Improving the performance of swift-water rescue quick release harnesses

This paper considered the effectiveness of empathic design modifications to quick release harness design. It was found that the critical element in effecting a rapid and efficient release was the tape length distal to the buckle/back-bar components. We have concluded that the length of tape pulled through the buckle and the loading of the buckle/ tri-glide are critical to ensure an effective release. Physical separation of tape and buckle mechanism when the harness is released is crucial to the effective release. We then considered the problems this may pose in multiple user situations such as ‘call out’ teams or training use and we propose that the adaptation utilised in the research harness to facilitate testing may provide a simple and low cost solution to the multiple user problem allowing easy adjustment of the harness to ensure the separation of buckle and tape on release. We conclude by outlining the design adaptations and recommendations for the training and use of the quick release harness and make recommendations for the training of QRH use

Raft on a highline: Loads and trim

This study examines the loads associated with the positioning of a 4.5m raft on a high line in moving water. Testing was conducted within a flow-calibrated channel demonstrating representative stream velocities typical (0.6 – 5.4ms/ also MPH) of those encountered during water related rescues. The raft was positioned from a high line mid-stream, and a load cell was utilised to collect force/time data. The independent variables of trim (relative positioning of the load within the boat) and average stream velocity were investigated. The findings challenge assumptions regarding the impact of trim on the loads within a highline, the relationship between flow rate and loads on highline and make recommendation for training and practice. The study contributes to understanding the loads placed on high lines by representative rafts during operational rescues

Phase-field approach to heterogeneous nucleation

We consider the problem of heterogeneous nucleation and growth. The system is described by a phase field model in which the temperature is included through thermal noise. We show that this phase field approach is suitable to describe homogeneous as well as heterogeneous nucleation starting from several general hypotheses. Thus we can investigate the influence of grain boundaries, localized impurities, or any general kind of imperfections in a systematic way. We also put forward the applicability of our model to study other physical situations such as island formation, amorphous crystallization, or recrystallization.Comment: 8 pages including 7 figures. Accepted for publication in Physical Review

Galaxies going MAD: The Galaxy-Finder Comparison Project

With the ever increasing size and complexity of fully self-consistent simulations of galaxy formation within the framework of the cosmic web, the demands upon object finders for these simulations has simultaneously grown. To this extent we initiated the Halo Finder Comparison Project that gathered together all the experts in the field and has so far led to two comparison papers, one for dark matter field haloes (Knebe et al. 2011), and one for dark matter subhaloes (Onions et al. 2012). However, as state-of-the-art simulation codes are perfectly capable of not only following the formation and evolution of dark matter but also account for baryonic physics (e.g. hydrodynamics, star formation, feedback) object finders should also be capable of taking these additional processes into consideration. Here we report on a comparison of codes as applied to the Constrained Local UniversE Simulation (CLUES) of the formation of the Local Group which incorporates much of the physics relevant for galaxy formation. We compare both the properties of the three main galaxies in the simulation (representing the MW, M31, and M33) as well as their satellite populations for a variety of halo finders ranging from phase-space to velocity-space to spherical overdensity based codes, including also a mere baryonic object finder. We obtain agreement amongst codes comparable to (if not better than) our previous comparisons, at least for the total, dark, and stellar components of the objects. However, the diffuse gas content of the haloes shows great disparity, especially for low-mass satellite galaxies. This is primarily due to differences in the treatment of the thermal energy during the unbinding procedure. We acknowledge that the handling of gas in halo finders is something that needs to be dealt with carefully, and the precise treatment may depend sensitively upon the scientific problem being studied.Comment: 14 interesting pages, 17 beautiful figures, and 2 informative tables accepted for publication in MNRAS (matches published version

Streams Going Notts: The tidal debris finder comparison project

While various codes exist to systematically and robustly find haloes and subhaloes in cosmological simulations (Knebe et al., 2011, Onions et al., 2012), this is the first work to introduce and rigorously test codes that find tidal debris (streams and other unbound substructure) in fully cosmological simulations of structure formation. We use one tracking and three non-tracking codes to identify substructure (bound and unbound) in a Milky Way type simulation from the Aquarius suite (Springel et al., 2008) and post-process their output with a common pipeline to determine the properties of these substructures in a uniform way. By using output from a fully cosmological simulation, we also take a step beyond previous studies of tidal debris that have used simple toy models. We find that both tracking and non-tracking codes agree well on the identification of subhaloes and more importantly, the {\em unbound tidal features} associated with them. The distributions of basic properties of the total substructure distribution (mass, velocity dispersion, position) are recovered with a scatter of $\sim20$. Using the tracking code as our reference, we show that the non-tracking codes identify complex tidal debris with purities of $\sim40$. Analysing the results of the substructure finders, we find that the general distribution of {\em substructures} differ significantly from the distribution of bound {\em subhaloes}. Most importantly, both bound and unbound {\em substructures} together constitute $\sim18$ of the host halo mass, which is a factor of $\sim2$ higher than the fraction in self-bound {\em subhaloes}. However, this result is restricted by the remaining challenge to cleanly define when an unbound structure has become part of the host halo. Nevertheless, the more general substructure distribution provides a more complete picture of a halo's accretion history.Comment: 19 pages, 12 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA

Sussing merger trees: the influence of the halo finder

Merger tree codes are routinely used to follow the growth and merger of dark matter haloes in simulations of cosmic structure formation. Whereas in Srisawat et. al. we compared the trees built using a wide variety of such codes, here we study the influence of the underlying halo catalogue upon the resulting trees. We observe that the specifics of halo finding itself greatly influences the constructed merger trees. We find that the choices made to define the halo mass are of prime importance. For instance, amongst many potential options different finders select self-bound objects or spherical regions of defined overdensity, decide whether or not to include substructures within the mass returned and vary in their initial particle selection. The impact of these decisions is seen in tree length (the period of time a particularly halo can be traced back through the simulation), branching ratio (essentially the merger rate of subhaloes) and mass evolution. We therefore conclude that the choice of the underlying halo finder is more relevant to the process of building merger trees than the tree builder itself. We also report on some built-in features of specific merger tree codes that (sometimes) help to improve the quality of the merger trees produced

Study of interfacial stiffness ratio of a rough surface in contact using a spring model

This study proposes the use of a simple spring model that relates the interfacial stiffness with the complex reflection coefficient of ultrasound in a rough contact. The spring model cannot be directly related to the real area of contact as this depends on the amount, shape and distribution of contacting asperities. However, it is clear that the model provides a non-destructive tool to easily evaluate both longitudinal and shear interfacial stiffnesses and their ratio. Experimental findings indicate that the interfacial stiffness ratio K-tau/K-sigma determined during loading/unloading cycles is sensitive to the roughness level and load hysteresis. The results deviate from the theoretical available micromechanical models, indicating that actual contacting phenomenon is more complex and other variables needed are not accounted for by the models. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved