Influence of surfactant upon air entrainment hysteresis in curtain coating

The onset of air entrainment for curtain coating onto a pre-wetted substrate was studied experimentally in similar parameter regimes to commercial coating (Re = ρQ/μ = O(1), We = ρQ u _c /σ = O(10), Ca = μU/σ = O(1)). Impingement speed and viscosity were previously shown to be critical parameters in correlating air entrainment data with three qualitatively different regimes of hydrodynamic assist identified (Marston et al. in Exp Fluids 42(3):483–488, 2007a). The interaction of the impinging curtain with the pre-existing film also led to a significant hysteretic effect throughout the flow rate-substrate speed parameter space. For the first time, results considering the influence of surfactants are presented in attempt to elucidate the relative importance of surface tension in this inertia-dominated system. The results show quantitative and qualitative differences to previous results with much more complex hysteretic behaviour which has only been reported previously for rough surfaces.     

Three-dimensional Turbulent Boundary Layer in a Shrouded Rotating System

A thre-dimensional direct numerical simulation is combined with a laboratory study to describe the turbulent flow in an enclosed annular rotor-stator cavity characterized by a large aspect ratio G = (b − a)/h = 18.32 and a small radius ratio a/b = 0.152, where a and b are the inner and outer radii of the rotating disk and h is the interdisk spacing. The rotation rate Ω considered is equivalent to the rotational Reynolds number Re = Ωb ²/ν= 9 .5 × 10⁴ (ν the kinematic viscosity of water). This corresponds to a value at which experiment has revealed that the stator boundary layer is turbulent, whereas the rotor boundary layer is still laminar. Comparisons of the computed solution with velocity measurements have given good agreement for the mean and turbulent fields. The results enhance evidence of weak turbulence by comparing the turbulence properties with available data in the literature (Lygren and Andersson, J Fluid Mech 426:297–326, 2001). An approximately self-similar boundary layer behavior is observed along the stator. The wall-normal variations of the structural parameter and of characteristic angles confirm that this boundary layer is three-dimensional. A quadrant analysis (Kang et al., Phys Fluids 10:2315–2322, 1998) of conditionally averaged velocities shows that the asymmetries obtained are dominated by Reynolds stress-producing events in the stator boundary layer. Moreover, Case 1 vortices (with a positive wall induced velocity) are found to be the major source of generation of special strong events, in agreement with the conclusions of Lygren and Andersson (J Fluid Mech 426:297–326, 2001).     

Shear banding during nonlinear creep with a solution of monodisperse polystyrene

Creep experiments with a solution of polystyrene (M _w = 2.6 MDa, 16 vol.%, 25 °C) in diethyl phthalate are reported for stresses between 100 and 2,500 Pa (≈ 3G _N ⁰/4). The aim was to look for a flow transition as reported for strongly entangled poly(isobutylene) solutions. The experiments with the polystyrene solution were repeated for cone angles of 2, 4, and 6° (radius 15 mm) and showed no dependence on cone angle. The Cox–Merz rule was not fulfilled for stresses beyond about 800 Pa. The tangential observation with a CCD camera showed that the edge took a concave shape because of the second normal stress difference. Beyond 1,000 Pa, the concave edge develops into a crevice, thus substantially reducing the effective cross-section. This leads to runaway in a constant torque experiment. At p ₂₁ = 800 Pa, head-on particle tracking confirms that the originally linear velocity profile takes a gooseneck shape, thus revealing shear banding. When the creep stress is stepped down to 100 Pa, this velocity profile evolves back to a linear one. The conclusion from this work is that even if nonlinear creep experiments are reproducible and a steady state is reached, this does not mean that the flow field is homogeneous. This paper was presented at Annual European Rheology Conference (AERC) held in Hersonisos, Crete, Greece, April 27–29, 2006.     

