Induction probe determines levels of liquid metals

Mutual-inductance probe accurately measures liquid levels in a variety of liquid metals at elevated temperatures. It can be used in pyrochemical processes for the recovery of spent reactor fuel

Fracture toughness of brittle materials determined with chevron notch specimens

The use of chevron-notch specimens for determining the plane strain fracture toughness (K sub Ic) of brittle materials is discussed. Three chevron-notch specimens were investigated: short bar, short rod, and four-point-bend. The dimensionless stress intensity coefficient used in computing K sub Ic is derived for the short bar specimen from the superposition of ligament-dependent and ligament-independent solutions for the straight through crack, and also from experimental compliance calibrations. Coefficients for the four-point-bend specimen were developed by the same superposition procedure, and with additional refinement using the slice model of Bluhm. Short rod specimen stress intensity coefficients were determined only by experimental compliance calibration. Performance of the three chevron-notch specimens and their stress intensity factor relations were evaluated by tests on hot-pressed silicon nitride and sintered aluminum oxide. Results obtained with the short bar and the four-point-bend specimens on silicon nitride are in good agreement and relatively free of specimen geometry and size effects within the range investigated. Results on aluminum oxide were affected by specimen size and chevron-notch geometry, believed due to a rising crack growth resistance curve for the material. Only the results for the short bar specimen are presented in detail

Impact of multiscale dynamical processes and mixing on the chemical composition of the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere during the Intercontinental Chemical Transport Experiment–North America

We use high-frequency in situ observations made from the DC8 to examine fine-scale tracer structure and correlations observed in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere during INTEX-NA. Two flights of the NASA DC-8 are compared and contrasted. Chemical data from the DC-8 flight on 18 July show evidence for interleaving and mixing of polluted and stratospheric air masses in the vicinity of the subtropical jet in the upper troposphere, while on 2 August the DC-8 flew through a polluted upper troposphere and a lowermost stratosphere that showed evidence of an intrusion of polluted air. We compare data from both flights with RAQMS 3-D global meteorological and chemical model fields to establish dynamical context and to diagnose processes regulating the degree of mixing on each day. We also use trajectory mapping of the model fields to show that filamentary structure due to upstream strain deformation contributes to tracer variability observed in the upper troposphere. An Eulerian measure of strain versus rotation in the large-scale flow is found useful in predicting filamentary structure in the vicinity of the jet. Higher-frequency (6–24 km) tracer variability is attributed to buoyancy wave oscillations in the vicinity of the jet, whose turbulent dissipation leads to efficient mixing across tracer gradients

Acoustic characterization of Hofstadter butterfly with resonant scatterers

We are interested in the experimental characterization of the Hofstadter butterfly by means of acoustical waves. The transmission of an acoustic pulse through an array of 60 variable and resonant scatterers periodically distribued along a waveguide is studied. An arbitrary scattering arrangement is realized by using the variable length of each resonator cavity. For a periodic modulation, the structures of forbidden bands of the transmission reproduce the Hofstadter butterfly. We compare experimental, analytical, and computational realizations of the Hofstadter butterfly and we show the influence of the resonances of the scatterers on the structure of the butterfly

Readout of solid-state charge qubits using a single-electron pump

A major difficulty in realizing a solid-state quantum computer is the reliable measurement of the states of the quantum registers. In this paper, we propose an efficient readout scheme making use of the resonant tunneling of a ballistic electron produced by a single electron pump. We treat the measurement interaction in detail by modeling the full spatial configuration, and show that for pumped electrons with suitably chosen energy the transmission coefficient is very sensitive to the qubit state. We further show that by using a short sequence of pumping events, coupled with a simple feedback control procedure, the qubit can be measured with high accuracy.Comment: 5 pages, revtex4, 4 eps figures. v2: published versio

High-Energy Quasiparticle Injection into Mesoscopic Superconductors

At nonzero temperatures, superconductors contain excitations known as Bogoliubov quasiparticles. The mesoscopic dynamics of quasiparticles inform the design of quantum information processors, among other devices. Knowledge of these dynamics stems from experiments in which quasiparticles are injected in a controlled fashion, typically at energies comparable to the pairing energy . Here we perform tunnel spectroscopy of a mesoscopic superconductor under high electric field. We observe quasiparticle injection due to field-emitted electrons with 10^6 times the pairing energy, an unexplored regime of quasiparticle dynamics. Upon application of a gate voltage, the quasiparticle injection decreases the critical current and, at sufficiently high electric field, the field-emission current (< 0.1 nA) switches the mesoscopic superconductor into the normal state, consistent with earlier results. We expect that high-energy injection will be useful for developing quasiparticle-tolerant quantum information processors, will allow rapid control of resonator quality factors, and will enable the design of electric-field-controlled superconducting devices with new functionality.Comment: Nat. Nanotechnol. (2021

Direct numerical simulation of the near-field dynamics of annular gas-liquid two-phase jets

Copyright © 2009 American Institute of Physics.Direct numerical simulation has been used to examine the near-field dynamics of annular gas-liquid two-phase jets. Based on an Eulerian approach with mixed fluid treatment, combined with an adapted volume of fluid method and a continuum surface force model, a mathematical formulation for the flow system is presented. The swirl introduced at the jet nozzle exit is based on analytical inflow conditions. Highly accurate numerical methods have been utilized for the solution of the compressible, unsteady, Navier–Stokes equations. Two computational cases of gas-liquid two-phase jets including swirling and nonswirling cases have been performed to investigate the effects of swirl on the flow field. In both cases the flow is more vortical at the downstream locations. The swirling motion enhances both the flow instability resulting in a larger liquid spatial dispersion and the mixing resulting in a more homogeneous flow field with more evenly distributed vorticity at the downstream locations. In the annular nonswirling case, a geometrical recirculation zone adjacent to the jet nozzle exit was observed. It was identified that the swirling motion is responsible for the development of a central recirculation zone, and the geometrical recirculation zone can be overwhelmed by the central recirculation zone leading to the presence of the central recirculation region only in the swirling gas-liquid case. Results from a swirling gas jet simulation were also included to examine the effect of the liquid sheet on the flow physics. The swirling gas jet developed a central recirculation region, but it did not develop a precessing vortex core as the swirling gas-liquid two-phase jet. The results indicate that a precessing vortex core can exist at relatively low swirl numbers in the gas-liquid two-phase flow. It was established that the liquid greatly affects the precession and the swirl number alone is an insufficient criterion for the development of a precessing vortex core.EPSR

On the validity of mean-field amplitude equations for counterpropagating wavetrains

We rigorously establish the validity of the equations describing the evolution of one-dimensional long wavelength modulations of counterpropagating wavetrains for a hyperbolic model equation, namely the sine-Gordon equation. We consider both periodic amplitude functions and localized wavepackets. For the localized case, the wavetrains are completely decoupled at leading order, while in the periodic case the amplitude equations take the form of mean-field (nonlocal) Schr\"odinger equations rather than locally coupled partial differential equations. The origin of this weakened coupling is traced to a hidden translation symmetry in the linear problem, which is related to the existence of a characteristic frame traveling at the group velocity of each wavetrain. It is proved that solutions to the amplitude equations dominate the dynamics of the governing equations on asymptotically long time scales. While the details of the discussion are restricted to the class of model equations having a leading cubic nonlinearity, the results strongly indicate that mean-field evolution equations are generic for bimodal disturbances in dispersive systems with \O(1) group velocity.Comment: 16 pages, uuencoded, tar-compressed Postscript fil