Discovery of an M9.5 Candidate Brown Dwarf in the TW Hydrae Association - DENIS J124514.1-442907

We report the discovery of a fifth candidate substellar system in the ~5-10 Myr TW Hydrae Association - DENIS J124514.1-442907. This object has a NIR spectrum remarkably similar to that of 2MASS J1139511-315921, a known TW Hydrae brown dwarf, with low surface gravity features such as a triangular-shaped H-band, deep H2O absorption, weak alkali lines, and weak hydride bands. We find an optical spectral type of M9.5 and estimate a mass of <24 M_Jup, assuming an age of ~5-10 Myr. While the measured proper motion for DENIS J124514.1-442907 is inconclusive as a test for membership, its position in the sky is coincident with the TW Hydrae Association. A more accurate proper motion measurement, higher resolution spectroscopy for radial velocity, and a parallax measurement are needed to derive the true space motion and to confirm its membership.Comment: 8 pages - emulateapj style, 2 figures, 3 tables. Accepted to ApJL. Fixed typos, added reference, added footnot

Predicting the sound insulation of lightweight sandwich panels

The sound insulation of three sandwich panels was modelled using simple sound insulation prediction methods, but the agreement between theory and experiment was not very good. The effective Young&#039;s modulus was determined over a wide frequency from the resonant frequencies of three beams of different lengths. The effective Young&#039;s modulus was found to reduce with increasing frequency as has been predicted in the literature. This decrease is due to the core starting to shear rather than bend because its Young&#039;s modulus is much less than the Young&#039;s moduli of the skins. Unfortunately the agreement between theory and experiment was still not very good. This is because many of the prediction frequencies occur in the critical frequency dip because of the variation of the Young&#039;s modulus with frequency

Acoustic properties of the porous material in a car cabin model

This paper predicts the acoustic properties of the porous material in a car cabin model by using an appropriate experimental method, and it verifies the estimated acoustic properties by conducting the FEM (Finite Element Method) analysis. A simplified vibro-acoustic system imitating a car cabin is set up. The car cabin is made of six rigid walls, and a flexible panel is mounted on the front firewall position. The porous material is applied to the inner surface of the panel and modifies the coupling between the panel and the cabin air cavity. The panel is mechanically excited by using an electromagnetic shaker, which is imitating the structure-borne noise. The radiated noise is recorded by using pressure microphones at the different locations inside the car cabin. Based on the model proposed, the effect of the porous material on the acoustic properties is investigated by using the Sound Pressure Level (SPL) at the microphone locations. Finally, the experimentally acquired acoustic properties of the porous material are compared with the numerical analysis of FEM. The simulation results show that the proposed model agrees well with the experiment data. The noise propagating inside the car cabin is predicted to be of similar level in both the experimental method and in the numerical analysis

The prediction of flanking sound transmission below the critical frequency

Although reliable methods exist to predict the apparent sound reduction index of heavy, homogeneous isotopic building constructions, these methods are not appropriate for use with lightweight building constructions which typically have critical frequencies in or above the frequency range of interest. Three main methods have been proposed for extending the prediction of flanking sound transmission to frequencies below the critical frequency

The sound insulation of autoclaved aerated concrete panels lined with gypsum plasterboard

This paper gives the results of 27 laboratory measurements of the sound insulation of 75mm thick tongue and groove autoclaved aerated concrete (AAC) panels with stated nominal dry density of 510kg/m3 (a surface density of 38.2kg/m2).which are lined with 13mm thick gypsum plasterboard. Two configurations that are presently common forms of construction in a region of Australia were tested; 1. Furring channel one side and stud wall the other that maintained an overall wall width of 243mm, and 2. Direct fix one side and stud wall the other. In both cases the gypsum plasterboard is mounted on 64mm steel studs. The gap between the panels and the steel studs is 20, 35 or 48mm. With the exception of one empty cavity, the cavity on this side contains 11kg/m3 glass fibre batts with thickness of 50, 75, 90 or 110mm. On the other side of the panels, the gypsum plasterboard is mounted on furring channels and adjustable clips which are screwed to the panels or in 6 cases directly screwed to the panels. Except for the directly screwed cases, the gap between the panels and the gypsum plasterboard is 30, 43 or 58mm. The cavity is empty or contains 50 or 70mm thick 11kg/m3 glass fibre batts or 25mm thick 24kg/m3 glass fibre batts. The 13mm gypsum plasterboard has nominal surface densities of 7.2, 8.5 or 10.5kg/m2. The aim was to develop a system which has a laboratory measured Rw+Ctr equal to or greater than 50dB which is required by the National Construction Code (NCC) of Australia for walls between separate dwellings. A system with cavities on both sides of the wall is desirable because it allows services to be accommodated without the need for chasing which is not permitted. The undesirable effect is a resultant large Ctr making it difficult to achieve an Rw +Ctr equal to or greater than 50dB

