2D particle image velocimetry (PIV) measurements were performed in a wire nonparallel plates type electrohydrodynamic (EHD) gas pump. Using simultaneously two CCD cameras allowed obtaining high resolution vector maps which illustrate the flow patterns generated inside the EHD gas pump.

One of the most commonly applied methods of joining dissimilar materials is gluing. This could be mainly attributed to the applicability of this technique in various industries. The article presents a method of material surface treatment, which increases the shear strength of adhesive joints for lightweight metals such as aluminum with plastics. For this purpose, laser surface microstructuring was performed on each of the selected construction materials. As a result of the performed treatment, the active surface of the glued area was increased, which increased the adhesive strength. The picosecond laser with UV radiation used in the research is TruMicro 5325c with which material can be removed as a result of the cold ablation phenomenon. The applied parameters of the laser device did not cause thermal damage to the surface of the microstructured materials, which was confirmed by microscopic examination. Laser micromachining did not deteriorate the degree of wetting of the tested materials, either, as was confirmed by the contact angle and surface energy measurements with the use of water as the measuring liquid. In investigated cases of microstructure types, the presented method significantly increased the shear strength of the joints formed, as demonstrated by the presented strength test results. Research has shown that created joints with microstructure made according to the described method, are characterized by a significant increase in strength, up to 376%, compared to materials without microstructure. The presented results are part of a series of tests aimed at selecting the operating laser parameters for the implementation of geometric shapes of microstructures which will increase the strength of adhesive joints in selected materials.

Water purification by non-equilibrium atmospheric pressure plasma has attracted much attention and is expected to be a next-generation method. However, general approaches to improve the energy efficiency of the water purification have not been revealed. Therefore, to investigate important factors for increasing its energy efficiency, we developed coaxial cylindrical plasma reactors where pulsed streamers were generated between a high-voltage electrode and running water film. To evaluate the performance of the plasma reactors, we measured hydroxyl (OH) radicals in solution based on a chemical probe method using disodium terephthalic acid (NaTA) and decolorized indigo carmine solution. Our experimental results showed that the production rate of the OH radicals was approximately 20 nmol/s and that the energy efficiency of the decolorization was on the order of 10 g/kWh. In addition, we found that controlling liquid flow based on the Coandă effect and introducing the intermittent operation of the streamer discharges to use post-discharge reactions increased the energy efficiency by a factor of approximately 3.5, which indicated that these approaches are effective to improve the performance of the water purification by plasma.

Due to high power and ultrashort pulses, femtosecond lasers excel at (but are not limited to) processing materials whose thicknesses are less than 500 microns. Numerous experiments and theoretical analyses testify to the fact that there are solid grounds for the applications of ultrafast laser micromachining. However, with high costs and complexity of these devices, a sub-picosecond laser that might be an alternative when it comes to various micromachining applications, such as patterns and masks in thin metal foils, micro-nozzles, thermo-detectors, MEMS (micro electro-mechanical systems), sensors, etc. Furthermore, the investigation of sub-picosecond laser interactions with matter could provide more knowledge on the ablation mechanisms and experimental verification of existing models for ultrashort pulse regimes. In this article, we present the research on sub-picosecond laser interactions with thin aluminum foil under various laser pulse parameters. Research was conducted with two types of ultrafast lasers: a prototype sub-picosecond Yb:KYW laser (650 fs) and a commercially available femtosecond Ti:S laser (35 fs). The results show how the variables such as pulse width, energy, frequency, wavelength and irradiation time affect the micromachining process.

In this paper, Schlieren photography technique has been applied for the visualization of the pressure field of a single-shot underwater pulsed discharge. A needle-to-plane electrode configuration submerged in distilled water was used. The detailed time- and space-resolved images of both streamers and pressure waves were captured. As a result, several phenomena, such as the phase change prior to the initiation of the discharge, primary and secondary streamers propagation, shock wave generation, and the bubble formation, were observed. From these observations, a scenario of multiple events from prebreakdown to post-discharge was proposed. The gas bubbles generated in discharge were used to visualize the electrohydrodynamic flow induced by the discharge.