The purpose of this investigation was to determine the energy absorption characteristics of plastically deformed inclined struts under impact loading. This information is needed to provide a usable method by which designers and analysts of shipping casks for radioactive or fissile materials can determine the energy absorption capabilities of external longitudinal fins on cylindrical casks under specified impact conditions. A survey of technical literature related to experimental determination of the dynamic plastic behavior of struts revealed no information directly applicable to the immediate problem, especially in the impact velocity ranges desired, and an experimental program was conducted to obtain the needed data. Mild-steel struts with rectangular cross sections were impacted by free-falling weights dropped from known heights. These struts or fin specimens were inclined at five different angles to simulate different angles of impact that fins on a shipping cask could experience under certain accident conditions. The resisting force of the deforming strut was measured and recorded as a function of time by using load cells instrumented with resistance strain gage bridges, signal conditioning equipment, an oscilloscope, and a Polaroid camera. The acceleration of the impacting weight was measured and recorded as a function of time during the latter portion …

This issue has the following articles: (1) The Omega Laser Facility Users Group Workshop; (2) The Effect of Condensates and Inner Coatings on the Performance of Vacuum Hohlraum Targets; (3) Zirconia-Coated-Carbonyl-Iron-Particle-Based Magnetorheological Fluid for Polishing Optical Glasses and Ceramics; (4) All-Fiber Optical Magnetic Field Sensor Based on Faraday Rotation in Highly Terbium Doped Fiber; (5) Femtosecond Optical Pump-Probe Characterization of High-Pressure-Grown Al{sub 0.86}Ga{sub 0.14}N Single Crystals; (6) LLE's Summer High School Research Program; (7) Laser Facility Report; and (8) National Laser Users Facility and External Users Programs.

When suspended payloads are moved with an overhead crane, pendulum like oscillations are naturally introduced. This presents a problem any time a crane is used, especially when expensive and/or delicate objects are moved, when moving in a cluttered and/or hazardous environment, and when objects are to be placed in tight locations. For example, one nuclear waste-handling operation examined by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) is the transportation of heavy objects such as waste storage casks or barrels from one location to another through cluttered process facility environments or storage facilities. Typically, an object is lifted by a crane hook on the end of a cable, creating a pendulum that is free to swing during transit. This swinging motion makes remote positioning of casks or barrels difficult to control precisely and is potentially destructive to facility equipment and to other storage containers. Typically, a crane operator moves objects slowly to minimize induced swinging and allow time for oscillations to dampen, maintaining safety but greatly decreasing the efficiency of operations. Using damped-oscillation control algorithms is one approach to solving this problem. This paper summarizes recent simulation results in damped-oscillation-type control algorithms. It also discusses practical implementation …

The first industrial demonstration of a three-phase high-temperature superconducting transmission power cable at the Southwire manufacturing complex is in progress. One crucial issue during operation of the 30-m HTS cables is whether they could survive the fault current (which can be over an order of magnitude higher than the operating current) in the event of a short-circuit fault and how HTS cables and the cryogenic system would respond. Simulated fault-current tests were performed at ORNL on a 5-m cable. This single-phase cable was constructed in the same way as the 30-m cables and is also rated for 1250 A at 7.2 kV ac line-to-ground voltage. Tests were performed with fault-current pulses of up to 15 kA (for 0.5 s) with pulse lengths of up to 5 s (at 6.8 kA). Although a large voltage drop was produced across the HTS cable during the fault-current pulse, no significant changes in the coolant temperature, pressure, or joint resistance were observed. The cable survived 15 simulated fault-current shots without any degradation in its V-I characteristics.