Effect of an Electric Field on an Optical Breakdown in the Air Stream

Experimental data on the effect of an electric field on the plasma of an optical discharge in an air flow have been obtained. Two configurations of an external electric field under the action of an optical discharge on the plasma are considered. To create an electric field, flat (the field along the beam and across the flow) and ring electrodes (the field across the laser beam and along the flow) were used. It was found that there are two modes of combined discharge (optical and electrical). When the field was created symmetrically with respect to the flow axis, an electrical breakdown was observed from the nozzle exit (positively charged electrode) to the focusing point of the laser beam, while no streamers were observed in the optical discharge wake. In another case, an electric discharge is realized between flat electrodes simultaneously with optical breakdown. In a field of constant strength above 3 kV/cm, the presence of an optical discharge plasma promoted electrical breakdown of the medium. In this case, the parameters of the electrical breakdown depended on the shape of the electrodes, the polarity of the applied voltage, and the air flow rate.

PREDICTION OF HYDRODYNAMIC PERFORMANCE OF 3-D WIG BY IBEM

The hydrodynamic performance of three-dimensional WIG (Wing-In-Ground) vehicle moving with a constant speed above free water surface has been predicted by an Iterative Boundary Element Method (IBEM). IBEM originally developed for 3-D hydrofoils moving under free surface has been modified and extended to 3-D WIGs moving above free water surface. The integral equation based on Green's theorem can be divided into two parts: (1) the wing part, (2) free surface part. These two problems are solved separately, with the effects of one on the other being accounted for in an iterative manner. Both the wing part including the wake surface and the free surface part have been modelled with constant strength dipole and source panels. The effects of Froude number, the height of the hydrofoil from free surface, the sweep, dihedral and anhedral angles on the lift and drag coefficients are discussed for swept and V-type WIGs.

Propagation of Vortex Cosine-hyperbolic-gaussian Beams in Atmospheric Turbulence

In this paper, the propagation properties of a vortex cosh-Gaussian beam (vChGB) in turbulent atmosphere are investigated. Based on the extended Huygens–Fresnel diffraction integral and the Rytov method, the analytical expression for the average intensity of the vChGB propagating in the atmospheric turbulence is derived. The effects of the turbulent strength and the beam parameters on the intensity distribution and the beam spreading are illustrated numerically and analyzed in detail. It is shown that upon propagating, the incident vChGB keeps its initial hollow dark profile within a certain propagation distance, then the field loses gradually its central hole-intensity and transformed into a Gaussian–like beam for large propagation distance. The rising speed of the central peak is demonstrated to be faster when the constant strength turbulence or the wavelength are larger and the Gaussian width is smaller. The obtained results can be beneficial for applications in optical communications and remote sensing.

2D and 3D Potential Flow Simulation around NACA 0012 Airfoil with Ground Effect

The purpose of this paper is to develop a Boundary Element Based Method (BEM) for determining the steady potential about two and three dimensional airfoil. The numerical investigation of NACA 0012 airfoil with using Boundary Element Method is utilized. Two different physical problems of the NACA 0012 airfoil are examined: potential flow around airfoil in an unbounded fluid and potential flow prediction with ground effect. Computation of potential flow around the airfoil is investigated by the mixed constant strength source and constant strength dipole based panel method. Boundary Element Code is written in FORTRAN. To check the accuracy of the 2D boundary element based code, the validation studies are carried out by comparing the present results obtained for the NACA 0012 airfoil from the XFoil and other published simulation results. 3D results are also evaluating with the available experimental and other numerical simulation results. The numerical outcomes are examined in terms of pressure distribution and lifting force on the foil.

