Friday, January 15, 2016

2. Sensitivity analysis of thermo-acoustic eigenproblems with adjoint methods

This post summarizes the article by Juniper et al. [1].



Introduction

TA oscillations involve the interaction of thermal gradients and acoustic amplification. In rocket engine, heat release variations can synchronize with natural acoustic modes that can amplify the structural vibrational modes of the engine leading to catastrophic failure.

In ost situtaions, ony a handful of oscillation modes are unstable. This paper presents a quicker technique to do a parameter sensitivity in order to judge how the gradients are affected by altering specific parameters in a thermo-acoustic framework.

Thermo-acoustic framework

LES techniques have proven useful in predicting if an instability shall arise. However, they do not suggest how to control that instability (like what parameter to alter). Also, they are quite expensive computationally.

Low-Order Networks

Two low-order methods are enlisted: network models and helmholtz solver. network models consider the combustor to be a network of 1-D elements. Acoustic quantities are transferred from one element to the other through jump relations that enforce pressure continuity and mass conservation. All acoustic quantitoes are predicted by analytical expressions. Typically the degrees of freedom are twice the number of elements constituting the combustor.

Helmholtz solver assume that the mean flow is at rest, in which case the compressible Navier Stokes equation reduces to a linear relation between pressure $p_{1}$ and the heat release function $q_{1}$. More specifically, one could say that:



Wednesday, December 23, 2015

1. The Effects of Overt Head Movements on Persuasion

This post summarizes the article by Wells and Petty [1].




Abstract

It was hypothesized that vertical and horizontal head movements can augment or inhibit certain cognitive processes. 72 students were given headphones to hear a radio broadcast and evaluated to test the validity of this assumption. Those performing vertical movements agreed with the contents of the radio host, while those performing the horizontal motion did not.

Introduction


In persuasion settings, two important mechanisms were identified - counter arguments and favorable thoughts. If an argument intended for persuasion increases favorable thoughts in the mind of the listener, or reduces counter arguments - increased persuasion should result. The inverse is also true: if the argument reduces favorable thoughts, or increases counter arguments, it becomes harder to persuade the listener.


One of the difficulties with the persuasion based cognitive view is to selectively affect the production of the counter-arguments or positive thinking, without impairing thinking. (It was observed in previous studies that messages that inhibit or enhance counter arguments also inhibit and enhance positive thinking)

Incompatible responses

The authors hypothesized that the vertical shaking of head would be incompatible with counter arguments but compatible with a favorable response. Similarly, a horizontal shaking of the head would be incompatible with a favorable response but compatible with the counter arguments.

These hypotheses were based upon the idea that memorial (or learning based) responses that are established in one context are transferred best to similar contexts.

Method

72 students were tested at University of Alberta. They were split into (3 x 2 ) groups - vertical head movements, horizontal head movements and control group (3) and were made to listen to pro-attitudinal and counter-attitudinal messages (2).

Cover Story

"Consumers want headphones that allow movement without experiencing discomfort or generating sound distortion". Students were told that they must perform head movements while listening to a  radio broadcast.

Procedure

The broadcast began with a music clip (Linda Ronstadt). Then a presenter came who argued that the tuition fees at University of Alberta should be brought down (pro-attitudinal: similar to the cognitive thinking of the students until then), or that it should be increased (counter-attitudinal). It ended with a recording of the Hotel California.

Results

Finally the students were asked what is an appropraite value for the tuition fees and the following is the average response.






Sources

1. https://public.psych.iastate.edu/glwells/Wells%20pdfs/1980-89/Wells_Petty_1980_BASP.pdf