Self-sustained Wave Research Articles

Inertia Drives Concentration-Wave Turbulence in Swimmer Suspensions.

We discover an instability mechanism in suspensions of self-propelled particles that does not involve active stress. Instead, it is driven by a subtle interplay of inertia, swimmer motility, and concentration fluctuations, through a crucial time lag between the velocity and the concentration field. The resulting time-persistent state seen in our high-resolution numerical simulations consists of self-sustained waves of concentration and orientation, transiting from regular oscillations to wave turbulence. We analyze the statistical features of this active turbulence, including an intriguing connection to the Batchelor spectrum of passive scalars.

Self-excited wave stabilization in a linear detonation combustor

Detonative combustors, such as rotating detonation engines, have increasingly been viewed as next-generation propulsion and power generation systems because they offer higher theoretical thermal efficiencies than conventional constant-pressure combustors. In order for these systems to be realized in a practical context, the impacts of inflow and outlet conditions, reactant mixing, and interactions between counter-propagating waves must be better understood. To examine these phenomena in a simplified geometry, the present work considers a methane-oxygen reflective shuttling detonation combustor with an open-closed chamber configuration. High-fidelity simulations are conducted for two equivalence ratio conditions (lean and rich), and comparisons are made to complementary experiments. The results show that self-sustained steady-state wave behavior consists of minimally-reacting left-running waves and right-running detonation waves. The lean case is found to establish steady-state operation after a shorter time and exhibit detonation waves after a shorter distance from the closed end of the chamber. The simulations are able to predict the experimentally observed trends in the wave velocity in the direction of propagation. Wave-relative averaged flow fields show considerable reactant stratification and parasitic combustion ahead of the waves, likely contributing to their low speeds and pressures relative to ideal detonations. Conditional statistics ahead and behind the waves indicate that peaks in heat release occur at both lean and rich conditions near the open end of the chamber, and incomplete fuel oxidation in the primary detonation waves leads to delayed oxygen consumption and higher temperatures downstream.

Microphysically modified magnetosonic modes in collisionless, high-β plasmas

With the support of hybrid-kinetic simulations and analytic theory, we describe the nonlinear behaviour of long-wavelength non-propagating (NP) modes and fast magnetosonic waves in high-$\beta$collisionless plasmas, with particular attention to their excitation of and reaction to kinetic micro-instabilities. The perpendicularly pressure balanced polarization of NP modes produces an excess of perpendicular pressure over parallel pressure in regions where the plasma$\beta$is increased. For mode amplitudes$|\delta B/B_0| \gtrsim 0.3$, this excess excites the mirror instability. Particle scattering off these micro-scale mirrors frustrates the nonlinear saturation of transit-time damping, ensuring that large-amplitude NP modes continue their decay to small amplitudes. At asymptotically large wavelengths, we predict that the mirror-induced scattering will be large enough to interrupt transit-time damping entirely, isotropizing the pressure perturbations and morphing the collisionless NP mode into the magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) entropy mode. In fast waves, a fluctuating pressure anisotropy drives both mirror and firehose instabilities when the wave amplitude satisfies$|\delta B/B_0| \gtrsim 2\beta ^{-1}$. The induced particle scattering leads to delayed shock formation and MHD-like wave dynamics. Taken alongside prior work on self-interrupting Alfvén waves and self-sustaining ion-acoustic waves, our results establish a foundation for new theories of electromagnetic turbulence in low-collisionality, high-$\beta$plasmas such as the intracluster medium, radiatively inefficient accretion flows and the near-Earth solar wind.

