Experimental Study on Surface Deformation and Surface Wave of Fluid Convection with Free Surface

An optical diagnostic system consisting of Michelson interferometer with image processor has been developed for study of the kinetics of thermal capillary convection and buoyancy convection. This optical interferometer has been used to observe and measure surface deformation and surface wave of capillary convection and buoyancy convection in a rectangular cavity with different temperature’s sidewalls. Fourier transformation is used to image processing. The quantitative results of surface deformation and surface wave have been calculated from the interference fringe pattern. With the increasing of temperature gradient, the liquid surface slant gradually. It’s deformation has been calculated, which is related directly with temperature gradient. This is one of the characters introducing convection. Another interesting phenomenon is the inclining direction, which is different when the liquid layer is thin or thick. When the liquid layer is thin, convection is mainly controlled by thermocapillary effect. However, When the liquid layer is thick, convection is mainly controlled by buoyancy effect. Surface deformation in the present experiment are more and more declining in this process. The present experiment proved that surface deformation appears before the appearance of surface wave on fluid convection, it is related with temperature gradient, and the height of liquid layer, and lies on capillary convection and buoyancy convection. The present experiment also demonstrates that the amplitude of surface wave of thermocapillary-buoyancy convection is much smaller than surface deformation, the wave is covered by deformation.

Characteristics of flow fields induced by interfacial waves in two-layer fluid

When designing deep ocean structures, it is necessary to estimate the effects of internal waves on the platform and auxiliary parts such as tension leg, riser and mooring lines. Up to now, only a few studies are concerned with the internal wave velocity fields. By using the most representative two-layer model, we have analyzed the behavior of velocity field induced by interfacial wave in the present paper. We find that there may exist velocity shear of fluid particles in the upper and lower layers so that any structures in the ocean are subjected to shear force nearby the interface. In the meantime, the magnitude of velocity for long internal wave appears spatially uniform in the respective layer although they still decay exponentially. Finally, the temporal variation for Stokes and solitary waves are shown to be of periodical and pulse type.

Elastic and statistically brittle (ESB) model, damage localization and catastrophic rupture

In this paper, an elastic and statistically brittle (ESB) model is applied to the process of damage evolution induced catastrophic rupture and the influence of localization and softening on catastrophic rupture is discussed. According to the analysis, the uncertainty of catastrophic rupture should be attributed to the unknown scale of localized zone. Based on the elastic and statistically brittle model but local mean field approximation, the relation between the scale of localized zone and catastrophic rupture is obtained and then justified with experiments. These results can not only give a deeper understanding of the mechanism governing catastrophic rupture, but also provide a possible tool to foresee the occurrence of catastrophic rupture.

Size-dependent elastic properties of Ni nanofilms by molecular dynamics simulation

Size-dependent elastic properties of Ni nanofilms are investigated by molecular dynamics ( MD) simulations with embedded atom method (EAM). The surface effects are considered by calculating the surface relaxation, surface energy, and surface stress. The Young's modulus and yield stress are obtained as functions of thickness and crystallographic orientation. It is shown that the surface relaxation has important effects on the the elastic properties at nanoscale. When the surface relaxation is outward, the Young's modulus decreases with the film thickness decreasing, and vice versa. The results also show that the yield stresses of the films increase with the films becoming thinner. With the thickness of the nanofilms decreasing, the surface effects on the elastic properties become dominant.

The surface- and size-dependent elastic moduli of nanostructures

A theoretical model is presented to investigate the size-dependent elastic moduli of nanostructures with the effects of the surface relaxation surface energy taken into consideration. At nanoscale, due to the large ratios of the surface-to-volume, the surface effects, which include surface relaxation surface energy, etc., can play important roles. Thus, the elastic moduli of nanostructures become surface- and size-dependent. In the research, the three-dimensional continuum model of the nanofilm with the surface effects is investigated. The analytical expressions of five nonzero elastic moduli of the nanofilm are derived, and then the dependence of the elastic moduli is discussed on the surface effects and the characteristic dimensions of nanofilms.

Design of a Sensor Based on Plastic Optical Fibre (POF) to Measure Fluid Flow and Turbidity

Although many optical fibre applications are based on their capacity to transmit optical signals with low losses, it can also be desirable for the optical fibre to be strongly affected by a certain physical parameter in the environment. In this way, it can be used as a sensor for this parameter. There are many strong arguments for the use of POFs as sensors. In addition to being easy to handle and low cost, they demonstrate advantages common to all multimode optical fibres. These specifically include flexibility, small size, good electromagnetic compatibility behaviour, and in general, the possibility of measuring any phenomenon without physically interacting with it. In this paper, a sensor based on POF is designed and analysed with the aim of measuring the volume and turbidity of a low viscosity fluid, in this case water, as it passes through a pipe. A comparative study with a commercial sensor is provided to validate the proven flow measurement. Likewise, turbidity is measured using different colour dyes. Finally, this paper will present the most significant results and conclusions from all the tests which are carried out.

