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Entropy to Work

Entropy to Work

By Thiago Ebel

A podcast about technology, engineering and culture. Trying to understand better current trends and trade-offs of modern society from a technical and fun point of view.
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E2W Episode 09 - Product development, CAM/CAE software and work life - Guest Martin Bloedorn

Entropy to WorkMay 11, 2021

00:00
01:29:58
E2W Episode 11 - The Secret Horsepower Race, its lessons and author - Guest: Calum Douglas - Part 02

E2W Episode 11 - The Secret Horsepower Race, its lessons and author - Guest: Calum Douglas - Part 02

Today's episode is, again, with Mr Calum Douglas, the second part of the conversation that we had. In this part 2 we actually talk about the main topic that is Calum's book: The Secret Horse Power Race. If you haven't watched the previous episode, it is OK. The book is a very education and beautifully illustrated book about the technological race that happen during the second world war

We discussed how Calum ended up writing a book and some interesting anecdotes of his years of research into the topic.

We also discussed bit what were the learnings from the book, beyond of the technical aspects of it. The personalities that shaped it and, without giving away too much of the book - the reasons why one side won and not the other. I really enjoyed this conversation.

In the end, there is not a single side of the history that is bad or good, or smart/stupid. It is very nuance and there are multi-dimensional perspectives that very much apply to today's world.

Once again, this has been one of my favorite episodes so, please check it our Calum's social media and his book.


Calum’s website: https://www.calum-douglas.com/
Calum’s company: https://www.scorpion-dynamics.com/
Where to buy the book: https://www.mortonsbooks.co.uk/product/view/productCode/15057DB

Entropy to Work, (almost) every Tuesday on your streaming platforms !
Website and blog: https://www.fluxuseng.com/e2w
YouTube Channel: https://cutt.ly/WzMd2Wm
Spotify: https://lnkd.in/eiVgQE2
Google Podcasts: https://cutt.ly/hzMfv3X


Jun 01, 202101:03:42
E2W Episode 10 - The Secret Horsepower Race, its lessons and author - Guest: Calum Douglas - Part 01

E2W Episode 10 - The Secret Horsepower Race, its lessons and author - Guest: Calum Douglas - Part 01

Welcome to Entropy to Work, a podcast about technology engineering and culture. We are on episode number 10!

Today's guest is a mechanical engineer specialist in piston engine design and development. In his spare time, he researches and write about Second World War era engine technology and assist organizations restoring warbird engines. A very humble way that Mr Calum Douglas describes himself in his website. He is the author of the amazing book “The secret horsepower race: western front fighter engine development”.

It is a very education and beautifully illustrated book about the technological race that happened during the second world war. The amount of research and quality in the book is absolutely amazing but also the way Calum's put the book together, telling the histories of the engineers behind those developments on both sides of the war is just amazing.

And, not surprisingly, the man behind book is absolutely fascinating as well. We ended up talking for two hours straight and turned off with the feeling we still barely scratched the surface. That's why I will be breaking this episode in 2 parts - the first one is where we talk about Calum technical and academic background, professional experiences and some thoughts on current engineering challenges.

The second part is where we talk about the book, how he ended up doing it, the research that it involved and some of the main lessons from it.

Calum’s website: https://www.calum-douglas.com/
Calum’s company: https://www.scorpion-dynamics.com/
Where to buy the book: https://www.mortonsbooks.co.uk/product/view/productCode/15057DB

Entropy to Work, (almost) every Tuesday on your streaming platforms !

Website and blog: https://www.fluxuseng.com/e2w
YouTube Channel: https://cutt.ly/WzMd2Wm
Spotify: https://lnkd.in/eiVgQE2
Google Podcasts: https://cutt.ly/hzMfv3X

May 25, 202155:17
E2W Episode 09 - Product development, CAM/CAE software and work life - Guest Martin Bloedorn

E2W Episode 09 - Product development, CAM/CAE software and work life - Guest Martin Bloedorn

This week's episode of the Entropy to Work Podcast is a REALLY fun conversation with my dear friend Mr Martin Vincent Bloedorn - Software Developer at HEIDENHAIN Numeric Eindhoven B.V.. In parallel he still is the Embedded Software Engineer at Cold Chain Vision - which is really a humble way of describing he creating a product from zero to mass production in China (something we talk in the podcast about).

Martin is for sure one of the smartest people I ever had the privilege of working and knowing.

We talked a bit about his background, the transitioning from mechatronics to be a software engineer in a big company, work rules (that apply to life in general), writing code, product development and other topics.

