NEXT MEETING Monday, November 14, 2005 (noon to 1:00pm)______
in the Tallan Cellar Restaurant at the corner of M.L. King, Jr. Blvd. and Carter Street in downtown Chattanooga
 
"Post-Hurricane Investigation of Locks and Control Structures in New Orleans and the South Louisiana Area"  - Peter S. Zimmerman, P.E., P.G.

 

ARCADIS, working with the New Orleans District Army Corp of Engineers, recently completed post-hurricane inspections of numerous navigation locks, flood control structures, and saltwater barriers in South Louisiana from Lake Charles in the West to New Orleans in the East.  Hurricanes Katrina and Rita were responsible for extensive damage to many of these structures.  The purpose of the inspection was to evaluate the structural integrity and operational adequacy of the various structures.  The ARCADIS team was responsible for the assessment of control structures (locks and spillways and pumping facilities, etc.).

 

Peter Zimmerman is a registered Professional Engineer in Tennessee and Georgia and a registered Geologist in Georgia.  He has completed numerous slope stability, seepage, and geotechnical analyses for dam spillways and embankments, levees, landfills, and cofferdams.

 

This will be a joint meeting with the Tennessee Society of Professional Engineers.

 

Invocation:  Ron Burton
 
Menu:  A buffet lunch for $11 will be available for attendees beginning at 11:30 a.m.  Lunch will include a salad, baked spaghetti, green beans, squash casserole, roll, and cherry cobbler.  Reservations are not required, and guests are welcome.  For more information, call Judy Driggans at 751-7616 or Brad Baucom at 751-4696.
 
Parking:  Free parking (for those who leave a notice on their dash indicating they are with the Chattanooga Engineers Club) is available for attendees at the Days Inn on Carter Street.  There is also a parking garage behind the Tallan Building.

 

 
BUSINESS ___________________________________

 

Slate of Officers for 2006
The nominating committee is presenting the following candidates for next year's slate of officers.  Additional nominations will be taken from the floor at the meetings on Nov. 14 and 21.  The election will be held on Nov. 28.

 

First Vice President (Program Chair):
  Phil Kazemersky

 

Second Vice President (Membership Chair):
  Stephen R. Smith

 

Secretary:
     Tiffany Grant
     Ron Bailey

 

Judy Driggans will assume the position of President
(As stipulated by the Club By-laws, the office of President shall be filled by automatic succession of the previous year's First Vice President)

 

Steve Stark will remain as Treasurer

 

From the By-Laws:
Section 2.    Nominations of the nominating committee shall be made known at the third regular Club meeting prior to the date of election.  Additional nominations from the floor shall be called for at this same meeting and at the next regular Club meeting.  Any nominations from the floor must have had the consent of the person nominated that the person will serve if elected.  A floor nomination must be seconded in order to be considered for election.

 

Section 3.    Printed ballots shall be prepared listing all nominees for office and election of officers will be by marked, secret ballot vote at the fourth meeting in November of each year.

 

Continuing Education Credits
Presentations at our meetings are typically 30 to 40 minutes.  Many but not all of our club meeting presentations are technical in nature and may be considered for continuing education credit.  A fair way to count these is 1 hour for attending 2 meeting presentations or 2 hours for attending 3 presentations.  To count 1 hour for one meeting, you could write a summary of the presentation to share with everyone.  We are always looking for people who will take good notes and write an interesting presentation summary by Tuesday to include in these weekly meeting announcements.  To help you recall how many meetings you have attended this year, the topics, speakers, and presentation summaries are available on our website.  Gordon Phillips also keeps a record of attendance that may help you recall which meetings you attended. 

 

PREVIOUS MEETING_____________________________________
 
"Chattanooga’s New Wind Tower Manufacturing Plant"  - Walter Thompson, Aerisyn Inc.
 
Wally Thompson is COO and Director of Sales and Marketing at the Chattanooga Aerisyn manufacturing plant and he is also an engineer who has been in the wind energy business for many years.  He gave us a history of wind energy in the United States beginning with when most wind turbines provided either mechanical power or less than 1.5 kW DC (direct current).  Now wind turbine designs are larger, more powerful and can capture energy from lower wind speeds.  These large turbines need large towers and there are just a few manufacturing plants in the United States to build these towers.  Wind turbine towers for the TVA Buffalo Mountain site, for example, came from Korea.  Spain and Vietnam also export towers for wind turbines. 

 

The large wind turbines today have rotors that can weigh 20 tons, a cell (gearbox, generator, and controls) that can weigh 75 tons, and a tower that can weigh as much as 220 tons.  Aerisyn is shipping most of the towers they are making now by special trucks.  They plan to use the river to move some of the larger tower parts.  Because it requires about $60,000 to deliver a tower by special truck, they are considering how to make satellite plants or gypsy plants where the towers can be manufactured closer to or on the wind turbine site. 

 

A very long painting booth has just been added to the Chattanooga manufacturing plant.  Most customers are requesting white or off-white towers for permitting reasons.  Thompson described the footings required for these large towers.  In Europe they dig a hole about 20 feet deep and 60 feet across.  Then they put about 5 feet of concrete in the hole with as many as 100,000 reinforcing rods.  These holes require about 550 yards of concrete.   Another foundation design uses two different sized (but large) concrete culverts.  Reinforcing rods are added from the bottom to the top and the 1.5 foot difference in radius of the two culverts is filled with about 75 yards of concrete.  This culvert foundation design won't work well in wet areas. 

 

The blades and controls are where most of the improvements have been made.  Composite blades are flexible and now weigh about one third as much as they did.  These new turbines can generate electricity in 5 to 22 mph wind. Thompson told us that the United States is generating about 0.65 percent of its electricity with wind turbines and some states are setting higher percentage goals for generation from renewable resources.  Wind is just one renewable resource and some states have more wind energy sites available to them.
 
FUTURE MEETINGS ____________________________________
 
Saturday, November 19, 1-3 pm:  Local First Lego League (FLL) Teams get-together at the Aquarium on November 19. While not a full-blown local competition, the meeting will serve three purposes:

o  Let the teams see each other and get acquainted.
o  Let the press and sponsors get a look at the local teams and FLL concepts.
o  Let the teams have several rounds of competition to simulate the time pressures of Cookeville.

 

Monday, November 21:  "Lessons Learned by the National Transportation Safety Board"  - James Evan Hall, Hall & Associates, LLC
Program Chair:  Sam Powell
 
Monday, November 28:  "Cell Phones and What All They Can Do"  - David Hedges, Cingular Wireless
Election of 2006 Chattanooga Engineers Club Officers by printed ballot

 

Monday, December 5:  Plans to be announced

 

Monday, December 12:  Plans to be announced

 

No meeting on Dec. 19, 26, or Jan. 2

 

QUESTIONS, SUGGESTIONS?   If you have any questions or suggestions about program items please contact Judy Driggans at 423-751-7616 or by email at jdriggans@comcast.net. You can find references to other Chattanooga Engineers Club members at our web site www.ChattanoogaEngineersClub.org.