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Planck's law describes thermal radiation into vacuum from a black body in thermal equilibrium. This law can be easily adapted to describe radiation into a transparent medium with a constant refractive index, and it admits a less trivial extension to radiation into a transparent medium with a nonconstant refractive index. However, this law cannot be straightforwardly generalized to describe thermal radiation into absorbing media and, in particular, to describe thermally exited electromagnetic fields inside the radiating body itself. We first analyze Planck's law and show why it cannot be straightforwardly extended to radiation into an absorbing medium. The derivation of this law relies on the assumption that a radiated field admits decomposition into normal modes, which cannot exist in absorbing media that are characterized by a complex-valued refractive index n=n'+in''n=n'+in", whose imaginary part describes the rate of energy dissipation. Correspondingly, the speed of electromagnetic waves in absorbing media c=c0/n, where c0 is the speed of light in vacuum, is also complex-valued, which suggests that the conventional concept of a complex valued wave speed is not suitable for modeling thermal radiation. We demonstrate that complex-valued wave speeds adequately describe waves that carry signals, such as radio waves and laser beams. Such waves decay because they pass some of their energy to the medium. The energy absorbed by the medium is eventually reradiated, but in studies focused on the transmission of signals, the reradiated fields are ignored as noise. In order to study thermal radiation in an absorbing material, one must treat the material and the radiation together as a closed system. The energy in such a system is conserved, and its distribution between the material and radiation does not change in time. This radiation admits decomposition into normal modes, which makes it possible to extend Planck's law to radiation into absorbing materials. This paper proposes a model of thermal radiation in an absorbing medium as a closed, energy conserving system. The radiation field has normal modes that correspond to an effective speed of wave propagation. Assuming that an absorbing material and the radiation in it are in thermal equilibrium, we show that deep inside the material, the average speed of photons is given by a frequency and temperature-dependent expression c*=c0/(1+e-hω/kT). While this result is independent of the material, we further show that close to the boundary of the medium, the speed of thermal radiation depends in a complex way on the refractive index and the extinction coefficient of the material, as well as the direction of propagation and the distance from the material's surface. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to boost the fuel economy of their vehicles, automotive Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) and suppliers have been investigating a range of options from alternate vehicle propulsion systems down to optimized component level technologies. The hypoid gear set in a rear axle is one of the least efficient drive train components, and as such, provides unique opportunities for improvements. It has therefore attracted significant attention from researchers to reduce the power losses. Both loaded and unloaded power losses have been studied before and found to vary significantly with load and speed conditions. This paper will focus on the effects of the axle pinion bearing preload, axle gear oil levels, and operating temperatures on axle power losses during the fuel economy driving cycles where both axle load and speed vary significantly. In this paper, power loss measurements from experiments conducted on an automotive rear drive axle on a dedicated dynamometer will be presented. Tests were conducted under a range of speed and load conditions that were developed from Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) fuel economy driving cycles. Both urban and highway cycles were included in the tests. Separate tests were conducted for unloaded spin losses and loaded power losses. The tests were conducted at a few different controlled levels of gear oil operating temperatures, gear oil volumes, and pinion bearing preloads, and their influence on power losses was quantified. The measured power losses at a matrix of load and speed conditions provide a series of power loss maps as a function of gear oil operating temperature, oil volume, and bearing preload. Using these power loss maps, the overall axle efficiency or power loss during any driving cycle can be quantified by integrating the instantaneous power losses as the axle goes through the driving cycles. Similar maps can be created for other influences and the proposed procedure can be utilized to quantify their influences on a given driving cycle. Results from this study indicate that with the combination of appropriate preloads, gear oil volume, and temperature control, axle efficiency can potentially be improved by roughly 3% in the tested axle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thermally conductive filled polymers enable the creation of multifunctional structures that offer both anchoring points for the embedded actuators, as well as heat-dissipation functions, in order to facilitate the miniaturization of devices. However, there are two important challenges in creating these structures: (1) sufficient thermal management to prevent failure of the actuator and (2) the ability of the actuator to survive the manufacturing process. This paper describes a systematic approach for design of multifunctional structures with embedded heat-generating components using an in-mold assembly process to address these challenges. For the first challenge, the development of appropriate thermal models is presented along with incorporation of in-mold assembly process constraints in the optimization process. For the second challenge, a simulation of the molding process is presented and demonstrated to enable the determination of processing conditions ensuring survival of the in-mold assembly process for the embedded actuator. Thus, the design methodology described in this paper was utilized to concurrently optimize the choice of material, size of the structure, and processing conditions in order to demonstrate the feasibility of creating multifunctional structures from thermally conductive polymers by embedding actuators through an in-mold assembly