Improving the performance and fuel consumption of dual chamber stratified charge spark ignition engines

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Sorenson, S.C.; Pan, S.S.; Bruckbauer, J.J.; Gehrke, G.R.

1979-09-01

A combined experimental and theoretical investigation of the nature of the combustion processes in a dual chamber stratified charge spark ignition engine is described. This work concentrated on understanding the mixing process in the main chamber gases. A specially constructed single cylinder engine was used to both conduct experiments to study mixing effects and to obtain experimental data for the validation of the computer model which was constructed in the theoretical portion of the study. The test procedures are described. Studies were conducted on the effect of fuel injection timing on performance and emissions using the combination of orifice size and prechamber to main chamber flow rate ratio which gave the best overall compromise between emissions and performance. In general, fuel injection gave slightly higher oxides of nitrogen, but considerably lower hydrocarbon and carbon monoxide emissions than the carbureted form of the engine. Experiments with engine intake port redesign to promote swirl mixing indicated a substantial increase in the power output from the engine and, that an equivalent power levels, the nitric oxide emissions are approximately 30% lower with swirl in the main chamber than without swirl. The development of a computer simulation of the combustion process showed that a one-dimensional combustion model can be used to accurately predict trends in engine operation conditions and nitric oxide emissions even though the actual flame in the engine is not completely one-dimensional, and that a simple model for mixing of the main chamber and prechamber intake gases at the start of compression proved adequate to explain the effects of swirl, ignition timing, overall fuel air ratio, volumetric efficiency, and variations in prechamber air fuel ratio and fuel rate percentage on engine power and nitric oxide emissions. (LCL)

Gamma radiation measurement, through a spark chamber put aboard of a stratospheric balloon

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Santo, C.M.E.; Rao, K.R.

1982-06-01

For determining the diffuse component of gamma rays in the 15 to 75 Mev range arriving from near the galactic center, a digitized spark chamber was launched aboard two balloons from Resende, Brazil, on 19 November and 3 December 1975. In each flight the detector reached an altitude of 2,2 g/cm 2 . Based on these data, a diffuse gamma ray flux 6,0x10 - 5 , 2,0x10 - 5 , 4,6x10 - 6 and 1,3x10 - 6 photons (cm 2 .s.sterad.Mev) at energies of 21, 36, 52, 67 Mev respectively was obtained. These values give a power law spectrum with spectral index equal to -3,3. The dependence of this radiation with the galactic latitude and longitude in the interval -5 0 0 and 325 0 0 was also obtained. Finally, our results were compared with other experiments' results. (Author) [pt

The suppression of destructive sparks in parallel plate proportional counters

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Cockshott, R.A.; Mason, I.M.

1984-02-01

The authors find that high energy background events produce localised sparks in parallel plate counters when operated in the proportional mode. These sparks increase dead-time and lead to degradation ranging from electrode damage to spurious pulsing and continuous breakdown. The problem is particularly serious in low energy photon detectors for X-ray astronomy which are required to have lifetimes of several years in the high radiation environment of space. For the parallel plate imaging detector developed for the European X-ray Observatory Satellite (EXOSAT) they investigate quantitatively the spark thresholds, spark rates and degradation processes. They discuss the spark mechanism, pointing out differences from the situation in spark chambers and counters. They show that the time profile of the sparks allows them to devise a spark suppression system which reduces the degradation rate by a factor of ''200.

Giuseppe and Maria Fidecaro inside the spark chamber apparatus in the South Hall of PS to search for the $\\rho \\rightarrow \\pi\\gamma$ decay

CERN Multimedia

Gérard Bertin; CERN PhotoLab

1964-01-01

The lens, the so-called front view (see album https://cds.cern.ch/record/1974123), was used in the S30 experiment to converge onto a camera parallel light rays from the front of a large spark chamber. A second identical lens, the so-called top view, and a large mirror were used to take pictures at 90 degrees in such a way to determine the x,y coordinates in the horizontal plane of each spark. Details of the optics are reported in the note: A $\\gamma$-ray detector for the study of the electromagnetic decay of resonances, INFN/AE - 67/7, 20 Jun 1967, by F. Bradamante, G. Fidecaro, M. Fidecaro, M. Giorgi, F. Sauli, P. Schiavon.

Streamer chamber: pion decay

CERN Multimedia

1992-01-01

The real particles produced in the decay of a positive pion can be seen in this image from a streamer chamber. Streamer chambers consist of a gas chamber through which a strong pulsed electric field is passed, creating sparks as a charged particle passes through it. A magnetic field is added to cause the decay products to follow curved paths so that their charge and momentum can be measured.

High counting rate resistive-plate chamber

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Peskov, V.; Anderson, D.F.; Kwan, S.

1993-05-01

Parallel-plate avalanche chambers (PPAC) are widely used in physics experiments because they are fast ( 5 counts/mm 2 . A resistive-plate chamber (RPC) is similar to the PPAC in construction except that one or both of the electrodes are made from high resistivity (≥10 10 Ω·cm) materials. In practice RPCs are usually used in the spark mode. Resistive electrodes are charged by sparks, locally reducing the actual electric field in the gap. The size of the charged surface is about 10 mm 2 , leaving the rest of the detector unaffected. Therefore, the rate capability of such detectors in the spark mode is considerably higher than conventional spark counters. Among the different glasses tested the best results were obtained with electron type conductive glasses, which obey Ohm's law. Most of the work with such glasses was done with high pressure parallel-plate chambers (10 atm) for time-of-flight measurements. Resistive glasses have been expensive and produced only in small quantities. Now resistive glasses are commercially available, although they are still expensive in small scale production. From the positive experience of different groups working with the resistive glasses, it was decided to review the old idea to use this glass for the RPC. This work has investigated the possibility of using the RPC at 1 atm and in the avalanche mode. This has several advantages: simplicity of construction, high rate capability, low voltage operation, and the ability to work with non-flammable gases

The wide gap resistive plate chamber

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Crotty, I.; Lamas Valverde, J.; Hatzifotiadou, D.; Williams, M.C.S.; Zichichi, A.

1995-01-01

The resistive plate chamber (RPC) has good time and position resolution; these factors (coupled to its simple construction) make it an attractive candidate for muon trigger systems at future colliders. However, operated in spark mode, the RPC has severe rate problems that make it unusable above 10 Hz/cm 2 . We have previously published our results concerning the operation of the RPC in spark and in avalanche mode; we have shown that the rate limit can be increased to 150 Hz/cm 2 if the RPC is operated in avalanche mode. Here, we discuss the performance of chambers with 6 and 8 mm gas gaps (compared to the more usual 2 mm gap). We outline the reasons for this choice, and also discuss anode versus cathode strip readout. We have measured the efficiency versus flux, and also show that an enhanced rate limit can be obtained if only a small region of the chamber is exposed to the beam (spot illumination). Finally we have tested the performance of chambers constructed with other materials for the resistiv e plate and compare it to chambers constructed with our preferred plastic, melamine laminate. (orig.)

Turbulent spark-jet ignition in SI gas fuelled engine

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Pielecha Ireneusz

2017-01-01

Full Text Available The article contains a thermodynamic analysis of a new combustion system that allows the combustion of stratified gas mixtures with mean air excess coefficient in the range 1.4-1.8. Spark ignition was used in the pre-chamber that has been mounted in the engine cylinder head and contained a rich mixture out of which a turbulent flow of ignited mixture is ejected. It allows spark-jet ignition and the turbulent combustion of the lean mixture in the main combustion chamber. This resulted in a two-stage combustion system for lean mixtures. The experimental study has been conducted using a single-cylinder test engine with a geometric compression ratio ε = 15.5 adapted for natural gas supply. The tests were performed at engine speed n = 2000 rpm under stationary engine load when the engine operating parameters and toxic compounds emissions have been recorded. Analysis of the results allowed to conclude that the evaluated combustion system offers large flexibility in the initiation of charge ignition through an appropriate control of the fuel quantities supplied into the pre-chamber and into the main combustion chamber. The research concluded with determining the charge ignition criterion for a suitably divided total fuel dose fed to the cylinder.

Modelling auto ignition of hydrogen in a jet ignition pre-chamber

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Boretti, Alberto A. [School of Science and Engineering, University of Ballarat, PO Box 663, Ballarat, Victoria 3353 (Australia)

2010-04-15

Spark-less jet ignition pre-chambers are enablers of high efficiencies and load control by quantity of fuel injected when coupled with direct injection of main chamber fuel, thus permitting always lean burn bulk stratified combustion. Towards the end of the compression stroke, a small quantity of hydrogen is injected within the pre-chamber, where it mixes with the air entering from the main chamber. Combustion of the air and fuel mixture then starts within the pre-chamber because of the high temperature of the hot glow plug, and then jets of partially combusted hot gases enter the main chamber igniting there in the bulk, over multiple ignition points, lean stratified mixtures of air and fuel. The paper describes the operation of the spark-less jet ignition pre-chamber coupling CFD and CAE engine simulations to allow component selection and engine performance evaluation. (author)

Adaptation of multiwire chambers to some recent experiments in elementary particle physics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Comby, G.

1977-01-01

Three realizations of gas multiplication detectors are presented in the field of multiwire chambers. Le 'NEUTRINO' experiment is intended for investigating neutrino interactions at energies as high as possible with using drift chambers. The 'LEZARD' experiment is intended for investigating lepton and hadron production at high transverse momentum in hadron-nucleon collisions up to the higher energies attainable at SPS (use of a multiwire proportional chamber), the apparatus has the performance of a spectrometer. A spark chamber equipped with memories has been developed for controlling bubble chamber experiments. Emphasis is put on the evolution towards detectors associated with 'another thing' to obtain a more specific operation: such as the plasma memory and spark chamber association, some possible association with function gaps is pointed out (delay function, homothetic function) [fr

Simulation of muon transport through the aragats spark chamber calorimeter

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Asatiani, T.L.; Ter-Antonyan, S.V.

1981-01-01

The algorithm is presented of the program on simulation of muon transport through Aragats spark calorimeter. Statistic test method with account of fluctuations and angular distributions of cascade showers is used. The program is worked out on the Fortran algorithm language for EVM BESM-6 and is calibrated by experimental data of Aragats complex installation [ru

Brookhaven National Laboratory's multiparticle spectrometer drift chamber system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Etkin, A.; Kramer, M.A.

1979-01-01

A system of drift chambers is being built to replace the present spark chambers in the Brookhaven National Laboratory's Multiparticle Spectrometer. This system will handle a beam of approx. 3 million particles per second and have a resolution of 200 μm. A summary of the status of the chambers and the custom integrated circuits is presented. The data acquisition system is described. Prototype chambers have been built and tested with results that are consistent with the expected chamber properties

The analysis of track chamber photographs using flying spot digitizers

CERN Multimedia

Powell, Brian W

1966-01-01

A vast quantity of data pours from the experiments on particle accelerators throughout the world. For example, over 300 000 photographs per week came from the three bubble chambers operating on the CERN PS at the end of 1965. The conventional method of processing these bubble chamber photographs is for each one of them to be examined ('scanned') to see whether it records an interesting particle interaction. The interesting photographs are then passed to hand operated measuring machines to obtain precise measurements of the particle trajectories recorded on the film. Similar measurements are carried out on photographs taken in film spark chamber experiments. This article on the Flying Spot Digitizers at CERN describes one of the most fruitful attempts to speed and make more accurate the process of analysis of bubble and spark chamber photographs. There are two types of Flying Spot Digitizer at CERN — the HPD or Hough Powell Device (named after Professor Hough and the author who, together, initiated the devel...

An experimental investigation of a lean-burn natural-gas pre-chamber spark ignition engine for cogeneration; Swiss Motor. Modification d'un moteur diesel pour le fonctionnement au gaz naturel en cogeneration. Fonctionnement avec prechambre de combustion

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Roethlisberger, R.; Favrat, D.

2001-07-01

This thesis presented at the Department of Mechanical Engineering of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne describes the conversion and testing of a commercial diesel engine for use as a lean-burn, natural gas, pre-chamber, spark ignition engine with a rated power of 150 kW, in combined heat and power (CHP) plants. The objective of the investigations - to evaluate the potential of reducing exhaust gas emissions - is discussed in detail with respect to NO{sub x} and CO emissions. The approach adopted includes both experimental work and numerical simulation. The report describes the testing facilities used. The results obtained with experimental spark-plug configurations based on simulation results are presented and the influence of various pre-chamber configuration variants are discussed. The results of the tests are presented and the significant reduction of NO{sub x}, CO and unburned-hydrocarbon (THC) emissions are discussed. The authors state that the engine, which achieves a fuel efficiency of more than 36.5%, fulfils the Swiss requirements on exhaust gas emissions. Also, ways of compensating for the slight loss in fuel-conversion efficiency in the pre-chamber configuration are discussed.

Pressure Indicating with Measuring Spark Plugs on a DI-Gasoline Engine - State of Technology; Druckindizierung mit Messzuendkerzen an einem DI-Ottomotor - Stand der Technik

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Walter, T.; Brechbuehl, S.; Gossweiler, C.; Schnepf, M.; Wolfer, P. [Kistler Instrumente AG, Winterthur (Switzerland)

2004-07-01

For pressure indicating in gasoline engines, spark plugs with integrated pressure sensor are enabling for fast and efficient access to the combustion chamber. These socalled measuring spark plugs permit any engine to be set up for pressure-indicating within a minimum amount of time and without need for any preparation of an additional bore. Measuring spark plugs offer the user a number of immediate advantages: a) no need to modify the engine by drilling a separate bore to access the combustion chamber b) no modification of the geometry of the combustion chamber and thermal conditions c) suitable for on-board measurements, end-of-line checks and monitoring d) quick and easy installation and replacement In terms of costs, measuring spark plugs are also representing a beneficial alternative to separate indicating bores. The cost of designing, preparing and carrying out an additional bore in a cylinder head are typically many times the costs for a measuring spark plug, thus producing a significant cost saving. The main disadvantages of measuring spark plugs are as follows: 1) restricted to uncooled, low sensitivity miniature pressure sensors 2) the sensor element is exposed to an extraordinarily high thermal load 3) proximity to high voltage carries the risk of electromagnetic interference 4) the positioning between the valve seats means they are subject to heavy vibration 5) the incorporation of the pressure sensor results in more complex design. The purpose of this paper is to describe the technology as well as the dynamic behaviour of measuring spark plugs and to present the current state of technology. (orig.)

Spark Channels

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Haydon, S. C. [Department of Physics, University of New England, Armidale, NSW (Australia)

1968-04-15

A brief summary is given of the principal methods used for initiating spark channels and the various highly time-resolved techniques developed recently for studies with nanosecond resolution. The importance of the percentage overvoltage in determining the early history and subsequent development of the various phases of the growth of the spark channel is discussed. An account is then given of the recent photographic, oscillographic and spectroscopic investigations of spark channels initiated by co-axial cable discharges of spark gaps at low [{approx} 1%] overvoltages. The phenomena observed in the development of the immediate post-breakdown phase, the diffuse glow structure, the growth of the luminous filament and the final formation of the spark channel in hydrogen are described. A brief account is also given of the salient features emerging from corresponding studies of highly overvolted spark gaps in which the spark channel develops from single avalanche conditions. The essential differences between the two types of channel formation are summarized and possible explanations of the general features are indicated. (author)

GeoSpark SQL: An Effective Framework Enabling Spatial Queries on Spark

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zhou Huang

2017-09-01

Full Text Available In the era of big data, Internet-based geospatial information services such as various LBS apps are deployed everywhere, followed by an increasing number of queries against the massive spatial data. As a result, the traditional relational spatial database (e.g., PostgreSQL with PostGIS and Oracle Spatial cannot adapt well to the needs of large-scale spatial query processing. Spark is an emerging outstanding distributed computing framework in the Hadoop ecosystem. This paper aims to address the increasingly large-scale spatial query-processing requirement in the era of big data, and proposes an effective framework GeoSpark SQL, which enables spatial queries on Spark. On the one hand, GeoSpark SQL provides a convenient SQL interface; on the other hand, GeoSpark SQL achieves both efficient storage management and high-performance parallel computing through integrating Hive and Spark. In this study, the following key issues are discussed and addressed: (1 storage management methods under the GeoSpark SQL framework, (2 the spatial operator implementation approach in the Spark environment, and (3 spatial query optimization methods under Spark. Experimental evaluation is also performed and the results show that GeoSpark SQL is able to achieve real-time query processing. It should be noted that Spark is not a panacea. It is observed that the traditional spatial database PostGIS/PostgreSQL performs better than GeoSpark SQL in some query scenarios, especially for the spatial queries with high selectivity, such as the point query and the window query. In general, GeoSpark SQL performs better when dealing with compute-intensive spatial queries such as the kNN query and the spatial join query.

SparkRS - Spark for Remote Sensing, Phase I

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — The proposed innovation is Spark-RS, an open source software project that enables GPU-accelerated remote sensing workflows in an Apache Spark distributed computing...

High performance Spark best practices for scaling and optimizing Apache Spark

CERN Document Server

Karau, Holden

2017-01-01

Apache Spark is amazing when everything clicks. But if you haven’t seen the performance improvements you expected, or still don’t feel confident enough to use Spark in production, this practical book is for you. Authors Holden Karau and Rachel Warren demonstrate performance optimizations to help your Spark queries run faster and handle larger data sizes, while using fewer resources. Ideal for software engineers, data engineers, developers, and system administrators working with large-scale data applications, this book describes techniques that can reduce data infrastructure costs and developer hours. Not only will you gain a more comprehensive understanding of Spark, you’ll also learn how to make it sing. With this book, you’ll explore: How Spark SQL’s new interfaces improve performance over SQL’s RDD data structure The choice between data joins in Core Spark and Spark SQL Techniques for getting the most out of standard RDD transformations How to work around performance issues i...

Scattering profiles of sparks and combustibility of filter against hot sparks

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Asazuma, Shinichiro; Okada, Takashi; Kashiro, Kashio

2004-01-01

The glove-box dismantling facility in the Plutonium Fuel Production Facility is developed to dismantle after-service glove-boxes with remote-controlled devices such as an arm-type manipulator. An abrasive wheel cutter, which is used to size reduce the gloveboxes, generates sparks during operation. This dispersing spark was a problem from the fire prevention point of view. A suitable spark control measures for this operation were required. We developed panels to minimize spark dispersion, shields to prevent the income of sparks to the pre-filter, and incombustible pre-filters. The equipment was tested and effectiveness was confirmed. This report provides the results of these tests. (author)

THE EFFECT OF COMPRESSION RATIO VARIATIONS ON THE ENGINE PERFORMANCE PARAMETRES IN SPARK IGNITION ENGINES

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yakup SEKMEN

2005-01-01

Full Text Available Performance of the spark ignition engines may be increased by changing the geometrical compression ratio according to the amount of charging in cylinders. The designed geometrical compression ratio can be realized as an effective compression ratio under the full load and full open throttle conditions since the effective compression ratio changes with the amount of charging into the cylinder in spark ignition engines. So, this condition of the spark ignition engines forces designers to change their geometrical compression ratio according to the amount of charging into the cylinder for improvement of performance and fuel economy. In order to improve the combustion efficiency, fuel economy, power output, exhaust emissions at partial loads, compression ratio must be increased; but, under high load and low speed conditions to prevent probable knock and hard running the compression ratio must be decreased gradually. In this paper, relation of the performance parameters to compression ratio such as power, torque, specific fuel consumption, cylindir pressure, exhaust gas temperature, combustion chamber surface area/volume ratio, thermal efficiency, spark timing etc. in spark ignition engines have been investigated and using of engines with variable compression ratio is suggested to fuel economy and more clear environment.

Ignition of turbulent swirling n-heptane spray flames using single and multiple sparks

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Marchionea, T.; Ahmeda, S.F.; Mastorakos, E. [Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge (United Kingdom)

2009-01-15

This paper examines ignition processes of an n-heptane spray in a flow typical of a liquid-fuelled burner. The spray is created by a hollow-cone pressure atomiser placed in the centre of a bluff body, around which swirling air induces a strong recirculation zone. Ignition was achieved by single small sparks of short duration (2 mm; 0.5 ms), located at various places inside the flow so as to identify the most ignitable regions, or larger sparks of longer duration (5 mm; 8 ms) repeated at 100 Hz, located close to the combustion chamber enclosure so as to mimic the placement and characteristics of a gas turbine combustor surface igniter. The air and droplet velocities, the droplet diameter, and the total (i.e. liquid plus vapour) equivalence ratio were measured in inert flow by phase Doppler anemometry and sampling respectively. Fast camera imaging suggested that successful ignition events were associated with flamelets that propagated back towards the spray nozzle. Measurements of ignition probability with the single spark showed that localised ignition inside the spray is more likely to result in successful flame establishment when the spark is located in a region of negative velocity, relatively small droplet Sauter mean diameter, and mean equivalence ratio within the flammability limits. Ignition with the single spark was not possible at the location where the multiple spark experiments were performed. For those, the multiple spark sequence lasted approximately 1 to 5 s. It was found that a long spark sequence increases the ignition efficiency, which reached a maximum of 100% at the axial distance where the recirculation zone had maximum width. Ignition was not feasible with the spark downstream of about two burner diameters. Visualisation showed that small flame kernels emanate very often from the spark, which can be stretched as far as 20 mm from the electrodes by the turbulent velocity fluctuations. These kernels survive very little time. Successful overall

AROMA-AIRWICK: a CHLOE/CDC-3600 system for the automatic identification of spark images and their association into tracks

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Clark, R.K.

The AROMA-AIRWICK System for CHLOE, an automatic film scanning equipment built at Argonne by Donald Hodges, and the CDC-3600 computer is a system for the automatic identification of spark images and their association into tracks. AROMA-AIRWICK has been an outgrowth of the generally recognized need for the automatic processing of high energy physics data and the fact that the Argonne National Laboratory has been a center of serious spark chamber development in recent years

Automatic scanning of Cerenkov light photograms from a multistep avalanche chamber using a television digitizer

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Vascon, M.; Zanella, G.

1980-01-01

A television digitizer and its application to automatic scanning of Cerenkov imaging using the multistep avalanche chamber in front of optical spark chamber are described. The results are of interest in the adoption of the automatic scanning of photographic plates of these events or for the on-line application of the television digitizer itself. (orig.)

Stability of Streamer Chamber

Science.gov (United States)

Wada, Toshiaki; Ogawa, Masato; Takahashi, Kaoru; Sugiyama, Tsunetoshi; Kobayashi, Shigeharu; Kohno, Hirobumi

1982-08-01

The quality of tracks obtained from a streamer chamber is studied through the measurement of the streamer brightness. The stability of streamer tracks depends on the value of the high voltage applied and its shape. By using a single conical-type spark gap as the pulse shaper, stable brightness of the streamer tracks is attained. The data on the streamer brightness are compared with the result by Bulos et al. and it is found that the brightness is more strongly affected by field parameters than in their result.

Stability of streamer chamber

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wada, Toshiaki; Ogawa, Masato; Takahashi, Kaoru; Sugiyama, Tsunetoshi; Kobayashi, Shigeharu; Kohno, Hirobumi.

1982-01-01

The quality of tracks obtained from a streamer chamber is studied through the measurement of the streamer brightness. The stability of streamer tracks depends on the value of the high voltage applied and its shape. By using a single conical-type spark gap as the pulse shaper, stable brightness of the streamer tracks is attained. The data on the streamer brightness are compared with the result by Bulos et al. and it is found that the brightness is more strongly affected by field parameters than in their result. (author)

A Experimental Study of the Growth of Laser Spark and Electric Spark Ignited Flame Kernels.

Science.gov (United States)

Ho, Chi Ming

1995-01-01

Better ignition sources are constantly in demand for enhancing the spark ignition in practical applications such as automotive and liquid rocket engines. In response to this practical challenge, the present experimental study was conducted with the major objective to obtain a better understanding on how spark formation and hence spark characteristics affect the flame kernel growth. Two laser sparks and one electric spark were studied in air, propane-air, propane -air-nitrogen, methane-air, and methane-oxygen mixtures that were initially at ambient pressure and temperature. The growth of the kernels was monitored by imaging the kernels with shadowgraph systems, and by imaging the planar laser -induced fluorescence of the hydroxyl radicals inside the kernels. Characteristic dimensions and kernel structures were obtained from these images. Since different energy transfer mechanisms are involved in the formation of a laser spark as compared to that of an electric spark; a laser spark is insensitive to changes in mixture ratio and mixture type, while an electric spark is sensitive to changes in both. The detailed structures of the kernels in air and propane-air mixtures primarily depend on the spark characteristics. But the combustion heat released rapidly in methane-oxygen mixtures significantly modifies the kernel structure. Uneven spark energy distribution causes remarkably asymmetric kernel structure. The breakdown energy of a spark creates a blast wave that shows good agreement with the numerical point blast solution, and a succeeding complex spark-induced flow that agrees reasonably well with a simple puff model. The transient growth rates of the propane-air, propane-air -nitrogen, and methane-air flame kernels can be interpreted in terms of spark effects, flame stretch, and preferential diffusion. For a given mixture, a spark with higher breakdown energy produces a greater and longer-lasting enhancing effect on the kernel growth rate. By comparing the growth

Vehicle driving cycle performance of the spark-less di-ji hydrogen engine

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Boretti, Alberto A. [School of Science and Engineering, University of Ballarat, PO Box663, Ballarat, VIC 3353 (Australia)

2010-05-15

The paper describes coupled CFD combustion simulations and CAE engine performance computations to describe the operation over the full range of load and speed of an always lean burn, Direct Injection Jet Ignition (DI-JI) hydrogen engine. Jet ignition pre-chambers and direct injection are enablers of high efficiencies and load control by quantity of fuel injected. Towards the end of the compression stroke, a small quantity of hydrogen is injected within the spark-less pre-chamber of the DI-JI engine, where it mixes with the air entering from the main chamber and auto-ignites because of the high temperature of the hot glow plug. Then, jets of partially combusted hot gases enter the main chamber igniting there in the bulk, over multiple ignition points, lean stratified mixtures of air and fuel. Engine maps of brake specific fuel consumption vs. speed and brake mean effective pressure are computed first. CAE vehicle simulations are finally performed evaluating the fuel consumption over emission cycles of a vehicle equipped with this engine. (author)

Specific features of a single-pulse sliding discharge in neon near the threshold for spark breakdown

Science.gov (United States)

Trusov, K. K.

2017-08-01

Experimental data on the spatial structure of a single-pulse sliding discharge in neon at voltages below, equal to, and above the threshold for spark breakdown are discussed. The experiments were carried at gas pressures of 30 and 100 kPa and different polarities of the discharge voltage. Photographs of the plasma structure in two discharge chambers with different dimensions of the discharge zone and different thicknesses of an alumina dielectric plate on the surface of which the discharge develops are inspected. Common features of the prebreakdown discharge and its specific features depending on the voltage polarity and gas pressure are analyzed. It is shown that, at voltages below the threshold for spark breakdown, a low-current glow discharge with cathode and anode spots develops in the electrode gap. Above the breakdown threshold, regardless of the voltage polarity, spark channels directed from the cathode to the anode develop against the background of a low-current discharge.

Experimental investigations of argon spark gap recovery times by developing a high voltage double pulse generator.

Science.gov (United States)

Reddy, C S; Patel, A S; Naresh, P; Sharma, Archana; Mittal, K C

2014-06-01

The voltage recovery in a spark gap for repetitive switching has been a long research interest. A two-pulse technique is used to determine the voltage recovery times of gas spark gap switch with argon gas. First pulse is applied to the spark gap to over-volt the gap and initiate the breakdown and second pulse is used to determine the recovery voltage of the gap. A pulse transformer based double pulse generator capable of generating 40 kV peak pulses with rise time of 300 ns and 1.5 μs FWHM and with a delay of 10 μs-1 s was developed. A matrix transformer topology is used to get fast rise times by reducing L(l)C(d) product in the circuit. Recovery Experiments have been conducted for 2 mm, 3 mm, and 4 mm gap length with 0-2 bars pressure for argon gas. Electrodes of a sparkgap chamber are of rogowsky profile type, made up of stainless steel material, and thickness of 15 mm are used in the recovery study. The variation in the distance and pressure effects the recovery rate of the spark gap. An intermediate plateu is observed in the spark gap recovery curves. Recovery time decreases with increase in pressure and shorter gaps in length are recovering faster than longer gaps.

Fiber coupled optical spark delivery system

Science.gov (United States)

Yalin, Azer; Willson, Bryan; Defoort, Morgan

2008-08-12

A spark delivery system for generating a spark using a laser beam is provided, the spark delivery system including a laser light source and a laser delivery assembly. The laser delivery assembly includes a hollow fiber and a launch assembly comprising launch focusing optics to input the laser beam in the hollow fiber. In addition, the laser delivery assembly includes exit focusing optics that demagnify an exit beam of laser light from the hollow fiber, thereby increasing the intensity of the laser beam and creating a spark. In accordance with embodiments of the present invention, the assembly may be used to create a spark in a combustion engine. In accordance with other embodiments of the present invention, a method of using the spark delivery system is provided. In addition, a method of choosing an appropriate fiber for creating a spark using a laser beam is also presented.

Fastdata processing with Spark

CERN Document Server

Karau, Holden

2013-01-01

This book will be a basic, step-by-step tutorial, which will help readers take advantage of all that Spark has to offer.Fastdata Processing with Spark is for software developers who want to learn how to write distributed programs with Spark. It will help developers who have had problems that were too much to be dealt with on a single computer. No previous experience with distributed programming is necessary. This book assumes knowledge of either Java, Scala, or Python.

Development of micromegas muon chambers for the ATLAS upgrade

Science.gov (United States)

Wotschack, J.

2012-02-01

Large-area particle detectors based on the bulk-micromegas technology are an attractive choice for the upgrade of LHC detectors and/or detectors for the ILC or other experiments. In the context of the R&D for the ATLAS Muon System upgrade, we have built detectors of order 1 m2. In order to overcome the spark problem in micromegas a novel protection scheme using resistive strips above the readout electrode has been developed. This technology has undergone extensive tests with hadron beams at the CERN-SPS, X-rays in the lab, as well as in a neutron beam. In addition, four 10 × 10 cm2 micromegas chambers have been installed in the ATLAS cavern and are taking data under LHC conditions. We will discuss the underlying design of the chambers and present results on the performance of these chambers.

Development of micromegas muon chambers for the ATLAS upgrade

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wotschack, J

2012-01-01

Large-area particle detectors based on the bulk-micromegas technology are an attractive choice for the upgrade of LHC detectors and/or detectors for the ILC or other experiments. In the context of the R and D for the ATLAS Muon System upgrade, we have built detectors of order 1 m 2 . In order to overcome the spark problem in micromegas a novel protection scheme using resistive strips above the readout electrode has been developed. This technology has undergone extensive tests with hadron beams at the CERN-SPS, X-rays in the lab, as well as in a neutron beam. In addition, four 10 × 10 cm 2 micromegas chambers have been installed in the ATLAS cavern and are taking data under LHC conditions. We will discuss the underlying design of the chambers and present results on the performance of these chambers.

A spectroscopy study of gasoline partially premixed compression ignition spark assisted combustion

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pastor, J.V.; García-Oliver, J.M.; García, A.; Micó, C.; Durrett, R.

2013-01-01

Highlights: ► PPC combustion combined with spark assistance and gasoline fuel on a CI engine. ► Chemiluminescence of different chemical species describes the progress of combustion reaction. ► Spectra of a novel combustion mode under SACI conditions is described. ► UV–Visible spectrometry, high speed imaging and pressure diagnostic were employed for analysis. - Abstract: Nowadays many research efforts are focused on the study and development of new combustion modes, mainly based on the use of locally lean air–fuel mixtures. This characteristic, combined with exhaust gas recirculation, provides low combustion temperatures that reduces pollutant formation and increases efficiency. However these combustion concepts have some drawbacks, related to combustion phasing control, which must be overcome. In this way, the use of a spark plug has shown to be a good solution to improve phasing control in combination with lean low temperature combustion. Its performance is well reported on bibliography, however phenomena involving the combustion process are not completely described. The aim of the present work is to develop a detailed description of the spark assisted compression ignition mode by means of application of UV–Visible spectrometry, in order to improve insight on the combustion process. Tests have been performed in an optical engine by means of broadband radiation imaging and emission spectrometry. The engine hardware is typical of a compression ignition passenger car application. Gasoline was used as the fuel due to its low reactivity. Combining broadband luminosity images with pressure-derived heat-release rate and UV–Visible spectra, it was possible to identify different stages of the combustion reaction. After the spark discharge, a first flame kernel appears and starts growing as a premixed flame front, characterized by a low and constant heat-release rate in combination with the presence of remarkable OH radical radiation. Heat release increases

Display of a proton-proton interaction as seen in the streamer chamber of NA5

CERN Multimedia

CERN PhotoLab

1979-01-01

This experiment was performed by the Bari-Cracow-Liverpool-Munich (MPI)-Nijmegen Collaboration using the unseparated H2 beam in the EHN1 hall. The setup consisted of a three-gap streamer chamber (2x1.4x0.72 m3) inside a superconducting vertex magnet, large magnetostrictive spark chambers, proportional chambers and beam defining counters. A large acceptance electron and hadron calorimeter completed the setup. Particles from beam interactions on a target, 36.5 cm long, 2 cm in diameter (for liquid hydrogen) located inside the chamber at its entrance were photographed. Multiplicities, rapidity distributions, and correlations were studied for interactions with a large value for the sum of the transverse momenta.

A new gaseous detector for tracking: The blade chamber

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ambrosi, G.; Battiston, R.; Levi, G.; Barillari, T.; Susinno, G.; Bergsma, F.; Contin, A.; Labbe, J.C.; Laurenti, G.; Mattern, D.; Simonet, G.; Williams, M.C.S.; Zichichi, A.; Boscherini, D.; Bruni, G.; De Pasquale, S.; Giusti, P.; Maccarrone, G.; Nania, R.; O'Shea, V.; Castro, H.; Galvez, J.; Rivera, F.; Schioppa, M.; Sharma, A.

1990-01-01

As part of the LAA project at CERN a prototype of a streamer-chamber in which a blade, instead of a wire, is used as the amplification electrode has been built. A big advantage is that the blade can be bent to follow a curve so that a chamber can be built with cells ideally matched to the geometry of the experiment. Moreover, a blade is very rugged, it can withstand severe mechanical shocks and it is also resistant to damage by sparks. The drift time has been measured and a spatial resolution of 250μm has been achieved. Left-right ambiguity can be solved by measuring the charge asymmetry on the walls. The coordinate along the blade is read by external pickup strips. (orig.)

Pressure dependence of the spark constant

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hess, H; Radtke, R; Deparade, W [Akademie der Wissenschaften der DDR, Berlin. Zentralinstitut fuer Elektronenphysik

1978-02-21

The author's theory on the development of LTE plasmas in low-inductance spark discharges has proved to be a useful tool in predicting the electric behaviour of such sparks. Their earlier experimental work was restricted to only one initial pressure, and in this paper they extend the examined pressure range to obtain some general conclusions on the pressure dependence of the spark behaviour.

Development of a Micro Pixel Chamber for the ATLAS Upgrade

CERN Document Server

Ochi, Atsuhiko; Komai, Hidetoshi; Edo, Yuki; Yamaguchi, Takahiro

2012-01-01

The Micro Pixel Chamber (μ-PIC) is being developed a sacandidate for the muon system of the ATLAS detector for upgrading in LHC experiments. The μ-PIC is a micro-pattern gaseous detector that doesn’t have floating structure such as wires, mesh, or foil. This detector can be made by printed-circuit-board (PCB) technology, which is commercially available and suited for mass production. Operation tests have been performed under high flux neutrons under similar conditions to the ATLAS cavern. Spark rates are measured using several gas mixtures under 7 MeV neutron irradiation, and good properties were observed using neon, ethane, and CF4 mixture of gases.Using resistive materials as electrodes, we are also developing a new μ-PIC, which is not expected to damage the electrodes in the case of discharge sparks.

Bluetooth Communication Interface for EEG Signal Recording in Hyperbaric Chambers.

Science.gov (United States)

Pastena, Lucio; Formaggio, Emanuela; Faralli, Fabio; Melucci, Massimo; Rossi, Marco; Gagliardi, Riccardo; Ricciardi, Lucio; Storti, Silvia F

2015-07-01

Recording biological signals inside a hyperbaric chamber poses technical challenges (the steel walls enclosing it greatly attenuate or completely block the signals as in a Faraday cage), practical (lengthy cables creating eddy currents), and safety (sparks hazard from power supply to the electronic apparatus inside the chamber) which can be overcome with new wireless technologies. In this technical report we present the design and implementation of a Bluetooth system for electroencephalographic (EEG) recording inside a hyperbaric chamber and describe the feasibility of EEG signal transmission outside the chamber. Differently from older systems, this technology allows the online recording of amplified signals, without interference from eddy currents. In an application of this technology, we measured EEG activity in professional divers under three experimental conditions in a hyperbaric chamber to determine how oxygen, assumed at a constant hyperbaric pressure of 2.8 ATA , affects the bioelectrical activity. The EEG spectral power estimated by fast Fourier transform and the cortical sources of the EEG rhythms estimated by low-resolution brain electromagnetic analysis were analyzed in three different EEG acquisitions: breathing air at sea level; breathing oxygen at a simulated depth of 18 msw, and breathing air at sea level after decompression.

DeepSpark: A Spark-Based Distributed Deep Learning Framework for Commodity Clusters

OpenAIRE

Kim, Hanjoo; Park, Jaehong; Jang, Jaehee; Yoon, Sungroh

2016-01-01

The increasing complexity of deep neural networks (DNNs) has made it challenging to exploit existing large-scale data processing pipelines for handling massive data and parameters involved in DNN training. Distributed computing platforms and GPGPU-based acceleration provide a mainstream solution to this computational challenge. In this paper, we propose DeepSpark, a distributed and parallel deep learning framework that exploits Apache Spark on commodity clusters. To support parallel operation...

Spark channel propagation in a microbubble liquid

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Panov, V. A.; Vasilyak, L. M., E-mail: vasilyak@ihed.ras.ru; Vetchinin, S. P.; Pecherkin, V. Ya.; Son, E. E. [Russian Academy of Sciences, Joint Institute for High Temperatures (Russian Federation)

2016-11-15

Experimental study on the development of the spark channel from the anode needle under pulsed electrical breakdown of isopropyl alcohol solution in water with air microbubbles has been performed. The presence of the microbubbles increases the velocity of the spark channel propagation and increases the current in the discharge gap circuit. The observed rate of spark channel propagation in microbubble liquid ranges from 4 to 12 m/s, indicating the thermal mechanism of the spark channel development in a microbubble liquid.

Bright Sparks of Our Future!

Science.gov (United States)

Riordan, Naoimh

2016-04-01

My name is Naoimh Riordan and I am the Vice Principal of Rockboro Primary School in Cork City, South of Ireland. I am a full time class primary teacher and I teach 4th class, my students are aged between 9-10 years. My passion for education has developed over the years and grown towards STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) subjects. I believe these subjects are the way forward for our future. My passion and beliefs are driven by the unique after school programme that I have developed. It is titled "Sparks" coming from the term Bright Sparks. "Sparks" is an after school programme with a difference where the STEM subjects are concentrated on through lessons such as Science, Veterinary Science Computer Animation /Coding, Eco engineering, Robotics, Magical Maths, Chess and Creative Writing. All these subjects are taught through activity based learning and are one-hour long each week for a ten-week term. "Sparks" is fully inclusive and non-selective which gives all students of any level of ability an opportunity to engage into these subjects. "Sparks" is open to all primary students in County Cork. The "Sparks" after school programme is taught by tutors from the different Universities and Colleges in Cork City. It works very well because the tutor brings their knowledge, skills and specialised equipment from their respective universities and in turn the tutor gains invaluable teaching practise, can trial a pilot programme in a chosen STEM subject and gain an insight into what works in the physical classroom.

Tool grinding and spark testing

Science.gov (United States)

Widener, Edward L.

1993-01-01

The objectives were the following: (1) to revive the neglected art of metal-sparking; (2) to promote quality-assurance in the workplace; (3) to avoid spark-ignited explosions of dusts or volatiles; (4) to facilitate the salvage of scrap metals; and (5) to summarize important references.

Primary Science Interview: Science Sparks

Science.gov (United States)

Bianchi, Lynne

2016-01-01

In this "Primary Science" interview, Lynne Bianchi talks with Emma Vanstone about "Science Sparks," which is a website full of creative, fun, and exciting science activity ideas for children of primary-school age. "Science Sparks" started with the aim of inspiring more parents to do science at home with their…

Big Data Analytics with Datalog Queries on Spark.

Science.gov (United States)

Shkapsky, Alexander; Yang, Mohan; Interlandi, Matteo; Chiu, Hsuan; Condie, Tyson; Zaniolo, Carlo

2016-01-01

There is great interest in exploiting the opportunity provided by cloud computing platforms for large-scale analytics. Among these platforms, Apache Spark is growing in popularity for machine learning and graph analytics. Developing efficient complex analytics in Spark requires deep understanding of both the algorithm at hand and the Spark API or subsystem APIs (e.g., Spark SQL, GraphX). Our BigDatalog system addresses the problem by providing concise declarative specification of complex queries amenable to efficient evaluation. Towards this goal, we propose compilation and optimization techniques that tackle the important problem of efficiently supporting recursion in Spark. We perform an experimental comparison with other state-of-the-art large-scale Datalog systems and verify the efficacy of our techniques and effectiveness of Spark in supporting Datalog-based analytics.

Sample preparations for spark source mass spectrography

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Catlett, C.W.; Rollins, M.B.; Griffin, E.B.; Dorsey, J.G.

1977-10-01

Methods have been developed for the preparation of various materials for spark source mass spectrography. The essential features of these preparations (all which can provide adequate precision in a cost-effective manner) consist in obtaining spark-stable electrode sample pieces, a common matrix, a reduction of anomolous effects in the spark, the incorporation of a suitable internal standard for plate response normalization, and a reduction in time

The pressure dependence of the spark constant

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hess, H.; Radtke, R.; Deparade, W.

1978-01-01

The author's theory on the development of LTE plasmas in low-inductance spark discharges has proved to be a useful tool in predicting the electric behaviour of such sparks. Their earlier experimental work was restricted to only one initial pressure, and in this paper they extend the examined pressure range to obtain some general conclusions on the pressure dependence of the spark behaviour. (author)

Fabrication of resistive plate chamber using bakelite

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Neog, Himangshu; Bhuyan, M.R.; Biswas, S.; Mohanty, B.; Mohanty, Rudranarayan; Rudra, Sharmili; Sahu, P.K.; Sahu, S.

2014-01-01

Now a days Resistive Plate Chamber (RPC) is one of the most important detectors in the High Energy Physics (HEP) experiments. RPC is a gas filled detector utilizing a constant and uniform electric field produced between two parallel electrode plates made of a material with high bulk resistivity e.g. glass or bakelite. RPC has good time resolution (1-2 ns) and spatial resolution (∼ cm). The high resistance of RPC plate limits the spark size produced after the ionization of gas due to the passing charged particle. This contribution discusses building of a RPC using bakelite (local sources) and the measurement of the surface resistivity of the detector

Fast data processing with Spark

CERN Document Server

Sankar, Krishna

2015-01-01

Fast Data Processing with Spark - Second Edition is for software developers who want to learn how to write distributed programs with Spark. It will help developers who have had problems that were too big to be dealt with on a single computer. No previous experience with distributed programming is necessary. This book assumes knowledge of either Java, Scala, or Python.

High pressure gas-filled cermet spark gaps

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Avilov, Eh.A.; Yur'ev, A.L.

2000-01-01

The results of modernization of the R-48 and R-49 spark gaps making it possible to improve their electrical characteristics are presented. The design is described and characteristics of gas-filled cermet spark gaps are presented. By the voltage rise time of 5-6 μs in the Marx generator scheme they provide for the pulse break-through voltage of 120 and 150 kV. By the voltage rise time of 0.5-1 μs the break-through voltage of these spark gaps may be increased up to 130 and 220 kV. The proper commutation time is equal to ≤ 0.5 ns. Practical recommendations relative to designing cermet spark gaps are given [ru

New spark test device for material characterization

CERN Document Server

Kildemo, Morten

2004-01-01

An automated spark test system based on combining field emission and spark measurements, exploiting a discharging capacitor is investigated. In particular, the remaining charge on the capacitor is analytically solved assuming the field emitted current to follow the Fowler Nordheim expression. The latter allows for field emission measurements from pA to A currents, and spark detection by complete discharge of the capacitor. The measurement theory and experiments on Cu and W are discussed.

Liquid-Arc/Spark-Excitation Atomic-Emission Spectroscopy

Science.gov (United States)

Schlagen, Kenneth J.

1992-01-01

Constituents of solutions identified in situ. Liquid-arc/spark-excitation atomic-emission spectroscopy (LAES) is experimental variant of atomic-emission spectroscopy in which electric arc or spark established in liquid and spectrum of light from arc or spark analyzed to identify chemical elements in liquid. Observations encourage development of LAES equipment for online monitoring of process streams in such industries as metal plating, electronics, and steel, and for online monitoring of streams affecting environment.

Are Crab nanoshots Schwinger sparks?

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Stebbins, Albert [Fermi National Accelerator Lab. (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States); Yoo, Hojin [Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison, WI (United States); Fermi National Accelerator Lab. (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States); Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States)

2015-05-21

The highest brightness temperature ever observed are from "nanoshots" from the Crab pulsar which we argue could be the signature of bursts of vacuum e^± pair production. If so this would be the first time the astronomical Schwinger effect has been observed. These "Schwinger sparks" would be an intermittent but extremely powerful, ~10³ L_⊙, 10 PeV e^± accelerator in the heart of the Crab. These nanosecond duration sparks are generated in a volume less than 1 m³ and the existence of such sparks has implications for the small scale structure of the magnetic field of young pulsars such as the Crab. As a result, this mechanism may also play a role in producing other enigmatic bright short radio transients such as fast radio bursts.

SPARK: Adapting Keyword Query to Semantic Search

Science.gov (United States)

Zhou, Qi; Wang, Chong; Xiong, Miao; Wang, Haofen; Yu, Yong

Semantic search promises to provide more accurate result than present-day keyword search. However, progress with semantic search has been delayed due to the complexity of its query languages. In this paper, we explore a novel approach of adapting keywords to querying the semantic web: the approach automatically translates keyword queries into formal logic queries so that end users can use familiar keywords to perform semantic search. A prototype system named 'SPARK' has been implemented in light of this approach. Given a keyword query, SPARK outputs a ranked list of SPARQL queries as the translation result. The translation in SPARK consists of three major steps: term mapping, query graph construction and query ranking. Specifically, a probabilistic query ranking model is proposed to select the most likely SPARQL query. In the experiment, SPARK achieved an encouraging translation result.

Near wall combustion modeling in spark ignition engines. Part A: Flame–wall interaction

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Demesoukas, Sokratis; Caillol, Christian; Higelin, Pascal; Boiarciuc, Andrei; Floch, Alain

2015-01-01

Highlights: • A model for flame–wall interaction in addition to flame wrinkling by turbulence is proposed. • Two sparkplug positions and two lengths are used in a test engine for model validation. • Flame–wall interaction decreases the maximum values of cylinder pressure and heat release rates. • The impact of combustion chamber geometry is taken into account by the flame–wall interaction model. - Abstract: Research and design in the field of spark ignition engines seek to achieve high performance while conserving fuel economy and low pollutant emissions. For the evaluation of various engine configurations, numerical simulations are favored, since they are quick and less expensive than experiments. Various zero-dimensional combustion models are currently used. Both flame front reactions and post-flame processes contribute to the heat release rate. The first part of this study focuses on the role of the flame front on the heat release rate, by modeling the interaction of the flame front with the chamber wall. Post-flame reactions are dealt with in Part B of the study. The basic configurations of flame quenching in laminar flames are also applicable in turbulent flames, which is the case in spark ignition engines. A simplified geometric model of the combustion chamber was used to calculate the mean flame surface, the flame volume and the distribution of flame surface as a function of the distance from the wall. The flame–wall interaction took into account the geometry of the combustion chamber and of the flame, aerodynamic turbulence and the in-cylinder pressure and temperature conditions, through a phenomenological attenuation function of the wrinkling factor. A modified global wrinkling factor as a function of the mean surface distance distribution from the wall was calculated. The impact of flame–wall interaction was simulated for four configurations of the sparkplug position and length: centered and lateral position, and standard and projected

Protection of neutral-beam accelerator electrodes from spark discharges

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Praeg, W.F.

1977-01-01

The high-voltage (HV) electrodes of neutral beam sources (NBS's) must be protected from occasional sparks to ground. Spark currents can be limited with special transformers and reactors which introduce time delays that are long enough to quench the spark or to disconnect the energy source. A saturated time delay transformer (STDT) connected in series with the HV power supply detects spark faults and limits the current supplied by the power supply and its capacitance to ground; it also initiates spark quenching. Nonsaturated, longitudinal reactors limit the discharge current supplied by the energy stored in the circuit capacitance of the NBS filament and arc power supplies long enough to discharge this capacitance into a resistor. The design principles of these protective circuits are presented

Protection of neutral-beam-accelerator electrodes from spark discharges

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Praeg, W.F.

1977-01-01

The high-voltage (HV) electrodes of neutral beam sources (NBS's) must be protected from occasional sparks to ground. Spark currents can be limited with special transformers and reactors which introduce time delays that are long enough to quench the spark or to disconnect the energy source. A saturated time delay transformer (STDT) connected in series with the HV power supply detects spark faults and limits the current supplied by the power supply and its capacitance to ground; it also initiates spark quenching. Nonsaturated, longitudinal reactors limit the discharge current supplied by the energy stored in the circuit capacitance of the NBS filament and arc power supplies long enough to discharge this capacitance into a resistor. The design principles of these protective circuits are presented in this paper

Protection of neutral-beam-accelerator electrodes from spark discharges

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Praeg, W.F.

1978-01-01

The high-voltage (HV) electrodes of neutral beam sources (NBS's) must be protected from occasional sparks to ground. Spark currents can be limited with special transformers and reactors which introduce time delays that are long enough to quench the spark or to disconnect the energy source. A saturated time delay transformer (STDT) connected in series with the HV power supply detects spark faults and limits the current supplied by the power supply and its capacitance to ground; it also initiates spark quenching. Nonsaturated, longitudinal reactors limit the discharge current supplied by the energy stored in the circuit capacitance of the NBS filament and arc power supplies long enough to discharge this capacitance into a resistor. The design principles of these protective circuits are presented in this paper

Automatic spark counting of alpha-tracks in plastic foils

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Somogyi, G.; Medveczky, L.; Hunyadi, I.; Nyako, B.

1976-01-01

The possibility of alpha-track counting by jumping spark counter in cellulose acetate and polycarbonate nuclear track detectors was studied. A theoretical treatment is presented which predicts the optimum residual thickness of the etched foils in which completely through-etched tracks (i.e. holes) can be obtained for alpha-particles of various energies and angles of incidence. In agreement with the theoretical prediction it is shown that a successful spark counting of alpha-tracks can be performed even in polycarbonate foils. Some counting characteristics, such as counting efficiency vs particle energy at various etched foil thicknesses, surface spark density produced by electric breakdowns in unexposed foils vs foil thickness, etc. have been determined. Special attention was given to the spark counting of alpha-tracks entering thin detectors at right angle. The applicability of the spark counting technique is demonstrated in angular distribution measurements of the 27 Al(p,α 0 ) 24 Mg nuclear reaction at Ep = 1899 keV resonance energy. For this study 15 μm thick Makrofol-G foils and a jumping spark counter of improved construction were used. (orig.) [de

Energy convergence of shock waves and its destruction mechanism in cone-roof combustion chambers

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Xu, Han; Yao, Anren; Yao, Chunde; Gao, Jian

2016-01-01

Highlights: • Experiments with simulations are designed to probe into engine severe knock. • Energy convergence at central and edge region is observed in closed-limited space. • Modes with different intensities and mechanism of energy convergence are revealed. • Chamber shape and equivalence ratio can affect the energy convergence. • The destruction effects of energy convergence on pistons are recognized. - Abstract: Energy convergence is considered as an important phenomenon in internal combustion engines under severe knock, in which shock waves caused by violent combustion may aggregate the energy released by fuel burning to damage engine parts like pistons and spark plugs easily. In order to reveal such convergence mechanism and its destruction effects, a novel detonation bomb experiment combined with numerical simulations are conducted. In bomb experiments, a detonation wave is forcibly introduced into a clearance-variable cone-roof combustion chamber by a high energy spark ignition. Four pressure transducers were installed in different positions to monitor the energy convergence. Combined with the experiments, numerical simulations were conducted to reveal the convergence modes and mechanisms. Finally, destruction samples were presented to validate this research. It’s found that the energy convergence of shock waves always occurs in middle and edge region, which are vulnerable to be damaged. Three modes of energy convergence are concluded for middle region while several ways of energy convergence are concluded for edge region, which are all related with the chamber shape and may result in different levels of convergence. It’s also found that though detonation strength (knock intensity) can be changed by both equivalence ratios and initial pressures, only the equivalence ratios can change the convergence modes while the initial pressures cannot.

Modelling Spark Integration in Science Classroom

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Marie Paz E. Morales

2014-02-01

Full Text Available The study critically explored how a PASCO-designed technology (SPARK ScienceLearning System is meaningfully integrated into the teaching of selected topics in Earth and Environmental Science. It highlights on modelling the effectiveness of using the SPARK Learning System as a primary tool in learning science that leads to learning and achievement of the students. Data and observation gathered and correlation of the ability of the technology to develop high intrinsic motivation to student achievement were used to design framework on how to meaningfully integrate SPARK ScienceLearning System in teaching Earth and Environmental Science. Research instruments used in this study were adopted from standardized questionnaires available from literature. Achievement test and evaluation form were developed and validated for the purpose of deducing data needed for the study. Interviews were done to delve into the deeper thoughts and emotions of the respondents. Data from the interviews served to validate all numerical data culled from this study. Cross-case analysis of the data was done to reveal some recurring themes, problems and benefits derived by the students in using the SPARK Science Learning System to further establish its effectiveness in the curriculum as a forerunner to the shift towards the 21st Century Learning.

Dual Spark Plugs For Stratified-Charge Rotary Engine

Science.gov (United States)

Abraham, John; Bracco, Frediano V.

1996-01-01

Fuel efficiency of stratified-charge, rotary, internal-combustion engine increased by improved design featuring dual spark plugs. Second spark plug ignites fuel on upstream side of main fuel injector; enabling faster burning and more nearly complete utilization of fuel.

Research on spark discharge of floating roof tank shunt

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bi, Xiaolei; Liu, Quanzhen; Liu, Baoquan; Gao, Xin; Hu, Haiyan; Liu, Juan

2013-01-01

In order to quantitatively analyze the spark discharge risk of floating roof tank shunts, the breakdown voltage of shunt has been calculated by Townsend theory, the shunt spark discharge experiment is carried out by using 1.2/50 μs impulse voltage wave, and the relationship between breakdown voltage of shunt spark discharge and air gap is analyzed. It has been indicated by theoretical analysis and experimental study that the small gap is more easily cause spark discharge than the big gap when the contact between shunt and tank shell is poor. When air gap distance is equal to 0.1 cm, average breakdown voltage is 5280 V. When the air gap distance is less than 0.3 cm, experiment data agree well with Townsend theory. Therefore, in the condition of small gap, Townsend theory can be used to calculated breakdown voltage of shunt. Finally, based on the above conclusions, improvements for avoiding the spark discharge risk of shunt of floating roof tanks have been proposed.

