Viscous behaviour of glass-forming liquids: a thermodynamic approach

The temperature dependence of the viscosity of the undercooled melts exhibits an important role in the study of nucleation, crystal growth and the glass-forming ability of materials. Several attempts have been made to study the viscous behaviour of the glass-forming melts and these investigations are mainly based on free volume theory as well as on the configurational entropy model. In the present investigation, an attempt has been made to correlate the thermodynamic parameters with the viscosity of the glass-forming melts and to study the temperature dependence of the viscosity of undercooled liquids on the basis of the free volume theory as well as on the basis of the configurational entropy model of Adam and Gibbs. The entire study is confined on the expression for thermodynamic parameters reported by the authors recently. The expression obtained has been successfully applied to study the temperature dependence of the viscosity of the metallic, molecular and oxide glass-forming liquids.     

Modeling Microwave Vacuum Drying Kinetics and Moisture Diffusivity of Carrot Slices

Carrot slices of 3.5 mm thickness were dried in a laboratory microwave vacuum dryer at five different microwave power density levels of 2, 4.66, 7.33, 10, and 12.66 W/g and at three vacuum chamber pressure levels of 6.66, 19.98, and 33.3 kPa to 4-6% d.b. moisture content. Inside the dryer the sample holding plate was rotated with the speed of 4 rpm for uniform microwaves application. The drying rates were increased with the increase in microwave power density at all pressure levels and the Page model was found to be the most suitable model to predict the drying behavior of carrot slices at all process conditions. The Page model drying rate constant (k, min^-1) showed high correlation with microwave power density at constant pressure by a power law equation and showed a logarithmic relationship with the microwave power density and pressure. Similar to the drying rate constant, the average moisture diffusivity at constant pressure was found to be function of microwave power density by power law equation as well as was also dependent on the power density and pressure by a logarithmic relationship.     

BLOOD VISCOELASTICITY FOR CONDITIONS OF PHYSIOLOGICAL FLOW IN SMALL ARTERIES

The viscoelasticity of blood is quantified by studying the oscillatory flow of suspensions of RBC in plasma in 218 μm and 400 μm glass capillary tubes. The flow conditions are chosen to reflect normal physiological flow in small arterial vessels. Data are obtained for suspension hematocrits between 35 and 80 percent, and at physiological temperature (37°C) The results indicate that the elastic component of the viscoelasticity of blood is effectively negligible for the conditions of this study; the measured pressure gradient-flowrate relationship is dominated by the viscous component of blood viscoelasticity.     

Evaluation of polymer rheology from drop spreading experiments

In this paper, spreading experiments on “heavy” polymer drops are performed. “Heavy” refers to large polymer drops, i.e., the radius of the drop, R, is much larger than the capillary length, κ^-1, so that the spreading is dictated by gravity. The zero-shear viscosity can be found from measurements of the time-dependent drop radius or vice versa. Viscosity values found from spreading experiments compare well with the viscosity values found from dynamic rheological experiments.     

观测几何对目标探测性能影响的仿真分析

在光电武器作战探测目标性能问题的研究中,不同大气/气溶胶模式、不同观测几何条件下的光电武器作战效能差异显著.针对上述问题,通过分析大气传输和观测几何对视在对比度的影响,建立了视在对比度传递模型,结合TIP准则提出了观测几何对目标探测性能的影响模型.利用Modtran软件离线计算的基础数据,提出了探测性能模型快速仿真计算方法,实现了典型地区、全天时、不同观测几何和观测距离条件下的成像系统探测性能的快速仿真计算.采用快速仿真计算方法,选取典型参数,计算并分析了不同大气/气溶胶模式、观测几何等因素对视在对比度、探测概率和探测距离等指标的影响.结果表明:观测几何对目标探测性能影响显著,50％探测概率条件下,顺光探测距离是逆光探测距离的1.38 ～1.7倍;不同大气/气溶胶模式条件下,观测几何对探测距离影响差异明显,海洋性气溶胶模式下影响较大,乡村型气溶胶模式下影响较小.文中提出了观测几何对目标探测性能的影响模型和快速仿真计算方法,为光电武器系统任务规划和作战效能评估提供了理论和技术支持.     

