Turbulent entrainment is a process by which a locally turbulent region draws in an outer irrotational fluid. A large number of small-scale vortices and shear layers exist near the turbulent/non-turbulent interface; these features influence the local entrainment process. Direct numerical simulations of a turbulent front evolving into a quiescent flow without mean shear show that the entrainment rate is amplified by triggering the instability of small-scale shear layers via weak perturbations with a wavelength matching that of the unstable mode of the shear layers. Imposing artificial perturbations with a length scale approximately 30 times the Kolmogorov scale leads to the rapid collapse of small-scale shear layers due to instability, generating vortices near the turbulent/non-turbulent interface. Amplification of the entrainment rate is linked to the enlarged area and increased propagation velocity of the interface. The impact of perturbations on the entrainment rate becomes most pronounced when the flow evolves over approximately 7 times the Kolmogorov time scale, after which their influence diminishes over time. Additionally, the increase in entrainment rate is dictated by the ratio of the perturbation amplitude to the Kolmogorov velocity scale. The entrainment enhancement process is governed by Kolmogorov scales, suggesting that even weak perturbations can amplify the entrainment rate in high Reynolds number flows.

Direct numerical simulations (DNS) of temporally developing turbulent boundary layers are performed with a wide range of Reynolds numbers based on the momentum thickness $Re_{\theta } = 2000$–$13\,000$ for investigating the Reynolds number dependence of the turbulent/non-turbulent interface (TNTI) layer. The grid spacing in the DNS is determined carefully such that small-scale turbulent motions near the TNTI are well resolved. The outer edge of the TNTI layer, called the irrotational boundary, is detected with vorticity magnitude. The mean thicknesses of the TNTI layer, $\delta _{TNTI}$, turbulent sublayer, $\delta _{TSL}$, and viscous superlayer, $\delta _{VSL}$, are found to be approximately $15\eta _{TI}$, $10\eta _{TI}$ and $5\eta _{TI}$, respectively, where $\eta _{TI}$ is the Kolmogorov scale taken in the turbulent region near the TNTI layer. The mean curvature of the irrotational boundary is also characterized by $\eta _{TI}$. The shear parameter and the shear-to-vorticity ratio show that the mean shear effects near the TNTI layer are not significant for both large and small scales. The anisotropy tensors of Reynolds stress and vorticity suggest that the turbulence under the TNTI layer tends to be isotropic at high $Re_{\theta }$, for which $\eta _{TI}/\delta \sim Re_{\theta }^{-3/4}$ is valid with the boundary layer thickness $\delta$. The surface area of the irrotational boundary is consistent with the fractal analysis of the interface, where the fractal dimension $D_f$ is found to be $2.14$–$2.20$. The present results suggest that the mean entrainment rate per unit horizontal area normalized by the friction velocity varies slowly as $Re_{\theta }^{(3/4)(D_f-2)}$ for $Re_{\theta } \geq 4000$.

The perturbation response of small-scale shear layers in turbulence is investigated with direct numerical simulations (DNS). The analysis of shear layers in isotropic turbulence suggests that the typical layer thickness is about four times the Kolmogorov scale $\eta$. Response for sinusoidal perturbations is investigated for an isolated shear layer, which models a mean flow around the shear layers in turbulence. The vortex formation in the shear layer is optimally promoted by the perturbation whose wavelength divided by the layer thickness is about 7. These results indicate that the small-scale shear instability in turbulence is efficiently promoted by velocity fluctuations with a wavelength of about $30\eta$. Furthermore, DNS are carried out for decaying turbulence initialised by the artificially modified velocity field of isotropic turbulence. The vortex formation from shear layers is accelerated under the influence of external perturbations with the efficient wavelength to promote the instability. When velocity fluctuations with this wavelength are eliminated by a band-cut filter, the shear layers tend to persist for a long time without producing vortices. These behaviours affect the number of vortices in turbulence, which increases and decreases when velocity perturbations with the unstable wavelength of the instability are artificially amplified and damped, respectively. The increase in the number of vortices results in the enhancement of kinetic energy dissipation, enstrophy production and strain self-amplification. These results indicate that the perturbation response of shear layers is important in the small-scale dynamics of turbulence as well as the modulation of small-scale turbulent motions by external disturbance.

