449 research outputs found
Periodic forcing in viscous fingering of a nematic liquid crystal
We study viscous fingering of an air-nematic interface in a radial Hele-Shaw
cell when periodically switching on and off an electric field, which reorients
the nematic and thus changes its viscosity, as well as the surface tension and
its anisotropy (mainly enforced by a single groove in the cell). We observe
undulations at the sides of the fingers which correlate with the switching
frequency and with tip oscillations which give maximal velocity to smallest
curvatures. These lateral undulations appear to be decoupled from spontaneous
(noise-induced) side branching. We conclude that the lateral undulations are
generated by successive relaxations between two limiting finger widths. The
change between these two selected pattern scales is mainly due to the change in
the anisotropy. This scenario is confirmed by numerical simulations in the
channel geometry, using a phase-field model for anisotropic viscous fingering.Comment: completely rewritten version, more clear exposition of results (14
pages in Revtex + 7 eps figures
Temporal response to harmonic driving in electroconvection
The temporal evolution of the spatially periodic electroconvection (EC)
patterns has been studied within the period of the driving ac voltage by
monitoring the light intensity diffracted from the pattern. Measurements have
been carried out on a variety of nematic systems, including those with negative
dielectric and positive conductivity anisotropy, exhibiting "standard EC"
(s-EC), those with both anisotropies negative exhibiting "non-standard EC"
(ns-EC), as well as those with the two anisotropies positive. Theoretical
predictions have been confirmed for stationary s-EC and ns-EC patterns.
Transitions with Hopf bifurcation have also been studied. While traveling had
no effect on the temporal evolution of dielectric s-EC, traveling conductive
s-EC and ns-EC patterns exhibited a substantially altered temporal behavior
with a dependence on the Hopf frequency. It has also been shown that in
nematics with both anisotropies positive, the pattern develops and decays
within an interval much shorter than the period, even at relatively large
driving frequencies.Comment: 19 pages, 5 figure
Viscous fingering in liquid crystals: Anisotropy and morphological transitions
We show that a minimal model for viscous fingering with a nematic liquid
crystal in which anisotropy is considered to enter through two different
viscosities in two perpendicular directions can be mapped to a two-fold
anisotropy in the surface tension. We numerically integrate the dynamics of the
resulting problem with the phase-field approach to find and characterize a
transition between tip-splitting and side-branching as a function of both
anisotropy and dimensionless surface tension. This anisotropy dependence could
explain the experimentally observed (reentrant) transition as temperature and
applied pressure are varied. Our observations are also consistent with previous
experimental evidence in viscous fingering within an etched cell and
simulations of solidification.Comment: 12 pages, 3 figures. Submitted to PR
A spatially based field specific crop recordkeeping system prototype for farmers
The purpose of this study was to develop a spatially based application that is able to capture, query, update and maintain crop production historical records for each field. Maps of the farm showing the fields were made. The fields were then numbered. These spatial data were prepared using ArcGIS 9.3. A database was created in Microsoft Access 2007. The database contained information on crops, fertilizers and past management. The information was linked to the spatial data table and maintained in the database. An application was developed using Visual Basic 6 in Map Objects allowing for the manipulation of spatial data within the visual basic environment. Results have shown that a record keeping system may link crop records to respective mapped crop fields in a GIS environment. This was then used to view crop field area, update new field data in the non spatial database and query and display field data for a specified period of interest. New data were added to their respective tables whenever available.Keywords: Recordkeeping system, Crop field, spatial, Farm, Management, Applicatio
Coarsening in potential and nonpotential models of oblique stripe patterns
We study the coarsening of two-dimensional oblique stripe patterns by
numerically solving potential and nonpotential anisotropic Swift-Hohenberg
equations. Close to onset, all models exhibit isotropic coarsening with a
single characteristic length scale growing in time as . Further from
onset, the characteristic lengths along the preferred directions and
grow with different exponents, close to 1/3 and 1/2, respectively. In
this regime, one-dimensional dynamical scaling relations hold. We draw an
analogy between this problem and Model A in a stationary, modulated external
field. For deep quenches, nonpotential effects produce a complicated
dislocation dynamics that can lead to either arrested or faster-than-power-law
growth, depending on the model considered. In the arrested case, small isolated
domains shrink down to a finite size and fail to disappear. A comparison with
available experimental results of electroconvection in nematics is presented.Comment: 13 pages, 13 figures. To appear in Phys. Rev.
Characterisation of toxic gaseous emissions from industrial solid waste landfills
International audienceIn France, Hazardous Industrial Waste, once stabilized, are buried in specific landfills. As for all polluting activities, these facilities must report to the EPER Register their toxic gaseous emissions, expressed in mass per year, as soon as they exceed threshold limit values. Campaigns were conducted on two different hazardous waste landfills in order to establish if these facilities needed to report to EPER register. Global fluxes of gaseous components were measured by means of an FID (hydrocarbons) and a PID (halocarbons, aromatics and some non-organic compounds). Specific concentrations of aromatic (BTEX) and chlorinated hydrocarbons were also measured. Gaseous emissions were generally very low. Emissions were only detected for young and medium-aged layers, between 1 day and 3 months old. Due to these low emissions, and to the small surfaces involved, the two landfills do not fall under the EPER emission Register
Mode-coupling approach to non-Newtonian Hele-Shaw flow
The Saffman-Taylor viscous fingering problem is investigated for the
displacement of a non-Newtonian fluid by a Newtonian one in a radial Hele-Shaw
cell. We execute a mode-coupling approach to the problem and examine the
morphology of the fluid-fluid interface in the weak shear limit. A differential
equation describing the early nonlinear evolution of the interface modes is
derived in detail. Owing to vorticity arising from our modified Darcy's law, we
introduce a vector potential for the velocity in contrast to the conventional
scalar potential. Our analytical results address how mode-coupling dynamics
relates to tip-splitting and side branching in both shear thinning and shear
thickening cases. The development of non-Newtonian interfacial patterns in
rectangular Hele-Shaw cells is also analyzed.Comment: 14 pages, 5 ps figures, Revtex4, accepted for publication in Phys.
Rev.
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