Topological and Variational Properties of a Model for the Reconstruction of Three-Dimensional Transparent Images with Self-Occlusions

We introduce and study a two-dimensional variational model for the reconstruction of a smooth generic solid shape E, which may handle the self-occlusions and that can be considered as an improvement of the 2.1D sketch of Nitzberg and Mumford (Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Computer Vision, Osaka, 1990). We characterize from the topological viewpoint the apparent contour of E, namely, we characterize those planar graphs that are apparent contours of some shape E. This is the classical problem of recovering a three-dimensional layered shape from its apparent contour, which is of interest in theoretical computer vision. We make use of the so-called Huffman labeling (Machine Intelligence, vol. 6, Am. Elsevier, New York, 1971), see also the papers of Williams (Ph.D. Dissertation, 1994 and Int. J. Comput. Vis. 23:93–108, 1997) and the paper of Karpenko and Hughes (Preprint, 2006) for related results. Moreover, we show that if E and F are two shapes having the same apparent contour, then E and F differ by a global homeomorphism which is strictly increasing on each fiber along the direction of the eye of the observer. These two topological theorems allow to find the domain of the functional ℱ describing the model. Compactness, semicontinuity and relaxation properties of ℱ are then studied, as well as connections of our model with the problem of completion of hidden contours.

Investigation of viscosity effect on droplet formation in T-shaped microchannels by numerical and analytical methods

Both numerical and analytical models have been developed to explore the viscosity effect of the continuous phase on drop formation at a T-shaped junction in immiscible liquids. The effects of the generalized power law coefficient, the power law exponent and the yield stress on the mechanism of drop breakup, final drop size and frequency of drop formation are studied by using the numerical three-dimensional volume of fluid model. Droplets coalescence in Bingham fluids is observed in the beginning transient period. The effect of yield stress on drop extension is also discussed. Predictions of drop size by using an analytical force balance show satisfactory agreement with simulation results for Newtonian and power law fluids with different viscosity ratios. The approximation error associated with the analytical model for Bingham fluids is also acceptable. This analytical model can greatly shorten the prediction time as compared with the numerical model, which is helpful for on-line control.     

An approach to quantify depth-resolved marine photochemical fluxes using remote sensing: Application to carbon monoxide (CO) photoproduction

This paper presents a model to calculate depth-resolved marine photochemical fluxes from remotely sensed ocean color and modeled solar irradiance. The basic approach uses three components: 1) below-sea-surface spectral downward scalar irradiance calculated from a radiative transfer model (STAR) and corrected for clouds using TOMS UV reflectivities; 2) surface-ocean spectral diffuse attenuation coefficients and absorption coefficients for chromophoric dissolved organic matter retrieved from SeaWiFS ocean color using the SeaUV/SeaUVc algorithms; and (3) spectral apparent quantum yield for the photochemical reaction considered. The output of the model is a photochemical rate profile, Ψ_PR(z), where z represents depth.We implemented the model for carbon monoxide (CO) photochemistry using an average apparent quantum yield spectrum and generated a monthly climatology of depth-resolved CO photoproduction rates in the global ocean. The climatology was used to compute global budgets and investigate the spatial and seasonal variabilities of CO photoproduction in the ocean. The model predicts a global CO photoproduction rate of about 41 TgC yr^− 1, in good agreement with other recent published estimates ranging from 30 to 84 TgC yr^− 1. The fate of photochemically derived CO and its role in global biogeochemical cycles remains uncertain however, with biological consumption and sea-air exchange competing for its removal in the surface ocean. Knowledge of the vertical distribution of CO photoproduction is critical in the quantification of the relative magnitudes of these sink mechanisms. The depth-resolution capabilities of this model, together with US Naval Research Laboratory climatology for mixed layer depths allowed further estimation that > 95% of the total water-column CO photoproduction occurs within the mixed layer on a global, yearly basis. Despite this compelling figure, the model also suggests significant spatio-temporal variability in the vertical distribution of CO photoproduction in the subtropical gyres, where up to 40% of water-column CO can be produced below the mixed layer during summertime.While the approach can be applied to other photochemical fluxes (e.g. DIC formation or DMS removal), accurate quantification of such processes with remote sensing will be limited until the mechanisms regulating observed oceanic variability in the apparent quantum yields are better understood. Minor modification to this model can also make it applicable for the determination of the effects of UV and visible solar radiation on sensitive biological systems.     

A resonating rheometer using two polymer membranes for measuring liquid viscosity and mass density

A resonating sensor for mechanical liquid properties facilitating measurements at two different modes of operation is presented. One mode is more sensitive to liquid viscosity the other to mass density. A sample liquid is subjected to time-harmonic shear stress induced by two opposed vibrating polymer membranes. These membranes, placed in an external static magnetic field, carry two conductive paths each. The first path is used to actuate the membranes by means of Lorentz forces while the second acts as a pick-up coil providing an induced voltage representing the movement of the membrane. From the resulting frequency response the liquid's viscosity and mass density can be deduced. This double membrane based setup allows examining the test liquid at adjustable frequencies in the low kilohertz range from 500 Hz to 20 kHz by varying the gap between both membranes. The sensor is suitable, e.g., for low cost handheld devices with inline capabilities and disposable sensor elements for measuring Newtonian liquids such as, e.g., oils and aqueous solutions.