Health monitoring of a composite wingbox structure

This work was devoted to the development of a health monitoring system assigned to aerospace applications. Those applications concerned the detection of damaging impacts and debonding between stiffeners and composite skins, since they are the major causes of in-service damage of aircraft structures. The chosen health monitoring system was first based on the excitation and reception of Lamb waves along the structure by using thin piezoelectric transducers (active mode) and secondly on a continuous monitoring taking the same transducers used as acoustic emission sensors (passive mode). The composite specimen used was consistent with aircraft wingbox in terms of structure and loading. Several impacts with increasing energy increments were applied on the composite specimen. In passive mode, the study showed the ability of using the acoustic signature of an impact to detect possible damage. Moreover, the damage emergence in the case of damaging impact was confirmed in active mode. Further measurements during fatigue testing were performed. The aim was to demonstrate the ability of the system to monitor disbond growth between the stiffener and the composite skin. The sensitivity of the health monitoring system to the disbond growth was further demonstrated.     

Ueber die Zerlegbarkeit einer ebenen Linie dritter Ordnung in drei gerade Linien

Ohne ZusammenfassungAus der Dissertation des Verf., Giessen 1878.     

Structure and stability characteristics of turbulent planar flames with inhomogeneous jet in a concentric flow slot burner

Turbulent flames with compositionally inhomogeneous mixtures are common in many combustion systems. Turbulent jet flames with a circular nozzle burner were used earlier to study the impact of inhomogeneous mixtures, and these studies showed that the nozzle radius affects the flame stability. Accordingly, planar turbulent flames with inhomogeneous turbulent jet are created in a concentric flow slot burner (CFSB) to avoid this effect in the present study. The stability characteristics, the mixing field structure, and the flame front structure were measured, and the correlations between stability and the mixing field structure were investigated. The mixture fraction field was measured in non-reacting jets at the nozzle exit using highly resolved Rayleigh scattering technique, and the flame front was measured in some selected turbulent flames using high-speed Planar Laser-Induced Fluorescence (PLIF) of OH technique. The data show strong correlations between flame stability and the range of mixture fraction fluctuations. The flames are highly stabilized within a mixing field environment with the range of fluctuation in mixture fraction close to the range of the flammability limits. The mixing field structure is also illustrated and discussed using a mixing regime diagram and showed that the scatter of the data of the different cases is consistent with the classified mixing regimes. Lean flames are stabilized in the current slot burner. The flame front structure topology varies consistently from thin, small curvature at the low level of turbulence and higher equivalence ratio to more wrinkled, larger curvature, but a thicker structure at a higher level of turbulence and lower equivalence ratio.     

2,2,2‐Trifluoro‐N‐(1a,2,7,7a‐tetrahydronaphtho[2,3‐b]oxiren‐3‐yl)acetamide by X‐ray powder diffraction

The title compound, C₁₂H₁₀F₃NO₂, an important precursor in the preparation of benzovesamicol analogues for the diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease, was prepared by the epoxidation of 5,8‐dihydronaphthalen‐1‐amine using 3‐chloroperoxybenzoic acid. The structure was determined by X‐ray powder diffraction, multinuclear NMR spectroscopy and FT–IR spectroscopy. A pair of molecules form intermolecular N—H...O hydrogen bonds, involving the amino and oxirene groups, to produce a dimer.     

Reinvestigation of the sign problem in the two-dimensional Hubbard model

We reinvestigate the sign problem in the two-dimensional Hubbard model using the projector ground state Quantum Monte Carlo scheme with Langevin dynamics. Our interest is mainly motivated by the question: what is the parameter space in which simulations may be performed with reliable results and how does the average sign scales with inverse temperature? In the parameter space in which one may omit the sign problem we have studied the ground state properties: momentum distribution and spin structure. We find an exponential decay of the average sign. At half filling, we find evidence for an antiferromagnetic insulating ground state. At off half band fillings, the antiferromagnetic state is destroyed leaving place to an incommensurate spin density state.     

Immersionsrefraktometrie an lebenden Zellen mit der Brechzahlgradientenmethode

Zusammenfassung Zur immersionsrefraktometrischen Bestimmung der mittleren Brechzahl des Cytoplasmas von Gewebekulturzellen wird der in Frage kommende Brechzahlbereich über einen Brechzahlgradienten des Mediums kontinuierlich und definiert durchlaufen. Bei Grenzdunkelfeldbeleuchtung im Mikroskop wird die Beugungslichtintensität, die der Brechzahldifferenz zwischen Medium und Objekt proportional ist, mikroskopphotometrisch gemessen. Sie durchläuft bei Brechzahlgleichzeit ein Minimum. Es werden die mathematischen Bedingungen angegeben, unter denen es die Gradientenmethode gleichzeitig gestattet, den osmotischen Druck des Immersionsmediums aufrechtzuerhalten und damit Isotonie für die Zellen zu gewährleisten.

