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At least 55 records · Page 3

The effect of shearing strain-rate on the ultimate shearing resistance of clay

An approach for investigating the shearing resistance of cohesive soils subjected to a high rate of shearing strain is described. A fast step-loading torque apparatus was used to induce a state of pure shear in a hollow cylindrical soil specimen. The relationship between shearing resistance and rate of shear deformation was established for various soil densities expressed in terms of initial void ratio or water content. For rate of shearing deformation studies, the shearing resistance increases initially with shearing velocity, but subsequently reaches a terminal value as the shearing velocity increases. The terminal shearing resistance is also found to increase as the density of the soil increases. The results of this investigation are useful in the rheological study of clay. It is particularly important for mobility problems of soil runways, since the soil resistance is found to be sensitive to the rate of shearing.

Cheng, R. Y. K.↗

The effect of shearing strain-rate on the ultimate shearing resistance of clay

The shearing resistance of cohesive soils subjected to a high rate of shearing strain was investigated. A fast step-loading torque apparatus was used to induce a state of pure shear in a hollow cylindrical soil specimen. The relationship between shearing resistance and rate of shear deformation was established for various soil densities expressed in terms of initial void ratio or water content. For rate of shearing deformation studies to date, the shearing resistance increases initially with shearing velocity but subsequently reaches a terminal value as the shearing velocity increases. The terminal shearing resistance is also found to increase as the density of the soil increases. The results are useful in the rheological study of clay. It is particularly important for mobility problems of soil runways, since the soil resistance is found to be sensitive to the rate of shearing.

Cheng, R. Y. K.↗

Efficient measurement of shear properties of fiber composites

Intralaminar (in-plane) shear characterization (shear stress/strain relationships) of unidirectional fiber composites has been hampered by difficulty of producing state of pure shear in practical paboratory test specimens. Proposed method uses 10 deg off-axis tensile specimen (fiber oriented 10 deg from load direction) in conjunction with simple transformation equations for intralaminar shear characterization of fiber composites.

Chamis, C. C.↗

Origin and evolution of fluctuations in the solar wind - Helios observations and Helios-Voyager comparisons

Hour-averaged data from the Helios and Voyager spacecraft are used here to investigate the origin and evolution of low-frequency interplanetary fluctuations from 0.3 to 20 AU. The previously observed evolution toward a less purely Alfvenic state with increasing heliocentric distance is shown to occur more rapidly in the inner heliosphere and in low-speed as well as high-speed streams. It is concluded that outward-traveling flucutations are predominantly generated by the sun, but that in situ turbulence, most likely due to stream shear, generates fluctuations with both inward and outward senses of correlation.

Roberts, D. A.↗

P-V-T Properties of Polyimides and Model Imide Compounds

Aromatic polyimides are used as matrix resins in advanced composites, as high strength films, and as high-temperature adhesives, owing in part to their unusual thermal and chemical stability. The polyimides' desirable qualities of very high softening temperatures and negligibly small solubilities in and low permeabilities by most solvents have limited the kinds of fundamental studies that can be performed on these systems. Consequently, relationships between the molecular structure of polyimides and their bulk properties are not as well understood as might be expected given their widespread applications. In particular, the intermolecular forces in polyimides that play a critical role determining their densities, solubilities, viscosities, moduli, glass transitions, etc. are less well characterized for polyimides than for other widely used polymeric materials. The purpose of the present study is to obtain experimental data for establishing parameters that characterize the intermolecular forces in polyimides. We report here our studies on tractable low molecular-weight imides that contain the same structural features that are present in polyimide materials. We have measured equation-of-state properties and dipole moments for a variety of such systems in the liquid state. Both pure compounds and binary mixtures have been studied.

Orwoll, Robert A.↗

Comparison of Nickel XANES Spectra and Elemental Maps from a Ureilite, a LL3.8 Ordinary Chondrite, Two Carbonaceous Chondrites and Two Large Cluster IDPs

Nickel in the extraterrestrial world is commonly found in both Fe-Ni sulfide and Fe-Ni met-al forms [1] and in the pure metal state in the interior of iron meteorites where it is not easily oxidized. Ni is also found in olivine, pyroxene and glasses and in some melts the partitioning of Ni between the olivines and glass is controlled by the amount of S in the melt [2]. Its most common valence state is Ni(2+) but Ni also occurs as Ni(0), Ni(+), and Ni(3+) and rarely as Ni(2-), Ni(1-) and Ni(4+) [3]. It's valence state in olivines is Ni(2+) in octa-hedral coordination on the M1 site and rarely on the M2 site.[4]. The chemical sensitivity of X-ray absorp-tion near-edge structure (XANES) spectroscopy is well established and can be used to determine not only va-lence states but also coordination sites [5]. We report here Ni XANES spectroscopy and elemental maps collected from 2 carbonaceous chondrites, 2 large clus-ter IDPs, 1 ureilite and 1 LL3 orginary chondrite.Using XANES it may be possible to find a common trait in the large cluster IDPs that will also be found in mete-orite samples.

