The Complete Engineer - Fall 2015

COMPLETE

THE

Fall/Winter 2015

ENGINEER THE MAGAZINE OF THE FACULTY OF ENGINEERING AND APPLIED SCIENCE AT QUEEN’S UNIVERSITY

Queen’s Engineering: Home to unique and cutting-edge research facilities

INSIDE Learn about some of our amazing labs and centres

PLUS Queen’s University Physics Professor Emeritus Arthur McDonald is the co-winner of the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physics!

Dr. Mark Chen, Sc’89, talks about working with him on the groundbreaking research

SEC TION HEADER

CONTENTS FALL/WINTER 2015

DEAN

Kimberly A. Woodhouse DIRECTOR OF MARKETING AND COMMUNICATIONS

Adam Walker MARKETING AND COMMUNICATIONS COORDINATOR

Matt Mills

1 A message from the Dean

New facilities mean even more research and teaching space for our faculty and students 2

A message from the Vice Dean Our graduate students are gaining the tools they need for a competitive edge

4

Bits and bytes News from around the faculty, including Dr. Art McDonald being named co-winner of the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physics

6

Research for a greener tomorrow $17.5-million Reactor Materials Testing Laboratory opens

7

tudying joints in action S Studies at the Human Mobility Research Lab focus on helping patients recover independence

8

Unique facility for the study of fluid mechanics Optical Towing Tank for Energetics Research lab allows researchers to learn from flying creatures

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS

Lesley Fraser Jordan Whitehouse GRAPHIC DESIGN

Walker Design + Communications PHOTOGRAPHY

10 Pilot Plant gives hands-on experience to undergrads

Steven Hodgson and Kelly Sedore take us inside to show off some of the ongoing improvements 12 A focus on polymers

In the Polymer Lab, it’s all about learning and applying the rules of polymer processing

Greg Black Matt Mills Rob Whelan CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

14 e POWER-ing the future Renewable energy lab to be up and running by fall 2016

Kirsteen MacLeod Matt Mills Mark Witten

16 R aising the speed limit on the information highway Lightwave Systems Laboratory researchers look to meet our growing demand for connectivity

CONTACT INFORMATION

Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science Queen’s University Beamish-Munro Hall 45 Union Street Kingston, ON K7L 3N6 Tel 613.533.2055 Fax 613.533.6500 Email complete.engineer@queensu.ca

18 Controlled destruction

We head an hour north of Kingston to the Alan Bauer Explosives Laboratory and witness a blast 20 Queen’s Rock Mechanics Lab on solid ground

Renovated and revitalized, Mining’s Rock Mechanics Lab is giving students valuable hands-on experience 22 Engineering tsunamis in the Coastal Lab Work with 50-metre-long flume sheds new light on tsunamis caused by landslides 24 Keeping our water safe Drinking-water discolouration facility set to open early next year 26 GeoEng Lab is one of a kind Researchers design and build durable and cost effective systems

COMPLETE

THE

Fall/Winter 2015

ENGINEER THE MAGAZINE OF THE FACULTY OF ENGINEERING AND APPLIED SCIENCE AT QUEEN’S UNIVERSITY

Queen’s Engineering: Home to unique and cutting-edge research facilities

INSIDE Learn about some of the labs and centres that keep us on the leading edge

PLUS Queen’s University Physics Professor Emeritus Arthur McDonald is the co-winner of the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physics!

Dr. Mark Chen (Sc’89) talks about working with him on the groundbreaking research

Inside the OTTER tank, lasers illuminate turbulence patterns in fluid.

See the full story, page 8.

27 A river runs through it Salmon River a data mine for researchers and students at the Kennedy Field Station 28 Renovations roundup Updates on revitalization projects in three departments 30 Alumni engagement Queen’s Innovation Connector Summer Initiative, The Johnson Award (Calgary), Innovation Across Engineering (Vancouver), Homecoming 2015

FACULT Y

Dean’s Message Investing in our future

W

elcome to this year’s fall/winter edition of The Complete Engineer. We have had a wonderful fall with lots of activity, including the announcement of new research facilities and a busy orientation for 730 first-year engineering students. In the last year, we have welcomed five new faculty members who now call the Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science home.

This September, thanks to funding from the Canada Foundation for Innovation and the Ministry of Research and Innovation, we opened the Reactor Materials Testing Laboratory, a state-of-the-art, $17-million facility that will support the development of safe and economical nuclear power for the future. In addition, through the energy and support of our faculty, staff, students, alumni and government, we have undertaken more than $6-million worth of renovations and renewals of our teaching and research facilities within our departments, and two new research facilities are planned in the civil engineering department. Our planned Innovation Commons is considered a transformational leap toward the future of engineering.

To be located at 67 Union Street, it will provide modern educational and research space in the heart of the campus.

This is an exciting time for the faculty, as you’ll discover by reading the stories in this issue. Interested in what you find in The Complete Engineer? Please come visit campus and see innovation in action!

Kimberly A. Woodhouse PhD, PEng, FCAE, FBSE Dean, Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science

“

”

Our planned Innovation Commons is considered

a transformational leap toward the future of engineering.

FACULT Y

Vice Dean’s Message Keeping on the cutting edge

W

hen you think about Queen’s Engineering, what do you envision?

Most people think about the 3,000 or so undergraduates who are on campus at any given time, but we tend to forget about the 500 graduate students who are also attending classes and working in the labs.

We prepare our students for the working world, but at Queen’s, we also want to build a community of faculty who are focused on the discovery of new ideas for industry and mentoring the next generation of engineers.

To do so, we need strong programs, along with leading-edge technology and exemplary supervision that gives graduate students the tools and guidance they need to achieve their career and professional goals.

Queen’s provides an exceptional graduate learning environment to complement our outstanding undergraduate studies. Our eight-month Master of Engineering program enables students to upgrade their technical and professional skills to give them a competitive edge. Two-year Master of Applied Science programs provide excellent preparation for careers in research and development, and give students an opportunity to work in laboratories equipped with the latest in engineering test facilities. Our PhD program gives students an opportunity to pursue their research passion and to make a substantial contribution in their chosen field.

“

We prepare our students

Graduate students have access to cutting-edge technology and facilities, such as the Coastal Lab, an explosives testing range, the ePOWER centre and the newly-opened Reactor Materials Testing Laboratory. These facilities feature some of the world’s best technology and equipment, and are led by globally-renowned researchers who mentor and inspire. We continue to renovate and add facilities to meet evolving needs, increased capacity and research specialization.

Now more than ever, we need people who can transform their knowledge into global solutions. As one of Canada’s leading research-intensive universities, Queen’s graduate students are gaining the critical skills needed to drive discovery in a changing world.

Brian Surgenor, PhD, PEng , FCSME, SMIEEE Vice-Dean, Research and Graduate Studies

2 THE COMPLETE ENGINEER

for the working world, but at Queen’s, we also want to build a community of

”

faculty who are focused on the discovery of new ideas for industry and mentoring the next

generation of engineers.

Want to learn more about the amazing things happening at Queen’s Engineering?

Visit our Vimeo page! https://vimeo.com/queensengineering We have more than 150 videos made by engineering students.

Reactor Materials Laboratory https://vimeo.com/137954155

New Faculty: David Rival https://vimeo.com/107620985

Human Mobility Research Lab https://vimeo.com/130899490

Why Grad Studies?

Hydrotechnical Engineering https://vimeo.com/102161961

Why Grad Studies? Blasting https://vimeo.com/117212468 Why Queen’s Mining https://vimeo.com/121292903

GeoEngineering Lab https://vimeo.com/28311643

Be sure to also follow us on Twitter and join our alumni LinkedIn group.

Bi t s a nd b y t e s Working on the big questions about tiny things As an undergraduate in engineering physics at Queen’s, Dr. Mark Chen, Sci’89, heard his professors talk with excitement about the proposed Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO) project, a giant particle detector buried two kilometres underground in an active nickel mine that would take almost a decade to build. In 2000, Dr. Mark Chen after earning a PhD in physics at the California Institute of Technology and teaching at Princeton University, Dr. Chen was invited by the leader of the SNO project, Queen’s Professor Dr. Arthur (Art) McDonald, to return to the university and help solve a 30-year-old mystery about why some solar neutrinos apparently disappear on their journey from the sun to Earth.

