16,180 research outputs found
Polymeric filament thinning and breakup in microchannels
The effects of elasticity on filament thinning and breakup are investigated
in microchannel cross flow. When a viscous solution is stretched by an external
immiscible fluid, a low 100 ppm polymer concentration strongly affects the
breakup process, compared to the Newtonian case. Qualitatively, polymeric
filaments show much slower evolution, and their morphology features multiple
connected drops. Measurements of filament thickness show two main temporal
regimes: flow- and capillary-driven. At early times both polymeric and
Newtonian fluids are flow-driven, and filament thinning is exponential. At
later times, Newtonian filament thinning crosses over to a capillary-driven
regime, in which the decay is algebraic. By contrast, the polymeric fluid first
crosses over to a second type of flow-driven behavior, in which viscoelastic
stresses inside the filament become important and the decay is again
exponential. Finally, the polymeric filament becomes capillary-driven at late
times with algebraic decay. We show that the exponential flow thinning behavior
allows a novel measurement of the extensional viscosities of both Newtonian and
polymeric fluids.Comment: 7 pages, 7 figure
Detection of local-moment formation using the resonant interaction between coupled quantum wires
We study the influence of many-body interactions on the transport
characteristics of a novel device structure, consisting of a pair of quantum
wires that are coupled to each other by means of a quantum dot. Under
conditions where a local magnetic moment is formed in one of the wires, we show
that tunnel coupling to the other gives rise to an associated peak in its
density of states, which can be detected directly in a conductance measurement.
Our theory is therefore able to account for the key observations in the recent
study of T. Morimoto et al. [Appl. Phys. Lett. {\bf 82}, 3952 (2003)], and
demonstrates that coupled quantum wires may be used as a system for the
detection of local magnetic-moment formation
Electron Dynamics in a Coupled Quantum Point Contact Structure with a Local Magnetic Moment
We develop a theoretical model for the description of electron dynamics in
coupled quantum wires when the local magnetic moment is formed in one of the
wires. We employ a single-particle Hamiltonian that takes account of the
specific geometry of potentials defining the structure as well as electron
scattering on the local magnetic moment. The equations for the wave functions
in both wires are derived and the approach for their solution is discussed. We
determine the transmission coefficient and conductance of the wire having the
local magnetic moment and show that our description reproduces the
experimentally observed features.Comment: Based on work presented at 2004 IEEE NTC Quantum Device Technology
Worksho
Electron transport through quantum wires and point contacts
We have studied quantum wires using the Green's function technique and the
density-functional theory, calculating the electronic structure and the
conductance. All the numerics are implemented using the finite-element method
with a high-order polynomial basis. For short wires, i.e. quantum point
contacts, the zero-bias conductance shows, as a function of the gate voltage
and at a finite temperature, a plateau at around 0.7G_0. (G_0 = 2e^2/h is the
quantum conductance). The behavior, which is caused in our mean-field model by
spontaneous spin polarization in the constriction, is reminiscent of the
so-called 0.7-anomaly observed in experiments. In our model the temperature and
the wire length affect the conductance-gate voltage curves in the same way as
in the measured data.Comment: 8 page
Dynamics of short polymer chains in solution
We present numerical and analytical results describing the effect of
hydrodynamic interactions on the dynamics of a short polymer chain in solution.
A molecular dynamics algorithm for the polymer is coupled to a direct
simulation Monte Carlo algorithm for the solvent. We give an explicit
expression for the velocity autocorrelation function of the centre of mass of
the polymer which agrees well with numerical results if Brownian dynamics,
hydrodynamic correlations and sound wave scattering are included
Thermodiffusion in model nanofluids by molecular dynamics simulations
In this work, a new algorithm is proposed to compute single particle
(infinite dilution) thermodiffusion using Non-Equilibrium Molecular Dynamics
simulations through the estimation of the thermophoretic force that applies on
a solute particle. This scheme is shown to provide consistent results for
simple Lennard-Jones fluids and for model nanofluids (spherical non-metallic
nanoparticles + Lennard-Jones fluid) where it appears that thermodiffusion
amplitude, as well as thermal conductivity, decrease with nanoparticles
concentration. Then, in nanofluids in the liquid state, by changing the nature
of the nanoparticle (size, mass and internal stiffness) and of the solvent
(quality and viscosity) various trends are exhibited. In all cases the single
particle thermodiffusion is positive, i.e. the nanoparticle tends to migrate
toward the cold area. The single particle thermal diffusion 2 coefficient is
shown to be independent of the size of the nanoparticle (diameter of 0.8 to 4
nm), whereas it increases with the quality of the solvent and is inversely
proportional to the viscosity of the fluid. In addition, this coefficient is
shown to be independent of the mass of the nanoparticle and to increase with
the stiffness of the nanoparticle internal bonds. Besides, for these
configurations, the mass diffusion coefficient behavior appears to be
consistent with a Stokes-Einstein like law
The effects of organic farming on the soil physical environment
The aim of this research was to investigate the effects of organic farming practices on the development of soil physical properties, and in particular, soil structure in comparison with conventional agricultural management. The soil structure of organically and conventionally managed soils at one site was compared in a quantitative manner at different scales of observations using image analysis. Key soil physical and chemical properties were measured as well as the pore fractal geometry to characterise pore roughness. Organically managed soils had higher organic matter content and provided a more stable soil structure than conventionally managed soils. The higher porosity (%) at the macroscale in soil under conventional management was due to fewer larger pores while mesoand microscale porosity was found to be greater under organic management. Organically managed soils typically provided spatially well distributed pores of all sizes and of greater roughness compared to those under conventional management. These variations in the soil physical environment are likely to impact significantly on the performance of these soils for a number of key processes such as crop establishment and water availabilit
Angular velocity distribution of a granular planar rotator in a thermalized bath
The kinetics of a granular planar rotator with a fixed center undergoing
inelastic collisions with bath particles is analyzed both numerically and
analytically by means of the Boltzmann equation. The angular velocity
distribution evolves from quasi-gaussian in the Brownian limit to an algebraic
decay in the limit of an infinitely light particle. In addition, we compare
this model with a planar rotator with a free center. We propose experimental
tests that might confirm the predicted behaviors.Comment: 10 Pages, 9 Figure
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