Report on Bernard
Lewis Visiting Lecturer Fellowship activities
Sponsored
by the Combustion Institute
Hosted by Prof. Y. C. Chao,
President, Taiwan chapter of the Combustion Institute
and Prof. Shenqyang
Shy, National Central University
October 2 – 9, 2005
Department of Aerospace and Mechanical
Engineering
University
of Southern California
(Click here to view
photo-journal of activities in Taiwan)
Day-by-day summary (total: 8 lectures) (click on links to view
abstracts, presentations or download presentation files)
10/3/05 |
Jhong-Li |
National Central University |
Lecture
to the School of Engineering: Flame ignition by
transient plasma discharges |
National Central University |
Lecture
to a junior-level fluid mechanics class: Fun with
Mechanical Engineering |
Jhong-Li High School |
Lecture
to high school students: Space Travel and Space
Research |
10/4/05 |
Jhong-Li |
Institute for Nuclear Energy Research (INER) |
Lecture
to professionals at INER: Micro-Solid Oxide Fuel Cells
for portable power generation |
National Central University |
Lecture
to the Department of Mechanical Engineering: Fire in space: results
from STS-107 / Columbia's final mission |
10/5/05 |
Tainan |
National Cheng-Kung University |
Lecture
to the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics: Microscale reacting
flows and power generation |
10/6/05 |
Tainan |
National Cheng-Kung University |
Lecture
to the Department of Mechanical Engineering: Dynamics of fronts in
chemical and bacterial media |
10/7/05 |
Hsin-Chu |
National Tsing-Hua University |
Lecture
to the Department of Power Mechanical Engineering: Flame propagation in
narrow channels: what Darrieus and Landau didn't tell you |
Narrative
report
Taiwan, a small country with
limited natural resources, imports 98% of energy. As with practically all the world's
countries, the bulk of this energy is generated from combustion processes. Taiwan generates a substantial amount of
electrical power via nuclear fission, but no new nuclear power plants will be
built. Renewable energy sources
such as biomass (e.g., from sugar cane) are under intense development in
Taiwan, but are unlikely to replace a significant portion of the energy
currently generated by fossil fuel combustion in the foreseeable future. Consequently, raising awareness of the
importance of combustion research, particularly among senior administrators and
students at the universities I visited, was my primary goal.
The trip started out "off
nominal" when my flight from Los Angeles was diverted to Hong Kong. It seems that Typhoon Dragon King was
unleashing its wrath on Taiwan and landing in Taipei was impossible. From then on my Taiwanese hosts started
calling me the "Dragon King" but I'm still unsure if that's a complement
or not. Fortunately my flight was
scheduled to arrive early Sunday morning, so the 10-hour delay did not affect
the lecture schedule.
The lecture tour started out
Monday on a hectic note as two "bonus" lectures were added to the one
already scheduled. This was fine
with me; I instructed my host, Prof. Shenqyang Shy of
National
Central University, that I served at the pleasure of the Taiwan Section of
the Combustion Institute for the whole week and that he should arrange my
schedule to provide the most benefit to the Section. Shenqyang
attacked these instructions with a vengeance. We decided that since there is a lot of
public interest in space research in Taiwan, I should give a talk about the
subject. Consequently, Shenqyang spent much of the day on his cell phone arranging
a talk at Jhong-li
High School where his son is a student. I also gave an impromptu talk about my
philosophy on "engineering scrutiny" as well as a brief history of
internal combustion engines to Prof.
Shy's junior level fluid mechanics class.
By the way, I never could get the
Chinese pronunciation of Prof. Shy's name correct – something like Shuh jiao sho,
where "Shuh" is Shenqyang's
family name and "jiao sho"
means professor. But I couldn't get
the tone correct on "shuh" and every time I
tried to say his name in Chinese it translated as "dead professor"
rather than "Professor Shy."
In the scheduled Monday seminar I
talked about transient plasma ignition of flames. Afterwards a student asked me why he
should study combustion despite the fact that internal combustion engines are
dirty, noisy, lead to all kinds of environmental problems, lead to all kinds of
political problems in our thirst for oil, etc., etc. – an excellent
question. Fortunately this question
gave me the perfect opportunity to preach my view of the issue, and in fact I
had a ready-made
answer in powerpoint form (see pages 14 – 18 of
this linked file). The bottom
line is (with apologies to Winston Churchill), "internal combustion engines
are the worst form of vehicle propulsion, except for all the other
forms." And
by a wide margin. But all
combustion research professionals know that already.
