Effects of hydraulic pressure on the stability and transition of wetting modes of superhydrophobic surfaces

The underlying mechanisms of stability, metastability, or instability of the Cassie-Baxter and Wenzel wetting modes and their transitions on superhydrophobic surfaces decorated with periodic micropillars are quantitatively studied in this article. Hydraulic pressure, which may be generated by the water-air interfacial tension of water droplets or external factors such as raining impact, is shown to be a key to understanding these mechanisms. A detailed transition process driven by increasing hydraulic pressure is numerically simulated. The maximum sustainable or critical pressure of the Cassie-Baxter wetting state on a pillarlike microstructural surface is formulated for the first time in a simple, unified, and precise form. This analytic result reveals the fact that reducing the microstructural scales (e.g., the pillars' diameters and spacing) is probably the most efficient measure needed to enlarge the critical pressure significantly. We also introduce a dimensionless parameter, the pillar slenderness ratio, to characterize the stability of either the Cassie-Baxter or the Wenzel wetting state and show that the energy barrier for transitioning from the Cassie-Baxter to the Wenzel wetting mode is proportional to both the slenderness ratio and the area fraction. Thus, the Cassie-Baxter wetting mode may collapse under a hydraulic pressure lower than the critical one if the slenderness ratio is improperly small. This quantitative study explains fairly well some experimental observations of contact angles that can be modeled by neither Wenzel nor Cassie-Baxter contact angles and eventually leads to our proposals for a mixed (or coexisting) wetting mode.     

Neue Näherungsgleichung zur einheitlichen Berechnung von Wärmeübertragern

Zusammenfassung Es wird eine für alle Stromführungen einheitliche Näherungsgleichung mit drei oder vier anpaßbaren Parametern zur Berechnung des Korrekturfaktors für die mittlere logarithmische Temperaturdifferenz angegeben. Die anpaßbaren Parameter wurden für etwa 50 verschiedene Stromführungen durch Ausgleichsrechnung bestimmt. Die Genauigkeit der Gleichung ist für die Berechnung im praktisch wichtigen Bereich mehr als ausreichend.

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New approximate equation for uniform heat exchanger design

An approximate equation with three or four empirical parameters for the uniform calculation of the LMTD-correction factor of all heat exchanger configurations is proposed. The empirical parameters have been determined for about 50 different flow configurations using least squares estimation. The accuracy of the equation is more than sufficient for practical design purposes.

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Formelzeichen A Übertragungsfläche - a, b, c, d Parameter der Näherungsgleichung - Wärmekapazitätsstrom - F Korrekturfaktor für die logarithmische mittlere Temperaturdifferenz - k Wärmedurchgangskoeffizient - m, n Zahl der Durchgänge oder Einzelapparate - NTU Anzahl der Übertragungseinheiten (number of transfer units); NTU_i=kA/ _i - P dimensionslose Temperaturänderung - R Wärmekapazitätsstromverhältnis;R ₁=₁/₂;R ₂=₂/₁ - relativer Fehler - Mittelwert von NTU₁ und NTU₂ Indizes 1, 2 Stoffstrom 1, 2 - G Gegenstrom - s Schätzwert Herrn Prof. Dr.-Ing. E.h. K. Stephan zum 65. Geburtstag gewidmet.     

On two methods of determining the ellipses and ellipsoids of positioning accuracy of robot manipulators

Summary When analysing the problem of the positioning accuracy of robot manipulators it is important to know how far random deviations of the hand may be from the desired position if the joint positioning errors possess a normal distribution. Two methods of determining the ellipses and ellipsoids of probability concentration are compared. The first of them is based on the standard procedure of the probability calculus. The second approximate method consists in finding at first the polygon or polyhedron of the positioning accuracy, and then in finding the ellipse or ellipsoid with principal axes and second order moments coinciding with those of the polygon or polyhedron, respectively. Examples of application demonstrate that these two methods give very close results.

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Zwei Methoden zur Bestimmung der Ellipsen und Ellipsoide der Positioniergenauigkeit von Handhabungsrobotern

Übersicht Bei der Untersuchung der Positioniergenauigkeit von Handhabungsrobotern ist es wichtig, die Größe zufälliger Abweichungen des Greifers von der erstrebten Position zu kennen, wenn die Lagefehler der Verbindungen eine Normalverteilung besitzen. Es werden zwei Methoden zur Bestimmung der Ellipsen bzw. Ellipsoide der Wahrscheinlichkeitsdichte verglichen. Die erste beruht auf dem Standardverfahren der Wahrscheinlichkeitsrechnung. Die zweite Näherungsmethode besteht darin, daß zunächst das Polygon bzw. Polyeder der Positioniergenauigkeit bestimmt wird und danach die Ellipse bzw. das Ellipsoid mit den Hauptachsen und Momenten zweiter Ordnung wie das Polygon oder Polyeder. Beispiele zeigen, daß beide Methoden zu sehr ähnlichen Ergebnissen führen.

     

Study of cross-conjugated iso-polytriacetylenes and related oligoenynes

Two series of monodisperse cross-conjugated oligomers based on enyne repeat units have been realized. The first class of molecules, iso-polytriacetylenes (iso-PTAs, 2), was divergently synthesized using an iterative sequence of palladium-catalyzed cross-coupling reactions of vinyl triflate 5 with terminal alkynes. The second series of oligoenynes (17-20) are based on an octatetrayne backbone, and result from homocoupling of the differentially protected iso-PTA oligomers 8-11. The longest member of this series, 20, spans ca. 5.6 nm from Si atom to Si atom and is composed of a contiguous sequence of 44 sp and sp(2) carbons. The lowest energy electronic absorption band for iso-PTA dimers in the progression 13 --> 9 --> 16 is consistently red-shifted as a result of extending the cross-conjugated structure. A similar comparison within each series (i.e., 16, 6-7, or 17-20), however, suggests little effect on the electronic characteristics of these molecules as oligomer length is increased. The solid-state properties of one derivative, 17, are also described.     

A configuration interaction study of phosphine using bonded functions

A computational study is made of the effect of basis set upon the energy, properties and inversion barrier of the phosphine molecule. The calculations are performed at both the SCF and CI level. The flexibility of the double zeta basis is discussed in the light of the results.     

Theoretical approach and the practice to the evaluation of structural parameters characterizing concentration polarization alongside ion-exchange membranes by means of dielectric measurement

As the application of a dielectric theory proposed previously (J Membrane Sci 64:153–161 (1991)), theoretical formulation and the practical procedure of dielectric analysis are developed to calculate the structural parameters such as the conductivity gradient and the thickness of the concentration polarization layer, the capacitances and the conductances of the two adjoining aqueous phases from the observed dielectric parameters. The procedure of calculation consequent upon the theoretical formulation was applied to double relaxation data observed for cation-exchange membrane systems under application of d.c. bias voltage. As a consequence, the structural parameters of concentration polarization were readily obtained with accuracy.