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.

Autocalibration of dynamic bacterial growth model for water distribution system using GA

The presence of residual chlorine and organic matter govern the bacterial regrowth within a water distribution system. The bacterial growth model is essential to predict the spatial and temporal variation of all these substances throughout the system. The parameters governing the bacterial growth and biodegradable dissolved organic carbon (BDOC) utilization are difficult to determine by experimentation. In the present study, the estimation of these parameters is addressed by using simulation-optimization procedure. The optimal solution by genetic algorithm (GA) has indicated that the proper combination of parameter values are significant rather than correct individual values. The applicability of the model is illustrated using synthetic data generated by introducing noise in to the error-free measurements. The GA was found to be a potential tool in estimating the parameters controlling the bacterial growth and BDOC utilization. Further, the GA was also used for evaluating the sensitivity issues relating parameter values and objective function. It was observed that mu and k(cl) are more significant and dominating compared to the other parameters. But the magnitude of the parameters is also an important issue in deciding the dominance of a particular parameter. GA is found to be a useful tool in autocalibration of bacterial growth model and a sensitivity study of parameters.

Throughput performance of distributed applications in switched networks in presence of end-system bottlenecks

The steady state throughput performance of distributed applications deployed in switched networks in presence of end-system bottlenecks is studied in this paper. The effect of various limitations at an end-system is modelled as an equivalent transmission capacity limitation. A class of distributed applications is characterised by a static traffic distribution matrix that determines the communication between various components of the application. It is found that uniqueness of steady state throughputs depends only on the traffic distribution matrix and that some applications (e.g., broadcast applications) can yield non-unique values for the steady state component throughputs. For a given switch capacity, with traffic distribution that yield fair unique throughputs, the trade-off between the end-system capacity and the number of application components is brought out. With a proposed distributed rate control, it has been illustrated that it is possible to have unique solution for certain traffic distributions which is otherwise impossible. Also, by proper selection of rate control parameters, various throughput performance objectives can be realised.

Transitional intermittency detection by neural network

A neural network has been used to predict the flow intermittency from velocity signals in the transition zone in a boundary layer. Unlike many of the available intermittency detection methods requiring a proper threshold choice in order to distinguish between the turbulent and non-turbulent parts of a signal, a trained neural network does not involve any threshold decision. The intermittency prediction based on the neural network has been found to be very satisfactory.

Dodecagonal space vector diagram using cascaded H-Bridge inverters

This paper proposes the development of dodecagonal (12-sided) space vector diagrams from cascaded H-Bridge inverters. As already reported in literatures, dodecagonal space vector diagrams have many advantages over conventional hexagonal ones. Some of them include the absence of 6n±1, (n=odd) harmonics from the phase voltage, and the extension of the linear modulation range. In this paper, a new power circuit is proposed for generating multiple dodecagons in the space vector plane. It consists of two cascaded H-Bridge cells fed from asymmetric dc voltage sources. It is shown that, with proper PWM timing calculation and placement of active and zero vectors, a very high quality of sine-wave can be produced. At the same time, the switching frequency of individual cells can be reduced substantially. Detailed PWM analysis, one design example and an elaborate simulation study is presented to support the proposed idea.

A New Full-diversity Criterion and Low-complexity STBCs with Partial Interference Cancellation Decoding

Recently, Guo and Xia gave sufficient conditions for an STBC to achieve full diversity when a PIC (Partial Interference Cancellation) or a PIC-SIC (PIC with Successive Interference Cancellation) decoder is used at the receiver. In this paper, we give alternative conditions for an STBC to achieve full diversity with PIC and PIC-SIC decoders, which are equivalent to Guo and Xia's conditions, but are much easier to check. Using these conditions, we construct a new class of full diversity PIC-SIC decodable codes, which contain the Toeplitz codes and a family of codes recently proposed by Zhang, Xu et. al. as proper subclasses. With the help of the new criteria, we also show that a class of PIC-SIC decodable codes recently proposed by Zhang, Shi et. al. can be decoded with much lower complexity than what is reported, without compromising on full diversity.

