5,849 research outputs found
Drag Reduction by Applying Speedstrips on Rowing Oars
No full textAbstractThe objective of this study was to determine the advantage of the application of speedstrips to rowing oars for a lightweight single sculler. The research method comprehended three steps: (1) the analysis of the rowing oar movement, (2) the determination of the change in drag and (3) the composition of a rowing model to establish the advantage that could be achieved. The parameters needed for the model: boat velocity, oar angle velocity and power delivered by the rower, were recorded on a real single sculler. The change in drag due to speedstrips on cylinders was determined by performing wind tunnel experiments. The rowing model (Matlab) simulates a race by using real stroke data of a world-class rower as input, while calculating the drag with the coefficients determined by the wind tunnel experiments. The output of the model is the final advantage by the application of speedstrips to rowing oars. Speedstrips induce a 0.1% advantage over a 2000 m race under calm wind conditions. The advantage increases up to .4% with a headwind velocity of 5 m s-1. For bigger boats, the advantage could be even more significant
Drag and Power-loss in Rowing Due to Velocity Fluctuations
No full textAbstractThe flow motions in the turbulent boundary layer between water and a rowing boat initiate a turbulent skin friction. Reducing this skin friction results in better rowing performances. A Taylor-Couette (TC) facility was used to verify the power losses due to velocity fluctuations PV′ in relation to the total power , as a function of the velocity amplitude A. It was demonstrated that an increase of the velocity fluctuations results in a tremendous decrease of the velocity efficiency eV . The velocity efficiency eV for a typical rowing velocity amplitude A of 20 – 25% was about 0.92 – 0.95%. Suppressing boat velocity fluctuations with 60% will increase boat speed with 1.6%. Riblet surfaces were applied on the inner and outer cylinder wall to indicate the drag reducing ability of such surfaces. The results of the measurements at constant velocity are identical as the results reported earlier, while the experimental configuration was different. This confirms once more the consistency of the TC-system for drag studies. The maximum drag reduction DR was 3.4% at a Reynolds number Res 4.7 × 104, which corresponds to a shear velocity in this TC-system with water of V 4.7 m/s. For typical rowing velocity fluctuations, the riblets maintain to reduce the drag with 2.8% and corresponds to a averaged velocity increase of 0.9%. The drag reducing ability of riblets is partly lost due to velocity fluctuations with high amplitudes (A > 20%). From these results, it is concluded that the friction coefficient Cf will vary within one cycle. Higher acceleration/deceleration leads to a additional level of turbulent kinetic energy
A.J. Cronin. A doctor into lifelong writer
No full textReality and fiction might be strictly coexistent in the narrative world. The author of this article, after a deep reading of A.J. Cronin’s novels, has tried to find out the right key to penetrate into the novelist’s intricate world. After many interrogatives on A.J. Cronin both as a man and writer, the author , finally, has been able to grasp from the pages of the novelist, the suffering of a man who has made of his romance the history of his own life
Studies of non-linear bubble oscillations in a simulated acoustic field
No full textGas bubbles in liquids are capable of forced oscillations in a sound field Photographic study of these non-linear oscillations is difficult. It is technically most feasible at low acoustic frequencies, where lower framing rates are required, and where the resonance bubble size is larger. However, the acoustic pressures required to elicit a non-linear response from the bubble might, if generated at audible frequencies, be damaging to the hearing. This paper outlines an experimental solution to the problem, whereby a volume of liquid containing bubbles is vibrated vertically The oscillating pressure in the water mimics an acoustic field at the vibration frequency and the bubble responds to it as such The apparatus has minimal audible emissions, yet the oscillating pressure is of such an amplitude as to generate highly non-linear oscillations in the bubble. The experiment provides a good example of forced oscillation, as well as illustrating a subtle solution to a difficult experimental problem Radius-time data from a given bubble were obtained using high-speed and stroboscopic photography, and were compared with the numerical predictions obtained from the Rayleigh-Plesset equatio
Simultaneous poling and planar waveguide fabrication in glasses
No full textFabrication of buried planar waveguides with 2nd order nonlinear susceptibility in the upper cladding is carried out in soda-lime and BK7 glass substrates in one step by thermal poling
High temperature fatigue crack growth in powder processed nickel based superalloy U720Li
No full textFatigue crack propagation at elevated temperatures (650 and 725°C) has been studied in a powder processed high strength nickel based superalloy, U720Li, in air and vacuum environments, using trapezoidal loading waveforms. Constant load (increasing ?K) tests were used to generate da/dN-?K curves, while interrupted constant ?K tests were used to study crack propagation paths and mechanisms. At 650°C in air there is little effect of any dwell at maximum load while at 725°C such a dwell causes a significant increase in the crack growth rate coupled with a transition from mixed mode to fully intergranular crack growth. In vacuum the growth rates were significantly lower, and the dwell caused little or no change in crack growth rate at 650°C, but an increase at 725°C. The crack path in vacuum changed from fully transgranular at 650°C to incorporate increasingly mixed mode growth at 725°C with dwell. The intergranular failure in vacuum was through creep cavitation of grain boundaries, while in air, static failure of oxygen embrittled boundaries dominated
Computing with cables: Towards massively parallel neuro computers
No full textElectrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Scienc
Radio Frequency Interference Mitigation in Radio Astronomy
No full textThe next generation of radio telescopes is expected to be one to two orders of magnitude more sensitive than the current generation. Examples of such new telescopes are the Low Frequency Array (LOFAR), currently under construction in the Netherlands, and the Square Kilometer Array (SKA), currently in a concept study phase. Another trend is that technological advances in the fields of electronics and communications systems have led to a vast increase in radio communication applications and systems, and also to an increasing demand for radio spectrum. These two trends, more sensitive telescopes and a much denser spectrum use, imply that radio astronomy will become more vulnerable to interference from radio transmitters. Although protection criteria exist for radio astronomy, it becomes increasingly difficult to keep the radio astronomy frequency bands free from interference. In order to mitigate interference in radio astronomical data, filtering techniques can be used. In this thesis, modern array signal processing techniques have been applied to narrow-band multichannel interference detection and excision, and to narrow-band spatial interference filtering. By investigating the subspace structure of the telescope array output covariance matrices, new results were found, such as upper limits on interference residuals after excision and spatial filtering. The effect of bandwidth, extendedness of the interfering sources, and multipath effects on the detection and spatial filter effectiveness were studied as well. The advantage of a multichannel approach over a single telescope approach was demonstrated by using experimental data from the Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope (WSRT). As the performance of mitigation algorithms can be improved by calibration of the telescope gains and noise powers, calibration algorithms were developed. These algorithms were verified both for single and dual polarised arrays. Finally, a LOFAR interference mitigation strategy was developed.Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Scienc
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