Many-body dipole-induced dipole model for electrorheological fluids

Theoretical investigations on electrorheological (ER) fluids usually rely on computer simulations. An initial approach for these studies would be the point-dipole (PD) approximation, which is known to err considerably when the particles approach and finally touch due to many-body and multipolar interactions. Thus various work attempted to go beyond the PD model. Being beyond the PD model, previous attempts have been restricted to either local-field effects only or multipolar effects only, but not both. For instance, we recently proposed a dipole-induced-dipole (DID) model which is shown to be both more accurate than the PD model and easy to use. This work is necessary because the many-body (local-field) effect is included to put forth the many-body DID model. The results show that the multipolar interactions can indeed be dominant over the dipole interaction, while the local-field effect may yield an important correction.Comment: RevTeX, 3 eps figure

Dielectric behavior of oblate spheroidal particles: Application to erythrocytes suspensions

We have investigated the effect of particle shape on the eletrorotation (ER) spectrum of living cells suspensions. In particular, we consider coated oblate spheroidal particles and present a theoretical study of ER based on the spectral representation theory. Analytic expressions for the characteristic frequency as well as the dispersion strength can be obtained, thus simplifying the fitting of experimental data on oblate spheroidal cells that abound in the literature. From the theoretical analysis, we find that the cell shape, coating as well as material parameters can change the ER spectrum. We demonstrate good agreement between our theoretical predictions and experimental data on human erthrocytes suspensions.Comment: RevTex; 5 eps figure

Nonlinear ac responses of electro-magnetorheological fluids

We apply a Langevin model to investigate the nonlinear ac responses of electro-magnetorheological (ERMR) fluids under the application of two crossed dc magnetic (z axis) and electric (x axis) fields and a probing ac sinusoidal magnetic field. We focus on the influence of the magnetic fields which can yield nonlinear behaviors inside the system due to the particles with a permanent magnetic dipole moment. Based on a perturbation approach, we extract the harmonics of the magnetic field and orientational magnetization analytically. To this end, we find that the harmonics are sensitive to the degree of anisotropy of the structure as well as the field frequency. Thus, it is possible to real-time monitor the structure transformation of ERMR fluids by detecting the nonlinear ac responses.Comment: 21 pages, 4 figure

Catalysts for electrochemical generation of oxygen

An effort was made to study the effects of cation and anion additions on oxygen evolution kinetics on platinum and the inhibitive or catalytic nature of the additions. The kinetics and mechanism of oxygen evolution on planitum metal in hydrofluoric and sulfuric acids, including the effects of foreign anions, were examined. The LEED-Auger-thin layer electrochemical system was developed for the examination of electrocatalytic surfaces. Samples for electrocatalytic LEED-Auger studies were prepared and examined

Evidence of Counter-Streaming Ions near the Inner Pole of the HERMeS Hall Thruster

NASA is continuing the development of a 12.5-kW Hall thruster system to support a phased exploration concept to expand human presence to cis-lunar space and eventually to Mars. The development team is transitioning knowledge gained from the testing of the government-built Technology Development Unit (TDU) to the contractor-built Engineering Test Unit (ETU). A new laser-induced fluorescence diagnostic was developed to obtain data for validating the Hall thruster models and for comparing the behavior of the ETU and TDU. Analysis of TDU LIF data obtained during initial deployment of the diagnostics revealed evidence of two streams of ions moving in opposite directions near the inner front pole. These two streams of ions were found to intersect the downstream surface of the front pole at large oblique angles. This data points to a possible explanation for why the erosion rate of polished pole covers were observed to decrease over the course of several hundred hours of thruster operation

Unification of Gravitation, Gauge Field and Dark Energy

This paper is composed of two correlated topics: 1. unification of gravitation with gauge fields; 2. the coupling between the daor field and other fields and the origin of dark energy. After introducing the concept of ``daor field" and discussing the daor geometry, we indicate that the complex daor field has two kinds of symmetry transformations. Hence the gravitation and SU(1,3) gauge field are unified under the framework of the complex connection. We propose a first-order nonlinear coupling equation of the daor field, which includes the coupling between the daor field and SU(1,3) gauge field and the coupling between the daor field and the curvature, and from which Einstein's gravitational equation can be deduced. The cosmological observations imply that dark energy cannot be zero, and which will dominate the doom of our Universe. The real part of the daor field self-coupling equation can be regarded as Einstein's equation endowed with the cosmological constant. It shows that dark energy originates from the self-coupling of the space-time curvature, and the energy-momentum tensor is proportional to the square of coupling constant \lambda. The dark energy density given by our scenario is in agreement with astronomical observations. Furthermore, the Newtonian gravitational constant G and the coupling constant \epsilon of gauge field satisfy G= \lambda^{2}\epsilon^{2}.Comment: 24 pages, revised version; references added; typos correcte