Fecha: 05/04/2022

Julian Felipe Buitrago Saavedra

Bryan Enrique Espitia Escobar
Julian Andrés Ubaque Acero
Universidad: ECCI
Calculo Integral – Cristian Felipe Morales

Volumes of complex solids

Summary
Some Students guided through a hypothetical engineering work, decide to find the volume and surface of a
cooling tower that belongs to a power plant. Students thought about it as a figure with a hyperbolic shape. But
how do you calculate the area of a hyperbolic shape? These students figured out a way on how to do it by
classifying them as solid that can be made of a revolution. Those hyperbolic shapes and even those objects given
per revolution are against the regular and or standard volume and area formulas. Because of this, multiple
calculus techniques had to be used in order to perform the functional description of the edges found on the
shapes. In order to complete this engineering work, the students used GeoGebra a Math / Trigonometry and
algebra-based software that allows us to simulate graphs and functions, Moreover, they had to use a studied
shape that could be useful, they decided to use a photograph as well as the dimensions of the object shown in
there. With these elements they got to complete a calculation of the volume with less than 5 % in the margin of
error.

Engineering connections
Now, when we talk about the engineering connection that this provides is open, one of the most important skills
that an engineer might show is the ability to solve a problem with small resources. When these students realized
they could not complete a measure within the structure they created a solution to it, which resulted in the use
of digital tools, such as photography and software. The advocates build a simple sketch of how the structure
would look like and portrayed it in a blueprint with proper scales. With the usage of this technique, they were
empowered to complete a calculation of volumes and areas of any shape that results in a revolution. Moreover,
the fact that they could discover the volume of it does not mean it is the end of the possibilities, in fact,
discovering the exact volume of the shape would allow us to calculate its weight using the standard formulas
such as P = m/v. This allows the weight measurement of big structures that are simply not made to be measured
in scales only by using a picture, knowing its material density and calculating the volume of the revolution solid.

Introduction/Motivation
Having these stablished we can move to the next part which consisted in the creation of a formula to determine
its volume. It is well known that we have standard equations when it comes to calculate the volumes of a sphere,
a cone, a box, cylinders etc.… Moreover, these shapes can be easily computerized by the fact that we can have
the dimensions of their length, diameter, radius and height. Here is why the integral calculus comes to stablish
these complex solids computerization. Here we will require a solid of revolution of solids with a known cross
section in which the edges would work as a function to it. Sometimes there are integrals that can not be solved
by giving just values. Here is where extra techniques are applied. The students used one in specific that is called
the trapezoidal rule.
The students wondered how they can even computerize and determine the volume of a shape like a finial since
there is not function that expresses its lines. Moreover, the measure of the points along the edges is not easy
either. They express that even these results complicated for a simpler solid that can be taken as an egg.

In here, the students got to stop thinking about mathematical formulas and concepts and started minding about
the real-world concepts. They thought about what would be one of the most advanced achievements of the
20th century. They realized that many of those are technological resources such as phones, computers, chips
etc. but there was something behind all those inventions. The Electricity and the fact that all the world was
getting electrical systems and using these as source of power. The term itself to express the situation is
electrification. They determined that without the electricity most of the inventions mentioned before would not
even work or even exist.

So, they started a path to find out how is electricity even generated? Most of them agreed that great part of the
electricity generated Is produced in power plants. But how does this process even work? They referred to the
animation, How Nuclear power plants work / Nuclear Energy.

How Nuclear power plants work / Nuclear Energy.

Nuclear powerplants convert heat energy into electricity they have multiple type of buildings. The
first one the turbine building which has all the equipment and houses the turbines and the generators
that are used to convert the Kinetic energy into electrical one. Then there is a containment building Here
is where the nuclear reactor is housed. Its structure is majorly made of thick walls of cement, Lastly, we
can appreciate the cooling tower, here cold water will refrigerate the hot water that is coming from the
containment building and the nuclear reaction thermal energy.
The containment building stores the reactor, which consists in a reactor pressure vessel which the release
of the thermal energy is stored at the bottom of these structure there are some fuel assemblies with are
rods full of uranium and or plutonium pellets. That as we know produces a rich nuclear fission reactive
chain, that releases heat. The water runs through this fuel assemblies and the energy rise its temperature
to over 570 °F but the water does not boil because a pressurizer keeps the water pressure constant at
around 160 Bars. Then this heated water is pumped to the heat exchanger. In here, there is a shell that
is compounded by nozzles. The hot water runs through these nozzles and the water that is in the heat
exchanger boils. This Boiling water results in steam. And this is fit through pipes and directed to the
turbine building and drives a high-pressure turbine and then power two low pressure turbines which are
connected all together to power a shaft and finally this end in the electrical generator which converts
mechanical energy into AC or Alternative current Electricity. However, the water cycle does not end in
here, the steam is then directed to a condenser and is converted into water once the boiling point
threshold is reached.

Knowing these nuclear plants procedures and structures will allow us to define the shape of the cooling towers,
which basically are tall and hollow, besides this we know it works to cool down the steam and get it condensed.
Now we must understand why the shape of these towers is like that. It consists of a design that allows the tower
to support their own weight. Otherwise, they would just fall and thus destroyed. And if we consider the
important role, they play into this industry then it would be a big failure.
Now we must clarify the function of these cooling towers. For this we will use another animation, Cooling Tower
/ Stack Effect / Natural Convection.

Cooling Tower / Stack Effect / Natural Convection.

These are the most remarkable structures inside a nuclear plant Here the hot water is cooled. Thermal
energy is released inside this structure. The cooling tower can be 200 m tall and has a cold-water base,
 an air inlet that is supported by springs and finally there are spaying nozzles. The nozzles will be pumped
and spayed into the cold-water basin. 2% of the water would evaporate and that is the gas we can see
raising up over the tower. There is a principle called stack effect the warm air is less dense than cold air.
The hot water will rise the tower and cold one will remain on the bottom.

Having this explanation, they now focus into a hypothetical situation. What if they were Civil engineers? And
what if they were responsible for maintenance of these nuclear plants cooling towers? They should oversee
consulting blueprints and provide an estimate amount to repair the towers for the manager to authorize your
budget. A time ago these blueprints were stored in magnetic drives, but they could have corrupted or stop
working. This would create a harassing situation for them since they do not have the tower volume and
measures. A lot of money would be involved in the direct measurement and will take a lot of time. Because of
this, they access to the last resource which is a photograph of the tower and its height. This would be a hard
challenge but with the usage of integral calculus the students would be able to generate the formulas to find
the volume of these towers.