Acoustic performance of hoses - A parametric study

Modeling of wave propagation in hoses, unlike in rigid pipes or waveguides, introduces a coupling between the inside medium, the hose wall, and the outside medium, This alters the axial wave number and thence the corresponding effective speed of sound inside the hose resulting in sound radiation into the outside medium, also called the breakout or shell noise, The existing literature on the subject is such that a hose cannot be integrated into the,whole piping system made up of sections of hoses, pipes, and mufflers to predict the acoustical performance in terms of transmission loss (TL), The present paper seeks to fill this gap, Three one-dimensional coupled wave equations are written to account for the presence of a yielding wall with a finite lumped transverse impedance of the hose material, The resulting wave equation can readily be reduced to a transfer matrix form using an effective wave number for a moving medium in a hose section, Incorporating the effect of fluid loading due to the outside medium also allows prediction of the transverse TL and the breakout noise, Axial TL and transverse TL have been combined into net TL needed by designers, Predictions of the axial as well as transverse TL are shown to compare well with those of a rigorous 3-D analysis using only one-hundredth of the computation time, Finally, results of some parametric studies are reported for engineers involved in the acoustical design of hoses. (C) 1996 Institute of Noise Control Engineering.

Chain folding and A:T pairing in human telomeric DNA: a model-building and molecular dynamics study

The various types of chain folding and possible intraloop as well as interloop base pairing in human telomeric DNA containing d(TTAG(3)) repeats have been investigated by model-building, molecular mechanics, and molecular dynamics techniques. Model-building and molecular mechanics studies indicate that it is possible to build a variety of energetically favorable folded-back structures with the two TTA loops on same side and the 5' end thymines in the two loops forming TATA tetrads involving a number of different intraloop as well as interloop A:T pairing schemes. In these folded-back structures, although both intraloop and interloop Watson-Crick pairing is feasible, no structure is possible with interloop Hoogsteen pairing. MD studies of representative structures indicate that the guanine-tetraplex stem is very rigid and, while the loop regions are relatively much more flexible, most of the hydrogen bonds remain intact throughout the 350-ps in vacuo simulation. The various possible TTA loop structures, although they are energetically similar, have characteristic inter proton distances, which could give rise to unique cross-peaks in two-dimensional nuclear Overhauser effect spectroscopy (NOESY) experiments. These folded-back structures with A:T pairings in the loop region help in rationalizing the data from chemical probing and other biochemical studies on human telomeric DNA.

Characterization of lysozyme crystals with unusually low solvent content

Studies on the low-humidity (88%) forms of tetragonal and monoclinic lysozyme, resulting from water-mediated transformations, have provided a wealth of information on the variability in protein hydration, its structural consequences and the water structure associated with proteins, in addition to facilitating the delineation of the rigid and the flexible regions in the protein molecule and the invariant features in its hydration shell. Surprisingly, monoclinic lysozyme continues to diffract even when the environmental humidity is drastically reduced, thus permitting the structural study of the enzyme at different levels of hydration. As part of a study in this direction, three very low humidity forms, two of them occuring at a nominal relative humidity of 38% and the other at 5% relative humidity, have been characterized. These have unprecedented low solvent contents of 16.9, 17.6 and 9.4%, respectively, as determined by the Matthews method.

Hyperbranched polyurethanes with varying spacer segments between the branching points

Hyperbranched polyurethanes, with varying oligoethyleneoxy spacer segments between the branching points, have been synthesized by a one-pot approach starting from the appropriately designed carbonyl azide that incorporates the different spacer segments. The structures of monomers and polymers were confirmed by IR and H-1-NMR spectroscopy. The solution viscosity of the polymers suggested that they were of reasonably high molecular weight. Reversal of terminal functional groups was achieved by preparing the appropriate monohydroxy dicarbonyl azide monomer. The large number of terminal isocyanate groups at the chain ends of such hyperbranched macromolecules caused them to crosslink prior to its isolation. However, carrying out the polymerization in the presence of 1 equiv of a capping agent, such as an alcohol, resulted in soluble polymers with carbamate chain ends. Using a biphenyl-containing alcohol as a capping agent, we have also prepared novel hyperbranched perbranched polyurethanes with pendant mesogenic segments. These mesogen-containing polyurethanes, however, did not exhibit liquid crystallinity probably due to the wholly aromatic rigid polymer backbone. (C) 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Interaction analysis of strip footing resting on a non-homogeneous elastic medium

