Phase change on transmission of microwaves through metal disc delay dielectrics

Expressions for the phase change Φ suffered by microwaves when transmitted through an artificial dielectric composed of metallic discs arranged in a three-dimensional array have been derived with different approaches as follows (i) molecular theory, (ii) electromagnetic theory and (iii) transmission line theory. The phase change depends on the distance t that the wave traverses inside the dielectric and also the spacing d between centre to centre of any two adjacent discs in the three principal directions. Molecular theory indicates Φ as an increasing function of t, whereas, the other two theories indicate Φ as an oscillatory function of t. The transmission line theory also exhibits Φ to be real or imaginary depending on t. Experimental values of Φ as a function of t have been obtained with the help of a microwave (3·2 cms wavelength) interferometer for two dielectrics having d as 1·91 cms and 2·22 cms respectively.

Large-scale structures in turbulent and reverse-transitional sink flow boundary layers

Aspects of large-scale organized structures in sink flow turbulent and reverse-transitional boundary layers are studied experimentally using hot-wire anemometry. Each of the present sink flow boundary layers is in a state of 'perfect equilibrium' or 'exact self-preservation' in the sense of Townsend (The Structure of Turbulent Shear Flow, 1st and 2nd edns, 1956, 1976, Cambridge University Press) and Rotta (Progr. Aeronaut. Sci., vol. 2, 1962, pp. 1-220) and conforms to the notion of 'pure wall-flow' (Coles, J. Aerosp. Sci., vol. 24, 1957, pp. 495-506), at least for the turbulent cases. It is found that the characteristic inclination angle of the structure undergoes a systematic decrease with the increase in strength of the streamwise favourable pressure gradient. Detectable wall-normal extent of the structure is found to be typically half of the boundary layer thickness. Streamwise extent of the structure shows marked increase as the favourable pressure gradient is made progressively severe. Proposals for the typical eddy forms in sink flow turbulent and reverse-transitional flows are presented, and the possibility of structural self-organization (i.e. individual hairpin vortices forming streamwise coherent hairpin packets) in these flows is also discussed. It is further indicated that these structural ideas may be used to explain, from a structural viewpoint, the phenomenon of soft relaminarization or reverse transition of turbulent boundary layers when subjected to strong streamwise favourable pressure gradients. Taylor's 'frozen turbulence' hypothesis is experimentally shown to be valid for flows in the present study even though large streamwise accelerations are involved, the flow being even reverse transitional in some cases. Possible conditions, which are required to be satisfied for the safe use of Taylor's hypothesis in pressure-gradient-driven flows, are also outlined. Measured convection velocities are found to be fairly close to the local mean velocities (typically 90% or more) suggesting that the structure gets convected downstream almost along with the mean flow.

An Integrated Design Procedure for High Frequency AC Inductors for Inverters

Inductors are important energy storage elements that are used as filters in switching power converters. The operating efficiency of power inductors depend on the initial design choices and they remain as one of the most inefficient elements in a power converter. The focus of this paper is to explore the inductor design procedure from the point of efficiency and operating temperature. A modified form of the area product approach is used as starting point for the inductor design. The equations which estimate the power loss in core and copper winding are described. The surface temperature of the inductor is modelled using heat transfer equations for radiation and natural convection. All design assumptions are verified by actual experimental data and results show a good match with the analysis.

Robust/optimal temperature profile control using neural networks

An approximate dynamic programming (ADP) based neurocontroller is developed for a heat transfer application. Heat transfer problem for a fin in a car's electronic module is modeled as a nonlinear distributed parameter (infinite-dimensional) system by taking into account heat loss and generation due to conduction, convection and radiation. A low-order, finite-dimensional lumped parameter model for this problem is obtained by using Galerkin projection and basis functions designed through the 'Proper Orthogonal Decomposition' technique (POD) and the 'snap-shot' solutions. A suboptimal neurocontroller is obtained with a single-network-adaptive-critic (SNAC). Further contribution of this paper is to develop an online robust controller to account for unmodeled dynamics and parametric uncertainties. A weight update rule is presented that guarantees boundedness of the weights and eliminates the need for persistence of excitation (PE) condition to be satisfied. Since, the ADP and neural network based controllers are of fairly general structure, they appear to have the potential to be controller synthesis tools for nonlinear distributed parameter systems especially where it is difficult to obtain an accurate model.

