Regularization of 2D frictional contacts for rigid body dynamics

Classic rigid body mechanics does not provide frictional forces acting in a 2D contact interface between two bodies during sticking. This is due to the statical undeterminacy related with this problem. Many technical systems, e.g. disk clutches, have such surface-to-surface contacts and it is sometimes desirable to treat them as rigid body systems despite the 2D contact. Alternatively it is possible to model the systems using elastic instead of rigid bodies, but this might lead to certain drawbacks. Here a new regularization model of such 2D contacts between rigid bodies is proposed. It is derived from a material model for elasto-plasticity in continuum mechanics. Only dry friction is taken into account. (© 2006 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

The effect of surfactant on bubble and thread dynamics

Two examples from the dynamics of surfactant-laden interfacial flow are considered. In the first example, a bubble is rapidly stretched by an imposed flow to form a dumb-bell shape, then the imposed flow is relaxed, so that the bubble evolves solely under the action of surfactant-modified surface tension. In the second example, a surfactant-coated bubble is continually stretched by a steady extensional flow. At sufficiently small strain rates, steady bubble shapes are found, whereas at larger strain rates a long-wave model of the dynamics predicts behavior that is reminiscent of experimentally observed tip-streaming. (© 2008 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

The butterfly decomposition of plane trees

We introduce the notion of doubly rooted plane trees and give a decomposition of these trees, called the butterfly decomposition, which turns out to have many applications. From the butterfly decomposition we obtain a one-to-one correspondence between doubly rooted plane trees and free Dyck paths, which implies a simple derivation of a relation between the Catalan numbers and the central binomial coefficients. We also establish a one-to-one correspondence between leaf-colored doubly rooted plane trees and free Schröder paths. The classical Chung-Feller theorem as well as some generalizations and variations follow quickly from the butterfly decomposition. We next obtain two involutions on free Dyck paths and free Schröder paths, leading to parity results and combinatorial identities. We also use the butterfly decomposition to give a combinatorial treatment of Klazar's generating function for the number of chains in plane trees. Finally we study the total size of chains in plane trees with n edges and show that the average size of such chains tends asymptotically to (n+9)/6.     

The hyper-Dirichlet process and its discrete approximations: The butterfly model

The aim of this paper is the study of some random probability distributions, called hyper-Dirichlet processes. In the simplest situation considered in the paper these distributions charge the product of three sample spaces, with the property that the first and the last component are independent conditional to the middle one. The law of the marginals on the first two and on the last two components are specified to be Dirichlet processes with the same marginal parameter measure on the common second component. The joint law is then obtained as the hyper-Markov combination, introduced in [A.P. Dawid, S.L. Lauritzen, Hyper-Markov laws in the statistical analysis of decomposable graphical models, Ann. Statist. 21 (3) (1993) 1272-1317], of these two Dirichlet processes. The processes constructed in this way in fact are in fact generalizations of the hyper-Dirichlet laws on contingency tables considered in the above paper. Our main result is the convergence to the hyper-Dirichlet process of the sequence of hyper-Dirichlet laws associated to finer and finer “discretizations” of the two parameter measures, which is proved by means of a suitable coupling construction.     

The effect of oscillations in the dynamics of differential equations with delay

The purpose of this paper is to study the dynamic behavior of delay differential equations of the form

     

The free boundary problem of American butterfly option

This article aims to characterize behaviors of the free boundary arising from American butterfly option pricing. We prove the existence and uniqueness of the solution and free boundary. And then, we classify the shape of the free boundary under different conditions. The main contribution of this paper is to prove that the free boundary of evolutionary problem converges to the free boundary of stationary problem. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The effect of time delays on transmission dynamics of schistosomiasis

A 6-dimension dynamical schistosomiasis model incorporating five time delays is established in this paper. Two equilibrium points: a disease free equilibrium and an endemic equilibrium, are calculated respectively. The stability behaviors at the disease free equilibrium are analysed. Both analytical and numerical results are presented that prepatent periods in infection can affect the schistosomiasis transmission significantly. Thus, two effective measures on schistosomiasis prevention and control are obtained: lengthening the prepatent period in susceptible snails, and prolonging the incubation periods in miracidia and cercaria by temperature control or drug restraint. And then, numerical simulations are given to illustrate the validity and effectiveness of the model. At last a discussion is provided about our results and further work.     

