Infrared temperature sensing of mechanically loaded specimens: Thermal analysis

Infrared temperature-sensing techniques have the major advantages of virtually no interference of the sensor with the sensed phenomenon and fast inherent response. On the other hand, infrared temperature sensing, as a superficial measurement technique, does not indicate the specimen's core temperatures, and hence a complementary thermal analysis is required. A thermal analysis of surface temperature measurements of a mechanically loaded cylindrical specimen is presented. The specimen is modeled as an infinite cylinder, suddenly exposed to a uniformly distributed volumetric heat source. This heat source results from the conversion of mechanical energy into thermal energy. A closed-form solution is obtained and numerical examples are given for metallic and polymeric specimens. The current analysis provides the upper boundaries for temperature differences between the core and the surface temperatures when compared with the actual problem of a finite specimen. It is shown that surface temperature measurement is a good indication of the core temperature for metallic specimens but may lead to some poor results in the case of polymeric specimens. It is found that the transient thermal response of the infinite cylinder to sudden heating behaves like a first-order process. In the case of cyclic loading, the typical time scale of loading is found to be at least two orders of magnitude shorter than the typical time scale of heat transfer. Hence, the specimen is affected by the average power of heat generation, and not by the instantaneous effect of heating within a single loading cycle.     

Global properties of supermanifolds

We construct new examples of supermanifolds, and determine the vector bundle structure of the supermanifolds commonly used in physics. We show that any supermanifold admits a foliation whose leaves are locally tangent to the soul directions in the coordinate charts, and which is one of a nested sequence of foliations. We point out that the existence of these foliations implies restrictions on the possible topologies of supermanifolds. For example, a compact supermanifold with a single even dimension must have vanishing Euler characteristic. We also show that a globally defined superfield on a nice compact supermanifold must be constant along the leaves of the foliations. By this mechanism, the global topology of a supermanifold can be used to impose physically interesting constraints on superfields. As an example, we exhibit a supermanifold which has the local geometry of flat superspace but is such that all globally defined superfields are chiral.Enrico Fermi Fellow. Research supported by the NSF: PHY 83-01221, and the Department of Energy: DE AC 02-82-ER-40073     

A BRST gauge-fixing procedure for Yang–Mills theory on sphere

A gauge-fixing procedure for the Yang–Mills theory on an n  -dimensional sphere (or a hypersphere) is discussed in a systematic manner. We claim that Adler's gauge-fixing condition used in massless Euclidean QED on a hypersphere is not conventional because of the presence of an extra free index, and hence is unfavorable for the gauge-fixing procedure based on the BRST invariance principle (or simply BRST gauge-fixing procedure). Choosing a suitable gauge condition, which is proved to be equivalent to a generalization of Adler's condition, we apply the BRST gauge-fixing procedure to the Yang–Mills theory on a hypersphere to obtain consistent results. Field equations for the Yang–Mills field and associated fields are derived in manifestly O(n+1)$\mathrm{O}(n+1)$ covariant or invariant forms. In the large radius limit, these equations reproduce the corresponding field equations defined on the n-dimensional flat space.     

Stretching instability of helical springs

We show that when a gradually increasing tensile force is applied to the ends of a helical spring with sufficiently large ratios of radius to pitch and twist to bending rigidity, the end-to-end distance undergoes a sequence of discontinuous stretching transitions. Subsequent decrease of the force leads to steplike contraction, and hysteresis is observed. For finite helices, the number of these transitions increases with the number of helical turns but only one stretching and one contraction instability survive in the limit of an infinite helix. We calculate the critical line that separates the region of parameters in which the deformation is continuous from that in which stretching instabilities occur.     

f mass spectrum in 7-GeV/cπp interactions

Structure in the f^o [an SU(3) companion of the A₂] is sought in more than 5000 π⁺p → f^oΔ⁺⁺ events at 7 GeV/c in a hydrogen chamber. The mass spectrum and the moments of the decay angular distribution are studied with a resolution of 7.8 MeV.     

Factors affecting the quality of plutonium deposits by electrodeposition

Ultra-high resolution alpha spectrometry by microcalorimetry has demonstrated a dramatic improvement in alpha energy resolution over silicon based detectors. To characterize the optimal resolution obtained by the microcalorimeter alpha spectrometers, high quality deposits that are virtually massless are required; electrodeposition is the preferred method for the preparation of high quality deposits. In order to better understand the factors that contribute to lower alpha energy resolution and deposit yield, we have conducted a study to determine the effect of some of the parameters that are used for preparing electrodeposits. We have compared four different electrodeposition methods and four different substrate materials to determine the effect on the deposit yield and alpha energy resolution of plutonium as measured by full width at half maximum using silicon based detectors. Furthermore, we wanted to understand the effect of contaminants from environmental samples on electrodeposits. Therefore, the effect on deposit yield and alpha energy resolution with several common soil constituents (Al³⁺, Eu³⁺, Fe³⁺, K⁺, Lu³⁺, Mg²⁺, Na⁺, Zn²⁺) have been studied.     

Fungal bioleaching of mineral components in a twentieth-century illuminated parchment

In this work, we applied scanning electron microscopy (SEM), microanalysis and Raman spectroscopy to study the fungi inhabiting a richly illuminated parchment document and the damage induced by their activity. To that aim, we collected samples of fungal mycelium from the deteriorated areas on a removable adhesive tape specifically intended for lifting fungi without damaging the support. SEM analysis of the adhesive tape samples showed the co-occurrence of several species of fungi. One strain closely resembling Acremonium species was observed only in the tape micrographs but no agar cultures were obtained. Its fungal structures showed the production of abundant oxalates with an outstanding leaching of the calcium-based materials of parchment (typically manufactured with gypsum and lime). Needle-like crystals of calcium oxalate produced by the fungus forming a uniform and quite regular grid around conidial slimy heads were documented. As a result, the areas affected by moulds were weakened, stained and characterised by a powdery patina rich in calcium. Confocal μ-Raman confirmed the presence of oxalates while EDS showed the presence of calcium in crystals. We conclude that the defacement of the parchment was due to both collagenolytic activity, and to the biotransformation of calcium-based minerals by fungi.     

Revisiting the reaction of β-chloroacroleins with 2-aminophenol: a new observation

The reaction of β-chloroacrolein with 1 equiv of 2-aminophenol in DMF proceeds smoothly to afford 11-hydroxy derivative of chromenoquinoline in good yield. This single pot method allows for a rapid access to a variety of chromenoquinolines or oxepinoquinolines depending on the nature of β-chloroacrolein used. The structures were established by spectroscopic data and further confirmed by X-ray diffraction analysis. A plausible mechanism for this reaction has been proposed. The reaction seemed to proceed via a chloroimine species, whose intermediacy has been established, followed by the construction of the fused quinoline ring.