Suspension and fall of heavy particles in random two-dimensional flow

We investigate the settling of heavy particles in a steady, two-dimensional random velocity field, and find instances in which particle suspension occurs. This leads to a bimodal velocity distribution that may explain some apparently conflicting results reported in the literature. The bimodal distribution is typically smeared out by a time dependence of the ambient flow but, if the time variation is slow, the settling rates of some particles will be as well. The resulting broadbanded velocity distribution of the settling particles will have significance for processes such as rain drop formation, in which the spread of particle velocities affects the statistics of particle collisions.     

等轴晶在过热溶液落管中的下落熔化特性研究

研究了NH4Cl等轴晶在过热NH4Cl-70 wt％H2O溶液落管内熔化中的形貌演化过程,并分析了溶液过热度及等轴晶初始尺寸对其下落速度和熔化速率的影响规律和机理.结果表明:等轴晶在过热溶液中下落时,若不发生旋转,其形貌由准轴对称形貌演变成非轴对称准三角形貌;若发生旋转,则有助于保持其准轴对称形貌.通过分析不同条件下等轴晶下落时的阻力系数,认为提高溶液过热度可获得更为光顺的等轴晶外形,增大其下落速度.等轴晶初始尺寸越大,其形貌复杂性提升及下落速度增大,会导致熔化速率加快.在等轴晶下落熔化的过程中,逐渐减小的下落速度减弱了界面前沿对流传质条件,使得单个等轴晶的熔化速率基本保持恒定.     

Settling velocity of equiaxed dendrites in a tube

The settling velocity of equiaxed dendrites can cause macrosegregation and influence the structure of the equiaxed zone during the casting solidification process. So an understanding of the settling characteristics is needed to predict the structure and segregation in castings. The settling velocity of NH4Cl equiaxed dendrites of non-spherical geometry was studied experimentally in an NH4Cl-70wt.%H2O solution. A calculation formula was proposed to calculate the settling velocity of sediment equiaxed dendrites in a tube filled with saturated solution at a moderate Reynolds number region. The retardation effects of the wall and morphology of the equiaxed dendrite on the settling velocity were taken into account in the development of the calculation formula, and the correction function B of the drag coefficient with consideration of the retardation effects of the wall and morphology of the equiaxed dendrite on the settling velocity of the equiaxed dendrite was calibrated according to the experimental results. A comparison showed that the formula has a good accordance with the experimental results.     

VES—CO2清洁泡沫压裂液携砂性能实验研究

在大型高压泡沫压裂液实验回路上,对VES—C02清洁泡沫压裂液的携砂性能进行了实验研究。分析了携砂泡沫压裂液流动时临界沉降速度的产生原因,并根据实验结果分析了温度、泡沫质量及支撑剂浓度对临界沉降流速的影响。临界沉降流速随温度的升高而增大,随泡沫质量和支撑剂体积浓度的增大而减小,研究发现当支撑剂浓度大于0．25时,开始出...     

Highly nonlinear dynamics in a slowly sedimenting colloidal gel

We use a combination of original light scattering techniques and particles with unique optical properties to investigate the behavior of suspensions of attractive colloids under gravitational stress, following over time the concentration profile, the velocity profile, and the microscopic dynamics. During the compression regime, the sedimentation velocity grows nearly linearly with height, implying that the gel settling may be fully described by a (time-dependent) strain rate. We find that the microscopic dynamics exhibit remarkable scaling properties when time is normalized by the strain rate, showing that the gel microscopic restructuring is dominated by its macroscopic deformation.     

Near-field calculation based on the T-matrix method with discrete sources

We propose a novel approach to compute the field scattered by a particle in the near-zone, in the framework of the transition matrix formulation. This method is based on the expansion of the total near-field in terms of discrete sources vector spherical wave functions and turns out to be particularly effective to model strongly elongated or flattened particles with high permittivity. The performances are evaluated on gold spheroids with several aspect ratios. This method results very useful to understand the complex behavior of enhanced plasmon fields in resonant metallic nanostructures.     