Theoretical investigation of a photoconductively switched high-voltage spark gap

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Broks, B.H.P.; Hendriks, J.; Brok, W.J.M.; Brussaard, G.J.H.; Mullen, van der J.J.A.M.

2006-01-01

In this contribution, a photoconductively switched high-voltage spark gap with an emphasis on theswitching behavior is modeled. It is known experimentally that not all of the voltage that is present at the input of the spark gap is switched, but rather a fraction of it drops across the spark gap.

Combustion and operating characteristics of spark-ignition engines

Science.gov (United States)

Heywood, J. B.; Keck, J. C.; Beretta, G. P.; Watts, P. A.

1980-01-01

The spark-ignition engine turbulent flame propagation process was investigated. Then, using a spark-ignition engine cycle simulation and combustion model, the impact of turbocharging and heat transfer variations or engine power, efficiency, and NO sub x emissions was examined.

Automated qualification and analysis of protective spark gaps for DC accelerators

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Banerjee, Srutarshi; Rajan, Rehim N.; Dewangan, S.; Sharma, D.K.; Patel, Rupesh; Bakhtsingh, R.I.; Gond, Seema; Waghmare, Abhay; Thakur, Nitin; Mittal, K.C. [Accelerator and Pulse Power Division, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai (India)

2014-07-01

Protective spark gaps are used in the high voltage multiplier column of a 3 MeV DC Accelerator to prevent excessive voltage build-ups. Precise gap of 5 mm is maintained between the electrodes in these spark gaps for obtaining 120 kV± 5 kV in 6 kg/cm{sup 2} SF{sub 6} environment which is the dielectric medium. There are 74 such spark gaps used in the multiplier. Each spark gap has to be qualified for electrical performance before fitting in the accelerator to ensure reliable operation. As the breakdown voltage stabilizes after a large number of sparks between the electrodes, the qualification process becomes time consuming and cumbersome. For qualifying large number of spark gaps an automatic breakdown analysis setup has been developed. This setup operates in air, a dielectric medium. The setup consists of a flyback topology based high voltage power supply with maximum rating of 25 kV. This setup works in conjunction with spark detection and automated shutdown circuit. The breakdown voltage is sensed using a peak detector circuit. The voltage breakdown data is recorded and statistical distribution of the breakdown voltage has been analyzed. This paper describes details of the diagnostics and the spark gap qualification process based on the experimental data. (author)

Spark - a modern approach for distributed analytics

CERN Multimedia

CERN. Geneva; Kothuri, Prasanth

2016-01-01

The Hadoop ecosystem is the leading opensource platform for distributed storing and processing big data. It is a very popular system for implementing data warehouses and data lakes. Spark has also emerged to be one of the leading engines for data analytics. The Hadoop platform is available at CERN as a central service provided by the IT department. By attending the session, a participant will acquire knowledge of the essential concepts need to benefit from the parallel data processing offered by Spark framework. The session is structured around practical examples and tutorials. Main topics: Architecture overview - work distribution, concepts of a worker and a driver Computing concepts of transformations and actions Data processing APIs - RDD, DataFrame, and SparkSQL

Spark counting technique with an aluminium oxide film

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kawai, H.; Koga, T.; Morishima, H.; Niwa, T.; Nishiwaki, Y.

1980-01-01

Automatic spark counting of etch-pits on a polycarbonate film produced by nuclear fission fragments is now used for neutron monitoring in several countries. A method was developed using an aluminium oxide film instead of a polycarbonate as the neutron detector. Aluminium oxide films were prepared as follows: A cleaned aluminium plate as an anode and a nickel plate as a cathode were immersed in dilute sulfuric acid solution and electric current flowed between the electrodes at 12degC for 10-30 minutes. Electric current density was about 10 mA/cm 2 . The aluminium plate was then kept in boiling water for 10-30 minutes for sealing. The thickness of the aluminium oxide layer formed was about 1μm. The aluminium plate attached to a plate of suitable fissionable material, such as uranium or thorium, was irradiated with neutrons and set in a usual spark counter for fission track counting. One electrode was the aluminium plate and the other was an aluminized polyester sheet. Sparked pulses were counted with a usual scaler. The advantage of using spark counting with an aluminium oxide film for neutron monitoring is rapid measurement of neutron exposure, since chemical etching which is indispensable for spark counting with a polycarbonate detector film, is not needed. (H.K.)

Chaotic combustion in spark ignition engines

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wendeker, Miroslaw; Czarnigowski, Jacek; Litak, Grzegorz; Szabelski, Kazimierz

2003-01-01

We analyse the combustion process in a spark ignition engine using the experimental data of an internal pressure during the combustion process and show that the system can be driven to chaotic behaviour. Our conclusion is based on the observation of unperiodicity in the time series, suitable stroboscopic maps and a complex structure of a reconstructed strange attractor. This analysis can explain that in some circumstances the level of noise in spark ignition engines increases considerably due to nonlinear dynamics of a combustion process

Target fabrication using laser and spark erosion machining

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Clement, X.; Coudeville, A.; Eyharts, P.; Perrine, J.P.; Rouillard, R.

1982-01-01

Fabrication of laser fusion targets requires a number of special techniques. We have developed both laser and spark erosion machining to produce minute parts of complex targets. A high repetition rate YAG laser at double frequency is used to etch various materials. For example, marks or patterns are often necessary on structured or advanced targets. The laser is also used to thin down plastic coated stalks. A spark erosion system has proved to be a versatile tool and we describe current fabrication processes like cutting, drilling, and ultra precise machining. Spark erosion has interesting features for target fabrication: it is a highly controllable and reproducible technique as well as relatively inexpensive

Formation of small sparks

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Barreto, E.; Jurenka, H.; Reynolds, S.I.

1977-01-01

The formation of a small incendiary spark at atmospheric pressure is identified with the transition from a weakly to a strongly ionized plasma. It is shown that initial gaseous ionization produced by avalanches and/or streamers always creates a high-temperature ideal electron gas that can shield the applied voltage difference and reduce ionization in the volume of the gas. The electron gas is collision dominated but able to maintain its high temperature, for times long compared to discharge events, through long-range Coulomb forces. In fact, electrons in the weakly ionized plasma constitute a collisionless independent fluid with a thermodynamic state that can be affected directly by field or density changes. Accordingly, with metal electrodes, cathode spot emission is always associated with the transition to a strongly ionized plasma. Neutral heating can be accomplished in two different ways. Effective dispersal of the electrons from the cathode leads to electron heating dominated by diffusion effects. Conversely, a fast rate of emission or rapid field changes can produce nonlinear wave propagation. It is shown that solitary waves are possible, and it is suggested that some spark transitions are associated with shock waves in the collisionless electron gas. In either the diffuse or nonlinear regime, neutral gas heating is controlled by collisions of ions with isotropic thermal electrons. This interaction is always subsequent to changes in state of the electron gas population. The basic results obtained should apply to all sparks

Laser ignition - Spark plug development and application in reciprocating engines

Science.gov (United States)

Pavel, Nicolaie; Bärwinkel, Mark; Heinz, Peter; Brüggemann, Dieter; Dearden, Geoff; Croitoru, Gabriela; Grigore, Oana Valeria

2018-03-01

Combustion is one of the most dominant energy conversion processes used in all areas of human life, but global concerns over exhaust gas pollution and greenhouse gas emission have stimulated further development of the process. Lean combustion and exhaust gas recirculation are approaches to improve the efficiency and to reduce pollutant emissions; however, such measures impede reliable ignition when applied to conventional ignition systems. Therefore, alternative ignition systems are a focus of scientific research. Amongst others, laser induced ignition seems an attractive method to improve the combustion process. In comparison with conventional ignition by electric spark plugs, laser ignition offers a number of potential benefits. Those most often discussed are: no quenching of the combustion flame kernel; the ability to deliver (laser) energy to any location of interest in the combustion chamber; the possibility of delivering the beam simultaneously to different positions, and the temporal control of ignition. If these advantages can be exploited in practice, the engine efficiency may be improved and reliable operation at lean air-fuel mixtures can be achieved, making feasible savings in fuel consumption and reduction in emission of exhaust gasses. Therefore, laser ignition can enable important new approaches to address global concerns about the environmental impact of continued use of reciprocating engines in vehicles and power plants, with the aim of diminishing pollutant levels in the atmosphere. The technology can also support increased use of electrification in powered transport, through its application to ignition of hybrid (electric-gas) engines, and the efficient combustion of advanced fuels. In this work, we review the progress made over the last years in laser ignition research, in particular that aimed towards realizing laser sources (or laser spark plugs) with dimensions and properties suitable for operating directly on an engine. The main envisaged

Sparking protection for MFTF-B Neutral Beam Power Supplies

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cummings, D.B.

1983-01-01

This paper describes the upgrade of MFTF-B Neutral Beam Power Supplies for sparking protection. High performance ion sources spark repeatedly so ion source power supplies must be insensitive to sparking. The hot deck houses the series tetrode, arc and filament supplies, and controls. Hot deck shielding has been upgraded and a continuous shield around the arc, filament, gradient grid, and control cables now extends from the hot deck, through the core snubber, to the source. The shield carries accelerating current and connects only to the source. Shielded source cables go through an outer duct which now connects to a ground plane under the hot deck. This hybrid transmission line is a low inductance path for sparks discharging the stray capacitance of the hot deck and isolation transformers, reducing coupling to building steel. Parallel DC current return cables inside the duct lower inductance to reduce inductive turn-off transients. MOVs to ground further limit surges in the remote power supply return. Single point grounding is at the source. No control or rectifier components have been damaged nor are there any known malfunctions due to sparking up to 80 kV output

Sparking protection for MFTF-B neutral beam power supplies

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cummings, D.B.

1983-01-01

This paper describes the upgrade of MFTF-B Neutral Beam Power Supplies for sparking protection. High performance ion sources spark repeatedly so ion source power supplies must be insensitive to sparking. The hot deck houses the series tetrode, arc and filament supplies, and controls. Hot deck shielding has been upgraded and a continuous shield around the arc, filament, gradient grid, and control cables now extends from the hot deck, through the core snubber, to the source. The shield carries accelerating current and connects only to the source. Shielded source cables go through an outer duct which now connects to a ground plane under the hot deck. This hybrid transmission line is a low inductance path for sparks discharging the stray capacitance of the hot deck and isolation transformers, reducing coupling to building steel. Parallel dc current return cables inside the duct lower inductance to reduce inductive turn-off transients. MOVs to ground further limit surges in the remote power supply return. Single point grounding is at the source. No control or rectifier components have been damaged nor are there any known malfunctions due to sparking up to 80 kV output

Spark Ignition Characteristics of a L02/LCH4 Engine at Altitude Conditions

Science.gov (United States)

Kleinhenz, Julie; Sarmiento, Charles; Marshall, William

2012-01-01

The use of non-toxic propellants in future exploration vehicles would enable safer, more cost effective mission scenarios. One promising "green" alternative to existing hypergols is liquid methane/liquid oxygen. To demonstrate performance and prove feasibility of this propellant combination, a 100lbf LO2/LCH4 engine was developed and tested under the NASA Propulsion and Cryogenic Advanced Development (PCAD) project. Since high ignition energy is a perceived drawback of this propellant combination, a test program was performed to explore ignition performance and reliability versus delivered spark energy. The sensitivity of ignition to spark timing and repetition rate was also examined. Three different exciter units were used with the engine s augmented (torch) igniter. Propellant temperature was also varied within the liquid range. Captured waveforms indicated spark behavior in hot fire conditions was inconsistent compared to the well-behaved dry sparks (in quiescent, room air). The escalating pressure and flow environment increases spark impedance and may at some point compromise an exciter s ability to deliver a spark. Reduced spark energies of these sparks result in more erratic ignitions and adversely affect ignition probability. The timing of the sparks relative to the pressure/flow conditions also impacted the probability of ignition. Sparks occurring early in the flow could trigger ignition with energies as low as 1-6mJ, though multiple, similarly timed sparks of 55-75mJ were required for reliable ignition. An optimum time interval for spark application and ignition coincided with propellant introduction to the igniter and engine. Shifts of ignition timing were manifested by changes in the characteristics of the resulting ignition.

Spark Ignition Characteristics of a LO2/LCH4 Engine at Altitude Conditions

Science.gov (United States)

Kleinhenz, Julie; Sarmiento, Charles; Marshall, William

2012-01-01

The use of non-toxic propellants in future exploration vehicles would enable safer, more cost effective mission scenarios. One promising "green" alternative to existing hypergols is liquid methane/liquid oxygen. To demonstrate performance and prove feasibility of this propellant combination, a 100lbf LO2/LCH4 engine was developed and tested under the NASA Propulsion and Cryogenic Advanced Development (PCAD) project. Since high ignition energy is a perceived drawback of this propellant combination, a test program was performed to explore ignition performance and reliability versus delivered spark energy. The sensitivity of ignition to spark timing and repetition rate was also examined. Three different exciter units were used with the engine's augmented (torch) igniter. Propellant temperature was also varied within the liquid range. Captured waveforms indicated spark behavior in hot fire conditions was inconsistent compared to the well-behaved dry sparks (in quiescent, room air). The escalating pressure and flow environment increases spark impedance and may at some point compromise an exciter.s ability to deliver a spark. Reduced spark energies of these sparks result in more erratic ignitions and adversely affect ignition probability. The timing of the sparks relative to the pressure/flow conditions also impacted the probability of ignition. Sparks occurring early in the flow could trigger ignition with energies as low as 1-6mJ, though multiple, similarly timed sparks of 55-75mJ were required for reliable ignition. An optimum time interval for spark application and ignition coincided with propellant introduction to the igniter and engine. Shifts of ignition timing were manifested by changes in the characteristics of the resulting ignition.

Using SPARK as a Solver for Modelica

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Wetter, Michael; Wetter, Michael; Haves, Philip; Moshier, Michael A.; Sowell, Edward F.

2008-06-30

Modelica is an object-oriented acausal modeling language that is well positioned to become a de-facto standard for expressing models of complex physical systems. To simulate a model expressed in Modelica, it needs to be translated into executable code. For generating run-time efficient code, such a translation needs to employ algebraic formula manipulations. As the SPARK solver has been shown to be competitive for generating such code but currently cannot be used with the Modelica language, we report in this paper how SPARK's symbolic and numerical algorithms can be implemented in OpenModelica, an open-source implementation of a Modelica modeling and simulation environment. We also report benchmark results that show that for our air flow network simulation benchmark, the SPARK solver is competitive with Dymola, which is believed to provide the best solver for Modelica.

SciSpark's SRDD : A Scientific Resilient Distributed Dataset for Multidimensional Data

Science.gov (United States)

Palamuttam, R. S.; Wilson, B. D.; Mogrovejo, R. M.; Whitehall, K. D.; Mattmann, C. A.; McGibbney, L. J.; Ramirez, P.

2015-12-01

Remote sensing data and climate model output are multi-dimensional arrays of massive sizes locked away in heterogeneous file formats (HDF5/4, NetCDF 3/4) and metadata models (HDF-EOS, CF) making it difficult to perform multi-stage, iterative science processing since each stage requires writing and reading data to and from disk. We have developed SciSpark, a robust Big Data framework, that extends ApacheTM Spark for scaling scientific computations. Apache Spark improves the map-reduce implementation in ApacheTM Hadoop for parallel computing on a cluster, by emphasizing in-memory computation, "spilling" to disk only as needed, and relying on lazy evaluation. Central to Spark is the Resilient Distributed Dataset (RDD), an in-memory distributed data structure that extends the functional paradigm provided by the Scala programming language. However, RDDs are ideal for tabular or unstructured data, and not for highly dimensional data. The SciSpark project introduces the Scientific Resilient Distributed Dataset (sRDD), a distributed-computing array structure which supports iterative scientific algorithms for multidimensional data. SciSpark processes data stored in NetCDF and HDF files by partitioning them across time or space and distributing the partitions among a cluster of compute nodes. We show usability and extensibility of SciSpark by implementing distributed algorithms for geospatial operations on large collections of multi-dimensional grids. In particular we address the problem of scaling an automated method for finding Mesoscale Convective Complexes. SciSpark provides a tensor interface to support the pluggability of different matrix libraries. We evaluate performance of the various matrix libraries in distributed pipelines, such as Nd4jTM and BreezeTM. We detail the architecture and design of SciSpark, our efforts to integrate climate science algorithms, parallel ingest and partitioning (sharding) of A-Train satellite observations from model grids. These

Scattering profiles of sparks and combustibility of filter against hot sparks

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tobita, Noriyuki; Okada, Takashi; Kashiro, Kashio

2004-12-01

An event that a pre-filter burned on fire took place in the glove box dismantlement facility of Plutonium Production Facility, on April 21, 2003. The direct cause of this event was considered to be sparks generated by an abrasive wheel cutter, some of which reached the pre-filter and eventually burned the pre-filter. Further investigation revealed that there exist other deficiencies those of which formed indirect causes of the event, i.e., the wheel cutter was used without protective cover and adequate shield against sparks was not installed during the operation. To prevent similar event in the future, following corrective actions were introduced. Wheel cutter will not be used without protective cover; Incombustible pre-filter will be used; Shield will be place at the front of the pre-filter. We have conducted series of experimental tests in order to evaluate and confirm the validity of these corrective actions as well as determine the cause of the fire. This report present the results of these tests. (author)

Sintering, consolidation, reaction and crystal growth by the spark plasma system (SPS)

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Omori, M. [Tohoku Univ., Sendai (Japan). Inst. for Materials Research

2000-08-15

The graphite die set in spark plasma system (SPS) is heated by a pulse direct current. Weak plasma, discharge impact, electric field and electric current, which are based on this current, induce good effects on materials in the die. The surface films of aluminum and pure WC powders are ruptured by the spark plasma. Pure AlN powder is sintered without sintering additives in the electric field. The spark plasma leaves discharge patterns on insulators. Organic fibers are etched by the spark plasma. Thermosetting polyimide is consolidated by the spark plasma. Insoluble polymonomethylsilane is rearranged into the soluble one by the spark plasma. A single crystal of CoSb{sub 3} is grown from the compound powders in the electric field by slow heating. Coupled crystals of eutectic powder are connected with each other in the electric field. (orig.)

SPARK Version 1.1 user manual

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Weissenburger, D.W.

1988-01-01

This manual describes the input required to use Version 1.1 of the SPARK computer code. SPARK 1.1 is a library of FORTRAN main programs and subprograms designed to calculate eddy currents on conducting surfaces where current flow is assumed zero in the direction normal to the surface. Surfaces are modeled with triangular and/or quadrilateral elements. Lorentz forces produced by the interaction of eddy currents with background magnetic fields can be output at element nodes in a form compatible with most structural analysis codes. In addition, magnetic fields due to eddy currents can be determined at points off the surface. Version 1.1 features eddy current streamline plotting with optional hidden-surface-removal graphics and topological enhancements that allow essentially any orientable surface to be modeled. SPARK also has extensive symmetry specification options. In order to make the manual as self-contained as possible, six appendices are included that present summaries of the symmetry options, topological options, coil options and code algorithms, with input and output examples. An edition of SPARK 1.1 is available on the Cray computers at the National Magnetic Fusion Energy Computer Center at Livermore, California. Another more generic edition is operational on the VAX computers at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory and is available on magnetic tape by request. The generic edition requires either the GKS or PLOT10 graphics package and the IMSL or NAG mathematical package. Requests from outside the United States will be subject to applicable federal regulations regarding dissemination of computer programs. 22 refs

SPARK Version 1. 1 user manual

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Weissenburger, D.W.

1988-01-01

This manual describes the input required to use Version 1.1 of the SPARK computer code. SPARK 1.1 is a library of FORTRAN main programs and subprograms designed to calculate eddy currents on conducting surfaces where current flow is assumed zero in the direction normal to the surface. Surfaces are modeled with triangular and/or quadrilateral elements. Lorentz forces produced by the interaction of eddy currents with background magnetic fields can be output at element nodes in a form compatible with most structural analysis codes. In addition, magnetic fields due to eddy currents can be determined at points off the surface. Version 1.1 features eddy current streamline plotting with optional hidden-surface-removal graphics and topological enhancements that allow essentially any orientable surface to be modeled. SPARK also has extensive symmetry specification options. In order to make the manual as self-contained as possible, six appendices are included that present summaries of the symmetry options, topological options, coil options and code algorithms, with input and output examples. An edition of SPARK 1.1 is available on the Cray computers at the National Magnetic Fusion Energy Computer Center at Livermore, California. Another more generic edition is operational on the VAX computers at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory and is available on magnetic tape by request. The generic edition requires either the GKS or PLOT10 graphics package and the IMSL or NAG mathematical package. Requests from outside the United States will be subject to applicable federal regulations regarding dissemination of computer programs. 22 refs.

INFLUENCE OF ELECTRIC SPARK ON HARDNESS OF CARBON STEEL

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

I. O. Vakulenko

2014-03-01

Full Text Available Purpose. The purpose of work is an estimation of influence of an electric spark treatment on the state of mouldable superficial coverage of carbon steel. Methodology. The steel of fragment of railway wheel rim served as material for research with chemical composition 0.65% С, 0.67% Mn, 0.3% Si, 0.027% P, 0.028% S. Structural researches were conducted with the use of light microscopy and methods of quantitative metallography. The structural state of the probed steel corresponded to the state after hot plastic deformation. The analysis of hardness distribution in the micro volumes of cathode metal was carried out with the use of microhardness tester of type of PMT-3. An electric spark treatment of carbon steel surface was executed with the use of equipment type of EFI-25M. Findings. After electric spark treatment of specimen surface from carbon steel the forming of multi-layered coverage was observed. The analysis of microstructure found out the existence of high-quality distinctions in the internal structure of coverage metal, depending on the probed area. The results obtained in the process are confirmed by the well-known theses, that forming of superficial coverage according to technology of electric spark is determined by the terms of transfer and crystallization of metal. The gradient of structures on the coverage thickness largely depends on development of structural transformation processes similar to the thermal character influence. Originality. As a result of electric spark treatment on the condition of identical metal of anode and cathode, the first formed layer of coverage corresponds to the monophase state according to external signs. In the volume of coverage metal, the appearance of carbide phase particles is accompanied by the decrease of microhardness values. Practical value. Forming of multi-layered superficial coverage during electric spark treatment is accompanied by the origin of structure gradient on a thickness. The effect

A miniature spark counter for public communication and education

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mao, C.H.; Weng, P.S.

1987-01-01

The fabrication of a miniature spark counter for public communication and education using naturally occurring radon as a radioactive source without involving any man-made radioactivity is described. The battery-powered miniature spark counter weighs 2.07 kg with a volume of 4.844 x 10/sup -4/ m/sup 3/. The circuitry consists of seven major components: timer, high-voltage power supply, attenuator, noninverting amplifier, low-pass filter, one-shot generator, and counter. Cellulose nitrate films irradiated with alpha particles from radon emanating from soil were etched and counted. The visible sparks during counting are rather heuristic, which can be used to demonstrate naturally occurring radioactivity in classrooms or showplaces

Exploring the Performance of Spark for a Scientific Use Case

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Sehrish, Saba [Fermilab; Kowalkowski, Jim [Fermilab; Paterno, Marc [Fermilab

2016-01-01

We present an evaluation of the performance of a Spark implementation of a classification algorithm in the domain of High Energy Physics (HEP). Spark is a general engine for in-memory, large-scale data processing, and is designed for applications where similar repeated analysis is performed on the same large data sets. Classification problems are one of the most common and critical data processing tasks across many domains. Many of these data processing tasks are both computation- and data-intensive, involving complex numerical computations employing extremely large data sets. We evaluated the performance of the Spark implementation on Cori, a NERSC resource, and compared the results to an untuned MPI implementation of the same algorithm. While the Spark implementation scaled well, it is not competitive in speed to our MPI implementation, even when using significantly greater computational resources.

Knock investigation by flame and radical species detection in spark ignition engine for different fuels

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Merola, Simona S.; Vaglieco, Bianca M.

2007-01-01

The present paper aims to evaluate the phenomena of normal combustion and knocking in a single cylinder, ported fuel injection, four-stroke spark-ignition engine with a four-valve production head. All the measurements were realized in an optically accessible engine equipped with a wide quartz window in the bottom of the chamber. The study was carried out using optical techniques based on flame natural emission imaging and spectroscopy from UV to visible. Radical species such as OH and HCO were detected and correlated to the onset and the duration of knock and presence of hot-spots in end-gas. Measurements were carried out at 1000 rpm with wide-open throttle and stoichiometric mixture. Pure iso-octane, suitable mixtures of iso-octane and n-heptane and commercial gasoline were used

Measurements of Radon Concentration in Yemen Using Spark Counter

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Arafa, W.; Abou-Leila, M.; Hafiz, M.E.; Al-Glal, N.

2011-01-01

Spark counter has been designed and realized and the optimum applied voltage was found to be 600 V. Excellent consistent agreements was observed between counted number of tracks by spark counter and reading by optical microscope. Radon concentration in some houses in Sana'a and Hodeidah cities in Yemen had been performed using LR-115 SSNTD and spark counter system. The average radon concentration in both cities was far lower the alert value. The results showed that radon concentration in the metropolitan area Sana'a was higher than that in Hodeidah city. Also, it was observed that old residential houses had higher levels of radon concentrations have compared to newly built houses in the metropolitan area Sana'a

Neutron bursts from long laboratory sparks

Science.gov (United States)

Kochkin, P.; Lehtinen, N. G.; Montanya, J.; Van Deursen, A.; Ostgaard, N.

2016-12-01

Neutron emission in association with thunderstorms and lightning discharges was reported by different investigators from ground-based observation platforms. In both cases such emission is explained by photonuclear reaction, since high-energy gamma-rays in sufficient fluxes are routinely detected from both, lightning and thunderclouds. The required gamma-rays are presumably generated by high-energy electrons in Bremsstrahlung process after their acceleration via cold and/or relativistic runaway mechanisms. This phenomenon attracted moderate scientific attention until fast neutron bursts (up to 10 MeV) from long 1 MV laboratory sparks have been reported. Clearly, with such relatively low applied voltage the electrons are unable to accelerate to the energies required for photo/electro disintegration. Moreover, all known elementary neutron generation processes are not capable to explain this emission right away. We performed an independent laboratory experiment on long sparks with the aim to confirm or disprove the neutron emission from them. The experimental setup was assembled at High-Voltage Laboratory in Barcelona and contained a Marx generator in a cone-cone spark gap configuration. The applied voltage was as low as 800 kV and the gap distance was only 60 cm. Two ns-fast cameras were located near the gap capturing short-exposure images of the pre-breakdown phenomenon at the expected neutron generation time. A plastic scintillation detector sensitive to neutrons was covered in 11 cm of lead and placed near the spark gap. The detector was calibrated and showed good performance in neutron detection. Apart of it, voltage, currents through both electrodes, and three X-ray detectors were also monitored in sophisticated measuring system. We will give an overview of the previous experimental and theoretical work in this topic, and present the results of our new experimental campaign. The conclusions are based on good signal-to-noise ratio measurements and are

Controlling spark timing for consecutive cycles to reduce the cyclic variations of SI engines

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kaleli, Alirıza; Ceviz, Mehmet Akif; Erenturk, Köksal

2015-01-01

Minimization of the cyclic variations is one of the most important design goal for spark-ignited engines. Primary motivation of this study is to reduce the cyclic variations in spark ignition engines by controlling the spark timing for consecutive cycles. A stochastic model was performed between spark timing and in–cylinder maximum pressure by using the system identification techniques. The incylinder maximum pressure of the next cycle was predicted with this model. Minimum variance and generalized minimum variance controllers were designed to regulate the in–cylinder maximum pressure by changing the spark timing for consecutive cycles of the test engine. The produced control algorithms were built in LabView environment and installed to the Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA) chassis. According to the test results, the in–cylinder maximum pressure of the next pressure cycle can be predicted fairly well, and the spark timing can be regulated to keep the in–cylinder maximum pressure in a desired band to reduce the cyclic variations. At fixed spark timing experiments, the COV Pmax and COV imep were 3.764 and 0.677%, whereas they decreased to 3.208 and 0.533% when GMV controller was applied, respectively. - Highlights: • Cycle per cycle spark timing control was carried out. • A stochastic process model was described between P max and the spark timing. • The cyclic variations in P max was decreased by keeping it in a desired band. • Different controllers were used to adjust spark timing signal of the next cycle. • COV Pmax was decreased by about 15% by using GMV controller

Effects of tetracaine on voltage-activated calcium sparks in frog intact skeletal muscle fibers.

Science.gov (United States)

Hollingworth, Stephen; Chandler, W Knox; Baylor, Stephen M

2006-03-01

The properties of Ca(2+) sparks in frog intact skeletal muscle fibers depolarized with 13 mM [K(+)] Ringer's are well described by a computational model with a Ca(2+) source flux of amplitude 2.5 pA (units of current) and duration 4.6 ms (18 degrees C; Model 2 of Baylor et al., 2002). This result, in combination with the values of single-channel Ca(2+) current reported for ryanodine receptors (RyRs) in bilayers under physiological ion conditions, 0.5 pA (Kettlun et al., 2003) to 2 pA (Tinker et al., 1993), suggests that 1-5 RyR Ca(2+) release channels open during a voltage-activated Ca(2+) spark in an intact fiber. To distinguish between one and greater than one channel per spark, sparks were measured in 8 mM [K(+)] Ringer's in the absence and presence of tetracaine, an inhibitor of RyR channel openings in bilayers. The most prominent effect of 75-100 microM tetracaine was an approximately sixfold reduction in spark frequency. The remaining sparks showed significant reductions in the mean values of peak amplitude, decay time constant, full duration at half maximum (FDHM), full width at half maximum (FWHM), and mass, but not in the mean value of rise time. Spark properties in tetracaine were simulated with an updated spark model that differed in minor ways from our previous model. The simulations show that (a) the properties of sparks in tetracaine are those expected if tetracaine reduces the number of active RyR Ca(2+) channels per spark, and (b) the single-channel Ca(2+) current of an RyR channel is normal voltage-activated sparks (i.e., in the absence of tetracaine) are produced by two or more active RyR Ca(2+) channels. The question of how the activation of multiple RyRs is coordinated is discussed.

Erosion on spark plug electrodes; Funkenerosion an Zuendkerzenelektroden

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Rager, J.

2006-07-01

Durability of spark plugs is mainly determined by spark gap widening, caused by electrode wear. Knowledge about the erosion mechanisms of spark plug materials is of fundamental interest for the development of materials with a high resistance against electrode erosion. It is therefore crucial to identify those parameters which significantly influence the erosion behaviour of a material. In this work, a reliable and reproducible testing method is presented which produces and characterizes electrode wear under well-defined conditions and which is capable of altering parameters specifically. Endurance tests were carried out to study the dependence of the wear behaviour of pure nickel and platinum on the electrode temperature, gas, electrode gap, electrode diameter, atmospheric pressure, and partial pressure of oxygen. It was shown that erosion under nitrogen is negligible, irrespective of the material. This disproves all common mechanism discussed in the literature explaining material loss of spark plug electrodes. Based on this observation and the variation of the mentioned parameters a new erosion model was deduced. This relies on an oxidation of the electrode material and describes the erosion of nickel and platinum separately. For nickel, electrode wear is caused by the removal of an oxide layer by the spark. In the case of platinum, material loss occurs due to the plasma-assisted formation and subsequent evaporation of volatile oxides in the cathode spot. On the basis of this mechanism a new composite material was developed whose erosion resistance is superior to pure platinum. Oxidation resistant metal oxide particles were added to a platinum matrix, thus leading to a higher erosion resistance of the composite. However, this can be decreased by a side reaction, the separation of oxygen from the metal oxides, which effectively assists the oxidation of the matrix. This reaction can be suppressed by using highly stable oxides, characterized by a large negative Gibbs

Contribution to the study of an lpg jet in the combustion chamber of a spark-ignition engine; Contribution a l'etude d'un jet de gpl dans la chambre de combustion d'un moteur a allumage commande, pour differentes strategies d'injection

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Duong Viet, D.

2002-07-01

It appears tempting to combine the less polluting combustion of LPG with the energy performances of a direct injection spark-ignition engine. To this aim the study of high pressure injection of a liquid LPG jet, directly inside the combustion chamber of an engine was performed in two ways: Experimental studies: one with fast cinematography and another with the method of Doppler phases in an one-cylinder 'transparent' engine for various conditions of injection and without combustion. They respectively deliver empirical laws for the jet development and some informations about size and speed of the droplets of LPG. A modeling of the jet could then be made on the basis of a turbulent and deviated jet the parameters of which could be adjusted using results of the preceding experimental study. (author)

The Results of a Randomized Control Trial Evaluation of the SPARK Literacy Program

Science.gov (United States)

Jones, Curtis J.; Christian, Michael; Rice, Andrew

2016-01-01

The purpose of this report is to present the results of a two-year randomized control trial evaluation of the SPARK literacy program. SPARK is an early grade literacy program developed by Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Milwaukee. In 2010, SPARK was awarded an Investing in Innovation (i3) Department of Education grant to further develop the…

Nanosecond repetitively pulsed discharges in air at atmospheric pressure-the spark regime

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pai, David Z; Lacoste, Deanna A; Laux, Christophe O

2010-01-01

Nanosecond repetitively pulsed (NRP) spark discharges have been studied in atmospheric pressure air preheated to 1000 K. Measurements of spark initiation and stability, plasma dynamics, gas temperature and current-voltage characteristics of the spark regime are presented. Using 10 ns pulses applied repetitively at 30 kHz, we find that 2-400 pulses are required to initiate the spark, depending on the applied voltage. Furthermore, about 30-50 pulses are required for the spark discharge to reach steady state, following initiation. Based on space- and time-resolved optical emission spectroscopy, the spark discharge in steady state is found to ignite homogeneously in the discharge gap, without evidence of an initial streamer. Using measured emission from the N 2 (C-B) 0-0 band, it is found that the gas temperature rises by several thousand Kelvin in the span of about 30 ns following the application of the high-voltage pulse. Current-voltage measurements show that up to 20-40 A of conduction current is generated, which corresponds to an electron number density of up to 10 15 cm -3 towards the end of the high-voltage pulse. The discharge dynamics, gas temperature and electron number density are consistent with a streamer-less spark that develops homogeneously through avalanche ionization in volume. This occurs because the pre-ionization electron number density of about 10 11 cm -3 produced by the high frequency train of pulses is above the critical density for streamer-less discharge development, which is shown to be about 10 8 cm -3 .

Nanosecond repetitively pulsed discharges in air at atmospheric pressure—the spark regime

Science.gov (United States)

Pai, David Z.; Lacoste, Deanna A.; Laux, Christophe O.

2010-12-01

Nanosecond repetitively pulsed (NRP) spark discharges have been studied in atmospheric pressure air preheated to 1000 K. Measurements of spark initiation and stability, plasma dynamics, gas temperature and current-voltage characteristics of the spark regime are presented. Using 10 ns pulses applied repetitively at 30 kHz, we find that 2-400 pulses are required to initiate the spark, depending on the applied voltage. Furthermore, about 30-50 pulses are required for the spark discharge to reach steady state, following initiation. Based on space- and time-resolved optical emission spectroscopy, the spark discharge in steady state is found to ignite homogeneously in the discharge gap, without evidence of an initial streamer. Using measured emission from the N2 (C-B) 0-0 band, it is found that the gas temperature rises by several thousand Kelvin in the span of about 30 ns following the application of the high-voltage pulse. Current-voltage measurements show that up to 20-40 A of conduction current is generated, which corresponds to an electron number density of up to 1015 cm-3 towards the end of the high-voltage pulse. The discharge dynamics, gas temperature and electron number density are consistent with a streamer-less spark that develops homogeneously through avalanche ionization in volume. This occurs because the pre-ionization electron number density of about 1011 cm-3 produced by the high frequency train of pulses is above the critical density for streamer-less discharge development, which is shown to be about 108 cm-3.

Nanosecond repetitively pulsed discharges in air at atmospheric pressure-the spark regime

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Pai, David Z; Lacoste, Deanna A; Laux, Christophe O [Laboratoire EM2C, CNRS UPR288, Ecole Centrale Paris, 92295 Chatenay-Malabry (France)

2010-12-15

Nanosecond repetitively pulsed (NRP) spark discharges have been studied in atmospheric pressure air preheated to 1000 K. Measurements of spark initiation and stability, plasma dynamics, gas temperature and current-voltage characteristics of the spark regime are presented. Using 10 ns pulses applied repetitively at 30 kHz, we find that 2-400 pulses are required to initiate the spark, depending on the applied voltage. Furthermore, about 30-50 pulses are required for the spark discharge to reach steady state, following initiation. Based on space- and time-resolved optical emission spectroscopy, the spark discharge in steady state is found to ignite homogeneously in the discharge gap, without evidence of an initial streamer. Using measured emission from the N{sub 2} (C-B) 0-0 band, it is found that the gas temperature rises by several thousand Kelvin in the span of about 30 ns following the application of the high-voltage pulse. Current-voltage measurements show that up to 20-40 A of conduction current is generated, which corresponds to an electron number density of up to 10{sup 15} cm{sup -3} towards the end of the high-voltage pulse. The discharge dynamics, gas temperature and electron number density are consistent with a streamer-less spark that develops homogeneously through avalanche ionization in volume. This occurs because the pre-ionization electron number density of about 10{sup 11} cm{sup -3} produced by the high frequency train of pulses is above the critical density for streamer-less discharge development, which is shown to be about 10{sup 8} cm{sup -3}.

SparkText: Biomedical Text Mining on Big Data Framework.

Science.gov (United States)

Ye, Zhan; Tafti, Ahmad P; He, Karen Y; Wang, Kai; He, Max M

Many new biomedical research articles are published every day, accumulating rich information, such as genetic variants, genes, diseases, and treatments. Rapid yet accurate text mining on large-scale scientific literature can discover novel knowledge to better understand human diseases and to improve the quality of disease diagnosis, prevention, and treatment. In this study, we designed and developed an efficient text mining framework called SparkText on a Big Data infrastructure, which is composed of Apache Spark data streaming and machine learning methods, combined with a Cassandra NoSQL database. To demonstrate its performance for classifying cancer types, we extracted information (e.g., breast, prostate, and lung cancers) from tens of thousands of articles downloaded from PubMed, and then employed Naïve Bayes, Support Vector Machine (SVM), and Logistic Regression to build prediction models to mine the articles. The accuracy of predicting a cancer type by SVM using the 29,437 full-text articles was 93.81%. While competing text-mining tools took more than 11 hours, SparkText mined the dataset in approximately 6 minutes. This study demonstrates the potential for mining large-scale scientific articles on a Big Data infrastructure, with real-time update from new articles published daily. SparkText can be extended to other areas of biomedical research.

Multi-spark discharge system for preparation of nutritious water

Science.gov (United States)

Nakaso, Tetsushi; Harigai, Toru; Kusumawan, Sholihatta Aziz; Shimomura, Tomoya; Tanimoto, Tsuyoshi; Suda, Yoshiyuki; Takikawa, Hirofumi

2018-01-01

The nitrogen compound concentration in water is increased by atmospheric-pressure plasma discharge treatment. A rod-to-water electrode discharge treatment system using plasma discharge has been developed by our group to obtain water with a high concentration of nitrogen compounds, and this plasma-treated water improves the growth of chrysanthemum roots. However, it is difficult to apply the system to the agriculture because the amount of treated water obtained by using the system too small. In this study, a multi-spark discharge system (MSDS) equipped multiple spark plugs is presented to obtain a large amount of plasma-treated water. The MSDS consisted of inexpensive parts in order to reduce the system introduction cost for agriculture. To suppress the temperature increase of the spark plugs, the 9 spark plugs were divided into 3 groups, which were discharged in order. The plasma-treated water with a NO3- concentration of 50 mg/L was prepared using the MSDS for 90 min, and the treatment efficiency was about 6 times higher than that of our previous system. It was confirmed that the NO2-, O3, and H2O2 concentrations in the water were also increased by treating the water using the MSDS.

Development of a SPARK Training Dataset

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sayre, Amanda M.; Olson, Jarrod R.

2015-01-01

In its first five years, the National Nuclear Security Administration's (NNSA) Next Generation Safeguards Initiative (NGSI) sponsored more than 400 undergraduate, graduate, and post-doctoral students in internships and research positions (Wyse 2012). In the past seven years, the NGSI program has, and continues to produce a large body of scientific, technical, and policy work in targeted core safeguards capabilities and human capital development activities. Not only does the NGSI program carry out activities across multiple disciplines, but also across all U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)/NNSA locations in the United States. However, products are not readily shared among disciplines and across locations, nor are they archived in a comprehensive library. Rather, knowledge of NGSI-produced literature is localized to the researchers, clients, and internal laboratory/facility publication systems such as the Electronic Records and Information Capture Architecture (ERICA) at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL). There is also no incorporated way of analyzing existing NGSI literature to determine whether the larger NGSI program is achieving its core safeguards capabilities and activities. A complete library of NGSI literature could prove beneficial to a cohesive, sustainable, and more economical NGSI program. The Safeguards Platform for Automated Retrieval of Knowledge (SPARK) has been developed to be a knowledge storage, retrieval, and analysis capability to capture safeguards knowledge to exist beyond the lifespan of NGSI. During the development process, it was necessary to build a SPARK training dataset (a corpus of documents) for initial entry into the system and for demonstration purposes. We manipulated these data to gain new information about the breadth of NGSI publications, and they evaluated the science-policy interface at PNNL as a practical demonstration of SPARK's intended analysis capability. The analysis demonstration sought to answer

2-Methylfuran: A bio-derived octane booster for spark-ignition engines

KAUST Repository

Sarathy, Mani; Shankar, Vijai; Tripathi, Rupali; Pitsch, Heinz; Sarathy, Mani

2018-01-01

The efficiency of spark-ignition engines is limited by the phenomenon of knock, which is caused by auto-ignition of the fuel-air mixture ahead of the spark-initiated flame front. The resistance of a fuel to knock is quantified by its octane index

A note on preserving the spark of a matrix

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Marcin Skrzynski

2015-05-01

Full Text Available Let Mm× n(F be the vector space of all m× n matrices over a field F. In the case where m ≥ n, char (F ≠ 2 and F has at least five elements, we give a complete characterization of linear maps Φ : Mm× n(F → Mm× n(F such that spark(Φ (A = spark(A for any A ∈ Mm× n(F.

Experimental study of a spark-gap

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bruzzone, H.; Moreno, C.; Vieytes, R.

1990-01-01

Some experimental results concerning to the resistance of an atmospheric pressure spark-gap, operating in the self breakdown regime are presented. The influence of the energy discharging through the gap on this resistance is discussed. (Author)

Measurements of some parameters of thermal sparks with respect to their ability to ignite aviation fuel/air mixtures

Science.gov (United States)

Haigh, S. J.; Hardwick, C. J.; Baldwin, R. E.

1991-01-01

A method used to generate thermal sparks for experimental purposes and methods by which parameters of the sparks, such as speed, size, and temperature, were measured are described. Values are given of the range of such parameters within these spark showers. Titanium sparks were used almost exclusively, since it is particles of this metal which are found to be ejected during simulation tests to carbon fiber composite (CFC) joints. Tests were then carried out in which titanium sparks and spark showers were injected into JP4/(AVTAG F40) mixtures with air. Single large sparks and dense showers of small sparks were found to be capable of causing ignition. Tests were then repeated using ethylene/air mixtures, which were found to be more easily ignited by thermal sparks than the JP4/ air mixtures.

Damping Resonant Current in a Spark-Gap Trigger Circuit to Reduce Noise

Science.gov (United States)

2009-06-01

DAMPING RESONANT CURRENT IN A SPARK- GAP TRIGGER CIRCUIT TO REDUCE NOISE E. L. Ruden Air Force Research Laboratory, Directed Energy Directorate, AFRL...REPORT TYPE N/A 3. DATES COVERED - 4. TITLE AND SUBTITLE Damping Resonant Current In A Spark- Gap Trigger Circuit To Reduce Noise 5a...thereby triggering 2 after delay 0, is 1. Each of the two rail- gaps (represented by 2) is trig- gered to close after the spark- gap (1) in the

Spark PRM: Using RRTs within PRMs to efficiently explore narrow passages

KAUST Repository

Shi, Kensen; Denny, Jory; Amato, Nancy M.

2014-01-01

© 2014 IEEE. Probabilistic RoadMaps (PRMs) have been successful for many high-dimensional motion planning problems. However, they encounter difficulties when mapping narrow passages. While many PRM sampling methods have been proposed to increase the proportion of samples within narrow passages, such difficult planning areas still pose many challenges. We introduce a novel algorithm, Spark PRM, that sparks the growth of Rapidly-expanding Random Trees (RRTs) from narrow passage samples generated by a PRM. The RRT rapidly generates further narrow passage samples, ideally until the passage is fully mapped. After reaching a terminating condition, the tree stops growing and is added to the roadmap. Spark PRM is a general method that can be applied to all PRM variants. We study the benefits of Spark PRM with a variety of sampling strategies in a wide array of environments. We show significant speedups in computation time over RRT, Sampling-based Roadmap of Trees (SRT), and various PRM variants.

Spark PRM: Using RRTs within PRMs to efficiently explore narrow passages

KAUST Repository

Shi, Kensen

2014-05-01

© 2014 IEEE. Probabilistic RoadMaps (PRMs) have been successful for many high-dimensional motion planning problems. However, they encounter difficulties when mapping narrow passages. While many PRM sampling methods have been proposed to increase the proportion of samples within narrow passages, such difficult planning areas still pose many challenges. We introduce a novel algorithm, Spark PRM, that sparks the growth of Rapidly-expanding Random Trees (RRTs) from narrow passage samples generated by a PRM. The RRT rapidly generates further narrow passage samples, ideally until the passage is fully mapped. After reaching a terminating condition, the tree stops growing and is added to the roadmap. Spark PRM is a general method that can be applied to all PRM variants. We study the benefits of Spark PRM with a variety of sampling strategies in a wide array of environments. We show significant speedups in computation time over RRT, Sampling-based Roadmap of Trees (SRT), and various PRM variants.

Phase characterisation in spark plasma sintered TiPt alloy

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Chikosha, S

2011-12-01

Full Text Available stream_source_info chikosha_2011.pdf.txt stream_content_type text/plain stream_size 4354 Content-Encoding UTF-8 stream_name chikosha_2011.pdf.txt Content-Type text/plain; charset=UTF-8 PHASE CHARACTERISATION IN SPARK... to form “necks”  Radiant Joule heat and pressure drives “neck” growth and material transfer © CSIR 2006 www.csir.co.za Page 6 Objective  Produce TiPt alloy compacts by Spark plasma sintering (SPS) of equiatomic...

Development of 2024 AA-Yttrium composites by Spark Plasma Sintering

Science.gov (United States)

Vidyasagar, CH S.; Karunakar, D. B.

2018-04-01

The method of fabrication of MMNCs is quite a challenge, which includes advanced processing techniques like Spark Plasma Sintering (SPS), etc. The objective of the present work is to fabricate aluminium based MMNCs with the addition of small amounts of yttrium using Spark Plasma Sintering and to evaluate their mechanical and microstructure properties. Samples of 2024 AA with yttrium ranging from 0.1% to 0.5 wt% are fabricated by Spark Plasma Sintering (SPS). Hardness of the samples is determined using Vickers hardness testing machine. The metallurgical characterization of the samples is evaluated by Optical Microscopy (OM), Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FE-SEM). Unreinforced 2024 AA sample is also fabricated as a benchmark to compare its properties with those of the composite developed. It is found that the yttrium addition increases the above mentioned properties by altering the precipitation kinetics and intermetallic formation to some extent and then decreases gradually when yttrium wt% increases beyond 0.3 wt%. High density (˂ 99.75) is achieved in the samples and highest hardness achieved is 114 Hv, fabricated by spark plasma sintering and uniform distribution of yttrium is observed.

Experimental evaluation of a spark-ignited engine using biogas as fuel

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Juan Miguel Mantilla González

2008-05-01

Full Text Available Different CH4 and CO2 mixtures were used as fuel in this work; they were fed into a spark-ignited engine equipped with devices allowing spark advance, gas delivery and gas consumption to be measured. Engine bench-tests re-vealed changes in the main operation parameters and emissions. The results showed that increasing CO2 percen-tage in the mixture increased the spark angle, reduced maximum power and torque and reduced exhaust emissions (by 90% in some cases when DAMA resolution 1015/2005 was applied. The main components to be considered when an engine of this type operates with gas fuel were also recognised.

SparkText: Biomedical Text Mining on Big Data Framework

Science.gov (United States)

He, Karen Y.; Wang, Kai

2016-01-01

Background Many new biomedical research articles are published every day, accumulating rich information, such as genetic variants, genes, diseases, and treatments. Rapid yet accurate text mining on large-scale scientific literature can discover novel knowledge to better understand human diseases and to improve the quality of disease diagnosis, prevention, and treatment. Results In this study, we designed and developed an efficient text mining framework called SparkText on a Big Data infrastructure, which is composed of Apache Spark data streaming and machine learning methods, combined with a Cassandra NoSQL database. To demonstrate its performance for classifying cancer types, we extracted information (e.g., breast, prostate, and lung cancers) from tens of thousands of articles downloaded from PubMed, and then employed Naïve Bayes, Support Vector Machine (SVM), and Logistic Regression to build prediction models to mine the articles. The accuracy of predicting a cancer type by SVM using the 29,437 full-text articles was 93.81%. While competing text-mining tools took more than 11 hours, SparkText mined the dataset in approximately 6 minutes. Conclusions This study demonstrates the potential for mining large-scale scientific articles on a Big Data infrastructure, with real-time update from new articles published daily. SparkText can be extended to other areas of biomedical research. PMID:27685652

SparkText: Biomedical Text Mining on Big Data Framework.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zhan Ye

Full Text Available Many new biomedical research articles are published every day, accumulating rich information, such as genetic variants, genes, diseases, and treatments. Rapid yet accurate text mining on large-scale scientific literature can discover novel knowledge to better understand human diseases and to improve the quality of disease diagnosis, prevention, and treatment.In this study, we designed and developed an efficient text mining framework called SparkText on a Big Data infrastructure, which is composed of Apache Spark data streaming and machine learning methods, combined with a Cassandra NoSQL database. To demonstrate its performance for classifying cancer types, we extracted information (e.g., breast, prostate, and lung cancers from tens of thousands of articles downloaded from PubMed, and then employed Naïve Bayes, Support Vector Machine (SVM, and Logistic Regression to build prediction models to mine the articles. The accuracy of predicting a cancer type by SVM using the 29,437 full-text articles was 93.81%. While competing text-mining tools took more than 11 hours, SparkText mined the dataset in approximately 6 minutes.This study demonstrates the potential for mining large-scale scientific articles on a Big Data infrastructure, with real-time update from new articles published daily. SparkText can be extended to other areas of biomedical research.

Generation of Nanoparticles by Spark Discharge

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Salman Tabrizi, N.

2009-01-01

Spark discharge is a method for producing nanoparticles from conductive materials. Besides the general advantages of nanoparticle synthesis in the gas phase, the method offers additional advantages like simplicity, compactness and versatility. The synthesis process is continuous and is performed at

Spark Ignition LPG for Hydrogen Gas Combustion the Reduction Furnace ME-11 Process

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Achmad Suntoro

2007-01-01

Reverse engineering method for automatic spark-ignition system of LPG to burn hydrogen gaseous in the reducing process of ME-11 furnace has been successfully implemented using local materials. A qualitative study to the initial behaviour of the LPG flame system has created an idea by modification to install an automatic spark-ignition of the LPG on the reducing furnace ME-11. The automatic spark-ignition system has been tested and proved working well. (author)

Experimental Investigation of Augmented Spark Ignition of a LO2/LCH4 Reaction Control Engine at Altitude Conditions

Science.gov (United States)

Kleinhenz, Julie; Sarmiento, Charles; Marshall, William

2012-01-01

The use of nontoxic propellants in future exploration vehicles would enable safer, more cost-effective mission scenarios. One promising green alternative to existing hypergols is liquid methane (LCH4) with liquid oxygen (LO2). A 100 lbf LO2/LCH4 engine was developed under the NASA Propulsion and Cryogenic Advanced Development project and tested at the NASA Glenn Research Center Altitude Combustion Stand in a low pressure environment. High ignition energy is a perceived drawback of this propellant combination; so this ignition margin test program examined ignition performance versus delivered spark energy. Sensitivity of ignition to spark timing and repetition rate was also explored. Three different exciter units were used with the engine s augmented (torch) igniter. Captured waveforms indicated spark behavior in hot fire conditions was inconsistent compared to the well-behaved dry sparks. This suggests that rising pressure and flow rate increase spark impedance and may at some point compromise an exciter s ability to complete each spark. The reduced spark energies of such quenched deliveries resulted in more erratic ignitions, decreasing ignition probability. The timing of the sparks relative to the pressure/flow conditions also impacted the probability of ignition. Sparks occurring early in the flow could trigger ignition with energies as low as 1 to 6 mJ, though multiple, similarly timed sparks of 55 to 75 mJ were required for reliable ignition. Delayed spark application and reduced spark repetition rate both correlated with late and occasional failed ignitions. An optimum time interval for spark application and ignition therefore coincides with propellant introduction to the igniter.

Research on retailer data clustering algorithm based on Spark

Science.gov (United States)

Huang, Qiuman; Zhou, Feng

2017-03-01

Big data analysis is a hot topic in the IT field now. Spark is a high-reliability and high-performance distributed parallel computing framework for big data sets. K-means algorithm is one of the classical partition methods in clustering algorithm. In this paper, we study the k-means clustering algorithm on Spark. Firstly, the principle of the algorithm is analyzed, and then the clustering analysis is carried out on the supermarket customers through the experiment to find out the different shopping patterns. At the same time, this paper proposes the parallelization of k-means algorithm and the distributed computing framework of Spark, and gives the concrete design scheme and implementation scheme. This paper uses the two-year sales data of a supermarket to validate the proposed clustering algorithm and achieve the goal of subdividing customers, and then analyze the clustering results to help enterprises to take different marketing strategies for different customer groups to improve sales performance.

A new spark detection system for the electrostatic septa of the SPS North (experimental) Area

CERN Document Server

Barlow, R A; Borburgh, J; Carlier, E; Chanavat, C; Fowler, T; Pinget, B

2014-01-01

Electrostatic septa (ZS) are used in the extraction of the particle beams from the CERN SPS to the North Area experimental zone. These septa employ high electric fields, generated from a 300 kV power supply, and are particularly prone to internal sparking around the cathode structure. This sparking degrades the electric field quality, consequently affecting the extracted beam, vacuum and equipment performance. To mitigate these effects, a Spark Detection System (SDS) has been realised, which is based on an industrial SIEMENS S7-400 programmable logic controller and deported Boolean processor modules interfaced through a PROFINET fieldbus. The SDS interlock logic uses a moving average spark rate count to determine if the ZS performance is acceptable. Below a certain spark rate it is probable that the ZS septa tank vacuum can recover, thus avoiding transition into a state where rapid degradation would occur. Above this level an interlock is raised and the high voltage is switched off. Additionally, all spark si...

