Runway paving: taking a different approach

Hot Mix Asphalt (HMA) paving of airport runways mostly requires multiple paving teams, multiple pavers, and a wide array of other equipment. The runway paving projects are typically renowned for the logistical effort and the tight margins for overruns, often requiring a relatively large part of the contractor’s resources. Due to the nature of airport operations the projects are of a fast-track nature and planned meticulously. The large-scale nature of the projects raise the attention of the media and contractors often use them as showcases. Although their project characteristics are well known and often appeal to the imagination, the projects have little attention in scientific journals from a process and operations management perspective. We present research ideas on operational matters, process and quality control issues relevant for runway HMA paving construction. It builds on our research experience in the area of highway asphalt paving. We describe the current state of the asphalt paving process and provide a brief overview of the sparse publications in the area. Based on a limited oral inquiry amongst Dutch experts – we present a first list of issues typical for runway asphalt paving operations. We hone in on variability encountered during HMA paving operations and operational strategies necessary for consistent paving and compaction. Lastly, we present technologies and approaches to improve the operational control and subsequent quality consistency during runway HMA paving operations

Monitoring Hot Mix Asphalt Temperature to Improve Homogeneity and Pavement Quality

This paper describes how controlled compaction practices lead to better quality asphalt. Therefore, it is important that during compaction operations the mixture is at a suitable temperature in order to achieve the specified degree of compaction. The University of Twente’s Asphalt Paving Research and Innovation unit’s main aim is to professionalize the road construction industry. One of the focus research issues is developing a deeper understanding of the Hot Mix Asphalt (HMA) cooling process and the variation in the mix temperature during compaction and laydown operations. Temperature measurement has become easier over the last decade due to the development of new infrared cameras, line scanners and sensors. The authors used this new technology to study asphalt temperature characteristics on test sections constructed in 2007 and 2008. It provided several insights into the cooling and variation in temperature of some asphalt mixtures used in The Netherlands. This paper presents and discusses the temperature measuring equipment used and the techniques applied to analyze and visualize the temperature data. The trials show that asphalt surface temperature is a good indicator of temperature homogeneity and process control. Also, that contractors will pay more attention to enhanced integration of HMA temperature as operational parameter in the compaction process given that the measurement technology is now easily within their reach. In the future, the authors expect a revival of research into cooling processes of HMA

Vector Meson Mixing and Charge Symmetry Violation

We discuss the consistency of the traditional vector meson dominance (VMD) model for photons coupling to matter, with the vanishing of vector meson-meson and meson-photon mixing self-energies at q^2=0. This vanishing of vector mixing has been demonstrated in the context of rho-omega mixing for a large class of effective theories. As a further constraint on such models, we here apply them to a study of photon-meson mixing and VMD. As an example we compare the predicted momentum dependence of one such model with a momentum-dependent version of VMD discussed by Sakurai in the 1960's. We find that it produces a result which is consistent with the traditional VMD phenomenology. We conclude that comparison with VMD phenomenology can provide a useful constraint on such models.Comment: 7 pages, uses epsfig.sty. Publication details added to title pag

Professionalisering van de wegenbouw – Het effect van de verdichtingstemperatuur op kwaliteitsparameters en de consequenties voor wegenbouwprocessen

Als respons op velerlei veranderingen in de wegenbouw is het netwerk ASPARi gericht op de professionalisering van de sector. In ASPARi-verband is bij Ooms Nederland Holding bv onderzoek verricht naar het effect van de temperatuur waarbij een asfaltmengsel verdicht wordt op de uiteindelijk functionele mechanische eigenschappen. Deze relatie is van belang voor het ‘verdichtingsvenster’: De temperaturen waarbinnen idealiter de verdichting plaatsvindt. Dat de temperatuur van het asfaltmengsel en de verdichtingsprocedure belangrijk zijn voor de eindkwaliteit van de asfaltverharding is al langer algemeen bekend. Traditioneel wordt zo’n verdichtingvenster gebaseerd op de viscositeit in een temperatuurbereik en de dichtheid die bij een gegeven viscositeit behaald kan worden. De uitkomsten van dit onderzoek laten zien dat het verstandig is om te werken met verdichtingsvensters en deze te bepalen aan de hand van beoogde mechanische \ud eigenschappen van de asfaltverharding. Verder blijkt dat de temperatuur waarop een asfaltmengsel verdicht wordt, sterk van belang is voor de eindkwaliteit van de asfaltverharding. Verdichten buiten het temperatuurvenster kan een vermindering van de eindkwaliteit tot gevolg hebben, en dus levensduurverkorting. Een kortere levensduur en eerdere schades aan het wegdek leiden tot reparatie, extra kosten, verminderde beschikbaarheid en mogelijk discussie over de garantie en dus financiële afrekening van het werk. Daarom wordt in deze paper voorgesteld het klassieke principe aan te scherpen. Hierbij wordt voorgesteld het verdichtingsvenster niet alleen aan de hand van de \ud streefdichtheid vast te stellen, maar ook aan de hand van de beoogde mechanische eigenschappen die uiteindelijk behaald moeten worden. In lijn daarmee zijn vervolgstappen richting professionalisering wenselijk en noodzakelijk om de eindkwaliteit verder te kunnen verbeteren en om tijdens het proces tijdig te kunnen bijsturen. Deze paper geeft daartoe aanleiding en aanwijzingen.\u

