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Hillhouse, Grady
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Video
This is a demo of a bell siphon I built in collaboration with a couple of engineering professors. There are certain cases where it would be nice to be able to create a siphon without any intervention, a self-priming or automatic siphon: the next level of siphonry. It's built out of an acrylic sheet and a piece of clear pipe.
- Subjects:
- Building Services Engineering
- Keywords:
- Siphons
- Resource Type:
- Video
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Video
Engineers that work with fluids need a solid understanding of how they behave, and there’s one branch of fluid mechanics that plays a role in areas all across our lives. Whether you’re designing a water tower for a city or you just want to understand how those upside-down pet bowls work, you’ve got to know how to relate the depth and pressure of a fluid: hydrostatics.
- Keywords:
- Hydrostatics Fluid mechanics
- Resource Type:
- Video
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Video
This video gives a brief overview of this ingenious method of compressing air using only the power of water. The way a trompe harnesses the power of water to generate compressed air with no moving parts is fascinating and its use is seeing a small revival in modern days. A trompe can be useful in off-grid aquaponics and hydroponic systems that need aeration of the water. And, in fact, the inspiration for this video came from the late Bruce Leavitt, a mining engineer who pioneered the use of small trompes for aeration and treatment of mining water in remote locations without access to electricity.
- Subjects:
- Hydraulic Engineering
- Keywords:
- Air-compressors Compressed air Water-power Fluid dynamics
- Resource Type:
- Video
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Video
While steel reinforcement solves one of concrete’s greatest limitations, it creates an entirely new problem: Corrosion of embedded steel rebar is the most common form of concrete deterioration. There are lots of ways to combat this problem, a few of which we discuss/demonstrate in this video, including fiber reinforced concrete, adequate protective cover, and fiber reinforced polymer bars.
- Subjects:
- Building and Real Estate
- Keywords:
- Protective coatings Reinforced concrete -- Corrosion -- Prevention Reinforcing bars -- Corrosion Fiber-reinforced concrete
- Resource Type:
- Video
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Video
Sinkholes form through both natural and human-made processes. Most of us think about erosion on the surface of the earth, but erosion can occur in the subsurface as well. In fact, scientist and engineers have a very creative name for just such a process: internal erosion. If just the right factors come together in the subsurface, some very interesting things can occur, including sinkholes.
- Subjects:
- Geotechnical Engineering
- Keywords:
- Sinkholes Soil erosion
- Resource Type:
- Video
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Video
We normally build a dam to hold water back and store it for use in water supply, irrigation, hydropower, or flood control. But sometimes we have to let some water go. Whether we need it downstream or the impounded water behind the dam is simply too full to store any more, nearly every dam needs a spillway to safely discharge water. The spillway is a critical part of any dam and often the most complex component. So how does it work?
- Subjects:
- Hydraulic Engineering
- Keywords:
- Hydraulic structures Spillways Dams Reservoirs Diversion structures (Hydraulic engineering)
- Resource Type:
- Video
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Video
Untangling the various equipment you might see in an electrical substation. In many ways, the grid is a one-size-fits-all system - a gigantic machine to which we all connect spinning in perfect synchrony across, in some cases, an entire continent. On the other hand, our electricity needs, including when we need it, how much we need, and how reliably it should be delivered vary widely. Substations play a critical role in controlling and protecting the power grid.
- Subjects:
- Building Services Engineering and Electrical Engineering
- Keywords:
- Electric power distribution Electric substations
- Resource Type:
- Video
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Video
Traffic management in dense urban areas is an extremely complex problem with a host of conflicting goals and challenges. One of the most fundamental of those challenges happens at an intersection, where multiple streams of traffic - including vehicles, bikes and pedestrians - need to safely, and with any luck, efficiently, cross each others’ paths. However we accommodate it now or in future, traffic will continue to be one of the biggest challenges in our urban areas and traffic signals will continue to be one of its solutions.
- Subjects:
- Transportation
- Keywords:
- Traffic signs signals Roads -- Interchanges intersections Traffic flow
- Resource Type:
- Video
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Video
This video gives a quick description and demo of this ingenious pump. A hydraulic ram is a clever device invented over 200 years ago that can pump water uphill with no other external source of power except for the water flowing into it and there is a way to take advantage of this normally inauspicious effect for a beneficial use. The ram pump is an ingenious way to take advantage of the properties of fluids. We all need water for a variety of reasons, so being able to move it where we need it without any fancy equipment or external sources of power is a pretty nice tool to have in your toolbox.
- Subjects:
- Hydraulic Engineering
- Keywords:
- Hydraulic rams Pumping machinery
- Resource Type:
- Video
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Video
The modern world depends on electricity. It’s a crucial resource, especially in urban areas, but electricity can’t be created, stored, and provided at a later time. The instant it’s produced, it’s used no matter how far apart the producer is from the user. And the infrastructure that makes all this possible is one of humanity’s most important and fascinating engineering achievements: the power grid.
