THE TERROR and devastation caused by the massive explosion in Beirut last August was described to Rotarians in Otley during a presentation from a Lebanese club. A spokesperson for the Rotary Club of Otley said members had been holding weekly Zoom meetings with a variety of speakers. A recent presentation was from a Rotary Club in Beirut when we witnessed first-hand the terror and destruction in the aftermath of the massive explosion in the city last year. Our club agreed to send a donation to help with the rebuilding of the maternity unit. As we are for the time being not meeting face-to-face and sharing a meal together, members are paying regular contributions to our club funds in lieu of the cost of their meal. These funds will go towards supporting the Otley food bank and other local causes.
25th February 2021 7:35 am 24th February 2021 12:09 pm
Engineers at Sheffield University claim to have made a breakthrough in steel manufacturing that has potential to lower carbon emissions in the automotive industry.
Image: Adobestock
The team is led by Professor Mark Rainforth and Dr Junheng Gao from the university’s Department of Materials Science and Engineering. Published in the journal
Nature, the team’s study details a new method of making lightweight, high strength steel that could be easily adapted to mass manufacturing and used to make vehicles lighter as well as more sustainable.
According to researchers, the technique can produce steel with a strength of nearly 2GPa, equating to a 1cm diameter wire capable of holding a weight of 15 tonnes. It could also produce steel with an elongation of 45 per cent, the team said, meaning the steel would be ductile enough to be formed into complex shapes.
14th January 2021 11:58 am 14th January 2021 11:58 am
Engineers at Sheffield University are launching a new laboratory to explore the blast impacts of compact explosives at close range.
Improvised Explosive Devices, or IEDs, became a prominent weapon in 21st-century assymetric warfare and were regularly used by insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan. But the physics of the type of explosions caused by IEDs is not as well understood as larger and more distant blasts, which have been studied and modelled in greater depth.
Backed by £1.3m of government funding, the new Sheffield laboratory will provide a safe environment in which explosive, fragment and ballistic tests can be conducted whilst allowing the highest possible spectrum of data to be collected. The data could inform ways to protect critical infrastructure and urban environments, such as buildings and vehicles, against explosive threats from close proximity.