“Art brought me back to Canada to join the SNO team and help understand the neutrino observatory’s data. I was eager to do it and fully participated in the data analysis. We were all amazed that the detector worked so well and the results were so clear. We had the answer to a decades-old puzzle and showed that the missing neutrinos changed to other flavours,” says Dr. Chen, a professor in the Queen’s Department of Physics and the Gordon and Patricia Gray Chair in Particle Astrophysics.

On October 6, Queen’s Professor Emeritus Dr. McDonald was named co-winner of the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physics for experiments at SNO proving that neutrinos transform into other neutrino types, or flavours, while travelling from the sun to Earth and demonstrating that neutrinos have mass. “This is a tremendous honour and recognition of a major scientific accomplishment in terms of the overall significance of the SNO project and the leadership shown by Art to make this discovery happen,” says Dr. Chen.

Dr. Chen regards the construction of the SNO detector—a 12-metre-diameter acrylic sphere holding more than 1,000 tonnes of heavy water, buried in a 10-storey cathedral-sized cavity deep inside the mine— as an amazing feat. “A tremendous amount of engineering was involved in both the SNO and SNO+ projects, with multiple disciplines working together to achieve one common objective.

I’m lucky to have the engineering training I received as an undergraduate at Queen’s, and it’s truly satisfying to be involved with all the different aspects,” he says.

Dr. Chen succeeded Dr. McDonald as Gray Chair and as leader of the SNO+ project (the upgrade of the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory), the world’s most sensitive instrument for detecting neutrinos. “Art has been an excellent mentor for me for many years, and I’m honoured to be following in his footsteps to push this research forward. There is much more to be done, and it’s our objective through the SNO+ and all the projects at SNOLAB to Dr. Art McDonald expand our knowledge of all the fundamental constituents of the universe,” he says.

Davies appointed to MME The Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science welcomes Claire Davies as a new assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering.

Davies returns to Kingston after postdoctoral work in the Department of Surgery at the University of Auckland, and five years as a seniorlecturer in mechanical engineering there. She earned her PhD in systems design engineering at the University of Waterloo, her MSc in biomedical engineering from the University of Calgary, and her BSc in materials and metallurgical engineering at Queen’s.

“My primary research goal focuses on increasing 4

THE COMPLETE ENGINEER

independence of people with disabilities,” writes Davies on her personal webpage. “Understanding the perceptual and physical responses of all the senses, primarily vision, haptics and sound, has given me insight into how design of devices should be undertaken to create human-machine interfaces that are easily navigated and accepted. After spending several years designing to meet the needs of specific clients, I have realised the need for universal design. Universal design is becoming increasingly popular such that devices should be easy to use by all people without the need for adaptation.”

Piomelli elected RSC Fellow Queen’s Mechanical and Materials Engineering professor and researcher Ugo Piomelli has been elected to the Royal Society of Canada (RSC).

“It’s a great honour to be part of such a learned society,” says Dr. Piomelli. “It’s good, not just for myself, but also for the department and for the university. Having this type of distinction in your faculty says something about the type of leadingedge research that is going on here.”

Piomelli is a world expert in the area of fluid dynamics. He has made fundamental contributions to the field by developing numerical models for predicting turbulent flows, and by successfully applying them to understand the physics of turbulence. The models he developed are commonly used by the industrial and research communities; in aerospace, mechanical and environmental engineering; and in geophysics and meteorology.

The RSC is Canada’s national academy and exists to promote Canadian research and scholarly accomplishment in both official languages, to recognize academic and artistic excellence, and to advise governments, non-governmental organizations and Canadians on matters of public interest. Election to RSC fellowship is the highest accolade available to scientists, artists and scholars in Canada.

The induction ceremony is scheduled for November 27 in Victoria.

Barz earns research award Professor Dominik Barz of the Department of Chemical Engineering has received an award from the Ontario government’s Early Researcher Awards program valued at $140,000 for the development of a rechargeable battery.

“We proposed the development of a novel type of rechargeable micro battery with a wide range of applications,” explains Dr. Barz. “A single micro battery can be used for portable medical diagnostic systems benefiting Ontario’s health care system. Large numbers of micro batteries can be bundled into stacks with high energy contents despite their small volumes. These stacks could solve the battery bottleneck for electric cars or they can serve in combination with regenerative energy sources as power supply in remote areas of Ontario. We will use a combined experimental and computational approach to develop these batteries.”

Daugulis wins OPEA Queen’s Chemical Engineering Professor Andrew Daugulis has been awarded the Engineering Medal for Research and Development by Professional Engineers Ontario (PEO).

“It’s a great honour because I was nominated by peers: other engineers in the discipline,” says Dr. Daugulis.

“The fact that it’s not just a science research and development award, but an engineering research and development award is particularly gratifying.”

The award honours Daugulis for his more than 30 years of work in biochemical engineering. His research has led to technology platforms allowing microbiological systems to be operated in toxic environments, leading to the development of sustainable biological processes to replace long-used chemical ones. His work has contributed, for example, to the development of renewable biofuels, neutraceuticals and bioremediation applications.

According to PEO, the Engineering Medal “recognizes professional engineers who have improved our quality of life through the ingenious application of their engineering skills.”

Building for the future New engineering facility features in plans for PEC revitalization For the Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science, plans to renovate and repurpose the former Queen’s Physical Education Centre (PEC) hold great promise.

If current plans come to fruition, the building, located in the heart of campus, will be home to a new, state-of-the-art facility that will further establish the faculty as one of the best in the country.

Planning began last summer for renovations to the building, which is expected to become a hub for student health and wellness, student innovation, and student learning.

“The redeveloped building will be an enhancement to both the quality of our student experience and the quality of our research and educational facilities,” says Principal and Vice-Chancellor Daniel Woolf. “When completed, it will be a prominent symbol of Queen’s commitments both to student life and learning and to advanced research.”

Located at 67 Union St., the PEC building was decommissioned in 2009. In 2012, the three gyms in the building were renovated

and reopened to provide increased recreational opportunities for students, and centralized exam space. A recent structural assessment of the building by an external consultant found that it is in excellent shape and, if renovated, could provide a considerable amount of additional space—up to 160,000 square feet—at a relatively low cost per square foot, compared to a newly constructed building.

“The building provides a wonderful opportunity to utilize and revitalize valuable space that is not currently being used,” says Alan Harrison, Provost and Vice-Principal (Academic). “Given the university’s current financial situation, strong support will be needed to fund the project, and we are hopeful that this use of existing space will allow us to realize our goals sooner than if we were to construct a new building.”

More information about the project will be made available as plans progress.

THE COMPLETE ENGINEER

5

OUR AMA ZING FACILITIES

Research for a greener tomorrow T

he new $17.5-million Reactor Materials Testing Laboratory (RMTL), which opened on September 1, gives researchers a rare opportunity to study how materials behave under conditions like those in the core of a nuclear power reactor. The goal is to better understand and predict the behaviour of materials in reactors, which can help to improve the safety, efficiency and longevity of nuclear power plants as a source of low carbon emission electricity.

NSERC/UNENE Industrial Research Chair in Nuclear Materials, Canada Research Chair in Mechanics of Materials, and professor in the Queen’s Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering.

Nearly 60 per cent of electricity in Ontario is generated by nuclear power,

“

”

It’s a unique facility in Canada, with an unusual suite of

equipment that allows people to do science they can’t really do in other places.

Professor Mark Daymond gives a tour of the RMTL. The project originated in 2008 with Dr. Rick Holt, now Professor Emeritus. The RMTL has a powerful proton accelerator, which is used to generate damage inside materials found in the reactor core, such as zirconium and nickel-based alloys. It also includes state-of-the-art TEM and SEM (transmission and scanning electron microscopy) tools for characterization of the materials. “The experiments are done in situ, inside the accelerator beam, to simulate the conditions within a reactor and investigate how materials respond when you mix irradiation with stress, temperature and/or a corrosive environment. We want to understand the dynamics of these interactions and their impact on materials to help prolong the lives of nuclear reactors,” says Dr. Mark Daymond, director of the RMTL,

6

THE COMPLETE ENGINEER

and internationally there is a continued investment in nuclear power. “Utilities are looking for opportunities to make improvements. We work closely with industry partners and will be studying new materials to see if they last longer under these conditions and can improve the lifespan and efficiency of reactors,” says Dr. Daymond.

