Smart Materials

Smart Materials or we can say "Intelligent" material is capable of spontaneously changing its physical properties (notably its shape, chemical, structural, viscosity etc..) in response to natural or provoked excitation. These can come from outside or inside the smart materials: temperature variations, mechanical constraints, electric, light response, piezoelectric or magnetic fields. This generation smart pigments and dyes is opposed to conventional materials, which are inert by definition, and whose properties always remain the same regardless of the stresses to which the material is subjected. Smart materials able to adapt its response, to signal a modification in the environment and, in some cases, to take corrective action it can behave like a sensor, an actuator or like a processor. 

One of the most important families of smart products is the X-chrome materials. These smart materials have the ability to change color in response of an external excitation: temperature, light, pressure, humidity, etc. The color of these materials becomes "adaptive/interactive" with reversible, irreversible or memory effect properties. It is thus possible to detect by a simple change of color structural weaknesses in the coating, a temperature threshold exceeded to signal the risk of burning. 

Application of Smart Material 

Intelligent materials are growing, as is the field of applications in industry, housing, medicine, biology and leisure. This is a real revolution on the scale of materials that will rapidly change our daily lives. Some smart materials are, for example, sensitive to glucose for controlled release of insulin, or in response to an electric or magnetic fields for drug delivery. In the field of construction and energy improvement, some ionic polymers allow access to intelligent glazing. A smart glass is able to become opaque or transparent in a few seconds for better light management in a building. 

Engine / Gearbox

The engine and transmission of a modern Formula One car are some of the most highly stressed pieces of machinery on the planet, and the competition to have the most power on the grid is still intense.

Traditionally, the development of racing engines has always held to the dictum of the great automotive engineer Ferdinand Porsche that the perfect race car crosses the finish line in first place and then falls to pieces. Although this is no longer strictly true - regulations now require engines to last more than one race weekend - designing modern Formula One engines remains a balancing act between the power that can be extracted and the need for just enough durability.

Engine power outputs in Formula One racing are also a fascinating insight into how far the sport has moved on. In the 1950s Formula One cars were managing specific power outputs of around 100 bhp / litre (about what a modern 'performance' road car can manage now). That figure rose steadily until the arrival of the 'turbo age' of 1.5 litre turbo engines, some of which were producing anything up to 750 bhp / litre. Then, once the sport returned to normal aspiration in 1989 that figure fell back, before steadily rising again. The 'power battle' of the last few years saw outputs creep back towards the 1000 bhp barrier, some teams producing more than 300 bhp / litre in 2005, the final year of 3 litre V10 engines. Since 2006, the regulations have required the use of 2.4 litre V8 engines, with power outputs falling around 20 percent.

Revving to 19,000 RPM, a modern Formula One engine will consume a phenomenal 650 litres of air every second, with race fuel consumption typically around the 75 l/100 km (4 mpg) mark. Revving at such massive speeds equates to an accelerative force on the pistons of nearly 9000 times gravity. Unsurprisingly, engine-related failures remain one of the most common causes of retirements in races.

Modern Formula One engines owe little except their fundamental design of cylinders, pistons and valves to road-car engines. The engine is a stressed component within the car, bolting to the carbon fibre 'tub' and having the transmission and rear suspension bolted to it in turn. Therefore it has to be enormously strong. A conflicting demand is that it should be light, compact and with its mass in as low a position as possible, to help reduce the car's centre of gravity and to enable the height of rear bodywork to be minimised.

The gearboxes of modern Formula One cars are now highly automated with drivers selecting gears via paddles fitted behind the steering wheel. The 'sequential' gearboxes used are very similar in principle to those of motorbikes, allowing gear changes to be made far faster than with the traditional ‘H’ gate selector, with the gearbox selectors operated electrically. Despite such high levels of technology, fully automatic transmission systems, and gearbox-related wizardry such as launch control, are illegal - a measure designed to keep costs down and place more emphasis on driver skill. Transmissions - most teams run seven-speed units - bolt directly to the back of the engine.

Mindful of the massive cost of these ultra high-tech powertrains, the FIA introduced new regulations in 2005 limiting each car to one engine per two Grand Prix weekends, with ten-place grid penalties for those breaking the rule. From 2008, a similar policy was applied to gearboxes, each having to last four race weekends. On top of these measures, a freeze on engine development imposed at the end of the 2006 season means teams are unable to alter the fundamentals of their engines’ design until at least 2010.

