Variations sur un thème de Biot - Une nouvelle formulation déplacement pour les matériaux poreux

Une nouvelle formulation du modèle de Biot pour les matériaux poroélastiques est ici proposée, cette formulation diffère par le choix des coordonnées généralisées. Elles sont choisies de manière à simplifier l'expression de l'énergie de déformation. Il est à noter qu'aucune hypothèse supplémentaire n'est ainsi formulée. Cette simplification du formalisme est étendue aux résultats classiques de la théorie de Biot. Une adaptation rigoureuse des modèles fluide équivalent et limp découle alors naturellement du nouveau formalisme. Il est aussi montré que dans le cas particulier de matériaux acoustiques, des simplifications additionnelles du formalisme peuvent être obtenues

An application of normal mode decomposition to measure the acoustical properties of low growing plants in a broad frequency range

© 2016 Elsevier Ltd This paper presents a new application of the normal mode decomposition to measure the reflection and absorption coefficients of a low growing living plant in a large 300 × 300 mm impedance tube. In this way the higher frequency limit can be extended by a factor of 3 in comparison to that suggested by the standard ISO 10534-2 method for this type of an impedance tube. The adopted method (Prisutova et al., 2014) is based on minimising the difference between the spatial Fourier transform of the measured sound pressure at a range of closely spaced positions along the impedance tube and the predicted transform arising from the normal mode decomposition method. The angular and frequency dependent complex reflection coefficients for the first 5 normal modes are recovered. The acoustical properties of three plants specimen, Pelargonium hortorum, Begonia benariensis and Hedera helix, are measured with the adopted method. These properties are related to the plant morphology through an equivalent fluid model. It is shown that in some cases the predicted and measured data are in close agreement. However, there are cases when the agreement between these data is poor. The possible reasons for this discrepancy are proposed and discussed. This work paves the way for a better understanding of the relations between the plant morphology and its acoustical properties

Influence of constructive options on the vibro-acoustic behavior of a wooden lightweight structure

This paper aims to present the influence of several constructive options on the vibro-acoustic behavior of a wooden lightweight structure. The experiemental protocol, which was optimised and described in an preceeding paper, allows us to quantify the influence of these constructive options in terms of acoustic level and isolation, eigenfrequencies and vibration mode shapes of the different parts of the structure. The results of this work are coherent and confirmed that the experimental test protocol is functional and repeatable

An ant-plant mutualism induces shifts in the protist community structure of a tank-bromeliad

Although ants may induce community-wide effects via changes in physical habitats in terrestrial environments, their influence on aquatic communities living in plant-held waters remains largely underexplored. The neotropical tank-bromeliad Aechmea mertensii (Bromeliaceae) occurs along forest edges in ant-gardens initiated by Camponotus femoratus or by Pachycondyla goeldii. Its leaves form wells that hold rainwater and provide suitable habitats for many aquatic organisms. We postulated that these ant-plant mutualisms indirectly affect the microbial community structure via changes in the environmental conditions experienced by the plants. To test this hypothesis, we analyzed the protist communities from 63 tank-bromeliads associated with either C. femoratus or P. goeldii (hereafter Cf-Aechmea and Pg-Aechmea) along a forest edge in French Guiana. For each plant, a large number of environmental variables (including habitat structure, food resources, incident radiation and the presence of aquatic invertebrates) were quantified to determine their relative importance in driving any observed differences across ant-associated plants. Pg-Aechmea are located in sun-exposed areas and hold low volumes of water and low amounts of detritus, whereas Cf-Aechmea are located in partially shaded areas and accumulate higher amounts of water and detritus. Protists (i.e., protozoa and algae) inhabiting Cf-Aechmea exhibit greater richness and abundances than those in Pg-Aechmea. Variations in detritus content, number of leaves, incident radiation, and the epiphyte richness of the ant-garden were the main factors explaining the variation in protist richness. A shift in the functional group composition of protists between bromeliads tended by different ant species suggested that mutualistic ants indirectly mediate changes in the microbial food web

Rayonnement acoustique de structures de type ossature bois : comparaison entre méthode éléments finis et formulation intégrale

Un des points délicats de la construction bois se situe au niveau de l'isolation acoustique des planchers bois. L'objectif de cette article est de déterminer le rayonnement acoustique de ce type de structures (légères et nervurées). Deux méthodes sont présentés, l'une modélisant, par éléments finis, le domaine global (structure in-vivo) et son couplage, l'autre exploitant une méthode combinée (élément finis et formulation intégrale) sur la structure in-vacuo. Un code éléments finis sous licence libre (FreeFem++) est employé dans cette étude en comparaison avec un des codes commerciaux

