676 research outputs found
Structure and stability of helices in square-well homopolymers
Recently, it has been demonstrated [Magee et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 96, 207802
(2006)] that isolated, square-well homopolymers can spontaneously break chiral
symmetry and freeze into helical structures at sufficiently low temperatures.
This behavior is interesting because the square-well homopolymer is itself
achiral. In this work, we use event-driven molecular dynamics, combined with an
optimized parallel tempering scheme, to study this polymer model over a wide
range of parameters. We examine the conditions where the helix structure is
stable and determine how the interaction parameters of the polymer govern the
details of the helix structure. The width of the square well (proportional to
lambda) is found to control the radius of the helix, which decreases with
increasing well width until the polymer forms a coiled sphere for sufficiently
large wells. The helices are found to be stable for only a window of molecular
weights. If the polymer is too short, the helix will not form. If the polymer
is too long, the helix is no longer the minimum energy structure, and other
folded structures will form. The size of this window is governed by the chain
stiffness, which in this model is a function of the ratio of the monomer size
to the bond length. Outside this window, the polymer still freezes into a
locked structure at low temperature, however, unless the chain is sufficiently
stiff, this structure will not be unique and is similar to a glassy state.Comment: Submitted to Physical Review
One-dimensional steady-state thermal model for rotary kilns used in the manufacture of cement
Peer reviewedPostprin
Exact on-event expressions for discrete potential systems
The properties of systems composed of atoms interacting though discrete potentials are dictated by a series of events which occur between pairs of atoms. There are only four basic event types for pairwise discrete potentials and the square-well/shoulder systems studied here exhibit them all. Closed analytical expressions are derived for the on-event kinetic energy distribution functions for an atom, which are distinct from the Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution function. Exact expressions are derived that directly relate the pressure and temperature of equilibrium discrete potential systems to the rates of each type of event. The pressure can be determined from knowledge of only the rate of core and bounce events. The temperature is given by the ratio of the number of bounce events to the number of disassociation/association events. All these expressions are validated with event-driven molecular dynamics simulations and agree with the data within the statistical precision of the simulations
Carbon footprint of calcium sulfoaluminate clinker production
Peer reviewedPostprin
Production of belite calcium sulfoaluminate cement using sulfur as a fuel and as a source of clinker sulfur trioxide : pilot kiln trial
The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support provided by the Gulf Organization for Research and Development (GORD), Qatar, through research grant number ENG016RGG11757. The authors would also like to acknowledge Thomas Matschei and Guanshu Li for the stimulating and fruitful discussions concerning the development of this work. The continuous support prior to, during and after the pilot kiln trial from Vadym Kuznietsov and the entire team at IBU-tec is also greatly appreciated.Peer reviewedPublisher PD
Movers and shakers: Granular damping in microgravity
The response of an oscillating granular damper to an initial perturbation is
studied using experiments performed in microgravity and granular dynamics
mulations. High-speed video and image processing techniques are used to extract
experimental data. An inelastic hard sphere model is developed to perform
simulations and the results are in excellent agreement with the experiments.
The granular damper behaves like a frictional damper and a linear decay of the
amplitude is bserved. This is true even for the simulation model, where
friction forces are absent. A simple expression is developed which predicts the
optimal damping conditions for a given amplitude and is independent of the
oscillation frequency and particle inelasticities.Comment: 9 pages, 9 figure
Transport properties of highly asymmetric hard-sphere mixtures
The static and dynamic properties of binary mixtures of hard spheres with a diameter ratio of sigma(B)/sigma(A)= 0.1 and a mass ratio of m(B)/m(A)= 0.001 are investigated using event driven molecular dynamics. The contact values of the pair correlation functions are found to compare favorably with recently proposed theoretical expressions. The transport coefficients of the mixture, determined from simulation, are compared to the predictions of the revised Enskog theory using both a third-order Sonine expansion and direct simulation Monte Carlo. Overall, the Enskog theory provides a fairly good description of the simulation data, with the exception of systems at the smallest mole fraction of larger spheres (x(A)=0.01) examined. A "fines effect" was observed at higher packing fractions, where adding smaller spheres to a system of large spheres decreases the viscosity of the mixture; this effect is not captured by the Enskog theory
Thermodynamic and dynamical properties of the hard sphere system revisited by molecular dynamics simulation
Acknowledgements Some of the MD calculations were performed at the Poznan Supercomputing and Networking Center (PCSS). DMH would like to thank Dr. T. Crane (Department of Physics, Royal Holloway, University of London, UK) for helpful software support.Peer reviewedPostprin
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