Simon Ster 49.4

ƥȯɇΎΎ̷̱̯̰ ƮȽȺɃȻȳΎ̸̳ ơɁɁɃȳΎ̳

Theme: Sea Studying abroad Graduation projects The Bagger 288: A mechanical monster Company visits

| One of the most intense and dangerous sport events around the world: The Volvo Ocean Race. Read all about it at page 6 and if you are even more interested in sailing, go to page 10 for the techniques behind sailing.

| This edition is all about the sea, but this article shows you this place isn’t always the most fun. There are many myths and legends about secret places in the ocean and we have collected the most famous ones for you.

| One of the two graduation projects which are emphasized in this edition is from the research group on polymer technology. Read about the replacement of metals by polymers, a transition that is happening more and more these day.

| On page 32 you can find the unique story of the truck from E.S.R. Theta.

This big machine isn’t your average truck and suprisingly enough you can’t just buy it. Learn how a student did his thesis about designing this impressive vehicle.

Colophon May 2018, volume 49, issue 4 The ‘Simon Ster’ is a publication by the study association of Mechanical Engineering Simon Stevin of Eindhoven University of Technology . The ‘Simon Ster’ will be published five times this year.

Editor in Chief Lex Verberne

Editorial Committee Loes van den Beuken, Daan van Boekel, Noud Boonen, Sebastiaan van Kemenade, Ruben de Klerk, Robbert Louwers, Stijn Middelhuis, Fercan Molenaar, Sjoerd Narinx, Joël Peeters, Noah Tabor, Lex Verberne

Design vM-design

Layout Sebastiaan van Kemenade Robbert Louwers Sjoerd Narinx Joël Peeters Ruben de Klerk Lex Verberne

Illustrations and Pictures Editorial Committee, PaparaCie and members of W.S.V. Simon Stevin

Contact Eindhoven University of Technology Gemini-Noord 1.61 Den Dolech 2 5612 AZ Eindhoven Postbus 513 5600 MB Eindhoven Phone: (040) 247 33 13 E-mail: redactie@simonstevin.tue.nl Homepage: wsv.simonstevin.tue.nl

Financial ABN-AMRO: NL87ABNA0529096358

Subscriptions It is possible to receive the Simon Ster at home.

Subscriptions for the Simon Ster are available for an annual fee of €15,- , including shipping. In case you are interested or want more information, it is possible to contact the editor at aforementioned adress.

Printing Office Drukkerij Snep BV

Circulation 900 pieces

© Simon Stevin MMXVII Nothing from this edition may be duplicated and/or made public by means of press, photocopy, microfilm or any other possible manner without prior written consent from the board of W.S.V. Simon Stevin.

The editors at all time reserve the right to shorten and/or edit articles. The placement of an article does not mean that this in any way reflects the opinion or point of view of W.S.V. Simon Stevin.

Everyone can deliver articles to the Editorial Comittee in the Simonkamer: Gemini-Noord 1.61 or by means of e-mail: redactie@simonstevin.tue.nl

Table of Contents Smile of Science

4

The Volvo Ocean Race

6

Studying abroad

8

Hephtig!

10

Water as a source of energy

12

Bachelor Final Project

14

St

16

Elephant seals

18

Company visit: Fokker Landing Gear

19

Maritime myths

20

Kijk in de sterren

22

Graduation Project: Polymers

24

Company visit: VMI-Group

26

Brasgala

27

Course evaluations

28

Scuba Diving

29

Graduation Project: Fuel combustion

30

The Dutch Delta Works

32

The Bagger 288

34

Eurotrip 2018

36

Profiel: Theta Boat Truck

38

Career Expo: How did we do?

40

Sterrenhoekjes

42

Contest

42

Planning

43

Editorial Dear reader, Water is everywhere around you. It is essential for all our daily activities. Even beer is made from mostly water! That is why the theme of this Simon Ster is water and everything around it. We will talk about maritime engineering, the battle of the Dutch against rising water levels and even myths and legends about the deepest parts of the ocean will be discussed.

Even in the daily life of Simon Stevin, water was a returning subject. Stevin improved the water mill and worked on drainage for military purposes later in his life, commissioned by prince Maurits around 1604.

Stevin may have been the first mechanical engineer, but many mechanical engineers have followed him in working with water. Not only in sectors like fluids and their flows, but also in off-shore building and designing vessels. In these projects, water can be the ultimate problem-solver or the structural problem that needs to be tackled. The Dutch are pretty good at these projects. Think about companies like Van Oord or DAMEN, which are Dutch founded multinationals who work with water every day. Our nation is famous for keeping metropolises dry while laying multiple meters under the water level of the ocean. So if you are interested in working with water, mechanical engineering is still the place to be.

Good luck with the last quartile and enjoy the holidays!

Advertisers

Kind regards, ASML

37

VDL

41

Lex Verberne Editor-in-Chief

4

Smile of Science

Stijn Middelhuis

Sense and Nonsense in technology AUTONOMOUS SAILING

Saildrone A Saildrone is an autonomous wind-propelled sailing vessel that can conduct scientific missions independently in rough weather for months. 95% of the ocean is still largely unexplored, and unmanned vessels are transforming oceanography by cutting down on expensive research ships that cost more than $50,000 per day to operate.

The autonomous vessels called ‘Saildrones’, look like bright red surfboards. Each Saildrone is fitted with a 20-foot-high carbon fiber sail and 16 sensors to test variables including carbon dioxide, acidity, currents and water temperature.

The drones, which cruise at a leisurely 3-5 miles per hour, are doing work typically reserved for manned research ships but for a small fraction of the cost.

California-based Saildrone, which raised $14 million in funding from impact investors last September, says its drones can be operated for only 5% of the cost of a manned vessel.

ENVIRONMENT

Edible sixpack rings If ever you needed a reason to grab a beer and celebrate, this is it. But only if you grab a beer brewed by Saltwater Brewery, because they are the founders of this brilliant new idea.

They have managed to develop six-pack rings that are 100% biodegradable.

That is already an achievement on its own, but the best part is that they are also totally edible. According to several sources, Americans drank 6.3 billion gallons of beer last year, and 50% of that was from cans. Most of the plastic six-pack rings used to hold the cans together end up in the ocean where they pose a devastating threat to marine life and birds.

So the craft beer company from Delray Beach Florida decided to ‘re-invent the loop’ by making their six-pack rings not only safe for wildlife, but turn it into a form of nutrition which is delicious as well. They are made from beer by-products like barley and wheat and even humans can snack on them while relaxing with a cold one, but I’m not sure if I will recommend it.

We’ll drink to that!

ENERGY

World’s first floating windfarm Off the coast of Aberdeenshire, a company called Statoil has built the world’s first floating wind farm, Hywind Scotland. According to EcoWatch, though the farm has only been in operation for a couple of months, it is already exceeding expectations in terms of energy production.

The plant has a maximum theoretical capacity, and produced 65 percent of that capacity in the months of November, December and January. In comparison, plants based on shore produced between 45 and 60 percent of their theoretical capacity during the same time period. Beate Myking, senior vice president of offshore wind operations in Statoil, thinks this is an encouraging sign, as Hywind was facing unique challenges as a floating wind farm, including a hurricane, eight-foot waves, and winter storms.

Offshore wind farms are generally installed in shallow waters off the coast, but this experiment shows that there is potential for establishing wind farms via floating system off the coasts of places that have a steep drop off in water depth. Though the process has been experimented with before, it was always at a much smaller scale. Hywind has five turbines that each produce 6 megawatts. They are floating over waters that are 328 feet deep.

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Simon Ster 49.4 | May 2018

CO2-EMISSION

Skysails It may look a little bit silly, but nowadays, gigantic cargo ships are partly propelled by the power of the wind. Cargo ships with high altitude sails, like SkySails, can save 10-30% on daily fuel use. About 90% of all global trade uses large cargo ships.

The dirty fuels burned by the global shipping fleet are a major contributor to climate change and ocean acidification, which are already harming marine life. But green shipping initiatives are saving fuel through improved hull design, breakthrough propellers and in this case, wind power.

The SkySails propulsion system consists of a large foil kite, an electronic control system for the kite, and an automatic system to retract the kite. The kite, while 1-2 orders of magnitude larger, bears similarities to the arc kites used in kitesurfing. However, the kite is an inflatable- instead of a ram-air kite with an additional control pod instead of direct tension on multiple kite control lines. Only one line runs the full distance from kite to ship and the bridle lines running from kite to control pod. Power to the pod is provided by cables embedded in the main line, the same line also carries commands to the control pod from the ship.

The kite is launched and recovered by an animated mast or arm, which grips the kite by its leading edge. The mast also inflates and deflates the kite.

A conventional ship with a SkySail-system burns less fuel and has two propulsion methods, making it a type of hybrid vehicle. SkySail kite propulsion from upper wind powewwr is a traction use of high altitude wind power. According to the International Maritime Organization, up to 100 million tons of carbon emissions every year could be saved by widespread use of SkySails technology. Other companies, such as California-based KiteShip, have built similar technology.

HEALTH

The ‘Snotbot’ Tens of thousands of whales are killed or injured every year as a direct or indirect result of human activities. The health of ocean ecosystems is tied directly to the health of whales. If we continue to lose whales, the results will be disastrous not just for the oceans, but for our entire planet. For this reason we need better technology to understand and document our impact on whales and their habitat.

This is where the ‘Snotbot’ comes in.

Snotbots are custom-built drones created in partnership between Ocean Alliance and Olin College of Engineering. They hover in the air above a surfacing whale and collect the blow (or snot) exhaled from its lungs. Snotbot then returns that sample back to researchers a significant distance away.

The first question you would ask is of course, why snot? Well, having a lung lining sample is crucial. With this virus and bacteria loads can be detected, DNA can be analyzed, and there can be looked for environmental toxins that have been absorbed into the whale’s system.

Perhaps most importantly, the level of hormones can be tested which gives information on the reproductive cycles and stress levels of these creatures as they are increasingly impacted by human activity in their natural habitats.

Before the Snotbot, the standard way of getting a data sample of a whale (living outside captivity) involved chasing an extremely acoustically sensitive mammal with a loud motorboat and subsequently shooting it with a sampling dart from a crossbow.

Imagine if everything your doctor knew about your health came from chasing you around the room with a large needle while blowing an airhorn. The chart would say something like, “elevated stress levels and prone to shrieking”, it’s inaccurate. This is what researchers believe is going on with some of the current whale data due to the invasive nature of previous sampling methods. With Snotbot, the goal is to correct this with a clearer picture of whales that are undisturbed.

6

The Volvo Ocean Race Around the world in a sailing boat

The Volvo Ocean Race (VOR) was first held in 1973. Back then it was still called the Whitbread around the world race. English sailors wanted to have a race around the world and the Royal Naval Sailing association wanted to organize this event. Brewing company Whitbread wanted to be head sponsor and thus the race was named after this company. The race was held every four years, up until 2005 and after that the race was held every three years.

Noud Boonen The Volvo Ocean Race is one of the most prestigious sailing races in the world, together with the America’s Cup. It is also one of the most dangerous events in the world. There are three main dangers: First of all there can be obstacles in the ocean, such as icebergs or whales. Furthermore, the weather conditions can be extreme; the high waves and harsh winds put the boats and their crew to the test. Third, the crew can get physical complaints; this can be backand knee complaints by lifting too much, RSI for the steersmen, or rashes from sitting too long.

During the current edition, the race started in Alicante. The first inport race was held there at the 14th of October in 2017. The seven boats departed at the 22nd of October for the first leg.

The teams This year an interesting choice has been made in the rules for the team composition. Because the organization wanted to involve women more, the rules have been adjusted. There can now be mixed teams. When you have a mixed team, you can take more people on the boat. In every leg you can appoint a different crew on the boat, but this crew must be the same as the one you use during the in-port race.

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Simon Ster 49.4 | May 2018

How it works Women

Men

Total

0

7

7

1 or 2

7

8 or 9

7

1 or 2

8 or 9

5

5

10

11

0

11

Seven teams are sailing around the world right now, let us introduce them.

