Simulation Study of Aggregate Morphologies Formed by ABC Linear Triblock Copolymers in a Selective Solvent Through the Self-Consistent Field Theory

The effect of the hydrophobic properties of blocks B and C on the aggregate morphologies formed by ABC linear triblock copolymers in selective solvent was studied through the self-consistent field theory. Five typical micelles, such as core-shell-corona, hamburger-like, segmented-wormlike, were obtained by changing the hydrophobic properties of blocks B and C. The simulation results indicate that the shape and size of micelle are basically controlled by the hydrophobic degree of the middle block B, whereas the type of micelle is mainly determined by the hydrophobic degree of the end block C.

Monte Carlo simulation of phase behavior of polymer blends with special interactions

Full Paper: The phase, behavior of A-B-random copolymer/C-homopolymer, blends with special interaction was studied by a. Monte, Carlo simulation in two dimensions. The interaction between I segment A and segment C was repulsive, whereas it was attractive between segment B and segment C. The simulation results showed that the blend became two large co-continuous phase domains at lower segment-B component compositions, indicating that the blend showed spinodal decomposition. With an increase of the segment-B component, the miscibility between the copolymer,and the polymer was gradually improved up to being miscible. In addition, it was found that segment B tended to move to the surface of the copolymer phase in the case of a lower component of segment B. On the other hand, if was observed that the average, end-to-end distances ((h) over bar) for both copolymer and polymer changed slowly with increasing segment-B component of the copolymer up to 40%, thereafter they increased considerably with increasing segment B component. Moreover, it was found that the (h) over bar of the copolymer was obviously shorter than that of the homopolymer for the segment-B composition, region from 0% to 80%. Finally, a, phase diagram showing I phase and - II phase regions under the condition of constant-temperature is presented.

Influence of Rayleigh-Taylor Instability on Liquid Propellant Reorientation in a Low-Gravity Environment

A computational simulation is conducted to investigate the influence of Rayleigh-Taylor instability on liquid propellant reorientation flow dynamics for the tank of CZ-3A launch vehicle series fuel tanks in a low-gravity environment. The volume-of-fluid (VOF) method is used to simulate the free surface flow of gas-liquid. The process of the liquid propellant reorientation started from initially flat and curved interfaces are numerically studied. These two different initial conditions of the gas-liquid interface result in two modes of liquid flow. It is found that the Rayleigh-Taylor instability can be reduced evidently at the initial gas-liquid interface with a high curve during the process of liquid reorientation in a low-gravity environment.

Numerical simulation of an adaptive optics system with laser propagation in the atmosphere

A comprehensive model of laser propagation in the atmosphere with a complete adaptive optics (AO) system for phase compensation is presented, and a corresponding computer program is compiled. A direct wave-front gradient control method is used to reconstruct the wave-front phase. With the long-exposure Strehl ratio as the evaluation parameter, a numerical simulation of an AO system in a stationary state with the atmospheric propagation of a laser beam was conducted. It was found that for certain conditions the phase screen that describes turbulence in the atmosphere might not be isotropic. Numerical experiments show that the computational results in imaging of lenses by means of the fast Fourier transform (FFT) method agree well with those computed by means of an integration method. However, the computer time required for the FFT method is 1 order of magnitude less than that of the integration method. Phase tailoring of the calculated phase is presented as a means to solve the problem that variance of the calculated residual phase does not correspond to the correction effectiveness of an AO system. It is found for the first time to our knowledge that for a constant delay time of an AO system, when the lateral wind speed exceeds a threshold, the compensation effectiveness of an AO system is better than that of complete phase conjugation. This finding indicates that the better compensation capability of an AO system does not mean better correction effectiveness. (C) 2000 Optical Society of America.

