Micro‐Mechanical Modelling of the Constitutive Behaviour of NiTi Shape Memory Alloys

The superelasticity and shape memory effect in NiTi alloys are examined on the basis of micromechanics within the energy minimization framework. We describe the behaviour of polycrystalline shape‐memory alloys via orientation‐distribution of the various martensite‐variants (domains) present in the material. Stress‐strain curves are presented and special attention is payed to the volume fraction of martensite for specific NiTi alloys (Nitinol) specimen under uniaxial tension. (© 2004 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Phase change problems with temperature dependent constraints for the volume fraction velocities

A class of nonlinear systems of parabolic PDEs is considered as a mathematical model for phase change phenomena arising in binary mixtures. We use the volume fraction of one of the components as an order parameter in our systems. Therefore, our system consists of two kinetic equations for the internal energy and order parameter which are derived in the non-smooth thermomechanics theory. In this paper we give a general treatment for our system and establish an existence result by applying the Schauder's fixed point theory with the subdifferential operator techniques.     

Exact algorithms for procurement problems under a total quantity discount structure

In this paper, we study the procurement problem faced by a buyer who needs to purchase a variety of goods from suppliers applying a so-called total quantity discount policy. This policy implies that every supplier announces a number of volume intervals and that the volume interval in which the total amount ordered lies determines the discount. Moreover, the discounted prices apply to all goods bought from the supplier, not only to those goods exceeding the volume threshold. We refer to this cost-minimization problem as the total quantity discount (TQD) problem. We give a mathematical formulation for this problem and argue that not only it is NP-hard, but also that there exists no polynomial-time approximation algorithm with a constant ratio (unless P = NP). Apart from the basic form of the TQD problem, we describe four variants. In a first variant, the market share that one or more suppliers can obtain is constrained. Another variant allows the buyer to procure more goods than strictly needed, in order to reach a lower total cost. We also consider a setting where the buyer needs to pay a disposal cost for the extra goods bought. In a third variant, the number of winning suppliers is limited, both in general and per product. Finally, we investigate a multi-period variant, where the buyer not only needs to decide what goods to buy from what supplier, but also when to do this, while considering the inventory costs. We show that the TQD problem and its variants can be solved by solving a series of min-cost flow problems. Finally, we investigate the performance of three exact algorithms (min-cost flow based branch-and-bound, linear programming based branch-and-bound, and branch-and-cut) on randomly generated instances involving 50 suppliers and 100 goods. It turns out that even the large instances of the basic problem are solved to optimality within a limited amount of time. However, we find that different algorithms perform best in terms of computation time for different variants.     

Weak solutions for a diffuse interface model for two-phase flows of incompressible fluids with different densities and nonlocal free energies

We consider a diffuse interface model for the flow of two viscous incompressible Newtonian fluids with different densities in a bounded domain in two and three space dimensions and prove existence of weak solutions for it. In contrast to earlier contributions, we study a model with a singular nonlocal free energy, which controls the H^α/2-norm of the volume fraction. We show existence of weak solutions for large times with the aid of an implicit time discretization.     

Blocked algorithms for the reduction to Hessenberg-triangular form revisited

We present two variants of Moler and Stewart’s algorithm for reducing a matrix pair to Hessenberg-triangular (HT) form with increased data locality in the access to the matrices. In one of these variants, a careful reorganization and accumulation of Givens rotations enables the use of efficient level 3 BLAS. Experimental results on four different architectures, representative of current high performance processors, compare the performances of the new variants with those of the implementation of Moler and Stewart’s algorithm in subroutine DGGHRD from LAPACK, Dackland and Kågström’s two-stage algorithm for the HT form, and a modified version of the latter which requires considerably less flops.     

Lexicography and degeneracy: can a pure cutting plane algorithm work?

We discuss an implementation of the lexicographic version of Gomory’s fractional cutting plane method for ILP problems and of two heuristics mimicking the latter. In computational testing on a battery of MIPLIB problems we compare the performance of these variants with that of the standard Gomory algorithm, both in the single-cut and in the multi-cut (rounds of cuts) version, and show that they provide a radical improvement over the standard procedure. In particular, we report the exact solution of ILP instances from MIPLIB such as stein15, stein27, and bm23, for which the standard Gomory cutting plane algorithm is not able to close more than a tiny fraction of the integrality gap. We also offer an explanation for this surprising phenomenon.     

