Energy-insensitive Guidance of Solid Motor Propelled Long Range Flight Vehicles Using MPSP and Dynamic Inversion

A energy-insensitive explicit guidance design is proposed in this paper by appending newlydeveloped nonlinear model predictive static programming technique with dynamic inversion, which render a closed form solution of the necessary guidance command update. The closed form nature of the proposed optimal guidance scheme suppressed the computational difficulties, and facilitate realtime solution. The guidance law is successfully verified in a solid motor propelled long range flight vehicle, for which developing an effective guidance law is more difficult as compared to a liquid engine propelled vehicle, mainly because of the absence of thrust cutoff facility. The scheme guides the vehicle appropriately so that it completes the mission within a tight error bound assuming that the starting point of the second stage to be a deterministic point beyond the atmosphere. The simulation results demonstrate its ability to intercept the target, even with an uncertainty of greater than 10% in the burnout time

A Hybrid Energy-insensitive Explicit Guidance Scheme for Long Range Flight Vehicles with Solid Motors

Combining the newly developed nonlinear model predictive static programming technique with null range direction concept, a novel explicit energy-insensitive guidance design method is presented in this paper for long range flight vehicles, which leads to a closed form solution of the necessary guidance command update. Owing to the closed form nature, it does not lead to computational difficulties and the proposed optimal guidance algorithm can be implemented online. The guidance law is verified in a solid motor propelled long range flight vehicle, for which coming up with an effective guidance law is more difficult as compared to a liquid engine propelled vehicle (mainly because of the absence of thrust cutoff facility). Assuming the starting point of the second stage to be a deterministic point beyond the atmosphere, the scheme guides the vehicle properly so that it completes the mission within a tight error bound. The simulation results demonstrate its ability to intercept the target, even with an uncertainty of greater than 10% in burnout time.

On the cut‐on frequencies of a large round duct with azimuthal as well as radial partitions

This letter deals with a three‐dimensional analysis of circular sectors and annular segments resulting from the partitioning of a round (cylindrical) duct for use in an active noise control system. The relevant frequency equations are derived for stationary medium and solved numerically to arrive at the cut‐on frequencies of the first few modes. The resultant table indicates among other things that azimuthal partitioning does not raise the cutoff frequency (the smallest cut‐on frequency) beyond a particular value, and that radial partitioning is counterproductive in that respect.

Dynamical behavior in the nonlinear rheology of surfactant solutions

Several surfactant molecules self-assemble in solution to form long, flexible wormlike micelles which get entangled with each other, leading to viscoelastic gel phases. We discuss our recent work on the rheology of such a gel formed in the dilute aqueous solutions of a surfactant CTAT. In the linear rheology regime, the storage modulus G′(ω) and loss modulus G″(ω) have been measured over a wide frequency range. In the nonlinear regime, the shear stress σ shows a plateau as a function of the shear rate math above a certain cutoff shear rate mathc. Under controlled shear rate conditions in the plateau regime, the shear stress and the first normal stress difference show oscillatory time-dependence. The analysis of the measured time series of shear stress and normal stress has been done using several methods incorporating state space reconstruction by embedding of time delay vectors. The analysis shows the existence of a finite correlation dimension and a positive Lyapunov exponent, unambiguously implying that the dynamics of the observed mechanical instability can be described by that of a dynamical system with a strange attractor of dimension varying from 2.4 to 2.9.

Counterterms, critical gravity, and holography

We consider counterterms for odd dimensional holographic conformal field theories (CFTs). These counterterms are derived by demanding cutoff independence of the CFT partition function on S-d and S-1 x Sd-1. The same choice of counterterms leads to a cutoff independent Schwarzschild black hole entropy. When treated as independent actions, these counterterm actions resemble critical theories of gravity, i.e., higher curvature gravity theories where the additional massive spin-2 modes become massless. Equivalently, in the context of AdS/CFT, these are theories where at least one of the central charges associated with the trace anomaly vanishes. Connections between these theories and logarithmic CFTs are discussed. For a specific choice of parameters, the theories arising from counterterms are nondynamical and resemble a Dirac-Born-Infeld generalization of gravity. For even dimensional CFTs, analogous counterterms cancel log-independent cutoff dependence.