Research at the facility, which was made possible with the generous support of the Canada Foundation for Innovation and the Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation, is also contributing to a safe environment for people working in the nuclear power industry. “We’re collaborating with the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT) on a project to help improve monitoring of radiation through the development of better detectors,” says Dr. Daymond.

The RMTL is sure to attract researchers and graduate students from across Canada and around the world.

“It’s a unique facility in Canada, with an unusual suite of equipment that allows people to do science they can’t really do in other places. There is an opportunity for graduate students and post-docs to do experiments that few others can attempt and meet with collaborators from around the world, which is an immense advantage for their future careers,” says Dr. Daymond.

Equipment/features list: > 4 MV Tandetron accelerator, made

by High Voltage Engineering Europa

> Technai Osiris TEM, made by FEI > Nova NanoSEM 450, made by FEI > Nanoindentor Vantage, made by

Micro Materials

> GEM series gamma spectrometer,

made by Ortecr

Principal investigators include: Dr. Mark Daymond Dr. Zhongwen Yao

MME

Studying joints in action T

he Human Mobility Research Laboratory (HMRL) is a state-of-the-art performance-testing facility where engineers, basic scientists and clinicians use sophisticated equipment to study the biomechanics of knee osteoarthritis and evaluate the effectiveness of innovative surgical and non-surgical treatments. It’s a large, open space with high ceilings, surrounded by 18 infra-red motion-capture cameras and equipped with six force platforms in the floor to measure joint loading, orientation and neuromuscular function as people walk and move.

Cutting-edge technology brought to bear on human mobility.

Unlike traditional gait analysis labs that focus mainly on walking, the HMRL is specifically designed to measure the biomechanics of not only walking, but more demanding everyday activities, including jogging, jumping, stair climbing and high-performance athletic movements like cross cuts and side cuts. There is also an instrumented treadmill for gait analysis of subjects running up and down hills.

“We want to look at more demanding activities because we have an aging population, especially aging boomers, who have much higher expectations of treatments for musculoskeletal problems.

It’s not adequate to say we can help you walk better. People want to get off the couch, climb stairs, jog and return to sports,” says HMRL researcher Dr. Kevin Deluzio, professor and head of the Queen’s Mechanical and Materials Engineering Department.

A key focus of Dr. Deluzio’s research is to find non-surgical ways to slow or stop the progression of osteoarthritis and to prevent or delay surgical knee replacements. A recent study of osteoarthritis patients at the HMRL assessed the effectiveness of knee braces in early treatment. “Our results support

the use of knee braces in clinical care and show that the brace was able to reduce joint contact forces on the knee in patients performing demanding activities. Even more interesting, the specific gait patterns that people possess predict who will benefit most, which could help in selecting suitable patients for treatment with knee braces,” explains Dr. Deluzio, who will also conduct

Equipment/features list: > Qualisys motion capture cameras > AMTI force platforms > C-motion Visual3D Professional > AMTI instrumented tandem

treadmill

> AMTI stairway > Delsys Trigno wireless EMG

Principal Investigators Include: Dr. Kevin Deluzio Dr. Qingguo Li Dr. Tim Bryant Dr. Genevieve Dumas Dr. Michael Rainbow

tests to see if biofeedback can alter a patient’s gait to optimize treatment.

The HMRL is located in the Hotel Dieu Hospital’s ambulatory care centre, allowing Queen’s faculty and students to collaborate on research directly with orthopedic surgeons. “This facility is amazing. What distinguishes the lab from others is we have great access to clinicians and patients, and we have the space and high-tech equipment to assess patients doing more demanding activities,” says Liz Hassan, a PhD candidate in mechanical engineering.

Hassan is working with Dr. Deluzio and a local pediatric surgeon on a randomized control study that compares a promising new ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) surgical repair technique— which may allow teenage athletes to return to their sports faster—with a commonly used standard technique. “We stress the locomotion system, and this enables us to see exactly how the knee behaves as these athletes perform very demanding movements like running, jumping and cutting. Our study is a trueto-life comparison of the two techniques, which could allow people to return to high-performance activities faster,” says Dr. Deluzio.

THE COMPLETE ENGINEER

7

OUR AMA ZING FACILITIES

Unique facility for the

PhD candidate Jaime Wong peers into the towing tank.

B

irds, insects and fish—past and present—have evolved to be remarkably efficient in moving and manoeuvring through air and water. The new OTTER (Optical Towing Tank for Energetics Research) lab, located in McLaughlin Hall, allows aerodynamics and hydrodynamics researchers to study, through hightech experiments, how flying creatures like seagulls and dragonflies move, accelerate, reverse direction and outmanoeuvre any aircraft designed by humans.

“Nature has optimized propulsion in air and water in many different ways,” says Dr. David Rival, OTTER lab supervisor and an assistant professor in the Queen’s Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering. “Our research focuses on learning from nature to develop engineering solutions for contemporary societal problems, such as using wind energy more efficiently and making aerospace technology cleaner to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Because of its unique construction, the optical towing tank allows us to test the aerodynamics of models at speeds and scales relevant to industrial applications.”

The OTTER facility is a 15-metre-long glass tank, holding approximately 15 tons of water. As fully submerged models— abstract representations of the animals— are towed rapidly through the tank, its

8

THE COMPLETE ENGINEER

“”

high-speed lasers and cameras visualize, reconstruct and measure the flow fields around them in three dimensions. Through

In nature, seagulls and

dragonflies have evolved much better ways of

extracting the wind’s energy...

such experiments, the researchers can analyze the aerodynamic performance of these models in terms of propulsive efficiency and manoeuvrability, which provides new insights and ideas for improving the efficiency of, for instance, wind turbines and turbofan engines for the

aerospace industry.

Dr. Rival’s group uses the OTTER lab as a tool to help improve the performance and longevity of wind turbines in gusty conditions. In nature, seagulls and dragonflies have evolved much better ways of extracting the wind’s energy for their benefit in unsteady airflows. The team runs experiments to simulate the responses of seagulls and scaled wind turbine models to such uneven flows.

“By towing the model, we can create the effect of a gust hitting a turbine blade by accelerating the blade through the tank. We feed back what we learn into the design and siting of turbines to optimize their operation in an unsteady environment,” he explains.

The lab’s leading-edge experimental equipment is a huge hit with students like Jaime Wong, a PhD candidate in

MME

study of fluid dynamics

Inside the OTTER tank, lasers illuminate the flow field.

a unique place that promotes curiositydriven research and the exploration of new ideas, which wouldn’t happen as easily in another environment.”

Equipment/features list: The beam from the high-speed laser is modified by a series of mirrors and lenses to illuminate vortices generated by models passing in the OTTER above.

> Four Photron SA4 high-speed

cameras (for PIV and 4D-PTV)

> Photonics Industries DM40

Nd:YLF pulsed laser

> ATI Nano17 submersible force

Dr. Rival’s lab. “Students see this giant facility, look at the cool things we’re doing and get drawn into research.

I’m using the OTTER lab to study vortical structures in birds, insects and fish. It allows me to learn about the physics needed to design better AUVs (autonomous underwater vehicles) for search and rescue, or for any type of remote sensing technology in water or air,” says Wong.

Dr. Rival views the facility as fertile ground for experiential learning and discovery. “The OTTER lab excites students and draws them in because they can physically see the flow fields and learn by testing their ideas,” he says. “This kind of facility helps to attract postdoctoral researchers, top master’s and PhD students, and industry collaborators like Pratt & Whitney Canada and Bombardier Aerospace. It’s

balance

> High-speed traverse

Main purpose:

Aero/Hydrodynamics

Principal investigator Dr. David Rival

www.rivallab.com

THE COMPLETE ENGINEER

9

OUR AMA ZING FACILITIES

Pilot Plant gives hands-on experience to undergrads O

n a busy fall day in Dupuis Hall, Steven Hodgson and Kelly Sedore speed by and disappear into the Pilot Plant. With more than 500 undergraduate students making use of the facility each year, it’s no wonder they’re moving fast.

As chemical technologists in the Department of Chemical Engineering, they provide advice to students on equipment, maintain and set up laboratory experiments, monitor safety, and work with faculty to develop new experiments.

Hodgson, who has been with the Department of Chemical Engineering for more than 27 years and is a champion of hands-on learning for engineering students, has been a driving force in the Pilot Plant’s transformation.

“Over the past 10 to 15 years, we’ve spent close to $1 million on renovations,” Hodgson says. “We’ve been fortunate that the Department of Chemical Engineering has had the resources to make improvements, done a little at a time when money became available and needs arose.”

