4,052 research outputs found
Dynamical transitions and sliding friction in the two-dimensional Frenkel-Kontorova model
The nonlinear response of an adsorbed layer on a periodic substrate to an
external force is studied via a two dimensional uniaxial Frenkel-Kontorova
model. The nonequlibrium properties of the model are simulated by Brownian
molecular dynamics. Dynamical phase transitions between pinned solid, sliding
commensurate and incommensurate solids and hysteresis effects are found that
are qualitatively similar to the results for a Lennard-Jones model, thus
demonstrating the universal nature of these features.Comment: 11 pages, 12 figures, to appear in Phys. Rev.
Friction Laws for Elastic Nano-Scale Contacts
The effect of surface curvature on the law relating frictional forces F with
normal load L is investigated by molecular dynamics simulations as a function
of surface symmetry, adhesion, and contamination. Curved, non-adhering, dry,
commensurate surfaces show a linear dependency, F proportional to L, similar to
dry flat commensurate or amorphous surfaces and macroscopic surfaces. In
contrast, curved, non-adhering, dry, amorphous surfaces show F proportional to
L^(2/3) similar to friction force microscopes. In our model, adhesive effects
are most adequately described by the Hertz plus offset model, as the
simulations are confined to small contact radii. Curved lubricated or
contaminated surfaces show again different behavior; details depend on how much
of the contaminant gets squeezed out of the contact. Also, it is seen that the
friction force in the lubricated case is mainly due to atoms at the entrance of
the tip.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures, submitted to Europhys. Let
Elastic contact between self-affine surfaces: Comparison of numerical stress and contact correlation functions with analytic predictions
Contact between an elastic manifold and a rigid substrate with a self-affine
fractal surface is reinvestigated with Green's function molecular dynamics.
Stress and contact autocorrelation functions (ACFs) are found to decrease
algebraically. A rationale is provided for the observed similarity in the
exponents for stress and contact ACFs. Both exponents differ substantially from
analytic predictions over the range of Hurst roughness exponents studied. The
effect of increasing the range of interactions from a hard sphere repulsion to
exponential decay is analyzed. Results for exponential interactions are
accurately described by recent systematic corrections to Persson's contact
mechanics theory. The relation between the area of simply connected contact
patches and the normal force is also studied. Below a threshold size the
contact area and force are consistent with Hertzian contact mechanics, while
area and force are linearly related in larger contact patches.Comment: 12 pages, 9 figure
Transverse thermal depinning and nonlinear sliding friction of an adsorbed monolayer
We study the response of an adsorbed monolayer under a driving force as a
model of sliding friction phenomena between two crystalline surfaces with a
boundary lubrication layer. Using Langevin-dynamics simulation, we determine
the nonlinear response in the direction transverse to a high symmetry direction
along which the layer is already sliding. We find that below a finite
transition temperature, there exist a critical depinning force and hysteresis
effects in the transverse response in the dynamical state when the adlayer is
sliding smoothly along the longitudinal direction.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, to appear in Phys. Rev. Let
Orientational correlations in confined DNA
We study how the orientational correlations of DNA confined to nanochannels
depend on the channel diameter D by means of Monte Carlo simulations and a
mean-field theory. This theory describes DNA conformations in the
experimentally relevant regime where the Flory-de Gennes theory does not apply.
