Tandem wheel drop-legs for standard truck trailer

Tandem wheel drop-leg device provides a semitrailer with fore and aft mobility that allows it to be moved without a prime mover. The modified drop-legs have trunnion dual wheels and an adjustable brace

Endperiodic Automorphisms of Surfaces and Foliations

We extend the unpublished work of M. Handel and R. Miller on the classification, up to isotopy, of endperiodic automorphisms of surfaces. We give the Handel-Miller construction of the geodesic laminations, give an axiomatic theory for pseudo-geodesic lamaniations, show the geodesic laminations satisfy the axioms, and prove that paeudo-geodesic laminations satisfying our axioms are ambiently isotopic to the geodesic laminations. The axiomatic approach allows us to show that the given endperiodic automorphism is isotopic to a smooth endperiodic automorphism preserving smooth laminations ambiently isotopic to the original ones. Using the axioms, we also prove the "transfer theorem" for foliations of 3-manifolds., namely that, if two depth one foliations are transverse to a common one-dimensional foliation whose monodromy on the noncompact leaves of the first foliation exhibits the nice dynamics of Handel-Miller theory, then the transverse one-dimensional foliation also induces monodromy on the noncompact leaves of the second foliation exhibiting the same nice dynamics. Our theory also applies to surfaces with infinitely many ends.Comment: Added Sergio Fenley as author. Moved material from Section 12.6 to a new Section 6.7. Rewrote Section 7. Deleted material from Section 6.1 and combined Sections 6.1 and 6.2 into new Section 6.1. Rewrote Section 4.6. Corrected typos and errors and improved expositio

Double-branched vortex generator

In order to assess the suitability of using a double branched vortex generator in parametric studies involving vortex interactions, an experimental study of the main vortex and secondary flows produced by a double branched vortex generator was conducted in a 20-by-40 cm indraft wind tunnel. Measurements of the cross flow velocities were made with a five hole pressure probe from which vorticity contours and vortex parameters were derived. The results showed that the optimum configuration consisted of chord extensions with the absence of a centerbody

Automated simulation as part of a design workstation

A development project for a design workstation for advanced life-support systems (called the DAWN Project, for Design Assistant Workstation), incorporating qualitative simulation, required the implementation of a useful qualitative simulation capability and the integration of qualitative and quantitative simulation such that simulation capabilities are maximized without duplication. The reason is that to produce design solutions to a system goal, the behavior of the system in both a steady and perturbed state must be represented. The Qualitative Simulation Tool (QST), on an expert-system-like model building and simulation interface toll called ScratchPad (SP), and on the integration of QST and SP with more conventional, commercially available simulation packages now being applied in the evaluation of life-support system processes and components are discussed

Rapid Design and Manufacture of Ultralight Cellular Materials

This paper details the design, manufacture and testing of regular metallic lattice structures with unit cell sizes in the range 0.8mm to 5mm and truss elements of 100-500 µm in diameter [1]. The structures were manufactured using Selective Laser Melting (SLM) technology from 316L stainless steel. Compression tests have shown yield loadings of over 3.5kN despite being only 18mm by 18mm by 10mm in height, the results are favourably comparable to current commercially available metallic foams. Software has been developed that creates slice files without the use of CAD software or STL files and is capable of producing lattices within a volume defined by a STL file.Mechanical Engineerin

A numerical study of viscous vortex rings using a spectral method

Viscous, axisymmetric vortex rings are investigated numerically by solving the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations using a spectral method designed for this type of flow. The results presented are axisymmetric, but the method is developed to be naturally extended to three dimensions. The spectral method relies on divergence-free basis functions. The basis functions are formed in spherical coordinates using Vector Spherical Harmonics in the angular directions, and Jacobi polynomials together with a mapping in the radial direction. Simulations are performed of a single ring over a wide range of Reynolds numbers (Re approximately equal gamma/nu), 0.001 less than or equal to 1000, and of two interacting rings. At large times, regardless of the early history of the vortex ring, it is observed that the flow approaches a Stokes solution that depends only on the total hydrodynamic impulse, which is conserved for all time. At small times, from an infinitely thin ring, the propagation speeds of vortex rings of varying Re are computed and comparisons are made with the asymptotic theory by Saffman. The results are in agreement with the theory; furthermore, the error is found to be smaller than Saffman's own estimate by a factor square root ((nu x t)/R squared) (at least for Re=0). The error also decreases with increasing Re at fixed core-to-ring radius ratio, and appears to be independent of Re as Re approaches infinity). Following a single ring, with Re=500, the vorticity contours indicate shedding of vorticity into the wake and a settling of an initially circular core to a more elliptical shape, similar to Norbury's steady inviscid vortices. Finally, we consider the case of leapfrogging vortex rings with Re=1000. The results show severe straining of the inner vortex core in the first pass and merging of the two cores during the second pass

