Noise emitted by water supply installations

This work deals with the problem of noise generated by water supply systems in homes. Measurements were made in situ to determine normal conditions of installations and noise levels generated in different rooms in the home. In order to determine the sources of noise and the best construction methods to minimise noise generation, a laboratory was also built to reproduce the conditions of this type of installation in homes. Tests were carried out in this laboratory on different configurations of type of tap, installation material, walling and fastening of the installation, to allow quantitative determination of the differences in noise generation between the various configurations used in households.     

Modelling of squeal noise attenuation of ring damped wheels

The called vibratory instability squeal that appears in narrow curve or in end of braking is today uncontrolled and produced a high pitched noise very intense and unbearable. Many systems have been developed to limit acoustic emissions and particularly the metallic ring damping solution. Attenuation can reach 20 dB depending on the wheel type (Corail, safety wheel, etc.). However, the question is why this system has a various efficiency even on similar wheels and if this solution may be optimized. The aim of this paper is to understand the attenuation mechanisms of the ring dampers. Wheel modes susceptible to squeal are highlighted and numerical models are developed in order to simulate how the acoustic attenuation occur.     

T-duality in Affine NA Toda Models

The construction of non-Abelian affine Toda models is discussed in terms of its underlying Lie algebraic structure. It is shown that a subclass of such non-conformal two-dimensional integrable models naturally leads to the construction of a pair of actions, which share the same spectra and are related by canonical transformations.     

Surface profile measurement of low-frequency vibrating objects using temporal analysis of fringe pattern

A simple and accurate algorithm (phase scanning method) is proposed for 3D surface contouring and dynamic response determination of a vibrating object. A sinusoidal fringe pattern is projected onto a low-frequency vibrating object by a programmable liquid crystal display projector. The fringe patterns are captured by a high-speed CCD camera with a telecentric gauging lens. Phase values are evaluated point by point using phase scanning method. From the phase values of each point on the object, the contour of the specimen at different instants of vibration can be retrieved. In this paper, a small vibrating coin is used to demonstrate the validity of the method and the experimental results are compared with test results on a stationary coin using four-step phase shifting and fast Fourier transform methods. The technique is especially useful in applications where the vibrating object has a complicated shape.     

JET: Preparing the future in fusion

JET (Joint European Torus) is the largest tokamak in the world and the only fusion facility able to operate with Tritium, the fusion fuel, and Beryllium, the ITER first wall material. JET also features the most complete remote handling equipment for invessel maintenance. As a multinational research center, JET provides logistic experience in preparing for operation of the global facility, tokamak ITER.Experiments on JET are focused on ITER-relevant studies, in particular on detailing the operational scenarios (EL My H-modes and advanced regimes), on enhancing the heating systems, on developing diagnostics for burning plasmas etc. Pioneering real-time control techniques have been implemented that maximize performance and minimize internal disturbances of JET plasmas. In helium plasmas, ion cyclotron heating (ICRH) created fast α-particles, mimicking their populations in future burning plasmas. The recent successful Trace Tritium campaign provided important new data on fuel transport. Current enhancements on JET include a new ITER-like ELM-resilient high power ICRH antenna (7 MW) and over twenty new diagnostics that will further extend the JET scientific capabilities and push the facility even closer to the ITER parameters.A special mention is given to the involvement of the fusion experts from Association EURATOM-IPP.CR, who have been actively participating in the collective use of JET facility for more than three years.     

Adaptation of selected diagnostic techniques to magnetic confinement fusion experiments

The paper concerns several diagnostic techniques, which have been used in pulsed-power plasma experiments, i.e. Plasma-Focus and Z-Pinch devices, and which can be adapted to studies of Magnetic Confinement Fusion (MCF) facilities, e.g. Stellarators and Tokamaks. The application of Nuclear Track Detectors (NTDs) for time-integrated ion measurements in MCF experiments is described and the use of such detectors for time-resolved ion measurements is discussed. The application of special ?erenkov-type detectors for time resolved measurements of fast runaway electrons is considered. Also discussed is the use of selected nuclear reactions for measurements of fusion products, e.g. fast neutrons.     

Divisible Effect Algebras

Divisible effect algebras and their relations to convex effect algebras and MV-algebras are studied. A categorical equivalence between divisible effect algebras and rational vector spaces is proved. Infinitesimal, sharp and extremal elements in divisible effect algebras are studied and their relations to properties of the state space are shown.     

N identical particles under quantum confinement: a many-body dimensional perturbation theory approach

Systems that involve N identical interacting particles under quantum confinement appear throughout many areas of physics, including chemical, condensed matter, and atomic physics. In this paper, we present the methods of dimensional perturbation theory, a powerful set of tools that uses symmetry to yield simple results for studying such many-body systems. We present a detailed discussion of the dimensional continuation of the N-particle Schrödinger equation, the spatial dimension D→∞ equilibrium (D⁰) structure, and the normal-mode (D⁻¹) structure. We use the FG matrix method to derive general, analytical expressions for the many-body normal-mode vibrational frequencies, and we give specific analytical results for three confined N-body quantum systems: the N-electron atom, N-electron quantum dot, and N-atom inhomogeneous Bose-Einstein condensate with a repulsive hard-core potential.     

Spectral enhancement of Polish vowels to improve their identification by hearing impaired listeners

Abnormalities in the cochlear function usually cause broadening of the auditory filters which reduces the speech intelligibility. An attempt to apply a spectral enhancement algorithm has been undertaken to improve the identification of Polish vowels by subjects with cochlear-based hearing-impairment. The identification scores of natural (unprocessed) vowels and spectrally enhanced (processed) vowels has been measured for hearing-impaired subjects. It has been found that spectral enhancement improves vowel scores by about 10% for those subjects, however, a wide variation in individual performance among subjects has been observed. The overall vowels identification scores obtained were 85% for natural vowels and 96% for spectrally enhanced vowels.