A new time-dependent analysis of the global and local fluctuating velocity signals in grid turbulence is conducted to assess the scaling laws for non-equilibrium turbulence. Experimental datasets of static- and active-grid turbulence with different Rossby numbers $R_o({=}U/\varOmega M$: $U$ is the mean velocity, $\varOmega$ is the mean rotation rate and $M$ is the grid mesh size) are considered. Although the global (long-time-averaged) non-dimensional dissipation rate $C_\varepsilon$ is independent of the Reynolds number $Re_\lambda$ based on the global Taylor microscale, the local (short-time-averaged) non-dimensional dissipation rate $\left \langle C_\varepsilon (t_i) \right \rangle$ ($t_i$ is the local time) both in the static- and active-grid turbulence clearly show the non-equilibrium scaling $\left \langle C_\varepsilon (t_i)\right \rangle / \sqrt {Re_0} \propto \left \langle Re_\lambda (t_i) \right \rangle ^{-1}$ ($\left \langle Re_\lambda (t_i) \right \rangle$ and $Re_0$ are the Reynolds numbers based on the local Taylor microscale $\lambda (t_i)$ and the global integral length scale, respectively), which has only been confirmed for global statistics in the near field of grid turbulence. The local value of $\left \langle L(t_i) / \lambda (t_i) \right \rangle$ ($L(t_i)$ is the local integral length scale) shifts from the equilibrium to non-equilibrium scaling as $\left \langle Re_\lambda (t_i) \right \rangle$ increases, further confirming that the non-equilibrium scalings are recovered for local statistics both in the static- and active-grid turbulence. The local values of $\left \langle C_\varepsilon (t_i) \right \rangle$ and $\left \langle L(t_i) / \lambda (t_i) \right \rangle$ follow the theoretical predictions for global statistics (Bos & Rubinstein, Phys. Rev. Fluids, vol. 2, 2017, 022601).

The decay of stably stratified turbulence generated by a towed rake of vertical plates is investigated by direct numerical simulations (DNS) of temporally evolving grid turbulence in a linearly stratified fluid. The Reynolds number $Re_M=U_0M/\nu$ is 5000 or 10 000 while the Froude number $Fr_M=U_0/MN$ is between 0.1 and 6 ($U_0$: towing speed; $M$: mesh size; $\nu$: kinematic viscosity; $N$: Brunt–Väisälä frequency). The DNS results are compared with the theory of stably stratified axisymmetric Saffman turbulence. Here, the theory is extended to a viscosity-affected stratified flow regime with low buoyancy Reynolds number $Re_b$, and power laws are derived for the temporal variations of the horizontal velocity scale ($U_H$) and the horizontal and vertical integral length scales ($L_H$ and $L_V$). Temporal grid turbulence initialized with the mean velocity deficit of wakes exhibits a $k^{2}$ energy spectrum at a low-wavenumber range and invariance of $U_H^2L_H^2L_V$, which are the signatures of axisymmetric Saffman turbulence. The decay of various quantities follows the power laws predicted for low-$Re_b$ Saffman turbulence when $Fr_M$ is sufficiently small. However, the decay of $U_H^2$ at $Fr_M=6$ is no longer expressed by a power law with a constant exponent. This behaviour is related to the scaling of kinetic energy dissipation rate $\varepsilon$, for which $\alpha =\varepsilon /(U_H^3/L_H)$ is constant during the decay for $Fr_M\leq 1$ while it varies with time for $Fr_M=6$. We also examine the experimental data of towed-grid experiments by Praud et al. (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 522, 2005, pp. 1–33), which is shown to agree with the theory of low-$Re_b$ Saffman turbulence.

Implicit large eddy simulation is performed to investigate large-scale characteristics of a temporally evolving, stably stratified turbulent shear layer arising from the Kelvin–Helmholtz instability. The shear layer at late time has two energy-containing length scales: the scale of the shear layer thickness, which characterizes large-scale motions (LSM) of the shear layer; and the larger streamwise scale of elongated large-scale structures (ELSS), which increases with time. The ELSS forms in the middle of the shear layer when the Richardson number is sufficiently large. The contribution of the ELSS to velocity and density variances becomes relatively important with time although the LSM dominate the momentum and density transport. The ELSS have a highly anisotropic Reynolds stress, to a degree similar to the near-wall region of turbulent boundary layers, while the Reynolds stress of the LSM is as anisotropic as in the outer region. Peaks in the spectral energy density associated with the ELSS emerge because of the slow decay of turbulence at very large scales. A forward interscale energy transfer from large to small scales occurs even at a small buoyancy Reynolds number. However, an inverse transfer also occurs for the energy of spanwise velocity. Negative production of streamwise velocity and density spectra, i.e. counter-gradient transport of momentum and density, is found at small scales. These behaviours are consistent with channel flows, indicating similar flow dynamics in the stratified shear layer and wall-bounded shear flows. The structure function exhibits a logarithmic law at large scales, implying a $k^{-1}$ scaling of energy spectra.

