Engineering programme structure requirements for Bologna compliance

In 1999 twenty nine European countries have signed the Bologna Declaration to establish a common European higher education system as for the year 2010. Engineering Ireland has decided that the education standard for the title of CEng and MIEI should be raised to Master Degree in engineering accredited by Engineers Ireland with effect from programmes completed in 2013”. This paper focuses on engineering programme structure in our school. Further discussions will be carried out to present the current engineering programmes in our school and the future vision to compliance with Bologna treaty

Design of experiment study of the parameters that affect performance of three flow plate configurations of a proton exchange membrane fuel cell

Low temperature hydrogen fuel cells are electrochemical devices which offer a promising alternative to traditional power sources. Fuel cells produce electricity with a reaction of the fuel (hydrogen) and air. Fuel cells have the advantage of being clean; only producing water and heat as by products. The efficiency of a fuel cell varies depending on the type; SOFC with CHP for example, can have a system efficiency of up to 65%. What the Authors present here is a comparison between three different configurations of flow plates of a proton exchange membrane fuel cell, the manufacturer’s serpentine flow plate and two new configurations; the maze flow plate and the parallel flow plate. A study of the input parameters affecting output responses of voltage, current, power and efficiency of a fuel cell is performed through experimentation. The results were taken from direct readings of the fuel cell and from polarisation curves produced. This information was then analysed through a design of experiment to investigate the effects of the changing parameters on different configurations of the fuel cell’s flow plates. The results indicate that, in relation to current and voltage response of the polarisation curve and the corresponding graphs produced from the DOE, the serpentine flow plate design is a much more effective design than the maze or parallel flow plate design. It was noted that the parallel flow plate performed reasonably well at higher pressures but over all statically the serpentine flow plate performed better

Residual stresses and heat treatments for metallic welded components

This investigation was carried out with the aim of studying the effect of Post Weld Heat Treatment (PWHT) on the microstructure and the mechanical properties of different types of metallic components. The objective was to reduce or eliminate the residual stress in these components without compromising the strength. Two types of welded materials, AISI-410 and AISI-1020 were fully investigated. In order to optimize the heat treatment conditions, different PWHTs were applied by varying the soaking temperature, heating rate, soaking time duration and cooling rate. To assess the effect of these different heat treatment schemes on the mechanical properties, micro-hardness, tensile strength and notched impact tests have been employed on these welded joints. Metallurgical testing has also been carried out to assess the change in the metal microstructure before and after the heat treatments. A hole drilling method has been used to estimate the magnitude and distribution of residual stresses before and after applying these different kinds of heat treatments. Finite element method has also been used to study the effect of residual stresses on these welded components. To carry out this work a finite element program LUSAS was employed with the objective of studying the effect of the length and width of the welding on the mechanical properties. The results show that there is a substantial reduction in the residual stresses with a good improvement in the mechanical properties for certain schemes of PWHTs

Optimising the laser-welded butt-joints of medium carbon steel using RSM

The optimization capabilities in design-expert software were used to optimise the keyhole parameters (i.e. maximize penetration (P) and minimise the heat input, width of welded zone, (W) and width of heat affected zone (WHAZ)) in CW CO2 laser butt-welding of medium carbon steel. The previous developed mathematical models to predict the keyhole parameters in terms of the process factors namely; laser power (LP), welding speed (S) and focused position (F) were used to optimize the welding process. The goal was to set the process factors at optimum values to reach the desirable weld bead quality and to increase the production rate. Numerical and graphical optimization techniques were used. In fact, two optimization criteria were taken into account. In this investigation optimal solutions were found that would improve the weld quality, increase the productivity and minimize the total operation cost. In addition to that, superimposing the contours for the various response surfaces produced overlay plots

Multi-response optimization of CO2 laser welding process of austenitic stainless steel

