Thermal degradation of two liquid fuels and detonation tests for pulse detonation engine studies

The use of liquid fuels such as kerosene is of interest for the pulse detonation engine (PDE). Within this context, the aim of this work, which is a preliminary study, was to show the feasibility to initiate a detonation in air with liquid-fuel pyrolysis products, using energies and dimensions of test facility similars to those of PDEs. Therefore, two liquids fuels have been compared, JP10, which is a synthesis fuel generally used in the field of missile applications, and decane, which is one of the major components of standard kerosenes (F-34, Jet A1, ...). The thermal degradation of these fuels was studied with two pyrolysis processes, a batch reactor and a flow reactor. The temperatures varied from 600°C to 1,000°C and residence times for the batch reactor and the flow reactor were, respectively, between 10–30 s and 0.1–2 s. Subsequently, the detonability of synthetic gaseous mixtures, which was a schematisation of the decomposition state after the pyrolysis process, has been studied. The detonability study, regarding nitrogen dilution and equivalence ratio, was investigated in a 50 mm-diameter, 2.5 m-long detonation tube. These dimensions are compatible with applications in the aircraft industry and, more particularly, in PDEs. Therefore, JP10 and decane were compared to choose the best candidate for liquid-fuel PDE studies. This paper was based on work that was presented at the 20th International Colloquium on the Dynamics of Explosions and Reactive Systems, Montreal, Canada, July 31 – August 5, 2005.     

Temperature jump induction of isomerization dynamics of alkali halide clusters

The time resolved dynamics of diffusionless cube → ring isomerization of the Na₄Cl₄ cluster was interrogated by constant energy molecular dynamics simulations, utilizing the first passage time method. The nonreactive isomerization induced by nonselective vibrational excitation is well accounted for in terms of the statistical RRK theory, opening avenues for experimental exploration of time-resolved cluster isomerization dynamics.     

Optical and structural properties of MOVPE grown GaxIn1−xAs/InP strained multiple quantum well atructures

This paper presents a study of the structural and optical properties of strained GaInAs/ InP multiple quantum well (MQW) structures fabricated by LP-MOVPE. The composition of the Ga _x In_1−x As films ranged fromx = 0.17 tox = 1.0 and was determined by sputtered neutral mass spectrometry (SNMS) on thick layers. The structures of the MQW samples with well widths from 1.5 to 5 nm were investigated by high resolution x-ray diffraction (HR-XRD). Simulations of the diffraction patterns showed that transition layers of approximately 2 monolayer (ML) thickness with high lattice mismatch exist at the interfaces. Photoluminescence (PL) measurements indicate well widths of a multiple of a monolayer with local variations of one monolayer. The PL peak energies vary smoothly with the Ga concentration. These results were confirmed by optical absorption measurements.     

Traveling-wave amplifiers with prescribed frequency response

Microwave transistor amplifier combinations that have controlled frequency response over a specified bandwidth were designed. Theoretical analysis of such an amplifier with an arbitrary number of sections is presented. The response of the amplifier is controlled by tapering the frequency selectivity or Q of each section of the amplifier. To verify the theory, a three-section amplifier with maximally flat time delay response was designed, constructed, and evaluated. Existing traveling-wave amplifiers were modeled as lossy transmission lines. Although the amplifiers were relatively broadband, a prescribed frequency response was not achieved, and each transistor did not receive an equal portion of the signal power. Resistive elements were required for impedance matching at the input and output. The design seeks to improve on previous techniques by trading bandwidth for controlled gain. By making the transmission line that connects the amplifier sections nonuniform, the frequency response was controlled over the design bandwidth. The designs can easily be implemented using familiar components     

The diameter of randomly perturbed digraphs and some applications

The central observation of this paper is that if εn random arcs are added to any n‐node strongly connected digraph with bounded degree then the resulting graph has diameter 𝒪(lnn) with high probability. We apply this to smoothed analysis of algorithms and property testing. Smoothed Analysis: Recognizing strongly connected digraphs is a basic computational task in graph theory. Even for digraphs with bounded degree, it is NL‐complete. By XORing an arbitrary bounded degree digraph with a sparse random digraph R ∼ 𝔻_n,ε/n we obtain a “smoothed” instance. We show that, with high probability, a log‐space algorithm will correctly determine if a smoothed instance is strongly connected. We also show that if NL ⫅̸ almost‐L then no heuristic can recognize similarly perturbed instances of (s,t)‐connectivity. Property Testing: A digraph is called k‐linked if, for every choice of 2k distinct vertices s₁,…,s_k,t₁,…,t_k, the graph contains k vertex disjoint paths joining s_r to t_r for r = 1,…,k. Recognizing k‐linked digraphs is NP‐complete for k ≥ 2. We describe a polynomial time algorithm for bounded degree digraphs, which accepts k‐linked graphs with high probability, and rejects all graphs that are at least εn arcs away from being k‐linked. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Random Struct. Alg., 2007     

Analysis of heterojunction resonant cavity-enhanced Schottky photodiodes by using two-valley transport model

The article concerns heterojunction resonant cavity-enhanced (RCE) Schottky photodiodes with GaAs in the absorption layer. The quantum efficiency and linear pulse response have thoroughly been analysed. For the first time, the response of a heterojunction photodiode has been modelled by the phenomenological model for a two-valley semiconductor. The results obtained have shown that the satellite valleys, as well as the parasitic time constant, significantly influence the response and, accordingly, have to be taken into account when analysing and optimizing RCE photodetectors.     

Polygaussian Approximation and Adaptive Processing of an Electrocardiographic Signal Against Interference Background

We present the results of a study and substantiation of the method of polygaussian approximation of an electrocardiographic (ECG) signal against interference background during computer analysis of that signal. It is proposed to use adaptive processing of ECG signals, which allows one to increase the signal-to-interference ratio by over 7 dB.     

Features of polystyrene synthesis in the presence of (diphenylbutadiene)tricarbonylchromium

Features of radical polymerization of styrene in the presence of (diphenylbutadiene)tricarbonylchromium were studied.     

Synchronization and modularity in complex networks

We investigate the connection between the dynamics of synchronization and the modularity on complex networks. Simulating the Kuramoto's model in complex networks we determine patterns of meta-stability and calculate the modularity of the partition these patterns provide. The results indicate that the more stable the patterns are, the larger tends to be the modularity of the partition defined by them. This correlation works pretty well in homogeneous networks (all nodes have similar connectivity) but fails when networks contain hubs, mainly because the modularity is never improved where isolated nodes appear, whereas in the synchronization process the characteristic of hubs is to have a large stability when forming its own community.