Articles
Use your influence to cut stress
I was pleased to see an article on workplace stress.
It is important to talk openly about mental health and to recognise that the stress we experience in the workplace can be a contributory factor in our overall mental health. As engineers we spend our lives making decisions based on analysis of data and so maybe we find it particularly difficult to talk about something as intangible as how we feel. Any opportunity to develop a culture of open discussion on mental health should be encouraged.
High levels of workplace stress can be caused by what appear to be small issues. Issues such as frustrations with product lifecycle management tools, expense systems and impersonal IT support are all small in themselves, but, when they prevent progress on targeted deliverables, can be a major source of stress.
Many readers will have influence over engineering tool selection and engineering, HR and IT process development. Perhaps we should be using this influence to ensure that process and tool development considers the impact on user stress to a greater degree? Some examples could be prioritising tool ease of use over functionality, prioritising help-desk support over the lowest-cost process solution, or consolidating systems across departments to provide a more seamless user experience.
Andrew Wilding, Lincolnshire
Unwelcome weather forecast
Your feature “The rapid rise of floating wind” is rightly enthusiastic about the prospects for wind-generated power. However, history is littered with adventures that promised great benefit but with unforeseen consequences. Could the capture of wind energy prove to be the latest example?
Economic as well as environmental pressures are driving the project at breakneck speed. Efforts are focused on extracting the maximum energy from an array of turbines that are optimally distributed for this purpose.
The assumption will be that such low-altitude energy extraction could not affect local meteorological conditions. Much bigger forces are at work at higher altitudes and these will not be affected. But is this true; has it been tested through measurement or 3D flow simulations? Could it be that as we solve one environmental issue we unwittingly introduce another?
The principle of conservation of energy suggests that the downstream airflow energy must be significantly lower than that immediately upstream of a wind farm. With wind farms becoming numerous and massive, could this have a significant effect on UK weather patterns, particularly because much of the action exists amid the prevailing winds from the west, upstream of our relatively small landmass?
I have witnessed major changes in the wind flows and weather conditions across the British Isles and it is not clear to me that this can all be put at the door of atmospheric pollution. My suggestion is that research needs to be done to ensure that planning of wind farms is future-proof.
Dr Robert Dawson
Heritage on the tracks
The other day I realised that, although I have been married well over 60 years, I have been a member of the Institution for longer, which I found amusing.
In the latest issue of the magazine I found a nice tribute to Sir Nigel Gresley and his famous stable of LNER locomotives of which I have always been an admirer. I seem to recall that our honeymoon express to London was headed by a Gresley A4 Pacific. (Too excited to take the name.)
Then the other day while crossing Peterborough’s famous Crescent Bridge (1912) I recalled all the marvellous steam, diesel and electric trains that have passed under its ironwork. I could see into Peterborough station where an LNER Azuma train set was standing. The profiled front end of the Azuma reminded me of Gresley’s A4 Pacifics and their front streamline profile of the mid-1930s.
David Corkill, Peterborough
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Content published by Professional Engineering does not necessarily represent the views of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.