Thermal fatigue on pistons induced by shaped high power laser. Part II: Design of spatial intensity distribution via numerical simulation

In the laser induced thermal fatigue simulation test on pistons, the high power laser was transformed from the incident Gaussian beam into a concentric multi-circular pattern with specific intensity ratio. The spatial intensity distribution of the shaped beam, which determines the temperature field in the piston, must be designed before a diffractive optical element (DOE) can be manufactured. In this paper, a reverse method based on finite element model (FEM) was proposed to design the intensity distribution in order to simulate the thermal loadings on pistons. Temperature fields were obtained by solving a transient three-dimensional heat conduction equation with convective boundary conditions at the surfaces of the piston workpiece. The numerical model then was validated by approaching the computational results to the experimental data. During the process, some important parameters including laser absorptivity, convective heat transfer coefficient, thermal conductivity and Biot number were also validated. Then, optimization procedure was processed to find favorable spatial intensity distribution for the shaped beam, with the aid of the validated FEM. The analysis shows that the reverse method incorporated with numerical simulation can reduce design cycle and design expense efficiently. This method can serve as a kind of virtual experimental vehicle as well, which makes the thermal fatigue simulation test more controllable and predictable. (C) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Numerical-simulation of ac plasma-arc thermodynamics

A mathematical model and approximate analysis for the energy distribution of an ac plasma arc with a moving boundary is developed. A simplified electrical conductivity function is assumed so that the dynamic behavior of the arc may be determined, independent of the gas type. The model leads to a reduced set of non-linear partial differential equations which governs the quasi-steady ac arc. This system is solved numerically and it is found that convection plays an important role, not only in the temperature distribution, but also in arc disruptions. Moreover, disruptions are found to be influenced by convection only for a limited frequency range. The results of the present studies are applicable to the frequency range of 10-10(2) Hz which includes most industry ac arc frequencies. (C) 1994 Academic Press, Inc.

Atomistic Simulation On Size-Dependent Yield Strength And Defects Evolution Of Metal Nanowires

A simple derivation based on continuum mechanics is given, which shows the surface stress is critical for yield strength at ultra-small scales. Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations with modified embedded atom method (MEAM) are employed to investigate the mechanical behaviors of single-crystalline metal nanowires under tensile loading. The calculated yield strengths increasing with the decrease of the cross-sectional area of the nanowires are in accordance with the theoretical prediction. Reorientation induced by stacking faults is observed at the nanowire edge. In addition. the mechanism of yielding is discussed in details based on the snapshots of defects evolution. The nanowires in different crystallographic orientations behave differently in stretching deformation. This study on the plastic properties of metal nanowires will be helpful to further understanding of the mechanical properties of nanomaterials. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Computer simulation of a-Si : H/mu c-Si : H diphasic silicon solar cells

Based on our experimental research on diphasic silicon films, the parameters such as absorption coefficient, mobility lifetime product and bandgap were estimated by means of effective-medium theory. And then computer simulation of a-Si: H/mu c-Si: H diphasic thin film solar cells was performed. It was shown that the more crystalline fraction in the diphasic silicon films, the higher short circuit density, the lower open-circuit voltage and the lower efficiency. From the spectral response, we can see that the response in long wave region was improved significantly with increasing crystalline fraction in the silicon films. Taking Lambertian back refraction into account, the diphasic silicon films with 40%-50% crystalline fraction was considered to be the best intrinsic layer for the bottom solar cell in micromorph tandem.

Numerical simulation of nc-Si : H/c-Si heterojunction solar cells

AMPS simulator, which was developed by Pennsylvania State University, has been used to simulate photovoltaic performances of nc-Si:H/c-Si solar cells. It is shown that interface states are essential factors prominently influencing open circuit voltages (V-OC) and fill factors (FF) of these structured solar cells. Short circuit current density (J(SC)) or spectral response seems more sensitive to the thickness of intrinsic a-Si:H buffer layers inserted into n(+)-nc-Si:H layer and p-c-Si substrates. Impacts of bandgap offset on solar cell performances have also been analyzed. As DeltaE(C) increases, degradation of VOC and FF owing to interface states are dramatically recovered. This implies that the interface state cannot merely be regarded as carrier recombination centres, and impacts of interfacial layer on devices need further investigation. Theoretical maximum efficiency of up to 31.17% (AM1.5,100mW/cm(2), 0.40-1.1mum) has been obtained with BSF structure, idealized light-trapping effect(R-F=0, R-B=1) and no interface states.

