Computation of unsteady momentum and heat transfer from a fixed circular cylinder in laminar flow

This paper presents a finite difference solution for 2D, low Reynolds number, unsteady flow around and heat transfer from a stationary circular cylinder placed in a uniform flow. The fluid is assumed to be incompressible and of constant property. The governing equations are the Navier-Stokes equations, the continuity equation, a Poisson equation for pressure and the energy equation. The temperature of the cylinder wall is kept constant and the viscous energy dissipation term is neglected in the energy equation. The computed Strouhal numbers, time-mean drag and base pressure coefficients, as well as the average Nusselt numbers compare well with existing experimental results

Stability of Oscillating Hexagons in Rotating Convection

Breaking the chiral symmetry, rotation induces a secondary Hopf bifurcation in weakly nonlinear hexagon patterns which gives rise to oscillating hexagons. We study the stability of the oscillating hexagons using three coupled Ginzburg-Landau equations. Close to the bifurcation point we derive reduced equations for the amplitude of the oscillation, coupled to the phase of the underlying hexagons. Within these equation we identify two types of long-wave instabilities and study the ensuing dynamics using numerical simulations of the three coupled Ginzburg-Landau equations.Comment: 25 pages, 7 figure

Modeling oscillatory Microtubule--Polymerization

Polymerization of microtubules is ubiquitous in biological cells and under certain conditions it becomes oscillatory in time. Here simple reaction models are analyzed that capture such oscillations as well as the length distribution of microtubules. We assume reaction conditions that are stationary over many oscillation periods, and it is a Hopf bifurcation that leads to a persistent oscillatory microtubule polymerization in these models. Analytical expressions are derived for the threshold of the bifurcation and the oscillation frequency in terms of reaction rates as well as typical trends of their parameter dependence are presented. Both, a catastrophe rate that depends on the density of {\it guanosine triphosphate} (GTP) liganded tubulin dimers and a delay reaction, such as the depolymerization of shrinking microtubules or the decay of oligomers, support oscillations. For a tubulin dimer concentration below the threshold oscillatory microtubule polymerization occurs transiently on the route to a stationary state, as shown by numerical solutions of the model equations. Close to threshold a so--called amplitude equation is derived and it is shown that the bifurcation to microtubule oscillations is supercritical.Comment: 21 pages and 12 figure

Birhythmicity, Synchronization, and Turbulence in an Oscillatory System with Nonlocal Inertial Coupling

We consider a model where a population of diffusively coupled limit-cycle oscillators, described by the complex Ginzburg-Landau equation, interacts nonlocally via an inertial field. For sufficiently high intensity of nonlocal inertial coupling, the system exhibits birhythmicity with two oscillation modes at largely different frequencies. Stability of uniform oscillations in the birhythmic region is analyzed by means of the phase dynamics approximation. Numerical simulations show that, depending on its parameters, the system has irregular intermittent regimes with local bursts of synchronization or desynchronization.Comment: 21 pages, many figures. Paper accepted on Physica

Asymptotic Properties of Difference Equations for Isotropic Loop Quantum Cosmology

In loop quantum cosmology, a difference equation for the wave function describes the evolution of a universe model. This is different from the differential equations that arise in Wheeler-DeWitt quantizations, and some aspects of general properties of solutions can appear differently. Properties of particular interest are boundedness and the presence of small-scale oscillations. Continued fraction techniques are used to show in different matter models the presence of special initial conditions leading to bounded solutions, and an explicit expression for these initial values is derived.Comment: 27 pages, 2 figure