Powering the Future
Fuel cell research center to contribute knowledge and innovations for sustainable energy sources.
The energy source that powered the Space Shuttle, Apollo, Skylab and Gemini spacecraft might one day operate your portable phone, your car and your neighborhood's electric plant.
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This source – the fuel cell – is a primary focus of a new research center at the Georgia Institute of Technology. The Center for Innovative Fuel Cell and Battery Technologies will take a multidisciplinary approach to fuel cell and battery-related research, says center director Dr. David Parekh.
"At Georgia Tech, we have a broad range of expertise in this field. The center will serve as a catalyst for revolutionary advances through world-class research integrated across disciplines and spanning from fundamental discovery to application-specific prototypes," Parekh says.
Groundbreaking research in these areas will move the world toward more sustainable energy sources. Additionally, recent research at Georgia Tech on fuel cells and related electrochemical devices has led to the invention of several processes that enable waste streams from commercial chemical manufacturing to be profitably recycled to provide fresh feed to the manufacturing plants.
A fuel cell is an electrochemical device that operates much like a battery. It combines hydrogen fuel with oxygen to produce electricity and heat, releasing water as a byproduct. Fuel cells are a clean, environmentally friendly, versatile, reliable and efficient power source.
Batteries, of course, are familiar to most of us, as are their advantages as compact, portable and self-contained power sources. But this recognized technology also can benefit from research advancements in rapid charging, measuring the charge a battery contains at any given time, and development of new types, sizes and configurations of batteries to run cars and other devices.
Georgia Tech's center will focus on fuel cell and battery technology for wireless telecommunications, ultra-low-emission vehicles and distributed stationary power supplies. The new center is developing new integrated facilities for development and testing – such as a power cell testing laboratory unveiled in March – and also will hold workshops on fuel cell technology.
Engineers and scientists from the Georgia Tech Research Institute, Georgia Tech's School of Materials Science and Engineering, School of Mechanical Engineering, School of Chemical Engineering, School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and the National Electric Energy Testing, Research and Applications Center based at Georgia Tech will participate in the center. Key industry partners also will be invited to join the center to share their technology needs and collaborate on open and proprietary research projects.
The expertise Georgia Tech brings to its fuel cell and battery research includes basic and applied work in electrochemistry, materials science, nanostructures, micro-electro-mechanical systems fabrication, fluid dynamics, acoustics and controls, modeling and simulation, power transmission and distribution, and systems-level integration.
Georgia Tech's research contributions to fuel cell and battery technologies include:
– Lea A. McLees
Georgia Tech researchers hold numerous patents in fuel cell and battery technology areas.
For more information, contact David Parekh, Aerospace, Transportation and Advanced Systems Laboratory, Georgia Tech Research Institute, Atlanta, GA 30332-0860 (Telephone: 770-528-7826) (E-mail: david.parekh@gtri.gatech.edu); or center co-director, Dr. Jack Winnick, School of Chemical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332-0100 (Telephone: 404-894-2839) (E-mail: jack.winnick@che.gatech.edu).
Understanding How Load Affects Bone Health
Study on the mechanics of bone may benefit osteoporosis patients.
Scientists studying human bone health have long known that weight-bearing exercise makes bones stronger. But how such mechanical load actually creates this effect remains unclear and hampers treatment for osteoporosis patients.
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Now in a comprehensive study on the
mechanics of bone, a Georgia Institute of Technology researcher and her Emory
University collaborator are seeking insight on exactly how mechanical loads
affect bone remodeling – a natural process of bone resorption and reformation.
Their study may lead to better biomaterial design for bone implants in patients
with osteoporosis and other bone diseases.
In patients with osteoporosis, bone formation does not keep pace with resorption.
The result is structural changes, including increased porosity, that make
bone fragile. About 10 million Americans, mostly women, suffer from osteoporosis;
18 million more are at risk. Osteoporosis is responsible for more than 1.5
million fractures a year, and treatment costs top $13.8 billion annually.
"With scanning electron microscopy (SEM), we have observed significant differences
between microstructures of healthy and osteoporotic bone at multiple scales
(macro to micro)," says Dr. Iwona Jasiuk, a Georgia Tech associate professor
of mechanical engineering. "... For
example, SEM images show differences in the trabecular structure of bone (the
inner, sponge-like component of bone) and a dramatically different alignment
of collagen fibers."
Recently graduated master's degree student Frederic Bouyge contributed heavily
to the SEM studies and initial theoretical modeling investigation.
"Now we are beginning to study localized stress and strain fields at the
cellular level where bone remodeling takes place," Jasiuk says. "... We are
comparing healthy bone to osteoporotic samples using both an experimental
and a theoretical modeling approach."
Eventually, Jasiuk and Dr. Janet Rubin, an Emory
associate professor of medicine with expertise in bone cell growth, hope to
predict how mechanical loads in normal versus osteoporotic bones might differentially
affect bone remodeling. Their work is funded by the National Science Foundation
and the Georgia Tech-Emory University Bioengineering/Bioscience Seed Grant
Program.
There are several applications for Jasiuk's multiscale studies on the mechanics
of bone. They are:
"Direct experimental measurement of local strain fields is very complex
because of the small scales involved," Jasiuk says. "So we are using an experimental/numerical
approach for local strain prediction."
The researchers' techniques include: measuring microstructural features
of bone with SEM; measuring the material response of bone samples using a
mechanical load testing machine; nanoindentation to measure bone properties
at much lower scales; and innovative multiscale computational modeling to
account for the hierarchical nature of bone microstructure.
The experimental measurements will be used as a check in the researchers'
analytical studies and numerical simulations. Knowing the microstructural
details of bone at different scales will allow researchers to predict numerically,
and verify experimentally when possible, the local material properties of
bone. Knowing such properties will help researchers determine local strains
from local stresses (load per unit area). These can then be used in simulations
of bone remodeling.
Jasiuk's other collaborators on the project to date have been Dr. William
Hutton of the Emory University Spine Center, Dr. Tim Ganey of Georgia Baptist
Hospital and Dr. Robert Apkarian of the Emory University School of Chemistry.
– Jane M. Sanders
The researchers face some hurdles in their mechanical analyses.
For more information, contact Dr. Iwona Jasiuk, School of Mechanical Engineering, Georgia Tech, Atlanta, GA 30332-0405. (Telephone: 404-894-6597) (E-mail: iwona.jasiuk@me.gatech.edu)
Also see Research Links news stories.
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Last updated: Sept. 10, 2000