The document discusses economic, environmental, and societal issues related to materials science and engineering. It covers three key factors that affect the cost of a product: component design, materials used, and manufacturing techniques. It also discusses issues of recyclability and disposability of materials, noting that the ideal material is completely recyclable or biodegradable. Metals are discussed as an example, noting that most alloys experience corrosion but some metals are toxic, and recycling quality diminishes with each cycle.
International Journal of Engineering Research and Applications (IJERA) is an open access online peer reviewed international journal that publishes research and review articles in the fields of Computer Science, Neural Networks, Electrical Engineering, Software Engineering, Information Technology, Mechanical Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Plastic Engineering, Food Technology, Textile Engineering, Nano Technology & science, Power Electronics, Electronics & Communication Engineering, Computational mathematics, Image processing, Civil Engineering, Structural Engineering, Environmental Engineering, VLSI Testing & Low Power VLSI Design etc.
A Computerized System for Managing Con-struction Materials for Gaza Strip Bui...IJAEMSJORNAL
construction materials management process is a key to success of a construction project. Nowadays, successful management of construction materials has to be based on thorough and updated information, and processed utiliz-ing a well designed construction materials management system. The aim of this study has been to explore the local prac-tice in construction materials management and develop a Computerized system to facilitate the management of con-struction materials mainly in the building construction. Construction materials management related literature has been generally reviewed; meanwhile some construction materials management system packages have been re-viewed also. A survey questionnaire supported by interviews is used to explore the local practice in construction materials man-agement. One hundred and twenty questionnaires were distributed to contractors of first; second, and third class, eighty-four questionnaires were received and analyzed. The researcher concluded that all contracting companies are interested in using some techniques of managing con-struction materials such as creating and updating data-base for materials categories, local and international suppliers. Also, the Israeli closure on Gaza Strip is the main element that affects materials availability and cost and causes increase the cost of main materials such as cement, reinforcement steel and aggregate. The study shows that most of contracting companies are still managing construction materials manually. Shortage of user-friendly construction materials system packages and lack of qualified personnel in using computer-based materials management systems are considered the main obstacles in using computer in construction materials management. The researcher explores Microsoft Excel capabilities and utilizes these capabilities in developing a Construction Materials Management System which named "construc-tion materials management system"(CMMS). CMMS is a PC-based system which has been designed to run under Microsoft Windows. Microsoft Excel is used in developing CMMS, as most companies in Gaza strip are familiar with it. Full description of CMMS has been given with detailed implementation procedures. CMMS has been evaluated to test its suitability to local practice. Evalua-tion of CMMS has addressed both conceptual and practi-cal issues. One of the main recommendations of this re-search is to encourage local contracting companies to have a construction materials management system pack-age and use it in determining the required quantities of construction materials in order to get materials in time and required quantitiessave time and minimize error.
Performance Evaluation of Cost Saving Towards Sustainability in Traditional C...IJRESJOURNAL
Abstract:It is most significant to achieve environment protection in construction industry for which prefabrication construction technique is considered to be most efficient sustainable construction method. The importance of prefabrication is based on the influence of different activities elaborate such a waste management, adaptation of material reuses and recycles. This research paper includes a dynamic design approach to evaluate the cost performance of construction project using prefabrication construction method along with applying the subsequent waste treatment activities to accomplish waste management. The construction cost of duplex villathrough traditional construction has been carried out. The construction cost of the same project has then been calculated by the present prefabricated assembly market prices. After critical comparison between construction costs of traditional and prefabrication methods, a significant cost saving has been noticed. The day by day increasing public awareness about the environmental impacts of construction waste has been resulted in including waste management as a major function of construction project management by some construction organizations. Although, some of methods have been developed for construction waste management it is still of much importance that no research has been done so far in this topic to introduce waste minimization through necessary waste treatment activities. This research paper emphasis on the identification of supreme horizons of prefabrication techniques and methods in construction industry by converging on the aggressive need of suitable training and skills for workplace.
Infrared Monitoring of Aluminium Milling Processes for Reduction of Environme...IRJESJOURNAL
Abstract:-In modern manufacturing contexts, process monitoring is an important tool aimed at ensuring quality standard fulfilment whilst maximising throughput. In this work, a monitoring system comprised of an infrared (IR) camera was employed for tool state identification and surface roughness assessment with the objective of reducing environmental impacts of a milling process. Two data processing techniques, based on statistical parameters and polynomial fitting, were applied to the temperature signal acquired from the IR camera during milling operations in order to extract significant features. These features were inputted to two different neural network based procedures: pattern recognition and fitting, for decision making support on tool condition and surface roughness evaluation respectively. These capabilities are discussed in terms of reducing waste products and energy consumption whilst further improvingproductivity.
