Linearized Stability for Semiflows Generated by a Class of Neutral Equations,with Applications to State-Dependent Delays

We prove a principle of linearized stability for semiflows generated by neutral functional differential equations of the form x′(t) = g(? x _t , x _t ). The state space is a closed subset in a manifold of C ²-functions. Applications include equations with state-dependent delay, as for example x′(t) = a x′(t + d(x(t))) + f (x(t + r(x(t)))) with \({a\in\mathbb{R}, d:\mathbb{R}\to(-h,0), f:\mathbb{R}\to\mathbb{R}, r:\mathbb{R}\to[-h,0]}\).     

Decay of Almost Periodic Solutions¶of Conservation Laws

We consider the asymptotic behavior of solutions of systems of inviscid or viscous conservation laws in one or several space variables, which are almost periodic in the space variables in a generalized sense introduced by Stepanoff and Wiener, which extends the original one of H. Bohr. We prove that if u(x,t) is such a solution whose inclusion intervals at time t, with respect to ?>0, satisfy l _epsiv;(t)/t→0 as t→∞, and such that the scaling sequence u ^T (x,t)=u(T x,T t) is pre-compact as t→∞ in L _loc ¹(? ^{d +1} ₊, then u(x,t) decays to its mean value \(\), which is independent of t, as t→∞. The decay considered here is in L ¹ _loc of the variable ξ≡x/t, which implies, as we show, that \(\) as t→∞, where M _x denotes taking the mean value with respect to x. In many cases we show that, if the initial data are almost periodic in the generalized sense, then so also are the solutions. We also show, in these cases, how to reduce the condition on the growth of the inclusion intervals l _?(t) with t, as t→∞, for fixed ? > 0, to a condition on the growth of l _?(0) with ?, as ?→ 0, which amounts to imposing restrictions only on the initial data. We show with a simple example the existence of almost periodic (non-periodic) functions whose inclusion intervals satisfy any prescribed growth condition as ?→ 0. The applications given here include inviscid and viscous scalar conservation laws in several space variables, some inviscid systems in chromatography and isentropic gas dynamics, as well as many viscous 2 × 2 systems such as those of nonlinear elasticity and Eulerian isentropic gas dynamics, with artificial viscosity, among others. In the case of the inviscid scalar equations and chromatography systems, the class of initial data for which decay results are proved includes, in particular, the L ^∞ generalized limit periodic functions. Our procedures can be easily adapted to provide similar results for semilinear and kinetic relaxations of systems of conservation laws.     

On the orders of the best approximations of integrals of functions by integrals of rank <Emphasis Type="Italic">σ</Emphasis>

We study the values e _σ(f) of the best approximation of integrals of functions from the spaces L _p (A, dμ) by integrals of rank σ. We determine the orders of the least upper bounds of these values as σ → ∞ in the case where the function ? is the product of two nonnegative functions one of which is fixed and the other varies on the unit ball U _p (A) of the space L _p (A, dμ). We consider applications of the obtained results to approximation problems in the spaces S _p ^? .     

Growths of mechanical elasticity and electrical conductance of graphene nanoplatelet/poly(lactic acid) composites under strong electric field: correlation with time evolution of higher order structure of graphene nanoplatelets

For a composite of poly(lactic acid) containing graphene nanoplatelets (GNPs) at a low concentration (0.34 vol%), this study examined growths of mechanical and electrical properties under an alternating current (AC) electric field, focusing on field-induced GNP structures governing those properties. The composite was subjected to the AC field (60 Hz) of various intensities E for various times t _E at 190 °C. A fraction of randomly oriented GNPs was aligned by the field and then connected into columns, as suggested from optical microscopy. This structural evolution led to qualitatively similar growths of low-frequency storage modulus and static electrical conductivity. The key quantity for understanding this growth was a time t _E* for occurrence of short circuit that detected formation of GNP columns conductively bridging the electrodes. The growths of both modulus and conductivity for various E were summarized as functions of a reduced variable, t _E/t _E*, confirming the growths commonly reflected the evolution of the GNP columns. However, the modulus grew fast and leveled off by t _E/t _E* ~ 1, whereas the conductivity kept growing gradually even at t _E/t _E* > 1. This difference was discussed in relation to the matrix chains and leftover GNPs out the column.     

