Elastic-plastic fracture mechanics assessment of test data for circumferential cracked pipes

This paper presents experimental validation of two reference stress based methods for circumferential cracked pipes. One is the R6 method where the reference stress is defined by the plastic limit load. The other is the enhanced reference stress method, recently proposed by the authors, where the reference stress is defined by the optimised reference load. Using 38 published pipe test data, the predicted maximum instability loads according to both methods are compared with the experimental ones for pipes with circumferential through-thickness cracks and with part circumferential surface cracks. It is found that the R6 method gives conservative estimates of the maximum loads for all cases. Ratios of the experimental maximum load to the predicted load range from 0.54 to 0.98. On the other hand, the proposed method gives overall closer maximum loads than R6, compared to the experimental data. However, for part through-thickness surface cracks, the estimated loads were slightly non-conservative for four cases, and possible reasons are fully discussed.     

Mathematical Simulation of Radiation Instability and a Possible Method of Taking Instability into Account in Realization of the Unit of Power of Laser Radiation and Dissemination of the Unit of Power

The present study is devoted to mathematical simulation of the instability of laser radiation. An algorithm for establishing the shape of continuous laser radiation received at the input of a measuring system is presented.     

Dynamic asymmetrical instability of elastic–plastic beams

Dynamic instability of elastic–plastic beam is investigated by employing a three-degree-of-freedom (3-DoF) beam model. Especially, asymmetrical instability induced by symmetrical load is discussed. The asymmetrical instability is considered as a second-order buckling mode. Four types of perturbations, i.e., geometrical misalignment, material property mismatch, unsymmetry of applied load and disturbance of boundary conditions, are introduced to activate the asymmetrical responses. The asymmetrical response is characterized by a modal participation factor α₂ which corresponds to an asymmetrical mode shape. Phase plane trajectories and Poincaré map are used to illustrate the chaotic characteristics of the beam response. Results show that if the perturbations are small enough, the perturbation type has negligible influence on the critical load for the occurrence of the asymmetrical instability, which implies that the asymmetrical instability is an intrinsic feature of the beam system. However, with the increase of the magnitude of the perturbations, the influence of the asymmetrical vibration is expanded to a large extension of loading parameter.     

Modulation instability in a dispersion oscillating fibre pumped by a broad band pulse

We numerically investigate the modulation instability generated in a dispersion oscillating fibre pumped by a chirped pulse with a broad bandwidth. We highlight that the side bands are wide, not symmetric in frequency about the pump and several instantaneous side bands can spectrally overlap with each other in one side, while they are well located in the other side. We also show that the spectral distribution can be intuitively explained with an analogy in which the fibre is pumped by a tuneable continuous wave.     

Modelling and inference reveal nonlinear length-dependent suppression of somatic instability for small disease associated alleles in myotonic dystrophy type 1 and Huntington disease

More than 20 human genetic diseases are associated with inheriting an unstable expanded DNA simple sequence tandem repeat, for example, CTG (cytosine–thymine–guanine) repeats in myotonic dystrophy type 1 (DM1) and CAG (cytosine–adenine–guanine) repeats in Huntington disease (HD). These sequences mutate by changing the number of repeats not just between generations, but also during the lifetime of affected individuals. Levels of somatic instability contribute to disease onset and progression but as changes are tissue-specific, age- and repeat length-dependent, interpretation of the level of somatic instability in an individual is confounded by these considerations. Mathematical models, fitted to CTG repeat length distributions derived from blood DNA, from a large cohort of DM1-affected or at risk individuals, have recently been used to quantify inherited repeat lengths and mutation rates. Taking into account age, the estimated mutation rates are lower than predicted among individuals with small alleles (inherited repeat lengths less than 100 CTGs), suggesting that these rates may be suppressed at the lower end of the disease-causing range. In this study, we propose that a length-specific effect operates within this range and tested this hypothesis using a model comparison approach. To calibrate the extended model, we used data derived from blood DNA from DM1 individuals and, for the first time, buccal DNA from HD individuals. In a novel application of this extended model, we identified individuals whose effective repeat length, with regards to somatic instability, is less than their actual repeat length. A plausible explanation for this distinction is that the expanded repeat tract is compromised by interruptions or other unusual features. We quantified effective length for a large cohort of DM1 individuals and showed that effective length better predicts age of onset than inherited repeat length, thus improving the genotype–phenotype correlation. Under the extended model, we removed some of the bias in mutation rates making them less length-dependent. Consequently, rates adjusted in this way will be better suited as quantitative traits to investigate cis- or trans-acting modifiers of somatic mosaicism, disease onset and progression.     

Power Density and Electrical Efficiency in Closed Cycle MHD Generator with Fully Ionized Seed

Effects of a reduced seed concentration on performances of a nonequilibrium MHD generator are investigated by calculating power densities and electrical efficiencies for both Faraday and Hall generators.

It is shown that high electrical efficiencies and high power densities are obtained simultaneously by suppressing the ionization instability with reduced seed fractions (10^?4 ～10^?5) when values of the effective electrical conductivity and the effective Hall parameter recover to above 50% of their ideal ones. Results also indicate that argon is more suitable for a working fluid than helium in the case of a reduced seed concentration.     

Experimental study of the effects of hydrogen addition on the thermoacoustic instability in a variable-length combustor

The current study examined the self-excited thermoacoustic instability of hydrogen/methane premixed flames using a variable-length combustor (300–1100 mm). The global dynamic pressure, heat release rate oscillation, together with the flame dynamics were studied. Results showed that both the hydrogen concentration and the chamber length were critical in determining the acoustic oscillation mode and instability trend. Low-frequency primary acoustic modes (<200 Hz) were mainly excited when the hydrogen concentration was low, whereas primary acoustic modes with relatively higher frequencies (~400 Hz) tended to occur in cases with a high hydrogen proportion (>40%). For primary acoustic modes lower than 200 Hz, the primary oscillation frequency tended to increase linearly with a rising hydrogen proportion. Heat release oscillation and flame dynamics analyses demonstrated that for the flame with large-scale shape deformation, the initial addition of hydrogen would intensify the heat release oscillation. Nevertheless, a further increase in the hydrogen level tended to inhibit the heat release oscillation by weakening the flame shape deformation. Eventually, a sufficient high-level of hydrogen addition would weaken the primary acoustic modes that have similar frequencies.     

基于“三带”理论的沉陷区边坡失稳过程分析

地下开采扰动给沉陷区内边坡稳定性带来不利影响。以抚顺老虎台矿开采沉陷区内某边坡失稳破坏为例，分析沉陷区内边坡失稳的动态演化过程。根据开采沉陷学“三带”理论，将处于开采沉陷区的东露天边坡岩土体划分为冒落带、裂隙带、弯曲下沉带和原生带4个特征区域,并分别计算出边坡处于3种“临界状态”时对应的地下开采深度。     

3.705 μm紧凑型光参量振荡器

报道了一种基于工程应用的3.705 μm紧凑型高稳定性光参量振荡器。采用半导体制冷、强制气体对流冷却和热管导热技术相结合的方式,对主振荡功率放大结构的掺Yb光纤泵浦模块泵浦过程中产生的废热进行有效管理,再将经过耦合后的泵浦光注入到使用温控炉精确控温的PPMgLN晶体,在重复频率为55.56 kHz时,获得了功率不稳定度优于1.5%的1.78 W,脉冲宽度120 ns,峰值波长3.705 μm的线偏中红外激光输出,光光转换效率为12.6%。