Measurement and simulations of hollow atom X-ray spectra of solid-density relativistic plasma created by high-contrast PW optical laser pulses

K-shell spectra of solid Al excited by petawatt picosecond laser pulses have been investigated at the Vulcan PW facility. Laser pulses of ultrahigh contrast with an energy of 160 J on the target allow studies of interactions between the laser field and solid state matter at 10²⁰ W/cm². Intense X-ray emission of KK hollow atoms (atoms without n = 1 electrons) from thin aluminum foils is observed from optical laser plasma for the first time. Specifically for 1.5 μm thin foil targets the hollow atom yield dominates the resonance line emission. It is suggested that the hollow atoms are predominantly excited by the impact of X-ray photons generated by radiation friction to fast electron currents in solid-density plasma due to Thomson scattering and bremsstrahlung in the transverse plasma fields. Numerical simulations of Al hollow atom spectra using the ATOMIC code confirm that the impact of keV photons dominates the atom ionization. Our estimates demonstrate that solid-density plasma generated by relativistic optical laser pulses provide the source of a polychromatic keV range X-ray field of 10¹⁸ W/cm² intensity, and allows the study of excited matter in the radiation-dominated regime. High-resolution X-ray spectroscopy of hollow atom radiation is found to be a powerful tool to study the properties of high-energy density plasma created by intense X-ray radiation.     

Emission direction of fast electrons in high-intensity laser interactions with solids

Energetic fast electron beams can be generated in ultrashort and ultraintense laser–plasma interactions. In this paper the dependence of the emission direction of the fast electron beams on the experimental conditions of the laser and plasmas, such as intensity, polarization, incident angle, scale length of the preplasma, as well as the possible ways to control the emission direction of fast electrons are discussed.     

A fast method to generate collisional excitation cross-sections of highly charged ions in a hot dense matter

A method to compute collisional excitation cross-sections in jj-averaged configuration sets is presented in the framework of plane-wave Born approximation using Dirac–Hartree–Slater wave functions with appropriate low-energy corrections. When averaged into the ls configuration or hydrogenic superconfiguration sets, the results are found to compare with distorted wave calculations well within 30% on average. The cross-sections are averaged into hydrogenic cross-sections and fitted using the Gaunt factor formalism. We present analytic fit coefficients of Gaunt factors for 12 atoms of Z between 5 and 79 for hydrogenic transitions.     

The microstructure of porous building materials: Study of a cement and lime mortar

Building materials such as cement mortars and concrets present a very broad distribution of pore sizes, from some tenths of angstroms to several micra. This distribution is very important in establishing their macroscopic properties, e.g., vapor adsorption and desorption and moisture transfer. It is, thus, important to develop procedures to analyze the microstructure of these materials in the full range of pore sizes. In the present work, two complementary methods are used for obtaining the pore sizes distribution of a cement and lime mortar, often used as a building coating material. Electron scanning microscopy is used for pore sizes greater than 1250 å, from a sequence of pictures taken with magnifications from 25x to 12500x, for highly polished surfaces. The heterogeneous spatial distribution of pores is discussed, related to the problem of the geometrical reconstitution of porous structure. For pore sizes smaller than 1250 å, adsorption isotherms obtained at 30 C are used. Molecular physical adsorption is supposed to be the dominant adsorption mechanism in a wide range of relative humidities and modeled using the De Boer and Zwikker theory. This is confirmed by a very high correlation coefficient equal to 0.994 for the present case, for values of RH smaller than 80%. Capillary condensation is supposed to become significant at the point where the adsorption curve deviates from the linear behavior as predicted by the De Boer and Zwikker theory, and the Broekhoff and De Boer theory is used for predicting the pore size distribution from the adsorption isotherm,starting from the deviation point andincreasing RH. The results show the pore size distribution between 200 å and 13m.     

Identification of the convective instability in a multi-component solution by 3D simulations

Three-dimensional calculations have been done to simulate the onset of convective motion in ternary nondilute solution under phase transition conditions. The process is considered for Rayleigh number in the range $[1\times {10}^3,1.4\times {10}^4]$, where subcritical convective motion with hexagonal flow pattern is identified. The results are in good agreement with the linear and finite amplitude theory of hydrodynamics instability. To cite this article: V.V. Kolmychkov et al., C. R. Mecanique 333 (2005).     

