Eigen‐frequencies in thin elastic 3‐D domains and Reissner–Mindlin plate models

The eigen‐frequencies of elastic three‐dimensional thin plates are addressed and compared to the eigen‐frequencies of two‐dimensional Reissner–Mindlin plate models obtained by dimension reduction. The qualitative mathematical analysis is supported by quantitative numerical data obtained by the p‐version finite element method. The mathematical analysis establishes an asymptotic expansion for the eigen‐frequencies in power series of the thickness parameter. Such results are new for orthotropic materials and for the Reissner–Mindlin model. The 3‐D and R–M asymptotics have a common first term but differ in their second terms. Numerical experiments for clamped plates show that for isotropic materials and relatively thin plates the Reissner–Mindlin eigen‐frequencies provide a good approximation to the three‐dimensional eigen‐frequencies. However, for some anisotropic materials this is no longer the case, and relative errors of the order of 30 per cent are obtained even for relatively thin plates. Moreover, we showed that no shear correction factor is known to be optimal in the sense that it provides the best approximation of the R–M eigen‐frequencies to their 3‐D counterparts uniformly (for all relevant thicknesses range). Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The 3‐D bifurcation and limit cycles in a food‐chain model

In this paper, by using a corollary to the center manifold theorem, we show that the 3‐D food‐chain model studied by many authors undergoes a 3‐D Hopf bifurcation, and then we obtain the existence of limit cycles for the 3‐D differential system. The methods used here can be extended to many other 3‐D differential equation models. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The micromechanics of three‐dimensional collagen‐I gels

We study the micromechanics of collagen‐I gel with the goal of bridging the gap between theory and experiment in the study of biopolymer networks. Three‐dimensional images of fluorescently labeled collagen are obtained by confocal microscopy, and the network geometry is extracted using a 3D network skeletonization algorithm. Each fiber is modeled as an elastic beam that resists stretching and bending, and each crosslink is modeled as torsional spring. The stress–strain curves of networks at three different densities are compared with rheology measurements. The model shows good agreement with experiment, confirming that strain stiffening of collagen can be explained entirely by geometric realignment of the network, as opposed to entropic stiffening of individual fibers. The model also suggests that at small strains, crosslink deformation is the main contributer to network stiffness, whereas at large strains, fiber stretching dominates. As this modeling effort uses networks with realistic geometries, this analysis can ultimately serve as a tool for understanding how the mechanics of fibers and crosslinks at the microscopic level produce the macroscopic properties of the network. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Complexity 16: 22‐28, 2011     

Asymptotic evaluation of effective complex moduli of fibre‐reinforced viscoelastic composite materials

We propose an asymptotic approach for the evaluation of effective complex moduli of viscoelastic fibre‐reinforced composite materials. Our method is based on the homogenization technique. We start with a non‐trivial expansion of the input plane‐strain boundary value problem by ratios of visco‐elastic constants. This allows to simplify the governing equations to forms analogous to the complex transport problem. Then we apply the asymptotic homogenization method, coming from the original problem on multi‐connected domain to the cell problem, defined on a unit cell of the periodic structure. For the analytical solution of the cell problem we apply the boundary perturbation technique, the asymptotic expansion by a distance between two neighbouring fibres and the method of two‐point Padé approximants. As results we derive uniform analytical representations for effective complex moduli, valid for all values of the components volume fractions and properties.     

Micro‐Macro Modelling of Piezoelectric Fiber Composites

The present work deals with the numerical modeling of 1‐3 periodic composites made of piezoceramic (PZT) fibers embedded in a soft non‐piezoelectric matrix. We especially focus on predicting the effective co‐efficients of the periodic transversely isotropic piezoelectric fiber composites using representative volume element method (unit cell method). The results which are obtained from the FEM technique are compared with analytical homogenization method for different volume fractions. The effective co‐efficients are obtained for rectangular and hexagonal arrangement of unidirectional piezoelectric fiber composites. (© 2004 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Stieltjes representation of the 3D Bruggeman effective medium and Padé approximation

