Utilization of characteristic polynomials in vibration analysis of non-uniform beams under a moving mass excitation

Vibration of non-uniform beams with different boundary conditions subjected to a moving mass is investigated. The beam is modeled using Euler–Bernoulli beam theory. Applying the method of eigenfunction expansion, equation of motion has been transformed into a number of coupled linear time-varying ordinary differential equations. In non-uniform beams, the exact vibration functions do not exist and in order to solve these equations using eigenfunction expansion method, an adequate set of functions must be selected as the assumed vibration modes. A set of polynomial functions called as beam characteristic polynomials, which is constructed by considering beam boundary conditions, have been used along with the vibration functions of the equivalent uniform beam with similar boundary conditions, as the assumed vibration functions. Orthogonal polynomials which are generated by utilizing a Gram–Schmidt process are also used, and results of their application show no advantage over the set of simple non-orthogonal polynomials. In the numerical examples, both natural frequencies and forced vibration of three different non-uniform beams with different shapes and boundary conditions are scrutinized.     

An accurate application of the integral method applied to the diffusion of oxygen in absorbing tissue

Accurate integral methods are applied to a one dimensional moving boundary problem describing the diffusion of oxygen in absorbing tissue. These methods have been well studied for classic Stefan problems but this situation is unusual because there is no condition which contains the velocity of the moving boundary explicitly. This paper begins by giving a short time solution and then discusses some of the previous integral methods found in the literature. The main drawbacks of these solutions are that they cannot be solved from $t=0$ and also cannot determine the end behaviour. This is due to the non-uniform initial profile which integral methods typically fail to capture. The use of a novel transformation removes this non-uniformity and, on applying optimal integral methods to the resulting system, leads to simple and yet very accurate approximate solutions that overcome the deficiencies of previous methods.     

A multiple window scan statistic for time series models

In this article we extend the results derived for scan statistics in Wang and Glaz (2014) for independent normal observations. We investigate the performance of two approximations for the distribution of fixed window scan statistics for time series models. An R algorithm for computing multivariate normal probabilities established in Genz and Bretz (2009) can be used along with proposed approximations to implement fixed window scan statistics for ARMA models. The accuracy of these approximations is investigated via simulation. Moreover, a multiple window scan statistic is defined for detecting a local change in the mean of a Gaussian white noise component in ARMA models, when the appropriate length of the scanning window is unknown. Based on the numerical results, for power comparisons of the scan statistics, we can conclude that when the window size of a local change is unknown, the multiple window scan statistic outperforms the fixed window scan statistics.     

A fast and efficient mesh segmentation method based on improved region growing

Mesh segmentation is one of the important issues in digital geometry processing. Region growing method has been proven to be a efficient method for 3D mesh segmentation. However, in mesh segmentation, feature line extraction algorithm is computationally costly, and the over-segmentation problem still exists during region merging processing. In order to tackle these problems, a fast and efficient mesh segmentation method based on improved region growing is proposed in this paper. Firstly, the dihedral angle of each non-boundary edge is defined and computed simply, then the sharp edges are detected and feature lines are extracted. After region growing process is finished, an improved region merging method will be performed in two steps by considering some geometric criteria. The experiment results show the feature line extraction algorithm can obtain the same geometric information fast with less computational costs and the improved region merging method can solve over-segmentation well.     

Uniform convergence analysis of hybrid numerical scheme for singularly perturbed problems of mixed type

In this article, we consider a class of singularly perturbed mixed parabolic‐elliptic problems whose solutions possess both boundary and interior layers. To solve these problems, a hybrid numerical scheme is proposed and it is constituted on a special rectangular mesh which consists of a layer resolving piecewise‐uniform Shishkin mesh in the spatial direction and a uniform mesh in the temporal direction. The domain under consideration is partitioned into two subdomains. For the spatial discretization, the proposed scheme is comprised of the classical central difference scheme in the first subdomain and a hybrid finite difference scheme in the second subdomain, whereas the time derivative in the given problem is discretized by the backward‐Euler method. We prove that the method converges uniformly with respect to the perturbation parameter with almost second‐order spatial accuracy in the discrete supremum norm. Numerical results are finally presented to validate the theoretical results.© 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 30: 1931–1960, 2014     

