Dynamic viscosities of mixtures of n-butyraldehyde and isobutyraldehyde over wide ranges in the state parameters

Dynamic-viscosity measurements are reported for liquid mixtures in the system formed by n-butyraldehyde and isobutyraldehyde.Translated from Inzhenerno-Fizicheskii Zhurnal, Vol. 48, No. 2, pp. 321–322, February, 1985.     

Modelling induction skull melting design modifications

Induction Skull Melting (ISM) is used for heating, melting, mixing and, possibly, evaporating reactive liquid metals at high temperatures when a minimum contact at solid walls is required. The numerical model presented here involves the complete time dependent process analysis based on the coupled electromagnetic, temperature and turbulent velocity fields during the melting and liquid shape changes. The simulation is validated against measurements of liquid metal height, temperature and heat losses in a commercial size ISM furnace. The often observed limiting temperature plateau for ever increasing electrical power input is explained by the turbulent convective heat losses. Various methods to increase the superheat within the liquid melt, the process energy efficiency and stability are proposed.     

High-gain pseudomorphic InGaAs base ballistic hot-electron device

A high-gain ballistic hot-electron device is described. The GaAs-AlGaAs heterostructure device, with a 21-mm-thick pseudomorphic In _0.12Ga_0.88As base, had a current gain of 27 at 77 K and 41 at 4.2 K. As characteristically seen in ballistic devices, transfer into the L valley limited the maximum gain. The Γ-L valley separation in the strained In_0.12Ga_0.88As was estimated to be about 380 meV     

Arc root mobility on piezoelectrically actuated contacts in miniature circuit breakers

A novel contact opening mechanism has been developed using a piezoelectric actuator to open the contacts in a low contact opening velocity circuit breaker. The arc control on the contacts is critical for successful current interruption (10/sup 3/-10/sup 4/ A) in low voltage (<250V) devices. Previous work has shown how arc root commutation from the contact region into the arc chamber is affected by arc chamber materials, contact materials and the gap behind the moving contact for contact velocities between 1ms/sup -1/ and 10ms/sup -1/. This work is extended using a commercially available piezoelectric actuator to open the contacts. Contact opening speeds are assessed and the arc root mobility is characterized under this operating regime. A flexible test apparatus and solid-state high-speed arc imaging system are used to gather data on the arc root during the opening of the contacts. New experimental results are presented on the anode and cathode root velocity and arc root motion in an arc chamber with piezoelectrically actuated contact opening. These results can be used to improve the design of high current low voltage circuit breakers suitable for piezoelectric actuation.     

An integrated system to remote monitor and control anaerobic wastewater treatment plants through the internet.

The TELEMAC project brings new methodologies from the Information and Science Technologies field to the world of water treatment. TELEMAC offers an advanced remote management system which adapts to most of the anaerobic wastewater treatment plants that do not benefit from a local expert in wastewater treatment. The TELEMAC system takes advantage of new sensors to better monitor the process dynamics and to run automatic controllers that stabilise the treatment plant, meet the depollution requirements and provide a biogas quality suitable for cogeneration. If the automatic system detects a failure which cannot be solved automatically or locally by a technician, then an expert from the TELEMAC Control Centre is contacted via the internet and manages the problem.     

Travelling salesman problem tools for microcomputers

The problem of determining minimum total distance to be travelled by a salesman, who is to visit given cities each only once (i.e. the travelling salesman problem) is one of the most studied problems in computational mathematics. Finding an exact solution is not only intractably difficult, but also exceedingly costly. However, we implemented efficient optimal algorithms for both symmetric and asymmetric distance problems. The programs implemented can solve problems up to 180 cities in reasonable computer time.     

Solution of Helmholtz equation by Trefftz method

The application of the Trefftz method for calculating wave forces on offshore structures is presented. Indirect and direct formulations using complete and non-singular systems of Trefftz functions for the Helmholtz equation are posed in this paper. An effective technique using different interpolation functions for the velocity potential and wave force are suggested to improve the computational accuracy of the wave force. The numerical examples show that the present method is highly efficient and accurate.     

A Recursive Frequency Estimator Using Linear Prediction and a Kalman-Filter-Based Iterative Algorithm

This paper proposes a new Kalman-filter-based recursive frequency estimator for discrete-time multicomponent sinusoidal signals whose frequencies may be time-varying. The frequency estimator is based on the linear prediction approach and it employs the Kalman filter to track the linear prediction coefficients (LPCs) recursively. Frequencies of the sinusoids can then be computed using the estimated LPCs. Due to the coloredness of the linear prediction error, an iterative algorithm is employed to estimate the covariance matrix of the prediction error and the LPCs alternately in the Kalman filter in order to improve the tracking performance. Simulation results show that the proposed Kalman-filter-based iterative frequency estimator can achieve better tracking results than the conventional recursive least-squares-based estimators.