• First of all there is Team Akzonobel, a Dutch team. There were some problems with this team during the first race. Their current skipper had some problems with Akzonobel and they decided to appoint Brad Jackson as the skipper. Later, Simeon Tienpont was appointed as skipper again. Team Akzonobel has a total of three women in their team.

• Team Dongfeng Race Team is a Chinese team. Remarkable is that the Dutch Carolijn Brouwer gets on board as one of the two women in this team.

• Team Mapfre is a Spanish team which is trying to be the first Spanish team to win the VOR. They are the 9th Spanish team to compete in the VOR. • The second Dutch team is Team Brunel, recognizable by their bright yellow and black boat.

• Team Sun Hung Kai / Scallywag is a team from Hong Kong.

Their skipper David Witt returns to the VOR after twenty years.

• Team Turn the tide on plastic sails for the united nations. Their goal is to raise awareness for the plastic soup that lies in the ocean. Most of their crew is younger than 30 years old.

• Team Vestas 11th hour racing is a combined team from the USA and Denmark. They are sailing to raise awareness for sustainability of the planet.

The VOR consists out of eleven legs and twelve in-port races. In every city an in-port race is held. The score of these in-port races does not count towards the final score, but in the case of a tie this score counts as the tie-breaker. The scoring system used is a high-point system. This means that if you finish first, you get seven points and when you finish last you get one point. There are some bonus points to be earned. The points earned during the two Southern Ocean legs and the North Atlantic leg are doubled. Also, the winner of every leg will get one bonus point (7+1). There is a bonus point to be earned for the first team to round Cape Horn, this due to its historic importance as a turning point in the race.

A final bonus point goes to the team which the best overall time elapsed.

The boats In the 2014-15 edition, the Volvo Ocean 65 (VO65) was introduced.

This is the boat which all teams use. The only difference between all the boats is the paint job and the team stickers. The boats are built in different shipyards in the United Kingdom, Italy, France and Switzerland and the sails come from North Sails in the United States. Each boat has a total of 9 different sails which the teams can use for optimal performance.

The VO 65 has some improvements relative to the previous version, the VO 70. The length of the keel, for example, has been increased from 4.5 to 4.7 meters. Due to this the keel can have a smaller mass, which leads to a huge improvement in performance.

The boats are packed with fixed cameras and microphones, so that the whole race can be covered by the media. There are also cameramen and women on board to cover everything. These people have drones with them to make really cool shots. This produces some awesome footage for the world to see.

To learn more about the Volvo Ocean Race and to track the boats live, visit www.volvooceanrace.com

8

Studying abroad Huh, is that possible?

Last semester, I’ve left my well-known University to have a look into life at the other side of the world. Most people who noticed about my plans concluded I was about to leave for the internship in my Masters’, but in fact I was just doing something not many people know about it’s possible. I went on exchange to Hong Kong.

Loes van den Beuken How does that work?

Studying abroad in your Bachelor is actually possible. Every year, between 5 and 10 people choose to go on exchange in their Bachelor’s. This means basically that they are doing their elective courses at another university, in- or outside Europe. Our faculty has a small list of the so-called “contracted universities”. In these contracts it is for example stated you don’t have to pay tuition fee at the university which is hosting you, and the university will help you applying for visa etcetera. Also the transfer of the ECTS you will obtain is much easier if you are going to a contracted university.

If you want to go to a university which has no contract with the faculty of Mechanical Engineering, you have to organise AND pay for it yourself.

When?

The first thing you should think about, is your study planning. You have to keep in mind you can’t do your major courses abroad. If you want to go abroad while still studying without any delays, you should move your Bachelor Final Project from the second to the first semester in your third year, as you can see in the table. This is only allowed by the exam committee if you obtained 120 ECTS after your second year.

Otherwise, it’s still possible to go abroad: you can move your Bachelor Final Project from the second semester of your third year to the first semester of your fourth year. Or you can go abroad in your fourth year.

1.1

1.2

1.3

1.4

2.1

2.2

2.3

2.4

3.1

3.2

3.3

3.4

Own choice

Own choice

4GC00 OGO Computer Engineering

4GC10 OGO Mechanical Own Design Project choice

Own choice

BFP

BFP

Own choice

Own choice

4CC30 4MC10 Computational Constructieprincipes Mechanics 4RC20 Powertrains

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Simon Ster 49.4 | May 2018

Where?

Last year, these universities were contracted for an exchange in the Bachelor.

• RWTH Aachen University, Germany • Technische Universität München, Germany • University of Exeter, United Kingdom • University of Zagreb, Croatia • Technical University of Hamburg, Germany • Istanbul Technical University, Turkey • The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong • Beijing Institute of Technology, China • National University of Singapore, Singapore

Me standing at a beautiful view of Hong Kong

Of course I didn’t only focus on my courses, I had plenty of time to discover the city with friends. And the city is really amazing! Every day and night can be filled with exciting stuff: hikes, beaches, rooftop bars, shopping malls, villages and way too much other stuff. Everywhere and always it’s crowded, but not in an annoying way. Everywhere you go, you’ll be surrounded by skyscrapers and dozens of people, but that’s what I enjoyed the most.

Hong Kong university of Science and Technology

If you are fluent in Spanish or French, there are few more possibilities. For a complete and up-to-date list of all options for an Exchange, you should pass by the International Office, at GEM-Z 1.126.

I also did some weekend trips during the semester to Thailand, China, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, because they are just a stone’s throw away. You can imagine that when leaving Hong Kong after four amazing months, I was very sad..

So just… GO! Anyway, if you want to do an exchange, you should visit your study advisor and discuss your planning. After obtaining a positive advice about your exchange from the study advisor, you have to convince the exam committee with a motivation and get your new study planning (including the courses abroad) approved. Of course, the courses you can do are totally dependent on the university you are going to.

So don’t just think: I’ll go abroad in my Master, also consider a semester abroad in your Bachelor. Because why not double the fun?

Also, you can apply for scholarships. These are also dependent on where you are going to, but the main scholarships are the Erasmus scholarship for exchanges in Europe, and the FIE (Fund International Experience) for exchanges outside Europe.

My experience I chose to move over to Hong Kong, to study at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. One of the best decisions I ever made in my life. I decided to choose some courses from the Aerospace Engineering department, which they offered. Besides the fact that this university has an amazing location, the education quality was very good as well.

The skyline of Hong Kong

10

Hephtig: Zeilen Zeilwagens zonder wielen, hoe werken die?

“SIMON, VOOR DE WIND”, een voor velen bekende uitspraak die staat voor voorspoed van onze Vereniging. Het spreekwoord “voor de wind gaan” is één van de vele spreekwoorden die zijn voortgekomen uit een eeuwenoude wijze van transport: zeilen!

Stijn Janssen In den beginne Zo’n 4000 jaar voor Christus werden de eerste zeilen op Egyptische schepen gehesen die werden gebruikt voor transport van grondstoffen. De schepen waren dwars-getuigd: de zeilen werden bevestigd aan een horizontale houten spriet (ra) dwars aan de mast. Bij een koers voor de wind zorgt het grote zeiloppervlak voor een voortstuwing die niet te evenaren was door bijvoorbeeld roeien. Een groot nadeel was dat de te bezeilen richtingen zeer beperkt waren; men was afhankelijk van de windrichting.

Over de jaren heen zijn er vele aanpassingen gedaan aan de zeilen.

De Arabieren kwamen in de achtste eeuw met een vernuftige uitvinding: Het langsgetuigde Latijnzeil.

Hiermee kon een boot niet alleen met de richting van de wind mee zeilen, maar ook de andere koersen bevaren. Het langs-getuigde zeil is het begin van een evolutie in de zeiltechnologie.

Er werd gepoogd zeil en romp optimaal op elkaar af te stemmen.

Dit is tot op de dag van vandaag een kunst op zich!

Schepen ontwerpen Het mooie van zeilen is natuurlijk dat je een kracht gebruikt die letterlijk aan komt waaien! Door de verhouding van krachten boven en onder de waterlijn op elkaar af te stemmen, kan men het vaargedrag van een schip sterk beïnvloeden.

Het zeil van een schip buigt de wind af naar de achterzijde van het zeil. Door de bolling van het zeil ontstaat er een krachtvector

vergelijkbaar met de liftkracht van een vliegtuigvleugel. Deze kan ontbonden worden in de lengte- en dwarsrichting van het schip. Het punt waarop de krachtvector aangrijpt wordt ook wel het zeilpunt genoemd. Bij het bedienen van de zeilen wordt dit zeilpunt verplaatst.

Bij een schip met meerdere zeilen kan het zeilpunt veel verder verplaatst worden door te variëren in de combinaties van zeilen.

Doordat de dwarskracht op een bepaalde hoogte boven de waterlijn zit, wordt er een moment gecreëerd om de lengteas van de boot heen. Om de boot niet te laten kapseizen is er een tegengesteld moment nodig, waardoor de boot stabiel kan varen.

Deze stabiliteit kan op twee manieren worden bereikt: met de rompvorm en met het gewicht. Een brede romp zorgt voor een stabieler schip. Een gewicht-stabiel schip heeft een zware en diepe kiel waardoor het zwaartepunt ver onder het schip komt te liggen en het schip stabieler ligt. De rompvorm wordt gebaseerd op de functie die het schip krijgt. Een zeilschip bestemd voor vracht wordt voornamelijk rompstabiel gemaakt.

Nadeel hiervan is dat er snel meer weerstand is met het water. Daarom krijgen zeiljachten vaak een diepe, verzwaarde en smalle romp.

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Simon Ster 49.4 | May 2018

Afhankelijk van de rompvorm en afmetingen krijgt een schip een draaipunt (lateraal punt) in het horizontale vlak. Als het zeilpunt precies op dit punt ligt, vaart een schip rechtdoor zonder dat correctie met het roer nodig is. Door de zeilen en rompvorm aan te passen, worden deze punten verplaatst en neigt het schip ernaar om te draaien: van de wind af (lijgierig) of naar de wind toe (loefgierig). Een schip wordt bijna altijd licht loefgierig gemaakt, zodat het bij uitvallen van het roer het schip tegen de wind in draait en stil komt te liggen.

Alle bovenstaande aangrijpingspunten, krachten en richtingen worden heel gemakkelijk beïnvloed door externe omstandigheden.

Het lateraal punt verplaatst zich bijvoorbeeld als er gewicht wordt verplaatst aan boord of als een golf het schip uit het water tilt.

Het zeilpunt varieert bij bediening van de zeilen, als de mast verkeerd wordt gespannen of bij het veranderen van het zeiloppervlak. Om goed te kunnen zeilen is goed materiaal dus zeker belangrijk. Weten hoe een schip reageert op verschillende omstandigheden en daar in eigen voordeel gebruik van kunnen maken, is hetgeen dat zeilen pas echt een hephtige sport maakt.

Van beroepsvaart naar recreatie Over de tijd is de zeilende beroepsvaart langzaam verdwenen en vervangen door gemotoriseerde beroepsvaart. De originele zeilschepen voor vracht worden daarom afgedankt of gebruikt voor andere doeleinden. Zo wordt een groot deel van de Nederlandse vloot gebruikt voor recreatie: charterschepen om met groepen te zeilen. Met bijna twintig leden van het E.W.D. Hephaestus zijn we afgelopen zomer ook op zo’n schip mee geweest.

‘De Zeven Wouden’ is oorspronkelijk een vrachtschip dat steenkool en cement vervoerde, maar nu huis kan bieden aan 24 bemanningsleden. Onder begeleiding van een schipper en een maat hebben we de woeste Waddenzee getrotseerd en legden we iedere dag aan bij een andere haven, onder het genot van een aankomstpilsje en daaropvolgend een goed maal. In de avonden werden de lokale kroegen voorzien van een vurige portie escalatie om de dagen optimaal uit te spelen. We kunnen met zekerheid zeggen dat deze schepen uiterst geschikt zijn voor de recreatievaart en kijken terug op een geweldige week.