Effects of Fuel Lewis Number on Localised Forced Ignition of Globally Stoichiometric Stratified Mixtures: a Numerical Investigation

The influences of fuel Lewis number Le_F on localised forced ignition of globally stoichiometric stratified mixtures have been analysed using three-dimensional compressible Direct Numerical Simulations (DNS) for cases with Le_F ranging from 0.8 to 1.2. The globally stoichiometric stratified mixtures with different values of root-mean-square (rms) equivalence ratio fluctuation (i.e. ?^′= 0.2, 0.4 and 0.6) and the Taylor micro-scale l_? of equivalence ratio ? variation (i.e. l_?/l_f= 2.1, 5.5 and 8.3 with l_f being the Zel’dovich flame thickness of the stoichiometric laminar premixed flame) have been considered for different initial rms values of turbulent velocity u^′. A pseudo-spectral method is used to initialise the equivalence ratio variation following a presumed bi-modal distribution for prescribed values of ?^′ and l_?/l_f for global mean equivalence ratio 〈?〉=1.0. The localised ignition is accounted for by a source term in the energy transport equation that deposits energy for a stipulated time interval. It has been observed that the maximum values of temperature and the fuel reaction rate magnitude increase with decreasing Le_F during the period of external energy deposition. The initial values of Le_F, u^′/S_b(?=1), ?^′ and l_?/l_f have been found to have significant effects on the extent of burning of the stratified mixtures following localised ignition. For a given value of u^′/S_b(?=1), the extent of burning decreases with increasing Le_F. An increase in u^′ leads to a monotonic reduction in the burned gas mass for all values of Le_F in all stratified mixture cases but an opposite trend is observed for the Le_F=0.8 homogeneous mixture. It has been found that an increase in ?^′ has adverse effects on the burned gas mass, whereas the effects of l_?/l_f on the extent of burning are non-monotonic and dependent on ?^′ and Le_F. Detailed physical explanations have been provided for the observed Le_F, u^′/S_b(?=1), ?^′ and l_?/l_f dependences.     

Power-law creep and residual stresses in a carbopol gel

We report on the interplay between creep and residual stresses in a carbopol microgel. When a constant shear stress σ is applied below the yield stress σ _y, the strain is shown to increase as a power law of time, γ(t) = γ ₀ + (t/τ) ^α , with an exponent α = 0.39 ± 0.04 that is strongly reminiscent of Andrade creep in hard solids. For applied shear stresses lower than some typical value σ _c ? 0.2σ _y, the microgel experiences a more complex, anomalous creep behavior, characterized by an initial decrease of the strain, that we attribute to the existence of residual stresses of the order of σ _c that persist after a rest time under a zero shear rate following preshear. The influence of gel concentration on creep and residual stresses are investigated as well as possible aging effects. We discuss our results in light of previous works on colloidal glasses and other soft glassy systems.     

Static statement of the stability problem under creep

In technological processes of rod bending, the critical time is determined [1] by the criterion of unbounded increase A → ∞ in the bent axis amplitude, which is equivalent to the requirement A ? A ₀, where A ₀ is value of the amplitude at the initial time t = 0. In this case, the mathematical models of the process of buckling of rods and plates [2] are constructed in the framework of the theory of small displacements. This contradiction can be removed by the assumption that the critical state is realized for deflections A of the order of several A ₀, i.e., at the time instant corresponding to a sharp increase in displacements. Naturally, this assumption is of local character, because the instant of the transition to the accelerated increase in deflections depends on specific conditions such as, for example, the support conditions, the creep coefficient, the type of the system imperfectness, the value of A ₀, and the eccentricity of the load application.In what follows, we show that, in the case of longitudinal bending (buckling), the time instant directly preceding the beginning of the catastrophic increase in deflections can be determined by the variation in the phase volume of the system.     

Regularity and Singularities of Optimal Convex Shapes in the Plane

We focus here on the analysis of the regularity or singularity of solutions Ω ₀ to shape optimization problems among convex planar sets, namely:

$J(\Omega_{0})={\rm min} \{J(\Omega), \Omega \quad {\rm convex},\Omega \in \mathcal{S}_{\rm ad}\},$

where \({\mathcal{S}_{\rm ad}}\) is a set of 2-dimensional admissible shapes and \({J:\mathcal{S}_{\rm ad}\rightarrow\mathbb{R}}\) is a shape functional. Our main goal is to obtain qualitative properties of these optimal shapes by using first and second order optimality conditions, including the infinite dimensional Lagrange multiplier due to the convexity constraint. We prove two types of results:

1. i)
   under a suitable convexity property of the functional J, we prove that Ω ₀ is a W ^2,p -set, \({p\in[1, \infty]}\). This result applies, for instance, with p = ∞ when the shape functional can be written as J(Ω) = R(Ω) + P(Ω), where R(Ω) = F(|Ω|, E _f (Ω), λ₁(Ω)) involves the area |Ω|, the Dirichlet energy E _f (Ω) or the first eigenvalue of the Laplace–Dirichlet operator λ₁(Ω), and P(Ω) is the perimeter of Ω;
    

1. ii)
   under a suitable concavity assumption on the functional J, we prove that Ω ₀ is a polygon. This result applies, for instance, when the functional is now written as J(Ω) = R(Ω) ? P(Ω), with the same notations as above.
    

