Modeling and analysis of a tunable piezoelectric structure for transverse shear wave generation

An analytical investigation of the transverse shear wave mode tuning with a resonator mass (packing mass) on a Lead Zirconium Titanate (PZT) crystal bonded together with a host plate and its equivalent electric circuit parameters are presented. The energy transfer into the structure for this type of wave modes are much higher in this new design. The novelty of the approach here is the tuning of a single wave mode in the thickness direction using a resonator mass. First, a one-dimensional constitutive model assuming the strain induced only in the thickness direction is considered. As the input voltage is applied to the PZT crystal in the thickness direction, the transverse normal stress distribution induced into the plate is assumed to have parabolic distribution, which is presumed as a function of the geometries of the PZT crystal, packing mass, substrate and the wave penetration depth of the generated wave. For the PZT crystal, the harmonic wave guide solution is assumed for the mechanical displacement and electric fields, while for the packing mass, the former is solved using the boundary conditions. The electromechanical characteristics in terms of the stress transfer, mechanical impedance, electrical displacement, velocity and electric field are analyzed. The analytical solutions for the aforementioned entities are presented on the basis of varying the thickness of the PZT crystal and the packing mass. The results show that for a 25% increase in the thickness of the PZT crystal, there is ~38% decrease in the first resonant frequency, while for the same change in the thickness of the packing mass, the decrease in the resonant frequency is observed as ~35%. Most importantly the tuning of the generated wave can be accomplished with the packing mass at lower frequencies easily. To the end, an equivalent electric circuit, for tuning the transverse shear wave mode is analyzed.

Modeling of magnetostrictive materials and structures

The constitutive model for a magnetostrictive material and its effect on the structural response is presented in this article. The example of magnetostrictive material considered is the TERFENOL-D. As like the piezoelectric material, this material has two constitutive laws, one of which is the sensing law and the other is the actuation law, both of which are highly coupled and non-linear. For the purpose of analysis, the constitutive laws can be characterized as coupled or uncoupled and linear or non linear. Coupled model is studied without assuming any explicit direct relationship with magnetic field. In the linear coupled model, which is assumed to preserve the magnetic flux line continuity, the elastic modulus, the permeability and magneto-elastic constant are assumed as constant. In the nonlinear-coupled model, the nonlinearity is decoupled and solved separately for the magnetic domain and the mechanical domain using two nonlinear curves, namely the stress vs. strain curve and the magnetic flux density vs. magnetic field curve. This is performed by two different methods. In the first, the magnetic flux density is computed iteratively, while in the second, the artificial neural network is used, where in the trained network will give the necessary strain and magnetic flux density for a given magnetic field and stress level. The effect of nonlinearity is demonstrated on a simple magnetostrictive rod.

Modeling and Analysis of Noise Margin in SET Logic

In this paper the static noise margin for SET (single electron transistor) logic is defined and compact models for the noise margin are developed by making use of the MIB (Mahapatra-Ionescu-Banerjee) model. The variation of the noise margin with temperature and background charge is also studied. A chain of SET inverters is simulated to validate the definition of various logic levels (like VIH, VOH, etc.) and noise margin. Finally the noise immunity of SET logic is compared with current CMOS logic.

Prediction of flame liftoff height of diffusion/partially premixed jet flames and modeling of mild combustion burners

In this article, a new flame extinction model based on the k/epsilon turbulence time scale concept is proposed to predict the flame liftoff heights over a wide range of coflow temperature and O-2 mass fraction of the coflow. The flame is assumed to be quenched, when the fluid time scale is less than the chemical time scale ( Da < 1). The chemical time scale is derived as a function of temperature, oxidizer mass fraction, fuel dilution, velocity of the jet and fuel type. The present extinction model has been tested for a variety of conditions: ( a) ambient coflow conditions ( 1 atm and 300 K) for propane, methane and hydrogen jet flames, ( b) highly preheated coflow, and ( c) high temperature and low oxidizer concentration coflow. Predicted flame liftoff heights of jet diffusion and partially premixed flames are in excellent agreement with the experimental data for all the simulated conditions and fuels. It is observed that flame stabilization occurs at a point near the stoichiometric mixture fraction surface, where the local flow velocity is equal to the local flame propagation speed. The present method is used to determine the chemical time scale for the conditions existing in the mild/ flameless combustion burners investigated by the authors earlier. This model has successfully predicted the initial premixing of the fuel with combustion products before the combustion reaction initiates. It has been inferred from these numerical simulations that fuel injection is followed by intense premixing with hot combustion products in the primary zone and combustion reaction follows further downstream. Reaction rate contours suggest that reaction takes place over a large volume and the magnitude of the combustion reaction is lower compared to the conventional combustion mode. The appearance of attached flames in the mild combustion burners at low thermal inputs is also predicted, which is due to lower average jet velocity and larger residence times in the near injection zone.

