Studies on calcium‐containing poly(urethane ether)s

The calcium salt of mono(hydroxyethoxyethyl)phthalate [Ca(HEEP)₂] was synthesized by the reaction of diethylene glycol, phthalic anhydride, and calcium acetate. Calcium‐containing poly(urethane ether)s (PUEs) were synthesized by the reaction of hexamethylene diisocyanate (HMDI) or tolylene 2,4‐diisocyanate (TDI) with a mixture of Ca(HEEP)₂ and poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG₃₀₀ or PEG₄₀₀) with di‐n‐butyltin dilaurate as a catalyst. A series of calcium‐containing PUEs of different compositions were synthesized with Ca(HEEP)₂/PEG₃₀₀ (or PEG₄₀₀)/diisocyanate (HMDI or TDI) molar ratios of 2:2:4, 3:1:4, and 1:3:4 so that the coating properties of the PUEs could be studied. Blank PUEs without calcium‐containing ionic diols were also prepared by the reaction of PEG₃₀₀ or PEG₄₀₀ with HMDI or TDI. The PUEs were well characterized by Fourier transform infrared, ¹H and ¹³C NMR, solid‐state cross‐polarity/magic‐angle‐spinning ¹³C NMR, viscosity, solubility, and X‐ray diffraction studies. The thermal properties of the polymers were also studied with thermogravimetric analysis and differential scanning calorimetry. The PUEs were applied as top coats on acrylic‐coated leather, and their physicomechanical properties were also studied. The coating properties of PUEs, such as the tensile strength, elongation at break, tear strength, water vapor permeability, flexing endurance, cold crack resistance, abrasion resistance, color fastness, and adhesive strength, were better than the standard values. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 41: 2865–2878, 2003     

Dynamic mechanical thermal analysis transitions of partially and fully substituted cellulose fatty esters

The main transitions of cellulose fatty esters with different degrees of substitution (DSs) were investigated with dynamic mechanical thermal analysis. Two distinct main relaxations were observed in partially substituted cellulose esters (PSCEs). They were attributed to the glass‐transition temperature and to the chain local motion of the aliphatic substituents. The temperatures of both transitions decreased when DS or the number of carbon atoms (n) of the acyl substituent increased. Conversely, all the transitions of fully substituted cellulose esters occurred within a narrow temperature range, and they did not vary significantly with n. This phenomenon was explained by the formation of a crystalline phase of the fatty substituents. The presence of few residual OH groups in PSCEs was responsible for a large increase in the storage bending modulus, and it eliminated the effect of n on damping. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 41: 281–288, 2003     

A new alternating‐direction finite element method for hyperbolic equation

A modified backward difference time discretization is presented for Galerkin approximations for nonlinear hyperbolic equation in two space variables. This procedure uses a local approximation of the coefficients based on patches of finite elements with these procedures, a multidimensional problem can be solved as a series of one‐dimensional problems. Optimal order H₀¹ and L² error estimates are derived. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq, 2007     

Kinetics and mechanism of the formation of poly[(1,1,3,3-tetramethyldisiloxanyl)ethylene] and poly(methyldecylsiloxane) by hydrosilylation

The kinetics of the formation of poly(carbosiloxane), as well as of alkyl-substituted poly(siloxane), by Karstedt's catalyst catalyzed hydrosilylation were investigated. Linear poly(carbosiloxane), poly[(1,1,3,3-tetramethyldisiloxanyl)ethylene], (PTMDSE), was obtained by hydrosilylation of 1,3-divinyltetramethyldisiloxane (DVTMDS) and 1,1,3,3-tetramethyldisiloxane (TMDS), while alkyl-substituted poly(siloxane), poly(methyldecylsiloxane), (PMDS), was synthesized by hydrosilylation of poly(methylhydrosiloxane) (PMHS) and 1-decene. To investigate the kinetics of PTMDSE formation, two series of experiments were performed at reaction temperatures ranging from 25 to 56 °C and with catalyst concentrations ranging from 7.0 × 10⁻⁶ to 3.1 × 10⁻⁵ mol Pt/mol CHCH₂. A series of experiments was performed at reaction temperatures ranging from 28 to 48 °C, with catalyst concentrations of 7.0 ×10⁻⁶ mol of Pt per mol of CHCH₂, when kinetics of PMDS formation was investigated. All reactions were carried out in bulk, with equimolar amounts of the reacting Si H and CHCH₂ groups. The course of the reactions was monitored by following the disappearance of the Si H bands using quantitative infrared spectroscopy. The results obtained showed typical first order kinetics for the PTMDSE formation, consistent with the proposed reaction mechanism. In the case of PMDS an induction period occurred at lower reaction temperatures, but disappeared at 44 °C and the rate of Si H conversion also started to follow the first-order kinetics. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 45: 2246–2258, 2007     

