Education
The author gratefully acknowledges the sterling efforts of John Smith,
Regional Coordinator for the Engineering Education Scheme (England),
and Ian Treacy, of EMESP and the Institution of Engineering Designers,
for organising the event; the Institution of Engineering and Technology
for sponsoring the Masters Prizes; the sponsoring companies for
fi nancial and management support of the school projects and, the many
organisations, companies, universities, schools and individuals for their
mostly voluntary support well beyond the call of duty.
The 2009 Masters Prizes winners
Andrew Hilton, University of Nottingham
University students learn to do research in the commercial,
The Artifi cial Heart – A Cost-Effective Design
as well as technical, context. Whether at school or university, There are an estimated 15 million deaths each year from
all students benefi t from exposure to problems and the cardiovascular disease worldwide, which represent 30% of all
satisfaction that their increasing skills and knowledge are of global deaths. Of these deaths, about 70% occur in low- and
value to society – socially and economically. middle-income countries. Each year, only about 3,000 people
The event brings together industrialists, sixth formers, school receive a heart transplant as the only current defi nitive long-term
teachers, academics, postgraduate researchers, parents, the treatment for end-stage Heart Failure. To compound the severity
public and professional institutions. It is not just a get-together of the situation, organ donations are decreasing. Implantable blood
– all the projects are on show, giving sixth formers and teachers pumps offer a solution, either as a bridge to transplantation /
a much better idea of the enormous variety and scope of recovery, or as destination therapy.
science and engineering. It also provides contacts for industry The current cost of manufacturing a Centrifugal Rotary Blood
and universities – bringing them together with the kind of Pump (CRBP) is approximately £20,000. The cost alone produces
talent they need for tomorrow’s products and services. a barrier to market, especially in China and India. Considering that
Another feature of the event’s success is that EMESP is able the levels of heart disease in these areas are some of the highest in
to approach universities and sponsors with the united voice of the world, the aim of this project is to design a new cost-effective
engineering and science. There is no confl ict about approaching device that will be produced at just 5% of the current cost. This is
one institution rather than another, nor about ‘rights’ to possible by designing around standard stock parts available from
liaise with a particular university department or discipline. engineering suppliers and by using high-throughput manufacturing
Instead of potentially 35 institutions targeting the same set processes.
of organisations, there is just one; a great simplifi cation which By using off-the-shelf components, such as pre-sized permanent
those organisations certainly appreciate. As Aesop famously magnets and stock electromagnets, it is possible to construct a
pointed out more than 2500 years ago: “United we stand, system that potentially could serve as a replacement for existing
divided we fall”. devices. The cost reduction of the implantable device signifi cantly
affects the overall cost of the implant procedure, bringing costs
down by nearly 60%.
Emrah Demirci, Lougborough University
Modeling the Mechanical Behavior of Thermally Bonded Bi-Component
Fibre Nonwoven Materials
A need to improve properties and performance of nonwovens leads companies to use
numerical simulation in order to design and manufacture products faster and cost effectively.
A realistic simulation requires a material model which represents the deformation
characteristics of the material in real life applications.
The project aimed to generate a numerical model in order to simulate the mechanical
behaviour of nonwoven materials. Nonwovens exhibit unique deformation behaviour due
to polymeric components and random fi brous structure. Nonwoven material is composed of
two regions; namely bond points and matrix, and the mechanical behaviour of these two distinct
regions was determined in order to create a realistic simulation.
With a smart approach, mechanical behaviour of these regions was derived from the behaviour
of a single fi bre extracted from the web and manufacturing parameters of the nonwoven material,
such as planar density, fi bre diameter, thickness, etc. Moreover, orientation distribution of the fi bres was
considered in the model because mechanical response of the fabric is sensitive to the direction of the load
applied.
The nonwoven fabric was modelled in a Finite Element environment using the material behaviour of
bond points and matrix derived from the manufacturing parameters and single fi bre behaviour. Tensile
tests were performed on the nonwovens with respect to two principal directions (machine and cross
direction) and these tests were simulated in the Finite Element environment using the derived mechanical
behaviour of the fabric regions. Experimental and simulation results were compared by means of load-
displacement behaviour.Results of the simulations were in agreement with the experiments.
24
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