Chapter 1, Problem 1.2A

To determine

a.

The Industrial Revolution changed the whole landscape of the world. How did the engineer fit into this revolution? What were some of the major contributions?

Answer to Problem 1.2A

Industrial Revolution occurred first in Britain, and spread gradually to continental Europe and North America. The Industrial Revolution that transformed the Western world surpassed in magnitude the achievements of Britain, and the process was carried further to change radically the socioeconomic life of Asia, Africa, Latin America, and Australasia.

At the foundation of the growth were engineering innovations − both in the form of radical and continuous improvements. A revolutionary outgrowth was the adoption of an innovation by another industrialist who refined and further transformed or improved it leading into another innovation.

This is described with few examples of the steam engine, electricity and iron and steel.

Explanation of Solution

Given Information:

Major engineering contributions in the Industrial Revolution.

The term Industrial Revolution carries the implication of a once-for-all change from a “preindustrial” to a “postindustrial” society. It should be enlarged in scope to describe an extraordinary quickening in the rate of growth as it spans a 150 year period from 1750. There are still many refinements to these innovations.

It occurred first in Britain, and its affects spread only gradually to continental Europe and North America. The Industrial Revolution that transformed the Western world surpassed in magnitude the achievements of Britain, and the process was carried further to change radically the socioeconomic life of Asia, Africa, Latin America, and Australasia.

At the foundation of the growth was engineering innovations - as radical and as continuous improvements. A revolutionary outgrowth was the adoption of an innovation by another industrialist who transformed it into another revolutionary concept.

An outstanding feature of the Industrial Revolution has been the advance in power technology. Till then, the major sources of power were animate energy and the power of wind and water. Then came the steam engine for pumping purposes in coal mines. The same sort of scientific inquiry that led to the development of the steam engine was also applied to other traditional sources, with the result that both waterwheels and windmills were improved in design and efficiency. Numerous engineers contributed to the refinement of waterwheel construction. By the middle of the 19th century, new designs made possible increases in the speed of revolution of the waterwheel and thus prepared the way for the emergence of the water turbine, which is still an extremely efficient device for converting energy.

Steam became the characteristic and ubiquitous power source of the British Industrial Revolution. James Watt patented the steam engine and also introduced many important refinements - like conversion from a single-acting atmospheric pumping machine into a versatile prime mover that was double-acting and could be applied to rotary motion, thus driving the wheels of industry. The rotary action engine was quickly adopted by British textile manufacturer Sir Richard Arkwright for use in a cotton mill. Many other industries followed in exploring the possibilities of steam power and it soon became widely used.

Once Watt’s patents lapsed more innovations followed - many in other geographies. The American engineer Oliver Evans built the first high-pressure steam engine in the United States and became used widely in contrast to the Watt-type low-pressure engines.

Meanwhile, the stationary steam engine advanced steadily to meet an ever-widening market of industrial requirements. High-pressure steam led to the development of large beam pumping engines with a complex sequence of valve actions. Their distinctive characteristic was the cutoff of steam injection before the stroke was complete in order to allow the steam to do work by expanding. These engines were used all over the world for heavy pumping duties.

Another consequence of high-pressure steam was the practice of compounding, of using the steam twice or more at descending pressures before it was finally condensed or exhausted. The technique was first applied by Arthur Woolf. In 1845, John McNaught introduced an alternative form of compound beam engine with the high-pressure cylinder on the opposite end of the beam from the low-pressure cylinder, and working with a shorter stroke.

The development of electricity as a source of power preceded this conjunction with steam power late in the 19th century. The pioneering work had been done by an international collection of scientists including Michael Faraday of Britain. He demonstrated the relationship between electricity and magnetism in 1831 and catalyzed the creation of the electric motor. Both generators and motors underwent substantial development in the middle decades of the 19th century. In particular, French, German, Belgian, and Swiss engineers evolved the armature (the coil of wire) and produced the dynamo, which made the large-scale generation of electricity commercially feasible.

