5,191 research outputs found
Capture of liquid hydrogen boiloff with metal hydride absorbers
A procedure which uses metal hydrides to capture some of this low pressure (,1 psig) hydrogen for subsequent reliquefaction is described. Of the five normally occurring sources of boil-off vapor the stream associated with the off-loading of liquid tankers during dewar refill was identified as the most cost effective and readily recoverable. The design, fabrication and testing of a proof-of-concept capture device, operating at a rate that is commensurate with the evolution of vapor by the target stream, is described. Liberation of the captured hydrogen gas at pressure .15 psig at normal temperatures (typical liquefier compressor suction pressure) are also demonstrated. A payback time of less than three years is projected
Maximum of N Independent Brownian Walkers till the First Exit From the Half Space
We consider the one-dimensional target search process that involves an
immobile target located at the origin and searchers performing independent
Brownian motions starting at the initial positions all on the positive half space. The process stops when the target is
first found by one of the searchers. We compute the probability distribution of
the maximum distance visited by the searchers till the stopping time and
show that it has a power law tail: for large . Thus all moments of up to the order
are finite, while the higher moments diverge. The prefactor increases
with faster than exponentially. Our solution gives the exit probability of
a set of particles from a box through the left boundary.
Incidentally, it also provides an exact solution of the Laplace's equation in
an -dimensional hypercube with some prescribed boundary conditions. The
analytical results are in excellent agreement with Monte Carlo simulations.Comment: 18 pages, 9 figure
Frictional dynamics of viscoelastic solids driven on a rough surface
We study the effect of viscoelastic dynamics on the frictional properties of
a (mean field) spring-block system pulled on a rough surface by an external
drive. When the drive moves at constant velocity V, two dynamical regimes are
observed: at fast driving, above a critical threshold Vc, the system slides at
the drive velocity and displays a friction force with velocity weakening. Below
Vc the steady sliding becomes unstable and a stick-slip regime sets in. In the
slide-hold-slide driving protocol, a peak of the friction force appears after
the hold time and its amplitude increases with the hold duration. These
observations are consistent with the frictional force encoded
phenomenologically in the rate-and-state equations. Our model gives a
microscopical basis for such macroscopic description.Comment: 10 figures, 7 pages, +4 pages of appendi
Universal interface width distributions at the depinning threshold
We compute the probability distribution of the interface width at the
depinning threshold, using recent powerful algorithms. It confirms the
universality classes found previously. In all cases, the distribution is
surprisingly well approximated by a generalized Gaussian theory of independant
modes which decay with a characteristic propagator G(q)=1/q^(d+2 zeta); zeta,
the roughness exponent, is computed independently. A functional renormalization
analysis explains this result and allows to compute the small deviations, i.e.
a universal kurtosis ratio, in agreement with numerics. We stress the
importance of the Gaussian theory to interpret numerical data and experiments.Comment: 4 pages revtex4. See also the following article cond-mat/030146
Free-energy distribution of the directed polymer at high temperature
We study the directed polymer of length in a random potential with fixed
endpoints in dimension 1+1 in the continuum and on the square lattice, by
analytical and numerical methods. The universal regime of high temperature
is described, upon scaling 'time' and space (with for the discrete model) by a continuum model with
-function disorder correlation. Using the Bethe Ansatz solution for the
attractive boson problem, we obtain all positive integer moments of the
partition function. The lowest cumulants of the free energy are predicted at
small time and found in agreement with numerics. We then obtain the exact
expression at any time for the generating function of the free energy
distribution, in terms of a Fredholm determinant. At large time we find that it
crosses over to the Tracy Widom distribution (TW) which describes the fixed
infinite limit. The exact free energy distribution is obtained for any time
and compared with very recent results on growth and exclusion models.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures large time limit corrected and convergence to
Tracy Widom established, 1 figure changed
Higher correlations, universal distributions and finite size scaling in the field theory of depinning
Recently we constructed a renormalizable field theory up to two loops for the
quasi-static depinning of elastic manifolds in a disordered environment. Here
we explore further properties of the theory. We show how higher correlation
functions of the displacement field can be computed. Drastic simplifications
occur, unveiling much simpler diagrammatic rules than anticipated. This is
applied to the universal scaled width-distribution. The expansion in
d=4-epsilon predicts that the scaled distribution coincides to the lowest
orders with the one for a Gaussian theory with propagator G(q)=1/q^(d+2 \zeta),
zeta being the roughness exponent. The deviations from this Gaussian result are
small and involve higher correlation functions, which are computed here for
different boundary conditions. Other universal quantities are defined and
evaluated: We perform a general analysis of the stability of the fixed point.
We find that the correction-to-scaling exponent is omega=-epsilon and not
-epsilon/3 as used in the analysis of some simulations. A more detailed study
of the upper critical dimension is given, where the roughness of interfaces
grows as a power of a logarithm instead of a pure power.Comment: 15 pages revtex4. See also preceding article cond-mat/030146
- …