1,011 research outputs found
A Simple Analytical Model of Evaporation in the Presence of Roots
Root systems can influence the dynamics of evapotranspiration of water out of
a porous medium. The coupling of evapotranspiration remains a key aspect
affecting overall root behavior. Predicting the evapotranspiration curve in the
presence of roots helps keep track of the amount of water that remains in the
porous medium. Using a controlled visual set-up of a 2D model soil system
consisting of monodisperse glass beads, we first perform experiments on actual
roots grown in partially saturated systems under different relative humidity
conditions. We record parameters such as the total mass loss in the medium and
the resulting position of the receding fronts and use these experimental
results to develop a simple analytical model that predicts the position of the
evaporating front as a function of time as well as the total amount of water
that is lost from the medium due to the combined effects of evaporation and
transpiration. The model is based on fundamental principles of evaporation flux
and includes empirical assumptions on the quantity of stoma in the leaves and
the transition time between regime 1 and regime 2. The model also underscores
the importance of a much prolonged root life as long as the root is exposed to
a partially saturated zone composed of a mixture of air and water. Comparison
between the model and experimental results shows good prediction of the
position of the evaporating front as well as the total mass loss from
evapotranspiration in the presence of real root systems. These results provide
additional understanding of both complex evaporation phenomenon and its
influence on root mechanisms.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figure
Spatially heterogeneous dynamics in a thermosensitive soft suspension before and after the glass transition
The microscopic dynamics and aging of a soft thermosensitive suspension was
investigated by looking at the thermal fluctuations of tracers in the
suspension. Below and above the glass transition, the dense microgel particles
suspension was found to develop an heterogeneous dynamics, featured by a non
Gaussian Probability Distribution Function (PDF) of the probes' displacements,
with an exponential tail. We show that non Gaussian shapes are a characteristic
of the ensemble-averaged PDF, while local PDF remain Gaussian. This shows that
the scenario behind the non Gaussian van Hove functions is a spatially
heterogeneous dynamics, characterized by a spatial distribution of locally
homogeneous dynamical environments through the sample, on the considered time
scales. We characterize these statistical distributions of dynamical
environments, in the liquid, supercooled, and glass states, and show that it
can explain the observed exponential tail of the van Hove functions observed in
the concentrated states. The intensity of spatial heterogeneities was found to
amplify with increasing volume fraction. In the aging regime, it tends to
increase as the glass gets more arrested.Comment: 19 pages, 10 figures, Soft Matter accepte
Lagrangian temperature, velocity and local heat flux measurement in Rayleigh-Benard convection
We have developed a small, neutrally buoyant, wireless temperature sensor.
Using a camera for optical tracking, we obtain simultaneous measurements of
position and temperature of the sensor as it is carried along by the flow in
Rayleigh-B\'enard convection, at . We report on statistics of
temperature, velocity, and heat transport in turbulent thermal convection. The
motion of the sensor particle exhibits dynamics close to that of Lagrangian
tracers in hydrodynamic turbulence. We also quantify heat transport in plumes,
revealing self-similarity and extreme variations from plume to plume.Comment: 4 page
Effects of electromagnetic waves on the electrical properties of contacts between grains
A DC electrical current is injected through a chain of metallic beads. The
electrical resistances of each bead-bead contacts are measured. At low current,
the distribution of these resistances is large and log-normal. At high enough
current, the resistance distribution becomes sharp and Gaussian due to the
creation of microweldings between some beads. The action of nearby
electromagnetic waves (sparks) on the electrical conductivity of the chain is
also studied. The spark effect is to lower the resistance values of the more
resistive contacts, the best conductive ones remaining unaffected by the spark
production. The spark is able to induce through the chain a current enough to
create microweldings between some beads. This explains why the electrical
resistance of a granular medium is so sensitive to the electromagnetic waves
produced in its vicinity.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure
Multi-Scale Statistical Approach of the Elastic and Thermal Behavior of a Thermoplastic Polyamid-Glass Fiber Composite
The strong heterogeneity and the anisotropy of composite materials require a rigorous and precise analysis as a result of their impact on local properties. First, mechanical tests are performed to determine the macroscopical behavior of a polyamid glass fiber composite. Then we focus on the influence of the heterogeneities of the microstructure on thermal and mechanical properties from finite element calculations on the real microstructure, after plane strain assumptions. 100 images in 10 different sizes (50, 100, 150, 200, 250, 300, 350, 400, 450, 600 pixels) are analysed. The influence of the area fraction and the spatial arrangement of fibers is then established. For the thermal conductivity and the bulk modulus the fiber area fraction is the most important factor. These properties are improved by increasing the area fraction. On the other hand, for the shear modulus, the fibers spatial arrangement plays the paramount role if the size of the microstructure is smaller than the RVE. Therefore, to make a good prediction from a multi-scale approach the knowledge of the RVE is fundamental. By a statistical approach and a numerical homogenization method, we determine the RVE of the composite for the elastic behavior (shear and bulk moduli), the thermal behavior (thermal conductivity), and for the area fraction. There is a relatively good agreement between the effective properties of this RVE and the experimental macroscopical behavior. These effective properties are estimated by the Hashin-Shtrikman lower bound
Asymptotic behaviour of the Rayleigh--Taylor instability
We investigate long time numerical simulations of the inviscid
Rayleigh-Taylor instability at Atwood number one using a boundary integral
method. We are able to attain the asymptotic behavior for the spikes predicted
by Clavin & Williams\cite{clavin} for which we give a simplified demonstration.
