Domain growth and wetting in phase-separating fluid mixtures

We present light scattering results from two different fluid mixtures undergoing phase separation next to a glass interface. We observe a characteristic length scale L, which coarsens as a function of time L ∼ t^3/2. This growth is faster than any observed previously in bulk samples. The physical process responsible for it is the formation of a wetting layer of one of the two coexisting phases next to the interface. We discuss recent theoretical attempts to explain the fast kinetic mode.     

Thermal analysis of fluidised bed combustion residues containing limestone scavenger

A method has been developed using thermoanalytical techniques for the analysis of residues from coal-burning fluidised bed plant where limestone is used as a sulphur scavenger. This completely eliminates the need for lengthy wet chemical analyses and allows the derivation of parameters necessary for efficient plant operation, such as limestone addition rate, calcium utilisation efficiency and calcium to sulphur mole ratio. The method also gives values for the unburned carbon content and the ratio of coal ash to limestone derivatives in the sample.     

Controlling acoustic streaming in an ultrasonic heptagonal tweezers with application to cell manipulation

Acoustic radiation force has been demonstrated as a method for manipulating micron-scale particles, but is frequently affected by unwanted streaming. In this paper the streaming in a multi-transducer quasi-standing wave acoustic particle manipulation device is assessed, and found to be dominated by a form of Eckart streaming. The experimentally observed streaming takes the form of two main vortices that have their highest velocity in the region where the standing wave is established. A finite element model is developed that agrees well with experimental results, and shows that the Reynolds stresses that give rise to the fluid motion are strongest in the high velocity region. A technical solution to reduce the streaming is explored that entails the introduction of a biocompatible agar gel layer at the bottom of the chamber so as to reduce the fluid depth and volume. By this means, we reduce the region of fluid that experiences the Reynolds stresses; the viscous drag per unit volume of fluid is also increased. Particle Image Velocimetry data is used to observe the streaming as a function of agar-modified cavity depth. It was found that, in an optimised structure, Eckart streaming could be reduced to negligible levels so that we could make a sonotweezers device with a large working area of up to 13 mm × 13 mm.     

Effect of refractive index mismatch aberration in arsenic trisulfide

We demonstrate compensation for the spherical aberration due to the refractive index mismatch that occurs when a laser beam is focused into a thick arsenic trisulfide (As $_2$ S $_3$ ) film with a high numerical aperture objective. The effects of the aberration at different focal depths on the point spread function have been calculated numerically and the axial response method shown to be a useful measure for compensating the spherical aberration. We show that with the addition of adaptive optics based on a spatial light modulator, the aberration can be significantly reduced, resulting in an increase in peak intensity by a factor of 2.4 and a decrease in axial elongation by a factor of 2.2.     

A mass-conservative control volume-finite element method for solving Richards’ equation in heterogeneous porous media

We present a mass-conservative vertex-centred finite volume method for efficiently solving the mixed form of Richards’ equation in heterogeneous porous media. The spatial discretisation is particularly well-suited to heterogeneous media because it produces consistent flux approximations at quadrature points where material properties are continuous. Combined with the method of lines, the spatial discretisation gives a set of differential algebraic equations amenable to solution using higher-order implicit solvers. We investigate the solution of the mixed form using a Jacobian-free inexact Newton solver, which requires the solution of an extra variable for each node in the mesh compared to the pressure-head form. By exploiting the structure of the Jacobian for the mixed form, the size of the preconditioner is reduced to that for the pressure-head form, and there is minimal computational overhead for solving the mixed form.