Ultra Fast, High Rep Rate, High Voltage Spark Gap Pulser

Science.gov (United States)

1995-07-01

current rise time. The spark gap was designed to have a coaxial geometry reducing its inductance. Provisions were made to pass flowing gas between the...ULTRA FAST, HIGH REP RATE, HIGH VOLTAGE SPARK GAP PULSER Robert A. Pastore Jr., Lawrence E. Kingsley, Kevin Fonda, Erik Lenzing Electrophysics and...Modeling Branch AMSRL-PS-EA Tel.: (908)-532-0271 FAX: (908)-542-3348 U.S. Army Research Laboratory Physical Sciences Directorate Ft. Monmouth

Spark counting technique of alpha tracks on an aluminium oxide film

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Morishima, Hiroshige; Koga, Taeko; Niwa, Takeo; Kawai, Hiroshi

1984-01-01

We have tried to use aluminium oxide film as a neutron detector film with a spark counter for neutron monitoring in the mixed field of neutron and gamma-rays near a reactor. The merits of this method are that (1) aluminium oxide is good electric insulator, (2) any desired thickness of the film can be prepared, (3) chemical etching of the thin film can be dispensed with. The relation between spark counts and numbers of alpha-particles which entered the aluminium oxide film 1 μm thick was linear in the range of 10 5 -10 7 alpha-particles. The sensitivity(ratio of the spark counts to irradiated numbers of alpha-particles) was approximately 10 -3 . (author)

Spark igniter having precious metal ground electrode inserts

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ryan, N.A.

1988-01-01

This patent describes an igniter comprising a shell of a shell metal alloy which is resistant to spark erosion and corrosion, the shell having a firing end which terminates at its lower end in an annular ring, an insulator sealed within the metal shell and having a central bore and a surface extending inwardly toward the bore from the annular ring, a center electrode sealed within the bore of the insulator and having a firing end which is in spark gap relation with the annular ring of the shell and so positioned that a spark discharge between the firing end and the annular ring occurs along the inwardly extending surface of the insulator, and a plurality of oxidation and erosion resistant inserts, each of the inserts comprising a body of a metal selected from the group consisting of iridium, osmium, ruthenium, rhodium, platinum, and tungsten or an alloy or a ductile alloy of one of the foregoing metals, each of the bodies being embedded within a matching opening which extends from the exterior of the shell through the annular ring, being bonded to the shell

[Significance of various implantate localizations of Sparks prostheses, experimental studies in rats].

Science.gov (United States)

Brieler, H S; Parwaresch, R; Thiede, A

1976-01-01

Our investigations show that Sparks prostheses after subcutaneous implantation are suitable for vascular grafting. At the end of the organization period the connective tissue becomes strong, and after the third and fourth weeks collagenous and elastic fibers can be seen. Ten weeks after s.c. implantation, collagenous fibers predominate. After this the Sparks prostheses can be used as a vascular graft. Intraperitoneal implantation, however, shows a histologically different picture with characteristic findings: only fat cells can be observed, a strong granulation tissue with elastic and collagenous fibers is not present. After intraperitoneal implantation Sparks prostheses are therefore unsuitable for vascular grafts.

Analysis of Plant Breeding on Hadoop and Spark

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Shuangxi Chen

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Analysis of crop breeding technology is one of the important means of computer-assisted breeding techniques which have huge data, high dimensions, and a lot of unstructured data. We propose a crop breeding data analysis platform on Spark. The platform consists of Hadoop distributed file system (HDFS and cluster based on memory iterative components. With this cluster, we achieve crop breeding large data analysis tasks in parallel through API provided by Spark. By experiments and tests of Indica and Japonica rice traits, plant breeding analysis platform can significantly improve the breeding of big data analysis speed, reducing the workload of concurrent programming.

Practice and Exploration of New Rural Construction in West Bank of Taiwan Strait Led by Spark Science and Technology

OpenAIRE

Li, Chaocan

2013-01-01

According to practice and exploration of spark program for 26 years in Quanzhou, the main model and their effects of new rural construction in west bank of Taiwan Strait led by spark science and technology were expounded. Six spark program systems were established, consisting of policy support guide, science and technology project lead, experts’ intelligence support, spark science and technology training, sci-tech information service and spark program demonstration. Five spark projects were...

Apparatus and method for the spectrochemical analysis of liquids using the laser spark

Science.gov (United States)

Cremers, David A.; Radziemski, Leon J.; Loree, Thomas R.

1990-01-01

A method and apparatus for the qualitative and quantitative spectroscopic investigation of elements present in a liquid sample using the laser spark. A series of temporally closely spaced spark pairs is induced in the liquid sample utilizing pulsed electromagnetic radiation from a pair of lasers. The light pulses are not significantly absorbed by the sample so that the sparks occur inside of the liquid. The emitted light from the breakdown events is spectrally and temporally resolved, and the time period between the two laser pulses in each spark pair is adjusted to maximize the signal-to-noise ratio of the emitted signals. In comparison with the single pulse technique, a substantial reduction in the limits of detectability for many elements has been demonstrated. Narrowing of spectral features results in improved discrimination against interfering species.

Investigation of Spark Ignition and Autoignition in Methane and Air Using Computational Fluid Dynamics and Chemical Reaction Kinetics. A numerical Study of Ignition Processes in Internal Combustion Engines

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Nordrik, R.

1993-12-01

The processes in the combustion chamber of internal combustion engines have received increased attention in recent years because their efficiencies are important both economically and environmentally. This doctoral thesis studies the ignition phenomena by means of numerical simulation methods. The fundamental physical relations include flow field conservation equations, thermodynamics, chemical reaction kinetics, transport properties and spark modelling. Special attention is given to the inclusion of chemical kinetics in the flow field equations. Using his No Transport of Radicals Concept method, the author reduces the computational efforts by neglecting the transport of selected intermediate species. The method is validated by comparison with flame propagation data. A computational method is described and used to simulate spark ignition in laminar premixed methane-air mixtures and the autoignition process of a methane bubble surrounded by hot air. The spark ignition simulation agrees well with experimental results from the literature. The autoignition simulation identifies the importance of diffusive and chemical processes acting together. The ignition delay times exceed the experimental values found in the literature for premixed ignition delay, presumably because of the mixing process and lack of information on low temperature reactions in the skeletal kinetic mechanism. Transient turbulent methane jet autoignition is simulated by means of the KIVA-II code. Turbulent combustion is modelled by the Eddy Dissipation Concept. 90 refs., 81 figs., 3 tabs.

Spark discharge and flame inception analysis through spectroscopy in a DISI engine fuelled with gasoline and butanol

Science.gov (United States)

Irimescu, A.; Merola, S. S.

2017-10-01

Extensive application of downsizing, as well as the application of alternative combustion control with respect to well established stoichiometric operation, have determined a continuous increase in the energy that is delivered to the working fluid in order to achieve stable and repeatable ignition. Apart from the complexity of fluid-arc interactions, the extreme thermodynamic conditions of this initial combustion stage make its characterization difficult, both through experimental and numerical techniques. Within this context, the present investigation looks at the analysis of spark discharge and flame kernel formation, through the application of UV-visible spectroscopy. Characterization of the energy transfer from the spark plug’s electrodes to the air-fuel mixture was achieved by the evaluation of vibrational and rotational temperatures during ignition, for stoichiometric and lean fuelling of a direct injection spark ignition engine. Optical accessibility was ensured from below the combustion chamber through an elongated piston design, that allowed the central region of the cylinder to be investigated. Fuel effects were evaluated for gasoline and n-butanol; roughly the same load was investigated in throttled and wide-open throttle conditions for both fuels. A brief thermodynamic analysis confirmed that significant gains in efficiency can be obtained with lean fuelling, mainly due to the reduction of pumping losses. Minimal effect of fuel type was observed, while mixture strength was found to have a stronger influence on calculated temperature values, especially during the initial stage of ignition. In-cylinder pressure was found to directly determine emission intensity during ignition, but the vibrational and rotational temperatures featured reduced dependence on this parameter. As expected, at the end of kernel formation, temperature values converged towards those typically found for adiabatic flames. The results show that indeed only a relatively small part

Development of a SPARK Training Dataset

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Sayre, Amanda M. [Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States); Olson, Jarrod R. [Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)

2015-03-01

In its first five years, the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) Next Generation Safeguards Initiative (NGSI) sponsored more than 400 undergraduate, graduate, and post-doctoral students in internships and research positions (Wyse 2012). In the past seven years, the NGSI program has, and continues to produce a large body of scientific, technical, and policy work in targeted core safeguards capabilities and human capital development activities. Not only does the NGSI program carry out activities across multiple disciplines, but also across all U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)/NNSA locations in the United States. However, products are not readily shared among disciplines and across locations, nor are they archived in a comprehensive library. Rather, knowledge of NGSI-produced literature is localized to the researchers, clients, and internal laboratory/facility publication systems such as the Electronic Records and Information Capture Architecture (ERICA) at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL). There is also no incorporated way of analyzing existing NGSI literature to determine whether the larger NGSI program is achieving its core safeguards capabilities and activities. A complete library of NGSI literature could prove beneficial to a cohesive, sustainable, and more economical NGSI program. The Safeguards Platform for Automated Retrieval of Knowledge (SPARK) has been developed to be a knowledge storage, retrieval, and analysis capability to capture safeguards knowledge to exist beyond the lifespan of NGSI. During the development process, it was necessary to build a SPARK training dataset (a corpus of documents) for initial entry into the system and for demonstration purposes. We manipulated these data to gain new information about the breadth of NGSI publications, and they evaluated the science-policy interface at PNNL as a practical demonstration of SPARK’s intended analysis capability. The analysis demonstration sought to answer the

An innovative system for supplying air and fuel mixture to a combustion chamber of an engine

Science.gov (United States)

Saikumar, G. R. Bharath

2018-04-01

Conventional carburetors are being used since decades to ensure that the desired ratio of air and fuel enters the combustion chamber for combustion for the purpose of generating power in an Spark Ignition(SI) internal combustion engine. However to increase the efficiency, the carburetor system is gradually being replaced by fuel injection systems. Fuel injection systems use injectors to supply pressurized fuel into the combustion chamber. Owing to the high initial and maintenance cost, carburetors are still ruling in the low cost vehicle domain. An innovative concept is conceived, which is an alternative method to the carburetor system to supply the air and fuel mixture to a combustion chamber of an engine. This system comprises of an inner hollow cylinder with minute holes drilled along its length with an outer cylinder capable of sliding along its length or its longitudinal axis. This system is placed in the venturi instead of the conventional carburetor system. Fuel enters from the bottom inlet of the inner cylinder and flows out through the holes provided along its length. The fuel flow from the inner cylinder is dependent on the size and the number of holes exposed at that instance by the sliding outer cylinder which in turn is connected to the throttle or accelerator.

ClimateSpark: An in-memory distributed computing framework for big climate data analytics

Science.gov (United States)

Hu, Fei; Yang, Chaowei; Schnase, John L.; Duffy, Daniel Q.; Xu, Mengchao; Bowen, Michael K.; Lee, Tsengdar; Song, Weiwei

2018-06-01

The unprecedented growth of climate data creates new opportunities for climate studies, and yet big climate data pose a grand challenge to climatologists to efficiently manage and analyze big data. The complexity of climate data content and analytical algorithms increases the difficulty of implementing algorithms on high performance computing systems. This paper proposes an in-memory, distributed computing framework, ClimateSpark, to facilitate complex big data analytics and time-consuming computational tasks. Chunking data structure improves parallel I/O efficiency, while a spatiotemporal index is built for the chunks to avoid unnecessary data reading and preprocessing. An integrated, multi-dimensional, array-based data model (ClimateRDD) and ETL operations are developed to address big climate data variety by integrating the processing components of the climate data lifecycle. ClimateSpark utilizes Spark SQL and Apache Zeppelin to develop a web portal to facilitate the interaction among climatologists, climate data, analytic operations and computing resources (e.g., using SQL query and Scala/Python notebook). Experimental results show that ClimateSpark conducts different spatiotemporal data queries/analytics with high efficiency and data locality. ClimateSpark is easily adaptable to other big multiple-dimensional, array-based datasets in various geoscience domains.

CMS Analysis and Data Reduction with Apache Spark

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Gutsche, Oliver [Fermilab; Canali, Luca [CERN; Cremer, Illia [Magnetic Corp., Waltham; Cremonesi, Matteo [Fermilab; Elmer, Peter [Princeton U.; Fisk, Ian [Flatiron Inst., New York; Girone, Maria [CERN; Jayatilaka, Bo [Fermilab; Kowalkowski, Jim [Fermilab; Khristenko, Viktor [CERN; Motesnitsalis, Evangelos [CERN; Pivarski, Jim [Princeton U.; Sehrish, Saba [Fermilab; Surdy, Kacper [CERN; Svyatkovskiy, Alexey [Princeton U.

2017-10-31

Experimental Particle Physics has been at the forefront of analyzing the world's largest datasets for decades. The HEP community was among the first to develop suitable software and computing tools for this task. In recent times, new toolkits and systems for distributed data processing, collectively called "Big Data" technologies have emerged from industry and open source projects to support the analysis of Petabyte and Exabyte datasets in industry. While the principles of data analysis in HEP have not changed (filtering and transforming experiment-specific data formats), these new technologies use different approaches and tools, promising a fresh look at analysis of very large datasets that could potentially reduce the time-to-physics with increased interactivity. Moreover these new tools are typically actively developed by large communities, often profiting of industry resources, and under open source licensing. These factors result in a boost for adoption and maturity of the tools and for the communities supporting them, at the same time helping in reducing the cost of ownership for the end-users. In this talk, we are presenting studies of using Apache Spark for end user data analysis. We are studying the HEP analysis workflow separated into two thrusts: the reduction of centrally produced experiment datasets and the end-analysis up to the publication plot. Studying the first thrust, CMS is working together with CERN openlab and Intel on the CMS Big Data Reduction Facility. The goal is to reduce 1 PB of official CMS data to 1 TB of ntuple output for analysis. We are presenting the progress of this 2-year project with first results of scaling up Spark-based HEP analysis. Studying the second thrust, we are presenting studies on using Apache Spark for a CMS Dark Matter physics search, comparing Spark's feasibility, usability and performance to the ROOT-based analysis.

SparkJet characterizations in quiescent and supersonic flowfields

Science.gov (United States)

Emerick, T.; Ali, M. Y.; Foster, C.; Alvi, F. S.; Popkin, S.

2014-12-01

The aerodynamic community has studied active flow control actuators for some time, and developments have led to a wide variety of devices with various features and operating mechanisms. The design requirements for a practical actuator used for active flow control include reliable operation, requisite frequency and amplitude modulation capabilities, and a reasonable lifespan while maintaining minimal cost and design complexity. An active flow control device called the SparkJet actuator has been developed for high-speed flight control and incorporates no mechanical/moving parts, zero net mass flux capabilities and the ability to tune the operating frequency and momentum throughput. This actuator utilizes electrical power to deliver high-momentum flow with a very fast response time. The SparkJet actuator was characterized on the benchtop using a laser-based microschlieren visualization technique and maximum blast wave and jet front velocities of ~400 and ~310 m/s were, respectively, measured in the flowfield. An increase in jet front velocity from 240 to 310 m/s during subatmospheric (60 kPa) testing reveals that the actuator may have greater control authority at lower ambient pressures, which correspond to high-altitude flight conditions for air vehicles. A SparkJet array was integrated into a flat plate and tested in a Mach 1.5 crossflow. Phase-conditioned shadowgraph results revealed a maximum flow deflection angle of 5° created by the SparkJet 275 µs after the actuator was triggered in single-shot mode. Burst mode operation of frequencies up to 700 Hz revealed similar results during wind tunnel testing. Following these tests, the actuator trigger mechanism was improved and the ability of the actuator to be discharged in burst mode at a frequency of 1 kHz was achieved.

A new spark detection system for the electrostatic septa of the SPS North (experimental) Area

CERN Multimedia

Barlow, R A; Borburgh, J; Carlier, E; Chanavat, C; Pinget, B

2013-01-01

Electrostatic septa (ZS) are used in the extraction of the particle beams from the CERN SPS to the North Area experimental zone. These septa employ high electric fields, generated from a 300 kV power supply, and are particularly prone to internal sparking around the cathode structure. This sparking degrades the electric field quality, consequently affecting the extracted beam, vacuum and equipment performance. To mitigate these effects, a Spark Detection System (SDS) has been realised, which is based on an industrial SIEMENS S7-400 programmable logic controller and deported Boolean processors modules interfaced through a PROFINET fieldbus. The SDS interlock logic uses a moving average spark rate count to determine if the ZS performance is acceptable. Below a certain spark rate it is probable that the ZS septa tank vacuum can recover, thus avoiding transition into a\

100 kV reliable accurately-synchronized spark gap

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bosamykin, V.S.; Gerasimov, A.I.; Zenkov, D.I.

1987-01-01

100 kV three-electrode spark gap filled with 40% SF 6 +60% N 2 mixture under the pressure of ∼ 1 MPa, which has spread Δt ≤ ± 5 ns of operating time delay in the range of 10 4 triggerings and commutation energy of 2.5 kJ, providing electric strength is 100%, is described; at 10 kJ Δt is less than ± 10 ns for 10 3 triggerings. Parallel connection of 16 groups, each consisting of 5 spark gaps with series connection, electric strength being 100%, in the pulse charging unit of Arkadiev-Marx generator being in operation for several years manifested their high efficiency; mutual group spread is ≤ ± 15 ns

Meter of dynamics of restoring the electrical strength of spark gaps

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kuznetsov, E.A.; Kravchenko, S.A.; Yagnov, V.A.; Shipuk, I.Ya.

1997-01-01

Method for diagnostics of the dynamics spark gap electric strength restoration and an electric device for its realization are described. The electric strength measurement error, conditioned by the breakdown current through electric probes or the contacts of a spark gap under investigation, is reduced to minimum due to fast switching off the probe voltage if the breakdown current exceeds some established value (1 mA). 1 ref

Electro-spark machining of cadmium antimonide

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ivanovskij, V.N.; Stepakhina, K.A.

1975-01-01

Experimental data on electrical erosion of the semiconductor material (cadmium antimonide) alloyed with tellurium are given. The potentialisies and expediency of using the electric-spark method of cutting cadmium antimonide ingots with the resistivity of 1 ohm is discussed. Cutting has been carried out in distilled water and in the air

Gas temperature of capacitance spark discharge in air

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ono, Ryo; Nifuku, Masaharu; Fujiwara, Shuzo; Horiguchi, Sadashige; Oda, Tetsuji

2005-01-01

Capacitance spark discharge has been widely used for studying the ignition of flammable gas caused by electrostatic discharge. In the present study, the gas temperature of capacitance spark discharge is measured. The gas temperature is an important factor in understanding the electrostatic ignition process because it influences the reaction rate of ignition. Spark discharge is generated in air with a pulse duration shorter than 100 ns. The discharge energy is set to 0.03-1 mJ. The rotational and vibrational temperatures of the N 2 molecule are measured using the emission spectrum of the N 2 second positive system. The rotational and vibrational temperatures are estimated to be 500 and 5000 K, respectively, which are independent of the discharge energy. This result indicates that most of the electron energy is consumed in the excitation of vibrational levels of molecules rather than the heating of the gas. The gas temperature after discharge is also measured by laser-induced fluorescence of OH radicals. It is shown that the gas temperature increases after discharge and reaches approximately 1000 K at 3 μs after discharge. Then the temperature decreases at a rate in the range of 8-35 K/μs depending on the discharge energy

The Omega spectrometer

CERN Multimedia

1972-01-01

The Omega spectrometer which came into action during the year. An array of optical spark chambers can be seen withdrawn from the magnet aperture. In the 'igloo' above the magnet is located the Plumbicon camera system which collects information from the spark chambers.

Improving the Tribological Properties of Spark-Anodized Titanium by Magnetron Sputtered Diamond-Like Carbon

OpenAIRE

Zhaoxiang Chen; Xipeng Ren; Limei Ren; Tengchao Wang; Xiaowen Qi; Yulin Yang

2018-01-01

Spark-anodization of titanium can produce adherent and wear-resistant TiO2 film on the surface, but the spark-anodized titanium has lots of surface micro-pores, resulting in an unstable and high friction coefficient against many counterparts. In this study, the diamond-like carbon (DLC) was introduced into the micro-pores of spark-anodized titanium by the magnetron sputtering technique and a TiO2/DLC composite coating was fabricated. The microstructure and tribological properties of TiO2/DLC ...

Modelling of spark to ignition transition in gas mixtures

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Akram, M.

1996-10-01

This thesis pertains to the models for studying sparking in chemically inert gases. The processes taking place in a spark to flame transition can be segregated into physical and chemical processes, and this study is focused on physical processes. The plasma is regarded as a single-substance material. One and two-dimensional models are developed. The transfer of electrical energy into thermal energy of the gas and its redistribution in space and time along with the evolution of a plasma kernel is studied in the time domain ranging from 10 ns to 40 micros. In the case of ultra-fast sparks, the propagation of the shock and its reflection from a rigid wall is presented. The influence of electrode shape and the gap size on the flow structure development is found to be a dominating factor. It is observed that the flow structure that has developed in the early stage more or less prevails at later stages and strongly influences the shape and evolution of the hot kernel. The electrode geometry and configuration are responsible for the development of the flow structure. The strength of the vortices generated in the flow field is influenced by the power input to the gap and their location of emergence is dictated by the electrode shape and configuration. The heat transfer after 2 micros in the case of ultra-fast sparks is dominated by convection and diffusion. The strong mixing produced by hydrodynamic effects and the electrode geometry give the indication that the magnetic pinch effect might be negligible. Finally, a model for a multicomponent gas mixture is presented. The chemical kinetics mechanism for dissociation and ionization is introduced. 56 refs

The relative effects of fuel concentration, residual-gas fraction, gas motion, spark energy and heat losses to the electrodes on flame-kernel development in a lean-burn spark ignition engine

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Aleiferis, P.G.; Taylor, A.M.K.P. [Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, London (United Kingdom). Dept. of Mechanical Engineering; Ishii, K. [Honda International Technical School, Saitama (Japan); Urata, Y. [Honda R and D Co., Ltd., Tochigi (Japan). Tochigi R and D Centre

2004-04-01

The potential of lean combustion for the reduction in exhaust emissions and fuel consumption in spark ignition engines has long been established. However, the operating range of lean-burn spark ignition engines is limited by the level of cyclic variability in the early-flame development stage that typically corresponds to the 0-5 per cent mass fraction burned duration. In the current study, the cyclic variations in early flame development were investigated in an optical stratified-charge spark ignition engine at conditions close to stoichiometry [air-to-fuel ratio (A/F) = 15] and to the lean limit of stable operation (A/F = 22). Flame images were acquired through either a pentroof window ('tumble plane' of view) or the piston crown ('swirl plane' of view) and these were processed to calculate the intra-cycle flame-kernel radius evolution. In order to quantify the relative effects of local fuel concentration, gas motion, spark-energy release and heat losses to the electrodes on the flame-kernel growth rate, a zero-dimensional flame-kernel growth model, in conjunction with a one-dimensional spark ignition model, was employed. Comparison of the calculated flame-radius evolutions with the experimental data suggested that a variation in A/F around the spark plug of {delta}(A/F) {approx} 4 or, in terms of equivalence ratio {phi}, a variation in {delta}{phi} {approx} 0.15 at most was large enough to account for 100 per cent of the observed cyclic variability in flame-kernel radius. A variation in the residual-gas fraction of about 20 per cent around the mean was found to account for up to 30 per cent of the variability in flame-kernel radius at the timing of 5 per cent mass fraction burned. The individual effect of 20 per cent variations in the 'mean' in-cylinder velocity at the spark plug at ignition timing was found to account for no more than 20 per cent of the measured cyclic variability in flame kernel radius. An individual effect of

Programmable spark counter of tracks

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Denisov, A.E.; Nikolaev, V.A.; Vorobjev, I.B.

2005-01-01

For the purpose, a new set-the programmable all-automatic spark counter AIST-4-has been developed and manufactured. Compared to our previous automated spark counter ISTRA, which was operated by the integrated fixed program, the new set is operated completely by a personal computer. The mechanism for pressing and pulling the aluminized foil is put into action by a step motor operated by a microcontroller. The step motor turns an axle. The axle has two eccentrics. One of them moves a pressing plate up and down. The second eccentric moves the aluminized foil by steps of ∼15mm after the end of each pulse counting. One turnover of the axle corresponds to one pulse count cycle. The step motor, the high-voltage block and the pulse count block are operated by the microcontroller PIC 16C84 (Microstar). The set can be operated either manually by keys on the front panel or by a PC using dialogue windows for radon or neutron measurements (for counting of alpha or fission fragment tracks). A number of algorithms are developed: the general procedures, the automatic stopping of the pulse counting, the calibration curve, determination of the count characteristics and elimination of the short circuit in a track

Effect of the SPARK Program on Physical Activity, Cardiorespiratory Endurance, and Motivation in Middle-School Students.

Science.gov (United States)

Fu, You; Gao, Zan; Hannon, James C; Burns, Ryan D; Brusseau, Timothy A

2016-05-01

This study aimed to examine the effect of a 9-week SPARK program on physical activity (PA), cardiorespiratory endurance (Progressive Aerobic Cardiovascular Endurance Run; PACER), and motivation in middle-school students. 174 students attended baseline and posttests and change scores computed for each outcome. A MANOVA was employed to examine change score differences using follow-up ANOVA and Bonferroni post hoc tests. MANOVA yielded a significant interaction for Grade × Gender × Group (Wilks's Λ = 0.89, P interactions with perceived competence differences between SPARK grades 6 and 8 (Mean Δ = 0.38, P < .05), Enjoyment differences between SPARK grades 6 and 7 (Mean Δ = 0.67, P < .001), and SPARK grades 6 and 8 (Mean Δ = 0.81, P < .001). Following the intervention, SPARK displayed greater increases on PA and motivation measures in younger students compared with the Traditional program.

ClimateSpark: An In-memory Distributed Computing Framework for Big Climate Data Analytics

Science.gov (United States)

Hu, F.; Yang, C. P.; Duffy, D.; Schnase, J. L.; Li, Z.

2016-12-01

Massive array-based climate data is being generated from global surveillance systems and model simulations. They are widely used to analyze the environment problems, such as climate changes, natural hazards, and public health. However, knowing the underlying information from these big climate datasets is challenging due to both data- and computing- intensive issues in data processing and analyzing. To tackle the challenges, this paper proposes ClimateSpark, an in-memory distributed computing framework to support big climate data processing. In ClimateSpark, the spatiotemporal index is developed to enable Apache Spark to treat the array-based climate data (e.g. netCDF4, HDF4) as native formats, which are stored in Hadoop Distributed File System (HDFS) without any preprocessing. Based on the index, the spatiotemporal query services are provided to retrieve dataset according to a defined geospatial and temporal bounding box. The data subsets will be read out, and a data partition strategy will be applied to equally split the queried data to each computing node, and store them in memory as climateRDDs for processing. By leveraging Spark SQL and User Defined Function (UDFs), the climate data analysis operations can be conducted by the intuitive SQL language. ClimateSpark is evaluated by two use cases using the NASA Modern-Era Retrospective Analysis for Research and Applications (MERRA) climate reanalysis dataset. One use case is to conduct the spatiotemporal query and visualize the subset results in animation; the other one is to compare different climate model outputs using Taylor-diagram service. Experimental results show that ClimateSpark can significantly accelerate data query and processing, and enable the complex analysis services served in the SQL-style fashion.

Synthesis and characterization of aluminium–alumina micro- and nano-composites by spark plasma sintering

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dash, K.; Chaira, D.; Ray, B.C.

2013-01-01

Graphical abstract: The evolution of microstructure by varying the particle size of reinforcement in the matrix employing spark plasma sintering has been demonstrated here in Al–Al 2 O 3 system. An emphasis has been laid on varying the reinforcement particle size and evaluating the microstructural morphologies and their implications on mechanical performance of the composites. Nanocomposites of 0.5, 1, 3, 5, 7 volume % alumina (average size 2 O 3 micro- and nano-composites fabricated by spark plasma sintering. • Better matrix-reinforcement integrity in nanocomposites than microcomposites. • Spark plasma sintering method results in higher density and hardness values. • High density and hardness values of nanocomposites than microcomposites. • High dislocation density in spark plasma sintered Al–Al 2 O 3 composites. - Abstract: In the present study, an emphasis has been laid on evaluation of the microstructural morphologies and their implications on mechanical performance of the composites by varying the reinforcement particle size. Nanocomposites of 0.5, 1, 3, 5, 7 volume % alumina (average size 2 O 3 nancomposites respectively. Spark plasma sintering imparts enhanced densification and matrix-reinforcement proximity which have been corroborated with the experimental results

Possibility of surface carburization of refractory metals of electric spark alloying

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Verkhoturov, A.D.; Isaeva, L.P.; Timofeeva, I.I.; Tsyban', V.A.

1981-01-01

The paper is concerned with a study in the alloying layer formation under electric spark alloying of refractory (Ti, Zr, Nb, Mo, W, Co, Fe) metals with graphite in argon and in air using the EhFI-46A installation. It is shown that in electric spark alloying with graphite there appear certain specific conditions for the alloying layer formation manifested in the cathode mass decrease during treatment. In this case an alloying layer consisting of carbides, oxides of the corresponding metals and material of the base is formed on the metal surface. The best carburization conditions in the process of electric spark alloying are realized for group 4 metals when treating them in ''soft'' regime, specific time of alloying being 1-3 min/sm 2 and for group 5 and 6 metals - in ''rigid'' regime of treatment and specific time of alloying 3-5 min/cm 2 [ru

River water remediation using pulsed corona, pulsed spark or ozonation

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Izdebski, T.; Dors, M. [Polish Academy of Sciences, Szewalski Inst. of Fluid Flow Machiney, Fiszera (Poland). Centre for Plasma and Laser Engineering; Mizeraczyk, J. [Polish Academy of Sciences, Szewalski Inst. of Fluid Flow Machiney, Fiszera (Poland). Centre for Plasma and Laser Engineering; Gdynia Maritime Univ., Morska (Poland). Dept. of Marine Electronics

2010-07-01

The most common reason for epidemic formation is the pollution of surface and drinking water by wastewater bacteria. Pathogenic microorganisms that form the largest part of this are fecal bacteria, such as escherichia coli (E. coli). Wastewater treatment plants reduce the amount of the fecal bacteria by 1-3 orders of magnitude, depending on the initial number of bacteria. There is a lack of data on waste and drinking water purification by the electrohydraulic discharges method, which causes the destruction and inactivation of viruses, yeast, and bacteria. This paper investigated river water cleaning from microorganisms using pulsed corona, spark discharge and ozonization. The paper discussed the experimental setup and results. It was concluded that ozonization is the most efficient method of water disinfection as compared with pulsed spark and pulsed corona discharges. The pulsed spark discharge in water was capable of killing all microorganism similarly to ozonization, but with much lower energy efficiency. The pulsed corona discharge was found to be the less effective method of water disinfection. 21 refs., 4 figs.

Material machining with pseudo-spark electron beams

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Benker, W.; Christiansen, J.; Frank, K.; Gundel, H.; Redel, T.; Stetter, M.

1989-01-01

The authors give a brief description of the production of pseudo-spark (low pressure gas discharge) electron beams. They illustrate the use of these electron beams for machining not only conducting, semiconducting and insulating materials, but also thin layers of such materials as high temperature superconducting ceramics

The optimization of some of the conditions for analysis by spark-source mass spectrometry

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pearton, D.C.P.; Sobiecki, A.

1980-01-01

The need for improved precision in spark-source mass spectrometry is highlighted. Several parameters, such as photoplate-development technique, instrumental stability and focus, and sparking conditions, were optimized. Measurements made under these optimum conditions attained precisions of more than 12 per cent

Ca2+ sparks act as potent regulators of excitation-contraction coupling in airway smooth muscle.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhuge, Ronghua; Bao, Rongfeng; Fogarty, Kevin E; Lifshitz, Lawrence M

2010-01-15

Ca2+ sparks are short lived and localized Ca2+ transients resulting from the opening of ryanodine receptors in sarcoplasmic reticulum. These events relax certain types of smooth muscle by activating big conductance Ca2+-activated K+ channels to produce spontaneous transient outward currents (STOCs) and the resultant closure of voltage-dependent Ca2+ channels. But in many smooth muscles from a variety of organs, Ca2+ sparks can additionally activate Ca2+-activated Cl(-) channels to generate spontaneous transient inward current (STICs). To date, the physiological roles of Ca2+ sparks in this latter group of smooth muscle remain elusive. Here, we show that in airway smooth muscle, Ca2+ sparks under physiological conditions, activating STOCs and STICs, induce biphasic membrane potential transients (BiMPTs), leading to membrane potential oscillations. Paradoxically, BiMPTs stabilize the membrane potential by clamping it within a negative range and prevent the generation of action potentials. Moreover, blocking either Ca2+ sparks or hyperpolarization components of BiMPTs activates voltage-dependent Ca2+ channels, resulting in an increase in global [Ca2+](i) and cell contraction. Therefore, Ca2+ sparks in smooth muscle presenting both STICs and STOCs act as a stabilizer of membrane potential, and altering the balance can profoundly alter the status of excitability and contractility. These results reveal a novel mechanism underlying the control of excitability and contractility in smooth muscle.

Experimental investigation of the vibrational and thermal response of a laser spark plug

Science.gov (United States)

Yoder, Gregory S.

A study was conducted in order to evaluate the external thermal and vibrational effects on the operation of a laser ignition system for internal combustion (IC) engine applications. West Virginia University (WVU) in conjunction with the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) have constructed a prototype laser spark plug which has been designed to mount directly onto the head of a natural gas engine for the purpose of igniting an air/fuel (A/F) mixture in the engine's combustion chamber. To be considered as a viable replacement for the conventional electrode-based ignition system, integrity, durability and reliability must be justified. Thermal and oscillatory perturbations induced upon the ignition system are major influences that affect laser spark plug (LSP) operation and, therefore, quantifying these effects is necessary to further the advancement and development of this technology. The passively q-switched Nd:YAG laser was mounted on Bruel & Kjaer (B&K) Vibration Exciter Type 4808 Shaker in conjunction with at B&K Power Amplifier Type 2719, which was oscillated in 10 Hz intervals from 0 to 60 Hz using a sine wave to mimic natural gas engine operation. The input signal simulated the rotational velocity of the engine operating from 0 to 3600 RPM with the laser mounted in three different axial orientations. The laser assembly was wrapped with medium-temperature heat tape, outfitted with thermocouples and heated from room temperature to 140 ºF to simulate the temperatures that the LSP may experience when installed on an engine. The acceleration of the payload was varied between 50% and 100% of the oscillator's maximum allowable acceleration in each mounting orientation resulting in a total of 294 total setpoints. For each setpoint, pulse width, pulse width variation, q-switch delay, jitter and output energy were measured and recorded. Each of these dependent variables plays a critical role in multi photon ionization and precise control is necessary to limit

Silicon nanoparticles produced by spark discharge

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Vons, Vincent A.; Smet, Louis C. P. M. de; Munao, David; Evirgen, Alper; Kelder, Erik M.; Schmidt-Ott, Andreas

2011-01-01

On the example of silicon, the production of nanoparticles using spark discharge is shown to be feasible for semiconductors. The discharge circuit is modelled as a damped oscillator circuit. This analysis reveals that the electrode resistance should be kept low enough to limit energy loss by Joule heating and to enable effective nanoparticle production. The use of doped electrodes results in a thousand-fold increase in the mass production rate as compared to intrinsic silicon. Pure and oxidised uniformly sized silicon nanoparticles with a primary particle diameter of 3–5 nm are produced. It is shown that the colour of the particles can be used as a good indicator of the oxidation state. If oxygen and water are banned from the spark generation system by (a) gas purification, (b) outgassing and (c) by initially using the particles produced as getters, unoxidised Si particles are obtained. They exhibit pyrophoric behaviour. This continuous nanoparticle preparation method can be combined with other processing techniques, including surface functionalization or the immediate impaction of freshly prepared nanoparticles onto a substrate for applications in the field of batteries, hydrogen storage or sensors.

DNS of spark ignition and edge flame propagation in turbulent droplet-laden mixing layers

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Neophytou, A.; Mastorakos, E.; Cant, R.S. [Hopkinson Laboratory, Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge (United Kingdom)

2010-06-15

A parametric study of forced ignition at the mixing layer between air and air carrying fine monosized fuel droplets is done through one-step chemistry direct numerical simulations to determine the influence of the size and volatility of the droplets, the spark location, the droplet-air mixing layer initial thickness and the turbulence intensity on the ignition success and the subsequent flame propagation. The propagation is analyzed in terms of edge flame displacement speed, which has not been studied before for turbulent edge spray flames. Spark ignition successfully resulted in a tribrachial flame if enough fuel vapour was available at the spark location, which occurred when the local droplet number density was high. Ignition was achieved even when the spark was offset from the spray, on the air side, due to the diffusion of heat from the spark, provided droplets evaporated rapidly. Large kernels were obtained by sparking close to the spray, since fuel was more readily available. At long times after the spark, for all flames studied, the probability density function of the displacement speed was wide, with a mean value in the range 0.55-0.75S{sub L}, with S{sub L} the laminar burning velocity of a stoichiometric gaseous premixed flame. This value is close to the mean displacement speed in turbulent edge flames with gaseous fuel. The displacement speed was negatively correlated with curvature. The detrimental effect of curvature was attenuated with a large initial kernel and by increasing the thickness of the mixing layer. The mixing layer was thicker when evaporation was slow and the turbulence intensity higher. However, high turbulence intensity also distorted the kernel which could lead to high values of curvature. The edge flame reaction component increased when the maximum temperature coincided with the stoichiometric contour. The results are consistent with the limited available experimental evidence and provide insights into the processes associated with

Apparatus for atmospheric pressure pin-to-hole spark discharge and uses thereof

Science.gov (United States)

Dobrynin, Danil V.; Fridman, Alexander; Cho, Young I.; Fridman, Gregory; Friedman, Gennady

2016-12-06

Disclosed herein are atmospheric pressure pin-to-hole pulsed spark discharge devices and methods for creating plasma. The devices include a conduit for fluidically communicating a gas, a plasma, or both, therethrough, portion of the conduit capable of being connected to a gas supply, and a second portion of the conduit capable of emitting a plasma; a positive electrode comprising a sharp tip; and a ground plate electrode. Disclosed are methods for treating a skin ulcer using non-thermal plasma include flowing a gas through a cold spark discharge zone simultaneously with the creation of a pulsed spark discharge to give rise to a non-thermal plasma emitted from a conduit, the non-thermal plasma comprising NO; and contacting a skin ulcer with said non-thermal plasma for sufficient time and intensity to give rise to treatment of the skin ulcer.

Ionization chamber

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jilbert, P.H.

1975-01-01

The invention concerns ionization chambers with particular reference to air-equivalent ionization chambers. In order to ensure that similar chambers have similar sensitivities and responses the surface of the chamber bounding the active volume carries a conducting material, which may be a colloidal graphite, arranged in the form of lines so that the area of the conducting material occupies only a small proportion of the area of said surface. (U.S.)

knock characteristics analysis of a supercharged spark ignition

African Journals Online (AJOL)

user

The power output of a spark ignition engine could be improved by boosting the ... that the presence of aromatics was responsible for the better anti-knock ..... System, a Master's Thesis in the Institutionen för ... Maintenance and Reliability, Vol.

Ambient fields generated by a laser spark

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Rohlena, Karel; Mašek, Martin

2016-01-01

Roč. 61, č. 2 (2016), s. 119-124 ISSN 0029-5922 R&D Projects: GA MŠk(CZ) LD14089; GA MŠk(CZ) LG13031 Institutional support: RVO:68378271 Keywords : laser spark * radiation chemistry * field generation Subject RIV: BL - Plasma and Gas Discharge Physics Impact factor: 0.760, year: 2016

SciSpark: Highly Interactive and Scalable Model Evaluation and Climate Metrics for Scientific Data and Analysis

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — We will construct SciSpark, a scalable system for interactive model evaluation and for the rapid development of climate metrics and analyses. SciSpark directly...

40 CFR 89.2 - Definitions.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... valve timing to increase the amount of residual exhaust gas in the combustion chamber(s) that is mixed... or assembly is being carried out in a facility. Post-manufacture marinizer means a person who.... Spark-ignition means relating to a gasoline-fueled engine or other engines with a spark plug (or other...

Impulse tests on distribution transformers protected by means of spark gaps

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Pykaelae, M L; Palva, V [Helsinki Univ. of Technology, Otaniemi (Finland). High Voltage Institute; Niskanen, K [ABB Corporate Research, Vaasa (Finland)

1998-12-31

Distribution transformers in rural networks have to cope with transient overvoltages, even with those caused by the direct lightning strokes to the lines. In Finland the 24 kV network conditions, such as wooden pole lines, high soil resistivity and isolated neutral network, lead into fast transient overvoltages. Impulse testing of pole-mounted distribution transformers ({<=} 200 kVA) protected by means of spark gaps were studied. Different failure detection methods were used. Results can be used as background information for standardization work dealing with distribution transformers protected by means of spark gaps. (orig.) 9 refs.

Impulse tests on distribution transformers protected by means of spark gaps

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Pykaelae, M.L.; Palva, V. [Helsinki Univ. of Technology, Otaniemi (Finland). High Voltage Institute; Niskanen, K. [ABB Corporate Research, Vaasa (Finland)

1997-12-31

Distribution transformers in rural networks have to cope with transient overvoltages, even with those caused by the direct lightning strokes to the lines. In Finland the 24 kV network conditions, such as wooden pole lines, high soil resistivity and isolated neutral network, lead into fast transient overvoltages. Impulse testing of pole-mounted distribution transformers ({<=} 200 kVA) protected by means of spark gaps were studied. Different failure detection methods were used. Results can be used as background information for standardization work dealing with distribution transformers protected by means of spark gaps. (orig.) 9 refs.

Graphene-induced strengthening in spark plasma sintered tantalum carbide–nanotube composite

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lahiri, Debrupa; Khaleghi, Evan; Bakshi, Srinivasa Rao; Li, Wei; Olevsky, Eugene A.; Agarwal, Arvind

2013-01-01

Transverse rupture strength of spark plasma sintered tantalum carbide (TaC) composites reinforced with long and short carbon nanotubes (CNTs) is reported. The rupture strength depends on the transformation behavior of the CNTs during spark plasma sintering, which is dependent on their length. The TaC composite with short nanotubes shows the highest specific rupture strength. Shorter CNTs transform into multi-layered graphene sheets between TaC grains, whereas long ones retain the tubular structure. Two-dimensionsal graphene platelets offer higher resistance to pull-out, resulting in delayed fracture and higher strength.

Vacuum spark breakdown model based on exploding metal wire phenomena

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Haaland, J.

1984-06-01

Spark source mass spectra (SSMS) indicates that ions are extracted from an expanding and decaying plasma. The intensity distribution shows no dependance on vaporization properties of individual elements which indicates explosive vapour formation. This seems further to be a requirement for bridging a vacuum gap. A model including plasma ejection from a superheated anode spot by a process similar to that of an exploding metal wire is proposed. The appearance of hot plasma points in low inductance vacuum sparks can then be explained as exploding micro particles ejected from a final central anode spot. The phenomenological model is compared with available experimental results from literature, but no extensive quantification is attempted

Glucose sensing on graphite screen-printed electrode modified by sparking of copper nickel alloys.

Science.gov (United States)

Riman, Daniel; Spyrou, Konstantinos; Karantzalis, Alexandros E; Hrbac, Jan; Prodromidis, Mamas I

2017-04-01

Electric spark discharge was employed as a green, fast and extremely facile method to modify disposable graphite screen-printed electrodes (SPEs) with copper, nickel and mixed copper/nickel nanoparticles (NPs) in order to be used as nonenzymatic glucose sensors. Direct SPEs-to-metal (copper, nickel or copper/nickel alloys with 25/75, 50/50 and 75/25wt% compositions) sparking at 1.2kV was conducted in the absence of any solutions under ambient conditions. Morphological characterization of the sparked surfaces was performed by scanning electron microscopy, while the chemical composition of the sparked NPs was evaluated with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The performance of the various sparked SPEs towards the electro oxidation of glucose in alkaline media and the critical role of hydroxyl ions were evaluated with cyclic voltammetry and kinetic studies. Results indicated a mixed charge transfer- and hyroxyl ion transport-limited process. Best performing sensors fabricated by Cu/Ni 50/50wt% alloy showed linear response over the concentration range 2-400μM glucose and they were successfully applied to the amperometric determination of glucose in blood. The detection limit (S/N 3) and the relative standard deviation of the method were 0.6µM and green methods in sensor's development. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Glove box chamber

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cox, M.E.; Cox, M.E.

1975-01-01

An environmental chamber is described which enables an operator's hands to have direct access within the chamber without compromising a special atmosphere within such chamber. A pair of sleeves of a flexible material are sealed to the chamber around associated access apertures and project outwardly from such chamber. Each aperture is closed by a door which is openable from within the sleeve associated therewith so that upon an operator inserting his hand and arm through the sleeve, the operator can open the door to have access to the interior of the chamber. A container which is selectively separable from the remainder of the chamber is also provided to allow objects to be transferred from the chamber without such objects having to pass through the ambient atmosphere. An antechamber permitting objects to be passed directly into the chamber from the ambient atmosphere is included. (auth)

wire chamber

CERN Multimedia

Proportional multi-wire chamber. Multi-wire detectors contain layers of positively and negatively charged wires enclosed in a chamber full of gas. A charged particle passing through the chamber knocks negatively charged electrons out of atoms in the gas, leaving behind positive ions. The electrons are pulled towards the positively charged wires. They collide with other atoms on the way, producing an avalanche of electrons and ions. The movement of these electrons and ions induces an electric pulse in the wires which is collected by fast electronics. The size of the pulse is proportional to the energy loss of the original particle. Proportional wire chambers allow a much quicker reading than the optical or magnetoscriptive readout wire chambers.

SciDB versus Spark: A Preliminary Comparison Based on an Earth Science Use Case

Science.gov (United States)

Clune, T.; Kuo, K. S.; Doan, K.; Oloso, A.

2015-12-01

We compare two Big Data technologies, SciDB and Spark, for performance, usability, and extensibility, when applied to a representative Earth science use case. SciDB is a new-generation parallel distributed database management system (DBMS) based on the array data model that is capable of handling multidimensional arrays efficiently but requires lengthy data ingest prior to analysis, whereas Spark is a fast and general engine for large scale data processing that can immediately process raw data files and thereby avoid the ingest process. Once data have been ingested, SciDB is very efficient in database operations such as subsetting. Spark, on the other hand, provides greater flexibility by supporting a wide variety of high-level tools including DBMS's. For the performance aspect of this preliminary comparison, we configure Spark to operate directly on text or binary data files and thereby limit the need for additional tools. Arguably, a more appropriate comparison would involve exploring other configurations of Spark which exploit supported high-level tools, but that is beyond our current resources. To make the comparison as "fair" as possible, we export the arrays produced by SciDB into text files (or converting them to binary files) for the intake by Spark and thereby avoid any additional file processing penalties. The Earth science use case selected for this comparison is the identification and tracking of snowstorms in the NASA Modern Era Retrospective-analysis for Research and Applications (MERRA) reanalysis data. The identification portion of the use case is to flag all grid cells of the MERRA high-resolution hourly data that satisfies our criteria for snowstorm, whereas the tracking portion connects flagged cells adjacent in time and space to form a snowstorm episode. We will report the results of our comparisons at this presentation.

Test chamber

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Leferink, Frank Bernardus Johannes

2009-01-01

A test chamber for measuring electromagnetic radiation emitted by an apparatus to be tested or for exposing an apparatus to be tested to an electromagnetic radiation field. The test chamber includes a reverberation chamber made of a conductive tent fabric. To create a statistically uniform field in

Evaluating the Impact of Data Placement to Spark and SciDB with an Earth Science Use Case

Science.gov (United States)

Doan, Khoa; Oloso, Amidu; Kuo, Kwo-Sen; Clune, Thomas; Yu, Hongfeng; Nelson, Brian; Zhang, Jian

2016-01-01

We investigate the impact of data placement for two Big Data technologies, Spark and SciDB, with a use case from Earth Science where data arrays are multidimensional. Simultaneously, this investigation provides an opportunity to evaluate the performance of the technologies involved. Two datastores, HDFS and Cassandra, are used with Spark for our comparison. It is found that Spark with Cassandra performs better than with HDFS, but SciDB performs better yet than Spark with either datastore. The investigation also underscores the value of having data aligned for the most common analysis scenarios in advance on a shared nothing architecture. Otherwise, repartitioning needs to be carried out on the fly, degrading overall performance.

Towards constrained optimal control of spark-ignition engines

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Feru, E.; Luo, X.

2015-01-01

In this paper, the torque control problem for spark-ignition engines is considered. The objective is to provide good output torque tracking with minimum fuel consumption, while avoiding engine knock and misre. To this end, three control strategies are proposed: a feed-forward controller with

Experimental study on surface properties of the PMMA used in high power spark gaps

Science.gov (United States)

Han, Ruoyu; Wu, Jiawei; Ding, Weidong; Liu, Yunfei; Gou, Yang

2017-10-01

This paper studies the surface properties of the Polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) insulator samples used in high power spark gaps. Experiments on surface morphology, surface profile, surface chemical composition and surface leakage current were performed. Metal particles ejected in tangent direction of discharge spots were researched on the sample surface. Three kinds of distinct bands were found on the surface after 1500 shots: colorless and transparent sinking band, black band, and grey powdered coating band. The thickness of the coating band was tens of microns and the maximum radial erosion rate was about 10 μm/C. Surface content analysis indicated that the powdered coating was a mixture of decomposed insulator material and electrode material oxides. In addition, leakage current significantly depended on water content in the chamber and presented an U-shape curve distribution along the insulator surface, in keeping with the amount of powdered coating due to shock waves. Possible reasons of the surface property changes were discussed. Electroconductive oxides of low valence states of Cu and W produced by the reactions between electrode materials and arc plasmas were considered to be the cause of dielectric performance degradation.

Large area spark counters with fine time and position resolution

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ogawa, A.; Atwood, W.B.; Fujiwara, N.; Pestov, Yu.N.; Sugahara, R.

1983-10-01

Spark counters trace their history back over three decades but have been used in only a limited number of experiments. The key properties of these devices include their capability of precision timing (at the sub 100 ps level) and of measuring the position of the charged particle to high accuracy. At SLAC we have undertaken a program to develop these devices for use in high energy physics experiments involving large detectors. A spark counter of size 1.2 m x 0.1 m has been constructed and has been operating continuously in our test setup for several months. In this talk I will discuss some details of its construction and its properties as a particle detector. 14 references

Advances in the electro-spark deposition coating process

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Johnson, R.N.; Sheldon, G.L.

1986-04-01

Electro-spark deposition (ESD) is a pulsed-arc micro-welding process using short-duration, high-current electrical pulses to deposit an electrode material on a metallic substrate. It is one of the few methods available by which a fused, metallurgically bonded coating can be applied with such a low total heat input that the bulk substrate material remains at or near ambient temperatures. The short duration of the electrical pulse allows an extremely rapid solidification of the deposited material and results in an exceptionally fine-grained, homogenous coating that approaches (and with some materials, actually is) an amorphous structure. This structure is believed to contribute to the good tribological and corrosion performance observed for hardsurfacing materials used in the demanding environments of high temperatures, liquid metals, and neutron irradiation. A brief historical review of the process is provided, followed by descriptions of the present state-of-the-art and of the performance and applications of electro-spark deposition coatings in liquid-metal-cooled nuclear reactors

Development of spark cathode E-guns. Draft final reprt, Phase I, July--October 1978

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Loda, G.; Lindstrand, R.

1979-01-01

A 12 sided spark cathode is designed and constructed to replace the bladed, cold cathode structure in the electron gun of the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Antares prototype power amplifier. Design work includes computer modeling and full scale low voltage modeling. Life testing to 100,000 pulses is documented. The spark cathode offers precise control of emission site location and a high reliability

SPARK RttT: Year One Fidelity and Implementation

Science.gov (United States)

Rochford, Joseph A.; O'Neill, Adrienne; Gelb, Adele; Ross, Kimberly

2014-01-01

Developed in 2003 by the Sisters of Charity Foundation of Canton with a grant from the Kellogg Foundation, "Supporting Partnerships to Assure Ready Kids" ("SPARK Ohio") is a family-centered kindergarten readiness program that works with families, schools, and the community. From its initial sites in Stark County, "SPARK…

Effect of spark plug and fuel injector location on mixture stratification in a GDI engine - A CFD analysis

Science.gov (United States)

Saw, O. P.; Mallikarjuna, J. M.

2017-09-01

The mixture preparation in gasoline direct injection (GDI) engines operating at stratified condition plays an important role in deciding the combustion, performance and emission characteristics of the engine. In a wall-guided GDI engine, with a late fuel injection strategy, piston top surface is designed in such a way that the injected fuel is directed towards the spark plug to form a combustible mixture at the time of ignition. In addition, in these engines, location of spark-plug and fuel injector, fuel injection pressure and timing are also important to create a combustible mixture near the spark plug. Therefore, understanding the mixture formation under the influence of the location of spark plug and fuel injector is very essential for the optimization of the engine parameters. In this study, an attempt is made to understand the effect of spark plug and fuel injector location on the mixture preparation in a four-stroke, four-valve and wall-guided GDI engine operating under a stratified condition by using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis. All the CFD simulations are carried out at an engine speed of 2000 rev/min., and compression ratio of 10.6, at an overall equivalence ratio (ER) of about 0.65. The fuel injection and spark timings are maintained at 605 and 710 CADs respectively. Finally, it is concluded that, combination of central spark plug and side fuel injector results in better combustion and performance.

The Mobile Chamber

Science.gov (United States)

Scharfstein, Gregory; Cox, Russell

2012-01-01

A document discusses a simulation chamber that represents a shift from the thermal-vacuum chamber stereotype. This innovation, currently in development, combines the capabilities of space simulation chambers, the user-friendliness of modern-day electronics, and the modularity of plug-and-play computing. The Mobile Chamber is a customized test chamber that can be deployed with great ease, and is capable of bringing payloads at temperatures down to 20 K, in high vacuum, and with the desired metrology instruments integrated to the systems control. Flexure plans to lease Mobile Chambers, making them affordable for smaller budgets and available to a larger customer base. A key feature of this design will be an Apple iPad-like user interface that allows someone with minimal training to control the environment inside the chamber, and to simulate the required extreme environments. The feedback of thermal, pressure, and other measurements is delivered in a 3D CAD model of the chamber's payload and support hardware. This GUI will provide the user with a better understanding of the payload than any existing thermal-vacuum system.