We then had dinner at my hotel with a group of faculty and
administrators from National Central University. I was tired by the end of all this, but Shenqyang was really exhausted. He actually had it a lot tougher than me
because (1) he had to follow and understand all of my lectures, even those on
topics that were familiar to me but not him and (2) he had to translate my
lectures into Chinese and translate questions from students back into English.
Tuesday's pace was notable slower, with only two lectures to
deliver. In the morning we drove to
the Institute for Nuclear Energy Research (INER), about an hour away from Jhong-li. As
one would expect, this institute is primarily concerned with nuclear energy,
but because of TaiwanÕs new emphasis is renewable and/or clean non-nuclear
energy sources, INER is very interested in the development of Solid Oxide Fuel
Cells (SOFCs), among other things.
Consequently, I gave another ÒbonusÓ lecture to INER
regarding our work on microscale SOFCs. Microscale
power generation is not INERÕs interest, but some of
our work may be applicable to larger-scale devices as well.
After lunch at INER we drove back to National Central
University and I gave the second scheduled lecture, this time on the results of
the Structure Of Flame Balls At Low Lewis-number (SOFBALL) space flight
experiment on the ill-fated STS-107 Columbia Space Shuttle flight. After more lab visits and chats with
graduate students, Shenqyang and I caught a train to
Tainan, about 3 hours to the south, in preparation for a two-day stay at National
Cheng-Kung University, the home institution of Prof. Y. C. Chao, President of
the Taiwan section of the Combustion Institute.
On Wednesday I gave a lecture to the Department of
Aeronautics and Astronautics at NCKU on Microscale
Reacting Flows and Power Generation, hosted by Prof.
Chao. After lunch at a
surprisingly good Italian restaurant near campus, we drove to the Aerospace Science
and Technology Research Center (ASTRC), NCKUÕs ÒBack Forty,Ó a research
facility outside of town housing large experiments such as a hypersonic
wind tunnel, gas turbine combustors, even large-scale Swiss roll
burners! ASTRC also has a tracking
station for TaiwanÕs communications satellites. I visited that facility also and I was
really impressed with the knowledge that the tracking personnel had of the U.
S. space program! Back in Tainan,
we had a traditional Chinese-Style
banquet at a very nice restaurant with a group of faculty and students from
NCKU.
Thursday I gave a lecture to the Department of Mechanical
Engineering at NCKU, hosted by Prof. T. H. Lin of the ME department, on a new
subject of mine, Dynamics of Fronts in Chemical and Bacterial Media. After yet another luncheon with faculty
and students, I was treated to a Tainan city tour, accompanied by 3 staff and
students from NCKU. We had short
but very enjoyable visits to a museum,
the oldest
Confucian Temple in Taiwan and two forts. (Tainan is an historic port city of
strategic importance). Then back to
downtown Tainan, for the return train trip to Jhong-li.
Friday we drove to Hsin-Chu City, home of National
Tsing-Hua University and my local hosts, Profs. J.
T. Yang, C. A. Lin and T. M. Liou. After still another luncheon I gave a my
eighth and final ÒconcertÓ (lecture) to the Department of Power Mechanical Engineering
at Tsing Hua on Flame
Propagation in Narrow Channels. (At
times I felt like a musician on tour, giving concert after concert –
thereÕs a little Walter Mitty in all of usÉ)
OK, end of the technical part of the trip. Now off to the Taipei
City Airport - for the trip home?
No, I had decided to stay in Taiwan the weekend after the lecture
circuit, just to do a little touring and see whatever natural attractions
Taiwan had to offer. Shenqyang had arranged for us to fly to Hua-Lien
on the less-populated eastern side of Taiwan and spent Friday evening there,
for the purpose of visiting nearby Taroko
National Park along the Li Wu River, a place of which I had no prior knowledge
or opinion, on Saturday and Sunday.
I wasnÕt expecting much – after all, how much natural beauty could
a small island like Taiwan have?