- Subjects:
- Building Services Engineering and Electrical Engineering
- Keywords:
- Electric power distribution
- Resource Type:
- Video
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Video
This video continues the series on the power grid by diving deeper into the engineering of large-scale electricity generation. The importance of electricity in our modern world can hardly be overstated. What was a luxury a hundred years ago is now a critical component to the safety, prosperity, and well-being of nearly everyone. Generation is the first step electricity takes on its journey through the power grid, the gigantic machine that delivers energy to millions of people day in and day out. So how does it work?
- Subjects:
- Building Services Engineering and Electrical Engineering
- Keywords:
- Electric power production
- Resource Type:
- Video
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Video
This video explores the protective systems that keep the power grid from self destructing. We usually think of the power grid in terms of its visible parts: power plants, high-voltage lines, and substations. But, much of the complexity of power grid comes in how we protect it when things go wrong. When your power goes out, it’s easy to be frustrated at the inconvenience, but consider also being thankful that it probably means things are working as designed to protect the grid as a whole and ensure a speedy and cost-effective repair to the fault.
- Subjects:
- Building Services Engineering and Electrical Engineering
- Keywords:
- Electric power failures -- Prevention Electric power distribution Electric power failures
- Resource Type:
- Video
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Video
In civil engineering, quicksand is more than just a puddle of mud! The "quick condition" occurs when seepage reduces the effective stress of a soil. This can lead to some dangerous conditions, especially if the seepage causes piping erosion to occur at a dam.
- Subjects:
- Hydraulic Engineering
- Keywords:
- Seepage Dam failures Quicks Fluid mechanics
- Resource Type:
- Video
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Video
Expansive soils cause more property damage per year than earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, and tornadoes combined. Expansive soils are a slow-moving geologic phenomenon, which makes them not very news-worthy. However, they still cause a tremendous amount of damage to buildings and the public infrastructure we rely on every day.
- Subjects:
- Building Services Engineering, Land Surveying and Geo-Informatics, and Building and Real Estate
- Keywords:
- Foundations Soil mechanics Swelling soils
- Resource Type:
- Video
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Video
This video discusses the purpose and function of elevated water storage tanks. The job of finding enough water, making it safe to use, and then reliably distributing it to the system customers with almost no downtime is a monumental task that requires a lot of infrastructure. And, probably the most visible component of a public water system is the elevated storage tank, also known as a water tower.
- Subjects:
- Building Services Engineering
- Keywords:
- Tanks Water towers Water-supply
- Resource Type:
- Video
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Video
This video gives a quick overview of how we build underwater structures. Oceans, rivers, and lakes are often beautiful, but they’re not necessarily convenient places to build things. Yet, many types of the infrastructure we depend on every day, including wharves, bridges, and dams, are founded below the water. How do they do it? On this episode, we're talking about different types of underwater construction, including cofferdams, diversions, caissons, and drilled shafts. Whether the construction site is on the bottom of a lake or river, or simply located in the floodplain and only at risk during extreme weather, engineers and construction contractors put a significant amount of thought and consideration into the feasibility and costs of managing this water.
- Subjects:
- Hydraulic Engineering
- Keywords:
- Underwater construction Hydraulic engineering
- Resource Type:
- Video
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Video
Discussing some of the fascinating engineering that goes into overhead electric power transmission lines. In the past, power generating plants were only able to serve their local areas. As power plants grew larger and further away from populated areas, the need for ways to efficiently move electricity over long distances has become more and more important. Stringing power lines across the landscape to connect cities to power plants may seem as simple as connecting an extension cord to an outlet, but the engineering behind these electric superhighways is more complicated and fascinating than you might think.
- Subjects:
- Building Services Engineering and Electrical Engineering
- Keywords:
- Electric power transmission Electric lines
- Resource Type:
- Video
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Video
This video explores a primer on one of the most important companions to civil engineering: land surveyors. Conventional measurement tools like a tape measure and protractor don't work for large civil structures and public works projects. Surveying is essentially the science of measuring big stuff. In this video I give a quick explanation of how surveying works and show a few ways you can do your own leveling survey at home. No sines, cosines, or tangents required!
- Subjects:
- Land Surveying and Geo-Informatics
- Keywords:
- Surveying
- Resource Type:
- Video
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Video
Water hammer can work in both directions, and I only discussed one of those in the previous video (https://youtu.be/xoLmVFAFjn4). This episode revisits that demonstration to show how water hammer can form a vacuum pressure in a pipe. Momentum carrying fluid away from a valve wants to keep going even after the valve is closed. This generates a negative pressure than can cause major damage!
