30 research outputs found
Confinement and Viscoelastic effects on Chain Closure Dynamics
Chemical reactions inside cells are typically subject to the effects both of
the cell's confining surfaces and of the viscoelastic behavior of its contents.
In this paper, we show how the outcome of one particular reaction of relevance
to cellular biochemistry - the diffusion-limited cyclization of long chain
polymers - is influenced by such confinement and crowding effects. More
specifically, starting from the Rouse model of polymer dynamics, and invoking
the Wilemski-Fixman approximation, we determine the scaling relationship
between the mean closure time t_{c} of a flexible chain (no excluded volume or
hydrodynamic interactions) and the length N of its contour under the following
separate conditions: (a) confinement of the chain to a sphere of radius D, and
(b) modulation of its dynamics by colored Gaussian noise. Among other results,
we find that in case (a) when D is much smaller than the size of the chain,
t_{c}\simND^{2}, and that in case (b), t_{c}\simN^{2/(2-2H)}, H being a number
between 1/2 and 1 that characterizes the decay of the noise correlations. H is
not known \`a priori, but values of about 0.7 have been used in the successful
characterization of protein conformational dynamics. At this value of H
(selected for purposes of illustration), t_{c}\simN^3.4, the high scaling
exponent reflecting the slow relaxation of the chain in a viscoelastic medium
Monte Carlo transient phonons transport in silicon and germanium at nanoscales
Heat transport at nanoscales in semiconductors is investigated with a
statistical method. The Boltzmann Transport Equation (BTE) which characterize
phonons motion and interaction within the crystal lattice has been simulated
with a Monte Carlo technique. Our model takes into account media frequency
properties through the dispersion curves for longitudinal and transverse
acoustic branches. The BTE collisional term involving phonons scattering
processes is simulated with the Relaxation Times Approximation theory. A new
distribution function accounting for the collisional processes has been
developed in order to respect energy conservation during phonons scattering
events. This non deterministic approach provides satisfactory results in what
concerns phonons transport in both ballistic and diffusion regimes. The
simulation code has been tested with silicon and germanium thin films;
temperature propagation within samples is presented and compared to analytical
solutions (in the diffusion regime). The two materials bulk thermal
conductivity is retrieved for temperature ranging between 100 K and 500 K. Heat
transfer within a plane wall with a large thermal gradient (250 K-500 K) is
proposed in order to expose the model ability to simulate conductivity thermal
dependence on heat exchange at nanoscales. Finally, size effects and validity
of heat conduction law are investigated for several slab thicknesses
Effects of Staged Cooling in Shrink-Fitting Compounded Cylinders
This paper studies the effect of staged cooling of compounded cylinders in avoiding cracking due to the presence of large interference stresses and low fracture toughness in the presence of cryogenic temperatures. This study is motivated by the assembly procedure of the fulcrum (a compounded trunnion-hub assembly) of bascule bridges, where the fulcrum is shrunk by immersion in liquid nitrogen so that it can then be fitted into the girder of the bridge. In a few cases, the fulcrum developed cracks during the immersion in liquid nitrogen. To study the effect of staged cooling to avoid such cracking, a finite difference model was developed of a long compounded cylinder with axisymmetric response with temperature-dependent properties. The study showed that the resistance to failure was increased by as much as 50 per cent when the compounded cylinder is cooled first in a refrigerated air chamber and followed by immersion in liquid nitrogen