First order Raman spectra of Si nanocrystals exhibit large shift and width, strongly exceeding the theoretical calculated values. The disagreement between theory and experiment is dramatically increasing for the smallest nanocrystal sizes. Here, we present a novel theoretical approach showing one-, two-, or three-dimensional quantum effects, due to the limited size of the corresponding coordinate of the quantum structure. The method can be applied to nanosized layers, quantum wires and/or quantum dots. The agreement of the present theory with experimental data is dramatically improved.

Numerical simulations of wall-bounded acceleration-skewed oscillatory flows are here presented. The relevance of this type of boundary layer arises in connection with coastal hydrodynamics and sediment transport, as it is generated at the bottom of sea waves in shallow water. Because of the acceleration skewness, the bed shear stress during the onshore half-cycle is larger than in the offshore half-cycle. The asymmetry in the bed shear stress increases with increasing acceleration skewness, while an increase of the Reynolds number from the laminar regime causes the asymmetry first to decrease and then increase. Low- and high-speed streaks of fluid elongated in the streamwise direction emerge near the wall, shortly after the beginning of each half-cycle, at a phase that depends on the flow parameters. Such flow structures strengthen during the first part of the accelerating phase, without causing a significant deviation of the streamwise wall shear stress from the laminar values. Before the occurrence of the peak of the free stream velocity, the low-speed streaks break down into small turbulent structures causing a large increase in wall shear stress. The ratio of the root-mean-square (r.m.s.) of the fluctuations to the mean value (relative intensity) of the wall shear stress is approximately 0.4 throughout a relatively wide interval of the flow cycle that begins when breaking down of the streaks has occurred in the entire fluid domain. The acceleration skewness and the Reynolds number determine the phase at which this time interval begins. Both the skewness and the flatness coefficients of the streamwise wall shear stress are large when elongated streaks are present, while values of approximately 1.1 and 5.4 respectively occur just after breaking has occurred. The trend of both the relative intensity and the flatness of the spanwise wall shear stress are qualitatively similar to those of the wall shear in the streamwise direction. As a result of the acceleration skewness, the period-averaged Reynolds stress does not vanish. Consequently, an offshore directed steady streaming is generated which persists into the irrotational region.

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In this paper the evolution of a sandy bottom subject to a wave generated flow has been analyzed using an image acquisition technique. In particular, ripple formation was observed starting from a flat bed till a stable configuration was attained. The experimental findings showed that rolling grain ripples never appeared as a stable configuration but only as a transition toward the equilibrium, represented by vortex ripples. The latter stage was reached after about 100 cycles if lightweight sediments were used, or about 400 cycles if quartz sediments were adopted. It was also observed that when the bedforms appear their wavelength is much smaller (about one half) than that at the equilibrium stage, this result being in contrast with most of the analytical models on bedform evolution. Finally, it was observed that ripples migrate as soon as they appear. The measured velocity of migration seems to confirm, from a qualitative point of view, the theoretical findings obtained for rolling grain ripples by Blondeaux et al. [Eur. J. Mech. B/Fluids 19, 285 (2000)].

[1] The present paper deals with wave plus current flow over a fixed rippled bed. More precisely, modifications of the current profiles due to the superimposition of orthogonal cylindrical waves have been investigated experimentally. Since the experimental setup permitted only the wave dominated regime to be investigated (i.e., the regime where orbital velocity is larger than current velocity), also a numerical k-e turbulence closure model has been developed in order to study a wider range of parameters, thus including the current dominated regime (i.e., where current velocity is larger than wave orbital one). In both cases a different response with respect to the flat bed case has been found. Indeed, in the flat bed case laminar wave boundary layers in a wave dominated regime induce a decrease in bottom shear stresses, while the presence of a rippled bed behaves as a macroroughness, which causes the wave boundary layer to become turbulent and therefore the current velocity near the bottom to be smaller than the one in the case of current only, with a consequent increase in the current bottom roughness.