Structural and Thermodynamic Peculiarities of Core-Shell Particles at Fluid Interfaces from Triangular Lattice Models

A triangular lattice model for pattern formation by core-shell particles at fluid interfaces is introduced and studied for the particle to core diameter ratio equal to 3. Repulsion for overlapping shells and attraction at larger distances due to capillary forces are assumed. Ground states and thermodynamic properties are determined analytically and by Monte Carlo simulations for soft outer- and stiffer inner shells, with different decay rates of the interparticle repulsion. We find that thermodynamic properties are qualitatively the same for slow and for fast decay of the repulsive potential, but the ordered phases are stable for temperature ranges, depending strongly on the shape of the repulsive potential. More importantly, there are two types of patterns formed for fixed chemical potential—one for a slow and another one for a fast decay of the repulsion at small distances. In the first case, two different patterns—for example clusters or stripes—occur with the same probability for some range of the chemical potential. For a fixed concentration, an interface is formed between two ordered phases with the closest concentration, and the surface tension takes the same value for all stable interfaces. In the case of degeneracy, a stable interface cannot be formed for one out of four combinations of the coexisting phases, because of a larger surface tension. Our results show that by tuning the architecture of a thick polymeric shell, many different patterns can be obtained for a sufficiently low temperature.     

Application of ultrasound-assisted physical mixing treatment improves in vitro protein digestibility of rapeseed napin

The in vitro protein digestibility (IVPD) of napin was studied using different pretreatment methods, including ultrasound, mixing napin with lactalbumin, and ultrasound-assisted protein mixing. The relationships between IVPD, molecular structure, and disulfide bonds were explored, showing that the IVPD of napin was the highest compared with the control when treated with 40% ultrasound power. When the proportion of napin to lactalbumin was 5:5, a synergistic influence between the two proteins was observed. Further investigation showed that the IVPD of napin was clearly improved by treatment with ultrasound-assisted protein mixing. Compared with the single protein in the control, the β-sheet content in the secondary structure of the mixed protein after sonication was reduced from 45.02% to 37.16%. The ordered protein structure was also disrupted by ultrasound, as supported by fluorescence intensity and surface hydrophobicity analyses. The decreased number of disulfide bonds and conformational changes indicated that the IVPD of rapeseed napin was closely related to the disulfide bond content. This study provides a theoretical basis for improving protein digestibility by combining ultrasound with physical mixing.     

Ultrasound-assisted immersion freezing reduces the structure and gel property deterioration of myofibrillar protein from chicken breast

The effects of air freezing (AF), immersion freezing (IF) and ultrasound-assisted immersion freezing (UF) at different power levels (125, 165, 205 and 245 W) on the structure and gel properties of the myofibrillar protein (MP) of chicken breast were investigated. UF at 165 W (UF-165) had no obvious negative impact on the primary structure of the MP and effectively reduced the change in the secondary and tertiary structure. In addition, UF-165 significantly reduced the losses in the elastic modulus (G′), gel strength, and gel water holding capacity (P < 0.05). According to low field nuclear magnetic resonance analysis, the T₂₁ and T₂₂ of the UF-165 MP gels were shorter than those of the AF and IF samples, which meant that the UF-165 reduced the mobility of the immobilized water and free water in MP gel. A scanning electron microscopy analysis showed that the appropriate ultrasonic power promoted the formation of a compact and homogeneous protein gel network. These results suggested that the appropriate ultrasonic power maintained the MP structure and reduced the loss of gel quality.     

Experimental Investigation of the Effect of Purge Flow and Main Flow Interaction in a Low-Speed Turbine Cascade Passage