Cyclic variations of fuel-droplet distribution during the early intake stroke of a lean-burn stratified-charge spark-ignition engine

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Aleiferis, P.G. [Imperial College London, Department of Mechanical Engineering, London (United Kingdom); University College London, Department of Mechanical Engineering, London (United Kingdom); Hardalupas, Y.; Taylor, A.M.K.P. [Imperial College London, Department of Mechanical Engineering, London (United Kingdom); Ishii, K. [Honda International Technical School, Saitama (Japan); Urata, Y. [Tochigi R and D Centre, Honda R and D Co., Ltd, Tochigi (Japan)

2005-11-01

Lean-burn spark-ignition engines exhibit higher efficiency and lower specific emissions in comparison with stoichiometrically charged engines. However, as the air-to-fuel (A/F) ratio of the mixture is made leaner than stoichiometric, cycle-by-cycle variations in the early stages of in-cylinder combustion, and subsequent indicated mean effective pressure (IMEP), become more pronounced and limit the range of lean-burn operation. Viable lean-burn engines promote charge stratification, the mixture near the spark plug being richer than the cylinder volume averaged value. Recent work has shown that cycle-by-cycle variations in the early stages of combustion in a stratified-charge engine can be associated with variations in both the local value of A/F ratio near the spark plug around ignition timing, as well as in the volume averaged value of the A/F ratio. The objective of the current work was to identify possible sources of such variability in A/F ratio by studying the in-cylinder field of fuel-droplet distribution during the early intake stroke. This field was visualised in an optical single-cylinder 4-valve pentroof-type spark-ignition engine by means of laser-sheet illumination in planes parallel to the cylinder head gasket 6 and 10 mm below the spark plug. The engine was run with port-injected isooctane at 1500 rpm with 30% volumetric efficiency and air-to-fuel ratio corresponding to both stoichiometric firing (A/F=15, {phi} =1.0) and mixture strength close to the lean limit of stable operation (A/F=22, {phi} =0.68). Images of Mie intensity scattered by the cloud of fuel droplets were acquired on a cycle-by-cycle basis. These were studied in order to establish possible correlations between the cyclic variations in size, location and scattered-light intensity of the cloud of droplets with the respective variations in IMEP. Because of the low level of Mie intensity scattered by the droplets and because of problems related to elastic scattering on the walls of the

Overcurrent protection for the TFTR neutral beam sources during spark down

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Praeg, W.F.

1979-01-01

The accelerating grid of a neutral beam source (NBS) of the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor (TFTR) operates at 120 kV and 65 A. The capacitance to ground between the switch tube (ST) and the NBS is C 1 approx. 5 nF (approx. 36 J). The arc and filament power supplies for the NBS float at 120 kV and have a capacitance to ground of C 2 approx. 2 nF (approx. 14 J). When the NBS sparks to ground, C 2 begins to discharge immediately. The ST impedance limits the fault current from the high voltage (HV) power supply to approx. 100 A until it disconnects the power source 1 begins to discharge. During spark down, fault currents are limited with a saturated time-delay transformer (STDT) connected between the ST and the NBS and with a snubber, which is in the arc and filament power leads, in connection with a spark gap. Alternatively, STDT's can be used for the HV and for the arc and filament power leads. This paper presents design details and experimental results of the overcurrent protection circuits

Preliminary investigation into the simulation of a laser-induced plasma by means of a floating object in a spark gap

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

West, NJ

2007-08-01

Full Text Available In this research, an orthogonally laser-triggered spark gap is investigated. The laser beam is directed in the region of a 30mm spark gap at 90 degrees to the gap and focused on the axis. The influence of plasma position within the spark gap...

Striated filamentary sparks produced by a CO2 TEA laser

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Schmieder, R.W.

1979-01-01

Sparks in the form of long, thin filaments having quasi-periodic longitudinal light and dark regions (striations) in time-integrated images have been ovserved in various gases using a CO 2 TEA laser. Typically, a 50-mJ pulse will produce a filament 1 cm long and 130 μm in diameter, with more than 150 striations spaced 50 μm apart in atmospheric air. Each striation is associated with the formation of a plasma region by one pulse in train of pulses from the mode-locked laser, and the filament results from the formation of successive (nearly identical) region, each displaced from the previous one toward the laser. The possible use of these sparks as a light source in diagnostics is noted

Breakdown characteristics in DC spark experiments of copper focusing on purity and hardness

CERN Document Server

Yokoyama, Kazue; Higashi, Yasuo; Higo, Toshi; Matsumoto, Shuji; Santiago-Kern, Ana Rocia; Pasquino, Chiara; Calatroni, Sergio; Wuensch, Walter

2010-01-01

The breakdown characteristics related to the differences in purity and hardness were investigated for several types of copper using a DC spark test system. Three types of oxygen-free copper (OFC) materials, usual class 1 OFC 7-nine large-grain copper and 6-nine hot-isotropic-pressed (HIP) copper with/without diamond finish, were tested with the DC spark test system. The measurements of the beta, breakdown fields, and breakdown probability are presented and discussed in this paper.

Analyzing large data sets from XGC1 magnetic fusion simulations using apache spark

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Churchill, R. Michael [Princeton Plasma Physics Lab. (PPPL), Princeton, NJ (United States)

2016-11-21

Apache Spark is explored as a tool for analyzing large data sets from the magnetic fusion simulation code XGCI. Implementation details of Apache Spark on the NERSC Edison supercomputer are discussed, including binary file reading, and parameter setup. Here, an unsupervised machine learning algorithm, k-means clustering, is applied to XGCI particle distribution function data, showing that highly turbulent spatial regions do not have common coherent structures, but rather broad, ring-like structures in velocity space.

Structure and characteristics of functional powder composite materials obtained by spark plasma sintering

Science.gov (United States)

Oglezneva, S. A.; Kachenyuk, M. N.; Kulmeteva, V. B.; Ogleznev, N. B.

2017-07-01

The article describes the results of spark plasma sintering of ceramic materials based on titanium carbide, titanium carbosilicide, ceramic composite materials based on zirconium oxide, strengthened by carbon nanostructures and composite materials of electrotechnical purpose based on copper with addition of carbon structures and titanium carbosilicide. The research shows that the spark plasma sintering can achieve relative density of the material up to 98%. The effect of sintering temperature on the phase composition, density and porosity of the final product has been studied. It was found that with addition of carbon nanostructures the relative density and hardness decrease, but the fracture strength of ZrO2 increases up to times 2. The relative erosion resistance of the electrodes made of composite copper-based powder materials, obtained by spark plasma sintering during electroerosion treatment of tool steel exceeds that parameter of pure copper up to times 15.

Combustion visualization and experimental study on spark induced compression ignition (SICI) in gasoline HCCI engines

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wang Zhi; He Xu; Wang Jianxin; Shuai Shijin; Xu Fan; Yang Dongbo

2010-01-01

Spark induced compression ignition (SICI) is a relatively new combustion control technology and a promising combustion mode in gasoline engines with high efficiency. SICI can be divided into two categories, SACI and SI-CI. This paper investigated the SICI combustion process using combustion visualization and engine experiment respectively. Ignition process of SICI was captured by high speed photography in an optical engine with different compression ratios. The results show that SICI is a combustion mode combined with partly flame propagation and main auto-ignition. The spark ignites the local mixture near spark electrodes and the flame propagation occurs before the homogeneous mixture is auto-ignited. The heat release from central burned zone due to the flame propagation increases the in-cylinder pressure and temperature, resulting in the unburned mixture auto-ignition. The SICI combustion process can be divided into three stages of the spark induced stage, the flame propagation stage and the compression ignition stage. The SICI combustion mode is different from the spark ignition (SI) knocking in terms of the combustion and emission characteristics. Furthermore, three typical combustion modes including HCCI, SICI, SI, were compared on a gasoline direct injection engine with higher compression ratio and switchable cam-profiles. The results show that SICI has an obvious combustion characteristic with two-stage heat release and lower pressure rise rate. The SICI combustion mode can be controlled by spark timings and EGR rates and utilized as an effective method for high load extension on the gasoline HCCI engine. The maximum IMEP of 0.82 MPa can be achieved with relatively low NO x emission and high thermal efficiency. The SICI combustion mode can be applied in medium-high load region for high efficiency gasoline engines.

Combustion visualization and experimental study on spark induced compression ignition (SICI) in gasoline HCCI engines

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Wang Zhi, E-mail: wangzhi@tsinghua.edu.c [State Key Laboratory of Automotive Safety and Energy, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084 (China); He Xu; Wang Jianxin; Shuai Shijin; Xu Fan; Yang Dongbo [State Key Laboratory of Automotive Safety and Energy, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084 (China)

2010-05-15

Spark induced compression ignition (SICI) is a relatively new combustion control technology and a promising combustion mode in gasoline engines with high efficiency. SICI can be divided into two categories, SACI and SI-CI. This paper investigated the SICI combustion process using combustion visualization and engine experiment respectively. Ignition process of SICI was captured by high speed photography in an optical engine with different compression ratios. The results show that SICI is a combustion mode combined with partly flame propagation and main auto-ignition. The spark ignites the local mixture near spark electrodes and the flame propagation occurs before the homogeneous mixture is auto-ignited. The heat release from central burned zone due to the flame propagation increases the in-cylinder pressure and temperature, resulting in the unburned mixture auto-ignition. The SICI combustion process can be divided into three stages of the spark induced stage, the flame propagation stage and the compression ignition stage. The SICI combustion mode is different from the spark ignition (SI) knocking in terms of the combustion and emission characteristics. Furthermore, three typical combustion modes including HCCI, SICI, SI, were compared on a gasoline direct injection engine with higher compression ratio and switchable cam-profiles. The results show that SICI has an obvious combustion characteristic with two-stage heat release and lower pressure rise rate. The SICI combustion mode can be controlled by spark timings and EGR rates and utilized as an effective method for high load extension on the gasoline HCCI engine. The maximum IMEP of 0.82 MPa can be achieved with relatively low NO{sub x} emission and high thermal efficiency. The SICI combustion mode can be applied in medium-high load region for high efficiency gasoline engines.

High repetition rate burst-mode spark gap

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Faltens, A.; Reginato, L.; Hester, R.; Chesterman, A.; Cook, E.; Yokota, T.; Dexter, W.

1978-01-01

Results are presented on the design and testing of a pressurized gas blown spark gap switch capable of high repetition rates in a burst mode of operation. The switch parameters which have been achieved are as follows: 220-kV, 42-kA, a five pulse burst at 1-kHz, 12-ns risetime, 2-ns jitter at a pulse width of 50-ns

Drift chamber

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Inagaki, Yosuke

1977-01-01

Drift chamber is becoming an important detector in high energy physics as a precision and fast position detector because of its high spatial resolution and count-rate. The basic principle is that it utilizes the drift at constant speed of electrons ionized along the tracks of charged particles towards the anode wire in the nearly uniform electric field. The method of measuring drift time includes the analog and digital ones. This report describes about the construction of and the application of electric field to the drift chamber, mathematical analysis on the electric field and equipotential curve, derivation of spatial resolution and the factor for its determination, and selection of gas to be used. The performance test of the chamber was carried out using a small test chamber, the collimated β source of Sr-90, and 500 MeV/C electron beam from the 1.3 GeV electron synchrotron in the Institute of Nuclear Study, University of Tokyo. Most chambers to date adopted one dimensional read-out, but it is very advantageous if the two dimensional read-out is feasible with one chamber when the resolution in that direction is low. The typical methods of delay line and charge division for two dimensional read-out are described. The development of digital read-out system is underway, which can process the signal of a large scale drift chamber at high speed. (Wakatsuki, Y.)

Multiple chamber ionization detector

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Solomon, E.E.

1980-01-01

A multi-chambered ionisation detector enables the amount of radiation entering each chamber from a single radioactive, eg β, source to be varied by altering the proportion of the source protruding into each chamber. Electrodes define chambers and an extended radioactive source is movable to alter the source length in each chamber. Alternatively, the source is fixed relative to outer electrodes but the central electrode may be adjusted by an attached support altering the chamber dimensions and hence the length of source in each. Also disclosed are a centrally mounted source tiltable towards one or other chamber and a central electrode tiltable to alter chamber dimensions. (U.K.)

The secular and the supernatural: madness and psychiatry in the short stories of Muriel Spark.

Science.gov (United States)

Beveridge, A W

2015-01-01

Edinburgh-born Muriel Spark is one of modern Scotland's greatest writers. Examination of her work reveals that the subjects of madness and psychiatry are recurrent themes in her writing. She herself had a mental breakdown when she was a young woman and she took an interest in the world of psychiatry and psychoanalysis. In her short stories, Spark approaches the subject of madness in a variety of ways: she relates it to the supernatural; to writing fiction; and to religion. She frequently juxtaposes secular and supernatural explanations of mental disturbance. Spark adopts a sceptical and, at times, mocking view of psychiatrists and psychiatric treatment. Both psychoanalysis and pills are seen as problematic.

Doriot Climatic Chambers

Data.gov (United States)

Federal Laboratory Consortium — The Doriot Climatic Chambers are two, 60-feet long, 11-feet high, 15-feet wide chambers that are owned and operated by NSRDEC. The Doriot Climatic Chambers are among...

Spark plasma sintering of tantalum carbide

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Khaleghi, Evan; Lin, Yen-Shan; Meyers, Marc A.; Olevsky, Eugene A.

2010-01-01

A tantalum carbide powder was consolidated by spark plasma sintering. The specimens were processed under various temperature and pressure conditions and characterized in terms of relative density, grain size, rupture strength and hardness. The results are compared to hot pressing conducted under similar settings. It is shown that high densification is accompanied by substantial grain growth. Carbon nanotubes were added to mitigate grain growth; however, while increasing specimens' rupture strength and final density, they had little effect on grain growth.

Simulated UO{sub 2} fuel containing CsI by spark plasma sintering

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Wangle, T. [European Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC), Institute for Transuranium Elements (ITU), Postfach 2340, 76125 Karlsruhe (Germany); Czech Technical University in Prague, Faculty of Nuclear Sciences and Physical Engineering, Břehová 7, Praha 1, 115 19 (Czech Republic); Tyrpekl, V. [European Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC), Institute for Transuranium Elements (ITU), Postfach 2340, 76125 Karlsruhe (Germany); Cologna, M., E-mail: marco.cologna@ec.europa.eu [European Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC), Institute for Transuranium Elements (ITU), Postfach 2340, 76125 Karlsruhe (Germany); Somers, J. [European Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC), Institute for Transuranium Elements (ITU), Postfach 2340, 76125 Karlsruhe (Germany)

2015-11-15

Herein, an innovative preparation procedure has been deployed enabling, for the first time, the incorporation of volatile fission product simulant into highly dense nuclear fuel pellets. Highly volatile fission products were embedded in a dense UO{sub 2} matrix in the form of CsI by simply mixing starting materials and consolidation in a Spark Plasma Sintering step at 1000 °C with a 5 min dwell time. CsI particles were evenly distributed throughout the pellet and were located at the grain boundaries. The sintering rate is dependent on the O/U ratio of the powder. Addition of CsI also acts as a sintering aid, reducing the temperature of maximum densification. - Highlights: • A new method was developed to incorporation of volatile fission products simulants into dense nuclear fuel pellets. • CsI doped UO{sub 2} pellets were synthetized for the first time, by Spark Plasma Sintering. • The sintering rate in Spark Plasma Sintering is dependent on the O/U ratio of UO{sub 2+x}.

Ionization chamber

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1977-01-01

An improved ionization chamber type X-ray detector comprises a heavy gas at high pressure disposed between an anode and a cathode. An open grid structure is placed next to the anode and is maintained at a voltage intermediate between the cathode and anode potentials. The electric field which is produced by positive ions drifting towards the cathode is thus shielded from the anode. Current measuring circuits connected to the anode are, therefore, responsive only to electron current flow within the chamber and the recovery time of the chamber is shortened. The grid structure also serves to shield the anode from electrical currents which might otherwise be induced by mechanical vibrations in the ionization chamber structure

Observation of a spark channel generated in water with shock wave assistance in plate-to-plate electrode configuration

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Stelmashuk, V., E-mail: vitalij@ipp.cas.cz [Institute of Plasma Physics, Za Slovankou 3, 182 00 Prague 8 (Czech Republic)

2014-01-15

When a high voltage pulse with an amplitude of 30 kV is applied to a pair of disk electrodes at a time when a shock wave is passing between them, an electrical spark is generated. The dynamic changes in the spark morphology are studied here using a high-speed framing camera. The primary result of this work is the provision of experimental evidence of plasma instability that was observed in the channel of the electric spark.

STM-excited luminescence of porous and spark-processed silicon

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Andrienko, I.; Kuznetsov, V.; Yuan, J.; Haneman, D.

1998-01-01

Full text: Scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) permits highly local electronic excitation of light emission (LE) from the surface of silicon. Measuring STM LE, one can study simultaneously both the topography and the luminescence properties of areas down to nm dimensions and thus make conclusions about the luminescence mechanism of the material. We have built an STM spectroscopy system which allows measurement of spectra of visible light emitted from areas as small as 13 x 13 nm 2 (porous silicon) and 10 x 10 nm 2 (spark-processed silicon). Porous silicon shows a broad emission band centered at 630 nm, and spark-processed silicon, one at 690 nm. The STM LE spectra of spark-processed silicon obtained for the first time. We have found that visible light is emitted only from areas containing nanometer-scale structures down to around 2 nm in diameter. STM LE occurs under negative bias voltage applied to the tip, i.e. when electrons are injected into the sample. Other workers used p-type silicon for the sample preparations, but it has been found that STM LE can be induced also from n-type silicon. Furthermore, we have shown that STM LE spectra can be resolved using much lover voltages and tunneling currents: -(7-9) V and 25 - 50 nA vs -(25-50) V and 100 nA. To consider different excitation mechanisms, the STM LE measurements are compared with photoluminescence and electroluminescence spectra of similar samples. We suggest that excitation of individual quantum confinement structures has been observed

A dynamic re-partitioning strategy based on the distribution of key in Spark

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Tianyu; Lian, Xin

2018-05-01

Spark is a memory-based distributed data processing framework, has the ability of processing massive data and becomes a focus in Big Data. But the performance of Spark Shuffle depends on the distribution of data. The naive Hash partition function of Spark can not guarantee load balancing when data is skewed. The time of job is affected by the node which has more data to process. In order to handle this problem, dynamic sampling is used. In the process of task execution, histogram is used to count the key frequency distribution of each node, and then generate the global key frequency distribution. After analyzing the distribution of key, load balance of data partition is achieved. Results show that the Dynamic Re-Partitioning function is better than the default Hash partition, Fine Partition and the Balanced-Schedule strategy, it can reduce the execution time of the task and improve the efficiency of the whole cluster.

Non-sparking anodization process of AZ91D magnesium alloy under low AC voltage

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Li, Weiping; Li, Wen; Zhu, Liqun; Liu, Huicong; Wang, Xiaofang

2013-01-01

Highlights: ► Four different processes appear on magnesium alloys with applied voltage increase. ► Non-sparking film formation process occurred in the range of 6–10 V AC. ► The film was composed of Mg 2 SiO 4 with a stable growth rate in 30 min. ► Film growth was a balance of electrochemical dissolution and chemical deposition. -- Abstract: Anodization is widely recognized as one of the most important surface treatments for magnesium alloys. However, since high voltage oxidation films are limited in some applications due to porosity and brittleness, it is worthwhile to explore the non-sparking oxidizing process. In this work, AZ91D was electrochemically anodized at different AC voltages in an electrolyte containing 120 g/L NaOH and 80 g/L Na 2 SiO 3 ·9H 2 O. The effects of voltage on the surface morphology, composition and reaction process, especially the non-sparking discharge anodic film formation process, were investigated. The results showed that four different processes would appear according to the applied voltage variation from 6 V to 40 V, and that the non-sparking film formation process occurred in the range of 6–10 V. The film formed on the AZ91D surface under 10 V AC was mainly composed of Mg 2 SiO 4 with a lamellar structure. The horizontal and vertical expansion of the lamellar structure resulted in the formation of a multi-layered structure with a stable, linear growth rate for 30 min. The non-sparking film formation process can be considered to be the result of a balance of electrochemical dissolution and chemical deposition reaction

Saffman-Taylor streamers: Mutual finger interaction in spark formation

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Luque, A.; Brau, F.; Ebert, U.

2008-01-01

Bunches of streamers form the early stages of sparks and lightning but theory presently concentrates on single streamers or on coarse approximations of whole breakdown trees. Here a periodic array of interacting streamer discharges in a strong homogeneous electric field is studied in density or

Pseudo-spark switch (PSS) characteristics under different operation conditions

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hamad, B. H., E-mail: dr.bassmahussain@gmail.com; Ahmad, A. K., E-mail: ahmad.kamal@sc.nahrainuniv.edu.iq [College of Science, Al Nahrain University, Jadria, Baghdad (Iraq); Lateef, K. H., E-mail: kamalhlatif@yahoo.com [Ministry of Science and Technology, Jadria, Baghdad (Iraq)

2016-08-15

The present paper concentrates on the characteristics of the pseudospark switch (PSS) designed in a previous work. The special characteristics of PSS make it a replacement for other high voltage switches such as thyratrons and ordinary high-pressure spark gaps. PSS is characterized by short rise time and small jitter time. The pseudo park chamber consists of two hollow cylindrical electrodes made of a stainless steel material (type 306L) separated by an insulator. The insulator used in our design is a glazed ceramic 70 mm in diameter and 3.5 mm in thickness. A PSS with an anode voltage of 29.2 kV, and a current of 3.6 kA and 11 ns rise time was achieved and used successfully at a repetition rate of about 2.2 kHz. A simple trigger circuit designed, built, and used effectively reaching more than 1.56 kV trigger pulse which is sufficient to ignite the argon gas inside the cathode to cause a breakdown. A non-inductive dummy load is designed to be a new technique to find the accurate value of the PSS inductance. A jitter time of ±10 ns pulses is observed to occur in a reliable manner for more than 6 h of continuous operation. In this research, the important parameters of this switch like rise time, peak current, and anode voltage were studied at various values of charging capacitance. The lifetime of this system is depending on the kind of the electrode material and on the type of insulation material in the main gap of the pseudospark switch.

Development And Testing Of Biogas-Petrol Blend As An Alternative Fuel For Spark Ignition Engine

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Awogbemi

2015-08-01

Full Text Available Abstract This research is on the development and testing of a biogas-petrol blend to run a spark ignition engine. A2080 ratio biogaspetrol blend was developed as an alternative fuel for spark ignition engine test bed. Petrol and biogas-petrol blend were comparatively tested on the test bed to determine the effectiveness of the fuels. The results of the tests showed that biogas petrol blend generated higher torque brake power indicated power brake thermal efficiency and brake mean effective pressure but lower fuel consumption and exhaust temperature than petrol. The research concluded that a spark ignition engine powered by biogas-petrol blend was found to be economical consumed less fuel and contributes to sanitation and production of fertilizer.

DETECTORS USED IN PARTICLE PHYSICS RESEARCH

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Melissines, A. C.

1963-10-15

Detectors used in particle physics are discussed, and their specific properties are compared. With the pictorial'' devices are included nuclear emulsions, cloud and bubble chambers, and spark chambers. Included in the digital'' devices are counters, e.g., the Geiger counter, scintillation counters, solid-state detectors, Cherenkov counters, and spark counters. Sensitivity, resolving power, time resolutions, saturation level, and energy detection are discussed. (R.E.U.)

Power source with spark-safe outlet

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Tsesarenko, N P; Alekhin, A V

1982-01-01

The invention refers to the technique of electrical monitoring and control in systems operating in a spark-safe medium (for example, in coal mines). A more accurate area of application is mobile objects with autonomous source of electricity (mine diesel locomotives, battery electric locomotives etc.). The purpose of the invention is to simplify and to improve the reliability of the planned device, and also to expand the area of application for conditions when it is powered from an autonomous generator of direct voltage. This goal is achieved because the power source with spark-safe outlet (the source contains a thyristor of advance disconnection, connected by anode to the delimiting throttle, one outlet of which is connected to the capacitor included between the controlling electrode and the anode of the thyristor, and the capacitor is connected through the resistor parallel to the outlet clamps of the source, while the thyristor of emergency protection connected parallel to the inlet clamps of the power source) is additionally equipped with a current sensor, hercon, transistor key (included in series in the power circuit) and optron, whose emitter is connected parallel to the current sensor connected in series to the inlet of the power source, while the receiver of the optron is connected in a circuit for controlling the thyristor of emergency protection. Hercon is built into the core of the delimiting throttle and is connected to the circuit for controlling the transistor key.

Spark plasma sintering and microwave electromagnetic properties of MnFe{sub 2}O{sub 4} ceramics

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Penchal Reddy, M., E-mail: drlpenchal@gmail.com [Center for Advanced Materials, Qatar University, Doha 2713 (Qatar); Mohamed, A.M.A. [Center for Advanced Materials, Qatar University, Doha 2713 (Qatar); Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, Faculty of Petroleum and Mining Engineering, Suez University, Suez 4372 (Egypt); Venkata Ramana, M. [Department of Physics, National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei 11677, Taiwan (China); Zhou, X.B.; Huang, Q. [Division of Functional Materials and Nanodevices, Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering, Ningbo 315201 (China)

2015-12-01

MnFe{sub 2}O{sub 4} ferrite powder was synthesized by a facile one-pot hydrothermal route and then consolidated into dense nanostructured compacts by the spark plasma sintering (SPS) technique. The effect of sintering temperature, on densification, morphology, magnetic and microwave absorption properties was examined. Spark plasma sintering resulted in uniform microstructure, as well as maximum relative density of 98%. The magnetic analysis indicated that the MnFe{sub 2}O{sub 4} ferrite nanoparticles showed ferrimagnetic behavior. Moreover, the dielectric loss and magnetic loss properties of MnFe{sub 2}O{sub 4} ferrite nanoparticles were both enhanced due to its better dipole polarization, interfacial polarization and shape anisotropy. It is believed that such spark plasma sintered ceramic material will be applied widely in microwave absorbing area. - Highlights: • Successful synthesis of dense MnFe{sub 2}O{sub 4} ceramics using spark plasma sintering. • Lower temperature and shorter sintering time, compared to conventional methods. • Optimal sintering condition was achieved. • The magnetic properties of the sintered samples are sensitive to the density and microstructure.

Silver carbonate and stability in colloidal silver: A by-product of the electric spark discharge method

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tseng, Kuo-Hsiung; Liao, Chih-Yu; Tien, Der-Chi

2010-01-01

Many methods of producing colloidal silver (CS) include the introduction of surfactants to improve the suspensivity of the silver particles. The electric spark discharge method (ESDM) which involves pulses of direct current being passed through a silver electrode submerged in deionized water has been shown to successfully produce colloidal silver in a stable suspension without the use of chemical additives. A by-product of the electric spark discharge method, a silver ion compound (AgX), is shown to be the cause of the high suspensivity of the silver nanoparticles (AgNPs). The silver ion compound has been identified as Ag 2 CO 3 using X-ray diffraction, and it has been determined that the Ag 2 CO 3 is formed during the electric spark discharge process through a reaction with atmospheric CO 2 . It has been shown that an Ag 2 CO 3 concentration of 10 ppm or more is sufficient to generate a stable suspension of silver particles. Because of the occurrence of Ag 2 CO 3 , the electric spark discharge method can produce stable colloidal silver.

Peltier-based cloud chamber

Science.gov (United States)

Nar, Sevda Yeliz; Cakir, Altan

2018-02-01

Particles produced by nuclear decay, cosmic radiation and reactions can be identified through various methods. One of these methods that has been effective in the last century is the cloud chamber. The chamber makes visible cosmic particles that we are exposed to radiation per second. Diffusion cloud chamber is a kind of cloud chamber that is cooled by dry ice. This traditional model has some application difficulties. In this work, Peltier-based cloud chamber cooled by thermoelectric modules is studied. The new model provided uniformly cooled base of the chamber, moreover, it has longer lifetime than the traditional chamber in terms of observation time. This gain has reduced the costs which spent each time for cosmic particle observation. The chamber is an easy-to-use system according to traditional diffusion cloud chamber. The new model is portable, easier to make, and can be used in the nuclear physics experiments. In addition, it would be very useful to observe Muons which are the direct evidence for Lorentz contraction and time expansion predicted by Einsteins special relativity principle.

Trace amount analysis using spark mass spectrometry

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Stefani, Rene

1975-01-01

Characteristics of spark mass spectrometers (ion source, properties of the ion beam, ion optics, and performance) and their use in qualitative and quantitative analysis are described. This technique is very interesting for the semi-quantitative analysis of trace amounts, down to 10 -8 atoms. Examples of applications such as the analysis of high purity materials and non-conducting mineral samples, and determination of carbon and gas trace amounts are presented. (50 references) [fr

Design of creep machine and creep specimen chamber for carrying out creep tests in flowing liquid sodium

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ravi, S., E-mail: sravi@igcar.gov.in; Laha, K.; Sakthy, S.; Mathew, M.D.; Jayakumar, T.

2014-02-15

Highlights: • Design of a lever type creep machine for carrying out creep test in flowing sodium. • Leveling of lever during creep was achieved by automated movement of fulcrum. • Design of creep chamber for providing constant sodium flow rate across creep specimen. • Minimum use of bellow in chamber for sodium containment and mechanical isolation. • Mini-lever mechanism to counter balance load reduction on specimen due to bellow stiffness. - Abstract: A creep testing system has been designed, fabricated, installed and validated for carrying out creep tests in flowing liquid sodium. The testing system consists of two sections namely creep testing machine and an environmental chamber. The testing system has the ability of (i) applying tensile load to the test specimen through a lever, (ii) monitoring continuously the creep elongation and (iii) allowing sodium to flow around the creep specimen at constant velocity. The annular space between the creep specimen and the environmental chamber has been suitably designed to maintain constant sodium flow velocity. Primary and secondary bellows are employed in the environmental chamber to (i) mechanically isolate the creep specimen, (ii) prevent the flowing sodium in contact with air and (iii) maintain an argon gas cover to the leaking sodium if any from primary bellow, with a provision to an alarm get activated by a spark plug. The lever-horizontality during creep test has been maintained by automatically lifting up the fulcrum instead of lowering down the pull rod as conventionally used. A mini lever mechanism has been incorporated in the load train to counter balance the load reduction on specimen from the changing stiffness of the bellows. The validation of the testing system has been established by carrying out creep tests on 316L(N) stainless steel at 873 K over a wide stress range and comparing the results with those obtained in air by employing the developed and conventional creep testing machines.

Spark-safe power source

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Mester, I M; Konushkin, N A; Nevozinskiy, A K; Rubinshteyn, B Sh; Serov, V I; Vasnev, M A

1981-01-01

A shortcoming of the known power sources is their low reliability. The purpose of the invention is to improve the reliability of the device. This is achieved because the spark-safe power source is equipped with a by-passing transistor and potentiometer, and also a generator of control interruptions in the circuit, an I-element, first separating transformer, control block, second separating transformer whose secondary winding has a relay winding whose contacts are connected to the load circuit are connected in series. The generator of control separations of the circuit is connected to the base of the by-passing transistor and to the power source outlet, the potentiometer is connected in series to the main thyristor. The middle point of the potentiometer is connected to the second inlet of the I-element.

Determination of knock characteristics in spark ignition engines: an approach based on ensemble empirical mode decomposition

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Li, Ning; Liang, Caiping; Yang, Jianguo; Zhou, Rui

2016-01-01

Knock is one of the major constraints to improve the performance and thermal efficiency of spark ignition (SI) engines. It can also result in severe permanent engine damage under certain operating conditions. Based on the ensemble empirical mode decomposition (EEMD), this paper proposes a new approach to determine the knock characteristics in SI engines. By adding a uniformly distributed and finite white Gaussian noise, the EEMD can preserve signal continuity in different scales and therefore alleviates the mode-mixing problem occurring in the classic empirical mode decomposition (EMD). The feasibilities of applying the EEMD to detect the knock signatures of a test SI engine via the pressure signal measured from combustion chamber and the vibration signal measured from cylinder head are investigated. Experimental results show that the EEMD-based method is able to detect the knock signatures from both the pressure signal and vibration signal, even in initial stage of knock. Finally, by comparing the application results with those obtained by short-time Fourier transform (STFT), Wigner–Ville distribution (WVD) and discrete wavelet transform (DWT), the superiority of the EEMD method in determining knock characteristics is demonstrated. (paper)

A seasonal copula mixture for hedging the clean spark spread with wind power futures

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Christensen, Troels Sønderby; Pircalabu, Anca; Høg, Esben

2018-01-01

The recently introduced German wind power futures have brought the opportunity to address the problem of volume risk in wind power generation directly. In this paper we study the hedging benefits of these instruments in the context of gas-fired power plants by employing a strategy that allows...... and the dependence structure, while being straightforward and easy to implement. Based on Monte Carlo simulations from the proposed model, the results indicate that significant benefits can be achieved by using wind power futures to hedge the spot clean spark spread. Moreover, a comparison study shows...... trading in the spot clean spark spread and wind power futures. To facilitate hedging decisions, we propose a time-varying copula mixture for the joint behavior of the spot clean spark spread and the daily wind index. The model describes the data surprisingly well, both in terms of the marginals...

Studies on the characteristics of nuclear track spark counting for neutron monitoring

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kawai, H.; Koga, T.; Morishima, H.; Niwa, T.; Nishiwaki, Y.

1979-01-01

The fission-track counting method using polycarbonate foil is known to be very effective for neutron monitoring. The detection system consists of a track detector foil placed in contact with a thin layer of fissile material. When the unit is irradiated with neutrons, fission fragments from the fissile material produce tracks in the foil. The foil is then etched chemically to enlarge the tracks to etch-pits, which are counted by an automatic spark counting method suggested by Cross and Tommasino. Spark counting characteristics of the above system using polycarbonate detector foils of different thicknesses and aluminized polyester sheets having different thicknesses of the aluminium which serves as an electrode, and etch-pit sizes in relation to spark counting have been studied. The results obtained are summarized as follows: 1. A growth in etch-pit sizes was observed for etching times of 10 to 50 minutes with Makrofol KG (10 μm thick) and Panlite foils (18 μm thick). As the etching time increased, the number of etch-pits which appeared as round pits increased and the number which appeared rod-like decreased; 2. Round etch-pits seemed to be easily spark-punched; 3. Major and minor diameters of etch-pits produced by fission fragments from the uranium fissile target were larger than those from the thorium target; 4. As the thickness of the Makrofol KG foil increased, the minor diameters of the etch-pits appeared to become smaller and major diameters larger; 5. The foils that appeared to be best suited for routine use were 10 μm thick Makrofol KG or 6 μm thick Lumirror foils. (author)

Evolution of Spark plasma using nitrogen laser shadowgraphy system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ishiekwene, G.C.

1994-07-01

A simple, low cost, home built high power nitrogen laser is used as the light source for a shadowgraphy system. A series of shadowgrams depicting the temporal growth of a spark plasma discharge is obtained. The results could be useful in plasma diagnostic studies. (author). 5 refs, 6 figs

Non-sparking anodization process of AZ91D magnesium alloy under low AC voltage

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Li, Weiping, E-mail: liweiping@buaa.edu.cn [Key Laboratory of Aerospace Materials and Performance (Ministry of Education), School of Materials Science and Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing 100191 (China); Li, Wen [AVIC Beijing Aeronautical Manufacturing Technology Research Institue, Beijing 100024 (China); Zhu, Liqun; Liu, Huicong; Wang, Xiaofang [Key Laboratory of Aerospace Materials and Performance (Ministry of Education), School of Materials Science and Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing 100191 (China)

2013-04-20

Highlights: ► Four different processes appear on magnesium alloys with applied voltage increase. ► Non-sparking film formation process occurred in the range of 6–10 V AC. ► The film was composed of Mg{sub 2}SiO{sub 4} with a stable growth rate in 30 min. ► Film growth was a balance of electrochemical dissolution and chemical deposition. -- Abstract: Anodization is widely recognized as one of the most important surface treatments for magnesium alloys. However, since high voltage oxidation films are limited in some applications due to porosity and brittleness, it is worthwhile to explore the non-sparking oxidizing process. In this work, AZ91D was electrochemically anodized at different AC voltages in an electrolyte containing 120 g/L NaOH and 80 g/L Na{sub 2}SiO{sub 3}·9H{sub 2}O. The effects of voltage on the surface morphology, composition and reaction process, especially the non-sparking discharge anodic film formation process, were investigated. The results showed that four different processes would appear according to the applied voltage variation from 6 V to 40 V, and that the non-sparking film formation process occurred in the range of 6–10 V. The film formed on the AZ91D surface under 10 V AC was mainly composed of Mg{sub 2}SiO{sub 4} with a lamellar structure. The horizontal and vertical expansion of the lamellar structure resulted in the formation of a multi-layered structure with a stable, linear growth rate for 30 min. The non-sparking film formation process can be considered to be the result of a balance of electrochemical dissolution and chemical deposition reaction.

Magnetic field influence on substructure formed by electric spark treatment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Reza Rahbari, G.; Ivanov, A.N.

1996-01-01

The substructure of surface layer (about 10 microns thick) has been studied by x-ray line broadening technique in the samples of plain carbon steel (0.45%C) after electric spark doping with and without magnetic field (MF). The applied spark pulse energy was 0.12 J and MF induction varied from 0 to 0.08 T. The electrode material was the same as that of the treated sample. It has been observed that the MF reduces the tensile residual surface stresses from 660 ± 15MPa (no MF) to 260 ± 15MPa (B=0.053 T). The analysis of x-ray line broadening has revealed only the existence of microstrains, which are dependent of the MF magnitude. The microstrains have been related to the randomly distributed dislocation with the density of about 3x10 sup 11 cm sup -2

Quantitative mapping of zinc fluxes in the mammalian egg reveals the origin of fertilization-induced zinc sparks

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Que, Emily L.; Bleher, Reiner; Duncan, Francesca E.; Kong, Betty Y.; Gleber, Sophie C.; Vogt, Stefan; Chen, Si; Garwin, Seth A.; Bayer, Amanda R.; Dravid, Vinayak P.; Woodruff, Teresa K.; O' Halloran, Thomas V.

2014-12-15

Fertilization of a mammalian egg initiates a series of 'zinc sparks' that are necessary to induce the egg-to-embryo transition. Despite the importance of these zinc-efflux events little is known about their origin. To understand the molecular mechanism of the zinc spark we combined four physical approaches that resolve zinc distributions in single cells: a chemical probe for dynamic live-cell fluorescence imaging and a combination of scanning transmission electron microscopy with energy-dispersive spectroscopy, X-ray fluorescence microscopy and three-dimensional elemental tomography for high-resolution elemental mapping. We show that the zinc spark arises from a system of thousands of zinc-loaded vesicles, each of which contains, on average, 10(6) zinc atoms. These vesicles undergo dynamic movement during oocyte maturation and exocytosis at the time of fertilization. The discovery of these vesicles and the demonstration that zinc sparks originate from them provides a quantitative framework for understanding how zinc fluxes regulate cellular processes

Loits skandaalitses gaalal. Sparks Rabarockil. Pärimusmuusika Ait

Index Scriptorium Estoniae

2008-01-01

Pärnu Kontserdimajas Eesti muusikaauhindade galal üle astunud rockansambel Loits röövis koostöös kultuskirjaniku Sven Kivisildnikuga aasta metal/punk-artisti auhinna, mis pidi minema industrial-metal-artistile Finish Me Off. Ameerika bänd Sparks 14. juunil Järvakandis Rabarockil. Viljandis Tasuja pst.6 avati Eesti Pärimusmuusika Keskuse uus kodu - Pärimusmuusika Ait

Cálculo del exponente de Hurst utilizando Spark Streaming: enfoque experimental sobre un flujo de transacciones de criptomonedas

OpenAIRE

Basgall, María José; Hasperué, Waldo; Naiouf, Marcelo; Bariviera, Aurelio F.

2017-01-01

Actualmente es cada vez más común encontrarse con problemas de Big Data, donde las aplicaciones desarrolladas para resolver dichos problemas son implementadas en frameworks específicos. Uno de los que más se utiliza es Apache Spark, que posee el módulo Spark Streaming el cual permite el tratamiento de datos provenientes de un flujo de información potencialmente infinito. En este trabajo se presenta una aplicación implementada en Spark Streaming que realiza el cálculo del exponente de Hurst, u...

Dual ionization chamber

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mallory, J.; Turlej, Z.

1981-01-01

Dual ionization chambers are provided for use with an electronic smoke detector. The chambers are separated by electrically-conductive partition. A single radiation source extends through the partition into both chambers, ionizing the air in each. The mid-point current of the device may be balanced by adjusting the position of the source

Formation and properties of two-phase bulk metallic glasses by spark plasma sintering

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Xie Guoqiang, E-mail: xiegq@imr.tohoku.ac.jp [Institute for Materials Research, Tohoku University, 2-1-1 Katahira, Aoba-ku, Sendai 980-8577 (Japan); Louzguine-Luzgin, D.V. [WPI Advanced Institute for Materials Research, Tohoku University, Sendai 980-8577 (Japan); Inoue, Akihisa [Institute for Materials Research, Tohoku University, 2-1-1 Katahira, Aoba-ku, Sendai 980-8577 (Japan); WPI Advanced Institute for Materials Research, Tohoku University, Sendai 980-8577 (Japan)

2011-06-15

Research highlights: > Two-phase bulk metallic glasses with high strength and good soft magnetic properties as well as satisfying large-size requirements were produced by spark plasma sintering. > Effects of sintering temperature on thermal stability, microstructure, mechanical and magnetic properties were investigated. > Densified samples were obtained by the spark plasma sintering at above 773 K. - Abstract: Using a mixture of the gas-atomized Ni{sub 52.5}Nb{sub 10}Zr{sub 15}Ti{sub 15}Pt{sub 7.5} and Fe{sub 73}Si{sub 7}B{sub 17}Nb{sub 3} glassy alloy powders, we produced the two-phase bulk metallic glass (BMG) with high strength and good soft magnetic properties as well as satisfying large-size requirements by the spark plasma sintering (SPS) process. Two kinds of glassy particulates were homogeneously dispersed each other. With an increase in sintering temperature, density of the produced samples increased, and densified samples were obtained by the SPS process at above 773 K. Good bonding state among the Ni- and Fe-based glassy particulates was achieved.

Exploratory studies on a passively triggered vacuum spark

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Rout, R.K. [High Pressure Physics Division, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai (India)]. E-mail: rkrout@apsara.barc.ernet.in; Auluck, S.K.H.; Kulkarni, L.V. [High Pressure Physics Division, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai, India (India); Nagpal, J.S. [Radiation Standards and Instrumentation Division, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai (India)

1999-12-07

The results of an experimental investigation on a passively triggered vacuum spark device are presented. The diagnostics include the current, x-ray and optical emission measurements. The sharp dips in the current derivative signal indicate the occurrence of pinching at an early stage of the discharge (at current {approx} 5 kA). A well-confined plasma with a central hot region was recorded using a streak camera. The pinched plasma was observed to undergo kink-type oscillations with a time period of 10-15 ns. Repeated plasma fronts were seen to move from the anode to the cathode with an average velocity of {approx}5x10{sup 6} cm s{sup -1}. Soft x-ray emission having a radiation intensity of a few hundred mR per discharge was observed. The x-ray signals obtained using photodiodes showed multiple bursts. A soft x-ray pinhole camera recorded micro-pinches of {approx}100 {mu}m. The x-ray emitting regions were confined to the inter-electrode gap. The x-ray emission characteristics were influenced by the electrolytic resistance, which was connected across the spark gap to initiate discharge. (author)

Internal combustion engines a detailed introduction to the thermodynamics of spark and compression ignition engines, their design and development

CERN Document Server

Benson, Rowland S

1979-01-01

Internal Combustion of Engines: A Detailed Introduction to the Thermodynamics of Spark and Compression Ignition Engines, Their Design and Development focuses on the design, development, and operations of spark and compression ignition engines. The book first describes internal combustion engines, including rotary, compression, and indirect or spark ignition engines. The publication then discusses basic thermodynamics and gas dynamics. Topics include first and second laws of thermodynamics; internal energy and enthalpy diagrams; gas mixtures and homocentric flow; and state equation. The text ta

Generating Carbon Tubes and Films from Lead and Cadmium Wires During Underwater Spark Discharges

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Taka-aki Matsumoto

2000-01-01

In general, no nuclear reactions between charged particles would be possible in a low-energy region. However, many experimental data of nuclear transmutation with low energy were recently reported related to so-called cold fusion. This paper describes some kinds of low-energy nuclear reactions (LENRs), which could be induced during an underwater spark discharge (USD) with only(approx)120 V. The mechanisms of the extraordinary nuclear transmutation can be explained by the Nattoh model. The electron bonding of sparks, which was a special state of atomic clusters, was so strong that multibody nuclear reactions such as nuclear collapse[called electro-nuclear collapse (ENC)] could take place in the spark. Because of ENC, completely broken materials could be again regenerated as conventional elements. The film product was considered to be made by a spherical explosion of a small black hole and the tube by a rotational eruption of a small white hole, both of which resulted from ENC

Wire Chamber

CERN Multimedia

Magnetoscriptive readout wire chamber. Multi-wire detectors contain layers of positively and negatively charged wires enclosed in a chamber full of gas. A charged particle passing through the chamber knocks negatively charged electrons out of atoms in the gas, leaving behind positive ions. The electrons are pulled towards the positively charged wires. They collide with other atoms on the way, producing an avalanche of electrons and ions. The movement of these electrons and ions induces an electric pulse in the wires which is collected by fast electronics. The size of the pulse is proportional to the energy loss of the original particle.

Wire chamber

CERN Multimedia

1967-01-01

Magnetoscriptive readout wire chamber.Multi-wire detectors contain layers of positively and negatively charged wires enclosed in a chamber full of gas. A charged particle passing through the chamber knocks negatively charged electrons out of atoms in the gas, leaving behind positive ions. The electrons are pulled towards the positively charged wires. They collide with other atoms on the way, producing an avalanche of electrons and ions. The movement of these electrons and ions induces an electric pulse in the wires which is collected by fast electronics. The size of the pulse is proportional to the energy loss of the original particle.

Electron microscopy investigation of spark-eroded Ni-Mn-Ga ferromagnetic shape-memory alloy particles

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Solomon, Virgil C. [School of Materials, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287 (United States)], E-mail: virgil.solomon@asu.edu; Hong, J.-I. [Center for Magnetic Recording Research, University of California at San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093 (United States); Tang, Y.J. [Center for Magnetic Recording Research, University of California at San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093 (United States); Berkowitz, Ami E. [Center for Magnetic Recording Research, University of California at San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093 (United States); Smith, David J. [School of Materials, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287 (United States); Department of Physics, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287 (United States)

2007-04-15

The microstructural and chemical characteristics of Ni-Mn-Ga particles produced by spark-erosion using liquid argon or liquid nitrogen dielectrics were investigated by electron microscopy techniques. The particles were predominantly micron-sized spheres; those obtained in argon were solid, whereas those obtained in nitrogen were primarily hollow. The investigation of annealed particles revealed twinned microstructure and provided evidence supporting the cryogen solubility model of hollow particle formation, as well as possibly explaining the non-homogeneous structure of particles formed by spark-erosion in liquid nitrogen.

Development of Augmented Spark Impinging Igniter System for Methane Engines

Science.gov (United States)

Marshall, William M.; Osborne, Robin J.; Greene, Sandra E.

2017-01-01

The Lunar Cargo Transportation and Landing by Soft Touchdown (Lunar CATALYST) program is establishing multiple no-funds-exchanged Space Act Agreement (SAA) partnerships with U.S. private sector entities. The purpose of this program is to encourage the development of robotic lunar landers that can be integrated with U.S. commercial launch capabilities to deliver payloads to the lunar surface. NASA can share technology and expertise under the SAA for the benefit of the CATALYST partners. MSFC seeking to vacuum test Augmented Spark Impinging (ASI) igniter with methane and new exciter units to support CATALYST partners and NASA programs. ASI has previously been used/tested successfully at sea-level, with both O2/CH4 and O2/H2 propellants. Conventional ignition exciter systems historically experienced corona discharge issues in vacuum. Often utilized purging or atmospheric sealing on high voltage lead to remedy. Compact systems developed since PCAD could eliminate the high-voltage lead and directly couple the exciter to the spark igniter. MSFC developed Augmented Spark Impinging (ASI) igniter. Successfully used in several sea-level test programs. Plasma-assisted design. Portion of ox flow is used to generate hot plasma. Impinging flows downstream of plasma. Additional fuel flow down torch tube sleeve for cooling near stoichiometric torch flame. Testing done at NASA GRC Altitude Combustion Stand (ACS) facility 2000-lbf class facility with altitude simulation up to around 100,000 ft. (0.2 psia [10 Torr]) via nitrogen driven ejectors. Propellant conditioning systems can provide temperature control of LOX/CH4 up to test article.

Ionization chambers

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Boag, J.W.

1987-01-01

Although a variety of solid-state and chemical methods for measuring radiation dose have been developed in recent decades and calorimetry can now provide an absolute standard of reference, ionization dosimetry retains its position as the most widely used, most convenient, and, in most situations, most accurate method of measuring either exposure or absorbed dose. The ionization chamber itself is the central element in this system of dosimetry. In this chapter the principles governing the construction and operation of ionization chambers of various types are examined. Since the ionization chambers now in general use are nearly all of commercial manufacture, the emphasis is on operating characteristics and interpretation of measurements rather than on details of construction, although some knowledge of the latter is often required when applying necessary corrections to the measured quantities. Examples are given of the construction of typical chambers designed for particular purposes, and the methods of calibrating them are discussed

Generation of mixed metallic nanoparticles from immiscible metals by spark discharge

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tabrizi, N. S.; Xu, Q.; Pers, N. M. van der; Schmidt-Ott, A.

2010-01-01

Using a spark discharge system, we synthesized Ag-Cu, Pt-Au and Cu-W mixed particles a few nanometers in size. These combinations have miscibility gaps in the bulk form. The microsecond sparks between electrodes consisting of the respective materials, form a vapour cloud. Very fast quenching of the mixed vapour results in the formation of nanoparticles. To investigate the morphology, size, composition and structure of the particles, TEM, XRD analyses and EDS elemental mapping were performed on the samples. The average compositions were measured by ICP and the specific surface areas were determined by the BET. Our method produces Ag-Cu and Au-Pt mixed crystalline phases that do not exist in macroscopic samples. For Cu-W, alloying is not observed, and the metals are mixed on a scale of about 1 nm.

Ignition system for an internal combustion engine with rotary system

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hochstein, P A

1977-05-18

In the Wankel engine, the sparking plugs spark three times per rotation of the rotor and are never cooled by the incoming mixture. This constant high temperature environment necessitates the use of special sparking plugs. The covered top of the sparking plug is particularly liable to carbon deposits. This invention makes it possible to use sparking plugs on the rotor, without the disadvantages due to the use of high voltage. Further, the use of distributors or mechanical devices determining the ignition timing is no longer necessary. The fuel/air mixture is ignited in a combustion chamber, which is limited by first and second components moving relative to one another in repeated cycles. A generator device is fitted to the first components and an ignition device to the second components. The magnetic flux linking takes place in a predetermined area of the relative movement between the first and second components in a repeated cycle. An ignition signal is produced in the combustion chamber by the magnetic flux linking.

Gas microstrip chambers

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

McIntyre, P.M.; Barasch, E.F.; Bowcock, T.J.V.; Demroff, H.P.; Elliott, S.M.; Howe, M.R.; Lee, B.; Mazumdar, T.K.; Pang, Y.; Smith, D.D.; Wahl, J.; Wu, Y.; Yue, W.K.; Gaedke, R.M.; Vanstraelen, G.

1992-01-01

The gas microstrip chamber has been developed from concept to experimental system during the past three years. A pattern of anode and grid lines are microfabricated onto a dielectric substrate and configured as a high-resolution MWPC. Four recent developments are described: Suitable plastic substrates and lithography techniques for large-area chambers; non-planar silicon-based chambers for 20 μm resolution; integrated on-board synchronous front-end electronics and data buffering; and a porous silicon active cathode for enhanced efficiency and time response. The microstrip chamber appears to be a promising technology for applications in microvertex, tracking spectrometer, muon spectrometer, and transition radiation detection. (orig.)

Air spark-like plasma source for antimicrobial NOx generation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pavlovich, M J; Galleher, C; Curtis, B; Clark, D S; Graves, D B; Ono, T; Machala, Z

2014-01-01

We demonstrate and analyse the generation of nitrogen oxides and their antimicrobial efficacy using atmospheric air spark-like plasmas. Spark-like discharges in air in a 1 L confined volume are shown to generate NO x at an initial rate of about 1.5  ×  10 16 NO x molecules/J dissipated in the plasma. Such a discharge operating in this confined volume generates on the order of 6000 ppm NO x in 10 min. Around 90% of the NO x is in the form of NO 2 after several minutes of operation in the confined volume, suggesting that NO 2 is the dominant antimicrobial component. The strong antimicrobial action of the NO x mixture after several minutes of plasma operation is demonstrated by measuring rates of E. coli disinfection on surfaces and in water exposed to the NO x mixture. Some possible applications of plasma generation of NO x (perhaps followed by dissolution in water) include disinfection of surfaces, skin or wound antisepsis, and sterilization of medical instruments at or near room temperature. (paper)

Effect of the ohmic drop in a RPC-LIKE chamber for measurements of electron transport parameters

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Petri, Anna R.; Gonçalves, Josemary A.C.; Bueno, Carmen C., E-mail: annapetri@usp.br, E-mail: josemary@ipen.br, E-mail: ccbueno@ipen.br [Instituto de Pesquisas Energéticas e Nucleares (IPEN/CNEN-SP), São Paulo, SP (Brazil); Mangiarotti, Alessio, E-mail: alessio@if.usp.br [Universidade de São Paulo (IF/USP), SP (Brazil). Instituto de Física

2017-07-01

The main advantage of Resistive Plate Chambers (RPCs), applied, for instance, in High-Energy Experiments and Positron Emission Tomography (PET), is that it is spark-protected due to the presence of, at least, one high resistive electrode. However, the ohmic drop across the latter can affect the charge multiplication significantly. In this work, we investigate this effect in a RPC-like chamber. The counter was filled with nitrogen at atmospheric pressure and the primary ionization was produced by the incidence of nitrogen pulsed laser beam on an aluminum cathode. The illumination area of the cathode was measured using a foil of millimetric paper overlaid on this electrode. In this way, the resistance of the glass anode could be estimated using the known resistivity of the glass (ρ=2×10{sup 12} Ω.cm). Therefore, the voltage drop across the dielectric was calculated by the product of the current across the gas gap and the anode resistance. In order to mitigate the effect of the resistive electrode, the laser beam intensity was limited by interposing metallic meshes between the laser and the chamber window. The dependence of the ohmic drop from the applied voltage was analyzed. The results obtained shown that, without the meshes, the ohmic drop corresponds up to 7% of the applied voltage, preventing the detection system to reach values of density-normalized electric fields in the gas gap (E{sub eff}/N) higher than 166 Td. By minimizing the laser beam intensity and, consequently, the primary ionization, the ohmic drop represented only 0.2% of the applied voltage, extending the E{sub eff} /N range up to 175 Td. (author)

Improving the Tribological Properties of Spark-Anodized Titanium by Magnetron Sputtered Diamond-Like Carbon

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zhaoxiang Chen

2018-02-01

Full Text Available Spark-anodization of titanium can produce adherent and wear-resistant TiO2 film on the surface, but the spark-anodized titanium has lots of surface micro-pores, resulting in an unstable and high friction coefficient against many counterparts. In this study, the diamond-like carbon (DLC was introduced into the micro-pores of spark-anodized titanium by the magnetron sputtering technique and a TiO2/DLC composite coating was fabricated. The microstructure and tribological properties of TiO2/DLC composite coating were investigated and compared with the anodic TiO2 mono-film and DLC mono-film. Results show that the DLC deposition significantly decreased the surface roughness and porosity of spark-anodized titanium. The fabricated TiO2/DLC composite coating exhibited a more stable and much lower friction coefficient than anodic TiO2 mono-film. Although the friction coefficient of the composite coating and the DLC mono-film was similar under both light load and heavy load conditions, the wear life of the composite coating was about 43% longer than that of DLC mono-film under heavy load condition. The wear rate of titanium with protective composite coating was much lower than that of titanium with DLC mono-film. The superior low friction coefficient and wear rate of the TiO2/DLC composite coating make it a good candidate as protective coating on titanium alloys.