Study on normalization of residual displacements for single-degree-of-freedom systems

Residual displacement spectrum is one of the most important means to predict the permanent deformation of structures after the earthquake, and various normalizations of residual displacements have generally been used for construction of the spectrum. However, the issue regarding the merits and drawbacks of each normalization has not yet been investigated thoroughly. A comparison between two normalizations that relate the residual displacements to the elastic and inelastic displacements is made in terms of the effect of ground motion and structural characteristics by means of the results of nonlinear time history analysis. The statistical results reveal that the residual-to-peak-inelastic displacement ratios have the advantages of small dispersion, samples without any outliers, and relatively symmetric distribution, which benefits from the strong correlation between residual and peak inelastic displacements. Moreover, the residual-to-peak-inelastic displacement ratios are almost independent of site conditions, significant duration, and natural periods. Consequently, the peak inelastic displacements are superior to the elastic ones as an intermediate step for residual displacements estimation, provided that the peak inelastic displacements are estimated with a low uncertainty. For providing alternatives to estimate residual displacement demands, the constant-strength residual displacement spectra are developed for both normalizations.

Applying the constant strength doublet method to resolve a steady flow around an airfoil

In the paper hereby, a numerical (panel) method is applied to analyze steady two-dimensional flow of ideal gas around an airfoil. Initially, the airfoil is divided into a finite number of panels. Then the panels are replaced by doublets with constant strength. In addition, a wake panel is added to fulfill Kutta condition at the airfoil trailing edge. In order to implement this, a numerical realization is developed and built by means of Tiny C Compiler. To work out a solution to the linear non-homogeneous algebraic system, direct schemes for lower-upper factorization/decomposition of matrix of coefficients were applied, namely Crout, Doolittle, and Cholesky. The obtained results are validated against exact solution and shown for various values of angle of attack and Reynolds number.

Control of the motion of a circular cylinder in an ideal fluid using a source

The motion of a circular cylinder in an ideal fluid in the field of a fixed source is considered. It is shown that, when the source has constant strength, the system possesses a momentum integral and an energy integral. Conditions are found under which the equations of motion reduced to the level set of the momentum integral admit an unstable fixed point. This fixed point corresponds to circular motion of the cylinder about the source. A feedback is constructed which ensures stabilization of the above-mentioned fixed point by changing the strength of the source.

Effects of Structural and Seismic Factors on the Constant-Strength Ductility Spectra Based on NGA-West2 Database

The constant-strength ductility spectrum is a nonlinear response spectrum that is commonly used to establish the demand curve of the seismic response during performance-based seismic design. It is affected by many factors. In this paper, to evaluate the effect of the major influencing factors, including the structural parameters and seismic factors, the constant-strength ductility spectrum is calculated under different conditions based on 5535 ground motion records. Conclusions are drawn based on the mean constant-strength ductility spectra. (1) With respect to the effects of structural factors, the variation trend of the ductility spectra is highly consistent with increasing T, and the ductility spectra are usually larger for larger ζ and smaller Cy and k2. (2) With respect to the seismic factors, the ductility spectra show obvious differences in different periods; however, some parameters, such as PGA, have no influence on the ductility spectra. The results of this study can provide a theoretical basis for the calculation of ductility demand in the seismic design of structures.

Magnetically Actuated Artificial Microswimmers as Mobile Microparticle Manipulators

Microscale swimming robots have been envisaged for many biomedical applications such as targeted drug delivery, where the microrobot will be expected to navigate in a fluid environment while carrying a payload. We show that such a payload does not have to be physically bound to the swimmer, but may be instead manipulated by the microrobot through hydrodynamic interaction. We consider a magnetically actuated artificial microswimmer, whose locomotion induces a disturbance velocity field in the fluid, which moves a cargo particle in its vicinity. The problem investigated in this paper is therefore one of coupled locomotion-manipulation of two bodies in a fluid. The swimmer is actuated by a uniform, rotating magnetic field of constant strength leading to net motion in the direction perpendicular to the plane of rotation if the frequency associated with the periodic magnetic field is above a critical frequency. Below this critical frequency, the swimmer tumbles in place without net locomotion. Controlled motion of the particle and swimmer is achieved by switching the planes of rotation of the magnetic field and the frequency of the magnetic field above and below the critical frequency. The results of this paper show that microswimmers can be utilized as mobile manipulators of microparticles in a fluid.