Attenuation in trabecular bone: A comparison between numerical simulation and experimental results in human femur

Numerical simulations (finite-difference time domain) are compared to experimental results of ultrasound wave propagation through human trabecular bones. Three-dimensional high-resolution microcomputed tomography reconstructions served as input geometry for the simulation. The numerical simulation took into account scattering, but not absorption. Simulated and experimental values of the attenuation coefficients (alpha, dB/cm) and the normalized broadband ultrasound attenuation (nBUA, dB/cm/MHz) were measured and compared on a set of 28 samples. While experimental and simulated nBUA values were highly correlated (R(2)=0.83), and showed a similar dependence with bone volume fraction, the simulation correctly predicted experimental nBUA values only for low bone volume fraction (BV/TV). Attenuation coefficients were underestimated by the simulation. The absolute difference between experimental and simulated alpha values increased with both BV/TV and frequency. As a function of frequency, the relative difference between experimental and simulated alpha values decreased from 60% around 400 kHz to 30% around 1.2 MHz. Under the assumption that the observed discrepancy expresses the effect of the absorption, our results suggests that nBUA and its dependence on BV/TV can be mostly explained by scattering, and that the relative contribution of scattering to alpha increases with frequency, becoming predominant (>50 %) over absorption for frequencies above 600 kHz.     

Spontaneous generation of self-organized solitary wave structures at earth's magnetopause

Spontaneous formation of solitary wave structures has been observed in Earth's magnetopause, and is shown to be caused by the breakup of a zonal flow by the action of drift wave turbulence. Here we show matched observations and modeling of coherent, large-scale solitary electrostatic structures, generated during the interaction of short-scale drift wave turbulence and zonal flows at the Earth's magnetopause. The observations were made by the Cluster spacecraft and the numerical modeling was performed using the wave-kinetic approach to drift wave-zonal flow interactions. Good agreement between observations and simulations has been found, thus explaining the emergence of the observed solitary structures as well as confirming earlier theoretical predictions of their existence.     

Outstanding spin-orbit-activated interchannel coupling in the Cs and Ba 3d photoemission

Partial 3d5/2 photoionization cross sections of atomic Cs and Ba as well as the asymmetry parameter beta of the angular distribution of the Cs 3d5/2 photoelectrons were investigated near the threshold of the 3d3/2 channel at about 750 eV and 800 eV, respectively. Strong electron correlations, in particular, the spin-orbit activated interchannel coupling between the 3d5/2 and 3d3/2 channels, govern the observed spectra. The most striking effect was found for beta5/2 of Cs with a dramatic increase from beta=1.0 to beta=1.5 in the energy region where the mixing between both channels causes a pronounced minimum in the partial 3d5/2 cross section. This result indicates the decisive influence of the interference term on the asymmetry parameter beta with its dependence on the phase difference between the outgoing p and f waves.     

Robust transport barriers resulting from strong Kolmogorov-Arnold-Moser stability

Hamiltonian systems that locally violate the twist condition arise in many applications. Numerical simulations reveal that, when systems of this type are perturbed, the degenerate or nontwist tori are remarkably stable. This phenomenon, which we refer to as strong Kolmogorov-Arnold-Moser (KAM) stability, is shown to be linked to very small resonance widths near degenerate tori. Quantitative estimates of degenerate resonance widths are derived and bifurcations of degenerate resonances are described. Strong KAM stability leads to robust transport barriers, which are important in all of the many applications in which Hamilitonians with the nontwist property arise.     

Interaction soliton–sable dans un canal en eau peu profonde

Interaction between solitons and a sandy bed in shallow water is investigated. In our experiments, solitons are generated on the background of a harmonic wave, in a wave flume used in resonant mode. It is found that the sand ripples formed by the solitons propagation induce a significant decrease of solitons amplitude and of the phase shift between the soliton and the harmonic wave. However, the amplitude of the harmonic wave is approximately constant. The possible physical processes of such behaviour for the soliton amplitude and for the harmonic wave amplitude are discussed. To cite this article: F. Marin et al., C. R. Mecanique 333 (2005).     

Acoustic source terms study for non-isothermal flows using an aeroacoustic hybrid approach

This paper presents a numerical study of noise source term in non-isothermal flows in the context of an aeroacoustic hybrid technique at low Mach numbers. Asymptotic analysis applied to the fully compressible Navier–Stokes equations provides separated sets of equations for the dynamic of the flow and the production and propagation of acoustic waves. Comparisons with analytical dipole and quadrupole distributions are performed, confirming the dipole type of non-isothermal source distribution. This paper is a preliminary work for some more extensive studies on the topic. To cite this article: F. Golanski, C. Prax, C. R. Mecanique 333 (2005).     

Basic features of plastic strains: From micro-mechanics to incrementally nonlinear models

Most rate-independent constitutive relations for granular materials are based on the existence of a regular flow rule. This assumption states that once the mechanical state of a material point belongs to the yield surface, then the direction of the plastic strains is independent of the loading direction. In this paper, the notion of a regular flow rule is shown to exist only for two-dimensional and axisymmetric loading conditions. By considering our incrementally nonlinear constitutive model, it is established that this notion disappears as soon as more general loading conditions are applied, as also predicted from discrete element simulations. Moreover, a sound micro-mechanical interpretation of the vanishing of a regular flow rule in three-dimensional loading conditions is given from a multi-scale perspective using the micro-directional model. This model highlights the great influence of the loading history on the shape of the plastic Gudehus response-envelope.     

Near-wall velocity measurements by particle-shadow tracking

We report a new method to measure the velocity of a fluid in the vicinity of a wall. The method, that we call particle-shadow tracking (PST), simply consists in seeding the fluid with a small number of fine tracer particles of density close to that of the fluid. The position of each particle and of its shadow on the wall are then tracked simultaneously, allowing one to accurately determine the distance separating tracers from the wall and therefore to extract the velocity field. We present an application of the method to the determination of the velocity profile inside a laminar density current flowing along an inclined plane.