openME 51.1

FOREWORD

Dear reader,

January 2020, volume 51, issue 1

The ‘openME’ is a publication by the study association for Mechanical Engineering Simon Stevin of the Technical University of Eindhoven.

Editor-in-Chief

Sandor Habets

Design

Maartje Borst, Rik Lubbers, Roelof Mestriner, Joel Peeters, Lex Verberne

Layout

Maartje Borst, Sandor Habets, Freek Jansen, Robbert Louwers, Jules Vaes

Editorial Committee

Jankatiri Boon, Maartje Borst, Sandor Habets, Anne van der Horst, Freek Jansen, Luc Koenders, Robbert Louwers, Rik Lubbers, Remco Martin LIzandara, Karsten Slakhorst, Noah Tabor, Jules Vaes, Roel van der Velde, Katty de Visser

Illustrations and Pictures

Editorial Committee, PaparaCie, Bart van Overbeeke

Drukkerij Snep

Circulation 1000 pieces

Contact Eindhoven University of Technology Gemini-Noord 1.61

Den Dolech 2 5612AZ Eindhoven

E-mail: redactie@simonstevin.tue.nl homepage: simonstev.in

FEATURED

M18VANCOUNVER

In last edition of openME, Sjors van Adrichem wrote an article about living in Vancouver. Now that he is back, learn about his internship project and his experiences there.

24RANGE ROVER SPORT

In an attempt to rival sportier full-size competitors, the Range Rover Sport was brought to life. Is it any good though?

42 HOW TO FACE STRESS

Your student days are supposed to be the best time of your life. Learn how to handle stress during this busy period of your life.

That is why they present Luca. But how will this

2Vanderlande

36Prodrive Technologies

46Wervingsdagen

55Symposium

73AME

8Course evaluations

13ACD-Project

17Heidy Keepers

18Internship Vancouver

28BFP: Breaking records with model planes

32Harald van Brummelen

42How to face stress

52Master thesis: Mechanical metamaterials

60Quality ME: Feedback loop

66Lambert van Breemen

70BFP: Stabilization

Sugars in Meteorites

also very important in your body. They are a crucial part of RNA, which is essential for the control of cellular processes in all known life forms. Researchers they suspect that these sugars contributed to the life found on earth today. It was very remarkable that these sugars could be detected in the meteorites because they are such ancient materials.

Maybe they have found the source of every life on Earth and with it the history of life. But before these questions can be answered, a lot of other mysteries need to be solved. In the future, more meteorites will ‘aliensugars’ existing. It is not clear whether we ever

bees

There are not a lot of people who like bees, but these creatures are actually very important for our living environment. Bees take from one plant to another. On warm summer days, honeybees gather water to keep their nest cool. Sometimes, when these bees are too clumsy, they fall into the water. Well, you might think that bees cannot swim and that is true, but they can do something much cooler. They can surf! They use their wings to move like a hydrofoil, moving forward over the water like a surfer. How cool

In the water, however, this frequency decreases to just 100 Hz. is enough time for them to rescue themselves from the water. an inspiration for hybrid vehicles in the future, which can move on land and through the water.

Energy catching

kind of smart. They close at night and turn to the sun when they open. This way they catch as much sun as possible.

panels, which will catch the sunlight. This way sustainable as the real ones, namely, following the light. When the SunBOT is exposed to light, the material heats up and shrinks. The the optimal amount of light it will shade over its own stalk, which will cool it down and make it stop shrinking. A bendable SunBOT can collect up to 400% more solar energy than one that does not bend to the light!

Digital cars

The whole world is digitalizing, everything is online nowadays. Even cars are slowly getting digitalized. How

best way to work, all before you even left your front door? Well luckily, the innovations that will eventually lead to this have started. In the future, cars will be able to ‘talk’ to each other. This ‘vehicle-to-everything-technology’

charging stations. This way, you can know how much further it is to the next charging station or when the light example connecting your phone to your car. In 2020, Volkswagen will bring a car on the market which drives autonomous, recognizes signs and can listen to your voice.

Drone controlling with your hands

When going into space, every astronaut obviously needs a clumsy, bulky and not really comfortable to move around in. When standing on another planet, a lot of research is done

this research. Using some kind of remote to control these devices is not the easiest approach when wearing a spacesuit. To solve this, a glove has been invented. This glove contains sensors and can be used to control robots and drones. It can pick up the small and subtle movements of your hand. The sensors will then send this information wirelessly to a astronauts can now pick samples with robots, map big parts of the landscape with drones and much more!

QUALITY ME

Design of a modern trebuchet

19%

20%

5 ECTS

•Fun project in which you learn to work

•The supporting lecture was unclear. It was not great.

•Due to online grading, the grades of the CAD test will take less time.

•The supporting lecture will be improved. A reader with extra information instead of the supporting lecture will be considered.

Solid Mechanics

5 ECTS

* Courses evaluation 2018-2019

Design Principles

2.5 ECTS

4.4

•Decrease the amount of information in the course, it does not represent 2,5 ECTS

•Increase the opportunities for practice, by guided self-studiesy, providing selfstudy material.

•Relevant and interesting course.

•The amount of information is decreased, so it would better represent the 2,5 ECTS.

•New opportunities for self-study are provided and guided self-studies are organized.

•Course is well structured and organized.

•Earlier for the secontiming of d the second interim test.

•Enthusiastic teacher, which explains a very useful topic for Mechanical Engineers.

•No interim test will be provided next year, students have to pass an online test, which they can do multiple times. However, they have to pass these exams to take part in

Career development

2.5 ECTS

• Well-structured course.

• Relevant course in the master.

• Reduce the workload slightly.

• Reduce the overlap between the compulsory canvas modules and the lectures.

• The overlap between the information on Canvas an the information in the slides will be looked in.

Microfabrication

5 ECTS

• The lab work gives insight in the application of the theory.

• examination than an oral exam.

• The assessment will be looked into and the feedback will be taken into account.

Solar heat system

5 ECTS

• Relevant and interesting project.

• Hold the interim presentations earlier, so there is more time to process the feedback.

• Relevance of the drawing skills training was unclear.

• The technical drawing skill will be removed from this course and will be placed in another course.

WRITTEN BY

Hephtig:

De Diskjockey

De DJ maakt de sfeer op een feestje, maar hoe doet hij of zij dat eigenlijk?

GESCHREVEN DOOR

Je kent het wel, je staat op Stratumseind lekker te dansen, maar het liefste zou je toch nog eventjes dat ene nummertje willen horen waar je met je vriendengroep zo lekker op gaat. Je

van vanavond. Je baant je een weg door de dansende menigte en je vraagt het hitje aan. Ook deze keer ontvang je weer het welbekende

naar je vriend(inn)en. En jawel hoor, niet veel later sta je met de hele kroeg uit volle borst mee

Jouw avond is compleet.

Geschiedenis

plaat (LP), en een jockey is een bestuurder van voor het eerst gebruikt om de radio-omroeper

radio-omroeper die bekend werd door het draaien van populaire muziek. Vervolgens

in 1947 kwam er iemand op het idee om twee

er continu muziek afgespeeld kan worden.

Door de jaren heen werden clubs en disco’s populairder en kwam er gespecialiseerde djapparatuur op de markt. Waar er voorheen

door, konden de nummers nu soepel in elkaar worden gemixt.

Rond 1975 begon in New York de hiphopcultuur

scratchen en het loopen van een beat, heen en weer mixen tussen twee platenspelers met

Mixen, hoe werkt dat?

Het doel van een DJ is om continu muziek te door nummers in elkaar over te laten gaan.

Een techniek die vaak wordt gebruikt is beide nummers dezelfde snelheid hebben. Deze snelheid wordt uitgedrukt in BPM (beats

dat de timing klopt. Door een nummer op het juiste moment te starten, met de juiste BPM, kan een DJ de beats als het ware “over elkaar

Om de overgang vervolgens goed te laten klinken worden er allerlei trucjes toegepast. Je kunt er hoge, middelste en lage tonen. Vaak wordt er gekozen om het volume van de hoge of lage tonen van een van de twee nummers te verminderen, waardoor ze minder interfereren en er minder ongewenste modulatie ontstaat.

die in hetzelfde genre muziek, en dus ook ongeveer

hetzelfde tempo hebben.

In feest cafés en kroegen hoef je meestal een wat minder samenhangende set te verwachten. Als er allerlei soorten hitjes en meezingers gedraaid worden

situatie wordt er vaak gebruik gemaakt van een wat gebruikt worden om snel maar soepel van het ene

Hiermee kan de overgang als het ware geïntroduceerd worden. Een nogal extreem voorbeeld hiervan is de toeter waarmee de gebroeders scooter hun nummers introduceren.

De draaitafel

Door de jaren heen is het materiaal waarmee gewerkt gebruikt wordt. Deze draaitafel ziet er als volgt uit.

Ten eerste valt het op dat de set uit drie losse apparaten bestaat: Twee CD/USB spelers en een mixer. Voor de volledige functionaliteit wil ik je toch

aantal van de basisfuncties zal ik even uitleggen.

allemaal om draait. Het verschil tussen de twee is dat op het moment dat je de play knop gebruikt, de knop laat de muziek afspelen zolang je hem ingedrukt houdt. Laat je hem los, dan stopt de muziek en springt de muziek weer naar het begin. De Cue knop is vooral

Aan de andere kant van de speler zit de tempo slider. verandert het tempo van de spelende track. Deze beatmatchen, want hiermee kun je van beide nummers de beats met elkaar matchen.

Het grootste deel van de speler wordt in beslag genomen door het zogenaamde Jogwheel. Met het Jogwheel wordt er geprobeerd om de draaiende plaat van een platenspeler na te bootsen. Je kunt hem gebruiken om door het nummer heen te scrollen

te gaan scratchen. Dit wordt over het algemeen niet

ACD-PROJECT

Design projects for the department ME

WRITTENBY

Interdisciplinary teams are becoming more and more important in this modern

share their knowledge.

Mechanical Engineers play a central role in this process,

science and engineering makes them particularly suited to participate in, oversee and guide all steps of the design process. Therefore, the department of Mechanical Engineering has come up with an Advisory Committee for Design (ACD), who select projects to promote and motivate interdisciplinary research within the department of Mechanical Engineering.

The ACD is appointed by the board of the department of Mechanical Engineering. The aim of the ACD is to support the start of new intersectional design projects with a strong interdisciplinary character.

Faculty of the department can propose an interdisciplinary design project once a year. The proposals must be based on a Mechanical Engineering design team and involve at

These projects are judged by the ACD regarding design nature, quality of the project and level of interdisciplinarity. The winner receives support to develop the plan of their submission.

This call for projects is a new initiative of the department

with a proposal. On last year’s call, three interdisciplinary teams have sent in a project, namely:

1. VAT photopolymerization additive manufacturing (CST-DSD + MoM-CEM)

2.Next-gen imaging catheters: a design-through-analysis approach (ET-TFE + MoM-CEM)

Design of a high-temperature SLS AM printer for performance polymers (PT-CEM + CST-DSD + ET-TFE)

The ACD has chosen the third proposal, the design of a high-temperature SLS AM printer for performance polymers. SLS stands for selective laser sintering, which is one of the oldest additive manufacturing methods. SLS uses a high power laser to fuse polymeric powders into a mass in the desired three-dimensional shape. Nowadays, all SLS products are made with the polymer polyamide-12. The disadvantage of this polymer is that the products have a rough surface and are not waterproof, which has a negative

this project is to design a next-generation SLS printer with adjustable processing conditions and control parameters, can be printed.

Does this sound interesting? This year, the ACD will again issue a call for interdisciplinary design projects. This new call will soon be announced!.

STARSHIP, OUR RIDE TO MARS?

WRITTEN BY

SpaceX shows potential of their newest and greatest interplanetary transport system. Within the next decade company CEO Elon Musk hopes to make the longtime dream of exploring our closest and most well known planets a reality. The Starship MK-series is supposed to provide us Earthers a path to Mars-colonization in the near future, but is that the right move?

Starship. It sounds like some kind of spaceship that your to travel through time and space to stop the bad guys, loaded with laser guns and a functioning hyperdrive to reach stars many lightyears away. Actually, the real meaning is maybe just as exciting, although also a little bit more realistic. Starship is the name of the spaceship that is supposed to bring people to Mars and eventually our entire solar system. But unlike

built and if tests work out as planned, the next Neil Armstrong might just as well start selecting his or her spacesuit. The company responsible, the private space innovation company

the Martian deserts? How are they going to achieve it and is it safe for human - and even alien life to set foot on Mars?

Experts still have their doubts and questions regarding human interference with the Martian atmosphere. What are the options and what challenges have we yet to fully tackle?

already shown in 2016. Ideas were put forward by Elon Musk about the futuristic concept of an interplanetary spaceship, a spacecraft that could transport people to planetary surfaces and even more importantly, bring them back. Up until now, they have been relatively silent about their progress, but videos from their simulations and small tests have already shown plenty of promise. The list of people willing to put

most famous foreign planet continuously keeps growing. Of course, no expedition should be planned before the company can guarantee a safe return, but this promise of safety can only hold until so far. Firsts have never been completely free of risks, especially when they include space travel. So what is required for a mission to Mars?

The mission

but we have already done that in 1969. After the cold war, the spendings of the biggest space companies have relatively reduced. It is, therefore, no surprise that right now private companies like SpaceX have the resources to work together closely with more reformed space companies like NASA to save costs and keep making progress. Now that it is an option to refuel in space, travels to locations further away in our solar system belong to the possibilities.