In particular we observe that the spike's curvature evolves like while
the overshoot in acceleration shows a good agreement with the suggested
law. Moreover, we obtain consistent results for the prefactor coefficients of
the asymptotic laws. Eventually we exhibit the self-similar behavior of the
interface profile near the spike.Comment: 4 pages, 6 figure
Pauli spin susceptibility of a strongly correlated two-dimensional electron liquid
Thermodynamic measurements reveal that the Pauli spin susceptibility of
strongly correlated two-dimensional electrons in silicon grows critically at
low electron densities - behavior that is characteristic of the existence of a
phase transition.Comment: As publishe
The random case of Conley's theorem
The well-known Conley's theorem states that the complement of chain recurrent
set equals the union of all connecting orbits of the flow on the compact
metric space , i.e. , where
denotes the chain recurrent set of , stands for
an attractor and is the basin determined by . In this paper we show
that by appropriately selecting the definition of random attractor, in fact we
define a random local attractor to be the -limit set of some random
pre-attractor surrounding it, and by considering appropriate measurability, in
fact we also consider the universal -algebra -measurability besides -measurability, we are able to obtain
the random case of Conley's theorem.Comment: 15 page
Fine-scale statistics of temperature and its derivatives in convective turbulence
We study the fine-scale statistics of temperature and its derivatives in
turbulent Rayleigh-Benard convection. Direct numerical simulations are carried
out in a cylindrical cell with unit aspect ratio filled with a fluid with
Prandtl number equal to 0.7 for Rayleigh numbers between 10^7 and 10^9. The
probability density function of the temperature or its fluctuations is found to
be always non-Gaussian. The asymmetry and strength of deviations from the
Gaussian distribution are quantified as a function of the cell height. The
deviations of the temperature fluctuations from the local isotropy, as measured
by the skewness of the vertical derivative of the temperature fluctuations,
decrease in the bulk, but increase in the thermal boundary layer for growing
Rayleigh number, respectively. Similar to the passive scalar mixing, the
probability density function of the thermal dissipation rate deviates
significantly from a log-normal distribution. The distribution is fitted well
by a stretched exponential form. The tails become more extended with increasing
Rayleigh number which displays an increasing degree of small-scale
intermittency of the thermal dissipation field for both the bulk and the
thermal boundary layer. We find that the thermal dissipation rate due to the
temperature fluctuations is not only dominant in the bulk of the convection
cell, but also yields a significant contribution to the total thermal
dissipation in the thermal boundary layer. This is in contrast to the ansatz
used in scaling theories and can explain the differences in the scaling of the
total thermal dissipation rate with respect to the Rayleigh number.Comment: 22 pages and 15 figure
Plastic deformation of CoO single crystals
Constant strain rate compressions along have been performed on CoO single crystals (ε ∼ 6 x 10-5 s-1). Yield stresses and work hardening rates have been measured between 77 K and 1 400 K; CoO is very strong when compared to similar compounds. Vickers indentations have been performed on { 100 }, { 110 } and {111 } faces around the Néel temperature, i.e. between 0 °C and 40 °C. Hardness values are low if compared to constant strain rate deformation characteristics; they show a minor anomaly at the Néel temperature.Des essais de compression à vitesse constante (ε ∼ 6 x 10 -5 s-1) ont été réalisés selon une direction de monocristaux de CoO. La contrainte à la limite élastique et le taux de consolidation ont été déterminés entre 77 K et 1 400 K. Leurs valeurs sont très élevées par rapport à celles de composés similaires. La micro-dureté Vickers a été mesurée sur les faces { 100 }, { 110 } et { 111 } entre 0 °C et 40 °C, températures encadrant le point de Néel. La dureté de CoO est faible par comparaison avec les caractéristiques de déformation à vitesse constante; elle montre une faible anomalie à la température de Néel
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