Acoustic reflection from a baffled elastic/piezoelectric plate

A finite difference/boundary integral procedure to determine the acoustic reflected pressure from a fluid-loaded bi-laminated plate is described. The bi-laminate is composed of a piezoelectric layer and an elastic layer in contact with the fluid, and is held by an acoustically hard baffle. In the numerical model, the fluid pressure at fluid/solid interface is replaced by a continuum of point sources weighted by the normal acceleration of the elastic plate, and the governing equation system is solved in the solid domain. With the normal acceleration found, the reflected pressure in the fluid is determined by an integral expression involving the Green's function. It is demonstrated that an appropriate applied voltage potential across the piezoelectric layer has the effect of cancelling either the reflected or scattered pressure of the plate at any chosen field points in the fluid. Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 10172039).     

Fluorescence monitoring of ultrasound degradation processes

Ultrasound-based water treatment is often applied for degradation of stable organic pollutants, such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and halogenated compounds. Monitoring the degradation process, during the application of ultrasound radiation, is of considerable economical interest. In this work, the possibility of performing on-line spectral analysis during sonication was examined and it was found that direct absorption or fluorescence readings are misleading. Optical monitoring is strongly affected by the absorption and scattering of light by cavitation micro-bubbles and ultrasound induced particulates. A model was developed to account for these effects and to allow for on-line fluorescence analysis. The model takes into account the absorption and scattering coefficients of the micro-bubbles and particulates, as well as their time dependent concentration. The model parameters are found from independent measurements where the pollutants are added to already sonicated pure water. Then, the model is tested for predicting the actual fluorescence behavior during the sonication process. It has been shown that the model allows for recovery of the true degradation data, as obtained by off-line HPLC measurements.     

Recent advances of ultrasonic testing of cement based materials at early ages

To summarize some of the most important findings in the field of ultrasonic (US) testing of early age hydration and formation of structure of different cement based materials (CBMs), a review of literature with focus on US P-wave transmission and S-wave reflection methods is presented in this paper. The review shows a great ability of both US techniques to observe setting phenomena and to determine different milestones during the early age formation of CBM’s microstructure. Clear physical basis, high accuracy, and non-destructive nature of the method indicate that US methods could become standardized in the near future.     

Ultrasonic sensor for predicting sugar concentration using multivariate calibration

This paper presents a multivariate regression method for the prediction of maltose concentration in aqueous solutions. For this purpose, time and frequency domain of ultrasonic signals are analyzed. It is shown, that the prediction of concentration at different temperatures is possible by using several multivariate regression models for individual temperature points. Combining these models by a linear approximation of each coefficient over temperature results in a unified solution, which takes temperature effects into account. The benefit of the proposed method is the low processing time required for analyzing online signals as well as the non-invasive sensor setup which can be used in pipelines. Also the ultrasonic signal sections used in the presented investigation were extracted out of buffer reflections which remain primarily unaffected by bubble and particle interferences.     

Degradation of nitrobenzene in aqueous solution by dual-pulse ultrasound enhanced electrochemical process

The present work reports a novel dual-pulse ultrasound enhanced electrochemical degradation (US-ECD) process that synchronizes alternatively ultrasound pulses and potential pulses to degrade nitrobenzene in aqueous solution with a high percentage degradation and low energy consumption. In comparison to the test results generated from the conventional US-ECD and original electrochemical degradation (ECD) process, the dual-pulse US-ECD process increased degradation percentages to nitrobenzene by 2% and 17%, respectively, while energy used in the pulse process was only about 46.5% of that was used in the conventional US-ECD process. Test results demonstrated a superior performance of the dual-pulse US-ECD process over those of other conventional ones. Impacts of pulse mode, initial pH value, cell voltage, supporting electrolyte concentration and ultrasonic power on the process performances were investigated. With operation conditions optimized in the study at pH = 3.0, cell voltage = 10 V, ultrasonic power = 48.84 W, electrolyte concentration = 0.1 M and an experiment running time of 30 min, the percentage degradation of nitrobenzene could reach 80% (US pulse time = 50 ms and ECD pulse time = 50 ms). This process provided a reliable and effective technical approach to degrade nitrobenzene in aqueous solution and significantly reduced energy consumption in comparison to the conventional US-ECD or original ECD treatment.     

椭球内反射的几何光学性质

本文讨论椭球的内反射性质。由椭球的一个焦点F_1发射出的光波将在反射过程中与椭球的长轴充分逼近,使焦点F_1所具有的辐射以极狭窄的光束从椭球长轴的一端发射出来。     

Waiting times of entangled electrons in normal–superconducting junctions

We consider a normal–superconducting junction in order to investigate the effect of new physical ingredients on waiting times. First, we study the interplay between Andreev and specular scattering at the interface on the distribution of waiting times of electrons or holes separately. In that case the distribution is not altered dramatically compared to the case of a single quantum channel with a quantum point contact since the interface acts as an Andreev mirror for holes. We then consider a fully entangled state originating from splitting of Cooper pairs at the interface and demonstrate a significant enhancement of the probability to detect two consecutive electrons in a short time interval. Finally, we discuss the electronic waiting time distribution in the more realistic situation of partial entanglement.     

Scattering states of Woods–Saxon interaction in minimal length quantum mechanics

We propose a very simple approach to deal with the problems of the modified Schrödinger equation due to minimal length and thereby solve the minimal length Schrödinger equation in the presence of a non-minimal Woods–Saxon interaction. The transmission and reflection coefficients are reported as well.     

Solvent free synthesis of 1,3-diaryl-2-propenones catalyzed by commercial acid-clays under ultrasound irradiation

This paper presents a novel solvent free method of synthesis of trans-chalcones. The method was based on ultrasound irradiation of the reagents (aryl methyl ketones and aryl aldehydes) in presence of commercial acid-montmorillonites as catalysts. The trans-chalcones were synthesized in high yields (85–95%) and excellent selectivity in a short reaction time.