634 research outputs found
On the decay of turbulence in plane Couette flow
The decay of turbulent and laminar oblique bands in the lower transitional
range of plane Couette flow is studied by means of direct numerical simulations
of the Navier--Stokes equations. We consider systems that are extended enough
for several bands to exist, thanks to mild wall-normal under-resolution
considered as a consistent and well-validated modelling strategy. We point out
a two-stage process involving the rupture of a band followed by a slow
regression of the fragments left. Previous approaches to turbulence decay in
wall-bounded flows making use of the chaotic transient paradigm are
reinterpreted within a spatiotemporal perspective in terms of large deviations
of an underlying stochastic process.Comment: ETC13 Conference Proceedings, 6 pages, 5 figure
Secondary Instabilities of Surface Waves on Viscous Fluids in the Faraday Instability
Secondary instabilities of Faraday waves show three regimes: (1) As seen
previously, low-viscosity (nu) fluids destabilize first into squares. At higher
driving accelerations a, squares show low-frequency modulations corresponding
to the motion of phase defects, while theory predicts a stationary transverse
amplitude modulation (TAM). (2) High-nu fluids destabilize first to stripes.
Stripes then show an oscillatory TAM whose frequency is incommensurate with the
driving frequency. At higher a, the TAM undergoes a phase instability. At still
higher a, edge dislocations form and fluid droplets are ejected. (3)
Intermediate-nu fluids show a complex coexistence of squares and stripes, as
well as stationary and oscillatory TAM instabilities of the stripes.Comment: REVTEX, with 3 separate uuencoded figures, to appear in Europhys.
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Grain boundary motion in layered phases
We study the motion of a grain boundary that separates two sets of mutually
perpendicular rolls in Rayleigh-B\'enard convection above onset. The problem is
treated either analytically from the corresponding amplitude equations, or
numerically by solving the Swift-Hohenberg equation. We find that if the rolls
are curved by a slow transversal modulation, a net translation of the boundary
follows. We show analytically that although this motion is a nonlinear effect,
it occurs in a time scale much shorter than that of the linear relaxation of
the curved rolls. The total distance traveled by the boundary scales as
, where is the reduced Rayleigh number. We obtain
analytical expressions for the relaxation rate of the modulation and for the
time dependent traveling velocity of the boundary, and especially their
dependence on wavenumber. The results agree well with direct numerical
solutions of the Swift-Hohenberg equation. We finally discuss the implications
of our results on the coarsening rate of an ensemble of differently oriented
domains in which grain boundary motion through curved rolls is the dominant
coarsening mechanism.Comment: 16 pages, 5 figure
An optical fiber based interferometer to measure velocity profiles in sheared complex fluids
We describe an optical fiber based interferometer to measure velocity
profiles in sheared complex fluids using Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS). After
a review of the theoretical problem of DLS under shear, a detailed description
of the setup is given. We outline the various experimental difficulties induced
by refraction when using a Couette cell. We also show that homodyne DLS is not
well suited to measure quantitative velocity profiles in narrow-gap Couette
geometries. On the other hand, the heterodyne technique allows us to determine
the velocity field inside the gap of a Couette cell. All the technical features
of the setup, namely its spatial resolution (--m) and its
temporal resolution ( s per point, min per profile) are
discussed, as well as the calibration procedure with a Newtonian fluid. As
briefly shown on oil-in-water emulsions, such a setup permits one to record
both velocity profiles and rheological data simultaneouslyComment: 13 pages, 16 figures, Submitted to Eur. Phys. J. A
Logarithmic periodicities in the bifurcations of type-I intermittent chaos
The critical relations for statistical properties on saddle-node bifurcations
are shown to display undulating fine structure, in addition to their known
smooth dependence on the control parameter. A piecewise linear map with the
type-I intermittency is studied and a log-periodic dependence is numerically
obtained for the average time between laminar events, the Lyapunov exponent and
attractor moments. The origin of the oscillations is built in the natural
probabilistic measure of the map and can be traced back to the existence of
logarithmically distributed discrete values of the control parameter giving
Markov partition. Reinjection and noise effect dependences are discussed and
indications are given on how the oscillations are potentially applicable to
complement predictions made with the usual critical exponents, taken from data
in critical phenomena.Comment: 4 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in PRL (2004
Dynamics of Strongly Deformed Polymers in Solution
Bead spring models for polymers in solution are nonlinear if either the
finite extensibility of the polymer, excluded volume effects or hydrodynamic
interactions between polymer segments are taken into account. For such models
we use a powerful method for the determination of the complete relaxation
spectrum of fluctuations at {\it steady state}. In general, the spectrum and