Generating ultrashort visible light pulses based on multidimensional solitary states in gas-filled hollow core fiber

Multidimensional solitary states (MDSS) are self-sustaining light wave packets confined in multiple dimensions in multimode fibers. In this work, we experimentally demonstrate the generation of MDSS, driven by a few hundreds of femtoseconds (fs) of long frequency doubled pulses from a Titanium:Sapphire chirped pulsed amplifier in a nitrous oxide-filled hollow core fiber (HCF). The MDSS output, resulting from intermodal interactions in a Raman-active gas-filled large core diameter HCF, features a broadband, red-shifted spectrum in the visible spectral region with a characteristic negative quadratic spectral phase. Therefore, the output with broadband spectra and negative chirp results in the generation of sub-30 fs pulses upon propagation through glass windows and a spectral filter. Backed with experimental observations and multidimensional simulations, we demonstrate that the sign of the frequency chirp of input pulses influences the spectral broadening in the HCF in the high gas-dispersion regime. We observed that the MDSS red-shifted pulses have a clean spatial profile. Therefore, the experimental requirements on the input beam size and quality to achieve a clean MDSS beam profile at the output of large core HCFs can be relaxed. Hence, this work extends the validation of the MDSS phenomenon toward the ultraviolet-visible region of the electromagnetic spectrum, thus providing an alternate source with a clean spatial beam profile for various applications in the field of ultrafast spectroscopy.

Autonomous waves and global motion modes in living active solids

Elastic active matter or active solid consists of self-propelled units embedded in an elastic matrix. Active solid resists deformation; the shape-preserving property and the intrinsic non-equilibrium nature make active solids a superior component for self-driven devices. Nonetheless, the mechanical properties and emergent behavior of active solids are poorly understood. Using a biofilm-based bacterial active solid, here we discovered self-sustained elastic waves with unique wave properties not seen in passive solids, such as power-law scaling of wave speed with activity. Under isotropic confinement, the active solid develops two topologically distinct global motion modes that can be selectively excited, with a surprising step-like frequency jump at mode transition. Our findings reveal novel spatiotemporal order in elastic active matter and may guide the development of solid-state adaptive or living materials.

Experimental Investigation of Transonic Shock Buffet on an OAT15A Profile

Self-sustained shock wave oscillations on airfoils, commonly defined as shock buffet, can occur under certain combinations of transonic Mach numbers and angles of attack (AoAs) due to the interaction between the shock and the separated boundary layer. To improve the understanding of this complex phenomenon, the flow over a supercritical profile (OAT15A) was experimentally investigated for a fixed Reynolds number of and numerous aerodynamic conditions within the ranges of and . Deformation and force measurements were used to assess the actual rigidity of the model and its interaction with the flow. The tracking of the shock location by means of background-oriented schlieren allowed for studying the shock features and the frequency content of the buffet flows. Furthermore, the inversion of shock motion and buffet onset, which are referred to as buffet boundaries, were estimated. The inversion of shock motion proved to be a necessary but not sufficient condition for buffet onset. The trends of the results showed a good agreement with the relevant literature cases. However, the buffet amplitude was smaller, and buffet onset occurred at considerably higher AoAs. The comparison of the literature results also revealed a general sensitivity of buffet features to both numerical and experimental parameters. For this reason, the influence of the boundary-layer suction at the vertical walls and the gap flow at the side windows on the buffet features was examined. The buffet frequencies and amplitudes were slightly affected, but the buffet boundaries appeared to be virtually insensitive to these factors. Given the large number of investigated aerodynamic conditions, these results are valuable for validation purposes of computational fluid dynamics simulations.

Optimal entrainment for removal of pinned spiral waves.

Cardiac fibrillation is caused by self-sustaining spiral waves that occur in the myocardium, some of which can be pinned to anatomical obstacles, making them more difficult to eliminate. A small electrical stimulation is often sufficient to unpin these spirals but only if it is applied during the vulnerable unpinning window. Even if these unpinning windows can be inferred from data, when multiple pinned spirals exist, their unpinning windows will not generally overlap. Using phase-based reduction techniques, we formulate and solve an optimal control problem to yield a time-varying external voltage gradient that can synchronize a collection of spiral waves that are pinned to a collection of heterogeneous obstacles. Upon synchronization, the unpinning windows overlap so that they can be simultaneously unpinned by applying an external voltage gradient pulse at an appropriate moment. Numerical validation is presented in bidomain model simulations. Results represent a proof-of-concept illustration of the proposed unpinning strategy which explicitly incorporates heterogeneity in the problem formulation and requires no real-time feedback about the system state.

