Interior Interface Research Articles

A fragile points method with a numerical-flux-based interface debonding model to simulate the delamination migration in composite laminates

Predicting damage in composite laminates is essential for a better utilization of the material, but it is challenging especially when the inter- and intra-ply damages are coupled. In this paper, a Fragile Points Method (FPM) with a numerical-flux-based interface debonding model is proposed to simulate the laminates’ damage. The FPM is a novel meshless method using the discontinuous Galerkin weak formulations and the point-based discontinuous polynomial trial functions. In this work, an orthotropic interface debonding model has been developed based on the numerical fluxes to simulate the mixed-mode inter- and intra-ply damage. For any interior interface in an FPM model, the interface damage is triggered when the damage criterion is satisfied and the interface is separated when the fracture energy is reached. Due to the discontinuous characteristics of the FPM, the inter- and intra-ply damage modes are introduced explicitly, and thus the coupling between them can be naturally captured. In this paper, the proposed FPM is verified by four benchmark examples for Mode I, Mode II and Mixed Mode delamination. Then the proposed method is applied to simulate the delamination migration, used as an example for the inter- and intra-ply damage. The FPM results show that this method is able to provide reliable prediction on the load–displacement curves as well as the damage and crack patterns, and the mechanism governing the delamination migration is also discussed based on the FPM results.

Where Are Sodium Ions in AOT Reverse Micelles? Fluoride Anion Probes Nanoconfined Ions by 19F Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy.

Confining water to nanosized spaces creates a unique environment that can change water's structural and dynamic properties. When ions are present in these nanoscopic spaces, the limited number of water molecules and short screening length can dramatically affect how ions are distributed compared to the homogeneous distribution assumed in bulk aqueous solution. Here, we demonstrate that the chemical shift observed in 19F NMR spectroscopy of fluoride anion, F-, probes the location of sodium ions, Na+, confined in reverse micelles prepared from AOT (sodium dioctyl sulfosuccinate) surfactants. Our measurements show that the nanoconfined environment of reverse micelles can lead to extremely high apparent ion concentrations and ionic strength, beyond the limit in bulk aqueous solutions. Most notably, the 19F NMR chemical shift trends we observe for F- in the reverse micelles indicate that the AOT sodium counterions remain at or near the interior interface between surfactant and water, thus providing the first experimental support for this hypothesis.

The inverse scattering problem for an inhomogeneous two-layered cavity

Abstract In this paper, we consider the inverse scattering problem of identifying a two-layered cavity by internal acoustic measurements under the condition that the interior interface has a mixed transmission boundary condition. We focus on the mathematical analysis of recovering the shape of the interior interface by using the linear sampling method, including reconstructing the surface conductivity by the same measurements.

A locally modified second-order finite element method for interface problems and its implementation in 2 dimensions

The locally modified finite element method, which is introduced in Frei and Richter [SIAM J. Numer. Anal.52(2014) 2315–2334], is a simple fitted finite element method that is able to resolve weak discontinuities in interface problems. The method is based on a fixed structured coarse mesh, which is then refined into sub-elements to resolve an interior interface. In this work, we extend the locally modified finite element method in two space dimensions to second order using an isoparametric approach in the interface elements. Thereby we need to take care that the resulting curved edges do not lead to degenerate sub-elements. We prove optimala priorierror estimates in theL2-norm and in a discrete energy norm. Finally, we present numerical examples to substantiate the theoretical findings.

