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In its usual classical form, activated-complex theory assumes a particular expression for the kinetic energy of the reacting system, one being associated with a rectilinear motion along the reaction coordinate. The derivation of the rate expression given in the present paper is based on the general kinetic-energy expression. A rate equation of the customary form is obtained: krate=(kT/h)exp[−(F‡−Fr)/kT], where F‡ is the free energy of a system constrained to exist on a hypersurface in n-dimensional space and Fr is the free energy of the reactants. The usual derivation is then reinterpreted, in terms of geodesic normal coordinates, to be somewhat more general than it appears. Normally, rotation—vibration interaction is neglected, as in the above derivation, although not in treatments of some special reactions in the literature for which the centrifugal potential is important. A derivation is given which includes the influence of this centrifugal potential but which omits Coriolis effects.

The objective of this research is to develop a wearable device that could harvest waste mechanical energy of the human hand movement and utilize this energy to suppress wrist tremors. Piezoelectric material is used to measure the hand movement signals, and the signal of wrist tremor is filtered to be utilized to suppress the tremor. In order to conduct the experiment of energy harvesting and tremor suppression, an experimental rig was fabricated. Two types of piezoelectric materials, PVDF (polyvinylidene fluoride) films and MFC (macro fiber composite) films, are used to harvest mechanical energy and used as actuators to suppress hand tremors. However, due to some shortages of the materials, these two types of materials are not used as actuators to suppress the wrist tremors. Thus, we use Matlab Simulink to simulate the tremor suppression with AVC (active vibration control) algorithm.

This sheet describes a mobile test van which allows engineers to conduct vibration testing on wind turbines anywhere in US. It houses a computer system and test equipment (96 accelerometers, shaker system, etc.).

Many properties of chemical reactions are determined by the transition state connecting reactant and product, yet it is difficult to directly obtain any information about these short-lived structures in liquids. We show that two-dimensional infrared (2D-IR) spectroscopy can provide direct information about transition states by tracking the transformation of vibrational modes as a molecule crossed a transition state. We successfully monitored a simple chemical reaction, the fluxional rearrangement of Fe(CO)5, in which the exchange of axial and equatorial CO ligands causes an exchange of vibrational energy between the normal modes of the molecule. This energy transfer provides direct evidence regarding the time scale, transition state, and mechanism of the reaction.

Improving the availability of wind turbines (WT) is critical to minimize the cost of wind energy, especially for offshore installations. As gearbox downtime has a significant impact on WT availabilities, the development of reliable and cost-effective gearbox condition monitoring systems (CMS) is of great concern to the wind industry. Timely detection and diagnosis of developing gear defects within a gearbox is an essential part of minimizing unplanned downtime of wind turbines. Monitoring signals from WT gearboxes are highly non-stationary as turbine load and speed vary continuously with time. Time-consuming and costly manual handling of large amounts of monitoring data represent one of the main limitations of most current CMSs, so automated algorithms are required. This paper presents a fault detection algorithm for incorporation into a commercial CMS for automatic gear fault detection and diagnosis. The algorithm allowed the assessment of gear fault severity by tracking progressive tooth gear damage during variable speed and load operating conditions of the test rig. Results show that the proposed technique proves efficient and reliable for detecting gear damage. Once implemented into WT CMSs, this algorithm can automate data interpretation reducing the quantity of information that WT operators must handle.

The conventional screening machines used in processing plants have had undesirable high noise and vibration levels. They also have had unsatisfactorily low screening efficiency, high energy consumption, high maintenance cost, low productivity, and poor worker safety. These conventional vibrating machines have been used in almost every processing plant. Most of the current material separation technology uses heavy and inefficient electric motors with an unbalanced rotating mass to generate the shaking. In addition to being excessively noisy, inefficient, and high-maintenance, these vibrating machines are often the bottleneck in the entire process. Furthermore, these motors, along with the vibrating machines and supporting structure, shake other machines and structures in the vicinity. The latter increases maintenance costs while reducing worker health and safety. The conventional vibrating fine screens at taconite processing plants have had the same problems as those listed above. This has resulted in lower screening efficiency, higher energy and maintenance cost, and lower productivity and workers safety concerns. The focus of this work is on the design of a high performance screening machine suitable for taconite processing plants. SmartScreens{trademark} technology uses miniaturized motors, based on smart materials, to generate the shaking. The underlying technologies are Energy Flow Control{trademark} and Vibration Control by Confinement{trademark}. These concepts are used to direct energy flow and confine energy efficiently and effectively to the screen function. The SmartScreens{trademark} technology addresses problems related to noise and vibration, screening efficiency, productivity, and maintenance cost and worker safety. Successful development of SmartScreens{trademark} technology will bring drastic changes to the screening and physical separation industry. The final designs for key components of the SmartScreens{trademark} have been developed. The key components include smart motor and associated electronics, resonators, and supporting structural elements. It is shown that the smart motors have an acceptable life and performance. Resonator (or motion amplifier) designs are selected based on the final system requirement and vibration characteristics. All the components for a fully functional prototype are fabricated. The development program is on schedule. The last semi-annual report described the need and the work accomplished to design a supporting structure. The modified supporting structure design improved system rigidity and integrity and helped improve overall system performance. Lab test results showed a significant improvement in reducing undesired supporting structure vibration, better system performance and ease of installation. However the system performance suffered severe losses due to installation requirement. Since then significant work was completed both in terms of analysis and experimentation to minimize system installation sensitivity and to relax plant structure foundation requirement. Lab test on the modified system are near completion and we plan to test the system in field in early next quarter. With the assistance of Albany Research center, strain measurements were successfully completed on the S3i-101 unit. This report also includes the work initiated to investigate feasibility of inserting SmartScreens{trademark} technology in the field of dry applications.

