Cosmological simulations with disformally coupled symmetron fields

We investigate statistical properties of the distribution of matter at redshift zero in disformal gravity by using N-body simulations. The disformal model studied here consists of a conformally coupled symmetron field with an additional exponential disformal term. We conduct cosmological simulations to discover the impact of the new disformal terms in the matter power spectrum, halo mass function, and radial profile of the scalar field. We calculated the disformal geodesic equation and the equation of motion for the scalar field. We then implemented these equations into the N-body code ISIS, which is a modified gravity version of the code RAMSES. The presence of a conformal symmetron field increases both the power spectrum and mass function compared to standard gravity on small scales. Our main finding is that the newly added disformal terms tend to counteract these effects and can make the evolution slightly closer to standard gravity. We finally show that the disformal terms give rise to oscillations of the scalar field in the centre of the dark matter haloes.Comment: Updated version to reflect the journal accepted paper. Added one figure. 7 pages, 7 figure

The Variable Scale Evacuation Model (VSEM): a new tool for simulating massive evacuation processes during volcanic crises

Volcanic eruptions are among the most awesome and powerful displays of nature's force, constituting a major natural hazard for society (a single eruption can claim thousands of lives in an instant). Consequently, assessment and management of volcanic risk have become critically important goals of modern volcanology. Over recent years, numerous tools have been developed to evaluate volcanic risk and support volcanic crisis management: probabilistic analysis of future eruptions, hazard and risk maps, event trees, etc. However, there has been little improvement in the tools that may help Civil Defense officials to prepare Emergency Plans. Here we present a new tool for simulating massive evacuation processes during volcanic crisis: the Variable Scale Evacuation Model (VSEM). The main objective of the VSEM software is to optimize the evacuation process of Emergency Plans during volcanic crisis. For this, the VSEM allows the simulation of an evacuation considering different strategies depending on diverse impact scenarios. VSEM is able to calculate the required time for the complete evacuation taking into account diverse evacuation scenarios (number and type of population, infrastructure, road network, etc.) and to detect high-risk or "blackspots" of the road network. The program is versatile and can work at different scales, thus being capable of simulating the evacuation of small villages as well as huge cities

Research on the Friction Properties of DP600 Stainless Steel as a Function of Bending Angle and Pin Diameter

[EN] The rapid evolution of materials and manufacturing processes, driven by global competition and new safety and environmental regulations has had an impact on automotive structures (Body In White; BIW) manufacturing. The need for lighter vehicles, with more equipment, that are safer and eco-friendly at the same time, relates to the entire life cycle of the car. Car and steelmakers agree that weight reduction is possible, and the solution involves the use of new advanced high-strength steels. Thinner and stronger materials lead to higher demands on stamping, the most used manufacturing in BIW parts. The use of advanced high-strength steels raises new challenges, especially concerning the lubrication between the die and the sheet. To study the lubrication conditions of the stamping process, a sheet metal forming a simulator was developed. The simulator consists of two cylinders that pull the strip of steel and a pin in between. The angle between the cylinders can be adjusted from 0 to 90 degrees, which allows analysis of the effect of the stamping angle. The pull force and velocity can be set and measured, and the peripheric pin velocity, the strain, and the strain velocity can be measured as well. In this work, the tribological properties of Dual-Phase 600 stainless steel using different processing conditions have been analyzed. To this end, a factorial experiments design with twelve parameters that compare the behavior of different angles and diameters was run. The results showed that the friction coefficient increases by increasing the bending angle and decreases with pin diameter.Sanchez-Caballero, S.; Sellés, M.; Pla-Ferrando, R.; Segui Llinares, VJ.; Peydro, MA. (2021). Research on the Friction Properties of DP600 Stainless Steel as a Function of Bending Angle and Pin Diameter. Materials Proceedings. 3(1):1-7. https://doi.org/10.3390/IEC2M-09248173

The slingshot effect as a probe of transverse motions of galaxies

Context: There are currently no reliable methods to measure the transverse velocities of galaxies. This is an important piece of information that is lacking in galaxy catalogues, and it could allow us to probe the physics of structure formation and to test the underlying theory of gravity. The slingshot effect (a special case of the integrated Sachs–Wolfe effect) is expected to create dipole signals in the temperature fluctuations of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation. This effect creates a hot spot behind and a cold spot in front of moving massive objects. The dipole signal created by the slingshot effect can be used to measure transverse velocities, but because the signal is expected to be weak, the effect has not been measured yet. Aims: Our aim is to show that the slingshot effect can be measured by stacking the signals of galaxies falling into a collapsing cluster. Furthermore, we evaluate whether the effect can probe modified gravity. Methods: We used data from a simulated galaxy catalogue (MultiDark Planck 2) to mimic observations. We identified a 1015 M⊙ cluster, and made maps of the slingshot effect for photons passing near 8438 infalling galaxies. To emulate instrument noise, we added uncorrelated Gaussian noise to each map. We assumed that the average velocity is directed towards the centre of the cluster. The maps were rotated according to the expected direction of motion. This assures that the dipole signal adds up constructively when stacking the maps. We compared the stacked maps to a dipole stencil to determine the quality of the signal. We also evaluated the probability of fitting the stencil in the absence of the slingshot signal. Results: Each galaxy gives a signal of around ΔT/T ≈ 10−9, while the current precision of CMB experiments is ΔT/T ≈ 4 × 10−6. By stacking around 10 000 galaxies and performing a stencil fit, the slingshot signal can be over the detectable threshold with today’s experiments. However, due to the difficulty of distinguishing an actual signal from false positives, future CMB experiments must be used to be certain of the strength of the observed signal

Toward condition monitoring of damper windings in synchronous motors via EMD analysis

