Shock pattern in the plume of rocket nozzles: needs for design consideration

For ideal nozzles, basically two different types of shock structures in the plume may appear for overexpanded flow conditions, a regular shock reflection or a Mach reflection at the nozzle centreline. Especially for rocket propulsion, other nozzle types besides the ideal nozzles are often used, including simple conical, thrust-optimized or parabolic contoured nozzles. Depending on the contour type, another shock structure may appear: the so-called cap-shock pattern. The exact knowledge of the plume pattern is of importance for mastering the engine operation featuring uncontrolled flow separation inside the nozzle, appearing during engine start-up and shut-down operation. As consequence of uncontrolled flow separation, lateral loads may be induced. The side-load character strongly depends on the nozzle design, and is a key feature for the nozzle’s mechanical structure layout. It is shown especially for the VULCAIN and VULCAIN 2 nozzle, how specific shock patterns evolve during transients, and how - by the nozzle design - undesired flow phenomena can be avoided.     

Are ternary halides useful materials for nonlinear optical applications?

Ternary halides are potential materials for nonlinear optical applications in the mid infrared because of their transparency. We discuss physical, chemical and crystallographic aspects and develop a concept for preparing nonlinear optical halides. Based on the bond-charge model optical hyperpolarizabilities are calculated for more than one hundred A-X bonds where X = Cl, Br or I. The calculations are tested as far as possible by a comparison with experimental data. The tests show that the listed hyperpolarizabilities are a sound basis for the calculation of nonlinear optical susceptibilities in halides. A list of cations is given which form bonds with large hyperpolarizabilities and which show the tendency to form acentric structures. Phase diagrams of the two selected systems TII-AsI₃ and TII-BiI₃ are studied experimentally. Large single crystals of the new acentric compound Tl₇Bi₃I₁₆ and of Tl₃PbCl₅ are prepared. In both crystals twinning prevents an effective SHG effect.     

A study of γ-decay modes from high angular momentum nuclear states by high order multiplicity measurements

Reactions between ¹⁸O and ¹⁶O ions, with energies well above the Coulomb barrier, and ^{148, 150}Nd target nuclei were used to study the cascades of γ-rays in the residual nuclei ^{161, 162}Er. A multi-counter setup was used in which the γ-rays were detected by a Ge(Li) counter coupled in coincidence with up to 9 NaI(Tl) counters. The γ-multiplicity has been studied for γ-rays cascading through states above and along the yrast line. Higher moments of the multiplicity distributions (shape parameters) were deduced from the data. These moments allow the construction of the spin distribution for the entry states. The difference between these spin distributions from reactions induced by ¹⁶O and ¹⁸O ions was studied. Also the fusion cross section was measured for the two systems as a function of bombarding energy and compared to the multiplicity results at two different excitation energies (E_x = 49.5 and 56.2 MeV). A subtraction technique has been applied in the data analysis with the intention to study the decay of a selected part of the high-spin region, and the results show besides the 4n channel an unexpected large contribution of the 5n channel from this region. The sidefeeding patterns of the multiplicity distributions are extracted and show a significant difference for the ¹⁶O and ¹⁸O induced reactions, especially at the lowest bombarding energies. The results are compared with statistical model calculations.     

Band structures and proton-neutron interactions in Ta

Six rotational bands in the odd-odd nucleus ¹⁷⁴Ta have been populated with the ¹⁶⁰Gd(¹⁹F,5n) reaction. High-spin states were identified using the NORDBALL array. Both signatures of the doubly decoupled π1/2⁻ [541] ν1/2⁻ [521] band and semi-decoupled π1/2⁻ [541] ν7/2⁻ [633] band are observed, in addition to the high-K couplings of the π9/2⁻ [514] ν7/2⁺ [633], π9/2⁻ [514] ν5/2⁻ [512], π7/2⁺ [404] ν7/2⁺ [633], and π5/2⁺ [402] ν5/2⁻ [512] configurations. The signature splitting of the π1/2⁻ [541] ν7/2⁺ [633] band is inverted from the expected splitting, and this is interpreted as being due to a residual proton-neutron interaction. It is shown empirically that this interaction, together with deformation changes, can account for the increased crossing frequency associated with the alignment of i_13/2 neutrons in the π1/2⁻ [541] bands of odd-Z nuclei.     

Lifetimes of triaxial superdeformed states in 163Lu and 164Lu

Lifetimes of states in the yrast superdeformed bands of ¹⁶³Lu and ¹⁶⁴Lu were determined in a Doppler-shift attenuation-method experiment. From fractional Doppler shifts and line shapes, average transition quadrupole moments, Q _t = 8.2_-0.6 ^+1.0 b and 7.1_-0.6 ^+0.5 b, were deduced for one of the bands in ¹⁶³Lu and ¹⁶⁴Lu, respectively. These values are much larger than the quadrupole moment of the normal-deformed yrast band in ¹⁶³Yb, Q _t = 4.9_-0.4 ^+1.3 b, that was also determined in this experiment. Comparison to cranking calculations indicates that both superdeformed bands correspond to a local potential energy minimum with a pronounced triaxiality, γ∼ 20^°. Received: 8 November 2001 / Accepted: 9 January 2002     

Single-neutron states at high spins in ytterbium nuclei: Evidence for the quenching of static neutron pair correlations

The decay schemes of ^167,168,169Yb are established to the largest angular momenta yet known in stably-deformed rare-earth nuclei using the ¹²⁴Sn(⁴⁸Ca,3–5n) reaction. The systematics of the resulting spectrum of single-neutron states in these and neighbouring Yb isotopes at large and small angular momenta are discussed with regard to that expected in the presence and absence of static neutron-pair correlations. This comparison, together with cranking-model and “gauge-space” analyses, provides evidence for the effective disappearance of static neutron-pair correlations for the odd-N isotopes at ?ω ? 0.38 MeV. A composite empirical spectrum of single-neutron states is constructed for the “unpaired” regime and is compared with cranking calculations.     

A Vibrational Study of Some 1,2,4-Trioxanes

The vibrational spectra of some 1,2,4-trioxanes present two characteristic bands at 790 and 880 cm^?1. On the basis of ¹⁸O-isotopic substitution and comparison with analogous compounds, these bands have been assigned to coupled C? O and O? O stretching modes of the C? O? O element.