Flame characteristics of small-scale pool fires under low gravity environments

The flame characteristics of pool fires such as oscillatory frequency, flame height, and so on differ depending on gravity. To improve our understanding of the effects of gravity on flame characteristics, we conducted an experimental investigation on small-scale pool fires under different gravity levels to normal. The drop tower facility at Hirosaki University in Japan was used to obtain an arbitrary low gravity environment. Our measurements include analyses of oscillatory frequency and flame height under low gravity environments and flow visualization by a particle-track laser-sheet technique (PTLS) combined with a high-speed camera. These measurements revealed that the puffing frequency and flame height declined with decreasing gravity. The puffing frequency was summarized by the relationship between the Strouhal and Froude numbers. The flame height showed a tendency to peak at a certain level of gravity. The behavior of the flame height under low gravity did not correlate to the scaling prediction previously presented, while the normal velocity component to the flame sheet declined with decreasing gravity. The chemical reaction in the flame may be restricted due to decreasing oxygen supply. Consequently, the convective heat feedback to the liquid surface falls, causing the flame height to decline with decreasing gravity.     

Gravity at sea--A memoir of a marine geophysicist

A history of studies on the gravity measurements at sea in Japan is reviewed with an emphasis on the contribution of the author. The first successful measurements at sea were made in 1923 by Vening Meinesz in the Netherlands using the pendulum apparatus installed in a submarine. However, the gravity measurements using a submarine are not convenient because the access to a submarine is limited. Professor Chuji Tsuboi made a number of unsuccessful attempts at developing a gravity meter that can be operated on a normal surface ship by reducing the noise by minimizing the motion of the gravity meter through a mechanical design. I have chosen a new approach toward the measurements of gravity on a surface ship by simplifying the mechanical part using a string gravity meter that was installed directly on a vertical gyroscope in combination with the numerical and/or electronic reduction of noises. With this gravity meter TSSG (Tokyo Surface Ship Gravity Meter), we firstly succeeded in measuring gravity at sea onboard a surface ship in July 1961 and the measurements have been extended to the northwestern Pacific and beyond. The results reveal the fine structures of gravity field in and around trenches that provide important clues as to a number of geodynamic issues including the nature of the trench-trench interaction and the interaction of trenches with seamounts.     

基于阿基米德定律测量重力加速度

基于阿基米德定律设计一种测量重力加速度的实验装置,对重力加速度进行测量.通过本实验得到的重力加速与当地重力加速度标准值的相对误差为0.14%,这为实验测量室重力加速度提供一种新方法。     

重力场和强磁场中费米气体的热力学性质

基于半经典近似,研究重力场和强磁场共存下费米气体的热力学性质,通过理论解析和数值模拟分析强磁场背景下重力场对系统热力学性质的影响.研究表明:与单纯强磁场相比,重力场的引入使能量及化学势都降低.随温度的上升,重力场对化学势的影响逐渐放大;对热容的影响有极大值.重力场使系统的热容随磁场的振荡几乎不变、使化学势的振荡中心下移.     

船载系泊状态下基于原子重力仪的绝对重力测量

重力场是反映地球质量分布及变化的重要参数,动态重力测量在地质调查、地球物理、资源勘探等领域有着重要应用.目前动态重力测量均基于相对测量原理,动态相对重力仪存在零点漂移问题,影响其测量性能.动态绝对重力仪可以为相对重力仪提供同步同址校准,解决其长漂问题,因此备受关注.本文基于原子重力仪和惯性稳定平台,搭建了一套船载绝对重力动态测量系统,并在船载系泊状态下开展了绝对重力动态测量实验.经评估,船载系泊环境下的重力测量灵敏度为16.6 mGal/Hz^-1/2,1000 s积分时间内重力测量的分辨率可达0.7 mGal.通过两周的绝对重力测量,评估了系统的稳定性.为了评估绝对重力的动态测量精度,将船上测量点与码头高精度绝对重力基准点的绝对重力值进行了比较,两点之间的绝对重力值差及其不确定度评估结果为(–0.072±0.134)mGal.本文结果为海洋相对重力仪的同时同船校准提供了一种新方案.     