A FFT accelerated fourth order finite difference method for solving three-dimensional elliptic interface problems

In this paper, a fourth order augmented matched interface and boundary (AMIB) method is proposed for solving a three-dimensional elliptic interface problem which involves a smooth material interface inside a cuboid domain. On the boundary of the cuboid domain, the fourth order AMIB method can handle different types of boundary conditions, including Dirichlet, Neumann, Robin and their mix combinations in fictitious value generation. Moreover, zero-padding solutions are introduced so that the fast Fourier transform (FFT) algorithm is still valid near the boundary. In dealing with the interior interface, a fourth order ray-casting matched interface and boundary (MIB) scheme is proposed, which enforces the jump conditions along the normal direction for calculating fictitious values. Comparing with the existing MIB scheme, the ray-casting scheme naturally bypasses the corner issue and becomes more robust in handling complex geometry. Based on fictitious values generated near interface and boundary, the fourth order central difference can be corrected at various irregular points including corner points, by introducing Cartesian derivative jumps as auxiliary variables. This gives rise to an enlarged linear system, which can be efficiently solved by the Schur complement procedure together with the FFT inversion of the discrete Laplacian. Extensive numerical experiments have been carried to test the proposed ray-casting AMIB method for numerical accuracy, efficiency, and robustness in corner treatment. The numerical results demonstrate that the ray-casting AMIB scheme not only maintains a fourth order of accuracy in treating various interfaces and boundaries for both solutions and solution gradients, but also attains an overall efficiency on the order of O(n3log⁡n) for a n×n×n uniform grid.

Effects of thermal aging on damage evolution behavior of glass fiber reinforced composites with multilayer graphene by acoustic emission

AbstractThe thermal aging behavior of glass fiber reinforced composites has attracted much attention because of its application in elevated temperatures environments. In this study, to improve the thermal aging resistance performance of composites, multilayer graphene was embedded in glass fiber reinforced composites and the damage evolution behaviors of the composites after thermal aging treatments were investigated. The mapping relationship between damage modes and acoustic emission parameters is established by principal component analysis and k‐means clustering methods, then the acoustic emission data were trained by K‐Nearest Neighbor algorithms to obtain a damage modes identification model with positive predictive values above 90%. The results showed that more matrix cracking signals are captured (or matrix cracking accumulation acoustic emission (AE) energy is abruptly raised) at the early stage of loading after 32 days of thermal aging. With the addition of multilayer graphene, the fiber/matrix debonding accumulation AE energy is significantly less than the matrix cracking accumulation AE energy, which is more obvious after thermal aging. Damage initiation and extension obtained by the acoustic emission events help to find the correlation between aging time and interior interface damage mechanism.

Thermodynamic and kinetic analysis of human epidermal penetration of phenolic compounds: I. Stratum corneum solubility and partitioning

Warming of the skin is now an accepted means of promoting skin permeation. Accordingly, the usually quite onerous thermodynamic studies on solute transport through the skin have practical applications. Phenolic compounds permeate through the skin by partitioning into and diffusing through the stratum corneum (SC) intercellular lipids, with their size being the main determinant of their maximal solute flux through skin. This paper sought to characterise the enthalpic and entropic changes associated with the solubility and equilibrium partitioning into the human SC of a series of phenols similar in size but with differing log P from aqueous vehicles.The solubilities of 9 phenolic compounds, covering a range of polarities, were determined in water and SC following 72 h at 4, 24, 32 and 37 °C which allowed the estimation of the SC-water partition coefficients. Van’t Hoff plots were then used to estimate the enthalpies and entropies for the SC solubility, water solubility and SC partitioning of phenols. In addition, partition coefficients of 3 of the 9 phenols from mineral oil into hydrated and dehydrated SC were measured at the same temperatures. Van’t Hoff plots were then used to estimate the enthalpies and entropies for the SC solubility, water solubility and SC partitioning of phenols from the oil.The SC solubility for the polar phenols increased more with temperature than the non-polar phenols, with the SC-water partition coefficients increasing with temperature for the polar phenols but decreasing with temperature for the non-polar phenols. Thermodynamic analyses suggest that, while enthalpy and entropy effects are involved in the SC partitioning of the non-polar solutes, the SC partitioning of the polar phenols were almost entirely entropy driven. The resultant thermodynamic parameters are consistent with the polar phenols being mainly associated with the SC polar head groups whereas the nonpolar phenols were more likely to be located in the interior interface SC lipid region adjacent to the polar head groups. Further, hydrating the SC led to an increase in the enthalpy of partitioning for both the polar and non-polar phenols studied. The estimated entropy of the partitioning for solutes from dehydrated SC suggests this is not only a hydrophobic effect in water but that the partitioning arises from the nature of phenolic compound - SC intercellular lipid interactions and SC intercellular lipid entropy. This partitioning process is dominated more by the extent of interaction between the SC and solute than the hydrophobic effect in water and is likely to be even greater above the SC lipid phase transition at around 36 °C for hydrated epidermal membranes.

