Conceptual design of thermal energy storage systems for near-term electric utility applications

Promising thermal energy storage systems for midterm applications in conventional electric utilities for peaking power generation are evaluated. Conceptual designs of selected thermal energy storage systems integrated with conventional utilities are considered including characteristics of alternate systems for peaking power generation, viz gas turbines and coal fired cycling plants. Competitive benefit analysis of thermal energy storage systems with alternate systems for peaking power generation and recommendations for development and field test of thermal energy storage with a conventional utility are included. Results indicate that thermal energy storage is only marginally competitive with coal fired cycling power plants and gas turbines for peaking power generation

Reply to Comment by Galapon on 'Almost-periodic time observables for bound quantum systems'

In a recent paper [1] (also at http://lanl.arxiv.org/abs/0803.3721), I made several critical remarks on a 'Hermitian time operator' proposed by Galapon [2] (also at http://lanl.arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0111061). Galapon has correctly pointed out that remarks pertaining to 'denseness' of the commutator domain are wrong [3]. However, the other remarks still apply, and it is further noted that a given quantum system can be a member of this domain only at a set of times of total measure zero.Comment: 3 page

Synthesis of hover autopilots for rotary-wing VTOL aircraft

The practical situation is considered where imperfect information on only a few rotor and fuselage state variables is available. Filters are designed to estimate all the state variables from noisy measurements of fuselage pitch/roll angles and from noisy measurements of both fuselage and rotor pitch/roll angles. The mean square response of the vehicle to a very gusty, random wind is computed using various filter/controllers and is found to be quite satisfactory although, of course, not so good as when one has perfect information (idealized case). The second part of the report considers precision hover over a point on the ground. A vehicle model without rotor dynamics is used and feedback signals in position and integral of position error are added. The mean square response of the vehicle to a very gusty, random wind is computed, assuming perfect information feedback, and is found to be excellent. The integral error feedback gives zero position error for a steady wind, and smaller position error for a random wind

Analytical evaluation of tilting proprotor wind tunnel test requirements

Specific test requirements related to the wind tunnel testing of the XV-15 advanced tilt rotor research aircraft were determined. The following analytical tools were developed: (1) digital simulation of the XV-15, incorporating a simplified tunnel support model, control system loop, measurement lags, gust disturbances, and sensor noise, (2) specialization of existing data analysis programs to the high order XV-15 dynamical model (transfer function program, a time series analysis program, an advanced maximum likelihood parameter identification program), (3) several auxiliary programs to provide estimates of damping from transfer functions as well as calculations of model decomposition of system response. The following results were discussed: (1) modelling of the aircraft, instrumentation, and controls, (2) results of the rotor/cantilever wing model and coupled wing, (3) examples of data prediction with system identification techniques, and (4) detailed conclusions and recommendations

Film study for a star correlator Final report

Photographic recording film evaluation for star field image processing in spacecraft environment and use in star correlato

Performance of a spin-based insulated gate field effect transistor

Fundamental physical properties limiting the performance of spin field effect transistors are compared to those of ordinary (charge-based) field effect transistors. Instead of raising and lowering a barrier to current flow these spin transistors use static spin-selective barriers and gate control of spin relaxation. The different origins of transistor action lead to distinct size dependences of the power dissipation in these transistors and permit sufficiently small spin-based transistors to surpass the performance of charge-based transistors at room temperature or above. This includes lower threshold voltages, smaller gate capacitances, reduced gate switching energies and smaller source-drain leakage currents.Comment: 4 pages including 3 figures, APL in pres

Gravitating semirelativistic N-boson systems

Analytic energy bounds for N-boson systems governed by semirelativistic Hamiltonians of the form H=\sum_{i=1}^N(p_i^2 + m^2)^{1/2} - sum_{1=i<j}^N v/r_{ij}, with v>0, are derived by use of Jacobi relative coordinates. For gravity v=c/N, these bounds are substantially tighter than earlier bounds and they are shown to coincide with known results in the nonrelativistic limit.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures It is now proved that the reduced Hamiltonian is bounded below by the simple N/2 Hamiltonia

Specification of inputs and instrumentation for flutter testing of multivariable systems

The application of system identification methods in flutter testing of aeroelastic structure is discussed. The accuracy with which flutter parameters are estimated depends upon the test plan and on the algorithms used to reduce the data. The techniques for selecting the kinds and optimal positions of inputs and instrumentation, under typical test constraints, are presented. Identification results for both the input/output transfer function and the value of physical parameters are given. Numerical results on the optimal input spectrum and the accelerometer location for estimating flutter parameters of a two dimensional wing are obtained using these algorithms. Current work on applying system identification methods to high order three dimensional aeroelastic structures is reported