In this paper, a plane stress solution for the interaction analysis of strip footing resting on (i) a non-homogeneous elastic half-plane and (ii) a non-homogeneous elastic layer resting on a rigid stratum has been presented. The analysis has been done using a combined analytical and FEM method in which the discretization of the half-plane is not required and thereby minimizes the computational efforts considerably. The contact pressure distribution and the settlement profile for the selected cases of varying modulus half-plane, which has more relevance to foundation engineering, have been given. Experimental verification through a photoelastic method of stress analysis has been carried out for the case of footing on Gibson elastic half-plane, and the contact pressure distribution thus obtained has been compared with the theoretical results. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd

Response, loads and stability of rotors with interconnected blades

An isolated rotor with blades interconnected through viscoelastic elements is analyzed for response, loads and stability in moment trim under forward flight conditions. A conceptual model of a multibladed rotor with rigid flap and lag motions is considered, Although the interconnecting elements are placed in the In-plane direction, considerable coupling between the flap-lag motions of the blades can occur in certain ranges of interblade element stiffness. Interblade coupling can yield significant changes in the response, loads and stability which are dependent on the interblade element and rotor parameters.

Diffusion Anomaly in Silicalite and VPI-5 from Molecular Dynamics Simulations

Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations on rigid and flexible framework models of silicalite and a rigid framework model of the aluminophosphate VPI-5 for different sorbate diameters are reported. The sorbate-host interactions are modeled in terms of simple atom-atom Lennard-Jones interactions. The results suggest that the diffusion coefficient exhibits an anomaly as gamma approaches unity. The MD results confirm the existence of a linear regime for sorbate diameters significantly smaller than the channel diameter and an anomalous regime observed for sorbate diameters comparable to the channel diameter. The power spectra obtained by Fourier transformation of the velocity autocorrelation function indicate that there is an increase in the intensity of the low-frequency component for the velocity component parallel to the direction of motion for the sorbate diameter in the anomalous regime. The present results suggest that the diffusion anomaly is observed irrespective of (1) the geometry and topology of the pore structure and (2) the nature of the host material. The results are compared with the work of Derouane and co-workers, who have suggested the existence of ''floating molecules'' on the basis of earlier theoretical and computational approaches.

Finite element simulation of wedge indentation

A finite element simulation of frictionless wedge indentation of a copper strip has been carried out under plane strain conditions. The problem was first modelled using an one-pass contact algorithm. The difficulties associated with using this method to model wedge indentation problems are explained. An alternative procedure which alleviates some of the problems associated with the one-pass contact algorithm is proposed for modelling frictionless wedge indentation. Also, a re-meshing procedure which has to be carried out when the distortion of the elements around the indenter becomes significant, is discussed. A sample problem involving indentation of a 4 mm copper strip by a rigid wedge indenter has been modelled and the results are compared with experimental and theoretical results.

