687 research outputs found
Cracks in rubber under tension exceed the shear wave speed
The shear wave speed is an upper limit for the speed of cracks loaded in
tension in linear elastic solids. We have discovered that in a non-linear
material, cracks in tension (Mode I) exceed this sound speed, and travel in an
intersonic range between shear and longitudinal wave speeds. The experiments
are conducted in highly stretched sheets of rubber; intersonic cracks can be
produced simply by popping a balloon.Comment: 4 pages, 5 eps figure
Fluctuations and Pinch-Offs Observed in Viscous Fingering
Our experiments on viscous (Saffman-Taylor) fingering in Hele-Shaw channels
reveal several phenomena that were not observed in previous experiments. At low
flow rates, growing fingers undergo width fluctuations that intermittently
narrow the finger as they evolve. The magnitude of these fluctuations is
proportional to Ca^{-0.64}, where Ca is the capillary number, which is
proportional to the finger velocity. This relation holds for all aspect ratios
studied up to the onset of tip instabilities. At higher flow rates, finger
pinch-off and reconnection events are observed. These events appear to be
caused by an interaction between the actively growing finger and suppressed
fingers at the back of the channel. Both the fluctuation and pinch-off
phenomena are robust but not explained by current theory.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures; to appear in Proceedings of the Seventh
Experimental Chaos Conferenc
Fluctuations and Pinch-Offs Observed in Viscous Fingering
Our experiments on viscous (Saffman-Taylor) fingering in Hele-Shaw channels
reveal several phenomena that were not observed in previous experiments. At low
flow rates, growing fingers undergo width fluctuations that intermittently
narrow the finger as they evolve. The magnitude of these fluctuations is
proportional to Ca^{-0.64}, where Ca is the capillary number, which is
proportional to the finger velocity. This relation holds for all aspect ratios
studied up to the onset of tip instabilities. At higher flow rates, finger
pinch-off and reconnection events are observed. These events appear to be
caused by an interaction between the actively growing finger and suppressed
fingers at the back of the channel. Both the fluctuation and pinch-off
phenomena are robust but not explained by current theory.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures; to appear in Proceedings of the Seventh
Experimental Chaos Conferenc
Continuum simulations of shocks and patterns in vertically oscillated granular layers
We study interactions between shocks and standing-wave patterns in vertically
oscillated layers of granular media using three-dimensional, time-dependent
numerical solutions of continuum equations to Navier-Stokes order. We simulate
a layer of grains atop a plate that oscillates sinusoidally in the direction of
gravity. Standing waves form stripe patterns when the accelerational amplitude
of the plate's oscillation exceeds a critical value. Shocks also form with each
collision between the layer and the plate; we show that pressure gradients
formed by these shocks cause the flow to reverse direction within the layer.
This reversal leads to an oscillatory state of the pattern that is subharmonic
with respect to the plate's oscillation. Finally, we study the relationship
between shocks and patterns in layers oscillated at various frequencies and
show that the pattern wavelength increases monotonically as the shock strength
increases.Comment: 12 pages, 9 figure
Onset of Patterns in an Ocillated Granular Layer: Continuum and Molecular Dynamics Simulations
We study the onset of patterns in vertically oscillated layers of
frictionless dissipative particles. Using both numerical solutions of continuum
equations to Navier-Stokes order and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, we
find that standing waves form stripe patterns above a critical acceleration of
the cell. Changing the frequency of oscillation of the cell changes the
wavelength of the resulting pattern; MD and continuum simulations both yield
wavelengths in accord with previous experimental results. The value of the
critical acceleration for ordered standing waves is approximately 10% higher in
molecular dynamics simulations than in the continuum simulations, and the
amplitude of the waves differs significantly between the models. The delay in
the onset of order in molecular dynamics simulations and the amplitude of noise
below this onset are consistent with the presence of fluctuations which are
absent in the continuum theory. The strength of the noise obtained by fit to
Swift-Hohenberg theory is orders of magnitude larger than the thermal noise in
fluid convection experiments, and is comparable to the noise found in
experiments with oscillated granular layers and in recent fluid experiments on
fluids near the critical point. Good agreement is found between the mean field
value of onset from the Swift-Hohenberg fit and the onset in continuum
simulations. Patterns are compared in cells oscillated at two different
frequencies in MD; the layer with larger wavelength patterns has less noise
than the layer with smaller wavelength patterns.Comment: Published in Physical Review
From time series to superstatistics
Complex nonequilibrium systems are often effectively described by a
`statistics of a statistics', in short, a `superstatistics'. We describe how to
proceed from a given experimental time series to a superstatistical
description. We argue that many experimental data fall into three different
universality classes: chi^2-superstatistics (Tsallis statistics), inverse
chi^2-superstatistics, and log-normal superstatistics. We discuss how to
extract the two relevant well separated superstatistical time scales tau and T,
the probability density of the superstatistical parameter beta, and the
correlation function for beta from the experimental data. We illustrate our
approach by applying it to velocity time series measured in turbulent
Taylor-Couette flow, which is well described by log-normal superstatistics and
exhibits clear time scale separation.Comment: 7 pages, 9 figure
Correlation between Voronoi volumes in disc packings
We measure the two-point correlation of free Voronoi volumes in binary disc
packings, where the packing fraction ranges from 0.8175 to
0.8380. We observe short-ranged correlations over the whole range of and anti-correlations for . The spatial extent of
the anti-correlation increases with while the position of the
maximum of the anti-correlation and the extent of the positive correlation
shrink with . We conjecture that the onset of anti-correlation
corresponds to dilatancy onset in this system
Crucial role of sidewalls in velocity distributions in quasi-2D granular gases
Our experiments and three-dimensional molecular dynamics simulations of
particles confined to a vertical monolayer by closely spaced frictional walls
(sidewalls) yield velocity distributions with non-Gaussian tails and a peak
near zero velocity. Simulations with frictionless sidewalls are not peaked.
Thus interactions between particles and their container are an important
determinant of the shape of the distribution and should be considered when
evaluating experiments on a tightly constrained monolayer of particles.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, Added reference, model explanation charified,
other minor change
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