Joint Probability Analysis of Extreme Precipitation and Water Level for Chicago, Illinois

A compound flooding event occurs when there is a combination of two or more extreme factors that happen simultaneously or in quick succession and can lead to flooding. In the Great Lakes region, it is common for a compound flooding event to occur with a high lake water level and heavy rainfall. With the potential of increasing water levels and an increase in precipitation under climate change, the Great Lakes coastal regions could be at risk for more frequent and severe flooding. The City of Chicago which is located on Lake Michigan has a high population and dense infrastructure and is very vulnerable to a compound flooding event, even with the implementation of its water control structures. For this case study, annual maximum precipitation and corresponding lake water level data were analyzed to examine the bivariate return period of a compound flood event using a copula function. The results show that under climate change if the water level were to rise by 0.2, 0.45, or 0.8 m, compound flooding events due to heavy precipitation and high water level will be more likely in the future. By documenting the joint risk of potential compound flooding in this area, preventative measures and planning can be implemented

Height-Averaged Navier–Stokes Solver for Hydrodynamic Lubrication

Modelling hydrodynamic lubrication is crucial in the design of engineering components as well as for a fundamental understanding of friction mechanisms. The cornerstone of thin-film flow modelling is the Reynolds equation -- a lower-dimensional representation of the Stokes equation. However, the derivation of the Reynolds equation is based on assumptions and fixed form constitutive relations, that may not generally be valid, especially when studying systems under extreme conditions. Furthermore, these explicit assumptions about the constitutive behaviour of the fluid prohibit applications in a multiscale scenario based on measured or atomistically simulated data. Here, we present a method that considers the full compressible Navier-Stokes equation in a height-averaged sense for arbitrary constitutive relations. We perform numerical tests by using a reformulation of the viscous stress tensor for laminar flow to validate the presented method comparing to results from conventional Reynolds solutions. The versatility of the method is shown by incorporating models for mass-conserving cavitation, wall slip and non-Newtonian fluids. This allows testing of new constitutive relations that not necessarily need to take a fixed form, and may be obtained from experimental or simulation data.Comment: 12 pages, 9 figure

Enhancing Video Deblurring using Efficient Fourier Aggregation

Video Deblurring is a process of removing blur from all the video frames and achieving the required level of smoothness. Numerous recent approaches attempt to remove image blur due to camera shake,either with one or multiple input images, by explicitly solving an inverse and inherently ill-posed deconvolution problem.An efficient video deblurring system to handle the blurs due to shaky camera and complex motion blurs due to moving objects has been proposed.The proposed algorithm is strikingly simple: it performs a weighted average in the Fourier domain, with weights depending on the Fourier spectrum magnitude. The method can be seen as a generalization of the align and average procedure, with a weighted average, motivated by hand-shake physiology and theoretically supported, taking place in the Fourier domain. The method�s rationale is that camera shake has a random nature, and therefore, each image in the burst is generally blurred differently.The proposed system has effectively deblurred the video and results showed that the reconstructed video is sharper and less noisy than the original ones.The proposed Fourier Burst Accumulation algorithm produced similar or better results than the state-of-the-art multi-image deconvolution while being significantly faster and with lower memory footprint.The method is robust to moving objects as it acquired the consistent registration scheme

Entwicklung einer Multiskalenmethode für die Simulation von Schmierprozessen

Reibung und Schmierung sind Multiskalenprobleme, d.h. Prozesse auf unterschiedlichen Zeit- und Längenskalen beeinflussen einander und bestimmen die makroskopische Antwort eines Systems. Für Schmierungsprozesse trifft dies insbesondere im Grenzreibungsbereich zu, in dem die Dicke des Schmierspalts in der Größenordnung molekularer Interaktionslängen liegt. Makroskopische Schmierungsmodellierung basiert fast ausschließlich auf der Anwendung der Reynoldsgleichung, während auf atomarer Skala vermehrt Molekulardynamik-Simulationen in den Vordergrund treten. Multiskalenmethoden für Schmierungsphänomene, die über sequentielle Ansätze hinausgehen, sind bisher noch nicht etabliert. Im Rahmen dieser Arbeit wird ein Multiskalenansatz vorgestellt, welcher die Lösung der makroskopischen Bilanzgleichungen in ein Mikro- und Makroproblem aufteilt. Das Makroproblem entsteht durch Mittelung der Bilanzgleichungen über der Spalthöhe, ähnlich zur konventionellen Reynoldsgleichung, und wird mittels expliziter Finite-Volumen-Diskretisierung gelöst, während das Mikroproblem das konstitutive Verhalten des Schmierfilms enthält. Die numerische Implementierung des Makroproblems wird mithilfe gewöhnlicher Konstitutivgesetze validiert und anhand konkreter Beispiele wird gezeigt, dass diese in Zukunft durch Molekulardynamik-Simulationen ersetzt werden können. Außerdem lassen sich analytische Lösungen der linearisierten Grundgleichungen des Makroproblems herleiten, die mit Autokorrelationsfunktionen fluktuierender Zustandsvariablen aus Molekulardynamik-Simulationen verglichen werden. Daraus ergibt sich eine Methode zur simultanen Bestimmung von Viskosität und Schlupflänge aus Gleichgewichts-Simulationen, sowie die Beschreibung des überkritischen Schalltransports in Fluidspalten. Für eine effiziente Umsetzung des vorgestellten Multiskalenansatzes wird eine Ersatzmodellierung benötigt, die zwischen einzelnen Mikrosimulationen interpoliert. Anhand von einfachen Beispielen wird das Anwendungspotential der Gaußprozess-Regression als mögliches Ersatzmodell evaluiert. Die vorliegende Arbeit liefert somit die theoretischen Grundlagen einer simultanen Multiskalensimulation von Schmierungsprozessen, welche in Zukunft zu einem besseren Verständnis der Dissipationsmechanismen im Grenzreibungsbereich beitragen kann

Study of coronary artery calcium by multi-slice spiral CT as a tool for high risk cardiovascular screening

Background: Strong relationship has been demonstrated between the presence of occlusive CAD and coronary artery calcification (CAC) detected at autopsy, fluoroscopy and computed tomography (CT scan). CT scan quantifies the relative burden of CAC deposits as a marker of atherosclerosis. We explored utility of multi-slice spiral CT scan for detection of CAC as a tool for screening in asymptomatic high-risk cases above 40 years of age.Methods: Fifty-eight asymptomatic cardiovascular high-risk cases were included as per selection criteria. Detailed clinical history was recorded in every case regarding age, sex, history of risk factors for CAD like systemic hypertension, diabetes mellitus, smoking and family history of CAD. Every case was evaluated for fasting and postprandial blood sugar and fasting lipid profile. Body mass index (BMI) was calculated. An ECG was also recorded. Coronary artery calcium was estimated in each patient by multi -slice spiral CT scan. Fifty age and gender matched consenting participants were enrolled as controls and comparisons drawn.Results: Out of 58 cases scanned, 41 had no detectable CAC by multi-slice CT scan whereas in 17 cases (29.2%), calcium was detected. Mean CAC score was observed to increase as number of risk factors increased.Conclusions: Multi-slice CT scan is a useful tool for detection of coronary artery calcium (CAC) when utilised for high risk screening in older adults having one or more known cardiovascular risk factors