Stability of the viscous flow of a fluid through a flexible tube

The stability of the Hagen-Poiseuille flow of a Newtonian fluid in a tube of radius R surrounded by an incompressible viscoelastic medium of radius R < r < HR is analysed in the high Reynolds number regime. The dimensionless numbers that affect the fluid flow are the Reynolds number Re = (rho VR/eta), the ratio of the viscosities of the wall and fluid eta(r) = (eta(s)/eta), the ratio of radii H and the dimensionless velocity Gamma = (rho V-2/G)(1/2). Here rho is the density of the fluid, G is the coefficient of elasticity of the wall and V is the maximum fluid velocity at the centre of the tube. In the high Reynolds number regime, an asymptotic expansion in the small parameter epsilon = (1/Re) is employed. In the leading approximation, the viscous effects are neglected and there is a balance between the inertial stresses in the fluid and the elastic stresses in the medium. There are multiple solutions for the leading-order growth rate s((0)), all of which are imaginary, indicating that the fluctuations are neutrally stable, since there is no viscous dissipation of energy or transfer of energy from the mean flow to the fluctuations due to the Reynolds stress. There is an O(epsilon(1/2)) correction to the growth rate, s((1)), due to the presence of a wall layer of thickness epsilon(1/2)R where the viscous stresses are O(epsilon(1/2)) smaller than the inertial stresses. An energy balance analysis indicates that the transfer of energy from the mean flow to the fluctuations due to the Reynolds stress in the wall layer is exactly cancelled by an opposite transfer of equal magnitude due to the deformation work done at the interface, and there is no net transfer from the mean flow to the fluctuations. Consequently, the fluctuations are stabilized by the viscous dissipation in the wall layer, and the real part of s(1) is negative. However, there are certain values of Gamma and wavenumber k where s((1)) = 0. At these points, the wall layer amplitude becomes zero because the tangential velocity boundary condition is identically satisfied by the inviscid flow solution. The real part of the O(epsilon) correction to the growth rate s((2)) turns out to be negative at these points, indicating a small stabilizing effect due to the dissipation in the bulk of the fluid and the wall material. It is found that the minimum value of s((2)) increases proportional to (H-1)(-2) for (H-1) much less than 1 (thickness of wall much less than the tube radius), and decreases proportional to H-4 for H much greater than 1. The damping rate for the inviscid modes is smaller than that for the viscous wall and centre modes in a rigid tube, which have been determined previously using a singular perturbation analysis. Therefore, these are the most unstable modes in the flow through a flexible tube

Synthesis of path generating flexible-link mechanisms

Flexible-link mechanisms are those linkage mechanisms (or structures) which are capable of motion by virtue of elastic deformation of one or more;links. In such mechanisms a single flexible link; can replace several rigid links and joints resulting in fewer links, fewer pin joints, reduced overall weight and reduced mechanical error. In spite of such clear advantages, contributions toward flexible-link mechanisms remain very scarce. The area of flexible-link mechanisms offers much scope for further exploration. This paper attempts to show the potential of flexible-link mechanisms in accomplishing a kinematic task like path generation. Synthesis of a four-bar mechanism with a flexible rocker for circular and straight line path generation is carried out. Displacement analysis of the structure is carried out using finite element method (FEM) and synthesis is formulated and solved as an optimization problem. Several numerical examples are presented for illustration. Based on the results obtained with these examples, the flexible-link mechanism considered shows good promise for-path generation.

The chemistry of a non-natural product: Troger's base

Troger's base was the first amine to be resolved where the chirality was solely due to very high inversion barrier around nitrogen atom(s). Though the molecule was known over a century, work done during the past one decade has shown that Troger's base and its analogues could be used as chiral solvating agents, DNA-binding ligands and for the construction of biomimetic molecular receptors and clathrate hosts, Asymmetric synthesis of Troger's base analogues has also been achieved recently, Because of the rigid, 'V'-shaped chiral nature of this molecule, there is a growing interest for use of this unit in the design of potential host systems, This review article focuses on the chemistry of Troger's base along with the possible future utilities.

Gas-phase controlled mass transfer in a foam-bed reactor

Gas-phase controlled absorption of ammonia in foams made of solutions of sulphuric acid has been studied experimentally. Effects of gas-phase concentration of ammonia and type of surfactant on the performance of the foam-bed reactor are investigated. Gas-phase controlled absorption from a spherical bubble is anaylzed using the asymptotic value of Sherwood number (Sh = 6.58), for both negligible as well as significant changes in the volume of the bubble. The experimental data are shown to be in good agreement with the single-stage model of the foam-bed reactor using these asymptotic sub-models, as well as the diffusion-in-sphere analysis available in literature. Influence of effective diffusivity on the time dependence of fractional gas absorption has been found to be unimportant for foam columns with large times of contact. The asymptotic sub-models have been compared and use of the rigid-sphere asymptotic sub-model is recommended for foam columns of practical relevence.

