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What Goes Around

Increased traffic in Pakistan speeds up pavement deterioration, and the country lacks the considerable resources needed to maintain its road—$100 million per year in a study by Gilbert Baladi and Pakistani colleagues. Asphalt recycling—reusing roadway materials to reconstruct or rehabilitate pavements—offers both economic and environmental benefits. Experience with the process in the U.S. suggests it would work in the climate extremes of Pakistan.

When Bruce Dale analyzed methods of producing corn for use in making biofuels, he found that a lot of nitrous oxide, a potent greenhouse gas, was generated. He also found that modifications to farming practices—growing winter cover crops, for example—could reduce that negative environmental impact. So did using corn stalks for cellulosic ethanol, which has the added advantage of leaving the grain for feeding animals and people.

Military vehicles need to be light enough for transport; easy to assemble in the field; and able to endure heat, sand, and explosive devices. Design solutions that meet those needs will improve civilian vehicles of all kinds, too. Gary Cloud leads a team with expertise in vehicle safety, self-diagnostic materials, and composite materials that blend plastics and ceramics with fiberglass or graphite for strength and durability.

A predator’s impact appears in how its prey adapts to avoid being eaten as well as in how many of its prey it eats. When the spiny water flea invaded the Great Lakes, smaller daphnia retreated to deeper water. But the colder habitat was less conducive to reproduction, creating a long-term negative impact. Scott Peacor found that such a change can have a greater overall effect on a species—as much as ten times greater—than being eaten.

Studies of automobile engine efficiency, vehicle emissions, and alternative energy sources are under way in the recently opened Energy and Automotive Research Laboratories. Eann Patterson identifies hybrid technologies, collection of waste heat for conversion to electricity, and subzero testing in a cold start room as some of the projects being addressed by a cross-disciplinary group of faculty to support the energy and automotive industries.

Gilbert Baladi, professor of civil and environmental engineering, 517-355-5147

Gary Cloud, University Distinguished Professor of mechanical engineering, 517-355-9574

Bruce Dale, professor of chemical engineering and materials science, 517-353-6777

Eann Patterson, professor of mechanical engineering, 517-353-9861

Scott Peacor, assistant professor of fisheries and wildlife, 517-353-1910