Generic Transport Aft-body Drag Reduction using Active Flow Control

Active flow-separation control is an effective and efficient mean for drag reduction and unsteady load alleviation resulting from locally or massively separated flow. Such a situation occurs in configurations where the aerodynamic performance is of secondary importance to functionality. The performance of heavy transport helicopters and aeroplanes, having a large, and almost flat, aft loading ramp suffer from the poor aerodynamics of the aft body. Hence, a combined experimental and numerical investigation was undertaken on a generic transport aeroplane/helicopter configuration. The experimental study provided surface pressures, direct drag measurements, surface and smoke flow visualization. The baseline flow was numerically analyzed, using finite volume solutions of the RANS equations. The baseline flow around the model was insensitive to the Reynolds number in the range it was tested. The flow separating from the aft body was characterized by two main sources of drag and unsteadiness. The first is a separation bubble residing at the lower ramp corner and the second is a pair of vortex systems developing and separating from the sides of the ramp. As the model incidence is decreased, the pair of vortex systems also penetrates deeper towards the centerline of the ramp, decreasing the pressure and increasing the drag. As expected, the ramp lower corner bubble was highly receptive to periodic excitation introduced from four addressable piezo-fluidic actuators situated at the ramp lower corner. Total drag was reduced by 3–11%, depending on the model incidence. There are indications that the flow in the wake of the model is also significantly steadier when the bubble at the lower ramp corner is eliminated. The vortex system is tighter and steadier when the ramp-corner bubble is eliminated.     

Comparison of dynamical heterogeneity in hard-sphere and attractive glass formers

Using molecular dynamics simulations, we have determined that the nature of dynamical heterogeneity in jammed liquids is very sensitive to short-ranged attractions. Weakly attractive systems differ little from dense hard-sphere and Lennard-Jones fluids. Particle motion is punctuated and tends to proceed in steps of roughly a single particle diameter. Both of these basic features change in the presence of appreciable short-ranged attractions. Transient periods of particle mobility and immobility cannot be discerned at intermediate attraction strength, for which structural relaxation is greatly enhanced. Strong attractions, known to dramatically inhibit relaxation, restore bimodality of particle motion. But in this regime, transiently mobile particles move in steps that are significantly more biased toward large displacements than those in the case of weak attractions. This modified feature of dynamical heterogeneity, which cannot be captured by conventional mode coupling theory, verifies recent predictions from a model of spatially correlated facilitating defects.     

A novel homogeneous immunoassay for anthrax detection based on the AlphaLISA method: detection of B. anthracis spores and protective antigen (PA) in complex samples

Amplified Luminescent Proximity Homogeneous Assay (AlphaLISA) technology is an energy-transfer-based assay, utilizing singlet oxygen as an energy donor to a fluorescent acceptor. The long singlet oxygen migration distance allows the energy transfer mechanism to go up to ～200 nm, facilitating flexible and sensitive homogeneous immunoassays. While soluble protein detection using AlphaLISA was previously described, the detection of particles such as bacteria and viruses was not reported. In this work, we show for the first time the implementation of the AlphaLISA technology for the detection of a particulate antigen, i.e., Bacillus anthracis spores. Here, we show that an efficient particle immunoassay requires a high acceptor-to-donor ratio (>4:1). The results suggested that the high acceptor/donor ratio is required to avoid donor aggregation (“islands”) on the spore surface, hence facilitating donor/acceptor interaction. The developed assay enabled the detection of 10⁶ spores/mL spiked in PBS. We also demonstrate the development of a highly sensitive AlphaLISA assay for the detection of the main toxin component of anthrax, protective antigen (PA). The assay enabled the detection of 10 and 100 pg/mL PA in buffer and spiked naïve rabbit sera, respectively, and was successfully implemented in sera of anthrax-infected rabbits. To summarize, this study demonstrates that AlphaLISA enables detection of anthrax spores and toxin, utilizing short homogeneous assays. Moreover, it is shown for the first time that this technology facilitates the detection of particulate entities and might be suitable for the detection of other bacteria or viruses.     

Towards Dynamic Control of Wettability by Using Functionalized Altitudinal Molecular Motors on Solid Surfaces

We report the synthesis of altitudinal molecular motors that contain functional groups in their rotor part. In an approach to achieve dynamic control over the properties of solid surfaces, a hydrophobic perfluorobutyl chain and a relatively hydrophilic cyano group were introduced to the rotor part of the motors. Molecular motors were attached to quartz surfaces by using interfacial 1,3‐dipolar cycloadditions. To test the effect of the functional groups on the rotary motion, photochemical and thermal isomerization studies of the motors were performed both in solution and when attached to the surface. We found that the substituents have no significant effect on the thermal and photochemical processes, and the functionalized motors preserved their rotary function both in solution and on a quartz surface. Preliminary results on the influence of the functional groups on surface wettability are also described.