The conventional vibrating machines used in processing plants have had undesirable high noise and vibration levels. They also have had unsatisfactorily low screening efficiency, high energy consumption, high maintenance cost, low productivity, and poor worker safety. These conventional vibrating machines have been used in most every processing plant. Most of the current material separation technology uses heavy and inefficient electric motors with an unbalance rotating mass to generate the shaking. In addition to being excessively noisy, inefficient, and high-maintenance, these vibrating machines are often the bottleneck in the entire process. Furthermore, these motors, along with the vibrating machines and supporting structure, shake other machines and structures in the vicinity. The latter increases maintenance costs while reducing worker health and safety. The conventional vibrating fine screens at taconite processing plants have had the same problems as those listed above. This has resulted in lower screening efficiency, higher energy and maintenance cost, and lower productivity and workers safety concerns. The focus of this work is on the design of a high performance screening machine suitable for taconite processing plants. SmartScreens{trademark} technology uses miniaturized motors, based on smart materials, to generate the shaking. The underlying technologies are Energy Flow Control{trademark} and Vibration Control by Confinement{trademark}. These concepts are used to direct energy flow and confine energy efficiently and effectively to the screen function. The SmartScreens{trademark} technology addresses problems related to noise and vibration, screening efficiency, productivity, and maintenance cost and worker safety. Successful development of SmartScreens{trademark} technology will bring drastic changes to the screening and physical separation industry. The final designs for key components of the SmartScreens{trademark} have been developed. The key components include smart motor and associated ...

The goal of this project is to develop an efficient energy scavenger for converting ambient low-frequency vibrations into electrical power. In order to achieve this a novel inertial micro power generator architecture has been developed that utilizes the bi-stable motion of a mechanical mass to convert a broad range of low-frequency ( 250 {micro}m) ambient vibrations into high-frequency electrical output energy. The generator incorporates a bi-stable mechanical structure to initiate high-frequency mechanical oscillations in an electromagnetic scavenger. This frequency up-conversion technique enhances the electromechanical coupling and increases the generated power. This architecture is called the Parametric Frequency Increased Generator (PFIG). Three generations of the device have been fabricated. It was first demonstrated using a larger bench-top prototype that had a functional volume of 3.7cm3. It generated a peak power of 558{micro}W and an average power of 39.5{micro}W at an input acceleration of 1g applied at 10 Hz. The performance of this device has still not been matched by any other reported work. It yielded the best power density and efficiency for any scavenger operating from low-frequency (<10Hz) vibrations. A second-generation device was then fabricated. It generated a peak power of 288{micro}W and an average power of 5.8{micro}W from an input acceleration of 9.8m/s{sup 2} at 10Hz. The device operates over a frequency range of 20Hz. The internal volume of the generator is 2.1cm{sup 3} (3.7cm{sup 3} including casing), half of a standard AA battery. Lastly, a piezoelectric version of the PFIG is currently being developed. This device clearly demonstrates one of the key features of the PFIG architecture, namely that it is suitable for MEMS integration, more so than resonant generators, by incorporating a brittle bulk piezoelectric ceramic. This is the first micro-scale piezoelectric generator capable of <10Hz operation. The fabricated device currently generates a peak power of 25.9{micro}W and an average power of 1.21{micro}W from an input acceleration of 9.8m/s{sup -} at 10Hz. The device operates over a frequency range of 23Hz. The internal volume of the generator is 1.2cm{sup 3}.

The rotational energy release in the dissociation of ketene (CH{sub 2}CO) along its singlet potential energy surface is observed and compared with several statistical and dynamical theories. Rotational distributions for the product, CO(X{sup 1}{Sigma}+)(v=1), are measured from the threshold for production of CH{sub 2}(a {sup 1}A{sub 1}) (0,0,0) + CO(X{sup 1}{Sigma}+)(v=1) to 1720 cm{sup -1} above. Near threshold (E{le} 200 cm{sup -1} over threshold), phase space theory (PST) matches the observed distributions. At 357 and 490 cm{sup -1}, PST constrained by the measured state distributions of the methylene fragment, provides a good fit to these CO(v=1) rotational distributions. For E > 490 cm{sup -1}, the constrained PST matches the average rotational energy observed but predicts distributions which are broader than observed. This contrasts to the rotational distributions of the {sup 1}CH{sub 2} fragment which become shifted to lower rotational states than PST as energy increases from 200 cm{sup -1} above threshold. Dynamical models, the impulsive model and Franck-Condon mapping, do not account for the product rotational state distributions. The CO(v=1) rotational distributions for E > 200 cm{sup -1} contain no measurable product from triplet channel fragmentation. Therefore, they can be compared with the previously determined CO(v=0) rotational distributions in order to partition the CO(v=0) yield between singlet and triplet channels and recalculate the singlet yield. This new yield is found to be at the upper limits of the range previously reported. Rate constants and quantum yields have been determined for the photodissociation of ketene to produce CH{sub 2}(a {sup 1}A{sub 1}) (0,0,0) + CO(X {sup 1}{Sigma}+)(v=1). At 57, 110, 200, 357, and 490 cm{sup -1} above this product threshold, vibrational branching ratios for the singlet products were measured and compared to phase space theory (PST), separate statistical ensembles (SSE), and variational RRKM (var. RRKM).