Still we managed to barely scratch the surface of many topics we still want to talk about - such as AI, automation paradox and others - that will be for another conversation, hopefully in person !

You can get in touch with Martin in the links below:
Website: https://martinvb.com/wp/
LinkedIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/martinbloedorn/

Hope you guys enjoy this conversation as much as I did !

Entropy to Work, (almost) every Tuesday in your streaming platforms !

Website and blog: https://www.fluxuseng.com/e2w
YouTube Channel: https://cutt.ly/WzMd2Wm
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3C17Hz4XoW36OeDT4Tdad5
Google Podcasts: https://cutt.ly/hzMfv3X
Anchor: https://anchor.fm/fluxus-eng
Breaker: https://www.breaker.audio/entropy-to-work\
Pocket Casts: https://pca.st/yfq5b3jm
RadioPublic: https://radiopublic.com/entropy-to-work-GZxYMa

May 11, 202101:29:58
E2W - Episode 08 - Nuclear energy, Chernobyl incident and future prospects - Guest: Frank Di Bella

E2W - Episode 08 - Nuclear energy, Chernobyl incident and future prospects - Guest: Frank Di Bella

Thirty five years since the Chernobyl Nuclear incident last week (April 26) ! What have we learnt from that? Why is Nuclear energy so potentially important for future developments ?

In a month's time we will have the G7 Summit here in the UK, with the promise to "to unite leading democracies (...) create a greener, more prosperous future." What does greener mean ?

In this episode we have again Mr Frank Di Bella - semi-retired seasoned mechanical engineer and senior lecturer at the University of Boston! He was the guest in the first episode of the podcast, quite successfully I must add, and I thought he would be a great person to discuss some of the dilemmas and questions about nuclear energy.

In this episode we talk about why nuclear energy and what is it, why - personally - I believe it is important to the general public to understand how silly assumptions that "Renewables" are necessarily good and Nuclear is necessarily bad. Finally we go through in some details about what happened in the accidents of Chernobyl and Fukushima (35 and 10 years ago, respectively) and our thoughts on it.

As I said in the end of the episode - this was our honest try to cover some of the main topics of nuclear energy and hopefully bring a bit more of informed awareness about it.


May 04, 202101:27:17
E2W - Episode 7 - Gas Turbines, Helicopter Engines and Secondary Air Systems - Guest: Erinç Erdem

E2W - Episode 7 - Gas Turbines, Helicopter Engines and Secondary Air Systems - Guest: Erinç Erdem

Today we are talking about gas turbines, one of my favorite engineering topics. There is just so much going on in an gas turbine that is hard even to start.

Today I am speaking with Erinç Erdem, he holds a PhD from the University of Manchester and he is currently the a Senior Engineer - Thermal Systems Design / Compressor Aerodynamics & Testing at TEI.

TEI (Tusas Engine Industry) was founded in 1985 as a joint venture between GE Aviation and Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI), the Turkish Armed Forces Foundation, and the Turkish Aeronautical Association

I met him some years ago when he was the Compressor test rig owner for the helicopter engine TS1400. We talked about this engine that have been just officially released in December 2020

Erinç is also currently Honorary Research Associate The University of Glasgow, and we talked a bit about his interesting career going back and forth with Academia in a very practical/hands-on way, life in turkey and other subjects.

Hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did !


Entropy to Work, every Tuesday on your streaming platforms !

May 03, 202101:23:19
E2W - Episode 6 - Internal Combustion Engines, Turbochargers and CAE

E2W - Episode 6 - Internal Combustion Engines, Turbochargers and CAE

Today's episode we are doing something slightly different ! My paper for the Turbo Expo 2020 have been accepted and today's episode is an informal conversation between the co-authors of why and how we did this paper. The paper is entitled: USE OF AN INTEGRATED APPROACH FOR ANALYSIS AND DESIGN OF TURBOCHARGED INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINE and I wrote with a colleague (Mark Anderson, CTO at Concepts NREC) and some smart guys from the well known Ricardo ( Parth Pandya, Senior Application Engineer at Ricardo; and Mat Perchanok, Principal Software Engineer).

ABSTRACT

When developing a turbocharged internal combustion engine, the choice of turbocharger is usually based on designer experience and existing hardware. However, proper turbocharger design relies on matching the compressor and turbine performance to the engine requirements so that parameters such as boost and back pressure, compressor pressure ratio, and turbine inlet temperatures meet the needs of the engine without exceeding its allowable operating envelope. Therefore, the ultimate measure of a successful turbocharger design is how well it is matched to an engine across various operating conditions. This, in turn, determines whether a new turbocharger is required, or an existing solution can be used.

