Don't we all love computers?

So today we found out that the ANSYS model we built is not going to work for the optimization program that we learned about this morning.  It needs to be the current version of ModeFrontier, which for some reason isn't installed on the university computers yet.  Why, I don't know.  Luckily another team member had built the model in Abaqus mainly to verify that we had ANSYS configured correctly.  However, we cannot get the Abaqus input to work in the optimization program.  It cannot find the command .exe to get the program running.

ModeFrontier is a neat concept.  In the simplest terms, you can give it a range of inputs and outputs, and it will run as many different combinations as you tell it to.  That way you can find the optimum combination of inputs to meet the output conditions that you specify.  Audi supposedly gained 2.3 seconds of lap time around LeMans on the R8 with the program.  No details on the specifics of what they wound up changing though.

On a completely unrelated note - washing your hands here is a pain.  They have separate faucets for hot and cold, and the hot is definitely not turned down any.  Makes it very hard to properly wash your hands....cough cough  head cold  cough cough.  Don't really understand why mixing faucets aren't more common - even in new buildings I haven't seen many of them.

Engine Design

Today was all about the considerations in actual engine design.  It was all very detailed and interesting.  There is almost always no one right answer.  The most exciting part was that both lecturers brought in pieces of old F1 engines, and one cylinder head of an IndyCar too.  The pistons and crankshafts are so much more complex than a standard road car, obviously, but it was eye opening to feel how light an F1 piston is.

We did get out at 4:00 today instead of 5:20, so that was nice.  The time was spent on making sure our ANSYS model was ready to use for tomorrow's class sessions.

I did have a slight panic session this morning, I couldn't find my bus pass.  Wound up just paying the fare for today, and luckily when I got home I did find my pass.  I had pulled it out with the empty box of cold medicine and put it in the trash in my room.  That was a relief, as it's not exactly a cheap pass!

Also, I'm still waiting on the bank to get my account opened.  They certainly are no BB&T...I've been told to come back twice now just to get my basic account information.  That isn't even getting my cards either, those get mailed to me.  So I've been promised that it will be open tomorrow, we will see I suppose.

Head colds make lectures fun

Well I've had a small head cold the last couple of days.  It makes a long day of lectures feel even longer unfortunately.  Today we continued metal properties and behavior discussions.  Elastic behavior, plastic deformation, that kind of stuff.  In the afternoon, the lecture was on friction and wear and lubrication.  This was pretty interesting, since I don't think I've ever had a specific class or anything on wear, or anything this detailed on lubrication.  We went into the different modes of friction, which simplified are varying levels of metal to metal contact.  For example, engine components wear the most during startup because the lubrication is not thick enough to keep the surface irregularities from contacting each other.  This is because the components are acting in the boundary lubrication mode.  You want to be in hydrodynamic lubrication, as that means the oil film is thick enough to prevent surface contact.

I stayed on campus working with our second group project.  We are modeling a seat support bracket in ANSYS to analyze the structure and try to optimize it.  Dinner was a frozen chicken biryani meal, that only cost 1&pound and was actually very good!

Off to bed for me, wish me luck getting rid of the head cold please...

Real Class

No more easy intro week stuff, we're getting down to business.  First module (class) is Metallic Structures for Motorsport.  Today we talked about basic structural analysis - yes I need to brush up on my statics and dynamics :)  Also went over the effects of various heat treating methods and varying steel compositions.  The afternoon lecture was on material coatings which is now starting to become known as "Surface Engineering".

The bus ride back home was particularly crowded today and not comfortable.  I'll make due with it, but it sure would be nice if you could at least make some of the time useful for reading or something.  It's just too cramped to do anything worthwhile.

Cooked a burger for dinner, with some sauteed peppers and tomato slices on the side.  It was pretty good I think, I put some mixed herbs in the burger that really helped the flavor.

Wish the Braves game was an afternoon game though, then I might be able to catch a little of it.  The 6:30am wake up call isn't very helpful when first pitch is 12:30am.  I'm gonna finish up some laundry, and study a bit of the material from today while watching yesterday's F1 race (even though I know who won).

Good Time in Bedford

I took the long bus ride to Bedford - it was about an hour and 15 minutes. There was a quicker express bus, which I wound up taking home, but my monthly bus pass is only good on the long route. The parts of town I saw were an interesting mix of old historic looking buildings, and new looking shopping and retail sections. It was very crowded too, lots of people walking around the streets. Street vendors were very popular, there was a fairly large farmer's market, as well as food carts and also just generic merchandise for sale too.

