Method for predicting rotor free-wake positions and the resulting rotor blade airloads

Computer program has been designed and written to predict rotor free-wake positions and resulting rotor blade airloads without requiring time-consuming and tedious calculations. This program was written in FORTRAN IV for use on an IBM-360 computer

A discrete particle simulation study on the influence of restitution coefficient on spout fluidized bed dynamics

In this paper the influence of the normal restitution coefficient on the bed dynamics\ud during different flow regimes was studied using the discrete element model. The three flow\ud regimes comprise the intermediate/spout-fluidization, spouting-with-aeration regime and the jetin-\ud fluidized-bed. It is shown that with increase of the restitution coefficient the average bed\ud height decreases for all flow regime cases. To study the influence of the granule impact velocity\ud and the liquid film on the wall surface the free-fall experiments in the velocity range of 0.5-\ud 4.5 m/s were performed with spherical γ-Al2O3 granules. During the free-fall tests, the impact\ud angle from 0° to 80° and the viscosity of thin liquid film in the range of 1-300 mPa·s were\ud varied

Characterization of the pneumatic behavior of a novel spouted bed apparatus

Recently the importance of spouted bed technology has significantly increased in the context of drying processes as well as granulation, agglomeration or coating processes. Particulate systems concerning very fine or non spherical particles that are difficult to fluidize, often cannot be treated in conventional fluidized beds. In contrast to those fluidized beds, the spouted bed technology with its specific flow structure offers the opportunity of stable fluidization under controlled conditions. Within this work the fluid dynamics of a novel spouted bed with two adjustable gas inlets is investigated. By analysis of gas fluctuation spectra by means of a fast Fourier transformation algorithm, different operation regimes are identified and depicted graphically. Furthermore, continuum CFD-modeling of the granular solid phase motion by means of an Euler/Euler approach and comparisons with experimental obtained velocity vector fields by means of particle image velocimetry (PIV) measurements will be presented in this work

The Share Price Effects of Dividend Taxes and Tax Imputation Credits

We examine the hypothesis that dividend taxes are capitalized into share prices by focusing on investors' implicit valuations of retained earnings versus paid-in equity. Retained earnings are distributable as taxable dividends, whereas paid-in equity is distributable as a tax-free return of capital. Consistent with dividend tax capitalization, firm-level results for the United States indicate that accumulated retained earnings are valued less per unit than contributed capital. In addition, differences in dividend tax rates across U.S. tax regimes are associated with predictable differences in the magnitude of the implied tax discount for retained earnings, as are differences in dividend tax rates across Australia, Japan, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom.

Contact Changes of Sheared Systems: Scaling, Correlations, and Mechanisms

We probe the onset and effect of contact changes in 2D soft harmonic particle packings which are sheared quasistatically under controlled strain. First, we show that in the majority of cases, the first contact changes correspond to the creation or breaking of contacts on a single particle, with contact breaking overwhelmingly likely for low pressures and/or small systems, and contact making and breaking equally likely for large pressures and in the thermodynamic limit. The statistics of the corresponding strains are near-Poissonian. The mean characteristic strains exhibit scaling with the number of particles N and pressure P, and reveal the existence of finite size effects akin to those seen for linear response quantities. Second, we show that linear response accurately predicts the strains of the first contact changes, which allows us to study the scaling of the characteristic strains of making and breaking contacts separately. Both of these show finite size scaling, and we formulate scaling arguments that are consistent with the observed behavior. Third, we probe the effect of the first contact change on the shear modulus G, and show in detail how the variation of G remains smooth and bounded in the large system size limit: even though contact changes occur then at vanishingly small strains, their cumulative effect, even at a fixed value of the strain, are limited, so that effectively, linear response remains well-defined. Fourth, we explore multiple contact changes under shear, and find strong and surprising correlations between alternating making and breaking events. Fifth, we show that by making a link with extremal statistics, our data is consistent with a very slow crossover to self averaging with system size, so that the thermodynamic limit is reached much more slowly than expected based on finite size scaling of elastic quantities or contact breaking strains