The vortex dynamics of a Ginzburg-Landau system under pinning effect

It is proved that the vortices of a Ginzburg-Landau system are attracted by impurities or inhomo-geneities in the super-conducting materials. The strong H1-convergence for the system is also studied.     

The effect of magnetic field on dynamics of gas bubbles in visco-elastic fluids

The effect of magnetic field on nonlinear oscillations of a spherical, acoustically forced gas bubble in nonlinear visco-elastic media is studied. The constitutive equation UCM used for modeling the rheological behaviors of the fluid. By starting from the momentum equations for bubbles considering the magnetic force and considering some simplifying assumptions, the modified bubble dynamics equation (the modified Rayleigh–Plesset equation) has been achieved. Assumptions concerning the trace of the stress tensor are addressed in light of the incorporation of visco-elastic constitutive equations into modified bubble dynamics equations. The governing equations are non-dimesionalized and numerically solved by using 4th order Runge–Kutta method. The accuracy of the calculations and the formulation is compared with the previous works done for models without the presence of magnetic field. Furthermore, the bubble size variations due to acoustic motivations and stress tensor components variations in presence of different magnitudes of magnetic fields are studied. Also, the bubble size dependence on fluid conductivity variations is declared. The relevance and importance of this approach to biomedical ultrasound applications are highlighted. Preliminary results indicate that magnetic field may be an important consideration for the risk assessment of potential cavitations and also it could be possible to damp the bubble oscillations by using magnetic fields or in opposite case amplify the oscillations which could result in higher level light emissions in sonoluminescence approach.     

Large butterfly Cayley graphs and digraphs

We present families of large undirected and directed Cayley graphs whose construction is related to butterfly networks. One approach yields, for every large $k$ and for values of $d$ taken from a large interval, the largest known Cayley graphs and digraphs of diameter $k$ and degree $d$. Another method yields, for sufficiently large $k$ and infinitely many values of $d$, Cayley graphs and digraphs of diameter $k$ and degree $d$ whose order is exponentially larger in $k$ than any previously constructed. In the directed case, these are within a linear factor in $k$ of the Moore bound.     

The dynamics of a stage-structured predator-prey system with impulsive effect and Holling mass defence

In this paper, a stage-structured Holling mass defence predator-prey model with impulsive effect is investigated. By using comparison theorem and the stroboscopic technique, sufficient conditions for the global attractivity of mature prey-extinction periodic solution and permanence of the system are obtained. Furthermore, the numerical analysis is also inserted to illuminate the feasibility of the theoretical results.     

Using distributed contacts in DEM

Granular flows in shear cells have been extensively studied using the Discrete Element Method (DEM) over the last two decades. These studies have typically been performed using the soft-sphere approach where deformation is assumed elastic and small relative to the characteristic grain scale. Consequently internal stresses and strains are not able to be modelled. As a first step towards addressing these limitations, we introduce a variant of DEM, the Distributed Contact DEM (DCDEM). This method models distributed normal and frictional contacts. In this initial implementation plastic deformation is not simulated and elastic deformation is simulated by permitting overlap as in traditional DEM. The method is compared against traditional DEM for a normal and oblique impact and a granular shear cell in the small deformation limit.     

The effect of nonlocal interactions on the dynamics of the Ginzburg-Landau equation

Nonlocal amplitude equations of the complex Ginzburg-Landau type arise in a few physical contexts, such as in ferromagnetic systems. In this paper, we study the effect of the nonlocal term on the global dynamics by considering a model nonlocal complex amplitude equation. First, we discuss the global existence, uniqueness and regularity of solutions to this equation. Then we prove the existence of the global attractor, and of a finite dimensional inertial manifold. We provide upper and lower bounds to their dimensions, and compare them with those of the cubic complex Ginzburg-Landau equation. It is observed that the nonlocal term plays a stabilizing or destabilizing role depending on the sing of the real part of its coefficient. Moreover, the nonlocal term affects not only the diameter of the attractor but also its dimension.     

