Non-stationary conjugate heat exchange and phase transition at the high-energy surface processing. Part 1. Computational approach and its realization

The paper presents the developed physical and mathematical models, calculation procedure based on finite-element method, and also the software for the numerical studying the processes of the non-stationary conjugate heat exchange and phase transition during the surface processing with high-concentrated energy fluxes with stationary, pulse, and movable heat sources (fusing of coatings, surface layer quenching, surface cleaning, etc.). The proposed and realized method permits to study the processes within a wide range of the power density of external heat fluxes q∈[10⁷; 10¹⁴] W/m² with significantly different spatial and temporal scales. The results presented are of interest for understanding and simulation of the processes occurring at the surface processing of the coatings and materials with high-concentrated energy fluxes. The project has been financially supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (Grant No. 07-08-00209).     

Simultaneous heat capacity and thermal-diffusivity photoacoustic measurement at liquid-crystal phase transitions

Summary The photoacoustic-technique application to the simultaneous characterization of the thermal diffusivity, specific-heat capacity and thermal conductivity of a liquid crystal at a phase transition is presented for the first time. The first two parameters show a critical decrease and increase, respectively, while the third one does not exhibit any critical behaviour. To speed up publication, the authors of this paper have agreed to not receive the proofs for correction.     

Mixed valency and phase transitions at the (001) SmS surface

A model for mixed valency and phase transitions at (001) SmS is suggested. Focussing on the electron-lattice coupling as a mechanism potentially responsible for both phenomena, the problem of the semi-infinite crystal is factorized and reduced to the investigation of a low-dimensional effective Hamiltonian matrix. Surface geometry and electronic structure are obtained simultaneously by numerical minimization of the free energy. The possible appearance of mixed valency and of phase transitions confined to the surface region and involving relaxed or reconstructed geometry is demonstrated.     

On the order of itinerant antiferromagnetic phase transitions and superconducting phase transitions in an exchange field

The coefficients of the second and fourth order terms in a Landau expansion of the free energy are evaluated for an itinerant antiferromagnetic transition. The choice of spatial dependence is found to play an important role. A first order transition is obtained for a range of values of the band structure parameters. However if values appropriate to Cr are used it is found that the contribution from the shift in the Fermi level is sufficiently large to give second order transitions even when magnetostrictive effects are included. In the mathematically similar problem of a superconductor in an exchange field it is found that the transition from normal to superconducting states is first order near the triple point with an upper and possibly a lower critical point where the transition changes to second order.     

Statistics of low-frequency pulsations in critical regimes of heat mass exchange with phase transitions

Experimental investigation of fluctuation dynamics in critical and transitional modes of heat mass exchange shows existence of irregular high-energy pulsations with power spectrum inversely proportional to the frequency—so called 1/f spectrum. Such regimes are characterized by the fact that an essential part of the pulsations energy is connected with very slow processes and mean that large high-energy bursts are possible in the system. Another characteristic feature of such regimes is scale invariance of the fluctuations distribution function. According to the theory, the 1/f fluctuations can emerge in physical systems due to simultaneous phase transitions in presence of sufficiently intensive white noise. This paper is devoted to detailed investigation of relaxation processes at steadying of stationary stochastic process in non-equilibrium phase transitions in system of two nonlinear stochastic differential equation. Such an information reveals statistical patterns of particular large-scale low-frequency bursts. Discontinuous “forgetting” of the initial conditions takes place. It is shown by numerical methods that distributions of duration and maximal values of the low-frequency extreme bursts have the power-like form. Experimental investigation results of statistical characteristics of fluctuation processes at ultrasonic cavitation and flash boiling of overheated water jets are presented. Results of the experiments carried out fit conclusions of the theoretical model for interacting heterogeneous phase transitions.     

