Search

The emergence of unified constitutive law is a hallmark of convective turbulence, i.e., $Nu \sim Ra^\beta$ with $\beta \approx 0.3$ in the classical and $\beta=1/2$ in the ultimate regime, where the Nusselt number $Nu$ measures the global heat transport and the Rayleigh number $Ra$ quantifies the strength of thermal forcing. In recent years, vibroconvective flows have been attractive due to its ability to drive flow instability and generate ``artificial gravity'', which have potential to effective heat and mass transport in microgravity. However, the existence of constitutive laws in vibroconvective turbulence remains unclear. To address this issue, we carry out direct numerical simulations in a wide range of frequencies and amplitudes, and report that the heat transport exhibits a universal scaling law $Nu \sim a^{-1} Re_\mathrm{os}^\beta$ where $a$ is the vibration amplitude, $Re_\mathrm{os}$ is the oscillational Reynolds number, and $\beta$ is the universal exponent. We find that the dynamics of boundary layers plays an essential role in vibroconvective heat transport, and the $Nu$-scaling exponent $\beta$ is determined by the competition between the thermal boundary layer (TBL) and vibration-induced oscillating boundary layer (OBL). Then a physical model is proposed to explain the change of scaling exponent from $\beta=2$ in the OBL-dominant regime to $\beta = 4/3$ in the TBL-dominant regime. We conclude that vibroconvective turbulence in microgravity defines a distinct universality class of convective turbulence. This work elucidates the emergence of universal constitutive laws in vibroconvective turbulence, and opens up a new avenue for generating a controllable effective heat transport under microgravity or even microfluidic environment in which gravity is nearly absent., Comment: 18 pages, 3 figures

For decades, transition to turbulence in viscoelastic parallel shear flows was believed to require nonlinear instabilities. We provide numerical evidences for a new wall-mode linear instability that directly triggers the transition to elastoinertial turbulence in channel flow. The instability is 2D but 3D features become important as nonlinear effects grow. With larger disturbances, direct transition to nonlinear instabilities, leading to turbulent states of both inertial and elastoinertial natures, are observed., Comment: Manuscript for submission

Viscoelastic properties of polymer melts are particularly challenging to compute due to the intrinsic stress fluctuations in molecular dynamics (MD). We compared equilibrium and non-equilibrium MD approaches for extracting the storage (G') and loss moduli (G") over a wide frequency range from a bead-spring chain model, in both unentangled and entangled regimes. We found that, with properly chosen data processing and noise reduction procedures, different methods render quantitatively equivalent results. In equilibrium MD (EMD), applying the Green-Kubo relation with a multi-tau correlator method for noise filtering generates smooth stress relaxation modulus profiles, from which accurate G' and G" can be obtained. For unentangled chains, combining the Rouse model with a short-time correction provides a convenient option that circumvents the stress fluctuation challenge altogether. For non-equilibrium MD (NEMD), we found that combining a stress pre-averaging treatment with discrete Fourier transform analysis reliably computes G' and G" with much shorter simulation length than previously reported. Comparing the efficiency and statistical accuracy of these methods, we concluded that EMD is both reliable and efficient, and is suitable when the whole spectrum of linear viscoelastic properties is desired, whereas NEMD offers flexibility when only some frequency ranges are of interest., Comment: Accepted Manuscript

Polydispersity is inevitable in industrially produced polymers. Established theories of polymer dynamics and rheology, however, were mostly built on monodisperse linear polymers. Dynamics of polydisperse polymers is yet to be fully explored -- especially how chains of different lengths affect the dynamics of one another in a mixture. This study explored the dynamics of bidisperse polymer melts using molecular dynamics and a bead-spring chain model. Binary mixtures between a moderately entangled long-chain species and an unentangled or marginally entangled short-chain species were investigated. We found that adding short chains can significantly accelerate the dynamics of the long chains by substantially lessening their extent of entanglement. Meanwhile, although introducing long chains also hinders the motion of the short chains, it does not qualitatively alter the nature of their dynamics -- unentangled short chains still follow classical Rouse dynamics even in a matrix containing entangled chains. Detailed Rouse mode analysis was used to reveal the effects of entanglement at chain segments of different scales. Stress relaxation following a step shear strain was also studied and semi-empirical mixing rules that predict the linear viscoelasticity of polydisperse polymers based on that of monodisperse systems were evaluated with simulation results., Comment: Accepted Manuscript