A Combined Upper Bound and Fnite Element Model for Prediction of Velocity and Temperature Fields During Hot Rolling Process

Controlling strain distribution during rolling of metals is a significant task in designing a proper rolling layout. There are several models and approaches for prediction of strain, strain rate and temperature distributions during and after rolling operations. For instance, plane strain rolling process has been considered by Takuda et al. They have used an upper bound method to calculate roll force and required energy for cold rolling of metals under plane strain conditions. In another work, an upper bound method employing a spherical velocity field has been proposed to analyze hot rolling of austenitic steel sheets. Marques and Martins have used a dual stream function coupled with an upper bound model to determine required energy in three-dimensional rolling operations. Chung et al. have predicted velocity field during steady-state hot deformation operations including hot strip rolling of metals, by combining of stream-line coordinates and a two-dimensional finite difference method. Chen et al. have calculated temperature and strain fields by a coupled finite element method (FEM) and FDM codes. Nepershin has modeled metal flow in plane-strain rolling process assuming fully sticking friction conditions. A combined finite element-boundary element approach has been used to analyze the cold plane strain rolling process . the FEM has been used to determine the velocity field within the metal being deformed while the boundary element method has been employed for the determination of work-roll deformation. Bar rolling operations have been investigated using a steady-state rigid–viscoplastic finite element approach by Kim et al. There are also other published researches concerning mathematical modelling of cold or hot rolling of metals, while numerical techniques particularly the finite element analysis have been utilized for determining the deformation behavior in rolling metal . Although several published researches on the modelling of rolling can be found in the literature; however, because of the complex geometry of the deformation zone and the nonlinear behavior of metal particularly during hot rolling, more accurate models with relatively shorter run-time duration is still necessary in order to analyze the process during on-line rolling practice. a new approach is developed to propose an admissible velocity field in hot strip rolling process. This approach is based on the principle of volume constancy and a combination of upper bound method and the finite element analysis. A velocity field is first proposed, utilizing the principle of volume constancy, and then the velocity field is modified using the upper bound theorem. At the same time a thermal-finite element analysis is coupled with the deformation model to predict flow stress of deforming material as a function of temperature as well as to determine temperature distribution within the metal. The main point of the proposed model is its relatively short run-time duration in comparison with that inregular fully finite element codes.

Nanotechnology applications in future medicine

First let me explain what is nanotechnology is, It is a technology which deals with matter in atomic scale and are capable of creating small machines which can work in molecular level ( nanobots are not yet created ) and a nanometer is a unit of spatial measurement that is 10^-9 meter, or one billionth of a meter. It is commonly used in nanotechnology. Now It is computer / IT revolution an it had itz fair contribution in the field of Medical research but In coming decades we will see revolution in nanotechnology, quantum physics, human genome research and stem cell research, we will see things which we have never ever imagined before, and nanotechnology will be playing its big part in this never ever imagined health and Medical science revolution.

Regenerating Tissues with the help of nanobots

Americans are spending a lot for anti ageing medicines, in coming years nanotechnology will be assisting the new anti ageing drive . What i can feel is nanotechnology can create nanobots that can be injected into our body and these nanobots will be capable of repairing damaged and old tissues. Well it sounds bit weird ! dont worry we all will get used to it if after few decades !

Nanobots assigned with Mission

Nanometres can send deep inside our body to seek and destroy infected tissue parts and blocked arteries and seek and destroy and eliminate deadly HIV viruses from human body.

Nanotechnology for super human powers !

Imagine a human being who can run 100 miles without getting tired , a man/ woman powerful enough to run as fast as 90 miles per second !These things are can be possible with nanotechnology, nanobots fused with quantum computers will be intelligent enough to alter chemicals in our body which can manipulate our functions to convert ourself into powerful human !

Some conservative people may object these nano ideas but later they will get used to it, during earlier days conservatives objected discoveries made by scientists like Copernicans etc.

These days lot of scientific research are undergoing in universities around the world and every month we are reading about new nano discoveries

Nano tech aid for repairing nurons

New research in nano medicine is moving close towards offering scientists a new way for treating and curing neuro degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease.

Research team of University of Arkansas used magnetic nano tubes on nerves and nurons.Due to their structure and properties, magnetic nano tubes are among the most promising candidates of multifunctional nano materials for clinical diagnostic and therapeutic applications.

Research team worked on rats found that they were able to trigger cells called PC12 cells to differentiate into neurons by using nerve growth factor-incorporated magnetic nano tubes. They say that the findings suggest that magnetic nano tubes can be used to deliver nerve growth factor in order restore or repair damaged nerve cells.

Blood steam a natural highway for nanobots

Human body is having a network of blood streams that connects every part of our body (capillaries and arteries) this is a potential pathway for nanobots that can swim through human body to other for completing their assigned mission.

Wifi Guided nanobots

Wireless technology can be used for guiding nanobots through human body and to monitor their works. one thing scientists have to make sure before making such a system is to take care of the radiation aspects of wireless technology, it have to be safe for our human body.

Magnetic Fields for mobilizing nanobots

Magnetic fields can be used to navigate nanobots from one part of body to another; the risk factor is less compared to wireless radiations.

How can nanobots move?

Nanobots can also be called as nano doctors who can get into human body and fix the faults but the question that we are facing is how can we send intelligent nanobot into human system?

Making biologically friendly nanobots (that won’t cause danger to our human body) is an important for creating medical nanobots for health care use and other task is to mobilize them towards every corner or our body.
Scientist’s are working hard on this dream project