Expressions of dissipated powers and stored energies in poroelastic media modeled by {u,U} and {u,P} formulations

This paper is devoted to the rigorous obtention of the energy balance in porous materials. The wave propagation in the porous media is described by Biot-Allard's {u,U} and {u,P} formulations. The paper derives the expressions for stored kinetic and strain energies together with dissipated energies. It is shown that, in the case of mixed formulations, these expressions do not correspond to the real and imaginary parts of the variational formulations. A quantitative convergence analysis of finite element scheme is then undertaken with the help of these indicators. It is shown that the order of convergence of these indicators for linear finite-element is one and that they are then well fitted to check the validity of finite-element models.     

Structure and growth kinetics of the oxidation process of Fe(001) whisker surfaces over a 10-decade pressure range

Fe(001) surfaces of whiskers of good crystalline quality were oxidized in a pressure range from 10^? 7 mbar to 1 bar at different temperatures. Epitaxial Fe₃O₄ and FeO thin films with negligible strain were grown depending on the oxidation temperatures. The kinetics of the oxide thickness growth was measured and compared with the predictions of the Fromhold–Cook theory for oxidation of metals. Some discrepancies were found and a possible explanation is presented.     

Analytical approach for CRLH-based antennas design

This paper presents an analytical model for CRLH (Composite Right-Left Handed) antennas preliminary design. The objective of this work is to develop a tool to estimate quickly the scattering and radiating characteristics of these CRLH-based structures. The analytical model provides thus a set of parameters which roughly fulfill desired requirements. Afterwards, the antenna designer can refine the CRLH-based antenna performances with full 3D electromagnetic simulation software.     

Experimental study of a confined premixed metal combustor: Metal flame stabilization dynamics and nitrogen oxides production

This work presents a study of a magnesium/air combustion process in the context of innovative zero carbon dioxide (CO₂) energy carriers for reducing global warming effects. In order to analyze more deeply the confined combustion of magnesium under fluctuating overpressure conditions (0 to 24 hPa) and the generated gaseous by-products, magnesium/air flames have been realized in a combustion chamber with a conical bluff-body as flame holder and different contraction ratios diaphragms at the exit duct. Sieved magnesium samples with two size-fractions were tested: 20–50?µm and 50–70?µm. The gaseous emissions of nitrogen oxides (NO_x) and dioxygen (O₂) were analyzed with on-line infrared, ultraviolet and paramagnetic analyzers. A flame pulsating behavior was clearly observed from light emission intensity (monitored by a photodiode) and pressure fluctuations (monitored by a pressure sensor); the frequencies obtained ranged between 3 and 10?Hz. The frequency of the pulsation exhibited strong dependence on the geometric configuration of the chamber: a contraction diaphragm divided by two the frequency level of the fluctuations in the studied range of maximum overpressure. Such fluctuations may probably be the consequence of periodic perturbations of the recirculation zone behind the bluff-body. These periodic perturbations are themselves caused by strong periodic overpressure variations due to stiff contraction downstream responding to gas velocity fluctuations. This feed-back-loop mechanism was considered in this study. NO_x emissions produced through the thermal pathway were analyzed for equivalence ratios ranging from 0.29 to 1. The representation of NO_x versus equivalence ratio exhibited a parabolic shape with a maximum for an equivalence ratio of 0.4. Moreover, NO_x emissions of this metal combustor have shown a similar order of magnitude than current internal combustion engines.     

Casimir force in dense confined electrolytes

ABSTRACT

Understanding the force between charged surfaces immersed in an electrolyte solution is a classic problem in soft matter and liquid-state theory. Recent experiments showed that the force decays exponentially but the characteristic decay length in a concentrated electrolyte is significantly larger than what liquid-state theories predict based on analysing correlation functions in the bulk electrolyte. Inspired by the classical Casimir effect, we consider an additional mechanism for force generation, namely the confinement of density fluctuations in the electrolyte by the walls. We show analytically within the random phase approximation, which assumes the ions to be point charges, that this fluctuation-induced force is attractive and also decays exponentially, albeit with a decay length that is half of the bulk correlation length. These predictions change dramatically when excluded volume effects are accounted for within the mean spherical approximation. At high ion concentrations the Casimir force is found to be exponentially damped oscillatory as a function of the distance between the confining surfaces. Our analysis does not resolve the riddle of the anomalously long screening length observed in experiments, but suggests that the Casimir force due to mode restriction in density fluctuations could be an hitherto under-appreciated source of surface–surface interaction.     

