Full-Field Deformation Measurements in Liquid-like-Solid Granular Microgel Using Digital Image Correlation

This paper presents the experimental characterization of the in-plane deformation field at any depth within a granular support medium (GSM) called Carbomer 940 using digital image correlation (DIC) and particle image velocimetry (PIV). A method was developed to produce a 2D plane of randomly shaped speckles within the GSM for DIC. Four different needle diameters and four different speeds were used as test specimens representative of those utilized for 3D printing of soft matter in the GSM. The results can be used to determine dimensional tolerances and assessing interactions between multiple injection needles and acceptable spacing. The displacements in the direction of needle motion (u) and transverse (v) were obtained. Subsequently, the magnitudes were determined as a function of distance from the needle path and time history. Results show that near the needle there is a region of yielded/fluidized material and away from the needle path the material acts like a viscoelastic solid. Permanent deformation decreases with increased distance from the path and recovery is enhanced by reversing back through the path.     

Poly(N-vinylimidazole/ethylene glycol dimethacrylate) for the purification and isolation of phenolic acids

In this study we report the novel polymeric resin poly(N-vinyl imidazole/ethylene glycol dimethacrylate) for the purification and isolation of phenolic acids. The monomer to crosslinker ratio and the porogen composition were optimized for isolating phenolic acids diluted in acetonitrile at normal phase chromatography conditions, first. Acetonitrile serves as polar, aprotic solvent, dissolving phenolic acids but not interrupting interactions with the stationary phase due to the approved Hansen solubility parameters. The optimized resin demonstrated high loading capacities and adsorption abilities particularly for phenolic acids in both, acetonitrile and aqueous solutions. The adsorption behavior of aqueous standards can be attributed to ion exchange effects due to electrostatic interactions between protonated imidazole residues and deprotonated phenolic acids. Furthermore, adsorption experiments and subsequent curve fittings provide information of maximum loading capacities of single standards according to the Langmuir adsorption model. Recovery studies of the optimized polymer in the normal-phase and ion-exchange mode illustrate the powerful isolation properties for phenolic acids and are comparable or even better than typical, commercially available solid phase extraction materials. In order to prove the applicability, a highly complex extract of rosemary leaves was purified by poly(N-vinyl imidazole/ethylene glycol dimethacrylate) and the isolated compounds were identified using UHPLC–qTOF-MS.     

DYNAMICS OF ROTORS IMMERSED IN ECCENTRIC ANNULAR FLOW. PART 2: EXPERIMENTS

In order to validate the theoretical approach described in Part 1, an extensive experimental study has been performed at Instituto Tecnológico e Nuclear (I.T.N.), using a test rig presenting some improvements over previous experiments by the authors. In agreement with the theoretical model, concentric configurations always display flutter instability of the forward mode only, at velocities much higher than the critical unbalance-excited rotor velocity. Also predicted by theory, an instability of the backward mode may occur at much lower spinning velocities, for some eccentric configurations—which is a conclusion of practical significance. Therefore, rotor-annulus eccentricity is a very important parameter, when stability of the system is addressed. The quantitative agreement of both modal frequencies and damping values, with respect to the rotor spinning velocity, is quite satisfactory at lower velocities. However, it deteriorates somewhat at higher velocities, even for concentric configurations. Discrepancies are discussed, in connection with experimental difficulties (some unavoidable three-dimensional flow effects in the test rig) or other possibly pertinent phenomena (dynamic flow nonlinearities)—which were not accounted for in the theoretical model. However, these problems should not be overstressed, as theoretical instability boundaries are usually fairly close to the experimental results.     

Frequency and development of slugs in a horizontal pipe at large liquid flows

The generation of slugs was studied for air–water flow in horizontal 0.0763 m and 0.095 m pipes. The emphasis was on high liquid rates (u_LS ? 0.5 m/s) for which slugs are formed close to the entry and the time intervals between slugs are stochastic. A “fully developed” slug flow is defined as consisting of slugs with different sizes interspersed in a stratified flow with a height slightly larger than the height, h₀, needed for a slug to be stable. Properties of this “fully developed” pattern are discussed. A correlation for the frequency of slugging is suggested, which describes our data as well as the data from other laboratories for a wide range of conditions. The possibility is explored that there is a further increase of slug length beyond the “fully developed” condition because slugs slowly overtake one another.     

On percolation and ‐hardness

The edge‐percolation and vertex‐percolation random graph models start with an arbitrary graph G, and randomly delete edges or vertices of G with some fixed probability. We study the computational complexity of problems whose inputs are obtained by applying percolation to worst‐case instances. Specifically, we show that a number of classical ‐hard problems on graphs remain essentially as hard on percolated instances as they are in the worst‐case (assuming ). We also prove hardness results for other ‐hard problems such as Constraint Satisfaction Problems and Subset‐Sum, with suitable definitions of random deletions. Along the way, we establish that for any given graph G the independence number and the chromatic number are robust to percolation in the following sense. Given a graph G, let be the graph obtained by randomly deleting edges of G with some probability . We show that if is small, then remains small with probability at least 0.99. Similarly, we show that if is large, then remains large with probability at least 0.99. We believe these results are of independent interest.     

Numerically stable,scalable formulas for parallel and online computation of higher-order multivariate central moments with arbitrary weights

Formulas for incremental or parallel computation of second order central moments have long been known, and recent extensions of these formulas to univariate and multivariate moments of arbitrary order have been developed. Such formulas are of key importance in scenarios where incremental results are required and in parallel and distributed systems where communication costs are high. We survey these recent results, and improve them with arbitrary-order, numerically stable one-pass formulas which we further extend with weighted and compound variants. We also develop a generalized correction factor for standard two-pass algorithms that enables the maintenance of accuracy over nearly the full representable range of the input, avoiding the need for extended-precision arithmetic. We then empirically examine algorithm correctness for pairwise update formulas up to order four as well as condition number and relative error bounds for eight different central moment formulas, each up to degree six, to address the trade-offs between numerical accuracy and speed of the various algorithms. Finally, we demonstrate the use of the most elaborate among the above mentioned formulas, with the utilization of the compound moments for a practical large-scale scientific application.