23,689 research outputs found
Expert system decision support for low-cost launch vehicle operations
Progress in assessing the feasibility, benefits, and risks associated with AI expert systems applied to low cost expendable launch vehicle systems is described. Part one identified potential application areas in vehicle operations and on-board functions, assessed measures of cost benefit, and identified key technologies to aid in the implementation of decision support systems in this environment. Part two of the program began the development of prototypes to demonstrate real-time vehicle checkout with controller and diagnostic/analysis intelligent systems and to gather true measures of cost savings vs. conventional software, verification and validation requirements, and maintainability improvement. The main objective of the expert advanced development projects was to provide a robust intelligent system for control/analysis that must be performed within a specified real-time window in order to meet the demands of the given application. The efforts to develop the two prototypes are described. Prime emphasis was on a controller expert system to show real-time performance in a cryogenic propellant loading application and safety validation implementation of this system experimentally, using commercial-off-the-shelf software tools and object oriented programming techniques. This smart ground support equipment prototype is based in C with imbedded expert system rules written in the CLIPS protocol. The relational database, ORACLE, provides non-real-time data support. The second demonstration develops the vehicle/ground intelligent automation concept, from phase one, to show cooperation between multiple expert systems. This automated test conductor (ATC) prototype utilizes a knowledge-bus approach for intelligent information processing by use of virtual sensors and blackboards to solve complex problems. It incorporates distributed processing of real-time data and object-oriented techniques for command, configuration control, and auto-code generation
AC-Tolerant Multifilament Coated Conductors
We report the magnetization losses in an experimental multifilament coated
conductor. A 4 mm wide and 10 cm long YBCO coated conductor was subdivided into
eight 0.5 mm wide filaments by laser ablation and subjected to post-ablation
treatment. As the result, the hysteresis loss was reduced, as expected, in
proportion to the width of the filaments. However, the coupling loss was
reduced dramatically, and became practically negligible, in the range of a
sweep rate up to 20 T/s. This represents a drastic improvement on previous
multifilament conductors in which often the coupling losses became equal to the
hysteresis loss at a sweep rate as low as 3-4 T/s. These results demonstrate
that there is an effective and practical way to suppress coupling losses in
coated multifilament conductors.Comment: This paper is based on a talk given at 2006 Applied Superconductivity
Conference in Seattle, WA (August 27-September 1, 2006). To be published in
IEEE Trans. Appl. Superconductivit
A Neutral Polyampholyte in an ionic solution
The behavior of a neutral polyampholyte () chain with monomers, in an
ionic solution, is analyzed in the framework of the full Debye-Hckel-Bjerrum-Flory theory. A chain, that in addition to the
neutral monomers, also contains an equal number of positively and negatively
charged monomers, is dissolved in an ionic solution. For \underline{high}
concentrations of salt and at high temperatures, the exists in an extended
state. As the temperature is decreased, the electrostatic energy becomes more
relevant and at a the system collapses into a dilute globular
state, or microelectrolyte. This state contains a concentration of salt higher
than the surrounding medium. As the temperature is decreased even further,
association between the monomers of the polymer and the ions of the salt
becomes relevant and there is a crossover from this globular state to a low
temperature extended state. For \underline{low} densities of salt, the system
is collapsed for almost all temperatures and exhibits a first-order phase
transition to an extended state at an unphysical low temperature.Comment: 10 pages, Revtex with epsf, 9 Postscript figures. Submitted to PR
Evolution of the bursting-layer wave during a Type 1 X-ray burst
In a popular scenario due to Heyl, quasi periodic oscillations (QPOs) which
are seen during type 1 X-ray bursts are produced by giant travelling waves in
neutron-star oceans. Piro and Bildsten have proposed that during the burst
cooling the wave in the bursting layer may convert into a deep crustal
interface wave, which would cut off the visible QPOs. This cut-off would help
explain the magnitude of the QPO frequency drift, which is otherwise
overpredicted by a factor of several in Heyl's scenario. In this paper, we
study the coupling between the bursting layer and the deep ocean. The coupling
turns out to be weak and only a small fraction of the surface-wave energy gets
transferred to that of the crustal-interface wave during the burst. Thus the
crustal-interface wave plays no dynamical role during the burst, and no early
QPO cut-off should occur.Comment: 8 pages, submitted to MNRA
Kinetic Inflation in Stringy and Other Cosmologies
An inflationary epoch driven by the kinetic energy density in a dynamical
Planck mass is studied. In the conformally related Einstein frame it is easiest
to see the demands of successful inflation cannot be satisfied by kinetic
inflation alone. Viewed in the original Jordan-Brans-Dicke frame, the obstacle
is manifest as a kind of graceful exit problem and/or a kind of flatness
problem. These arguments indicate the weakness of only the simplest
formulation. {}From them can be gleaned directions toward successful kinetic
inflation.Comment: 26 pages, LaTeX, CITA-94-2
Electrostatics of ions inside the nanopores and trans-membrane channels
A model of a finite cylindrical ion channel through a phospholipid membrane
of width separating two electrolyte reservoirs is studied. Analytical
solution of the Poisson equation is obtained for an arbitrary distribution of
ions inside the trans-membrane pore. The solution is asymptotically exact in
the limit of large ionic strength of electrolyte on the two sides of membrane.
