7,805 research outputs found
The mechanical design of a vapor compressor for a heat pump to be used in space
A heat pump developed for use in Spacelab as a stand-alone refrigeration unit as well as within a fluid loop system is discussed. It will provide an active thermal control for payloads. Specifications for the heat pump were established: (1) heat removal rates at the source; (2) heat source temperatures from room temperature; (3) heat-sink fluid temperatures at condenser inlet; and (4) minimum power consumption. A reversed Carnot cycle heat pump using Freon 12 as working fluid incorporating a one-cylinder reciprocating compressor was selected. The maximum crankshaft speed was fixed relatively high at 100 rpm. The specified cooling rates then made it necessary to select a cylinder volume of 10 cu cm, which was obtained with a bore of 40 mm and a stroke of 8 mm
Two scenarios for avalanche dynamics in inclined granular layers
We report experimental measurements of avalanche behavior of thin granular
layers on an inclined plane for low volume flow rate. The dynamical properties
of avalanches were quantitatively and qualitatively different for smooth glass
beads compared to irregular granular materials such as sand. Two scenarios for
granular avalanches on an incline are identified and a theoretical explanation
for these different scenarios is developed based on a depth-averaged approach
that takes into account the differing rheologies of the granular materials.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, accepted to Phys. Rev. Let
Processing and Transmission of Information
Contains reports on three research projects.Lincoln Laboratory, Purchase Order DDL B-00368U. S. ArmyU. S. NavyU. S. Air Force under Air Force Contract AF19(604)-7400National Institutes of Health (Grant MH-04737-03)National Science Foundation (Grant G-16526
Stresses in isostatic granular systems and emergence of force chains
Progress is reported on several questions that bedevil understanding of
granular systems: (i) are the stress equations elliptic, parabolic or
hyperbolic? (ii) how can the often-observed force chains be predicted from a
first-principles continuous theory? (iii) How to relate insight from isostatic
systems to general packings? Explicit equations are derived for the stress
components in two dimensions including the dependence on the local structure.
The equations are shown to be hyperbolic and their general solutions, as well
as the Green function, are found. It is shown that the solutions give rise to
force chains and the explicit dependence of the force chains trajectories and
magnitudes on the local geometry is predicted. Direct experimental tests of the
predictions are proposed. Finally, a framework is proposed to relate the
analysis to non-isostatic and more realistic granular assemblies.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, Corrected typos and clkearer text, submitted to
Phys. Rev. Let
Vertex operators and the geometry of moduli spaces of framed torsion-free sheaves
We define complexes of vector bundles on products of moduli spaces of framed
rank r torsion-free sheaves on the complex projective plane. The top
non-vanishing Chern classes of the cohomology of these complexes yield actions
of the r-colored Heisenberg and Clifford algebras on the equivariant cohomology
of the moduli spaces. In this way we obtain a geometric realization of the
boson-fermion correspondence and related vertex operators.Comment: 36 pages; v2: Definition of geometric Heisenberg operators modified;
v3: Minor typos correcte
Shear stress fluctuations in the granular liquid and solid phases
We report on experimentally observed shear stress fluctuations in both
granular solid and fluid states, showing that they are non-Gaussian at low
shear rates, reflecting the predominance of correlated structures (force
chains) in the solidlike phase, which also exhibit finite rigidity to shear.
