201 research outputs found
Dynamics of a deformable body in a fast flowing soap film
We study the behavior of an elastic loop embedded in a flowing soap film.
This deformable loop is wetted into the film and is held fixed at a single
point against the oncoming flow. We interpret this system as a two-dimensional
flexible body interacting in a two-dimensional flow. This coupled
fluid-structure system shows bistability, with both stationary and oscillatory
states. In its stationary state, the loop remains essentially motionless and
its wake is a von K\'arm\'an vortex street. In its oscillatory state, the loop
sheds two vortex dipoles, or more complicated vortical structures, within each
oscillation period. We find that the oscillation frequency of the loop is
linearly proportional to the flow velocity, and that the measured Strouhal
numbers can be separated based on wake structure
Numerical simulations of compressible Rayleigh-Taylor turbulence in stratified fluids
We present results from numerical simulations of Rayleigh-Taylor turbulence,
performed using a recently proposed lattice Boltzmann method able to describe
consistently a thermal compressible flow subject to an external forcing. The
method allowed us to study the system both in the nearly-Boussinesq and
strongly compressible regimes. Moreover, we show that when the stratification
is important, the presence of the adiabatic gradient causes the arrest of the
mixing process.Comment: 15 pages, 11 figures. Proceedings of II Conference on Turbulent
Mixing and Beyond (TMB-2009
Experiments on wave turbulence : the evolution and growth of second sound acoustic turbulence in superfluid 4He confirm self-similarity.
We report our experiments on the formation of second sound acoustic turbulence in superfluid 4He. The initial growth in spectral amplitude follows power laws that steepen rapidly with increasing harmonic number n, corresponding to a propagating front in frequency space. The lower growth exponents agree well with analytic predictions and numerical modeling. The observed increase in the formation delay with n validates the concept of selfsimilarity in the growth of wave turbulence
On the torque on birefringent plates induced by quantum fluctuations
We present detailed numerical calculations of the mechanical torque induced
by quantum fluctuations on two parallel birefringent plates with in plane
optical anisotropy, separated by either vacuum or a liquid (ethanol). The
torque is found to vary as , where represents the angle
between the two optical axes, and its magnitude rapidly increases with
decreasing plate separation . For a 40 m diameter disk, made out of
either quartz or calcite, kept parallel to a Barium Titanate plate at nm, the maximum torque (at ) is of the order of
Nm. We propose an experiment to observe this torque
when the Barium Titanate plate is immersed in ethanol and the other
birefringent disk is placed on top of it. In this case the retarded van der
Waals (or Casimir-Lifshitz) force between the two birefringent slabs is
repulsive. The disk would float parallel to the plate at a distance where its
net weight is counterbalanced by the retarded van der Waals repulsion, free to
rotate in response to very small driving torques.Comment: 7 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.
Simple Viscous Flows: from Boundary Layers to the Renormalization Group
The seemingly simple problem of determining the drag on a body moving through
a very viscous fluid has, for over 150 years, been a source of theoretical
confusion, mathematical paradoxes, and experimental artifacts, primarily
arising from the complex boundary layer structure of the flow near the body and
at infinity. We review the extensive experimental and theoretical literature on
this problem, with special emphasis on the logical relationship between
different approaches. The survey begins with the developments of matched
asymptotic expansions, and concludes with a discussion of perturbative
renormalization group techniques, adapted from quantum field theory to
differential equations. The renormalization group calculations lead to a new
prediction for the drag coefficient, one which can both reproduce and surpass
the results of matched asymptotics
Temperature dependence of bulk viscosity in water using acoustic spectroscopy
Despite its fundamental role in the dynamics of compressible fluids, bulk
viscosity has received little experimental attention and there remains a
paucity of measured data. Acoustic spectroscopy provides a robust and accurate
approach to measuring this parameter. Working from the Navier-Stokes model of a
compressible fluid one can show that the bulk viscosity makes a significant and
measurable contribution to the frequency-squared acoustic attenuation. Here we
employ this methodology to determine the bulk viscosity of Millipore water over
a temperature range of 7 to 50 degrees Celsius. The measured attenuation
spectra are consistent with the theoretical predictions, while the bulk
viscosity of water is found to be approximately three times larger than its
shear counterpart, reinforcing its significance in acoustic propagation.
