Search

The phenomenon of a water droplet impact on a free surface is studied to understand the physics of free surface bubble entrainment. Particle image velocimetry (PIV) and high-speed image system are used to analyse the flow structure evolutions in the droplet impact cavity period and bubble entrainment cavity period, respectively. The photographic results show that the entrapped surface of the impact cavity remains intact and continuous, and individual bubble entrainment occurs during the secondary entrainment cavity evolution. The instantaneous distributions of velocity fields in the longitudinal and lateral directions are uniform and independent of the approaching impact velocity. For the entrainment cavity evolution, the transverse diffusion intensity is higher than that for the impact cavity period. An individual bubble forms during the transverse velocity penetration across the droplet impact area. Consequently, for the droplet impact on a water surface, the present study implies the presence of a mechanism by which the interior flow field plays a key role in the bubble entrainment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dust grains play a central role in the physics and chemistry of cosmic environments. They influence the optical and thermal properties of the medium due to their interaction with stellar radiation; provide surfaces for the chemical reactions that are responsible for the synthesis of a significant fraction of key astronomical molecules; and they are building blocks of pebbles, comets, asteroids, planetesimals, and planets. In this paper, we review experimental studies of physical and chemical processes, such as adsorption, desorption, diffusion and reactions forming molecules, on the surface of reliable cosmic dust grain analogues as related to processes in diffuse, translucent, and dense interstellar clouds, protostellar envelopes, planet-forming disks, and planetary atmospheres. The information that such experiments reveal should be flexible enough to be used in many different environments. In addition, we provide a forward look discussing new ideas, experimental approaches, and research directions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Basidiomycete fungi eject basidiospores using a surface tension catapult. A fluid drop forms at the base of each spore and, after reaching a critical size, coalesces with the spore and launches it from the gill surface. It has long been hypothesized that basidiomycete fungi pack the maximum number of spores into a minimal investment of biomass. Building on a nascent understanding of the physics underpinning the surface tension catapult, we modeled a spore's trajectory away from a basidium and demonstrated that to achieve maximum packing the size of the fluid drop, the size of the spore, and the distance between gills must be finely coordinated. To compare the model with data, we measured spore and gill morphologies from wild mushrooms and compared measurements with the model. The empirical data suggest that in order to pack the maximum number of spores into the least amount of biomass, the size of Buller's drop should be smaller but comparable to the spore size. Previously published data of Buller's drop and spore sizes support our hypothesis and also suggest a linear scaling between spore radius and Buller's drop radius. Morphological features of the surface tension catapult appear tightly regulated to enable maximum packing of spores. If mushrooms are maximally packed and Buller's drop radii scale linearly with spore radii, we predict that intergill distance should be proportional to spore radius to the power 3/2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mechanical energy harvesting technology converting mechanical energy wasted in our surroundings to electrical energy has been regarded as one of the critical technologies for self-powered sensor network and Internet of Things (IoT). Although triboelectric energy harvesters based on contact electrification have attracted considerable attention due to their various advantages compared to other technologies, a further improvement of the output performance is still required for practical applications in next-generation IoT devices. In recent years, numerous studies have been carried out to enhance the output power of triboelectric energy harvesters. The previous research approaches for enhancing the triboelectric charges can be classified into three categories: i) materials type, ii) device structure, and iii) surface modification. In this review article, we focus on various mechanisms and methods through the surface modification beyond the limitations of structural parameters and materials, such as surficial texturing/patterning, functionalization, dielectric engineering, surface charge doping and 2D material processing. This perspective study is a cornerstone for establishing next-generation energy applications consisting of triboelectric energy harvesters from portable devices to power industries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Edge-chipping, surface roughness and dimensional accuracy are crucial quality aspects of drilled holes in hard-to-cut material such as glass, ceramics and carbon fiber reinforced plastics. In this article, an experimental study was conducted to investigate the quality measures of holes produced by rotary ultrasonic drilling (RUD) and conventional drilling. Edge-chipping width at tool exit side, the surface roughness (Ra and Rz), out-of-roundness, cylindricity error and hole conicity were the main responses when drilling soda glass using diamond abrasive tools and a cutting fluid. Statistically designed experiments were carried out for rotary ultrasonic and conventional drilling (CD) at two levels of tool feed rate (0.6 and 6 mm/min), spindle speed (3,000 and 8,000 rpm) and tool particles-concentration. Analysis of variance was used to define the significant factors and their interactions and build models for predicting the responses. The results showed that reducing the chipping, surface roughness and roundness error. The normal tool concentration showed a substantial effect in improving the surface quality and reducing the hole-geometrical errors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Land surface temperature (LST) is a key parameter in the physics of land surface processes on a regional and global scale, as it combines the results of all surface-atmospheric interactions and energy fluxes between the atmosphere and the ground. Due to discrepancies in retrieval methods, input parameters, and sensor characteristics, various LST products are different from each other. As one of the important LST contributors, the operational LST product from the visible and infrared radiometer (VIRR) onboard Feng Yun 3C satellite (denoted as VIRR LST1) has not been comprehensively assessed, and the detailed LST retrieval accuracy is still unknown to the public. Taking this into consideration, a new group of VIRR LST (denoted as VIRR LST2) was derived using a generalized split-window method for operational use. