Letter to the Editor: On the evolution of dissipation rate and resolved kinetic energy in ALDM simulations of the Taylor–Green flow

We correct a data processing error in the article “Construction of explicit and implicit dynamic finite difference schemes and application to the large-eddy simulation of the Taylor–Green vortex” by Dieter Fauconnier, Chris De Langhe and Erik Dick published in the Journal of Computational Physics 228 (2009), pp. 8053–8084.     

On the error of the time–pulse method of measuring air consumption in mines

The derivation of a formula for the time during which a sound signal propagates between two given points A and B in a stationary gas flow is considered. It is shown that the gas flow changes the signal reception time by a quantity proportional to the consumption, regardless of the detailed velocity profile. The difference between the reception time of signals from point B to the point A and vice versa is proportional to air consumption with high accuracy. It is shown that the relative error of the obtained formula does not exceed the squared maximum Mach number in the gas flow. This allows measurement of the consumption of gas moving in a mine with an arbitrary stationary subsonic velocity field.     

Point defects patterning in irradiated α-zirconium: numerical study in the framework of the rate theory

We study point defects patterning in irradiated α-zirconium numerically. In our consideration, we exploit reaction-rate theory by taking into account sink density dynamics and a change in internal stress fields due to the presence of defects. Dynamics of defect populations are studied at different irradiation conditions. It is found that point defects patterning is accompanied by a formation of vacancy clusters; their morphology change is governed by irradiation temperature and damage rate. By using statistical analysis of spatially distributed vacancy clusters, it was shown that the characteristic size of these clusters is of several nanometers. Vacancy clusters' occupation densities and distributions over their sizes are studied in detail.     

Development of a numerical model for the electric current in burner-stabilised methane–air flames

This study presents a new model to simulate the electric behaviour of one-dimensional ionised flames and to predict the electric currents in these flames. The model utilises Poisson’s equation to compute the electric potential. A multi-component diffusion model, including the influence of an electric field, is used to model the diffusion of neutral and charged species. The model is incorporated into the existing CHEM1D flame simulation software. A comparison between the computed electric currents and experimental values from the literature shows good qualitative agreement for the voltage–current characteristic. Physical phenomena, such as saturation and the diodic effect, are captured by the model. The dependence of the saturation current on the equivalence ratio is also captured well for equivalence ratios between 0.6 and 1.2. Simulations show a clear relation between the saturation current and the total number of charged particles created. The model shows that the potential at which the electric field saturates is strongly dependent on the recombination rate and the diffusivity of the charged particles. The onset of saturation occurs because most created charged particles are withdrawn from the flame and because the electric field effects start dominating over mass based diffusion. It is shown that this knowledge can be used to optimise ionisation chemistry mechanisms. It is shown numerically that the so-called diodic effect is caused primarily by the distance the heavier cations have to travel to the cathode.     

On the Neutron Yield in the Two-Beam Scheme of Laser Heating and Compression of Spherical Shell Targets with a Low‐Density Coating

At the initial stage of development of large-scale multiple-beam laser facilities for the ignition of the fusion reaction, facilities with a small number of beams is expected to be created. Such facilities are characterized by poor symmetry of irradiation of spherical targets. We have shown that with appropriate design of the target and distribution of the radiation intensity in laser beams the attainment of a neutron yield of 10¹⁵-10¹⁶ is possible even in twoside irradiation of the spherical targets.     

On the role of the magnetic dipolar interaction in cold and ultracold collisions: numerical and analytical results for NH(3Σ−) + NH(3Σ−)

We present a detailed analysis of the role of the magnetic dipole-dipole interaction in cold and ultracold collisions. We focus on collisions between magnetically trapped NH molecules, but the theory is general for any two paramagnetic species for which the electronic spin and its space-fixed projection are (approximately) good quantum numbers. It is shown that dipolar spin relaxation is directly associated with magnetic-dipole induced avoided crossings that occur between different adiabatic potential curves. For a given collision energy and magnetic field strength, the cross-section contributions from different scattering channels depend strongly on whether or not the corresponding avoided crossings are energetically accessible. We find that the crossings become lower in energy as the magnetic field decreases, so that higher partial-wave scattering becomes increasingly important below a certain magnetic field strength. In addition, we derive analytical cross-section expressions for dipolar spin relaxation based on the Born approximation and distorted-wave Born approximation. The validity regions of these analytical expressions are determined by comparison with the NH + NH cross sections obtained from full coupled-channel calculations. We find that the Born approximation is accurate over a wide range of energies and field strengths, but breaks down at high energies and high magnetic fields. The analytical distorted-wave Born approximation gives more accurate results in the case of s-wave scattering, but shows some significant discrepancies for the higher partial-wave channels. We thus conclude that the Born approximation gives generally more meaningful results than the distorted-wave Born approximation at the collision energies and fields considered in this work.     

On the sensitivity of the spatial-angular distribution of the Cherenkov light in extensive air showers to the mass composition of primary cosmic rays with energies of 10<Superscript>15</Superscript>–10<Superscript>16</Superscript> eV

This paper analyses the possibility of separating distinct groups of nuclei of primary cosmic rays with energies of 10¹⁵–10¹⁶ eV from the data on the spatial-angular distribution of Cherenkov light in extensive air showers. The paper shows that using an array of a few (3–4) telescopes with a moderately sized angular cell ∼0.5° placed at a distance ∼100 m from one another, one can achieve almost complete separation of the showers initiated by these nuclei (the Bayesian classification error is a few percentage points for the case of separating primary protons and nitrogen nuclei). The authors propose new parameters of the angular Cherenkov image that can greatly enhance the separability of the shower classes as compared to the approach based on the traditional parameters.