International Journal of Engineering Research and Applications (IJERA) is an open access online peer reviewed international journal that publishes research and review articles in the fields of Computer Science, Neural Networks, Electrical Engineering, Software Engineering, Information Technology, Mechanical Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Plastic Engineering, Food Technology, Textile Engineering, Nano Technology & science, Power Electronics, Electronics & Communication Engineering, Computational mathematics, Image processing, Civil Engineering, Structural Engineering, Environmental Engineering, VLSI Testing & Low Power VLSI Design etc.
A Computerized System for Managing Con-struction Materials for Gaza Strip Bui...IJAEMSJORNAL
construction materials management process is a key to success of a construction project. Nowadays, successful management of construction materials has to be based on thorough and updated information, and processed utiliz-ing a well designed construction materials management system. The aim of this study has been to explore the local prac-tice in construction materials management and develop a Computerized system to facilitate the management of con-struction materials mainly in the building construction. Construction materials management related literature has been generally reviewed; meanwhile some construction materials management system packages have been re-viewed also. A survey questionnaire supported by interviews is used to explore the local practice in construction materials man-agement. One hundred and twenty questionnaires were distributed to contractors of first; second, and third class, eighty-four questionnaires were received and analyzed. The researcher concluded that all contracting companies are interested in using some techniques of managing con-struction materials such as creating and updating data-base for materials categories, local and international suppliers. Also, the Israeli closure on Gaza Strip is the main element that affects materials availability and cost and causes increase the cost of main materials such as cement, reinforcement steel and aggregate. The study shows that most of contracting companies are still managing construction materials manually. Shortage of user-friendly construction materials system packages and lack of qualified personnel in using computer-based materials management systems are considered the main obstacles in using computer in construction materials management. The researcher explores Microsoft Excel capabilities and utilizes these capabilities in developing a Construction Materials Management System which named "construc-tion materials management system"(CMMS). CMMS is a PC-based system which has been designed to run under Microsoft Windows. Microsoft Excel is used in developing CMMS, as most companies in Gaza strip are familiar with it. Full description of CMMS has been given with detailed implementation procedures. CMMS has been evaluated to test its suitability to local practice. Evalua-tion of CMMS has addressed both conceptual and practi-cal issues. One of the main recommendations of this re-search is to encourage local contracting companies to have a construction materials management system pack-age and use it in determining the required quantities of construction materials in order to get materials in time and required quantitiessave time and minimize error.
Performance Evaluation of Cost Saving Towards Sustainability in Traditional C...IJRESJOURNAL
Abstract:It is most significant to achieve environment protection in construction industry for which prefabrication construction technique is considered to be most efficient sustainable construction method. The importance of prefabrication is based on the influence of different activities elaborate such a waste management, adaptation of material reuses and recycles. This research paper includes a dynamic design approach to evaluate the cost performance of construction project using prefabrication construction method along with applying the subsequent waste treatment activities to accomplish waste management. The construction cost of duplex villathrough traditional construction has been carried out. The construction cost of the same project has then been calculated by the present prefabricated assembly market prices. After critical comparison between construction costs of traditional and prefabrication methods, a significant cost saving has been noticed. The day by day increasing public awareness about the environmental impacts of construction waste has been resulted in including waste management as a major function of construction project management by some construction organizations. Although, some of methods have been developed for construction waste management it is still of much importance that no research has been done so far in this topic to introduce waste minimization through necessary waste treatment activities. This research paper emphasis on the identification of supreme horizons of prefabrication techniques and methods in construction industry by converging on the aggressive need of suitable training and skills for workplace.
Infrared Monitoring of Aluminium Milling Processes for Reduction of Environme...IRJESJOURNAL
Abstract:-In modern manufacturing contexts, process monitoring is an important tool aimed at ensuring quality standard fulfilment whilst maximising throughput. In this work, a monitoring system comprised of an infrared (IR) camera was employed for tool state identification and surface roughness assessment with the objective of reducing environmental impacts of a milling process. Two data processing techniques, based on statistical parameters and polynomial fitting, were applied to the temperature signal acquired from the IR camera during milling operations in order to extract significant features. These features were inputted to two different neural network based procedures: pattern recognition and fitting, for decision making support on tool condition and surface roughness evaluation respectively. These capabilities are discussed in terms of reducing waste products and energy consumption whilst further improvingproductivity.
Materials Matter - Construction Materials and their Environmental CostsThink Wood
This presentation will show how the life cycle assessment makes it easier for architects to incorporate environmental considerations into their building material selection. It will discuss the life cycle impacts of wood, concrete and steel and demonstrate that over its life cycle, wood is better for the environment than steel or concrete in terms of embodied energy, air and water pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. In addition, this presentation will highlight the advances each industry is making toward sustainability.
Research Thesis Presentation-
Environmental Impact Of Building Materials: A Study Of Energy Efficient Materials For Building Facade Systems In Mumbai City.
