The theory of the extraction of electrons from metals by metastable atoms, II

Author(s):  
H. S. W. Massey

In a previous paper the nature of the phenomena occurring when electrons are ejected from metal surfaces by the impact of metastable atoms and positive ions was discussed. It was shown that electrons may be ejected by excited atoms at considerable distances from the surface, and by considering the case of an excited hydrogen atom at the centre of a spherical cavity in the metal the order of magnitude of the effects to be expected and the velocity distribution of the ejected electrons was determined. In this paper the theory will be extended in two directions.

1956 ◽  
Vol 104 (5) ◽  
pp. 1492-1493 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rafi M. Chaudhri ◽  
Mustafa Yar Khan ◽  
Abdul Latif Taseer

Most metals when used as the cathode of an arc discharge cannot reach temperatures sufficiently high to emit electrons thermionically. However, the temperatures are high enough to produce considerable evaporation. Mercury and copper are examples. The older theories suggest that here the current at the cathode is carried by electrons extracted by field emission, photo-electric emission or secondary emission by positive ions, or that the entire current is carried by positive ions produced by thermal ionization in the gas. All the theories are shown to be quantitatively inconsistent with observations. A new theory is suggested: electrons are released from the cathode by the impact of excited atoms. The electrons gain energy in the cathode fall and produce excited atoms in the dense vapour. The radiation from the excited atoms diffuses, mainly in the direction of the cathode, by successive absorption and re-emission in the vapour and is ultimately absorbed by atoms which strike the cathode. Positive ions are formed in the vapour by collisions between excited atoms, and by electrons colliding with excited atoms. The positive ions have three functions; their space charge provides the cathode fall in potential, they supply energy for evaporation and they transfer momentum to the evaporated atoms. The majority of the latter are back-scattered and in this way a vapour density is set up close to the cathode which is many orders of magnitude larger than elsewhere. An exceptionally high density, however, is a necessary condition for a low cathode fall and a high current density. The new picture is also consistent with the observed force on the cathode and the evaporation rate. The energy balance also supports the theory.


It was postulated by Townsend some thirty years ago that ionization of gases by positive ions played an important part in a self-maintained electric discharge through a gas. There was, however, no direct experimental evidence in favour of this hypothesis. Very few experiments have been done so far in connection with the solution of this problem and it appears that no satisfactory method has been devised to investigate it. The experiments of Sutton which showed that positive ions of potassium of energy above 100 volts ionized neon and argon are not conclusive, since the results obtained can be explained in terms of the secondary effects caused by the impact of primary positive ions and excited atoms upon different parts of the apparatus.


2011 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas G Koch

Current estimates of obesity costs ignore the impact of future weight loss and gain, and may either over or underestimate economic consequences of weight loss. In light of this, I construct static and dynamic measures of medical costs associated with body mass index (BMI), to be balanced against the cost of one-time interventions. This study finds that ignoring the implications of weight loss and gain over time overstates the medical-cost savings of such interventions by an order of magnitude. When the relationship between spending and age is allowed to vary, weight-loss attempts appear to be cost-effective starting and ending with middle age. Some interventions recently proven to decrease weight may also be cost-effective.


Crystals ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 691
Author(s):  
Yugang Zhao ◽  
Zichao Zuo ◽  
Haibo Tang ◽  
Xin Zhang