     

An iterative updating method for undamped structural systems

Finite element model updating is a procedure to minimize the differences between analytical and experimental results and can be mathematically reduced to solving the following problem. Problem P: Let M _a ∈SR ^n×n and K _a ∈SR ^n×n be the analytical mass and stiffness matrices and Λ=diag{λ ₁,…,λ _p }∈R ^p×p and X=[x ₁,…,x _p ]∈R ^n×p be the measured eigenvalue and eigenvector matrices, respectively. Find \((\hat{M}, \hat{K}) \in \mathcal{S}_{MK}\) such that \(\| \hat{M}-M_{a} \|^{2}+\| \hat{K}-K_{a}\|^{2}= \min_{(M,K) \in {\mathcal{S}}_{MK}} (\| M-M_{a} \|^{2}+\|K-K_{a}\|^{2})\), where \(\mathcal{S}_{MK}=\{(M,K)| X^{T}MX=I_{p}, MX \varLambda=K X \}\) and ∥?∥ is the Frobenius norm. This paper presents an iterative method to solve Problem P. By the method, the optimal approximation solution \((\hat{M}, \hat{K})\) of Problem P can be obtained within finite iteration steps in the absence of roundoff errors by choosing a special kind of initial matrix pair. A numerical example shows that the introduced iterative algorithm is quite efficient.     

The Failure of Rank-One Connections

This article is concerned with interface problems for Lipschitz mappings f ₊:? ⁿ ₊→? ⁿ and f _?:? ⁿ _?→? ⁿ in the half spaces, which agree on the common boundary ? ^{n ? 1}=?? ⁿ ₊=?? ⁿ _?. These naturally occur in mathematical models for material microstructures and crystals. The task is to determine the relationship between the sets of values of the differentials Df ₊ and Df _?. For some time it has been thought that the polyconvex hulls [Df ₊] ^pc and [Df _?] ^pc satisfy Hadamard's jump condition or are at least rank-one connected. Our examples here refute this idea.The estimates of the Jacobians we obtain in the course of solving the so-called Monge-Ampère inequalities seem also to be of independent interest. As an application, we construct uniformly elliptic systems of first order partial differential equations in the same homotopy class as the familiar Cauchy-Riemann equations, for which the unique continuation property fails.     

Global Attractor for a Nonlinear Oscillator Coupled to the Klein–Gordon Field

The long-time asymptotics is analyzed for all finite energy solutions to a model\(\mathbf{U}(1)\)-invariant nonlinear Klein–Gordon equation in one dimension, with the nonlinearity concentrated at a single point: each finite energy solution converges as t→ ± ∞ to the set of all “nonlinear eigenfunctions” of the form ψ(x)e^{?iω t}. The global attraction is caused by the nonlinear energy transfer from lower harmonics to the continuous spectrum and subsequent dispersive radiation.We justify this mechanism by the following novel strategy based on inflation of spectrum by the nonlinearity. We show that any omega-limit trajectory has the time spectrum in the spectral gap [ ? m,m] and satisfies the original equation. This equation implies the key spectral inclusion for spectrum of the nonlinear term. Then the application of the Titchmarsh convolution theorem reduces the spectrum of each omega-limit trajectory to a single harmonic \(\omega\in[-m,m]\).The research is inspired by Bohr’s postulate on quantum transitions and Schrödinger’s identification of the quantum stationary states to the nonlinear eigenfunctions of the coupled\(\mathbf{U}(1)\)-invariant Maxwell–Schrödinger and Maxwell–Dirac equations.     