Recreatie en wedstrijdzeilen Nederland kent een heel aantal watersportverenigingen waar je kunt leren zeilen en waar wedstrijden gezeild worden. Bij een wedstrijd is het belangrijk om snel te varen en om zoveel mogelijk hoogte te winnen (zoveel mogelijk richting de wind verplaatsen). Bij het wedstrijdzeilen komt veel tactiek kijken: andere boten en de omgeving kunnen de wind wegnemen en er moet rekening gehouden worden met ondiepte.

Voor Nederlanders is de Sneekweek een bekend evenement waarbij veel wedstrijden worden gezeild. Er zijn nog veel meer wedstrijden door het seizoen heen, ieder met andere uitdagingen of bestemd voor bepaalde typen schepen. Ook internationaal worden er veel wedstrijden gevaren, zoals de Race of the Classics met klassieke schepen of de Volvo Ocean Race met zeer moderne zeilschepen.

Technisch hoogstandje Bij moderne schepen wordt er van alles gedaan om snelheid te winnen. De zeilen worden pneumatisch bediend in plaats van met de hand. De benodigde druk wordt door de bemanning opgebouwd door op hoog tempo aan een lier te draaien.

Afgelopen America’s Cup had het team van Nieuw-Zeeland een nieuwe uitvinding: ze creëerden de druk door te fietsen. De bemanning bestond grotendeels uit getrainde wielrenners die puur aanwezig waren om druk op te bouwen en om met hun gewicht de boot stabiel te houden. De schipper was degene die werkelijk aan het zeilen was. Hij heeft een stuurwiel met knoppen om de zeilen mee te bedienen en optimaal te trimmen.

Om de waterweerstand fors te verminderen zitten er neerlaatbare draagvleugels op de schepen. Deze duwen het schip omhoog bij toenemende snelheid waardoor het schip volledig uit het water komt. Er kan op deze manier veel sneller gevaren worden, het schip wordt er echter een stuk minder stabiel door. Deze draagvleugels zijn een vernuftig staaltje werktuigbouwkunde omdat ze de enorme windkrachten door een zeer dunne vin moeten leiden. Scheepsbouwers zullen in de toekomst alle zeilen bij moeten zetten om met verfijnde aanpassingen nog meer snelheid uit een schip te kunnen halen. Dat alles tegen een hoge prijs, want voor een schip als hierboven wordt een aantal honderden miljoenen op tafel gelegd. Behouden vaart!

12

Water as a source of energy Electricity production at sea

About 15% of the total energy generated in Europe is being generated by waterpower. In South-America this is 75%. The biggest part of this is still generated on land: In rivers and lakes. In mountainous areas hydro-electric power stations in dams can generate thousands of megawatt-hours of electricity. Apart from this production on large scale, lots of small scale solutions to produce energy are being developed. In a lot of them the sea plays a big part.

Sjoerd Narinx Current of the sea

Tidal energy

Currents originating from the supply and discharge of water from ebb and flow can be converted to electricity. A couple of diverse techniques are developed to do this.

Whether these are going to be profitable, and which one will be the most profitable, will be proved by elaborate testing.

Purely using the height difference that exists between high and low tide can be done by collecting the rising water in a reservoir at high tide, and letting it flow back through turbines at low tide. This method is comparable to the one being used in mountainous areas, as the supply of water is the only thing that is different. An example of this form of energy production is being used in Bretagne in France. In the broad of the river Rance a dam is built. The tidal range here varies between 8 and 13 metres. This tidal barrage has been in use since 1966.

Converting the flow of the sea to electricity using turbines is the most obvious way. Two types can be distinguished: Horizontal axis propeller turbines and vertical axis propeller turbines.

One of the current turbines, using two rotors on a horizontal axis, is the Seagen. The first Seagen was installed in Strangford lough in 2008. The current version of the Seagen has a capacity of 1,2 MW. The long-term goal is to make a big energy park using more of these current turbines.

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Simon Ster 49.4 | May 2018

Wave energy Wave energy is energy which gets generated by using the up- and downward motion of the water by the waves. Wave energy can be generated both at the coast and on open sea.

Multiple of these snakelike generators can be connected to each other and the power generated can still be transferred to land with only one cable. In 2008 the first commercial wave energy plant consisting of 3 Pelamis was opened in Portugal. The plant generates 2,25 MW which is directly delivered to the electricity network of Portugal. The next step is to expand this plant with another 25 Pelamis, which will upgrade the capacity to 21 MW.

Linear generator In a linear generator the movement of the waves is directly converted into energy. A buoy attached to the bottom of the ocean exists of two sections moving relative to each other.

The waves make the floating part move up and down. The other part of the buoy is attached to the bottom of the sea and thus stays put. By fitting one part of with a magnet and the other part with a coil, induction takes place and electricity is generated. The Powerbuoy is one of these systems.

Tests are being conducted in New Jersey, Hawaii and Spain.

Seabased AB made a wave energy generator using the same method, but with the construction at the bottom of the sea with the moving part connected with a rope.

Oscillating water column The plants using this type of energy generation are partly under and partly above water level. They also have an open connection to sea. Above water level there is a closed air chamber. The air in this chamber will be compressed using the rising water of the waves. This compressed air is released through an opening in the chamber which drives a turbine. When the water level gets lower again the air will go into the chamber using the same opening which drives the turbine one more time. The specific properties of this Wells-turbine that is used, results in the use of both airflows to drive the turbine, which powers a generator. This method can be used on the coast but also as a floating plant on sea.

Rotational generator In this type of generator, the up and down movement needs to be converted in a circular movement in one way or another. This is possible by, for example, transferring the up and down movement to a turning axle. It’s also possible to use hydraulic pumps to power a generator with water or air which is under pressure. One of the systems using this kind of generation is the Pelamis Wave Energy Converter.

The Pelamis is a snakelike construction of 150 metres long floating on open sea. It exists of four steel tubes with a diameter of 3,5 metres, connected to each other by hinges. The waves that go underneath the tubes let the hinges move and thus the hydraulic pumps in the hinges. This way electricity gets generated.

Conclusion Aside from the debate if the availability and cost of fossil fuels or the global warming and other environmental aspects are the driver, the development of new sustainable power sources is booming. Next to wind and solar energy, this definitely is the case for energy generated using seas and oceans. The Netherlands don’t have a big role in the development of these kinds of power plants, but the worldwide growing use and testing of plants like the ones above support this.

14

Bachelor Final Project Shaping the fuel release in a diesel engine

Most third-year students got an introduction to the DAF MX13 motor model in the course ‘4RC20 Powertrains’, where they learned about the basic layout of engines. Afterwards, they performed a simple study to assess the effect of combustion duration and phasing on efficiency. In his BFP, Stan Broere is taking a more in-depth look at the effect of these factors on the efficiency of a diesel engine.

Robbert Louwers Introduction

Case

The popularity of electric driving has been on the rise for years, but mostly for commercial vehicles. Those who were present at this years symposium know that even for commercial vehicles, electric driving might not be the future and that it is even further away from being realised for trucks. So to reduce costs, improve driving range and lower the CO2-emission of these vehicles, other steps have to be taken. For example improving the efficency of exisiting engines. The efficiency of these engines is for a large part determined by the rate at which heat is released.

The topic of this BFP was already investigated before by another student, who had to build an engine model from scratch. The building of this engine model took too much time, leaving the main question of the project unanswered. Stan is now starting with an existing Matlab model of the engine and trying to improve this model where possible. He started with an ideal model of the engine, where no heat loss is taken into account. For such a model, the optimal heat release model is much easier to determine. To determine the optimal heat release for this ideal engine model, he looked at the combustion time and the crankshaft angle where half of the fuel is burned (CA50). Ideally an instantaneous combustion is preferred. Instantaneous combustion happens at a crankshaft angle of 0˚, which of course does not happen in real applications.

More realistic combustion times happen at crankshaft angles between 20 and 30˚. In Figure 1 an optimum for the CA50 can clearly be observed around 5˚ for various plenum pressures.

In the course ‘4RC20 Powertrains’, third-year students learned about the effects of combustion duration and phasing on the efficiency of engines, since these factors play an important role in the effective work that an engine generates. From a purely theoretical point-of-view, we know that the ideal Otto cycle is the most efficient process. However, in real applications we deal with heat losses that heavily complicate the calibration efforts to obtain maximal efficiency. To achieve the maximum efficiency taking these losses into account, Stan is trying to construct a multiple-injection strategy.

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Simon Ster 49.4 | May 2018

To take the heat loss into account, a Woschni model was used.

This is a model which determines the heat transfer coefficient.

According to the model, this coefficient is dependent on the average gas velocity, pressure and temperature in the cylinder and the volume of the cylinder. After determining the heat transfer coefficient and thus having a measure for the heat loss, the influence of different plenum pressures on the energy conversion have been investigated.

Figure 2: Effect of different plenum pressures versus energy conversion.

Figure 1: CA50 plotted versus the gross efficiency for various plenum pressures

The results of this are shown in a Sankey plot (see Figure 2), where it can be seen what percentage of energy is converted to work, heat loss and ‘waste’ energy that goes to the exhaust for various plenum pressures. It can be observed that a higher percentage of energy is converted to work at higher plenum pressures, which correspond to higher loads, i.e. higher RPM’s. Sankey plots are often used to examine the energy distribution over the engine and give insight which aspect could be further improved on.

From Figure 2 it is visible that quite a high percentage of energy is going to the exhaust, between 34% and 38%. This is not all ‘waste’ energy, since most engines have a turbine installed which (partly) uses this energy.

To create the optimal heat release model, not only the influence of the plenum pressure on the energy conversion has to be taken into account, but the effects of the previously investigated factors, combustion duration and crankshaft angle, also have to be looked at. With all factors taken into account, the ideal heat release model can be made. In practice, such a heat release model is realised by a multiple-injection strategy. This multiple-injection strategy will be a combination of several injection profiles. Examples of these profiles are Gaussian distributions and step-like distributions. One possible heat release shape is presented in Figure 3, consisting of two Gaussian profiles with the first one contributing 80% and the second profile 20%. Finding the best combination of these profiles is the tricky part. Stan still has a full quartile to work on his BFP, in which he will continue his work on the development of the optimal heat release model and multiple-injection strategy.

When he has developed this optimal model, he will also research if this model is applicable for different loads, i.e. different RPM’s and inlet pressures. He will finalise his project by testing his injection strategy on a real engine.

Would you also like to tell something about your BFP in the Simon Ster? Please contact redactie@simonstevin.tue.nl

Figure 3: Possible heat release shape.

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St: Vanille

Klinkt wel een beetje als een Griekse god

Het zwarte goud. Een metafoor voor allerlei substanties die overmatig geconsumeerd worden in onze huidige maatschappij. Volgens zandbakbewoners, waar ze buiten kamelen en Formule-1 circuits niet zoveel hebben, komt het zwarte goud uit de grond. Volgens MetaForumbewoners, ten tijde van de tentamenweken, komt het zwarte goud uit een bonenmaalmachine.

Bas Raes Kaders, kaders en nog eens kaders Welnu, dit zijn subjectieve beoordelingen waarbij de context veel uitmaakt voor de uiteindelijke waardering.

Werktuigbouwkundigen zijn hier doorgaans niet zo van dit soort werk, getuige de niet onverdeeld positieve geluiden die klinken over USE-vakken in Gemini. Daarom een stukje objectivering door middel van een voorbeeld van wat je met drie euro kan doen. Bij de plaatselijke pomp, kun je voor drie euro 2 liter benzine krijgen.

Bij de Starbucks kun je een kopje koffie krijgen, maar dan wel zonder caramel-seasalt-chai-soy-latte zooi erin. Terwijl je bij de supermarkt welgeteld één stokje vanille – van 2 gram – kunt kopen. Voilà, het echte zwarte goud.

