Unleashing the Potential of Unidirectional Mechanical Materials: Breakthroughs and Promising Applications

The emergence of mechanically one-way materials presents an exciting opportunity for materials science and engineering. These substances exhibit unique nonreciprocal mechanical responses, enabling them to selectively channel mechanical energy and facilitate directed sound propagation, controlled mass transport, and concentration of mechanical energy amidst random motion. This article explores the fundamentals of mechanically one-way materials, their potential applications across various industries, and the economic and environmental considerations related to their production and use.

Analysis of Economic and Socio-Environmental Indicators for Energy, Materials and Water Management and Proposal of Technologies and Alternatives for Sustainable Construction in Housing

The work presents technologies of materials,energy and water management that can be used for sustainable buildings,reducing costs and environmental impacts.The aim was to encourage the reduction of energy consumption,adequate water management and more sustainable material choices in new or existing buildings.For this,a diagnosis of existing technologies and alternatives was carried out in the first stage of the work.The second stage consisted of analyzing among the technologies and alternatives diagnosed from the methodology which can be applied in a fictitious case study of housing,its implementation and maintenance and viability analyzing,finally,environmental indicators,social and economic.The results showed that the best evaluated technologies/alternatives were in Energy:ventilation and natural light;in Water Management:double-action sanitary basin,flow restrictors,aerators with constant flow,and minicistern systems;and in Materials:bamboo,wood,soil-cement brick,earth,steel frame and wood frame,aggregate with ash from rice husks,aggregate with ash from sugarcane bagasse,glass,phase change materials,aggregate with residues of construction and demolition,Portland cement and cement with blast furnace slag;which can be used in the civil construction sector,and provide socio-environmental and economic benefits,encouraging new studies and its use for public/private buildings,aid in the elaboration of public policies to reduce costs and improve the quality of buildings.

An Industrial Perspective on Magnesium Alloy Wheels: A Process and Material Design

Light weights wheels improve vehicle performance with respect to road handling, cornering as well providing fuel economy and reduced greenhouse gas emissions. Aluminum wheels are currently used in many models and are produced usually by low pressure assisted gravity casting. Important property requirements are fatigue strength, pressure tightness, tensile strength, impact resistance, and corrosion resistance. Many attempts have been made to convert aluminum road wheels to magnesium. Race cars and some of the high end models (Porsche, Ferrari, etc.) have used magnesium wheels. These wheels have been gravity cast or forged. Viable corrosion protection systems have been developed and magnesium wheels have been used with success on these models. To use magnesium on more modest models is a challenge due to cost issues. Higher productivity casting processes or more cost effective coating systems need to be utilized. The project consists of selecting magnesium alloys for road wheels, examining the possible cost effective casting processes and corrosion protection systems, evaluating the cost per one wheel and comparing it to aluminum wheel costs. The wheels will also be compared with respect to fatigue and impact properties, pressure tightness, and corrosion.

Analysis of a New Composite Material for Watercraft Manufacturing

In this paper, we investigate the properties of an alternative material for use in marine engineering, namely a rigid and light sandwich-structured composite made of expanded polystyrene and fiberglass. Not only does this material have an improved section modulus, but it is also inexpensive, light, easy to manipulate, and commercially available in various sizes. Using a computer program based on the finite element method, we calculated the hogging and sagging stresses and strains acting on a prismatic boat model composed of this material, and determined the minimum sizes and maximum permissible stresses to avoid deformation. Finally, we calculated the structural weight of the resulting vessel for comparison with another structure of comparable dimensions constructed from the commonly used core material Divinycell.

Caspian Energy Ring: Prospective vision

This paper presents the results of a technical and economic optimization study of the prospects of the Caspian Energy Ring(CER),connecting power systems of Russia,countries of the Caucasus,Central Asia,and South Asia.The CER,belonging partly to the emerging Asian Supergrid and partly to the existing European Supergrid,will become a bridge connecting these supergrids,laying the foundation for forming a global energy interconnection in the long term.The expansion of carbon-free renewable and nuclear facilities,low-carbon gas-fired power plants,and traditional thermal and hydro energy sources within the CER were considered in this study.The positive economic benefits of the creation of the CER are presented.Preliminary characteristics of the potential CER were also estimated.