A Simple Quasi-2D Numerical Model of a Thermogage Furnace

A simple quasi-2D model for the temperature distribution in a graphite tube furnace is presented. The model is used to estimate the temperature gradients in the furnace at temperatures above which contact sensors can be used, and to assist in the redesign of the furnace heater element to improve the temperature gradients. The Thermogage graphite tube furnace is commonly used in many NMIs as a blackbody source for radiation thermometer calibration and as a spectral irradiance standard. Although the design is robust, easy to operate and can change temperature rapidly, it is limited by its effective emissivity of typically 99.5–99.8%. At NMIA, the temperature gradient along the tube is assessed using thermocouples up to about 1,500°C, and the blackbody emissivity is calculated from this. However, at higher operating temperatures (up to 2,900°C), it is impractical to measure the gradient, and we propose to numerically model the temperature distributions used to calculate emissivity. In another paper at this conference, the model is used to design an optimized heater tube with improved temperature gradients. In the model presented here, the 2-D temperature distribution is simplified to separate the axial and radial temperature distributions within the heater tube and the surrounding insulation. Literature data for the temperature dependence of the electrical and thermal conductivities of the graphite tube were coupled to models for the thermal conductivity of the felt insulation, particularly including the effects of allowing for a gas mixture in the insulation. Experimental measurements of the temperature profile up to 1,500°C and radial heat fluxes up to 2,200°C were compared to the theoretical predictions of the model and good agreement was obtained.     

Ontologies and reasoning techniques for (legal) intelligent information retrieval systems

An application of Narrative Knowledge Representation Language (NKRL) techniques on (declassified) ‘terrorism in Southern Philippines’ documents has been carried out in the context of the IST Parmenides project. This paper describes some aspects of this work: it is our belief, in fact, that the Knowledge Representation techniques and the Intelligent Information Retrieval tools used in this experiment can be of some interest also in an ‘Ontological Modelling of Legal Events and Legal Reasoning’ context.     

An anti-plane crack perpendicular to the weak/micro-discontinuous interface in a bi-FGM structure with exponential and linear non-homogeneities

Treated was an anti-plane crack perpendicular to the interface of an exponential-type FGM strip bonded to another linear-type FGM substrate with infinite thickness. Through Fourier integral transform, the problem was reduced as a Cauchy singular integral equation, which was further solved numerically by the Lobatto–Chebyshev collocation method. Based on the numerical solution, the effects of the geometrical and physical parameters on the stress intensity factor (SIF) were analyzed and the following conclusions were obtained: (a) A notable discrepancy between the interface-perpendicular crack and the interfacial one is that, to reduce the weak-discontinuity of interface or to make the interface micro-discontinuous will not necessarily decrease the SIF of the former, but will surely decrease that of the latter. (b) When a crack tip is situated very near to the interface (or free surface), its SIF will be high and totally dominated by the interface (or free surface). (c) To increase the stiffness of the FGM on one side of the interface is beneficial to preventing the crack on the other side from growing toward the interface. Besides, some practical suggestions were further given for material design in the field of composites.     

Personalisierung und informationelle Selbstbestimmung Ein unauflösbarer Widerspruch?

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Thermokinetics of Liquid-Liquid Reaction of Dy（NO3 ）3 with Histidine

The thermokinetics of liquid-liquid reaction of dysprosium nitrate with histidine were studied using a microcalorimeter. On the basis of experimental and calculated results, threethermodynamic parameters (the activation enthalpy, the activation entropy and the activation free enegy),the rate constant, three kinetic parameters (the activation energy, the pre-exponential constant and the reaction order) wereobtained. On the basis of thermodynamics and kinetics, the for marion reaction of the complex was discussed.     

A new high-order accurate continuous Galerkin method for linear elastodynamics problems

A new high-order accurate time-continuous Galerkin (TCG) method for elastodynamics is suggested. The accuracy of the new implicit TCG method is increased by a factor of two in comparison to that of the standard TCG method and is one order higher than the accuracy of the standard time-discontinuous Galerkin (TDG) method at the same number of degrees of freedom. The new method is unconditionally stable and has controllable numerical dissipation at high frequencies. An iterative predictor/multi-corrector solver that includes the factorization of the effective mass matrix of the same dimension as that of the mass matrix for the second-order methods is developed for the new TCG method. A new strategy combining numerical methods with small and large numerical dissipation is developed for elastodynamics. Simple numerical tests show a significant reduction in the computation time (by 5–25 times) for the new TCG method in comparison to that for second-order methods, and the suppression of spurious high-frequency oscillations.