Successful commercial generation depended upon the development of other uses for electricity, and particularly on electric traction. The popularity of urban electric tramways and the adoption of electric traction on subway systems such as the London Underground thus coincided with the widespread construction of generating equipment in the late 1880s and 1890s.

Another industry that interacted closely with the power revolution was that concerned with metallurgy and the metal trades. The development of techniques for working with iron and steel was one of the outstanding British achievements of the Industrial Revolution. The essential characteristic of this achievement was that changing the fuel of the iron and steel industry from charcoal to coal enormously increased the production of these metals. Refinements led to the development of crucible steel in 1740 and by the puddling and rolling process to produce wrought iron in 1784.

Abundant cheap iron became an outstanding feature of the early stages of the Industrial Revolution in Britain. Cast iron was available for bridge construction, for the framework of fireproof factories, and for other civil-engineering purposes. Wrought iron was available for all manner of mechanical devices requiring strength and precision. Steel was rare until the second half of the 19th century, when the situation was transformed by the Bessemer and Siemens processes for manufacturing steel in bulk.

Conclusion:

The examples describe the revolution brought about by engineering innovations − both in the form of radical and continuous improvements.

To determine

b.

Research and compare the first rotary engine to the rotary engines of today.

Answer to Problem 1.2A

Rotary engine is a type of Internal Combustion engine in which the combustion chambers and cylinders rotate with the driven shaft around a fixed control shaft to which pistons are fixed. The gas pressures of combustion are used to rotate the shaft.

Early rotary engines were used in World War I aircraft. The post World War II period saw the development of a new kind of rotary engine. The Wankel rotary engine is the most fully developed and widely used of the rotary engines.

The Wankel engine is radically different in structure from conventional reciprocating piston engines. Instead of pistons that move up and down in cylinders, the Wankel engine has an equilateral triangular orbiting rotor. The rotor turns in a closed chamber with the three apexes of the rotor in continuous sliding contact with the curved inner surface of the casing.

The Wankel engine was first tested for use in automobiles in 1956. It has since come to be used for such industrial applications as driving air compressors where small, light-weight, high-speed engines with mechanical simplicity are needed.

The major advantages of the Wankel engine are its small space requirements and low weight per horsepower, smooth and vibration-less operation, quiet operation, and low manufacturing costs resulting from mechanical simplicity.

The absence of inertial forces from reciprocating parts and the elimination of spring-closed valves permit operation at much higher speed than is practical for reciprocating piston engines. It is an advantage because shaft speed must be high for optimum performance.

The combination of inefficient combustion, inherent oil burning, and a sealing challenge killed the engine by today’s tight standards on emissions and fuel economy.These have limited the use of the Wankel engine in production vehicles, with only the Mazda Motor Corporation marketing a substantial number.

Explanation of Solution

Given Information:

Rotary engine research.

The Wankel engine is radically different in structure from conventional reciprocating piston engines. Instead of pistons that move up and down in cylinders, the Wankel engine has an equilateral triangular orbiting rotor. The rotor turns in a closed chamber with the three apexes of the rotor in continuous sliding contact with the curved inner surface of the casing.

The rotor forms three crescent-shaped chambers between its sides and the casing. Shallow pockets recessed in the flank of the rotor control the shape of the combustion chambers and establish the compression ratio of the engine.

In turning about its central axis, the rotor follows a circular orbit. There is a central bore in the rotor in which an internal gear is fitted to mesh with a stationary pinion fixed to the center of the casing. Each turn of the rotor completes permits intake, compression, expansion, and exhaust to be accomplished. The only moving parts are the rotor and the output shaft.

The combustion chambers increase and decrease successively in size as the rotor turns. The fuel charge from a carburetor enters the chamber through an intake port, is compressed as the size of the chamber is reduced by the rotation of the rotor, and at the appropriate time is ignited by a spark plug.

