2,003 research outputs found
Hydrogen solubility in zirconium intermetallic second phase particles
The enthalpies of solution of H in Zr binary intermetallic compounds formed
with Cu, Cr, Fe, Mo, Ni, Nb, Sn and V were calculated by means of density
functional theory simulations and compared to that of H in {\alpha}-Zr. It is
predicted that all Zr-rich phases (formed with Cu, Fe, Ni and Sn), and those
phases formed with Nb and V, offer lower energy, more stable sites for H than
{\alpha}-Zr. Conversely, Mo and Cr containing phases do not provide
preferential solution sites for H. In all cases the most stable site for H are
those that offer the highest coordination fraction of Zr atoms. Often these are
four Zr tetrahedra but not always. Implications with respect to H-trapping
properties of commonly observed ternary phases such as Zr(Cr,Fe)2, Zr2(Fe,Ni)
and Zr(Nb,Fe)2 are also discussed.Comment: manuscript accepted for publication in Journal of Nuclear Materials
(2013
Toward a structural understanding of turbulent drag reduction: nonlinear coherent states in viscoelastic shear flows
Nontrivial steady flows have recently been found that capture the main
structures of the turbulent buffer layer. We study the effects of polymer
addition on these "exact coherent states" (ECS) in plane Couette flow. Despite
the simplicity of the ECS flows, these effects closely mirror those observed
experimentally: Structures shift to larger length scales, wall-normal
fluctuations are suppressed while streamwise ones are enhanced, and drag is
reduced. The mechanism underlying these effects is elucidated. These results
suggest that the ECS are closely related to buffer layer turbulence.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, published version, Phys. Rev. Lett. 89, 208301
(2002
Direct numerical simulations of statistically steady, homogeneous, isotropic fluid turbulence with polymer additives
We carry out a direct numerical simulation (DNS) study that reveals the
effects of polymers on statistically steady, forced, homogeneous, isotropic
fluid turbulence. We find clear manifestations of dissipation-reduction
phenomena: On the addition of polymers to the turbulent fluid, we obtain a
reduction in the energy dissipation rate, a significant modification of the
fluid energy spectrum, especially in the deep-dissipation range, a suppression
of small-scale intermittency, and a decrease in small-scale vorticity
filaments. We also compare our results with recent experiments and earlier DNS
studies of decaying fluid turbulence with polymer additives.Comment: consistent with the published versio
Diagnostic performance of imaging investigations in detecting and differentiating cardiac amyloidosis: a systematic review and meta-analysis
AIMS: The study aims to systematically assess the diagnostic performance of cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) and nuclear scintigraphy (index tests) for the diagnosis and differentiation of subtypes of cardiac amyloidosis. // METHODS AND RESULTS: MEDLINE and Embase electronic databases were searched for studies evaluating the diagnostic performance of CMR or nuclear scintigraphy in detecting cardiac amyloidosis and subsequently in differentiating transthyretin amyloidosis (ATTR) from immunoglobulin light-chain (AL) amyloidosis. In this meta-analysis, histopathological examination of tissue from endomyocardial biopsy (EMB) or extra-cardiac organs were reference standards. Pooled sensitivity, specificity, positive likelihood ratio, and negative likelihood ratio were calculated, and a random effects meta-analysis was used to estimate diagnostic odds ratios. Methodological quality was assessed using a validated instrument. Of the 2947 studies identified, 27 met the criteria for inclusion. Sensitivity and specificity of CMR in diagnosing cardiac amyloidosis was 85.7% and 92.0% against EMB reference and 78.9% and 93.9% with any organ histology reference. Corresponding sensitivity and specificity of nuclear scintigraphy was 88.4% and 87.2% against EMB reference and 82.0% and 98.8% with histology from any organ. CMR was unable to reliably differentiate ATTR from AL amyloidosis (sensitivity 28.1-99.0% and specificity 11.0-60.0%). Sensitivity and specificity of nuclear scintigraphy in the differentiation of ATTR from AL amyloidosis ranged from 90.9% to 91.5% and from 88.6% to 97.1%. Pooled negative likelihood ratio and positive likelihood ratio for scintigraphy in this setting were 0.1 and 8, with EMB reference standard. Study quality assessed by QUADAS-2 was generally poor with evidence of bias. // CONCLUSIONS: Cardiac magnetic resonance is a useful test for diagnosing cardiac amyloidosis but is not reliable in further classifying the disease. Nuclear scintigraphy offers strong diagnostic performance in both the detection of cardiac amyloidosis and differentiating ATTR from AL amyloidosis. Our findings support the use of both imaging modalities in a non-invasive diagnostic algorithm that also tests for the presence of monoclonal protein
The Polymer Stress Tensor in Turbulent Shear Flows
The interaction of polymers with turbulent shear flows is examined. We focus
on the structure of the elastic stress tensor, which is proportional to the
polymer conformation tensor. We examine this object in turbulent flows of
increasing complexity. First is isotropic turbulence, then anisotropic (but
homogenous) shear turbulence and finally wall bounded turbulence. The main
result of this paper is that for all these flows the polymer stress tensor
attains a universal structure in the limit of large Deborah number \De\gg 1.
