Divide & Conquer
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
A B DIVIDE & CONQUER A 3o-second foundation Engineers predict the behaviour of systems so complex they can defy human comprehension. They divide complex systems 3-SECOND CORE into simpler parts with carefully chosen RELATED TOPICS Engineers analyse complex boundaries and account for the influences that See also systems by dividing them cross boundaries. For instance, when predicting APPLYING MATHEMATICS into simpler elements and page 16 a car’s behaviour, engineers draw a ‘free body accounting for influences T ENGINEERING THINKING that cross element diagram’ for each wheel. The diagram excludes page 26 boundaries. Computers do everything but the wheel and the forces that act FORCE EQUILIBRIUM J most of the calculations. on it. It shows the road force pushing the wheel PRINCIPLE up. The car’s weight, transmitted to the wheel page 38 3-MINUTE IDEA through the axle, acts downwards. The axle A complex piping network driving torque twists the wheel and the road s carrying water is analysed 3-SECOND BIOGRAPHIES exerts a friction force. The wheel and tyre could CHARLES-AUGUSTIN in parts. At each pipe joint, be defined separately, and subdivided into many DE COULOMB the sum of the separate 1736–1806 s water flows towards the smaller elements, with analysis of each one. French engineer who described joint must be zero: water Finer subdivision can yield more accuracy, but friction, explaining why cars cannot disappear without skid during braking, and the it takes engineers time to define the element electrostatic forces so critical e a leak. The pressure change in nanotechnology. along the pipe depends boundaries and forces. Computers handle on the pipe elevation and calculations, but the engineer has to guide GABRIEL VOISIN 1880–1973 r flow. We can represent all element definition and assess the accuracy and French aviation pioneer who these relationships with reliability of calculated results. Engineers learn invented the first anti-lock simultaneous equations brakes to help prevent that a computer can solve. appropriate levels of subdivision depending on skidding. Electrical circuits, factory the accuracy required and the consequences P production lines, city of simplification errors. They use this approach 30-SECOND TEXT traffic congestion and communication networks for modelling complex systems, such as the James Trevelyan can be analysed using structural stability of an underground mine, similar methods. rush-hour traffic congestion and radar y beam forming. Automotive engineers design new cars using vcomponents that have 14 g Engineering Methods I proved to be reliable. CIVIL ENGINEERING 3o-second foundation Civil engineering is about roads, railways, buildings, water, sewerage and much more. Civil engineers such as Eugène Belgrand 3-SECOND CORE and Joseph Bazalgette created sewer systems RELATED TOPICS Civil engineering enables in Paris and London, eradicating cholera and See also buildings, roads, bridges saving the lives of millions. The Industrial GEOTECHNICAL ENGINEERING and all the other structures page 40 Revolution reduced the cost of iron and steel in our built environment, T ENGINEERS & ARCHITECTS ensuring that they are safe in the nineteenth century and Thomas Telford page 42 and durable enough to last showed how it could be used for bridges, canals J for centuries. and harbours. Together with Isambard Kingdom 3-SECOND BIOGRAPHIES Brunel’s railways, bridges and ships, these SIR MARC ISAMBARD BRUNEL 3-MINUTE IDEA developments transformed transport. Today, 1769–1849 Structural engineering, civil engineers are working to solve challenges French-born civil engineer, s a part of civil engineering, father of the more famous and improve people’s lives – from creating Isambard; created the ‘Thames is about ensuring that flood defences and dams to building our Tunnel’, the first under a buildings, dams and navigable river. s bridges stand up. largest infrastructures and tallest buildings. EMILY WARREN ROEBLING Calculations based Every project poses challenges: there may 1843–1903 on maths and physics be obstructions in the ground or poor soil Managed the Brooklyn Bridge e principles predict how construction for 11 years, conditions; tunnels or structures that the after father-in-law, designer structures respond to the John Roebling, died; learned forces that nature throws new construction needs to weave through; or civil engineering from her r at them – gravity, wind constraints on finance and time. Engineers think incapacitated husband. and earthquakes. Equally creatively to work through these problems, try important, structural engineers predict forces different solutions and choose the best option. 