It started with the ITS (Interplanetary Transport System) in 2016. The ship consisted of three main parts: the ITS Booster, the manned ship and the refueling ship. The booster was a reusable rocket that would bring the remaining two parts into space. Using its thrust rockets as brakes during the way

in the future. The same goes for the tankship. After arrival in space, the tankship will transport fuel to the manned ship, after which the tankship also returns to Earth to safely return to the garage. This seems like a stretch. Why would you launch another ship into space, just to refuel the main ship and go back? The main reason for that is cost reduction and keeping the dimensions of the main ship within the desired constraints.

Lastly, there are the smaller rockets attached to the ship, the ITS Raptors. They serve the purpose of keeping the manned ship in the right direction. They serve as thrusters and since they are relatively high in numbers, they can provide thrust in the axial direction as well as help the ship steer or rotate. In 2017 the BFR was presented, which served as an upgrade of the ITS. It was reduced in overall size and even thrusting power. However, technological enhancements made the ship more maneuverable, as the thrusters could be aimed in multiple directions. The raptors were heavily reduced in size and

Instead of around a hundred, now there was place for forty

by Elon Musk, the design of the Starship MK1 was eventually to Earth, up to 10000 km, the super-heavy rocket, the launch rocket that returns to Earth after the manned part reaches space, was not necessary anymore. Some extra Raptors together with the Starship’s main engines could compensate for the lack of the launch rocket. The six available raptors on the main ship, of which three are optimized for sea-level and three for vacuum conditions, provide a thrust of around 12,000 KN. What is interesting is that the hydraulic pumps used to control the orientation of the tail-wings are powered connections between the two Elon Musk led companies.

The Martian Ecosytem

The technical advancements seem promising. If the project is managed properly and the tests show good results, it is no

people on Mars, if not sooner. However, apart from actually getting there, there is more to the story to keep in mind. Mars is probably the closest planet to earth, together with some moons from Saturn or Jupiter, that could store or could have stored forms of life within the surface or atmosphere. Since we have yet to retrieve samples from the Martian surface, it could very well be that certain microbes still exist, signaling that there have been or will eventually be advanced forms of organisms. People from Earth could unwillingly contaminate the Martian ecosystem with microbes from our planet,

a super-advanced alien capable of ruining cities, coming to Earth to check on the survivability of the atmosphere, because yes, technically we are some sort of aliens to Mars. So while there are arguments for leaving the Martian soil as it is, the exact opposite is also arguable. Purposely contaminating Mars with small, basic microbes from Earth could on the

Earth. Building a colony on Mars could be more convenient if for example the available oxygen in the Martian air would be increased. An actual breathable atmosphere on Mars is still fantasy, but the base could be set already. This method of inhabiting other planets, however, is against regulations that NASA has introduced a while back. There are even many engineers working full time at NASA to make sure that human waste does not interfere with possible alien life. Intentional contamination would violate these space-laws.

Conclusion

Whether we will actually be colonizing Mars in the near future has yet to be seen. The past shows that initial planning has often been too ambitious. Projects in the past often fell behind schedule, as there was a lack of budget or details that have been overlooked. NASA, for example, is still waiting for their promised spacecraft to transport people to and from the ISS from American Soil. Apart from some failed tests by SpaceX and Boeing, there has not been much achievement. Nevertheless, global interest has not declined. Quite the opposite, now that these private space companies are alerting the population on the current progress, hope rises that many will see the Mars Landing within their lifetime. Fortunately, SpaceX is not the only company working on the futuristic idea of going to Mars. There is, of course, the Chinese Space Program, which is more under the radar, but could just as well be working on an interstellar spacecraft. Then there is Amazon, one of the wealthiest companies right now, that is also experimenting with their space program Blue Origin.

actual interstellar planetary landings are realized, at least

Starship in action, you may as well have to actually watch that Hollywood movie, but within a respectable time frame, the non-commercial television might be broadcasting it.

ACADEMIC ADVISOR Heidy Keepers

Hi, I’m Heidy Keepers and I’m the academic advisor for the second and thirdyear bachelor’s Mechanical Engineering.

I have always loved working with students. I think it’s inspiring, most rewarding and very energizing. Guiding students during their bachelor program and with their future career choices can be very satisfying. Especially since students at Mechanical Engineering have such beautiful ambitions and work on most interesting, innovative subjects, often with a large impact on societal issues. I’m proud if I can even make a small contribution in guiding, helping or even empowering students in every possible way to reach their goals and their dreams.

Before I started working as an academic advisor at Mechanical Engineering, I worked at CEC, the Communication Department of TU/e, for 25 years. So to me, this was a major career switch. In my new role as an academic advisor I can help, guide and inform you about all study bachelor program Mechanical Engineering.

So if for example you have questions about your elective program, your study progress or planning, your exams, or opportunities for Exchange abroad, but also when you get stuck for any reason or have personal problems, you can contact me. I can also advise you or provide you with information about training courses or other facilities that can support you along the way.

Most importantly know that my door is open to you. So if you have any questions or study program? Just email or even better, make an appointment online, to make sure that I have time for you. I am very much looking forward to working with you and will support you wherever and whenever possible.

Good luck with your bachelor program! Make your dreams come true! And make sure to have a fantastic time at ME, a time to remember!

INTERNSHIP IN VANCOUVER

A journey of half a year

WRITTEN BY

A while ago when I was still living in Vancouver, I wrote an article about living in Vancouver and what daily life is like. Now that I am back it seems more than right to write another article, this time about my amazing experiences, incredible adventures and perhaps something about my internship project.

Once I knew that I was going to Vancouver, I applied for the VIRS program (Visiting International Research Student) at the University of British Columbia (UBC). Via one out of many Facebook housing groups, I already reserved a room to live in. The arrival on itself was cool because Vancouver welcomed me with 10 cm of snow. My taxi driver told me that it was 8 years ago when that happened in the city. The fresh layer of snow created a very spontaneous meeting with my roommates. I met one of them in the early morning, and after a shopping trip, I met the rest in the middle of a

dealing with a jet lag and taking small trips in Vancouver, to see the surroundings and explore the city.

After a week of being at the UBC internship, I needed a distraction, so I went to Cypress Mountain for some snowboarding. With only a 1.5 hour shuttle from downtown, the drive was quite fast and pleasant. I had a whole day of sun and the fresh snow of the day before made the day very nice, and the view on the top of the mountain made the day perfect. In the Alps, you just see mountain tops everywhere and the occasional mountain lake. But here at the top, I saw Ocean. It was staggeringly beautiful and it didn’t change when I returned a few weeks later.

The VIRS-community, which is quite active and big, has a weekly get-together on Thursday in a bar to play bingo. It’s free to participate and you can win shots or beers. I joined this tradition in my third week and was addicted to it right from the start, which is part of the reason that I only missed it two times until the end of my stay. It is a fun and interactive way to meet new people in the same situation as myself. I made lots of close friends on those Thursdays, and it turned out that there are more Dutchies in Vancouver than I expected. I already met a lot of those friends again back home, we even had a big reunion in November.

showed, the time to start hiking. Lighthouse Park is a great

forests in the degree of human interference. Every tree that falls over is left there, only if it lays on a walking trail a piece of the tree is cut away. Because (almost) everybody stays on the trails and the only maintenance that occurs is to make sure the trails are passable, nature really stays uninterrupted.

trip. We drove three hours to the neighborhood of Whistler

we couldn’t see that, because there was still a blanket of snow on the lakes and on the trail. However, it was still very beautiful and the snow made it much more fun to do the hike, especially on the way down. On the 27th of April, our King has his birthday and every Dutch person celebrates that.

Of course, my Dutch friends and I couldn’t skip it, even though we were in Vancouver. So we organized a King’s Night party for all our VIRS friends to let them experience a glimpse of the biggest birthday of the year.

The next long weekend was around Victoria Day, halfway in May. Split up in four parts we went with a total of 15 people

water were amazing to see. Other activities we did during

kayak tour, where we saw a black bear, sea lions, seals, otters and lots of eagles.

At the start of June, I went to Jasper with some friends for six days, which is the best mini-holiday I’ve had. The journey to Jasper already was amazing, we drove over the

and the Sunwapta waterfalls, which are both very big and impressive. At the glacier, signs were placed to show how much the glacier has withdrawn in the past decades due to melting, which was very confronting. In just 6 days we drove

swam in cold, turquoise lakes, saw a lot of wildlife including black bears, relaxed and laughed a lot. On top of the Sulfur

Rockies. In every direction, you could see mountain ridges and green/brown blankets of trees as far as the eyes can reach. It’s the best view I’ve had in Vancouver and probably my lifetime (until now).

At the end of June, I handed in my internship report. The following weekend happened to be a long weekend as well, due to Canada Day. We went on a trip to Kelowna, a beautiful area in the Okanagan valley with a great lake. We cycled in Myra Canyon, where an old train track is

remains of this were still very much visible. On the other hand, we could also see how new life rises and the forests

the Vibrant Vine, a winery with some excellent wines drove back to Vancouver in order to see the Canada Day

was a two-day hike to Panorama Ridge, with a very pleasing view over Garibaldi Lake. Another trip was

Cycle route. It takes you to many tourist hotspots in the south of the island. We started in Victoria and did some whale watching. This was a great experience, especially because we saw a humpback whale and a pod of orcas. Another highlight of the journey was Avatar Grove, where we saw the proclaimed world’s gnarliest tree and many other gigantic trees.

My last days in Vancouver were occupied by saying goodbye to Vancouver, the surrounding nature and all of my friends that I made by doing as many activities as possible. On the 7th of August, my amazing adventure

six months on the other side of the world. This describes maybe not even half of the things I’ve done in Van, but I hope that I have shown what a great place it is to live.

Internship project

sent to the building’s safety supervisor for some training about safety and regulation. Some parts of these pieces of training were unexpected, in particular, those about earthquakes and active shooters, topics you never hear of in a serious manner in The Netherlands. The information that within now and 200 years the ‘Big One’, an earthquake

not very comforting. After processing this I got assigned

the research goal and screwing around in the lab. My project got the title ‘Characterization of mechanical properties of alginate hydrogel tubes formed under inertial conditions’. What I did was not that exciting or innovative, but I liked doing it.

My supervisor at the UBC has developed a device that created hydrogel tubes by an extrusion process. The hydrogel is made from alginate, a biodegradable polymer that is obtained out of seaweed. With this fabrication process, the hydrogel tubes were a lot stronger than the common production methods. My task was to prove this hypothesis with experimental data.

One part of this data is to determine Young’s modulus, which is easily obtained by the well-known tensile test.

something that was approximately right.

The other data that my supervisor needed was the burst pressure and hoop stress of the hydrogel tubes. I had to design my own set-up for that. There was not something commercially available that is suited for this project and it hasn’t been done much either. With some help from literature and a lot of trial and error in the lab, I did succeed in creating the set-up. I also had to design

the PVC-tubes of the rest of the set-up. With access to a prove that the fabrication process of my supervisor indeed improves the properties of the hydrogel tubes. The elastic modulus increased almost one order of magnitude, and the hoop stress increases with half of that. The reason for

time nor the means to validate that with more experiments. If you’re interested in more information, please reach out to me.

Clutching Single vs. Double

WRITTEN BY LUC KOENDERS

We all know the three pedals in a manual car: the accelerator, the brake and the clutch clutch pedal is necessary to shift gears without destroying the gearbox. In regular automatic transmissions, no similar clutch is needed and thus the clutch pedal is missing, but did you know these automatic transmissions also exist with two clutches?

Transmissions in cars

is a transmission and what is its use? To answer this question, the car as a whole should be looked at. The engine is the source of power in a car. Via the transmission, power is delivered to wheels and make the car move. However, most engines need a relatively high rotational speed to operate properly. To be able to safely drive more slowly, a transmission is used to convert rotational speed and torque. By reducing the wheel speed and consequently increasing the delivered torque, cars are able to start, stop and drive slowly, which would not be able without a transmission.

also be used to create higher gear ratios, which can increase the top speed of a vehicle. Compensating with torque, wheel speed can be greatly increased by using the right gear ratios. Also, a transmission can enable a car to drive backwards, which is not possible without one.

When adding a transmission, it is obvious that some system is

clutch was invented for this, which temporarily disengages the engine from the drive shaft, enabling switching gear ratios. But there are multiple ways to switch gears. Besides the normal manual transmission, other transmissions were designed which are able to switch gears by themselves.

Different transmissions

systems. We are all familiar with the manual gearbox: besides chosen by operating a clutch and a gear lever. Then there is the automatic transmission, which uses sets of planetary gears to this means that without ever disengaging the motor from the drive shaft, the gear ratio can be changed by using more or less sets of these planetary gears. A variation to this is the Dual-

merged into one big transmission, operating besides each other. And with two manual transmissions, you will need two clutches. So how does this even work?

As already mentioned, a DCT basically consists of two manual transmissions, put into one functioning whole. In this whole, these two transmissions actually work independently of each

the two separate transmissions can be clearly seen, which are then combined to form one system. In the clutch part of the system, either one of the clutches is engaged, meaning one transmission is active, while the other is free. Using a hollow shaft, the transmissions can both be operated from the same input, coming from their own transmission, the two eventually come back together to have a single output again.

Other differences

set of gears, contrary to the planetary gear sets of the regular

the two.

For example, while regular automatic transmissions require torque converters to make up for the sudden change in relative rotation speed of engine and drive shaft, DCTs use clutches to engage and disengage, thus eliminating the need for a torque converter.

