Birefringent strands in polymer flows in a co-rotating two-roll mill

Flow of a polymer solution in a co-rotating two-roll mill is studied as the speed of one of the rolls is varied. Optical experiments using aqueous solutions of PEO verify the presence of a “birefringent strand”, caused by the elongation and alignment of polymer molecules downstream of a stagnation point in the nip. Measurements of its position and its parametric dependence on K, the ratio of roll speeds, are presented. A strand theory, in which the elastic stresses created by the polymer are approximated by a line discontinuity in shear–stress, is used to form governing differential equations for the strand velocity and position and the pressure gradient. Integration of the equations yields profiles of the strand position and velocity for given parameters K and λ, a non-Newtonian parameter dependent on material properties of the polymer. Numerical results for the symmetric case (K=1.0) compare well with previously published results; a best-fit to the corresponding experiment yields a value of λ≈10, which compares well with estimated values of apparent extensional viscosity and direct measurement of the strand thickness. The numerical solutions for K<1.0 compare qualitatively but not quantitatively with the experimental strand profiles. The discrepancy is consistent with an approximate treatment of the shear-thinning behavior present in the experiments.     

Effect of interfacial contact forces in radial contact wire strand

A new mathematical model has been developed to predict the behaviour of a stranded cable assembly under the influence of interfacial radial contact forces and radial contraction of the core. A single layered cable assembly with six helical wires and a straight cylindrical core, all made with the same material, Steel has been chosen to explain this phenomenon when the assembly is under the influence of core–wire radial contact. An attempt is made in this paper to model the strand with a radial (core–wire) contact and deduce its equations of equilibrium. Numerical analysis of strand force, twisting moment, strand stiffness, contact force and contact stresses is carriedout based on the equilibrium of thin rods, and the results are compared with the earlier research work. The importance of the inclusion of interfacial forces at the contact locations and their associated effects of axial and twist slip of the helical wires on the core, is highlighted. The behaviour of the stranded cable assembly due to the contact force in the radial direction and its associated effects on the axial strain of the core due to Poisson’s effect is one more additional feature incorporated in the present work.     

Simulation of longitudinal string waves through a single polymer molecule

The capability of an individual polymer molecule to carry an acoustic wave along its length was investigated by a Brownian dynamics simulation using the algorithm of Ermak and McCammon and the discrete worm-like chain model. A 3 μm long DNA strand featuring 50 nm persistence length was subjected to longitudinal oscillations (2 kHz to 25 kHz) at one end, and the properties of the resulting propagating interaction were studied and shown to be wave-like. A proof of concept experiment is proposed, where an optical tweezers dumbbell experiment is conducted to induce and receive the wave, and the result is compared to that of a control experiment with the DNA strand absent. Simulations were conducted to show what one might expect to see in such an experiment.     

剪切载荷作用下植物细胞的力学特性分析

根据植物细胞的结构特点,以二维问题为研究对象,在已建立的植物单细胞力学模型的基础上,利用有限元方法和MATLAB计算软件研究了单细胞受到剪切载荷作用时,外力、应力、应变及内压间的相互关系,给出了关系曲线图。得出了在剪切情况下,外力、应力、应变及内压之间的关系是非线性的;细胞内压改变量随外力或细胞变形或细胞壁应力的增加而增加;细胞壁的应力随剪切力的增大而增大;细胞将在哪个方向破裂等6个结论。     

PROPAGATION CHARACTERISTICS OF HIGH ORDER LONGITUDINAL MODES IN STEEL STRANDS AND THEIR APPLICATIONS

Propagation characteristics of high order longitudinal modes of ultrasonic guided waves in seven-wire steel strands are investigated theoretically and experimentally. According to these analysis results, proper longitudinal modes are selected for defect detection in steel strands. Dispersion curves for helical and central wires in a 17.80 mm nominal diameter seven-wire steel strand are numerically obtained firstly, and propagation characteristics of high-order longitudinal modes, such as wave structures, attenuation and dispersion, are analyzed. In experiments, the signals of ultrasonic guided wave at different high frequencies are excited and received at one end of a steel strand by using the same single piezoelectric transducer. The identification of longitudinal modes in the received signals is achieved based on short time Fourier transform. Furthermore, appropriate L（0, 5） mode at 2.54 MHz is chosen for detecting an artificial defect in a helical wire of the steel strand. Results show that high order longitudinal modes in a high frequency range with low dispersion and attenuation whose energy propagates mainly in the center of the wires can be used for defect detection in long range steel strands.     

