Weak and strong solutions of a nonlinear subsonic flow-structure interaction: Semigroup approach

We consider a non-rotational, subsonic flow-structure interaction describing the flow of gas above a flexible plate. A perturbed wave equation describes the flow, and a second-order nonlinear plate equation describes the plate’s displacement. It is shown that the linearization of the model generates a strongly continuous semigroup with respect to the topology generated by “finite energy” considerations. An interesting feature of the problem is that linear perturbed flow-structure interaction is not monotone with respect to the standard norm describing the finite energy space. The main tool used in overcoming this difficulty is the construction of a suitable inner product on the finite energy space which allows the application of ω-maximal monotone operator theory. The obtained result allows us to employ suitable perturbation theory in order to discuss well-posedness of weak and strong solutions corresponding to several classes of nonlinear dynamics including the full flow-structure interaction with von Karman, Berger’s and other semilinear plate equations.     

Thermo-viscoelastic analysis of biological tissue during hyperthermia treatment

Although viscoelastic properties of biological tissue has been reported in many articles, no effort has been made to investigate the coupled thermal and mechanical behavior of biological tissue based on the viscoelastic theory. This provides us a motivation to study the transient thermoelastic coupling response in the context of generalized thermo-viscoelastic model. The dual phase lag thermo-viscoelastic model is established to capture the micro-scale responses of biological tissue. The governing equations are solved by Laplace transformation. The effects of relaxation times and viscoelastic property on the responses of the tumor and normal tissues are discussed and illustrated graphically. According to the numerical results, we can obtain (1) the viscoelastic parameter has a significant effect on the distributions of displacement and stress; (2) the lagging thermo-viscoelastic responses depend not only on the ratio of τ_t/τ_q, but also on the absolute values of τ_t and τ_q.     

Convergence of compressible Euler-Poisson system to incompressible Euler equations

In this paper, we study the quasi-neutral limit of compressible Euler-Poisson equations in plasma physics in the torus T^d. For well prepared initial data the convergence of solutions of compressible Euler-Poisson equations to the solutions of incompressible Euler equations is justified rigorously by an elaborate energy methods based on studies on an λ-weighted Lyapunov-type functional. One main ingredient of establishing uniformly a priori estimates with respect to λ is to use the curl-div decomposition of the gradient.     

Hypergeometric Solutions of Trigonometric KZ Equations Satisfy Dynamical Difference Equations

The trigonometric KZ equations associated to a Lie algebra g depend on a parameter λ∈h where h⊂g is a Cartan subalgebra. A system of dynamical difference equations with respect to λ compatible with the KZ equations is introduced by V. Tarasov and the second author (2000, Internat. Math. Res. Notices15, 801-829). We prove that the standard hypergeometric solutions of the trigonometric KZ equations associated to sl_N also satisfy the dynamical difference equations.     

Averaging of acoustic equation for partially perforated viscoelastic material with channels filled by a liquid

Acoustic equations for combined media consisting of partially perforated viscoelastic material and viscous incompressible liquid filling pores are considered. An averaged model is constructed for the model under consideration, and boundary conditions connecting equations of the obtained averaged model on the boundary between solid viscoelastic material and porous viscoelastic material filled by a viscous incompressible liquid are found. The convergence of limit problems to the solution of corresponding averaged problem with respect to the norm of the space L ² is proved.     

Evaluation of mechanical parameters of an elastic thin film system by modeling and numerical simulation of telephone cord buckles

The morphology of telephone cord buckles of elastic thin films can be used to evaluate the initial residual stress and interface toughness of the film-substrate system. The maximum out-of-plane displacement δ, the wavelength λ and amplitude A of the wave buckles can be measured in physical experiments. Through δ, λ, and A, the buckle morphology is obtained by an annular sector model established using the von Karman plate equations in polar coordinates for the elastic thin film. The mode-mix fracture criterion is applied to determine the shape and scale parameters. A numerical algorithm combining the Newmark-β scheme and the Chebyshev collocation method is adopted to numerically solve the problem in a quasi-dynamic process. Numerical experiments show that the numerical results agree well with physical experiments.     