Solution of the hyperbolic mild‐slope equation using the finite volume method

A finite volume solver for the 2D depth‐integrated harmonic hyperbolic formulation of the mild‐slope equation for wave propagation is presented and discussed. The solver is implemented on unstructured triangular meshes and the solution methodology is based upon a Godunov‐type second‐order finite volume scheme, whereby the numerical fluxes are computed using Roe's flux function. The eigensystem of the mild‐slope equations is derived and used for the construction of Roe's matrix. A formulation that updates the unknown variables in time implicitly is presented, which produces a more accurate and reliable scheme than hitherto available. Boundary conditions for different types of boundaries are also derived. The agreement of the computed results with analytical results for a range of wave propagation/transformation problems is very good, and the model is found to be virtually paraxiality‐free. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Assessment of some iterative methods for non-symmetric linear systems arising in computational fluid dynamics

Various tests have been carried out in order to compare the performances of several methods used to solve the non-symmetric linear systems of equations arising from implicit discretizations of CFD problems, namely the scalar advection-diffusion equation and the compressible Euler equations. The iterative schemes under consideration belong to three families of algorithms: relaxation (Jacobi and Gauss-Seidel), gradient and Newton methods. Two gradient methods have been selected: a Krylov subspace iteration method (GMRES) and a non-symmetric extension of the conjugate gradient method (CGS). Finally, a quasi-Newton method has also been considered (Broyden). The aim of this paper is to provide indications of which appears to be the most adequate method according to the particular circumstances as well as to discuss the implementation aspects of each scheme.     

Incremental unknowns preconditioning for solving the Helmholtz equation

An efficient preconditioner is developed for solving the Helmholtz problem in both high and low frequency (wavenumber) regimes. The preconditioner is based on hierarchical unknowns on nested grids, known as incremental unknowns (IU). The motivation for the IU preconditioner is provided by an eigenvalue analysis of a simplified Helmholtz problem. The performance of our preconditioner is tested on the iterative solution of two‐dimensional electromagnetic scattering problems. When compared with other well‐known methods, our technique is shown to often provide a better numerical efficacy and, most importantly, to be more robust. Moreover, for the best performance, the number of IU levels used in the preconditioner should be designed for the coarsest grid to have roughly two points per linear wavelength. This result is consistent with the conventional sampling criteria for wave phenomena in contrast with existing IU applications for solving the Laplace/Poisson problem, where the coarsest grid comprises just one interior point. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq, 2007     

A marker method for the solution of the damped Burgers' equation

A new method for the solution of the damped Burgers' equation is described. The marker method relies on the definition of a convective field associated with the underlying partial differential equation; the information about the approximate solution is associated with the response of an ensemble of markers to this convective field. Some key aspects of the method, such as the selection of the shape function and the initial loading, are discussed in some details. The marker method is applicable to a general class of nonlinear dispersive partial differential equations. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq, 2006     

On disjoint configurations in infinite graphs

For a graph A and a positive integer n, let nA denote the union of n disjoint copies of A; similarly, the union of ?₀ disjoint copies of A is referred to as ?₀A. It is shown that there exist (connected) graphs A and G such that nA is a minor of G for all n??, but ?₀A is not a minor of G. This supplements previous examples showing that analogous statements are true if, instead of minors, isomorphic embeddings or topological minors are considered. The construction of A and G is based on the fact that there exist (infinite) graphs G₁, G₂,… such that G_i is not a minor of G_j for all i ≠ j. In contrast to previous examples concerning isomorphic embeddings and topological minors, the graphs A and G presented here are not locally finite. The following conjecture is suggested: for each locally finite connected graph A and each graph G, if nA is a minor of G for all n ? ?, then ?₀A is a minor of G, too. If true, this would be a far‐reaching generalization of a classical result of R. Halin on families of disjoint one‐way infinite paths in graphs. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 39: 222–229, 2002; DOI 10.1002/jgt.10016     

On accurate boundary conditions for a shape sensitivity equation method

This paper studies the application of the continuous sensitivity equation method (CSEM) for the Navier–Stokes equations in the particular case of shape parameters. Boundary conditions for shape parameters involve flow derivatives at the boundary. Thus, accurate flow gradients are critical to the success of the CSEM. A new approach is presented to extract accurate flow derivatives at the boundary. High order Taylor series expansions are used on layered patches in conjunction with a constrained least‐squares procedure to evaluate accurate first and second derivatives of the flow variables at the boundary, required for Dirichlet and Neumann sensitivity boundary conditions. The flow and sensitivity fields are solved using an adaptive finite‐element method. The proposed methodology is first verified on a problem with a closed form solution obtained by the Method of Manufactured Solutions. The ability of the proposed method to provide accurate sensitivity fields for realistic problems is then demonstrated. The flow and sensitivity fields for a NACA 0012 airfoil are used for fast evaluation of the nearby flow over an airfoil of different thickness (NACA 0015). Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.