Transverse instabilities of uprising planar jets formed by wave impacts on vertical walls

When a steep breaking wave hits a vertical sea wall, in shallow water, a rapidly ascending planar jet forms. This jet is ejected with high acceleration due to pressure created by the violent wave impact on the wall, creating a so-called 'flip-through' event. Previous studies have focused on the impulsive pressures on, and within, the wall and on the velocity of the jet. Here, in contrast, we consider the formation and break-up of the jet itself. Experiments show that during flip-through a fluid sheet, bounded by a rim, forms. This sheet has unstable transitional behaviours and organizing jets; undulations in the thickness of the fluid sheet are rapidly amplified and ruptured into an array of vertical ligaments. Lateral undulations of the rim lead to the formation of finger-jets, which subsequently break up to form droplets and spray. We present a linear stability analysis of the rim-sheet systems that highlights the contributions of rim retraction and sheet stretching to the breakup process. The mechanisms for the sequential surface deformations in the rim-sheet system are also described. Multiple, distinct, instability modes are identified during the rim deceleration, sheet stretch attenuation and rim retraction processes. The wavenumbers (and deformation length scales) associated with these instability modes are shown to lead to the characteristic double peak spectrum of surface displacement observed in the experiments. These mechanisms help to explain the columnar structures often seen in photographs of violent wave impacts on harbour walls

Scaled metal forming experiments: A transport equation approach

The focus of this paper is on a method for the design of bespoke small-scale pilot, metal-forming processes and models that accurately represent corresponding industrial-scale processes. Introducing new complex metal forming processes in industry commonly involves a trial and error approach to ensure that the final product requirements are met. Detailed process modelling, analysis and small-scale feasibility trials could be carried out instead. A fundamental concern of scaled experiments, however, is whether the results obtained can be guaranteed to be representative of the associated industrial processes. Presently, this is not the case with classical approaches founded on dimensional analysis providing little direction for the design of scaled metal-forming experiments. The difficulty is that classical approaches often focus predominantly on constitutive equations (which indirectly represent micro-structural behaviour) and thus focus on aspects that invariably cannot be scaled. This paper introduces a new approach founded on scaled transport equations that describe the physics involved on a finite domain. The transport approach however focuses on physical quantities that do scale and thus provides a platform on which bulk behaviour is accurately represented across the length scales. The new approach is trialled and compared against numerically obtained results to reveal a new powerful technique for scaled experimentation

Standing waves for acoustic levitation

Standing waves are the most popular method to achieve acoustic trapping. Particles with greater acoustic impedance than the propagation medium will be trapped at the pressure nodes of a standing wave. Acoustic trapping can be used to hold particles of various materials and sizes, without the need of a close-loop controlling system. Acoustic levitation is a helpful and versatile tool for biomaterials and chemistry, with applications in spectroscopy and lab-on-a-droplet procedures. In this chapter, multiple methods are presented to simulate the acoustic field generated by one or multiple emitters. From the acoustic field, models such as the Gor'kov potential or the Flux Integral are applied to calculate the force exerted on the levitated particles. The position and angle of the acoustic emitters play a fundamental role, thus we analyse commonly used configurations such as emitter and reflector, two opposed emitters, or arrangements using phased arrays

Surgical impact on brain tumor invasion: A physical perspective

It is conventional strategy to treat highly malignant brain tumors initially with cytoreductive surgery followed by adjuvant radio- and chemotherapy. However, in spite of all such efforts, the patients' prognosis remains dismal since residual glioma cells continue to infiltrate adjacent parenchyma and the tumors almost always recur. On the basis of a simple biomechanical conjecture that we have introduced previously, we argue here that by affecting the 'volume-pressure' relationship and minimizing surface tension of the remaining tumor cells, gross total resection may have an inductive effect on the invasiveness of the tumor cells left behind. Potential implications for treatment strategies are discussed

Formation of beads-on-a-string structures during break-up of viscoelastic filaments

Break-up of viscoelastic filaments is pervasive in both nature and technology. If a filament is formed by placing a drop of saliva between a thumb and forefinger and is stretched, the filament’s morphology close to break-up corresponds to beads of several sizes interconnected by slender threads. Although there is general agreement that formation of such beads-on-a-string (BOAS) structures occurs only for viscoelastic fluids, the underlying physics remains unclear and controversial. The physics leading to the formation of BOAS structures is probed by numerical simulation. Computations reveal that viscoelasticity alone does not give rise to a small, satellite bead between two much larger main beads but that inertia is required for its formation. Viscoelasticity, however, enhances the growth of the bead and delays pinch-off, which leads to a relatively long-lived beaded structure. We also show for the first time theoretically that yet smaller, sub-satellite beads can also form as seen in experiments.National Science Foundation (U.S.). ERC-SOPS (EEC-0540855)Nanoscale Interdisciplinary Research Thrust on 'Directed Self-assembly of Suspended Polymer Fibers' (NSF-DMS0506941

Bioactive Electrospun Scaffolds Delivering Growth Factors and Genes for Tissue Engineering Applications

A biomaterial scaffold is one of the key factors for successful tissue engineering. In recent years, an increasing tendency has been observed toward the combination of scaffolds and biomolecules, e.g. growth factors and therapeutic genes, to achieve bioactive scaffolds, which not only provide physical support but also express biological signals to modulate tissue regeneration. Huge efforts have been made on the exploration of strategies to prepare bioactive scaffolds. Within the past five years, electrospun scaffolds have gained an exponentially increasing popularity in this area because of their ultrathin fiber diameter and large surface-volume ratio, which is favored for biomolecule delivery. This paper reviews current techniques that can be used to prepare bioactive electrospun scaffolds, including physical adsorption, blend electrospinning, coaxial electrospinning, and covalent immobilization. In addition, this paper also analyzes the existing challenges (i.e., protein instability, low gene transfection efficiency, and difficulties in accurate kinetics prediction) to achieve biomolecule release from electrospun scaffolds, which necessitate further research to fully exploit the biomedical applications of these bioactive scaffolds

Thermal stimulation of aqueous volumes contained in carbon nanotubes: Experiment and modeling

The dynamic response, as caused by thermal stimulation, of aqueous liquid attoliter volumes contained inside multiwall carbon nanotubes is investigated theoretically and experimentally. The experiments indicate an energetically driven mechanism responsible for the dynamic multiphase fluid behavior visualized under high resolution in the transmission electron microscope. The theoretical model is formulated using a continuum approach, which combines temperature-dependent diffusion with intermolecular interactions in the fluid bulk, as well as in the vicinity of the carbon wall. Intermolecular van der Waals forces are modeled by Lennard-Jones 12-6 potentials. Comparisons between theoretical predictions and experimental data demonstrate the ability of the model to describe the major trends observed in the experiments. (C) 2005 American Institute of Physics