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Immersion refractometry on living cells with the method of refractive index gradient

For microscopically determining the average refractive index of the cytoplasm of single tissue culture cells by immersion refractometry, a method is described which by means of a gradient mixing device permits continuous variation of the refractive index of the immersion medium in a definite manner within the interesting range. Using a special type of dark field illumination the intensity of diffracted light is measured as a function of the difference in refractive indices of cytoplasm and medium by use of a microscope photometer. The intensity measured reaches a minimum at equal refractivity. The mathematical conditions are described, under which the device provides for constant osmotic pressure of the medium during variation of its refractive index, thereby maintaining isotonic conditions.

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Mit Unterstützung durch Battelle Memorial Institute, Columbus/Ohio (USA).     

Vibration suppression of a string through cyclic application and removal of constraints

A new method for the control of string vibration is presented. The method relies on application and removal of a constraint at one point on the string close to one of its boundaries. Application of the constraint temporarily results in two vibrating strings, one of which is significantly shorter in length than the other. The vibration of the shorter length string decays rapidly due to high damping and results in reduction in the overall energy of the system. Removal of the constraint does not change the energy of the system but allows the constraint to be applied repeatedly for vibration suppression. A mathematical model of the cycle of constraint application and removal is presented and multiple cycles of constraint application and removal are simulated. Experiments were performed with a coiled extension spring which behaves like a lightly damped string. Simulation and experimental results match well with each other and demonstrate the efficacy of the simple control strategy.     

Metabolic fingerprinting of high-fat plasma samples processed by centrifugation- and filtration-based protein precipitation delineates significant differences in metabolite information coverage

Metabolomics and metabolic fingerprinting are being extensively employed for improved understanding of biological changes induced by endogenous or exogenous factors. Blood serum or plasma samples are often employed for metabolomics studies. Plasma protein precipitation (PPP) is currently performed in most laboratories before LC–MS analysis. However, the impact of fat content in plasma samples on metabolite coverage has not previously been investigated. Here, we have studied whether PPP procedures influence coverage of plasma metabolites from high-fat plasma samples. An optimized UPLC-QTOF/MS metabolic fingerprinting approach and multivariate modeling (PCA and OPLS-DA) were utilized for finding characteristic metabolite changes induced by two PPP procedures; centrifugation and filtration. We used 12-h fasting samples and postprandial samples collected at 2 h after a standardized high-fat protein-rich meal in obese non-diabetic subjects recruited in a dietary intervention. The two PPP procedures as well as external and internal standards (ISs) were used to track errors in response normalization and quantification. Remarkably and sometimes uniquely, the fPPP, but not the cPPP approach, recovered not only high molecular weight (HMW) lipophilic metabolites, but also small molecular weight (SMW) relatively polar metabolites. Characteristic SMW markers of postprandial samples were aromatic and branched-chain amino acids that were elevated (p < 0.001) as a consequence of the protein challenge. In contrast, some HMW lipophilic species, e.g. acylcarnitines, were moderately lower (p < 0.001) in postprandial samples. LysoPCs were largely unaffected. In conclusion, the fPPP procedure is recommended for processing high-fat plasma samples in metabolomics studies. While method improvements presented here were clear, use of several ISs revealed substantial challenges to untargeted metabolomics due to large and variable matrix effects.     

Finite Rate Chemistry Effects in Highly Sheared Turbulent Premixed Flames

Detailed scalar structure measurements of highly sheared turbulent premixed flames stabilized on the piloted premixed jet burner (PPJB) are reported together with corresponding numerical calculations using a particle based probability density function (PDF) method. The PPJB is capable of stabilizing highly turbulent premixed jet flames through the use of a small stoichiometric pilot that ensures initial ignition of the jet and a large shielding coflow of hot combustion products. Four lean premixed methane-air flames with a constant jet equivalence ratio are studied over a wide range of jet velocities. The scalar structure of the flames are examined through high resolution imaging of temperature and OH mole fraction, whilst the reaction rate structure is examined using simultaneous imaging of temperature and mole fractions of OH and CH₂O. Measurements of temperature and mole fractions of CO and OH using the Raman–Rayleigh–LIF-crossed plane OH technique are used to examine the flame thickening and flame reaction rates. It is found that as the shear rates increase, finite-rate chemistry effects manifest through a gradual decrease in reactedness, rather than the abrupt localized extinction observed in non-premixed flames when approaching blow-off. This gradual decrease in reactedness is accompanied by a broadening in the reaction zone which is consistent with the view that turbulence structures become embedded within the instantaneous flame front. Numerical predictions using a particle-based PDF model are shown to be able to predict the measured flames with significant finite-rate chemistry effects, albeit with the use of a modified mixing frequency.