Low Tilt Angle Research Articles

Muscle Activity and Comfort Perception on Neck, Shoulder, and Forearm While Using a Tablet Computer at Various Tilt Angles

Tablet computers have become ubiquitous. There is a serious risk that using tablets may lead to musculoskeletal disorders. This research aims to investigate, for tablet computer users, the musculature load and comfort perception of the engaged upper extremity for three angles of viewing and common task types performed at a computer workstation. Thirty healthy adults were recruited. A 3 × 2 repeated experimental design with tilt angle (22.5°, 45°, and 67.5° from horizontal) and task type (movie watching vs. game playing) was employed. The muscular activity of the upper extremity was assessed by electromyography measurement. Subjective comfort ratings were collected using the visual analogue scale. The results showed that when tablets were mounted at a high tilt angle (67.5°), neck muscle activity was low; however, when the tablet computer was mounted at a low tilt angle (22.5°), shoulder forward flexion activity was low, particularly during the game-playing task. This article suggests that users who feel musculoskeletal discomfort in the neck area increase the angle of their tablet computers to decrease neck stress and that users who have musculoskeletal discomfort in the shoulder area position the tablet computer at a lower tilt angle to decrease shoulder stress.

Molecular Simulation of the DPPE Lipid Bilayer Gel Phase: Coupling between Molecular Packing Order and Tail Tilt Angle.

The structural properties and thermal stability of dipalmitoylphosphatidylethanolamine (DPPE) in the ordered gel phase have been studied by molecular dynamics simulation using two force fields: the Berger united-atom model and the CHARMM C36 atomistic model. As is widely known, structural features are sensitive to the initial preparation of the gel phase structure, as some degrees of freedom are slow to equilibrate on the simulation time scale of hundreds of nanoseconds. In particular, we find that the degree of alignment of the lipids' glycerol backbones, which join the two hydrocarbon tails of each molecule, strongly affects the tilt angle of the tails in the resulting structures. Disorder in the backbone correlates with lower tilt angles: bilayer configurations initiated with aligned backbones produced tilt angles near 21° and 29° for the Berger and C36 force fields, respectively, while structures initiated with randomized backbone orientations showed average tilt angles of 7° and 18°, in closer agreement with the untilted structure observed experimentally. The transition temperature for the Berger force field gel bilayer has been determined by monitoring changes in width of gel phase stripe domains as a function of temperature and is 12 ± 5 K lower than the experimental value.

Effect of the collector tilt angle on thermal efficiency and stratification of passive water in glass evacuated tube solar water heater

Abstract Passive solar water heaters are extensively studied and used around the world. Nevertheless, little is known about thermal stratification in their storage tank as most research on these devices reports averaged temperatures and energy conversion efficiency. Here we address the issue by analyzing the impact of the slope on thermal behavior of the device at low tilt angles, of particular interest for sub-tropical regions. In the present work the effect of the tilt angle on flow patterns, energy conversion efficiency and the stratification effect was studied with experimental setups and tridimensional numerical simulations as well. The study was performed using a commercial “water in glass evacuated tube solar water heater” (WGET-SWH) with nominal capacity of 40 L and 8 evacuated tubes. Experiments were carried during four weeks varying the tilt angle of the collector. The data gathered during the clearest days were used to validate the tridimensional Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) model. The numerical model was used to study the effect of several tilt angles (10°, 27° and 45°) with the same energy input. It was found that the tilt angle has significant effect on daily solar energy gain, flow patterns inside the storage tank and stratification. Nevertheless, it was found little impact on the thermal efficiency due to the low magnitude of heat losses though the vacuum tubes. Also, 10° tilt angle allowed to achieve significant higher temperatures and thermal stratification, along with a thermal inactive area at the bottom of the tank. Conversely, the content of the storage tank for the 45° tilt angle is fully mixed at the end of the heating process. This occurred mainly due to the relative position of the tubes’ opening inside the tank and the mixing effect of the convective water flow. A non dimensional number to quantify the stratification effect is proposed and it was found an exponential dependence on the tilt angle. Some considerations regarding the use of WGET-SWHs on subtropical regions are made. No charge or discharge processes were considered in this work.