Numerical simulations of droplet formation in a cross‐junction microchannel by the lattice Boltzmann method

An immiscible liquid–liquid multiphase flow in a cross‐junction microchannel was numerically studied using the lattice Boltzmann method. An improved, immiscible lattice BGK model was proposed by introducing surface tension force based on the continuum surface force (CSF) method. Recoloring step was replaced by the anti‐diffusion scheme in the mixed region to reduce the side‐effect and control the thickness of the interface. The present method was tested by the simulation of a static bubble. Laplace's law and spurious velocities were examined. The results show that our model is more advantageous for simulations of immiscible fluids than the existing immiscible lattice BGK models. Computational results of multiphase flow in a cross‐junction microchannel were obtained and analyzed based on dimensionless numbers. It is found that the flow pattern is decided mostly by the capillary number at a small inlet flux. However, at the same capillary number, a large inlet flux will lead to much smaller droplet generation. For this case, the flow is determined by both the capillary number and the Weber number. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Estimation of radiative properties and temperature distributions in coal-fired boiler furnaces by a portable image processing system

This paper presented an experimental investigation on the estimation of radiative properties and temperature distributions in a 670 t/h coal-fired boiler furnace by a portable imaging processing system. The portable system has been calibrated by a blackbody furnace. Flame temperatures and emissivities were measured by the portable system and equivalent blackbody temperatures were deduced. Comparing the equivalent blackbody temperatures measured by the portable system and the infrared pyrometer, the relative difference is less than 4%. The reconstructed pseudo-instantaneous 2-D temperature distributions in two cross-sections can disclose the combustion status inside the furnace. The measured radiative properties of particles in the furnace proved there is significant scattering in coal-fired boiler furnaces and it can provide useful information for the calculation of radiative heat transfer and numerical simulation of combustion in coal-fired boiler furnaces. The preliminary experimental results show this technology will be helpful for the combustion diagnosis in coal-fired boiler furnaces.     

Numerical simulations of the primary Bjerknes force experienced by bubbles in a standing ultrasonic field: Nonlinear vs. linear

The primary Bjerknes force experienced by a population of multiple bubbles in a liquid set in a nonlinear ultrasonic standing field and their translation are calculated and analyzed by numerical simulations. The force field is evaluated by considering the nonlinear bubble oscillations as well as the nonlinear character of the ultrasonic pressure field (both variables are unknown in the coupled nonlinear differential system). The results at small amplitudes agree with the classical theory on bubble translation, depending on the driving frequency in relation to the bubble resonance. It is shown that, when amplitudes are raised, the force field exhibits important modifications that strongly affect the motion of the bubbles and the way they form agglomerates. An analysis is performed on the importance of the terms in the differential system that provoke (a) the nonlinearity of the bubble oscillations and (b) the nonlinearity of the acoustic wave. This study reveals that both features should be considered to better approximate the primary Bjerknes force field. Simulations of the nonlinear ultrasonic field after the bubbles form agglomerates under the influence of this force are also performed.     

Stick-slip flow of high density polyethylene in a transparent slit die investigated by laser Doppler velocimetry

The oscillating flow instability of a molten linear high-density polyethylene is carefully studied using a single screw extruder equipped with a transparent slit die. Experiments are performed using laser Doppler velocimetry in order to obtain the local velocities field across the entire die width. At low flow rate, the extrusion is stable and steady state velocity profiles are obtained. During the instability, the velocity oscillates between two steady state limits, suggesting a periodic stick-slip transition mechanism. At high flow rate, the flow is mainly characterized by a pronounced wall slip. We show that wall slip occurs all along the die land. An investigation of the slip flow conditions shows that wall slip is not homogeneous in a cross section of the slit die, and that pure plug flow occurs only for very high flow rates. A numerical computation of the profile assuming wall slip boundary conditions is done to obtain the true local wall slip velocity. It confirms that slip velocities are of the same order of magnitude as those measured with a capillary rheometer.     

On anti-plane shear behavior of a Griffith permeable crack in piezoelectric materials by use of the non-local theory

In this paper, the non-local theory of elasticity is applied to obtain the behavior of a Griffith crack in the piezoelectric materials under anti-plane shear loading for permeable crack surface conditions. By means of the Fourier transform the problem can be solved with the help of a pair of dual integral equations with the unknown variable being the jump of the displacement across the crack surfaces. These equations are solved by the Schmidt method. Numerical examples are provided. Unlike the classical elasticity solutions, it is found that no stress and electric displacement singularity is present at the crack tip. The non-local elastic solutions yield a finite hoop stress at the crack tip, thus allowing for a fracture criterion based on the maximum stress hypothesis. The finite hoop stress at the crack tip depends on the crack length and the lattice parameter of the materials, respectively. The project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (50232030 and 10172030)