Common Sense 101 - Engineering - December 16, 2012 Edition

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Common Sense 101: Engineering And now for something completely different: “The Judgement of Paris”—classical story illustrated by the Austrian painter, graphic artist, designer, and musical composer Erhard Amadeus-Dier (1893-1969). The gals are the goddesses Hera, Athena and Aphrodite, and the guy with the erection, checking them out, is Paris: son of Priam, king of Troy—the chap who abducted Helen. The guy" " " " " " looking on is Hermes, who brought the girls there. Page 18
T 9. The Pyramids here’s an Arabic saying that goes something like this: “All fear Time, but Time fears the Pyramids.” This is how it should be—and not just for the Pyramids, but for everything we build. Why should things deteriorate just because Time passes by? Admittedly it makes some sense to think of parts that rub together, like brake pads, wearing out. Friction can certainly wear things down. Sometimes. But why should things that simply exist be worn out? It’s bad enough that we have to die. Why, however, should our creations? There’s absolutely no reason for things to deteriorate just due to time passing by—not in this day and age, when even plastic bags last forever in the landfill, with worms and chemicals gnawing away at them day and night. F’rinstance, why are vehicles made mostly out of steel, which rusts just as a result of sitting around? And rusts even more when it’s exposed to water and salt. Why can’t the steel be replaced by something that won’t rust, like stainless steel or aluminium, or even plastic? Even kitchen sinks are made of stainless steel, for crying in a (plastic) bucket. Why can’t vehicles be made of the same sort of stuff? Maybe it would cost more to use stainless steel, but exactly how much more is the question. Grade 304 North American stainless steel costs these days (December 2011) between $2,000 and $3,000 per tonne, and aluminium costs around the same—while ordinary steel costs between $450 and $900 per tonne. But in the average car, which weighs about a tonne and a half, there’s only about a tonne of steel to begin with; the rest of the car is made of other things. So even if all of the steel were replaced with stainless steel or aluminium, the entire car might cost only $1,500 to $3,000 more. In a car selling for over $30 grand, that’s really not a lot—especially given that it would increase the life of the car from ten years to twenty! Better still, let’s use carbon fibre. It’s one-fifth the weight of steel and would accomplish the same purpose, and do it better—so even if it costs five times as much as steel, pound for pound, it would be worth it. Besides, a lighter vehicle is more fuel-efficient: a mere 10% reduction in weight results in a 6% to 7% increase in fuel economy, so imagine what a 30% to 40% reduction in weight could do to drive down the cost of owning a vehicle. The total cost of owning a vehicle over its lifetime is in large part the cost of the fuel needed to drive it: a car giving 33 mpg driven for 200,000 miles over a ten-year period—which is reasonable—with gasoline costing $3.50 (US) per gallon would cost, over its lifetime, $21,212 in fuel alone. If the fuel consumption were to be reduced to 40 mpg (that’s, like, a 12% increase in fuel economy), it would result in total ten-year fuel cost of $17,500, which means a saving of over $3-and-a-half grand—and that’s assuming fuel prices stay the same over the same ten-year period, which is highly unlikely. (And that’s what would be the savings in the US, which has some of the lowest gas prices in the world; the savings elsewhere in the world would be much more dramatic). Even in the US, $3-and-a-half grand would go far towards paying for the replacement of the major portion of the car’s steel with carbon fibre—maybe even all of it. Not to mention that a car made largely out of carbon fibre would last a lot longer than ten years, because it wouldn’t rust out; and the longer it lasts, the greater the savings. The same economic argument would work for civil engineering projects also. The Akashi Kaikyō Bridge in Japan—the longest suspension bridge in the world today—cost the equivalent of $4.3 billion to build (and that was in the late ’nineties; if built today it would cost much more). It weighs around 120,000 tonnes, most of which is steel. Even at today’s steel prices, the cost of that steel would only be between $50 million and $100 million (and when it was actually built, steel was much cheaper than it is today). In other words, the actual cost of the steel in the bridge could have been as low as one-eightieth of the total cost of the bridge! That, not to put too fine a point on it, is next to nothing. Let me repeat it: next … to … nothing. If all the steel had been replaced with carbon fibre, it might have made the bridge three or four times lighter than it is— and due to the weight savings it would have needed far less carbon fibre to begin with, which means it might actually have been even lighter, and so even cheaper, since much less material would have been needed to begin with, then transported to site (reducing the transportation costs), and then manoeuvred into place (thus reducing the manufacturing costs). Not to mention that it would never had needed painting and re-painting (carbon fibre looks great naked). Or for the same overall cost they might have been able to make it much wider than it is, and thereby allowed it to transport many more vehicles per day—and Page 19
Page 1: Common Sense 101: Engineering Laser
Page 5 and 6: Common Sense 101: Engineering by La
Page 7 and 8: T Dedication his book is dedicated
Page 9 and 10: T The No-Small-Print Warranty he pr
Page 11 and 12: I Introduction am not an engineer.
