Wave propagation under vertically excited surface foundation

Recently developed equipment allows measurement of the shear modulus of soil in situ as a function of level of strain. In these field experiments, the excitation is applied on the ground surface using large scale shakers, and the response of the soil deposit is recorded through embedded receivers. The focus of this paper is on the simulation of signals which would be recorded at the receiver locations in idealized conditions to provide guidelines on the interpretation of field measurements. Discrete and finite element methods are employed to model one dimensional and three dimensional geometries, respectively, under various lateral boundary conditions. When the first times of arrival are detected by receivers under the vertical impulse, they coincide with the arrival of the P wave, related to the constrained modulus of the material, regardless of lateral boundary conditions. If one considers, on the other hand, phase differences between the motions at two receivers the picture is far more complicated and one would obtain propagation velocities, function of frequency and depth, which do not correspond to either the constrained modulus or Young's modulus. It is thus necessary to apply some care when interpreting the data from field tests based on vertical steady state vibrations. The use of inverse analysis can be considered as a way of extracting the shear modulus of soil from the field test measurements. © 2008 ASCE.

Wave propagation due to sinusoidal excitation in nonlinear one-dimensional soil column

The objective of the author's on-going research is to explore the feasibility of determining reliable in situ curves of shear modulus as a function of strain using the dynamic test. The purpose of this paper is limited to investigating what material stiffness is measured from a dynamic test, focusing on the harmonic excitation test. A one-dimensional discrete model with nonlinear material properties is used for this purpose. When a sinusoidal load is applied, the cross-correlation of signals from different depths estimates a wave velocity close to the one calculated from the secant modulus in the stress-strain loops under steady-state conditions. The variables that contributed to changing the average slope of the stress-strain loop also influence the estimate of the wave velocity from cross-correlation. Copyright ASCE 2007.

Shock wave/boundary-layer interaction control using a combination of vortex generators and bleed

To investigate whether vortex generators can be an effective form of passive flow control an experimental investigation has been conducted in a small-scale wind tunnel. With specific emphasis on supersonic inlet applications flow separation was initiated using a combined terminal shock wave and subsonic diffuser: a configuration that has been developed as a part of a program to produce a more inlet-relevant flowfield in a small-scale wind tunnel than previous studies. When flow control was initially introduced little overall flow improvement was obtained as the losses tended to be redistributed instead of removed. It became apparent that there existed a strong coupling between the center-span flow and the corner flows. As a consequence, only when flow control was applied to both the corner flows and center-span flow was a significant flow improvement obtained. When corner suction and center-span vortex generators were employed in tandem separation was much reduced and wall-pressure and stagnation pressure were notably improved. As a result, when applied appropriately, it is thought that vortex generators do have the potential to reduce the dependence on boundary-layer bleed for the purpose of separation suppression. Copyright © 2012 by Neil Titchener and Holger Babinsky. Published by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Inc.

An organizing center in a planar model of neuronal excitability

This paper studies the excitability properties of a generalized FitzHugh-Nagumo model. The model differs from the classical FitzHugh-Nagumo model in that it accounts for the effect of cooperative gating variables such as activation of calcium currents. Excitability is explored by unfolding a pitchfork bifurcation that is shown to organize five different types of excitability. In addition to the three classical types of neuronal excitability, two novel types are described and distinctly associated to the presence of cooperative variables. © 2012 Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics.

Stabilization of planar collective motion with limited communication

This paper proposes a design methodology to stabilize relative equilibria in a model of identical, steered particles moving in the plane at unit speed. Relative equilibria either correspond to parallel motion of all particles with fixed relative spacing or to circular motion of all particles around the same circle. Particles exchange relative information according to a communication graph that can be undirected or directed and time-invariant or time-varying. The emphasis of this paper is to show how previous results assuming all-to-all communication can be extended to a general communication framework. © 2008 IEEE.

Rhythmic feedback control of a blind planar juggler

The paper considers the feedback stabilization of periodic orbits in a planar juggler. The juggler is "blind," i.e, he has no other sensing capabilities than the detection of impact times. The robustness analysis of the proposed control suggests that the arms acceleration at impact is a crucial design parameter even though it plays no role in the stability analysis. Analytical results and convergence proofs are provided for a simplified model of the juggler. The control law is then adapted to a more accurate model and validated in an experimental setup. © 2007 IEEE.

Stabilization of planar collective motion: All-to-all communication

This paper proposes a design methodology to stabilize isolated relative equilibria in a model of all-to-all coupled identical particles moving in the plane at unit speed. Isolated relative equilibria correspond to either parallel motion of all particles with fixed relative spacing or to circular motion of all particles with fixed relative phases. The stabilizing feedbacks derive from Lyapunov functions that prove exponential stability and suggest almost global convergence properties. The results of the paper provide a low-order parametric family of stabilizable collectives that offer a set of primitives for the design of higher-level tasks at the group level. © 2007 IEEE.