process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The traditional method of establishing the stiffness matrix associated with an intervertebral joint is valid only for infinitesimal rotations, whereas the rotations featured in spinal motion are often finite. In the present paper, a new formulation of this stiffness matrix is presented, which is valid for finite rotations. This formulation uses Euler angles to parametrize the rotation, an associated basis, which is known as the dual Euler basis, to describe the moments, and it enables a characterization of the nonconservative nature of the joint caused by energy loss in the poroviscoelastic disk and ligamentous support structure. As an application of the formulation, the stiffness matrix of a motion segment is experimentally determined for the case of an intact intervertebral disk and compared with the matrices associated with the same segment after the insertion of a total disk replacement system. In this manner, the matrix is used to quantify the changes in the intervertebral kinetics associated with total disk replacements. As a result, this paper presents the first such characterization of the kinetics of a total disk replacement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a mathematical framework to properly account for uncertainty in wind resource assessment and wind energy production estimation. A meteorological tower based wind measurement campaign is considered exclusively, in which measure-correlate-predict is used to estimate the long-term wind resource. The evaluation of a wind resource and the subsequent estimation of the annual energy production (AEP) is a highly uncertain process. Uncertainty arises at all points in the process, from measuring the wind speed to the uncertainty in a power curve. A proper assessment of uncertainty is critical for judging the feasibility and risk of a potential wind energy development. The approach in this paper provides a framework for an accurate and objective accounting of uncertainty and, therefore, better decision making when assessing a potential wind energy site. It does not investigate the values of individual uncertainty sources. Three major aspects of site assessment uncertainty are presented here. First, a method is presented for combining uncertainty that arises in assessing the wind resource. Second, methods for handling uncertainty sources in wind turbine power output and energy losses are presented. Third, a new method for estimating the overall AEP uncertainty when using a Weibull distribution is presented. While it is commonly assumed that the uncertainty in the wind resource should be scaled by a factor between 2 and 3 to yield the uncertainty in the AEP, this work demonstrates that this assumption is an oversimplification and also presents a closed form solution for the sensitivity factors of the Weibull parameters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The modeling of recirculation patterns in air-cooled data centers is of interest to ensure adequate thermal management of computer racks at increased heat densities. Most metrics that describe recirculation are based exclusively on temperature inside the data center, and therefore fail to provide adequate information regarding the energy efficiency of the thermal infrastructure. This paper addresses this limitation through an exergy analysis of the data center thermal management system. The approach recognizes that the mixing of hot and cold streams in the data center airspace is an irreversible process and must therefore lead to a loss of exergy. Experimental validation in a test data center confirms that such an exergy-based characterization in the cold aisle reflects the same recirculation trends as suggested by traditional temperature-based metrics. Further, by extending the exergy-based model to include irreversibilities from other components of the thermal architecture, it becomes possible to quantify the amount of available energy supplied to the cooling system that is being utilized for thermal management purposes. The energy efficiency of the entire data center cooling system can then be collapsed into the single metric of net exergy loss. When evaluated against a ground state of the external ambience, this metric enables an estimate of how much of the energy emitted into the environment could potentially be harnessed in the form of useful work. Thus, this paper successfully demonstrates that the proposed exergy-based approach can provide a foundation upon which the data center cooling system can be simultaneously evaluated for thermal manageability and energy efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Improved fuel efficiency and reduced emissions are key drivers for modern drivetrain systems. Therefore, in recent years, dry sumps with air-oil mist lubrication have been used for efficient transmission design in order to reduce the churning losses. With dry sumps, appropriate cooling measures should be implemented to dissipate the generated contact heat in an efficient manner. This paper integrates a tribological model with three-dimensional (3D) thermofluid analysis in order to predict the heat generated in the lubricated meshing gear contacts and its dissipation rate by an impinging oil jet in air-oil mist environment. Such an approach has not hitherto been reported in literature. The results show that the generated heat under realistic conditions cannot be entirely dissipated by the impinging oil jet in the air-oil mist transmission casing. Numerical results are used to derive extrapolated regressed equations for heat transfer purposes for time-efficient analysis. These conform well with the detailed numerical results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews models of helical cable behavior with an emphasis on recent models that study internal cable damping. Cable models are categorized into three major classes consisting of thin rod models, semicontinuous models, and beam models. Research on cable vibration damping resulting from internal factors is investigated and related, with conclusions supported by multiple bodies of work highlighted and inconsistencies that may require further study noted. Internal damping mechanisms due to interwire friction, variable bending stiffness, and internal and viscoelastic dissipation are explored with specific damping terms presented for the various models. Damping through inclusion of friction forces, viscoelastic shear effects, or bending stiffness as a function of