Location Of Interface Research Articles

Interfacial excess of solutes across phase boundaries using atom probe microscopy

Three-dimensional elemental mapping in atom probe microscopy provides invaluable insights into the structure and composition of interfaces in materials. Quasi-atomic resolution facilitates access to the solute decoration of grain boundaries, advancing the knowledge on local segregation and depletion phenomena. More recent developments unlocked three-dimensional mapping of the interfacial excess across grain boundaries. Such detailed understanding of the local structure and composition of these interfaces enabled advancements in processing methods and material development. However, many engineering alloys, such as Ni-based superalloys, have much more complex microstructures with various solutes and precipitates in close proximity to grain boundaries. The complex interaction of grain boundary segregation and grain boundary precipitates requires precise compositional control. However, abrupt changes in solute solubility across phase boundaries obscure the interfacial excess in proximity to grain boundaries.Therefore, this study provides a methodological framework of the quantitative characterization of phase boundaries in proximity to grain boundaries using atom probe microscopy. The detailed mass spectrum ranging of MC, M23C6, and M6C carbides is explored in order to achieve satisfactory compositional information. Proximity histograms and correlating concentration difference profiles determine the interface location, where a Gibbs dividing surface is not accessible. This enables reliable direct calculation of the interfacial excess across phase boundaries. Intuitively interpretable and quantitative ‘interface plots’ are introduced, and showcased for phase boundaries between γ-matrix, γ' precipitates, GB-γ', MC, M23C6, and M6C carbides. The presented framework advances access to the local composition in proximity to grain boundaries and may be applicable to other engineering alloys or materials with functional properties.

Moving interfaces in peridynamic diffusion models and the influence of discontinuous initial conditions: Numerical stability and convergence

We derive numerical stability conditions and analyze convergence to analytical nonlocal solutions of 1D peridynamic models for transient diffusion with and without a moving interface. In heat transfer or oxidation, for example, one often encounters initial conditions that are discontinuous, as in thermal shock or sudden exposure to oxygen. We study the numerical error in these models with continuous and discontinuous initial conditions and determine that the initial discontinuities lead to lower convergence rates, but this issue is present at early times only. Except for the early times, the convergence rates of models with continuous and discontinuous initial conditions are the same. In problems with moving interfaces, we show that the numerical solution captures the exact interface location well, in time. These results can be used in simulating a variety of reaction-diffusion type problems, such as the oxidation-induced damage in zirconium carbide at high temperatures.

Numerical simulation of the effect of interface morphology on the fracture behavior of bi-material Brazilian disks

As the most fragile component in a bi-material structures, the performance of rock-concrete interface will greatly affect the stability and durability of the whole structure. To investigate the influence of interface morphology on the interface bearing capacity and fracture characteristics of bi-material Brazilian disks, the sandstone-concrete bi-material Brazilian disk is taken as the research object, a series of sandstone-concrete bi-material Brazilian disks with interfaces of different groove widths, depths and spacings are simulated based on the cohesive zone model (CZM) method in this paper, and the effects of loading angle and location of groove interfaces on the fracture behavior are also investigated, the loading rate of all models is 0.1 mm/min. The loading angle is the main factor affecting the fracture patterns of the bi-material Brazilian disks. The loading angle increases from 0° to 90°, and the failure patterns can be divided into sawtooth fracture along the groove, mixed mode of sawtooth fracture along the groove and tensile fracture of the matrix, and tensile fracture of the matrix. The interface is the main bearing part at small loading angles, and when the loading angle exceeds 30°, the matrix is the main bearing part, and at this time, the morphology of the interface has little influence on the failure patterns and bearing performances of the specimens. The groove interface significantly improves the bearing capacity of the interface, in which the groove width has the greatest influence on the bearing capacity of the interface, and the groove spacing affects the location of crack propagation along the sawtooth (rock sawtooth or concrete sawtooth). The location of the groove interface affects the crack propagation mode at the interface, and this study mainly presents three cracking modes: failure along the rock sawtooth, failure along the concrete sawtooth and the combined failure of the rock sawtooth and the concrete sawtooth.