Numerical investigation of transonic buffet on a prescribed-pitching OAT15A airfoil

The transonic buffet over a prescribed-pitching OAT15A airfoil was numerically investigated using a well-validated delayed detached eddy simulation approach. The present approach successfully reproduced self-sustained shock wave oscillations. The computational results show that the amplitude of the lift fluctuations in the pitching case is approximately six times that of the fixed case. Compared to the fixed case, the presence of a larger shock motion region, two shock wave interactions, and severe boundary separation give rise to higher pressure and velocity fluctuation levels on the whole upper surface in the pitching case. In particular, the highly disordered flow replaces the periodic vortex shedding in the wake, resulting in the disappearance of the secondary fluctuation in unsteady lift coefficients, which is observed at 2274 Hz in the fixed case. A proper orthogonal decomposition analysis shows that the buffet flow in the fixed case exhibits the feature of regular motion, which is closely related to the coherent flow structure of shock oscillations and Karman vortices. Strong interactions between the Karman vortex structure and the shock oscillations are also observed. Compared to those in the fixed case, the fluctuation amplitudes of the coefficients of the first mode pair and the second to fourth mode pairs in the pitching case are 2.5 times and 5 times larger, respectively, and the energy ratio of the nonlinear component in the total mode energy is significantly increased. Furthermore, the main frequencies of modes 1–10 in the pitching case are all located at the shock buffet frequency or its higher-order harmonics.

A Hybrid Self‐Powered Arbitrary Wave Motion Sensing System for Real‐Time Wireless Marine Environment Monitoring Application (Adv. Energy Mater. 7/2022)

Wireless Wave Monitoring In article number 2102460, Jae Yeong Park and co-workers successfully demonstrate a hybrid self-sustaining arbitrary wave monitoring system capable of measuring wave motion parameters with adequate accuracy and sensitivity. The electromagnetic generators and self-actuating triboelectric sensors work concurrently for wireless transmission of wave information without an external energy supply. The fully-packaged device is expected to find applications in intelligent networks for smart wireless wave monitoring in the near future.

Dark matter-wave gap solitons of Bose-Einstein condensates trapped in optical lattices with competing cubic-quintic nonlinearities

• The existence, property and stability of one-dimensional gap solitons and soliton clusters in periodic nonlinear media with competing cubic-quintic nonlinearities are theoretical studied. • The linear-stability analysis and direct perturbed calculations are adopted to identify the stability and instability of the corresponding dark gap modes. • The model can find its realization in periodic optical media with cubic-quintic nonlinear nonlinearities and in Bose-Einstein condensates trapped by an optical lattice. Solitons are nonlinear self-sustained wave excitations and probably among the most interesting and exciting emergent nonlinear phenomenon in the corresponding theoretical settings. Bright solitons with sharp peak and dark solitons with central notch have been well known and observed in various nonlinear systems . The interplay of periodic potentials, like photonic crystals and lattices in optics and optical lattices in ultracold atoms, with the dispersion has brought about gap solitons within the finite band gaps of the underlying linear Bloch-wave spectrum and, particularly, the bright gap solitons have been experimentally observed in these nonlinear periodic systems, while little is known about the underlying physics of dark gap solitons. Here, we theoretically and numerically investigate the existence, property and stability of one-dimensional matter-wave gap solitons and soliton clusters of Bose-Einstein condensates trapped in optical lattices with competing cubic-quintic nonlinearity, the higher-order of which is self-defocusing and the lower-order (cubic) one is chosen as self-defocusing or focusing nonlinearities. By means of the conventional linear-stability analysis and direct numerical calculations with initial perturbations, we identify the stability and instability areas of the corresponding dark gap solitons and clusters ones.