Numerical simulation of viscoelastic flows is challenging because of the hyperbolic nature of viscoelastic constitutive equations. Despite their superior accuracy and efficiency, pseudo-spectral methods require the introduction of artificial diffusion (AD) for numerical stability in hyperbolic problems, which alters the physical nature of the system. This study presents a hybrid numerical procedure that integrates an upwind total variation diminishing (TVD) finite-difference scheme, which is known for its stability in hyperbolic problems, for the polymer stress convection term into an overall pseudo-spectral numerical framework. Numerically stable solutions are obtained for Weissenberg number well beyond O(100) without the need for either global or local AD. Side-by-side comparison with an existing pseudo-spectral code reveals the impact of AD, which is shown to differ drastically between flow regimes. Elastoinertial turbulence (EIT) becomes unphysically suppressed when AD, at any level necessary for stabilizing the pseudo-spectral method, is used. This is attributed to the importance of sharp stress shocks in its self-sustaining cycles. Nevertheless , in regimes dominated by the classical inertial mechanism for turbulence generation, there is still an acceptable range of AD that can be safely used to predict the statistics, dynamics, and structures of drag-reduced turbulence. Detailed numerical resolution analysis of the new hybrid method, especially for capturing the EIT states, is also presented., Comment: Postprint (accepted version after peer review)

Polymer-induced drag reduction is bounded by an asymptotic limit of maximum drag reduction (MDR). For decades, researchers have presumed that MDR reflects the convergence to an ultimate flow state that is not further changed by polymers. Our simulation shows that, as drag reduction converges to its invariant limit, the underlying dynamics continues to evolve with no sign of convergence. The stage of asymptotic drag reduction is not represented by any single flow state, but encompasses states with varying dynamical patterns, all of which are partially sustained by polymer elasticity., Comment: Accepted Manuscript

A small amount of polymer additives can cause substantial reduction in the energy dissipation and friction loss of turbulent flow. The problem of polymer-induced drag reduction has attracted continuous attention over the seven decades since its discovery. However, changes in research paradigm and perspectives have triggered a wave of new advancements in the past decade. This review attempts to bring researchers of all levels, from beginners to experts, to the forefront of this area. It starts with a comprehensive coverage of fundamental knowledge and classical findings and theories. It then highlights several recent developments that bring fresh insights into long-standing problems. Open questions and ongoing debates are also discussed., Comment: This document is the accepted manuscript (after peer review) version of an article published in its final form by AIP Publishing at: https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5129619 . An open access version is deposited at: http://hdl.handle.net/11375/25119

Turbulent flow profiles are known to change between low- (LDR) and high-extent drag reduction (HDR) regimes. It is however not until recently that the LDR-HDR transition is recognized as a fundamental change between two DR mechanisms. Although the onset of DR, which initiates the LDR stage, is explainable by a general argument of polymers suppressing vortices, the occurrence of HDR where flow statistics are qualitatively different and DR effects are observed across a much broader range of wall regions remains unexplained. Recent development of the vortex axis tracking by iterative propagation algorithm allows the detection and extraction of vortex axis-lines with various orientations and curvatures. This new tool is used in this study to analyze the vortex conformation and dynamics across the LDR-HDR transition. Polymer effects are shown to concentrate on vortices that are partially or completely attached to the wall. At LDR, this effect is an across-the-board weakening of vortices which lowers their intensity without shifting their distribution patterns. At HDR, polymers start to suppress the lift-up of streamwise vortices in the buffer layer and prevent their downstream heads from rising into the log-law layer and forming hairpins and other curved vortices. This interrupts the turbulent momentum transfer between the buffer and log-law layers, which offers a clear pathway for explaining the distinct mean flow profiles at HDR. The study depicts the first clear physical picture regarding the changing vortex dynamics between LDR and HDR, which is based on direct evidence from objective statistical analysis of vortex conformation and distribution., Comment: This is the accepted manuscript (after peer review) version. An open access version is deposited at: http://hdl.handle.net/11375/25092