Icing/snowing/frosting is ubiquitous in nature and industrial processes, and the accretion of ice mostly leads to catastrophic consequences. The existing understanding of icing is still limited, particularly for aircraft icing, where direct observation of the freezing dynamics is inaccessible. In this work, we investigate experimentally the impact and freezing of a water drop onto the supercooled substrate at extremely low vapor pressure, to mimic an aircraft passing through clouds at a relatively high altitude, engendering icing upon collisions with pendant drops. Special attention is focused on the ice coverage induced by an impinging drop, from the perimeter pointing outward along the radial direction. We observed two freezing regimes: (I) spread-recoil-freeze at the substrate temperature of Ts = −15.4 ± 0.2 °C and (II) spread (incomplete)-freeze at the substrate temperature of Ts = −22.1 ± 0.2 °C. The ice coverage is approximately one order of magnitude larger than the frozen drop itself, and counterintuitively, larger supercooling yields smaller ice coverage in the range of interest. We attribute the variation of ice coverage to the kinetics of vapor diffusion in the two regimes. This fundamental understanding benefits the design of new anti-icing technologies for aircraft.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (21) ◽  
pp. 6082 ◽  
Author(s):  
Judith Rosenow ◽  
Hartmut Fricke

Contrails are one of the driving contributors to global warming, induced by aviation. The quantification of the impact of contrails on global warming is nontrivial and requires further in-depth investigation. In detail, condensation trails might even change the algebraic sign between a cooling and a warming effect in an order of magnitude, which is comparable to the impact of aviation-emitted carbon dioxides and nitrogen oxides. This implies the necessity to granularly consider the environmental impact of condensation trails in single-trajectory optimization tools. The intent of this study is the elaboration of all significant factors influencing on the net effect of single condensation trails. Possible simplifications will be proposed for a consideration in single-trajectory optimization tools. Finally, the effects of the most important impact factors, such as latitude, time of the year, and time of the day, wind shear, and atmospheric turbulence as well as their consideration in a multi-criteria trajectory optimization tool are exemplified. The results can be used for an arbitrary trajectory optimization tool with environmental optimization intents.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jiří Pavlů ◽  
Samuel Kočiščák ◽  
Åshild Fredriksen ◽  
Michael DeLuca ◽  
Zoltan Sternovsky

<p>We experimentally observe both positive and negative charge carriers in impact plasma and estimate their effective temperatures. The measurements are carried on a dust accelerator using polypyrrole (PPy)-coated olivine dust particles impacting tungsten (W) target in the velocity range of 2–18 km/s. We measure the retained impact charge as a function of applied bias potential to the control grid. The temperatures are estimated from the data fit. The estimated effective temperatures of the positive ions are approximately 7 eV and seems to be independent of the impact speed. The negative charge carriers' temperatures vary from as low as 1 eV for the lowest speeds to almost ten times higher speeds. The presented values differ significantly from previous studies using Fe dust particles. Yet, the discrepancy can be attributed to a larger fraction of negative ions in the impact plasma that likely originates from the PPy coating.</p>


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean Vicente Ferrari

Abstract Generally, in water injection systems, oxygen levels starting from around eight ppm are deoxygenated to below 50 ppm, following international standards' guidelines. This work aims to discuss the impact of such a magnitude value of oxygen contamination on steel corrosion in seawater injection systems by analysing theoretical polarisation curves and results from published works with different approaches. Corrosion models consider mass-transfer controlled diffusion of oxygen to predict the maximum steel corrosion rate, which depends on the oxygen limiting current, which in turn is strongly influenced by flow velocity. The effect of free chlorine on corrosion in seawater injection systems has also been considered and included in an oxygen equivalent parameter. In such systems, where oxygen reduction is the key cathodic reaction, the corrosion process may be under cathodic activation control, independent of flow at higher velocities or when erosion-corrosion begins. In this work, theoretical polarisation curves were constructed by using published oxygen and chlorine cathodic limiting currents (iLc) on carbon steel and a noble metal electrode, respectively. Aerated (200 ppb and 9000 ppb of oxygen) and deaerated conditions (50 ppb of oxygen) and the presence of 300 ppb of chlorine were applied to the assumed exchange current densities (io). Neutral (pH 7) and acid (pH 4) conditions (considering the presence of CO2) were also assumed to be at room temperature and pressure. Since the corrosion rate in lower oxygen concentrations (ppb order of magnitude) may result in corrosion rates of the same order of magnitude than in higher oxygen concentrations (ppm order of magnitude) when comparing and analysing results from experimental, semi-empirical or mechanistic approaches, it is necessary to weigh up the effects of both steel surface (bare or scaled/corrosion products) and flow. At oxygen concentrations below 200 ppb and under acid conditions, the contribution of H+ reduction on corrosion rate starts to be higher than oxygen reduction, mainly in the absence of chlorine.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Cheng ◽  
Elizabetta Dotto ◽  
Eugene Fahnestock ◽  
Vincenzo Della Corte ◽  
Nancy Chabot ◽  
...  

