Analysis of nonlinear deformation and stability of reinforced elliptic cylindrical shells under bending with internal pressure

A finite element statement of solving problems on stability of reinforced elliptic cylindrical shells taking into account momentness and nonlinearity of their subcritical stress strain state is presented. The explicit expressions for displacements of noncircular cylindrical shell elements as rigid bodies are determined by integrating the equations obtained by equating the components of linear strains to zero. These expressions were used to construct the form functions for an efficient quadrilateral finite element of natural curvature. An efficient numerical algorithm of nonlinear deformation and stability of shells was developed. The stability of reinforced elliptic cylindrical shells under combined loading by bending moment, transverse boundary force and internal pressure is analyzed. We also examine how the critical loads are affected by the strain nonlinearity and ellipticity of shell deformation at the subcritical stage.     

DORIS geodesy: A dynamic determination of geocentre location

Geoscience Australia contributed a multi-satellite, multi-year weekly time series to the International DORIS Service combined submission for the construction of International Terrestrial Reference Frame 2008 (ITRF2008). This contributing solution was extended to a study of the capability of DORIS to dynamically estimate the variation in the geocentre location. Two solutions, comprising different constraint configurations of the tracking network, were undertaken. The respective DORIS satellite orbit solutions (SPOT-2, SPOT-4, SPOT-5 and Envisat) were verified and validated by comparison with those produced at the Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), DORIS Analysis Centre, for computational consistency and standards. In addition, in the case of Envisat, the trajectories from the GA determined SLR and DORIS orbits were compared. The results for weekly dynamic geocentre estimates from the two constraint configurations were benchmarked against the geometric geocentre estimates from the IDS-2 combined solution. This established that DORIS is capable of determining the dynamic geocentre variation by estimating the degree one spherical harmonic coefficients of the Earth’s gravity potential. It was established that constrained configurations produced similar results for the geocentre location and consequently similar annual amplitudes. For the minimally constrained configuration Greenbelt–Kitab, the mean of the uncertainties of the geocentre location were 2.3, 2.3 and 7.6 mm and RMS of the mean uncertainties were 1.9, 1.2 and 3.5 mm for the X, Y and Z components, respectively. For GA_IDS-2_Datum constrained configuration, the mean of the uncertainties of the geocentre location were 1.7, 1.7 and 6.2 mm and RMS of the mean uncertainties were 0.9, 0.7 and 2.9 mm for the X, Y and Z components, respectively. The mean of the differences of the two DORIS dynamic geocentre solutions with respect to the IDS-2 combination were 1.6, 4.0 and 5.1 mm with an RMS of the mean 21.2, 14.0 and 31.5 mm for the Greenbelt–Kitab configuration and 4.1, 3.9 and 4.3 mm with an RMS 8.1, 9.0 and 28.6 mm for the GA_IDS-2_Datum constraint configuration. The annual amplitudes for each component were estimated to be 5.3, 10.8 and 11.0 mm for the Greenbelt–Kitab configuration and 5.3, 9.3 and 9.4 mm for the GA_IDS-2_Datum constraint configuration. The two DORIS determined dynamic geocentre solutions were compared to the SLR determined dynamic solution (which was determined from the same process of the GA contribution to the ITRF2008 ILRS combination) gave mean differences of 3.3, −4.7 and 2.5 mm with an RMS of 20.7, 17.5 and 28.0 mm for the X, Y and Z components, respectively for the Greenbelt–Kitab configuration and 1.1, −5.4 and 4.4 mm with an RMS of 9.7, 13.3 and 24.9 mm for the GA_IDS-2_Datum configuration. The larger variability is reflected in the respective amplitudes. As a comparison, the annual amplitudes of the SLR determined dynamic geocentre are 0.9, 1.0 and 6.8 mm in the X, Y and Z components. The results from this study indicate that there is potential to achieve precise dynamically determined geocentre from DORIS.     