Eventually I found the Corn Exchange building where the festival was being held. I walked in around 1pm, and it was already packed. There were at least two levels of seating, so they did a good job of keeping where you ordered beer accessible. They were selling half pint and full pint glasses for 2£. If you didn't want to keep it, you could just return it for a refund after you were done. I kept mine because, well I don't have any pint glasses here.

I was immediately impressed by the organization. As the fest had been going on since Wednesday, not all the advertised beers were still available. They had a printout, in alphabetical or ABV order, of everything that was still available when they opened. The sheet also said what style the beer was, and had a 1-4 number of how much was left. The casks were ordered alphabetically, which made finding what you wanted very easy. In addition, each cask had clearly marked on it what the beer was, what the abv was, and how much a pint and half pint would cost. Most of them were about 1.5£ for a half, and 3 £ for a full.

I think my favorite of the afternoon was probably the Potbelly Beijing Black mild. I found overall that I enjoyed the dark milds, porters and stouts much more than any of the bitters or lighter (color) beers. It is also tricky because some beers are called IPA, but they are 4% abv, and technically they are classified as bitters.

I did wind up stopping by a pub recommended by a guy at the fest for Belgian beers - The Wellington Arms. They had a ton of hand pumps available - 16 I think and a nice cooler of European and Belgian bottles. I wound up with a De Graal Dubble that was very tasty.

I'm glad I took the time to venture to Bedford, it was an enjoyable time.

9-10-10 Bedford Beer Festival

Picasa is being funny this morning, so I'll go through and caption these pictures later.

Hello Again

It's Friday night, and might be my last truly free weekend for a few months.  The intro week was good, we had presentations from alumni working for Red Bull F1, Renault F1, Flybrid Systems, ART Grand Prix and MIRA.  All very interesting, though some focused a lot on CFD, which I don't really have a lot of interest in.  Still very useful knowledge though.  We got to see a cutaway of a mechanical KERS system (almost exactly what is on the Porsche GT3R Hybrid, and likely very similar to what might be on next year's F1 cars).  The system was surprisingly small, and could have a footprint the size of a 8.5x11 sheet of paper in the near future.

I did find out that the Social Club does curry on Friday's, it's only 4£ for a full plate with crispy naan. It wasn't as spicy as I might choose, but still very flavorful. We did have group presentations on the paper we were supposed to write this week. I think our presentation went well, even though one of our members had to go back home to France, so we had 2 less people presenting than the other teams. We were given a 10 minute time limit, which no one else really adhered to. Luckily we did, and got complimented on it too. Hopefully our content was as good :) Our paper got scored by another team, and we had the best score on that as well.

Instead of going straight home to MK, I got off the bus in Newport Pagnell and had a drink at a 2 different pubs. The town is very small, but there were lots of people out and about. I will probably wind up spending more time there, it is an easy bus ride from school, and the bus runs back to MK until 10 or 11 at night. There is a nice little river running through the town too, with some nice park areas around.

Tomorrow I am going to venture to Bedford, which is about an hour ride on the bus (unless I pay 12£ roundtrip for an express bus). There is a CAMRA beer fest there, free admission, and you just buy the beer you want in pints or half pints. Should be over 130 real ales and ciders, in addition to an international beer section. I'm curious to see what if any American beers might be there. Other than that I'm just trying to enjoy my truly free weekend, as life is about to get seriously busy. I do need to get important dates into my Google or Outlook calendar and finally do laundry too. I'll probably try to get a run and workout in tomorrow morning too. Hopefully it doesn't rain.

I did buy some Fox's bars (wafer and chocolate) and Cadbury's Caramel and Fruit and Nut bars too on the way home tonight. The first few bites of the caramel bar are pretty tasty!

To Bed...

Wound up with some real relax time tonight.  We got done with our paper a little early so I had around an hour and a half to burn until our free buffet and pub quiz at the social club.  I used it to call Jess for a while and then found a few classmates and hung out with them until the buffet at 6pm.  The food was pretty good, chicken pasta, rice with garbanzo beans, an assortment of cheese, and some deli meats too.  It turned into quite a late night, I got a ride back home with a classmate, and got back home at about 11pm.  I'm hitting the bed, I need to get a bit of sleep, that bus comes awfully early :)

Going to sleep to a stream of the Yankees and Twins game.