May 2015,
Environmental architecture, Sustainable material. Life cycle assessment. Building Materials, Mumbai
International Journal of Engineering Inventions (IJEI) provides a multidisciplinary passage for researchers, managers, professionals, practitioners and students around the globe to publish high quality, peer-reviewed articles on all theoretical and empirical aspects of Engineering and Science.
The peer-reviewed International Journal of Engineering Inventions (IJEI) is started with a mission to encourage contribution to research in Science and Technology. Encourage and motivate researchers in challenging areas of Sciences and Technology.
ESTABLISHING PROCESS FOR DESIGNING OF ENERGY EFFICIENT BUILDINGS IAEME Publication
The building designers are presently going through a transition phase. As due to the known energy implications of poorly designed buildings and related environmental issues, Government is imposing a number of controlling measures. These include building energy codes, green rating systems, and environmental clearance norms. At present very few guideline or support is available to the architects to incorporate all the above additional requirements during the design process. Standard architectural practice does not cover the energy/environmental considerations in common projects unless otherwise specified under scope of services. This paper is about formulating the design process for energy efficient buildings. The necessary data for which has been gathered through the survey conducted by the author from the architects working in various capacities. The paper starts with discussion on process and related aspects of designing energy efficient buildings. The sub topics define the methodology for establishing design process, including description of the participants and their selection criteria and, finally present the outcome of the survey in the form of a matrix.
Environmental and Economic Analysis of Thermal Active Building SystemIJERA Editor
This paper is regarding one promising technological solution – which is so called Thermal Active Building
Systems (TABS) –for one of the most critical problems both in environmental and economic aspects, which is
the raising energy consumption. Buildings are the principal application target of the solution once that
population spends most part of their time inside them. Therefore, more energy is required to supply an
increasingly demand in lighting, air conditioning, heating, electronic devices and so on. In this context, TABS
emerge like a possible solution. To ensure the system efficiency or, in other words, prove its viability, it will be
applied an environmental management tool (SWOT Analysis) weighting all the pros and comparing with its
drawbacks, based on previous experiences in implantation of such system, available in literature. A basic
theoretical background, which is extremely important to a better comprehension of the system, covering both
engineering and environmental management areas, is presented on this paper. Results shown that TABS are
efficient mechanisms in the reduction of power consumption, committed with sustainable development, and
which worth the investments in a Life Cycle Cost evaluation
Principal Tools for a Cleaner Chemical Technology, presented at the european ...Patrick VanSchijndel
Principal Tools for a Cleaner Chemical Technology, Process improvements have been tremendous in the last century but production volume increase will overshadow these good results in terms of resource use and environmental impact. It will be important to use the right tools in order to achieve the necessary sustainable development within the industry. These tools should be combinations of exergy analysis, LCA and economic analysis. The focus should be on the development of these combinations and on the teaching of these combinations in engineering curricula.
DevOps and Testing slides at DASA ConnectKari Kakkonen
My and Rik Marselis slides at 30.5.2024 DASA Connect conference. We discuss about what is testing, then what is agile testing and finally what is Testing in DevOps. Finally we had lovely workshop with the participants trying to find out different ways to think about quality and testing in different parts of the DevOps infinity loop.
Le nuove frontiere dell'AI nell'RPA con UiPath Autopilot™UiPathCommunity
In questo evento online gratuito, organizzato dalla Community Italiana di UiPath, potrai esplorare le nuove funzionalità di Autopilot, il tool che integra l'Intelligenza Artificiale nei processi di sviluppo e utilizzo delle Automazioni.
📕 Vedremo insieme alcuni esempi dell'utilizzo di Autopilot in diversi tool della Suite UiPath:
Autopilot per Studio Web
Autopilot per Studio
Autopilot per Apps
Clipboard AI
GenAI applicata alla Document Understanding
👨🏫👨💻 Speakers:
Stefano Negro, UiPath MVPx3, RPA Tech Lead @ BSP Consultant
Flavio Martinelli, UiPath MVP 2023, Technical Account Manager @UiPath
Andrei Tasca, RPA Solutions Team Lead @NTT Data
Materials Matter - Construction Materials and their Environmental CostsThink Wood
This presentation will show how the life cycle assessment makes it easier for architects to incorporate environmental considerations into their building material selection. It will discuss the life cycle impacts of wood, concrete and steel and demonstrate that over its life cycle, wood is better for the environment than steel or concrete in terms of embodied energy, air and water pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. In addition, this presentation will highlight the advances each industry is making toward sustainability.
Research Thesis Presentation-
Environmental Impact Of Building Materials: A Study Of Energy Efficient Materials For Building Facade Systems In Mumbai City.
