ENGINEERING NEWS IN BRIEF

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                  ENGINEERING NEWS IN BRIEF
                        E-Mail Newsletter

                               No.18
             Issued by the Asian TOP Panel, June 2003

           The Chinese Mechanical Engineering Society (CMES)
           The Institution of Engineers, Indonesia (PII)
           The Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers (JSME)
           The Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers (KSME)

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About the Asian TOP Panel (ATOP)
    On August 29, 2001, presidents of four engineering societies gathered　
in Japan to pave the way for stepped-up collaboration. They are Chinese
Mechanical Engineering Society, Institution of Engineers Indonesia,
Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers, and Korean Society of Mechanical
Engineers.
    They agreed to establish the Asian TOP Panel (ATOP), which is a　
voluntary body and open to any Asian engineering society and
institution. At the first meeting, they decided to issue monthly E-mail
newsletter which you are reading now. It will carry short technical news
of Asian countries, and be distributed to all individual members of the
ATOP societies and institutions.
    ATOP will meet every two years. The next meeting will be held in
Korea in 2003.

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[Contents]

(1) Air-conditioner Sales Heating up (Source : CMES)
(2) Jet Production Set to Start (Source : CMES)
(3) Equipment Manufacturing Expo Planned (Source : CMES)
(4) Micro Motors Using Electro-Conjugate Fluids(ECF) Jets
    (Source : JSME)
(5) The Optimum Design of Gas Turbine Combustor using of Numerical
    Simulation and Robust Design (Source : JSME)
(6) New Development of microtechnogy systems -Report on mTAS 2002-
    (Source : JSME)
(7) New Applications of Focused-Ion Beam Technology in the Mechanical
    Engineering (Source : JSME)
(8) MRI analysis of Human Joint Kinematics (Source : JSME)
(9) An algorithm for deciding the similarity of polyhedral objects
    (Source : JSME)

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(1) Air-conditioner Sales Heating up (Source : CMES)

Air-conditioner sales were booming in Nanjing last weekend, indicating
that fear of SARS is gradually abating.
The Nanjing Suning Electric Appliances Group reported that
air-conditioner sales were up some 30 percent last weekend compared to
a weekend before.
Air-conditioner sales in other hypermarkets and department stores in
Nanjing increased by 20-60 percent last week.
Retailers can turn a higher profit by selling one air-conditioner than
by selling more than ten electric fans, so they are focusing promotions
on air-conditioner products, the analyst said.
People's regular lives will come back to normal once SARS is under
control, so air-conditioner sales will get an unprecedented boost soon,
driving up sales of other commodities.

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(2) Jet Production Set to Start (Source : CMES)

An aviation factory in Shanghai will begin production of the country's
first self-designed regional jet this year.
The ARJ21 is expected to make its debut flight in three to four years,
local industry sources predicted. The new jet will enter service at
the end of 2006 or early 2007.
ARJ21, which stands for "advanced regional jet for the 21st century,"
carries China's ambition of taking a slice of the world's fledgling
regional jet market.
Sources with the company revealed the general design of the new jet
will be finalized by the end of next month.
The Shanghai factory will join with domestic partners in Southwest
China's Chengdu, Northeast China's Shenyang and Xi'an of Northwest
China's Shaanxi Province to mass produce components of the ARJ21 jets.

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(3) Equipment Manufacturing Expo Planned (Source : CMES)

The second China International Equipment Manufacturing Exposition is
scheduled to take place on September 5-10 in Shenyang, capital of
Northeast China's Liaoning Province.
The fair, one of the five State level exhibitions approved by the State
Council, are jointly organized by the Ministry of Commerce, the China
Council for the Promotion of International Trade and Liaoning
Provincial Government.
Liu Ketian, vice-governor of Liaoning Province, said the gathering will
provide Liaoning an opportunity to speed up its structural readjustment
and overhaul its old industrial base.
Liaoning Province is the cradle of China's equipment manufacturing
industry and boasts over one third of the country's equipment
manufacturing industry capacity.
The old manufacturing base is well placed to meet the demands of 21st
century industry and manufacturing, Liu said.
The city of Shenyang was approved by the government as the pilot city
for a scheme to renovate traditional heavy industry with high and new
technology. The exposition will provide a fresh impetus to that
modernization drive, said Liu.
The fair will provide a highly effective platform for greater global
understanding of China's equipment manufacturing industry and improve
the country's standing in the field, added Liu.
The equipment manufacturing industry is the driving force of the
national economy, with China looking increasingly set to become the hub
of world manufacturing.
The organizers plan to showcase the newest products and technologies in
equipment manufacturing industry.
The first exposition featured 609 exhibitors and some 12,000 visitors.

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(4) Micro Motors Using Electro-Conjugate Fluids(ECF) Jets
    (Source : JSME)

    Shinichi YOKOTA, Precision and Intelligence Laboratory,
    Tokyo Institute of Technology

A kind of dielectric fluids such as dibutyl decanedioate generates
strong jet-flow by applying high voltage electrostatic field. The
fluids are called Electro-conjugate Fluid (ECF), and novel micromotors
have been proposed by making use of ECF jets. In this article, firstly,
a principle of the ECF motor by making use of ECF is described, whose
feature is simple structure and light weight. Micromotors with 2mm and
1mm I.D. are fabricated. Consequently, it is confirmed that the output
power density of the motors are higher by reduction of the inner
diameter. The characteristics are suitable for a micro motor.

