688 research outputs found
Research on the complexity of H2O
It is truly a privilege and an honor to be here on behalf of the Naval Research Advisory Committee and to help in some small way in encouraging those of the expanded group who will work in the new building. It is my understanding that a talk at this time should be in the nature of an appetizer, since there is plenty of meat in the program proper
Precise calculation of the threshold of various directed percolation models on a square lattice
Using Monte Carlo simulations on different system sizes we determine with
high precision the critical thresholds of two families of directed percolation
models on a square lattice. The thresholds decrease exponentially with the
degree of connectivity. We conjecture that decays exactly as the
inverse of the coodination number.Comment: 2 pages, 2 figures and 1 tabl
Turbulence in vertical axis wind turbine canopies
Experimental results from three different full scale arrays of vertical-axis wind turbines (VAWTs) under natural wind conditions are presented. The wind velocities throughout the turbine arrays are measured using a portable meteorological tower with seven, vertically staggered, three-component ultrasonic anemometers. The power output of each turbine is recorded simultaneously. The comparison between the horizontal and vertical energy transport for the different turbine array sizes shows the importance of vertical transport for large array configurations. Quadrant-hole analysis is employed to gain a better understanding of the vertical energy transport at the top of the VAWT arrays. The results show a striking similarity between the flows in the VAWT arrays and the adjustment region of canopies. Namely, an increase in ejections and sweeps and decrease in inward and outward interactions occur inside the turbine array. Ejections are the strongest contributor, which is in agreement with the literature on evolving and sparse canopy flows. The influence of the turbine array size on the power output of the downstream turbines is examined by comparing a streamwise row of four single turbines with square arrays of nine turbine pairs. The results suggest that a new boundary layer forms on top of the larger turbine arrays as the flow adjusts to the new roughness length. This increases the turbulent energy transport over the whole planform area of the turbine array. By contrast, for the four single turbines, the vertical energy transport due to turbulent fluctuations is only increased in the near wake of the turbines. These findings add to the knowledge of energy transport in turbine arrays and therefore the optimization of the turbine spacing in wind farms
Numerical Diagonalisation Study of the Trimer Deposition-Evaporation Model in One Dimension
We study the model of deposition-evaporation of trimers on a line recently
introduced by Barma, Grynberg and Stinchcombe. The stochastic matrix of the
model can be written in the form of the Hamiltonian of a quantum spin-1/2 chain
with three-spin couplings given by H= \sum\displaylimits_i [(1 -
\sigma_i^-\sigma_{i+1}^-\sigma_{i+2}^-) \sigma_i^+\sigma_{i+1}^+\sigma_{i+2}^+
+ h.c]. We study by exact numerical diagonalization of the variation of
the gap in the eigenvalue spectrum with the system size for rings of size up to
30. For the sector corresponding to the initial condition in which all sites
are empty, we find that the gap vanishes as where the gap exponent
is approximately . This model is equivalent to an interfacial
roughening model where the dynamical variables at each site are matrices. From
our estimate for the gap exponent we conclude that the model belongs to a new
universality class, distinct from that studied by Kardar, Parisi and Zhang.Comment: 11 pages, 2 figures (included
Active Width at a Slanted Active Boundary in Directed Percolation
The width W of the active region around an active moving wall in a directed
percolation process diverges at the percolation threshold p_c as W \simeq A
\epsilon^{-\nu_\parallel} \ln(\epsilon_0/\epsilon), with \epsilon=p_c-p,
\epsilon_0 a constant, and \nu_\parallel=1.734 the critical exponent of the
characteristic time needed to reach the stationary state \xi_\parallel \sim
\epsilon^{-\nu_\parallel}. The logarithmic factor arises from screening of
statistically independent needle shaped sub clusters in the active region.
Numerical data confirm this scaling behaviour.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure
Low-order modeling of wind farm aerodynamics using leaky Rankine bodies
We develop and characterize a low-order model of the mean flow through an array of vertical-axis wind turbines (VAWTs), consisting of a uniform flow and pairs of potential sources and sinks to represent each VAWT. The source and sink in each pair are of unequal strength, thereby forming a “leaky Rankine body” (LRB). In contrast to a classical Rankine body, which forms closed streamlines around a bluff body in potential flow, the LRB streamlines have a qualitatively similar appearance to a separated bluff body wake; hence, the LRB concept is used presently to model the VAWT wake. The relative strengths of the source and sink are determined from first principles analysis of an actuator disk model of the VAWTs. The LRB model is compared with field measurements of various VAWT array configurations measured over a 3-yr campaign. It is found that the LRB model correctly predicts the ranking of array performances to within statistical certainty. Furthermore, by using the LRB model to predict the flow around two-turbine and three-turbine arrays, we show that there are two competing fluid dynamic mechanisms that contribute to the overall array performance: turbine blockage, which locally accelerates the flow; and turbine wake formation, which locally decelerates the flow as energy is extracted. A key advantage of the LRB model is that optimal turbine array configurations can be found with significantly less computational expense than higher fidelity numerical simulations of the flow and much more rapidly than in experiments
Branching Transition of a Directed Polymer in Random Medium
A directed polymer is allowed to branch, with configurations determined by
global energy optimization and disorder. A finite size scaling analysis in 2D
shows that, if disorder makes branching more and more favorable, a critical
transition occurs from the linear scaling regime first studied by Huse and
Henley [Phys. Rev. Lett. 54, 2708 (1985)] to a fully branched, compact one. At
criticality clear evidence is obtained that the polymer branches at all scales
with dimension and roughness exponent satisfying , and energy fluctuation exponent , in terms of longitudinal distanceComment: REVTEX, 4 pages, 3 encapsulated eps figure
Fractal Dimensions of Confined Clusters in Two-Dimensional Directed Percolation
The fractal structure of directed percolation clusters, grown at the
percolation threshold inside parabolic-like systems, is studied in two
dimensions via Monte Carlo simulations. With a free surface at y=\pm Cx^k and a
dynamical exponent z, the surface shape is a relevant perturbation when k<1/z
and the fractal dimensions of the anisotropic clusters vary continuously with
k. Analytic expressions for these variations are obtained using a blob picture
approach.Comment: 6 pages, Plain TeX file, epsf, 3 postscript-figure
A study of logarithmic corrections and universal amplitude ratios in the two-dimensional 4-state Potts model
Monte Carlo (MC) and series expansion (SE) data for the energy, specific
heat, magnetization and susceptibility of the two-dimensional 4-state Potts
model in the vicinity of the critical point are analysed. The role of
logarithmic corrections is discussed and an approach is proposed in order to
account numerically for these corrections in the determination of critical
amplitudes. Accurate estimates of universal amplitude ratios ,
, and are given, which arouse
new questions with respect to previous works
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