Exact analytic solutions for free convection boundary layers on a heated vertical plate with lateral mass flux embedded in a saturated porous medium

 The problem of the self-similar boundary flow of a “Darcy-Boussinesq fluid” on a vertical plate with temperature distribution T _w(x) = T _∞+A·x ^λ and lateral mass flux v _w(x) = a·x ^(λ−1)/2, embedded in a saturated porous medium is revisited. For the parameter values λ = 1,−1/3 and −1/2 exact analytic solutions are written down and the characteristics of the corresponding boundary layers are discussed as functions of the suction/ injection parameter in detail. The results are compared with the numerical findings of previous authors. Received on 8 March 1999     

Relaxation time spectrum molecular weight distribution relationships

Single exponential decay relationships, which define the molecular weight distribution (MWD) of a polymer as a function of the polymer’s relaxation time spectrum (RTS), have been derived by Wu (Polym Eng Sci 28:538–543, 1988) and Thimm et al. (J Rheol 43:1663–1672, 1999). Experimental validation studies with monodisperse polymers, with quite precisely known MWDs, have been used to test their reliability. It has been established that neither formula is always able to accurately recover the MWDs of monodisperse polymers from their experimentally determined RTS. In this paper, different and more general relationships, based on theoretical results of Anderssen and Loy (Bull Aust Math Soc 65:449–460, 2002a) for decays of the form , where the derivative of θ(t) is a completely monotone function, are derived, analyzed, and applied. It is shown how to transform these general relationships to equivalent single exponential decay relationships for which Laplace transform solutions are derived. In order to illustrate the interrelationship between an RTS and its corresponding MWD, an explicit analytic solution is given. The paper concludes with a discussion of the rheological implications for the BSW model.     

Experimental study on the heat transfer and pressure drop of a cross-flow heat exchanger with different pin–fin arrays

In this study, convective heat transfer and pressure drop in a cross-flow heat exchanger with hexagonal, square and circular (HSC) pin–fin arrays were studied experimentally. The pin–fins were arranged in an in-line manner. For the applied conditions, the optimal spacing of the pin–fin in the span-wise and stream-wise directions has been determined. The variable parameters are the relative longitudinal pitch (S _L /D = 2, 2.8, 3.5), and the relative transverse pitch was kept constant at S _T /D = 2. The performances of all pin–fins were compared with each other. The experimental results showed that the use of hexagonal pin–fins, compared to the square and circular pin–fins, can lead to an advantage in terms of heat transfer enhancement. The optimal inter-fin pitches are provided based on the largest Nusselt number under the same pumping power, while the optimal inter-fin pitches of hexagonal pin–fins are S _T /D = 2 and S _L /D = 2.8. Empirical equations are derived to correlate the mean Nusselt number and friction coefficient as a function of the Reynolds number, pin–fin frontal surface area, total surface area, and total number. Consequently, the general empirical formula is given in the present form.

Stability of Degenerate Stationary Waves for Viscous Gases

This paper is concerned with the asymptotic stability of degenerate stationary waves for viscous gases in the half space. We discuss the following two cases: (1) viscous conservation laws and (2) damped wave equations with nonlinear convection. In each case, we prove that the solution converges to the corresponding degenerate stationary wave at the rate t ^−α/4 as t → ∞, provided that the initial perturbation is in the weighted space L²_a=L²(\mathbb R₊; (1+x)^a dx){L^2_\alpha=L^2({\mathbb R}_+;\,(1+x)^\alpha dx)} . This convergence rate t ^−α/4 is weaker than the one for the non-degenerate case and requires the restriction α < α_*(q), where α_*(q) is the critical value depending only on the degeneracy exponent q. Such a restriction is reasonable because the corresponding linearized operator for viscous conservation laws cannot be dissipative in L²_a{L^2_\alpha} for α > α^*(q) with another critical value α^*(q). Our stability analysis is based on the space–time weighted energy method in which the spatial weight is chosen as a function of the degenerate stationary wave.     

