Natural convection from a semi-infinite flat plate inclined at a small angle to the horizontal in a saturated porous medium

Summary The free convection boundary layer on a semi-infinite heated flat plate which is inclined at a small angle to the horizontal in a saturated porous medium is considered. When the plate is inclined upwards, series solutions, one valid near the leading edge and the other valid at large distances from it, are obtained. Sufficient terms in the leading edge solution are taken so that the two asymptotic solutions may be joined. When the plate is inclined downwards the series solution valid near the leading edge is again obtained and sufficient terms are again employed to investigate the nature of the boundary layer separation. There is no evidence of a singularity at the separation point and a mathematical explanation of the behaviour at separation is presented.With 10 Figures     

The Athy—Heckel equation applied to granular agglomerates of basic tricalcium phosphate [3Ca3PO4)2·Ca(OH)2]

It is shown that direct compression grade tricalcium phosphate yields linear Heckel plots only if the particle density used is that obtained by liquid pycnometry or mercury porosimetry. If the true density is used (i.e. that obtained by gas displacement), then linearization is not obtained in a pressure range where bonding evidently occurs. It is shown that the pore volume in the range of diameters from 0.5 to 2 μm decreases as tableting pressure increases, and that bonding is associated with the loss of pores of this size.     

The Distribution of Active ingredients in Supported Catalysts Prepared by Impregnation

Supported catalysts, one of the commonest forms of heterogeneous catalysts in practical use, consist of small crystallites of a catalytically active component dispersed in a porous support of high surface area. Impregnation of the support with an aqueous solution of a compound containing the appropriate catalytic component is an important and frequently used method of preparing this type of catalyst. A nonaqueous solution should be used if the sup port surface is hydrophobic or if hydrolysis of the support surface is to be avoided. In its simplest form, this impregnation method involves three steps: (1) contacting the support with impregnating solution for a certain period of time, (2) drying the support to remove the imbibed liquid, and (3) activating the catalyst by calcination, reduction, or other appropriate treatment.     

“Metallisation” of oxide surfaces observed by in situ high-resolution electron microscopy

Intense irradiation (25–40 A/cm²) at intermediate energy (400 keV) has been found to cause “metallisation” of tungsten oxide and titanium niobate crystal surfaces. The possible mechanisms and the likely consequences for high-resolution imaging of clean oxide surfaces are briefly discussed.     

Analog VLSI model of binaural hearing

The stereausis model of biological auditory processing is proposed as a representation that encodes both binaural and spectral information in a unified framework. A working analog VLSI chip that implements this model of early auditory processing in the brain is described. The chip is a 100000-transistor integrated circuit that computes the stereausis representation in real time, using continuous-time analog processing. The chip receives two audio inputs, representing sound entering the two ears, computes the stereausis representation, and generates output signals that can directly drive a color CRT display. Outputs from the chips for a variety of artificial and speech stimuli are shown.     

Half-bridge inverter using 4H-SiC gate turn-off thyristors

This paper reports on the first demonstration of a half-bridge power inverter constructed from silicon carbide gate turn-off thyristors (GTOs) operated in the conventional GTO mode. This circuit was characterized with input bus voltages of up to 600 VDC and 2 A (peak current density of 540 A/cm²) with resistive loads using a pulse-width modulated switching frequency of 2 kHz. We discuss the implications of the thyristor's electrical characteristics and the circuit topology on the overall operation of the half-bridge circuit. This work has determined the conservative critical rate of rise value of the off-state voltage to be 200 V/μs in these devices     

Performance comparison of masking models based on a new psychovisual test method with natural scenery stimuli

Various image processing applications exploit a model of the human visual system (HVS). One element of HVS-models describes the masking-effect, which is typically parameterized by psycho-visual experiments that employ superimposed sinusoidal stimuli. Those stimuli are oversimplified with respect to real images and can capture only very elementary masking-effects. To overcome these limitations a new psycho-visual test method is proposed. It is based on natural scenery stimuli and operates in the wavelet domain. The collected psycho-visual data is finally used to evaluate the performance of various masking models under conditions as found in real image processing applications like compression.