Anomalous a.c. resistivity effect in Nb and Sn at high static fields in the liquid helium temperature range

The a.c. susceptibilities of Nb and Sn cylinders in the normal state at temperatures below T>c have been measured. The results cannot be described by the formalism of the classical skin-effect. Therefore a formal description is given

Modeling and solving the periodic maintenance problem.

We study the problem of scheduling maintenance services. Given is a set of m machines and integral cost-coefficients a(i) and b(i) for each machine i (1Branch-and-price; Column generation; Costs; Linear programming; Model; Models; Optimal; Scheduling; Structure; Studies; Time;

Exact algorithms for procurement problems under a total quantity discount structure.

In this paper, we study the procurement problem faced by a buyer who needs to purchase a variety of goods from suppliers applying a so-called total quantity discount policy. This policy implies that every supplier announces a number of volume intervals and that the volume interval in which the total amount ordered lies determines the discount. Moreover, the discounted prices apply to all goods bought from the supplier, not only to those goods exceeding the volume threshold. We refer to this cost-minimization problem as the TQD problem. We give a mathematical formulation for this problem and argue that not only it is NP-hard, but also that there exists no polynomial-time approximation algorithm with a constant ratio (unless P = NP). Apart from the basic form of the TQD problem, we describe three variants. In a first variant, the market share that one or more suppliers can obtain is constrained. Another variant allows the buyer to procure more goods than strictly needed, in order to reach a lower total cost. In a third variant, the number of winning suppliers is limited. We show that the TQD problem and its variants can be solved by solving a series of min-cost flow problems. Finally, we investigate the performance of three exact algorithms (min-cost flow based branch-and-bound, linear programming based branch-and-bound, and branch-and-cut) on randomly generated instances involving 50 suppliers and 100 goods. It turns out that even the large instances of the basic problem are solved to optimality within a limited amount of time. However, we find that different algorithms perform best in terms of computation time for different variants.Algorithms; Approximation; Branch-and-bound; Complexity; Cost; Exact algorithm; Intervals; Linear programming; Market; Min-cost flow; Order; Performance; Policy; Prices; Problems; Procurement; Reverse auction; Structure; Studies; Suppliers; Time; Volume discounts;

A new test setup to measure the AC losses of the conductors for NET

A description is given of a new test system currently under construction. The system will be used to measure the AC losses of subcables from Next European Torus (NET) conductors. A special feature of the test arrangement is that the losses will be determined while the sample carries a transport current and is at the same time subjected to a changing magnetic field in the transverse and longitudinal directions. Several aspects of the design, such as magnetic field, forces, and losses, are discusse

A fast operating magnetically controlled switch for 1 kA

The power of fully superconducting rectifiers can be improved by increasing either the operating frequency or the transformer primary inductance [1]. The frequency is usually limited by the recovery time of thermally controlled switches. In order to achieve a higher switching speed, magnetically controlled switches are preferable [1,2]. This paper describes a magnetically controlled switch which can be used for currents up to 500 A at 25 Hz. The switch element, consisting of several Nb1%Zr multifilamentary superconductors, is placed between two concentric solenoids which generate the necessary magnetic field. The Nb1%Zr superconductor is well suited for this purpose because of its relatively low critical field (¿ 0.75 T) and high maximum current density (about 5.109A/m2below 0.3 T)