Active Flow Control Implemented in a Multi-Stage High-Speed Axial Compressor

The decrease of fuel consumption is a main objective in the development of modern aircraft engines and heavy-duty gas turbines. Especially at off-design conditions, one promising approach to suppress flow losses and to increase the efficiency of the compressor is Active Flow Control (AFC) by aspiration or injection. Aerodynamically, the compressor flow of a gas turbine responds more sensitively to volatile flow conditions than the turbine flow because of the positive pressure gradient in a compressor achieved by flow deceleration. In a decelerating flow, particularly at off-design operating conditions, the compressor flow tends to separate from the blade surfaces. This flow separation causes unstable operating conditions inside the flow path resulting in low overall engine efficiency. Thus it is obvious that counter-measures against increased flow losses at off-design operation should be concentrated on the compressor. Considering industrial objectives, both the performance increase and the operating range enhancement are subjects of current compressor research, as is a reduction of vanes or even entire stages. While a reduced vane count reduces cost, even greater benefits can be gained if entire stages could be eliminated and thus the number of rotor discs reduced, which further reduces cost along with reducing the length of the rotor which could also improve rotor dynamics. For all of these purposes, different AFC approaches were implemented in a four stage axial compressor (4AV) and were experimentally examined. This paper presents an overview of the past and ongoing AFC research at the Institute of Turbomachinery and Fluid Dynamics (TFD). (© 2016 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Advances in molecular quantum chemistry contained in the Q-Chem 4 program package

A summary of the technical advances that are incorporated in the fourth major release of the Q-Chem quantum chemistry program is provided, covering approximately the last seven years. These include developments in density functional theory methods and algorithms, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) property evaluation, coupled cluster and perturbation theories, methods for electronically excited and open-shell species, tools for treating extended environments, algorithms for walking on potential surfaces, analysis tools, energy and electron transfer modelling, parallel computing capabilities, and graphical user interfaces. In addition, a selection of example case studies that illustrate these capabilities is given. These include extensive benchmarks of the comparative accuracy of modern density functionals for bonded and non-bonded interactions, tests of attenuated second order Møller–Plesset (MP2) methods for intermolecular interactions, a variety of parallel performance benchmarks, and tests of the accuracy of implicit solvation models. Some specific chemical examples include calculations on the strongly correlated Cr₂ dimer, exploring zeolite-catalysed ethane dehydrogenation, energy decomposition analysis of a charged ter-molecular complex arising from glycerol photoionisation, and natural transition orbitals for a Frenkel exciton state in a nine-unit model of a self-assembling nanotube.     

The Chemical Shift Baseline for High‐Pressure NMR Spectra of Proteins

High‐pressure (HP) NMR spectroscopy is an important method for detecting rare functional states of proteins by analyzing the pressure response of chemical shifts. However, for the analysis of the shifts it is mandatory to understand the origin of the observed pressure dependence. Here we present experimental HP NMR data on the ¹⁵N‐enriched peptide bond model, N‐methylacetamide (NMA), in water, combined with quantum‐chemical computations of the magnetic parameters using a pressure‐sensitive solvation model. Theoretical analysis of NMA and the experimentally used internal reference standard 4,4‐dimethyl‐4‐silapentane‐1‐sulfonic (DSS) reveal that a substantial part of observed shifts can be attributed to purely solvent‐induced electronic polarization of the backbone. DSS is only marginally responsive to pressure changes and is therefore a reliable sensor for variations in the local magnetic field caused by pressure‐induced changes of the magnetic susceptibility of the solvent.     

Metastable SUSY Breaking – Predicting the Fate of the Universe

The possibility that supersymmetry (SUSY) could be broken in a metastable vacuum has recently attracted renewed interest. In these proceedings we will argue that metastability is an attractive and testable scenario. The recent developments were triggered by the presentation of a simple and calculable model of metastable SUSY breaking by Intriligator, Seiberg and Shih (ISS), which we will briefly review. One of the main questions raised by metastability is, why did the universe end up in this vacuum. Using the ISS model as an example we will argue that in a large class of models the universe is automatically driven into the metastable state during the early hot phase and gets trapped there. This makes metastability a natural option from the cosmological point of view. However, it may be more than that. The phenomenologically required gaugino masses require the breaking of R-symmetry. However, in scenarios with a low supersymmetry breaking scale, e.g., gauge mediation a powerful theorem due to Nelson and Seiberg places this at odds with supersymmetry breaking in a truely stable state and metstability becomes (nearly) inevitable. Turning around one can now experimentally test whether gauge mediation is realised in nature thereby automatically testing the possibility of a metastability of the vacuum. Indeed, already the LHC may give us crucial information about the stability of the vacuum.     

