Positivity of the Shape Hessian and Instability of some Equilibrium Shapes

We study the positivity of the second shape derivative around an equilibrium for a 2-dimensional functional involving the perimeter of the shape and its the Dirichlet energy under volume constraint. We prove that, generally, convex equilibria lead to strictly positive second derivatives. We also exhibit some examples where strict positivity of the second order derivative holds at an equilibrium while existence of a minimum does not.     

Drag minimization for Navier–Stokes Flow

This paper investigates the drag minimization in a two‐dimensional flow which is governed by a nonhomogeneous Navier–Stokes equations. Two approaches are utilized to derive shape gradient of the cost functional. The first one is to use the shape derivative of the fluid state and its associated adjoint state; the second one is to utilize the differentiability of a minimax formulation involving a Lagrange functional with a function space parametrization technique. Finally, a gradient type algorithm is effectively formulated and implemented for the mentioned drag minimization problem. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq, 2009     

A second order minimality condition for the Mumford-Shah functional

A new necessary minimality condition for the Mumford-Shah functional is derived by means of second order variations. It is expressed in terms of a sign condition for a nonlocal quadratic form on H ¹ ₀(Γ), Γ being a submanifold of the regular part of the discontinuity set of the critical point. Two equivalent formulations are provided: one in terms of the first eigenvalue of a suitable compact operator, the other involving a sort of nonlocal capacity of Γ. A sufficient condition for minimality is also deduced. Finally, an explicit example is discussed, where a complete characterization of the domains where the second variation is nonnegative can be given.     

Nonsmooth domain optimization for elliptic equations with unilateral conditions

In the paper we consider elliptic boundary problems in domains having cuts (cracks). The non-penetration condition of inequality type is prescribed at the crack faces. A dependence of the derivative of the energy functional with respect to variations of crack shape is investigated. This shape derivative can be associated with the crack propagation criterion in the elasticity theory. We analyze an optimization problem of finding the crack shape which provides a minimum of the energy functional derivative with respect to a perturbation parameter and prove a solution existence to this problem.     

Shape optimization for the Maxwell equations under weaker regularity of the data

We consider a shape optimization problem for Maxwell's equations with a strictly dissipative boundary condition. In order to characterize the shape derivative as a solution to a boundary value problem, sharp regularity of the boundary traces is critical. This Note establishes the Fréchet differentiability of a shape functional.     

Computation of high order derivatives in optimal shape design

Summary. In shape optimization problems, each computation of the cost function by the finite element method leads to an expensive analysis. The use of the second order derivative can help to reduce the number of analyses. Fujii ([4], [10]) was the first to study this problem. J. Simon [19] gave the second order derivative for the Navier-Stokes problem, and the authors describe in [8], [11], a method which gives an intrinsic expression of the first and second order derivatives on the boundary of the involved domain. In this paper we study higher order derivatives. But one can ask the following questions: -- are they expensive to calculate? -- are they complicated to use? -- are they imprecise? -- are they useless? \medskip\noindent At first sight, the answer seems to be positive, but classical results of V. Strassen [20] and J. Morgenstern [13] tell us that the higher order derivatives are not expensive to calculate, and can be computed automatically. The purpose of this paper is to give an answer to the third question by proving that the higher order derivatives of a function can be computed with the same precision as the function itself. We prove also that the derivatives so computed are equal to the derivatives of the discrete problem (see Diagram 1). We call the discrete problem the finite dimensional problem processed by the computer. This result allows the use of automatic differentiation ([5], [6]), which works only on discrete problems. Furthermore, the computations of Taylor's expansions which are proposed at the end of this paper, could be a partial answer to the last question. Received January 27, 1993/Revised version received July 20, 1993     

Existence result for a new variational problem in one-dimensional segmentation theory

In order to study some segmentation problems in dimension one, we propose a new functional, whose leading term includes the second order derivative of the unknown function. We prove an existence result for the associated minimization problem, by relying on the compactness and the lower semicontinuity of the functional with respect to theL ¹-convergence.     

A variational approach to the regularity of minimal surfaces of annulus type in Riemannian manifolds

Given two Jordan curves in a Riemannian manifold, a minimal surface of annulus type bounded by these curves is described as the harmonic extension of a critical point of some functional (the Dirichlet integral) in a certain space of boundary parametrizations. The H2,2-regularity of the minimal surface of annulus type will be proved by applying the critical points theory and Morrey's growth condition.     

The optimal shape of a dendrite sealed at both ends

In this paper, we are interested in the geometric structures which appear in nature. We consider the example of a nerve fiber and we suppose that shapes in nature arise in order to optimize some criterion. Then, we try to solve the problem consisting in searching the shape of a nerve fiber for a given criterion. The first considered criterion represents the attenuation in space of the electrical message troughout the fiber and seems to be relevant. Our second criterion represents the attenuation in time of the electrical message and doesn't provide a realistic shape. We prove that the associated optimization problem has no solution.     

Stability for hypersurfaces of constant mean curvature with free boundary

The partitioning problem for a smooth convex bodyB ³ consists in to study, among surfaces which divideB in two pieces of prescribed volume, those which are critical points of the area functional.We study stable solutions of the above problem: we obtain several topological and geometrical restrictions for this kind of surfaces. In the case thatB is a Euclidean ball we obtain stronger results.Antonio Ros is partially supported by DGICYT grant PB91-0731 and Enaldo Vergasta is partially supported by CNPq grant 202326/91-8.     

