Antibody levels against BK virus and prostate, kidney and bladder cancers in the EPIC-Oxford cohort

In a case–control study nested within the EPIC-Oxford cohort, there were no statistically significant differences in the prevalence or titre of antibodies against BK virus measured in plasma taken prior to diagnosis between cases with cancer of the prostate (n=31), kidney (n=5) or bladder (n=9) and controls (n=45)

Effects of geometrical nonlinearities on the acoustic black hole effect

International audienceThe Acoustic Black Hole effect (ABH) is a passive vibration damping technique without added mass based on flexural waves properties in thin structures with variable thickness. The usual implementation on plates is a region where the thickness is reduced with a power law profile, covered with a visco-elastic layer. The inhomogoneity induces a decrease of the wave speed and an increase of the amplitude in the small thickness region, which makes the energy dissipation more efficient due to the absorbing layer. The wave amplitude in the ABH easily reaches the plate thickness and is the origin of geometrical nonlinearities. These nonlin-earities can generate coupling between linear beam eigenmodes of the structure and induce energy transfer between low and high frequency regime. This phenomenon may be used to increase the efficiency of the ABH treatment in the low frequency regime where it is usually inefficient. An experimental investigation shows that the ABH termination displays a nonlinear behaviour and allows for modal coupling. A strongly nonlinear regime can also be observed, which is associated with Wave Turbulence. A model of nonlinear ABH beam as von Kármán plate of variable thickness and a modal resolution of the problem confirm the observed effects and gives more insights on these results

Normalizations with exponentially small remainders for nonautonomous analytic periodic vector fields

In this paper we deal with analytic nonautonomous vector fields with a periodic time-dependancy, that we study near an equilibrium point. In a first part, we assume that the linearized system is split in two invariant subspaces E0 and E1. Under light diophantine conditions on the eigenvalues of the linear part, we prove that there is a polynomial change of coordinates in E1 allowing to eliminate up to a finite polynomial order all terms depending only on the coordinate u0 of E0 in the E1 component of the vector field. We moreover show that, optimizing the choice of the degree of the polynomial change of coordinates, we get an exponentially small remainder. In the second part, we prove a normal form theorem with exponentially small remainder. Similar theorems have been proved before in the autonomous case : this paper generalizes those results to the nonautonomous periodic case

Conception d'un amortisseur de vibrations magnétique à raideurs ajustables

National audienceThis study deals with the design of a magnetic vibration absorber. The vibrating magnetic mass is placed in a magnetic field created by fixed permanent magnets. The resulting linear and nonlinear stiffnesses can be controlled by adjusting the relative positions of the static magnets. The equations of the model of the damper are obtained using a multipole expansion. The proposed magnetic absorber can be used as a tuned mass damper, a nonlinear energy sink or a bi-stable vibration absorber. These 3 cases are experimentally observed using static force measurements.Cette étude porte sur la réalisation d'un amortisseur de vibrations constitué d'une masse oscillante magnétique placée dans un champ créé par des aimants statiques. En ajustant les positions de ces derniers, il est possible de contrôler les valeurs des raideurs linéaires et non linéaires afin de couvrir les cas d'un amortisseur à masse accordée, d'un puits d'énergie non linéaire et d'un amortisseur bi-stable. Une décomposition multipolaire permet d'établir une équation modèle pour le comportement de l'oscillateur magnétique. Une réalisation expérimentale permet d'observer les 3 configurations recherchées grâce à des mesures d'efforts statique

Theoretical Analysis of SPH in Simulating Free-surface Viscous flows

A theoretical analysis on the performance, close to a free surface, of the most used SPH formulations for Newtonian viscous terms is carried out in this paper. After an introduction of the SPH formalism, the SPH expressions for the viscous term in the momentum equation are analyzed in their continuous form. Using a Taylor expansion, a reformulation of those expressions is undertaken which allows to characterize the behavior of the viscous term close to the free surface. Under specific flow conditions, we show that the viscous term close to the free surface is singular when the spatial resolution is increased. This problem is in essence related to the incompleteness of the kernel function close to the free surface and appears for all the formulations considered. In order to assess the impact of such singular behavior, an analysis of the global energy dissipation is carried out, which shows that such a free-surface singularity vanishes when the integral quantities are considered. Not with standing that, not all the SPH viscous formulas allow the correct evaluation of the energy dissipation rate and, consequently, they may lead to an inaccurate modelling of viscous free-surface flows

Observation of wave turbulence in vibrating plates

The nonlinear interaction of waves in a driven medium may lead to wave turbulence, a state such that energy is transferred from large to small lengthscales. Here, wave turbulence is observed in experiments on a vibrating plate. The frequency power spectra of the normal velocity of the plate may be rescaled on a single curve, with power-law behaviors that are incompatible with the weak turbulence theory of D{\"u}ring et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 97, 025503 (2006)]. Alternative scenarios are suggested to account for this discrepancy -- in particular the occurrence of wave breaking at high frequencies. Finally, the statistics of velocity increments do not display an intermittent behavior

The suction effect during freak wave slamming on a fixed platform deck: Smoothed particle hydrodynamics simulation and experimental study

During the process of wave slamming on a structure with sharp corners, the wave receding after wave impingement can induce strong negative pressure (relative to the atmospheric pressure) at the bottom of the structure, which is called the suction effect. From the practical point of view, the suction force induced by the negative pressure, coinciding with the gravity force, pulls the structure down and hence increases the risk of structural damage. In this work, the smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) method, more specifically the δ+SPH model, is adopted to simulate the freak wave slamming on a fixed platform with the consideration of the suction effect, i.e., negative pressure, which is a challenging issue because it can cause the so-called tensile instability in SPH simulations. The key to overcome the numerical issue is to use a numerical technique named tensile instability control (TIC). Comparative studies using SPH models with and without TIC will show the importance of this technique in capturing the negative pressure. It is also found that using a two-phase simulation that takes the air phase into account is essential for an SPH model to accurately predict the impact pressure during the initial slamming stage. The freak wave impacts with different water depths are studied. All the multiphase SPH results are validated by our experimental data. The wave kinematics/dynamics and wave impact features in the wave-structure interacting process are discussed, and the mechanism of the suction effect characterized by the negative pressure is carefully analyzed

Interpreting the forced responses of a two-degree-of-freedom nonlinear oscillator using backbone curves

In this paper the backbone curves of a two-degree-of-freedom nonlinear oscillator are used to interpret its behaviour when subjected to external forcing. The backbone curves describe the loci of dynamic responses of a system when unforced and undamped, and are represented in the frequency-amplitude projection. In this study we provide an analytical method for relating the backbone curves, found using the second-order normal form technique, to the forced responses. This is achieved using an energy-based analysis to predict the resonant crossing points between the forced responses and the backbone curves. This approach is applied to an example system subjected to two different forcing cases: one in which the forcing is applied directly to an underlying linear mode and the other subjected to forcing in both linear modes. Additionally, a method for assessing the accuracy of the prediction of the resonant crossing points is then introduced, and these predictions are then compared to responses found using numerical continuation

Dynamique non linéaire d'un oscillateur à mémoire de forme

Nous étudions les réponses forcées d'un oscillateur reproduisant le comportement pseudo-élastique d'un alliage à mémoire de forme. Le modèle est dérivé d'une loi de comportement tridimensionnelle prenant en compte les couplages entre la thermique, la mécanique et les changments de phase solide-solide du matériau. Les réponses forcées montrent un comportement assouplissant dès que la transformation martensitique est activée, ainsi que l'existence de zones chaotiques. Nous présenterons aussi des comparaisons calcul/essai réalisées sur des fils en torsion