cable curvature and wire properties must be included to produce a realistic cable model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the gear coupling mechanics of the ancient Antikythera mechanism, among whose distinctive characteristics was the triangular shaping of the teeth. The engagement of the tooth pairs is analyzed in detail, estimating the temporal variation of the speed ratio due to the back and forth shifting of the relative instant center. The admissibility of the theoretical contact points is carefully checked, and the magnitude of the successive tooth collisions is calculated together with the energy losses arising from the particular nature of the coupling. Some interesting results are that only one tooth pair turns out to be active at each time instant and the real path may belong only to the approach or to the recess region entirely, or may split into separate subphases, in approach and in recess, or may even straddle both regions. The occurrence of each of these conditions depends on the average speed ratio (tooth ratio) and the assigned clearance between the wheels. It is also found that the speed oscillation is roughly contained in a ±10 range and the efficiency may reach rather high values, despite the presumable crude finishing of the ancient gearwheels due to the rather rudimentary technology used in the construction of the tooth profiles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports the results of experimental and numerical investigations of optimal heat distribution among the protruding heat sources under laminar conjugate mixed convection heat transfer in a vertical duct. A printed circuit board with 15 heat sources forms a wall of a duct. Three-dimensional governing equations of flow and heat transfer were solved in the flow domain along with the energy equation in the solid domain using FLUENT 6.3. A database of temperatures of each of the heat sources for different heat distributions is generated numerically. Artificial neural networks (ANNs) were used as a forward model to replace the time consuming complex computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations. The functional relationship between heat input distribution and the corresponding temperatures of the heat sources obtained by training the network is used to drive a genetic algorithm based optimization procedure to determine the optimal heat distribution. The optimal distribution here refers to the apportioning of a fixed quantity of heat among 15 heat sources, keeping the maximum of the temperatures of the heat sources to a minimum. Furthermore, the heat distribution corresponding to a set of specified target temperatures of the heat sources is obtained using a network that is trained and tested with a database of temperatures of the heat sources generated using FLUENT 6.3 in the range of total heat dissipation of 5-25 W. Using this network, it was possible to maximize the total heat dissipation from the heat sources for a given target temperature directly. In order to validate the optimization method, a low speed vertical wind tunnel has been used to carry out the mixed convection experiments for different combinations of heat distribution and also for the optimal heat distribution, and the temperatures of the heat sources were measured. The results of the numerical simulations, ANN, and the corresponding experimental results are in good agreement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper heat transfer in an electrically conducting fluid bonded by two parallel plates is studied in the presence of viscous dissipation. The plates and the fluid rotate with constant angular velocity about a same axis of rotation where the lower plate is a stretching sheet and the upper plate is a porous plate subject to constant injection. The governing partial differential equations are transformed to a system of ordinary differential equations with the help of similarity transformation. Homotopy analysis method is used to get complete analytic solution for velocity and temperature profiles. The effects of different parameters are discussed through graphs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an energetically derived control methodology to specify and regulate the oscillatory motion of a pneumatic hopping robot. An ideal lossless pneumatic actuation system with an inertia is shown to represent an oscillator with a stiffness, and hence frequency, related to the equilibrium pressures in the actuator. Following from an analysis of the conservative energy storage elements in the system, a control methodology is derived to sustain a specified frequency of oscillation in the presence of energy dissipation. The basic control strategy is to control the pressure in the upper chamber of the pneumatic cylinder to specify the contact time of the piston, while controlling the total conservative energy stored in the system to specify the flight time and corresponding flight height of the cylinder. The control strategy takes advantage of the natural passive dynamics of the upper chamber to provide much of the required actuation forces and natural stiffness, while the remaining forces needed to overcome the energy dissipation present in a nonideal system with losses are provided by a nonlinear control law for the charging and discharging of the lower chamber of the cylinder. Efficient hopping motion, relative to a traditional nonconservative actuator, is achieved by allowing the energy storing capability of a pneumatic actuator to store and return energy to the system at a controlled specifiable frequency. The control methodology is demonstrated through simulation and experimental results to provide accurate and repeatable hopping motion for pneumatically actuated robots in the presence of dissipative forces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the effects of rarefaction, dissipation, curvature, and accommodation coefficients on flow and heat transfer characteristics in rotating microdevices. The problem is modeled as a cylindrical Couette flow with a rotating shaft and stationary housing. The housing is maintained at uniform temperature while the rotating shaft is insulated. Thus, heat transfer is due to viscous dissipation only. An analytic solution is obtained for the temperature distribution in the gas filled concentric clearance between the rotating shaft and its stationary housing. The solution is valid in the slip flow and temperature jump domain defined by the Knudsen number range of 0.001