The paper deals with Bruggeman effective medium approximation (EMA) which is often used to model effective complex permittivity of a two-phase composite. We derive the Stieltjes integral representation of the 3D Bruggeman effective medium and use constrained Padé approximation method introduced in [39] to numerically reconstruct the spectral density function in this representation from the effective complex permittivity known in a range of frequencies. The problem of reconstruction of the Stieltjes integral representation arises in inverse homogenization problem where information about the spectral function recovered from the effective properties of the composite, is used to characterize its geometric structure. We present two different proofs of the Stieltjes analytical representation for the effective complex permittivity in the 3D Bruggeman effective medium model: one proof is based on direct calculation, the other one is the derivation of the representation using Stieltjes inversion formula. We show that the continuous spectral density in the integral representation for the Bruggeman EMA model can be efficiently approximated by a rational function. A rational approximation of the spectral density is obtained from the solution of a constrained minimization problem followed by the partial fractions decomposition. We show results of numerical rational approximation of Bruggeman continuous spectral density and use these results for estimation of fractions of components in a composite from simulated effective permittivity of the medium. The volume fractions of the constituents in the composite calculated from the recovered spectral function show good agreement between theoretical and predicted values.     

Computational inversion of electron micrographs using L2‐gradient flows—convergence analysis

A gradient flow‐based explicit finite element method (L2GF) for reconstructing the 3D density function from a set of 2D electron micrographs has been proposed in recently published papers. The experimental results showed that the proposed method was superior to the other classical algorithms, especially for the highly noisy data. However, convergence analysis of the L2GF method has not been conducted. In this paper, we present a complete analysis on the convergence of L2GF method for the case of using a more general form regularization term, which includes the Tikhonov‐type regularizer and modified or smoothed total variation regularizer as two special cases. We further prove that the L²‐gradient flow method is stable and robust. These results demonstrate that the iterative variational reconstruction method derived from the L²‐gradient flow approach is mathematically sound and effective and has desirable properties. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Stochastic homogenization of Hamilton‐Jacobi‐Bellman equations

We study the homogenization of some Hamilton‐Jacobi‐Bellman equations with a vanishing second‐order term in a stationary ergodic random medium under the hyperbolic scaling of time and space. Imposing certain convexity, growth, and regularity assumptions on the Hamiltonian, we show the locally uniform convergence of solutions of such equations to the solution of a deterministic “effective” first‐order Hamilton‐Jacobi equation. The effective Hamiltonian is obtained from the original stochastic Hamiltonian by a minimax formula. Our homogenization results have a large‐deviations interpretation for a diffusion in a random environment. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Probabilistic homogenization of solid foams

The present study is concerned with a numerical procedure for prediction of uncertainties in the effective properties of solid foams. The approach is based on the multiple homogenization analysis of small-scale testing volume elements. Their microstructure is defined in terms of random variables with known probability distribution. Using a discretization of the space of the random variables, the probability distribution for the effective properties can easily be determined from the homogenization results and the probability for occurrence of the underlying microstructures of the testing volume elements. (© 2011 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

3‐D viscous Cahn–Hilliard equation with memory

We deal with the memory relaxation of the viscous Cahn–Hilliard equation in 3‐D, covering the well‐known hyperbolic version of the model. We study the long‐term dynamic of the system in dependence of the scaling parameter of the memory kernel ε and of the viscosity coefficient δ. In particular we construct a family of exponential attractors, which is robust as both ε and δ go to zero, provided that ε is linearly controlled by δ. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Homogenization of bone elasticity based on tissue‐independent (‘universal’) phase properties