Lithium Depletion in the Sun: A Study of Mixing Based on Hydrodynamical Simulations

Based on radiation hydrodynamics modeling of stellar convection zones, a diffusion scheme has been devised describing the downward penetration of convective motions beyond the Schwarzschild boundary (overshoot) into the radiative interior. This scheme of exponential diffusive overshoot has already been successfully applied to AGB stars. Here we present an application to the Sun in order to determine the time scale and depth extent of this additional mixing, i.e. diffusive overshoot at the base of the convective envelope. We calculated the associated destruction of lithium during the evolution towards and on the main-sequence. We found that the slow-mixing processes induced by the diffusive overshoot may lead to a substantial depletion of lithium during the Sun's main-sequence evolution. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Testing for Year 2000 readiness: technical and management issues

The approach of the Year 2000 (Y2K) has called into question the condition of readiness of computer systems upon which organizations depend. Will these systems operate reliably after midnight, January 1, 2000, or will problems associated with date calculations cause failures that adversely affect users? This question has caused organizations to identify their critical systems, test these systems for Y2K problems, and take corrective action where necessary to ensure Y2K readiness. This paper examines various technical and management issues that Southwest Research Institute has dealt with in solving these problems     

High temperature alters the growth reaction of Pottia protonemata.

Under gravistimulation, dark-grown protonemata of Pottia intermedia revealed negative gravitropism with a growth rate of approximately 28 μm·h⁻¹ at room temperature (20 °C). In 7 days, the protonema formed a bundle of vertically oriented filaments. At an elevated temperature (30 °C), bundles of vertically growing filaments were also formed. However, both filament growth rate and amplitude of the gravicurvature were reduced. Red light (RL) irradiation induced a positive phototropism of most apical protonemal cells at 20 °C. In a following period of darkness, approximately two-thirds of such cells began to grow upward again, recovering their negative gravitropism. RL irradiation at the elevated temperature caused a partial increase in the number of protonemal cells with negative phototropism, but the protonemata did not exhibit negative gravitropism after transfer to darkness. The negative gravitropic reaction was renewed only when protonemata were placed at 20 °C. A dramatic decrease in starch amount in protonemal apical cells, which are sensitive to both gravity and light, occurred at the higher temperature. Such a decrease may be one of the reasons for the inhibition of the protonemal gravireaction at the higher temperature. The observation has a bearing on the starch-statolith theory.     

Characterization of complex organic compounds formed in simulated planetary atmospheres by the action of high energy particles.

A wide variety of organic compounds, which are not simple organics but also complex organics, have been found in planets and comets. We reported that complex organics was formed in simulated planetary atmospheres by the action of high energy particles. Here we characterized the experimental products by using chromatographic and mass spectrometric techniques. A gaseous mixture of CO, N2 and H2O was irradiated with high energy protons (major components of cosmic rays). Water-soluble non-volatile substances, which gave amino acids after acid-hydrolysis, were characterized by HPLC and mass spectrometry. Major part of the products were complex compounds with molecular weight of several hundreds. Amino acid precursors were produced even when no water was incorporated with the starting materials. It was suggested that complex molecules including amino acid precursors were formed not in solution from simple molecules like HCN, but directly in gaseous phase.     

Target-Handling Capacity of a Phased-Array Tracking Radar

The factors which affect the target-handling capacity of an agile-beamelectronically scanned multitarget-tracking radar are reviewed and analyze.Consideration is given to the choice of strategy for dwell allocation amongtargets, the choice of trajectory extrapolation algorithms for target tracking, and the determination of saturation target acquisition rates. Emphasisis placed upon radar systems with control computers having limited speed and memory, and recommendations are made for allocation strategy and targetytracking algorithms, based on uniform sampling, to be used in maximizing thetarget-handling capacity in this situation.     

Analysis and results of the 1995 Yuma ground penetration SARmeasurements

In July and October 1995, a large-scale airborne SAR experiment was conducted in the Yuma Proving Ground, Yuma, Arizona, to investigate ground penetration radar phenomenology and buried target detection. This paper describes the Yuma experiment and measurement results for many tactical, utility, and environmental targets deployed in the test     

Two-dimensional adaptive array for spatially separating andtracking uncorrelated sources

A new structure for the separation and tracking of uncorrelated sources through the use of a 2-dimensional adaptive array is proposed and investigated. The structure consists of a matrix preprocessing beamformer designed to result in outputs which are due to individual sources in the steady state. The preprocessing weights of the beamformer are calculated using the estimated locations of the sources and are updated periodically. Continuous estimation of the source locations is accomplished by using the beamformer outputs to adaptively eliminate correlated components in a reference element of the array while the structure proposed may have rather erratic initial convergence behavior, it has the advantages of being simple to be implemented, fast in tracking, and well suited for applications in mobile communication systems for increasing system capacity