17,634 research outputs found
Nonlinear ac response of anisotropic composites
When a suspension consisting of dielectric particles having nonlinear
characteristics is subjected to a sinusoidal (ac) field, the electrical
response will in general consist of ac fields at frequencies of the
higher-order harmonics. These ac responses will also be anisotropic. In this
work, a self-consistent formalism has been employed to compute the induced
dipole moment for suspensions in which the suspended particles have nonlinear
characteristics, in an attempt to investigate the anisotropy in the ac
response. The results showed that the harmonics of the induced dipole moment
and the local electric field are both increased as the anisotropy increases for
the longitudinal field case, while the harmonics are decreased as the
anisotropy increases for the transverse field case. These results are
qualitatively understood with the spectral representation. Thus, by measuring
the ac responses both parallel and perpendicular to the uniaxial anisotropic
axis of the field-induced structures, it is possible to perform a real-time
monitoring of the field-induced aggregation process.Comment: 14 pages and 4 eps figure
Nonlinear ER effects in an ac applied field
The electric field used in most electrorheological (ER) experiments is
usually quite high, and nonlinear ER effects have been theoretically predicted
and experimentally measured recently. A direct method of measuring the
nonlinear ER effects is to examine the frequency dependence of the same
effects. For a sinusoidal applied field, we calculate the ac response which
generally includes higher harmonics. In is work, we develop a multiple image
formula, and calculate the total dipole moments of a pair of dielectric
spheres, embedded in a nonlinear host. The higher harmonics due to the
nonlinearity are calculated systematically.Comment: Presented at Conference on Computational Physics (CCP2000), held at
Gold Coast, Australia from 3-8, December 200
Dielectric Behavior of Nonspherical Cell Suspensions
Recent experiments revealed that the dielectric dispersion spectrum of
fission yeast cells in a suspension was mainly composed of two sub-dispersions.
The low-frequency sub-dispersion depended on the cell length, whereas the
high-frequency one was independent of it. The cell shape effect was
qualitatively simulated by an ellipsoidal cell model. However, the comparison
between theory and experiment was far from being satisfactory. In an attempt to
close up the gap between theory and experiment, we considered the more
realistic cells of spherocylinders, i.e., circular cylinders with two
hemispherical caps at both ends. We have formulated a Green function formalism
for calculating the spectral representation of cells of finite length. The
Green function can be reduced because of the azimuthal symmetry of the cell.
This simplification enables us to calculate the dispersion spectrum and hence
access the effect of cell structure on the dielectric behavior of cell
suspensions.Comment: Preliminary results have been reported in the 2001 March Meeting of
the American Physical Society. Accepted for publications in J. Phys.:
Condens. Matte
Theory of the "honeycomb chain-channel" reconstruction of Si(111)3x1
First-principles electronic-structure methods are used to study a structural
model for Ag/Si(111)3x1 recently proposed on the basis of transmission electron
diffraction data. The fully relaxed geometry for this model is far more
energetically favorable than any previously proposed, partly due to the unusual
formation of a Si double bond in the surface layer. The calculated electronic
properties of this model are in complete agreement with data from
angle-resolved photoemission and scanning tunneling microscopy.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. Lett (the ugly postscript
error on page 4 has now been repaired
Computer simulations of electrorheological fluids in the dipole-induced dipole model
We have employed the multiple image method to compute the interparticle force
for a polydisperse electrorheological (ER) fluid in which the suspended
particles can have various sizes and different permittivites. The point-dipole
(PD) approximation being routinely adopted in computer simulation of ER fluids
is shown to err considerably when the particles approach and finally touch due
to multipolar interactions. The PD approximation becomes even worse when the
dielectric contrast between the particles and the host medium is large. From
the results, we show that the dipole-induced-dipole (DID) model yields very
good agreements with the multiple image results for a wide range of dielectric
contrasts and polydispersity. As an illustration, we have employed the DID
model to simulate the athermal aggregation of particles in ER fluids both in
uniaxial and rotating fields. We find that the aggregation time is
significantly reduced. The DID model accounts for multipolar interaction
partially and is simple to use in computer simulation of ER fluids.Comment: 22 pages, 7 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.
Effects of geometric anisotropy on local field distribution: Ewald-Kornfeld formulation
We have applied the Ewald-Kornfeld formulation to a tetragonal lattice of
point dipoles, in an attempt to examine the effects of geometric anisotropy on
the local field distribution. The various problems encountered in the
computation of the conditionally convergent summation of the near field are
addressed and the methods of overcoming them are discussed. The results show
that the geometric anisotropy has a significant impact on the local field
distribution. The change in the local field can lead to a generalized
Clausius-Mossotti equation for the anisotropic case.Comment: Accepted for publications, Journal of Physics: Condensed Matte
Bragg spectroscopy of a superfluid Bose-Hubbard gas
Bragg spectroscopy is used to measure excitations of a trapped,
quantum-degenerate gas of 87Rb atoms in a 3-dimensional optical lattice. The
measurements are carried out over a range of optical lattice depths in the
superfluid phase of the Bose-Hubbard model. For fixed wavevector, the resonant
frequency of the excitation is found to decrease with increasing lattice depth.
A numerical calculation of the resonant frequencies based on Bogoliubov theory
shows a less steep rate of decrease than the measurements.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figure
New method for detecting & measuring cracks on concrete using fiber optic sensors
Advances in the production of optical fibers have made possible the recent development of innovative sensing systems for health monitoring of civil structures. The main reasons for this development are the reduced weight and dimensions of fiber optic sensors, the strong immunity to electromagnetic interference, the improved environmental resistance and the scale flexibility for small-gage and long-gage measurement. This paper provides an overview of the challenges in developing a new fiber optic sensor that can be employed to monitor flexural and tensile cracks on RC structures. The methodology in detecting and localizing the formation of flexural cracks in various locations and sensor’s capability in measuring a range of crack widths is demonstrated through testing of instrumented RC beams subjected to sustained and repeated loading.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT
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