Evaluation of the damages caused by lightning current flowing through bearings

A laboratory for lightning current tests was set up allowing the generation of the lightning currents foreseen by the Standards. Lightning tests are carried out on different objects, aircraft materials and components, evaluating the direct and indirect effects of lightning. Recently a research was carried out to evaluate the effects of the lightning current flow through bearings with special reference to wind power generator applications. For this purpose, lightning currents of different amplitude were applied to bearings in different test conditions and the damages caused by the lightning current flow were analyzed. The influence of the load acting on the bearing, the presence of lubricant and the bearing rotation were studied

Non-analyticity of the Callan-Symanzik beta-function of two-dimensional O(N) model

We discuss the analytic properties of the Callan-Symanzik beta-function beta(g) associated with the zero-momentum four-point coupling g in the two-dimensional phi^4 model with O(N) symmetry. Using renormalization-group arguments, we derive the asymptotic behavior of beta(g) at the fixed point g^*. We argue that beta'(g) = beta'(g^*) + O(|g-g^*|^{1/7}) for N=1 and beta'(g) = beta'(g^*) + O(1/\log |g-g^*|) for N > 2. Our claim is supported by an explicit calculation in the Ising lattice model and by a 1/N calculation for the two-dimensional phi^4 theory. We discuss how these nonanalytic corrections may give rise to a slow convergence of the perturbative expansion in powers of g.Comment: 18 pages. Discussion on Logarithmic CFT added in Appendix A. References updated. A note on the interpretation of the p_5 constant added. Final version, accepted for publication in Journal of Physics

Numerical simulations of light scattering in soft anisotropic fibrous structures and validation of a novel optical setup from fibrous media characterization

The insight of biological microstructures is at the basis of understanding the mechanical features and the potential pathologies of tissues, like the blood vessels. Different techniques are available for this purpose, like the Small Angle Light Scattering (SALS) approach. The SALS method has the advantage of being fast and non-destructive, however investigation of its physical principles is still required. Within this work, a numerical study for SALS irradiation of soft biological fibrous tissues was carried out through in-silico simulations based on a Monte Carlo approach to evaluate the effect of the thickness of the specimen. Additionally, the numerical results were validated with an optical setup based on SALS technique for the characterization of fibrous samples with dedicated tests on four 3D-printed specimens with different fibers architectures. The simulations revealed two main regions of interest according to the thickness (thk) of the analyzed media: a Fraunhofer region (thk < 0.6 mm) and a Multiple Scattering region (thk > 1 mm). Semi-quantitative information about the tissue anisotropy was successfully gathered by analyzing the scattered light spot. Moreover, the numerical results revealed a remarkable coherence with the experimental data, both in terms of mean orientation and dispersion of fibers

Noncommutative Electrodynamics

In this paper we define a causal Lorentz covariant noncommutative (NC) classical Electrodynamics. We obtain an explicit realization of the NC theory by solving perturbatively the Seiberg-Witten map. The action is polynomial in the field strenght $F$, allowing to preserve both causality and Lorentz covariance. The general structure of the Lagrangian is studied, to all orders in the perturbative expansion in the NC parameter $\theta$. We show that monochromatic plane waves are solutions of the equations of motion to all orders. An iterative method has been developed to solve the equations of motion and has been applied to the study of the corrections to the superposition law and to the Coulomb law.Comment: 13 pages, 2 figures, one reference adde