Characteristics of small-scale shear layers are studied with direct numerical simulations of a temporally evolving turbulent planar jet. The shear layers that internally exist in turbulence are detected with a tensor of shearing motion, which is extracted from a velocity gradient tensor with a triple decomposition. Flow visualization of the shear intensity confirms the existence of layer structures with intense shear. The mean flow characteristics around local maxima of the shear intensity are investigated with averages taken in the shear coordinate system, which is defined based on the shear orientation. The mean flow pattern reveals that the shear layer is formed in a biaxial strain field, which consists of extensive strain in the vorticity direction of the shear and compressive strain in the direction perpendicular to the shear layer. The velocity components associated with the shear and biaxial strain rapidly change around the shear layer. The Kolmogorov scales characterize the mean characteristics of shear layers, such as velocity jumps, thickness and the intensities of shear and biaxial strain. These quantities normalized by the Kolmogorov scales only weakly depend on lateral positions in the planar jet. Although the turbulent planar jet evolves under the influence of mean shear, a large number of the shear layers do not align with the mean shear direction. The typical shear layer thickness is about six times the Kolmogorov length scale. Furthermore, the shear layer thickness is well predicted by the Burgers vortex layer.

Our previous study (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 874, 2019, pp. 677–698) confirmed that two different types of $-5/3$ energy spectra (i.e. non-Kolmogorov and quasi-Kolmogorov $-5/3$ spectra) can be found in turbulent flows behind two side-by-side square cylinders. In the upstream region (i.e. $X/T_0=6$ with $T_0$ being the cylinder thickness), albeit the turbulent flow is highly inhomogeneous and intermittent and Kolmogorov's hypothesis does not hold, the energy spectrum exhibits a well-defined $-5/3$ power-law range for over one decade. Meanwhile, the power-law exponent of the corresponding second-order structure function is 1, which is significantly larger than the expected value, i.e. $2/3$. At the downstream location, i.e. $X/T_0=26$, in contrast, the quasi-Kolmogorov $-5/3$ energy spectrum (and also the 2/3 scaling of the second-order structure) can be identified. Through decomposing the streamwise velocity fluctuations into the spanwise average of instantaneous velocity and the turbulent residual, we demonstrate that the non-Kolmogorov $-5/3$ spectrum at $X/T_0=6$ is caused by the turbulent residual part. To shed light on the physics of the scale-by-scale energy transfer, we resort to the Kármán–Howarth–Monin–Hill equation. At $X/T_0=6$, the expected balance between the nonlinear term and the dissipation term cannot be detected. Instead, the contributions from the non-local pressure, advection, nonlinear transport and turbulent transport terms are dominant. Moreover, because the corresponding flow field is highly intermittent, the magnitudes of the non-local pressure, advection, nonlinear transport and turbulent transport terms are significantly larger than that of the dissipation term. At a far downstream location, i.e. $X/T_0=26$, where the dual-wake flow is fully turbulent and becomes much more homogeneous and isotropic, within a short intermediate range the two dominant terms in the two-point turbulent kinetic energy budget are the nonlinear transport term and the dissipation term, which to some extent echoes Kolmogorov's scenario, albeit the contribution from the large-scale advection term cannot be ignored. By comparing the behaviour of the one-point and two-point energy transfer, it can be seen that the two different energy transfer processes are actually closely related, that is, the similar relative importance of the viscous dissipation and the same role of the non-negligible terms in terms of being a source or sink term.

Turbulent structures in stably stratified shear layers are studied with direct numerical simulation. Flow visualization confirms the existence of hairpin vortices and highly elongated structures with positive and negative velocity fluctuations, whose streamwise lengths divided by the layer thickness are $O(10^{0})$ and $O(10^{1})$, respectively. The flow at the wavelength related to these structures makes a large contribution to turbulent kinetic energy. These structures become prominent in late time, but with small buoyancy Reynolds numbers indicating suppression of turbulent mixing. Active turbulent mixing associated with the hairpin vortices, however, does occur. The structures and the vertical profile of the integral shear parameter show connections between stable stratified shear layers and wall-bounded shear flows.

