Probe interface design consideration

Interface design between a probe and a spacecraft requires not only technical considerations but also management planning and mission analysis interactions. Two further aspects of importance are the flyby versus the probe trade-off, and the relay link design and data handling optimization

Corpuscular Consideration of Eternal Inflation

We review the paradigm of eternal inflation in the light of the recently proposed corpuscular picture of space-time. Comparing the strength of the average fluctuation of the field up its potential with that of quantum depletion, we show that the latter can be dominant. We then study the full respective distributions in order to show that the fraction of the space-time which has an increasing potential is always below the eternal-inflation threshold. We prove that for monomial potentials eternal inflaton is excluded. This is likely to hold for other models as well.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figures; revised version to match submitted versio

Should Optimal Designers Worry About Consideration?

Consideration set formation using non-compensatory screening rules is a vital component of real purchasing decisions with decades of experimental validation. Marketers have recently developed statistical methods that can estimate quantitative choice models that include consideration set formation via non-compensatory screening rules. But is capturing consideration within models of choice important for design? This paper reports on a simulation study of a vehicle portfolio design when households screen over vehicle body style built to explore the importance of capturing consideration rules for optimal designers. We generate synthetic market share data, fit a variety of discrete choice models to the data, and then optimize design decisions using the estimated models. Model predictive power, design "error", and profitability relative to ideal profits are compared as the amount of market data available increases. We find that even when estimated compensatory models provide relatively good predictive accuracy, they can lead to sub-optimal design decisions when the population uses consideration behavior; convergence of compensatory models to non-compensatory behavior is likely to require unrealistic amounts of data; and modeling heterogeneity in non-compensatory screening is more valuable than heterogeneity in compensatory trade-offs. This supports the claim that designers should carefully identify consideration behaviors before optimizing product portfolios. We also find that higher model predictive power does not necessarily imply better design decisions; that is, different model forms can provide "descriptive" rather than "predictive" information that is useful for design.Comment: 5 figures, 26 pages. In Press at ASME Journal of Mechanical Design (as of 3/17/15

Inclusion agglomeration in electrified molten metal: thermodynamic consideration

The effect of electric current on inclusion agglomeration in molten metal has been investigated. It is found that the agglomeration is dependent on the electric current density, distance between inclusions and orientation of electric field. Electric current retards the agglomeration unless two inclusions are aligned along or closely to the current flow streamlines and the distance between inclusions is less than a critical value. The mechanism is also validated in the computation of cluster agglomeration. The numerical results provide a comprehensive indication for the current-induced inclusion removal and current-induced inclusion elongation. When the inclusions are in long-thin shape, the calculation predicts the current-induced microstructure alignment and current-induced microstructure refinement phenomena

Automation of isogeometric formulation and efficiency consideration

This paper deals with automation of the isogeometric finite element formulation. Isogeometric finite element is implemented in AceGen environment, which enables symbolic formulation of the element code and the expressions are automatically opti- mized. The automated code is tested for objectivity regarding numerical efficiency in a numeric test with the Cooke membrane. This test shows that automatic code generation optimizes the isogeometric quadrilateral element with linear Bezier splines to the degree of only twelve percent overhead against standard displacement quadrilateral element of four nodes. Additionaly, the automated isogeometric element code is tested on a set of standard benchmark test cases to further test the accurancy and efficiency of the pre- sented isogeometric implementation. The isogeometric displacement brick element with quadratic Bezier splines is in all tests compared to a collection of standard displacement element formulations and a selection of EAS elements. The presented results show su- perior behaviour of the isogeometric displacement brick element with quadratic Bezier splines for coarse meshes and best convergence rate with mesh refinement in most test cases. Despite all optimization of the element code the biggest disadvantage of the isogeo- metric model remains the time cost of the isogeometric analysis. Thus, when considering the ratio between solution error and solution time, the use of stable EAS elements, likeTSCG12, remains preferable