Moreover, our results demonstrate that this technique can be readily and
generally applied to fluids to accurately determine their temperature dependent
bulk viscosities.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures. Proceedings of the Anglo-French Physical
Acoustics Conference, January 201
Elastic turbulence in curvilinear flows of polymer solutions
Following our first report (A. Groisman and V. Steinberg, \sl Nature , 53 (2000)) we present an extended account of experimental observations of
elasticity induced turbulence in three different systems: a swirling flow
between two plates, a Couette-Taylor (CT) flow between two cylinders, and a
flow in a curvilinear channel (Dean flow). All three set-ups had high ratio of
width of the region available for flow to radius of curvature of the
streamlines. The experiments were carried out with dilute solutions of high
molecular weight polyacrylamide in concentrated sugar syrups. High polymer
relaxation time and solution viscosity ensured prevalence of non-linear elastic
effects over inertial non-linearity, and development of purely elastic
instabilities at low Reynolds number (Re) in all three flows. Above the elastic
instability threshold, flows in all three systems exhibit features of developed
turbulence. Those include: (i)randomly fluctuating fluid motion excited in a
broad range of spatial and temporal scales; (ii) significant increase in the
rates of momentum and mass transfer (compared to those expected for a steady
flow with a smooth velocity profile). Phenomenology, driving mechanisms, and
parameter dependence of the elastic turbulence are compared with those of the
conventional high Re hydrodynamic turbulence in Newtonian fluids.Comment: 23 pages, 26 figure
Historic Light Curve and Long-term Optical Variation of BL Lacertae 2200+420
In this paper, historical optical(UBVRI) data and newly observed data from
the Yunnan Observatory of China(about100 years) are presented for BL Lacertae.
Maximum variations in UBVRI: 5.12, 5.31, 4.73, 2.59, and 2.54 and color indices
of U-B = -0.11 +/- 0.20, B-V= 1.0 +/- 0.11, V-R= 0.73 +/- 0.19, V-I= 1.42 +/-
0.25, R-I= 0.82 +/- 0.11, and B-I= 2.44 +/- 0.29 have been obtained from the
literature; The Jurkevich method is used to investigate the existence of
periods in the B band light curve, and a long-term period of 14 years is found.
The 0.6 and 0.88 year periods reported by Webb et al.(1988) are confirmed. In
addition, a close relation between B-I and B is found, suggesting that the
spectra flattens when the source brightens.Comment: 21 pages, 6 figures, 2 table, aasms4.sty, to be published in ApJ,
Vol. 507, 199
Dynamics and Excitation of Radio Galaxy Emission-Line Regions - I. PKS 2356-61
Results are presented from a programme of detailed longslit spectroscopic
observations of the extended emission-line region (EELR) associated with the
powerful radio galaxy PKS 2356-61. The observations have been used to construct
spectroscopic datacubes, which yield detailed information on the spatial
variations of emission-line ratios across the EELR, together with its kinematic
structure. We present an extensive comparison between the data and results
obtained from the MAPPINGS II shock ionization code, and show that the physical
properties of the line-emitting gas, including its ionization, excitation,
dynamics and overall energy budget, are entirely consistent with a scenario
involving auto-ionizing shocks as the dominant ionization mechanism. This has
the advantage of accounting for the observed EELR properties by means of a
single physical process, thereby requiring less free parameters than the
alternative scheme involving photoionization by radiation from the active
nucleus. Finally, possible mechanisms of shock formation are considered in the
context of the dynamics and origin of the gas, specifically scenarios involving
infall or accretion of gas during an interaction between the host radio galaxy
and a companion galaxy.Comment: 35 pages, LaTeX, uses aas2pp4.sty file, includes 9 PostScript
figures. Two additional colour plates are available from the authors upon
request. Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journa
The USNO-B Catalog
USNO-B is an all-sky catalog that presents positions, proper motions,
magnitudes in various optical passbands, and star/galaxy estimators for
1,042,618,261 objects derived from 3,643,201,733 separate observations. The
data were obtained from scans of 7,435 Schmidt plates taken for the various sky
surveys during the last 50 years. USNO-B1.0 is believed to provide all-sky
coverage, completeness down to V = 21, 0.2 arcsecond astrometric accuracy at
J2000, 0.3 magnitude photometric accuracy in up to five colors, and 85%
accuracy for distinguishing stars from non-stellar objects. A brief discussion
of various issues is given here, but the actual data are available from
http://www.nofs.navy.mil and other sites.Comment: Accepted by Astronomical Journa
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