Mechanically durable, superomniphobic coatings prepared by layer-by-layer technique for self-cleaning and anti-smudge

Superomniphobic surfaces are of interest for anti-fouling, self-cleaning, anti-smudge and low-drag applications. Many bioinspired surfaces developed previously are of limited use due to a lack of mechanical durability. From a previously developed technique, an adapted layer-by-layer approach involving charged species with electrostatic interactions between layers is combined with an uncharged fluorosilane layer to result in a durable, superomniphobic coating. This technique can provide the flexibility needed to improve adhesion to the substrate with the addition of a low surface tension coating at the air interface. In this work, polyelectrolyte binder, SiO2 nanoparticles, and fluorosilane layers are deposited, providing the combination of surface roughness and low surface tension to result in a superomniphobic coating with droplets of liquids with surface tensions from 72 to 21 mNm−1 displaying contact angles exceeding 155° with low tilt angles. The durability of these coatings was examined through the use of micro- and macrowear experiments. These coatings currently display levels of transparency acceptable for automotive applications. Fabrication via this novel combination of techniques results in durable, superomniphobic coatings displaying improved performance compared to existing work where either the durability or the repellency is compromised.

Performance Analysis and Design of Liquid Based Solar Heating System

Designing of a solar heating system involves appropriate sizing of different components based on predicted solar insolation and heating load demand. But, it is a complex problem due to unpredictable weather data components. A number of design methods are available for solar heating systems. In this paper, f-chart method has been used due to its simplified design procedure, analysis and low cost in selecting the sizes and type of solar collectors and in estimating the annual thermal performance of solar heating system. Using this method, the design of liquid solar heating system and the estimation of the fraction of total heating load (domestic water and space heating load) that will be supplied by solar energy for a family of six in Riyadh have been conducted. The study includes the effect of different collector areas and storage capacity per square meter of collector area and collector tilt angle on fraction of the load supplied by solar energy. It has been found that increasing the collector area results in an increasing of annual load fraction supplied by solar energy. It has also been seen that increasing the specific storage capacity results in small increase in solar load fraction and the effect is more visible during the summer than during the winter. The result of the study reveals that collector configurations with lower tilt angles are better during the summer and higher values of angles are better during the winter. The optimal annual collector configuration tilt angle which gives the maximum solar load fraction has been found to be 30o

Comparison of multi-temporal ASTER images for hydrothermal alteration mapping using a fractal-aided SAM method

The shortwave infrared (SWIR) spectral bands of four multi-temporal images acquired by the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) on NASA’s Terra platform were analysed for evaluating the effects of acquisition properties and atmospheric pre-processing levels on the resulting hydrothermal alteration maps a using the fractal-aided Spectral Angle Mapper (SAM) method. Three ASTER level-1B products covering the Sar Cheshmeh area in Iran were used for hydrothermal alteration mapping. These images were converted to surface reflectance using the Fast Line-of-sight Atmospheric Analysis of Spectral Hypercubes (FLAASH) method. The low reflectance of band 5 of the level-1B products was compensated for by using the spectra of collected rock samples. Level-2 (AST2B05S) SWIR ASTER images that had already been processed were also used. Reference spectra of the main hydrothermal alteration types were extracted for each product. The threshold angles were determined using the real value–area (RV–A) fractal technique. Then, SAM classification was carried out to map hydrothermal alteration for every product. It is concluded that the level-1B products that had been converted to reflectances have a better spectral contrast than the AST2B05S product. Summer images with lower tilt angle and higher solar elevation should be used to increase the accuracy of the image classification and minimize the effect of vegetation on the spectra of index minerals. By comparing the resulting hydrothermal alteration maps with known alteration types using a confusion matrix, it was shown that the application of the RV–A fractal technique to produce less biased threshold angles increases the accuracy of SAM classification.