Peaks in the rigidity and the stress distribution's skewness indicate that a
change to the force-bearing mechanism occurs at the transition to fluid
behaviour, which, it is shown, can be predicted from the behaviour of the
stress at lower shear rates. In the fluid state stress is Gaussian distributed,
suggesting that the central limit theorem holds. The fibre bundle model with
random load sharing effectively reproduces the stress distribution at the yield
point and also exhibits the exponential stress distribution anticipated from
extant work on stress propagation in granular materials.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figures, latex. Replacement adds journal reference and
addresses referee comment
The Relationship Between Galaxies and Low Redshift Weak Lyman alpha Absorbers in the Directions of H1821+643 and PG1116+215
To study the nature of low z Lya absorbers in the spectra of QSOs, we have
obtained high signal-to-noise UV spectra of H 1821+643 (z = 0.297) and PG
1116+215 (z = 0.177) with the GHRS on the HST. The spectra have minimum S/N of
70-100 and 3 sigma limiting equivalent widths of 50-75 mA. We detect 26 Lya
lines with Wr > 50 mA toward H1821+643 and 13 toward PG1116+215, which implies
a density of 102+/-16 lines per unit redshift. The two-point correlation
function shows marginal evidence of clustering on ~500 km/s scales, but only if
the weakest lines are excluded. We have also used the WIYN Observatory to
measure galaxy redshifts in the ~1 degree fields centered on each QSO. We find
17 galaxy-absorber pairs within projected distances of 1 Mpc with velocity
separations of 350 km/s or less. Monte Carlo simulations show that if the Lya
lines are randomly distributed, the probability of observing this many close
pairs is 3.6e-5. We find that all galaxies with projected distances of 600 kpc
or less have associated Lya absorbers within 1000 km/s, and the majority of
these galaxies have absorbers within 350 km/s. We also find that the Lya
equivalent width is anticorrelated with the projected distance of the nearest
galaxy out to at least 600 kpc, but this should be interpreted cautiously
because there are potential selection biases. Statistical tests using the
entire sample also indicate that the absorbers are not randomly distributed. We
discuss the nature of the Lya absorbers in light of the new data.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ. 17 pages plus 11 tables and 17
figure
Linear approach to the orbiting spacecraft thermal problem
We develop a linear method for solving the nonlinear differential equations
of a lumped-parameter thermal model of a spacecraft moving in a closed orbit.
Our method, based on perturbation theory, is compared with heuristic
linearizations of the same equations. The essential feature of the linear
approach is that it provides a decomposition in thermal modes, like the
decomposition of mechanical vibrations in normal modes. The stationary periodic
solution of the linear equations can be alternately expressed as an explicit
integral or as a Fourier series. We apply our method to a minimal thermal model
of a satellite with ten isothermal parts (nodes) and we compare the method with
direct numerical integration of the nonlinear equations. We briefly study the
computational complexity of our method for general thermal models of orbiting
spacecraft and conclude that it is certainly useful for reduced models and
conceptual design but it can also be more efficient than the direct integration
of the equations for large models. The results of the Fourier series
computations for the ten-node satellite model show that the periodic solution
at the second perturbative order is sufficiently accurate.Comment: 20 pages, 11 figures, accepted in Journal of Thermophysics and Heat
Transfe
Dust in the Ionized Medium of the Galaxy: GHRS Measurements of Al III and S III
We present interstellar absorption line measurements of the ions S III and Al
III towards six stars using archival Goddard High Resolution Spectrograph data.
The ions Al III and S III trace heavily depleted and non-depleted elements,
respectively, in ionized gas. We use the photoionization code CLOUDY to derive
the ionization correction relating N(Al III)/N(S III) to the gas-phase
abundance [Al/S]_i in the ionized gas. For spectral types considered here, the
corrections are small and independent of the assumed ionization parameter.
Using the results of these photoionization models, we find [Al/S]_i = -1.0 in
the ionized gas towards three disk stars. These values of [Al/S]_i (=[Al/H]_i)
imply that Al-bearing grains are present in the ionized nebulae around these
stars. If the WIM of the Galaxy is photoionized by OB stars, our data for two
halo stars imply [Al/S]_i = -0.4 to -0.5 in the WIM and thus the presence of
dust grains containing Al in this important phase of the ISM. While
photoionization appears to be the most likely origin of the ionization for Al
III and S III, we cannot rule out confusion from the presence of hot,
collisionally ionized gas along two sightlines. We find that [Al/S]_i in the
ionized gas along the six sightlines is anti-correlated with the electron
density and average sightline neutral density. The degree of grain destruction
in the ionized medium of the Galaxy is not much higher than in the warm neutral
medium. The existence of grains in the ionized regions studied here has
important implications for the thermal balance of these regions. (Abstract
Abridged)Comment: 30 pages including 8 embedded tables and 8 embedded figures. Accepted
for publication in the Astrophysical Journa
Determining the Weak Phase From Charged Decays
A quadrangle relation is shown to be satisfied by the amplitudes for , and . By comparison with the
corresponding relation satisfied by decay amplitudes, it is shown that
the relative phases of all the amplitudes can be determined up to discrete
ambiguities. Making use of an SU(3) relation between amplitudes contributing to
the above decays and those contributing to , it is
then shown that one can determine the weak phase , where is the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa
matrix describing the charge-changing weak interactions between the quarks
and .Comment: 16 pages, latex, 7 uuencoded figure
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