Hypervelocity impact computations with finite elements and meshfree particles

The ability of computations to model characteristics of hypervelocity impact is demonstrated using an algorithm for the automatic conversion of distorted finite elements to meshfree particles. The Lagrangian formulation tracks material boundaries and properties without the errors typical in an Eulerian formulation as the material traverses large distances. A computation of a sphere impacting a bumper is shown to reproduce three regions in the debris cloud that are observed in tests: a front region composed of droplets of melted projectile and target, a middle region of fragmented projectile, and a back region of spalled projectile. Additional computations reproduce the observed traits that result from variations in the projectile shape and obliquity. The computation of a projectile impacting spaced plates demonstrates the ability of the method to model the damage to the rear plate of a Whipple shield for spacecraft protection.     

Whispering gallery modes in photoluminescence and Raman spectra of a spherical microcavity with CdTe quantum dots: anti-Stokes emission and interference effects

We have studied the photoluminescence and Raman spectra of a system consisting of a polystyrene latex microsphere coated by CdTe colloidal quantum dots. The cavity-induced enhancement of the Raman scattering allows the observation of Raman spectra from only a monolayer of CdTe quantum dots. Periodic structure with very narrow peaks in the photoluminescence spectra of a single microsphere was detected both in the Stokes and anti-Stokes spectral regions, arising from the coupling between the emission of quantum dots and spherical cavity modes.     

FGTO — A fine structured GTO-thyristor with improved switching characteristics

Contents A fine structured GTO thyristor, abbreviated FGTO, has been developed to improve the switching characteristics. The new device has a cathode finger width of only 20 m and can be turned off without a negative gate bias at an anode current level of more than 200 A/cm². The turn-off time can be shortened down tot _off 500 ns by increasing the negative gate current. A snubber circuit is not necessary to turn off the FGTO's. The maximum rate of rise of anode voltage du/dl reaches more than 10 kV/s. Analytical models are developed to describe the turn-off transients of the FGTO's. Good agreement between the theoretical and experimental results could be achieved.

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FGTO — Ein feinstrukturierter GTO-Thyristor mit verbessertem Schaltverhalten

Übersicht Zur Verbesserung des Schaltverhaltens ist ein feinstrukturierter GTO-Thyristor, abgekürzt FGTO, entwickelt worden. Dieses neue Bauelement hat eine Kathoden-streifenbreite von nur 20 m und kann ohne negative Gatevorspannung bei einer Anodenstromdichte von mehr als 200 A/cm² abgeschaltet werden. Die Abschaltzeit läßt sich durch Erhöhung des negativen Gatestroms bis zut _off 500 ns verkürzen. Beim Abschalten von FGTOs ist keine RC-Beschaltung erforderlich. Der maximale du/dl-Wert erreicht mehr als 10 kV/s. Zur Beschreibung des Abschalt-verhaltens von FGTOs werden analytische Modelle entwickelt, die eine gute Übereinstimmung mit den Meßergebnissen liefern.

     

The role of microcrystalline structure on optical scattering characteristics of semi-crystalline thermoplastics and the accuracy of numerical input for IR-heating modeling

Infrared (IR) heating is widely used for thermoforming of thermoplastic polymers. The key benefit of radiation heating is that a significant amount of the radiative energy penetrates into the polymers thanks to their semi-transparency. For the case of heating unfilled semi-crystalline polymers, the relation between their microcrystalline structure and optical properties is the key to develop a predictive IR-heating model as microcrystalline structure introduces an optically heterogeneous medium. In this study, a relation between the microcrystalline structure of a polyethylene (PE) and its effect on the thermo-optical properties was experimentally analyzed considering a two-step analysis. At very first step, the relation was analyzed considering samples with identical thicknesses and different morphologies, characterized here in terms of degree of crystallinity (X_c (%)). Using Fourier Transform Infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy and integrating sphere, optical characteristics of the PE samples were analyzed in near-infrared (NIR) and middle-infrared (MIR) spectral ranges. The analyses showed that a slight variation in X_c (%) has a great effect on the optical characteristics of PE, particularly the transmission characteristics in NIR range. The wavelength-dependent effect of X_c (%) on the transmission behaviors opened a discussion about the fact that the microcrystalline structures -in particular spherulites or their substructures such as lamellae- are responsible for optical scattering. Using the optical properties obtained from the two-step experimental analyses, two different thermo-optical properties were calculated, namely extinction and absorption coefficients, and used as a numerical input for the parametric numerical studies. The numerical studies were performed using an in-house developed radiation heat transfer algorithm -RAYHEAT-. Both the experimental and numerical analyses demonstrated the importance of the optical scattering regarding the identification of thermo-optical properties, used as a numerical input for radiation heat transfer models.     

Metrics for shot boundary detection in digital video sequences

The detection of shot boundaries in video sequences is an important task for generating indexed video databases. This paper provides a comprehensive quantitative comparison of the metrics that have been applied to shot boundary detection. In addition, several standardized statistical tests that have not been applied to this problem, as well as three new metrics, are considered. A mathematical framework for quantitatively comparing metrics is supplied. Experimental results based on a video database containing 39,000 frames are included.     

"Goal-directed" transfusion management leads to distinct reduction of fluid requirement in liver transplantation

Complications in patients undergoing OLT, such as hemorrhagic events, are caused not only by surgical problems but also by the profound functional disturbances arising from hepatic insufficiency, which are at least partially cured by the procedure itself. Preoperative clotting data give insight only into the dysfunction of the explanted organ. Hence, we tried to perform a standardized, "goal-directed" anesthesiologic management in the perioperative phase in OLT, following strict indications for blood replacement according to diuresis, hemoglobin level, and hemodynamic parameters. We performed 200 OLTs in 185 patients, according to usual methods. The mean intraoperative fluid requirement was 884 ml of balanced salt solution, 8.1 units of RBC, and 9.4 units of FFP. During the first 24 hours postoperatively, an average of 2.4 units of RBC and 5.6 units of FFP had to be transfused. Currently, 170 of the 185 patients (91.9%) are alive and well. Our data demonstrate that a distinct reduction of transfusion rates in OLT is possible, neglecting clotting data and improving clotting function by avoiding hemodilution.     

Comparison of numerical methods for identification of viscoelastic line spectra from static test data

Viscoelastic line spectra are identified from creep or relaxation data of static experiments with different numerical methods, which may or may not depend on additional informations, to be provided by the user, about the unknown parameters. If the least square method is applied, a non‐linear optimization problem with non‐negative constraints on the parameters has to be solved. Its solution can be achieved directly by using a gradient‐based optimization algorithm like the projected Newton method of Bertsekas. However, appropriate starting values for the unknown parameters must be chosen. The problem can be alleviated by dividing the identification task into three successive steps, based on the Tschebyscheff approximation and the quadratic optimization method by Wolfe. Alternatively, the identification task can be reduced to a quadratic optimization problem, if the user provides additional informations about the distribution of the respondance times of the spectra. The windowing‐method of Emri and Tschoegl is based on this assumption. If the line spectrum is assumed to have equally distributed spectrum lines on the logarithmic axis, the identification problem can also be solved by standard regularization techniques, like the truncated singular value decomposition or the Tikhonov regularization. The choice of qualified respondance times as additional information requires some experience with the identification task at hand. Its results may be improved after several reruns of the algorithms. Various applications of the methods to test and experimental data are given and a comparison of their performance is discussed. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Understanding and managing OOT adoption

Why do so many companies hesitate to adopt object-oriented technology (OOT)? The authors use organizational learning theory to illuminate the obstacles involved, and then offer guidelines that can help managers mitigate them