Optimal control of infinite-dimensional uncertain systems

In this paper, we consider a minimax problem of optimal control for a class of strongly nonlinear uncertain evolution equations on a Banach space. We prove the existence of optimal controls. A nontrivial example of a class of systems governed by a nonlinear partial differential equation with uncertain spatial parameters is presented for illustration.This work was supported in part by the National Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada under Grant No. A7109 and The Engineering Faculty Development Fund, University of Ottawa.The authors would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments and suggestions.     

Coulomb forces in the three-body problem with application to direct nuclear reactions

Faddeev equations are considered in the case of three charged particles interacting with both separable nuclear two-body interactions and also including Coulomb forces. Modified Faddeev equations with Coulomb Green's functions are introduced. The three-body amplitudes are given into pure Coulomb and distorted-Coulomb amplitudes. Introducing a decomposition in the angular momentum states, a set of three-body integral equations is obtained. The effect of pure coulomb amplitudes is studied in direct nuclear reactions and found to give a large contribution to the cross sections. The three-body integral equations obtained are applied for direct nuclear reactions. The angular distributions for¹²C(⁶Li,d)¹⁶O,¹⁶O(⁶Li,d)²⁰Ne, and¹²C(⁶Li,α)¹⁴N transfer reactions are calculated as well as for the⁶Li elastic scattering on¹²C. From the good agreement between the theoretically calculated and experimental data, better spectroscopic factors are extracted. The effect of including Coulomb forces in the three-body problem is found to improve the results by about 16.26%.     

Vibration analysis of quasi-symmetric structures

An efficient computational procedure is presented for the free vibration analysis of structures with unsymmetric geometry. The procedure is based on approximating the unsymmetric vibrational response of the structure by a linear combination of a few symmetric and antisymmetric modes (global approximation vectors), each obtained using approximately half the degrees of freedom of the original model. The three key elements of the procedure are: (a) use of mixed finite element models having independent shape functions for the internal forces (stress resultants) and generalized displacements, with the internal forces allowed to be discontinuous at interelement boundaries, (b) operator splitting, or additive decomposition of the different arrays in the governing finite element equations to delineate the contributions to the symmetric and antisymmetric response vectors, and (c) use of a reduction method through successive application of the finite element method and the classical Bubnov-Galerkin technique. The finite element method is first used to generate a few symmetric and antisymmetric global approximation response vectors. Then, the classical Bubnov-Galerkin technique is used to substantially reduce the size of the eigenvalue problem.

An initial set of global approximation vectors is selected to be a few symmetric and antisymmetric eigenvectors, and their various-order derivatives with respect to a tracing parameter identifying all the correction terms to the symmetric (and antisymmetric) eigenvectors. A modified (improved) set of approximation vectors is obtained by using the inverse iteration procedure. The effectiveness of the proposed procedure is demonstrated by means of a numerical example.     

On the cosmological effects of thermal masses in the era 1011K⩾T⩾5xl09K

The cosmological effects of thermal masses of particles (masses induced via interactions at nonzero temperature) as well as ordinary masses are studied. These effects are shown to be negligible for photons. For electrons, however, they modify the dependence of the universe's radiusR and the timet on temperature.     

Fast Neutron Albedo Calculations for a Concrete Shield with Different Curvatures

The O5R Monte Carlo neutron transport Code had been used to calculate the neutron albedo for neutrons reflected from plane and curved concrete shields. The present calculations were performed to investigate the fast-neutron albedo in case of ordinary concrete shield, in order to perform comparative studies with the case of neutron reflection against a flat wall. The calculations were performed for three different neutron source energies of 1 MeV, 5 MeV and 15 MeV and at neutron incident angles of 5°, 30°, 45°, 60° and 90° and for surfaces with different curvatures (flat, 100, 50, 20 and 5 cm). The results obtained reveal that there will be an appreciable error on using the flat wall albedo value in the case of duct penetration calculations. The error was assumed to be due to the neglection of the curvature effect as well as to the improper choice of the neutron incident angle.     