Chirped dissipative solitons in driven optical resonators.

Solitons are self-sustaining particle-like wave packets found throughout nature. Optical systems such as optical fibers and mode-locked lasers are relatively simple, are technologically important, and continue to play a major role in our understanding of the rich nonlinear dynamics of solitons. Here we present theoretical and experimental observations of a new class of optical soliton characterized by pulses with large and positive chirp in normal dispersion resonators with strong spectral filtering. Numerical simulations reveal several stable waveforms including dissipative solitons characterized by large frequency chirp. In experiments with fiber cavities driven with nanosecond pulses, chirped dissipative solitons matching predictions are observed. Remarkably, chirped pulses remain stable in low quality-factor resonators despite large dissipation, which enables new opportunities for nonlinear pattern formation. By extending pulse generation to normal dispersion systems and supporting higher pulse energies, chirped dissipative solitons will enable ultrashort pulse and frequency comb sources that are simpler and more effective for spectroscopy, communications, and metrology. Scaling laws are derived to provide simple design guidelines for generating chirped dissipative solitons in microresonator, fiber resonator, and bulk enhancement cavity platforms.

A systematic evaluation of criteria for river ice breakup initiation using River1D model and field data

Mechanical breakup of river ice cover is often associated with ice runs, ice jams, and fast-rising water levels. It not only poses great flood threats to riverside communities, but also has great implications to environment and river ecosystems. Our current ability to model the onset of mechanical breakup is limited. Existing river ice models either require the user to manually specify the breakup times and locations or they employ empirical criteria to simulate ice cover breakup. This paper presents a systematic evaluation of existing empirical and semi-empirical/physics-based breakup criteria using the University of Alberta's River1D model. Each criterion was evaluated according to its ability to capture the breaking front propagation observed on the Athabasca River and Peace River during three breakup seasons, as well as the transferability of the calibrated parameter(s). The storage release from broken ice cover has been postulated to lead to the formation of a non-attenuating, i.e. self-sustaining wave, which in turn maintains fast ice cover breaking over very long distance. This study shows that the characteristics of self-sustaining wave under natural river conditions are greatly affected by the varying resistance to ice breaking along a river, which is different than previous findings based on numerical studies in prismatic channels.

Analysis of transonic buffet using dynamic mode decomposition

The buffet flow field around supercritical airfoils is dominated by self-sustained shock wave oscillations on the suction side of the wing. Theories assume that this unsteadiness is driven by a feedback loop of disturbances in the flow field downstream of the shock wave whose upstream propagating part is generated by acoustic waves. High-speed particle-image velocimetry measurements are performed to investigate this feedback loop in transonic buffet flow over a supercritical DRA 2303 airfoil. The freestream Mach number is M_{infty } = 0.73, the angle of attack is alpha = 3.5^{circ }, and the chord-based Reynolds number is {mathrm{Re}}_{c} = 1.9times 10^6. The obtained velocity fields are processed by sparsity-promoting dynamic mode decomposition to identify the dominant dynamic features contributing strongest to the buffet flow field. Two pronounced dynamic modes are found which confirm the presence of two main features of the proposed feedback loop. One mode is related to the shock wave oscillation frequency and its shape includes the movement of the shock wave and the coupled pulsation of the recirculation region downstream of the shock wave. The other pronounced mode represents the disturbances which form the downstream propagating part of the proposed feedback loop. The frequency of this mode corresponds to the frequency of the acoustic waves which are generated by these downstream traveling disturbances and which form the upstream propagating part of the proposed feedback loop. In this study, the post-processing, i.e., the DMD, is highlighted to substantiate the existence of this vortex mode. It is this vortex mode that via the Lamb vector excites the shock oscillations. The measurement data based DMD results confirm numerical findings, i.e., the dominant buffet and vortex modes are in good agreement with the feedback loop suggested by Lee.Graphic abstract

Continuum and molecular dynamics simulations of pore collapse in shocked β-tetramethylene tetranitramine (β-HMX) single crystals

