Time-harmonic acoustic propagation in the presence of a shear flow

This work deals with the numerical simulation, by means of a finite element method, of the time-harmonic propagation of acoustic waves in a moving fluid, using the Galbrun equation instead of the classical linearized Euler equations. This work extends a previous study in the case of a uniform flow to the case of a shear flow. The additional difficulty comes from the interaction between the propagation of acoustic waves and the convection of vortices by the fluid. We have developed a numerical method based on the regularization of the equation which takes these two phenomena into account. Since it leads to a partially full matrix, we use an iterative algorithm to solve the linear system.     

Prediction of the paper path in a laser printer by finite element analysis

A conventional problem of paper handling in a page-printing printer is to design a reliable paper path. Sometimes, this also affects the printing quality. The nonlinear theory of elastica has often been used to model paper deflection shape and to predict the paper path between some guiding rollers. The present paper proposes another method that can solve this problem more efficiently. Considering a piece of paper as a nonlinear beam, finite element analysis with geometric nonlinearity and manipulating the contact gap element between paper and guiding surfaces can be used to simulate the large-deflection behavior of paper. In this paper, the paper path in the vicinity of an OPC (organic photoconductive) drum is investigated with a general purpose finite element package. The effect of the electrostatic force between the OPC drum and the paper is considered, and the deformed shape of the paper for different forces lengths is obtained. According to those results an appropriate paper guide is added for an exact paper path.     

The recurrence and the gradient-like structure of a flow

In this paper, some new properties of the nonwandering set, the partial order set, the chain recurrent set and the generalized recurrent set of a flow are proved. A new characterization of the gradient-like part of a flow is given. Some results of Conley are generalized.     

A statistical estimate of the structure of multi-extremal problems

The solution of ak-extremal problem is defined as the set of pairs (x _i ^* , _i),i = 1, ,k, where x _t ^* isi ^th local minimum and _i is the volume of the set of attraction of this minimum. A Bayesian estimate ofk and ( ₁ , , _k ) is constructed.This paper has been written while the author was a CNR visiting professor at the Institute of Mathematics of the Milano University.     

Characterization of welding defects by fractal analysis of ultrasonic signals

In this work we apply tools developed for the study of fractal properties of time series to the problem of classifying defects in welding joints probed by ultrasonic techniques. We employ the fractal tools in a preprocessing step, producing curves with a considerably smaller number of points than in the original signals. These curves are then used in the classification step, which is realized by applying an extension of the Karhunen–Loève linear transformation. We show that our approach leads to small error rates, comparable with those obtained by using more time-consuming methods based on non-linear classifiers.     

Modelling the flow of congestive heart failure patients through a hospital system

The number of hospital admissions in England due to heart failure is projected to increase by over 50% during the next 25 years. This will incur greater pressures on hospital managers to allocate resources in an effective manner. A reliable indicator for measuring the quantity of resources consumed by hospital patients is their length of stay (LOS) in care. This paper proposes modelling the length of time heart failure patients spend in hospital using a special type of Markov model, where the flow of patients through hospital can be thought of as consisting of three stages of care—short-, medium- and longer-term care. If it is assumed that new admissions into the ward are replacements for discharges, such a model may be used to investigate the case-mix of patients in hospital and the expected patient turnover during some specified period of time. An example is illustrated by considering hospital admissions to a Belfast hospital in Northern Ireland, between 2000 and 2004.     

Results in statistical discriminant analysis: a review of the former Soviet Union literature

Much work in discriminant analysis and statistical pattern recognition has been performed in the former Soviet Union. However, most results derived by former Soviet Union researchers are unknown to statisticians and statistical pattern recognition researchers in the West. We attempt to give a succinct overview of important contributions by Soviet Block researchers to several topics in the discriminant analysis literature concerning the small training-sample size problem. We also include a partial review of corresponding work done in the West.     

Non-linear analysis of a traffic flow

A nonlinear mathematical model, which takes into account the dissipative mechanism, is used to describe the signal transmission in a traffic flow. It is shown that dissipative mechanisms, under certain conditions, may produce attenuation effects against the typical nonlinear steepening of waves. An asymptotic analysis is carried out to discuss wave features when the governing hyperbolic system of equations is objective to different kinds of approximations.     

Prediction of the evolution of the dispersed phase in bubbly flow problems

For modeling multi-phase where the dispersed phase plays a major role in determining the flow structure and inter phase transfer quantities, the size distribution of the bubbles has to be considered. This can be done by extension of the mass balance equation to a population balance equation. In this work, a least squares spectral method is tested for predicting the evolution of the dispersed phase in a vertical two-phase bubbly flow. The least squares spectral method consists in minimizing the L² norm of the residual over the simulation domain. The results are compared with experimental data obtained for two different initial bubble distributions.     

On the structure of supersonic flow

Zusammenfassung Die im Grossen invarianten Eigenschaften von Wellenfronten, Zweig- und Grenzlinien in der ebenen, stetigen, wirbelfreien und isentropischen Str?mung idealer Gase werden diskutiert.

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This work was sponsored by the Office of Scientific Research of the Air Research and Development Command of the United States Air Force under Contract AF 49(638)232.     

Peristatcally induced MHD slip flow in a porous medium due to a surface acoustic wavy wall

The influences of Hall current and slip condition on the MHD flow induced by sinusoidal peristaltic wavy wall in two dimensional viscous fluid through a porous medium for moderately large Reynolds number is considered on the basis of boundary layer theory in the case where the thickness of the boundary layer is larger than the amplitude of the wavy wall. Solutions are obtained in terms of a series expansion with respect to small amplitude by a regular perturbation method. Graphs of velocity components, both for the outer and inner flows for various values of the Reynolds number, slip parameter, Hall and magnetic parameters are drawn. The inner and outer solutions are matched by the matching process. An interesting application of the present results to mechanical engineering may be the possibility of the fluid transportation without an external pressure.     

Kinetic analysis of the isothermal flow in a long rectangular microchannel

The linearized kinetic BGK model is used to study the steady Poiseuille flow of a rarefied gas in a long channel of rectangular cross section. The solution is constructed using the finite-volume method based on a TVD scheme. The basic computed characteristic is the mass flow rate through the channel. The effect of the relative width of the cross section is examined, and the difference of the solution from the one-dimensional flow between infinite parallel plates is analyzed. The numerical solution is compared to available results and to the analytical solution of the Navier-Stokes equations with no-slip and slip boundary conditions. The limits of applicability of the hydrodynamic solution are established depending on the degree of rarefaction of the flow and on the ratio of the side lengths of the channel cross section.