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the consistency between VIRR LST1 and VIRR LST2 in detail using the LSTs derived from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and the Spinning Enhanced Visible and Infrared Imager (SEVIRI) data over the study area (from 11° W to 2° E and 32° N to 44° N). Several LST images in different seasons were used and registered in space, viewing time, and viewing geometry. After that, the LST differences in day-variation, land-cover types, and viewing zenith angles (VZAs) were also investigated. The results indicate that the differences between VIRR LST1 (or VIRR LST2) and MODIS LST were within 2.80 K, and the corresponding values between VIRR LST1 (or VIRR LST2) and SEVIRI LST were within 3.30 K. The VIRR LST1 was always underestimated, and VIRR LST2 was overestimated during the exuberant vegetation day. Furthermore, the mean differences between VIRR LST1 (or VIRR LST2) and MODIS LST for bare soil were larger than those for vegetation since the land surface emissivity for bare soil was often not well produced. On the other hand, the variation was not pronounced when comparing VIRR LST1 (or VIRR LST2) and SEVIRI LST, which could be caused by many more mixed pixels in the SEVIRI data set. In addition, the LST differences seemed to VZA dependent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To reduce angular and spatial discretization error of the method of characteristics with a coarse calculation condition, the regionwise even-parity discontinuity factor (EPDF) for transport calculations is evaluated through an iterative procedure using only the regionwise scalar flux, i.e., without the odd-parity angular flux, the partial current, or the net current at the region boundary. The regionwise EPDF is evaluated in a single-assembly geometry with the reflective boundary condition. The evaluated EPDF is applied to a 2 × 2 colorset assembly and core configurations, and the performance is compared to that of the conventional superhomogenization (SPH) method. The calculation results indicate that (1) no convergence issue is observed during the iteration process to estimate the EPDF, (2) the performance of the regionwise EPDF is better than that of the conventional SPH method, and (3) the normalization of the EPDF is necessary to incorporate different surface scalar flux levels among different types of fuel assemblies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mechanical energy harvesting technology converting mechanical energy wasted in our surroundings to electrical energy has been regarded as one of the critical technologies for self-powered sensor network and Internet of Things (IoT). Although triboelectric energy harvesters based on contact electrification have attracted considerable attention due to their various advantages compared to other technologies, a further improvement of the output performance is still required for practical applications in next-generation IoT devices. In recent years, numerous studies have been carried out to enhance the output power of triboelectric energy harvesters. The previous research approaches for enhancing the triboelectric charges can be classified into three categories: i) materials type, ii) device structure, and iii) surface modification. In this review article, we focus on various mechanisms and methods through the surface modification beyond the limitations of structural parameters and materials, such as surficial texturing/patterning, functionalization, dielectric engineering, surface charge doping and 2D material processing. This perspective study is a cornerstone for establishing next-generation energy applications consisting of triboelectric energy harvesters from portable devices to power industries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A compact soft surface is proposed to improve an isolation of circularly polarized patch antennas in this article. The soft surface is generally made up of a periodically alternating perfect electric conductor and perfect magnetic conductor. The perfect magnetic conductor is implemented by the corrugation with a depth of quarter wavelength. The proposed compact soft surface is designed by a folded corrugation with a length of a quarter wavelength and the folded part is located below perfect electric conductor plane. Thus, the compact soft surface can be designed without any additional area above the ground plane. To verify its feasibility, mutual coupling and axial ratio of two circularly polarized antenna elements without and with the compact soft surface have been compared. This improved isolation results in small active reflection coefficient and wide beamwidth of active element pattern which would help to design wide scanning angle array. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An efficient approach to analyze the electromagnetic (EM) scattering from coated objects above a three-dimensional (3-D) dielectric random rough surface is proposed in this paper. The electric and magnetic current densities on the sea surface are analytically realized using the semi-deterministic facet scattering model (SDFSM). Considering Fresnel reflection coefficient, a scheme combining the shooting and bouncing rays (SBR) and the physical theory of diffraction (PTD) is developed to calculate the scattering of the coated objects. Simulation results obtained with the combined method are verified by comparison with exact simulations using the multilevel fast multiple method (MLFMM). Scattering of large coated objects over sea surface composite model are too large and complex to be calculated using exact methods. With the asymptotic approach in this paper, the scattering performance can be analyzed with rather moderate computational efforts. Numerical results of composite scattering from an electric large three-dimensional model, e.g. an airplane target over a randomly rough surface with Pierson Moskowitz (PM) spectrum are presented and discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The optimization of manufacturing processes and the investigation of polymer materials