Uniform partial regularity of quasi minimizers for the perimeter

Quasi minimizers for the perimeter are measurable subsets G of such that for all variations of G with and for a given increasing function such that . We prove here that, given , G a reduced quasi minimizer, and , there are , with , and , homeomorphic to a closed ball with radius t in , such that for some absolute constant . The constant above depends only on n, and . If moreover for some , we prove that we can find such a ball such that is a dimensional graph of class . This will be obtained proving that a quasi minimizer is equivalent to some set which satisfies the condition B. This condition gives some kind of uniform control on the flatness of the boundary and then criterions proven by Ambrosio-Paolini and Tamanini can be applied to get the required regularity properties. Received: July 12, 1999 / Accepted: October 1, 1999     

Numerical solutions of the m-membranes problem

In this paper numerical approximation for the m-membrane problem is considered. We make a change of variables that leads to a different expression of the quadratic functional that allows after discretizing the problem to reformulate it as finite dimensional bound constrained quadratic problem. To our knowledge this is the first paper on numerical approximation of the m-membrane problem. We reformulate the m-membrane problem as a bound constraint quadratic minimization problem. The bound constraint quadratic form is solved with the gradient projection method.     

On a Kohn-Vogelius like formulation of free boundary problems

The present paper is concerned with the solution of a Bernoulli type free boundary problem by means of shape optimization. Two state functions are introduced, namely one which satisfies the mixed boundary value problem, whereas the second one satisfies the pure Dirichlet problem. The shape problem under consideration is the minimization of the L ²-distance of the gradients of the state functions. We compute the corresponding shape gradient and Hessian. By the investigation of sufficient second order conditions we prove algebraic ill-posedness of the present formulation. Our theoretical findings are supported by numerical experiments.     

Slow motion of gradient flows

We present sufficient conditions on an energy landscape in order for the associated gradient flow to exhibit slow motion or “dynamic metastability.” The first condition is a weak form of convexity transverse to the so-called slow manifold, N. The second condition is that the energy restricted to N is Lipschitz with a constant δ?1. One feature of the abstract result that makes it of broader interest is that it does not rely on maximum principles.As an application, we give a new proof of the exponentially slow motion of transition layers in the one-dimensional Allen-Cahn equation. The analysis is more nonlinear than previous work: It relies on the nonlinear convexity condition or “energy-energy-dissipation inequality.” (Although we do use the maximum principle for convenience in the application, we believe it may be removed with additional work.) Our result demonstrates that a broad class of initial data relaxes with an exponential rate into a δ-neighborhood of the slow manifold, where it is then trapped for an exponentially long time.     

Viscosity solutions to second order partial differential equations on Riemannian manifolds

We prove comparison, uniqueness and existence results for viscosity solutions to a wide class of fully nonlinear second order partial differential equations F(x,u,du,d²u)=0 defined on a finite-dimensional Riemannian manifold M. Finest results (with hypothesis that require the function F to be degenerate elliptic, that is nonincreasing in the second order derivative variable, and uniformly continuous with respect to the variable x) are obtained under the assumption that M has nonnegative sectional curvature, while, if one additionally requires F to depend on d²u in a uniformly continuous manner, then comparison results are established with no restrictive assumptions on curvature.     

The pure displacement problem in nonlinear three-dimensional elasticity: intrinsic formulation and existence theorems

In this Note, the equations of nonlinear three-dimensional elasticity corresponding to the pure displacement problem are recast either as a boundary value problem, or as a minimization problem, where the unknown is in both cases the Cauchy–Green strain tensor, instead of the deformation as is customary. We then show that either problem possesses a solution if the applied forces are sufficiently small and the stored energy function satisfies specific hypotheses. The second problem provides an example of a minimization problem for a non-coercive functional over a Banach manifold. To cite this article: P.G. Ciarlet, C. Mardare, C. R. Acad. Sci. Paris, Ser. I 347 (2009).     

Variational principles with integrands defined through a minimum

We revisit a systematic approach for the computation and analysis of the convex hull of non-convex integrands defined through the minimum of convex densities. It consists in reformulating the non-convex variational problem as a double minimization and exploiting appropriately the nature of optimality of the inner minimization. This requires gradient Young measures in the vector case, even if the initial problem was scalar, as the full problem is recast through the computation of a certain quasiconvexification. We illustrate this strategy by looking at two typical non-convex scalar problems. We hope to address vector problems in the near future.     

Limiting properties of the second order Ginzburg–Landau minimizers

The author studies the weak convergence for the gradient of the minimizers for a second order energy functional when the parameter tends to 0. And this paper is also concerned with the location of the zeros and the blow-up points of the gradient of the minimizers of this functional. Finally, the strong convergence of the gradient of the radial minimizers is obtained.     

Decay estimates for homogeneous Boussinesq equations in a semi-infinite pipe

In this paper, we establish the spatial decay bounds for homogeneous Boussinesq equations in a semi-infinite pipe flow. Assuming that the entrance velocity and magnetic field data are restricted appropriately, and it converges to laminar flow as the distance down the pipe tends to infinity, we derive a second order differential inequality that leads to an exponential decay estimate for the energy E(z,t) defined in (27). We also indicate how to establish the explicit bound for the total energy.     

A Lagrangian approach to intrinsic linearized elasticity

We consider the pure traction problem and the pure displacement problem of three-dimensional linearized elasticity. We show that, in each case, the intrinsic approach leads to a quadratic minimization problem constrained by Donati-like relations. Using the Babu?ka–Brezzi inf–sup condition, we then show that, in each case, the minimizer of the constrained minimization problem found in an intrinsic approach is the first argument of the saddle-point of an ad hoc Lagrangian, so that the second argument of this saddle-point is the Lagrange multiplier associated with the corresponding constraints.