Looking out over the 460-squaremetre lab from an upstairs window, Hodgson and Sedore are justifiably proud. “When I came eight years ago, the lab was dark and dingy,” Sedore recalls.

“Now, we have new benches, the floors have been treated with epoxy, the walls have been repainted for the first time in 40 years, and there’s new HID [high-intensity discharge] lighting,” says Hodgson. “The whole facility has been modernized.”

As well as upgrading the facility, he adds, the department has purchased new unit-operations-type equipment. This includes a distillation column, a cooling tower, kinetics reaction equipment, a heat exchanger, and process control and thermodynamics experiments.

As well, the vertical tube evaporator

was recently rebuilt. This enables a popular troubleshooting project: students attempt to run an experiment, and then must determine why it’s not functioning and make repairs.

Ongoing improvements have made a significant impact on student learning— and the work continues, says Hodgson.

“We have a long-range planning committee that considers how to improve space and how space is used.” Current tasks include consolidating labs. “We have four rooms under renovation.”

Asked which part of the modernization they’re most proud of, the two colleagues glance out a window overlooking the lab. “The whole thing,” replies Sedore.

“Yes, the big picture,” Hodgson says with a smile.

Equipment/features list: > Armfield-TH5: expansion of

perfect gas

> Armfield-HT30X: heat exchanger > Gunt-CE300: ion exchange > Armfield-CEXC: chemical reactor > Gunt-WL320: cooling tower > Gunt-CE60: distillation >

QVF: verticle tube evaporator

> DR Sperry: plate and frame filter

press

> General Foods: air lift fermenter > H2 Economy: fuel cell test

station

> Chem Eng: biofilm > Gunt-CE 380: fixed bed catalysis > Quasar- SRV02: inverted

pendulum

> Gunt-RT040: temperature

Students Eric Donders and Anna Kosmacheva measure the specific gravity of a liquid.

10

THE COMPLETE ENGINEER

control

CHEE

Students and technicians work together in the Pilot Plant.

THE COMPLETE ENGINEER

11

OUR AMA ZING FACILITIES

A focus on polymers

Things are always flowing when it comes to polymers.

Equipment/features list:

A

djoining the Pilot Plant is the Polymer Lab, which is used by both undergraduates and researchers. On any given day, people wearing white lab coats and goggles are hard at work in the bright, modern space, analyzing and modifying polymers and learning the principles of polymer processing.

“Over the past eight years, we’ve done renovations and brought in most of the equipment you see,” says Steven Hodgson, Chemical Technologist in the Department of Chemical Engineering.

“For example, when an injection moulder became available after a research centre folded, we paid to have it moved and installed, and the second- and fourth-year students make great use of it.”

Students use the injection moulding machine to make “dog bone” type strips to test the tensile strength of different types of plastic, says Kelly Sedore, also a chemical technologist with the department. “They also make Izod bars

12

THE COMPLETE ENGINEER

to perform impact tests, to examine what force it takes to break the polymers, and explore the properties of different plastics.”

In addition, the lab features a single screw extruder, which works by forcing the plastic through a die rather than into a mould. “In a fourth-year project, the professor assigns students a polymer, perhaps polypropylene or polyethylene,” says Sedore. “The students extrude the polymer to study the temperature and pressure-flow relationships.”

Hodgson says the Polymer Lab’s facilities are unique. “Many of our researchers do work in plastics, so

> Rotational and capillary

rheometers

> Haake Polylab batch mixer > DSM micro-compounder > Alpha Technologies APA 2000 > Instron 3369 universal tester > Impact, pendulum and falling

dart

> ZSK-18 mm twin-screw

extruder

> Linkam optical shearing

system

> Single screw extruder > Nissei injection molder > Heated two roll mill

Principal investigators include: Dr. Marianna Kontopoulou Dr. Scott Parent Dr. Jeffrey Giacomin

CHEE

Chemical Technologist Kelly Sedore assesses stressstrain behaviour on a polymeric sample. therefore in undergrad programs, we have an emphasis on polymers,” he says. “This is unique compared to other programs, and sets us aside.”

Polymer Lab researchers work with plastic and rubber compounds.

They include Dr. J. Scott Parent, Hazell Research Professor of Chemical Design and Innovation Engineering Chemistry

Program Chair, who leads a research program focused on the chemical modification of polymers for use in highvalue engineering applications.

As well, Dr. Marianna Kontopoulou, Associate Head of the Department of Chemical Engineering, is part of the polymer processing and rheology group, which uses blending, compounding

and composite technologies to improve the performance of polyolefins and biopolymers and create new and industrially useful materials.

Graduates, Hodgson adds, work in many fields. “They go to software companies in California, into the medical field, to do research in biomedical and polymers, as well as into engineering.”

THE COMPLETE ENGINEER

13

OUR AMA ZING FACILITIES

ePOWER is home many talented graduate students.

ePOWER-ing the future M

aximizing how much solar power can be captured. Improving the efficiency of wind turbines.

Working on electric cars that could give power back to the grid.

These are just a few of the myriad projects underway at the Queen’s Centre for Energy and Power Electronics Research (ePOWER). Located in Walter Light Hall, ePOWER specializes in new ideas to make power greener.

Director Dr. Praveen Jain, the Canada Research Chair in Power Electronics, looks pleased as he shows off the future site of ePOWER’s renewable energy lab,

14

THE COMPLETE ENGINEER

to be up and running by fall 2016.

“This area was dark, cluttered and filled with things people didn’t need,” says Dr. Jain. Now, the renovated, bright space is lined with windows and ready for researchers to move in. “Our next step is the wind turbines and solar panels, which will be installed upstairs on the rooftop.”

The creation of the renewable energy lab, funded by a Canada Foundation for Innovation grant of $1 million, is particularly exciting, Jain says. “Our lab now can provide various solutions, but when it comes to renewable energy, whatever you do, systems need to be connected together.”

Interaction between the traditional grid and smart grids is needed. “For that, we need actual wind turbines, actual solar panels, so we can connect them together and see how everything is performing.”

With it, the new lab brings the promise of pioneering discoveries in renewable energy. Jain, renowned for his groundbreaking work as an electrical engineer, has already donated 55 patents to the university and has founded two startups, CHiL Semiconductor and SPARQ Systems.

A previous facilities milestone

was reached in 2004, when a Canada Foundation for Innovation grant enabled Dr. Jain to bring together ePOWER’s facilities, a big improvement for its 50 active researchers, which include students. Six distinct areas were linked: a computer-aided design lab, a hardware lab, an electromagnetic interference lab, a magnetics and printed circuit board lab, a silicon integration lab, and a renewableenergy test platform.

“We are unique in this way: other universities don’t have such integrated facilities,” Jain says. As well, the wide range of applications for ePOWER’s work is unusual. “Our research can be used in aerospace, for electric vehicles and for data transmission, for example.”

Equipment/features list: >

Renewable Energy Lab

> Magnetics and PCB Lab > Silicon Integration Lab

Do you have

an aspiring engineer in your family?

If your child is entering grades 10 through 12, you can give them an introduction to the Queen’s Engineering experience with EngAGE, the Queen’s Engineering Academy Guided Experience!

With both residence and day options available, EngAGE is an engineering-focused educational summer program that exposes your child to the main engineering fields of chemical, civil, electrical and computing, and mechanical engineering.

The academy is two weeks long and covers the main engineering disciplines. A single week option is also available.

EngAGE presents students with a broad engineering overview, using lab facilities and thought-provoking projects to inform and engage students without being technically overwhelming. The team-based design projects that your child will collaborate on incorporate leadership skills and are based on the same basic concepts and methodologies Queen’s engineering students study.

The residence program includes: on-campus residence with three meals/day, full-time supervision and supervised activities each evening. The day program includes lunch. The program runs from July 18 to August 19.

For more information, check out our website: http://esu.queensu.ca/

OUR AMA ZING FACILITIES

Raising the speed limit on O

ptical fibre communication systems are the backbone of the connected world, as virtually all information transmitted over the global communications network is transformed into optical signals that propagate over optical fibres. The Lightwave Systems Research Laboratory (LSRL), located in Walter Light Hall, has more than $10-million worth of advanced test and measurement equipment that enables Dr. John Cartledge, Sci’74, MSc’76, PhD’79, and his research group to conduct innovative, real-world experiments aimed at increasing the bit rate and capacity of optical fibre communication systems to carry information and meet the explosive demand for services anticipated from the emerging Internet of Things.