during their life cycle imply an extended knowledge of the physical and chemical properties of the material. To obtain colocalized chemical, morphological, and thermomechanical information on the same sample area, we have developed an innovative colocalized atomic force microscopy (AFM)-Raman setup and a sample preparation strategy using cryoultramicrotomy. The developed technique allows perfect crosssectioning of thin membranes (10-300 µm) without embedding avoiding chemical contamination. The opened surface is characteristic of the material's bulk properties and allows spectroscopic and near-field measurements without sample artifacts. Additionally, thin sections can be collected for complementary transmission electron microscopy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work is concerned with the size-dependent wave propagation of coupled double-walled boron nitride nanotubes (DWBNNTs) conveying nanoflow-systems based on Timoshenko beam theory. The two DWBNNTs are coupled by an enclosing visco-Pasternak medium. The small-scale effects are captured applying different surface piezoelasticity theories, including stress gradient, strain gradient, and strain inertia gradient. An analytical method is proposed to obtain phase velocity, cut-off, and escape frequencies of the system. Three cases of in-phase wave propagation, out-of-phase wave propagation, and wave propagation with one DWBNNT fixed are considered. Results indicate that ignoring surface and small-scale effects lead to inaccurate results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reflection and transmission properties of a planar interface of two non-integer dimensional (NID) half spaces are studied. It is assumed that dimensions of both half spaces normal to the interface are non-integer. Both half spaces are distinguished from each other by non integer dimensions rather than wavenumbers. A plane wave has been taken as source of excitation. It is observed that non integer dimensions are also the factors controlling the reflection and transmission properties of the interface. Special cases are also considered when one or neither of the two half-spaces are NID. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Large-scale handling of particulate solids can cause severe wear on bulk solids handling equipment surfaces. Wear reduces equipment life span and increases maintenance cost. Examples of traditional methods to reduce wear of bulk solids handling equipment include optimizing transport operations and utilizing resistant materials. To our knowledge, the so-called bionic design has not been utilized. Bionic design is the application of biological models, systems, or elements to modern engineering. Bionic design has promoted significant progress on the development of engineering products and systems. In order to use bionic design for wear reduction of bulk solids handling equipment surfaces, this paper introduces bionic design to bulk solids handling on the basis of analogies between biology and bulk solids handling. In addition, a bionic design methodology for the wear reduction of bulk solids handling equipment surfaces is formulated. Based on the bionic design methodology, two bionic models used for abrasive and erosive wear reduction of bulk solids handling equipment surfaces are proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report rheological studies on the liquid-crystal colloids prepared by dispersing silica microparticles with homeotropic surface anchoring in 8CB liquid crystal. In nematic colloids, a shear-thickening behaviour is observed in low shear rate region. The apparent yield stress of both the nematic and smectic-A (SmA) phases increases with increasing volume fraction of particles. The critical strain amplitude (, i.e., crossover ofand) in SmA colloids decreases significantly with increasing. The frequency-dependent storage modulus of SmA colloids show a power-law behaviourand the loss modulusexhibits a shallow minimum. The optical rheomicroscopy shows that the nematic colloids form a network structure which are stretched and broken at high shear rate. When the temperature is decreased to SmA phase, the networks collapse showing regions of high-density particles. The variation of storage modulus withindicates that the SmA colloids response is dominated by defects. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In the first part of this article, we outline Rene Descartes' (1637/1965) list of cues for perceiving distance. We show that this list has essentially persisted up to the present. What began, however, as a heterogeneous list of ways of perceiving distance was reified by David Marr into a set of modular processes instantiated in the visual system. We suggest that this modular approach does not conform well to what is now known about visual space perception. We show that Marr, although strongly influenced by Gibson, did not adopt the view of visual space perception developed in The Senses Considered as Perceptual Systems (Gibson, 1966). In the second part of this article, we show that there is considerable non-modular structure in the optic array that is used to perceive spatial layout. We describe, with examples from the literature, 5 major forms of structure, all of which cut across different forms of information pickup. These are (a) surfaces as references, (b) local and non-local processing, (c) compression and shear, (d) analogous geometrical structures, and (e) boundaries and surfaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The wettability of floc has a large effect on the selective flocculation flotation process of fine coal separation. The changes of thermodynamic characterization of coal and kaolinite have been investigated by Washburn dynamic method and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) before and after the adsorption of anionic polyacrylamide. Lipophilic hydrophilic ratio (LHR), surface free energy, and its components were calculated by Washburn equation combined with Van Oss–Chaudhury–Good theory according to the wetting curves of coal and kaolinite samples wetted by n-hexane, α-bromonaphthalene, formamide, and water. After PAM A401 adsorption, the peaks of hydrophilic functional groups of coal (the amide group, free-NH2, secondary amide N–H, C–N) were increased, while the peaks of the hydrophobic functional group, including methyl (-CH3) and methylene (–CH2–), was decreased. The LHR value of coal decreased from 9.23 to 7.28. The polar components of coal were increased, the non-polar components were decreased, and the surface free energy was increased from 39.92 to 40.43 mN m−1. The coal surface became more hydrophilic. For kaolinite, both hydrophilic and hydrophobic functional groups were increased, while its LHR values increased from 1.44 to 1.65. The polar component was decreased from 58.27 to 55.05 mN m−2. Results of FTIR were corresponding to the surface property. