Better ICE, Internal Combustion Engine

In the long run, the internal combustion engine (ICE) are finished and now its the era of electric motor propulsion. ICEs have been around for so long time that we should be careful about announcing their demise. They're going to stick around a while longer, and so it's very important to make them better.

Lets look at 5 fuel-saving technologies that are keeping the ICE relevant. As they say, they still work on basically the same principle as they ever did, but old 4-cylinder engines produced about 20 horsepower while modern ones can generate up to 250 hp, while being cleaner and burning less gas.

Read on for more details on the 5 fuel-saving technologies:

Diesel:

Various advances such as the availability of ultra low sulfur diesel fuel, better catalysts and particulate matter traps, better control over combustion are making diesel engines cleaner, so you can expect a new wave of diesel passenger vehicles to come to the US in the next few years.
Diesel engines are certainly far from perfect, but they have inherently better thermal efficiency than gasoline engines, and they are usually more durable. Another benefit is that they can run on biodiesel, which if you can find fuel made from waste cooking oil or from algae can be very green.

Direct Injection
Before direct injection, the fuel was mixed with air in the car's intake manifold. Now, with direct injection, the fuel is mixed with air inside the cylinder, allowing for better control over the amount of fuel used, and variations depending on demand. This makes the engine more fuel efficient.

Cylinder Deactivation
The name says it all. ICEs with this feature can simply deactivate some cylinders when less power is required, temporarily reducing the total volume of the engine cylinders and so burning less fuel. This feature is found on V6 and V8 engines.

Turbochargers
Turbochargers increase the pressure inside cylinders, cramming more air and allowing combustion to generate more power. This doesn't make the engine more economical in itself, but since a smaller displacement engine can generate more peak power, you can more easily downsize and save there.

Variable Valve Timing and Lift
Valves open and close to allow air and fuel to enter cylinders and for the products of combustion to exit. Different valve timings produce different results (more power, better fuel economy). Traditionally, you couldn't vary that timing, so the choice had to be made once when the engine was designed. But many modern engines can vary valve timing, allowing for example the default low RPM range of the engine to have more economical timing, and the higher RPM range to go for max power. This allows a smaller displacement engine to produce more peak power, so it allows for downsizing and fuel savings.

One Big Problem With All of This
The problem is that most of the gains from these technological breakthroughs have been used to increase power instead of reducing fuel consumption. At best, fuel economy stayed the same while power increased. Now that environmental awareness is increasing, that global warming is on everybody's mind and that oil is very expensive, we can hope that car makers will end the horsepower arms race and finally use these technologies to truly make more efficient cars.

Electric car

Electric car is an automobile that is propelled by one or more electric motors, using electrical energy stored in rechargeable batteries or another energy storage device. Electric motors give electric cars instant torque, creatingsmooth acceleration. They are also around three times as efficient as compare to cars with an internal combustion engine.

The first electric cars were produced in the 1880s. Electric cars were popular in the late 19th century and early 20th century, until advances in internal combustion engines and mass production of cheaper gasoline vehicles led to a decline in the use of electric drive vehicles. Due to the energy crises, several national and local governments have established tax credits, subsidies, and other incentives to promote the introduction and adoption in the mass market of new electric vehicles depending on battery size and their all-electric range.

As of the 1970s and 1980s brought a short-lived interest in electric cars; although, those cars did not reach the mass marketing stage, as is the case in the 21st century. Since 2008, a renaissance in electric vehicle manufacturing has occurred due to advances in batteries and energy management, concerns about increasing oil prices, and the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Electric cars are significantly quieter than conventional internal combustion engine automobiles. They also do not emit tailpipe pollutants, giving a large reduction of local air pollution, and, in many cases, a large reduction in total greenhouse gas and other emissions (dependent on the method used for electricity generation). They also provide for independence from foreign oil, which in several countries is cause for concern about vulnerability to oil price volatility and supply disruption. But widespread adoption of electric cars faces several hurdles and limitations, including their current higher purchase cost, patchy recharging infrastructure (other than home charging) and range anxiety (drivers' fear that electric energy stored in the batteries will run out before reaching their destination, due to limited range of most existing electric cars). Recharging can take a long time; however, for long distance driving, many cars support fast charging that can give around 80% charge in half an hour, using public fast chargers.