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(5) The Optimum Design of Gas Turbine Combustor using of Numerical
    Simulation and Robust Design (Source : JSME)

    Shinichi INAGE
    Hitachi, Ltd. Power & Industrial Systems R & D Laboratory

To improve the pattern factor of the gas turbine combustor, so many
searches must be made. To reduce the search cases, the numerical
simulation with the robust design was performed. The combustor had
three fuel supplying systems. The first fuel nozzle with swirling vane
was set as a pilot burner on the top of the combustor. The second and
the third fuel nozzles were set up on the liner of the combustor
respectively. To improve the pattern factor, the diameter of the
combustor, the swirling number of pilot burner, the locations of the
second and third fuel nozzles were change as parameters. The nine
simulations were performed by the L9 array due to the robust design
to estimate the SN ratio of the pattern factor. On the worst case,
the difference of the temperature at the exit of the combustor was
more than 600℃. By the combination of the optimum parameters due to
the SN ratio, the difference could be reduced less than 150℃. Only
the nine cases were used to optimize the design of the combustor to
improve the pattern factor. The numerical simulation with the robust
design was useful as an optimum method.

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(6) New Development of microtechnogy systems -Report on mTAS 2002-
    (Source : JSME)

    Tatsuo NISHIMURA
    Department of Mechanical Engineering, Yamaguchi University

MEMS technology enables us to create different sensing and actuating
devices integrated with other microelectronic, optoelectronic, thermal
and mechanical devices for advanced microsystems. More recently,
microfluidics related to bio-medical applications have been interested.
That is, DNA hydridization arrays or similar lab-on-a chip for
biomedical and biochemical development, bio-analysis and diagnostics.
We briefly report the 6th conference on minaturization of chemical
analytic devices in "micro-total-analysis-systems" (mTAS) held on
November 2002 in Japan. Many challenging research and design questions
are posed by microfluidics systems. In particular, the laws of scaling
down devices, as well as characterizing and understanding the
interplay of fluid flow, surface forces and potentially statistical
and molecular interactions need to be addressed.

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(7) New Applications of Focused-Ion Beam Technology in the Mechanical
    Engineering (Source : JSME)

    Yoji SHIBUTANI
    Dept. of Mechanical Eng. and Systems, Frontier Research Center,
    Osaka University

Recently, the focused-ion beam (FIB) technique has been applied to the
nano-scale manufacturing and the expectative nano-structure fabrication.
Two kinds of applications of the FIB have been done by our research
group. One is to understand the internal structure change of the
materials subjected to an external load in the solid mechanics field.
The extremely local spot involving the highly damaged potion of the
deformed materials can be removed by the FIB manipulation and readily
supplied for the transition electron microscopy (TEM) observations.
Currently, the cross sections of only the highly strained indented
region with the micron scale in the single crystalline silicon and
the aluminum have been observed by the FIB-TEM technique. The
cooperative phenomenon between the phase transition and the dislocation
emission has been investigated in the silicon and the collective
behavior of the defects like dislocations has been observed in the
ductile aluminum.
The three-dimensional nano-structure fabrication has also been capable
to be realized as a new application of the FIB. Manipulation of the
five-axis-controllable work stage can produce the complicate geometric
shapes onto the substrate by the chemical vapor deposition mechanism.
This is new challenge to the mechanical designing of the
nano-structures for the future nano-technology.

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(8) MRI analysis of Human Joint Kinematics (Source : JSME)

    Yoshinori KADOYA, MD PhD Assistant Professor
    Department of Orthopaedic Surgery,
    Osaka City University Medical School

Many controversies on the joint kinematics, at least partly, arise from
technical difficulties in visualizing the living human joint. Magnetic
resonance imaging (MRI) provides the possibility of accurate
visualization of the living knee joint at various positions. Another
advantage of MRI is that the study can be performed on living subjects
without irradiation problems. In a closed magnet the living joint
cannot always be fully moved and weight-bearing is impossible. These
difficulties can be overcome by using open access and interventional
machines. This technique has been successfully applied to the knee
joint on the femorotibial movement and patellofemoral articulation
(1 - 3). We believe MRI continues to be an useful tool for the
analysis of joint kinematics with further progress in the imaging
techniques.
1. Todo S. et al. Anteroposterior and Rotational Movement of Femur
During Knee Flexion. Clin. Orthop: 362:162-170 1999
2. Nakagawa S. et al. Knee kinematics in deep flexion - analysis with
MR imaging - . J. Bone and Joint Surg. (Br) 82-B 1201-3 2000
3. Nakagawa S. et al. Kinematics of the Patella in Deep Flexion.
- Analysis With MR Imaging - J. Bone and Joint Surg. (Am), in press.

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(9) An algorithm for deciding the similarity of polyhedral objects
    (Source : JSME)

    Susumu FURUKAWA, Yamanashi University

An algorithm for deciding the similarity of polyhedral objects is
discussed. The method consists of the following four sub-procedures.
(1) A polyhedron is decomposed into only convex components and the data
structure called two layer structure, which consists of convex
components separated into two layers, i.e., the first layer includes
only positive convex components to be added and the second layer
represents negative convex components to be subtracted from positive
ones, is constructed.
(2) The two layer structure of an object is compared with that of
another object.
(3) Each component of an object is compared with the corresponding
convex component of the other object.
(4) Similarity of those two polyhedral objects is decided. In addition,
similar and dissimilar parts can be recognized, even if two objects
are totally not similar.
Numerical similarities are calculated for various polyhedrons, and the
correlation coefficient between numerical similarities and similarity
ranking determined by the questionnaire for 20 students is calculated.
The result is about 0.9 for convex polyhedrons and is over 0.8 for
non-convex polyhedrons. This means that the numerical similarities
closely match our expectation.

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Editor: Shin Morishita, International Affairs Committee
Published by The Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers
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The Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers
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