TiC和AlN材料制备中的重力行为研究(Ⅰ)

为了研究失重环境对液相烧结AlN复合材料的影响,在抛物线飞行飞机上,以碳钛燃烧反应 形成的高温作为实验热源,进行了失重实验和AlN复合材料、TiC材料制备中重力行为研究. 利用抛物线飞行时产生的不同重力环境,研究了不同重力水平对碳钛燃烧反应的影响.研究 结果显示,重力水平的差异导致燃烧温度不同,样品的不同取向下重力对燃烧反应的影响不同. 关键词： 微重力 化学炉 TiC     

Characteristics of atmospheric gravity waves observed using the MU (Middle and Upper atmosphere) radar and GPS (Global Positioning System) radio occultation

The wind velocity and temperature profiles observed in the middle atmosphere (altitude: 10–100 km) show perturbations resulting from superposition of various atmospheric waves, including atmospheric gravity waves. Atmospheric gravity waves are known to play an important role in determining the general circulation in the middle atmosphere by dynamical stresses caused by gravity wave breaking. In this paper, we summarize the characteristics of atmospheric gravity waves observed using the middle and upper atmosphere (MU) radar in Japan, as well as novel satellite data obtained from global positioning system radio occultation (GPS RO) measurements. In particular, we focus on the behavior of gravity waves in the mesosphere (50–90 km), where considerable gravity wave attenuation occurs. We also report on the global distribution of gravity wave activity in the stratosphere (10–50 km), highlighting various excitation mechanisms such as orographic effects, convection in the tropics, meteorological disturbances, the subtropical jet and the polar night jet.     

Generalized Chern–Simons modified gravity in first-order formalism

We propose a generalization of Chern–Simons (CS) modified gravity in first-order formalism. CS modified gravity action has a term that comes from the chiral anomaly which is Pontryagin invariant. First-order CS modified gravity is a torsional theory and in a space-time with torsion the chiral anomaly includes a torsional topological term called Nieh-Yan invariant. We generalize the CS modified gravity by adding the Nieh-Yan term to the action and find the effective theory. We compare the generalized theory with the first-order CS modified gravity and comment on the similarities and differences.     

基于原子重力仪的车载静态绝对重力测量

目前大多数原子重力仪的装置复杂、体积庞大、环境适应性差,不能应用于野外进行绝对重力测量,这限制了原子重力仪的应用领域.本文利用自研的小型化原子重力仪,集成了一套车载绝对重力测量系统.该系统主要由原子重力仪、被动平台隔震系统、位姿平台调平系统、差分GPS测高系统、不间断电源供电系统及车载空调温控系统等组成.首先,本文对该测量系统的车载环境适应性进行了评估,发现在野外40℃高温、8°大倾角普通路面的环境下,该系统仍然能够正常工作;其次,介绍了车载绝对重力测量的实验步骤及数据处理方法,并测量了车头朝向对绝对重力测量的影响.最后,在野外平坦路面上进行了重复测线工作,评估了系统的内符合绝对重力测量精度,结果约为30μGal;在野外大倾角山体路面,通过测量不同海拔高度点的绝对重力值,得到了地球的垂直重力梯度值,约为-231(36)μGal/m.本文结果为野外绝对重力勘测提供了依据.     

Can the equivalence principle survive quantization?

It is well known that Einstein gravity is non-renormalizable; however a generalized approach is proposed that leads to Einstein gravity after renormalization. This then implies that at least one candidate for quantum gravity treats all matter on an equal footing with regard to the gravitational behaviour. Harsh constraints are also placed on any anti-matter gravity theory if one does not wish to violate the conservation of energy. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Finite field-dependent symmetries in perturbative quantum gravity

In this paper we discuss the absolutely anticommuting nilpotent symmetries for perturbative quantum gravity in general curved spacetime in linear and non-linear gauges. Further, we analyze the finite field-dependent BRST (FFBRST) transformation for perturbative quantum gravity in general curved spacetime. The FFBRST transformation changes the gauge-fixing and ghost parts of the perturbative quantum gravity within functional integration. However, the operation of such symmetry transformation on the generating functional of perturbative quantum gravity does not affect the theory on physical ground. The FFBRST transformation with appropriate choices of finite BRST parameter connects non-linear Curci–Ferrari and Landau gauges of perturbative quantum gravity. The validity of the results is also established at quantum level using Batalin–Vilkovisky (BV) formulation.     

