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.     

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.     

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.     

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.     

Determination of metformin hydrochloride in tablets by nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometry

The ¹H-n.m.r. signal of the drug (10–35 mg ml^?1) in deuterium oxide, with maleic acid as internal reference standard, is used. The integral of the peak at 3.06 ppm with respect to 3-trimethylsilylpropionic acid is compared with that at 6.3 ppm for the internal standard. The method is quantitative and free from interference by tablet excipients.     

Design of optimal configuration for generating A0 Lamb mode in a composite plate using piezoceramic transducers

This work concerned a technique for a health monitoring system based on the generation and sensing of Lamb waves in composite structures by thin surface-bonded piezoceramic transducers. The objective was to develop transducers that are adapted for the damage detection in orthotropic composites. The key problem with the investigated Lamb waves was to select a mode to be sensitive to the damage. A hybrid modeling technique was therefore used to conceive transducers that were adapted to achieve such a feature. This modeling technique enabled studying the influence of the transducer characteristics on the Lamb waves propagating in orthotropic plates. It was demonstrated that a Lamb mode could be generated dominantly to other modes by using a multi-element transducer. The effectiveness of this technique was successfully verified experimentally on composite plates. It was shown that the dominant Lamb mode, obtained by use of dual-element transducers, was an appropriate mode for successfully detecting a damage in composites.