Stability of Traveling Waves of Nonlinear Schrödinger Equation with Nonzero Condition at Infinity

We study effective elastic behavior of the incompatibly prestrained thin plates, where the prestrain is independent of thickness and uniform through the plate’s thickness h. We model such plates as three-dimensional elastic bodies with a prescribed pointwise stress-free state characterized by a Riemannian metric G, and seek the limiting behavior as \({h \to 0}\). We first establish that when the energy per volume scales as the second power of h, the resulting \({\Gamma}\) -limit is a Kirchhoff-type bending theory. We then show the somewhat surprising result that there exist non-immersible metrics G for whom the infimum energy (per volume) scales smaller than h². This implies that the minimizing sequence of deformations carries nontrivial residual three-dimensional energy but it has zero bending energy as seen from the limit Kirchhoff theory perspective. Another implication is that other asymptotic scenarios are valid in appropriate smaller scaling regimes of energy. We characterize the metrics G with the above property, showing that the zero bending energy in the Kirchhoff limit occurs if and only if the Riemann curvatures R₁₂₁₃, R₁₂₂₃ and R₁₂₁₂ of G vanish identically. We illustrate our findings with examples; of particular interest is an example where \({G_{2 \times 2}}\), the two-dimensional restriction of G, is flat but the plate still exhibits the energy scaling of the Föppl–von Kármán type. Finally, we apply these results to a model of nematic glass, including a characterization of the condition when the metric is immersible, for \({G = Id_{3} + \gamma n \otimes n}\) given in terms of the inhomogeneous unit director field distribution \({ n \in \mathbb{R}^3}\).     

On the definitions of strain and their use in large-strain analysis

It is pointed out that when strains are computed from a displacement field, the engineering definition of strain(l _f ?l _i )/l _i has advantages in respect to other definitions used in finite-strain theory. Tensorial transformations can still be used easily by means of Mohr's circle. Illustrations for the case of Eulerian and Lagrangian strains are shown. The comments may be of particular interest to experimental analysts.     

Bistable Boundary Reactions in Two Dimensions

In a bounded domain \({\Omega \subset \mathbb R^2}\) with smooth boundary we consider the problem

$\Delta u = 0 \quad {\rm{in }}\, \Omega, \qquad \frac{\partial u}{\partial \nu} = \frac1\varepsilon f(u) \quad {\rm{on }}\,\partial\Omega,$

where ν is the unit normal exterior vector, ε > 0 is a small parameter and f is a bistable nonlinearity such as f(u) = sin(π u) or f(u) = (1 ? u ²)u. We construct solutions that develop multiple transitions from ?1 to 1 and vice-versa along a connected component of the boundary ?Ω. We also construct an explicit solution when Ω is a disk and f(u) = sin(π u).

     

Miscible Thermo-Viscous Fingering Instability in Porous Media. Part 1: Linear Stability Analysis

The development of the thermo-viscous fingering instability of miscible displacements in homogeneous porous media is examined. In this first part of the study dealing with stability analysis, the basic equations and the parameters governing the problem in a rectilinear geometry are developed. An exponential dependence of viscosity on temperature and concentration is represented by two parameters, thermal mobility ratio β _T and a solutal mobility ratio β _C , respectively. Other parameters involved are the Lewis number Le and a thermal-lag coefficient λ. The governing equations are linearized and solved to obtain instability characteristics using either a quasi-steady-state approximation (QSSA) or initial value calculations (IVC). Exact analytical solutions are also obtained for very weakly diffusing systems. Using the QSSA approach, it was found that an increase in thermal mobility ratio β _T is seen to enhance the instability for fixed β _C , Le and λ. For fixed β _C and β _T , a decrease in the thermal-lag coefficient and/or an increase in the Lewis number always decrease the instability. Moreover, strong thermal diffusion at large Le as well as enhanced redistribution of heat between the solid and fluid phases at small λ is seen to alleviate the destabilizing effects of positive β _T . Consequently, the instability gets strictly dominated by the solutal front. The linear stability analysis using IVC approach leads to conclusions similar to the QSSA approach except for the case of large Le and unity λ flow where the instability is seen to get even less pronounced than in the case of a reference isothermal flow of the same β _C , but β _T  = 0. At practically, small value of λ, however, the instability ultimately approaches that due to β _C only.     

Exponential Decay of the Vorticity in the Steady-State Flow of a Viscous Liquid Past a Rotating Body

We construct a Sobolev homeomorphism in dimension \({n \geqq 4,\,f \in W^{1,1}((0, 1)^n,\mathbb{R}^n)}\) such that \({J_f = {\rm det} Df > 0}\) on a set of positive measure and J _f  < 0 on a set of positive measure. It follows that there are no diffeomorphisms (or piecewise affine homeomorphisms) f _k such that \({f_k\to f}\) in \({W^{1,1}_{\rm loc}}\).     

