Evaluation of advanced lift concepts and potential fuel conservation for short-haul aircraft

The effect of different field lengths, cruise requirements, noise level, and engine cycle characteristics on minimizing fuel consumption and minimizing operating cost at high fuel prices were evaluated for some advanced short-haul aircraft. The conceptual aircraft were designed for 148 passengers using the upper surface-internally blown jet flap, the augmentor wing, and the mechanical flap lift systems. Advanced conceptual STOL engines were evaluated as well as a near-term turbofan and turboprop engine. Emphasis was given to designs meeting noise levels equivalent to 95-100 EPNdB at 152 m (500 ft) sideline

Longer thaw seasons increase nitrogen availability for leaching during fall in tundra soils

Climate change has resulted in warmer soil temperatures, earlier spring thaw and later fall freeze-up, resulting in warmer soil temperatures and thawing of permafrost in tundra regions. While these changes in temperature metrics tend to lengthen the growing season for plants, light levels, especially in the fall, will continue to limit plant growth and nutrient uptake. We conducted a laboratory experiment using intact soil cores with and without vegetation from a tundra peatland to measure the effects of late freeze and early spring thaw on carbon dioxide (CO2) exchange, methane (CH4) emissions, dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and nitrogen (N) leaching from soils. We compared soil C exchange and N production with a 30 day longer seasonal thaw during a simulated annual cycle from spring thaw through freeze-up and thaw. Across all cores, fall N leaching accounted for ~33% of total annual N loss despite significant increases in microbial biomass during this period. Nitrate $({{{\rm{NO}}}_{3}}^{-})$ leaching was highest during the fall (5.33 ± 1.45 mg N m−2 d−1) following plant senescence and lowest during the summer (0.43 ± 0.22 mg N m−2 d−1). In the late freeze and early thaw treatment, we found 25% higher total annual ecosystem respiration but no significant change in CH4 emissions or DOC loss due to high variability among samples. The late freeze period magnified N leaching and likely was derived from root turnover and microbial mineralization of soil organic matter coupled with little demand from plants or microbes. Large N leaching during the fall will affect N cycling in low-lying areas and streams and may alter terrestrial and aquatic ecosystem nitrogen budgets in the arctic

Theory of adhesion: role of surface roughness

We discuss how surface roughness influence the adhesion between elastic solids. We introduce a Tabor number which depends on the length scale or magnification, and which gives information about the nature of the adhesion at different length scales. We consider two limiting cases relevant for (a) elastically hard solids with weak adhesive interaction (DMT-limit) and (b) elastically soft solids or strong adhesive interaction (JKR-limit). For the former cases we study the nature of the adhesion using different adhesive force laws ($F\sim u^{-n}$, $n=1.5-4$, where $u$ is the wall-wall separation). In general, adhesion may switch from DMT-like at short length scales to JKR-like at large (macroscopic) length scale. We compare the theory predictions to the results of exact numerical simulations and find good agreement between theory and the simulation results

Search for Sterile Neutrinos with a Radioactive Source at Daya Bay

The far site detector complex of the Daya Bay reactor experiment is proposed as a location to search for sterile neutrinos with > eV mass. Antineutrinos from a 500 kCi 144Ce-144Pr beta-decay source (DeltaQ=2.996 MeV) would be detected by four identical 20-ton antineutrino targets. The site layout allows flexible source placement; several specific source locations are discussed. In one year, the 3+1 sterile neutrino hypothesis can be tested at essentially the full suggested range of the parameters Delta m^2_{new} and sin^22theta_{new} (90% C.L.). The backgrounds from six nuclear reactors at >1.6 km distance are shown to be manageable. Advantages of performing the experiment at the Daya Bay far site are described

Magnetic properties of a novel Pr Fe Ti phase

In a systematic study of the (Pr1−xTix)Fe5 alloy series, the (Pr0.65Ti0.35)Fe5 alloy has been found to have a dominant phase with either the rhombohedral Th2Zn17 structure or the newly discovered Nd2(Fe,Ti)19 (S. J. Collocott, R. K. Day, J. B. Dunlop, and R. L. Davis, in Proceedings of the Seventh International Symposium on Magnetic Anisotropy and Coercivity in R‐T Alloys, Canberra, July 1992, p. 437) structure, depending on the annealing procedure. Powder‐x‐ray‐diffraction patterns and scanning electron microscopy show that the sample annealed at a temperature of 850 °C followed by 1000 °C has the 2:17 structure whereas annealing at 1000 °C directly leads to the new 2:19 structure. Energy‐dispersive x‐ray analysis yields Pr:Fe:Ti ratios of 10.7:86.2:3.1 for the Pr2(Fe,Ti)17 phase and 9.2:85.9:4.9 for the Pr2(Fe,Ti)19 phase. 57 Fe Mössbauer spectroscopy (at 295 K) gives values for the average 57 Fe hyperfine field of 15.7 T for the 2:17 phase and 17.5 T for the 2:19 phase, respectively

1/z-renormalization of the mean-field behavior of the dipole-coupled singlet-singlet system HoF_3

The two main characteristics of the holmium ions in HoF_3 are that their local electronic properties are dominated by two singlet states lying well below the remaining 4f-levels, and that the classical dipole-coupling is an order of magnitude larger than any other two-ion interactions between the Ho-moments. This combination makes the system particularly suitable for testing refinements of the mean-field theory. There are four Ho-ions per unit cell and the hyperfine coupled electronic and nuclear moments on the Ho-ions order in a ferrimagnetic structure at T_C=0.53 K. The corrections to the mean-field behavior of holmium triflouride, both in the paramagnetic and ferrimagnetic phase, have been calculated to first order in the high-density 1/z-expansion. The effective medium theory, which includes the effects of the single-site fluctuations, leads to a substantially improved description of the magnetic properties of HoF_3, in comparison with that based on the mean-field approximation.Comment: 26pp, plain-TeX, JJ