The diffraction of elastic waves by an imperfect fusion bond

We consider diffraction by a semi-infinite crack located alonga fusion interface between two differing elastic media. Twotypes of crack, namely open and partially closed cracks, areinvestigated. An open crack is modelled by a stress-free contactboundary condition and a partially closed crack is modelledby a spring contact boundary condition. For the latter, thejump in the stress across the crack is assumed to be proportionalto the jump in the displacement across the crack. This situationarises in, for example, a K-weld where the fine grain of theparent material (for example, ferritic or forged austeniticsteel) is in stark contrast with the coarse-grained weld metal(for example, austenitic weld metal). In the metal weld thedirection of the grain axis varies through the metal. However,diffraction is a local phenomenon and so the austenitic steelis assumed to have a zonal axis so that it may be modelled bya transversely isotropic composite. The ferritic or forged austeniticsteel will be modelled as an isotropic material.     

Limit to high-spin isomeric fission

The possibility that high-spin isomers in heavy nuclei might undergo fission has been investigated experimentally. The partial fission lifetime of the 34 μs, I = 34 isomer in ²¹²Fr is found to be at least one hour.     

A simpler GMRES

The generalized minimal residual (GMRES) method is widely used for solving very large, nonsymmetric linear systems, particularly those that arise through discretization of continuous mathematical models in science and engineering. By shifting the Arnoldi process to begin with Ar₀ instead of r₀, we obtain simpler Gram–Schmidt and Householder implementations of the GMRES method that do not require upper Hessenberg factorization. The Gram–Schmidt implementation also maintains the residual vector at each iteration, which allows cheaper restarts of GMRES(m) and may otherwise be useful.     

The rearrangement of 2-amino-5-benzoyloxazoles with dimethylamine

The rearrangement of 2-amino-5-phenacyloxazoles with dimethylamine is described. One such rearrangement provided an unexpected tricyclic product.