Aeroacoustics research in Europe: The CEAS-ASC report on 2010 highlights

The Council of European Aerospace Societies (CEAS) Aeroacoustics Specialists Committee (ASC) supports and promotes the interests of the scientific and industrial aeroacoustics community on an European scale and European aeronautics activities internationally. In this context, “aeroacoustics” encompasses all aerospace acoustics and related areas. Each year the committee highlights some of the research and development projects in Europe.This paper is a report on highlights of aeroacoustics research in Europe in 2010, compiled from information provided to the ASC of the CEAS.At the end of 2010, project X-NOISE EV of the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Commission has been launched as a continuation of the X-Noise series, with objectives of reducing aircraft noise and reaching the goal set by the ACARE 2020 Vision.Some contributions submitted to the editor summarizes selected findings from European projects launched before or concluded in 2010, while other articles cover issues supported by national associations or by industries. Furthermore, a concise summary of the workshop on “Aeroacoustics of High-Speed Aircraft Propellers and Open Rotors” held in Warsaw in October is included in this report.Enquiries concerning all contributions should be addressed to the authors who are given at the end of each subsection.     

Aeroacoustics research in Europe: The CEAS-ASC report on 2012 highlights

The Council of European Aerospace Societies (CEAS) Aeroacoustics Specialists Committee (ASC) supports and promotes the interests of the scientific and industrial aeroacoustics community on an European scale and European aeronautics activities internationally. In this context, “aeroacoustics” encompasses all aerospace acoustics and related areas. Each year the committee highlights some of the research and development projects in Europe.     

Aeroacoustics research in Europe: the CEAS-ASC report on 2002 highlights

This paper summarizes some highlights of aeroacoustics research in Europe in 2002, compiled from information provided to the Aeroacoustics Specialists Committee (ASC) of the Confederation of European Aerospace Societies (CEAS). The CEAS comprises the national Aerospace Societies of France (AAAF), Germany (DGLR), Italy (AIDAA), The Netherlands (NVvL), Spain (AIAE), Sweden (FTF), Switzerland (SVFW) and the United Kingdom (RAeS).     

AEROACOUSTIC RESEARCH IN EUROPE: THE CEAS-ASC REPORT ON 2000 HIGHLIGHTS

This paper summarizes the highlights of aeroacoustics research in Europe in 2000, compiled from information provided to the CEAS Aeroacoustics Specialists' Committee (ASC). The Confederation of European Aerospace Societies (CEAS) comprises the national Aerospace Societies of France (AAAF), Germany (DGLR), Italy (AIDAA), the Netherlands (NVvL), Spain (AIAE), Sweden (FTF), Switerland (SVFW), and the United Kingdom (RAeS).     

AEROACOUSTICS RESEARCH IN EUROPE: THE CEAS-ASC REPORT ON 2001 HIGHLIGHTS

This paper summarizes some highlights of aeroacoustics research in Europe in 2001, compiled from information provided to the Confederation of European Aerospace Societies (CEAS) Aeroacoustics Specialists Committee (ASC). The CEAS comprises the national Aerospace Societies of France (AAAF), Germany (DGLR), Italy (AIDAA), The Netherlands (NVvL), Spain (AIAE), Sweden (FTF), Switzerland (SVFW) and the United Kingdom (RAeS).     

Aeroacoustics research in Europe: The CEAS-ASC Report on 2005 highlights

This paper summarizes some of the aeroacoustic research undertaken in Europe in 2005. It is compiled from information provided by the Aearocoustics Specialists’ Committee (ASC) of the Confederation of European Aerospace Societies (CEAS). The committee comprises representation from the Aerospace Societies of France (AAAF), Germany (DGLR), Italy (AIDAA) the Netherlands (NVvL), Spain (AIAE), Sweden (SVFW) and the United Kingdom (RaeS) together with members from Greece, Ireland, Poland and Portugal.     

EURailNoise: a study of European priorities and strategies for railway noise abatement

The European Union is developing its noise policy by using a number of expert groups on specific noise issues. One of the most relevant noise problems is railway traffic which is dealt with by Working Group 6 (WG 6). The Commission of the European Union appointed a consortium of six consultants and experts in railway noise to prepare a study on European priorities and strategies for railway noise abatement. The main purpose of this study was to support the work within WG 6 and to create an inventory of measures for future railway noise abatement policy of the European Union. The EURailNoise study was to be completed in autumn 2001. The countries included the European Union member states, together with Norway, and Switzerland, and three prospective members (Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Poland).The EURailNoise study consisted of three main parts. The baseline was a review of current European legislation on railway noise generation as well as noise perception. In parallel a documentation of cases, where technical measures against railway noise had been successfully applied, was prepared using a classification of “good practice”, “promising new technology”, and “promising research results”.The second part covered the potential for further noise reduction demonstrated for High Speed Passenger Traffic, S-Trains, Locomotives, Trams, Freight Traffic, Track Design and finally Wheels and Track Monitoring and Maintenance. Thirdly, a strategy for future activities of the Commission concerning the reduction of rail noise was to be proposed including a proposal for noise emission limits. This paper summarizes the results of the EURailNoise study.     

