Dams are critical pieces of infrastructure, but, as Grady shows in this Practical Engineering video, they are destined to be temporary. The reason is that they naturally fill with sediment Keep reading
Tag: engineering
Derecho-Induced Skyscraper Damage
Derechos are short-lived, intense wind storms sometimes associated with thunderstorms. Last spring, such a storm passed through Houston, leaving downtown skyscrapers with more damage than a hurricane with comparable wind Keep reading
Dutch Water Works
The Netherlands have a long history of extraordinary public works when it comes to water management. With much of the country’s land lying at or below sea level, massive civil Keep reading
How Cooling Towers Work
Power plants (and other industrial settings) often need to cool water to control plant temperatures. This usually requires cooling towers like the iconic curved towers seen at nuclear power plants. Keep reading
Engineering Our Landfills
We create a lot of waste and, at least for now, much of that waste goes into landfills. Properly managing garbage requires much more than digging a hole in the Keep reading
Breaking Down a Water-Powered Timer
In his latest “cutaway” video, Steve Mould takes a look at how you can nest siphons to create a system that periodically flushes itself. This kind of water-powered timer is Keep reading
Saving Screens with Shear-Thinning Fluids
These days glass screens travel with us everywhere, and they can take some big hits on the way. Manufacturers have made tougher glass, but they continue to look for ways Keep reading
Liquid Metal Printing
Engineers have developed a new 3D-printing technique that uses molten aluminum to quickly manufacture large-scale parts. This Liquid Metal Printing method deposits the metal into a bed of tiny glass Keep reading
Capturing the Tides
Twice a day the tides rise and fall along coastlines. Increasingly, engineers are trying to harness these regular currents for clean energy. Tidal turbines spin during the fastest flows, turning Keep reading
Mitigating Urban Floods
For densely-populated urban areas, floods are one of the most damaging and expensive natural disasters. We can’t control the amount of rain that falls, so engineers need other ways to Keep reading