ASME Northern New Mexico Section

Old Talks & Events: 2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001 2000

ASME Member Appreciation Dinner and Tour
at
Don Quixote Distillery and Winery Sat Aug 28th

Don Quixote Distillery,  Saturday, August 28th

Half mile past White Rock turn left onto Monte Rey North.  Follow until Rio Bravo and turn left.
Stay on Rio Bravo until you arrive at the Distillery and Winery on your left, (236 Rio Bravo).

SOCIAL TIME AND TASTING:        5:30
DINNER AND MORE TASTING:      6:00-6:30
TOUR and DISCUSSION:                6:30-7:30

COST:  Free to members (with up to 1 guest) that have RSVP'd

MENU:  Catered barbeque from Bob’s Bodacious BBQ.  No host wine and spirits available by the glass.

RSVP by  August 27 to Mike Steinzig, 667-5772, or steinzig@lanl.gov.
 
     

Joint ASM, ASME, and IEEE Dinner Meeting Thursday, March 4th, 2010

Chris Blewett, Project Manager, New Mexico Rail Runner Express
“New Mexico Rail Runner Express: Update and Project Development History”

Please RSVP by Monday, March 1st, by noon!!!!
Public Welcome!

ASM, ASME, and IEEE Meeting: "New Mexico Rail Runner Express: Update and Project Development History"

Thursday, March 4th, 2010

Chris Blewett, Project Manager, New Mexico Rail Runner Express

Los Alamos Research Park Conference Center - Public welcome
Room 203, 4200 West Jemez Road, Los Alamos, NM
Dinner provided by Hot Rocks Java Cafe

6:00 - 6:30 pm Social
6:30 Dinner (Enchilada buffet)
7:15 Talk will begin

Cost: $10 Students (LAHS students free with student ID)
$15 Members
$20 Non-Members

PLEASE RSVP by Monday, March 1st by noon to Heather Volz, hvolz@lanl.gov or leave voice mail at 665-4370.

If you are not familiar with Los Alamos, please visit http://www.la-rp.org/

Discover E on Wed. Feb. 17 in the Los Alamos High School Cafeteria. Flier. This is an event primarily for elementary school students.

Dinner Meeting Saturday January 23, 2010

Santa Fe Architect Mark Chalom
“Passive solar home design and benefit”

In 2000, over 250 houses were destroyed by the Cerro Grande fire in Los Alamos.  Only a couple were rebuilt to take advantage of passive solar heating.  The NM Solar Energy Association surveyed many people that rebuilt to ask why passive solar design hadn’t been included; some common responses were: •       cost will be higher •       contractor unfamiliar with the materials/techniques •       it will delay the build •       the bank won't loan money unless it has a full heating system anyway, so why bother? Mark Chalom, an architect in Santa Fe, actually designed 3 passive solar houses for those rebuilt after the fire.  Mark will discuss the design of a passive solar home, and address the concerns above.  Information regarding heating requirements from the passive solar homes in Los Alamos will be presented and compared to traditional heating requirements.  From this context, the overall economic case for passive solar design will be presented.

RSVP by January 19 to Mike Steinzig, 667-5772, or steinzig@lanl.gov.  General Public is welcome to attend.

Lunch Talk Wednesday December 9, 2009

Date/Time: Wednesday, December 9, 12:10 PM
Location: Otowi Cafeteria Side Rooms A & B, Los Alamos National Laboratory. Open to the public, the Otowi Building is on the lower map.
Lunch: Buy from cafeteria or bring your own

Title: Snowmaking Technology, and Pajarito Ski Area’s Snowmaking Project

Abstract : Snowmaking is now seen as a critical ingredient for the success of ski areas in all parts of the world. The ability to compensate for the vagaries of natural snowfall with machine-made snow assures longer and more reliable seasons, and provides improved snow cover at critical times. Snowmaking technology has evolved dramatically since it was introduced in the 1950s, with modern, efficient, and automated snow-guns capable of making prodigious amounts of high-quality snow over a large temperature range. The talk will discuss the physics and engineering of snowmaking, and will also describe the snowmaking project now under construction at Pajarito Mountain Ski Area. Approved in May 2009 by the Los Alamos Ski Club (LASC), this ambitious project is expected to significantly improve the attractiveness and financial stability of our local Ski Area.

Speaker: George Lawrence is a retired physicist who had a 36-year career at LANL in particle accelerator technology. He played a leading role in development of the Proton Storage Ring at LANSCE (which provides the intense beam pulses that drive the Lujan Neutron Scattering Center), and was responsible for accelerator development and design in the Accelerator Production of Tritium program, retiring in 2000 as Deputy Division Leader of the APT Division. More recently he has served on the LASC Board of Directors, and was Ski Club president from May 2006 to May 2008. His major interest has been the design and promotion of a snowmaking system for the Mountain

Lunch Talk Wednesday July 1, 2009

Doug Thacker, WT-3, LANL

Abstract : The Global War on Terrorism (GWOT) is being fought with engineering expertise from Navy Reservists both at home and on the front lines.  The Office of Naval Research (ONR), with headquarters in Arlington, Virginia, is developing new technologies to protect our nation’s deployed service members.  ONR employs civilian, Active Duty Navy engineers, and Navy Reserve engineers on variety of projects ranging from new transportation vehicles to realistic combat training facilities and unmanned surveillance airplanes.  On the front lines, Reservists, with civilian backgrounds in engineering or with the Navy’s Seabees (Construction Battalions), are building facilities to protect the security forces in both Iraq and Afghanistan.  These engineering efforts at home and overseas are explored through the experiences of one ASME member who recently returned from a nine-month deployment in Afghanistan and who has supported ONR research programs as a Navy Reservist.
 
Speaker: Doug Thacker graduated with a BSME from the University of Arkansas in 1989 and then earned a MSME from the University of Texas at Austin in 1992.  He has been a member of ASME since undergrad and has been active in the past with the Northern New Mexico Section as Secretary and as Chairman.  He is also a licensed Professional Engineer in New Mexico.

Mr. Thacker is a Research and Development Engineer in the Weapons Technology Group at Los Alamos National Laboratory.  With 15 years of experience, he has supervised teams of drafters, machinists, assembly technicians, and engineers on multiple experiments involving high explosive devices, providing critical data for the science-based stockpile stewardship of the nation’s nuclear weapons.

Lieutenant Thacker joined the Navy Reserves in 2001 as a Direct Commissioned Officer, and as a Project Officer for the Office of Naval Research /Naval Research Laboratory Science and Technology 112 Unit (ONR/NRL S&T 112), he has supported ONR Program 38, test and evaluation of new technologies for the military.  In addition, he completed the Navy Reserve Engineering Duty Qualification Program with training for the repair of ships and submarines.  LT Thacker is currently serving as the Executive Officer for the Surge Main El Paso Unit, which provides skilled labor and engineering support for the Navy’s shipyards.

For questions or directions contact Partha Rangaswamy at 505-667-2935 partha@lanl.gov

ASME Dinner Meeting Saturday April 4

Hundreds of calendars exist around the southwest, located near old inhabited sites that were used to mark the annual seasons and important dates.  These calendars are made with specific glyphs that align with unique shadows that are used to mark the time of the year, including winter and summer solstice, equinoxes, cross-quarters and many other dates.  Many calendar sites are also covered with additional glyphs whose functions have yet to be deciphered.  The research to be presented started on the Pajarito Plateau then spread up and down the Rio Grande into Arizona and beyond.  Hundreds of solar glyphs have been identified as far south as the Sierra Madres in Mexico and as far north as the Columbia River Gorge in Washington.  The presentation will include the design evolution and increased precision of the Stone Calendars over time.

"Calendars in Stone" by Ron Barber

Location:	De Colores Restaurant Los Alamos
Date:	Saturday, April 4, 2009, Social time: 6:00pm, Dinner 6:30, Speaker 7-8pm
Menu:	Mexican buffet (chips and salsa, green chicken enchiladas, chile rellenos, beef taco bar, green chile rice, tortillas and water. Cash bar available (beer and wine ).
Cost:	$10 for ASME, IEEE and ASM members and guests, $15 for non-members

RSVP by March 30 to Mike Steinzig, 667-5772, or steinzig@lanl.gov.  General Public is welcome to attend.

Sponsored by the Northern New Mexico Section of ASME, with cooperation by the Los Alamos/Northern NM Section of IEEE and Los Alamos Chapter of ASM.

Lunch Talk Wednesday December 3, 2008

Date/Time: Wednesday, December 3, 2008, 12:00-1:00
Location: Otowi Cafeteria Side Rooms A & B, Los Alamos National Laboratory. Open to the public, the Otowi Building is on the lower map.
Lunch: Buy from cafeteria or bring your own

Title: Renewables on the Road: Greening the Grid and the Highway with Plug-in Electric Drive

Skip Dunn, GreenWheels Sustainable Transportation

Abstract : Electric drive is the connection between renewable power and transportation. We will examine how grid-connected cars will decrease the demand for energy by 75% and increase the role that renewable energy plays in the power grid and what the utility industry must do to prepare for – and gain from – a plug-in vehicle future.
 
Speaker: A 34-year resident of White Rock, Skip Dunn worked for 20 years as an administrator in our schools.  He formed Dr Mac Computer Support in 1996, and GreenWheels Sustainable Transportation in 2005.  He has a collection of 8 old (1914-1981) mini and micro cars, 4 all-electric cars, and a 75 mpg Honda Insight hybrid.  He holds a Ph.D. in Administration and Policy Analysis from Stanford University, and has turned his attention to the revamping of policies, procedures, and designs of our transportation systems for a sustainable post-oil future.

For questions or directions contact Partha Rangaswamy at 505-667-2935 partha@lanl.gov

Lunch Talk Wednesday October 29

Date/Time: Wednesday, October 29, 2008, 12:00-1:00
Location: Otowi Cafeteria Side Rooms A & B, Los Alamos National Laboratory. Open to the public, the Otowi Building is on the lower map.
Lunch: Buy from cafeteria or bring your own

Title: The Zero Emission Carbon Concept (PDF FILE)

Hans-Joachim Ziock, Earth and Environmental Sciences Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory

Abstract : LANL, in conjunction with Louisiana State University, has developed a Zero Emission Carbon concept for the production of electrical power while fully capturing all the generated CO2, as well as eliminating all other damaging emissions to the atmosphere. By fully integrating the CO2 separation in the design concept from the outset, the CO2 separation is able to enhances the power production efficiency, yielding values of ~ 70% HHV (higher heating value fuel energy content to electrical energy output). The concept will be reviewed, as will be issues that preclude the pursuit of such new concepts and how these issues might be overcome.

For questions or directions contact Balu Nadiga at 505-667-9466 balu@lanl.gov

Member appreciation barbeque, June 4

• Where: Urban Park, Los Alamos
• When: Wednesday June 4, 5:30-7:30
  We will provide food from Bob's Bodacious BBQ and drinks. Bring your spouse, kids, a guest, whatever.

Lunch Talk Monday May 19

Date/Time: Monday May 19, 12:00-1:00
Location: Otowi Cafeteria Side Rooms A & B, Los Alamos National Laboratory. Open to the public, the Otowi Building is on the lower map.
Lunch: Buy from cafeteria or bring your own

Title: CO2 Emissions: The issue of scale (PDF FILE)

Hans-Joachim Ziock, Earth and Environmental Sciences Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory

Abstract : Today world energy use and carbon dioxide (CO2) production are already well outside scales that people are commonly familiar with, but nonetheless quite small when compared to what is likely to come.  The issue of scale must be taken into account when examining possible future energy scenarios and when considering solutions to the carbon dioxide issue.  In modern industrialized nations, CO2 emissions are about 20 tons per person per year; greater than any other commodity, with the exceptions of water and air.  Global yearly emissions are already about 30 gigatons, and this could grow by a factor of 10 this century.  A world population of about 10 billion people enjoying the lifestyle and prosperity found in modern nations would require 10 times the energy using today’s technologies.  Given the strong correlation between energy use and wealth, in order to conquer world poverty, disease, and achieve greater global stability, one would in fact like energy use to grow as quickly as possible.  Paradoxically, it is the wealth generated through energy use that provides us with the luxury of being able to worry about the environment and the means to improve it.

