Biomedical subjects

Daniel L Blair

Publications and source records attributed to Daniel L Blair.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2005

Geometry of crumpled paper.

We measure the geometry of a crumpled sheet of paper with laser-aided topography and discuss its statistical properties. The curvature of an elastoplastic fold scales linearly with applied force. The curvature distribution follows an exponential form with regions of high curvature localized along ridges. The measured ridge length distribution is consistent with a hierarchical model for ridge breaking during crumpling. A large fraction of the ridges are observed to terminate without bifurcating, and the ridge network connectedness is not as complete as anticipated. The self-affinity of the surface is characterized by a Hurst exponent of 0.71+/-0.01 in contrast with previous results.

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PubMed2003

Collision statistics of driven granular materials.

We present an experimental investigation of the statistical properties of spherical granular particles on an inclined plane that are excited by an oscillating side wall. The data is obtained by high-speed imaging and particle tracking techniques. We identify all particles in the system and link their positions to form trajectories over long times. Thus, we identify particle collisions to measure the effective coefficient of restitution and find a broad distribution of values for the same impact angles. We find that the energy inelasticity can take on values greater than one, which implies that the rotational degrees of freedom play an important role in energy transfer. We also measure the distance and the time between collision events in order to directly determine the distribution of path lengths and the free times. These distributions are shown to deviate from expected theoretical forms for elastic spheres, demonstrating the inherent clustering in this system. We describe the data with a two-parameter fitting function and use it to calculate the mean free path and collision time. We find that the ratio of these values is consistent with the average velocity. The velocity distributions are observed to be strongly non-Gaussian and do not demonstrate any apparent universal behavior. We report the scaling of the second moment, which corresponds to the granular temperature, and higher order moments as a function of distance from the driving wall. Additionally, we measure long-time correlation functions in both space and in the velocities to probe diffusion in a dissipative gas.

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PubMed2003

Vortices in vibrated granular rods.

We report the experimental observation of vortex patterns in vertically vibrated granular rods. Above a critical packing fraction, moving ordered domains of nearly vertical rods spontaneously form and coexist with horizontal rods. The domains of vertical rods coarsen in time to form large vortices. We investigate the conditions under which the vortices occur by varying the number of rods, vibration amplitude, and frequency. The size of the vortices increases with the number of rods. We characterize the growth of the ordered domains by measuring the area fraction of the ordered regions as a function of time. A void-filling model is presented to describe the nucleation and growth of the vertical domains. We track the ends of the vertical rods and obtain the velocity fields of the vortices. The rotation speed of the rods is observed to depend on the vibration velocity of the container and on the packing. To investigate the impact of the direction of driving on the observed phenomena, we performed experiments with the container vibrated horizontally. Although vertical domains form, vortices are not observed. We therefore argue that the motion is generated due to the interaction of the inclination of the rods with the bottom of a vertically vibrated container. We also perform simple experiments with a single row of rods in an annulus. These experiments directly demonstrate that the rod motion is generated when the rods are inclined from the vertical, and is always in the direction of the inclination.

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PubMed2003

Clustering transitions in vibrofluidized magnetized granular materials.

We study the effects of long-range interactions on the phases observed in cohesive granular materials. At high vibration amplitudes, a gas of magnetized particles is observed with velocity distributions similar to nonmagnetized particles. Below a transition temperature compact clusters are observed to form and coexist with single particles. The cluster growth rate is consistent with a classical nucleation process. However, the temperature of the particles in the clusters is significantly lower than the surrounding gas, indicating a breakdown of equipartition. If the system is quenched to low temperatures, a metastable network of connected chains self-assemble due to the anisotropic nature of magnetic interactions between particles.

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