Peak effect and dynamic melting of vortex matter in NbSe2 crystals

We present a mode locking (ML) phenomenon of vortex matter observed around the peak effect regime of 2H-NbSe2 pure single crystals. The ML features allow us not only to trace how the shear rigidity of driven vortices persists on approaching the second critical field, but also to demonstrate a dynamic melting transition of driven vortices at a given velocity. We observe the velocity dependent melting signatures in the peak effect regime, which reveal a crossover between the disorder-induced transition at small velocity and the thermally induced transition at large velocity. This uncovers the relationship between the peak effect and the thermal melting.     

The Characterisation of Particles Using the Settling Rate dependent movement in two phase flows

The drawback of conventional sedimentation methods, mainly their extremely long sedimentation time for small particles, can be overcome in two phase flow systems. In this paper several principles which permit the rapid determination of settling rate distributions are discussed. Settling rate distributions can be determined from the accelerated particle movement in a flow of constant velocity at low and high solids concentrations. Another system uses accelerated flow at low solids concentrations. The best utilisation of settling rate applications have socalled cross flow systems as set up in a stagnation point flow, in a flow round a bend, or in the decelerated particle movement perpendicular to a flow of constant velocity.     

Potential energy surfaces in the two-center shell model

The two-center shell model of two equal overlapping spheroids is combined with Lawrence's liquid-drop shapes. Within this framework, potential energy surfaces for nuclei from different mass regions are calculated. In particular, the transition of the ground state deformation from spherical to deformed is investigated for a sequence of ruthenium isotopes.     

Creep motion of a granular pile induced by thermal cycling

We report a time-resolved study of the dynamics associated with the slow compaction of a granular column submitted to thermal cycles. The column height displays a complex behavior: for a large amplitude of the temperature cycles, the granular column settles continuously, experiencing a small settling at each cycle. By contrast, for a small-enough amplitude, the column exhibits a discontinuous and intermittent activity: successive collapses are separated by quiescent periods whose duration is exponentially distributed. We then discuss potential mechanisms which would account for both the compaction and the transition at finite amplitude.     

Effect of headway and velocity on safety-collision transition induced by lane changing in traffic flow

We study the traffic behavior when a vehicle changes from the first lane to the second lane on a two-lane highway. The incoming vehicle decelerates or accelerates by interacting with the vehicle ahead or behind on the second lane. We apply the extended optimal velocity model to the vehicular motion to take into account the velocity difference. We investigate whether or not the incoming vehicle collides with the vehicles ahead or behind. We derive such conditions that the incoming vehicle comes into collision with the vehicles ahead or behind. The safety-collision transition occurs by changing the lane. The dynamic transition depends highly on the headway, the vehicular speed, the sensitivity, and the velocity difference. We present the phase diagram (or region map) for the safety-collision transition.     

Solid-fluid transition in a granular shear flow

The rheology of a granular shear flow is studied in a quasi-2D rotating cylinder. Measurements are carried out near the midpoint along the length of the surface flowing layer where the flow is steady and nonaccelerating. Streakline photography and image analysis are used to obtain particle velocities and positions. Different particle sizes and rotational speeds are considered. We find a sharp transition in the apparent viscosity (eta) variation with rms velocity (u). Below the transition depth we find that the rms velocity decreases with depth and eta proportional to u(-1.5) for all the different cases studied. The material approaches an amorphous solidlike state deep in the layer. The velocity distribution is Maxwellian above the transition point and a Poisson velocity distribution is obtained deep in the layer. The results indicate a sharp transition from a fluid to a fluid + solid state with decreasing rms velocity.     

