Introduction. As stated in Report KAPL 116, one of the objectives of the KAPL reactor is "to provide a prototype demonstration of the practical general of electrical power from Nuclear energy using molten sodium as the primary coolant. The reactor will generate steam at a temperature of 550 degrees F and 465 psia, including 90 degree superheat potentially capable of an efficiency of twenty-eight per cent in electrical output." The work reported here is intended to increase the scope and supply an independent check on the heat transfer system analysis that has previously been done. The purpose of these analyses is to investigate the effects on load rating and top reactor temperature.

Monthly report of the U.S. Geological Survey's trace element investigations including an outline of field work, laboratory work, and staff activities that have been completed or are in process.

The thermal decomposition of the higher oxides of praseodymium and americium have been investigated.

A report which deals with the Redox IA Column studies made in small-scale columns packed with 3/16-in. Fenske helices and using NH4NO3 salting agent.

Introduction: Static, total immersion corrosion tests were carried out at room temperatures with Carboloy grades 44-A, 78, 907, X-3119-A and X-3119-B in Redox process solutions (ANL, June 1, 1949 Flowsheet) 1AX, 1AF, and 1AS.

Abstract: "The critical mass both of an untamped and water-tamped sphere with parabolic radial variation of the intrinsic buckling is calculated by a perturbation method. The result is applied to finding the minimum critical mass of plutonium in water suspension with infinite water temper; the calculations show that the minimum critical mass at constant concentration may be reduced by an amount of the order of 7.6% when the concentration of plutonium is permitted to vary throughout the suspension."

Abstract: A procedure for the preparation of the nitrides and carbides of several metals and the preparation of the refractory bodies from them is described. The investigation shows that reasonably strong and dense bodies can be prepared from these materials as well as from UO₂. Evidence showing the tendency toward instability at high temperatures of Be₃N₂, TaN, and ThN is presented. Evidence is also given indicating that the hexagonal structure reported by others for TaN is actually that for Ta₂N. A lattice for Th₂N₃ is proposed. The melting points of ThN, UN, and UC are determined to be 2630 ± 50°C,2650 ± 100°C, and 2590 ± 50°C respectively.

The following report investigates the isolation of the cause of the unusual tool-wear rates found in machining beryllium as attributed to an inherent characteristic of beryllium, or an effect of inclusions in beryllium, as well as the evaluation of the comparative machinability of the various types of beryllium.

Report outlining fields of study for a program of research in the geochemistry of uranium. From Abstract: "Various specific topics and projects that apply to these fields of study are suggested."

Report discussing the determination of the number of olefinic double bonds in less-than-milligram amounts of unsaturated fatty acid derivatives using Barcroft-Warburg tissue respirometer as a manometric microhydrogenation apparatus.

Resolution of the products of the reactions of DPN and ATP with ultraviolet light by techniques of partition paper chromatography is reported in this paper.

Construction and operation of a simplified ionization chamber.

Memorandum presenting measurements of some of the high-speed characteristics of the D-558-1 airplane up to Mach number 0.89. The results of the tests showed that the stabilizer incidence drastically affected the longitudinal trim characteristics above a Mach number of 0.80.

"The perturbation field induced by a line vortex in a supersonic stream and the downwash behind a supersonic lifting surface are examined to establish approximate methods for determining the downwash behind supersonic wings. Lifting-lines methods are presented for calculating supersonic downwash. A bent lifting-line method is proposed for computing the downwash field behind swept wings. When applied to triangular wings with subsonic leading edges, this method gives results that, in general, are in good agreement with the exact linearized solution" (p. 635).