Premixed flame response to equivalence ratio fluctuations: Comparison between reduced order modeling and detailed computations

Combustion instability events in lean premixed combustion systems can cause spatio-temporal variations in unburnt mixture fuel/air ratio. This provides a driving mechanism for heat-release oscillations when they interact with the flame. Several Reduced Order Modelling (ROM) approaches to predict the characteristics of these oscillations have been developed in the past. The present paper compares results for flame describing function characteristics determined from a ROM approach based on the level-set method, with corresponding results from detailed, fully compressible reacting flow computations for the same two dimensional slot flame configuration. The comparison between these results is seen to be sensitive to small geometric differences in the shape of the nominally steady flame used in the two computations. When the results are corrected to account for these differences, describing function magnitudes are well predicted for frequencies lesser than and greater than a lower and upper cutoff respectively due to amplification of flame surface wrinkling by the convective Darrieus-Landau (DL) instability. However, good agreement in describing function phase predictions is seen as the ROM captures the transit time of wrinkles through the flame correctly. Also, good agreement is seen for both magnitude and phase of the flame response, for large forcing amplitudes, at frequencies where the DL instability has a minimal influence. Thus, the present ROM can predict flame response as long as the DL instability, caused by gas expansion at the flame front, does not significantly alter flame front perturbation amplitudes as they traverse the flame. (C) 2012 The Combustion Institute. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

c-theorems in arbitrary dimensions

The dilaton action in 3 + 1 dimensions plays a crucial role in the proof of the a-theorem. This action arises using Wess-Zumino consistency conditions and crucially relies on the existence of the trace anomaly. Since there are no anomalies in odd dimensions, it is interesting to ask how such an action could arise otherwise. Motivated by this we use the AdS/CFT correspondence to examine both even and odd dimensional conformal field theories. We find that in even dimensions, by promoting the cutoff to a field, one can get an action for this field which coincides with the Wess-Zumino action in flat space. In three dimensions, we observe that by finding an exact Hamilton-Jacobi counterterm, one can find a non-polynomial action which is invariant under global Weyl rescalings. We comment on how this finding is tied up with the F-theorem conjectures.

PULSE-PHASE-RESOLVED SPECTROSCOPY OF VELA X-1 WITH SUZAKU

We present a detailed pulse-phase-resolved spectral analysis of the persistent high-mass X-ray binary pulsar Vela X-1 observed with Suzaku during 2008 June. The pulse profiles exhibit both intensity and energy dependence with multiple peaks at low energies and double peaks at higher energies. The source shows some spectral evolution over the duration of the observation and care has been taken to average over data with minimum spectral variability for the analysis. We model the continuum with a phenomenological partial covering high-energy cutoff model and a more physical partial covering thermal Comptonization model (CompTT) excluding the time ranges having variable hardness ratio and intensity dependence. For both the models, we detect a cyclotron resonant scattering feature (CRSF) and its harmonic at similar to 25 keV and similar to 50 keV. Both the CRSF fundamental and harmonics parameters are strongly variable over the pulse phase, with the ratio of the two line energies deviating from the classical value of 2. The continuum parameters also show significant variation over the pulse phase and give us some idea about the changing physical conditions that are seen with the changing viewing angle at different pulse phases and obscuration by the accretion stream at some pulse phases.

On the Selection of Optimum Savitzky-Golay Filters

Savitzky-Golay (S-G) filters are finite impulse response lowpass filters obtained while smoothing data using a local least-squares (LS) polynomial approximation. Savitzky and Golay proved in their hallmark paper that local LS fitting of polynomials and their evaluation at the mid-point of the approximation interval is equivalent to filtering with a fixed impulse response. The problem that we address here is, ``how to choose a pointwise minimum mean squared error (MMSE) S-G filter length or order for smoothing, while preserving the temporal structure of a time-varying signal.'' We solve the bias-variance tradeoff involved in the MMSE optimization using Stein's unbiased risk estimator (SURE). We observe that the 3-dB cutoff frequency of the SURE-optimal S-G filter is higher where the signal varies fast locally, and vice versa, essentially enabling us to suitably trade off the bias and variance, thereby resulting in near-MMSE performance. At low signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs), it is seen that the adaptive filter length algorithm performance improves by incorporating a regularization term in the SURE objective function. We consider the algorithm performance on real-world electrocardiogram (ECG) signals. The results exhibit considerable SNR improvement. Noise performance analysis shows that the proposed algorithms are comparable, and in some cases, better than some standard denoising techniques available in the literature.