Prijzig spul Goed, het gaat hier dus om serieus duur spul. Alleen saffraan steekt vanille naar de kroon van duurste specerij. Bij Neerlands bekendste grootgrutter krijg je voor die 3 euro ongeveer 1 gram en dan moet je nog hopen dat het geen namaak is. Het voordeel van saffraan is dat je er vaak maar heel weinig voor nodig hebt in gerechten, terwijl je bij vanille vaak werkt met hele stokjes. Daarnaast wordt vanille in veel meer recepturen gebruikt dan saffraan en zoals de economische vuistregel luidt: veel vraag leidt tot stijgende prijzen.

In sommige winkels, zoals de Sligro, ligt vanille daarom niet eens meer in de schappen en moet je er speciaal naar vragen bij het personeel.

Naast de grote vraag, is het aanbod van vanille precair en dat heeft twee oorzaken. Het eerste probleem is dat de vanille-orchidee een zeer bewerkelijke plant is om te telen. In eerste instantie lijkt het makkelijk, aangezien de vanilleplant tweeslachtig is wat betekent dat de plant zichzelf kan bevruchten. Het probleem is dat de plant dit niet vanzelf doet en nog vervelender: de plant heeft maar een dag per jaar bloemen. Het gevolg is dat alle planten handmatig op precies het juiste moment bevrucht moeten worden en dat is een arbeidsintensief proces. Waren dat alle problemen met de plant? Nee. Na de bevruchting groeien er peulen die, na rijping, uiteindelijk de stokjes worden. Vooraleer het zover is, ben je wel 15 maanden verder.

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Simon Ster 49.4 | May 2018

Madagaskar

Dan maar chemisch

Het tweede probleem is het land van herkomst van het overgrote deel van de wereldproductie; Madagaskar. De politieke situatie is, op zijn best, penibel te noemen wat er voor zorgt dat de productie niet gegarandeerd kan worden. De armoede in het land zorgt ervoor dat vanillepeulen vaak al gestolen worden voordat ze rijp zijn. Dit gaat zover dat telers tegenwoordig de peulen tatoeëren, zodat bij diefstal de herkomst te herleiden is. Een ander, bekend, probleem is klimaatverandering wat ervoor zorgt dat oogsten mislukken.

De hoge prijs en monopolie zorgen ervoor dat de economie van Madagaskar bijna net zo afhankelijk is van vanille, als de golfstaten afhankelijk zijn van olie. Dit kwam treffend tot uiting toen de grootste afnemer van natuurlijk vanille, Coca-Cola, de receptuur van de drank wijzigde. Toen Coca-Cola ging werken met een chemisch surrogaat, stortte de economie van Madagaskar in.

Uiteindelijk stapte Coca-Cola toch weer over op natuurlijke vanille wat de gehalveerde economie van Madagaskar deed herstellen.

Het natuurlijke groeiproces van vanille is dus tijdrovend en kostbaar. Om tijd en kosten te besparen, hebben voedseltechnologen een oplossing gevonden in de chemie.

Sterker nog, de vanillesmaak namaken is een relatief simpel proces, aangezien vooral één aroma er toe doet: vanilline. De meeste vanilline is afkomstig uit een bijproduct van de papierindustrie en dus goed voorhanden. Deze synthetische variant wordt veelal toegepast in producten, waar de doorsnee consument minder waarde aan smaak hecht, zoals in vanillesuiker, kant-en-klaar bakproducten en vanillevla. Ondanks het chemische alternatief, overtreft niets de smaak van een echt vanillestokje. Dit komt omdat het merg van een echte vanillepeul meer aromastoffen bevat en zo een rijkere smaak geeft aan gerechten.

Voor de nerds In programmeurkringen komt de term ‘vanilla’ vaak voor om aan te duiden dat een programma origineel is of geen uitbreidingen heeft. Deze term is in gebruik gekomen doordat vanille de meest voorkomende ijssmaak is en de witte kleur niet zo opvalt. In het Engels wordt ‘vanilla sex’ ook wel gebruikt om weinig opwindende seksuele voorkeuren uit te drukken.

Bourbonvanille, alcoholvrij

Nedervanille

Vanille uit Madagaskar wordt vaak aangeduid met de term ‘bourbonvanille’ wat nog wel eens leidt tot een misverstand over de herkomst van deze naam. Om met de deur in huis te vallen: de drank bourbon heeft buiten de naam niks te maken met vanille.

Waar het wel mee te maken heeft, is het Franse eiland Réunion dat dichtbij Madagaskar ligt. De vanilleplant is inheems aan het huidige Mexico en na de ontdekking van de Nieuwe Wereld door de Spanjaarden, verspreidde de plant zich over andere koloniën, zoals het Franse Réunion dat toen nog bekendstond als Île Bourbon (vernoemd naar het toenmalige Franse koningshuis).

Door het ontbreken van een inheemse bij – die de plant bevruchtte – werd dit in eerste instantie geen succes, tot een Franse slaaf ontdekte hoe de bevruchting handmatig moest. Hierdoor konden de Fransen vanille gaan verbouwen in hun koloniën in de regio.

Zodoende werd vanille uit de Indische Oceaan vernoemd naar Île Bourbon.

Door de betere smaak van natuurlijke vanille blijft er vraag naar, terwijl de leveranciers moeite hebben de kwaliteit en beschikbaarheid te waarborgen. Om te voorkomen dat ‘Heel Holland Bakt’ voortaan zonder vanille moet, zijn wetenschappers van de Universiteit Wageningen begonnen met onderzoek naar het telen van vanilleplanten in kassen. Hoewel productie in kassen doorgaans een duur proces is, heeft ‘Nedervanille’ potentie door de hoge prijzen. Tegelijkertijd heeft deze techniek te kampen met de natuurlijke beperkingen van de plant, namelijk het trage groeiproces. Het zal dus zeker nog een paar jaar duren voordat je het echte zwarte goud van Hollandse bodem kan kopen.

De naam is niet wat lijkt De Spaanse conquistadores hebben vanille ook van zijn naam voorzien. Tijdens hun ontdekkings- annex plundertocht door ZuidAmerika troffen zij de vanilleplant aan en van de lokale indianen leerden zij dat ze de plant open moesten ‘vouwen’ om de stokjes te bemachtigen. Om deze reden werd de plant ‘vainilla’ gedoopt, wat het verkleinwoord is van ‘vaina’. Dit is te vertalen als ‘peulenschil’ en komt oorspronkelijk van het Latijnse ‘vagina’. Leuke anekdote voor als er weer eens vanillevla op tafel staat!

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Elephant Seals Nosey creatures

Have you ever heard of the elephants? Have you ever heard of seals? I am sure you have. But have you ever heard about elephant-seals? The heads of these animals look like what you get when you faceswap an elephant with a seal. Are these beasts interesting at all? Yes they are. And let us find out why.

Fercan Molenaar Trivia and Romance The elephant snout of these animals is obviously the reason they are called elephant seals. Elephant seals are the biggest seals on the planet. Some of the largest sea elephants are six meters long and can weigh up to around 4 tons. Female elephants come to land to do these two things in the following order: find a male and give birth. The males also come the shore, basically to have sexual intercourse. The males fight with each other for the women. The strongest sea elephant gets the girl. It is clear that sea elephants have a strong sense for romance.

The elephant seals travel in colonies and the colonies have established certain breeding areas at the coast of sea. The females collectively breed once a year and they do it at these established locations. During the breeding season, males define and defend their own territories. They collect a so called harem, consisting of 40 to 50 females. The male sea elephant that dominates in the battle against his male competitors claims a few females of the colony. This means that he maintains exclusive ‘access’ to these females. One would say that this dominant sea elephant has his own personal harem. The dominant sea elephant is also called the ‘harem master’.

Comparison Let us now compare the sea elephant with the two animals from which they get their name, the seal and the elephant. The stats on the right are applicable to the southern elephant seals. There are actually two species of sea elephants, namely the northern ones and the southern ones. The latter species is the biggest of the two.

Homer the horny sea elephant Homer is a strange elephant seal, who stayed at the coast in Gisborne New Zealand for a while. Apparently, Homer liked to destroy property of the New Zealanders. Around May 2000, he attacked three cars, some boat trailers, a trash bin and a tree.

The reason for this was unclear for a while. Homer was not provoked to do any of these things. Eventually the people form New Zealand’s Department of Conservation (DoC) figured it out.

Here is a quote from Andy Basset, a member of the DoC: ‘Homer has got a bit of a problem. He’s actually attracted to cars, and his two tonnes rubbing on a car makes a bit of a dent. We are hoping that he will take off and go back to the sub-Atlantic and try to look for lady friends down there.’

Eventually, Homer the confused sea elephant left the coast of Gisborne. Who knows, maybe by now he has found himself a harem in the ocean.

What Time that they can hold their breath Average length of snout Weight of a newly born

Elephant

Seal

Elephant seal

Unknown

20 minutes

120 minutes

6m

0

<2 m

120 kg

11 kg

36 kg

19

Company visit

Simon Ster 49.4 | May 2018

A visit to Fokker Landing gear in Helmond

A fighter jet is a remarkable piece of engineering, consisting of multiple parts made by several teams and companies working together. One of which is Fokker Technologies, which is a remainder of the former Fokker Aircraft. Its division in Helmond focuses solely on landing gear for airplanes and helicopters.

On a sunny Monday afternoon, a bus full of students departed to Helmond for the company visit at Fokker Landing Gear. When we arrived we were all handed guest passes and sent to the canteen.

Here we got a presentation about how Fokker was established, what it produces, what its achievements were and how they function as a company. What really stood out is how they monitor what is happening around the building. They have TV screens all over the facility showing graphs and numbers indicating how well the company is doing in real time. This way they can easily adjust things around the facility using this instant feedback.

After the presentation we were split in three groups for better crowd control. We were shown how they produce the landing gear for commercial airplanes, but also for government aviation, most notably for the Dutch government. This includes fighter jets like the F35 Lightning II, helicopters like the NH-90 and even Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) like the MQ-9 Reaper. They test the parts here in the facility itself, which includes an approximately ten meter high tower that is used for a durability test of the landing gear by dropping a weight on the landing gear. Some tests can make a lot of noise, which we were warned for multiple times. In the end it really wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t that loud but safety is still the number one priority, which is why we were also not allowed to cross the yellow borders on the floor all around the building.

In the end we were led back to the canteen where we were pointed out that if you want to follow an internship at Fokker, or if you want to do a project along with Fokker, you are free to contact them. It actually turned out that most of the employees are mechanical engineers that even studied in Eindhoven, which they used as an example that mechanical engineers are very wanted at the company. After handing in our guest passes we took the bus back and thus concluded the company visit to Fokker Technologies.

Jankatiri Boon

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Maritime myths Mysteries of the sea

With all our modern satellites and mapping technology, one might believe that we have a pretty good idea of what can be found on our own home planet. However, the opposite seems to be true when it comes to the Earth’s oceans. In total, only about 5 percent of the oceans have been explored. It should not come as a surprise then that over the centuries countless myths have arisen about mysterious islands, ancient civilizations, and deadly polygons. Here are five maritime locations shrouded in mystery.

Joël Peeters The lost continent of Atlantis While Atlantis has since appeared in many myths and works of fiction, it was first mentioned by the Greek philosopher Plato, in his books called Critias and Timaeus. Plato described it as a large, rich and technologically advanced empire made up of several concentric rings of land and water. He used it for an allegory against hubris, in which the proud Atlanteans attacked the Greek mainland, only to be defeated by the Athens. Afer this defeat, the island was plagued by earthquakes and floods and sank into the ocean. Plato claimed his books were meant as philosophical works of fiction, but later writers wondered whether there may have been truth to the story. The main question these writers attempted to answer was where exactly Atlantis might be located.

Plato claimed it was located beyond the “Pillars of Hercules” (the street of Gibraltar), in a sea now called the Atlantic ocean. Some speculated that the continent was actually located near Egypt, or that it referred to a still existing landmass in northern Europe.