Biological water: Femtosecond dynamics of macromolecular hydration

The unique features of a macromolecule and water as a solvent make the issue of solvation unconventional, with questions about the static versus dynamic nature of hydration and the, physics of orientational and translational diffusion at the boundary. For proteins, the hydration shell that covers the surface is critical to the stability of its structure and function. Dynamically speaking, the residence time of water at the surface is a signature of its mobility and binding. With femtosecond time resolution it is possible to unravel the shortest residence times which are key for the description of the hydration layer, static or dynamic. In this article we review these issues guided by experimental studies, from this laboratory, of polar hydration dynamics at the surfaces of two proteins (Subtilisin Carlsberg (SC) and Monellin). The natural probe tryptophan amino acid was used for the interrogation of the dynamics, and for direct comparison we also studied the behavior in bulk water - a complete hydration in 1 ps. We develop a theoretical description of solvation and relate the theory to the experimental observations. In this - theoretical approach, we consider the dynamical equilibrium in the hydration shell, defining the rate processes for breaking and making the transient hydrogen bonds, and the effective friction in the layer which is defined by the translational and orientational motions of water molecules. The relationship between the residence time of water molecules and the observed slow component in solvation dynamics is a direct one. For the two proteins studied, we observed a "bimodal decay" for the hydration correlation function, with two primary relaxation times: ultrafast, typically 1 ps or less, and longer, typically 15-40 ps, and both are related to the residence time at the protein surface, depending on the binding energies. We end by making extensions to studies of the denatured state of the protein, random coils, and the biomimetic micelles, and conclude with our thoughts on the relevance of the dynamics of native structures to their functions.

California bearing ratio behavior of cement-stabilized fly ash-soil mixes

Thermal power stations using pulverized coal as fuel generate large quantities of fly ash as a byproduct, which has created environmental and disposal problems. Using fly ash for gainful applications will solve these problems. Among the various possible uses for fly ash, the most massive and effective utilization is in geotechnical engineering applications like backfill material, construction of embankments, as a subbase material, etc. A proper understanding of fly ash-soil mixes is likely to provide viable solutions for its large-scale utilization. Earlier studies initiated in the laboratory have resulted in a good understanding of the California Bearing Ratio (CBR) behavior of fly ash-soil mixes. Subsequently, in order to increase the CBR value, cement has been tried as an additive to fly ash-soil mixes. This paper reports the results.

Comparison of the ultrafast to slow time scale dynamics of three liquid crystals in the isotropic phase

The dynamics of three liquid crystals, 4'(pentyloxy)-4-biphenylcarbonitrile (5-OCB), 4'-pentyl-4-biphenylcarbonitrile (5-CB), and 1-isothiocyanato-(4-propylcyclohexyl)benzene (3-CHBT), are investigated from very short time (similar to1 ps) to very long time (>100 ns) as a function of temperature using optical heterodyne detected optical Kerr effect experiments. For all three liquid crystals, the data decay exponentially only on the longest time scale (> several ns). The temperature dependence of the long time scale exponential decays is described well by the Landau-de Gennes theory of the randomization of pseudonematic domains that exist in the isotropic phase of liquid crystals near the isotropic to nematic phase transition. At short time, all three liquid crystals display power law decays. Over the full range of times, the data for all three liquid crystals are fit with a model function that contains a short time power law. The power law exponents for the three liquid crystals range between 0.63 and 0.76, and the power law exponents are temperature independent over a wide range of temperatures. Integration of the fitting function gives the empirical polarizability-polarizability (orientational) correlation function. A preliminary theoretical treatment of collective motions yields a correlation function that indicates that the data can decay as a power law at short times. The power law component of the decay reflects intradomain dynamics. (C) 2002 American Institute of Physics.

Acyclic Edge-Coloring of Planar Graphs

A proper edge-coloring with the property that every cycle contains edges of at least three distinct colors is called an acyclic edge-coloring. The acyclic chromatic index of a graph G, denoted. chi'(alpha)(G), is the minimum k such that G admits an acyclic edge-coloring with k colors. We conjecture that if G is planar and Delta(G) is large enough, then chi'(alpha) (G) = Delta (G). We settle this conjecture for planar graphs with girth at least 5. We also show that chi'(alpha) (G) <= Delta (G) + 12 for all planar G, which improves a previous result by Fiedorowicz, Haluszczak, and Narayan Inform. Process. Lett., 108 (2008), pp. 412-417].