For questions or directions contact Suzanne Hay at 505-665-2213 shay@lanl.gov

Lunch Talk Wednesday April 16

Date/Time: Wednesday April 16, 12:00-1:00
Location: Otowi Cafeteria Side Rooms A & B, Los Alamos National Laboratory. Open to the public, the Otowi Building is on the lower map.
Lunch: Buy from cafeteria or bring your own

Title: Progress with Experiments and our Understanding of Rayleigh-Taylor Driven Mixing

Malcolm J. Andrews, National Security Fellow, ASME Fellow, CCS-2, LANL

The last twenty years has seen a rapid growth of experiments to investigate the development of Rayleigh-Taylor (RT) and Richtmyer-Meshkov (RM) hydrodynamic instabilities. RT and RM driven wrinkles at the interface of materials lie at the heart of an overarching science for material mixing that stretches from oil trapping salt domes, that develop over tens of millions of years, to degradation of Inertial Confinement Fusion (ICF) capsule performance in 10 -12 s. Everyday phenomena include mixing of milk into coffee, and emptying of water from a glass. Technological and enviromental applications include: drop disintegration in engine fuel sprays, enhanced heat transfer in tubes, plasma instabilities, material component mixing in the pharmaceutical industry, and buoyancy driven flows in the oceans and atmosphere. RT and RM are insidious instabilities that start with exponential growth of small scale perturbations, and end in a fully turbulent mixing process. It is this scale range and chaotic nature that challenges our experimental capabilities and physical understanding. But, the timely need to understand, predict, control, and utilize is because RT/RM mixing lies at the heart of national security priorities such as energy, threat reduction, and NNSA interests.

SSAA funding of novel RT and RM experiments, and the recent development high performance diagnostics has heralded a new era of exploration of buoyancy driven turbulence. Indeed, coupling of SSAA funded innovative experiments and new diagnostics underlies the rapid progress that has provided deep physical insights. Furthermore, data collected from the experiments has served to validate high performance ASC-based science prediction, and supported the development of advanced turbulence models. This presentation will introduce the RT and RM instabilities. Afterwards, emphasis will be placed on progress with experimental studies of RT driven mixing, and their relationship with advanced mathematical models of the RT/RM mixing processes for use in application design. A focus will be on the SSAA supported work at the Texas A&M University facility of Andrews, but other facilities supported by the SSAA and elsewhere around the world will be reviewed. The fundamental nature of these studies makes the results highly cross-disciplinary, with broad impact for the DOE Office of Science and the NNSA. Current needs with future opportunities, collaborations, and grand challenges will be discussed.

March 24-27, 2008:

Level I, GD&T Fundamentals, from Mon thru Thurs, 8AM to noon, Room 203B Research Park. Details (pdf)

Dinner Meeting Tuesday March 18, 2008:

noted expert on network and computer security Prof. Hal Berghel
Associate Dean, Howard R. Hughes College of Engineering
University of Nevada, Las Vegas

"Identity Theft and Financial Fraud for the New Millennium"

Dr. Berghel will discuss the latest computing and law enforcement perspectives on identity theft and financial fraud (ITFF).  Topics will include credit/debit card scams and related technologies like keystroke logging, skimming, and double-scanning; fungible credentials, counterfeiting, digital forgery and credential amplification; advantages and disadvantages of anti-counterfeiting technologies; tactics for hiding data; what disk wiping doesn’t do (well), etc. Actual illustrations of ITFF taken from law enforcement case files will be presented. Dr. Berghel is currently Associate Dean of the Howard R. Hughes College of Engineering at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and Director of both the Center for Cybermedia Research and Identity Theft and Financial Fraud Research and Operations Center. His current research focuses on computing and network security and forensics, digital white collar crime, and technologies to anticipate network security events-of-interest.

He is a Fellow of both the IEEE Computer Society and Association for Computing Machinery and has received the ACM Outstanding Lecturer of the Year Award four times and was recognized for Lifetime Achievement in 2004.  He is also the founder and owner of Berghel.net, a full-service information, computing and IT security consultancy.

Location:	UNM- Los Alamos Student Center, Los Alamos, NM.
Date:	Tuesday, March 18 th, Social time: 5:30pm, Italian Dinner Buffet: 6-7pm, Speaker 7-8pm
Cost:	$10 for IEEE and ASME members and guests, $15 for non-members

Sponsored by the Northern New Mexico Section of ASME Co-sponsored by the Los Alamos / Northern New Mexico Section of IEEE

Lunch Talk Tuesday March 11

Date/Time: Tuesday March 11, 12:00-1:00
Location: Otowi Cafeteria Side Rooms A & B, Los Alamos National Laboratory. Open to the public, the Otowi Building is on the lower map.
Lunch: Buy from cafeteria or bring your own

Title: THE RISE AND FALL OF THE PERSIAN EMPIRE

Farhad Banisadr, ES-SE, LANL

Volunteers Needed for Engineers Week Demos for Los Alamos Public Schools

The Materials Science & Engineering 2008 demonstrations evening is going to be held Wednesday, February 20 from 4:00-7:30 PM at the Los Alamos High School DECA Cafeteria (same place as last year). Set-up will start at 3:30 PM and we should be all cleaned up by 8 PM.Food and beverages will be available for demonstrators at the event

I am looking for volunteers to provide and staff hands-on demonstrations.
Please let me know ASAP [ Zana Konecni ( konecni@lanl.gov, 665-5546) ]:

______I plan to provide a demonstration about_________________________________

______I will need supplies for my demonstration (add supply list and quantities)

______I am willing to work any available demonstration (materials supplied) or oversee food

______I am willing to work the following type of demonstration_________________


Demonstrations can include any topic related to science and engineering. Ideas can be found on the National Engineers Week web site http://www.eweek.org/
The following is the list and demos from last year.  If you want to do the same let me know and if you want to change it is OK as well.:

Last year, we had 300 students K-12 and 100 adults. This year we estimate about 250-350 people. In order to handle this many visitors, we will need
help with the demonstrations.

Thanks for volunteering!
Snezana Konecni

List of Demos from 07:

                 3D CAD with Motion Simulation
                 Automotive Engineers
                 Balloon Rockets 
                 Bridges
                 Ceramics 
                 Roto copter
                 General Help
                 Hoop Glider
                 Puff Mobile
                 Seismic Slinky
                 States of Matter
                 Static Electricity
                 Pinwheel
                 Balloon Blowing
                  Magnetic flyer
                 Airplanes
                 Magnets
                 Electrical Circuits
                 Optical Interferometry
                 Reverse Engineering
                 Polymers

Los Alamos Science Fair ASME Awards:

NNMASME Judges: Suzanne and Tom Hay, Andy and Sarah Thien, Miles Buechler, Anthony Puckett, Rod Linn, Partha Rangaswamy

Awards: ($300) – chamber of commerce checks - $10 denominations & ASME pencils

Elementary Class Projects [Grades 1 – 3] (Partha Rangaswamy)

1) ‘Sun Glasses Test’, 2 nd Grade, Mrs. Altherr’s Gate, Mountain Elementary School, $ 20
2) ‘Does the shape of the boat make a difference in how much weight it can hold’, 1 st Grade, Mrs. McClean, Mountain Elementary School, $ 10

Elementary Category [Grades 4 - 5]

Engineering – Materials & Bio-Engineering
1) ‘Which wood burns best’, Matthew Ticknor, $30
2) ‘Acid and Base’, Jacob Holesinger, $20
3) ‘Which CAN gets crushed easier?, Kaelan Prime $10

Engineering – Mechanical and Electrical
1) ‘Bye Bye Bridges’, Trisha Barkss, $30
2) ‘What’s Hot? What’s Not?, Isabelle Lakis, $20
3) ‘Colors in the SUN’, Brad Marley, $10

Junior Category [Grades 6 – 8]

Engineering – Materials & Bio-Engineering
1) ‘What would you want to wear in war’, Thomas Barks, $30
2) ‘Thermal expansion of metal’, Mellisa Pollat, $20
3) ‘Shaking Houses’, Justin Dunn, $10

Engineering – Mechanical and Electrical
1) ‘How to win a pine wood derby if you have to cheat’. Amanda Mercer, $30
2) ‘Let it snow, Let it snow, Let it snow’, Kyle Partin, $20
3) ‘Ipod Chargers’, Colin Hemez, $10

Senior Category [Grades 9-12]

Engineering – Electrical & Mechanical Engineering
1) ‘The Underground Radio’, Alexander Kendrick, $30

Dinner Meeting Thursday December 6:

Advocate for Alternative Energy Ben Luce
co-founder of the New Mexico Coalition for Clean Affordable Energy and founder of Break the Grip

“ The Alternative Energy Scene in New Mexico ”

Ben Luce will give a talk on federal and state alternative energy incentives in New Mexico. He will also discuss the current status of alternative energy here in New Mexico, and how this relates to other states around the Nation. Ben will then give his opinion of where the state is going on this subject, and where he and other advocates think it should be going. Ben is a former Chair and Policy Director of the New Mexico Coalition for Clean Affordable Energy, and the founder of “Break the Grip”, a citizen based campaign to promote a truly sustainable future determined by the people, for the people.

Fuller Lodge, Los Alamos, Thursday, December 6th

SOCIAL TIME: 5:30
DINNER: 6:00-7:00
SPEAKER: 7:00-8:00 

COST: $10 for ASME and IEEE members and guests, $15 non-members

MENU : De Colores Mexican buffet (chips and salsa, green chicken and red beef enchiladas, green chile rice, pinto beans, tortillas and water.

Cash bar available ( beer and wine ).

RSVP by December 1 to Mike Steinzig, 667-5772, or steinzig@lanl.gov.

 

Sponsored by the Northern New Mexico Section of ASME Co-sponsored by the Los Alamos / Northern New Mexico Section of IEEE

 

 

Northern New Mexico Section of American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) presents

GEOMETRIC DIMENSIONING and TOLERANCING
Extended Principles/Applications (Level II)

DATES, TIMES AND LOCATION:

Level II: October 29 through October 31. Monday, 1PM to 5PM, Tuesday all day (8 AM to 5 PM), Wednesday 8 AM to 12 noon

The class will be held in the Research Park Bldg., TA-3-4200 (formerly known as the Motorola Building), Room 202A. This is Vital Alert Communications’ Conference Room on the same floor as Hot Rocks Java Cafe.

COURSE DESCRIPTION

Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing, Level II (GD&T, Level II) is a two-day course that addresses the extended principles of GD&T, including design and inspection considerations. Students will focus on design intent, basic calculations for inner and outer boundaries, applications and max/min between features.

INSTRUCTOR

Your instructor will be Tony Cimabue, who has over 34 years of experience in industry and at Los Alamos National Lab. He is a GD&T Professional certified by ASME at the Senior Level in accordance with the qualifications of ASME Y14.5.2.

OBJECTIVES

To understand and apply the Fundamentals and Extended Principles of Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing, specifically:

• The concepts, rules and language of GD&T
• GD&T symbology
• Steps for proper Datum selection and specification
• Definitions and effects of Material Condition Modifiers.
• Datum Modifiers and Datum Virtual Condition Rule.
• More complex controls such as composite profile and position, zero position tolerancing, and coaxial holes and runout controls will be studied in-depth.
• Inner and Outer boundary calculations and their applications.
• Calculations for: fasteners, wall thickness, detail and assembly stacks
• Functional gage design and Paper gaging inspection techniques

There will be practical applications and numerous exercises for all of the above topics.

WHO SHOULD ATTEND

If you have been attempting to work with GD&T but lack confidence in describing part specifications or are having trouble interpreting these specifications, this course is for you. This program is for designers, engineers, machinists/inspectors or anyone in Quality Control.

