1,356 research outputs found
Apparent Fracture in Polymeric Fluids under Step Shear
Recent step strain experiments in well-entangled polymeric liquids
demonstrated a bulk fracture-like phenomenon. We have studied this instability
using a modern version of the Doi-Edwards theory for entangled polymers, and we
find close quantitative agreement with the experiments. The phenomenon occurs
because the viscoelastic liquid is sheared into a rubbery state that possesses
an elastic constitutive instability (Marrucci and Grizzuti, 1983). The fracture
is a transient manifestation of this instability, which relies on the
amplification of spatially inhomogeneous fluctuations. This mechanism differs
from fracture in glassy materials and dense suspensions.Comment: 5 pages,3 figures. Accepted in the Physical Review Letter
Unfolding dynamics of proteins under applied force
Understanding the mechanisms of protein folding is a major challenge that is being addressed effectively by collaboration between researchers in the physical and life sciences. Recently, it has become possible to mechanically unfold proteins by pulling on their two termini using local force probes such as the atomic force microscope. Here, we present data from experiments in which synthetic protein polymers designed to mimic naturally occurring polyproteins have been mechanically unfolded. For many years protein folding dynamics have been studied using chemical denaturation, and we therefore firstly discuss our mechanical unfolding data in the context of such experiments and show that the two unfolding mechanisms are not the same, at least for the proteins studied here. We also report unexpected observations that indicate a history effect in the observed unfolding forces of polymeric proteins and explain this in terms of the changing number of domains remaining to unfold and the increasing compliance of the lengthening unstructured polypeptide chain produced each time a domain unfolds
Limnological, Ichthyological, and Parasitological Investigations on Arkansas Reservoris in Relation to Water Quality
Lake Fort Smith, a 525 acre (212 ha) reservoir, was impounded in 1936 as a water supply for the city of Fort Smith. The reservoir is located on Clear Creek (Frog Bayou), a tributary of the Arkansas River, in the Boston Mountains 28 miles (45 km) northeast of the city of Fort Smith in Crawford County, Arkansas. A map and morphometric characteristics of Lake Fort Smith are given in Fig. 1 and Table I (Hoffman, 1951; Nelson, 1952). In 1956 Lake Shepherd Springs, a 750 acre (304 ha) impoundment, was created one mile upstream of Lake Fort Smith (Rorie, 1961). Both lakes have a shale substrate and are subject to periods of high turbidity. The 2 two lakes have a water shed of 65 square mile area (168 km ) of mountainous oak-hickory forest. Lake Shepherd Springs has not acted as a settling basin for sediments; thus, the upper portion of Lake Fort Smith has numerous shallow areas with a mud bottom supporting various submergent and emergent aquatic plants. The lower portion of the lake has a rocky, shale substrate with only limited emergent vegetation
Coarse-grained simulations of flow-induced nucleation in semi-crystalline polymers
We perform kinetic Monte Carlo simulations of flow-induced nucleation in
polymer melts with an algorithm that is tractable even at low undercooling. The
configuration of the non-crystallized chains under flow is computed with a
recent non-linear tube model. Our simulations predict both enhanced nucleation
and the growth of shish-like elongated nuclei for sufficiently fast flows. The
simulations predict several experimental phenomena and theoretically justify a
previously empirical result for the flow-enhanced nucleation rate. The
simulations are highly pertinent to both the fundamental understanding and
process modeling of flow-induced crystallization in polymer melts.Comment: 17 pages, 6 eps figure
Loss of solutions in shear banding fluids in shear banding fluids driven by second normal stress differences
Edge fracture occurs frequently in non-Newtonian fluids. A similar
instability has often been reported at the free surface of fluids undergoing
shear banding, and leads to expulsion of the sample. In this paper the
distortion of the free surface of such a shear banding fluid is calculated by
balancing the surface tension against the second normal stresses induced in the
two shear bands, and simultaneously requiring a continuous and smooth meniscus.
We show that wormlike micelles typically retain meniscus integrity when shear
banding, but in some cases can lose integrity for a range of average applied
shear rates during which one expects shear banding. This meniscus fracture
would lead to ejection of the sample as the shear banding region is swept
through. We further show that entangled polymer solutions are expected to
display a propensity for fracture, because of their much larger second normal
stresses. These calculations are consistent with available data in the
literature. We also estimate the meniscus distortion of a three band
configuration, as has been observed in some wormlike micellar solutions in a
cone and plate geometry.Comment: 23 pages, to be published in Journal of Rheolog
The activation energy for GaAs/AlGaAs interdiffusion
Copyright 1997 American Institute of Physics. This article may be downloaded for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and the American Institute of Physics. This article appeared in Journal of Applied Physics 82, 4842 (1997) and may be found at
Adams and Olmsted Reply to comment on article "A non-monotonic constitutive model is not necessary to obtain shear banding phenomena in entangled polymer solution" [Phys. Rev. Lett. 102, 067801 (2009), arXiv:0805.0679]
Wang [Phys. Rev. Lett. 103, 219801 (2009)] makes the following points about
our Letter [Phys. Rev. Lett. 102, 067801 (2009), arXiv:0805.0679]: (1) He
infers that, "contrary to its title, shear banding emerged from monotonic
curves only if there was a stress gradient", and he points out that
nonquiescent relaxation was found (experimentally) after step strain in
geometries without a stress gradient. (2) He disagrees with the values of the
parameters we used. (3) In some recent experiments the flow was homogeneous
after cessation of step strain, and only subsequently developed nonquiescent
macroscopic motion. We only showed step strains that developed an inhomogeneity
before cessation of flow. In this reply we address these points.Comment: Reply to Comment of S.-Q. Wang, Phys. Rev. Lett. 103, 219801 (2009
Phase Separation in Binary Fluid Mixtures with Continuously Ramped Temperature
We consider the demixing of a binary fluid mixture, under gravity, which is
steadily driven into a two phase region by slowly ramping the temperature. We
assume, as a first approximation, that the system remains spatially isothermal,
and examine the interplay of two competing nonlinearities. One of these arises
because the supersaturation is greatest far from the meniscus, creating
inversion of the density which can lead to fluid motion; although isothermal,
this is somewhat like the Benard problem (a single-phase fluid heated from
below). The other is the intrinsic diffusive instability which results either
in nucleation or in spinodal decomposition at large supersaturations.
Experimental results on a simple binary mixture show interesting oscillations
in heat capacity and optical properties for a wide range of ramp parameters. We
argue that these oscillations arise under conditions where both nonlinearities
are important
Uniaxial and biaxial soft deformations of nematic elastomers
We give a geometric interpretation of the soft elastic deformation modes of
nematic elastomers, with explicit examples, for both uniaxial and biaxial
nematic order. We show the importance of body rotations in this non-classical
elasticity and how the invariance under rotations of the reference and target
states gives soft elasticity (the Golubovic and Lubensky theorem). The role of
rotations makes the Polar Decomposition Theorem vital for decomposing general
deformations into body rotations and symmetric strains. The role of the square
roots of tensors is discussed in this context and that of finding explicit
forms for soft deformations (the approach of Olmsted).Comment: 10 pages, 10 figures, RevTex, AmsTe
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