Effect of localized KrF excimer laser treatment on fracture behaviors of freestanding <110> and <100> single crystal silicon beams

Microscale silicon structures oriented along and orientations were laser treated with different conditions with the cross section shape and tensile strength investigated after the treatment. Finite element simulation was performed to examine the temperature distribution at different conditions during laser treatment. Using a low energy (1.2 J/cm2) and high tilt angle (65°) led to a more preserved cross section with a slight strength improvement. The strength improvement was limited due to other surfaces that were not affected by laser treatment. An improvement of 30 % in tensile strength was achieved with a higher energy (4 J/cm2) lower tilt angle (45°) treatment that was consistent for different sample orientations. The cross section of the samples treated at such condition was significantly changed however. The effect of sample orientation on fracture behaviour was studied and unstable crack propagation was observed for oriented samples that was more significant after laser treatment.

Angular Dependency of Hyperspectral Measurements over Wheat Characterized by a Novel UAV Based Goniometer

In this study we present a hyperspectral flying goniometer system, based on a rotary-wing unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) equipped with a spectrometer mounted on an active gimbal. We show that this approach may be used to collect multiangular hyperspectral data over vegetated environments. The pointing and positioning accuracy are assessed using structure from motion and vary from σ = 1° to 8° in pointing and σ = 0.7 to 0.8 m in positioning. We use a wheat dataset to investigate the influence of angular effects on the NDVI, TCARI and REIP vegetation indices. Angular effects caused significant variations on the indices: NDVI = 0.83–0.95; TCARI = 0.04–0.116; REIP = 729–735 nm. Our analysis highlights the necessity to consider angular effects in optical sensors when observing vegetation. We compare the measurements of the UAV goniometer to the angular modules of the SCOPE radiative transfer model. Model and measurements are in high accordance (r2 = 0.88) in the infrared region at angles close to nadir; in contrast the comparison show discrepancies at low tilt angles (r2 = 0.25). This study demonstrates that the UAV goniometer is a promising approach for the fast and flexible assessment of angular effects.

Beam Tilt-Angle Estimation for Monopole End-Fire Array Mounted on a Finite Ground Plane

A modified method for the beam tilt-angle estimation of monopole end-fire array mounted on finite ground plane is proposed. In the simplified model, the monopole array and ground plane are approximated to two line sources of transverse and longitudinal electric current, respectively. It is deduced that the beam tilt angle is a function about the length of ground plane in front of arrayLg, the length of monopole arrayLa, and the phase constantβα. After verifying the optimizing principle of monopole end-fire array, a 10-element monopole Yagi-Uda antenna satisfying Hansen-Woodyard condition is designed and measured for the analysis. By comparison and analysis, the value ofβαis demonstrated to be the key point of the proposed method. And a slow wave monopole array is proved to be able to achieve a low beam tilt angle from end-fire with only a short-length ground plane.

An experimental comparison of film flow parameters and cleaning behaviour of falling liquid films for different tilt angles

Efficient cleaning is crucial in the food industry due to increasing safety needs, cost pressure and diminishing size of production batches. In Cleaning in Place (CIP) systems different flow types provide the cleaning effect by interaction, wherein falling liquid films make a significant contribution to cleaning. The flow of falling films can be significantly influenced by the design of the surface and, for example, of the tilt angle. In a previous publication it was shown for a low tilt angle of 30° that for resource efficient cleaning a low wetting rate is suitable. It was pointed out that mean wall shear stress and mean flow velocity have an influence on the cleaning progress. In this paper the investigations are extended to describe the influence of the surface inclination in the range of 30–90° on the flow and cleaning behavior of zinc sulfide/Xanthan gum soil layers on stainless steel for film Reynolds numbers of 1190-3110. The results show that the tilt angle has a major impact on the film thickness, wall shear stress and the mean cleaning rate. Cleaning results for three different stainless steel surfaces show that a low surface roughness does not necessarily lead to a better cleaning result.

Physically and chemically stable ionic liquid-infused textured surfaces showing excellent dynamic omniphobicity

A fluorinated and hydrophobic ionic liquid (IL), 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl) imide, effectively served as an advantageous lubricating liquid for the preparation of physically and chemically stable omniphobic surfaces based on slippery liquid-infused porous surfaces. Here, we used particulate microstructures as supports, prepared by the chemical vapor deposition of 1,3,5,7-tetramethylcyclotetrasiloxane and subsequent surface modification with (3-aminopropyl)triethoxysilane. Confirmed by SEM and contact angle measurements, the resulting IL-infused microtextured surfaces are smooth and not only water but also various low surface tension liquids can easily slide off at low substrate tilt angles of <5°, even after exposure to high temperature, vacuum, and UV irradiation.