The collapse of pores plays an essential role in the shock initiation of high energy (HE) materials. When these materials are subjected to shock loading, energy is localized in hot-spots due to various mechanisms, including void collapse. Depending on the void size and shock strength, the resulting hot-spots may quench or evolve into a self-sustained deflagration wave that consequently can cause detonation. We compare finite element (FE) and non-reactive molecular dynamic (MD) simulations to study the formation of hot-spots during the collapse of an 80 nm size void in a β-tetramethylene tetranitramine energetic crystal. The crystal is shocked normal to the crystallographic plane (010), applying boundary velocities of 0.5 km/s, 1.0 km/s, and 2.0 km/s. The FE simulations capture the transition from viscoelastic collapse for relatively weak shocks to a hydrodynamic regime, the overall temperature distributions, especially at scales relevant for the initiation of HE materials, and the rate of pore collapse. A detailed comparison of velocity and temperature fields shows that the MD simulations exhibit more localization of plastic deformation, which results in higher temperature spikes but localized to small volumes. The void collapse rate and temperature field are strongly dependent on the plasticity model in the FE results, and we quantify these effects.

Measurements of deformation, schlieren and forces on an OAT15A airfoil at pre-buffet and buffet conditions

Self-sustained shock wave oscillations on airfoils, commonly defined as shock buffet, can occur under certain combinations of transonic Mach number and angle of attack due to the interaction between the shock and the separated boundary layer. To help understanding buffet physics, a rigid supercritical wing model (OAT15A) was investigated in pre-buffet and buffet conditions using a combined application of BOS (Background Oriented Schlieren), deformation and force measurements. From the observation via BOS of the change of the shock location and the extent of the boundary layer separation with the AoA (angle of attack), the transition from stable shock to buffet was detected. A comparison with other research groups at supposedly similar aerodynamic conditions highlighted a great disparity among them in terms of buffet onset, amplitudes of buffet oscillations, and flow development (motion of the mean shock location with the AoA) after the onset. The average and rms (root mean square) of the surface displacement were computed together with the effective geometric AoA, taking into account the static torsional deformation of the model and its support. Moreover, the spectra of the balance and deformation data showed the same buffet peak as in the BOS spectrum, indicating a coupling between structure and flow, which increased with the AoA.

Various effects induced by local synchronization in neural networks

In the cerebral cortex, the large-scale synchronous firing of neurons can cause epilepsy, during which spiral waves can spontaneously occur. The relationship between the synchronous firing of a large number of neurons and the spontaneous generation of spiral waves is still unclear. In this paper, a two-dimensional neuronal network with the long-range coupling regions generated by adding long-range horizontal connections is constructed. The Morris-Lecar neuron model is used to study the propagation of waves in the two-dimensional neuronal network with the rectangular long-range coupling regions. Numerical simulation results show that the plan and target waves whose propagation directions are both parallel to that of the long-range coupling can lead the neurons to be excited synchronously in the long-range coupling region. This synchronous firing is accompanied by delayed firing of some neurons and premature firing of others. When the width of the long-range coupling region exceeds the critical width, all the neurons in the long-range coupling region delay firing. When the width of the long-range coupling region exceeds a maximum conduction width, the waves will not pass through the long-range coupling region. When the size of the rectangular region of the long-range coupling is selected appropriately, the synchronous excitation of neurons can cause network to present the backfiring effect and to have the selectivity of wave propagation direction. Furthermore, the selectivity of wave propagation direction is very sensitive to whether the neuron is in the stationary state and also to the change of coupling strength, so that the high frequency plane wave train can partially pass through the long-range coupling region whose width exceeds the maximum conduction width. So we can control whether the wave can pass through the long-range coupling region of a certain width by giving the neurons in the long-range coupling region a tiny perturbation. When one or two long-range coupling regions are constructed in the neural network and the size of the long-range coupling regions is selected appropriately, the self-sustaining plane wave, spiral wave and target wave can appear spontaneously in the network when the wave passes through the long-range coupling regions. The physical mechanisms behind those phenomena are also analyzed.

