Hydrothermal saline promoted grafting of periodic mesoporous organic sulfonic acid silicas for sustainable FAME production

Hydrothermal saline promoted grafting of sulfonic acid groups onto SBA-15 and periodic mesoporous organic silica analogues affords solid acid catalysts with high acid site loadings (>2.5 mmol g-1 H+), ordered mesoporosity and tunable hydrophobicity. The resulting catalysts show excellent activity for fatty acid esterification and tripalmitin transesterification to methyl palmitate, with framework phenyl groups promoting fatty acid methyl esters production. (Chemical Equation Presented)

Search for Wieferich Primes through the use of Periodic Binary Strings

The result of the distributed computing projectWieferich@Home is presented: the binary periodic numbers of bit pseudo-length j ≤ 3500 obtained by replication of a bit string of bit pseudo-length k ≤ 24 and increased by one are Wieferich primes only for the cases of 1092 or 3510.

Anti-Periodic Boundary Value Problem for Impulsive Fractional Integro Differential Equations

MSC 2010: 34A37, 34B15, 26A33, 34C25, 34K37

A Note on the Asymptotic Behaviour of a Periodic Multitype Galton-Watson Branching Process

2000 Mathematics Subject Classification: 60J80.

On the Approximation by Convolution Operators in Homogeneous Banach Spaces of Periodic Functions

AMS Subject Classification 2010: 41A25, 41A27, 41A35, 41A36, 41A40, 42Al6, 42A85.

Local Energy Decay in Even Dimensions for the Wave Equation with a Time-Periodic Non-Trapping Metric and Applications to Strichartz Estimates

2000 Mathematics Subject Classification: 35B40, 35L15.

Optical communication based on the periodic nonlinear Fourier transform signal processing

In this work we introduce the periodic nonlinear Fourier transform (PNFT) and propose a proof-of-concept communication system based on it by using a simple waveform with known nonlinear spectrum (NS). We study the performance (addressing the bit-error-rate (BER), as a function of the propagation distance) of the transmission system based on the use of the PNFT processing method and show the benefits of the latter approach. By analysing our simulation results for the system with lumped amplification, we demonstrate the decent potential of the new processing method.

Thermal counterflow in a periodic channel with solid boundaries

We perform numerical simulations of finite temperature quantum turbulence produced through thermal counterflow in superfluid 4He, using the vortex filament model. We investigate the effects of solid boundaries along one of the Cartesian directions, assuming a laminar normal fluid with a Poiseuille velocity profile, whilst varying the temperature and the normal fluid velocity. We analyze the distribution of the quantized vortices, reconnection rates, and quantized vorticity production as a function of the wall-normal direction. We find that the quantized vortex lines tend to concentrate close to the solid boundaries with their position depending only on temperature and not on the counterflow velocity. We offer an explanation of this phenomenon by considering the balance of two competing effects, namely the rate of turbulent diffusion of an isotropic tangle near the boundaries and the rate of quantized vorticity production at the center. Moreover, this yields the observed scaling of the position of the peak vortex line density with the mutual friction parameter. Finally, we provide evidence that upon the transition from laminar to turbulent normal fluid flow, there is a dramatic increase in the homogeneity of the tangle, which could be used as an indirect measure of the transition to turbulence in the normal fluid component for experiments.