Application of graded phase change materials for solar energy inter-seasonal storage heating and thermal storage characteristics

Abstract In this paper, firstly, the heat transfer characteristics of the stepped phase change accumulator are studied, and the location of the solid-liquid phase interface is determined by the phase fraction in a fixed grid scheme, while the phase change heat transfer process is simulated using Fluent. Secondly, for the phase change heat transfer problem, the enthalpy-porosity method in the Solidification/Melting model is used to treat the solid-liquid mixed paste region of the phase interface as a porous media region, and the evaluation system is constructed in terms of heat storage and discharge efficiency, heat storage, and heat recovery efficiency. Then the mathematical model, boundary conditions and solution parameters of the stepped phase change heat accumulator are set, and the data analysis of the effect of the pool height-to-diameter ratio on the heat storage in the solar inter-seasonal storage heating system is carried out by using ANSYSCFD software. The results show that the heat storage of the system also shows an overall increasing trend with the increase of the pool height-to-diameter ratio, and the heat storage of the system increases faster when the height-to-diameter ratio increases from 0.2 to 1.0 in sequence, and the heat storage of the system increases less when the height-to-diameter ratio changes between 0.9 and 1.8, and basically tends to be stable. This study realizes the graded heat storage and graded heat use of solar energy, which is useful for the research of solar heat supply and heat storage.

Statistical laws of stick-slip friction at mesoscale

Friction between two rough solid surfaces often involves local stick-slip events occurring at different locations of the contact interface. If the apparent contact area is large, multiple local slips may take place simultaneously and the total frictional force is a sum of the pinning forces imposed by many asperities on the interface. Here, we report a systematic study of stick-slip friction over a mesoscale contact area using a hanging-beam lateral atomic-force-microscope, which is capable of resolving frictional force fluctuations generated by individual slip events and measuring their statistical properties at the single-slip resolution. The measured probability density functions (PDFs) of the slip length δxs, the maximal force Fc needed to trigger the local slips, and the local force gradient {k}^{{prime} } of the asperity-induced pinning force field provide a comprehensive statistical description of stick-slip friction that is often associated with the avalanche dynamics at a critical state. In particular, the measured PDF of δxs obeys a power law distribution and the power-law exponent is explained by a new theoretical model for the under-damped spring-block motion under a Brownian-correlated pinning force field. This model provides a long-sought physical mechanism for the avalanche dynamics in stick-slip friction at mesoscale.

Response to comment on “Stability of a moving radial liquid sheet: Time-dependent equations” [Phys. Fluids 35, 099101 (2023)

In a recent comment, Mehring and Gyurkovich show that in our derivation of the time-dependent equations, we have neglected the perturbed term in the interface location while applying the kinematic boundary condition. When the neglected term is incorporated in the analysis, the time-dependent equation for the sinuous mode is different from our original expression. They conclude that the instability predicted by the original model does not exist for their new model. We show that, on the contrary, the new model predicts spatial growth of sinuous disturbance that depends on forcing frequency and the slope of the forcing disturbance.

Unraveling instabilities and mixing behavior in two-layered flows: A quest for the optimum viscosity ratio

A two-layer miscible displacement of density-matched but viscosity-contrasted fluids through a channel is numerically investigated in a nonlinear regime. The flow is governed by Navier–Stokes equations, which are coupled to a convection-diffusion equation via viscosity dependent concentration. Instabilities in the form of roll-ups or ligament waves are observed when a less viscous fluid is sheared over a more viscous fluid. Through interfacial length calculations, we demonstrate that the temporal evolution of the interface can be divided into three regimes: the initial diffusion-dominated regime, the intermediate convection-dominated regime, and the final diffusion-dominated regime. With the unstable roll-up growth only in a convection-dominated regime, the growth of instability delays at later times in diffusion dominated regime. Moreover, onset time ton vs R plots for each Reynolds number (Re), Péclet number (Pe), initial interface location (h), and thickness of initial mixing zone (q) depict that the instability originates early for intermediate viscosity ratios (R) than larger R. In contrast to earlier studies in the linear regime, we showed that if the viscosity ratio between two fluids is very large or small, the instability doesn't trigger in the nonlinear regime. The analysis of the concentration's global variance-based degree of mixing allows us to find optimum parameters for maximum mixing. We show that the optimal mixing is obtained at an intermediate value of R (optimum R). Furthermore, the degree of mixing is found to increase for increasing Re and decreasing Pe.

