Spring-block model for a single-lane highway traffic

A simple one-dimensional spring-block chain with asymmetric interactions is considered to model an idealized single-lane highway traffic. The main elements of the system are blocks (modeling cars), springs with unidirectional interactions (modeling distance-keeping interactions between neighbors), static and kinetic friction (modeling inertia of drivers and cars) and spatiotemporal disorder in the values of these friction forces (modeling differences in the driving attitudes). The traveling chain of cars correspond to the dragged spring-block system. Contrary to most of the studies in the field of highway traffic here we focus on a measure characteristic for one car in the row. Our statistical analysis for the spring-block chain predicts a non-trivial and rich complex behavior. As a function of the disorder level in the system a dynamic phase-transition is observed. For low disorder levels uncorrelated slidings of blocks are revealed while for high disorder levels correlated avalanches dominates.     

Reactive glass and vegetation patterns

The formation of vegetation patterns in the arid and the semiarid climatic zones is studied. Threshold for the biomass of the perennial flora is shown to be a relevant factor, leading to a frozen disordered pattern in the arid zone. In this "glassy" state, vegetation appears as singular plant spots separated by irregular distances, and an indirect repulsive interaction among shrubs is induced by the competition for water. At higher precipitation rates, the diminishing of hydrological losses in the presence of flora becomes important and yields spatial attraction and clustering of biomass. Turing patterns with characteristic length scale emerge from the disordered structure due to this positive-feedback instability.     

A crack layer approach to creep crack propagation in high-density polyethylene

Creep crack propagation in high-density polyethylene (HDPE) is observed to occur with an accompanying layer of damage ahead of the crack tip. The crack layer theory, which accounts for the presence of both the damage and the main crack, is applied to the problem. It is observed that the kinetic behavior of HDPE under creep consists of three regions: initial acceleration, constant crack speed, and reac-celeration to failure. Within the first two regions crack propagation appears “brittle,” while in the third region “ductile” behavior is manifested. Ultimate failure occurs via massive yielding of the unbroken ligament. The notion of critical crack length, well defined in many polymers, is shown     

Waterborne crackle decorative coatings and crack patterns

A preparation method of waterborne crackle decorative coatings was reported in this paper and the factors that influence crack patterns were investigated. The crackle coating consisted of a waterborne basecoat and a waterborne topcoat. The basecoat was made from two-component epoxy emulsion and the topcoat was made from fluorine-containing acrylic emulsion, silicone-acrylic emulsion or styrene-acrylic emulsion. Three junction types of crack patterns were prepared by the three top coatings, which were T-junction, Y-junction and mixed junction. T-junction type with long and straight cracks was prepared from styrene-acrylic emulsion 296DS. Y-junction type with curve and short cracks was prepared from fluorine-containing acrylic emulsion A603C and mixed junctions type was made from silicone-acrylic emulsion. Crack patterns with different spacing were prepared by controlling the thickness of topcoat, dryness of basecoat or conditions of film forming. The characterize methods of type and spacing for crack pattern were developed and properties of coating film including adhesion, water resistance, scrub resistance and so on were tested. The results showed that the crackle coatings possessed satisfactory properties for practical application.     

Spiral and curved periodic crack patterns in sol-gel films

Thin silicate sol-gel films with four different crack patterns were created reproducibly by controlling the film deposition parameters. The crack geometry, periodicity, and amplitude were studied experimentally as a function of the film thickness, curing time, and temperature. Direct evidence was found that the physical interplay between stress relief through film cracking and stress relief through film warping results in sawtooth, spiral, closed loop, or straight line crack trajectories. Received: 25 March 2002 / Accepted: 1 July 2002 / Published online: 17 December 2002 RID="*" ID="*"Corresponding author. Fax: +1-941-359-4396, Email: sendova@ncf.edu     

Field induced radial crack patterns in drying laponite gel

We present a study of crack patterns in a layer of laponite gel allowed to dry in a static electric field. Crack patterns in natural and synthetic clays have been studied extensively with interesting results. Since clay platelets have a surface charge in aqueous solution, it is natural to expect the cracking patterns to be affected by an electric field. This is the first report of such an observation in a radial electric field. The nano-sized disc-like laponite particles carry a quadrupole moment due to their charge distribution. The interaction of the quadrupole moment with the field gradient in a non-uniform field of radial symmetry is probably responsible for the characteristic pattern observed. The cracks start radially from the positive electrode. The same geometry with no field does not produce the characteristic pattern, neither does a uniform field with rectangular geometry.     