Periodic polymer photonic bandgap structures for on-chip optical cavities

Integrated on-chip optical platforms enable high performance in applications of high-speed all-optical or electro-optical switching, wide-range multi-wavelength on-chip lasing for communication, and lab-on-chip optical sensing. Integrated optical resonators with high quality factor are a fundamental component in these applications. Periodic photonic structures (photonic crystals) exhibit a photonic band gap, which can be used to manipulate photons in a way similar to the control of electrons in semiconductor circuits. This makes it possible to create structures with radically improved optical properties. Compared to silicon, polymers offer a potentially inexpensive material platform with ease of fabrication at low temperatures and a wide range of material properties when doped with nanocrystals and other molecules. In this research work, several polymer periodic photonic structures are proposed and investigated to improve optical confinement and optical sensing. We developed a fast numerical method for calculating the quality factor of a photonic crystal slab (PhCS) cavity. The calculation is implemented via a 2D-FDTD method followed by a post-process for cavity surface energy radiation loss. Computational time is saved and good accuracy is demonstrated compared to other published methods. Also, we proposed a novel concept of slot-PhCS which enhanced the energy density 20 times compared to traditional PhCS. It combines both advantages of the slot waveguide and photonic crystal to localize the high energy density in the low index material. This property could increase the interaction between light and material embedded with nanoparticles like quantum dots for active device development. We also demonstrated a wide range bandgap based on a one dimensional waveguide distributed Bragg reflector with high coupling to optical waveguides enabling it to be easily integrated with other optical components on the chip. A flexible polymer (SU8) grating waveguide is proposed as a force sensor. The proposed sensor can monitor nN range forces through its spectral shift. Finally, quantum dot - doped SU8 polymer structures are demonstrated by optimizing spin coating and UV exposure. Clear patterns with high emission spectra proved the compatibility of the fabrication process for applications in optical amplification and lasing.

Study of Periodic and Quasi-Periodic Structures in Silicon-on-Insulator

In this thesis, a numerical design approach has been proposed and developed based on the transmission matrix method in order to characterize periodic and quasi-periodic photonic structures in silicon-on-insulator. The approach and its performance have been extensively tested with specific structures in 2D and its validity has been verified in 3D.

Dispersion and energy relations in periodic chains and grids

In this study wave propagation, dispersion relations, and energy relations for linear elastic periodic systems are analyzed. In particular, the dispersion relations for monoatomic chain of infinite dimension are obtained analytically by writing the Block-type wave equation for a unit cell in order to capture the dynamic behavior for chains under prescribed vibration. By comparing the discretized model (mass-spring chain) with the solid bar system, the nonlinearity of the dispersion relation for chain indicates that the periodic lattice is dispersive in contrast to the continuous rod, which is non dispersive. Further investigations have been performed considering one-dimensional diatomic linear elastic mass-spring chain. The dispersion relations, energy velocity, and group velocity have been derived. At certain range of frequencies harmonic plane waves do not propagate in contrast with monoatomic chain. Also, since the diatomic chain considered is a linear elastic chain, both of the energy velocity and the group velocity are identical. As long as the linear elastic condition is considered the results show zero flux condition without residual energy. In addition, this paper shows that the diatomic chain dispersion relations are independent on the unit cell scheme. Finally, an extension for the study covers the dispersion and energy relations for 2D- grid system. The 2x2 grid system show a periodicity of the dispersion surface in the wavenumber domain. In addition, the symmetry of the surface can be exploited to identify an Irreducible Brillouin Zone (IBZ). Compact representations of the dispersion properties of multidimensional periodic systems are obtained by plotting frequency as the wave vector’s components vary along the boundary of the IBZ, which leads to a widely accepted and effective visualization of bandgaps and overall dispersion properties.

A generalised formulation for computing the microbuckling load in periodic layered materials

Acknowledgments The financial support of the part of this research by The Royal Society, The Royal Academy of Engineering and The Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland is gratefully acknowledged.

A generalised formulation for computing the microbuckling load in periodic layered materials

Acknowledgments The financial support of the part of this research by The Royal Society, The Royal Academy of Engineering and The Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland is gratefully acknowledged.

Generation of a train of ultrashort pulses using periodic waves in tapered photonic crystal fibres

Funding This work was supported by the Ministry of Education , Nigeria for financial support through the TETFUND scholarship 55 scheme; CSIR [grant number 03(1264)/12/EMR-II].

A new method to calculate the periodic steady state of sequencing batch reactors for biological wastewater treatment : model development and applications

Peer reviewed