Modal analysis of circular plates with radial side cracks and in contact with water on one side based on the Rayleigh–Ritz method

In this paper, free vibrations of the baffled circular plates with radial side cracks and in contact with water on one side are investigated based on the Rayleigh–Ritz method. The completely free, simply supported and completely clamped boundary conditions are considered. Corner functions are introduced to describe the singularities at the crack tip. The motion of water is expressed by the velocity potential and the interaction between the water and the plate is derived in the form of an integral equation including the dynamic deformation of the cracked plate. The convergence studies are carried out and the numerical results show that the distinctions between the dry and wet mode shapes will be increased obviously excluding the first symmetric and antisymmetric modes when cracks appear. When the approximate methods based on the assumption that the wet modes are identical with the dry modes are adopted to calculate the eigenfrequencies, the errors of the results for cracked circular plates are larger than those for intact ones. The influences of the water on the symmetric and antisymmetric modes are different evidently, and the greatest reduction ratio of eigenfrequency and least difference between dry and wet mode are relative to the first symmetric mode. The verifications based on numerical simulation show that the proposed method is adequate for the investigation of free vibration of baffled circular plates with radial side cracks and in contact with water on one side.     

Preparation and application of the 3C–SiC substrate to piezoelectric micro cantilever transducers

This study examines the fabrication process and mechanical properties of piezoelectric films with the substrate, which is made from silicon carbide. After depositing the PZT thick film on silicon carbide substrate and silicon substrate respectively, it was shown that silicon carbide substrate formed a stable interface with PZT thick film up to 950?°C, compared with silicon substrate. In addition, the dielectric constant of the PZT thick film sintered at 950?°C on a silicon carbide substrate was 843, and this value was about over 25 % improved value compared with that on a silicon substrate. A thick film piezoelectric micro transducer of a micro cantilever type was fabricated by using a multifunctional 3C–SiC substrate. The fabricated micro cantilever was a micro cantilever with multiple thin films on either silicon or silicon carbide substrate. The piezoelectric thick-film micro cantilever that was fabricated by using a SiC substrate showed excellent mechanical and thermal properties. The piezoelectric micro cantilever on the SiC substrate shows an excellent sensitivity towards the change of mass compared with the piezoelectric micro cantilever on the Si substrate.     

Synthesis and characterisation of highly fluorescent core–shell nanoparticles based on Alexa dyes

Current and future developments in the emerging field of nanobiotechnology are closely linked to the rational design of novel fluorescent nanomaterials, e.g. for biosensing and imaging applications. Here, the synthesis of bright near infrared (NIR)-emissive nanoparticles based on the grafting of silica nanoparticles (SNPs) with 3-aminopropyl triethoxysilane (APTES) followed by covalent attachment of Alexa dyes and their subsequent shielding by an additional silica shell are presented. These nanoparticles were investigated by dynamic light scattering (DLS), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and fluorescence spectroscopy. TEM studies revealed the monodispersity of the initially prepared and fluorophore-labelled silica particles and the subsequent formation of raspberry-like structures after addition of a silica precursor. Measurements of absolute fluorescence quantum yields of these scattering particle suspensions with an integrating sphere setup demonstrated the influence of dye labelling density-dependent fluorophore aggregation on the signaling behaviour of such nanoparticles.     

Research on modal analysis of structural acoustic radiation using structural vibration modes and acoustic radiation modes

Modal analysis of structural acoustic radiation from a vibrating structure is discussed using structural vibration modes and acoustic radiation modes based on the quadratic form of acoustic power. The finite element method is employed for discretisizing the structure. The boundary element method and Rayleigh integral are used for modeling the acoustic fluid. It is shown that the power radiated by a single vibration mode is to increase the radiated power and the effect of modal interaction can lead to an increase or a decrease or no change in the radiated power, moreover, control of vibration modes is a good way to reduce both vibration and radiated sound as long as the influence of interaction of vibration modes on sound radiation is insignificant. Stiffeners may change mode shapes of a plate and thus change radiation efficiency of the plate‘s modes. The CHIEF method is adopted to obtain an acoustic radiation mode formulation without the nonuniqueness difficulty at critical frequencies for three-dimensional structures by using Moore-Penrose inverse. A pulsating cube is involved to verify the formulation. Good agreement is obtained between the numerical and analytical solutions. The shapes and radiation efficiencies of acoustic radiation modes of the cube are discussed. The structural acoustic control using structural vibration modes and acoustic radiation modes are compared and studied.     

