Understanding single-slit experiments on the basis of Galton board experiments

In a single-slit experiment conducted for microparticles, the well-aligned rough structure of the slit wall can be viewed as a Galton board. Thus, when microparticles pass through the single slit, both the particle probability density (PPD) and particle direction of motion have a normal distribution. Therefore, when the distance between the slit and the receiving film becomes large, particles with different directions of motion will separate into different particle groups. By the nature of a normal distribution, the PPD for any particle group should also be normal-distributed. Obviously, between any two neighboring particle groups, there should be a valley in the PPD and thus the particle groups are observed as discrete fringes. All phenomena observed in the single-slit experiment can be explained reasonably well from the above viewpoint. In particular, analysis shows that the PPD can be described by the square of the modulus of the average least action of particles at a given location.

Self-Propagating Reactive Fronts in Compacts of Multilayered Particles

Reactive multilayered foils in the form of thin films have gained interest in various applications such as joining, welding, and ignition. Typically, thin film multilayers support self-propagating reaction fronts with speeds ranging from 1 to 20 m/s. In some applications, however, reaction fronts with much smaller velocities are required. This recently motivated Fritz et al. (2011) to fabricate compacts of regular sized/shaped multilayered particles and demonstrate self-sustained reaction fronts having much smaller velocities than thin films with similar layering. In this work, we develop a simplified numerical model to simulate the self-propagation of reactive fronts in an idealized compact, comprising identical Ni/Al multilayered particles in thermal contact. The evolution of the reaction in the compact is simulated using a two-dimensional transient model, based on a reduced description of mixing, heat release, and thermal transport. Computed results reveal that an advancing reaction front can be substantially delayed as it crosses from one particle to a neighboring particle, which results in a reduced mean propagation velocity. A quantitative analysis is thus conducted on the dependence of these phenomena on the contact area between the particles, the thermal contact resistance, and the arrangement of the multilayered particles.