Unusual Dynamic Dewetting Behavior of Smooth Perfluorinated Hybrid Films: Potential Advantages over Conventional Textured and Liquid-Infused Perfluorinated Surfaces

From a viewpoint of reducing the burden on the environment and human health, an alternative method for preparing liquid-repellent surfaces without relying on the long perfluorocarbons (C((X-1)/2)F(X), X ≥ 17) has been strongly demanded lately. In this study, we have successfully demonstrated that dynamic dewettability toward various probe liquids (polar and nonpolar liquids with high or low surface tension) can be tuned by not only controlling surface chemistries (surface energies) but also the physical (solid-like or liquid-like) nature of the surface. We prepared smooth and transparent organic-inorganic hybrid films exhibiting unusual dynamic dewetting behavior toward various probe liquids using a simple sol-gel reaction based on the co-hydrolysis and co-condensation of a mixture including a range of perfluoroalkylsilanes (FASX, C((X-1)/2)F(X)CH2CH2Si(OR)3, where X = 3, 9, 13, and 17) and tetramethoxysilane (Si(OCH3)4, TMOS). Dynamic contact angle (CA) and substrate tilt angle (TA) measurements confirmed that our FASX-hybrid films exhibited excellent dynamic dewetting properties and were mostly independent of the length of perfluoroalkyl (Rf) groups. For example, 10 μL droplets of ultralow surface tension liquids (e.g., diethyl ether (γ = 16.26 dyn/cm) and n-pentane (γ = 15.51 dyn/cm)) could move easily on our FAS9-, FAS13-, and FAS17-hybrid film surfaces at low substrate TAs (<4°) without pinning. This is comparable or superior to the best perfluorinated textured and flat surfaces reported so far. This exceptional dynamic dewetting behavior appeared only when TMOS molecules were added to the precursor solutions; we assume this is due to co-condensed TMOS-derived silica species working as spacers between the neighboring Rf chains, enabling them to rotate freely and in doing so provide a surface with liquid-like properties. This led to the distinguished dynamic dewettability of our hybrid films, regardless of the small static CAs. Our FASX-hybrid films also displayed excellent chemical and physical durability against thermal stress (~250 °C), high-temperature (150 °C) oil vapor, and various other media (perfluoro liquid, boiling water, and weak acid) without degrading their dynamic dewettability. Such exceptional durability has been rarely seen on conventional perfluorinated surfaces reported so far.

Flow and Tilt-Induced Orientation of the Moving Vortex Lattice in Amorphous NbGe Superconducting Thin Films

The orientation and deformation of moving vortex lattices in the flux-flow state have been investigated in amorphous superconducting NbGe thin films. Employing a mode-locking technique, we detect how moving lattices deform and their orientation changes as a magnetic field is tilted from normal to the film surface. For high tilt angles the lattice orientation is aligned parallely with the tilt direction. Meanwhile for low tilt angles the lattice orientation depends on the vortex velocity and a velocity-induced reorientation occurs. The characteristic velocity for the reorientation varies remarkably as the moving lattices deform. The observed features are consistent with an extended bond-fluctuation theory, revealing that the anisotropic shaking vortex motion is essential for determining the orientation of moving vortex lattices.

Transparent and Hard Zirconia-Based Hybrid Coatings with Excellent Dynamic/Thermoresponsive Oleophobicity, Thermal Durability, and Hydrolytic Stability