Not needing a torque converter, the shifts between gear ratios is seamless and almost instant: it takes just a couple of driver experience, not having to wait for a torque converter to have done its work. Besides the comfort, the instant shifting

disengaged, all used up fuel to keep the motor running is lost, because is it not delivering any power. With the shifting being almost instant, virtually no power is lost in the process. Also, with regular automatic transmissions using sets of planetary gears, service is tough, because planetary gear systems are delicate and very compact. This gives problems when having to reach the gears themselves. With DCTs using conventional helical gears, service is easier: the gears are easier to access and the whole system is not as intricate as with planetary gears.

wear more quickly and thus will need maintenance more often. Also, DCT systems are mostly found in more expensive cars, making the choice for either system not only depend on maintenance costs.

and consequently increasing the delivered torque, cars are able a transmission”

The key feature to notice is that the odd and even gear ratios are split between the two transmissions. This gets us right to the point of

can be set up already, which means the only action left to switch

Because no gears have to be changed in between this process,

The best transmission?

Obviously, both systems have their pros and cons. Although DCTs have faster shifts, leading to a higher fuel are more expensive in general. Does this then mean that a DCT is obsolete? No, it is just not suitable for every situation, for all

Transmissions are coming up more and more, taking the the future of DCTs is therefore not certain, it is the best option

RANGE ROVER SPORT Test track

WRITTEN BY

In recent years SUVs and crossovers have become more popular than ever across all the automotive price segments. Since the earliest days of this century premium, car manufacturers from Germany all tried to create the perfect luxury SUV. However, there was one British company which was way ahead of the pack. In the 1970s Land Rover, then years later Range Rover is still standing and evolved in a sub-brand containing a variety of models. In an attempt to rival sportier full-size competitors, the Range Rover Sport was brought to life. Is it any good though?

Photograph by: Otto van de Ven

Driving

In this day and age cars continuously have to use lesser amounts of fuel. Conventionally a Range Rover of any kind would only be found with a large capacity internal combustion engine of any sort. These days are over. The called the Range Rover Sport P400e. This means that it has a 2.0 litre inline horsepower and 400 newton metre of torque. This is transmitted to the wheels by a conventional 8-speed automatic transmission. On top of this an electric engine raises the total power to 404 horsepower and 640 newton metre of torque.

All of this power is necessary to push the relatively heavy body forward. The acceleration is quite impressive for a car of these proportions and substance. It is a vehicle with many internal characters. On the one hand, it is comfortable and the steering is light and non-communicative. One has the feeling of wafting around on a big cloud. On the other hand, it can be a very direct and hard SUV which is capable of high cornering speeds without understeer. This transformation happens when the drive select goes into dynamic mode. This two-faced road behaviour

Range Rover Sport P400e

Drivetrain 2.0-liter turbocharged inline 4

Gearbox 8-speed automatic gearbox

Mass 2471 kg

404 hp

Torque 640 Nm

Acceleration (0-100) 6.7 s

Price

is made possible by clever electronic systems, in particular the electronic air suspension. This system can vary the ride

This can reduce or increase directness and body roll. A drawback of putting the pedal to the metal is the sound the engine makes. Even though they tried giving it a nice rumble at higher refs, to a car freak a 4-cylinder engine just does not provide the ‘eargasm’ an engine with six or eight cylinders does.

In general, the Range Rover is a lovely car to travel with. The guidance systems like blind spot detection, lane keeping assistant and adaptive cruise control help achieving that. The heads up display in its turn keeps your eyes on the road. capabilities are impressive.

Exterior

This model of Range Rover has been

mostly aesthetic, facelift in 2018. You will lights, intakes and exhaust pipes. It has a really distinct look to it, immediately recognisable as a Range Rover but way more dynamic and sporty than its larger brother. This particular example comes with a black pack, which makes details like the grill, air intakes and mirrors black as well as the rims. In my opinion, this stresses the sporty character of the car and gives it a nice aggressive touch. Not to say that you would go unnoticed meters long and two meters high. In the Netherlands this is humongous in comparison to the average car.

The air suspension can create huge capabilities. It can raise the car 65 millimetre above the base position to give it a wading depth of 850 millimetre. The

naked eye. More dynamic settings will lower the car and more comfortable setting will increase the height. To be honest, I think it looks best in a higher position because it seems more sturdy. Something I like in a SUV.

Interior

Once inside the Range Rover one imagines himself in a world of luxury. There is leather and metal everywhere, which makes it feel special and of great build quality. The seats are amazing for long journeys and provide enough

lateral support in fast corners. It has a of the German competitors though. It feels more exclusive in a way.

In the facelifted models you are greeted with three large screens around the the authentic tachometers behind the steering wheel by digital ones. This screen is completely customizable and can show anything from navigation to driving modi. However, the real showpiece of the dashboard is called InControl Touch

inch touch screens placed above one another in the center console. Together they control everything in the car. It looks really good but it takes some time to get used to. Also physical nobs work

better while driving than touch screens do, luckily the temperature of the cabin zones and the heated seats can also be adjusted with two rotating knobs. In addition to that the drive mode selector also has a physical knob. Cold hands are also a thing of the past since this model has a heated steering wheel.

feature is the Meridian Signature audio

producing a total power of 1700 Watt. Experts say it is one of the best audio systems available on any new car. I am certainly not an expert but it is overwhelming for sure! Cranking it up feels like you are in a concert hall instead of doing your daily commute. This modern work of art will set you back an extra €5000.

Hybrid

Combining a combustion engine with an electric engine has come a long way the last couple of years. This also goes for the Range Rover concerned. Both engines work seamlessly together both when driving normal and going full out. If the lithium ion battery is fully charged the car should be able to do 48 kilometers fully electric according to the books. In real life it will only make this driving downhill all the way. Realistically it will get you about half way that distance. For many people still enough to get to work without using a drop of petrol. The full electric mode is especially nice in busy city centers with a engine would use a lot of fuel. Everything combined it will do about 1 liter per 11 kilometer. Pretty decent for a two and a

half ton full size SUV. Driving like a racing driver will get you ending up with a Shell membership though.

Off-road

way further than 99.9% of the people who buy a car like this will ever need. It starts by selecting the surface which will

will open a wheel information menu. This shows multiple things. First of all it shows the gearbox setting which is selected. It is also possible to enable the twin-speed transfer box which provides lower gears for challenging conditions. Furthermore, it provides a lot of wheel information such as the vertical displacement, current steering angle and loss of traction per wheel. The menu also shows the status

activated for the rear wheels or all four wheels. This makes sure the wheels have roading.

When the air suspension is raised fully the ride height above the front axle is 278 millimeter this also enables the wade sensing mode. This makes sure you do not exceed the 850 millimeter maximum wading depth. Next to this driving down steep hills is made easy with Hill Descent Control. A kind of cruise control for descending steep hills. So a lot of unnecessary in the streets of Laren.

Conclusions

The Range Rover Sport P400e is a car with a broad repertoire of qualities. The level of comfort and luxury is really high. Hour long voyages will be a very pleasant experience. The drivetrain as well as the interior quality just feels really sophisticated. However, when the dynamic mode is activated the entire driving experience changes. The steering gets more direct and provides more feedback. As a result of that the entire car feels quite sporty. On top of all

limitless. As a package the Range Rover Sport really amazed me. It might just be one of the best SUVs of its class.

Breaking records with model planes

Bart was able to apply his knowledge during his Bachelor Final Project for studentteam AIR/e to help them improve their model planes on the way to break .

WRITTENBY

Flying with model planes. Just a hobby for some people, and not too hard a hobby to get started with as was shown in the crafting course last year, where participants got to build their own model plane. Student team AIR/e takes know what they do exactly, check the OpenME edition of July 2019.

The original goal of AIR/e was to break the speed record for model planes with the use of an electric motor instead of a combustion engine. This speed record is currently set at a whopping 750 km/h, but after a few Master thesis projects it turned out this goal could not be achieved. So now their objective is to ‘go as fast as possible’ and it is up to Bart Meeuwsen to design the motor for AIR/e in his Bachelor Final Project. Because ‘going as fast as possible’ is not a very tangible goal, Bart set a velocity of 250 km/h as the goal of his project. The motor he is designing is a so-called Electric Ducted Fan (EDF), which is similar to a turbine but with multiple, shorter blades and is well suited for this type of application with high velocities.

hull of the plane has already been made so for the design, Bart only has to look at the inside, consisting of the motor, rotor and stator. A previous Master’s thesis looked at the design of an EDF for a bigger model plane which would be able to reach 750 km/h and from this thesis it turned out that this goal had to be adjusted. This is due to a balance between the air resistance and thrust. In the design of

Logically, in a bigger motor there is more air resistance and other aerodynamic losses, and they scale faster with

between these two factors needs to be reached, resulting in a choice for a smaller motor. The required EDF power

next page. The target speed Bart has set is also shown.

the required power and thrust is relatively high before it drops down for higher velocity until the air resistance starts playing a bigger role and the required power and thrust go up again.

This optimum has now been calculated by Bart, resulting and other losses within bounds. This is partly due to the determined size of the rotor blades. The EDF is driven by a brushless DC motor, which is expensive but very well suited for this type of application. The RPM of the rotor cannot be too high, as this will cause to much stress in the blades, mainly caused by the centrifugal force and it will

velocity of the blades is higher at the tips than in the middle. The choice for the brushless DC motor was also

of this project, several assumptions about it are made. One

mean radius. Another assumption is made by using velocity triangles, in which all components of the velocity of the air after it has hit a rotor blade are represented by a triangle. With the help of these triangles, it is assumed that the axial velocity throughout the entire stage is constant. A stage is what we call the rotor, the stator and the space in between the two.

Based on these constraints the rotor was designed, which was done by designing a cross-section of it with the so-called mid span design method. Here the section of the blade is designed at the centre radius of the turbine, which is a good average to optimise with as the rotor blades are relatively short at

the mid span radius.

rotational velocity between the middle of the rotor and the rotor tips is small. The rotor blades are being designed with tools from a previous Master thesis, according to NACA-65

foils can be designed, and the numbers behind the word can be entered into equations to precisely generate the crosssection of the airfoil. Several of these cross-sections are then stacked, which results in an arched rotor blade. This arch is velocity along the blade.

Bart is now designing the stator in Siemens NX, which is easier than the design of the rotor since it is stationary. When the

design will be tested in a wind tunnel in the TFE-lab. This wind tunnel is only capable of wind speeds up to 40 m/s whereas of the wind tunnel tests will thus have to be scaled and data some of the older students might remember doing during the propeller DBL project.

SLITHERLINK

In slitherlink, adjacent dots have to be connected along the dotted lines to form a path. This path has to be a single loop, and along the way, it cannot cross itself or branch. The numbers indicate the number of lines the square or triangle is surrounded by. Empty cells may be surrounded by any number of lines.

PUZZLE MADE BY LIANNE TUIN

What and where did you study?

“I studied Mechanical Engineering at the University of Twente. I received my MSc here in 1997. Later, I obtained my Ph.D. from the University of Amsterdam at the Centre of Mathematics and

How did you end up at the TU/e?

“After my Ph.D., I started as an Assistant Professor at the Department of Aerospace Engineering in Delft. In 2009, there and I applied for one of the positions in Eindhoven. Upon appointment, I became a Full Professor in Multiscale

What is the funniest moment of your student time?

“There were a lot of moments actually. I had a wonderful student time. I have to admit that the moments that come to my mind are probably not very suitable for

Interview

Harald van Brummelen

Which project do you like the most?

“There are several projects that come to with Océ, a printer manufacturer. I do this together with part-time professor

develop new numerical models relevant to the printers of Océ, such as models of drops on substrates.

Next to this, we have a large project running together with ASML. In this

low pressures, almost in a vacuum. Actually, all projects are fun. We recently completed a graduation project together with Biomedical Engineering in the context of a dual-degree diploma, which

What courses do you teach?

“Within the Bachelor program, I teach the third-year course Computational Mechanics. In addition, I teach two courses within the MSc program, Advanced Engineering Mathematics and

What do you like most about teaching?

“The thing I like most about teaching is that you can see it when a student makes a step forward in understanding the subject matter. I am a person who approaches problems from the fundamentals. I always say that my bad memory is one of my better qualities. This forces me to really understand

fewest things have to be remembered. I encourage students to follow this approach as well in order for them to really understand what they are doing. I really like it to see when students then

What do you do besides teaching?

of the Graduate School of Engineering Mechanics. This is a collaboration of the TU’s of Eindhoven, Delft, and Twente. The aim of this organization is to establish high-level education for Ph.D.

engineering mechanics.

I am also the secretary-general of ECCOMAS, the European Community on Computational Methods in Applied Sciences.

organizes, symposia, workshops and conferences with the target audience of

Do

you have any

hobbies?............

“Family-life and work do not leave much time for hobbies. I am busy with my work and family 24/7. I do like to run. That is why I run 10 kilometers every week. When you sit in your chair a lot

a balance between mental and physical activities. It helps to clear my head and I believe it enhances my creativity. A lot of

Do you have a good piece of advice for students?

“Eventually, it is always important to work hard and to plan well. Everyone really want to do, intrinsic motivation is very important. This is one of my

of Computational Mechanics. As an engineer, you will be at the top of the food chain and companies will search for people who are able to solve abstract problems. That is why it is important to yourself.

WRITTEN BY

DRIVING TOWARDS AUTONOMY

A control perspective on

Cooperative Adaptive Cruise Control WRITTEN

BY KEVIN GRINWIS

In the 18th century, several inventors were trying to the car has made a huge impact over the years. Cars are the main means of transportation nowadays and it is hard to imagine a world without cars.

Normally, when something is practiced very often, the one practicing it would become good at it. Although we have been driving cars for such a long time already, human inabilities remain the primary cause of accidents. Knowing this, a logical solution to reducing the number of accidents would be to automate the are working on this. Whether autonomous cars will be implemented is more or less an ethical debate. For the ones believing in a future with autonomous cars it is interesting to know the current progress within autonomous cars.