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A general theoretical formulation is done to calculate the field scattered by perfect electromagnetic conductor (PEMC) cylinder coated with anisotropic plasma material. It is buried below a slightly rough surface. Spectral plane wave representation of fields and small perturbation method are used to calculate multiple reflections between coated cylinder and rough surface. To validate the present formulation, scattered field from a PEMC cylinder coated with double negative (DNG) material is obtained from the present formulation. Scattering pattern of non coated PEC/PEMC cylinder or coated with isotropic material can also be obtained by the proper selection of physical parameters such as anisotropy, admittance of PEMC cylinder and permittivity of hosting medium. Analytical expressions of scattered field for a sinusoidal rough surface are given along with their physical interpretation to get a good insight. Effect of geometrical and physical parameters on scattering pattern is observed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A detailed numerical study on the film cooling of a corrugated surface through a single slot has been presented in this paper. The effects of the blowing ratio, density ratio (DR), and injection angle on the film cooling of the corrugated surface are discussed. Numerical simulations are carried out over a wide range of DRs ranging from 0.2 to 5.0 at a fixed mainstream Reynolds number of 1.5 × 105, three blowing ratios of 1, 2, and 3, and five injection angles ranging from 30° to 90°. Results show that the velocity profile on a corrugated surface is strongly influenced by the injection of the secondary fluid. It is observed that the film cooling effectiveness of the corrugated surface increases monotonically with an increase in the blowing ratio. The density ratio and injection angle also have a strong influence on the film cooling. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In electrical impedance tomography (EIT), two- or three-dimensional (2D or 3D) distribution of the electrical conductivity is reconstructed based on potential measurements from the surface of the object. In many industrial and medical applications of EIT, the conductivity distribution is discontinuous – due to, e.g. phase or tissue boundaries. Previous studies have shown that such features in the conductivity can be preserved by using total variation (TV) prior model in the EIT image reconstruction. Recently, both 2D and 3D TV models have been utilized in EIT simulation studies. This far, however, EIT reconstructions with TV models have been evaluated experimentally only in 2D cases or translationally invariant 3D cases. In this paper, an experimental study of EIT with a TV prior in a 3D geometry is presented. In addition, we propose the selection of the prior parameters in the TV model based on the prior information of materials in the target, and their conductivity ranges. The results demonstrate the robustness of the proposed parameter selection strategy, and verify that the use of the TV prior yields sharp reconstructions in 3D EIT. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper, we study the inverse scattering of tapered waves from sound soft surfaces or horizontally polarized electromagnetic waves from perfectly conducting surfaces. By the related Fréchet derivative with respect to a given surface of the solution of direct scattering problems, an efficient algorithm is proposed to reconstruct the parameters of unbounded rough surfaces from a set of scattered field measurements. Tapered wave is introduced to realize the asymptotic truncation for unbounded fractal rough surface. In order to improve the results of reconstruction, multi-angle and multi-frequency incidence strategy has been used. The numerical results show that the method yields satisfactory reconstructions for some rough surface profiles. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The results of a study that helps understand the mechanisms of adsorption of polyelectrolytes on particles, using numerical simulation methods, specifically the one known as dissipative particle dynamics are reported here. The adsorption of cationic polyelectrolytes of two different polymerisation degrees interacting with two types of surfaces, one made of gold and the other of silica, is predicted and compared. We find that a more negatively charged wall does not necessarily adsorb more cationic polyelectrolytes because the electrostatic repulsion between the wall and the polyelectrolytes is stronger. Additionally, intra-chain repulsion plays an important role, because the largest polyelectrolyte chains have larger excluded volume than the shorter ones. In regard to the adsorption dependence on the polyelectrolyte polymerisation degree, we find that the excluded volume drives the adsorption throughout the intra-chain electrostatic repulsion, because the SiO2surface is strongly negative. These results are expected to be useful for several nanotechnological applications of current interest, such as in gene therapy and in the improvement of drug delivering mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the experimental results from laboratory repeated plate load tests on unreinforced and reinforced model sections of unpaved road constructed in a steel test tank. Different types of geosynthetics, namely, geotextile, two types of biaxial geogrids and geocells were used to reinforce the road sections in different tests. The effect of type and form of reinforcement on the stress-strain hysteresis of unpaved road sections is discussed in the light of experimental results. Model tests were also conducted with varying heights and positions of geocell layer to study the effect of these parameters on deformations and surface profiles. It was observed that at higher settlements, the reinforced systems developed less permanent settlements and more elastic settlements compared to unreinforced systems. Increasing the height of the geocell layer resulted in improved performance up to a certain height, beyond which, further increase in the height reduced the load resistance because of the inadequate granular overlay thickness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A spherical particle lies on a sinusoidal surface under the force of adhesion. Both the sphere and the wavy body are considered to be elastic. Because the radius of curvature of the surface varies with position, the composite radius of curvature of the sphere and the surface also varies with position. The total energy of the system, which includes the adhesion energy, decreases as the composite radius of curvature increases. As a consequence, it is energetically favorable for the sphere to move away from the surface peaks and toward the valleys. The existence of this adhesion–energy-induced driving force is demonstrated theoretically and its value is determined for a range of sphere positions. Linear theory predicts that it can be as large as ∼ 2% of the pull-off force. The inclusion of nonlinear effects would be expected to increase this driving force. