Subset representations and eigenvalues of the universal intertwining matrix

We solve a combinatorial question concerning eigenvalues of the universal intertwining endomorphism of a subset representation.     

An Improved Gradient Projection-based Decomposition Technique for Support Vector Machines

In this paper we propose some improvements to a recent decomposition technique for the large quadratic program arising in training support vector machines. As standard decomposition approaches, the technique we consider is based on the idea to optimize, at each iteration, a subset of the variables through the solution of a quadratic programming subproblem. The innovative features of this approach consist in using a very effective gradient projection method for the inner subproblems and a special rule for selecting the variables to be optimized at each step. These features allow to obtain promising performance by decomposing the problem into few large subproblems instead of many small subproblems as usually done by other decomposition schemes. We improve this technique by introducing a new inner solver and a simple strategy for reducing the computational cost of each iteration. We evaluate the effectiveness of these improvements by solving large-scale benchmark problems and by comparison with a widely used decomposition package.     

在一个新步长规则下梯度投影算法的全局收敛性

考虑约束最优化问题：minx∈Ωf(x)其中:f:R^n→R是连续可微函数，Ω是一闭凸集。本文研究了解决此问题的梯度投影方法，在步长的选取时采用了一种新的策略，在较弱的条件下，证明了梯度投影响方法的全局收敛性。     

Stress concentration and effective stiffness of aligned fiber reinforced composite with anisotropic constituents

The paper addresses the problem of calculation of the local stress field and effective elastic properties of a unidirectional fiber reinforced composite with anisotropic constituents. For this aim, the representative unit cell approach has been utilized. The micro geometry of the composite is modeled by a periodic structure with a unit cell containing multiple circular fibers. The number of fibers is sufficient to account for the micro structure statistics of composite. A new method based on the multipole expansion technique is developed to obtain the exact series solution for the micro stress field. The method combines the principle of superposition, technique of complex potentials and some new results in the theory of special functions. A proper choice of potentials and new results for their series expansions allow one to reduce the boundary-value problem for the multiple-connected domain to an ordinary, well-posed set of linear algebraic equations. This reduction provides high numerical efficiency of the developed method. Exact expressions for the components of the effective stiffness tensor have been obtained by analytical averaging of the strain and stress fields.     

Fabrication of material-independent morphology gradients for high-throughput applications

Gradient surfaces allow rapid, high-throughput investigations and systematic studies in many disparate fields, including biology, tribology and adhesion. We describe a novel method for the fabrication of material-independent morphology gradients, involving a two-step process of particle erosion followed by a chemical polishing procedure that preferentially removes features with a small radius of curvature as a function of time. Gradients are fabricated on aluminium surfaces, but they may be readily transferred to other materials via a replication technique, which allows for the production of identical roughness gradient samples with any chosen surface chemistry. The gradients have been characterized by means of scanning electron microscopy and optical profilometry. Standard roughness parameters (Ra, Rq, Rz, Sm and Sk) were calculated from optical profilometry data. The roughness has also been assessed over different wavelength windows by means of a fast Fourier transformation approach.     

Using the gradients of temperature and internal parameters in Continuum ThermodynamicsIntroduction des gradients de température et de paramètres internes en Thermodynamique des Milieux Continus

In this paper, the possibility of using the gradients of the temperature and of the internal parameters as additional state variables in Continuum Thermodynamics is considered. The expressions of the two principles are discussed and Clausius–Duhem inequality is derived under an appropriate statement of the internal entropy production. Several formulations are proposed and compared to existing results in the literature. To cite this article: P. Ireman, Q.S. Nguyen, C. R. Mecanique 332 (2004).     

Ab-initio simulation of elastic constants for some ceramic materials

Athermal elasticity for some ceramic materials (α-Al₂O₃, SiC (α and β phases), TiO₂ (rutile and anatase), hexagonal AlN and TiB₂, cubic BN and CaF₂, and monoclinic ZrO₂) have been investigated via density functional theory. Energy-volume equation-of-state computations to obtain the zero pressure equilibrium volume and bulk modulus as well as computations of the full elastic constant tensor of these ceramics at the experimental zero pressure volume have been performed. The present results for the single crystal elasticity are in good agreement with experiments both for the aggregate properties (bulk and shear modulus) and the elastic anisotropy. In contrast, a considerable discrepancy for the zero pressure bulk modulus of some ceramics evaluated from the energy-volume fit to the computational zero pressure volume has been observed.     

Point load determination of static elastic moduli using laser speckle interferometry

Electronic speckle interferometry (ESPI) is used to determine the Young's modulus E and Poisson ratio ν of an isotropic material. Micron scale deformations of the surface of the block of polymethyl-methacrylate (PMMA) are induced by normal application of a known near-point force. These deformations are recorded in speckle interferometric fringe patterns. An iterative minimum error inversion technique is developed to obtain the elastic properties from the positions of fringe peaks and troughs observed in the fringe patterns. Sensitivity tests of the method on calculated fringe patterns using measured experimental uncertainties suggest the technique will provide measures of the elastic moduli to better than 5%. In an experimental test on a bloc of PMMA (acrylic) the technique gave values of E and ν that differed from corresponding measures obtained using more conventional strain-gauge methods by less than 4%.     

Metastability of a circular o-ring due to intrinsic curvature

An o-ring takes spontaneously the shape of a chair when strong enough torsion is applied in its tangent plane. This state is metastable, since work has to be done on the o-ring to return to the circular shape. We show that this metastable state exists in a Hamiltonian where curvature and torsion are coupled via an intrinsic curvature term. If the o-ring is constrained to be planar (2d case), this metastable state displays a kink-anti-kink pair. This state is metastable if the ratio is less than , where C and A are the torsion and the bending elastic constants [#!landau!#]. In three dimensions, our variational approach shows that . This model can be generalized to the case where the bend is induced by a concentration field which follows the variations of the curvature. Received: 27 August 1997 / Revised: 23 October 1997 / Accepted: 12 November 1997