51,794 research outputs found
Evolution of hairpin vortices in a shear flow
Recent experimental studies suggest that the hairpin vortex plays an important (and perhaps dominant) role in the dynamics of turbulent flows near walls. In this study a numerical procedure is developed to allow the accurate computation of the trajectory of a 3-D vortex having a small core radius. For hairpin vortices which are convected in a shear flow above a wall, the calculated results show that a 2-D vortex containing a small 3-D disturbance distorts into a complex shape with subsidiary hairpin vortices forming outboard of the original hairpin vortex. As the vortex moves above the wall, it induces unsteady motion in the viscous flow near the wall: numerical solutions suggest that the boundary-layer flow near the wall will ultimately erupt in response to the motion of the hairpin vortex and in the process a secondary hairpin vortex will be created. The computer results agree with recent experimental investigations
Development and characterization of Powder Metallurgy (PM) 2XXX series Al alloy products and Metal Matrix Composite (MMC) 2XXX Al/SiC materials for high temperature aircraft structural applications
The results of a series of material studies performed by the Lockheed Aeronautical Systems Company over the time period from 1980 to 1991 are discussed. The technical objective of these evaluations was to develop and characterize advanced aluminum alloy materials with temperature capabilities extending to 350 F. An overview is given of the first five alloy development efforts under this contract. Prior work conducted during the first five modifications of the alloy development program are listed. Recent developments based on the addition of high Zr levels to an optimum Al-Cu-Mg alloy composition by powder metallurgy processing are discussed. Both reinforced and SiC or B4C ceramic reinforced alloys were explored to achieve specific target goals for high temperature aluminum alloy applications
Statistical properties of fractures in damaged materials
We introduce a model for the dynamics of mud cracking in the limit of of
extremely thin layers. In this model the growth of fracture proceeds by
selecting the part of the material with the smallest (quenched) breaking
threshold. In addition, weakening affects the area of the sample neighbour to
the crack. Due to the simplicity of the model, it is possible to derive some
analytical results. In particular, we find that the total time to break down
the sample grows with the dimension L of the lattice as L^2 even though the
percolating cluster has a non trivial fractal dimension. Furthermore, we obtain
a formula for the mean weakening with time of the whole sample.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, to be published in Europhysics Letter
Higher Resolution VLBI Imaging with Fast Frequency Switching
Millimetre-VLBI is an important tool in AGN astrophysics, but it is limited
by short atmospheric coherence times and poor receiver and antenna performance.
We demonstrate a new kind of phase referencing for the VLBA, enabling us to
increase the sensitivity in mm-VLBI by an order of magnitude. If a source is
observed in short cycles between the target frequency, nu_t, and a reference
frequency, nu_ref, the nu_t data can be calibrated using scaled-up phase
solutions from self-calibration at nu_ref. We have demonstrated the phase
transfer on 3C 279, where we were able to make an 86 GHz image with 90 %
coherence compared to self-calibration at nu_t. We have detected M81, our
science target in this project, at 86 GHz using the same technique. We describe
scheduling strategy and data reduction. The main impacts of fast frequency
switching are the ability to image some of the nearest, but relatively weak AGN
cores with unprecedented high angular resolution and to phase-reference the
nu_t data to the nu_ref core position, enabling the detection of possible core
shifts in jets due to optical depth effects. This ability will yield important
constraints on jet properties and might be able to discriminate between the two
competing emission models of Blandford-Konigl jets and spherical
advection-dominated accretion flows (ADAFs) in low-luminosity AGNs.Comment: 4 pages, 6 figures, appears in: Proceedings of the 6th European VLBI
Network Symposium held on June 25th-28th in Bonn, Germany. Edited by: E. Ros,
R.W. Porcas, A.P. Lobanov, and J.A. Zensu
Formation of van der Waals molecules in buffer gas cooled magnetic traps
We show that a large class of helium-containing cold polar molecules form
readily in a cryogenic buffer gas, achieving densities as high as 10^12 cm^-3.
