1,827 research outputs found
Isostaticity at Frictional Jamming
Amorphous packings of frictionless, spherical particles are isostatic at
jamming onset, with the number of constraints (contacts) equal to the number of
degrees of freedom. Their structural and mechanical properties are controlled
by the interparticle contact network. In contrast, amorphous packings of
frictional particles are typically hyperstatic at jamming onset. We perform
extensive numerical simulations in two dimensions of the geometrical asperity
(GA) model for static friction, to further investigate the role of
isostaticity. In the GA model, interparticle forces are obtained by summing up
purely repulsive central forces between periodically spaced circular asperities
on contacting grains. We compare the packing fraction, contact number,
mobilization distribution, and vibrational density of states using the GA model
to those generated using the Cundall-Strack (CS) approach. We find that static
packings of frictional disks obtained from the GA model are mechanically stable
and isostatic when we consider interactions between asperities on contacting
particles. The crossover in the structural and mechanical properties of static
packings from frictionless to frictional behavior as a function of the static
friction coefficient coincides with a change in the type of interparticle
contacts and the disappearance of a peak in the density of vibrational modes
for the GA model. These results emphasize that mesoscale features of the model
for static friction play an important role in determining the properties of
granular packings.Comment: 4.5 pages, 5 figures, http://prl.aps.org/covers/110/1
Bending crystals: Emergence of fractal dislocation structures
We provide a minimal continuum model for mesoscale plasticity, explaining the
cellular dislocation structures observed in deformed crystals. Our dislocation
density tensor evolves from random, smooth initial conditions to form
self-similar structures strikingly similar to those seen experimentally -
reproducing both the fractal morphologies and some features of the scaling of
cell sizes and misorientations analyzed experimentally. Our model provides a
framework for understanding emergent dislocation structures on the mesoscale, a
bridge across a computationally demanding mesoscale gap in the multiscale
modeling program, and a new example of self-similar structure formation in
non-equilibrium systems.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, 5 movies (They can be found at
http://www.lassp.cornell.edu/sethna/Plasticity/SelfSimilarity.html .) In
press at Phys. Rev. Let
Transport properties of single atoms
We present a systematic study of the ballistic electron conductance through
sp and 3d transition metal atoms attached to copper and palladium crystalline
electrodes. We employ the 'ab initio' screened Korringa-Kohn-Rostoker Green's
function method to calculate the electronic structure of nanocontacts while the
ballistic transmission and conductance eigenchannels were obtained by means of
the Kubo approach as formulated by Baranger and Stone. We demonstrate that the
conductance of the systems is mainly determined by the electronic properties of
the atom bridging the macroscopic leads. We classify the conducting
eigenchannels according to the atomic orbitals of the contact atom and the
irreducible representations of the symmetry point group of the system that
leads to the microscopic understanding of the conductance. We show that if
impurity resonances in the density of states of the contact atom appear at the
Fermi energy, additional channels of appropriate symmetry could open. On the
other hand the transmission of the existing channels could be blocked by
impurity scattering.Comment: RevTEX4, 9 pages, 9 figure
Topological phases and topological entropy of two-dimensional systems with finite correlation length
We elucidate the topological features of the entanglement entropy of a region
in two dimensional quantum systems in a topological phase with a finite
correlation length . Firstly, we suggest that simpler reduced quantities,
related to the von Neumann entropy, could be defined to compute the topological
entropy. We use our methods to compute the entanglement entropy for the ground
state wave function of a quantum eight-vertex model in its topological phase,
and show that a finite correlation length adds corrections of the same order as
the topological entropy which come from sharp features of the boundary of the
region under study. We also calculate the topological entropy for the ground
state of the quantum dimer model on a triangular lattice by using a mapping to
a loop model. The topological entropy of the state is determined by loop
configurations with a non-trivial winding number around the region under study.
Finally, we consider extensions of the Kitaev wave function, which incorporate
the effects of electric and magnetic charge fluctuations, and use it to
investigate the stability of the topological phase by calculating the
topological entropy.Comment: 17 pages, 4 figures, published versio
Energy efficiency parametric design tool in the framework of holistic ship design optimization
Recent International Maritime Organization (IMO) decisions with respect to measures to reduce the emissions from maritime greenhouse gases (GHGs) suggest that the collaboration of all major stakeholders of shipbuilding and ship operations is required to address this complex techno-economical and highly political problem efficiently. This calls eventually for the development of proper design, operational knowledge, and assessment tools for the energy-efficient design and operation of ships, as suggested by the Second IMO GHG Study (2009). This type of coordination of the efforts of many maritime stakeholders, with often conflicting professional interests but ultimately commonly aiming at optimal ship design and operation solutions, has been addressed within a methodology developed in the EU-funded Logistics-Based (LOGBASED) Design Project (2004–2007). Based on the knowledge base developed within this project, a new parametric design software tool (PDT) has been developed by the National Technical University of Athens, Ship Design Laboratory (NTUA-SDL), for implementing an energy efficiency design and management procedure. The PDT is an integral part of an earlier developed holistic ship design optimization approach by NTUA-SDL that addresses the multi-objective ship design optimization problem. It provides Pareto-optimum solutions and a complete mapping of the design space in a comprehensive way for the final assessment and decision by all the involved stakeholders. The application of the tool to the design of a large oil tanker and alternatively to container ships is elaborated in the presented paper
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