Temperature dependent exchange bias effect in polycrystalline BiFeO3/FM (FM = NiFe, Co) bilayers

Extensive studies on the temperature (T) dependent exchange bias effect were carried out in polycrystalline BiFeO₃(BFO)/NiFe and BFO/Co bilayers. In contrast to single-crystalline BFO/ferromagnet (FM) bilayers, sharp increase of the exchange bias field (H _E ) below 50 K were clearly observed in both of these two bilayers. However, when T is higher than 50 K, H _E increases with T and decreases further when T is larger than 230 K (for BFO/NiFe) or 200 K (for BFO/Co), which is similar to those reported in single-crystalline BFO/FM bilayers. After the exploration of magnetic field cooling, the temperature dependent exchange bias can be explained considering two contributions from both the interfacial spin-glass-like frustrated spins and the polycrystalline grains in the BFO layer. Moreover, obvious exchange bias training effect can be observed at both 5 K and room temperature and the corresponding results can be well fitted based on a recently proposed theoretical model taking into account the energy dissipation of the AFM layer.     

Assessment of dynamic closure for premixed combustion large eddy simulation

Turbulent piloted Bunsen flames of stoichiometric methane–air mixtures are computed using the large eddy simulation (LES) paradigm involving an algebraic closure for the filtered reaction rate. This closure involves the filtered scalar dissipation rate of a reaction progress variable. The model for this dissipation rate involves a parameter β_c representing the flame front curvature effects induced by turbulence, chemical reactions, molecular dissipation, and their interactions at the sub-grid level, suggesting that this parameter may vary with filter width or be a scale-dependent. Thus, it would be ideal to evaluate this parameter dynamically by LES. A procedure for this evaluation is discussed and assessed using direct numerical simulation (DNS) data and LES calculations. The probability density functions of β_c obtained from the DNS and LES calculations are very similar when the turbulent Reynolds number is sufficiently large and when the filter width normalised by the laminar flame thermal thickness is larger than unity. Results obtained using a constant (static) value for this parameter are also used for comparative evaluation. Detailed discussion presented in this paper suggests that the dynamic procedure works well and physical insights and reasonings are provided to explain the observed behaviour.     

Development of plasma pyrolysis/gasification systems for energy efficient and environmentally sound waste disposal

As more efficient and reliable torches for thermal plasma generation have become available in recent years, the use of thermal plasma as an energy source for pyrolysis/gasification has attracted much interest, and special attention has been paid to waste treatment for resource and energy recovery. Plasma pyrolysis/gasification systems have unique features such as the extremely high reaction temperature and ultra-fast reaction velocity compared to traditional pyrolysis/gasification systems. Plasma pyrolysis/gasification is therefore acknowledged as a novel pyrolysis/gasification technology with great potential in solid waste disposal. This paper gives a comprehensive review on the development of fundamental researches on plasma pyrolysis/gasification systems including direct current (DC) arc plasma system and radio frequency (RF) plasma system with an emphasis on reactor design such as plasma fixed/moving bed reactor system, plasma entrained-flow bed reactor system and plasma spout-fluid bed reactor system.     

Generating and shifting a spherical focal spot in a 4Pi focusing system illuminated by azimuthally polarized beams

We aim to theoretically investigate the focusing property of a 4Pi configuration under the illumination of azimuthally polarized high-order Bessel–Gaussian beams. The radial component is produced in the focal region through the introduction of a spiral phase plate. The focal region differs from the zero radial intensity component of the azimuthally polarized beams without the spiral phase plate. The spherical focal spot is generated by selecting an appropriate annular obstruction. The position of the focal spot can be shifted.     

Multi-environment probability density function method for modelling turbulent combustion using realistic chemical kinetics

A computational fluid dynamics (CFD) tool for performing turbulent combustion simulations that require finite-rate chemistry is developed and tested by modelling a series of bluff-body stabilized flames that exhibit different levels of finite-rate chemistry effects ranging from near equilibrium to near global extinction. The new modelling tool is based on the multi-environment probability density function (MEPDF) methodology and combines the following: the direct quadrature method of moments (DQMOM); the interaction-by-exchange-with-the-mean (IEM) mixing model; and realistic combustion chemistry. Using DQMOM, the MEPDF model can be derived from the transport PDF equation by depicting the joint composition PDF as a weighted summation of a finite number of multi-dimensional Dirac delta functions in the composition space. The MEPDF method with multiple reactive scalars retains the unique property of the joint PDF method of treating chemical reactions exactly. However, unlike the joint PDF methods that typically must resort to particle-based Monte-Carlo solution schemes, the MEPDF equations (i.e. the transport equations of the weighted delta-peaks) can be solved by traditional Eulerian grid-based techniques. In the current study, a pseudo time-splitting scheme is adopted to solve the MEPDF equations; the reaction source terms are computed with a highly efficient and accurate in-situ adaptive tabulation (ISAT) algorithm. A 19-species reduced mechanism based on quasi-steady state assumptions is used in the simulations of the bluff-body flames. The modelling results are compared with the experimental data, including mixing, temperature, major species and important minor species such as CO and NO. Compared with simulations using a Monte-Carlo joint PDF method, the new approach shows comparable accuracy.     

Propagation dynamics on the Fermi-Pasta-Ulam lattices

The spatiotemporal propagation of a momentum excitation on the finite Fermi-Pasta-Ulam lattices is investigated. The competition between the solitary wave and phonons gives rise to interesting propagation behaviors. For a moderate nonlinearity, the initially excited pulse may propagate coherently along the lattice for a long time in a solitary wave manner accompanied by phonon tails. The lifetime of the long-transient propagation state exhibits a sensitivity to the nonlinear parameter. The solitary wave decays exponentially during the final loss of stability, and the decay rate varying with the nonlinear parameter exhibits two different scaling laws. This decay is found to be related to the largest Lyapunov exponent of the corresponding Hamiltonian system, which manifests a transition from weak to strong chaos. The mean-free-path of the solitary waves is estimated in the strong chaos regime, which may be helpful to understand the origin of anomalous conductivity in the Fermi-Pasta-Ulam lattice.     

Synthesis and luminescent properties of BaGd2O4:Dy3+, an novel scintillating phosphor

The BaGd_2?x O₄:xDy³⁺ (0 ≤ x ≤ 0.08) phosphors were synthesized at 1,300 °C in air by the solid-state reaction route. The as-synthesized phosphors were characterized by X-ray powder diffraction, photoluminescence excitation spectra, photoluminescence (PL) spectra, X-ray excited luminescence (XEL) spectra, and thermoluminescence (TL) spectra. It is found that the quenching concentration of Dy³⁺ ions in BaGd₂O₄ host is dependent on the selected excitation wavelength. The optimal PL intensity for the investigated BaGd_2?x O₄:xDy³⁺ phosphors is found to be x = 0.01, 0.02, and 0.04, upon excitation by 234, 277, and 350 nm ultraviolet light, respectively. The energy transfer among Dy³⁺ ions upon excitation by 350 nm is confirmed to be an electric dipole–dipole interaction mechanism based on the fitting of Huang’s rule. In addition, the intensive XEL from BaGd₂O₄:Dy³⁺ phosphor is observed by the naked eyes at room temperature, and TL properties of the investigated phosphors are analyzed and discussed. All the results imply that the investigated phosphors could be a promising scintillating phosphor.