273 research outputs found

    Geometric optimization for the maximum heat transfer density rate from cylinders rotating in natural convection

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    In this study we investigates the thermal behavior of an assembly of consecutive cylinders in a counter-rotating configuration cooled by natural convection with the objective of maximizing the heat transfer density rate (heat transfer rate per unit volume). A numerical model was used to solve the governing equations that describe the temperature and flow fields and an optimization algorithm was used to find the optimal structure for flow configurations with two or more degrees of freedom. The geometric structure of the consecutive cylinders was optimized for each flow regime (Rayleigh number) and cylinder rotation speed for one and two degrees of freedom. Smaller cylinders were placed at the entrance to the assembly, in the wedge-shaped flow regions occupied by fluid that had not yet been used for heat transfer, to create additional length scales to the flow configuration. It was found that the optimized spacing decreases and the heat transfer density rate increases as the Rayleigh number increases, for the optimized structure. It was also found that the optimized spacing decreases and the maximum heat transfer density rate increases, as the cylinder rotation speed was increased for the single scale configuration at each Rayleigh number. Results further showed that there was an increase in the heat transfer density rate of the rotating cylinders over stationary cylinders for a single scale configuration. For a multi scale configuration it was found that there was almost no effect of cylinder rotation on the maximum heat transfer density rate, when compared to stationary cylinders, at each Rayleigh number; with the exception of high cylinder rotation speeds, which serve to suppress the heat transfer density rate. It was, however, found that the optimized spacing decreases as the cylinder rotation speed was increased at each Rayleigh number. Results further showed that the maximum heat transfer density rate for a multi scale configuration (with stationary cylinders) was higher than a single scale configuration (with rotating cylinders) with an exception at very low Rayleigh numbers.Dissertation (MEng)--University of Pretoria, 2012.Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineeringunrestricte

    Topology optimization for the conduction cooling of a heat-generating volume with orthotropic material

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    In this paper the two dimensional numerical topology optimization of a high conductive conduit material, distributed within a heat-generating material, is investigated with regards to the effect of orthotropic materials. Specifically, materials with orthotropic thermal conductivities (different primary and secondary principal thermal conductivities). Two cases are considered in this study, namely the optimal distribution of an isotropic conduit material within an orthotropic heat generating material; and the optimal distribution of an orthotropic conduit material within an isotropic heat-generating material. A finite volume method (FVM) code, coupled with the method of moving asymptotes (MMA); the solid isotropic with material penalization (SIMP) scheme; and the discrete adjoint method, was used to find the optimal distribution of the high conductive conduit material within the heat generating material. For the optimal distribution of an isotropic conduit material within an orthotropic heat-generating material is was found that a heat-generating material angle 10 6 h0 6 60 is preferred, for a higher thermal performance, and a heat-generating material angle h0 60 should be avoided. For the optimal distribution of an orthotropic conduit material within an isotropic heat-generating material is was found that an optimal conduit material angle exists giving the best thermal performance (lowest smax). It was found that the optimal conduit material angle remains the same for different conductivity ratios and different heat-generating material angles. It was also found that the optimal conduit material angle directly corresponds to the domain aspect ratio, h1;opt ¼ tan 1ð2H=LÞ, with a minimum improvement of 3% and a maximum improvement of 50% of the thermal performance when using an orthotropic conduit material over that of an isotropic conduit material. A 50% improvement of the thermal performance effectively translates to either double the allowable heat generation or half the peak operating temperature of the isotropic heat-generating material.The University of Pretoria and the South African National Research Foundation (NRF-DST).http://www.elsevier.com/locate/ijhmt2017-12-31hb2016Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineerin

    Maximum heat transfer density rate enhancement from cylinders rotating in natural convection

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    In this paper we investigate the thermal behaviour of an assembly of consecutive cylinders in a counterrotating configuration cooled by natural convection with the objective of maximizing the heat transfer density rate (heat transfer rate per unit volume). A numerical model is used to solve the governing equations that describe the temperature and flow fields. The spacing between the consecutive cylinders is optimised for each flow regime (Rayleigh number) and cylinder rotation speed. It was found that the optimized spacing decreases as the Rayleigh number increases and the heat transfer density rate increases, for the optimized structure, as the cylinder rotation speed is increased. Results further show that there is an increase in the heat transfer density rate of the rotating cylinders over stationary cylinders.The National Research Foundation (NRF-DST)http://www.elsevier.com/locate/ichmtai201

