Nanosecond pulsed laser micromachining for experimental fatigue life study of Ti–3Al–2.5V tubes

Defects on external surface of in-service hydraulic tubes can reduce total life cycles for operation. Evaluation of fatigue life of the tubes with damage is thus critical for safety reasons. A methodology of generating defects in the Ti–3Al–2.5V tube—a widely used pipeline in hydraulic systems of aircrafts—using nanosecond pulsed laser for experimental fatigue life study is described in this paper. Straight tubes of five different sizes were laser micromachined to generate notches of given length and depths on the outside surface. Approaches were developed to precisely control the notch dimensions. The laser-notched tubes were tested with cyclic internal impulse pressure and fatigue life was measured. The laser notches and fatigue cracks were characterized after the test. It is concluded that laser micromachining generated consistent notches, and the influence of notch depth on fatigue life of the tube is significant. Based on the experimental test results, the relationship between the fatigue life of the Ti–3Al–2.5V tube and the notch depth was revealed. The research demonstrated that laser micromachining is applicable for experimental fatigue life study of titanium tubes. The presented test data are useful for estimating the damage limits of the titanium tubes in service environment and for further theoretical studies.     

Study of charmless hadronic B meson decays to pseudoscalar-vector final states

We report results of searches for charmless hadronic B meson decays to pseudoscalar( pi(+/-), K+/-, pi(0), or K(0)(S))-vector( rho, K(*), or omega) final states. By using 9.7x10(6) BB pairs collected with the CLEO detector, we report the first observation of B(-)--->pi(-)rho(0), B(0)-->pi(+/-)rho(-/+), and B(-)-->pi(-)omega, which are expected to be dominated by hadronic b-->u transitions. The measured branching fractions are (10.4(+3.3)(-3.4)+/-2.1)x10(-6), (27.6(+8.4)(-7.4)+/-4.2)x10(-6), and (11.3(+3.3)(-2.9)+/-1. 4)x10(-6), respectively. Branching fraction upper limits are set for all of the other decay modes investigated.     

A projection property

E. Corominas introduced recently this notion for posets:P is projective if every mapf fromP ² toP which is order preserving and idempotent (i.e.f(x, x)=x for allx P) is a projection. We consider extensions of this notion to other structures, as well as to maps withn variables. We prove thatn-projectivity forn2 is equivalent to 2-projectivity, with a single exception: the structure has the same morphisms as the collection of congruences associated with a vector space over /2, of dimension at least two. Focusing on relational structures, Arrow's Theorem is introduced as an example. We consider particular types of relational structures: posets, graphs and metric spaces, and discuss for these the specific examples of crowns, cycles and circles.Presented by G. McNultyAuthor supported by the French group PRC Math-Info, and NSERC of Canada.Author supported by NSERC Grant OGP 5407 and FCAR Québec grant Eq 0537.Author supported by NSERC Grant 69-3039.