8,808 research outputs found
Water impact analysis of space shuttle solid rocket motor by the finite element method
Preliminary analysis showed that the doubly curved triangular shell elements were too stiff for these shell structures. The doubly curved quadrilateral shell elements were found to give much improved results. A total of six load cases were analyzed in this study. The load cases were either those resulting from a static test using reaction straps to simulate the drop conditions or under assumed hydrodynamic conditions resulting from a drop test. The latter hydrodynamic conditions were obtained through an emperical fit of available data. Results obtained from a linear analysis were found to be consistent with results obtained elsewhere with NASTRAN and BOSOR. The nonlinear analysis showed that the originally assumed loads would result in failure of the shell structures. The nonlinear analysis also showed that it was useful to apply internal pressure as a stabilizing influence on collapse. A final analysis with an updated estimate of load conditions resulted in linear behavior up to full load
KINETICS AND ELECTROMYOGRAPHY OF THE MARTIAL ARTS HIGH FRONT KICK
INTRODUCTION Fast unloaded movements like striking, throwing and kicking are typically performed in a proximo-distal sequence: Initially proximal segments accelerate while distal segments lag behind, then proximal segments deceler- ate while distal segments accelerate. In kicking, for instance, it is observed that the movement starts with forward angular acceleration of the thigh while the shank lags behind. Then the thigh decelerates while simultaneously the shank accelerates and the foot reaches its maximal velocity. This raises two questions: Is the thigh actively decelerated by the glutei and/or hamstring muscles, or passively decelerated by joint reaction forces from the accelerating shank7 Is acceleration of the shank enhanced by the thigh's deceleration? From a kinematic perspective this movement coordination seems disadvantageous, considering that the resulting linear velocity of the foot relative to the ground equals the vector sum of the resulting linear velocity of the knee relative to the ground and the foot relative to the knee. However, from a kinetic perspective it can be argued that thigh deceleration enhances shah acceleration to a degree where toss of knee velocity is more than accounted for in gain of foot velocity. The theory is that the angularly decelerating thigh exerts a knee joint force which causes angular acceleration of the shank, i.e. a %hip-lash" action. To obtain knowledge regarding how these kinds of movements are performed we decided to examine the martial arts high front kick. Similar to previous kicking studies we did so by kinematic measurements but in addition recorded the electrical activity of selected muscles in order to asses their temporal activation during the kick. METHODS Seventeen skilled taekwondo practitioners (14 males. 3 females) volunteered to take part in this study. Each subject performed three high front kicks aiming at a tennis ball suspended from the ceiling and adjusted to chin level. The fastest kick from each subject was selected for further analysis. The subjects were high speed filmed (200 f.p.s.) from their right side while kicking. Contrasting markers on selected anatomical landmarks enabled subsequent automatic digitisation. Displacement data were lowpass filtered with optimal cut-off frequencies (6-1 0 Hz) determined by use of residual analysis/ Jackson Knee method. Velocities and accelerations were derived from the displacement data by finite difference calculation. During kicking the electtomyographic activity (EMG) from five selected leg muscles were measured with surface electrodes. Kinetic data were obtained through inverse dynamics calculation using a two-segment link-segment model of the kicking leg and the movement equations developed by Putnam (1983). These equations enable division of the resulting moment acting on a segment into muscular components and motion de- pendant components arising from movement of adjacent segments. RESULTS Data for the thigh indicated that deceleration was caused by motion dependant moments arising from shank motion and not by active hip extensor muscles. Shank acceleration was caused partly by a knee extensor muscle moment and partly by a motion dependant moment arising from thigh angular velocity. Both thigh and shank kinetics were supported by EMG recordings. CONCLUSION As part of the accelerating moment acting on the shank was due to thigh angular velocity we suggest that the observed thigh deceleration should be considered unwanted but unavoidable due to shank acceleration. This implies that even though knee extensor muscles are important for shank acceleration the hip flexor muscles must not be neglected