High-order enforcement of jumps conditions between compressible viscous phases: An extended interior penalty discontinuous Galerkin method for sharp interface simulation

In this paper, we develop a high-order method for the steady two-phase compressible Navier–Stokes equations closed by generic equations of state, adapted to gas–liquid flows. Our framework relies on the extended discontinuous Galerkin method that is tailored here to a general viscous compressible two-phase configuration. While the imposition of interface jumps conditions is commonly recognized as one of the main difficulties to overcome in the context of geometrically unfitted methods, the setting considered in this work makes this aspect even more challenging. To enforce the non-linear coupling conditions at the interface in a sharp manner, we devise a novel strategy combining multiphase Riemann solvers to handle the convective fluxes across the interface and a weighted stabilized Nitsche’s method for the viscous jumps. The weak enforcement of the jumps conditions along with implicit steady-state iterations and cell-agglomeration procedure make the approach robust to treat arbitrary large contrast phase interface problems governed by stiff models, irrespective of the interface location on the mesh. The study is here restricted to static interfaces. Based on the method of manufactured solution, reference solutions are designed. This allows to conduct a detailed numerical study investigating the influence of several numerical parameters. It is shown that to reach optimal error convergence, the use of pressure-velocity-temperature variables set, appropriate all-speed bulk Riemann solver and Symmetric Interior Penalty method combined with tensorial penalty is necessary.

0474 Observing the Changes of Tongue and Airway Configurations in Responders of Mandibular Advancement Device Using Ultrasound Imaging

Abstract Introduction Mandibular advancement device (MAD) is designed to pull the mandible and the tongue forward anteriorly to increase the cross-sectional airway dimension and thus possibly reduce airway obstructions during sleep. The effectiveness of a MAD may be affected by the pre-treatment OSA severity, BMI, and degree of changes in pharyngeal dimensions resulting from the device in situ. In this study, 3D submental ultrasound imaging is applied to evaluate the difference in the tongue and airway configurations between the responders and non-responders of the MAD treatment. Methods In this retrospective study, 31 subjects (25 males, median age/BMI/baseline AHI of 56/24.5/25.3) diagnosed with sleep apnea and underwent tongue-backing-MAD (t-MAD) treatment were consented from the Department of dentistry of National Taiwan University Hospital between April and December 2022 (IRB 202108078RIPD). Changes in the severity of OSA were assessed with polysomnographic studies. Success of t-MAD treatment was defined by an AHI of less than 10 events/hour and at least 50% decrease in AHI from baseline. There were no significant differences in age, BMI, gender and baseline AHI between responders (17) and non-responders (14). While awake and lying in supine position, the tongue and airway configurations at retropalatal and retroglossal regions without and with t-MAD in situ were assessed with standardized 3D submental ultrasound imaging (AmCAD BioMed Corp., Taiwan). Statistical comparisons were performed using t-tests, chi-square tests and nonparametric Mann-Whitney tests. Results The anteroposterior location of the tongue-airway interface at retroglossal region, relative to the superior-inferior location of the soft-palate-airway interface, was found significantly reduced in responders when t-MAD is in situ (p = 0.0078). 13 responders (76.5%) and 9 non-responders (64.3%) were observed with airway width increase in the retroglossal region with t-MAD in situ. However, the difference in airway width changes between responders and non-responders was not statistically significant possibly due to the limited sample size. Conclusion With the real-time visualization and quantitative characterization of the tongue and airway configurations, the 3D submental ultrasound with standardized imaging protocol is able to differentiate the responders from non-responders of the t-MAD treatment and could be a potential tool for treatment response evaluation. Support (if any)

Influence of UHPFRC jacketing on the static, blast and post-blast behaviour of doubly-reinforced concrete beams