Keck Imaging of Binary L Dwarfs

We present Keck near-infrared imaging of three binary L dwarf systems, all of which are likely to be sub-stellar. Two are lithium dwarfs, and a third exhibits an L7 spectral type, making it the coolest binary known to date. All have component flux ratios near 1 and projected physical separations between 5 and 10 AU, assuming distances of 18 to 26 pc from recent measurements of trigonometric parallax. These surprisingly similar binaries represent the sole detections of companions in ten L dwarf systems which were analyzed in the preliminary phase of a much larger dual-epoch imaging survey. The detection rate prompts us to speculate that binary companions to L dwarfs are common, that similar-mass systems predominate, and that their distribution peaks at radial distances in accord both with M dwarf binaries and with the radial location of Jovian planets in our own solar system. To fully establish these conjectures against doubts raised by biases inherent in this small preliminary survey, however, will require quantitative analysis of a larger volume-limited sample which has been observed with high resolution and dynamic range.Comment: LaTex manuscript in 13 pages, 3 postscript figures, Accepted for publication in the Letters of the Astrophysical Journal; Postscript pre-print version available at: http://www.hep.upenn.edu/PORG/papers/koerner99a.p

Discovery of a High Proper Motion L Dwarf Binary: 2MASS J15200224-4422419AB

We report the discovery of the wide L1.5+L4.5 binary 2MASS J15200224-4422419AB, identified during spectroscopic followup of high proper motion sources selected from the Two Micron All Sky Survey. This source was independently identified by Kendall et al. in the SuperCOSMOS Sky Survey. Resolved JHK photometry and low resolution near-infrared spectroscopy demonstrate that this system is composed of two well-separated (1"174+/-0"016) L dwarfs. Component classifications are derived using both spectral ratios and comparison to near-infrared spectra of previously classified field L dwarfs. Physical association for the pair is deduced from the large (mu = 0"73+/-0"03 /yr) common proper motion of the components and their similar spectrophotometric distances (19+/-2 pc). The projected separation of the binary, 22+/-2 AU, is consistent with maximum separation/total system mass trends for very low mass binaries. The 2MASS J1520-4422 system exhibits both large tangential (66+/-7 km/s) and radial velocities (-70+/-18 km/s), and its motion in the local standard of rest suggests that it is an old member of the Galactic disk population. This system joins a growing list of well-separated (>0"5), very low mass binaries, and is an excellent target for resolved optical spectroscopy to constrain its age as well as trace activity/rotation trends near the hydrogen-burning limit.Comment: 35 pages, 8 figures; accepted for publication to ApJ; see also Kendall et al. astro-ph/060939

Experimental and numerical investigation of enclosed cavity noise in the presence of interior trim materials

This paper presents a rigid walled car cabin model to predict the acoustic effects of vehicle interior trim materials. The car cavity is made of a rigid walled enclosure system with one flexible wall on the front firewall position, where the interior trim materials are applied to the inner surface of the front firewall to modify the coupling between the flexible wall and the cabin air cavity. The car cabin is acoustically excited by using a single point source positioned at one corner of the inner air cavity to imitate the airborne noise. The propagated noise is measured by using pressure microphones at different locations inside the car cabin: one near the driver&#039;s ear position and another one near the passenger&#039;s ear position. An acoustic FE (Finite Element) model is also developed to investigate and predict the effects of interior trim materials on the car cabin noise level. Finally, the simulation results are compared with the experimentally acquired acoustic effects of the interior trim materials. The predicted acoustic response results show that the simulation agrees well with the experiment data, both with and without the interior trim materials. The noise propagating inside the car cabin is reduced by a similar ratio in both the experimental method and in the numerical analysis. The selected interior trim materials are starting to absorb noise at frequencies above 500 Hz, but they do not reduce the low-frequency noise effectively