The odd-looking model placed on Konstantin Matveev’s desk resembles a hybrid between a hydroplane and an airplane.
The model demonstrates the work of the Advanced Marine Vehicles Research Group, an organization Matveev founded three years ago.
“This group is unique because it investigates several aerodynamic and hydrodynamic phenomena,” Matveev said.
The assistant professor for the school of mechanical and materials engineering merges the studies of air and water to find ways vehicles can travel more efficiently over all surfaces.
One such vehicle is the Power Augmented Ram Vehicle. This unique vehicle can travel over water and land. Additionally, the PARV contains a jet system at the front of the vehicle that blows air beneath it and out the back of the vehicle.
“The PARV flies in close proximity to the ground and creates a cushion of air that it can ride on,” said Matt Miller, Matveev’s undergraduate assistant.
If the PARV was developed commercially it could be used for research in areas such as the Arctic Circle or Antarctica. Research in those areas is difficult because there are no roads and it is time-consuming to unload equipment from a ship into a land vehicle. The PARV could transport the equipment over water and land, Matveev said.
The PARV could also be useful to the military. Soldiers could quickly be delivered from a large ship in the ocean onto a target on shore, he said.
“We could develop some real vehicles with more funding,” Matveev said. “But it all depends on the external funding we get.”
So far the Advanced Marine Vehicles Research Group has only received small, local grants from individuals and businesses. The group hopes that one day their ideas will be picked up by the government or a corporation and their models would be developed into actual vehicle.
Originally from Russia, Matveev is a man of few words. He became interested in studying the dynamics of marine vehicles after his father was involved in the manufacture of ships similar to the PARV back in Russia.
“Once you get past that initial reserve, you find that (Matveev) is a fun guy to work with,” Miller said. “He’s very smart. He’s brilliant and it shows in his work.”
Along with studying the mechanics of the PARV, the Advanced Marine Vehicle Research Group also studies hull systems. Improving the underbellies of ships could potentially save energy and eventually save money for the shipping industry.
“Boat hulls have been essentially the same for centuries,” Miller said. “They create large surface areas of drag which waste energy.”
The Advanced Marine Vehicles Research Group studied ship hulls in a hydrolysis research lab at WSU that contains massive pools of water. The facility made for an ideal, controlled environment to conduct research.
Originally the facility was occupied by researchers that studied fluid mechanics in the 1980s and 1990s. However, popularity in fluid mechanics died down and the facility was vacant for years until the Advanced Marine Vehicles Research Group decided to use it, Matveev said.
Miller admits he did not know about the facility until they started their research, even though he has been a part of the engineering program for four years.
“It’s a really big facility,” Miller said. “It was really interesting to see the large amounts of water and the big pumps at work.”
Matveev considers his work exotic. While vehicles such as the PARV are popular in Russia, they are relatively unknown in the United States.
He said he doesn’t know any other groups that are doing the same research on unique vehicles. Instead most research firms experiment on traditional vehicles.
Junior mechanical engineering major Nate Storrs is a student in Matveev’s thermodynamics class. He is well aware of the work from the Advanced Marine Vehicles Research Group.
“If Matveev’s research ever gets picked up by another research firm or company, it could have huge benefits for society,” Storrs said. “If better hulls are used or PARVs are developed, it would be cost-saving and good for the environment.”
“I wouldn’t mind helping in Matveev’s research,” Storrs added.
Monday, December 14, 2009
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Speech Story
Claudette Casile admits she’s no Lara Croft or Indiana Jones.
Her experiences as an archeologist, which she shared with an anthropology 101 class on Wednesday, do not include escaping from bad guys or discovering ancient relics.
The WSU graduate student simply studies pollen.
“I try to figure out what I can learn from the past by looking at pollen,” Casile said.
A person who studies the fossils and non-fossils of pollen, such as Casile, is a palynologist. For her thesis, Casile studies fossilized pollen on the southeastern Caribbean islands of Marie Galante, Guadeloupe, Dominica, Martinique and Saint Lucia.
The main part of Casile’s field work is extracting core samples from sites on each island. The process is time consuming and difficult work.
“It’s like giving birth,” Casile said.
First Casile’s team of archeologists hoists a tube of about ten feet over the site. Then the tube is pounded into the ground. The tube is eventually pulled out from the earth and a core sample is produced.
The smooth, golden sample is cut into smaller pieces, sealed and put under a microscope to be examined. Each sample should contain 200 or more grains of pollen.
“Usually when you think about an archeologist’s work you don’t think about the tough work that goes into collecting the samples that are analyzed,” junior communication major, Ben Krein said.
The samples collected by Casile provide several clues to the history of the each island. The sample is translated to a graph that shows the different kinds of pollen, the radio carbon date, and the types of substances that were contained in the pollen.
Casile showed one of her sample graphs, Core VF08-1, to the anthropology class. She dissected the graph, telling the class how a spike in the graph signified information about how charcoal was found in the sample at one point in history. Charcoal is a sign of human colonization.
The charcoal in the sample became entangled in the pollen between 2,500 years ago and 3,000 years ago. Upon further analysis, Casile was able to hypothesize that humans settled in the area around 1,000 B.C.
“It’s like you’re getting a picture of what happened thousands of years ago,” she said. “It’s awesome to think about what the ancestors of the Caribbean really experienced back then.”