Information transfer through a one-atom micromaser
We consider a realistic model for the one-atom micromaser consisting of a
cavity maintained in a steady state by the streaming of two-level Rydberg atoms
passing one at a time through it. We show that it is possible to monitor the
robust entanglement generated between two successive experimental atoms passing
through the cavity by the control decoherence parameters. We calculate the
entanglement of formation of the joint two-atom state as a function of the
micromaser pump parameter. We find that this is in direct correspondence with
the difference of the Shannon entropy of the cavity photons before and after
the passage of the atoms for a reasonable range of dissipation parameters. It
is thus possible to demonstrate information transfer between the cavity and the
atoms through this set-up.Comment: Revtex, 5 pages, 2 encapsulated ps figures; added discussion on
information transfer in relation with cavity photon statistics; typos
corrected; Accepted for Publicaiton in Europhysics Letter
Divergence-type 2+1 dissipative hydrodynamics applied to heavy-ion collisions
We apply divergence-type theory (DTT) dissipative hydrodynamics to study the
2+1 space-time evolution of the fireball created in Au+Au relativistic
heavy-ion collisions at 200 GeV. DTTs are exact hydrodynamic
theories that do no rely on velocity gradient expansions and therefore go
beyond second-order theories. We numerically solve the equations of motion of
the DTT for Glauber initial conditions and compare the results with those of
second-order theory based on conformal invariants (BRSS) and with data. We find
that the charged-hadron minumum-bias elliptic flow reaches its maximum value at
lower in the DTT, and that the DTT allows for a value of
slightly larger than that of the BRSS. Our results show that the differences
between viscous hydrodynamic formalisms are a significant source of uncertainty
in the precise extraction of from experiments.Comment: v4: 29 pages, 12 figures, minor changes. Final version as published
in Phys. Rev.
The Stellar Content of Obscured Galactic Giant HII Regions V: G333.1--0.4
We present high angular resolution near--infrared images of the obscured
Galactic Giant HII (GHII) region G333.1--0.4 in which we detect an OB star
cluster. For G333.1--0.4, we find OB stars and other massive objects in very
early evolutionary stages, possibly still accreting. We obtained --band
spectra of three stars; two show O type photospheric features, while the third
has no photospheric features but does show CO 2.3 m band--head emission.
This object is at least as hot as an early B type star based on its intrinsic
luminosity and is surrounded by a circumstellar disc/envelope which produces
near infrared excess emission. A number of other relatively bright cluster
members also display excess emission in the --band, indicative of
disks/envelopes around young massive stars. Based upon the O star photometry
and spectroscopy, the distance to the cluster is 2.6 0.4 kpc, similar to
a recently derived kinematic (near side) value. The slope of the --band
luminosity function is similar to those found in other young clusters. The mass
function slope is more uncertain, and we find - for stars with M M where the upper an lower limits are
calculated independently for different assumptions regarding the excess
emission of the individual massive stars. The number of Lyman continuum photons
derived from the contribution of all massive stars in the cluster is 0.2
. The
integrated cluster mass is 1.0
.Comment: 31 pages, including 12 figures and 3 tables. Accepted for publication
in the A
Electronic Structure of Atoms in Magnetic Quadrupole Traps
We investigate the electronic structure and properties of atoms exposed to a
magnetic quadrupole field. The spin-spatial as well as generalized time
reversal symmetries are established and shown to lead to a two-fold degeneracy
of the electronic states in the presence of the field. Low-lying as well as
highly excited Rydberg states are computed and analyzed for a broad regime of
field gradients. The delicate interplay between the Coulomb and various
magnetic interactions leads to complex patterns of the spatial spin
polarization of individual excited states. Electromagnetic transitions in the
quadrupole field are studied in detail thereby providing the selection rules
and in particular the transition wavelengths and corresponding dipole
strengths. The peculiar property that the quadrupole magnetic field induces
permanent electric dipole moments of the atoms is derived and discussed.Comment: 17 pages, 13 figures, accepted for publication in PR
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