38 research outputs found
Influence of oxidation on fatigue crack initiation and propagation in turbine disc alloy N18
Fatigue crack initiation and propagation behaviour in subsolvus heat treated turbine disc alloy N18 has been assessed in air and vacuum at 650 and 725oC under three-point loading. Fatigue crack initiation processes have been evaluated using single edge U-notch specimens under a 1-1-1-1 trapezoidal loading waveform along with interrupted tests at 650oC to allow intermittent observations of the notch surface. The results show apparent grain boundary (GB) oxidation can occur under an oxygen partial pressure of 10-2?10-3Pa. Cracks mainly initiate from grain boundaries or ?/?? interfaces due to the formation and subsequent cracking of Cr-rich and/or Co-rich oxides, and occasionally initiate from surface pores. Fatigue life in these tests appears to be dominated by this crack initiation process and is significantly reduced by increasing temperature and/or application of an oxidizing environment. Crack growth tests conducted under 1-1-1-1 and 1-20-1-1 loading waveforms indicate that oxidation significantly degrades the crack growth resistance of N18 and is associated with more intergranular fracture surface features. Additional oxidation effects on propagation caused by higher temperature or prolonging dwell time appear limited, whereas a prolonged dwell period seems to instead promote additional creep process, which further enhance crack growth, especially at higher temperature
Mars and frame-dragging: study for a dedicated mission
In this paper we preliminarily explore the possibility of designing a
dedicated satellite-based mission to measure the general relativistic
gravitomagnetic Lense-Thirring effect in the gravitational field of Mars. The
focus is on the systematic error induced by the multipolar expansion of the
areopotential and on possible strategies to reduce it. It turns out that the
major sources of bias are the Mars'equatorial radius R and the even zonal
harmonics J_L, L = 2,4,6... of the areopotential. An optimal solution, in
principle, consists of using two probes at high-altitudes (a\approx 9500-9600
km) and different inclinations, and suitably combining their nodes in order to
entirely cancel out the bias due to \delta R. The remaining uncancelled
mismodelled terms due to \delta J_L, L = 2,4,6,... would induce a bias \lesssim
1%, according to the present-day MGS95J gravity model, over a wide range of
admissible values of the inclinations. The Lense-Thirring out-of-plane shifts
of the two probes would amount to about 10 cm yr^-1.Comment: LaTex2e, 16 pages, 5 figures, no tables. To appear in General
Relativity and Gravitatio
Askey-Wilson Type Functions, With Bound States
The two linearly independent solutions of the three-term recurrence relation
of the associated Askey-Wilson polynomials, found by Ismail and Rahman in [22],
are slightly modified so as to make it transparent that these functions satisfy
a beautiful symmetry property. It essentially means that the geometric and the
spectral parameters are interchangeable in these functions. We call the
resulting functions the Askey-Wilson functions. Then, we show that by adding
bound states (with arbitrary weights) at specific points outside of the
continuous spectrum of some instances of the Askey-Wilson difference operator,
we can generate functions that satisfy a doubly infinite three-term recursion
relation and are also eigenfunctions of -difference operators of arbitrary
orders. Our result provides a discrete analogue of the solutions of the purely
differential version of the bispectral problem that were discovered in the
pioneering work [8] of Duistermaat and Gr\"unbaum.Comment: 42 pages, Section 3 moved to the end, minor correction
Phenomenology of the Lense-Thirring effect in the Solar System
Recent years have seen increasing efforts to directly measure some aspects of
the general relativistic gravitomagnetic interaction in several astronomical
scenarios in the solar system. After briefly overviewing the concept of
gravitomagnetism from a theoretical point of view, we review the performed or
proposed attempts to detect the Lense-Thirring effect affecting the orbital
motions of natural and artificial bodies in the gravitational fields of the
Sun, Earth, Mars and Jupiter. In particular, we will focus on the evaluation of
the impact of several sources of systematic uncertainties of dynamical origin
to realistically elucidate the present and future perspectives in directly
measuring such an elusive relativistic effect.Comment: LaTex, 51 pages, 14 figures, 22 tables. Invited review, to appear in
Astrophysics and Space Science (ApSS). Some uncited references in the text
now correctly quoted. One reference added. A footnote adde
Inverse problems for Sturm-Liouville equations with boundary conditions linearly dependent on the spectral parameter from partial information
[[abstract]]Abstract.In this paper, we study the inverse spectral problems for Sturm–Liouville equations with boundary conditions linearly dependent on the spectral parameter and show that the potential of such problem can be uniquely determined from partial information on the potential and parts of two spectra, or alternatively, from partial information on the potential and a subset of pairs of eigenvalues and the normalization constants of the corresponding eigenvalues.[[notice]]補正完畢[[journaltype]]國外[[incitationindex]]SCI[[ispeerreviewed]]Y[[booktype]]紙本[[booktype]]電子版[[countrycodes]]DE
Effects of sleep deprivation on neural functioning: an integrative review
Sleep deprivation has a broad variety of effects on human performance and neural functioning that manifest themselves at different levels of description. On a macroscopic level, sleep deprivation mainly affects executive functions, especially in novel tasks. Macroscopic and mesoscopic effects of sleep deprivation on brain activity include reduced cortical responsiveness to incoming stimuli, reflecting reduced attention. On a microscopic level, sleep deprivation is associated with increased levels of adenosine, a neuromodulator that has a general inhibitory effect on neural activity. The inhibition of cholinergic nuclei appears particularly relevant, as the associated decrease in cortical acetylcholine seems to cause effects of sleep deprivation on macroscopic brain activity. In general, however, the relationships between the neural effects of sleep deprivation across observation scales are poorly understood and uncovering these relationships should be a primary target in future research