“The rising demand for cloud and social media services across the business, educational, health care and entertainment sectors is driving the expansion of the global communications network at dramatic rates of 40 per cent per year. Everybody wants to be more

connected, and the ever-increasing demand can be met only by continued innovation in optical communication systems and their enabling technologies,” says Cartledge, Professor and Queen’s Research Chair in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

A key focus of his research is to help push the per-channel bit rate of optical signals from the 100 gigabits per second provided by current commercial optical communication systems to 400 gigabits per second and one terabit per second.

(A gigabit is one billion bits and a

Dr. Cartledge at the LSRL 16

THE COMPLETE ENGINEER

ECE

the information highway terabit is one trillion bits, representing the amount of data transmitted per second in a telecommunication system.)

“Going four and ten times faster is more challenging. We’re exploring and testing techniques for transmitting high bit-rate signals over optical fibres and mitigating the degradation in the quality of the optical signal that occurs because of the high bit rate and long distances,” Cartledge explains.

Equipment/features list: > Four-channel arbitrary

waveform generators

> Binary pulse generators and

error performance analyzers

> High bit rate optical

transmitters

Measuring dual polarization optical signals using an optical modulation analyzer.

> Direct detection and coherent

receivers

> Equivalent-time and real-time

sampling oscilloscopes

> Optical sampling oscilloscope > Lightwave component

analyzers Lightwave signal analyzers > Optical spectrum analyzers and a high resolution spectrometer >

The cutting-edge facility is equipped with arbitrary waveform generators, binary pulse generators, optical transmitters, coherent receivers and realtime sampling oscilloscopes that enable the researchers to do experiments that push the transmission limits of optical communication systems, observe the effects and test solutions, such as preand post-compensation techniques for the signal distortion that occurs during propagation over a fibre.

“This lab is distinguished from many others in the world because of the extraordinary capabilities of the equipment. With this equipment, we can generate advanced modulated optical signals that have the potential to provide higher capacity for optical communication systems. The lab’s capabilities have allowed us to become a major player on the world scene in this field and collaborate with companies that make optical fibre communication

systems and the requisite components/ devices, such as Ciena and Finisar,” says Cartledge, who has received generous support from the Canada Foundation for Innovation for the lab’s infrastructure.

Students have the opportunity to do real experiments—in addition to their simulations—that push the envelope of optical communications technology and prepare them to develop the next generation of products and systems for the connected world once they graduate.

“Graduate students and post-docs are able to develop advanced experimental skills that are very useful when they

go to industry. They are in a position to very effectively help companies build and develop new optical communication products because of the research they’ve done here,” Cartledge says.

As a research engineer, Cartledge has established a facility geared toward assessing the performance of highbit-rate optical fibre communication systems. “I enjoy the challenge of doing experiments that test one’s ingenuity. I like to demonstrate that proposed ideas provide a meaningful advance and result in improved performance,” he says.

Measuring the frequency response of a directly modulated laser using a four port lightwave component analyzer.

THE COMPLETE ENGINEER

17

OUR AMA ZING FACILITIES

Brand new classroom facilities are part of the Alan Bauer Explosives Laboratory.

Controlled destruction O

scar Rielo checks weather conditions before squinting upward at gaps in the cloud cover. The neighbours are more likely to be disturbed by the detonations when it’s overcast because shockwaves bounce back at the ground from the underside of the cloud deck.

Rielo is senior program coordinator at the Robert M. Buchan Department of Mining at Queen’s. He oversees operations at the Alan Bauer Explosives Laboratory under the supervision of Mining Engineering Professor Dr. Takis Katsabanis. The site is a 160-hectare patch of land about an hour north of Kingston.

The lab is used for instructing students in blasting technology and instrumentation and for conducting research related to explosives and fragmentation. The site is equipped with blast chambers of different sizes, as well as the instrumentation needed to record detonation properties, post detonation fumes, vibration, air blast, shock wave propagation and the effects of shock waves on materials. There’s even equipment for drilling holes in rock.

It’s a rare resource among universities in the world and allows the performance of realistic tests to assist blast optimization.

Today about 15 Queen’s mining engineering students are here to collect data for their third-year drilling and blasting course. They’re clustered in small groups in the building behind Rielo calculating, measuring and mixing

18

THE COMPLETE ENGINEER

recipes to obtain the perfect ratio.

“They’re learning how to mix proportions for a commercial explosive called ANFO,” says Rielo. “It’s used right now for about 80 per cent of blasting in the mining industry.”

As each batch of ANFO is completed, students pack it into short lengths of steel pipe. There will be a total of seven shots, called confined charges, of varying mixtures in pipes of different diameters.

Once the charges are packed, students carry them carefully to the blasting area.

“

bunker. As far as safety permits, the mood is light and fun. When a big one goes off, it raises a “Woah!” of exhilaration from the students inside the bunker. Rielo collects, saves and refines the data from the sensors as the students wire up the

Equipment/features list: > 3 blasting chambers > Classroom with audiovisual

equipment

”

It’s a rare resource among

universities in the world and allows the performance of

realistic tests to assist blast optimization.

Each shot is wired in its turn with a velocity-of-detonation sensor, a primer and a detonator. Each is buried in a sandy pit and detonated remotely from a

> High speed data acquisitions > Vibration monitors > Noise compliance monitors > Pressure sensors > High speed cameras > Gas analyzer > Oscilloscopes

Principal investigators include: Dr. Takis Katsabanis Oscar Rielo

MINE

Oscar Rielo

next shots under the supervision of Staff Mining Technician Larry Steele.

“The sensor contains a wire with a known resistance of 322.5 ohms per metre,” says Rielo. “It’s connected to a high-speed data acquisition, basically an oscilloscope without a screen. The sensor is consumed as the blast goes off, changing the resistance and causing a change in the voltage output. That voltage-change pattern is our raw data.”

Recorded over the course of a blast, the information is used to calculate the velocity of detonation in metres per second. Differing mixtures result in different detonation velocities. Different detonation velocities can be tailored to different real-world mining applications.

Rielo gets excited as he talks about his work. It’s clear that he loves it.

“I love working with the students,” he says. “My passion is instrumentation.

Data from blasting experiments can be challenging. They normally have expected patterns but often there are issues of noise, as at detonation a plasma is created that tends to contaminate measurements.

Denoising and understanding the data can be a lot of fun.

“This is a discontinuity in the explosive mix, due to poor mixing,” he adds, pointing at a blip in the data graph from the last shot.

THE COMPLETE ENGINEER

19

OUR AMA ZING FACILITIES

Queen’s Rock Mechanics Renos support better student learning, commercial

Students enjoy the hands-on learning environment of the Rock Mechanics Lab.

“

W

e brought the Rock Mechanics Lab back to life,” says Oscar Rielo, Senior Program Coordinator at the Robert M. Buchan Department of Mining, who led the transformation of two dark, dusty, inefficient spaces into state-of-the-art student learning facilities.

Now, just over a year later, students are hard at work in the orderly second-floor Rock Mechanics Lab and basement lab in Goodwin Hall. “Students remember what they’re taught more easily, and I relate that back to the renovations,” Rielo says.

“Before, the chaos and noise of our labs was distracting for them.”

Upgrades include two arrays of computers with customized software, which make it easy for learners to monitor results even as they watch their rocks being tested. And more students can work in the once-cluttered labs. “In my Mine 202 course, ‘Instrumentation,’ we can fit 35 students in the second-floor

20

THE COMPLETE ENGINEER

lab, versus only 10 before,” Rielo says.

“So we get a lot more done.”

Two new workstations enable students to build sensors, for example, and test them, with oscilloscopes, voltmeters, soldering irons and

“

The new machine, he adds,

“fits with our commercial strategy to become a onestop

shop for rock testing.”

materials close at hand. New benches and technology, such as computers, data acquisition systems and a force transducer for compressing rock, were introduced. Funding included $40,000 from the departmental budget, plus a good part of a $300,000 investment from the Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science.

Today, everything runs smoothly, so lab time is optimized and it’s easier to stage experiments. But the rock lab’s makeover was no easy task. “First, we cleaned up about three tons of garbage,” Rielo recalls. Then, labs were painted, reorganized and upgraded, with much

MINE

Lab on solid ground work and leading-edge research

improvisation to solve problems and save money. “We are engineers, after all,” Rielo says with a smile.

