Ultrasound velocimetry of ferrofluid spin-up flow measurements using a spherical coil assembly to impose a uniform rotating magnetic field

Ferrofluid spin-up flow is studied within a sphere subjected to a uniform rotating magnetic field from two surrounding spherical coils carrying sinusoidally varying currents at right angles and 90° phase difference. Ultrasound velocimetry measurements in a full sphere of ferrofluid shows no measureable flow. There is significant bulk flow in a partially filled sphere (1-14 mm/s) of ferrofluid or a finite height cylinder of ferrofluid with no cover (1-4 mm/s) placed in the spherical coil apparatus. The flow is due to free surface effects and the non-uniform magnetic field associated with the shape demagnetizing effects. Flow is also observed in the fully filled ferrofluid sphere (1-20 mm/s) when the field is made non-uniform by adding a permanent magnet or a DC or AC excited small solenoidal coil. This confirms that a non-uniform magnetic field or a non-uniform distribution of magnetization due to a non-uniform magnetic field are causes of spin-up flow in ferrofluids with no free surface, while tangential magnetic surface stress contributes to flow in the presence of a free surface.Recent work has fitted velocity flow measurements of ferrofluid filled finite height cylinders with no free surface, subjected to uniform rotating magnetic fields, neglecting the container shape effects which cause non-uniform demagnetizing fields, and resulting in much larger non-physical effective values of spin viscosity η′∼10⁻⁸−10⁻¹² N s than those obtained from theoretical spin diffusion analysis where η′≤10⁻¹⁸ N s. COMSOL Multiphysics finite element computer simulations of spherical geometry in a uniform rotating magnetic field using non-physically large experimental fit values of spin viscosity η′∼10⁻⁸−10⁻¹² N s with a zero spin-velocity boundary condition at the outer wall predicts measureable flow, while simulations setting spin viscosity to zero (η′=0) results in negligible flow, in agreement with the ultrasound velocimetry measurements. COMSOL simulations also confirm that a non-uniform rotating magnetic field or a uniform rotating magnetic field with a non-uniform distribution of magnetization due to an external magnet or a current carrying coil can drive a measureable flow in an infinitely long ferrofluid cylinder with zero spin viscosity (η′=0).     

Neutron–proton elliptic flow difference as a probe for the high density dependence of the symmetry energy

We employ an isospin dependent version of the QMD transport model to study the influence of the isospin dependent part of the nuclear matter equation of state and in-medium nucleon–nucleon cross-sections on the dynamics of heavy-ion collisions at intermediate energies. We find that the extraction of useful information on the isospin-dependent part of the equation of state of nuclear matter from proton or neutron elliptic flows is obstructed by their sensitivity to model parameters and in-medium values of nucleon–nucleon cross-sections. Opposite to that, neutron–proton elliptic flow difference shows little dependence on those variables while its dependence on the isospin asymmetric EoS is enhanced, making it more suitable for a model independent constraining of the high-density behaviour of asy-EoS. Comparison with existing experimental FOPI-LAND neutron–hydrogen data can be used to set an upper limit to the softness of asy-EoS. Successful constraining of the asy-EoS via neutron–proton elliptic flow difference will require experimental data of higher accuracy than presently available.     

A numerical study of MHD generalized Couette flow and heat transfer with variable viscosity and electrical conductivity

The steady flow and heat transfer of an electrically conducting fluid with variable viscosity and electrical conductivity between two parallel plates in the presence of a transverse magnetic field is investigated. It is assumed that the flow is driven by combined action of axial pressure gradient and uniform motion of the upper plate. The governing nonlinear equations of momentum and energy transport are solved numerically using a shooting iteration technique together with a sixth-order Runge-Kutta integration algorithm. Solutions are presented in graphical form and given in terms of fluid velocity, fluid temperature, skin friction and heat transfer rate for various parametric values. Our results reveal that the combined effect of magnetic field, viscosity, exponents of variable properties, various fluid and heat transfer dimensionless quantities and the electrical conductivity variation, have significant impact on the hydromagnetic and electrical properties of the fluid.     

