Low Emissions Combustor Test and Research Facility

The Morgantown Energy Technology Center (METC) recently built and began operation of a Low Emissions Combustor Test and Research (LECTR) facility with the primary objective of providing test facilities and engineering support to METC customers through programs such as the Advanced Turbine Systems (ATS) University-Industry Consortium and through CRADA participation with industrial partners. The LECTR is a versatile test facility with capabilities for evaluating a variety of low emissions combustion concepts at temperatures and pressures representative of gas turbine applications. The LECTR design incorporates a set of flanged sections or modules including an inlet plelnum, combustor test sections, a gas sampling section, and a quench section. The high pressure and mass flow capabilities of the LECTR facility make it uniquely suited for evaluation of advanced combustion concepts at combustion scales up to 3 MW (10 MMBtu/h)

String Theory on Lorentzian AdS_3 in Minisuperspace

We investigate string theory on Lorentzian AdS_3 in the minisuperspace approximation. The minisuperspace model reduces to the worldline theory of a scalar particle in the Lorentzian AdS_3. The Hilbert space consists of normalizable wave functions, and we see that the unitarity of the theory (or the self-adjointness of the Hamiltonian) restricts the possible sets of wave functions. The restricted wave functions have the property of probability conservation (or current conservation) across the horizons. Two and three point functions are also computed. In the Euclidean model functional forms of these quantities are restricted by the SL(2,R) symmetry almost uniquely, however, in the Lorentzian model there are several ambiguities left. The ambiguities are fixed by the direct computation of overlaps of wave functions.Comment: 32 pages, no figures, minor changes, references adde

HI in the Outskirts of Nearby Galaxies

The HI in disk galaxies frequently extends beyond the optical image, and can trace the dark matter there. I briefly highlight the history of high spatial resolution HI imaging, the contribution it made to the dark matter problem, and the current tension between several dynamical methods to break the disk-halo degeneracy. I then turn to the flaring problem, which could in principle probe the shape of the dark halo. Instead, however, a lot of attention is now devoted to understanding the role of gas accretion via galactic fountains. The current $\rm \Lambda$ cold dark matter theory has problems on galactic scales, such as the core-cusp problem, which can be addressed with HI observations of dwarf galaxies. For a similar range in rotation velocities, galaxies of type Sd have thin disks, while those of type Im are much thicker. After a few comments on modified Newtonian dynamics and on irregular galaxies, I close with statistics on the HI extent of galaxies.Comment: 38 pages, 17 figures, invited review, book chapter in "Outskirts of Galaxies", Eds. J. H. Knapen, J. C. Lee and A. Gil de Paz, Astrophysics and Space Science Library, Springer, in pres

CRADA opportunities in pressurized combustion research

The Morgantown Energy Technology Center recently began operation of a Low Emissions Combustor Test and Research (LECTR) Facility. This facility was built to support the development of Advanced Gas Turbine Systems (ATS) by providing test facilities and engineering support to METC customers through the ATS University-Industry Consortiu and through CRADA participation with industrial partners. The LECTR is a versatile test facility with capabilities for evaluating a variety of low emissions combustion concepts at temperatures and pressures representative of gas turbine applications. The LECTR was constructed as a mid-scale test platform to support DOE`s ATS program and utilizes the full range of high pressure (up to 30 atm) high temperature (1000{degrees}F air preheat, 3300{degrees}F combustor wall), and mass flows (3.5 lb/s combustion air) available in METC`s Advanced Combustion Facility. The LECTR is now operational and has most recently been employed to characterize the operating and emissions characteristics of an industrical-scale, lean premixed gas burner at elevated pressures for potential gas turbine applications

Crop Rotation and Soil Amendment Alters Sorghum Grain Quality

Soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] rotation enhances grain sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench] yield, but infl uence on grain quality has not been measured. The objective was to determine the effect of cropping sequence (CS) and soil amendment (SA) on grain yield and quality. Sorghum grain yield and quality, soil NO3–N and water were measured in a rotation study in 2003 and 2004 on a Sharpsburg silty clay loam (fine, smectitic, mesic Typic Argiudoll). Cropping sequences were continuous sorghum, and sorghum rotated with non-nodulating and nodulating soybean. Soil amendments consisted of no amendment, manure (17–26 Mg dry matter ha−1 yr−1), and N (84 kg ha−1 yr−1). CS × SA interaction effects were found for most parameters. Rotation with non-nodulating soybean without SA increased yield by 2.6 to 2.8 Mg ha−1 over continuous sorghum without SA. Rotation without SA with nodulating soybean further increased yield by 1.7 to 1.8 Mg ha−1 over rotation with non-nodulating soybean. Grain N increased by 0.5 to 1.0, 2.5 to 5.0, and 3.3 to 4.9 g kg−1 for N application to continuous sorghum and sorghum rotated with non-nodulating and nodulating soybean, respectively. Tangential abrasive dehulling device (TADD) removal indicated that continuous sorghum without SA produced the softest grain with 43 to 44% TADD removal, and sorghum rotated with nodulating soybean with manure produced the hardest grain with 22 to 27% TADD removal. As food end-use opportunities for sorghum grain evolve, use of crop rotation and SA application will be important to produce grain with desirable quality attributes. Includes corrected Table 4