1,270 research outputs found
Global existence for the spherically symmetric Einstein-Vlasov system with outgoing matter
We prove a new global existence result for the asymptotically flat,
spherically symmetric Einstein-Vlasov system which describes in the framework
of general relativity an ensemble of particles which interact by gravity. The
data are such that initially all the particles are moving radially outward and
that this property can be bootstrapped. The resulting non-vacuum spacetime is
future geodesically complete.Comment: 16 page
Scaling-up experiments of smouldering combustion as a remediation technology for contaminated soil
Self-sustaining Treatment for Active Remediation (STAR) is a novel, patent-pending process that uses smouldering combustion as a remediation technology for land contaminated with hazardous organic liquids. Compounds such as chlorinated solvents, coal tar and petroleum products, called Non-Aqueous Phase Liquids (NAPLs) for their low miscibility with water, have a long history of use in the industrialised world and are among the most ubiquitous of contaminants worldwide. These contaminants are toxic and many are suspected or known carcinogens. Existing remediation technologies are expensive and ineffective at reducing NAPL source zones sufficiently to restore affected water resources to appropriate quality levels. STAR introduces a self-sustaining smouldering reaction within the NAPL pool in the subsurface and allows that reaction to provide all of the post-ignition energy required by the reaction to completely remediate the NAPL source zone in the soil. Results from laboratory and field experiments have been very promising. Laboratory experiments have demonstrated STAR across a wide range of NAPL fuels and focused on coal tar to identify key parameters for successful remediation. Modelling has suggested that STAR efficiency will improve with scale as effects such as heat losses from boundaries become less significant. Observations from field experiments support the modelling theory - significantly lower relative air flow in a smouldering field experiment (330L) led to faster smouldering front propagation than observed in laboratory experiments (1L and 3L). Preliminary emissions monitoring by Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy has suggested that STAR emissions might be low enough to meet regulatory requirements, but further study is necessary. As emissions are expected to vary with each contaminant, activated carbon filters are being developed and tested in case emissions filtration is necessary. Experiments at all scales have demonstrated that STAR is controllable and self-terminating. Pilot-scale (2500L) field trials are underway to demonstrate STAR on excavated contaminated soil. The materials that will be studied in these trials are manufactured coal tar in coarse sand (which is the same material as used in the laboratory and field experiments) as well as two soils obtained from coal tar contaminated sites. This poster focuses on the scale-up to these field trials, including small scale characterisation, large scale performance, emissions monitoring and post-treatment soil analysis
Experimental studies of self-sustaining thermal aquifer remediation (STAR) for non-aqueous phase liquid (NAPL) sources
Self-sustaining Thermal Aquifer Remediation (STAR) is a novel technology that employs smouldering combustion for the remediation of subsurface contamination by non-aqueous phase liquids (NAPLs). Smouldering is a form of combustion that is slower and less energetic than flaming combustion. Familiar examples of smouldering involve solid fuels that are destroyed by the reaction (e.g., a smouldering cigarette or peat smouldering after a wildfire). In STAR, the NAPL serves as the fuel within an inert, porous soil medium. Results from experiments across a range of scales are very promising. Detailed characterisation has focused on coal tar, a common denser-than-water NAPL (DNAPL) contaminant. Complete remediation is demonstrated across this range of scales. Visual observations are supported bychemical extraction results. Further experiments suggest that STAR can be self-sustaining, meaning that once ignited the process can supply its own energy to propagate. Costly energy input is reduced significantly. Comparison of large scale to small scale laboratory experiments, a volume increase by a factor of 100, suggests that STAR process efficiency increases with scale. This increase in efficiency results from reduced heat losses at larger scales while maximum the temperature achieved by STAR is unaffected. The research also demonstrates the controllability of STAR, where the termination of airflow to the reaction terminates the STAR process. The scale-up process provides important guidance to the development of full scale STAR for ex situ remediation of NAPL-contaminated soil
Small-scale forward smouldering experiments for remediation of coal tar in inert media
This paper presents a series of experiments conducted to assess the potential of smouldering combustion as a novel technology for remediation of contaminated land by water-immiscible organic compounds. The results from a detailed study of the conditions under which a smouldering reaction propagates in sand embedded with coal tar are presented. The objective of the study is to provide further understanding of the governing mechanisms of smouldering combustion of liquids in porous media. A small-scale apparatus consisting of a 100 mm in diameter quartz cylinder arranged in an upward configuration was used for the experiments. Thermocouple measurements and visible digital imaging served to track and characterize the ignition and propagation of the smouldering reaction. These two diagnostics are combined here to provide valuable information on the development of the reaction front. Post-treatment analyses of the sand were used to assess the amount of coal tar remaining in the soil. Experiments explored a range of inlet airflows and fuel concentrations. The smouldering ignition of coal tar was achieved for all the conditions presented here and self-sustained propagation was established after the igniter was turned off. It was found that the combustion is oxygen limited and peak temperatures in the range 800-1080 °C were observed. The peak temperature increased with the airflow at the lower range of flows but decreased with airflow at the higher range of flows. Higher airflows were found to produce faster propagation. Higher fuel concentrations were found to produce higher peak temperatures and slower propagation. The measured mass removal of coal tar was above 99% for sand obtained from the core and 98% for sand in the periphery of the apparatus
Critical collapse of collisionless matter - a numerical investigation
In recent years the threshold of black hole formation in spherically
symmetric gravitational collapse has been studied for a variety of matter
models. In this paper the corresponding issue is investigated for a matter