Wirick, S.↗

Crack Turning in Integrally Stiffened Aircraft Structures

Current emphasis in the aircraft industry toward reducing manufacturing cost has created a renewed interest in integrally stiffened structures. Crack turning has been identified as an approach to improve the damage tolerance and fail-safety of this class of structures. A desired behavior is for skin cracks to turn before reaching a stiffener, instead of growing straight through. A crack in a pressurized fuselage encounters high T-stress as it nears the stiffener--a condition favorable to crack turning. Also, the tear resistance of aluminum alloys typically varies with crack orientation, a form of anisotropy that can influence the crack path. The present work addresses these issues with a study of crack turning in two-dimensions, including the effects of both T-stress and fracture anisotropy. Both effects are shown to have relation to the process zone size, an interaction that is central to this study. Following an introduction to the problem, the T-stress effect is studied for a slightly curved semi-infinite crack with a cohesive process zone, yielding a closed form expression for the future crack path in an infinite medium. For a given initial crack tip curvature and tensile T-stress, the crack path instability is found to increase with process zone size. Fracture orthotropy is treated using a simple function to interpolate between the two principal fracture resistance values in two-dimensions. An extension to three-dimensions interpolates between the six principal values of fracture resistance. Also discussed is the transition between mode I and mode II fracture in metals. For isotropic materials, there is evidence that the crack seeks out a direction of either local symmetry (pure mode I) or local asymmetry (pure mode II) growth. For orthotropic materials the favored states are not pure modal, and have mode mixity that is a function of crack orientation.

Pettit, Richard Glen↗

Cold Atomic Hydrogen, Narrow Self-Absorption, and the Age of Molecular Clouds

This viewgraph presentation reviews the history, and current work on HI and its importance in star formation. Through many observations of HI Narrow Self Absorption (HINSA) the conclusions are drawn and presented. Local molecular clouds have HI well-mixed with molecular constituents This HI is cold, quiescent, and must be well-shielded from the UV radiation field The density and fractional abundance (wrt H2) of the cold HI are close to steady state values The time required to convert these starless clouds from purely HI initial state to observed present composition is a few to ten million years This timescale is a lower limit - if dense clouds being swept up from lower density regions by shocks, the time to accumulate material to get A(sub v) is approximately 1 and provide required shielding may be comparable or longer

star formation↗

High-Flux Atomic-Oxygen Source

Beams of pure ground-state oxygen atoms produced. Accelerated electrons strike beam of O2 gas in dissociative-attachment region, producing O- ions. O- ions accelerated to desired final energy and pass through photodetachment region to form 0(3P) atoms. These pass between electric field plates to remove O- and e and strike target. Designed specifically to study degradation of materials and spacecraft glow phenomena in low Earth orbits, used to study gas-phase collision phenomena involving energetic oxygen atoms.

Chutjian, A.↗

Microstructural effects on fracture toughness of polycrystalline ceramics in combined mode I and mode II loading

Fracture toughness of polycrystalline alumina and ceria partially-stabilized tetragonal zirconia (CeO2-TZP) ceramics were assessed in combined mode I and mode II loading using precracked disk specimens in diametral compression. Stress states ranging from pure mode I, combined mode I and mode II, and pure mode II were obtained by aligning the center crack at specific angles relative to the loading diameter. The resulting mixed-mode fracture toughness envelope showed significant deviation to higher fracture toughness in mode II relative to the predictions of the linear elastic fracture mechanics theory. Critical comparison with corresponding results on soda-lime glass and fracture surface observations showed that crack surface resistance arising from grain interlocking and abrasion was the main source of the increased fracture toughness in mode II loading of the polycrystalline ceramics. The normalized fracture toughness for pure mode II loading, (KII/KIc), increased with increasing grain size for the CeO2-TZP ceramics. Quantitative fractography confirmed an increased percentage of transgranular fracture of the grains in mode II loading.

Singh, D.↗

Oxidation of silicon with a 5 eV O(-) beam

A silicon wafer has been oxidized at room temperature in vacuum using a pure, ground-state beam of O(-) ions. The beam was of sufficiently low energy that no displacement damage or implantation was energetically possible. The resulting SiO2 films were analyzed with X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. A logarithmic dependence of oxide thickness on dose was observed, with an extrapolated oxidation efficiency of unity for the clean silicon surface. A distinct initial oxidation phase was observed, with an anomalously high level of silicon suboxides. In addition, the valence-band offset between the silicon and the oxide was unusually small, suggesting a large interfacial dipole.

