General patterns of women's representation in the European Parliament: did something change after 2004? GSPE Working Paper 1/5/2009

The purpose of this paper is to analyze social and political features of women among members of European Parliament during its Sixth legislature. Beyond statistics aggregation, we will try to adopt a comparative perspective which includes three dimensions. The first one is historical. How can we understand evolutions in the composition of this sample? The second is cross-cutting and focuses on differences between women and men and evolutions of those diverging patterns. The third dimension attempts to analyze structural oppositions between national delegations on the path to feminization. Together, these interrogations will allow us to discuss general patterns of women's presence at the European Parliament after the 2004 and 2007 Eastern enlargements. The paper is based upon quantitative and qualitative data collected within the framework of a long-term sociological study of MEPs conducted at the University of Strasbourg

Women in the European Parliament: effects of the voting system, strategies and political resources. The case of the French delegation. GSPE Working Paper 10/28/2008

This article aims to provide elements to explain the feminisation of French MEPs. While the voting system should be taken into account, its effects can only be understood in relation with two elements: on the one hand, the position of the European Parliament in the French political field; on the other, the specific configuration of social and political struggles of the public space in 1990s France. Within this framework, gender constitutes a political resource that is more valuable in the European Parliament than in the national parliament; as a result, women who are less politically professionalised are promoted. They turn towards forms of parliamentary "goodwill" and strategies of over-involvement in European political roles. The relative specificity of the postures they adopt within the institution does not have to do with a hypothetical "feminine nature", but with a set of sociopolitical processes

Le ski associatif en Alsace au temps du Reichsland (1896-1914) (tensions nationales, oppositions sociales, jeux institutionnels)

Notre travail s attache à analyser le processus d émergence et de diffusion du ski associatif en Alsace entre 1896 et 1914. Annexée au Reich depuis 1871, cette région constitue le lieu d implantation de nombreux immigrés venus de l ensemble des provinces de l Empire. Les rapports qu ils entretiennent avec les populations locales sont profondément déterminés par l état des tensions politiques et sociales. L étude du processus d autonomisation sportive du ski, appréhendé à travers le concept de configuration locale (Elias), représente de ce point de vue une entrée intéressante pour comprendre les liens complexes qui se nouent entre autochtones et immigrés. La première partie (1896-1908) décrit les conditions d introduction de cette pratique dans la région et les enjeux de fondation d une Fédération de ski d Alsace-Lorraine. La seconde partie (1908-1914) analyse le fonctionnement fédéral entre imposition du référent compétitif et revendications nationales.STRASBOURG-B.N.U.S. (674821001) / SudocSudocFranceF

Structural dynamics of flexible rotor blades to study aeroelastic phenomena

Nowadays, experimental analyses of fluid-structure interactions on flexible rotating blades are few widespread. For this purpose, an experimental rotor test bench for blades with variable flexibility is under development. Different sets of blades have been fabricated with different composite materials and variable thickness, depending on the number of layers considered. The main objective of the present work is to estimate which sets of blades are more sensitive to flutter occurrence based on their Campbell diagrams. For this purpose, a finite element approach is developed to model the dynamic behavior of the blades assumed as a uniform, slender, isotropic and homogeneous beam with out-of-plane bending and torsion deformations, submitted to inertial and centrifugal forces due the rotation effects. Two numerical models were developed by considering Timoshenko and Euler-Bernoulli beam theories; both are validated by means of the software COMSOLr. Later, the mechanical properties of each set of blades have been identified from the frequency response functions (FRFs) obtained through experimental vibration tests. The frequencies and eigenmodes of blades determined experimentally are compared with those obtained with FEM model. Then, rotation effects on the blade frequencies are studied by using Campbell diagrams for all set of blades studied. It is evidenced for some of the sets the presence of intersections between bending and torsional frequencies in the interval of the operational rotating speed of the test bench. This fact might be considered as an indicator of potential flutter occurrence. Aerodynamic load will be consider in the future work

Nonlinear flap for passive flutter control of bidimensional wing

International audienceA solution for passive aeroelastic control is presented and tested experimentally on a bidimensional wing setup. The solution consists of a flap integrated in the wing which acts as a secondary mass damper and absorbs energy when aeroelastic instability is encountered. This device is passive, which makes it safe in emergency cases and adds little mass to the system in the fundamental case presented in this paper. If installed on actual aircraft wings, the flap-NES would not substitute but coexist with classic active control methods, adding virtually zero mass to the existing system. Using a flap placed in the airflow enables the control system to benefit from aerodynamic damping with a behavior dependent on wind speed. The device can either have a linear or nonlinear stiffness. It is shown that both options absorb energy from the main system, that is, the wing. The flap acts as a TMD (tuned mass damper) in the linear case and as an NES (nonlinear energy sink) in the nonlinear case. The nonlinear solution not only absorbs more energy at given wind speed but it also is a more suited solution as the damper follows the wind speed dependent frequencies due to its nonlinear feature. In this work, the flap-TMD and the flap-NES are tested experimentally on a bidimensional wing which presents classic flutter

