4,859 research outputs found
Experiments to investigate particulate materials in reduced gravity fields
Study investigates agglomeration and macroscopic behavior in reduced gravity fields of particles of known properties by measuring and correlating thermal and acoustical properties of particulate materials. Experiment evaluations provide a basis for a particle behavior theory and measure bulk properties of particulate materials in reduced gravity
Towards a modeling of the time dependence of contact area between solid bodies
I present a simple model of the time dependence of the contact area between
solid bodies, assuming either a totally uncorrelated surface topography, or a
self affine surface roughness. The existence of relaxation effects (that I
incorporate using a recently proposed model) produces the time increase of the
contact area towards an asymptotic value that can be much smaller than
the nominal contact area. For an uncorrelated surface topography, the time
evolution of is numerically found to be well fitted by expressions of
the form [, where the exponent depends on
the normal load as , with close to 0.5. In
particular, when the contact area is much lower than the nominal area I obtain
, i.e., a logarithmic time increase of the
contact area, in accordance with experimental observations. The logarithmic
increase for low loads is also obtained analytically in this case. For the more
realistic case of self affine surfaces, the results are qualitatively similar.Comment: 18 pages, 9 figure
Magnetic friction in Ising spin systems
A new contribution to friction is predicted to occur in systems with magnetic
correlations: Tangential relative motion of two Ising spin systems pumps energy
into the magnetic degrees of freedom. This leads to a friction force
proportional to the area of contact. The velocity and temperature dependence of
this force are investigated. Magnetic friction is strongest near the critical
temperature, below which the spin systems order spontaneously.
Antiferromagnetic coupling leads to stronger friction than ferromagnetic
coupling with the same exchange constant. The basic dissipation mechanism is
explained. If the coupling of the spin system to the heat bath is weak, a
surprising effect is observed in the ordered phase: The relative motion acts
like a heat pump cooling the spins in the vicinity of the friction surface.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Breakdown of disordered media by surface loads
We model an interface layer connecting two parts of a solid body by N
parallel elastic springs connecting two rigid blocks. We load the system by a
shear force acting on the top side. The springs have equal stiffness but are
ruptured randomly when the load reaches a critical value. For the considered
system, we calculate the shear modulus, G, as a function of the order
parameter, \phi, describing the state of damage, and also the ``spalled''
material (burst) size distribution. In particular, we evaluate the relation
between the damage parameter and the applied force and explore the behaviour in
the vicinity of material breakdown. Using this simple model for material
breakdown, we show that damage, caused by applied shear forces, is analogous to
a first-order phase transition. The scaling behaviour of G with \phi is
explored analytically and numerically, close to \phi=0 and \phi=1 and in the
vicinity of \phi_c, when the shear load is close but below the threshold force
that causes material breakdown. Our model calculation represents a first
approximation of a system subject to wear induced loads.Comment: 15 pages, 7 figure
Plate-impact loading of cellular structures formed by selective laser melting
Porous materials are of great interest because of improved energy absorption over their solid counterparts. Their properties, however, have been difficult to optimize. Additive manufacturing has emerged as a potential technique to closely define the structure and properties of porous components, i.e. density, strut width and pore size; however, the behaviour of these materials at very high impact energies remains largely unexplored. We describe an initial study of the dynamic compression response of lattice materials fabricated through additive manufacturing. Lattices consisting of an array of intersecting stainless steel rods were fabricated into discs using selective laser melting. The resulting discs were impacted against solid stainless steel targets at velocities ranging from 300 to 700 m s-1 using a gas gun. Continuum CTH simulations were performed to identify key features in the measured wave profiles, while 3D simulations, in which the individual cells were modelled, revealed details of microscale deformation during collapse of the lattice structure. The validated computer models have been used to provide an understanding of the deformation processes in the cellular samples. The study supports the optimization of cellular structures for application as energy absorbers. © 2014 IOP Publishing Ltd
Static Versus Dynamic Friction: The Role of Coherence
A simple model for solid friction is analyzed. It is based on tangential
springs representing interlocked asperities of the surfaces in contact. Each
spring is given a maximal strain according to a probability distribution. At
their maximal strain the springs break irreversibly. Initially all springs are
assumed to have zero strain, because at static contact local elastic stresses
are expected to relax. Relative tangential motion of the two solids leads to a
loss of coherence of the initial state: The springs get out of phase due to
differences in their sizes. This mechanism alone is shown to lead to a
difference between static and dynamic friction forces already. We find that in
this case the ratio of the static and dynamic coefficients decreases with
increasing relative width of the probability distribution, and has a lower
bound of 1 and an upper bound of 2.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figures, revtex
A statistical mechanics description of environmental variability in metabolic networks
Many of the chemical reactions that take place within a living cell are irreversible. Due to evolutionary pressures, the number of allowable reactions within these systems are highly constrained and thus the resulting metabolic networks display considerable asymmetry. In this paper, we explore possible evolutionary factors pertaining to the reduced symmetry observed in these networks, and demonstrate the important role environmental variability plays in shaping their structural organization. Interpreting the returnability index as an equilibrium constant for a reaction network in equilibrium with a hypothetical reference system, enables us to quantify the extent to which a metabolic network is in disequilibrium. Further, by introducing a new directed centrality measure via an extension of the subgraph centrality metric to directed networks, we are able to characterise individual metabolites by their participation within metabolic pathways. To demonstrate these ideas, we study 116 metabolic networks of bacteria. In particular, we find that the equilibrium constant for the metabolic networks decreases significantly in-line with variability in bacterial habitats, supporting the view that environmental variability promotes disequilibrium within these biochemical reaction system
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