A comparative study of conventional type II and inverted core–shell nanostructures based on CdSe and ZnS

The objective of this work is to investigate structural, morphological and optical properties of conventional CdSe/ZnS core–shell and inverted ZnS/CdSe core–shell nanostructures for opto-electronic device applications. For this purpose both nanostructures were synthesized using chemical bath deposition technique in thin film form. The structural properties were studied using X-ray diffraction technique with Rietveld refinement and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The surface morphology of synthesized thin film was illustrated in the form 2D and 3D images using atomic force microscopy (AFM). The optical properties were explained using UV–Vis absorption spectroscopy and photo luminescence (PL) spectroscopy in in situ monitoring process. A comparison of estimated particle size from XRD, high resolution AFM and TEM images was resulted in good agreement as 2.1, 2.4 and 2.1 nm respectively for conventional CdSe/ZnS core–shell and as 2.5, 2.5 and 2.2 nm respectively for inverted ZnS/CdSe core–shell nanostructures.     

A convergence study of a new partitioned fluid–structure interaction algorithm based on fictitious mass and damping

We develop, analyze and validate a new method for simulating fluid–structure interactions (FSIs), which is based on fictitious mass and fictitious damping in the structure equation. We employ a partitioned method for the fluid and structure motions in conjunction with sub-iteration and Aitken relaxation. In particular, the use of such fictitious parameters requires sub-iterations in order to reduce the induced error in addition to the local temporal truncation error. To this end, proper levels of tolerance for terminating the sub-iteration procedure have been obtained in order to recover the formal order of temporal accuracy. For the coupled FSI problem, these fictitious terms have a significant effect, leading to better convergence rate and hence substantially smaller number of sub-iterations. Through analysis we identify the proper range of these parameters, which we then verify by corresponding numerical tests. We implement the method in the context of spectral element discretization, which is more sensitive than low-order methods to numerical instabilities arising in the explicit FSI coupling. However, the method we present here is simple and general and hence applicable to FSI based on any other discretization. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the method in applications involving 2D vortex-induced vibrations (VIV) and in 3D flexible arteries with structural density close to blood density. We also present 3D results for a patient-specific aneurysmal flow under pulsatile flow conditions examining, in particular, the sensitivity of the results on different values of the fictitious parameters.     

Study of the effect of varying core diameter,shell thickness and strain velocity on the tensile properties of single crystals of Cu–Ag core–shell nanowire using molecular dynamics simulations

Core–shell type nanostructures show exceptional properties due to their unique structure having a central solid core of one type and an outer thin shell of another type which draw immense attention among researchers. In this study, molecular dynamics simulations are carried out on single crystals of copper–silver core–shell nanowires having wire diameter ranging from 9 to 30 nm with varying core diameter, shell thickness, and strain velocity. The tensile properties like yield strength, ultimate tensile strength, and Young’s modulus are studied and correlated by varying one parameter at a time and keeping the other two parameters constant. The results obtained for a fixed wire size and different strain velocities were extrapolated to calculate the tensile properties like yield strength and Young’s modulus at standard strain rate of 1 mm/min. The results show ultra-high tensile properties of copper–silver core–shell nanowires, several times than that of bulk copper and silver. These copper–silver core–shell nanowires can be used as a reinforcing agent in bulk metal matrix for developing ultra-high strength nanocomposites.     