Magnetotransport of Dirac fermions on the surface of a topological insulator

We study the properties of Dirac fermions on the surface of a topological insulator in the presence of crossed electric and magnetic fields. We provide an exact solution to this problem and demonstrate that, in contrast to their counterparts in graphene, these Dirac fermions allow relative tuning of the orbital and Zeeman effects of an applied magnetic field by a crossed electric field along the surface. We also elaborate and extend our earlier results on normal-metal-magnetic film-normal metal (NMN) and normal-metal-barrier-magnetic film (NBM) junctions of topological insulators [S. Mondal, D. Sen, K. Sengupta, and R. Shankar, Phys. Rev. Lett. 104, 046403 (2010)]. For NMN junctions, we show that for Dirac fermions with Fermi velocity vF, the transport can be controlled using the exchange field J of a ferromagnetic film over a region of width d. The conductance of such a junction changes from oscillatory to a monotonically decreasing function of d beyond a critical J which leads to the possible realization of magnetic switches using these junctions. For NBM junctions with a potential barrier of width d and potential V-0, we find that beyond a critical J, the criteria of conductance maxima changes from chi=eV(0)d/h upsilon(F)=n pi to chi=(n+1/2)pi for integer n. Finally, we compute the subgap tunneling conductance of a normal-metal-magnetic film-superconductor junctions on the surface of a topological insulator and show that the position of the peaks of the zero-bias tunneling conductance can be tuned using the magnetization of the ferromagnetic film. We point out that these phenomena have no analogs in either conventional two-dimensional materials or Dirac electrons in graphene and suggest experiments to test our theory.

Exact solution for the unsteady flow and heat transfer between eccentrically rotating disks

The unsteady heat transfer associated with flow due to eccentrically rotating disks considered by Ramachandra Rao and Kasiviswanathan (1987) is studied via reformulation in terms of cylindrical polar coordinates. The corresponding exact solution of the energy equation is presented when the upper and lower disks are subjected to steady and unsteady temperatures. For an unsteady flow with nonzero mean, the energy equation can be solved by prescribing the temperature on the disk as a sum of steady and oscillatory parts

Influence of crossed electric and quantizing magnetic fields on the Einstein relation in nonlinear optical, optoelectronic and related materials: Simplified theory, relative comparison and suggestion for experimental determination

An attempt is made to study the Einstein relation for the diffusivity-to-mobility ratio (DMR) under crossed fields' configuration in nonlinear optical materials on the basis of a newly formulated electron dispersion law by incorporating the crystal field in the Hamiltonian and including the anisotropies of the effective electron mass and the spin-orbit splitting constants within the framework of kp formalisms. The corresponding results for III-V, ternary and quaternary compounds form a special case of our generalized analysis. The DMR has also been investigated for II-VI and stressed materials on the basis of various appropriate dispersion relations. We have considered n-CdGeAs2, n-Hg1-xCdxTe, n-In1-xGaxAsyP1-y lattice matched to InP, p-CdS and stressed n-InSb materials as examples. The DMR also increases with increasing electric field and the natures of oscillations are totally band structure dependent with different numerical values. It has been observed that the DMR exhibits oscillatory dependences with inverse quantizing magnetic field and carrier degeneracy due to the Subhnikov-de Haas effect. An experimental method of determining the DMR for degenerate materials in the present case has been suggested. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Generalized Burgers equations and Euler–Painlevé transcendents. III

