We continue the study of the time evolution of a system consisting of a piston in a cubical container of large size L filled with an ideal gas. The piston has mass M ’ L and undergoes elastic collisions with N ’ L gas particles of mass m. In a previous paper, Lebowitz et al. (1) considered a scaling regime, with time and space scaled by L, in which they argued heuristically that the motion of t...

NIST has characterized two large diameter (35.8 mm) piston/cylinder assemblies as primary pressure standards in the range 0.05 MPa to 1.0 MPa with uncertainties approaching the best mercury manometers. The realizations of the artefacts as primary standards are based on the dimensional characterization of the piston and cylinder, and models of the normal and shear forces on the base and flanks o...

ADiesel cycle enginewith internal and external irreversibilities of finite combustion rate of the fuel, friction and heat leakage is investigated in this paper. The heat transfer between the working fluid and the environment outside the cylinder obeys generalized radiative heat transfer law [q ∝ ∆(T n)]. Under the conditions of the fixed total cycle time and fuel consumed per cycle, the optimal...

Primary human fibroblasts have the remarkable ability to use their nucleus like a piston, switching from low- to high-pressure protrusions in response to the surrounding three-dimensional (3D) matrix. Although migrating tumor cells can also change how they migrate in response to the 3D matrix, it is not clear if they can switch between high- and low-pressure protrusions like primary fibroblasts...

Some reciprocating compressors have connecting rods with ball joints to join the crankshaft and the piston. The load of the pressurized gas inside the cylinder directly loads the joint of the piston and the connecting rod. For this reason, it needs to be highly reliable, so it needs to be made of hard material, high-precision spherical surfaces, and a complicated assembling line. Accordingly, t...

A Diesel cycle heat engine with internal and external irreversibilities of heat transfer and friction, in which the finite rate of combustion is considered and the heat transfer between the working fluid and the environment obeys Newton’s heat transfer law [ ( ) q T ≈ ∆ ], is studied in this paper. Optimal piston motion trajectories for minimizing entropy generation per cycle are derived for th...

This paper demonstrates the influence of the trailing end of the piston, or inboard, pad on the propensity of a brake to generate audible squeal. The unique technique was employed to measure the dynamic centre of pressure at the pad/disc interface during a normal braking operation. This novel technique uses an embedded pressure sensitive film within the pad. The paper also presents the co-plana...

We examine a rod piston-rotaxane system, where the positions of several mobile rings on the axle are controlled by an external force acting on one of the rings. This allows us to access the translational entropy of the rings. For a simple rotaxane molecule with an axle that has uniform ring-axle interactions along its length, the molecule behaves like a miniature piston filled with a one-dimens...

Collisionless shocks are common phenomena in space and astrophysical systems, and in many cases, the shocks can be modeled as the result of the expansion of a magnetic piston though a magnetized ambient plasma. Only recently, however, have laser facilities and diagnostic capabilities evolved sufficiently to allow the detailed study in the laboratory of the microphysics of piston-driven shocks. ...