Plato’s description also led many people in the 16th century and beyond to believe that he was actually referring to the Americas.

More recent investigators tried to find the island by looking for irregular islands and ocean floor formations, like the Bimini Road rock formation in the Bahamas, but no traces of the continent have ever been found.

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Simon Ster 49.4 | May 2018

Avalon

Antillia

The island of Avalon is an important island in medieval British literature, that was supposedly located somewhere near Britain.

The name can be translated to ‘island of fruit trees’. The island got that name because the people on the island supposedly had no need for farms, as fruit trees grew freely and richly all over the island. The island, as mentioned in the Arthurian Legend, was always shrouded in fog and could only be accessed by a magical boat. According to to the Arthurian legend, this is the island on which the legendary sword Excalibur was made and the island where King Arthur himself went to heal his wounds after his final battle, the Battle of Camlann. Whether he died there is unclear, some legends claim that Arthur remains there and that he will return one day to save his people. The existence of King Arthur is a debated topic, and so is the existence and location of Avalon. In the 12th century, monks from an abbey near Glastonbury claimed to have found the grave of Arthur, together with an inscription that this place was Avalon. While this was no longer an island by then, parts of Glastonbury may well have been underwater during the time Arthur would have lived, leaving Avalon as an island near the British Coast.

Because many parts of the world were still unknown at the time, many maps from the 15th century contain phantom islands and countries, places from legends that were believed to exist, even though they had never been found. One of these islands was the island Antilia, a supposedly rectangular island located somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean. The legend claims that in the 8th century, during a Muslim conquest of Spain, seven bishops from Spain sailed West to find a new land to live. They came to the island Antilia and founded seven cities on the Island. These cities were called Aira, Antuab, Ansalli, Ansesseli, Ansodi, Ansolli and Con. Spanish historians estimated the island to be 400 kilometers long and 150 kilometers wide, but the island was never found and gradually stopped appearing in maps near the end of the 16th century.

The Bermuda Triangle Perhaps the most famous example of a modern sea legend is that of the Bermuda Triangle. This triangle, supposedly spanned between the Florida mainland and the islands of Puerto Rico and Florida, has been the cause of over 170 disappearances over the last century. The large number of disappearances was first noticed

by American newspapers in 1950 and since then many myths have sprung up attempting to explain the phenomenon. It is for instance often said that compasses work differently inside the triangle, but in reality, there are no compass irregularities in the area that haven’t been mapped since the area became a popular trading route. More outlandishly, some theorists have even claimed that remnants of Atlantis technology at the previously mentioned Bimini Road are the cause of the disappearances.

More plausible theories often revolve around two geographical occurrences in the area. The first is the presence of so-called methane hydrates in the area. These gasses are contained in the ocean floor and can severely decrease the density of the seawater above when released. Research has shown that this decrease in density can cause ships to sink. Secondly, the triangle is located in an area often plagued by hurricanes and heavy storms. These factors have most likely led to the large amounts of incidents over the years, but many myths still remain.

Fortunate Isles The legend of the Fortunate Isles, or Isles of the Blessed, persists throughout all of European mythology but originates in Ancient Greece. It describes the isles as a winterless paradise were the Greek gods lived, and where heroes from Greek literature lived forever. On the islands, there was no suffering, no death, and no work. According to the Romans, who took over the legend, there were two islands in total, separated by a narrow sea. They also claimed the island was 2000 kilometers from Africa. The legend of the Islands was also taken over by the Celts, who called it Tir Nan Og (Country of the young) or Tirfo Thuin (Land under the waves).

It may have been the inspiration for the Island of Avalon and it also inspired J.R.R. Tolkien’s Undying Lands. The location of these islands has been much speculated as well. The Romans believed they were situated near Libya. Many explorers believed the islands could move across the sea and shroud themselves in mist, making them almost impossible to find.

The Amazons in the Fortunate Isles (1679) by Carlo Pallavicino

Kijk in de Sterren The force of nature

Everyone knows that unicorns on land donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t exist, but in the seas to the east of Canada and Greenland they do exist. They are called Narwhals and are a kind of whale. Their spiraled tusk is actually one of their two teeth in the upper jaw.

Narwhals can grow to a length of 5.8 metres excluding their tusk of a maximum of three metres. Double-tusked Narwhals also occur occasionally. Their body colour changes a lot during growth. At birth it is gray, then it gets black and when they get older they get more and more white. The Narwhals eat animals like squid and shrimp at a depth of 1500 metres (as far as we know), but they might go even deeper.

Sjoerd Narinx

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Simon Ster 48.3 | February 2017

24

Polymers The material of the future

With the increasing demand for high-end (corrosion-resistant, light-weight, selflubricating, etc.) products, the substitution of metal parts by polymers in various structural and dynamic applications becomes more important every day.

Stan Looijmans Polymer products are generally manufactured in a fully-automated process at relatively low temperatures in an energy efficient way.

Since polymers consist of long-chain molecules they are very stretchable, leading to unique products. For instance, fibres made by spinning having a strength ten times larger than steel or foils having a thickness of 1 micron, a width of 6 meters and infinitely long. During the design of such products, it is crucial to know where, when, and how a material fails. You can think of applications in automotive engineering (energy absorption in crash), energy (failure behaviour of wind-turbine blades, batteries), microsystems (flexible electronics), biomedical engineering (prostheses, in-body devices), and safety (laminated and/or bulletproof glass), but also lifetime predictions of load and load-bearing structures.

The Polymer Technology group aims to close the gap between science and technology, spanning the cycle from structure via processing to products. The obtained mechanical and physical properties are directly related to the process the polymer has undergone. Due to the long-chain structure some disadvantages exist, such as a high viscosity demanding special manufacturing processes and (frozen in) chain orientation leading to anisotropic properties and complex long-time dimensional stability of high-precision injection-moulded parts. In addition, several polymers may partially crystallize upon solidification, inducing a heterogeneous microstructure, which is strongly dependent on cooling rate, flow rate and pressure. In the end, the final properties of the polymeric product are determined by the full thermomechanical history during forming.

A multidisciplinary approach is adopted which integrates classical disciplines as Solid Mechanics, Fluid Mechanics, Materials Science, (Bio-)Physics, (Bio-)Chemistry. A key feature in the Polymer Technology group is the multi-scale character of research: To bridge the gap from the underlying structure and kinetics of polymers to their respective applications, we use advanced experimental, theoretical and numerical methods. Our central research themes include polymer mechanics, rheology, lifetime assessment, friction and wear, non-equilibrium thermodynamics and multi-scale mechanics.

Multi-scale modelling In order to quantitatively describe the complex behaviour of polymers, we extensively use computer simulations. Plastic deformation is implemented in industrially-relevant threedimensional, macroscopic material models. Depending on the materials intrinsic deformation response and the loading conditions applicable, a suitable model may be chosen for bulk simulations.

For amorphous systems, we use the in-house developed Eindhoven Glassy Polymer model to accurately describe the pre- and post-

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Simon Ster 49.4 | May 2018

yield kinetics, as well as the large-strain response. In more complex polymeric structures, e.g. semi-crystalline polymers, composite or blend materials, a second aspect is of importance; the multi-scale modelling of materials, coupling the macroscopic behaviour to processes that occur in the microstructure. Understanding and quantifying these underlying processes explains where, when and how a material, on the macroscopic level, fails plastically.

Different length scales need to be combined before arriving at mechanical models that build on the underlying structure. Several numerical techniques, namely Molecular Dynamics, Metropolis Monte Carlo, and finite element modelling (FEM) at a continuum level description may be used together in order to obtain physical models describing the observed kinetics.

The coupling of these levels of description can be achieved either sequentially (by pre-calculation of input parameters for a coarser scale) or concurrently. In the latter case, we build on techniques from non-equilibrium thermodynamics. These procedures may be applied to the mechanical behaviour of solid polymers as well as polymer melts or soft matter in general.

The macroscopic contact between polymer parts generally consists of multiple, so-called, asperities. This means that the touching surfaces are not infinitely smooth, but are the summation of all local, microscopic contact sites. Hence, in order to better understand friction- and wear mechanisms, the problem is downgraded to a single-asperity sliding friction tests. In this experiment, a well-defined, rigid diamond indenter tip is pushed into the polymer surface and scratched over a certain distance measuring the indentation depth and friction force. To get a better understanding of the accompanied stress-strain fields, numerical simulations of the same experiment are performed.

In the recent past, these combined experimental and numerical techniques have characterized the contact mechanics and contact fatigue of neat amorphous polymer systems (e.g. polycarbonate and polymethylmetacrylate), as well as soft and hard nano-filled systems of the before mentioned matrix material.

In a cooperative project between bachelor-, master- and PhDstudents, a similar technique is used to study indentation and single asperity scratch experiments in neat, semi-crystalline structures.

For this important class of materials (95% of commercially used plastics) this is less straightforward as compared to amorphous systems. Their intrinsic properties are strongly dependent on crystal structure, which on its turn strongly depends on processing conditions. The main issue is the post-yield response of these polymers; reorientation of the crystals leads to local changes in microstructure in the large-strain regime. A fundamental comprehension of both the processing/structure relation and the structure/properties relation is key. Hence, working in the Polymer Technology group you are responsible for your samples from the very first step. The various extruders, mixers, presses and injection moulding machines allow for a hands-on experience throughout the projects. The processing laboratory allows you to isolate a certain process parameter and study its influence on the crystallizing structure, gaining absolute control over the resulting properties of the end product.

The various length scales of friction In widely different types of equipment, polymers play a crucial role, e.g. in bearings in automotive industry, or in medical equipment like artificial hip- and knee-joints. To increase the lifetime of polymeric products and decrease the mechanical energy loss between relative moving parts, the study of contact mechanics is essential. In the design of such parts minimum dissipation of energy and wear rate are key factors. Whereas in metals the concept of contact mechanics, friction and contact fatigue is widely known, there are no clear guidelines for the surface design in technical polymer applications.

This project revealed that isotactic polypropylene (a material with negligible strain softening and strain hardening) is remarkably scratch resistant, especially after solid-state orientation. Highdensity polyethylene on the other hand, displays a high degree of brittleness after orientation. Reason for this is the extreme strain hardening that rapidly decreases the strain-at-break of this material, and accelerates local abrasive wear. Although the exact wear mechanisms on these polyolefins still have to be confirmed

by FEM simulations, we know from previous results that crack initiation is related to the location of largest positive hydrostatic stress, suggesting a direct link between the value of this parameter and the wear resistance observed experimentally.

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Company visit A visit at VMI: The leader of the tire machinery industry

On the 1st of March we visited a big Dutch founded multinational: VMI-Group. They are the world leading company in producing tire machinery and during the visit we found out why.

Sander van Beek A tour before the tour

How it’s made

Whilst driving through the meadows and farmland of Epe we started to wonder whether we had taken the right exit to the VMI headquarters. As the only thing we were seeing was a vast landscape of farms along a windy road. Together with a small group of seven people inside Walter we drove through some closely packed farms and suddenly discovered that our previous concerns were unjustified. The VMI Office had seemingly popped up out of nowhere and was now right in front of us. We had found it. A multinational industrial company was still in the spot it originated more than 70 years ago.

After the presentation we started the tour. First Karel explained to us that for a lot of the expansion of VMI there wasn’t enough room at their location. That’s why they have expanded to other locations in several countries in Europe. However, there is still a lot of research, assembly and testing being done at the location we were visiting. At this point, Karel started getting more and more excited about the company. We started the tour with the production and processing of the pure rubber needed for the tires. They were machined into long strips available for further production of the tire. After this we were shown the big machines that put together tires in a rapid production. The MAXX and the MILLEX; the first produces car tires and the latter truck tires.

These are machines the size of half a warehouse that are mostly autonomous, only needing one or two operators. These machines consisted of a lot of mechatronics and were a lot more interesting than anticipated. The tour ended with a full demonstration loop of the MAXX machine which was a very interesting way to conclude the company visit.