Haut parleur tout aimant guidé sur joint ferrofluide : caractérisation dynamique du guidage

Une étude expérimentale sur le comportement visqueux de ferrofluides, au sein d'une goutte insérée entre deux plans parallèles, en condition de cisaillement oscillatoire et sous champ magnétique homogène et stationnaire, permet d'alimenter un modèle pour les pertes d'un haut-parleur tout aimant guidé sur joint ferrofluide. Ces joints sont localisés dans les zones de fort gradient de champs magnétique. Le modèle de perte, fonction du volume, de la viscosité et de la saturation magnétique du ferrofluide, est alors validé par confrontation avec une expérience

Food-web structure in relation to environmental gradients and predator-prey ratios in tank-bromeliad ecosystems

Little is known of how linkage patterns between species change along environmental gradients. The small, spatially discrete food webs inhabiting tank-bromeliads provide an excellent opportunity to analyse patterns of community diversity and food-web topology (connectance, linkage density, nestedness) in relation to key environmental variables (habitat size, detrital resource, incident radiation) and predators: prey ratios. We sampled 365 bromeliads in a wide range of understorey environments in French Guiana and used gut contents of invertebrates to draw the corresponding 365 connectance webs. At the bromeliad scale, habitat size (water volume) determined the number of species that constitute food-web nodes, the proportion of predators, and food-web topology. The number of species as well as the proportion of predators within bromeliads declined from open to forested habitats, where the volume of water collected by bromeliads was generally lower because of rainfall interception by the canopy. A core group of microorganisms and generalist detritivores remained relatively constant across environments. This suggests that (i) a highly-connected core ensures food-web stability and key ecosystem functions across environments, and (ii) larger deviations in food-web structures can be expected following disturbance if detritivores share traits that determine responses to environmental changes. While linkage density and nestedness were lower in bromeliads in the forest than in open areas, experiments are needed to confirm a trend for lower food-web stability in the understorey of primary forests

Environmental determinants of macroinvertebrate diversity in small water bodies: insights from tank-bromeliads

The interlocking leaves of tank-forming bromeliads (Bromeliaceae) collect rainwater and detritus, thus creating a freshwater habitat for specialized organisms. Their abundance and the possibility of quantifying communities with accuracy give us unparalleled insight into how changes in local to regional environments influence community diversity in small water bodies. We sampled 365 bromeliads (365 invertebrate communities) along a southeastern to northwestern range in French Guiana. Geographic locality determined the species pool for bromeliad invertebrates, and local environments determined the abundance patterns through the selection of traits that are best adapted to the bromeliad habitats. Patterns in community structure mostly emerged from patterns of predator species occurrence and abundance across local-regional environments, while the set of detritivores remained constant. Water volume had a strong positive correlation with invertebrate diversity, making it a biologically relevant measure of the pools' carrying capacity. The significant effects of incoming detritus and incident light show that changes in local environments (e.g., the conversion of forest to cropping systems) strongly influence freshwater communities. Because changes in local environments do not affect detritivores and predators equally, one may expect functional shifts as sets of invertebrates with particular traits are replaced or complemented by other sets with different traits

Are Algae Relevant to the Detritus-Based Food Web in Tank-Bromeliads?

We assessed the occurrence of algae in five species of tank-bromeliads found in contrasting environmental sites in a Neotropical, primary rainforest around the Nouragues Research Station, French Guiana. The distributions of both algal abundance and biomass were examined based on physical parameters, the morphological characteristics of bromeliad species and with regard to the structure of other aquatic microbial communities held in the tanks. Algae were retrieved in all of the bromeliad species with mean densities ranging from ∼102 to 104 cells/mL. Their biomass was positively correlated to light exposure and bacterial biomass. Algae represented a tiny component of the detrital food web in shaded bromeliads but accounted for up to 30 percent of the living microbial carbon in the tanks of Catopsis berteroniana, located in a highly exposed area. Thus, while nutrient supplies are believed to originate from wind-borne particles and trapped insects (i.e., allochtonous organic matter), our results indicate that primary producers (i.e., autochtonous organic matter) are present in this insectivorous bromeliad. Using a 24-h incubation of size-fractionated and manipulated samples from this plant, we evaluated the impact of mosquito foraging on algae, other microorganisms and rotifers. The prey assemblages were greatly altered by the predation of mosquito larvae. Grazing losses indicated that the dominant algal taxon, Bumilleriopsis sp., like protozoa and rotifers, is a significant part of the diet of mosquito larvae. We conclude that algae are a relevant functional community of the aquatic food web in C. berteroniana and might form the basis of a complementary non-detrital food web