Performance enhancement of a spark ignition engine fed by different fuel types

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hedfi, Hachem; Jbara, Abdessalem; Jedli, Hedi; Slimi, Khalifa; Stoppato, Anna

2016-01-01

Highlights: • Biogas mixed with hydrogen is checked for a spark ignition engine. • An engine fed by biogas, hydrogen, natural gas or liquid petroleum gas is studied. • Efficiency is optimized with respect to consumption and exhaust gas recirculation. • Combustion reaction progress is characterized in real time. - Abstract: A numerical model based on thermodynamic and kinetic analyses has been established in order to evaluate biogas, hydrogen, natural gas or liquid petroleum gas as fuels in a spark ignition engine. For each fuel type, consumption as well as efficiency have been compared to gasoline in order to generate the same engine work (in the range of 0.28–0.43 W h/cycle). It was found that the spark ignition engine can be fed by an equimolar mixture of biogas and hydrogen. Moreover, thermal efficiency has been enhanced with respect to fuel consumption and exhaust gas recirculation (EGR). It was shown that an equimolar mixture between biogas and hydrogen increases the ITE by around 2.2% and decreases the mass consumption by less than 0.01 g/cycle. In addition, the combustion reaction progresses as well as CO and CO_2 emissions have been characterized in real time.

Double chamber ion source

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Uman, M.F.; Winnard, J.R.; Winters, H.F.

1978-01-01

The ion source is comprised of two discharge chambers one of which is provided with a filament and an aperture leading into the other chamber which in turn has an extraction orifice. A low voltage arc discharge is operated in an inert gas atmosphere in the filament chamber while an arc of higher voltage is operated in the second ionization chamber which contains a vapor which will give the desired dopant ion species. The entire source is immersed in an axial magnetic field parallel to a line connecting the filament, the aperture between the two chambers and the extraction orifice. (author)

Ussing Chamber

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Westerhout, J.; Wortelboer, H.; Verhoeckx, K.

2015-01-01

The Ussing chamber system is named after the Danish zoologist Hans Ussing, who invented the device in the 1950s to measure the short-circuit current as an indicator of net ion transport taking place across frog skin (Ussing and Zerahn, Acta Physiol Scand 23:110-127, 1951). Ussing chambers are

The spark counting of etched fission-fragment tracks in polycarbonate for a personal neutron dosimetry system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Harrison, K.G.; Hancock, I.B.; Holt, P.D.; Wylie, J.W.

1977-10-01

A new type of personal neutron dosimeter, in which neutron-induced fissions in a thin 237 Np foil are detected by a polycarbonate track-detector, is under development at Harwell for use in a nuclear-fuel reprocessing plant. As part of the development programme, an experimental dosimeter, etching facility and spark counter have been used to study the spark-counting method for counting fission-fragment tracks in polycarbonate. Emphasis has been placed on developing operating procedures for the counter consistent with good overall reproducibility. Existing methods for the optimizing and testing of spark counters is briefly reviewed and a practical operational testing procedure is devised. The optimized system is found to be relatively foolproof in operation and gives good results in unskilled use as well as under carefully-controlled laboratory conditions. (author)

Effect of Spark Motor Program on the development of gross motor skills in intellectually disabled educable boys

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hashem Faal Moganloo

2013-11-01

Results: Spark Program caused significant changes in all the variables of the study, except speed and agility, in the experimental group after 24 sessions. The changes included: agility and speed (P=0.731, balance (P=0, strength (P=0.002, and bilateral coordination (P=0. Conclusion: Spark Motor Program can improve gross motor skills in intellectually disabled educable students.

DELPHI Barrel Muon Chamber Module

CERN Multimedia

1989-01-01

The module was used as part of the muon identification system on the barrel of the DELPHI detector at LEP, and was in active use from 1989 to 2000. The module consists of 7 individual muons chambers arranged in 2 layers. Chambers in the upper layer are staggered by half a chamber width with respect to the lower layer. Each individual chamber is a drift chamber consisting of an anode wire, 47 microns in diameter, and a wrapped copper delay line. Each chamber provided 3 signal for each muon passing through the chamber, from which a 3D space-point could be reconstructed.

Production of uranium-molybdenum particles by spark-erosion

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cabanillas, E.D.; Lopez, M.; Pasqualini, E.E.; Cirilo Lombardo, D.J.

2004-01-01

With the spark-erosion method we have produced spheroidal particles of an uranium-molybdenum alloy using pure water as dielectric. The particles were characterized by optical metallography, scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive spectrometry and X-ray diffraction. Mostly spherical particles of UO 2 with a distinctive size distribution with peaks centered at 70 and 10 μm were obtained. The particles have central inclusions of U and Mo compounds

Production of uranium-molybdenum particles by spark-erosion

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Cabanillas, E.D. E-mail: cabanill@cnea.gov.ar; Lopez, M.; Pasqualini, E.E.; Cirilo Lombardo, D.J

2004-01-01

With the spark-erosion method we have produced spheroidal particles of an uranium-molybdenum alloy using pure water as dielectric. The particles were characterized by optical metallography, scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive spectrometry and X-ray diffraction. Mostly spherical particles of UO{sub 2} with a distinctive size distribution with peaks centered at 70 and 10 {mu}m were obtained. The particles have central inclusions of U and Mo compounds.

Gridded ionization chamber

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Houston, J.M.

1977-01-01

An improved ionization chamber type x-ray detector comprises a heavy gas at high pressure disposed between an anode and a cathode. An open grid structure is disposed adjacent the anode and is maintained at a voltsge intermediate between the cathode and anode potentials. The electric field which is produced by positive ions drifting toward the cathode is thus shielded from the anode. Current measuring circuits connected to the anode are, therefore, responsive only to electron current flow within the chamber and the recovery time of the chamber is shortened. The grid structure also serves to shield the anode from electrical currents which might otherwise be induced by mechanical vibrations in the ionization chamber structure

Spark gap produced plasma diagnostics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chang, H.Y.

1990-01-01

A Spark Gap (Applied voltage : 2-8KV, Capacitor : 4 Micro F. Dia of the tube : 1 inch, Electrode distance : .3 ∼.5 inch) was made to generate a small size dynamic plasma. To measure the plasma density and temperature as a function of time and position, we installed and have been installing four detection systems - Mach-Zehnder type Interferometer for the plasma refractivity, Expansion speed detector using two He-Ne laser beams, Image Processing using Lens and A Optical-Fiber Array for Pointwise Radiation Sensing, Faraday Rotation of a Optical Fiber to measure the azimuthal component of B-field generated by the plasma drift. These systems was used for the wire explosion diagnostics, and can be used for the Laser driven plasma also

Exploratory studies on a passively triggered vacuum spark

Science.gov (United States)

Rout, R. K.; Auluck, S. K. H.; Nagpal, J. S.; Kulkarni, L. V.

1999-12-01

The results of an experimental investigation on a passively triggered vacuum spark device are presented. The diagnostics include the current, x-ray and optical emission measurements. The sharp dips in the current derivative signal indicate the occurrence of pinching at an early stage of the discharge (at current icons/Journals/Common/approx" ALT="approx" ALIGN="TOP"/>5 kA). A well-confined plasma with a central hot region was recorded using a streak camera. The pinched plasma was observed to undergo kink-type oscillations with a time period of 10-15 ns. Repeated plasma fronts were seen to move from the anode to the cathode with an average velocity of icons/Journals/Common/approx" ALT="approx" ALIGN="TOP"/>5 × 106 cm s-1. Soft x-ray emission having a radiation intensity of a few hundred mR per discharge was observed. The x-ray signals obtained using photodiodes showed multiple bursts. A soft x-ray pinhole camera recorded micro-pinches of icons/Journals/Common/approx" ALT="approx" ALIGN="TOP"/>100 µm. The x-ray emitting regions were confined to the inter-electrode gap. The x-ray emission characteristics were influenced by the electrolytic resistance, which was connected across the spark gap to initiate discharge.

Influence of hydrox on spark ignition engine performance

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Naude, A.F.

2003-01-01

An experimental investigation was performed on the influence of the addition of small quantities of Hydrox (hydrogen and oxygen) as generated through electrolysis of water on the performance of a spark ignition engine. A Mazda 1600 cc fuel injected engine connected to a Superflow SF901 dynamometer system was used in this project. The engine was also equipped with a Unichip engine management system in order to enable changes in the spark timing and the amount of fuel injected. Hydrox was generated by an electrolysis process that could either be powered by the engine's alternator or from a separate power source. This hydrox gas produced from the electrolyzer was introduced into the engine's intake manifold and the influence of this was measured on the engine's performance, emissions and fuel consumption. For these tests a typical load condition as experienced for a light passenger car vehicle driven at 100 km/h on the open road was simulated. Typical results for the change in emissions with the hydrox introduction showed a significant reduction in hydrocarbons at lean air-fuel ratio operation of the engine. Additionally with the electrolysis process being driven by the engine a small improvement in fuel consumption was experienced. (author)

A multi-platform evaluation of the randomized CX low-rank matrix factorization in Spark

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Gittens, Alex; Kottalam, Jey; Yang, Jiyan; Ringenburg, Michael, F.; Chhugani, Jatin; Racah, Evan; Singh, Mohitdeep; Yao, Yushu; Fischer, Curt; Ruebel, Oliver; Bowen, Benjamin; Lewis, Norman, G.; Mahoney, Michael, W.; Krishnamurthy, Venkat; Prabhat, Mr

2017-07-27

We investigate the performance and scalability of the randomized CX low-rank matrix factorization and demonstrate its applicability through the analysis of a 1TB mass spectrometry imaging (MSI) dataset, using Apache Spark on an Amazon EC2 cluster, a Cray XC40 system, and an experimental Cray cluster. We implemented this factorization both as a parallelized C implementation with hand-tuned optimizations and in Scala using the Apache Spark high-level cluster computing framework. We obtained consistent performance across the three platforms: using Spark we were able to process the 1TB size dataset in under 30 minutes with 960 cores on all systems, with the fastest times obtained on the experimental Cray cluster. In comparison, the C implementation was 21X faster on the Amazon EC2 system, due to careful cache optimizations, bandwidth-friendly access of matrices and vector computation using SIMD units. We report these results and their implications on the hardware and software issues arising in supporting data-centric workloads in parallel and distributed environments.

Consolidation of W–Ta composites: Hot isostatic pressing and spark and pulse plasma sintering

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Dias, M., E-mail: marta.dias@itn.pt [Instituto de Plasmas e Fusão Nuclear, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Av. Rovisco Pais, 1049-001 Lisboa (Portugal); Guerreiro, F. [Instituto de Plasmas e Fusão Nuclear, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Av. Rovisco Pais, 1049-001 Lisboa (Portugal); Correia, J.B. [LNEG, Laboratório Nacional de Energia e Geologia, Estrada do Paço do Lumiar, 1649-038 Lisboa (Portugal); Galatanu, A. [National Institute of Materials Physics, Atomistilor 105 bis Bucharest-Magurele, 077125 Ilfov (Romania); Rosiński, M. [Warsaw University of Technology, Faculty of Materials Science and Engineering, Warsaw (Poland); Monge, M.A.; Munoz, A. [Departamento de Física, Univerdidad Carlos III de Madrid, Avd. de la Universidad 30, 28911 Madrid (Spain); Alves, E. [Instituto de Plasmas e Fusão Nuclear, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Av. Rovisco Pais, 1049-001 Lisboa (Portugal); Carvalho, P.A. [Instituto de Plasmas e Fusão Nuclear, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Av. Rovisco Pais, 1049-001 Lisboa (Portugal); CeFEMA, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Av. Rovisco Pais, 1049-001 Lisboa (Portugal)

2015-10-15

Highlights: • Consolidation of W–Ta composites using three techniques: HIP, SPS and PPS. • Comparison of consolidation methods in terms of W–Ta interdiffusion and densification. • Microstructure analysis in terms of oxides formation. - Abstract: Composites consisting of tantalum fiber/powder dispersed in a nanostructured W matrix have been consolidated by spark and pulse plasma sintering as well as by hot isostatic pressing. The microstructural observations revealed that the tungsten–tantalum fiber composites consolidated by hot isostatic pressing and pulse plasma sintering presented a continuous layer of Ta{sub 2}O{sub 5} phase at the W/Ta interfaces, while the samples consolidated by spark plasma sintering evidenced a Ta + Ta{sub 2}O{sub 5} eutectic mixture due to the higher temperature of this consolidation process. Similar results have been obtained for the tungsten–tantalum powder composites. A (W, Ta) solid solution was detected around the prior nanostructured W particles in tungsten–tantalum powder composites consolidated by spark and pulse plasma sintering. Higher densifications were obtained for composites consolidated by hot isostatic pressing and pulse plasma sintering.

Spark discharge formation in an inhomogeneous electric field under conditions of runaway electron generation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shao Tao; Zhang Cheng; Yan Ping; Tarasenko, Victor F.; Lomaev, Mikhail I.; Sorokin, Dmitrii A.; Kozyrev, Andrei V.; Baksht, Evgeni Kh.

2012-01-01

In this article we report on work where the formation of a spark in nanosecond high-voltage discharges was studied in nitrogen, nitrogen-methane mixtures, and air at increased pressures under the conditions of runaway electron generation. Voltage pulses of amplitude ∼90 and ∼250 kV were applied to a point-to-plane gap with a planar anode and a cathode of small curvature radius. Cathode spots appeared early in the discharge, within ∼200 ps of a corona discharge at high rate of rise of the voltage (∼5 x 10 14 V/s) across centimeter point-to-plane gap spacing. The spark leader that bridged the point-to-plane gap propagated from the planar anode with cathode spots and a voltage pulse rise time of less than 1 ns. The discharge from diffuse clouds took the form of diffuse jets with increasing pulse repetition rate, thus achieving the accumulation effect in a repetitively pulsed discharge. Characteristic emission spectra are presented for spark diffuse and corona discharges.

Spark discharge formation in an inhomogeneous electric field under conditions of runaway electron generation

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Shao Tao; Zhang Cheng; Yan Ping [Institute of Electrical Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190 (China); Key Laboratory of Power Electronics and Electric Drive, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190 (China); Tarasenko, Victor F.; Lomaev, Mikhail I.; Sorokin, Dmitrii A.; Kozyrev, Andrei V.; Baksht, Evgeni Kh. [Institute of High Current Electronics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Tomsk 634055 (Russian Federation)

2012-01-15

In this article we report on work where the formation of a spark in nanosecond high-voltage discharges was studied in nitrogen, nitrogen-methane mixtures, and air at increased pressures under the conditions of runaway electron generation. Voltage pulses of amplitude {approx}90 and {approx}250 kV were applied to a point-to-plane gap with a planar anode and a cathode of small curvature radius. Cathode spots appeared early in the discharge, within {approx}200 ps of a corona discharge at high rate of rise of the voltage ({approx}5 x 10{sup 14} V/s) across centimeter point-to-plane gap spacing. The spark leader that bridged the point-to-plane gap propagated from the planar anode with cathode spots and a voltage pulse rise time of less than 1 ns. The discharge from diffuse clouds took the form of diffuse jets with increasing pulse repetition rate, thus achieving the accumulation effect in a repetitively pulsed discharge. Characteristic emission spectra are presented for spark diffuse and corona discharges.

AN EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION OF THE EFFECTS OF VARIABLE VALVE TIMING ON THE PERFORMANCE IN SPARK IGNITION ENGINE

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ali AKBAŞ

2001-01-01

Full Text Available In this study, an alternative prototype has been designed and constructed for variable valve timing systems which are used in spark ignition engines. The effects of intake valve timing and lift changing on engine performance have been investigated without changing the opening duration of the valves. A four stroke, single cylinder, spark ignition engine has been used for these experiments.

π0 detection system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Suzuki, Yoichiro

1977-01-01

A π-zero meson detection system used for the measurement of charge exchange reaction is described. The detection of π-zero is made by observing the coincidence events of two gamma-ray emission following the decay of π-zero meson. The angles of the emitted gamma-rays are detected with a wire spark chamber system, and the energies of the gamma-rays are measured with hodoscope type lead glass Cherenkov counters. In front of the π-zero counter system, a lead converter is set, and the incident gamma-rays convert to electron positron pairs, which can be detected with the wire spark chambers. The system is a multi-track detection system. The high voltage pulser of the wire spark chamber system is a charge line thyratron pulser, and the chamber itself is a transmission line type. Read-out can be made by a mag-line system. Wave forms and efficiencies were measured. The three-track efficiency was about 90% by the condenser method and 95% by the charge line method. (Kato, T.)

High speed streak techniques for measuring the growth of spark channels

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Suleebka, P.

1975-01-01

The manner of expansion of an electric spark channel is of interest in the understanding of such phenomena as lightning. The development of a camera suitable for photography of this expansion is described, with some results for hydrogen. (author)

A cinema for the unborn: moving pictures, mental pictures and Electra Sparks's New Thought film theory.

Science.gov (United States)

Ellis, Patrick

2017-09-01

In the 1910s, New York suffragette Electra Sparks wrote a series of essays in the Moving Picture News that advocated for cine-therapy treatments for pregnant women. Film was, in her view, the great democratizer of beautiful images, providing high-cultural access to the city's poor. These positive 'mental pictures' were important for her because, she claimed, in order to produce an attractive, healthy child, the mother must be exposed to quality cultural material. Sparks's championing of cinema during its 'second birth' was founded upon the premise of New Thought. This metaphysical Christian doctrine existed alongside the self-help and esoteric publishing domains and testified, above all, to the possibility of the 'mind-cure' of the body through the positive application of 'mental pictures'. Physiologically, their method began best in the womb, where the thoughts of the mother were of utmost importance: the eventual difference between birthing an Elephant Man or an Adonis. This positive maternal impression was commonplace in New Thought literature; it was Sparks's innovation to apply it to cinema. Investigating Sparks's film theory, practice and programming reveals her to be a harbinger of the abiding analogy between mind and motion picture that occupies film theorists to this day.

Contribution to the study of 'Pseudo-spark' discharges applied to the realisation of latch devices

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bauville, Gerard

1994-01-01

The objective of this research thesis is to study discharges growing from a hollow geometry of electrodes for pressures on the left side of the Paschen minimum. The study characterises the main conduction phase by experimentally determining the discharge voltage and current. Based on a numerical analysis, the author deduces some macroscopic characteristics such as voltage mean value, dissipated energy, with respect to the variation of various parameters such as gas pressure and nature, discharge duration, and electrode cavity geometries. After a first part on switches (technological applications, switches, pseudo-spark breakers), the author addresses the discharges (presentation of a 'pseudo-spark'-type discharge, involved physical mechanisms, methods of initiation of pseudo-spark discharges, triggering by a magnetic field pulse). The next part describes the test bench in a detailed way (electrodes, triggering system, electric configurations), and the last part reports the experimental study. It addresses the following issues: distribution of magnetic field lines, voltage drop, conjunction phase, discharge footprints on the surfaces, propagation rate, disjunction [fr

Interferometric fiber-optic sensor embedded in a spark plug for in-cylinder pressure measurement in engines.

Science.gov (United States)

Bae, Taehan; Atkins, Robert A; Taylor, Henry F; Gibler, William N

2003-02-20

Pressure sensing in an internal combustion engine with an intrinsic fiber Fabry-Perot interferometer (FFPI) integrated with a spark plug is demonstrated for the first time. The spark plug was used for the ignition of the cylinder in which it was mounted. The FFPI element, protected with a copper/gold coating, was embedded in a groove in the spark-plug housing. Gas pressure inthe engine induced longitudinal strain in this housing, which was also experienced by the fiber-optic sensing element. The sensor was monitored with a signal conditioning unit containing a chirped distributed-feedback laser. Pressure sensitivities as high as 0.00339 radians round-trip phase shift per pounds per square inch of pressure were observed. Measured pressure versus time traces showed good agreement with those from a piezoelectric reference sensor mounted in the same engine cylinder.

Development of a semi-empirical convective heat transfer correlation based on thermodynamic and optical measurements in a spark ignition engine

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Irimescu, Adrian; Merola, Simona Silvia; Tornatore, Cinzia; Valentino, Gerardo

2015-01-01

Highlights: • A new convective heat transfer correlation was developed for spark ignition engines. • Measurements in an experimental optical power unit were used for validation. • Fuel effects were correctly modeled and verified with methane and hydrogen. • Results were compared to two other widely used correlations. • Calibration was found to be easier for the proposed model. - Abstract: Internal combustion engines are still the main technology for energy conversion in automotive transport and are set to remain the main choice of propulsion solutions for some time to come. Development and design of these power units in the quest for improved efficiency and reduced environmental impact is increasingly reliant on simulations in order to reduce costs. Therefore, continuous improvement of sub-models used for numerical investigation is required so that correct and pertinent results are obtained. Convective heat transfer is receiving much attention in this respect, especially as direct injection spark ignition (DISI) engines can feature abnormal combustion phenomena such as mega-knock, mainly driven by local hot spots in the combustion chamber, that can be extremely damaging as they cannot be mitigated with existing control procedures. As a result, thermal stratification is more and more investigated through both quasi-dimensional and more complex computational fluid dynamics (CFD) codes. Alternative fuels are also extensively studied, especially as their specific properties that are different from those of gasoline can make their application challenging, thus requiring further insight in order to identify suitable injection and ignition control strategies. A new convective heat transfer correlation was developed for application in quasi-dimensional models, with a more fundamental basis combined with the application of a flow field model; results were compared to existing and extensively used empirical equations. Assessments were based on in-cylinder pressure

Utilization of Alcohol Fuel in Spark Ignition and Diesel Engines.

Science.gov (United States)

Berndt, Don; Stengel, Ron

These five units comprise a course intended to prepare and train students to conduct alcohol fuel utilization seminars in spark ignition and diesel engines. Introductory materials include objectives and a list of instructor requirements. The first four units cover these topics: ethanol as an alternative fuel (technical and economic advantages,…

Sparking investment in Ontario's power generation industry

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Allen, J.

2004-01-01

This paper discusses the business strategy needed to spark investment in Ontario's power generation industry. It examines the process of decision making and investing in an uncertain environment. The paper suggests that any strategy based on one view of the future courts trouble and that strategic flexibility can prepare for what cannot be predicted. Finally the paper suggests that Ontario needs to create a stable policy and regulatory environment that allows investors to fulfill reasonable expectations and investors need to place bets that provide the flexibility to respond quickly to changing market conditions

Electromagnetic reverberation chambers

CERN Document Server

Besnier, Philippe

2013-01-01

Dedicated to a complete presentation on all aspects of reverberation chambers, this book provides the physical principles behind these test systems in a very progressive manner. The detailed panorama of parameters governing the operation of electromagnetic reverberation chambers details various applications such as radiated immunity, emissivity, and shielding efficiency experiments.In addition, the reader is provided with the elements of electromagnetic theory and statistics required to take full advantage of the basic operational rules of reverberation chambers, including calibration proc

Dorsal skinfold chamber models in mice

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Schreiter, Jeannine

2017-07-01

Full Text Available Background/purpose: The use of dorsal skinfold chamber models has substantially improved the understanding of micro-vascularisation in pathophysiology over the last eight decades. It allows pathophysiological studies of vascularisation over a continuous period of time. The dorsal skinfold chamber is an attractive technique for monitoring the vascularisation of autologous or allogenic transplants, wound healing, tumorigenesis and compatibility of biomaterial implants. To further reduce the animals’ discomfort while carrying the dorsal skinfold chamber, we developed a smaller chamber (the Leipzig Dorsal Skinfold Chamber and summarized the commercial available chamber models. In addition we compared our model to the common chamber. Methods: The Leipzig Dorsal Skinfold Chamber was applied to female mice with a mean weight of 22 g. Angiogenesis within the dorsal skinfold chamber was evaluated after injection of fluorescein isothiocyanate dextran with an Axio Scope microscope. The mean vessel density within the dorsal skinfold chamber was assessed over a period of 21 days at five different time points. The gained data were compared to previous results using a bigger and heavier dorsal skinfold model in mice. A PubMed and a patent search were performed and all papers related to “dorsal skinfold chamber” from 1 of January 2006 to 31 of December 2015 were evaluated regarding the dorsal skinfold chamber models and their technical improvements. The main models are described and compared to our titanium Leipzig Dorsal Skinfold Chamber model.Results: The Leipzig Dorsal Skinfold Chamber fulfils all requirements of continuous models known from previous chamber models while reducing irritation to the mice. Five different chamber models have been identified showing substantial regional diversity. The newly elaborated titanium dorsal skinfold chamber may replace the pre-existing titanium chamber model used in Germany so far, as it is smaller and lighter

High-performance Electrochemical Energy Storage Electrodes Based on Nickel Oxide-coated Nickel Foam Prepared by Sparking Method

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chuminjak, Yaowamarn; Daothong, Suphaporn; Kuntarug, Aekapong; Phokharatkul, Ditsayut; Horprathum, Mati; Wisitsoraat, Anurat; Tuantranont, Adisorn; Jakmunee, Jaroon; Singjai, Pisith

2017-01-01

Highlights: • NiO particles (3-10 nm) were sparked on Ni foams with varying times (45-180 min). • Larger NiO nanoparticles were aggregated to foam-like structure at a longer time. • The optimal time of 45 min led to a high specific capacity of 920 C/g at 1 A/g. • The specific capacity remained as high as 699 (76% of 920) C/g at 20 A/g. • The optimal electrode exhibited 96% capacity retention after 1000 cycles at 4 A/g. - Abstract: In this work, high-performance electrochemical energy storage electrodes were developed based on nickel oxide (NiO)-coated nickel (Ni) foams prepared by a sparking method. NiO nanoparticles deposited on Ni foams with varying sparking times from 45 to 180 min were structurally characterized by scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and Raman spectroscopy. In addition, the electrochemical energy storage characteristics of the electrodes were evaluated by cyclic voltammetry, galvanostatic charge-discharge and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. It was found that NiO nanoparticles sparked on Ni foam with a longer time would be agglomerated and formed a foam-like network with large pore sizes and a lower surface area, leading to inferior charge storage behaviors. The NiO/Ni foam electrode prepared with the shortest sparking of 45 min displayed high specific capacities of 920 C g"-"1 (1840 F g"-"1) at 1 A g"-"1 and 699 (76% of 920) C g"-"1 at 20 A g"-"1 in a potential window of 0-0.5 V vs. Ag/AgCl as well as a good cycling performance with 96% capacity retention at 4 A g"-"1 after 1000 cycles and a low equivalent series resistance of 0.4 Ω. Therefore, NiO/Ni foam electrodes prepared by the sparking method are highly promising for high-capacity energy storage applications.

A combination drift chamber/pad chamber for very high readout rates

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Spiegel, L.; Cataldi, G.; Elia, V.; Mazur, P.; Murphy, C.T.; Smith, R.P.; Yang, W.; Alexopoulos, T.; Durandet, C.; Erwin, A.; Jennings, J.; Antoniazzi, L.; Introzzi, G.; Lanza, A.; Liguori, G.; Torre, P.; Arenton, M.; Conetti, S.; Cox, B.; Dukes, E.; Golovatyuk, V.; Hanlet, P.; McManus, A.; Nelson, K.; Recagni, M.; Segal, J.; Sun, J.; Ballagh, C.; Bingham, H.; Kaeding, T.; Lys, J.; Misawa, S.; Blankman, A.; Borodin, S.; Kononenko, W.; Newcomer, M.; Selove, W.; Trojak, T.; VanBerg, R.; Zhang, S.N.; Block, M.; Corti, G.; LeCompte, T.; Rosen, J.; Yao, T.; Boden, A.; Cline, D.; Ramachandran, S.; Rhoades, J.; Tokar, S.; Budagov, J.; Tsyganov, E.; Cao, Z.L.; He, M.; Wang, C.; Wei, C.; Zhang, N.; Chen, T.Y.; Yao, N.; Clark, K.; Jenkins, M.; Cooper, M.; Creti, P.; Gorini, E.; Grancagnolo, F.; Panareo, M.; Fortney, L.; Kowald, W.; Haire, M.; Judd, D.; Turnbull, L.; Wagoner, D.; Lau, K.; Mo, G.; Trischuk, J.

1991-11-01

Six medium-sized (∼1 x 2 m 2 ) drift chambers with pad and stripe readout have been constructed for and are presently operating in Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory experiment E-771. Each chamber module actually represents a pair of identical planes: two sets of anode wires, two sets of stripes, and two sets of pads. The wire planes are read out separately and represent X measurements in the coordinate system of the experiment. The twin stripe and pad planes are internally paired within the chamber modules; stripe signals represent Y measurements and pad signals combination X and Y measurements. Signals which develop on the stripes and pads are mirror (but inverted) images of what is seen on the wires. In addition to being used in the off-line pattern recognition, pad signals are also used as inputs to an on-line high transverse momentum (pt) trigger processor. While the techniques involved in the design and construction of the chambers are not novel, they may be of interest to experiments contemplating very large area, high rate chambers for future spectrometers

A combination drift chamber/pad chamber for very high readout rates

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Spiegel, L.; Cataldi, G.; Elia, V.; Mazur, P.; Murphy, C.T.; Smith, R.P.; Yang, W. (Fermi National Accelerator Lab., Batavia, IL (United States)); Alexopoulos, T.; Durandet, C.; Erwin, A.; Jennings, J. (Wisconsin Univ., Madison, WI (United States)); Antoniazzi, L.; Introzzi, G.; Lanza, A.; Liguori, G.; Torre, P. (Pavia Univ. (Italy) Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Rome (Italy)); Arenton, M.; Conetti, S.

1991-11-01

Six medium-sized ({approx}1 {times} 2 m{sup 2}) drift chambers with pad and stripe readout have been constructed for and are presently operating in Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory experiment E-771. Each chamber module actually represents a pair of identical planes: two sets of anode wires, two sets of stripes, and two sets of pads. The wire planes are read out separately and represent X measurements in the coordinate system of the experiment. The twin stripe and pad planes are internally paired within the chamber modules; stripe signals represent Y measurements and pad signals combination X and Y measurements. Signals which develop on the stripes and pads are mirror (but inverted) images of what is seen on the wires. In addition to being used in the off-line pattern recognition, pad signals are also used as inputs to an on-line high transverse momentum (pt) trigger processor. While the techniques involved in the design and construction of the chambers are not novel, they may be of interest to experiments contemplating very large area, high rate chambers for future spectrometers.

Commissioning of an automated microphotometer used in spark-source mass spectrometry

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pearton, D.C.G.; Heron, C.

1983-01-01

A description of the automated microphotometer and its operation is given, which includes measurement under computer control. Speed and precision tests indicate that the system is superior in every respect to that in which an analyst reads photoplates in spark-source mass spectrometry

A new and efficient mechanism for spark ignition engines

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shadloo, M.S.; Poultangari, R.; Abdollahzadeh Jamalabadi, M.Y.; Rashidi, M.M.

2015-01-01

Highlights: • A new slider–crank mechanism, with superior performance is presented. • Thermodynamic processes as well as vibration and internal forces have been modeled. • Comparison with the conventional four-stroke spark ignition engines is made. • Advantages and disadvantages of the proposed mechanism are discussed. - Abstract: In this paper a new symmetrical crank and slider mechanism is proposed and a zero dimensional model is utilized to study its combustion performance enhancement in a four-stroke spark ignition (SI) engine. The main features of this new mechanism are superior thermodynamic efficiency, lower internal frictions, and lower pollutants. Comparison is made between its performance and that of the conventional four-stroke SI engines. Presented mechanism is designed to provide better fuel consumption of internal combustion engines. These advantages over standard engine are achieved through synthesis of new mechanism. Numerical calculation have been performed for several cases of different mechanism parameters, compression ratio and engine speed. A comprehensive comparison between their thermodynamic processes as well as vibration and internal forces has been done. Calculated efficiency and power diagrams are plotted and compared with performance of a conventional SI engine. Advantages and disadvantages of the proposed mechanism are discussed in details

Review of wire chamber aging

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Va'Vra, J.

1986-02-01

This paper makes an overview of the wire chamber aging problems as a function of various chamber design parameters. It emphasizes the chemistry point of view and many examples are drawn from the plasma chemistry field as a guidance for a possible effort in the wire chamber field. The paper emphasizes the necessity of variable tuning, the importance of purity of the wire chamber environment, as well as it provides a practical list of presently known recommendations. In addition, several models of the wire chamber aging are qualitatively discussed. The paper is based on a summary talk given at the Wire Chamber Aging Workshop held at LBL, Berkeley on January 16-17, 1986. Presented also at Wire Chamber Conference, Vienna, February 25-28, 1986. 74 refs., 18 figs., 11 tabs

Radiation-MHD simulations for the development of a spark discharge channel.

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Niederhaus, John Henry; Jorgenson, Roy E.; Warne, Larry K.; Chen, Kenneth C.

2017-04-01

The growth of a cylindrical s park discharge channel in water and Lexan is studied using a series of one - dimensional simulations with the finite - element radiation - magnetohydrodynamics code ALEGRA. Computed solutions are analyzed in order to characterize the rate of growth and dynamics of the spark c hannels during the rising - current phase of the drive pulse. The current ramp rate is varied between 0.2 and 3.0 kA/ns, and values of the mechanical coupling coefficient K p are extracted for each case. The simulations predict spark channel expansion veloc ities primarily in the range of 2000 to 3500 m/s, channel pressures primarily in the range 10 - 40 GPa, and K p values primarily between 1.1 and 1.4. When Lexan is preheated, slightly larger expansion velocities and smaller K p values are predicted , but the o verall behavior is unchanged.

The physics of photoconductive spark gap switching : pushing the frontiers

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Hendriks, J.

2006-01-01

Photoconductive switching of an atmospheric, air-¯lled spark gap by a high-power fem- tosecond laser is a novel approach for switching high voltages into pulses with a very fast rise time (order ps) and almost no shot-to-shot time variation (jitter). Such a switch makes it possible to synchronize

Choice of optimal conditions for layer-by-layer analysis of semiconductor structures on spark mass spectrometer

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gerasimov, V.A.; Saprykin, A.I.; Shelpakova, I.R.; Yudelevich, I.G.

1978-01-01

Criteria of choosing counter-electrode-configuration, size and material have been determined. A tantalum counter-electrode with rectangular cross-section (3.5-4.5) mmx(0.05-0.08) mm 2 is proposed for layer-by-layer analysis of Si, Ge, GaAs, InSb. A scanning velocity has been chosen and spark generator operating conditions have been optimized which ensure the surface roughness of 0.5-0.8 μ after sparking. A systematic study has been made of the effect of ballast elements in the discharge circuit on the basic characteristics of the layer-by-layer analysis: ionic current intensity, counter-electrode contribution to the total ionic current, intensity of dicharged ions and surface roughness. A ballast ohmic resistance inside the ion source decreases a correction for the blank by one order of magnitude and the sparked surface roughness by 2-3 times

Particular bi-fuel application of spark ignition engines

Science.gov (United States)

Raţiu, S.; Alexa, V.; Kiss, I.

2016-02-01

This paper presents a comparative test concerning the operation of a spark-ignition engine, make: Dacia 1300, model: 810.99, fuelled alternatively with gasoline and LPG (Liquefied Petroleum Gas). The tests carried out show, on the one hand, the maintenance of power and torque performances in both engine fuelling cases, for all the engine operation regimes, and, on the other hand, a considerable decrease in CO and HC emissions when using poor mixtures related to LPG fuelling.

Change of Pressing Chamber Conicalness at Briquetting Process in Briquetting Machine Pressing Chamber

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Peter Križan

2012-01-01

Full Text Available In this paper, we will present the impact of the conical shape of a pressing chamber, an important structural parameter. Besides the known impact of the technological parameters of pressing chambers, it is also very important to pay attention to their structural parameters. In the introduction, we present a theoretical analysis of pressing chamber conicalness. An experiment aimed at detecting this impact was performed at our institute, and it showed that increasing the conicalness of a pressing chamber improves the quality of the final briquettes. The conicalness of the pressing chamber has a significanteffect on the final briquette quality and on the construction of briquetting machines. The experimental findings presented here show the importance of this parameter in the briquetting process.

Final environmental statement concerning rule making. Exemption from licensing requirements for spark-gap irradiators that contain cobalt-60. Docket No. PRM 30-54

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1977-12-01

The potential environmental impacts and adverse environmental effects from distribution, use only in commercial-sized oil burners, and disposal of 6000 spark-gap irradiators per year that contain 60 Co are summarized. On the basis of the analysis and evaluation set forth in this statement and after weighing the environmental, economic, technical, and other benefits against environmental costs and after considering available alternatives, it is concluded that the action called for under the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA) and 10 CFR Part 51 is the issuance of an exemption from licensing requirements for spark-gap irradiators that contain 60 Co, subject to the following conditions for the protection of the environment: persons who apply 60 Co to, or persons who incorporate 60 Co into, spark-gap irradiators or persons who import for sale or distribution spark-gap irradiators containing 60 Co are not exempt from the requirements for a license; each spark-gap irradiator shall contain no more than 1 μCi of 60 Co; and the 60 Co shall be applied to the spark-gap irradiators for use in electrically ignited fuel-oil burners having a firing rate of at least 3 gal/h

Influence of sintering temperature on mechanical properties of spark plasma sintered pre-alloyed Ti-6Al-4 V powder

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Muthuchamy, A.; Patel, Paridh; Rajadurai, M. [VIT Univ., Vellore, Tamil Nadu (India); Chaurisiya, Jitendar K. [NIT, Suratkal (India); Annamalai, A. Raja [VIT Univ., Vellore, Tamil Nadu (India). Centre for Innovative Manufacturing Research

2018-04-01

Spark plasma sintering provides faster heating that can create fully, or near fully, dense samples without significant grain growth. In this study, pre-alloyed Ti-6Al-4 V powder compact samples produced through field assisted sintering in a spark plasma sintering machine are compared as a function of consolidation temperature. The effect of sintering temperature on the densification mechanism, microstructural evolution and mechanical properties of spark plasma sintered Ti-6Al-4 V alloy compacts was investigated in detail. The compact, sintered at 1100 C, exhibited near net density, highest hardness and strength as compared to the other compacts processed at a temperature lower than 1100 C.

Preparation of Ni-Ti shape memory alloy by spark plasma sintering method

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Salvetr, P.; Kubatík, Tomáš František; Novák, P.

2016-01-01

Roč. 16, č. 4 (2016), s. 804-808 ISSN 1213-2489 Institutional support: RVO:61389021 Keywords : Ni-Ti alloy * Powder metallurgy * Reactive sintering * Spark plasma sintering Subject RIV: JK - Corrosion ; Surface Treatment of Materials

Vienna wirechamber conference 98

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1998-02-01

This volume of the Vienna wirechamber conference 1998 contains abstracts of lectures and abstracts of poster sessions of the following topics: high energy physics, gaseous detectors, radiation detectors, calorimetry, drift chambers, wire spark chambers, tracking chambers, neutron detectors, particle detection, muon spectrometry, nuclear medicine. (Suda)

Thermodynamic analysis of EGR effects on the first and second law efficiencies of a boosted spark-ignited direct-injection gasoline engine

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Li, Tie; Wu, Da; Xu, Min

2013-01-01

Highlights: • We clarified the mechanism of EGR improving fuel economy of gasoline engines. • At constant air–fuel ratio, reduction of heat transfer loss is most significant. • At full load, elimination of fuel enrichment is dominant. • Combustion irreversibility increases with EGR. • Availability in the exhaust and heat transfer losses is smaller than energy losses. - Abstract: Exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) is effective to improve fuel economy of spark-ignition gasoline engines, but the detailed mechanism needs to be further investigated. In this paper, an in-depth analysis of the effects of cooled EGR on the fuel conversion efficiency of a boosted, spark-ignited, direct-injection, gasoline engines operated at the full, medium and low loads is conducted with the engine experiment and 1-D cycle simulation based on the first and second laws of thermodynamics. For all the operating loads, EGR increases the ratio of specific heat of working gas, reduces the fraction of heat transfer through the combustion chamber walls, and improves the pumping work during the gas exchanging stroke. Besides, EGR may replace the fuel enrichment at high load, advance the combustion phasing and increase the degree of constant volume heat release at the medium and high loads. As a result, about 1.1–4.1% improvements in the brake thermal efficiency are obtained by the 12–17% EGR at different loads. Despite the increased fraction of combustion-generated irreversibility (destruction in availability or exergy), the fraction of indicated work in the total availability increases with EGR for all the operating loads. Among the influencing factors, the effect of reduction in the heat transfer loss owing to EGR is dominant in improvement of the fuel conversion efficiency at constant air–fuel ratio, while replacement of the fuel enrichment with EGR is most effective at full load

Towards the Industrial Application of Spark Ablation for Nanostructured Functional Materials

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Pfeiffer, T.V.

2014-01-01

Nanostructuring of functional materials is an essential part in the design of energy related devices – but the industrial tools we have to make these materials are lacking. This dissertation explores the green, flexible, and scalable spark discharge process for the fabrication of complex

Sleeve reaction chamber system

Science.gov (United States)

Northrup, M Allen [Berkeley, CA; Beeman, Barton V [San Mateo, CA; Benett, William J [Livermore, CA; Hadley, Dean R [Manteca, CA; Landre, Phoebe [Livermore, CA; Lehew, Stacy L [Livermore, CA; Krulevitch, Peter A [Pleasanton, CA

2009-08-25

A chemical reaction chamber system that combines devices such as doped polysilicon for heating, bulk silicon for convective cooling, and thermoelectric (TE) coolers to augment the heating and cooling rates of the reaction chamber or chambers. In addition the system includes non-silicon-based reaction chambers such as any high thermal conductivity material used in combination with a thermoelectric cooling mechanism (i.e., Peltier device). The heat contained in the thermally conductive part of the system can be used/reused to heat the device, thereby conserving energy and expediting the heating/cooling rates. The system combines a micromachined silicon reaction chamber, for example, with an additional module/device for augmented heating/cooling using the Peltier effect. This additional module is particularly useful in extreme environments (very hot or extremely cold) where augmented heating/cooling would be useful to speed up the thermal cycling rates. The chemical reaction chamber system has various applications for synthesis or processing of organic, inorganic, or biochemical reactions, including the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and/or other DNA reactions, such as the ligase chain reaction.

Sparking deposited ZnO nanoparticles as double-layered photoelectrode in ZnO dye-sensitized solar cell

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hongsith, Kritsada [Department of Physics and Materials Science, Faculty of Science, Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai 50200 (Thailand); Thailand Center of Excellence in Physics (ThEP center), CHE, Bangkok 10400 (Thailand); Hongsith, Niyom [Thailand Center of Excellence in Physics (ThEP center), CHE, Bangkok 10400 (Thailand); School of Science, University of Phayao, Phayao 56000 (Thailand); Wongratanaphisan, Duangmanee; Gardchareon, Atcharawon; Phadungdhitidhada, Surachet [Department of Physics and Materials Science, Faculty of Science, Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai 50200 (Thailand); Thailand Center of Excellence in Physics (ThEP center), CHE, Bangkok 10400 (Thailand); Singjai, Pisith [Department of Physics and Materials Science, Faculty of Science, Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai 50200 (Thailand); Choopun, Supab, E-mail: supab99@gmail.com [Department of Physics and Materials Science, Faculty of Science, Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai 50200 (Thailand); Thailand Center of Excellence in Physics (ThEP center), CHE, Bangkok 10400 (Thailand)

2013-07-31

The semiconducting layers of ZnO nanoparticles (ZN), ZnO powder (ZP) and ZnO nanopowder (ZNP) were designed and fabricated for double-layered semiconducting photoelectrode in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). The under-layer was ZN, which was prepared by simple and cost-effective sparking technique onto F-doped tin oxide (FTO) glass substrate and its thickness was controlled by number of sparking cycles for 0, 10, 25, 50 and 100 rounds under atmospheric pressure. Then, ZP or ZNP was screened on to ZN to form double-layered photoelectrode. Here, the DSSC structures were FTO/double-layered ZnO/Eosin Y/electrolyte/Pt counterelectrode. The best results of DSSCs were observed with J{sub sc} of 4.71 mA/cm{sup 2} and 5.56 mA/cm{sup 2} and photoconversion efficiency of 1.11% and 1.14% at 50 sparking cycles for ZP and ZNP over-layers, respectively. The efficiency enhancement can be explained by combination effects of electron and light scattering. Moreover, the modified equation of short circuit current density was developed and effectively used to explain the efficiency enhancement. - Highlights: • Effect of under-layer thickness is investigated. • Simple and cost-effective sparking technique is used for ZnO nanoparticles. • Efficiency enhancement can be explained by both electron and light scattering. • Modified equation of short circuit current density was developed for enhancement.

Sparking deposited ZnO nanoparticles as double-layered photoelectrode in ZnO dye-sensitized solar cell

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hongsith, Kritsada; Hongsith, Niyom; Wongratanaphisan, Duangmanee; Gardchareon, Atcharawon; Phadungdhitidhada, Surachet; Singjai, Pisith; Choopun, Supab

2013-01-01

The semiconducting layers of ZnO nanoparticles (ZN), ZnO powder (ZP) and ZnO nanopowder (ZNP) were designed and fabricated for double-layered semiconducting photoelectrode in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). The under-layer was ZN, which was prepared by simple and cost-effective sparking technique onto F-doped tin oxide (FTO) glass substrate and its thickness was controlled by number of sparking cycles for 0, 10, 25, 50 and 100 rounds under atmospheric pressure. Then, ZP or ZNP was screened on to ZN to form double-layered photoelectrode. Here, the DSSC structures were FTO/double-layered ZnO/Eosin Y/electrolyte/Pt counterelectrode. The best results of DSSCs were observed with J sc of 4.71 mA/cm 2 and 5.56 mA/cm 2 and photoconversion efficiency of 1.11% and 1.14% at 50 sparking cycles for ZP and ZNP over-layers, respectively. The efficiency enhancement can be explained by combination effects of electron and light scattering. Moreover, the modified equation of short circuit current density was developed and effectively used to explain the efficiency enhancement. - Highlights: • Effect of under-layer thickness is investigated. • Simple and cost-effective sparking technique is used for ZnO nanoparticles. • Efficiency enhancement can be explained by both electron and light scattering. • Modified equation of short circuit current density was developed for enhancement

Dual-chamber inflatable oil boom

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Blair, R.M.; Tedeschi, E.T.

1993-01-01

An elongated floating material containment boom section is described having a normally vertical ballasted skirt depending from flotation means, and convertible from a flattened collapsed condition to a deployable condition wherein buoyancy chamber means extending along the upper edge of said skirt are inflated to expanded buoyant configuration, including: a gas-impervious sleeve extending along the upper edge of said normally vertical skirt forming a first outer collapsible and inflatable flotation chamber, a first inflation valve connecting the interior of said sleeve with the ambient atmosphere, through which gas under pressure may be introduced into said sleeve to inflate said first buoyant outer flotation chamber, elongated gas-impervious tube means positioned inside said outer flotation chamber and forming second collapsible and inflatable internal flotation bladder chamber means, second inflation valve means connecting the interior of said bladder means through said outer flotation chamber to the ambient atmosphere through which gas under pressure may be introduced into said bladder means to inflate it forming said second flotation chamber means inside said outer flotation chamber

BEBC bubble chamber

CERN Multimedia

CERN PhotoLab

1972-01-01

Looking up into the interior of BEBC bubble chamber from the expansion cylinder. At the top of the chamber two fish-eye lenses are installed and three other fish-eye ports are blanked off. In the centre is a heat exchanger.

Climatic chamber ergometer

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Atkins, AR

1968-01-01

Full Text Available The design and calibration of an ergometer for exercising subjects during calorimetric studies in the climate chamber, are described. The ergometer is built into the climatic chamber and forms an integral part of the whole instrumentation system foe...

Accelerating Relevance Vector Machine for Large-Scale Data on Spark

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Liu Fang

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Relevance vector machine (RVM is a machine learning algorithm based on a sparse Bayesian framework, which performs well when running classification and regression tasks on small-scale datasets. However, RVM also has certain drawbacks which restricts its practical applications such as (1 slow training process, (2 poor performance on training large-scale datasets. In order to solve these problem, we propose Discrete AdaBoost RVM (DAB-RVM which incorporate ensemble learning in RVM at first. This method performs well with large-scale low-dimensional datasets. However, as the number of features increases, the training time of DAB-RVM increases as well. To avoid this phenomenon, we utilize the sufficient training samples of large-scale datasets and propose all features boosting RVM (AFB-RVM, which modifies the way of obtaining weak classifiers. In our experiments we study the differences between various boosting techniques with RVM, demonstrating the performance of the proposed approaches on Spark. As a result of this paper, two proposed approaches on Spark for different types of large-scale datasets are available.

MV controlled spark gap

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Evdokimovich, V.M.; Evlampiev, S.B.; Korshunov, G.S.; Nikolaev, V.A.; Sviridov, Yu.F.; Khmyrov, V.V.

1980-01-01

A megavolt gas-filled trigatron gap with a sectional gas-discharge chamber having a more than three-fold range of operating voltages is described. The discharge chamber consists of ten sections, each 70 mm thick, made of organic glass. The sections are separated one from another by aluminium gradient rings to which ohmic voltage divider is connected. Insulational sections and gradient rings are braced between themselves by means of metal flanges through gaskets made of oil-resistant rubber with the help of fiberglass-laminate pins. The gap has two electrodes 110 mm in diameter. The trigatron ignition assembly uses a dielectric bushing projecting over the main electrode plane. Use has been made of a gas mixture containing 10% of SF 6 and 90% of air making possible to ensure stable gap operation without readjusting in the voltage range from 0.4 to 1.35 MV. The operation time lag in this range is equal to 10 μs at a spread of [ru

Sparking limits, cavity loading, and beam breakup instability associated with high-current rf linacs

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Faehl, R.J.; Lemons, D.S.; Thode, L.E.

1982-01-01

The limitations on high-current rf linacs due to gap sparking, cavity loading, and the beam breakup instability are studied. It appears possible to achieve cavity accelerating gradients as high as 35 MV/m without sparking. Furthermore, a linear analysis, as well as self-consistent particle simulations of a multipulsed 10 kA beam, indicated that only a negligible small fraction of energy is radiated into nonfundamental cavity modes. Finally, the beam breakup instability is analyzed and found to be able to magnify initial radial perturbations by a factor of no more than about 20 during the beam transit time through a 1 GeV accelerator

Vacuum Chambers for LEP sections

CERN Multimedia

1983-01-01

The picture shows sections of the LEP vacuum chambers to be installed in the dipole magnets (left) and in the quadrupoles (right). The dipole chamber has three channels: the beam chamber, the pumping duct where the NEG (non-evaporabe getter) is installed and the water channel for cooling (on top in the picture). The pumping duct is connected to the beam chamber through holes in the separating wall. The thick lead lining to shield radiation can also be seen. These chambers were manufactured as extruded aluminium alloy profiles.

Reference ionization chamber

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Golnik, N.; Zielczynski, M.

1999-01-01

The paper presents the design of ionization chamber devoted for the determination of the absolute value of the absorbed dose in tissue-equivalent material. The special attention was paid to ensure that the volume of the active gas cavity was constant and well known. A specific property of the chamber design is that the voltage insulators are 'invisible' from any point of the active volume. Such configuration ensures a very good time stability of the electrical field and defines the active volume. The active volume of the chamber was determined with accuracy of 0.3%. This resulted in accuracy of 0.8% in determination of the absorbed dose in the layer of material adherent to the gas cavity. The chamber was applied for calibration purposes at radiotherapy facility in Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna (Russia) and in the calibration laboratory of the Institute of Atomic Energy in Swierk. (author)

Multi-point laser spark generation for internal combustion engines using a spatial light modulator

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lyon, Elliott; Kuang, Zheng; Dearden, Geoff; Cheng, Hua; Page, Vincent; Shenton, Tom

2014-01-01

This paper reports on a technique demonstrating for the first time successful multi-point laser-induced spark generation, which is variable in three dimensions and derived from a single laser beam. Previous work on laser ignition of internal combustion engines found that simultaneously igniting in more than one location resulted in more stable and faster combustion – a key potential advantage over conventional spark ignition. However, previous approaches could only generate secondary foci at fixed locations. The work reported here is an experimental technique for multi-point laser ignition, in which several sparks with arbitrary spatial location in three dimensions are created by variable diffraction of a pulsed single laser beam source and transmission through an optical plug. The diffractive multi-beam arrays and patterns are generated using a spatial light modulator on which computer generated holograms are displayed. A gratings and lenses algorithm is used to accurately modulate the phase of the input laser beam and create multi-beam output. The underpinning theory, experimental arrangement and results obtained are presented and discussed. (paper)

Effect of electric-spark alloying and subsequent annealing on the thermal stability of metallic structural materials

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Vdovin, S.F.; Reshetnikov, S.M.

2000-01-01

The effect of annealing on resistive properties of electric-spark coatings on the carbon steels is studied. The steels 10 and 20 samples with electric spark coatings of various compositions and control ones without annealing and coating are chosen for the study. The steels cr27 and 12cr18ni10ti, the nichrome (cr20ni80) alloy, aluminium as well as compositions of these materials: aluminium + cr27 and aluminium + nichrome were used as coating materials. It is shown that aluminium coatings increase the steel 10 heat resistance more them by 4 times, the aluminium + nichrome coatings - more than by 6 times and aluminium + cr27 coatings - more than by 6 times. In contrast to the electric-spark coating of the carbon steel surface by chromium-nickel alloys, the composition aluminium-containing coatings with annealing in vacuum provide for reliability of long-term protection of these steels from air oxidation with the temperature above the aluminium melting [ru

MnBi particles with high energy density made by spark erosion

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Nguyen, Phi-Khanh, E-mail: phi@ucsd.edu; Jin, Sungho [Materials Science and Engineering, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093 (United States); Center for Magnetic Recording Research, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093 (United States); Berkowitz, Ami E. [Physics Department, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093 (United States); Center for Magnetic Recording Research, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093 (United States)

2014-05-07

We report on the properties of low-temperature phase (LTP)-MnBi particles produced by the rapid-quenching technique of spark-erosion. The as-prepared powder consists of amorphous, crystalline, and superparamagnetic particles, mostly as porous aggregates. The major fraction of the powder consists of 20–30 nm particles. A short anneal crystallizes the amorphous particles producing a high moment, >90% of theoretical M{sub S}, albeit with H{sub C} of a few kOe. If lightly milled, the agglomerates are broken up to yield H{sub C} of 1 T. These findings are supported by the x-ray diffraction pattern showing broadened peaks of the predominant LTP-MnBi phase. The combination of spark erosion, milling, and annealing has produced randomly oriented particles with (BH){sub MAX} ∼ 3.0 MGOe. The particles are expected to show record energy product when aligned along their crystallographic easy axes.

submitter Triggering of a pressurized spark gap by a laser beam

CERN Document Server

Deutsch, F

1968-01-01

A delay line was discharged into a terminating resistor by a spark gap of coaxial design. The spark gap was triggered by a focused laser beam, introduced along the axis; a Q-switched ruby laser giving pulses of 20 ns duration and up to 50 MW power was used. The range of operation of the gap, formative time of the breakdown and jitter were investigated for different gases at pressures above atmospheric, gap widths of 4-10 mm and voltages of up to 120 kv. Mixtures of argon and nitrogen were found to have certain advantages, such as a low threshold for ionization by the laser beam, sufficient dielectric strength, low values of the formative-time jitter and chemical inertness. Formative times of down to about 1 ns and jitters below 1 ns were found. The laser power can be relatively low (0centerdot5-5 MW). An explanation for the breakdown mechanism is proposed.