Fluid suspensions of colloidal ellipsoids: direct structural measurements

A fluid of spheroids, ellipsoids of revolution, is among the simplest models of the disordered matter, where positional and rotational degrees of freedom of the constituent particles are coupled. However, while highly anisometric rods, and hard spheres, were intensively studied in the last decades, the structure of a fluid of spheroids is still unknown. We reconstruct the structure of a simple fluid of spheroids, employing direct confocal imaging of colloids, in three dimensions. The ratio t between the polar axis and the equatorial diameter for both our prolate and oblate spheroids is not far from unity, which gives rise to a delicate interplay between rotations and translations. Strikingly, the measured positional interparticle correlations are significantly stronger than theoretically predicted, indicating that further theoretical attention is required, to fully understand the coupling between translations and rotations in these fundamental fluids.     

Particle-like and fluid-like settling of a stratified suspension

The gravitational settling of inhomogeneously suspended particles in a fluid has been investigated. Of particular interest is whether collective or individual motion of particles is dominant during their settlings, i.e., whether the particles settle as a continuous suspension or they settle individually relative to the surrounding fluid. We observed the settling of a stratified suspension which has the lower and upper concentration interfaces in a quasi-two-dimensional vessel. In some cases, the suspension behaves perfectly as a continuous fluid and the motion of the constituent particle is subject to bulk flow caused by the interfacial instability. In other cases, the particle behaves individually relative to the surrounding fluid. The existence of a concentration interface plays a significant role in these extreme behaviors of suspension. The transition from the collective to individual behaviors can be predicted quantitatively by a parameter which expresses the border resolution of the concentration interface.     

Two-photon transitions to exciton states in semiconductors

We consider the gauge invariance of the two-photon transition rate from the crystal ground state to exciton states in semiconductors in the framework of the Wannier model. We show that the non-locality correction in the velocity gauge is essential to preserve the gauge invariance. As a numerical example, we calculate in the length and in the velocity gauge the transition rates for the two-photon direct creation of 2p excitons in a two-band semiconductor.     

Large Signal Modulation Characteristics in the Transition Regime for Two-State Lasing Quantum Dot Lasers

Large-signal modulation capability,as an important performance indicator,is directly related to the high-speed optical communication technology involved.We experimentally and theoretically investigate the large-signal modulation characteristics of the simultaneous ground-state(GS) and the excited-state(ES) lasing in InAs/GaAs quantum dot laser diodes.The large-signal modulation capability of total light intensity in the transition regime from GS lasing to two-state lasing is unchanged as the bias-current increases.However,GS and ES large-signal eye diagrams show obvious variations during the transition.Relaxation oscillations and large-signal eye diagrams for GS,ES,and total light intensities are numerically simulated and analyzed in detail by using a rate-equation model.The findings show that a complementary relationship between the light intensities for GS and ES lasing exists in both the transition regime and the two-state lasing regime,leading to a much smaller overshooting power and a shorter settling time for the total light intensity.Therefore,the eye diagrams of GS or ES lasing are diffuse whereas those of total light intensity are constant as the bias-current increases in the transition regime.     

Transition from stick-slip to smooth sliding: an earthquakelike model

We present a detailed study of an earthquakelike model that exhibits a "transition" from stick-slip motion to smooth sliding at a velocity of the order of those observed in experiments. This contrasts with the many previous microscopic models in which the transition velocity is many orders of magnitude too large. The results show that experimentally observed smooth sliding at the macroscopic scale must correspond to microscopic-scale stick-slip motion.     

Nonequilibrium phase transitions associated with DNA replication

Thermodynamics governing the synthesis of DNA and RNA strands under a template is considered analytically and applied to the population dynamics of competing replicators. We find a nonequilibrium phase transition for high values of polymerase fidelity in a single replicator, where the two phases correspond to stationary states with higher elongation velocity and lower error rate than the other. At the critical point, the susceptibility linking velocity to thermodynamic force diverges. The overall behavior closely resembles the liquid-vapor phase transition in equilibrium. For a population of self-replicating macromolecules, Eigen's error catastrophe transition precedes this thermodynamic phase transition during starvation. For a given thermodynamic force, the fitness of replicators increases with increasing polymerase fidelity above a threshold.