Nitrogen-doped graphene fiber electrodes with optimal micro-/meso-/macro-porosity ratios for high-performance flexible supercapacitors

The introduction of graphene fiber-based supercapacitors as important power storage components in wearable electronic products has attracted increasing attention because of their lightweight, good flexibility, high power density, long lifecycle and excellent charge/discharge capacity. However, their capacitance and energy density are greatly confined as a result of the dense graphene stacking, hydrophobicity and poor electrical conductivity of graphene fiber electrodes. Here we report a nitrogen-doped graphene fiber electrode with optimal micro-/meso-/macro-porosity ratios to improve the utilization efficiency of fiber inner interface for accumulated charge storage and boosted ion transport. Urea is employed as both nitrogen doping source and self-removed template for graphene fibers to tune the hierarchically porous architecture, wettability, nitrogen content, and electrical conductivity for improved electrochemical performance. The resulting supercapacitors display superior areal capacitance of 1,217 mF/cm 2 (486.3 F/g) and high energy density of 27 μW h/cm 2 (10.8 W h/Kg) in polyvinyl alcohol/H 3 PO 4 gel electrolyte. These metrics represent the highest values to date among existing all-solid-state fiber-based supercapacitors based on inorganic electrolyte. Moreover, the fiber-based supercapacitors show good rate capability and excellent cyclic performance. Our work also provides an understanding of the effect of fiber structure on electrochemical activity and highlights the importance of full utilization of graphene interior interface. • Hierarchically structured nitrogen-doped graphene fibers are fabricated. • The utilization efficiency of fiber inner interface is improved. • Nitrogen doping improves wettability, nitrogen content and electrical conductivity. • The all-solid-state flexible fiber-based supercapacitors have been fabricated. • Fiber-based supercapacitors exhibit outstanding electrochemical performance.

The interior inverse scattering problem for a two-layered cavity using the Bayesian method

<p style='text-indent:20px;'>In this paper, the Bayesian method is proposed for the interior inverse scattering problem to reconstruct the interface of a two-layered cavity. The scattered field is measured by the point sources located on a closed curve inside the interior interface. The well-posedness of the posterior distribution in the Bayesian framework is proved. The Markov Chain Monte Carlo algorithm is employed to explore the posterior density. Some numerical experiments are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.</p>

Numerical investigation of transverse flow and turbulent mixing in a helical cruciform fuel bundle

The helical cruciform fuel (HCF) is an innovative fuel design. Its cross section is cruciform in shape and gradually rotates along the axial direction. This structure makes HCF has lots of potential advantages compared to the traditional cylindrical fuel. In this research, the transverse flow and turbulent mixing in a 4 × 4 HCF bundle were investigated by CFD simulation method. The variations of the transverse velocities in different subchannels and in different interfaces were respectively analyzed. The mixing coefficients in different interfaces were calculated, and the variations of them along the axial direction were studied. Moreover, the effects of mass flow rate on the transverse velocity and mixing coefficient were also analyzed. The results show that the helical structure of the HCF rod can effectively enhance the transverse flow in the fuel bundle. With twist angle increasing, the transverse flow periodically varies in axial direction. The mixing coefficient in the interface adjacent to the flow channel wall is greater than that in the interior interface, and the difference between them gradually rises with the increase of the gap size. Additionally, with the mass flow rate increasing, the transverse velocities in all interfaces gradually increase. However, the mixing coefficients in all interfaces just increase in part range of the twist angle.

