A co‐ordinate system independent streamwise upwind method for fluid flow computation

A new co‐ordinate invariant streamwise upwind formulation for convection dominated flows is developed. The eddy diffusivity/viscosity is added directly to the equations in order to remove the oscillations in the solution. The equations then can be solved by any high‐order scheme and the solution retains the accuracy of the high‐order scheme. The accuracy and reduced lateral thickness growth rate are demonstrated with several numerical examples, including pure convective flows and lid‐driven cavity flow. The lateral spreading due to the numerical diffusion is controlled by the anisotropic tensor. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Passive control of the flow around a square cylinder using porous media

The passive control of bluff body flows using porous media is investigated by means of the penalization method. This method is used to create intermediate porous media between solid obstacles and the fluid in order to modify the boundary layer behaviour. The study covers a wide range of two‐dimensional flows from low transitional flow to fully established turbulence by direct numerical simulation of incompressible Navier–Stokes equations. A parametric study is performed to illustrate the effect of the porous layer permeability and thickness on the passive control. The numerical results reveal the ability of porous media to both regularize the flow and to reduce the drag forces up to 30%. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Crystallographic report: Crystal structure of tetra(4‐methyl‐5‐imidazole‐carboxyaldehyde)zinc(II) diperchlorate

The central zinc(II) atom in the title complex is tetrahedrally coordinated by four nitrogen atoms derived from 4‐methyl‐5‐imidazolecarboxyaldehyde ligands with Zn? N in the range 2.007(3) to 2.026(4) Å. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Crystallographic report: Crystal structure of a one‐dimensional zinc(II) coordination polymer containing 4,4′‐biphenyldicarboxylate hemihydrate

A one‐dimensional zinc(II) coordination polymer has been constructed from zinc(II), 4,4′‐biphenyldicarboxylate and pyridine in which each zinc(II) atom is coordinated by two pyridine ligands and two monodentate 4,4′‐biphenyldicarboxylate ligands that define a distorted tetrahedral geometry. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A Representation of a Family of Secret Sharing Matroids

Deciding whether a matroid is secret sharing or not is a well-known open problem. In Ng and Walker [6] it was shown that a matroid decomposes into uniform matroids under strong connectivity. The question then becomes as follows: when is a matroid m with N uniform components secret sharing? When N = 1, m corresponds to a uniform matroid and hence is secret sharing. In this paper we show, by constructing a representation using projective geometry, that all connected matroids with two uniform components are secret sharing     

Preparation,thermal properties,and flame retardance of epoxy–silica hybrid resins

A novel epoxy system was developed through the in situ curing of bisphenol A type epoxy and 4,4′‐diaminodiphenylmethane with the sol–gel reaction of a phosphorus‐containing trimethoxysilane (DOPO–GPTMS), which was prepared from the reaction of 9,10‐dihydro‐9‐oxa‐10‐phosphaphenanthrene‐10‐oxide (DOPO) with 3‐glycidoxypropyltrimethoxysilane (GPTMS). The preparation of DOPO–GPTMS was confirmed with Fourier transform infrared, ¹H and ³¹P NMR, and elemental analysis. The resulting organic–inorganic hybrid epoxy resins exhibited a high glass‐transition temperature (167 °C), good thermal stability over 320 °C, and a high limited oxygen index of 28.5. The synergism of phosphorus and silicon on flame retardance was observed. Moreover, the kinetics of the thermal oxidative degradation of the hybrid epoxy resins were studied. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 41: 2354–2367, 2003     

Synthesis and characterization of wholly aromatic poly(azomethine)s containing donor–acceptor triphenylamine moieties

N‐(4‐nitrophenyl)‐4′,4″‐bisformyl‐diphenylamine was synthesized from N‐(4‐nitrophenyl)‐diphenylamine by the Vilsmeier‐Haack reaction. Soluble aromatic poly(azomethine)s (PAMs) were prepared by the solution polycondensation of N‐(4‐nitrophenyl)‐4′,4″‐bisformyl‐diphenylamine and aromatic diamine in N‐methyl‐2‐pyrrolidone (NMP) at room temperature under reduced pressure. All the PAMs are highly soluble in various organic solvents, such as N,N‐dimethylacetamide (DMAc), chloroform (CHCl₃), and tetrahydrofuran (THF). Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) indicated that these PAMs had glass‐transition temperatures (T_gs) in the range of 170–230 °C, and a 10% weight‐loss temperatures in excess of 490 °C with char yield at 800 °C in nitrogen higher than 60%. These PAMs in NMP solution showed UV‐Vis charge‐transfer (CT) absorption at 405–421 nm and photoluminescence peaks around 462–466 nm with fluorescence quantum efficiency (Φ_F) 0.10–0.99%. The highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) and lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) energy levels of these PAMs can be determined from cyclic voltammograms as 4.86–5.43 and 3.31–3.34 eV, respectively. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 45: 4921–4932, 2007     

Metallo‐supramolecular micelles: Studies by analytical ultracentrifugation and electron microscopy

In aqueous solutions, amphiphilic block copolymers in which a polystyrene (PS) segment is connected to a poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) block via a bis(2,2′:6′,2″‐ terpyridine ruthenium) complex can form micelles. Such micelles of the protomer type PS₂₀‐[Ru]‐PEO₇₀, according to the preparation procedure representing frozen micelles, were studied by sedimentation velocity and sedimentation equilibrium analysis in an analytical ultracentrifuge and by transmission electron microscopy, with different techniques applied for the sample preparation. The particles obtained were surprisingly multifarious in size. In ultracentrifugation experiments performed at relatively low salt concentrations, the distributions of the sedimentation coefficient s_20,w showed a pronounced peak at 9.6 S and a broad, only partly separated second peak around 14 S. The molar mass of the particles at the peak was around 430,000 g/mol, corresponding to an aggregation number of approximately 85. The average hydrodynamic diameter of the particles in the peak fraction was approximately 13 nm. In electron micrographs of negatively stained samples, spheres of diameters between 10 and 25 nm were the most abundant particles, but larger ones with a wide size range were also visible. The latter particles apparently were composed of smaller ones. The data from both sedimentation analysis and electron microscopy showed that (1) the studied compound formed primary micelles of diameters around 20 nm and (2) the primary micelles had a tendency toward aggregation. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 41: 3159–3168, 2003     

Surface roughness investigation of semi-conductor wafers

Conventionally, surface roughness is predominantly determined through the use of stylus instruments. However, there are certain limitations involved in the method, particularly when a test specimen, such as a silicon wafer, has a smooth mirror-like surface. Hence, it is necessary to explore alternative non-contact techniques. Light scattering has recently been gaining popularity as an optical technique to provide prompt and precise inspection of surface roughness. In this paper, the total integrated scattering (TIS) model is modified to retrieve parameters on surface micro-topography through light scattering. The applicability of the proposed modified TIS model is studied and compared with an atomic force microscope. Experimental results obtained show that the proposed technique is highly accurate for measuring surface roughness in the nanometer range.