Magnetic phase transitions and phase diagrams of DyMn2Ge2

The experimental studies of magnetic phase transitions in the layered tetragonal intermetallic compound DyMn₂Ge₂ are continued. The existence of spontaneous phase transitions is confirmed by the results of measurements of the temperature dependences of lattice parameters and the initial magnetic susceptibility. The measurements in strong (up to 50 T) and ultrastrong (up to 150 T) fields revealed two new field-induced magnetic transitions. The inclusion of the exchange interaction between next-to-nearest layers of manganese and the crystal field effects for the rare-earth subsystem along with the antiferromagnetic exchange interaction of nearest Mn layers has made it possible to describe the magnetic properties of DyMn₂Ge₂ in a wide range of magnetic fields. The parameters of these interactions are determined from a comparison of the experimental and theoretical magnetization curves and H-T phase diagrams.     

Physics and mechanics of heat exchange processes in nanofluid flows

Nanofluids present a new type of dispersed fluids consisting of a carrier fluid and solid nanoparticles. Unusual properties of nanofluids, particularly high thermal conductivity, make them eminently suitable for many thermophysical applications, e.g., for cooling of equipment, designing of new heat energy transportation and production systems and so on. This requires a systematic study of heat exchange properties of nanofluids. The present paper contains the measurement results for the heat transfer coefficient of the laminar and turbulent flow of nanofluids on the basis of distilled water with silica, alumina and copper oxide particles in a minichannel with circular cross section. The maximum volume concentration of particles did not exceed 2%. The dependence of the heat transfer coefficient on the concentration and size of nanoparticles was studied. It is shown that the use of nanofluids allows a significant increase in the heat transfer coefficient as compared to that for water. However, the obtained result strongly depends on the regime of flow. The excess of the heat transfer coefficient in the laminar flow is only due to an increase in the thermal conductivity coefficient of nanofluid, while in the turbulent flow the obtained effect is due to the ratio between the viscosity and thermal conductivity of nanofluid. The viscosity and thermal conductivity of nanofluids depend on the volume concentration of nanoparticles as well as on their size and material and are not described by classical theories. That is why the literature data are diverse and contradictory; they do not actually take into account the influence of the mentioned factors (size and material of nanoparticles). It has been shown experimentally and by a molecular dynamics method that the nanofluid viscosity increases while the thermal conductivity decreases with the decreasing dispersed particle size. It is found experimentally for the first time that the nanofluid viscosity coefficient depends on the particle material. The higher is the density of particles, the higher is the thermal conductivity coefficient of nanofluid.     

Discontinuities in the specific heat of magnesium and associated latent heat at pressure-induced structural phase transitions using a local first principles pseudopotential

After a successful application of a local first principles pseudopotential to the study of the structural pressure-induced phase transition for magnesium, I now use the same local first principles type of pseudopotential, to study the specific heat as function of the pressure, at 300 K, in the region around the predicted phase transitions. I found that the specific presents two discontinuities, one for each transition of phase. These discontinuities are associated to the existence of latent heat at each transition, which has not been yet reported experimentally.     

Structural phase transitions of the Si(100) surface

A Monte Carlo study of the structural phase transitions on the Si(100) surface for both the “(2×1)” and “c(2×2)” reconstruction families is carried out using the asymmetric dimer model. A second order phase transition is observed at about 250 K from a p(2×2) (layered antiferromagnetic) to a disordered (paramagnetic) state in the “2×1” family. A similar transition is observed about 800 K from a c(2×2) (ferromagnetic) to a disordered state in the “c(2×2)” family. These results are in agreement with real-space renormalization group results. The variation of the specific heat, susceptability and the absolute value of the order parameter as a function of temperature is obtained in the range 200 to 300 K for the “2×1” family and 750 to 850 K for the “c(2×2)” family. Also, the order parameter correlation function is computed for ten different temperatures in the above ranges.     