In order to protect the vulnerable turbine components from extreme high temperature, coolant flow is introduced from the compressor to the disk cavity, inevitably interacting with the main flow. This paper describes an experimental investigation of the interaction between the main flow and the purge flow in a low-speed turbine cascade with three purge flow rates, Cm = 0, Cm = 1%, and Cm = 2%. In order to study the effect of the interaction between the main flow and the purge flow on the secondary flows, a Rortex method developed by Liu Chaoquan is introduced to identify the vortex in the flow field. In the meantime, a method to calculate the mean entropy production rate based on the particle image velocimetry (PIV) result is adopted to investigate the flow loss. The PIV result indicates that the purge flow has a prominent impact on the flow field of the cascade passage, changing the velocity distribution that induces a local blockage area. The results of vortex identification show that the purge flow promotes the generation of the passage vortex near the suction side. In addition, the purge flow makes the passage vortex migrate to the tip wall direction, enlarging the region affected by the secondary flow. The mean entropy production (MEP) result shows that the flow loss is mainly caused by the passage vortex. The coincidence of the high-MEP region and the location of the passage vortex indicates that the purge flow increases the secondary flow loss by affecting the formation and the migration of the passage vortex.     

Simulation study on cooperation behaviors and crowd dynamics in pedestrian evacuation

Pedestrian evacuation is actually a process of behavioral evolution. Interaction behaviors between pedestrians affect not only the evolution of their cooperation strategy, but also their evacuation paths-scheduling and dynamics features. The existence of interaction behaviors and cooperation evolution is therefore critical for pedestrian evacuation. To address this issue, an extended cellular automaton(CA) evacuation model considering the effects of interaction behaviors and cooperation evolution is proposed here. The influence mechanism of the environment factor and interaction behaviors between neighbors on the decision-making of one pedestrian to path scheduling is focused. Average payoffs interacting with neighbors are used to represent the competitive ability of one pedestrian, aiming to solve the conflicts when more than one pedestrian competes for the same position based on a new method. Influences of interaction behaviors, the panic degree and the conflict cost on the evacuation dynamics and cooperation evolution of pedestrians are discussed. Simulation results of the room evacuation show that the interaction behaviors between pedestrians to a certain extent are beneficial to the evacuation efficiency and the formation of cooperation behaviors as well. The increase of conflict cost prolongs the evacuation time. Panic emotions of pedestrians are bad for cooperation behaviors of the crowd and have complex effects on evacuation time. A new self-organization effect is also presented.     

The spin-isospin decomposition of the nuclear symmetry energy from low to high density

The energy per particle BA in nuclear matter is calculated up to high baryon density in the whole isospin asymmetry range from symmetric matter to pure neutron matter.The results,obtained in the framework of the Brueckner-Hartree-Fock approximation with two-and three-body forces,confirm the well-known parabolic dependence on the asymmetry parameterβ=(N?Z)/A(β^2 law)that is valid in a wide density range.To investigate the extent to which this behavior can be traced back to the properties of the underlying interaction,aside from the mean field approximation,the spin-isospin decomposition of BA is performed.Theoretical indications suggest that theβ^2 law could be violated at higher densities as a consequence of the three-body forces.This raises the problem that the symmetry energy,calculated according to theβ^2 law as a difference between BA in pure neutron matter and symmetric nuclear matter,cannot be applied to neutron stars.One should return to the proper definition of the nuclear symmetry energy as a response of the nuclear system to small isospin imbalance from the Z=N nuclei and pure neutron matter.     

The Effect of the Protein Synthesis Entropy Reduction on the Cell Size Regulation and Division Size of Unicellular Organisms

The underlying mechanism determining the size of a particular cell is one of the fundamental unknowns in cell biology. Here, using a new approach that could be used for most of unicellular species, we show that the protein synthesis and cell size are interconnected biophysically and that protein synthesis may be the chief mechanism in establishing size limitations of unicellular organisms. This result is obtained based on the free energy balance equation of protein synthesis and the second law of thermodynamics. Our calculations show that protein synthesis involves a considerable amount of entropy reduction due to polymerization of amino acids depending on the cytoplasmic volume of the cell. The amount of entropy reduction will increase with cell growth and eventually makes the free energy variations of the protein synthesis positive (that is, forbidden thermodynamically). Within the limits of the second law of thermodynamics we propose a framework to estimate the optimal cell size at division.     

