Computing in Civil Engineering
Working to change bridge fabrication and inspection practices
Civil Engineering | Science Daily - Thu, 15/12/2011 - 11:32am
Civil and environmental engineers are concerned about the size of bridges, especially when it relates to how materials will perform in structures where failures might lead to catastrophes. As today’s engineers investigate the rebuilding of much of the infrastructure, they are using much improved materials and analysis tools.
Categories: Computing in Civil Engineering
New method for enhancing thermal conductivity could cool computer chips, lasers and other devices
Civil Engineering | Science Daily - Wed, 14/12/2011 - 12:59pm
Engineers have discovered a surprising new way to increase a material's thermal conductivity that provides a new tool for managing thermal effects in computers, lasers and a number of other powered devices.
Categories: Computing in Civil Engineering
Inspired by insect cuticle, scientists develop material that's tough and strong
Civil Engineering | Science Daily - Tue, 13/12/2011 - 12:26pm
Researchers have developed "Shrilk," a new material that replicates the exceptional strength, toughness, and versatility of one of nature's more extraordinary substances -- insect cuticle.
Categories: Computing in Civil Engineering
Carving at the nanoscale
Civil Engineering | Science Daily - Thu, 08/12/2011 - 2:20pm
Researchers have successfully demonstrated a new method for producing a wide variety of complex hollow nanoparticles. The work applies well known processes of corrosion in a novel manner to produce highly complex cage-like nanoscale structures with potential applications in fields from medicine to industrial processing.
Categories: Computing in Civil Engineering
Patterns seen in spider silk and melodies connected
Civil Engineering | Science Daily - Thu, 08/12/2011 - 9:26am
Using a new mathematical methodology, researchers have created a scientifically rigorous analogy showing the similarities between the physical structure of spider silk and the sonic structure of a musical composition, proving that the structure of each relates to its function in an equivalent way. The comparison begins with the primary building blocks of each item and explains that structural patterns are directly related to the functional properties of silk and a melodic riff.
Categories: Computing in Civil Engineering
3-D printer used to make bone-like material
Civil Engineering | Science Daily - Tue, 29/11/2011 - 6:59pm
It looks like bone. It feels like bone. For the most part, it acts like bone. And it came off an inkjet printer. Researchers have used a 3-D printer to create a bone-like material that can be used in orthopedic procedures, dental work, and to deliver medicine for treating osteoporosis. Paired with actual bone, it acts as a scaffold for new bone to grow on and ultimately dissolves with no apparent ill effects.
Categories: Computing in Civil Engineering
'Fool's gold' aids discovery of new options for cheap, benign solar energy
Civil Engineering | Science Daily - Mon, 28/11/2011 - 11:56am
Pyrite, better known as "fool's gold," was familiar to the ancient Romans and has fooled prospectors for centuries -- but has now helped researchers discover related compounds that offer new, cheap and promising options for solar energy. These new compounds, unlike some solar cell materials made from rare, expensive or toxic elements, would be benign and could be processed from some of the most abundant elements on Earth.
Categories: Computing in Civil Engineering
Kilobots are leaving the nest: Swarm of tiny, collaborative robots will be made available to researchers, educators, and enthusiasts
Civil Engineering | Science Daily - Tue, 22/11/2011 - 11:20am
The Kilobots are coming. Computer scientists and engineers have developed and licensed technology that will make it easy to test collective algorithms on hundreds, or even thousands, of tiny robots.
Categories: Computing in Civil Engineering
World's lightest material is a metal 100 times lighter than styrofoam
Civil Engineering | Science Daily - Thu, 17/11/2011 - 3:46pm
Engineers have developed the world's lightest material -- with a density of 0.9 mg/cc -- about 100 times lighter than Styrofoam.
Categories: Computing in Civil Engineering
World's most efficient flexible organic light-emitting diodes created on plastic
Civil Engineering | Science Daily - Mon, 31/10/2011 - 11:12am
Researchers have developed the world's most efficient organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) on plastic. This result enables a flexible form factor, not to mention a less costly, alternative to traditional OLED manufacturing, which currently relies on rigid glass.