Long-Time Convergence of an Adaptive Biasing Force Method: The Bi-Channel Case

We present convergence results for an adaptive algorithm to compute free energies, namely the adaptive biasing force (ABF) method (Darve and Pohorille in J Chem Phys 115(20):9169–9183, 2001; Hénin and Chipot in J Chem Phys 121:2904, 2004). The free energy is the effective potential associated to a so-called reaction coordinate ξ(q), where q = (q ₁, … , q _3N ) is the position vector of an N-particle system. Computing free energy differences remains an important challenge in molecular dynamics due to the presence of metastable regions in the potential energy surface. The ABF method uses an on-the-fly estimate of the free energy to bias dynamics and overcome metastability. Using entropy arguments and logarithmic Sobolev inequalities, previous results have shown that the rate of convergence of the ABF method is limited by the metastable features of the canonical measures conditioned to being at fixed values of ξ (Lelièvre et al. in Nonlinearity 21(6):1155–1181, 2008). In this paper, we present an improvement on the existing results in the presence of such metastabilities, which is a generic case encountered in practice. More precisely, we study the so-called bi-channel case, where two channels along the reaction coordinate direction exist between an initial and final state, the channels being separated from each other by a region of very low probability. With hypotheses made on ‘channel-dependent’ conditional measures, we show on a bi-channel model, which we introduce, that the convergence of the ABF method is, in fact, not limited by metastabilities in directions orthogonal to ξ under two crucial assumptions: (i) exchange between the two channels is possible for some values of ξ and (ii) the free energy is a good bias in each channel. This theoretical result supports recent numerical experiments (Minoukadeh et al. in J Chem Theory Comput 6:1008–1017, 2010), where the efficiency of the ABF approach is demonstrated for such a multiple-channel situation.     

Some Aspects of the Asymptotic Dynamics of Solutions of the Homogeneous Navier–Stokes Equations in General Domains

In the first part of the paper we study decays of solutions of the Navier–Stokes equations on short time intervals. We show, for example, that if w is a global strong nonzero solution of homogeneous Navier–Stokes equations in a sufficiently smooth (unbounded) domain Ω ⊆ R³ and β ∈[1/2, 1) , then there exist C₀ > 1 and δ₀ ∈ (0, 1) such that

Dependence of the zero shear-rate viscosity and the viscosity function of linear high-density polyethylenes on the mass-average molar mass and polydispersity

Linear high-density polyethylenes with molar masses M _w between 240 and 1,000,000 g/mol, obtained by metallocene catalysts, were characterized in shear using oscillatory and creep tests. The polydispersities of the molar mass distributions (MMDs) lay between 1 and 16. The resulting zero shear-rate viscosities η₀ covered a range from 2.5×10⁻³ to around 10⁸ Pas. Above a critical molar mass of M _c≈2,900 g/mol, the experimental results can be described by the relation η₀ ∼ M _w^3.6, independently of the MMD. The oscillatory data were fitted with a Carreau–Yasuda equation. The resulting parameters were correlated to molecular structure. The parameter a, being a quantity for the width of the transition between the Newtonian and the non-Newtonian regime, showed a dependence on the molar mass M _w but not on M _w/M _n. The parameter λ of the Carreau-Yasuda equation was found to be the reciprocal crossover frequency for all samples with a log-Gaussian MMD. λ depends on the molar mass M _w and also on M _w/M _n.

Heat transfer in nucleate pool boiling of aqueous SDS and triton X-100 solutions

Variation in degree of surface wettability is presented through the application of Cooper’s correlative approach (h ∝ M ^−0.5 q _w ^″0.67) for computing enhancement (ϕ) in nucleate pool boiling of aqueous solutions of SDS and Triton X-100 and its presentation with Marangoni parameter (χ) that represents the dynamic convection effects due to surface tension gradients. Dynamic spreading coefficient defined as σ _dyn N _a , which relates spreading and wetting characteristics with the active nucleation site density on the heated surface and bubble evolution process, represents cavity filling and activation process and eliminates the concentration dependence of nucleate pool boiling heat transfer in boiling of aqueous surfactant solutions. Using the dynamic spreading coefficient (σ _dyn N _a  = 0.09q _w ^″0.71), correlation predictions within ±15% for both SDS and Triton X-100 solutions for low heat flux boiling condition (q _w^″ ≤ 100 kW/m²) characterised primarily by isolated bubble regime are presented.     

