Latest Posts
Laser Beam Welding Gets a Magnet Make-Over
Our day-to-day lives are dependent on the safety of technical systems and processes. We blindly trust that reactor vessels withstand the test of time, that the train or ship we’re on does not break down. These metal structures, in turn, rely on accurate welding processes. Here’s where BAM Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing comes into the picture. BAM researchers have been working on improving upon the high-power laser beam welding process in order to promote safer and more […]
Past, Present, and Future of 3D Printing
There are many necessary steps required in order to create a superior product. Based on some initial (or existing) design, you first need to evaluate the physical characteristics of the system. Once some level of understanding of the system has been obtained, it should then be possible to refine and optimize the design based on some reasonable choice of a figure of merit for a good design. The final stage is to prototype the design, which is where 3D printing […]
Can You Use Heat Transfer to Predict Migration of Contaminants?
The flow of fluid through a porous medium is usually described by Darcy’s Law. However, what if you wanted to look at a combination of fluid flow, heat transfer, and mass transport in a porous medium? Instead of using Darcy’s Law, which calculates an average linear velocity for fluid flow in porous media, the Navier-Stokes equations would be necessary in order to obtain accurate results. In addition, heat convection and conduction, as well as mass transport would need to be […]
Report from the Joint CAA-ASA Acoustics Conference
Last month, the Acoustical Society of America (ASA) and the Canadian Acoustical Association (CAA) held the 21st joint meeting of the International Congress on Acoustics (ICA) in Montreal, Canada. This joint congress is one of the major acoustics conferences of 2013, featuring a range of parallel sessions that covered most topics in acoustics. These included, among other things, psycho acoustics, underwater acoustics, transducer modeling, acoustics of musical instruments, nonlinear acoustics, and many more. This year’s acoustics conference also featured a […]
Simulating an Engine Governor, the Spring Loaded Centrifugal Governor
We’ve probably all seen centrifugal force in action in one way or another, whether it be riding on a merry-go-round as a child, spinning a bucket of water upside and observing as the contents hug the insides of the bucket, or watching mud spinning off of a turning tire. In addition to making dizzying carnival rides, this force can be used in the design of many mechanical applications, where it is harnessed to control a variety of effects. One such […]
Keynote Speaker from Philips to Talk about Pulmonary Drug Delivery
Philips Research Laboratories, located in Eindhoven, is often considered to be an incubator of ideas. The prestigious institute has traditionally been the core of all new product developments at Philips, and many of their forefront discoveries were made here. In October, Senior Scientist Alwin Verschueren of Philips Research Laboratories will hold a keynote talk on pulmonary drug delivery at the COMSOL Conference Rotterdam 2013.
Aircraft Landing Gear Mechanism Analysis
Aircraft rely on landing gear in order to taxi, take off, and land. The landing gear of your average commercial airplane consists of a shock-absorber cylinder and piston, and a pair of tires. Intuitively, the shock-absorber experiences stresses as the landing gear touches the ground — but how much? In order to design a landing gear mechanism that can withstand many landings, and to determine when it’s time to swap out an old one, we can perform a multibody dynamics […]
The Physics of Sailing, a CFD Analysis
Of all boats, I find sailboats to be the most fascinating, especially when sails are their only means of propulsion. Kinetic energy is transferred from the wind to the sails, which results in a lift force that balances drag forces and allows the sailboat to move through the water. We are all familiar with the parts of a boat above the waterline: deck, spars, sails, and the rudder used to turn the boat (figure 1c). Not everyone pays attention to […]