Smooth, transparent, and extremely hard zirconia (ZrO2)-based inorganic-organic hybrid films showing excellent dynamic oleophobicity, thermal durability, and hydrolytic stability were successfully prepared through a simple combination of zirconium tetrapropoxide (Zr(O(CH2)2CH3)4) with stearic acids. In this study, we have particularly focused on the effects of stearic acid molecular architecture (linear-stearic acid (LSA) and branched-stearic acid (BSA)) on surface physical/chemical properties. Although, in each case, the resulting hybrid (Zr:LSA and Zr:BSA) films achieved by a simple spin-coating method were highly smooth and transparent, the final surface properties were markedly dependent on their molecular architectures. Thanks to the thermal stability of BSA, our Zr:BSA hybrid films displayed a greatly improved thermal effective range (maximum of 200 °C), while for Zr:LSA hybrid films, serious thermal damage to surface dewetting behavior was observed at less than 150 °C. The hardness of the Zr:BSA hybrid films were markedly increased by curing at 200 °C for 1 h (from 1.95 GPa to 3.03 GPa), while maintaining their dynamic dewettability toward n-hexadecane, when compared with Zr:LSA hybrid films (0.95-1.19 GPa). Small volume n-hexadecane droplets (5 μL) were easily set in motion, sliding across and off our best Zr:BSA hybrid film surfaces at low substrate tilt angles (<10°) without pinning. Moreover, they also showed thermoresponsive dynamic dewetting behavior, reasonable resistance to hydrolysis in an aqueous environment, and antifingerprint properties.

Dynamic Defrosting on Nanostructured Superhydrophobic Surfaces

Water suspended on chilled superhydrophobic surfaces exhibits delayed freezing; however, the interdrop growth of frost through subcooled condensate forming on the surface seems unavoidable in humid environments. It is therefore of great practical importance to determine whether facile defrosting is possible on superhydrophobic surfaces. Here, we report that nanostructured superhydrophobic surfaces promote the growth of frost in a suspended Cassie state, enabling its dynamic removal upon partial melting at low tilt angles (<15°). The dynamic removal of the melting frost occurred in two stages: spontaneous dewetting followed by gravitational mobilization. This dynamic defrosting phenomenon is driven by the low contact angle hysteresis of the defrosted meltwater relative to frost on microstructured superhydrophobic surfaces, which forms in the impaled Wenzel state. Dynamic defrosting on nanostructured superhydrophobic surfaces minimizes the time, heat, and gravitational energy required to remove frost from the surface, and is of interest for a variety of systems in cold and humid environments.

Long perfluoroalkyl chains are not required for dynamically oleophobic surfaces

Dynamically oleophobic surfaces for alkane liquids, such as n-decane, n-dodecane and n-hexadecane, were successfully prepared using a simple sol–gel mixture containing 3,3,3-trifluoropropyltrimethoxysilane (FAS3) and tetramethoxysilane (TMOS). Due to the enhancement of the motion of functional groups by addition of TMOS as a molecular spacer, small volume alkane droplets (3 μL) could be easily set in motion to move across and off our hybrid surfaces without pinning at low tilt angles (∼10°), and without relying on conventional surface roughening and long-chain perfluoroalkylsilanes.

Three-dimensional superhydrophobic structures printed using solid freeform fabrication tools

Superhydrophobic surfaces are of fundamental and commercial interest as water does not wet the surface, leading to unique properties such as low slip angle, high contact angle, and icephobicity. These behaviours are achieved through a combination of low surface energy materials and high surface roughness. Two printing techniques were used to fabricate hydrophobic polymers into superhydrophobic surfaces. In one approach, a commercially available multi-jet modelling rapid prototyping machine was used to fabricate 3D superhydrophobic objects including helical conduits and porous membranes, using the standard printer resins. A robotic dispensing tool was also developed that enables greater freedom of material selection and feature shape. Both approaches were used to fabricate arrays of high aspect ratio surface features on which water assumes a nearly spherical shape and easily rolls off the surface at low tilt angles. The fabrication and wetting properties of surfaces made using these two techniques will be discussed.

Novel Transparent Zirconium-Based Hybrid Material With Multilayered Nanostructures: Studies of Surface Dewettability Toward Alkane Liquids

