Detailed Design of a High Speed Switched Reluctance Starter/Generator for More/All Electric Aircraft

The basic concepts and advantages of more/all electric aircraft (M/AEA) are briefly addressed. The combined starter/generator (CS/G) system is introduced as a key technology to enable M/AEA. Some important performance requirements for CS/G system are obtained. Based on these requirements, a high speed switched reluctance machine (SRM) is designed to operate as a starter/generator. The entire design process is mainly divided into two stages: electromagnetic design and thermal design. In electromagnetic design stage, the electromagnetic structure and dimensions of the machine and the number of phase winding turns per pole are obtained; the topology and main technical details of the converter are briefly introduced as well. In thermal design stage, a liquid-cooling system is designed based on the thermal analysis of the machine. In the end, the performances of the designed SRM are basically verified by simulation. To get high performances, the exciting angles are optimized in two different operating modes respectively, and the optimized performances in the motoring mode are given as well.     

数值空气动力学在DLR(德国宇航研究院)

德国在若干年前启动的国家CFD项目MEGAFLOW集中了DLR、大学以及航空工业界的许多CFD研究开发工作,目的是开发并验证能满足工业实践所要求的可靠并有效的数值工具,以对全机进行空气动力模拟.MEGAFLOW软件系统包括多区结构网格中求解N-S方程的软件FLOWer和在非结构网格中的软件TAU.两软件均已达到很高的成熟度并为DLR和德国航空工业广泛地应用于新飞机的设计过程.最近又启动了其后续项目MEGADESIGN和MegaOpt,旨在开发和增强外形设计及优化的有效数值方法.着重介绍了软件最近的改进及其计算粘性流动绕复杂飞机外形的能力.     

A different method to update monthly median hmF2 values

The height, h_mF2, and the electron density, N_mF2, of the F2 peak are key model parameters to characterize the actual state of the ionosphere. These parameters, or alternatively the propagation factor, M3000F2, and the critical frequency, f_oF2, of the F2 peak, which are related to h_mF2 and N_mF2, are used to anchor the electron density vertical profile computed with different models such as the International Reference Ionosphere ( Bilitza, 2002), as well as for radio propagation forecast purposes. Long time series of these parameters only exist in an inhomogeneous distribution of points over the surface of Earth, where dedicated instruments (typically ionosondes) have been working for many years. A commonly used procedure for representing median values of the aforementioned parameters all over the globe is the one recommended by the ITU-R ( ITU-R, 1997). This procedure, known as the Jones and Gallet mapping technique, was based on ionosondes measurements gathered from 1954 to 1958 by a global network of around 150 ionospheric stations (  and ). Even though several decades have passed since the development of that innovative work, only few efforts have been dedicated to establish a new mapping technique for computing h_mF2 and N_mF2 median values at global scale or to improve the old method using the increased observational database. Therefore, in this work three different procedures to describe the daily and global behavior of the height of the F2 peak are presented. All of them represent a different and simplified method to estimate h_mF2 and are based on different mathematical expressions. The advantages and disadvantages of these three techniques are analyzed, leading to the conclusion that the recommended procedure to represent h_mF2 is best characterized by a Spherical Harmonics expansion of degree and order equal to 15, since the differences between the h_mF2 values obtained with the Jones and Gallet technique and those obtained using the abovementioned procedure are of only 1%.     