A method is presented for the determination of the contour of disks, typified by those of aircraft gas turbines, to incorporate arbitrary elastic-stress distributions resulting from either centrifugal or combined centrifugal and thermal effects. The specified stress may be radial, tangential, or any combination of the two. Use is made of the finite-difference approach in solving the stress equations, the amount of computation necessary in the evolution of a design being greatly reduced by the judicious selection of point stations by the aid of a design chart. Use of the charts and of a preselected schedule of point stations is also applied to the direct problem of finding the elastic and plastic stress distribution in disks of a given design, thereby effecting a great reduction in the amount of calculation. Illustrative examples are presented to show computational procedures in the determination of a new design and in analyzing an existing design for elastic stress and for stresses resulting from plastic flow.

The results of an investigation of two 10-foot-diameter, two-blade NACA propellers are presented for a range of blade angles from 20 degrees to 55 degrees at airspeeds up to 500 miles per hour. These results are compared with those from previous investigations of five related NACA propellers in order to evaluate the effects of blade-section thickness ratios on propeller aerodynamic characteristics.

"Methods are presented that use general correlative time-response input and output data for a linear system to determine the frequency-response function of that system. These methods give an exact description of any linear system for which such transient data are available. Examples are shown of application of a method to both an underdamped and a critically damped exact second-order system, and to an exact first-order system with and without dead time. Experimental data for a turbine-propeller engine showing the response of engine speed to change in propeller-blade angle are presented and analyzed" (p. 547).

"A general algebraic method of attack on the problem of controlling gas-turbine engines having any number of independent variables was utilized employing operational functions to describe the assumed linear characteristics for the engine, the control, and the other units in the system. Matrices were used to describe the various units of the system, to form a combined system showing all effects, and to form a single condensed matrix showing the principal effects. This method directly led to the conditions on the control system for noninteraction so that any setting disturbance would affect only its corresponding controlled variable" (p. 581).

From Introduction: "The purpose of the present paper is to summarize the available data on the effects of wing-fuselage-tail and wing-nacelle interference on the distribution of the air load among aircraft components. Some discussion is also given of the effects of center-of-gravity position."

Report presenting a lecture series that aims to give a survey of the more recent results of the theory of viscous fluids and their importance to actual applications. The primary focus is on the theory of the boundary of frictional layer.

Wind tunnel tests of the 0.16-scale Douglas MX-656 model were made at low and high subsonic Mach numbers to investigate the static longitudinal- and lateral stability characteristics. The tests shows that undesirable changes in longitudinal stability at the stall were apparently caused by an altered downwash pattern at the tail. The jettisonable nose fins were highly destabilizing. Compressibility effects for the test Mach numbers were not detrimental to the longitudinal- or lateral-stability characteristics.

"In the present paper which deals with the heat transfer between the gas and the wall for large temperature drops and large velocities use is made of the method of Dorodnitsyn of the introduction of a new independent variable, with this difference, however, that the relation between the temperature field (that is, density) and the velocity field in the general case considered is not assumed given but is determined from the solution of the problem. The effect of the compressibility arising from the heat transfer is thus taken into account (at the same time as the effect of the compressibility at the large velocities). A method is given for determining the coefficients of heat transfer and the friction coefficients required in many technical problems for a curved wall in a gas flow at large Mach numbers and temperature drops" (p. 1).

"Lamé's wave functions result by separation of the wave equation in elliptic coordinates and by integration of the ordinary differential equations thus originating. They are a generalization of Lamé's potential functions which originate in the same manner from the potential equation. Lamé's wave functions are applied for boundary value problems of the wave equation for regions of space bounded by surfaces of a system of confocal ellipsoids and hyperboloids" (p. 1).

"Lately it has been proposed to reduce the friction drag of a body in a flow for the technically important large Reynolds numbers by the following expedient: the boundary layer, normally turbulent, is artificially kept laminar up to high Reynolds numbers by suction. The reduction in friction drag thus obtained is of the order of magnitude of 60 to 80 percent of the turbulent friction drag, since the latter, for large Reynolds numbers, is several times the laminar friction drag. In considering the idea mentioned one has first to consider whether suction is a possible means of keeping the boundary layer laminar" (p. 1).