Aerodynamic properties of thick airfoils II

This investigation is an extension of NACA report no. 75 for the purpose of studying the effect of various modifications in a given wing section, including changes in thickness, height of lower camber, taper in thickness, and taper in plan form with special reference to the development of thick, efficient airfoils. The method consisted in testing the wings in the NACA 5-foot wind tunnel at speeds up to 50 meters (164 feet) per second while they were being supported on a new type of wire balance. Some of the airfoils developed showed results of great promise. For example, one wing (no. 81) with a thickness in the center of 4.5 times that of the U. S. A. 16 showed both uniformly high efficiency and a higher maximum lift than this excellent section. These thick sections will be especially useful on airplanes with cantilever construction. (author

Pressure Distribution over Thick Airfoils - Model Tests

This investigation was undertaken to study the distribution of loading over thick wings of various types. The unloading on the wing was determined by taking the pressure at a number of holes on both the upper and lower surfaces of a model wing in the wind tunnel. The results from these tests show, first, that the distribution of pressure over a thick wing of uniform section is very little different from that over a thin wing; second, that wings tapering either in chord or thickness have the lateral center of pressure, as would be expected, slightly nearer the center of the wings; and, third, that wings tapering in plan form and with a section everywhere proportional to the center section may be considered to have a loading at any point which is proportional to the chord when compared to a wing with a similar constant section. These tests confirm the belief that wings tapering both in thickness and plan form are of considerable structural value because the lateral center of pressure is thereby moved toward the center of the span

The optical wing aligning device of the Langley Field tunnel

Described here is a convenient and accurate method of aligning the wing chord with the airflow. The device was developed to permit rapid and accurate alignment of airfoils and models with the airstream passing through the tunnel. It consists of three main parts: a projector, a reflector, and a target. The arrangement, which is shown in a figure, has proven satisfactory in operation. It is far better than the old method of sighting across a long batten, as the operator of a balance may see the target and correctly judge the accuracy of his alignment. Whereas the old method required two operators and several minutes time to align to within 1/10 degree, this method enables one operator to align a wing to within 1/100 of a degree in a few seconds. This method also has the advantage of being able to measure the angle of the wing while the tunnel is running. Thus, the true angle of incidence is shown

The Pressure Distribution over the Horizontal Tail Surfaces of an Airplane II

This investigation was undertaken to determine whether the results obtained upon model tail surfaces can be used to accurately predict loads upon the full-sized tail; and also to find the distribution of load when large elevator angles are used, as the loads from such angles can not be obtained readily in free flight. The method consisted in using a metal horizontal tail surface inside of which small air passages, connecting with a series of holes in the surface, led the pressure off from the tail in rubber tubes. In this way the pressure at each of these holes was measured by a manometer at several angles of attack and several to the loading under similar conditions in the full-sized airplane and the manner of distribution is quite similar in the two cases when there is no slip stream

Mapping the 3-D Dark Matter potential with weak shear

We investigate the practical implementation of Taylor's (2002) 3-dimensional gravitational potential reconstruction method using weak gravitational lensing, together with the requisite reconstruction of the lensing potential. This methodology calculates the 3-D gravitational potential given a knowledge of shear estimates and redshifts for a set of galaxies. We analytically estimate the noise expected in the reconstructed gravitational field, taking into account the uncertainties associated with a finite survey, photometric redshift uncertainty, redshift-space distortions, and multiple scattering events. In order to implement this approach for future data analysis, we simulate the lensing distortion fields due to various mass distributions. We create catalogues of galaxies sampling this distortion in three dimensions, with realistic spatial distribution and intrinsic ellipticity for both ground-based and space-based surveys. Using the resulting catalogues of galaxy position and shear, we demonstrate that it is possible to reconstruct the lensing and gravitational potentials with our method. For example, we demonstrate that a typical ground-based shear survey with redshift limit z=1 and photometric redshifts with error Delta z=0.05 is directly able to measure the 3-D gravitational potential for mass concentrations >10^14 M_\odot between 0.1<z<0.5, and can statistically measure the potential at much lower mass limits. The intrinsic ellipticity of objects is found to be a serious source of noise for the gravitational potential, which can be overcome by Wiener filtering or examining the potential statistically over many fields. We examine the use of the 3-D lensing potential to measure mass and position of clusters in 3-D, and to detect clusters behind clusters.Comment: 21 pages, including 24 figures, submitted to MNRA