CREDIT

This class qualifies for 3.75 CEUs (1.5 for Fundamentals and 2.25 for Extended) or 37.5 PDHs.

PREREQUISITES

Students should have a good understanding of engineering drawings (blueprint reading).

COURSE FEES

		Level II with Answer Guide	Opt: ASME Y14.5M Standard – 1994 Dimensioning and Tolerancing
ASME Member		$725	$135
Non-member		$875	$135

Lunch Talk Tuesday September 25

Louis Rosocha, P-24 on Plasma Assisted Combustion for More Efficient Engines

Date/Time: Tuesday September 25, 2007, 12:00-1:00
Location: Otowi Cafeteria Side Rooms A & B, Los Alamos National Laboratory. Open to the public, the Otowi Building is on the lower map.
Lunch: Buy from cafeteria or bring your own

Title: APPLICATIONS OF PLASMA TO COMBUSTION ENHANCEMENT

Louis Rosocha, P-24 LANL

The application of electric fields to flames has been studied at least as far back as 1814, was applied to flame combustion in the 1920’s and was further developed into several applications in the last half of the 20th Century. When the electric field strength is sufficient to cause electrical breakdown of a fuel or fuel/air mixture, plasma effects will dominate. Plasma effects can increase electron and ion temperatures and promote combustion through the formation of ‘active’ species (such as free radicals) or the dissociation of fuel molecules into smaller, more-easily combusted fragments.
Plasma-assisted combustion (PAC) is now a timely topic worldwide, possibly having applications that can allow more efficient fossil-fuel usage, the conversion of low-grade fuels into higher-grade fuels, and the reduction of pollution through ultra-lean burn combustion. This chapter focuses on non-equilibrium (“cold” or “non-thermal”) plasma applications to combustion, particularly for enhancing combustion stability, efficiency, and reducing undesirable emissions. This is in contrast to equilibrium (“hot” or “thermal”) plasmas (e.g., spark plugs, plasma jets/torches).
This talk will present a brief historical background on electric field and plasma effects on combustion and will then discuss non-equilibrium plasmas, as mainly applied to combustion stability, efficiency, and pollution reduction in more detail. Plasma-based ignition will be covered to a lesser extent because it is considered a specialized, although important, topic within the PAC field. Selected examples from the literature will be presented, but the talk will primarily focus on work carried out at the author’s institution that will provide examples of non-equilibrium plasma applications to combustion enhancement.

 

GEOMETRIC DIMENSIONING and TOLERANCING COURSE
LEVEL I
Fundamentals, Interpretation and Applications

To register now, click on the link below or paste the address into your web browser.
http://www.acteva.com/booking.cfm?bevaid=139444

DATES, TIMES AND LOCATION: August 7, 8 and 9

Tuesday, 8:00 AM to noon
Wednesday, 8:00 to 5:00 PM
Thursday, 8:00 AM to noon

The class will be held in the Research Park Bldg., TA-3-4200, Room 202A.

COURSE DESCRIPTION: “Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing” (GD&T) provides the basis for defining and communicating engineering design specifications. This course focuses on methods to improve communication among engineers, designers, manufacturing and inspection. The 16-hour course is a complete and thorough introduction to the ASME Y14.5M Standard and includes practical application exercises. This course is geared to those individuals with little to moderate experience with GD&T.

OBJECTIVES:

• Introduce the concepts, rules and language of the ASME Y14.5M-1994 standard
• Enable participants to understand and apply the GD&T symbology
• Provide participants with knowledge for proper Datum selection and specification
• Understand the definitions and effects of Material Condition Modifiers
• Calculate functional tolerances for fasteners
• Introduction to inspection techniques and functional gage design

WHY ATTEND? Your drawings have GD&T on them (or maybe they are supposed to)! If you have been attempting to work with GD&T but lack the confidence to set up specifications or have trouble interpreting a specification, this course is for you. Using GD&T improperly can be worse than not using it at all! This course is designed for drafters, designers, engineers, machinists, inspectors and quality assurance (QA) personnel.

INSTRUCTOR: The instructor, Tony Cimabue, is a Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing Professional certified by ASME in accordance with the qualification ASME Y14.5.2. Tony has over 30 years of professional experience applying geometric dimensioning and tolerancing to complex design problems at Los Alamos National Laboratory and in private industry.

PREREQUISITES: Working understanding of engineering drawings or blueprint reading
COURSE CREDIT: 1.5 CEUs (15 PDHs)
COURSE FEES:

		Course with Workbook only	Course with Workbook and ASME Y14.5M Standard
ASME Member		$850	$986
Non-member		$1000	$1136

 

WORKBOOK : Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing by Al Neumann with references to the ASME Y14.5 Standard will be provided.

 

Lunch Talk Tuesday July 24

Date/Time: Tuesday July 24, 2007, 12:00-1:00
Location: Otowi Cafeteria Side Rooms A & B
Lunch: Buy from cafeteria or bring your own

Title: LANL Space Instrumentation and Related Mechanical Engineering Challenges

John Bernardin, LANL ISR-1

A general overview of several recently developed LANL space exploration and monitoring instruments will be given.  General Mechanical Engineering challenges associated with these instrument designs, as well as some specific engineering problems and corresponding solutions will be presented.  There will be plenty of time for questions and open discussions.

Membership Party June 12

Lunch Talk Thursday May 31

Lunch Meeting Tuesday April 10 (this was a great talk last December, but it came on a snow delay day, so we are repeating it)

Pandemic Influenza and the Engineering Challenges They Present

This talk (see abstract) was very well received. Here are the links for more information:
- Ron's slides: http://www.infragardnm.org/Dolin_Pandemic_Overview.pdf
- Some sites on stockpiling food: www.providentliving.org  (Mormon), www.alpinesurvival.com

Ron Dolin
Chief of Staff, The Center for Homeland Security (CHS)
Los Alamos National Laboratory

Date/Time: Tuesday April 10, 2007, 12:00-1:00
Location: Otowi Cafeteria Side Rooms
Lunch: Buy from cafeteria or bring your own

The US President's Homeland Security Council recently released their National Strategy for Pandemic Influenza. This national strategy outlines the roles and responsibilities for the federal government during a pandemic. Since a flu pandemic will be everywhere all at once, the federal government is advising state and local agencies that they will be responsible for performing the many disaster relief tasks that have historically been performed by the federal government. As communities plan for a pandemic many engineering challenges have to be overcome.
 
This presentation gives an overview of the N5H1 virus; explains why this flu strain is so deadly, how it could become a pandemic, and what communities and individuals should prepare for. Many of the lessons learned by the Los Alamos Local Emergency Planning Committee when they went through their planning process will be discussed.  The presentation will outline how aspects of our society, such as food production and vaccine distribution will be strained during a pandemic

Northern New Mexico Section of ASME Int'l presents its

GEOMETRIC DIMENSIONING and TOLERANCING COURSE
LEVEL I

Fundamentals, Interpretation and Applications

Register through Acteva. More information below.

DATES, TIMES AND LOCATION: April 10 and 11, 2007, Tuesday and Wednesday, 8:00 to 5:00 PM

Class Location and Directions:
The course will be held in Room 203B of the Research Park Building (Technical Area 3, Building 4200) at Los Alamos National Laboratory.

COURSE DESCRIPTION: “Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing” (GD&T) provides the basis for defining and communicating engineering design specifications. This course focuses on methods to improve communication among engineers, designers, manufacturing and inspection. The 16-hour course is a complete and thorough introduction to the ASME Y14.5M Standard and includes practical application exercises. This course is geared to those individuals with little to moderate experience with GD&T.

OBJECTIVES:

• Introduce the concepts, rules and language of the ASME Y14.5M-1994 standard
• Enable participants to understand and apply the GD&T symbology
• Provide participants with knowledge for proper Datum selection and specification
• Understand the definitions and effects of Material Condition Modifiers
• Calculate functional tolerances for fasteners
• Introduction to inspection techniques and functional gage design

WHY ATTEND? Your drawings have GD&T on them (or maybe they are supposed to)! If you have been attempting to work with GD&T but lack the confidence to set up specifications or have trouble interpreting a specification, this course is for you. Using GD&T improperly can be worse than not using it at all! This course is designed for drafters, designers, engineers, machinists, inspectors and quality assurance (QA) personnel.

INSTRUCTOR: The instructor, Tony Cimabue, is a Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing Professional certified by ASME in accordance with the qualification ASME Y14.5.2. Tony has over 30 years of professional experience applying geometric dimensioning and tolerancing to complex design problems at Los Alamos National Laboratory and in private industry.

PREREQUISITES: Working understanding of engineering drawings or blueprint reading

COURSE CREDIT: 1.5 CEUs (15 PDHs)

COURSE FEES:

WORKBOOK : Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing by Al Neumann with references to the ASME Y14.5 Standard will be provided.

RECOMMENDED REFERENCE BOOK:ASME Y14.5M Standard – 1994 Dimensioning and Tolerancing may be purchased when enrolling in class.

REGISTRATION: Click on link to Acteva with a purchase card/major credit card in hand. For questions, contact Anne Browning, preferably by email: nnm-asme at cybermesa.com, or by phone at 505-470-7379 between 9 AM and 5 PM.

REGISTRATION and MISCELLANEOUS INFORMATION

NOTE: You should register only online through Acteva. See 4 below for other option.

REGISTRANTS:

• Register soon to ensure that the class will have enough students. The purchase card holder can register multiple people at once but should be sure to give Email, Address (Group number and Mail Stop if LANL employee/contractor) and Phone Number for each person registering. If the class is full, register under the wait list option, which doesn’t require immediate payment. If slots become available, we will notify you. If that doesn’t happen, we will email you in advance of the next offering. If less than six register, we will cancel the class and give those registered a full refund.
• You will receive a confirmation from Acteva that you have a slot reserved and paid for once credit card and registration information is received and processed. Make sure your name is on this. Keep a copy of the Acteva confirmation for your records.
• LANL personnel: Please use a group purchase card.
• Non-LANL personnel may pay by check but should register promptly to reserve a space. E mail Anne Browning for information on how to register when paying with check.
• If you have any special needs or questions, please contact Anne Browning, giving a minimum of name and phone number repeated slowly .

Snacks: We provide handheld breakfast burritos from Hot Rocks each morning at 7:45AM and daily snacks of trail mix and such in the classroom. Coffee/tea/hot water and ice water are available throughout the day. If they run low, students should feel free to take empty carafes or pitchers directly to the cash register at Hot Rocks for a refill. Anne will send an email reminder about the class on the Friday or/and Monday before class. This will be the chance to specify choice of breakfast burrito or other breakfast items for the first class: Bacon/Chorizo/Ham/Sausage/Veggie, Red/Green and any other special requests, like chili on the side. Lunch is on your own.

Parking Permits: Parking Permits are no longer required but please don’t park in spaces designated Visitor. You do not qualify for this short term parking and you could be towed.

NORTHERN NEW MEXICO SECTION – ASME address: NNM Section – ASME
PO Box 119
Los Alamos, NM 87544

NORTHERN NEW MEXICO SECTION – ASME Contact:
Anne Browning
Phone: 505-470-7379, okay to leave a message
E-mail: nnm-asme at cybermesa.com Replace at and spaces with @

To register now, click on the link below or paste the address into your web browser.
http://www.acteva.com/booking.cfm?bevaid=127416

Dinner Meeting Wednesday February 14

A Novel Steam Engine for Vehicles

Bob Bourque

Date/Time: Wednesday January 31, 2007, 12:00-1:00
Location: Otowi Cafeteria Side Rooms
Lunch: Buy from cafeteria or bring your own

Lunch Meeting Tuesday December 19

Pandemic Influenza and the Engineering Challenges They Present

Ron Dolin
Chief of Staff, The Center for Homeland Security (CHS)
Los Alamos National Laboratory

Date/Time: Tuesday December 19, 2006, 12:00-1:00
Location: Otowi Cafeteria Side Rooms
Lunch: Buy from cafeteria or bring your own

The US President's Homeland Security Council recently released their National Strategy for Pandemic Influenza. This national strategy outlines the roles and responsibilities for the federal government during a pandemic. Since a flu pandemic will be everywhere all at once, the federal government is advising state and local agencies that they will be responsible for performing the many disaster relief tasks that have historically been performed by the federal government. As communities plan for a pandemic many engineering challenges have to be overcome.
 