Nonlinear Fluid Damping In Structure-Wake Oscillators In Modeling Vortex-Induced Vibrations

A Nonlinear Fluid Damping (NFD) in the form of the square-velocity is applied in the response analysis of Vortex-induced Vibrations (VIV). Its nonlinear hydrodynamic effects oil the coupled wake and structure oscillators are investigated. A comparison between the coupled systems with the linear and nonlinear fluid dampings and experiments shows that the NFD model can well describe response characteristics, such as the amplification of body displacement at lock-in and frequency lock-ill, both at high and low mass ratios. Particularly, the predicted peak amplitude of the body in the Griffin plot is ill good agreement with experimental data and empirical equation, indicating the significant effect of the NFD on the structure motion.

Deformation Of Pdms Membrane And Microcantilever By A Water Droplet: Comparison Between Mooney-Rivlin And Linear Elastic Constitutive Models

In this paper, we studied the role of vertical component Of Surface tension of a water droplet on the deformation of membranes and microcantilevers (MCLs) widely used in lab-on-a-chip and micro-and nano-electromechanical system (MEMS/NEMS). Firstly, a membrane made of a rubber-like material, poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS), was considered. The deformation was investigated using the Mooney-Rivlin (MR) model and the linear elastic constitutive relation, respectively. By comparison between the numerical solutions with two different models, we found that the simple linear elastic model is accurate enough to describe such kind of problem, which would be quite convenient for engineering applications. Furthermore, based on small-deflection beam theory, the effect of a liquid droplet on the deflection of a MCL was also studied. The free-end deflection of the MCL was investigated by considering different cases like a cylindrical droplet, a spherical droplet centered on the MCL and a spherical droplet arbitrarily positioned on the MCL. Numerical simulations demonstrated that the deflection might not be neglected, and showed good agreement with our theoretical analyses. (C) 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

An Atomistic-Continuum Hybrid Simulation Of Fluid Flows Over Superhydrophobic Surfaces

Recent experiments have found that slip length could be as large as on the order of 1 mu m for fluid flows over superhydrophobic surfaces. Superhydrophobic surfaces can be achieved by patterning roughness on hydrophobic surfaces. In the present paper, an atomistic-continuum hybrid approach is developed to simulate the Couette flows over superhydrophobic surfaces, in which a molecular dynamics simulation is used in a small region near the superhydrophobic surface where the continuum assumption is not valid and the Navier-Stokes equations are used in a large region for bulk flows where the continuum assumption does hold. These two descriptions are coupled using the dynamic coupling model in the overlap region to ensure momentum continuity. The hybrid simulation predicts a superhydrophobic state with large slip lengths, which cannot be obtained by molecular dynamics simulation alone.

Mechanics of adhesive contact on a power-law graded elastic half-space

We consider adhesive contact between a rigid sphere of radius R and a graded elastic half-space with Young's modulus varying with depth according to a power law E = E-0(z/c(0))(k) (0 < k < 1) while Poisson's ratio v remaining a constant. Closed-form analytical solutions are established for the critical force, the critical radius of contact area and the critical interfacial stress at pull-off. We highlight that the pull-off force has a simple solution of P-cr= -(k+3)pi R Delta gamma/2 where Delta gamma is the work of adhesion and make further discussions with respect to three interesting limits: the classical JKR solution when k = 0, the Gibson solid when k --> 1 and v = 0.5, and the strength limit in which the interfacial stress reaches the theoretical strength of adhesion at pull-off. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A unified guide to two opposite size effects in nano elastic materials

The microstructural variation near surface of nano elastic materials is analyzed based on different potentials. The atomic/molecular mechanism underlying the variation and its effect on elastic modulus are such that the nature of long-range interactions (attractive or repulsive) in the atomic/molecular potentials essentially governs the variation near surface (looser or tighter) and results in two opposite size effects (decreasing or increasing modulus) with decreasing size.

Mechanisms underlying two kinds of surface effects on elastic constants

ABSTRACT Recently, people are confused with two opposite variations of elastic modulus with decreasing size of nano scale sample: elastic modulus either decreases or increases with decreas- ing sample size. In this paper, based on intermolecular potentials and a one dimensional model, we provide a unified understanding of the two opposite size effects. Firstly, we analyzed the mi- crostructural variation near the surface of an fcc nanofilm based on the Lennard-Jones potential. It is found that the atomic lattice near the surface becomes looser in comparison with the bulk, indicating that atoms in the bulk are located at the balance of repulsive forces, resulting in the decrease of the elastic moduli with the decreasing thickness of the film accordingly. In addition, the decrease in moduli should be attributed to both the looser surface layer and smaller coor- dination number of surface atoms. Furthermore, it is found that both looser and tighter lattice near the surface can appear for a general pair potential and the governing mechanism should be attributed to the surplus of the nearest force to all other long range interactions in the pair po- tential. Surprisingly, the surplus can be simply expressed by a sum of the long range interactions and the sum being positive or negative determines the looser or tighter lattice near surface re- spectively. To justify this concept, we examined ZnO in terms of Buckingham potential with long range Coulomb interactions. It is found that compared to its bulk lattice, the ZnO lattice near the surface becomes tighter, indicating the atoms in the bulk located at the balance of attractive forces, owing to the long range Coulomb interaction. Correspondingly, the elastic modulus of one- dimensional ZnO chain increases with decreasing size. Finally, a kind of many-body potential for Cu was examined. In this case, the surface layer becomes tighter than the bulk and the modulus increases with deceasing size, owing to the long range repulsive pair interaction, as well as the cohesive many-body interaction caused by the electron redistribution.