Design and optimization of planar mesa termination for diamond Schottky barrier diodes

In this paper, we present planar mesa termination structure with high k dielectric Al2O3 for high-voltage diamond Schottky barrier diode. Analysis, design, and optimization are carried out by simulations using finite element technology computer-aided design (TCAD) Sentaurus Device software. The performances of planar mesa termination structure are compared to those of conventional field plate termination structure. It is found that optimum geometry of planar mesa terminated diode requires shorter metal plate extension (1/3 of the field plate terminated diode). Consequently, planar mesa terminated diode can be designed with bigger Schottky contact to increase its current carrying capability. Breakdown performance of field plate termination structure is limited at 1480 V due to peak electric field at the corner of Schottky contact (no oxide breakdown occurs). In contrast, peak electric field in planar mesa termination structure only occurs in the field oxide such that its breakdown performance is highly dependent on the oxide material. Due to Al2O3 breakdown, planar mesa termination structure suffers premature breakdown at 1440 V. Considering no oxide breakdown occurs, planar mesa termination structure can realize higher breakdown voltage of 1751 V. Therefore, to fully realize the potential of planar mesa terminated diode, it is important to choose suitable high k dielectric material with sufficient breakdown electric field for the field oxide. © 2013 Elsevier B.V.

High purity GaAs nanowires free of planar defects: Growth and characterization

We investigate how to tailor the structural, crystallographic and optical properties of GaAs nanowires. Nanowires were grown by Au nanoparticle-catalyzed metalorganic chemical vapor deposition. A high arsine flow rate, that is, a high ratio of group V to group III precursors, imparts significant advantages. It dramatically reduces planar crystallographic defects and reduces intrinsic carbon dopant incorporation. Increasing V/III ratio further, however, instigates nanowire kinking and increases nanowire tapering. By choosing an intermediate V/III ratio we achieve uniform, vertically aligned GaAs nanowires, free of planar crystallographic defects, with excellent optical properties and high purity. These findings will greatly assist the development of future GaAs nanowire-based electronic and optoelectronic devices, and are expected to be more broadly relevant to the rational synthesis of other III-V nanowires. © 2008 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA.

Vortex migration caused by travelling magnetic wave in a 2 in. diameter YBa2Cu3O7-δ thin film

We provide experimental evidence for a vortex migration phenomenon in YBa2Cu3O7-δ (YBCO) thin film caused by travelling magnetic wave. The experiment is carried out on a 2 in. diameter YBCO thin film with a circular-type magnetic flux pump. We found that the travelling wave helps the vortices migrate into the centre of the sample: after the zero-field cooling process, the increase of the flux density in the centre is four times larger than the amplitude of the travelling wave. The reason for this massive vortex migration is probably due to the magnetic stress variation caused by the travelling wave: the magnetic stress increases locally in the crest region while decreases locally in the trough region, which could help the vortices to move locally. A comparison shows that the magnetization by standing wave can be easily predicted by Bean's model while travelling wave causes vortex migration generally much larger than the prediction of Bean's model. It is possible that travelling magnetic wave can be an effective way to magnetize a type II superconductor in considering this unusual vortex dynamics. © 2013 AIP Publishing LLC.

Corner effects in reflecting oblique shock-wave/boundarylayer interactions

A separated oblique shock reflection on the floor of a rectangular cross-section wind tunnel has been investigated at M=2.5. The study aims to determine if and how separations occurring in the corners influence the main interaction as observed around the centreline of the floor. By changing the size of the corner separations through localised suction and small corner obstructions it was shown that the shape of the separated region in the centre was altered considerably. The separation length along the floor centreline was also modified by changes to the corner separation. A simple physical model has been proposed to explain the coupling between these separated regions based on the existence of compression or shock waves caused by the displacement effect of corner separation. These corner shocks alter the adverse pressure gradient imposed on the boundary-layer elsewhere which can lead to local reductions or increases of separation length. It is suggested that a typical oblique shock wave/boundary-layer interaction in rectangular channels features several zones depending on the relative position of the corner shocks and the main incident shock wave. Based on these findings the dependence of centre-line separation length on effective wind tunnel width is hypothesised. This requires further verification through experiments or computation. © 2013 by H. Babinsky.

The effects of various vortex generator configurations on a normal shock wave/boundary layer interaction

A number of VG configurations have been examined in a inlet relevant fiow-fleld which includes a terminal shock wave and subsequent subsonic diffuser. The flow-fleld was found to be highly sensitive to VG configuration. While the performance of one vane VG configuration was good over a wide range of streamwise positions, another quite similar vane configuration tended to perforin less well-especially when positioned further from the separation-and work is ongoing to determine the reasons behind tliis behavior. In addition, it was found that vane-type VG configurations were appreciably better at reducing separation than their micro-ramp counterparts. When combined with bleed in the centre-span region upstream of the VGs, the performance of vane type VGs was further enhanced and was the best of any configuration. © 2013 by Neil Titchener, Holger Babinsky and Eric Loth.