Numerical study of transient free convective mass transfer in a Walters-B viscoelastic flow with wall suction

A transient model for the free convective, nonlinear, steady, laminar flow and mass transfer in a viscoelastic fluid from a vertical porous plate is presented. The Walters-B liquid model is employed which introduces supplementary terms into the momentum conservation equation. The transformed conservation equations are solved using the finite difference method (FDM). The influence of viscoelasticity parameter (Γ), species Grashof number (Gc), Schmidt number (Sc), distance (Y) and time (t) on the velocity (U) and also concentration distribution (C) is studied graphically. Velocity is found to increase with a rise in viscoelasticity parameter (Γ) with both time and distances close to the plate surface. An increase in Schmidt number is observed to significantly decrease both velocity and concentration in time and also with separation from the plate. Increasing species Grashof number boosts the flow velocity through all time and causes a significant rise primarily near the plate surface. The study has applications in polymer materials processing.     

A non-steady flow of liquid in a porous pipe with variable permeability

LetB denote the infinitesimal operator of a strongly continuous semigroup S(t), with resolvent R_λ, on Banach space L. We define related operators P and V so that λR_λf = Pf + λVf + o(λ), as λ → 0⁺. For α, η > 0 and possibly unbounded, linear operator A, we let U_{α, η}(t) represent a strongly continuous semigroup generated by αA + ηB. We show that under appropriate simultaneous convergence of α and η, U_{α, η}(t) converges strongly to a strongly continous semigroup U(t), having infinitesimal operator characterized through PA(VA)^rf where r =min{j ? 0, PA(VA)^j ≠ 0}. We apply the abstract perturbation theorem to a singular perturbation initial-value problem, of Tihonov-type, for a non-linear system of ordinary differential equations.     

Invariant measures and regularity properties of perturbed Ornstein-Uhlenbeck semigroups

This paper deals with perturbations of the Ornstein-Uhlenbeck operator on L²-spaces with respect to a Gaussian measure μ. We perturb the generator of the Ornstein-Uhlenbeck semigroup by a certain unbounded, non-linear drift, and show various properties of the perturbed semigroup such as compactness and positivity. Strong Feller property, existence and uniqueness of an invariant measure are discussed as well.     

Asymptotic Behavior of Massless Dirac Waves in Schwarzschild Geometry

In this paper, we show that massless Dirac waves in the Schwarzschild geometry decay to zero at a rate t ^?2λ , where λ = 1, 2, . . . is the angular momentum. Our technique is to use Chandrasekhar’s separation of variables whereby the Dirac equations split into two sets of wave equations. For the first set, we show that the wave decays as t ^?2λ . For the second set, in general, the solutions tend to some explicit profile at the rate t ^?2λ . The decay rate of solutions of Dirac equations is achieved by showing that the coefficient of the explicit profile is exactly zero. The key ingredients in the proof of the decay rate of solutions for the first set of wave equations are an energy estimate used to show the absence of bound states and zero energy resonance and the analysis of the spectral representation of the solutions. The proof of asymptotic behavior for the solutions of the second set of wave equations relies on careful analysis of the Green’s functions for time independent Schrödinger equations associated with these wave equations.     

Singular stochastic equations on Hilbert spaces: Harnack inequalities for their transition semigroups

We consider stochastic equations in Hilbert spaces with singular drift in the framework of [G. Da Prato, M. Röckner, Singular dissipative stochastic equations in Hilbert spaces, Probab. Theory Related Fields 124 (2) (2002) 261-303]. We prove a Harnack inequality (in the sense of [F.-Y. Wang, Logarithmic Sobolev inequalities on noncompact Riemannian manifolds, Probab. Theory Related Fields 109 (1997) 417-424]) for its transition semigroup and exploit its consequences. In particular, we prove regularizing and ultraboundedness properties of the transition semigroup as well as that the corresponding Kolmogorov operator has at most one infinitesimally invariant measure μ (satisfying some mild integrability conditions). Finally, we prove existence of such a measure μ for noncontinuous drifts.     