Effects of spark plug configuration on combustion and emission characteristics of a LPG fuelled lean burn SI engine

Science.gov (United States)

Ravi, K.; Khan, Manazir Ahmed; Pradeep Bhasker, J.; Porpatham, E.

2017-11-01

Introduction of technological innovation in automotive engines in reducing pollution and increasing efficiency have been under contemplation. Gaseous fuels have proved to be a promising way to reduce emissions in Spark Ignition (SI) engines. In particular, LPG settled to be a favourable fuel for SI engines because of their higher hydrogen to carbon ratio, octane rating and lower emissions. Wide ignition limits and efficient combustion characteristics make LPG suitable for lean burn operation. But lean combustion technology has certain drawbacks like poor flame propagation, cyclic variations etc. Based on copious research it was found that location, types and number of spark plug significantly influence in reducing cyclic variations. In this work the influence of single and dual spark plugs of conventional and surface discharge electrode type were analysed. Dual surface discharge electrode spark plug enhanced the brake thermal efficiency and greatly reduced the cyclic variations. The experimental results show that rate of heat release and pressure rise was more and combustion duration was shortened in this configuration. On the emissions front, the NOx emission has increased whereas HC and CO emissions were reduced under lean condition.

Thermoelectric property of fine-grained CoSb3 skutterudite compound fabricated by mechanical alloying and spark plasma sintering

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Liu Weishu; Zhang Boping; Li Jingfeng; Zhao Lidong

2007-01-01

Skutterudite CoSb 3 polycrystalline materials were prepared using a combined process of mechanical alloying (MA) and spark plasma sintering (SPS). The influence of SPS temperature on the thermoelectric properties was focused in this work with a special emphasis on the analysis of the size effects of grains. The average grain sizes decreased from 300 to 50 nm with decreasing SPS temperatures from 600 to 300 deg. C. The electrical resistivities of samples spark plasma sintered at 300-600 deg. C all decreased with increasing temperature, indicating a classic intrinsic conduction behaviour of semiconductors. The samples spark plasma sintered at 300-500 deg. C showed a positive Seebeck coefficient while the sample spark plasma sintered at 600 deg. C showed a negative Seebeck coefficient. The room-temperature thermal conductivities were reduced from 4.30 to 2.92 W m -1 K -1 as the grain sizes were decreased from 300 to 100 nm corresponding to SPS at 600 and 400 deg. C, respectively. The present work indicates that MA and SPS is a good combination for fabricating fine-grained CoSb 3 thermoelectric materials

A Close Association of RyRs with Highly Dense Clusters of Ca2+-activated Cl− Channels Underlies the Activation of STICs by Ca2+ Sparks in Mouse Airway Smooth Muscle

Science.gov (United States)

Bao, Rongfeng; Lifshitz, Lawrence M.; Tuft, Richard A.; Bellvé, Karl; Fogarty, Kevin E.; ZhuGe, Ronghua

2008-01-01

Ca2+ sparks are highly localized, transient releases of Ca2+ from sarcoplasmic reticulum through ryanodine receptors (RyRs). In smooth muscle, Ca2+ sparks trigger spontaneous transient outward currents (STOCs) by opening nearby clusters of large-conductance Ca2+-activated K+ channels, and also gate Ca2+-activated Cl− (Cl(Ca)) channels to induce spontaneous transient inward currents (STICs). While the molecular mechanisms underlying the activation of STOCs by Ca2+ sparks is well understood, little information is available on how Ca2+ sparks activate STICs. In the present study, we investigated the spatial organization of RyRs and Cl(Ca) channels in spark sites in airway myocytes from mouse. Ca2+ sparks and STICs were simultaneously recorded, respectively, with high-speed, widefield digital microscopy and whole-cell patch-clamp. An image-based approach was applied to measure the Ca2+ current underlying a Ca2+ spark (ICa(spark)), with an appropriate correction for endogenous fixed Ca2+ buffer, which was characterized by flash photolysis of NPEGTA. We found that ICa(spark) rises to a peak in 9 ms and decays with a single exponential with a time constant of 12 ms, suggesting that Ca2+ sparks result from the nonsimultaneous opening and closure of multiple RyRs. The onset of the STIC lags the onset of the ICa(spark) by less than 3 ms, and its rising phase matches the duration of the ICa(spark). We further determined that Cl(Ca) channels on average are exposed to a [Ca2+] of 2.4 μM or greater during Ca2+ sparks. The area of the plasma membrane reaching this level is <600 nm in radius, as revealed by the spatiotemporal profile of [Ca2+] produced by a reaction-diffusion simulation with measured ICa(spark). Finally we estimated that the number of Cl(Ca) channels localized in Ca2+ spark sites could account for all the Cl(Ca) channels in the entire cell. Taken together these results lead us to propose a model in which RyRs and Cl(Ca) channels in Ca2+ spark sites localize

A close association of RyRs with highly dense clusters of Ca2+-activated Cl- channels underlies the activation of STICs by Ca2+ sparks in mouse airway smooth muscle.

Science.gov (United States)

Bao, Rongfeng; Lifshitz, Lawrence M; Tuft, Richard A; Bellvé, Karl; Fogarty, Kevin E; ZhuGe, Ronghua

2008-07-01

Ca(2+) sparks are highly localized, transient releases of Ca(2+) from sarcoplasmic reticulum through ryanodine receptors (RyRs). In smooth muscle, Ca(2+) sparks trigger spontaneous transient outward currents (STOCs) by opening nearby clusters of large-conductance Ca(2+)-activated K(+) channels, and also gate Ca(2+)-activated Cl(-) (Cl((Ca))) channels to induce spontaneous transient inward currents (STICs). While the molecular mechanisms underlying the activation of STOCs by Ca(2+) sparks is well understood, little information is available on how Ca(2+) sparks activate STICs. In the present study, we investigated the spatial organization of RyRs and Cl((Ca)) channels in spark sites in airway myocytes from mouse. Ca(2+) sparks and STICs were simultaneously recorded, respectively, with high-speed, widefield digital microscopy and whole-cell patch-clamp. An image-based approach was applied to measure the Ca(2+) current underlying a Ca(2+) spark (I(Ca(spark))), with an appropriate correction for endogenous fixed Ca(2+) buffer, which was characterized by flash photolysis of NPEGTA. We found that I(Ca(spark)) rises to a peak in 9 ms and decays with a single exponential with a time constant of 12 ms, suggesting that Ca(2+) sparks result from the nonsimultaneous opening and closure of multiple RyRs. The onset of the STIC lags the onset of the I(Ca(spark)) by less than 3 ms, and its rising phase matches the duration of the I(Ca(spark)). We further determined that Cl((Ca)) channels on average are exposed to a [Ca(2+)] of 2.4 microM or greater during Ca(2+) sparks. The area of the plasma membrane reaching this level is <600 nm in radius, as revealed by the spatiotemporal profile of [Ca(2+)] produced by a reaction-diffusion simulation with measured I(Ca(spark)). Finally we estimated that the number of Cl((Ca)) channels localized in Ca(2+) spark sites could account for all the Cl((Ca)) channels in the entire cell. Taken together these results lead us to propose a model in which

Plastic flashtube chambers

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Frisken, W.R.

1977-01-01

A brief discussion is given of the use and operation of plastic flashtube chambers. Gas leaks, electric pulsing, the glow discharge, and readout methods are considered. Three distinct problems with high rate applications deal with resolving time, dead time, and polarization/neutralization of the chamber

Jumping spark evaluation of α-radiograms taken on strippable LR-115 film

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Somogyi, G.; Hunyadi, I.; Varga, Zs.

1978-01-01

Jumping spark counting was used for the automatic measurement of α-ray tracks on Kodak Pathe LR-115 type special cellulose nitrate films. The effect of temperature and interruptions on the etching rate was observed during the etching of the α track detectors. The recommended parameters for the etching are the following: 10% NaOH solution, 60 +- 0.1 deg C, 1.5 h etching time, 20 rotations/min. The final thickness is 6-7 μm. The counting efficiency of the jumping spark evaluation in the function of the track density and the α energy was carefully studied. The angular distribution of the α particles from the Al(p, α) 24 Mg reaction was determined. This method can be effectively used for the measurement of environmental α activity as for 222 Rn release from 226 Ra. (V.N.)

Wire chambers: Trends and alternatives

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Regler, Meinhard

1992-05-15

The subtitle of this year's Vienna Wire Chamber Conference - 'Recent Trends and Alternative Techniques' - signalled that it covered a wide range of science and technology. While an opening Vienna talk by wire chamber pioneer Georges Charpak many years ago began 'Les funerailles des chambres a fils (the burial of wire chambers)', the contrary feeling this year was that wire chambers are very much alive!.

Optical sensor system for time-resolved quantification of methane densities in CH4-fueled spark ignition engines.

Science.gov (United States)

Golibrzuch, Kai; Digulla, Finn-Erik; Bauke, Stephan; Wackerbarth, Hainer; Thiele, Olaf; Berg, Thomas

2017-08-01

We present the development and the first application of an optical sensor system that allows single-cycle determination of methane (CH 4 ) concentration inside internal combustion (IC) engines. We use non-dispersive infrared absorption spectroscopy to detect the CH 4 density with a time resolution up to 33 μs at acquisition rates of 30 kHz. The measurement scheme takes advantage of the strong temperature dependence of the absorption band applying two detection channels for CH 4 that detect different spectral regions of the ν 3 anti-symmetric C-H-stretch absorption. The strategy allows the simultaneous determination of fuel concentration as well as gas temperature. We show the proof-of-concept by validation of the measurement strategy in static pressure cell experiments as well as its application to a methane-fueled IC engine using a modified spark plug probe. Our results clearly demonstrate that it is crucial to determine the CH 4 temperature in the probe volume. Due to thermal influences of the sensor probe, the temperature needed to calculate the desired quantities (fuel density, fuel concentration) significantly differs from the gas phase temperature in the rest of the combustion chamber and estimations from standard thermodynamic models, e.g., polytropic compression, will fail.

Spark-safe mechanical fluctuation sensor

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Retek, S; Galisz, T

1979-04-20

The subject of the invention is a mechanical fluctuation sensor in a spark-safe design for use at mines which are dangerous for gas, as an element of different systems for remote control information transfer. The patented sensor of mechanical fluctuations contains: magnetic-induction transformer characterized by the fact that its inert mass consists of a plane permanent magnet placed in the suspended state on springs between 2 coils, which together with their cores are rigidly fixed to the walls of the ferromagnetic vessels. The ends of the coil windings are interconnected, while the beginnings of the windings are lead out with connection to the outlet of the electronic amplifier with binary outlet signal. The electronic amplifier is placed between the transformer in the common ferromagnetic housing which is a screen for protection from the effect of external magnetic fields.

Passenger Car Spark Ignition Data Base : Volume 3. Miscellaneous Data. Part 2.

Science.gov (United States)

1979-12-01

Test data was obtained from spark ignition production and preproduction engines at the engine and vehicle level. The engines were applicable for vehicles 2000 to 3000 pounds in weight. The data obtained provided trade-offs between fuel economy, power...

Passenger Car Spark Ignition Data Base : Volume 3. Miscellaneous Data. Part 1.

Science.gov (United States)

1979-12-01

Test data was obtained from spark ignition production and preproduction engines at the engine and vehicle level. The engines were applicable for vehicles 2000 to 3000 pounds in weight. The data obtained provided trade-offs between fuel economy, power...

Powder-metallurgy preparation of NiTi shape-memory alloy using mechanical alloying and spark-plasma sintering.

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Novák, P.; Moravec, H.; Vojtěch, V.; Knaislová, A.; Školáková, A.; Kubatík, Tomáš František; Kopeček, Jaromír

2017-01-01

Roč. 51, č. 1 (2017), s. 141-144 ISSN 1580-2949 R&D Projects: GA ČR(CZ) GA14-03044S Institutional support: RVO:61389021 ; RVO:68378271 Keywords : mechanical alloying * spark plasma sintering * NiTi * shape memory alloy Subject RIV: JG - Metallurgy; JG - Metallurgy (FZU-D) OBOR OECD: Materials engineering ; Materials engineering (FZU-D) Impact factor: 0.436, year: 2016 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/313900224_Powder-metallurgy_preparation_of_NiTi_shape-memory_alloy_using_mechanical_alloying_and_spark-plasma_sintering

Prototype multiwire proportional chamber

CERN Multimedia

1975-01-01

Chambers of this type were initially developed within the Alpha project (finally not approved). They were designed such to minimize the radiation length with a view to a mass spectrometer of high resolution meant to replace the Omega detector. The chambers were clearly forerunners for the (drift) chambers later built for R606 with the novel technique of crimping the wires. See also photo 7510039X.

Miniature ionization chamber

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Alexeev, V.I.; Emelyanov, I.Y.; Ivanov, V.M.; Konstantinov, L.V.; Lysikov, B.V.; Postnikov, V.V.; Rybakov, J.V.

1976-01-01

A miniature ionization chamber having a gas-filled housing which accommodates a guard electrode made in the form of a hollow perforated cylinder is described. The cylinder is electrically associated with the intermediate coaxial conductor of a triaxial cable used as the lead-in of the ionization chamber. The gas-filled housing of the ionization chamber also accommodates a collecting electrode shaped as a rod electrically connected to the center conductor of the cable and to tubular members. The rod is disposed internally of the guard electrode and is electrically connected, by means of jumpers passing through the holes in the guard electrode, to the tubular members. The tubular members embrace the guard electrode and are spaced a certain distance apart along its entire length. Arranged intermediate of these tubular members are spacers secured to the guard electrode and fixing the collecting electrode throughout its length with respect to the housing of the ionization chamber

Comparison the Impact of Spark Motor Program and Basketball Techniques on Improving Gross Motor Skills in Educable Intellectually Disabled Boys

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hashem Faal Moghanlo

2014-09-01

Full Text Available Background & objectives : Different types of practises are known for improving motor skills in intellectually disabled boys. The purpose of this study was to compar e the impact of spark motor program and basketball on improving of gross motor skills in this people.   Methods: In this semi-experimental study , from 98 educable intellectually disabled students who studied in special school in Urmia, 30 children ( age range of 9 to 13 years and IQ mean 64.4 were selected objectively and divided in three groups (2 experimental and 1 control based on pre - test. BOTMP was used as a measurement of motor ability. Selected motor program (Spark motor program including strengthening training, games, sports and basketball techniques was performed for 24 sessions. T-tests (dependent and co-variance were used to comparison of results.   Results: In Spark group after 24 sessions, there were significant effects on balance (p= 0.000, bilateral coordination (p=0.000 and strength (p=0.001. There was no significant effect in agility and speed (p= 0.343 in basketball techniques group after 24 sessions, there were significant effects in agility and speed (p= 0.001, balance (p= 0.000, bilateral coordination (p= 0.013 and strength (p= 0.007.   Conclusion: Based on the results of this study, it can be claimed that the Spark program and basketball techniques improve gross motor skills in educable intellectually disabled students. We also found a significant difference between the Spark program and basketball techniques efficacy on the improved skills. Furthermore, the efficacy of Spark program was significantly higher than basketball techniques (p<0.05.

Wire chambers: Trends and alternatives

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Regler, Meinhard

1992-01-01

The subtitle of this year's Vienna Wire Chamber Conference - 'Recent Trends and Alternative Techniques' - signalled that it covered a wide range of science and technology. While an opening Vienna talk by wire chamber pioneer Georges Charpak many years ago began 'Les funerailles des chambres a fils (the burial of wire chambers)', the contrary feeling this year was that wire chambers are very much alive!

A new plant chamber facility PLUS coupled to the atmospheric simulation chamber SAPHIR

Science.gov (United States)

Hohaus, T.; Kuhn, U.; Andres, S.; Kaminski, M.; Rohrer, F.; Tillmann, R.; Wahner, A.; Wegener, R.; Yu, Z.; Kiendler-Scharr, A.

2015-11-01

A new PLant chamber Unit for Simulation (PLUS) for use with the atmosphere simulation chamber SAPHIR (Simulation of Atmospheric PHotochemistry In a large Reaction Chamber) has been build and characterized at the Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Germany. The PLUS chamber is an environmentally controlled flow through plant chamber. Inside PLUS the natural blend of biogenic emissions of trees are mixed with synthetic air and are transferred to the SAPHIR chamber where the atmospheric chemistry and the impact of biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOC) can be studied in detail. In PLUS all important enviromental parameters (e.g. temperature, PAR, soil RH etc.) are well-controlled. The gas exchange volume of 9.32 m3 which encloses the stem and the leafes of the plants is constructed such that gases are exposed to FEP Teflon film and other Teflon surfaces only to minimize any potential losses of BVOCs in the chamber. Solar radiation is simulated using 15 LED panels which have an emission strength up to 800 μmol m-2 s-1. Results of the initial characterization experiments are presented in detail. Background concentrations, mixing inside the gas exchange volume, and transfer rate of volatile organic compounds (VOC) through PLUS under different humidity conditions are explored. Typical plant characteristics such as light and temperature dependent BVOC emissions are studied using six Quercus Ilex trees and compared to previous studies. Results of an initial ozonolysis experiment of BVOC emissions from Quercus Ilex at typical atmospheric concentrations inside SAPHIR are presented to demonstrate a typical experimental set up and the utility of the newly added plant chamber.

A new plant chamber facility, PLUS, coupled to the atmosphere simulation chamber SAPHIR

Science.gov (United States)

Hohaus, T.; Kuhn, U.; Andres, S.; Kaminski, M.; Rohrer, F.; Tillmann, R.; Wahner, A.; Wegener, R.; Yu, Z.; Kiendler-Scharr, A.

2016-03-01

A new PLant chamber Unit for Simulation (PLUS) for use with the atmosphere simulation chamber SAPHIR (Simulation of Atmospheric PHotochemistry In a large Reaction Chamber) has been built and characterized at the Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Germany. The PLUS chamber is an environmentally controlled flow-through plant chamber. Inside PLUS the natural blend of biogenic emissions of trees is mixed with synthetic air and transferred to the SAPHIR chamber, where the atmospheric chemistry and the impact of biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOCs) can be studied in detail. In PLUS all important environmental parameters (e.g., temperature, photosynthetically active radiation (PAR), soil relative humidity (RH)) are well controlled. The gas exchange volume of 9.32 m3 which encloses the stem and the leaves of the plants is constructed such that gases are exposed to only fluorinated ethylene propylene (FEP) Teflon film and other Teflon surfaces to minimize any potential losses of BVOCs in the chamber. Solar radiation is simulated using 15 light-emitting diode (LED) panels, which have an emission strength up to 800 µmol m-2 s-1. Results of the initial characterization experiments are presented in detail. Background concentrations, mixing inside the gas exchange volume, and transfer rate of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) through PLUS under different humidity conditions are explored. Typical plant characteristics such as light- and temperature- dependent BVOC emissions are studied using six Quercus ilex trees and compared to previous studies. Results of an initial ozonolysis experiment of BVOC emissions from Quercus ilex at typical atmospheric concentrations inside SAPHIR are presented to demonstrate a typical experimental setup and the utility of the newly added plant chamber.

Directed Energy Anechoic Chamber

Data.gov (United States)

Federal Laboratory Consortium — The Directed Energy Anechoic Chamber comprises a power anechoic chamber and one transverse electromagnetic cell for characterizing radiofrequency (RF) responses of...

Performance Characteristics Comparison of CNG Port and CNG Direct Injection in Spark Ignition Engine

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rajesh Patel

2018-03-01

Full Text Available A comparative performance analysis is being carried out on a four cylinder, four stroke cycle, spark ignition engine having displacement volume 1297cc. The cylinder head of original gasoline based engine was modified by drilling holes from upper surfaces of head to individual combustion chamber to convert the engine in a CNG direct injection engine. The CNG port injection (CNG-PI system and CNG direct injection (CNG-DI system were incorporated with the single engine.  The engine was retrofitted to run on both CNG-PI and CNG-DI system alternately with common CNG tank and other engine loading and measurement system. The engine was equipped with electrical dynamometer having rheostat type loading. The CNG direct injection system was incorporated with various sensors and engine ECU. The operating parameters can be obtained on computer screen by loading the computer with engine through switch box. The engine was run over the speed range of 1000 rpm to 3000 rpm with incremental speed of 300 rpm. The performance parameters were calculated from observations and recorded for both CNG-PI and CNG-DI system. The experimental investigation exhibits that, the average 7-8% reduction in BSFC while the engine was running with CNG-DI system as compared to that of CNG-PI system. Also the engine produced 8-9% higher brake torque and hence higher brake power. The engine gives 6-7% higher brake thermal efficiency with CNG-DI system as compared to CNG-PI system.

Low temperature spark plasma sintering of YIG powders

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fernandez-Garcia, L.; Suarez, M.; Menendez, J.L.

2010-01-01

A transition from a low to a high spin state in the magnetization saturation between 1000 and 1100 o C calcination temperature is observed in YIG powders prepared by oxides mixture. Spark plasma sintering of these powders between 900 and 950 o C leads to dense samples with minimal formation of YFeO 3 , opening the way to co-sintering of YIG with metals or metallic alloys. The optical properties depend on the sintering stage: low (high) density samples show poor (bulk) optical absorption.

PS wire chamber

CERN Multimedia

1970-01-01

A wire chamber used at CERN's Proton Synchrotron accelerator in the 1970s. Multi-wire detectors contain layers of positively and negatively charged wires enclosed in a chamber full of gas. A charged particle passing through the chamber knocks negatively charged electrons out of atoms in the gas, leaving behind positive ions. The electrons are pulled towards the positively charged wires. They collide with other atoms on the way, producing an avalanche of electrons and ions. The movement of these electrons and ions induces an electric pulse in the wires which is collected by fast electronics. The size of the pulse is proportional to the energy loss of the original particle.

effect of gasket of varying thickness on spark ignition engines

African Journals Online (AJOL)

DJFLEX

In the study of Toyota, In-line, 4 cylinders, spark ignition engine using gaskets of varying thicknesses. (1.75mm, 3.5mm, 5.25mm, 7mm and 8.75mm) between the cylinder head and the engine block, the performance characteristics of the engine was investigated via the effect of engine speed on brake power, brake thermal ...

SPARK-UP; Seaweed Production And Refining of Kelp, Ulva and Palmaria

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Wald, J.; Visser, de W.; Brandenburg, W.A.; Jongschaap, R.E.E.; Werf, van der A.K.; Deelman, Berth-Jan; Helmendach-Nieuwenhuize, Carola

2016-01-01

In het SPARK-UP project, waarin de partners Arkema, PRI-WUR en North Seaweed samenwerkten aan de ontwikkeling van toepassing van zeewier in de biobased economy, is de afgelopen jaren veel werk verzet. In een bassin op het terrein van Arkema, heeft PRI een teeltsysteem opgezet en in gebruik genomen,

Directional muon jet chamber for a muon collider (Groovy Chamber)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Atac, M.

1996-10-01

A directional jet drift chamber with PAD readout is proposed here which can select vertex originated muons within a given time window and eliminate those muons which primarily originate upstream, using only a PAD readout. Drift time provides the Z-coordinate, and the center of gravity of charge distribution provides the r-ψ coordinates. Directionality at the trigger level is obtained by the timing measurement from the PAD hits within a given time window. Because of the long drift time between the bunch crossings, a muon collider enables one to choose a drift distance in the drift chamber as long as 50 cm. This is an important factor in reducing cost of drift chambers which have to cover relatively large areas

Pencil-shaped radiation detection ionization chamber

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Suzuki, A.

1979-01-01

A radiation detection ionization chamber is described. It consists of an elongated cylindrical pencil-shaped tubing forming an outer wall of the chamber and a center electrode disposed along the major axis of the tubing. The length of the chamber is substantially greater than the diameter. A cable connecting portion at one end of the chamber is provided for connecting the chamber to a triaxial cable. An end support portion is connected at the other end of the chamber for supporting and tensioning the center electrode. 17 claims

Improvement of Swirl Chamber Structure of Swirl-Chamber Diesel Engine Based on Flow Field Characteristics

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wenhua Yuan

2014-10-01

Full Text Available In order to improve combustion characteristic of swirl chamber diesel engine, a simulation model about a traditional cylindrical flat-bottom swirl chamber turbulent combustion diesel engine was established within the timeframe of the piston motion from the bottom dead centre (BDC to the top dead centre (TDC with the fluent dynamic mesh technique and flow field vector of gas in swirl chamber and cylinder; the pressure variation and temperature variation were obtained and a new type of swirl chamber structure was proposed. The results reveal that the piston will move from BDC; air in the cylinder is compressed into the swirl chamber by the piston to develop a swirl inside the chamber, with the ongoing of compression; the pressure and temperature are also rising gradually. Under this condition, the demand of diesel oil mixing and combusting will be better satisfied. Moreover, the new structure will no longer forma small fluid retention zone at the lower end outside the chamber and will be more beneficial to the mixing of fuel oil and air, which has presented a new idea and theoretical foundation for the design and optimization of swirl chamber structure and is thus of good significance of guiding in this regard.

Optimization of process parameters for spark plasma sintering of nano structured SAF 2205 composite

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Samuel Ranti Oke

2018-04-01

Full Text Available This research optimized spark plasma sintering (SPS process parameters in terms of sintering temperature, holding time and heating rate for the development of a nano-structured duplex stainless steel (SAF 2205 grade reinforced with titanium nitride (TiN. The mixed powders were sintered using an automated spark plasma sintering machine (model HHPD-25, FCT GmbH, Germany. Characterization was performed using X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy. Density and hardness of the composites were investigated. The XRD result showed the formation of FeN0.068. SEM/EDS revealed the presence of nano ranged particles of TiN segregated at the grain boundaries of the duplex matrix. A decrease in hardness and densification was observed when sintering temperature and heating rate were 1200 °C and 150 °C/min respectively. The optimum properties were obtained in composites sintered at 1150 °C for 15 min and 100 °C/min. The composite grades irrespective of the process parameters exhibited similar shrinkage behavior, which is characterized by three distinctive peaks, which is an indication of good densification phenomena. Keywords: Spark plasma sintering, Duplex stainless steel (SAF 2205, Titanium nitride (TiN, Microstructure, Density, Hardness

Gas mixtures for spark gap closing switches with emphasis on efficiency of operation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Christophorou, L.G.; McCorkle, D.L.; Hunter, S.R.

1987-01-01

The efficient operation of a spark gap closing switch requires a gaseous medium with large breakdown strength, low conduction voltage, and a short formative time lag. Gas properties necessary to achieve these requirements are identified and discussed. Based on available knowledge of such properties, a number of binary (e.g., c-C 4 F 8 , or l-C 3 F 6 , or n-C 4 F 10 , or C 3 F 8 , or C 6 F 6 in Ar or He or H 2 ) and ternary gas mixtures (e.g., c-C 4 F 8 , or n-C 4 F 10 , or C 3 F 8 in Ar or He + C 2 H 2 or another low ionization onset additive) have been identified which may be suitable for use in spark gap closing switches

Spark formation as a moving boundary process

Science.gov (United States)

Ebert, Ute

2006-03-01

The growth process of spark channels recently becomes accessible through complementary methods. First, I will review experiments with nanosecond photographic resolution and with fast and well defined power supplies that appropriately resolve the dynamics of electric breakdown [1]. Second, I will discuss the elementary physical processes as well as present computations of spark growth and branching with adaptive grid refinement [2]. These computations resolve three well separated scales of the process that emerge dynamically. Third, this scale separation motivates a hierarchy of models on different length scales. In particular, I will discuss a moving boundary approximation for the ionization fronts that generate the conducting channel. The resulting moving boundary problem shows strong similarities with classical viscous fingering. For viscous fingering, it is known that the simplest model forms unphysical cusps within finite time that are suppressed by a regularizing condition on the moving boundary. For ionization fronts, we derive a new condition on the moving boundary of mixed Dirichlet-Neumann type (φ=ɛnφ) that indeed regularizes all structures investigated so far. In particular, we present compact analytical solutions with regularization, both for uniformly translating shapes and for their linear perturbations [3]. These solutions are so simple that they may acquire a paradigmatic role in the future. Within linear perturbation theory, they explicitly show the convective stabilization of a curved front while planar fronts are linearly unstable against perturbations of arbitrary wave length. [1] T.M.P. Briels, E.M. van Veldhuizen, U. Ebert, TU Eindhoven. [2] C. Montijn, J. Wackers, W. Hundsdorfer, U. Ebert, CWI Amsterdam. [3] B. Meulenbroek, U. Ebert, L. Schäfer, Phys. Rev. Lett. 95, 195004 (2005).

Experimental investigation and phenomenological model development of flame kernel growth rate in a gasoline fuelled spark ignition engine

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Salvi, B.L.; Subramanian, K.A.

2015-01-01

Highlights: • Experimental measurement of the flame kernel growth rate (FKGR) in SI engine. • FKGR is the highest at MBT timing as compared with retarded and advanced timings. • FKGR decreases with increase in engine speed. • FKGR is correlated with equivalence ratio, charge density, in-cylinder pressure and engine speed. - Abstract: As flame kernel growth plays a major role in combustion of premixed-charge in spark ignition engines for higher energy efficiency and less emission, the experimental study was carried out on a single cylinder spark ignition research engine for measurement of flame kernel growth rate (FKGR) using spark plug fibre optics probe (VisioFlame sensor). The FKGR was measured on the engine at different power output with varied spark ignition timings and different engine speeds. The experimental results indicate that the FKGR was the highest with the maximum brake torque (MBT) spark timing and it decreases with increase in the engine speed. The FKGR at engine speed of 1000 RPM was the highest of 1.81 m/s with MBT timing (20° bTDC) as compared to 1.6 m/s (15° bTDC), 1.67 m/s (25° bTDC), and 1.61 m/s (30° bTDC) with retarded and advanced timing. In addition to this, a phenomenological model was developed for calculation of FKGR. It was observed from the model that FKGR is function of equivalence ratio, engine speed, in-cylinder pressure and charge density. The experimental results and methodology emerged from this study would be useful for optimization of engine parameters using the FKGR and also further development of model for alternative fuels

THE EFFECT OF GASOLINE-LIKE FUEL PRODUCED FROM WASTE AUTOMOBILE TIRES ON EMISSIONS IN SPARK-IGNITION ENGINES

OpenAIRE

ÖZTOP, H. F.; VAROL, Y.; ALTUN, Ş.; FIRAT, M.

2016-01-01

In the present paper, the effect of Gasoline-Like Fuel (GLF) on emissions was investigated for direct injection spark-ignited engine. The GLF was obtained from waste automobile tires by using the pyrolysis. The tires are installed to oven without any procedure such as cutting, melding etc. Obtained GLF was then used in a four-cylinder, four-stroke, water-cooled and direct injection spark-ignited engine as blended with unleaded gasoline from 0% to 60% with an increment of 10%. Engine tests res...

Characteristics of the Arcing Plasma Formation Effect in Spark-Assisted Chemical Engraving of Glass, Based on Machine Vision.

Science.gov (United States)

Ho, Chao-Ching; Wu, Dung-Sheng

2018-03-22

Spark-assisted chemical engraving (SACE) is a non-traditional machining technology that is used to machine electrically non-conducting materials including glass, ceramics, and quartz. The processing accuracy, machining efficiency, and reproducibility are the key factors in the SACE process. In the present study, a machine vision method is applied to monitor and estimate the status of a SACE-drilled hole in quartz glass. During the machining of quartz glass, the spring-fed tool electrode was pre-pressured on the quartz glass surface to feed the electrode that was in contact with the machining surface of the quartz glass. In situ image acquisition and analysis of the SACE drilling processes were used to analyze the captured image of the state of the spark discharge at the tip and sidewall of the electrode. The results indicated an association between the accumulative size of the SACE-induced spark area and deepness of the hole. The results indicated that the evaluated depths of the SACE-machined holes were a proportional function of the accumulative spark size with a high degree of correlation. The study proposes an innovative computer vision-based method to estimate the deepness and status of SACE-drilled holes in real time.

Characteristics of the Arcing Plasma Formation Effect in Spark-Assisted Chemical Engraving of Glass, Based on Machine Vision

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chao-Ching Ho

2018-03-01

Full Text Available Spark-assisted chemical engraving (SACE is a non-traditional machining technology that is used to machine electrically non-conducting materials including glass, ceramics, and quartz. The processing accuracy, machining efficiency, and reproducibility are the key factors in the SACE process. In the present study, a machine vision method is applied to monitor and estimate the status of a SACE-drilled hole in quartz glass. During the machining of quartz glass, the spring-fed tool electrode was pre-pressured on the quartz glass surface to feed the electrode that was in contact with the machining surface of the quartz glass. In situ image acquisition and analysis of the SACE drilling processes were used to analyze the captured image of the state of the spark discharge at the tip and sidewall of the electrode. The results indicated an association between the accumulative size of the SACE-induced spark area and deepness of the hole. The results indicated that the evaluated depths of the SACE-machined holes were a proportional function of the accumulative spark size with a high degree of correlation. The study proposes an innovative computer vision-based method to estimate the deepness and status of SACE-drilled holes in real time.

Effect of swirl on the performance and combustion of a biogas fuelled spark ignition engine

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Porpatham, E.; Ramesh, A.; Nagalingam, B.

2013-01-01

Highlights: • Tests were conducted on a biogas fuelled SI engine with normal and masked valve. • Improvement in brake power and brake thermal efficiency with masked valve. • Lean misfire limit is extended with enhanced swirl from 0.68 to 0.65. • Enhanced swirl decreases HC level from1530 ppm to 1340 ppm and increases NO emission from 2250 ppm to 3440 ppm. • The reduction in ignition delay and higher heat release rate with enhanced swirl. - Abstract: The influence of swirl on the performance, emissions and combustion in a constant speed Spark Ignition (SI) engine was studied experimentally. A single cylinder diesel engine was modified to operate as a biogas operated spark ignition engine. The engine was operated at 1500 rpm at throttle opening of 25% and 100% at various equivalence ratios. The tests covered a range of equivalence ratios from rich to lean operating limits and also at an optimum compression ratio of 13:1 with normal and masked intake valve to enhance swirl. The spark timing was set to MBT (Minimum advance for Best Torque). It was found that masked valve configuration enhanced the power output and brake thermal efficiency at full throttle. The lean limit of combustion also got extended. Heat release rates indicated enhanced combustion rates with masked valve, which are mainly responsible for the improvement in thermal efficiency. NO level increased with masked valve as compared to normal configuration. The spark timings were to be retarded by about 6 °CA and 4 °CA when compared to normal configuration at 25% and 100% throttle respectively

Establishment of a radon test chamber

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chen Chingjiang; Liu Chichang; Lin Yuming

1993-01-01

A walk-in type radon test chamber of 23 m 3 has been built for testing and calibration of radon measurement instruments. The environmental conditions of the test chamber can be varied within a wide range of values. The design objectives specification, monitoring instruments and testing results of this chamber are discussed. This test chamber is available for domestic radon researchers and its accuracy can be traced to the international standard. A routine intercomparison study will be held annually by using this chamber. Other tests like radon progeny and thoron standard may also be performed in this chamber. (1 fig.)

Experimental and Numerical Study of Jet Controlled Compression Ignition on Combustion Phasing Control in Diesel Premixed Compression Ignition Systems

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Qiang Zhang

2014-07-01

Full Text Available In order to directly control the premixed combustion phasing, a Jet Controlled Compression Ignition (JCCI for diesel premixed compression ignition systems is investigated. Experiments were conducted on a single cylinder natural aspirated diesel engine without EGR at 3000 rpm. Numerical models were validated by load sweep experiments at fixed spark timing. Detailed combustion characteristics were analyzed based on the BMEP of 2.18 bar. The simulation results showed that the high temperature jets of reacting active radical species issued from the ignition chamber played an important role on the onset of combustion in the JCCI system. The combustion of diesel pre-mixtures was initiated rapidly by the combustion products issued from the ignition chamber. Moreover, the flame propagation was not obvious, similar to that in Pre-mixed Charge Compression Ignition (PCCI. Consequently, spark timing sweep experiments were conducted. The results showed a good linear relationship between spark timing in the ignition chamber and CA10 and CA50, which indicated the ability for direct combustion phasing control in diesel PCCI. The NOx and soot emissions gradually changed with the decrease of spark advance angle. The maximum reduction of NOx and soot were both over 90%, and HC and CO emissions were increased.

The effects of finite rate chemical processes on high enthalpy nozzle performance - A comparison between SPARK and SEAGULL

Science.gov (United States)

Carpenter, M. H.

1988-01-01

The generalized chemistry version of the computer code SPARK is extended to include two higher-order numerical schemes, yielding fourth-order spatial accuracy for the inviscid terms. The new and old formulations are used to study the influences of finite rate chemical processes on nozzle performance. A determination is made of the computationally optimum reaction scheme for use in high-enthalpy nozzles. Finite rate calculations are compared with the frozen and equilibrium limits to assess the validity of each formulation. In addition, the finite rate SPARK results are compared with the constant ratio of specific heats (gamma) SEAGULL code, to determine its accuracy in variable gamma flow situations. Finally, the higher-order SPARK code is used to calculate nozzle flows having species stratification. Flame quenching occurs at low nozzle pressures, while for high pressures, significant burning continues in the nozzle.

Optical wedge method for spatial reconstruction of particle trajectories

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Asatiani, T.L.; Alchudzhyan, S.V.; Gazaryan, K.A.; Zograbyan, D.Sh.; Kozliner, L.I.; Krishchyan, V.M.; Martirosyan, G.S.; Ter-Antonyan, S.V.

1978-01-01

A technique of optical wedges allowing the full reconstruction of pictures of events in space is considered. The technique is used for the detection of particle tracks in optical wide-gap spark chambers by photographing in one projection. The optical wedges are refracting right-angle plastic prisms positioned between the camera and the spark chamber so that through them both ends of the track are photographed. A method for calibrating measurements is given, and an estimate made of the accuracy of the determination of the second projection with the help of the optical wedges

Modular plants with high power gas engines (1 to 30 MWe); Centrales modulaires a moteurs gaz de forte puissance (de 1 a 30 MWe)

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Haushalter, J. [Wartsila NSD (France)

1997-12-31

After a review of pollution regulations in France and Europe for high capacity combustion plants, the Wartsila NSD spark ignition combustion system, using natural gas, is presented: the air-gas mixture in the combustion chamber is very weak (lambda is around 2-2.2) and its ignition is completed by the flame exiting the pre-chamber containing a stoichiometric mixture, and the spark plug. The temperature is decreased thus lowering the NOx emission level. The combustion system is integrated in the Pure Energy global concept (cogeneration plants, etc.) from Wartsila

The Omega spectrometer

CERN Multimedia

CERN PhotoLab

1974-01-01

The huge superconducting magnet (3 m inside coil diameter, 2 m gap, 18 kGauss) contains a large number of optical spark chambers partly surrounding a hydrogen target which is hit by the beam entering from behind. The half cylindrical aluminium hut houses eight television cameras viewing the spark chambers from the top. The big gas Cerenkov counter in front of the picture (6 m x 4 m x 3 m) which identifies fast forward particles was constructed at Saclay as a contribution of one of the Omega.

Plasma igniter for internal combustion engine

Science.gov (United States)

Fitzgerald, D. J.; Breshears, R. R. (Inventor)

1978-01-01

An igniter for the air/fuel mixture used in the cylinders of an internal combustion engine is described. A conventional spark is used to initiate the discharge of a large amount of energy stored in a capacitor. A high current discharge of the energy in the capacitor switched on by a spark discharge produces a plasma and a magnetic field. The resultant combined electromagnetic current and magnetic field force accelerates the plasma deep into the combustion chamber thereby providing an improved ignition of the air/fuel mixture in the chamber.

Spark gap overpressures in the transfer capacitor device

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Burkhardt, L.C.; Dike, R.S.

1977-01-01

A designer of spark gaps is often faced with two gas pressure problems, one static and one dynamic. The former is easy to obtain data on which to base intelligent design specifications; about the latter, less is known. It is the total internal pressure environment we have attempted to measure, in an un-time-resolved way, in order to give the designer some rationale in designing gaps of this category. We measure overpressures of approximately 400 PSI in a 13 cubic inch gap passing currents of approximately 200 kA

Numerical investigation of natural gas direct injection properties and mixture formation in a spark ignition engine

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yadollahi Bijan

2014-01-01

Full Text Available In this study, a numerical model has been developed in AVL FIRE software to perform investigation of Direct Natural Gas Injection into the cylinder of Spark Ignition Internal Combustion Engines. In this regard two main parts have been taken into consideration, aiming to convert an MPFI gasoline engine to direct injection NG engine. In the first part of study multi-dimensional numerical simulation of transient injection process, mixing and flow field have been performed via three different validation cases in order to assure the numerical model validity of results. Adaption of such a modeling was found to be a challenging task because of required computational effort and numerical instabilities. In all cases present results were found to have excellent agreement with experimental and numerical results from literature. In the second part, using the moving mesh capability the validated model has been applied to methane Injection into the cylinder of a Direct Injection engine. Five different piston head shapes along with two injector types have been taken into consideration in investigations. A centrally mounted injector location has been adapted to all cases. The effects of injection parameters, combustion chamber geometry, injector type and engine RPM have been studied on mixing of air-fuel inside cylinder. Based on the results, suitable geometrical configuration for a NG DI Engine has been discussed.

Hybrid employment recommendation algorithm based on Spark

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Zuoquan; Lin, Yubei; Zhang, Xingming

2017-08-01

Aiming at the real-time application of collaborative filtering employment recommendation algorithm (CF), a clustering collaborative filtering recommendation algorithm (CCF) is developed, which applies hierarchical clustering to CF and narrows the query range of neighbour items. In addition, to solve the cold-start problem of content-based recommendation algorithm (CB), a content-based algorithm with users’ information (CBUI) is introduced for job recommendation. Furthermore, a hybrid recommendation algorithm (HRA) which combines CCF and CBUI algorithms is proposed, and implemented on Spark platform. The experimental results show that HRA can overcome the problems of cold start and data sparsity, and achieve good recommendation accuracy and scalability for employment recommendation.

Anticipating Change, Sparking Innovation: Framing the Future

Science.gov (United States)

Finnegan, John R.; Spencer, Harrison C.

2015-01-01

As the 100th anniversary of the 1915 Welch-Rose report approaches, the Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health (ASPPH) has been pursuing two initiatives to spark innovation in academic partnerships for enhancing population health: (1) Framing the Future: The Second 100 Years of Education for Public Health and (2) Reconnecting Public Health and Care Delivery to Improve the Health of Populations. We describe how ASPPH-member schools and programs accredited by the Council on Education for Public Health, along with their extraordinarily diverse array of partners, are working to improve education that better prepares health professionals to meet 21st-century population health needs. PMID:25706017

Analysis of the process of raising the temperature in the spark channel at a discharge in gas

CERN Document Server

Korytchenko, K V; Chumakov, V I

2001-01-01

Analysis of the process of raising the temperature in the spark channel at a discharge in gas is performed. The quantitative evaluation was made in main for the air. The effect of steadying a thermodynamic equilibrium in gas,as well as the influence of power discharge parameters on the process of temperature increasing was analyzed. The quantitative evaluation of time parameters of the processes of rotary, oscillatory relaxation, dissociation and ionization has allowed to reveal the influence of each of them on temperature increasing in the spark channel. The problems arising in the course of practical realization of a spark discharge which influence on the process of temperature raising are detected,and the ways for their solution are determined. The results obtained can be put in a basis of developing the methods to design devices for intensive increase of temperatures in gas media using the electrical discharge,as well as for analysis of a dependence of shock wave intensity on dynamic parameters of the ele...

Spark erosion implant prosthetics in the management of an acquired maxillofacial defect.

Science.gov (United States)

Bloem, T J; Baxter, W D; Vivas, J

1996-03-01

The concept and use of spark erosion (EDM) prosthetics in implant prosthodontics has been described and demonstrated in its application to a patient suffering maxillofacial trauma. The advantages and disadvantages of this technology have been discussed for the edification of the restorative and surgical provider.

National Ignition Facility Target Chamber

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wavrik, R W; Cox, J R; Fleming, P J

2000-01-01

On June 11, 1999 the Department of Energy dedicated the single largest piece of the National Ignition Facility (NIF) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in Livermore, California. The ten (10) meter diameter aluminum target high vacuum chamber will serve as the working end of the largest laser in the world. The output of 192 laser beams will converge at the precise center of the chamber. The laser beams will enter the chamber in two by two arrays to illuminate 10 millimeter long gold cylinders called hohlraums enclosing 2 millimeter capsule containing deuterium, tritium and isotopes of hydrogen. The two isotopes will fuse, thereby creating temperatures and pressures resembling those found only inside stars and in detonated nuclear weapons, but on a minute scale. The NIF Project will serve as an essential facility to insure safety and reliability of our nation's nuclear arsenal as well as demonstrating inertial fusion's contribution to creating electrical power. The paper will discuss the requirements that had to be addressed during the design, fabrication and testing of the target chamber. A team from Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) and LLNL with input from industry performed the configuration and basic design of the target chamber. The method of fabrication and construction of the aluminum target chamber was devised by Pitt-Des Moines, Inc. (PDM). PDM also participated in the design of the chamber in areas such as the Target Chamber Realignment and Adjustment System, which would allow realignment of the sphere laser beams in the event of earth settlement or movement from a seismic event. During the fabrication of the target chamber the sphericity tolerances had to be addressed for the individual plates. Procedures were developed for forming, edge preparation and welding of individual plates. Construction plans were developed to allow the field construction of the target chamber to occur parallel to other NIF construction activities. This was

The time response function of spark counters and RPCs

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gobbi, A.; Mangiarotti, A.

2003-01-01

The fluctuation theory for the avalanche growth with and without space charge effects is briefly summarized and compared to a broad field of applications. These include spark counters as well as timing and trigger RPCs operated in avalanche mode. A large domain in electrical field strength, pressure, gap size and gas mixture type is covered. A reasonable agreement with the experiment is observed, giving confidence on the validity of both assumptions and treatment of the theory

Compaction of lithium-silicate ceramics using spark plasma sintering

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Kubatík, Tomáš František; Lukáč, František; Mušálek, Radek; Brožek, Vlastimil; Stehlíková, K.; Chráska, Tomáš

2017-01-01

Roč. 61, č. 1 (2017), s. 40-44 ISSN 0862-5468 R&D Projects: GA ČR GB14-36566G Institutional support: RVO:61389021 Keywords : Li2Si2O5 * Li2SiO3 * Spark plasma sintering (SPS) * Quantitative Rietveld refinement * X-ray diffraction (XRD) Subject RIV: JG - Metallurgy OBOR OECD: Materials engineering Impact factor: 0.439, year: 2016 http://www.ceramics-silikaty.cz/index.php?page=cs_detail_doi&id=789

Cloud Chamber

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Gfader, Verina

Cloud Chamber takes its roots in a performance project, titled The Guests 做东, devised by Verina Gfader for the 11th Shanghai Biennale, ‘Why Not Ask Again: Arguments, Counter-arguments, and Stories’. Departing from the inclusion of the biennale audience to write a future folk tale, Cloud Chamber......: fiction and translation and translation through time; post literacy; world picturing-world typing; and cartographic entanglements and expressions of subjectivity; through the lens a social imaginary of worlding or cosmological quest. Art at its core? Contributions by Nikos Papastergiadis, Rebecca Carson...

Welding of titanium and nickel alloy by combination of explosive welding and spark plasma sintering technologies

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Malyutina, Yu. N., E-mail: iuliiamaliutina@gmail.com; Bataev, A. A., E-mail: bataev@adm.nstu.ru; Shevtsova, L. I., E-mail: edeliya2010@mail.ru [Novosibirsk State Technical University, Novosibirsk, 630073 (Russian Federation); Mali, V. I., E-mail: vmali@mail.ru; Anisimov, A. G., E-mail: anis@hydro.nsc.ru [Lavrentyev Institute of Hydrodynamics SB RAS, Novosibirsk, 630090 (Russian Federation)

2015-10-27

A possibility of titanium and nickel-based alloys composite materials formation using combination of explosive welding and spark plasma sintering technologies was demonstrated in the current research. An employment of interlayer consisting of copper and tantalum thin plates makes possible to eliminate a contact between metallurgical incompatible titanium and nickel that are susceptible to intermetallic compounds formation during their interaction. By the following spark plasma sintering process the bonding has been received between titanium and titanium alloy VT20 through the thin powder layer of pure titanium that is distinguished by low defectiveness and fine dispersive structure.

A jumping spark counter for various applications; rapid determination of its counting parameters

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Varnagy, M.; Vasvary, L.; Gyarmati, E.; Juhasz, S.; Scharbert, T.; Sztaricskai, T.

1977-01-01

On the basis of the method proposed by Cross and Tommasino a jumping spark counter (JSC) has been constructed which is applicable for the counting (continuously or 'step by step') of the perforations in thin (5-20μm) polymer foils. The JSC was combined with a DIDAC 4000 multichannel pulse-height analyser and multiscaler to determine automatically the best parameters and procedures for spark counting as well as to study the working mechanism of the JSC. Investigations were performed on etched Markrofol GK foils irradiated with fission fragments and exposed to 0.35 MRad gamma-rays. The track density interval studies was 0-50000 tracks/cm 2 . The possibility of the adoption of JSC for neutron dosimetric application, evaluation of angular distribution and for safegaurd purposes was tested. The possible consequences of the results are discussed. (Auth.)

Biocompatibility assessment of spark plasma-sintered alumina-titanium cermets.

Science.gov (United States)

Guzman, Rodrigo; Fernandez-García, Elisa; Gutierrez-Gonzalez, Carlos F; Fernandez, Adolfo; Lopez-Lacomba, Jose Luis; Lopez-Esteban, Sonia

2016-01-01

Alumina-titanium materials (cermets) of enhanced mechanical properties have been lately developed. In this work, physical properties such as electrical conductivity and the crystalline phases in the bulk material are evaluated. As these new cermets manufactured by spark plasma sintering may have potential application for hard tissue replacements, their biocompatibility needs to be evaluated. Thus, this research aims to study the cytocompatibility of a novel alumina-titanium (25 vol. % Ti) cermet compared to its pure counterpart, the spark plasma sintered alumina. The influence of the particular surface properties (chemical composition, roughness and wettability) on the pre-osteoblastic cell response is also analyzed. The material electrical resistance revealed that this cermet may be machined to any shape by electroerosion. The investigated specimens had a slightly undulated topography, with a roughness pattern that had similar morphology in all orientations (isotropic roughness) and a sub-micrometric average roughness. Differences in skewness that implied valley-like structures in the cermet and predominance of peaks in alumina were found. The cermet presented a higher surface hydrophilicity than alumina. Any cytotoxicity risk associated with the new materials or with the innovative manufacturing methodology was rejected. Proliferation and early-differentiation stages of osteoblasts were statistically improved on the composite. Thus, our results suggest that this new multifunctional cermet could improve current alumina-based biomedical devices for applications such as hip joint replacements. © The Author(s) 2015.

Spark and HPC for High Energy Physics Data Analyses

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Sehrish, Saba; Kowalkowski, Jim; Paterno, Marc

2017-05-01

A full High Energy Physics (HEP) data analysis is divided into multiple data reduction phases. Processing within these phases is extremely time consuming, therefore intermediate results are stored in files held in mass storage systems and referenced as part of large datasets. This processing model limits what can be done with interactive data analytics. Growth in size and complexity of experimental datasets, along with emerging big data tools are beginning to cause changes to the traditional ways of doing data analyses. Use of big data tools for HEP analysis looks promising, mainly because extremely large HEP datasets can be represented and held in memory across a system, and accessed interactively by encoding an analysis using highlevel programming abstractions. The mainstream tools, however, are not designed for scientific computing or for exploiting the available HPC platform features. We use an example from the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in Geneva, Switzerland. The LHC is the highest energy particle collider in the world. Our use case focuses on searching for new types of elementary particles explaining Dark Matter in the universe. We use HDF5 as our input data format, and Spark to implement the use case. We show the benefits and limitations of using Spark with HDF5 on Edison at NERSC.

Large-Eddy Simulations of Motored Flow and Combustion in a Homogeneous-Charge Spark-Ignition Engine

Science.gov (United States)

Shekhawat, Yajuvendra Singh

Cycle-to-cycle variations (CCV) of flow and combustion in internal combustion engines (ICE) limit their fuel efficiency and emissions potential. Large-eddy simulation (LES) is the most practical simulation tool to understand the nature of these CCV. In this research, multi-cycle LES of a two-valve, four-stroke, spark-ignition optical engine has been performed for motored and fired operations. The LES mesh quality is assessed using a length scale resolution parameter and a energy resolution parameter. For the motored operation, two 50-consecutive-cycle LES with different turbulence models (Smagorinsky model and dynamic structure model) are compared with the experiment. The pressure comparison shows that the LES is able to capture the wave-dynamics in the intake and exhaust ports. The LES velocity fields are compared with particle-image velocimetry (PIV) measurements at three cutting planes. Based on the structure and magnitude indices, the dynamic structure model is somewhat better than the Smagorinsky model as far as the ensemble-averaged velocity fields are concerned. The CCV in the velocity fields is assessed by proper-orthogonal decomposition (POD). The POD analysis shows that LES is able to capture the level of CCV seen in the experiment. For the fired operation, two 60-cycle LES with different combustion models (thickened frame model and coherent frame model) are compared with experiment. The in-cylinder pressure and the apparent heat release rate comparison shows higher CCV for LES compared to the experiment, with the thickened frame model showing higher CCV than the coherent frame model. The correlation analysis for the LES using thickened frame model shows that the CCV in combustion/pressure is correlated with: the tumble at the intake valve closing, the resolved and subfilter-scale kinetic energy just before spark time, and the second POD mode (shear flow near spark gap) of the velocity fields just before spark time.

Spark plasma-sintered Sn-based intermetallic alloys and their Li-storage studies

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Nithyadharseni, P

2016-06-01

Full Text Available In the present study, SnSb, SnSb/Fe, SnSb/Co, and SnSb/Ni alloy powders processed by co-precipitation were subjected to spark plasma-sintering (SPS) at 400 °C for 5 min. The compacts were structurally and morphologically characterized by X...