May 2015,
Environmental architecture, Sustainable material. Life cycle assessment. Building Materials, Mumbai
International Journal of Engineering Inventions (IJEI) provides a multidisciplinary passage for researchers, managers, professionals, practitioners and students around the globe to publish high quality, peer-reviewed articles on all theoretical and empirical aspects of Engineering and Science.
The peer-reviewed International Journal of Engineering Inventions (IJEI) is started with a mission to encourage contribution to research in Science and Technology. Encourage and motivate researchers in challenging areas of Sciences and Technology.
ESTABLISHING PROCESS FOR DESIGNING OF ENERGY EFFICIENT BUILDINGS IAEME Publication
The building designers are presently going through a transition phase. As due to the known energy implications of poorly designed buildings and related environmental issues, Government is imposing a number of controlling measures. These include building energy codes, green rating systems, and environmental clearance norms. At present very few guideline or support is available to the architects to incorporate all the above additional requirements during the design process. Standard architectural practice does not cover the energy/environmental considerations in common projects unless otherwise specified under scope of services. This paper is about formulating the design process for energy efficient buildings. The necessary data for which has been gathered through the survey conducted by the author from the architects working in various capacities. The paper starts with discussion on process and related aspects of designing energy efficient buildings. The sub topics define the methodology for establishing design process, including description of the participants and their selection criteria and, finally present the outcome of the survey in the form of a matrix.
Environmental and Economic Analysis of Thermal Active Building SystemIJERA Editor
This paper is regarding one promising technological solution – which is so called Thermal Active Building
Systems (TABS) –for one of the most critical problems both in environmental and economic aspects, which is
the raising energy consumption. Buildings are the principal application target of the solution once that
population spends most part of their time inside them. Therefore, more energy is required to supply an
increasingly demand in lighting, air conditioning, heating, electronic devices and so on. In this context, TABS
emerge like a possible solution. To ensure the system efficiency or, in other words, prove its viability, it will be
applied an environmental management tool (SWOT Analysis) weighting all the pros and comparing with its
drawbacks, based on previous experiences in implantation of such system, available in literature. A basic
theoretical background, which is extremely important to a better comprehension of the system, covering both
engineering and environmental management areas, is presented on this paper. Results shown that TABS are
efficient mechanisms in the reduction of power consumption, committed with sustainable development, and
which worth the investments in a Life Cycle Cost evaluation
Principal Tools for a Cleaner Chemical Technology, presented at the european ...Patrick VanSchijndel
Principal Tools for a Cleaner Chemical Technology, Process improvements have been tremendous in the last century but production volume increase will overshadow these good results in terms of resource use and environmental impact. It will be important to use the right tools in order to achieve the necessary sustainable development within the industry. These tools should be combinations of exergy analysis, LCA and economic analysis. The focus should be on the development of these combinations and on the teaching of these combinations in engineering curricula.
DevOps and Testing slides at DASA ConnectKari Kakkonen
My and Rik Marselis slides at 30.5.2024 DASA Connect conference. We discuss about what is testing, then what is agile testing and finally what is Testing in DevOps. Finally we had lovely workshop with the participants trying to find out different ways to think about quality and testing in different parts of the DevOps infinity loop.
Le nuove frontiere dell'AI nell'RPA con UiPath Autopilot™UiPathCommunity
In questo evento online gratuito, organizzato dalla Community Italiana di UiPath, potrai esplorare le nuove funzionalità di Autopilot, il tool che integra l'Intelligenza Artificiale nei processi di sviluppo e utilizzo delle Automazioni.
📕 Vedremo insieme alcuni esempi dell'utilizzo di Autopilot in diversi tool della Suite UiPath:
Autopilot per Studio Web
Autopilot per Studio
Autopilot per Apps
Clipboard AI
GenAI applicata alla Document Understanding
👨🏫👨💻 Speakers:
Stefano Negro, UiPath MVPx3, RPA Tech Lead @ BSP Consultant
Flavio Martinelli, UiPath MVP 2023, Technical Account Manager @UiPath
Andrei Tasca, RPA Solutions Team Lead @NTT Data
Encryption in Microsoft 365 - ExpertsLive Netherlands 2024Albert Hoitingh
In this session I delve into the encryption technology used in Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Purview. Including the concepts of Customer Key and Double Key Encryption.
Generative AI Deep Dive: Advancing from Proof of Concept to ProductionAggregage
Join Maher Hanafi, VP of Engineering at Betterworks, in this new session where he'll share a practical framework to transform Gen AI prototypes into impactful products! He'll delve into the complexities of data collection and management, model selection and optimization, and ensuring security, scalability, and responsible use.
Observability Concepts EVERY Developer Should Know -- DeveloperWeek Europe.pdfPaige Cruz
Monitoring and observability aren’t traditionally found in software curriculums and many of us cobble this knowledge together from whatever vendor or ecosystem we were first introduced to and whatever is a part of your current company’s observability stack.