Comparison of OpAmp based and comparator based switched capacitor filter

Comparator based switched capacitor circuits provide an excellent opportunity to design sampled data systems where the virtual ground condition is detected rather than being continuously forced with negative feedback in Opamp based circuits. This work is an application of this concept to design a 1 st order 330 KHz cutoff frequency Lowpass filter operating at 10 MHz sampling frequency in 0.13μm technology and 1.2 V supply voltage. The Comparator Based Switched Capacitor (CBSC) filter is compared with conventional Two stage Miller compensated Operational amplifier based switched capacitor filter. It is shown that CBSC filter relaxes the constraints like speed ,linearity, gain, stability which would otherwise be hard to satisfy in scaled technologies in Opamp based circuits. The designed CBSC based lowpass filter provides significant power savings compared to traditional Opamp based switched capacitor filter.

Evaluation of polyvinylidene fluoride nasal sensor to assess deviated nasal septum in comparision with peak nasal inspiratory flow measurements

Background: Deviated nasal septum (DNS) is one of the major causes of nasal obstruction. Polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) nasal sensor is the new technique developed to assess the nasal obstruction caused by DNS. This study evaluates the PVDF nasal sensor measurements in comparison with PEAK nasal inspiratory flow (PNIF) measurements and visual analog scale (VAS) of nasal obstruction. Methods: Because of piezoelectric property, two PVDF nasal sensors provide output voltage signals corresponding to the right and left nostril when they are subjected to nasal airflow. The peak-to-peak amplitude of the voltage signal corresponding to nasal airflow was analyzed to assess the nasal obstruction. PVDF nasal sensor and PNIF were performed on 30 healthy subjects and 30 DNS patients. Receiver operating characteristic was used to analyze the DNS of these two methods. Results: Measurements of PVDF nasal sensor strongly correlated with findings of PNIF (r = 0.67; p < 0.01) in DNS patients. A significant difference (p < 0.001) was observed between PVDF nasal sensor measurements and PNIF measurements of the DNS and the control group. A cutoff between normal and pathological of 0.51 Vp-p for PVDF nasal sensor and 120 L/min for PNIF was calculated. No significant difference in terms of sensitivity of PVDF nasal sensor and PNIF (89.7% versus 82.6%) and specificity (80.5% versus 78.8%) was calculated. Conclusion: The result shows that PVDF measurements closely agree with PNIF findings. Developed PVDF nasal sensor is an objective method that is simple, inexpensive, fast, and portable for determining DNS in clinical practice.

Using heat treatment effects and EBSD analysis to tailor microstructure of hybrid Mg nanocomposite for enhanced overall mechanical response

In this study, a detailed investigation on the effect of heat treatment on the microstructural characteristics, texture evolution and mechanical properties of Mg-(5.6Ti+2.5B(4)C)(BM) hybrid nanocomposite is presented. Optimised heat treatment parameters, namely, heat treatment temperature and heat treatment time, were first identified through grain size and microhardness measurements. Initially, heat treatment of composites was conducted at temperature range between 100 and 300 degrees C for 1 h. Based on optical microscopic analysis and microhardness measurements, it was evident that significant grain growth and reduction in microhardness occurred for temperatures > 200 degrees C. The cutoff temperature that caused significant grain growth/matrix softening was thus identified. Second, at constant temperature (200 degrees C), the effect of variation of heat treatment time was carried out (ranging between 1 and 5 h) so as to identify the range wherein increase in average grain size and reduction in microhardness occurred. Furthering the study, the effect of optimised heat treatment parameters (200 degrees C, 5 h) on the microstructural texture evolution and hence, on the tensile and compressive properties of the Mg-(5.6Ti+2.5B(4)C)(BM) hybrid nanocomposite was carried out. From electron backscattered diffraction (EBSD) analysis, it was identified that the optimised heat treatment resulted in recrystallisation and residual stress relaxation, as evident from the presence of similar to 87% strain free grains, when compared to that observed in the non-heat treated/as extruded condition (i.e. 2.2 times greater than in the as extruded condition). For the heat treated composite, under both tensile and compressive loads, a significant improvement in fracture strain values (similar to 60% increase) was observed when compared to that of the non-heat treated counterpart, with similar to 20% reduction in yield strength. Based on structure-property correlation, the change in mechanical characteristics is identified to be due to: (1) the presence of less stressed matrix/reinforcement interface due to the relief of residual stresses and (2) texture weakening due to matrix recrystallisation effects, both arising due to heat treatment.