Before something useful can be said about achieving

A vehicle platoon is a term used to describe a string of vehicles. This system’s performance is limited for position. One way to achieve better performance is by incorporating acceleration in the control loop. When this is done, the system is called Cooperative Adaptive Cruise Control (CACC).

behavior of the longitudinal vehicle dynamics is required. A typical model for the longitudinal vehicle dynamics used in CACC is that of the desired acceleration input and actual acceleration as output. In literature, these dynamics are often modeled

this is assumed to be the plant dynamics a control loop can be built which simulates the longitudinal vehicle dynamics. Using experiments the unknown parameters for the observed car can be determined. If this is done, a model is obtained representing the dynamics of this car. A controller can be made for this to make sure the car behaves the way the user wants it to.

the longitudinal or the lateral motion, but the driver is always required to pay attention. Level 2 is fairly similar, except that now both longitudinal and lateral the automation system will monitor the environment and warn the driver in case of danger, but the driver still is responsible and should be able to intervene. Beyond this level, the system performs the tasks the driver needed to perform in the lower levels meaning that the car is able to operate fully autonomously.

As stated in the levels of autonomy, being able to monitor the environment is an important requirement for autonomy. Being able to monitor the environment includes knowing where other cars on the road are located and to be able to adapt its own motion according to the obtained information. Being able to measure and visualize everything which is around the lot of sensors.

However, when this information of the surrounding is retrieved it should be used by the car. This is where the control engineers step in. At level 1 there is already used a system called Adaptive Cruise Control which uses the information about velocity and relative position of the vehicles in the vehicle platoon in the control loop.

signals of the control loop, is replaced by some input signals determined according to information from the vehicle platoon the car should be able to operate autonomously in the longitudinal direction. The relative position can be seen as the reference signal, while the velocity and acceleration are inputs for the feedforward of the system. Classical control theory tells us that proper feedforward in combination with a stabilizing high-performance controller results in excellent tracking behavior. Knowing this it can be concluded that the information from communication

of the vehicle.

Besides CACC there is a lot more to cover on automated vehicles. CACC uses the information on the preceding vehicle. However, when changing lanes already much more information comes into play. It can be imagined that the whole problem of automating vehicles to such extent that it is generally acknowledged to be safe is a real challenge for control engineers. But a challenge does not mean it is impossible…

PRODRIVE TECHNOLOGIES

WRITTEN BY

Prodrive Technologies has been growing exponentially over the past few years. I was happy to be invited by Bjorn Jacobs for an interview. Bjorn has been working at Prodrive for more delighted to show what he does at Prodrive.

Ending up at Prodrive Technologies

Bjorn got into contact with Prodrive at a ‘speed date’ event with companies. Multiple pop up stands were set up where you you would move on to the next company. There were plenty of companies present and one of them was Prodrive. Being already acquainted with a contact at Prodrive, it made it easier to get accepted into the company. From then the journey began and he is still happy with the choice he made.

Right now he works as a Designer, but that is a really general term. He is heavily involved in Research and Development, where, for example, he is currently working on a project in

which machines that automate internal production processes are being developed. Challenges within this project include

quality. Something Bjorn enjoys is working on the statistics side of projects. Not really everyone likes doing it, but everyone has their own discipline which interests them.

“I really enjoy the process of creating a machine, testing its quality, applying statistics theory knowledge. “

A job for everyone

A project that is currently under the wing of Bjorn is about automating an assembly production that uses injected moulded polymer parts, amongst other things. A part of the process is how you mechanically connect the polymer parts to each other. called ‘plasma cleaning’ so that a good connection is created when the parts are glued together. Without plasma cleaning, the parts would simply not connect.

Another process which helps to connect the polymer parts to each other is heat staking. This is a bonding process where one of the two parts is heated and therefore deformed in order to create an irreversible connection.The automation of these functionalities is the main concern of Bjorn and his project members, consisting of mechanical designers, software engineers and integrators. Bjorn is now focussing on the requirements of multiple products in order to create a generic platform for all functionalities used within Prodrive to create one generic design which can be used for multiple production environments.

Questions to answer are: “What is the best way to automate this

The reason for projects like the automation of an assembly production line is the through-put time, high quality and process control which is required by the automotive industry. Most of the projects that Bjorn works on are largely focused on the mechanical part, which is also his favourite part.

“It’s my favourite part of a project because I

Prodrive really trusts you to take responsibility, which is heavily emphasized. Equality between colleagues is also a big factor. Everyone is treated the same, which makes sense since everyone shares all the same facilities.

The vision

I asked Bjorn about internationalization within Prodrive Technologies since the number of international studies keeps growing at the TU/e and as of January 2020, English will also be the main language. As a company, Prodrive already has complete documentation in English. The resource department also tries to hire people from outside of The Netherlands, which makes sense since they have production departments in China and the U.S.A. Bjorn emphasises that equality is important at Prodrive, and construction departments but also in the development

So what does Prodrive really look for in employees? Real engineers with passion. They have an Research and Development department full of young people that recently graduated. Eindhoven is a great location for Prodrive since a lot of recently graduated students from the TU/e and Fontys directly apply there, but the last years Prodrive also has seen an increase of

Bjorn really enjoys working at Prodrive Technologies. Working at Prodrive is really broad and you do not tend to do the same

get a lot of freedom. If you want to construct parts or machines, you get to. But if you prefer to work on software, you are free to

the right material, designing the part and testing it. The three main branches of work are either mechanical, electrical or software centred. There is not really a big distinction though do not get thrown into the deep end.

“Everyone around here enjoys helping you if you are encountering a challenge, you just need to

expect that from our employees. We build the

After the interview, Bjorn gave me a small tour of the company, which really impressed me. Innovative machines, great cooperation between employees and plenty of services provided by the company like included lunch and a gym create for an awesome work environment. Prodrive Technologies seems like a great company to work and grow at as an engineer and they really try to give you freedom in what you do. All in all a great company!

Interested?

Are you interested in the projects that Prodrive Technologies works on or does the way of working appeal to you? For more information about this company and the possiblities for you within Prodrive, visit the website prodrive-technologies. com/careers. You can also send an e-mail to jobs@prodrivetechnologies.com

Grind my Gears

Finding your inner Mechanical Engineer

WRITTEN BY

In the previous edition of openME the results of a quiz testing the academic insight of students around campus were published. Because a test of N=1 does not give reliable results, and the is expected to increase over time, we decided to do another test. This time there was no bar crawl organized by our neighbours, so we had to travel far and wide to visit the other student bars.

Where most Study Associations were kind enough to have us during their (private) drink, the board of Thor suspected that their students wouldn’t be able to answer enough answers correctly so we were denied access to their bar. Luckily our editors are not quickly taken by surprise, and when there is a chance of alcohol on the horizon they become quite resourceful and were thus able to sneak in later that evening.

To check the Mechanical Engineering knowledge around the campus, the following questions were asked:

1. Name the mechanism shown.

4. Which crystalline structure has the highest atomic packing factor?

5. What is the so-called ‘vegetable tray principle’?

6. Is the structure shown statically determined?

Name the mechanism shown

For a starter question, a simple and recognizable bike part was shown. During the beginning (as well as the end) of the drink in ‘De Weeghconst’, all Mechanical Engineers gave the correct answer. When touring the campus to ask other students, they often struggled naming the part. At the department of IE&IS almost the entire bike was named, except for the correct part: brakes, dynamos, pedal shafts, and even a fancy bell. Whereas students of Electrical Engineering, Applied Physics and Mathematics swiftly concluded that it is a (rear) derailleur. We the mechanism had something to do with switching gears, but correctly naming it turned out to be the hard part.

It turned out that technical drawings are not a familiar sight for most students, and thus this was one of the harder questions to answer for most. Students from Intermate quickly started talking about statistical DOF’s, Lucid started blabbering about freedom in general, and students from Thor had the wrong the correct names for the ‘sprieten’ and some realized that the triangle joint only allows for rotation and constrains all translation. However, no one except the Mechanical Engineers was able to answer correctly assuming that technical drawings are common knowledge, or maybe other studies really aren’t that smart, who knows.

In what direction should the columns rotate to move forward? Why?

A question about a topic that was surely discussed in the freshmen course about Physics that everyone has followed, so you would say that it wouldn’t be too hard to answer. Boy, were we proved wrong again. Some people got the correct answer by an educated guess, some got the wrong answer by a less-educated guess, but no one was able to give the correct explanation as to why the ship moves forward when the columns rotate experimentally showed this to be true knew what it was.

wise, the wind in front of the column gets accelerated and the wind behind the column gets decelerated, thus generating a forward force.

Which

crystalline structure has the highest atomic

packing factor?

packing particles in a volume or the highest density of particles in a volume everyone answered correct quickly, but most (read: students from other technical studies such as EE or AP) then started to doubt themselves. This doubt came from their perception that ‘it cannot be that easy, so it must be a trick question’, after which they

A (wrong)

B (wrong)

C (correct)

No idea

What is the so-called ‘vegetable tray principle’?

We must say that we were a bit disappointed by the answers that were given to this question. Only a single person was able to correctly answer it, and he wasn’t even a Mechanical Engineer but someone from the Built Environment! With the ‘vegetable tray principle’ the tube in the back of your fridge is meant, which makes a ‘box’ like your fridge torsionally rigid. People got creative while answering this question though, where the of hot and cold air or about the density of vegetables that can be packed in there. The creative minds of Lucid were also released on us when we asked what special thing about the vegetable tray was they answered “It is transparent and has a handle, and who determined that that would be the place to store our vegetables?’

We are still crying a little bit because the Mechanical Engineers weren’t able to answer this question correctly. Hopefully Nick Rosielle will not read this, or he will come to haunt you in your sleep.

Is the structure shown statically determined?

Asking if the construction shown in the picture was statically determined gave a lot of weird-looking faces as a

After some extra explanation about the subject, more logical reasoning was done. The majority thought that the construction was statically determined, since it would be impossible to move without some form of brute question since the design is statically over-determined. Any single bar can be removed and the design will still be statically determined.

Correct reasoning, wrong anser

Conclusion answered correctly.

Engineering is worth an extra mention, as there was a drink with free beer going on, so the level of alcohol was quite high when we arrived, but performance was still top notch. Even though the Mechanical Engineers advantage.

We hope all participants in our questionnaire enjoyed it as much as we did. Asking Mechanical Engineering questions to students from other faculties with some alcohol in their blood, once again made for some fun sceneries. Stay tuned for the next edition of Grind my Gears!

How to face stress during ‘the best time of your life’

WRITTEN BY SAGITTA PETERS

During my time at TU/e, your student days were called ‘the best time of your life’. Although life luckily had (and hopefully will have) many more good times for me, I doubt if people still use this quote that easily.

Student life seems to have gotten surrounded with more worries. The current system with student loans implies large debts for many students. Employers ask more of their future employees, from high grades to extensive CVs. On top of that social media allow us to compare ourselves with others in the blink of an eye - while often showing an incomplete picture, hiding less beautiful bits and pieces. And although it might be possible to handle all of these, be aware of not getting into a toxic cocktail of severe stress.

Stress

First, stress does have its positive sides. A bit of stress helps us through life. It makes you more alert and gives the extra energy needed to meet a deadline or to pass an exam. However, when experiencing stress becomes part of your daily life, it’s another story. Continual stress causes physical and mental symptoms and might even result in (near) burnout: you’ve been pushing yourself too hard for too long. Short outbursts of stress increase your heart rate and cause sweaty hands. These signals fade away when the stress situation ends. Continual

problems with concentrating, anxiety or emotional instability. Eventually you might reach a state of emotional, physical and mental exhaustion.

What to do?

There are several things you can do to cope with stress and and your health) way. They range from healthy living habits, to being conscious about what you really like in life and what you don’t, to introducing time to truly relax your brain.

Introduce healthy habits

Proper self-care should be a habit like brushing your teeth twice alcohol, and make sure you get the amount of sleep you really need (not the amount you can survive on). Take breaks every hour or two.

Thirty minutes of light, daily outdoor exercise relieves stress and releases happy hormones. A walk or bicycle ride is perfect and about yourself. You’re as valuable as everyone else! Become aware of the thoughts that make you be hard on yourself.

What about work pressure

The study load has several peaks during the academic year. The university has a responsibility to spread the work pressure wisely, however making an adequate planning helps a lot as when that deadline is during exam period? Postponing work

Share not only the happy stuff

On social media life might seem all rainbows, glitter and unicorns, but real life isn’t! Share it with your friends when your project group have not been assigned evenly. It might feel

by Brené Brown. This is one of my favourite books and there is a great TED talk from her on YouTube as well.

Energy sources and drains

To keep your energy tank full, it is important that more energy goes in than goes out. You can make a list of all the things that give you energy (sources) and those that are energy drains in private life, study and work. You might also track this on a daily basis for one or two weeks. The list will help you prioritize what you really love to do. In addition, try to get rid of (part of) the energy drains.

A simple NO

Start with saying ‘no’, or something similar like ‘I do not have time for that’, ‘maybe person X can help you with this’ etc. Might

Give your brain some rest

Another important factor in coping with stress is to give your

good, your brain will still be active as it is when you are using your smartphone etc. Better to go for a walk or to just stare out of the window. Get bored!

Constantly checking your phone could also be a way of avoidant behaviour (as could be drinking too much alcohol, gaming,

sadness or disappointment or certain thoughts like doubt, but be aware that these emotions or thoughts will pop up again and again. Till you properly address them, so I would say, better do that today than tomorrow.