When existing turbocharger solutions are not viable, the engine designer is at a loss on how to define a new turbocharger that meets the desired performance requirements. A common approach in industry has been to scale the performance of an existing turbocharger (compressor and turbine maps) and take these requirements for Original Equipment Manufacturers to possibly match it with a real machine. However, the assumptions made in a basic scaling process are quite simplistic and generally not satisfactory in this situation. A better approach would be to use a validated meanline model for a compressor and turbine instead, allowing to perform an actual preliminary design of such components. Such approach allows to link the engine performance requirements in a very early stage of te component design project and it guides the designer for the design decisions, such as rotor size, variable geometry nozzles, diameter, or shroud trims and others. Therefore, a feasible solution is more likely with design less iterations.

This paper describes a methodology for an integrated approach to design and analyze a turbocharged internal combustion engine using commercially available state-of-the-art 1D gas dynamics simulation tool linked to two powerful turbomachinery meanline programs. The outputs of this analysis are detailed performance data of the engine and turbocharger at different engine operating conditions. 

Two case studies are then presented for a 10-liter diesel truck engine. The first study demonstrates how the programs are used to evaluate an existing engine and reverse engineer an existing turbocharger based only on the available performance maps. Then a second study is done using a similar approach but redesigning a new turbocharger (based on the reverse engineered one) for an increased torque output of the same engine.

Keywords: turbocharger, ICE, centrifugal compressor, turbine


Entropy to Work, every Tuesday on your streaming platforms !

Website and blog: https://www.fluxuseng.com

YouTube Channel: https://cutt.ly/WzMd2Wm

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3C17Hz4XoW36OeDT4Tdad5

Google Podcasts: https://cutt.ly/hzMfv3X

Anchor: https://anchor.fm/fluxus-eng

Breaker: https://www.breaker.audio/entropy-to-work\

Pocket Casts: https://pca.st/yfq5b3jm

RadioPublic: https://radiopublic.com/entropy-to-work-GZxYMa

Apr 06, 202158:01
E2W Ep. 5 - Having a turbine at home, real sustainability and entrepreneurship - Guest: Michael Cocuzza

E2W Ep. 5 - Having a turbine at home, real sustainability and entrepreneurship - Guest: Michael Cocuzza

In this week's episode the conversation is around micro-cogeneration plans, sustainability and developing an idea into a company.
In a nutshell: how cool and useful it is to have your own steam turbine at home and its implications.

Today's guest is Michael Cocuzza, CTO and President at Enviro Power LLC.  We had a really fun talk about his journey from a fun prototype in his basement became EnviroPower, many points on sustainability and the "little dirty secrets" of the energy sources so often called "green".

As you guys will see, I really think their product is awesome and will have a lot of positive impact in modern society.
Hope you enjoy this talk as much as I did !


Entropy to Work, every Tuesday on your streaming platforms !

Website and blog: https://www.fluxuseng.com
YouTube Channel: https://cutt.ly/WzMd2Wm
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3C17Hz4XoW36OeDT4Tdad5
Google Podcasts: https://cutt.ly/hzMfv3X
Anchor: https://anchor.fm/fluxus-eng
Breaker: https://www.breaker.audio/entropy-to-work\
Pocket Casts: https://pca.st/yfq5b3jm
RadioPublic: https://radiopublic.com/entropy-to-work-GZxYMa

Mar 30, 202157:25
E2W Ep. 4 - Refrigeration, new fluids and challenges in HVAC - Guest: Trevor Matthews

E2W Ep. 4 - Refrigeration, new fluids and challenges in HVAC - Guest: Trevor Matthews

This is Entropy to Work and I am your host Thiago Ebel

Today we are talking about Refrigeration and HVAC - Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning

I am talking with Trevor Matthews from Emerson ! He has been deeply involved in developing and training industry professionals over the last 6 year with Emerson. He has over 15 years of experience in the refrigeration industry and, is a licensed Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Mechanic.

In this talk we discuss about the refrigeration market, new fluids coming up, challenges and the many opportunities in the refrigeration and HVAC world.

Trevor is a fun guy and this talk opened my eyes for a lot of stuff I had zero idea - such as the current use of CO2 as working fluid and the world of HVAC influencers.

Trevor's LinkedIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tejmatthews/
Brian Or - HVAC School -  https://www.hvacrschool.com/
Gary McCreadie - HVAC Know it all - https://www.hvacknowitall.com/

I have added some of my own points in the start (to introduce the topic and go a bit to the basics) and add some extra stuff at the end (Montreal protocol, CFCs and global warming potential).

