Shrinking Ice, Cold Sintering, & More

by | Nov 11, 2019 | The Coupi Review

Welcome to our monthly roundup of the best links on the internet about engineering, physics, and computer modeling! This month’s edition is full of interesting videos, articles, and resources to keep you up to date with the world of computer-assisted engineering and discrete elements methods.

Simulating the Real World

  • Most solids expand when heated but some show the opposite effect, or negative thermal expansion. A study used diffractometers at Oak Ridge and Los Alamos and concluded the effect was universal and could be modeled.
  • Cold sintering greatly reduces temperatures and curing times needed to turn powders into solids. And that can benefit the manufacturer and the environment.

Practical Applications

  • Next-generation silicone coatings withstand harsh environments and still provide self-healing, oil repellant yet adhesive coatings for energy, environmental and biomedical applications.
  • Could you explain cold plasma in 90 seconds? This PhD candidate adds practical applications and still beats the clock.

Physics Lesson

  • Speaking of negative thermal expansion, how do fish survive in a lake that is frozen over even at the coldest temperatures? Density changes of water on cooling and freezing gets the credit.
  • What is the smallest a nanodroplet of water can be and still form stable ice 1 crystals? How about 1 million times smaller than a snowflake.

News from Coupi

  • Applying discrete element methods, our summer intern, Tristan Carddick, rose to the challenge of “finding a clean way to extract and present data to examine changes over time.”

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