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Category: engineering – Page 136

Sophisticated fluid mechanics model: Space–time isogeometric analysis of car and tire aerodynamics

The complex aerodynamics around a moving car and its tires are hard to see, but not for some mechanical engineers.

Specialists in at Rice University and Waseda University in Tokyo have developed their computer methods to the point where it’s possible to accurately model moving cars, right down to the flow around rolling .

The results are there for all to see in a video produced by Takashi Kuraishi, a research associate in the George R. Brown School of Engineering lab of Tayfun Tezduyar, the James F. Barbour Professor of Mechanical Engineering, and a student of alumnus Kenji Takizawa, a professor at Waseda and an adjunct professor at Rice.

Scientists synthesize new, ultra-hard material

Russian scientists have synthesized a new ultra-hard material consisting of scandium containing carbon. It consists of polymerized fullerene molecules with scandium and carbon atoms inside. The work paves the way for future studies of fullerene-based ultra-hard materials, making them a potential candidate for photovoltaic and optical devices, elements of nanoelectronics and optoelectronics, and biomedical engineering as high-performance contrast agents. The study was published in Carbon.

The discovery of new, all-carbon molecules known as fullerenes almost 40 years ago was a revolutionary breakthrough that paved the way for fullerene nanotechnology. Fullerenes have a made of pentagons and hexagons that resembles a , and a cavity within the carbon frame of fullerene molecules can accommodate a variety of atoms.

The introduction of metal atoms into carbon cages leads to the formation of endohedral metallofullerenes (EMF), which are technologically and scientifically important owing to their unique structures and optoelectronic properties.

Nature-inspired self-sensing materials could lead to new developments in engineering

The cellular forms of natural materials are the inspiration behind a new lightweight, 3D printed smart architected material developed by an international team of engineers.

The team, led by engineers from the University of Glasgow, mixed a common form of industrial plastic with carbon nanotubes to create a material which is tougher, stronger and smarter than comparable conventional materials.

The nanotubes also allow the otherwise nonconductive plastic to carry an throughout its structure. When the structure is subjected to mechanical loads, its electrical resistance changes. This phenomenon, known as piezoresitivity, gives the material the ability to “sense” its structural health.

Scientists engineer a bacteria to produce a drug used to treat Parkinson’s disease

The results of the study could lead to new treatment options. In a groundbreaking new study published in the journal Nature on Thursday, researchers have compared the brain cells of patients who had died from either Parkinson’s disease or dementia to people unaffected by the disorders and found which brain cells are responsible for both conditions.

A team of researchers has created a bacteria that can produce a steady and consistent source of medicine inside a patient’s gut, suggesting the possibility for genetically edited bacteria to be an efficient Parkinson’s disease treatment.

Moreover, the researchers have shown via preclinical experiments that the novel treatment technique is not only safe and well-tolerated, but it also reduces side effects that can occur when other treatments are utilized.

An engineered probiotic

For long, scientists have been experimenting with ways of engineering bacteria to fit our needs for decades. The new research is the latest example of that.

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New Idea From NASA: Trillions of Floating Balloons To Terraform Venus

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Hello and welcome! My name is Anton and in this video, we will talk about new interesting proposition on how to terraform Venus using floating continents.
Links:
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https://arxiv.org/pdf/2203.06722.pdf.
#venus #terraforming #nasa.

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High school students design a bottle that turns seawater into drinking water

Mangrove trees inspire thermal and membrane-based desalination system.

Four US students, taking part in a program aimed at high school girls interested in engineering, have designed a desalinating water bottle. The currently hypothetical device would be compact and portable so could offer increased accessibility over existing desalinating designs that mimic transpiration.

Laurel Hudson, Gracie Cornish, Kathleen Troy and Maia Vollen met at Virginia Tech’s C-Tech2 program where they were given an assignment to ‘reinvent the wheel’. Choosing to focus on the global water crisis and inspired by drinking straws used by hikers to purify water, they considered if it was possible to make a bottle that produced drinking water from seawater. They reached out to Jonathan Boreyko, an associate professor in the department of mechanical engineering, who was researching synthetic trees at the time. He agreed to help, and, during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, the group met virtually at night to discuss their research. Along with Ndidi Eyegheleme, a graduate student in Boreyko’s lab, they planned and produced a model to evaluate the inner workings of their design.

Chip startups using light instead of wires gaining speed and investments

April 26 (Reuters) — Computers using light rather than electric currents for processing, only years ago seen as research projects, are gaining traction and startups that have solved the engineering challenge of using photons in chips are getting big funding.

In the latest example, Ayar Labs, a startup developing this technology called silicon photonics, said on Tuesday it had raised $130 million from investors including chip giant Nvidia Corp (NVDA.O).

While the transistor-based silicon chip has increased computing power exponentially over past decades as transistors have reached the width of several atoms, shrinking them further is challenging. Not only is it hard to make something so miniscule, but as they get smaller, signals can bleed between them.

Elon Musk’s SpaceX could probe Uranus on NASA’s flagship mission

Could SpaceX be heading to Uranus next? The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine seems to think it should. The organization has released its latest decadal survey of planetary science and astrobiology. According to a report by Teslarati published on Wednesday, the survey hints that NASA should undertake a flagship mission to Uranus on SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket.

The Uranus Orbiter and Probe

The mission is not entirely new. Called the Uranus Orbiter and Probe (UOP), the proposal has been under work for several years by a team that includes scientists from NASA, the University of California, and Johns Hopkins University. Now, with SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket, the researchers feel they have the technology to make their long-held dream a reality.

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