Inertial particle acceleration in strained turbulence

The dynamics of inertial particles in turbulence is modelled and investigated by means of direct numerical simulation of an axisymmetrically expanding homogeneous turbulent strained flow. This flow can mimic the dynamics of particles close to stagnation points. The influence of mean straining flow is explored by varying the dimensionless strain rate parameter Sk(0)/epsilon(0) from 0.2 to 20, where S is the mean strain rate, k(0) and epsilon(0) are the turbulent kinetic energy and energy dissipation rate at the onset of straining.

Methane Clathrate Hydrate Nucleation Mechanism by Advanced Molecular Simulations

The nucleation mechanisms of methane hydrates are studied using well-tempered metadynamics and restrained molecular dynamics. The collective variables we used to follow the process are the methane-methane and methane-water coordination numbers, from which we computed the corresponding Landau free energy surface. This surface is characterized by two minima, corresponding to the two-phase methane bubble/water solution and clathrate crystal, and a transition state.

Law of the wall in an unstably stratified turbulent channel flow

We perform direct numerical simulations of an unstably stratified turbulent channel flow to address the effects of buoyancy on the boundary layer dynamics and mean field quantities. We systematically span a range of parameters in the space of friction Reynolds number (Re<inf>?</inf>)and Rayleigh number (Ra). Our focus is on deviations from the logarithmic law of the wall due to buoyant motion. The effects of convection in the relevant ranges are discussed, providing measurements of mean profiles of velocity, temperature and Reynolds stresses as well as of the friction coefficient.

Mesoscopic Simulation Study of Wall Roughness Effects in Micro-channel Flows of Dense Emulsions

We study the Poiseuille flow of a soft-glassy material above the jamming point, where the material flows like a complex fluid with Herschel-Bulkley rheology. Microscopic plastic rearrangements and the emergence of their spatial correlations induce cooperativity flow behavior whose effect is pronounced in presence of confinement. With the help of lattice Boltzmann numerical simulations of confined dense emulsions, we explore the role of geometrical roughness in providing activation of plastic events close to the boundaries.

Impact of the Peterlin approximation on polymer dynamics in turbulent flows

We study the impact of the Peterlin approximation on the statistics of the end-to-end separation of polymers in a turbulent flow. The finitely extensible nonlinear elastic (FENE) model and the FENE model with the Peterlin approximation (FENE-P) are numerically integrated along a large number of Lagrangian trajectories resulting from a direct numerical simulation of three-dimensional homogeneous isotropic turbulence. Although the FENE-P model yields results in qualitative agreement with those of the FENE model, quantitative differences emerge.

Brain functional connectivity at rest as similarity of neuronal activities

The brain is a connected network, requiring complex-system measures to describe its organization principles. The normalized compression distance (NCD) [1] is a parameter -free, quasi universal similarity measure that estimates the information shared by two signals comparing the compression length of one signal given the other. Here, we aim at testing whether this new measure is a suitable quantifier of the functional connectivity between cortical regions.

A GENETIC ALGORITHM TO DESIGN TOURISTIC ROUTES IN A BIKE SHARING

The aim of this paper is to study a Bike Sharing Touring (BST) applying a mathematical model known in operation research as Orienteering Problem (OP). Several European Cities are developing BST in order to reduce the exhaust emissions and to improve the sustainability in urban areas. The authors offer a Decision Support Tool useful for the tourist and the service's manager to organize the tourists' paths on the basis of tourists' desires, subject to usable time, place of interest position and docking station location.

Massless Dirac particles in the vacuum C-metric

We study the behavior of massless Dirac particles in the vacuum C-metric spacetime, representing the nonlinear superposition of the Schwarzschild black hole solution and the Rindler flat spacetime associated with uniformly accelerated observers. Under certain conditions, the C-metric can be considered as a unique laboratory to test the coupling between intrinsic properties of particles and fields with the background acceleration in the full (exact) strong-field regime.