We observed light-induced alignment of the nematic liquid crystal, 4, 4(')-n-pentylcyanobiphenyl (5CB), on a fused quartz. Irradiation of the adsorbed layer with polarized ultraviolet light produced homogeneous alignment in a 5CB-filled liquid crystal cell with the easy orientation axis perpendicular to the polarization direction. The measured anchoring energy increases with illumination up to ...

A hydrodynamic model based on transport equations and semi-empirical multiphase equations-of-state for metals is developed and applied to simulation of short pulse laser melting and resolidification. New computational algorithms are developed for modeling of two-phase zones of solid-liquid and liquid-gas coexistence, as well as for explicit tracking of interfaces between the phases. The model a...

In designing of condensers, the prediction of pressure drop is as important as the prediction of heat transfer coefficient. Modeling of two phase flow, particularly liquid – vapor flow under diabatic conditions inside a horizontal tube using CFD analysis is difficult with the available two phase models in FLUENT due to continuously changing flow patterns. In the present analysis, CFD analysis o...

In an effort to better understand the source of toughness in metallic glass, we have investigated cavitation in glass-forming liquids. When subjected to negative hydrostatic pressure, a liquid will reduce its energy through the formation of a cavity. This phenomenon is the competing process to shear band growth and the development of a large plastic zone, which we have identified as the crucial...

It has been an experimental challenge to test the rupture of liquids with homogeneous nucleation of vapor bubbles. Many prior studies suffered from the ubiquitous presence of impurities in liquids or at container surfaces that spontaneously nucleate and grow under tension. Here, we propose a microfluidic approach to eliminate such impurities and obtain homogeneous bubble nucleation. We stretch ...

A study of the temperature dependence of the homogeneous linewidth and inhomogeneous broadening of a high-frequency vibrational transition of a polyatomic molecule in three molecular glass-forming liquids is presented. Picosecond infrared photon echo and pump–probe experiments were used to examine the dynamics that give rise to the vibrational line shape. The homogeneous vibrational linewidth o...

The classical penetration theory was corrected and then applied for the semi-theoretical prediction of mass transfer coefficients kLa in a slurry bubble column operated in the homogeneous regime. The gas-liquid contact time was expressed as a ratio of bubble surface to the rate of surface formation. These terms were defined for the case of oblate ellipsoidal bubbles formed under homogeneous flo...