2,672 research outputs found
Development of a fiber optic high temperature strain sensor
From 1 Apr. 1991 to 31 Aug. 1992, the Georgia Tech Research Institute conducted a research program to develop a high temperature fiber optic strain sensor as part of a measurement program for the space shuttle booster rocket motor. The major objectives of this program were divided into four tasks. Under Task 1, the literature on high-temperature fiber optic strain sensors was reviewed. Task 2 addressed the design and fabrication of the strain sensor. Tests and calibration were conducted under Task 3, and Task 4 was to generate recommendations for a follow-on study of a distributed strain sensor. Task 4 was submitted to NASA as a separate proposal
Distributional Impacts of a U.S. Greenhouse Gas Policy: A General Equilibrium Analysis of Carbon Pricing
Abstract and PDF report are also available on the MIT Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change website (http://globalchange.mit.edu/).We develop a new model of the U.S., the U.S. Regional Energy Policy (USREP) model that is resolved for large states and regions of the U.S. and by income class and apply the model to investigate a $15 per ton CO2 equivalent price on greenhouse gas emissions. Previous estimates of distributional impacts of carbon pricing have been done outside of the model simulation and have been based on energy expenditure patterns of households in different regions and of different income levels. By estimating distributional effects within the economic model, we include the effects of changes in capital returns and wages on distribution and find that the effects are significant and work against the expenditure effects. We find the following:
First, while results based only on energy expenditure have shown carbon pricing to be regressive we find the full distributional effect to be neutral or slightly progressive. This demonstrates the importance of tracing through all economic impacts and not just focusing on spending side impacts.
Second, the ultimate impact of such a policy on households depends on how allowances, or the revenue raised from auctioning them, is used. Free distribution to firms would be highly regressive, benefiting higher income households and forcing lower income households to bear the full cost of the policy and what amounts to a transfer of wealth to higher income households. Lump sum distribution through equal-sized household rebates would make lower income households absolutely better off while shifting the costs to higher income households. Schemes that would cut taxes are generally slightly regressive but improve somewhat the overall efficiency of the program.
Third, proposed legislation would distribute allowances to local distribution companies (electricity and natural gas distributors) and public utility commissions would then determine how the value of those allowances was used. A significant risk in such a plan is that distribution to households might be perceived as lowering utility rates That reduced the efficiency of the policy we examined by 40 percent.
Finally, the states on the coasts bear little cost or can benefit because of the distribution of allowance revenue while mid-America and southern states bear the highest costs. This regional pattern reflects energy consumption and energy production difference among states. Use of allowance revenue to cut taxes generally exacerbates these regional differences because coastal states are also generally higher income states, and those with higher incomes benefit more from tax cuts.MIT Joint Program on the Science
and Policy of Global Change through a combination of government, industry, and foundation
funding, the MIT Energy Initiative, and additional support for this work from a coalition of
industrial sponsors
Calculation of AGARD Wing 445.6 Flutter Using Navier-Stokes Aerodynamics
An unsteady, 3D, implicit upwind Euler/Navier-Stokes algorithm is here used to compute the flutter characteristics of Wing 445.6, the AGARD standard aeroelastic configuration for dynamic response, with a view to the discrepancy between Euler characteristics and experimental data. Attention is given to effects of fluid viscosity, structural damping, and number of structural model nodes. The flutter characteristics of the wing are determined using these unsteady generalized aerodynamic forces in a traditional V-g analysis. The V-g analysis indicates that fluid viscosity has a significant effect on the supersonic flutter boundary for this wing
Distributional Implications of Alternative U.S. Greenhouse Gas Control Measures
We analyze the distributional and efficiency impacts of different allowance allocation schemes for a national cap and trade system using the USREP model, a new recursive dynamic computable general equilibrium model of the U.S. economy. The USREP model tracks nine different income groups and twelve different geographic regions with the United States. Recently proposed legislation include the Waxman-Markey House bill, the similar Kerry-Boxer bill in the Senate that has been replaced by a Kerry-Lieberman draft bill, and the Cantwell-Collins Senate bill that takes a different approach to revenue allocation. We consider allocation schemes motivated by the recent proposals applied to a comprehensive national cap and trade system that limits cumulative greenhouse gas emissions over the control period to 203 billion metric tons. The policy target approximates national goals identified in pending legislation. We find that the allocation schemes in all proposals are progressive over the lower half of the income distribution and proportional in the upper half of the income distribution. Scenarios based on the Cantwell-Collins allocation proposal are less progressive in early years and have lower welfare costs due to smaller redistribution to low income households and consequently lower income-induced increases in energy demand and less savings and investment. Scenarios based on the other three allocation schemes tend to overcompensate some adversely affected income groups and regions in early years but this dissipates over time as the allowance allocation effect becomes weaker. Finally we find that carbon pricing by itself (ignoring the return of carbon revenues through allowance allocations) is proportional to modestly progressive. This striking result follows from the dominance of the sources over uses side impacts of the policy and stands in sharp contrast to previous work that has focused only on the uses side. The main reason is that lower is that lower income households derive a large fraction of income from government transfers and, reflecting the reality that these are generally indexed to inflation, we hold the transfers constant in real terms. As a result this source of income is unaffected by carbon pricing, while wage and capital income is affected.
