Ultrafast x-ray-driven phenomena in nanocrystals: development and application of powerful simulation tools

We investigate the radiation damage dynamics of nanocrystals at high x-ray intensity, by using time-resolved scattering patterns. We present dynamics simulations for biologically relevant molecules using XMDYN extended to nanocrystals and scattering simulation with XSINC.

Particle swarm algorithm-based damage-mitigating control law analysis and synthesis for liquid-propellant rocket engine

The damage-mitigating control is a novel technique to ameliorate the reliability and safety of liquid-propellant rocket engines by achieving an optimized trade-off level between overall dynamic performance of the liquid-propellant rocket engine and structural durability of some selected critical damageable components under the condition of no impact on the achievement of the launch and flight mission. Thus, it is needed to be solved for the damage-mitigating control that the global optimization of the best trade-off between the damage of the critical damageable components and the performance of rocket engine. The major challenge should focus on: (i) to construct model of a certain rocket engine system dynamics, critical components structural dynamics, and damage dynamics; (ii) to optimize open loop feed-forward control law based on liquid-propellant rocket engine system dynamic model, structural and damage dynamics model, by using particle swarm optimization algorithm; (iii) to synthesize an intelligent damage-mitigating control system using the optimized open loop control law. In this paper, synthesis procedure of damage mitigation is introduced; structure and damage dynamic model of damageable components are formulated. The results of the simulation computation show that the synthesized control laws are implemented and achieve the effect of damage mitigating for the liquid-propellant rocket engine. It can provide important theoretical and practical value not only for improving the safety and reliability of the liquid-propellant rocket engine, but also for the complex thermo-flow-mechanical systems such as airplane engines, automobile engines, and fossil-fueled power plant because their service life is very critical too.

Approach to study of pigeonpea leaf webber [Grapholita critica (Meyr.)] damage dynamics and its relation to weather

Investigation of the published data of a field experiment on assessment of damage due to leaf webber (Grapholita critica (Meyr.)Torticidae:Lepidoptera) under seven different sowing periods at weekly intervals between June IV to August II weeks of 2013-14 at Gulbarga (Karnataka) and observations on leaf webber damage recorded on weekly basis between 32 and 42 standard meteorological weeks (SMW) was done to demonstrate appropriate analytical methodology for an improved understanding of seasonal dynamics of G. critica damage and its relation to weather. Approach to analyses included reporting of calendar (SMW) based observations of G. critica damage on crop age basis, one way ANOVA for testing differences in damage levels amongst sowing periods, SMWs and crop age besides description of relations of damage with crop age and weather variables. Seasonal damage levels of G. critica for sowing periods were non-significant but significant (P less than 0.05) across SMWs and crop age with reduced damage during early and late crop stages irrespective of sowing periods. Seven and four weeks of higher damage and the best fit of polynomial relations of second order in respect of crop age over calendar based periods signified crop stage dependent damage due to G. critica. While MLR revealed significant influence of all weather and crop age variables (R2: 0.79), non-parametric regression revealed that less than 30°C of maximum temperature and greater than 23°C of minimum temperature to be favourable for G. critica damage. Crop age and calendar based observations have their importance for an area wide and field basis management of G. critica respectively.