Effect of the incomplete accommodation of the heterogeneous recombination energy on heat fluxes to a quartz surface

Taking both the heterogeneous catalytic processes, including the surface formation of particles with excited internal degrees of freedom, and the processes of multicomponent diffusion and heat transfer in the MESOX apparatus fully into account makes it possible to obtain a recombination coefficient and an accommodation coefficient of the oxygen-atoms-on-quartz recombination energy which are in good agreement with the experimental data. The heterogeneous catalysis model constructed can be used effectively for predicting the heat fluxes to the surface of reentry vehicles on their entry into the Earth’s atmosphere.     

Fatigue Loading and Life Prediction in Three Fretting Fatigue Fixtures

Three fixtures for conducting laboratory fretting fatigue tests are described and their respective testing methods and the results of the analysis are compared. Each of these fixtures has been used to investigate the effects of various parameters of interest in fretting fatigue. These fixtures include a unique apparatus in which all load applied to the specimen is transferred to the fretting pads, an apparatus similar to many found in the literature where partial load transfer occurs across the pads, and a simplified dovetail fixture in which the clamping load, P, and the shear load, Q, are varied in phase. Select test conditions from prior experiments performed on identical material and resulting in similar lives ranging from one to ten million cycles from these fixtures are identified. The various testing conditions were used to compute the unique stress field for each case. The resulting contact stresses were used to calculate crack initiation based criteria, and to calculate stress intensity factors. The three fixtures were shown to be able to accommodate a range of loads, fretting pad contours, and specimen geometries that produced a variety of stress fields. A crack-initiation-based criterion was shown to predict the failure lives of thinner specimens accurately. The stress intensity factor calculations showed the possibility of a crack arresting for a stress field that decays rapidly and the possibility of a local minimum for K as a function of depth. The fixtures are shown to be complementary in generating data for development of robust fretting fatigue models that use these criteria.     

Whirling frequencies and amplitudes due to deviations of generator shape

Earlier measurements in large synchronous generators indicate the existence of backward whirling motion, and also relatively large deviations of shape in both the rotor and the stator. These non-symmetric geometries produce an attraction force between the rotor and the stator, called unbalanced magnetic pull (UMP). The target of this paper is to analyse the whirling frequencies and amplitude of the response for large synchronous generators with a high number of poles, due to deviations of shape in the rotor and stator. A mathematical model is developed to describe the shapes of the rotor and stator, and the corresponding UMP is obtained by using the law of energy conservation. The UMP is analysed due to different deviations of shape. The result gives the average angular frequency and the magnitude of the UMP for certain deviations of shape. From this result, the whirling frequency and the amplitude of the corresponding response can be approximated. Simulations of the response of a Jeffcott rotor model show good agreement with the theoretical results of the UMP for some generator geometries. The conclusion is that different whirling frequencies, both backward and forward whirling, can occur in these machines due to deviations in shape of the generator. Therefore, the shape of the generator can excite resonance vibrations on several other frequencies than the rotation frequency. During maintenance of hydropower generators the shapes of the rotor and stator are frequently measured. The results from this paper can be used to evaluate such measurements and to explain the existence of complicated whirling motion.     

Globally anisotropic high porosity silica aerogels

We discuss two methods by which high porosity silica aerogels can be engineered to exhibit global anisotropy. First, anisotropy can be introduced with axial strain (i.e. axial compression). In addition, intrinsic anisotropy can result during growth and drying stages and, suitably controlled, it can be correlated with preferential radial shrinkage in cylindrical samples. We have performed small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) to characterize these two types of anisotropy. We show that global anisotropy originating from either strain or shrinkage leads to optical birefringence and that optical cross-polarization studies are a useful characterization of the uniformity of the imposed global anisotropy.     

Simulation of interaction between a rarefied gas jet and an obstacle by the methods of molecular dynamics

An efficient method of direct numerical simulation is proposed. The steady-state flow field generated by the impingement of a gas jet on a wall is studied as an example. The numerical results obtained during this study are in good agreement with the numerical solutions of other authors.     

Nucleophilic addition to acetylenes in superbasic catalytic systems: XV. Vinylation of 2-hydroxymethylfuran

2-Hydroxymethylfuran reacted with acetylene in superbasic catalytic systems MOH-DMSO (M = Na, K) under mild temperature conditions (75–85°C, 1–2 h), yielding 80% of 2-vinyloxymethylfuran. The product, as well as acetaldehyde acetals derived therefrom, turned out to be promising as modifiers for electrolyte in lithium-sulfur rechargeable batteries.     

Solid-phase oxidative halodecarboxylation of β-arylacrylic acids with the ceric ammonium nitrate—alkali halide system

The solid-phase oxidation of cinnamic, 4-methoxy- and 3,4-dimethoxycinnamic acids with Ce(NH₄)₂(NO₃)₆—MHal system leads to β-halostyrenes. Similar procedure in the absence of a metal halide results in a cleavage of the C=C bond giving the corresponding benzaldehydes. Published in Russian in Izvestiya Akademii Nauk. Seriya Khimicheskaya, No. 1, pp. 114–118, January, 2008.     

Electrochemical synthesis of niobium compounds in anodic dissolution of ferroniobium in methanol

Anodic dissolution of ferroniobium in anhydrous methanol in the presence of sodium methylate was studied. The possibility of recovering pure hexamethoxyniobate from the electrolyzate and its conversion into niobium methylate with an iron content not exceeding 0.01% was analyzed.