Entire Solutions with Merging Fronts to Reaction–Diffusion Equations

We deal with a reaction–diffusion equation u _t = u _xx + f(u) which has two stable constant equilibria, u = 0, 1 and a monotone increasing traveling front solution u = φ(x + ct) (c > 0) connecting those equilibria. Suppose that u = a (0 < a < 1) is an unstable equilibrium and that the equation allows monotone increasing traveling front solutions u = ψ₁(x + c ₁ t) (c ₁ < 0) and ψ₂(x + c ₂ t) (c ₂ > 0) connecting u = 0 with u = a and u = a with u = 1, respectively. We call by an entire solution a classical solution which is defined for all . We prove that there exists an entire solution such that for t≈ − ∞ it behaves as two fronts ψ₁(x + c ₁ t) and ψ₂(x + c ₂ t) on the left and right x-axes, respectively, while it converges to φ(x + ct) as t→∞. In addition, if c > − c ₁, we show the existence of an entire solution which behaves as ψ₁( − x + c ₁ t) in and φ(x + ct) in for t≈ − ∞.     

Characterizing developing adverse pressure gradient flows subject to surface roughness

An experimental study was conducted to examine the effects of surface roughness and adverse pressure gradient (APG) on the development of a turbulent boundary layer. Hot-wire anemometry measurements were carried out using single and X-wire probes in all regions of a developing APG flow in an open return wind tunnel test section. The same experimental conditions (i.e., T _∞, U _ref, and C _p) were maintained for smooth, k ⁺ = 0, and rough, k ⁺ = 41–60, surfaces with Reynolds number based on momentum thickness, 3,000 < Re _θ < 40,000. The experiment was carefully designed such that the x-dependence in the flow field was known. Despite this fact, only a very small region of the boundary layer showed a balance of the various terms in the integrated boundary layer equation. The skin friction computed from this technique showed up to a 58% increase due to the surface roughness. Various equilibrium parameters were studied and the effect of roughness was investigated. The generated flow was not in equilibrium according to the Clauser (J Aero Sci 21:91–108, 1954) definition due to its developing nature. After a development region, the flow reached the equilibrium condition as defined by Castillo and George (2001), where Λ = const, is the pressure gradient parameter. Moreover, it was found that this equilibrium condition can be used to classify developing APG flows. Furthermore, the Zagarola and Smits (J Fluid Mech 373:33–79, 1998a) scaling of the mean velocity deficit, U _∞δ*/δ, can also be used as a criteria to classify developing APG flows which supports the equilibrium condition of Castillo and George (2001). With this information a ‘full APG region’ was defined.     

Analyticity and Decay Estimates of the Navier–Stokes Equations in Critical Besov Spaces

In this paper, we establish analyticity of the Navier–Stokes equations with small data in critical Besov spaces . The main method is Gevrey estimates, the choice of which is motivated by the work of Foias and Temam (Contemp Math 208:151–180, 1997). We show that mild solutions are Gevrey regular, that is, the energy bound holds in , globally in time for p < ∞. We extend these results for the intricate limiting case p = ∞ in a suitably designed E _∞ space. As a consequence of analyticity, we obtain decay estimates of weak solutions in Besov spaces. Finally, we provide a regularity criterion in Besov spaces.     