Cu nanoparticles embedded on reticular chitosan-derived N-doped carbon: Application to the catalytic hydrogenation of alkenes, alkynes and N-heteroarenes

International audienceApplying biomass-waste as catalysts and catalytic supports is gaining a tremendous interest owing to its expected outcomes in terms of cost effectiveness and sustainability. In this context, we herein disclose a straightforward encapsulation of nanosized copper on hierarchically porous, biomass-derived nitrogen-containing carbon framework. Our approach uses chitosan - derived from the marine shell-fish wastes - as a cheap, sustainable carbon and nitrogen source, melamine as nitrogen provider and ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid as a cross-linker to induce the reticular network, much suitable for restricting the growth of the metal seeds. The resulting copper grown on nitrogen-doped carbon, bearing relatively large surface area (106 m2·g−1) and a large group of well-dispersed Cu nanoparticles (average of 2 nm) even with high Cu loading (41 wt%), exhibits catalytic activity for the hydrogenation of unsaturated double and triple carbon-carbon bonds and heteroaryles. This sustainable design of catalyst, using affordable copper and cheap biowaste, could discard palladium and other expensive elements loaded on tedious synthetic supports from the library of heterogeneous solids intended for fine chemical synthesis

A Hybrid Non-Linear Unsteady Vortex Lattice-Vortex Particle Method for Rotor Blades Aerodynamic Simulations

This study presents a hybrid non-linear unsteady vortex lattice method-vortex particle method (NL UVLM-VPM) to investigate the aerodynamics of rotor blades hovering in and out of ground effect. The method is of interest for the fast aerodynamic prediction of helicopter and smaller rotor blades. UVLM models the vorticity along the rotor blades and near field wakes with panels that are then converted into their equivalent vortex particle representations. The standard Vreman subgrid scale model is incorporated in the context of a large eddy simulation for mesh-free VPM to stabilize the wake development via particle strength exchange (PSE). The computation of the pairwise interactions in the VPM are accelerated using the fast-multipole method. Non-linear UVLM is achieved with a low computational cost viscous-inviscid alpha coupling algorithm through a stripwise 2D Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) or empirical database. The aerodynamics of the scaled S76 rotor blades in and out of ground effect from the hover prediction workshop is investigated with the proposed algorithm. The results are validated with experimental data and various high-fidelity codes

A Hybrid Non-Linear Unsteady Vortex Lattice-Vortex Particle Method for Rotor Blades Aerodynamic Simulations

This study presents a hybrid non-linear unsteady vortex lattice method-vortex particle method (NL UVLM-VPM) to investigate the aerodynamics of rotor blades hovering in and out of ground effect. The method is of interest for the fast aerodynamic prediction of helicopter and smaller rotor blades. UVLM models the vorticity along the rotor blades and near field wakes with panels that are then converted into their equivalent vortex particle representations. The standard Vreman subgrid scale model is incorporated in the context of a large eddy simulation for mesh-free VPM to stabilize the wake development via particle strength exchange (PSE). The computation of the pairwise interactions in the VPM are accelerated using the fast-multipole method. Non-linear UVLM is achieved with a low computational cost viscous-inviscid alpha coupling algorithm through a stripwise 2D Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) or empirical database. The aerodynamics of the scaled S76 rotor blades in and out of ground effect from the hover prediction workshop is investigated with the proposed algorithm. The results are validated with experimental data and various high-fidelity codes

EXPERIMENTAL AEROELASTIC ANALYSIS OF FLEXIBLE ROTATING BLADES WITH OPTICAL LASER VIBROMETER

Experimental analysis of fluid-structure interactions on flexible rotating blades in real operational conditions is a useful tool to understand the behavior of the structure undergoing aeroelastic phenomena. Moreover, it represents a challenging task as well since external interference sources could alter the studied phenomena. For instances, the instrumentation to measure the dynamic deformations must consist of non-intrusive technical means without perturbing the systems. In this context, an experimental test bench is developed and it is presented with the equipped sensor for the aeroelastic analysis purpose. Modal analysis of the rotating flexible blades, through a scanning laser vibrometer equipped with a derotator system, has been held and aerodynamic performance measurements through the dynamic torque have been performed. Finally, experimental Campbell diagrams have been plotted to detect the potential modal coupling between bending and torsional frequencies within the interval of the operational rotating speed of the test bench

Comparison of low, medium and high fidelity numerical methods for unsteady aerodynamics and nonlinear aeroelasticity

The unsteady aerodynamic and aeroelastic behavior of a 2D wing section with and without flap is analyzed with Theodorsen theory and Unsteady Vortex Lattice Method (low fidelity), Euler (medium fidelity) and Reynolds-Averaged Navier Stokes (high fidelity) methods. The aeroelastic studies are carried out for linear cases and non-linear structural configurations presenting cubic stiffness and freeplay. The critical flutter speeds as well as the limit cycle oscillations present in the non-linear cases are compared. The methods show good agreement for the cases studied