The dynamic excitation of a granular chain: Contact mechanics finite element analysis and experimental validation.

There is currently interest in transmitting acoustic signals along granular chains to produce waveforms of relevance to biomedical ultrasound applications. The study of such a transduction mechanism is greatly aided by the use of validated theoretical models. In view of this, a finite element analysis is presented in this paper. The dynamics of a granular chain of six, 1 mm diameter chrome steel spherical beads, was excited at one end using a sinusoidal displacement signal at 73 kHz, and terminated by a rigid support. Output from this model was compared with the solution provided by the equivalent discrete dynamics model, and good agreement obtained. An experimental configuration involving the same chain, but terminated by an annular support made of a liquid photopolymer resin was also simulated and the velocity of the last sphere obtained through simulation was compared with laser vibrometer measurement, with good agreement. This model was then extended whereby the granular chain was coupled to an acoustic medium with the properties of water, via a thin vitreous carbon cylinder. Finite element predictions of the acoustic pressure indicate that, for a 73 kHz excitation frequency, harmonic rich acoustic pulses with harmonic content close to 1 MHz are predicted.

Analysis of solitary wave impulses in granular chains using ultrasonic excitation.

The propagation of broad bandwidth solitary wave impulses, generated within granular chains by narrow bandwidth ultrasonic excitation, is studied in detail. Theoretical predictions are compared to experimental results. It is demonstrated that the observed effects result from a sum of a solitary wave traveling out from the source with a wave that reflects from the far end of the chain. It is shown that this combination, when used with an excitation in the form of a long-duration tone burst, encourages the generation of multiple impulses with a characteristic periodicity. This study shows that the properties of the chain structure and the excitation can be adjusted so as to generate ultrasonic solitary wave impulses with a high amplitude and known frequency content, which are of interest in applications such as biomedical ultrasound.

Ultrasonic propagation in finite-length granular chains.

A narrowband ultrasound source has been used to generate solitary wave impulses in finite-length chains of spheres. Once the input signal is of sufficient amplitude, both harmonics and sub-harmonics of the input frequency can be generated as non-linear normal modes of the system, allowing a train of impulses to be established from a sinusoidal input. The characteristics of the response have been studied as a function of the physical properties of the chain, the input waveform and the level of static pre-compression. The results agree with the predictions of a theoretical model, based on a set of discrete dynamic equations for the spheres for finite-length chains. Impulses are only created for very small pre-compression forces of the order of 0.01N, where strongly non-linear behaviour is expected.

Radical scavenger activity of phenylethanoid glycosides in FMLP stimulated human polymorphonuclear leukocytes: structure-activity relationships.

Radical scavenger activities of 21 phenylethanoid glycosides, including 15 ester derivatives of caffeic, ferulic, vanillic and syringic acid as well as 6 deacyl derivatives were determined by quantifying their effects on the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in a luminol-enhanced chemiluminescence assay with formyl-methionyl-leucyl-phenylalanine (FMLP) stimulated human polymorphonuclear neutrophils (PMNs). All phenylethanoids acylated with phenolic acids showed strong antioxidant activity whereas the deacyl derivatives were more than 30-fold less active. Therefore, the antioxidant activity is mainly related to the number of aromatic methoxy and hydroxy groups and the structure of the acyl moiety (C6-C1 or C6-C3). In contrast, modification of the sugar chain or replacement of hydroxy groups by methoxy groups in the acyl or the phenylethanoid moiety is of minor importance. The position of the acyl moiety is without significance. Free caffeic, ferulic, vanillic and syringic acid are less active compared to the phenylethanoid derivatives. This points to the importance of dissociation and lipophilicity of these acids in a cellular test system.