Energy harvesting from earthquake for vibration-powered wireless sensors

Wireless sensor networks can facilitate the acquisition of useful data for the assessment and retrofitting of existing structures and infrastructures. In this perspective, recent studies have presented numerical and experimental results about self-powered wireless nodes for structural monitoring applications in the event of earthquake, wherein the energy is scavenged from seismic accelerations. A general computational approach for the analysis and design of energy harvesters under seismic loading, however, has not yet been presented. Therefore, this paper proposes a rational method that relies on the random vibrations theory for the electromechanical analysis of piezoelectric energy harvesters under seismic ground motion. In doing so, the ground acceleration is simulated by means of the Clough-Penzien filter. The considered piezoelectric harvester is a cantilever bimorph modeled as Euler-Bernoulli beam with concentrated mass at the free-end, and its global behavior is approximated by the dynamic response of the fundamental vibration mode only (which is tuned with the dominant frequency of the site soil). Once the Lyapunov equation of the coupled electromechanical problem has been formulated, mean and standard deviation of the generated electric energy are calculated. Numerical results for a cantilever bimorph which piezoelectric layers made of electrospun PVDF nanofibers are discussed in order to understand issues and perspectives about the use of wireless sensor nodes powered by earthquakes. A smart monitoring strategy for the experimental assessment of structures in areas struck by seismic events is finally illustrated

Searches for Clean Anomalous Gauge Couplings effects at present and future e+e−e^+e^- colliders

We consider the virtual effects of a general type of Anomalous (triple) Gauge Couplings on various experimental observables in the process of electron-positron annihilation into a final fermion-antifermion state. We show that the use of a recently proposed "$Z$-peak subtracted" theoretical description of the process allows to reduce substantially the number of relevant parameters of the model, so that a calculation of observability limits can be performed in a rather simple way. As an illustration of our approach, we discuss the cases of future measurements at LEP2 and at a new 500 GeV linear collider.Comment: 23 pages incl. 5 figures (e-mail [email protected]

Invisible Events with Radiative Photons at LEP

A study of the radiative neutrino counting reaction $e^+ e^- \to \nu {\bar \nu} \gamma$ at LEP1 and LEP2 energies is presented. An approximate expression for the spectrum of the observed photon is derived within the framework of the $p_t$-dependent structure function approach. This is compared with an exact expression and found in agreement within the foreseen experimental accuracy. This model describing single-photon radiation can be applied to the more general case of initial-state single-photon emission accompanying invisible final-state events. Higher-order QED corrections due to undetected initial-state radiation are also included. The implementation in a Monte Carlo event generator is briefly described.Comment: 10 pages, LaTeX, 7 figures available via anonymous ftp at: ftp://cobra1.pv.infn.it/pub/phot/, files fig#n.ps with #=1,...,

Optimal Design of Elastic Circular Plane Arches

Arches represent a structural system adopted in construction practice for thousand years, and they are still widely adopted if large spans have to be covered. The structural efficiency of arches principally depends on the minimization of the eccentricity of the pressure curve, which allow us to reduce their structural weight. Despite the millenarian use and a very abundant literature, there is still scope for design optimization of arches. This study is framed within this context and is focused on plane circular arches under uniformly distributed vertical load and self-weight. The arches are elastically clamped at both end sections. A semianalytical approach is developed to minimize the volume, with the aim of determining the fundamental mechanical parameters governing the optimal design. Finally, the results are charted to allow their use in a design process

Event Generators for Bhabha Scattering

The results obtained by the "Event Generators for Bhabha Scattering" working group during the CERN Workshop "Physics at LEP2" (1994/1995) are presented.Comment: 70 pages, PostScript file. To appear in the Report of the Workshop on Physics at LEP2, G. Altarelli T. Sjostrand and F. Zwirner ed

Leptonic μ \mu - and τ \tau -decays: mass effects, polarization effects and O(α) O(\alpha) radiative corrections

We calculate the radiative corrections to the unpolarized and the four polarized spectrum and rate functions in the leptonic decay of a polarized $\mu$ into a polarized electron. The new feature of our calculation is that we keep the mass of the final state electron finite which is mandatory if one wants to investigate the threshold region of the decay. Analytical results are given for the energy spectrum and the polar angle distribution of the final state electron whose longitudinal and transverse polarization is calculated. We also provide analytical results on the integrated spectrum functions. We analyze the $m_e \to 0$ limit of our general results and investigate the quality of the $m_e \to 0$ approximation. In the $m_e \to 0$ case we discuss in some detail the role of the $O(\alpha)$ anomalous helicity flip contribution of the final electron which survives the $m_e \to 0$ limit. The results presented in this 0203048 also apply to the leptonic decays of polarized $\tau$-leptons for which we provide numerical results.Comment: 39 pages, 11 postscript figures added. Updated version. Four references added. A few text improvements. Final version to appear in Phys.Rev.

Diffractive Photoproduction in the Framework of Fracture Functions

Recent data on diffractive photoproduction of dijets are analyzed within the framework of fracture functions and paying special attention to the consequences of the use of different rapidity gap definitions in order to identify diffractive events. Although these effects are found to be significant, it is shown that once they are properly taken into account, a very precise agreement between diffractive DIS and diffractive dijet photoproduction emerges without any significant hint of hard factorization breaking.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figures. To appear in Phys.Rev.

Hard scattering factorization and light cone hamiltonian approach to diffractive processes

We describe diffractive deeply inelastic scattering in terms of diffractive parton distributions. We investigate these distributions in a hamiltonian formulation that emphasizes the spacetime picture of diffraction scattering. For hadronic systems with small transverse size, diffraction occurs predominantly at short distances and the diffractive parton distributions can be studied by perturbative methods. For realistic, large-size systems we discuss the possibility that diffractive parton distributions are controlled essentially by semihard physics at a scale of nonperturbative origin of the order of a GeV. We find that this possibility accounts for two important qualitative aspects of the diffractive data from HERA: the flat behavior in beta and the delay in the fall-off with Q^2.Comment: 51 pages, 16 figure

Gas Analysis and Monitoring Systems for the RPC Detector of CMS at LHC

The Resistive Plate Chambers (RPC) detector of the CMS experiment at the LHC proton collider (CERN, Switzerland) will employ an online gas analysis and monitoring system of the freon-based gas mixture used. We give an overview of the CMS RPC gas system, describe the project parameters and first results on gas-chromatograph analysis. Finally, we report on preliminary results for a set of monitor RPC.Comment: 9 pages, 8 figures. Presented by Stefano Bianco (Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati dell'INFN) at the IEEE NSS, San Diego (USA), October 200