Vortex is a central concept in the understanding of turbulent dynamics. Objective algorithms for the detection and extraction of vortex structures can facilitate the physical understanding of turbulence regeneration dynamics by enabling automated and quantitative analyses of these structures. Despite the wide availability of vortex identification criteria, they only label spatial regions belonging to vortices, without any information on the identity, topology and shape of individual vortices. This latter information is stored in the axis lines lining the contours of vortex tubes. In this study, a new tracking algorithm is proposed which propagates along the vortex axis lines and iteratively searches for new directions for growth. The method is validated in flow fields from transient simulations where vortices of different shapes are controllably generated. It is then applied to statistical turbulence for the analysis of vortex configurations and distributions. It is shown to reliably extract axis lines for complex three-dimensional vortices generated from the walls. A new procedure is also proposed that classifies vortices into commonly observed shapes, including quasi-streamwise vortices, hairpins, hooks and branches, based on their axis-line topology. Clustering analysis is performed on the extracted axis lines to reveal vortex organization patterns and their potential connection to large-scale motions in turbulence., Comment: This is the accepted manuscript (after peer review) version of an article published in its final form by Cambridge University Press at http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/jfm.2019.75

We obtain a necessary and sufficient condition for Lalley-Gatzouras sets to be uniform disconnected. This enable us to find all Lalley-Gatzouras sets which are quasisymmetrically equivalent to the Cantor ternary set. As another application, we also study the limit behavior of the gap sequence of Lalley-Gatzouras sets.

Heavy metal/ferromagnetic layers with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) have potential applications for high-density information storage in racetrack memories and nonvolatile magnetic random access memories. Writing and erasing of information in these devices are carried out by domain wall (DW) motion and deterministic magnetization switching via electric current generated spin orbital torques (SOTs) with an assistance of in-plane bias field to break the symmetry. Improvements in energy efficiency could be obtained when the switching of perpendicular magnetization is controlled by an electric current generated SOTs without the in-plane bias fields. Here, we report on reversible electric-current-driven magnetization switching through DW motion in Pt/Co/Cr trilayers with PMA at room temperature due to the formation of homochiral Neel-type domain, in which an in-plane effective Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction field exists. Fully deterministic magnetic magnetization switching in this trilayers is based on the enhancement of SOTs from a dedicated design of Pt/Co/Cr structures with two heavy metals Pt and Cr which show the opposite sign of spin Hall angles. We also demonstrated that the simultaneously accompanying Joule heating effect also plays a key role for field-free magnetization switching through the decrease of the propagation field., Comment: 6 figures, 16 pages

Magnetic trilayers having large perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) and high spin-orbit torques (SOTs) efficiency are the key to fabricate nonvolatile magnetic memory and logic devices. In this work, PMA and SOTs are systematically studied in Pt/Co/Cr stacks as a function of Cr thickness. An enhanced perpendicular anisotropy field around 10189 Oe is obtained and is related to the interface between Co and Cr layers. In addition, an effective spin Hall angle up to 0.19 is observed due to the improved antidamping-like torque by employing dissimilar metals Pt and Cr with opposite signs of spin Hall angles on opposite sides of Co layer. Finally, we observed a nearly linear dependence between spin Hall angle and longitudinal resistivity from their temperature dependent properties, suggesting that the spin Hall effect may arise from extrinsic skew scattering mechanism. Our results indicate that 3d transition metal Cr with a large negative spin Hall angle could be used to engineer the interfaces of trilayers to enhance PMA and SOTs., Comment: 14 pages, 6 figures

Three-dimensional (3D) simulations of ferroelectric hysteresis and butterfly loops have been carried out based on solving the time dependent Ginsburg-Landau equations by using a finite volume method. The influence of externally mechanical loadings with a tensile strain and a compressive strain on the hysteresis and butterfly loops has been studied numerically. The 3D ferroelectric domain formation and its evolution have also been presented in the paper. The simulation results successfully reveal the macroscopically nonlinear response to the applied stresses and electric field., Comment: A finite volume method has been firstly used to simulate the ferroelectric properties of materials

The uniform disconnectedness is an important invariant property under bi-Lipschitz mapping, and the Assouad dimension $\dim _{A}X<1$ implies the uniform disconnectedness of $X$. According to quasi-Lipschitz mapping, we introduce the quasi-Assouad dimension $\dim _{qA}$ such that $\dim _{qA}X<1$ implies its quasi uniform disconnectedness. We obtain $\overline{\dim } _{B}X\leq \dim _{qA}X\leq \dim _{A}X$ and compute the quasi-Assouad dimension of Moran set.

Fix a P.V. number $\lambda ^{-1}>1.$ Given $\mathbf{p}=(p_{1},\cdots,p_{m})\in \mathbb{N}^{m}$, $\mathbf{b}=(b_{1},\cdots,b_{m})\in \mathbb{Q^{m}$, for the self-similar set $E_{\mathbf{p},\mathbf{b}}=\cup_{i=1}^{m}(\lambda ^{p_{i}}E_{\mathbf{p},\mathbf{b}}+b_{i})$ we find an efficient algorithm to test whether $E_{\mathbf{p},\mathbf{b}}$ satisfies the open set condition (strong separation condition) or not.

