Peristaltic activity of thermally radiative magneto-nanofluid with electroosmosis and entropy analysis

The importance of gold and silver nanoparticles in the blood flow has immense applications in biomedicine for the treatment of cancer disease and wound treatment due to their large atomic number and antimicrobial property. The current study deals with the magnetohydrodynamic and electroosmotic radiative peristaltic Jeffrey nanofluid (blood–silver/gold) flow with the effect of slip and convective boundary conditions in the nonsymmetric vertical channel. The nondimensional governing equations have been solved analytically and the exact solutions have been presented for velocity, temperature, shear stress, trapping, entropy generation, pressure gradient and heat transfer coefficient. The pictorial representations have been prepared for the flow quantities with respect to fluid flow parameters of interest. It is noticed from the current study that the gold-based nanofluids exhibit higher velocity than silver-based nanofluids. Enhancement of thermal radiation decreases the total entropy generation. The size of the tapered bolus decreases with the enhancement of magnetic field strength. The present model is applicable in designing pharmacodynamic pumps and drug delivery systems.     

Silk-elastinlike protein polymer hydrogels: Influence of monomer sequence on physicochemical properties

Silk-elastinlike protein polymer, SELP-815K, with eight silk and fifteen elastin units and a lysine (K) modified elastin, was genetically engineered with longer silk and elastin units compared to existing hydrogel forming analogs (SELP-415K and SELP-47K). Hydrogels of the three SELPs (with similar MWs) were investigated for their structure-function relationships. Results indicate that equilibrium swelling ratio in these hydrogels is a function of polymer structure, concentration, cure time and ionic strength of media. Swelling was not influenced by the changes in pH. Storage moduli observed by dynamic mechanical analysis and the Debye-Bueche correlation length obtained from small-angle neutron scattering provided structural insight that suggests the cross-linking densities in these hydrogels follow the order SELP-47K > SELP-815K > SELP-415K. These results allude to the importance of the length of elastin blocks in governing the spacing of the cross-linked hydrogel network and that of silk in governing the stiffness of their 3-dimensional structures.     

Influence of Cobalt Doping on the Physical Properties of Zn<Subscript>0.9</Subscript>Cd<Subscript>0.1</Subscript>S Nanoparticles

Zn_0.9Cd_0.1S nanoparticles doped with 0.005–0.24 M cobalt have been prepared by co-precipitation technique in ice bath at 280 K. For the cobalt concentration >0.18 M, XRD pattern shows unidentified phases along with Zn_0.9Cd_0.1S sphalerite phase. For low cobalt concentration (≤0.05 M) particle size, d _XRD is ~3.5 nm, while for high cobalt concentration (>0.05 M) particle size decreases abruptly (~2 nm) as detected by XRD. However, TEM analysis shows the similar particle size (~3.5 nm) irrespective of the cobalt concentration. Local strain in the alloyed nanoparticles with cobalt concentration of 0.18 M increases ~46% in comparison to that of 0.05 M. Direct to indirect energy band-gap transition is obtained when cobalt concentration goes beyond 0.05 M. A red shift in energy band gap is also observed for both the cases. Nanoparticles with low cobalt concentrations were found to have paramagnetic nature with no antiferromagnetic coupling. A negative Curie–Weiss temperature of −75 K with antiferromagnetic coupling was obtained for the high cobalt concentration.     

3D Metal printed heat sinks with longitudinally varying lattice structure sizes using direct metal laser sintering

This research relates to the design, modelling and fabrication of 3D metal printed heat sinks. The heat sinks presented in the research are the commonly used longitudinal fin solid heat sink (LFSHS) and three LFSHS lattice structure designs, differing only in their lattice sizes, fabricated using the Direct Metal Laser Sintering (DMLS) technique in Maraging Steel (MS1), on an EOSINT M280 system. In order to increase the heat sink surface area, the heat sinks are manufactured with mesh lattices along the length of the fins, while keeping the overall heat sink volume constant. The research is focused on pushing the limitations of the DMLS technique for the development of repeating unit, lattice structures heat sinks, and to examine the effect of incrementally varying the lattice sizes with regards to the resultant surface area of the heat sink and the thermal performance of the system. The results obtained under natural convection show that the thermal performance of the LFSHS outperformed all lattice structure heat sinks. This is due to the fact that, the pressure drop across the lattice heat sinks were so high, due to lattice meshes that it negated the positive effect of the greater surface area.     

Simulation of Varada Aquifer System for Sustainable Groundwater Development

Groundwater flow modeling has been used extensively worldwide with varying degrees of success. The ability to predict the groundwater flow is critical in planning and implementing groundwater development projects under increasing demand for fresh water resources. This paper presents the simulation of the aquifer system for planning the groundwater development of Varada basin, Karnataka, India using the Galerkin finite-element method. The government of Karnataka State, India is implementing the World Bank assisted project, “Jal Nirmal” for a sustainable development of the region, thereby ensuring a safe supply of drinking water to the northern districts of the state. Varada basin is one of the beneficiaries of the project in Haveri district. Field tests carried out in the study area indicate that the region is predominantly a confined aquifer with transmissivity and storage coefficients ranging from 5.787×10?6?m2/s (0.500?m2/day) to 4.213×10?3?m2/s (3.640×102?m2/day) and 0.011–0.001×10?2, respectively. This study mainly emphasizes the spatial and temporal variability of groundwater potential under different developmental scenarios. The model predictions were reasonably good with correlation coefficients ranging from 0.78 to 0.91 with the root mean square error of about 0.46–0.78 during calibration and validation. The stated accuracies are based on comparisons between measured and calculated heads. The outcome of the study would be a useful input for the conjunctive use of surface water and groundwater planning for the sustainable development of the region.     

Modeling Instructor Training Preparation in a Simulation Flight Training Program

The current research deals with planning problems related to instructors training in simulator flight training programs. It is a part of our development work in optimal training programs to support the cost effective design of instructor/operator stations(IOS). A flight simulator is a complex device which can be used to train students and instructors, whose training requirements and methodologies are quite different. This paper deals with this complex man-machine interface planning problem, presents a model for the instructors training process, and develops a methodology for determining optimal training plans.     

Effect of copper substitution on the microstructure and ferroelectric properties of barium titanate

Abstracts are not published in this journal This revised version was published online in November 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

New Initiatives on Comparison of Whole-field Experimental and Numerical Results

Abstract: A simple approach to plot photoelastic fringes in grey scale and also in colour from finite element (FE) results is presented for better recognition and comparison with experiments. This requires proper identification of the plotting variable from FE results. For comparison with transmission photoelasticity, post-processing of principal stress difference is needed and for reflection photoelasticity the principal strain difference is to be used. The importance of the use of appropriate correction factors for comparison with reflection photoelastic results is emphasised. A newer approach to evaluate R _f for complicated geometries is indicated. Plotting of experimental fringes from finite elements is useful not only for validating the numerical model based on experiments but also for validating the experiments. To illustrate this, the problem of an interfacial crack in a bi-material Brazilian disc is discussed.