We explore the spin relaxation of these molecules in buffer gas loaded magnetic
traps, and identify a loss mechanism based on Landau-Zener transitions arising
from the anisotropic hyperfine interaction. Our results show that the recently
observed strong T^6 thermal dependence of spin change in buffer gas trapped
silver (Ag) is accounted for by the formation and spin change of AgHe, thus
providing evidence for molecular formation in a buffer gas trap.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Predicting Future Instance Segmentation by Forecasting Convolutional Features
Anticipating future events is an important prerequisite towards intelligent
behavior. Video forecasting has been studied as a proxy task towards this goal.
Recent work has shown that to predict semantic segmentation of future frames,
forecasting at the semantic level is more effective than forecasting RGB frames
and then segmenting these. In this paper we consider the more challenging
problem of future instance segmentation, which additionally segments out
individual objects. To deal with a varying number of output labels per image,
we develop a predictive model in the space of fixed-sized convolutional
features of the Mask R-CNN instance segmentation model. We apply the "detection
head'" of Mask R-CNN on the predicted features to produce the instance
segmentation of future frames. Experiments show that this approach
significantly improves over strong baselines based on optical flow and
repurposed instance segmentation architectures
Time asymmetric spacetimes near null and spatial infinity. I. Expansions of developments of conformally flat data
The Conformal Einstein equations and the representation of spatial infinity
as a cylinder introduced by Friedrich are used to analyse the behaviour of the
gravitational field near null and spatial infinity for the development of data
which are asymptotically Euclidean, conformally flat and time asymmetric. Our
analysis allows for initial data whose second fundamental form is more general
than the one given by the standard Bowen-York Ansatz. The Conformal Einstein
equations imply upon evaluation on the cylinder at spatial infinity a hierarchy
of transport equations which can be used to calculate in a recursive way
asymptotic expansions for the gravitational field. It is found that the the
solutions to these transport equations develop logarithmic divergences at
certain critical sets where null infinity meets spatial infinity. Associated to
these, there is a series of quantities expressible in terms of the initial data
(obstructions), which if zero, preclude the appearance of some of the
logarithmic divergences. The obstructions are, in general, time asymmetric.
That is, the obstructions at the intersection of future null infinity with
spatial infinity are different, and do not generically imply those obtained at
the intersection of past null infinity with spatial infinity. The latter allows
for the possibility of having spacetimes where future and past null infinity
have different degrees of smoothness. Finally, it is shown that if both sets of
obstructions vanish up to a certain order, then the initial data has to be
asymptotically Schwarzschildean to some degree.Comment: 32 pages. First part of a series of 2 papers. Typos correcte
Present Constraints on the H-dibaryon at the Physical Point from Lattice QCD
The current constraints from lattice QCD on the existence of the H-dibaryon
are discussed. With only two significant lattice QCD calculations of the
H-dibaryon binding energy at approximately the same lattice spacing, the forms
of the chiral and continuum extrapolations to the physical point are not
determined. In this brief report, we consider the constraints on the H-dibaryon
imposed by two simple chiral extrapolations. In both instances, the
extrapolation to the physical pion mass allows for a bound H-dibaryon or a
near-threshold scattering state. Further lattice QCD calculations are required
to clarify this situation.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, 1 table; revised for the journa
Simulation and Analysis of Magnetisation Characteristics of Interior Permanent Magnet Motors
Modern permanent magnet (PM) synchronous brushless machines often have magnetic circuits in which the patterns of saturation are complex and highly variable with the position of the rotor. The classical phasor diagram theory of operation relies on the assumption of sinusoidal variation of flux-linkage with rotor position, and neglects the non-linear effects that arise in different operating states. The finite element method is a useful tool for detailed magnetic analysis, but it is important to verify simulation results by direct measurement of the magnetic characteristics of the motor, in terms of âmagnetisation curvesâ of current and flux-linkage. This paper presents results from finite element simulations to determine the magnetisation in a split-phase interior permanent magnet (IPM) motor. Investigation has been made to determine the effects of the rotor geometry on the synchronous reactances and airgap flux distribution. Comparisons are made with a second IPM motor with a different rotor configuration.
Low-Threshold Electrically Pumps Vertical-Cavity Surface-Emitting Microlasers
Vertical-cavity electrically driven lasers with three GaInAs
quantum wells and diameters of several ÎŒm exhibit room-temperature pulsed current thresholds as low as 1.3mA with 958 nm output wavelength
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