Ultrafast and bias-free all-optical wavelength conversion using III-V-on-silicon technology

Using a 7.5 μm diameter disk fabricated with III-V-on-silicon fabrication technology, we demonstrate bias-free all-optical wavelength conversion for non-return-to-zero on-off keyed pseudorandom bit sequence (PRBS) data at the speed of 10 Gbits/s with an extinction ratio of more than 12 dB. The working principle of such a wavelength converter is based on free-carrier-induced refractive index modulation in a pump-probe configuration. We believe it to be the first bias-free on-chip demonstration of all-optical wavelength conversion using PRBS data. All-optical gating measurements in the pump-probe configuration with the same device have revealed that it is possible to achieve wavelength conversion beyond 20 Gbits/s.     

Suppressed compressibility at large scale in jammed packings of size-disperse spheres

We analyze the large-scale structure and fluctuations of jammed packings of size-disperse spheres, produced in a granular experiment as well as numerically. While the structure factor of the packings reveals no unusual behavior for small wave vectors, the compressibility displays an anomalous linear dependence at low wave vectors and vanishes when q→0. We show that such behavior occurs because jammed packings of size-disperse spheres have no bulk fluctuations of the volume fraction and are thus hyperuniform, a property not observed experimentally before. Our results apply to arbitrary particle size distributions. For continuous distributions, we derive a perturbative expression for the compressibility that is accurate for polydispersity up to about 30%.     

A wet chemical preparation of transparent conducting thin films of Al-doped ZnO nanoparticles

A wet chemical deposition method for preparing transparent conductive thin films on the base of Al-doped ZnO (AZO) nanoparticles has been demonstrated. AZO nanoparticles with a size of 7 nm have been synthesised by a simple precipitation method in refluxed conditions in ethanol using zinc acetate and Al-isopropylate. The presence of Al in ZnO was revealed by the EDX elemental analysis (1.8 at.%) and UV–Vis spectroscopy (a blue shift due to Burstein–Moss effect). The obtained colloid solution with the AZO nanoparticles was used for preparing by spin-coating thin films on glass substrates. The film demonstrated excellent homogeneity and transparency (T > 90%) in the visible spectrum after heating at 400 °C. Its resistivity turned to be excessively high (ρ = 2.6 Ω cm) that we ascribe to a poor charge percolation due to a high film porosity revealed by SEM observations. To improve the percolation via reducing the porosity, a sol–gel solution was deposited “layer-by-layer” in alternation with layers derived from the AZO colloid followed by heating. As it was shown by optical spectroscopy measurements, the density of thus prepared film was increased more than twice leading to a significant decrease in resistivity to 1.3 × 10⁻² Ω cm.     

Modified z-gradient filtering as a mean to obtain phased deuterium autocorrelation 2D NMR spectra in oriented solvents

We describe a modified z-gradient filter scheme specifically designed to obtain pure absorption mode deuterium 2D NMR spectra recorded in oriented solvents. The proposed technique is investigated by analysing the evolution of the density operator for a spin I=1. The method is applied to the recently designed Q-COSY and Q-resolved 2D experiments to simplify the analysis of chiral molecules dissolved in weakly orienting chiral liquid crystals. The efficiency of this z-gradient filtering technique is illustrated using the perdeuterated 1-butanol, a prochiral molecule of average Cs symmetry, dissolved in an organic solution of poly-gamma-benzyl-L-glutamate (PBLG). The experimental results as well as the advantages of the new experiments compared with the previous ones are described and discussed.