软材料接触力学问题的实验研究

针对硫化硅橡胶在刚性压头作用下的大变形接触问题,研究了橡胶类软材料接触区区域变形场的实验测量技术。为了研究硫化硅橡胶与刚性体在试件内部接触的大变形问题,本文提出了一种体内数字栅云纹实验技术,给出了该技术的原理和实现方法。然后运用数字图像处理方法得到了橡胶材料大变形位移u场、v场,并结合橡胶材料在压头作用下的理论分区模型,分析了软材料接触区域的大变形场,讨论了接触区域的变形分区规律,并初步给出了接触区域应变计算方法。     

Dark pulses with tunable repetition rate emission from fiber ring laser

We demonstrated the experimental observation of the dark pulses with tunable repetition rate from an erbium-doped fiber ring laser. A considerable length of high nonlinear fiber is incorporated into the fiber ring laser to enhance the nonlinear intensity. In our experiment, both bright and dark pulses can be observed under the conditions of appropriately setting of the device in the cavity. Further study showed that the dark pulse is formed due to the cross coupling between two different lasing wavelengths. Particularly, dark pulse-train with multiple repetition rates was observed from the laser cavity and the repetition rate switchable operation can be realized by simply adjusting the polarization controller (PC) in the cavity. The operation of multiple repetition rates of dark pulses was further experimentally investigated and detected as a result of pulse splitting of each component with different wavelength.     

Natural okra-based hydrogel for chronic diabetic wound healing

As a representative of chronic wounds, the long-term high levels of oxidative stress and blood sugar in chronic diabetic wounds lead to serious complications, making them the biggest challenge in the research on wound healing. Many edible natural biomaterials rich in terpenes, phenols, and flavonoids can act as efficient antioxidants. In this study, okra extract was selected as the main component of a wound dressing. The okra extracts obtained via different methods comprehensively maintained the bioactivity of multiple molecules. The robust antioxidant properties of okra significantly reduced intracellular reactive oxygen species production, thereby accelerating the wound healing process. The results showed that okra extracts and their hydrogel dressings increased cell migration, angiogenesis, and re-epithelization of the chronic wound area, considerably promoting wound remodeling in diabetic rats. Therefore, okra-based hydrogels are promising candidates for skin regeneration and wider tissue engineering applications.     

Molecular simulation of the glass transition of polyphosphazenes

Molecular dynamics simulation (NPT ensemble) has been used to obtain specific volume as a function of temperature for four polyphosphazenes. From these results, the volumetric glass transition temperature has been determined as the temperature marking the discontinuity in slope of the V–T simulation data. The molecular mechanics force field used in this study was COMPASS (Condensed-phase Optimized Molecular Potentials for Atomistic Simulation Studies) which has been extensively parameterized and validated for phosphazenes in a previous communication. The polyphosphazenes include poly[bis(2,2,2-trifluoroethoxy)phosphazene] (PTFEP) and three isomers of poly(dibutoxyphosphazene)—poly[bis(n-butoxy)phosphazene] (PnBuP), poly[bis(iso-butoxy)phosphazene)] (PiBuP), and poly[bis(sec-butoxy)phosphazene] (PsBuP). In all cases, there was reasonable agreement between experimental results and values of density and T_g obtained from the simulations. In the case of PnBuP, two different methods for amorphous cell building are compared to explore the relationship between the state of equilibration and the T_g obtained from simulation.