7,135 research outputs found
Applications of thermal energy storage in the cement industry
In the manufacture of cement, literally trillions of Btu's are rejected to the environment each year. The purpose of this feasibility study program was to determine whether thermal energy storage could be used to conserve or allow alternative uses of this rejected energy. This study identifies and quantifies the sources of rejected energy in the cement manufacturing process, established use of this energy, investigates various storage system concepts, and selects energy conservation systems for further study. Thermal performance and economic analyses are performed on candidate storage systems for four typical cement plants representing various methods of manufacturing cement. Through the use of thermal energy storage in conjunction with waste heat electric power generation units, an estimated 2.4 x 10 to the 13th power Btu/year, or an equivalent on investment of the proposed systems are an incentive for further development
Birational Mappings and Matrix Sub-algebra from the Chiral Potts Model
We study birational transformations of the projective space originating from
lattice statistical mechanics, specifically from various chiral Potts models.
Associating these models to \emph{stable patterns} and \emph{signed-patterns},
we give general results which allow us to find \emph{all} chiral -state
spin-edge Potts models when the number of states is a prime or the square
of a prime, as well as several -dependent family of models. We also prove
the absence of monocolor stable signed-pattern with more than four states. This
demonstrates a conjecture about cyclic Hadamard matrices in a particular case.
The birational transformations associated to these lattice spin-edge models
show complexity reduction. In particular we recover a one-parameter family of
integrable transformations, for which we give a matrix representationComment: 22 pages 0 figure The paper has been reorganized, splitting the
results into two sections : results pertaining to Physics and results
pertaining to Mathematic
Experimental Violation of Bell's Inequality in Spatial-Parity Space
We report the first experimental violation of Bell's inequality in the
spatial domain using the Einstein--Podolsky--Rosen state. Two-photon states
generated via optical spontaneous parametric downconversion are shown to be
entangled in the parity of their one-dimensional transverse spatial profile.
Superpositions of Bell states are prepared by manipulation of the optical
pump's transverse spatial parity--a classical parameter. The Bell-operator
measurements are made possible by devising simple optical arrangements that
perform rotations in the one-dimensional spatial-parity space of each photon of
an entangled pair and projective measurements onto a basis of even--odd
functions. A Bell-operator value of 2.389 +- 0.016 is recorded, a violation of
the inequality by more than 24 standard deviations.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures, 1 Tabl
Memory Effects in Granular Material
We present a combined experimental and theoretical study of memory effects in
vibration-induced compaction of granular materials. In particular, the response
of the system to an abrupt change in shaking intensity is measured. At short
times after the perturbation a granular analog of aging in glasses is observed.
Using a simple two-state model, we are able to explain this short-time
response.
We also discuss the possibility for the system to obey an approximate
pseudo-fluctuation-dissipation theorem relationship and relate our work to
earlier experimental and theoretical studies of the problem.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, reference list change
Logarithmic Relaxations in a Random Field Lattice Gas Subject to Gravity
A simple lattice gas model with random fields and gravity is introduced to
describe a system of grains moving in a disordered environment. Off equilibrium
relaxations of bulk density and its two time correlation functions are
numerically found to show logarithmic time dependences and "aging" effects.
Similitudes with dry granular media are stressed. The connections with off
equilibrium dynamics in others kinds of "frustrated" lattice models in presence
of a directional driving force (gravity) are discussed to single out the
appearance of universal features in the relaxation process.Comment: 15 pages, latex, 7 figures include
Statistical Mechanics of Vibration-Induced Compaction of Powders
We propose a theory which describes the density relaxation of loosely packed,
cohesionless granular material under mechanical tapping. Using the compactivity
concept we develope a formalism of statistical mechanics which allows us to
calculate the density of a powder as a function of time and compactivity. A
simple fluctuation-dissipation relation which relates compactivity to the
amplitude and frequency of a tapping is proposed. Experimental data of
E.R.Nowak et al. [{\it Powder Technology} 94, 79 (1997) ] show how density of
initially deposited in a fluffy state powder evolves under carefully controlled
tapping towards a random close packing (RCP) density. Ramping the vibration
amplitude repeatedly up and back down again reveals the existence of reversible
and irreversible branches in the response. In the framework of our approach the
reversible branch (along which the RCP density is obtained) corresponds to the
steady state solution of the Fokker-Planck equation whereas the irreversible
one is represented by a superposition of "excited states" eigenfunctions. These
two regimes of response are analyzed theoretically and a qualitative
explanation of the hysteresis curve is offered.Comment: 11 pages, 2 figures, Latex. Revised tex
On the complexity of some birational transformations
Using three different approaches, we analyze the complexity of various
birational maps constructed from simple operations (inversions) on square
matrices of arbitrary size. The first approach consists in the study of the
images of lines, and relies mainly on univariate polynomial algebra, the second
approach is a singularity analysis, and the third method is more numerical,
using integer arithmetics. Each method has its own domain of application, but
they give corroborating results, and lead us to a conjecture on the complexity
of a class of maps constructed from matrix inversions
Spatial coherence effects on second- and fourth-order temporal interference
We report the results of two experiments performed with two-photon light,
produced via collinear degenerate optical spontaneous parametric downconversion
(SPDC), in which both second-order (one-photon) and fourth-order (two-photon)
interferograms are recorded in a Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI). In the
first experiment, high-visibility fringes are obtained for both the second- and
fourth-order interferograms. In the second experiment, the MZI is modified by
the removal of a mirror from one of its arms; this leaves the fourth-order
interferogram unchanged, but extinguishes the second-order interferogram. A
theoretical model that takes into consideration both the temporal and spatial
degrees-of-freedom of the two-photon state successfully explains the results.
While the temporal interference in the MZI is independent of the spatial
coherence of the source, that of the modified MZI is not
A coarse grained model of granular compaction and relaxation
We introduce a theoretical model for the compaction of granular materials by discrete vibrations which is expected to hold when the intensity of vibration is low. The dynamical unit is taken to be clusters of granules that belong to the same collective structure. We rigourously construct the model from first principles and show that numerical solutions compare favourably with a range of experimental results. This includes the logarithmic relaxation towards a statistical steady state, the effect of varying the intensity of vibration resulting in a so-called `annealing' curve, and the power spectrum of density fluctuations in the steady state itself. A mean-field version of the model is introduced which shares many features with the exact model and is open to quantitative analysi
Response properties in a model for granular matter
We investigate the response properties of granular media in the framework of
the so-called {\em Random Tetris Model}. We monitor, for different driving
procedures, several quantities: the evolution of the density and of the density
profiles, the ageing properties through the two-times correlation functions and
the two-times mean-square distance between the potential energies, the response
function defined in terms of the difference in the potential energies of two
replica driven in two slightly different ways. We focus in particular on the
role played by the spatial inhomogeneities (structures) spontaneously emerging
during the compaction process, the history of the sample and the driving
procedure. It turns out that none of these ingredients can be neglected for the
correct interpretation of the experimental or numerical data. We discuss the
problem of the optimization of the compaction process and we comment on the
validity of our results for the description of granular materials in a
thermodynamic framework.Comment: 22 pages, 35 eps files (21 figures
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