We have successfully prepared unique inorganic-organic hybrid materials that demonstrate excellent transparency and dewettability toward various alkane liquids (n-hexadecane, n-dodecane and n-decane) without relying on conventional surface roughening and perfluorination. Such coatings were made using a novel family of hybrid materials generated by substituting carboxylic acids, with a range of alkyl chain lengths (CH(3)(CH(2))(x-2)COOH where x = total carbon number, i.e., 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 22, or 24, into zirconium (Zr) tetra-propoxide complexes. This precursor was then mixed with acetic acid and spincast to produce transparent thin Zr-carboxylic acid (ZrCA(x)) hybrid films using a nonhydrolytic sol-gel process. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy provided proof of Zr-O-Zr network formation in the films upon casting and also followed changes to the physical nature (liquid-like or solid-like) of the alkyl chain assemblies depending upon alkyl chain length. X-ray diffractometry revealed that the hybrid films prepared using the longer chain carboxylic acids (ZrCA(x≥18)) spontaneously self-assembled into lamella structures with d-spacings ranging from 29.5 to 32.7 Angstroms, depending on the length of the alkyl chain. On the other hand the remaining films (ZrCA(x<18)) showed no such ordering. Moreover, the dynamic dewetting behavior of our hybrid films with alkane liquids was also strongly affected by alkyl chain length. ZrCA(x) films with x = 12, 14, and 16 showed the best dynamic oleophobicity among the seven hybrid films. In particular, small volume alkane droplets (5 μL) could be easily set in motion to move across and off ZrCA(14) film surfaces without pinning at low tilt angles (~6°).

How To Reduce Resistance to Movement of Alkane Liquid Drops Across Tilted Surfaces Without Relying on Surface Roughening and Perfluorination

Alkylsilane-derived monolayer-covered surfaces generally display a reasonably good level of hydrophobicity but poor oleophobicity. Here, we demonstrate that the physical attributes of alkylsilane-derived surfaces (liquid-like or solid-like) are dependent on the alkyl chain length and density, and these factors subsequently have significant influence upon the dynamic dewetting behavior toward alkanes (C(n)H(2n+2), where n = 7-16). In this study, we prepared and characterized hybrid films through a simple sol-gel process based on the cohydrolysis and co-condensation of a mixture of a range of alkyltriethoxysilanes (C(n)H(2n+1)Si(OEt)(3), where n = 3, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, and 18) and tetramethoxysilane (TMOS). Surprisingly, when the carbon number (C(n)) of alkyl chain was 10 and below, the produced hybrid films were all smooth, highly transparent, and showed negligible contact angle (CA) hysteresis. On these hybrid surfaces, 5 μL drops of alkanes (n-hexadecane, n-dodecane, and n-decane) could move easily at low tilt angles (<5°) without pinning. On the other hand, when the C(n) exceeded 12, both transparency and mobility of probe liquids significantly worsened. In the former case, TMOS molecules played key roles in both forming continuous films (as a binder) and improving flexibility of alkyl chains (as a molecular spacer), resulting in the smooth liquid-like surfaces. Silylation of the hybrid film and subsequent dynamic CA measurements proved the presence of silanol groups on the outermost surfaces and demonstrated that the dynamic dewettability of hybrid films worsened as packing densities increased. Additionally, solvent effects (high affinity) between the alkyl chains and alkane liquids imparted a more liquid-like character to the surface. Thanks to these simple physical effects, the resistance to the alkane droplet motion across tilted surfaces was markedly reduced. With the longer carbon chains, the chain mobility was strictly inhibited by mutual interactions between neighboring alkyl chains even in the presence of TMOS molecules. The achieved surfaces displayed a solid-like nature along with surface defects, leading to inferior dynamic oleophobicity. Therefore, the critical C(n) of alkyl chain used for determining final dynamic dewetting behavior against alkane liquids was 12. Furthermore, our hybrid surfaces exhibited excellent antifingerprint properties, particularly demonstrating low adhesion and easy removal from the surface.

Aerodynamic mechanisms for wind loads on tilted, roof-mounted, solar arrays

A wind tunnel study has been performed on roof-mounted solar arrays of two different panel tilt angles. One of the arrays was also placed on the ground in order to distinguish array generated aerodynamic effects from building generated effects. It is shown that there are two main mechanisms causing the aerodynamic loads: (i) turbulence generated by the panels and (ii) pressure equalization. For higher tilt angles, significant array generated turbulence increases the net wind loads, while for low tilt angles, pressure equalization dominates. In addition, it is observed that the presence of the building changes the aerodynamic loads substantially compared to ground-mounted systems. There is a complex interaction between building generated vortices and the flow induced by the array, which depends on building height, the setback of the array from the roof edge, and other building parameters.