Multi-Vortex Solutions to Ginzburg–Landau Equations with External Potential

We consider the existence of multi-vortex solutions to the Ginzburg–Landau equations with external potential on \mathbbR²{\mathbb{R}^2} . These equations model equilibrium states of superconductors and stationary states of the U(1) Higgs model of particle physics. In the former case, the external potential models impurities and defects. We show that if the external potential is small enough and the magnetic vortices are widely spaced, then one can pin one or an arbitrary number of vortices in the vicinity of a critical point of the potential. In addition, one can pin an arbitrary number of vortices near infinity if the potential is radially symmetric and of an algebraic order near infinity.     

General axial response of stranded wire helical springs

The large static deflection of an axially loaded helical spring formed of a twisted strand of smooth circular wires is considered. Contact between the wires in the strand may or may not be maintained upon loading, depending upon the type of construction and the type of loading. It is found that the making or breaking of wire contact within the strand has a drastic ettect upon the extension and twist of a wire and upon the extension of the strand, but has practically no effect upon the twist of the strand, and only a moderate effect upon the overall response of the spring. Limited experimental data tend to verify the theory. It is found that a good engineering approximation for the axial stiffness of a twisted m-wire spring in which contact is maintained can be made by treating the spring as m untwisted helical wires acting independently, provided the strand twist is not too severe.     

High‐order strand grid methods for low‐speed and incompressible flows

A novel high‐order finite volume scheme using flux correction methods in conjunction with structured finite differences is extended to low Mach and incompressible flows on strand grids. Flux correction achieves a high order by explicitly canceling low‐order truncation error terms across finite volume faces and is applied in unstructured layers of the strand grid. The layers are then coupled together using a source term containing summation‐by‐parts finite differences in the strand direction. A preconditioner is employed to extend the method to low speed and incompressible flows. We further extend the method to turbulent flows with the Spalart–Allmaras model. Laminar flow test cases indicate improvements in accuracy and convergence using the high‐order preconditioned method, while turbulent body‐of‐revolution flow results show improvements in only some cases, perhaps because of dominant errors arising from the turbulence model itself. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The rheology of polymer solution elastic strands in extensional flow

We apply micro-oscillatory cross-slot extensional flow to a semi-dilute poly(ethylene oxide) solution. Micro-particle image velocimetry (μPIV) is used to probe the real local flow field. Extreme flow perturbation is observed, where birefringent strands of extended polymer originate from the stagnation point. This coincides with a large increase in the extensional viscosity. The combination of stagnation point flow and μPIV enables us to investigate directly the stress and strain rates in the strand and so determine the true extensional viscosity of the localised strand alone. The Trouton ratio in the strand is found to be ~4000, amongst the highest values of Trouton ratio ever reported. Consideration of the flow in the exit channels surrounding the highly elastic strand suggests a maximum limit for the pressure drop across the device and the apparent extensional viscosity. This has implications for the understanding of high Deborah number extensional thinning reported in other stagnation point flow situations.     

A Boltzmann based model for open channel flows

A finite volume, Boltzmann Bhatnagar–Gross–Krook (BGK) numerical model for one‐ and two‐dimensional unsteady open channel flows is formulated and applied. The BGK scheme satisfies the entropy condition and thus prevents unphysical shocks. In addition, the van Leer limiter and the collision term ensure that the BGK scheme admits oscillation‐free solutions only. The accuracy and efficiency of the BGK scheme are demonstrated through the following examples: (i) strong shock waves, (ii) extreme expansion waves, (iii) a combination of strong shock waves and extreme expansion waves, and (iv) one‐ and two‐dimensional dam break problems. These test cases are performed for a variety of Courant numbers (C_r), with the only condition being C_r≤1. All the computational results are free of spurious oscillations and unphysical shocks (i.e., expansion shocks). In addition, comparisons of numerical tests with measured data from dam break laboratory experiments show good agreement for C_r≤0.6. This reduction in the stability domain is due to the explicit integration of the friction term. Furthermore, BGK schemes are easily extended to multidimensional problems and do not require characteristic decomposition. The proposed scheme is second‐order in both space and time when the external forces are zero and second‐order in space but first‐order in time when the external forces are non‐zero. However, since all the test cases presented are either for zero or small values of external forces, the results tend to maintain second‐order accuracy. In problems where the external forces become significant, it is possible to improve the order of accuracy of the scheme in time by, for example, applying the Runge–Kutta method in the integration of the external forces. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Almost Periodic Solutions of One Dimensional Schrödinger Equation with the External Parameters

