The present paper describes the results of an experimental wind tunnel test campaign aimed at investigating the aerodynamic performance and flow physics related to a wing section equipped with two propellers mounted on a boom. The configuration investigated is meant to be representative of a full-scale eVTOL aircraft in cruise flight condition. The use of full-scale components of an eVTOL aircraft made this setup a quite advanced experiment in the recent literature. Pressure measurements and an infrared thermography technique were used during the test campaign, respectively, to evaluate localised effects induced by the propeller blowing on the wing and to provide a quantitative evaluation of the amount of laminar flow on the wing surface with and without the influence of the propeller at different thrust conditions.

Conception and industrial production of viable high specific energy/power batteries is a central issue for the development of non-polluting vehicles. In terms of stored energy and safety, solid-state devices using polymer electrolytes are highly desirable. One of the most studied systems is PEO (polyethylene oxide) complexed by Li salts. Polymer segmental motions and ionic conductivity are closely related. Bulk PEO is actually a biphasic system where an amorphous and a crystalline state (Tg ≈ 213 K, Tm ≈ 335 K) coexist. To improve ionic conduction in those systems requires a significant increase of the amorphous phase fraction where lithium conduction is known to mainly take place. Confinement strongly affects properties of condensed matter and in particular the collective phenomena inducing crystallization. Confinement of the polymer matrix is therefore a possible alternative route to the impractical use of high temperature.

Results of a quasi-elastic incoherent neutron scattering study of the influence of confinement on polyethylene oxide (PEO) and (PEO)8Li+[(CF3SO2)2N]− (or (POE)8LiTFSI) dynamics are presented. The nano-confining media is Vycor, a silica based hydrophilic porous glass (characteristic size of the 3D pore network ≈ 50 Å). As expected, the presence of Li salt slows down the bulk polymer dynamics. The confinement also affects dramatically the apparent mean-square displacement of the polymer. Local relaxational PEO dynamics is described KWW model. We also present an alternate model and show how the detailed polymer dynamics (correlation times and local geometry of the motions) can be described without the use of such stretched exponentials so as to access a rheology-related meaningful physical quantity: the monomeric friction coefficient.

Results of a quasi-elastic incoherent neutron scattering study of the influence of confinement on polyethylene oxide (PEO) and (PEO)8Li+[(CF3SO2)2N]- (or (POE)8LiTFSI) dynamics are presented. The confining media is Vycor, a silica based hydrophilic porous glass. We observe a strong slowing down of the bulk polymer dynamics under presence of Li salt. The confinement also affects dramatically the apparent mean-square displacement of the polymer. As supported by DSC measurements, the PEO melting transition at 335 K is strongly attenuated under confinement, suggesting that confinement modifies the global structure of the system, increasing the fraction of amorphous PEO by respect to crystalline phase. Local relaxational PEO dynamics is successfully described by the DLM (Dejean-Laupretre-Monnerie) model usually used to interpret NMR spin-lattice relaxation time data. The scattering vector dependence of the correlation times deduced from inelastic neutron scattering data is found to obey a power-law dependence. DSC and preliminary ionic conduction measurements are also presented.

The activation energies for poly(ethylene oxide) motion in a polymer clay composite are reported for the polymer intercalated and external to the clay. PEO intercalated into the clay is found to have a lower activation energy for motion but also a larger Arrhenius prefactor, by almost two orders of magnitude, than for PEO found external to the clay. Neutron scattering measurements confirm the presence of two environments and the effects of confinement on the mean square displacement of the PEO.

Low temperature monochromatic cathodoluminescence (CL) spectral analyses and imaging were used to determine the widths of resistive regions (due to Fe diffusion) in multi-quantum-well (MQW) InP-based laser devices and to detect the different amount of damage induced by alternative In-situ Etching (ISE) and Reactive Ion Etching (RIE) techniques. The widths of the resistive regions were estimated by comparing the 5 K CL emission width from the MQW and the actual width as obtained by SEM investigations. Monochromatic CL also did not reveal any emission from the InP:Sn layer between semi-insulating material (Fe-doped lnp) and p-type layer (Zn-doped InP), indicating interdiffusion of Fe and Zn laterally the MQW, and the presence of substantial Sn diffusion (up to 2500 nanometers) into the substrate.

A new facility for growing single crystals of urea by physical vapour transport in effusive cells is reported. The best crystals, as characterised by X-ray diffraction topography, are largely dislocation-free and do not contain microprocipitates.

The GALLEX collaboration aims at the detection of solar neutrinos in a radiochemical experiment employing 30 tons of Gallium in form of concentrated aqueous Gallium-chloride solution. The detector is primarily sensitive to the otherwise inaccessible pp-neutrinos. Details of the experiment have been repeatedly described before [1-7]. Here we report the present status of implementation in the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso (Italy). So far, 12.2 tons of Gallium are at hand. The present status of development allows to start the first full scale run at the time when 30 tons of Gallium become available. This date is expected to be January, 1990.

Quantitative energy-dependent EBIC measurements have been used to calibrate the photoetching rate in HF-CrO3 aqueous solutions (DSL method: Diluted Sirtl-like etching with the use of Light) as a function of dopant concentration in LEC grown n-type GaAs samples containing growth striations. The relative DSL etching rate depends on the width of the surface depletion region associated with the semiconductor-etching solution interface, i. e. greater etch rates correspond to smaller dopant concentrations. These results are in agreement with the electrochemical model of GaAs etching in the DSL etching system.