4,829 research outputs found
Phase II of the ASCE Benchmark Study on SHM
The task group on structural health monitoring of the Dynamic Committee of ASCE was formed in
1999 at the 12
th
Engineering Mechanics Conference. The task group has designed a number of analytical
studies on a benchmark structure and there are plans to follow these with an experimental program. The
first phase of the analytical studies was completed in 2001. The second phase, initiated in the summer of
2001, was formulated in the light of the experience gained on phase I and focuses on increasing realism in
the simulation of the discrepancies between the actual structure and the mathematical model used in the
analysis. This paper describes the rational that lead the SHM task group to the definition of phase II and
presents the details of the cases that are being considered
J D Bernal: philosophy, politics and the science of science
This paper is an examination of the philosophical and political legacy of John Desmond Bernal. It addresses the evidence of an emerging consensus on Bernal based on the recent biography of Bernal by Andrew Brown and the reviews it has received. It takes issue with this view of Bernal, which tends to be admiring of his scientific contribution, bemused by his sexuality, condescending to his philosophy and hostile to his politics. This article is a critical defence of his philosophical and political position
J D Bernal: philosophy, politics and the science of science
This paper is an examination of the philosophical and political legacy of John Desmond Bernal. It addresses the evidence of an emerging consensus on Bernal based on the recent biography of Bernal by Andrew Brown and the reviews it has received. It takes issue with this view of Bernal, which tends to be admiring of his scientific contribution, bemused by his sexuality, condescending to his philosophy and hostile to his politics. This article is a critical defence of his philosophical and political position
Leibnizian, Galilean and Newtonian structures of spacetime
The following three geometrical structures on a manifold are studied in
detail: (1) Leibnizian: a non-vanishing 1-form plus a Riemannian
metric \h on its annhilator vector bundle. In particular, the possible
dimensions of the automorphism group of a Leibnizian G-structure are
characterized. (2) Galilean: Leibnizian structure endowed with an affine
connection (gauge field) which parallelizes and \h. Fixed
any vector field of observers Z (), an explicit Koszul--type
formula which reconstruct bijectively all the possible 's from the
gravitational and vorticity fields
(plus eventually the torsion) is provided. (3) Newtonian: Galilean structure
with \h flat and a field of observers Z which is inertial (its flow preserves
the Leibnizian structure and ). Classical concepts in Newtonian
theory are revisited and discussed.Comment: Minor errata corrected, to appear in J. Math. Phys.; 22 pages
including a table, Late
Dimensional analysis and Rutherford Scattering
Dimensional analysis, and in particular the Buckingham theorem is
widely used in fluid mechanics. In this article we obtain an expression for the
impact parameter from Buckingham's theorem and we compare our result with
Rutherford's original discovery found in the early twentieth century
Dynamical Arrest in Attractive Colloids: The Effect of Long-Range Repulsion
We study gelation in suspensions of model colloidal particles with
short-ranged attractive and long-ranged repulsive interactions by means of
three-dimensional fluorescence confocal microscopy. At low packing fractions,
particles form stable equilibrium clusters. Upon increasing the packing
fraction the clusters grow in size and become increasingly anisotropic until
finally associating into a fully connected network at gelation. We find a
surprising order in the gel structure. Analysis of spatial and orientational
correlations reveals that the gel is composed of dense chains of particles
constructed from face-sharing tetrahedral clusters. Our findings imply that
dynamical arrest occurs via cluster growth and association.Comment: Final version: Phys. Rev. Lett. 94, 208301 (2005
Structure of plastically compacting granular packings
The developing structure in systems of compacting ductile grains were studied
experimentally in two and three dimensions. In both dimensions, the peaks of
the radial distribution function were reduced, broadened, and shifted compared
with those observed in hard disk- and sphere systems. The geometrical
three--grain configurations contributing to the second peak in the radial
distribution function showed few but interesting differences between the
initial and final stages of the two dimensional compaction. The evolution of
the average coordination number as function of packing fraction is compared
with other experimental and numerical results from the literature. We conclude
that compaction history is important for the evolution of the structure of
compacting granular systems.Comment: 12 pages, 12 figure
Weak distinction and the optimal definition of causal continuity
Causal continuity is usually defined by imposing the conditions (i)
distinction and (ii) reflectivity. It is proved here that a new causality
property which stays between weak distinction and causality, called feeble
distinction, can actually replace distinction in the definition of causal
continuity. An intermediate proof shows that feeble distinction and future
(past) reflectivity implies past (resp. future) distinction. Some new
characterizations of weak distinction and reflectivity are given.Comment: 9 pages, 2 figures. v2: improved and expanded version. v3: a few
misprints have been corrected and a reference has been update
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