We present analytic results for the suppression of the coil-stretch transition
at large Deborah numbers. Above the transition the turbulent velocity
fluctuations are strongly correlated with the polymer's elongation: there
appear high-quality "hydro-elastic" waves in which turbulent kinetic energy
turns into polymer potential energy and vice versa. These waves determine the
trace of the elastic stress tensor but practically do not modify its universal
structure. We demonstrate that the influence of the polymers on the balance of
energy and momentum can be accurately described by an effective polymer
viscosity that is proportional to to the cross-stream component of the elastic
stress tensor. This component is smaller than the stream-wise component by a
factor proportional to \De ^2 . Finally we tie our results to wall bounded
turbulence and clarify some puzzling facts observed in the problem of drag
reduction by polymers.Comment: 11 p., 1 Fig., included, Phys. Rev. E., submitte
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Reversible Capacity of Conductive Carbon Additives at Low Potentials: Caveats for Testing Alternative Anode Materials for Li-Ion Batteries
The electrochemical performance of alternative anode materials for Li-ion batteries is often measured using composite electrodes consisting of active material and conductive carbon additives. Cycling of these composite electrodes at low voltages demonstrates charge storage at the operating potentials of viable anodes, however, the conductive carbon additive is also able to store charge in the low potential regime. The contribution of the conductive carbon additives to the observed capacity is often neglected when interpreting the electrochemical performance of electrodes. To provide a reference for the contribution of the carbons to the observed capacity, we report the charge storage behavior of two common conductive carbon additives Super P and Ketjenblack as a function of voltage, rate, and electrolyte composition. Both carbons exhibit substantial capacities after 100 cycles, up to 150 mAh g^(−1), when cycled to 10 mV. The capacity is dependent on the discharge cutoff voltage and cycling rate with some dependence on electrolyte composition. The first few cycles are dominated by the formation of the SEI followed by a fade to a steady, reversible capacity thereafter. Neglecting the capacity of the carbon additive can lead to significant errors in the estimation of charge storage capabilities of the active material
Dynamics of threads and polymers in turbulence: power-law distributions and synchronization
We study the behavior of threads and polymers in a turbulent flow. These
objects have finite spatial extension, so the flow along them differs slightly.
The corresponding drag forces produce a finite average stretching and the
thread is stretched most of the time. Nevertheless, the probability of
shrinking fluctuations is significant and is known to decay only as a
power-law. We show that the exponent of the power law is a universal number
independent of the statistics of the flow. For polymers the coil-stretch
transition exists: the flow must have a sufficiently large Lyapunov exponent to
overcome the elastic resistance and stretch the polymer from the coiled state
it takes otherwise. The probability of shrinking from the stretched state above
the transition again obeys a power law but with a non-universal exponent. We
show that well above the transition the exponent becomes universal and derive
the corresponding expression. Furthermore, we demonstrate synchronization: the
end-to-end distances of threads or polymers above the transition are
synchronized by the flow and become identical. Thus, the transition from
Newtonian to non-Newtonian behavior in dilute polymer solutions can be seen as
an ordering transition.Comment: 13 pages, version accepted to Journal of Statistical Mechanic
Shell Model for Drag Reduction with Polymer Additive in Homogeneous Turbulence
Recent direct numerical simulations of the FENE-P model of non-Newtonian
hydrodynamics revealed that the phenomenon of drag reduction by polymer
additives exists (albeit in reduced form) also in homogeneous turbulence. We
introduce here a simple shell model for homogeneous viscoelastic flows that
recaptures the essential observations of the full simulations. The simplicity
of the shell model allows us to offer a transparent explanation of the main
observations. It is shown that the mechanism for drag reduction operates mainly
on the large scales. Understanding the mechanism allows us to predict how the
amount of drag reduction depends of the various parameters in the model. The
main conclusion is that drag reduction is not a universal phenomenon, it peaks
in a window of parameters like Reynolds number and the relaxation rate of the
polymer
Stretching of polymers in a random three-dimensional flow
Behavior of a dilute polymer solution in a random three-dimensional flow with
an average shear is studied experimentally. Polymer contribution to the shear
stress is found to be more than two orders of magnitude higher than in a
laminar shear flow. The results indicate that the polymer molecules get
strongly stretched by the random motion of the fluid.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
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