Inverse surface melting in confined clusters: Ar-13 in zeolite L

Monte Carlo and molecular dynamics simulations on an Ar-13 cluster in zeolite L have been carried out at a series of temperatures to understand the rigid-nonrigid transition corresponding to the solid-liquid transition exhibited by the free Ar-13 cluster. The icosahedral geometry of the free cluster is no longer preferred when the cluster is confined in the zeolite. The root-mean-squared pair distance fluctuation, delta, exhibits a sharp, well-defined rigid-nonrigid transition at 17 K as compared to 27 K for the free cluster. Multiple peaks in the distribution of short-time averages of the guest-host interaction energy indicate coexistence of two phases.; It is shown that this transition is associated with the inner atoms becoming mobile at 17 K even while the outer layer atoms, which are in close proximity to the zeolitic wall, continue to be comparatively immobile. This may be contrasted with the melting of large free clusters of 40 or more atoms which exhibit surface melting. Guest-host interactions seem to play a predominant role in determining the properties of confined clusters. We demonstrate that the volume of the cluster increases rather sharply at 17 and 27 K respectively for the confined and the free cluster. Power spectra suggest that the motion of the inner atoms is generally parallel to the atoms which form the cage wall.

Response, loads, and stability of interconnected rotor-body systems

A rotor-body system with blades interconnected through viscoelastic elements is analyzed for response, loads, and stability in propulsive trim in ground contact and under forward-flight conditions, A conceptual model of a multibladed rotor with rigid flap and lag motions, and the fuselage with rigid pitch and roll motions is considered, Although the interconnecting elements are placed in the in-plane direction, considerable coupling between the flap-lag motions of the blades can occur in certain ranges of interblade element stiffness, Interblade coupling can yield significant changes in the response, loads, and stability that are dependent on the interblade element and rotor-body parameters, Ground resonance stability investigations show that by tuning the interblade element stiffness, the ground resonance instability problem can be reduced or eliminated, The interblade elements with damping and stiffness provide an effective method to overcome the problems of ground and air resonance.

Synthesis and reactivity of chiral tellurium azomethines: Pseudopolymorphism of [o-((((1S,2R)-2-hydroxy-2-phenyl-1-methylethyl)amino)methinyl)phenyl] tellurium(IV) bromide

A range of novel chiral tellurium compounds having an azomethine functional group in the position ortho to tellurium has been synthesized by the reaction of the tellurium-containing aldehydes bis(o-formylphenyl) telluride (1) and o-(butyltelluro)benzaldehyde (4) with chiral amines (R)-(+)-(1-pheylethylamine) and (1R,2S)-(-)-norephedrine, respectively. The precursor aldehydes were prepared by using a reported procedure with slight but advantageous modifications. During the preparation of o-(butyltelluro)benzaldehyde, interesting side products, namely bis(o-formylphenyl) ditelluride ethylene acetal 5, bis(o-formylphenyl) tritelluride (6), and bis(o-formylphenyl) ditelluride (7) were isolated in moderate yields. The ditelluride 7 has been characterized by single-crystal X-ray diffraction studies. The liquid Schiff bases 10 and 11 were further characterized by derivatizing with liquid bromine. The title compound was obtained in excellent yield by reacting the Schiff base 11 with elemental bromine. Detailed NMR studies indicated the presence of a rigid environment for the hydroxyl group. Single-crystal X-ray determinations of the crystals obtained from the different batches indicated. the presence of the two pseudopolymorphic forms 13a and 13b, respectively. In the case of 13a there is one molecule of CH3CN as solvent of crystallization, whereas in 13b half a molecule of CH3CN per molecule of the title compound lies along the 2-fold axis. In 13a the hydroxyl hydrogen is hydrogen-bonded to the nitrogen of the solvent molecule, whereas in 13b it is hydrogen-bonded to the bromine of the neighboring molecule.