13,988 research outputs found
Use of cohesive elements in fatigue analysis
Cohesive laws describe the resistance to incipient separation
of material surfaces. A cohesive finite element
is formulated on the basis of a particular cohesive
law. Cohesive elements are placed at the boundary
between adjacent standard volume finite elements
to model fatigue damage that leads to fracture at the
separation of the element boundaries per the cohesive
law. In this work, a cohesive model for fatigue
crack initiation is taken to be the irreversible loadingunloading
hysteresis that represents fatigue damage
occuring due to cyclic loads leading to the initiation of
small cracks. Various cohesive laws are reviewed and
one is selected that incorporates a hysteretic cyclic
loading that accounts for energetic dissipative mechanisms.
A mathematical representation is developed
based on an exponential effective load-separation cohesive
relationship. A three-dimensional cohesive element
is defined using this compliance relationship integrated
at four points on the mid-surface of the area
element. Implementation into finite element software
is discussed and particular attention is applied to numerical
convergence issues as the inflection point between
loading and 'unloading in the cohesive law is
encountered. A simple example of a displacementcontrolled
fatigue test is presented in a finite element
simulation. Comments are made on applications of
the method to prediction of fatigue life for engineering
structures such as pressure vessels and piping
Gaussian-Charge Polarizable Interaction Potential for Carbon Dioxide
A number of simple pair interaction potentials of the carbon dioxide molecule
are investigated and found to underestimate the magnitude of the second virial
coefficient in the temperature interval 220 K to 448 K by up to 20%. Also the
third virial coefficient is underestimated by these models. A rigid,
polarizable, three-site interaction potential reproduces the experimental
second and third virial coefficients to within a few percent. It is based on
the modified Buckingham exp-6 potential, an anisotropic Axilrod-Teller
correction and Gaussian charge densities on the atomic sites with an inducible
dipole at the center of mass. The electric quadrupole moment, polarizability
and bond distances are set to equal experiment. Density of the fluid at 200 and
800 bars pressure is reproduced to within some percent of observation over the
temperature range 250 K to 310 K. The dimer structure is in passable agreement
with electronically resolved quantum-mechanical calculations in the literature,
as are those of the monohydrated monomer and dimer complexes using the
polarizable GCPM water potential. Qualitative agreement with experiment is also
obtained, when quantum corrections are included, for the relative stability of
the trimer conformations, which is not the case for the pair potentials.Comment: Error in the long-range correction fixed and three-body dispersion
introduced. 32 pages (incl. title page), 7 figures, 9 tables, double-space
Antagonist Muscle Inhibition During Voluntary And Automatic Movements: Implications For Clinical Intervention
Various rehabilitation techniques encourage eliciting automatic reactions in the hope that muscle activations elicited in this way will influence voluntary movement. Unlike voluntary movements that consist of willed initiation and involvement of descending corticofugal and and basal ganglia pathways, automatic postural reactions resulting from external perturbations primarily involve peripheral receptors arising from the vestibular apparatus, muscles, joints, and eyes. We were interested to determine whether voluntary and automatic movements, which are initiated very differently, involved similar temporal activation of muscles and the same pattern of reciprocal inhibition between agonist and antagonist motor neuron pools
The Multiple Origin of Blue Straggler Stars: Theory vs. Observations
In this chapter we review the various suggested channels for the formation
and evolution of blue straggler stars (BSSs) in different environments and
their observational predictions. These include mass transfer during binary
stellar evolution - case A/B/C and D (wind Roche-lobe overflow) mass transfer,
stellar collisions during single and binary encounters in dense stellar
cluster, and coupled dynamical and stellar evolution of triple systems. We also
explore the importance of the BSS and binary dynamics in stellar clusters. We
review the various observed properties of BSSs in different environments (halo
and bulge BSSs, BSSs in globular clusters and BSSs in old open clusters), and
compare the current observations with the theoretical predictions for BSS
formation. We try to constrain the likely progenitors and processes that play a
role in the formation of BSSs and their evolution. We find that multiple
channels of BSS formation are likely to take part in producing the observed
BSSs, and we point out the strengths and weaknesses of each the formation
channel in respect to the observational constraints. Finally we point out
directions to further explore the origin of BSS, and highlight eclipsing binary
BSSs as important observational tool.Comment: Chapter 11, in Ecology of Blue Straggler Stars, H.M.J. Boffin, G.