Probing dark energy with the shear-ratio geometric test

We adapt the Jain--Taylor (2003) shear-ratio geometric lensing method to measure the dark energy equation of state, and its time derivative from dark matter haloes in cosmologies with arbitrary spatial curvature. The full shear-ratio covariance matrix is calculated for lensed sources, including the intervening large-scale structure and photometric redshift errors as additional sources of noise, and a maximum likelihood method for applying the test is presented. Combining with the expected results from the CMB we design an optimal survey for probing dark energy. A targeted survey imaging 60 of the largest clusters in a hemisphere with 5-band optical photometric redshifts to a median galaxy depth of zm=0.9 could measure w0 to a marginal 1-sigma error of $\Delta$w0=0.5. We marginalize over all other parameters including wa, where the equation of state is parameterized in terms of scale factor a as w(a)=w0+wa(1-a). For higher accuracy a large-scale photometric redshift survey is required. Such a near-future 5-band survey covering 10,000 square degrees to z_m=0.7 could measure w0 to $\Delta$w0=0.075 and $\Delta$wa=0.33. A stronger combined constraint is measured at a pivot redshift zp=0.27 of $\Delta$w(zp)=0.0298. We compare and combine the geometric test with the cosmological and dark energy parameters measured from planned Baryon Acoustic Oscillation (BAO) and supernova Type Ia experiments, and find that the geometric test results combine with a significant reduction in errors due to different degeneracies. A combination of geometric lensing, CMB and BAO experiments could achieve a pivot redshift constraint of $\Delta$w(zp)=0.020 at zp=0.62. Simple relations are presented that show how our lensing results can be scaled to other telescope classes and survey parameters.Comment: 30 pages, 29 figures. Accepted to MNRAS. Figures now grayscale. Scaling between SIS and NFW profiles is now mass, redshift and cosmology dependant. Further discussion on photometric redshifts and outlier

The Communication Cost of Simulating Bell Correlations

What classical resources are required to simulate quantum correlations? For the simplest and most important case of local projective measurements on an entangled Bell pair state, we show that exact simulation is possible using local hidden variables augmented by just one bit of classical communication. Certain quantum teleportation experiments, which teleport a single qubit, therefore admit a local hidden variables model.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures; reference adde

Screw dislocation in zirconium: An ab initio study

Plasticity in zirconium is controlled by 1/3 screw dislocations gliding in the prism planes of the hexagonal close-packed structure. This prismatic and not basal glide is observed for a given set of transition metals like zirconium and is known to be related to the number of valence electrons in the d band. We use ab initio calculations based on the density functional theory to study the core structure of screw dislocations in zirconium. Dislocations are found to dissociate in the prism plane in two partial dislocations, each with a pure screw character. Ab initio calculations also show that the dissociation in the basal plane is unstable. We calculate then the Peierls barrier for a screw dislocation gliding in the prism plane and obtain a small barrier. The Peierls stress deduced from this barrier is lower than 21 MPa, which is in agreement with experimental data. The ability of an empirical potential relying on the embedded atom method (EAM) to model dislocations in zirconium is also tested against these ab initio calculations

Integral-Field Spectroscopy of the Post Red Supergiant IRC +10420: evidence for an axi-symmetric wind

We present NAOMI/OASIS adaptive-optics assisted integral-field spectroscopy of the transitional massive hypergiant IRC +10420, an extreme mass-losing star apparently in the process of evolving from a Red Supergiant toward the Wolf-Rayet phase. To investigate the present-day mass-loss geometry of the star, we study the appearance of the line-emission from the inner wind as viewed when reflected off the surrounding nebula. We find that, contrary to previous work, there is strong evidence for wind axi-symmetry, based on the equivalent-width and velocity variations of H$\alpha$ and Fe {\sc ii} $\lambda$6516. We attribute this behaviour to the appearance of the complex line-profiles when viewed from different angles. We also speculate that the Ti {\sc ii} emission originates in the outer nebula in a region analogous to the Strontium Filament of $\eta$ Carinae, based on the morphology of the line-emission. Finally, we suggest that the present-day axisymmetric wind of IRC +10420, combined with its continued blueward evolution, is evidence that the star is evolving toward the B[e] supergiant phase.Comment: 22 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ. B&W-optimized version can be downloaded from http://www.cis.rit.edu/~bxdpci/pubs.htm