An experimental investigation of the flap-lag stability of a hingeless rotor with comparable levels of hub and blade stiffness in hovering flight

An experimental investigation of the flap-lag stability of a hingeless rotor in hovering flight is presented and discussed. The rotor blade and hub configuration were selected such that the hub and blade had comparable levels of bending stiffness. Experimental measurements of the lag damping were made for various values of rotor rotational speed and blade pitch angle. Specifically at a blade pitch angle of 8 deg at three-quarters radius, the lag damping was determined over a range of rotational speeds from 200 RPM to 320 RPM and also over a range of blade pitch angles from 0 deg to 8 deg

Modelling of microstructural evolution in austempered ductile iron

Austempered ductile iron (ADI) has a microstructure consisting mainly of high carbon austenite, bainitic ferrite and graphite nodules, produced by a two stage austenitisation and austempering heat treatment. The resulting microstructure gives these materials a combination of high strength and toughness, making them attractive for a wide range of applications. To increase surface hardness, ductile iron alloys can also be cast into chilled moulds to induce carbide formation in the required areas of components. These chilled ductile iron alloys can also be subjected to austenitisation and austempering heat treatments, therefore further improving the mechanical properties of the components core, whilst retaining the hard carbides present in the surface layers. This work encompasses three main areas: two are concerned with the production of generic microstructure models, which work in conjunction with thermodynamic modelling software MTDATA; and one relates to high temperature X-ray diffraction experiments. [Continues.

The Neutral Hydrogen Bridge between M31 and M33

The Green Bank Telescope has been used to search for 21cm HI emission over a large area between the galaxies M31 and M33 in an attempt to confirm at 9.1 arcmin angular resolution the detection by Braun and Thilker (2004) of a very extensive neutral gas "bridge" between the two systems at the level NHI approximately 10^{17} cm^{-2}. We detect HI emission at several locations up to 120 kpc in projected distance from M31, at least half the distance to M33, with velocities similar to that of the galaxies, confirming the essence of the Braun and Thilker discovery. The HI does not appear to be associated with the extraplanar high-velocity clouds of either galaxy. In two places we measure NHI > 3 x 10^{18} cm^{-2}, indicative of concentrations of HI with ~10^5 solar masses on scales <2 kpc, but over most of the field we have only 5sigma upper limits of NHI <= 1.4 x 10^{18} cm^{-2}. In very deep measurements in two directions HI lines were detected at a few 10^{17} cm^{-2}. The absence of emission at another location to a 5sigma limit NHI <= 1.5 x 10^{17} cm^{-2} suggests that the HI bridge is either patchy or confined to within ~125 kpc of M31. The measurements also cover two of M31's dwarf galaxies, And II and And XV, but in neither case is there evidence for associated HI at the 5sigma level of 1.4 x 10^4 solar masses of HI for And II, and 9.3 x 10^3 solar masses for And XV.Comment: Submitted to the Astronomical Journa

The Vela Cloud: A Giant HI Anomaly in the NGC 3256 Group

We present Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) observations of a galaxy-sized intergalactic HI cloud (the Vela Cloud) in the NGC 3256 galaxy group. The group contains the prominent merging galaxy NGC 3256, which is surrounded by a number of HI fragments, the tidally disturbed galaxy NGC 3263, and several other peculiar galaxies. The Vela Cloud, with an HI mass of 3-5 * 10**9 solar masses, resides southeast of NGC 3256 and west of NGC 3263, within an area of 9' x 16' (100 kpc x 175 kpc for an adopted distance of 38 Mpc). In our ATCA data the Vela Cloud appears as 3 diffuse components and contains 4 density enhancements. The Vela Cloud's properties, together with its group environment, suggest that it has a tidal origin. Each density enhancement contains ~10**8 solar masses of HI gas which is sufficient material for the formation of globular cluster progenitors. However, if we represent the enhancements as Bonnor-Ebert spheres, then the pressure of the surrounding HI would need to increase by at least a factor of 6 in order to cause the collapse of an enhancement. Thus we do not expect them to form massive bound stellar systems like super star clusters or tidal dwarf galaxies. Since the HI density enhancements have some properties in common with High Velocity Clouds, we explore whether they may evolve to be identified with these starless clouds instead.Comment: 47 pages, 13 figures (incl. a & b), accepted by AJ, changes are minor additions, rearranging, and clarifications esp. in sections 6 &

Generators for the hyperelliptic Torelli group and the kernel of the Burau representation at t = -1

We prove that the hyperelliptic Torelli group is generated by Dehn twists about separating curves that are preserved by the hyperelliptic involution. This verifies a conjecture of Hain. The hyperelliptic Torelli group can be identified with the kernel of the Burau representation evaluated at t = −1 and also the fundamental group of the branch locus of the period mapping, and so we obtain analogous generating sets for those. One application is that each component in Torelli space of the locus of hyperelliptic curves becomes simply connected when curves of compact type are added