Ask for help

If you experience moderate to severe stress symptoms, please talk to a friend, family member, your GP, student advisor, student psychologist, or another professional care giver. It is important to get (professional) help, as it is one of the best ways

several courses as well.

If you have any questions after reading this article, please do not hesitate to contact me via info@sagittapeters.nl.

Personal career

After graduating in Chemical Engineering and Chemistry at TU/e, I was active as policy advisor and editorial

and managing director of the interdisciplinary TU/e Institute for Complex Molecular Systems (ICMS, in the Ceres building next to Gemini).

Today, I work as career and burnout coach for highly educated professionals. As career coach I help clients with questions like ‘How can better perform in this job/ situation/…’ and ‘What career and burnout recovery and prevention.

On www.sagittapeters.nl and via LinkedIn I share blogs with information and tips!

REACH FOR THE STARS

of 42,000 internet satellites called Starlink. The company recognizes the demand for fast and reliable internet around the world and is looking to scale Starlink’s total network capacity to meet this increase in global demand. The original plan was to launch 12,000 satellites over the next 8 years, but now to launch hundreds more in the upcoming year. The company has yet to rea factor of 20 and the total amount of all spacecraft launched in history by 5

ME-STUDENTS AT

WRITTEN BY

Simon Stevin organizes career-orientated activities, like lunch lectures and company visits, for all Mechanical Engineering students. Career-orientated activities for all students of the TU/e are organized by Wervingsdagen, a joint initiative of nine study associations. This year, two members of Simon Stevin are in the Board, Stan de Rijk and Karsten Slakhorst, who will give you an insight into their life as a Board member of Wervingsdagen. Furthermore is explained why the events of Wervingsdagen are essential for you as a Mechanical Engineering students.

Stan de Rijk

First-year master student Control Systems Technology

Visiting several music festivals, it always kept me wondering: How do you start with such a large event? It requires excellent organizational skills to plan each and every little thing to create an entertaining day from the ground up. This interest in organizing events has been there all my life. Therefore joining several committees at our Study Association

about working with a team to create a challenging event. Still, I wanted more. Therefore, I actively looked for a board year in my third year of studying here in Eindhoven. Earlier that year, I visited the Skill Sessions of Wervingsdagen. Here I followed a three-hour workshop about performing a persuasive presentation. I was inspired by the tips that I learned in this brief period. Doing that made me realize that (soft) skills is an essential aspect for a future Mechanical Engineer.

Since I enjoyed this event so much, I also decided to visit the CareerExpo, where I was surprised about the scale of this event. And then again the question popped into my head: How do you start with such an event? Knowing that I enjoyed the Skill

me: I had to do a board year at this organization.

Being the Event Coordinator, you are responsible for all the logistical aspects of each event and also for the direction of

to answer my question on how to organize a big event. This year Iona Beerling and I are the Event Coordinators. Although most of you probably had a relaxing vacation, we spent our summer preparing for the upcoming events. In the summer vacation, we contacted training companies to eventually arrange more than 60 workshops in the week of the Skill Sessions. Also, we started with making the big planning of the Career Expo, beginning with a map for the stands of the companies and also writing a safety plan. Although this sounds simple, each little detail has to be thought of to make the planning of the day neat.

As a Mechanical Engineer at Wervingsdagen, I got the opportunity to step out of the bubble of the study and focus

immediately from the start by working in a multidisciplinary team. We, as Mechanical Engineers, have experience in group projects and problem-solving, but I saw that everyone had

Although we learn a lot in our DBL-projects, I became conscious

in which we both can contribute and learn a lot. On top of that, we have to think about how we can reach every student at the university, but also organize exciting events for these students. Every day, we are strategizing and trying to improve the content and promotion of our events. To do that you have to be self-critical and also learn to respect each other and each skillset. Growing as a group is one of the coolest things I already experienced during my year. You learn about each other, but also about yourself. On top of that, I learned how to keep track of the large events that we organize and also with this, my productivity increased immensely.

In the upcoming months our events will take place, which will be interesting events for you as Mechanical Engineers. And if you then have the same question as I had, come and have a chat and I will give you my perspective on the issue: How do you organize the largest technical Career Events of the Netherlands?

Karsten Slakhorst

Fourth-year bachelor student

Mechanical Engineering

At the beginning of my second year as a student of the bachelor Mechanical Engineering, I moved to Eindhoven and started to explore the opportunities in Eindhoven next to my study. One of them was the Career Expo, which I visited. I was impressed by

After the event, I was wondering what was required to organize an event like that. At a drink of Simon Stevin, I spoke with a Board member of Wervingsdagen about that. That chat inspired me to join the Activists, a committee of Wervingsdagen. As an Activist, you organize a stunt on the Monday before the Career Expo and help at the Career Expo itself. Therefore, you work together in an interdisciplinary team with students from several disciplines. I really liked that, and I was convinced to do a board year at Wervingsdagen. I waited for one year, after which I applied for the Board of Wervingsdagen.

I take the functions of Secretary and Commissioner of External

to other organizations and students, like the mailing for the promotion of the events. Furthermore, I track the incoming mails and packages and track the inventory.

Wervingsdagen, and its organization is therefore in the hands

in the candidate period, the preparations for the Career Expo start with acquiring all the interesting companies by all the

more than 600 companies, are contacted and informed about the Career Expo and the Interviewing Days.

After that, the company selection is made. The next step is to gather all the desired information for the company guide which you will recognize to the blue cover for the Career Expo and green cover for the Interviewing Days. Also, a lot of information should be gathered for our Event Coordinators who are responsible for the logistics of our event. During the year we keep in touch with the companies while keeping them up to date on our daily tasks.

Five months ago, since the 20th of June, my board year by Wervingsdagen began. In this period I learned so much more about the university itself and other studies at the university. Even on a technical university, with only people with a technical

and thoughts which together organize the events.

Besides that, I learned a lot of skills which are very useful for my career. As a team, we organize the events on a high level. In there, everyone has their responsibilities, but you get involved in every process, like promotion or logistics.

With the big events, Skill Sessions/Career Expo/Interviewing Days, coming up, I am looking forward to the coming seven months of my board year by Wervingsdagen.

Upcoming activities 2020

This year the Wervingsdagen will organize Eindhoven University of Technology’s most important career events for the 39th time in a row. These events, the Skill Sessions, the Career Expo, and the Interviewing Days, help you to develop your professional attitude, and to tackle all future challenges in the job market.

Career Expo: March 10th and 11th

The Career Expo will take place in Auditorium and Atlas at Eindhoven University of Technology on the 10th and 11th of March. During these days 120+ companies, which are interested in Mechanical Engineering students, will present themselves through a stand, speed dates ,and presentations. Familiarize yourself with companies, converse with recruiters, and learn all about your potential future employers. Whether you already know where you end up after studies, or whether you are still in doubt, the Career Expo offers you the opportunity to gather information on various companies and to find the company that suits you best. New this year is the Experience Center in the Atlas Building, where you can get to know the company in a more interactive way.

Career Street: February 3rd until February 7th

The Career Street is at different locations around campus during the lunch break in the week from February 3 until February 7. Here you can get some tips on how to present yourself towards a company. You could also get input on your CV, business card or LinkedIn profile and be able to talk to inspiring spin-offs and start-ups located on our campus. So drop by for some great tips and tricks before visiting the Career Expo and grab a snack!

Interviewing Days: April 20th until April 24th

Visiting the Interviewing Days is the perfect opportunity to talk to potential employers about possible career opportunities. Besides that, it is a great way to ask recruiters about the culture and work procedures of the company you are planning to work after your study. The topic of the conversation during these Interviewing Days is entirely up to you, as long as it is career-related. If you want to get deeper insights of a company in a practical way, then we also offer several business cases.

To get a taste of what it is like to work there, you can get your hands on a reallife problem, provided by a company. In order to create a suitable atmosphere, this event will be hosted at the Pullman Hotel. Are you interested in this offer? Visit the Wervingsdagen website (wervingsdagen.nl), see which companies participate during the Interviewing Days, and have lunch, dinner, or just a relaxed conversation with a recruiter from a company of your choice.

Why did you decide to come to Eindhoven?

sure that, although I loved my French education, I wanted to experience something new.

I started thinking about which countries I absolutely adored the culture, the way and quality of living, and that had great universities. From there, two choices appeared: Switzerland and the Netherlands. The honesty, openness, and liveliness of Dutch people and culture made my decision quite easy!

From there it was just a matter of applying. I applied to TU Twente and TU Eindhoven, the latter being my preference for the city. The day before my 18th birthday, I got the excellent news that I got in. Couldn’t have worked out

Interview Domingos Varela Marreiros

How would you describe the Dutch culture?

“Dutch culture is quite interesting. Dutch all the other countries I visited in my life. What stood out for me the last four months was:

The directness: Dutch people can be extremely direct to each other and it is accepted. I don’t know if that can really count as a cultural aspect but it is a very big standout that can be seen from an outsider’s point of view.

The partying: Dutch people clearly love party. Every occasion that exists is a reason to party.

The uniqueness: Dutch culture can’t be compared to others. From the deep rooted, excellent culture of cycling everywhere, to have a love for special holidays like Carnival. Dutch culture

International active member at W.S.V. Simon Stevin

What amazed you the most when you arrived?

“When I arrived in Eindhoven, at the beginning of August, I thought the adaptation to a new country, new city, new culture, and new people would be

most was how wrong I was. Dutch are to reach outside of the country. I do somewhat agree, but the sympathy and help to integrate stil amzames me today. Of course, I did have the drive to break and to adapt to the Dutch culture, but it is really unexpected how extremely welcoming Dutch are, much more than the great majority of cultures I know.

Also, the quality of life in Eindhoven and in the Netherlands stoke me a lot, Air is fresh, there are shops everywhere, trains work so much better than I thought (NS isn’t bad, I actually have the unpopular opinion that it is great), I can go everywhere so quickly. “

Was it easy to adapt to the Dutch lifestyle?

“Adapting to the Dutch lifestyle was easier than expected, Of course, the lifestyles of the countries from our old continent are always going to be somewhat similar, thought, though.

First of all, your eating habits are quite a long, big lunch simply isn’t a thing in the Netherlands. I was used to, in Portugal, Also, the Dutch eat dinner really early. Secondly, cycling everywhere is also a big adaptation. I come from Lisbon, the City of the Seven Hills. Because of our big seven hills on which Lisbon is built on, cycling simply isn’t doable in the largest part of the city.

The hardest adaptation for me was the language. It is incredible how basically everyone knows how to speak English and has, in general, a great accent. Still it is a big adaptation to live somwhere with

How do you experience the student life of Eindhoven?

“I think Eindhoven is an amazing city to live in as a student. There is just so much to do as a student. From going out to Stratumseind, to having dinner in the center with friends, to visitng the cinemas, parks and activities. The fact that we are in the Brainport region, with such a massive amount of big tech companies makes Eindhoven, in my

Do you think Eindhoven has enough opportunities for internationals to adapt to the student life?

“Yes and no. Eindhoven is clearly an extremely international city, with a lot of international companies and a growing number of international students. Because of that, people tend to be more open to internationals. But with all this internationalization also comes a problem.. Because Dutch students are now also used to adapting to internationals, it can be quite

How did you get in contact with our Association?

with the Association, which made me really excited about it. The way the Association presented itself, being a useful connection but at the same time being fun was just really appealing to

What do you think of the attitude of our Association towards internationals?

“I think W.S.V. Simon Stevin has had a great attitude towards internationals.

middle ground, keeping the traditions alive while still being very open and giving opportunities to internationals. I always found that all the members were extremely nice to me and were never excluding me, That is, besides the general kindness and openness of the Dutch, thanks to the great work of the Board.

The best example, that I will always remember, was Intro Camp. This year, to be part of it. This meant that for the was extremely worried that it would not work, that the traditions would be lost or that I was going to be put aside. Thanks to the great preparations and attitude of everyone, I never felt excluded. The

Do you think the transformation to an English bachelor has gone successful and how can the department improve?

“I do believe that a big transition like perfectly done in one year, I think that the explanation of how our Bachelor works, the study material during the quartiles and the way lectures are given are a success. I always can very easily understand how everything works and I do believe that the lectures were extremely well organized and translated.

Nevertheless, I think there is a large unbalance between the material given to Dutch and internationals to prepare for an exam. I do totally understand process of translating old exams, but international students have much less something that would inevitably happen in a big transition like this, since it is very hard to predict how all students prepare for exams. I think that is the major improvement that has to be made in an

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Master Thesis:

MECHANICAL METAMATERIALS

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Mechanical metamaterials are materials with properties that cannot be found in natural materials

Properties that are exhibited by these materials include a negative compressibility, a

You might already have read something about these mechanical metamaterials in this article, on the master thesis of Sven Sperling, where three homogenization methods were implemented and compared. In this article you can read about the master thesis of Sylvia van Bree, in which she implemented a Newton Solver for the Micromorphic Computational Homogenization method, which can be used to accurately simulate the buckling behaviour in these mechanical metamaterials.

These mechanical metamaterials are mainly used in soft robotics, where for example the opening and closing of a gripper can be controlled by removing the air from the pockets inside the material. The tricky part about doing calculations and simulations on these materials is that they can display two sorts of buckling, local and patterns appear in the material when buckling, shown do simulations for these kind of materials is called computational homogenization, which gives results at the engineering scale, while taking into account the structure of the microscale. The standard computational the boundary layers, since the metamaterials display be overcome by using micromorphic computational homogenization. However, the current solver for this type of homogenization is slow and cannot do bifurcation analyses, which is where the master thesis of Sylvia comes into play.

