5,193 research outputs found
Squeeze flow and compaction behavior of toughened polyimide matrix composites
The main emphasis was placed upon the squeeze flow and compaction behavior of the Lewis Research Center (LaRC) research project series polyimide matrix composites. The measurement of squeeze film flow behavior was performed by a plastometer which monitors the change of thickness of a prepreg specimen laid between two parallel plates under the specified temperature and pressure history. A critical evaluation of the plastometer data was attempted by examining the morphology of the specimen at various points during the squeeze flow. The effects of crosslinks (Mc) of resin, imidization (B-ataging) condition, and pressure on the squeeze flow behavior were examined. Results are given
Seeing Double at Neptune's South Pole
Keck near-infrared images of Neptune from UT 26 July 2007 show that the cloud
feature typically observed within a few degrees of Neptune's south pole had
split into a pair of bright spots. A careful determination of disk center
places the cloud centers at -89.07 +/- 0 .06 and -87.84 +/- 0.06 degrees
planetocentric latitude. If modeled as optically thick, perfectly reflecting
layers, we find the pair of features to be constrained to the troposphere, at
pressures greater than 0.4 bar. By UT 28 July 2007, images with comparable
resolution reveal only a single feature near the south pole. The changing
morphology of these circumpolar clouds suggests they may form in a region of
strong convection surrounding a Neptunian south polar vortex.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figures; accepted to Icaru
Climate research Netherlands : research highlights
In the Netherlands the temperature has risen, on average, by 1.6°C since 1900. Regional climate scenarios for the 21st century developed by the Dutch Royal Meteorological Institute [1] show that temperature in the Netherlands will continue to rise and mild winters and hot summers will become more common. On average winters will become wetter and extreme precipitation amounts will increase. The intensity of extreme rain showers in summer will increase and the sea level will continue to rise. Changing climate will affect all segments and sectors of the society and the economy of the Netherlands, but it also brings new opportunities for major innovation
Mutual Event Observations of Io's Sodium Corona
We have measured the column density profile of Io's sodium corona using 10 mutual eclipses between the Galilean satellites. This approach circumvents the problem of spatially resolving Io's corona directly from Io's bright continuum in the presence of atmospheric seeing and telescopic scattering. The primary goal is to investigate the spatial and temporal variations of Io's corona. Spectra from the Keck Observatory and McDonald Observatory from 1997 reveal a corona that is only approximately spherically symmetric around Io. Comparing the globally averaged radial sodium column density profile in the corona with profiles measured in 1991 and 1985, we find that there has been no significant variation. However, there appears to be a previously undetected asymmetry: the corona above Io's sub-Jupiter hemisphere is consistently more dense than above the anti-Jupiter hemisphere
Retrieving Neptune's aerosol properties from Keck OSIRIS observations. I. Dark regions
We present and analyze three-dimensional data cubes of Neptune from the
OSIRIS integral-field spectrograph on the 10-m Keck telescope, from July 2009.
These data have a spatial resolution of 0.035"/pixel and spectral resolution of
R~3800 in the H and K broad bands. We focus our analysis on regions of
Neptune's atmosphere that are near-infrared dark- that is, free of discrete
bright cloud features. We use a forward model coupled to a Markov chain Monte
Carlo algorithm to retrieve properties of Neptune's aerosol structure and
methane profile above ~4 bar in these near-infrared dark regions.
Using a set of high signal-to-noise spectra in a cloud-free band from 2-12N,
we find that Neptune's cloud opacity is dominated by a compact, optically thick
cloud layer with a base near 3 bar and composed of low albedo, forward
scattering particles, with an assumed characteristic size of ~1m. Above
this cloud, we require a vertically extended haze of smaller (~0.1 m)
particles, which reaches from the upper troposphere (~0.6 bar) into the
stratosphere. The particles in this haze are brighter and more isotropically
scattering than those in the deep cloud. When we extend our analysis to 18
cloud-free locations from 20N to 87S, we observe that the optical depth in
aerosols above 0.5 bar decreases by a factor of 2-3 or more at mid- and
high-southern latitudes relative to low latitudes.
We also consider Neptune's methane (CH) profile, and find that our
retrievals indicate a strong preference for a low methane relative humidity at
pressures where methane is expected to condense. Our preferred solution at most
locations is for a methane relative humidity below 10% near the tropopause in
addition to methane depletion down to 2.0-2.5 bar. We tentatively identify a
trend of lower CH columns above 2.5 bar at mid- and high-southern latitudes
over low latitudes.Comment: Published in Icarus: 15 September 201
Heavy particle concentration in turbulence at dissipative and inertial scales
Spatial distributions of heavy particles suspended in an incompressible
isotropic and homogeneous turbulent flow are investigated by means of high
resolution direct numerical simulations. In the dissipative range, it is shown
that particles form fractal clusters with properties independent of the
Reynolds number. Clustering is there optimal when the particle response time is
of the order of the Kolmogorov time scale . In the inertial range,
the particle distribution is no longer scale-invariant. It is however shown
that deviations from uniformity depend on a rescaled contraction rate, which is
different from the local Stokes number given by dimensional analysis. Particle
distribution is characterized by voids spanning all scales of the turbulent
flow; their signature in the coarse-grained mass probability distribution is an
algebraic behavior at small densities.Comment: 4 RevTeX pgs + 4 color Figures included, 1 figure eliminated second
part of the paper completely revise
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