Charged Higgs bosons in the Next-to MSSM (NMSSM)

The charged Higgs boson decays $H^\pm\to W^\pm A_1$ and $H^\pm\to W^\pm h_i$ are studied in the framework of the next-to Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (NMSSM). It is found that the decay rate for $H^\pm\to W^\pm A_1$ can exceed the rates for the $\tau^\pm\nu$ and $tb$ channels both below and above the top-bottom threshold. The dominance of $H^\pm\to W^\pm A_1$ is most readily achieved when $A_1$ has a large doublet component and small mass. We also study the production process $pp\to H^\pm A_1$ at the LHC followed by the decay $H^\pm\to W^\pm A_1$ which leads to the signature $W^\pm A_1 A_1$. We suggest that $p p\to H^\pm A_1$ is a promising discovery channel for a light charged Higgs boson in the NMSSM with small or moderate $\tan\beta$ and dominant decay mode $H^\pm \to W^\pm A_1$. This $W^\pm A_1 A_1$ signature can also arise from the Higgsstrahlung process $pp\to W^\pm h_1$ followed by the decay $h_1\to A_1 A_1$. It is shown that there exist regions of parameter space where these processes can have comparable cross sections and we suggest that their respective signals can be distinguished at the LHC by using appropriate reconstruction methods.Comment: 20 pages, 22 eps figures, more reference adde

Systematic uncertainties in the precise determination of the strangeness magnetic moment of the nucleon

Systematic uncertainties in the recent precise determination of the strangeness magnetic moment of the nucleon are identified and quantified. In summary, G_M^s = -0.046 \pm 0.019 \mu_N.Comment: Invited presentation at PAVI '04, International Workshop on Parity Violation and Hadronic Structure, Laboratoire de Physique Subatomique et de Cosmologie, Grenoble, France, June 8-11, 2004. 7 pages, 16 figure

Arrival time and magnitude of airborne fission products from the Fukushima, Japan, reactor incident as measured in Seattle, WA, USA

We report results of air monitoring started due to the recent natural catastrophe on 11 March 2011 in Japan and the severe ensuing damage to the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear reactor complex. On 17-18 March 2011, we registered the first arrival of the airborne fission products 131-I, 132-I, 132-Te, 134-Cs, and 137-Cs in Seattle, WA, USA, by identifying their characteristic gamma rays using a germanium detector. We measured the evolution of the activities over a period of 23 days at the end of which the activities had mostly fallen below our detection limit. The highest detected activity amounted to 4.4 +/- 1.3 mBq/m^3 of 131-I on 19-20 March.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures, published in Journal of Environmental Radioactivit

High-Energy Aspects of Solar Flares: Overview of the Volume

In this introductory chapter, we provide a brief summary of the successes and remaining challenges in understanding the solar flare phenomenon and its attendant implications for particle acceleration mechanisms in astrophysical plasmas. We also provide a brief overview of the contents of the other chapters in this volume, with particular reference to the well-observed flare of 2002 July 23Comment: This is the introductory article for a monograph on the physics of solar flares, inspired by RHESSI observations. The individual articles are to appear in Space Science Reviews (2011

Causes of breakage and disruption in a homogeniser

Many authors have written in the past regarding the exact causes of breakage and disruption in a high pressure homogeniser, but there has been little agreement. This paper investigates some of the most likely causes of the rupture of the walls of unicellular organisms and offers suggestions obtained from various papers and work carried out