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Klaus Kroy

Publications and source records attributed to Klaus Kroy.

5 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2005

Propagation and relaxation of tension in stiff polymers.

We present a unified theory for the longitudinal dynamic response of a stiff polymer in solution to various external perturbations (mechanical excitations, hydrodynamic flows, electrical fields, temperature quenches, etc.) that can be represented as sudden changes of ambient/boundary conditions. The theory relies on a comprehensive analysis of the nonequilibrium propagation and relaxation of backbone stresses in a wormlike chain. We recover and substantially extend previous results based on heuristic arguments. New experimental implications are pointed out.

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PubMed2004

Overdamped stress relaxation in buckled rods.

We present a comprehensive theoretical analysis of the stress relaxation in a multiply but weakly buckled incompressible rod in a viscous solvent. For the bulk, two interesting parameter regimes of generic self-similar intermediate asymptotics are distinguished, which give rise to approximate and exact power-law solutions, respectively. For the case of open boundary conditions the corresponding nontrivial boundary-layer scenarios are derived by a multiple-scale perturbation ("adiabatic") method. Our results compare well with--and provide the theoretical explanation for--previous results from numerical simulations, and they suggest directions for further fruitful numerical and experimental investigations.

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PubMed2002

Minimal model for aeolian sand dunes.

We present a minimal model for the formation and migration of aeolian sand dunes in unidirectional winds. It combines a perturbative description of the turbulent wind velocity field above the dune with a continuum saltation model that allows for saturation transients in the sand flux. The latter are shown to provide a characteristic length scale, called saturation length, which is distinct from the saltation length of the grains. The model admits two different classes of solutions for the steady-state profile along the wind direction: smooth heaps and dunes with slip face. We clarify the origin of the characteristic properties of these solutions and analyze their scaling behavior. We also investigate in some detail the dynamic evolution of heaps and dunes, including the steady-state migration velocity and transient shape relaxation. Although the minimal model employs nonlocal expressions for the wind shear stress as well as for the sand flux, it is simple enough to serve as a very efficient tool for analytical and numerical investigations and opens up the way to simulations of large scale desert topographies.

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PubMed2002

Minimal model for sand dunes.

We propose a minimal model for aeolian sand dunes. It combines an analytical description of the turbulent wind velocity field above the dune with a continuum saltation model that allows for saturation transients in the sand flux. The model provides a qualitative understanding of important features of real dunes, such as their longitudinal shape and aspect ratio, the formation of a slip face, the breaking of scale invariance, and the existence of a minimum dune size.

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