Heavy quarks at RHIC and LHC within a partonic transport model

Production and space-time evolution of heavy quarks in central and non-central heavy-ion collisions at RHIC and LHC are studied with the partonic transport model Boltzmann Approach of MultiParton Scatterings (BAMPS). In addition to the initially created heavy quarks in hard parton scatterings during nucleon-nucleon collisions, secondary heavy quark production in the quark-gluon plasma is investigated and the sensitivity on various parameters is estimated. In BAMPS heavy quarks scatter with particles of the medium via elastic collisions, whose cross section is calculated with the running coupling and a more precise implementation of Debye screening. In this framework, we compute the elliptic flow and nuclear modification factor of heavy quarks and compare it to the experimental data.     

Optimal velocity difference model for a car-following theory

In this Letter, we present a new optimal velocity difference model for a car-following theory based on the full velocity difference model. The linear stability condition of the new model is obtained by using the linear stability theory. The unrealistically high deceleration does not appear in OVDM. Numerical simulation of traffic dynamics shows that the new model can avoid the disadvantage of negative velocity occurred at small sensitivity coefficient λ in full velocity difference model by adjusting the coefficient of the optimal velocity difference, which shows that collision can disappear in the improved model.     

Time-dependent Ginzburg-Landau equation in a car-following model considering the driver’s physical delay

In this paper, an extended car-following model considering the delay of the driver’s response in sensing headway is proposed to describe the traffic jam. It is shown that the stability region decreases when the driver’s physical delay in sensing headway increases. The phase transition among the freely moving phase, the coexisting phase, and the uniformly congested phase occurs below the critical point. By applying the reductive perturbation method, we get the time-dependent Ginzburg-Landau (TDGL) equation from the car-following model to describe the transition and critical phenomenon in traffic flow. We show the connection between the TDGL equation and the mKdV equation describing the traffic jam.     

Impact of the honk effect on the stability of traffic flow

In this paper, we propose an extended car-following model which takes into account the honk effect. The analytical and numerical results show that the honk effect improves the stability of traffic flow. The dependence of the stability on the properties of the honk effect is investigated in this paper.     

Effect of looking backward on traffic flow in an extended multiple car-following model

In this paper, a new car-following model is proposed by incorporating the backward looking effect under certain conditions and multiple information of preceding cars in traffic flow. And the neutral stability condition of this model can be obtained by using the linear stability theory. Numerical simulation shows that the proposed model is theoretically an improvement over previous ones.     

Assessment of clinical data of nonlinear stochastic deconvolution versus block-circulant singular value decomposition for quantitative dynamic susceptibility contrast magnetic resonance imaging

Dynamic susceptibility contrast magnetic resonance imaging (DSC-MRI) allows the noninvasive assessment of brain hemodynamics alterations by quantifying, via deconvolution, the cerebral blood flow (CBF) and mean transit time (MTT). Singular value decomposition (SVD) and block-circulant SVD (cSVD) are the most widely adopted deconvolution method, although they bear some limitations, including unphysiological oscillations in the residue function and bias in the presence of delay and dispersion between the tissue and the arterial input function. A nonlinear stochastic regularization (NSR) has been proposed, which performs better than SVD and cSVD on simulated data both in the presence and absence of dispersion. Moreover, NSR allows to quantify the dispersion level. Here, cSVD and NSR are compared for the first time on a group of nine patients with severe atherosclerotic unilateral stenosis of internal carotid artery before and after carotid stenting to investigate the effect of arterial dispersion. According to region of interest-based analysis, NSR characterizes the pathologic tissue more accurately than cSVD, thus improving the quality of the information provided to physicians for diagnosis. In fact, in 7 (78%) of the 9 subjects, CBF and MTT maps provided by NSR allow to correctly identify the pathologic hemisphere to the physician. Moreover, by emphasizing the difference between pathologic and healthy tissues, NSR may be successfully used to monitor the subject's recovery after the treatment and/or surgery. NSR also generates dispersion level and non-dispersed CBF and MTT maps. The dispersion level provides information on CBF and MTT estimates reliability and may also be used as a clinical indicator of pathological tissue state complementary to CBF and MTT, thus increasing the clinical information provided by DSC-MRI analysis.