Feasibility study of electromechanical cylinder drivetrain for offshore mechatronic systems

Currently, there is an increasing focus on the environmental impact and energy consumption of the oil and gas industry. In offshore drilling equipment, electric motors tend to replace traditionally used hydraulic motors, especially in rotational motion control applications. However, force densities available from linear hydraulic actuators are still typically higher than those of electric actuators. Therefore, usually the remaining source of hydraulic power is thereby the hydraulic cylinder. This paper presents a feasibility study on the implementation of an electromechanical cylinder drivetrain on an offshore vertical pipe handling machine. The scope of this paper is to investigate the feasibility of a commercial off-the-shelf drivetrain. With a focus on the motion performance, numerical modeling and simulation are used when sizing and selecting the components of the considered electromechanical cylinder drivetrain. The simulation results are analyzed and discussed together with a literature study regarding advantages and disadvantages of the proposed solution considering the design criteria of offshore drilling equipment. It is concluded that the selected drivetrain can only satisfy the static motion requirements since the required transmitted power is higher than the recommended permissible power of the transmission screw. Consequently, based on the recommendation of the manufacturer, avoidance of overheating cannot be guaranteed for the drivetrain combinations considered for the case study presented in this paper. Hence, to avoid overheating, the average speed of the motion cycle must be decreased. Alternatively, external cooling or temperature monitoring and control system that prevents overheating could be implemented

Size Effects in Carbon Nanotubes

The inter-shell spacing of multi-walled carbon nanotubes was determined by analyzing the high resolution transmission electron microscopy images of these nanotubes. For the nanotubes that were studied, the inter-shell spacing ${\hat{d}_{002}}$ is found to range from 0.34 to 0.39 nm, increasing with decreasing tube diameter. A model based on the results from real space image analysis is used to explain the variation in inter-shell spacings obtained from reciprocal space periodicity analysis. The increase in inter-shell spacing with decreased nanotube diameter is attributed to the high curvature, resulting in an increased repulsive force, associated with the decreased diameter of the nanotube shells.Comment: 4 pages. RevTeX. 4 figure

Disclination vortices in elastic media

The vortex-like solutions are studied in the framework of the gauge model of disclinations in elastic continuum. A complete set of model equations with disclination driven dislocations taken into account is considered. Within the linear approximation an exact solution for a low-angle wedge disclination is found to be independent from the coupling constants of the theory. As a result, no additional dimensional characteristics (like the core radius of the defect) are involved. The situation changes drastically for 2\pi vortices where two characteristic lengths, l_\phi and l_W, become of importance. The asymptotical behaviour of the solutions for both singular and nonsingular 2\pi vortices is studied. Forces between pairs of vortices are calculated.Comment: 13 pages, published versio

Order N photonic band structures for metals and other dispersive materials

We show, for the first time, how to calculate photonic band structures for metals and other dispersive systems using an efficient Order N scheme. The method is applied to two simple periodic metallic systems where it gives results in close agreement with calculations made with other techniques. Further, the approach demonstrates excellent numerical stablity within the limits we give. Our new method opens the way for efficient calculations on complex structures containing a whole new class of material.Comment: Four pages, plus seven postscript figures. Submitted to Physical Review Letter

Theory of extraordinary optical transmission through subwavelength hole arrays

We present a fully three-dimensional theoretical study of the extraordinary transmission of light through subwavelength hole arrays in optically thick metal films. Good agreement is obtained with experimental data. An analytical minimal model is also developed, which conclusively shows that the enhancement of transmission is due to tunneling through surface plasmons formed on each metal-dielectric interfaces. Different regimes of tunneling (resonant through a ''surface plasmon molecule", or sequential through two isolated surface plasmons) are found depending on the geometrical parameters defining the system.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

On the metal-insulator transition in the two-chain model of correlated fermions

The doping-induced metal-insulator transition in two-chain systems of correlated fermions is studied using a solvable limit of the t-J model and the fact that various strong- and weak-coupling limits of the two-chain model are in the same phase, i.e. have the same low-energy properties. It is shown that the Luttinger-liquid parameter K_\rho takes the universal value unity as the insulating state (half-filling) is approached, implying dominant d-type superconducting fluctuations, independently of the interaction strength. The crossover to insulating behavior of correlations as the transition is approached is discussed.Comment: 7 pages, 1 figur

Exact SO(8) Symmetry in the Weakly-Interacting Two-Leg Ladder

A perturbative renormalization group analysis of interacting electrons on a two-leg ladder reveals that at half-filling any weakly repulsive system scales onto an exactly soluble Gross-Neveu model with a hidden SO(8) symmetry. The half-filled ground state is a Mott insulator with short-range d-wave pair correlations. We extract the exact energies, degeneracies, and quantum numbers of *all* the low energy excited multiplets. One energy (mass) m octets contains Cooper pair, magnon, and density-wave excitations, two more octets contain single-particle excitations, and a mass \sqrt{3}m antisymmetric tensor contains 28 "bound states". Exact single-particle and spin gaps are found for the lightly-doped (d-wave paired one-dimension Bose fluid) system. We also determine the four other robust phases occuring at half-filling for partially attractive interactions. All 5 phases have distinct SO(8) symmetries, but share S.C. Zhang's SO(5) as a common subgroup.Comment: RevTex, 35 pages with 15 figure

Analysis of quantum conductance of carbon nanotube junctions by the effective mass approximation

The electron transport through the nanotube junctions which connect the different metallic nanotubes by a pair of a pentagonal defect and a heptagonal defect is investigated by Landauer's formula and the effective mass approximation. From our previous calculations based on the tight binding model, it has been known that the conductance is determined almost only by two parameters,i.e., the energy in the unit of the onset energy of more than two channels and the ratio of the radii of the two nanotubes. The conductance is calculated again by the effective mass theory in this paper and a simple analytical form of the conductance is obtained considering a special boundary conditions of the envelop wavefunctions. The two scaling parameters appear naturally in this treatment. The results by this formula coincide fairly well with those of the tight binding model. The physical origin of the scaling law is clarified by this approach.Comment: RevTe

Making Micro- and Nano-beams by Channeling in Micro- and Nano-structures

A particle beam of very small cross-section is useful in many accelerator applications including biological and medical ones. We show the capability of the channeling technique using a micron-sized structure on a surface of a single crystal, or using a nanotube, to produce beam of a cross-section down to 1 square micrometer (or nanometer). The channeled beam can be deflected and thus well separated in angle and space from the primary and scattered particles. Monte Carlo simulation is done to evaluate the characteristics of a channeled microbeam. Emittances down to 0.1-0.001 nanometer radian, and flux up to 1 million particles per square micron per second, can be achieved for protons and ions.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figure