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Research WSU Unveils 3D-4U Technology at Martin Stadium By Bill Stevens, WSU Athletics When the Washington State University football team opened its 2012 home season in a renovated Martin Stadium this fall, the new facility provided not only the latest in stadium amenities, but a groundbreaking technology to enhance viewer enjoyment in the stadium’s 26 suites. 3D-4U has launched a revolutionary new era for user interactivity in viewing sporting events. Created by a team of world-renowned WSU virtual reality experts, 3D-4U’s proprietary systems simultaneously capture multiple live 180- to 360-degree fields of view and enable each viewer to determine a personalized focus in real time or as a replay. Personal 360 view and replay “We are delighted to launch this futuristic product through Cougar Football,” said Sankar “Jay” Jayaram, founding partner of 3D-4U Inc., a 20-year Cougar Football fan, and professor in the School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering. “Our goal is to empower sports fans to move from passive viewing to a personalized and interactive media experience.” This revolutionary technology provides unique access to users in each of the Martin Stadium suites to navigate their own replays, to watch any particular player of interest, either live or during playback, and to pan, zoom, and tilt their view to match their particular interests. Guests in each suite have access to four unique 3D-4U camera feeds which they can control as well as switch between, doing so live as well as through playback of any of the four camera perspectives. “The 3D-4U technology is a tremendous addition for our suite patrons at Martin Stadium,” said WSU Senior Associate Athletic Director John Johnson. “It provides a unique experience and engages fans on a level beyond the average spectator.” ❚ Researcher Works to Develop Flying Boat Technology Researchers have been developing ultrafast boats that can literally fly over flat surfaces, like water or snow, exceeding speeds of 100 mph while transporting significant amounts of cargo more efficiently and with less environmental impact. A group of Washington State University researchers led by Konstantin Matveev, associate professor in the School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, has modeled the behavior of such a boat as it moves up and down over a water surface. His work, published in the Journal of Fluids and Structures, will help researchers someday make the flying ships a reality. The novel marine craft, called a Power Augmented Ram Vehicle (PARV), flies close to the surface, trapping air that lies underneath the boat and above the water surface. The stagnated air results in higher pressure on the lower side of the wing, creating more lift and less drag. That, in turn, makes the vehicle more efficient than a high-flying airplane or a high-speed ocean-going ship. The amphibious vehicles could serve in rescue operations or for military transport, carrying heavy payloads like trucks, tanks, or heavy construction equipment at speeds above100 mph both on the ocean and on flat land surfaces. Matveev has developed small, remote controlled models that he tests in Martin Stadium in Pullman or on the Snake River. The flying ships are different from hydrofoils in that hydrofoils have “wings” under the water with struts to support the boat, which is above the surface. The hydrofoil design limits their speeds to a physical limit of about 60 mph. While PARV models have been built, the biggest concern with them is safety, says Matveev. Flying just ten feet off the surface at a high speed means that the pilots literally don’t have room for error. Researchers and engineers need to develop better control systems and regulation mechanisms to assure safety. In his paper, Matveev’s group developed methods to calculate dynamics of the ships so they can be designed and built with confidence. In particular, the researchers modeled such a boat as it oscillates over the water surface. The researchers hope that their modeling will help address the critical challenge of flying the vehicles over waves. “If the idea was proven and was adopted wide scale, it would be a drastic increase in performance and a revolution in near-coast and Arctic transportation,” he says. The idea requires simple technology—no exotic machines or technology. The complications come from the geometry and the physics of flow, he added. For ocean-going ships, the idea is further complicated because of large waves that such a ship would encounter. “The idea is straightforward. The implementation is difficult,” he says. Matveev is funded by a three-year, $258,000 National Science Foundation grant. Eventually, he hopes to build manned prototypes of PARV. ❚ 4 School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering | Spring 2013
Research Researchers Aim for Lighter, Stronger Metals for Your Car group of School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering A researchers has received support for an international project to improve lightweight metals for use in the transportation industry. Working with researchers in Qatar and through Texas A&M University, the researchers, including Hussein Zbib and David Field, professors in the WSU School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, have received support from that nation’s national research foundation to better understand and improve the behavior of highstrength steel and magnesium. Leaders in Qatar have invested heavily in recent years in research and education. Led by Princess Sheikha Mozah, Qatar established an Education City to promote research and education, which includes several U.S. university branch campuses. Invited to submit a proposal by WSU alumnus Eyad Masad (’95 MS, ’98 PhD Civil Engineering), Zbib has been working with Qatarbased, Texas A&M University researchers. Their first project involved improving magnesium alloys for automotive applications. Magnesium is very lightweight, strong, and less dense than other metals, such as steel and aluminum. It is also the world’s fourth most abundant element. Magnesium alloys are commonly used in the manufacturing of cell phones, laptops, cameras, and other electronic components. Increasing its use in automotive applications could reduce the weight of cars by as much 37 percent, dramatically increasingly their fuel efficiency, says Zbib. While magnesium is used in some automotive parts, however, it has significant problems with corrosion. It is brittle and can crack easily. The researchers, including Zbib, Field, and doctoral students Hesam Askari and John Young from WSU, and Ghassan Kridli, Georges Ayoub, and Ana Rodriguez from Texas A&M-Qatar, focused on expanding the use of magnesium for eventual use in auto body parts, such as the chassis. By manipulating the microstructure of the material, they worked to increase the ability of the material to be formed into complex shapes. In particular, the researchers looked at the material’s characterization, processing, and forming. “This work will have significant applications in the auto industry in the next decade,” says Zbib. In a separate project, Zbib received support to do research in advanced high strength steel. As a building material, steel’s important properties include its strength and ductility, or how much it can stretch before it breaks. Unfortunately, the two properties work against each other, so that as a steel alloy gets stronger, its Multiscale modeling and simulation of deformation and strength in advanced high strength steel shows how clusters of nano-precipitates interact with dislocations (line defects in the crystallographic structure), resulting in increased strength. ductility decreases. Zbib’s group is increasing both the strength and ductility of steel by manipulating the material’s microstructure through thermo-mechanical processes. Zbib is also using multiscale modeling to better understand the impacts of microstructure changes at the macro-scale, which could lead to better steel design. Engineering increasingly requires understanding of materials from the nano- to macro-scale. Researchers have to be able to look at the atomic level of materials and know how materials behave in a full-scale dam or airplane. With the help of multiscale modeling to predict materials’ behavior, researchers and manufacturers can design a material, rather than using a traditional trial and error approach. “We are working to take our understanding of the mechanical properties at the atomic level to help us understand and design for the macro-scale,” says Zbib. ❚ School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering | Spring 2013 5
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Page 3 and 4: On the Web: www.mme.wsu.edu CONTENT
Page 5: Making Room for More New Equipment
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Page 13 and 14: Club Updates Building a Hydrogen-Po
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