Technology Bulletin 7-6-98

July 6, 1998 Design News

Technology Bulletin

Late developments that shape engineering

by Gary Chamberlain, Senior Editor

Scientists predict what an asteroid strike would look like

Caught the movie "Deep Impact" yet? Just how real-to-life does Steven Spielberg's blockbuster portray an asteroid striking the planet Earth? Computer scientists at Sandia National Laboratories think they can better approximate a real asteroid catastrophe. Using virtual reality techniques, decades of experience in shock physics, advanced computer programs, and the world's fastest computer, the scientists recently completed one of the largest hypervelocity impact physics calculations ever performed. In the computing scenario, an asteroid 1.4 km in diameter strikes the Atlantic Ocean 25 miles south of Brooklyn, NY. To model the event, the scientists broke up a 120-square-mile space that roughly corresponds to the New York City metropolitan area, the air above, and the water and earth below, into 100 million separate grids. Sandia's teraflops supercomputer then calculated what happened in each cube as the asteroid splashed down. The researchers then reassembled the cubes to produce a 3D movie of the collision. How did Spielberg do? According to the simulation, the impact would vaporize the asteroid, deform the ocean floor, and eject hundreds of cubic miles of superheated water vapor, melted rock, and other debris into the upper atmosphere and back into space. The debris would rain down over the world for the next several hours and form a high global cloud. The shock wave from the impact would level much of the New England region. E-mail [email protected]

Journey to center of Earth fails to find metallic hydrogen

Any materials scientist will tell you that hydrogen is a tough nut to crack. Although the simplest of the atoms, hydrogen in its molecular state is incredibly complex. The long-sought goal of turning the element into a metal, it has been predicted, would require pressure close to that found at the center of the Earth. Researchers at Cornell University (Ithaca, NY) have dispelled that theory: They submitted hydrogen gas to just such pressure, but the element remained unchanged. "It seems," says Cornell's Arthur Ruoff, "that the pressure required for this transition is even higher than previously thought." The researchers found that solid hydrogen showed no signs of looking like a metal at pressures of up to 342 GPa. The pressure at the center of the Earth is about 361 GPa--more than four million times surface pressure. Such incredible pressure was achieved at Cornell by compressing the hydrogen in a diamond anvil cell, a small device consisting of pairs of the highest quality diamonds with tips beveled to one-fourth the diameter of a human hair. The diamonds, 15 in all, ultimately cracked. E-mail [email protected] 

Image-compression technology tames flood of ultrasound data

Strip away the interference that ultrasound scanners ordinarily pick up from muscle and skin and you have a better chance of saving not only images of the body's inner workings, but also a great deal of space, time, and money. Engineers at the University of Rochester (Rochester, NY) have devised a way to store such slimmed-down ultrasound scans. The patented technique junks the unneeded echoes from soft tissue and saves data only from the underlying organ, all the while whittling the size of a digitized ultrasound file image to one-twentieth of what's now required. "While existing JPEG and MPEG technologies work from the assumption that an image has a photographic origin, our technology recreates an image based on the assumption that it's working with data gathered through a pulse-echo system," explains Kevin Parker, professor of electrical engineering at Rochester. "It's a method of reconstructing images that's in step with the way ultrasound scanners collect data," and about 20 times faster. Phone (716) 275-4151.

Reformerless fuel cell produces more energy

Proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells that use methanol as fuel offer enormous potential for transitioning consumers to electric cars, while leveraging the advantages of a familiar liquid fuel infrastructure. Such fuel cells, however, depend on a separate reformer to extract the hydrogen from the methanol. Now, a joint research team from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and the University of Southern California (USC) has developed a direct methanol liquid feed fuel cell (DMLFFC) that not only doesn't require a reformer, it actually produces more energy from a mixture of 97% water and 3% methanol than from methanol or hydrogen alone. The secret lies in the addition of 50% ruthenium to the normally platinum-only anode catalyst. The carbon-to-hydrogen bonds in the methanol/water solution are broken in the presence of the catalyst, resulting in hydrogen ions (protons) and electrons--the output current. The protons migrate through the membrane and combine with oxygen from the air to produce water. This water is remixed with the methanol fuel so that only methanol has to be added to the cell. To date, prototypes have run for more than 200 hours continuously and for more than 3,000 hours intermittently, without loss of performance. FAX (818) 354-4537.

