Electro-osmotic flow of couple stress fluids in a microchannel propagated by peristalsis

A mathematical model is developed for electro-osmotic peristaltic pumping of a non-Newtonian liquid in a deformable micro-channel. Stokes’ couple stress fluid model is deployed to represent realistic working liquids. The Poisson-Boltzmann equation for electric potential distribution is implemented owing to the presence of an electrical double layer (EDL) in the micro-channel. Using long wavelength, lubrication theory and Debye-Huckel approximations, the linearized transformed dimensionless boundary value problem is solved analytically. The influence of electro-osmotic parameter (inversely proportional to Debye length), maximum electro-osmotic velocity (a function of external applied electrical field) and couple stress parameter on axial velocity, volumetric flow rate, pressure gradient, local wall shear stress and stream function distributions is evaluated in detail with the aid of graphs. The Newtonian fluid case is retrieved as a special case with vanishing couple stress effects. With increasing couple stress parameter there is a significant elevation in axial pressure gradient whereas the core axial velocity is reduced. An increase in electro-osmotic parameter induces both flow acceleration in the core region (around the channel centreline) and also enhances axial pressure gradient substantially. The study is relevant to simulation of novel smart bio-inspired space pumps, chromatography and medical microscale devices

On the mechanisms governing gas penetration into a tokamak plasma during a massive gas injection

A new 1D radial fluid code, IMAGINE, is used to simulate the penetration of gas into a tokamak plasma during a massive gas injection (MGI). The main result is that the gas is in general strongly braked as it reaches the plasma, due to mechanisms related to charge exchange and (to a smaller extent) recombination. As a result, only a fraction of the gas penetrates into the plasma. Also, a shock wave is created in the gas which propagates away from the plasma, braking and compressing the incoming gas. Simulation results are quantitatively consistent, at least in terms of orders of magnitude, with experimental data for a D 2 MGI into a JET Ohmic plasma. Simulations of MGI into the background plasma surrounding a runaway electron beam show that if the background electron density is too high, the gas may not penetrate, suggesting a possible explanation for the recent results of Reux et al in JET (2015 Nucl. Fusion 55 093013)

Cast in situ Cu-TiC composites: Synthesis by SHS route and characterization.

The present investigation discusses observations pertaining to the synthesis of Cu-based composites containing TiC particles in the range of 45–50 volume % by self-propagating high temperature synthesis (SHS) process. A composite with 11–13 volume % TiC dispersion was also synthesized through remelting and dilution. The composites were observed to contain a copper matrix together with a Cu–Ti intermetallic compound, TiC dispersoid particles and partially reacted graphite. The regions showing partially reacted graphite (carbon) became less prominent in the diluted composites. Al addition led to the refinement of TiC particles, higher hardness, reduced density and improved degree of formation and better homogeneity of the distribution of TiC particles. Dilution caused reduced hardness, while the density followed a reverse trend

Sawtooth pacing with on-axis ICRH modulation in JET-ILW

A novel technique for sawteeth control in tokamak plasmas using ion-cyclotron resonance heating (ICRH) has been developed in the JET-ILW tokamak. Unlike previous ICRH methods, that explored the destabilization of the internal kink mode when the radio-frequency (RF) wave absorption was placed near the q = 1 surface, the technique presented here consists of stabilizing the sawteeth as fast as possible by applying the ICRH power centrally and subsequently induce a sawtooth crash by switching it off at the appropriate instant. The validation of this method in JET-ILW L-mode discharges, including preliminary tests in H-mode plasmas, is presented

Hybrid cancellation of ripple disturbances arising in AC/DC converters

In AC/DC converters, a peculiar periodic nonsmooth waveform arises, the so-called ripple. In this paper we propose a novel model that captures this nonsmoothness by means of a hybrid dynamical system performing state jumps at certain switching instants, and we illustrate its properties with reference to a three phase diode bridge rectifier. As the ripple corrupts an underlying desirable signal, we propound two observer schemes ensuring asymptotic estimation of the ripple, the first with and the second without knowledge of the switching instants. Our theoretical developments are well placed in the context of recent techniques for hybrid regulation and constitute a contribution especially for our second observer, where the switching instants are estimated. Once asymptotic estimation of the ripple is achieved, the ripple can be conveniently canceled from the desirable signal, and thanks to the inherent robustness properties of the proposed hybrid formulation, the two observer schemes require only that the desirable signal is slowly time varying compared to the ripple. Exploiting this fact, we illustrate the effectiveness of our second hybrid observation law on experimental data collected from the Joint European Torus tokamak