model significantly different from those considered so far in this context. We
study the transition from dispersion to black hole formation in the collapse of
collisionless matter when the initial data is scaled. This is done by means of
a numerical code similar to those commonly used in plasma physics. The result
is that for the initial data for which the solutions were computed, most of the
matter falls into the black hole whenever a black hole is formed. This results
in a discontinuity in the mass of the black hole at the onset of black hole
formation.Comment: 22 pages, LaTeX, 7 figures (ps-files, automatically included using
psfig
The Einstein-Vlasov sytem/Kinetic theory
The main purpose of this article is to guide the reader to theorems on global
properties of solutions to the Einstein-Vlasov system. This system couples
Einstein's equations to a kinetic matter model. Kinetic theory has been an
important field of research during several decades where the main focus has
been on nonrelativistic- and special relativistic physics, e.g. to model the
dynamics of neutral gases, plasmas and Newtonian self-gravitating systems. In
1990 Rendall and Rein initiated a mathematical study of the Einstein-Vlasov
system. Since then many theorems on global properties of solutions to this
system have been established. The Vlasov equation describes matter
phenomenologically and it should be stressed that most of the theorems
presented in this article are not presently known for other such matter models
(e.g. fluid models). The first part of this paper gives an introduction to
kinetic theory in non-curved spacetimes and then the Einstein-Vlasov system is
introduced. We believe that a good understanding of kinetic theory in
non-curved spacetimes is fundamental in order to get a good comprehension of
kinetic theory in general relativity.Comment: 31 pages. This article has been submitted to Living Rev. Relativity
(http://www.livingreviews.org
The gravitational instability of a stream of co-orbital particles
We describe the dynamics of a stream of equally spaced macroscopic particles
in orbit around a central body (e.g. a planet or star). A co-orbital
configuration of small bodies may be subject to gravitational instability,
which takes the system to a spreading, disordered and collisional state. We
detail the linear instability's mathematical and physical features using the
shearing sheet model and subsequently track its nonlinear evolution with local
N-body simulations. This model provides a convenient tool with which to
understand the gravitational and collisional dynamics of narrow belts, such as
Saturn's F-ring and the streams of material wrenched from tidally disrupted
bodies. In particular, we study the tendency of these systems to form
long-lived particle aggregates. Finally, we uncover an unexpected connection
between the linear dynamics of the gravitational instability and the
magnetorotational instability.Comment: 11 pages, 7 figures, 1 table. MNRAS, accepte
Investigating dynamics in attentive and inattentive responding together with their contextual correlates using a novel mixture IRT model for intensive longitudinal data
In ecological momentary assessment (EMA), respondents answer brief questionnaires about their current behaviors or experiences several times per day across multiple days. The frequent measurement enables a thorough grasp of the dynamics inherent in psychological traits, but it also increases respondent burden. To lower this burden, respondents may engage in careless and insufficient effort responding (C/IER) and leave data contaminated with responses that do not reflect what researchers want to measure. We introduce a novel approach to investigate C/IER in EMA data. Our approach combines a confirmatory mixture item response theory model separating C/IER from attentive behavior with latent Markov factor analysis. This allows for (1) gauging the occurrence of C/IER and (2) studying transitions among states of different response behaviors as well as their contextual correlates. The approach can be implemented using standard R packages. In an empirical application, we showcase the efficacy of this approach in both pinpointing C/IER instances in EMA and gaining insights into their underlying causes. In a simulation study investigating robustness against unaccounted changes in measurement models underlying attentive responses, the approach proved robust against heterogeneity in loading patterns but not against heterogeneity in the factor structure. Extensions to accommodate the latter are discussed.<br/
An event-triggered machine learning approach for accelerometer-based fall detection
The fixed-size non-overlapping sliding window (FNSW) and fixed-size overlapping sliding window (FOSW) approaches are the most commonly used data-segmentation techniques in machine learning-based fall detection using accelerometer sensors. However, these techniques do not segment by fall stages (pre-impact, impact, and post-impact) and thus useful information is lost, which may reduce the detection rate of the classifier. Aligning the segment with the fall stage is difficult, as the segment size varies. We propose an event-triggered machine learning (EvenT-ML) approach that aligns each fall stage so that the characteristic features of the fall stages are more easily recognized. To evaluate our approach, two publicly accessible datasets were used. Classification and regression tree (CART), k-nearest neighbor (k-NN), logistic regression (LR), and the support vector machine (SVM) were used to train the classifiers. EvenT-ML gives classifier F-scores of 98% for a chest-worn sensor and 92% for a waist-worn sensor, and significantly reduces the computational cost compared with the FNSW- and FOSW-based approaches, with reductions of up to 8-fold and 78-fold, respectively. EvenT-ML achieves a significantly better F-score than existing fall detection approaches. These results indicate that aligning feature segments with fall stages significantly increases the detection rate and reduces the computational cost
Muon Spectra of Quasi-Elastic and 1-Pion Production Events in LBL Neutrino Oscillation Experiments
The muon energy spectra of the quasi-elastic and 1-pion production events in
a LBL experiment, like K2K, are predicted to follow closely the neutrino energy
spectrum, with downward shifts of the energy scale by and respectively. These predictions seem to agree with the
observed muon spectra in the K2K nearby detector. The corresponding muon
spectra in the far-away (SK) detector are predicted to show characteristic
spectral distortions induced by oscillation. Comparison of the
predicted spectral distortions with the observed muon spectra of the 1-Ring and
2-Ring muon events in the SK detector will help to determine the oscillation
parameters. The results will be applicable to other LBL experiments as well.Comment: 13 pages. One figure and a few comments added, final version to
appear in P
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