Recently, laser welding of austenitic stainless steel has received great attention in industry, due to its wide spread application in petroleum refinement stations, power plant, pharmaceutical industry and households. Therefore, mechanical properties should be controlled to obtain good welded joints. The welding process should be optimized by the proper mathematical models. In this research, the tensile strength and impact strength along with the joint operating cost of laser welded butt joints made of AISI304 was investigated. Design-expert software was used to establish the design matrix and to analyze the experimental data. The relationships between the laser welding parameters (laser power, welding speed and focal point position) and the three responses (tensile strength, impact strength and joint operating cost) were established. Also, the optimization capabilities in design-expert software were used to optimise the welding process. The developed mathematical models were tested for adequacy using analysis of variance and other adequacy measures. In this investigation the optimal welding conditions were identified in order to increase the productivity and minimize the total operating cost. Overlay graphs were plotted by superimposing the contours for the various response surfaces. The process parameters effect was determined and the optimal welding combinations were tabulated

Bologna Treaty from the view of students and graduates

The main aim of the Bologna Process is to create a common and comparable system of academic standards and quality within Europe. Twenty-nine countries agreed to sign the declaration in 1999 and that number has since increased to forty-six [1, 2]. Attempts have been made by Engineers Ireland to help this process come into affect by the decision to raise minimum requirement of new ordinary members to Masters Degree in Engineering accredited by Engineers Ireland after 2013. In this paper, one of the engineering programmes is covered in detail (Manufacturing Engineering with Business Studies). Also, a survey expressing a number of student’s opinions as well as obstacles for the Bologna process based on the survey results are presented

Design and application of magnetostrictive materials

Magnetostriction is the change in shape of materials under the influence of an external magnetic field. The cause of magnetostriction change in length is the result of the rotation of small magnetic domains. This rotation and re-orientation causes internal strains in the material structure. The strains in the structure lead to the stretching (in the case of positive magnetostriction) of the material in the direction of the magnetic field. During this stretching process the cross-section is reduced in a way that the volume is kept nearly constant. The size of the volume change is so small that it can be neglected under normal operating conditions. Applying a stronger field leads to stronger and more definite re-orientation of more and more domains in the direction of magnetic field. When all the magnetic domains have become aligned with the magnetic field the saturation point has been achieved. This paper presents the state of the art of the magnetostrictive materials and their applications such as: Reaction Mass Actuator, A standard Terfenol-D Actuator, Linear Motor Based on Terfenol-D (Worm Motor), Terfenol-D in Sonar Transducers, Terfenol-D Wireless Rotational Motor, Terfenol-D Electro-Hydraulic Actuator, Wireless Linear Micro-Motor, Magnetostrictive Film Applications, Magnetostrictive Contactless Torque Sensors and many other applications. The study shows that excellent features can be obtained by Magnetostrictive materials for many advanced applications

Representative model and flow characteristics of open pore cellular foam and potential use in proton exchange membrane fuel cells

This study develops a Representative Unit Cell Structure (RUCS) model for Open Pore Cellular Foam (OPCF) material, based on a dodecahedron cell. Pressure, velocity and flow regime analysis is performed on simulation results of six different OPCFs, (10, 20, 30, 40, 45, 80 and 100ppi), at five different inlet velocities (1m/s, 3m/s, 6m/s, 9m/s & 12m/s). Pressure drop results were verified by numerical models (Dupuit-Forchheimer, Ashby and Fourie and Du Plessis mathematical models) and experimental results from literature. From this study OPCF material can have benefits if used in a PEM fuel cell; in place of or in conjunction with conventional flow plates. It is concluded that OPCF materials can reduce the permeability of the gas flow through a flow plate, creating a more tortuous path for the fluid, allowing for diffusion plus convection based flow, unlike conventional flow plates

Design of experiment (DOE) analysis of 5-cell stack fuel cell using three bipolar plate geometry designs

The investigation conducted is aimed at establishing the best operational conditions to obtain the best output of a 5-cell stack Proton Exchange Membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) with three different bipolar plate geometries. The work further explores the best input parameters that will yield the maximum voltage, current power as well as fuel efficiency from each of the three designs under investigation. A polarization curve was generated for each of the three designs and a surface response plot developed for each experiment. The work concluded that the spiral design performed very well compared to the other designs under investigation and even existing on the fuel cell market