7,299 research outputs found
Efficient solution of 3D electromagnetic eddy-current problems within the finite volume framework of OpenFOAM
Eddy-current problems occur in a wide range of industrial and metallurgical
applications where conducting material is processed inductively. Motivated by
realising coupled multi-physics simulations, we present a new method for the
solution of such problems in the finite volume framework of foam-extend, an
extended version of the very popular OpenFOAM software. The numerical procedure
involves a semi-coupled multi-mesh approach to solve Maxwell's equations for
non-magnetic materials by means of the Coulomb gauged magnetic vector potential
and the electric scalar potential. The concept is further extended on the basis
of the impressed and reduced magnetic vector potential and its usage in
accordance with Biot-Savart's law to achieve a very efficient overall modelling
even for complex three-dimensional geometries. Moreover, we present a special
discretisation scheme to account for possible discontinuities in the electrical
conductivity. To complement our numerical method, an extensive validation is
completing the paper, which provides insight into the behaviour and the
potential of our approach.Comment: 47 pages, improved figures, updated references, fixed typos, reverse
phase shift, consistent use of inner produc
Applying the lessons of the attack on the World Trade Center, 11th September 2001, to the design and use of interactive evacuation simulations
The collapse of buildings, such as terminal 2E at Paris' Charles de Gaule Airport, and of fires, such as the Rhode Island, Station Night Club tragedy, has focused public attention on the safety of large public buildings. Initiatives in the United States and in Europe have led to the development of interactive simulators that model evacuation from these buildings. The tools avoid some of the ethical and legal problems from simulating evacuations; many people were injured during the 1993 evacuation of the World Trade Center (WTC) complex. They also use many concepts that originate within the CHI communities. For instance, some simulators use simple task models to represent the occupants' goal structures as they search for an available exit. However, the recent release of the report from the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States (the '9/11 commission') has posed serious questions about the design and use of this particular class of interactive systems. This paper argues that simulation research needs to draw on insights from the CHI communities in order to meet some the challenges identified by the 9/11 commission
Lessons from the evacuation of the World Trade Center, Sept 11th 2001 for the future development of computer simulations
This paper provides an overview of the state of the art in evacuation simulations. These interactive computer based tools have been developed to help the owners and designers of large public buildings to assess the risks that occupants might face during emergency egress. The development of the Glasgow Evacuation Simulator is used to illustrate the existing generation of tools. This system uses Monte Carlo techniques to control individual and group movements during an evacuation. The end-user can interactively open and block emergency exits at any point. It is also possible to alter the priorities that individuals associate with particular exit routes. A final benefit is that the tool can derive evacuation simulations directly from existing architects models; this reduces the cost of simulations and creates a more prominent role for these tools in the iterative development of large-scale public buildings. Empirical studies have been used to validate the GES system as a tool to support evacuation training. The development of these tools has been informed by numerous human factors studies and by recent accident investigations. For example, the 2003 fire in the Station nightclub in Rhode Island illustrated the way in which most building occupants retrace their steps to an entrance even when there are alternate fire exits. The second half of this paper uses this introduction to criticise the existing state of the art in evacuation simulations. These criticisms are based on a detailed study of the recent findings from the 9/11 Commission (2004). Ten different lessons are identified. Some relate to the need to better understand the role of building management and security systems in controlling egress from public buildings. Others relate to the human factors involved in coordinating distributed groups of emergency personnel who may be physically exhausted by the demands of an evacuation. Arguably the most important findings centre on the need to model the ingress and egress of emergency personnel from these structures. The previous focus of nearly all-existing simulation tools has been on the evacuation of building occupants rather than on the safety of first responders1
Symplectic maps to projective spaces and symplectic invariants
After reviewing recent results on symplectic Lefschetz pencils and symplectic
branched covers of CP^2, we describe a new construction of maps from symplectic
manifolds of any dimension to CP^2 and the associated monodromy invariants. We
also show that a dimensional induction process makes it possible to describe
any compact symplectic manifold by a series of words in braid groups and a word
in a symmetric group.Comment: 39 pages; to appear in Proc. 7th Gokova Geometry-Topology Conferenc
Khovanov homology is an unknot-detector
We prove that a knot is the unknot if and only if its reduced Khovanov
cohomology has rank 1. The proof has two steps. We show first that there is a
spectral sequence beginning with the reduced Khovanov cohomology and abutting
to a knot homology defined using singular instantons. We then show that the
latter homology is isomorphic to the instanton Floer homology of the sutured
knot complement: an invariant that is already known to detect the unknot.Comment: 124 pages, 13 figure
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