30-SECOND TEXT during construction. That’s Finding creative economic solutions for difficult Roma Agrawal P why homes, schools and construction challenges is immensely rewarding, offices are safe to live in. Spectacular structures such and civil engineers embrace new technologies as huge bridges reflect to create a world that can support future the work of structural generations. y engineers, as do invisible Civil engineers create structures such as tunnels. the things we take for vgranted but would find 34 g Civil & Environmental hard to live without. Engineering I FAZLUR RAHMAN KHAN Cities have been both the cradle needed by 40 per cent or more. His design 3 April 1929 1952 1957 1967 and products of engineering for at least eliminated almost all the interior columns and Born near Dhaka, British Awarded Fulbright Director of Pakistan Becomes naturalized India, now Bangladesh Scholarship and Pakistan Building Research Centre, American citizen 8,000 years. Skyscrapers form the heart of masonry walls, allowing unobstructed internal Government Scholarship Karachi; Technical Advisor modern cities because people can live and spaces. His buildings were taller and less to Karachi Development work close to each other, developing trusting expensive, and allowed architects to design Authority 1950 1969 relationships on which engineering, trade almost any shape they wanted. Graduates in Civil 1955 John Hancock Center Engineering at Dhaka Completes PhD; completed in Chicago, and commerce depend. The ‘father of tubular In 1963, the 43-storey DeWitt-Chestnut University; appointed employed by Skidmore, 1960 with tubular frame design designs’, Fazlur Rahman Khan, transformed Apartment Building in Chicago was completed, assistant engineer, Owings and Merrill Returns to SOM, skyscraper design in the 1960s. the first skyscraper to use the structural tube Highway Department Architects (SOM), commences teaching Chicago at Illinois Institute 1971 Born in Bengal, now Bangladesh, in 1929, frame design. The 110-storey Sears Tower, of Technology Pioneers use of Khan graduated in civil engineering Tfrom Dhaka completed in 1973 and also in Chicago, was computers for structural University, winning a Fulbright scholarship to constructed as a bundle of parallel tube calculations and design 1963 drawings study in the US. After completingJ a PhD in 1955 frames – as Khan described it, a group of 43-storey DeWitt- researching reinforced concrete design, Khan pencils bundled together with a rubber band. Chestnut Apartment went to work with Chicago architects Skidmore, Use of lightweight concrete and high-strength Building completed 1981 Hajj Terminal at King Owings and Merrill, because they were steel enabled buildings such as the 160-storey Abdulaziz International happy to let hims take charge of design and Burj Khalifa in Dubai – 828 m (2,700 ft) high. 1966 Airport receives Agha construction projects. The firm was renowned Experts consider that the ultimate height using Appointed partner Khan Award for in Skidmore, Owings Architecture for skyscrapers design. Khan soon realized that the tube frame design has yet to be reached. and Merrill horizontal live loads from wind and earthquakes Khan also pioneered innovative building forms pose the greatest design challenges for tall such as cable-stayed roofs, notably for the 27 March 1982 Dies in Jeddah, ebuilding structures. He explored new ideas, immense Hajj Terminal at Jeddah Airport. Saudi Arabia working with students at the Illinois Institute Khan was renowned not only for his technical r of Technology and through public and expertise, but also for his humanity and love of professional lectures. art and literature. He epitomizes the US success At the time, masonry shear walls between narrative, a country that has consistently interior steel columns resisted horizontal loads. attracted and rewarded hard-working migrants. P Buildings had to be rectangular, with little Khan died of a heart attack, aged 52, while on a flexibility to change the internal layout. Khan’s trip to Saudi Arabia. His body was returned to breakthrough was to design the outer shell the US and was duly buried in Chicago. of the building as a framed tube to resist vy horizontal loads, reducing the amount of steel James Trevelyan 36 g Civil & Environmental Fazlur Rahman Khan g 37 Engineering I MECHATRONICS 30-second foundation By the 1980s, electronics and micro-computers controlled machines such as robots and car engines. Companies soon needed 3-SECOND CORE specialist engineers to design electric machines RELATED TOPICS Mechatronics describes with sensors and connect them with computers. See also systems with mechanical, These engineers also wrote software, because ROBOTICS & AUTOMATION electrical and electronic page 70 they understood details of the machines. First in devices working together, T COMPUTER ENGINEERING usually with computers.