“Bifurcation theory describes how the equilibrium behaviour of Important factors are the appearance of (two) new stationary solutions (equilibrium points) and the appearance of periodic solutions. A bifurcation can occur when a small smooth change is made to the parameter values (the bifurcation parameters) of a system and this causes a sudden change in its behaviour.”

The goal of her master thesis was to implement a full Newton Solver to improve the speed and robustness of the micromorphic

However, before we discuss that, computational homogenization will be explained. Computational homogenization solves the material to a representative volume element (RVE). The RVE is macroscale can then be calculated.

The micromorphic computational homogenization splits the basically tells something about how much a certain pattern (of the three shown above) is activated in the material, which might be explained more clearly pictures on the bottom of this page. Through the discretisation of the stresses at the macroscale, the important role in the bifurcation analyses.

The stability of these bifurcations is checked with the determinant is smaller or equal than 0, the bifurcation is unstable. If the lowest eigenvalue of the matrix is also non-positive, then the system is perturbed in the direction of its eigenvector to make it stable and buckling will occur. As already shown above, two types of buckling can occur dependent on the slenderness of the beam. In a short, and thus relatively thick beam, local buckling will occur and in a longer and thus relatively thinner beam, global buckling will occur.

The results of the implementation of the solver are shown in the global buckling at the top, the simulations accurately predict the behaviour.

Finally, the stress and buckling strains calculated with the micromorphic method are compared to a reference solution, method overestimates both.

So in conclusion, the derivation and implementation of the to analyse which type of buckling occurs in the system. However, there are still improvements possible, such as in the overestimation of the buckling stress/strain.

Symposium 2020

SPACE DEBRIS

A growing threat to space exploration

The last couple of decades will always be remembered as the time in which humans became a space-faring species. This has resulted in an ever-increasing amount of non-functional satellites and spacecraft roaming around our Earth. But what impact does the growing space debris population have and to what extent are we currently able to solve it?

The human race has always had to urge to use new means of transport to achieve what everybody thought could not be done. We discovered new worlds on our ocean voyages enabling global trade, the railways were one of the largest building blocks of the Industrial age and new developments eventually led to one of the greatest technical achievements in the

the Wright brothers. It was not until this particular moment that we dared to dream about traveling beyond the heavens into outer space in order to solve the long-term mysteries of our universe. Nowadays, outer space is a precious environment of

starting to realize it more and more. The company SpaceX is working on our voyage to Mars, Amazon’s Blue Origin space program is currently making plans to colonize space as well and thousands of Starlink satellites will be launched in the coming years to provide for our growing internet demands. With thousands of satellites roaming around the Earth and the likelihood of this amount multiplying by a great amount in the near future, the risks of satellite collisions increase as well. The impact of a collision these satellites can be felt on Earth in the form of a signal loss on your cell phone or television, but these collisions have a larger impact than you can probably imagine.

What is space debris?

The greatest risks to space missions tend to come from these fragments of non-trackable debris. It is currently estimated that roughly 170

atmosphere, this is over 7000 tonnes of pieces of junk circling around our Earth. It is safe to say that our activities in space have had a profound impact on the development of space junk. We have created a garbage belt around our planet that in the time to come may cause problems for future space exploration or satellite communications. In fact, you might even say that the largest garbage dump of Earth is actually in outer space.

Back in 2007, when the Chinese military deliberately destroyed their own weather satellite, the Fengyun1C, thousands of little fragments were created that many years later are still orbiting our Earth. These fragments called ‘space debris’ or ‘space junk’ is

Earth but is no longer functional. The impact of this deliberate demolition of the Fengyun-1C was only to be felt years later when a minuscule chunk of the former spacecraft collided with a Russian satellite, severely damaging the spacecraft. Tens of thousands of pieces of space debris are currently being tracked by NASA. Smaller pieces, however, are not trackable and cause a large uncertainty about the actual space debris population. These fragments are too small to be cataloged and the only information we have on these tiny pieces are only rough estimates.

What impact does it have?

A piece of junk can best be described as a bullet traveling in space at a speed up to 10 kilometers per second. You might guess that particles that travel with such a hypervelocity can have an enormous impact on space crafts in orbit. As the particles colliding with the spacecraft get larger in size, the more problems they will oppose. Sensitive spacecraft surfaces and equipment, like optical sensors or thermal control

micron-sized particles. As their diameter increase, ranging from ten to hundreds of microns, these particles are able to penetrate the outer spacecraft coatings as well as foils and solar cells. Particles with the size of just a millimeter can penetrate tanks and certain equipment. We should bear in mind that even larger particles would have the ability to destroy a space probe completely, comparable to what happened to the Russian shuttle. A collision with a shard of 10 centimeters would have the same impact as an explosion of 7 kilograms of TNT.

In 1978, NASA scientist Donald J. Kessler proposed a theory about a chain reaction of debris collisions. He predicted that even if we will maintain an input of zero satellites into space from now on, the debris

objects in space will keep colliding to form more and more debris in Lower Earth Orbit. He called this process after himself: ‘The Kessler Syndrome’. Eventually, frequent collisions will be inevitable. Essential aspects of our life, such as wireless internet, television, and GPS will all be threatened in the future.

Is it too late already?

Here on Earth, we tend to deal with our waste quite careless. We produce tons of garbage every year, simply because throwing it away is easier than recycling. After you have thrown something in the trashcan, it is not your problem anymore and you can

where all of our non-functional satellites can be stored. There is no one that will pick up your garbage on an early morning and the only way to actually remove them is by actively trying. While some may believe that launching 42000 satellites into our orbits for faster internet is a good idea, we cannot solve this problem with the same thinking we created it. Owing to the fact that our activities have been the cause, it leads to a more or less ethical question whether we should use every trick in the book to minimalize the ‘garbage belt’ around our Earth.

Luckily, although total prevention is not possible, we can minimalize the odds of collisions. According to the Space Safety Coalition (SSC), the Kessler Syndrome can be inhibited if we follow a simple set of rules. This coalition has formed a document called “Best Practices for the Sustainability of Space

debris. An example of such a guideline is that spacecraft that operate at an altitude higher than 400 kilometers should always feature a propulsion system that allows them to avoid collisions

already committed to these guidelines as of today.

Can we solve it?

Unfortunately, simple guidelines cannot solve this problem in its entirety. The growing recognition of this problem has led to scientists actively looking for ways to minimalize the impact and risks or even remove any piece of junk from our orbits.

is shielding. Shielding can provide enough protection to minimalize any damage occurring when a collision takes place. The technology of shielding has advanced a lot these last couple of decades, from simple Whipple shield to custom-made

The international space station has applied this technology to hundreds of shields that protect the critical components of the ISS from fragments with less overall structural mass.

Secondly, researchers are currently also investigating new techniques to dodge small pieces of space junk. A satellite would need to be able to detect any collision from tens of kilometers away to be able to react in the few seconds before impact. The achieve this, an idea has been proposed to develop a CubeSat with 16 solid-propellant thrusters. Since a normal solidpropellant rocket can only be used once, it is desirable to have multiple thrusters so multiple collisions can be evaded.

CubeSat called OSCaR, short for Obsolete Spacecraft Capture and Removal. This cube would capture small pieces of debris using nets and tethers (long cables) and requires little guidance cm by 10 cm by 10 cm and with four net-launching gun barrels,

Lastly, the European Space Agency recently has announced plans to remove a defunct satellite by developing a four-armed robot that is able to grasp the object and drag it into our atmosphere. The dive will result in the destruction of both devices. The ClearSpace-1 mission is scheduled for 2025 and will be tested

Whether these are truly viable long-term options remain to be seen, but these technologies should at least start the ball rolling for other agencies to invest in research and development as well. Slowly, nations are starting to realize that we are too involved already to give up preservation of the space region and our own space explorations programs. We do not know what the future holds in store, but at least we can say that it is an exciting time to be in the space cleaning industry!

CALCUDOKU

A calcudoku is a math and logic puzzle. The grid contains blocks surrounded by bold lines. each row and column. Additionally, the numbers in each block have to produce the result of the operation shown in the top-left corner of the block. The same number may be used multiple times in a block.

PUZZLE MADE BY LIANNE TUIN

QUALITY ME

the end of a course? Or do you not feedback?

A lot of students are not aware of the importance of feedback and the impact feedback can have on the quality of the education.

There are two main ways to give feedback, through the this article there will be explained what is done with this feedback.

Lecturers

The lecturer will look into the results and will formulate and what they are planning to improve.

Students Commissioner of Education

KwaZo

Employee Lecturers

Sub-geleding

The sub-geleding group consists of one bachelor

and master student are part of the PC-ME. During the sub-geleding, the results of the questionnaires and the response of the lecturers are discussed. The improvement plan of the course.

When the sub-geleding concludes that the course also needs to be evaluated with all the PC-ME members the results of the questionnaire and the improvement plans will also be discussed in the Program Committee.

Program Committee Mechanical Engineering (PC-ME)

topics concerning education within the Department of Mechanical Engineering. The Program Committee is also the advisory committee of the department union, the department board and the program director.

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Questionnaires

The course evaluation consists of a questionnaire that can be evaluated at least once every three years. If a course is new it will be evaluated for at least two years in a row. The course will also be evaluated if big changes are made or if the course had a negative evaluation last year.

Quality Insurance (KwaZo) Employee

The KwaZo employee will receive the raw results of the questionnaires. These results will be processed and are given to the responsible lecturer. When the course questionnaire is from a basic course the central KwaZo employee will look into these results.

Results of the questionnaires

MajorBasicCourses Courses

There are two JPC’s one for the Bachelor and one for the Master. In every JPC chamber, there is one student

ensures the consistency between the departments and discusses the umbrella topics concerning education that are important for all the departments.

In the JPC-B meetings, the results of the questionnaire of the basic courses are discussed. When big changes will be made or the results of the course evaluation indicated that the course does not meet the standard of the TU/e, the responsible lecturer will give a presentation about the course evaluation and the improvements they want to make.

The JPC-B will get the opportunity to give feedback on the improvement plan before it gets implemented.

(JPC)

(JPC-B)

Student Councils

The other part of the course evaluation is the feedback received from the student councils. This feedback is more direct than the questionnaires as the feedback is also given during the quartile, so the lecturer can respond to it quicker.

For the bachelor, there are three student councils, one for every year. During these meetings, the students give feedback about the courses that they have. On request of the lecturer or the students, the lecturer is invited to these meetings, so questions can be asked and answered directly.

Courses

MajorBasicCourses

Feedback from the students

The KwaZo employee receives the feedback from the Student Councils via the Commissioner of Education. This feedback will be sent to the responsible lecturers.

The lecturers get the feedback during the quartile so the feedback can directly be taken into account and the course can be improved.

Student Councils: Master Panels

much more courses in the master. Therefore the master panels do not have a regular meeting but have a group chat. There is a group chat for all the (interdepartmental) masters: Mechanical Engineering, Automotive Technologies, Sustainable Energy Technology and Systems and Control. In this chat, the Commissioner of Education asks what the students think of the courses twice a quartile.

Monitoring Group Master or (MGM or MGB)

The Monitoring Groups (Bachelor and Master) consists of a student from every department and one of the deans, Lex Lemmens (Dean of Bachelor College) or Paul Koenraad (Dean of Graduate School). During this meeting, the feedback of the basic courses from the student councils will be discussed. This way the feedback from all the departments can be compared and a joint advice can be given to the responsible lecturer.

Conclusion

In conclusion, a lot is done with the feedback that is received via the questionnaires and the student councils. By giving this feedback

the quality of the education. Students who are interested in the quality insurance have the opportunity to become more active. If you want to know more about the feedback loop or you want to be actively involved in the quality insurance you can always contact the Quality Insurance Employee (Quality.Assurance.MECH@tue.nl) or the Commissioner of Education ( ).

TU/ ECOMOTIVE TRASH TO TREASURE

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2,1 Billion tonnes of waste is generated every single year. A lot of this ends up wasted in la resource. That is why they present: Luca

The current team is already the 6th generation of TU/ecomotive. The student team has always been about promoting environment-friendly solutions in the automotive industry,

in the Shell Eco-marathon. The goal of this competition is this record but instead focused on other goals. For example, the second car, Isa, had been designed to be more practical so that it could be driven on public roads. However, Isa’s

is a modular car, which means that parts of the car can easily

user’s needs. After Nova, the world was introduced to the

direction by focusing on a new and innovative way to make cars. Her follow-up, Noah, took this fresh approach even further by making the car completely circular. This brings us to the newest and sexiest member of the TU/ecomotive

of previous generations and takes it to a whole new level. Simultaneously, it strives to provide an answer to the waste problem mentioned earlier. These are quite some statements, but how is Luca going to do this?

Image by: KeyShot

Moving ahead

The main structural part of Luca, the monocoque, will be entirely made from a sandwich composite. This composite has been developed by the team itself and consists of 2

recycled PET bottles in a honeycomb structure for maximal which is a plant that grows in most moderate climates, and polypropylene (PP), a widely used thermoplastic, which is moldable at high temperatures and mostly used for packaging. This PP has been taken out of the ocean and recycled. From

the PP to get a coherent tape. Subsequently, several layers of this tape are attached to each other in various angles. This makes it strong in multiple directions. When this is done, the

As can be seen in the image above, Luca will feature a spaceframe made from aluminium and not from sandwich panels. This has two reasons. Firstly, less aluminium is required to make a strong spaceframe, so this reduces weight. And secondly, it is a more suitable option to ensure passenger safety.