3-D time-dependent analysis of multilayered cross-anisotropic saturated soils based on the fractional viscoelastic model

The fractional Merchant viscoelastic model is introduced to simulate the viscoelasticity of soil skeleton in this study. According to the elastic-viscoelastic correspondence principle, elastic parameters including shear modulus G_v, horizontal elastic modulus E_h and vertical elastic modulus E_v are replaced by the reciprocal of the flexibility coefficient of viscoelastic media in the Laplace transformed domain. Then, based on the precise integration solutions of multilayered cross-anisotropic elastic saturated soils, 3-D solutions of viscoelastic saturated soils are derived. The final solutions in the physical domain are obtained by the Laplace numerical inversion. The correctness of theories and programs is verified by comparing the numerical results with existing references. Sensitivity analyses are conducted to investigate the effects of viscoelastic parameters, cross-anisotropic parameters and stratification of soils on time-dependent displacement and excess pore water pressure.     

More generalizations of pseudocompactness

We introduce a covering notion depending on two cardinals, which we call O-[μ,λ]-compactness, and which encompasses both pseudocompactness and many other known generalizations of pseudocompactness. For Tychonoff spaces, pseudocompactness turns out to be equivalent to O-[ω,ω]-compactness.We provide several characterizations of O-[μ,λ]-compactness, and we discuss its connection with D-pseudocompactness, for D an ultrafilter. The connection turns out to be rather strict when the above notions are considered with respect to products. In passing, we provide some conditions equivalent to D-pseudocompactness.Finally, we show that our methods provide a unified treatment both for O-[μ,λ]-compactness and for [μ,λ]-compactness.     

Elasticity solutions for functionally graded rectangular plates with two opposite edges simply supported

England (2006) [13] proposed a novel method to study the bending of isotropic functionally graded plates subject to transverse biharmonic loads. His method is extended here to functionally graded plates with materials characterizing transverse isotropy. Using the complex variable method, the governing equations of three plate displacements appearing in the expansions of displacement field are formulated based on the three-dimensional theory of elasticity for a transverse load satisfying the biharmonic equation. The solution may be expressed in terms of four analytic functions of the complex variable, in which the unknown constants can be determined from the boundary conditions similar to that in the classical plate theory. The elasticity solutions of an FGM rectangular plate with opposite edges simply supported under 12 types of biharmonic polynomial loads are derived as appropriate sums of the general and particular solutions of the governing equations. A comparison of the present results for a uniform load with existing solutions is made and good agreement is observed. The influence of boundary conditions, material inhomogeneity, and thickness to length ratio on the plate deflection and stresses for the load x²yq are studied numerically.     

Quantum three-body problems

A scheme for dealing with the quantum three-body problem is presented to separate the rotational degrees of freedom completely from the internal ones. In this method, the three-body Schrodinger equation is reduced to a system of coupled partial differential equations, depending only upon three internal variables. For arbitrary total orbital angular momentum / and the parity (? 1) ^l+λ (λ = 0 or 1), the number of the equations in this system isl = 1 ?λ. By expanding the wavefunction with respect to a complete set of orthonormal basis functions, the system of equations is further reduced to a system of linear algebraic equations.     