The photothermal wave field and high-resolution photothermal pulse compression thermography for ceramic/metal composite solids

Pulse compression thermography has been recently developed to increase the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and enhance depth resolvability. However, a distinctively high SNR and depth resolvability is usually required for the accurate characterization of the (thin) topcoat thickness and defects of multilayer ceramic/metal composite solids (CMCSs). To this end, based on the Green function approach, a photothermal wave model for three-layer CMCSs consisting of a semitransparent ceramic coating and two-layer opaque metal solids is first derived, where a spatially varied volumetric heat source and an interior interface heat source described as the Dirac delta function are considered. The dependence of the thermal wave behaviors on both the thickness and photothermal properties of the semitransparent coating is investigated using the model. Inspired by high-precision radar target detection, two nonlinear frequency modulation (NLFM) waveforms, whose instantaneous frequency curves are respectively convex and concave quadratic function, are explored. Results indicate the NLFM waveform with the instantaneous frequency curve of concave quadratic function outperforms conventional LFM and Barker waveforms in terms of the SNR and depth resolvability. Finally, we reveal that a proper window function can further significantly improve the pulse compression quality. Our investigation can provide direct guidance for the accurate and reliable non-destructive testing and evaluation of multilayer CMCSs.

Lubrication\u2013Contact Interface Conditions and Novel Mixed/Boundary Lubrication Modeling Methodology

Under severe conditions, solid contacts take place even when parts are lubricated. Precise mathematical conditions are needed to describe the interior interface between fluid lubrication and solid-contact zones. In order to distinguish the conditions for this interface from conventional lubrication boundary conditions, they are named lubrication–contact interface conditions (LCICs). In this work, mathematical LCICs are derived with local flow continuity from the continuum mechanics point of view and pressure inequality across the interface. Numerical implementations are developed and tested with problems having simple geometries and configurations, and they are integrated into a new mixed/boundary elastohydrodynamic lubrication solver that uses a new method to determine solid-contact pressures. This solver is capable of capturing film thickness and pressure behaviors involving solid contacts.

Frequency domain Bernstein-Bézier finite element solver for modelling short waves in elastodynamics

This work presents a high-order Bernstein-Bézier finite element (FE) discretisation to accurately solve time harmonic elastic wave problems on unstructured triangular mesh grids. Although high-order FEs possess many advantages over standard FEs, the computational cost of matrix assembly is a major issue in high-order computations. A key ingredient to address this drawback is to resort to low complexity procedures in building the local high order FE matrices. This is achieved in this work by exploiting the tensorial property of Bernstein polynomials and applying the sum factorisation method for curved elements. An efficient implementation of the analytical rules for affine elements is also proposed. Furthermore, element-level static condensation of the interior degrees of freedom is performed to reduce the memory requirements. Additionally, the applicability of the method with a variable polynomial order, based on a simple a priori indicator, is investigated.The computational complexities of sum factorisation, analytical rules and standard quadrature are first evaluated, in terms of the CPU time against the polynomial order. The analysis shows that the achieved numerical complexities compare favourably to those expected theoretically. A significant runtime saving is also obtained by using analytical rules and sum factorisation. The performance of the Bernstein-Bézier FEs is then assessed on various benchmark tests, over a wide range of frequencies. Results from the elastic wave scattering problem demonstrate the effectiveness of this method in coping with the pollution error, and its accuracy in resolving high order evanescent wave modes. Additionally, a wave transmission problem with high wave speeds contrast and a curved interior interface is considered, where a simple a priori indicator is proposed to assign the variable polynomial order. The study provides evidence of the great benefit of a non uniform p-refinement in reducing the computational cost and enhancing accuracy.

