A relaxed model and its homogenization for nematic liquid crystals in composite materials

We analyse a model for equilibrium configurations of composite systems of nematic liquid crystal with polymer inclusions, in the presence of an external magnetic field. We assume that the system has a periodic structure, and consider the relaxed problem on the unit length constraint of the nematic director field. The relaxation of the Oseen–Frank energy functional is carried out by including bulk as well as surface energy penalty terms, rendering the problem fully non‐linear. We employ two‐scale convergence methods to obtain effective configurations of the system, as the size of the polymeric inclusions tends to zero. We discuss the minimizers of the effective energies for, both, the constrained as well as the unconstrained models. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The long‐time behaviour of the thermoconvective flow in a porous medium

For the Boussinesq approximation of the equations of coupled heat and fluid flow in a porous medium we show that the corresponding system of partial differential equations possesses a global attractor. We give lower and upper bounds of the Hausdorff dimension of the attractor depending on a physical parameter of the system, namely the Rayleigh number of the flow. Numerical experiments confirm the theoretical findings and raise new questions on the structure of the solutions of the system. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

In-time motion adjustment in laser cladding manufacturing process for improving dimensional accuracy and surface finish of the formed part

This paper presents in-time motion adjustment in laser cladding manufacturing process as a means to improve dimensional accuracy and surface finish of the built part. Defects occurring during laser cladding degrade the part quality such as dimensional accuracy and surface finish. In this paper, in-time motion adjustment strategy was presented to remedy and eliminate defects occurring during laser cladding to improve the dimensional accuracy and surface finish. Based on the relationship between the motion of laser head relative to the growing part and other parameters in effects on clad profile, the laser traverse speed, stand-off distance and laser approach orientation to the existing clad layer were adjusted by instructions from a close-loop control system in real time to remedy and eliminate defects. The results of the experiments verified the effects of in-time motion adjustment on dimensional accuracy and surface finish.     

THE CLASSIFICATION AND PERIOD OF STATES FOR MARKOV CHAIN IN RANDOM ENVIRONMENT

This paper is a continuation of [8]. In Section 1, three kinds of communication are introdnced for two states and the relations among them are investigated. In Section 2, two kinds of period of a state are introdnced and it is obtained that the period is a “class property” ,i.e. two states x and y belong to same class implies the period of x is equal to the period of y.     

Analytic Feynman integrals of transforms of variation of cylinder type functions over Wiener paths in abstract Wiener space

In this paper, we evaluate various analytic Feynman integrals of first variation, conditional first variation, Fourier-Feynman transform and conditional Fourier-Feynman transform of cylinder type functions defined over Wiener paths in abstract Wiener space. We also derive the analytic Feynman integral of the conditional Fourier-Feynman transform for the product of the cylinder type functions which define the functions in a Banach algebra introduced by Yoo, with n linear factors.     

Forced-air precooling of spherical foods in bulk: A parametric study

In this paper, a mathematical model for forced-air precooling of spherical food products in bulk is developed. The foods are arranged in horizontal layers stacked one above the other to form a rectangular parallelepiped with a vertical gap in between the product layers. The foods are cooled by chilled air blown along the height of the package. The governing equations for the conduction heat transfer in the foods, simultaneous heat and mass transfer at the food-air interface and in the air stream are solved numerically using finite-difference methods. A comprehensive numerical study is performed by varying the process parameters over a wide range. Typical results showing the variation of moist air properties along the height of the package and the effect of each parameter on the process time are presented. The ranges of parameters for advantageous operation of the precooling system are identified. Correlations are obtained for the process time based on the product center and mass-averaged temperatures in terms of process parameters.     

Novel pattern formation in the collapse process of floating monolayer at the air-water interface

We have observed a remarkable two-armed spiral in the collapse process of a floating monolayer at the air-water interface by phase contrast microscopy. This demonstrates that the floating monolayer as a form of soft condensed matter reorganizes itself due to a certain kind of macroscopic or collective behavior of molecules as it collapses. This pattern formation is caused by the breakdown of a critical dynamical balance between the deformation of solid domain and the applied surface pressure. The fragility as well as the flexibility of the floating monolayer can be associated with the observed pattern growth. There are also observed interesting, periodically arranged collections of molecules in numerous collapsed regions. Received: 8 July 1997 / Accepted: 4 November 1997     

High performance liquid chromatographic separation of polar and non-polar chlorophyll pigments from algae using a wide pore polymeric octadecylsilica column

A method employing a wide pore polymeric reversed phase column has been developed for the separation of most of the chlorophylls and related compounds previously described as occurring in marine microalgae. The high selectivity toward molecular shape of this kind of stationary phase has enabled compounds of very similar structure, such as chlorophylls c₁, c₂ and Mg-divinylpheoporphyrin a₅ monomethyl ester, and chlorophyll a and the phytol-substituted chlorophyll c-like pigments, which commonly coelute on monomeric bonded phases, to be resolved in a single run. Some of these pigments, formerly thought to be a single compound, have, in fact, been demonstrated to be groups of two or more. The method has been successfully applied to both algal cultures and natural sea water samples. When visible light absorbance detection was used, the method proved suitable for separation of various carotenoids.     

Probability relations involving several subsystems

We consider the question of factorizability in tensor product spaces, and argue that the correlations associated with entangled states are even more problematic in the general case involving any tensor product of Hilbert spaces, than in the Einstein, Podolsky, and Rosen case with only two [1].