As candidates for tissue‐independent phase properties of cortical and trabecular bone we consider (i) hydroxyapatite, (ii) collagen, (iii) ultrastructural water and non‐collagenous proteins, and (iv) marrow (water) filling the Haversian canals and the intertrabecular space. From experiments reported in the literature, we assign stiffness properties to these phases (experimental set I). On the basis of these phase definitions, we develop, within the framework of continuum micromechanics, a two step homogenization procedure: (i) At a length scale of 100 – 200 nm, hydroxyapatite (HA) crystals build up a crystal foam ('polycrystal'), and water and non‐collagenous organic matter fill the intercrystalline space (homogenization step I); (ii) At the ultrastructural scale of mineralized tissues, i.e. 5 to 10 microns, collagen assemblies composed of collagen molecules are embedded into the crystal foam, acting mechanically as cylindrical templates. At an enlarged material scale of 5 to 10 mm, the second homogenization step also accommodates the micropore space as cylindrical pore inclusions (Haversian and Volkmann canals, inter‐trabecular space), that are suitable for both trabecular and cortical bone. The input of this micromechanical model are tissue‐specific volume fractions of HA, collagen, and of the micropore space. The output are tissue‐specific ultrastructural and microstructural (=macroscopic=apparent) elasticity tensors. A second independent experimental set (composition data and experimental stiffness values) is employed to validate the proposed model. We report a a good agreement between model predictions and experimentally determined macroscopic stiffness values. The validation suggests that hydroxyapatite, collagen, and water are tissue‐independent phases, which define, through their mechanical interaction, the elasticity of all bones, whether cortical or trabecular.     

A compact local one‐dimensional scheme for solving a 3D N‐carrier system with Neumann boundary conditions

We consider a mathematical model for thermal analysis in a 3D N‐carrier system with Neumann boundary conditions, which extends the concept of the well‐known parabolic two‐step model for micro heat transfer. To solve numerically the complex system, we first reduce 3D equations in the model to a succession of 1D equations by using the local one‐dimensional (LOD) method. The obtained 1D equations are then solved using a fourth‐order compact finite difference scheme for the interior points and a second‐order combined compact finite difference scheme for the points next to the boundary, so that the Neumann boundary condition can be applied directly without discretizing. By using matrix analysis, the compact LOD scheme is shown to be unconditionally stable. The accuracy of the solution is tested using two numerical examples. Results show that the solutions obtained by the compact LOD finite difference scheme are more accurate than those obtained by a Crank‐Nicholson LOD scheme, and the convergence rate with respect to spatial variables is about 2.6. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 2010     

An enhanced‐physics‐based scheme for the NS‐α turbulence model

We study a new enhanced‐physics‐based numerical scheme for the NS‐alpha turbulence model that conserves both energy and helicity. Although most turbulence models (in the continuous case) conserve only energy, NS‐alpha is one of only a very few that also conserve helicity. This is one reason why it is becoming accepted as the most physically accurate turbulence model. However, no numerical scheme for NS‐alpha, until now, conserved both energy and helicity, and thus the advantage gained in physical accuracy by modeling with NS‐alpha could be lost in a computation. This report presents a finite element numerical scheme, and gives a rigorous analysis of its conservation properties, stability, solution existence, and convergence. A key feature of the analysis is the identification of the discrete energy and energy dissipation norms, and proofs that these norms are equivalent (provided a careful choice of filtering radius) in the discrete space to the usual energy and energy dissipation norms. Numerical experiments are given to demonstrate the effectiveness of the scheme over usual (helicity‐ignoring) schemes. A generalization of this scheme to a family of high‐order NS‐alpha‐deconvolution models, which combine the attractive physical properties of NS‐alpha with the high accuracy gained by combining α‐filtering with van Cittert approximate deconvolution. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 2010     

On the integral representation formula for a two‐component elastic composite

The aim of this paper is to derive, in the Hilbert space setting, an integral representation formula for the effective elasticity tensor for a two‐component composite of elastic materials, not necessarily well‐ordered. This integral representation formula implies a relation which links the effective elastic moduli to the N‐point correlation functions of the microstructure. Such relation not only facilitates a powerful scheme for systematic incorporation of microstructural information into bounds on the effective elastic moduli but also provides a theoretical foundation for inverse‐homogenization. The analysis presented in this paper can be generalized to an n‐component composite of elastic materials. The relations developed here can be applied to the inverse‐homogenization for a special class of linear viscoelastic composites. The results will be presented in another paper. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Permeability Studies on Soft Open‐Cell Foams