Multipath routing to provide quality of service in mobile ad hoc networks

Because of frequent topology changes and node failures, providing quality of service routing in mobile ad hoc networks becomes a very critical issue. The quality of service can be provided by routing the data along multiple paths. Such selection of multiple paths helps to improve reliability and load balancing, reduce delay introduced due to route rediscovery in presence of path failures. There are basically two issues in such a multipath routing Firstly, the sender node needs to obtain the exact topology information. Since the nodes are continuously roaming, obtaining the exact topology information is a tough task. Here, we propose an algorithm which constructs highly accurate network topology with minimum overhead. The second issue is that the paths in the path set should offer best reliability and network throughput. This is achieved in two ways 1) by choice of a proper metric which is a function of residual power, traffic load on the node and in the surrounding medium 2) by allowing the reliable links to be shared between different paths.

Persistent passive hopping and juggling is possible even with plastic collisions

We describe simple one-dimensional models of passive (no energy input, no control), generally dissipative, vertical hopping and one-ball juggling. The central observation is that internal passive system motions can conspire to eliminate collisions in these systems. For hopping, two point masses are connected by a spring and the lower mass has inelastic collisions with the ground. For juggling, a lower point-mass hand is connected by a spring to the ground and an upper point-mass ball is caught with an inelastic collision and then re-thrown into gravitational free flight. The two systems have identical dynamics. Despite inelastic collisions between non-zero masses, these systems have special symmetric energy-conserving periodic motions where the collision is at zero relative velocity. Additionally, these special periodic motions have a non-zero sized, one-sided region of attraction on the higher-energy side. For either very large or very small mass ratios, the one-sided region of attraction is large. These results persist for mildly non-linear springs and non-constant gravity. Although non-collisional damping destroys the periodic motions, small energy injection makes the periodic motions stable, with a two-sided region of attraction. The existence of such special energy conserving solutions for hopping and juggling points to possibly useful strategies for both animals and robots. The lossless motions are demonstrated with a table-top experiment.

The thickness dependence of the electrical and dielectric properties in the laser ablated SrBi2Nb2O9 thin films

he thickness dependence of the electrical properties in the thin films of uniaxial SrBi2Nb2O9 has been studied in this report. According to many published literatures, it could be an effective way to identify the basic conduction process. The laser ablation was chosen as the deposition technique to ensure an oriented growth and a proper stoichiometric deposition. The structural, dielectric and conduction properties were studied as a function of thickness. The films showed good ferroelectric properties, an ordered growth, and a space-charge controlled conduction process, which was double checked by reversing the polarity of the applied voltage, and also by examining the high field current response of the sample varying in thickness.

Nonlinear Dynamics of Beams with Stochastic Parameter Variations

The aim of this paper is to investigate the steady state response of beams under the action of random support motions. The study is of relevance in the context of earthquake response of extended land based structures such as pipelines and long span bridges, and, secondary systems such as piping networks in nuclear power plant installations. The following complicating features are accounted for in the response analysis: (a) differential support motions: this is characterized in terms of cross power spectral density functions associated with distinct support motions, (b) nonlinear support conditions, and (c) stochastically inhomogeneous stiffness and mass variations of the beam structure; questions on non-Gaussian models for these variations are considered. The method of stochastic finite elements is combined with equivalent linearization technique and Monte Carlo simulations to obtain response moments.

Turbulent free convection above a heated plate inclined at a small angle to the horizontal Journal

An investigation has been made of the structure of the motion above a heated plate inclined at a small angle (about 10°) to the horizontal. The turbulence is considered in terms of the similarities to and differences from the motion above an exactly horizontal surface. One effect of inclination is, of course, that there is also a mean motion. Accurate data on the mean temperature field and the intensity of the temperature fluctuations have been obtained with platinum resistance thermometers, the signals being processed electronically. More approximate information on the velocity field has been obtained with quartz fibre anemometers. These results have been supplemented qualitatively by simultaneous observations of the temperature and velocity fluctuations and also by smoke experiments. The principal features of the flow inferred from these observations are as follows. The heat transfer and the mean temperature field are not much altered by the inclination, though small, not very systematic, variations may result from the complexities of the velocity field. This supports the view that the mean temperature field is largely governed by the large-scale motions. The temperature fluctuations show a systematic variation with distance from the lower edge and resemble those above a horizontal plate when this distance is large. The largescale motions of the turbulence start close to the lower edge, but the smaller eddies do not attain full intensity until the air has moved some distance up the plate. The mean velocity receives a sizable contribution from a ‘through-flow’ between the side-walls. Superimposed on this are developments that show that the momentum transfer processes are complex and certainly not capable of representation by any simple theory such as an eddy viscosity. On the lower part of the plate there is surprisingly large acceleration, but further up the mixing action of the small eddies has a decelerating effect.