Looking at the maps, it was clear to me that we should rent a car and do
our own driving. I should have thought
of this before the trip, but since I didnÕt, I didnÕt obtain an International
DriverÕs License, thus I could not do any driving in Taiwan. And Shenqyang
was decidedly hesitant about driving outside of areas familiar to him. Thus it appeared that we would have to
take an organized bus tour. But
after explaining the value of having our own transportation (I know, itÕs the
self-centered resource-hogging American viewpoint) and chanting ÒROAD TRIPÉ
ROAD TRIPÉ ROAD TRIPÉÓ about 900 times, I finally convinced him. And even Shenqyang
agrees that in hindsight it was the right decision.
As it turned out, Taroko is a really
spectacular marble gorge, somewhat similar to the Grand Canyon of the
Verdun in southeast France. ItÕs
also similar to Zion National Park in the U. S., but the rock is marble, not
sandstone as in Zion. I wasn't
expecting such an impressive natural landmark! Take a look at the pictures. (The park pictures start at the end of
page 3.) The flood
damage from the recent typhoon was incredible. As some of the pictures such as this one
show, driftwood logs washed up on trails at least 100 feet above the canyon
floor. Note the high water
mark in this
picture! Most roads and trails
were closed due to the flooding but we went on several
short hikes, and in the evening ventured up the road to the Formosa
Grand Hotel in Tiang Shan right in the heart of Taroko National Park.
This is really a great hotel in a fabulous setting, and much less
expensive than I would have expected.
Due to the flooding the road past the hotel (which winds way up into the
mountains to an elevation of over 3000 meters) was ÒclosedÓ, but there was
nothing physically blocking us from continuing, so we did. There were many washouts in the road but
they were bulldozed over so it was possible for vehicles to get through. It was getting dark so we didnÕt go up
to anywhere near 3000 meters, but we did get some
great views from the elevations we did reach. Back down at the hotel, we had a great
dinner.
Sunday we hiked around the hotel, across a bridge, up to a pagoda
and another
temple to a spot with a great
view back down at the hotel. To
my surprise, breadfruit
trees grew around the temple; breadfruit are very
tropic and require year-round heat and humidity. But watch out for the huge
spiders! Then
on with the hiking along the Li Wu
River. We found an
interesting suspension
bridge across the river that went nowhere in particular. I hiked up to a small
waterfall but Shenqyang didnÕt care for the bushwacking and boulderhopping
required to get there so he stayed behind.
The final hike was up to yet
another but very scenic temple with some interesting underground
rivers gurgling up along the trail.
Time was up so we drove back to Hua-Lien for
our triumphant return flight back to Taipei City Airport, then to a department
store to buy something to wear before heading to Taipei International
Airport. (Everything piece of
clothing I had was dirty from a week of heat and humidity in the cities or
muddy from the trails in Taroko, hence some clean
clothes seemed like a friendly gesture to my fellow passengers across the Pacific.)
On the flight home the reality of the long days lecturing,
visiting labs, touring canyons and the long nights preparing the next daysÕ
lectures, coupled with the end of the adrenaline rush from the overseas travel,
finally caught up with me and I had a nice 12 hour nap – just in time to
get back to USC for MondayÕs activities on campus without having to miss a
beat. Mission accomplished.
Summary
and suggestions for future Bernard Lewis Lecturers and their host sections
First I would like to thank the Combustion Institute for
sponsoring this lectureship and the Taiwanese section of the Combustion
Institute for their heroic efforts in making my week in Taiwan very productive,
educational and downright fun.
Special thanks and deep debts of gratitude are owed to Prof. Shenqyang Shy of National Central University for arranging
almost everything and escorting me around the country, as well as Prof. Y. C.
Chao, President of the Taiwan section, for his tireless support and
encouragement.
If I could do this again knowing what I know now, I wouldnÕt
change hardly anything. The pace
was hectic but everything ran smoothly.
My only suggestion to future Bernard Lewis lecturers would be to bring a
laptop loaded with Powerpoint presentations, visit
lots of people and places, be flexible, and engage the combustion research
community in the host country to the maximum extent possible (i.e. basically
what I did.)
As I mentioned, my Taiwanese hosts prepared a very well
organized visit including technical, social and sightseeing activities. My only suggestion to future host
sections would be to give the Lecturer smaller tokens of appreciation! Or assign the Lecturer a ÒmuleÓ to carry
everythingÉ I do appreciate
receiving these items, but after a while my suitcase was filled beyond capacity
with plaques, books, brochures, utensil sets, etc. I finally gave up trying to carry all of
them and I imposed upon Prof. Shy to mail them home to me.