Process variability-aware statistical hybrid modeling of dynamic power dissipation in 65 nm CMOS designs

A generalized technique is proposed for modeling the effects of process variations on dynamic power by directly relating the variations in process parameters to variations in dynamic power of a digital circuit. The dynamic power of a 2-input NAND gate is characterized by mixed-mode simulations, to be used as a library element for 65mn gate length technology. The proposed methodology is demonstrated with a multiplier circuit built using the NAND gate library, by characterizing its dynamic power through Monte Carlo analysis. The statistical technique of Response. Surface Methodology (RSM) using Design of Experiments (DOE) and Least Squares Method (LSM), are employed to generate a "hybrid model" for gate power to account for simultaneous variations in multiple process parameters. We demonstrate that our hybrid model based statistical design approach results in considerable savings in the power budget of low power CMOS designs with an error of less than 1%, with significant reductions in uncertainty by atleast 6X on a normalized basis, against worst case design.

Modeling of formation of gold nanoparticles by citrate method

Properties of nanoparticles are size dependent, and a model to predict particle size is of importance. Gold nanoparticles are commonly synthesized by reducing tetrachloroauric acid with trisodium citrate, a method pioneered by Turkevich et al (Discuss. Faraday Soc. 1951, 11, 55). Data from several investigators that used this method show that when the ratio of initial concentrations of citrate to gold is varied from 0.4 to similar to 2, the final mean size of the particles formed varies by a factor of 7, while subsequent increases in the ratio hardly have any effect on the size. In this paper, a model is developed to explain this widely varying dependence. The steps that lead to the formation of particles are as follows: reduction of Au3+ in solution, disproportionation of Au+ to gold atoms and their nucleation, growth by disproportionation on particle surface, and coagulation. Oxidation of citrate results in the formation of dicarboxy acetone, which aids nucleation but also decomposes into side products. A detailed kinetic model is developed on the basis of these steps and is combined with population balance to predict particle-size distribution. The model shows that, unlike the usual balance between nucleation and growth that determines the particle size, it is the balance between rate of nucleation and degradation of dicarboxy acetone that determines the particle size in the citrate process. It is this feature that is able to explain the unusual dependence of the mean particle size on the ratio of citrate to gold salt concentration. It is also found that coagulation plays an important role in determining the particle size at high concentrations of citrate.

Smoldering combustion of "incense" sticks - Experiments and modeling

This paper is concerned with the experimental and modeling studies on the smoldering rates of incense sticks as a function of ambient oxygen fraction in air, the flow velocity and size. The experimental results are obtained both for forward and reverse smolder conditions. The results are explained on the basis of surface combustion due to diffusion of oxygen to the surface by both free and forced convection supporting the heat transfer into the solid by conduction, into the stream by convection and the radiant heat transfer from the surface. The heat release at the surface is controlled by the convective transport of the oxidizer to the surface. To obtain the diffusion rates particularly for the reverse smolder, CFD calculations of fluid flow with along with a passive scalar are needed; these calculations have been made both for forward and reverse smolder. The interesting aspect of the CFD calculations is that while the Nusselt umber for forward smolder shows a clear root( Re-u) dependence ( Re-u = Flow Reynolds Number), the result for reverse smolder shows a peak in the variation with Reynolds number with the values lower than for forward smolder and unsteadiness in the flow beyond a certain flow rate. The results of flow behavior and Nusselt number are used in a simple model for the heat transfer at the smoldering surface to obtain the dependence of the smoldering rate on the diameter of the incense stick, the flow rate of air and the oxygen fraction. The results are presented in terms of a correlation for the non-dimensional smoldering rate with radiant flux from the surface and heat generation rate at the surface. The correlations appear reasonable for both forward and reverse smolder cases.