Ostwald ripening: The screening length revisited

We are interested in the coarsening of a spatial distribution of two phases, driven by the reduction of interfacial energy and limited by diffusion, as described by the Mullins–Sekerka model. We address the regime where one phase covers only a small fraction of the total volume and consists of many disconnected components (“particles”). In this situation, the energetically more advantageous large particles grow at the expense of the small ones, a phenomenon called Ostwald ripening. Lifshitz, Slyozov and Wagner formally derived an evolution for the distribution of particle radii. We extend their derivation by taking into account that only particles within a certain distance, the screening length, communicate. Our arguments are rigorous and are based on a homogenization within a gradient flow structure. Received December 27, 1999 / Accepted June 2, 2000 / Published online November 9, 2000     

Conditions that cause risk pooling to increase inventory

We say product A is a partial substitute for product B if a fraction of the customers who prefer B are willing to accept A when B is out of stock. When demand is uncertain, it is intuitive and true that a larger “willing to substitute” fraction implies larger expected profits. A higher “willing to substitute” fraction allows one to pool the risk of individual products. It may also be intuitive that a larger “willing to substitute” fraction might result in lower optimal total inventory. For the full substitution structure, several researchers have shown that for certain distributions such as the exponential, this latter intuition is not true. We show that this full substitution anomaly can occur with any right skewed demand distribution. We assume i.i.d. demand distributions unless we indicate otherwise. We also show that the anomaly can occur for a number of realistic situations of partial substitution with commonly used demand distributions such as Normal, exponential, Poisson, and uniform. We also demonstrate the anomaly for more than one period, with backlogging, lost sales, more than two products, and with setup costs.     

Sharp bounds on the volume fractions of two materials in a two-dimensional body from electrical boundary measurements: the translation method

We deal with the problem of estimating the volume of inclusions using a small number of boundary measurements in electrical impedance tomography. We derive upper and lower bounds on the volume fractions of inclusions, or more generally two phase mixtures, using two boundary measurements in two dimensions. These bounds are optimal in the sense that they are attained by certain configurations with some boundary data. We derive the bounds using the translation method which uses classical variational principles with a null Lagrangian. We then obtain necessary conditions for the bounds to be attained and prove that these bounds are attained by inclusions inside which the field is uniform. When special boundary conditions are imposed the bounds reduce to those obtained by Milton and these in turn are shown here to reduce to those of Capdeboscq–Vogelius in the limit when the volume fraction tends to zero. The bounds of this article, and those of Milton, work for inclusions of arbitrary volume fractions. We then perform some numerical experiments to demonstrate how good these bounds are.     

Decision-theoretic troubleshooting: Hardness of approximation

Decision-theoretic troubleshooting is one of the areas to which Bayesian networks can be applied. Given a probabilistic model of a malfunctioning man-made device, the task is to construct a repair strategy with minimal expected cost. The problem has received considerable attention over the past two decades. Efficient solution algorithms have been found for simple cases, whereas other variants have been proven NP-complete. We study several variants of the problem found in literature, and prove that computing approximate troubleshooting strategies is NP-hard. In the proofs, we exploit a close connection to set-covering problems.     

Analysis of generalized continued fraction algorithms over polynomials

We study and compare natural generalizations of Euclid's algorithm for polynomials with coefficients in a finite field. This leads to gcd algorithms together with their associated continued fraction maps. The gcd algorithms act on triples of polynomials and rely on two-dimensional versions of the Brun, Jacobi–Perron and fully subtractive continued fraction maps, respectively. We first provide a unified framework for these algorithms and their associated continued fraction maps. We then analyse various costs for the gcd algorithms, including the number of iterations and two versions of the bit-complexity, corresponding to two representations of polynomials (the usual and the sparse one). We also study the associated two-dimensional continued fraction maps and prove the invariance and the ergodicity of the Haar measure. We deduce corresponding estimates for the costs of truncated trajectories under the action of these continued fraction maps, obtained thanks to their transfer operators, and we compare the two models (gcd algorithms and their associated continued fraction maps). Proving that the generating functions appear as dominant eigenvalues of the transfer operator allows indeed a fine comparison between the models.     