This presentation gives an overview of the N5H1 virus; explains why this flu strain is so deadly, how it could become a pandemic, and what communities and individuals should prepare for. Many of the lessons learned by the Los Alamos Local Emergency Planning Committee when they went through their planning process will be discussed.  The presentation will outline how aspects of our society, such as food production and vaccine distribution will be strained during a pandemic

(It may sometimes appear that we are out of seats for either
ASME members or non-members. Please use the waitlist option
so we can make room for more attendees)

Northern New Mexico Section of ASME Int'l presents its

GEOMETRIC DIMENSIONING and TOLERANCING COURSE
LEVEL II

Extended Principles

DATES, TIMES AND LOCATION:

September 26, Tuesday 8:00AM to 5:00 PM
September 27, Wednesday 8:00AM to 5:00 PM

 The class will be held in the Research Park Bldg., TA-3-4200, Room 202A.

COURSE DESCRIPTION: Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing, Level II (GD&T, Level II) is a two-day course that addresses the extended principles of GD&T, including design and inspection considerations. Students will focus on design intent, basic calculations for inner and outer boundaries, applications and max/min between features.

PREREQUISITES:A course in GD&T Fundamentals

WHO SHOULD ATTEND:Designers, drafters, engineers, machinists, inspectors, and quality assurance (QA) personnel

INSTRUCTOR:The instructor, Tony Cimabue, is a Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing Professional certified by ASME in accordance with the qualification ASME Y14.5.2. Tony has over 30 years of professional experience applying geometric dimensioning and tolerancing to complex design problems at Los Alamos National Laboratory and in private industry.

WORKBOOK : Geometric Dimensioning and TolerancingFundamentalsWorkbook 1994 Std by Al Neumann with references to the ASME Y14.5 Standard (same books as used in Fundamentals class) Note that Workbook is required for this class, but those who took the GD&T Fundamentals class previously with Tony may reuse their workbook.

RECOMMENDED REFERENCE BOOK:ASME Y14.5M Standard – 1994 Dimensioning and Tolerancing

COURSE CREDIT: 1.5 CEU (15 PDH)

COURSE FEES:

REGISTRATION: Click on link to Acteva with a purchase card/major credit card in hand.(Our memo from CFO authorizing the use of Purchase Cards for local GD&T classes is at the top of the page.) For questions, contact Anne Browning, preferably by email: nnm-asme at cybermesa.com, or by phone at 505-470-7379 between 9 and 5 after September 1.

REGISTRATION INFORMATION

 The class will be held in the Research Park Bldg., TA-3-4200, Avanza’s Room 202A. No parking permits except for handicapped spaces are currently required.

(directions to the Research Park.)

NOTE: We prefer you to register only online through Acteva. See below for other option.

REGISTRANTS:

• Register early because we have only 19 slots available. The purchase card holder can register multiple people at once but should be sure to give Email, Address (Group number and Mail Stop if LANL employee/contractor) and Phone Number for each person registering. If the class is full, register under the wait list option, which doesn’t require immediate payment. If slots become available, we will notify you. If that doesn’t happen, we will email you in advance of the next offering. If less than 9 register, we will cancel the class and give those registered a full refund.
• You will receive a confirmation from Acteva that you have a slot reserved and paid for once credit card and registration information is received and processed. Make sure your name is on this. Keep a copy of the Acteva confirmation for your records.
• LANL personnel: Please use a group purchase card. Copy of memo permitting this is available on our website.
• Non-LANL personnel may pay by check but should register promptly to reserve a space. Email Anne Browning for information on how to register when paying with check.
• If you have any special needs or questions, please contact Anne Browning, giving a minimum of name and phone number repeated slowly .

Snacks: We provide handheld breakfast burritos and/or other breakfast items from Hot Rocks each morning at 7:45AM and daily snacks of trail mix and such in the classroom. Coffee/tea/hot water and ice water are available throughout the day. Anne will send an email reminder about the class on the Friday or Monday before class. Your response will confirm that you are coming and be your choice from the several breakfast items. Lunch is on your own.

Parking Permits: Parking Permits are no longer required but please don’t park in spaces designated Visitor. You do not qualify for this short term parking and you could be towed.

NORTHERN NEW MEXICO SECTION – ASME address:

NNM Section – ASME
PO Box 119
Los Alamos, NM 87544

NORTHERN NEW MEXICO SECTION – ASME Contact:

Anne Browning
Phone: 505-470-7379, okay to leave a message
E-mail: nnm-asme at cybermesa.com Replace at and spaces with @

Where: Urban Park , Los Alamos
When: June 28, 2006 5:30 pm

We have done well this past year (July 2005- June 2006) and we wanted to share the joy with you all.

Bring your spouse, friends, kids...... There will be plenty of BBQ and drinks provided by Northern New Mexico Section.

Dear Members and guests: You are invited to join us in celebration of Engineering on February 22 at the High School Cafeteria in Los Alamos.

See DiscoverE2006.pdf for more information

Wednesday, February 22, 2006
4:30 to 7:30 PM
Los Alamos High School Cafeteria (DECA)
 
Students (K-12), teachers and parents
are invited to attend this free event.
 
Food and beverages will be served along with many interesting, interactive and fun science and engineering demonstrations.

Northern New Mexico Section of ASME Int’l presents its
GEOMETRIC DIMENSIONING AND TOLERANCING COURSE
Geometric Tolerancing Stacks, Applications and Analysis

See also Stacks&AnalysisWebAd.doc

DATES, TIMES and LOCATION:
Wednesday, 15 February
Thursday, 16 February
Wednesday, 22 February
Thursday, 23 February 2006 

$1100 for ASME members, $1200 for non-members
 
All classes meet from 8AM to 5PM each of the four days.
Classroom location: Research Park (TA-3-4200) Room 203A (same floor as Hot Rocks Java Café)
 
COURSE DESCRIPTION:  This 32-hour course educates students in the fundamentals of tolerance stacks.  These basic techniques can be used for calculating the effects of coordinate and geometric tolerance accumulations on both individual parts and assemblies. Tolerance stacks are important tools for designers, engineers, and manufacturing and inspection personnel.  Students will learn to apply geometric tolerancing to drawings of mating parts and assemblies and then perform tolerance stacks analysis to ensure the specifications are met.
 
PREREQUISITES:   Students should be well-versed in the Fundamentals of GD&T (Basic and Advanced classes).
 
WHO SHOULD ATTEND:  Designers, drafters, engineers, inspectors and quality assurance personnel
 
INSTRUCTOR:  The instructor, Tony Cimabue, is a Senior Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing Professional certified by ASME in accordance with the qualifications of ASME Y14.5.2.  Tony has over 30 years of professional experience using GD&T on complex design problems both in industry and at Los Alamos National Laboratory.
 
WORKBOOKS:  Geometric Tolerancing – Stacks and Analysis Workbook
and Applications with Stacks Workbook by Al Neumann
Note:  These two workbooks are required for this course. Course fee includes both, which will be provided at the first class.
                                                                                                                
RECOMMENDED REFERENCE BOOKS:  Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing Fundamentals Workbook by Al Neumann and the ASME Y14.5M 1994 Standard. (These books are not required to attend or participate in the class)
 
COURSE CREDIT:  3.0 CEU (30PDH) thru ASME International
 
PERKS: Breakfast burritos, coffee, tea, water and snacks will be provided.

Congratulations to the winners of ASME prizes at the Los Alamos Science Fair:

General Membership Meeting and Raffle Drawing

We will have a general meeting on Wednesday January 25th, 12:00-1:00 at the Research Park, Room T-222.  All members and prospective members are encouraged to attend.

Pizza Hut pizza will be provided for everyone that responds before Wednesday morning at 9:00.  Please send an email to Richard Browning, rvb127@cybermesa.com, with your choice of pizza type.  We will try to accommodate individual preferences on types, so please be detailed if you like something specific.  Defaults are sausage and veggie. 

The meeting will also feature a drawing for the Alibre software package.We will still sell tickets at the meeting, for those unable to get a check in the mail this week.

Lunch Meeting Monday December 19

LANL Senior Design Projects with Bradley University

See flyer_ME.pdf

Dr. Martin Morris
Professor and Assistant Chair of the Department of Mechanical Engineering
Bradley University

Date/Time: Monday December 19, 2005, 12:00-1:00
Location: Cochiti Room of the J. Robert Oppenheimer Study Center

Dr. Morris will talk about the unique senior project design experience
at Bradley University and give an overview of the three LANL projects
for this year. Two of the teams and their faculty advisors will be
visiting LANL and will attend the talk.

The objective of the senior design course is to provide a realistic
experience in the practice of engineering design for senior mechanical
engineering students. Students work in teams of three (or four) as
project consultants. They work for clients in industry or other external
agencies. The team develops a solution to a problem with guidance from
representatives of the client and a faculty advisor. Past projects have
ranged from paper studies, open ended research topics, to prototype
delivery, focused on the specific design of a machine element. Topics
have spanned the spectrum of mechanical engineering and have also
included aspects of bioengineering, electrical engineering,
manufacturing, and cost analysis. In the past two years they have
provided solutions to industry clients induding Caterpillar Inc., John
Deere, Boeing, Visteon, NASA, U.S. Air Force, OSF St. Francis Hospital,
ASHRAE, Winzeler Gear, Copeland, and a large theme park in central
Florida.

Dr. Morris has been a professor at Bradley since 1997. Before teaching,
Dr. Morris worked for 7 years as a Principle Technical Specialist and
Scientist in the Advanced Systems and Technology-Phantom Works at
McDonnell Douglas Aerospace and McDonnell Douglas Research Laboratories
in St. Louis, MO. Dr. Morris has a strong interest in teaching the next
generation of engineers as well as providing them with excellent
research opportunities.

Lunch Meeting Tuesday December 6

Alibre Design: Low Cost Parametric Solid Modeling / Product Development Software

Paul Grayson
Founder and Chairman of the Board and
Scott Erickson, Alibre Inc., Richardson, TX  .

Date/Time: Tuesday December 6, 2005, 12:00-1:00
Location: Otowi Cafeteria Side Rooms A/B
Lunch: Buy from cafeteria or bring your own

Scott Erickson, Alibre Inc., Richardson, TX  

Alibre Inc. is a company originally founded to harness Internet technology for distributed product design teams.  Alibre Design is a low cost, yet full featured, parametric solid modeling system with associative 2D drafting similar to products such as SolidWorks, Solid Edge, AutoDesk Inventor,and Pro/E.  Alibre Design also provides integration for NC machining and finite element engineering analysis programs.  

In the talk Paul and Scott will discuss the unique business plan and growth of the company, including:
* Founding the company in 1997 -- original vision
* Corporate development -- Solution Partners, Consultants, Resellers
* The 3D CAD "landscape" and how Alibre Design fits in
* Product development methods
* Future Plans and Goals  

After the talk, Scott will be available to provide product demonstrations and answer any technical questions about Alibre Design. For further information or to register for a free 30-day evaluation version of Alibre Design, please visit www.alibre.com.

Lunch Meeting Wednesday November 2

Application of Large-Eddy Simulations of Industrial Effluents for Hyperspectral Remote Sensing Systems

David S. DeCroix, PhD.

D-5: Nuclear Design and Risk Analysis

Date/Time: Wednesday November 2, 2005, 12:00-1:00
Location: Otowi Cafeteria Side Rooms A/B
Lunch: Buy from cafeteria or bring your own

Plume and industrial effluent modeling is an area our team has been actively involved in for a number of years.  Most recently we have developed modeling tools that are being used for hyperspectral sensor analysis.

