Vacuum jacketed composite propulsion feedlines for cryogenic launch and space vehicles. Volume 2: Appendixes

For abstract, see N74-18505

Intra-Industry Trade in the Baltic Sea Region

The purpose of this paper is to analyse economic integration in the Baltic Sea Region as it has emerged from mid-1990s. More importantly, we seek to assess the quality of integration as conferred by the development of intra-industry trade between the two groups of countries in the Baltic Sea region: Finland, Sweden, Denmark and Germany at the Western coast, and Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland at the Eastern coast of the Baltic Sea. The analysis of the change in the quality of the traded goods reveals that the economic intergration in the Baltic Sea Region has so far not led to a vast increase of the competitiveness of industry at the relatively less developed Eastern coast of the Baltic Sea. The equalisation of market prices has predominantly taken place in the trade of raw materials, whereas the Eastern countries continue to trade with deficit in the majority of manufactured goods where the equalisation of unit prices has actually taken place. The above seems to support the results of our previous research, in which we have concluded that the economies of the Baltic States and Poland continue to act as lower value-added parts of the cross-border clusters in the Baltic Sea Region. Consequently, if catching up in living standards with the northern and western neighbours is envisioned, much more systematic investment into education and technology is needed in the Baltic States and Poland.Baltic Sea region, intra-industry trade integration

Testing Intra-Industry Trade Between Portugal and Spain [1990-1996]

This paper shows how, in the period 1990-1996, economic integration between the two Iberian economies has deepened through intra-industry trade. The enquiry was led at the level of the main forty traded products. In this context, several tests have been made. Our analysis combines first the application of the Grubel and Lloyd index of the main forty products and the marginal intra-industry trade of Brulhart, and Brulhart and Elliot. On the basis of these indexes we defined our criterion for the selection of the competitive cluster of Portugal throughout the period. We have also considered the global intra-industry trade, in nominal and real terms, according to the method of Greenaway et al. In econometric terms we have tried to know which is the relation between the intra-industry trade index and the marginal intra-industry trade at the level of the main forty products, the results however were not unequivocal. The same is true as far as concerns the relation between the intra-industry trade index and the net export position at the level of the same products. Despite the fact that some attempts have been inconclusive, knowledge about Iberian trade has developed in a field essential to its upgrading, and the way is open for further research.intra-industry trade; marginal intra-industry trade; competitive cluster; net export position.

Current issues relating to artificial reefs in European seas

European artificial reef research has now been active for about three decades. For much of that time research has been conducted within national programmes, focussing on national or local issues, and has taken place predominately in the Mediterranean Sea. Over the past ten years or so interest in artificial reef technology and science has spread into the NE Atlantic and Baltic Sea with an associated variation in aims and ideas. Reef scientists working in European seas have run projects to assess artificial reefs as tools to protect habitat from destruction from trawling (Spain, Italy and France), promote nature conservation (Monaco, Italy and France), aid fisheries (Italy, Spain, Portugal and France), assess novel materials for reef construction (Italy and UK), investigate habitat use for lobsters (UK, Italy and Israel), for aquaculture (Italy), as experimental sites where habitat parameters are known (UK, Holland and Italy) and as biofiltration structures (Finland, Russia, Poland and Romania). This variety of investigation is one of the strengths of artificial reef research in Europe, the community is diverse and there is great scientific value in establishing collaboration and dialogue with colleagues. The majority of artificial reef investigations have been, and still are, experimental with Italy dominating the research effort and Spain currently leading the way in the tonnage of reef material deployed, primarily for seagrass habitat protection. Problems associated with old descriptive, qualitative research have led to developments in quantification and comparative studies which have allowed a scientific perspective to be put on artificial reef deployments across Europe. Currently, as part of the EARRN (European Artificial Reef Research Network) initiative, there is an acceptance of the need to standardise some of the ecological methods used. If this is not practicable in some cases then at least the reporting of results will be done in such a way to allow comparison with data gathered elsewhere

Method of making a filament-wound container Patent

Fabrication of filament wound propellant tank for cryogenic storag

Screw pile design optimisation under tension in sand

Many applications in offshore engineering, such as floating or jacket-founded wind turbines or wave energy converters, require a significant uplift capacity of their foundations to be kept in place. Straight-shafted or suction piles in sands have a limited uplift capacity as they resist by friction only. In contrast, screw piles or screw anchors are a promising solution which provides a similar capacity to plate anchors and does not generate disturbance for marine mammals (e.g. from pile driving operations). The optimisation of the screw pile design does not rely only on the geotechnical assessment of the uplift capacity based on soil strength, but also on operational (installation requirements) and structural (helix bending, core section stress, limiting steel plate thick-ness) constraints. This paper develops a methodology for the design optimisation of screw piles under pure ten-sion in sand, incorporating all of these constraints, based on simplified analytical or semi-analytical approaches. The results show that the uplift capacity provided by an optimised screw pile is able to meet the needs of the offshore industry, across a range of soil densities and different applications (jacket foundation pile or tension leg platform anchor), providing that adequate installation plant could be dev

Behavior of large-scale rectangular columns confined with FRP composites

This paper focuses on axially loaded, large-scale rectangular RC columns confined with fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) wrapping. Experimental tests are conducted to obtain the stress-strain response and ultimate load for three field-size columns having different aspect ratios and/or corner radii. Effective transverse FRP failure strain and the effect of increasing confining action on the stress-strain behavior are examined. Existing strength models, the majority of which were developed for small-scale specimens, are applied to predict the structural response. Since some of them fail to adequately characterize the test data and others are complex and require significant calculation, a simple design-oriented model is developed. The new model is based on the confinement effectiveness coefficient, an aspect ratio coefficient, and a corner radius coefficient. It accurately predicts the axial ultimate strength of the large-scale columns at hand and, when applied to the small-scale columns studied by other investigators, produces reasonable results