Month: February 2016

Internationally Recognized Dutch Designs
Aviation, Specials, Student projects

Internationally Recognized Dutch Designs

Students from the Faculty of Aerospace Engineering, Delft, Netherlands have been actively competing in prestigious International design competitions that are organised by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA). This year, two teams, one undergraduate and the other graduate, both achieved second places in the competitions. Dutch Designs can be typically characterized as minimalist, experimental and innovative. Not only do these traits apply to chairs and buildings designed by famous Dutch engineers, they also extend to aircraft designs created by students of the Aerospace faculty. Every year AIAA organizes aircraft design competitions in three different categories: undergraduate, undergraduate individual, and graduate. Students are asked to submit a proposal for a n...
CFD in the Nuclear Industry
Aerodynamics and wind energy, Aviation

CFD in the Nuclear Industry

Bechtel is a large construction company working on one of the largest environmental cleanup projects in history. As an intern, the task at hand was to help ascertain the reliability of a pulsejet mixing system that is used to mix various compositions of nuclear and chemical waste byproducts from Cold War era plutonium enrichment processes. Bechtel as a company works on some of the largest engineering projects in the world, having worked on the Hoover Dam, the Euro tunnel, and the Bay Area Rapid Transit system in San Francisco, it currently employs approximately 50,000 people worldwide. Within the company, a small band of engineers known as the Advanced Simulation and Analysis (ASA) group, operates. One of the projects on which Bechtel and the ASA group are currently working is known as...
1957: Sputnik and the Space Race
Space flight, Specials, Time Flies

1957: Sputnik and the Space Race

October 4, 1957, the first man-made Earth satellite sends a steady beeping signal on radio for everyone to hear. While its creator Sergei Korolev, his team and the whole Soviet Union celebrate this success, the people of the western world are stunned and terrified. With the technology to deliver satellites into space, the Soviet Union had an advantage over the United States. Although it looked like they had won, the race was not over yet. This battle of technology soon became a battle of ideology and a fight for prestige. Nonetheless without the Space Race, many technologies would not have been developed. First article of the series where we take a look back at the famed 'Space Race'. ROCKETS? Rocket technology is older than one would think. Already around 300B.C, Chinese used...