Interfacial Tension of Electrolyte Solutions

A theory is presented to account for the increase in surface tension of water in the presence of electrolyte. Unlike the original ``grand-canonical'' calculation of Onsager and Samaras, which relied on the Gibbs adsorption isotherm and lead to a result which could only be expressed as an infinite series, our approach is ``canonical'' and produces an analytic formula for the excess surface tension. For small concentrations of electrolyte, our result reduces to the Onsager-Samaras limiting law.Comment: contains two figures. Journal of Chemical Physics, in pres

Inverter ratio failure detector

A failure detector which detects the failure of a dc to ac inverter is disclosed. The inverter under failureless conditions is characterized by a known linear relationship of its input and output voltages and by a known linear relationship of its input and output currents. The detector includes circuitry which is responsive to the detector's input and output voltages and which provides a failure-indicating signal only when the monitored output voltage is less by a selected factor, than the expected output voltage for the monitored input voltage, based on the known voltages' relationship. Similarly, the detector includes circuitry which is responsive to the input and output currents and provides a failure-indicating signal only when the input current exceeds by a selected factor the expected input current for the monitored output current based on the known currents' relationship

The evaluation of failure detection and isolation algorithms for restructurable control

Three failure detection and identification techniques were compared to determine their usefulness in detecting and isolating failures in an aircraft flight control system; excluding sensor and flight control computer failures. The algorithms considered were the detection filter, the Generalized Likelihood Ratio test and the Orthogonal Series Generalized Likelihood Ratio test. A modification to the basic detection filter is also considered which uses secondary filtering of the residuals to produce unidirectional failure signals. The algorithms were evaluated by testing their ability to detect and isolate control surface failures in a nonlinear simulation of a C-130 aircraft. It was found that failures of some aircraft controls are difficult to distinguish because they have a similar effect on the dynamics of the vehicle. Quantitative measures for evaluating the distinguishability of failures are considered. A system monitoring strategy for implementing the failure detection and identification techniques was considered. This strategy identified the mix of direct measurement of failures versus the computation of failure necessary for implementation of the technology in an aircraft system

Gravitons and Dark Matter in Universal Extra Dimensions

Models of Universal Extra Dimensions (UED) at the TeV scale lead to the presence of Kaluza Klein (KK) excitations of the ordinary fermions and bosons of the Standard Model that may be observed at hadron and lepton colliders. A conserved discrete symmetry, KK-parity, ensures the stability of the lightest KK particle (LKP), which, if neutral, becomes a good dark matter particle. It has been recently shown that for a certain range of masses of the LKP a relic density consistent with the experimentally observed one may be obtained. These works, however, ignore the impact of KK graviton production at early times. Whether the G^1 is the LKP or not, the G^n tower thus produced can decay to the LKP, and depending on the reheating temperature, may lead to a modification of the relic density. In this article, we show that this effect may lead to a relevant modification of the range of KK masses consistent with the observed relic density. Additionally, if evidence for UED is observed experimentally, we find a stringent upper limit on the reheating temperature depending on the mass of the LKP observed.Comment: References added. 38 pages, 18 figures. Submitted to Phys. Rev.

A formal theory of cubical complexes Formal report, 1 Sep. 1968 - 30 Apr. 1969

Algorithm for computation of test failures in cyclic circuit

Solid particle erosion and viscoelastic properties of thermoplastic polyurethanes

The wear resistance of several thermoplastic polyurethanes (TPUs) having different chemical nature and micronscale arrangement of the hard and soft segments has been investigated by means of erosion and abrasion tests. The goal was correlating the erosion performances of the materials to their macroscopic mechanical properties. Unlike conventional tests, such as hardness and tensile measurements, viscoelastic analysis proved to be a valuable tool to study the erosion resistance of TPUs. In particular, a strict correlation was found between the erosion rate and the high-frequency (~10^7 Hz) loss modulus. The latter reflects the actual ability of TPU to dissipate the impact energy of the erodent particles