Plastic fantastic

Another selling point of Luca is its body. This will be made from a mixture of two plastics, recycled PP and the UBQ™ Material. Polypropylene is already widely used for car bumpers because it can absorb a lot of kinetic energy before it is plastically deformed (unlike steel or aluminium). This second material is special in that it is entirely made from household waste. This Israel-based company aims to make

so that it can always be reused. These two plastics are

You may have noticed by now that the front and rear wheels in the illustration above are not the same. This has an important

wheels. So-called in-wheel motors are used for this purpose.

modern electric motors lies somewhere between 70% and 90% due to all sorts of losses, while it should approximately be 92% for the automobile of the team.

Pocket entertainment

A new point of focus for the team is the software inside the car. Luca will not feature an extensive infotainment system (think of radio, navigation or screens) found in almost all cars. They argue that these systems are rarely used (only 4% of the time, since a car is mostly at rest) and thus a waste of recourses.

Therefore, the team is developing a system together with NXP in which a smartphone forms the infotainment system of the car. The idea is that anyone’s phone can be placed in a socket, which connects it to Luca. Subsequently, essential navigation will be shown at the bottom of the windshield) and music will be played through the car’s audio setup.

Embrace waste

Luca is still very much in development, but the team will start the assembly early 2020 and has announced that Luca will be ready in June 2020.

more about Luca and TU/ecomotive? Look for us on social media and visit us on

Image by: KeyShot

What and where did you study?

“I studied Mechanical Engineering at this University. I started in 1997, after the bachelor and master I started with a PhD

Does this mean that you never worked anywhere else besides this university?

“No, after my PhD graduation I went abroad for a PostDoc of two years. One and a half year at the ETH Zürich and another half year in Greece at the National Technical University of Athens. In 2011 I started at the TU Eindhoven again. I helped with the reorganization of the Bachelor Colleges within Mechanical Engineering. I reorganized the Mechanics course with Martien Hulsen and coordinated the Computation and Experimental Mechanics (CEM) elective

Interview

Lambert van Breemen

What did you like about your student time?

“I was part of the board of the Cultural Festival Virus (CFV) for one year. This was a festival held on the campus of the TU/e initially organized by the AOR (Algemene OntmoetingsRuimte), a student café/ my student time in the AOR in front and working behind the bar. The CFV was an initiative of enthusiastic students. In the board, I was the chairman. In the successive years, I was part of the terrain committee. The festival sadly does not exists anymore.

Next to this, I liked the lectures of Leon Govaert. He made his lectures fun by adding jokes and by doing live experiments. As a result, I did my

Which courses do you give and which course do you like giving the most?

and Structure, Experimental and Numerical Skills and Multiscale Modeling for Polymer Mechanics. Teaching is the most fun if there is good interaction between students and teachers.

I like giving the course Strength and Structure most, as this is an elective course, so students are more motivated. Next to this, a lot of students from other departments follow this course, so this gives a nice mixed group. The group also has a nice size. There typically are 150 students that follow the course, this group is not too big, but big enough to

Which project did you like the most?

“I like all the project I do, otherwise I would not do them. A project that was particularly fun to do was a project with Friesland Campina. This project was about cheese with a low-fat percentage.

taste is worse than cheese with a high-fat percentage. We looked at the structure, modelled it and tried to improve the

Do you have any hobbies?

“Yes, I like sports a lot. I swim twice a week and I squash once a week with an old friend. My friend lives in Maastricht now and I live in Neunen, but we meet in the middle to play squash together. Next to this, I like to hike in the mountains. Back in the days, I would hike with friends. Now my children start to get old

You are part of the Program Committee of Mechanical Engineering. Why did you join the Program Committee?

“Since we are a university we need to

conducting high-quality research. One of the goals of the Program Committee is to guard and ensure the quality of the education of Mechanical Engineering, so

What is your advice to students?

“My advice is to make the exercises and attend the guided self-study. A study showed that practising exercises

together with fellow students and explaining the exercises to each other is

WRITTEN BY

WRITTEN BY

There are quite a few phenomena that people just cannot wrap their head around. For a lot of us these are subjects like magic tricks, where the magician suddenly changes the face of the well-known Rubik’s Cube. While looking very innocent with its simple colours, it leaves

Structure

When inspecting a Rubik’s Cube, there seem to be a lot of possible ways to arrange all pieces and stickers. However, when taking a closer look, the pieces – also called ‘cubies’ –

First of all, there are the centre pieces. These pieces are in up the core of the cube. It is important to note that, however the cube is turned and twisted, the centres will always stay at the same place relative to each other. This means that the blue face will always be next to the red and orange face, for example.

Then there are the edges. The edges can be recognized as the cubies with two stickers. Because the faces of a Rubik’s Cube can only be turned by 90O per turn, the edges can only be swapped with other edges. Making this step in the thinking process greatly reduces the complexity of the cube. Lastly, we have the corners. These are the cubies with three stickers, and are located at each corner of the cube, as the name already suggests. As with the edges, corners can only be swapped with other corners.

Number of combinations

When considering that all pieces can be turned around individually, the possible number of permutations of a Rubik’s Cube can be calculated. The greatness of the number declares why it is so hard to solve a Rubik’s Cube without any can be made by arranging each cubie individually.

number of permutations and thus this number is not the actual number of states of the cube. However, when disregarding all states that are impossible to reach without disassembling the cube, the number of permutations is still mind-boggling:

Having a cube for each possible combination and laying these out on the surface of the earth, an extra layer of 15 kilometres thick would be added to the earth. When wrapping them all in a big ball, a mini planet with a diameter of 250 kilometres could be created. Now that’s a big number.

Solving the cube

now make the link that the cube not just exists of separate stickers, but pairs of stickers. The piece that has a white and blue sticker, will never have any other stickers and thus these two stickers are linked. This means that, instead of solving

layer are solved. Then, the layer is completed by solving the remaining corners.

putting in the corresponding edges. Afterwards, the last layer upwards, which orients all pieces correctly, and then the pieces are permuted by swapping them around, ultimately solving the cube.

Now this all sound quite straightforward and intuitive, right? However, as anybody that has picked up a Rubik’s Cube once knows, this is all but straightforward and intuitive. This is

to start messing up solved pieces to get new ones in the right algorithms, come in and steal the show.

Algorithms

To solve the Rubik’s Cube, algorithms are used to manipulate

layer cases, to insert second-layer edges, to swap edges and corners around in the last layer and combinations of said categories. Algorithms can be short, long, using complicated moves or basic turns. However, all algorithms have at least one thing in common: they use so-called cube notation, a

which direction.

is explained. When holding a cube, each face now has a corresponding letter: the front layer corresponds to the F, the down to the D and so on for the Left, Right, Back and Upper

turn the Upper layer, after which you rotate the Right layer. But, in which direction should you twist your beloved cube? The standard rule is that a turn is a twist of 90O, or a quarter of a full rotation, when looking at the corresponding face. So, when the algorithm tells you to perform B, you have to turn the Back face with 90O clockwise. When a prime is added, B’, the turn is inverted, meaning you rotate the Back face 90O counter clockwise. Another addition can be a 2, meaning the move is doubled. For example, D2 (or D2) means that the Down layer should be rotated 180O. Combining all of this gives everybody the ability to ‘read’ algorithms and manipulate the cube as desired.

Above, an algorithm for the last layer is written. As described by the colours of the separate cubies, all yellow stickers are facing upwards, they are just not permuted correctly – in other words, some pieces have to be swapped to fully solve the cube. Which pieces will swap is shown using the arrows. In this case, the left and right edge will be swapped, as well as the two right corners.

Practice

As with most things that require learning, practice makes perfect. There are a lot of tools that have been developed to help you learn the algorithms that are required to solve the cube, and to improve your insight in the cube which improves

learned, such as CFOP, which combines a few of the steps of the basic solving method. Algorithms sheets and instruction videos are widely available, for example on the CubeSkills website, put together by Guinness World Records holder Feliks Zemdegs. Tutorials vary from beginner level all the way to highly advanced levels. And of course, there is always something new to learn, regardless of the level of the person.

R

Stabilization by creating a

As a subdivided task by the iron combustion research group of the TU/e, my task was to investigate how to properely stabilize the combustion process when burning iron powder.

WRITTENBY

As part of a larger connected network of research departments, the TU/e is currently investigating the possibilities for more sustainable ways to generate energy for the masses. One of the projects seems promising, although still in the beginning phase. A dedicated research group, as well as the student team SOLID, focuses on the application of iron powder combustion. For my bachelore

both of which will be discussed later.

For applications in power plants or in ships, a constant supply of energy is required, which means that the iron powder should be burned at a stable rate. Since the fuel in this case consists of air and powder, the mixture is not homogeneous, unlike gasoline for example. This induces

Fluctuations in the powder quantity cause the air-to-fuel ratio to momentarily increase or decrease, resulting in the the conduction and radiation of heat to nearby particles.

vf remains stable and in place. This means that the upwards, m, has

however hard to achieve, as a sudden change in velocity, powder quantity or interference of the surroundings can

or even returning towards the inlet pipe. The latter can cause the powder to already ignite inside the inlet pipe

at all costs. One way to deal with this problem is by adding iron-air mixture exits the pipe, the particles will move outwards, as a result of centrifugal forces. Immediately after, the lack of particles in the center creates a lowpressure zone along the axial axis. This low-pressure zone causes the iron particles to return inwards again. With low amounts of swirl, the mixture will then continue

point that the mixture starts recirculating in the towards combustion process, since the stagnation zones provide a such that below the stagnation zone in the picture to the

When approaching the point of stagnation, the upwards velocity of the mixture will reduce to a speed much lower

place, as it cannot go further upwards the stream and will not move further downwards the stream.

Secondly, the recirculation zone serves as to supply and contain heat towards the unburned particles, which secure combustion of the particles.

So much for the theoretical part of the project. The practical part of my research serves as a method to verify the assumptions and expectations that came out of my literature research, as well as to test whether the theoretical intensity of the swirl is achieved in practice.

Using laser diagnostics in the form of Particle Image and patterns on your computer.

The way PIV works is as follows: Using a laser and two lenses a laser sheet is created. This 2D sheet is then the particles passing through. Since the sheet is twodimensional, only movement within the plane is visible.

installed in order to see depth. It also requires a much more powerful laser, as the entire surrounding has to be illuminated. For my measurements 2D PIV was enough to discussed.

Within the pipe a small device is mounted. Consisting of steel to withstand the high temperatures, the device the pipe. In the center, optional holes serve as to create around the edges create the desired swirl. For my

The one displayed above, one with longer tubes in the center andone with only one, large hole instead of many small ones.

After the setup is completed, the particles can be made visible on your computer screen. Now there are frequency of the laser is alternated, or the camera has to capture at a high framerate. For my measurements I used the second method, capturing two consecutive frames within a very short timeframe, while the laser is continuously illuminating the investigation area. When comparing the two images, a small displacement of can be constructed. When extracting the data achieved by the measurements, the intenstity of the swirl can be calculated as a function of the vertical and horizontal velocity components. Using a camera capable of capturing chosen input velocity of the mixture, the framerate is enough to determine the desplacements of the particles.

is displayed. Two consecutive images translate to the

and the swirler that is displayed earlier is installed within the pipe. The illuminated part is located directly above the exit of the fuel pipe. Towards the sides a upwards center. It turns out that the iron powder is barely able outside. As a result of the low-pressure zone the particles eventually return inwards and downwards again. This is a clear example of the recirculation occuring.

For the remaineder of the project a conclusion has to be drawn, as well to enhance the powder throughput in

After the PIV measurements the swirl can be determined and compared to the geometrical, theoretical swirl that performance, or maybe come up with a superior design.

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De ruggengraat

Oké, eentje dan.

De ruggengraat: biologisch gezien hebben we er allemaal een, maar de realiteit van het studentenleven doet dit sterk betwijfelen. Een belangrijke deadline morgenochtend doet je de verstandige keuze te maken nog een avond in het MetaForum te verschuilen, alvorens je bed in te duiken. Ver weg van externe factoren, totdat tóch een vriend aan komt zetten met logica die jouw verwarde brein doet denken dat je prima een biertje kan doen op de borrel en daarna wat kan gaan eten bij de Hizmet. Daarna ga ik wel écht naar huis hoor!

GESCHREVEN DOOR

Nee

Dale, is als volgt:

Nee (tussenwerpsel)

1. Woord om ontkenning uit te

Oké, een woord om ontkenning uit te drukken, dat kan handig van pas komen wanneer je over twee dagen een dringende

niet die o-zo-nodige studiepunten kan binnentikken. Daar kun je mee aan de slag! Je kunt dit woord gebruiken, de volgende keer dat je jaargenootje je aanspoort om op donderdagavond mee te gaan naar Pizzeria Il

Van Dale ons doet denken.

Moeilijk

Op de basis- en middelbare school wordt een set aan basiskennis aangereikt die ons moet helpen het leven door te komen

zoals het strikken van je veters, een nuttige vaardigheid, dit doen we immers iedere ochtend van ons leven. Andere vaardigheden

Studeren

De universiteit is een prachtige instelling, die alles doet in de naam der wetenschap. Het is een plek waar van studenten geacht wordt academische zelfdiscipline te

kunnen nemen. Deze zelfdiscipline is nauw verbonden aan het nee-zeggen, je zou zelfs kunnen zeggen dat het een-en-hetzelfde is. Waar academische zelfdiscipline ervoor zorgt dat je - zelfs wanneer je er geen zin in hebt - jezelf in het MetaForum parkeert, aan ruggengraat is dit waar het misgaat.

