Determination of infinite dilution diffusion and activity coefficients of solvents in polystyrene by inverse gas chromatography on a capillary column

Infinite dilution activity and diffusion coefficients of several solvents in polystyrene have been measured by inverse gas chromatographic on a capillary column for temperatures between 110 and 170°C. Chromatographic data have been treated according to Khan's model, evaluating the contribution to the peak broadening due to radial and axial molecular diffusion in the mobile phase, radial diffusion in the stationary phase, and interfacial mass transfer resistance. Four capillary columns have been prepared with coating thickness ranging from 0.5 to 3.3 microns in order to determine the minimum thickness necessary to obtain reliable measurements of the diffusion coefficient of the solvent in the polymer in every possible experimental condition. Our experimental data are in considerable agreement with the data already available in the literature, obtained by static and chromatographic methods. © 1994 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Prebreakdown phenomena at high voltage in liquid nitrogen and comparison with mineral oil

This paper presents a study of prebreakdown phenomena (usually called streamers) occurring at high voltage in liquid nitrogen. A special cryostat has been constructed to allow dielectric measurements in liquid nitrogen up to 200 kV, and 0.5 MPa hydrostatic pressure. Streamers are detected and studied with various techniques: high speed visualization, streak camera, and recording of transient currents and emitted light. The propagation of positive and negative streamers is investigated at gap distances up to 80 mm. Streamers are then compared to similar phenomena observed in mineral oil. In liquid nitrogen, streamers are different compared to mineral oil. A transition from slow to fast positive streamers (velocity about 10 km/s) is observed at a threshold voltage below the breakdown voltage. The hydrostatic pressure has almost no influence on this phenomenon. Some experiments carried out with a solid barrier perpendicular to the gap axis are also presented. The practical consequences for the design of HV insulation in superconducting systems are then discussed.     

Insulating properties of some liquids after an electrical arc

The insulating properties of a liquid are commonly studied before a breakdown occurs. In HV industrial apparatus such as high energy plastic metallized and liquid impregnated films capacitors, some local breakdowns, named self-healing, occur and the ability of the liquid to remain insulating after electrical degradation is of interest. To understand the influence of the liquid on the behavior of such capacitors, the post-arc behavior of the liquid alone has to be studied in a range of energy (~mJ) close to the self-healing process. The present work deals with the study of the ability of different liquids to restore in the millisecond range their insulating property after an electrical arc. Using an experimental apparatus based on the repetitive charging with a dc HV generator and discharging through an arc of a resistor-capacity system, different kind of liquids were tested. The liquids we used were alcane, esters, alkyl benzene and polyaromatic. We showed as expected that liquids with the smallest ratio of carbon versus hydrogen in their molecular formula present the best restoration property after an electrical arc, property that is crucial for liquids impregnating metallized capacitors     

A Macroscopic Approach to Determine Electron Mobilities in Low-Density Helium

We have developed a macroscopic approach to predict electron mobilities and cavity sizes in liquid and supercritical helium using the free-volume concept. We demonstrate very good agreement with experimental electron mobility data and significant improvement with respect to the commonly used ??bubble?? model, especially for low hydrostatic pressures. The reason for this advancement is the use of heuristically developed thermodynamic state laws that account for the variations with density, temperature, and the isothermal compressibility of dense helium. The state equation uses the scattering length as input and parameters that are adjusted to experimental data. The conventional ??bubble?? method is based on the surface tension which is not defined for all accessible thermodynamic states. We investigate the limit of very low densities, with Knudsen numbers larger than 1.5. Here, the mobilities predicted by our method coincide well with experimental data until the mobility diverges abruptly. This behaviour is interpreted as a cross-over from Stokes-flow to gas kinetics behaviour.     

Thermally and electrically induced bubbles in liquid argon andnitrogen

An experimental study of high field conduction phenomena in liquid argon and liquid nitrogen in a point-plane electrode geometry is reported. These liquids behave qualitatively like saturated hydrocarbons except when they are studied close to their normal boiling point. The generation and dynamics of microscopic bubbles (thermally and electrically induced) as a function of various parameters (nature of the liquid, injected energy, hydrostatic pressure) are presented and discussed. Possible influences of these phenomena on the electrical insulation at cryogenic temperatures is also discussed     

Physarum can compute shortest paths: A short proof

The purpose of this note is to give a short proof that a standard model for the Physarum polycephalum slime mold correctly computes the shortest path in an undirected weighted graph [V. Bonifaci, K. Mehlhorn, G. Varma, Physarum can compute shortest paths, in: Proc. of the 23rd ACM–SIAM Symposium on Discrete Algorithms, SIAM, 2012, pp. 233–240].