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An interference friction causes tear and wear in metal-on-metal (MoM) hip joint. The purpose of this research is to examine the optimization of pit embedded in the acetabular cup using a spark discharge machine. Tribology tests on cup with 8, 21, and 40 pits embedded produced promising results. A modified pin-on-disk tribometer was used to measure the effects of the coefficient of friction and wear on a 28-mm-diameter acetabular cup. Microscopy image analysis was used to examine particle debris and surface disfigurement. This study revealed that the more pits were produced in the hemispherical or curvature cup, the more lubricant was confined inside the pits, and the easier the contact was for MoM. The results also show that the curvature surface modification with pits can positively influence friction and wear and stability optimization of MoM implants. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This experimental study was carried out to investigate the turbulent shallow wake generated by a vertical sharp-edged flat plate suspended in a shallow channel flow with a gap near the bed. The objective of this study is to understand the effect of the gap flow on the wake by studying two different gap heights between the channel bed and the bottom edge of the bluff body. These two cases will be compared to the no-gap case which is considered as a reference case. The maximum flow velocity was 0.45 m/s and the Reynolds number based on the water depth was 45,000. Extensive measurements of the flow field in the vertical mid-plane and in the horizontal near-bed, mid-depth, and near-surface planes were made using particle image velocimetry. This paper is part of an extensive study to characterise the gap-flow effects and is primarily concerned with the mean velocity fields, while a companion paper discusses the turbulence characteristics. The size of the wake identified in the horizontal planes is found to vary in the three planes, where the gap flow enhances the entrainment in the near-wake region in the near-bed velocity field. The results also revealed that, if the gap flow is weak, it is engulfed by the recirculation zone formed just behind the bluff body whose axis is perpendicular to the vertical mid-plane. On the other hand, if the gap flow is relatively strong, it penetrates in the downstream direction and only a portion of it is diverted upward to feed the recirculation zone. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Mechanism of biomimetic adhesive pad and animal's pad are generally alike in stability and be independent of environment, including wet adhesion and seta adhesion. Biomimetic wet adhesive pad has an advantage over creeping on wet surface because of perfect ability of copy surface shape. The processes of adsorbing wall and peeling wall rapidly carry through alternate, so the ability of getting over the wet adhesion force in peeling and the ability of producing the force are equal of importance. This study focus on the problem of peeling from the wall of biomimetic wet adhesive pads, and a new adhesive pad with variable cross-sections microstructures is proposed. The experiments of adhesion force and peeling force of the proposed pads have been investigated, the result shows the validity of the variable cross-section surface microstructures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The absorption mechanisms of collector and mineral surface structures play important roles in studies of lepidolite flotation. In this work, quantum mechanics (QM) and hybrid quantum mechanics/molecular mechanics (MM) methods were implemented to investigate the flotation mechanisms of lepidolite from muscovite, quartz and albite. The crystal structures, electron density distributions, bonds and the densities of states of lepidolite were calculated and compared with those of muscovite. The adsorption structures and energies of monomer dodecylammonium (DDA) on the three different minerals were also calculated. The headgroup of the DDA cation was found to adsorb on the surface of minerals, with its hydrophobic tail stretching into the vacuum slab, approximately perpendicular to the surface. Simulation results indicate that the purity of fine lepidolite is limited by the existence of muscovite, due to their similarities in surficial structure and properties. Other gangues were found to be removed efficiently with the use of acidic conditions. The results are in good agreement with other experiments. Compared with simple MM simulations, the use of the QM/MM methods to investigate the adsorption on minerals without specific forcefield parameters was concluded to be a more accurate method to attain monomer surfactant–mineral adsorption energies. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In order to quantitatively evaluate the geomaterial surface characteristics, the surface roughness was divided into two kinds according to texture scale: micro-roughness at a micrometre or millimetre level and macro-roughness at a centimetre or decimetre level. The definition of surface macro-roughness was given. Four evaluation methods, digital survey method, contour line elongation method, roughness elements average height method and projected area ratio of platform and slope surface method, were put forward to evaluate the roughness of regular steps, inclined plane of different gradients and curved slope surfaces. Through analysing and comparing the merits and defects of the four evaluation methods, it is shown that digital survey method and roughness elements average height method are suitable for evaluating the surface macro-roughness of these three categories. To simply and conveniently evaluate the surface macro-roughness, the roughness elements' average height method is recommended. