earlier article about the bridge.) You might find the engineer's drawing of the problem area, designing the layout for lane closures, interesting. It shows that "beam 8" is at the centerline of the bridge, so a problem with it would require reducing this to a one-lane bridge.
The engineering part of the problem is that concrete is very strong in compression but very weak in tension. A concrete beam will break like a piece of chalk when a load is placed at its center. Steel cables (which are strong under tension but weak under compression) are placed along the bottom of the concrete beam to keep it from breaking. In this case, the effect of salt (used to deice the bridge in winter) and water has been to rust the steel cable and weaken one beam so much that it cannot even hold up its own weight without sagging.
By the way, despite the appearance of the area around the bridge, this is not in some rural area. State St is the main N-S street through Ann Arbor, sort of bisecting the University of Michigan main campus (academics to NE, athletics to the SE), and Stadium (surprise surprise) goes by the football stadium (whose main entrance is at Stadium and Main) and the basketball arean. On game day, this bridge would normally be four lanes one way to or from the stadium and a major freeway interchange! (FYI, here is a link to the Google satellite map centered on this bridge.) Because of the railroad tracks that run parallel to State St, this bridge and route provides one of only two convenient paths between parking in the residential area to the right and the stadium. (Normal game-day parking in AA includes people's front lawns.)
By the way, the current set of satellite images shows the recent reconstruction work on the UM stadium. That area of the east stands where the concrete has been torn out goes back to the 1930s, I believe.
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Mag Lab and CAPS Open House Saturday!
The annual Mag Lab Open House will be this Saturday, February 21, from 10 AM to 3 PM.
Two of the things you can see were highlighted in this blog last February: You will actually see a pulsed magnet that gets to about 60 T for a few milliseconds -- before it becomes tiny pieces of copper -- and the switch and capacitor needed to make it work.
CAPS, the Center for Advanced Power Systems, will be having an open house (with lots of hands-on activities) in conjunction with the Mag Lab activities. CAPS is across the street from the Mag Lab, adjacent to the large parking lot where most people will have to park.
Updated: My plan is to get there early (about 10 AM) and tour the Magnet Lab with whatever group of PHY2049 (and other) students shows up at that early hour. We can go over to CAPS after that. Meet me in the main lobby of the magnet lab.
Directions:
CAPS is in one of the two buildings marked with the "A" on this map.
View Larger Map
The Mag Lab is the building complex to the left. There is a new building (Materials Research) filling the empty field to the south of CAPS.
Two of the things you can see were highlighted in this blog last February: You will actually see a pulsed magnet that gets to about 60 T for a few milliseconds -- before it becomes tiny pieces of copper -- and the switch and capacitor needed to make it work.
CAPS, the Center for Advanced Power Systems, will be having an open house (with lots of hands-on activities) in conjunction with the Mag Lab activities. CAPS is across the street from the Mag Lab, adjacent to the large parking lot where most people will have to park.
Updated: My plan is to get there early (about 10 AM) and tour the Magnet Lab with whatever group of PHY2049 (and other) students shows up at that early hour. We can go over to CAPS after that. Meet me in the main lobby of the magnet lab.
Directions:
CAPS is in one of the two buildings marked with the "A" on this map.
View Larger Map
The Mag Lab is the building complex to the left. There is a new building (Materials Research) filling the empty field to the south of CAPS.
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
SOMETHING TO LOOK FORWARD TO - - - AFTER YOU GRADUATE FROM E-SCHOOL
Click on the image to enlarge it.
Opportunities like this happen when you become a member of a professional organization. And there are student clubs in most engineering disciplines at the university level.
Friday, January 30, 2009
New Dam caused Earthquake?
My dad sent me a link to a story that falls in the range of "things a civil engineer might not normally worry about" - an analysis that suggests the major earthquake in China last year was triggered by the additional weight of water behind a new dam.