Using funds generated from rock testing for commercial customers from around the world, Rielo’s team developed an automatic direct shear machine that is capable of collecting large amounts of quality data to enable accurate analysis. “In the long run, these efforts pay for themselves. Customers get value for their money,” Rielo says. “Our rock testing turnaround time has gone from two weeks to three days,” he adds.

In fall 2015, the Rock Mechanics Lab purchased a new piece of equipment earned from commercial work. “It’s a fire assay analysis machine, which will give the content of the rock,” says Rielo. “It will be used for research in our mineral

Equipment/features list: > 4 data acquisition systems > 2 compression frames made

by MTS 1000 kN and 3000 kN high resolution digital servo hydraulic controller oscilloscope > State-of-the-art analytical software specifically designed for laboratory > Commercial/research facility

Principal investigators include: Dr. Jamie Archibald

Oscar Rielo

processing laboratories. It will also help our commercial testing efforts. The new machine, he adds, “fits with our commercial strategy to become a onestop shop for rock testing.”

Last year’s upgrades to the rock lab mean the facility is now modern looking and well equipped, Rielo says, and supports better student learning.

Upon this solid foundation, the lab will build capacity for commercial work and conduct more ambitious research.

One research project in its early stages is the development of microseismic measurement equipment. “We are creating our own acoustic emission system, and if all goes well, it will enable us to predict rock failure long before it happens. Eventually, we could create a warning system for seismic events.”

THE COMPLETE ENGINEER

21

OUR AMA ZING FACILITIES

Engineering tsunamis

DISASTER PREDICTION: Queen’s civil engineering professors Ryan Mulligan and Andy Take are learning to predict how landslides and landslide-generated waves will behave.

O

n the evening of October 9, 1963, in the idyllic countryside just north of Venice, Italy, a 400-metre chunk of rock sheared off the side of Mount Toc and slammed into the reservoir behind the Vajont Dam. The dam held, but some 50 million cubic metres of water overtopped it, creating a 200-metre-high wall of fluid and compressed air that sped down the Vajont Valley. Whole villages were destroyed and some 2,000 people died.

It’s that kind of loss of life and destruction of infrastructure that Queen’s civil engineering professors Andy Take and Ryan Mulligan hope to mitigate through their research into landslides and the waves they cause. Mulligan, a coastal engineer who studies the behaviour of waves, and Take, a geotechnical engineer and landslide researcher, are combining their knowledge and skills to shed new light on the mechanics of landslidepropagated tsunamis.

“We’re trying to figure out how much an individual landslide contributes to making that first wave,” says Dr. Take.

“How big will that wave be for different water depths and different slide volumes?”

“Tsunamis behave very differently

22

THE COMPLETE ENGINEER

“

depending on the bathymetry they go over or the different shorelines they hit,” says Dr. Mulligan. “A lot of problems

”

Rather than seeing how big

a wave a short block of material will create, we can now produce model landslides with more realistic geometries.”

are site-specific, so trying to understand those types of problems more generally is really important.”

“When we’re looking at landslides there are two problems we’re investigating,” says Take. “One is the mechanics of triggering: What conditions do you need to get a landslide starting to move? The other is how far will it go once it’s moving? We have to understand both of those questions to understand risk.”

To that end, Take oversees a 50-metrelong landslide flume at the Coastal Engineering Lab on the West Campus at Queen’s. The apparatus, which looks a bit like a log-slide ride, was built with funding from a Canada Foundation for Innovation grant and is used to simulate landslides, the waves they generate and the damage they can cause. The first

CIVIL

in the Coastal Lab

Graduate students Alanna Carreira and Gemma Bullard configure instrumentation in the 50-metre-long landslide flume at the Coastal Lab at Queen’s. eight metres of the flume is inclined at 30 degrees. The remainder of the flume—the reservoir—is level and can be filled to various depths with standing water. A series of cameras, windows and sensors is arranged at the simulated shoreline where the incline meets the reservoir.

Water, gravel, pellets or any combination of simulated slide material is piled at the top of the flume and, when released, rushes down the incline. A wave is propagated when the material hits the shoreline that travels back and forth along the length of the reservoir.

It takes time to set up experiments, but when material is released, the simulation is fast, loud and exhilarating.

Data on wave characteristics and photos and video of the impact and wave propagation in cross-section are gathered and analyzed. Take says the sheer size of the flume enables researchers to build more realistic landslides than anything

The first eight-metre segment of the flume is inclined 30 degrees.

previously available.

“We can use a long block of slide material,” he says. “The aspect ratio is much more realistic, so we can generate simulations with the same characteristics as real landslides. It enables us to ask interesting questions and it will lead to better predictive models of landslide risk.”

This work will help engineers place and design structures to minimize damage and, more importantly, loss of life when landslide disasters, like the one that killed so many in Italy all those years ago, strike populated areas.

“We’re always trying to understand how nature works so we can build better and safer structures or understand erosion better,” says Mulligan. “We want to know where to build buildings, where not to build buildings, and how to stabilize slopes so infrastructure and lives are saved.”

Equipment/features list: > Wave flumes > Large wave basin > Three large scale river

simulator flumes

> Open channel tilting flume >

Landslide flume Sediment transport flume > Water discolouration facility > Rotating fluids table and two large tanks to study lake/ ocean current interactions >

Principal investigators include: Dr. Ana da Silva Dr. Andy Take Dr. Leon Boegman Dr. Yves Filion Dr. Ryan Mulligan

THE COMPLETE ENGINEER

23

OUR AMA ZING FACILITIES

Keeping our water safe K

ingston, Ontario, is a medium-sized city with a medium-sized municipal drinking-water supply system.

Drawing mostly from Lake Ontario, the system serves some 37,000 homes and businesses and includes 560 kilometres of water mains, more than 5,000 control valves, 11 storage facilities and 5 booster stations. It’s a safe system—it has to be—but that’s a lot of pipe. It’s a huge and ongoing job to make sure it’s all clean and safe for potable water. the pipes—can be opened to check the microbiological quality of the biofilm.

“One of the things we want to examine is how drinking-water quality and the hydraulics of the network affect the way biofilm grows on the pipe wall and is mobilized into the bulk water of the pipe,” he says.

“

It’s exciting, relevant and important work because

One of two pipe loops with inspection coupons inside the new drinking-water discolouration facility.

Material from the treatment process and corrosion products from the distribution pipe network can accumulate on the pipe walls. Hydraulic disturbances can detach this material and leave it suspended in the bulk water, changing its colour and smell, depleting residual disinfectant levels and jeopardizing the quality of our drinking water.

Queen’s researchers are developing a facility that will help them better understand how biofilms form and behave inside pipes so engineers can design and maintain systems that deliver safe and reliable drinking water. The new drinking-water discolouration facility at the Coastal Engineering Lab is an environmental chamber roughly the size of a transport trailer. It houses two pressurized pipeline rigs as well as pumps that draw water from two large tanks supplied by the Kingston waterdistribution system. Water pressure and flow inside the pipes can be adjusted, and water temperatures of the whole system can be controlled depending on the experiment.

“We’ll be looking at how the hydraulics near the pipe wall affect the growth of the biofilm,” says Queen’s Civil Engineering Professor Dr. Yves Filion. “Secondly, we’ll be looking at how the biofilm affects chlorine residuals.

That’s really what municipalities care about: they want to protect people from pathogens.”

24

THE COMPLETE ENGINEER

Filion is the principal investigator on the project, which was made possible by a Canada Foundation for Innovation Fund grant. There is a similar facility in the UK, but it uses polyethylene pipe, more common in Europe. North American builders usually use the sort of PVC pipe at the heart of Filion’s rig. That makes it unique in the world.

Filion says that accumulated biofilm can be flushed out of the pipe loop, the water quality analyzed and residual chlorine levels assessed. A series of coupons—little ports along

Equipment/features list: > Environmental chamber > E2 x 3,800 L water tanks > E4 variable speed high lift pumps > E2 PVC pipe rigs with removable

coupons for microbiological sampling > EOn-line instrumentation to measure: l EWater temperature l EpH l ETurbidity l EChlorine residual l EDissolved oxygen l ESpecific conductivity

Principal investigator: Dr. Yves Filion

”

a lot of the municipal systems are getting really old

and producing water quality problems.