- Subjects:
- Building Services Engineering
- Keywords:
- Valves Water hammer Hydraulic control Hydraulic transients Relief valves Fluid mechanics
- Resource Type:
- Video
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Video
Dirt is probably the cheapest and simplest construction material out there, but it's not very strong compared to other choices. Luckily geotechnical engineers have developed a way to strengthen earthen materials with almost no additional effort - Mechanically Stabilized Earth (aka MSE or Reinforced Soil).
- Subjects:
- Building and Real Estate
- Keywords:
- Reinforced soils
- Resource Type:
- Video
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Video
Almost everyone agrees that flooding is bad. Most years it’s the number one natural disaster in the US by dollars of damage. So being able to characterize flood risks is a crucial job of civil engineers. Engineering hydrology has equal parts statistics and understanding how society treats risks. Water is incredibly important to us, and it shapes almost every facet of our lives, but it’s almost never in the right place at the right time. Sometimes there’s not enough, like in a drought or just an arid region, but we also need to be prepared for the times when there’s too much water, a flood. Rainfall and streamflow have tremendous variability and it’s the engineer’s job to characterize that so that we can make rational and intelligent decisions about how we develop the world around us.
- Subjects:
- Hydraulic Engineering and Disaster Control and Management
- Keywords:
- Floods Hydrology Flood control -- Management
- Resource Type:
- Video
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Video
Dams serve a wide variety of purposes from hydropower to flood control to storage of water for municipal and industrials uses. But when a dam’s useful purpose fades away, the structure itself still remains. Dams come in all shapes and sizes, but contrary to what you might think, the most dangerous dams are often the smallest, also known as low head dams.
- Subjects:
- Hydraulic Engineering
- Keywords:
- Dam safety Dams Hydraulics
- Resource Type:
- Video
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Video
This video discusses a few modern techniques that help improve design life of concrete, including roller compacted concrete (RCC) and water reducing admixtures (superplasticizers). There are a whole host of differences between modern concrete and that of the western Roman empire that I didn’t have time to go into, including freeze/thaw damage.
- Subjects:
- Building and Real Estate
- Keywords:
- Concrete construction Roller compacted concrete Concrete -- Additives Concrete
- Resource Type:
- Video
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Video
In general, and compared to other common building materials, metals have excellent mechanical properties. They are hard, tough, strong, and durable. As someone who occasionally works the wood, even I can admit that metals are a superior material in many regards. So you can see why it would be advantageous to have a way to connect them together, especially if you can do it in such a way that joint isn’t the weakest part of your assembly. That’s the goal of welding, and luckily, this is not something reserved for industrial factories and machine shops. From my own experiences so far, welding is something you might be able to do yourself as a hobby. And stay tuned till the end for some tips for getting started.
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Video
This video shows a demonstration and brief explanation of air lock in fluid pipelines. If you assume that gasses don’t get into pipes or that they can’t constrict the flow, you might design a pipeline that doesn’t work. Luckily for engineers, this is a well-known phenomenon in pipe systems. It’s just one of the complexities that come with the job and we’ve come up a with a lot of creative ways to overcome it.
- Subjects:
- Building Services Engineering and Building and Real Estate
- Keywords:
- Fluid dynamics Pipelines
- Resource Type:
- Video
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Video
This video shows the basics of fluid cavitation, including demonstration from AvE. If you subject a fluid to a sudden change in pressure, some interesting things can happen. You can cause tremendous damage to moving parts, or you can harness this destructive power in many beneficial ways.
- Keywords:
- Hydrodynamics Cavitation Fluid mechanics
- Resource Type:
- Video
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Video
What's the difference between concrete and cement? Concrete is the most important construction material on earth and foundation of our modern society. At first glance it seems rudimentary, but there is a tremendous amount of complexity involved in every part of designing and placing concrete. This video is meant to be a bare-bones introduction to the topic, with a cool demonstration of concrete strength using a hydraulic press.
- Subjects:
- Building and Real Estate
- Keywords:
- Concrete Cement
- Resource Type:
- Video
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Video
Sometimes conventional reinforcement isn't enough. The basics of prestressed concrete. Prestressing reinforcement doesn't necessarily make concrete stronger. But, it does increase the serviceability of concrete members by reducing the amount of deflection under load. This video explains the two most common types of prestressed concrete: pre-tensioned and post-tensioned. Prestressed concrete is used in all kinds of structures from bridges to buildings to silos and tanks. It’s a great way to minimize cracking and take fuller advantage of the incredible strength of reinforced concrete.
- Subjects:
- Building and Real Estate
- Keywords:
- Prestressed concrete Reinforced concrete
- Resource Type:
- Video
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Video
A few things that can go very wrong when you put steam in a pipe. We talked about the damaging effects of water hammer, but there’s another state of H2O equally if not more dangerous when put in pipes. In this episode, we’re talking about steam hammer and differential shock.
