Environment and Engineering

1. Environment and Engineering The effects of the environment on engineering design practices Intro to Mechanical Engineering EML 3004C-01 Dr. Namas Chandra 9-11-03

2. Presented by: Jon Childress Mike Innes Jake Feist Trever Carnes Ian Coxcy

3. The environment: The environment heavily effects design practices of engineers due to several different factors. This presentation will cover the five most common factors: • Location • Climate • Population • Government Regulations • Total Costs

4. Location Location is as important as the design. Different locations create a need for different: • Resources • Plans • Tools • Cautions

5. Hazards from location For example, highly corrosive environments, such as a beach, create a need for materials that will not deteriorate as quickly. Area such as deep sea and outer space require designs that can withstand high pressure differences.

6. Climate • Climate is the meteorological conditions, including temperature, precipitation, and wind, that characteristically prevail in a particular region. • Climate can negatively affect design: • Challenger • Tacoma Narrows Bridge

7. How do we affect Climate? • Cars, power plants, factories, and almost any other machine that uses fossil fuels give off chemical emissions. • These emissions destroy the ozone layer which is the cause of several negative phenomenon: • Holes in the ozone layer which let in more UV rays which are harmful to humans and is suspected as the cause of the melting ice caps.

8. What are we doing about it? • Today engineers design systems that give off less emissions. • An oil field in 1995 would give off 7,000,000 cubic meters of gas flare emissions. • Today that amount has been reduced to 1,500,000 cubic meters of emissions.

9. People • Public views influence nearly all aspects of engineering practices • The public wants maximum safety for themselves and for the employees • The public influences the government, who makes laws governing the engineering business

10. Public Disaster • Take Bhopal, India for an example • Poor design and construction of the Union Carbide plant caused the destruction of many thousands of lives • The incident in Bhopal helped bring engineering practices into the spotlight

11. The public and practices • Increased public awareness of engineering failures and dangers has caused tighter government regulations • The more aware people are of engineering around them, the more they have a hand in shaping the practices of design

12. Government Regulation Government regulation serves to ensure safety and functionality in design practices. Though regulations are strict and consequences are harsh, they increase public confidence in engineers and ensure past mistakes are not repeated.

13. Regulating Agencies • Occupational Safety and Health Admin. • Environmental Protection Agency • Nation Fire Protection Association • Department of Transportation

14. Code of Hammurabi The first known record of written regulations imposed against engineers. This document listed, among other things, a list of consequences against shipwrights and house-builders if their designs were to injure or kill their owners.

15. Initial Cost • Resources • Oil Consumption • Rapid Growth • Global Problems

16. Solving The Problem • Early Engineers • Industry Booms • Industry Standards+Early • Engineers

17. Present Cost • Research • Government Regulation • Preventing Disasters