BACKGROUND In aerodynamic levitation, solids and liquids are floated in a vertical gas stream. In combination with CO2-laser heating, containerless melting at high temperature of oxides and silicates is possible. We apply aerodynamic levitation to bulk rocks in preparation for microchemical analyses, and for evaporation and reduction experiments. RESULTS Liquid silicate droplets (~2 mm) were ...

Plain concrete structures such as dams or retaining walls, as well as rock structures such as tunnels, caverns, excavations, and rock slopes, have commonly been designed by elastic-perfectly plastic analysis in which the tensile yield strength of the material is taken as zero. The paper analyzes the safety of this "notension" design in the light of the finiteness of the tensile strength of conc...

Limited research has been performed on competitive bouldering. The aim of this study was to quantify the movement dynamics of elite boulder climbers. Six climbers were filmed during a national competition consisting of 5 novel climbing problems or routes. Two problems were randomly selected and film footage was analyzed using Kandle Swinger Pro software to determine type and duration (seconds) ...