The plume modeling codes predict the concentration and temperature of a release as a function of space and time as the effluent flows in and around buildings and obstacles.  Two main codes are being actively developed, one a fast running urban dispersion model that couples a mass consistent wind model with a Lagrangian dispersion code that computes mean wind and effluent concentrations.  The other is a large-eddy simulation code that provides high spatial and temporal resolution of instantaneous concentrations and temperatures, including turbulent fluctuations, simulating realistic variability in the effluent dispersion.  Once the plumes have been modeled for a specific site, an invariant chemical composition is assumed at the effluent source location, and the plume model concentrations are scaled appropriately for a given flow rate.  A composite spectrum is defined using existing libraries of individual gas spectra for the portion of the spectrum.  From the resultant plume simulations, we have the concentration and temperature of the effluent gas has a function of three-dimensional space and time.  We then compute the plume radiance and transmittance for the assumed gas mixture, and superimpose this "flattened" plume over the site.  We then compute the effect of the surface materials and their radiance and transmittance through the plume and atmosphere to a hyperspectral (or multispectral) instrument.

In the presentation  I  will show several simulations of plumes, will show how these plumes would look as seen by a hyperspectral instrument and will discuss the effects of steady state and temporally evolving plume concentration and radiance on the sensors minimum detectable quantity.

Bio:  David DeCroix received a BSME (May 1985) and MSME (December 1986) from Bradley University.  He then worked in the aerospace industry at Rockwell International, North American Aircraft Division in the advanced design aerodynamics group.  While at NAA he was involved in wind tunnel testing and computational fluid dynamics in the design of advanced concept vehicles.  In 1994 he took an educational leave of absence and was accepted into the atmospheric science doctoral program at North Carolina State University.  He came to LANL in 1999 as a GRA, became a postdoc, then a staff member in 2003.  At LANL he works in the Decision Applications division, group D-5, Nuclear Design and Risk Assessment, where he is the Computational Fluid Dynamics and Aerosol Transport Team Leader.  He works on general CFD problems and turbulent transport and diffusion, particularly in the urban atmospheric boundary layer.

October Dinner Meeting: Fuller Lodge, Saturday, October 15th

Flyer: Schmitt_Flyer.pdf

Former Senator and Astronaut

Harrison H. Schmitt

“ Return to the Moon ”

 

Fuller Lodge, Saturday, October 15th
SOCIAL TIME: 5:00-5:30 DINNER: 5:30-6:15
LECTURE: 6:15-7:15

COST: $13 for members and guests, $17 nonmembers

MENU : Southwest Stuffed Chicken Breast, BBQ Beef Brisket, Rice Pilaf, Mashed Potatoes, Salad, Roll. Cash bar available ( beer and wine ).

RSVP by October 12 to Brian Smith, bsmith@lanl.gov, or phone 665-2666.

Seating is limited so please make plans early!

Sorry, autograph requests cannot be honored on this evening..

.

Sponsored by the Northern New Mexico Section of ASME

Northern New Mexico Section of ASME Int'l presents its GEOMETRIC DIMENSIONING and TOLERANCING COURSE LEVEL II - Extended Principles

DATES, TIMES AND LOCATION:
September 21, Wednesday 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM
September 22, Thursday 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM

The classroom is located in the Research Park (Motorola) Bldg. TA-3-4200, Room 203A.

Register early because we limit the class to 20 participants.

INSTRUCTOR: The instructor, Tony Cimabue, is a Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing Professional certified by ASME in accordance with the qualification ASME Y14.5.2. Tony has over 30 years of professional experience applying geometric dimensioning and tolerancing to complex design problems at Los Alamos National Laboratory and in private industry.

COURSE DESCRIPTION: Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing, Level II (GD&T, Level II) is a two-day course that addresses the extended principles of GD&T, including design and inspection considerations. Students will focus on design intent, basic calculations for inner and outer boundaries, applications and max/min between features.

See GD&TWebAdLevelII.doc for all of the details.

• contact Anne Browning, preferably at
  nnm-asme@cybermesa.com, or by phone at 505-470-7379 between 9 and 5 for questions. Please leave a message

Lunch Meeting Tuesday September 6

IAEA Unattended Monitoring Systems

Date/Time: Tuesday September 6, 2005, 12:00-1:00
Location: Otowi Cafeteria Side Room
Lunch: Buy from cafeteria or bring your own

This talk will introduce you to the concept of unattended monitoring systems as employed by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). It will also briefly touch on policy and financial drivers for this technology. It will also cover the worldwide application, goals, objectives, design philosophy, and some of the technologies currently in use.

Mark J. Schanfein, Safeguards Systems, N-4, Los Alamos National Laboratory

Mark has degrees in Mechanical Engineering and Material Science. He first joined the IAEA's Secretariat in 1978 where he served 4 years as an inspector within the Department of Safeguards and as a Group Leader implementing the first geographical team approach to safeguarding nuclear complexes including low enriched and MOX fuel fabrication facilities, reprocessing, research reactors, and research labs. From August 2000 to 2004, Mark returned to the IAEA as the Unit Head of the Unit for Unattended Monitoring System (UMS) in the Section for Installed Systems in the Department of Safeguards, while maintaining inspector status for short term assignments. He managed a team of scientists, engineers and technicians supporting over 90 fielded systems installed worldwide, carried out the design and testing of new systems, and managed the multi-million dollar UMS R&D program.

Between these IAEA tours, Mark was at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). He held three main positions while there. In his first job, he had oversight responsibility for all technical aspects of domestic safeguards at LANL including all destructive and non-destructive measurement of nuclear materials and all personnel and vehicle portal monitoring. In the second, he was responsible for all non-destructive nuclear material measurements at the LANL Plutonium Facility and the Chemical and Metallurgical Research Facility including research into difficult to measure matrices. Just prior to leaving he was the Lead Project Leader responsible for a multi-million dollar research and development program for domestic safeguards in support of the Department of Energy Nuclear Weapons Complex.

Currently Mark is the Deputy Group Leader in N-4, Systems Studies, and is contributing to two projects. One is to leverage IAEA technologies into domestic safeguards (in this regard, Mark recently received approval from TA-55 management to start the first such modern installation in the Plutonium Facility). The other is as the technical coordinator for safeguards in the Advanced Fuel Cycle Initiative.

GEOMETRIC DIMENSIONING and TOLERANCING COURSE Fundamentals, Interpretation and Applications

DATES, TIMES AND LOCATION:
August 2, Tuesday 8:00 to 12:00 noon
August 3, Wednesday 8:00 to 5:00 PM
August 4, Thursday 8:00 to 12:00 noon

The classroom is located in the Research Park (Motorola) Bldg. TA-3-4200, Room 203A. directions: dirnsAug05.doc

INSTRUCTOR: The instructor, Tony Cimabue, is a Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing Professional certified by ASME in accordance with the qualification ASME Y14.5.2. Tony has over 30 years of professional experience applying geometric dimensioning and tolerancing to complex design problems at Los Alamos National Laboratory and in private industry.

COURSE DESCRIPTION: "Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing" (GD&T) provides the basis for defining and communicating engineering design specifications. This course focuses on methods to improve communication among engineers, designers, manufacturing and inspection. The 16-hour course is a complete and thorough introduction to the ASME Y14.5M Standard and includes practical application exercises. This course is geared to those individuals with little to moderate experience with GD&T.

See GD&T1CurrentWebAd.doc for all of the details.

Lunch Meeting Wednesday June 1

Enhancing Quality of Life in Los Alamos: The Civic Center Project

Date/Time: Wednesday, June 1, 2005, 12:00-1:00
Location: Otowi Cafeteria Side Room C
Lunch: Buy from cafeteria or bring your own

Speaker: Sid Singer. See Sid's Bio.

Almost the entire public quality-of-life infrastructure in Los Alamos was
built by the Atomic Energy Commission and transferred to Los Alamos County
and the Schools by the mid-1960s. Much of that infrastructure is now
obsolescent, perhaps even obsolete, and is increasingly unable to satisfy
the needs of Los Alamos today. The Civic Center is an ambitious project
intended to restore the heart and spirit of community life in Los Alamos
by building downtown a large banquet hall with attendant meeting rooms, a
700 seat performing arts center suitable for a broad variety of public
event that would be attractive to people of all ages and interests, and a
concessions building that would house an Internet Café and a 12 lane
bowling center.

The talk will briefly summarize how the project started and how it came to
have its proposed features. Mainly, we will describe the results of the
preliminary design, the cost estimate, and how the project is proposed to
be financed. We will close by offering some opinions as to why the
project is important to the future of Los Alamos.

Lunch Meeting Thursday May 5

When: Noon - 1:00, Thursday, May 5, 2005
Where: LANL, TA-3, Bldg 261 (Otowi Building), Cafeteria Side Rooms
Lunch: Buy from cafeteria or bring your own

TECHNICAL CHALLENGES ON THREE SPACECRAFT: GENESIS, SCIM, AND THE 2009 MARS ROVER

Roger Wiens, Space Science and Applications, ISR-1, Los Alamos National Laboratory

LANL has played, and is playing, key roles in instrumentation on a number of NASA planetary exploration spacecraft. Just last year the GENESIS mission returned samples (albeit somewhat broken!) containing solar wind collected in space over a period of two years. The SCIM mission was to collect samples of the Mars atmosphere and atmospheric dust during a Mach-27 pass through the Mars atmosphere, to return theses samples to Earth. SCIM went through a detailed feasibility study in 2003, and although not selected at that time, it may still be selected for flight. LANL is also building a suite of instruments for the next Mars rover, to be launched in four years. I will touch briefly on each of these three missions and their technical challenges.

LANSCE Tour April 29, 2005, 2:30-5:30 PM

2:30 PM - Meet in the TA-53 Building 1 Lobby (this is the first building you come to on the left)
2:40 - 3:15 PM - Presentations: LANSCE Overview (Walt Barkley) and Mechanical Engineering (Systems - Walt Barkley, and Design - Jim O'Hara)
3:30 - 4:00 PM - Building 3J to meet Keith Stephens (he will be the tour guide) - will also have the Ion Source Physicist (Gary Rouleau)
4:10 - 5:00 PM - Building 849 for the Central Control Room and walk to Proton Radiography
5:00 - 5:30 PM - End of mesa for Gamma Ray telescope (Jim Wren of ISR-1 will show us this unique device)
5:30 PM - End of Tour

ASME distinguished lecturer April 15 2005

See pdf flyer for more details.

Where: Fuller Lodge, Los Alamos
When: Friday April 15
Social Time: 6:00-6:30
Dinner: 6:30-7:15
Lecture: 7:15-8:00
Cost: $13 for members and guests, $17 nonmembers
Menu: Almond Mango Chicken or Raspberry Pork, Rice Pilaf, Twice Baked Potatoes, Garden salad

SR-71 Blackbird - An Engineering Marvel

The world's fastest and highest flying aircraft was conceived as early as 1958 by the renowned aircraft engineer, Kelly Johnson. Built in total secrecy, the first Blackbird flew on April 26, 1962. When cruising at over 2,100 mph, with skin friction temperatures reaching 700 degrees Fahrenheit, the SR-71 performed at its best!. Col. (Ret) Richard Graham flew the Blackbirds for seven years on reconnaissance missions. The presentation includes two short videos, one on the SR-71, and another honoring Kelly Johnson.

ASME Distinguished lecturer Richard H. Graham, Col., USAF (Ret) flew the Blackbirds for over seven years on operational reconnaissance missions. He was selected to be the Squadron Commander of the SR-71 unit in 1980 and eventually became the Wing Commander at Beale AFB, which included both the SR-71 and U-2 aircraft. With over 15 years of experience with the SR-71 program, he is uniquely qualified to talk on the capabilities of the SR-71.