Variational interior and interface transmission conditions: multidomain mixed Darcy/Stokes control problems

Multidomain mixed pairs of coupled stationary constrained boundary value problems, are formulated variationally in frameworks of reflexive Banach spaces as macro-hybrid systems, and analyzed. Interior synchronizing and interface coupling transmission constraints are modeled in terms of Lagrange multipliers as solutions of dual variational subpotential maximal monotone inclusions. Existence and uniqueness results are established via resolvent fixed-point characterizations of the corresponding primal and dual macro-hybridized problems. Multimedia mixed mechanical subsurface-surface Darcy/Stokes incompressible flow coupled pairs with intrinsic distributed control constraints exemplify the general macro-hybrid mixed systems. Coupling dual-primal and primal-dual interface macro-hybrid mixed variational conditions are lastly developed and applied to the Darcy/Stokes multimedia pair model.

Three-Dimensional Chemical Mapping of a Single Protein in the Hydrated State with Atom Probe Tomography.

Unravelling the three-dimensional structures and compositions of biological macromolecules sheds light on their functions and also contributes to the design of future biochemical compounds and processes. Atom probe tomography (APT) is demonstrated in this research as a new and effective approach to explore the structure and chemical composition of a single protein in the hydrated state. By introducing graphene encapsulation, proteins in solution can be immobilized on a metal specimen tip, with an end radius in the range of 50 nm to allow field ionization and evaporation. Using a ferritin particle as an example, analysis of the mass spectrum and reconstructed 3D chemical maps at near-atomic resolution acquired from APT reveals the core consisting of iron and iron oxides, the peptide shell containing amino acids, and the interior interface between the iron core and the peptide shell. The quantitative distribution and proportion of iron isotopes from a single ferritin core have been determined for the first time, as well as identification of the possible sites of amino acids inside the protein shell. The complete experimental protocol is straightforward and lays a foundation for future exploration of various macromolecules in a controlled environment.

Enhanced fluctuation for pinned surface nanobubbles.

By employing molecular dynamics simulations we investigate the fluctuation of surface nanobubbles immersed in liquid phase. Our simulation results indicate that in comparison with the surrounding liquid and nanobubble interior, the vapor-liquid or gas-liquid interface of nanobubbles always exhibits the largest compressibility, demonstrating the enhanced fluctuation for nanobubble interfaces. We also find that vapor surface nanobubbles and gas surface nanobubbles exhibit different fluctuation behaviors. For vapor nanobubbles that appear in overheated pure liquid, both density fluctuation and interface fluctuation are independent on the external pressure since the internal pressure remains constant at a given temperature. For gas nanobubbles that appear in gas supersaturated solution, the density fluctuation monotonously decreases with the increase of gas concentration, while the interface fluctuation shows a nonmonotonic variation. Departure from the intermediate gas concentration with the minimal interface fluctuation would enhance the fluctuation, which may finally lead to nanobubble destabilization. Finally, our simulation results indicate that the complicated interface fluctuation of surface nanobubbles comprises two different modes: interface deformation and interface oscillation, both of which display similar trends as that of the combined interface fluctuation.

An efficient Legendre–Galerkin spectral element method for the steady flows in rectangular cavities

An efficient Legendre–Galerkin spectral element method for the steady flows in rectangular cavities is proposed in this paper. Firstly, we eliminate the singularity of biharmonic equation in rectangular cavity at the corner by the singularity substraction technique. Then we construct some appropriate interior basis functions and interface basis functions which maintain -continuity. Consequently, the discrete variational formulation is reduced to a linear system with block diagonal and well-conditioned coefficient matrix, which can be efficiently solved by the conjugate gradient iteration method. Finally, several numerical examples are given to show the effectiveness of our numerical method. The present method is used to solve the creeping flows in rectangular cavities, the numerical results are compared well with the benchmark steady solutions provided by the finite difference method.

