Preliminary design of a test rig for combining passive nonlinear isolation with active control

Resilient elements are typically used to isolate delicate equipment from a vibrating host structure. Conventionally, these isolators are designed to operate in their linear region, but more recently nonlinear isolators have been employed to increase the frequency over which vibration isolation can be achieved. Another way of improving the performance of an isolator has been to use active control in conjunction with a passive linear system. The work presented in this paper concerns the development of an experimental rig for vibration isolation and is motivated by the intention to combine the advantages of passive nonlinear isolation with active control.The structure consists of a mass suspended on four tensioned wires to form a single-degree-of-freedom system. The nonlinear stiffness of the wires is such that the system behaves like a hardening Duffing oscillator. Firstly, a static analysis is carried out, both analytically and experimentally, where the nonlinearity of the system is determined by the tension, length, cross-sectional area and Young’s modulus of the wires. For the dynamic analysis, harmonic base excitation is considered. The magnitude of the base displacement is fixed for all excitation frequencies and the level of nonlinearity is adjusted by varying the tension in the wires, a higher tension leading to a milder system nonlinearity. Finally, the motion transmissibility of the system is measured and appears to agree with the theoretical result. The rig forms a suitable platform for subsequent incorporation of an active control system for combining the benefits of passive nonlinear isolation with, for example, skyhook damping

Microwave attenuation and brightness temperature due to the gaseous atmosphere: A comparison of JPL and CCIR values

A sophisticated but flexible radiative transfer program designed to assure internal consistency was used to produce brightness temperature (sky noise temperature in a given direction) and gaseous attenuation curves. The curves, derived from atmospheric models, were compared and a new set was derived for a specified frequency range

Analysis of turbofan propulsion system weight and dimensions

Weight and dimensional relationships that are used in aircraft preliminary design studies are analyzed. These relationships are relatively simple to prove useful to the preliminary designer, but they are sufficiently detailed to provide meaningful design tradeoffs. All weight and dimensional relationships are developed from data bases of existing and conceptual turbofan engines. The total propulsion system is considered including both engine and nacelle, and all estimating relations stem from physical principles, not statistical correlations

Be Star Disk Models in Consistent Vertical Hydrostatic Equilibrium

A popular model for the circumstellar disks of Be stars is that of a geometrically thin disk with a density in the equatorial plane that drops as a power law of distance from the star. It is usually assumed that the vertical structure of such a disk (in the direction parallel to the stellar rotation axis) is governed by the hydrostatic equilibrium set by the vertical component of the star's gravitational acceleration. Previous radiative equilibrium models for such disks have usually been computed assuming a fixed density structure. This introduces an inconsistency as the gas density is not allowed to respond to temperature changes and the resultant disk model is not in vertical, hydrostatic equilibrium. In this work, we modify the {\sc bedisk} code of \citet{sig07} so that it enforces a hydrostatic equilibrium consistent with the temperature solution. We compare the disk densities, temperatures, H$\alpha$ line profiles, and near-IR excesses predicted by such models with those computed from models with a fixed density structure. We find that the fixed models can differ substantially from the consistent hydrostatic models when the disk density is high enough that the circumstellar disk develops a cool ($T\lesssim10,000$K) equatorial region close to the parent star. Based on these new hydrostatic disks, we also predict an approximate relation between the (global) density-averaged disk temperature and the $T_{\rm eff}$ of the central star, covering the full range of central Be star spectral types.Comment: 25 pages; 11 figure

Local and global instabilities of flow in a flexible-walled channel

We consider laminar high-Reynolds-number flow through a long finite-length planar channel, where a segment of one wall is replaced by a massless membrane held under longitudinal tension. The flow is driven by a fixed pressure difference across the channel and is described using an integral form of the unsteady boundary-layer equations. The basic flow state, for which the channel has uniform width, exhibits static and oscillatory global instabilities, having distinct modal forms. In contrast, the corresponding local problem (neglecting boundary conditions associated with the rigid parts of the system) is found to be convectively, but not absolutely, unstable to small-amplitude disturbances in the absence of wall damping. We show how amplification of the primary global oscillatory instability can arise entirely from wave reflections with the rigid parts of the system, involving interacting travelling wave flutter and static-divergence modes that are convectively stable; alteration of the mean flow by oscillations makes the onset of this primary instability subcritical. We also show how distinct mechanisms of energy transfer differentiate the primary global mode from other modes of oscillatory instability