Gravity-induced aging in glasses of colloidal hard spheres

The influence of gravity on the long-time behavior of the mean squared displacement in glasses of polydisperse colloidal hard spheres was studied by means of real-space fluorescent recovery after photobleaching. We present, for the first time, a significant influence of gravity on the mean squared displacements of the particles. In particular, we observe that systems which are glasses under gravity (with a gravitational length on the order of tens of micrometers) show anomalous diffusion over several decades in time if the gravitational length is increased by an order of magnitude. No influence of gravity was observed in systems below the glass transition density. We show that this behavior is caused by gravity dramatically accelerating aging in colloidal hard sphere glasses. This behavior explains the observation that colloidal hard sphere systems which are a glass on Earth rapidly crystallize in space.     

A contrastive study on the influences of radial and three-dimensional satellite gravity gradiometry on the accuracy of the Earth's gravitational field recovery

The accuracy of the Earth’s gravitational field measured from the gravity field and steady-state ocean circulation explorer(GOCE),up to 250 degrees,influenced by the radial gravity gradient V zz and three-dimensional gravity gradient V ij from the satellite gravity gradiometry(SGG) are contrastively demonstrated based on the analytical error model and numerical simulation,respectively.Firstly,the new analytical error model of the cumulative geoid height,influenced by the radial gravity gradient V zz and three-dimensional gravity gradient V ij are established,respectively.In 250 degrees,the GOCE cumulative geoid height error measured by the radial gravity gradient V zz is about 2 1/2 times higher than that measured by the three-dimensional gravity gradient V ij.Secondly,the Earth’s gravitational field from GOCE completely up to 250 degrees is recovered using the radial gravity gradient V zz and three-dimensional gravity gradient V ij by numerical simulation,respectively.The study results show that when the measurement error of the gravity gradient is 3×10 12 /s 2,the cumulative geoid height errors using the radial gravity gradient V zz and three-dimensional gravity gradient V ij are 12.319 cm and 9.295 cm at 250 degrees,respectively.The accuracy of the cumulative geoid height using the three-dimensional gravity gradient V ij is improved by 30%-40% on average compared with that using the radial gravity gradient V zz in 250 degrees.Finally,by mutual verification of the analytical error model and numerical simulation,the orders of magnitude from the accuracies of the Earth’s gravitational field recovery make no substantial differences based on the radial and three-dimensional gravity gradients,respectively.Therefore,it is feasible to develop in advance a radial cold-atom interferometric gradiometer with a measurement accuracy of 10 13 /s 2-10 15 /s 2 for precisely producing the next-generation GOCE Follow-On Earth gravity field model with a high spatial resolution.     

Numerical study of the effects of gravity on soot formation in laminar coflow methane/air diffusion flames under different air stream velocities

Numerical simulations of laminar coflow methane/air diffusion flames at atmospheric pressure and different gravity levels were conducted to gain a better understanding of the effects of gravity on soot formation by using relatively detailed gas-phase chemistry and complex thermal and transport properties coupled with a semi-empirical two-equation soot model. Thermal radiation was calculated using the discrete-ordinates method coupled with a non-grey model for the radiative properties of CO, CO₂, H₂O, and soot. Calculations were conducted for three coflow air velocities of 77.6, 30, and 5 cm/s to investigate how the coflowing air velocity affects the flame structure and soot formation at different levels of gravity. The coflow air velocity has a rather significant effect on the streamwise velocity and the fluid parcel residence time, especially at reduced gravity levels. The flame height and the visible flame height in general increase with decreasing the gravity level. The peak flame temperature decreases with decreasing either the coflow air stream velocity or the gravity level. The peak soot volume fraction of the flame at microgravity can either be greater or less than that of its normal gravity counterpart, depending on the coflow air velocity. At sufficiently high coflow air velocity, the peak soot volume fraction increases with decreasing the gravity level. When the coflow air velocity is low enough, soot formation is greatly suppressed at microgravity and extinguishment occurs in the upper portion of the flame with soot emission from the tip of the flame owing to incomplete oxidation. The numerical results provide further insights into the intimate coupling between flame size, residence time, thermal radiation, and soot formation at reduced gravity level. The importance of thermal radiation heat transfer and coflow air velocity to the flame structure and soot formation at microgravity is demonstrated for the first time.     

