Materials and Surface Engineering Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Materials and Surface Engineering - Essay Example Therefore, the mating surfaces should be accessible so that the lubricant can be applied at regular intervals. However, in many cases, the mating surfaces may be in radioactive or toxic zone or may be inaccessible due to design considerations. In such cases on cannot depend on liquid lubricants. At high load and low speed the liquid lubricant film is not thick enough to ensure effective separation of the mating surfaces and therefore, frictional force and wear loss increases. Therefore, one cannot rely on liquid lubricants under such operating conditions. Liquid lubricants are not good for high temperature applications as viscosity decreases with increasing temperature and vapors may also be produced at higher temperature. Therefore, liquid lubricants are not suitable for application at higher temperatures. Liquid lubricants are not clean in itself in the sense that it gets spread on the workplace and also dirt and dust gets adhered to it deteriorating the cleanliness of the workplace further. Therefore, liquid lubricants are not preferred for clean applications. Q6. A steel ball of elastic modulus E1 and Poisson’s ratio ï  ®1 (figure, below) is pressing with load P onto a flat metallic surface of aluminum plate having elastic modulus E2 and Poisson’s ratio ï  ®2 and hardness H. (d) This equation gives a much larger value for the volume of wear than what is experimentally observed or what is observed in real life. The difference is very high and is 4 to 7 order of magnitude higher than that observed in the experiments. This is because not all but only a very small fraction of the asperity contacts result in wear of the material and therefore, in stead of the equality sign in the Archard’s wear equation, there should be a proportionality sign. When this is done a constant is introduced in the equation whose value is determined experimentally. Thus the revised equation

Reducing Oil Consumption Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Reducing Oil Consumption - Essay Example While much effort has been directed towards this cause, it is imperative to note that the challenge is still eminent and this calls for even greater effort considering that the United States is the largest consumer of oil in the world (Butts, 58). Higher taxes One economically efficient way of reducing oil consumption across the United States is to increases the tax on oil products. Indeed, there are always many opportunities for oil conservation by the public such as reducing mileage. However, many people do not care to follow such strategies since they can easily afford the oil. This strategy will help in reducing industrial consumption of oil and forcing people to be more economical with oil. Higher taxes would translate into higher prices for the oil and people would therefore strive to limit their consumption of oil as much as possible. This would even call for the use of oil alternatives in situations where it is possible. Efficient Transportation Transportation is one sector t hat consumes a great amount of oil in the United States. Considering that many people drive their own cars, it is expected that oil consumption is indeed high. Unlike Europe, the public transportation system in the United States is not well developed. Many people own cars and this greatly increases gasoline consumption in the country. In this regard, the public transportation system should be redesigned effectively. High-speed trains are an effective ways of reducing the use of gasoline in the country. These trains are powered by electricity and travel and very fast speeds. In the same way, the development of hybrid cars should be fast-tracked. Cars that use electric propulsion should be developed and mass produced. In this case, much of the road and air transport would be substituted by high-speed rails. These trends can further be used in freight transportation and this would greatly reduce the consumption of oil in the country (Woodside, 98). Oil Alternatives There has been much ongoing research on the use of biofuels as an option to the crude oil. Indeed, biofuels have been successful in countries like Brazil which placed much focus on its production. Considering that the transportation sector is a very large consumer of oil, biofuels would come in handy as an option to oil. The major challenge in this respect is the fact that vehicles that use biofuels are still few in the country. It is estimated that a combined use of biofuels and electricity in internal combustion engines can reduce the importation of oil by more than half. In the same way, other forms of renewable energy like solar and wind have not fully been exploited in the United States. The installation of more windmills and solar panels would provide much power that would reduce the demand for oil. The focus of these programs is therefore to provide cheaper energy options and educate the people on the need to use these options as opposed to oil (Woodside, 78). Research on renewable energy source s should be the major concern for policy makers as they would facilitate the reduction of oil consumption. Recycling While it might not seem much obvious, recycling is an important way of reducing the consumption o