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study assesses the hypothesis of incomplete similarity for a plane turbulent wall jet on smooth and transitionally rough surfaces. Typically, a wall jet is considered to consist of two regions: an inner layer and an outer layer. The degree to which these two regions reach equilibrium with each other and interact to produce the property of self-similarity remains an open question. In this study, the analysis of the outer and inner regions indicates that each region is characterised by a half-width which exhibits its own distinct dependence on the streamwise distancexfrom the slot, and a single self-similar structure for both regions does not exist. More specifically, the inner and outer layers of the wall jet exhibit different scaling laws, which results in two self-similar mean velocity profiles, both of which retain a dependence on the slot heightH. As such, incomplete similarity of the wall jet on smooth and transitionally rough surfaces is confirmed by this study. In addition, comparison of the experimental results for the transitionally rough surface with the smooth wall case indicates that the surface roughness modifies the development of the mean velocity profile in both the inner and outer regions, although the effect on the outer region is relatively small and close to the experimental uncertainty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present the results on the modelling of structural changes in pentagonal small particles (PSPs) during their growth. We prove that after a certain critical size it becomes energetically favourable for a PSP to form a subsurface layer free of twin boundaries (TBs), which are only typical structural elements for smaller size PSPs. In this layer, the low-angle dislocation boundaries (DBs) are formed. Our calculations of the energy stored in the transformed PSP are based on the disclination model of a PSP, in which the TB junctions, as well as TB–DB junctions are treated as wedge disclinations. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Due to climate change a slowly increasing annual temperature may be experienced by structures. Relative humidity (RH) fluctuations affect the equiibrium moisture content of materials. Repeated RH cycling leads to mechanical failure and may endanger an object's structural integrity. Preventive conservation is based on adopting measures that will prevent fracture. Real-time interferometry allows the acquisition of sequential high-resolution full-field surface images from hygroscopic materials used in cultural heritage by recording during cycles of changing RH. The differential images allow the development of a preventive methodology directly through surface responses. Indications of the natural onset of degradation can be followed and traced before visible damage occurs, allowing preventive measures to be taken in advance. An ongoing study (Climate for Culture European project (FP7-ENV-2008-1 CfC no. 226973)) aims to experimentally classify structural deterioration as a function of acclimatization and confirm the hypothesis that surface responses before deformation can indicate deformation threshold values as reference points for the onset of RH-induced deterioration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electromagnetic scattering from a topological insulator (TI) cylinder buried beneath a rough surface is considered. To account for the interactions of the scattered field and the rough surface, spectral plane wave representation of fields is used along with small perturbation method. Both time-reversal symmetry TI cylinder and time-reversal symmetry broken TI cylinder are considered to evaluate the scattered-transmitted field above the rough surface for different values of the periods of the rough surface and the size of the object. It is observed that co- and cross-polarized field components show a maximum before the time-reversal symmetry is broken. The co-polarized component remains almost constant while the cross-polarized component decreases for time-reversal symmetry broken case. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on a special pilot coating and industrial printing trial designed to gain fundamental knowledge on ink adhesion failure on coated papers. We found that ink adhesion failure resulted in white spots without ink on the paper, referred to as uncovered areas and these spots gave print mottle problems. The white spots were due to two fundamentally different types of ink adhesion failure. One is the well-known ink rejection, which simply means that ink is not transferred to the surface. The other is a new type of ink adhesion failure, confirming a previous hypothesis suggested from laboratory observations. We refer to this as ink-lift-off adhesion failure, meaning that ink initially deposited on the paper surface becomes lifted off from the surface in a subsequent print unit. Adhesion failure by this mechanism was seen to occur more frequently than failure due to the well-known ink rejection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Macerals are the smallest components of coal recognizable on the microscopic scale and, even when optically homogeneous, they may have variable elemental and molecular chemistry not only across different coal ranks but also in iso-rank coals. These variations in maceral chemistry may have significant impact on the behavior of the coal during processing and may also complicate predictions of this behavior. Flotation is one of the processes that is impacted by intermaceral variations. Flotation is used as a main process to upgrade the fines of higher rank coals. It depends on the surface properties of coal particles, hence their chemical composition. Most of the minerals associated with coal, with the exception of a few (elemental sulfur or some pyrites), are hydrophilic and can easily be separated if liberated from coal by flotation. The organic matter (macerals) possesses different degrees of hydrophobicity, and its response to flotation can vary depending on the surface properties that result from chemical composition of macerals and their associations with each other and minerals. This article addresses research progress in the area of chemistry of macerals and their hydrophobicity with a special reference to achieving selectivity in coal flotation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To realize switchable wettability for water and oils, we firstly design a facile approach to achieve