This paper investigates the effects of ultra-high performance fiber-reinforced concrete (UHPFRC) jacketing on the static and blast behavior of reinforced beams. The test program included a total of six beams with dimensions of 150 mm × 200 mm × 2440 mm, including three replicate control beams, and three replicate beams retrofitted with a 20 mm UHPFRC jacket. The beams were doubly-reinforced, with provision of compression bars and ties spaced at 75 mm throughout the beam span. Each beam type included specimens tested under quasi-static four-point bending, and repeated or singly-applied blast loads applied using a shock-tube. Under static loading the UHPFRC is shown to increase beam stiffness and capacity, however the high bond capacity of the UHPFRC, crack localization effect, and relatively low steel ratio resulted in bar rupture, thereby reducing ductility. Under repeated blast loading the UHPFRC effectively reduced maximum and residual displacements at equivalent blasts, but the crack localization which initiated at the earlier blasts eventually led to bar rupture. Under the singly-applied blast, the UHPFRC was found to reduce displacements, and better control damage when compared to the companion RC beam, without bar rupture. As part of the numerical study, finite element (FE) modelling was used to predict the blast response and damage in the test beams. A parametric study is also used to examine the effects of steel ratio, jacket thickness and jacket interface location on blast behavior.

Numerical Simulation of Ice Melting Using the Finite Volume Method

The Aim of this paper is to investigate numerically the simulation of ice melting in one and two dimension using the cell-centered finite volume method. The mathematical model is based on the heat conduction equation associated with a fixed grid, latent heat source approach. The fully implicit time scheme is selected to represent the time discretization. The ice conductivity is chosento be the value of the approximated conductivity at the interface between adjacent ice and water control volumes. The predicted temperature distribution, percentage melt fraction, interface location and its velocity is compared with those obtained from the exact analytical solution. A good agreement is obtained when comparing the numerical results of one dimensional temperaturedistribution with the analytical results.

Reactive Janus Particle Compatibilizer with Adjustable Structure and Optimal Interface Location for Compatibilization of Highly Immiscible Polymer Blends.

Highly immiscible blend materials with distinctive and excellent properties play a key role in meeting the application needs, especially in extreme environments, and reactive nanoparticles are used to increase the interface adhesion and optimize the morphology of highly immiscible blending. However, these reactive nanoparticles tend to aggregate and even agglomerate during reactive blending, which significantly deteriorates their compatibilization efficiency. Herein, reactive Janus particles with the epoxy group and various siloxane molecular long chain grafting ratios (E-JP-PDMS) were synthesized using SiO2@PDVB Janus particles (JP) and used as compatibilizers for polyamide and methyl vinyl silicone elastomer (PA/MVQ) blends, which were highly immiscible. The effects of the structure of E-JP-PDMS Janus nanoparticles on their location at the interfaces between the PA and MVQ as well as their compatibilization efficiency for the PA/MVQ blends were investigated. The location and dispersion of E-JP-PDMS at the interfaces were improved by increasing the PDMS content in E-JP-PDMS. The average diameter of the MVQ domains of the PA/MVQ (70/30, w/w) was 79.5 μm and was reduced to 5.3 μm in the presence of 3.0 wt % of the E-JP-PDMS with 65 wt % PDMS. As a comparison, it was 45.1 μm in the presence of 3.0 wt % of a commercial compatibilizer (ethylene-butylacylate-maleic anhydride copolymer, denoted as EBAMAH), which provides a guideline for the design and preparation of efficient compatibilizers for highly immiscible polymer blends.

Research on visualisation of plain concrete crack depth detection based on tracer and hand-held radar

ABSTRACT Detecting the concrete crack depth has always been a technical problem. The traditional detection methods，which are based on stress wave theory, have limitations such as low accuracy, complex operation, time-consuming and laborious procedures. This paper proposes a new method based on the combination of tracer and hand-held radar to better complete this task. Its main procedures include firstly spreading tracer diffusion to the bottom of the crack propagation, and then mapping the location of the air-tracer interface by radar waves, thus visualising the crack depth information. This paper elaborates the detection principle of this new method, carried out the feasibility numerical analysis and simulation verification. Also, the concrete standard crack specimens were made, together with relevant experimental researches. As to the feasibility of the method, it is verified by using common distilled water and saturated sodium chloride solution as tracers. The detection effects of these two tracers are compared and analysed by comparing the test data with the actual depth of the specimen. This research innovatively applies tracers to actively improve the electrical ability of concrete cracks, and then uses radar to detect the electrical distribution of cracks, realising the visual detection of crack depth.