Wall slip and multi-tier yielding in capillary suspensions

Impact of wall slip on the yield stress measurement is examined for capillary suspensions consisting of cocoa powder as the dispersed phase, vegetable oil as the continuous primary fluid, and water as the secondary fluid using smooth and serrated parallel plates. Using dynamic oscillatory measurements, we investigated the yielding behavior of this ternary solid-fluid-fluid system with varying particle volume fraction, ?, from 0.45 to 0.65 and varying water volume fraction, ?_w, from 0.02 to 0.08. Yield stress is defined as the maximum in the elastic stress (G^′γ), which is obtained by plotting the product of elastic modulus (G^′) and strain amplitude (γ) as a function of applied strain amplitude. With serrated plates, which offer minimal slippage, capillary suspensions with ? ≥?0.45 and a fixed ?_w =?0.06 showed a two-step yielding behavior as indicated by two peaks in the plots of elastic stress as a function of strain amplitude. On the other hand with smooth plates, the capillary suspensions showed strong evidence of wall slip as evident by the presence of three distinct peaks and lowered first yield stresses for all ? and ?_w. These results can be interpreted based on the fact that a particle-depleted layer, which is known to be responsible for slip, is present in the vicinity of the smooth surfaces. The slip layer presents itself as an additional “pseudo-microstructure” (characteristic length scale) besides the two microstructures, aqueous bridges and solid particle agglomerates, that may occur in the system. With serrated plates, both the yield stresses (σ₁σ₂) and storage moduli plateau at lower strain (before the first yield point) and at higher strain (before the second yield point) (G\(^{\prime }_{p1}\), G\(^{\prime }_{p2}\)) were found to increase with ? (at a fixed ?_w =?0.06) following power-law dependences. Similarly with increasing ?_w (0.02 – 0.08) at a fixed ? =?0.62, the system behaved as a solid-like material in a jammed state with particles strongly held together as manifested by rapidly increasing σ₁ and σ₂. The usage of smooth surfaces primarily affected σ₁ which was reflected by an approximately 70–90% decrement in the measured σ₁ for all values of ?. By contrast, σ₂ and G\(^{\prime }_{p2}\) were found to be unaffected as shown by close agreement of values obtained using serrated geometry due to vanishing slip layers at higher strain amplitudes.     

Study of the Spectral Difference Numerical Dissipation for Turbulent Flows Using Unstructured Grids

In this paper, the numerical dissipation properties of the Spectral Difference (SD) method are studied in the context of vortex dominated flows and wall-bounded turbulence, using uniform and distorted grids. First, the validity of using the SD numerical dissipation as the only source of subgrid dissipation (the so-called Implicit-LES approach) is assessed on regular grids using various polynomial degrees (namely, p = 3, p = 4, p = 5) for the Taylor-Green vortex flow configuration at R e = 5 000. It is shown that the levels of numerical dissipation greatly depend on the order of accuracy chosen and, in turn, lead to an incorrect estimation of the viscous dissipation levels. The influence of grid distortion on the numerical dissipation is then assessed in the context of finite Reynolds number freely-decaying and wall-bounded turbulence. Tests involving different amplitudes of distortion show that highly skewed grids lead to the presence of small-scale, noisy structures, emphasizing the need of explicit subgrid modeling or regularization procedures when considering coarse, high-order SD computations on unstructured grids. Under-resolved, high-order computations of the turbulent channel flow at R e _τ = 1000 using highly-skewed grids are considered as well and present a qualitatively similar agreement to results obtained on a regular grid.     

Application of the γ-Reθ Transition Model to Simulations of the Flow Past a Circular Cylinder

Based on the finite volume method, the flow past a two-dimensional circular cylinder at a critical Reynolds number (Re = 8.5 × 10⁵) was simulated using the Navier-Stokes equations and the γ-Re_θ transition model coupled with the SST k ? ω turbulence model (hereinafter abbreviated as γ-Re_θ model). Considering the effect of free-stream turbulence intensity decay, the SST k ? ω turbulence model was modified according to the ambient source term method proposed by Spalart and Rumsey, and then the modified SST k ? ω turbulence model is coupled with the γ-Re_θ transition model (hereinafter abbreviated as γ-Re_θ-SR model). The flow past a circular cylinder at different inlet turbulence intensities were simulated by the γ-Re_θ-SR model. At last, the flow past a circular cylinder at subcritical, critical and supercritical Reynolds numbers were each simulated by the γ-Re_θ-SR model, and the three flow states were analyzed. It was found that compared with the SST k ? ω turbulence model, the γ-Re_θ model could simulate the transition of laminar to turbulent, resulting in better consistency with experimental result. Compared with the γ-Re_θ model, for relatively high inlet turbulence intensities, the γ-Re_θ-SR model could better simulate the flow past a circular cylinder; however the improvement almost diminished for relatively low inlet turbulence intensities The γ-Re_θ-SR model could well simulate the flow past a circular cylinder at subcritical, critical and supercritical Reynolds numbers.