Evolution of Ni-based superalloys for single crystal gas turbine blade applications

The chemistry of the Ni-based superalloys designed for single crystal gas turbine blades has significantly evolved since the development of the first generation of alloys derived from columnar grained materials. The overall performance of the second and third generations has been significantly improved by the addition of increasing amounts of rhenium. However, the problems of increased density, grain defects and microstructural stability have also become more and more acute and render necessary to carefully control the level of the various alloying elements in order to effectively benefit from the high potential of the most recently developed third generation alloys.     

Planned Products of the Mars Structure Service for the InSight Mission to Mars

Space Science Reviews - The InSight lander will deliver geophysical instruments to Mars in 2018, including seismometers installed directly on the surface (Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure,...     

From Initial Models of Seismicity,Structure and Noise to Synthetic Seismograms for Mars

The InSight mission will land a single seismic station on Mars in November 2018, and the resultant seismicity catalog will be a key component for studies aiming to understand the interior structure of the planet. Here, we present a preliminary version of the web services that will be used to distribute the event and station metadata in practice, employing synthetic seismograms generated for Mars using a catalog of expected seismicity. Our seismicity catalog consists of 120 events with double-couple source mechanisms only. We also provide Green’s functions databases for a total of 16 structural models, which are constructed to reflect one-dimensional thin (30 km) and thick (80 km) Martian crust with varying seismic wave speeds and densities, combined with two different profiles for temperature and composition for the mantle. Both the Green’s functions databases and the precomputed seismograms are accessible online. These new utilities allow the researchers to either download the precomputed synthetic waveforms directly, or produce customized data sets using any desired source mechanism and event distribution via our servers.

     

The Marsquake Service: Securing Daily Analysis of SEIS Data and Building the Martian Seismicity Catalogue for InSight

Space Science Reviews - In recent decades, volcanic and cryovolcanic activity on moons within the Solar System has been recognised as an important source of cosmic dust. Two moons, Jupiter’s...     

Further studies on efficient AFEC schemes for Ka-bandsatellite systems

Adaptive fade margin is required to counter the severe but varying rain attenuation in Ka satellite communications. In searching for a suitable rain countermeasure, the effectiveness of the adaptive forward error control (AFEC) scheme is studied. Two AFEC schemes using convolutional codes and concatenated codes are proposed and their performance analyzed. The schemes can provide a progressively adaptive fade margin of 10.1 and 10.4 dB, respectively, in excess of the systems fixed fade margin. To improve the efficient use of shared resources of the system, an AFEC scheme using double coding is introduced, and its performance is analyzed. In this scheme a single codec is used repeatedly, and as a result the hardware cost is reduced and the utilization increased. The effective usable capacity of a conceptual AFEC resource sharing scheme using Golay double coding is also analyzed     

Further results on LMSS experiment in Kyoto City

In February of 1990, land mobile satellite experiments were conducted in Kyoto City, Japan, using the Engineering Test Satellite V (ETS-V). The received signal strength was recorded, as was the speed of the mobile as it traversed various downtown streets. The setting was that of a built-up urban area with medium and high rise buildings, electric utility poles, and trees lining the streets. These caused obstruction to the satellite line of sight (LOS). The signal level fluctuation due to diffraction of radio waves by the urban structures is analyzed. The results obtained from the measurements and theoretical calculation agree. The spatial frequencies due to diffraction are found to vary between 1.8 Hz to 5.3 Hz. It is concluded that this variation of received signal level will not adversely affect the receiver performance. Based on recorded signal strength, the performance of a digital land mobile satellite system (LMSS), under the above mentioned environment, is analyzed and the results presented     

Multiscale Modelling of Aerospace Composites——A Perspective

This paper introduces a series of approaches in the modelling of composites with complex multiscale structures and features. Fundamental theory underlying multiscale structures are brought to light and discussed. There can be considerable benefit in the representative application of multiscale modelling techniques to civil aircraft design and this aim of this paper is to provide essential perspectives from several fields of research that may be beneficial to aerospace composites modelling methodologies if applied appropriately.     

Anomalous phosphenes in ocular protontherapy

We have undertaken a clinical ground study of proton-induced light flashes (phosphenes). Patients treated at the Institut Curie – Centre de Protonthérapie in Orsay, France, received radiation therapy to cure ocular and skull-base cancers. Sixty percent of the patients treated for choroidal melanomas using 73 MeV protons report anomalous phosphenes. Delivering a radiation dose on the retina only is not sufficient to trigger the light flash. The present study may be the first indication of phosphenes triggered by protons of few tens of MeV.