superamphiphobic-textured surfaces that display the apparent contact angles greater than 150° and the sliding angles smaller than 10° for various liquids, such as water and hexadecane. Then, plasma treatment and surface fluorination were performed on the superamphiphobic surface. The tunability of the chemical composition, along with hierarchical rough surface structure, gave rise to reversibly switchable wettability between superamphiphobicity and superamphiphilicity. The wettability of the textured surface was demonstrated by visible experimental results and measurements. The reason of switchable wettability can be confirmed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analysis. These results give a useful attempt in simultaneously and reversibly switching wettability for water and oils, which may have potential application in functional superamphiphobic materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A high-efficiency rectenna is designed at 2.4 GHz. In general, a rectenna consists of an antenna, a band-pass filter, a rectifying diode, and a low-pass filter. In this article, to increase transmission efficiency, a high-directional antenna is developed using partially reflective surfaces. In addition, the harmonic rejecting band-pass filter is designed to suppress the second and third harmonic signal from the nonlinear diode, resulting in high conversion efficiency. It is experimentally demonstrated that the proposed rectenna achieves an RF to DC conversion efficiency of 72.17% when the received RF power is 63.09 mW at 2.4 GHz. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Light polarization management by diffractive optical elements (DOE) can enhance light efficiency in LCD backlight systems. The OAGSM software developed earlier provides calculation of diffraction efficiency for optically anisotropic gratings with periodical sinusoidal surface microrelief. In this paper the software has been checked for the cases of oblique incidence as well as of microrelief period and thickness. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper, it is proposed that high reflection surfaces and polarization rotators can be designed using planar stratified metamaterials (MTMs). For this purpose, structures used in design are composed of strong chiral, dielectric, double negative, chiral nihility, and single negative MTM slabs. To investigate these multilayered structures, reflection and transmission coefficients are analytically computed using transfer matrix method. The expressions depend on frequency, angle of incidence, optical width of slab, and material parameters. The structures are tested for numerical values and then optimized results are presented. For each case, structure is composed of odd number of infinite length slabs. These structures can be used in filters, radomes, and polarization conversion devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By using the complex variable method, the electro-elastic interaction between a piezoelectric screw dislocation in the infinite half-plane and a semi-elliptical interface crack under remote anti-plane shear stresses and in-plane electric loads in piezoelectric bi-material is investigated, and the general solutions to the problem are obtained. The complex potentials, the generalized stress fields, the generalized stress intensity factors and energy release rate of crack tip, and the image force acting on the dislocation are also calculated. The influences of the electro-elastic constants and the location of the screw dislocation upon the stress intensity factor and the image force are discussed, while the influence of remote loading upon the energy release rate is also analyzed. The results indicate that the crack and the lower half plane may attract or repel dislocation with parameters changes when dislocation lies on the upper half plane and the shape of the crack is fixed. The shielding effect is stronger when the piezoelectric coefficient of the upper half plane is larger than that of the lower half plane, and the influence of relative shear modulus upon the shielding effect is relatively smaller when the relative piezoelectric coefficients take fixed values. The energy release rate may be positive or negative under a combined electric load and mechanical load. Both increasing electric field and decreasing mechanical load can decrease the energy release rate thereby enhancing the restraint of the crack expansion. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The nucleation of a dipole of edge dislocations is theoretically investigated in a layer embedded in a nanofilm when the nanostructure is submitted to misfit stress. The effect of stress and nanofilm dimensions has been characterized on the introduction of the dipole of misfit dislocations, from the free surfaces to the centre of the layer. A stability diagram for the nanostructure is finally provided with respect to this particular defect nucleation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The changes in the components of a wide variety of tensor physical properties, including piezomagnetic, piezomagnetic, magnetoelectric properties and toroidic properties, on traversing from the bulk to the surface of a crystalline material are explicitly tabulated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ultrasonic rotary motor which has hexadecagon shape stator was proposed. Stator of the hexadecagon ultrasonic motor was composed of an elastic ring and ceramics. The elastic ring had sixteen sides and sixteen angular points. Eight ceramics were attached on the outer surface of the eight sides of the ring. When two sinusoidal voltages which have 90 degree phase difference were applied to each four ceramics, elliptical displacements of inner surface of the ring were obtained. These elliptical displacements of the inner surface rotated the shaft rotor through the frictions. The proposed hexadecagon ultrasonic motor was designed and analyzed by using the finite element method (FEM). Based on the FEM results, the rotational speed of the fabricated motor was measured by changing the driving frequency and voltage. As FEM results, large displacements at contact points of the stator could be obtained from thinner elastic ring and also thinner ceramics. Rotational speed of 61 [rpm] was obtained from the fabricated motor by applying 10 [V] of alternating voltages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Flame Surface Density (FSD) models for Large Eddy Simulation (LES) are implemented and tested for a canonical configuration and a practical bluff body stabilised