Bifurcation of elastoplastic pressure-sensitive spheres

AbstractInstability of a full sphere, under uniform compression or tension, is investigated within the framework of linear bifurcation theory. Material response is modeled by a Hookean-type hypoelastic relation with pressure dependent instantaneous moduli. Exploiting a formal analogy with Navier equations of linear elasticity we obtain exact solution for the bifurcated field. Two families of eigenmodes and eigenvalues are identified and discussed. We examine, in particular, surface instabilities in compression, and twisting modes with absence of radial velocity. The results are further specified for pressure-sensitive plastic solids with an elliptic yield surface. The deformation theory prediction of bifurcation loads for that material are much lower than those obtained from the flow theory version

The development of structural adhesives systems suitable for use with liquid oxygen Annual summary report, 1 Jul. 1963 - 30 Jun. 1964

Fluorinated, chlorinated, and halogenated polymer adhesives prepared and tested for compatibility with liquid oxyge

Transient Random Walks in Random Environment on a Galton-Watson Tree

We consider a transient random walk $(X_n)$ in random environment on a Galton--Watson tree. Under fairly general assumptions, we give a sharp and explicit criterion for the asymptotic speed to be positive. As a consequence, situations with zero speed are revealed to occur. In such cases, we prove that $X_n$ is of order of magnitude $n^{\Lambda}$, with $\Lambda \in (0,1)$. We also show that the linearly edge reinforced random walk on a regular tree always has a positive asymptotic speed, which improves a recent result of Collevecchio \cite{Col06}

Limiting Behaviour of the Mean Residual Life

In survival or reliability studies, the mean residual life or life expectancy is an important characteristic of the model. Here, we study the limiting behaviour of the mean residual life, and derive an asymptotic expansion which can be used to obtain a good approximation for large values of the time variable. The asymptotic expansion is valid for a quite general class of failure rate distributions--perhaps the largest class that can be expected given that the terms depend only on the failure rate and its derivatives.Comment: 19 page

Discrete Particle Swarm Optimization for the minimum labelling Steiner tree problem

Particle Swarm Optimization is an evolutionary method inspired by the social behaviour of individuals inside swarms in nature. Solutions of the problem are modelled as members of the swarm which fly in the solution space. The evolution is obtained from the continuous movement of the particles that constitute the swarm submitted to the effect of the inertia and the attraction of the members who lead the swarm. This work focuses on a recent Discrete Particle Swarm Optimization for combinatorial optimization, called Jumping Particle Swarm Optimization. Its effectiveness is illustrated on the minimum labelling Steiner tree problem: given an undirected labelled connected graph, the aim is to find a spanning tree covering a given subset of nodes, whose edges have the smallest number of distinct labels

The stack of Yang-Mills fields on Lorentzian manifolds

We provide an abstract definition and an explicit construction of the stack of non-Abelian Yang-Mills fields on globally hyperbolic Lorentzian manifolds. We also formulate a stacky version of the Yang-Mills Cauchy problem and show that its well-posedness is equivalent to a whole family of parametrized PDE problems. Our work is based on the homotopy theoretical approach to stacks proposed in [S. Hollander, Israel J. Math. 163, 93-124 (2008)], which we shall extend by further constructions that are relevant for our purposes. In particular, we will clarify the concretification of mapping stacks to classifying stacks such as BGcon

Random walk in cooling random environment: ergodic limits and concentration inequalities

In previous work by Avena and den Hollander [3], a model of a random walk in a dynamic random environment was proposed where the random environment is resampled from a given law along a given sequence of times. In the regime where the increments of the resampling times diverge, which is referred to as the cooling regime, a weak law of large numbers and certain fluctuation properties were derived under the annealed measure, in dimension one. In the present paper we show that a strong law of large numbers and a quenched large deviation principle hold as well. In the cooling regime, the random walk can be represented as a sum of independent variables, distributed as the increments of a random walk in a static random environment over diverging periods of time. Our proofs require suitable multi-layer decompositions of sums of random variables controlled by moment bounds and concentration estimates. Along the way we derive two results of independent interest, namely, concentration inequalities for the random walk in the static random environment and an ergodic theorem that deals with limits of sums of triangular arrays representing the structure of the cooling regime. We close by discussing our present understanding of homogenisation effects as a function of the cooling scheme, and by hinting at what can be done in higher dimensions. We argue that, while the cooling scheme does not affect the speed in the strong law of large numbers nor the rate function in the large deviation principle, it does affect the fluctuation properties.Analysis and Stochastic

Phase transitions and configuration space topology

Equilibrium phase transitions may be defined as nonanalytic points of thermodynamic functions, e.g., of the canonical free energy. Given a certain physical system, it is of interest to understand which properties of the system account for the presence of a phase transition, and an understanding of these properties may lead to a deeper understanding of the physical phenomenon. One possible approach of this issue, reviewed and discussed in the present paper, is the study of topology changes in configuration space which, remarkably, are found to be related to equilibrium phase transitions in classical statistical mechanical systems. For the study of configuration space topology, one considers the subsets M_v, consisting of all points from configuration space with a potential energy per particle equal to or less than a given v. For finite systems, topology changes of M_v are intimately related to nonanalytic points of the microcanonical entropy (which, as a surprise to many, do exist). In the thermodynamic limit, a more complex relation between nonanalytic points of thermodynamic functions (i.e., phase transitions) and topology changes is observed. For some class of short-range systems, a topology change of the M_v at v=v_t was proved to be necessary for a phase transition to take place at a potential energy v_t. In contrast, phase transitions in systems with long-range interactions or in systems with non-confining potentials need not be accompanied by such a topology change. Instead, for such systems the nonanalytic point in a thermodynamic function is found to have some maximization procedure at its origin. These results may foster insight into the mechanisms which lead to the occurrence of a phase transition, and thus may help to explore the origin of this physical phenomenon.Comment: 22 pages, 6 figure