Hypervelocity macroparticle accelerator experiments at CEM-UT

Several railgun experiments designed to accelerate projectile masses of 2 to 5 g to velocities greater than 6 km/s were performed. Two parallel rail-type accelerators with 12.7 mm square bores were used for the experiments. One gun is 2 m long, has molybdenum rails and alumina ceramic insulators. The other is 1 m long, has molybdenum rails and granite insulators. The greatest velocity achieved to date during the experiments was 5.1 km/s. During the test program, the following ideas to enhance launcher performance were tested: stiff-gun structures to reduce plasma leakage and rail movement, refactory bore materials to reduce ablation and frictional losses, and prefilling the gun bore with gases which will eliminate precursor arcs. After three experiments utilizing the 2 m long launcher, with peak currents ranging from 660 to 780 kA, a gun barrel comprised of 96% pure alumina ceramic insulators and 99.9% pure molybdenum rails has survived with minimal damage and no degradation of seals     

Estimating and Validating the Cumulative Distribution of a Function of Random Variables: Toward the Development of Distribution Arithmetic

A method for estimating and validating the cumulative distribution of a function of random variables (independent or dependent) is presented and examined. The method creates a sequence of bounds that will converge to the distribution function in the limit for functions of independent random variables or of random variables of known dependencies. Moreover, an approximation is constructed from and contained in these bounds. Preliminary numerical experiments indicate that this approximation is close to the actual distribution after a few iterations. Several examples are given to illustrate the method.     

Interval-Related Talks at the 22th International Conference of the North American Fuzzy Information Processing Society NAFIPS'03 - Chicago,Illinois, USA,July 24–26, 2003

Reliable Computing -     

Fluid, solid and fluid-structure interaction simulations on patient-based abdominal aortic aneurysm models

This article describes the use of fluid, solid and fluid-structure interaction simulations on three patient-based abdominal aortic aneurysm geometries. All simulations were carried out using OpenFOAM, which uses the finite volume method to solve both fluid and solid equations. Initially a fluid-only simulation was carried out on a single patient-based geometry and results from this simulation were compared with experimental results. There was good qualitative and quantitative agreement between the experimental and numerical results, suggesting that OpenFOAM is capable of predicting the main features of unsteady flow through a complex patient-based abdominal aortic aneurysm geometry. The intraluminal thrombus and arterial wall were then included, and solid stress and fluid-structure interaction simulations were performed on this, and two other patient-based abdominal aortic aneurysm geometries. It was found that the solid stress simulations resulted in an under-estimation of the maximum stress by up to 5.9% when compared with the fluid-structure interaction simulations. In the fluid-structure interaction simulations, flow induced pressure within the aneurysm was found to be up to 4.8% higher than the value of peak systolic pressure imposed in the solid stress simulations, which is likely to be the cause of the variation in the stress results. In comparing the results from the initial fluid-only simulation with results from the fluid-structure interaction simulation on the same patient, it was found that wall shear stress values varied by up to 35% between the two simulation methods. It was concluded that solid stress simulations are adequate to predict the maximum stress in an aneurysm wall, while fluid-structure interaction simulations should be performed if accurate prediction of the fluid wall shear stress is necessary. Therefore, the decision to perform fluid-structure interaction simulations should be based on the particular variables of interest in a given study.     

Interventions targeting child undernutrition in developing countries may be undermined by dietary exposure to aflatoxin

Child undernutrition, a form of malnutrition, is a major public health burden in developing countries. Supplementation interventions targeting the major micronutrient deficiencies have only reduced the burden of child undernutrition to a certain extent, indicating that there are other underlying determinants that need to be addressed. Aflatoxin exposure, which is also highly prevalent in developing countries, may be considered an aggravating factor for child undernutrition. Increasing evidence suggests that aflatoxin exposure can occur in any stage of life, including in utero through a trans-placental pathway and in early childhood (through contaminated weaning food and family food). Early life exposure to aflatoxin is associated with adverse effects on low birth weight, stunting, immune suppression, and the liver function damage. The mechanisms underlying impaired growth and aflatoxin exposure are still unclear but intestinal function damage, reduced immune function, and alteration in the insulin-like growth factor axis caused by the liver damage are the suggested hypotheses. Given the fact that both aflatoxin and child undernutrition are common in sub-Saharan Africa, effective interventions aimed at reducing undernutrition cannot be satisfactorily achieved until the interactive relationship between aflatoxin and child undernutrition is clearly understood, and an aflatoxin mitigation strategy takes effect in those vulnerable mothers and children.     

Damage-limiting construction

A discussion of the use of pressure-relieving and pressure-resistant building construction to minimize the damage caused by combustion explosions.