INTERMITTENT TURBULENCE IN THE VERY STABLE EKMAN LAYER This study describes a Direct Numerical Simulation (DNS) of a very stable Ekman layer in which a constant downward heat flux is applied at the lower boundary, thus cooling the fluid above. Numerical experiments were performed in which the strength of the imposed heat flux was varied. For downward heat fluxes above a certain critical value the turbulence becomes intermittent and, as the heat flux increases beyond this value, the flow tends to relaminarize because of the very strong ambient stratification. We adopt Mahrt?s (1999) definition of the very stable boundary layer as a boundary layer in which intermittent, rather than continuous turbulence, is observed. Numerical experiments were used to test various hypothesis of where in ?stability parameter space? the very stable boundary layer is found. These experiments support the findings of Howell and Sun (1999) that the boundary layer will exhibit intermittency and therefore be categorized as ?very stable?, when the stability parameter, z/L, exceeds unity. Another marker for the very stable boundary layer, Derbyshire?s (1990) maximum heat flux criterion, was also examined. Using a case study drawn from the simulations where turbulence intermittency was observed, the mechanism that causes the …

This is a doctoral dissertation, in French, on the subject of study, design and realization of a Fabry-Perot cavity for the Compton polarimeter of TJNAF.

New experimental data is presented on some exotic metals that exhibit phase changes at cryogenic temperatures. The types of phase changes that were detected in the specific heat data range from martensitic (diffusion less) transitions to superconducting transitions. In addition, the charge density wave (CDW) state in uranium metal was detected in the specific heat. Specific-heat measurements were made in zero-magnetic field using an apparatus capable of obtaining temperatures as low as 0.4 K. Calibration performed on this apparatus, using a single-crystal copper sample, show its accuracy to be 0.50%, while the resolution was better than 0.1%. Our measurements demonstrate that similar high precision and accurate specific-heat measurements can be obtained on milligram-scale samples. In Chapters 2 and 3, specific-heat measurements are presented for the B2 (CsCl structure) alloy AuZn and for {alpha}-uranium (orthorhombic symmetry). The AuZn alloy exhibits a continuous transition at 64.75 K and an entropy of transition of ({Delta}S{sub tr}) 2.02 J K{sup {minus}1} mol{sup {minus}1}. Calculation of the Debye temperature, by extrapolating of the high temperature phase elastic constants to T = 0 K yields a value of 207 K ({+-}2 K), in favorable agreement with the calorimetric value of 219 K ({+-}0.50 K), despite the …

A survey of employee behavior was conducted at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). The objective of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of ergonomic behavior that decreased the chance of having a work-related musculoskeletal disorder (WMSD) among employees. The null hypothesis was tested to determine if there was a significant difference in ergonomic behavior between trained and untrained employees. The LANL employees were stratified by job series and then randomly selected to participate. The data were gathered using an electronic self-administered behavior questionnaire. The study population was composed of 6931 employees, and the response rate was 48%. The null hypothesis was rejected for twelve out of fifteen questions on the questionnaire. Logistic regression results indicate that the trained participants were more likely to report the risk-avoiding behavior, which supported the rejection of the null hypothesis for 60% of the questions. There was a higher frequency that the beneficial or risk-avoiding behavior was reported by the uninjured participants. Job series analysis revealed that ergonomics is an important issue among participants from all the job series. It also identified the occupational specialist classification (an administrative job), as the job series with the most occurrences of undesired ergonomic behaviors. In conclusion, there …