A Migdal-Kadanoff renormalization-group approach for the XY spin glass

Superconducting rings with mesoscopic Josephson junctions are considered in the presence of a do voltage bias V _o and of non-classical electromagnetic fields (coherent states, squeezed states, number eigenstates etc.). Due to the quantum nature of these devices the current I is a quantum mechanical operator and therefore «I²» is in general different from «I»². Using «I ²» we define the rms current I _rms, and using the various harmonics of «I» as if they belong to a classical current we define the “classical rms current” I _{rms, class}. In the case of classical currents these two quantities are identical, but for quantum currents they are different. We study their difference for various non-classical fields, and find that in some cases this difference is large. These predictions could be observed experimentally through the electromagnetic power that these currents radiate. An experiment that confirms the I _rms and refutes the Irms, class would prove the quantum nature of these currents.     

High-speed camera study of Stage III crack propagation in chemically strengthened glass

Thermally or chemically strengthened glass is more resistant to damage and breakage compared to non-strengthened glass. Both strengthening mechanisms are based on incorporation of a compressive stress profile in the surface of the glass, which must be balanced by an equivalent amount of integrated tensile stress in the interior of the glass. This tensile stress is believed to affect the kinetics of Stage III crack propagation upon fracture of the sample. In this study, we use a high-speed camera to perform direct measurement of the kinetics of Stage III fracture in a strengthened glass sample. Data including crack propagation speed, crack bifurcation distance, and bifurcation angles are collected at a rate of 500,000 frames per second and then characterized. The authors believe that these data will provide a foundation for understanding the physics of Stage III fracture in strengthened glass samples.     

Dynamic scaling approach to glass formation

Experimental data for the temperature dependence of relaxation times are used to argue that the dynamic scaling form, with relaxation time diverging at the critical temperature T(c) as (T-T(c))(-nuz), is superior to the classical Vogel form. This observation leads us to propose that glass formation can be described by a simple mean-field limit of a phase transition. The order parameter is the fraction of all space that has sufficient free volume to allow substantial motion, and grows logarithmically above T(c). Diffusion of this free volume creates random walk clusters that have cooperatively rearranged. We show that the distribution of cooperatively moving clusters must have a Fisher exponent tau=2. Dynamic scaling predicts a power law for the relaxation modulus G(t) approximately t(-2/z), where z is the dynamic critical exponent relating the relaxation time of a cluster to its size. Andrade creep, universally observed for all glass-forming materials, suggests z=6. Experimental data on the temperature dependence of viscosity and relaxation time of glass-forming liquids suggest that the exponent nu describing the correlation length divergence in this simple scaling picture is not always universal. Polymers appear to universally have nuz=9 (making nu=3 / 2). However, other glass-formers have unphysically large values of nuz, suggesting that the availability of free volume is a necessary, but not sufficient, condition for motion in these liquids. Such considerations lead us to assert that nuz=9 is in fact universal for all glass- forming liquids, but an energetic barrier to motion must also be overcome for strong glasses.     

Renormalization group approach to spin glass systems

A renormalization group transformation suitable for spin glass models and, more generally, for disordered models, is presented. The procedure is non-standard in both the nature of the additional interactions and the coarse graining transformation, that is performed on the overlap probability measure. Universality classes are thus naturally defined on a large set of models, going from and Gaussian spin glasses to Ising and fully frustrated models, and others. The proposed analysis is tested numerically on the Edwards-Anderson model in d = 4. Good estimates of the critical index ν and of T _c are obtained, and an RG flow diagram is sketched for the first time. Received 17 November 2000     

Geometric approach to the dynamic glass transition

We numerically study the potential energy landscape of a fragile glassy system and find that the dynamic crossover corresponding to the glass transition is actually the effect of an underlying geometric transition caused by the vanishing of the instability index of saddle points of the potential energy. Furthermore, we show that the potential energy barriers connecting local glassy minima increase with decreasing energy of the minima, and we relate this behavior to the fragility of the system. Finally, we analyze the real space structure of activated processes by studying the distribution of particle displacements for local minima connected by simple saddles.     

Simulated caustic patterns for dynamic crack growth in a plate based on a three-dimensional numerical analysis

The rapid growth of a through-the-thickness crack in a nominally elastic plate under Mode I conditions is considered, with emphasis on the three-dimensional aspects of the elastodynamic crack growth process. For points near the crack edge, the assumptions on stress state consistent with plane stress analysis are not valid, and the possibility of an inertial effect associated with rapid lateral contraction must be considered. The steady crack growth process is analyzed here by means of the finite element method, and the degree to which the local fields are described by plane stress analysis is established. In addition, synthetic shadow spot patterns are generated from the numerical three-dimensional solutions. The inferred values of stress intensity factor are compared with the values of the corresponding plane stress dynamic stress intensity factor.     