Toch niet gelukt

Daar sta je dan, midden in de kroeg, omringd door je beste vrienden, mee te zingen met Mariah Carey’s All I Want For Christmas Is You. Je wist dondersgoed dat het vanavond

jezelf voorgelogen dat dit ook wel prima is: het komt allemaal wel goed.

zeggen, niet gedoceerd. Dit is iets wat je zelf moet ontwikkelen, en het studentenleven is daar de uitgelegen kans voor.

Wanneer de ruggengraat wordt belast, is er een cruciaal punt: het omslagpunt. Dit wordt getypeerd door een stiekeme glimlach, waarna de volgende woorden worden uitgesproken: Oké, eentje dan. Er waren zoveel argumenten om niet mee te gaan, waar je zelf vol bewust van was, maar de gezelligheid en de ‘fear of missing out’ overwonnen.

De volgende dag lig je in je bed, met barstende

met een beetje geluk is het enige wat je naar de universiteit weet je nog net een breaker te

gisteravond, je had je plan moeten doorzetten

avond doorgebracht met vrienden veel leuker was dan eentje doorgebracht in de krochten van het MetaForum.

Wijze woorden

Aristoteles geeft aan dat geluk kan worden gevonden door het navolgen van waar je goed

plotjes, enzovoort. Volgens Aristoteles worden

hiervan: het opdoen en daarna toepassen van deze kennis!

Voordat je denkt dat Aristoteles ‘écht een arelaxte gast’ was, een toevoeging aan deze

constructieve manier met mensen van wie

1 Oftewel, drink

kip in De Hoek en wordt eens wakker in een andere kamer dan de jouwe.

En nu?

Wat je uit dit artikel moet halen is dit: je moet je focus leggen op wat je wilt in het leven en daarnaartoe werken. Het is goed je eigen grenzen op te zoeken en deze gaandeweg aan te passen. Dit betekent af en toe een ruggengraat tonen en een avond overslaan. Let op: ik zeg af en toe, je hoeft je niet af te zonderen van de wereld, alleen maar omdat je een deadline hebt.

je leven: Oké, eentje dan.

THE

DRY

WRITTEN BY

The Netherlands has always been a very low country. Almost half the Dutch population lives below sea level. For centuries walls have been keeping the water at bay, until one faithful night in , when the dykes broke. The Watersnoodramp took the lives of 2.000

Not long after this catastrophic event a commission was established. The goal of this ‘Deltacommissie’ was to make plans that would prevent such future disasters. This was the start of what would eventually result in the Delta Works. The Delta Works are not a single giant structure, but it consists

The most prominent part of the project (and the one that can be seen above) is probably the ‘Oosterscheldekering. This storm-surge barrier is composed of a series of steel doors (weighing more than 260 tonnes) that can be lowered

by hydraulic cylinders into the water. The barrier is then transformed from an open gate into a solid wall of 6 to 12 meters high, which prevents the sea from entering the ‘Oosterschelde’ behind it. The surge barrier is normally meters from the average. Since its commissioning in 1986, it has been closed 27 times. Initially, the ‘Deltacommissie’ planned to make it permanently shut, but decided otherwise organizations. These parties warned that by shutting the sea

Image by: Vladimír Šiman

Another important and well-known part of the Delta Works is the ‘Maeslantkering’. This construction consists of two massive doors (see the picture above), which protect both

tonnes each. Usually they are opened and kept dry to prevent corrosion. When the sea is expected to rise above 2,6 meters, precautionary measures are taken. This is done to ensure that the storm-surge barrier is closed before the sea level reaches

the bottom of the river. For this rotational and translational movement, the largest ball joint in the world is used, which has a diameter of 10 meters. The whole closing process takes

system. Once the doors are at the bottom, they can block a 5-meter-high wave and withstand a force up to 700 MN. This should be enough for a storm that will only occur once in 10.000 years.

Of course, these two constructions are not the entire Dutch water defense system. In fact, they are only a small part of it. Most of the Delta Works consists of dams and dykes that serve as a passive protection against the tides. These have to meet strict requirements, such as the minimal required height. This so-called ‘Deltahoogte’ is determined for each individual dyke based on several factors. It is the sum of the highwater level (around 5 meters above NAP) and the maximal wave height (about 7 meters). These can also be seen as the equilibrium height and amplitude of the wave respectively ‘Deltahoogte’ for the majority of the dykes is twelve meters. For now, at least…

The Delta Works were designed to protect the country from a rise in water level of 40 centimeters. At the time, it was believed that this would be enough for at least 200 years. However, of one really important phenomenon: global warming.

Global warming and its consequences

As we all fully well know, the earth is heating up mostly due to our CO2-emission. This has widespread consequences for the whole world. One of these consequences is that the icecaps on the poles and glaciers start melting more and more rapidly. This water eventually ends up in the oceans. Furthermore, the sea will expand due to higher temperatures. In the end this results in a rising sea level.

This is the reason why in 2007 a new ‘Deltacommissie’ has been established to look at his new trend. A year later they presented their report in which they predicted that the sea level will rise between 18 and 58 centimeters by the end of the century. As stated earlier, the Delta Works have been designed to protect us from a rise in sea level of 40 centimeters. The commission also suggested that the Netherlands would need a new massive building plan that would cost over €100 billion. What’s even worse is that the most recent estimations predict that the sea will rise even more, almost 84 centimeters at the end of this century. This is already reason for concern, but recent rapports have shown that the situation could be worse still. Due to yet unknown mechanisms, the melting of ice on the arctic could accelerate even further. Estimations of this

of this mechanism. But it is now more than clear that if we do not want to get our feet wet, we must start taking actions.

Image by: Michiel Verbeek

Keeping the Netherlands dry

The technological institute Deltares has been thinking of ways to defend the country against the rising sea. A few months ago, they presented their latest report in which 4 possible solutions for this problem are analyzed (see the illustration on the right). These solutions come down to protecting the country with an open or a closed barrier, moving along with the sea or moving seaward.

strategy of the Delta Works in that it entails increasing the height of the dykes, dams and storm-surge barriers. The main idea is to keep the rivers in direct contact with the sea, but this means that the rivers will rise as well. This necessitates extra defenses along the riversides, which will require a lot of resources.

A way to prevent these extra costs is embodied by another solution: Protecting-closed. In short, this means that the

This will be done by building a huge ‘wall’ around the entire coastline to keep the water out. The water from the rivers will then be transferred to the sea by enormous pumps to keep it at a constant level. Consequently, the dykes along the Maas and Rhine will not have to be strengthened and this

engineering challenge and it remains to be seen if there is enough (political) support for such an investment.

The third option (moving along with the sea) may be the most radical one, since it proposes to adapt our way of living. One part of this solution is to construct houses on poles, which

solution that would lead to problems if the sea level rises even

one suggests moving entire cities to higher grounds and to abandon some parts of the country (this idea is illustrated in the image below), while the other proposes to construct

seriously considered as suitable solutions.

On the other hand, the fourth option (moving seaward) is almost the exact opposite of the third. It requires creating against large waves. Moreover, this new land could be used for housing, recreation and industry, thereby reducing the lack of space in the Netherlands. The downside of this plan is that this would require enormous amounts of sand and does not directly protect the land from the rising sea.

At the end of the report, Deltares does not present one solution to be the best. They state that it is not necessary to choose one yet and that it is now more important to focus on gathering more information on the rising sea level and eliminate the many uncertainties that come with it. Also, they suggest elaborating even further on the presented solutions. So, for now it is uncertain what the Netherlands will look like

cities and travel with intercity boats from one city to another or maybe we will go on holiday to New-Holland on the North Sea.

ELECTRIC CARS

Trulythefuture?

WRITTEN BY : REMCO MARTIN LIZANDARA

The electric car is seen by many as the future of personal transportation. Almost all car manufacturers have an electrical model. Governments are promoting to drive electric because it is better for the environment. That is what you hear everywhere, but is it really better for the environment to drive electrical?

Electrical cars

The promotion of electrical cars has gone through the roof lately. Where ten years ago electrical cars were a rarity, nowadays most new models are hybrids or full-on electric. Marketed as super green, it is not a surprise: climate change is a hot topic on the international agenda. Climate agreements like the Paris Agreement are large international treaties to reduce our carbon footprint. Consumers who want

to help to achieve this goal, try to do that with the purchase of an electrical car. A nice initiative to help, you would think, but what is the impact on the climate of such an electrical car? To give an adequate comparison, we need to compare electrical cars with regular petrol and diesel ones. For this, the Volkswagen Golf is chosen because it has a new E golf and a petrol and diesel variant.

Comparison

Let’s start with the Diesel variant. Old Diesel cars have the reputation to be the most polluting cars, so this will be the benchmark. The Golf Diesel has a 1.6 TDI (Turbocharge Direct Injection) engine (Brake-horsepower) and it will cost you of fuel and has a CO2 emission of 108 g/ km.

On the other hand, we have a Petrol Engine. The Golf Petrol has a a smaller engine than the Diesel but delivers the same power. In addition, it will cost you less money, so it seems to look good for the Petrol engine. The Petrol car, however, uses 5.0 L/100 km and has a CO2 emission of 115 g/km.

Lastly, the electrical car. The E golf has a 100 kW Electromotor

km and has a CO2 emission of only 0 g/km.

This is what you normally get when these types of cars are compared, a landslide victory of the electric car in how environment-friendly it is. However, this is not the whole story.

Hidden emissions

The electricity that is used to power the electric car has to be induced. This is mainly produced with coal, oil and gas plants. In 2018 only 7.8% of all the electrical energy was induced with renewable energy sources, like wind, sun, biomass, and nuclear g/kWh * 92%, because these plants supply this amount of energy. This means that inducing the electrical energy emits 771 g/kWh CO2. The E Golf has a lithium-ion battery with a capacity of 24,2 kWh and with a full battery, you will be able to drive 200 km.

However, 200 km on one battery charge is only feasible if you drive extremely eco-friendly and at a constant speed. In

detrimental to your CO2 emission. If you can drive 180 km on your battery charge, the CO2 emission increases to 104 g/km, which is almost as much as the regular Diesel car.

With bigger sports cars going electric, it was time to check if these are better for the environment than a cheaper and smaller petrol car where you do have to pay road tax. As an example, we will take the Seat Ibiza, that has a CO2 emission of 107 g/km.

The Jaguar I-Pace is the electrical variant of the iconic Jaguar F-Pace and because it is electric, you do not have to pay road tax. The I-Pace has a battery capacity of 84.7 kWh and a range of

Although this sports car has been converted to an electric car, the hidden emission is still quite a bit bigger than for its more economical alternative, the Seat Ibiza.

Conclusion .

An electrical car seems like an excellent choice to reduce your carbon footprint. The numbers that are shown look great, but they do not show the whole picture. Electrical cars are not the end against all climate change and will not be the solution as long as power plants do not switch to renewable energy. Furthermore, electrical cars are not yet the most practical in our society right now. With a fast charger, it still takes at least chargers currently. When you are on the road it is not that easy

Electric cars are the future, that is what you hear on the news lot to be done for electrical cars to be the solution they promise to be.

FUTOSHIKI

The objective is to place the numbers 1 to 5 into each row and column. No number can be repeated in a row or column and all inequality signs must be obeyed.

SUDOKU

Everyone problaby already knows the rules of this popular game. But for those who don’t, this is how it works. The classic Sudoku game involves a grid of 81 squares. The grid is divided into nine blocks, each containing nine squares. Each of the nine blocks has to contain all the numbers 1-9 within its squares and each number can only appear once in a row, column or box.

CALCUDOKU

A calcudoku is a math and logic puzzle. The grid contains blocks surrounded by bold lines. each row and column. Additionally, the numbers in each block have to produce the result of the operation shown in the top-left corner of the block. The same number may be used multiple times in a block.

SKYSCRAPER

Skyscrapers is a building placing puzzle based on a grid with clues along the sides. A square. The clues tell you how many skyscrapers have to be visible from that point of view. Note that higher skyscrapers block the view of lower skyscrapers placed behind them. This has to be done such that no two skyscrapers of the same height are in each row and column.

STERRENHOEKJES

Wat is jouw favoriete quote?

•

•

•Niki: “Dat is net het Roermond Outlet Center, maar dan

•

•Kevin: “In principe is deze machine een soort Victor, alles

•Industria in de bus naar de ASML besturendag: “Wat is

•Lex: “Komen die mensen nou uit Thailand of spreken ze

•

•Tessa’s moeder: “Tessa, weet je dat ik me helemaal niet meer kan herinneren wat ik op jou 21 diner heb

•

•

•SSRE’er: “We doen niet alleen aan zuipen, maar ook aan

•

•Moeder Roelof na 21 diner: “Ik vind Sifra een

•

Top posters of 2019

1.Jankatiri Boon

2.

3.Yuri Copal

CONTEST TIME

Submit your answer and win a new slow cooker!

Previous online contest

On a quiet Friday morning the Chairman was trying to work. Unfortunately, he was not very productive that morning, the

Correct answer

The Editor-in-Chief intercepted a secret message of the Commissioner of Land Yachting. The Editor-in-Chief is very curious what the Commissioner of Land Yachting has written down, but he does not want to tell anything about it. However, the Treasurer did see a note on the desk of the Commissioner of Land Yachting which might help to solve the secret code. The Treasurer saw the following:

m = 2744

r = 729

Unfortunately, the-Editor in-Chief still is not able to decode the message. Because of this, he wants your help. If you help him to decode the message, you will have a chance to win an amazing electric slow cooker! This is the secret message:

Submit your answer in the Simonkamer (Gem-N 1.61) or send an e-mail to redactie@simonstevin.tue.nl with your name

submissions and we will publish the winner in the next online contest on www.openME.nl

Make sure to submit your answer before the 1st of March!