(c) 2012 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works.[EN] Failures in damper windings of synchronous machines operating in real facilities have been recently reported by several authors and companies. These windings are crucial elements of synchronous motors and generators, playing an important role in the asynchronous startup of these machines as well as in their stability during load transients. However, the diagnosis of failures in such elements has barely been studied in the literature. This paper presents a method to diagnose the condition of damper bars in synchronous motors. It is based on the capture of the stator current of the machine during a direct startup and its further analysis in order to track the characteristic transient evolution of a particular fault-related component in the time-frequency map. The fact that the damper only carries significant current during the startup and little or no current, when the machine operates in steady state, makes this transient-based approach specially suited for the detection of such failure. The Hilbert-Huang transform (based on the empirical mode decomposition method) is proposed as a signal-processing tool. Simulation and experimental results on laboratory synchronous machines prove the validity of the approach for condition monitoring of such windings. © 2012 IEEE.This work was supported by the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacion (MICINN) in the framework of the VI Plan Nacional de Investigacion Cientifica, Desarrollo e Innovacion Tecnologica 2008-2011. (Programa Nacional de proyectos de Investigacion Fundamental, project reference DPI2011-23740). Paper no. TEC-00443-2011.Antonino-Daviu, J.; Riera-Guasp, M.; Pons Llinares, J.; Roger-Folch, J.; Perez, R.; Charlton-Perez, C. (2012). Toward condition monitoring of damper windings in synchronous motors via EMD analysis. IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion. 27(2):432-439. https://doi.org/10.1109/TEC.2012.2190292S43243927

Formulation and optimization of emulsions based on bitter fennel essential oil and EO/BO block copolymer surfactant

The influence of EO/BO block copolymer surfactant concentration in the range (1–5% (m/m)) and emulsification time on the emulsion stability and droplet size distribution of bitter fennel essential oil-in-water emulsions has been studied. Essential oils are promising material to be used for emulsion formulation with applications in cosmetics, food industry and agrochemicals. In the latter field these emulsions may be used as matrices for pesticides, where essential oils play the role of an eco-friendly solvent. A two-factor central composite design was conducted in order to optimize the emulsion formulation and processing. Emulsion stability has been studied as function of ageing time, by multiple light scattering (Turbiscan Lab-expert, Formulaction) and laser diffraction (Mastersizer X, Malvern). The surface response methodology allowed us to obtain a formulation comprising minimum droplet size and maximum stability by using a single step rotor/stator homogenization process. Creaming turned out to be the main destabilization mechanism. In order to improve emulsion stability the influence of high pressure homogenization (M110P, Microfluidics, MA, USA) and addition of a weighting agent (rosin gum) was studied. Although lower droplet sizes were obtained in both cases (D3,2 were in the range 0.30–0.35 μm), emulsions were more unstable maybe due to Ostwald ripening phenomena.(Project CTQ2015-70700-P) from theSpanish Ministerio de Economía y CompetitividadEuropean Commission (FEDER Programme)Bordas Chinchurreta and KA

Equilibrium and kinetic studies on complex formation and decomposition and the movement of Cu2+metal ions within polytopic receptors

Potentiometric studies carried out on the interaction of two tritopic double-scorpiand receptors in which two equivalent 5-(2-aminoethyl)-2,5,8-triaza[9]-(2,6)-pyridinophane moieties are linked with 2,9- dimethylphenanthroline (L1) and 2,6-dimethylpyridine (L2) establish the formation of mono-, bi- and trinuclear Cu2+ complexes. The values of the stability constants and paramagnetic 1H NMR studies permit one to infer the most likely coordination modes of the various complexes formed. Kinetic studies on complex formation and decomposition have also been carried out. Complex formation occurs with polyphasic kinetics for both receptors, although a significant difference is found between both ligands with respect to the relative values of the rate constants for the metal coordination steps and the structural reorganizations following them. Complex decomposition occurs with two separate kinetic steps, the first one being so fast that it occurs within the stopped-flow mixing time, whereas the second one is slow enough to allow kinetic studies using a conventional spectrophotometer. As a whole, the kinetic experiments also provide information about the movement of the metal ion within the receptors. The differences observed between the different receptors can be interpreted in terms of changes in the network of hydrogen bonds formed in the different species

Finite elements analysis and multiobjective optimization: A way to reduce material and manufacturing cost

The aim of this paper is to introduce a method to reduce the weight in structures which are subjected to multiple restrictions like deformation, max allowable stress, natural frequency, etc.. The method is shown through the analysis of an aluminum bracket, whose maximum stress and deformation is well defined. The analysis is done using the Structural and Design of Experiments modules of Ansys Workbench v12.1. As result of the method a weight reduction of 50,2% is achieved.Sanchez-Caballero, S.; Sellés Cantó, MÁ.; Pla-Ferrando, R.; Segui Llinares, VJ. (2012). Finite elements analysis and multiobjective optimization: A way to reduce material and manufacturing cost. AIP Conference Proceedings. 1431:719-724. doi:10.1063/1.4707628S719724143

An investigation into CLIL-related sections of EFL coursebooks : issues of CLIL inclusion in the publishing market

The current ELT global coursebook market has embraced CLIL as a weak form of bilingual education and an innovative component to include in General English coursebooks for EFL contexts. In this paper I investigate how CLIL is included in ELT coursebooks aimed at teenaged learners, available to teachers in Argentina. My study is based on the content analysis of four series which include a section advertised as CLIL-oriented. Results suggest that such sections are characterised by (1) little correlation between featured subject specific content and school curricula in L1, (2) oversimplification of contents, and (3) dominance of reading skills development and lower-order thinking tasks. Through this study, I argue that CLIL components become superficial supplements rather than a meaningful attempt to promote weak forms of bilingual education