Recovery performance and characteristics in shape memory effects of aliphatic polyether urethane

The analysis on the recovery performance and characteristics in shape memory effects is helpful for the optimal design and engineering applications of shape memory polymers and their composites. To investigate the relationships among recovery performance, material parameters, and loading conditions, by taking aliphatic polyether urethane as an example, the researchers simulate the shape memory behaviors numerically using a three‐dimensional viscoelastic model. The material parameters for this model are taken from stress relaxation tests, rather than dynamic mechanical analysis tests. Both the unconstrained and the constrained recovery behaviors during strain‐controlled shape memory processes are analyzed. The results reveal that the unconstrained recovery occurs at the same temperature regardless of the applied strain values. Another interesting result is that the shape recovery temperature in unconstrained recovery situations increases and the maximum recovery stress under constrained recovery conditions decreases with the increase of heating rates. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Quantum topology phase diagrams for molecules,clusters, and solids

The need to make more quantitative use of the total electronic charge density distribution is demonstrated in this short perspective. This is framed in the perspective of the ground breaking early work of Bader and coworkers, along with mathematicians who captured the essential nature of a molecule in a suitably compact form in real space. We see that this simple form is the Poincaré–Hopf relation for molecules and clusters and the Euler–Hopf relation in solids. Thom's theory of elementary catastrophes combined with the Poincaré–Hopf relation provides the inspiration for the new quantum topology. An alternative use of the Poincaré–Hopf relation, molecular recognition, is discussed. Quantum topology is then used to create a topology phase diagram for both molecules and solids. The author adds their perspectives of the huge potential of the quantum topology approach by demonstrating the ease with which new theoretical ideas can be generated. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Synthesis and comparative study of the heterocyclic rings on liquid crystalline properties of 2,5-aryl-1,3,4-oxa(thia)diazole derivatives containing furan and thiophene units

A series of heterocyclic liquid crystalline compounds containing 1,3,4-oxadiazole/thiadiazole, furan and thiophene units were synthesised and characterised by means of electrospray ionisation-mass spectrometry (ESI-MS), high-resolution mass spectroscopy (HRMS), ¹H nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and ¹³C NMR. The thermal behaviours were investigated by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and polarised optical microscopy (POM). The effect of the 1,3,4-oxadiazole, 1,3,4-thiadiazole, furan, thiophene and benzene rings on the liquid crystalline properties was discussed briefly in context with the geometrical and electronic factors. The results showed that the tendency to form mesophases follows the sequence: 1,4-disustituted benzene >2,5-disubstituted thiophene >2,5-disustituted furan and 1,3,4-thiadiazole >1,3,4-oxadiazole.     

A critical analysis of the effect of crosslinking on the linear viscoelastic behavior of styrene–butadiene rubber and other elastomers

The linear viscoelastic behavior in dynamic shear and tensile creep at temperatures from −30 to 70 °C is measured for an styrene–butadiene rubber (SBR) elastomer cured with dicumyl peroxide to crosslinking densities between 0 and 23.5 × 10⁻⁵ mol/cm³. The G′, G″, and tan δ isotherms are analyzed by time–temperature superposition (TTS), where the tan δ master curves are consistent with those of Mancke and Ferry. However, to achieve the TTS in the lightly crosslinked SBR systems, an anomalous vertical shift is required in the narrow temperature region from 10 to 30 °C. The vertical shift factor in this temperature region is not the standard from rubber elasticity. No anomalous behavior is detected in the equilibrium modulus, which is a linear function of temperature in accordance with the classical theory of rubber elasticity. In contrast to SBR, standard vertical shifts are required to effect TTS for uncrosslinked polybutadiene and an ethylene propylene diene monomer elastomer. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys, 2013     

The initial value problem for creeping flow of the upper convected Maxwell fluid at high Weissenberg number

We consider the equations for time dependent creeping flow of an upper convected Maxwell fluid. For finite Weissenberg number, these equations can be reformulated as a coupled system of a hyperbolic equation for the stresses and an elliptic equation for the velocity. In the high Weissenberg number limit, however, the elliptic equation becomes degenerate. As a consequence, the initial value problem is no longer uniquely solvable if we just naively let the Weissenberg number go to infinity in the equations. In this paper, we make an a priori assumption on the stresses, which is motivated by the behavior in shear flow. We formulate a systematic perturbation procedure to solve the resulting initial value problem. Copyright © 2014 JohnWiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Long‐time behavior of a nonlinear viscoelastic beam equation with past history

This paper is concerned with the existence of a global attractor for the nonlinear viscoelastic beam equation with past history memory where g(u_t) is a damping like | u_t | ^ru_t and f(u) is a source term like | u | ^αu ? | u | ^βu, by considering 0 ≤ β < α and r > 0. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Gap formulas for closed linear relations

A classical formula for the gap between two densely defined closed operators in a Hilbert space is extended to the case of linear relations. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

4类图完美匹配数目的递推求法

本文研究了4类特殊图完美匹配数目的显式表达式.利用划分,求和,再递推的方法分别给出了图3-n Z4,2-n(2-C6),2-n(2-K4)和3-n(C4-C6)的完美匹配数目的计算公式.     

A novel 3D Tesla valve micromixer for efficient mixing and chitosan nanoparticle production

Current three-dimensional micromixers for continuous flow reactions and nanoparticle synthesis are complex in structure and difficult to fabricate. This paper investigates the design, fabrication, and characterization of a novel micromixer that uses a simple spatial Tesla valve design to achieve efficient mixing of multiple solutions. The flow characteristics and mixing efficiencies of our Tesla valve micromixer are investigated using a combination of numerical simulations and experiments. The results show that in a wide range of flow rates, viscoelastic solutions with different concentrations can be well mixed in our micromixer. Finally, experiments on the synthesis of chitosan nanoparticles are conducted to verify the practicability of our micromixer. Compared with nanoparticles prepared by conventional magnetic stirring, the size of nanoparticles prepared by micromixing is smaller and the distribution is more uniform. Therefore, our Tesla valve micromixer has significant advantages and implications for mixing chemical and biological reactions.     

Elastic-inertial separation of microparticle in a gradually contracted microchannel

Separation of microparticle in viscoelastic fluid is highly required in the field of biology and clinical medicine. For instance, the separation of the target cell from blood is an important prerequisite step for the drug screening and design. The microfluidic device is an efficient way to achieve the separation of the microparticle in the viscoelastic fluid. However, the existing microfluidic methods often have some limitations, including the requirement of the long channel length, the labeling process, and the low throughput. In this work, based on the elastic-inertial effect in the viscoelastic fluid, a new separation method is proposed where a gradually contracted microchannel is designed to efficiently adjust the forces exerted on the particle, eventually achieving the high-efficiency separation of different sized particles in a short channel length and at a high throughput. In addition, the separation of WBCs and RBCs is also validated in the present device. The effect of the flow rate, the fluid property, and the channel geometry on the particle separation is systematically investigated by the experiment. With the advantage of small footprint, simple structure, high throughput, and high efficiency, the present microfluidic device could be utilized in the biological and clinical fields, such as the cell analysis and disease diagnosis.