Accessed Compositions in Turbulent Reactive Flows

At a given position and time in a turbulent reactive flow involving many chemical species, the thermochemical composition corresponds to a point in the multi-dimensional composition space. The union of all such points, for all positions, times and realizations, is defined to be the accessed region of the composition space. The geometry of the accessed region is investigated from several perspectives. Many existing models of turbulent nonpremixed combustion (e.g., equilibrium chemistry, the steady flamelet model, and the conditional moment closure) implicitly assume that the accessed region is a low-dimensional manifold of dimension one or two. It is shown from the conservation equations that the simultaneous actions of mixing and reaction can lead to an accessed region of significantly higher dimension than occurs when mixing and reaction act separately or sequentially. For a laminar flame, the accessed region is a curved manifold of the same dimensionality as the flow; whereas for a turbulent reactive flow it is a plane manifold, generally of higher dimension. Several processes are identified which can lead to the edge of the manifold being nonconvex.     

The criterion for vacuum stability in Kaluza-Klein supergravity

We prove that in the spectrum of the d = 4 theory obtained by Freund-Rubin compactification of d = 11 superconductivity, only fields of spin 0⁺ can give rise to classical instabilities. The criterion for stability in the 0⁺ sector can be expressed as a certain lower bound on the Lichnerowicz operator Δ_L on the d = 7 compact space. Thus not only are supersymmetric vacua always stable but so are the corresponding non-supersymmetric vacua obtained by reversing the orientation of the compact space, since the 0⁺ spectrum is insensitive to the orientation. Examples are the orientation-reversed spaces with N = 0 obtained from the squashed seven-sphere with N = 1 and from SU(3) ×SU(2) ×U(1) spaces with N = 2 supersymmetry. Product spaces, on the other hand, are always unstable. Finally, we examine the massless sectors of the squashed seven-sphere vacua, and find an additional 135 massless scalars.     

Magnetic resonance imaging of the surgically repaired meniscus: six-month follow-up

The appearance and rate of healing of sutured meniscal repairs in 17 patients were evaluated using magnetic resonance scans. While prior studies in animals and humans (1-4) suggest that complete healing can occur as early as 6 wk postoperatively, we found that at 7 wk 15/15 patients demonstrated meniscal defects at the site of repair. At 6 mo, 11/11 patients showed persistent signal abnormalities. Two patients scanned at 11-12 mo also had defects at the site of repair. Therefore, complete meniscal healing appears not to occur as early as previously believed. This may affect decisions regarding the type of suture material used, the surgical treatment of associated injuries and the postoperative rehabilitation regimen. As defects may be present for relatively long periods of time following meniscal repair, caution must be exercised when attempting to diagnose new or recurrent tears in these patients.     

Paradigms in turbulent combustion research

The development of the basic conceptual viewpoints, or paradigms, for turbulent combustion in gases over the last 50 years is reviewed. Significant progress has been made. Recent successes in the prediction of pollutant species and extinction/re-ignition phenomena in non-premixed flames are seen as the result of close interaction between experimentalists, theoreticians, and modellers. Premixed turbulent flames seem to be dependent on a much wider range of factors, and predictive capabilities are not so advanced. Implications for large eddy simulation (LES) and partially premixed combustion are outlined.     

A pulsed NMR study of hydrogen diffusion in hydrides of group IVa transition metals

Activation energies E_A for hydrogen diffusion in hydrides of Group IVa transition metals have been determined by ¹H nuclear magnetic resonance measurements of spin lattice relaxation in both the laboratory (T₁) and rotating (T_1p) frames. For the HfHx system both activation energies obtained from T₁ data, and the value of T₁ at the minimum appear to be insensitive to hydrogen content x in the range 1.58 ? x ? 1.98. For hydrides of titanium and zirconium of approximately stoichiometric composition MH₂ (where M = metal), there is excellent agreement between activation energies obtained from T₁ and T_1p data. Mean activation energies obtained were 0.51 eV for TiH_1.98 and 0.83 eV for ZrH_1.96, consistent with a single diffusion mechanism in each case over the temperature range 260–600K and 400–800K respectively. In the case of HfH_1.98 the agreement was less good, values of 0.64 and 0.55 eV being obtained from T₁ and T_1p respectively.     

Aircraft interior noise models: Sidewall trim,stiffened structures,and cabin acoustics with floor partition

As part of the continuing development of an aircraft interior noise prediction model, in which a discrete modal representation and power flow analysis are used, theoretical results are considered for inclusion of sidewall trim, stiffened structures, and cabin acoustics with floor partition. For validation purposes, predictions of the noise reductions for three test articles (a bare ring-stringer stiffened cylinder, an unstiffened cylinder with floor and insulation, and a ring-stringer stiffened cylinder with floor and sidewall trim) are compared with measurements.     

Observation of high transverse momentum electrons at the CERN ISR

A search for high transverse momentum electrons directly produced in proton-proton collisions has been performed at the CERN ISR. The apparatus included a magnetic spectrometer with wire spark chambers, a lead-glass counter array, and a threshold gas ?erenkov counter. At a centre-of-mass energy √s = 52.7 GeV, a signal has been observed in the range $\text{1.6<p}{}_{\mathrm{T}}{}^1\text{<4.7}\text{GeV}\text{/c}$. The signal occurs at a level of approximately 10^?4 of the inclusive pion cross-section.