<p>The NASA Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission will demonstrate asteroid deflection by a kinetic impactor. DART will impact Dimorphos, the secondary member of the (65803) Didymos system, in late September to early October, 2022 in order to change the binary orbit period. DART will carry a 6U CubeSat called LICIACube, contributed by the Italian Space Agency, to document the DART impact and to observe the impact ejecta. LICIACube will be released by DART 10 days prior to Didymos encounter, and LICIACube will fly by Dimorphos at closest approach distance of about 51 km and with a closest approach time delay of about 167 s after the DART impact. LICIACube will observe the structure and evolution of the DART impact ejecta plume and will obtain images of the surfaces of both bodies at best ground sampling about 1.4 m per pixel. LICIACube imaging importantly includes the non-impact hemisphere of the target body, the side not imaged by DART.</p> <p> </p> <p>The LICIACube flyby trajectory, notably the closest approach distance and the time delay of closest approach, are designed to optimize the study of ejecta plume evolution without exposing the satellite to impact hazard. LICIACube imaging will determine the direction of the ejecta plume and the ejection angles, and will further help to determine the ejecta momentum transfer efficiency <em>β</em>. The ejecta plume structure, as it evolves over time, is determined by the amount of ejecta that has reached a given altitude at a given time. The LICIACube plume images enable characterization of the ejecta mass versus velocity distribution, which is strongly dependent on target properties like strength and porosity and is therefore a powerful diagnostic of the DART impact, complementary to measurements of the DART impact crater by the ESA Hera mission which will arrive at Didymos in 2026. Hera will measure crater radius and crater volume to determine the total volume of ejecta, which together with a ejecta mass-velocity distribution gives a full characterization of the DART impact.</p> <p> </p> <p>Models of the ejecta plume evolution as imaged by LICIACube show how LICIACube images can discriminate between different target physical properties (mainly strength and porosity), thereby allowing inferences of the magnitude of the ejecta momentum. Measured ejecta plume optical depth profiles can distinguish between gravity-controlled and strength-controlled impact cases and help determine target physical properties. LICIACube ejecta plume images further provide information on the direction of the ejecta momentum as well as the magnitude, requiring full 2-D simulations of the plume images. We will present new simulation model optical depth profiles across the plume at arbitrary positions.</p> <p><br />We thank NASA for support of the DART project at JHU/APL, under Contract # NNN06AA01C, Task Order # NNN15AA05T. The Italian LICIACube team acknowledges financial support from Agenzia Spaziale Italiana (ASI, contract No. 2019-31-HH.0 CUP<br />F84I190012600).</p>


Author(s):  
Katharine Liu ◽  
Emma Xiao ◽  
Gregory Westwater ◽  
Christopher R. Johnson ◽  
J. Adin Mann

The total strain, elastic plus plastic, was measured with strain gages on valve bodies with internal pressure that caused surface yielding. The correlation of the simulated maximum principal strain was compared to strain gage data. A mesh sensitivity study shows that in regions of large plastic strain, mesh elements are required that are an order of magnitude smaller than what is used for linear elastic stress analysis for the same structure. A local mesh refinement was adequate to resolve the local high strain values. Both the location and magnitude of the maximum strain changed with a local mesh refinement. The local mesh refinement requirement was consistent over several structures that were tested. The test and simulation work will be presented along with the mesh sensitivity study. Some results on using an energy stabilization technique to aid convergence will be presented in terms of the impact on the predicted plastic strain.


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