Spark plasma sintering of SiC and ZrC

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Guillard, F.; Galy, J. [CEMES-CNRS, 29 rue Jeanne Marvig BP94347 31055 Toulouse Cx 4 (France); Allemand, A. [CEA Saclay, DRT/DTEN/S3ME/LTMEx, 91191 Gif-sur-Yvette (France)

2005-07-01

Spark plasma sintering a relative new technique allows sintering material powders in a reduced time compared to formal process of densification. In order to analyse densification mechanisms and to compare with hot isostatic pressing technique, pellets of silicon carbide and zirconium carbide were sintered by HIP and by SPS from 1750 to 1950 deg. C, with different pressures (50 to 75 MPa) and various holding times (0 to 10 min). Their densities were determined and their microstructures were SEM analysed. (authors)

wire chamber

CERN Multimedia

1985-01-01

Multi-wire detectors contain layers of positively and negatively charged wires enclosed in a chamber full of gas. A charged particle passing through the chamber knocks negatively charged electrons out of atoms in the gas, leaving behind positive ions. The electrons are pulled towards the positively charged wires. They collide with other atoms on the way, producing an avalanche of electrons and ions. The movement of these electrons and ions induces an electric pulse in the wires which is collected by fast electronics. The size of the pulse is proportional to the energy loss of the original particle.

Wire chamber

CERN Multimedia

Multi-wire detectors contain layers of positively and negatively charged wires enclosed in a chamber full of gas. A charged particle passing through the chamber knocks negatively charged electrons out of atoms in the gas, leaving behind positive ions. The electrons are pulled towards the positively charged wires. They collide with other atoms on the way, producing an avalanche of electrons and ions. The movement of these electrons and ions induces an electric pulse in the wires which is collected by fast electronics. The size of the pulse is proportional to the energy loss of the original particle.

wire chamber

CERN Multimedia

Multi-wire detectors contain layers of positively and negatively charged wires enclosed in a chamber full of gas. A charged particle passing through the chamber knocks negatively charged electrons out of atoms in the gas, leaving behind positive ions. The electrons are pulled towards the positively charged wires. They collide with other atoms on the way, producing an avalanche of electrons and ions. The movement of these electrons and ions induces an electric pulse in the wires which is collected by fast electronics. The size of the pulse is proportional to the energy loss of the original particle.

Criteria for controlled atmosphere chambers

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Robinson, J.N.

1980-03-01

The criteria for design, construction, and operation of controlled atmosphere chambers intended for service at ORNL are presented. Classification of chambers, materials for construction, design criteria, design, controlled atmosphere chamber systems, and operating procedures are presented. ORNL Safety Manual Procedure 2.1; ORNL Health Physics Procedure Manual Appendix A-7; and Design of Viewing Windows are included in 3 appendices

Proceedings of workshop on streamer chamber

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Itoh, Hidihiko; Takahashi, Kaoru; Hirose, Tachishige; Masaike, Akira

1978-08-01

For high accuracy observation of multiple-body reactions, a vertex detector of high efficiency is essential. A bubble chamber, though excellent for tracks detection, is problematic in statistics accuracy. The vertex detector with a wire chamber, while better in this respect, difficult in multiple-particle detection etc. The workshop has had several meetings on a streamer chamber as a detector combining features of both bubble chamber and counter, with emphasis on tracks observation in avalanche mode and recordings not using films. Contents are on streamer chamber gas, analytical photography, data processing, simulation program, etc. (Mori, K.)

Sparking Passion: Engaging Student Voice through Project-Based Learning in Learning Communities

Science.gov (United States)

Ball, Christy L.

2016-01-01

How do we confront entrenched educational practices in higher education that lead to student demotivation, poor retention, and low persistence? This article argues that project-based learning that situates student voice and capacity at the center of culturally-responsive curriculum has the potential to spark student passion for problem-solving…

Gas spark switches with increased operating life for Marx generator of lightning test complex

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bykov, Yu. A.; Krastelev, E. G., E-mail: ekrastelev@yandex.ru [Russian Academy of Sciences, Joint Institute for High Temperature (Russian Federation)

2016-12-15

A new design of gas spark switches with an increased operating life and stable dynamic characteristics for the Marx generator of the lightning test complex has been developed. The switches are characterized by the following parameters in the mode of operation: voltage up to 80 kV, discharge current up to 50 kA, flowing charge up to 3.5 C/pulse. An increased operating life is achieved by using torus-shaped electrodes with increased working surface area and a trigger electrode in the form of a thick disk with a hole located between them. Low breakdown delay time and high stability of breakdown voltage under dynamic conditions are provided by gas preionization in the spark gap using UV radiation of an additional corona discharge in the axial region.

Gridded Ionization Chamber

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Manero Amoros, F.

1962-01-01

In the present paper the working principles of a gridded ionization chamber are given, and all the different factors that determine its resolution power are analyzed in detail. One of these devices, built in the Physics Division of the JEN and designed specially for use in measurements of alpha spectroscopy, is described. finally the main applications, in which the chamber can be used, are shown. (Author) 17 refs

Osteoblastic cell response to spark plasma-sintered zirconia/titanium cermets.

Science.gov (United States)

Fernandez-Garcia, Elisa; Guillem-Marti, Jordi; Gutierrez-Gonzalez, Carlos F; Fernandez, Adolfo; Ginebra, Maria-Pau; Lopez-Esteban, Sonia

2015-01-01

Ceramic/metal composites, cermets, arise from the idea to combine the dissimilar properties in the pure materials. This work aims to study the biocompatibility of new micro-nanostructured 3 Y-TZP/Ti materials with 25, 50 and 75 vol.% Ti, which have been successfully obtained by spark slasma sintering technology, as well as to correlate their surface properties (roughness, wettability and chemical composition) with the osteoblastic cell response. All samples had isotropic and slightly waved microstructure, with sub-micrometric average roughness. Composites with 75 vol.% Ti had the highest surface hydrophilicity. Surface chemical composition of the cermets correlated well with the relative amounts used for their fabrication. A cell viability rate over 80% dismissed any cytotoxicity risk due to manufacturing. Cell adhesion and early differentiation were significantly enhanced on materials containing the nanostructured 3 Y-TZP phase. Proliferation and differentiation of SaOS-2 were significantly improved in their late-stage on the composite with 75 vol.% Ti that, from the osseointegration standpoint, is presented as an excellent biomaterial for bone replacement. Thus, spark plasma sintering is consolidated as a suitable technology for manufacturing nanostructured biomaterials with enhanced bioactivity. © The Author(s) 2014 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav.

Influence of spark plasma sintering and baghdadite powder on mechanical properties of hydroxyapatite

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Khandan, A.; Karamian, E.; Mehdikhani-Nahrkhalaji, M.; Mirmohammadi, H.; Farzadi, A.; Ozada, N.; Heidarshenas, B.; Zamani, K.

2015-01-01

Since hydroxyapatite-based materials have similar composition and crystallinity as natural calcified tissues, can be used for bone/tissue engineering. In the present study a novel nanocomposite based on bioceramics such as Natural Hydroxyapatite (NHA) and Baghdadite (BAG), was sintered by spark

Determination of trace amounts of impurities in molybdenum by spark source and glow discharge mass spectrometry

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Saito, Morimasa

1994-01-01

For the determination of trace and ultra-trace amounts of impurities in high-purity molybdenum, spark source mass spectrometry and glow discharge mass spectrometry were studied. In spark source mass spectrometry using the metal probe method, the liquid-helium cryogenic pump was used in order to protect the surface of the samples from oxidation. The theoretical relative sensitivity factors (Mo=1) calculated from physical properties were used. The analytical results obtained for molybdenum tablet and high-purity molybdenum were in good agreement with those obtained by other methods (atomic absorption spectrometry and others). In glow discharge mass spectrometry, the relative sensitivity factors were calculated by using the results obtained by spark source mass spectrometry and atomic absorption spectrometry, and this method was applied to the determination of ultra-trace amounts of impurities in ultra high-purity molybdenum and gave the satisfactory results. The detection limits (2σ, n=10) in the integration time of 600 s for U and Th were 0.6 ppb and 0.3 ppb, and the values for Al, Si, Cr, Mn and Cu were in the range of 10 ppb to 0.5 ppb. (author)

Cyclic variation of heat flux on spark plug; Tenka plug bu no netsuryusoku hendo no sokutei

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ishii, K.; Sasaki, T.; Urata, Y. [Honda Motor Co. Ltd., Tokyo (Japan); Kagawa, J.; Matsutani, W. [NGK Spark Plug Co. Ltd., Nagoya (Japan)

1998-02-25

This paper examines the relationship between the magnitude of the heat flux to the spark plug ground electrode, averaged over an 80` crank angle (CA) of early compression stroke, and the initial burning rate, defined as the CA at which 5% of mass is burned. The heat flux was measured by a thin-film thermocouple with the hot junction on the surface of ground electrode. The results demonstrate that faster initial burning rate correlated well with increasing heat flux from the spark plug to the mixture. The difference in the magnitude and direction of the heat flux is associated with the amount of residual gas concentration and thus the results show the effect of residual gas concentration. The cycle-averaged heat flux from the hot junction is 0.367 MW/m{sup 2}, corresponding to a total heat flow of 20 W from the total surface area of ground electrode. This value is about an order of magnitude larger than that previously reported in the literature for locations away from the spark plug, e. g. at the cylinder wall. 11 refs., 9 figs., 1 tab.

Modeling And Simulation Of Combined Extrusion For Spark Plug Body Parts

Science.gov (United States)

Canta, T.; Noveanu, D.; Frunza, D.

2004-06-01

The paper presents the modeling and simulation for the extrusion technology of a new type of spark plug body for Dacia Supernova car. This technology was simulated using the finite elements modeling and analysis SuperForm software, designed for the simulation of plastic deformation processes. There is also presented a comparison between the results of the simulation and the industrial results.

Effect of gasket of varying thickness on spark ignition engines | Ajayi ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

In the study of Toyota, In-line, 4 cylinders, spark ignition engine using gaskets of varying thicknesses (1.75mm, 3.5mm, 5.25mm, 7mm and 8.75mm) between the cylinder head and the engine block, the performance characteristics of the engine was investigated via the effect of engine speed on brake power, brake thermal ...

The CLEO III drift chamber

CERN Document Server

Peterson, D; Briere, R A; Chen, G; Cronin-Hennessy, D; Csorna, S; Dickson, M; Dombrowski, S V; Ecklund, K M; Lyon, A; Marka, S; Meyer, T O; Patterson, J R; Sadoff, A; Thies, P; Thorndike, E H; Urner, D

2002-01-01

The CLEO group at the Cornell Electron Storage Ring has constructed and commissioned a new central drift chamber. With 9796 cells arranged in 47 layers ranging in radius from 13.2 to 79 cm, the new drift chamber has a smaller outer radius and fewer wires than the drift chamber it replaces, but allows the CLEO tracking system to have improved momentum resolution. Reduced scattering material in the chamber gas and in the inner skin separating the drift chamber from the silicon vertex detector provides a reduction of the multiple scattering component of the momentum resolution and an extension of the usable measurement length into the silicon. Momentum resolution is further improved through quality control in wire positioning and symmetry of the electric fields in the drift cells which have provided a reduction in the spatial resolution to 88 mu m (averaged over the full drift range).

Magnetic microstructure and magnetic properties of spark plasma sintered NdFeB magnets

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Huang, Y.L., E-mail: hyl1019_lin@163.com [School of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanchang Hangkong University, Nanchang 330063 (China); Wang, Y.; Hou, Y.H.; Wang, Y.L.; Wu, Y.; Ma, S.C. [School of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanchang Hangkong University, Nanchang 330063 (China); Liu, Z.W.; Zeng, D.C. [School of Materials Science and Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510640 (China); Tian, Y.; Xia, W.X. [Key Laboratory of Magnetic Materials and Devices, Ningbo Institute of Material Technology and Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Ningbo 315201 (China); Zhong, Z.C., E-mail: zzhong2014@sina.com [School of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanchang Hangkong University, Nanchang 330063 (China)

2016-02-01

Nanocrystalline NdFeB magnets were prepared by spark plasma sintering (SPS) technique using melt-spun ribbons as starting materials. A distinct two-zone structure with coarse grain zone and fine grain zone was formed in the SPSed magnets. Multi-domain particle in coarse grain zone and exchange interaction domain for fine grain zone were observed. Intergranular non-magnetic phase was favorable to improve the coercivity due to the enhancement of domain wall pinning effects and increased exchange-decouple. The remanent polarization of 0.83 T, coercivity of 1516 kA/m, and maximum energy product of 118 kJ/m{sup 3} are obtained for an isotropic magnet. - Highlights: • Nanocrystalline NdFeB magnets were prepared by spark plasma sintering technique. • Multi-domain particle and exchange interaction domain were observed. • Magnetic microstructure and their relation to the properties were investigated.

40 CFR Table 1a to Subpart Zzzz of... - Emission Limitations for Existing, New, and Reconstructed Spark Ignition, 4SRB Stationary RICE...

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

..., and Reconstructed Spark Ignition, 4SRB Stationary RICE >500 HP Located at a Major Source of HAP... Limitations for Existing, New, and Reconstructed Spark Ignition, 4SRB Stationary RICE >500 HP Located at a... emission limitations for existing, new and reconstructed 4SRB stationary RICE at 100 percent load plus or...

40 CFR Table 1b to Subpart Zzzz of... - Operating Limitations for Existing, New, and Reconstructed Spark Ignition, 4SRB Stationary RICE...

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

..., New, and Reconstructed Spark Ignition, 4SRB Stationary RICE >500 HP Located at a Major Source of HAP... Limitations for Existing, New, and Reconstructed Spark Ignition, 4SRB Stationary RICE >500 HP Located at a... following operating emission limitations for existing, new and reconstructed 4SRB stationary RICE >500 HP...

OPAL Jet Chamber Prototype

CERN Multimedia

OPAL was one of the four experiments installed at the LEP particle accelerator from 1989 - 2000. OPAL's central tracking system consists of (in order of increasing radius) a silicon microvertex detector, a vertex detector, a jet chamber, and z-chambers. All the tracking detectors work by observing the ionization of atoms by charged particles passing by: when the atoms are ionized, electrons are knocked out of their atomic orbitals, and are then able to move freely in the detector. These ionization electrons are detected in the dirfferent parts of the tracking system. This piece is a prototype of the jet chambers

Absorbed dose measurement by using tissue equivalent ionization chamber (pair ionization chamber) in the Yayoi reactor

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sasuga, N.; Okamura, K.; Terakado, T.; Mabuchi, Y.; Nakagawa, T.; Sukegawa, Toshio; Aizawa, C.; Saito, I.; Oka, Yoshiaki

1998-01-01

Each dose rate of neutron and gamma ray in the thermal column of the Yayoi reactor, in which an epithermal neutron field will be used for the boron neutron capture therapy, was measured by using a tissue equivalent ionization chamber and a graphite chamber. The tissue equivalent ionization chamber has some response to both neutron and gamma ray, but the graphite chamber has a few response to the neutron, so called pair ionization chamber method. The epithermal neutron fluxes of the thermal column were calculated by ANISN (one dimensional neutron-gamma transport code). A measured value for gamma dose rate by the pair ionization chamber agrees relevantly with a calculated result. For neutron dose rate, however, the measured value was too much small in comparison with the calculated result. The discrepancy between the measured value and the calculated result for neutron dose rate is discussed in detail in the report. (M. Suetake)

Development of secondary chamber for tar cracking-improvement of wood pyrolysis performance in pre-vacuum chamber

Science.gov (United States)

Siahaan, S.; Homma, H.; Homma, H.

2018-02-01

Energy crisis and global warming, in other words, climate change are critical topics discussed in various parts of the world. Global warming primarily result from too much emission of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere. To mitigate global warming, or climate change and improve electrification in rural areas, wood pyrolysis technology is developed in a laboratory scale, of which gases are directly applicable to the gas engine generator. Our laboratory has developed a prototype of wood pyrolysis plant with a pre-vacuum chamber. However, tar yield was around 40 wt% of feedstock. This research aims to reduce tar yield by secondary tar cracking. For the secondary tar cracking, a secondary pre-vacuum chamber is installed after primary pre-vacuum chamber. Gases generated in the primary pre-vacuum chamber are lead into the secondary chamber that is heated up to 1000 K. This paper reports performance of the secondary chamber for secondary tar cracking in homogeneous mode and heterogeneous mode with char.

Proportional chamber with data analog output

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Popov, V.E.; Prokof'ev, A.N.

1977-01-01

A proportional multiwier chamber is described. The chamber makes it possible to determine angles at wich a pion strikes a polarized target. A delay line, made of 60-core flat cable is used for removing signals from the chamber. From the delay line, signals are amplified and successively injected into shapers and a time-to-amplitude converter. An amplitude of the time-to amplitude converter output signal unambiguously determines the coordinate of a point at which a particle strikes the chamber plane. There are also given circuits of amplifiers, which consist of a preamplifier with gain 30 and a main amplifier with adjustable gain. Data on testing the chamber with the 450 MeV pion beam is demonstrated. The chamber features an efficiency of about 98 per cent under load of 2x10 5 s -1

Fe-Zn intermetallic phases prepared by diffusion annealing and spark-plasma sintering

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Pokorný, P.; Cinert, Jakub; Pala, Zdeněk

2016-01-01

Roč. 50, č. 2 (2016), s. 253-256 ISSN 1580-2949 R&D Projects: GA ČR GB14-36566G Institutional support: RVO:61389021 Keywords : Fe-Zn intermetallics * spark-plasma sintering * diffusion annealing * phase composition * hardness Subject RIV: JK - Corrosion ; Surface Treatment of Materials Impact factor: 0.436, year: 2016

The DEIS high energy muon spectrometer. II. The data acquisition system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Allkofer, O.C.; Dau, W.D.; Faehnders, E.; Jokisch, H.; Kaleschke, G.P.; Klemke, G.; Sauerland, K.; Schmidtke, G.; Uhr, R.C.; Bella, G.; Oren, Y.; Virni, U.; Seidman, A.

1977-01-01

The whole spectrometer is read out and controlled on-line via a CAMAC-system by a minicomputer. The magnetostrictive read out signals of 66 magnetostrictive read out wands of the wire spark chambers are digitized by 20-MHz-scalers which can store up to 8 sparks per chamber. The time-of-flight of the muon, the pulse heights of the scintillation counters, the time of event are also recorded. The on-line-computer makes reliability checks of the data and stores them together with monitor data about magnetic field, gas and high voltage system, etc. on magnetic tape for off-line analysis. (author)

Dynamic knock detection and quantification in a spark ignition engine by means of a pressure based method

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Galloni, Enzo

2012-01-01

Highlights: ► Experimental data have been analyzed by a pressure based method. ► Knock intensity level depends on a threshold varying with the engine operating point. ► A dynamic method is proposed to overcome the definition of a predetermined threshold. ► The knock intensity of each operating point is quantified by a dimensionless index. ► The knock limited spark advance can be detected by means of this index. - Abstract: In spark ignition engines, knock onset limits the maximum spark advance. An inaccurate identification of this limit penalises the fuel conversion efficiency. Thus it is very important to define a knock detection method able to assess the knock intensity of an engine operating point. Usually, in engine development, knock event is evaluated by analysing the in-cylinder pressure trace. Data are filtered and processed in order to obtain some indices correlated to the knock intensity, then the calculated value is compared to a predetermined threshold. The calibration of this threshold is complex and difficult; statistical approach should be used, but often empirical values are considered. In this paper a method that dynamically calculates the knock threshold necessary to determine the knock event is proposed. The purpose is to resolve cycle by cycle the knock intensity related to an individual engine cycle without setting a predetermined threshold. The method has been applied to an extensive set of experimental data relative to a gasoline spark-ignition engine. Results are correlated to those obtained considering a traditional method, where a statistical approach has been used to detect knock.

wire chamber

CERN Multimedia

Was used in ISR (Intersecting Storage Ring) split field magnet experiment. Multi-wire detectors contain layers of positively and negatively charged wires enclosed in a chamber full of gas. A charged particle passing through the chamber knocks negatively charged electrons out of atoms in the gas, leaving behind positive ions. The electrons are pulled towards the positively charged wires. They collide with other atoms on the way, producing an avalanche of electrons and ions. The movement of these electrons and ions induces an electric pulse in the wires which is collected by fast electronics. The size of the pulse is proportional to the energy loss of the original particle.

LLE-LLNL progress report on studies in nonlocal heat transport in spherical plasmas using the Fokker-Planck code SPARK

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Epperlein, E.M.

1992-01-01

Preliminary 1-D studies of nonlocal heat transport in spherical plasmas based on the Fokker-Planck code SPARK indicate significant levels of electron preheat and radial heat flux across a spherical heat sink surface kept at fixed temperature. However, the diffusive approximation to the Fokker-Planck equation is shown to be particularly sensitive to the nature of the inner surface boundary condition chosen. A suggested remedy is the inclusion of a target capsule in future simulations studies with SPARK

Proton beam monitor chamber calibration

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gomà, C; Meer, D; Safai, S; Lorentini, S

2014-01-01

The first goal of this paper is to clarify the reference conditions for the reference dosimetry of clinical proton beams. A clear distinction is made between proton beam delivery systems which should be calibrated with a spread-out Bragg peak field and those that should be calibrated with a (pseudo-)monoenergetic proton beam. For the latter, this paper also compares two independent dosimetry techniques to calibrate the beam monitor chambers: absolute dosimetry (of the number of protons exiting the nozzle) with a Faraday cup and reference dosimetry (i.e. determination of the absorbed dose to water under IAEA TRS-398 reference conditions) with an ionization chamber. To compare the two techniques, Monte Carlo simulations were performed to convert dose-to-water to proton fluence. A good agreement was found between the Faraday cup technique and the reference dosimetry with a plane-parallel ionization chamber. The differences—of the order of 3%—were found to be within the uncertainty of the comparison. For cylindrical ionization chambers, however, the agreement was only possible when positioning the effective point of measurement of the chamber at the reference measurement depth—i.e. not complying with IAEA TRS-398 recommendations. In conclusion, for cylindrical ionization chambers, IAEA TRS-398 reference conditions for monoenergetic proton beams led to a systematic error in the determination of the absorbed dose to water, especially relevant for low-energy proton beams. To overcome this problem, the effective point of measurement of cylindrical ionization chambers should be taken into account when positioning the reference point of the chamber. Within the current IAEA TRS-398 recommendations, it seems advisable to use plane-parallel ionization chambers—rather than cylindrical chambers—for the reference dosimetry of pseudo-monoenergetic proton beams. (paper)

Production of organic compounds in plasmas - A comparison among electric sparks, laser-induced plasmas, and UV light

Science.gov (United States)

Scattergood, Thomas W.; Mckay, Christopher P.; Borucki, William J.; Giver, Lawrence P.; Van Ghyseghem, Hilde

1989-01-01

In order to ascertain the features of organic compound-production in planetary atmospheres under the effects of plasmas and shocks, various mixtures of N2, CH4, and H2 modeling the atmosphere of Titan were subjected to discrete sparks, laser-induced plasmas, and UV radiation. The experimental results obtained suggest that UV photolysis from the plasma is an important organic compound synthesis process, as confirmed by the photolysis of gas samples that were exposed to the light but not to the shock waves emitted by the sparks. The thermodynamic equilibrium theory is therefore incomplete in the absence of photolysis.

Observations of dense plasma formation in the vacuum spark

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chuaqui, H.; Favre, M.; Wyndham, E.; Aliaga R, R.; Choi, P.; Dumitrescu-Zoita, C.

1994-01-01

A series of experimental observations have been performed on the dense plasma formations or Hot Spots generated in the Vacuum Spark. The plasma discharges are driven by a 1.5 Ohm, 120 ns line at currents up to 100 KA. The line may be used to deliver a rectangular current pulse when the line gap is used. Alternatively when the line gap is shorted, the Vacuum Spark itself switches the line. A Nd: Yag Laser, with an energy of 0.5 J in an 8 ns pulse, is used to pre ionizing the discharge. The formation of Hot Spots is studied under a range of different conditions. These include the pre ionizing conditions, as well as the Anode shape and the Anode Cathode separation. The optimization of these parameters permit very reproducible shot to shot behaviour. Of particular interest is the Hot Spot size dependence as a function of its temperature and of time. The use of a new variant on the Pin Hole Camera, the Slit Wire Camera provides a new method of measuring with precision the Hot Spot dimensions in different X-ray emission energy ranges. A quadruple hole Camera is used to measure the temperature of the Hot Spots. The temporal and spatial evolution of the X-ray emission is measured using using a Slit Wire, Scintillator, Fibre Optic, Photomultiplier array. The temporal emission of the X-rays is also observed using an array of PIN X-ray diodes. (author). 5 refs, 6 figs

Development of laser-induced fluorescence for precombustion diagnostics in spark-ignition engines

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Neij, H.

1998-11-01

Motivated by a desire to understand and optimize combustion in spark-ignition (SI) engines, laser techniques have been developed for measurement of fuel and residual gas, respectively, in the precombustion mixture of an operating SI engine. The primary objective was to obtain two-dimensional, quantitative data in the vicinity of the spark gap at the time of ignition. A laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) technique was developed for fuel visualization in engine environments. Since the fluorescence signal from any commercial gasoline fuel would be unknown to its origin, with an unpredictable dependence on collisional partners, pressure and temperature, a non-fluorescent base fuel - isooctane - was used. For LIF detection, a fluorescent species was added to the fuel. An additive not commonly used in this context - 3-pentanone - was chosen based on its suitable vaporization characteristics and fluorescent properties. The LIF technique was applied to an optically accessible research engine. By calibration, the fluorescence signal from the additive was converted to fuel-to-air equivalence ratio ({phi}). The accuracy and precision of the acquired data were assessed. A statistical evaluation revealed that the spatially averaged equivalence ratio around the spark plug had a significant impact on the combustion event. The strong correlation between these two quantities suggested that the early combustion was sensitive to large-scale inhomogeneities in the precombustion mixture. A similar LIF technique, using acetone as a fluorescent additive in methane, was applied to a combustion cell for ion current evaluation. The local equivalence ratio around the spark gap at the time of ignition was extracted from LIF data. Useful relations were identified between different ion current parameters and the local equivalence ratio, although the impact of the flow field, the fuel type, and the electrode geometry were identified as areas for future research. A novel fuel - dimethyl ether (DME

Spectroscoping analysis of ignition in a spark ignition engine with jet-controlled combustion; Spektroskopische Untersuchung der Entflammung an einem Ottomotor mit strahlgefuehrtem Brennverfahren

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Palaveev, S. [MOT Forschungs- und Entwicklungsgesellschaft fuer Motorentechnik, Optik und Thermodynamik GmbH, Karlsruhe (Germany); Buri, S.; Xander, B.; Spicher, U. [Karlsruhe Univ. (T.H.) (Germany). Inst. fuer Kolbenmaschinen

2007-07-01

The gasoline direct injection engine is one of the most promising strategies today to reduce the fuel consumption and CO{sub 2}-emissions of spark-ignition engines. The commercial launch of that combustion system was possible only through the development of new optical measurement techniques, which have been a major contribution for understanding the basics of the combustion in a stratified mode. In terms of space and time, compared to the homogeneous approach, the air-fuel-ratio for a stratified mode may vary significantly. This fluctuation affects in a critical way the process of ignition and combustion. The knowledge of the air-fuel-ratio in the spark plug area both at time of ignition and in during the combustion is therefore critical for the development of this combustion system and it components. This paper presents the spark-emission spectroscopy as a non invasive optical technique for measuring the air-fuel-ratio {lambda} in the spark gap at time of ignition. (orig.)

Pressure vessel rupture within a chamber: the pressure history on the chamber wall

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Baum, M.R.

1989-04-01

Generally there is a large number of pressure vessels containing high pressure gas on power stations and chemical plant. In many instances, particularly on power plant, these vessels are within the main building. If a pressure vessel were to fail, the surrounding structures would be exposed to blast loads and the forces resulting from jets of fluid issuing from the breached vessel. In the case where the vessel is in a relatively closed chamber there would also be a general overpressurisation of the chamber. At the design stage it is therefore essential to demonstrate that the plant could be safely shut down in the event of a pressure vessel failure, that is, it must be shown that the chamber will not collapse thus putting the building at risk or hazarding equipment essential for a safe shut down. Such an assessment requires the loads applied to the chamber walls, roof, etc. to be known. (author)

Processing of pure titanium containing titanium-based reinforcing ceramics additives using spark plasma sintering

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mondiu Olayinka DUROWOJU

2017-06-01

Full Text Available The densification behaviour, microstructural changes and hardness characteristics during spark plasma sintering of CP-Ti reinforced with TiC, TiN, TiCN and TiB2 were investigated. Commercially pure Ti powders were dry mixed with varied amounts (2.5 and 5 wt. % of the ceramic additives using a T2F Turbula mixer for 5 h and at a speed of 49 rpm. The blended composite powders were then sintered using spark plasma sintering system (model HHPD-25 from FCT Germany at a heating rate of 100oC min-1, dwell time of 5 min and sintering temperature of 950ºC. The sintering of CP-Ti was used as a base study to select the proper spark plasma sintering temperature for full density. Densification was monitored through analysis of the recorded punch displacement and the measured density of the sintered samples using Archimedes method. High densities ranging from 97.8% for 5% TiB2 addition to 99.6% for 5% TiCN addition were achieved at a relatively low temperature of 950°C. Microstructural analyses show a uniform distribution of the additives and finer structure showing their inhibitive effect on grain growth. An improved hardness was observed in all the cases with highest values obtained with TiCN as a result of the combined effect of TiC and TiN. A change in the fracture mode from trans granular to intergranular was also observed.

Wet drift chambers for precise luminosity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Anderson, B.E.; Kennedy, B.W.; Ahmet, K.; Attree, D.J.; Barraclough, G.A.; Cresswell, M.J.; Hayes, D.A.; Miller, D.J.; Selby, C.; Sherwood, P.

1994-01-01

A set of high-precision compact drift chambers has been a vital component of the OPAL luminosity monitor since the start of data-taking at LEP. They were augmented in 1992 by the addition of Small Angle Reference Chambers with a very similar design to the original chamber. The performance of the chambers is reviewed, highlighting both the importance of using polyalkylene glycol (Breox) to maintain a uniform and parallel electric field and the construction techniques used to sustain the required field strength. We describe some of the operating problems, with their solutions, and show how the chambers have been used in achieving a systematic error of 0.41% on the luminosity measurement. ((orig.))

The Boycott effect in magma chambers

Science.gov (United States)

Blanchette, F.; Peacock, T.; Bush, J. W. M.

2004-03-01

We investigate the plausibility of the stratified Boycott effect as a source of layering in magma chambers. Crystal settling within the magma chamber will generate buoyant fluid near the sloping sidewalls whose vertical ascent may be limited by the ambient stratification associated with vertical gradients in SiO2. The resulting flow may be marked by a layered structure, each layer taking the form of a convection cell spanning the lateral extent of the magma chamber. Using parameters relevant to magma chambers, we estimate that such convection cells would be established over a timescale of a month and have a depth on the order of 4m, which is roughly consistent with field observations of strata within solidified chambers.

Pestov spark counter prototype development for the CERN-LHC ALICE experiment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Badura, E.; Eschke, J.; Gaiser, H.; Gutbrod, H.H.; Kopf, U.; Neyer, C.; Roters, B.; Schmidt, H.R.; Schulze, R.; Steinhaeuser, P.; Stelzer, H.; Frolov, A.R.

1995-11-01

A prototype Pestov Spark Counter with 2-dimensional position resolution has been developed. The position resolution is 0.32 mm and <2 mm in transverse and longitudinal direction, respectively. Beam tests yielded both the time resolution and the efficiency in accordance with earlier results obtained at BNIP Novosibirsk. A longterm stability test has been performed and stable behaviour for more then 3 months was observed. (orig.)

Method for operating a spark-ignition, direct-injection internal combustion engine

Science.gov (United States)

Narayanaswamy, Kushal; Koch, Calvin K.; Najt, Paul M.; Szekely, Jr., Gerald A.; Toner, Joel G.

2015-06-02

A spark-ignition, direct-injection internal combustion engine is coupled to an exhaust aftertreatment system including a three-way catalytic converter upstream of an NH3-SCR catalyst. A method for operating the engine includes operating the engine in a fuel cutoff mode and coincidentally executing a second fuel injection control scheme upon detecting an engine load that permits operation in the fuel cutoff mode.

Over compression influence to the performances of the spark ignition engines

Science.gov (United States)

Rakosi, E.; Talif, S. G.; Manolache, G.

2016-08-01

This paper presents the theoretical and experimental results of some procedures used in improving the performances of the automobile spark ignition engines. The study uses direct injection and high over-compression applied to a standard engine. To this purpose, the paper contains both the constructive solutions and the results obtained from the test bed concerning the engine power indices, fuel consumption and exhaust emissions.

Dissociation dynamics of CH3I in electric spark induced breakdown revealed by time-resolved laser induced breakdown spectroscopy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wang, Yang; Liu, Wei-long; Song, Yun-fei; Duo, Li-ping; Liu, Yu-qiang; Yang, Yan-qiang

2015-01-01

Highlights: • Emission of electric spark dissociation of CH 3 I is similar to its fs LIBS. • We use fs laser induced breakdown as a simulation for electric spark dissociation. • The I 2 molecule formation is directly observed in the time-resolved LIBS. • Bimolecular collision of I ∗ and CH 3 I is responsible for the formation of I 2 . - Abstract: The electric discharge spark dissociation of gas CH 3 I is found to be similar to its femtosecond laser photodissociation. The almost identical spectra of the two processes show that their initial ionization conditions are very similar. The initial ionization followed by molecular fragmentation is proposed as the dissociation mechanism, in which the characteristic emissions of I + , CH 3 , CH 2 , CH, H, and I 2 are identified as the dissociation products. The emission band of 505 nm I 2 is clearly observed in the time-resolved laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS). The dynamic curve indicates that I 2 ∗ molecules are formed after the delay time of ∼4.7 ns. The formation of I 2 ∗ molecule results from the bimolecular collision of the highly excited iodine atom I ∗ ( 4 P) and CH 3 I molecule. This dynamical information can help understand the process of electric discharge spark dissociation of CH 3 I

The KEK 1 m hydrogen bubble chamber

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Doi, Yoshikuni; Araoka, Osamu; Hayashi, Kohei; Hayashi, Yoshio; Hirabayashi, Hiromi.

1978-03-01

A medium size hydrogen bubble chamber has been constructed at the National Laboratory for High Energy Physics, KEK. The bubble chamber has been designed to be operated with a maximum rate of three times per half a second in every two second repetition time of the accelerator, by utilizing a hydraulic expansion system. The bubble chamber has a one meter diameter and a visible volume of about 280 l. A three-view stereo camera system is used for taking photographic pictures of the chamber. A 2 MW bubble chamber magnet is constructed. The main part of the bubble chamber vessel is supported by the magnet yoke. The magnet gives a maximum field of 18.4 kG at the centre of the fiducial volume of the chamber. The overall system of the KEK 1 m hydrogen bubble chamber facility is described in some detail. Some operational characteristics of the facility are also reported. (auth.)

Search for an optimum time response of spark counters

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Devismes, A.; Finck, Ch.; Kress, T.; Gobbi, A.; Eschke, J.; Herrmann, N.; Hildenbrand, K.D.; Koczon, P.; Petrovici, M.

2002-01-01

A spark counter of the type developed by Pestov has been tested with the aim of searching for an optimum time response function, changing voltage, content of noble and quencher gases, pressure and energy-loss. Replacing the usual argon by neon has brought an improvement of the resolution and a significant reduction of tails in the time response function. It has been proven that a counter as long as 90 cm can deliver, using neon gas mixture, a time resolution σ<60 ps with about 1% absolute tail and an efficiency of about 90%

Loss of ions in cavity ionization chambers

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Takata, N.; Tran, N.T.; Kim, E.; Marsoem, P.; Kurosawa, T.; Koyama, Y.

2005-01-01

Ion losses due to initial recombination, volume recombination, and back diffusion were each determined by measurements and calculations for different size cylindrical ionization chambers and spherical ionization chambers. By measuring signal currents from these ionization chambers irradiated with 60 Co gamma rays, two groups of ion losses were obtained. (Group 1) Ion loss due to initial recombination and diffusion, which changes proportionally to the inverse of the voltage applied to the ionization chambers; (and group 2) ion loss due to volume recombination, which changes proportionally to the inverse of the square of the applied voltage. The diffusion loss was obtained separately by computing electric field distributions in the ionization chambers. It was found that diffusion loss is larger than initial recombination loss for the cylindrical ionization chambers and vise versa for the spherical ionization chambers

Investigation of very long jet chambers

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Burckhart, H J; Va' vra, J; Zankel, K; Dudziak, U; Schaile, D; Schaile, O; Igo-Kemenes, P; Lennert, P

1986-04-01

The electrostatic properties and the performances of very long jet chambers have been investigated. Using 100 MHz FADC wave form digitisers, the tracking accuracy, the charge division and the dE/dx performance of two chambers, one with 4.5 m long tungsten wires and one with 4 m long highly resistive ''NiCoTi'' wires have been studied. The geometry of the chambers was chosen to define some of the design parameters of the jet chamber for the OPAL detector for LEP.

An Experimental and Simulation Study of Early Flame Development in a Homogeneous-charge Spark-Ignition Engine

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Shekhawat Y.

2017-09-01

Full Text Available An integrated experimental and Large-Eddy Simulation (LES study is presented for homogeneous premixed combustion in a spark-ignition engine. The engine is a single-cylinder two-valve optical research engine with transparent liner and piston: the Transparent Combustion Chamber (TCC engine. This is a relatively simple, open engine configuration that can be used for LES model development and validation by other research groups. Pressure-based combustion analysis, optical diagnostics and LES have been combined to generate new physical insight into the early stages of combustion. The emphasis has been on developing strategies for making quantitative comparisons between high-speed/high-resolution optical diagnostics and LES using common metrics for both the experiments and the simulations, and focusing on the important early flame development period. Results from two different LES turbulent combustion models are presented, using the same numerical methods and computational mesh. Both models yield Cycle-to-Cycle Variations (CCV in combustion that are higher than what is observed in the experiments. The results reveal strengths and limitations of the experimental diagnostics and the LES models, and suggest directions for future diagnostic and simulation efforts. In particular, it has been observed that flame development between the times corresponding to the laminar-to-turbulent transition and 1% mass-burned fraction are especially important in establishing the subsequent combustion event for each cycle. This suggests a range of temporal and spatial scales over which future experimental and simulation efforts should focus.

IFE chamber technology testing program in NIF and chamber development test plan

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Abdou, M.A.

1995-01-01

Issues concerning chamber technology testing program in NIF involving: criteria for evaluation/prioritization of experiments, engineering scaling requirements for test article design and material selection and R and D plan prior to NIF testing were addressed in this paper. In order to maximize the benefits of testing program in NIF, the testing in NIF should provide the experimental data relevant to DEMO design choice or to DEMO design predictive capability by utilizing engineering scaling test article designs. Test plans were developed for 2 promising chamber design concepts. Early testing in non-fusion/non-ignition prior to testing in ignition facility serves a critical role in chamber R and D test plans in order to reduce the risks and costs of the more complex experiments in NIF

A Feature Selection Method for Large-Scale Network Traffic Classification Based on Spark

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yong Wang

2016-02-01

Full Text Available Currently, with the rapid increasing of data scales in network traffic classifications, how to select traffic features efficiently is becoming a big challenge. Although a number of traditional feature selection methods using the Hadoop-MapReduce framework have been proposed, the execution time was still unsatisfactory with numeral iterative computations during the processing. To address this issue, an efficient feature selection method for network traffic based on a new parallel computing framework called Spark is proposed in this paper. In our approach, the complete feature set is firstly preprocessed based on Fisher score, and a sequential forward search strategy is employed for subsets. The optimal feature subset is then selected using the continuous iterations of the Spark computing framework. The implementation demonstrates that, on the precondition of keeping the classification accuracy, our method reduces the time cost of modeling and classification, and improves the execution efficiency of feature selection significantly.

Experiment 2-B data processing system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Price, H.; Svrcek, F.

1976-08-01

A new set of programs has been written for the analysis of data from the Fermilab 30-inch bubble chamber--wide gap spark chamber hybrid system. This report describes those programs, provides operating instructions, and indicates how they fit into the overall data flow

Modeling of the Inductance of a Blumlein Circuit Spark Gap

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Aboites, V; Rendón, L; Hernández, A I; Valdés, E

2015-01-01

In this paper we present an analysis of the time-varying inductance in the spark gap of a Blumlein circuit. We assume several mathematical expressions to describe the inductance and compare theoretical and computational calculations with experimental results. The time-varying inductance is approximated by a constant, a straight line and two parables which differ in their concavity. This is the first time to our knowledge, in which the time-varying ignition inductance of a nitrogen laser is modeled

Sparking ideas, making connections:Digital Film Archives and collaborative scholarship

OpenAIRE

Atkinson, Sarah Anne

2012-01-01

Film archiving is a rapidly changing field as a result of the accelerating development of online digital technologies. Taking as its case study the example of SP-ARK (1), the Sally Potter online film archive, this article proposes a notable shift from the traditional single-user archive model to emerging multi-user, collaborative forms of archival scholarship. The digital preservation and presentation of archival materials dramatically impact upon the nature of the types and levels of access ...

Impedances in lossy elliptical vacuum chambers

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Piwinski, A.

1994-04-01

The wake fields of a bunched beam caused by the resistivity of the chamber walls are investigated for a vacuum chamber with elliptical cross section. The longitudinal and transverse impedances are calculated for arbitrary energies and for an arbitrary position of the beam in the chamber. (orig.)

Structural and magnetic studies on spark plasma sintered SmCo{sub 5}/Fe bulk nanocomposite magnets

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Rama Rao, N.V. [Defence Metallurgical Research Laboratory, Hyderabad 500 058 (India); Gopalan, R. [Defence Metallurgical Research Laboratory, Hyderabad 500 058 (India)]. E-mail: rg_gopy@yahoo.com; Manivel Raja, M. [Defence Metallurgical Research Laboratory, Hyderabad 500 058 (India); Chandrasekaran, V. [Defence Metallurgical Research Laboratory, Hyderabad 500 058 (India); Chakravarty, D. [International Advanced Research Centre for Powder Metallurgy and New Materials, Hyderabad 500 005 (India); Sundaresan, R. [International Advanced Research Centre for Powder Metallurgy and New Materials, Hyderabad 500 005 (India); Ranganathan, R. [Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, Kolkata 700 064 (India); Hono, K. [National Institute for Materials Science, 1-2-1 Sengen, Tsukuba 305 0047 (Japan)

2007-05-15

SmCo{sub 5}+xwt% Fe (x=0, 5 and 10) nanocomposite powders were synthesized by mechanical milling and were consolidated into bulk shape by spark plasma sintering (SPS) technique. The evolution of structure and magnetic properties were systematically investigated in milled powders as well as in SPS samples. A maximum coercivity of 8.9kOe was achieved in spark plasma sintered SmCo{sub 5}+5wt% Fe sample. The exchange spring interaction between the hard and soft magnetic phases was evaluated using {delta}M-H measurements and the analysis revealed that the SPS sample containing 5wt% Fe had a stronger exchange coupling between the magnetic phases than that of the sample with10wt% Fe.

Investigation of very long jet chambers

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Burckhart, H J; Va' vra, J; Zankel, K; Dudziak, U; Schaile, D; Schaile, O; Igo-Kemenes, P; Lennert, P

1986-04-01

The electrostatic properties and the performances of very long jet chambers have been investigated. Using 100 MHz FADC wave form digitisers, the tracking accuracy, the charge division and the dE/dx performance of two chambers, one with 4.5 m long tungsten wires and one with 4 m long highly resistive ''NiCoTi'' wires have been studied. The geometry of the chambers was chosen to define some of the design parameters of the jet chamber for the OPAL detector for LEP. (orig.).

Chamber propagation physics for heavy ion fusion

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Callahan, D.A.

1995-01-01

Chamber transport is an important area of study for heavy ion fusion. Final focus and chamber-transport are high leverage areas providing opportunities to significantly decrease the cost of electricity from a heavy ion fusion power plant. Chamber transport in two basic regimes is under consideration. In the low chamber density regime (approx-lt 0.003 torr), ballistic or nearly-ballistic transport is used. Partial beam neutralization has been studied to offset the effects of beam stripping. In the high chamber density regime (approx-gt.1 torr), two transport modes (pinched transport and channel transport) are under investigation. Both involve focusing the beam outside the chamber then transporting it at small radius (∼ 2 mm). Both high chamber density modes relax the constraints on the beam quality needed from the accelerator which will reduce the driver cost and the cost of electricity

A comparison of electrochemically pre-treated and spark-platinized carbon fiber microelectrode. Measurement of 8-oxo-7,8-dihydro-2′-deoxyguanosine in human urine and plasma

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bartosova, Z.; Riman, D. [Department of Analytical Chemistry, Palacky University, Faculty of Science, 17.listopadu 12, CZ-771 46 Olomouc (Czech Republic); Halouzka, V. [Department of Analytical Chemistry, Palacky University, Faculty of Science, 17.listopadu 12, CZ-771 46 Olomouc (Czech Republic); Department of Physics and Materials Engineering, Faculty of Technology, Tomas Bata University in Zlin, nam. T.G. Masaryka 275, CZ-76001 Zlin (Czech Republic); Vostalova, J.; Simanek, V. [Department of Medical Chemistry and Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, Palacky University, Hnevotinska 3, CZ-775 15 Olomouc (Czech Republic); Hrbac, J., E-mail: jhrbac@atlas.cz [Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, Kamenice 5, CZ-625 00 Brno (Czech Republic); Jirovsky, D., E-mail: david.jirovsky@upol.cz [Department of Analytical Chemistry, Palacky University, Faculty of Science, 17.listopadu 12, CZ-771 46 Olomouc (Czech Republic)

2016-09-07

A novel method of carbon fiber microelectrode activation using spark discharge was demonstrated and compared to conventional electrochemical pretreatment by potential cycling. The spark discharge was performed at 800 V between the microelectrode connected to positive pole of the power supply and platinum counter electrode. Spark discharge led both to trimming of the fiber tip into conical shape and to the modification of carbon fiber microelectrode with platinum, as proven by scanning electron microscopy and electron dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. After the characterization of electrochemical properties using ferricyanide voltammetry, the activated electrodes were used for electrochemical analysis of 8-oxo-7,8-dihydro-2′-deoxyguanosine, an oxidative stress marker. Subnanomolar detection limits (0.55 nmol L{sup −1}) in high-performance liquid chromatography were achieved for spark platinized electrodes incorporated into the flow detection cell. - Highlights: • Novel method of carbon fiber microelectrode activation and platinization using spark discharge. • The activation procedure is efficient, fast and solvent-free. • Modification of the surface and the shape of the carbon fiber microelectrode during the process. • The spark-etched platinized carbon fiber sensors are highly sensitive. • The sensor was successfully applied to HPLC analysis of 8-oxo-7,8-dihydro-2′-deoxyguanosine in plasma and urine.

Multiwire proportional chamber and multistage avalanche chamber with low concentration photoionization gas

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhao Pingde; Xu Zhiqing; Tang Xiaowei

1986-01-01

The characteristics of multiwire proportional chamber and multistage avalanche chamber filled with argon and photoionization gas (C 2 H 5 ) 3 N were measured. The spatial resolution curves and output pulse height spectra were measured as well. Low concentration (C 2 H 5 ) 3 N can play an effective part in quenching. At very low concentration, the phenomena of avalanche transverse expansion was observed obviously

PEP quark search proportional chambers

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Parker, S I; Harris, F; Karliner, I; Yount, D [Hawaii Univ., Honolulu (USA); Ely, R; Hamilton, R; Pun, T [California Univ., Berkeley (USA). Lawrence Berkeley Lab.; Guryn, W; Miller, D; Fries, R [Northwestern Univ., Evanston, IL (USA)

1981-04-01

Proportional chambers are used in the PEP Free Quark Search to identify and remove possible background sources such as particles traversing the edges of counters, to permit geometric corrections to the dE/dx and TOF information from the scintillator and Cerenkov counters, and to look for possible high cross section quarks. The present beam pipe has a thickness of 0.007 interaction lengths (lambdasub(i)) and is followed in both arms each with 45/sup 0/ <= theta <= 135/sup 0/, ..delta..phi=90/sup 0/ by 5 proportional chambers, each 0.0008 lambdasub(i) thick with 32 channels of pulse height readout, and by 3 thin scintillator planes, each 0.003 lambdasub(i) thick. Following this thin front end, each arm of the detector has 8 layers of scintillator (one with scintillating light pipes) interspersed with 4 proportional chambers and a layer of lucite Cerenkov counters. Both the calculated ion statistics and measurements using He-CH/sub 4/ gas in a test chamber indicate that the chamber efficiencies should be >98% for q=1/3. The Landau spread measured in the test was equal to that observed for normal q=1 traversals. One scintillator plane and thin chamber in each arm will have an extra set of ADC's with a wide gate bracketing the normal one so timing errors and tails of earlier pulses should not produce fake quarks.

Argus target chamber

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rienecker, F. Jr.; Glaros, S.S.; Kobierecki, M.

1975-01-01

A target chamber for application in the laser fusion program must satisfy some very basic requirements. (1) Provide a vacuum on the order of 10 -6 torr. (2) Support a microscopically small target in a fixed point in space and verify its location within 5 micrometers. (3) Contain an adjustable beam focusing system capable of delivering a number of laser beams onto the target simultaneously, both in time and space. (4) Provide access for diagnostics to evaluate the results of target irradiation. (5) Have flexibility to allow changes in targets, focusing optics and number of beams. The ARGUS laser which is now under construction at LLL will have a target chamber which meets these requirements in a simple economic manner. The chamber and auxiliary equipment are described, with reference to two double beam focusing systems; namely, lenses and ellipsoidal mirrors. Provision is made for future operation with four beams, using ellipsoidal mirrors for two-sided illumination and lens systems for tetragonal and tetrahedral irradiation

Cylindrical ionization chamber with compressed krypton

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kuz'minov, V.V.; Novikov, V.M.; Pomanskii, A.A.; Pritychenko, B.V.; Viyar, J.; Garcia, E.; Morales, A.; Morales, J.; Nunes-Lagos, R.; Puimedon, J.; Saens, K.; Salinas, A.; Sarsa, M.

1993-01-01

A cylindrical ionization chamber with a grid is used to search for double positron decay and atomic electron conversion to a positron in 78 Kr. Krypton is the working gas material of the chamber. The spectrometric characteristics of the chamber filled with krypton and xenon are presented. The energy resolution is 2.1% for an energy of 1.84 MeV (the source of γ-quanta is 88 Y) when the chamber is filled with a mixture of Kr+0.2% H 2 under a pressure of 25 atm

Advances on fission chamber modelling

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Filliatre, Philippe; Jammes, Christian; Geslot, Benoit; Veenhof, Rob

2013-06-01

In-vessel, online neutron flux measurements are routinely performed in mock-up and material testing reactors by fission chambers. Those measurements have a wide range of applications, including characterization of experimental conditions, reactor monitoring and safety. Depending on the application, detectors may experience a wide range of constraints, of several magnitudes, in term of neutron flux, gamma-ray flux, temperature. Hence, designing a specific fission chamber and measuring chain for a given application is a demanding task. It can be achieved by a combination of experimental feedback and simulating tools, the latter being based on a comprehensive understanding of the underlying physics. A computation route that simulates fission chambers, named CHESTER, is presented. The retrieved quantities of interest are the neutron-induced charge spectrum, the electronic and ionic pulses, the mean current and variance, the power spectrum. It relies on the GARFIELD suite, originally developed for drift chambers, and makes use of the MAGBOLTZ code to assess the drift parameters of electrons within the filling gas, and the SRIM code to evaluate the stopping range of fission products. The effect of the gamma flux is also estimated. Computations made with several fission chambers exemplify the possibilities of the route. A good qualitative agreement is obtained when comparing the results with the experimental data available to date. In a near future, a comprehensive experimental programme will be undertaken to qualify the route using the known neutron sources, mock-up reactors and wide choice of fission chambers, with a stress on the predictiveness of the Campbelling mode. Depending on the results, a refinement of the modelling and an effort on the accuracy of input data are also to be considered. CHESTER will then make it possible to predict the overall sensitivity of a chamber, and to optimize the design for a given application. Another benefit will be to increase the

An electrodeless drift chamber

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Allison, J.; Barlow, R.J.; Bowdery, C.K.; Duerdoth, I.; Rowe, P.G.

1982-01-01

We describe a chamber in which the drift field is controlled by the deposition of electrostatic charge on an insulating surface. The chamber operates with good efficiency and precision for observed drift distances of up to 45 cm, promises to be extremely robust and adaptable and offers a very cheap way of making particle detectors. (orig.)

DELPHI time projection chamber

CERN Multimedia

1989-01-01

The time projection chamber is inserted inside the central detector of the DELPHI experiment. Gas is ionised in the chamber as a charged particle passes through, producing an electric signal from which the path of the particle can be found. DELPHI, which ran from 1989 to 2000 on the LEP accelerator, was primarily concerned with particle identification.

Chamber propagation physics for heavy ion fusion

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Callahan, D.A.

1996-01-01

Chamber transport is a key area of study for heavy ion fusion. Final focus and chamber transport are high leverage areas providing opportunities to decrease significantly the cost of electricity from a heavy ion fusion power plant. Chamber transport in two basic regimes is under consideration. In the low chamber density regime (below about 0.003 Torr), ballistic or nearly ballistic transport is used. Partial beam neutralization has been studied to offset the effects of beam stripping. In the high chamber density regime (above about 0.1 Torr), two transport modes (pinched transport and channel transport) are under investigation. Both involve focusing the beam outside the chamber and then transporting it at small radius (about 2 mm). Both high chamber density modes relax the constraints on the beam quality needed from the accelerator which will reduce the driver cost and the cost of electricity. (orig.)

Cycle-to-cycle fluctuation of combustion in a spark-ignition engine; Hibana tenka engine no nensho hendo

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hamamoto, Y; Yoshiyama, S; Tomita, E; Hamagami, T [Okayama University, Okayama (Japan); Otsubo, H [Yammer Diesel Engine Co. Ltd. Tokyo (Japan)

1997-10-01

In a homogeneous charge spark-ignition engine, the duration of early stage of combustion is a dominant factor for determining the fluctuation of mean effective pressure. And the early stage of combustion varies with the equivalence ratio and turbulence characteristics of the mixture. In this study, the fluctuations of 1% combustion duration and indicated mean effective pressure Pmi were computed as the function of fluctuations both in the equivalence ratio {phi} of the mixture and in the turbulence characteristics of the cylinder charge. And effects of the spark timing {theta}ig and {phi} on the cycle-to-cycle fluctuation in Pmi were investigated. 16 refs., 6 figs.

How to build a cloud chamber?

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mariaud, C.

2012-01-01

The cloud chamber had its heyday in the first half of last century and allowed the discovery of new particles such as the anti-electron, the muon and the neutral and the charged kaon. The bubble chamber replaced it in the mid fifties. This article recalls the principle of the cloud chamber and shows, in a detailed way, how to proceed to build one with on-the-shelf materials. This design is based on the use of isopropanol whose liquefaction through the form of droplets materializes the track of the particle and on the use of combined Peltier cells (instead of CO 2 snow) to cool the chamber. This cloud chamber has been successfully used in schools to observe particles mainly electrons, alphas and muons generated by cosmic rays. (A.C.)