The dynamics of an epidemic model for pest control with impulsive effect

In pest control, there are only a few papers on mathematical models of the dynamics of microbial diseases. In this paper a model concerning biologically-based impulsive control strategy for pest control is formulated and analyzed. The paper shows that there exists a globally stable susceptible pest eradication periodic solution when the impulsive period is less than some critical value. Further, the conditions for the permanence of the system are given. In addition, there exists a unique positive periodic solution via bifurcation theory, which implies both the susceptible pest and the infective pest populations oscillate with a positive amplitude. In this case, the susceptible pest population is infected to the maximum extent while the infective pest population has little effect on the crops. When the unique positive periodic solution loses its stability, numerical simulation shows there is a characteristic sequence of bifurcations, leading to a chaotic dynamic, which implies that this model has more complex dynamics, including period-doubling bifurcation, chaos and strange attractors.     

The effect of synchronous firing on the clustering dynamics of social amoebae

A discrete model for computer simulations of the clustering dynamics of social amoebae is presented. This model incorporates the wavelike propagation of extracellular signaling of 3′–5′‐cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP), the sporadic firing of cells at early stage of aggregation, the signal relaying as a response to stimulus, and the inertia and purposeful random walk of the cell movement. It is found that the sporadic firing below the threshold of cAMP concentration plays an important role because it allows time for the cells to form synchronous firing right before the stage of aggregation, and the synchronous firing is critical for the onset of clustering behavior of social amoebae. A Monte‐Carlo simulation was also run which showed the existence of potential equilibriums of mean and variance of aggregation time. The simulation result of this model could well reproduce many phenomena observed by actual experiments. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Complexity 20: 16–26, 2014     

Complex dynamics in a discrete-time predator-prey system without Allee effect

In this paper, complex dynamics of the discrete-time predator-prey system without Allee effect are investigated in detail. Conditions of the existence for flip bifurcation and Hopf bifurcation are derived by using center manifold theorem and bifurcation theory and checked up by numerical simulations. Chaos, in the sense of Marotto, is also proved by both analytical and numerical methods. Numerical simulations included bifurcation diagrams, Lyapunov exponents, phase portraits, fractal dimensions display new and richer dynamics behaviors. More specifically, this paper presents the finding of period-one orbit, period-three orbits, and chaos in the sense of Marotto, complete period-doubling bifurcation and invariant circle leading to chaos with a great abundance period-windows, simultaneous occurrance of two different routes (invariant circle and inverse period- doubling bifurcation, and period-doubling bifurcation and inverse period-doubling bifurcation) to chaos for a given bifurcation parameter, period doubling bifurcation with period-three orbits to chaos, suddenly appearing or disappearing chaos, different kind of interior crisis, nice chaotic attractors, coexisting (2,3,4) chaotic sets, non-attracting chaotic set, and so on, in the discrete-time predator-prey system. Combining the existing results in the current literature with the new results reported in this paper, a more complete understanding is given of the discrete-time predator-prey systems with Allee effect and without Allee effect.     

The parameterized algorithm for symplectic (butterfly) matrices

The algorithm is a structure-preserving algorithm for computing the spectrum of symplectic matrices. Any symplectic matrix can be reduced to symplectic butterfly form. A symplectic matrix in butterfly form is uniquely determined by parameters. Using these parameters, we show how one step of the symplectic algorithm for can be carried out in arithmetic operations compared to arithmetic operations when working on the actual symplectic matrix. Moreover, the symplectic structure, which will be destroyed in the numerical process due to roundoff errors when working with a symplectic (butterfly) matrix, will be forced by working just with the parameters.

     

Regression analyses on the butterfly ballot effect: a statistical perspective of the US 2000 election

The year 2000 US presidential election between Al Gore and George Bush has been the most intriguing and controversial one in American history. The state of Florida was the trigger for the controversy, mainly, due to the use of the misleading ‘butterfly ballot’. Using prediction (or confidence) intervals for least squares regression lines on the Florida election data, under some reasonable assumption, this author concludes that the ambiguity with regards to the butterfly ballot does have a significant impact on the final election result.     

Planned contacts and collision avoidance in optimal control problems

In previous works, discrete mechanics and optimal control for constrained systems (DMOCC) has been introduced for the structure preserving simulation of optimal control problems for rigid multibody systems, whereby possible contacts or collisions between the bodies have been disregarded. In the formulation presented here, both collision avoidance as well as explicitly planned collisions between non-smooth bodies are included. To this end, a subdifferentiable global contact detection algorithm, the supporting separating hyperplane linear program (SSHLP), based on the signed distance between supporting hyperplanes of two convex sets, is used in the simulation of optimal control problems. (© 2012 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)