Size-Dependent Adhesion Strength of a Single Viscoelastic Fiber

Nano-fibrillar adhesives can adhere strongly to surfaces as a gecko does. The size of each fiber has significant effects on the adhesion enhancement, especially on rough surfaces. In the present study, we report the size effects on the normal and shear strength of adhesion for a single viscoelastic fiber. It is found that there exists a limited region of the critical sizes under which the interfacial normal or tangential tractions uniformly attain the theoretical adhesion strength. The region for a viscoelastic fiber under tension with similar material constants to a gecko's spatula is 135-255 nm and that under torque is 26.5-52 nm. This finding is significant for the development of artificial biomimetic attachment systems.

Fiber Bragg Grating Sensor for Strain Sensing in Low Temperature Superconducting Magnet

Fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensor for monitoring the electromagnetic strain in a low temperature superconducting (LTS) magnet was studied. Before used to LTS magnet strain sensing, the strain response of the sensor with 1.54-mu m wavelength at liquid helium was experimentally studied. It was found that the wavelength shift showed good linearity with longitudinal applied loads and the strain sensitivity is constant at 4.2 K. And then, the hoop strain measurement of a LTS magnet was carried out on the basis of measured results. Furthermore, the finite element method (FEM) was used to simulate the magnet strain. The difference between the experimental and numerical analysis results is very small.

Fiber Bragg Grating Sensor for Strain Sensing in Low Temperature Superconducting Magnet

Fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensor for monitoring the electromagnetic strain in a low temperature superconducting (LTS) magnet was studied. Before used to LTS magnet strain sensing, the strain response of the sensor with 1.54-mu m wavelength at liquid helium was experimentally studied. It was found that the wavelength shift showed good linearity with longitudinal applied loads and the strain sensitivity is constant at 4.2 K. And then, the hoop strain measurement of a LTS magnet was carried out on the basis of measured results. Furthermore, the finite element method (FEM) was used to simulate the magnet strain. The difference between the experimental and numerical analysis results is very small.

Modal correction for fiber-coupling efficiency in free-space optical communication systems through atmospheric turbulence

High-speed free-space optical communication systems have recently used fiber-optical components. The coupling efficiency with which the received laser beam can be coupled into a single-mode fiber is noticeably limited by atmospheric turbulence due to the degradation of its spatial coherence. Fortunately, adaptive optics (AO) can alleviate this limitation by partially correcting the turbulence-distorted wavefront. The coupling efficiency improvement provided by Zernike modal AO correction is numerically evaluated. It is found that the first 3-20 corrected polynomials can considerably improve the fiber-coupling efficiency. The improvement brought by AO is compared with that brought by a coherent fiber array. Finally, a hybrid technique that integrates AO and a coherent fiber array is proposed. Results show that the hybrid technique outperforms each of the two above-mentioned techniques. (C) 2009 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.