Design concepts to improve high performance solar simulator

By improving several important components of the well known off-axis solar simulator system, a considerable step forward was made. The careful mathematical studies on the optics and the thermal side of the problem lead to a highly efficient system with low operational costs and a high reliability. The actual performance of the simulator is significantly better than the specified one, and the efficiency is outstanding. No more than 12 lamps operating at 18 kW are required to obtain one Solar Constant in the 6 m beam. It is now known that by using sophisticated optics, even larger facilities of high performance can be designed without leaving the proven off-axis concept and using a spherical mirror. Using high performance optics is a means of reducing costs at a given size of beam because the number of lamps is one of the most cost driving factors in the construction of a solar simulator

Exact results for the Kardar--Parisi--Zhang equation with spatially correlated noise

We investigate the Kardar--Parisi--Zhang (KPZ) equation in $d$ spatial dimensions with Gaussian spatially long--range correlated noise --- characterized by its second moment $R(\vec{x}-\vec{x}') \propto |\vec{x}-\vec{x}'|^{2\rho-d}$ --- by means of dynamic field theory and the renormalization group. Using a stochastic Cole--Hopf transformation we derive {\em exact} exponents and scaling functions for the roughening transition and the smooth phase above the lower critical dimension $d_c = 2 (1+\rho)$. Below the lower critical dimension, there is a line $\rho_*(d)$ marking the stability boundary between the short-range and long-range noise fixed points. For $\rho \geq \rho_*(d)$, the general structure of the renormalization-group equations fixes the values of the dynamic and roughness exponents exactly, whereas above $\rho_*(d)$, one has to rely on some perturbational techniques. We discuss the location of this stability boundary $\rho_* (d)$ in light of the exact results derived in this paper, and from results known in the literature. In particular, we conjecture that there might be two qualitatively different strong-coupling phases above and below the lower critical dimension, respectively.Comment: 21 pages, 15 figure

Sally Lou

Contains advertisements and/or short musical examples of pieces being sold by publisher.https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/mmb-vp/6835/thumbnail.jp

Three-fold way to extinction in populations of cyclically competing species

Species extinction occurs regularly and unavoidably in ecological systems. The time scales for extinction can broadly vary and inform on the ecosystem's stability. We study the spatio-temporal extinction dynamics of a paradigmatic population model where three species exhibit cyclic competition. The cyclic dynamics reflects the non-equilibrium nature of the species interactions. While previous work focusses on the coarsening process as a mechanism that drives the system to extinction, we found that unexpectedly the dynamics to extinction is much richer. We observed three different types of dynamics. In addition to coarsening, in the evolutionary relevant limit of large times, oscillating traveling waves and heteroclinic orbits play a dominant role. The weight of the different processes depends on the degree of mixing and the system size. By analytical arguments and extensive numerical simulations we provide the full characteristics of scenarios leading to extinction in one of the most surprising models of ecology

Solar simulation with a rectangular beam

An existing space simulation test facility was modified by enlarging the solar simulator. Because of the restrictions imposed by existing equipment, the shape of the solar beam was altered from a circular to a rectangular cross section in order to adapt the test facility to test objects of increased size. This modification is described together with the results of preliminary measurements

Crossover from Isotropic to Directed Percolation

Percolation clusters are probably the simplest example for scale--invariant structures which either are governed by isotropic scaling--laws (``self--similarity'') or --- as in the case of directed percolation --- may display anisotropic scaling behavior (``self--affinity''). Taking advantage of the fact that both isotropic and directed bond percolation (with one preferred direction) may be mapped onto corresponding variants of (Reggeon) field theory, we discuss the crossover between self--similar and self--affine scaling. This has been a long--standing and yet unsolved problem because it is accompanied by different upper critical dimensions: $d_c^{\rm I} = 6$ for isotropic, and $d_c^{\rm D} = 5$ for directed percolation, respectively. Using a generalized subtraction scheme we show that this crossover may nevertheless be treated consistently within the framework of renormalization group theory. We identify the corresponding crossover exponent, and calculate effective exponents for different length scales and the pair correlation function to one--loop order. Thus we are able to predict at which characteristic anisotropy scale the crossover should occur. The results are subject to direct tests by both computer simulations and experiment. We emphasize the broad range of applicability of the proposed method.Comment: 19 pages, written in RevTeX, 12 figures available upon request (from [email protected] or [email protected]), EF/UCT--94/2, to be published in Phys. Rev. E (May 1994