Modeling for Active Control of Combustion and Thermally Driven Oscillations

Organized oscillations excited and sustained by high densities of energy release in combustion chambers have long caused serious problems in development of propulsion systems. The amplitudes often become sufficiently large to cause unacceptable structural vibrations. Because the oscillations are self-excited, they reach limiting amplitudes (limit cycles) only because of the action of nonlinear processes. Traditionally, satisfactory behavior has been achieved through a combination of trial-and-error design and testing, with control always involving passive means: geometrical modifications, changes of propellant composition, or devices to enhance dissipation of acoustic energy. Active control has been applied only to small-scale laboratory devices, but the limited success suggests the possibility of serious applications to full-scale propulsion systems. Realization of that potential rests on further experimental work, combined with deeper understanding of the mechanisms causing the oscillations and of the physical behavior of the systems. Effective design of active control systems will require faithful modeling of the relevant processes over broad frequency ranges covering the spectra of natural modes. This paper will cover the general character of the linear and nonlinear behavior of combustion systems, with special attention to acoustics and the mechanisms of excitation. The discussion is intended to supplement the paper by Doyle et al. concerned primarily with controls issues and the observed behavior of simple laboratory devices

Polarons in semiconductor quantum-dots and their role in the quantum kinetics of carrier relaxation

While time-dependent perturbation theory shows inefficient carrier-phonon scattering in semiconductor quantum dots, we demonstrate that a quantum kinetic description of carrier-phonon interaction predicts fast carrier capture and relaxation. The considered processes do not fulfill energy conservation in terms of free-carrier energies because polar coupling of localized quantum-dot states strongly modifies this picture.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in Phys.Rev.

Relaxation properties of the quantum kinetics of carrier-LO-phonon interaction in quantum wells and quantum dots

The time evolution of optically excited carriers in semiconductor quantum wells and quantum dots is analyzed for their interaction with LO-phonons. Both the full two-time Green's function formalism and the one-time approximation provided by the generalized Kadanoff-Baym ansatz are considered, in order to compare their description of relaxation processes. It is shown that the two-time quantum kinetics leads to thermalization in all the examined cases, which is not the case for the one-time approach in the intermediate-coupling regime, even though it provides convergence to a steady state. The thermalization criterion used is the Kubo-Martin-Schwinger condition.Comment: 7 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.

Effective environments: Preparation of stationary states with inverse temperature ranging from positive to negative values

In this paper, we discuss how effective environments incorporating periodic measurements can be used to prepare a two-level system (TLS) in almost arbitrary thermal states: Concretely, we study a TLS coupled to a spin environment, the magnetization of which is measured periodically. In ensemble average these measurements cause a relaxation of the TLS into a thermal (diagonal) state. By adjusting the time between the measurements and the detuning of the environmental spins, the creation of very low temperatures as well as inversion becomes possible. Our analytical results derived for large environments are numerically shown to be valid even for quite small environments, down to only a few spins.Comment: 20 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.

Influence of carrier-carrier and carrier-phonon correlations on optical absorption and gain in quantum-dot systems

A microscopic theory is used to study the optical properties of semiconductor quantum dots. The dephasing of a coherent excitation and line-shifts of the interband transitions due to carrier-carrier Coulomb interaction and carrier-phonon interaction are determined from a quantum kinetic treatment of correlation processes. We investigate the density dependence of both mechanisms and clarify the importance of various dephasing channels involving the localized and delocalized states of the system.Comment: 12 pages, 10 figure

Protection Measures against Product Piracy and Application by the Use of AM

Presently the implications Additive Manufacturing (AM) on intellectual properties are discussed in public. Here AM is often mentioned as a driver for product piracy as it allows to produce and to copy objects with any geometries. Imitators need a lot of information to copy an object accurately. As reverse engineering has been identified as the most important information source for product imitators, AM can also help to reduce the threat of product piracy when correctly applied in the product development. Due to the layer wise production process that allows the manufacturing of very complex shapes and geometries, the reverse-engineering process can be complicated by far. By this, quite contrary to the public opinion, AM can increase the needed effort of imitators and strongly reduce the economic efficiency of product piracy. This paper will show different protection measures and a methodological approach of how to apply these measures to a product. Beside the protective effect some measures allow a traceability of parts over the product’s lifecycle and thus support the quality management of AM processes and additively produced parts.Mechanical Engineerin

Propagation of travelling waves in sub-excitable systems driven by noise and periodic forcing

It has been reported that traveling waves propagate periodically and stably in sub-excitable systems driven by noise [Phys. Rev. Lett. \textbf{88}, 138301 (2002)]. As a further investigation, here we observe different types of traveling waves under different noises and periodic forces, using a simplified Oregonator model. Depending on different noises and periodic forces, we have observed different types of wave propagation (or their disappearance). Moreover, the reversal phenomena are observed in this system based on the numerical experiments in the one-dimensional space. As an explanation, we regard it as the effect of periodic forces. Thus, we give qualitative explanations to how reversal phenomena stably appear, which seem to arise from the mixing function of the periodic force and the noise. And the output period and three velocities (the normal, the positive and the negative) of the travelling waves are defined and their relationship with the periodic forces, along with the types of waves, are also studied in sub-excitable system under a fixed noise intensity.Comment: Some references and information are added in the modified version. Accepted, The European Physical Journal