Aeolian transport of sand

The airborne transport of particles on a granular surface by the saltation mechanism is studied through numerical simulation of particles dragged by turbulent air flow. We calculate the saturated flux q_s and show that its dependence on the wind strength u_* is consistent with several empirical relations obtained from experimental measurements. We propose and explain a new relation for fluxes close to the threshold velocity u_t, namely, q_s=a(u_*-u_t)^α with α≈2. We also obtain the distortion of the velocity profile of the wind due to the drag of the particles and find a novel dynamical scaling relation. We also obtain a new expression for the dependence of the height of the saltation layer as function of the strength of the wind.     

Confined ferrofluid droplet in crossed magnetic fields

When a ferrofluid drop is trapped in a horizontal Hele-Shaw cell and subjected to a vertical magnetic field, a fingering instability results in the droplet evolving into a complex branched structure. This fingering instability depends on the magnetic field ramp rate but also depends critically on the initial state of the droplet. Small perturbations in the initial droplet can have a large influence on the resulting final pattern. By simultaneously applying a stabilizing (horizontal) azimuthal magnetic field, we gain more control over the mode selection mechanism. We perform a linear stability analysis that shows that any single mode can be selected by appropriately adjusting the strengths of the applied fields. This offers a unique and accurate mode selection mechanism for this confined magnetic fluid system. We present the results of numerical simulations that demonstrate that this mode selection mechanism is quite robust and “overpowers” any initial perturbations on the droplet. This provides a predictable way to obtain patterns with any desired number of fingers.     

Steady drainage in emulsions: corrections for surface Plateau borders and a model for high aqueous volume fraction

We compare extensive experimental results for the gravity-driven steady drainage of oil-in-water emulsions with two theoretical predictions, both based on the assumption of Poiseuille flow. The first is from standard foam drainage theory, applicable at low aqueous volume fractions, for which a correction is derived to account for the effects of the confinement of the emulsion. The second arises from considering the permeability of a model porous medium consisting of solid sphere packings, applicable at higher aqueous volume fractions. We find quantitative agreement between experiment and the foam drainage theory at low aqueous volume fractions. At higher aqueous volume fractions, the reduced flow rate calculated from the permeability theory approaches the master curve of the experimental data. Our experimental data demonstrates the analogy between the problem of electrical flow and liquid flow through foams and emulsions.     

Nonlocal Interaction Equations in Environments with Heterogeneities and Boundaries

We study well-posedness of a class of nonlocal interaction equations with spatially dependent mobility. We also allow for the presence of boundaries and external potentials. Such systems lead to the study of nonlocal interaction equations on subsets ? of ? ^d endowed with a Riemannian metric g. We obtain conditions, relating the interaction potential and the geometry, which imply existence, uniqueness and stability of solutions. We study the equations in the setting of gradient flows in the space of probability measures on ? endowed with Riemannian 2-Wasserstein metric.     

Weak Euler Approximation for Itô Diffusion and Jump Processes

This article studies the rate of convergence of the weak Euler approximation for Itô diffusion and jump processes with Hölder-continuous generators. It covers a number of stochastic processes including the nondegenerate diffusion processes and a class of stochastic differential equations driven by stable processes. To estimate the rate of convergence, the existence of a unique solution to the corresponding backward Kolmogorov equation in Hölder space is first proved. It then shows that the Euler scheme yields positive weak order of convergence.     

Dual-modality and dual-energy gamma ray densitometry of petroleum products using an artificial neural network

The prediction of volume fractions in order to measure the multiphase flow rate is a very important issue and is the key parameter of multi-phase flow meters (MPFMs). Currently, the gamma ray attenuation technique is known as one of the most precise methods for obtaining volume fractions. The gamma ray attenuation technique is based on the mass attenuation coefficient, which is sensitive to density changes; density is sensitive in turn to temperature and pressure fluctuations. Therefore, MPFM efficiency depends strongly on environmental conditions. The conventional solution to this problem is the periodical recalibration of MPFMs, which is a demanding task. In this study, a method based on dual-modality densitometry and artificial intelligence (AI) is presented, which offers the advantage of the measurement of the oil–gas–water volume fractions independent of density changes. For this purpose, several experiments were carried out and used to validate simulated dual modality densitometry results. The reference density point was established at a temperature of 20 °C and pressure of 1 bar. To cover the full range of likely density fluctuations, four additional density sets were defined (at changes of ±4% and ±8% from the reference point). An annular regime with different percentages of oil, gas and water at different densities was simulated. Four features were extracted from the transmission and scattered detectors and were applied to the artificial neural network (ANN) as inputs. The input parameters included the ²⁴¹Am full energy peak, ¹³⁷Cs Compton edge, ¹³⁷Cs full energy peak and total scattered count, and the outputs were the oil and air percentages. A multi-layer perceptron (MLP) neural network was used to predict the volume fraction independent of the oil and water density changes. The obtained results show that the proposed ANN model achieved good agreement with the real data, with an estimated root mean square error (RMSE) of less than 3.     

Dynamics of the thermocline in the equatorial region of the Pacific ocean

This paper is devoted to the subsurface current dynamics in equatorial regions, where the hallmark of a strong stratification is a sharp interface (thermocline), separating two layers of different density, and whose depth is dependent upon the strength of the winds above the ocean's surface. We give here a few monotonicity results concerning the dynamics of the thermocline in the equatorial region. The most important one asserts that the level of the thermocline decreases as the strength of the wind at ten meters above the ocean surface, denoted |U_w|, increases. Moreover, the strength of the current at the thermocline decreases as |U_w| increases.     

A VORTICITY–STREAMFUNCTION FORMULATION FOR STEADY INCOMPRESSIBLE TWO-DIMENSIONAL FLOWS

A vorticity–streamfunction formulation for incompressible planar viscous flows is presented. The standard kinematic field equations are discretized using centred finite difference schemes and solved in a coupled way via a Newton-like linearization scheme. The linearized system of partial differential equations is handled through the restarting linear GMRES algorithm, preconditioned by means of an incomplete LU approximate factorization. The proposed solution technique constitutes a fast and robust algorithm for treating laminar flows at high Reynolds numbers. The pressure field is obtained at a subsequent step by solving a convection– diffusion equation in terms of the stagnation pressure, which presents certain advantages compared with the widely used static pressure Poisson equation. Results are shown for a wide variety of applications including internal and external flows.     

Euler方程的解在Besov空间上的存在性和惟一性

利用交换子及不可压缩流的性质,得到了Eu ler方程在Besov空间的端点情形时存在性和惟一性.