Moment-Matched Lognormal Modeling of Uplink Interference with Power Control and Cell Selection

We develop an alternate characterization of the statistical distribution of the inter-cell interference power observed in the uplink of CDMA systems. We show that the lognormal distribution better matches the cumulative distribution and complementary cumulative distribution functions of the uplink interference than the conventionally assumed Gaussian distribution and variants based on it. This is in spite of the fact that many users together contribute to uplink interference, with the number of users and their locations both being random. Our observations hold even in the presence of power control and cell selection, which have hitherto been used to justify the Gaussian distribution approximation. The parameters of the lognormal are obtained by matching moments, for which detailed analytical expressions that incorporate wireless propagation, cellular layout, power control, and cell selection parameters are developed. The moment-matched lognormal model, while not perfect, is an order of magnitude better in modeling the interference power distribution.

Structural stability of slender aerospace vehicles: Part I Mathematical modeling

A detailed mechanics based model is developed to analyze the problem of structural instability in slender aerospace vehicles. Coupling among the rigid-body modes, the longitudinal vibrational modes and the transverse vibrational modes due to asymmetric lifting-body cross-section are considered. The model also incorporates the effects of aerodynamic pressure and the propulsive thrust of the vehicle. The model is one-dimensional, and it can be employed to idealized slender vehicles with complex shapes. Condition under which a flexible body with internal stress waves behaves like a perfect rigid body is derived. Two methods are developed for finite element discretization of the system: (1) A time-frequency Fourier spectral finite element method and (2) h-p finite element method. Numerical results using the above methods are presented in Part II of this paper. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Protein sequence design on the basis of topology optimization techniques -Using continuous modeling of discrete amino acid types

The notion of optimization is inherent in protein design. A long linear chain of twenty types of amino acid residues are known to fold to a 3-D conformation that minimizes the combined inter-residue energy interactions. There are two distinct protein design problems, viz. predicting the folded structure from a given sequence of amino acid monomers (folding problem) and determining a sequence for a given folded structure (inverse folding problem). These two problems have much similarity to engineering structural analysis and structural optimization problems respectively. In the folding problem, a protein chain with a given sequence folds to a conformation, called a native state, which has a unique global minimum energy value when compared to all other unfolded conformations. This involves a search in the conformation space. This is somewhat akin to the principle of minimum potential energy that determines the deformed static equilibrium configuration of an elastic structure of given topology, shape, and size that is subjected to certain boundary conditions. In the inverse-folding problem, one has to design a sequence with some objectives (having a specific feature of the folded structure, docking with another protein, etc.) and constraints (sequence being fixed in some portion, a particular composition of amino acid types, etc.) while obtaining a sequence that would fold to the desired conformation satisfying the criteria of folding. This requires a search in the sequence space. This is similar to structural optimization in the design-variable space wherein a certain feature of structural response is optimized subject to some constraints while satisfying the governing static or dynamic equilibrium equations. Based on this similarity, in this work we apply the topology optimization methods to protein design, discuss modeling issues and present some initial results.

Synthesis, X-ray structure and catalytic properties of a copper(II) Schiff base complex modeling the activity of the Cu-B site of dopamine beta-hydroxylase

The copper(II) complex [Cu(salgly) (bpy)] . 4H(2)O (1), where salgly is a tridentate glycinatosalicylaldimine Schiffbase Ligand, is prepared and structurally characterized. The complex is found to be catalytically active in the oxidation of ascorbic acid by dioxygen and the process is also effective in the presence of benzylamine giving benzaldehyde as a product, thus modeling the activity of the Cu-B site of dopamine beta-hydroxylase. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.

Modeling server-unreliability in closed queuing-networks

A method is presented to model server unreliability in closed queuing networks. Breakdowns and repairs of servers, assumed to be time-dependent, are modeled using virtual customers and virtual servers in the system. The problem is thus converted into a closed queue with all reliable servers and preemptive resume priority centers. Several recent preemptive priority approximations and an approximation of the one proposed are used in the analysis. This method has approximately the same computational requirements as that of mean-value analysis for a network of identical dimensions and is therefore very efficient