Geometric origin of mechanical properties of granular materials

Some remarkable generic properties, related to isostaticity and potential energy minimization, of equilibrium configurations of assemblies of rigid, frictionless grains are studied. Isostaticity -the uniqueness of the forces, once the list of contacts is known- is established in a quite general context, and the important distinction between isostatic problems under given external loads and isostatic (rigid) structures is presented. Complete rigidity is only guaranteed, on stability grounds, in the case of spherical cohesionless grains. Otherwise, the network of contacts might deform elastically in response to load increments, even though grains are rigid. This sets an uuper bound on the contact coordination number. The approximation of small displacements (ASD) allows to draw analogies with other model systems studied in statistical mechanics, such as minimum paths on a lattice. It also entails the uniqueness of the equilibrium state (the list of contacts itself is geometrically determined) for cohesionless grains, and thus the absence of plastic dissipation. Plasticity and hysteresis are due to the lack of such uniqueness and may stem, apart from intergranular friction, from small, but finite, rearrangements, in which the system jumps between two distinct potential energy minima, or from bounded tensile contact forces. The response to load increments is discussed. On the basis of past numerical studies, we argue that, if the ASD is valid, the macroscopic displacement field is the solution to an elliptic boundary value problem (akin to the Stokes problem).Comment: RevTex, 40 pages, 26 figures. Close to published paper. Misprints and minor errors correcte

Unsteady natural convection in micropolar nanofluids

This paper presents the analysis of momentum, angular momentum and heat transfer during unsteady natural convection in micropolar nanofluids. Selected nanofluids treated as single phase fluids contain small particles with diameter size 10-38.4 nm. In particular three water-based nanofluids were analyzed. Volume fraction of these solutions was 6%. The first of the analyzed nanofluids contained TiO2 nanoparticles, the second one contained Al2O3 nanoparticles, and the third one the Cu nanoparticles

Scheduling and resource allocation in OFDMA wireless communication systems,” in Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access, to be published by Auerbach

Scheduling and resource allocation are essential components of wireless data systems. Here by scheduling we refer the problem of determining which users will be active in a given time-slot; resource allocation refers to the problem of allocating physicallayer resources such as bandwidth and power among these active users. In moder

Entwicklung eisbrechender Tanker fuer noerdliche See- und Eisgebiete Arbeitsstufe: Studie. Schlussbericht

Available from TIB Hannover: DtF QN1(38,28) / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekSIGLEBundesministerium fuer Bildung, Wissenschaft, Forschung und Technologie, Bonn (Germany)DEGerman