We show how local correlations determine the dependence of the end-to-end
distance of the DNA molecule upon D. Tapered nanochannels provide the necessary
resolution in D to study experimentally how the extension of confined DNA
molecules depends upon D. Our experimental and theoretical results are in
qualitative agreement.Comment: Revised version including supplemental material, 7 pages, 8 figure
Moisture and dynamical interactions maintaining decoupled Arctic mixed-phase stratocumulus in the presence of a humidity inversion
Observations suggest that processes maintaining subtropical and Arctic stratocumulus differ, due to the different environments in which they occur. For example, specific humidity inversions (specific humidity increasing with height) are frequently observed to occur near cloud top coincident with temperature inversions in the Arctic, while they do not occur in the subtropics. In this study we use nested LES simulations of decoupled Arctic Mixed-Phase Stratocumulus (AMPS) clouds observed during the DOE Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Program's Indirect and SemiDirect Aerosol Campaign (ISDAC) to analyze budgets of water components, potential temperature, and turbulent kinetic energy. These analyses quantify the processes that maintain decoupled AMPS, including the role of humidity inversions. Key structural features include a shallow upper entrainment zone at cloud top that is located within the temperature and humidity inversions, a mixed layer driven by cloud-top cooling that extends from the base of the upper entrainment zone to below cloud base, and a lower entrainment zone at the base of the mixed layer. The surface layer below the lower entrainment zone is decoupled from the cloud mixed-layer system. Budget results show that cloud liquid water is maintained in the upper entrainment zone near cloud top (within a temperature and humidity inversion) due to a down gradient transport of water vapor by turbulent fluxes into the cloud layer from above and direct condensation forced by radiative cooling. Liquid water is generated in the updraft portions of the mixed-layer eddies below cloud top by buoyant destabilization. These processes cause at least 20% of the cloud liquid water to extend into the inversion. The redistribution of water vapor from the top of the humidity inversion to its base maintains the cloud layer, while the mixed layer-entrainment zone system is continually losing total water. In this decoupled system, the humidity inversion is the only source of water vapor for the cloud system, since water vapor from the surface layer is not efficiently transported into the mixed layer. Sedimentation of ice is the dominant sink of moisture from the mixed layer
Rubber friction: role of the flash temperature
When a rubber block is sliding on a hard rough substrate, the substrate
asperities will exert time-dependent deformations of the rubber surface
resulting in viscoelastic energy dissipation in the rubber, which gives a
contribution to the sliding friction. Most surfaces of solids have roughness on
many different length scales, and when calculating the friction force it is
necessary to include the viscoelastic deformations on all length scales. The
energy dissipation will result in local heating of the rubber. Since the
viscoelastic properties of rubber-like materials are extremely strongly
temperature dependent, it is necessary to include the local temperature
increase in the analysis. At very low sliding velocity the temperature increase
is negligible because of heat diffusion, but already for velocities of order
0.01 m/s the local heating may be very important. Here I study the influence of
the local heating on the rubber friction, and I show that in a typical case the
temperature increase results in a decrease in rubber friction with increasing
sliding velocity for v > 0.01 m/s. This may result in stick-slip instabilities,
and is of crucial importance in many practical applications, e.g., for the
tire-road friction, and in particular for ABS-breaking systems.Comment: 22 pages, 27 figure
Numerical Investigation of Second Mode Attenuation over Carbon/Carbon Surfaces on a Sharp Slender Cone
We have carried out axisymmetric numerical simulations of a spatially
developing hypersonic boundary layer over a sharp 7-half-angle cone
at inspired by the experimental investigations by Wagner (2015).
Simulations are first performed with impermeable (or solid) walls with a
one-time broadband pulse excitation applied upstream to determine the most
convectively-amplified frequencies resulting in the range 260kHz -- 400kHz,
consistent with experimental observations of second-mode instability waves.
Subsequently, we introduce harmonic disturbances via continuous periodic
suction and blowing at 270kHz and 350kHz. For each of these forcing frequencies
complex impedance boundary conditions (IBC), modeling the acoustic response of
two different carbon/carbon (C/C) ultrasonically absorptive porous surfaces,
are applied at the wall. The IBCs are derived as an output of a pore-scale
aeroacoustic analysis -- the inverse Helmholtz Solver (iHS) -- which is able to
return the broadband real and imaginary components of the surface-averaged
impedance. The introduction of the IBCs in all cases leads to a significant
attenuation of the harmonically-forced second-mode wave. In particular, we
observe a higher attenuation rate of the introduced waves with frequency of
350kHz in comparison with 270kHz, and, along with the iHS impedance results, we
establish that the C/C surfaces absorb acoustic energy more effectively at
higher frequencies.Comment: AIAA-SciTech 201
Theory of the Eigler-swith
We suggest a simple model to describe the reversible field-induced transfer
of a single Xe-atom in a scanning tunneling microscope, --- the Eigler-switch.
The inelasticly tunneling electrons give rise to fluctuating forces on and
damping of the Xe-atom resulting in an effective current dependent temperature.
The rate of transfer is controlled by the well-known Arrhenius law with this
effective temperature. The directionality of atom transfer is discussed, and
the importance of use of non-equlibrium-formalism for the electronic
environment is emphasized. The theory constitutes a formal derivation and
generalization of the so-called Desorption Induced by Multiple Electron
Transitions (DIMET) point of view.Comment: 13 pages (including 2 figures in separate LaTeX-files with
ps-\specials), REVTEX 3.
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