Effect of genesis on the properties and hydrogen reducibility of NiO-ZnO mixed oxides

The physico-chemical properties and reactivity tested by hydrogen reduction have been studied for two series of NiO-ZnO mixed oxides of various composition. The solid nickel oxide or zinc oxide in interaction with the solution of nitrate of the second component were used as the precursors in each series. The differences in some physico-chemical parameters of the samples in both series were correlated with their reduction behaviour, followed both in iso- and non-isothermal regime. Moreower, the influence of various factors modifying the reactivity of mixed oxides was also investigated and the results were compared with those obtained from earlier studied analogous systems of quite different origin.This revised version was published online in November 2005 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Asymptotic Correction of More Sturm–Liouville Eigenvalue Estimates

The asymptotic correction technique of Paine, de Hoog and Anderssen can dramatically improve the accuracy of finite difference or finite element eigenvalues at negligible extra cost if closed form expressions are available for the errors in a simpler related problem. This paper gives closed form expressions for the errors in the eigenvalues of certain Sturm–Liouville problems obtained by various methods, thereby increasing the range of problems for which asymptotic correction can achieve maximum efficiency. It also investigates implementation of the method for more general problems.     

Study of a vibrating plate: comparison between experimental (ESPI) and analytical results

Real-time electronic speckle pattern interferometry (ESPI) was used for tuning and visualization of natural frequencies of a trapezoidal plate. The plate was excited to resonant vibration by a sinusoidal acoustical source, which provided a continuous range of audio frequencies. Fringe patterns produced during the time-average recording of the vibrating plate—corresponding to several resonant frequencies—were registered. From these interferograms, calculations of vibrational amplitudes by means of zero-order Bessel functions were performed in some particular cases. The system was also studied analytically. The analytical approach developed is based on the Rayleigh–Ritz method and on the use of non-orthogonal right triangular co-ordinates. The deflection of the plate is approximated by a set of beam characteristic orthogonal polynomials generated by using the Gram–Schmidt procedure. A high degree of correlation between computational analysis and experimental results was observed.     

Damping of coupled phonon-plasmon modes

The effect of free carriers on the dispersion and damping of coupled phonon-plasmon modes is considered in the long-wave approximation. The electron and phonon scattering rate, as well as Landau damping, is taken into account.     

Elastoplastic torsion theory for whisker crystals

Translated from Zhurnal Prikladnoi Mekhaniki i Tekhnicheskoi Fiziki, No. 2, pp. 127–134, March–April, 1991.     

A generalization of the H-theorem to steady non-equilibrium states. Part 1: A basic decomposition and the linear case

A generalized relative entropy functional is associated to the evolution of gas in a container with (generally) non-uniform boundary data. A decomposition for its rate in ‘bulk’ and in ‘boundary’ terms is given; for the linear case both have a definite sign. The relation with the strong L₁ stability is pointed out.     

Convergence of multistep discretizations of DAEs

Standard ODE methods such as linear multistep methods encounter difficulties when applied to differential-algebraic equations (DAEs) of index greater than 1. In particular, previous results for index 2 DAEs have practically ruled out the use of all explicit methods and of implicit multistep methods other than backward difference formulas (BDFs) because of stability considerations. In this paper we embed known results for semi-explicit index 1 and 2 DAEs in a more comprehensive theory based on compound multistep and one-leg discretizations. This explains and characterizes the necessary requirements that a method must fulfill in order to be applicable to semi-explicit DAEs. Thus we conclude that the most useful discretizations are those that avoid discretization of the constraint. A freer use of e.g. explicit methods for the non-stiff differential part of the DAE is then possible.Dedicated to Germund Dahlquist on the occasion of his 70th birthdayThis author thanks the Centro de Estadística y Software Matemático de la Universidad Simón Bolivar (CESMa) for permitting her free use of its research facilities.Partial support by the Swedish Research Council for Engineering Sciences TFR under contract no. 222/91-405.     

Two-dimensional autocorrelation function analysis of smoked foil patterns

Digital image processing techniques have been applied to the analysis of cellular smoked foil patterns from gaseous detonations. In particular, the two-dimensional autocorrelation function is applied to digital cell pattern images and an orientational correlation parameter is calculated. Taking line profiles along the directions of highest correlation provides an unbiased method of determining the mean cell size in each of the two principal directions. By analyzing the width, amplitude and angular position of the orientational correlation plots, information can be extracted concerning the cellular pattern regularity, the relative angular correlation between two sets of transverse waves in two directions, and the mean shape or elongation of the cells within the pattern. The technique is applied to smoked foils from oxyacetylene mixtures with argon dilutions ranging from 0 to 75% to quantify the increase in regularity with argon dilution. This method provides a simple and useful way of analyzing cellular patterns and constitutes a promising technique for improving smoked foil diagnostics.     

Asymptotic properties of computationally efficient alternative estimators for a class of multivariate normal models

Parameters of Gaussian multivariate models are often estimated using the maximum likelihood approach. In spite of its merits, this methodology is not practical when the sample size is very large, as, for example, in the case of massive georeferenced data sets. In this paper, we study the asymptotic properties of the estimators that minimize three alternatives to the likelihood function, designed to increase the computational efficiency. This is achieved by applying the information sandwich technique to expansions of the pseudo-likelihood functions as quadratic forms of independent normal random variables. Theoretical calculations are given for a first-order autoregressive time series and then extended to a two-dimensional autoregressive process on a lattice. We compare the efficiency of the three estimators to that of the maximum likelihood estimator as well as among themselves, using numerical calculations of the theoretical results and simulations.