Investigation of the steam-cooled blade in a steam turbine cascade

With the increasing demand for electricity,an efficiency improvement and thereby reduced CO2 emissions of the coal-fired plants are expected in order to reach the goals set in the Kyoto protocol.It can be achieved by a rise of the process parameters.Currently,live steam pressures and temperatures up to 300 bars and 923 K are planned as the next step.Closed circuit steam cooling of blades and vanes in modern steam turbines is a promising technology in order to establish elevated live steam temperatures in future steam turbine cycles.In this paper,a steam-cooled test vane in a cascade with external hot steam flow is analyzed numerically with the in-house code CHTflow.A parametric analysis aiming to improve the cooling effectiveness is carried out by varying the cooling mass flow ratio.The results from two investigated cases show that the steam cooling technique has a good application potential in the steam turbine.The internal part of the vane is cooled homogeneously in both cases.With the increased cooling mass flow rate,there is a significant improvement of cooling efficiency at the leading edge.The results show that the increased cooling mass flow ratio can enhance the cooling effectiveness at the leading edge.With respect to trailing edge,there is no observable improvement of cooling effectiveness with the increased cooling mass flow.This implies that due to the limited dimension at the trailing edge,the thermal stress cannot be decreased by increasing the cooling mass flow rate.Therefore,impingement-cooling configuration at the trailing edge might be a solution to overcome the critical thermal stress there.It is also observed that the performance of the cooling effective differs on pressure side and suction side.It implicates that the equilibrium of the cooling effectiveness on two sides are influenced by a coupled relationship between cooling mass flow ratio and hole geometry.In future work,optimizing the hole geometry and cooling steam supply conditions might be the solutions for an equivalent cooling effectiveness along whole profile.      

未来机载雷达中具有高精度测距能力的新HPRF模式

已研究了一种新的雷达模式，它可以不模糊地估算目标速度并能通过IPRF模式中的脉冲时间延迟估算距离。要实现这点，距离门宽度要减至近乎机载目标（比如战斗机）的距离向长度。与普通HPRF模式不同的是，在不模糊距离中要有多个可辨别的距离门。距离模糊的分辨则由脉冲串至脉冲串间的脉冲重复频率变化来进行。模糊分辨的算法要考虑到这样一个事实，即在PRF变化期间，目标能移至下一个距离门或跨过一个或更多的相邻距离门。此外，可以在算法中采用不模糊速度测量来补偿目标距离徙动以减少虚警率。     

Microbial rock inhabitants survive hypervelocity impacts on Mars-like host planets: first phase of lithopanspermia experimentally tested

The scenario of lithopanspermia describes the viable transport of microorganisms via meteorites. To test the first step of lithopanspermia, i.e., the impact ejection from a planet, systematic shock recovery experiments within a pressure range observed in martian meteorites (5-50 GPa) were performed with dry layers of microorganisms (spores of Bacillus subtilis, cells of the endolithic cyanobacterium Chroococcidiopsis, and thalli and ascocarps of the lichen Xanthoria elegans) sandwiched between gabbro discs (martian analogue rock). Actual shock pressures were determined by refractive index measurements and Raman spectroscopy, and shock temperature profiles were calculated. Pressure-effect curves were constructed for survival of B. subtilis spores and Chroococcidiopsis cells from the number of colony-forming units, and for vitality of the photobiont and mycobiont of Xanthoria elegans from confocal laser scanning microscopy after live/dead staining (FUN-I). A vital launch window for the transport of rock-colonizing microorganisms from a Mars-like planet was inferred, which encompasses shock pressures in the range of 5 to about 40 GPa for the bacterial endospores and the lichens, and a more limited shock pressure range for the cyanobacterium (from 5-10 GPa). The results support concepts of viable impact ejections from Mars-like planets and the possibility of reseeding early Earth after asteroid cataclysms.     

Physical parameters affecting living cells in space

The question is posed: Why does a living cell react to the absence of gravity? What sensors may it have? Does it note pressure, sedimentation, convection, or other parameters?

If somewhere in a liquid volume sodium ions are replaced by potassium ions, the density of the liquid changes locally: the heavier regions sink, the lighter regions rise. This may contribute to species transport, to the metabolism. Under microgravity this mechanism is strongly reduced. On the other hand, other reasons for convection like thermal and solutal interface convection are left. Do they affect species transport?

Another important effect of gravity is the hydrostatic pressure. On the macroscopic side, the pressure between our head and feet changes by 0.35 atmospheres. On the microscopic level the hydrostatic pressure on the upper half of a cell membrane is lower than on the lower half. This, by affecting the ion transport through the membrane, may change the surrounding electric potential. It has been suggested to be one of the reasons for graviperception.

Following the discussion of these and other effects possibly important in life sciences in space, an order of magnitude analysis of the residual accelerations tolerable during experiments in materials sciences is outlined. In the field of life sciences only rough estimates are available at present.