ALBERT

Description: During the past thirty years, a tremendous amount of research was done on the development of crazing in polymers. The phenomenon of crazing was recognized as an unusual deformation behavior associated with a process of molecular orientation in a solid to resist failure. The craze absorbs a fairly large amount of energy during the crazing process. When a craze does occur the surrounding bulk material is usually stretched to several hundred percent of its original dimension and creates a new phase. The total energy absorbed by a craze during the crazing process in creep was calculated analytically with the help of some experimental measurements. A comparison of the energy absorption by the new phase and that by the original bulk uncrazed medium is made.

Description: The way in which the craze growth behavior is affected by the craze density surrounding the craze is investigated. The craze density is defined as the total number of crazes per unit surface area. It is noted that heretofore the growth rate of a craze has been considered either constant or inversely proportional to time. By allowing for the effect of the surrounding population of crazes, it is found that the craze growth rate is influenced by the local effective stress acting in the vicinity of the craze. It is found that measured data of craze length as a function of time are greatly affected by local interactions. With regard to the craze number, it is found that at high stresses a large number of small crazes becomes visible after a relatively short time, whereas under small stresses a large number of large crazes becomes visible after a long loading time.

Description: A new architecture is presented for a multibit oversampled Sigma-Delta A/D convertor. A novel feedback arrangement is employed to reduce the sensitivity of the overall resolution to the nonlinearity of the multibit DAC. Simulations confirm the improved performance achieved by the proposed structure.

Description: Nonuniformly quantized multibit oversampled Sigma-Delta A/D convertors are proposed which achieve high SNR over a wide dynamic range. Simulation results are presented for first- and second-order 4 bit Sigma-Delta A/D convertors with companding internal quantizers.

Description: eXTP is a science mission designed to study the state of matter under extreme conditions of density, gravity and magnetism. Primary goals are the determination of the equation of state of matter at supra-nuclear density, the measurement of QED effects in highly magnetized star, and the study of accretion in the strong-field regime of gravity. Primary targets include isolated and binary neutron stars, strong magnetic field systems like magnetars, and stellar-mass and supermassive black holes. The mission carries a unique and unprecedented suite of state-of-the-art scientific instruments enabling for the first time ever the simultaneous spectral-timing-polarimetry studies of cosmic sources in the energy range from 0.5-30 keV (and beyond). Key elements of the payload are: the Spectroscopic Focusing Array (SFA) - a set of 11 X-ray optics for a total effective area of approx. 0.9 m(exp. 2) and 0.6 m(exp. 2) at 2 keV and 6 keV respectively, equipped with Silicon Drift Detectors offering less than 180 eV spectral resolution; the Large Area Detector (LAD) - a deployable set of 640 Silicon Drift Detectors, for a total effective area of approx. 3.4 m(exp. 2), between 6 and 10 keV, and spectral resolution better than 250 eV; the Polarimetry Focusing Array (PFA) - a set of 2 X-ray telescope, for a total effective area of 250 cm(exp. 2) at 2 keV, equipped with imaging gas pixel photoelectric polarimeters; the Wide Field Monitor (WFM) - a set of 3 coded mask wide field units, equipped with position-sensitive Silicon Drift Detectors, each covering a 90 degrees x 90 degrees field of view. The eXTP international consortium includes major institutions of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Universities in China, as well as major institutions in several European countries and the United States. The predecessor of eXTP, the XTP mission concept, has been selected and funded as one of the so-called background missions in the Strategic Priority Space Science Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences since 2011. The strong European participation has significantly enhanced the scientific capabilities of eXTP. The planned launch date of the mission is earlier than 2025.