While the dev and ops silo continues to crumble….many organizations still relegate monitoring & observability as the purview of ops, infra and SRE teams. This is a mistake - achieving a highly observable system requires collaboration up and down the stack.
I, a former op, would like to extend an invitation to all application developers to join the observability party will share these foundational concepts to build on:
State of ICS and IoT Cyber Threat Landscape Report 2024 previewPrayukth K V
The IoT and OT threat landscape report has been prepared by the Threat Research Team at Sectrio using data from Sectrio, cyber threat intelligence farming facilities spread across over 85 cities around the world. In addition, Sectrio also runs AI-based advanced threat and payload engagement facilities that serve as sinks to attract and engage sophisticated threat actors, and newer malware including new variants and latent threats that are at an earlier stage of development.
The latest edition of the OT/ICS and IoT security Threat Landscape Report 2024 also covers:
State of global ICS asset and network exposure
Sectoral targets and attacks as well as the cost of ransom
Global APT activity, AI usage, actor and tactic profiles, and implications
Rise in volumes of AI-powered cyberattacks
Major cyber events in 2024
Malware and malicious payload trends
Cyberattack types and targets
Vulnerability exploit attempts on CVEs
Attacks on counties – USA
Expansion of bot farms – how, where, and why
In-depth analysis of the cyber threat landscape across North America, South America, Europe, APAC, and the Middle East
Why are attacks on smart factories rising?
Cyber risk predictions
Axis of attacks – Europe
Systemic attacks in the Middle East
Download the full report from here:
https://sectrio.com/resources/ot-threat-landscape-reports/sectrio-releases-ot-ics-and-iot-security-threat-landscape-report-2024/
GDG Cloud Southlake #33: Boule & Rebala: Effective AppSec in SDLC using Deplo...James Anderson
Effective Application Security in Software Delivery lifecycle using Deployment Firewall and DBOM
The modern software delivery process (or the CI/CD process) includes many tools, distributed teams, open-source code, and cloud platforms. Constant focus on speed to release software to market, along with the traditional slow and manual security checks has caused gaps in continuous security as an important piece in the software supply chain. Today organizations feel more susceptible to external and internal cyber threats due to the vast attack surface in their applications supply chain and the lack of end-to-end governance and risk management.
The software team must secure its software delivery process to avoid vulnerability and security breaches. This needs to be achieved with existing tool chains and without extensive rework of the delivery processes. This talk will present strategies and techniques for providing visibility into the true risk of the existing vulnerabilities, preventing the introduction of security issues in the software, resolving vulnerabilities in production environments quickly, and capturing the deployment bill of materials (DBOM).
Speakers:
Bob Boule
Robert Boule is a technology enthusiast with PASSION for technology and making things work along with a knack for helping others understand how things work. He comes with around 20 years of solution engineering experience in application security, software continuous delivery, and SaaS platforms. He is known for his dynamic presentations in CI/CD and application security integrated in software delivery lifecycle.
Gopinath Rebala
Gopinath Rebala is the CTO of OpsMx, where he has overall responsibility for the machine learning and data processing architectures for Secure Software Delivery. Gopi also has a strong connection with our customers, leading design and architecture for strategic implementations. Gopi is a frequent speaker and well-known leader in continuous delivery and integrating security into software delivery.
Builder.ai Founder Sachin Dev Duggal's Strategic Approach to Create an Innova...Ramesh Iyer
In today's fast-changing business world, Companies that adapt and embrace new ideas often need help to keep up with the competition. However, fostering a culture of innovation takes much work. It takes vision, leadership and willingness to take risks in the right proportion. Sachin Dev Duggal, co-founder of Builder.ai, has perfected the art of this balance, creating a company culture where creativity and growth are nurtured at each stage.
Key Trends Shaping the Future of Infrastructure.pdfCheryl Hung
Keynote at DIGIT West Expo, Glasgow on 29 May 2024.
Cheryl Hung, ochery.com
Sr Director, Infrastructure Ecosystem, Arm.
The key trends across hardware, cloud and open-source; exploring how these areas are likely to mature and develop over the short and long-term, and then considering how organisations can position themselves to adapt and thrive.
The Art of the Pitch: WordPress Relationships and SalesLaura Byrne
Clients don’t know what they don’t know. What web solutions are right for them? How does WordPress come into the picture? How do you make sure you understand scope and timeline? What do you do if sometime changes?
All these questions and more will be explored as we talk about matching clients’ needs with what your agency offers without pulling teeth or pulling your hair out. Practical tips, and strategies for successful relationship building that leads to closing the deal.