I hope you enjoy this talk as much as I did !


Entropy to Work, every Tuesday on your streaming platforms ! 

Website and blog: https://www.fluxuseng.com 

YouTube Channel: https://cutt.ly/WzMd2Wm

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3C17Hz4XoW36OeDT4Tdad5 

Google Podcasts: https://cutt.ly/hzMfv3X 

Anchor: https://anchor.fm/fluxus-eng 

Breaker: https://www.breaker.audio/entropy-to-work\ 

Pocket Casts: https://pca.st/yfq5b3jm

RadioPublic: https://radiopublic.com/entropy-to-work-GZxYMa

Mar 23, 202150:19
E2W Ep. 3 - Space, propulsion, turbomachinery and 3D printing - Guest: Ryan Rollon

E2W Ep. 3 - Space, propulsion, turbomachinery and 3D printing - Guest: Ryan Rollon

Third episode of E2W and let's talk about rockets and space !

The response have been overwhelmingly positive, thank you ! And please keep the feedbacks and suggestions coming !

I am adding a session after the episode, with some of my thoughts, housekeeping about the podcast and whatever pops up. Stay tuned for some extra explanations and other points.

Today we are up for a super exciting talk with Ryan Rollon about this new era of space exploration (often called New Space), turbomachinery, 3D printing and propulsion. Not only he shared a lot as he shows FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER their incredible OPTIMUS fully integrated powerhead for rocket engines - truly mind blowing.

Ryan has a solid background in turbomachinery (GE Aviation, Florida Turbines, Blue Origin, and Ursa Major) and now he is the CEO, Founder and Turbomachinery Lead at the startup Upshot Ventures ! 

Ryan is a super passionate and creative engineer, lots of knowledge there. I feel like my IQ went up by 10 points just by talking to him. I am sure we will be hearing a lot and great stuff about Upshot Ventures in the future !

Entropy to Work, every Tuesday on your streaming platforms ! 


Website and blog: https://www.fluxuseng.com 

YouTube Channel: https://cutt.ly/WzMd2Wm

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3C17Hz4XoW36OeDT4Tdad5 

Google Podcasts: https://cutt.ly/hzMfv3X 

Anchor: https://anchor.fm/fluxus-eng 

Breaker: https://www.breaker.audio/entropy-to-work\ 

Pocket Casts: https://pca.st/yfq5b3jm

RadioPublic: https://radiopublic.com/entropy-to-work-GZxYMa



Mar 16, 202159:34
E2W Ep. 2​ - Pump industry and the future - Guest: Maria Elena Rodriguez Hernandez

E2W Ep. 2​ - Pump industry and the future - Guest: Maria Elena Rodriguez Hernandez

Second episode of E2W and let's talk about pumps, industry and trends ! 

Also, happy woman’s day ! Specially of course to my beautiful wife who also happens to be an engineer. It is great to see so many strong and influential woman on the sciences and engineering, you really bring a lot to this industry. Personally I believe a big point really is awareness, little girls out there to see woman astronauts, engineers and scientists.

In today's episode I am speaking with Maria Elena Rodriguez Hernandez. Elena is an engineer from Spain with over 20 years of experience in the pump industry. She holds a Master degree in Mechanical Engineering and Civil Engineering degree. Currently Elena is Water Engineering Director at Indar. She writes the series theory bites in her own LinkedIN and for the magazine Empowering Pumps.   In our talk we discuss about Pump industry, challenges of designing modern pumps, control of flooding events, the challenges Elena sees for the future of cities and how to manage it and much more! 

Some links related to our conversation for those interested:

Elena's interview at Empowering Pumps:  Theory Bites, Lake Mead Press Release. Some extra points on my website/blog.

I hope you enjoy the conversation as much as I did ! 

Entropy to Work, every Tuesday on your streaming platforms ! 

Website and blog, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Anchor, Breaker, Pocket Casts, RadioPublic

#engineering # technology #pump #IWD2021 #womaninengineering #iwd2021 #choosetochallenge #GenderEquality #WomenEmpowerment #IWD2021 #WomensDay2021

Mar 09, 202145:34
E2W Ep. 1​ - Sustainability in today's world - Guest: Frank Di Bella
Mar 02, 202157:36
E2W - Podcast Introduction

E2W - Podcast Introduction

First presentation about Entropy to Work, a podcast about engineering, technology and culture. Basically the idea here is to discuss topics the current world, its trends and trade-offs from a more technical perspective.

Feb 28, 202101:29