An apparent paradox in the mechanics of strings

We show with a simple example that cases of incompatibility (first displayed by Signorini) between the nonlinear and the linearized version of the same problem occur also in contact problems.

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Sommario Si mostra con un esempio elementare che casi di incompatibilità alla Signorini tra i risultati dello studio non-lineare e di quello linearizzato di uno stesso problema si presentano anche in problemi di contatto.

     

Large Eddy Simulation and PIV Measurements of Unsteady Premixed Flames Accelerated by Obstacles

In gas explosions, the unsteady coupling of the propagating flame and the flow field induced by the presence of blockages along the flame path produces vortices of different scales ahead of the flame front. The resulting flame–vortex interaction intensifies the rate of flame propagation and the pressure rise. In this paper, a joint numerical and experimental study of unsteady premixed flame propagation around three sequential obstacles in a small-scale vented explosion chamber is presented. The modeling work is carried out utilizing large eddy simulation (LES). In the experimental work, previous results (Patel et al., Proc Combust Inst 29:1849–1854, 2002) are extended to include simultaneous flame and particle image velocimetry (PIV) measurements of the flow field within the wake of each obstacle. Comparisons between LES predictions and experimental data show a satisfactory agreement in terms of shape of the propagating flame, flame arrival times, spatial profile of the flame speed, pressure time history, and velocity vector fields. Computations through the validated model are also performed to evaluate the effects of both large-scale and sub-grid scale (SGS) vortices on the flame propagation. The results obtained demonstrate that the large vortical structures dictate the evolution of the flame in qualitative terms (shape and structure of the flame, succession of the combustion regimes along the path, acceleration-deceleration step around each obstacle, and pressure time trend). Conversely, the SGS vortices do not affect the qualitative trends. However, it is essential to model their effects on the combustion rate to achieve quantitative predictions for the flame speed and the pressure peak.     

On imaging obstacles inside inhomogeneous media

We show that an obstacle inside a known inhomogeneous medium can be determined from measurements of the scattering amplitude at one frequency, without a priori knowledge of the boundary condition. We also show that an obstacle inside a known inhomogeneous anisotropic conducting medium can be determined from electrostatic current and voltage measurements on the boundary of a domain containing the obstacle. Moreover, two obstacles with boundary measurements which are merely comparable as operators must be identical. The first part of the paper gives an extension of the factorization method which may be of independent interest and also yields a new reconstruction procedure.     

On the Invertible Boundary Integral Operator in the Exterior Impedance Problem for the Helmholtz Equation

We propose an approach for reduction of the impedance problem for propagative Helmholtz equation outside several obstacles to the uniquely solvable Fredholm integral equation of the second kind and index zero. The integral equation in this approach is derived by introducing auxiliary boundaries with an appropriate boundary conditions inside obstacles.