modes differ significantly from those of the linear Rouse model. For a tethered
polymer in uniform flow the differences are mainly caused by an inhomogeneous
distribution of tension along the chain and are most pronounced due to the
finite chain extensibility. Beyond the dynamics of steady state fluctuations we
also investigate the nonlinear response of the polymer to a {\em large sudden
change} in the flow. This response exhibits several distinct regimes with
characteristic decay laws and shows features which are beyond the scope of
single mode theories such as the dumbbell model.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figure
Stationary and Oscillatory Spatial Patterns Induced by Global Periodic Switching
We propose a new mechanism for pattern formation based on the global
alternation of two dynamics neither of which exhibits patterns. When driven by
either one of the separate dynamics, the system goes to a spatially homogeneous
state associated with that dynamics. However, when the two dynamics are
globally alternated sufficiently rapidly, the system exhibits stationary
spatial patterns. Somewhat slower switching leads to oscillatory patterns. We
support our findings by numerical simulations and discuss the results in terms
of the symmetries of the system and the ratio of two relevant characteristic
times, the switching period and the relaxation time to a homogeneous state in
each separate dynamics.Comment: REVTEX preprint: 12 pages including 1 (B&W) + 3 (COLOR) figures (to
appear in Physical Review Letters
Electrostatic and electrokinetic contributions to the elastic moduli of a driven membrane
We discuss the electrostatic contribution to the elastic moduli of a cell or
artificial membrane placed in an electrolyte and driven by a DC electric field.
The field drives ion currents across the membrane, through specific channels,
pumps or natural pores. In steady state, charges accumulate in the Debye layers
close to the membrane, modifying the membrane elastic moduli. We first study a
model of a membrane of zero thickness, later generalizing this treatment to
allow for a finite thickness and finite dielectric constant. Our results
clarify and extend the results presented in [D. Lacoste, M. Cosentino
Lagomarsino, and J. F. Joanny, Europhys. Lett., {\bf 77}, 18006 (2007)], by
providing a physical explanation for a destabilizing term proportional to
\kps^3 in the fluctuation spectrum, which we relate to a nonlinear ()
electro-kinetic effect called induced-charge electro-osmosis (ICEO). Recent
studies of ICEO have focused on electrodes and polarizable particles, where an
applied bulk field is perturbed by capacitive charging of the double layer and
drives flow along the field axis toward surface protrusions; in contrast, we
predict "reverse" ICEO flows around driven membranes, due to curvature-induced
tangential fields within a non-equilibrium double layer, which hydrodynamically
enhance protrusions. We also consider the effect of incorporating the dynamics
of a spatially dependent concentration field for the ion channels.Comment: 22 pages, 10 figures. Under review for EPJ
Two-Component Fluid Membranes Near Repulsive Walls: Linearized Hydrodynamics of Equilibrium and Non-equilibrium States
We study the linearized hydrodynamics of a two-component fluid membrane near
a repulsive wall, via a model which incorporates curvature- concentration
coupling as well as hydrodynamic interactions. This model is a simplified
version of a recently proposed one [J.-B. Manneville et al. Phys. Rev. E, 64,
021908 (2001)] for non-equilibrium force-centres embedded in fluid membranes,
such as light-activated bacteriorhodopsin pumps incorporated in phospholipid
(EPC) bilayers. The pump/membrane system is modeled as an impermeable,
two-component bilayer fluid membrane in the presence of an ambient solvent, in
which one component, representing active pumps, is described in terms of force
dipoles displaced with respect to the bilayer midpoint. We first discuss the
case in which such pumps are rendered inactive, computing the mode structure in
the bulk as well as the modification of hydrodynamic properties by the presence
of a nearby wall. We then discuss the fluctuations and mode structure in steady
state of active two-component membranes near a repulsive wall. We find that
proximity to the wall smoothens membrane height fluctuations in the stable
regime, resulting in a logarithmic scaling of the roughness even for initially
tensionless membranes. This explicitly non-equilibrium result, a consequence of
the incorporation of curvature-concentration coupling in our treatment, also
indicates that earlier scaling arguments which obtained an increase in the
roughness of active membranes near repulsive walls may need to be reevaluated.Comment: 39 page Latex file, 3 encapsulated Postscript figure
Anomalous fluctuations of active polar filaments
Using a simple model, we study the fluctuating dynamics of inextensible,
semiflexible polar filaments interacting with active and directed force
generating centres such as molecular motors. Taking into account the fact that
the activity occurs on time-scales comparable to the filament relaxation time,
we obtain some unexpected differences between both the steady-state and
dynamical behaviour of active as compared to passive filaments. For the
statics, the filaments have a {novel} length-scale dependent rigidity.
Dynamically, we find strongly enhanced anomalous diffusion.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure
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