Thermal electric effects and heat generation in polypyrrole coated PET fabrics

Polypyrrole chemically synthesized on PET gives rise to textiles with a high electric conductivity, suitable for several applications from antistatics to electromagnetic interference shielding devices. Here, we discuss investigations on thermal electric performances of the polypyrrole coated PET in a wide range of temperatures above room temperature. The Seebeck coefficient turns out to be comparable with that of metal thermocouple materials. Since polypyrrole shows extremely low thermal diffusivities regardless of the electrical conductivity, the low thermal conductivity gives significant advantage to the thermoelectric figure-of-merit ZT, comparable with that of some traditional inorganic thermoelectric materials. The heat generation is also investigated for possible heating textile devices.Comment: 12 pages and 9 figure

Collective excitation of a Bose-Einstein condensate by modulation of the atomic scattering length

We excite the lowest-lying quadrupole mode of a Bose-Einstein condensate by modulating the atomic scattering length via a Feshbach resonance. Excitation occurs at various modulation frequencies, and resonances located at the natural quadrupole frequency of the condensate and at the first harmonic are observed. We also investigate the amplitude of the excited mode as a function of modulation depth. Numerical simulations based on a variational calculation agree with our experimental results and provide insight into the observed behavior.Comment: Submitted to PR

Generation of vortices and observation of Quantum Turbulence in an oscillating Bose-Einstein Condensate

We report on the experimental observation of vortex formation and production of tangled vortex distribution in an atomic BEC of Rb-87 atoms submitted to an external oscillatory perturbation. The oscillatory perturbations start by exciting quadrupolar and scissors modes of the condensate. Then regular vortices are observed finally evolving to a vortex tangle configuration. The vortex tangle is a signature of the presence of a turbulent regime in the cloud. We also show that this turbulent cloud has suppression of the aspect ratio inversion typically observed in quantum degenerate bosonic gases during free expansion.Comment: to appear in JLTP - QFS 200

A comparison of experimental and numerical behaviour characteristics of a ship entering a lock using benchmark test data

This paper discusses several papers that were presented at the 3rd International Conference on Ship Manoeuvring in Shallow and Confined Water, which had a non-exclusive focus on Ship Behaviour in Locks. For this conference, experimental model test data obtained at Flanders Hydraulics Research had been made public and researchers were encouraged to compare numerical with experimental results [1]. Data of benchmark tests carried out both with self-propelled and captive models were used by researchers for comparison with various numerical tools. The objective of this paper is to give a selected overview of how accurately numerical tools are presently able to predict the hydrodynamic forces that occur on ships approaching locks. Based on this, the paper concludes that experiments and numerical tools complement each other