Particle size of aluminum oxide produced by a small rocket motor

Spectrophotometric method for measurement of aluminum oxide particle sizes during burning of solid propellant rocket engin

A comparison of two methods of measuring particle size of Al2O3 produced by a small rocket motor

The size of aluminum oxide particles produced by small rocket motors is determined by tank collection and spectrophotometry. The size of the particulate determines loss in thrust due to particle lag, particulate radiant heat transfer, acoustic attenuation and impingement and rocket plume structure and properties

Recent Measurements at JPL of Particle Size of Aluminum Oxide from Small Rocket Motors

Small rocket engine test firings conducted to measure particle size distribution of aluminum oxide exhaust

Break-Even Points in Hog Production

The most profitable marketing weight at which to sell hogs fluctuates widely because of seasonal price changes, shifting patterns of price differentials among weight ranges and changes in the corn-hog ratio. Many producers market at a specific weight - an easier decision than to determine which weight would be the most profitable. This article gives some useful direction for determining the break-even point

Financial Well-Being Program Development

Background: The impact of financial well-being on health is significant. Research connects individual and organizational well-being to the strength of financial knowledge and sound finance practices among employees. Learning more about financial topics is critical for comprehensive well-being yet few articles exist which describe implementation of such initiatives within organizations.Aim:  While traditional worksite wellness programs have emphasized physical activity, stress management and nutrition, an increasingly larger number of organizations want to expand beyond those categories to topics such as community health and financial well-being.Methods:  A Midwestern research-intensive university has offered financial well-being programs for faculty and staff over the last three years. A description of the initiative, and each programming effort, is included within this article.Results:  Numerous positive, qualitative outcomes have been experienced by program participants.Conclusions:  Learn more about the evidence and practical efforts easily implemented within higher education institutions through this description of one university’s program experience and outcomes

Personalizing Student Graduation Paths Using Expressed Student Interests

This paper proposes an intelligent recommendation approach to facilitate personalized education and help students in planning their path to graduation. The goal is to identify a path that aligns with a student\u27s interests and career goals and approaches optimality with respect to one or more criteria, such as time-to-graduation or credit hours taken. The approach is illustrated and verified through application to undergraduate curricula at the Missouri University of Science and Technology

Higher Order, Hybrid BEM/FEM Methods Applied to Antenna Modeling

In this presentation, the authors address topics relevant to higher order modeling using hybrid BEM/FEM formulations. The first of these is the limitation on convergence rates imposed by geometric modeling errors in the analysis of scattering by a dielectric sphere. The second topic is the application of an Incomplete LU Threshold (ILUT) preconditioner to solve the linear system resulting from the BEM/FEM formulation. The final tOpic is the application of the higher order BEM/FEM formulation to antenna modeling problems. The authors have previously presented work on the benefits of higher order modeling. To achieve these benefits, special attention is required in the integration of singular and near-singular terms arising in the surface integral equation. Several methods for handling these terms have been presented. It is also well known that achieving ~he high rates of convergence afforded by higher order bases may als'o require the employment of higher order geometry models. A number of publications have described the use of quadratic elements to model curved surfaces. The authors have shown in an EFIE formulation, applied to scattering by a PEC .sphere, that quadratic order elements may be insufficient to prevent the domination of modeling errors. In fact, on a PEC sphere with radius r = 0.58 Lambda(sub 0), a quartic order geometry representation was required to obtain a convergence benefi.t from quadratic bases when compared to the convergence rate achieved with linear bases. Initial trials indicate that, for a dielectric sphere of the same radius, - requirements on the geometry model are not as severe as for the PEC sphere. The authors will present convergence results for higher order bases as a function of the geometry model order in the hybrid BEM/FEM formulation applied to dielectric spheres. It is well known that the system matrix resulting from the hybrid BEM/FEM formulation is ill -conditioned. For many real applications, a good preconditioner is required to obtain usable convergence from an iterative solver. The authors have examined the use of an Incomplete LU Threshold (ILUT) preconditioner . to solver linear systems stemming from higher order BEM/FEM formulations in 2D scattering problems. Although the resulting preconditioner provided aD excellent approximation to the system inverse, its size in terms of non-zero entries represented only a modest improvement when compared with the fill-in associated with a sparse direct solver. Furthermore, the fill-in of the preconditioner could not be substantially reduced without the occurrence of instabilities. In addition to the results for these 2D problems, the authors will present iterative solution data from the application of the ILUT preconditioner to 3D problems