Handheld PC recognizes handwriting in real-time

ParaGraph PI, a pen and Internet technology group headquartered in Mountain View, CA, has announced that NEC Computer Systems became the first manufacturer to include built-in natural handwriting recognition in its Microsoftr Windowsr CE handheld PC. The MobilePro^TM 750C H/PC features Paragraph's CalliGrapherr software in ROM. Users simply write on the PC's screen and the software converts the handwriting in real-time into ASCII text. The handwriting recognition tool understands how people normally write--natural cursive, print/mixed cursive, or print. Based on patented fuzzy logic and neural network techniques, the program recognizes dictionary and non-dictionary works, as well as arbitrary symbol sequences--without any user training. The PC, which went on the market last month, sells for about $900. E-mail [email protected] .

New solar cells boost satellite power, last longer

Solar cells that provide as much as 50% more power for Earth-orbiting satellites will help flash back telephone and television signals from space. The cells are based on the two-junction, gallium indium phosphide on gallium arsenide designs developed at the Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) (Golden, CO). TECSTAR Inc. (City of Industry, CA) licensed two patents covering the technology for space use. It has adapted the NREL technology to use germanium substrates for the epitaxial growth of the cells. This, in turn, should result in greater efficiencies and reduced costs for space missions. Commonly used silicon cells lose about half of their efficiency after five years in space. The gallium indium phosphide top layers of the new NREL cells have far more resistance to radiation damage, giving them a much longer space life. E-mail [email protected] .

Smart gels change properties in response to certain stimuli

The flubber of the future? It's under development at the University of North Texas (UNT). The so-called "smart gel" has become the catch phrase for water-based, gelatin-like polymers created in labs. The gels have physical properties that change in response to temperature, light, pH and acidic balances, and electric fields. Dr. Zhibing Hu, an associate professor of physics at UNT, heads the research. His work incorporates different materials on a hydrogel surface so that it can change into a specific pattern when induced by a certain stimulus. Gels made to date show lattice or other surface patterns that remain visible or invisible by simply switching between room and body temperature. Possible future uses for this type of gel include acting as an optical gauge that monitors environmental conditions, such as metal ions in water, or as a miniature sensor that can detect enzyme activity. Toys or signs with designs and wording that appear and disappear in response to changing temperatures also would be a possibility. E-mail [email protected]. 

'Touch lamps' to replace switches on automotive dome lights

You are in your year 2000 model car and want to get a read on a road map or check on the kid a sleep in the back seat. No need to fumble around looking for that pesky switch. Instead, all you have to do is touch the lamp's surface to turn it off, on, or dim it. So predicts Cooper Automotive (Troy, MI) engineers who created the "touch lamp." The technology resembles the touch technology used on microwave ovens, according to Jim Anderson, supervisor of product engineering at Cooper Automotive's Wagner Lighting Div. The technology uses the touch of the lamp to activate a computer chip that "tells" the computer to begin the desired function--whether it be to adjust the light or change the temperature, compass, or mileage read-out. Anderson adds that the touch lamp exceeds automakers' 5,000 to 10,000 cycles for durability, and can withstand the one million mark in cycle testing. FAX (248) 649-2255.

Acrylic sheet derivative withstands abrasions like glass

After investing millions of dollars in state-of-the-art technology, CYRO Industries (Rockaway, NJ) has introduced a "new generation" of abrasion-resistant acrylic sheet. The product, which incorporates 3M Co.'s 906 coating, features "unsurpassed quality and optics, with 40 times the mar resistance of uncoated sheet," according CYRO's Elizabeth A. DiGiose. In addition, the Acryliter AR sheet resists chemicals, is easy to fabricate, weighs 50% less than glass, and has more impact strength than glass. Most glass cleaners can be used to clean the sheet without harm. These qualities, says DiGiose, make the sheet ideal for applications subjected to heavy public contact and cleaning, including trans