Solution-precipitation creep – micromechanical modelling and numerical results

Our aim is to present a continuum mechanical model for solution-precipitation creep as well as to compare the numerical results based on that model with experimental observations. The formulation of the problem is based on the minimization of a Lagrangian consisting of elastic power and dissipation. Elastic energy is chosen to be in a standard form but dissipation is strongly adapted to the solution-precipitation process by introducing two new quantities: the velocity of material transport within the crystallite-interfaces and the normal velocity of precipitation or solution respectively. The model enables one to give an analytical solution for the case of a single crystal and numerical solution based on a finite element method for more complex, polycrystalline materials. (© 2005 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

FEM-analysis of a multiferroic nanocomposite – comparison of experiment and numerical simulation

The combination of electric and magnetic materials opens new possibilities in the field of sensor technologies and data storage [1]. These magneto-electric (ME) materials have the property to change a physical ferroic quantity into another, i.e. a magnetic field can change the electric polarization and vice versa. The combination of multiple ferroic characteristics within materials is called multiferroic. Since magneto-electric single-phase materials are rare in nature and typically operate only at very low temperature, they are not favorable in technical applications. However, ME composites, consisting of ferroelectric and ferromagnetic phases, produce a strain-induced magneto-electric product property at room temperature [2]. In these composites, two different effects can be differentiated, the direct and the converse ME effect. The first one describes a polarization which is magnetically caused. In detail, a magnetic field is applied which produces a deformation of the magneto-active phase which is transferred to the electro-active phase and as a consequence this phase exhibits a polarization. Therefore, one can discover a strain-induced polarization. The second effect to observe is a magnetization caused by an electric field. In our contribution, we focus on a (1-3) composite, where cobalt ferrite nanopillars are embedded in a barium titanate matrix, see the experiments described in [3]. In the numerical simulations we compare the changes of the strain-induced inplane polarizations of the ferroelectric matrix with experimental measurements. Furthermore, we analyze the magneto-electric coupling coefficient. (© 2017 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Cohomology of the Lie algebra ℌ2: Experimental results and conjectures

The cohomology with trivial coefficients of the Lie algebra ? of Hamiltonian vector fields in the plane and of its maximal nilpotent subalgebra L ₁? is considered. The cohomology H ₂(L ₁?) is calculated, and some far-reaching conjectures concerning the cohomology of the Lie algebras mentioned above and based on an extensive experimental material are formulated.     

Passive muscle behaviour – experimental and numerical investigations

The material behaviour of skeletal muscles can be decomposed into two parts: an active part, describing the contractile mechanisms, and a passive one, characterising the passive components such as the connective tissue. Computational models are used to support the understanding of complex mechanism inside a muscle. In the present work, we focus on the three-dimensional passive tissue behaviour from the experimental as well as modelling point of view. Therefore, quasi-static experiments have been performed on specimens with regular geometry. By using a three-dimensional optical measurement system the shape of the specimens has been reconstructed at different deformation states. On the modelling side a hyperelastic model with transversal isotropic fibre orientation has been used to describe non-linear stress responses. The model has been validated by performing analyses for different fibre orientations. In summary, it figures out that the proposed modelling approach is able to reflect the experimental results in a satisfying manner. (© 2011 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

New results on the geometry of the moduli space of Riemann surfaces

We briefly survey our recent results about the Mumford goodness of several canonical metrics on the moduli spaces of Riemann surfaces,including the Weil-Petersson metric,the Ricci metric, the Perturbed Ricci metric and the Kahler-Einstein metric.We prove the dual Nakano negativity of the Weil-Petersson metric.As applications of these results we deduce certain important results about the L~2-cohomology groups of the logarithmic tangent bundle over the compactifled moduli spaces.     