    Constructal multi scale cylinders with rotation cooled by natural convection

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    This paper investigated the thermal behaviour of an assembly of multi scale cylinders in a staggered counter-rotating configuration cooled by natural convection with the objective of maximizing the heat transfer density rate (heat transfer rate per unit volume). A numerical model was used to solve the governing equations that describe the temperature and flow fields and a mathematical optimisation algorithm was used to find the optimal structure for flow configurations with two degrees of freedom. The multi scale structure of the cylinder assembly was optimized for each flow regime (Rayleigh number) and cylinder rotation speed for two degrees of freedom. Smaller cylinders were placed at the entrance to the assembly, in the wedge-shaped flow regions occupied by fluid that had not yet been used for heat transfer, to create additional length scales to the flow configuration. It was found that there was almost no effect of cylinder rotation on the maximum heat transfer density rate, when compared to stationary cylinders, at each Rayleigh number; with the exception of high cylinder rotation speeds, which served to suppress the heat transfer density rate. It was, however, found that the optimized spacing decreased as the cylinder rotation speed was increased at each Rayleigh number. Results further show that the maximum heat transfer density rate for a multi scale configuration (without cylinder rotation) was higher than a single scale configuration (with rotating cylinders) with an exception at very low Rayleigh numbers.University of Pretoria and the National Research Foundation (NRF-DST)http://www.elsevier.com/locate/ijhmthb201

    Psychometric assessment of the short-form Child Perceptions Questionnaire: an international collaborative study.

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    OBJECTIVE: To examine the factor structure and other psychometric characteristics of the most commonly used child oral-health-related quality-of-life (OHRQoL) measure (the 16-item short-form CPQ11-14 ) in a large number of children (N = 5804) from different settings and who had a range of caries experience and associated impacts. METHODS: Secondary data analyses used subnational epidemiological samples of 11- to 14-year-olds in Australia (N = 372), New Zealand (three samples: 352, 202, 429), Brunei (423), Cambodia (244), Hong Kong (542), Malaysia (439), Thailand (220, 325), England (88, 374), Germany (1055), Mexico (335) and Brazil (404). Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to examine the factor structure of the CPQ11-14 across the combined sample and within four regions (Australia/NZ, Asia, UK/Europe and Latin America). Item impact and internal reliability analysis were also conducted. RESULTS: Caries experience varied, with mean DMFT scores ranging from 0.5 in the Malaysian sample to 3.4 in one New Zealand sample. Even more variation was noted in the proportion reporting only fair or poor oral health; this was highest in the Cambodian and Mexican samples and lowest in the German sample and one New Zealand sample. One in 10 reported that their oral health had a marked impact on their life overall. The CFA across all samples revealed two factors with eigenvalues greater than 1. The first involved all items in the oral symptoms and functional limitations subscales; the second involved all emotional well-being and social well-being items. The first was designated the 'symptoms/function' subscale, and the second was designated the 'well-being' subscale. Cronbach's alpha scores were 0.72 and 0.84, respectively. The symptoms/function subscale contained more of the items with greater impact, with the item 'Food stuck in between your teeth' having greatest impact; in the well-being subscale, the 'Felt shy or embarrassed' item had the greatest impact. Repeating the analyses by world region gave similar findings. CONCLUSION: The CPQ11-14 performed well cross-sectionally in the largest analysis of the scale in the literature to date, with robust and mostly consistent psychometric characteristics, albeit with two underlying factors (rather than the originally hypothesized four-factor structure). It appears to be a sound, robust measure which should be useful for research, practice and policy

