Nederlander vindt wetenschap interessant

Bijna de helft van alle Nederlanders zegt ‘zeer veel interesse’ te hebben in nieuwe wetenschappelijke ontdekkingen en technologische ontwikkelingen. In de rest van de Europese Unie geeft minder dan eenderde hetzelfde antwoord. Alleen Cyprioten zeggen nog vaker dat ze zeer geïnteresseerd zijn.

Ook stelt meer dan driekwart op dat gebied ‘zeer goed’ of ‘redelijk goed’ op de hoogte te zijn. In geen ander EU-land is dat percentage zo groot. In de rest van de unie deelt gemiddeld 61 procent die mening.

Driekwart (74 procent) van de Nederlanders is het oneens met de stelling ‘wetenschap en technologie kunnen elk probleem oplossen’, tegenover 57 procent in de rest van Europa. Toch denken bijna evenveel Nederlanders (73 procent) dat wetenschap en technologie een rol kunnen spelen in het verbeteren van het milieu, terwijl in de rest van Europa 54 procent dat antwoord geeft.

Nederlanders zijn iets minder bang voor wetenschap dan anderen: 44 procent was het eens met de stelling dat wetenschappers dankzij hun kennis een bepaalde macht hebben die hen gevaarlijk maakt. In de rest van de EU is dat 53 procent.

Slechts 24 procent van de Nederlanders denkt dat de EU te weinig geld aan wetenschappelijk onderzoek besteedt. In de rest van Europa is dat 31 procent. Een kleine groep van zeven procent vindt dat de EU er te veel aan uitgeeft, en dat percentage is gemiddeld.

Voor het onderzoek zijn 26.671 duizend Europeanen mondeling ondervraagd, waaronder ruim duizend Nederlanders.

Name: Richard Pijpers
Nationality: Dutch
PhD supervisor: Professor Frans Bijlaard (faculty of Civil Engineering & Geosciences)
Subject: Fatigue Strength of Very High Strength Steel Joints
Thesis defense: One and a half years to go

“From an esthetic as well as an environmental point of view, it would be great if skyscrapers, bridges, cranes and oil rigs could be constructed with much thinner steel structures. My work on very high strength steels will help make this possible.
This steel is three to five times stronger than regular steel. Or, I should say, the yield strength is much higher. This means that if you try to stretch the metal, you need to use enormous force to actually deform the steel.
Compare it with an elastic. If you slightly pull on it, you stretch it, but it will regain its original shape and size once released. If you pull very hard though, the fibers inside the material start moving, causing a plastic deformation that elongates the elastic. The same can happen with steel.
The best ways to use very high strength steel are not yet known. Apart from a few cranes in the Netherlands, it has not been used in engineering structures. The goal of my PhD research, which I’m pursuing at the Materials Innovation institute (M2i), is to set up design and fabrication recommendations.
The problem with the steel is that, although it’s so strong, there are lots of weak spots in structures made out of it. Due to notches inside the material, it is sensitive to fatigue. And in a welded structure there are always places where, due to the geometry, tension concentrates. Often these so called stress concentrations are situated at joints where tubes are welded together.
If these points are very weak, there is no point in using very high strength steels. But these weak points can be solved by using cast elements at the joints and by welding the tubes to these castings.
We are going to test the strength of a welded truss consisting of tubes connected through cast joints. This is the kind of construction you can see in cranes or bridges. We will press on it dynamically with 500 tons, the equivalent of 500 cars, with a frequency of once every second. It’s a huge set up and it might take weeks before the first cracks appear.
I really like this work. By pressing and pulling with enormous force you get to understand what goes on inside the material.
When I first started in the lab, I once ruined a sample by pressing on it instead of pulling at it. Such things can be very stressful. Luckily, I can work off my emotions by playing trombone. I think everyone needs good music in order to work well.”