Accelerate your Kubernetes clusters with Varnish CachingThijs Feryn
A presentation about the usage and availability of Varnish on Kubernetes. This talk explores the capabilities of Varnish caching and shows how to use the Varnish Helm chart to deploy it to Kubernetes.
This presentation was delivered at K8SUG Singapore. See https://feryn.eu/presentations/accelerate-your-kubernetes-clusters-with-varnish-caching-k8sug-singapore-28-2024 for more details.
GraphRAG is All You need? LLM & Knowledge GraphGuy Korland
Guy Korland, CEO and Co-founder of FalkorDB, will review two articles on the integration of language models with knowledge graphs.
1. Unifying Large Language Models and Knowledge Graphs: A Roadmap.
https://arxiv.org/abs/2306.08302
2. Microsoft Research's GraphRAG paper and a review paper on various uses of knowledge graphs:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/blog/graphrag-unlocking-llm-discovery-on-narrative-private-data/
Epistemic Interaction - tuning interfaces to provide information for AI supportAlan Dix
Paper presented at SYNERGY workshop at AVI 2024, Genoa, Italy. 3rd June 2024
https://alandix.com/academic/papers/synergy2024-epistemic/
As machine learning integrates deeper into human-computer interactions, the concept of epistemic interaction emerges, aiming to refine these interactions to enhance system adaptability. This approach encourages minor, intentional adjustments in user behaviour to enrich the data available for system learning. This paper introduces epistemic interaction within the context of human-system communication, illustrating how deliberate interaction design can improve system understanding and adaptation. Through concrete examples, we demonstrate the potential of epistemic interaction to significantly advance human-computer interaction by leveraging intuitive human communication strategies to inform system design and functionality, offering a novel pathway for enriching user-system engagements.
2. C h a p t e r 23 Economic, Environmental, and Societal Issues in Materials Science and Engineering Photograph showing beverage cans that are made of an aluminum alloy (left) and a steel alloy (right). The steel beverage can has corroded significantly, and, therefore, is biodegradable and nonrecyclable. Conversely, the aluminum can is nonbiodegradable and recyclable inasmuch as it experienced very little corrosion. WHY STUDY Economic, Environmental, and Societal Issues in Materials Science and Engineering ? It is essential for the engineer to know about and understand economic issues simply because the company/ institution for which he or she works must realize a profit from the products it manufactures. Materials engineering decisions have economic consequences with regard to both material and production costs. An awareness of environmental and societal issues is important for the engineer because, over time, greater demands are being made on the world’s natural resources. Furthermore, levels of pollution are ever increasing. Materials engineering decisions have impacts on the consumption of raw materials and energy, on the contamination of our water and atmosphere, and on the ability of the consumer to recycle or dispose of spent products. The quality of life for this and future generations will depend, to some degree, on how these issues are addressed by the global engineering community.
3. Introduction In previous chapters, we dealt with a variety of materials science and materials engineering issues to include criteria that may be employed in the materials selection process. Many of these selection criteria relate to material properties or property combinations—mechanical, electrical, thermal, corrosion, etc.; the performance of some component will depend on the properties of the material from which it is made. Processability or ease of fabrication of the component may also play a role in the selection process. Virtually all of this book, in one way or another, has addressed these property and fabrication issues. In engineering practice there are other important criteria that must be considered in the development of a marketable product. Some of these are economic in nature, which, to some degree, are unrelated to scientific principles and engineering practice, and yet are significant if a product is to be competitive in the commercial marketplace. Other criteria that should be addressed involve environmental and societal issues such as pollution, disposal, recycling, and energy. This final chapter offers relatively brief overviews of economic, environmental, and societal considerations that are important in engineering practice. Economic Considerations It goes without saying that engineering practice involves utilizing scientific principles to design components and systems that perform reliably and satisfactorily. Another critical driving force in engineering practice is that of economics; simply stated, the company or institution must realize a profit from the products that it manufactures and sells. The engineer might design the perfect component; however, as manufactured, it must be offered for sale at a price that is attractive to the consumer and, in addition, return a suitable profit to the company. Only a brief overview of important economic considerations as they apply to the materials engineer will be provided. The student may want to consult references provided at the end of this chapter that address engineering economics in detail. There are three factors over which the materials engineer has control and that affect the cost of a product; they are (1) component design, (2) the material(s) used, and (3) the manufacturing technique(s) that are employed. These factors are interrelated in that component design may affect which material is used, and both component design and the material used will influence the choice of manufacturing technique(s). Economic considerations for each of these factors is now briefly discussed.