Probabilistic and fractal aspects of Lévy trees

We investigate the random continuous trees called Lévy trees, which are obtained as scaling limits of discrete Galton-Watson trees. We give a mathematically precise definition of these random trees as random variables taking values in the set of equivalence classes of compact rooted -trees, which is equipped with the Gromov-Hausdorff distance. To construct Lévy trees, we make use of the coding by the height process which was studied in detail in previous work. We then investigate various probabilistic properties of Lévy trees. In particular we establish a branching property analogous to the well-known property for Galton-Watson trees: Conditionally given the tree below level a, the subtrees originating from that level are distributed as the atoms of a Poisson point measure whose intensity involves a local time measure supported on the vertices at distance a from the root. We study regularity properties of local times in the space variable, and prove that the support of local time is the full level set, except for certain exceptional values of a corresponding to local extinctions. We also compute several fractal dimensions of Lévy trees, including Hausdorff and packing dimensions, in terms of lower and upper indices for the branching mechanism function which characterizes the distribution of the tree. We finally discuss some applications to super-Brownian motion with a general branching mechanism.     

Jumping and hopping motion on sports surfaces – Energetic aspects vs. risk of injury

The aim in high-performance sports activities is reaching the optimum between high efficiency and low risk of injuries during workout. The goal of this contribution is to increase the understanding of these two facts while interaction between athletes and sports surfaces. A typical movement in sports activities is human hopping. Several studies on this topic have already been done, but to the best of our knowledge any of them uses a continuous model of the sports surface. Therefore, an Euler-Bernoulli beam with visco-elastic foundation is analysed. The human modelling is represented by a one-dof-oscillator. (© 2011 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Singular surfaces and the rigidity of ℙ3

In this paper we give two elementary proofs for the rigidity of the complex projective space ₃ with respect to global deformations.     

Experimental and numerical study of noise effects in a FitzHugh–Nagumo system driven by a biharmonic signal

Using a nonlinear circuit ruled by the FitzHugh–Nagumo equations, we experimentally investigate the combined effect of noise and a biharmonic driving of respective high and low frequency F and f. Without noise, we show that the response of the circuit to the low frequency can be maximized for a critical amplitude B¹ of the high frequency via the effect of Vibrational Resonance (V.R.). We report that under certain conditions on the biharmonic stimulus, white noise can induce V.R. The effects of colored noise on V.R. are also discussed by considering an Ornstein–Uhlenbeck process. All experimental results are confirmed by numerical analysis of the system response.     

Global optimization of truss topology with discrete bar areas—Part II: Implementation and numerical results

A classical problem within the field of structural optimization is to find the stiffest truss design subject to a given external static load and a bound on the total volume. The design variables describe the cross sectional areas of the bars. This class of problems is well-studied for continuous bar areas. We consider here the difficult situation that the truss must be built from pre-produced bars with given areas. This paper together with Part I proposes an algorithmic framework for the calculation of a global optimizer of the underlying non-convex mixed integer design problem. In this paper we use the theory developed in Part I to design a convergent nonlinear branch-and-bound method tailored to solve large-scale instances of the original discrete problem. The problem formulation and the needed theoretical results from Part I are repeated such that this paper is self-contained. We focus on the implementation details but also establish finite convergence of the branch-and-bound method. The algorithm is based on solving a sequence of continuous non-convex relaxations which can be formulated as quadratic programs according to the theory in Part I. The quadratic programs to be treated within the branch-and-bound search all have the same feasible set and differ from each other only in the objective function. This is one reason for making the resulting branch-and-bound method very efficient. The paper closes with several large-scale numerical examples. These examples are, to the knowledge of the authors, by far the largest discrete topology design problems solved by means of global optimization.     

Plastification and Damage in Wheel-Rail Rolling Contact – Case Study on a Crossing

A fully three-dimensional, dynamic model for a wheel running over a crossing is developed using an explicit finite element program. The full mass of the wheel and the crossing and elastic-plastic material behaviour are considered. The damage in the contact area is investigated with a very dense mesh taken from the dynamic model using a submodelling technique. With this kind of calculations the stresses and strains produced in the wheel and the crossing during the cross-over process can be determined, as well as the respective reaction forces in the bedding and the axle. Calculations for different crossing-geometries are performed. Finally a damage indicator is introduced to identify the probable location of crack initiation. (© 2005 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Analysis of Atkinson’s variable transformation for numerical integration over smooth surfaces in ℝ3