Direct Numerical Simulation of a Temporally Evolving Incompressible Plane Wake: Effect of Initial Conditions on Evolution and Topology

Direct numerical simulations have been used to examine the effect of the initial disturbance field on the development of three-dimensionality and the transition to turbulence in the incompressible plane wake. The simulations were performed using a new numerical method for solving the time-dependent, three-dimensional, incompressible Navier-Stokes equations in flows with one infinite and two periodic directions. The method uses standard Fast Fourier Transforms and is applicable to cases where the vorticity field is compact in the infinite direction. Initial disturbances fields examined were combinations of two-dimensional waves and symmetric pairs of 60 deg oblique waves at the fundamental, subharmonic, and sub-subharmonic wavelengths. The results of these simulations indicate that the presence of 60 deg disturbances at the subharmonic streamwise wavelength results in the development of strong coherent three-dimensional structures. The resulting strong three-dimensional rate-of-strain triggers the growth of intense fine scale motions. Wakes initiated with 60 deg disturbances at the fundamental streamwise wavelength develop weak coherent streamwise structures, and do not develop significant fine scale motions, even at high Reynolds numbers. The wakes which develop strong three-dimensional structures exhibit growth rates on par with experimentally observed turbulent plane wakes. Wakes which develop only weak three-dimensional structures exhibit significantly lower late time growth rates. Preliminary studies of wakes initiated with an oblique fundamental and a two-dimensional subharmonic, which develop asymmetric coherent oblique structures at the subharmonic wavelength, indicate that significant fine scale motions only develop if the resulting oblique structures are above an angle of approximately 45 deg

Application of the pressure sensitive paint technique to steady and unsteady flow

Pressure sensitive paint is a newly-developed optical measurement technique with which one can get a continuous pressure distribution in much shorter time and lower cost than a conventional pressure tap measurement. However, most of the current pressure sensitive paint applications are restricted to steady pressure measurement at high speeds because of the small signal-to-noise ratio at low speed and a slow response to pressure changes. In the present study, three phases of work have been completed to extend the application of the pressure sensitive paint technique to low-speed testing and to investigate the applicability of the paint technique to unsteady flow. First the measurement system using a commercially available PtOEP/GP-197 pressure sensitive paint was established and applied to impinging jet measurements. An in-situ calibration using only five pressure tap data points was applied and the results showed good repeatability and good agreement with conventional pressure tap measurements on the whole painted area. The overall measurement accuracy in these experiments was found to be within 0.1 psi. The pressure sensitive paint technique was then applied to low-speed wind tunnel tests using a 60 deg delta wing model with leading edge blowing slots. The technical problems encountered in low-speed testing were resolved by using a high grade CCD camera and applying corrections to improve the measurement accuracy. Even at 35 m/s, the paint data not only agreed well with conventional pressure tap measurements but also clearly showed the suction region generated by the leading edge vortices. The vortex breakdown was also detected at alpha=30 deg. It was found that a pressure difference of 0.2 psi was required for a quantitative pressure measurement in this experiment and that temperature control or a parallel temperature measurement is necessary if thermal uniformity does not hold on the model. Finally, the pressure sensitive paint was applied to a periodically changing pressure field with a 12.8s time period. A simple first-order pole model was applied to deal with the phase lag of the paint. The unsteady pressure estimated from the time-changing pressure sensitive paint data agreed well with the pressure transducer data in regions of higher pressure and showed the possibility of extending the technique to unsteady pressure measurements. However, the model still needs further refinement based on the physics of the oxygen diffusion into the paint layer and the oxygen quenching on the paint luminescence

LR characterization of chirotopes of finite planar families of pairwise disjoint convex bodies

We extend the classical LR characterization of chirotopes of finite planar families of points to chirotopes of finite planar families of pairwise disjoint convex bodies: a map \c{hi} on the set of 3-subsets of a finite set I is a chirotope of finite planar families of pairwise disjoint convex bodies if and only if for every 3-, 4-, and 5-subset J of I the restriction of \c{hi} to the set of 3-subsets of J is a chirotope of finite planar families of pairwise disjoint convex bodies. Our main tool is the polarity map, i.e., the map that assigns to a convex body the set of lines missing its interior, from which we derive the key notion of arrangements of double pseudolines, introduced for the first time in this paper.Comment: 100 pages, 73 figures; accepted manuscript versio