Work is Hard
Jul. 18th, 2007 07:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tanarillOkay, so, I haven't updated in a WEEK, which is far too long not to have updated in. So, I update now.
This work term started out on Monday, much better than last term. For one, my group had more than a week's warning that I was coming and had stuff all lined up for me. For two, there are other (male) interns (not co-ops; the difference is money, or lack thereof) who make me look good and get all weird when I am Shameless. Lacha, I see what you mean about Being Amused.
I really really do need to get at least eight hours of sleep a night to function properly, so I'm probably going to be in Chat earlier or not at all.
Melissa, who is in my sorority, has BF Steve. Steve is also working at Milford, which means he and I can get together and geek on things like the H2/hybrid vehicles he works on and the Sandman graphic novels.
So far, I have two major projects and a third more minor one:
Project 1 - Stone Chipping. Like, if you're driving down a gravel road, and stones fly up and chip the paint off your car. If you're going at the speed you should be going along a gravel road, it's not much of a problem. Even so, the damage adds up, and eventually, the base metal/plastic will be exposed. The base metal rusts, the base plastic abrades. Either was, it looks nasty. My job is to run a bunch of different material on the Milford Proving Grounds roads (we have a lot of unpaved road for just this sort of thing) and find out which does best.
Project 2 - Urea Spillage. This as discussed in Chat, but in case you weren't there: if you add urea (chemical formula (NH2)2CO2) to high-temperature engine exhaust, it reacts with NOx to form N2, H2O, and CO2. The CO2 is not good, but the NOx is worse. The problem is, you end up having the replace the urea fairly often, every three months or so. It goes in through a tube underhood. You will, if you are a human being, probably spill some of it. I'm supposed to test the things it's likely to spill on and make sure that having urea on them won't make them fall apart. My gut reaction is they won't because urea is fairly stable at normal temperatures. But we don't test at normal temperatures [sly griiiiiiiiiin]
Project 3 - Magnesium correlation. There a thing called an engine mount. It holds the engine. In a number of newer model cars, it's made out of magnesium, which rusts nasty. If we send a car out and run one year of cosmetic corrosion on that car, the magnesium rusts really fast. If we put it in a hot, humid chamber and cycle it, it rusts less slowly. If we put it in a hot, humid chamber where it gets jiggled and sprayed with mud, it does something fairly similar to the year of cosmetic corrosion. I'm supposed to work out how similar, ie, how many hot-humid-jiggly test cycles need to run before we can say, "This Mg engine mount will not rust out of being structurally sound within ten years of vehicle life." What this means to you: don't buy Cadillacs or any Saturn cars 2006 model year or later if you plan on driving them for more than ten years without having the engine mount replaced. Because when I say these rust nasty, I mean when they rust and mix with water, they'll produce battery acid.
Other things I'm doing involve making a Corrosion Engineering 101 for new engineers coming into Milford, and weighing lots and lots of little steel tiles. The tiles rust, and let us know how far along Car A is to hitting the required rust level. Whole racks of them are strapped to test samples and cars, but that's pretty much all they do.
Oh, and remember that thing where I said I'd be watching breaks rust? And FC said, "You're not serious," and I said, "Yes I am"?
Yeah, well, I really am.
Brakes rust ugly, but thankfully not nasty. They rust worst in places like Newfoundland, where in addition to nastily bad weather changes they also have constant salt spray to deal with, but all brakes rust. And once they have, you'll never get them clean again . . .
I'm going to a forum on H2 on Friday. Me and everyone else there will be doing our best not to laugh. [snerk]
It doesn't look as though I'll be writing as much this term. There's more actual work, for one, and there are boys to look better than. Also we live in the room with the microscopes, so there are always people trooping in, out, in, out . . . ah well.
I love you all anyway, and will see if I can get anything better done once I adjust a bit more to the PAINFUL constant work.
I need an "I am dead of work" icon.
That is all.
This work term started out on Monday, much better than last term. For one, my group had more than a week's warning that I was coming and had stuff all lined up for me. For two, there are other (male) interns (not co-ops; the difference is money, or lack thereof) who make me look good and get all weird when I am Shameless. Lacha, I see what you mean about Being Amused.
I really really do need to get at least eight hours of sleep a night to function properly, so I'm probably going to be in Chat earlier or not at all.
Melissa, who is in my sorority, has BF Steve. Steve is also working at Milford, which means he and I can get together and geek on things like the H2/hybrid vehicles he works on and the Sandman graphic novels.
So far, I have two major projects and a third more minor one:
Project 1 - Stone Chipping. Like, if you're driving down a gravel road, and stones fly up and chip the paint off your car. If you're going at the speed you should be going along a gravel road, it's not much of a problem. Even so, the damage adds up, and eventually, the base metal/plastic will be exposed. The base metal rusts, the base plastic abrades. Either was, it looks nasty. My job is to run a bunch of different material on the Milford Proving Grounds roads (we have a lot of unpaved road for just this sort of thing) and find out which does best.
Project 2 - Urea Spillage. This as discussed in Chat, but in case you weren't there: if you add urea (chemical formula (NH2)2CO2) to high-temperature engine exhaust, it reacts with NOx to form N2, H2O, and CO2. The CO2 is not good, but the NOx is worse. The problem is, you end up having the replace the urea fairly often, every three months or so. It goes in through a tube underhood. You will, if you are a human being, probably spill some of it. I'm supposed to test the things it's likely to spill on and make sure that having urea on them won't make them fall apart. My gut reaction is they won't because urea is fairly stable at normal temperatures. But we don't test at normal temperatures [sly griiiiiiiiiin]
Project 3 - Magnesium correlation. There a thing called an engine mount. It holds the engine. In a number of newer model cars, it's made out of magnesium, which rusts nasty. If we send a car out and run one year of cosmetic corrosion on that car, the magnesium rusts really fast. If we put it in a hot, humid chamber and cycle it, it rusts less slowly. If we put it in a hot, humid chamber where it gets jiggled and sprayed with mud, it does something fairly similar to the year of cosmetic corrosion. I'm supposed to work out how similar, ie, how many hot-humid-jiggly test cycles need to run before we can say, "This Mg engine mount will not rust out of being structurally sound within ten years of vehicle life." What this means to you: don't buy Cadillacs or any Saturn cars 2006 model year or later if you plan on driving them for more than ten years without having the engine mount replaced. Because when I say these rust nasty, I mean when they rust and mix with water, they'll produce battery acid.
Other things I'm doing involve making a Corrosion Engineering 101 for new engineers coming into Milford, and weighing lots and lots of little steel tiles. The tiles rust, and let us know how far along Car A is to hitting the required rust level. Whole racks of them are strapped to test samples and cars, but that's pretty much all they do.
Oh, and remember that thing where I said I'd be watching breaks rust? And FC said, "You're not serious," and I said, "Yes I am"?
Yeah, well, I really am.
Brakes rust ugly, but thankfully not nasty. They rust worst in places like Newfoundland, where in addition to nastily bad weather changes they also have constant salt spray to deal with, but all brakes rust. And once they have, you'll never get them clean again . . .
I'm going to a forum on H2 on Friday. Me and everyone else there will be doing our best not to laugh. [snerk]
It doesn't look as though I'll be writing as much this term. There's more actual work, for one, and there are boys to look better than. Also we live in the room with the microscopes, so there are always people trooping in, out, in, out . . . ah well.
I love you all anyway, and will see if I can get anything better done once I adjust a bit more to the PAINFUL constant work.
I need an "I am dead of work" icon.
That is all.
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Date: 2007-07-19 12:53 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-07-19 10:33 pm (UTC)We just started a new batch today . . .