Simultaneous measurement of thethermal diffusivity and specific heat near phase transitions

A technique for measuring the absolute thermal diffusivity along with the relative specific heat is introduced which is readily adaptable to a wide variety of applications. The thermal diffusivity and specific heat of CoO, near the antiferromagnetic transition; of SrTiO₃, near the structural phase transition; of Cr, near the first-order SDW-paramagnetic transition; and of EuO, near the ferromagnetic Curie point were measured. Except for SrTiO₃, the thermal diffusivities are found to mirror the specific heats, with no evidence for anomalies in the thermal conductivities, contrary to some earlier reports. A step increase in the thermal conductivity is observed on passing through the structural transition of SrTiO₃ from below which is of the same relative size as the step decrease of specific heat at T_c.     

Soft phonons and the central mode at structural phase transitions

Applying Landau's quasi-particle picture to an interacting phonon system it is shown that the softening of phonon modes is connected with an enhancement of the quasi-particle interaction. This in turn leads to a critical slowing-down of fluctuations around local equilibrium which may give rise to an additional central peak in the scattering function.     

Using the phase transitions in Ni and Cu nanoclusters for data recording processes

Bulletin of the Russian Academy of Sciences: Physics - The possibility of using individual Cu and Ni nanoclusters as individual bits of information in memory devices constructed on the principle of...     

Temperature dependence of the specific heat of anisaldazine close to phase transitions

The experimental data for the specific heat C_p is analyzed at various temperatures close to the nematic–isotropic liquid (T_NI = 180.5 °C) and the solid–nematic (T_SN = 168.9 °C) transitions in anisaldazine.

Values of the critical exponent for the specific heat, which describe a λ-transition between nematic and the isotropic liquid, and a jump discontinuity between solid and nematic phases, are deduced for anisaldazine. They are compared with the model predictions.     

Sequence of the phase transitions in a two-dimensional ferromagnet with competing one-ion and exchange anisotropies

The phase states of a two-dimensional ferromagnet system with anisotropic exchange interaction have been investigated for various relations between the material constants. It is shown that the competition between the exchange and the one-ion anisotropies, and the account of the magnetodipolar and the magnetoelastic interactions lead to the sequence of the phase transitions. The explicit solutions of the dispersion equation have been found in the homogeneous phase states.     

Critical behaviour at the displacive limit of structural phase transitions

For a special critical point at zero temperature,T _c =0, which is called the displacive limit of a classical or of a quantum-mechanical model showing displacive phase transitions, we derive a set of static critical exponents in the large-n limit. Due to zero-point motions and quantum fluctuations at low temperatures, the exponents of the quantum model are different from those of the classical model. Moreover, we report results on scaling functions, corrections to scaling, and logarithmic factors which appear ford=2 in the classical case and ford=3 in the quantum-mechanical case. Zero-point motions cause a decrease of the critical temperature of the quantum model with respect to the classicalT _c , which implies a difference between the classical and the quantum displacive limit. However, finite critical temperatures are found in both cases ford>2, while critical fluctuations still occur atT _c =0 for 0<d≦2 in the classical case and for 1 <d≦2 in the quantum model. Further we derive the slope of the critical curve at the classical displacive limit exactly. The absence of 1/n-corrections to the exponents of the classical model is also discussed.     

Low-temperature collapse of the Fermi surface and phase transitions in correlated Fermi systems

A topological crossover, associated with the collapse of the Fermi surface in strongly correlated Fermi systems, is examined. It is demonstrated that in these systems, the temperature domain where standard Ferrai liquid results hold dramatically narrows, because the Landau regime is replaced by a classical one. The impact of the collapse of the Fermi surface on pairing correlations is analyzed. In the domain of the Lifshitz phase diagram where the Fermi surface collapses, splitting of the BCS superconducting phase transition into two different ones of the same symmetry is shown to occur.     

Undulation textures at the phase transitions of some alkyloxybenzoic acids

We observed undulated smectic textures for some compounds of the 4,n-alkyloxybenzoic (nOBAC) acid series, at transitions between the smectic and the isotropic phase and between the smectic and nematic phase. Studied compounds were 12OBAC, 16OBAC and binary mixtures of 12- and 16OBAC. The undulations are dressing a usual Schlieren texture. An interesting fingerprint pattern is observed at the smectic-nematic in the case of the binary mixture, approximately 1 : 1 in weight.