It was proposed earlier [P. L. Sachdev, K. R. C. Nair, and V. G. Tikekar, J. Math. Phys. 27, 1506 (1986); P. L. Sachdev and K. R. C. Nair, ibid. 28, 977 (1987)] that the Euler–Painlevé equations  y(d2y/dη2)+a(dy/dη)2 +f(η)y(dy/dη)+g(η)y2+b(dy/dη) +c=0 represent generalized Burgers equations (GBE’s) in the same way as Painlevé equations represent the Korteweg–de Vries type of equations. The earlier studies were carried out in the context of GBE’s with damping and those with spherical and cylindrical symmetry. In the present paper, GBE’s with variable coefficients of viscosity and those with inhomogeneous terms are considered for their possible connection to Euler–Painlevé equations. It is found that the Euler–Painlevé equation, which represents the GBE ut+uβux=(δ/2)g(t)uxx, g(t)=(1+t)n, β>0, has solutions, which either decay or oscillate at η=±∞, only when −1oscillatory behavior either at η=+∞ or at η=−∞, or at η=+∞ and η=−∞. For β=βn, there exists a single parameter family of exact single hump solutions, similar to those found for the nonplanar Burgers equations in Paper II. Thus the parametric value β=βn seems to bifurcate the families of solutions, which remain bounded at η=±∞. Other GBE’s considered here are also found to be reducible to Euler–Painlevé equations.

Aerodynamic noise from wave-turbulence interaction

Abstract. In order to estimate the acoustic energy scattered when a unit volume of free turbulence, such as in free jets, interacts with a plane steady sound wave, theoretical expressions are derived for two simple models of turbulence: eddy model and isotropic model. The effect of convection by mean motion of the energy-bearing eddies on the incident sound wave and on the sound generated from wave-turbulence interaction is taken into account. Finally, by means of a representative calculation,the directionality pattern and Mach number dependence of the noise so generated is discussed.

Towards understanding the unusual Indian monsoon in 2009

The Indian summer monsoon season of 2009 commenced with a massive deficit in all-India rainfall of 48% of the average rainfall in June. The all-India rainfall in July was close to the normal but that in August was deficit by 27%. In this paper, we first focus on June 2009, elucidating the special features and attempting to identify the factors that could have led to the large deficit in rainfall. In June 2009, the phase of the two important modes, viz., El Nino and Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and the equatorial Indian Ocean Oscillation (EQUINOO) was unfavourable. Also, the eastern equatorial Indian Ocean (EEIO) was warmer than in other years and much warmer than the Bay. In almost all the years, the opposite is true, i.e., the Bay is warmer than EEIO in June. It appears that this SST gradient gave an edge to the tropical convergence zone over the eastern equatorial Indian Ocean, in competition with the organized convection over the Bay. Thus, convection was not sustained for more than three or four days over the Bay and no northward propagations occurred. We suggest that the reversal of the sea surface temperature (SST) gradient between the Bay of Bengal and EEIO, played a critical role in the rainfall deficit over the Bay and hence the Indian region. We also suggest that suppression of convection over EEIO in association with the El Nino led to a positive phase of EQUINOO in July and hence revival of the monsoon despite the El Nino. It appears that the transition to a negative phase of EQUINOO in August and the associated large deficit in monsoon rainfall can also be attributed to the El Nino.

Studies of cryotreatment on the performance of integral diaphragm pressure transducers for space application

The integral diaphragm pressure transducers machined out of precipitation hardened martensite stainless steel (APX4) are widely used for propellant pressure measurements in space applications. These transducers are expected to exhibit dimensional stability and linearity for their entire useful life. These vital factors are very critical for the reliable performance and dependability of the pressure transducers. However, these transducers invariably develop internal stresses during various stages of machining. These stresses have an adverse effect on the performance of the transducers causing deviation from linearity. In order to eliminate these possibilities, it was planned to cryotreat the machined transducers to improve both the long-term linearity and dimensional stability. To study these effects, an experimental cryotreatment unit was designed and developed based on the concept of indirect cooling using the concept of cold nitrogen gas forced closed loop convection currents. The system has the capability of cryotreating large number of samples for varied rates of cooling, soaking and warm-up. After obtaining the initial levels of residual stress and retained austenite using X-ray diffraction techniques, the pressure transducers were cryotreated at 98 K for 36 h. Immediately after cryotreatment, the transducers were tempered at 510 degrees C for 3 h in vacuum furnace. Results after cryo treatment clearly indicated significant reduction in residual stress levels and conversion of retained austenite to martensite. These changes have brought in improvements in long term zero drift and dimensional stability. The cryotreated pressure transducers have been incorporated for actual space applications. (c) 2010 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Heat transfer correlations for PCM-based heat sinks with plate fins