4. Manufacturing Techniques COMPONENT DESIGN Some fraction of the cost of a component is associated with its design. In this context, component design is the specification of size, shape, and configuration, which will affect in-service component performance. For example, if mechanical forces are present, then stress analyses may be required. Detailed drawings of the component must be prepared; computers are normally employed, using software that has been generated for this specific function. It is often the case that a single component is part of a complex device or system consisting of a large number of components (i.e., the television, automobile, DVD player/recorder, etc.). Thus, design must take into consideration each component’s contribution to the efficient operation of the complete system. Component design is a highly iterative process that involves many compromises and trade-offs.The engineer should keep in mind that an optimal component design may not be possible due to system constraints. MATERIALS In terms of economics, we want to select the material or materials with the appropriate combination(s) of properties that are the least expensive. Once a family of materials has been selected that satisfy the design constraints, cost comparisons of the various candidate materials may be made on the basis of cost per part. Material price is usually quoted per unit mass.The part volume may be determined from its dimensions and geometry, which is then converted into mass using the density of the material. In addition, during manufacturing there ordinarily is some unavoidable material waste, which should also be taken into account in these computations. Current prices for a wide variety of engineering materials are contained in Appendix C. MANUFACTURING TECHNIQUES As already stated, the choice of manufacturing process will be influenced by both the material selected and part design.The entire manufacturing process will normally consist of primary and secondary operations. Primary operations are those that convert the raw material into a recognizable part (i.e., casting, plastic forming, powder compaction, molding, etc.), whereas secondary ones are those subsequently employed to produce the finished part (i.e., heat treatments, welding, grinding, drilling, painting, decorating). The major cost considerations for these processes include capital equipment, tooling, labor, repairs, machine downtime, and waste. Of course, within this cost analysis, rate of production is an important consideration. If this particular part is one component of a system, then assembly costs must also be addressed. Finally, there will undoubtedly be costs associated with inspection and packaging of the final product. As a sidelight, there are also other factors not directly related to design, material, or manufacturing that figure into the product selling price. These factors include labor fringe benefits, supervisory and management labor, research and development, property and rent, insurance, profit, taxes, and so on.
6. RECYCLING ISSUES IN MATERIALS SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING Important stages in the materials cycle where materials science and engineering plays a significant role are recycling and disposal.The issues of recyclability and disposability are important when new materials are being designed and synthesized. Furthermore, during the materials selection process, the ultimate disposition of the materials employed should be an important criterion. Let us conclude this section by briefly discussing several of these recyclability/disposability issues. From an environmental perspective, the ideal material should be either totally recyclable or completely biodegradable. Recyclable means that a material, after having completed its life cycle in one component, could be reprocessed, could reenter the materials cycle, and could be reused in another component—a process that could be repeated an indefinite number of times. By completely biodegradable, we mean that, by interactions with the environment (natural chemicals, microorganisms, oxygen, heat, sunlight, etc.), the material deteriorates and returns to virtually the same state in which it existed prior to the initial processing. Engineering materials exhibit varying degrees of recyclability and biodegradability. Metals Most metal alloys (i.e., Fe, Cu), to one degree or another experience corrosion and are also biodegradable. However, some metals (i.e., Hg, Pb) are toxic and, when land-filled, may present health hazards. Furthermore, alloys of most metals are recyclable; on the other hand it is not feasible to recycle all alloys of every metal. In addition, the quality of alloys that are recycled tends to diminish with each cycle. Product designs should allow for the dismantling of components composed of different alloys. Another of the problems of recycling involves separation of various alloys types (i.e., aluminum from ferrous alloys) after dismantling and shredding; in this regard, some rather ingenious separation techniques have been devised (i.e., magnetic and gravity). Joining of dissimilar alloys presents contamination problems; for example, if two similar alloys are to be joined, welding is preferred over bolting or riveting. Coatings (paints, anodized layers, claddings, etc.) may also act as contaminants, and render the material nonrecyclable. Aluminum alloys are very corrosion resistant and, therefore, nonbiodegradable. Fortunately, however, they may be recycled; in fact, aluminum is the most important recyclable nonferrous metal. Since aluminum is not easily corroded, it may be totally reclaimed. A low ratio of energy is required to refine recycled aluminum relative to its primary production. In addition, there are a large number of commercially available alloys that have been designed to accommodate impurity contamination. The primary sources of recycled aluminum are used beverage cans and scrapped automobiles.
