Report drawn up on behalf of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs on the proposal from the Commission of the European Communities to the Council (Doc. 1-99/83-COM(83) 85 final) for a Council Decision implementing the decision empowering the Commission to borrow under the New Community Instrument for the purpose of promoting investment within the Community, Working Documents 1983-1984, Document 1-236/83, 3 May 1983

The 4MOST([1]) instrument is a concept for a wide-field, fibre-fed high multiplex spectroscopic instrument facility on the ESO VISTA telescope designed to perform a massive (initially >25x10(6) spectra in 5 years) combined all-sky public survey. The main science drivers are: Gaia follow up of chemo-dynamical structure of the Milky Way, stellar radial velocities, parameters and abundances, chemical tagging; eROSITA follow up of cosmology with x-ray clusters of galaxies, X-ray AGN/galaxy evolution to z similar to 5, Galactic X-ray sources and resolving the Galactic edge; Euclid/LSST/SKA and other survey follow up of Dark Energy, Galaxy evolution and transients. The surveys will be undertaken simultaneously requiring: highly advanced targeting and scheduling software, also comprehensive data reduction and analysis tools to produce high-level data products. The instrument will allow simultaneous observations of similar to 1600 targets at R similar to 5,000 from 390-900nm and similar to 800 targets at R>18,000 in three channels between similar to 395-675nm (channel bandwidth: 45nm blue, 57nm green and 69nm red) over a hexagonal field of view of similar to 4.1 degrees2. The initial 5-year 4MOST survey is currently expect to start in 2020. We provide and overview of the 4MOST systems: opto-mechanical, control, data management and operations concepts; and initial performance estimates

Starch Aerogels: A Member of the Family of Thermal Superinsulating Materials

International audienceStarch aerogels were prepared via dissolution in water (thermomechanical treatment), retrogradation, solvent exchange, and drying with supercritical CO2. Amylose content in starches was varied from 0 to 100%. The aerogels' bulk density, morphology, specific surface area, thermal conductivity, and mechanical properties under compression were investigated. Pea starch aerogels had one of the highest specific surface area and lowest density and thermal conductivity (0.021-0.023 W/m·K), with the latter indicating that a new thermal superinsulation material was obtained. A detailed study of the influence of processing parameters on pea starch aerogels properties showed the importance of retrogradation time which decreases specific surface area and increases mechanical properties and thermal conductivity. Finally, a comparison of starch aerogel thermal conductivity with that of other bioaerogels is performe

Eddy current testing in CFRP production

Eddy current testing has established itself as a nondestructive test method in CFRP production. By exploiting the electrical conductivity of carbon fibers, it is possible to detect fiber orientation, surface weight, area density and fiber volume content as well as ripples and folds in stacks, preforms and composite components. This article presents recent applications and discusses future perspectives for deployment in CFRP production

Automated detection of yarn orientation in 3D-draped carbon fiber fabrics and preforms from eddy current data

Ensuring the correct fiber orientation in draped textiles and 3D preforms is one of the current challenges in the production of carbon-fiber reinforced plastics (CFRP), especially in resin transfer molding (RTM). Small deviations in fiber angle during preforming have a considerable effect on the mechanical properties of the final composite. Therefore, this paper presents an automated method for determining local yarn orientation in three-dimensionally draped, multi-layered fabrics. The draped fabric is scanned with a robot-guided high-frequency eddy current sensor to obtain an image of the sample's local conductivity and permittivity. From this image, the fiber orientation not only of the upper, but also of the lower, optically non-visible layers can be analyzed. A 2D Fast Fourier Transform is applied to local segments of the eddy current image to determine the local yarn orientation. Guidelines for processing the eddy current data, including phase rotation, filtering and evaluation segment size, are derived. For an intuitive visualization and analysis of the determined yarn orientation, reference yarn paths are reconstructed from the determined yarn angles. The developed process can be applied to quality inspection, process development and the validation of forming simulation results

Analysis of the 3D draping behavior of carbon fiber non-crimp fabrics with eddy current technique

Assessing and controlling the complex deformation behavior of textile reinforcements fabrics remains one of the major challenges in the production of fiber-reinforced plastics. In this paper, the draping of +45°/-45° biaxial non-crimp fabrics to a hemispherical shape is investigated with an eddy current imaging technique. After an automated draping process, the textiles are scanned with a robot-guided eddy current measurement system. From the resulting conductivity maps of the samples, the local yarn directions are extracted by image analysis and the paths of individual yarns are reconstructed for both the upper and the lower layer. Experiments are carried out for different forming speeds, blank holder forces and different non-crimp fabric parameters (stitch length, stitch type, stitch tension and yarn count). The influences of these parameters are compared and discussed, with the conclusion that blank holder forces have by far the most significant influence on the draping result. Sample experimental results are compared to results from an FEM draping simulation

MICADO: first light imager for the E-ELT

International audienc

MICADO: first light imager for the E-ELT

International audienc