The non-dimensional dissipation rate $C_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D700}}=\unicode[STIX]{x1D700}L/u^{\prime 3}$, where $\unicode[STIX]{x1D700}$, $L$ and $u^{\prime }$ are the viscous energy dissipation rate, integral length scale of turbulence and root-mean-square of the velocity fluctuations, respectively, is computed and analysed within the turbulent/non-turbulent interfacial (TNTI) layer using direct numerical simulations of a planar jet, mixing layer and shear free turbulence. The TNTI layer that separates the turbulent and non-turbulent regions exists at the edge of free shear turbulent flows and turbulent boundary layers, and comprises both the viscous superlayer and turbulent sublayer regions. The computation of $C_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D700}}$ is made possible by the introduction of an original procedure, based on local volume averages within spheres of radius $r$, combined with conditional sampling as a function of the location with respect to the TNTI layer. The new procedure allows for a detailed investigation of the scale dependence of several turbulent quantities near the TNTI layer. An important achievement of this procedure consists in permitting the computation of the turbulent integral scale within the TNTI layer, which is shown to be approximately constant. Both the non-dimensional dissipation rate and turbulent Reynolds number $Re_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D706}}$ vary in space within the TNTI layer, where two relations are observed: $C_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D700}}\sim Re_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D706}}^{-1}$ and $C_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D700}}\sim Re_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D706}}^{-2}$. Specifically, whereas the viscous superlayer and part of the turbulent sublayer display $C_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D700}}\sim Re_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D706}}^{-2}$, the remaining of the turbulent sublayer exhibits $C_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D700}}\sim Re_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D706}}^{-1}$, which is consistent with non-equilibrium turbulence (Vassilicos, Annu. Rev. Fluid Mech. vol. 47, 2015, pp. 95–114).

Turbulent flows behind two side-by-side square cylinders with three different gap ratios, namely, $L_{d}/T_{0}=4,$ 6 and 8 ($L_{d}$ is the separation distance between two cylinders and $T_{0}$ is the cylinder thickness) are investigated by using direct numerical simulations. Depending on the strength of the gap flow, the three cases can generally be characterized into two regimes, one being the weak gap flow regime and the other being the robust gap flow regime. The wake-interaction length scale can only be applied to characterize the spatial evolution of the dual-wake flow in the robust gap flow regime. And only in this regime can the so-called ‘extreme events’ (i.e. non-Gaussian velocity fluctuations with large flatness) be identified. For the case with $L_{d}/T_{0}=6$, two downstream locations, i.e. $X/T_{0}=6$ and 26, at which the turbulent flows are highly non-Gaussian distributed and approximately Gaussian distributed, respectively, are analysed in detail. A well-defined $-5/3$ energy spectrum can be found in the near-field region (i.e. $X/T_{0}=6$), where the turbulent flow is still developing and highly intermittent and Kolmogorov’s universal equilibrium hypothesis does not hold. We confirm that the approximate $-5/3$ power law in the high-frequency range is closely related to the occurrences of the extreme events. As the downstream distance increases, the velocity fluctuations gradually adopt a Gaussian distribution, corresponding to a decrease in the strength of the extreme events. Consequently, the range of the $-5/3$ power law narrows. In the upstream region (i.e. $X/T_{0}=6$), the second-order structure function exhibits a power-law exponent close to $1$, whereas in the far downstream region (i.e. $X/T_{0}=26$) the expected $2/3$ power-law exponent appears. The larger exponent at $X/T_{0}=6$ is related to the fact that fluid motions in the intermediate range can directly ‘feel’ the large-scale vortex shedding.

