A hybrid thermal lattice Boltzmann (LB) model is presented to simulate thermal multiphase flows with phase change based on an improved pseudopotential LB approach [Q. Li, K. H. Luo, and X. J. Li, Phys. Rev. E 87, 053301 (2013)]. The present model does not suffer from the spurious term caused by the forcing-term effect, which was encountered in some previous thermal LB models for liquid-vapor phase change. Using the model, the liquid-vapor boiling process is simulated. The boiling curve together with the three boiling stages (nucleate boiling, transition boiling, and film boiling) is numerically reproduced in the LB community for the first time. The numerical results show that the basic features and the fundamental characteristics of boiling heat transfer are well captured, such as the severe fluctuation of transient heat flux in the transition boiling and the feature that the maximum heat transfer coefficient lies at a lower wall superheat than that of the maximum heat flux. Furthermore, the effects of the heating surface wettability on boiling heat transfer are investigated. It is found that an increase in contact angle promotes the onset of boiling but reduces the critical heat flux, and makes the boiling process enter into the film boiling regime at a lower wall superheat, which is consistent with the findings from experimental studies.

This paper proposes an improved lattice Boltzmann scheme for incompressible axisymmetric flows. The scheme has the following features. First, it is still within the framework of the standard lattice Boltzmann method using the single-particle density distribution function and consistent with the philosophy of the lattice Boltzmann method. Second, the source term of the scheme is simple and contains no velocity gradient terms. Owing to this feature, the scheme is easy to implement. In addition, the singularity problem at the axis can be appropriately handled without affecting an important advantage of the lattice Boltzmann method: the easy treatment of boundary conditions. The scheme is tested by simulating Hagen-Poiseuille flow, three-dimensional Womersley flow, Wheeler benchmark problem in crystal growth, and lid-driven rotational flow in cylindrical cavities. It is found that the numerical results agree well with the analytical solutions and/or the results reported in previous studies.

Black carbon (BC) is one of the key components causing global warming. Especially on the Tibetan Plateau (TP), reconstructing BC's historical trend is essential for better understanding its anthropogenic impact. Here, we present results from high altitude lake sediments from the central TP. The results provide a unique history of BC over the past 150 years, from the preindustrial to the modern period. Although BC concentration levels in the Nam Co Lake sediments were lower than those from other high mountain lakes, the temporal trend of BC fluxes clearly showed a recent rise, reflecting increased emissions from anthropogenic activities. The BC records were relatively constant until 1900, then began to gradually increase, with a sharp rise beginning around 1960. Recent decades show about 2.5-fold increase of BC compared to the background level. The emission inventory in conjunction with air mass trajectories further demonstrates that BC in the Nam Co Lake region was most likely transported from South Asia. Rapid economic development in South Asia is expected to continue in the next decades; therefore, the influence of BC over the TP merits further investigations.

Large-Eddy Simulations (LES) have shown the effects of ocean surface gravity waves in enhancing the ocean boundary layer mixing through Langmuir turbulence. Neglecting this Langmuir mixing process may contribute to the common shallow bias in mixed layer depth in regions of the Southern Ocean and the Northern Atlantic in most state-of-the-art climate models. In this study, a third generation wave model, WAVEWATCH III, has been incorporated as a component of the Community Earth System Model, version 1.2 (CESM1.2).

The Newtonian gravitational constant, G, is one of the most fundamental constants of nature, but we still do not have an accurate value for it. Despite two centuries of experimental effort, the value of G remains the least precisely known of the fundamental constants. A discrepancy of up to 0.05 per cent in recent determinations of G suggests that there may be undiscovered systematic errors in the various existing methods. One way to resolve this issue is to measure G using a number of methods that are unlikely to involve the same systematic effects. Here we report two independent determinations of G using torsion pendulum experiments with the time-of-swing method and the angular-acceleration-feedback method. We obtain G values of 6.674184 × 10 and 6.674484 × 10 cubic metres per kilogram per second squared, with relative standard uncertainties of 11.64 and 11.61 parts per million, respectively. These values have the smallest uncertainties reported until now, and both agree with the latest recommended value within two standard deviations.

Owing to its kinetic nature and distinctive computational features, the lattice Boltzmann method for simulating rarefied gas flows has attracted significant research interest in recent years. In this article, a lattice Boltzmann (LB) model is presented to study microchannel flows in the transition flow regime, which have gained much attention because of fundamental scientific issues and technological applications in various micro-electromechanical system (MEMS) devices. In the model, a Bosanquet-type effective viscosity is used to account for the rarefaction effect on gas viscosity. To match the introduced effective viscosity and to gain an accurate simulation, a modified second-order slip boundary condition with a new set of slip coefficients is proposed. Numerical investigations demonstrate that the results, including the velocity profile, the non-linear pressure distribution along the channel, and the mass flow rate, are in good agreement with the solution of the linearized Boltzmann equation, the direct simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) results, and the experimental results over a broad range of Knudsen numbers. It is shown that taking the rarefaction effect on gas viscosity into consideration and employing an appropriate slip boundary condition can lead to a significant improvement in the modeling of rarefied gas flows with moderate Knudsen numbers in the transition flow regime.

In this paper, the pinning and depinning mechanism of the contact line during droplet evaporation on chemically stripe-patterned surfaces is numerically investigated using a thermal multiphase lattice Boltzmann (LB) model with liquid-vapor phase change. A local force balance in the context of diffuse interfaces is introduced to explain the equilibrium states of droplets on chemically patterned surfaces. It is shown that when the contact line is pinned on a hydrophobic-hydrophilic boundary, different contact angles can be interpreted as the variation of the length of the contact line occupied by each component. The stick-slip-jump behavior of evaporating droplets on chemically patterned surfaces is well captured by the LB simulations. Particularly, a slow movement of the contact line is clearly observed during the stick (pinning) mode, which shows that the pinning of the contact line during droplet evaporation on chemically stripe-patterned surfaces is actually a dynamic pinning process and the dynamic equilibrium is achieved by the self-adjustment of the contact lines occupied by each component. Moreover, it is shown that when the surface tension varies with the temperature, the Marangoni effect has an important influence on the depinning of the contact line, which occurs when the horizontal component (toward the center of the droplet) of the force caused by the Marangoni stress overcomes the unbalanced Young's force toward the outside.

Alpine lake sediments and glacier ice cores retrieved from high mountain regions can provide long-term records of atmospheric deposition of anthropogenic contaminants such as mercury (Hg). In this study, eight lake sediment cores and one glacier ice core were collected from high elevations across the Himalaya-Tibet region to investigate the chronology of atmospheric Hg deposition. Consistent with modeling results, the sediment core records showed higher Hg accumulation rates in the southern slopes of the Himalayas than those in the northern slopes in the recent decades (post-World War II). Despite much lower Hg accumulation rates obtained from the glacier ice core, the temporal trend in the Hg accumulation rates matched very well with that observed from the sediment cores. The combination of the lake sediments and glacier ice core allowed us to reconstruct the longest, high-resolution atmospheric Hg deposition chronology in High Asia. The chronology showed that the Hg deposition rate was low between the 1500s and early 1800, rising at the onset of the Industrial Revolution, followed by a dramatic increase after World War II. The increasing trend continues to the present-day in most of the records, reflecting the continuous increase in anthropogenic Hg emissions from South Asia.