Electrolytes: From a Thorn Comes a Rose,and from a Rose,a Thorn

In this article we take a stroll through the metaphorical rose garden, part of the flower garden, that is electrochemical storage systems. We take a closer look at batteries as the center‐pieces – the roses – and especially at the system component of batteries, the electrolyte and its development, throughout history. Just as a rose can only develop its unique beauty when taken good care of and provided with clean water and suitable nutrients, a battery cell cannot function without its electrolyte; the seemingly trivial component that has to juggle a multitude of requirements in order to make batteries truly bloom.     

Extraction into a flow of a fluid with a velocity gradient

Unsteady extraction from a system of semi-infinite capillaries to the flow of a fluid with a linear velocity gradient is studied. An assumption that the diffusion in the flow is a quasi-steady-state process is taken to obtain a linear equation for the local mass flux from the pore space, which involves fractional derivatives with respect to time and flow coordinate. Limiting solutions for the total diffusion flux at small and large times that cover the entire time interval are found.     

Mesomorphic transitions in a mixture of a flexible and a semi-rigid polymer

Phase studies on a mixture of two polymers are presented, one of which is mesomorphic. We have systematically examined the influence of the molecular weight of the flexible polymer (including the oligomers) and of the semi-flexible polymer. In addition to the effect of the molecular weight, specific interactions are important for compatibility and formation of a homogeneous mesomorphic phase. The nature of this phase is demonstrated to be cholesteric and the pitch is determined.     

Propagation of a burning front over a condensed material from a focus

Measured propagation speeds are given for the combustion front in a blind gap in a condensed substance, which are related to gap height and mean pressure. The front may propagate monotonically, which is characteristic of relatively high pressures and wide gaps, or as a result of additional burning foci arising at a certain distance from the main front. At low pressures and particularly with small gap heights, the front propagates in an unstable fashion over the surface.Moscow. Translated from Fizika Goreniya i Vzryva, Vol. 28, No. 4, pp. 49–53, July–August, 1992.     

When is a Beam a Plate?

Formulas associated with simple beam or plate theories are used extensively in structural design, to determine You's modulus, and to determine fracture strength of brittle nonmetallic materials. The question may arise as to whether the proper ratio of beam-width-to-beam-depth is such that the bent structural element can be considered as a beam and, if not, what is the correction factor that should be used with the simple beam formula. These questions are answered for a range of structural metallic and brittle nonmetallic materials.     

Detonation of a Column of a Chemically Active Bubbly Medium in a Liquid

The problem of a detonation wave propagating in a cylindrical column of a chemically active bubbly medium screened by a liquid from the tube walls is formulated and numerically solved within the framework of the Iordanskii–Kogarko two-phase model with allowance for energy dissipation due to acoustic radiation of bubbles. The wave structure of the reaction zone and the detonation velocity of the bubbly medium column are calculated. It is found that the self-sustaining wave can propagate with a velocity greater than the velocity of one-dimensional bubble detonation by a factor of 1.5–2.5.     

Growth of a Bonelike Apatite Layer on a Substrate by a Biomimetic Process

A dense and uniform bonelike apatite layer was formed on a substrate by the following biomimetic method. The substrate was first placed on granular particles of CaO, SiO₂-based glass soaked in a simulated body fluid (SBF) with ion concentrations nearly equal to those of human blood plasma and then soaked in another fluid highly supersaturated with respect to the apatite. The thickness of the apatite layer increased in proportion to the soaking time in the second solution. The rate of increase in the thickness of the apatite layer increased from 0.5 to 7.0 μm/day with increasing temperature of the second solution from 10° to 60°C, increased from 0.15 to 1.7 μm/day with increasing ion concentrations of the second solution from 0.2 to 1.5 times those of the SBF, and doubled by shaking the second solution. These results indicate that the growth of the apatite layer is controlled by mass transport across the interface between the crystal and the fluid.     

Laminar flow deformation of a droplet adhering to a wall in a channel

We study the deformation of oil droplets of varying viscosity adhering to a solid, rigid wall in a rectangular channel induced by a pressure-driven, laminar flow of water. Our experimental investigation involves the systematic study of the effects of initial droplet volume, flow rate and viscosity ratio on the various modes of droplet motion and deformation; this is performed via direct visualisation of the flow in a glass cell using a high-speed camera. Our results are used to construct flow maps that delineate the critical conditions for droplet ‘sliding’, ‘crawling’ and detachment from the channel wall as a function of system parameters. Comparisons of our experimental results with numerical predictions obtained using a procedure based on the diffuse-interface method yield reasonably good agreement for certain flow regimes.     

Wetting of a vertical plate by a liquid flowing through a vertical nozzle

A model has been developed describing the wetting of a vertical plate by a liquid, starting from the exact hydrodynamic equations. By incorporating an approximately chosen wetting force term into the Navier-Stokes equations and using laminar boundary layer theory, the velocity field, the width and the actual contact angle characterizing the flow of the liquid were determined.The results predicted by the model were compared with those experimentally obtained for two limiting cases, and good agreement was demonstrated using the aqueous glycerol mixtures. The model was unsatisfactory for the water film since the boundary layer rapidly became turbulent and it was also observed that poor agreement was obtained with the mineral oil.     