Categories: Computing in Civil Engineering
Relief from 'parking wars': Computer software to revamp city parking
Civil Engineering | Science Daily - Mon, 31/10/2011 - 11:12am
Researchers have developed a traffic simulator that takes into account real parking policies, the habits of urban drivers, and the movements of traffic inspectors to identify strategies for improvement and test the impact of parking policy changes before they're implemented.
Categories: Computing in Civil Engineering
New approach to overcome key hurdle for next-generation superconductors
Civil Engineering | Science Daily - Thu, 27/10/2011 - 10:29am
Researchers have developed a new computational approach to improve the utility of superconductive materials for specific design applications -- and have used the approach to solve a key research obstacle for the next-generation superconductor material yttrium barium copper oxide.
Categories: Computing in Civil Engineering
Restraint improves dielectric performance, lifespan
Civil Engineering | Science Daily - Tue, 25/10/2011 - 10:35am
Just as a corset improves the appearance of its wearer by keeping everything tightly together, rigidly constraining insulating materials in electrical components can increase their energy density and decrease their rates of failure. Engineers have demonstrated that rigidly constraining dielectric materials can greatly improve their performance and potentially lengthen their lifespans. This insight follows their discovery earlier this year of the exact mechanism that causes soft dielectric materials to break down in the presence of electricity.
Categories: Computing in Civil Engineering
Gallium nitride is non-toxic, biocompatible; holds promise for implants, research finds
Civil Engineering | Science Daily - Mon, 24/10/2011 - 10:30am
Researchers have shown that the semiconductor material gallium nitride is non-toxic and is compatible with human cells -- opening the door to the material's use in a variety of biomedical implant technologies.
Categories: Computing in Civil Engineering
Spreading like wildfire? Maybe not always: Research helps define fire standards to protect homes
Civil Engineering | Science Daily - Wed, 12/10/2011 - 10:38am
The US Department of Homeland Security's Science and Technology Directorate is funding experimental fire research at the National Institute of Standards and Technology to discover when and how quickly wildfire embers ignite fires in structures along the wildland urban interface, and what we can do to prevent it.
Categories: Computing in Civil Engineering
New program to expand, enhance use of LIDAR sensing technology
Civil Engineering | Science Daily - Tue, 11/10/2011 - 10:29am
Researchers have developed a new system that will enable highway construction engineers in the field to immediately analyze soil movements caused by active landslides and erosion and use the powerful tool of LIDAR to better assess and deal with them. The advance is just the latest innovation with this laser technology, the use of which has mushroomed in recent years in the study of everything from earthquakes and tsunamis to beach erosion and road construction.
Categories: Computing in Civil Engineering
Polymeric material has potential for noninvasive procedures
Civil Engineering | Science Daily - Mon, 03/10/2011 - 12:24pm
Scientists have developed what they believe to be the first polymeric material that is sensitive to biologically benign levels of near infrared irradiation, enabling the material to disassemble in a highly controlled fashion. The study represents a significant milestone in the area of light-sensitive material for non-invasive medical and biological applications.
Categories: Computing in Civil Engineering
Pressurized vascular systems for self-healing materials
Civil Engineering | Science Daily - Thu, 29/09/2011 - 11:29am
Artificial microvascular systems for self-repair of materials damage, such as cracks in a coating applied to a building or bridge, have relied on capillary force for transport of the healing agents. Now, researchers have demonstrated that an active pumping capability for pressurized delivery of liquid healing agents in microvascular systems significantly improves the degree of healing compared with capillary force methods.
Categories: Computing in Civil Engineering
Researchers produce cheap sugars for sustainable biofuel production
Civil Engineering | Science Daily - Thu, 29/09/2011 - 11:29am
Researchers have developed technologies to efficiently produce, recover and separate sugars from the fast pyrolysis of biomass. That's a big deal because those sugars can be further processed into biofuels.
Categories: Computing in Civil Engineering
In unique fire tests, outdoor decks will be under firebrand attack
Civil Engineering | Science Daily - Wed, 28/09/2011 - 10:00am
NIST will unleash its Dragon, an invention that bellows showers of glowing embers, at a unique wind tunnel test facility in Japan, where researchers will evaluate the vulnerability of outdoor deck assemblies and materials to ignition during wildfires, a growing peril that accounts for half of the nation's 10 most costly fires.
Categories: Computing in Civil Engineering