The behaviour of fluid‐saturated solid foams can be very well described using multiphasic continuum mechanical models [4]. Concerning permeable soft foams, like e. g. gas‐filled open‐cell polyurethane (PU) foams, the transient compressive response is strongly influenced by the outstreaming pore‐fluid. Following this, it is the objective of the present contribution to point out the macroscopic permeability properties of soft foams including non‐linear phenomena influenced by the pore space deformation at varying flow rates. In particular, based on experimental investigations, an appropriate constitutive setting is presented considering the dependency of the permeability on the deformation state and on the seepage velocity in the sense of a modified Forchheimer ansatz. The constitutive equations are embedded into the macroscopic Theory of Porous Media (TPM), where the numerical treatment of the strongly coupled problem can effciently be performed with the finite element method (FEM). Finally, a numerical example shows the applicability of the presented approach.     

Local stochastic analysis of the effective material response of disordered two-dimensional model foams

The objective of the present study is a numerical analysis of disorder effects in solid structural foams caused by their random irregular micro structure. Using a strain energy based concept, the effective material response is computed in a probabilistic homogenization based on the analysis of a large scale statistically representative volume element. The stochastic information about the scatter in the material response on the lowest possible level is generated by a subsequent division of the representative volume element in substructures consisting of a single cell wall intersection and parts of the adjacent cell walls. For each of the substructures a homogenization analysis is performed. The results for the local effective stress and strain components are evaluated by means of stochastic methods. (© 2008 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Modelling of 3‐D Linear Viscoelastic Swelling of Charged Tissues and Gels

The skeleton of hydrated tissues or gels exhibits flow‐independent viscoelastic properties [2] which are strongly coupled with the dissipative phenomena resulting from the interstitial fluid flow and the electrochemical swelling mechanisms [4]. Following this, it is the goal of this contribution to combine a linear viscoelasticity formulation with an electrochemical swelling theory in the framework of a well‐founded multiphasic concept. Proceeding from a macroscopic mixture approach, the governing equations can be expressed in terms of three primary variables, namely the solid displacement u _S, the effective pore‐fluid pressure p and the molar salt concentration c_m of the interstitial fluid.     

Finite‐region stabilization via dynamic output feedback for 2‐D Roesser models

Finite‐region stability (FRS), a generalization of finite‐time stability, has been used to analyze the transient behavior of discrete two‐dimensional (2‐D) systems. In this paper, we consider the problem of FRS for discrete 2‐D Roesser models via dynamic output feedback. First, a sufficient condition is given to design the dynamic output feedback controller with a state feedback‐observer structure, which ensures the closed‐loop system FRS. Then, this condition is reducible to a condition that is solvable by linear matrix inequalities. Finally, viable experimental results are demonstrated by an illustrative example.     

3‐D spatio–temporal structures of biofilms in a water channel

We develop a numerical predictive tool for multiphase fluid mixtures consisting of biofilms grown in a viscous fluid matrix by implementing a second‐order finite difference discretization of the multiphase biofilm model developed recently on a general purpose graphic processing unit. With this numerical tool, we study a 3‐D biomass–flow interaction resulting in biomass growth, structure formation, deformation, and detachment phenomena in biofilms grown in a water channel in quiescent state and subject to a shear flow condition, respectively. The numerical investigation is limited in the viscous regime of the biofilm–solvent mixture. In quiescent flows, the model predicts growth patterns consistent with experimental findings for single or multiple adjacent biofilm colonies, the so‐called mushroom shape growth pattern. The simulated biomass growth both in density and thickness matches very well with the experimentally grown biofilm in a water channel. When shear is imposed at a boundary, our numerical studies reproduce wavy patterns, pinching, and streaming phenomena observed in biofilms grown in a water channel. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.