Northern New Mexico Section of ASME Int'l presents its
GEOMETRIC DIMENSIONING and TOLERANCING COURSE
Fundamentals, Interpretation and Applications

DATES, TIMES AND LOCATION:
April 12, Tuesday 8:00 to 12:00 noon
April 13, Wednesday 8:00 to 5:00 PM
April 14, Thursday 8:00 to 12:00 noon

The classroom is located in the Research Park (Motorola) Bldg. TA-3-4200, Room 203A.

COURSE DESCRIPTION: "Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing" (GD&T) provides the basis for defining and communicating engineering design specifications. This course focuses on methods to improve communication among engineers, designers, manufacturing and inspection. The 16-hour course is a complete and thorough introduction to the ASME Y14.5M Standard and includes practical application exercises. This course is geared to those individuals with little to moderate experience with GD&T.

See GD&TWebAd1.doc for all of the details.

Lunch Meeting Friday March 25

When: Noon - 1:00, Friday, March 25, 2005
Where: LANL, TA-3, Bldg 261 (Otowi Building), Cafeteria Side Rooms
Lunch: Buy from cafeteria or bring your own
No RSVP required

Development and implementation of a failure design criteria for blast loaded confinement vessels

This presentation focuses on the development and implementation of a failure design criteria for blast loaded confinement vessels, including rules and requirements that will be incorporated in the ASME Boiler & Pressure Vessel Code. Emphasis is placed on the High Explosve (HE) detonation-induced impulse loading, producing a highly dynamic response, with a non-linear strain field. The failure design criteria is presented, which uses a modification of current ASME Code Section III, Division 1, Appendix F rules, relative to plastic tensile instability. A strain-based, rather than a stress-based, approach is presented for ASME Code, Sec. VIII, Div. 3 adoption.

Ed Rodriguez, Technical Staff Member , Los Alamos National Laboratory. Ed is a long term ASME member and very active in the Codes community contributing to the ASME Boiler & Pressure Vessel Code

Lunch Meeting Tuesday March 1

When: 11:30 - 12:30, Tuesday, March 1, 2005
Where: LANL, TA-3, Bldg 261 (Otowi Building), Cafeteria Side Room A
Lunch: Buy at cafeteria or bring your own
No RSVP required

Material Test Station (MTS) at LANSCE Area A

Rick Wood
Technical Staff Member
Los Alamos National Laboratory

The proposed Material Test Station (MTS) for LANSCE will provide the first fast neutron irradiation capability in the US since the shut down of the FFTF and EBR-II sodium-cooled fast reactors. It will enable development of materials and nuclear fuels for advanced reactors for many future applications, including waste transmutation, breeder reactors, and NASA nuclear-powered deep-space probes.

Engineering Evening February 24

To volunteer, contact Snezana Konecni at konecni@lanl.gov or 505-665-5546.

The Materials Science & Engineering 2005 demonstrations evening is going to be held Thursday, February 24 from 4-7 PM at the Los Alamos High School DECA Cafeteria (same place as last year). Set-up will start at 3:30 PM and we should be all cleaned up by 8 PM.

Last year, we had 250 students K-12 and 30 adults. This year we are working with the LANL Community Outreach Office to contact students, colleges/universities and "tech companies" in the region. We estimate about 150-300 people. In order to handle this many visitors, we will need help with the demonstrations.

GD&T Level II (Extended Principles): February 15 & 16, 2005.

This two-day course looks at the extended principles of GD&T including design and inspection considerations. Students will focus on design intent, basic calculations for inner and outer boundaries, applications and max/min between features.
Class full, registration closed.
NOTE: Workbook is required for this class, but those who took the GD&T Fundamentals class with Tony in November or previously may reuse the workbook from the Fundamentals class.
For those in the class, see GDTLIIFeb05.doc for details.

GD&T Fundamentals: April 12(AM only), 13(all day), & 14 (AM only), 2005. Registration information will be available about mid-February.

For LANL people, see LANL training webpage on GD&T classes for possible future classes.

NOVEMBER ASME GEOMETRIC DIMENSIONING and TOLERANCING (GD&T) COURSE:

CLASS FULL: Interest has been very high and the November class for Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing (GDT), Fundamentals, Interpretation and Applications, is now full. You may apply for one of the winter or spring classes and we will put you on the waiting list. Tony Cimabue is planning to teach a GDandT Level 2, or advanced class, in February 2005, and he plans another GDT fundamentals class in early spring, possibly April. Contact Anne Browning at nnm-asme@cybermesa.com (18 October 2004).

For those that missed the first class, we are repeating the "GEOMETRIC DIMENSIONING and TOLERANCING COURSE: Fundamentals, Interpretation and Applications" on November 8, 9, and 10. See GDTclass_Nov.pdf for details. Register soon because the last class filled up. Payment due by October 29. For LANL people, please allow time for getting your check processed.

Download GDTclass_Nov.doc (Word document instead of pdf) if you want to fill in the registration form and email it in.

OCTOBER Dinner Meeting

When: Wednesday October 27, 20
Where: Los Alamos Research Park, Room 203B (Next to Hot Rock's Java Cafe

A History of the Baca Location No. 1

In "Valle Grande, A History of the Baca Location No. 1," Craig Martin tells the story of the Valles Caldera National Preserve from the creation of the Baca Grant to the establishment of the preserve.

Craig Martin is the author of 17 books on outdoor recreation and local history in northern New Mexico. He was a co-founder of the Volunteer Task Force, a non-profit group responsible for continued community-based recovery and education projects following the Cerro Grande Fire. He is currently the Open Space Specialist for Los Alamos County.

October Lunch Talk

Charles Farrar of ESA-WR will tak on "Structural Health Monitoring: Current Status and Future Directions".

When: Friday, October 1, 2004
Time: 12-1 pm
Where: Otowi building (TA-3) Side Room A-B, Los Alamos National Laboratory, open to all

The process of implementing a damage detection strategy for aerospace, civil and mechanical engineering infrastructure is referred to as structural health monitoring (SHM) and this presentation will provide an overview of this subject. Here damage is defined as changes to the material and/or geometric properties of these systems, including changes to the boundary conditions and system connectivity, which adversely affect the system's performance. The SHM process involves the observation of a system over time using periodically sampled dynamic response measurements from an array of sensors, the extraction of damage-sensitive features from these measurements, and the statistical analysis of these features to determine the current state of system health. For long term SHM, the output of this process is periodically updated information regarding the ability of the structure to perform its intended function in light of the inevitable aging and degradation resulting from operational environments. After extreme events, such as earthquakes or blast loading, SHM is used for rapid condition screening and aims to provide, in near real time, reliable information regarding the integrity of the structure.

To begin, the term damage will be defined and it will be shown that currently damage identification is implemented on three different length scales: the microscopic material level, initial component level damage, and system level damage. Next, the relationship between SHM and related technologies such as condition monitoring and non-destructive evaluation will be summarized. The presentation will then outline a four-step statistical pattern recognition paradigm for structural health monitoring that includes: 1. Operational Evaluation, 2. Data Acquisition, 3. Feature Extraction, and 4. Statistical Model Development. Steps 2-4 of the paradigm use either hardware or software to incorporate data cleansing, data normalization, data compression and data fusion into the SHM process. During these discussions examples of past, current and future SHM systems are provided to illustrate various aspects of the SHM process. With this background the concept of damage prognosis will be introduced as an extension of SHM that represents a "Grand Challenge" problem for the engineering community. This overview will conclude by addressing the question of why, in many cases, is SHM technology not making the transition from research to practice.

ASME GEOMETRIC DIMENSIONING and TOLERANCING (GD&T) COURSE: Fundamentals, Interpretation and Applications

DATES, TIMES AND LOCATION: 4 half days, 8:00 To 12 noon, Tuesdays and Thursdays, September 7, 9, 14 and 16. The classroom is located in the Research Park (Motorola) Building TA-3-4200 in room 203B.

COURSE DESCRIPTION: "Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing"(GD&T) provides the basis for defining and communicating engineering design specifications. This course focuses on methods to improve communication among engineers, designers, manufacturing and inspection. The 16 hour course is a complete and thorough introduction to the ASME 14.5M standard and includes practical application exercises. This course is geared to those individuals with little to a moderate level of experience with GD&T.

INSTRUCTOR: The instructor, Tony Cimabue, is a Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing Professional certified by ASME in accordance with the qualification ASME Y14.5.2. Tony has over 20 years of professional experience applying geometric dimensioning and tolerancing to complex design problems at Los Alamos National Laboratory.

See GDTclass.doc for more information and how to register( including easy instructions for LANL employess) . Contact Zana Konecni at 665-5546 (konecni@lanl.gov) for registration information.

June ASME Distinguished Lecturer Dinner Meeting

When: Saturday, June 26, 2004
Social Hour: 6-6:30pm
Dinner: 6:30-7:15
Lecture: 7:15-8:00
Where: De Colores Restaurant, Los Alamos, NM
Menu: Mexican Buffet
Cost (tentative): ASME Members $10, Non-members $15, Students $5

Indy Racing and the Effect of Aerodynamics on the Car
Arthur W. Eberling

The history of Indy racing from 1911:
· Marmon Wasp roadster, front wheel drive, side winder, rear engine mount, gas turbine, wings front and back, ground effects, pods on each side of cockpit, tire changes, frontal area reduction, engine changes, turbo-charging, non turbo charging and safety concerns.
· The suspension problems relating to set-up as well as changes in driving patterns.
· Wind tunnel testing as related to wings and tires.

Arthur W. Ebeling holds a B.S. from Rose Hulman Institute of Technology and has very broad experience in industry, chemical, steel, foundry and special metals. Holder of several patent rights in the controlled pressure pouring area, he is an ASME Fellow and has served in various capacities in a number of ASME units. His latest position was Midwest Director, a position he held for 18 years.

May Dinner Meeting, Joint Meeting with ASM:

Date: May 26, 2004
Location: Sunrise Springs (near the Downs race track south of Santa Fe - map (pdf) )
Social Hour: 6-7:00pm, Dinner: 7:00-8:00, Talk: 8:00-9:00
Menu: Asian appetizers, buffett featuring New York strip steak and baked Salmon fillet
Cost: $20 for ASME members and their spouses, $25 for guests

"Impressions from my visit to North Korea"
Siegfried S. Hecker, Los Alamos National Laboratory

In January I was invited to visit the North Korean nuclear facilities in Yongbyon in the midst of the current nuclear crisis on the Korean Peninsula. The nuclear facilities have been restarted following the rift between the U.S. and North Korea in the fall of 2002. These facilities are industrial scale facilities for the production of plutonium and represent a serious risk to world stability. I will share my impressions of the North Korean nuclear program and on the unexpected nature of the country itself.

May Lunch Meeting

When: Tuesday, May 11 , 2004
Time: 12-1 pm
Where: Otowi building (TA-3) Side Room A-B, Los Alamos National Laboratory, open to all
Lunch: Please pick your own lunch from the cafeteria
RSVP: Partha Rangaswamy, partha@lanl.gov, 667-2935

The Myth of Science-based Predictive Modeling
François M. Hemez, Ph.D ; Weapon Response Group (ESA-WR), LANL

In computational physics and engineering, numerical models are developed to predict the behavior of a system whose response cannot be measured experimentally. A key aspect of science-based predictive modeling is the assessment of prediction credibility. Credibility, which is usually demonstrated through the activities of model Verification and Validation (V&V), quantifies the extent to which simulation results can be analyzed with confidence to represent the phenomenon of interest with an accuracy consistent with the intended use of the model.
The paper develops the idea that assessing the credibility of a mathematical or numerical model must combine three components: 1) Improving the fidelity to test data; 2) Studying the robustness of prediction-based decisions to variability, uncertainty, and lack-of-knowledge; and 3) Establishing the expected prediction accuracy of the models in situations where test measurements are not available. A Theorem is established that demonstrates the irrevocable trade-off between fidelity to data, robustness to uncertainty, and confidence in prediction. Clearly, fidelity to data matters because no analyst will trust a simulation that does not reproduce the measurements of past experiments. Robustness to uncertainty is equally critical to minimize the vulnerability of decisions to uncertainty and lack-of-knowledge. It may be argued, however, that the most important aspect of credibility is the assessment of confidence in prediction, which is generally not addressed in the literature.
The antagonism between three objectives (fidelity to data, robustness to uncertainty, and confidence in prediction) suggests a decision-making strategy in situations where knowledge is severely lacking. These concepts are illustrated with an application in mechanical engineering for which a simplistic numerical simulation is implemented, yet, a severe source of lack-of-knowledge is considered.