A whitney family of almost periodic solutions for one dimensional Schrödinger equations with the external parameters are proved. It’s based on a detailed analysis to the shift of frequency and an improved infinite dimension KAM theory.     

Attractors of harmonically forced linear oscillator with attached nonlinear energy sink. II: Optimization of a nonlinear vibration absorber

This paper is the second one in the series of two papers devoted to detailed investigation of the response regimes of a linear oscillator with attached nonlinear energy sink (NES) under harmonic external forcing and assessment of possible application of the NES for vibration absorption and mitigation. In this paper, we study the performance of a strongly nonlinear, damped vibration absorber with relatively small mass attached to a periodically excited linear oscillator. We present a nonlinear absorber tuning procedure in the vicinity of (1:1) resonance which provides the best total system energy suppression, using analytical and numerical tools. A linear absorber is also tuned according to the same criterion of total system energy suppression as the nonlinear one. Both optimally tuned absorbers are compared under common parameters of damping, external forcing but different absorber stiffness characteristics; certain cases for which nonlinear absorber is preferable over the linear one are revealed and confirmed numerically.     

Adaptive fuzzy formation control for a swarm of nonholonomic differentially driven vehicles

In this paper, an adaptive fuzzy robust H ^∞ controller is proposed for formation control of a swarm of differential driven vehicles with nonholonomic dynamic models. Artificial potential functions are used to design the formation control input for kinematic model of the robots and matrix manipulations are used to transform the nonholonomic model of each differentially driven vehicle into equivalent holonomic one. The main advantage of the proposed controller is the robustness to input nonlinearity, external disturbances, model uncertainties, and measurement noises, in a formation control of a nonholonomic robotic swarm. Moreover, robust stability proof is given using Lyapunov functions. Finally, simulation results are demonstrated for a swarm formation problem of a group of six unicycles, illustrating the effective attenuation of approximation error and external disturbances, even in the case of robot failure.     

Response of a wire rope strand to axial and torsional loads: Asymptotic modeling of the effect of interwire contact deformations

The refined discrete mathematical model of a simple helical wire rope strand is developed. The effect of the transverse contraction of the wire strand through Poisson’s ratio and also through local contact deformations (wire flattening) has been studied in detail. In order to express the interwire contact deformation in terms of the parameters describing the strand deformation, we formulate a two-dimensional model interwire contact problem. The interwire contact interaction is treated as a frictionless unilateral plain strain problem. The nonlinear model interwire contact problem has been solved by the method of matched asymptotic expansions. The constitutive equations for a helical wire rope strand, which take into account both the Poisson’s ratio effect and the effect of contact deformation, are obtained in a closed form.     

Response of epoxy oversized models of strands to axial and torsional loads

As part of an extensive investigation on strand and cable properties, epoxy oversized models of strands have been manufactured using a newly developed technique. Axial and torsional loadings have been applied to the models. Strains, stresses and displacements have been determined using mechanical and electrical strain gages, dial gages and brittle coatings. The results obtained are compared with calculations using a previously developed theory. The response of a reference structure in which each wire is assumed to act independently is also compared with the response of the strand. Several discrepancies with theory are pointed out. It is believed that these are the first systematic measurements taken on strands.     