About VMI Karel Pieter Prins gave a presentation about VMI-group. He started at VMI as a factory engineer and worked his way up to Sales manager. Karel experienced a big part of the growth and expansion of VMI and we quickly noticed that he knew almost everything there is to know about VMI. VMI was setup in Epe in 1945 starting in the tire making business, with a focus on producing the tire producing machines. The company’s mission towards these machines is to make sure that every customer has one specifically built to their needs and demands. This causes the clients to involve the engineers at VMI very early in the process of designing new tires and technologies, and in return giving VMI challenges on what can be produced by their machines. This makes every machine unique and adaptable. The machines can range from almost fully automatic to machines which need a lot of human intervention.

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Course Evaluations

Jerome Seelen

As Commissioner of Education, course evaluations are one of the most important aspects of the job. Every course is evaluated on the basis of the Student Councils and the Course Evaluations. These evaluations are discussed with members of the Program Committee and discussed with the teachers to see what can be improved and how it can be improved.

If you are reading this, you probably have made the best decision of your life a couple of months or years ago: choosing to study Mechanical Engineering. Everybody studying for a couple of years has heard or even seen it: our university is growing. But how much did our university really grow? And how much did our study, Mechanical Engineering, grow?

In 2012 our university had an inflow of 1372 first year bachelor students. In 2013 it already grew with 17% to 1601, but it did not stop there. Up and until now, our university grew to 2293 incoming first year bachelor students, of which 302 are Mechanical Engineering students. In total it grew with 67% from 2012 to 2017. From 2019/2020 the inflow of bachelor students will stabilize because almost all studies will have a numerus fixus (student cap). This will also be the case for Mechanical Engineering. A maximum of 300 students will participate in the first year Mechanical Engineering and it will start fully in English.

In the master a much lower amount of students apply each year. The inflow in 2016 was 166 students and will grow in the upcoming years. To cope with the increase of student inflow, the Master Allocation Procedure (MAP) is introduced. The MAP is introduced to set a cap on different research departments. Especially for Control System Technology this was a must. Because of the MAP, no group will have more students than their maximal capacity.

This percentage represents the amount of students that filled in the course evaluation relative to the amount of students that took the course.

This is the average score given to This indicates the the course by the respondents. average amount of hours An upward pointing arrow indispent on the course by cates an increase compared to the respondents of the last year. Downwards indicates course evaluation. a decrease and a circle indicates no major changes.

Green symbols indicate scores above the goal, yellow symbols indicate sufficient scores under the goal, red symbols indicate insufficient scores.

Heat and flow of Microsystems

Introduction to ME

Computer Aided Engineering

Feedback: • Well-prepared and representative exam • Interesting & relevant content • More guided self-study hours a week

Feedback: • Variety of subjects in this course is well received.

• Better communication on DBL deadlines and planning.

Improvements: • An extra PhD student and a student assistant were added to the team this year for the guided self-study hours.

• More extra guided self-study hours are not needed. Almost all students finished their tasks using the existing schedule.

• The hours spent on the course is a little high, but not worrisome.

Improvements: • Groups will be smaller upcoming year.

This year there were unexpectedly more students.

• The deadlines were communicated well, but the moments for building the truss structures (vakwerkconstructie) were communicated late. This was due to the use of the same location for Engineering Design. Next year this will be arranged earlier and communicated better to the students.

Feedback: • An open assignment/defining own goal is received well.

• Quality of set-ups / measurement equipment can be improved • Pre-master students want more support on recommended prior knowledge Improvements: • The 7-project phases approach was introduced this year and received well.

• A number of set-ups were new or improved. Some groups did not use the equipment right. Next year Gerard van Hattum will improve his supporting lecture.

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Scuba diving

Simon Ster 49.4 | May 2018

Discovering the under-water world

Last winter, I learned how to scuba dive when I was on holiday in the south of Thailand. While doing diving courses, I learned a lot about the equipment, the effect on the human body as well as about the underwater world. Because this relaxing sport is simply amazing, this article explains you shortly why you really should try scuba diving.

Loes van den Beuken What is scuba diving?

Scuba diving literally means self-contained underwater breathing apparatus diving. In fact this is diving using a breathing device and an air tank, which makes the diving human completely independent of surface supplies. Underwater you imagine yourself in a different world: it is totally quiet, you see amazing plants and animals and you are amazed by a totally different side the world has as well. When diving, you get a sense of freedom and you will feel attracted to discover more and more of the underwater world.

It’s really amazing to be able to get around in a world you are not supposed to be as a human. Remember, however, one thing: watch, but don’t touch!

human body and with that how to plan the duration and depth of your dive safely using the dive planner. In the practical part you’ll dive together with your instructor and train on the signals and your buoyancy.

After the open water course, you can do the advanced open water course. This course allows you to go deeper, learns you how to navigate under water and focuses more on your floatability.

Subsequent courses are the specialities like deep-diving, shipwreck diving or rescue diving. To professionalize yourself you can do the dive master course.

My best diving experience How to learn scuba diving?

The easiest and best way to learn diving is to take a diving course and obtain a diving certificate. Except for doing an exploration dive with an instructor, you are not allowed to dive without having a certificate. There are multiple diving education systems, but the most well-known is the PADI system. The most popular PADI diving course, the open water diver, consists of theory lessons, often some practice in a swimming pool and of course open water dives. With this certificate, you are allowed to dive together with a dive buddy to a maximum depth of 18 meters.

In the theoretical part you learn about the different parts of the equipment, how to use them and how to check if they are in a good condition. You’ll learn about the influence of diving on the

One of the most spectacular form of diving is wreck diving. This is also my very best diving experience. I dove to the Sattakut Wreck at Koh Tao in Thailand, which is located 30 meter deep. If you go wreck diving you imagine yourself in a museum. We swam around the wreck with an amazing visibility and we could take a look into the wreck, but to enter it you should have the wreck-diver certificate. It is was amazing to see how nature covers a whole boat: fish use the wreck as a shelter and the outside of the wreck is often covered with plants or coral.

Did I convince you already to give it a try? Cool. You can find way more information on www.padi.com about how and where to do an open water diving course. Are you still a bit scared? Of course you can also do a trial first, before enrolling into a course.

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Fuel Combustion And the formation of soot

Knowledge is a prerequisite for innovation. For complex processes, like the formation of soot in hydrocarbon fuel combustion, highly detailed optical measurements elucidate details of the underlying process, and provide a benchmark to calibrate numerical models.

Conrad Hessels The delightful stench of burned meat from your neighbors BBQ, the impenetrable black of the exhaust plume of an oldtimer pick-up truck, the warm orange glow of a camp fire. All are manifestations of a ubiquitous yet poorly understood process associated with the combustion of organic fuel, namely soot formation. The problem is one of complexity. ‘Combustion’ is a one-word container for a chemical soup, a blizzard of zillions of molecules, made of hundreds of chemical compounds flying around at the speed of sound, colliding and transforming as they go. Ideally, from the clean-combustion point of view, all fuel you feed into a flame should burn to completeness and exit as CO2 and H2O: full conversion, 100% efficiency. Soot formation, from this point of view, is an undesirable side track, a loss channel for carbon that may escape combustion when it makes it into the exhaust.

Little is known, on a fundamental level, of the incipient stages of soot formation, the ‘birth of soot’. What would be the smallest ‘soot molecule’? How is that formed out of the initial fuel? And how does it grow? Are there bottlenecks in the process? Detailed measurements might provide some of the answers, but doing reliable and quantitative measurements on individual chemical species in the hostile environment of a flame is a challenge in itself. This, then, was the graduation project of Conrad Hessels, supervised by PhD-student Robin Doddema in the Multiphase and Reactive Flow group.

What are the requirements that a suitable measurement technique should fulfil? To answer this question for this particular case, let us travel. Let us join a small fuel pocket on its way through a flame, like that of Figure 1. The particular flame under study is a stationary, non-premixed flame: pure fuel exits a stainless steel nozzle and flows into ambient air. Initially, oxygen is present only at the periphery, and there is no oxygen in the core of the fuel flow.

Thus, our travel companion, the fuel pocket, grows hotter and hotter while it flows along, approaching the actual flame location.

However, it cannot burn because there is no oxygen. Nevertheless, due to the increasing temperature the fuel molecules decompose anyway (pyrolysis), new carbon-rich compounds form and from these precursors soot is born, it grows, and eventually most of it burns anyway in regions where sufficient oxygen has diffused into the flame.

Our measurement technique should be able to resolve these processes in space, be able to distinguish individual chemical compounds and to do so without affecting the flame at all.

There is a particular type of optical measurement technique that admirably fulfils all these criteria, viz. Raman spectroscopy. The principle behind this technique is as follows. When a gas (mixture) is illuminated with a beam of monochromatic light, part of the light is scattered out of the beam; not much, but easily detectable

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Simon Ster 49.4 | May 2018

In Conrad’s experiments the flame is illuminated along its central axis by a thin line of perfectly green laser light (527 nm sharp).

Scattered light is collected by a so-called imaging spectrograph, a device that splits the collected light into its constituent colour components, and does so for all locations along the laser beam simultaneously. Its output is recorded by a CCD camera equipped with an image intensifier, all in all resulting in a device with nearly single photon counting capabilities. Photographs recorded by the CCD camera thus contain spectral information (the colours in the Raman-scattered light) along the horizontal direction, and spatial information (along the central axis of the flame) along the vertical direction. An example, recorded on a simple natural gas flame, is shown in Figure 2. This ‘photograph’ is presented in false-colour format, that is, the intensity of the scattered light falling on each individual pixel (that is, each wavelength/location-combination) is translated into a particular colour in the picture.

Figure 1: Photograph of one of the flames under study, with at the right an artist impression of the course of temperature and soot concentration along the flame axis. The faint, green, vertical line through the center of the flame corresponds to the laser beam (Rayleigh scattering).

with modern equipment. Most of this scattered light has the same wavelength (colour) as the incident light (Rayleigh scattering), but a tiny fraction (about 0.1%) has acquired a different wavelength (Raman scattering). This wavelength change (called the Raman shift) is the net result of an intricate interaction between the electronic charge distribution that is set into oscillation by the incident light (an electromagnetic wave itself) and the natural vibration of the nuclear framework of the scattering molecules.

The former is governed solely by the incident light, but the latter largely depends on the properties of the molecules. Strong chemical bonds are associated with high-frequency vibrations of small amplitude, whereas weak bonds lead to slow vibrations of large amplitude. Thus, the colour change, the Raman shift, is highly specific for the individual chemical species which are responsible for the scattering.

Figure 2: False colour spectral atlas of a non-premixed methane/air flame. Each pixel in this photograph corresponds to a unique combination of colour (horizontal axis) and location along the axis of the flame (vertical direction). The colour in the picture is a measure for the intensity of the scattered light, according to the scale at the right. Contributions due to some individual chemical compounds are indicated.

As expected, the spectra are dominated by contributions of the most prevalent compounds in the flame: fuel, nitrogen, water vapour, and the like. These give rise to detailed features at highly specific wavelengths, as indicated in the figure. There is also soot: the fat band spanning all colours. By combining spectroscopic information from literature, Conrad has been able to identify most of the spectral features and to quantitatively simulate the spectra of most major compounds in the flame. Comparison with numerical calculations performed on the same flames has shown good agreement with the experiments for natural gas, the fuel for which the ‘numerical chemistry’ is best developed. As soon as the fuel becomes a little bit more involved (ethylene rather than methane, for instance), the numerical models start to deviate from the experiment, indicating that more work needs to be done on the reaction mechanisms. This exemplifies the benchmark capabilities of our experimental setup. Having established agreement between experiment and numerical simulation in a situation where agreement is to be expected, we can trust the experimental results on more involved cases and use them to calibrate the numerics.

The backbone structure of these flames has thus been characterized in great detail. Now we can start looking for perturbations, small deviations in the spectrum that signal the presence of soot precursors. The groundwork has been laid, the hunt is on!