Localized turbulence bounded by non-turbulent flow in a uniformly stratified environment is studied with direct numerical simulations of stably stratified shear layers. Of particular interest is the turbulent/non-turbulent interfacial (TNTI) layer, which is detected by identifying the turbulent region in terms of its potential vorticity. Fluid near the outer edge of the turbulent region gains potential vorticity and becomes turbulent by diffusion arising from both viscous and molecular effects. The flow properties near the TNTI layer change depending on the buoyancy Reynolds number near the interface, $Re_{bI}$. The TNTI layer thickness is approximately 13 times the Kolmogorov length scale for large $Re_{bI}$ ($Re_{bI}\gtrsim 30$), consistent with non-stratified flows, whereas it is almost equal to the vertical length scale of the stratified flow, $l_{vI}=l_{hI}Re^{-1/2}$ (here $l_{hI}$ is the horizontal length scale near the TNTI layer, and $Re$ is the Reynolds number), in the low-$Re_{bI}$ regime ($Re_{bI}\lesssim 2$). Turbulent fluid is vertically transported towards the TNTI layer when $Re_{bI}$ is large, sustaining the thin TNTI layer with large buoyancy frequency and mean shear. This sharpening effect is weakened as $Re_{bI}$ decreases and eventually becomes negligible for very low $Re_{bI}$. Overturning motions occur near the TNTI layer for large $Re_{bI}$. The dependence on buoyancy Reynolds number is related to the value of $Re_{bI}$ near the TNTI layer, which is smaller than the value deep inside the turbulent core region. An imprint of the internal gravity waves propagating in the non-turbulent region is found for vorticity within the TNTI layer, inferring an interaction between turbulence and internal gravity waves. The wave energy flux causes a net loss of the kinetic energy in the turbulent core region bounded to the TNTI layer, and the amount of kinetic energy extracted from the turbulent region by internal gravity waves is comparable to the amount dissipated in the turbulent region.

Multi-particle dispersion is studied using direct numerical simulations of temporally evolving mixing layers and planar jets for tetrahedra consisting of four fluid particles which are seeded in the turbulent regions or in the non-turbulent regions near the turbulent/non-turbulent interface (TNTI). The modified Richardson law for decaying turbulence is observed for particle pairs. The size dependence of the mean and relative motions of the entrained tetrahedra indicates that the characteristic length scale of the entrained lumps of fluid is approximately 10 times the Kolmogorov microscale. When the tetrahedra move within the TNTI layer they are flattened and elongated by vortex stretching at a deformation rate that is characterized by the Kolmogorov time scale. The shape evolutions of the tetrahedra show that in free-shear flows, thin-slab structures of advected scalars are generated within the TNTI layers.

We report on a study, employing direct numerical simulations, of the turbulent/non-turbulent interface of a wake in a stably stratified fluid. It is found that thresholds for both enstrophy and potential enstrophy are needed to identify the interface. Using conditional averaging relative to the location of the interface, various quantities of interest are examined. The thickness of the interface is found to scale with the Kolmogorov scale. From an examination of the Ozmidov and Kolmogorov length scales as well as the buoyancy Reynolds number, it is found that the buoyancy Reynolds number decreases and becomes of order 1 near the interface, indicating the suppression of the turbulence there by the stable stratification. Finally the overall rate of loss of energy due to internal wave radiation is found to be comparable to the overall rate of loss due to turbulent kinetic energy dissipation.

Vortex stretching and compression, which cause enstrophy production by inviscid processes, are investigated near the turbulent/non-turbulent (T/NT) interface in a planar jet by using a direct numerical simulation (DNS). The enstrophy production is investigated by analysing the relationship among a vorticity vector, strain-rate eigenvectors and strain-rate eigenvalues. The statistics are calculated individually for three different interface orientations. The vorticity near the T/NT interface is oriented in the tangential direction to the interface. The enstrophy production is affected by the interface orientation because the intensity of vortex stretching depends on the interface orientation, and the alignment between the vorticity vector and the strain-rate eigenvectors is confined by the interface. The enstrophy production near the T/NT interface is analysed by considering the motion of turbulent fluid relative to that of the interface. The results show that the alignment between the interface and the strain-rate eigenvectors changes depending on the velocity field near the T/NT interface. When the turbulent fluid moves toward the T/NT interface, the enstrophy is generated by vortex stretching without being greatly affected by vortex compression. In contrast, when the turbulent fluid relatively moves away from the T/NT interface, large enstrophy reduction frequently occurs by vortex compression. Thus, it is shown that the velocity field near the T/NT interface affects the enstrophy production near the interface through the alignment between the vorticity and the strain-rate eigenvectors.

