Mechanics of composites: A historical review

This review is concerned with mechanics of continuous fiber composites. The earliest and most important advancements in the field are emphasized. No doubt the coverage is limited to some extent by the interests and experiences of the writer as well as time and space considerations. The advancements in mechanics of composites have been influenced to a great extent by the development of advanced composites through materials science. No attempt is made to discuss these developments. This review emphasizes the use of theoretical and applied mechanics in the development of theories, confirmed by experimentation, to predict the response of composite materials and structures. Citations have been given for many published works, but certainly not all. Apologies to those not listed; numerous additional references can be found in the works cited.     

Alternative subcell discretisations for viscoelastic flow: Velocity-gradient approximation

Under subcell discretisation for viscoelastic flow, we have given further consideration to the compatibility of function spaces for stress/velocity-gradient approximation [see F. Belblidia, H. Matallah, B. Puangkird, M.F. Webster, Alternative subcell discretisations for viscoelastic flow: stress interpolation, J. Non-Newtonian Fluid Mech. 146 (2007) 59–78]. This has been conducted through the three scheme discretisations (quad-fe(par), fe(sc) and fe/fv(sc)). In this companion study, we have extended the application of an original implementation for velocity-gradient approximation, being of localised superconvergent recovered form, continuous and quadratic on the parent fe-triangular element. This has led to the consideration of both localised (pointwise) and global (Galerkin weighted-residual) approximations for velocity-gradient, highlighting some of their advantages and disadvantages. The global form is equivalent to the discontinuous elastico–viscous stress splitting (DEVSS-type) technique of Fortin and co-workers. Each representation, local or global, is based on linear/quadratic order upon parent or subcell element stencils. We consider Oldroyd modelling and the contraction flow benchmark, covering abrupt and rounded-corner planar geometries. The localised superconvergent quadratic velocity-gradient treatment affords strong stability and accuracy properties for the three scheme discretisations considered. Through associated analysis and iterative solution processes, we have successfully linked global approximations to their localised counterparts, depicting the inadequacy of inaccurate but stable versions through their corresponding solution features. These issues pervade all formulations, coupled or pressure-correction, and in focusing on velocity-gradient approximation, also apply universally to all discrete representations of stress. The inaccuracy of the global treatment can be somewhat repaired through an increase in (mass) iteration number. The efficiency of localised schemes (and associated properties) is particularly attractive over their global alternatives, being less restrictive to choice of spatial-order (higher-order). Conversely, global implementations are more restrictive in satisfaction of the space inclusion principle. Localised schemes come into their own when chosen to represent strongly localised solution features, such as arise in non-smooth flows. Analysis has also proved helpful in clarifying that space inclusion (extended LBB-condition) is a non-necessary convergence condition in the viscoelastic context.Overall, the localised-quadratic velocity-gradient treatment for both linear (subcell) and quadratic (parent) stress interpolation has achieved both stability and accuracy. Under DEVSS-type approximations (global), once function spaces for stress and velocity-gradients have been selected, this choice dictates the state of system consistency. Additionally, stability gains are recognised through the further application of strain-rate-stabilisation procedures.     

The locally conservative Galerkin (LCG) method for solving the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations

In this paper, the locally conservative Galerkin (LCG) method (Numer. Heat Transfer B Fundam. 2004; 46 :357–370; Int. J. Numer. Methods Eng. 2007) has been extended to solve the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations. A new correction term is also incorporated to make the formulation to give identical results to that of the continuous Galerkin (CG) method. In addition to ensuring element‐by‐element conservation, the method also allows solution of the governing equations over individual elements, independent of the neighbouring elements. This is achieved within the CG framework by breaking the domain into elemental sub‐domains. Although this allows discontinuous trial function field, we have carried out the formulation using the continuous trial function space as the basis. Thus, the changes in the existing CFD codes are kept to a minimum. The edge fluxes, establishing the continuity between neighbouring elements, are calculated via a post‐processing step during the time‐stepping operation. Therefore, the employed formulation needs to be carried out using either a time‐stepping or an equivalent iterative scheme that allows post‐processing of fluxes. The time‐stepping algorithm employed in this paper is based on the characteristic‐based split (CBS) scheme. Both steady‐ and unsteady‐state examples presented show that the element‐by‐element formulation employed is accurate and robust. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Prediction of extrudate swell in polymer melt extrusion using an Arbitrary Lagrangian Eulerian (ALE) based finite element method

