An investigation of particle mixing in a gas-fluidized bed

Mechanism for particle movement in gas-fluidized beds was studied both from the theoretical and experimental points of view. In a two-dimensional fluidized bed particle trajectories were photographed when a bubble passed through

Evaluation of the electrochemical O2 concentrator as an O2 compressor

A program was successfully completed to analytically and experimentally evaluate the feasibility of using an electrochemical oxygen (O2) concentrator as an O2 compressor. The electrochemical O2 compressor (EOC) compresses 345 kN/sq m (50 psia) O2 generated on board the space vehicle by the water electrolysis subsystem (WES) in a single stage to 20,700 kN/sq m (3000 psia) to refill spent extravehicular equipment O2 bottles and to eliminate the need for high pressure O2 storage. The single cell EOC designed, fabricated, and used for the feasibility testing is capable of being tested at O2 pressures up to 41,400 kN/sq m (6000 psia). A ground support test facility to test the EOC cell was designed, fabricated, and used for the EOC feasibility testing. A product assurance program was established, implemented, and maintained which emphasized safety and materials compatibility associated with high pressure O2 operation. A membrane development program was conducted to develop a membrane for EOC application. Data obtained using a commercially available membrane were used to guide the development of the membranes fabricated specifically for an EOC. A total of 15 membranes were fabricated

Spacecraft nitrogen generation

Two spacecraft nitrogen (N2) generation systems based on the catalytic dissociation of hydrazine (N2H4) were evaluated. In the first system, liquid N2H4 is catalytically dissociated to yield an N2 and hydrogen (H2) gas mixture. Separation of the N2/H2 gas mixture to yield N2 and a supply of H2 is accomplished using a polymer-electrochemical N2/H2 separator. In the second system, the N2/H2 gas mixture is separated in a two-stage palladium/silver (Pd/Ag) N2/H2 separator. The program culminated in the successful design, fabrication, and testing of a N2H4 catalytic dissociator, a polymer-electrochemical N2/H2 separator, and a two-stage Pd/Ag N2/H2 separator. The hardware developed was sized for an N2 delivery rate of 6.81 kg/d (15lb/day). Experimental results demonstrated that both spacecraft N2 generation systems are capable of producing 6.81 kg/d (15lb/day) of 99.9% pure N2 at a pressure greater than or equal to 1035 kN/m(2) (150 psia)

Positive Parity Pentaquarks Pragmatically Predicted

We consider the possibility that the lightest pentaquark is a parity even state, with one unit of orbital angular momentum. Working within the framework of a constituent quark model, we show that dominant spin-flavor interactions render certain parity-even states lighter than any pentaquark with all quarks in the spatial ground state. For such states, we focus on predicting the mass and decays of other members of the same SU(3) flavor multiplet. Specifically, we consider the strangeness -2 cascade pentaquarks, which are relatively immune to mixing. We take into account flavor SU(3) breaking effects originating from the strange quark mass as well as from the structure of the spin-flavor exchange interactions themselves. We predict the lightest cascade pentaquarks at approximately 1906 MeV, with a full width about 3 times larger than that of the Theta^+.Comment: 13 pages, 1 figure, 4 tables, Revtex