Interval parameter perturbation method for evaluating the bounds on natural frequencies of structures with interval parameters

For structural parameters with uncertainties, interval mathematics can, in the case where the probabilistic distribution density of uncertain variables is unavailable, deal with the influence of uncertainties in structural parameters on the response of structures. In order to evaluate the region containing natural frequencies of structures with interval parameters, the interval parameter perturbation method is presented in this paper. The advantage of the present method is its computational efficiency in evaluating the region containing natural frequencies. A numerical example is used to illustrate the efficiency of the method proposed. The project is supported by National Youth Natural Science Foundation of China and National Outstanding Youth Science Foundation of China.     

RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN X—H STRETCHING OVERTONE FREQUENCIES AND BOND LENGTHS/BOND ANGLES

A relationship between the X-H (X = N, O, C, and so on) equilibrium bond length in a Morse oscillator and the X-H stretching overtone frequency shifts is obtained theoretically. We use the equation to discuss the empirical linear relationships that have been proposed for heterocyclics, alkanes and fluorinated benzenes. On the other hand, a unified relationship between the X-H bond angles and the experimental quantities (ω(?) and the coupling strength λ) is also presented for XH2, XH, and XH4 molecules or molecular fragments. Calculations of X-H bond angles for a number of molecules show that the results from our equations are in excellent agreement with the experimental values. Also we can extract the information of relative magnitude of bond coupling force field.     

A parallel implementation of the COLUMBUS multireference configuration interaction program

Summary In this work a parallel implementation of the COLUMBUS MRSDCI program system is presented. A coarse grain parallelization approach using message passing via the portable toolkit TCGMSG is used. The program is very well portable and runs on shared memory machines like the Cray Y-MP, Alliant FX/2800 or Convex C2 and on distributed memory machines like the iPSC/860. Further implementations on a network of workstations and on the Intel Touchstone Delta are in progress. Overall, results are quite satisfactory considering the complexity and the prodigious requirements, especially the I/O bandwidth, of MRCI programs in general. For our largest test case we obtain a speedup of a factor of 7.2 on an eight processor Cray Y-MP for that section of the program (hamiltonian matrix times trial vector product) which has been parallelized. The speedup for one complete diagonalization iteration amounts to 5.9. An absolute speed close to 1 GFLOPS is found. Results for the iPSC/860 show that ordinary disk I/O is certainly not sufficient in order to guarantee a satisfactory performance. As a solution for that problem, the implementation of a fully asynchronous distributed-memory model for certain data files is in preparation. On leave from: Bereich Informatik, Universität Leipzig, Augustusplatz 10/11, O-7010 Leipzig, Germany     

Microfabrication of stacks of acoustic matching layers for 15 MHz ultrasonic transducers

This paper presents a novel method used to manufacture stacks of multiple matching layers for 15 MHz piezoelectric ultrasonic transducers, using fabrication technology derived from the MEMS industry. The acoustic matching layers were made on a silicon wafer substrate using micromachining techniques, i.e., lithography and etch, to design silicon and polymer layers with the desired acoustic properties. Two matching layer configurations were tested: a double layer structure consisting of a silicon–polymer composite and polymer and a triple layer structure consisting of silicon, composite, and polymer. The composite is a biphase material of silicon and polymer in 2-2 connectivity. The matching layers were manufactured by anisotropic wet etch of a (1 1 0)-oriented Silicon-on-Insulator wafer. The wafer was etched by KOH 40 wt%, to form 83 μm deep and 4.5 mm long trenches that were subsequently filled with Spurr’s epoxy, which has acoustic impedance 2.4 MRayl. This resulted in a stack of three layers: The silicon substrate, a silicon–polymer composite intermediate layer, and a polymer layer on the top. The stacks were bonded to PZT disks to form acoustic transducers and the acoustic performance of the fabricated transducers was tested in a pulse-echo setup, where center frequency, −6 dB relative bandwidth and insertion loss were measured. The transducer with two matching layers was measured to have a relative bandwidth of 70%, two-way insertion loss 18.4 dB and pulse length 196 ns. The transducers with three matching layers had fractional bandwidths from 90% to 93%, two-way insertion loss ranging from 18.3 to 25.4 dB, and pulse lengths 326 and 446 ns. The long pulse lengths of the transducers with three matching layers were attributed to ripple in the passband.     