Estimates of Weyl Sums over Subsequences of Natural Number

In this paper we introduce the notion of pseudo -ergodicity to generalize Pustyl'nikov's estimates of Weyl sums to Weyl sums over subsequence of the natural numbers.     

High-resolution absorption spectrum of jet-cooled CH3Cl between 70,000 and 85,000 cm(-1): new assignments

The absorption spectrum of jet-cooled CH(3)Cl was photographed from 165 to 117 nm (or 60,000 - 85,000 cm(-1), 7.5-10.5 eV) at a resolution limit of 0.0008 nm (0.3-0.6 cm(-1) or 0.04-0.08 meV). Even in the best structured region of the spectrum, from 70,000 to 85,000 cm(-1) (8.7-10.5 eV), observed bandwidths (full width at half maximum) are large, from 50 to 150 cm(-1). No rotational feature could be resolved. The spectrum is dominated by two strong bands near 9 eV, 140 nm, the D and E bands of Mulliken [J. Chem. Phys. 8, 382 (1940)] or the spectral region D of Price [J. Chem. Phys.4, 539 (1936)]. Their relative intensity is incompatible with previous assignments, namely, to a triplet and a singlet state belonging to the same configuration. On the basis of the present ab initio calculations, those bands are now assigned to two singlet states, the (1)A(1) and (1)E excited states resulting from the 2e(3)4pe Rydberg configuration. The present calculations also reveal that the two (1)E states issued from 2e(3)4sa(1) and 2e(3)4pa(1) are quasidegenerate and strongly mixed. They should be assigned to the two broad bands near 8 eV, 160 nm, the B and C bands of Mulliken and Price. Three vibrational modes are observed to be active: the CCl bond stretch nu(3)(a(1)), and the CH(3) umbrella and rocking vibrations, respectively, nu(2)(a(1)) and nu(6)(e). The fundamental frequencies deduced are well within the ranges defined by the corresponding values in the neutral and ion ground states. The possibility of a dynamical Jahn-Teller effect induced by the nu(6)(e) vibrational mode in the (1)E Rydberg states is discussed.     

Struktur und thermisches Verhalten von Gadolinium(III)-sulfat-Octahydrat Gd2(SO4)3 · 8 H2O

Structure and Thermal Behaviour of Gadolinium(III)-sulfate-octahydrate Gd₂(SO₄)₃ · 8 H₂O . Gd₂(SO₄)₃ · 8 H₂O crystallizes monoclinic with space group C2/c and the lattice constants a = 13.531(7), b = 6.739(2), c = 18.294(7) Å, β = 102.20(8)°. In the structure Gd is coordinated by 4 oxygen atoms of crystal water and 4 oxygens of sulfate giving rise to a distorted square antiprism. During DTA-TG-experiments the title compound first loses crystal water in a two-step mechanism in the temperature range 130–306°C. The resulting Gd₂(SO₄)₃ is amorphous and recrystallization occurs in the range 380–411°C. The so-obtained low-temperature modification β-Gd₂(SO₄)₃, undergoes a monotropic phase transition at about 750°C to the high-temperature form α-Gd₂(SO₄)₃. The powder pattern of this modification was indexed based on monoclinic symmetry with space group C2/c and lattice constants a = 9.097(3), b = 14.345(5), c = 6.234(2) Å, β = 97.75(8)°. The hightemperature modification of gadolinium-sulfate shows decomposition to Gd₂O₂SO₄ at 900°C and, subsequently, decomposition at 1 200°C yields the formation of C-Gd₂O₃.     

Polymorphisms in the interleukin-8 gene in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

Airway inflammation is the main pathophysiological feature of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Interleukin-8 (IL-8) is a potent chemoattractant for neutrophils and eosinophils. Increased IL-8 levels were observed in bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) and induced sputum in patients with COPD. To evaluate the role of the IL-8 gene, we genotyped blood samples of 122 COPD-patients and 385 healthy controls for a known polymorphism in the promoter region (-251 A/T) of the IL-8 gene. Additionally, we screened the coding region for further polymorphisms by SSCP analyses. Comparison of the allele and genotype frequencies among each group revealed no significant differences between patients and controls. Although IL-8 plays an important role in the chemotaxis of inflammatory cells, the polymorphisms investigated here do not seem to be involved in the genetic predisposition to COPD.