Numerical simulation of a bubble rising in shear-thinning fluids

The motion of a single bubble rising freely in quiescent non-Newtonian viscous fluids was investigated experimentally and computationally. The non-Newtonian effects in the flow of viscous inelastic fluids are modeled by the Carreau theological model. An improved level set approach for computing the incompressible two-phase flow with deformable free interface is used. The control volume formulation with the SIMPLEC algorithm incorporated is used to solve the governing equations on a staggered Eulerian grid. The simulation results demonstrate that the algorithm is robust for shear-thinning liquids with large density (rho(1)/rho(g) up to 10(3)) and high viscosity (eta(1)/eta(g) up to 10(4)). The comparison of the experimental measurements of terminal bubble shape and velocity with the computational results is satisfactory. It is shown that the local change in viscosity around a bubble greatly depends on the bubble shape and the zero-shear viscosity of non-Newtonian shear-thinning liquids. The shear-rate distribution and velocity fields are used to elucidate the formation of a region of large viscosity at the rear of a bubble as a result of the rather stagnant flow behind the bubble. The numerical results provide the basis for further investigations, such as the numerical simulation of viscoelastic fluids. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Design and simulation of charge sensitive preamplifier with CMOS FET implemented as feedback capacitor C-fp

In this paper, to design a new preamplifier for optimum performances with charged-particle or heavy-ion detectors, the CMOS FET is implemented as a feedback capacitor C-fp, so that the entire system should be built only with MOSFET. This work is a revolution design because to realize an ASIC for a preamplifier circuit, the capacitor will also be included. We succeed after a simulation to maintain a rise time less than 3 ns, the output resistance less than 94 Omega and the linearity almost good.

Numerical simulation of principal tidal constituents in the South China Sea, Gulf of Tonkin and Gulf of Thailand

The principal tidal constituents M-2, S-2, K-1 and O-1 in the South China Sea, Gulf of Tonkin and Gulf of Thailand are simulated simultaneously using the numerical scheme of Kwok et al. (1995 Proceedings of the 1st Asian Computational Fluid Dynamics Conference, pp. 16-19). The average differences between the computed and observed harmonic constants are mostly within 5 cm and 10 degrees for amplitudes and phase-lags, respectively. The simulated tidal regimes in the present model are believed to be more accurate than the previous numerical results. Our studies confirm that a clockwise rotating M-2 amphidromic system lies in the southeast of the Gulf of Thailand and an S-2 amphidromic system at the near-shore area of the northeast South China Sea. The linear tidal energy equation developed by Garrett (1975 Deep-Sea Research 22, 23-35) is generalized to the nonlinear case. Based on the numerical results, the energy budgets in the South China Sea and its subareas, namely the Taiwan Strait, the Gulf of Tonkin, the Gulf of Thailand and the remaining area are investigated. The tidal motion in the Taiwan Strait is maintained mainly by the energy fluxes from the East China Sea for both semidiurnal and diurnal species and partially from the Luzon Strait for semidiurnal species. For the other parts of the South China Sea, the tidal motion is mainly maintained by the energy fluxes through the Luzon Strait. The energy inputs from the tide-generating force are negative for semidiurnal species and positive for diurnal species. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Transonic Aeroelastic Numerical Simulation in Aeronautical Engineering

A lower-upper symmetric Gauss-Seidel (LU-SGS) subiteration scheme is constructed for time-marching of the fluid equations. The Harten-Lax-van Leer-Einfeldt-Wada (HLLEW) scheme is used for the spatial discretization. The same subiteration formulation is applied directly to the structural equations of motion in generalized coordinates. Through subiteration between the fluid and structural equations, a fully implicit aeroelastic solver is obtained for the numerical simulation of fluid/structure interaction. To improve the ability for application to complex configurations, a multiblock grid is used for the flow field calculation and transfinite interpolation (TFI) is employed for the adaptive moving grid deformation. The infinite plate spline (IPS) and the principal of virtual work are utilized for the data transformation between the fluid and structure. The developed code was first validated through the comparison of experimental and computational results for the AGARD 445.6 standard aeroelastic wing. Then, the flutter character of a tail wing with control surface was analyzed. Finally, flutter boundaries of a complex aircraft configuration were predicted.