The rotor and its gears and bearings are lubricated and cooled by oil circulating through the hollow rotor. Water is circulated through cooling jackets in the casing, the entrance to which is located adjacent to the spark plug, where the temperature tends to be highest.

Maintaining pressure-tight joints by suitable seals at the apexes and on the end face of the rotor is a major design problem.

One of the biggest advantages of the rotary engine was its weight-to-power ratio. Another is fewer moving parts and simplicity of design. The rotary engine has no reciprocating mass, like valves or pistons in a traditional engine. This leads to an incredibly balanced engine.

Unlike in a piston cylinder engine, within single rotor housing all events are occurring nearly simultaneously. This means that while intake is occurring on one portion of the rotor, a power stroke is also occurring, leading to a very smooth power delivery.

The biggest disadvantage is the low thermal efficiency compared to piston-cylinder Internal Combustion engines. Due to the long and uniquely-shaped combustion chamber, unburnt fuel left the exhaust. By design, the rotary engine burns oil. There are oil squinters in the intake manifold, as well as injectors to spray oil directly into the combustion chamber. This means more exhaust in the form of burnt and unburnt oil and resulting environmental impact. There is a challenge to seal the rotor when it’s surrounded by vastly different temperatures. The combination of inefficient combustion, inherent oil burning, and a sealing challenge killed the engine by today’s tight standards on emissions and fuel economy.

Conclusion:

The examples describe the revolution brought about by engineering innovations − both in the form of radical and continuous improvements.

To determine

c.

Identify one aspect of our lives today that has been impacted by the Industrial Revolution. Describe how it has been impacted and how our quality of life has increased because of those inventions.

Answer to Problem 1.2A

Transport has changed incredibly after the Industrial Revolution. This includes three elements − automobiles, its research and its manufacturing.

What started as the Internal Combustion engine metamorphosed continuously with small improvements and innovations in allied systems of fuel, ignition, sealing and lubrication.

The automobile has transformed from the mass manufactured Ford T to the hybrid cars of today. Connected cars are a reality leading to the birth of autonomous driven cars.

Manufacturing has moved today into its fourth cycle of integration making automated manufacturing comprehensive.

Transport has become very convenient with the availability of several public transport modes using the base Internal Combustion engine technology.

Trams and subway trains use electric motors as the prime mover although they started with engine technology.

There are a lot of legislations covering emissions and environmental aspects. The air we breathe today is clean as a result of technologies surrounding the exhaust emissions of engines.

Manufacturing has advanced today in four waves. Starting from the first which was brought about by the Industrial Revolution and leading to mechanization with an efficient use of water power and steam power, manufacturing moved to a second phase in the early 20th century. This second wave was characterized by mass production which led to the birth of the assembly line and factories using electricity to augment operation of machinery. The third was the period from the 1970s till 2010s, which has seen the integration of computers, robotics and automation while incorporating best practices in Lean manufacturing using elements of the Toyota Production System. The present revolution is known as Industry 4.0 which describes automation and data exchange and includes cyber-physical systems, the Internet of things, cloud computing and cognitive computing.

Industry 4.0 fosters the "smart factory". Within modular structured smart factories, mechanisms are controlled and monitored by computer-based algorithms integrated with the Internet. These cyber-physical systems monitor physical processes and make decisions. These cyber-physical systems communicate and cooperate with each other and with humans in real-time over the Internet. Other related technologies are big data analytics and cloud computing.

The focus is early detection of defects and production failures, thus enabling their prevention and increasing productivity, quality, and agility benefits that have significant competitive value.

Explanation of Solution

Given Information:

Description of impact on our lives by the Industrial Revolution.

We describe the component systems of internal combustion engines.

