Unconstrained Direct Optimization of Spacecraft Trajectories Using Many Embedded Lambert Problems

Journal of Optimization Theory and Applications - Direct optimization of many-revolution spacecraft trajectories is performed using an unconstrained formulation with many short-arc, embedded...     

Crosslinked poly(ethylene oxide) containing siloxanes fabricated through thiol‐ene photochemistry

Homogenous amphiphilic crosslinked polymer films comprising of poly(ethylene oxide) and polysiloxane were synthesized utilizing thiol‐ene “ click ” photochemistry. A systematic variation in polymer composition was Carried out to obtain high quality films with varied amount of siloxane and poly(ethylene oxide). These films showed improved gas separation performance with high gas permeabilities with good CO₂/N₂ selectivity. Furthermore, the resulting films were also tested for its biocompatibility, as a carrier media which allow human adult mesenchymal stem cells to retain their capacity for osteoblastic differentiation after transplantation. The obtained crosslinked films were characterized using differential scanning calorimetry, dynamic mechanical analysis, thermogravimetric analysis, FTIR, Raman‐IR , and small angle X‐ray scattering. The synthesis ease and commercial availability of the starting materials suggests that these new crosslinked polymer networks could find applications in wide range of applications. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2015 , 53, 1548–1557     

Reversed phase behaviour of high molecular mass polystyrenes in ethyl acetate solvent mixtures

Chromatographia - The reversed phase behaviour of high molecular mass polystyrenes was investigated on C18 bonded phase columns with ethyl acetate-methanol and ethyl acetateacetonitrile mobile...     

Barotropic Instability of the Bickley Jet at High Reynolds Numbers

We investigate the linear stability of the Bickley jet in the framework of the beta-plane approximation. Because singular inviscid neutral modes exist in the retrograde case     , it is necessary to add viscosity to interpret them. One of these modes was found in closed form by Howard and Drazin [1] . However, its critical point is at the center of the jet and it was therefore not possible for these authors to ascertain the relationship of this mode to the stability problem or to discuss how to continue the eigenfunction across the singularity.
The viscous critical layer problem associated with this singularity is considerably more difficult than the usual one (which leads to integrals of the Airy function) because     and, consequently, a second-order turning point is involved. Our analysis shows that the Howard–Drazin mode is degenerate in the domain where it is valid as a limit of the viscous problem (wavenumber  α²≤ 9/2  ), that is, it corresponds to both an odd and an even mode. This conclusion is confirmed by direct numerical solution of the Orr–Sommerfeld equation which shows, in addition, that viscosity is destabilizing along portions of the stability boundary. For a retrograde jet, instability is found to occur beyond the inviscid critical value of β, that is, in the region where the flow would be stable according to the Rayleigh–Kuo condition.     

Kolmogorov Width of Classes of Smooth Functions on the Sphere

Let ^d−1{(x₁,…,x_d) ^d:x²₁+···+x²_d=1} be the unit sphere of the d-dimensional Euclidean space ^d. For r>0, we denote by B^r_p (1p∞) the class of functions f on ^d−1 representable in the formwhere dσ(y) denotes the usual Lebesgue measure on ^d−1, and P^λ_k(t) is the ultraspherical polynomial.For 1p,q∞, the Kolmogorov N-width of B^r_p in L^q( ^d−1) is given bythe left-most infimum being taken over all N-dimensional subspaces X_N of L^q( ^d−1).The main result in this paper is that for r2(d−1)²,where A_NB_N means that there exists a positive constant C, independent of N, such that C⁻¹A_NB_NCA_N.This extends the well-known Kashin theorem on the asymptotic order of the Kolmogorov widths of the Sobolev class of the periodic functions.     

Equilibrium point damage prognosis models for structural health monitoring

Most structural dynamic systems are of high order; however, they often exhibit phenomena that can be dealt with effectively using low order models. This paper presents a method for describing certain kinds of damage evolution in mechanical systems. The method relies on a simple principle that as damage evolves in a structural dynamic system, the damage indicator (i.e., diagnostic feature) behaves like a stable quasi-stationary equilibrium point in a subsidiary non-linear bifurcating system within the so-called damage center manifold. It is shown that just as linear normal modes govern the behavior of linear structures with idealized damping, so too do non-linear normal forms govern the evolution of damage within structures in many instances. The method is justified with citations from the literature on certain types of mechanical failure and then applied in an experimental case involving reversible damage in a bolted fastener. Off-line experiments on a rotorcraft fuselage show that the evolution of damage is sensitive to both temporal and spatial bifurcation parameters. A diagnostic sensing strategy whereby output-only transmissibility features are used to decrease the order of high order structural dynamic measurements is also described.     

Generating Quadratic Pseudo-Anosov Homeomorphisms of Closed Surfaces

In this note, we show that given a closed, orientable genus-g surface S _g , any hyperbolic toral automorphism has a positive power which induces a quadratic, orientable pseudo-Anosov homeomorphism on S _g . To show this, we lift Anosov toral automorphisms through a ramified topological covering and present the lifted homeomorphism via a standard set of Lickorish twists. This construction provides a general method of producing pseudo-Anosov maps of closed surfaces with predetermined orientable foliations and quadratic dilatation. Since these lifted automorphisms have orientable foliations, this construction is a sort of converse to that of Franks and Rykken [Trans. Amer. Math. Soc. 1999], who established that one can associate to a quadratic pseudo-Anosov homeomorphism with oriented unstable foliation a hyperbolic toral automorphism.