1,342 research outputs found
Background and approach to a definition of smart buildings
There is no possibility of finding a single reference about domotics in the first half of the 20th century. The best known authors and those who have documented this discipline, set its origin in the 1970’s, when the x-10 technology began to be used, but it was not until 1988 when Larousse Encyclopedia decided to include the definition of "Smart Building". Furthermore, even nowadays, there is not a single definition widely accepted, and for that reason, many other expressions, namely "Intelligent Buildings" "Domotics" "Digital Home" or "Home Automation" have appeared to describe the automated buildings and homes. The lack of a clear definition for "Smart Buildings" causes difficulty not only in the development of a common international framework to develop research in this field, but it also causes insecurity in the potential user of these buildings. Thus, the main purpose of this paper is to propose a definition of the expression “Smart Buildings” that satisfactorily describes the meaning of this discipline. To achieve this aim, a thorough review of the origin of the term itself and the historical background before the emergence of the phenomenon of domotics was conducted, followed by a critical discussion of existing definitions of the term "Smart Buildings" and other similar terms. The extent of each definition has been analyzed, inaccuracies have been discarded and commonalities have been compared. Throughout the discussion, definitions that bring the term "Smart Buildings" near to disciplines such as computer science, robotics and also telecommunications have been found
Axisymmetric pulse recycling and motion in bulk semiconductors
The Kroemer model for the Gunn effect in a circular geometry (Corbino disks)
has been numerically solved. The results have been interpreted by means of
asymptotic calculations. Above a certain onset dc voltage bias, axisymmetric
pulses of the electric field are periodically shed by an inner circular
cathode. These pulses decay as they move towards the outer anode, which they
may not reach. As a pulse advances, the external current increases continuously
until a new pulse is generated. Then the current abruptly decreases, in
agreement with existing experimental results. Depending on the bias, more
complex patterns with multiple pulse shedding are possible.Comment: 8 pages, 15 figure
Capillary rise of a liquid between two vertical plates making a small angle.
The penetration of a wetting liquid in the narrow gap between two vertical plates making a small angle is analyzed in the framework of the lubrication approximation. At the beginning of the process, the liquid rises independently at different distances from the line of intersection of the plates except in a small region around this line where the effect of the gravity is negligible. The maximum height of the liquid initially increases as the cubic root of time and is attained at a point that reaches the line of intersection only after a certain time. At later times, the motion of the liquid is confined to a thin layer around the line of intersection whose height increases as the cubic root of time and whose thickness decreases as the inverse of the cubic root of time. The evolution of the liquid surface is computed numerically and compared with the results of a simple experiment
Lubrication of DLC Coatings with Two Tris(pentafluoroethyl)trifluorophosphate Anion-Based Ionic Liquids
The lubrication of a Cr-DLC coating with ethyl-dimethyl-2-methoxyethylammonium tris(pentafluoroethyl)trifluoropho-sphate [(NEMM)MOE][FAP] and 1-butyl-1-methylpyrro-lidinium tris(pentafluoroethyl)trifluorophosphate [BMP] [FAP] ionic liquids (ILs) as 1 wt% additives to a polyalphaolefin (PAO 6) was studied. Zinc dialkyldithiophosphate (ZDDP) was also used as reference in order to evaluate the effectiveness of the ILs. Reciprocating ball-on-plate tribological tests at loads of 20 and 40 N were performed. The results showed that both ILs exhibited a friction reduction, especially at the lowest load tested. Antiwear properties were also improved; the PAO 6 + 1% [BMP][FAP] mixture was slightly better, close to the values for PAO 6 + 1% ZDDP. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis indicated that the additive–surface interaction was responsible for the tribological improvement
An H-Theorem for the Lattice Boltzmann Approach to Hydrodynamics
The lattice Boltzmann equation can be viewed as a discretization of the
continuous Boltzmann equation. Because of this connection it has long been
speculated that lattice Boltzmann algorithms might obey an H-theorem. In this
letter we prove that usual nine-velocity models do not obey an H-theorem but
models that do obey an H-theorem can be constructed. We consider the general
conditions a lattice Boltzmann scheme must satisfy in order to obey an
H-theorem and show why on a lattice, unlike the continuous case, dynamics that
decrease an H-functional do not necessarily lead to a unique ground state.Comment: 6 pages, latex, no figures, accepted for publication in Europhys.
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Asymptotic solution of the turbulent mixing layer for velocity ratio close to unity
The equations describing the first two terms of an asymptotic expansion of the solution of the planar turbulent mixing layer for values of the velocity ratio close to one are obtained. The first term of this expansion is the solution of the well-known time-evolving problem and the second, which includes the effects of the increase of the turbulence scales in the stream-wise direction, obeys a linear system of equations. Numerical solutions of these equations for a two-dimensional reacting mixing layer show that the correction to the time-evolving solution may explain the asymmetry of the entrainment and the differences in product generation observed in flip experiments
High speed single photon detection in the near-infrared
InGaAs avalanche photodiodes (APDs) are convenient for single photon
detection in the near-infrared (NIR) including the fibre communication bands
(1.31/1.55 m). However, to suppress afterpulse noise due to trapped
avalanche charge, they must be gated with MHz repetition frequencies, thereby
severely limiting the count rate in NIR applications. Here we show gating
frequencies for InGaAs-APDs well beyond 1 GHz. Using a self-differencing
technique to sense much weaker avalanches, we reduce drastically afterpulse
noise. At 1.25 GHz, we obtain a detection efficiency of 10.8% with an
afterpulse probability of 6.16%. In addition, the detector features low jitter
(55 ps) and a count rate of 100 MHz
A lattice mesoscopic model of dynamically heterogeneous fluids
We introduce a mesoscopic three-dimensional Lattice Boltzmann Model which
attempts to mimick the physical features associated with cage effects in
dynamically heterogeneous fluids. To this purpose, we extend the standard
Lattice Boltzmann dynamics with self-consistent constraints based on the
non-local density of the surrounding fluid. The resulting dynamics exhibits
typical features of dynamic heterogeneous fluids, such as non-Gaussian density
distributions and long-time relaxation. Due to its intrinsically parallel
dynamics, and absence of statistical noise, the method is expected to compute
significantly faster than molecular dynamics, Monte Carlo and lattice glass
models.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, to appear in Phys. Rev. Let
Multi-particle-collision dynamics: Flow around a circular and a square cylinder
A particle-based model for mesoscopic fluid dynamics is used to simulate
steady and unsteady flows around a circular and a square cylinder in a
two-dimensional channel for a range of Reynolds number between 10 and 130.
Numerical results for the recirculation length, the drag coefficient, and the
Strouhal number are reported and compared with previous experimental
measurements and computational fluid dynamics data. The good agreement
demonstrates the potential of this method for the investigation of complex
flows.Comment: 6 pages, separated figures in .jpg format, to be published in
Europhysics Letter
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