Propagation of harmonic waves in prestressed fiber viscoelastic thick tubes filled with a viscous dusty fluid

In this work, propagation of harmonic waves in initially stressed cylindrical viscoelastic thick tubes filled with a Newtonian fluid is studied. The tube, subjected to a static inner pressure P_i and a positive axial stretch λ, will be considered as an incompressible viscoelastic and fibrous material. The fluid is assumed as an incompressible, viscous and dusty fluid. The field equations for the fluid are obtained in the cylindrical coordinates. The governing differential equations of the tube’s viscoelastic material are obtained also in the cylindrical coordinates utilizing the theory of small deformations superimposed on large initial static deformations. For the axially symmetric motion the field equations are solved by assuming harmonic wave solutions. A closed form solution can be obtained for equations governing the fluid body, but due to the variability of the coefficients of resulting differential equations of the solid body, such a closed form solution is not possible to obtain. For that reason, equations for the solid body and the boundary conditions are treated numerically by the finite-difference method to obtain the effects of the thickness of the tube on the wave characteristics. Dispersion relation is obtained using the long wave approximation and, the wave velocities and the transmission coefficients are computed.     

On the partial differential equations of electrostatic MEMS devices III: Refined touchdown behavior

This paper is a continuation of [N. Ghoussoub, Y. Guo, On the partial differential equations of electrostatic MEMS devices: Stationary case, SIAM J. Math. Anal. 38 (2007) 1423-1449] and [N. Ghoussoub, Y. Guo, On the partial differential equations of electrostatic MEMS devices II: Dynamic case, NoDEA Nonlinear Differential Equations Appl. (2008), in press], where we analyzed nonlinear parabolic problem on a bounded domain Ω of RN with Dirichlet boundary conditions. This equation models a simple electrostatic Micro-Electromechanical System (MEMS) device consisting of a thin dielectric elastic membrane with boundary supported at 0 above a rigid ground plate located at −1. Here u is modeled to describe dynamic deflection of the elastic membrane. When a voltage—represented here by λ—is applied, the membrane deflects towards the ground plate and a snap-through (touchdown) must occur when it exceeds a certain critical value λ^∗ (pull-in voltage), creating a so-called “pull-in instability” which greatly affects the design of many devices. In an effort to achieve better MEMS design, the material properties of the membrane can be technologically fabricated with a spatially varying dielectric permittivity profile f(x). In this work, some a priori estimates of touchdown behavior are established, based on which the refined touchdown profiles are obtained by adapting self-similar method and center manifold analysis. Applying various analytical and numerical techniques, some properties of touchdown set—such as compactness, location and shape—are also discussed for different classes of varying permittivity profiles.     

Uniform Decay properties of a model in structural acoustics

We investigate decay properties for a system of coupled partial differential equations which model the interaction between acoustic waves in a cavity and the walls of the cavity. In this system a wave equation is coupled to a structurally damped plate or beam equation. The underlying semigroup for this system is not uniformly stable, but when the system is appropriately restricted we obtain some uniform stability. We present two results of this type. For the first result, we assume that the initial wave data is zero, and the initial plate or beam data is in the natural energy space; then the corresponding solution to system decays uniformly to zero. For the second result, we assume that the initial condition is in the natural energy space and the control function is L²(0,∞) (in time) into the control space; then the beam displacement and velocity are both L²(0,∞) into a space with two spatial derivatives.     

Locking-free nonconforming finite elements for three-dimensional elasticity problem

Two locking-free nonconforming finite elements are presented for three-dimensional elasticity problem with pure displacement boundary condition. Convergence rate of the elements are uniformly optimal with respect to λ. The energy norm and L² norm errors are O(h²) and O(h³), respectively. Lastly, a numerical experiment is carried out, which coincides with the theoretical analysis.     

A pointwise abelian Ergodic theorem for Lp semigroups, 1 ⩽ p < ∞

Let (X, ∑, μ) be a σ-finite measure space and L_p(μ) = L_p(X, ∑, μ), 1 ? p ? ∞, the usual Banach spaces of complex-valued functions. Let {T_t: t ? 0} be a strongly continuous semigroup of positive L_p(μ) operators for some 1 ? p < ∞. Denote by R_λ the resolvent of {T_t}. We show that f?L_p(μ) implies λR_λf(x) → f(x) a.e. as λ → ∞.