Synthesis of tunable core–shell nanostructures based on TiO2-graphene architectures and their application in the photodegradation of rhodamine dyes

We present the synthesis of core–shell nanostructural materials with multi-component architectures based on TiO₂ and graphitic layers. The composites have been synthesized by chemical vapor deposition with methane as the carbon source, for 5, 10, 30 and 45 min. The final products were characterized by a combination of analytical approaches which include: electron microscopy, Raman, FT-IR and UV–vis spectroscopy as well as thermogravimetric analysis. The amount of graphene shells covering the TiO₂ surfaces was found to vary linearly with the reaction time. Furthermore, the compounds were shown to have excellent stability and photocatalytic activity towards the UV degradation of rhodamine (RhB) dye solution at room temperature. These composites could have major applications in the area of environmental cleaning of various pollutants, electrochemistry or nanomedicine.     

Impact of shell thickness on exciton and biexciton binding energies of a ZnSe/ZnS core–shell quantum dot

Impact of shell structure on the exciton and biexciton binding energies has been studied in a ZnSe/ZnS core–shell quantum dot using Wentzel–Kramers–Brillouin (WKB) approximation. For excitons, the binding is caused by the Coulombic as well as the confinement potentials while biexciton binding energy is determined by taking into account the exchange and correlation effects. The exciton binding energy was found to increase initially with increasing shell thickness which reaches saturation at larger shell thickness. On the other hand, the biexciton binding energy exhibits a crossover from the bonding to antibonding state with increasing shell thickness for smaller core radius of the quantum dot.     

Core–shell nanostructures and nanocomposites of Ag@TiO2: effect of capping agent and shell thickness on the optical properties

Two different shell-forming reagents viz. titanium isopropoxide and titanium hydroxyacylate, have been employed to obtain core–shell nanostructures of Ag@TiO₂. However, nanocomposites were formed when the shell-forming agent, titanium isopropoxide, was added before breaking the micelles. Titanium hydroxyacylate has been used for the first time as a shell-forming agent which resulted in uniform core–shell structures of Ag@TiO₂ with core diameter ranging from 10 to 40 nm and a shell thickness of 10–50 nm. The low rate of hydrolysis of titanium hydroxyacylate than titanium isopropoxide (used in other methods) appears to be responsible for the uniform shell thickness. The presence of capping agent (2-mercaptoethanol) disrupts the formation of a uniform shell structure of Ag@TiO₂. HRTEM, IR, and XPS studies of Ag@TiO₂ synthesized using capping agent show the formation of Ag₂S coated with an amorphous layer of TiO₂. A red shift of 25 and 10 nm was observed in the surface plasmon band of silver for Ag@TiO₂ core–shell structures (compared with that of silver nanoparticles) synthesized using titanium hydroxyacylate and titanium isopropoxide, respectively. The presence of capping agent (2-mercaptoethanol) masks the surface plasmon peak. Photoluminescence studies show an increase in the emission intensity for the core–shell structures when compared to that of TiO₂ nanoparticles.     

Optical fiber strain and temperature sensor based on an in-line Mach–Zehnder interferometer using thin-core fiber

We propose and demonstrate a fiber in-line Mach–Zehnder interferometer using thin-core fibers. This in-line interferometer is composed of a short section of thin-core fiber inserted between two single mode fibers (SMF), and demonstrated as a strain and temperature sensor in this study. A strain sensitivity of ?1.83 pm/με with a measurement range of 0?2000 με, and the temperature sensitivity of ?72.89 pm/°C with a temperature variation of 50 °C are achieved. We also discussed that the influence of strain and temperature change on the relative power ratios among the excited cladding modes in thin-core fibers.     

Atomic composition and stability of Langmuir–Blodgett monolayers based on siloxane dimer of quaterthiophene on the surface of polycrystalline gold

Physics of the Solid State - Atomic composition of monolayers based on siloxane dimer of quaterthiophene deposited by Langmuir–Blodgett technique on a silicon dioxide surface partially...     