burner, comparing common algebraic closures with a transport equation closure in the context of turbulent premixed combustion. The transported method is expected to yield advantages over algebraic closures, as the equilibrium of subgrid production and destruction of FSD is no longer enforced and resolved processes of strain, propagation and curvature are explicitly accounted for. These advantages might have the potential to improve the ability to capture large-scale unsteady flame propagation in situations with combustion instabilities or situations where the flame encounters progressive wrinkling with time. The initial study of a propagating turbulent flame in wind-tunnel turbulence shows that the Algebraic Flame Surface Density (FSDA) method can predict an excessively wrinkled flame under fine grid conditions, potentially increasing the consumption rate of reactants to artificially higher levels. In contrast, the Flame Surface Density Transport (FSDT) closure predicts a smooth flame front and avoids the formation of artificial flame cusps when the grid is refined. Five FSDA models and the FSDT approach are then applied to the LES of the Volvo Rig. The predicted mean velocities are found to be relatively insensitive to the use of the FSDT and FSDA approaches, whereas temperature predictions exhibit appreciable differences for different formulations. The FSDT approach yields very similar temperature predictions to two of the tested FSDA models, quantitatively capturing the mean temperature. Grid refinement is found to improve the FSDT predictions of the mean flame spread. Overall, the paper demonstrates that the apparently complicated FSD transport equation approach can be implemented and applied to realistic, strongly wrinkled flames with good success, and opens up the field for further work to improve the models and the overall FSDT approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the technological development and application of hydrated lime in treating the surface of asphalt concrete to develop light-coloured, grey asphalt pavements. When appropriately applied on the surface of fresh asphalt concrete, hydrated lime makes the surface grey, significantly increases its albedo and effectively reduces the pavement's temperature caused by hot weather. Two application case studies are presented, focusing on how to ensure hydrated lime's long-term effectiveness on the surface of asphalt pavements and take into account the effect of the subsequent reduced temperature on the resilient modulus of asphalt concrete in the design of long-life flexible pavements. The increased asphalt concrete modulus, owing to lowered temperature, can reduce the design thickness of the asphalt concrete without sacrificing pavement performance. This also has a positive influence on reduced pavement heat island effects. It is concluded that the appropriate use of hydrated lime on asphalt pavement surfaces is an effective and economical method to produce light-coloured, grey asphalt pavements. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A spectrally integrated clear-sky and three-layer cloudy-sky models were developed to determine atmospheric transmittances and instantaneous surface insolation. Half-hourly observations at 8 km spatial resolution in optical and thermal infrared bands from an Indian geostationary satellite (Kalpana-1) Very High Resolution Radiometer (VHRR) sensor were used to provide inputs to these models in addition to global 8 day aerosol optical depth and columnar ozone. Sensitivity analysis of the clear-sky model showed a higher influence of aerosol on global insolation, diffuse insolation, and its fraction as compared with water vapour and ozone. The root mean square error (RMSE) of insolation estimates of the daily integral was found to be 2.05 MJ m−2(∼11.2% of measured mean) with a high correlation coefficient (r = 0.93) when compared within situmeasurements during 1 August 2008 to 31 March 2010 over six locations in India. The errors were found to reduce to 7.5% over 3 to 5 day averages. The comparison of annual estimates and equivalent reanalysis fields showed a mean difference of the order of ±1.7 MJ m−2over the majority of the Indian landmass. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Directional emission from a slit surrounded by rectangular grooves on the exit surface in a conducting plane is investigated. An electromagnetic boundary-value problem dealing with a slit surrounded by rectangular grooves on the exit surface in a conducting plane is rigourously solved based on the Fourier transform, eigenfunction expansion, and mode-matching method. The radiation pattern from the slit is represented in a series and computed to illustrate the radiation behaviors in terms of the groove geometry. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

We describe the asymptotic behaviour of an incompressible viscous free fluid in contact with a porous layer flow through the porous layer surface. This porous layer has a small thickness and consists of thin channels periodically distributed. Two scales are present in this porous medium, one associated to the periodicity of the distribution of the channels and the other to the size of these channels. Proving estimates on the solution of this Stokes problem, we establish a critical link between these two scales. We prove that the limit problem is a Stokes flow in the free domain with further boundary conditions on the basis of the domain which involve an extra velocity, an extra pressure and two second-order tensors. This limit problem is obtained using Γ-convergence methods. We finally consider the case of a Navier–Stokes flow within this context. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In order to study protein stability on graphene surface and in a confined space simultaneously, two parallel graphene single layers were built and two structurally dissimilar protein molecules were placed in between. Molecular dynamics simulation results showed a significant denaturing effect of graphene layers on GA module, a 3-α helices bundle protein, while another α/β structure protein, protein G, kept its NMR structure intact throughout all simulations. Such extremely different denaturation behaviours of the proteins offer a good chance to investigate the mechanism of graphene toxicity. Further analysis showed Van der Waals interaction could be the main cause of the denaturing effect. Although the solvation effect can contribute, its contribution is not comparable with the Van der Waals interaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]