Large magnetothermal conductivity of HoMnO_3 single crystals and its relation to the magnetic-field induced transitions of magnetic structure

We study the low-temperature heat transport of HoMnO_3 single crystals to probe the magnetic structures and their transitions induced by magnetic field. It is found that the low-T thermal conductivity (\kappa) shows very strong magnetic-field dependence, with the strongest suppression of nearly 90% and the biggest increase of 20 times of \kappa compared to its zero-field value. In particular, some ``dip"-like features show up in \kappa(H) isotherms for field along both the ab plane and the c axis. These behaviors are found to shed new light on the complex H-T phase diagram and the field-induced re-orientations of Mn^{3+} and Ho^{3+} spin structures. The results also demonstrate a significant spin-phonon coupling in this multiferroic compound.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.

Modelling and control of the flame temperature distribution using probability density function shaping

This paper presents three control algorithms for the output probability density function (PDF) control of the 2D and 3D flame distribution systems. For the 2D flame distribution systems, control methods for both static and dynamic flame systems are presented, where at first the temperature distribution of the gas jet flames along the cross-section is approximated. Then the flame energy distribution (FED) is obtained as the output to be controlled by using a B-spline expansion technique. The general static output PDF control algorithm is used in the 2D static flame system, where the dynamic system consists of a static temperature model of gas jet flames and a second-order actuator. This leads to a second-order closed-loop system, where a singular state space model is used to describe the dynamics with the weights of the B-spline functions as the state variables. Finally, a predictive control algorithm is designed for such an output PDF system. For the 3D flame distribution systems, all the temperature values of the flames are firstly mapped into one temperature plane, and the shape of the temperature distribution on this plane can then be controlled by the 3D flame control method proposed in this paper. Three cases are studied for the proposed control methods and desired simulation results have been obtained

Dynamic stress concentration and energy evolution of deep-buried tunnels under blasting loads

A theoretical formulation was first established to evaluate the dynamic stress concentration factor (DSCF) around a circular opening under conditions of blasting stress wave incidence. A two-dimensional numerical model was then constructed by the particle flow code (PFC) in order to simulate the dynamic responses around an underground tunnel subjected to blasting load. In the simulation, a series of horizontal blasting stress waves were applied to an underground tunnel under various in situ stress states, and then the dynamic responses around the tunnel were analyzed from the viewpoint of the dynamic stress concentration and energy evolution. The results of theoretical analysis indicated that obvious dynamic effects occur at tunnel boundary during blasting stress wave incidence, and the DSCF at the roof and floor of the tunnel is much larger than that at two sidewalls when blasting stress wave was applied to left model boundary. The numerical results showed that high static compressive stress concentration around the underground tunnel results in the accumulation of substantial strain energy at the same location. The roof and floor of the tunnel are more prone to dynamic failures during the blasting loading process. In addition, the analysis of energy dissipation indicated that the strain energy reduction and the residual kinetic energy are positively related to the lateral pressure coefficient and the burial depth of the tunnel, and the residual kinetic energy is much larger than the strain energy reduction under the same condition. Furthermore, for an underground tunnel subjected to high in situ stress, the blasting stress wave with lower amplitude is sufficient to trigger severe dynamic failures

An energy saving small cell sleeping mechanism with cell range expansion in heterogeneous networks

In recent years, the explosion of wireless data traffic has resulted in a trend of large scale dense deployment of small cells, with which the rising cost of energy has attracted a lot of research interest. In this paper, we present a novel sleeping mechanism for small cells to decrease the energy consumption of heterogeneous networks. Specifically, in the cell-edge area of a macrocell, the small cells will be put into sleep where possible and their service areas will be covered by the range-expanded small cells nearby and the macrocell; in areas close to the macrocell, the user equipments associated with a sleeping small cell will be handed over to the macrocell. Furthermore, we use enhanced inter-cell interference coordination techniques to support the range expanded small cells to avoid QoS degradation. Using a stochastic geometry-based network model, we provide the numerical analysis of the proposed approach, and the results indicate that the proposed sleeping mechanism can significantly reduce the power consumption of the network compared with the existing sleeping methods while guaranteeing the QoS requirement