    The Swift X-Ray Te1escope: Status and Performance

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    We present science highlights and performance from the Swift X-ray Telescope (XRT), which was launched on November 20,2004. The XRT covers the 0.2-10 keV band, and spends most of its time observing gamma-ray burst (GRB) afterglows, though it has also performed observations of many other objects. By mid-August 2007, the XRT had observed over 220 GRB afterglows, detecting about 96% of them. The XRT positions enable followup ground-based optical observations, with roughly 60% of the afterglows detected at optical or near IR wavelengths. Redshifts are measured for 33% of X-ray afterglows. Science highlights include the discovery of flaring behavior at quite late times, with implications for GRB central engines; localization of short GRBs, leading to observational support for compact merger progenitors for this class of bursts; a mysterious plateau phase to GRB afterglows; as well as many other interesting observations such as X-ray emission from comets, novae, galactic transients, and other objects

    Probing helium interfaces with light scattering : from fluid mechanics to statistical physics

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    We have investigated the formation of helium droplets in two physical situations. In the first one, droplets are atomised from superfluid or normal liquid by a fast helium vapour flow. In the second, droplets of normal liquid are formed inside porous glasses during the process of helium condensation. The context, aims, and results of these experiments are reviewed, with focus on the specificity of light scattering by helium. In particular, we discuss how, for different reasons, the closeness to unity of the index of refraction of helium allows in both cases to minimise the problem of multiple scattering and obtain results which it would not be possible to get using other fluids.Comment: 21 page

    Single Spin Asymmetry ANA_N in Polarized Proton-Proton Elastic Scattering at s=200\sqrt{s}=200 GeV

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    We report a high precision measurement of the transverse single spin asymmetry ANA_N at the center of mass energy s=200\sqrt{s}=200 GeV in elastic proton-proton scattering by the STAR experiment at RHIC. The ANA_N was measured in the four-momentum transfer squared tt range 0.003t0.0350.003 \leqslant |t| \leqslant 0.035 \GeVcSq, the region of a significant interference between the electromagnetic and hadronic scattering amplitudes. The measured values of ANA_N and its tt-dependence are consistent with a vanishing hadronic spin-flip amplitude, thus providing strong constraints on the ratio of the single spin-flip to the non-flip amplitudes. Since the hadronic amplitude is dominated by the Pomeron amplitude at this s\sqrt{s}, we conclude that this measurement addresses the question about the presence of a hadronic spin flip due to the Pomeron exchange in polarized proton-proton elastic scattering.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figure

    Longitudinal double-spin asymmetry and cross section for inclusive neutral pion production at midrapidity in polarized proton collisions at sqrt(s) = 200 GeV

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    We report a measurement of the longitudinal double-spin asymmetry A_LL and the differential cross section for inclusive Pi0 production at midrapidity in polarized proton collisions at sqrt(s) = 200 GeV. The cross section was measured over a transverse momentum range of 1 < p_T < 17 GeV/c and found to be in good agreement with a next-to-leading order perturbative QCD calculation. The longitudinal double-spin asymmetry was measured in the range of 3.7 < p_T < 11 GeV/c and excludes a maximal positive gluon polarization in the proton. The mean transverse momentum fraction of Pi0's in their parent jets was found to be around 0.7 for electromagnetically triggered events.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. D (RC

    High pTp_{T} non-photonic electron production in pp+pp collisions at s\sqrt{s} = 200 GeV

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    We present the measurement of non-photonic electron production at high transverse momentum (pT>p_T > 2.5 GeV/cc) in pp + pp collisions at s\sqrt{s} = 200 GeV using data recorded during 2005 and 2008 by the STAR experiment at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). The measured cross-sections from the two runs are consistent with each other despite a large difference in photonic background levels due to different detector configurations. We compare the measured non-photonic electron cross-sections with previously published RHIC data and pQCD calculations. Using the relative contributions of B and D mesons to non-photonic electrons, we determine the integrated cross sections of electrons (e++e2\frac{e^++e^-}{2}) at 3 GeV/c<pT< c < p_T <~10 GeV/cc from bottom and charm meson decays to be dσ(Be)+(BDe)dyeye=0{d\sigma_{(B\to e)+(B\to D \to e)} \over dy_e}|_{y_e=0} = 4.0±0.5\pm0.5({\rm stat.})±1.1\pm1.1({\rm syst.}) nb and dσDedyeye=0{d\sigma_{D\to e} \over dy_e}|_{y_e=0} = 6.2±0.7\pm0.7({\rm stat.})±1.5\pm1.5({\rm syst.}) nb, respectively.Comment: 17 pages, 17 figure
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