Data mining of gene arrays for biomarkers of survival in ovarian cancer

The expected five-year survival rate from a stage III ovarian cancer diagnosis is a mere 22%; this applies to the 7000 new cases diagnosed yearly in the UK. Stratification of patients with this heterogeneous disease, based on active molecular pathways, would aid a targeted treatment improving the prognosis for many cases. While hundreds of genes have been associated with ovarian cancer, few have yet been verified by peer research for clinical significance. Here, a meta-analysis approach was applied to two care fully selected gene expression microarray datasets. Artificial neural networks, Cox univariate survival analyses and T-tests identified genes whose expression was consistently and significantly associated with patient survival. The rigor of this experimental design increases confidence in the genes found to be of interest. A list of 56 genes were distilled from a potential 37,000 to be significantly related to survival in both datasets with a FDR of 1.39859 × 10−11, the identities of which both verify genes already implicated with this disease and provide novel genes and pathways to pursue. Further investigation and validation of these may lead to clinical insights and have potential to predict a patient’s response to treatment or be used as a novel target for therapy

Analysis of the fluidization behaviour and application of a novel spouted bed\ud apparatus for spray granulation and coating

Spouted beds are well known for their good mixing of the solid phase and for their intensive heat\ud and mass transfers between the fluid phase and the solid phase. Nearly isothermal conditions are\ud enabled which is of advantage for the treatment of granular solid materials in granulation,\ud agglomeration or coating processes. In this work the hydrodynamic behaviour of a novel spouted\ud bed apparatus with two horizontal and slit-shaped gas inlets is investigated by high-frequency\ud recordings of the gas phase pressure fluctuations over the entire bed. The hydrodynamic stable\ud operation domain, which is of importance for operating the apparatus, will be identified and\ud depicted in the Re-G-Ar-diagram by Mitev [1]. Another focus of this work is the simulation of the\ud spouting process by application of a continuum approach in FLUENT 6.2. The effect of the\ud frictional stresses on the hydrodynamic behaviour is examined by performing simulations with and\ud without consideration of friction. The angle of internal friction fi in Schaeffer`s [10] model will be\ud varied and the simulation results will be compared with experiments. It was found that the influence\ud of friction is not very big by application of the quite simple and empirical frictional viscosity model\ud by Schaeffer [10] basing on soil mechanical principles. Also the simulation results under negligence\ud of friction were similar to those under consideration of friction. Another part of this work is the\ud industrial application of the novel spouted bed in granulation and coating processes. Compared to\ud classical fluidized beds, a much narrower particle size distribution, a higher yield and a higher\ud product quality was obtained in the novel spouted be

Effect of the liquid layer on the impact behaviour of particles

During a spray granulation process the moisture loading in fluidized beds has a great influence on\ud the inter-particle collision properties and hence on the flow behaviour. To study the influence of the\ud liquid layer as well as granule impact velocity on the impact behaviour free-fall experiments were\ud performed. During these experiments the g-Al2O3 granules were dropped from a predefined height\ud onto a liquid layer on the flat steel wall and the velocity-time curves were obtained using highspeed\ud video recording. The height of the liquid layer was varied from 50 mm to 1 mm. Moreover,\ud the tests were performed at different velocities and viscosities of liquid layer in the range of 1-300\ud mPa∙s. Both distilled water and water solutions of hydroxypropyl methylcellulose with different\ud concentrations (3, 6, 10 mass-%) were used.\ud The obtained restitution coefficients were compared with the experiments performed without liquid\ud film on the surface. For a granule impacted on a liquid film on the wall, the increase of liquid\ud viscosity decreases the restitution coefficient and thickness of liquid layer at which the granule\ud sticks. In the examined velocity range, with decreasing impact velocity the restitution coefficient\ud greatly decreases. To explain the obtained effects the force and energy balances for a particle\ud impacted on a liquid layer on the wall were derived. Both contributions to energy absorption\ud (granule-liquid layer and granule-wall contacts) have been taken into consideratio