Summary Recently, a variable transformation for integrals over smooth surfaces in ³ was introduced in a paper by Atkinson. This interesting transformation, which includes a grading parameter that can be fixed by the user, makes it possible to compute these integrals numerically via the product trapezoidal rule in an efficient manner. Some analysis of the approximations thus produced was provided by Atkinson, who also stated some conjectures concerning the unusually fast convergence of his quadrature formulas observed for certain values of the grading parameter. In a recent report by Atkinson and Sommariva, this analysis is continued for the case in which the integral is over the surface of a sphere and the integrand is smooth over this surface, and optimal results are given for special values of the grading parameter. In the present work, we give a complete analysis of Atkinsons method over arbitrary smooth surfaces that are homeomorphic to the surface of the unit sphere. We obtain optimal results that explain the actual rates of convergence, and we achieve this for all values of the grading parameter.     

Number of embeddings of circular and Mbius ladders on surfaces

There are many results on the flexibility of(general) embeddings of graphs,but few are known about that of strong embeddings.In this paper,we study the flexibility of strong embeddings of circular and Mbius ladders on the projective plane and the Klein bottle by using the joint tree model of embeddings.The numbers of(nonequivalent) general embeddings and strong embeddings of circular and Mbius ladders on these two nonorientable surfaces are obtained,respectively.And the structures of those strong embeddings are described.     

Deformation of canonical morphisms and the moduli of surfaces of general type

In this article we study the deformation of finite maps and show how to use this deformation theory to construct varieties with given invariants in a projective space. Among other things, we prove a criterion that determines when a finite map can be deformed to a one-to-one map. We use this criterion to construct new surfaces of general type with birational canonical map, for different c₁²c_{1}^{2} and χ (the canonical map of the surfaces we construct is in fact a finite, birational morphism). Our general results enable us to describe some new components of the moduli of surfaces of general type. We also find infinitely many moduli spaces having one component whose general point corresponds to a canonically embedded surface and another component whose general point corresponds to a surface whose canonical map is a degree 2 morphism.     

Arnol’d tongues for a resonant injection-locked frequency divider: Analytical and numerical results

In this paper we consider a resonant injection-locked frequency divider which is of interest in electronics, and we investigate the frequency locking phenomenon when varying the amplitude and frequency of the injected signal. We study both analytically and numerically the structure of the Arnol’d tongues in the frequency–amplitude plane. In particular, we provide exact analytical formulae for the widths of the tongues, which correspond to the plateaux of the devil’s staircase picture. The results account for numerical and experimental findings presented in the literature for special driving terms and, additionally, extend the analysis to a more general setting.     

On certain finite dimensional numerical ranges and numerical radii †

Let A be an invertible n×n matrix defined over a field k, and let A′denote the transpose of A. The object of this paper is to prove the following result.     

Compactness results for immersions of prescribed Gaussian curvature I – analytic aspects

We extend recent results of Guan and Spruck, proving existence results for constant Gaussian curvature hypersurfaces in Hadamard manifolds.     

Categories of chaos and fractal basin boundaries in forced predator–prey models

Biological communities are affected by perturbations that frequently occur in a more-or-less periodic fashion. In this communication we use the circle map to summarize the dynamics of one such community – the periodically forced Lotka–Volterra predator–prey system. As might be expected, we show that the latter system generates a classic devil's staircase and Arnold tongues, similar to that found from a qualitative analysis of the circle map. The circle map has other subtle features that make it useful for explaining the two qualitatively distinct forms of chaos recently noted in numerical studies of the forced Lotka–Volterra system. In the regions of overlapping tongues, coexisting attractors may be found in the Lotka–Volterra system, including at least one example of three alternative attractors, the separatrices of which are fractal and, in one specific case, Wada. The analysis is extended to a periodically forced tritrophic foodweb model that is chaotic. Interestingly, mode-locking Arnold tongue structures are observed in the model’s phase dynamics even though the foodweb equations are chaotic.