Nonzero solutions of perturbed Hammerstein integral equations with deviated arguments and applications

We provide a theory to establish the existence of nonzero solutions of perturbed Hammerstein integral equations with deviated arguments, being our main ingredient the theory of fixed point index. Our approach is fairly general and covers a variety of cases. We apply our results to a periodic boundary value problem with reflections and to a thermostat problem. In the case of reflections we also discuss the optimality of some constants that occur in our theory. Some examples are presented to illustrate the theory.Comment: 3 figures, 23 page

Non-negative solutions of systems of ODEs with coupled boundary conditions

We provide a new existence theory of multiple positive solutions valid for a wide class of systems of boundary value problems that possess a coupling in the boundary conditions. Our conditions are fairly general and cover a large number of situations. The theory is illustrated in details in an example. The approach relies on classical fixed point index

Nontrivial solutions of boundary value problems for second order functional differential equations

In this paper we present a theory for the existence of multiple nontrivial solutions for a class of perturbed Hammerstein integral equations. Our methodology, rather than to work directly in cones, is to utilize the theory of fixed point index on affine cones. This approach is fairly general and covers a class of nonlocal boundary value problems for functional differential equations. Some examples are given in order to illustrate our theoretical results.Comment: 19 pages, revised versio

Nonnegative solutions for a system of impulsive BVPs with nonlinear nonlocal BCs

We study the existence of nonnegative solutions for a system of impulsive differential equations subject to nonlinear, nonlocal boundary conditions. The system presents a coupling in the differential equation and in the boundary conditions. The main tool that we use is the theory of fixed point index for compact maps

Positive solutions of nonlinear fourth-order boundary-value problems with local and non-local boundary conditions

We establish new existence results for multiple positive solutions of fourth-order nonlinear equations which model deflections of an elastic beam. We consider the widely studied boundary conditions corresponding to clamped and hinged ends and many non-local boundary conditions, with a unified approach. Our method is to show that each boundary-value problem can be written as the same type of perturbed integral equation, in the space $C[0,1]$, involving a linear functional $\alpha[u]$ but, although we seek positive solutions, the functional is not assumed to be positive for all positive $u$. The results are new even for the classic boundary conditions of clamped or hinged ends when $\alpha[u]=0$, because we obtain sharp results for the existence of one positive solution; for multiple solutions we seek optimal values of some of the constants that occur in the theory, which allows us to impose weaker assumptions on the nonlinear term than in previous works. Our non-local boundary conditions contain multi-point problems as special cases and, for the first time in fourth-order problems, we allow coefficients of both signs

Use of system identification techniques for improving airframe finite element models using test data

A method for using system identification techniques to improve airframe finite element models using test data was developed and demonstrated. The method uses linear sensitivity matrices to relate changes in selected physical parameters to changes in the total system matrices. The values for these physical parameters were determined using constrained optimization with singular value decomposition. The method was confirmed using both simple and complex finite element models for which pseudo-experimental data was synthesized directly from the finite element model. The method was then applied to a real airframe model which incorporated all of the complexities and details of a large finite element model and for which extensive test data was available. The method was shown to work, and the differences between the identified model and the measured results were considered satisfactory

Nonexistence of positive solutions of nonlinear boundary value problems

We discuss the nonexistence of positive solutions for nonlinear boundary value problems. In particular, we discuss necessary restrictions on parameters in nonlocal problems in order that (strictly) positive solutions exist. We consider cases that can be written in an equivalent integral equation form which covers a wide range of problems. In contrast to previous work, we do not use concavity arguments, instead we use positivity properties of an associated linear operator which uses ideas related to the $u_0$-positive operators of Krasnosel'skii