His research will help municipalities optimize their flushing operations and prioritize their water-main rehabilitation programs. “My suspicion is that utilities may be using flows that are much, much too high to flush material out of their systems. If you waste water needlessly by over-flushing, you’re losing money.”

An internationally recognized expert in sustainable water-distribution systems, Filion hopes to help municipalities make better decisions about how they operate and rehabilitate their systems. “This is a new research direction for me, and I am very excited to get started,” he says.

Recruiting graduate students to the cause is an essential task.

“I need to find people who are very motivated and smart but also really good in the lab,” Filion says. “That’s a unique brand of student: ones who can set up and dismantle experiments quickly. It’s exciting, relevant and important work because a lot of the municipal systems are getting really old and producing water quality problems.”

Filion says the drinking water discolouration facility should be complete early in 2016. Once it’s up and running, he says, it’s only a matter of plunging into the research.

CIVIL

Equipment list: > ?????? > ?????? >

Principle Investigators Include: ?????????

A UNIQUE FACILITY: Engineering Professor Yves Filion is ready to recruit graduate students to help conduct water-quality experiments on the university’s new drinking-water discolouration laboratory facility.

THE COMPLETE ENGINEER

25

OUR AMA ZING FACILITIES

GeoEng Lab is one-of-a-kind I

n the wee hours of May 12, 2006, 16-year-old Skye Whitman was driving to her Sudbury home after a late shift at work. Things were clearing up after heavy rains earlier that night, but as she drove along Bay Street to where it crosses Fairbank Creek, the pavement dropped away and her car plunged into a gaping trench that cut across the road. It was a terrible crash and Whitman was killed.

The culprit was a steel culvert buried under the road that had rusted, leaked and buckled over the years. The rains that day were finally too much and the culvert collapsed, taking the soil column and road surface with it.

Queen’s Civil Engineering Professor Ian Moore is exploring how joints between pipes fail.

It’s easy to take buried pipes for granted, but when they fail, the results can be disastrous. Sewer pipes that leak or collapse can cause environmental damage and high water-treatment costs to cities. Water distribution pipes that leak or break can compromise drinking water. Replacing culverts is expensive and disruptive to traffic. Sometimes buried pipe can be repaired in situ, but that’s expensive, too.

So, how do you design and build systems that are durable and cost effective? How can pipes be repaired and made safe without tearing up the ground or breaking the bank? Researchers at the GeoEngineering Laboratory at Queen’s are trying to answer these questions.

“I’m interested in fundamental engineering behaviour as a scholar, but almost all of my work is directed toward solving practical problems,” says Civil

26

THE COMPLETE ENGINEER

Engineering Professor Ian Moore, who oversees the lab with his colleague Richard Brachman.

Inside the facility are pits where researchers can bury pipe samples under various fill materials. Hydraulic actuators can apply loads at ground level to simulate trucks or heavy equipment parked overhead. Steel pipe can be tested under conditions of accelerated corrosion. Polyethylene pipe can be tested under varying temperatures to examine long-term behaviour over short periods. Joints between pipe sections can be tested for strength and integrity.

The controlled environment lets Dr. Moore and his team “know reasonably precisely what the soil conditions are, which we don’t always know in the field.

We can take our time, so we’re not under the gun with contractors, and at the end of the exercise we can load the systems up to collapse.”

Their work defines many current international practices for these structures and guides engineers and builders. And when a company develops new pipe-system components or repair methods, Moore and his team can test the new products.

Unlike culverts, which are typically buried under only a few metres of fill, many sewer and water lines—gravity-fed systems—must be buried tens of metres deep to work properly. In those cases, the weight of the soil column is a bigger factor than that of overhead trucks and

“” We’re already in a unique position internationally, and we’re going to be

extending our capabilities.

equipment.

Different conditions call for a different test rig. There is already a deep-burial simulator at the lab, but it can accommodate only pipes up to 60 centimetres in diameter under specific fill conditions. To take research to the

Equipment/features list: > Full scale buried pipe testing

facility

> 2000 kN force servo-hydraulic

load actuator and control

> Two 2.6 MN force servo-

hydraulic load actuators

> 500 kN force servo-hydraulic

load actuator

> 200-channel computer data

acquisition system Nuclear densometer > Dynamic fiber optic analyzer > Total station with several prisms > Skid steer loader > Mini excavator > Forklift truck/extendable boom > Aerial lift platform > Pipe burst simulator >

Principal investigators include: Dr. Ian Moore Dr. Richard Brachman Dr. Neil Hoult

next level, Moore and his team needed something larger and more sophisticated.

Now, thanks to a grant from the Canada Foundation for Innovation, that something is under construction. A 4.5-metre-deep pit has been dug to hold the deep-burial simulator. Ground-level hydraulic actuators will press down on large steel plates to simulate forces applied by tens of metres of soil. Water can be pumped in and out of the pipe samples and surrounding fill to determine the effects of erosion around deeply buried pipes and the joints between them.

“There are lots of fundamental questions nobody has the answers to,” says Moore. “We’re already in a unique position internationally, and we’re going to be extending our capabilities.”

Research gathered will help engineers design water and sewer systems to last longer and leak less. It will inform new ways to maintain and repair pipes without having to dig through tons of earth. It will save municipalities and provinces untold millions and allow them to provide safe and reliable drinking water for years to come.

CIVIL

A river runs through it T

he Salmon River flows southwest from its source near the town of Arden in Ontario’s Frontenac County.

It meanders through several small lakes, bisecting a handful of villages on its way through Hastings County until it meets the Bay of Quinte near Shannonville, between Kingston and Belleville.

Every watershed is unique, and this one has at least two qualities that make it a valuable data mine for researchers and students.

Firstly, the headwaters lie in a relatively pristine area, but as the Salmon makes its way toward Lake Ontario, the soil becomes more fertile and easier to work. Agriculture intensifies and the consequent runoff affects the surface and groundwater quality in the watershed.

Secondly, the Salmon flows initially over the tough igneous rock that gives the Canadian Shield its rugged reputation. But as it nears its mouth, volcanic bedrock gives way to the softer, more porous metasedimentary and sedimentary rocks deposited as ancient seabed, layer by layer, over millions of years. Different rocks with different cracks mean different hydrology.

Almost exactly halfway along the Salmon’s course, near the sleepy town of Tamworth, lies the 59-hectare Kennedy Field Station. It’s operated by the Department of Civil Engineering at Queen’s, and, thanks to support from the RBC Blue Water Project, it’s becoming the home base for real-time monitoring of the entire river system.

“The Kennedy site is the central nucleus of what we call the model watershed,” says Queen’s Researcher Dr. Geof Hall. “We’re instrumenting the whole Salmon River from top to bottom with flow sensors, water-quality sensors and weather stations to really understand the hydrological cycle. Imagine watching the response of the watershed as a whole as a storm passes through.”

Hall is associate director of the Water Research Centre (WRC) and oversees Kennedy with Civil Engineering Professor and WRC Director Kent Novakowski. Hall says there are research projects beyond the model watershed underway at Kennedy now. But the other key value of the field station, he adds, is as a real-world classroom. The site is equipped with wetlab and lecture facilities, as well as other structures and equipment, also fitted out with support from the RBC Blue Water Project.

“The hands-on experience is the critical part of this whole facility,” says Hall. “We have students take soil samples to understand the makeup of

Geof Hall teaches a watershed course at the Kennedy Field Station. the sediment and the soil that’s here.

We drop cameras down the wells so they can see what the groundwater environment looks like and have them conduct experiments so they can see that there are, in fact, channels through which contaminants move back and forth. We bring them down to the river so they can

“

Equipment/features list: > 140-acre scientific station

(Tamworth, ON)

> 2 km of river frontage on

Salmon River

> Six ground water wells and

monitoring instrumentation

The Kennedy site is the central

nucleus of what we call the model watershed... We’re instrumenting

”

the whole Salmon River from

top to bottom with flow sensors,

water-quality sensors and weather stations to really understand the hydrological cycle.

survey fish, invertebrates, the aquatic ecosystem and the river itself.”

Hall says Kennedy is developing according to a 10-year plan, but he notes the facility is available to any Queen’saffiliated group that has a good idea for it.

“We can function as if we were at Queen’s for the classroom or lab work and then simply step outside for access to the river,” says Hall. “The value in that is enormous.”