Accurate prediction of extrudate (die) swell in polymer melt extrusion is important as this helps in appropriate die design for profile extrusion applications. Extrudate swell prediction has shown significant difficulties due to two key reasons. The first is the appropriate representation of the constitutive behavior of the polymer melt. The second is regarding the simulation of the free surface, which requires special techniques in the traditionally used Eulerian framework. In this paper we propose a method for simulation of extrudate swell using an Arbitrary Lagrangian Eulerian (ALE) technique based finite element formulation. The ALE technique provides advantages of both Lagrangian and Eulerian frameworks by allowing the computational mesh to move in an arbitrary manner, independent of the material motion. In the present method, a fractional-step ALE technique is employed in which the Lagrangian phase of material motion and convection arising out of mesh motion are decoupled. In the first step, the relevant flow and constitutive equations are solved in Lagrangian framework. The simpler representation of polymer constitutive equations in a Lagrangian framework avoids the difficulties associated with convective terms thereby resulting in a robust numerical formulation besides allowing for natural evolution of the free surface with the flow. In the second step, mesh is moved in ALE mode and the associated convection of the variables due to relative motion of the mesh is performed using a Godunov type scheme. While the mesh is fixed in space in the die region, the nodal points of the mesh on the extrudate free surface are allowed to move normal to flow direction with special rules to facilitate the simulation of swell. A differential exponential Phan Thien Tanner (PTT) model is used to represent the constitutive behavior of the melt. Using this method we simulate extrudate swell in planar and axisymmetric extrusion with abrupt contraction ahead of the die exit. This geometry allows the extrudate to have significant memory for shorter die lengths and acts as a good test for swell predictions. We demonstrate that our predictions of extrudate swell match well with reported experimental and numerical simulations.     

Corrigendum to Cleft Extensions of Hopf Algebroids

Theorem 2.2 stated a monoidal isomorphism between the comodule categories of two bialgebroids in a Hopf algebroid. The proof of Theorem 2.2 was based on the journal version of Brzeziński (Ann Univ Ferrara Sez VII (NS) 51:15–27, 2005, Theorem 2.6), whose proof turned out to contain an unjustified step. Here we show that all other results in our paper remain valid if we drop unverified Theorem 2.2, and return to an earlier definition of a comodule of a Hopf algebroid that distinguishes between comodules of the two constituent bialgebroids.     

Super and weak Poincaré inequalities for hypoelliptic operators

Sufficient conditions are presented for super/weak Poincare inequalities to hold for a class of hypoelliptic operators on noncompact manifolds. As applications, the essential spectrum and the convergence rate of the associated Markov semigroup are described for Gruschin type operators on R2 and Kohn-Laplacian type operators on the Heisenberg group.     

Multiplicity-free representations of symmetric groups

Building on work of Saxl, we classify the multiplicity-free permutation characters of all symmetric groups of degree 66 or more. A corollary is a complete list of the irreducible characters of symmetric groups (again of degree 66 or more) which may appear in a multiplicity-free permutation representation. The multiplicity-free characters in a related family of monomial characters are also classified. We end by investigating a consequence of these results for Specht filtrations of permutation modules defined over fields of prime characteristic.     

Understanding consumer adoption of broadband: an extension of the technology acceptance model

Broadband offers several benefits to consumers over its preceding technology ‘narrowband’. Despite it offering such benefits, many countries are still experiencing low levels of adoption of broadband technology by consumers. This study presents an extended technology acceptance model (TAM) that integrates perceived resources, self-efficacy and social influence into the TAM in order to investigate factors determining consumer adoption of broadband. The model was empirically tested employing data collected from a survey of broadband consumers in the United Kingdom. A regression analysis was conducted to evaluate the influence of predictive constructs on behavioural intention to adopt broadband and actual adoption behaviour. Findings of the study indicated that all variables significantly affected consumers' behavioural intention to adopt broadband. The outcomes of the paper will be useful for the stakeholders such as internet service providers and governments interested in encouraging the adoption of broadband. The implications of this work to both researchers and practitioners is discussed.     

Lyapunov conditions for Super Poincaré inequalities

We show how to use Lyapunov functions to obtain functional inequalities which are stronger than Poincaré inequality (for instance logarithmic Sobolev or F-Sobolev). The case of Poincaré and weak Poincaré inequalities was studied in [D. Bakry, P. Cattiaux, A. Guillin, Rate of convergence for ergodic continuous Markov processes: Lyapunov versus Poincaré, J. Funct. Anal. 254 (3) (2008) 727-759. Available on Mathematics arXiv:math.PR/0703355, 2007]. This approach allows us to recover and extend in a unified way some known criteria in the euclidean case (Bakry and Emery, Wang, Kusuoka and Stroock, …).