We obtain the Assouad dimensions of Moran sets under suitable condition. Using the homogeneous set, we also study the Assouad dimensions of Cantor-like sets.

In this paper, we introduce a class of fractals named homogeneous sets based on some measure versions of homogeneity, uniform perfectness and doubling. This fractal class includes all Ahlfors-David regular sets, but most of them are irregular in the sense that they may have different Hausdorff dimensions and packing dimensions. Using Moran sets as main tool, we study the dimensions, bilipschitz embedding and quasi-Lipschitz equivalence of homogeneous fractals.

In this paper, we identify two fractals if and only if they are biLipschitz equivalent. Fix ratio $r,$ for dust-like graph-directed sets with ratio $r$ and integer characteristics, we show that they are rigid in the sense that they are uniquely determined by their Hausdorff dimensions. Using this rigidity theorem, we show that in some class of self-similar sets, two totally disconnected self-similar sets without complete overlaps are biLipschitz equivalent., Comment: 27 pages, 7 figures

In this paper, we study the question of classifying self-similar sets under bi-Lipschitz mappings and obtain an important bi-Lipschitz invariant, which is an ideal of a ring related to IFS. Roughly speaking, different Lipschitz equivalence classes of self-similar sets correspond to different ideal classes of a related ring. This result reveals an interesting relationship between the Lipschitz classification problem in fractal geometry and the Gauss class number problem in algebraic number theory., Comment: 59 pages, 6 figures

Lipschitz equivalence of self-similar sets is an important area in the study of fractal geometry. It is known that two dust-like self-similar sets with the same contraction ratios are always Lipschitz equivalent. However, when self-similar sets have touching structures the problem of Lipschitz equivalence becomes much more challenging and intriguing at the same time. So far the only known results only cover self-similar sets in $\bR$ with no more than 3 branches. In this study we establish results for the Lipschitz equivalence of self-similar sets with touching structures in $\bR$ with arbitrarily many branches. Key to our study is the introduction of a geometric condition for self-similar sets called {\em substitutable}., Comment: 30 pages, 4 figures

Turbulent channel flow of drag-reducing polymer solutions is simulated in minimal flow geometries. Even in the Newtonian limit, we find intervals of "hibernating" turbulence that display many features of the universal maximum drag reduction (MDR) asymptote observed in polymer solutions: weak streamwise vortices, nearly nonexistent streamwise variations and a mean velocity gradient that quantitatively matches experiments. As viscoelasticity increases, the frequency of these intervals also increases, while the intervals themselves are unchanged, leading to flows that increasingly resemble MDR., Comment: To appear in Phys. Rev. Lett.

Interior stagnation point flows of viscoelastic liquids arise in a wide variety of applications including extensional viscometry, polymer processing and microfluidics. Experimentally, these flows have long been known to exhibit instabilities, but the mechanisms underlying them have not previously been elucidated. We computationally demonstrate the existence of a supercritical oscillatory instability of low-Reynolds number viscoelastic flow in a two-dimensional cross-slot geometry. The fluctuations are closely associated with the "birefringent strand" of highly stretched polymer chains associated with the outflow from the stagnation point at high Weissenberg number. Additionally, we describe the mechanism of instability, which arises from the coupling of flow with extensional stresses and their steep gradients in the stagnation point region., Comment: 31 pages, 14 figures, submitted to Journal of Fluid Mechanics

Nonlinear traveling waves that are precursors to laminar-turbulent transition and capture the main structures of the turbulent buffer layer have recently been found to exist in all the canonical parallel flow geometries. We study the effect of polymer additives on these "exact coherent states" (ECS), in the plane Poiseuille geometry. Many key aspects of the turbulent drag reduction phenomenon are found, including: delay in transition to turbulence; drag reduction onset threshold; diameter and concentration effects. Furthermore, examination of the ECS existence region leads to a distinct prediction, consistent with experiments, regarding the nature of the maximum drag reduction regime. Specifically, at sufficiently high wall shear rates, viscoelasticity is found to completely suppress the normal (i.e. streamwise-vortex-dominated) dynamics of the near wall region, indicating that the maximum drag reduction regime is dominated by a distinct class of flow structures., Comment: 17 Pages, 4 figures, Submitted to Journal of Fluid Mechanics