Viscoelastic properties of ultra-high viscosity alginates

Ultra-high viscosity alginates were extracted from the brown seaweeds Lessonia nigrescens (UHV_N, containing 61% mannuronate (M) and 2% guluronate (G)) and Lessonia trabeculata (UHV_T, containing 22% M and 78% G). The viscoelastic behavior of the aqueous solutions of these alginates was determined in shear flow in terms of the shear stress σ ₂₁, the first normal stress difference N ₁, and the shear viscosity η in isotonic NaCl solutions (0.154 mol/L) at T = 298 K in dependence of the shear rate [(g)\dot]\dot{\gamma} for solutions of varying concentrations and molar masses (3–10 × 10⁵ g/mol, homologous series was prepared by ultrasonic degradation). Data obtained in small-amplitude oscillatory shear (SAOS) experiments obey the Cox–Merz rule. For comparison, a commercial alginate with intermediate chemical composition was additionally characterized. Particulate substances which are omnipresent in most alginates influenced the determination of the material functions at low shear rates. We have calculated structure–property relationships for the prediction of the viscosity yield, e.g., η–M _w–c–[(g)\dot]\dot{\gamma} for the Newtonian and non-Newtonian region. For the highest molar masses and concentrations, the elasticity yield in terms of N ₁ could be determined. In addition, the extensional flow behavior of the alginates was measured using capillary breakup extensional rheometry. The results demonstrate that even samples with the same average molar mass but different molar mass distributions can be differentiated in contrast to shear flow or SAOS experiments.     

The Erpenbeck High Frequency Instability Theorem for Zeldovitch–von Neumann–D?ring Detonations

The rigorous study of spectral stability for strong detonations was begun by Erpenbeck (Phys. Fluids 5:604–614 1962). Working with the Zeldovitch–von Neumann–D?ring (ZND) model (more precisely, Erpenbeck worked with an extension of ZND to general chemistry and thermodynamics), which assumes a finite reaction rate but ignores effects such as viscosity corresponding to second order derivatives, he used a normal mode analysis to define a stability function V(t,e){V(\tau,\epsilon)} whose zeros in ${\mathfrak{R}\tau > 0}${\mathfrak{R}\tau > 0} correspond to multidimensional perturbations of a steady detonation profile that grow exponentially in time. Later in a remarkable paper (Erpenbeck in Phys. Fluids 9:1293–1306, 1966; Stability of detonations for disturbances of small transverse wavelength, 1965) he provided strong evidence, by a combination of formal and rigorous arguments, that for certain classes of steady ZND profiles, unstable zeros of V exist for perturbations of sufficiently large transverse wavenumber e{\epsilon} , even when the von Neumann shock, regarded as a gas dynamical shock, is uniformly stable in the sense defined (nearly 20 years later) by Majda. In spite of a great deal of later numerical work devoted to computing the zeros of V(t,e){V(\tau,\epsilon)} , the paper (Erpenbeck in Phys. Fluids 9:1293–1306, 1966) remains one of the few works we know of [another is Erpenbeck (Phys. Fluids 7:684–696, 1964), which considers perturbations for which the ratio of longitudinal over transverse components approaches ∞] that presents a detailed and convincing theoretical argument for detecting them. The analysis in Erpenbeck (Phys. Fluids 9:1293–1306, 1966) points the way toward, but does not constitute, a mathematical proof that such unstable zeros exist. In this paper we identify the mathematical issues left unresolved in Erpenbeck (Phys. Fluids 9:1293–1306, 1966) and provide proofs, together with certain simplifications and extensions, of the main conclusions about stability and instability of detonations contained in that paper. The main mathematical problem, and our principal focus here, is to determine the precise asymptotic behavior as e?￥{\epsilon\to\infty} of solutions to a linear system of ODEs in x, depending on e{\epsilon} and a complex frequency τ as parameters, with turning points x _* on the half-line [0,∞).     

Self-consistent modeling of entangled network strands and linear dangling structures in a single-strand mean-field slip-link model