Hecht, M. H.↗

Magellan vertical polarization radar observations

The Magellan high-gain radar antenna system was designed to transmit and receive signals in a pure linear polarization state. The nominal mapping configuration placed this linear polarization direction parallel to the surface of Venus, providing SAR image data in the HH polarization (horizontal transmit and receive) and radiothermal emission data in the H (horizontal - receive only) polarization. During Magellan's extended mission (cycles 2 and 3), two brief experiments were conducted in which the spacecraft was rotated 90 degrees along the axis of the antenna boresight, producing SAR data in the VV polarization and emission data in the V polarization. This study focuses on the SAR results from the first experiment, which included portions of the highly reflective Beta Regio highlands. Theoretical models of polarimetric backscatter, along with experimental data from terrestrial surfaces, predict VV backscatter cross section values to be higher than HH values for most natural surfaces. Randomly polarized ('depolarized') backscatter from rough surfaces is expected in equal amounts for either incident polarization. Roughness differences will therefore be more pronounced in HH measurements than in VV, because the depolarized random component makes up a proportionately larger fraction of the HH backscatter. In addition, HH cross section values are observed to fall off more rapidly than VV values with increasing incidence angle. Slope-related backscatter differences will, therefore, be more pronounced in HH images. The small perturbation polarimetric scattering model also predicts higher VV to HH ratios for surfaces of high dielectric constant.

Plaut, Jeffrey J.↗

Technology Development of Miniaturized Far-Infrared Sources for Biomolecular Spectroscopy

The objective of this project was to develop a purely solid-state based, thus miniaturized, far-infrared (FIR) (also known as terahertz (THz)) wave source using III-V semiconductor nanostructures for biomolecular detection and sensing. Many biomolecules, such as DNA and proteins, have distinct spectroscopic features in the FIR wavelength range as a result of vibration-rotation-tunneling motions and various inter- and intra-molecule collective motions. Spectroscopic characterization of such molecules requires narrow linewidth, sufficiently high power, tunable (in wavelength), and coherent FIR sources. Unfortunately, the FIR frequency is one of the least technologically developed ranges in the electromagnetic spectrum. Currently available FIR sources based on non-solid state technology are bulky, inefficient, and very often incoherent. In this project we investigated antimonide based compound semiconductor (ABCS) nanostructures as the active medium to generate FIR radiation. The final goal of this project was to demonstrate a semiconductor THz source integrated with a pumping diode laser module to achieve a compact system for biomolecular applications.

Kono, Junichiro↗

The permanent electric dipole moment of CaOH

The X 2 Sigma(+), A 2Pi, and B 2Sigma(+) states of CaOH are characterized theoretically and experimentally, with a focus on the value of the permanent electric dipole moment (mu). Calculations based on SCF and SDCI studies of CaOH (Bauschlicher et al., 1984 and 1986) give mu values of 0.98, 0.49, and 0.11 D for the X, A, and B states, respectively, in good agreement with experiments in which the pure rotational spectra of these states were not detected. Modified Rittner (1951) and ligand-field models of these states are explored in detail, and the applicability of these results to observational searches for CaOH in circumstellar envelopes is indicated.

Bauschlicher, Charles W., Jr.↗

Collisional rates for vibrational-rotational transitions in circumstellar SiO masers

Calculations for rotational population inversion in circumstellar SiO masers require collisional rates for vibrational-rotational transitions. This paper reports quantum mechanical, state-to-state collisional rate coefficients for pure rotational and vibrational-rotational transitions among the first three vibrational states of SiO. These are expressed in terms of simple two-parameter power-law fits accurate in the temperature range 1000-3000 K.

Bieniek, R. J.↗

Bacteriorhodopsin Material and Film Fabrication Issues for Holographic Applications

We discuss issues associated with bacteriorhodopsin (BR) materials and films that affect optical performance in holographic applications. For the D85N variant, some critical parameters include degree of hydration and recording wavelength. The quantum efficiency of the molecular state transition is observed to be apparently dependent on the illumination wavelength. We explain this effect by modeling the photo-activity of the D85N variant as two competing photocycles between the 9-cis and 13-cis retinal configurations. We are able to determine the pure excited P-state absorbance spectrum from the ground state spectrum and mixed population spectra obtained by bleaching to steady-state conditions.

Downie, John D.↗