Neutrally buoyant bubbles used as flow tracers in air

Research has been performed to determine the accuracy of neutrally buoyant and near-neutrally-buoyant bubbles used as flow tracers in an incompressible potential flowfield. Experimental and computational results are presented to evaluate the quantitative accuracy of neutrally buoyant bubbles using a commercially available helium bubble generation system. A two-dimensional experiment was conducted to determine actual bubble trajectories in the stagnation region of a NACA 0012 airfoil at 0° angle of attack. A computational scheme evaluating the equation of motion for a single bubble was also used to determine the factors which affect a bubble's trajectory. The theoretical and computational analysis have shown that neutrally buoyant bubbles will trace complex flow patterns faithfully in the flowfield of interest. Experimental analysis revealed that the use of bubbles generated by the commercially available system to trace flow patterns should be limited to qualitative measurements unless care is taken to ensure neutral buoyancy.Nomenclature a _c centripetal acceleration - c model chord - c _D bubble drag coefficient - D bubble diameter - g acceleration due to gravity - g _v acceleration due to gravity vector - h trajectory deviation normalization parameter - K nondimensional inertia parameter, - m _f mass of fluid - m _p mass of bubble - p static pressure - r radial distance, bubble radius - R gas constant - Re free-stream Reynolds number, - Re _p bubble slip Reynolds number, - S cross-sectional area of sphere - T temperature - t time - u streamwise velocity component - U free-stream velocity - v _f fluid velocity vector - V _p bubble velocity vector - x _p bubble position vector - y _b bubble trajectory y/c - y _s streamline y/c - model angle of attack - bubble solution surface tension - potential vortex strength - _bfs bubble solution density - fluid density - bubble density - bubble wall thickness - fluid viscosity     

Dynamics of charge-transfer-to-solvent precursor states in I- (water)n (n = 3-10) clusters studied with photoelectron imaging

The dynamics of charge-transfer-to-solvent states are studied in I- (H2O)(n=3-10) clusters and their deuterated counterparts using time-resolved photoelectron imaging. The photoelectron spectra for clusters with n > or = 5 reveal multiple time scales for dynamics after their electronic excitation. An increase in the vertical detachment energy (VDE) by several hundred millielectronvolts on a time scale of approximately 1 ps is attributed to stabilization of the excess electron, primarily through rearrangement of the solvent molecules, but a contribution to this stabilization from motion of the I atom cannot be ruled out. The VDE drops by approximately 50 meV on a time scale of tens of picoseconds; this is attributed to loss of the neutral iodine atom. Finally, the pump-probe signal decays with a time constant of 60 ps-3 ns, increasing with cluster size. This decay is commensurate with the growth of very slow electrons and is attributed to autodetachment. Smaller clusters (n = 3, 4) display simpler dynamics. Anisotropy parameters are reported for clusters n = 4-9.     

Electronic relaxation dynamics of water cluster anions

The electronic relaxation dynamics of water cluster anions, (H(2)O)(n)(-), have been studied with time-resolved photoelectron imaging. In this investigation, the excess electron was excited through the p<--s transition with an ultrafast laser pulse, with subsequent electronic evolution monitored by photodetachment. All excited-state lifetimes exhibit a significant isotope effect (tau(D)2(O)/tau(H)2(O) approximately 2). Additionally, marked dynamical differences are found for two classes of water cluster anions, isomers I and II, previously assigned as clusters with internally solvated and surface-bound electrons, respectively. Isomer I clusters with n > or = 25 decay exclusively by internal conversion, with relaxation times that extrapolate linearly with 1/n toward an internal conversion lifetime of 50 fs in bulk water. Smaller isomer I clusters (13 < or = n < or = 25) decay through a combination of excited-state autodetachment and internal conversion. The relaxation of isomer II clusters shows no significant size dependence over the range of n = 60-100, with autodetachment an important decay channel following excitation of these clusters. Photoelectron angular distributions (PADs) were measured for isomer I and isomer II clusters. The large differences in dynamical trends, relaxation mechanisms, and PADs between large isomer I and isomer II clusters are consistent with their assignment to very different electron binding motifs.     

Fast analysis of volatile organic compounds and disinfection by-products in drinking water using solid-phase microextraction-gas chromatography/time-of-flight mass spectrometry

A fast method was developed for the extraction and analysis of volatile organic compounds, including disinfection by-products (DBPs), with headspace solid-phase microextraction (HS-SPME) and gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) techniques. A GC/time-of-flight (TOF)-MS instrument, which had fast acquisition rates and powerful deconvolution software, was used. Under optimum conditions total runtime was 45s. Volatile organic compounds (VOCs), including purgeable A and B compounds (listed in US Environmental Protection Agency method 624), were identified in standard water samples. Extraction times were 1min for more volatile compounds and 2min for less volatile compounds. The method was applied to the analysis of water samples treated under different disinfection processes and the results were compared with those from a liquid-liquid extraction method.     

The ascent method for abstract wave problems

This paper establishes the ascent method for solving abstract Cauchy problems that involve the wave and Euler-Poisson-Darboux equations. The solutions are expressed in terms of convolutions of a sum of group operators acting on the data. These are shown to reduce to the standard solutions for the classical wave problems for the case 2 or 3 space variables.