NASA Trapezoidal Wing Computations Including Transition and Advanced Turbulence Modeling
Flow about the NASA Trapezoidal Wing is computed with several turbulence models by using grids from the first High Lift Prediction Workshop in an effort to advance understanding of computational fluid dynamics modeling for this type of flowfield. Transition is accounted for in many of the computations. In particular, a recently-developed 4-equation transition model is utilized and works well overall. Accounting for transition tends to increase lift and decrease moment, which improves the agreement with experiment. Upper surface flap separation is reduced, and agreement with experimental surface pressures and velocity profiles is improved. The predicted shape of wakes from upstream elements is strongly influenced by grid resolution in regions above the main and flap elements. Turbulence model enhancements to account for rotation and curvature have the general effect of increasing lift and improving the resolution of the wing tip vortex as it convects downstream. However, none of the models improve the prediction of surface pressures near the wing tip, where more grid resolution is needed
Poincar\'e and sl(2) algebras of order 3
In this paper we initiate a general classification for Lie algebras of order
3 and we give all Lie algebras of order 3 based on
and the Poincar\'e algebra in four-dimensions. We then
set the basis of the theory of the deformations (in the Gerstenhaber sense) and
contractions for Lie algebras of order 3.Comment: Title and presentation change
Assessment of Buffet Forcing Function Development Process Using Unsteady Pressure Sensitive Paint
A wind tunnel test was conducted at the Ames Unitary Plan Wind Tunnel to characterize the transonic buffet environment of a generic launch vehicle forebody. The test examined a highly instrumented version of the Coe and Nute Model 11 test article first tested in the 1960s. One of the measurement techniques used during this test was unsteady pressure sensitive paint (uPSP) developed at the Arnold Engineering Development Complex. This optical measurement technique measured fluctuating pressures at over 300,000 locations on the surface of the model. The high spatial density of these measurements provided an opportunity to examine in depth the assumptions underpinning the development of buffet forcing functions (BFFs) used in the development of the Space Launch System vehicle. The comparison of discrete-measurement-based BFFs to BFFs developed by continuous surface pressure integration indicates that the current BFF development approach under predicts low frequency content of the BFFs while over predicting high frequency content. Coherence-based adjustments employed to reduce over prediction in the surface integration of discrete pressure measurements contribute to the inaccuracy of the BFFs and their implementation should be reevaluated
Distributional Impacts of Carbon Pricing: A General Equilibrium Approach with Micro-Data for Households
Abstract and PDF report are also available on the MIT Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change website (http://globalchange.mit.edu/).Many policies to limit greenhouse gas emissions have at their core efforts to put a price on carbon emissions. Carbon pricing impacts households both by raising the cost of carbon intensive products and by changing factor prices. A complete analysis requires taking both effects into account. The impact of carbon pricing is determined by heterogeneity in household spending patterns across income groups as well as heterogeneity in factor income patterns across income groups. It is also affected by precise formulation of the policy (how is the revenue from carbon pricing distributed) as well as the treatment of other government policies (e.g. the treatment of transfer payments). What is often neglected in analyses of policy is the heterogeneity of impacts across households even within income or regional groups. In this paper, we incorporate 15,588 households from the U.S. Consumer and Expenditure Survey data as individual agents in a comparative-static general equilibrium framework. These