594 research outputs found
A new stall-onset criterion for low speed dynamic-stall
The Beddoes/Leishman dynamic-stall model has become one of the most popular for the provision of unsteady aerofoil data embedded in much larger codes. The underlying modeling philosophy was that it should be based on the best understanding, or description, of the associated physical phenomena. Even though the model was guided by the flow physics, it requires significant empirical inputs in the form of measured coefficients and constants. Beddoes provided these for a Mach number range of 0.3–0.8. This paper considers one such input for a Mach number of 0.12, where, from the Glasgow data, it is shown that the current stall-onset criterion, and subsequent adjustments, yield problematic results. A new stall criterion is proposed and developed in the best traditions of the model. It is shown to be very capable of reconstructing the Glasgow's data for stall onset both the ramp-up and oscillatory tests
Sums of products of Ramanujan sums
The Ramanujan sum is defined as the sum of -th powers of the
primitive -th roots of unity. We investigate arithmetic functions of
variables defined as certain sums of the products
, where are polynomials with
integer coefficients. A modified orthogonality relation of the Ramanujan sums
is also derived.Comment: 13 pages, revise
Effect of dynamic stall on the aerodynamics of vertical-axis wind turbines
Accurate simulations of the aerodynamic performance of vertical-axis wind turbines pose a significant challenge for computational fluid dynamics methods. The aerodynamic interaction between the blades of the rotor and the wake that is produced by the blades requires a high-fidelity representation of the convection of vorticity within the wake. In addition, the cyclic motion of the blades induces large variations in the angle of attack on the blades that can manifest as dynamic stall. The present paper describes the application of a numerical model that is based on the vorticity transport formulation of the Navier–Stokes equations, to the prediction of the aerodynamics of a verticalaxis wind turbine that consists of three curved rotor blades that are twisted helically around the rotational axis of the rotor. The predicted variation of the power coefficient with tip speed ratio compares very favorably with experimental measurements. It is demonstrated that helical blade twist reduces the oscillation of the power coefficient that is an inherent feature of turbines with non-twisted blade configurations
Thermal transport in granular metals
We study the electron thermal transport in granular metals at large tunnel
conductance between the grains, and not too low a temperature , where is the mean energy level spacing for a single grain.
Taking into account the electron-electron interaction effects we calculate the
thermal conductivity and show that the Wiedemann-Franz law is violated for
granular metals. We find that interaction effects suppress the thermal
conductivity less than the electrical conductivity.Comment: Replaced with published versio
Consequences of converting graded to action potentials upon neural information coding and energy efficiency
Information is encoded in neural circuits using both graded and action potentials, converting between them within single neurons and successive processing layers. This conversion is accompanied by information loss and a drop in energy efficiency. We investigate the biophysical causes of this loss of information and efficiency by comparing spiking neuron models, containing stochastic voltage-gated Na+ and K+ channels, with generator potential and graded potential models lacking voltage-gated Na+ channels. We identify three causes of information loss in the generator potential that are the by-product of action potential generation: (1) the voltage-gated Na+ channels necessary for action potential generation increase intrinsic noise and (2) introduce non-linearities, and (3) the finite duration of the action potential creates a ‘footprint’ in the generator potential that obscures incoming signals. These three processes reduce information rates by ~50% in generator potentials, to ~3 times that of spike trains. Both generator potentials and graded potentials consume almost an order of magnitude less energy per second than spike trains. Because of the lower information rates of generator potentials they are substantially less energy efficient than graded potentials. However, both are an order of magnitude more efficient than spike trains due to the higher energy costs and low information content of spikes, emphasizing that there is a two-fold cost of converting analogue to digital; information loss and cost inflation
Factorizations and Physical Representations
A Hilbert space in M dimensions is shown explicitly to accommodate
representations that reflect the prime numbers decomposition of M.
Representations that exhibit the factorization of M into two relatively prime
numbers: the kq representation (J. Zak, Phys. Today, {\bf 23} (2), 51 (1970)),
and related representations termed representations (together with
their conjugates) are analysed, as well as a representation that exhibits the
complete factorization of M. In this latter representation each quantum number
varies in a subspace that is associated with one of the prime numbers that make
up M
How do field of view and resolution affect the information content of panoramic scenes for visual navigation? A computational investigation
The visual systems of animals have to provide information to guide behaviour and the informational requirements of an animal’s behavioural repertoire are often reflected in its sensory system. For insects, this is often evident in the optical array of the compound eye. One behaviour that insects share with many animals is the use of learnt visual information for navigation. As ants are expert visual navigators it may be that their vision is optimised for navigation. Here we take a computational approach in asking how the details of the optical array influence the informational content of scenes used in simple view matching strategies for orientation. We find that robust orientation is best achieved with low-resolution visual information and a large field of view, similar to the optical properties seen for many ant species. A lower resolution allows for a trade-off between specificity and generalisation for stored views. Additionally, our simulations show that orientation performance increases if different portions of the visual field are considered as discrete visual sensors, each giving an independent directional estimate. This suggests that ants might benefit by processing information from their two eyes independently
Healthier prisons: The role of a prison visitors' centre
Since the inception of the prison as a ‘setting’ for health promotion, there has been a focus on how the health of those men and women who spend ‘time inside’ can at least be maintained and if possible, enhanced, during their prison sentence. This paper presents findings from a mainly qualitative evaluation of a prison visitors' centre in the UK. It reports experiences of prisoners' families, prisoners, prison staff, the local community and the ways in which the visitors' centre has contributed positively to their health and well-being. In addition, key stakeholders were interviewed to ascertain the role this visitors' centre has in policy frameworks related to re-offending. The findings from this evaluation underscore how the visitors' centre improved the quality of visits, and contributed towards the maintenance of family ties through the help and support it provides for families and prisoners. The paper concludes by suggesting that visitors' centres are an essential part of a modern prison service helping to address the government's health inequalities agenda
Zipf's Law : Balancing signal usage cost and communication efficiency
Copyright: © 2015 Salge et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are creditedWe propose a model that explains the reliable emergence of power laws (e.g., Zipf's law) during the development of different human languages. The model incorporates the principle of least effort in communications, minimizing a combination of the information-Theoretic communication inefficiency and direct signal cost. We prove a general relationship, for all optimal languages, between the signal cost distribution and the resulting distribution of signals. Zipf's law then emerges for logarithmic signal cost distributions, which is the cost distribution expected for words constructed from letters or phonemes. Copyright:Peer reviewedFinal Published versio
Growing smooth interfaces with inhomogeneous, moving external fields: dynamical transitions, devil's staircases and self-assembled ripples
We study the steady state structure and dynamics of an interface in a pure
Ising system on a square lattice placed in an inhomogeneous external field. The
field has a profile with a fixed shape designed to stabilize a flat interface,
and is translated with velocity v_e. For small v_e, the interface is stuck to
the profile, is macroscopically smooth, and is rippled with a periodicity in
general incommensurate with the lattice parameter. For arbitrary orientations
of the profile, the local slope of the interface locks in to one of infinitely
many rational values (devil's staircase) which most closely approximates the
profile. These ``lock-in'' structures and ripples dissappear as v_e increases.
For still larger v_e the profile detaches from the interface which is now
characterized by standard Kardar-Parisi-Zhang (KPZ) exponents.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, published version, minor change
- …