The Dutch have been exceptional water engineers for centuries, a necessity in a country where more than a quarter of its territory lies below sea level. After a devastating flood Keep reading
Tag: engineering
How Canal Locks Work
For thousands of years, boats have been a critical component of trade, efficiently enabling transport of goods over large distances. But water’s self-leveling creates challenges when moving up and downstream Keep reading
The Engineering of Culverts
Manmade infrastructure often interferes with natural waterways, which is one reason civil engineers turn to culverts, those pipes and concrete tunnels you often see beneath roadways. As simple as they Keep reading
#ShutDownSTEM in Support of Black Academics
Academia, like every part of our society, has a race problem. Today, I’m joining in the effort to change that by taking a break from business as usual and examining Keep reading
Michigan Dam Failure
Last week Michigan’s Edenville Dam failed, triggering catastrophic flooding. While the exact causes of dam’s failure are not yet clear, this video of the collapse provides some interesting hints. As Keep reading
Updating Undergraduate Heat Transfer
For many engineering students, their first exposure to fluid dynamics comes in a heat transfer class. The typical focus in these classes is not on the underlying physics but on Keep reading
Fractal Flame Propagation
Hydrogen is a promising alternative to carbon-based fuels, but it comes with its own special challenges. Hydrogen gas is extremely flammable, including under circumstances that would normally quench flames, as Keep reading
Building Ferrofluid Sculptures
Eric Mesplé is an artist, but he’s also a blacksmith, welder, programmer, engineer, and innovator. Many of his sculptures feature ferrofluids, magnetic liquid whose movement is driven by electromagnets Mesplé Keep reading
Holding Pipes in Place
Newton’s 3rd law states that any action has an equal and opposite reaction. Often engineers use this to our advantage; the thrust from expelling propellants is what lifts our rockets Keep reading
Creating Biofuel
One production technique for biofuel converts agricultural waste through pyrolysis. These systems heat biomass particles in a mixture of sand and nitrogen gas until the biomass particles release tar and syngas, a Keep reading