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The Dutch Delta Works A piece of engineering embraced by the world

For centuries, Holland has had a constant battle against water. It is because of the fact that more than half of the Netherlands is positioned below sea level that the water is her biggest thread. After the big flood in 1953, there was only one clear message; never again. This resulted in a gigantic operation known as the Delta Works, a prestigious piece of civil engineering which took from 1954 till 1997 to construct and is acknowledged all over the world. However, the battle against the water is not only fought in the Netherlands. A lot of countries are struggling with the same challenge and are looking to the Netherlands and our expertise. It is time to bring in the Dutch!

Stijn Middelhuis Due to the second world war and a period of indecision, little action was taken to protect the Netherlands from the sea in the post war period. The lack of protection in combination with a furious storm resulted in a horrible disaster known as the North Sea Flood of 1953. To prevent the country from such disasters in the future, a Delta Works Commission was installed to research the causes and develop measures for protection. The commission eventually came up with a solution which reduced the length of the dikes exposed to the sea by 700 kilometres and kept the important shipping routes to the ports of Rotterdam and Antwerp accessible. The Delta Works now consist of a series of construction projects in the southwest of the Netherlands and along with the Zuiderzee Works, the Delta Works have been declared as one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World by the American Society of Civil Engineers.

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Simon Ster 49.4 | May 2018

International market Just like the Netherlands, Vietnam worries about the effects of the climate change and especially with respect to the sea. Big storms, pours, fresh water shortage and an increasing sea level is threatening the country. Vietnam is a country with a wealth that is more and more increasing, but remains vulnerable behind its dikes. The Mekong-delta in the south of Vietnam, a densely populated rice shed, and Ho Chi Minh-City, the economical motor of the country, are already endangered by even a little rise of the sea level. City’s as Ho chi Minh with houses built on high wooden poles are made with the intention to withstand flooding’s, however, with the increase of modern, high buildings and industry, an annual flood can have disastrous effects to the population and economy. It is therefore no surprise that the country is showing interest in the ingenious ways the Dutch are keeping dry feet.

The Dutch water workers are annually turning over 7 billion euro’s, of which 5 billion is coming from foreign countries. 4 Billion of that is coming from the dredging market, the rest is coming from consultancy agencies. These agencies are, for example, constructing a Deltaplan for the Mekong Delta and Ho Chi MinhCity. Indeed, providing advice is the first step, getting lucrative orders out of it the second. However both countries are challenging the water, constructing a water prevention system is a custommade job due to the different climate, interests and wealth of the country. For example, it would be more efficient for Vietnam to go with a more subtle Delta plan which does not simply “block” the water like the ‘Oosterscheldekering’, but one which is more likely to bend it in their advantage.

According to the New York times, the Dutch way of thinking is completely different from the way they think in the United States, where disaster relief generally takes over disaster avoidance. The U.S. is doing a fine job in disaster management, but working to avoid disaster is a completely different expertise. One could argue that these two situations are not comparable since the Netherlands does not have to cope with violent hurricanes, but the ferocious storms that come from the northwest and a lifelong experience of living on the edge have simply resulted in a keen awareness of the consequences of flooding and the necessity to prevent them in a country where more than half of the population lives below the sea level. This eventually resulted in the most prestigious water managing system of the world, maybe something the U.S. could benefit from. Because of this success for the Netherlands in managing their coast, it would be very beneficial for the Netherlands to go abroad and see how flood management systems respond in more extreme situations, for example New York to start with.

Lesson to learn?

The Netherlands are not doing a bad job in bringing their knowledge to the international market. The Dutch waterworks sector provides jobs to about 80.000 people, half of these people are working at 450 companies for ‘Deltatechnology’. The image below shows a hand full of projects around the world to give an idea about where the Dutch projects are located.

However, while a lot of people state that the world has a lesson to

America In recent days, the Dutch’s peerless expertise and centuries of experience in battling the water has been widely hailed in the United States to offer lessons for how, for example New York, might better protect people and property from flooding. Dutch engineering companies have actually pitched for projects to fortify Manhattan against storms, stressing that the geographical situation of New York with its coastline and cluster of rivers is somewhat comparable to the Dutch coast. But replicating Dutch successes in the United States would require radical reshaping of the American approach to vulnerable coastal areas and disaster prevention. However, with the hurricane thread in the U.S. and the multiple floods the country has to endure each year, it would be reasonable to ask the question why the U.S. is not taking more preventive measures against water.

learn from the Dutch about water management, is this statement often overshadowed by political and cultural difficulties. A Dutch engineering consulting company working on a project in New York has proposed a movable barrier near the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge for flood protection. It is not the problem of coming with suggestions, according to a Dutch consulting company; ‘An even bigger challenge in the U.S. is how to get a big pot of money for an entire region’.

In Vietnam the problem is more nestled in the wealth of the country. A Dutch engineer costs a 1000 euro’s per day, while an average Vietnamese earns approximate 1000 euro per year . Are they willing to buy our expertise for that price? The ability to make choices and to act according to that is politically more difficult than just ordering some dikes. Since the Netherlands have succeeded in this, which is proved by not only the water works at the coast, but also by the water management inside the country, is this probably the most valuable lesson the Dutch have to offer.

The so called ‘Dryline’ in Manhattan

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The Bagger 288 A Mechanical Monster

You might have seen it before. These huge, half dug up flatlands in the middle of the landscape. It would not surprise you, if you are told that these spaces are quarries, used for extracting tons and tons of resources from the soil. A common sight at locations like these are all sorts of enormous vehicles used for mining those resources. The bigger, the better, as it gets the job done faster. And that of course means more profit for the mining companies.

Koen van Fessem For a very long time minerals and ores have been extracted from the Earth. Over the years the methods changed. Where it started by mining very precise, it all changed towards a faster but less accurate approach. Possible reasons for this are that people didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t care about one specific resource anymore or some way was found to sort resources. It could also have been that people using pickaxes and shovels were just not fast enough anymore, but the most logical reason is that it just became much too expensive. which is why advanced technology was used for designing machines for digging. That is where all kinds of excavators are introduced.

One of them is the Bagger 288, a bucket wheel excavator. The Bagger 288 is the biggest land vehicle known to mankind. It is 215 meters long, 46 meters wide and 95 meters high. Not only is it a huge machine, it is also very heavy. Weighing an astonishing 13.500 tons it is the second heaviest land vehicle, just behind its brother the Bagger 293, which weighs in at 14.200 tons.

Bucket wheel excavator As mentioned before, the Bagger 288 is a bucket wheel excavator.

This means that this excavator does not have a normal arm and bucket like a modern day excavator, but it has one giant wheel

The Bagger 288 from another point of view

with a diameter of 21.6 meters. On this wheel 18 buckets are attached, each weighing 3500 kilograms, which each holds 6.6 cubic meters of soil, minerals or whatever it is digging up at that time. Daily, it can dig up 240.000 tons of coal, which is equal to 2400 coal wagons.

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Simon Ster 49.4 | May 2018

The excavator exists of 3 booms. The cutting boom, where the bucket wheel is attached, the discharge boom, which is used to transport the dug up material to the trains or other transporting methods, and at last the counterweight boom, which is used to prevent the excavator from falling over.

To transport dug up materials a system of conveyor belts is used.

This system exists of 4 conveyor belts, each about 3 meters wide.

Those conveyors start on the cutting boom, get followed up on the discharge boom and are stretched over miles all around the quarry.

The dug up materials get dropped on the conveyors to be moved towards the train tracks. A conveyor system is used because it is much more cost efficient than loading the material on trucks to later be put on a train.

Along with the Bagger 288 there are many more of these giant excavators working at those mining areas. Bagger 281, Bagger 285, Bagger 289 and Bagger 293 are all similar sized bucket wheel excavators, which all have been used to dig up coal and the soil above it at either Hambach or Garzweiler. There are many more of these Baggers but they are smaller.

Although tons of coal get dug up and used for the generation of energy, the Bagger itself uses quite a lot of energy to operate. The coal, which is dug up, gets transported to five power plants, all near the dig sites. These plants produce ten gigawatts of electric power each year. That might look like a lot, but the Bagger needs 16,56 kilowatts just to start up. Knowing that there are three shifts each day, quite a big portion of this energy is used by the bagger itself.

But maybe the most astonishing fact about a machine this size is that there are just five people working on it at the same time.

Although they work in three shifts it looks extremely undermanned for such a big machine. However, not much has to be done on such a machine. Of course, it has to be maneuvered and the bucket wheel has to be controlled, but besides that there is not much to be controlled. Only when a major operation, like moving it, has to happen, a lot more men are drafted. About 70 people helped when this enormous machine had to be moved from one mining site to the other.

Scalemodel of the Bagger 289

Future project

The Bagger 288 was used to dig up coal ore in the Tagebau Hambach coal mine near Cologne in western Germany, but after 23 years it had depleted this mine completely. That raised another problem. What could you do with such a huge machine if there is no use of it. That is why it was moved to another mine, the Tagebau Garzweiler, where it is still operational. Here it mines about 100 million tons of coal per year, which is used in the German electricity supply.

The travel between those two mines was a very tricky project.

Because it was cheaper to just move the Bagger than to dismantle and rebuild it, it had to be driven 22 kilometers. This in itself was not an easy task. First of all it moves at a maximum of 10 meters per minute. Besides that it moves on 12 insanely huge tank-like tracks, which crushed the asphalt it was driving on. Finally, it had to cross a river, for which pipes were put inside the river to prevent the banks from collapsing and to let the water through. After three weeks it finally arrived at its designed destination.

Unfortunately, there might come an end to these monstrous machines. Germany is planning to shut down all coal power plants and its mining sites in the coming years. This means that all those bucket wheel excavators will become useless. But fortunately there might be a solution. A company called Rosia Montana Gold is planning to completely take down five mountains in Romania.

Out of these mountains mainly gold and silver, but also many other materials like Uranium, Cobalt, Bismuth will be extracted.

This company is planning to use similar bucket wheel excavators for this project.

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Eurotrip 2018 A short overview

On Tuesday morning, somewhat chilly and too early, a band of students unite alongside three busses all wearing the same sweater. This was the beginning of the adventure, the European study trip 2018. Together with 27 students the European trip committee of W.S.V. Simon Stevin went to Germany and Austria for 5 days.

Luc van de Plas Germany may not seem be one of the most exhilarating place to go, but the Schwarzwald surely was. Our first arrival in Germany didn’t start with a long stretch of highway with unlimited speed, but a forest; vast and dense. In the next few days these roads would guide us through this landscape of forest beauty up to the freezing alps and back. The scenery, snow and sporadic hairpins made this trip a memorable experience.

appropriate amount of power needed for it to function. This resulted in a Christmas-tree-like-coloration on the dashboard.

While 2 groups went to Plansee and Cerazit, a smaller company which makes drillheads, the rest was stuck in some small German town. Once the visit was done, all buses were headed to Imst with the intention to go to the Toboggan, which is a roddel slide.

Unfortunately, this wasn’t manageable anymore, since none of the buses were able to reach the sled rental place in time. A pity.

Tuesday The first day we had a visit to the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology.

A university/research institute which was enormous. We got a talk from their dean and a few guided tours. Later that evening we went to the Oxford pub for a meal with some of the members of their study association. As we departed we thanked them, but didn’t say goodbye as we would see them again that Friday.

Wednesday The Wednesday was one of the busiest days; we had scheduled for 2 companies. The first was Arburg, a company which makes injection mold machines. The immense factory in which people cycled to get from one place to another was impressive at least.

Afterwards we went to Mercedes-Benz, a building complex with several buildings all dedicated to building only 3 types of cars. In the evening we joined a pubquiz, which was somewhat relaxing after a stressful day.

Friday So Friday was the last day we were planning to go to Doppelmayr, the ski lift builder in Austria. This was cool, but for some reason they nowadays make almost as many lifts for ski regions as for Asian billionaires. The factory in which humongous plates of steel were cut, welded and transported seemed rather small for their throughput, but they told us they were expanding and planning on building another building which was 2 times as big as the one they had now. As we returned to Karslruhe from Austria we were greeted by our friends from the study association. We were going to a club with them. The evening was, uhmmm…. memorable.

