Stress memory polymers

Like shape memory polymers, a novel phenomenon of stress memory was shown in which the stress of a material can respond to an external stimulus. This concept was further enlightened by a switch‐spring‐frame model that would eliminate the limitation of existing models which overlooked the stimulus responsive nature of such polymers. The discovery being reported in this article was stemmed from a real case study into shape memory polymer fibers in compression stocking for varicose veins. The breakthrough of stress memory enabled researchers to develop applications needing stimuli‐responsive forces, which can broaden the horizon of such smart polymers in emerging smart products in many multidisciplinary fields such as sensors, stress garments, and massage devices, electronic skins, and artificial muscles. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part B: Polym. Phys. 2015 , 53, 893–898     

Lattice Boltzmann simulation of liquid–vapor system by incorporating a surface tension term

In this study,we investigate the pseudopotential multiphase model of lattice Boltzmann method(LBM)and incorporate a surface tension term to implement the particle interaction force.By using the Carnahan–Starling(CS)equation of state(EOS)with a proper critical pressure–density ratio,a density ratio over 160000 is obtained with satisfactory numerical stability.The added surface tension term offers a flexible choice to adjust the surface tension strength.Numerical tests of the Laplace rule are conducted,proving that smaller spurious velocity and better numerical stability can be acquired as the surface tension becomes stronger.Moreover,by wall adhesion and heterogeneous cavitation tests,the surface tension term shows its practical application in dealing with problems in which the surface tension plays an important role.     

POD enriched boundary models and their optimal stabilisation

Modes obtained using the Proper Orthogonal Decomposition are used as boundary enrichment functions within a variational multiscale method for the stochastically forced Burgers equation. Initially, large increases in accuracy are obtained using the enrichment functions without stabilisation terms. Then, optimal coefficients for the stabilisation parameter τ of the unresolved scale model are calibrated using a goal‐oriented model‐constrained optimisation technique, resulting in further improvements. As both the determination of the enrichment functions and the optimisation of the coefficients requires high‐accuracy reference data, a scaling procedure is introduced to allow their use over range of conditions. Numerical experiments confirm that the scaling procedure is effective. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Bifurcation of Lotka–Volterra competition model with nonlinear boundary conditions

In this paper, we discuss the bifurcation of semi-trivial solutions for the Lotka–Volterra competition model with nonlinear boundary conditions over a smooth bounded domain. Applying the Crandall–Rabinowitz local bifurcation theorem Crandall and Rabinowitz (1971) we prove the existence of a smooth curve bifurcating from the appropriate semi-trivial branch.     

STOCHASTIC SIMPLIFIED BARDINA TURBULENT MODEL： EXISTENCE OF WEAK SOLUTION

In this paper, we consider the stochastic version of the 3D Bardina model arising from the turbulent flows of fluids. We obtain the existence of probabilistie weak solution for the model with the non-Lipschitz condition.     

Topic tracking with Bayesian belief network

The task of topic tracking is to monitor a stream of stories and find all subsequent stories that discuss the same topic. Using Bayesian belief network we give three topic tracking models: a static topic model BSTM and two dynamic topic models BDTM-I, BDTM-II. BDTM-II merges the advantages of BSTM and BDTM-I, has better tracking performance than the former two, and effectively alleviates topic drift phenomenon. Applying unrelated coming stories to update BDTM-I and BDTM-II can filter noises existed in topics. Experiments on TDT corpora show that BSTM decreases (C_det)_norm by 5.5% comparing to VSM, BDTM-II decreases (C_det)_norm by 6.3% and 6.0% comparing to BSTM and BDTM-I respectively, using unrelated stories can improve the tracking performance.     

Criterion of semi-Markov dependent risk model

A rigorous definition of semi-Markov dependent risk model is given. This model is a generalization of the Markov dependent risk model. A criterion and necessary conditions of semi- Markov dependent risk model are obtained. The results clarify relations between elements among semi-Markov dependent risk model more clear and are applicable for Markov dependent risk model.     

A reduction model for eigensolutions of damped viscoelastic sandwich structures

The aim of this paper is to develop a reduction method to determine the modal characteristics of viscoelastic sandwich structures. The method is based on the high order Newton algorithm and reduction techniques. Numerical tests have been performed in the case of sandwich beams and cylindrical shells. The comparison of the results obtained by the reduction method with those given by direct simulation shows both a good agreement and a significant reduction in computational cost.     

On the accuracy of a nonlinear finite volume method for the solution of diffusion problems using different interpolations strategies

In this paper, we consider a nonlinear finite volume method to solve the steady‐state diffusion equation in nonhomogeneous and non‐isotropic media. The method is nonlinear even if the original problem is linear. In its original form, the scheme is monotone, because the coefficient matrix is monotone under certain assumptions and, as a consequence, whenever the analytic operator demands, it preserves the positivity of numerical solutions. On the other hand, the scheme is unable to reproduce piecewise linear solutions exactly. In order to recover this interesting feature, we use two different interpolation strategies. In this case, even though we are unable to prove monotonicity, we show some numerical evidences that the combined method has an improved behavior, producing second order accurate solutions, even for nonhomogeneous and strongly anisotropic media. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Time‐dependent finite element simulations of a shear‐thinning viscoelastic fluid with application to blood flow

A new finite element method is developed to simulate time‐dependent viscoelastic shear‐thinning flows characterized by the generalized Oldroyd‐B model. The focus of the algorithm is improved stability through a free‐energy dissipative scheme by using low‐order piecewise‐constant finite element approximations for stress. The algorithm is further modified by incorporating a pressure‐projection method, a DG‐upwinding scheme, a symmetric interior penalty DG method to solve the elliptic pressure‐update equation and a geometric multigrid preconditioner. The improved stability and cost to accuracy is compared when using higher order discontinuous bilinear approximation, where in addition, we consider the influence of a slope limiter for these elements. The algorithm is applied to the 2D start‐up‐driven cavity problem, and the stability of the free energy is illustrated and compared between element choices. An application of the model to modelling blood in small arterioles and channels is considered by simulating pulsatile blood flow through a stenotic arteriole. The individual influences of viscoelasticity and shear‐thinning within the generalized Oldroyd‐B model are investigated by comparing results to the Newtonian, generalized Newtonian and Oldroyd‐B models. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.