On the stability of two new two-step explicit methods for the numerical integration of second order initial value problem on a variable mesh

We present two novel two-step explicit methods for the numerical solution of the second order initial value problem on a variable mesh. In the case of a constant mesh the method is superstable in the sense of Chawla (1985). Numerical experimentation is provided to verify the stability analysis.     

A stable and accurate projection method on a locally refined staggered mesh

In this paper, a robust projection method on a locally refined mesh is proposed for two‐ and three‐dimensional viscous incompressible flows. The proposed method is robust not only when the interface between two meshes is located in a smooth flow region but also when the interface is located in a flow region with large gradients and/or strong unsteadiness. In numerical simulations, a locally refined mesh saves many grid points in regions of relatively small gradients compared with a uniform mesh. For efficiency and ease of implementation, we consider a two‐level blocked structure, for which both of the coarse and fine meshes are uniform Cartesian ones individually. Unfortunately, the introduction of the two‐level blocked mesh results in an important but difficult issue: coupling of the coarse and fine meshes. In this paper, by properly addressing the issue of the coupling, we propose a stable and accurate projection method on a locally refined staggered mesh for both two‐ and three‐dimensional viscous incompressible flows. The proposed projection method is based on two principles: the linear interpolation technique and the consistent discretization of both sides of the pressure Poisson equation. The proposed algorithm is straightforward owing to the linear interpolation technique, is stable and accurate, is easy to extend from two‐ to three‐dimensional flows, and is valid even when flows with large gradients cross the interface between the two meshes. The resulting pressure Poisson equation is non‐symmetric on a locally refined mesh. The numerical results for a series of exact solutions for 2D and 3D viscous incompressible flows verify the stability and accuracy of the proposed projection method. The method is also applied to some challenging problems, including turbulent flows around particles, flows induced by impulsively started/stopped particles, and flows induced by particles near solid walls, to test the stability and accuracy. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Feature-driven Cartesian adaptive mesh refinement for vortex-dominated flows

We develop locally normalized feature-detection methods to guide the adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) process for Cartesian grid systems to improve the resolution of vortical features in aerodynamic wakes. The methods include: the Q-criterion [1], the λ₂ method [2], the λ_ci method [3], and the λ₊ method [4]. Specific attention is given to automate the feature identification process by applying a local normalization based upon the shear-strain rate so that they can be applied to a wide range of flow-fields without the need for user intervention. To validate the methods, we assess tagging efficiency and accuracy using a series of static vortex-dominated flow-fields, and use the methods to drive the AMR process for several theoretical and practical simulations. We demonstrate that the adaptive solutions provide comparable accuracy to solutions obtained on uniformly refined meshes at a fraction of the computational cost. Overall, the normalized feature detection methods are shown to be effective in driving the AMR process in an automated and efficient manner.     

Fourth‐order exponential finite difference methods for boundary value problems of convective diffusion type

Methods based on exponential finite difference approximations of h⁴ accuracy are developed to solve one and two‐dimensional convection–diffusion type differential equations with constant and variable convection coefficients. In the one‐dimensional case, the numerical scheme developed uses three points. For the two‐dimensional case, even though nine points are used, the successive line overrelaxation approach with alternating direction implicit procedure enables us to deal with tri‐diagonal systems. The methods are applied on a number of linear and non‐linear problems, mostly with large first derivative terms, in particular, fluid flow problems with boundary layers. Better accuracy is obtained in all the problems, compared with the available results in the literature. Application of an exponential scheme with a non‐uniform mesh is also illustrated. The h⁴ accuracy of the schemes is also computationally demonstrated. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.