NMDA receptors sustain but do not initiate neuronal depolarization in spreading depolarization

Spreading depolarization (SD) represents a neurological process characterized by a massive, self-sustaining wave of brain cell depolarization. Understanding its mechanism is important for treating ischemic or hemorrhagic stroke and migraine with aura. Many believed that ion fluxes through NMDA receptors (NMDARs) are responsible for neuronal transmembrane currents of SD. However, the explicit role of NMDARs remains ambiguous. This is in part due to the limitation of traditional pharmacological approaches in resolving the contribution of NMDARs in different intercellular and intracellular processes of SD. Here, we applied single-cell blockade and genetic deletion methods to remove functional NMDARs from individual hippocampal CA1 neurons in order to examine the role of NMDARs in the depolarization mechanism without affecting the propagation of SD. We analyzed neuronal membrane potential changes to demonstrate that NMDARs are not required for initiating the depolarization. Consistently, neuronal input resistance (RN) revealed a sharp decline at the start of SD, which was unaffected by blocking NMDARs. Instead, the recovery of both membrane potential and RN during the late phase of SD was facilitated by inhibition of NMDARs, indicating that NMDARs are responsible for sustaining the depolarization. Our results strongly indicate that NMDAR activation is not a determinant of the initiation of depolarization but is important for sustaining transmembrane ion fluxes during SD.

Detonation Combustion Control Using Preliminary Preparation of the Gas Mixture

The effect of preliminary preparation of a stoichiometric hydrogen–air mixture (decomposition of a part of molecular hydrogen and molecular oxygen into atomic gases) on the characteristics of a propagating detonation wave is numerically studied using a detailed kinetic mechanism of chemical interaction. It is revealed that this preliminary dissociation leads to a significant reduction in the transverse size of the detonation cell with a slight increase in the propagation velocity of the self-sustained wave, which allows using this preparation to prevent detonation damping in channels with both a single obstacle and multiple barriers.

BASIC CONCEPTS OF SELF-ORGANIZED PHENOMENA IN CHEMICAL SYSTEMS

We present the main concepts of nonlinear dynamics and thermodynamics of irreversible processes to introduce chemistry students to the topic of self-organized phenomena. This task is performed by theoretically describing the emergence of self-sustained oscillations, waves, and stationary patterns/Turing patterns in the Belousov-Zhabotinsky (BZ) reaction, through the Oregonator model. We carefully developed such a description, which resulted in long algebraic deductions and rich supplementary material. Considering that, we encourage the use of this material in undergraduate and graduate advanced physical chemistry classes.

Thermal Management in Ni/Al Reactive Multilayers: Understanding and Preventing Reaction Quenching on Thin Film Heat Sinks

Thermal management is conventionally the design of microelectronics circuitry to maximize heat extraction and minimize local heating. In this work, we investigate a reverse thermal management problem related to understanding and preventing heat dissipation during the propagation of a self-sustained reaction in Ni/Al reactive multilayers, metastable nanostructures that can release heat through a self-sustained propagating exothermic reaction. While it was recently demonstrated that reactive multilayers can serve as on-chip heat sources for on-demand healing of metal films, they still face challenges of device integration due to conductive heat losses to the substrate or adjacent on-chip components, which act as heat sinks and consequently quench the reaction. Here, we study the impact of different heat sink materials, such as gold, copper, and silicon, on the propagation velocity and temperature of the self-sustained heat wave and show that the propagation can be controlled and even stopped by varying the heat sink thickness. Further, we demonstrate that the introduction of a multilayered Al2O3/Zr/Al2O3 thermal barrier enables stable propagation on substrates that would otherwise quench the reaction. The results of this study will facilitate the integration of Ni/Al multilayers as intrinsic heat sources on different substrates for applications in micro/nanodevices.