浸没边界-简化热格子Boltzmann方法研究及其应用

针对流固耦合传热问题,本文提出了一种基于浸没边界-简化热格子玻尔兹曼方法(immersed boundary method-simplified thermal lattice Boltzmann method,IB-STLBM)的耦合模型.不同于传统的格子玻尔兹曼方法使用分布函数演化流场和温度场,简化热格子玻尔兹曼方法(simplified thermal lattice Boltzmann method,STLBM)的演化过程不需要依赖分布函数,只涉及平衡态分布函数和非平衡态分布函数,能够直接演化宏观量,极大减小了计算过程中所占用的虚拟内存,简化了边界条件的实现方式,同时具有较高的稳定性.传统的浸没边界法对流场的计算采用欧拉网格,对固体边界采用拉格朗日网格,认为固体边界是对流场产生某种体积力.在应用浸没边界法时,汲取介观的思想,把固体的介入看作是对流场的干扰,打破了固体附近流体介观微团颗粒原始的平衡状态,这种干扰可以看作是在耦合边界上产生的一个非平衡项,可用非平衡态分布函数来表示.基于此,在模型中浸没边界法与简化热格子玻尔兹曼方法更紧密联系在一起,更大程度发挥二者的优点,整个计算过程更加简单直观,符合物理特性.通过对热圆柱绕流和内含热颗粒的封闭方腔自然对流问题的模拟以及对其结果的分析,验证了该算法在求解流固耦合传热问题的有效性和可行性.      

含有非圆形双孔的无限平板中应力的解析解研究

无限平板中含有任意形状单个孔的问题可以使用复变函数方法获得其应力解析解.对于无限平板中含有两个圆孔或两个椭圆孔的双连通域问题,也可以利用多种方法进行求解,比如双极坐标法、应力函数法、复变函数法以及施瓦茨交替法等.其中复变函数中的保角变换方法是获得应力解析解的一个重要方法.但目前尚未见到用此方法求解无限板中含有一个正方形孔和一个椭圆孔的问题.当板在无穷远处受有均布载荷和孔边作用垂直均布压力时,利用保角变换方法可以求解板中含有两个特定形状孔的问题.该方法将所讨论的区域映射成象平面里的一个圆环,其中最关键的一步是找出相应的映射函数.基于黎曼映射定理,提出了该映射函数一般形式,并利用最优化方法,找到了该问题的具体映射函数,然后通过孔边应力边界条件建立了求解两个解析函数的基本方程,获得了该问题的应力解析解.运用ANSYS有限单元法与结果进行了对比.研究了孔距、椭圆形孔大小和两孔布置方位对边界切向应力的影响,以及不同载荷下两孔中心线上应力分布规律.      

An experimental investigation into non-linear wave loading on horizontal axis tidal turbines

Tidal turbines are subject to large hydrodynamic loads from combinations of currents and waves, which contribute significantly to fatigue, extreme loading and power flow requirements. Physical model testing enables these loads and power fluctuations to be assessed and understood in a controlled and repeatable environment. In this work, a 1:15 scale tidal turbine model is utilised to further the fundamental understanding of the influence of waves on tidal turbines. A wide range of regular waves are generated in both following-current and opposing-current conditions. Wave frequencies range from 0.31 Hz to 0.55 Hz & wave heights from 0.025 m to 0.37 m in a fixed 0.81 m/s current velocity. Waves are selected and programmed specifically to facilitate frequency domain analysis, and techniques are employed to isolate the effect of non-linear waves on turbine power and thrust.Results demonstrate that wave action induces large variations in turbine power and thrust compared to current only conditions. For the range of conditions tested, peak values of thrust and power exceed current-only values by between 7%–65% and 13%–160% respectively. These wave-induced fluctuations are shown to increase with wave amplitude and decrease with wave frequency. Following wave conditions exhibit greater variations than opposing for waves with the same wave height and frequency due to the lower associated wavenumbers.A model is developed and presented to aid the understanding of the high-order harmonic response of the turbine to waves, which is further demonstrated using steady state coefficients under assumptions of pseudo-stationarity. This approach is proven to be effective at estimating wave-induced power and thrust fluctuations for the combinations of waves, currents and turbine state tested. The outcome of which shows promise as a rapid design tool that can evaluate the effect of site-specific wave–current conditions on turbine performance.