Commutative L-sets and nilpotent TL-groups

The notions of a commutative L-subset and a nilpotent TL-subgroup are introduced and some of their properties are investigated. In particular, it is shown that all nilpotent groups can be characterized in terms of their nilpotent TL-subgroups.     

Numerical analysis of a quadratic matrix equation

The quadratic matrix equation AX²+ BX + C = 0in n x nmatricesarises in applications and is of intrinsic interest as oneof the simplest nonlinear matrix equations. We give a completecharacterization of solutions in terms of the generalized Schurdecomposition and describe and compare various numerical solutiontechniques. In particular, we give a thorough treatment offunctional iteration methods based on Bernoulli’s method.Other methods considered include Newton’s method with exact line searches, symbolic solution and continued fractions.We show that functional iteration applied to the quadraticmatrix equation can provide an efficient way to solve the associated quadratic eigenvalue problem (²A + B + C)x = 0.     

Photonic Crystal Fiber Attenuator

We propose a novel fiber attenuator based on photonic crystal fibers. The difference in the modal field diameters of a conventional single mode fiber and a photonic crystal fiber was used. A variable optical attenuator was also achieved by applying macro-bending on the PCF part of the proposed attenuator     

Cauchy problems for linear thermoelastic systems of type III in one space variable

The goal of the paper is to analyse properties of solutions for linear thermoelastic systems of type III in one space variable. Our approach does not use energy methods, it bases on a special diagonalization procedure which is different in different parts of the phase space. This procedure allows to derive explicit representations of solutions. These representations help to prove results for well‐posedness of the Cauchy problem, L^P–L^q decay estimates on the conjugate line and results for propagation of singularities. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A non‐linear and non‐local boundary condition for a diffusion equation in petroleum engineering

This article deals with a boundary value problem for Laplace equation with a non‐linear and non‐local boundary condition. This problem comes from petroleum engineering and is used to obtain an estimation of well productivity. The non‐linear and non‐local boundary condition is written on the well boundary. On the outer reservoir boundaries, we have both Dirichlet and Neumann conditions. In this paper, we prove the existence and uniqueness of a solution to this problem. The existence is proved by Schauder theorem and the uniqueness is obtained under more restricted conditions, when the involved operator is a contraction. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Elastic constants of natural quartz

The elastic constants of a natural-quartz sphere using resonance-ultrasound spectroscopy (RUS) are measured. The measurements of the near-traction-free vibrational frequencies of the sphere are matched with the predicted frequencies from the dynamic theory of elasticity, with optimized estimates for the elastic constants driving the differences between these sets of frequencies to a minimal value. The present computational model, although based on earlier approaches, is the first application of RUS to trigonal-symmetry spheres. Quartz shows six independent elastic constants, and our estimates of these constants are close to those computed by other means. Except for C14, after a 1% mass-density correction, natural quartz and cultured quartz show the same elastic constants. Natural quartz shows higher internal frictions.     

Exact dynamic and static stiffness matrices of shear deformable thin-walled beam-columns

Total potential energy of non-symmetric thin-walled beam-columns in the general form is presented by introducing the displacement field based on semitangential rotations and deriving transformation equations between displacement and force parameters defined at the arbitrary axis and the centroid-shear center axis, respectively. Next, governing equations and force-deformation relations are derived from the total potential energy for a shear-deformable, uniform beam element and a system of linear eigenproblem with non-symmetric matrices is constructed based on 14 displacement parameters. And then explicit expressions for displacement parameters are derived and exact dynamic stiffness matrices are determined using force-deformatin relationships. In addition, the modified numerical method to eliminate multiple zero eigenvalues and to evaluate the exact static stiffness matrix is developed for spatial stability analysis. Finally, in order to demonstrate the validity and the accuracy of this study, the spatially coupled natural frequencies and buckling loads are evaluated and compared with analytical solutions or results analyzed by thin-walled beam elements and ABAQUS's shell elements.     

Micromachining of circular ring microstructure by femtosecond laser pulses

In this paper, integration of interference phenomenon into femtosecond laser micromachining was reported as the femtosecond laser pulses were reshaped spatially to perform ablation. The generation of circular interference pattern was demonstrated by overlapping infrared femtosecond laser pulses. The interference pattern was subsequently focused on a copper substrate to ablate microstructures of concentric circular rings. The present technique is expected to open up new applications in the areas of rapid fabrication of micro-Fresnel lenses, hybrid microlenses and lens arrays.     

Phase transition of quantum-corrected Schwarzschild black hole

We study the thermodynamic phase transition of a quantum-corrected Schwarzschild black hole. The modified metric affects the critical temperature which is slightly less than the conventional one. The space without black holes is not the hot flat space but the hot curved space due to vacuum fluctuations so that there appears a type of Gross–Perry–Yaffe phase transition even for the very small size of black hole, which is impossible for the thermodynamics of the conventional Schwarzschild black hole. We discuss physical consequences of the new phase transition in this framework.     

Improved Statistically Optimal Nearfield Acoustical Holography in subsonically moving fluid medium

Statistically Optimal Nearfield Acoustical Holography (SONAH) can be used to reconstruct three-dimensional sound fields by projecting two-dimensional data measured on a “small” aperture that partially covers a composite sound source in a “static” fluid medium. Here, an improved SONAH procedure is proposed that includes the mean flow effects of a moving fluid medium while the sound source and receivers are stationary. The backward projection performance of the proposed procedure is further improved by using a wavenumber filter to suppress subsonic noise components. Through numerical simulations at Mach 0.6, it is shown that the improved procedure can accurately reconstruct sound source locations and radiation patterns: e.g., the spatially averaged reconstruction errors of the conventional and improved SONAH procedures are 15.40 dB and 0.19 dB, respectively, for a monopole simulation and 21.60 dB and 0.19 dB for an infinite-size panel. The wavenumber filter further reduces spatial noise, e.g., decreasing the reconstruction error from 1.73 dB to 0.19 dB for the panel simulation. An existing data measured in a wind tunnel operating at Mach 0.12 is reused for the validation. The locations and radiation patterns of the two loudspeakers are successfully identified from the sound fields reconstructed by using the proposed SONAH procedure.