We provide empirical evidence that the eddy diffusivity $\def \xmlpi #1{}\def \mathsfbi #1{\boldsymbol {\mathsf {#1}}}\let \le =\leqslant \let \leq =\leqslant \let \ge =\geqslant \let \geq =\geqslant \def \Pr {\mathit {Pr}}\def \Fr {\mathit {Fr}}\def \Rey {\mathit {Re}}D_{{t}\alpha }$ and the turbulent Schmidt number ${\mathit{Sc}}_{{t}\alpha }$ of species $\alpha $ ($\alpha =\mathrm{A}, \mathrm{B}$ or $\mathrm{R}$) change with a second-order chemical reaction ($\mathrm{A} + \mathrm{B} \rightarrow \mathrm{R}$). In this study, concentrations of the reactive species and axial velocity are simultaneously measured in a planar liquid jet. Reactant A is premixed into the jet flow and reactant B is premixed into the ambient flow. An optical fibre probe based on light absorption spectrometry is combined with I-type hot-film anemometry to simultaneously measure concentration and velocity in the reactive flow. The eddy diffusivities and the turbulent Schmidt numbers are estimated from the simultaneous measurement results. The results show that the chemical reaction increases ${\mathit{Sc}}_{t\mathrm{A}}$; ${\mathit{Sc}}_{t\mathrm{B}}$ is negative in the region where the mean concentration of reactant B decreases in the downstream direction, and is positive in the non-reactive flow in the entire region on the jet centreline. It is also shown that ${\mathit{Sc}}_{t\mathrm{R}}$ is positive in the upstream region whereas it is negative in the downstream region. The production terms of axial turbulent mass fluxes of reactant B and product R can produce axial turbulent mass fluxes opposite to the axial gradients of the mean concentrations. The changes in the production terms due to the chemical reaction result in the negative turbulent Schmidt number of these species. These results imply that the gradient diffusion model using a global constant turbulent Schmidt number poorly predicts turbulent mass fluxes in reactive flows.

We are proposing an innovative concept and technology, Soft Solution Processing (SSP) for ceramics, which aims to achieve direct fabrication of shaped, sized, located, oriented ceramic materials from solutions without firing and/or sintering. We have successfully fabricated thin and thick films of BaTiO3, SrTiO3, BaWO4, SrMoO4, LiCoO2, and LiNiO2 by SSP in aqueous solutions from room temperature to 200 °C. In these experiments, interfacial reactions between a solid reactant (substrate) and component(s) in a solution have been designed and realized. By locally activating the reaction and moving the reaction point dynamically in these reactions, we can produce patterned ceramics directly in solution without masking, etching, pattern forming, or any post-heating such as firing or sintering. In this paper we present recent results for patterned ceramic films of PbS, CdS, and LiCoO2. The processes used to produce these films are entirely new, and represent the first examples of successful direct patterning of ceramics from solutions. In previous reports, heating processes have been essential for synthesis and/or sintering of powders and precursors to obtain patterns in ceramic materials. Such processes inevitably cost environmentally and economically. In contrast, our method, where no firing is needed, provides an environmentally and economically less expensive alternative.

Advanced high frequency devices using GaN-based semiconductor require the technology to form high resistivity regions with high thermal stability to electrically isolate the active elements from surroundings, as well as from the underlying substrate. The present paper describes the preparation of thermally stable, high resistivity GaN layers by ion implantation. It was confirmed that C or Zn implantation yielded high resistivity layers. In particular, Zn implantation yielded the layers with resistivity on the order of 1010 cm, which could be sustained at temperatures as high as 1000.

BaTiO3, SrTiO3, and BaxSr1−x TiO3 thin films, as well as multilayers in the SrTiO3-BaTiO3 system, have been prepared on Ti substrates in newly constructed flow-system equipment by the hydrothermal-electrochemical method. The synthesis parameters (temperature of 120–200 °C, flow rate of 1–50 cm3/min) allow fabrication of dense, single-phase films with different morphology by controlling nucleation and/or growth rates. The flow system enables also an easy fabrication of SrTiO3/BaTiO3 and BaTiO3/SrTiO3 multilayers with variable chemical composition and microstructure across the film thickness. The multilayers can be prepared in only one experiment by simply changing the kind of flowing solution and/or adjusting the processing conditions.

Mesoscopic structures of SiC fibers produced from polycarbosilane by different methods were studied by diffraction and small-angle scattering of neutrons and x-rays. Microvoids of a size of 4–10 Å in diameter have been observed for the first time by neutron scattering in a medium momentum transfer range (Q = 0.1–1.0 Å−1). The size and the volume fraction of β–SiC particles were determined for fibers prepared at different heat-treatment temperatures. The results show that wide-angle neutron scattering measurements are especially useful for the study of the mesoscopic structure of multicomponent materials.