The spontaneous formation of dendritic aggregates is observed in a two-dimensional confined layered system consisting of a film composed of liquid crystal, dye and solvent cast above a polymer substrate. The observed aggregates are promoted by phase separation processes induced by dye diffusion and solvent evaporation. The growth properties of the aggregates are studied through the temporal evolution of their topological properties (surface, perimeter, fractal dimension). The fractal dimension of the completely formed structures, when they are coexistent with different types of structures, is consistent with theoretical and experimental values obtained for Diffusion-Limited Aggregates. Under different experimental conditions (temperature and local dye concentration) the structure forms without interactions with other kinds of structures, and its equilibrium fractal dimension is smaller. The fractal dimension is thus not a universal property of the observed structures, but rather depends on the experimental conditions.

The control of temperature distribution across the strip is essential for the hot strip flatness improvement. Hot strips of Arcelor in Avilès may display wavy edge defects that are generated after the finisher and are attributed to residual stresses introduced by the accelerated cooling on the runout-table. A first approach has established that the thermal drop on the run-out-table has a significant effect on flatness, at the edges in particular. Among several systems that may control temperature at the edges, the edge masking technology has been selected, considering the previous implementation on CSP mills. Wavy edges are considerably removed or even suppressed on the operator side, while they are reduced but not eliminated on the drive side.

Fractal grids generate multi-scale turbulent flows which interact with each other and form new multi-scales with different properties compared with those generated by classical grids. The goal of this work was to study the influence of geometry multiscale fractal on the generation and decay of turbulence by comparing the turbulence produced by a traditional fractal square grid FSG for short to that produced by a spaced fractal square grid SFSG for short with similar physical properties. The velocity measurements were performed in an open circuit suction type wind tunnel using a constant temperature hot wire anemometer at various positions in the x direction along the tunnel’s center line and for three different Reynolds numbers ReL0 based on the inlet velocity U? and the length of the largest grid bar L0. It was found that the turbulence intensity decays with distance from the grid for SFSG. Whereas, for FSG at low Reynolds numbers the turbulence intensity shows the same behaviour as for SFSG but for higher Reynolds numbers the turbulence intensity increases to reach a peak at a distance xpeak from the grid and then decays. In the inhomogeneous region, for both types of grids, a scaling range spans over a decade with an exponent near, but not exactly, k?5/3. In contrast, the length of the scaling range larger for FSG than for SFSG.

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