Least-squares neural network (LSNN) method for scalar nonlinear hyperbolic conservation laws: Discrete divergence operator

A least-squares neural network (LSNN) method was introduced for solving scalar linear and nonlinear hyperbolic conservation laws (HCLs) in Cai et al. (2021, 2022). This method is based on an equivalent least-squares (LS) formulation and uses ReLU neural network as approximating functions, making it ideal for approximating discontinuous functions with unknown interface location. In the design of the LSNN method for HCLs, the numerical approximation of differential operators is a critical factor, and standard numerical or automatic differentiation along coordinate directions can often lead to a failed NN-based method. To overcome this challenge, this paper rewrites HCLs in their divergence form of space and time and introduces a new discrete divergence operator. As a result, the proposed LSNN method is free of penalization of artificial viscosity.Theoretically, the accuracy of the discrete divergence operator is estimated even for discontinuous solutions. Numerically, the LSNN method with the new discrete divergence operator was tested for several benchmark problems with both convex and non-convex fluxes, and was able to compute the correct physical solution for problems with rarefaction, shock or compound waves. The method is capable of capturing the shock of the underlying problem without oscillation or smearing, even without any penalization of the entropy condition, total variation, and/or artificial viscosity.

Molecular contacts in the Cren7-DNA complex: A quantitative investigation for electrostatic interaction

The molecular association of proteins with nucleic acids leading to the formation of macromolecular complexes is a crucial step in several biological processes. Stabilization of these complexes involves electrostatic interactions between ion pairs (salt bridges) of nucleic acid phosphates and protein side chains. The crenarchaeal DNA binding protein, Cren7 plays a key role in the regulation of chromosomal structure and gene expression in eukaryotic extremophiles. However, the molecular contacts that occur at the interface of protein-DNA complexes and their contribution to the electrostatic interaction have not been fully elucidated. This work presents a quantitative description of the mechanism of the electrostatic interaction between the protein and DNA. We have identified a few residues located at the Cren7-DNA interface that could potentially be responsible for the interaction. Structural studies using circular dichroism indicate mutation of these surface residues minimally affect their structure and stability. The binding affinity of these mutants for the DNA duplexes was examined from reverse titration, biolayer interferometry, and fluorescence anisotropy measurements with calf thymus DNA, polynucleotides, and small DNA oligonucleotides. The resulting kinetic parameters highlight a difference in electrostatic interactions potentials exhibited by residues positioned at different locations of the protein-DNA interface. Computational studies attribute this difference to their surrounding atmosphere and energetic stabilization parameters. The biophysical approach described here can be extended for other proteins that play a crucial role in DNA bending and compaction, to properly evaluate the role of specific residues on the mechanisms of DNA binding.

Application of Newton–Raphson Method for Computing the Final Air–Water Interface Location in a Pipe Water Filling

The estimation of thermodynamic behavior during filling processes with entrapped air in water pipelines is a complex task as it requires solving a system of algebraic-differential equations. A lot of different numerical methods have been used for this purpose in literature including the rigid water column (RWC) model. The main advantage of the RWC model is its acceptable accuracy with very low computational load. In that context, this research presents the computation of critical points of the physical equations that describe the phenomenon. These points provide information about the final position of the air–water interface. The Newton–Raphson method was then applied to obtain a unique equation that can be used by engineers to directly compute variables such as air pocket pressure and water column length at the end of the hydraulic event. A case study was analyzed to compare the results of the mathematical model with the obtained equation for computing critical points. Both methods provided the same values for the water column length at the end of the hydraulic event. A sensitivity analysis was conducted to identify dependent and non-dependent parameters for evaluating the critical points. The proposed formulation was validated through an experimental set of data.

Unfitted finite element methods based on correction functions for Stokes flows with singular forces of low regularity

This paper presents an unfitted finite element method based on correction functions for solving stationary Stokes flows with singular forces acting on an immersed interface. It has been shown that the singular force is equivalent to a nonhomogeneous jump condition on the interface. In this paper, we consider the case that the jump has a low regularity so that it is impossible to use pointwise values on the interface to construct correction functions, as done in Guzmán et al. (2016). The natural way to deal with the problem is to use mean values of the jump on the parts of the interface cut by elements, instead of using pointwise values. However, we show that it may cause instability and the constant in the error estimate may depend on the interface location relative to the mesh. Inspired by Guo et al. (2019), we use a larger fictitious circle to overcome these issues. Associated with the correction functions, we consider two stable finite element pairs: the Mini element and the P2−P0 element, including the cases of continuous and discontinuous pressures. The optimal approximation capabilities of the correction functions and optimal error estimates of the finite element methods are both derived with a hidden constant independent of the interface location relative to the mesh. Numerical examples are provided to validate the theoretical results.