Optimisation of damping treatments based on big bang–big crunch and modal strain energy methods

A cost-effective methodology is needed in various applications in order to optimise damping treatments for structures. Although some methods appear to be applicable for structures with relatively simple geometries, it is still difficult to utilise them for general structures. This paper presents an efficient approach for optimisation of passive damping treatments that can be applied to general structures. First, an optimisation procedure based on big bang–big crunch optimisation method is introduced and its effectiveness for damping optimisation is evaluated. Then, a procedure based on modal strain energy method is presented for the prediction of modal damping levels for structures with damping treatments and its performance is assessed. After that, for validation purposes, the proposed optimisation methodology is used to maximise modal damping for a single mode of a structure whose optimised configurations are known for the individual modes. Finally, the performance of the proposed optimisation procedure is demonstrated for the maximisation of damping levels for multiple modes at the same time and the applicability of the approach for general structures with passive damping treatments is demonstrated.     

Selection of peptomeric inhibitors of bovine α-chymotrypsin and cathepsin G based on trypsin inhibitor SFTI-1 using a combinatorial chemistry approach

A peptomeric library consisting of 360 monocyclic analogues of trypsin inhibitor SFTI-1 isolated from sunflower seeds was designed and synthesized by a solid-phase approach in order to select chymotrypsin and cathepsin G inhibitors. All peptomers contained a proteinogenic-Phe-mimicking N-benzylglycine (Nphe) at positions 5 and 12. Into the synthesized library, different peptoid monomers were introduced in the 7–10 segment. Deconvolution of the library against both proteinases through an iterative method in solution revealed that the strongest chymotrypsin inhibitory activity was displayed by two analogues, [Nphe^5,12]SFTI-1 (1) and [Nphe^5,12, Naem⁸]SFTI-1 (2), where Naem stands for N-(2-morpholinoethyl)glycine. After deconvolution against a cathepsin G analogue, [Nphe^5,12, Npip^8,9, Nnle¹⁰] SFTI-1 (3) (Npip = N-(3,4-methylenedioxybenzyl)glycine) appeared to be the most potent inhibitor with a high serum stability. It is worth noting that the analogues obtained by a combinatorial approach display high specificity towards one of the experimental enzymes. Another interesting feature is the lack of Pro8 in analogues 2 and 3, the amino acid residue absolutely conserved in the family of Bownan–Birk inhibitors.     

Development of the device prototype based on the semiconductor–carbon nanotubes structure for optical radiation detection and study of its parameters

A light-receiving device prototype based on the semiconductor–carbon nanotubes (CNTs) structure consisting of 16 cellular structured sensitive elements grown on the same substrate is developed. The topology of sensitive cells represents holes through metallization and insulator layers to the semiconductor from which the CNT array grows to the top metallization layer. The device prototype parameters are determined as follows: the effective wavelength range is within 400–1100 nm, the operational speed is no longer than 30 μs, the coefficients of peak sensitivity reached at wavelengths of 640 and 950 nm are 197 and 193 μA/W, respectively.     

von Kármán–Howarth and Corrsin equations closure based on Lagrangian description of the fluid motion

A new approach to obtain the closure formulas for the von Kármán–Howarth and Corrsin equations is presented, which is based on the Lagrangian representation of the fluid motion, and on the Liouville theorem associated to the kinematics of a pair of fluid particles. This kinematics is characterized by the finite scale separation vector which is assumed to be statistically independent from the velocity field. Such assumption is justified by the hypothesis of fully developed turbulence and by the property that this vector varies much more rapidly than the velocity field. This formulation leads to the closure formulas of von Kármán–Howarth and Corrsin equations in terms of longitudinal velocity and temperature correlations following a demonstration completely different with respect to the previous works. Some of the properties and the limitations of the closed equations are discussed. In particular, we show that the times of evolution of the developed kinetic energy and temperature spectra are finite quantities which depend on the initial conditions.