The story is in an on-line USA-Today blog called "ScienceFair". It refers to a new article the in the journal "Science", which is in the FSU Dirac Science Library if it is not in our TCC library. A quick search indicates it is in the 16 January 2009 issue, on page 322. The article is only available to subscribers or at a library.
The story is in an on-line USA-Today blog called "ScienceFair". It refers to a new article the in the journal "Science", which is in the FSU Dirac Science Library if it is not in our TCC library. A quick search indicates it is in the 16 January 2009 issue, on page 322. The article is only available to subscribers or at a library.
Thursday, January 15, 2009
TV Programming Note
This morning's newspaper reports that the National Geographic Channel will carry a one-hour program about the I-35 bridge replacement in Minneapolis, Minnesota, that was led by Tallahassee's world famous Figg Engineering Group. It will follow this "design build" project from concept to completion, offering invaluable insight to any future civil engineers in the club.
The business side is interesting as well. By completing the project three months ahead of schedule, the engineers and contractors shared in a substantial (up to $27 million) bonus - although much of that bonus paid for overtime needed to finish early.
The program originally airs at 8 PM today, Thursday 1/15. National Geographic Channel is on Tallahassee Comcast digital 109 and HD 413.
It will be rerun at 11 PM the same day and is also scheduled for 1/22 at 4 PM.
Some of you might find this article about engineering the bridge, from Popular Mechanics, interesting.
The business side is interesting as well. By completing the project three months ahead of schedule, the engineers and contractors shared in a substantial (up to $27 million) bonus - although much of that bonus paid for overtime needed to finish early.
The program originally airs at 8 PM today, Thursday 1/15. National Geographic Channel is on Tallahassee Comcast digital 109 and HD 413.
It will be rerun at 11 PM the same day and is also scheduled for 1/22 at 4 PM.
Some of you might find this article about engineering the bridge, from Popular Mechanics, interesting.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Software Engineering: 25 worst coding errors
The National Security Agency (NSA), has released its "top 25" list of coding errors that will produce software vulnerable to attack. (See this article from the BBC for an overview.) Anyone serious about developing computer software should take a look at this story and the related links.
If crypto history interests you, the very first set of NSA documents ever put on the World Wide Web concerned the VENONA project, a hand (not computer) break into Soviet ciphers used after 1943. It was responsible for identifying the Rosenbergs and others responsible for sending US atomic secrets to the Soviets, although this fact was not known until many decades after the Rosenbergs were tried and executed for espionage.
If computer-based crypto history interests you, the NSA has a page indexing various articles that include ones about work during WW II breaking German codes with computers. More recent work is not so public. Yet.
If crypto history interests you, the very first set of NSA documents ever put on the World Wide Web concerned the VENONA project, a hand (not computer) break into Soviet ciphers used after 1943. It was responsible for identifying the Rosenbergs and others responsible for sending US atomic secrets to the Soviets, although this fact was not known until many decades after the Rosenbergs were tried and executed for espionage.
If computer-based crypto history interests you, the NSA has a page indexing various articles that include ones about work during WW II breaking German codes with computers. More recent work is not so public. Yet.
Friday, January 9, 2009
Engineering Club meeting on Friday
The first club meeting of 2009 will be Friday afternoon, January 16, probably at 2:30 or 3:00. We have some important club business to take care of, plus planning for this year's meetings. One thing I would like to do is invite some faculty and students from FSU to talk about your options when you transfer and what you have to prepare for when you leave TCC.
UPDATE: The meeting will be in classroom SM 124. SM260 is in use.
The other thing we have to do is thank Doug Jones for all he has done for the club. His official retirement party is that same night. If you want to know what he might do after he retires, check out this video that my dad got from his brother:
What an engineer does after he retires.
It is awesome.
UPDATE: The meeting will be in classroom SM 124. SM260 is in use.
The other thing we have to do is thank Doug Jones for all he has done for the club. His official retirement party is that same night. If you want to know what he might do after he retires, check out this video that my dad got from his brother:
What an engineer does after he retires.
It is awesome.
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