A mathematical model of aerosol holding chambers

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Zak, M; Madsen, J; Berg, E

1999-01-01

A mathematical model of aerosol delivery from holding chambers (spacers) was developed incorporating tidal volume (VT), chamber volume (Vch), apparatus dead space (VD), effect of valve insufficiency and other leaks, loss of aerosol by immediate impact on the chamber wall, and fallout of aerosol...... in the chamber with time. Four different spacers were connected via filters to a mechanical lung model, and aerosol delivery during "breathing" was determined from drug recovery from the filters. The formula correctly predicted the delivery of budesonide aerosol from the AeroChamber (Trudell Medical, London...

Quality control of ATLAS muon chambers

CERN Document Server

Fabich, Adrian

ATLAS is a general-purpose experiment for the future Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN. Its Muon Spectrometer will require ∼ 5500m2 of precision tracking chambers to measure the muon tracks along a spectrometer arm of 5m to 15m length, embedded in a magnetic field of ∼ 0.5T. The precision tracking devices in the Muon System will be high pressure drift tubes (MDTs). Approximately 370,000 MDTs will be assembled into ∼ 1200 drift chambers. The performance of the MDT chambers is very much dependent on the mechanical quality of the chambers. The uniformity and stability of the performance can only be assured providing very high quality control during production. Gas tightness, high-voltage behaviour and dark currents are global parameters which are common to gas detectors. For all chambers, they will be tested immediately after the chamber assembly at every production site. Functional tests, for example radioactive source scans and cosmic-ray runs, will be performed in order to establish detailed performan...

Golden Jubilee photos: A New Class of Detectors

CERN Multimedia

2004-01-01

In the 1960s, detection in particle physics mainly meant examining millions of photographs from bubble chambers or spark chambers. This was slow, labour intensive and not suitable for studies into rare phenomena, so there was a bottleneck that could have affected further progress in high energy physics. The transistor revolution triggered new ideas. While a camera could detect a spark, a detector wire connected to an amplifier could detect a much smaller effect. In 1968, Georges Charpak developed the 'multiwire proportional chamber', a gas-filled box with a large number of parallel detector wires, each connected to individual amplifiers. Linked to a computer, it could achieve a counting rate a thousand times better than existing techniques - without a camera in sight. Today practically every experiment in particle physics uses some type of track detector that is based on the principle of the multiwire proportional chamber. The technology is also used in many other fields using ionising radiation such as biol...

Hyperbaric and hypobaric chamber fires: a 73-year analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Sheffield, P J; Desautels, D A

1997-09-01

Fire can be catastrophic in the confined space of a hyperbaric chamber. From 1923 to 1996, 77 human fatalities occurred in 35 hyperbaric chamber fires, three human fatalities in a pressurized Apollo Command Module, and two human fatalities in three hypobaric chamber fires reported in Asia, Europe, and North America. Two fires occurred in diving bells, eight occurred in recompression (or decompression) chambers, and 25 occurred in clinical hyperbaric chambers. No fire fatalities were reported in the clinical hyperbaric chambers of North America. Chamber fires before 1980 were principally caused by electrical ignition. Since 1980, chamber fires have been primarily caused by prohibited sources of ignition that an occupant carried inside the chamber. Each fatal chamber fire has occurred in an enriched oxygen atmosphere (> 28% oxygen) and in the presence of abundant burnable material. Chambers pressurized with air (Hyperbaric Medical Society's Chamber Experience and Mishap Database. This epidemiologic review focuses on information learned from critical analyses of chamber fires and how it can be applied to safe operation of hypobaric and hyperbaric chambers.

HVAC&R Equipment Environmental Chambers

Data.gov (United States)

Federal Laboratory Consortium — Description:Large "Truck" ChamberThe large "truck" chamber provides controlled air conditions from -7 °C (20 °F) to 65 °C (150 °F).Air-Conditioner and Heat Pump Test...

Micro plate fission chamber development

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wang Mei; Wen Zhongwei; Lin Jufang; Jiang Li; Liu Rong; Wang Dalun

2014-01-01

To conduct the measurement of neutron flux and the fission rate distribution at several position in assemblies, the micro plate fission chamber was designed and fabricated. Since the requirement of smaller volume and less structure material was taken into consideration, it is convinient, commercial and practical to use fission chamber to measure neutron flux in specific condition. In this paper, the structure of fission chamber and process of fabrication were introduced and performance test result was presented. The detection efficiency is 91.7%. (authors)

Ionization chamber for smoke detector and the like

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rork, G.D.; Thorp, E.J.; Zegarski, R.J.

1985-01-01

This invention relates to detectors of the ionization type for detecting airborne particulate matter and, in particular, to the construction of an ionization chamber for such a detector. This invention may be used for detecting a variety of materials, such as dust, fog and the like, but is particularly useful for detecting combustion products such as smoke. The smoke detector ionization chamber has two electrodes connected to a source of electric power; means defining access openings for enabling air flow into and out of the chamber; and means for causing ionization within the chamber. It has control structure means within the chamber in the path of the airflow cooperating with the electrodes to establish within the chamber an electric field having a higher intensity close to the access openings and a lower intensity in the remainder of the chamber without significantly impairing the flow of neutral particles into the chamber. The control structure reduces airflow velocity within the chamber without adversely affecting the access of airborne particles to the chamber

Liquid Wall Chambers

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Meier, W R

2011-02-24

The key feature of liquid wall chambers is the use of a renewable liquid layer to protect chamber structures from target emissions. Two primary options have been proposed and studied: wetted wall chambers and thick liquid wall (TLW) chambers. With wetted wall designs, a thin layer of liquid shields the structural first wall from short ranged target emissions (x-rays, ions and debris) but not neutrons. Various schemes have been proposed to establish and renew the liquid layer between shots including flow-guiding porous fabrics (e.g., Osiris, HIBALL), porous rigid structures (Prometheus) and thin film flows (KOYO). The thin liquid layer can be the tritium breeding material (e.g., flibe, PbLi, or Li) or another liquid metal such as Pb. TLWs use liquid jets injected by stationary or oscillating nozzles to form a neutronically thick layer (typically with an effective thickness of {approx}50 cm) of liquid between the target and first structural wall. In addition to absorbing short ranged emissions, the thick liquid layer degrades the neutron flux and energy reaching the first wall, typically by {approx}10 x x, so that steel walls can survive for the life of the plant ({approx}30-60 yrs). The thick liquid serves as the primary coolant and tritium breeding material (most recent designs use flibe, but the earliest concepts used Li). In essence, the TLW places the fusion blanket inside the first wall instead of behind the first wall.

High resolution drift chambers

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Va'vra, J.

1985-07-01

High precision drift chambers capable of achieving less than or equal to 50 μm resolutions are discussed. In particular, we compare so called cool and hot gases, various charge collection geometries, several timing techniques and we also discuss some systematic problems. We also present what we would consider an ''ultimate'' design of the vertex chamber. 50 refs., 36 figs., 6 tabs

Hazard of electrostatic generation in a pneumatic conveying system: electrostatic effects on the accuracy of electrical capacitance tomography measurements and generation of spark

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhang, Yan; Wang, Chi-Hwa; Liang, Yung Chii

2008-01-01

The study of the hazard of electrostatic generation in pneumatic conveying systems was attempted by examining the sensitivity of electrical capacitance tomography (ECT) and the phenomena of spark generation due to strong electrostatics. The influence on ECT measurement accuracy of an electrostatic charge was analysed with reference to a switch capacitor configuration model. Consequently, it was found that the electrostatic charge introduced at the bend with sharp angles influenced the ECT results most significantly in pneumatic conveying systems, especially for the cases where a spark was generated. The investigation of spark generation indicated that a strong electrostatic charge can cause major discharges inside or outside the pipeline to damage the experimental instrument in severe cases

The Mark II Vertex Drift Chamber

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Alexander, J.P.; Baggs, R.; Fujino, D.

1989-03-01

We have completed constructing and begun operating the Mark II Drift Chamber Vertex Detector. The chamber, based on a modified jet cell design, achieves 30 μm spatial resolution and 2 gas mixtures. Special emphasis has been placed on controlling systematic errors including the use of novel construction techniques which permit accurate wire placement. Chamber performance has been studied with cosmic ray tracks collected with the chamber located both inside and outside the Mark II. Results on spatial resolution, average pulse shape, and some properties of CO 2 mixtures are presented. 10 refs., 12 figs., 1 tab

Bicone vacuum chamber for ISR intersection

CERN Multimedia

1975-01-01

This is one of the bicone chambers made of titanium for experiment R 702. The central corrugated part had a very thin titanium wall (0.28 mm). The first of these chambers collapsed in its central part when baked at 300 C (August 1975). After an intensive effort to develop better quality and reproducible welds for this special material, the ISR workshop was able to build two new chambers of this type. One of them was installed at I 7 for R 702 in 1976 and worked perfectly. It was at that time the most "transparent" intersection vacuum chamber. See also 7609219, 7609221.

What sparks interest in science? A naturalistic inquiry

Science.gov (United States)

Jackson, Julie Kay Cropper

This study examined how career scientists became interested in science. Eight practicing scientists were asked a focus question, "What sparked your interest in science?" Their responses recorded during personal interviews and reported in correspondence frame this qualitative study. Analysis of the data revealed a variety of influences. The influences were coded, arranged into lists, and grouped by theme. A total of 18 themes emerged from the data. Five of the emerging themes were common across all of the participants. They were the influence of a family member, the influence of a teacher, being naturally curious, being interested in science, and reading books, magazines, and/or encyclopedias. Five themes were common among 5 to 7 participants. These themes included visiting museums, having broad exposure, enjoyment of mathematics, enjoying being outside, and freedom to play and explore. Eight themes were common among 2 to 4 of the participants. They were financial incentive, influence of religion, participation in science fairs, influence of the manned space program, having a scientist in the family, having the opportunity to teach others, not seeing self as a scientist, and first generation college graduate. The emerging themes were compared and contrasted with historical and contemporary literature. Vocational psychology's leading career choice and development literature was also aligned with the emerging themes. Data from this study supports tenets of Trait and Factor Theory, Developmental Theory, and Social Learning Theory. Reported data also supports the proposed movement toward a unified theory of career choice and development. A combination of personality traits, developmental stages, self-efficacy, and learning experiences influenced the vocational decisions of the scientists who participated in this study. The study concludes with suggestions for sparking and sustaining interest in science that people responsible for preparing future scientists may find

Growing and analyzing biofilms in flow chambers

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Tolker-Nielsen, Tim; Sternberg, Claus

2011-01-01

This unit describes the setup of flow chamber systems for the study of microbial biofilms, and methods for the analysis of structural biofilm formation. Use of flow chambers allows direct microscopic investigation of biofilm formation. The biofilms in flow chambers develop under hydrodynamic......, and disassembly and cleaning of the system. In addition, embedding and fluorescent in situ hybridization of flow chamber-grown biofilms are addressed....

Microstrip gas chamber on thin-film Pestov glass and micro gap chamber

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gong, W.G.; Harris, J.W.; Wieman, H.

1994-07-01

The authors report developments of the Microstrip Gas Chamber on thin-film Pestov glass and the Micro Gap Chamber. By coating a thin-layer of low-resistive, electronically-conductive glass on various substrates (including quartz and ceramics), they built MSGCs of high gain stability and low leakage current. They were tested in Ar-CH 4 (10%) and He-C 2 H 6 (50%) gas mixtures. Energy resolutions of 17-20% were measured for 6keV x-rays. This design can make the choice of substrate less important, save the cost of ion-implantation, and use less glass material. Micro Gap Chamber was successfully tested in He-C 2 H 6 (50%) and Ar-C 2 H 6 (50%) gas mixtures. Energy resolutions of about 20% were obtained. Both detectors are expected to have high rate capability

Comparison among different CT ionization chambers

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Castro, Maysa C. de; Xavier, Marcos; Caldas, Linda V.E.

2015-01-01

The dosimetry in computed tomography (CT) is carried out by the use of a pencil type ionization-chamber, because it has a uniform response at all angles relative to the incident beam of radiation, which is essential for CT equipment since the X-ray tube executes a circular movement around the table during irradiation. The commercial ionization chamber used to perform quality control procedures of this kind of equipment has a length of the sensitive volume of 10 cm. In the Calibration Laboratory of Instruments (LCI) of the IPEN there were already developed some prototypes with small differences in construction, when compared to commercially available ionization chambers. They have been used in previous studies and showed results within internationally acceptable limits. The ionization chambers tested in this study present the sensitive volume lengths of 1 cm, 3 cm and 10 cm. The objective of this study was to present results on the stability test of the three homemade ionization chambers and a commercial chamber, as well to obtain the calibration coefficients for each of them in CT standard X radiation beams. The obtained results for both characterization tests are within the recommended limits, except for the homemade ionization chambers with sensitive volume lengths of 3 cm and 1 cm in the case of the stability test. (author)

Research on personalized recommendation algorithm based on spark

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Zeng; Liu, Yu

2018-04-01

With the increasing amount of data in the past years, the traditional recommendation algorithm has been unable to meet people's needs. Therefore, how to better recommend their products to users of interest, become the opportunities and challenges of the era of big data development. At present, each platform enterprise has its own recommendation algorithm, but how to make efficient and accurate push information is still an urgent problem for personalized recommendation system. In this paper, a hybrid algorithm based on user collaborative filtering and content-based recommendation algorithm is proposed on Spark to improve the efficiency and accuracy of recommendation by weighted processing. The experiment shows that the recommendation under this scheme is more efficient and accurate.

Engine Torque Control of Spark Ignition Engine using Fuzzy Gain Scheduling

OpenAIRE

Aris Triwiyatno

2012-01-01

In the spark ignition engine system, driver convenience is very dependent on satisfying engine torque appropriate with the throttle position given by the driver. Unfortunately, sometimes the fulfillment of engine torque is not in line with fuel saving efforts. This requires the development of high performance and robust power train controllers. One way to potentially meet these performance requirements is to introduce a method of controlling engine torque using fuzzy gain scheduling. By using...

The investigation of order–disorder transition process of ZSM-5 induced by spark plasma sintering

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Wang, Liang [State Key Laboratory for Modification of Chemical Fibers and Polymer Materials, Donghua University, 2999 North Renmin Road, Songjiang, Shanghai 201620 (China); Wang, Lianjun, E-mail: wanglj@dhu.edu.cn [State Key Laboratory for Modification of Chemical Fibers and Polymer Materials, Donghua University, 2999 North Renmin Road, Songjiang, Shanghai 201620 (China); Jiang, Wan [Engineering Research Center of Advanced Glasses Manufacturing Technology, MOE, Donghua University, 2999 North Renmin Road, Songjiang, Shanghai 201620 (China); Lin, He, E-mail: linhe@sinap.ac.cn [Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 239 Zhangheng Road, Pudong, Shanghai 200120 (China)

2014-04-01

Based on the amorphization of zeolites, an order–disorder transition method was used to prepare silica glass via Spark Plasma Sintering (SPS). In order to get a better understanding about the mechanism of amorphization induced by SPS, the intermediate products in this process were prepared and characterized by different characterization techniques. X-ray diffraction and High-energy synchrotron X-ray scattering show a gradual transformation from ordered crystal to glass. Local structural changes in glass network including Si–O bond length, O–Si–O bond angle, size of rings, coordination were detected by Infrared spectroscopy and {sup 29}Si magic-angle spinning nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. Topologically ordered, amorphous material with a different intermediate-range structure can be obtained by precise control of intermediate process which can be expected to optimize and design material. - Graphical abstract: Low-density, ordered zeolites collapse to the rigid amorphous glass through spark plasma sintering. The intermediate-range structure formed in the process of order–disorder transition may give rise to specific property. - Highlights: • Order–disorder transition process of ZSM-5 induced by spark plasma sintering was investigated using several methods including XRD, High-energy synchrotron X-ray scattering, SAXS, IR, NMR, ect. • Order–disorder transition induced by SPS was compared with TIA and PIA. • Three stages has been divided during the whole process. • The collapse temperature range which may give rise to intermediate-range structure has been located.

Characterization of electrical discharges during spark anodization of zirconium in different electrolytes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Santos, Janaina S.; Lemos, Sherlan G.; Gonçalves, Wesley N.; Bruno, Odemir M.; Pereira, Ernesto C.

2014-01-01

The evolution of the electrical discharges parameters during spark anodization of metallic Zr under galvanostatic regime have been investigated by image analysis in phosphoric and oxalic acid electrolytes. The experiments were recorder using a high-speed video camera during the entire anodization with a resolution of 1.7 ms for determination of discharge lifetime and a standard resolution of 33 ms (real-time imaging) for determination of the average area and discharge population density. The discharge behavior was dependent of the current density, electrolyte composition and anodization time. During breakdown process, sparks discharges are progressively turned to micro-arcs, which can be seen by enlargement of discharge area, gradual increase of lifetime and reduction of discharge population density. A factorial design was used to estimate the effects of experimental conditions on the discharge behavior. The current density and electrolyte composition were the most important factors that affected the discharge population density. The anodization time and the electrolyte composition were the main factor that influenced the discharge area and lifetime. In comparison with the voltage vs. time curve, the results demonstrate important features of the process and the changes of the electrical discharges characteristics during the experiments

Multi-stage low-pressure avalanche chamber

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zanevskij, Yu.V.; Peshekhonov, V.D.; Smykov, L.P.

1985-01-01

A multi-stage avalanche-chamber filled with isobutane operating at the pressure of 6 torr is described. The chamber comprises an amplifying gap, drift gap and multiwire proportional chamber with interelectrode gaps equal to 4 mm. The anode plane of the proportional chamber is winded of wire 2 μm in diameter with 2 mm pitch. The cathode are winded orthogonally to anode wires of wire 50 μm in diameter with 1 mm pitch. Drift and preamplifier gaps are formed by grid electrodes made of wire 50 μm in diameter with dimension of the cell equal to 1x1 mm. Width of the drift gap is 5 mm, width of the preamplification gap is 3 or 9 mm. Coordinate data are removed from the cathodes of the proportional chamber by means of delay lines. Sensitive square of the chamber equals 240x180 mm. Gas gain coefficient is 3x10 6 at its square nonuniformity equal to approximately 3%. Spatial resolution by both coordinates equals 170 μm; spatial resolution for isotropic α-emitters located close to the preamplifier gap is equal to 500 μm

Monitored Drift Chambers in the ATLAS Detector

CERN Multimedia

Herten, G

Monitored Drift Chambers (MDT) are used in the ATLAS Detector to measure the momentum of high energy muons. They consist of drift tubes, which are filled with an Ar-CO2 gas mixture at 3 bar gas pressure. About 1200 drift chambers are required for ATLAS. They are up to 6 m long. Nevertheless the position of every wire needs to be known with a precision of 20 µm within a chamber. In addition, optical alignment sensors are required to measure the relative position of adjacent chambers with a precision of 30µm. This gigantic task seems impossible at first instance. Indeed it took many years of R&D to invent the right tools and methods before the first chamber could be built according to specifications. Today, at the time when 50% of the chambers have been produced, we are confident that the goal for ATLAS can be reached. The mechanical precision of the chambers could be verified with the x-ray tomograph at CERN. This ingenious device, developed for the MDT system, is able to measure the wire position insid...

Industrial development of neutron detectors, fission chambers, self powered detectors, ionization chambers

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Constans, H.; Coville, P.; Guerre, J.

1975-01-01

Reactor control requires the determination of neutron flux at all times. The needed characteristics lead to use of several types of detectors: boron lined counters, boron lined ionization chambers, fission ionization chambers and self powered detectors. The principle of the reaction involved the fabrication requirements, the different modes of utilization and the characteristics obtained are examined for each detector. The problem of electric connections in the active area has been solved by developing ''integrated cables'' [fr

Skip cycle system for spark ignition engines: An experimental investigation of a new type working strategy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kutlar, Osman Akin; Arslan, Hikmet; Calik, Alper T.

2007-01-01

A new type working strategy for spark ignition engine, named skip cycle, is examined. The main idea is to reduce the effective stroke volume of an engine by cutting off fuel injection and spark ignition in some of the classical four stroke cycles. When the cycle is skipped, additionally, a rotary valve is used in the intake to reduce pumping losses in part load conditions. The effect of this strategy is similar to that of variable displacement engines. Alternative power stroke fractions in one cycle and applicability in single cylinder engines are specific advantageous properties of the proposed system. A thermodynamic model, besides experimental results, is used to explain the skip cycle strategy in more detail. This theoretical investigation shows considerable potential to increase the efficiency at part load conditions. Experimental results obtained with this novel strategy show that the throttle valve of the engine opens wider and the minimum spark advance for maximum brake torque decreases in comparison to those of the classical operation system. The brake specific fuel consumption decreases at very low speed and load, while it increases at higher speed and load due to the increased fuel loss within the skipped cycles. In this working mode, the engine operates at lower idle speed without any stability problem; and moreover with less fuel consumption

A Parallel Approach for Frequent Subgraph Mining in a Single Large Graph Using Spark

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Fengcai Qiao

2018-02-01

Full Text Available Frequent subgraph mining (FSM plays an important role in graph mining, attracting a great deal of attention in many areas, such as bioinformatics, web data mining and social networks. In this paper, we propose SSiGraM (Spark based Single Graph Mining, a Spark based parallel frequent subgraph mining algorithm in a single large graph. Aiming to approach the two computational challenges of FSM, we conduct the subgraph extension and support evaluation parallel across all the distributed cluster worker nodes. In addition, we also employ a heuristic search strategy and three novel optimizations: load balancing, pre-search pruning and top-down pruning in the support evaluation process, which significantly improve the performance. Extensive experiments with four different real-world datasets demonstrate that the proposed algorithm outperforms the existing GraMi (Graph Mining algorithm by an order of magnitude for all datasets and can work with a lower support threshold.

Anodizing of magnesium alloy AZ31 in alkaline solutions with silicate under continuous sparking

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chai Liyuan; Yu Xia; Yang Zhihui; Wang Yunyan; Okido, Masazumi

2008-01-01

Anodization is a useful technique for forming protective films on magnesium alloys and improves its corrosion resistance. Based on the alkaline electrolyte solution with primary oxysalt developed previously, the optimum secondary oxysalt was selected by comparing the anti-corrosion property of anodic film. The structure, component and surface morphology of anodic film and cross-section were analyzed using energy dispersion spectrometer (EDS), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The corrosion process was detected by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). The results showed that secondary oxysalt addition resulted in different anodizing processes, sparking or non-sparking. Sodium silicate was the most favorable additive of electrolyte, in which anodic film with the strongest corrosion resistance was obtained. The effects of process parameters, such as silicate concentration, applied current density and temperature, were also investigated. High temperature did not improve anti-property of anodic film, while applying high current density resulted in more porous surface of film

Synthesis of dense yttrium-stabilised hafnia pellets for nuclear applications by spark plasma sintering

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tyrpekl, Vaclav; Holzhäuser, Michael; Hein, Herwin; Vigier, Jean-Francois; Somers, Joseph; Svora, Petr

2014-01-01

Graphical abstract: Densification of HfO 2 –Y 2 O 3 micro-beads by Spark Plasma Sintering High density pellets with homogenous distribution of Hf and Y serve as neutron absorbers. - Abstract: Dense yttrium–stabilised hafnia pellets (91.35 wt.% HfO 2 and 8.65 wt.% Y 2 O 3 ) were prepared by spark plasma sintering consolidation of micro-beads synthesised by the “external gelation” sol–gel technique. This technique allows a preparation of HfO 2 –Y 2 O 3 beads with homogenous yttria–hafnia solid solution. A sintering time of 5 min at 1600 °C was sufficient to produce high density pellets (over 90% of the theoretical density) with significant reproducibility. The pellets have been machined in a lathe to the correct dimensions for use as neutron absorbers in an experimental test irradiation in the High Flux Reactor (HFR) in Petten, Holland, in order to investigate the safety of americium based nuclear fuels

Effects of solution volume on hydrogen production by pulsed spark discharge in ethanol solution

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Xin, Y. B.; Sun, B., E-mail: sunb88@dlmu.edu.cn; Zhu, X. M.; Yan, Z. Y.; Liu, H.; Liu, Y. J. [College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Dalian Maritime University, Dalian 116026 (China)

2016-07-15

Hydrogen production from ethanol solution (ethanol/water) by pulsed spark discharge was optimized by varying the volume of ethanol solution (liquid volume). Hydrogen yield was initially increased and then decreased with the increase in solution volume, which achieved 1.5 l/min with a solution volume of 500 ml. The characteristics of pulsed spark discharge were studied in this work; the results showed that the intensity of peak current, the rate of current rise, and energy efficiency of hydrogen production can be changed by varying the volume of ethanol solution. Meanwhile, the mechanism analysis of hydrogen production was accomplished by monitoring the process of hydrogen production and the state of free radicals. The analysis showed that decreasing the retention time of gas production and properly increasing the volume of ethanol solution can enhance the hydrogen yield. Through this research, a high-yield and large-scale method of hydrogen production can be achieved, which is more suitable for industrial application.

Prediction of heart disease using apache spark analysing decision trees and gradient boosting algorithm

Science.gov (United States)

Chugh, Saryu; Arivu Selvan, K.; Nadesh, RK

2017-11-01

Numerous destructive things influence the working arrangement of human body as hypertension, smoking, obesity, inappropriate medication taking which causes many contrasting diseases as diabetes, thyroid, strokes and coronary diseases. The impermanence and horribleness of the environment situation is also the reason for the coronary disease. The structure of Apache start relies on the evolution which requires gathering of the data. To break down the significance of use programming focused on data structure the Apache stop ought to be utilized and it gives various central focuses as it is fast in light as it uses memory worked in preparing. Apache Spark continues running on dispersed environment and chops down the data in bunches giving a high profitability rate. Utilizing mining procedure as a part of the determination of coronary disease has been exhaustively examined indicating worthy levels of precision. Decision trees, Neural Network, Gradient Boosting Algorithm are the various apache spark proficiencies which help in collecting the information.

The little holographic bubble chambers

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Herve, A.

1983-01-01

The lifetime study of the charmed particles has readvanced the idea to use holography for the little fast-cycle bubble chambers. A pilot experiment has been realised in 1982 with a little bubble chamber filled up with freon-115. 40000 holograms have been recorded [fr

Pelletron general purpose scattering chamber

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chatterjee, A.; Kailas, S.; Kerekette, S.S.; Navin, A.; Kumar, Suresh

1993-01-01

A medium sized stainless steel scattering chamber has been constructed for nuclear scattering and reaction experiments at the 14UD pelletron accelerator facility. It has been so designed that several types of detectors, varying from small sized silicon surface barrier detectors to medium sized gas detectors and NaI detectors can be conveniently positioned inside the chamber for detection of charged particles. The chamber has been planned to perform the following types of experiments : angular distributions of elastically scattered particles, fission fragments and other charged particles, angular correlations for charged particles e.g. protons, alphas and fission fragments. (author). 2 figs

Radon diffusion chamber

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pretzsch, G.; Boerner, E.; Lehmann, R.; Sarenio, O.

1986-01-01

The invention relates to the detection of radioactive gases emitting alpha particles like radon, thoron and their alpha-decaying daughters by means of a diffusion chamber with a passive detector, preferably with a solid state track detector. In the chamber above and towards the detector there is a single metallized electret with negative polarity. The distance between electret and detector corresponds to the range of the alpha particles of radon daughters in air at the most. The electret collects the positively charged daughters and functions as surface source. The electret increases the sensitivity by the factor 4

Large-volume excitation of air, argon, nitrogen and combustible mixtures by thermal jets produced by nanosecond spark discharges

Science.gov (United States)

Stepanyan, Sergey; Hayashi, Jun; Salmon, Arthur; Stancu, Gabi D.; Laux, Christophe O.

2017-04-01

This work presents experimental observations of strong expanding thermal jets following the application of nanosecond spark discharges. These jets propagate in a toroidal shape perpendicular to the interelectrode axis, with high velocities of up to 30 m s-1 and over distances of the order of a cm. Their propagation length is much larger than the thermal expansion region produced by the conventional millisecond sparks used in car engine ignition, thus greatly improving the volumetric excitation of gas mixtures. The shape and velocity of the jets is found to be fairly insensitive to the shape of the electrodes. In addition, their spatial extent is found to increase with the number of nanosecond sparks and with the discharge voltage, and to decrease slightly with the pressure between 1 and 7 atm at constant applied voltage. Finally, this thermal jet phenomenon is observed in experiments conducted with many types of gas mixtures, including air, nitrogen, argon, and combustible CH4/air mixtures. This makes nanosecond repetitively pulsed discharges particularly attractive for aerodynamic flow control or plasma-assisted combustion because of their ability to excite large volumes of gas, typically about 100 times the volume of the discharge.

Small Groups, Big Change: Preliminary Findings from the Sparks for Change Institute

Science.gov (United States)

Kirsch, R.; Batchelor, R. L.; Habtes, S. Y.; King, B.; Crockett, J.

2017-12-01

The geoscience professoriate continues to under represent women and minorities, yet the value of diversity, both for science as well as recruiting and retaining diverse students, is well known. While there are growing numbers of early career tenure-track minority faculty, low retention rates pose a challenge for sustained diversity in the professoriate. Part of this challenge is the lack of institutional support and recognition in tenure and promotion pathways for faculty who undertake broadening participation efforts. Sparks for Change is a NSF Geoscience Opportunities for Leadership in Diversity (GOLD)-funded project that aims to change departmental culture to better value and reward inclusion and broadening participation efforts. By encouraging, recognizing, and rewarding diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts at the department level, we aim to support and retain underrepresented minority (URM) faculty, who often disproportionately undertake these efforts, and to build more inclusive environments for faculty, staff and students alike. Sparks for Change utilizes a small group theory of change, arguing that the effort of a small group of committed individuals inside the organization is the best way to overcome the institutional inertia of academic departments that makes them resistant to change. For this effort, we propose that the ideal composition of these small groups is a junior faculty URM who is interested in DEI in the geosciences, a senior member of that same department who can lend weight to efforts and is positioned to help enact department policy, and an external broadening participation expert who can share best practices and provide accountability for the group. Eleven of these small groups, representing a range of institutions, will be brought together at the Sparks for Change Institute in Boulder, CO, in September. There they will receive leadership training on adaptive, transformative, and solidarity practices, share DEI experiences and

78 FR 50412 - California State Nonroad Engine Pollution Control Standards; Amendments to Spark Ignition Marine...

Science.gov (United States)

2013-08-19

... Engine Pollution Control Standards; Amendments to Spark Ignition Marine Engine and Boat Regulations... emission standards; enhanced evaporative emission controls for high performance sterndrive/inboard engines... requirement relating to the control of emissions from new nonroad engines which are used in construction...

Multispecimen dual-beam irradiation damage chamber

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Packan, N.H.; Buhl, R.A.

1980-06-01

An irradiation damage chamber that can be used to rapidly simulate fast neutron damage in fission or fusion materials has been designed and constructed. The chamber operates in conjunction with dual Van de Graaff accelerators at ORNL to simulate a wide range of irradiation conditions, including pulsed irradiation. Up to six experiments, each with up to nine 3-mm disk specimens, can be loaded into the ultrahigh vacuum chamber. Specimen holders are heated with individual electron guns, and the temperature of each specimen can be monitored during bombardment by an infrared pyrometer. Three different dose levels may be obtained during any single bombardment, and the heavy-ion flux on each of the nine specimens can be measured independently with only a brief interruption of the beam. The chamber has been in service for nearly three years, during which time approximately 250 bombardments have been successfully carried out. An appendix contains detailed procedures for operating the chamber

Bi-cone vacuum chamber in the ISR

CERN Multimedia

CERN PhotoLab

1976-01-01

The "bi-cone" vacuum chamber in ISR intersection I-7, for experiment R702. Made from 0.28 mm thick titanium, it was at its time the most transparent chamber ever built. Ian Wilson is standing next to the chamber. See also 7609219.

2-Methylfuran: A bio-derived octane booster for spark-ignition engines

KAUST Repository

Sarathy, Mani

2018-04-02

The efficiency of spark-ignition engines is limited by the phenomenon of knock, which is caused by auto-ignition of the fuel-air mixture ahead of the spark-initiated flame front. The resistance of a fuel to knock is quantified by its octane index; therefore, increasing the octane index of a spark-ignition engine fuel increases the efficiency of the respective engine. However, raising the octane index of gasoline increases the refining costs, as well as the energy consumption during production. The use of alternative fuels with synergistic blending effects presents an attractive option for improving octane index. In this work, the octane enhancing potential of 2-methylfuran (2-MF), a next-generation biofuel, has been examined and compared to other high-octane components (i.e., ethanol and toluene). A primary reference fuel with an octane index of 60 (PRF60) was chosen as the base fuel since it closely represents refinery naphtha streams, which are used as gasoline blend stocks. Initial screening of the fuels was done in an ignition quality tester (IQT). The PRF60/2-MF (80/20 v/v%) blend exhibited longer ignition delay times compared to PRF60/ethanol (80/20 v/v%) blend and PRF60/toluene (80/20 v/v%) blend, even though pure 2-MF is more reactive than both ethanol and toluene. The mixtures were also tested in a cooperative fuels research (CFR) engine under research octane number and motor octane number like conditions. The PRF60/2-MF blend again possesses a higher octane index than other blending components. A detailed chemical kinetic analysis was performed to understand the synergetic blending effect of 2-MF, using a well-validated PRF/2-MF kinetic model. Kinetic analysis revealed superior suppression of low-temperature chemistry with the addition of 2-MF. The results from simulations were further confirmed by homogeneous charge compression ignition engine experiments, which established its superior low-temperature heat release (LTHR) suppression compared to ethanol

Device for gamma-chamber transducer alignment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mirkhodzhaev, A.Kh.; Kuznetsov, N.K.; Ostryj, Yu.E.

1987-01-01

The device consists of the upper part of the gamma chamber pilar to which a rod is rigidly fastened with a disk of acrylic plastic moving freely on the opposite end. The disk is placed coaxially and is equal to the gamma chamber detector crystal. The device makes it possible to use ordinary medical couches covered with a porolone mattress when the gamma chamber detector is placed below

Bubble chamber: Omega production and decay

CERN Document Server

1973-01-01

This image is taken from one of CERN's bubble chambers and shows the decay of a positive kaon in flight. The decay products of this kaon can be seen spiraling in the magnetic field of the chamber. The invention of bubble chambers in 1952 revolutionized the field of particle physics, allowing real tracks left by particles to be seen and photographed by expanding liquid that has been heated to boiling point.

Venturi vacuum systems for hypobaric chamber operations.

Science.gov (United States)

Robinson, R; Swaby, G; Sutton, T; Fife, C; Powell, M; Butler, B D

1997-11-01

Physiological studies of the effects of high altitude on man often require the use of a hypobaric chamber to simulate the reduced ambient pressures. Typical "altitude" chambers in use today require complex mechanical vacuum systems to evacuate the chamber air, either directly or via reservoir system. Use of these pumps adds to the cost of both chamber procurement and maintenance, and service of these pumps requires trained support personnel and regular upkeep. In this report we describe use of venturi vacuum pumps to perform the function of mechanical vacuum pumps for human and experimental altitude chamber operations. Advantages of the venturi pumps include their relatively low procurement cost, small size and light weight, ease of installation and plumbing, lack of moving parts, and independence from electrical power sources, fossil fuels and lubricants. Conversion of three hyperbaric chambers to combined hyper/hypobaric use is described.

Barium titanate nanometric polycrystalline ceramics fired by spark plasma sintering.

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Ctibor, Pavel; Sedláček, J.; Ryukhtin, Vasyl; Cinert, Jakub; Lukáč, František

2016-01-01

Roč. 42, č. 14 (2016), s. 15989-15993 ISSN 0272-8842 R&D Projects: GA ČR GB14-36566G; GA MŠk LM2015056 Institutional support: RVO:61389021 ; RVO:61389005 Keywords : BaTiO3 * Spark plasma sintering * Electrical properties Subject RIV: JH - Ceramics, Fire-Resistant Materials and Glass; JH - Ceramics, Fire-Resistant Materials and Glass (UJF-V) Impact factor: 2.986, year: 2016 http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0272884216311695

Apparatus for reading and recharging condenser ionization chambers

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

McCall, R.C.

1977-01-01

A metering circuit for a condenser ionization chamber is disclosed for simultaneously recharging the ionization chamber and reading out the amount of charge required to recharge the chamber. During the recharging process, the amount of charge necessary to recharge the ionization chamber capacitor is placed on an integrating capacitor in the metering apparatus. The resultant voltage across the integrating capacitor is a measure of the radiation to which the ionization chamber was exposed. 9 claims, 1 figure

Liquid-filled ionization chamber temperature dependence

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Franco, L. [Dpto. de Fisica de Particulas, Facultade de Fisica, Universidade de Santiago, Campus Sur S/N, 15782 Santiago de Compostela (Spain)]. E-mail: luciaff@usc.es; Gomez, F. [Dpto. de Fisica de Particulas, Facultade de Fisica, Universidade de Santiago, Campus Sur S/N, 15782 Santiago de Compostela (Spain); Iglesias, A. [Dpto. de Fisica de Particulas, Facultade de Fisica, Universidade de Santiago, Campus Sur S/N, 15782 Santiago de Compostela (Spain); Pardo, J. [Dpto. de Fisica de Particulas, Facultade de Fisica, Universidade de Santiago, Campus Sur S/N, 15782 Santiago de Compostela (Spain); Pazos, A. [Dpto. de Fisica de Particulas, Facultade de Fisica, Universidade de Santiago, Campus Sur S/N, 15782 Santiago de Compostela (Spain); Pena, J. [Dpto. de Fisica de Particulas, Facultade de Fisica, Universidade de Santiago, Campus Sur S/N, 15782 Santiago de Compostela (Spain); Zapata, M. [Dpto. de Fisica de Particulas, Facultade de Fisica, Universidade de Santiago, Campus Sur S/N, 15782 Santiago de Compostela (Spain)

2006-05-10

Temperature and pressure corrections of the read-out signal of ionization chambers have a crucial importance in order to perform high-precision absolute dose measurements. In the present work the temperature and pressure dependences of a sealed liquid isooctane filled ionization chamber (previously developed by the authors) for radiotherapy applications have been studied. We have analyzed the thermal response of the liquid ionization chamber in a {approx}20 deg. C interval around room temperature. The temperature dependence of the signal can be considered linear, with a slope that depends on the chamber collection electric field. For example, a relative signal slope of 0.27x10{sup -2}K{sup -1} for an operation electric field of 1.67x10{sup 6}Vm{sup -1} has been measured in our detector. On the other hand, ambient pressure dependence has been found negligible, as expected for liquid-filled chambers. The thermal dependence of the liquid ionization chamber signal can be parametrized within the Onsager theory on initial recombination. Considering that changes with temperature of the detector response are due to variations in the free ion yield, a parametrization of this dependence has been obtained. There is a good agreement between the experimental data and the theoretical model from the Onsager framework.

Bubble chamber: antiproton annihilation

CERN Multimedia

1971-01-01

These images show real particle tracks from the annihilation of an antiproton in the 80 cm Saclay liquid hydrogen bubble chamber. A negative kaon and a neutral kaon are produced in this process, as well as a positive pion. The invention of bubble chambers in 1952 revolutionized the field of particle physics, allowing real tracks left by particles to be seen and photographed by expanding liquid that had been heated to boiling point.

Temperature Studies for ATLAS MDT BOS Chambers

CERN Document Server

Engl, A.; Biebel, O.; Mameghani, R.; Merkl, D.; Rauscher, F.; Schaile, D.; Ströhmer, R.

Data sets with high statistics taken at the cosmic ray facility, equipped with 3 ATLAS BOS MDT chambers, in Garching (Munich) have been used to study temperature and pressure effects on gas gain and drifttime. The deformation of a thermally expanded chamber was reconstructed using the internal RasNik alignment monitoring system and the tracks from cosmic data. For these studies a heating system was designed to increase the temperature of the middle chamber by up to 20 Kelvins over room temperature. For comparison the temperature effects on gas properties have been simulated with Garfield. The maximum drifttime decreased under temperature raise by -2.21 +- 0.08 ns/K, in agreement with the results of pressure variations and the Garfield simulation. The increased temperatures led to a linear increase of the gas gain of about 2.1% 1/K. The chamber deformation has been analyzed with the help of reconstructed tracks. By the comparison of the tracks through the reference chambers with these through the test chamber ...

Effects of Synthesis and Spark Plasma Sintering Conditions on the Thermoelectric Properties of Ca3Co4O9+δ

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Wu, NingYu; Holgate, Tim; Van Nong, Ngo

2013-01-01

Ca3Co4O9+δ samples were synthesized by solid-state (SS) and sol–gel (SG) reactions, followed by spark plasma sintering under different processing conditions. The synthesis process was optimized and the resulting materials characterized with respect to their microstructure, bulk density, and therm......Ca3Co4O9+δ samples were synthesized by solid-state (SS) and sol–gel (SG) reactions, followed by spark plasma sintering under different processing conditions. The synthesis process was optimized and the resulting materials characterized with respect to their microstructure, bulk density...

LEP vacuum chamber, cross-section

CERN Multimedia

CERN PhotoLab

1983-01-01

Cross-section of the final prototype for the LEP vacuum chamber. The elliptic main-opening is for the beam. The small channel to the left is for the cooling water, to carry away the heat deposited by the synchrotron radiation. The square channel to the right houses the Non-Evaporable Getter (NEG) pump. The chamber is made from extruded aluminium. Its outside is clad with lead, to stop the synchrotron radiation emitted by the beam. For good adherence between Pb and Al, the Al chamber was coated with a thin layer of Ni. Ni being slightly magnetic, some resulting problems had to be overcome. See also 8301153.

Development of microwave-enhanced spark-induced breakdown spectroscopy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ikeda, Yuji; Moon, Ahsa; Kaneko, Masashi

2010-01-01

We propose microwave-enhanced spark-induced breakdown spectroscopy with the same measurement and analysis processes as in laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy, but with a different plasma generation mechanism. The size and lifetime of the plasma generated can contribute to increased measurement accuracy and expand its applicability to industrial measurement, such as an exhaust gas analyzer for automobile engine development and its regulation, which has been hard to operate by laser at an engineering evaluation site. The use of microwaves in this application helps lower the cost, reduce the system size, and increase the ease of operation to make it commercially viable. A microwave frequency of 2.45 GHz was used to enhance the volume and lifetime of the plasma at atmospheric condition even at elevated pressure.

Note: Small anaerobic chamber for optical spectroscopy

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Chauvet, Adrien A. P., E-mail: adrien.chauvet@gmail.com; Chergui, Majed [Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Laboratoire de Spectroscopie Ultrarapide, ISIC, Faculté des Sciences de Base, Station 6, 1015 Lausanne (Switzerland); Agarwal, Rachna; Cramer, William A. [Department of Biological Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana 47907 (United States)

2015-10-15

The study of oxygen-sensitive biological samples requires an effective control of the atmosphere in which they are housed. In this aim however, no commercial anaerobic chamber is adequate to solely enclose the sample and small enough to fit in a compact spectroscopic system with which analysis can be performed. Furthermore, spectroscopic analysis requires the probe beam to pass through the whole chamber, introducing a requirement for adequate windows. In response to these challenges, we present a 1 l anaerobic chamber that is suitable for broad-band spectroscopic analysis. This chamber has the advantage of (1) providing access, via a septum, to the sample and (2) allows the sample position to be adjusted while keeping the chamber fixed and hermetic during the experiment.

Structural Analysis of Extended Plasma Focus Chamber

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mohd Azhar Ahmad; Abdul Halim Baijan; Siti Aiasah Hashim

2016-01-01

Accelerator Development Centre (ADC) of Nuclear Malaysia intends to upgrade the plasma focus device. It involves the extension part placed on top of the existing plasma focus vacuum chamber. This extended vacuum chamber purposely to give an extra space in conducting experiments on the existing plasma focus chamber. The aim of upgrading the plasma focus device is to solve the limitation in research and analysis of sample due to its done in an open system that cause analysis of samples is limited and less optimal. This extended chamber was design in considering the ease of fabrication as well as durability of its structural. Thus, this paper discusses the structural analysis in term of pressure loading effect in extended chamber. (author)

Plasma chemistry in wire chambers

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wise, J.

1990-05-01

The phenomenology of wire chamber aging is discussed and fundamentals of proportional counters are presented. Free-radical polymerization and plasma polymerization are discussed. The chemistry of wire aging is reviewed. Similarities between wire chamber plasma (>1 atm dc-discharge) and low-pressure rf-discharge plasmas, which have been more widely studied, are suggested. Construction and use of a system to allow study of the plasma reactions occurring in wire chambers is reported. A proportional tube irradiated by an 55 Fe source is used as a model wire chamber. Condensable species in the proportional tube effluent are concentrated in a cryotrap and analyzed by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry. Several different wire chamber gases (methane, argon/methane, ethane, argon/ethane, propane, argon/isobutane) are tested and their reaction products qualitatively identified. For all gases tested except those containing methane, use of hygroscopic filters to remove trace water and oxygen contaminants from the gas resulted in an increase in the average molecular weight of the products, consistent with results from low-pressure rf-discharge plasmas. It is suggested that because water and oxygen inhibit polymer growth in the gas phase that they may also reduce polymer deposition in proportional tubes and therefore retard wire aging processes. Mechanistic implications of the plasma reactions of hydrocarbons with oxygen are suggested. Unresolved issues in this work and proposals for further study are discussed

Effects of various intake valve timings and spark timings on combustion, cyclic THC and NOX emissions during cold start phase with idle operation in CVVT engine

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Choi, Kwan Hee; Lee, Hyung Min; Hwang, In Goo; Myung, Cha Lee; Park, Sim Soo

2008-01-01

In a gasoline SI engine, valve events and spark timings put forth a major influence on overall efficiency, fuel economy, and exhaust emissions. Residual gases controlled by the valve overlap can be used to reduce NOx emissions and the spark retardation technique can be used to improve raw THC emissions and catalyst light-off performance during the cold start phase. This paper investigated the behaviors of the engine and its combustion characteristics with various intake valve timings and spark timings during the fast idle condition and cold start. And cyclic THC and NOx emissions were measured at the exhaust port and their formation mechanisms were examined with fast response gas analyzers. As a result, THCs and NOx were reduced by 35% and 23% with optimizing valve overlap and spark advance during the cold transient start phase. Consequently, the valve events and ignition timings were found to significantly affect combustion phenomena and cold-start emissions

Wire chamber degradation at the Argonne ZGS

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Haberichter, W.; Spinka, H.

1986-01-01

Experience with multiwire proportional chambers at high rates at the Argonne Zero Gradient Synchrotron is described. A buildup of silicon on the sense wires was observed where the beam passed through the chamber. Analysis of the chamber gas indicated that the density of silicon was probably less than 10 ppM

Drift chamber vertex detectors for SLC/LEP

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hayes, K G

1988-03-01

Factors influencing the design of drift chamber vertex detectors for SLC and LEP are discussed including global strategy, chamber gas, cell design, and signal processing. The designs of the vertex chambers for the L3 and OPAL experiments at LEP and the Mark II experiment at the SLC are described.

Radon-daughter chamber instrumentation system reference manual

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Showalter, R.; Johnson, L.

1985-01-01

The radon-daughter chamber instrumentation system collects environmental data from the radon-daughter chamber. These data are then recorded on a Tandberg system tape cartridge and transmitted to the HP-1000 computer for processing. Generators which inject radon and condensation nuclei into the chamber are also included with the instrumentation system

Nuclear design considerations for Z-IFE chambers

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Meier, W.R. [Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, P.O. Box 808, L-641, Livermore, CA 94551 (United States)]. E-mail: meier5@llnl.gov; Schmitt, R.C. [Bettis Atomic Power Laboratory, Pittsburgh, PA 15203 (United States); Abbott, R.P. [Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, P.O. Box 808, L-641, Livermore, CA 94551 (United States); Latkowski, J.F. [Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, P.O. Box 808, L-641, Livermore, CA 94551 (United States); Reyes, S. [Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, P.O. Box 808, L-641, Livermore, CA 94551 (United States)

2006-02-15

Z-pinch driven IFE (Z-IFE) requires the design of a repetitive target insertion system that allows coupling of the pulsed power to the target with adequate standoff, and a chamber that can withstand blast and radiation effects from large yield targets. The present strategy for Z-IFE is to use high yield targets ({approx}2-3 GJ/shot), low repetition rate per chamber ({approx}0.1 Hz), and 10 chambers per power plant. In this study, we propose an alternative power plant configuration that uses very high yield targets (20 GJ/shot) in a single chamber operating at 0.1 Hz. A thick-liquid-wall chamber is proposed to absorb the target emission (X-rays, debris and neutrons) and mitigate the blast effects on the chamber wall. The target is attached to the end of a conical shaped recyclable transmission line (RTL) made from a solid coolant (e.g., frozen flibe), or a material that is easily separable from the coolant (e.g., steel). The RTL/target assembly is inserted through a single opening at the top of the chamber for each shot. This study looks at the RTL material choice from a safety and environmental point of view. Materials were assessed according to waste disposal rating (WDR) and contact dose rate (CDR). Neutronics calculations, using the TART2002 Monte Carlo code from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), were performed for the RTL and Z-IFE chamber, and key results reported here.

"Flat-Fish" Vacuum Chamber

CERN Multimedia

CERN PhotoLab

1978-01-01

The picture shows a "Flat-Fish" vacuum chamber being prepared in the ISR workshop for testing prior to installation in the Split Field Magnet (SFM) at intersection I4. The two shells of each part were hydroformed from 0.15 mm thick inconel 718 sheet (with end parts in inconel 600 for easier manual welding to the arms) and welded toghether with two strips which were attached by means of thin stainless steel sheets to the Split Field Magnet poles in order to take the vertical component of the atmospheric pressure force. This was the thinnest vacuum chamber ever made for the ISR. Inconel material was chosen for its high elastic modulus and strenght at chamber bake-out temperature. In this picture the thin sheets transferring the vertical component of the atmosferic pressure force are attached to a support frame for testing. See also 7712182, 7712179.

PWCs and drift chambers at ISABELLE

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Okuno, H.; Teramoto, Y.; Wheeler, C.D.

1978-01-01

Rate effects in proportional chambers and drift chambers are addressed first. The widely used high-gas-gain chambers would have impaired performance at ISABELLE data rates. Improvement can be expected with lower gas gain, and this possibility is investigated with respect to position and time resolution. Results on chamber lifetime are summarized; space-charge effects, gain saturation, and radiation hardness of electronics are considered. The resolution of drift chambers is discussed in some detail; time resolution, double pulse resolution, and momentum resolution and multiple scattering are included. The expected high multiplicity of tracks from a single event, the high event rates, and the requirement for low gas gain necessitate revision of the methods for measuring the second coordinate. Known methods of two-dimensional point localization are summarized according to spatial accuracy, electronics requirements, and multihit capability. Delay lines, charge division, and cathode strips are considered. Particle identification by means of measurement of the relativistic rise of energy loss by conventional and unconventional means was investigated. 32 references, 3 figures, 4 tables

Improved climatic chamber for desiccation simulation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lozada Catalina

2016-01-01

Full Text Available The climatic chamber at the Universidad de Los Andes was improved for modeling desiccation in soil layers. This chamber allows the measurement of different environmental variables. In this research, evaporation tests were conducted in water imposing boundary conditions for drying, and then these tests were performed in a soil layer. The soil was prepared from a slurry state and was drying controlling the temperature, the infrared radiation, the wind velocity, and the relative humidity. In the first part of this paper, a description of the climatic chamber, operation ranges and theoretical work principles of the climatic chamber are presented. Then, the second part shows the results for desiccation in water and soil. The desiccation tests performed with the climatic chamber allow simulating all environmental conditions accurately during drying coupling the effect of all environmental variables. As a result, the evaporation rate increases with infrared radiation in soil and water. The rate at the beginning of the desiccation tests in clays is the same as in water. However, this evaporation rate decreases as the soil becomes desiccated.

Quantitative determination of minor and trace elements in rocks and soils by spark source mass spectrometry

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ure, A.M.; Bacon, J.R.

1978-01-01

Experimental details are given of the quantitative determination of minor and trace elements in rocks and soils by spark source mass spectrometry. The effects of interfering species, and corrections that can be applied, are discussed. (U.K.)

Fabrication of Ni-Ti Alloy by Self-Propagating High-Temperature Synthesis and Spark Plasma Sintering Technique

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Salvetr, P.; Kubatík, Tomáš František; Pignol, D.; Novák, P.

2017-01-01

Roč. 48, č. 2 (2017), s. 772-778 ISSN 1073-5615 Institutional support: RVO:61389021 Keywords : powder metallurgy * Spark plasma sintering Subject RIV: JJ - Other Materials OBOR OECD: Materials engineering Impact factor: 1.642, year: 2016

Detectors for particle radiation. 2. rev. ed.

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kleinknecht, K.

1987-01-01

This book is a description of the set-up and mode of action of detectors for charged particles and gamma radiation for students of physics, as well as for experimental physicists and engineers in research and industry: Ionization chamber, proportional counter, semiconductor counter; proportional chamber, drift chamber, bubble chamber, spark chamber, photomultiplier, laser ionization, silicion strip detector; Cherenkov counter, transition radiation detector; electron-photon-cascade counter, hadron calorimeter; magnetic spectrometer; applications in nuclear medicine, geophysics, space travel, atom physics, nuclear physics, and high-energy physics. With 149 figs., 20 tabs [de

A Laser Spark Plug Ignition System for a Stationary Lean-Burn Natural Gas Reciprocating Engine

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

McIntyre, D. L. [West Virginia Univ., Morgantown, WV (United States)

2007-05-01

To meet the ignition system needs of large bore, high pressure, lean burn, natural gas engines a side pumped, passively Q-switched, Nd:YAG laser was developed and tested. The laser was designed to produce the optical intensities needed to initiate ignition in a lean burn, high compression engine. The laser and associated optics were designed with a passive Q-switch to eliminate the need for high voltage signaling and associated equipment. The laser was diode pumped to eliminate the need for high voltage flash lamps which have poor pumping efficiency. The independent and dependent parameters of the laser were identified and explored in specific combinations that produced consistent robust sparks in laboratory air. Prior research has shown that increasing gas pressure lowers the breakdown threshold for laser initiated ignition. The laser has an overall geometry of 57x57x152 mm with an output beam diameter of approximately 3 mm. The experimentation used a wide range of optical and electrical input parameters that when combined produced ignition in laboratory air. The results show a strong dependence of the output parameters on the output coupler reflectivity, Q-switch initial transmission, and gain media dopant concentration. As these three parameters were lowered the output performance of the laser increased leading to larger more brilliant sparks. The results show peak power levels of up to 3MW and peak focal intensities of up to 560 GW/cm². Engine testing was performed on a Ricardo Proteus single cylinder research engine. The goal of the engine testing was to show that the test laser performs identically to the commercially available flashlamp pumped actively Q-switched laser used in previous laser ignition testing. The engine testing consisted of a comparison of the in-cylinder, and emissions behavior of the engine using each of the lasers as an ignition system. All engine parameters were kept as constant as possilbe while the equivalence ratio (fueling