- Subjects:
- Building Services Engineering
- Keywords:
- Piping Fluid dynamics Pipelines
- Resource Type:
- Video
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Video
Hydraulic transients (also known as water hammer) can seem innocuous in a residential setting, but these spikes in pressure can cause major damage to large pipelines and industrial pipe networks. In this video, we briefly discuss how water hammer occurs and how engineers mitigate the effect.
- Subjects:
- Building Services Engineering
- Keywords:
- Water hammer Hydraulic transients Fluid mechanics
- Resource Type:
- Video
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Video
Engineers need to be able to predict how water will behave in order to design structures that manage or control it. And fluids don’t always behave the way you’d expect. On this episode, we’re talking about one of the most interesting phenomena in open-channel flow: the hydraulic jump.
- Subjects:
- Hydraulic Engineering
- Keywords:
- Hydraulics Hydraulic jump
- Resource Type:
- Video
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Video
In many of the world’s tallest skyscrapers, there’s a secret device protecting the building and the people inside from strong motion due to wind and earthquakes. Did you know you can tune a skyscraper just like a guitar? In this video, we’re comparing theory to the real world for tuned mass dampers. Luckily this tech is simple enough that we can model it right in the garage. As silly as this little experiment looks, it’s actually not that far off from what engineers do in the real world (maybe without the googly eyes). The design phase for just about every major building includes some physical scale model tests. This video shows that the tuned mass damper is a great example of elegance in engineering.
- Subjects:
- Structural Engineering
- Keywords:
- Tuned mass dampers Buildings -- Earthquake effects Buildings -- Vibration
- Resource Type:
- Video
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Video
A weir is a small dam built across a river to control the upstream water level. Weirs have been used for ages to control the flow of water in streams, rivers, and other water bodies. Unlike large dams which create reservoirs, the goal of building a weir across a river isn’t to create storage, but only to gain some control over the water level. Over time, the term weir has taken on a more general definition in engineering to apply to any hydraulic control structure that allows water to flow over its top, often called its crest. In fact, the spillways of many large dams use weirs as control structures. So how do they work?
- Subjects:
- Hydraulic Engineering
- Keywords:
- Dams Hydraulics Weirs
- Resource Type:
- Video
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Video
This video explains why ridges move, and other musings on thermal movement of large civil works. Most people have a certain intuition about thermal expansion, but you may not have considered how engineers design to accommodate it on large civil structures. The video gives a quick overview on this important consideration that engineers must account for when designing infrastructure like pipelines, bridges, and even sidewalks.
- Subjects:
- Structural Engineering
- Keywords:
- Structural analysis (Engineering) Expansion (Heat)
- Resource Type:
- Video
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Video
This video shows more destructive testing to answer your questions about concrete. Concrete's greatest weakness is its tensile strength, which can be less than 10% of its compressive strength. So, we often reinforce it to create a composite material strong against all types of stress. This video briefly touches on conventional rebar and prestressed/post-tensioned reinforcement.
- Subjects:
- Building and Real Estate
- Keywords:
- Reinforced concrete Concrete
- Resource Type:
- Video
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Video
This video shows how simple reinforcement is used to prevent collapse of rock tunnels. Tunnels play an important role in our constructed environment as passageways for mines, conveyance for utilities, and routes for transportation. Rock bolts are a type of reinforcement for stabilizing rock excavations, usually made from steel bars or bolts. This simple construction method dramatically reduces the cost of making tunnels through rock safe from collapse.
- Subjects:
- Structural Engineering
- Keywords:
- Underground construction Rock bolts Tunneling Tunnels
- Resource Type:
- Video
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Video
Wind can be one of the most critical and complicated loads on civil structures. The case of the Tacoma Narrows bridge is a well-known cautionary tale that’s discussed in engineering and physics classrooms across the world. Both resonance from vortex shedding and aeroelastic flutter contributed to the failure. When you push the envelope, you have to be vigilant because things that didn’t matter before start to become important (e.g. wind loads on lighter structures). Unanticipated challenges are a cost of innovation and that’s something that we can all keep in mind.
- Subjects:
- Structural Engineering
- Keywords:
- Washington (State) -- Tacoma -- Tacoma Narrows Bridge (1940) Suspension bridges Wind-pressure
- Resource Type:
- Video
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Video
The vast majority of our grid-scale storage of electricity uses this clever method. Electricity faces a fundamental problem that comes with pretty much any product that’s provided on-demand: our ability to generate large amounts of it doesn’t match up that closely with when we need it. The storage of electricity for later use, especially on a large scale, is quite challenging. That’s not to say that we don’t store energy at grid scale though, and there’s one type of storage that makes up the vast majority of our current capacity.
- Subjects:
- Environmental Engineering, Hydraulic Engineering, and Mechanical Engineering
- Keywords:
- Energy storage Water-power Pumped storage power plants
- Resource Type:
- Video