March Dinner Meeting

When: Thursday, March 25, 2004
Where: Los Alamos Research Park, Room 203B (Next to Hot Rock's Java Cafe )
Dinner: Beef Tenderloin, Pan Seared Salmon, and Dessert. Price $18.00

Mike Houts, LANL, D-5
"Mission to Jupiter’s Icy Moons: Space Fission Power and Propulsion"

A U.S. mission to investigate three ice-covered moons of Jupiter is being proposed. NASA proposes using electrical ion propulsion powered by a nuclear reactor for its Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter. Space fission power and propulsion systems can enable this and other exciting space exploration missions, such as lunar or Mars surface missions. The presentation will discuss ongoing research, development, and testing related to space fission systems, as well as specific design challenges. Potential applications will also be discussed.

February Lunch Meeting

When: Thursday, Feb 26, 2003
Time: 12-1 pm
Where: Otowi building (TA-3) Side Room A/B, Los Alamos National Laboratory, open to everyone (no LANL badge required)

What: "Mustard Gas Decommissioning Project "
Speaker: Jim Gustafson, Senior Design Engineer, Merrick & Co

The United States has legacy chemical weapons that need to be destroyed to comply with international treaty. Merrick subcontracted through Bechtel National to the Army Corps of Engineers at the Aberdeen Proving Grounds to design and build a system in support of this effort. The Ton Container Decontamination Project (TCDP) will eliminate approximately 2000 ageing Ton Containers and the HD mustard agent they contain.

Merrick served as the prime contractor for this design-build project, and subcontracted the fabrication to several companies.
Significant design challenges included materials selection for a highly corrosive environment (NaOH and HCl), toxicity of the agent being handled, selection and deployment of a master slave manipulator system, and design for maintenance in protective suits .

The TCDP is a 160 foot long array of 12 process stations, the majority of which are confined within Air Locks and Isolation Chambers. It has been constructed and tested and is currently on-line at Aberdeen proving grounds waiting for other portions of the larger system to come on-line.

January Dinner Meeting: Materials Information Management

Joint with Albuquerque Chapter of ASM International and the Northern New Mexico Chapter of ASME

Date: January 22, 2004

Speaker: Dr. Will Marsden from Granta Design, Cambridge, UK

Time: 6:00 Social
7:00 Dinner & Program

Location: Bishop's Lodge Resort, 1297 Bishop's Lodge Road, Santa Fe, NM

Abstract:

Materials professionals are often surprised by the lack of IT systems to comprehensively address the needs of their field. After all, isn't materials science and engineering very data intensive? And where are the 'materials equivalents' of CAD and CAE, both now mature offerings that have had a huge impact on engineering and design?

Today's engineers are confronted by an enormous quantity of information regarding materials in different conditions and environments. This spectrum covers the range: from in-house information generated for specific materials or conditions (and is often specific to the corporation and highly detailed), through to sets of standard reference data purchased from qualified external sources which are relevant to individual sectors (but cover more general materials and their properties).

By its nature, this information is usually expensive and therefore the business case obliges engineers to realise the maximum possible value from it. The unique set of requirements at each stage in the progression of materials information from the test lab to the designer's desktop is explored.

The role of the materials scientist and the methodologies used to assimilate the huge array of data are investigated. Identifying optimal materials for specific applications is one of the principle uses of materials information and is an excellent example for understanding the flow and employment of this information within materials intensive organisations.

The selection process may be summarized as follows. The initial screening and ranking of the available materials requires a comprehensive database of structured information which is then filtered using the design requirements, to yield a subset of viable candidates that meet the design constraints and optimally satisfy the design objectives. The suitability of this subset may then be considered using a second supporting information step. This second step uses unstructured information available for the reduced candidate step to assess each for their suitability. Typically, it is desirable to check non-quantifiables: e.g. information about the microstructure, details about joining characteristics or availability and pricing. The initial short list of candidates can then be narrowed-down to a few prime choices.

NNM ASME November lunch meeting:

"Air-assisted vehicles for future marine transportation"

Speaker: Konstantin Matveev, Ph.D

Where: Otowi building (TA-3) Side Rooms A and B, Los Alamos National Laboratory, open to all

Dr. Matveev will be talking on vehicles for future marine transportation. The talk will include some unique video records highlighting his work. One of the projects (though not a subject of this talk) of Dr. Matveev is a hydrofoil-submarine in the movie "xXx" with Vin Diesel (released in summer 2002). His abstract follows.

Abstract:
Technical aspects of two concepts for future marine transportation, Artificial Cavitation and Wing-In-Ground-Effect, will be considered. Both technologies utilize air medium to improve technical and economic characteristics of transportation means. Air is supplied under the bottom hull sections of the Air Cavity Ship, reducing the overall wetted surface and consequently hydrodynamic drag. A contact with water is completely eliminated in the case of the Wing-in-Ground, which moves above the water. The proximity to the water surface results in enhancing the lift-drag ratio of the vehicle in comparison with a flight of an airplane in open air. Principles, experience, and ongoing projects on both concepts will be discussed.

ASME Section VIII, Division 2 Pressure Vessels Short Course

The ASME Northern New Mexico Section is offering a 3 day advanced short course on Pressure Vessels with emphasis on ASME Section VIII, Division 2 at the LANL Research Park. The following is a brief description of the course outline while the attachment contains detailed information including course outline and registration information.

Short Course Number: PD448
Short Course Title: Pressure Vessels: ASME Section VIII, Division 2
Short Course Date: November 18-20, 2003
Short Course Location: Los Alamos National Laboratory, Research Park, Room 203B, Los Alamos NM

Upon completion of this course you will be able to:
·    Design a vessel to this Code
·    Perform various types of analyses and evaluate the analysis results
·    Have a complete understanding of the Division 2, including general requirements, materials, fabrication, NDE, PWHT, testing, documentation and stamping

Attendees should have familiarity with Section VIII code as this is an advanced course. Pressure vessel designers, fabricators, and individuals performing stress analysis of pressure equipment are encouraged to familiarize themselves with the stress analysis and fatigue analysis methods of this Division. Practical experience in structural design related to pressure equipment and familiarity with the ASME Code will be helpful, but are not required.

For more information, contact Partha Rangaswamy, partha@lanl.gov or 667-2935,

October Lunch Meeting

When: Wednesday, October 29, 2003
Time: 12-1 pm

Lunch: Pick your own lunch from the cafeteria

What: "Programming a CAD with Pure OOP "
Speaker: Aik-Siong Koh, Ph.D ; http://www.askoh.com

Where: Otowi building (TA-3) Side Room C, Los Alamos National Laboratory, open to all

RSVP: Partha Rangaswamy, partha@lanl.gov, 667 2935

Dr. Koh will be giving a talk about his software "freeCAD". His abstract follows ...

'freeCAD' is a basic 3D CAD with advanced Motion Simulation capabilities. It is ideal for the teaching and learning of geometry, kinematics, dynamics, vibrations, mechanisms, cams, machine design and physics. The free program runs on many platforms. 'freeCAD' allows users to create and manipulate assemblies, which are collections of parts. The parts are simple 3D solids, which can be connected by joints, constraints, contacts, motors, actuators, springs, dampers, forces, torques or gravity. 'freeCAD' performs full Multibody Dynamics analysis on the assembly to predict the motion according to Newton's Laws. Animation using the simulated data produces realistic behavior. Users can also study the mechanical dynamics in the form of plots and tabular output. All the code for 'freeCAD' was developed in a pure object oriented programming (OOP) environment called VisualWorks Smalltalk. Pure OOP makes the author very productive to develop the GUI, geometric domain, multibody dynamics, symbolic math, matrix algebra and solvers, Newton Raphson root finder, DAE and ODE solvers. The open source can be applied to other engineering fields.

September 2003 Dinner Meeting:

When:  Thursday September 25th, 2003.
Where: Java Hot Rocks Cafe at Los Alamos Reseach Park
Times: 5:30 - 6:00 Social hour
            6:00-7:00 Dinner
            7:00         talk
Dinner:  Chicken and Eggplant Parmesan Dinner.  Price $15.00 
Prize:   All that RSVP before September 19th will be entered into a drawing for a prize
RSVP: Partha Rangaswamy, partha@lanl.gov or 667-2935, by September 19th

SPEAKER: David L. Gardner, LANL, MST-10

TOPIC: Thermoacoustic engines

Thermacoustic engines are devices in which pressure oscillations are created without the use of moving parts.  These pressure oscillations can be used to drive loads, such as thermoacoustic refrigerators, pulse tube refrigerators, and electric generators.  The best refrigerator performance to date for devices approaching industrial application is an engine that cools natural gas to a liquefaction temperature of 120 Kelvin with a 4.2 kW load.  The best efficiency for a Stirling-like incarnation of a thermoacoustic engine is about 41% of Carnot.  The thermoacoustic process will be described and several examples of working hardware will be presented, along with some comments on the reality of building hardware.

August tour of LANL power plant followed by social at Balagna winery

The Northern New Mexico Section of ASME is proud to announce this tour and invites members, spouses and associates.
WHERE: LANL Power Plant, TA-3, SM-22, (on Diamond Drive across from T Division )-
and Balagna Winery (White Rock)- 223  Rio Bravo, 672 3678

WHEN: Thursday, August 7, 4:00 PM.

Meet at the TA-3-SM22 Power Plant Utilities) parking lot.
MAP: http://internal.nis.lanl.gov/cgi-bin/wthi?ta=3&bldg=22
Note:: Please do not park inside the fence of the Power Plant.  If you go past the fence gate, you have gone TOO far.  If the parking lot outside of the fence is filled, you can park on the other side of Diamond near T Division and then walk under Diamond through the underpass.

Open to:
ASME Northern New Mexico Section Welcomes Members, Spouses and Associates

LANL Cogeneration Power Plant Tour
The LANL Cogeneration power plant is operated and maintained by KSL Services. The power plant has an electrical generating capacity of 20 megawatts available to supplement, as necessary, incoming grid power to meet LANL and LAC load needs. The steam plant has three boilers with a total steam capacity of 360,000 lbs / hour . The primary fuel source is natural gas, with fuel oil as a backup.

Balagna  Winery  Visit- Social Hour

July ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Design Course:

The ASME Northern New Mexico Section is offering a 3 day short course in Boiler and Pressure Vessel Design at the LANL Research Park. The following is a brief description of the course outline, if interested please open the attachments for further information.

Based on the rules for pressure vessel design and construction, this course is a comprehensive introduction to the requirements of Section VIII, Division 1 including background, organization, design, materials, fabrication, inspection, testing and documentation of pressure vessels. The more commonly used subsections and paragraphs will be covered, and a discussion of individual problems or situations will be included. This course is intended for beginners, as well as experienced vessel designers who would like to update their knowledge of the Code.

For more information contact Mark Miller, 665-0706, mrmiller@lanl.gov

June 2003 Distinguished Lecturer Dinner Meeting:

Speaker: Dr. Frank Kreith, ASME Distinguished Lecturer After a career in teaching and research, Dr. Kreith holds the position of ASME Legislative Fellow at the National Conference of State Legislatures where he serves as the technical advisor to all fifty state governments in the areas of energy, waste management, and transportation. While in Los Alamos, Dr. Kreith will be speaking on a subject in which he has developed a new and quite personal interest, as he describes below.

TOPIC: Thermal Treatment of Cancer

Two years ago, I was diagnosed with squamous cell cancer. The surgeon told me that he could excise the tumor by conventional surgery but if I were willing, he could try to remove the cancer by hyperthermia, a treatment method that had been used successfully on animals. I agreed to the experimental cure proposed by the surgeon and have had so far no recurrence.