However, even for physiological concentrations of electrolyte, the
electrostatic barrier sizes found using the theory are in excellent agreement
with the numerical solution of the Poisson equation. The analytical solution is
used to calculate the electrostatic potential energy profiles for pores
containing charged protein residues. Availability of a semi-exact interionic
potential should greatly facilitate the study of ionic transport through
nanopores and ion channels
Spin frequency evolution and pulse profile variations of the recently re-activated radio magnetar XTE J1810-197
After spending almost a decade in a radio-quiet state, the Anomalous X-ray
Pulsar XTE J1810-197 turned back on in early December 2018. We have observed
this radio magnetar at 1.5 GHz with ~daily cadence since the first detection of
radio re-activation on 8 December 2018. In this paper, we report on the current
timing properties of XTE J1810-197 and find that the magnitude of the spin
frequency derivative has increased by a factor of 2.6 over our 48-day data set.
We compare our results with the spin-down evolution reported during its
previous active phase in the radio band. We also present total intensity pulse
profiles at five different observing frequencies between 1.5 and 8.4 GHz,
collected with the Lovell and the Effelsberg telescopes. The profile evolution
in our data set is less erratic than what was reported during the previous
active phase, and can be seen varying smoothly between observations. Profiles
observed immediately after the outburst show the presence of at least five
cycles of a very stable ~50-ms periodicity in the main pulse component that
lasts for at least tens of days. This remarkable structure is seen across the
full range of observing frequencies.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figures, updated with additional analysis of the 50-ms
oscillation, accepted for publication in MNRA
The effects of superconductor-stabilizer interfacial resistance on quench of current-carrying coated conductor
We present the results of numerical analysis of a model of normal zone
propagation in coated conductors. The main emphasis is on the effects of
increased contact resistance between the superconducting film and the
stabilizer on the speed of normal zone propagation, the maximum temperature
rise inside the normal zone, and the stability margins. We show that with
increasing contact resistance the speed of normal zone propagation increases,
the maximum temperature inside the normal zone decreases, and stability margins
shrink. This may have an overall beneficial effect on quench protection quality
of coated conductors. We also briefly discuss the propagation of solitons and
development of the temperature modulation along the wire.Comment: To be published in Superconductor Science and Technology. This
preprint contains one animated figure (Fig. 6(a)). when asked whether you
want to play the content, click "Play". Acrobat Reader (Windows and Mac, but
not Linux) will play embedded flash movies. In the printed copy Fig. 6(b)
will show the temperature profile at gamma t=15
Use of 2G coated conductors for efficient shielding of DC magnetic fields
This paper reports the results of an experimental investigation of the
performance of two types of magnetic screens assembled from YBa2Cu3O7-d (YBCO)
coated conductors. Since effective screening of the axial DC magnetic field
requires the unimpeded flow of an azimuthal persistent current, we demonstrate
a configuration of a screening shell made out of standard YBCO coated conductor
capable to accomplish that. The screen allows the persistent current to flow in
the predominantly azimuthal direction at a temperature of 77 K. The persistent
screen, incorporating a single layer of superconducting film, can attenuate an
external magnetic field of up to 5 mT by more than an order of magnitude. For
comparison purposes, another type of screen which incorporates low critical
temperature quasi-persistent joints was also built. The shielding technique we
describe here appears to be especially promising for the realization of large
scale high-Tc superconducting screens.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figure
- …