Matter Loops Corrected Modified Gravity in Palatini Formulation

Recently, corrections to the standard Einstein-Hilbert action were proposed to explain the current cosmic acceleration in stead of introducing dark energy. In the Palatini formulation of those modified gravity models, there is an important observation due to Arkani-Hamed: matter loops will give rise to a correction to the modified gravity action proportional to the Ricci scalar of the metric. In the presence of such a term, we show that the current forms of modified gravity models in Palatini formulation, specifically, the 1/R gravity and ln R gravity, will have phantoms. Then we study the possible instabilities due to the presence of phantom fields. We show that the strong instability in the metric formulation of 1/R gravity indicated by Dolgov and Kawasaki will not appear and the decay timescales for the phantom fields may be long enough for the theories to make sense as effective field theory . On the other hand, if we change the sign of the modification terms to eliminate the phantoms, some other inconsistencies will arise for the various versions of the modified gravity models. Finally, we comment on the universal property of the Palatini formulation of the matter loops corrected modified gravity models and its implications.     

Effects of gravity on the shape of liquid droplets

We report the gravity effects on the shape and focal length changes of liquid droplets. As the droplet size decreases, the gravity effect is gradually weakened. Moreover, if the outside space of the droplet is filled with another immiscible liquid rather than air, the filled liquid helps to offset the gravity effect even though their densities do not match well. Good agreement between experiment and simulation is obtained. The negligible gravity effect enables us to improve the optical performances of the liquid lens by choosing suitable liquids without worrying their density mismatch.     

Resolving Curvature Singularities in Holomorphic Gravity

We formulate a holomorphic theory of gravity and study how the holomorphy symmetry alters the two most important singular solutions of general relativity: black holes and cosmology. We show that typical observers (freely) falling into a holomorphic black hole do not encounter a curvature singularity. Likewise, typical observers do not experience Big Bang singularity. Unlike Hermitian gravity (Mantz and Prokopec in , 2008), holomorphic gravity does not respect the reciprocity symmetry and thus it is mainly a toy model for a gravity theory formulated on complex space-times. Yet it is a model that deserves a closer investigation since in many aspects it resembles Hermitian gravity and yet calculations are simpler. Our study of light bending and gravitational waves in weak holomorphic gravitational fields strongly suggests that holomorphic gravity reduces to general relativity at large distance scales.     

Gravity Observations and Apparent Density Changes before the 2017 Jiuzhaigou Ms7.0 Earthquake and Their Precursory Significance

An Ms7.0 earthquake struck Jiuzhaigou (China) on 8 August 2017. The epicenter was in the eastern margin of the Tibetan Plateau, an area covered by a dense time-varying gravity observation network. Data from seven repeated high-precision hybrid gravity surveys (2014–2017) allowed the microGal-level time-varying gravity signal to be obtained at a resolution better than 75 km using the modified Bayesian gravity adjustment method. The “equivalent source” model inversion method in spherical coordinates was adopted to obtain the near-crust apparent density variations before the earthquake. A major gravity change occurred from the southwest to the northeast of the eastern Tibetan Plateau approximately 2 years before the earthquake, and a substantial gravity gradient zone was consistent with the tectonic trend that gradually appeared within the focal area of the Jiuzhaigou earthquake during 2015–2016. Factors that might cause such regional gravitational changes (e.g., vertical crustal deformation and variations in near-surface water distributions) were studied. The results suggest that gravity effects contributed by these known factors were insufficient to produce gravity changes as big as those observed, which might be related to the process of fluid material redistribution in the crust. Regional change of the gravity field has precursory significance for high-risk earthquake areas and it could be used as a candidate precursor for annual medium-term earthquake prediction.     

Geometric Formulation of Gauge Theory of Gravity

Differential geometric formulation of quantum gauge theory of gravity is studied in this paper. The quantumgauge theory of gravity is formulated completely in the framework of traditional quantum field theory. In order to studythe relationship between quantum gauge theory of gravity and traditional quantum gravity which is formulated in curvedspace, it is important to set up the geometry picture of quantum gauge theory of gravity. The correspondence betweenquantum gauge theory of gravity and differential geometry is discussed and the geometry picture of quantum gaugetheory of gravity is studied.