Characterization of melting process in a Phase Change Material (PCM)-based heat sink with plate fin type thermal conductivity enhancers (TCEs) is numerically studied in this paper. Detailed parametric investigations are performed to find the effect of aspect ratio of enclosure and the applied heat flux on the thermal performance of the heat sinks. Various non-dimensional numbers, such as Nusselt number (Nu), Rayleigh number (Ra), Stefan number (Ste) and Fourier number (Fo) based on a characteristic length scale, are identified as important parameters. The half fin thickness and the fin height are varied to obtain a wide range of aspect ratios of an enclosure. It is found that a single correlation of Nu with Ra is not applicable for all aspect ratios of enclosure with melt convection taken into account. To find appropriate length scales, enclosures with different aspect ratios are divided into three categories, viz. (a) shallow enclosure, (b) rectangular enclosure and (c) tall enclosure. Accordingly, an appropriate characteristic length scale is identified for each type of enclosure and correlation of Nu with Ra based on that characteristic length scale is developed. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

An experimental study of suddenly expanded rectangular jet flow field

Flow through a rectangular Passage which is expanded suddenly into another rectangular duct of larger Cross-sectional area has been studied experimentally with stagnation Pressures from 3.5 atmospheres to 1.25 atmospheres. The length to height ratio of the enlarged duct varied from 5.769 to 1.923 and three models with length to height ratios 5.769, 3.846, and 1.923 were studied. The influence of stagnation Pressures and length to height ratio of the enlarged duct on base pressure and flow field mean pressures in the enlarged duct is discussed. The results of the present investigation indicate that the oscillatory nature of the mean pressure flow field in the enlarged portion with rectangular cross-section is appreciably different from that for circular cross-section at similar flow conditions.

A thermogravimetric study of the oxidative growth of Al2O3/Al alloy composites

The oxidation of liquid Al–Mg–Si alloys at 900–1400 °C was studied by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The development of a semi-protective surface layer of MgO/MgAl2O4 allows the continuous formation of an Al2O3-matrix composite containing an interpenetrating network of metal microchannels at 1000–1350 °C. An initial incubation period precedes bulk oxidation, wherein Al2O3 grows from a near-surface alloy layer by reaction of oxygen supplied by the dissolution of the surface oxides and Al supplied from a bulk alloy reservoir through the microchannel network. The typical oxidation rate during bulk growth displays an initial acceleration followed by a parabolic deceleration in a regime apparently limited by Al transport to the near-surface layer. Both regimes may be influenced by the Si content in this layer, which rises due to preferential Al and Mg oxidation. The growth rates increase with temperature to a maximum at ~1300 °C, with a nominal activation energy of 270 kJ/mole for an Al-2.85 wt. % Mg-5.4 wt. % Si alloy in O2 at furnace temperatures of 1000–1300 °C. An oscillatory rate regime observed at 1000–1075 °C resulted in a banded structure of varying Al2O3-to-metal volume fraction.

Inertial effects in solvation dynamics

The dynamics of solvation of newly created charged species in dense dipolar liquids can proceed at a high speed with time constants often in the subpicosecond domain. The motion of the solvent molecules can be in the inertial limit at such short times. In this paper we present a microscopic study of the effects of inertial motion of solvent molecules on the solvation dynamics of a newly created ion in a model dipolar liquid. Interesting dynamical behavior emerges when the relative contribution of the translational modes in the wave-vector-dependent longitudinal relaxation time is significant. Especially, the theory predicts that the time correlation function of the solvation energy can become oscillatory in some limiting situations. In general, the dynamics becomes faster in the presence of the inertial contribution. We discuss the experimental situations where the inertial effects can be noticeable.