> Control dam operated by

the Napanee Conservation Authority > Instrumented model watershed in development > Log cabin lodge > Classroom seating for 25 > Wet laboratory > Outdoor pavilion > Tractor with several attachments for site maintenance

Principal investigators include: Dr. Kent Novakowski Dr. Geof Hall Multi-discipline group of researchers from Queen’s and the Royal Military College of Canada

THE COMPLETE ENGINEER

27

OUR AMA ZING FACILITIES

Renovations roundup F

acilities upgrades and efforts to revitalize valuable space are being tackled all around the Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science (FEAS), with the shared goal of improving learning for students and supporting leading-edge research. What follows is a quick roundup of some recent activities and improvements.

Mechanical and Materials Engineering

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Robert M. Buchan Department of Mining

A major renovation on the first floor of the McLaughlin Hall addition resulted in 3,000 square feet of undergraduate design space. An anonymous donor provided $500,000, which was topped off by a $200,000 investment from the FEAS. “We have been able to provide project space for all our design courses,” says Gabrielle Whan, Departmental Manager. “The space is attached to our machine shop, so students have access to tools. It’s a big open space with room for 50 or 60 people.”

In addition, two major renovations have taken place in Nicol Hall. The first, completed in 2014 with a $300,000 investment from the FEAS, provides meeting and workspace for graduate students. The new fourth-floor rooms feature new furniture and air conditioning, replacing the previous warren of hot attic rooms with open space.

As well, with a $40,000 investment from the FEAS and the department, a former lab has been transformed into an active collaborative research lab for the materials group’s professors, undergraduate and graduate students.

Walter Light Hall is the future site of ePOWER’s renewable energy lab, to be up and running by fall 2016.

Renovations of the 2,000-square-foot space on the main floor—previously dark, cluttered and used for storage— were recently completed. Next, researchers will move into the open, bright room, and wind turbines and solar panels will be installed on the roof.

The renewable energy lab’s creation was funded by a Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) grant of $1 million, plus the department’s contribution of $116,000 in matching funds.

The new lab brings the promise of pioneering discoveries in renewable energy from its director, Dr. Praveen Jain, and his team and is a welcome addition to ePOWER’s integrated facilities.

In Goodwin Hall, upgrading space has become part of everyday life. “We’ve done four major upgrades in the past three years,” confirms Departmental Manager Wanda Badger.

The explosives lab was renovated three years ago. Then last summer, both Goodwin’s second-floor Rock Mechanics Lab and its basement lab were transformed from inefficient spaces into state-of-the-art student-learning facilities.

“It was depressing down there,” Badger says. “We didn’t like to show students and say, ‘Look, this is where you will be doing research or doing a twohour lab every day under dim faltering lights and in crowded, noisy conditions.’”

“It was a neglected area in our building,” says Senior Program Coordinator Oscar Rielo. “We brought it back to life. Students returning after the summer couldn’t believe the transformation.”

The labs were painted and reorganized, and new technology such as computers and data acquisition systems were introduced. Funding included $40,000 from the departmental budget, plus a $300,000 investment from the FEAS. In addition, this past summer renovations began for the new hydrometallurgy lab. The project was funded partially by a CFI grant of $125,000, as well as $190,000 from the department. This area is led by Assistant Professor Ahmad Ghahremaninezhad and will focus on the hydrometallurgical processing of resource materials.

“The facility upgrades have greatly enhanced our student experience,” says Badger.

The images below show some of the renovations in Goodwin Hall.

28

THE COMPLETE ENGINEER

There’s more than one way to earn a prestigious Queen’s MBA. Immerse yourself in the renowned full-time program on our campus in Kingston, or choose one of our internationally respected executive and accelerated programs, offered throughout Canada. No matter where you live or which program you select, you can take advantage of Queen’s innovative approach to team-based learning, goal-focused experiential opportunities and unique culture of personal coaching.

You can earn Queen’s MBA, no matter where you live in Canada.

Find the MBA program that’s right for you at ssb.ca/mba Queen’s Full-Time MBA and Executive MBA ranked #1 in Canada by Bloomberg BusinessWeek THE COMPLETE ENGINEER

29

ALUMNI NE WS

Alumni engagement Alumni supporting student innovation and entrepreneurship Brad Tipler, Sc’82, was just one of the many alumni who returned to campus over the summer to speak to the students participating in the Queen’s Innovation Connector Summer Initiative (QICSI). Brad provided an engaging talk on entrepreneurial shortcuts that featured haiku pitches!

The Johnson Award— Calgary Dean Woodhouse travelled to Calgary in October to meet with Engineering and Applied Science alumni and attend the annual Johnson Award, which celebrated Michael Casey, Law’72.

L-R: Ruben Nelson, Artsci’62, Mike Rose, Artsci’7, Sue Riddell Rose, Sc’8, Mike O’Connor, Sc’68, PhD ‘76, Mike Casey, Law’72, Kim Sturgess, Sc’77, Joe Lougheed, Artsci’88, Barry Stewart, Sc’64, Janice Heard, BSc/BPHE’80, Bruce McFarlane, BA/BPHE’78 30 THE COMPLETE ENGINEER

Innovation Across Engineering—Vancouver On October 15, Dean Woodhouse hosted an alumni reception in Vancouver entitled “Innovation across Engineering”. The audience learned about exciting innovation initiatives in programming, research and teaching. Featured speakers were: Dr. Jim McLellan, Sc’81, PhD’91, Department Head, Chemical Engineering and Engineering Chemistry, Innovative Programming; Dr. Brian Amsden, PhD’96, Professor and Researcher, Innovation in Biomedical Research; and Natasha Baziuk, Sc’15, 2015 Queen’s Innovation Connection Summer Initiative participant.

Connor Langford, Sc’08, Helen Dry, Sc’07, Stephanie Fekete, Sc’09, Artsci’09, MASc’10, Lindsey Kilpatrick, Sc’08

Dean Woodhouse addresses the alumni guests in Vancouver.

Eleanor Scarth, Arts’68, Ed’69, Bill Sexsmith, Sc’58, Peter Scarth, Sc’69, Arts’67

THE COMPLETE ENGINEER 31

ALUMNI NE WS

Alumni engagement

Homecoming 2015

During Homecoming 2015, Engineering and Applied Science and current students connected at the Dean’s Reception in Beamish-Munro Hall.

Al Mackie, Sc’75, Ikenna Henry Ezenwajiaku, MSc’16

Doug Bickerton, Sc’65, Bob Smyth, Sc’6), Josh Galler, Sc’16

Norman Loveland, Sc’65, Doug Bickerton, Sc’65

Tony Suprun, Sc’70, Tom Fletcher, Sc’70, Jack Shannon, Sc’17

32 THE COMPLETE ENGINEER

Sara Nurmi, Sc’16, Olivia Charlebois, Sc’17, Mike Norris, Sc’75

Kevin Deluzio, Sc’88, MSc’90, PhD’98, Department Head, Mechanical and Materials Engineering; Peter Kenny, Sc’55; Joe Winters, Sc’65

Rich Hayward, Sc’00, John MacLatchy, Sc’64, Law’67

Bob Smyth, Sc’65, Mohga Koshty, Sc’17, Kirsten MacMillan, Sc’17

THE COMPLETE ENGINEER C

Queen’s Engineers: It will take all of us to As Queen’s Engineering alumni, the challenge belongs to us. With less than six months to go, we are asking all alumni and friends to join together in support of Inspiring Greatness: The Campaign for Queen’s Engineering.

...reach the top!

Take up the challenge now!

Learn more today at: www.givetoqueens.ca/engineering or call Joanne Grills at 613-533-6000 Ext. 75248

Your gift, along with contributions from classmates and friends, will enhance funding for our four campaign priorities: n

Inspiring Spaces: The Queen’s Innovation Commons

n

Inspiring Student Experiences

n

Inspiring Programs

n

Inspiring Teaching and Research

There are many opportunities available—we invite you to get inspired as we reach for the top—and build the foundation for the future generations of Queen’s Engineers!

FACULTY OF ENGINEERING AND APPLIED SCIENCE – Development and Alumni Relations Beamish-Munro Hall, Queen’s University, Kingston, ON K7L 3N6 www.inspiring.engineering.queensu.ca 613-533-6000 Extension 75248 inspiring@engineering.queensu.ca

inspiring.engineering.queensu.ca