As of September 2015, there are over 30 models of highway legal all-electric passenger cars and utility vans available for retail sales, mainly in the United States, China, Japan, Western European countries. By mid-September 2015, about 620,000 light-duty electric vehicles have been sold worldwide out of total global sales of one million plug-in electric cars sold since 2008. The world's top selling highway-capable electric car is the Nissan Leaf, released in December 2010 and sold in 46 countries, with global sales of more than 192,000 units through September 2015, followed by the Tesla Model S, released in June 2012, with about 90,000 units sold by October 2015.

Courtesy Wikipedia, rights belong to respectful owners.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_car

Electric Cars

The most discussed topic regarding green cars is what type cars are available, it seems very few people knew about electric cars. Due to lot of reasons the availability and popularity of electric cars is low. They are quite expensive and not much reliable.


In the following, description of few electric cars is given:
 

2016 Mitsubishi i-MiEV
16 kWh battery, 62 miles (EPA), 112 MPGe, 49 kW motor
Mitsubishi's jellybean-style electric car has never been a strong seller. but the Japanese automaker recently slashed its pricing, making it the cheapest electric vehicle on the market. 



2015 Smart Fortwo Electric Drive 
17.6 kWh battery, 68 miles (EPA), 107 MPGe, 55 kW motor
Smart's Fortwo Electric Drive is one of the cheapest new electric cars on the market. You only get two seats, but you also get rid of the gasoline car's jerky transmission. There's enough power to make good progress now, and if you're able to benefit from incentives, the price starts to look quite tempting.


2015 Chevrolet Spark EV
18.4 kWh battery, 82 miles (EPA), 119 MPGe, 105 kW motor
Chevrolet has put the same effort into its diminutive Spark as it did the Volt, and has managed to improve the aerodynamics and interior to match the Spark's electric aspirations. With huge torque on offer, performance is strong and the Spark EV is good fun to drive.


 

2015 Nissan Leaf  
24 kWh battery, 84 miles (EPA), 114 MPGe, 80 kW motor
The Leaf is one of the better-known electric cars. While sales haven't matched Nissan's expectations and there have been issues with battery degradation in hot weather, the Leaf is still one of the most usable electric cars on the market.




 
2015 Toyota Prius Plug-In Hybrid 
5.2 kWh battery, 11 miles (EPA blended), 6 miles (EPA all-EV), 95 MPGe, 60 kW motor (134-hp combined)
The Prius Plug-In is a little off the pace technologically these days, but its similarity to the regular, familiar hybrid means it's ideal for drivers trading up from a regular Prius.

 

2015 Fiat 500e
24 kWh battery, 87 miles (EPA), 116 MPGe, 83 kW motor
Fiat's 500e electric car may be a mere "compliance car", but the engineers have done a great job.



 
2015 Ford C-MAX Energi 
7.6 kWh battery, 20 miles (EPA), 88 MPGe, 88 kW motor (195-hp combined)
Ford's first plug-in hybrid challenger mixes good performance with impressive efficiency in electric mode. Like the Toyota Prius V, it's a practical vehicle too, ready to handle everything family life can throw at it.






Rights belongs to company websites, wikipedia, greencar reports, and other major online forums.

40 Different Types of Engineering Degrees

Engineering is a broad term that covers a wide range of applications and industries. Combining mathematics, science and technology, engineers produce creative solutions to real world problems. As a result there are many different types of engineering degrees available.

In the past, engineering could be divided into four major branches: Mechanical, Chemical, Civil and Electrical, with sub branches of each discipline.

Today however, the number of engineering degrees available have increased dramatically. There are now six major branches of engineering: Mechanical, Chemical, Civil, Electrical, Management, and Geo technical, and literally hundreds of different subcategories of engineering under each branch.