1. An ignition system generates a spark to ignite a fuel-air mixture in spark ignition internal combustion engines using gasoline (petrol) as the fuel. Fuel pumps and injectors are used in compression ignition engines using diesel as the fuel - they ignite the fuel-air mixture by the heat of compression and do not need a spark.
2. Moving parts such as valves, cam shafts and bearings require lubrication. The lubricant is usually mixed with the fuel or supplied by a lubrication system. The lubricants must be clean as dirty lubricants may lead to over formation of sludge in the engines.
3. Combustion generates a great deal of heat, and some of this transfer to the walls of the engine. Failure will occur if the body of the engine reaches a high temperature; either the engine will physically fail, or any lubricants used will degrade to the point that they no longer protect the engine. Cooling systems usually employ air (air-cooled) or liquid (usually water) cooling. The radiator is an integral part of several designs.
4. An exhaust system is usually piping used to guide the reaction exhaust gases away from the engine or stove. The entire system includes exhaust manifold, a turbocharger to increase engine power, exhaust gas recirculation pipes to preheat incoming fuel, catalytic converter to reduce air pollution and a muffler to reduce noise.

Advances in each of these systems have reduced friction and exhaust gas levels.

Industry 4.0 is the biggest shift to hit global manufacturing since automation. Centered round advanced robotics and automation, new ways of human-machine interaction and vast troves of data and boosted connectivity, Industry 4.0 is poised to modernize manufacturing and boost western industrial competitiveness.

Coupled with the emerging internet of things, Industry 4.0 offers manufacturers the ability to collect, analyze, and act on immense stockpiles of data like never before, and then set those actions in motion with highly efficient, automated robotics.

By the marriage of IT and manufacturing operations is revolutionizing the automobile industry. We describe the major components.

The information delivered by sensors and Internet of Things driven systems is too vast for humans to reasonably analyze. Artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms can analyze the data and flag anomalies or make recommendations. This is especially useful when it comes to digesting the massive flows of information captured by sensors and Internet enabled devices.

1. Mixed reality is also a major component of Industry 4.0. Big companies are already issuing mixed reality devices like helmets and glasses to employees so that the increased communication and visualization of contextualized data will boost productivity and intelligent decision-making.

Mixed reality is a real game-changer in manufacturing as it allows manufacturing and maintenance teams to 'see inside' the machine that needs repair or 'see through walls' to the cables and pipes behind to know exactly where to drill or cut.".

2. 3D printing allows rapid prototyping and allows low-volume production without much investment.
3. In cyber-physical systems, physical and software components are deeply intertwined and interacting with each other. This involves trans-disciplinary approaches such as cybernetics, mechatronics, and design and process science. The process control is often referred to as embedded systems.
4. Cloud computing technologies are shared pools of configurable computer systems and services that can be rapidly provided over the Internet. Third-party clouds enable organizations to focus on their core businesses instead of expending resources on computer infrastructure and maintenance. It enables IT teams to more rapidly adjust resources to meet fluctuating and unpredictable demand.
5. Cognitive computing describes technology platforms that are based on artificial intelligence and signal processing. These platforms encompass machine learning, speech recognition and object recognition.

The advantages manufacturers stand to reap from implementing those technologies include:

1. Increased competitiveness. Outsourcing to low-wage regions of the world was previously an imperative for manufacturers wanting to remain competitive. However, investments in technology are now enabling wealthier countries to compete once again. As a result, manufacturers can now choose locations based on "technical capabilities and proximity to consumer demand, rather than decisions driven primarily by wages.
2. Increased productivity. Automation, analytics and machine-learning algorithms have taken much of the step-by-step work out of the hands of human operators. That means quicker, more efficient production around the clock, with human operators primarily monitoring and maintaining systems.
3. Increased revenue and profitability. Industry 4.0 not only creates a more efficient and higher quality production process, but it enables things like predictive and preventive maintenance and upgrades, which results in lower downtime and less capital expenditure over time.
4. Manufacturing process optimization. With more connectivity, shared data, and better analytics, closer collaboration along the entire supply chain becomes possible, which could lead to increased efficiency, optimization and innovation in the long run across the manufacturing industry.

Conclusion:

The examples describe the revolution brought about by engineering innovations − both in the form of radical and continuous improvements.