A Nonlinear Reduced-Order Model of the Corpus Callosum Under Planar Coronal Excitation.

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is often associated with microstructural tissue damage in the brain, which results from its complex biomechanical behavior. Recent studies have shown that the deep white matter (WM) region of the human brain is susceptible to being damaged due to strain localization in that region. Motivated by these studies, in this paper, we propose a geometrically nonlinear dynamical reduced order model (ROM) to model and study the dynamics of the deep WM region of the human brain under coronal excitation.

Realization by impedance discontinuity of a unidirectional wave in a duct with harmonically perturbed uniform mean flow.

This paper presents a study of intentionally induced acoustic mode complexity in rigid-walled ducts of separable geometry and with uniform mean flow. An intermediately located perforated plate conceptualized as an impedance discontinuity is employed to maximize the acoustic mode complexity, in turn producing a unidirectional traveling wave from the source to the impedance discontinuity. The impedance of the perforated plate for realization of a unidirectional traveling wave is derived analytically and is found to be a function of the modal wavenumbers, the Mach number of the mean flow, the position of the perforated plate, and the termination impedance.

Ultimate Decoupling between Surface Topography and Material Functionality in Atomic Force Microscopy Using an Inner-Paddled Cantilever.

Atomic force microscopy (AFM) has been widely utilized to gain insight into various material and structural functionalities on the nanometer scale, leading to numerous discoveries and technologies. Despite the phenomenal success in applying AFM to the simultaneous characterization of topological and functional properties of materials, it has continuously suffered from the crosstalk between the observables, causing undesirable artifacts and complicated interpretations. Here, we introduce a two-field AFM probe, namely an inner-paddled cantilever integrating two discrete pathways such that they respond independently to the variations in surface topography and material functionality.

Inducing a nonreflective airborne discontinuity in a circular duct by using a nonresonant side branch to create mode complexity.

A nonreflective airborne discontinuity is created in a one-dimensional rigid-walled duct when the mode complexity introduced by a nonresonant side branch reaches a maximum, so that a sound wave can be spatially separated into physical regions of traveling and standing waves. The nonresonance of the side branch is demonstrated, the mode complexity is quantified, and a computational method to optimize side-branch parameters to maximize mode complexity in the duct in the presence of three-dimensional effects is presented. The optimal side-branch parameters that maximize the mode complexity and thus minimize reflection are found using finite element analysis and a derivative-free optimization routine.

Utilizing intentional internal resonance to achieve multi-harmonic atomic force microscopy.

During dynamic atomic force microscopy (AFM), the deflection of a scanning cantilever generates multiple frequency terms due to the nonlinear nature of AFM tip-sample interactions. Even though each frequency term is reasonably expected to encode information about the sample, only the fundamental frequency term is typically decoded to provide topographic mapping of the measured surface. One of main reasons for discarding higher harmonic signals is their low signal-to-noise ratio.

Complex nonlinear dynamics in the limit of weak coupling of a system of microcantilevers connected by a geometrically nonlinear tunable nanomembrane.

Intentional utilization of geometric nonlinearity in micro/nanomechanical resonators provides a breakthrough to overcome the narrow bandwidth limitation of linear dynamic systems. In past works, implementation of intentional geometric nonlinearity to an otherwise linear nano/micromechanical resonator has been successfully achieved by local modification of the system through nonlinear attachments of nanoscale size, such as nanotubes and nanowires. However, the conventional fabrication method involving manual integration of nanoscale components produced a low yield rate in these systems.

Improved atomic force microscope infrared spectroscopy for rapid nanometer-scale chemical identification.

Atomic force microscope infrared spectroscopy (AFM-IR) can perform IR spectroscopic chemical identification with sub-100 nm spatial resolution, but is relatively slow due to its low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). In AFM-IR, tunable IR laser light is incident upon a sample, which results in a rise in temperature and thermomechanical expansion of the sample. An AFM tip in contact with the sample senses this nanometer-scale photothermal expansion.

Modeling and measurement of geometrically nonlinear damping in a microcantilever-nanotube system.

Nonlinear mechanical systems promise broadband resonance and instantaneous hysteretic switching that can be used for high sensitivity sensing. However, to introduce nonlinear resonances in widely used microcantilever systems, such as AFM probes, requires driving the cantilever to an amplitude that is too large for any practical applications. We introduce a novel design for a microcantilever with a strong nonlinearity at small cantilever oscillation amplitude arising from the geometrical integration of a single BN nanotube.

Atomic force microscope infrared spectroscopy on 15 nm scale polymer nanostructures.

We measure the infrared spectra of polyethylene nanostructures of height 15 nm using atomic force microscope infrared spectroscopy (AFM-IR), which is about an order of magnitude improvement over state of the art. In AFM-IR, infrared light incident upon a sample induces photothermal expansion, which is measured by an AFM tip. The thermomechanical response of the sample-tip-cantilever system results in cantilever vibrations that vary in time and frequency.

Tunable, broadband nonlinear nanomechanical resonator.

A nanomechanical resonator incorporating intrinsically geometric nonlinearity and operated in a highly nonlinear regime is modeled and developed. The nanoresonator is capable of extreme broadband resonance, with tunable resonance bandwidth up to many times its natural frequency. Its resonance bandwidth and drop frequency (the upper jump-down frequency) are found to be very sensitive to added mass and energy dissipation due to damping.