Tectonic plates

Tectonic plates is a scientific theory that describes the large-scale motion of Earth's lithosphere. This theoretical model builds on the concept of continental drift which was developed during the first few decades of the 20th century. The geoscientific community accepted plate-tectonic theory after seafloor spreading was validated in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

The lithosphere, which is the rigid outermost shell of a planet (the crust and upper mantle), is broken up into tectonic plates. The Earth's lithosphere is composed of seven or eight major plates and many minor plates. 

Where the plates meet, their relative motion determines the type of boundary: convergent, divergent, or transform.Earthquakes, volcanic activity, mountain-building, and oceanic trench formation occur along these plate boundaries. The lateral relative movement of the plates typically ranges from zero to 100 mm annually.

Tectonic plates are composed of oceanic lithosphere and thicker continental lithosphere, each topped by its own kind of crust. Along convergent boundaries, subduction carries plates into the mantle; the material lost is roughly balanced by the formation of new (oceanic) crust along divergent margins by seafloor spreading. In this way, the total surface of the globe remains the same. This prediction of plate tectonics is also referred to as the conveyor belt principle. Earlier theories (that still have some supporters) propose gradual shrinking (contraction) or gradual expansion of the globe.

Tectonic plates are able to move because the Earth's lithosphere has greater strength than the underlying asthenosphere. Lateral density variations in the mantle result in convection. Plate movement is thought to be driven by a combination of the motion of the seafloor away from the spreading ridge (due to variations in topography and density of the crust, which result indifferences in gravitational forces) and drag, with downward suction, at the subduction zones. Another explanation lies in the different forces generated by the rotation of the globe and the tidal forces of the Sun and Moon. The relative importance of each of these factors and their relationship to each other is unclear, and still the subject of much debate.

Pakistan - Afghanistan rocked by earthquake

Earthquake of magnitude of 7.7 on rector scale hits Pakistan and Afghanistan. The epicenter was 60 km from Chitral, Pakistan. In Pakistan the death toll is 260+ and 1600+ injured and in Afghanistan the count is 141 and the exact figure of injured are not available as the rescue operations are going on. 

Earthquake hits at 7.7 magnitude and the reduced to 7.6 and then to 7.5.

US Geological Survey says in its report that earthquake near the HinduKush region of Afghanistan occurred as the result of reverse faulting at intermediate depths, approximately 210 km below the HinduKush Range in northeastern Afghanistan. Reverse faulting is a geologic fault in which the hanging wall moves upward relative to the foot wall. Reverse faults occur where two blocks of rock are forced together by compression. Focal mechanisms indicate rupture occurred on either a near-vertical reverse fault or a shallowly dipping trust fault. At the latitude of the earthquake, the India subcontinent moves northward and collides with Eurasia at a velocity of about 37 mm/yr. Active faults and their resultant earthquakes in northern Pakistan and adjacent parts of India and Afghanistan are the direct result of the convergence between the India and Eurasia plates. This collision is causes uplift that produces the highest mountain peaks in the world including the Himalayan, the Karakoram, the Pamir and the HinduKush ranges. “Earthquakes such as this event, with focal depths between 70 and 300 km, are commonly termed “intermediate-depth” earthquakes. Intermediate-depth earthquakes represent deformation within subducted lithosphere rather than at the shallow plate interfaces between sub ducting and overriding tectonic plates. They typically cause less damage on the ground surface above their foci than is the case with similar magnitude shallow-focus earthquakes, but large intermediate-depth earthquakes may be felt at great distance from their epicenters. “Deep-focus” earthquakes, those with focal depths greater than 300 km, also occur beneath northeastern part of Afghanistan. Earthquakes have been reliably located to depths of just over 300 km in this region.” The mountainous region is seismically active, with earthquakes the result of the Indian subcontinent driving into and under the Eurasian landmass. Sudden tectonic shifts can cause enormous and destructive releases of energy.