Understanding Interfacial Properties for Enhanced Solar Evaporation Devices: From Geometrical to Physical Interfaces

Various materials and device configurations have been reported to enhance the evaporation efficiency of solar interfacial evaporation systems, but it has not yet been revealed how to quantitatively assess the optimal materials and devices to maximize evaporation performance. In this study, the evaporation interface (location and thickness) is identified to quantify the interplay of optical and transport processes for guiding the rational design of materials and devices. We theoretically and experimentally demonstrate that an absorption coefficient of 400 m–1 pinning the interfacial location below the top surface leads to optimal efficiency with reduced radiation and convection losses. A multistage evaporation device based on the optimized interface properties in the transitional region was demonstrated showing an evaporation rate of 5.38 kg m–2 h–1, which is 12% higher than that in the interfacial region. In addition, the optimized device can operate stably with seawater for more than 10 h without salt crystallization.

Droplet evaporation on pillar structured surface: A 3D lattice Boltzmann numerical study

In this paper, a three-dimensional symmetric lattice Boltzmann (LB) model is built up to investigate evaporation of a sessile droplet on pillar structured surfaces. Parametric effects on droplet evaporation, including pillar structure size, roughness, temperature and wettability, are studied comprehensively, with emphasis on the variations of contact angle, contact radius and velocity of triple-phase contact line (TPCL) as well as heat and mass fluxes during evaporation. Pillar structures are found to induce the droplet to split into spherical cap part and liquid film part, resulting in an evaporation mode different from that on a plain surface. The extent of pinning-depinning is strongly associated with structures when TPCL retracts between pillars. Increasing surface temperature can accelerate evaporation by breaking the constant contact angle (CCA) mode, and increasing surface roughness accelerates evaporation by decreasing the duration of CCA mode. The majority of heat and mass transfer takes place around TPCL. High wettability can facilitate the evaporation of spherical cap due to the meniscus at liquid–vapor interface in the vicinity of pillar top surface. The substrate heat flux directly affected by structure size is higher in the region where pillars are distributed, and the solid–liquid interfacial heat flux varies with the specific interface location within droplet. The total mass flux primarily depends on the TPCL length determined by the droplet evaporation mode. When the droplet evaporates by partial penetration in the Cassie state, the amount of evaporation at liquid–vapor interface between pillars is greater than that above pillars. This paper provides more details and insights for a deep understanding of droplet evaporation on pillar structured surfaces.

Adaptive interface-Mesh un-Refinement (AiMuR) based sharp-interface level-set-method for two-phase flow

Adaptive interface-Mesh un-Refinement (AiMuR) based Sharp-Interface Level-Set-Method (SI-LSM) is proposed for both uniform and non-uniform Cartesian-Grid. The AiMuR involves interface location based dynamic un-refinement (with merging of the four control volumes) of the Cartesian grid away from the interface. The un-refinement is proposed for the interface solver only. A detailed numerical methodology is presented for the AiMuR and ghost-fluid method based SI-LSM. Advantage of the novel as compared to the traditional SI-LSM is demonstrated with a detailed qualitative as well as quantitative performance study, involving the SI-LSMs on both coarse grid and fine grid, for three sufficiently different two-phase flow problems: dam break, breakup of a liquid jet and drop coalescence. A superior performance of AiMuR based SI-LSM is demonstrated - the AiMuR on a coarser non-uniform grid ( $$NU_{c}^{AiMuR}$$ ) is almost as accurate as the traditional SI-LSM on a uniform fine grid ( $$U_{f}$$ ) and takes a computational time almost same as that by the traditional SI-LSM on a uniform coarse grid ( $$U_{c}$$ ). The AMuR is different from the existing Adaptive Mesh Refinement (AMR) as the former involves only mesh un-refinement while the later involves both refinement and un-refinement of the mesh. Moreover, the proposed computational development is significant since the present adaptive un-refinement strategy is much simpler to implement as compared to that for the commonly used adaptive refinement strategies. The proposed numerical development can be extended to various other multi-physics, multi-disciplinary and multi-scale problems involving interfaces.