households are represented within the MIT USREP model, a detailed general equilibrium model of the U.S. economy. In particular, we categorize households by full household income (factor income as well as transfer income) and apply various measures of lifetime income to distinguish households that are temporarily low-income (e.g., retired households drawing down their financial assets) from permanently low-income households. We also provide detailed within-group distributional measures of burden impacts from various policy scenarios.This study received support from the MIT Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change, which is funded by a consortium of government, industry and foundation sponsors
Ground-State SiO Maser Emission Toward Evolved Stars
We have made the first unambiguous detection of vibrational ground-state
maser emission from SiO toward six evolved stars. Using the Very Large Array,
we simultaneously observed the v=0, J=1-0, 43.4-GHz, ground-state and the v=1,
J=1-0, 43.1-GHz, first excited-state transitions of SiO toward the oxygen-rich
evolved stars IRC+10011, o Ceti, W Hya, RX Boo, NML Cyg, and R Cas and the
S-type star chi Cyg. We detected at least one v=0 SiO maser feature from six of
the seven stars observed, with peak maser brightness temperatures ranging from
10,000 K to 108,800 K. In fact, four of the seven v=0 spectra show multiple
maser peaks, a phenomenon which has not been previously observed. Ground-state
thermal emission was detected for one of the stars, RX Boo, with a peak
brightness temperature of 200 K. Comparing the v=0 and the v=1 transitions, we
find that the ground-state masers are much weaker with spectral characteristics
different from those of the first excited-state masers. For four of the seven
stars the velocity dispersion is smaller for the v=0 emission than for the v=1
emission, for one star the dispersions are roughly equivalent, and for two
stars (one of which is RX Boo) the velocity spread of the v=0 emission is
larger. In most cases, the peak flux density in the v=0 emission spectrum does
not coincide with the v=1 maser peak. Although the angular resolution of these
VLA observations were insufficient to completely resolve the spatial structure
of the SiO emission, the SiO spot maps produced from the interferometric image
cubes suggest that the v=0 masers are more extended than their v=1
counterparts
Status Quo der Vermarktung ökologischer Ziegenmilchprodukte: Sicherung von mikrobiologischer Qualität und Authentizität am Modell der Region Hessen
Für eine Status-Quo-Erhebung am Modell der Region Hessen wurden ökologisch bzw. zu Vergleichszwecken konventionell erzeugte Ziegenmilchprodukte (Ziegenkäse) aus Direktvermarktung und Handel auf mikrobiologische Qualität und tierartspezifische Authentizität untersucht.
Die mikrobiologischen Untersuchungen von 183 Proben zeigen, dass Ziegenkäse aus regionaler Direktvermarktung in Hessen hinsichtlich Gesundheitsrisiken durch pathogene Keime kein über dem für vergleichbare Produkte liegendes Problem darstellt. Für Ziegenkäse aus einigen Betrieben wurden aber deutliche Hygienemängel festgestellt, in Produkten zweier Betriebe (davon ein ökologisch wirtschaftender Direktvermarkter) mit den stärksten Hygienemängeln wurden zudem Listeria monocytogenes nachgewiesen.
Die molekularbiologische Untersuchung von 160 als reine Ziegenmilchprodukte deklarierten Proben mittels PCR ergab, dass - mit Ausnahme der Produkte eines auffälligen Betriebes - ökologischen Produkte aus regionaler Direktvermarktung keine Kuhmilchzusätze enthielten. Bei Importprodukten war der Anteil positiver Proben je nach Ursprungsland sehr unterschiedlich.
Insgesamt ergab sich für die untersuchten Parameter somit ein überwiegend positives Gesamtbild, die Produkte einzelner Betriebe mussten jedoch als problematisch angesehen werden. Aufgrund der Befunde erscheint es sinnvoll, zur Sicherstellung einer durchgehend guten Qualität und der gesundheitlichen Unbedenklichkeit in einigen Bereichen, insbesondere im Hinblick auf mikrobiologische Hygienemarker, verstärkt Routineuntersuchungen durchzuführen
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