Formation of Concentrated Nanoemulsions by Extreme Shear

Abstract

We have systematically investigated the production of “nanoemulsions,” droplets of one liquid phase in another immiscible liquid phase that have diameters less than 100 nm. Our approach relies on a combination of extreme shear due to multipass, high‐pressure microfluidic injection and systematic control of the emulsion's composition. By repeatedly shearing a silicone oil‐in‐water emulsion in an inhomogeneous extensional shear flow, the multipass approach enables us to reduce the droplet polydispersity and average radius. Using dynamic light scattering, we study the changes in the average radius, ?a?, as a function of the number of passes, driving injection pressure (i.e., shear rate), droplet volume fraction, surfactant concentration, and droplet oil viscosity. The smallest nanoemulsion that we obtain has ?a?=18 nm. At large droplet volume fractions φ≥0.65, we observe phase inversion, rather than a reduction in the droplet size. This provides evidence that droplet coalescence can occur during extreme shear, even when a significant excess of a strongly stabilizing surfactant is present.     

Bifurcation analysis of a diffusive predator–prey system with a herd behavior and quadratic mortality

In this paper, a diffusive predator–prey system, in which the prey species exhibits herd behavior and the predator species with quadratic mortality, has been studied. The stability of positive constant equilibrium, Hopf bifurcations, and diffusion‐driven Turing instability are investigated under the Neumann boundary condition. The explicit condition for the occurrence of the diffusion‐driven Turing instability is derived, which is determined by the relationship of the diffusion rates of two species. The formulas determining the direction and the stability of Hopf bifurcations depending on the parameters of the system are derived. Finally, numerical simulations are carried out to verify and extend the theoretical results and show the existence of spatially homogeneous periodic solutions and nonconstant steady states. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Modeling and analysis of a marine plankton system with nutrient recycling and diffusion

This article describes a nutrient‐phytoplankton‐zooplankton system with nutrient recycling in the presence of toxicity. We have studied the dynamical behavior of the system with delayed nutrient recycling in the first part of the article. Uniform persistent of the system is examined. In the second part of the article, we have incorporated diffusion of the plankton population to the system and dynamical behavior of the system is analyzed with instantaneous nutrient recycling. The condition of the diffusion driven instability is obtained. The conditions for the occurrence of Hopf and Turing bifurcation critical line in a spatial domain are derived. Variation of the system with small periodicity of diffusive coefficient has been studied. Stability condition of the plankton system subject to the periodic diffusion coefficient of the zooplankton is derived. It is observed that nutrient‐phytoplankton‐zooplankton interactions are very complex and situation specific. Moreover, we have obtained different exciting results, ranging from stable situation to cyclic oscillatory behavior may occur under different favorable conditions, which may give some insights for predictive management. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Complexity 21: 229–241, 2015     

Surface Tension Effect on Harmonics of Rayleigh-Taylor Instability

Using the method of the parameter expansion up to the third order, explicitly investigates surface tension effect on harmonics at weakly nonlinear stage in Rayleigh-Taylor instability (RTI) for arbitrary Atwood numbers and compares the results with those of classical RTI within the framework of the third-order weakly nonlinear theory. It is found that surface tension strongly reduces the linear growth rate of time, resulting in mild growth of the amplitude of the fundamental mode, and changes amplitudes of the second and third harmonics, as is expressed as a tension factor coupling in amplitudes of the harmonics. On the one hand, surface tension can either decrease or increase the space amplitude; on the other hand, surface tension can also change their phases for some conditions which are explicitly determined.     

Instability of the finite‐difference split‐step method applied to the generalized nonlinear Schrödinger equation. III. external potential and oscillating pulse solutions

This is the final part of a series of articles where we have studied numerical instability (NI) of localized solutions of the generalized nonlinear Schrödinger equation (gNLS). It extends our earlier studies of this topic in two ways. First, it examines differences in the development of the NI between the case of the purely cubic NLS and the case where the gNLS has an external bounded potential. Second, it investigates how the NI is affected by the oscillatory dynamics of the simulated pulse. The latter situation is common when the initial condition is not an exact stationary soliton. We have found that in this case, the NI may remain weak when the time step exceeds the threshold quite significantly. This means that the corresponding numerical solution, while formally numerically unstable, can remain sufficiently accurate over long times, because the numerical noise will stay small. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 33: 633–650, 2017     

THEORY OF DIELECTRIC ELASTOMERS

In response to a stimulus, a soft material deforms, and the deformation provides a function. We call such a material a soft active material （SAM）. This review focuses on one class of soft active materials： dielectric elastomers. When a membrane of a dielectric elastomer is subject to a voltage through its thickness, the membrane reduces thickness and expands area, possibly straining over 100%. The dielectric elastomers are being developed as transducers for broad applications, including soft robots, adaptive optics, Braille displays, and electric generators. This paper reviews the theory of dielectric elastomers, developed within continuum mechanics and thermodynamics, and motivated by molecular pictures and empirical observations. The theory couples large deformation and electric potential, and describes nonlinear and nonequilibrium behavior, such as electromechanical instability and viscoelasticity. The theory enables the finite element method to simulate transducers of realistic configurations, predicts the efficiency of electromechanical energy conversion, and suggests alternative routes to achieve giant voltage-induced deformation. It is hoped that the theory will aid in the creation of materials and devices.     

Numerical modeling of slug flow initiation in a horizontal channels using a two-fluid model

This paper presents a methodology for modeling slug initiation and growth in horizontal ducts. Transient two-fluid equations are solved numerically using a class of high-resolution shock capturing methods. The advantage of this method is that slug formation and growth in a stratified regime can be calculated directly from the solutions to the flow field differential equations. In addition, by using high-resolution shock capturing methods that do not contain numerical diffusion, the discontinuity generated by slugging in the flow field can be modeled with good accuracy. The two-fluid model is shown to be well-posed mathematically only under certain conditions. Under these circumstances, the two-fluid model is capable of correctly predicting and modeling the flow physics. When ill-posed, an unbounded instability occurs in the flow field solution, and the instability amplitude increases exponentially with decreasing mesh sizes. This work shows that there are three zones associated with slug formation. In addition, long wavelength slugs are shown to initiate from short wavelength waves. These short waves are generated at the interface of the two phases by the Kelvin-Helmholtz hydrodynamic instability. The results obtained through numerical modeling show good agreement with experimental results.     

色散磁导率对异向介质中的调制不稳定性的影响

基于Drude模型研究了异向介质的色散磁导率对调制不稳定性的影响. 结果表明，在反常色散情形，赝五阶非线性在异向介质的负折射区中增大了调制频谱的范围及增益值，这与常规正折射介质中出现的现象正好相反；自陡峭效应在异向介质中有可能为负值，但无论正负，也无论在正折射区还是负折射区，它都抑制调制不稳定性的产生；二阶非线性色散效应在正、负折射区中分别促进和抑制调制不稳定性的产生. 在正常色散情形，由于二阶非线性色散效应的作用，使本来在常规正折射介质中不可能出现的调制不稳定性现象也能出现，这一特性为在正常色散区形成孤