Quasiconvexification of sets in optimal design

By a suitable reformulation of a typical optimal design problem in conductivity, we treat the issue of determining the quasiconvexification (to fixed volume fraction) of certain sets of matrices that are union of two manifolds. By means of a helpful lemma, we are able to explicitly compute such hulls in a rather straightforward fashion without the need of seeking laminates by hand, and hence avoiding some tedious computations. We examine the linear case, both elliptic and hyperbolic, in 2 and higher dimension (by looking at a div–curl situation), as well as an interesting non-linear example that provides some clue as to what kind of characterization one may hope for in non-linear situations. This work was supported by the research projects MTM2007-62945 of the MCyT (Spain) and PCI08-0084-0424 of the JCCM (Castilla-La Mancha).     

A Nonsmooth Global Optimization Technique Using Slopes: The One-Dimensional Case

In this paper we introduce a pruning technique based on slopes in the context of interval branch-and-bound methods for nonsmooth global optimization. We develop the theory for a slope pruning step which can be utilized as an accelerating device similar to the monotonicity test frequently used in interval methods for smooth problems. This pruning step offers the possibility to cut away a large part of the box currently investigated by the optimization algorithm. We underline the new technique's efficiency by comparing two variants of a global optimization model algorithm: one equipped with the monotonicity test and one equipped with the pruning step. For this reason, we compared the required CPU time, the number of function and derivative or slope evaluations, and the necessary storage space when solving several smooth global optimization problems with the two variants. The paper concludes on the test results for several nonsmooth examples.     

Heat transfer in granular materials: effects of nonlinear heat conduction and viscous dissipation

In this paper, we study the heat transfer in a one‐dimensional fully developed flow of granular materials down a heated inclined plane. For the heat flux vector, we use a recently derived constitutive equation that reflects the dependence of the heat flux vector on the temperature gradient, the density gradient, and the velocity gradient in an appropriate frame invariant formulation. We use two different boundary conditions at the inclined surface: a constant temperature boundary condition and an adiabatic condition. A parametric study is performed to examine the effects of the material dimensionless parameters. The derived governing equations are coupled nonlinear second‐order ordinary differential equations, which are solved numerically, and the results are shown for the temperature, volume fraction, and velocity profiles. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Numerical simulation of cavitation around a two-dimensional hydrofoil using VOF method and LES turbulence model

In this paper simulation of cavitating flow over the Clark-Y hydrofoil is reported using the large eddy simulation (LES) turbulence model and volume of fluid (VOF) technique. We applied an incompressible LES modelling approach based on an implicit method for the subgrid terms. To apply the cavitation model, the flow has been considered as a single fluid, two-phase mixture. A transport equation model for the local volume fraction of vapour is solved and a finite rate mass transfer model is used for the vapourization and condensation processes. A compressive volume of fluid (VOF) method is applied to track the interface of liquid and vapour phases. This simulation is performed using a finite volume, two phase solver available in the framework of the OpenFOAM (Open Field Operation and Manipulation) software package. Simulation is performed for the cloud and super-cavitation regimes, i.e., σ = 0.8, 0.4, 0.28. We compared the results of two different mass transfer models, namely Kunz and Sauer models. The results of our simulation are compared for cavitation dynamics, starting point of cavitation, cavity’s diameter and force coefficients with the experimental data, where available. For both of steady state and transient conditions, suitable accuracy has been observed for cavitation dynamics and force coefficients.     