Comments on Chapter 12 of ‘‘Railway Noise and Vibration: Mechanisms, Modelling and Means of Control”, by D. Thompson (with contributions from C. Jones and P.-E. Gautier), Elsevier, 2009

In this “Letter to the Editor”, it is detailed how Chapter 12 of the book “Railway Noise and Vibration: Mechanisms, Modelling and Means of Control”, by D. Thompson (with contributions from C. Jones and P.-E. Gautier), Elsevier, 2009, offers a rather incomplete review of the topic of the generation of ground vibrations by high-speed trains, in particular by trans-Rayleigh trains. As a result of this limited review, readers unfamiliar with the history of the problem will gain an incorrect impression of the topic and a rather incomplete knowledge of past work on it. This letter attempts to supply a more appropriate review.     

John Archibald Wheeler: A few highlights of his contributions to physics

The following quotations describe in nutshells a few highlights of John Archibald Wheeler's contributions to physics. The contributions are arranged in roughly the following order: (i) concrete research results, (ii) innovative ideas that have become foundations for the research of others, (iii) insights that give guidance for the development of physics over the coming decades. Since most of Wheeler's work contains strong elements of two or even all three of these characteristics, the editors have not attempted to delineate the dividing lines between the three categories.     

Where do we stand on econophysics?

This issue contains papers selected from the contributions presented at the 5th International Conference on “Applications of Physics in Financial Analysis” (APFA5) held in Torino from June 29th to July 1st, 2006 (http://www.polito.it/apfa5). The issue collects recent applications of models and methods of statistical physics to economic problems. This interdisciplinary field of research, known as Econophysics, has seen intensive growth over the last decade. The challenge for econophysicists will be to go beyond the traditional views of economics and physics unifying the separate lines of development followed by the two disciplines over great part of the 20th century.“The conventional view serves to protect us from the painful job of thinking”, John Kenneth Galbraith (1908-2006).     

Piezonuclear reactions - do they really exist?

In a number of recent articles in this journal F. Cardone and collaborators have claimed the observation of several striking nuclear phenomena which they attribute to “piezonuclear reactions”. One such claim [F. Cardone, R. Mignani, A. Petrucci, Phys. Lett. A 373 (2009) 1956] is that subjecting a solution of ²²⁸Th to cavitation leads to a “transformation” of thorium nuclei that is 10⁴ times faster than the normal nuclear decay for this isotope. In a “Comment” [G. Ericsson, S. Pomp, H. Sjöstrand, E. Traneus, Phys. Lett. A 373 (2009) 3795] to the thorium work, we have criticized the evidence provided for this claim. In a “Reply” [F. Cardone, R. Mignani, A. Petrucci, Phys. Lett. A 373 (2009) 3797] Cardone et al. answer only some minor points but avoid addressing the real issue. The information provided in their Reply displays a worrying lack of control of their experimental situation and the data they put forward as evidence for their claims. We point out several shortcomings and errors in the described experimental preparations, set-up and reporting, as well as in the data analysis. We conclude that the evidence presented by Cardone et al. is insufficient to justify their claims of accelerated thorium decay (by “piezonuclear reactions” or otherwise).     

Reply to “Comment on ‘Ensemble Kalman filter with the unscented transform”’

This is a reply to the comment of Dr. Sakov on the work “Ensemble Kalman filter with the unscented transform” of Luo and Moroz (2009) [2].     

EFFECTS OF POSTURE AND VIBRATION MAGNITUDE ON APPARENT MASS AND PELVIS ROTATION DURING EXPOSURE TO WHOLE-BODY VERTICAL VIBRATION

The effect of variations in posture and vibration magnitude on apparent mass and seat-to-pelvis pitch transmissibility have been studied with vertical random vibration over the frequency range 1·0-20 Hz. Each of 12 subjects was exposed to 27 combinations of three vibration magnitudes (0·2, 1·0 and 2·0m/s² r.m.s.) and nine sitting postures (“upright”, “anterior lean”, “posterior lean”, “kyphotic”, “back-on”, “pelvis support”, “inverted SIT-BAR” (increased pressure beneath ischial tuberosities), “bead cushion” (decreased pressure beneath ischial tuberosities) and “belt” (wearing an elasticated belt)).Peaks in the apparent masses were observed at about 5 and 10 Hz, and in the seat-to-pelvis pitch transmissibilities at about 12 Hz. In all postures, the resonance frequencies in the apparent mass and transmissibility decreased with increased vibration magnitude, indicating a non-linear softening system. There were only small changes in apparent mass or transmissibility with posture, although peaks were lower for the apparent mass in the “kyphotic” posture and were lower for the transmissibility in the “belt” posture. The changes in apparent mass and transmissibility caused by changes in vibration magnitude were greater than the changes caused by variation in posture.     