Use of a structural alphabet to find compatible folds for amino acid sequences

The structural annotation of proteins with no detectable homologs of known 3D structure identified using sequence-search methods is a major challenge today. We propose an original method that computes the conditional probabilities for the amino-acid sequence of a protein to fit to known protein 3D structures using a structural alphabet, known as Protein Blocks (PBs). PBs constitute a library of 16 local structural prototypes that approximate every part of protein backbone structures. It is used to encode 3D protein structures into 1D PB sequences and to capture sequence to structure relationships. Our method relies on amino acid occurrence matrices, one for each PB, to score global and local threading of query amino acid sequences to protein folds encoded into PB sequences. It does not use any information from residue contacts or sequence-search methods or explicit incorporation of hydrophobic effect. The performance of the method was assessed with independent test datasets derived from SCOP 1.75A. With a Z-score cutoff that achieved 95% specificity (i.e., less than 5% false positives), global and local threading showed sensitivity of 64.1% and 34.2%, respectively. We further tested its performance on 57 difficult CASP10 targets that had no known homologs in PDB: 38 compatible templates were identified by our approach and 66% of these hits yielded correctly predicted structures. This method scales-up well and offers promising perspectives for structural annotations at genomic level. It has been implemented in the form of a web-server that is freely available at http://www.bo-protscience.fr/forsa.

Investigations on growth, structure, optical properties and laser damage threshold of organic nonlinear optical crystals of Guanidinium L-Ascorbate

Single crystals of Guanidinium L-Ascorbate (GuLA) were grown and crystal structure was determined by direct methods. GuLA crystallizes in orthorhombic, non-centrosymmetric space group P2(1)2(1)2(1). The UV-cutoff was determined as 325 nm. The morphology was generated and the interplanar angles estimated and compared with experimental values. Second harmonic generation conversion efficiency was measured and compared with other salts of L-Ascorbic acid. Surface laser damage threshold was calculated as 11.3GW/cm(2) for a single shot of laser of 1064 nm wavelength.

Variations in the cyclotron resonant scattering features during 2011 outburst of 4U 0115+63

We study the variations in the Cyclotron Resonant Scattering Feature (CRSF) during 2011 outburst of the high mass X-ray binary 4U 0115+63 using observations performed with Suzaku, RXTE, Swift and INTEGRAL satellites. The wide-band spectral data with low-energy coverage allowed us to characterize the broad-band continuum and detect the CRSFs. We find that the broad-band continuum is adequately described by a combination of a low temperature (kT similar to 0.8 keV) blackbody and a power law with high energy cutoff (E-cut similar to 5.4 keV) without the need for a broad Gaussian at similar to 10 keV as used in some earlier studies. Though winds from the companion can affect the emission from the neutron star at low energies (<3 keV), the blackbody component shows a significant presence in our continuum model. We report evidence for the possible presence of two independent sets of CRSFs with fundamentals at similar to 11 and similar to 15 keV. These two sets of CRSFs could arise from spatially distinct emitting regions. We also find evidence for variations in the line equivalent widths, with the 11 keV CRSF weakening and the 15 keV line strengthening with decreasing luminosity. Finally, we propose that the reason for the earlier observed anticorrelation of line energy with luminosity could be due to modelling of these two independent line sets (similar to 11 and similar to 15 keV) as a single CRSF.