Triply-periodic balance surfaces

The list of possible G-H symmetries for triply-periodic balance surfaces, given by Koch and Fischer, is studied with a view to finding new types. It is found that balance surfaces exist for all the cases that were labelled as undecided in the work of Koch and Fischer. For some of these, new minimal surfaces have been found, with the aid of Brakke's 'Surface Evolver'. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.

Role of oxygen transients in the facile scission of C-O bonds of alcohols on Zn surfaces

The alkoxy species produced by the interaction of alcohols with Zn surfaces undergoes C-O bond scission at 150 K giving hydrocarbon species, but this transformation occurs even at 80 K when alcohol-oxygen mixtures are coadsorbed, due to the oxygen transients.

Thermodynamics of surfaces and adsorption in the Fe-S, Fe-N, and Fe-S-N systems at 1823 K

The present investigation calculates the surface tension and adsorption functions of the Fe-S, Fe-N, and Fe-S-N melts at 1823 K using the modified form of Butler's equations and the derived values of the surface interaction parameters of the systems. The calculated values are found to be in good agreement with those of the experimental data of the systems. The present analysis indicates similar adsorption behavior of sulfur for the Fe-S and Fe-S-N systems at 1823 K. Although a linear adsorption behavior is observed in the Fe-N system, an inverse relationship in the adsorption behavior exists between sulur and nitrogen in the Fe-S-N system.

An apparatus for evaluating adhesion between soils and solid surfaces

An apparatus in the direct shear mode has been developed to conduct soil-soil and soil-solid material interface tests in the undrained condition. Evaluation of the apparatus showed that all the requirements for simulating the undrained condition of shear are satisfied. The interface test results show that the adhesion factor a increases with the surface roughness of the solid material. In the case of the normally consolidated state, alpha is practically independent of the undrained shear strength of the clay for a given surface. For the overconsolidated state, alpha depends on the undrained shear strength and the overconsolidation ratio for smooth surfaces but for rough surfaces; alpha is independent of both undrained shear strength and overconsolidation ratio.

Surfaces of Bounded Mean Curvature In Riemannian Manifolds

Consider a sequence of closed, orientable surfaces of fixed genus g in a Riemannian manifold M with uniform upper bounds on the norm of mean curvature and area. We show that on passing to a subsequence, we can choose parametrisations of the surfaces by inclusion maps from a fixed surface of the same genus so that the distance functions corresponding to the pullback metrics converge to a pseudo-metric and the inclusion maps converge to a Lipschitz map. We show further that the limiting pseudo-metric has fractal dimension two. As a corollary, we obtain a purely geometric result. Namely, we show that bounds on the mean curvature, area and genus of a surface F subset of M, together with bounds on the geometry of M, give an upper bound on the diameter of F. Our proof is modelled on Gromov's compactness theorem for J-holomorphic curves.

Preparation of β-SiAION from silica-alumina gel

Amorphous aluminosilicate gel powders have been subjected to carbothermal reduction and nitridation reaction at high temperature (1673 K). The influence of Al2O3 content in the gel powder on the nature and structure of the product phases has been examined. Between 5% and 9% Al2O3 in the gel powder, it is found that only β-SiAION is formed as the product of CTR/N reaction.

Nanopatterning on Reconstructed Ceramic Surfaces

The use of reconstructed ceramic surfaces as templates for nanopatterning has been demonstrated recently. This technique differs from the surface decoration by Au on stepped surfaces of alkali halides which has been a topic of intense research in the past. Some of the intriguing aspects related to the physical origin of the phenomena have been considered here. Based on heterogeneous nucleation of Pt vapor on wedged alumina surfaces, it has been shown that the valley sites are the preferred sites for nucleation. However, the hill sites are decorated by the particles in the present study pointing out to a different physical origin for the formation of the nanoparticles. The role of electrostatic energy reduction on the formation of such nanopatterns is discussed.

Dynamic contact angle beating from drops impacting onto solid surfaces exhibiting anisotropic wetting

This paper reports an experimental investigation of low Weber number water drops impacting onto solid surfaces exhibiting anisotropic wetting. The wetting anisotropy is created by patterning the solid surfaces with unidirectional parallel grooves. Temporal measurements of impacting drop parameters such as drop base contact diameter, apparent contact angle of drop, and drop height at the center are obtained from high-speed video recordings of drop impacts. The study shows that the impact of low Weber number water drops on the grooved surface exhibits beating phenomenon in the temporal variations of the dynamic contact angle anisotropy and drop height at the center of the impacting drop. It is observed that the beating phenomenon of impacting drop parameters is caused by the frequency difference between the dynamic contact angle oscillations of impacting drop liquid oriented perpendicular and parallel to the direction of grooves on the grooved surface. The primary trigger for the phenomenon is the existence of non-axisymmetric drop flow on the grooved surface featuring pinned and free motions of drop liquid in the directions perpendicular and parallel to the grooves, respectively. The beat frequency is almost independent of the impact drop Weber number. Further experimental measurements with solid surfaces of different groove textures show that the grooved surface with larger wetting anisotropy may be expected to show a dominant beating phenomenon. The phenomenon is gradually damped out with time and is fully unrecognizable at higher drop impact Weber numbers. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.