Thermal boundary layers on a rough surface downstream of steps in wall temperature

Stanton numbers, mean temperature profiles, and turbulent heat flux profiles are presented for thermal boundary layers which develop over a uniformly rough surface downstream of steps in wall temperature. Artificially thickened hydrodynamic layers were employed in order to create large unheated starting lengths compared to boundary-layer thickness, where the unheated starting length is the distance between the temperature step and hydrodynamic boundary-layer origin. Kernel functions for Stanton number distributions with downstream distance are presented which agree with measurements even when the hydrodynamic layers are significantly thicker than thermal layers. Other effects of unheated starting lengths on rough-wall thermal boundary-layer behavior are described, including significant alterations in profiles of mean temperature and turbulent heat flux. Both change shape as the magnitude of the unheated starting length increases, even though logarithmic regions of temperature profiles in wall coordinates and turbulent Prandtl number distributions are largely unaffected by unheated starting-length effects.     

Eclipsing binaries in the MOST satellite fields

Sixteen new eclipsing binaries have been discovered by the MOST satellite among guide stars used to point its telescope in various fields. Several previously known eclipsing binaries were also observed by MOST with unprecedented quality. Among the objects we discuss in more detail are short‐period eclipsing binaries with eccentric orbits in young open clusters: V578 Mon in NGC 2244 and HD 47934 in NGC 2264. Long nearly‐continuous photometric runs made it possible to discover three long‐period eclipsing binaries with orbits seen almost edge‐on: HD 45972 with P = 28.1 days and two systems (GSC 154 1247 and GSC 2141 526) with P > 25 days. The high precision of the satellite data led to discoveries of binaries with very shallow eclipses (e.g., HD 46180 with A = 0.016 mag, and HD 47934 with A = 0.025 mag). Ground‐based spectroscopy to support the space‐based photometry was used to refine the models of several of the systems (© 2010 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Wind Ionization Structure of the Short-Period Eclipsing LMC Wolf-Rayet Binary BAT99-129: Preliminary Results

BAT99-129 is a rare, short-period eclipsing Wolf-Rayet binary in the Large Magellanic Cloud. We present here medium-resolution NTT/EMMI spectra that allow us to disentangle the spectra of the two components and find the orbital parameters of the binary. We also present VLT/FORS1 spectra of this binary taken during the secondary eclipse, i.e. when the companion star passes in front of the Wolf-Rayet star. With these data we are able to extract, for the first time in absolute units for a WR + O binary, the sizes of the line emitting regions.Based on observations obtained at the La Silla and Paranal Observatories, European Southern Observatory (Chile).     

A review of: “Turbulence in fluids: Stochastic and numerical modelling”

Abstract

By Marcel Lesieur, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 289 pp., Dfl. 155.00/US$68.50/£54.75 (ISBN 90-247-3470-3), 1987.     

A first orbital solution for the very massive 30 Dor main-sequence WN6h+O binary R145

We report the results of a spectroscopic and polarimetric study of the massive, hydrogen-rich WN6h stars R144 (HD 38282 = BAT99-118 = Brey 89) and R145 (HDE 269928 = BAT99-119 = Brey 90) in the Large Magellanic Cloud. Both stars have been suspected to be binaries by previous studies (R144: Schnurr et al.; R145: Moffat). We have combined radial-velocity (RV) data from these two studies with previously unpublished polarimetric data. For R145, we were able to establish, for the first time, an orbital period of 158.8 d, along with the full set of orbital parameters, including the inclination angle i , which was found to be   i = 38°± 9°  . By applying a modified version of the shift-and-add method developed by Demers et al., we were able to isolate the spectral signature of the very faint line companion star. With the RV amplitudes of both components in R145, we were thus able to estimate their absolute masses. We find minimum masses   M _WRsin³ i = 116 ± 33 M_⊙  and   M _Osin³ i = 48 ± 20 M_⊙  for the WR and the O component, respectively. Thus, if the low-inclination angle were correct, resulting absolute masses of the components would be at least 300 and  125 M_⊙  , respectively. However, such high masses are not supported by brightness considerations when R145 is compared to systems with known very high masses such as NGC 3603-A1 or WR20a. An inclination angle close to  90°  would remedy the situation, but is excluded by the currently available data. More and better data are thus required to firmly establish the nature of this puzzling, yet potentially very massive and important system. As to R144, however, the combined data sets are not sufficient to find any periodicity.     

Consequences of clumping in hot-star winds

It seems more and more likely that one will have to abandon the paradigm of smooth outflows from (hot) stars in favour of a clumpy structure, possibly in a fractal-like hierarchy on all scales. Observationally, this is best established for Wolf-Rayet star winds (e.g. scaling laws, mass-spectrum, anisotropy,...), for which the consequences of clumping are discussed. These include four broad categories, which are outlined in this review: (a) an ideal laboratory for studying time-dependent astrophysical turbulence, (b) potential tracers of hot-wind global structure parameters, (c) reduced mass-loss rates, and (d) impact on massive binary studies.