Photodisintegration cross section of the reaction (4)He(γ,p)(3)H between 22 and 30 MeV

The two-body photodisintegration cross section of (4)He into a proton and triton was measured with monoenergetic photon beams in 0.5 MeV energy steps between 22 and 30 MeV. High-pressure (4)He-Xe gas scintillators of various (4)He/Xe ratios served as targets and detectors. Pure Xe gas scintillators were used for background studies. A NaI detector together with a plastic scintillator paddle was employed for determining the incident photon flux. Our comprehensive data set follows the trend of the theoretical calculations of the Trento group very well, although our data are consistently lower in magnitude by about 5%. However, they differ significantly from the majority of the previous data, especially from the recent data of Shima et al. The latter data had put into question the validity of theoretical approaches used to calculate core-collapse supernova explosions and big-bang nucleosynthesis abundances of certain light nuclei.     

New precision limit on the strange vector form factors of the proton

The parity-violating cross-section asymmetry in the elastic scattering of polarized electrons from unpolarized protons has been measured at a four-momentum transfer squared Q2 = 0.624 GeV2 and beam energy E(b) = 3.48 GeV to be A(PV) = -23.80 ± 0.78(stat) ± 0.36(syst) parts per million. This result is consistent with zero contribution of strange quarks to the combination of electric and magnetic form factors G(E)(s) + 0.517G(M)(s) = 0.003 ± 0.010(stat) ± 0.004(syst) ± 0.009(ff), where the third error is due to the limits of precision on the electromagnetic form factors and radiative corrections. With this measurement, the world data on strange contributions to nucleon form factors are seen to be consistent with zero and not more than a few percent of the proton form factors.     

Thermally Radiative Rotating Magneto-Nanofluid Flow over an Exponential Sheet with Heat Generation and Viscous Dissipation:A Comparative Study

This article examines a mathematical model to analyze the rotating flow of three-dimensional water based nanofluid over a convectively heated exponentially stretching sheet in the presence of transverse magnetic field with additional effects of thermal radiation,Joule heating and viscous dissipation.Silver(Ag),copper(Cu),copper oxide(Cu O),aluminum oxide(Al_2O_3)and titanium dioxide(Ti O_2)have been taken under consideration as the nanoparticles and water(H_2O)as the base fluid.Using suitable similarity transformations,the governing partial differential equations(PDEs)of the modeled problem are transformed to the ordinary differential equations(ODEs).These ODEs are then solved numerically by applying the shooting method.For the particular situation,the results are compared with the available literature.The effects of different nanoparticles on the temperature distribution are also discussed graphically and numerically.It is witnessed that the skin friction coefficient is maximum for silver based nanofluid.Also,the velocity profile is found to diminish for the increasing values of the magnetic parameter.     

Numerical Study of Mixed Convective Peristaltic Flow through Vertical Tube with Heat Generation for Moderate Reynolds and Wave Numbers

The current study focuses on the numerical investigation of the mixed convective peristaltic mechanism through a vertical tube for non-zero Reynolds and wave number. In the set of constitutional equations, energy equation contains the term representing heat generation parameter. The problem is formulated by dropping the assumption of lubrication theory that turns the model mathematically into a system of the nonlinear partial differential equations. The results of the long wavelength in a creeping flow are deduced from the present analysis. Thus, the current study explores the neglected features of peristaltic heat flow in the mixed convective model by considering moderate values of Reynolds and wave numbers. The finite element based on Galerkin's weighted residual scheme is applied to solve the governing equations. The computed solution is presented in the form of contours of streamlines and isothermal lines, velocity and temperature profiles for variation of different involved parameters. The investigation shows that the strength of circulation for stream function increases by increasing the wave number and Reynolds number. Symmetric isotherms are reported for small values of time-mean flow. Linear behavior of pressure is noticed by vanishing inertial forces while the increase in pressure is observed by amplifying the Reynolds number.