Dripping instability of a two-dimensional liquid film under an inclined plate

It is known that the dripping of a liquid film on the underside of a plate can be suppressed by tilting the plate so as to cause a sufficiently strong flow. This paper uses two-dimensional numerical simulations in a closed-flow framework to study several aspects of this phenomenon. It is shown that, in quasi-equilibrium conditions, the onset of dripping is closely associated with the curvature of the wave crests approaching a well-defined maximum value. When dynamic effects become significant, this connection between curvature and dripping weakens, although the critical curvature remains a useful reference point as it is intimately related to the short length scales promoted by the Rayleigh–Taylor instability. In the absence of flow, when the film is on the underside of a horizontal plate, the concept of a limit curvature is relevant only for small liquid volumes close to a critical value. Otherwise, the drops that form have a smaller curvature and a large volume. The paper also illustrates the peculiarly strong dependence of the dripping transition on the initial conditions of the simulations. This feature prevents the development of phase maps dependent only on the governing parameters (Reynolds number, Bond number, etc.) similar to those available for film flow on the upper side of an inclined plate.

On the Plastic Bending Responses of Dented Lined Pipe

Mechanically lined pipe, which was proven to be cost-effective in transporting corrosive hydrocarbons, has been used in many offshore applications. However, one weakness of this product is that the liner is extremely sensitive to geometric imperfections and can wrinkle and collapse under severe loading. As typical damage of the pipeline, the local dent of the lined pipe involves the deformation of both the carrier pipe and the liner, which poses a severe threat to the integrity of the composite structure. In this paper, we developed a numerical framework to study the responses of the lined pipe during indentation and, more importantly, the influence of local dents on the bending capacity of lined pipes. A slight separation between the liner and the carrier pipe was observed during the indentation, depending on the indenter’s geometric feature. Under bending, the liner typically collapsed earlier than the carrier pipe, causing a considerable reduction of the critical curvature and ultimate load-carrying capacity. The evolution of the deformation of the composite structure during the bending process is presented in this paper. Parametric investigations of some vital variables of the problem were also performed to study their influence on the behavior under indentation and the bending capacity of the composite structure.

Persistence of quantal synaptic vesicle recycling following dynamin depletion

Dynamins are GTPases required for pinching vesicles off the plasma membrane once a critical curvature is reached during endocytosis. Here, we probed dynamin function in central synapses by depleting all three dynamin isoforms in postnatal hippocampal neurons. We found a decrease in the propensity of evoked neurotransmission as well as a reduction in synaptic vesicle numbers. Using the fluorescent reporter vGluT1-pHluorin, we observed that compensatory endocytosis after 20 Hz stimulation was arrested in ~40% of presynaptic boutons, while remaining synapses showed only a modest effect suggesting the existence of a dynamin-independent endocytic pathway in central synapses. Surprisingly, we found that the retrieval of single synaptic vesicles, after either evoked or spontaneous fusion, was largely impervious to disruption of dynamins. Overall, our results suggest that classical dynamin-dependent endocytosis is not essential for retrieval of synaptic vesicle proteins after quantal single synaptic vesicle fusion.

The Characteristic Transient Response of a Pressurized Cantilever Pipe Subjected to Transverse Impact at Its Tip

This paper describes an experimental study on the pure bending mechanical behavior of a pressurized pipe and adoption of a measured moment-curvature relationship under different working conditions in numerical simulations for transient pipe-whip prediction. To describe the effects of pipe contents and internal pressure, the governing equations were derived based on large deformation theory. Bending moment and axial force were uncoupled in the constitutive equation, and an experiment-based relationship between moment and curvature was adopted. The numerical simulations show that the present model can simulate the mechanical processes of elasticity, plastic hardening, and softening behavior in the initial, middle, and late stages of whole response, respectively. In addition, it was shown that kinks may occur at several positions along an empty cantilever pipe due to the collapse of sections under intense dynamic loading. However, this behavior did not occur for the full pressurized pipe, indicating that the contents and internal pressure are able to effectively impede the partial flattening of the pipe section, improving its critical curvature and changing its plastic dynamic response behavior.

Critical curvature localization in graphene. II. Non-local flexoelectricity–dielectricity coupling

As a sequel of part I (Kothari et al. 2018 Proc. R. Soc. A 474 , 20180054), we present a general thermodynamic framework of flexoelectric constitutive laws for multi-layered graphene (MLG), and apply these laws to explain the role of crinkles in peculiar molecular adsorption characteristics of highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG) surfaces. The thermodynamically consistent constitutive laws lead to a non-local interaction model of polarization induced by electromechanical deformation with flexoelectricity–dielectricity coupling. The non-local model predicts curvature and polarization localization along crinkle valleys and ridges very close to those calculated by density functional theory (DFT). Our analysis reveals that the non-local model can be reduced to a simplified uc-local or e-local model (Kothari et al. 2018 Proc. R. Soc. A 474 , 20180054) only when the curvature distribution is uniform or highly localized. For the non-local model, we calibrated and formulated the layer-number-dependent dielectric and intrinsic flexoelectric coefficients of MLGs. In addition, we also obtained layer-number dependent flexoelectric coefficients for uc-local and e-local models. Our DFT analysis shows that polarization-induced adsorption of neutral molecules at crinkle ridges depends on the molecular weight of the molecule. Furthermore, our detailed study of polarization localization in graphene crinkles enables us to understand previously unexplained self-organized adsorption of C 60 buckyballs in a linear array on an HOPG surface.

Critical curvature localization in graphene. I. Quantum-flexoelectricity effect

Here, we report the discovery of a new, curvature-localizing, subcritical buckling mode that produces shallow-kink corrugation in multi-layer graphene. Our density functional theory (DFT) analysis reveals the mode configuration—an approximately 2 nm wide boundary layer of highly localized curvature that connects two regions of uniformly but oppositely sheared stacks of flat atomic sheets. The kink angle between the two regions is limited to a few degrees, ensuring elastic deformation. By contrast, a purely mechanical model of sandwich structures shows progressive supercritical curvature localization spread over a 50–100 nm wide boundary layer. Our effective-locality model of electromechanics reveals that coupling between atomic-layer curvature and electric-charge polarization, i.e. quantum flexoelectricity, leads to emergence of a boundary layer in which curvature is focused primarily within a 0.86 nm fixed band width. Both DFT and the model analyses show focused distributions of curvature and polarization exhibiting oscillating decay within the approximately 2 nm wide boundary layer. The results show that dipole–dipole interaction lowers the potential energy with such a distribution. Furthermore, this model predicts peak-polarization density approximately 0.12 e - nm −1 for 3° tilt angle. This high polarization concentration can be controlled by macroscopic deformation and is expected to be useful in studies of selective graphene-surface functionalization for various applications.