Linear viscoelastic (LVE) measurements as well as non-linear elongation measurements have been performed on stoichiometrically imbalanced polymeric networks to gain insight into the structural influence on the rheological response (Jensen et al., Rheol Acta 49(1):1–13, 2010). In particular, we seek knowledge about the effect of dangling ends and soluble structures. To interpret our recent experimental results, we exploit a molecular model that can predict LVE data and non-linear stress–strain data. The slip-link model has proven to be a robust tool for both LVE and non-linear stress–strain predictions for linear chains (Khaliullin and Schieber, Phys Rev Lett 100(18):188302–188304, 2008, Macromolecules 42(19):7504–7517, 2009; Schieber, J Chem Phys 118(11):5162–5166, 2003), and it is thus used to analyze the experimental results. Initially, we consider a stoichiometrically balanced network, i.e., all strands in the ensemble are attached to the network in both ends. Next we add dangling strands to the network representing the stoichiometric imbalance, or imperfections during curing. By considering monodisperse network strands without dangling ends, we find that the relative low-frequency plateau, G₀/G_N⁰G_0/G_N^0, decreases linearly with the average number of entanglements. The decrease from G_N⁰G_N^0 to G ₀ is a result of monomer fluctuations between entanglements, which is similar to “longitudinal modes” in tube theory. It is found that the slope of G′ is dependent on the fraction of network strands and the structural distribution of the network. The power-law behavior of G ^″ is not yet captured quantitatively by the model, but our results suggest that it is a result of polydisperse dangling and soluble structures.     

Marangoni instabilities in small circular containers under microgravity

Circular containers of various aspect ratios a with flat free upper liquid surfaces were heated from below under microgravity to generate the Marangoni instability (MI). We realized “liquid lateral sidewalls” for the containers to come near to the “slippery sidewalls” introduced by Rosenblat et al. (J Fluid Mech 120:91–122, 1982a) and Echebarría et al. (Physica D 99:487–502, 1997), henceforth referred to as RHD and EKP, respectively. The flow structure was visualized by aluminium flakes and recorded on videotape. The MI was clearly observed in all containers above a critical Marangoni number Ma ^c which depends on a. In the first microgravity experiment in a container with a=7.5, we found significant convective heat transport and reported a Nusselt number Nu=1.8 for Ma=4×Ma ^c . In a second microgravity experiment with containers with a=0.5, 0.75, 1.0, 1.5, 2.0, 4.0 and 5.0, various flow structures (azimuthal and radial wave numbers) were observed, depending on a and Ma. The observed scenario compares qualitatively well with the stability curves calculated by RHD and EKP. Frequent switching between modes (2,1) and (1,1) was observed in the container with a=2 at supercritical Ma that is exactly the case for which this behaviour was predicted by EKP for reduced gravity.     

Symmetry of Mountain Pass Solutions of Some Vector Field Equations

We prove radial symmetry (or axial symmetry) of the mountain pass solution of variational elliptic systems − AΔu(x) + ∇ F(u(x)) = 0 (or − ∇.(A(r) ∇ u(x)) + ∇ F(r,u(x)) = 0,) u(x) = (u ₁(x),...,u _N (x)), where A (or A(r)) is a symmetric positive definite matrix. The solutions are defined in a domain Ω which can be , a ball, an annulus or the exterior of a ball. The boundary conditions are either Dirichlet or Neumann (or any one which is invariant under rotation). The mountain pass solutions studied here are given by constrained minimization on the Nehari manifold. We prove symmetry using the reflection method introduced in Lopes [(1996), J. Diff. Eq. 124, 378–388; (1996), Eletron. J. Diff. Eq. 3, 1–14].     

A unified approach to closed-form solutions of moving heat-source problems

A closed-form model for the computation of temperature distribution in an infinitely extended isotropic body with a time-dependent moving-heat sources is discussed. The temperature solutions are presented for the sources of the forms: (i) ₀₁(t)=₀ exp(−λt), (ii) ₀₂(t) =₀(t/t ^*)exp(−λt), and ₀₃(t)=₀[1+a cos(ωt)], where λ and ω are real parameters and t ^* characterizes the limiting time. The reduced (or dimensionless) temperature solutions are presented in terms of the generalized representation of an incomplete gamma function Γ(α,x;b) and its decomposition C _Γ and S _Γ. The solutions are presented for moving, -point, -line, and -plane heat sources. It is also demonstrated that the present analysis covers the classical temperature solutions of a constant strength source under quasi-steady state situations. Received on 13 June 1997