In This Issue Issue 65 – April 2014
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Page 1 of 7 You can also view this newsletter as a Web page In this issue Issue 65 – April 2014 ASME Named the THRUSTSSC a Historical TRAINING and DEVELOPMENT Mechanical Engineering Landmark ■ Upcoming Courses The legendary ThrustSSC, the first car to break the sound ■ In-company barrier, was recognised by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) for historic significance. ASME named the ThrustSSC a Historic Mechanical CONFERENCES AND EVENTS Engineering Landmark at a designation ceremony held on 15 ■ ASME EMEA events calendar March, 2014, at the Coventry Transport Museum in Coventry, ■ ASME ESDA Conference United Kingdom. The British jet-propelled car will join a roster ■ ASME Turbo Expo of more than 250 engineering achievements from around the world that ASME has cited for their role in advancing the ■ Power Gen Europe growth and progress of technology… Read more ASME PUBLICATIONS News from ASME President – “Embracing Public ■ Book of the month Digital Library Transportation” Thermal Power Plant Cooling: Context and With the world’s population expected to continue growing Engineering , Edited by Carey Kin dramatically in the coming decades, with more than half living in large cities, engineers will need to reinvent transportation systems and urban infrastructure under constraints of increasingly limited resources and space. Engineers will need a new way of thinking about the future of transportation… Read more The Dirt Road Less Traveled Mountain Trike provides access to areas previously inaccessible in a standard wheelchair. Tim Morgan is a design engineer who’s long had a taste for speed. In fact, he was a mountain bike racer in the Welsh National Championships in 1999. Considering the trouble people in wheelchairs can have with off-road terrain, he wondered if his two interests could create a solution… Read more ASME NAMED THE THRUSTSSC A HISTORICAL MECHANICAL ENGINEERING LANDMARK The legendary ThrustSSC , the first car to break the sound barrier, was recognised by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) for historic significance during an event hosted by ASME’s UK and Ireland Section. ASME named the ThrustSSC a Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark at a designation ceremony held on 15 March, 2014, at the Coventry Transport Museum in Coventry, United Kingdom. The British jet-propelled car will join a roster of more than 250 engineering achievements from around the world that ASME has cited for their role in advancing the growth and progress of technology. The ThrustSSC made history on 15 October, 1997, at the Black Rock Desert in Nevada, USA. There, Andy Green, a fighter pilot in the Royal Air Force, drove the car over a one-mile measured course, achieving a speed of 1,228 km/h, or 763 miles per hour. Powered by two Rolls-Royce turbofan engines, the 10.5-ton car reached a thrust and power output enabling the ThrustSSC to best the previous land vehicle record-holder by 30 mph. The ThrustSSC employed a team of engineers and technicians, who applied computational fluid dynamics programmes and wind tunnel testing to design an active suspension system capable of adjusting to the rapid increases in speed. The engineering team “solved novel mechanical, aerodynamic, and control http://www.associationhq.com/asme/eUpdate/index.html 16. 04. 2014 Page 2 of 7 ASME President Madiha Kotb (center) at the problems to design a car that properly managed complex dynamic forces, Coventry landmark ceremony with (from left) including those from reflected shock waves,” says ASME in a bronze plaque Gary Hall, executive director of the Coventry that was presented to the Coventry Transport Museum at the 15 March Transport Museum; ASME Executive Director ceremony. Thomas Loughlin; Richard Noble, entrepreneur and developer behind the ThrustSSC ; Glynne ASME president Madiha El Mehelmy Kotb and members of the ASME Bowsher, mechanical engineer for the vehicle's Committee on History and Heritage were among the officials representing structure design, wheel and steering; Joe Elliott MBE, former chair of the Coventry Transport ASME at the event. Museum Trust and founding director of the new Culture Coventry Trust. Back to Top NEWS FROM ASME PRESIDENT – “EMBRACING PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION” With the world's population expected to continue growing dramatically in the coming decades, with more than half living in large cities, engineers will need to reinvent transportation systems and urban infrastructure under constraints of increasingly limited resources and space. Engineers will need a new way of thinking about the future of transportation. Looking at cities before cars dominated, as Kent Larson of MIT's School of Architecture and Planning has, often