Abstract 4973: The immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment of metastatic osteosarcoma inhibits the cytotoxic effect of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes

Abstract Background: Patients with metastatic osteosarcoma (OS) have a 5 year overall survival of <25%. We aim to understand the immune architecture of the tumor microenvironment (TME) of OS, with the goal of harnessing the immune system as a major therapeutic strategy for the treatment of patients with OS. Methods: Immunohistochemistry (IHC) slides from 66 formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded OS tissue blocks were analyzed. Laser capture microdissection and RNA extraction was performed on 13 OS specimens, and gene expression profiles of the tumor interior vs. tumor interface region were compared utilizing RNA seq. Tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) were isolated from 25 freshly obtained OS specimens and analyzed by multiparameter flow cytometry (MFC). Results: Digital image analysis of IHC specimens revealed significantly higher immune cell infiltration (CD3+ and CD8+ cells) in the pulmonary metastases compared to primary bone tumors, particularly at the interface between the OS lesion and normal lung tissue. There is increased expression at the interface of the immune checkpoint molecules programmed cell death 1 (PD-1), T cell immunoglobulin mucin-3 (TIM-3) and lymphocyte activation gene 3 (LAG-3). Gene expression profiling showed increased CD8 T cell and resting CD4 memory T cell signature at the interface compared to the tumor interior, and a strong M2 and M0 macrophage signature in both regions. TILs isolated from pulmonary metastases and analyzed by MFC had higher expression of PD-1 and other immune checkpoint molecules, and these TILs were more capable of producing the effector molecules IFN-gamma and granzyme B. Conclusions: Pulmonary metastatic OS lesions are more highly infiltrated with immune cells than primary bone lesions, particularly at the interface. The fact that these immune cells are shown via MFC to be capable of producing cytotoxic cytokines and proteases suggests that these TILs may be tumor-specific lymphocytes capable of acting against the tumor if they were not being inhibited by multiple immune checkpoint molecules. The inability of these immune cells to penetrate further into the tumor interior may represent an adaptive immune response by the tumor through a combination of repellant cytokines and inhibition of TILs via upregulation of PD-1, TIM-3 and LAG-3. Treatment with a combination of anti-PD-1, anti-TIM-3 or anti-LAG-3 directed treatments may unleash these immune cells and allow them to destroy OS tumor cells. Citation Format: John A. Ligon, Teniola F. Oke, Woonyoung Choi, Megan H. Fong, Adam Levin, Daniel S. Rhee, Carol D. Morris, Nicholas Siegel, Emily H. Hsieu, Christian F. Meyer, David J. McConkey, Robert A. Anders, Drew M. Pardoll, Nicolas J. Llosa. The immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment of metastatic osteosarcoma inhibits the cytotoxic effect of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2019; 2019 Mar 29-Apr 3; Atlanta, GA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2019;79(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 4973.

Reconstruction of contact regions in semiconductor transistors using Dirichlet-Neumann cost functional approach

In this paper, we study the inverse problem of reconstructing an interior interface appearing in an elliptic equation in a bounded domain Ω from the knowledge of the boundary measurements. This problem arises from a semiconductor transistor model. We propose a new shape reconstruction procedure that is based on the Kohn–Vogelius formulation and the topological sensitivity method. The inverse problem is formulated as a topology optimization one. A topological sensitivity analysis is derived from a function. The unknown contact interface is reconstructed using a level-set curve of the topological gradient. Finally, we give several examples to show the viability of our proposed method.

ТРЕХМЕРНОЕ ЧИСЛЕННОЕ МОДЕЛИРОВАНИЕ ГИДРО- И СЕЙСМОАКУСТИЧЕСКИХ ВОЛН ПРИ ЗОНДИРОВАНИИ ДНА НА ШЕЛЬФЕ

3D numerical simulation of hydro and seismic waves generated by acoustic monopole submerged in shallow water for seismic profiling of bottom medium is demonstrated. Peculiarities of hydroacoustic waves in the water, seismic field configuration in the bottom interior and fluid-solid interface are presented at several frequencies of the bound 100-200Hz. Сapability of remote diagnostics of the subsurface layers lying immediately under the bottom is analyzed. The diagnostic signs are found in the features of amplitude spatial relief formatting with surface wave on fluid-solid interface.