A Lamination Upper Bound to the Free Energy of Shape Memory Alloys

Modeling the energetic behavior of materials showing martensitic phase transformations usually leads to non-convex energy formulations. In a variety of models based on quasi-convex analysis, the Reuß lower bound, which neglects the compatibility constraint for the deformation fluctuations, is used as an estimate for the so-called energy of mixing. We present an upper bound that is on the one hand based on the lamination mixture formula, which gives an estimate of the free energy of two-variant materials and is extended to a specialized n-variant case in our work. On the other hand, we rely on experimentally well established assumptions about the type of microstructure that forms in such alloys. More precisely, we restrict the set of physically admissible microstructures to the subset of second order laminated microstructres consisting of austenite and twinned martensites. We further refine our upper bound by taking into account the notion of twin-compatibility. For the physically relevant examples of 13- and 7-variant Cu-Al-Ni shape memory alloys, striking congruence is obtained in the comparison of the Reuß lower and our upper bound for fixed volume fractions. Furthermore, we show results of global minimization of the energy obtained by each bound over the volume fractions of the variants. Similarities and differences in the energy-minimizing volume fractions are discussed. (© 2006 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

A combined finite volume–finite element scheme for the discretization of strongly nonlinear convection–diffusion–reaction problems on nonmatching grids

We propose and analyze in this paper a numerical scheme for nonlinear degenerate parabolic convection–diffusion–reaction equations in two or three space dimensions. We discretize the time evolution, convection, reaction, and source terms on a given grid, which can be nonmatching and can contain nonconvex elements, by means of the cell‐centered finite volume method. To discretize the diffusion term, we construct a conforming simplicial mesh with the vertices given by the original grid and use the conforming piecewise linear finite element method. In this way, the scheme is fully consistent and the discrete solution is naturally continuous across the interfaces between the subdomains with nonmatching grids, without introducing any supplementary equations and unknowns or using any interpolation at the interfaces. We allow for general inhomogeneous and anisotropic diffusion–dispersion tensors, propose two variants corresponding respectively to arithmetic and harmonic averaging, and use the local Péclet upstream weighting in order to only add the minimal numerical diffusion necessary to avoid spurious oscillations in the convection‐dominated case. The scheme is robust, efficient since it leads to positive definite matrices and one unknown per element, locally conservative, and satisfies the discrete maximum principle under the conditions on the simplicial mesh and the diffusion tensor usual in the finite element method. We prove its convergence using a priori estimates and the Kolmogorov relative compactness theorem and illustrate its behavior on a numerical experiment. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq, 2010     

Bisecton by Global Optimization Revisited

In partitioning methods such as branch and bound for solving global optimization problems, the so-called bisection of simplices and hyperrectangles is used since almost 40 years. Bisections are also of interest in finite-element methods. However, as far as we know, no proof has been given of the optimality of bisections with respect to other partitioning strategies. In this paper, after generalizing the current definition of partition slightly, we show that bisection is not optimal. Hybrid approaches combining different subdivision strategies with inner and outer approximation techniques can be more efficient. Even partitioning a polytope into simplices has important applications, for example in computational convexity, when one wants to find the inequality representation of a polytope with known vertices. Furthermore, a natural approach to the computation of the volume of a polytope P is to generate a simplex partition of P, since the volume of a simplex is given by a simple formula. We propose several variants of the partitioning rules and present complexity considerations. Finally, we discuss an approach for the volume computation of so-called H-polytopes, i.e., polytopes given by a system of affine inequalities. Upper bounds for the number of iterations are presented and advantages as well as drawbacks are discussed.     

Parameter estimation under ambiguity and contamination with the spurious model

Recently, we proposed variants as a statistical model for treating ambiguity. If data are extracted from an object with a machine then it might not be able to give a unique safe answer due to ambiguity about the correct interpretation of the object. On the other hand, the machine is often able to produce a finite number of alternative feature sets (of the same object) that contain the desired one. We call these feature sets variants of the object. Data sets that contain variants may be analyzed by means of statistical methods and all chapters of multivariate analysis can be seen in the light of variants. In this communication, we focus on point estimation in the presence of variants and outliers. Besides robust parameter estimation, this task requires also selecting the regular objects and their valid feature sets (regular variants). We determine the mixed MAP-ML estimator for a model with spurious variants and outliers as well as estimators based on the integrated likelihood. We also prove asymptotic results which show that the estimators are nearly consistent.The problem of variant selection turns out to be computationally hard; therefore, we also design algorithms for efficient approximation. We finally demonstrate their efficacy with a simulated data set and a real data set from genetics.