you see a series of villages where residents can walk to places needed most. Today, jogging and bike paths are stretching across cities, as mobility parkways, pedestrian areas, and people themselves are embracing the what's come to be known as the "walkshed life." High-density communities are benefiting from shared resources, finding ways of reducing congestion, and helping people to walk rather than use cars. Cities aim at both relief and prosperity: Chicago plans to have 75 percent of residents' homes within walking distance of public transit by 2040. Chengdu, in China, is a prototype city for sustainability and walkability, for multiple reasons: cutting landfill, managing wastewater, and better use of energy. It's considered one of China's most liveable cities and one of its best for investments. The next major innovations in transportation, according to futurists such as Thomas Frey of The Futurist magazine, are personal rapid transit systems (PRTs) – quiet, quick, automated, on-demand mobility that will take residents anywhere, anytime – tube transport with ultra-high-speed vehicles that connect cities and countries. Early adoption has already begun in large cities and Madiha El Mehelmy Kotb, ASME President surrounding suburbs, particularly China, Japan and the United States. Solutions proposed include the Hyperloop (a high-speed tube transport using pressurized capsules that ride on compressed air technology), the Skytran (small pods on an elevated maglev track), Jpods (a solar powered guideway), and ET3 (car- sized capsules using maglev materials). Public adoption trends, according to futurists, resemble that of the Ford Model T of the early 20th century – when access to cars allowed greater choice in where people worked and lived and played. Adoption of the car culture brought a change in values of what freedom means to individuals – no longer living with a 20-minute personal epicenter. Ford executive chairman Bill Ford, great grandson of Henry Ford, speaks often of how car technology must change. He notes that the underlying value of the Model T – expanding boundaries – has already changed, identifying that sense of freedom with the digital connectivity of the Internet. Bill Ford also depicts dealing with the growing population of the Earth with billions most likely being unable to accommodate the current concept of personalized transportation and creating a "global gridlock" with cars stacked on each other in massive traffic congestion and surrounding fumes. Cities will differ in their solutions and individual vehicles will differ, but the systems will coordinate with other systems. Technologies that reshape a new future for transportation include vehicle-to-vehicle communication that enables auto- piloting capabilities as well as reserved parking upon arrival. Shared services with a single, fully integrated infrastructure will complement personal vehicle ownership. Public transportation already is making a comeback in record numbers, according to the American Public Transportation Association, to levels not seen in more than 50 years in the United States. After judging this year's Future City Competition, I agree with other sponsors that the incoming generation of engineers is embracing public transportation as well. This year's Future City Competition had transportation as its theme, while focusing on how all these advanced technologies may be put to good use: walkability, shared use, superconducting vacuum trains, fuel-cell powered transit pod-platoons, nano-analytics, solar flying cars, hyperloop subways, advanced communications, and even driverless vehicles. http://www.associationhq.com/asme/eUpdate/index.html 16. 04. 2014 Page 3 of 7 The Future City Competition, which annually involves 40,000 middle school students from 1,350 U.S. schools, held its finals during Engineers Week 2014. Thirty-seven teams made it to the nationals. The winning team this year, from Michigan, created a city model on Li River in the year 2164. Calling the city Gongping, which is Chinese for "fair," it included a transportation solution also called FAIR: flexible (a combination of personal and mass-transit vehicles), accessible (no physical or economic barriers), integrated (linked residential, commercial and industrial districts), and renewable (with power generated by roadways). Gongping roads carry modular pod vehicles on powered pavement, using both elevated systems and subterranean cargo transport to minimize traffic. Continuous induction charging of vehicles is part of a closed-loop roadway system that generates and stores thermal, solar and piezoelectric energy in grapheme supercapacitors at subhubs. Vertical parking provides easy access and the pods can morph into small balconies. What fun it was to see the creativity and research skills of the teams competing this year! I saw a Canadian