6,467 research outputs found
Phase-Field Approach for Faceted Solidification
We extend the phase-field approach to model the solidification of faceted
materials. Our approach consists of using an approximate gamma-plot with
rounded cusps that can approach arbitrarily closely the true gamma-plot with
sharp cusps that correspond to faceted orientations. The phase-field equations
are solved in the thin-interface limit with local equilibrium at the
solid-liquid interface [A. Karma and W.-J. Rappel, Phys. Rev. E53, R3017
(1996)]. The convergence of our approach is first demonstrated for equilibrium
shapes. The growth of faceted needle crystals in an undercooled melt is then
studied as a function of undercooling and the cusp amplitude delta for a
gamma-plot of the form 1+delta(|sin(theta)|+|cos(theta)|). The phase-field
results are consistent with the scaling law "Lambda inversely proportional to
the square root of V" observed experimentally, where Lambda is the facet length
and V is the growth rate. In addition, the variation of V and Lambda with delta
is found to be reasonably well predicted by an approximate sharp-interface
analytical theory that includes capillary effects and assumes circular and
parabolic forms for the front and trailing rough parts of the needle crystal,
respectively.Comment: 1O pages, 2 tables, 17 figure
Double bracket dissipation in kinetic theory for particles with anisotropic interactions
We derive equations of motion for the dynamics of anisotropic particles
directly from the dissipative Vlasov kinetic equations, with the dissipation
given by the double bracket approach (Double Bracket Vlasov, or DBV). The
moments of the DBV equation lead to a nonlocal form of Darcy's law for the mass
density. Next, kinetic equations for particles with anisotropic interaction are
considered and also cast into the DBV form. The moment dynamics for these
double bracket kinetic equations is expressed as Lie-Darcy continuum equations
for densities of mass and orientation. We also show how to obtain a
Smoluchowski model from a cold plasma-like moment closure of DBV. Thus, the
double bracket kinetic framework serves as a unifying method for deriving
different types of dynamics, from density--orientation to Smoluchowski
equations. Extensions for more general physical systems are also discussed.Comment: 19 pages; no figures. Submitted to Proc. Roy. Soc.
Coarse-grained Interaction Potentials for Anisotropic Molecules
We have proposed an efficient parameterization method for a recent variant of
the Gay-Berne potential for dissimilar and biaxial particles and demonstrated
it for a set of small organic molecules. Compared to the previously proposed
coarse-grained models, the new potential exhibits a superior performance in
close contact and large distant interactions. The repercussions of thermal
vibrations and elasticity has been studied through a statistical method. The
study justifies that the potential of mean force is representable with the same
functional form, extending the application of this coarse-grained description
to a broader range of molecules. Moreover, the advantage of employing
coarse-grained models over truncated atomistic summations with large distance
cutoffs has been briefly studied.Comment: 8 pages, 4 tables and 6 figures. To appear in J. Chem. Phy
The mechanics of delamination in fiber-reinforced composite materials. Part 1: Stress singularities and solution structure
The fundamental mechanics of delamination in fiber composite laminates is studied. Mathematical formulation of the problem is based on laminate anisotropic elasticity theory and interlaminar fracture mechanics concepts. Stress singularities and complete solution structures associated with general composite delaminations are determined. For a fully open delamination with traction-free surfaces, oscillatory stress singularities always appear, leading to physically inadmissible field solutions. A refined model is introduced by considering a partially closed delamination with crack surfaces in finite-length contact. Stress singularities associated with a partially closed delamination having frictional crack-surface contact are determined, and are found to be diferent from the inverse square-root one of the frictionless-contact case. In the case of a delamination with very small area of crack closure, a simplified model having a square-root stress singularity is employed by taking the limit of the partially closed delamination. The possible presence of logarithmic-type stress singularity is examined; no logarithmic singularity of any kind is found in the composite delamination problem. Numerical examples of dominant stress singularities are shown for delaminations having crack-tip closure with different frictional coefficients between general (1) and (2) graphite-epoxy composites
Effect of Thermal and Mechanical Deformation of Metamaterial FDM Components
At Lancaster University, research is currently investigating the use of rapid manufacturing (RM) to realise metamaterials, although key to the success of this project is the development of an understanding of how coated RM parts deform under thermal and mechanical stress. The research in this paper presents a comparison of the thermal and mechanical deformation behaviour of RM coated metamaterials components from a numerical context. The research uses the design of a simple metamaterial unit cell as a test model for both the experimental and finite element method (FEM). The investigation of deformation behaviour of sample Fused Deposition Modelling (FDM) parts manufactured in different orientations and simulated using commercial FEM code means that the FEM analysis can be utilized for design verification of FDM parts. This research contributes to further research into the development of RM metamaterials, specifically design analysis and verification tools for RM materials
3D mesh processing using GAMer 2 to enable reaction-diffusion simulations in realistic cellular geometries
Recent advances in electron microscopy have enabled the imaging of single
cells in 3D at nanometer length scale resolutions. An uncharted frontier for in
silico biology is the ability to simulate cellular processes using these
observed geometries. Enabling such simulations requires watertight meshing of
electron micrograph images into 3D volume meshes, which can then form the basis
of computer simulations of such processes using numerical techniques such as
the Finite Element Method. In this paper, we describe the use of our recently
rewritten mesh processing software, GAMer 2, to bridge the gap between poorly
conditioned meshes generated from segmented micrographs and boundary marked
tetrahedral meshes which are compatible with simulation. We demonstrate the
application of a workflow using GAMer 2 to a series of electron micrographs of
neuronal dendrite morphology explored at three different length scales and show
that the resulting meshes are suitable for finite element simulations. This
work is an important step towards making physical simulations of biological
processes in realistic geometries routine. Innovations in algorithms to
reconstruct and simulate cellular length scale phenomena based on emerging
structural data will enable realistic physical models and advance discovery at
the interface of geometry and cellular processes. We posit that a new frontier
at the intersection of computational technologies and single cell biology is
now open.Comment: 39 pages, 14 figures. High resolution figures and supplemental movies
available upon reques
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