The Administrative Law of Regulatory Slop and Strategy

Judicial review of agency behavior is often criticized as either interfering too much with agencies’ domains or doing too little to ensure fidelity to statutory directives and the rule of law. But the Trump administration has produced an unprecedented volume of agency actions that blatantly flout settled administrative-law doctrine. This phenomenon, which we term “regulatory slop,” requires courts to reinforce the norms of administrative law by adhering to established doctrine and paying careful attention to remedial options. In this Article, we document numerous examples of regulatory slop and canvass how the Trump agencies have fared in court thus far. We contend that traditional critiques of judicial review carry little force in such circumstances. Further, regulatory slop should be of concern regardless of one’s political leanings because it threatens the rule of law. Rather than argue for a change to substantive administrative-law doctrine, therefore, we take a close look at courts’ remedial options in such circumstances. We conclude that a strong approach to remedies can send corrective signals to agencies that reinforce both administrative-law values and the rule of law

Convective flow during dendritic growth

A review is presented of the major experimental findings obtained from recent ground-based research conducted under the SPAR program. Measurements of dendritic growth at small supercoolings indicate that below approximately 1.5 K a transition occurs from diffusive control to convective control in succinonitrile, a model system chosen for this study. The key theoretical ideas concerning diffusive and convective heat transport during dendritic growth are discussed, and it is shown that a transition in the transport control should occur when the characteristic length for diffusion becomes larger than the characteristic length for convection. The experimental findings and the theoretical ideas discussed suggest that the Fluid Experiment System could provide appropriate experimental diagnostics for flow field visualization and quantification of the fluid dynamical effects presented here

Anisotropic diffusion limited aggregation in three dimensions : universality and nonuniversality

We explore the macroscopic consequences of lattice anisotropy for diffusion limited aggregation (DLA) in three dimensions. Simple cubic and bcc lattice growths are shown to approach universal asymptotic states in a coherent fashion, and the approach is accelerated by the use of noise reduction. These states are strikingly anisotropic dendrites with a rich hierarchy of structure. For growth on an fcc lattice, our data suggest at least two stable fixed points of anisotropy, one matching the bcc case. Hexagonal growths, favoring six planar and two polar directions, appear to approach a line of asymptotic states with continuously tunable polar anisotropy. The more planar of these growths visually resembles real snowflake morphologies. Our simulations use a new and dimension-independent implementation of the DLA model. The algorithm maintains a hierarchy of sphere coverings of the growth, supporting efficient random walks onto the growth by spherical moves. Anisotropy was introduced by restricting growth to certain preferred directions

Shape of ammonium chloride dendrite tips at small supersaturation

We report detailed shape measurements of the tips of three-dimensional ammonium chloride dendrites grown from supersaturated aqueous solution. For growth at small supersaturation, we compare two different models: parabolic with a fourth-order correction, and power law. Neither is ideal, but the fourth-order fit appears to provide the most robust description of both the tip shape and position for this material. For that fit, the magnitude of the fourth-order coefficient is about half of the theoretically expected value.Comment: 13 pages, 8 figures, LaTeX; updated references; minor edits from v

Spontaneous deterministic side-branching behavior in phase-field simulations of equiaxed dendritic growth

The accepted view on dendritic side-branching is that side-branches grow as the result of selective amplification of thermal noise and that in the absence of such noise dendrites would grow without the development of side-arms. However, recently there has been renewed speculation about dendrites displaying deterministic side-branching [see, e.g., M. E. Glicksman, Metall. Mater. Trans A 43, 391 (2012)]. Generally, numerical models of dendritic growth, such as phase-field simulation, have tended to display behaviour which is commensurate with the former view, in that simulated dendrites do not develop side-branches unless noise is introduced into the simulation. However, here, we present simulations that show that under certain conditions deterministic side-branching may occur. We use a model formulated in the thin interface limit and a range of advanced numerical techniques to minimise the numerical noise introduced into the solution, including a multigrid solver. Spontaneous side-branching seems to be favoured by high undercoolings and by intermediate values of the capillary anisotropy, with the most branched structures being obtained for an anisotropy strength of 0.03. From an analysis of the tangential thermal gradients on the solid-liquid interface, the mechanism for side-branching appears to have some similarities with the deterministic model proposed by Glicksman

Computer optimization of the MIT advanced wet/dry cooling tower concept for power plants

There is a projected water shortage problem in the electrical power industry by the end of this century. Dry and wet-dry cooling towers are going to be the solution of this problem. Our previous study on the combination of separate dry and wet cooling towers indicated that wet-dry cooling is an economical choice over all-dry cooling when some water is available but the supply is insufficient for an evaporative tower. An advanced wet-dry cooling tower concept was experimentally studied at MIT's Heat Transfer Laboratory and a computer model was developed for predicting the performance of this cooling concept. This study has determined the cost of the cross-flow type of this cooling concept in conjunction with steam electrical power plants. Aluminum is found to be economically preferable to galvanized steel as the cooling plate material. In our base case study using aluminum plates for a 1094 MWe nuclear plant at Middletown, the MIT advanced cooling concept is comparable to conventional wet-dry towers at water makeups larger than 45% and is slightly more economical at makeup larger than 50%. The incremental costs over the power production cost, 32.3 mills/Kwhr, of zero condenser system are 14, 13 and 12 percent for makeups of 45, 60 and 55 percent, respectively. For an 800 MWe fossil plant at Moline, this cooling concept is more economical than conventional wet-dry towers at water makeups larger than 27%. The incremental costs over 20.8 mills/Kwhr of zero condenser system are 12.2 and 10.6 percent for makeups of 37 and 50 percent, respectively. For these two makeups, going from conventional wet-dry to MIT advanced concept results in 13 and 21 percent, respectively, savings in the incremental cost. When the water makeup exceeds 30%, the MIT advanced wet-dry concept is pre- ferable to conventional wet-dry towers for a 1200 MWe nuclear plant at Moline, Ill. The incremental costs over zero condenser system of 21.1 mills/ Kwhr are 12.8 and 11.5 percent for makeups of 40 and 50 percent, respectively. Using the MIT advanced concept instead of conventional wet-dry towers results in 28 and 33 percent reduction of incremental power production cost for these two makeups, respectively."Prepared under the support of the Environmental Control Technology Division Office of the Assistant Secretary for the Environment