Page 13 and 14: 25. Everything should be easy to ge
Page 15 and 16: E 1. Good Intentions verything shou
Page 17 and 18: Good Intentions The boom problem co
Page 19 and 20: T 2. Oh, the Humanity! here’s a d
Page 21 and 22: M 3. Come Together, Right Now ost t
Page 23 and 24: A 4. Do it Yourself nd when I say
Page 25 and 26: T 5. Get Lost here’s also another
Page 27 and 28: T 6. I Like to Move it, Move it ake
Page 29 and 30: O 7. You C A N Take it With You f c
Page 31: T 8. Cleanliness is Next to Godline
Page 35 and 36: I 10. Heirlooms n the old days, peo
Page 37 and 38: 11. Put Your Money Where Your Mouth
Page 39 and 40: I 12. Maintenance t’s simply not
Page 41 and 42: T 13. Coolth he word “warmth” i
Page 43 and 44: D 14. Quark o you remember Quark? I
Page 45 and 46: A 15. What’s in a Name? ctually,
Page 47 and 48: I 16. Something Old, Something New
Page 49 and 50: I 17. The Eliminator kea has a phil
Page 51 and 52: A 18. The Sum of its Parts pparentl
Page 53 and 54: I 19. Don’t be Shy t’s no use h
Page 55 and 56: B 20. K.I.S.S. y K.I.S.S. I mean—
Page 57 and 58: I 21. Deliver Us t bears repeating,
Page 59 and 60: I 22. Easy, Pal! t all started in t
Page 61 and 62: A 23. Play it Again, Sam few years
Page 63 and 64: O 24. Upgradability ne problem Stra
Page 65 and 66: W 25. The Numbers Game hen you firs
Page 67 and 68: M 26. Recycling aybe some day whate
Page 69 and 70: E 27. Cool it, Man! verything shoul
Page 71 and 72: O 28. The Dark Side ne of the worst
Page 73 and 74: W 29. Finders Keepers, Losers Weepe
Page 75 and 76: J 30. It’s a Steal ust about ever
Page 77 and 78: O 31. Check this out! nce upon a ti
Page 79 and 80: Y 32. Autopilot ou know that airlin
Page 81 and 82: W 33. It’s Standard hen you go to
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W 34. Waterproof hat could be so ha
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W 35. The Rotary Club e often derid
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C 36. Friction ontrary to what most
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O 37. Wireless f course we all get
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O 38. Swiss Army Knife nce upon a t
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W 39. Ouch! hat’s up with manufac
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T 40. Square Peg in Round Hole here
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D 41. Paint Job id you know that a
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W 42. Break Down hy do so many thin
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O 43. Deterioration ne of the worst
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T 44. Corrosion here are corrosive
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O 45. Rock and Roll ne of the worst
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T 46. R.T.F.M. hat stands, as you s
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W 47. Pinch Me hen I was a very you
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I 48. Shocking am a fairly good han
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R 49. Leaks emember the Exxon Valde
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B 50. The Future is Where You’ll
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The Future is Where You’ll be Spe
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Write or draw something. Be an arti
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T About the Author he author is a n
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Common Sense 101 - Engineering - December 16, 2012 Edition

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