80,543 research outputs found
Nondestructive testing of brazed rocket engine components
Report details study made of nondestructive radiographic, ultrasonic, thermographic, and leak test methods used to inspect and evaluate the quality of the various brazed joints in liquid-propellant rocket engine components and assemblies. Descriptions of some of the unique equipment and methods developed are included
Performance of transducers with segmented piezoelectric stacks using materials with high electromechanical coupling coefficient
Underwater acoustic transducers often include a stack of thickness polarized
piezoelectric material pieces of alternating polarity interspersed with
electrodes, bonded together and electrically connected in parallel. The stack
is normally much shorter than a quarter wavelength at the fundamental resonance
frequency, so that the mechanical behavior of the transducer is not affected by
the segmentation. When the transducer bandwidth is less than a half octave, as
has conventionally been the case, stack segmentation has no significant effect
on the mechanical behavior of the device. However, when a high coupling
coefficient material such as PMN-PT is used to achieve a wider bandwidth, the
difference between a segmented stack and a similar piezoelectric section with
electrodes only at the two ends can be significant. This paper investigates the
effects of stack segmentation on the performance of wideband underwater
acoustic transducers, particularly tonpilz transducer elements. Included is
discussion of transducer designs using single crystal piezoelectric material
with high coupling coefficient compared with more traditional PZT ceramics.Comment: 26 pages including 14 figures, one table and one appendi
High-Precision Thermodynamics and Hagedorn Density of States
We compute the entropy density of the confined phase of QCD without quarks on
the lattice to very high accuracy. The results are compared to the entropy
density of free glueballs, where we include all the known glueball states below
the two-particle threshold. We find that an excellent, parameter-free
description of the entropy density between 0.7Tc and Tc is obtained by
extending the spectrum with the exponential spectrum of the closed bosonic
string.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
Stroke units: The implementation of a complex intervention
This article reports on selected findings from an action research study that looked at the lessons learnt from setting up a new in-patient stroke service in a London teaching hospital. Key participants in the design and evaluation of this 2-year study included members of the multi-professional stroke team and support staff within the unit, the hospital management team and representatives of patients and carers. Mixed methods (focus groups, indepth interviews, audits, documentary analysis, participant observation field notes) were used to generate data. Findings demonstrated positive change overtime with four main themes emerging from the process: building a team; developing practice-based knowledge and skills in stroke; valuing the central role of the nurse in stroke care; and creating an organisational climate for supporting change. The interplay of these non-linear, but interrelated factors is supported by complexity theory, which includes exploration of how the sum of a whole can be more than its constituent parts. Findings are likely to be of interest to practitioners, managers and policy makers interested in supporting change in a learning organisation
From Point Defects in Graphene to Two-Dimensional Amorphous Carbon
While crystalline two-dimensional materials have become an experimental
reality during the past few years, an amorphous 2-D material has not been
reported before. Here, using electron irradiation we create an sp2-hybridized
one-atom-thick flat carbon membrane with a random arrangement of polygons,
including four-membered carbon rings. We show how the transformation occurs
step-by-step by nucleation and growth of low-energy multi-vacancy structures
constructed of rotated hexagons and other polygons. Our observations, along
with first-principles calculations, provide new insights to the bonding
behavior of carbon and dynamics of defects in graphene. The created domains
possess a band gap, which may open new possibilities for engineering
graphene-based electronic devices.Comment: 10 pages, 10 figures including supplementary informatio
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