In order to arrive at her field site in Guadeloupe, Casile had to trudge through an uninviting swamp in a desolate rainforest.
“Who knows what is swimming in your boots? There are several different kinds of crabs and snakes (in the swamp),” she said. “Who knows what you can catch?”
Casile refers to this rough environment as her playground. She points out that her work in the Caribbean is not as glamorous as one would think but she finds ways enjoy her surroundings.
“You have kind of a repetition in the environment and food (of each island),” Casile said. “But the flavors are different. Each island had a different colony. They each had a different road to revolution.”
She discussed with the anthropology class her difficulties of being the only woman on her team, trying to navigate around the Caribbean on a “100 word French vocabulary,” and always wearing dirty clothes. Despite these difficulties her team made the best out of their circumstances.
In a picture of Casile and her team during their off-time, Casile’s colleague holds a large conch shell to his ear. The team referred to this as his iPod.
“Archeology is not all fun,” Casile said. “The Caribbean is not all fun. But you can make it fun. You have to use your imagination.”
Palynology is not just about finding clues to human history, Casile reminded the class. The study of pollen also holds several uses that solve contemporary problems.
For example, petroleum companies analyze pollen samples to find geological deposits, farmers employ pollen to create stronger crops and forensic scientists study pollen samples to find clues in criminal cases, she said.
“I never knew pollen could be so useful. You can apply it to a lot of things. I don’t know if I would want to study it, but it really has a lot of purpose,” said Garrett Brown, senior construction management major.
Casile’s overall lesson to the anthropology class was included in the Italian saying she wrote on the white board:
“Il Mondo e bello perche e vario,” which means, “the world is beautiful because (it has variation) it is varied.”
Casile told the class this is the key to anthropology. Even something as simple as pollen can provide answers to the world’s beauty.
Her experiences as an archeologist, which she shared with an anthropology 101 class on Wednesday, do not include escaping from bad guys or discovering ancient relics.
The WSU graduate student simply studies pollen.
“I try to figure out what I can learn from the past by looking at pollen,” Casile said.
A person who studies the fossils and non-fossils of pollen, such as Casile, is a palynologist. For her thesis, Casile studies fossilized pollen on the southeastern Caribbean islands of Marie Galante, Guadeloupe, Dominica, Martinique and Saint Lucia.
The main part of Casile’s field work is extracting core samples from sites on each island. The process is time consuming and difficult work.
“It’s like giving birth,” Casile said.
First Casile’s team of archeologists hoists a tube of about ten feet over the site. Then the tube is pounded into the ground. The tube is eventually pulled out from the earth and a core sample is produced.
The smooth, golden sample is cut into smaller pieces, sealed and put under a microscope to be examined. Each sample should contain 200 or more grains of pollen.
“Usually when you think about an archeologist’s work you don’t think about the tough work that goes into collecting the samples that are analyzed,” junior communication major, Ben Krein said.
The samples collected by Casile provide several clues to the history of the each island. The sample is translated to a graph that shows the different kinds of pollen, the radio carbon date, and the types of substances that were contained in the pollen.
Casile showed one of her sample graphs, Core VF08-1, to the anthropology class. She dissected the graph, telling the class how a spike in the graph signified information about how charcoal was found in the sample at one point in history. Charcoal is a sign of human colonization.
The charcoal in the sample became entangled in the pollen between 2,500 years ago and 3,000 years ago. Upon further analysis, Casile was able to hypothesize that humans settled in the area around 1,000 B.C.
“It’s like you’re getting a picture of what happened thousands of years ago,” she said. “It’s awesome to think about what the ancestors of the Caribbean really experienced back then.”
In order to arrive at her field site in Guadeloupe, Casile had to trudge through an uninviting swamp in a desolate rainforest.
“Who knows what is swimming in your boots? There are several different kinds of crabs and snakes (in the swamp),” she said. “Who knows what you can catch?”
Casile refers to this rough environment as her playground. She points out that her work in the Caribbean is not as glamorous as one would think but she finds ways enjoy her surroundings.
“You have kind of a repetition in the environment and food (of each island),” Casile said. “But the flavors are different. Each island had a different colony. They each had a different road to revolution.”
She discussed with the anthropology class her difficulties of being the only woman on her team, trying to navigate around the Caribbean on a “100 word French vocabulary,” and always wearing dirty clothes. Despite these difficulties her team made the best out of their circumstances.
In a picture of Casile and her team during their off-time, Casile’s colleague holds a large conch shell to his ear. The team referred to this as his iPod.
“Archeology is not all fun,” Casile said. “The Caribbean is not all fun. But you can make it fun. You have to use your imagination.”
Palynology is not just about finding clues to human history, Casile reminded the class. The study of pollen also holds several uses that solve contemporary problems.
For example, petroleum companies analyze pollen samples to find geological deposits, farmers employ pollen to create stronger crops and forensic scientists study pollen samples to find clues in criminal cases, she said.
“I never knew pollen could be so useful. You can apply it to a lot of things. I don’t know if I would want to study it, but it really has a lot of purpose,” said Garrett Brown, senior construction management major.
Casile’s overall lesson to the anthropology class was included in the Italian saying she wrote on the white board:
“Il Mondo e bello perche e vario,” which means, “the world is beautiful because (it has variation) it is varied.”
Casile told the class this is the key to anthropology. Even something as simple as pollen can provide answers to the world’s beauty.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)