Characterization of microporous membranes for use in membrane contactors

Methods of selecting applicable membranes for use in membrane contactors for flue gas desulfurization are proposed in this paper. The mass transfer mechanism for SO₂ diffusion through gas filled pores is explored by simple measurements in order to identify suitable membrane structures for use in contactors for flue gas cleaning. It is attempted to correlate the experimentally determined membrane mass transfer coefficient to intrinsic physical properties of the membrane by applying theoretical and empirical correlations for the porosity-tortuosity relationship of the porous structure. Thereby limiting fluxes can be predicted with good accuracy from data quoted in the manufactures catalogue.     

Effects of Hall Currents and Gyroviscosity on the Instability of a Self-Gravitating Stratified Plasma

The instability in a horizontal layer of a partially ionized self gravitating plasma has been studied to include simultaneously the effects of Hall currents, viscosity and finiteness of Larmor radius (FLR). The ambient magnetic field is assumed to be uniform and vertical. Proper solutions have been obtained through the variational methods for a semi-infinite plasma in which the density has an exponential gradient along the vertical. The dispersion relation obtained has been solved numerically and it is found that the growth rate of unstable perturbations decreases with the effects of viscosity, neutral gas friction and FLR. The influence of effects of viscosity, neutral gas friction and FLR are consequently stabilizing. It is found that the Hall currents have a destabilizing influence as the growth rate is found to increase with this effect.     

First passage time for a class of one-dimensional stochastic systems

We consider the time evolution of a class of stochastic systems of finite size with polynomial nearest neighbor transition rates. We obtain analytical expressions for the first passage time (FPT) and its moments. We show that the mean FPT, averaged over a uniform initial distribution, shows a simple asymptotoc behavior with the system size and the parameters of the transition rates.     

Hall Currents and the Rayleigh-Taylor Instability of a Finitely Conducting Plasma in the Presence of Coriolis Forces

We have studied the effect of rotation on the development of Rayleigh-Taylor instability of an incompressible, viscous, Hall, finitely conducting plasma of variable density. The solution is developed, through variational methods, for a semi-infinite plasma in which the density varies exponentially along the vertical. It is found that the system is unstable for all wave numbers when the effects of magnetic resistivity are included. The effects of coriolis forces and viscosity on the growth rate of the unstable system are found to be stabilizing while that of Hall currents is destabilizing. Finite conductivity affects the growth rate of the unstable mode differently for the smaller and larger values of the wave numbers, destabilizing for the waves of large wave length and stabilizing for waves of small wave length.     

Normal-phase transport properties of highT c Y-Ba-Cu-O compounds

The normal state resistivity of highT _c Y-Ba-Cu-O compounds has been investigated and it is shown that the room temperature resistivity depends exponentially on the volume fraction of the non-superconducting phase. It is further shown that the dependence of normal state resistivity on temperature upto 300 K can be explained on the basis of a short-range co-operative electron-phonon coupling. This model also explains the observed positive Seebeck coefficient for the pure phase superconducting sample.     

Cosmic ray nuclei of chargeZ⩾3 during the period of low solar activity

A detailed study of the composition and energy spectra of heavy nuclei of charge Z?3 in the primary cosmic rays has been made during the period of low solar activity, using two stacks of nuclear emulsions exposed in balloon flights from Fort Churchill, Canada, in June 1963. Each of the stacks was composed of 120 nuclear emulsions of three different sensitivities and was exposed at about 3·5 g. cm.^?2 of residual air for about 11.1 hr. Reliable resolution of charges of nuclei from lithium to oxygen was obtained; for heavier nuclei, charge groups were determined. From the analysis of 793 tracks of nuclei with Z?3, results on the following aspects were obtained:

1. The differential energy spectra of L (Z=3–5), M (Z=6–9) and H (Z=10–28) nuclei were measured in the energy intervel 150–600 MeV/nucleon; integral fluxes were obtained for energy >600 MeV/nucleon;
2. The energy dependence of the L/M ratio at the top of the atmosphere was determined; the ratios were obtained as 0·45 ± 0·06 and 0·29 ± 0·03 in the energy intervals of 200–575, and >575 MeV/nucleon respectively;
3. Relative abundances of individual nuclei of Li, Be, B, C, N and O at the top of the atmosphere were determined as 36, 29, 55, 100, 60 and 106 respectively in the energy interval 150–600 MeV/nucleon; corresponding values were also obtained for energy >600 MeV/nucleon.
4. The differential fluxes of multiply charged nuclei measured by us and by other investigators were used to determine the solar modulation between solar maximum to solar minimum. It was found that solar modulation of the fluxes of M and He nuclei were consistent with Rβ dependence and that the modulation parameter Δη between 1965 and 1957 was about 1·1.

The implications of these results are discussed.     

A redetermination of the lifetime of the 4s 5s (3S1) level in Ca by high-rate electron—photon stepwise pulse excitation

The radiative lifetime of the 4s 5s (³S₁) level in Ca was measured using two-step excitation of atoms in a beam which traverses a cold-cathode Penning discharge, where, by electron impact the atoms are excited to the metastable 4s 5p (³P_{2, 1, 0}) states. Immediately thereafter, the beam is crossed with a pulse-modulated cw dye laser beam to populate the final state selectively. Using a pulse-modulation frequency of 0.5 MHz, a preliminary value of 12.4 ± 0.5 ns was obtained with a statistical error of 0.4%. The wide limits of systematic error reflect an assumed uncertainty in the excitation function and possible distortion in the fluorescence decay requiring further study.