We created a model physical system to investigate the role of blade rigidity in setting forces and rates of mass exchange for a blade exposed to unsteady flow in a vortex street. Using a combination of experimental and theoretical investigations, we find that, broadly, both the forces and the mass exchange are higher for more flexible blades. Below a critical value of the dimensionless blade ri...

~The design of axial-flo~ turbines has been hampered in the past by a lack of comprehensive data regarding pressure losses and gas deflections through rows of turbine blades. In the present report much of the available information relating to this subject is studied and analysed to determine magnitudes of gas pressure losses and deflections in a wide variety of blade rows and also to determine ...

The Drosophila wing imaginal disc gives rise to three body parts along the proximo-distal (P-D) axis: the wing blade, the wing hinge and the mesonotum. Development of the wing blade initiates along part of the dorsal/ventral (D/V) compartment boundary and requires input from both the Notch and wingless (wg) signal transduction pathways. In the wing blade, wg activates the gene vestigial (vg), w...

A computational and experimental study was carried out to determine whether blade tip suction can increase compressor efficiency. Compressor flow fields contain concentrated regions of high entropy fluid near the blade surfaces. Blade suction can remove this fluid, lowering the entropy of the compressor throughflow, thereby avoiding a thermodynamic inefficiency, ultimately raising the compresso...

A new mechanism responsible for structural life consumption due to resonant fatigue in turbine blades, or vanes, is presented and explained. A rotating blade or vane in a gas turbine can change its contour due to erosion and/or material build up, in any of these instances, the surface pressure distribution occurring on the suction and pressure sides of blades-vanes can suffer substantial modifi...

To further explore the function of NADH-dependent glutamate synthase (GOGAT), the tissue distribution of NADH-GOGAT protein and activity was investigated in rice (Oryza sativa L.) leaves. The distributions of ferredoxin (Fd)-dependent GOGAT, plastidic glutamine synthetase, and cytosolic glutamine synthetase proteins were also determined in the same tissues. High levels of NADH-GOGAT protein (33...

Theoretical assessments of the influence of trailing-edge thickness on turbine blade loss coefficients are reviewed and compared with the results of a cascade tunnel investigation. Tests on a single-stage turbine indicate that efficiency is much more sensitive to stator blade trailing-edge thickness than simple estimates woul d indicate, but rotor blade thickness effects on efficiency are in li...

The potential for lettuce field-coring harvesting knives to cross-contaminate lettuce heads with pathogens was evaluated. Rings and blades of the harvest knives artificially contaminated with Escherichia coli O157:H7 (EHEC), were used to core three successive heads of iceberg lettuce. The coring rings and blades were inoculated by dipping into soils containing EHEC at concentration ranges of 1-...

This paper describes the structural design of a tidal turbine composite blade. The structural design is preceded by two steps: hydrodynamic design and determination of extreme loads. The hydrodynamic design provides the blade external shape, i.e. the chord and twist distributions along the blade, which result in optimal performance of the tidal turbine over its lifetime. The extreme loads, i.e....

We present a framework for generating a trivariate B-spline parametrization of turbine blades from measurement data generated by optical scanners. This new representation replaces the standard patchbased representation of industrial blade designs. In a first step, the blade surface is represented by a smoothly varying family of B-spline curves. In a second step, the blade is parametrized by a t...