Saturday

Thursday

Saturday would be the relaxing day; wake up at 10, go to the pool and have a nice chill afternoon before we left to Eindhoven. And it most certainly was nice to have an afternoon of total relaxation without stress of not making it to a company. After our last meal we went on the buses and had a relatively smooth ride home.

On Thursday we went to Plansee, or so was the plan. One of the three busses had a problem with “DER GENERATOR” which was broken and therefore unable to supply the vehicle with the

If you want to know more of the trip look in the report that has been written. All of the events are more broadly discussed.

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We push technology further

Simon Ster 49.4 | May 2018

to print microchip features that are Ă&#x201E;ner

to make the energy use of a battery more eÉ&#x2030;cient

to make electric cars the standard

Do you dream of changing the world of innovation? Do complex technological challenges appeal to your imagination? We are looking for you. ASML always wants to get in touch with eager and curious students.

Join us at workingatasml.com/students

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Profiel: The Boat Truck The newest truck of E.S.R. Theta

Photos by Edgar de Lange and Tjeerd van Ditshuizen

During the last three years a small but dedicated group of rowing students had the task to arrange the best possible boat transport solution for the next fifteen years. In this article, you can read all about the result.

Gijs Nelissen History When you practice something a lot, often you’d want to measure your progress. If this is a sport, you’d want to compete against others. If you row in Eindhoven, you want to smash all those guys from Delft. A good sixty years ago, a couple of guys from the Eindhoven Student Rowing club Tachos figured as much and buildttheir first boat truck. Alongside they founded the BotenWagen Compagnie (BWC for short, simply meaning Boat Truck Company). The combination of smart students with some time on their hands, an entrepreneurial spirit and very delicate goods to be moved proved so successful that the BWC grew to be the second largest transporter of rowing boats in the Netherlands.

In 1999 a mechanical engineering student and avid rower Bart Ossewaarde convinced his professor that designing a new boat truck would be a great master’s thesis project. The BWC was in dire need of a change in rolling stock as the old DAF 900 Turbo had been intensively used for 16 years.

Previously the BWC (and all other transporters) still used a truck or van with a trailer on which some racks were built to carry the boats. However, Bart came up with a way to (un)load all the boats in a quicker and safer way. The boats would be stacked on container like racks that could be raised on integrated hydraulic

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Simon Ster 49.4 | May 2018

poles. A flatbed truck with twist locks would then back up under the container, which would then be lowered and locked in place. This takes the loading of the boats closer to the ground and eliminates the need for flimsy trailers whilst keeping high transport volumes with only one vehicle. The containers used by the BWC are three tone behemoths made of six millimeter thick steel. This guarantees virtually no torsion of the expensive and delicate race rowing shells. Add to that the pneumatic dampening in the truck and try to compare the comfort of the boats to those loaded on a regular trailer. The Cursor ran an article about “the stiffest boat truck in the world” a few years back, detailing the benefits over all the flimsy trailers that others use. You can trust us when we say: “there is no better way of transporting boats”.

The base vehicle that came rolling out of German factory is a MAN TGL 12.250 4x2 BL L-Cabine EURO 6. You’re probably not interested in what all that stands for. The guys from Wierda Voertuigtechniek (WVT) extended the chassis, rolled back the driven axle, added a custom third axle, swapped the bed for a bench, swapped the front axle for something more sturdy, took down the suspension 20mm, changed the tyres, lowered the roof (twice) by 190mm and then painted over the scars so we could drive something sleek and sexy black.

The legal side So the BWC contently drove around with their sixth and best boat truck for about seventeen years. Just like the police telling you your house party can’t turn up to eleven, the government told us that we can’t keep using our twelve-meter-long truck to transport eighteen-meter-long boats. Very good students pleasure will never be spoiled by safety regulations. This is no different this time. We do admit driving around with 18 meters of pointiness on a wheelbase of just 8 meters. A fully loaded boat truck is an awe-inspiring, 1.5 million euro transport shaped as an 18 by 2.5 by 4 meter junk of steel and carbon fiber. On the other hand, we’ve never had any major accident with it. All drivers go through a thorough training before they are let loose on the roads with it.

Calculations on the road area covered whilst turning confirmed that it is as safe as driving a normal trailer. On top of that it is much safer to drive when backing it up. Anyway, the government didn’t budge so we set out to come up with an alternative that would be approved.

Dutch road safety law dictates the maximum length of a vehicle and the extent to which an indivisible load can extend past the last axle of the vehicle. Increasing the wheelbase would make any slight turn a nightmare so the only option was to add a trailing third axle towards the end of the vehicle. This axle doesn’t need to bear any load and does nothing to improve turning or road safety. It is just there to comply with regulations. When we need to transport our longest boats we need some space above the cabin of the truck as well, so the roof had to come down. We liked a second row of seats in the cabin but those didn’t come straight out of a factory either. Some extra space to carry around oars and other materials would be nice, so why not add cargo space while we’re at it?

A second company then added reinforcements to the chassis, custom made cargo boxes and four twist locks to secure our containers. A custom, heavy duty rear bumper was bolted to the chassis and all kinds of components were moved in the process.

The truck then returned to WVT to reconfigure the suspension.

This happened just before getting the whole monstrosity tested by the German TÜV (the guys that control admission to public roads). This was the last trick up our sleeves, the TÜV was more likely to agree to all the changes on a German product and slap a European admission on it than our Dutch RDW. So immediately after the Germans signed off on it, we imported the truck to the Netherlands where the RDW checks were a formality after European admission.

The finishing touches were left to the guys and gals from the BWC. Bright yellow and white stickers adorn the truck and containers, the electrical charging system for the containers was added and we installed enough lights to illuminate the whole stretch of highway from Eindhoven to Amsterdam.

The result

Conclusion

Somehow, building a wide but low, stiff but lightweight, long vehicle with a relatively short wheelbase was too much of challenge for the truck manufacturers and all aftermarket operators. We have spoken to literally all European truck brands. We also talked with probably all aftermarket engineers and so did all those truck brands. Multiple engineers told us that they had inquiries about the exact same modifications for different truck brands. In the end only one combination of those brands and engineers could actually deliver what we sought, so we set out to buy a MAN.

Now the season is in full swing and we can guarantee the rowing clubs we service the best possible boat transport solution. After this three page PR read you now get the hook: we’re always looking for new drivers on this logistical masterpiece. We can offer you the needed training and driver’s license if you pledge to safely move some boats around. If you’re interested to look at the thing or spent a few hours with us on the road, do not hesitate to contact us via bwc@erstheta.nl. Look at our facebook /botenwagencompagnie for pictures and videos.

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Career Expo Small statistics of a great fair

In the beginning of March, the sixth and seventh to be precise, Wervingsdagens Career Expo was held. During these days nearly 3700 students walked around the Career Expo to orient themselves.

Rik Lubbers Companies were found in six major sectors to make it easier to navigate around the expo. A total of 153 companies were present at the Career Expo, of which a lot were interested in mechanical engineers. As it has been a while since the Career Expo took place, it’s time for a small analysis of it.

For companies that are interested in mechanical engineers, 54% of the companies were in the High Tech sector. Also Industrial and Chemicals, and Consulting and Engineering Agencies were major sectors, covering 25% of the companies interested in mechanical engineers together.

The numbers

Conclusion

On the first day, the Career Expo was opened by Rob Urgert and Jeroen Deudekom, known from the Dutch television show, called ‘De Kwis’. After their interactive speech, which included a small version of ‘De Kwis’, the first day of the Career Expo started.

During the first day, 67 (87% of all companies on the first day) companies had shown interest in mechanical engineers. Also on the second day the Career Expo had many companies interested in mechanical engineers. Out of the 76 companies present, 60 (79% of all companies on the second day) were interested in mechanical engineers. Although there were less companies for mechanical engineers compared to the first day, still more than three out of every four companies did show interest in mechanical engineers.

When the two days are combined, the total companies interested in mechanical engineers is 127. Only electrical engineering had more companies interested in their students: 128 companies.

Together with electrical engineers, mechanical engineers were the ‘most wanted’ of the Career Expo: a great achievement.

With more than 80% of all companies at the Career Expo interested in mechanical engineering, mechanical engineering is still one of the most popular fields. Also the fact that more than 50% of all companies, interested in mechanical engineers, are in the High Tech sector, concludes that mechanical engineers are a great part of future technology. As a mechanical engineering student you should visit these events, as it will help you to shape your future. The Career Expo still is one of the best opportunities for a mechanical engineer to take a look at the available companies in your area of expertise.

The setup As mentioned, the companies were separated in six different sectors: • High Tech • Consulting and Engineering Agencies • Transportation and Infrastructure • Information Technology; • Industrial and Chemicals; • Other

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Sterrenhoekjes Geniet mee van deze volkomen uit hun verband gerukte uitspraken, verpraatsels en vertypsels. Mocht je er nog meer horen: aarzel niet en stuur de uitspraak en context op naar sterrenhoek@simonstevin.tue.nl!

Fercan: “ Een swapfiets is slecht voor de vrouw; als er iedere keer iemand je fiets komt vervangen, leert een vrouw nooit een fiets maken.”

Sylvia over sinaasappels: “Ik vind oranje gewoon niet zo lekker smaken”

Johan: “Vrouwen zijn gewoon non-lineair”

Mirthe tijdens een muziekquiz: “Ik ken alle nummers maar alleen de artiest en titel niet.”

Esther: “Ik vind microsystems wel cool, maar ze zijn allemaal zo klein”

Roelof: “Ik kan best wel sympathie voor een zwerver hebben, als tie een goed verhaal heeft.”

Olaf die de Simonkamer binnenloopt: “Het aantal vrouwen hier is statistisch onverantwoord”

Danique: “Simon is geweldig, daarom ben ik ook Simon gaan studeren.”

Steef: “Brugpiepers? Je bedoelt brugsjaarzen! Max: “Dat klinkt als civil engineering.”

Sylvia over strandzeilen: “Ik wil wel gewoon één keer in zo’n auto....”

Noah: “Er moet vanalles geregeld worden, maar ik kan helemaal niet regelen...”

De Voorzitter tijdens de ALV: “Ik vind de Penningmeester een beetje schraal vandaag.”

Contest This is already the final contest before the holidays! To make sure you can get your well deserved rest and enjoy some music during the summer, you can win a deluxe record player. The Denon DP200USB can not only play your favorite music flawless, but can also convert your record album to mp3 files!

Many students and even teachers submitted their answer to get a chance at the prize. Unfortunately for many, only one can win the brand new airfryer. The table shows a pattern consisting of almost all numbers from 1 to 9. These numbers are all mirrored as you can see, but only number 8 is missing. You can see the result next to original picture.

Out of all the submissions only one can win and go home with the price. The winner of this indispensible piece of cookware is Sjors van Adrichem! He can pick up his prize in the Simonkamer.

Contest 49.4

Answer 49.3 In the previous edition, we had a contest where the Chairman had to find a solution for the empty space, which is shown in the first of the two tables below.

The Commissioner of Land Yachting notices a problem when he arrives on the beach. Two professional land yachters are racing over the beach with a whopping 61 km/h and 19,57 m/s respectively.

The first yachter drives to France to buy a baguette for €0,61. The other drives to the exact opposite direction to buy a mitraillette for €6,10 in Brugge. They pass each other where the Commissioner of Land Yachting is standing. Both land yachts are exactly 6,1 meters long. What is the minimal time the Commissioner of Land yachting has to wait before he can cross the beach?

Solution 49.3 Submit your answer in the Simonkamer (Gem-N 1.61) or send an e-mail to redactie@simonstevin.tue.nl with your name and the solution. The prize will be raffled from the correct submissions and we’ll publish the winner in the next Simon Ster.

Make sure to send in your answer before the 30th of June! powered by:

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Simon Ster 49.4 | May 2018