Room evacuation in the presence of an obstacle

The investigation of human behaviour while trying to escape from a room under panic is an important issue in complex systems research. Several authors have called attention to the fact that placing an obstacle near the exit improves the evacuation time of the room (Helbing et al. (2000, 2005) [2] and [8], Hughes (2003) [6], Johansson and Helbing (2005) [16], Piccoli and Tosin (2009) [5]). We studied this effect in the context of the “social force model” (Helbing et al. (2000) [2]). We show that placing an obstacle does not guarantee, by itself, better chances of survival for all pedestrians. The way they choose to avoid the obstacle is critical for their own performance. We found not only that the faster they try to escape, the slower they get out (“faster is slower” effect), but also, the short cut they might take in order to get to the exit will probably do no better (“clever is not always better” effect).     

Statistical dynamics of religion evolutions

A religion affiliation can be considered as a “degree of freedom” of an agent on the human genre network. A brief review is given on the state of the art in data analysis and modelization of religious “questions” in order to suggest and if possible initiate further research, after using a “statistical physics filter”. We present a discussion of the evolution of 18 so-called religions, as measured through their number of adherents between 1900 and 2000. Some emphasis is made on a few cases presenting a minimum or a maximum in the investigated time range—thereby suggesting a competitive ingredient to be considered, besides the well accepted “at birth” attachment effect. The importance of the “external field” is still stressed through an Avrami late stage crystal growth-like parameter. The observed features and some intuitive interpretations point to opinion based models with vector, rather than scalar, like agents.     

Conflict game in evacuation process: A study combining Cellular Automata model

The game-theoretic approach is an essential tool in the research of conflicts of human behaviors. The aim of this study is to research crowd dynamic conflicts during evacuation processes. By combining a conflict game with a Cellular Automata model, the following factors such as rationality, herding effect and conflict cost are taken into the research on frequency of each strategy of evacuees, and evacuation time. Results from Monte Carlo simulations show that (i) in an emergency condition, rationality leads to “vying” behaviors and inhibited “polite” behavior; (ii) high herding causes a crowd of high rationality (especially in normal circumstances) to become more “vying” in behavior; (iii) the high-rationality crowd is shown to spend more evacuation time than a low-rationality crowd in emergency situations. This study provides a new perspective to understand conflicts in evacuation processes as well as the rationality of evacuees.     

Hydrodynamics and phases of flocks

We review the past decade’s theoretical and experimental studies of flocking: the collective, coherent motion of large numbers of self-propelled “particles” (usually, but not always, living organisms). Like equilibrium condensed matter systems, flocks exhibit distinct “phases” which can be classified by their symmetries. Indeed, the phases that have been theoretically studied to date each have exactly the same symmetry as some equilibrium phase (e.g., ferromagnets, liquid crystals). This analogy with equilibrium phases of matter continues in that all flocks in the same phase, regardless of their constituents, have the same “hydrodynamic”—that is, long-length scale and long-time behavior, just as, e.g., all equilibrium fluids are described by the Navier-Stokes equations. Flocks are nonetheless very different from equilibrium systems, due to the intrinsically nonequilibrium self-propulsion of the constituent “organisms.” This difference between flocks and equilibrium systems is most dramatically manifested in the ability of the simplest phase of a flock, in which all the organisms are, on average moving in the same direction (we call this a “ferromagnetic” flock; we also use the terms “vector-ordered” and “polar-ordered” for this situation) to exist even in two dimensions (i.e., creatures moving on a plane), in defiance of the well-known Mermin-Wagner theorem of equilibrium statistical mechanics, which states that a continuous symmetry (in this case, rotation invariance, or the ability of the flock to fly in any direction) can not be spontaneously broken in a two-dimensional system with only short-ranged interactions. The “nematic” phase of flocks, in which all the creatures move preferentially, or are simply oriented preferentially, along the same axis, but with equal probability of moving in either direction, also differs dramatically from its equilibrium counterpart (in this case, nematic liquid crystals). Specifically, it shows enormous number fluctuations, which actually grow with the number of organisms faster than the “law of large numbers” obeyed by virtually all other known systems. As for equilibrium systems, the hydrodynamic behavior of any phase of flocks is radically modified by additional conservation laws. One such law is conservation of momentum of the background fluid through which many flocks move, which gives rise to the “hydrodynamic backflow” induced by the motion of a large flock through a fluid. We review the theoretical work on the effect of such background hydrodynamics on three phases of flocks—the ferromagnetic and nematic phases described above, and the disordered phase in which there is no order in the motion of the organisms. The most surprising prediction in this case is that “ferromagnetic” motion is always unstable for low Reynolds-number suspensions. Experiments appear to have seen this instability, but a quantitative comparison is awaited. We conclude by suggesting further theoretical and experimental work to be done.