Characterization of thermal diffusion in polymer solutions by thermal field-flow fractionation: Dependence on polymer and solvent parameters

The thermal diffusion coefficient D_T has been obtained for 17 polymer-solvent combinations, each of them spanning a range of polymer molecular weights, using thermal field-flow fractionation. The polymers examined include polystyrene, poly(alpha-methyl)styrene, polymethylmethacrylate, and polysioprene. The solvents include benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, tetrahydrofuran, methylethylketone, ethylacetate, and cyclohexane. Although D_T was confirmed as essentially independent of polymer molecular weight, it was found to vary substantially with the chemical composition of polymer and solvent. The results were used to evaluate several thermal diffusion theories; the agreement with theory was generally found to be unsatisfactory. Attempts were then made to correlate the measured thermal diffusion coefficients with various physicochemical parameters of the polymers and solvent. A good correlation was found in which D_T increases with the thermal conductivity difference of the polymer and solvent and varies inversely with the activation energy of viscous flow of the solvent.     

Direct numerical simulation of settling of a large solid particle during bioconvection

Settling of a large solid particle in bioconvection flow caused by gyrotactic microorganisms is investigated. The particle is released from the top of the bioconvection chamber; its settling pattern depends on whether it is released in the centre of the bioconvection plume or at its periphery. The Chimera method is utilized; a subgrid is generated around a moving particle. The method suggested by Liu and Wang (Comput. Fluid 2004; 33 :223–255) is further developed to account for the presence of a moving boundary in the streamfunction‐vorticity formulation using the finite‐difference method. A number of cases for different release positions of the particle are computed. It is demonstrated that bioconvection can either accelerate or decelerate settling of the particle depending on the initial position of the particle relative to the plume centre. It is also shown that the particle impacts bioconvection plume by changing its shape and location in the chamber. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Yellow‐light‐emitting cyano‐substituted poly[(1,3‐phenylene vinylene)‐alt‐(1,4‐phenylene vinylene)] derivative: Its synthesis and optical properties

A soluble cyano‐substituted poly[(1,3‐phenylene vinylene)‐alt‐(1,4‐phenylene vinylene)] derivative ( 9 ) was synthesized and characterized. Comparison between 9 and its model compound ( 10 ) showed that the chromophore in 9 remained to be well defined as a result of a π‐conjugation interruption at adjacent m‐phenylene units. The attachment of a cyano substituent only at the β position of the vinylene allowed the maximum electronic impact of the cyano group on the optical properties of the poly(p‐phenylene vinylene) material. At a low temperature (?108 or ?198 °C), the vibronic structures of 9 and 10 were partially resolved. The absorption and emission spectra of a film of 9 were less temperature‐dependent than those of a film of 10 , indicating that the former had a lower tendency to aggregate. A light‐emitting diode (LED) based on 9 emitted yellow light (λ_max ≈ 578 nm) with an external quantum efficiency of 0.03%. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 41: 3149–3158, 2003     

A transform method for linear evolution PDEs on a finite interval

We study initial boundary value problems for linear scalar evolutionpartial differential equations, with spatial derivatives ofarbitrary order, posed on the domain {t > 0, 0 < x <L}. We show that the solution can be expressed as an integralin the complex k-plane. This integral is defined in terms ofan x-transform of the initial condition and a t-transform ofthe boundary conditions. The derivation of this integral representationrelies on the analysis of the global relation, which is an algebraicrelation defined in the complex k-plane coupling all boundaryvalues of the solution. For particular cases, such as the case of periodic boundaryconditions, or the case of boundary value problems for even-orderPDEs, it is possible to obtain directly from the global relationan alternative representation for the solution, in the formof an infinite series. We stress, however, that there existinitial boundary value problems for which the only representationis an integral which cannot be written as an infinite series.An example of such a problem is provided by the linearized versionof the KdV equation. Similarly, in general the solution of odd-orderlinear initial boundary value problems on a finite intervalcannot be expressed in terms of an infinite series.     

An improved numerical simulator for multiphase flow in porous media

In basin modelling the thermodynamics of a multicomponent multiphase fluid flux are computationally too expensive when derived from an equation of state and the Gibbs equality constraints. In this article we present a novel implicit molar mass formulation technique using binary mixture thermodynamics. The two proposed solution methods, with and without cross derivative terms between components, are based on a preconditioned Newton‐GMRES scheme for each time‐step with analytical computation of the derivatives. These new algorithms reduce significantly the numerical effort for the computation of the molar masses, and we illustrate the behavior of these methods with numerical computations. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.     

LES of turbulent heat transfer: proper convection numerical schemes for temperature transport

Large eddy simulations of two basic configurations (decay of isotropic turbulence, and the academic plane channel flow) with heat transfer have been performed comparing several convection numerical schemes, in order to discuss their ability to evaluate temperature fluctuations properly. Results are compared with the available incompressible heat transfer direct numerical simulation data. It is shown that the use of regularizing schemes (such as high order upwind type schemes) for the temperature transport equation in combination with centered schemes for momentum transport equation gives better results than the use of centred schemes for both equations. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

High‐order accurate numerical solutions of incompressible flows with the artificial compressibility method

A high‐order accurate, finite‐difference method for the numerical solution of incompressible flows is presented. This method is based on the artificial compressibility formulation of the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations. Fourth‐ or sixth‐order accurate discretizations of the metric terms and the convective fluxes are obtained using compact, centred schemes. The viscous terms are also discretized using fourth‐order accurate, centred finite differences. Implicit time marching is performed for both steady‐state and time‐accurate numerical solutions. High‐order, spectral‐type, low‐pass, compact filters are used to regularize the numerical solution and remove spurious modes arising from unresolved scales, non‐linearities, and inaccuracies in the application of boundary conditions. The accuracy and efficiency of the proposed method is demonstrated for test problems. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.