Four-operand parallel optical computing using shadow-casting technique

Optical shadow-casting (OSC) technique has shown excellent potential for optically implementing two-operand parallel logic gates and array logic operations. The 16 logic functions for two binary patterns (variables) are optically realizable in parallel by properly configuring an array of 2×2 light emitting diodes. In this paper, we propose an enhanced OSC technique for implementing four-operand parallel logic gates. The proposed system is capable of performing 2¹⁶ logic functions by simply programming the switching mode of an array of 4×4 light emitting diodes in the input plane. This leads to an efficient and compact realization scheme when compared to the conventional two-operand OSC system.     

Far infrared sub-nanosecond pulse generation in GaP with a time-synchronized mode-locked double-frequency Nd: Glass laser system

Light pulses of 149 m wavelength and 700 ps duration are generated by non-collinear phase-matched difference frequency mixing of laser pulses at 1053.5 and 1061 nm in a (110) cut GaP crystal. The pump laser pulses are generated in a time-synchronized mode-locked double-frequency Nd:glass laser system consisting of a silicate glass branch and a phosphate glass branch. A photon conversion efficiency of 4 × 10^–6 is achieved. The non-linear susceptibility constant of GaP is determined to be d ₁₄ = (10 ± 1) pm V^–1.     

Vibration and instability analysis of tubular nano- and micro-beams conveying fluid using nonlocal elastic theory

A nonlocal Euler–Bernoulli elastic beam model is developed for the vibration and instability of tubular micro- and nano-beams conveying fluid using the theory of nonlocal elasticity. Based on the Newtonian method, the equation of motion is derived, in which the effect of small length scale is incorporated. With this nonlocal beam model, the natural frequencies and critical flow velocities for the case of simply supported system and for the case of cantilevered system are obtained. The effect of small length scale (i.e., the nonlocal parameter) on the properties of vibrations is discussed. It is demonstrated that the natural frequencies are generally decreased with increasing values of nonlocal parameter, both for the supported and cantilevered systems. More significantly, the effect of small length scale on the critical flow velocities is visible for fluid-conveying beams with nano-scale length; however, this effect may be neglected for micro-beams conveying fluid.     

A high-order discontinuous Galerkin method for wave propagation through coupled elastic–acoustic media

We introduce a high-order discontinuous Galerkin (dG) scheme for the numerical solution of three-dimensional (3D) wave propagation problems in coupled elastic–acoustic media. A velocity–strain formulation is used, which allows for the solution of the acoustic and elastic wave equations within the same unified framework. Careful attention is directed at the derivation of a numerical flux that preserves high-order accuracy in the presence of material discontinuities, including elastic–acoustic interfaces. Explicit expressions for the 3D upwind numerical flux, derived as an exact solution for the relevant Riemann problem, are provided. The method supports h-non-conforming meshes, which are particularly effective at allowing local adaptation of the mesh size to resolve strong contrasts in the local wavelength, as well as dynamic adaptivity to track solution features. The use of high-order elements controls numerical dispersion, enabling propagation over many wave periods. We prove consistency and stability of the proposed dG scheme. To study the numerical accuracy and convergence of the proposed method, we compare against analytical solutions for wave propagation problems with interfaces, including Rayleigh, Lamb, Scholte, and Stoneley waves as well as plane waves impinging on an elastic–acoustic interface. Spectral rates of convergence are demonstrated for these problems, which include a non-conforming mesh case. Finally, we present scalability results for a parallel implementation of the proposed high-order dG scheme for large-scale seismic wave propagation in a simplified earth model, demonstrating high parallel efficiency for strong scaling to the full size of the Jaguar Cray XT5 supercomputer.     

A W-Band Frequency Tracing Transceiver System

In millimeter-wave, phase-locked oscillators are often used because the frequency drift of oscillators is very large. However, they are very complex. In this paper, a W-band frequency tracing transceiver system is presented and tested, which is used for digital communication. Although the communication distance is less than that of phase-locked systems, the scheme is simple and the cost is low.     

An efficient Schottky-varactor frequency multiplier at millimeter waves. Part IV. Quintupler

The multiplication efficiency of a millimeter-wave Schottky-varactor quintupler with fixed idler terminations was studied. The highest efficiency measured was 4.2% at 168 GHz with 10 mW input power and 3.3% with 40 mW input power. Over the range from 165 GHz to 170 GHz the output power was 0.7–1.3 mW withp _in =40 mW.