Overall Solution-Difference Bounds on the Effects of Material Inhomogeneities

In this work variational bounds are developed on the difference between the solutions of two boundary-value problems involving linearly elastic material microstructure. Both problems have the same external geometry, boundary conditions and loading, however, one possesses no microstructure, i.e., it is homogeneous, while the other is “perturbed” with inhomogeneities. The bounds developed are solely in terms of the solution to the easier homogeneous material problem, the microstructure of the inhomogeneous problem and the given loading data. There are no unknown constants in the bounds. Furthermore, no calculation of the harder, typically intractable, inhomogeneous material problem is necessary. The bounds developed are obtained under no assumptions on the character of the microstructure of the inhomogeneous material problem, other than it be pointwise positive-definite, as well as under no assumptions on the external loading and geometry. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Perturbed vortical layers and shear sheltering

New theoretical results and physical interpretations are presented concerning the interactions between different types of velocity fields that are separated by thin interfacial layers, where there are dynamically significant variations of vorticity across the layers and, in some cases within them. It is shown how, in different types of complex engineering and environmental flow, the strengths of these interactions vary from the weakest kind of superposition to those where they determine the flow structure, for example by mutual exclusion of velocity fields from the other region across the interface, or by local resonance near the interface. We focus here on the excluding kinds of interactions between, on the one hand, elongated and compact regions containing vortical flows and large variations in velocity, and on the other hand various kinds of weak perturbation in the surrounding external flow region: rotational, irrotational; time-varying, steady; large, small; coplanar, non-coplanar; non-diffusive, diffusive. It is shown how all these kinds of external disturbances can be wholly, or partially, ‘blocked’ at the interface with the vortical region, so that beyond a certain sheltering distance into the interior of this region the fluctuations can be very small. For the special case of quasi-parallel co-planar external straining motions outside non-directional shear flows, weak sheltering occurs if the mean velocity of the shear flow increases – otherwise the perturbations are amplified. For non-parallel flows, the sheltering effect can be greater when the vorticity is distributed in thin vortex sheets. The mechanism whereby the vortical flow induces ‘blocking’ and ‘shear-sheltering’ effects can be quantitatively explained in terms of the small adjustments of the vorticity in the vortical layers, and in some cases by the change in impulse of these layers. If the vorticity in the outer part of the vortical region is weak, it can be ‘stripped away’ by the external disturbances until the remaining vorticity is strong enough to ‘block’ the disturbances and shelter the inner flow of the vortical region. The mechanisms presented here appear to explain on the one hand some aspects of the observed robustness of vortical structures and jet or plume like shear flows in turbulent and geophysical flows, and on the other hand the levels of external perturbation needed to erode or breakdown turbulent shear flows.     

Acoustic emission in fiber reinforced concrete

This investigation is aimed at diagnostic studies on the behavior at different interfaces in fiber reinforced concrete: between hardened cement paste and sand, between mortar and coarse aggregate and between concrete and fibers. Other types of internal failure include aggregate crushing, fiber rupture, and so on. Only cylindrical specimens, with varying volume percentage and aspect ratio of fibers, have been tested in compression. For quite some time additives like latexes, plasticizers, fibers and silica fume are incorporated in concrete and mortar to improve one quality or the other of concrete, but one single common objective is delaying or arresting interface cracks. This investigation attempts to relate external behavior to internal signals of distress through acoustic emission. This helps to identify critical internal distress vis-à-vis external level of stress. Further, spectral analysis of acoustic signals has been attempted in frequency domain in order to establish which types of interface failure are predominant at different stages of stress. Such understanding could enable material scientists to decide on the parameters of additives with greater confidence when developing composites with desired external response. Of interest are instrumentation and on-line data processing in order to record (a) cumulative acoustic activity and (b) spectral analysis in frequency domain at different stages of progressive loading.     

Sensitivity of Buckling Load and Vibration Frequency with Respect to Shape of Stiffened and Unstiffened Plates

ABSTRACT

The method of calculating the sensitivities of buckling loads and vibration frequencies of nonlinear plates with respect to shape functions is presented. These shape functions describe the external shape of an unstiffened plate or the shape of a stiffener within the domain of a plate with fixed external boundaries. An adjoint variable method is used to determine the sensitivities. Thus, only one additional solution for an adjoint plate is required.     

Prediction of the response of non-linear oscillators under stochastic parametric and external excitations

The method of equivalent external excitation is derived to predict the stationary variances of the states of non-linear oscillators subjected to both stochastic parametric and external excitations. The oscillator is interpreted as one which is excited solely by an external zero-mean stochastic process. The Fokker-Planck-Kolmogorov equation is then applied to solve for the density functions and match the stationary variances of the states. Four examples which include polynomial, non-polynomial, and Duffing type non-linear oscillators are used to illustrate this approach. The validity of the present approach is compared with some exact solutions and with Monte Carlo simulations.