7. Glass The one ceramic material that is consumed by the general public in the greatest quantities is glass, in the form of containers. Glass is a relatively inert material, and, as such, it does not decompose; thus, it is not biodegradable. A significant proportion of municipal land-fills consists of waste glass; so also does incinerator residue. In addition, there is not a significant economic driving force for recycling glass. Its basic raw materials (sand, soda ash, and limestone) are inexpensive and readily available. Furthermore, salvaged glass (also called “cullet”) must be sorted by color (clear,amber, and green), by type (plate versus container), and by composition (lime, lead, and borosilicate [or Pyrex]); these sorting procedures are time-consuming and expensive. Therefore, scrap glass has a low market value, which diminishes its recyclability. Advantages of utilizing recycled glass include more rapid and increased production rates and a reduction in pollutant emissions. Plastics and Rubber One of the reasons that synthetic polymers (including rubber) are so popular as engineering materials lies with their chemical and biological inertness. On the down side, this characteristic is really a liability when it comes to waste disposal. Polymers are not biodegradable, and, as such, they constitute a significant land-fill component; major sources of waste are from packaging, junk automobiles, automobile tires, and domestic durables. Biodegradable polymers have been synthesized, but they are relatively expensive to produce. On the other hand, since some polymers are combustible and do not yield appreciable toxic or polluting emissions, they may be disposed of by incineration. Thermoplastic polymers, specifically poly(ethylene terephthalate), polyethylene, and polypropylene, are those most amenable to reclamation and recycling, since they may be reformed upon heating. Sorting by type and color is necessary. In some countries, type sorting of packaging materials is facilitated using a number identification code; for example, a “1” denotes high-density polyethylene (HDPE). Table 23.1 presents these recycling code numbers and their associated materials. Also included in the table are uses of virgin and recycled materials. Plastics recycling is complicated by the presence of fillers (Section 15.21) that were added to modify the original properties. The recycled plastic is less costly than the original material, and quality and appearance are generally degraded with each recycle. Typical applications for recycled plastics include shoe soles, tool handles, and industrial products such as pallets.The recycling of thermoset resins is much more difficult since these materials are not easily remolded or reshaped due to their crosslinked or network structures. Some thermosets are ground up and added to the virgin molding material prior to processing; as such, they are recycled as filler materials.Rubber materials present some disposal and recycling challenges. When vulcanized,they are thermoset materials, which makes chemical recycling difficult. In addition, they may also contain a variety of fillers.The major source of rubber scrapin the United States is discarded automobile tires, which are highly nonbiodegradable. Scrap tires have been utilized as a fuel for some industrial applications (i.e.,cement plants), but yield dirty emissions. Recycled rubber tires that have been split and reshaped are used in a variety of applications such as automotive bumper guards, mud flaps, door mats, and conveyor rollers; and, of course, used tires mayalso be recapped. In addition, rubber tires may be ground into small chunks that are then recombined into the desired shape using some type of adhesive; the resulting material may be used in a number of nondemanding applications such as place mats and rubber toys. The most viable recyclable alternatives to the traditional rubber materials are the thermoplastic elastomers (Section 15.19). Being thermoplastic in nature they are not chemically crosslinked and, thus, are easily reshaped. Furthermore, production energy requirements are lower than for the thermoset rubbers since a vulcanization step is not required in their manufacture.
8. Composite Materials Composites are inherently difficult to recycle because they are multiphase in nature. The two or more phases/materials that constitute the composite are normally intermixed on a very fine scale and trying to separate them complicates the recycling process. However, some techniques have been developed, with modest success, for recycling polymer–matrix composites. Recycling technologies will differ only slightly for thermoset–matrix and thermoplastic–matrix composite materials. The first step in recycling both thermoset– and thermoplastic–matrix composites is shredding/grinding, wherein the components are reduced in size to relatively small particles. In some instances, these ground particles are used as filler materials that are blended with a polymer (and perhaps other fillers) before fabrication (usually using some type of molding technique) into postconsumer products. Other recycling processes allow for separating of the fibers and/or matrix materials.With some techniques the matrix is volatilized; with others it is recovered as a monomer. Of course, the recovered fibers have short lengths, as a result of the shredding/grinding process. In addition, fibers will experience a reduction of mechanical strength, the degree of which will depend on the specific recovery process as well as fiber type.
9. Recycle Codes, Uses of the Virgin Material, and Recycled Products for Several Commercial Polymers
10. SUMMARY Economic Considerations The economics of engineering is very important in product design and manufacturing. To minimize product cost, materials engineers must take into account component design, what materials are used, and manufacturing processes. Other significant economic factors include fringe benefits, labor, insurance, profit, etc. Environmental and Societal Considerations Environmental and societal impacts of production are becoming significant engineering issues. In this regard, the material cradle-to-grave life cycle is an important consideration; this cycle consists of extraction, synthesis/processing, product design/ manufacture, application, and disposal stages. Materials, energy, and environmental interactions/exchanges are important factors in the efficient operation of the materials cycle. The earth is a closed system in that its materials resources are finite; to some degree, the same may be said of energy resources. Environmental issues involve ecological damage, pollution, and waste disposal. Recycling of used products and the utilization of green design obviate some of these environmental problems. Recycling Issues in Materials Science and Engineering Recyclability and disposability issues were addressed in the context of materials science and engineering. Ideally, a material should be at best recyclable, and at least biodegradable or disposable. The recyclability and disposability of metal alloys, glasses, polymers, and composites were also discussed.