Formation and removal of multi-layered fluorescence patterns in gold-ion doped glass

We report the formation of fluorescence patterns inside gold-doped glass medium by femtosecond-laser fabrication. Strong fluorescence images appeared from the irradiated multi-layered region after low temperature annealing. We removed the images by exposing the glass to an electric furnace or a CO₂ laser beam for high temperature annealing. The method was also applied to recording, reading, and erasing of fluorescence data by a femtosecond laser, a 405-nm laser diode, and a CO₂ laser respectively.     

高重复频率激光在非掺杂氧化铋玻璃中诱导TiO2晶体析出

使用聚焦后的800nm,150 fs,250 kHz的高重复频率飞秒脉冲激光研究它在非掺杂氧化铋玻璃内部三维选择性的诱导析晶.通过拉曼光谱测定发现析出的晶体是TiO2且为金红石相.研究表明,经过250 kHz的飞秒激光辐照一段时间后,玻璃内部由于脉冲能量的连续累积会使得激光辐照区域出现热累积效应,达到玻璃的析晶温度后诱导晶体析出.通过连续移动激光束,可以实现连续刻写TiO2晶线,通过EDX测试显示聚焦区域出现了由于热累积效应而形成热驱动使得离子发生迁徙.实验结果表明这种方法适用于在透明介质材料中三维选择性刻写晶体以制备集成光学器件.     

Multivariate empirical mode decomposition approach for adaptive denoising of fringe patterns

An adaptive approach is presented for noise reduction of optical fringe patterns using multivariate empirical mode decomposition. Adjacent rows and columns of patterns are treated as multichannel signals and are decomposed into multiscale components. Fringe patterns are reconstructed with less noise by simply thresholding coefficients in different scales. The proposed approach can better concentrate local main components of fringe signals into single scale, compared with the conventional multiscale denoising method. A simulated pattern and an actual example are examined. Signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the simulated pattern is more than doubled.     

A model for crack formation during active solid pyrolysis of a char-forming solid: crack patterns; surface area generation; volatile mass efflux

A model is developed for the formation and propagation of cracks in a material sample that is heated at its top surface, pyrolyses, and then thermally degrades to form char. In this work the sample is heated uniformly over its entire top surface by a hypothetical flame (a heat source). The pyrolysis mechanism is described by a one-step overall reaction that is dependent nonlinearly on the temperature (Arrhenius form). Stresses develop in response to the thermal degradation of the material by means of a shrinkage strain caused by local mass loss during pyrolysis. When the principal stress exceeds a prescribed threshold value, the material forms a local crack. Cracks are found to generally originate at the surface in response to heating, but occasionally they form in the bulk, away from ever-changing material boundaries. The resulting cracks evolve and form patterns whose characteristics are described. Quantities examined in detail are: the crack spacing in the pyrolysis zone; the crack length evolution; the formation and nature of crack loops which are defined as individual cracks that have joined to form loops that are disconnected from the remaining material; the formation of enhanced pyrolysis area; and the impact of all of the former quantities on mass flux. It is determined that the mass flux from the sample can be greatly enhanced over its nominal (non-cracking) counterpart. The mass efflux profile qualitatively resembles those observed in Cone Calorimeter tests.     

Improved functional-weight approach to oscillatory patterns in excitable networks

Studies of sustained oscillations on complex networks with excitable node dynamics received much interest in recent years. Although an individual unit is non-oscillatory, they may organize to form various collective oscillatory patterns through networked connections. An excitable network usually possesses a number of oscillatory modes dominated by different Winfree loops and numerous spatiotemporal patterns organized by different propagation path distributions. The traditional approach of the so-called dominant phase-advanced drive method has been well applied to the study of stationary oscillation patterns on a network. In this paper, we develop the functional-weight approach that has been successfully used in studies of sustained oscillations in gene-regulated networks by an extension to the high-dimensional node dynamics. This approach can be well applied to the study of sustained oscillations in coupled excitable units. We tested this scheme for different networks, such as homogeneous random networks, small-world networks, and scale-free networks and found it can accurately dig out the oscillation source and the propagation path. The present approach is believed to have the potential in studies competitive non-stationary dynamics.