Reflection of a shock wave from a rigid wall in a mixture of a liquid metal and solid particles

The problem of reflection of shock waves and expansion waves from a rigid wall in a mixture of liquid iron and small molybdenum crystals is considered. The study is performed within the framework of equilibrium and nonequilibrium approximations of mechanics of heterogeneous media with different pressures of the components. The mathematical model is verified by fitting the dependence of the equilibrium-frozen velocity of sound on the initial pressure in the mixture with available experimental data. In the equilibrium approach, the dependence of the type of the reflected wave on the type of the incident wave is determined. Direct numerical calculations within the framework of the nonequilibrium model of mechanics of heterogeneous media confirmed the validity of the reflection chart obtained. The possibility of significant compacting of molybdenum particles in reflected waves is revealed. Translated fromFizika Goreniya i Vzryva, Vol. 36, No. 4, pp. 97–107, July–August, 2000. This work was performed within the framework of the Integration Project No. 97-24 of the Siberian Division of the Russian Academy of Sciences.     

Drag of a cylinder moving near a wall in a yield stress fluid

The drag of a cylindrical obstacle moving at a constant velocity in a yield stress fluid close to a wall is studied experimentally and numerically. The wall influence has been explored for gap values between the cylinder of diameter D and the wall ranging from 0.01D to 100D, which corresponds, respectively, to hydrodynamic lubrication and to unconfined domain conditions. A model yield stress fluid (Carbopol gel) is used in the experiments. The viscous and plastic drag coefficients have been calculated and measured as depending on the Oldroyd number, in conditions where the yield stress effects are more important than those of viscosity and the inertia negligible. We have performed experimental and numerical validations in the Newtonian case and provided more specifically comparisons of our measured data on yield stress materials with those resulting from viscoplastic flow simulations. © 2018 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 64: 4118–4130, 2018     

Modeling of a grinding circuit with a swing-hammer mill and a twin-cone classifier

A model was formulated for a continuous, air-swept milling system, assuming the mill to be fully mixed, with all particles leaving the mill in the air stream. The air-sweeping effect was treated as an internal classification which allows fine particles to leave and returns coarse particles for regrinding. The kinetic parameters for the continuous model were estimated using experimental data from a continuous pilot-plant air-swept swing-hammer mill. Functional forms that provide information regarding the power, the internal classification action of the mill, and the action of the external classifier, were deduced for different plant conditions. It was found that the specific rates of breakage could be assumed to vary with particle size according to S_i = a(x_i/x_o)^α, where the value of α was 1.3 for the coal used in the tests. The values of a varied with mill hold-up W, giving a maximum of aW as W became large. The primary breakage distribution values were assumed to be normalized, giving a value of characteristic slope of γ = 0.60.     

Extraction of a dissolved substance from a porous body into a flowing liquid

A mathematical model is proposed to describe the extraction of a dissolved substance from a semiinfinite porous space into an external liquid flow parallel to the interface. An asymptotic expression for the concentration of the extracted substance in the flow late in the process is obtained. A condition for the applicability of this expression is formulated.     

Formation of a high-velocity particle flow from shaped charges with a liner consisting of a hemisphere and a degressive-thickness cylinder

Particle flows formed from shaped charges with a combined steel liner consisting of a hemisphere and a cylinder with a hemispherical part of degressive thickness (decreasing from top to bottom) were investigated by flash radiography. It has been found experimentally that the change from a constant to a degressive thickness of the hemispherical part increases the velocity of the head part of the liner jet formed during its compression, which is subsequently separated upon collapse of the cylindrical part. The maximum particle velocity obtained as a result of separation in the experiments was 8.6 km/s.     

Behaviour of a large bubble flowing through a sudden constriction between a cylindrical pipe and a rectangular cross section channel

The behaviour of a single large bubble flowing through a sudden constriction between a cylindrical pipe and a channel of rectangular cross section is studied experimentally. Two types of constrictions are considered: an abrupt one and a smooth one. Image analysis displays the deformation of the large bubble generated in the upstream vertical pipe and flowing through each kind of constriction. Image processing allows an estimate to be made of the velocity of Dumitrescu bubbles upstream of the constriction and the velocity of a 2D cap bubble flowing downstream of the constriction in a rectangular-cross-section channel. When the large bubble flows through a constriction, its behaviour can be considered in two steps: a first step corresponding to the disengagement of the large bubble and a second step corresponding to its transient behaviour after detachment. In terms of disengagement, an abrupt constriction induces systematic break-up of the large bubble whereas, with a smooth constriction, the large bubble undergoes strong deformations but does not break up. After detachment, large bubbles relax in a similar way and their velocities tend towards the terminal velocity of the 2D cap bubble.