Carraro & G. Beccari (Eds), Astrophysics and Space Science Library, Springe
New Russulaceae species in south-east Queensland
Russula species are ectomycorrhizal basidiomycetes common throughout Australian woodlands. Molecular and morphological examination of Russula specimens from various sites in South-east Queensland has uncovered a number of phylogenetically diverse and potentially undescribed specimens. At this stage, most of these remain as individual specimens. However, several specimens have been grouped into project species. In this presentation, two potentially new species of Russula will be described. Both species are widespread on red to black clay soils in the Toowoomba region and appear to be phylogenetically related to each other. Project species 1 has a white stipe which developed a pink flush after collection and red to pink centrally depressed cap with white gills. The spores of this species were subglobose, white and ornamented with amyloid warts connected in short chains. The second species, project species 3, is macroscopically similar, differing with its larger size, purple-pink cap colour, and rougher cap texture. Its spores are globose to subglobose, white and ornamented with small amyloid warts connected in short chains. Continued molecular and morphological studies of the Russula species of South-east Queensland may uncover more novel Australian species
Warm Breeze from the starboard bow: a new population of neutral helium in the heliosphere
We investigate the signals from neutral He atoms observed from Earth orbit in
2010 by IBEX. The full He signal observed during the 2010 observation season
can be explained as a superposition of pristine neutral interstellar He gas and
an additional population of neutral He that we call the Warm Breeze. The Warm
Breeze is approximately two-fold slower and 2.5 times warmer than the primary
interstellar He population, and its density in front of the heliosphere is ~7%
that of the neutral interstellar helium. The inflow direction of the Warm
Breeze differs by ~19deg from the inflow direction of interstellar gas. The
Warm Breeze seems a long-term feature of the heliospheric environment. It has
not been detected earlier because it is strongly ionized inside the
heliosphere, which brings it below the threshold of detection via pickup ion
and heliospheric backscatter glow observations, as well as by the direct
sampling of GAS/Ulysses. Possible sources for the Warm Breeze include (1) the
secondary population of interstellar helium, created via charge exchange and
perhaps elastic scattering of neutral interstellar He atoms on interstellar He+
ions in the outer heliosheath, or (2) a gust of interstellar He originating
from a hypothetic wave train in the Local Interstellar Cloud. A secondary
population is expected from models, but the characteristics of the Warm Breeze
do not fully conform to modeling results. If, nevertheless, this is the
explanation, IBEX-Lo observations of the Warm Breeze provide key insights into
the physical state of plasma in the outer heliosheath. If the second hypothesis
is true, the source is likely to be located within a few thousand of AU from
the Sun, which is the propagation range of possible gusts of interstellar
neutral helium with the Warm Breeze characteristics against dissipation via
elastic scattering in the Local Cloud.Comment: submitted to ApJ
Multiscale Kinetic Monte-Carlo for Simulating Epitaxial Growth
We present a fast Monte-Carlo algorithm for simulating epitaxial surface
growth, based on the continuous-time Monte-Carlo algorithm of Bortz, Kalos and
Lebowitz. When simulating realistic growth regimes, much computational time is
consumed by the relatively fast dynamics of the adatoms. Continuum and
continuum-discrete hybrid methods have been developed to approach this issue;
however in many situations, the density of adatoms is too low to efficiently
and accurately simulate as a continuum. To solve the problem of fast adatom
dynamics, we allow adatoms to take larger steps, effectively reducing the
number of transitions required. We achieve nearly a factor of ten speed up, for
growth at moderate temperatures and large D/F.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures; revised text, accepted by PR
Interstellar neutral helium in the heliosphere from IBEX observations. III. Mach number of the flow, velocity vector, and temperature from the first six years of measurements
We analyzed observations of interstellar neutral helium (ISN~He) obtained
from the Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) satellite during its first six
years of operation. We used a refined version of the ISN~He simulation model,
presented in the companion paper by Sokol_et al. 2015, and a sophisticated data
correlation and uncertainty system and parameter fitting method, described in
the companion paper by Swaczyna et al 2015. We analyzed the entire data set
together and the yearly subsets, and found the temperature and velocity vector
of ISN~He in front of the heliosphere. As seen in the previous studies, the
allowable parameters are highly correlated and form a four-dimensional tube in
the parameter space. The inflow longitudes obtained from the yearly data
subsets show a spread of ~6 degree, with the other parameters varying
accordingly along the parameter tube, and the minimum chi-square value is
larger than expected. We found, however, that the Mach number of the ISN~He
flow shows very little scatter and is thus very tightly constrained. It is in
excellent agreement with the original analysis of ISN~He observations from IBEX
and recent reanalyses of observations from Ulysses. We identify a possible
inaccuracy in the Warm Breeze parameters as the likely cause of the scatter in
the ISN~He parameters obtained from the yearly subsets, and we suppose that
another component may exist in the signal, or a process that is not accounted
for in the current physical model of ISN~He in front of the heliosphere. From
our analysis, the inflow velocity vector, temperature, and Mach number of the
flow are equal to lambda_ISNHe = 255.8 +/- 0.5 degree, beta_ISNHe = 5.16 +/-
0.10 degree, T_ISNHe = 7440 +/- 260 K, v_ISNHe = 25.8 +/- 0.4$ km/s, and
M_ISNHe = 5.079 +/- 0.028, with uncertainties strongly correlated along the
parameter tube.Comment: Updated reference
Elaborated Modeling of Synchrotron Motion in Vlasov-Fokker-Planck Solvers
Solving the Vlasov-Fokker-Planck equation is a well-tested approach to simulate dynamics of electron bunches self-interacting with their own wake-field. Typical implementations model the dynamics of a charge density in a damped harmonic oscillator, with a small perturbation due to collective effects. This description imposes some limits to the applicability: Because after a certain simulation time coherent synchrotron motion will be damped down, effectively only the incoherent motion is described. Furthermore – even though computed - the tune spread is typically masked by the use of a charge density instead of individual particles. As a consequence, some effects are not reproduced. In this contribution, we present methods that allow to consider single-particle motion, coherent synchrotron oscillations, non-linearities of the accelerating voltage, higher orders of the momentum compaction factor, as well as modulations of the accelerating voltage. We also provide exemplary studies – based on the KIT storage ring KARA (KArlsruhe Research Accelerator) - to show the potentiality of the methods
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