However, the instrument that the surgeon used was very crude, and for the past two years I have conducted research directed to applying MEMs technology to improve the instrument and the procedure. Our research has yielded insights into the biological processes by which controlled heat can kill cancerous cells without harming the healthy tissue. We have also learned how to use radio frequency, microwaves, and ultra-sound to heat tissue. My talk will describe the current status of using hyperthermia for cancer treatment, and the technologies for measuring tissue temperature and controlling the heat in a clinical setting.

May Dinner meeting:

Speaker: Karl Wood, Director of the New Mexico Water Resources Research Institute at New Mexico State University

Topic: Futuristic Ways To Increase Water Supplies For New Mexico

The talk will cover the pros and cons of weather modification, interbasin transfer, suppression of evaporation, desalination, and water conservation.

Located at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces, the New Mexico Water Resources Research Institute (WRRI) funds research to address water problems critical to New Mexico and the southwest. Formed in 1963, the Institute has a small staff primarily for research administration. The research is conducted by faculty and their students in the state's universities. The overall mission of the WRRI is to develop and disseminate knowledge that will assist the state and nation in solving water problems. Through the funding of research and demonstration projects, the institute utilizes the knowledge and experience of researchers throughout the state to solve New Mexico's pressing water problems. The Institute maintains a web site at, http//wrri.nmsu.edu, with general information and downloadable reports.

April lunch meeting:

Topic: Insights and prediction of mechanical behavior of polycrystalline metals using neutron diffraction and modeling.

In polycrystalline metals - the distortion associated with heat treatment, strain rate and temperature dependence of constitutive performance and fatigue failure are all problems that can be linked to sometimes subtle deformation mechanisms. Although continuum mechanics provides a practical tool it can be limited in cases where anisotropies at the macroscopic or microstructural lengthscales dictate structural performance. One effort in the MST-8 mechanical properties team is the development of constitutive models capable of addressing polycrystalline deformation. This talk will address the tools (principally neutron diffraction) and models used to address fundamental and applied engineering science problems. Examples will include basic studies of constitutive performance of materials like U6Nb and beryllium as well as practical problems such as residual stresses in welded components, in metal matrix composites and their relationship to failure

February event:

February lunch meeting:

Topic: Brad will be talking about the preliminary results of the recent excavation of two Coalition period pueblos (ca. AD 1200-1300). The work was conducted for the Land Transfer Project, involving the transfer of DOE land to the County of Los Alamos. The lecture will consist of a series of slides detailing the excavation of these sites.

January 2003 Lunch Meeting

TOPIC: Imaging Technology for Mass Customization and Reverse Engineering Trends and the Challenges

The talk will focus on HYTEC's development of new imaging technology that is being developed to enhance industry's ability to quickly build mass customized products, and will give details from both a technical perspective and a business perspective.

Speaker: Tim Thompson, President of HYTEC, Inc.
Tim Thompson leads HYTEC, Inc., a Los Alamos Company that provides engineering services as well as sensors and imaging products for a variety of markets throughout the world. During its seven-year history, the firm has become a contractor to many prominent scientific organizations including NSF, NIST, CERN, DOE, LANL, NRL, NASA, MIT, and Caltech. HYTEC has developed new technologies that dramatically improve key capabilities within the non-contact inspection, visualization, and imaging industry. On behalf of HYTEC, Thompson accepted the 2002 Flying Forty award from Technologies Ventures Corporation this past March. This award is given each year to the forty fastest growing corporations, in the state of New Mexico..

November 13 2002 Lunch Meeting

TOPIC: Human-Powered Speed: Can Science Triumph Over Art?   

Human-Powered Vehicles, or HPVs, can be most simply described as recumbent bicycles enclosed by aerodynamic shells. A recent competition to break the world speed record showcased top contenders that took polar opposite approaches to vehicle design. The defending champion and record holder was a vehicle built by a Canadian sculptor who sculpted the shell shape based on his artistic, intuitive feelings about speed. The main challenger was a multi-million dollar computer-designed entry built by F1 racing car builder Reynard and piloted by an Olympic gold medallist cyclist. The wild card was a U.C. Berkeley mechanical engineering graduate who built an HPV in his garage based on some novel scientific concepts. This talk will introduce the basic science and technology behind HPVs and then follow the recent competition. The world record was broken by a large margin, but by whom?

Speaker: Mike Prime is a Technical Staff Member in ESA-WR. Mike was a bicycle racer and member of the U.C. Berkeley HPV student project. He rode to two world HPV records in 1993.

Special Event: Ride on historic railroad and SPECIAL TOUR just for ASME

Report on July 20 train ride**,

The train ride went as scheduled and described, somewhat to my surprise. The weather was great and the tour was excellent. Only a few people managed to come, but we had an great time going through the engine maintenance building asking endless questions. They have two engines apart for major overhauls. The future plan is to resume full service by August 1. The trip is highly recommended for anyone that wanted to go but couldn't make the July 20 date.

June 2002 Meeting - June 15, 2002

ASME Distinguised lecturer Yogi Gaswami spoke on Solar Energy.

Present Status and Future Directions of Solar Thermal Power

Solar energy can potentially play a very important role in providing the electricity needs of the world, especially developing economies because of large unmet power needs, limited availability of fossil fuels, and environmental concerns. Present solar thermal power technologies can be economically competitive with coal-generated electricity if environmental costs are accounted for. However, without considering environmental benefits the capital costs of solar thermal power will have to be reduced by about 50% in order to make it competitive with fossil fuels. The potential exists for reducing the costs and improving the performance by hybridization and combined cycle approaches, and by employing new and innovative ideas in thermal power cycles. This presentation will describe the new thermodynamic approaches with an emphasis on an innovative new thermodynamic cycle using ammonia and water mixtures as the working fluids.

April 2002 Meeting

A joint meeting with the local ASQ (Amer. Soc. for Quality) section

Guest Speakers: Ted Moore, William Imbt, Intel Rio Rancho
TOPIC: Intel Fab 11x.....Rising to the 300mm Challenge

December 2001 Meeting

Guest Speaker: Dr. Denis Beller

Dennis Beller is coauthor of an essay in the Jan/Feb issue of Foreign Affairs magazine. The essay, The Need for Nuclear Power, was written in partnership with Richard Rhodes who also wrote The Making of the Atomic Bomb, a Pulitzer Prize winning book.

THE NEED FOR NUCLEAR POWER Richard Rhodes and Denis Beller: The world needs more energy, and there is one clean, efficient, and safe way to get it: nuclear power. As the global appetite for electricity grows, atomic power -- which scarcely pollutes, generates relatively little solid waste, and is far more efficient than the alternatives -- should be embraced. A worldwide effort to develop and share nuclear technology is in all our interests.

August 2001 Meeting

Guest Speaker: Brad Vierra

The speaker will be Dr. Bradly Vierra of the Cultural Resources Management Team of the Ecology Group (ESH-20) at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Dr. Vierra received his Ph.D in anthroplogy from the University of New Mexico in 1992. He has conducted over 20 years of pure and applied research in archaeology, most of which has been done in the Southwest.

Topic: Ancestral Pueblo Culture and Building Practices at Nake'muu

The American Southwest contains famous Pueblo ruins like those found at Mesa Verde and Chaco Canyon. But did you know, that there also are a few standing walled pueblos in the Jemez Mountains? One of these is the ancestral pueblo site of Nake'muu which is located at Los Alamos National Laboratory. This talk will discuss the ongoing architectural study of this 700 year old site.

April 2001 Meeting

Guest Speaker: Dr. Craig Allen

Dr. Allen works for the USGS at Bandelier National Monument and has studied the forests around Los Alamos for the past decade. Allen received a BS and MS from the University of Wisconsin at Madison and a Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley. The title and abstract of his presentation is included below.

Long Term Ecological Perspectives on Fire in the Los Alamos Landscape

Relatively frequent surface fires recurred for centuries in ponderosa pine and mixed conifer forests of the Southwest, including the Jemez Mountains, before intensive livestock grazing and active fire suppression by government agencies began. Local fire history data sources include charcoal from bog sediments extending back 9000 years, dendrochronologically-dated fire scar collections from over 600 trees at 42 localities (with over 4000 pre-1900 fire scar dates extending back to 1422 AD), and mapped records of ~5000 suppressed fires for the period 1909-1996 AD. The available evidence suggests that extensive (>100 ha) stand-replacing fires rarely (if ever) occurred in pure, Southwestern ponderosa pine forests before the middle of the 20 th century. Extensive crown fires did occur before 1900 in higher elevation mixed conifer and spruce fir forests in the Southwest, but lower elevation mixed conifer forests burned primarily as surface fires, and stand-opening events were probably of limited size (<100 ha) in these forests. Repeat photography and tree-ring records of aspen and conifer ages document the occurrence of 19 th century crown fires at relatively high elevations. The anomalousness of recent stand-replacing burns in ponderosa pine and some lower elevation mixed conifer forests - in terms of severity, extent, and impacts on soils - is attested to by: (1) the long-term history of sustained surface fires recorded by fire-scarred trees within stands that have now been completely destroyed by late 20 th century crown fires; (2) extreme erosion following stand-replacing fires, in some cases removing soils and sediments that have accumulated for tens of thousands of years; (3) the lack of identifiable "landscape-scars" persisting from the 19 th century, such as those created by recent large crown fires (e.g., the La Mesa, Dome, and Cerro Grande fires); and (4) absence of ponderosa pine recruitment, or very slow rates of recruitment into the large holes created by stand-replacing fires in the Southwest over the past 30 years. 20 th century landscape scars created by stand-replacing fires in ponderosa pine and lower elevation mixed conifer are long-lasting legacies of human error in managing these ecosystems. Fire history data and evidence of extreme geomorphic responses following extensive crown fires provide strong justification for management programs aimed at preventing the future occurrence of these ecological disasters.

Announcement: January 2001 Meeting

Guest Speaker: Rodman R. Linn

Development and Use of a Transport Models for Wildfire Behavior

Wildfires are a threat to human life and property, yet they are an unavoidable part of nature. In order to minimize the destruction to life and property, people have tried for over fifty years to predict and understand the behavior (speed, direction, intensity, etc.) of wildfires. The majority of the wildfire models that have been developed have been mainly algebraic and were based on statistical/empirical curve fitting. These types of models are often unsuccessful at adequately predicting the gross behavior of the broad spectrum of fires that occur in nature. In order to develop a wildfire model that is useful over a broad range of conditions, we have chosen to use a transport approach to develop a self-determining wildfire model. The transport approach, which is based on conservation of mass, momentum, and energy, intimately couples the wildfire with the local atmospheric motions. This type of formulation allows us to represent a large number of environments including transition regions such as those with nonhomogeneous vegetation and terrain. In the development of this type of model there are a number of difficult issues such as the complex fluid motions, heat transfer, and chemical reactions. Some of the most difficult features to represent are the imperfectly known boundary conditions and the fine scale structures that are unresolvable. Examples of these imperfectly known features are the specific location of the fuel or precise incoming winds. We account for the unresolvable details of a fire with macroscopic resolution by dividing quantities into mean and fluctuating parts similar to what is done in traditional turbulence modeling. This type of wildfire model is more versatile than empirically based models and has a variety of potential uses: urban planning, firefighter training, crisis management, and as a tool to better understand fire behavior and effects.

Biographic Information about Rod:
BS Degree in Mechanical Engineering Dec. 1991 from NMSU
MS Degree in Mechanical Engineering Aug. 1993 from University of Illinois
PhD in Mechanical Engineering in June 1997
Technical Staff Member at LANL since 1997
Currently team leader of the atmospheric modeling team at LANL

Announcement: September Meeting - Tentative Agenda

Guest Speaker: Frank Harlow

Frank will talk on the making and identification of indian pottery (1100 - 1900 A.D.).

ASME District E

ASME International